12.31.2011

picture perfect?

our Christmas theme for this year:
 
"it may not be perfect, but if Christmas can point our hearts towards our Savior we can rejoice even in the imperfections of the season." 
dieter f. uchtdorf 


the morris' Christmas
2011



a crying angel/helping angel

isn't it fun. all you need to be a sheperd is a towel or a scarf!?
anna picked the "perfect" baby Jesus this year....charming, isn't he?


best gingerbread house EVER

dallin took an early peak...i think he liked what he saw!

i didn't buy Christmas jammies for everyone this year....nobody noticed. :)


devon in tow....and finally happy.

love mail from las vegas, idaho, utah and germany! it made it much easier to be so far from home for the first time ever!
THANKS SOOO MUCH amanda/kyle, mom/charlie, mum/dad, nick/erina, grandparents englehart and wilson!!!

i had a fireplace to hang the stockings by this year!

the booby trap. . i set a present out and taped it to a little alarm. they lifted it up at 6:30 am!



my Christmas present from my dear children.oh dear! ;)

what a cute bunch (even if anna even got a very fat lip and knocked her front tooth in the day before Christmas eve!)


see!?! we do get sun. :)



the duct tape adds a nice touch. ;)
what wonderful faces!!!

having fun with the car set
I did pick the perfect gift for Devon! He played with it for 10 minutes!

 i know he liked his gift, but what a fun face i caught on film!




we got to eat Christmas dinner with a lovely family from out ward.


 we sure didn't have a "perfect" Chistmas....but it was still so wonderful.  we feel so blessed.
we sure do rejoice in the birth of our Savior!!! 


p.s. Merry Christmas to you MOM!

12.10.2011

Our walks:


 

Then:
July-2011

&
Now:


November- 2011
  

Yup, that's our house buried there in the forest!

The difference is striking huh!?!?


10.27.2011

It's all good.....

On Saturday, I decided after many requests from my mother and several from friends that a blog post way past due!
The problem: after many failed attempts, I can't get even get one of the myriad of pictures to post on my blog
 while using this little tablet. It is frustrating and I want to just wait until I can a proper blog, but that might take eons. Instead, I will try to pluck out a bit of a story on this finicky little typing pad.

It is a long story, that can be summed up with one phrase you may have heard that has echoed through my brain many, many times in the past several months. Here goes:

"LIFE is what happens when you are off making other plans."

We had plans.


Those plans ended abruptly just two weeks after leaving Vegas on August 3rd in Medford, Oregon where we were staying in The Knight's Inn while our van's transmission amd brakes were being replaced.

Patrick was working as usual when his boss called to inform him that his job as a contractor for Fox would be ending that very week!

When hired, the job was projected to take 6 months to a year.

Things change!

The only thing to be done was to look for another job.

Amazingly enough, the very next day we had three job interviews lined up 5 hours North of us in the Portland area for the following Monday!

After a much needed weekend camping retreat im Sunny Valley, OR, we we were on the road to find a job and a place to live.

By August 8th we had a job offer in the Portland area.

We now live in a place with LOTS of trees AND LOTS of tech jobs....just like Patrick wanted to begin with.

I have Trader Joe's and a rental where we are allowed to get chickens AND an IKEA!


It is an absolutly gorgeous place to live....even if we were sort of placed here.

I know that it is where God wants us to be at this time.

It has been an adjustment for sure!

Much of the things we are adjusting to are wonderful but I am not going to lie or paint a perfect picture that doesn't exist.

Many things are dowright hard.

Thankfully there is so much good.


Pictureless.

An unfinished post from the middle of August...
I have a problem. I have a very, very hard time creating a blog post without pictures! I don't have a way to get the pictures onto this computer to help me write this blog entry and it's driving me nuts. BUT....
It's high time I put something down here anyways just in case you were wondering what in the world is going on with the Morris.'

First off. I just have to get this out in the open.
I "live" in a TRAILER PARK!
Just in case you are as clueless as I was before embarking on this epic adventure, lots of  people live, full time in RV's. I had no clue. But now I do, because that's just what we are doing! It's not half bad if you find a top notch RV park like this one, although I would NOT suggest doing it for long periods of time in a trailer that has only 84 square ft. of living space! It's a tight ship in here to say the least, but we are managing fairly well and are excited to say that we are in the market to purchase a home....or rent. We are not sure which at this point. I would have to say that after being here for 2 weeks now, I love it too..... I am just praying that when the rain comes (and it surely will) that I will maker sure I do what's necessary to cope with the clouds.


7.11.2011

Last Chance....

My lovely friend Angie is opening her home for a farewell party!

6.30.2011

to do:

a couple hours ago my husband no-schelantly asked, what are your plans for today???



my reply:



"to read all of the blogs i haven't read since devon was born over 5 months ago!"



thankfully he just laughed.



i'm ambitious sometimes but i need a BREAK from all of this productivity! 



my lovely mum has taken dallin and anna AGAIN to sleep over and play for 24 hours so you would think i would be wisely using my time by tying up all of the loose ends around my house in upheaval before some guys in the elders quorum come to help load the big trailer today before the baby wakes up but instead.....



