So much

I've come into the office several times and started to write but my time has been cut short every time and there is so much I want to write about. One of those things is the way I find myself staring out into the landscape and wishing we could just run for the hills.
If you know anything about these Suttons, you'd know that we all keep a hawk-eye out for mountain lions on the most highly populated trails, and torment each other with the prospect of one jumping out of the trees on top of us. And you'd also know that we all ran inside the yurt and locked the door at 7:30 the night of our campout because a raccoon was pilfering through the crumbs from our dinner. I, for one, am not cut out for life in the sticks. But a couple of days in the yurt looks really nice about now.

Everyone is vacationing. We ran into one neighbor that had just gotten home from spending the week in Arizona. On our way home from the walk another neighbor was leaving for Colorado. My brother and sister-in-law are leaving next week for a trek back to the midwest to do a round-robin to see all their friends and family back home. I'm a teensy bit jealous.

I always get a little stir crazy about this time in my pregnancy. While I'm not completely miserable or losing a lot of sleep at this point, I am antsy for something but I can't quite put a finger on it. I'm sure it's anticipation of our family coming out, the new baby, school being done, all these things combined. But as has been the pattern, I tell myself that an escape will remedy my shifty feet. It doesn't, I know this from experience, but I still think about it. Being out here where it's beautiful everywhere you look makes it easy to dream about life out there in the wild blue yonder. However, for the same reason I can't disconnect my phone, I can't go; I need my people too much.

But maybe a few days in the yurt... it might just hold me over until everyone gets here.

Wednesday...?

This is our favorite burger place. The only menu items they serve are burgers, fries, sodas, and milk shakes. The owners are Christians and have John 3:16 stamped on all their paper products. The fries are made cut and fried while you wait and the burgers are out of this world. We ventured on to the milk shakes on our last visit. Let me tell you; that was a serious mistake. Can't ever say no again.

I was seriously considering taking a nap instead of posting these random things today, but I decided that in honor of my sweet mother-in-law Dana, I will write and *hopefully* nap later. Besides, I have SO much to tell you.

Wednesdays are my favorite. As much as I try to prevent busyness in our lives while still keeping the clock moving, I love Wednesdays because they are busy. This morning I made lunch and dinner at the same time so that we can eat and head out early for Awanas tonight. I cleaned house last night so that at the end of the day we can come home and I can just relax. Dale will be waiting when we get home to start our weekend. deja vu...

Last night while I was cleaning bathrooms, I was thinking about how far I've come in the cleaning department. Years ago I cleaned with a friend of mine who owned a cleaning business. She taught me so much about the secret placed dirt hides and how not to cut corners in cleaning. While I dutifully scrubbed floorboards, washed light fixtures, and edged the carpets in every room during the day, I never did that at home. Once in a while I did wipe the tops of the door frames, but it was never part of my cleaning regimen. *nothing really was back then.* So last night while I was scrubbing the walls and floorboards I realized why. I have a lot more traffic in my house than I used to way back then. Right now, if you get on the floor and crawl through the house at Leila's level, you will find hand prints, drips, and smudges on just about every foot of the wall. *not today because I cleaned yesterday but by next Tuesday, you can guarantee it.* I am more thankful right now for our little dollhouse because I'm not sure I could keep up if I had to take care of much more. I tell myself that after I have the baby, I'll have more energy, I'll be more flexible, and thus the cleaning will not be such an exhausting chore. Plus I'll have a chance to re-establish the balance before we move again into something potentially bigger.

Something else that I've been thinking about is that there are some things that are better to clean with a dry brush than with a wet rag- like window screens. I haven't figured out how to take ours out yet, so it's just better to brush them than to smear the dirt all over the place. Same with dusting; for the tv and computer desk I always use swiffer duster cloths. They're like magic.

