I'm inspired to go crazy with Halloween decorations....

thanks to the fine example of our stellar neighbors, the Olson Family. Their house screams Halloween and literally makes me want to go trick or treating tonight! It's so much fun and Kim tells me people will literally stop and take pictures next to Halloween Scooby while trick or treating. The beauty of Halloween Scooby is that Kim bought him after Halloween a few years ago for $10 bucks...what a deal! Thanks, Olson's, for letting me blog about your decor. I hope to beef up our halloween decor during the clearance sales this year! For now, we just enjoy the spooky Halloween Wreath on our door. :D

Halloween Scooby in all his glory...

Don't you just love the killer hanging spider from the top, the scary hands on the doors, OH, and and the cob webs!

Like I said, here's our one decoration...a spooky wreath.

Happy Halloween!

Because I'm the MoM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For all you mama's and mama's-to-be out there--we officially have a theme song, baby!

Regina Spektor, my new favorite artist

Regina Spektor is a russian-born singer-songwriter, pianist. She is awesome. Her music has this funky-folkish sound and I can't stop listening to her. She's eclectic and tells short stories with her music. Admittedly, I haven't always understood the stories at first but that's what I love about her music is figuring out the story she is trying to tell or the message she is trying to convey. She's been compared to Tori Amos and Fiona Apple.


Being that I have the best husband in the whole wide world, he walked to a record store one day last week in Downtown Portland to buy me her album: "Begin to Hope." It's freakin' sweet and I highly recommend you try it out. My fav songs on this album are Samson, Edit, and Fidelity.

Willow--if you're reading this, I think she may just be your new favorite too...her music reminds me of your style of music. Perhaps it's the whole Tori Amos thing?

Continuing on with the "Is Sofia going to be a Rockstar?" theme....

Back when we made the trip to Utah, Sofia put on her own mini-La, La, La, concert complete with vibrato. It was pretty funny and so crazy that she naturally sings like this!

Long John Silver's...Can I get an AmEn?!?!

On the same day Papi and Sofia put on a rock concert, we paraded as a family down to Long John Silver's. Ah...just the sound of that name to a Thompson Family member's ears is true bliss. Nothin' like deep-fried halibut, chicken planks, HuSH PuPPies, fries, corn on the cob--it's the closest you can come to eatin' a truly southern dinner in the Northwest without actually flyin' 3000 miles to get it. We ate in style with our Pirate Hats, laughed, cut-up (southern term for joke, talked, laughed), chowed-down, and had a darn good time. Of course, the dinner conversation centered around the "crunch-ees..." ...that would be Dad's favorite part--you know the crispy little pieces of batter left over after the deep fryin' is done! Dad used to specifically request those and couldn't believe it when the people up here in the Northwest looked back at him with a blank stare! They had no idea what he was talkin' about but now they do! You get a nice helping of them on your plate without even askin' for 'em! :D MMM-Goo-oo-d!

Top 2 Long John Silver's Fans this side of the Mississippi!

These are "them crunch-ees" I mentioned earlier...!

While these two only go for the chicken planks (anti-fish), they're still part of the club! (I happen to fall in the same category as they do!!!!)

Bub and the girls, so precious. :D

Is Sofia going to be a Rockstar?

...She will if her Papi has anything to do with it! One Saturday while waiting for cousin Allison to finish her scrapbooking class, Papi and Sofia decided to ROCK OUT to some heavy metal in the car. That's right, Motley Crue's, "Dr. Feel Good" song was blaring from the Vue while these two put on their own rock concert. It was truly awesome (and that's coming from the most NON-Heavy Metal person you'll ever meet--too much Kenny G for me as a kid, I guess)...

...and based on the photo below...she just looks like a star. (Don't get me wrong...I'm not one of these parents looking to make their kid famous and live vicariously through them...ha ha ha)...the picture just speaks for itself!

