How to carve a REAL pumpkin

October 30, 2012 By

I’ve been watching all my friends post pictures of their carved pumpkins on Facebook.

How sweet.

Now, let’s talk about how a REAL pumpkin is carved. Many people ask us what we do with The Great Pumpkin after the weigh-off. The answer is simple: I make Jamie showcase it on our driveway until Halloween. It’s a community attraction and I catch the most random people marveling at it. Last week, it was the garbage man who moved the garbage can beside it  and took a picture. “I told my wife it was as big as a garbage can and she’s not gonna believe it.”

Another sweet man talked to Jamie and then, as if it had given him a new lease on life said, “Thank you sooooo much for growing it.”

Could The Great Pumpkin be as good as therapy?

Though it generally lasts until Halloween, it ain’t pretty after a month of baking in the sun. Pumpkin guts are usually oozing down our driveway, making it a veritable horror show. But this year was different. Jamie’s pumpkin “Christine” has miraculously not shown signs of rotting out so he resolved we were going to carve it for the first time. Have you ever carved a 837-pound beast? Neither had we. Please excuse the blurry pictures; they were taken at night with my iPhone.

We made an event of it by inviting some friends over for FHE. Cookies and hot chocolate with pumpkin spice marshmallows are essential.

Then you get out the power tools. When that doesn’t work, you try a shovel. Once you finally break through the top, you get your first glimpse inside and it was miraculously not rotting out. This almost made Jamie weepy. It was like he was gazing into some fantastical cavern.

Next, you dive in, scoop out the guts and separate the seeds. To those blasphemous people who ask if we eat them: they are dried, sold or traded with other growers.

Entire children were almost lost in the process.

From there, we carved out the face–not an easy process when the skin is almost a foot thick. In fact, the eyes took so long to carve out that I mused to Jamie, “maybe you should make the mouth smaller because the eyes are taking so long. He took one wavering look at me, then back at the pumpkin. “She’s gotta have a big mouth.”

It was like music to my ears.

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie, LDS, pumpkins

Let It Go

September 17, 2012 By

I’m on the precipice of four very busy, stressful weeks of travel, the pumpkin party and weigh-offs, along with everything else we’re already juggling.

But it was the perfect final weekend of reprieve before delving in head-first. Several friends and I headed to Time Out For Women Friday night and Saturday, which if you’re not familiar with it, is a fantastically inspiring conference for Mormon women that bolstered our spirits and basically reminded us how awesome we are.

Good gracious, who knew timeouts could be so rewarding?

Lunching with the ladies at Corner Bakery

One message in particular touched me to my core and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. Chris Williams was a happily married father of four with one on the way when a drunk driver hit his family’s vehicle, killing his wife and two of his kids.

His story of almost instant forgiveness is so darn inspiring I was blown away by his story and the relationship he has formed with that young man. I rarely post videos so you know this one is powerful so please take a few minutes to watch it.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7zwQ_7q-fU]

Talk about poignant and “Let it go” is my new mantra. Most of us will thankfully never face anything of this magnitude but we become wrapped up in so many petty things in life that his attitude puts everything in perspective.

I was also thrilled that one of my favorite food blogs, Our Best Bites, just released another cookbook. So I, of course, snagged Savoring the Seasons With Our Best Bites.

It has been just over 24 hours since I purchased it and I’ve already made four recipes: the mango rice, easy Thai chicken noodle soup, pumpkin crumble and the gorgonzola pear pasta.

If that ain’t a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.

Though Jamie has been working around-the-clock and hasn’t been feeling well, the kiddos stayed busy. Haddie had a party with her Activity Days girls from church and Bode and Jamie had a Boy’s Night Out Friday. They went to Buffalo Wild Wings Grill for the first time and Bode was blown away by an entire wall of flat-screen TVs!!!!!

I’m sure they didn’t say even one word to each other the entire dinner. He also got to meet a famous UHF wrestler who was there signing autographs. Tough dude wouldn’t smile for anyone except for sweet Bode.

Yup, boy’s night out, indeed.

I’ll stick with Time Out for Women, thanks.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: LDS

Broken

August 9, 2012 By

When I was at BYU, I had one of the coolest jobs on campus: I worked as a research assistant in the religion department’s Faculty Support Center. I did everything from make copies (a lot of them) to transcribing OLD manuscripts to editing very cool documents.

