My Garden...of Sorts and Memories of Deo

This is what I found when I went to use my rice vinegar today.

Its a MUSHROOM!

Yep thats right, apparently now I grow mushrooms... yeah.

Thats almost a whole bottle gone to waste. I don't even think I've had it that long... and its vinegar, thats supposed to last forever isn't it?

I only knew that it was a mushroom because when I was little, ha my ma is going to kill me for sharing this, my great grandma Deo used to grow mushrooms in vinegar and then her and my Ma would drink the vinegar after they grew the mushroom and discarded it. I'm not sure what healing quality it was supposed to have or why exactly they drank it. I just remember going into the storage room and smelling vinegar, peeking under the cheese cloth and seeing the big mushroom just floating on top of the vinegar in the big punch bowl. Ha weird.

Deo was awesome. This mushroom business was when my family lived with her and I was just a wee thing. She was always trying weird "health things." She was from Texas and she cooked like Paula Deen, with LOTS of butter! She called us kids "lovey" and though I don't remember her saying "y'all" I remember her saying "you all" a lot. Even before we moved in with her, we went to visit her and she always had candy in the cupboard by the rocking chair. I mostly remember her having those chicken bone candies.

I LOVED hearing her stories about growing up in Texas. Her family would have to hide when Pancho Villa and his gang would come around because her father rode with the Texas Ranger. She had so many cool stories.

She was a published author too. She wrote a children's book that was published in 1969 and a poem that I think was published... I'm actually not sure on the poem. But she had many stories and poems that she wrote that were not published. I remember her writing stories or plays specifically for our family home evenings.

Deo wanted my sister and I to learn to be ladies. She held a class for us and our cousins so we could learn things like how to walk with books on our heads, and drink out of tea cups properly. No joke! It was awesome!

I also remember her having one of those awesome tall phones. You know the really old ones where you have to spin the thing to each number? Yeah it was a fancy tall one right by her bed.

Well I could go on and on about her but I will just say that I love her and I am lucky to have known her as well as I did. And I am grateful for all that she taught me.

CREEPY!

Jarod was watching/reading the news on KSL.com the other day and he asked me if I had heard about this certain story. The story was this one about the two men arrested for the two women found dead in St. George. I told him that I had heard something about it on the radio in the car earlier bu that I didn't really listen. And then I saw a picture of one of the men arrested. I immediately recognized him as a guy, whom I knew as "The Pirate Guy," who hit on me! It was my first semester at Dixie State, in fact it was one of the first few days of that first semester and my sister, friend and I were in the bookstore looking for our books. I don't remember what book I was looking at when this weird guy who looked like a pirate told me that I didn't want to buy that particular book. When I asked him why he said that it was missing pages. Weird. "Really?" I asked weirded out. "No, I'm just kidding." He said like, 'crap my plan isn't working, I don't think she's falling for me.' I don't really remember what he said after that. I just remember that he was weird and creepy. After that I saw him on campus regularly and ALWAYS avoided him! Not that he was the only person I avoided, I avoided a lot of people. Mostly anyone who was awkward to talk to or anyone who would recognize me and want to shoot the breeze, unless we were friends, because I am super good at making those situations awkward. Anyway, I bet if you look at that story and see the pictures you can guess which one is "The Pirate Guy."

Too Cute to Not Share

We were just getting ready to go to my parents' house for Sunday dinner and he started cheesin' up a storm! I love his eyes in this, all blinky when he yawns!

6 weeks and Chicken and Dumplings

Yes this is Sawyer at 6 weeks and he is smiling so big! He's probably smiling at his Daddy, he sure loves when his Daddy talks to him! We love this little guy!

I made this for dinner last week and it was so delicious!

Mmm hmm I do love me some chicken and dumplings!

This is where I got the recipe. Definitely a fun cookbook!

Crest Commercial

Ha ha ha ha! I had to Share this with you!

I thought about this commercial the other night while I was brushing my teeth.

When my sister and I were little, after seeing this commercial, we tried squeezing the tube of toothaste into the sink to see if the Crest Sparkle guys would come out!

Hahaha we wasted at least a quarter of the tube in the sink! Man what silly little terds!

A Cake and a Cane

Last week was my dad's 50th birthday! We celebrated with an "Over The Hill" cake and a cane. Ha ha my sister-in-law Laura got him a cane and I made the cake! Needless to say he wasn't very happy about them. J

Happy Birthday Dad! You know we wouldn't do it if we didn't love you!

No, it's no beauty, but beauty wasn't really the goal on this cake. Ha! I got a kick out if it anyway.

My family almost never has family pictures taken, so I decided that we should at least get a snapshot of the whole family.

Yap, thats us!

We also took some 4 generation pictures too.

