WibNews

We Went to a Crowded Museum

2012-01-04T11:10:00.002-07:00

That's basically the whole thing. Last Friday, we and apparently the whole Denver Museum-going Community, decided to go to the Museum. We have our membership and pushed through the crowds to get in and show our cards. We were there for the T-Rex Experience, so we went directly up there, except that there was a line 50 yards long for the elevator so we pushed through the crowds to get to the secret back elevator. The T-Rex exhibit was really cool and it will be even cooler when we go and every single inch of floor space ISN'T taken up by a crowd of rude children who push their way right in front of the patient, well-brought-up children who actually waited their turn to try the hands-on parts of the exhibit.

Russell loved the Robot Dinosaurs, but Scott was frightened of them. There were lots of things to learn about dinosaurs and lots of things to read to your non-readers, if only the crowd weren't so dang loud and Jostly.

Anyway, despite the clear negative voice in this post, it was actually a good adventure and I think it made a memory for the children.

Jury Duty

2011-10-18T14:59:00.002-06:00

I had it.

That's the news! Bye!

Just kidding. I totally had Jury Duty today. Everyone is always griping and trying to get out of it, so maybe I'm missing something. I had a total blast!!

It was a bummer to have to get the children up and ready so early and shovel them off on someone else, plus it was a bummer to have to drive through the construction site at Parker and Arapahoe Roads. That was the worst part of the whole thing, besides the intense coffee stench in the Jury Waiting Room. I deliberately didn't take anything extra into the courthouse, so I breezed through security. I thought it was funny that knitting needles and crochet hooks are specifically forbidden, but then they freely hand out pens, which can not only poke people, but can also give you an accidental tatto if you get poked just so. Plus, like I'm going to commit "A Time to Kill" by poking someone to death with a tiny knitting needle 2 mm in circumference, right there in the courthouse with all those officers of the peace around. I brought a book instead of knitting.

It's all really well labeled for Jurors. You just go in the line, which moves quickly. The employees are way nicer than the DMV people. After check-in, you just wait until your name is called. There were six jury trials today, with 65 potential jurors for each, so there was a large crowd of us. They asked us several times to scootch in and let the late-comers have the empty seats, but my main point is, a) I have crowd-a-phobia, so there's no way I'm deliberately scrunching right up next to a total stranger, and b) the latecomers can come right into the aisle and sit in the empty chairs if they want to sit down so bad. Then it was just a bunch of reading and waiting. I closed my book every time they would call jurors for a trial; my name was finally called for the fourth trial, the civil trial. The others were criminal.

The part that was really cool was when we went up to the courtroom. I was juror #9 for our trial and they seat you by number, so I was in the second row in the jury box. I got a big comfy chair. I expected the courtroom to be sterile, modern, and ugly, but there was lots of wood paneling and it was fairly respectable. Plus on our way up, I made myself laugh by doing that "gun-gungggg" noise from Law and Order. There were people "Yessir-ing" the judge. The case turned out to be about two people suing each other about a commercial property mortgage foreclosure. I was so proud of myself, because when they read the complaints back and forth, I was unable to come to a snap judgement about who was right and who was wrong. I was ready to make a fair and impartial decision based on the prepoderance of evidence.

They only needed 6 jurors, though. Only the popular potential jurors got picked...so you can guess why I'm at home blogging about this now. I stopped for lunch in the courthouse cafeteria because, When am I ever going to be in there again? They start the trial right then, the instant they release all the unnecessary extra jurors. They took a lunch break pretty soon after that; I heard one of the defendants and his lawyer talking behind me on my way out to the parking lot. He was saying how there were already too many theatrics from the other counsel and how the judge seemed tired of it already. I agreed, actually. The other lawyer was hamming it up just in juror selection, trying to influence us to his point of view.

Anyway, I'll gladly serve on a jury in the future. It was a cool experience and everyone should stop grousing about it and be thankful they live in a country where you can get a fair trial, for cryin' out loud in the night!

Friday Adventure Day

2011-07-11T18:40:00.000-06:00

Well, this last Friday we had a big adventure day. We didn't have one big adventure, but we had constant adventures for the whole big day.

First, I woke the children up "early" and we went to the museum first thing. We bought a membership last month: we tried to go to the zoo and buy a membership but the parking lot was so packed we went to the museum instead. So Friday, we used our membership to get in free and we also used it to get reduced-price tickets to the planetarium show. We usually go in the Space Odyssey exhibit first, but for some reason it was all packed, so we went in Gems and Minerals first. When we came out of Gems and Minerals to go to our planetarium show, I realized why Space Odyssey was so packed: the dang historical last space shuttle launch. We were right there, and they had a whole big thing with tv cameras and special exhibits and tv crews, and we were next door in Gems and Minerals. DANG IT!!! Oh well.

Anyway, we wandered onto the roof, where we discovered they had a sun telescope set up. We each took a turn looking in and saw sunspots AND solar flares. The solar flares were SUPER COOL.

When we returned home, super tired, from that, Seth was also arriving home from his half-day continuing education CPA class. He took the afternoon off and we all went to the town pool. They give the children a free pass at the end of swim lessons, that's good for one adult and one child to swim so we used those. The thing was, just as we left our house, it was sunny. Half-way to the pool, the sky was dark and lightning was flashing. I thought we'd have to ditch our plans, but instead genius Seth takes us to the indoor town pool. Genius!

I actually don't like swimming that much, plus I'm still all baby-fat, so I wasn't having a very fun time until I took a spin on the twisty waterslide. It is AWESOME!! I didn't do any other swimming; I just went around and around, time after time on the water slide.

Then when we got home from that, Eric and Jules were invited to sleep over at the cousins' house. We took them over there, and the three little boys were all so tuckered out from our big day that they fell asleep instantly and Seth and I had a lovely quiet date night.

I HAD A BABY!

2011-07-10T18:36:00.003-06:00

This is old news for some of you. After a threatened miscarriage, a hard recovery from cerclage surgery, and many difficult months trying to be a mother to four children while physically disabled by pregnancy, our son was finally born.

Mark Bryant Leech came on May 10th, at 2:11 pm, after 10 hours of weird labor. I think if I had walked around and been upright for longer, labor wouldn't have been so weird. But I test positive for group B strep and needed IV antibiotics for the baby before delivery, so I went in as early as possible to the hospital. Anyway, baby Mark threatened to need a c-section with his little reduced heart rate, but we ended up not needing one, THANK GOODNESS.

I recovered quickly from the delivery and Mark started out as an absolute living doll of a baby. He's a little gassy now, but he's still pretty dang good.

I Am Testing Blogger's "Enter" Ability

2011-04-11T22:13:00.002-06:00

Here is a test. I want to see why this thing is eliminating all my hard returns. Why would it do stupid things to the spacing in my last two posts that mattered? What other options do I have for starting new paragraphs, other than hard returns using the enter key? Test. Test. Test.

Book Review: The Celestine Prophecy

2011-04-11T21:13:00.003-06:00

Well, I picked up this book because I had the vague notion that I'd heard the title before, possibly in connection with The Da Vinci Code. I checked it out from the library and had to force myself to finish reading it. Here are the things that astounded me about this book: 1) It was written by someone who is a native English-speaker. The writing is really not good. Here is a sample: "...then entered my room and held my stomach until I went to sleep." Uhhhh...what? And another: "From behind a group of trees, another man walked out to greet the vehicle. I couldn't believe my sight. It was Dobson!" It's hard, when reading prose this terrible; it makes it so I can't believe my sight! I have to hold my stomach until I go to sleep! 2) The author is serious. This book was about as transparent a plea for impossible, idealistic social change as I have ever seen, and I've read Walden Two and The Jungle. So, yeah. I just started laughing at the end when he was having the characters say things about a wonderful future for humankind without money and without full-time jobs. The sad part was the form at the end of the book where you could write in and sign up for the newsletter. He'll send you an "audio tape based on his interpretation of an individual's moon sign and sun sign." It'll help you "discover your most inspired, spiritual mission." Don't do it! Don't send in your money! It's not for realsies! Anyway, I finished this book, I can't recommend it for anyone who likes reading or books or realistic outlooks for humankind. But if you want to read it, I can't stop you. PS It really bothered me that in this professionally published book, the typeface kept changing at random. Just hit select all and pick a font!

Lame

2011-03-31T21:17:00.001-06:00

Ok, so I am SUPER ANNOYED at blogger right now for totally hosing the spacing on my big spring break post. I'm not going to post anything at all if it turns it into a big stupid unreadable mess everytime. Sorry you all have to suffer, but if I can't read it and I already know every word it says, that's unreasonable.

Good Big Wib News

2011-03-31T20:41:00.004-06:00

Maybe not very exciting for everyone else, but SUPER EXCITING for me: my in-laws took the three little kids home with them this last Monday and they're staying for this week of spring break. Here's the recap: Monday: Seth took Eric to his Gifted/Spring Break program, but after Grandma and Grandpa left with the children, I went to get him. After I ate a cup of ice cream and watched a show, that is. Anyway, we stopped on our way home for lunch from Good Times, then came home and ate it in front of X-Men. Then we had a LATE dinner of super-delicioso baked lemon-chicken and brown basmati rice, just sitting down to eat as Seth walked in at 8: something. Tuesday: I took Eric to his "class" then stopped to borrow the wet/dry vac from my Bro-in-law at Baskin Robbins. Seems our water heater overflowed in the night but the floor drain was good-n-clogged. Then when I picked up Eric we stopped at Baskin Robbins again for ice cream treats. We also brought home the Super Plumbing Snake my bro keeps at the store for cleaning waffle cones out of his drains. That's still in the back of the van, though, since I can't lift it and Seth is home late every night. After our ice cream lunch, Eric went to play at his friend Trevor's and he stayed there while I went to the 6:30 meeting about saving our local library. It's going to be a pretty big deal, with a General Improvement District and PAC and everything. I finally picked Eric up just after 8, and when I got a little quesadillas-n-tomato soup dinner ready, Seth walked in, just in time. Wednesday: I dropped Eric at this class, then went straight to my endocrinologist appointment. Everything checks out, if you were curious. I picked up Eric and we went straight to Village Inn for lunch and Free Pie Wednesday. My lunch was the "VIB" with country potatoes, two egg omelet with cheese, strawberry crepe, and french toasts. It was SO DELICIOUS. And I finished the entire piece of triple-berry pie. We were full from lunch at dinner-time, but still followed through with our plan to get a Little Caesars hot'n ready and take it to Seth's office to have dinner with him. That was fun. Thursday: I dropped Eric and then went straight to the Temple. It's stake temple day, but I knew I wasn't going to make it for the evening sessions. It was going to have to be first thing or nothing. So that was good and I made it back in plenty of time to go to the potty before picking up Eric from his class. We sat around all afternoon, "partying," by which I mean we watched tv shows, drank soda, Eric played the computer, and after our lemon-chicken-alfredo dinner, we had brownie sundaes. Mostly I did a lot of knitting on the latest pair of socks I'm making. So that's my spring break so far. I realized yesterday, that I'm doing nearly as much driving around and as many errands as usual, but I don't have to buckle anyone in or tie any little shoes or change anyone's pants (besides my own, which at this point is certainly a chore). That's the main bonus for me: not getting tuckered out chasing little people around every second.