Baking Season Has Begun

I've been aching to bake but we've been so dang busy and then I got really sick (first time since I quit working!)...and finally had a little energy today. While Ryan was at his LSAT class tonight, Sofia and I made some delicious Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread. (Recipe compliments of Lindy's mom, Risa Udall, -THANK YOU FOR SHARING!) It made the house smell like Fall and it turned out so yummy. It actually reminds me of the same bread from the Great Harvest Bread Company. I used mostly 100% whole wheat flour, added the chocolate chips, and a couple of dashes of pumpkin spice to the recipe and voilà! Here is the finished product....recipe to follow....

Risa’s Pumpkin Bread

1/2 cup oil

1/3 cup water

2 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

Mix together the above ingredients. In another bowl, mix together:

1 2/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Add the dry mixture to the pumpkin mixture. Pour evenly into greased and floured pans (1 large or 2 medium). Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

--I'm thinking of trying to use creamed honey (instead of white sugar) to sweeten it the next time I make this. I'm not sure; however, what that will do to the texture...but that's what baking is all about--experimenting!

We knew it would happen someday...

....I just didn't think it would be today or tomorrow or this year! No, the picture below is not of a lock of hair from Sofia's first haircut, it's a lock of her hair from the haircut she gave herself TONIGHT!!!

I was cleaning up the kitchen when I turned around as Sofia had just kindly placed her lock 'o hair in the garbage (thank you, Sofia for not leaving it on the floor--good girl!). I literally screeched. Not screamed, screeched...more like the sound one makes when hearing nails go down a chalkboard. Upon hearing my screech, Sofia ran down the hall...I asked her what she had done and she said, "Mami, I cut my hair, isn't it pretty?!?!?" I replied, "yes, it looks pretty..." "....but, sweet pea you can't cut your own hair." The poor thing had tears in her eyes, I reassured her it would be fine, combed out her hair trying to find where she had cut it and fortunately, it was underneath on one side....a nice inconspicuous place. (confirming there was no need to rush to the salon to get her hair fixed) So I quickly put her hair in pony tails, made it look pretty, and we both felt much better. :D YAY!!

In the end, I have to admit that I think she got the idea from me. This morning I trimmed her bangs before she went to school....I've done that before, but I guess the idea to do it herself hadn't occurred to her until today. Silly Sofia. I love these moments...they make me happy to be a MoM.

Last Minute Trip to Utah and Wyoming

So some of you may know that Sofia and I made a last minute trip in August to Utah and Wyoming just before the start of school. We traveled with some friends and since we were practically car-less the whole time we didn't get to venture too far. In other words, for all of our great friends in Utah, I'm really sorry we didn't get to visit you! We are; however, going to be visiting the first week of November and plan to see you then! We enjoyed some great time with our friends, the Funaki's, the Benetti's, and our family in Wyoming. Here's a fun slide show of the trip highlights. Enjoy!

p.s. I'm sorry about the My Chemical Romance song attached to the slide show...I couldn't figure out how to get it off! It's a cool song, though....just doesn't really go with the slide show.

Sofia's 1st Day of School

Sofia Staley, 1st Day of School, September 5, 2007

Here she is, so dang pretty n' pink on her first day of school!!! (Pink is her FAVORITE color) The first week of school was a little shaky-- at least at drop off time. Sofia was scared and nervous; however, she did calm down and relax, eventually. She was excited to go to school but we think the change freaked her out just a little. By this past Wednesday (her 3rd official day) she was saying "Okay mom, I want to say good-bye to you outside!" We knew it wouldn't take long at all for her to adjust and now she asks almost everyday if she gets to go to school.

Sofia insisted on taking a picture while doing this pose--she is hilarious!

I've arrived a little early to pick her up each day because I love watching the closing circle time. They sing a song called, "Adios, adios" and make little hand motions outlining the parts of the body. It's SO CUTE!!! Sofia naturally picks right up on the hand motions as she has done so much of that in Music Together classes.