So here we have my Dad(50), my oldest brother Christopher(27) and his daughter Bailee(3), and my Grandpa McClellan(almost 76).

And thats me(24) and my son Sawyer(5 1/2 weeks) with Dad and Grandpa.

And my brother Shane(22) and his son Easton(9 1/2 months) with Dad and Grandpa.

Thanksgiving

This year we had a relatively small group for Thanksgiving dinner. There was my parents, my Grandpa, my sister Shilo, my brother Cole, and Jarod and Sawyer and I. My other brothers joined us later that day/evening. For dinner we actually sat at the table, something we haven't done in years! Mostly because there are too many of us to fit now. Dinner was delicious! (As usual) I was in charge of the sweet potatoes, and I rocked it! They were very yummy, no canned 'yams' for us this year!

I was super tired on Thanksgiving though and I didn't even take all of the pictures that I wanted to.

In fact this was the only picture that was taken that day. Its a terrible picture of me, I was SO tired! Its a super cute one of Sawyer though! Sad that this is the only one from that day but at least I got one of Sawyer. That's the important one to photograph anyway, right?

Oh and I love pie. I ate WAY too much of it! But it was worth it and of course, that is what Thanksgiving is all about! I know that is cliché but I don't really care. J

I love my family and I am so thankful for them!

Little side note: I have decided that it doesn't matter what you call them, sweet potatoes or yams. Technically they are sweet potatoes and that is what I will continue to call them, but "yams" is recognized in North America as the orange flesh tuberous root vegetable. And I don't actually know anyone who eats the lighter flesh yams.

Adventurous 4:00 am

Sawyer and I were up for the usual 3:30 am feeding this morning, which went like normal; he woke up just enough to eat with eyes still closed and then he fell asleep, I burped him, he spit up, and spit up again, and once more, then just as he fell asleep he pooped. So I went to change his diaper and what did I find? Yes, poop spilling out the back of his diaper, yay. Luckily its just on the onesie and not the sleeper. So I travel into the freezing cold room to retrieve a new onesie and then I'm back, trying to get him out of the poopy one without getting poop all over him. I somehow manage to do so and proceed changing his diaper and, of course, he starts peeing. I have gotten pretty fast at catching it so he didn't get it everywhere, just on his head mostly. Bah! So he got a nice warm 4:00 am bath. Then, (oh no not over yet) after I got him dressed in the new, clean onesie and his still clean sleeper, I sat down in the dark to rock him to sleep, since he was wide awake by that point, and I heard him gagging. I got a light on just in time for him to full on puke, twice, all over me, his blanket, and his sleeper. Nice. I cannot believe it! One more change and then bed? No just bed, there was only a tiny bit that got on his sleeper so I just wiped it off, wrapped him up in a new blanket rocked him for just a minute and put him to bed. Was there a point in getting up to feed him at all? I'm almost positive there was nothing left in his little tummy.

To mothers: KUDOS!!

Warning

I have been slacking lately on my blogging! And its not that I have been forgetting, I just have so many things to blog about that I feel like I need to start at the beginning. So I put off posting current pics and adventures because I want to post pics and adventures from earlier in our marriage or something like that. But I just can't do that anymore. Nope. From now on you have been warned that this blog will be, well actually is, a mixture of old stuff and new stuff and is in no particular order.

There, that feels better.

Random for Breakfast on Thanksgiving Morning

I'm not really sure what got me thinking about this, but last night while I should have been sleeping, I was thinking, "what celebrity do I look like?" I remembered that one time I was told I look like Hayden Panettiere. So I looked up some pics of her and Jarod and I decided that I do not look like her. So I went to one of those websites where you can upload a picture and they tell you what celeb you look like.

I did it using this picture and it told me I look like Anne Hathaway, and...... shoot I've already forgotten who else! Anyway I didnt look like any of them. So there it is, I don't look like any celebrity. Do you? If you do please do share! Or if you think I look like a celeb go ahead and share that too.J

Oh yes, and Happy Thanksgiving!

That Was a Close One!

Its already been 6 days since I posted something! Way too long! And how am I supposed to solidify my habit by doing that? Geeze! Glad I caught myself. I should thank Shilo for commenting on my last post and for telling Caskey about my blog who then said something to me about said blog, thus reminding me that I need to post something. So thanks Shilo!

Okay, so of course I'll begin with a picture of the litte guy.

And how appropriate, one with his aunt Shilo!

And then some updates:

Sawyer, when he was just an hour old, was holding his head up for a couple seconds at a time. When I had him laying on my chest he would lift his head up off my chest and try to look at me. Now, at 5 weeks, he will push himself up with his arms and hold his head up to look at me. He is so strong! Not only that but (and I realize that many of you think its just gas) Sawyer smiles! He has been a really smiley baby already but he has only smiled in his sleep before now. The other day though, Jarod was whistling to him and he was fully awake and he let out a huge grin. Since then he's done it several times, mostly when Jarod whistles.

