This Is Halloween!

For some reason I never think to actually get everyone together for a structured picture. So I have a few here and there of our Halloween activities. We did the ward trunk-or-treat party and we went to my friend Liza's for a party. Man does she know how to throw a feeding! Halloween is always laid back and so much fun! I love watching the magic in the kids' eyes when they realize that people give them candy for dressing up. We all dressed up! Ash was a vampire, Mikie was a witch, Madse was Spiderman, May was a purple people eater, Hallie was a care bear, Mike was a redneck, which means he just went as himself. The picture doesn't do his costume justice. He wore cut off bib overalls, a cowboy hat, and work boots. He would wear that every day if I let him. I wore a bright blue polyester dress that I inherited from Grammy. I was something right out of the 70's/ 80's but didn't quite pull it off but it was a blast! At the end of the festivities, Mike rummaged through all of the kids' candy for his favorite pieces. He calls it "The Daddy Tax".

Spiderman didn't want to wear his mask. He casted his fishing pole at the fishing pond.Witchy poo Mikie doing the cake walk!
Redneck Mike and monster May hanging out with Darold.

Little May totally pulls off the purple people eater!
This Carebear was trick-or-treated out!
Me, Liza, and Kristen.
Some of the kids posing for a picture!

I Am It!

I love an excuse to blog. There is some slight discomfort when it comes to writing about myself. Give me a topic about my family and I can write a novel but I just don't think that I am that interesting so bare with me for this game.
The rules:
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.

B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.

C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

FACT ONE: I love every body! I really get along with almost everyone. I am a people person. I can find something to like and relate to in everyone I meet. Sometimes I feel like I like people more than they like me. I like to strike up conversations with random strangers but have found that most people are uncomfortable with talking to people they don't know. It is so much fun to make eye contact with people and smile at them and watch their reactions. It is really rare to find someone that I don't like.

FACT TWO: I lack discipline. I think I am pretty good at most things at first try but I burn out easily and give up on things because it is easier than sticking to it and mastering it. I have had this characteristic my whole life. I have been in singing groups, dance classes, band playing three instruments, and lots of other things that I never follow through with. I have countless projects that are started and have been abandoned because the became a chore instead of that initial thrill. My house is never completely clean. I get so overwhelmed that it never is finished so instead of working at it I just throw my hands up and tolerate the mess. This habit is not something I am proud of and has resulted in me being average and mediocre in everything I do. I do have intentions to change but isn't Hell paved with good intentions?

FACT THREE: I live for music! Hearing it, playing it (I was better at the latter when I was younger) dancing to it, and seeing live shows. The power of music is incredible. I enjoy music that lifts and inspires. I like music from all genres and my tastes are mog podge. I am into finding new to me music so share your favorite bands with me! People that can create music are impressive to me. I had the opportunity to sing back up for my uncle and to watch him put notes and lyrics together and compose something from his heart. It is a secret dream to do that some day. I have been teaching myself to play the guitar and I can't wait for the day when I can wail!

FACT FOUR: Quilting is my passion and obsession. I love to fondle fabric and hoard it thinking maybe I will find the perfect pattern or project for my beloved material. I often deny myself this pleasure because my house is never clean enough or I should be doing laundry or something practical like that but when I give in to my urges and sew I am in HEAVEN! The whole process is just amazing! Picking fabric, measuring and cutting it with a rotary cutter, feeling the fabric as it is being sewn, pressing it together and piecing it all into something beautiful. The sad thing is that I have never actually finished an actual quilt. I have done a few wall hangings,sewn blocks for others and such but I have these tops just sitting there or almost on the verge of being tops waiting to be finished. Dang fact two!

FACT FIVE: I make a mean loaf of bread! I really love being in the kitchen. I can pretty much cook or bake just about anything. New recipes are so fun to make and sharing them or having friends share their favorites is a bonding experience. There is just this unspoken pride in a well worn recipe. People just light up when you ask them for the recipe. Anyone who would like to swap recipes would be my new best friend.

FACT SIX: I thrive on budgeting especially when I grocery shop. I do this because I loathe spending money even on food. So I turn it into a game of strategy. I start out with a detailed menu for two weeks and incorporate what I still have in the pantry and make a shopping list. I am on a mission at the grocery store and I never stray from the list. I make these tallies at the bottom of the list for every dollar amount. The final test is the check out counter. I get all flushed and anxious that I may have miscalculated but I rarely go over my budget and my budget is small. I really feel that I have been blessed like the widow who fed the prophet Elijah her last meal and was in turn blessed that the meal in her vessel and the oil in her cruse. I have seen it happen continually through out my married life when things are tight and there are people to be fed that there is always enough.