It was there my fascination with Ancient Israel and world religions was borne and the reason why I did a study abroad to the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies for my final semester.  In August. With heat so unbearable I thought I’d never make it outta there alive.

But I still loved every minute of it. Except for the heat parts. Which was all the time except for when we were in air-conditioned buildings.

It was a complicated love affair.

Several of my co-workers and boss Patty are lifelong friends and I was thrilled when I was able to hook up my soon-to-be freshman neighbor Alexis with a job at the FacSupp starting in June.

When I posted about my water breaking with Hadley in very public booth #3 at Einstein Bros., Patty dropped me a note to remind me of an experience I had long forgotten.

Or chose to forget (thanks, Patty).

Once upon a time, I was at work and grabbed something out of my backpack. Something you should know about me is as long as I can remember, I’ve carried a water bottle full of ice-cold water wherever I go. My kids have inherited this trait and we can’t leave the house for even a 5-minute walk without some water in-hand.

So, that day so many years ago, I grabbed my backpack and it was SOAKING wet. All my homework and text books were drenched and I’m sure I was raising a fuss because Patty asked me, “What on earth happened?”

Still in shock, I finally blurted out, “MY WATER BROKE!”

The foreshadowing is not lost on me.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Humor, LDS

Chilling: Johnson-style

July 5, 2012 By

We’ve had a one-week break between travels and I set the goal to give everyone some much-needed downtime and we had just that for several hours every day.

However, downtime gets old really quickly chez nous. Here are a few things we did to curb off the summer doldrums:

Two weeks of outdoors swim lessons with several of my besties from our ward. It was like a pool party every day.

And as a total bonus, both kids passed their classes. Hadley is now in the top class on her way to swim team and Bode passed his first class (Trouts) ever and is now a Duck.

If you’ve followed his swimming missteps, you’ll know this deserves a celebration.

We also took our neighbors to the Children’s Museum of Denver. We were regulars when the kids were younger but haven’t been back for a couple of years because they’re in school and I thought they’d outgrown it.

Sean & Bode inside a bubble at the Bubble Exhibit
Hadley with real power tools: watch out

Five hours later, I realized I could not have been more wrong.

We spent Family Home Evening flying a kitean airplane.

It was obviously intense.

We threw Bode a “Pretend Birthday” because we’ll be in Canada for his birthday.

More on that later but those (wet) projectile weapons sure were real.

And last but definitely not least, we spent the afternoon boating and playing at Chatfield State Park with the youth from church. Remember how June had record-breaking heat? The one day we planned our beach visit, it was blustery, windy and rainy.

However, we still had a blast and created even more memories than if it had been sweltering.

Mostly because my memories would have been bad ones.

Hadley tubing with two of her babysitters
Bode warming up with Bryan
Stomp Rockets: something I need to add to our toy collection
Hadley & Morgan snuggling up under our canopy as it poured

One of the great things in the Mormon church is we have a non-paid clergy and are asked to serve in a number of different capacities. I’ve pretty much had the opportunity to do it all–from working with the younger kids to the adults to teaching gospel doctrine to throwing parties to serving in presidencies. But hands down, my favorite favorite favorite calling ever is teaching the youth.

3 of the 4 girls I teach at church. Awesome young ladies!
Our group of youth

P.S. Did you know “sick” is out and the new, hip word is “That is so ‘beast?’”)

Because there’s nothing like a 40-year-old pretending to be cool.

But I’m telling you, this overheated summer has been anything but.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor, LDS Tagged With:

The Baptism

June 8, 2012 By

There are a few pinnacle events in every Mormon’s life and getting baptized when you’re 8 (or older) is a big one. We planned to have a backyard party following the baptism and spent the morning setting everything up. And then the hurricane winds and rain started so we moved it indoors. And then it later cleared so it was outside-bound yet again.
 
  I love this picture of Hadley as she reflectively watched the rain prior to leaving for her baptism.

I have no doubt she somehow had control over the elements and was responsible for the rain clearing up.

 Jamie baptized and confirmed her and the whole service went perfectly.

Except for the fact she had to be dunked twice because Jamie was standing in the wrong direction the first time. When she had to go back out there to do it again, she lamented, “I’m so embarrassed!”