Not Much Info on the Internets

2011-03-01T17:29:00.002-07:00

Here's the thing: I don't notice very many changes when I have my thyroid dose changed. I had my dose adjusted a couple months ago because of the pregnancy. I actually noticed a couple things different, so that was new for me.

Lately I've made a couple lovely new jewelry items. I will make a lovely necklace and then put it on and wear it until I make a new one. I make stuff for myself out of sterling silver mostly. I made a necklace and wore it for maybe a week or 10 days and then noticed that half of it was BLACK with tarnish. Then I made another and wore it for several days and noticed that half of this new one was also BLACK with tarnish. I have been wearing sterling silver for years with only normal tarnish levels, and in fact have noticed that wearing stuff usually keeps it from getting all black with tarnish, because it's rubbing on your shirt or whatever. So I made another necklace and wore it for maybe a week and was unaccountably horrified when I found that half of it was BLACK with tarnish.

I just did a search online and there is just barely more than an iota of information on this. In fact the only real reference I found to any of this was a lady asking on a forum why her sterling necklaces were suddenly turning terribly black with tarnish. She mentioned that she had had her thyroid dose raised and had had a miscarriage the previous year. I have been pregnant six times, including right this second, so connecting these dots tells me it's the thyroid hormone and not the pregnancy or miscarriage.

Isn't this weird? All of a sudden all my silver necklaces are turning pitch black around the back of the neck, to the point where I gasp when I discover it. I can't find any science to back this up, but I have to conclude that my higher thyroid dose has combined with some inherent acidity in my skin or something and produced really high silver-tarnishing powers.

On a possibly unrelated note, I have a skin acidity that corrodes the nickel plating off of flutes and knitting needles... Related? or Unrelated? You be the judge!

Unspecified Leukodystrophy

2011-02-11T18:15:00.004-07:00

My nephew and niece, Bryce and Annalise, have been "diagnosed" with unspecified leukodystrophy. They are basically losing their muscle control, after completely normal early development. Their mom and a friend have set up a blog to keep people updated on the situation and give people a chance to help with the next adventure: genetic sequencing.

Check out the blog and donate if you're able. These are awesome, sweet little kids!!!

www.bryceannalisesjourney.blogspot.com

Big Opportunity

2011-02-07T13:57:00.002-07:00

Bryce is my nephew. He was a chubby, normal baby, and then his muscles started to go stiff. Since then, it has been non-stop tests, doctors, procedures and therapy and he's still the happiest little fellow ever. His "diagnosis" is more of a non-diagnosis, since doctors are unable to say what is really going on, only eliminate known illnesses.

If you know anyone that lives in Modesto, or anywhere close enough to drive there, please encourage them to attend this concert.

Helping Bryce will be worth the effort of attending the concert. My children pray for Bryce and his family every night. Plus, Ragtime music! What's not to love?!!!

I Made Soup on a Cold, Cold Day

2011-02-01T11:03:00.003-07:00

I got a call from Eric at school asking if I would come and pick them up when school ended, because it was so cold. Also that school was canceled for "tomorrow". That's today. I did not pick up the children, rather telling him that they could run home more quickly than I could drive over and wait in a stupid line of mini-vans to pick them up, and that I would have hot chocolate and cookies waiting. That's what we did. I guess the cold really makes you want to bake and cook stuff. Because then, for dinner, I decided to make soup and buns.

I usually make a creamy potato soup and that's pretty good, but I was picturing a delightful hot broth instead, but still with potatoes. So I went online and found a recipe for what I'm calling "Irish Potato Soup." I made "focaccia" buns, that is, buns made in muffin tins with dough intended for focaccia bread. The soup indeed featured a delightful hot broth, and I consider the whole dinner a success. Here's a link to the recipe:

www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/culture/recipes/cooking/tatosoup.shtm

My stinkin' keystrokes won't work for copying and pasting right now so I'm a little frustrated. I hope that link works. Anyway, here's the recipe that I made:

6 or 7 medium potatoes
2 medium onions (I used 1/4 c. dried minced onion)
1 T. butter
6 cups "stock" (I used chicken broth/stock left and frozen from cooking chickens)
parsley
salt and pepper (I used 2 t. salt and 1/2 t. pepper)

Peel and dice taters, chop onions. Melt butter and gently cook onion and taters in covered saucepan until soft but not colored. (I tried to do this but the onions started burning, so I added about 1/2 cup of water and cooked them with the lid on until I needed to add the broth for time reasons...) Add liquid, adjust seasoning to taste, seive if desired, serve in bowls garnished with parsley. I did not seive.

That's my news: delicious and not-too-bad-for-you potater soup with warming broth. Even Seth liked it and he's a broth-strainer. I made sure to tell him the broth was a main part of it. Anyway, good times!

Recent News of Wib

2011-01-05T10:22:00.003-07:00

Well, we had Christmas and New Years. Not really news. Everyone asks how I'm doing lately, so here's the fun update.

I was feeling pretty good through the whole Christmas break from school. Then last Tuesday I went to the endocrinologist and had my thyroid dosage changed. You need more when you're pregnant. So I started taking the higher dose the next day and within about 36 hours, morning sickness had returned! So, hooray! It is kind of good, though, because this is sort of the first time since my big cancer-ectomy that I've actually noticed any difference due to thyroid hormone. A couple other things changed as well, one of which is unmentionable here but greatly appreciated, and one of which will take longer to fix because it has to do with dry skin.

Anyway, that's the news of WIB.

Nice Try, Boneheads

2011-01-05T08:33:00.002-07:00

There's a news item in the paper this morning, about a "Twain scholar" who is "working with NewSouth Books in Alabama to publish a combined volume" of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The catch is that they're replacing the so-called "N-word" with the word "slave" in this edition. The hope is "not to offend readers."

Except that you just did.

You're a scholar? I think this is what is called "Revisionist Scholarship." You think you're better at writing dialogue characteristic of the time frame of the novel? You think you can eliminate ugly race relations from history by replacing a single word with another, far less appropriate word? Really?! You think you can somehow make this literature better? Better than Mark Twain, one of America's most beloved, revered, and respected authors? Really?! You think you can maintain the feel of the book without the at-the-time-extremely commonplace slang that made it great to begin with? Really?!

And FYI, "Twain Scholar," I hear this word several times a day walking past my house to high school, so you'll have to eliminate racist black high schoolers if you really want to change the history of this word. Maybe you should start a campaign to teach them to call each other "F#%$in' Slave." There. That would fix it.

I love Mark Twain. I love the readability of his novels and short stories. I love that they're about every-day people, and the dialogue and slang, although debated by wannabe scholars, are a good part of what makes these books great literature.

Something Vaguely Religious

2010-12-08T16:19:00.002-07:00

This is actually Pretty religious. It's directly from Sunday School this last Sunday. In the book of Ezekiel, 44th chapter and 23rd verse, I discovered something that needs to be done so desperately for people today. Here's the verse:

And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

Not enough people appreciate that there even IS a difference between holy and profane, and that they're on opposite ends of a spectrum. In the middle, I think, is "regular" and then it goes to "casual" and then to "irreverent" and onward toward "profane. On the other side of "regular" it goes to "special" and then to "reverent" and then onward toward "holy."

Profane is a word that could be WAY overused, if people took the time to recognize that it's still relevant. It's not just in speech, as in "speak using profanities." It's also in dress, attitudes, jokes, actions, and events. I love the word profane, for how descriptive it is.

There's your vague religion for the day.

Not Really News, but They're Funny

2010-12-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

Doesn't everyone just think they're children are so awesome and of course everyone is going to want to see pictures. Mine are looking kind of blurry.

1. Not very interesting but definitely cute. His second "birthday cake" was those Lemon Bites from Costco. Two of them. He just sat staring at the candles burning even though he's really good at blowing.

2. Army of Ninjas. What boy can turn 11 and not need a new Army of Ninjas? He got them over at Nickel-a-Play. We took him and his two friends for his birthday.

3. Even Big Boys Get Sleepy. I don't know why he was so sleepy. Maybe it was early evening. Often in the early evening, he just can't stay awake. His one leg gave out right after I took the picture and he got up.

4. Not in Focus, but Definitely Grumpy. That's my Julesie.

Just a little somethin' to keep ya coming back.

Quilt Retreat 2010

2010-12-04T11:06:00.000-07:00

Seth's mom and Aunt live next door to each other, about 4 1/2 hours from my place. A couple years ago I got the brilliant idea to invade their homes and mooch off them during spring break, fall break, a week during summer, or any other time I felt like inviting myself down. The idea is that I stay with Aunt Emma, who's also a quilt lady, and the kids go back and forth between Emma's and Grandma's. This way I get a lot of projects done and the kids don't have a terrible time. Quilt Retreat, I call it. I just went down there over fall break for a Quilt Retreat.

