The one crab....

As I type today, I sit with my feet up under me, as far from the floor as possible.
Here's why...

I bought Kevin a fish tank on his first birthday after our wedding. We filled the tank with 10 or so small fish and called it the "Waters of Mormon". We had the three nephites, Lamen & Lemuel, Helamen...and then when all the fish died off except one, we named it Moroni. Corny, I know.

The fish tank has been empty ever since...well except once when we caught some frogs. We kept them in there for a few days- and they died too. Which has led me to believe that this fish tank is cursed.

Well, about a month ago, Kev and I decided we'd try again. We spent a Saturday getting the fish tank all ready for some new fish. We were pretty proud of how well it turned out:

We bought some really neat fish:

a shark named "Bruce", a black angelfish, a zebra cat-fish, a bunch of tiger barbs which all school together, this long black one who looked like it had the face of a dog but moved around like a ribbon, and....

the TWO CRABS...(dun dun dun)

At first I was ok with the whole crab idea. It was cute how Halle and Drew wanted to call them "Mr. Crabs" and "Mrs. Crabs". Then Tiffany and I sat in front of the fish tank (for two whole hours...literally!) watching those crabs and getting really freaked out. Their spider like legs, their spider like eyes, their spider like . . . . everything. aaaaagh. We had the chills then and I have the chills right now thinking about it.

And then the fish started disappearing. And then reappearing half eaten.

One night, Jessica was over. I was reading scriptures with the kids before putting them to bed. Jessica screams "WHAT IS THAT???" and there is Mr. Crabs creeping up the stairs toward the bedrooms. Jess caught him under a plastic cup but we could hear him clickety-clacking under there. I scooped up the cup/crab in a net to dump him back in the tank but when he started climbing down the net's stick at me I threw it. The kids were screaming. We all were screaming. Ever since, Drew's been saying "We hate the crabs, hoo-wa Mom?"

After mask-taping over every tiny hole on the fish tank lid, I tried to forget about it. Didn't work. Every time I passed the fish tank I got the heebie jeebies. Feeding the fish suddenly was a dreaded part of the day. And THEN, on Tuesday the next week, I had some Young Women/Young Men over at my house and a deacon yells "THERE'S A TARANTULA!". Yes, now Mrs. Crabs was running out from behind my computer desk trying to get under the couch.

I was flushing one dead fish (or half a fish) down the toilet a day. Kev and I weren't totally sure if it was the crabs eating the fish or the curse. Then one day Halle is screaming. In the fish tank, is her favorite fish SPEARED by a crab and he's EATING IT with the other claw. Gross mystery solved.

Over the weekend I was thinking "I haven't seen the crabs in a few days." I tried blocking the visions of waking to sharing my pillow with crab-spider-eyes.

Late last night I went down to the laundry room to switch my bedding from the washer to the dryer. Today I went back down there to bring it upstairs and THERE WAS THE DEAD-SMASHED-CRAB IN FRONT OF THE DRYER!! Which leaves me with two explanations:

1. He wondered through my house, down to the basement (shiver) and I stepped on it (shiver) last night without realizing.

or

2. He fell out of my bedding (SHIVER) when I was putting in the laundry.

THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T BUY CRABS, PEOPLE!

The good news: the one crab is dead.

The bad news is: The other one is around here somewhere. . .

The one picky eater

My Drewbie is such a picky little eater. Some days I'm happy to get a fruit snack down him.

So today I tried something new. I had him help me make the dinner and acted really excited about each ingredient. "Oooo, Drewbie! Look! These are poppy seeds!!!!" He kept giggling and saying "I'm gonna like this, huh mom?"

(Whenever he says "huh?" it's more like a really quick "hoo-wa"- and it comes after almost everything he says: "You're my mom, hoo-wa mom?" "I'm free [three], hoo-wa mom?" "Daddy's at work, hoo-wa mom?")

Anyway, my little dinner trick WORKED! He ate a whole plate of Poppy seed Chicken, asked for seconds, then thirds...came home from the Primary Carnival and asked for more! Wahoo! We'll see if it works again tomorrow.

Poppy seed Chicken: (I double this recipe)

3/4 cup cooked chicken, cubed or shredded

1 can cream of chicken

1 cup sour cream

a little milk

1 T poppy seeds

Ritz crackers

Cheese

Put 1/2 - 3/4 of one sleeve of Ritz Crackers in the bottom of casserole dish (the recipe says to put it in with a little melted butter- I leave it out. Do what you want) Mix chicken, cream of chicken, sour cream, milk, and poppy seeds in large bowl. Pour over Ritz crackers. Cover with another 1/2 - 3/4 Ritz cracker sleeve and top with cheese. Cook for aprox 30 minutes at 300 degrees.

I'm sure it's not the healthiest dinner out there, but it's easy and kids will eat it! Some days that's more than good enough.

The one year to go

My little bro, Buzz (John), has been on his mission for a year!


One year to go!!!

My sisters, Autumn, Ora and I took our kids to the Pumpkin patch. We got this little pumpkin, everyone signed it, and sent it to him over there in Texas. I sure miss him.

Here's the troops top left to right: Drew, Kenya, Sierra, Durango, Trey, Bailee, Aspen, Halle.

Autumn, Me (yes, I am blonde now), and Ora:

The one with the new house

My lifelong friend, Emily (also affectionately called "Amelia Crouton") has moved to Arizona. Ah, the sadness. These pics of our new home are at her request.

Keep in mind that I'm still just barely out of the unpacking stage. Decorating is gonna be slow in coming. Like when there's money and time....haha!...you know what I'm thinking so I don't need to say it.

But here's the outside of the new Farr residence!

(Oooo, lookie how cute that little boy is!)

Here is the currently-blah front "visiting teaching" room:

and the stairs (they're not much now but I've got some yummy ideas...with the high ceilings and such I think it's gonna be really nice....again, someday):

the stairs go up to the kitchen/dining/family room:

and in the corner of the family room is more stairs

(they usually have monkey's climbing on them):

and that stairwell has a really cute little window

and it goes up to the kids bathroom:

Halle's room:

Drewbie's room:

And of course Kev and my room, though I'm not gonna show any pics because there's really nothing to show right now- a bed, a treadmill, a TV, the last of the boxes, etc. Our master bath was a huge selling point (again no pics for now) with it's jetted tub, double sinks, master closet, etc.

Ok, here's one pic of one of my fave parts of our room ... the view!

Front row Mt. Timp sunrises!

There's more pics I could take- like the unfinished basement, yard, etc but this is good for now. I've gotta get ready for bed!

Later

The one with almost 13 inches

I've decided to start blogging for reals.

I really struggle with the whole blog thing, thanks to this little OCD problem I have: I always feel like I've gotta write everything that has happened to me since my last post. I have the same problem writing in a journal...I'll write a 20 page entry, trying to cover everything I want to say (and of course I never do) and since I never have the time to pick up and finish where I left off, it just never happens. Today I decided to chill out, stop trying to catch up and just start typing.


My good friend Haley told me today that you can print a year of your blog for $3o! Has anyone done that? I'm thinking, what a great way to keep up on a journal! Two birds with one stone! I'm all for that these days.

I've been thinking of this quote a lot lately by Anne Quinden: “There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.”

I will always regret if I don't take the time now to record the little moments, while my kids are little. Like this one-


Halle: "Mom! Mom! I think Drewbie's almost 13 inches....ummm, I think."

Drew: (clapping his hands and jumping up and down) "I'm thirteen inches! Thirteen inches- huh mom? Thirteen inches!!"






Funny kids. I wish I could bottle them up sometimes.







So here I blog.