Here's one more little token to grow on- I love candy and because of this affinity, I only buy it on special occasions, like Wednesdays. Just kidding; mostly just on holidays. But I still crave chocolate and tend to eat a lot of things that I don't really want in an effort to satisfy the craving. I believe I've found the perfect solution to my dilemma: Planters Chocolate Covered Cashews. Super yummy. I can eat five of them and surpass the beast, whereas I would have in the past eaten a king size Reece's Peanut Butter Cup. They sell them in a little canister by the other cans and jars of nuts, not in the candy section. I only buy them when they're on sale otherwise they are just too expensive, but for $3.00, oh yes I will.

Spring break is moving right along. Tomorrow will be kind of a normal day for us since when Dale's home everything else get pushed down the priority list. So really, this is the last day of Spring break, and boy was it wonderful. We look forward to the summer. Especially since it doesn't get hot here until Labor day.

Seven Random Things

Becky tagged me last week or last month and like I generally do when tagged in a live game, I walk around and plot how I can catch someone with as little physical exertion as possible. Here it is so many days later and I'm still it, so...

1. I think about my Aunt Mary in the Spring. She divorced our family several years ago and drastically reconstructed her life. I haven't spoken to her or heard anything about her for a long, long time. She introduced me to *creme rinse* when I was a kid and had long hair, so I loved her. She was never a small woman by any stretch, or beautiful, but she never seemed to lack self-confidence. I remember being at a family reunion somewhere and she took me shopping with her at Wal-Mart. What sticks out in my mind is that everything she bought was yellow. She bought a yellow shirt that had ducks on it along the top and white stripes along the bottom, it matched her yellow pants and new yellow shoes with navy accents. In that era it was a fashion faux pas to shop for clothes at Wal-Mart; it was then that I discovered why. She was really excited to get out to the pool in her bathing suit, too. I was only eleven and almost had a teenager's figure, but I planned on wearing some sort of cover up until I got into the water and immediately after exiting the water, so I was a little grossed out about the whole thing. It wasn't just the physical ramifications of this gal in her two-piece but the innuendos coupled with the snickering and elbowing. For Pete's sake, I was eleven years old.


2. A philosopher I am not, in the traditional sense, but I do have these theories in life that I sort use as ground zero reference points for everything that I do on a practical level. In my short thirty-one years, many of these theories, which I've shared in great length hoping to offer some wisdom to other women and mothers, have been disproved by real logic, documentation, and experimentation. Just so you know what I'm talking about here, I used to believe that if a kid had a cold, being in the cold couldn't do much more damage because if bacteria grows where it's warm, the cold would run it all off. My brother is a biologist and informed me that bacteria weakens the immune system, so when a kid has a cold and goes into the cold, he is further weakening the immune system and thus making himself more vulnerable to infection by exposing himself to harsh weather conditions. It was something like that, anyway, he disproved my theory with science. I have a lot of theories, some I still stand by and some I have had to let go of and also apologize for. What can I say, I am what I am.


3. I have a vice. *At this point I recognize that a short list is what this game of tag is intended for, but today I have a lot on my mind that needs to be blogged.* I'm a gamer. I love video games. At any given season of my life when waiting is involved, this is the vice I turn to for cover. Sometimes I play Nintendo DS, sometimes I download samples from Yahoo Games, sometimes I play Sudoku. Before I had computer skills, I would play solitaire for hours. It's not good or healthy or balanced, but sometimes I just have time hanging all around me and I need to fill it with brainless endeavors. For a year I vowed not to play any video games on our computer, it was new so I was starting with a clean slate. I did really well for most of the year, but then when I got to the end of my pregnancy, I fell back into the abyss of the gamer's world. At this point I am handling my addiction one day at a time in stride, but there is no guarantee that I'm free of the monkey on my back.


4. I crave sugar the same way; all or nothin', baby.


5. This quote: The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. Marcus Aurelius. It's random. And I like it.


6. I have this recurring dream that I'm at summer camp. I have really good memories of summer camp, it was something I looked forward to every single month of the year until it was time to go. For some reason the dreams I have of Wheatstate Camp are riddled with drama: I am always back in the throes of adolescence (not a good era for me), there is always a serious crisis taking place, and generally my life is in danger along with all the other campers. It's a frightening thing to be waiting for your name to be called in Mail Call and be herded out of the tabernacle, running in the stampede toward the gym. I mean for real, you don't even have a chance to check your bangs before you have to leave the building, there's no one in the snack bar to take your order, and when you get there the cutest boy in the entire camp, Jason Hollis, is already talking to a circle of girls. Like, gag. Can it get any worse? No, seriously, usually it's some sort of terroristic situation and the bangs are non-existent, but I had to give a shout out to my girls that know what's up with Wheatstate Camp. For whatever reason, that place haunts my dreams.

