Demolishing Romance

It's not a Wednesday, but I did promise a "How We Met" post on Valentine's Day.  But then Blake typed up that super sweet and romantic post and I had to let it stay front and center.  So, you get to hear from Blake twice in one month.  Lucky you!

"I know I should write more often but I've just been so busy."  That really is how I began pretty much every entry.

"Life is great.  Last week Blake's parents took us out to lunch so they could get to know me better.  Mostly they asked me questions about wedding plans.  It was kind of weird because I'm still getting used to this whole thing.  But it was really nice.  I like his parents a lot.

"That same day Blake called the Bountiful Temple and we now have an official temple date on July 10 at 9:45 AM.  How crazy is that?"

What I didn't mention was the big, er, "discussion" we had in trying to pick a wedding date.  I insisted that we plan around my cousin's visit to my parents (how could we get married if my parents, who lived clear across the country from our wedding destination had company that day?).  Blake thought that was shady logic.  However, we absolutely had to plan around the rodeo and the Demolition Derby.  Yeah.  You read that right.  And Blake can try to defend that in his part until his fingers bleed, but you and I both know that is bizarre and ludicrous.  Fortunately, we eventually settled on the 10th, which didn't interfere with anyone's travel plans or White Trash entertainment plans.  And yes, we, the newlyweds, made it to the Demo Derby that year.

Back to my journal:  "I'm not sure why, but maybe because of all this planning I got really frustrated on Friday that he hasn't proposed yet.  So I was really grumpy all day and it didn't help that I got a letter telling me I didn't get my scholarship for Spring Term.  But I let Blake think that was the whole reason why I was grumpy because I didn't want to pressure him into proposing to me.  And he handled everything really well and let me be grumpy until I got over it.  But then the next night he suggested we go ring shopping.  It was interesting but kind of weird.  I just don't feel comfortable having that much money spent on me.  But the rings were really pretty."

Basically, I adamantly refused to begin true wedding planning (ordering a cake, or flowers, or tying on dresses) until I had a ring on my finger.  It was anti climatic enough that we already had set the date.  I knew that I was being unfair to Blake because I was still occasionally wavering about the missionary and I was really worried that if I whined too much he would just propose wherever we were at that moment and how totally unromantic would that be?!  But, speaking of unromantic, I also felt that he should just go ahead and propose to me because, hello, didn't he desperately want to marry me, no matter what the risks?!  

As I recall, this internal conflict and frustration did make me very grumpy and we had a long, unpleasant, and awkward walk where we skirted around the issue, with me dropping heavy hints that an imminent proposal would solve every problem in my life, while Blake just tried to stay patient and kind.

My Version

Well, we certainly were going about the whole marriage plan in reverse order.  I can’t believe that I set a date with the temple before formally proposing to Cheryl!  How anticlimactic can you get?  Welcome to BYU and the Mormon culture.

I don’t remember the part about Cheryl’s cousin, but I stand by my point that we couldn’t plan our entire wedding around one person that wasn’t even in our immediate family.  We were already planning around Cheryl’s other cousin’s wedding. 

The Demolition Derby was a make or break event for our marriage.  After all, it’s the single biggest event all year in Kamas.  Plus, there were rumors my brother Brandon would be driving a car that year.  Cheryl’s just lucky I didn’t grow a mullet for the event.  

The real reason that I hadn’t proposed was that Cheryl still hadn’t sent a “Dear John” to her missionary.  Once I learned that she had it was time to put our plans in high gear and get the ring.  I called up my dad during the week and told him I was ready to seal the deal. 

As I mentioned earlier, my dad wanted me to look at some specific jewelers up in Salt Lake City.  That meant that I had to come up with some believable excuse to Cheryl for being gone for several hours.  Luckily, my sister Kensey was attending BYU and I could use her as an alibi.  I told Cheryl a tall tale that I was going to do some laundry at Kensey’s apartment and hang out with her for a while.  I then hopped in my Honda Civic Hatchback and pedaled-to-the-medal up to SLC.

The first jeweler didn’t really pan out (not enough selection) so we headed over to The Shane Company “on the corner of 72^nd and State open Monday through Friday till 8, Saturday till 5, closed Sundays”.  Anybody that’s lived in Utah and listened to the radio knows that commercial by heart.  To this day I still can hear the voice of the guy doing the ad. J  And I do have a friend in the diamond business!

We looked at a lot of rings.  I finally found one I really liked as well as a very nice diamond and was ready to make the purchase.  My dad tried to get me to think about it for a day or two, but I was a desperate man.  I needed that ring two weeks ago so I could propose and put the drama behind me!

