Good Day A' Comin'!

Feelin' pretty good this morning.  Some mornings I feel lost and uncertain about what the day will bring.  Today I feel great about this day, like I'm the Captain of my Soul or something.  Here's why:

It's 9:30 am and both boys are already dressed for the day including shoes.

I had a shower.  I don't do this every day.  It's a burden on me, but it does feel nice to have cute hair and be able to check that one off my list for a couple days.

There is nothing on my calendar for today.  I could go to the Turkey Trot at school if I want, but it's also on for tomorrow and Friday, so I don't have to.  I thought I had Visiting Teaching today but just found out it's for tomorrow.

I have a plan for working in my work room.  I love working in my work room. I have some rearranging to do in there also, which is always fun.  I plan to put together a project really quick that's cute and new, adding to my Can-Do feeling about today.

I already read my scriptures.  My bedtime is that much sooner!

Jules went back to school today.  The first day with her was a delight, but yesterday was a real drag.  She's awesome, but I feel bad about ignoring her school responsibilities.  Plus the uncertainty of how long she would be missing school was wearing on me.

I started the week with a big huge bang, making three batches of soup -- two for the freezer, five quarts of spaghetti sauce for the freezer, and then yesterday, a X5 batch of Green Chili.  That'll put probably eight or nine quarts in the freezer.  Maybe I'll give some away.  Anyway, it made my day kind of a drag...but it's DONE!  None of that today!

I'm writing a blog post. That makes me feel like I've really done something.  Already.  And it's only 9:40 am!

First Time For Everything

See, I don't know how they're getting in.  I suspect it was when we had all the siding off the back of the house last month, but I don't know for sure.  We killed two of them, several days apart, about two weeks ago.  We killed one sunday night -- actually heard the trap snap on him and his little last attempts at escape before he crossed over.  I pray that's the last of them, but can you really ever be sure?  It's a really unsettling feeling, the idea that there's another being in your house and you didn't know and you don't know if he has a family.  I'm not the least bit sentimental.  It's my house and you're not invited.  Ya' vermin.

Current Events

Taliban gunmen this week boarded a bus loaded with school girls and shot one of them, 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai in the head.  She survived.

She was targeted because she had been secretly advocating for the education of females.

This is the Taliban's enemy?  A 14-year-old girl who -gasp- wants to be educated and wants other women to be afforded the same opportunity?  This group already has a reputation for being backward, violent, and intolerant.  I'm so grateful to read that local and national government officials are doing something to bring these cowards to justice.


I have been blessed with a strong heritage of dignified, intelligent, bold women.  When my Grandma Laney wanted to get a job because her youngest started school, she began by looking for a sales clerk position, or a secretary job.  Her husband, my Grandpa Laney, suggested that she find a job she really wanted to do, one that would allow her to use her sharp mental faculty.  She got a job at the Library of Congress.  This is my heritage.

I went to the Molly Brown House in Denver last Christmas.  When I saw this teapot, showcasing the political/social issue Mary Brown and her contemporaries were fighting for, it reminded me of my Grandma Laney and all the strong women in my family history.  I come from several lines of women who know it is their place to be involved, know it is their place to be voting, know they are at least as wise, strong, and intelligent as their male counterparts.  I bought this teapot and it occupies a place in our living room, where flat surfaces are scarce.  Seth has wisely not protested its placement there.

This morning Seth and I did a service for our precinct leader:  we distributed 325 "Arapahoe County Voter Guides" to the homes in this half of our precinct.  On Monday, I will go for my Election Judge training class.  I voted for the republican candidate in 1992 in Utah, a state that was 100% certain to go to that candidate, having waited in a line for more than two hours to do so.  I have written here about my affinity for celebrating America's Independence.  I consider living in the United States to be one of the biggest blessings I was given.