7. We watched Reign Over Me about a year ago which I sobbed through from beginning to end; I loved it. We saw it in the theater the first time and I have been pining to own it ever since. Seriously, I could watch it once a week and still love it as much as I did the the first time I saw it.
...tag Sandy. I don't have a lot of friends so you're it.

Spring Break: Day One

Lots of busyness around the Sutton house today...


Kennedy spent the morning at basketball camp with her friends from the neighborhood. Around 11:30 she ran in the door and informed me that she had a play date this afternoon. I guess her day is full.


Micah, Jasmine, Tre, and Leila started out in front of the TV but eventually all wandered out to the trampoline. While I was grilling pork chops, they moved to the patio where there is a swarm of crane flies. That's where they've been ever since.


We've come full circle with the crane flies, my friends. When they first started to migrate, no one wanted to walk through the patio because they are so creepy. Now they are collecting them, dissecting them, making them their pets; I even heard one of the kids disciplining them.

Kennedy's play date invited all the kids to come play, which is a gift from heaven. There is usually a little bit of jealousy when one of the kids gets to do something special, but I am of the thinking that life is not fair; that's a hard lesson they might as well learn early. Besides, their day will come. Anyway, everyone went except Leila. She was invited to come along but she's two. I wanted the kids to have fun and the mom to not have to babysit, so we went home and took a nap.

They had so much fun playing with the other kids. This family has four girls, 10, 8, 6, and 1, and a little boy that's 4, so everyone had someone to play with.

Spring break has just begun and life is good.

More Easter Festivities

I feel a little conspicuous posting another full page of Easter festivities, none of which carry any spiritual connotation because of a conversation I had yesterday about this very thing, but let's be frank. I'm not going to snap pictures while we are taking communion together on Easter Sunday. *She is scoffing at my ridiculousness right now, because that conversation did not warrant any sort of an explanation. So here it is, another full day of wonder and excitement on the home front. For the first time, I was in over my head with our celebratory tradition. I didn't realize that on the past the kids have always been at someone else's house to dye eggs and my job was to: a. show up, and b. assist between my own creative endeavors. I never realized how unnerving it is to have all these kids at the table with all that dye in the middle, and not only that but the dipping and the passing and the questions and the frustrations... My sincere apologies to those of you that have passed the baton to me in this arena. I should have: a. shown up earlier, and b. paid more attention to the needs at hand and less attention to the stripes on my eggs. xoxox.
Leila was very excited about dying her eggs at first, but even more excited about dying her hands while I was in the kitchen rounding up more supplies. I'll tell you something brilliant that I came up with for the kids this year. For Tre and Leila I got out two jellyroll pans and lined them with paper towels- only because we didn't have any newspaper. They did all their dying on the pan and if it spilled, it was contained and wouldn't drip down to the floor. It had to be a first for this bunch, and maybe a first in all of the history of Easter Egg dying, but we didn't have a single spill. It was just amazing.
The big this year was the shrink-wrap sleeve with sports decals on it. We had soccer balls, footballs, and basketballs. Some of the eggs were too big so we shed a few tears over that, but all in all it was quite invigorating.