Sofia next to her assigned "cubby"


Maestra Claudia


Maestra América

Sofia's teachers are Claudia and America. They are really sweet and have a strong educational background in early childhood education. Sofia loves saying good-bye to them and giving them "besos." We're so excited that Sofia can attend this wonderful school! Next month, she'll get to go on a field trip to the pumpkin patch and attend the Halloween party at school. Fun, fun stuff.

Sofia starts school on Wednesday...

...and we have our first "parent" meeting tonight. So, I'm a little nervous but so dang excited. Sofia is going to LOVE school and I can't wait to see how excited she gets when she realizes "la escuela" will be a regular thing and she'll get to play with the "niños."

Tonight, as we were putting Sofia to bed I thought perhaps I should take her to get her hair cut tomorrow before her first day. I totally remember getting my hair cut AND PERMED right before the first day of school. Yeah, I was quite the looker back then. Maybe I'll find a killer picture of me with my hair all permed and my favorite bugs bunny shirt to post on the blog...SIKE! Oh, the memories of back to school time! Can we say, "Nerd-o?!?!"

Aunt Patty, my twin, comes to town!

From left to right: Darci, Mom, Aunt Patty, Me

And there you go. Can you see the resemblance between my Aunt Patty and me? I pretty much, I look more like my Aunt than my own mother! And the beauty of it all, Aunt Patty and I act exactly alike! We laugh about the same things, we talk incessantly, and when we find a cute article of clothing that actually looks good on us we buy one of every color--even if that means 10 of the same thing!!!

Aunt Patty came to visit us the first week of August all the way from China. En route to Texas to spend a few weeks with her daughter's, Tara and Meredith, and their families, she made a pitstop in Oregon/Washington. It was a lot of fun to spend time with her. When it was all said in done, I was left scratching my head, thinking, there really is something to genetics! After all, I've not seen my Aunt Patty very much in my life--due to distance--yet we talk, look, and and alike. Ryan even said, well, Storm, now I know what you'll look like at age 61! And, he is right.

My mom loved having her middle sis for a visit and I loved seeing my mom SO happy. It made me feel so good and it was fun to watch her relate with her sister. We spent a day in Tillamook Oregon (home of the ever-so-famous Tillamook Cheese Factory) We spent time playing on the beach and enjoyed some killer Tillamook IceCream. Lots of laughs, gabbing, sampling cheese, and enjoying each other filled the entire day. Here are some of the highlights:

"Presenting the Tillamook Cheese Factory"

Hard at work makin' the cheese...yum-o

Sofia loved watching the people make cheese...and quite frankly so did the rest of us. We couldn't wait to test taste ALL the different kinds!

Two sissy's, Aunt Patty and Mom

Sofia and her Great Aunt Patty

It blows me away that they produce millions of blocks of cheese all out of this factory!

I think this tree growing on a rock in the water was one of Aunt Patty's favorite sites, pretty cool, huh???

We missed you, Papi, we were thinking of you!

Josh--he thinks he's so cool! Can't imagine where he got that from...hmmm lemme-think--Grandpa??? Ding ding ding!!!!

The three amigos, on the ride home--Josh, Careese, Allison

Sofia about to throw a rock in the water and then runaway as the waves crashed the shore...her favorite part. :)

Missy moo couldn't stop hugging the cows and saying, MOOOOOOO

Me and my Aunt Patty

Two very happy sissy's

Thanks again, Aunt Patty for an awesome visit. We had a blast! Can't wait to see you again!

Good-bye, So-long, Farewell, Princess

Princess, in all her glory, August 2007

Okay, it's been exactly two weeks and I'm finally ready to post about it. Yes, Princess is now but a memory for me. Ryan and I made the decision to sell Princess on craigslist and it only took 3 days. For those of you who know me really well--you understand what a HUGE decision this was!! Princess was a cheap car to buy ($1,500) right after my mission and with only an additional $1,600 in mechanical work over the last seven years she turned out to be a solid investment. Our main reasons behind selling her were that we hardly ever drove her and she was increasingly more of a pain to drive than anything. Princess definitely was showing her age. At 152,000 miles and 17-years old she had been through a lot. On the other hand she definitely had a lot of life left in her, with a solid engine and transmission, she was ready to bless another's life.