Her parental humiliation has only just begun.

We invited a bunch of friends and family to come over after the baptism for “light refreshments. Apparently I don’t know what that means. We had Sloppy Joes, oodles of appetizers and Qdoba Mexican Grill asked if we’d be their guinea pig for their new Fajita Bar that is being tested in Denver.

No-brainer on that one.

The chocolate fountain is always a hit. Margaret, my mother-in-law Linda and Haddie’s Primary teacher Julie were in charge of it.

And yes, it was worthy of an entire committee.

A couple of weeks prior, I took Haddie shopping to buy a special dress to wear afterward and I had one of those ah-ha mom moments of, “She’s growing up fast…and gorgeous.”

And I’m so proud of the young woman she is becoming.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Hadley, Humor, LDS

The Easter Walk, Wabbits & the Ham

April 9, 2012 By

Did Easter completely sneak up on us this year? Perhaps it was because we were out of town for Spring Break and by the time we returned, we only had one week before the holiday. I deemed this not enough time to drag out our Easter decorations so our house was sadly bunny-less.

Wabbit-hater Elmer Fudd Jamie said it was our best Easter ever.

We weren’t in town for any of our community Easter egg hunts but we still had a grand old time that started with a fun “egging” in our neighborhood. On Thursday, we discovered an empty Easter egg basket on our doorstep with a cute poem to find 12 candy-filled eggs hidden on our lawn. We were then to return the favor to another neighbor and keep the chain going.

So that night after dark, we covertly planted the eggs, rang the doorbell and RAN.
Basically, it’s the coolest egging ever.

Trust me, my car was egged in high school (by a boy who allegedly had a crush on me) while I was still in it. This is a much better alternative.

On Easter morning, the kids got a haul of candy, craft supplies (Hadley), goodies for Mario Party 9 (Bode) and strawberry cream cheese crepes for breakfast.

Then there were the requisite pictures in our Sunday best. Usually our photo shoot is the most painful part of the day but all I took were these four photos because 1) they were darn cute and 2) I’ve given up the hope that Bode will ever smile normally in pictures.
And Easter dinner? Uncle Chris smoked a ham all day long (with apricot-honey sauce), and we devoured funeral potatoes, homemade Challah bread, strawberry salad and the kids’ cake batter truffles.

Is this where I make a bad joke about Jamie being a “ham?”

But hands down, my favorite part of the day was our new Easter tradition: the Easter Walk. Based on the bookby Deborah Pace Rowley (which I need to buy), this “Treasure Hunt for the real meaning of Easter” is a beautiful way for kids to discover the symbolism of Christ’s resurrection in our every day world with six clues and accompanying scriptures.

(The boys reading the clue.)

Clue 1: Mark 15:17 – Something pointed and sharp to represent the crown of thorns.

Clue 2: John 19:17-18 – Something made of wood to represent the cross.

Clue 3: Luke 23:46 – Something dead to represent the Savior’s death.

Clue 4: Luke 23: 44-45, 3 Nephi 8:23 – Something dark to represent the darkness in Jerusalem and in America.

Clue 5: Mark 15:46 – Something hard and round to represent the stone placed in front of the tomb.

Clue 6: Matthew 28:5-6 – Something alive to represent that Jesus Christ is alive again.

Our family went to Majestic View Park and the views (and entire experience) were, indeed majestic.

One of my new favorite pictures:
The kids enjoyed themselves but I especially loved doing the Easter Walk with the Young Women. Usually giggly and chatty (they are teenagers), I loved watching them reflectively stroll around the beautiful grove behind our church.
When we came back together, they shared what they had collected and I was astounded and humbled at just how insightful and good they are, and what a privilege it is for me to teach and be taught by them each week.

Basically, this was one of my favorite Easters ever.

Even without the wabbits.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, holidays, LDS Tagged With:

Don’t worry, just be happy!!!

April 6, 2012 By

I’m frequently asked about my happy outlook on life. Though a lot of what we encounter is really tough (like our 2011), I’m a firm believer in the following principles:

1) Gratitude

Some of the least grateful people I know are also the unhappiest. This is true of both my single and married friends. I was 30 when I married Jamie, which is an Old Maid in Mormon Years. I didn’t care. Though I wasn’t making a ton of money, I was passionate about what I was doing. I had a full life, fantastic career, traveled extensively and dated a lot. Carpe diem!