Unfortunately, the ring wouldn’t be ready for another week…

When I came home Cheryl was particularly agitated about something.  We went on a walk around our neighborhood to talk as it was impossible to have any privacy otherwise.  Cheryl expressed frustration, but wouldn’t say what it was about.  I knew it was about us not being engaged because it had been discussed before.  I remember feeling super frustrated myself that she was frustrated with me for doing nothing and I’d just spent the last 5 hours looking at rings and buying one!  I couldn’t propose until the ring was ready a week later!  I was in a bad mood when I came home.

How To Ruin Perfectly Good Mashed Potatoes

Valentine's Day!

This year I wanted to turn the focus more to celebrating our love for "us" (Thank you, Hallmark).  So, I tried to plan a cute day o' love for the whole family.  Some parts worked out, some parts not so much.

The kids have been on a big oatmeal kick lately.  Normally, we stir in raisins, craisins, and walnuts with the milk.  But that morning I mixed it up by adding some freeze-dried strawberries into the mix.  In my mind, I was going to make a super cute heart with the strawberries.  Apparently, the bowl of oatmeal in my mind was about 10 times larger than the real deal.  So, I tried to make a little heart with craisins and raisins in the middle.

Kayli loved it and thought it was perfect.

Bryce, not so much.

Actually, this is just how our little man is sometimes.  He was happy and all smiles two minutes later.  He's my little mood-swinger.

In the middle of the day, I answered the door and found a woman holding a large box and wearing a great big smile.  The kind of satisfied smile one wears when one knows one is about to make some other one's day.

These lovelies were inside the box.  Flowers and chocolates.  Before you go thinking "how cliche'!", please note that this is exactly what I had been asking Blake for.  I love roses (I have a special, personal reason for this) and I requested truffles (of the chocolate variety) and he complied.

He also typed up that super sweet post you all read (and cried) over.

And while I was photographing the flowers, I had to stop and get some shots of this adorable little guy who was hanging out with us for a little while.

The lighting was not good and my camera did not compensate as it should, but isn't he so stinkin' cute?!  He gets super shy when the camera lens turns to him and he makes the CUTEST faces.

And don't bring this up in front of his real mama, but he calls me "mama" and I love it!  She doesn't have anything to worry about anyway, he is absolutely obsessed with her.

He spent most of the afternoon asking me "where coggie?" and then clinging to me for dear life when the coggie (a.k.a. doggie) entered the room.  It was so fun.

The flowers came from somewhere like, but not necessarily (name the song?) Kenya.  They came with instructions to watch them bloom over the next few days.  But you can tell from the two photos that it only took a few hours for them to start opening up.  We just have one of those homes where people (and flowers) feel so at ease, they can't help but open up.

You can also see that by this time Kayli was home and had made a mess of my countertop.  But see that paper next to the flowers?  That was a sweet note I stuck in her lunch telling her how much (and a few reasons why) I love her.  I'm such a good mom!

Back to the flowers:  They're still opening up and they look gorgeous.  I just haven't taken a photo.

When we checked the mail that day, we discovered Valentine's from Uncle Chris.  We loved them and were SO EXCITED to open them.  We also received Valentine's from Grandma Great.

Here the kids are enjoying their lollipops from Grandma Great next to Kayli's Valentine bag from school.  She decorated it all by herself.  In case you couldn't tell.

It was a beautiful day, so I broke out the grill and made grilled pork tenderloin for dinner.  It tasted pretty good, but smelled a million times better.  I was much happier the last time I made tenderloin.  But I tried. We also had Rosemary and garlic mashed potatoes and rutabaga.  These would have been excellent if not for the rutabaga.  But I'm trying to eat fruits and veggies that are in season, so I'm glad we tried it.  We had salad with mixed greens, craisins, and toasted almond slivers.  That at least went well.  And breadsticks.  These are the breadsticks my family always requests and they always turn out perfectly.  But, of course, since I wanted this meal to be special, they were all wonky.  Probably because they had been previously frozen.  That's because Blake invited the three missionaries over for dinner a couple weeks ago and they called to cancel due to a horrendous snow storm.  But not until after the lasagna was in the oven and the two pans of breadsticks were already formed.  We do not need two pans of breadsticks for our one little family.  Thus, one pan wound up in the freezer to await baking at a later date.  Valentine's, as fate would have it.

At least dessert went over awesomely.  It was sea salt fudge brownies.  Delish.  Delight.  Demazing.