This is my high school class ring.  [Thanks again, Dad!  I have always loved this and been grateful for it!]  This ring shows that I went to 13 years of public school and finished all that they asked me to do.  Naturally, I also have a diploma that says the same thing.  I went on to BYU and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Humanities, because I have such a quick interest in so many different things that I was unable to focus my learning in any one field.  I love learning new and interesting things and skills.  Knowledge and the quest for knowledge are part of my very soul.

My prayer is for the rest of the women in the world:  that they will stand up and claim their rights and privileges as women.  That they will stand up to ancient and evil notions that they must not use their minds or obtain an education.  They they will continue, like Malala Yousufzai, to protest and correct the wrong and degrading treatment women still receive in some places.  And that they will be able to find joy in womanhood and acknowledge the blessing it is to be a woman.

My sister Malala is so breathtakingly pretty in her pictures. I pray for her recovery and for those around her to rally to her aid and to beat the Taliban down with every effort they can muster.

Cold 'n Rainy Party Afternoon

It got cold 'n rainy this afternoon.  Seth had an elders' quorum softball game against another ward.  Families are invited, and then there's a barbecue afterwards at the park.  It's been lovely the last couple-a-three years.  I sent Seth to the game and then came later with the children.  We stopped for several errands on the way (return chairs to church from Thursday's successful RS activity at the RS President's house, purchase Shelf Reliance product at Holiday Boutique held by friend).  We made one last stop at Safeway for chips and cookies to bring to the lunch and were flummoxed by how busy and slow it was in there.  Not even busy, really, but just crowded at the check-outs.

Anyway, by the time we got to the park for the bbq, it was pretty cold.  Mid-40s at most.  Then it started sprinkling.  The brethren were messing around with the grill for awhile while everyone else busted into the chips and sodies.  Then when the grill wouldn't light, the game (lunch) was Called on Account of Rain.  We grabbed our chips and brownie bites, along with some extra hot dogs, and went on home.  On the way home, the rain started coming down good-n-hard.

We had to stop at King Soopers for hot dog buns and milk anyway.

It seemed like just the thing we needed for our cold, rainy family afternoon would be a pack of Double-Triple Oreos, so we got that too. 

I love the twisty Fritos.  They're doubly crunch-a-licious.

The Brownie Bites were actually not too bad.  Usually store-bought brownies are atrocious.

And because Jules was with me, we also talked ourselves into buying a dozen donuts.  It's the least we could do.  We grilled the hot dogs at home in the rain and had them with chocolate milk.

Anyway, we just spent an hour sitting in front of the Wii while Seth and Eric had a big Mario-thon.  They're so cute playing together, sharing tips.  It was a lovely cold, rainy afternoon with the family.  These are the golden times.

Time for donuts!

Big News: Nothing!

I was diagnosed in 2008 with thyroid cancer.  It was a nice sized tumor.  I had the surgery and treatments in 2009.  The follow up includes scans and neck ultrasounds, along with constant, every 6-months blood tests.

The neck ultrasound last year revealed a small "object" about 2x3x6 mm in the left thyroid bed where the tumor was.   This meant I wasn't yet "cancer-free."

This year's ultrasound was last week.  I had a friend come with me because I HATE going to the University Hospital.  That's a whole 'nother post, though.  The doctor called back with the official results the following day:

Nothing!!

Best they could figure is that last year's ultrasound tech had been super-thorough and super-meticulous to report ANYTHING, even if it was nothing.  That's good, because Just In Case.  In my case, though, it prevented the Cancer Free test result for a year, is all it did.  I appreciate her being circumspect, but I appreciate more OFFICIALLY NOT HAVING CANCER ANYMORE!

:)

Not Quite Broncomania

Seth's boss and his friend have season tickets to the Denver Broncos.  They don't care about the preseason games so they give the tickets away.  We usually get to go once a year.  Last year I sent Seth with Eric while I stayed home with baby Mark.  This year we went to the Seahawks game.

Every year we think we're going to leave early and get there in time for all the pregame stuff and every year we miss almost all of it.  Next Year!

They had some of the survivors of the Aurora Theater Shooting there to be honored on the sidelines.  That was special.  They had several hundred of the First Responders in the stands also, who got a standing ovation.  That was special.

