UP!

Last night we took Ethan to see his first movie in a movie theater (well, post-infancy that is!). We really tried to hype it up before we left: new movie, big screen, popcorn, etc. Tory and Lizzy came with us too. We went to go see...
What a great movie! We laughed, we cried and all decided it deserved two thumbs up! And Ethan did very well. He sat in his own seat most of the time and LOVED munching on popcorn. In fact, while the popcorn bag was still fairly full, he would stick his face down into the bag and eat the popcorn that way. Silly kid. He especially liked the balloons, the dog (Dug) and the kid and "his grandpa".I especially liked the beginning and seeing Mr. Fredricksen's history - what a sweet story! And then the ending got to me too. Adventure is in the journey. Southworth family recommendation: Go see this movie!!

Ethan's New 'Do

For church on Sunday, Ethan sported a new hair 'do - little spikes in the front. Not too bad, pretty cute actually. And he received lots of compliments on it.

Now for the story behind this updated look of his...

Roughly 5 minutes before we were to leave for church I was in the bathroom finishing getting ready while Ethan sat on the bathroom floor playing and examining the contents of a cupboard below the sink. I noticed a couple times that he was rubbing his eyes, but didn't pay too much attention because it was just about nap-time (oh the joys of afternoon church with a toddler!) and I figured he was getting tired.

Then, just as I'm finishing up (about 2 minutes before we're supposed to leave) I tell Ethan it's time to pick up and get his shoes on and go.
And then I look down...
And I see it...
The reason why he'd been "rubbing his eyes"...

THIS!!


He had been digging his little toddler fingers into our tub of petroleum jelly and smearing it all over his face and up through his hair.
Gross.
I admit it. I yelled. But only a little.
Actually, I think I just yelled, "Are you kidding me?!" and then I was pretty much over it and trying to decide in a matter of seconds whether or not it was bad enough to warrant stripping him of his tie, dress shirt, under shirt and khakis to throw him in the tub for a quick shower. I decided against it and just rubbed his face dry with a towel, got what I could out of his hair and then mixed the remaining goop with a little water so I could run my fingers through his hair and spike it up like we had meant for his hair to be like that today! Thank goodness he's a boy and can get away with stuff like that!

This new 'do got such a positive response, though, that I'm wondering if we shouldn't just mix in a couple of spiky-hair days every once in a while.
Using hair gel, of course.

Job Situation Update

Or as Tory would say... "Where are we at with the j-o-bizzle?"So here's the latest:

• Sean had an interview with the Woodburn school district last Thursday for a teaching assistant position working with special needs kids at the high school. The interview went well and they especially liked all of his experience with special needs kids (ranging from high-functioning to non-verbal, very low-functioning students). It also didn't hurt that the job was within the performing arts section of the high school and Sean just happened to attend a performing arts high school. Hopefully we hear back from this one soon as it is likely he would start by Monday of next week when the students come back.
• Tomorrow he has an interview with Willamette ESD - another school district in the Salem area.
• Several other school district jobs (most as teaching assistants with special needs kids) he applied for just closed or will be closing soon. With those type of jobs (that have a closing date) you don't hear anything from them until after the closing date.
• His unemployment comp has officially kicked in. Hallelujah! This will help fill in the gaps for the time being. He didn't qualify for any in June due to a mandatory week-long waiting period and then the fact that he was back at work all of July. So we had to have another mandatory week-long waiting period and now he'll start getting his weekly compensation. Hopefully this will not be necessary for long.
• To answer the Salem question I'm sure is on everyone's minds. Yes. If Sean gets a job in that area, it is very likely we will move if we can also get an assistant apartment managing position. So if you hear of any in the area, let us know!!

That's about it. Hopefully we'll have more answers soon!

