My Magoo.

(He informs me that everyone poses for pictures with their fingers like this now.  So, there you go.)

Today is Bubba-la's birthday!

Since he was born at around 1:00 in the afternoon, when he left for school this morning, he was still technically eleven.  I had to get a photo of the last time I would see him as an eleven-year-old.

After a long day of school and baseball practices, we finally got down to the business of celebrating his birthday.  In this photo, he is twelve.  Surely, you can see the difference.

Happy birthday Adam!  I will never forget the first time I met you, with your downy blond hair and little elfy face.  It was absolute Love at First Sight.

Aw, jeez, another post about TV?  This is a little embarrassing.

But, OH WELL, welcome to my life.

The announcement this morning that Derek Hough will be on the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars seriously made my whole day.

There have been rumors that he would be leaving the show, and after hearing that Maks is taking a break this season, I was pretty low.  Let's face it, the pros on the show are now more well-known than the so-called "stars"--at least to me--so I couldn't care less about who the pros are partnered with.  For me, it is all about my favorite dancing pros, of which Derek is at the top of the list.  Followed by Maks.  And Karina.  And Chelsea.  And Mark.  And...well, you get my drift.  I'm a fan.

We may have just spent the whole evening watching The Bachelor for Family Home Evening.

Let the justifying begin:

1.  The whole family was together, we lit a fire in the fireplace, and listened to a killer wind whip outside the house.  It was cozy.

2.  It was the dreaded Fantasy Suite Episode, which led to conversations between Sean and his "ladies" about what they believed about sex before marriage.  All of them expressed concern about hopping into the sack before they were fully committed.   This, in turn, led to conversations with my kids about what we believe.

It was particularly helpful that Sean has admitted to being celibate, citing his Christian beliefs as the reason.  So, he was very open on the show about how he wanted the "alone time" to focus on talking and getting to know each other.  The "ladies" all agreed--whole-heartedly.  It was great to see this stance being enthusiastically accepted on a television show.

3.  We got to watch The Most Dramatic Rose Ceremony Ever, in which 

 AshLee gave Sean The Look Of Death 

when he didn't call her name, and stomped wordlessly to the Reject SUV while he trailed behind, begging to explain himself.  It was awesome.  Sean, you dodged a bullet there.  We are all tired of the whining about her trust issues.

4.  I called my mom after the show, only to find out she hadn't watched the episode.  So, I was able to give her the highlights, which she NEEDED to hear.   That is the very definition of service.

Family Home Evening, people.  Argue with that.

I have a cousin who is a real foodie, and she is kind enough to post her weekly menus on her blog for those of us who are too lazy busy to find new recipes to try.  It is awesome.

This week, I got brave and decided to try the recipe for Slowcooker Honey Sesame Chicken.

Look how fancy, right??

You can see "Mommy cooked?" written all over Adam's face.

Yes, Mommy cooked, and it was a huge hit.  Thanks Marisa!

Today, Brad and I spent the day in Oklahoma, checking out the site of our upcoming youth conference with the other "parent couples".  We have been asked to go to youth conference and act as leaders to a "family" of 10-12 youth.  We'll be camping in tents for three days and two nights, accompanying the kids in our charge on a couple of hikes, lots of games, and hopefully lots of fun. 

Did I mention we're camping in tents??  This is a big step out of my comfort zone.  Pray for me.

AAAAAEEEEEEEEEUUUUURRRRRRGGGGG!!!!!

(this is the sound of frustrated screaming, which I have been doing all day)

Why, you ask?

Oh, I'll tell you.

Last, our ward cub master borrowed my church keys so she could set up for the Blue and Gold celebration.  Her daughter returned them to my house a couple of days later.  Since I was on my way out the door to drive Lukie to baseball practice, I set the keys on my dining room table, which is right by the front door.  

The next day, I saw them sitting there and had the distinct thought that I should put them away in my Primary stuff so they didn't get lost.

"No," I scoffed in my head.  "What can happen to them?  They are just on the table."

Well, today, I remembered that thought and determined that I really should put them away.  But when I went to get them, this is what greeted me:

No keys.

I have spent the entire day SEARCHING EVERYWHERE for the keys, and I can't find them. 

Of course, looking back I realize that the Holy Ghost was trying to tell me to put them away when I could.  But, why didn't He tell me louder?  Doesn't He know I need a good kick in the head to hear?

My grumpiness knows no bounds.

Luh-uvved this!!

I think part of the reason I loved this book so much was because a lot of it was set in Prague, which is one of my favorite cities.  When they talked about meeting on Charles Bridge, how could I not get chills?  

But, it made me cry so much.  Like, the kind of crying that makes the back of your throat ache because it is both so sad and so lovely at the same time.  And, I loved the sparse, descriptive language--it reminded me of The Book Thief.  I love it when an author knows how to get the most bang for their buck, choosing one word that has enough meaning for an entire paragraph.

I took Joey to the dog groomer today, and he came back looking like another dog!  They trimmed his fur so short, and now he looks naked.  I don't think he likes it.  He keeps slinking around like he is embarrassed.