We're stalwart Bronco fans but not quite to the point of Broncomania.  Everyone is going crazy in Denver (or was before the season started...) about Peyton Manning and how we're pretty sure to Go All The Way this year.  Whatever.  Just let the guy play, m-kay?

We have matching #7 jerseys.  It's my only Bronco gear.  I wear mine to every game.

It really is quite exciting to go to the game, even pre-season.  More exciting, though, was when two ladies showed up and sat in front of us in the second or third quarter, along with their five children.  Who brings five children to the Bronco game with no dads?  NOT ME!!!!!!!!!!  It is super-refreshing to be able to say "Whoo!  Glad that's not my kid screamin'!"

A Fun Little Interaction

Two mornings a week (one after this!) I have to walk Russell to school.  Usually he goes with Jules.  Last year it was three mornings a week. Anyway, most of these mornings, I drop Russell, watch him walk through the park, and head on home.  [Sidenote:  the school backs to the park and the children line up on the blacktop, so I just watch Russell as he goes through the park and into his line]  As we walk home, we usually pass a mom from the next street up walking her three boys, one of whom she drops at school.  So we each have three little boys and drop one.  Some mornings her boys are in their jammies.  Sometimes they have the stroller with them.  Sometimes my boys are in their jammies.  Sometimes my boys are at home napping while Grandpa helps out with Extreme Projects.

Anyway, today we passed in the Secret Passage.  Scott was busily jabbering to me about "what if we saw a big HUGE grasshopper...." and he was wearing his pajamas.  The other mom approached, with one of her sons wearing a Power Ranger suit and jabbering to her about spiders, lots and lots of spiders. 

We always smile and say hello.  We're like twinners except I have the two bigger kids.  Sometime I plan on introducing myself and making friends.  It was a fun little interaction today between twinner moms.

Mr. Moneybags

Sometimes, almost by accident, I make something super awesome.  This happened at least once this summer.  I made this really professional, upscale money bag for my brother-in-law Jason.

My sister Dorothy and I were always saying how hilarious it would be if Jason brought the money back and forth to Baskin Robbins in a money bag that looked like your classic cartoons, instead of just the envelope-shaped one from the bank.  Boring!  Usually masked bandits are running out of banks carrying these in the classic cartoons.  We were always saying we should make it!  Let's just make him one!

This year I decided to DO IT! because I didn't have a better birthday gift in mind.  I gathered supplies I already had:  suede leather scraps, canvas scraps (hey, Kandra!), and some green fuzzy fabric scraps.  I printed the dollar sign off the computer and traced it to get the dollar sign just perfect.

I made it the dimensions that would make the best use of the suede.  I wasn't sure how to do the drawstring, so I decided to use the leftover scraps of suede for little tabs, which turned out to be inspired.  Had I created a whole sleeve for the drawstring, it would have been stiff like crazy and a little bit super-lame.

I stuffed it with Walmart bags (irony, anyone?) to show off the great money-lugging capacity.

You have to put a six-year-old kid in there for perspective.  You can see that the man who could fill THIS bag with money, really would be Mr. Moneybags. 

May you be blessed with enough to fill this sack and more, Jason!

Conditioner Update

I'm in charge of the activities for the women's group at church. (Relief Society!!)   All year we've been doing service and collecting things for charity.  During one collection period, for a women's shelter, we asked for shampoo and toiletries.  Someone donated a huge sack of hotel shampoos and conditioners.  One bottle had come open and they were all slimy.  I had to rinse them all and sort them out, which ones were suitable for donation and which ones had to go to a better place.

One conditioner was not acceptable for donation but was not bad enough to have to go to a better place.  I needed conditioner, so I started using it.

I finally found the conditioner I was looking for!  It was from a Sheraton hotel.  It looked and worked just like conditioner should.  And it smelled like Clinique "Happy" so my guess is that it was from the early 2000's when Happy was IT.  I'm just sad that I used it all up.