Biff paj and Fri-jos

Biff paj: Sour cream pastry turnover filled with sautéed ground beef, shredded red potatoes, onions and Tillamook cheddar cheese.
Fri-jo: Yeast-raised deep fried Swedish pastry, rolled in cinnamon and sugar.Yep, we ate BOTH of those items at this year's annual Scandinavian Festival!
Friday night we picked up Lizzy and then met up with our good friends Tim and Danae (and their cute little boy, Sam) to take to the downtown streets of Junction City, enjoy the people-watching, dancing, various craft booths and, of course, the tasty food. Tim, Sean and I opted for the Swedish meat pies while Danae went with a corn dog and french fries. Yeah, we made fun of her too!! ;) Who picks fair food when you're surrounded by Danish, Swedish and Norwegian goodness?! We also snacked on some Danish shaved ice (so much better than sno-cones) while Tim and Danae had Tippaleipa, aka Finnish Funnel Cake.

We stayed long enough to see the evening processional of dancers, which is led by vikings, and also ran in to Christine and her friend. They had opted to eat Frikadeller, Rarakor and Rod Kale - a Danish dish translated to chicken patty, lacy fried potatoes and sweet and sour cabbage. Very good.By about 9:30pm we decided it was about time to head out, but our little party wasn't over! So Tim and Danae met us back at our house where we put the kids to bed (Sam slept in our pack-n-play) and then played a round of Ticket to Ride!! Of course, we didn't get started until almost 11pm so it was about midnight by the time we wrapped things up. Oh yeah, we're a couple of real party animals!!

Here are some pictures from the rest of the night (I need to steal one of Danae's family shots too)...

Well Saturday night we ended up going back to the Festival. A lady in our ward was in a musical group that was performing that night so Sean convinced Tory to go with him while I went to Jenni Jolley's wedding reception and then we met up later after I bummed a ride with Christine and Lizzy. First stop: Lizzy at the climbing wall. Nice bum shots, wouldn't you say?

She made it almost all the way to the top... twice!And this is just us being silly with our "blue steel" looks!

We also couldn't resist one last treat for the road (which we inhaled Monday night) - a

Vandbakkelser: chocolate glazed cream puff filled with vanilla creame.

The fam in front of the famous red Scandinavian dala horse.

Summer evening daddy/son moment

Location: Backyard patio

Date: Summer '09

The catch: A grasshopper

Daddy/son moment on random summer evening... priceless.

Garden Veggie Spaghetti

This recipe is sooo, sooo good and sooo easy! I've adapted it over the years from just "broccoli spaghetti" using that dry parmesan stuff in the green can (blech!) to the garden veggie pasta delight that it is today! Just to give credit where credit is due, this originates from Betty Crocker's Working Woman's Cookbook.

What you need:
* Pasta - 10oz to 1lb... I usually just eyeball it or throw in a whole box of the desired shape, it also depends on how many you're cooking for.
[note: spaghetti, fettuccine, linguine, bowtie all work great and tube-shaped pasta would be my last choice because I don't think it holds everything together very well.]
* Veggies - broccoli florets, zucchini, squash and halved grape tomatoes are all good (especially in the summer when these veggies are super fresh and yummy... I usually do at least the broccoli and tomatoes for a nice pop of color against the paleness of the pasta)
* 1/4 cup butter or margarine (less if you're trying to be healthy... olive oil could also be used, but I've never tried it)
* 1/4 cup (or so) lemon juice (adds great flavor... I'm sure fresh squeezed would be even better, but I always just use the bottled stuff in my fridge)
*About 1 cup Shredded or Grated parmesan cheese or a combo of shredded italian cheeses like asiago, romano, etc. (this is really a texture thing... the shredded melts a little more into the hot pasta - either is good and I usually buy those tubs of pre-shredded in the deli section)
* Pepper to taste (1/4+ tsp. or so)
* Fresh chopped italian parsley, basil or oregano if desired (this sorta fancies it up... using the fresh herbage and all)

So here's the deal, this all goes together super quick so be ready!
1. In a large pot, get your water boiling for the pasta and be sure to generously salt it.
2. Meanwhile, wash and chop your fresh veggies so they're ready to go.
3. Add your pasta to the boiling water and cook to package directions.
4. About half-way through the pasta cooking time blanch your veggies in another, smaller pot of boiling salted water - except for the tomatoes.
5. Cook pasta to al dente and drain well. Return to pan and immediately add the butter to the hot pasta.
6. When butter is melted, add 1/2 of the cheese, pepper and fresh herbs and thoroughly toss.
7. Add veggies, lemon juice and remaining cheese and toss to combine.
8. Serve right away and be sure to scoop up any veggies that have fallen to the bottom of the pan.
Note: this also goes great will some grilled lemon/herb chicken.

