Worthy of a Blog Post

Rhett and I attended a health screening by one of his coworker's husbands last week and realized we needed to make a few improvements to our health. We ordered a few different vitamins that were appropriate to us individually, and just got them yesterday. This is my lot--for every meal:Anyone see a problem with this? Probably not, unless you're me and you can't swallow pills. For years and years now, I've tried. When I was younger, we just mashed up the pill and put it in orange juice, on a sandwich, in yogurt, in anything. But it was so disgusting that it made me almost vomit, and the taste lasted for hours. My first unsuccessful tries at an alternate swallowing method (other than just popping them in and swallowing--like everyone else can do . . . they make it look so easy . . .) was my freshman year of college, twelve years ago. My roommate's boyfriend took over and started coating the pills with powdered sugar. I was naive and didn't know what he was doing. But it didn't matter, because it didn't work.

Throughout the years after that, I've had people try to help me in all sorts of different ways--put it at the back of your tongue, put it on the front of your tongue, put a little water in before and then put the pill in with some more water, etc. Of course, I could swallow pills if I could half them or quarter them, but that doesn't work for capsules.

Rhett finds it quite amusing, and whenever I need to take a capsule, I find him suddenly mulling around the kitchen, finding little tasks to do, like sweeping again or scraping the week old ketchup off the counter, just so he can be around to watch me. I'll try putting it in and swallowing it with water, and it gets stuck, right in the middle of my throat. Oooooh, how it hurts. The natural reflex of my throat is to push it up and out, while the only thing I can think to do (and Rhett, my now personal coach, tells me to do), is swallow more water to get it to go down. I can't swallow any more once the pill is stuck, so when I try swallowing more water, the water just comes shooting out my mouth. I also can't even swallow my own saliva, so I have to just stand over the sink with my mouth open and drool, drool, drool. For some reason, my nose starts getting really runny in these moments too. And I'm gagging and gagging, trying to get it up and out. Usually weird gooey stuff comes out as I gag, but never the pill. I'm not exaggerating about any of this. (Yes, Andrew and Maria, this is what you heard in the background of our last skype session.)

So you can see why Rhett thinks it's so funny. He's even thought about taping it and posting it on youtube to see how many hits we can get. I laugh about it too--afterward.

So this morning, my first day of taking my new vitamins (and sadly turning over those yummy, gummy Flinstones), I tried breaking open the capsules and putting them in a smoothie. It was a lot of work, but it was going to be worth it, right? No more writhing over the sink??? The smoothie wasn't too bad. It was one of my favorite recipes: spinach (because we didn't have kale), pineapple juice, blueberries, and fresh shaved ginger. I drank the smoothie, but on the second to last swig, I got a taste of the vitamins and started gagging. I almost threw everything up. All the vitamins had settled at the bottom. And I had one more swig left. Rhett suggested I put some water in the glass and just chug it. I filled it half full, and chugged, barely keeping it down. At least the vitamins didn't get stuck in my teeth and last for hours like when I chew them.

So at lunch, I decided to try one of Rhett's crazy suggestions from this morning after my near-vomiting-it-all-back-up experience. I took the smaller vitamins, no problem, and then I had the three capsules left. I poured a little olive oil in a bowl and then tossed the capsules in. I rolled them around to get them coated really well. My heart was racing, and I was starting to get lightheaded. I started humming the Rocky theme song, put a little bit of water in my mouth, scooped up one of the capsules with a spoon and then dropped it into my mouth. Some of the water slid out of my mouth as I opened it, but I didn't care. I was going for it. I took a big swig of water from my glass and swallowed. Down it went! I couldn't even feel it! I took the other two (separately, of course) without any problems. Is my husband brilliant or what!?!

I've been talking to Rhett a lot this year about doing something wild and crazy because it's leap year and the year I turn 30. I want to someday say, "Remember that leap year that I turned 30 and we did this?" Well, I'd say we just had our first "wild and crazy" of 2012. It's going to be a good year.

Sneaky, Sneaky

Last night I made cookies. I never make cookies. This was probably the third time in my married life (to Rhett, haha). So after they were sitting on the cooling rack, Summer saw them and begged and begged for one. I told her she could have one after dinner. (She'd already eaten two!)

