Weetabix

Browsing the cereal isle a few months ago I spotted an old friend
When I was in high school my parents imported a lot of different foods. Root beer from America, tiny cereal boxes from England, and Weetabix from England.
I never dared to dream that I would be able to find my dear old friend Weetabix in Texas. I had lived in America for 10 years, and never seen it before.
It turns out that I haven't spotted it before, because it's considered an "organic" product here. I don't buy organic stuff. Not because I don't think organic products are better. For some reason I don't believe the organic food box labels half the time. I mean, how can pasta sauce be organic? They still have to add preservatives to it to make it last. And organic laundry soap? I bet you could find some. Since I don't shop for organics, I don't usually go through the sections that have all the organic stuff. Well, at target, there's a small section in the cereal isle that has yummy cereal. Not that sugary air puffed stuff. This is where I spotted Weetabix. I think I in shock a little at first, then came sheer joy.
What is all the fuss about you ask? Weetabix has the wonderful quality of filling me up. Filling me up with just 1 serving that is. Have you ever looked on the side of a box (of anything really), and find out the only reason they can claim "100 calories per serving" is because the servings are the size of 5 crackers, 1 cup, or 1/2 tsp?
So for a measly 160 calories (including milk) I have a full belly for at least 3 hours. Plus, it's good for me. All that fiber, protein, and healthy fat is a great way to start my day. And it's just plain delicious.
There is an art to eating Weetabix though. It's real easy for inexperienced Weetabix eaters to ruin the whole thing, and make it taste like card board. Since I love all my readers, I will share my secret (and only) way to eat it right.

1. Choose a shallow, but large enough bowl to fit 2 biscuits side by side (not too large)
   
2. Place 2 biscuits side by side.
3. If the cereal box has any loose crumbs, arrange those ON TOP of the biscuits.
4. Sprinkle a little bit of "raw sugar" on the top. This is optional, but makes it oh so much better
5. Now, before you get out the milk, make sure you have at least 10 minutes set aside to actually eat.
6. Pour the milk NEXT to the biscuits. Do not, I repeat do NOT pour it over the biscuits.
7. Pour quickly, and just enough to where the milk level is just 1/4" below the top edge of the biscuits.
   
8. It might be tempting to let the milk soak in a bit, and then add more, but resist that temptation.
9. Find a comfortable chair
10. Enjoy the perfect mixture of crunch, sogginess, and sweetness.

I just want to stress the importance of eating both biscuits in one sitting. If you get distracted for any reason, and leave it sitting for more than a few minutes, you might as well use it to feed you chickens, to glue wallpaper to the wall, or make a cardboard box. Also, if you accidentally get milk on the top of the biscuits in the process of preparing, make a beeline to that comfy chair and eat fast, before onset of sogginess and cardboardness.
When I am standing in that cereal isle I have to mentally restrain myself. I want to grab all the boxes they have, just in case they decide to stop carrying it. At $3.49 a box, I can't really afford to stockpile 50 boxes of it, but I grab at least 3 each time, just in case. Weetabix is worth it's every penny, and 1 box lasts me 12 days. That's a lot longer than the $1 cereal boxes I get for my family!

Second day of School

I am not very good at this kind of thing. Growing up I don't think we ever took a picture on the first day of school. This seems to be more of an Ashurst tradition, which I really try to uphold. The problem is that I just simply forget to take the picture. So this year I cheated, and took a picture the second day of school. Almost good enough right?

Here are all the kids right before Winter and Sterling went to the bus at the end of the driveway. The picture is kind of bad, because I had it on the wrong setting, and didn't realize it until they were already gone.

It's fun for me to see Winter and Sterling walk down our long driveway together. They look so cute! Sometimes they fight, but usually they play with rocks and look at the cows until the bus arrives.