Bon appetit!

Oh, to be a BOY!!

Recently I read this on a shirt I saw on strawberrypearl studios (which I linked to from my favorite food blog, Our Best Bites)...

boy (noun): dirt that wiggles
This is so true of our little Ethan!
This summer he has discovered a love for the great outdoors!
We have been loving our backyard ever since we took that one Saturday to really clean it up: lots of weeding, planting a garden and some flowers, mowing the lawn, clearing the patio, etc. etc. Ethan just loves to be outside, especially when we let him dig and play in the dirt. He has his favorite dump truck that he likes to fill up with all sorts of rocks, pinecones and other "treasures".The other night he went to town collecting all of his treasures and pushing his dump truck all around the yard. It wasn't until a little later that I realized just how dirty he was! Oh, to be so carefree!
I even got a little video of him... thought the grandparents would get a kick out of it!



Anyone else's little boys (or girls!) like to play in the dirt so much??

July Recap

Holy moly, what a jam-packed month!! I'm not even sure where to begin, so in no particular order here is our month of July in a nutshell...

* A visit from Kermit.
Sean spotted this little fella in our house late one Sunday night just before bed. He was hopping around our dining room! Sean caught him and built a make-shift home for him for the night because we knew Ethan would want to see it (you do weird stuff like that when you have kids). We're pretty sure it was a Pacific Tree Frog and we set him free the following evening. A couple weeks later I spotted him (or one of his brothers) keeping cool in the shade of our cucumber plant.

* Lizzy donates to Locks of Love.

Before.

10+ inches later.

* Tengans (my aunt/uncle/cousins) visit from Utah over 4th of July weekend. Spend part of the 4th with them for our annual BBQ. Have cousins game night on Sunday to play Clue and hang out. Big family get-together for dinner at Hometown Buffet on Monday and then my cousin Niki and I finally got a "girls night out" their last night. We went to go see...
I love a good Sandra Bullock romantic comedy!

* Speaking of movies, Sean and I's date-night-movie-of-the-month was Harry Potter. I have now officially seen every movie for every HP book I have read. Yes, still need to read the final and at this point would like to start over and re-read the entire series before I even think about starting the seventh book. There's just too much I have forgetten over the years.
Anyway, it was a good movie... though I missed the "epic" battle at the end. Compared to the book, the ending was pretty low-key.

* Chocolate chip cookies and pancakes. Kinda random, but I have some cute pictures...
I made chocolate chip cookies one Sunday morning before church and Ethan decided to be my little helper at the end. He stirred in the chocolate chips and then did a taste-test for me.
And then, personally, I was pretty impressed with my mickey mouse pancake. Thank you very much!

* Ethan lovin' him some watermelon. He's already eaten most of one by himself and I've got another one on the counter that needs to be sliced. But don't try cutting it into cubes and giving it to him... he prefers to eat his slices straight from the rind!

This is the remains after a typical lunchtime watermelon binge!

* Garden Update: We enjoyed 2 huge cucumbers from our garden toward the end of the month and have tomatoes and even more cucumbers ripening up for August. Yum, yum - can't wait! Our jalapeno pepper is also sloooowly coming in.

* Christine's 21st Birthday on July 6th!

