Ernstrom Family Chatter — More Fun Than You Can Handle!

Once upon a…

May 11th, 2009 · bridget, random

railroad track??

Why would my girl be tied to the tracks, you ask? Well, it might have something to do with her psycho mother. Maybe. Or maybe not. But probably.

The other day I had this idea to tie my “princess” up and lay her on the tracks… I just needed a villain and a prince to finish off the story. Oh a whim, I called up my friend, Sandra (you may have seen some pics from that day on her blog), to see if I could enlist her boys for the task. She went with it, and within a couple of hours we were on the tracks taking pictures.

It was great fun! (I think the kids even enjoyed themselves.)

I spent some time last night editing the images and adding little conversation bubbles. 9 images later, we had a cute little story. The finished images can be found on my photography blog, if you care to look, the link is: http://www.pristinephoto.com/blog/?p=82 – leave me a comment while you’re there and let me know what you think!

Thanks again Sandra for succumbing to my craziness. I’ll get you a CD.

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10,000 Words

May 9th, 2009 · a day in the life, bridget, random, spencer

A picture is worth 1,000 words. Here are 10… and I am 10,000 words behind on this blog. 🙂

Besides, its been awhile since my last 10,000 words post. So, enjoy these pictures – and the lack of text.

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Swine Flu

May 3rd, 2009 · a day in the life, bridget, random, spencer

A friend sent me this image. You’ve probably already seen it since its one of those viral e-mail forwards. But in case you haven’t….

I thought it was funny.

I guess the spreading of Swine Flu is less of a mystery now. 🙂

Oh, and on the topic of slimy wet kisses…
Spencer’s closest attempt at kisses involves a slobbery wet face. Yesterday after Bridget received one of his loving “kisses” she promptly licked her lips (and a good portion of her face around her lips) and returned the gesture – planting a nice wet one on Spencer’s cheek. I couldn’t help but laugh – but I also had to inform her that, although funny, it was pretty gross and that she probably shouldn’t make a habit of kissing Spencer or anyone else with saliva-covered lips. I’m still laughing about it. Ha.

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My Cousin, Liz

April 28th, 2009 · bridget, family, food, random, tina

I have a cousin. Liz. Or “Little Lizzie,” as we used to call her.

She is three months older than me… and as kids we got along smashingly. We used to have sleepovers at my [parents] house on my birthday, and since the next day was April Fools Day, we’d stay up late playing pranks on my family members. Some were better than others. And some were more accepted than others.

Sometimes pranks were played on us too. But it was great fun.

We hung out at all family gatherings too. Thanksgiving… and apparently we were mean to my younger sister – not letting her join our fun. I don’t remember that, but she is quick to remind both of us. I guess we thought we were too cool then. We let her hang out with us now (sometimes). 🙂

Anyway…

Six or seven years ago my cousin moved. She left the state and went about living her life without much contact with me (or any of the rest of our family). I think I saw her once in all those years.

Until January.

In January she moved back to Utah. I wasn’t sure if she’d stay at first. But she did.

And I’m happy to have my cousin back. I missed her.

She’s come up to Logan a couple of times since she moved back. I’ve gone down to visit her a few times… And we’ve had tons of fun each time every time.

In January, she helped me paint a room in our basement. And helped hang some drywall in another room…

In February she came up for Spencer’s blessing, and stayed another couple of days. Again we put her to work hanging sheet rock.

In March she came with me (and the kids) to the Draper Temple open house, and then to the Treehouse museum…

A few weeks ago we made some fabulous Easter cookies…

And Sushi…

And Chinese Chicken Salad. Yum! (recipe here)…

And a little more than a week ago, we went to the Tracy Aviary…

And rode a carousel…

Bridget has a great time hanging with cousin Liz too. She loves having “sleepovers” and getting some extra attention.

One more thing about my cousin, Liz…
She’s probably going to hate that there is a post dedicated to her. But lets be honest here. She had to know it was coming sooner or later. 🙂

I love you Liz. And I’m glad you’re back!

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Dog bites leg

April 25th, 2009 · dave, random

Lucy escaped from our backyard on Monday while Dave was mowing the lawn. When he went out trying to find her he met another dog…

A bigger one.

With sharp teeth.

He was riding his scooter, and apparently spooked the dog.