I bought a conditioner recently that I think will be ok.  It doesn't say "moisture" on the bottle.  It looks and smells like the ineffective conditioners, but works better.  We'll see.

Second Favorite Holiday

After Easter, Independence Day may be my favorite holiday.  It may be time to make it official.  Maybe not.  I know a lot of people really dig Christmas, but the gifts and decorating kind of lower it in the ratings for me.

I like Independence Day for a lot of reasons.  I'm into history.  I LOVE America's history and especially, America's Heritage.  It's almost more than I can take, how much I love this country.  But I also like Independence Day for the sense of community.  I love going out and seeing everybody in their red, white, and blue t-shirts.  I love being part of a crowd that gathers for fireworks -- and I HATE crowds.  I love Fourth of July parades and wish there was one I could attend close by here.  I'm always trying to teach the children on Independence Day, making them read the Declaration of Independence, reading them the preamble to the Constitution and so forth.  Also speaking disparagingly about other, lamer countries, like 1776 Great Britain, no offense to current Brits. 

So, in addition to the gifts Dorothy brought, several other things made it an awesome Independence Day.  Here are some highlights:

Jules and I both sported the "Old Glory" toenail job I perfected years ago.  What a privilege to have a daughter big enough to sit still and let the paint dry...and get patriotic with me!

I'm not very good at photographically documenting events.  I took a picture of Seth and Scott trying out the cot we put up.  If you don't have a hammock, a jumbo-size cot is the next best thing for chillin' in the shade.

There was a complete fireworks ban in Aurora this year, thanks to dry conditions and wildfires.  Even the city of Aurora had to cancel its fireworks display.  To compensate, we had pretty good substitutes.  I spent more than 50 bucks on glow-stuff, which we cracked open and distributed after dark.  Then to simulate the firework sounds, we blew up several dozen balloons, which we then popped like crazy during glowstick time.

When I was growing up, my dad called these "Grasshoppers," as in, "Look kids!  There's a grasshopper!!" [bang!]  I guess some people call them bang-snaps.  Whatever you call them, they were freely available for purchase at the Dollar Tree and are therefore not fireworks.  I got 15 double-packages of these and we went crazy on it!  It's really fun to chuck a big handful of these up in the air with wild abandon and then enjoy the rapid-fire, nearly firecracker-like sound and small flash.

This year's Independence Day party may have been more fun than a real-fireworks time.  We only go to the big shows periodically, and then have a terrible time fighting traffic all the way home.  There was no traffic this year, tons of sody pop, no worry about whether the ground flowers were going to go off, or whether the tank fireworks were going to drive forward, dribble out a tiny spark and then die.  I dare say, all 17 children had a great time, and our nation's Independence and resultant Freedoms were appropriately celebrated.

A True Home Improvement

So, our house is much too small for our family.  Let's put it that way.  However, the price for our house is just right for our family.  This creates a situation of home improvement, wherein we need to be able to fit a ton of regular family stuff into a small space.  Usually, this means we obtain much taller storage solutions that use the same amount of floor space and provide lots more stuff-room.  Here's our latest stroke of genius.

We were ex-psyched for IKEA to open in Denver last summer.  We immediately put into motion our plan for a better living room, using IKEA's Billy Bookshelf system.  The living room is WAY better, with more storage space, more floor space, and a lot more contemporary style.  Then we did the same in our dining area, also using Billys.  THEN we got the super-brilliant idea to use Billys in our bedroom.

Before this, we had a hand-me-down dresser with three drawers per person.  It was about 3 feet tall, which is good if you want to stash a lot of papers and useless crap on your dresser everyday -- right in arm's reach.  This dresser setup was not ideal for us for several reasons:  we have more clothes than we can fit in 3 middle-size drawers, our room was ugly because of all the stacked up, dusty, useless crap we had piled up, and we had painted, vinyled the walls, and hung pretty curtains, and the dresser wasn't fitting in with our plan for a cute, modern-looking room.