Then we began a new family tradition of taking turns telling each person what each of us loves about them.  And video taping the whole thing.  It was really fun and sweet and I think we'll enjoy doing this each year.

I know for some people, Valentine's has to be super romantic, but I really liked focusing on the family.  Of course, that's easy to say since Blake spoiled me anyway.  And the best part of the day was a long conversation we had about our love while playing a board game that night.

And, for the record, I got Blake a pretty awesome gift too.  I updated the list from this post and turned it into a book, complete with pictures.  It turned out really nice and I am quite proud of it.

I made the first year of the blog into a book for the kids, too, but in the busyness of the day, I forgot to give it to them!

Ah, well, I'm pretty sure everyone in our home fell asleep feeling quite loved that night.  It doesn't get any better than that.

Double Dates

It looks like we have a tradition!

The Friday before Valentine's our gym hosts a Daddy/Daughter Dance.  As soon as Bryce heard that Kayli and Blake were attending,  he reminded me that that meant we had a Donut Date.  Just like last year.

Except that the donuts turned out tastier.  I remembered what I'd learned last year.  When it comes to homemade donuts, bigger is better.

Yum.

You can tell it was an awesome date.

And very romantic.

After getting Daddy and Kayli out the door, we headed downstairs to watch "The Sword In The Stone".  My super-romantic date could not stop laughing at the part where they're squirrels and the girl squirrel falls in love with "Wort".  Seriously.  Hysterical belly laughing.  It was SO.  FUN.

This little guy was mostly left out of the Double Dates.

This brief dance with Daddy was about all he could handle.  I had intended to have two dates that night with both of my little men, but this one was all tuckered out and went straight to bed.

This Little Lady, however, had been pumped for a couple weeks.  Counting down the days.  She was so so so excited to go dancing with her daddy again.  Please, be impressed by their coordinating outfits.  I thought they looked pretty nice.  Kayli had an absolute blast because Blake always knows how to make life fun.

Hooray for Double Date Night!

Pre-Love

As in, the love before the Main Love.  Not as in, the time before there was love.  Because when we're talking about us, there has always been love.

But the Pre-Love began with some lovin' from the grandparents.

Opening Valentine's from my parents.  Notice that out of six feet, half of them have socks.  The half on the right side of the photo.  I totally did that on purpose.

Grandpa, we really liked the Valentines that turned into basketball hoops!

And some Valentines gifts from Blake's parents.

Art supplies!  We can never get too much of that.  These kids have an insatiable appetite for anything involving paper.

Thanks, Grandmas and Grandpas!

Thanks, Grandmas and Grandpas!

Mmm... chocolate... I like chocolate...

Just know that I tried.

That will probably be my footnote to all sorts of things during this child's life.

Where's my Valentine?  Why didn't I get a Valentine?

Dogs need love too, you know...

Don't worry.  She got some Pre-Love, too.  In the form of an outing to the Dog Run.  I can't say for certain, since she doesn't speak English and all, but I'm pretty sure she'd take a trip to the Dog Run over a Valentine any day.  At least, I hope so.  Otherwise, this was probably a very sad sad day for her indeed.

Counting What Counts

Well, there you have it:  I live a perfect life.  I know most people who blog try to portray their life realistically, and never cover up the bad to only show the good.  So, I've tried to hide it (and sometimes am just forced to make up bad things, so you wouldn't suspect the truth), but now you all know what my home life is like and just how loved I am.  

He did even more for me yesterday, but we have to stay in chronological order here, Folks.  And my de-junking has left me a little bit behind.

The rest of this post is kind of more like a quick update.

First, to everyone who has requested the recipe from my most recent adventure in bread baking, I posted it a few days ago on my family's recipe blog to the right.  It is divine, I'm not going to lie.  But, check back in a week or so because I will be modifying it the next time I make it with a crucial change involving milk.  I'm just not sure how yet.  But it MUST happen.  And you MUST make the change when you make it yourself.

Second, Kayli has officially attended school for 100 Days!

They celebrated one day a couple weeks ago.  They did all sorts of activities revolving around 100.  Including make a 100 Days Hat, which she is proudly modeling here.  At her most recent Parent/Teacher Conference, we learned, yet again, how brilliant and fabulous she is.  But then, what else would you expect from the child of a mother with a perfect life?

Bryce is recently recovering from a pleasant bout of Rotavirus.  It's hard to say who had the most fun with this infection:  Bryce who had all the nasties coming out of both ends, or Blake and myself who had the good fortune of getting to clean it all up.  Fortunately, Kayli already had it as a baby and is therefore, immune and Trey was lucky to have received enough of the new-ish vaccine against it to avoid it as well.