On the other hand, I had dear friends who were thoroughly depressed their plans to marry and have kids had not worked out at that point. But they didn’t do anything about it and instead chose to mope around and not put themselves in situations where they were developing their passions and therefore themselves.

There’s nothing attractive about someone who’s not doing anything with their life. And guess what:


Lesson learned: Don’t feel sorry for yourself.

2) Action

Take that gratitude and run with it.

I’m a firm believer we are all given talents that are unique to us. Something I am ardent about instilling in my kids: do not wait for life to happen to you. I want them to be confident in their skills, able to accept defeat and actively live their lives without ever saying, “I’ll be happy when….”

Learn to be happy NOW and:

3) Resist envy and comparing yourself to others.

I’m giving a talk in church next weekend and I came across this awesome quote from Elder Jeffrey Holland at last weekend’s General Conference:

There are going to be times in our lives when someone else gets an unexpected blessings or receives some special recognition. May I plead with us not to be hurt — and certainly not to feel envious — when good fortune comes to another. We are not diminished when someone else is added upon. We are not in a race against each other to see who is the wealthiest or the most talented or the most beautiful or even the most blessed.

4). Which leads me to…religion. I’ve always been very forthcoming about my religious affiliation and I laugh in the face of most of the self-help gurus because so many “life coaches” don’t have a clue. The best way to connect with yourself is through God in a deep, meaningful way. Whether or not they know it, people need to believe in something. If you don’t have answers, actively seek them out. This one is too important to procrastinate. P.S. Go here for an inspiring 1-minute Easter video about Christ’s final hours.

4) Repeat after me: I am amazing. A friend who has struggled with debilitating depression told me part of her therapy has been to completely change the way she thinks. When a negative, self-loathing thought comes to her mind (i.e. “You’re so stupid for not being able to do that”), she is to stop and completely change her mind pattern.

I’m so proud of her progress in realizing her true potential and how valuable she really is.

My parting thought is this HILARIOUS video that I swear could be my offspring.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg]

And don’t you ever forget it.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Humor, LDS

Temple Square and Salt Lake’s Splendor

March 30, 2012 By

It’s funny because when I lived in Salt Lake City, I took Temple Square for granted. I even worked almost directly across the street and though I occasionally strolled the grounds, it was not on my radar.

Then I moved away and it became on my must-visit list whenever we’re in Utah.

Here’s the great thing about it: you don’t need to be Mormon to appreciate the feelings you get in this 10-acre complex that is the focal point of Utah’s tourism industry.

One thing you do need to have: an appreciation for beauty. The Christmas lights are truly spectacular in the wintertime, then spring brings blossoms, in summer resplendent flowers and then fall colors.

Basically, you can’t go wrong.

Hadley loved photographing these flowers….
And Bode loved blowing the blossoms.

We toured around the new City Creek Mall (ultra cool with its retractable roof), spent a minor fortune on Hadley’s first set of scriptures at Deseret Book (well worth it to see how thrilled she was) and had a grand ol’ time checking out the Church History Museum’s FREE interactive Book of Mormon children’s exhibit.

This weekend, Temple Square will be the hub for our church’s Semi-Annual General Conference.

And I feel fortunate to have caught a glimpse of where the magic happens.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: LDS

The rocky road to 40 (and not chocolate-marshallow kind)

February 19, 2012 By

I’m turning 40 tomorrow.

As surprising as this may sound, I’m doing a lot better with turning 40 than I was when my 30th birthday rolled around. This is because I’m in a much better place and it’s all downhill from here.

This is a good thing when you’re a gravity-challenged old bitty.

My tough descent into my 30s actually began when I was 29. I was career-obsessed and had my dream job, was dating some great guys, freelancing as a travel editor and living this whimsical, carefree life.

And then I went to see The Family Man, a movie with Nicolas Cage. If you haven’t seen it, Cage was a single, successful businessman who is yanked out his world to catch a glimpse of what his life would have been like if he’d had a family with his college sweetheart.

The movie hit me hard. So hard, in fact, I later wrote in my journal that I needed to change. I saw my life for what it was: self-serving and not on the path to anything of lasting happiness.

(Spoiler alert): Then I didn’t change.