Then she said, "Mom, can I touch one?"

I said sure. Maybe she just wanted to feel the texture of a crunchy cookie.

She touched it, then got this sly look in her eyes and said, "My teacher says if you touch it, you have to have it."

Holy cow. She's a conniver at age 3.

I said she could have it . . . after dinner.

A January Story

Once upon a time, two crazy parents awoke their three little children at four in the morning to load the van and head to the airport. The young family boarded two planes that day, with a forty minute layover in Chicago, to get to Buffalo, New York. At the Buffalo airport, the children were stir crazy and enjoyed making their mother chase them in both directions holding the newborn while the father worked on getting the rental car. Finally, the middle child was captured and then flirted innocently with the car rental attendant, who bumped the family to gold star members knocking $100 bucks off the car rental. Then the little family drove two more hours to Erie, PA where three smiling faces greeted them through the window as they pulled in at 7pm.

The families visited and played and toured Erie and watched hours of Little Einstein. They visited the Tom Ridge Center (a display of the life along their Presque Isle peninsula), they dined at the Crackerbarrel, Olive Garden, and on Angie's delicious cooking, they stayed up late wasting money on lousy Redboxes, and they celebrated the New Year together (though the hosts fell asleep early).

The kids enjoyed wrestling,

playing with No Bake Cookie play dough,
checking out the Presque Isle peninsula,

having their first New Year Party together (at 7pm),

bonding,
playing store at the children's museum,

playing castle at the children's museum,

face painting,

exploring the museum,

and sledding.


After a week of event-filled days, a close call with denting the piano, late nights and early mornings, Rhett going to work conferences, and Brittney splurging at Charming Charlie's jewelry shop, the family packed up their things, and headed out the door at 7am Erie time, loaded the rented Jeep (another free upgrade), and headed to the Buffalo airport eating white cheddar popcorn for breakfast. They had a three hour layover in DC (where they chased a bird in the airport, rode the airport tram in circles to waste an hour, then ran up and down some deserted ramp to exert all energy before the next flight), had another three hour layover in Denver (What did we do there??? I don't remember. It's all just a blur now.), and finally got home to Spokane at 8pm Spokane time.

The parents were proud of how well their children did during all the travel, and they were so grateful for the kind hospitality they found in Erie. They wondered if their family in Erie had ever experienced such chaos, but they were grateful for the time they got to spend with them. It was a trip never to forget!

Christmas Recap

We had a wonderful Christmas. We stayed in Liberty Lake for the holiday and were able to enjoy a little bit of snow.
We also worked hard making our home-made gifts for family members this year. We had Andrew and Maria's name on Rhett's side, and we had Kate and Tanner's name on my side. Night after night, we crafted away. I loved having such a handsome crafting partner!

For Kate, I made this paper rose wreath. (Towards the end of the project, and after many burnt fingers from the hot glue gun, Rhett helped out too.)

For Tanner, Rhett whittled away at a golf club, removing the head and handle, then he put them on a square dowel that he had drilled holes into and put golf tees in the holes to create a tie rack. It was amazing. (And I'm so sad we forgot to take a picture before we sent it.)

For Andrew and Maria, we worked together on a home-made chess set. We used computer printable shrik-a-dinks to make the characters (Andrew--King, Maria--queen, Summer--bishop, Claire--knight, Me--rook, and Inara--pawn). (Great job to Rhett for adding in appropriate props! Click on the pictures to see them better.) Then we baked clay for them to stand up. Rhett sawed away at plexiglass to make the game board, then taped off squares and spray painted the black on. It was quite the project, but we were pleased with how it turned out!

The only real pictures of "Christmas" are the ones below. They are pictures of the new Christmas jammies. While we were eating a yummy dinner with Horchata (a new Christmas Eve tradition), Rhett slipped a gift under the tree, so when the girls opened their new pajamas, I got to open a new pair too.Hilarious, eh? Rhett found them at Walmart in the girls section. They were XL, but still small, so when I stood, I had to stand a bit funny. We all had a good laugh. (And the girls were disappointed the next night when I didn't wear my new jammies to bed with them.)


We hope everyone had a great Christmas too!