The first Quilt Retreat I did was maybe last year sometime. I don't really remember. I do remember promising details about it here on the old 'Blog. And here I am keeping that promise.

What I do is, I bring tons of half-finished projects, the bigger the better, and then work on stuff every waking hour, with the end-result being tons of finished projects. The first time, I stuffed the van to over-flowing and barely had room for the children. I also brought a lot of unreasonable projects. The last two times, I have brought stuff that's way more reasonable and do-able. Leaves room enough to bring the children's bikes. Anyway, here are some things I got done this last time, over Fall Break, despite feeling terrible because I have a Baby on Board.

1. Baby quilt. Sorry to spoil the surprise, Yara, if you're reading this. It's for Rafael. I started it during my Spring Break Quilt Retreat and it sat in my work room for 6 months. This time I machine quilted it, free-motion, and Emma helped me hand-stitch the binding on.

2. Wool project. I saw a stunning applique "bed rug" in a quilt catalog. It was a block of the month, costing nearly 1000 dollars when it was all said and done. I set about getting the supplies to make it out of 100% wool, pretty sure I could do it for slightly less than $1000. I'm gathering patterns I like from books and magazines, and for the materials, I've spent less than $200. I think I'm on track to achieve my goal. It's slow-going, though, since I apparently think I have until eternity to get my approximately one billion projects done. This is one I'm not thinking of abandoning. It's machine applique with invisible thread. This pattern is from William Morris in Applique.

3. I actually made two of this baby quilt. They're close to identical, just with different backing fabrics. The one Emma chose, the cuter one, is up top. This one is backed with the fun red print I chose, which is cute, but not the cuter fabric. I love the fronts of these quilts and envy the little boys who will snuggle with them. There are patches made of circuit-board print fabric, for crying out loud! I got this one machine quilted and Emma helped me bind it also.

4. Mending. I found these kids' jeans in a bag and knew they were in there for mending, not picnic quilts. I've mended the knees, which the children will blow out again within seconds of putting them on.

5. The Main Event: I, along with several friends, am making the O Tannenbaum quilt. I've talked about it before. The "block" for November was to make eight log-cabin blocks. I did the October block, another paper-pieced house, and then used the rest of my awake-and-feeling-good-enough-to-do-anything time to piece these monsters. I really had to push myself. I did them all at once, chain piecing and then pressing each log. I feel terrible for the ladies who did/are doing one block at a time. They will be sewing through the millennium, I think. Each log only comes out to 5/8 inch when it's all sewn in, so these seemed to be about 3 inches square for like two days. They never seemed to get any bigger! But I did it. It's a major accomplishment for me. And then the best part, was arranging them in my favorite log-cabin arrangement. They're stunning. Separately, all I see in each block is toil and sick-feelings. Together, they inspire me to make MORE log cabins!! Maybe...

These are some of the main things I accomplished at my Quilt Retreat this fall. I plan to go again, but maybe not until after school lets out and the baby's here and I feel awesome. But then again, maybe for Spring Break! Who knows?!

Photographic Essay: Smoky Hill High Student Trash

2010-12-03T08:53:00.004-07:00

My house is in a neighborhood that's right across the main thoroughfare from Smoky Hill High School. Then Laredo Middle School is just beyond that. I love this. As long as we're here, my children will never have to know the torment of The Bus. I had some Bad Bus Times, in middle school mainly.

So there's a lot of foot traffic through our neighborhood and past our house, with high school and middle school kids coming and going. Plus the High School has a an open campus and a weirdy three-on, one-off daily schedule, so the kids are going by pretty much all the time. Mostly they're kids that live over in Sunburst Townhomes. Bless its heart, some really great people live in Sunburst Townhomes, including the Incredible Zirker Family. But also some not-so-savory people live in there. It's a big place.

Here is my photographic essay of things left by these friends as they traipse past my home. And this is just from this morning, not including the trash I picked off the lawn yesterday and the things I've recently had to kick into the street for not wanting to touch them with my hands.

1. Random scrap of litter. Looks like a gum wrapper.

2. Straw. The kids are constantly going to 7-11 or Taco Bell and ditching their "leftovers" in public places like my sidewalk.

3. Cigarette pack. This was technically on the neighbor's lawn and I know they don't smoke... But at least the teens got their money's worth by going for the 100s.

4. Plastic baggie. This is far from the grodiest thing I've seen left by the miscreants...oops! I mean Leaders of Tomorrow!

...on looking more closely, though, you'll see why I decided to do this photographic essay.

Because I am enraged at the number of terminally ill students with chronic pain that have to walk themselves to high school! This is an outrage! Yeah. If you can't catch my feelings on "medical" marijuana, then perhaps I haven't been cynical enough here. Maybe I'll do a whole 'nother post on why medical marijuana is a farce and anyone who really thinks sick people need it real bad are lying to themselves and our state. Or maybe I just said my piece, amen.

Quilt Blockin'

2010-10-15T10:03:00.002-06:00

Here's a recent installment in the $5 Block o' the Month. They're really going half-square and quarter-square triangle crazy on these. It's a lot of triangles.

O Tannenbaum

2010-10-15T09:52:00.002-06:00

I have become involved in a block of the month, self-administered by a group of quilting and crafting friends. There are maybe five of us and we all went in on the pattern for a fabulous christmas quilt called O Tannenbaum. Here's a link to one of the many quilt shops online that have it:

www.quakertownquilts.com/OTannenbaum.shtml

Here's the first month's block. It's paper-foundation piecing. It's fun to see how each lady's fabrics make her block different, plus everyone's interpretation of the instructions...

Big WibNews!

2010-10-07T18:00:00.001-06:00

Baby #6 decided to stick around after all!

That's the whole news.

PS there's actually more: I went for an ultrasound today and there was a baby with a heartbeat and everything. Due date, May 20-something. That is all.

I Love Living Here!

2010-08-28T13:46:00.003-06:00

We live close enough to DIA, Buckley Air Force Base, the Air Force Academy, and several smaller airports that there is a good deal of air traffic over our home and in our surrounding skies. The cool thing is, you can totally hear when it's something totally cool, as opposed to just some commercial jetliner or somebody's private jet. And at Buckley, the fighter jets periodically go out on training missions or whatever, and they go in sets of two or three or sometimes four. I love this so much. I can hear the roar and run out my front door and see two or three superfast jets in the sky above my neighbor's house. Or else the huge military helicopters. I just love that they're not as diddly and weak as your usual air traffic.

So there's this park, and it's a lot closer to Buckley Air Force Base than my house. It's a major attraction because it has water-squirting features. We were at this park with some friends a few weeks ago. I heard the familiar roar of my beloved butt-kicker fighter jets, so I turned around to where I knew they'd be taking off and THEY WERE RIGHT THERE, right behind us. They were SO CLOSE. It was awesome. They're so loud and roar-y and they could totally kill you dead in a second if they wanted to. I love them. One took off, and then within a minute at most another one roared off the ground and then another one. I can't stress just how cool I think they are and how cool it is to be RIGHT THERE watching them take off from so close. It's like going to the air show but it's all the time.

And so, I conclude this topic with this statement: I love living here. It is the bombiest! Not real bombs. We mostly get fighter jets and not bombers anyway.

I'm No Realtor But This is My Take

2010-08-27T12:50:00.002-06:00

There's a new concept in finance lately, and that is the idea of being "upside-down" on your home loan, owing more money for your home than it's worth. I think this is a ridiculous idea and a stupid reason to be alarmed. The fact is, home "values" fluctuate so widely that maybe up to half the time, you ARE going to owe more than your home is "worth." Wah, wah, stop yer whinin' about being so-called "upside down" on a home loan because whatever you could re-sell your home for at any given point is for just that: a given point. It could be back up 50,000 dollars tomorrow (not likely though, eh?).

All I'm saying is that you KNOW when you sign all those trillion papers for a mortgage and home purchase, that you are agreeing to a pretty arbitrary price and that's the amount you're going to be on the hook for, for the next 30 years. I declare the following statement to be true: THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS BEING UPSIDE DOWN IN A HOME MORTGAGE, THERE'S ONLY BEING ON THE HOOK FOR A CERTAIN AMOUNT.

Squeamish Much?

2010-07-07T18:59:00.002-06:00

If you're easily grossed out and/or don't want to know the very intimate details of something I did the other morning, just skip to a different web page. Just go right now. I won't be offended.

But YOU might be offended if you stick around, because my news is GROSS.

I cleaned out my ears. I couldn't hear and my ears were hurting. I used a bulb syringe and some of those cleany drops. What is not in my ears anymore was FOUL. You know those cap-erasers for pencils? That you have to buy for school kids but which never get used? That is the approximate size and shape of what-is-not-in-my-ears-anymore. Yes, it's true. And after the first one appeared in the sink, I made Seth look at it. And then I heard the second one pop out of the other ear.

This is gross. This is truly disgustifying. I know this. But this is my news. For the last two days I have felt like I was wearing a plastic helmet because everything is so loud and echoey with my new ear-situation. Also there might have been a little water left in there because my ears are notorious for having water stuck in them. It's terribly grody news, but it's good news.

I Made a Delicious Salad

2010-04-29T19:41:00.002-06:00

I'm trying to make my weight shift, in any direction. Down is my preferred direction, but not any change has occured since I came home from the hospital with Scott. That's been long enough that I should see SOMETHING. So anyway, it's salad time!

I made a really delightful salad the other day, then made another even more delightful one the next day. Here is the "recipe:"

1 big huge handful of "Spring Mix" greens
2 T. craisins
2 T. slivered almonds
1 T. feta cheese, crumbled up
5 stuffed green olives
2 T. roasted red pepper vinaigrette dressing

Mix it all up in a serving bowl. Eat the whole thing yourself for lunch. It comes out to about 295 calories and leaves you wanting MORE! And that's saying a lot, for me, for a salad. It would also be good with other kinds of greens, plus croutons would be good in there but would add calories and not nutrition.

I dub this salad the "Wib." As in, "would you like the House Salad, the Caesar, or the Wib?"