That was torture!!!! It took me several days to complete this game. Now I get to tag some of you neener neener!!! So get to it Mandy, Bonnie, Amy, Debra, Christine, and Alison. Heck whoever else wants an excuse be my guest! Have fun!

So...About Those Callings...

Are you ready for this!? I know that I wasn't! One of my callings is with Michael. We are on the ward's activities committee. I can do activities. I like organizing gatherings. I am just glad that I am part of a committee and not in charge of everything. The only thing about being the organizer of the good times is that you are usually preoccupied with everything running smoothly that you don't really get to enjoy the party. It should be fun though. Now for the unexpected calling...NURSERY!!!! I know what you are thinking! "Well Ramanda has kids in there anyway so it isn't a big deal." Nursery is one of those less favored calling and seems more well suited for those who are wanting to practice their grandparenting skills. People apostatize because of this calling! I still really don't know what to think about it. I guess it is a step up from spending much of church sitting in the mother's room nursing babies. I wasn't actually there when they announced my new callings in church. I was frantically getting all five children, who have very short attention spans, into the truck and to church. Let me take a minute to be semi pleased with myself. Since Michael has been working an insane amount of hours at work (eighteen to twenty or more hours a day) and having to work Sundays, the job of getting us all to church rests fully on my shoulders and I am usually on time for the most part. I have gotten a glimpse of what every single mother or woman with a husband that isn't interested in coming to church feels like. It is humbling and very hard to have people in the ward help me. Today was the primary program. I forgot to pack a bottle for Hal so I left May and Madse with a family I was sitting next to and sat in the mother's room where I heard Mikie and Ashley say their parts. I was a bit dissapointed that I wasn't in there for moral support but they sounded great and oh so precious! Madse's underwear did a disappearing act. We finally found them around his knees during the last block of church. I sang a duet in Relief society and after I sat down, May was walking back to me and tripped and fell into the wooden chair and sliced her eyebrow open. There was a substantial amount of blood and a huge collective gasp from every lady in the room. I got it all cleaned up and bandaged and she seems to be fine. Anyway...back to the nursery thing. I think this is a test of faith thing. I am reassured by the scripture that goes something like "whom the Lord calls, He qualifies..." I am interested to see what I learn from this calling. All thoughts of apostasy are being suppressed for the moment. We will see how I feel after a few weeks with the little rugrats! On the bright side, there is snack time. They don't have that in Relief society!

One year older and wiser too...well not really wiser just older!

Another birthday has come and gone. I don't mind getting older. October is really the most amazing month for a birthday. It is like the leaves are changing into their golden and red hues as a gift just for me. I also get the gift of General Conference because it is always on or around my birthday (which is October fourth for future reference wink wink!) I think my favorite thing about my birthday was all of the calls and emails I got. It's not every day that people just burst into song over the phone! I admit it is nice to feel loved and appreciated.
Not much happened as far as activities go.




My good friend, Debra, Took me to Lunch in Rangely. It was about half way for the both of us because she lives in Vernal. What a great friend! I had a couple of really nice friends offer to watch my kids so that I could go. How cool is that!? The rest of the day was pretty low key. Michael worked and I made birthday pancakes for dinner cause who wants to cook on their birthday.






The missionaries came over the next night to help celebrate. They offered to make me a birthday dinner but were pretty clueless in the kitchen and suggested that we just go to McDonald's so I made them dinner. They did generously offer to eat the cake that I made though. What good boys! I am a sucker for Better Than S-E-X cake! (See recipe at the bottom of the blog!) I assured the elders that they would not have to see the president if they ate it. Mike didn't even want me calling the cake by its name because it was inappropriate!

So I have one more year left of my twenties. I have some grand plans for the next year. I got some weight to lose and I want to finish a few quilts. I want to be a more observant person and a better friend. I want to improve my home keeping skills and bake more goodies with the kids and actually let them measure and stir and not worry so much about it being done the right way. I just hope I can say that I am a better person than I was last year. The past twenty nine years have been good to me and I wouldn't trade the life and experiences I have had for anything. I look forward to see what the next twenty nine years have in store for me.