Sawyer is such a blessing in our home, and we are so thankful that we have been entrusted with him. We are enjoying the adventure so far and we are so thankful for all the help we have received!

With tomorrow being Thanksgiving I will be sure to post some current pictures if Sawyer. Hopefully we will get his pictures and our family pictures taken soon and then I will be able to share those with you too.

yHave a wonderful Thanksgiving! I hope you are able to spend it with family and/or friends you love! m

German Peach Pancakes with Warm Peach Butter Sauce

I made these for dinner tonight. Well I made the sauce and regular german pancakes. But mmm... they were so good. As Rachel Ray would say "yumm-o!"

Bah! I am getting very frustrated with this mobile blogging. Supposedly you can post pictures as well as text but it does not work for me! So annoying.

4 Weeks!

4 weeks ago today I gave birth to this amazing, handsome little boy. I cannot believe it has been this long already! I must be enjoying him for time to by so fast, right? Jarod and I really are enjoying him. We love him.

(Yay for aunt Shilo who took a close up of his face that first night!)

More from Hospital

I know these are out of order. Since I already posted the pictures of us getting ready to leave the hospital, logically the next ones would be of us at home... but I found more from the hospital that I wanted to post so... here they are. I guess thats what I get for trying to blog at 3 in the morning, huh? Oh well :)

Ha Ha Jarod tried on Sawyer's beanie. He looks like he just had brain surgery or something.

This was the beginning of the end of the maternity beard, the "Joe Dirt" phase.

I got a few pictures of Sawyer with his Daddy asleep, I couldnt resist. Can you blame me though??

Jarod is such a natural at being a dad, he loves it.

This one was just to show how long his hair was in back.

And this one shows off all of his hair. And of course me in my lovely hospital gown.

Simply lovely.

Welcome to Motherhood

I just changed 2 blowouts in 30 minutes! Seriously!

Cold and More Picures from the Hospital

Let me just tell you that it must be cold outside tonight (well this morning technically) because it sure is cold in my house.

But anyway, here are some more pictures from the hospital:

This was about an hour after he was born, oh so

precious. He kept lifting his head off my chest trying to

look up at me. Sweetest thing ever! He still does that

and I absolutely Love it!

Oh he is the sweetest thing!

This was right after his first bath.

Getting ready to go home

All bundled up and ready to hit the road. It took us an hour to get the car seat ready. We had to adjust the straps and we coudln't figure out how so we had to get a nurse in there and she had to get another nurse and then she had to get a razor to cut the seams on the end of the straps and then we finally got them adjusted. What a pain!

Let the Pictures Begin

Here I am just before leaving for the hospital.

39 weeks and 2 days.

Jarod with his glorious maternity beard.

Here we are about to jump into parenthood!

Do we look ready??

And here is our wonderful son! Sorry if this grosses

you out, this is a super fresh picture of him. I didn't realize

until now that I don't have any close ups of his face

all clean from the first night.

Ta Da! Our new little family!

Habit

"To form a habit all you need to do is repeat the activity. With enough repetitions it becomes a habit. A habit can be formed in as little as 10 days, depending on the amount of repetition. The more you do it after the habit is formed, the more reinforcement you give to that habit and the stronger it becomes."

"Perform the habit activity over a 2 to 4 weeks. Two weeks should establish the habit and an additional two weeks will provide good reinforcement strength. Ensure you repeat the habit activity at least 3 times a week, daily is better. Make sure there are no disruptions from the schedule."

http://ergonomics.about.com/od/ergonomicbasics/f/form_good_habit.htm

So here is my new goal.

I am going to make blogging a habit. I am sharing this goal with you because it will make me more accountable, and because now that you know my goal surely you will encourage me to do it...right?

So expect to see new posts if not everyday, then at least 3 times a week.

Sawyer James Manis

Sawyer James was born 10/20/2010 at 8:47 pm. I had him at the Riverton Hospital. He was 6lbs 15 oz. 19 1/2 in. long. We are so excited that he is here! My due date wasn't until the 25th of October, but my doctor (bless his soul) was going out of town that whole week and he wanted to be the one to deliver me. So he said that because the skin on my belly looked like a rash, he would say it was PUPPS ( a super itchy rash caused my hormones, the only cure is to deliver the baby). My Dr told me this on Tuesday the 19th. "And that way," he said " we can start you tomorrow."

Yikes!! Tomorrow!? I was so excited I couldn't handle it! But so nervous too! I called Jarod from the office and we decided to go for it!