I Stuffed a Pumpkin Full of Hush Puppies

2010-04-17T22:29:00.004-06:00

The hush puppies were left over from last week's Taste of Cherry Creek ward activity. I made Carolina BBQ as my ethnic dish. A week out, I didn't think they were worth keeping.

The pumpkin I grew in my garden last summer. I had the pumpkins in the boys' bedroom window because I don't have a root cellar. It's a little sunnier in the boys' window than in a root cellar, so some of the pumpkins didn't make it. This pumpkin was dry and tender. You try to pull it off the window sill by the stem and the stem flops right off, creating a perfect little Pup-hole. So I stuffed all the outdated hushpuppies into the pumpkin, en route to the compost heap out back. It was fun to stuff them in. I'd do it again in an instant.

Block O' the Month

2010-04-07T08:54:00.003-06:00

By lucky chance I went to a quilt shop just days before they were starting this year's "Last Saturday Sampler" also known as The Five Dollar Quilt. You pay five bucks. They give you a little kit to make a quilt block, including fabric and pattern. You come to the meeting on the Last Saturday of each month of the year. If you bring last month's finished block with you, you get the next month's kit for free. So at the end of the year, you've been able to make a quilt for five bucks. Plus there are prizes and drawings. At the meeting they just tell you what's going on at the shop and show you new products.

This is the finished block for January. I've done this once before, at a quilt shop in Sandy, Utah. Just last fall I put those blocks together into a quilt for my baby Scotty and it was good I already had them done, nine years ago, or else Scott might not have gotten a good baby quilt from me.

Just to Prove I'm a Stand-up Guy

2010-03-27T15:19:00.001-06:00

Here's another post, on consecutive days, to prove that I love people even though I don't regularly post items on my blog. Hey, I'm the girl that doesn't even regularly brush her hair. Tasks that must be done every day or almost every day are HARD. Plus my hair is naturally lovely, so...

A little info on this picture: This is another one of Eric's Bionicle dudes. He apparently did a whole photographic essay one day starring these guys. Please notice the burly armor at his wrists. Also that blue-flamey pillow case is one I made with the leftover fabric from the puffy-quilt I made for him to get him to give up the puffy blanket that goes with the toddler bed.

This One Goes Out to The Ones I Love

2010-03-26T15:14:00.003-06:00

Here is a random picture I just grabbed from a folder full of pictures with number-jumbled names. I couldn't see the thumbnails, so thank goodness it's a super-cool picture.

Eric loves to make up his own Bionicle dudes, then pose them and photograph them. In the background of his desk you can see the crystals he's growing. They're from a kit he got for his birthday.

Hope this makes it to anyone clambering for an update in the South Pacific, wink wink!

January 29th

2010-02-08T17:41:00.002-07:00

Planned Breakfast: Banana Muffins. I'll have to try these later because I have plenty of ripe mashed bananas in the freezer. It didn't work out for this morning because I used the sour cream for a Green Cake to take to the DiGiorno party instead of saving it for the banana muffins. I'm pretty sure we just had cereal. Plus Scott was sick and had a bad old night, so I was in No Mood to bake anything.

Planned Dinner: Tuna and Pasta Cheddar melt. I can really get behind this dinner, so it'll be on the menu again later. But this isn't what we had on Friday the 29th. No indeed, we made a big Pizza Pocket dinner, because Eric requested it. It was a ton of work, but we made them extra delicious by squirting them with Pam when they were fresh out of the oven and then sprinkling them with Italian Seasoning and Parmesan.

January 28th

2010-02-08T17:31:00.003-07:00

Breakfast: fruit and toast. I cracked open a #10 can of Tropical Fruit Salad from Sam's Club. I also put a loaf of bread and the Country Crock on the table. This was the extent of my breakfast-making.

Dinner: Polynesian meatballs. These are from Sherene Winkel out of the Apex/Holly Springs cookbook.

1 1/2 lb. lean ground beef
3/4 c. quick oats
5 oz. can water chestnuts, chopped
1/2 t. onion salt
1/2 t. garlic salt
1 t. soy sauce
1 egg
1/2 c. milk

Mix together and form into balls (I use the small cookie scoop). Bake at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes while you prepare the sauce.

8 1/2 oz. can crushed pineapple
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 T. cornstarch
1 c. beef broth (bouillon)
1/2 c. vinegar
2 T. soy sauce
1/2 c. chopped green pepper
1/2 c. chopped cooked carrots

Place undrained pineapple, brown sugar, bouillon, vinegar, and soy sauce in a pot and brint to a boil. Dissolve cornstarch in a little water and add to the pot. Add peppers and cooked carrots (I mash them with a fork). Simmer 10 minutes. Add to meatballs and serve over rice.

January 27th

2010-02-08T17:14:00.003-07:00

Breakfast: Chili Egg Casserole. I had this at the Visiting Teaching Brunch thinger and it was so good I kept eating it when the event was over and the ladies were leaving. I made a full batch for General Conference weekend, but the children balked at it and I was left eating it for a long time afterward. This time I only made a half-batch, and I blended up the chilis so they were unrecognizable. Scott and Seth both appreciate it as much as I do.

10 eggs
1/2 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
16 oz. cottage cheese
16 oz. shredded Jack cheese
1/2 c. melted butter (cooled)
8 oz. diced green chilies

Beat eggs until smooth and lemon-colored. Add flour, baking powder, salt, cottage cheese, jack cheese, and butter. Blend until smooth, stir in chilies. Bake in a greased 9X13 pan at 350 for one hour. I would probably use less butter next time... so the half batch is only 5 eggs, 1/4 cup flour, and etc., and cooked in a greased 8X8 pan.

Dinner: Kraft Parmesan Chicken and roasted vegetables. Well, I cheated and did chicken nuggets instead of the Parmesan chicken. The children ate those, and then Seth and I had leftover Restaurant chicken with the roasted vegetables. I roasted carrots, cauliflower, and potatoes. They come out so crisp-a-licious and salt-and-peppery.

Heat oven to 450. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil. Toss 1 lb. vegetables with 2 tsp. olive oil and 1/4 tsp. each of salt and pepper in pan. Roast for 20 minutes the following: potatoes, fennel slices, carrots, halved brussels sprouts. Roast for 15 minutes the following: cubed, peeled butternut squash, red pepper strips, cauliflower florets. Roast for 10 minutes: asparagus, red onion wedges, zucchini slices. Except that I just put the cauliflower in at the same time as the potatoes and carrots. And I use olive oil. And these are so delicious. The only thing that keeps me from eating a whole trays-worth is the threat of Southerly Winds, if you catch my meaning.

January 26th

2010-02-08T17:04:00.002-07:00

Breakfast: Overnight Oatmeal. This said to cook it overnight, but I started it in the crockpot before my show-watching time with Seth, so it had a long time to crock. As a result, it was a wee bit over done. Seth trooped onward and ate a bowls-worth, with milk to re-cream it. The children ate a couple bites total, except for Scott, who ate Jules' leftovers and most of Russell's leftovers. Here's the link

http://www.betterbudgeting.com/articles/frugal/breakfast.htm

It's the same place I got the Oatmeal Packets recipe. It'll be better in the future when I add more liquid and crock it for less time.

Dinner: Restaurant Chicken. This is from the George Foreman Grill Cookbook. It's actually called Pineapple-Honey Chicken Breasts, but it tastes like it could be from a restaurant, especially if you marinate the chicken in the sauce for a few hours. Here's the recipe:

1/4 c. soy sauce
1 t. ginger
1 t. oil
1 clove garlic
2 T. honey
4 chicken breasts
4 pineapple slices

Mix ingredients to form sauce. Marinate chicken if desired. Grill for 3 minutes, spooning sauce over chicken periodically. Top each with a pineapple slice and grill for 3-5 minutes more or until done. Serve with the extra sauce. I usually serve this with rice and then put the extra sauce/chicken juice over the rice.

January 25th

2010-02-08T17:01:00.002-07:00

Breakfast: pancakes, as usual.

Planned dinner: Chip's Mom's Meatloaf, from the Apex/Holly Springs cookbook. The name makes it sound like it's so good. BUT, I didn't have all the ingredients or the gumption to do it up. I remember making something else, but what? WHAT? Quesadillas? or something?

January 24th

2010-02-08T16:58:00.002-07:00

Breakfast: cereal. No frills.

Planned Dinner: is blank. I don't know how that happened. Actual dinner: leftover Potato Soup. So that worked out well. Not a very fancy food day, but we're not exactly starving over here in Chubbsville.

January 23rd

2010-02-08T16:56:00.002-07:00

Planned Breakfast: fruit? Actual Breakfast: cereal. Seth got up with the children and served out cereal. The rest of the day was spent making the Pinewood Derby car, until RaceTime.

Planned dinner: tacos. Actual Dinner: DiGiorno pizzas. Part of the party was door prizes. Our door prize was a cool clippy magnet and three coupons for pretty much the whole price - off. So on our way home from the Derby, we stopped and got the pizzas for free. Two of them were dinner, and one is in waiting for a very special date-night....

January 22nd

2010-02-08T16:48:00.002-07:00

Breakfast: French Breakfast Puffs. These sound fancy, but they're really just basic muffins dipped in butter and cinnamon-sugar. They're easy and as muffins go, pretty quick. Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmet
1/8 t. salt.

1 beaten egg
1/2 c. milk
1/3 c. melted butter

1/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon

Mix dry ingredients together. In another bowl, combine wet ingredients, then add to flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Fill 12 muffin cups and bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes. Immediately dip tops into 3 T. melted butter, then cinnamon-sugar. Two school kids, one accountant, and a toddler can finish all 12 in the blink of a bleary, sleepy eye.

Planned dinner: pizzas. Actual dinner: kids had mac and cheese before we dropped them at Hogues for Babysitters Club. We then went to Hamricks for the big DiGiorno party. They had a bunch of DiGiorno pizzas and we all ate them. That was the party. Then we also played a couple party games. And it's true: DiGiorno does make a better-than-usual frozen pizza.

January 21st

2010-02-08T16:37:00.002-07:00

Planned Breakfast: yogurt? Actual Breakfast: I don't remember. I'm going to go ahead and assume it was some kind of fruit and english muffins. That seems right.