On his way to work this morning, Brad called and told me to go outside and look at the sky.

Something's brewing.

This afternoon, I had an appointment with my endocrinologist and had to get some blood drawn.  I went to the lab, and as I moved to sit in the chair, I bent to put my purse on the floor.  The lab technician nearly flipped, insisting that I put my purse on a nearby counter.

Not wanting to argue with the person holding the needle about to be inserted into my arm, I complied, but I did have to ask why.  She looked at me like I was insane, and told me that putting one's purse on the floor is very, very bad luck.  Apparently, her grandmother had instilled in her the importance of keeping one's purse off the floor, as well as not walking under a ladder, or not breaking a mirror.

While I had heard of the other superstitions, I'd never heard the one about the purse on the floor.  I learned something today.

And what do I do with my new-found knowledge?  I come home and put my purse on the floor so I can take a picture and blog about it.

I am totally flirting with danger.

A family in our ward invited us to dinner today, so I made these cupcakes for dessert:

  Don't you just love me right now??

(sorry, I'm a little proud...)

Tonight, Brad was sitting here reading at the kitchen bar, and for some reason it gave me a flashback to our first apartment back in Provo, UT.  We lived in a little one-bedroom basement apartment with a kitchen too small for a table, but there was a small bar that we pulled a couple of stools up to when we ate.

Responding to this flashback, I pulled out my photo albums, hoping to find a picture of that little kitchen bar from 1994.  Sadly, I have no photos of the inside of that apartment at all.

But, I did find this picture of the outside:

This is Brad with the "swamp cooler" he made in an effort to cool off our hot, air-conditionerless apartment.  

He built a frame with wood, then tacked old towels to it and put an old bathroom fan inside.  The idea was that we'd wet the towels with the garden hose, and as they dried, the condensation would cool the air inside the contraption.  The bathroom fan inside would then blow the cooled air into our window.

It absolutely did not work.  At all.  

But, nobody could tell that to Brad.  He was so proud of his "swamp cooler", so we spent many an evening sweltering in our living room, trying to hear the TV over the racket of that old bathroom fan banging away as the hose sprayed water everywhere.  And every so often, he'd say something about how much nicer it was now that he'd rigged that cooler up.

Is it any wonder that I love this man?

One of the good/bad things about our house here is that we have a lot of stone surfaces that don't show dirt.  This is good because I can go weeks (literally--weeks!) without cleaning, and it doesn't look dirty.  But, it's also bad because I go weeks (again--literally!) without cleaning, and then I am totally grossed out by what I pick up on my rags.

(oh please, don't let my mother be reading this...)

 The one exception is the shower glass (by "exception" I mean that it does look dirty, not that I clean it more often).  By the time I get around to doing any cleaning, the glass is pretty grungy.  No, make that really grungy.

But thanks to my friend Rose Marie, I know how to clean it so the grunge isn't permanent.  

Rose Marie told me years ago that the best cleaner for glass is The Works toilet cleaner (I buy it for $1.19 at Walmart, so it is super cheap).  I just squeeze some directly onto the glass, give it a quick scrub with a scrubbie, then wipe it off with a really wet rag and squeegee it dry.  The glass is seriously pristine after five minutes of effort.

So there you go--that is your Housekeeping Tip of the Year from me.

If you are looking for How to Keep Your House Mostly Not Gross, I am your woman.

From my dreamy, dreamy Valentine.

I love you, Mann.

I was reading my sister's blog this morning, where she was talking about how Valentine's Day hasn't changed since she was a kid.  It reminded me of my seven-year-old self sitting at our kitchen table with the purple-inked ditto list of my classmates in front of me, carefully choosing which card to give to each person.

I had Holly Hobby valentines, so I had to be careful which card went to which classmate.  With all the romance stirred up by Hottie Holly Hobby, I didn't want to give a mushy card to any of the boys, thereby giving him the wrong impression.  

I mean, you have to be careful with messages like "Have a heart, Valentine . . . MINE!" or "I like you a whole bunch!".   Most of the boys in my class got the "Knowing you is a real treat" card--you know, safe.  No one could ever accuse me of leading boys on.

(Just so you know, I had THE EXACT cards pictured above.  When I found this on Google, I literally screamed.
 I am seven right now!)

 ♪ ♫ Slutty Joe.  Slutty, slutty Joe . . . ♪ ♫ ♪

(sung to the chorus of "Lunchlady Land" by Adam Sandler)

Our dog Joey is a little bit slutty.  If anyone so much as pets him, he will flop down on his back and bare his belly to be scratched.  He has been fixed, and it's a good thing--otherwise, who knows where these slutty tendencies would lead . . .

I KNOW!!

I know, I know, I know--it's pathetic to get so caught up in the manipulative drama that is a reality show.  I get it, but I can't seem to help it.

I just watched the latest episode of The Bachelor and I am beyond relieved to see the evil Tierra get the boot.  The whole time Sean was walking her out to the Minivan of Shame, I held my breath, just waiting for her to turn the tables and guilt him into changing his mind.  But, thankfully he didn't.  There are no words for how much I like his sister right now.  Somebody should make a sampler of the advice she gave her brother: "Don't pick the girl nobody likes."  If we have learned one thing from watching this dumb show, this is it.