Better Than Sex Cake

1 box of your favorite chocolate cake mix

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

1/3 jar Mrs. Richardson's Caramel ice cream topping

1 8oz. Cool Whip

Heath, Skor, or Butterfinger candy bits

Bake cake as directed on pkg. When cool, poke holes in cake with the end of a wooden spoon.

Combine sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping and pour over cake. Refrigerate several hours. Top with cool whip and candy bar bits. Refrigerate leftovers.

Nashes 101

It occurred to me that there will be some that happen upon this blog that are not familiar with the details of my family. So I will attempt to give a general overview to get you caught up. So get a drink, use the potty, get a snack, and then get comfortable because this is gonna take awhile!

The Nash family consists of seven members (so far). Michael and I have been married for eight fulfilling years. Doesn't seem that long yet on the other hand it feels like we have always been together. Michael, for those of you that do not know him well, is impressive! I think the best way to describe him is homegrown. No frills. He is just honest and true. He has a fond, deep-seated, appreciation for family values, traditions, and heritage. That man can work harder than anyone I know! He was raised on his Grandparent's farm. He loves hunting, fishing, off-roading in and fixing his Bronco, and he loves his family. He is a very active presence in the home. He is a dish doing, laundry folding, diaper changing machine! He is a giver and I adore him.

Michael and I on our last "real" date in Dallas.

One night when I came to bed, I found that I was the only one not in the bed! (Ash and Madse were at the bottom!)



When we got married, we hit the ground running in the kid department! Our oldest is soon to be eight. Her name is Ashley and she is too smart for me! That girl keeps me on my toes! She is in second grade and has inherited a love of reading from the Nash's. She is an author and an illustrator. She is an organizer. She is a very good helper to me. She can be very strong willed at times and I am learning quickly to choose my battles.

Michael, we call her Mikie, is almost six. This little girl is a nurturer, a little mother. She lives to help and please. She is fragile and petite. Punishment to her is having to wear pants. I stopped buying them. Mikie has quite the fashion sense and loves the eighties style. If she has her heart set on something, she will achieve it, even when I tell her no. She just does what she wants quietly and under the radar. It is hard to get upset with her.

I can honestly say that I have a favorite son because he is my only son! His name is Madse (it's better than Johnny Cash. That is what Mike wanted to name him but I pulled rank.) He just turned three and he is good enough to eat! He is obsessed with "tamping" (camping), "shashwights" (flashlights), fishing at the "yake", and with "mine cowboys...boots." He thinks he is a Jedi, a puppy, Superman, and Spiderman and has sound effects for them all.




Next is May, who is sixteen months. She was born on Mother's Day. May-May is one spunky kid! She gets into more mischief than all of the others combined. She is an escape artist! We even had a run in with the police, which wasn't funny at the time but enough time has gone by that I can laugh about it now. She is already talking in sentences and will soon talk better than Madse. She likes to clean up and throws EVERYthing away. She also has a fascination with the toilet, resulting in a ruined remote and soggy stuffed animals.



Our newest arrival is Hallie. She is now eight months old and on the move. A little background for those who may not know, we are in the process of adopting Hallie. Her mother and I became fast friends. She was nineteen, pregnant and not married and living with her parents. After Hallie was born, I babysat for her often and they both spent a lot of time in our home. When they moved to Texas I wondered if I would ever see them again but we kept in touch and last May I got a phone call asking us if we would be interested in adopting Hallie. I will write more about the whole adoption soon I am sure.


Now for me, I am just trying to keep up with everyone that I have already mentioned. I am nursing both babies and I have three in diapers but Madse is potty training so I won't be changing so many bums. Thank goodness! When I do have a spare minute I like to quilt. I put on a movie and make a cup of herbal tea and I just sew my little heart out! I also play the guitar a little. Someday I would like lessons. Other than that I mostly do the mom and wife thing. Nothing monumental or of great consequence has happened to me. I have no college degree, I haven't traveled, and I don't have a butt load of money, but I have small day to day experiences that have made me who I am. I am sure that there are other things I could tell you but I might as well save that for another blog.

It has been an adventure and life is beautiful, crazy, and so worth it! It has been humbling to look at it all and see how things have turned out. Things seem to change so quickly. My children are all growing too quickly and I feel like I am just watching it all happen in fast forward and wanting to relish in every minute of it because it is constantly changing.

(This is our only current family photo. It was taken the minute we got home from Texas with Hallie. So I am not looking so hot because of an early flight with two nursing babies and then a four hour drive home from Denver. Can you say exhausted!?)