Dinner: MexiChicken. This was a risky move, considering my experience with the "Southwest Chicken" just earlier. I did it anyway, because I like to live my life On the Edge. This recipe is from Jenae Bethers (out of the Apex/Holly Springs ward cookbook), whom I freaked out at a Stampin' event by knowing her name and her husband's name even though we had never met. This cookbook is one of the reasons why I knew her name. Plus, last name Bethers. That's a dang catchy little last name. Anyway, the MexiChicken came out way better than the Southwest. It was delicious in leftovers for lunches later in the weeks. Here's the recipe:

4 chicken breasts
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small box frozen corn
3 T. chopped cilantro
1 c. salsa
salt and pepper
chili powder

Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Brown and add all remaining ingredients. Simmer until chicken is tender.

I blended up the tomatoes to avoid chunk-rejection, and although I usually make it a point not to drain or rinse canned beans, I did this time, to make sure the recipe wasn't Wibis-ized in a bad way. Didn't wanna wreck it. Also I served this with rice. The rice, mixed in with all the beans and corn and whatnot, made it a delightfully complete dinner.

Quiet Books: the Amazon Pattern Link

2010-01-31T14:49:00.002-07:00

So, I got this thing started with my sisters about quiet books and I said that if Amazon had the pattern books for sale that I use, then I'd post a link here. And so I'm doing that with this caveat: Don't buy these books from Amazon. Do not pay 49.50 for a $1.50 book. I will hook you up, sisters. I'm just putting these up in case you wanted to laugh and swallow your own tongue at the same time by viewing these ludicrous listings.

This one is for How to Make an LDS Quiet Book by Ann F. Pritt
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0877471169/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&qid=1264974503&sr=8-1&condition=used

and this is for the Child's ActivityBook by Rhonda Schomas and Linda Alvstad. It's not as big of a tongue-swallower, but it's still a little pricey. My copy originally cost someone 2.50:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0877477108/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&qid=1264974775&sr=1-1&condition=used

I love these books. They're Number One! And I'll hook you up, sisters, so no worries.

January 20th

2010-01-21T12:14:00.002-07:00

Planned breakfast: scrambled eggs and sausages. Ahh! Now I remember what we had last Friday morning. I had had to skip the eggs and sausages on my first Strike day, so I stuck it in on Friday. But I was only going to have the eggs and sausages on the wednesday because I didn't have the ingredients yet that I needed for my actual planned breakfast, Huevos Hyacinth, from the Pioneer Woman's cookbook. And so, I swapped it in for this week. So it was just going to be a simple wednesday-to-wednesday swap until the strike. Got that? So Actual Breakfast: Huevos Hyacinth. This was an adventure in trust, because it's ham with tomato slices, an egg, and cheese over the top, broiled in the oven. The surprise: Eric had to eat his first, since he goes to school early on Wednesdays for choir, and as he was eating his little remekin's worth of Huevos Hyacinth, he actually said, "Hey, this is pretty good, mom!"

Dinner: Potato Soup. It's good we made this, because the children went to the dentist and were advised to eat soft foods for dinner. This is good and soft. And because we went to the dentist, we had to make the dinner early and I went the extra mile and made the butterhorns to go with.

Potato Soup:

6 potatoes, peeled and diced
4 carrots, diced
6 celery stalks, diced
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1 1/2 c. milk
1 c. minced onions
6 T. butter
6 T. flour

Cook vegetables in enough water to cover them. Sautee onions in butter, in another pan. Stir in the flour, salt, and pepper. Then stir in milk and keep stirring until it thickens. Add this sauce mix into the vegetable pot and simmer until the buns are done, maybe 15 or 20 minutes.

Wib's Buns: (This is just the recipe in the Better Homes cookbook)

1 T. yeast
1 c. milk, warmed up
1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. shortening or butter
1/2 t. salt
2 eggs
4-5 c. flour

Proof yeast with milk and sugar. When it's foamy, add remaining ingredients, with just 2 or 3 cups of flour. I do this in the Kitchenaid mixer. Mix, adding remaining flour gradually until the dough isn't really sticky anymore. Knead for 6-8 minutes. Let rise one hour (or until double) then punch down. Divid the dough in half, and roll out each half into a 12-16 inch circle. Butter each circle, then slice into 12 wedges with a pizza cutter. Roll up each wedge from the fat edge toward the point, lining them up on a tray with each sitting on its point. Let rise one hour or until nearly double. Bake at 375 for 12 to 15 minutes or until goldeny brown.

January 19th

2010-01-21T11:57:00.002-07:00

Planned breakfast: Oatmeal. Yeah, well, I haven't sat down and made the packets up yet, plus Seth said an unprovoked comment about how much he likes the Bob's RedMill hot cereal, so I made that instead. It was the apple-cinnamon variety. It didn't all get eaten, but that was mostly Russell's fault; there was no whining, I'm pleased to report.

Dinner: Chicken and Fruit Salad Pockets. Trying new recipes. Thank you, Narda Dudley (her real name). This one turned out to be really delicious, especially since I left out the celery. Nothing ruins really delicious chicken salad for me like celery.

Salad mixture:

3 c. chopped cooked chicken
3/4 c. seedless grapes, cut in half
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. slivered almonds, toasted (I forgot to toast them and it was still good)
11 oz. can mandarin orange segments, drained

Dressing:

2 1/2 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1/2 c. low-fat plain yogurt
1/2 c. light mayonnaise
1 T. vinegar

Combine chicken, grapes, celery (bleah), almonds, and oranges. Mix sugar, salt, pepper, yogurt, mayonnaise, and vinegar for dressing. Pour dressing over salad mixture; toss gently. Serve in 6 pita pockets, cut in half.

I used sour cream instead of the yogurt, because that's what we had. I also used full-strength mayonnaise. Again, Narda Dudley, I thank you for this recipe.

January 18th

2010-01-21T11:50:00.002-07:00

Planned Breakfast: pancakes. Every monday, pancakes. We really like pancakes. Please find our pancake recipe below:

Planned Dinner: Alphabet Meatball Soup. Actual dinner: I was at Dorothy's all day making "chocolate" candy to use up the candy stuff that's been on my counter and in my china cupboard for a year, so I didn't do the alphabet meatball soup. It's good, though, so I'll get the recipe up here in the future. What we had for dinner was the leftover Penne alla Wib, except that Seth had that for lunch already, so I made him his own dinner of Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup. The children were jealous, but as per our agreement, they didn't whine.

Pancakes: everybody has a recipe and most are pretty good, but we make this one. Many times we double it and have no problem eating them all.

1 c. flour
1 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 beaten egg
1 c. milk
2 T. oil

I mix together the dry ingredients, add the liquid ingredients, stir, and cook on a hot griddle. And I NEVER add leftovers (love you Mom!)

January 17th

2010-01-21T11:47:00.002-07:00

Sunday. My planned breakfast on Sundays is: cold cereal. I don't eat breakfast on sundays because of having to wait an hour after popping my pill and also getting grumpy Russell ready for church.

Planned dinner: Honey Mustard Chicken. We'll have to visit this one later as well, because it's not what we made. I guess the whole Strike thing really threw me off my game plan. What we actually made was the Pioneer Woman's Penne alla Betsy, but Wibisized, so Penne alla Wib. She puts dang shrimps in hers, and I'm gaining more of a shellfish allergy the older I get. So I swapped out the shrimps for pretty delicious Italian Sausages. I've never bought fresh basil before, and it was dang expensive, but in all, this was a pretty good dinner and I'll probably make it again in the future. It's a special dinner, though, since it takes that pricey herb plus the pricey sausage, plus heavy cream.

January 16th

2010-01-21T11:39:00.002-07:00

Planned breakfast: waffles? I wrote the question mark on the planning sheet. You just never know if you're going to feel like it on a Saturday morning. Actual breakfast, made by Seth while I slept in just a little bit: waffles. How's that for being on the same page?! Plus we had a super-old jar of strawberry jam, out of which the sugar had migrated, so that it actually looked like a jar of bacon grease in the fridge, and we melted it down and had the kids eat it on their pancakes. They wouldn't eat it as jam in that condition, so GOTCHA AGAIN!

Planned dinner:Pioneer Woman Twice Baked Potatoes. ...and this is what we had. I actually worked hard and made a delicious dinner on a Saturday. She said they freeze well, so I made her full 8-potato recipe and froze the leftovers for lunches. I'll be the judge of whether they freeze well or not.

Here's our waffle recipe:

2 eggs
2 c. flour
1 3/4 c. milk
1/2 c. oil
1 T. sugar
4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt

Beat eggs, add remaining ingredients and beat just until smooth. Bake in preheated waffle iron.

We sometimes swap out 1/4 c. of the oil for applesauce. This is actually from Betty Crocker. Our waffle iron is pretty big, like almost Belgian, and these rise up and fill it no problem.

January 15th

2010-01-21T11:33:00.002-07:00

Planned breakfast: German Pancakes. We'll catch up with that one later, because I already bought the special fruit-topping ingredients. Instead of this, though, we had what? Cold cereal? Pancakes again? I honestly can't remember. I do remember getting up and making something, because I had to get the little boys up and go volunteer at school that morning.

Planned dinner: Calzones. Actual dinner: mac-n-cheese for the children, before we dropped them off at the babysitters club. For our date, we had a frozen pizza followed by cream-cheese-and-salsa dip (all you can eat) and an apple pie we threw together. Not at all healthy, but a pretty good date night. It made me feel TERRIBLE!

January 14th

2010-01-21T11:26:00.002-07:00

Planned Breakfast: fruit and toast. I think Seth got these things out and helped the children. I certainly didn't.

Planned dinner: "Chinese" chicken with rice. I have a jar of Hoisin sauce left over from the big Blue and Gold banquet a while ago and I was going to whip up something vaguely chinese yet distinctly delicious. Here's what happened instead.