.....i'm eating my delicious sourdough bread slathered with my favorite kerry gold butter, while listening to "journey" on someone's lovely blog music list, and enjoying all of the blogs i haven't read for the past 5.5 months when i was living under a rock!






while looking at all of your blogs for several hours since last night, i've laughed out loud, cried, been touched by the holy spirit and reminded that i need to be a nice mommy, even if i am a bit stressed out!






thank you!



(ps...thank goodness my mom found the time to come again to help a bit as well as the young woman from our ward whom i bought some cleaning help from in a camp auction. justin is here to help as well. thank goodness. )







(pss....i also fancied what it would be like to up and do what this lady did....but i don't think we're THAT daring!)



(psss while making the rounds, i learned that many of your blogs became private. i would LOVE to still read, so please send an invite!)

6.28.2011

For the love of green.

Because I thought someone out there might be interested, I introduce to you:

The Green Drink

I'm not sure if anyone else has tried to concoct a healthy green drink on their own, but I did, many, many times without success.

It wasn't pretty.
Nor was it tasty.

{I always drank my concoctions because I knew they were good for me, but my kids wound only drink the green if they were on the brink of starvation. }

Thankfully, I stopped guessing and began to use wonderful base recipe compliments of Oz for our green drinks that my friend Inez shared with me.

I'm not going to lie.
Drinking a green vegetable drink isn't always a culinary delight,
but I can honestly say that my body CRAVES the unique blend of green goodness, and so do my kids.
No joke.
 I have truly grown to love them, plus, they make me feel fantastic!


Thanks to Oz, there have been happy green mustache smiles in our home ever since!

Dr. Oz's Green Drink

Ingredients
2 cups spinach
2 cups cucumber
1 head of celery
1/2 inch or teaspoon ginger root
1 bunch parsley
2 apples
Juice of 1 lime
Juice of 1/2 lemon
 Directions
Combine all ingredients in a blender. This makes approximately 28-30 ounces, or 3-4 servings.

Until I got the hang of things I followed Dr. Oz's recipe.
Now I just put whatever I have on hand....

Pictured is what happened to be in my drink that particular day.

Julie's Green Drink On a Random Day:
1 bunch of parsley
1/2 of a cucumber
3 chunks of jicama
1 teaspoon of jalapeno
1 inch slice of ginger
3 small celery stalks
1 lemon juiced
1 lime juiced
Stevia to taste
2 cups of water
1 cup of ice

Stuff it all in a blender and blend it all up until it is a lovely shade of spring green.
Add some ice and blend until smooth.



NOTES:
* When wrote this post for a Fitness Challenge a few months ago I drank it fruit free (asside from the low sugar citrus) since I was doing a candida cleans but I added 1 cup of fresh pineapple to my kid's drink, which I suggest you do if it's your first time!

*I vary the greens that I add, but strangely enough, my favorite green to add is PARSLEY. It has an interesting taste, but I love it! As a bonus, it's got an excellent amount of calcium in it!

*The lemon/lime are essential in my opinion.

*If your blender isn't as beefy as the Blendtec, I would definitely cut the vegis into smaller chunks. The less flecks of dark green, the better. ;)




Feeling gutsy?!?!
C'mon, give it a try!

6.25.2011

Destination: unknown.

It's official.
In black and white.

WE ARE MOVING TO BOISE, IDAHO!!!

We think....



We think we might move to Boise, but one thing is for sure....
Are you as impressed as I am that all of these fit in my van, children included!?!


We are handing the house keys to our friends on July 6th, and we are moving out, because when we got  a call just over 3 weeks ago from our friends asking, "Do you still want to rent out your house to us?"  we said yes, but that wasn't the start of all of this.


It was last October when Patrick and I started talking about where we would like to live that was a little more "free range."  It definitely had something to do with the fact that we realized that having city chickens in our neighborhood wasn't in the cards even if the city laws allowed it.



Shortly after, we started trying to figure out where that might be. I mentioned our desires to several people.  It didn't take long, but we decided to move to Boise. I had been there once as a young adult and had nice memories of the place.

After we were moderately convinced that Boise was where we should go, we started looking for a job, just before Patrick's contract was up for his previous job. We stared getting calls from some employers up there. Thankfully, within a few weeks a job landed in our lap. But guess what!?!?

It was not a job in Boise, it was an excellent job ANYWHERE, 100% telecommuting.

After a few trips to LA, Patrick started his position, working from home, in May.

He interviewed in a suit....but he can work in his pajama's.
(He's only done that once, but it's cool to have the option.)

Having him work from home is wonderful.
Even better than we imagined.


