we had fast and testimony meeting today since next week is conference.

"i'm sure i'll collect and take the light wonder bombs
to the point in the universe
where sound does end.
it's the back porch of God's summer home.
and it's so quiet here, 
you float.
it feels the way cotton candy tastes.
and i say to Him God, why do i call you God?
and he says, 'because Grand Poohbah would sound ridiculous,'
and i say yes!
i knew you've had a sense of humor.
i saw what you did to phoenix
but God, so many poets have tried to tackle it
ginsberg, corso, and they missed.
what is holy, what is actually holy?"
-derrick brown



it's cold.
overcast.
rainy.
knit sweater and a cup of tea kind of day.

the kind of morning where your bed wont let go of your body.
your animals are snuggled at your feet.
when your alarm goes off, its still dark out.

days like this make me think of certain poems.
like buddy wakefields hurling crowbirds at mockingbars (hope is not a course of action)
and derick browns "a finger, two dots, then me."
and many other emotional and heart wrenching poems.

if you havent heard/read buddy wakefield, go do it.
but here is derrick browns poem.
because its the one that really keeps going through my mind today.
(go ahead and read it at my funeral or something garrett.)

remember when Garrett got a job?
well, he loves it. (phew.)
and they treat him really well.
most days garrett takes me to work at 7:45am on his way to work.
and then he picks me up on his way home from work at 4:00pm.
this system works out really well most of the time.
i do travel all over the valley for work, but most days we just carpool because duh,
wouldnt you rather have someone else drive you around and keep you company?
me too.

the other day i had to be in west jordan at 6:30am
so i took the car.
when i picked garrett up from work i got to see his office!
(which i hadnt seen before.)

i sometimes think that jay is starting to pick up some of sals habits
and is starting to act more like a dog than a cat...

when we first got jay, sal started to "act out" as we would say in my field of work.
he was like a jealous older brother.
which means sal spent a lot of time in his box.

in his what?
yes.
box.
when sal was just a lil guy and would do bad things no matter what we did, it seemed like he still didnt care.
you could pick him up by his scruff and scold him and his tail would still be wagging.
and we didnt want to hit him or anything like that.
so the vet suggested putting a box over him.
his breed has really bad anxiety and doesnt like to be alone.
so when he's in the box one, he's all alone.
and two, he cant see what we are doing and it drives him crazy.

well, since he was acting out and spending more time in the box it got to the point where when he did something he knew he wasnt supposed to do like stick is face in the kitty litter or pin jay down until he was meowing really loud, as soon as i would say "SAL!" he would head straight to his box.
and since he couldnt get the box over his head by himself, he just lays in it.

i wish i could go to any place and instead of saying "no chicken please"
i could say "no gluten please."
that would be really nice.
someone invent that please.

my coworker who sees me snack on dried fruit, nuts, and rice chips all day was asking what we eat, you know, besides snacks?
well honestly, we mainly eat those kinds of snacks.
but when we do cook, we cook things like
Zucchini Fritters (with coconut flour)

and

Zucchini, Black Bean and Rice Skillet (with pink rice)

(obviously we had lots of zucchini from mamma hayes garden.)

we also just bought a tortilla press.
i see loooots of corn tortillas in my future.

we also have a cook book call Small Plates and Sweet Treats 
a COMPLETELY gluten free cookbook with recipes that you would never guess were gluten free.

so really, we are eating pre-tay good.

AND get this.
with all the research ive been doing on gluten lately i learned a lot about the connection between autism and gluten.
and though there are no hard facts as to what/why taking gluten out of the diet of a child who has autism works, for some reason it just does.
i was working with a mother who has a child with autism and nothing seemed to be helping.
i suggested she do a little research about gluten, as well as gave her some of my findings.(along with consulting with her pediatrician of course)
I called her back this morning to see if things were getting any better..
(my job is really great in that we dont just connect families with resources and say "good luck" but we actually call them back and make sure they got what the needed and if not we make sure they do.)
boom baby. it is working.
thank you stupid celiac for making us go gluten free and helping others.

our days have been long.
with short nights.
very short nights.
being an adult is starting to wear on me.
but i guess its good for us since, well you know, were going to be adults for a looong time.
we are blessed with good jobs , and shoot my job is even fulfilling.
(how could it not be when im helping families all day?)
we have families that love us.
animals that adore us.
(at this rate we will have a zoo by Christmas. come visit us, free of admission)
a nice home to lay our heads down in.
we live in a magical city that has adventures waiting for us.
our friends would do anything for us (and us them)
we get to attend a ward where we are needed. (you know how good it feels to be needed.)
we are going strong on not eating gluten, even though it is my weakness.
and you know,
i am in love with my life.
every. single. minute.

Welcome to the Sherwood home.
where every one needs attention.
nobody wants to leave your side.
3 am is play time.
what's your's is theirs
and when you leave for work every morning, they act as if their little worlds have been shattered.

i love saturdays.
ours always seem to be jammed packed but in a relaxing kind of way.
our friend skyler came down to salt lake and is staying the weekend with us.
we woke up, had breakfast, and while the boys were playing super nintendo i did our routine saturday morning estate sale shopping.
i made off with a cool map of salt lake and a fancy rug.

the avenues has a street fair every year (and how it started is kind of a cool story.)
we headed up there and i had a hard time paying attention to the actual fair because i love just looking at the houses.
i even ran into a rose bush and had to pull 3 thorns out of my knee because i was so distracted by one of the houses.

today has been weird.
there was some kind of crazy wind storm that blew in toons of salt from the salt flats.
one minute you could see the mountains and down town, the next they were gone.
it really freaked me out.

and then we went to see world ward z...
ahh geez.
my life has been changed/ruined by that movie.
it was good, but i hated it.
it was so intense.
too intense.
i didnt realize until we were walking out that i had been clenching my teeth the whole time.
so now my jaw hurts.

garrett got a job.
we went out to celebrate tonight.
like the rest of us, he does not want to grow up and commit to a 40 hour a week job.
so as you can see, he was not overly joyed.
(but he is. mixed feelings ya know?)
he got to pick out of the whole state of utah where we ate.
and he picked taco bell...
his reasoning was that since we are starting a strict GF diet on monday, he will never be able eat taco bell again.


if you know me then you know i looooove holiday candy.
peeps, jelly beans, candy canes, conversation hearts, and yeessss candy corn.
i was listening to NPR on my way to work the other day and they mentioned starburst candy corn.
apparently that night i told garrett all about them in my sleep.
so naturally we had to go search them out.
and ohh baby, they are delicious.