9 Years In The Making...

Trevin is now in his last year of single digit manhood. This accomplishment was celebrated by friends and family on Sunday October the 19th. Because his birthday fell on a Sunday this year and because last year his birthday party nearly caused a chapter 11 filing of our bank book it was decided that a family party would be the course this year. For those thinking that I am a cruel and heartless woman...you are correct. Just don't forget to add cheap to the list. Trevin's items received are as follows:

~ Battleship (the boardgame)

~ Sleeping Beauty (dvd) (Trevin loves this movie but does think that they should have known each other a bit longer before they kissed...)

~ Iron Man (dvd)

~ Gameboy games of Clue, Battleship, and Risk

~ Build Your Own Lightsaber kit! This was the hit. Trevin already has about 6 light sabers but this one he can create and engineer. He has been playing with it all morning. I even had to kick Joe off to work to stop playing with it.

Because we are the cold cruel family that did a rather low key party we also agreed to fork out some of his inheritence and buy him a rather expensive birthday present. We will be picking up his new Nintendo DS Lite in Cobalt blue with matching carrying case and new game of his choice tonight. Seriously, next time you see Trevin, walk up to him and ask "who's spoiled?" and he will proudly answer "i am."

I generally stress much over birthday cakes because it is the one time of year that I really try to do whatever they ask. Over the course of the last nine years I have made Trevin a caterpillar, a monster, a pumpkin, Hulk, SharkTales, Spiderman, Scooby-Doo, and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cake. And if I do say so myself, they rocked. One day I will post all the pictures. This year he did not ask for a specific cake. Since we were going to my mom's he asked, instead for her to make him "moon pies". These are pretty much, homemade oreo cakesters. And he wanted his Brownies on the Moon ice cream. So that's what he got. All in all a very calm birthday.

This is the youngest picture of I have of Trevin on the computer...I think he is 3. Happy Birthday my big boy.

...Because I am mom

...to a third grader in a public school there MUST be fundraisers. This weeks one is for Lehi Roller Mills mixes. So if anyone is interested at all in these cute little bags full of bread, muffin, brownie, pancakes PLEASE let me know and Trevin & I will be more than willing to come to your house and guilt you into buying more than you need. (They are great little Christmas gifts and run $6-8 dollars each)

Shanks, folks.

My Above Average Joe

1. Where did you meet? We met at work. We worked at a software company together. I was in marketing and he was in accounting. He was in charge of all my international accounts so we had to communicate daily. Took me about 3 weeks of shamelessly flirting before he realized he *might* want to ask me out.

2. How long did you date before you got married? Almost 2 years. We started dating in July of 2003 and married in April of 2005.

3. How long have you been married? 3.5 years. We totally celebrated that we made it past MY last standing record of marriage (which was 3 years) and now we have to beat Joe's old record (which is 5 years).

4. What does he do that surprises you? Joe is a pretty laid back guy so there aren't a lot of surprises but I do think it's adorable that he genuinly LOVES being a dad and is always so wrapped up in it. Sometimes, he listens to me too. That can be surprising.

5. What is your favorite feature of his? You know, he's just a hottie. How can you not love that big build with dark curly hair? makes my heart all a'fluttery.

6. What is your favorite quality of his? Joe would do anything for his family.

7. Does he have a nickname for you? Occasionally...he has called me kitten but otherwise, just the standards.

8. What is his favorite color? not sure...blue maybe?

9. What is his favorite food? Well, as my post before explains he has a pretty intense palate. You're always safe with dishes he learned from the resturant (Ottavios, the REAL one in Provo, NOT! the one they tried in AF). Any high scale meal will satisfy him. Course, there are times he craves his moms tater-tot casserole as well. He runs the gammit.

10. What is his favorite sport? Volleyball. And the boy ain't bad at it. He used to compete.

11. When/Where was the first kiss? crap. Seriously, Joe is better at remembering this stuff. It took him a while to kiss me. I think we had been dating almost a month when he finally planted me one. I'm pretty sure it was the parking lot of our employer. Wait, no at my house...crap. Well, it was on July 31st, I know that much!

12. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? We love going places (traveling) together. I love experiencing new things with him. We're also pretty happy just doing the movie/dinner gig...if we ever get to do that again.

13. Do you have children? Yes. Trevin is from my first marriage but Joe has never once treated him as anything but his own. Our little one, Garrin is 14 months old and Joe is anxious for more.

14. Does he have a hidden talent? hmmmm. He cooks, but that's not hidden. He plays volleyball well, but that's not hidden either. OH! (he's gonna be mad at me for this one). Joe has a great singing voice.

15. How old is he? *giggle* he just turned 38. There is an 8 year age difference between us.

16. Who said "I love you" first? I did. New Years Day of 2004. I was planning on doing it right at midnight but we had gone to a party that was miserable and had really killed ANY type of good feeling so after we left and it I just started crying and told him how I wanted it to be romantic and special. I can't remember if he said it right back to me.