I decided to host a family Easter egg hunt this year, also a first for me. I can't guarantee that I've never stuffed eggs, but I'm pretty sure I never volunteered to hide eggs. And this year I didn't either. Oh, I spread 'em around pretty well, but the boys walking past the park made me nervous so I just sort of sprinkled them quick so the kids could start finding them. I didn't want the little thugs to come over and spoil our fun. *They're not really thugs, they're good boys, I know them both by name, but I didn't want to give the impression that we were hosting the entire neighborhood in our egg hunt. I'm sweet that way.
I'm not sure how with all those eggs and a fifteen- second head start Tre still only ended up with four eggs. I'm also a little confused on how he couldn't come up with an Easter basket- note the trusty Wal-Mart bag in his hand- when he received two baskets the week before. All the kids got two baskets so we actually had ten different baskets in the house; if he would have looked for one, he'd have found six that weren't being used. That's my kid. I found out later that he had a hole in his bag, which may explain how he only had four eggs.
Micah and Kennedy are pros. Who wouldn't sprint for candy? I do pretty often. Well, not lately. I can't run. I tried to race Dale when I was about twenty weeks and it was a colossal mistake. Because of my coed audience I won't go into further detail on that on. It was enough to discourage any thought of running in the weeks and months following. Instead I just horde the candy now; I hide it and eat it when no one's around.
I promised a big surprise for the greatest hunter, which didn't translate very well so Dale gave Leila the inside scoop on where to look and she hit the jackpot.
The other kids were so mad that she found it. I told them next year we'd have to hide a bigger bill to give them a little more incentive to keep hunting. Dale thinks we need to hide more bills rather than bigger bills so that we don't have grumpy kids after the hunt. He may be right. They are good about curbing their attitudes when they go sour, but just didn't seem fair that Leila doesn't even know what a five dollar bill is and when I stuck it in my pocket she didn't notice. Why should she get it??? I can see it. But I can also see a year ahead and the anticipation building for all this time will make next year's hunt all the more exhilarating. That's what I'm all about.

On a grander scale, we had a beautiful Easter service where we shared communion with our families and had a lovely worship service. Our pastor is so tender toward the love of our Savior that it inspires me on a weekly basis. The theme of our Easter service was the return of our King and it was awesome. To have this hope in His return is such a privilege and an honor; but even more so to share with others that genuinely believe and live for this very thing. It's just incredible. Happy Easter to you, my friends. And my the abundant life that He suffered so that we may partake in be yours until He comes.

Easter Egg Hunt

I don't know if every Federal Prison is as community oriented as this one, but they go all out to build community between the employees. Last weekend was the Easter Egg Hunt. The kids were up and dressed early, constantly peeking through the curtains to see if a crowd had gathered yet.
We all stuffed Wal-Mart bags in our pockets because I wasn't sure they'd have baskets for the kids, even though they were certain they could fill their pockets and jackets with eggs.
When we arrived, I was thrilled to see the elaborate set-up. They had games, two bounce houses, face painting, a craft table, and three different areas to hunt. Shortly after we arrived they fired up the barbeque and started grilling hot dogs. It was all pretty exciting.
They even had a real live Easter Bunny. I know someone took a picture of some of my kids with the bunny, but I was mostly following Leila around and she wouldn't get within six feet of her. She was so cute. I don't like costumes or too much make-up on a character. Anything that covers the true identity of the person is just unsettling to me; call me crazy. The last time we went to the circus I had to cover my racing pulse by walking calmly past the clowns lining the sidewalks as we entered. I don't want to pass this phobia on to my little ones, but apparently it's genetic. I was pleased to learn that this was the 17-year-old neice of the people putting on the party so I felt much more comfortable about encouraging Leila to at least give her a high-five.
The face painting was a huge hit with three of my five. The gal that did it was so sweet; she took all the time in the world to paint the details specifically for each kids' preferance.

I laughed out loud when Micah asked for "snakes on both cheeks and flames all over this part" waving over his entire forehead. I shouldn't be surprised though, Dale has said for years that he wanted to get flames tattooed up his neck. I used to vehemently argue, but these days I really don't mind. Some things just aren't that big of a deal.
Princess Jasmine naturally asked for a heart. She told me later that the cloud wasn't her idea, but she really liked it.
Kennedy asked for an entire bunny face. She is ever the entertainer. I had to convince her to wash her face before her friends picked her up for the basketball tournament. It's so funny that she's still so into this kind of thing; don't get me wrong, I am thankful. Last night she spent her Easter money on a new diaper bag and a set of baby food for her Baby Alive.
Dude felt so awesome with his face paint after I showed him his picture. He was so careful about touching his face all day because he didn't want to smudge the art. He'll be asking for tattoos long before he's 18, I'll bet on that.