Amazingly enough, my good husband can concentrate amidst the chaos in our home, which is impressive to me. He gets to visit us for short intervals throughout the day instead of seeing us at the end of a long day. It's been ideal. Gone are the worries of trying to find a job and a house at the same time.

Here's where he worked 7-3 the whole week we were searching for homes in Boise.



It's a miracle job.

Really!
 

We feel so blessed, but there's one thing about this job.
It opened up a can of worms.
From that can crawled the question that we can't get out of our heads,



 "Where do we want to live if we can live almost ANYWHERE!?!"
 
If you know me, you'll know that is a tough question.
It is VERY hard for me to make a decision when there are a lot of choices.

(That's one reason I like In-N-Out burger: there are very few choices on the menu.
I know what I want pretty quickly.)

Having this option is like sitting down in front of a Cheesecake Factory menu.
When the waiter comes back after 20 minutes I usually have him or her help me make a choice from what I have narrowed it down to and hope it turns out delicious.

There are some requirements: there has to be tech jobs for Patrick if this position happens to end....

AND a place for us to have some wide open space where we could grow some real food (as opposed to our desert hobby garden) have chickens and possibly a few goats sometime down the road.

"Me Cowboy!" 






Boise has all 3 of these requirements and is a lovely place, but as a result of this "ANYWHERE" option, we are still not completely decided.

What if there is somewhere else that would be a better fit for us?

Patrick wonders if he could actually convince me to live in the rain so he could bask in some Pacific Northwest heavily forested environment where there are gobs and gobs of tech jobs.

I wonder if there is a city we would enjoy just as much as Boise that actually has a Trader Joe's less than 4 hours away.




Don't get me wrong, I love many things about Boise. Once we decided to go there,  we learned that many, many people we asked really like it there too. I can see why. Two weeks ago we spent a week there looking for house and even put an offer on a lovely home nestled amongst farms between Meridian and Nampa.  My favorite part of the area was the beautiful downtown area along the Boise River, but we're not quite ready to put our stakes down just yet.






We will really be ready to  buy a home in a few months when the right one in the right place comes along, but since we have good renters moving into our home on July 6th, a huge moving trailer that is parked in front of our house, some time our hands while we for sure decide on a final destination before we find out if they except the offer we put on a short sale, a wireless internet connection for Patrick's work laptop, some really excited kids, a TON of boxes (some full and many empty) and a desire to make the best choice about where our family should live long term, we are officially in the market for a 12 foot, single axle............





Vintage Camper Trailer!!! 

(Of course you could call it an old/cheap camper trailer, but Vintage sounds much, much cooler!)








That's right, We're going to be "Gypsies" 
(as my mum from England would say) 
for a month or two while we travel up the coast and beyond.

Better yet, let's call it an 
Extended Summer vacation!  




Of course we'll frequent a Hampton Inn to sleep on a real bed, splash in the pool and eat a fancy breakfast at least once a week, but for the most part, our temporary address will likely include the letters, K - O - A.







I will  continue to perfect my front seat lunch preparation skills. 
Did you know that a boogie board makes the most PERFECT on the interstate counter top????


We will also probably continue to take advantage of gas station blacktop dining where I don't have to worry if someone spills hummus all over the floor.




Oregon? Washington? Idaho? Colorado? Northern California?

We're still taking suggestions. 

can you believe that Devon is 5 months old already!?!?




I guess we'll just see where the wind blows us (better yet, where the Holy Ghost directs us)....which might end up as Boise, but we just aren't sure yet.

Are you shocked???

Well, so am I, considering the fact that I've only lived in the Las Vegas area,  but I'm not scared.

I am sad to leave family and many friends behind but I'm mainly excited.....AND dang ready to be done with this dreadful experience called packing (which has thankfully been made more bearable thanks to my mom, mum and m.i.l.)


2.04.2011

Real life with my 4 kids.....

I have plans.
Plans to write lovely things down on this here blog.
Like...... the things I've been thankful these past 3 weeks and a great birth story but.....

Instead of long lovely lists, for the sake of time and because people have been asking "how it is with 4,"  here is a very small snip-it of my life.....

INTRODUCING........

The sort of pictures that rarely make the cut and make it onto a birth announcement.

You know what I mean.

The pictures of REAL life.

MY real life.



It started out innocently enough.

There I was trying to take a few shots while Devon was awake AND happy.
Along came the others wanting in on the action.
I decided to let them be part of the fun.

Who cares about uncombed hair and ketchup stained chins, right?

The only problem is that Dallin had other plans in his little mind.

He wanted to show some "brotherly love" and make the pictures more exciting!



Luckily my shutter speed is fast because this happened in about 20 seconds time:

See for yourself:

 





Needless to say, we didn't get "the picture" that day.

I'm just glad that he accosted him through a blanket instead of the typical bare fingered poke in the eye!

So there you have it folks.

The REAL thing.



And because we're on the subject of REAL life....

Did you know that Carrots hurled with enough force have the ability to break a window pane?

You didn't?

Well, now you do!