Hello from Amber

Hey, peoples! School is driving me nuts. I think I should get more than a diploma for going to Butte High. Anyway, Mom is making me an apple pie right now! YAY FOR MY SIDE!!!!!!! I think I need to lay off the sugar. :) NEVER! Anyway, it's been really cold here (snowed all day today and yesterday) and my friend Josh and I were eating lunch outside (I'm crazy, I know), so my hands were dreadfully cold. I told my buddy that I had been playing in the morgue, and he thought I was serious! Honestly, it took him a minute to realize that I was joking. Almost as good as Toni's "Air flow or strip show" story. Aren't all our family sayings just wonderful? I love them.
Anyhoo, I look like a faery princess right now because of the awesome sparkly eyeshadow I'm wearing. :)
ps I hate people in general. Is that a bad thing?

Life in the Hills...

Alexus is absolutely loving school and making all of the friends she is making. She was invited to her first birthday party for this coming Friday and it is becoming quite the event for her. She is still taking riding lessons and is even starting to trot on her own! Its amazing to watch this little child wield such a large animal to do what she wants. Tyse is growing and smiling like a little man should. He has a great smile and laugh which helps him out when his little temper decides to flare up which is happening more and more lately, much to my dismay. We are also in the process of moving into our house! The septic still has to be connected as does the power and we don't have any water or propane yet, but it is coming along and we are very excited!

How about "As the world turns in California..."

I can't even remember what happened in September:) We celebrated Kade's 35th birthday. For some reason, that sounds old. Caleb earned his Wolf badge in Cub Scouts. We've been very active in the grass roots effort to get Prop 8 to protect traditional marriage passed here in CA. Haleigh started playing the clarinet in band at school. Elise exited from the speech program. We've begun potty-training Maryn and Joshua started solid foods. I think that's it in a nutshell, with not much time to devote to the computer.

The Days of Your Lives

Like the title? I'm so funny. Anyway, Just thought I'd give an update on our lives. Justin is loving school and work this semester. He's in a lot of his major classes and loving every minute of them. His job pretty much is doing what he's majoring in so he likes it a lot. Right now he's training to be able to certify others in CPR.

I'm doing the same kind of things I've been doing all summer. I work on my little sewing projects, cook, clean, and do some bed resting. A few new things I've done this week include harvesting apples and plums from the trees in the yard of our apartment complex, making apple pies, going to Yellowstone, and attending the RS broadcast. I've also been planning a big Halloween party. If anyone has any great ideas for me to use at my prty as far as decorations, food, or games, you should let me know. I'm thinking of freezing some of the plums we picked and peeling them to look like eyeballs since they're about that size.

My stomach is getting bigger and bigger, and just when I think I can't get any bigger, my wasteline expands a little more. I'm getting more excited and more impatient for baby to come.

Happy Belateds!

Just a happy belated birthday to Denise yesterday, and happy belated anniversary to Don and Mary on the 20th. I hope you all celebrated in grand style and know I was thinking of you on your special days--just sat around feeling guilty I didn't get your cards in the mail. Anyway, happy belatedness from your California sister!

Some Thoughts on Potatoes

a small round flat potato we got out of our potato box

I discovered today how much growing up a certain way affects us the rest of our lives. I don't know how many of you remeber the potato box in the washroom, but I was thinking about it today when I was peeling potatoes for Justin's lunch, and I had to laugh to myself because I have my own potato box. I keep it under the bottom shelf in my kitchen where the sunlight can't get to it, but I can and there's planty of ventilation so they don't rot.
When Justin is helping me with dinner sometimes I tell him to go get three or four big potatoes out of the box. It's so funny to me because I remember helping mom with dinner or lunch when I was little, and mom telling me to go get six or seven potatoes out of the box.
I also remember peeling lots of potatoes growing up. I wasn't very quick at it when I was younger, but boy am I quick now. I think it helps that I have a very, heavy duty peeler, but all the same after years of practice when I was little I must be pretty good at it.
The first few months after we got married, Justin was pretty amazed at how many potatoes we ate. Pretty much most of meals I knew how to cook included potatoes of some variety and so we had them nearly every day. That and they are so stinking cheap especially here in Potato Country. It's like reverting back to childhood when we had meat and potatoes for every meal. Whether it was venison stakes with mashed potatoes or pasties or stew...potatoes pretty much made up half of every meal.
Luckily for Justin, even though I don't think he ever really minded because he never said anything about it, I have branched out my meal plans, and quite often we have Mexican and Italian dishes. Some of my favorite things I have learned to make since being married include baked burritos, chicken enchiladas, fettucini with alfredo sauce (from scratch), and lasagna.
All in all though, I don't think I'll ever depart from being a meat and potatoes kind of girl. My favorite Applebees order will probably always be steak and french fries or mashed potatoes.

Surviving Butte High

Hey, peeps! I'm currently a sophomore at Butte High, and I'm going nuts. :D I just turned 16 on the 6th of September, and, happily, completed my Young Womanhood Recognition stuff a week or so before my birthday. :) (which happened to be my goal.) I'm writing a new novel on top of school, seminary, and teaching myself Italian. I'm pretty busy, but I at least enjoy Italian and writing. I have no job or opportunities for one because our family has no connections, so I'll hang out, bumming off mom and doing whatever odd babysitting jobs I can get. I've got to go to bed. (Seminary comes very early.)
Ciao,
Amber