A little shout out to the Community Food Co-Op of Utah

I am so excited about my new food co-op that I just have to share! I first heard about the Community Food Co-Op of Utah on a frugal living blog a few months ago and I thought it sounded like a great idea. You join the co-op, paying a small donation ($5) and then you can order fresh produce and meat at a huge savings. There are different packages that you can order and then once a month, you pick it up at the nearest location. I was a little nervous doing my first order because I wasn't sure how high quality it would actually be, so I ordered the Half Share. I got everything in the picture for $14, plus $5 for the tamales, and the quality is EXCELLENT! The boys and I ate three of the four oranges in one sitting yesterday because they were sooooo good. Today I made a salad with the lettuce and strawberries (yummy!), and I have big plans for my meals this week. This is what the Half Share included in April (it varies slightly from month to month):

Half Share $14 ($21-$27 retail value)
1 Pckg. Lean Salisbury Steaks
1 Pckg. Lean Pork Cubes
1 5-lb. Bag Red Tomatoes
4 Oranges
1 Head of Broccoli
1 Head Red Leaf Lettuce
6 Bananas
4 Tomatoes
1 lb. Strawberries
Stone Ground's Artisan Wheat Loaf
16 oz. Rice

I'm so impressed! My only regret is that I didn't order the Harvest Share ($23), and get even more yummy stuff. If you are interested, the next order date is Friday, May 15, with a pick-up date of Saturday, May 30. The nice part about joining is that you don't have to order if you don't want to or if one month doesn't work out for you. You're not tied down to anything. There are "teams" from Ogden down to Nephi. Just check out their web site (it doesn't look like the May order form is up yet, but keep checking).

It's finally here!

Today the new No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novel was released, and I got it!!! I am so happy. I've had this date marked on my calendar forever, but I'm too cheap to pay shipping and pre-order from anywhere, so I just pressed my luck and went to Costco this morning and... they had it! It wasn't out on the table, so I asked the little book-stocker guy if he knew anything about it and he said, "Oh, yes, it's right here, waiting to be unpacked!" Then he opened a box, and gave me the first copy! I got hooked on this series four years ago when I was expecting Luke and all I wanted to do was curl up in a corner and read. Lucky for me, I only had one child at the time, and he still took naps, so that was possible. I think there were six books in the series then, and there has been a new one every April since. This is book #10, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, and I am so excited to read it. I love this series. It's such a fun, easy read. If anyone ever wants to borrow any of these books from me, just let me know. I have all ten!

She's on the charts!!!

As you may know, my Abby is one tiny little Babby. We do not know how this happened, since neither of her parents are tiny people. I have a gnawing fear that one of these days, some tiny little lady will show up on my doorstep holding a big huge girl with a gigantic fluffy head of hair like Luke's and say, "This is your baby. You got mine in the hospital. Now let me have her back!" And I really don't know what I will do! I love Abby more than anything! I couldn't give her away, even if she wasn't my real child.... But anyway, she's probably mine, and I'm just not going to think about it anymore. So the good news is, she is doing awesome. She has always been in the 0.0 percentile for her age, which means that out of 100 kids the same age, she is bigger than 0.0 of them. Sometimes 0.04 or something like that. At her 12 month check up, the doctor was concerned because she was only 14 lbs. 8 oz. and had only gained 2 ounces in three months, so he wanted her to come back for a 15 month appointment even though usually kids don't come back until 18 months. So in January, at 15 months, she was up to 17 lbs, which was great. But she was still tiny! Yesterday, however, I took her in for her 18 month appointment, and she has tanked up!! Not only has she gained THREE pounds, she has grown two and a half inches!! She is now officially 20 pounds (and 4 ounces!!) and 29 1/2 inches long, which means she can graduate from her carrier car seat. And, (drum roll, please) she's now on the charts! Her height is in the 4.89 percentile and her weight is in the 3.8 percentile. I know, it's a silly thing to be proud of, but I am just so happy... I'm bustin', Jerry, I'm bustin'!!!

She is all over the place and into everything. She is so close to walking, and I know one of these days I'll look up and she'll be running across the room!

She flies up the stairs but hasn't quite figured out how to get back down, which is VERY convenient, let me tell you.

She loves to push her little stroller around, until she hits a wall and needs me to turn it around for her. Also very convenient.

She kind of reminds me of Little Critter. In the hair department, anyway. Good thing she's cute!

One of the cutest things about her is how much she loves her daddy. She says some version of the word "Daddy" all day long. Da-da, dad, daddy, da-doh, you name it. She is always thinking about him and looking for him. There he is!

Dad! Da-da! Da-doh!

Come here!

She loves kisses.

How's my girl?I love how content she looks in this picture.

Ahhh... but the best part is:

She loves her mommy, too!

Mexico 2009

Well, we had a fantastic trip to Mexico!! We left on my birthday, which was so fun. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. I kept telling myself "Happy birthday, you're going to Mexico!" We left the kids with Jason's parents and it was so nice to not have to worry about them at all while we were gone. Jason insisted on calling them every single day (or arranging for them to call us), and it was fun to hear how much fun they were having without us. Let me tell you right now, traveling without kids is a BREEZE. I kept feeling like I was forgetting something or I should be doing something, and then I'd think, "Oh yeah, no kids! I can just sit here and read!!" It was awesome. We made it to the airport on time despite the several inches of SNOW we woke up to, and just marched right in to the airport. We had a birthday lunch at TGIFriday's in the Dallas airport, and for some reason it was soooo good. Then it was off to Cancun! Once we stepped outside, a lady holding a "Mr. Yates" sign ushered us to a Suburban and we headed down to our resort. It was gorgeous!!

It was about an hour south of Cancun on the Mayan Riviera near a town called Playa Del Carmen.

There were big freaky lizards all over the place.

Crazy tropical birds...

And these little guys. This is a coati (pronounced "ka-WAT-ee"). They were zooming around the hotel grounds in the late evenings and no one knew what they were. They seemed vaguely familiar to me from listening to episodes of Diego in the background of my life, so we called Dallin and described them to him. Of course, he immediately said, "That's a coati!" and told us all about them. Then we were able to pretend we were intelligent when one zipped across our path and other people shrieked, "What the h--- was that?!!!" "Well, it's actually a cousin of the racoon, the coati. They are native to this part of Mexico..."



Yes, my favorite part of the trip was probably the food. I could live on french fries with guacamole. I don't think a better food combination exists!! And there is nothing like guacamole in Mexico. I did not hold back while we were there.


Jason likes to show off his calves when he senses that I am taking pictures of him from behind.

We climbed to the top of this huge Mayan temple. We took a day trip where we went to several different Mayan ruins, went zip lining across a lake, rappelling into a "cenote", which is an underground cave with water in it, and to a remote Mayan village and ate authentic Mayan food. I was holding my breath, just waiting to get sick, but neither one of us got sick the whole time we were there. Yay!

This is inside the temple at the top.

At the top of the temple from the outside.

And then, of course, the beaches.

Here we are being fugitives late one night at a neighboring resort's beach, which was just a short walk down the beach from our resort. For some reason, it was so fun to hang out at the other resorts and explore all their amenities. We almost tried out their food, but decided we better keep it legal, so we settled for watching their entertainment and relaxing on their cots.

And here we are in 30 years on my 62nd birthday. We are totally going to let it all hang out (Jason especially). I can't wait!