 So, Billy comes in the usual 11 inch bookshelf depth, but then also now it comes in a 15 inch depth.  That's what gave us the brilliant idea for our bedroom.  An 11 inch bookshelf would be lame for clothes, but a 15 inch deep bookshelf is perfect.  We decided to DO IT! and gave the dresser to the Young Women's Yard Sale.  A Bold Move, since we didn't have a replacement yet, eh?

We went a few days later and just DID IT.  We bought two brown-black 15-inch deep Billys.  One for each of us.  It's super fun to put up something pretty and practical.

Our clothes fit -- ALL our clothes.  I have thermal underwear in there!  Fleeces!  Sweaters!  Shorts!  Everything I wear all year, plus a lovely Heirloom Jewelry Box my dad made AND my "dresser-top" toiletries.  Seth even had room for a couple shelves-worth of shoes.  Now the ugly laundry basket lives in the closet instead of right out in the open as you walk into our room.  It's better all around.

The other awesome thing about Billy is that it's A System.  You can add any number of doors in all different styles or you can add a height extension.  It all works together to make the storage solution that works the most awesomely in your space.  It seems like a commercial up in here!!

It was a few weeks before we were able to go and get the doors.  They're not expensive, but especially when you need four of them at one time, they're not giving them away either.  These were the best doors for the job.  They're a little too sleek for me, but whatever.  They're the best ones.

Billy is a blessing from Heaven.  We can walk through our room before we make the bed -- there's room for pillows and blankets on the floor and we can still walk around!  A dream come true!  

Of course, the better dream come true would be to build that Master-Bedroom-Over-the-Garage I've been envisioning since before we moved in.  But THAT's a dream for another day.

Right now, I'm just grateful to have a room that looks better, works better, and IS better.

Family Parties Present a Problem

It's my problem.  It's been getting worse in the last few years.  A stress response, probably.  The problem is this:  I can't tolerate noises

To be fair, when we get the Four Families together for big parties, there are eight adults and 17 children.  This would create a noise problem for anyone, I think.  The other adults just seem to be able to tolerate it better, I guess.

This party was for the Fourth of July.  We were all here at my place.  There was a little bit of a scheduling blunder.  Probably my bad.  Stress!  Anyway, even outside, the 17 children were creating too much noise for me.  I look really dumb putting my hands over my ears and trying to carry on conversations and answer trivia questions.  Dorothy brought me this gift:  

Isn't she great?  They're noise-cancelling earmuffs.  It's Just What the Doctor Ordered. I can still hear all the people around me, mostly, but the kid-noise is just about squelched.  It's like going into the light, through a tunnel, into blissful peace.

Jodi tried them on.  You can also see the other gift I got from Dorothy.  Jason's holding it there on his head:  it's an electric bug zapper raquet.  Flies get in the house, Wib goes insane.  The old familiar story.  But not anymore.  Flies get in the house, Wib zaps them with the raquet, bugs get dead.  Awesome!

Andrew asked if we thought he should touch the raquet.  He's 14 so, yeah, we think you should.  He got a big old cracking shock.  Sucka!

Anyway, I've brought my earmuffs (earphones, I call them) to several more family parties, with great results each time.  Seth has asked me, though, not to wear them too much because it makes me look...special.

Thanks Dorothy, for helping solve my problem!

The Day Time Stood Still

So we went to Utah in June.  It was our first family trip back there since we moved away in 2002.  We went around visiting places and showing the children sites from their family history.  This is one of them:

M.L. Bigelow and Company Organ Builders in American Fork Utah.  Here's their website.

I worked here from when I graduated from BYU in 1997 until Eric was born in November 1999.

Scott was not sure about the Organ Factory

It's such a cool place.  They build pipe organs, and the shop occupies one of the four original LDS church buildings in American Fork.  Mike Bigelow and his family live upstairs.  The organs are assembled in the chapel and the woodshop is in the gym (First one in Utah Valley!). 