After reassuring my family that I was absolutely serious about my demands and my refusal to go any further under the current conditions, and after some tearful hugs and at least one apology (from the barfer, thank goodness), I relented. We discussed the demands and how truly un-demanding they really are, and I think we all agreed that going forward, we can do better. I made them promise and double-promise that the demands would continue to be met. And then I pulled the Greatest Culinary Trick of the year! I made dinner: chicken quesadillas using the scorned Southwest Chicken leftover from Monday night! Haha!, Children! You ARE eating it! I got you!!! And they loved it. Because I DON'T MAKE GRODY FOODS!

And so I'm back, full force, and I haven't had a balk incident yet.

January 13th

2010-01-13T14:45:00.003-07:00

Just to be consistent: the breakfast my family missed today by dissing me last night, was scrambled eggs and sausages.

The dinner they'll miss tonight by dissing me last night, is Penne alla Wib.

I'm sticking to my guns. My demands are not unreasonable. Maybe I'll go eat some Pumpkin Roll right now. Maybe that's one of my demands, too, a piece of Pumpkin Roll. I demand cake rolled up with cream cheese frosting!

January 12th

2010-01-13T14:27:00.002-07:00

...my breaking point.

For breakfast, I made delicious Bob's Red Mill 7-grain cereal, and I mix in honey so it's extra tastey. Seth still stirs in even more brown sugar, but whatever. At least he eats it without whining. Jules also does a pretty good job of just enjoying it. Eric, however, started pouting the moment he came upstairs and saw it. This makes me feel angry. It would be one thing, if it were a foul and disgusting meal I was cooking up, like Scrapple. But this is delightful, honey-filled 7-grain hot cereal, not nearly as disgusting as oatmeal. So this day didn't start off that well, food-wise, between me and Eric.

Dinner was Hamburger Soup. I'll give you the recipe if you want to make it, because it did turn out pretty good. But here's what happened. Eric came home from school and saw that in the crockpot. He instantly started pouting and balking, which of course, makes me extremely defensive. Bud, we've never even tasted this, not one of us. You have to at least TRY it before you start making me feel unhappy with your attitude. Every time he saw it he would try to insist that we'd had it before and that it was terrible. When we sat down to dinner, he put his head down and tried to cover his dish. He sat there eating toast but not the dinner. After Webelos, he knew he was going to have to come home and eat that dinner. Well, at Webelos I guess they were talking about Emergency Preparedness or First Aid or something, because he came home saying how he'd almost fainted, and he'd gotten really pale and cold. So, ok. When you almost faint, is it because of the topic? or is it because you haven't had anything to eat since lunch? Hmmm? So you better get in there and fill your tummy with something warm and delightful.

He went in and sulked and pouted until we made a deal. He's not a baby anymore. Still, this is the deal we made: he would eat 11 bites, because he is turning 11 this year. I estimated that would probably just finish off the whole bowl and that's why I agreed to this deal. He got four bites in, then went to the fridge for a drink of milk. I am convinced that he was more than happy about what he did next, which was to barf the whole thing back up, onto the kitchen floor. He did get the next several heaves into the sink, and he rinsed it down, mostly because seeing yuck makes him ralph, not because he's super-considerate. I sent him away to bed. My rage and disgust were rising in my gut, much the same way the soup and vomit rose in his gut. And so now, with that final insult, I am on strike. I will not make food if you are going to pout and insult me and then vomit it back onto my kitchen floor. You can eat the leftovers from the last two nights' dinners until they are delicious to you. I stayed in my bed this morning and did not make the dinner I had planned out, sausage and scrambled eggs (one of Eric's most favorites). I will not be making dinner tonight, which was planned to be a variation on the Pioneer Woman's Penne alla Betsy, but with sausage instead of shrimp. I will not do any of this, until my demands are met.

Here are my demands, in case you were wondering:

An Apology
No more sulking or balking at food. If I were serving grody food, that would be one thing, but I'm not.
Table manners from the whole family, including sitting on your bottom, holding your utensils like civilized people, and using words like "Please pass.." and "May I..."
Spontaneous thanks and praise for the deliciousness of the food cooked

and
appropriate comments to me, such as You look nice, or You smell nice.

This is not very much to ask. I am confident that my demands will be met. I am serious.

Here is the Hamburger Soup recipe:

1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
1 c. chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
5 c. water
28 oz. can tomatoes (undrained)
2 T. beef bouillon or 6 cubes
2 c. frozen hash browns (I just grated up some potatoes)
1 c. frozen peas and carrots
sour cream (optional)

In a crock pot, combine all ingredients except sour cream; mix well. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours. Stir before serving. Serve with sour cream, if desired. I also added

1 1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
bay leaf

and I topped it with grated Romano cheese. I'm really digging some Romano cheese lately. Also I would add a smidge less onion, maybe 1/2 cup, and I would grind up the tomatoes in the blender next time, because the chunks really were too large.

January 11th

2010-01-13T14:20:00.003-07:00

Here's where it starts. Monday, January 11th.

Breakfast on monday is pancakes, always pancakes. That went just fine. I made the regular batch instead of the double because Russell is spending the week at Grandma's and he's one of the piggiest pancake eaters.

But then dinner: I had planned Supper Nachos. This is one of our party dinners because it involves tortilla chips, but sometimes we have it on weeknights. Instead of this, though, I made the Southwest chicken I was going to make on Sunday, with refried beans and spanish rice on the side. I taught the children how to get your mexican-food-platter going, with cheese over everything. And they balked, and they claimed they were full, and they pouted, and they dragged their feet. I finally had to make deals with both of them, involving them eating the beans and rice and me eating their chicken. Wah Wah!! Mom made something I don't recognize! Wah. Now I admit, this will probably not show up in my rotation again without some major modifications, but come ON!! They were balking before they'd even tried it. Eric especially. Here's the recipe, in case you love tomatoes more than me:

4 boneless skinless chix breasts
1 t. ground cumin
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 T. olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 c. picante sauce
1/3 c. sour cream
avacado slices
chopped cilantro

Sprinkle chicken with cumin, salt, and pepper. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Cook chicken and garlic in oil until lightly browned, about 2 minutes per side. Add picante sauce. Cover and simmer until chicken is tender, about 10 minutes (I left mine for like 45 minutes because the chix was so fat). Remove chicken to serving platter. Keep warm. Stir sour cream into skillet juices until well blended and heated through. Spoon over chicken. Top with avocado slices and sprinkle with chopped cilantro. Serves 4.

Mine may have been too tomatoey because I'm using a type of picante sauce called Herdez, and it is really tomatoey. Also the chunks are really big. Plus we don't eat avocados and I didn't have any cilantro, so maybe that affected the taste. It wouldn't have mattered for the children though, since they barely even tasted it.

January 10th

2010-01-13T14:18:00.002-07:00

Breakfast at Grandma's, instead of the cold-cereal we would have had at home. I think she served Biscuits and Gravy, one of Seth's all-time favorites.

Dinner was at home, but it was no big deal. I had planned to make Southwest Chicken with refried beans, but instead we took the we-just-got-home-and-unpacked route with super-easy spaghetti and frozen meatballs. Also salad. I bought lettuce this week, so we're having salads again.

January 9th

2010-01-13T14:16:00.002-07:00

Happy Birthday, Bro! You know who you are! We bought a van on your birthday!

So we were at my in-laws, though. Which means I didn't cook squat. I did toast me a bagel, but that doesn't count.

For breakfast I had planned french toast, because I also went a little bread-crazy at the bread store, but that'll have to wait until we're home on a Saturday.

For dinner I had planned Seth's favorite casserole, which is a standard at our place involving carrots, potatoes, and hamburger meat, and oddly-enough, named after a different Seth. I'll shoot you the recipe later, because it's bound to show up again.

January 8th

2010-01-13T14:10:00.003-07:00

Breakfast: apple pumpkin muffins. These I got from Cindy Savoldi, and they're really delicious. The streusel topping really does it. The only problem is that it takes for-evah to make them. I got all the wet and dry ingredients all measured out and ready the night before and it was still 40 minutes until they were in the oven next morning. Here's the recipe:

2 1/2 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c. pumpkin
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 c. finely chopped apples

In a large bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. In a medium bowl, combine eggs, pumpkin, and oil. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Stir in apple. Spoon batter into 18 paper-lined muffin cups; sprinkle streusel topping over batter. Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Streusel topping: 2 T. flour
1/4 C. sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
4 t. butter

knife or pastry-blender this until it looks like coarse crumbs.

Dinner: planned Burgundy Chicken which I'll have to try and give out the recipe for later, because instead of having dinner at home, we drove to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the weekend so we could buy our new van. It's about a four hour drive away. Instead of this dinner, we had Bagel-Meat sandwiches and cheese and crackers in the van on the way down, it being one of our goals not to spend money on eating out in January. But the bagel-meat sandwiches were delightful. Also we ate Grandpa's leftover San Luis Valley Pizza Company pizza when we arrived, and it was Fabulous!!

January 7th

2010-01-13T14:04:00.002-07:00

Breakfast: Fruit and toast. Pretty easy. I just open a #10 can of peaches from Sam's, put a loaf of bread near the toaster, and get out the butter. This morning we actually had bagel toast because I went slightly bagel-crazy at the breadstore on Tuesday. 1.89 bagels were buy-one-get-one, so I bought two and got two. So, four total. But then if you spend so much you get one free, and I got two free, and all that was on the free shelf was, you got it, Bagels. So two more bags, for a total of six. We were pretty liberal with the bagels that whole week.

Dinner: Quiche. I got a bag of some kind of yellow stuff with chunks from The Place last summer. I just squeezed half of it into a pan and baked it, only to discover when I took it out of the oven that it was quiche filling. Then this next part still has me buzzing with how fantastic it is: on our way home from Webelos, Eric and I stopped at the store for a certain meat deal that was sold out. Ok, so be it. But PIE CRUSTS!! Pie Crust 2-packs were on sale for a buck!! I put four in our basket. Then on the back of each box I noticed a coupon for a dollar-off-two-boxes, bringing the per-box total to 50 cents and the per-crust total to 25 cents. I came home with eight boxes-- and I'm still super-psyched about having so many pie crusts ready to go!! Anyway, that was serendipitous, because I had already planned quiche for thursday, and therefore had the crust all ready to go. I told the children it was a fun breakfast pie called quiche and they ate their pieces pretty well. I thought it was astonishingly delicious, especially for something from The Place.