A lady named Ruth, bought her for $600. On the day Ruth and I traveled to the DMV to change the title and registration over, Ruth commented on how she had been praying to find a car that would just get her from home to work and the store...and she knew Princess was the one. I felt so good to know that Princess would bless someone else's life! (Cheesy--I KNOW!) I committed the buyer, Ruth, to continue to call her Princess and explained she wouldn't respond to any other name. The only sad thing about her new mom, Ruth, is that she's a smoker and now Princess would become a smoker's car.

So goodbye, Princess. Here's to 7-years! RIP.

December 9th, here I come!

My 30th birthday is in just over 14 weeks! Yes, that's right, I will no longer be considered "twenty-something." I'm SO excited! For me, it's my biggest birthday ever. A lot of people I know were excited to turn 16, 18, or even 21, and while those were fun, I'm most enthusiastic about being in my "30's." Perhaps it's being a bit more grown up, having more resources, or even my very own family to share the fun with. I've accomplished a lot in my 30 years on earth and have so much to celebrate.

While our celebration plans are still "up in the air," I want to give myself a gift that is more far-reaching than anything else I can think of...

Drum roll please.....30 pounds of successful weight loss! December 9th is just over 3 months away which means I have 14 weeks to shed 30 pounds and I'm really pumped to make this happen. I CAN do it. I've done it before and it's about time!

So stay tuned as I embark on this 14-week goal. I'll be posting details about my experience, ups and downs, and my weekly weight loss numbers. Please feel free to check-in to see how things are going and even leave some "cheerleader" comments...as they would be much appreciated!

Here's to 30 by 30!

Over and Out--
Stormy

Hannah Montana---Holy Cow!

Have any of you out there heard of Hannah Montana?!?!

Well, Sofia has, and so have our nieces, Careese and Allison. Our nieces have spent a lot of time at our house this summer and in doing so introduced us to the pop star Hannah Montana and her Disney Channel TV show. Sofia is IN LOVE with Hannah Montana and anytime her music comes on the radio or TV she goes nuts! This morning as I was driving back from taking Ryan to work, the local radio station announced that Hannah Montana tickets go on sale tomorrow for the concert in Portland, October 30th. Can you believe that I actually entertained the idea (only for about 10 minutes) of buying tickets so that we could take Sofia?!?!?

Holy cow! What was I thinking? Yeah, take our 3-year old to a pop concert, nice one. Clearly, she's a bit young for that. I don't know, maybe I wanted to introduce my daughter more early on to music concerts...perhaps to make up for my own concert-deprived childhood?!?!? I know, I know, the Debbie Gibson concert was huge for me....and still is. Until I met and married my husband, that was the only concert I had ever been to!!! HA HA HA Go ahead, the laugh is on me. Wink Wink.

Anyway, here's to Hannah Montana, I guess....and I can't wait for when Sofia is 5 or something and when asked what kind of birthday party she wants to have, she shouts, "A Hannah Montana Party, Mom!!!" (duh!)

UPDATE: As we were driving to eat dinner with some friends, tonight, Sofia started to sing, "The best of both worlds" ...Hannah Montana's theme song! It was hilarious...and so perfect right after I wrote this post. Silly Sofia.

Another Stellar Recipe

Once again, Cooking Light Magazine comes through. I found this recipe as I was browsing the latest edition of the Cooking Light Cookbook in Costco the other day. The cookbook itself is only $20 bucks and it's huge! Our family loves salmon and ever since we've moved to the Northwest we eat more and more of it. I picked up some very fresh wild catch salmon at Costco the other day and used it to make this recipe. It was to die for...and once again, my husband paid me the "Stormy, I wish you couldn't cook so well, then I wouldn't have to eat everything," compliment. I was grinning from ear to ear. It's simple and easy to make, enjoy!