Mark wanted to look at stuff pretty badly

The day we went there were three organs in the shop.  That's a ton!  Every surface was covered with pipes and shutters and pipe organ pieces.  I'm glad to see that business is booming.  The two "office" guys were sitting right in their desks just like when I worked there.  The two "shop" guys I used to work with were both out for the day.  The woodshop was dark and quiet and smelled just like I remembered it, with just a little summer heat trying to sneak in the french doors all the way around.

As we drove around Utah Valley, it was shocking how much things had changed in the 10 years since we left.  Shocking. You expect things to change, but this place is insane.  It's like there was some community-wide goal to leave no house, business, or street unchanged.  That's why it was so awesome to come to the Organ Factory and find things exactly as I left them.  I showed my children around; I knew where everything was because it was all just where it was last time I worked there.  See those pipe trays behind Scotty?  I built some of those!  On the wall in the shop is the stupid, gimpy shelf I hung on the wall so I'd have a place for my tools.  Here's the planer I had a good working relationship with, children!  Here's the creepy coal cart I used to tote the steel action rods around on!

Scott finally agreed to be photographed

It was refreshing to come and find things the same, not because I'm resistant to change, but because I like to see a reason for change.  Or that the changes are for the better.  Most of the stuff that we saw was different for no apparent reason.  The Organ Factory was awesome when I worked there, and it's just that awesome now, because why fix what's not broken?  Refreshing!  I can't stress enough how much it was like a tall, cool glass of Italian Soda in a desert of frivolous progress.

...aaaand there's a smile

I love that I worked here.  I loved being able to show my family around.  I love that this place exists.  And I love that they're all still there, doing what they were doing before I got there and still doing the same things today.  They're doing a good work.  More pipe organs in the world is a change I can get behind!

PS Eric said he was brave enough to go in the creepy original basement area when I was describing it to him; then when we were actually standing in front of the door in the poorly lit basement, he chickened out.  That was good, because I wasn't sure I was ready for that creepiness again...  I wish I had pictures of THAT to share!

Waiting for Resurrection Morning

We went to Utah for Sarah's birthday this year.  It has been 11 years since she was born and some of the children had never been to her little grave before.

The last time we went to Utah was for my Grandpa Clayton's funeral.  Eric, Jules, and Russell came with.  Scott and Russell had never been to Utah and had never been to their big sister's grave before.

Every year I call and buy a dozen or so roses from a certain florist.  Then I email around to my cousins or siblings attending college, and see if someone can pick them up and deliver them to Sarah's grave.  I don't want hers to be one of the poor little headstones that just sits bare on her birthday.

It was so delightful to walk into the store in person this year.  I know they don't recognize me or even notice that it's every year on a certain date that they hear from me.  All the same, it was fun to go in and do it in person this time.  We all went in, and we let each child pick a stem of flowers from the case.  Jules picked a big gerber daisy, Scott picked tulips, I picked snapdragons, Eric picked spider mums, and Russell picked a big, huge, boufy hydrangea poof.  It was $10 all by itself, but it's what he chose for his sister's grave.

The children were appropriately sober as we sat for pictures.  There's not much to do.  We usually sit for a minute at Sarah's headstone and then walk around to see all the other little headstones and tragedies marked at the Babyland section of the Provo cemetery.  My saddest are the three little triplet brothers up under the trees.  One baby was hard enough for me.  I want to give that mom and dad a hug.

It was sweet to be able to go to our baby's grave on her birthday.  We were going to leave the children in Eric's care and go to the temple where we were sealed to commemorate the day, but ended up not being able to do it because Mark wasn't well.  We later found out it was pneumonia, and that's a whole other story.

We were able to take the children and go walk around the temple grounds, so that was nice.  There were three weddings that day and we were able to teach the children about our wedding and why it's ok for Sarah not to be with us right now.  We got her for eternity!!  I love being sealed to my family and knowing that Families Can be Together Forever.  Resurrection Morning is going to kick butt!!!!!!

Love you, little lady!  See you soon!

Pie!