I SO won't miss Tierra's fake tears and fake laugh and fake everything.  Although, I will miss staring at that weird dent in her forehead.  This is a mystery that remains to be solved.

On a dent-related note, here is my favorite quote from Kristen Baldwin's ew.com recap of the episode:

So, Mr. Date Card, what say you? "AshLee, let's get carried away." If looks could kill, Tiny T would have given everyone in that room stage four pancreatic cancer. But instead, she waits for AshLee to leave the room and then makes a crack about how her 32-year-old rival is a "cougar." (As a 40-year-old woman, I should be depressed by this comment, but I'm not, because as we all know beauty fades, but dumb -- and forehead dents -- are forever.)

If you are a Bachelor watcher, you must read the whole recap.  It's almost as much fun as watching the show.

The Boyfriend.

Awww . . . 

(gag me with a spoon)

Today, Becky and Kate wanted to shop for boots (when in Justin. . .), so we headed over to Cowboy Boot Central.  I was the only one who actually bought boots, which I am super excited about.  

Then, tonight the kids went with their aunts to a rodeo while Brad and I taught a dance workshop at our stake Valentine's dance (such a bummer--I could have worn my sassy new boots at the rodeo!).  But, at least my boys got to wear some balloon long-horns.

I love having guests!!

So fun!!

Brad's brother and his sisters are here for work (well, Katie just came for fun), so tonight we got to hang out with them.  I had a Moment when I realized that more than half of Brad's siblings were in my kitchen.  Delightful!

And the cherry on top?  Katie, the Cookie Guru of the Universe, making cookies in my oven.  Later, I got to eat said cookies while watching last night's episode of Nashville with my sisters-in-law. 

Life is good.

Apparently, Luke did not learn his lesson the first time.

He had his little girlfriends over this afternoon and when I checked on them, they were throwing rocks into the pool--the same pool that the pool guys had come and cleaned TODAY.

 After roaring "STOP!" I ordered Luke into the pool to fish out the rocks, which caused the girlfriends to remember some "project" they had to get home right away to do.

So, now poor Luke has been abandoned to the unenviable task of retrieving the rocks from the pool in 68 degree weather.  I should also mention that the water level was low earlier, so the hose has been filling it for the last three hours.  And we all know how warm hose water is . . . 

Thus, the facial expression.

 So, I took this photo today thinking I would say something flippant and derogatory about the hum-drum-ness of doing laundry.

But, just between you and me, that would be a lie.

I secretly love laundry day.  I love that one day a week, I have the perfect excuse to stay home all day, holed up with my laptop as I feed the washer every hour or so.  I might watch a movie, or catch up on my "stories" or just dink around googling whatever strikes my fancy.  Sometimes--and this is the best--I will spend the whole day reading in my soft chair by the window.

And the real clincher?  At the end of the day, as I yell at the kids to put their laundry away put everyone's folded clothes neatly in their drawers, I actually feel like I had a productive day.

I got to spend the day with Becky's little guy Jack today while she attended meetings downtown.  

This was fun for a couple of reasons:

1.  He and I ran some errands this morning, and I got lots of attention from strangers.  It's amazing how a smiley little kid gets noticed--I feel so popular!

2.  We dug out some old toys that haven't seen the light of day in years, and suddenly it's like Christmas.  Luke has loved showing Jackers the "right" way to build Duplo cars.  I think he feels popular, too, as Jack hangs on his every word.  

Basically, Jack has been very good for our self-esteem.

A couple of weeks ago, Brad's sister Becky called to tell us she would be coming to Dallas this week for work.  She also told us that she'd be arriving a day early so she could join us for the Bitner Weird Food at the Super Bowl party we were going to have.  Thus informed that we would be celebrating the Super Bowl in such a manner, we dutifully complied.

So, here we are with uncomfortably full tummies watching one of the Coach Harbaughs.  Go 'Niners! (sad)

We signed Adam and Luke up for baseball this Spring and today was the "Coaches Look", where the new players show up and do a few drills for the coaches so they can be placed on a team. 

  These are my two baseball stars warming up in the backyard.

You'll notice a couple of things about this photo:

1.  Lukie is working on his pitching.  That should come in handy as he plays t-ball this year.

2.  The grass may not be green, but the sun is shining and it is over 70 degrees.  To all y'all out there manning your snow blowers and relying on some rodent to tell you how long winter's going to last, I say "Happy Groundhog Day."

Neener, neener.

This afternoon, Luke was playing here with a couple of little neighbor girls.  They announced to me that Luke is hilarious at school, even "hilariouser" than Max, whoever that is.  But, from the looks on their faces, I gather that this is a big deal.

To prove how hilarious he is, Luke hopped onto the couch and promptly flipped himself upside-down, convincing his friends to join him.

Oh yeah, he's hilarious.  There's no way that Max kid could compete with this.