Storebought costumes are lame

So Darren had his preschool Halloween party today. Katie told me one of the kids was wearing a "Cars" costume. My first thought was that I'm glad my kid isn't wearing some lame mass produced costume. My second was how awesome my wife is. I am the biggest proponent of the homemade costume and the homemade birthday cake. The problem is I have no skills. So I basically do absolutely nothing to see that my kids get these crucial components of childhood...Unless you count keeping Katie company while I sleep next to her as she cuts out the costumes in bed at night. After the kids go to bed all I want to do is catch up on some cougarboard and go to bed. Not Katie. She cuts and sews and glues and comes up with 2 time winners of the best costume at the Barker family Halloween party. If you count just our family's votes we have won every year we have attended. So here's to you Katie. Master of the felt and feathers. I love you for your creativeness. I love you for your sacrifice. I love that you had never touched a sewing machine before having kids and now you make costumes fit for our children.
Of course I can't show a picture of this year's costume because the party isn't until next week. We don't want our competition to know what they are up against. By the way...as I write this from bed, where is Katie? She is in the kitchen frosting a cake for some ungrateful girl's baby shower! You know who you are so you darn well better love this cake!
By the way...those of you who do buy your costumes off the rack at Target...it's ok that you don't love your children. I'm sure they'll forgive you after they've been able to talk through their hurt with a qualified professional years from now. ( i might even suggest my brother in law).

We made our decision!

Well after 2 weeks of twists and turns and pondering and praying we have decided to start my career in Utah.  For those of you not aware of the decision I'll fill you in.  We had an offer from a clinic in West Linn, Oregon and an offer from a clinic in my hometown.  The doctors in West Linn are not just any doctors.  They are the ones who inspired me to do family medicine, when I had always thought I wanted to be a surgeon.  Basically saved me from a life of misery.  The clinic has got to be one of the best in the country.  The doctors are knowledgeable, caring, and fun.  The clinic staff are all very friendly and hard working and then, of course, it is in West Linn which is a great town.  I spent a week with them in September, using it as an opportunity to go the BYU-UW game.  Plus I wanted to thank them for their offer and tell them "no" in person.  Well, as happens every time I stop by, they convinced me that I needed to give up my lifelong dream of raising my family near the farm that I love so much.  The first day in West Linn I was literally in tears all day because I knew it was too good to pass up and I saw my dream crumbling before my eyes.  I talked quite a bit to my dad and by the time we left Oregon I was planning on coming back next year to start my practice as an Oregonian.  I was excited about this for the first 2 weeks after getting home.  Then Katie surprised the heck out of me.  She really wanted to go back to Oregon but she thought overall it would be better for the boys to raise them on the farm.  How many 1st graders can have a regular job and regularly contribute to their savings account?  It took me 2 more weeks to come around to that line of thinking, but in the end I realized Katie was right (1st time ever by the way).  It was crazy because as of a week ago I really had no idea what I was going to do.  

I always tell Katie that every good attribute I may have, I learned from the farm.  Not many people get to know the joy of putting in a 13 hour day and then coming home to Family Home Evening and lo and behold we get to go windrow as a family!  Those are priceless memories.  I felt the fulfillment of coming home in late September and the corn is cut, the fruit is all picked, and you know you have worked hard over the year to make it happen.  I know what it is like for your nostrils to freeze together at 5 am when you are walking over to the barn.  I also know what it is like to feel the spirit at 5 am when everything is quiet and it is just you, your dad, your grandpa and the cows.  The same goes for walking home after milking on a crisp winter's eve.  I learned about delayed gratification when we had to milk the cows before going into the living room on Christmas morning.  I got to spend more time in a summer with my dad and grandpa than most kids get to spend with their parents in a lifetime.  I never knew what it was like to be "bored" during the summer.  I didn't have to walk around the neighborhood at 13 asking if I could clean out people's garbage cans for money(not that there is anything wrong with that).  I got to make banana milkshakes with the hundreds of perfectly good bananas we would find in the grocery store dumpsters on Sunday mornings when grandpa and I went dumpster diving for boxes to put our fruit in.  That's not to mention all the free grapes we got by the same method.  

I could go on and on and on and I finally realized that while I may someday regret the decision of not working in an incredible clinic, I would never regret giving our kids the best chance at success in this crazy world we now live in.  It is sad to think that I won't ever have the CEO of major sportswear companies as my patients.  Not to mention not being able to see Katie's family as much.  Some of you may consider not seeing in-laws as a definite positive but I enjoy visiting Katie's family as much as my own so that is actually a negative for me.  