I had pretty much everything ready but there were a few things I needed to run out and do and then some things at home I needed to do. I felt so rushed! That night I had intentions of going to bed early but that didn't happen, and once I did it was like Christmas for a little kid, how could I sleep!?

I finally got to sleep but had to get up to call the hospital at 6 am to see what time they wanted me there. At 6 they said to call back at 8. Yes more sleep! By this time I was so tired, I felt like I could have slept forever! So I called back at 8 and they told me to be at the hospital between 9 and 9:15. Yay!

I got dressed and of course curled my hair and took the last pregnancy pictures and we were off!

We got to the admitting desk in Labor and delivery at about 9:20 and they started me on Pitocin at about 10:00 am. My plan was to have him natural, no epidural. I told the nurses this and they asked if I had taken the classes and when I told them no they just said,"we'll see then."

Whatever, I wasn't totally against getting an epidural, I just wanted to see if I could do it without.

By about 2:30 pm I was having contractions about 2 min apart and they were predicting that I would have him sometime around 10 pm. I decided that since I was already so tired, if I wanted to have any energy left when it came time too push, I had better get the epidural.

The anesthesiologist was in my room in about 10 min.

While he was giving the the epidural though, he hit a nerve and I totally jumped. Let me explain though the jump was totally involuntary. For those who don't know, that is a big no-no when the guy has a giant needle inserted into your spine.

The anesthesiologist not so nicely told me that because I "freaked out" I had increased the risk of me getting a spinal headache from 1 in 200 to "a lot more likely." Yeah it was all my fault, dang reflexes. This and the way he said it made me start crying. And then he tells me that if I do get the spinal headache, the only way to get rid of it is for him to do another epidural and take some of my previously drawn blood and patch the hole in my spinal column or wherever it is. And that just made me cry even more because the last thing I wanted to do was that AGAIN! Especially with him. He was not nice about it at all! After he left my dad and Jarod gave me a blessing and I felt so much better about that whole thing.

Once I was calmed down I was so glad to be able to relax and rest. Though I didn't sleep for more than about 5 minutes, I was able to relax and that was nice.

I was not progressing very quickly and though my Dr being optimistic and had said "hopefully by 5 or 6" it was looking like it really would be more like 10pm or 11pm.

Then a little after 7pm, I threw up (I had been nauseous throughout the day so I was prepared for that) and after I did I felt a lot of pressure. The nurse came in at 7:30 to check me and she said "Oh you're ready to have this baby!" and I said "WHAT!?....Really?!" I was so scared/excited at that moment!

She said she would give me a little while before I started pushing which ended up being at 8:15. I was so paranoid that whole time that he would just start coming out and the Dr wouldn't be in there and the nurses wouldn't be in there. But the nurse reassured me that he wouldn't. Ha Ha.

So I started pushing at 8:15 pm and by 8:47pm he was here! What an amazing experience that is! Truly. It took over an hour for the us to be able to go to the mom and baby room, there were some slight complications after I delivered, nothing life threatening or scary, but I was definitely glad I had the epidural.

Jarod and I have awesome families, everyone was waiting in the waiting room to see little Sawyer. As they wheeled me past the waiting room on our way to the mom and baby room we waved to everyone but I was so tired that my eyes wouldn't even focus and I tried to smile but I'm sure it looked more like I was wincing in pain.

Our family members took turns coming in the room 4 at a time and it was well past midnight before they all left, I think it was around 1 am. They are crazy! And awesome!

What a long day! But it went by so fast! We are so grateful to all of our family and friends who came to visit us at the hospital and at home and to those who sent their congratulations, we are so blessed and we love you! We are loving being parents and Sawyer is teaching us so much everyday!

I think I can, I think I can...

I think I can blog successfully! Here we go again!

Oh my goodness. I am so not good at any type of record keeping. And sadly I am the secretary in the Relief Society.

I knew It Would Be Bad

This is the second attempt at blogging for me. So far. I am really exceptionally terrible at things like this. But I still feel the desire to try to improve. So here I am again.

So to play catch up, Jarod and I got married July of 2008. Oh my gosh it really has been that long! We found an apartment in Lehi just in time. We found it the Monday or Tuesday before our Friday wedding. So we spent the last day of our honeymoon moving in. What fun!

We lived in that apartment complex in two different apartments for one year. Last July we moved into a house just a block away. Jarod's brother Devan moved in with us as well as his cousin Jesse. It wasn't long, though, before Jesse met his fiance and he was just sleeping on our couch and that was all we saw of him. We still live in that house, Jesse has moved out in preparation for getting married this June, and Devan is still living with us.

We are now expecting our first baby this October! We will find out if it is a boy or girl in just under 2 weeks!