Since the bus doesn't always arrive at the same time, they often have to wait at least 5-10 minutes. The one day I don't send them out early, the bus is bound to get there early. So, I send them out, and they wait. For now that's not a big deal, because the weather is still nice, but as soon as it gets colder, or rainy, I'll have to start driving them to the end of the driveway and waiting there with them for the bus to come. I'm not complaining though, because it sure is nice to have someone that picks them up and drops them back off. It saves me a lot of time and gas. Plus the kids have a lot of fun on the bus. Any time I try to drive them home, because I happen to be at the school at the end of the day, they throw a fit.

B.A.T.

Ah, the days have come back. I had a few years break from it, but somehow it worked itself back into my life. What, you thought I was pregnant? Ha! No way! I am talking about homework.

Now that Winter is in 1st grade, she has homework. Well, I'm not sure I can really call it homework, but that's what her teacher Mrs Scoggins calls it anyways. Winter will have books sent home with her to read as homework. Then I am supposed to mark on the reading log whether the book was easy, moderate, or hard for her to read. Predictably, todays book was super easy. See, Winter is an awesome reader. She will even sit and read the Book of Mormon all by herself (although I doubt she understands much of what is going on). She pronounces words better than some ward members do in Sunday school.

The other homework she has is to practice reading and spelling words. They will have tests at the end of the week. Here are this week's words:
1. at
2. sat
3. bat
4. mat
5. cat

I think Winter knew how to spell that stuff about 8 months ago. I guess she didn't get an 'academic excellence award' for nothing last year.

This year I plan to be a lot more involved at the school. It was kind of hard last year, because I had 2 kids at home. This year, I plan to maybe trade babysitting with someone in the ward on a regular day (unless we get a foster kid, and then that wouldn't be possible).

I know that Winter is super smart, and I just need to make sure that she gets challenged. Maybe I can get her into some special classes, although that might not be until later grades?

Kindergarten

Sterling had his first day of kindergarten today. He has been so excited to go to school, and has patiently been waiting for months now!
On Friday night I took him to the school to meet his teacher. Ms Watson is such a nice lady! She is really good with kids. I don't think she has any kids of her own, but she sure knows how to talk to them, treat them, and deal with them.
She was so cute, she made these little gift bags for the parents "survival kit".It had tissues in there, as well as hugs and kisses chocolate. As you can see my Kleenex 's are still closed. Personally I don't know why people cry when their kid goes to school. I know that Sterling is in good hands, and he gets to learn so many new things. But I sure enjoy the chocolate!
When I walked outside, I heard another mom say that her child cried every day for a week her first year. Sterling would never do that. He is so excited.
I thought I would dump him straight in the pool (so to speak) and let him ride the bus home. Winter picked him up from his classroom (she's right next door) and took him to the cafeteria where the kids wait for the bus.
I haven't seen such a happy Sterling since he bought his bionicle.
Tomorrow Winter and Sterling both get to go on the bus both to and from school. So fun! (although tiring for me)

Whooo HOOO!

Guess what tomorrow is! Back to school day! I love my kids, but I am so happy that they can go back to school. Sterling was kind of out of luck last year, because there wasn't a good preschool around. He is super excited to go to Kindergarten. We met his teacher last Friday, and she is by far the best kindergarten teacher at the elementary school. Winter's old teacher was stiff, impersonable, kind of mean, and altogether weird. Sterling's teacher is happy, engaging, friendly, and very nice.

The only downside to school is that I have to start using my alarm clock again. Oh, how much I hate that thing. It doesn't matter that happy songs play when it turns on, the fact is, it arouses me from my precious slumber. It won't be too hard in the beginning, because it will at least be light outside. But then come the days of November, December, January, and February, where it seems like that little black box is waking me in the middle of the night.

If only I could go to sleep at 10pm. I know that if I do that, I have less problems in the morning. But nighttime is so liberating! It's a time that Joe is off work (unless he's in Chicago), and we can just spend time together. Also, somehow the local TV networks know just which shows I will get addicted to, and play as many of those as possible.

