#5 Jamie's birthday

My family adopted Jamie Friggin' Patel. That was his unofficial middle name. It just flowed well.

When I was in 8th grade, I made him an awesome airplane cross-stitch that he had given me the pattern for the previous Christmas. (I told you about my craft obsession. I was pretty much ready for grandmahood at 14. It's really good for popularity in jr. high.)

I gave it to him for his birthday. That was a little over 10 years ago yesterday.

Time helps with the loss, but it never goes away.

#4 Is Keith going to play?

In the Maidename's house growing up, tv and the radio were not used on the Sabbath. I like this practice as an adult, but it was quite trying as a child. The exceptions were Superbowl Sunday and any church videos. And this was not the days of LDS comedies like "The Singles Ward" and classics such as "Beauty and the Beast: A Latter Day Tale."


No, these were true cinematic masterpieces, mostly from "The Worth of Souls" video. Frequent repetitions have led to a few immortal quotes.Perhaps you recognize


"Uncle Ben you smell bad."
"Lithy, Lithy, are you home?"
"Mahanna you ugly, get down from that tree."

Eventually, even these movies lost their appeal and we were forced to actually spend time with each other and use our creativity and imaginations. Usually around 6pm or so, one of us had completely exhausted our individual sources of entertainment and tried to rouse the others to play a game. There was one major factor in participation. Almost every sibling would ask, "Is Keith going to play?" or "I'll play if Keith plays." Such is the allure of time with the oldest brother.

Last Friday I encountered the exact same issue. I invited Keith to come to the arboretum with me to give a morning to his recently gravid wife and new baby. And since Keith was playing, everyone else wanted to play too.

She's just teething on it. I think.

This is one of those thinking rock maze things. It's awesome.

The dadda bear

And I'm going again on Saturday. That makes it the...6th time this month? :)

Happy Easter!

#3 Baby Maiden name

So much for all of us for sure thinking it was a boy. Marcie Maidename decided not to find out the gender and all of us were wrong. Proof that the good Lord hears the prayers of 5 year old big sisters.

So random fact #3 of the tag, my niece weighed the EXACT same 6lbs 15oz as J. But she is 19in to J's original 18.

Isn't she precious?

The mama and baby are both healthy. Marcie always looks like a rockstar during and after delivery so you'd never guess that she'd just had a baby. Even though baby decided to take her sweet time dropping into position. Around 10pm someone finally convinced her that she really didn't want to deal with all of the adolescent teasing of being born on 4/20 so after around 15hrs of labor, she skedaddled on out in 2 quick pushes. Definitely a Maidename.

P.S. Since google doesn't search words on pictures, I photoshop the names on the pic, but don't write the name in the text. In case you wondered why I use the pseudonyms but still post the names. And I asked permission of the proud mama and papa.

#2 Deodorant

Random fact #2 from my sister's tag

I don't wear deodorant.

Gross eh? I have tried like every deodorant on the planet. They all work for about a month and then *boom* doesn't work any more. I have done Tom's Natural, Adidas cotton technology, everything with clinical in the name, generics, all of it. When I tried Certain Dry in all of it's chemical glory, I thought night application antiperspirant  had changed my life. And it did. For about year. Then it made me sweat even more.

Now it may have been a product of my granola Flagstaff surroundings, but I stopped wearing it all together. After about 3 days, I realized I really wasn't sweating much at all. Less than when I wore deodorant actually. But since there was a teeny bit of odor, I put a little essential oil on and life was good. No one could tell I never wore deodorant. That has been the case for a couple of years, with occasional relapses that always confirmed that commercial deodorant was not for me. I should say antiperspirant. Unlike the never fail Old Spice that all of my dry male acquaintances use, they do not make a plain deodorant without antiperspirant for women.  Then I ran across a recipe for homemade deodorant that I thought was worth a try. But it called for arrowroot powder and I could never find it at the grocery store.

Then while I was perusing the hippie section of Bashas' last week, right next to the coconut oil I was seeking lay the arrowroot powder. I bought it and added a new skill to my "home art" genre. So far, I am a fan. I gave some samples to my sisters who have my same diaphoretic problem. The next day Big Sis called me and said I should market the stuff. So I'm sharing it with the masses in case there are others who share my odoriferous tendencies.

The ingredients. My arrowroot was $3.50 and I used Sweet Orange essential oil from Sprouts. The coconut oil was about $6 and also found in the natural foods section. I used an old Olay lotion tub to store it.

 What? Your deodorant doesn't have babies in it? Um, where do you think baby oil comes from?

Lest you think I am a perfectly neat and cleanly person, here is the kitchen. Wait, now that I confessed I haven't really worn deodorant in a year, I doubt any of you thought that.

The recipe I used is here. I blatantly stole the ingredient picture idea. With the gratuitous baby picture added of course. Also, you may want to refrigerate it for a few hours if you live in this burning pit that is Arizona and keep your AC as high as ours. But I keep mine in the bathroom all the same. You can also pour it into an empty deodorant container if you have one.

And just in case Rachel and Ross are having a huge relationship defining moment and we are all stuck in the bathroom starving, this is totally and completely edible.

Please tell me someone got that reference. Please?