January 6th

2010-01-13T14:00:00.002-07:00

Breakfast: Toad-in-a-hole. I sometimes call this Pig-in-a-hole because it sounds funny. Funnier. Anyway, I got the "recipe" for this from the Pioneer Woman's cookbook, and I really like it. My family really likes it. Seth had two this morning, so, his compliments to the chef.

Dinner: Pioneer Woman Comfort Meatballs with mashed potatoes. Obviously from her cookbook. These were delicious. I would add a smidge less onion next time, but next time is still two times away, because I had to double the recipe, which I then divided into three dinners-worth. Confusing? I know. It's a pound and a half of meat, and we usually just go One Pound. So when I doubled it, it was three One Pound sections, two of which are in the freezer. Does anybody know if mashed potatoes freeze well? Because then I could just have the whole dinner ready to thaw and serve. Look into these meatballs. They're like little mini meat-loaf-balls or something.

Tuesday January 5th

2010-01-13T13:54:00.002-07:00

Breakfast: planned cream-o-wheat, actually had oatmeal. I make my own instant oatmeal packets with a recipe I got online at http://www.betterbudgeting.com/articles/frugal/breakfast.htm and the children tolerate them reasonably well. I dehydrated my own strawberries and blueberries to put in them, too, to make fancy flavors.

Dinner: Pioneer Woman Simple, Perfect Chili, from her cookbook. My friend Jess went with my sister-in-law Gretchen and me to the book signing. We had to leave without getting our books signed because of the extreme enormity of the crowd and due to Jessica's curfew of 10pm. The missionaries were coming for dinner and we fed them chili last month when they came over, too, but I forged on, because New Recipe! It was pretty good chili, made especially delightful by sour cream, cheddar, and fritos piled high. Even the children thought it was pretty good. No big tomato chunks.

The Explanation

2010-01-13T13:52:00.002-07:00

Here is what I did: I sat down one day (January4th) and wrote up a list of all the breakfasts we'll have for the months of January and February. Then I also wrote up a list of all the dinners we'll have for January and February. Lunches I left to chance and leftovers. Many of the dinners and several of the breakfasts will be new recipes, gleaned from ward and community cookbooks. So I'll be web-logging my success or anti-success with the menus and the recipes. Looks like I'll have to catch up a bit...

Speaking of AWESOME~

2010-01-04T17:20:00.002-07:00

I can't come up with original web content myself, but I can poach stuff like this from other sites. This is, once again, from verydemotivational.com .

I Don't Usually Find Cool Stuff Online

2009-11-24T14:13:00.002-07:00

...but I did today. I regularly check failblog, mostly for videos of people falling down, but also for funny pictures of doofy stuff. They're great because you can get the site to filter out all the yuck with a g-rated option. But then they have all these links to other fun stuff. And as you can see on the picture I lifted, this one is from a link to verydemotivational.com, which is all posters like this. Some of them are very coarse, so use extreme caution. This guy was just so...well...awesome! I just had to bring him to my blog.

Babysitters Club

2009-10-01T10:20:00.002-06:00

Four Families. Twelve Children. Four Fridays in a row.

This was our night and our little place was swarming with little people. Not midgets, children. We tried to get as much of the fun into the picture as possible. That's me in the corner feeding a not-my-baby. It is fun to have date nights every week, though.

Pre-Wash

2009-10-01T10:17:00.003-06:00

Here are the 24 little socks on my piano after they were all knitted up but before they were shrink-washed. Oh, 23 little socks, since the prototype one was already washed and down in the work room. This was a fun project. My picture isn't as artistic as Jessica's. Oh well!

More and Better Carrots This Year

2009-09-30T14:28:00.001-06:00

Last year we had six or eight measly, miniature carrot-type plants. This year, with the help of my Vegetable Gardener's Bible, I had a bumper crop of humongous carrots, with thick, lushy greens. I tilled my soil deep, like 12-15 inches deep. I added compost and manure to the soil. I threw the seeds down on the soil all over the wide row and covered them with a board until they started sprouting. Then I took off the board and let 'er rip. They really stepped up and grew like crazy. I came back from my quilt retreat (more info on that later) and 90% of the carrots were ready to harvest RIGHT NOW, so I had to bring them in. Some I used right away, some I dehydrated, some I cooked into baby food for Scotty. Some are still in the fridge drawer, I think.

Anyway, following the advice of a real gardener produces real results. I need a different variety next year. These were all super fatty and a tad stumpy, which is what they were supposed to be, but I prefer a slightly more slender carrot.

Turns Out I AM Awesome

2009-09-29T14:16:00.001-06:00

Check out my friend Jessica's blog. She took this fabulous, artistic picture of the socks. I, on the other hand, am the GENIUS who made them. Aren't they SO GREAT?! We took the first sock class together and Jess made a comment about wouldn't it be fun to make 24 little socks from wool and felt them down in hot water, and then string them up for an advent calendar? And you can put little treats in or poems or Christmas activities or whatever you want.

So I did it this summer. Actually, it only took three weeks or so to make all 24. I made them all different, and if I do say so myself, all cute. Since it was worsted weight yarn, it didn't take long to make each one, and I gave them to Jessica as a late birthday/very early christmas gift. The good thing about Jess, is that if I do something that is awesome, she is totally appreciative. She's the girl that will yell out how FABULOUS the gift is, before falling down on the floor praising my handiwork. So, she makes a good friend. It's a good way to get people to make you stuff, too, girl.

I'm not as internetly at Jess, but she tells me this picture of the socks has been adopted into some groups on Flickr or something. So, I guess some things I do turn out to be pretty rad.

Doin' This Lately

2009-09-28T10:31:00.002-06:00

Well, I haven't been posting any news lately, even though I do have some news. And that's my bad.

So here's a little taste of what I've been doing lately:

My friend Jess is an instigator. She is forever calling me up and saying,"Look at this cool new thing. Look at that awesome pattern." and etcetera. So she calls me up saying she wants to get back in and get some Quiet Books done and she's got this great new pattern. And I have to agree, it's pretty fabulous.

They're all monsters on every page, and there is one with a zipper and in its mouth are finger puppets, there's the puzzle one you see here, the tic-tac-toe one you see here, a dress-up one, and basically just a ton of fun stuff for little ones. I'm thinking maybe I'll make this for Scotty for Christmas. I'd better get it done STAT because my Christmas project-line-up is ever-growing.

You can get the patterns online at copycrafts' etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6034253

She has a bunch of other real cuties, like the All About Shoes one and the Bug one and the new one that my friend Jess is lovin', Under the Sea. Anyway, check it out and wish me luck getting all my projects finished!

She Just Gets So Excited to be Done

2009-09-10T15:04:00.002-06:00

Jules just came home with a funny worksheet she did today in school.

The animals are holding the last letters of some word families, and then to go with the pictures on their tummies, there are lines and all you have to do is fill in the one letter that will go with the letters the animals are holding. The words you're spelling all rhyme and match the pictures.

So, ok, example:

The bear is holding "ing" and you fill in King next to the king picture, Ring next to the ring picture, and Wing next to the wing picture.

So far so good, right? The elephant is holding "an" and the words are Fan, Pan, Man.

The Monkey is holding "at" and this is where you start to see trouble, but it's understandable:
Bat, Hat, Maws.

And then the really hilarious part is the giraffe, holding "ug" and the words Jules has by the three pictures are:

Bedl
Badl
Mat

I am laughing and laughing about this.

For those of you not used to decoding first grader spelling, the words Jules wrote were Beetle, Bottle, and Mat.

And for those of you still not getting why this is so hilarious, the pictures were of Bug, Jug, and Rug.

And for the record, Jules is upstairs right now experiencing Rage Against the Machine. I suspect she's just really tired, but it's pretty funny. She started going hysterical when I said that Dawn and Serina could not come play because we've got piano lessons in an hour or so. And then Jules asked me if we could go to Dairy Queen, which I also had to Nix. And then she came back all bleary eyed and asked, couldn't we drop Eric off at piano lessons and then go to Sonic or Dairy Queen. And with this last insulting no, she couldn't handle it anymore and flew off her handle.

I May Only be the SECOND Funniest Lady On Earth

2009-09-02T15:30:00.004-06:00

A couple fun things:

Several months ago, the children were playing and they came to show me their weapons. Eric had several swords tucked in his belt. Russell had a couple pistols tucked in his belt. And tucked in Jules belt, deadly Magic Markers. Oooooh! Stay away from that one!

Also several months ago, Jules asked me if the tangerines were "oranges or orangatangs?"

Then just the other day she picked up a sweet potato from the counter and asked me if it was for Scotty. I said Yes and she asked,"A Yak? For Scotty?"

I always thought I was pretty much the funniest person ever, but I may have been bypassed by someone even more hilarious!

Our Activity Tonight

2009-08-31T19:30:00.001-06:00

We're playing Connect Four for Family Home Evening and I've been looking at the box. It took me awhile to find our box online and it's a tiny picture, but if you can zoom in and see the kids on this box, you will understand when I say that they are hopped up on some crazy hasbro goofballs or SOMETHING, because DANG!

Crossing the Street

2009-08-26T17:38:00.002-06:00

I've had a little problem for quite a while now. It's going to sound like I'm an ungrateful wretch. But if I can save one person from enduring the torment I've had to go through, it's worth it.

The problem is this: I will be standing at the curb. It's obvious I want to cross the street or parking lot. And so cars coming will slow down and stop, right in the middle of traffic, to let me cross. At first glance it seems like a nice thing, right? Well IT'S NOT AND I WISH THEY WOULD KEEP GOING!

My point is this: just get out of my way already so I can cross SAFELY. Usually I'll have little kids with me, or else I'll be all loaded down with a baby in a car seat and shopping bags plus holding some little kid's hand. So my question to the guy stopping is, REALLY? You REALLY want me to drag all this out in front of your running vehicle while you back up traffic for no reason? REALLY?? Because I'm already stopped here, waiting for you to go somewhere else, out of my way.