17. What is his favorite type of music? I don't know that he has a favorite "type". He likes a lot of genres. His favorite band is BareNaked Ladies, though.

18. What do I admire about him? How easily he handles me. How tender he is with me (even though everyone thinks he's scary). His devotion to his family.

19. Will he read this? Probably. He likes to correct me when he comes home from work.

Food Snobs

Let me explain to you what it's like to live in a world of food snobs...

Neither above average Joe or I were raised in this way. There were other kids (in Joe's fam LOTS of other kids) to feed so casseroles abound. The luxuries we had were Sunday dinners and the occasional outing for special occasions. It was not until later in life that I discovered the real joy of food. My first experience with really good food was with my first love Chris who has gone on in his life to become an AMAZING chef. He is currently in Spain training under some top chefs at an internationally acclaimed restaurant. Now, I should also tell you that above average Joe is fabulous in the kitchen. (Ask anyone he has cooked for) He has the touch, he has the taste. It is something he has picked up in his older years. I, myself, cannot cook. I can fake it enough to feed my family, but that's it. Luckily, I bake pretty well. Which means above average Joe can cook a sensational meal then I'll come in with a warm your heart dessert.

Because above average Joe has taken to being a food snob or "foodie" as known in the industry there are things that happen in my house that do not happen in normal homes. Let me explain. This big foodie is now teaching his palatable ways to Trevin. Trevin is a good eater, most the time. I do feed him contrary to what he may look like. But he has developed his own tastes to certain things. For example, when we have Italian nights and there are noodles around you CANNOT open the fridge and find the Kraft grated Parmesan cheese and sprinkle that onto my son's food. OH NO, he must have fresh Parmesan (that thankfully, Costco sells) and it MUST be at least 9 months aged. I kid you not. I have tried to fool the kid and he has called me on it. He can tell the difference in cheese. Thank you, Joseph.

Also, if we happen to be eating at your house and you serve mashed potatoes please have above average Joe come early to handle them. Because if garlic, cream and "good" mozzarella cheese are not used my son's potatoes will remain on his plate all night and you will hear of how "Joe's are WAY better". I think Joe basks in that one a bit.

Don't get me wrong. Trevin will eat bologna sandwiches and Ramen noodles as well he just has learned these few things and it's starting to expand.

Such was the case yesterday. I was making a simple pb&j sandwich for myself when Trevin asked for a sandwich himself. I asked him what kind and when he FINALLY decided it was on peanut butter and honey. Now to understand the depth of this particular story you must be aware that we have a beekeeper in the family. That's right. So we get the perks of fresh honey that is usually free and has come from a variety of places. Did you know that it depends on what the bee's are pollinating as to the flavor of the honey? Well, it's true and there are MANY flavors. Because of this we have a "few" different honey's in the house and this trickle down effect has affected them in my foodie world. I had the peanut butter on the bread and grabbed one of our honey bears only to be informed that that was "alph-alpha honey" and was not suitable for my son's gentle palate. He didn't want orange because it's too bitter and wasn't in the mood for sage (either from Delta OR California) either. He must have the Clover honey. Are you serious? So I found our clover honey and made him a sandwich. Afterwards I went to find my above average Joe and slap him silly.

Little Joe's Wrangler

We had the opportunity to spend conference weekend down in Delta with above average Joe's parents. They have a beautiful big house to tempt all of their children to come down and visit. Especially those with little grandchildren.

Joe has often told me the story about when he was little his dad would sing him a song called "Little Joe Wrangler". I had never heard of this song before. While were down on this visit the few kids that were there decided to go out in search of the old records of their youth. They were told they were in the garage which means "good luck on finding them" but they did. I got to see the record collection that raised my hubby. In this treasure trove was also discovered a copy of the song "Little Joe Wrangler". Apparently it has about 16 versus and Joe's dad can still remember most of them! The story of the song is that a young cowboy is torn from his home to go to war, I think, and is "lost". The thing about this childhood story that I LOVE is that Joe's dad would have his little boy on his lap and sing to him and at the end of the song my little Joe would look up at his dad with tears in his eyes and say "Did he die, dad, did he die?" The WHOLE family knows this story of my above average Joe because everytime his dad would sing it Joe would have the same reaction. You wouldn't know it to look at him, but Joe is quite the softy.

So, on this trip we got to hear the song that is legend in the Western family. I was distratced from the song only to run for my camera because my sister-in-law found it suitable to make Joe's little boy a wrangler himself.

Grand Ol' Flag

Trevin is going to turn 9 in 10 days. Last Tuesday he had the opportunity to present the flag in his cub scout meeting. This was a great thing to me because he'd never done it before and I had my camera handy! He asked so many questions about how to do it to his leaders because he wanted to do it right. He is a very detail oriented boy with things like this. That night he was awareded his Wolf. I have no pictures of that presentation because Joe is the one presenting the awards to the boys and they always have the scouts mom's up with them as they are awarded. I even get my own little pin. (They know who is home making sure these boys get these things done.) I was very proud of my little man. He did a great job and has really loved being in scouts for the last year.