#1) Soap

When I was a wee lass, or perhaps I should just say young because anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I have always been quite blessed in the height department. Wee doesn't really describe me. Except that time in 2nd grade when I wet my pants. Brianna Q thought my apple juice had leaked from my lunch like the day before. Oh the embarrassment. Mrs. Hamilton said I could go after Kara got back. Kara must have had a dump to rival all dumps or snuck out to the kindergartner's playground because she took 30 minutes and I just didn't know what to do. So I went. Right then and there.

I've had a thing against girls named Kara ever since.

But I digress. Since before I was ashamed to wet my pants, before I could read even, I loved making things. This is random thing #1 from a tag of my sister. I'm breaking the 7 things into posts to acknowledge the tag and still write about whatever I like. And to relive the joy of those survey forwards we all did when we first discovered email. Back in the day my mom would take us to the library and I'd go to the Spot books first, then high tail it to the craft book section. My pursuits have varied over the years. There have been the fiber art phases: knitting, crochet, cross stitch, the ill-advised latch hook, quilting, sewing, macrame, friendship bracelets, and upholstery. And the paper arts: origami, scrapbooking, card making, 3d paper sculpture, paper making, and paper mache. The visual arts: ceramics, jewelry making, metal work, beading, watercolor, graphite, acrylic, photography,oil pastels, and charcoal, but since it is still in the package I don't know if it counts.

Maybe I shouldn't admit to having the tools and supplies for all of these hobbies.  It is somewhat embarrassing to cycle through all of these pursuits. I blame my father. He had Janson's History of Art and various art books on the coffee table my entire life. I can still remember the purple canopy bed in what was probably Versaille that my 5 year old self dreamed about.

Well now I've moved on to a new genre of sorts. Let's call it the "home arts." I'm trying my hand at soap making. Not really "legit" making of soap. I figure boiling hot, corrosive lye is not baby friendly. But me and madre dos have plans for an ash boiling experiment to create some soap medieval style. You know, making ourselves more marketable for the commune of the living after the zombie apocalypse.

Anyways, add my essential oil obsession to a 40% off coupon for soap base at Michael's and voila! I also got a soap mold and embossing stamps to make it look pretty. I experimented with added mint tea leaves to one, but the green leaves bled a brown color so it looks like the soap is slowly dying from some sort of disease. Smells lovely though.

 

Then I started seeing other things as potential molds, like the wrapper to J's puzzle.

 

So I made some monster soaps for my nieces and nephews.

I need a pacman. Now if they didn't look suspiciously like candy...

Just a little too big

Fajitas

My sister came over for dinner and decided it was too pretty and needed a picture. She snapped this lovely one. Her daughter became jealous :)

"SEEEEE!"

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

In sophomore English we had a unit on Thoreau and Walt Whitman. I remember three things.

1)Mrs. Johnston kicked me out of class in a moment immortalized in the memory of AA English students that year. She just had it in for Ayin and I was a harmless bystander. I was innocent I tell you, innocent! Ok I was talking a little. But it would have been rude to ignore Ayin. She was my supplier of flaming hot cheetos.
2) Mrs. Johnston (or her English teacher friend) had a student who found a 1st edition copy of Leaves of Grass. Not knowing what it was or what it was worth, he hollowed out the pages and stored pot in it. At least he understood the literary term of irony.
3) There is some unexplainable power to being in nature and that's why they dump delinquent teens in the desert.

I've never really been into the botany aspect of biology. My philosophy is that something is only cool if it can eat something. Mammals, humans, parasitic worms- all interesting. Plants-boring. Carnivorous plants-awesome. So I was surprised to find myself in love with the arboretum. Boyce Thompson is nestled up by Superior, about 30 minutes from my house. Considering I spent 20 driving to work I figured it's pretty close. And since my mom and her friends from France (whom she met in Antartica, awesome right?) and my madre dos all wanted to go, I just bought the year pass.

It's got hiking trails, a whole acre on things you can do in your own backyard, a little lake, TONS of little areas to sit and read, greenhouses, a trail of healing plants, and even more. I think I may be going once a week. And I get a friend and all kids under 5 in for free, and a discount for anyone else so let me know if you need a little adventure.

outside is the only consistent place she is happy

Growing on the pergala

I have dreams of my front yard looking like this

where I spent an hour reading after baby fell asleep

Those pictures are from the next day because I left my phone. My sister thought I was playing a prank.

Nasaly voice: Hello
Sister: Hello
Nasaly voice: Hello?
Sister: Hello?
Nasaly voice: Boyce Thompson Arbotetum
Sister: What?
Nasaly Voice: Boyce Thompson Arboretum
Sister: Oh, I'd like to make a reservation for 2 then
Nasaly voice: No! Whoever you are trying to call left there phone at Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Boots

I inherited these awesome boots from a friend of a friend. I love how ridiculous they are.

We didn't pose her like that. We had her propped up and she just sort of melted into that position. I like to think she is just a natural model :)

Project Semi-Annual

 

My friend Angela has a little project going that I wanted to support. These are scenes from our Conference breakfast festivities. They are the most unflattering pictures of the Maiden names but they make me laugh so why not?

Looks gross, but it is berry stuffed french toast. Delicious.

My mom makes amazing biscuits. And she even used white flour at her children's request. Did you know that I never had a white flour waffle until I was about 16?

Brother: "You do realize you are taking a picture of an empty plate right?"

The newest Maiden name. She's a month younger than Baby J, and she just melts my heart

Spending conference the same way as her uncle.