Spring Inspiration

Almost everyone I talk to on a regular basis is still seeing snow on the ground or at least donning a hat and mittens to brave the cold. We are living large in the sunshine and starting to see fields of flowers color the fields on our way to Wal-Mart. The hope of spring inspired me to change the look of my blog. Obviously my first attempt was not quite what I was looking for, but brighter none-the-less. This time I viewed a couple of tutorials and found a lot more help than I originally found when I started construction forever ago.

Tonight we will venture to the city for AWANAs, our favorite night of the week. The kids get excited about the program, we love that they are learning the Word and having so much fun, and every Wednesday night marks another week away from my former existence as a wretch in the face of opposition or under pressure. God is generous and full of mercy. But I also love Wednesday because it means when we get home Dale is already out of his work clothes and he's all ours for two whole days. It means that we'll stay up late and laugh a little more and tease each other about ordering pizza at ten o'clock and make plans for the next few days that will make it feel like a real weekend only without the crowds. I'll slack off of laundry and housework as much as I can so that my real weekend will have something to keep me busy while he's away again. It's my favorite part of this life.

In anticipation of Easter weekend I am going to, once again, plan a big meal since we can't be with all the people we love, only this time Dale won't be around so I'm going to have to get creative. So here's the question. What do people eat for Easter dinner? I can't remember what is customary because I've never cooked for it and everywhere we went, the food was overshadowed by the excitement of the Easter Egg hunt that followed. Dale informed me that for Easter you eat, "Spring luncheon food like egg salad, potato salad, deviled eggs..." I thought he was joking because we always have that stuff to use up the hard-boiled eggs we dyed the day before. Now that I think about it, he may be right. Seems like one year I made a carrot cake, which seems appropriate in regards to it being the favorite dessert of the Easter Bunny. Maybe some of you seasoned home-makers can help me out here. Should I buy the ham???

Another day in Santa Barbara

Friday we started our Passport adventure, which entitles free entry to a bunch of educational places and a free t-shirt at the end. One place we visited was this cool aquarium on the pier. This gal clearly loves her job as the manager of the touch tanks. This on has sting rays, little sharks, and some other kind of fish in it. They were all safe to pet. The kids could have stayed for hours here touching sea creatures.
The educational activity for this stop was a trip to the Wet Deck. I tried to get a good picture but to no avail. This divider guarded a big square in the floor that was open to the ocean.
The captain of the wet deck was a scientist that showed us how to capture water in this little tank and we did a bunch of tests on it. You can kind of see down through the floor here, but it still doesn't really show the water. I was fascinated by all of this.
Can you see that giant lobster? My photographic genius is not much help, I know. There was another touch tank upstairs that held sea cucumbers, giant sea snails, tons of star fish and a bunch of hermit crabs. It was so cool. I took a lot more pictures but somehow lost them all.

We also went to the zoo, but you don't know any of these people. I don't either because I lifted these pictures from the zoo website. The zoo houses giraffes, lions, lots of birds, elephants, cockroaches, and domestic rabbits,the lush Garden-of-Eden-esque beauty of the central coast, and this train where we learned that lions sleep 80% of the day and can eat 45 pounds of meat in one sitting which is why our tour guide wants to be a lion.


For lunch we stopped at the market and picked up Clam Chowder, Tri-Tip, a deli sandwich, and four lunchables for the gourmet eaters. Dale then proceeded to this amazing park. The best I could find as far as a visual was this collage. The top photo shows the main attraction, playground equipment themed as a collosal castle. Since there are no people in sight, you'll have to use your imagination a little, but that fence around the outside is a little over waist high. It really is quite impressive. The enormity of it made us both a little nervous so we only spent a little time there. Even with one of us on each side and Leila in tow, we couldn't see all the kids at the same time. It was worse when about eighty kids came marching down the street from a nearby school to spend their recess. They came like a swarm of ants enveloping all of us for just a little while. Shortly after they left, we left. The guys sitting along the curb in sports cars looked a little too shifty for me.