Another year passed and I was more deeply entrenched in this world than ever when I learned my position (and one-quarter of our corporate office) had been cut. Suddenly, the source of what had become my identity was gone, too.

I was depressed and my friend Kristy took me to a movie as a pick-me-up. (Another spoiler alert): Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings is not a pick-me-up movie. It was dark, long and I hate almost every minute of it.

Except for one shining moment that really counted.

Frodo was overcome with the burden of being the ring-bearer and expressed his concern to Gandalf. His response proved to be prophetic to me, which basically stated that everything happens for a reason and “All you have to do is to decide what to do with the time given to you.”

TIME. And then I started crying. Hard. Now, I don’t know if you’re ever been a weeping mess during a LOTR movie so let’s just say I was an anomaly. But that was my answer.

A month later, I celebrated my 30th birthday and it was a tough one (despite a shining moment when my friend Dave took me to the 2002 hockey quarterfinals and I made Olympic history when I dove across my maple-leaf-clad neighbor for a five-second spot on the Jumbotron.)

But I was in the middle of muddling through changing my life and having faith that this time, was indeed, given to me for a reason.

That summer, I met Jamie. The following February, I was married.

If I had not changed my path, I am certain neither of these things would have happened. Prior to my wedding, I read back through my journal to the day when I saw the Family Man and resolved to change. Then I flipped ahead a year to when I was laid off.

They happened exactly one year to the day apart from each other.

I don’t believe in coincidences. I hadn’t changed so the Lord gave me a swift-kick to ensure I did and I’m so grateful for it. My 30s were spent with the highs and lows of building my family but with the sweet assurance I’m exactly where I need to be.

My friend Laurel recently wrote about turning 40 at Time Out for Women.

In the scriptures, one of the strongest shadows used is the relationship between “forty” as a means of preparation and the fulfillment of promises.

Did you read that?

THE. FULFILLMENT. OF. PROMISES.

Just a few examples of how the number 40 is used to represent a period of testing or preparation (thanks to the help of our friend, the worldwideweb)…but followed by the fulfillment of promises.

• The rains (in Noah’s day) fell for 40 days and nights (Genesis 7:4).
• Israel ate Manna for 40 years (Exodus 16:35).
• Moses was with God in the mount, 40 days and nights (Exodus 24:18).
• Moses led Israel from Egypt at age 80 (2 times 40), and after 40 years in the wilderness, died at 120 (3 times 40; Deuteronomy 34:7).
• God made Israel wander for 40 years (Numbers 14:33-34).
• Goliath presented himself to Israel for 40 days (1 Samuel 17:16).
• Elijah had one meal that gave him strength 40 days (1 Kings 19:8).
• God gave Nineveh 40 days to repent (Jonah 3:4).
• Jesus fasted 40 days and nights (Matthew 4:2).
• Jesus was tempted 40 days (Luke 4:2, Mark 1:13).
• Jesus remained on earth 40 days after resurrection (Acts 1:3).

I have spent my life in preparation for the fulfillment of promises I truly believe God “is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them.”

I finally know for what to ask and that these promises will be fulfilled.

And as for turning 40 tomorrow? Bring it.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: birthday, LDS

The Beauty of a Beautiful Heartbreak

October 26, 2011 By

I mentioned my admiration for musician Hilary Weeks but when I saw the video for her newest release, Beautiful Heartbreak, I just had to share.

She gave the back-story of writing it at Time Out for Women. There were four babies in her congregation at church who were born to different families. All four had severe medical challenges but friends and neighbors banded together in amazing ways to support these families as they tried to nurse their babies back to health.

All four of them died within the year.

Hilary mourned with them but was so inspired to see how they dealt with the loss and wrote this song. While it’s not inherently religious, I love it because it is human. No one goes through life without heartbreak of some kind–whether it’s depression or unemployment, loneliness, illness or death.

Be sure to watch the video until the end…that’s when my big, ugly cry broke out.

No worries. I’m not featured in the video blubbering away.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyX-I-um5Kk]
Hilary Weeks Video

This song is such a great reminder to take the good with the bad and that life is sometimes a beautiful heartbreak.

But we can still make it beautiful.

Buy her new CD “Every Step” on iTunes here. And no, this is not a sponsored post. I just think she’s pretty darn great.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: LDS
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