* Tory gets his mission call to.... Paraguay! He reports to the MTC in November.
* Some current Ethan phrases we love to hear:
"Yeah, take a look!"
"That's Ethan's cucumber." (when in our garden)
"You look nice, mommy!" (a personal favorite)
"How come?"(ok, this one is actually pretty annoying)
"Captain Ethan!" (when wearing his Capt. Hook hat from Disneyland)

I think everything else I have pretty much already covered...
* 4th of July celebrations
* Girls Camp for me the last week of July
* Our anniversary (though we technically haven't really celebrated, so I still need to post once we get our date night)
* Mt. Pisgah hike

Girls Camp 2009

Here's what you've all been waiting for... this is really long, with lots of pictures. May I present to you,

GIRLS CAMP 2009

First of all, some history of my time involved with the Springfield, OR Stake Girls Camp...
1994-1997: 1st - 4th year [1995 = Trek #1]
1998-2000: Stake Camp [2000 = Trek #2]
2001: Off [mandatory year off between being a stake girl and a unit leader]
2002-2004: Unit Leader
2005: Ma & Pa leader w/ my brand-new hubby for Trek #3
2006: Unit Leader
2007: Off [brand-new baby to attend to!]
2008: Unit Leader
Which equals a total of 7 years attending as a youth, 6 years as a unit leader (including Trek #3) and brings us to...
2009: Stake Adult - Jigsaw/Jamboree w/ Lori Bradford and Heritage Mtn/Certification w/ Shelly Johnson

W/ Shelley, my partner in crime all week. Loved getting to know this woman better and becoming closer friends. (And I'm not really that much taller than her!)

This year's theme: She who possesses values is the fairest of them all.
Stake Girls: Royal Value Jesters
Stake Adults: Queens and Kings
The other units were all princesses!
1st years: Giselle and Belle
2nd years: Pocahontas and Fiona
3rd years: Snow White, Cinderella and Ariel
4th years: Sleeping Beauty

Monday
- Set-up w/ stake adults and stake girls. I had to work part of that day and then ended up having a ton of stops to make along the way and finally made it up there by about 5pm while most everyone else had been there since about 11am.
- We ate dinner and then Shelley and I set up our tent and unloaded my gear. Decided it was too dang hot to put the tent fly on.
- Later that night I went to "train" the stake girls on their jobs during jigsaw certification.
- Late night showers to try to cool off. The water heater was still turned on, though, so we were clean but still hot. Slept on top of my sleeping bag until about 2 or 3am when it finally cooled off.
High temp: 102

Tuesday
- Early morning wake-up courtesy of Shelley and I!! We woke up with the sun a little after 5am and chatted for a bit. Fell back asleep for 1/2 hour or so and then were up and talking (a little louder) by 6am. We got lots of dirty looks that morning and yet no one had yelled at us. If they could hear us when we were talking at a normal volume, why didn't they just yell at us to keep it down?! I'm thinking we are not the only ones to blame for their lack of sleep!! :)
- Eat biscuits and gravy for the first time in my life. Not bad, but a little heavy for me first thing in the morning.

It cracked me up that Christine parked right in front of the 'No Parking' sign. Goober.

- Girls arrive and do their set-up.

I love my sissy!

- Find out my cousin Heather, who was supposed to come, was in an ATV accident and in the hospital and will probably have to have surgery.
- Soooo HOT!! Higher than average number of girls go to swim in Rambo lake/mudhole.

The heat was really getting to some of the leaders. We do cRaZy things when it's triple digit temperatures!

- Day 1 of unit inspections and Shelley and I's first nightly Heritage Mtn. skit as the witch and mirror."Wise council, wise council in a frame... tell me how to make it rain."
- Late night showers. They finally turned off the water heater but they're still warm.
High temp: 106

Wednesday
- Destiny w/ Bishop Luke.
- Jigsaw (certification) in the morning.
- Crafts: Jewelry making. Also paint wood cookie per request from our head cook, Sis. Farralley.
- Annual water fight with Alicia Turley. I love this woman!! We have carried on our water fight for 10 years now... it started when I was a stake girl back in 1998. I think the Trek in '05 was one of the worst. I love it! And for the record, she almost always starts it (she's sneaky)... but I make sure to finish it!!
She is also our "bead lady" and paints all of the early bird, attendance, jamboree, etc. beads.

- Unit Leader dinner w/ a royal theme and several courses to the meal. Cooks make mental note that stew is not an easy meal to prepare for a large group when camping. There was lots and lots of prep work involved. I don't envy them, but I definitely appreciate them!