I believe this is my second post about a good-looking pie made by me.  I'm sorry if you're pie-intolerant.  The story here, is that I made a delicious and beautiful pie.

I have a no-fail pie crust recipe that hasn't failed yet.  I can my own apple-pie filling.  I make a no-fail pie crust, I dump the homemade filling in, I sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar and voila!  Instant deliciosity!

I have always loved pie, and I'm beginning to believe that pie loves me.

No-Fail Pie Crust

2 1/2 c. flour
1 c. shortening
1 t. salt
1 egg
1 T. vinegar
cold water

Mix flour, shortening, and salt.  Break egg into a liquid cup measure, add vinegar and enough water to make 1/2 cup.  Beat well.  Add to flour mixture, toss with a fork and gather into a ball.  Divide in two.  Roll out each half to form one 9-inch pie crust. (Wibnote:  I roll dough in between two pieces of wax paper.  Peel off the top one, flip the whole thing onto the pie plate, and peel off the other paper.) Bake at 400 for 10 minutes if needed.  (Wibnote:  don't bake it for an apple pie.  Wait for the filling.)

Apple Pie Filling

About 5 lbs. of tart apples (Wibnote:  MORE!)
10 cups water
4 1/2 c. sugar
2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. cloves
1 c. cornstarch

Peel and slice enough apples to fill 7 quart jars.  Pack the jars to within 1/2 inch of rim.  In a pot, combine 9 cups water, sugar, and spices.  Place on the stove over high heat.  Dissolve the cornstarch in 1 c. water and add it to the filling.  Stir until mixture thickens.  Ladle hot filling over the apples until the liquid level is at 1/2 inch from the rim.  Using a knife, probe down into the jar and release air bubbles.  Top off the jar with additional filling if the level falls below 1/2 inch from rim.  Clean the jar rim and seal jar.  Process in canner for 20 minutes.  Makes 7 quarts. (Wibnote:  This is from the internet, I assume.  I got it from my sister in law, Becca.)

One recipe of pie crust makes one apple pie. The more cinnamon-sugar, the better.  Don't forget slits for the steam!  Bake at 425 for about 40 minutes.  I have one of those pie-crust shields from P-Chef, but I never have to use it.

I Saw a Weird Vehicle

This isn't really news.  It's a picture of something funny I saw while I was out driving.

This is a weird vehicle.  The front part is conversion van.  The back part is pickup.  Altogether it was really loooong.  It's obviously not some kind of hillbilly chop job, duct taped together.  It's really well-done.  Fancy, even! It's just weird.

I'm also really proud of myself for getting the picture, sitting at the red light.  It's so seldom that I can get a camera working and snap the photo before the light changes.

Possible Cutest Thing Ever

Possibly the Cutest Thing Ever:  a Dad and his baby.  Dads that like their babies are awesome.  They're super sweet together.  They're both super cute. 

Our baby, Mark, has a habit of looking you right in the eye for a long time.  It's really sweet and super-endearing.  He also has a habit of just sitting with you.  Some babies are all squirmy and can't be bothered to sit with you and receive hugs and snuggles.  Not Mark.  Even now, he'll just come on over and snuggle into your legs, and then he'll just stay while you bend down and give him a big, long bear hug. 

So Dads, take the time to hug and snuggle your babies.  If they'll let you.  Because it is possibly the Cutest Thing Ever.

Photographic Essay: Mark in a Frog Hat

I don't believe I was the one taking these pictures.  I think it was a child.  The whole set together is charming.  This hat was a gift and it has two eyes out the top.

 It's interesting to see the results when the children get the camera.

 They tend to get more close ups.

 The pictures are usually pretty blurry.

 But you have to admit, the children have great taste in subject matter!

 And they do usually catch a couple pretty cute faces.

 These were taken when Mark was just about 10 months old.  Maybe younger.

 He's still just this cute, just bigger and taller.

This photographic essay brought to you by My Children and Me Letting My Children Use the Ipod to Take Pictures Nearly Unrestricted.