Trey has also had the pleasure of cutting four new teeth!  Two have broken through and the others are taking their own sweet, tortuous time.  Which is just plain fun for all involved.  His hair continues to defy gravity.  More pictures documenting this to come.

And the Deep Freeze we suffered last week has given way to the Balmy Tropics, so my life couldn't be perfect-er!  Except that it is threatening to dash our ice skating date planned for this weekend.  Boo.  But, then again, maybe I'm just making that up so none of you lose it in a fit of jealous rage and do something to make your less-than-perfect lives even less perfect-er.

To My Valentine

Hi, this is Blake, your Valentine’s Day blogger. I’ve been meaning to post something special to Cheryl on this blog for quite some time. The following are 14 reasons (to commemorate Valentine’s Day) that I love Cheryl:

1. Cheryl is the absolute best storyteller! She can mimic voices, recall what was said, and put a funny twist to anything with such ease.

2. Cheryl is the best cook ever! She makes up her own recipes and is a whiz in the kitchen. I can only recall one meal that I didn't like our whole marriage. (Note: stay away from soup mixes)

3. Cheryl loves to read books! If she starts a book she’s going to finish it in no time at all.  If I had to guess, I’d say she reads 10 books for every 1 book I read.

4. Cheryl loves to work out! She takes really good care of herself and looks great for it. She’s an example of fitness to her family and friends.

5. Cheryl is beautiful all of the time! Morning or night, she’s a 10. She doesn’t need makeup to turn heads.

6. Cheryl has a great smile! She literally lights up a room when she walks in it. I can’t help smiling when she does.

7. Cheryl is a great mom! She has raised our kids super well. They respect her and she’s taught them so much.

8. Cheryl is health nut! She finds lots of ways to keep her family healthy. Whole grains and lots of fruits and vegetables are a Roper family staple.

9. Cheryl has a weakness for brownies and chocolate (which makes #8 above even more funny)! If I could only count the times she’s baked up a batch of brownies after 9 p.m. She does try to go the dark chocolate route, but she’s still hooked.

10. Cheryl is so smart! Few can do a Sudoku puzzle faster. She's passed on some great genes to our kids.

11. Cheryl is an excellent kisser! This is a family blog so no more details.

12. Cheryl has to be one of the most considerate people of all time! Maybe she does it to offset my self-serving ways? She genuinely cares about how others feel and goes out of her way to be considerate and serve.

13. Cheryl is a spiritual giant! She’s the rock in our home. There’ll be times that she has a perfectly legitimate excuse to miss church or an assignment, but she still goes. She has a testimony and is committed.

14. Cheryl is my best friend! I love spending time with her and I’m so grateful that she agreed to marry me. She is helping me to be a better person.

Happy Valentine’s Hon. I love you!

Wrastlin'

I know you've been curious as to where you can find each of us after dinner.  Me, I'm in the kitchen cleaning up.  Blake and the kids are in the living room.  Wrastlin'.

I wanna do that...


Since he's still sort of a bump on a log, Trey is stuck in the kitchen with me.  And a half eaten apple pancake.  (This particular wrastlin' session took place following breakfast, not dinner)  But he always looks on longingly--just like this.

Until he sees the camera, and gives the smiles he knows I'm after.  Except that this time I really wanted to get pictures of him straining to see what he can't yet be a part of.

Wait a second--

Do you see what is going on in the background?  That started out as an innocent little game the kids called "Hug You Down".  That was a couple years ago.  When the kids were little.  Bryce is still small enough, but our little princess is another story.  She starts out clear back at the front door and does this crazy (seriously--everything about it, including the look on her face is crazy!) rhino charge directly at whoever is the lucky "hug" recipient.  I finally learned and began padding my shins with a few pillows.

Hunh?  That looks a little weird.

Nevermind, Mama.  I'm happy to stay here in the kitchen with you!  And my half-eaten apple pancake, of course.


That's right, my baby.  Stay and I will feed you apple pancakes forever.  And take blurry pictures of your joy.

What To Do When It's 25 Below

First off, you stay inside.  Preferably with a blanket and hot cocoa.  In your pajamas.

Not that I need an excuse to wear my pajamas...

So, we've hit the slow time of the year.  Just not as much to blog about.  I do have some pictures on the camera to do a little spread about, but I've been busy.  Still working on my 40 Days of Purging.

The Donate/Sell pile on Day 1.

Taking a little break for Pirate Baby.

The pile on Day 3 or 4.  I forget.  And a token fuzzy head shot.  Can you believe it still sticks up?