- Letter from hubby! Yay!!
- Heritage Mtn. skit: "Wise council in a frame... this heat is driving me insane!"
- Sing-A-Long: Our words were chloroform, indignant and serendipitous and our actions were playing ping-pong and synchronized swimming.
- Late night showers officially part of the pre-bedtime routine. Shelley and I decide we cannot go to bed stinky and sweaty. Gross. Christine joins our shower groupie.

High temp: 106

Thursday
- Destiny w/ Bro. Neilson from Ashland area... "No! No, Goliath!"
- Day 2 of Jigsaw
- Crafts: Painted boards w/ "Reflect on Eternity" lettering and temple-etched mirrors... I wasn't much help this day, but I did get Megan's Giselle unit beads painted, complete w/ sparkle glaze.
- Heritage Mtn. skit: I don't even remember our opening rhyme, but we both lost it big time. I was able to compose myself though, for my "I'm a lean, mean rhyming machine" line. Good times. (Check back for when I get the video!)
- Skit night. Stake adults were given Snow White theme w/ focus on all 8 YW values. In the end, I was the echoing wishing well to Susan Wright's singing Snow White. Very fun and it meant I didn't have to "wear" a dress!

DeLacie Barney, our camp nurse. She is so cute and fun! I really liked getting know her... so happy and positive!

The value gems in their sparkly princess gowns.

The priesthood leadership was the dwarves "mining" for the value gems to fill an order for Camp Alpine. We had Doc, Dopey and Sneezy (aka Sleazy). Too funny!

- Star-gazing. For the first time all week it was actually chilly!
- Late night showers continue. Feels good to be fresh and clean... even if it is 11pm!

Friday
- Morning Exercises: Shake Your Foot, courtesy of the stake girls.
- Destiny w/ Shelley: It. was. AMAZING! The spirit was so strong and everything came together well. I think my favorite, though, was all of the adult leaders singing "Walk Tall" to the girls. Wow.
- JAMBOREE!

Lizzy doing the balance beam at Jamboree.

Love this girl's smile!!
Alicia getting in on some Jamboree action. No injuires... yay!

3/4 of our Stake YW presidency. Just missing Eileen (who was home with her beautiful new baby, Lalia).

- Crafts: Pot-holder first aid kits. I had NO TIME to make one. Will have to beg Danae for use of her sewing machine later.
- PM Flag: Get to announce Jamboree winners w/ Lori Bradford.
3rd place - unit # 3 + 2 = 5
2nd place - unit # 8 - 6 + 2 = 4
1st place (drumroll please....) - unit # 3 cubed minus my age plus the # of days we'd been at camp plus the square root of 36 divided by 2 and minus 2 = (anyone, anyone??) 3
(this was very fun to announce!)
- Heritage Mtn. skit: "Wise council in a frame... is this skit getting lame?!"



- Bishop's Mountain-top
- Testimony meeting
- Stay up late, but not too late, to tabulate points and Heritage Mountain results.
- Dump cake was a bomb. No, not da' bomb, a bomb, as in not good. Whose idea was it to buy white and lemon cake mixes?? Dump cake is a strictly yellow cake mix recipe. Hope the lesson was learned with that one!
- Last night of the late-night showers... tomorrow we go home!

Sisters. Aka 2/3 of the Toftdahl girls.

Saturday
- Take down units and clean-up.
- Final Flag ceremony.
- Morning Exercises: Muay thai kickboxing, courtesy of me. I was up on that dang stage way too many times that week! Nobody booed or threw rotten fruit at me, though, so that was good.
- Heritage Mountain results and final skit.
"We can do one more rhyme, for old time's sake. What rhymes with great....? Unit number EIGHT!!"
- Circle of Friendship in the amphitheater (too hot to do it in the field).
- Drive home... finally have cell coverage and can listen to all my voicemails.
- Traditional stop at Dairy Queen for burgers and ice cream.

Oh how I missed MY BOYS!!

Ahh... it was a good week.