The owner of the dog was really nice about it, and very apologetic. She told us that the dog was current on his shots and is usually very gentle. She felt really bad and even gave Dave a note and some chocolates apologizing for everything.

He (Dave) ended up getting a tetanus shot on Monday afternoon. And spent all day Tuesday dizzy, shaking, with a headache, etc… Not so fun stuff. All apparently uncommon side effects of the shot. Thankfully he was feeling significantly better by Wednesday morning – otherwise the doctor would have had to investigate the possibility of rabies. *gulp*

So far, so good on that front. Hopefully it never comes to that.

He still doesn’t appreciate the H2O2 I have to pour on the bite daily. But we have to keep it clean.

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Grandma

April 24th, 2009 · family

You may remember Dave’s grandma. I posted about her amazing fudge just over a year ago…

Well, she fell earlier this week and broke her hip. They operated the day before yesterday, and it went pretty well. But she still has a long way to go. The kids and I went down to the hospital on Tuesday night (prior to her surgery). It was sad to see her in such visible pain. We hope she can have a speedy recovery.

Please keep her in your prayers.

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Let’s Eat!

April 23rd, 2009 · spencer

We started giving Spencer some baby food a couple weeks ago! He doesn’t get much of it, a bit of cereal or a jar of something every couple of days. Not even daily yet. He’s doing really well with it though. And it sure is cute to watch him eat. Bridget likes to watch, help, and sample the baby food herself. Funny kid.

I don’t know how everyone else is when it comes to when and how much and what exactly to feed a baby, but I’m pretty relaxed about it. Both of my kids were given tastes of random sauces and flavors (the dip of a finger or pacifier) of all kinds of food. Both were given cereal and baby food pretty much right at 4 months, and I haven’t been very particular about the order or frequency in which I introduce foods. Its more just what’s convenient and makes sense to my odd mind. I don’t move too fast, or offer too much at first. I don’t do the honey, nuts, milk, eggs stuff… but pretty much everything else is fair game.

And so far its worked pretty well for me.

What do you do? When do you introduce foods?? What’s first?

P.S. It sure is good to have Photoshop back! I missed it.

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I can’t function

April 14th, 2009 · Uncategorized

I upgraded my operating system and now have a bunch of incompatible applications that will also need upgrading.

I can’t function.

I use Photoshop literally EVERY DAY. And its broken.
All my Adobe stuff is.

Bleh!

I wonder what else is broken.

Well… don’t count on seeing any new pictures here until I figure all of this out.

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JJ Cole

April 14th, 2009 · random

Did you guys know that JJ Cole still had an outlet in Logan?? I tried to find them to get a BundleMe before Spencer was born and had no luck. I figured they pulled out of Logan.

But, then I saw this advertisement.

I guess I was wrong.

It seems they are still here and they are having a sale. I’ve never been there, but I think I want to check it out.

So, if you’re like me and didn’t know they were still around… now you know too.

JJ Cole:: 1189 W. 1700 N. Suite 150, Logan.

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Sushi Night

April 13th, 2009 · food, random

I’ve seen a lot of recipes for Sushi floating around the internet lately. And I’ve known quite a few people that have made it… I wanted to try too!

So I talked to my neighbor – who just happens to frequent ‘Happy Sushi’ – we set up a time and the rest is history!

I ended up going to an oriental market down by my mom’s house to get a lot of the things we needed. The prices are better down there than they are at the local market. And the man that owns/runs the shop is very friendly and helpful too. I picked up some short grained rice, Nori, rice vinegar, and bamboo rolling mats while I was there.

The ingredients were surprisingly cheap. Especially when considering that its common to drop $10 or more on a single roll at a sushi bar.

Let me give you an idea…

– Rice, 5 lbs.: approx. $6
– Nori, 10 sheets (enough for 20 rolls): approx $4
– Rice Vinegar, 24 oz: approx $2
– bamboo rolling mat: $2

– Imitation crab: $2.50
– Avocado: $1
– Cucumber: $1
– Cream Cheese: $1

Sure… there are a few other things you need. A bit of sugar and salt. Maybe other things in the middle… jalapeños, shrimp, etc…

The point is that for less than $20 you can make 20 basic rolls, and still have a lot of the basic ingredients leftover for later. So, $1 (or less) per roll vs. $10 (or more) per roll.

AND, it was fun to make!

(I posted the actual recipe(s) on my food blog – if you want to give it a try)

Here area a few more pictures!!