Anyway, I will still be blogging (working on a special "How We Met" Valentine's Day Post--Get excited!), it just won't be every day.

Don't worry.  March 12 is Day 40.  I'm sure I'll be back in the Blogging Game!  Meanwhile, I've got to go get rid of more stuff!

A Little Redemption For Winter At The North Pole

For the most part, winter at the North Pole is dreadful.  I claim the Southwest as my home and we just didn't experience this kind of weather over there.  I think I must be adapting though, because yesterday I told Blake that it wasn't so bad out and then looked at the temperature reading and saw that it was all of 19 degrees outside.  But compared to the 4 or 5 degrees it had been when I took Kayli to the bus stop, it was almost tropical.

So, how does Dreadful Winter redeem itself?  Oddly enough, it becomes even more dreadful.

And provides us with an ice storm.  I hate what ice storms do to the ground, but I love what they do to the trees.  For the most part, those trees look bleak and completely dead.  But dress them with an ice storm, and suddenly they look like trees in full bloom again.  Just white bloom, instead of green.

I think it's gorgeous and awesome.

From inside, of course.  I lost two fingers from my efforts in capturing these photos.  I hope you're grateful.

A snowstorm followed right on the hills of this ice storm, so we had a couple snow days this week.  I've already mentioned that I love those.  These were particularly great because I've started a new project:  40 Bags in 40 Days.

If you don't read my Abiding Joy blog, then I'll explain this for you.  My house is stuffed to the gills with  well, stuff.  So, I'm attempting to get rid of 40 bags of unnecessary stuff in 40 days.  And I'm not buying anything new in those 40 days.  Besides food, of course.  We don't want to go a month and a  half with no fresh food.

But the Snow Days could not have been timed more perfectly.  I began with the storage room, which will be the worst and most time consuming part of this project.  It was great to be able to get it done in just two days.  I could not have done that if we weren't trapped inside the house and without Kayli here to entertain Bryce.  And Treyton cooperated as well by sleeping in until 11:30 AM Tuesday morning.  No, I did not drug him.

But since the rest of the rooms will only take a fraction of that time, I'm in need of no more snow days.  I am ready for Spring!

The Girlfriend vs. Egg Thievery

Have I mentioned Blake's girlfriend?  We'll call her BB.

She was a source of deep aggravation for me.  Until recently, she was constantly at his side.  Or in his hands.  Mainly because she mimicked his passion for sports.  He was constantly checking scores with her (even during family dinner!), sometimes watching high lights--a fellow ESPN junkie.  But she was functional too--alerting him to each and every new email or text the moment it arrived.  And he felt compelled to check them as soon as she informed him they were there.  And she made it possible for him to be in constant contact with work.  So he could do more work even when he wasn't at work.

I was more than bugged by this girlfriend.  A little bit jealous.  But mostly, annoyed.  She just seemed to constantly be there, in the middle of everything.

So, when I learned that he was kicking her to the curb, I wasn't the least bit sad.

Especially, because her replacement seemed quite innocent.  At first.  She was complicated and difficult to understand.  He wasn't sure he even liked her.  But then he'd disappear with her at random times in the evening.

And then she turned my whole family into zombies.

That's right.  Many hours have been wasted over the last few weeks as my husband and my sweet, innocent children try to rescue eggs from pigs.  Or exact revenge on the pigs for already stealing their eggs.  I'm not exactly sure what the story is.  I don't think it matters.  No one cares.  They're just intent on shooting that bird that drops bombs (or becomes a bomb?) and breaking down the pigs' latest structure.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can see some Angry Birds here.  And you will think it's odd that these birds and Blake's new Droid have taken up so much time in our house!  But they have.

Brief pause to choose one of Kayli's Squinkies to represent him in the board game I was attempting to get the entire family to play.

And then, back to those angry birds.  I think a part of what really bothers me here is how grown up he looks in this shot.  If that phone is going to somehow make my baby grow up any faster, then it is so gone!

I must admit, I played it for a bit and got sucked in.  It's amazing how many "apps" are available for this phone.  Blake doesn't seem quite as dependent on it as he was the BlackBerry (which I really did refer to as his girlfriend on a regular basis), he's even downloaded some apps to help the kids learn letters and math.  But it also has a great capacity to to provide endless hours of mind-numbing, time-wasting, meaningless stuff.

So, for now, I'll just be grateful to be rid of BB.  But you'd better watch yourself, Droid.  I am on to you and your conniving ways.    I am the lady of this house and I will protect my family at all cost.