So there it is.  Our last month in a nutshell.  The other bright spot is that we are closer to a 3000 sq foot house in Brigham City than in West Linn.  I think it was when Katie was in the throes of pregnancy with Darren that I jokingly promised her 1000 square feet per child she bore.  Well Katie has muscled through 3 pregnancies despite absolutely hating pregnancy and basically throwing up the whole 9 months and now her investment (me) may finally bear some fruit.
We will miss the Sutherlands. Darren and Cordon will forever be asking when we are going to visit grammy and grampa and sara and mary and paul. We will miss being able to reinstitute trading dinners with our friends in Portland. However we will enjoy having cousins 5 minutes away. Weenie roasts in the spring. Our neighborhood also being our ward. And last but not least...my kids learning their way around an udder!

comfort food

This was the first morning I woke up and didn't want to get out of my warm bed into our chilly room.  Fall is officially here. In fact it almost felt like winter.  However, I drug myself out of bedput on my thick fuzzy socks and my thick chenille robe and walked into the kitchen.  Today I made fresh blueberry muffins and fluffy homemade waffles. (yes, Im a carb lover. Don't judge me)

 Some people love autumn for the colorful leaves, the nip in the air, football season, or the start of a new school year. Those things are wonderful yes but my favorite reason to ring in the fall season is the food. The down home, made from scratch, sit in your stomach for hours, comfort food. 

Yes each season has its own wonderful recipes. I have said my goodbyes to my summer favorites like; Spinach salad with strawberries and sliced almonds,  Grilled salmon with a squeeze of lemon and fresh steamed asparagus,  Ice cream sundaes as big as your head,  and yes ice cold lemonade sipped thru a twisty straw. 

Bring on Fall!! Im ready to feel full.  Homemade soup with rustic bread, Chicken pot pie with a crust so flakey it falls apart with moist cornbread warm enough to melt the honey butter, and of course a prime rib roast cooked so long it melts like butter in my mouth.  This is food that warms a person from the inside out. Oh and don't forget the hot apple cider in stemmed mug with a cinnamon stick. heaven!

I know I think about food more than the average person. Probably about 80% of my brain power in allotted to thinking about it. But i prefer to think that I just appreciate life's simple pleasures. 

Fall has however, come at an inopportune time this year. At the tail end of my baby weight. The dreaded last 10 lbs (ok 20 but Im trying to be realistic). I told myself I would lose 10lbs by Christmas but I don't know if there is just a slim chance of that or fat chance. We will see. If it happens I will post it for sure. If it doesn't I doubt you will hear of the subject again and don't bother asking because I will probably lie.

Well now I have started to ramble so i will end. Besides, there is a deep dish brownie recipe with my name on it. 

I don't like food, I love it!

and if I don't love it, I don't swallow.

-Antone Ego

Ratatouille

posted by katie

No rest for the weary

So after about a year of waiting for our backyard to be made into a beautiful, safe place for our kids to play I was finally able to send them out enjoy the Utah sunshine in our fully fenced backyard.  I have been thoroughly enjoying this new found freedom. Most of the 2 and 1/2 years we have lived here the back has been mostly thistle and rocks and we haven't been able to send the boys out there to play. So I have always had to go out and watch them in the front yard if they were to play outside. 

So the other day I sent them outside to play in the sand box which they love doing for hours and was going to enjoy some down time. After about 10 min. of peace and quiet I hear the doorbell ring and ring and ring.  Who the heck?  I go to the door to see who was trying to wake my napping baby and there is my three year old at the front door. I was confused because whenever I send them out to the back yard I always check to make sure the gate is locked so they can't get out.  I asked him how he got out and he said he climbed over. Yeah right. The fence is 6 feet tall. he is 3 foot nothing. so I checked the gate. Locked. Im looking around for loose boards. Nothing. I keep asking Darren to tell me how he got out. He keeps telling me he climbed. Finally, I said show me how you got out.  So we walk through the house to the backyard and he walks over to the fence and in about 10 seconds he is up the fence and jumps down 6 feet to the ground on the other side. I am mortified. There goes my freedom, my peace and quiet, and my peace of mind. Yet again I am reminded that I cannot turn my back for a second.  Darren has conquered every child safety lock or mechanism I have ever purchased. Child proofing is a joke in our house. As far as Darren is concerned where there is a will there is a way and it is only a matter of time before our next trip to the ER.