Another summer has flown by, and I am again a year older. This year I might actually be able to help out at school, since I just have Ginger at home. I would love to go to the classroom and help out, and see firsthand how my kids are being edumecated.

Worst Date ever

I am so glad I never have to go out on a date with anyone but my husband again. When I was in college, I dated a lot. Once I even had 2 dates in 1 day. Most of those dates were fun, and I enjoyed the company. However, when I think back, there is one date that stands out as the worst date ever.

A guy in my dance class had asked me out several times. I can't remember his name, so I'll call him Bob. I wasn't remotely interested in spending any time with Bob, so I declined his offer. Then I felt bad. I should at least give him a chance, right? So I agreed to go out with him. We would go to a movie. Couldn't be too bad right?

Bob planned to take me to a movie. He had some sort of gift tickets, and they were for the afternoon movie, so we went early. I was fine with this, because it would mean that I would be home early too. We got to the theater, only to discover that the movie was more than he had thought, and he didn't think the ticket would cover the price. The problem: he had no money.

The first mistake he made, was to ask if I had any money (now looking back, that wasn't so horrible to ask, but back then, I was insulted). I didn't. I never took my purse on a date. So we left the theater, and headed to his apartment. He was going to get some money to make up the difference for the ticket price.

I was mortified when he pulled out a big old jar (or old gumball machine) full of pennies. At this point I was wishing I did have some money. Bob knew it would take him a while to count the money, so he turned on a movie. The titanic. One of my favorite movies at that time. I had never enjoyed that movie less.

After Bob finished counting, we headed back to the theater. We went up to the window, and found out that his ticket worked just fine, even without the 300 pennies now bulging in his pockets. Relief set in, when I realized I wouldn't be further humiliated when he pulled hands full of pennies out.

At this point, I thought the date couldn't get any worse. I was wrong. As we were walking in the theater, I spotted no one other than the cute dancer, Kevin, that I had had a crush on. I didn't want to be seen with this other guy!! So I ducked passed him, and into the movie. After the movie was over, I couldn't help myself, and went over to say hi to Kevin against my better judgment.

In retrospect, this was probably also Bob's worst date ever. I can't imagine finally going out with a girl that has rejected you several times, get to the theater without enough money, ask her for money, having to take her to your apartment and let her see you only have pennies to spare, get back to the theater only to find out you didn't need those pennies in the first place, and then having to stand by as she talks to some other guy. I don't know who was worse off, me or Bob?

I missed it!

I was going to do a fun post on Saturday. Saturday was the day that I had officially lived in Texas for a year. You know how it goes, you think about it all the time, except for that one day. It always happens to me on birthdays too! I'll remember someone's birthday, every day, for 2 weeks leading up to the day, but then on the day, I don't remember until I lay in bed. Then I feel weird calling the next day, because I forgot.. so I don't call at all. sorry.

Anyways, I guess I can still kind of do a post about our first year in Texas, so here it goes:

1. We lived with my in-laws for 3 months
2. We made a fun trip to Europe
3. We celebrated both Thanksgiving, and Christmas at my in-laws
4. We have seen all but 1 of Joe's siblings (Josh is in the navy, but getting out next month Yippee)
5. The kids love and hug great grandma. At first, Ginger wouldn't be touched with a 10-foot pole by here.
6. We bought our 3rd house
7. We pretty much gutted the whole house
8. We went from having no pets, to having an average of 40 animals
9. We moved from a postage stamp lot, to 21 acres
10. Now 2 of my 3 children go to school
11. Joe has traveled more this last year, than the past 3 combined. So much for moving to Texas to minimize travel!
12. We have gathered with many cousins
13. The heat hasn't knocked us out (yet)
14. We have really started missing: mountains, friends, greenery, accessible outdoor activities, free time with Joe
15. Things we don't miss: noise

So, here we go into our 2nd year in Texas. I hope we will be more productive in regards to our home renovation, and get to have Joe around more. We also have a dream to start our own company, and are getting started on that! (on the side)