Lime-Marinated Broiled Salmon

Ingredients

1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 (6-ounce) skinless salmon fillets (about 1 inch thick)
Cooking spray
4 lime wedges

Preparation

Place first 5 ingredients in a blender; process until smooth. Pour into a large zip-top plastic bag. Add salmon, and seal and marinate in refrigerator 1 hour, turning bag occasionally.

Preheat broiler.

Remove salmon from bag, discarding marinade. Place salmon on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray; broil 8 minutes. Turn, and broil an additional 4 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Serve with lime wedges.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 1 fillet and 1 lime wedge)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 281(42% from fat); FAT 13.1g (sat 3.1g,mono 5.7g,poly 3.2g); PROTEIN 36.8g; CHOLESTEROL 87mg; CALCIUM 25mg; SODIUM 414mg; FIBER 0.1g; IRON 0.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 7.9g

Cooking Light, MAY 2003

My notes:

1. One whole lime will squeeze 1/4 cup fresh lime juice, of course you could subsitute from lime juice concentrate--I just prefer this ingredient to be fresh;

2. Ground ginger and chopped thyme from your spice collection works just as well as fresh ginger and thyme;

3. Minced garlic from a jar works just the same as fresh chopped garlic; and

4. You can marinate more than 24 ounces of salmon using this recipe. I marinated 37 ounces for three hours and the flavor was absolutely scrumptious.

HAPPY 6TH ANNIVERSARY!!!

This year our anniversary lands on a Saturday --the same day of the week we were married. This morning we celebrated by attending a Spanish Temple session. It was very peaceful and so enlightening. We saw a young couple right before their wedding cermemony and we couldn't help but picture ourselves in their shoes six years ago. This evening, we'll dine at our favorite restaurant in downtown Portland, Mother's Bistro and then afterwards we're going to the movies to see Bourne Ultimatum!

A lot has happened in six years and the best part of it all is how much we have progressed as a couple and individuals. Marriage and all that it entails has proved to be the greatest teacher of life lessons, gospel principles, and true love. We're both better people today than we were six years ago and we'll continue to improve and progress even more in the years to come.

I loved my husband the day I married him and now six years later my love is 50 billion times greater than what it was that day. The milestones and progression spiritually and temporally which we've achieved together as well as the struggles in varying areas have all enhanced our marriage. Ryan is the most diligent and sincere person I've ever known. He's strong and sensitive, he loves me back. I can't imagine my life without his friendship, love, and dedication.

Together we've become parents, something that has been monumental and key to our spiritual growth. We cherish our daughter, Sofia, and can't imagine our lives without her. We can't wait to have another little one. It's definitely a goal for 2007-2008 and we know he or she will come in the Lord's time.

Here's to SIX YEARS of a marriage filled with love, dedication, trials, and lessons learned. I love you, Ryan, you're my dreamboat.

Below is a fun look back over the last six years...


Portland Oregon Temple (where we were married)



and this picture is gorgeous...


Fun memories.

Michelle and Peter Bradford's Wedding Day
(June 2001)


I was 9 weeks pregnant here and had just been
discharged from a 3-day hospital stay the day before!


Whoa! Hogle Zoo, Salt Lake City, Utah (May 2004)
I'm 8 1/2 months pregnant!!! This is where we
got engaged!!!


Our precious Sofia made her entrance into the
world on June 10, 2004


Sofia's baby blessing, July 2004


Oregon Coast, September 2004


My heart stopped when I saw this picture....I
can remember this day as if it were yesterday...


this one too!!!


Family Picture, November 2004


Christmas Time 2006


Easter 2007


Sillygoose...Easter Egg Hunt 2007


April 2007-Colonial Heights
Building Grounds (this is where we
had our wedding reception)

Happy Anniversary!