It was quite an adventure and we were wiped out when it was over with. Keep in mind, I am wiped out after a short trip to the doctor's office. As matter of fact if I am talking on the phone and I have to pick up too many things off the floor, it takes about fifteen minutes for me to catch my breath. That's the breaks.


Aside: Leila just came in singing, "oot, e-et is, oot e-et is..." I'll have to try to capture that on video.

No Corned Beef Hash

We found green hair spray in Wal-Mart so all the redheads resembled true carrot tops, green on top, orange underneath. We must've been a sight chasing Max all over the neighborhood with green hair.

Even Scooter got in on the action. Max only got a few streaks because he's a fraidy-cat of anything that makes a spraying sound. He ran away before we could write anything significant like, "Kiss me, I'm Irish." I don't know who took this picture, but there's a profile of my belly for those of you that have asked. Seven weeks and counting. And there's my long, long, desperate-for-a-trim hair that I'm just about to cut off. It is becoming a burden. I won't take it all off, but I can't be getting it caught in other people's car doors and things like that. It's just too embarassing.
They look like action heros. I think they felt like movie stars walking through Wal-Mart. Kids were pointing and talking about them everywhere they went.
Trebo changed his clothes three or four times during the day, trying to get a little greener. He settled on this pajama shirt. At first I protested but who really cares. Leila wears pajamas almost every day and no one seems to mind. She's dressing herself and that, my friends, is something I do not want to discourage. She wasn't having any part of the green hair spray. She wanted me to spray her hands and her arms and her feet, but the hair was off limits. I thought she was just scared because the kids were all freaking out about the fumes when it was their turn, but even after I showed her that it didn't hurt she refused. Who needs green hair when you're this cute anyway?

We spent the morning learning about St. Patrick, who he was and what he did, as well as the legend of him driving the snakes from Ireland. Then after Dale got home we had a lovely Irish meal. The soda bread was a first so I had no idea what to expect. Because I don't keep currants on hand for anything and the kids are picky about raisins in bread, I left them out. Thanks to the wonderful information superhighway I was able to find a simple recipe with credentials that turned out perfectly. Soda bread is a staple in Ireland the way sandwish bread is a staple in America. You bake it on a cookie sheet and it is like a giant biscuit that is fairly dense. Dale and the kids loved it; I wanted to put strawberries and whipped cream on it. We'll definitely add the soda bread to our traditional menu from now on.

The corned beef that I bought was on sale for $.99 a pound, which made me nervous because I have never bought it and didn't know if I was getting a good cut of meat. Fortunately, it was just one of Albertson's steals and turned out so tender and delicious that we had no leftovers! And it made almost four pounds. The kids gobbled it up. I'll have to try to make the corned beef hash next year. The cabbage was overcooked to compensate for the red potatoes, but all in all I'd say it was a hit. I couldn't believe the kids liked it so much, even Tre ate his entire portion.

All in all it was a good day. Now back to real life. Leila needs a nap, the kids still have on-line lessons to complete, and I'm pretty sure Micah still has a stack of homework left from this morning. At least lunch is done. Right now they are all building things with giant boxes. I heard Micah say, "If anyone hears me scream, will you let me out? I'm not sure I can really fit." Right after that Leila walked by singing, "Woop there it is" over and over. We heard it on the radio the other night and they've all been singing their own renditions ever since. So funny.

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY!!!

We haven't gotten into the full swing of St. Patrick's Day celebrations yet for this year, so I thought I'd share our revelry from last year because I adore these pictures so, so much.

Sarah was especially festive with all of her green accents
And our green apple juice
And green milk and green waffles, and of course all of our green Mardi Gras beads. Mawmaw partied that weekend with us too. It was a fun day.

This year we will make corned beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread, and make lots and lots of Irish decorations around the house. After that we'll go to Wal-Mart and hopefully find a nice St. Patrick's Day movie to finish out the day. Being that this is my first year to make the traditional meal, we'll hope for the best and have pizza on back-up just in case. Happy Day to you!