To combat this extremely unwanted "courtesy" I usually avert my eyes. Sometimes they're so insistent on "being nice" that they sit and wait, even though my eyes are averted. At times like this it's convenient to have a kid around, since you can pretend you're doing something with the child or teaching him something or chatting. But the thing that brought this to a head for me, was that one day I was out with all four of my little ones and this happened. I averted my eyes and the driver eventually moved on. Then at another store, another dang driver did this to me and waited through all my eye aversion and kid-chat stalling, and then HONKED AT ME to go, even though as a mother and responsible adult, I felt it was UNSAFE TO DRAG MY CHILDREN INTO THE STREET IN FRONT OF YOUR CAR!!!! Don't HONK at me, hoser! Just move along and we'll all be SO MUCH HAPPIER!

In conclusion, I would like to applaud true courtesy, which in my view, is getting your fanny out of other people's way.

Nice Fort

2009-08-23T22:11:00.000-06:00

Are those your henchmen, there in the front? Protecting you and your doll-high-chair walls from dangerous villains? And I like that sturdy paper wall, there on the left. Keep up the good construction work, boys!

They only take pictures of the REALLY COOL stuff.

How Artsy

2009-08-22T22:08:00.000-06:00

Sometimes Eric comes to me and asks if he can take a picture of his latest Bionicle Robot Monster Creation. And I let him. This is what was on the camera, in amongst the action shots of Toa Maris or whatever they are called. So, pretty arts shot there, son. Can I get that in the 8 X 10?

Family History Moment

2009-08-21T21:59:00.002-06:00

We had a family history moment -- back in May. Checked it out in PAF and here's my great-great grandmother's burial place, listed as Denver, Denver, Colorado. So I looked it up and it's just up the street. I've passed the cemetery many a time. Several a time, I guess is more accurate since I make it a point not to drive around if I can avoid it. She's totally got us tricked, though, and I would never have found her if not for the cemetery office. On MY family history, she's Mary Manita Clark, married to a guy named Miner. And that's NOT what's on the stone pictured above. The awesome lady in the office gave me a photocopy of the original burial record card (funeral arrangements by Horan McConaty just over by Seth's work) PLUS told us that there are two family plots available to anyone who can prove descendency..... We're not likely to jockey around and try to get those plots, since I suspect the Coughlins may be just a smidge more entitled, but Seth and I agreed that it is a fabulous cemetery, and double-bonus that it's in an area where you can have stick-up headstones. For some reason, that's important to me, to be able to have a stick-up headstone when I die.

Anyway, I have an actual official link to Denver, in addition to being married to a guy from Colorado. Maybe I'm a daughter of a Colorado Pioneer after all!

One Thing I Learned on the Trek

2009-07-25T22:33:00.003-06:00

Here's something I learned on the trek.

Something I don't like about fellows is: loogies. Out in the wilderness, ok, I can see where you might need to spit out some spittle sometimes. That's forgivable. But then there are these guys that are just snorking and splocking and out comes a big old nasty loogie, accompanied by an equally despicable sound. That's just not ok. Where are you doing that at home? Does that end up on your carpet, then? since it's so ok with you just to leave that big pile of goober all over the place? Even out in the trekkin' wilderness, that's just not cool. I do not like it.

I Love Technology - Old Technology

2009-06-29T15:17:00.003-06:00

My dad got the Clie for his first year teaching English in China. He didn't use it as much as he thought he might. When he got home the next summer, he was constantly asking me questions and I was every time answering with,"Got it right here in my Palm" which was a Handspring Visor Edge. Thanks for that, Dan. So anyway, a while later, my dad decided the Clie would have a better home with me.

I love this little machine. LOVE it. I have my Christmas Card list in here. I have lists of stuff I like and funny quotes. I have games, of course. I have my calendar for several months. I have phone numbers and email addresses. I have recipes. It is SO GREAT. This thing can take still pictures and cute little video clips. It has a voice recorder and mp3 player. It has the scriptures and hymnal on it (words only, thanks). So much stuff can fit on here. It is really awesome.

But I did something bad. When we moved here, two and a half years ago, I didn't have a computer hooked up for three weeks. The Clie battery, bless its little heart, tried valiantly to keep the device going. When I finally got my computer moved in and set up, the battery could only hold enough charge to run the device for 15 or 20 minutes. I got real worried about it and stopped using it, so I wouldn't lose it altogether. I kept it in the charging cradle. But of course, this caused something catastrophically ironic: I lost it altogether. I haven't used the device for two years. I have been wishing and yearning to be able to use it and rediscover my data. Sweet data, I love you!

I went to the battery store a couple months ago. Six months ago. They wanted me to prepay the 40 bucks so they could order the battery and have it in two weeks later. I waffled. Forty bucks! Maybe I can get it cheaper online. Meh, nothing doing. I looked one time and got discouraged.

So finally I remembered to bring it with me and went again into the battery store. It's up by Sam's Club. The guy was duly impressed by my little device and good news! they actually had the battery right there, in stock. One battery. I paid it with 32 dollars cash and walked out with my battery and the following piece of information: the back is not soldered on . The battery is not soldered on. The back is just screwed on and the battery clips in.

I came home. I unscrewed the back. I unclipped the old battery. I clipped in the new battery. I screwed the back on. IT WORKED. IT TURNED ON. I was so delighted. DELIGHTED. I had synched up one last time before taking out the old battery, so I just synched again with the new one and here were all my glorious data back! Hooray! A christmas miracle!!

I rediscovered some videos of Eric hitting Jules in the face with snow and Eric age 5 reading from the scriptures. There were some fun audio files of Eric age 4 reciting his address and phone number. My whole dang Christmas Card list was back. It was the greatest day of my life, during the month of June. I LOVE having my Clie back. My only regret is not having done it two years ago.

The Kimono

2009-06-03T10:51:00.002-06:00

I'm a one-piece girl. I usually like the snap-in-the-crotch, full-body undie-suit. But we were given several of these Kimono-style baby undie-shirts when Eric was a baby and have been toting them around since then. My main issue with these was that they're the same as shirts, for babies. Where do you pick up babies? Under the arms. And when you hoist up a baby that way, boops! up comes the shirt, and out sticks the baby's fat old belly. And it's not a good look for me, the shirt-stuffed-up-under-the-armpits-gut-hanging-out look. Plus can that possibly be comfy at all?

So we've had these kimonos for nine years and since I put them on Eric a couple times as a baby, I've never used them. Until now. Until this last March, I should say. Scott had his little skull-surgery on his head. He had a lot of bone removed, and most of what was left was "morselized." So his head was (Doctors' word, not mine) Boggy, for a while afterwards. Real squishable and something you didn't want to touch that much. Also, you didn't want to stretch a shirt down over that. And here is where the Kimono really shone. I could dress my little boggy-head baby without ever touching his head. Side note: if he lay on his head in any one position for too long, that side would slump down flat. Ewwww. So he could lie there on the changing table and get dressed without me putting strain on his squish-head. Day after day, I would thank my lucky stars for dragging these kimonos around with me for so many years. They DO have a good use! They're worth something after all! Hooray!

Another side note: Scott's head is almost totally healed. A couple places in his cool, serpentine scar look almost totally unscathed. He still has a huge soft-spot from where the bone was removed, but he's pretty much a totally normal baby. Except for being super-ultra-cute and exceptionally sweet.

I Did Something

2009-05-26T15:57:00.003-06:00

Well, it's MyNews after all. I wish I could post here that I had made a sweater or something. I'm nearly finished with a pair of knitted socks. I actually put in a row on the sweater I started when I was having cancer treatments WAY back in February. These "accomplishments" of mine don't really lend themselves to great headlines. But I have been doing things. Soon I'll start posting pictures of this year's garden, which I think, looks FABULOUS. Also I plan to post pictures of my berry patch which has five strawberry plants, three raspberries, a blackberry, and a currant bush, none of which have died yet. So, major accomplishment there. I also planted three blueberry bushes, counting on the soil to be acidic enough for them not to die but I'm not placing any bets on that one.

All I'm saying is, that I'm doing stuff, even if things aren't getting finished enough for fabulous braggy headlines.

Plus we had a great Memorial Day, including a trip to my Great-Great-Grandma's grave here in Denver, and a VFW ceremony that we kind of stumbled into while we were there. Also some dang good hamburgers made by Seth.

Howdy Y'all!

2009-04-29T15:25:00.002-06:00

Seth said to me awhile back that he rather missed Carolina Barbecue, so I looked up the recipe for the sauce and found a hushpuppy recipe that didn't involve buttermilk. I already had the canned potatoes from "the Place" and so this last Sunday I put some pork chops (gasp! blasphemy! for all you true Carolina guys) in the crock pot (I know! I know it's not authentic!!) with some pepper and onions. After church they were tenderly delicious. In one big flurry, we got the sauce made, microwaved the potatoes and green beans, and deep-fried the hushpuppies. Deep-frying on a whim, you say? Yes, and it came out REALLY WELL.

Here are the recipes for a heart-of-the-Rockies-Carolina-Barbecue-Feast:

Meat: pork something, grilled until tender, smoked until tender or crock-potted until tender.

Barbecue Sauce: Jack Daniels Old Time Cookbook Version 2 from homecooking.about.com

2 c. white vinegar
1 T. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. black pepper

We used this recipe because we already had all the stuff for it, except we used crushed red pepper instead of cayenne. We had the cayenne, too. I'm just saying. Also, open the windows while you're bringing it to a boil and simmering for 10 minutes because it is ZINGY.

Hush Puppies: from the cookbook River Road Recipes, published by the Junior League of Baton Rouge, from 1959 to 1969. Recipe from Mrs. Robert Bowlus.

1 c. cornmeal
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 t. sugar
1 c. flour
1 egg
3/4 c. milk
dash red pepper
chopped green onion tops
1 T. grated onion

Sift dry ingredients into bowl. Beat egg, add milk, and add this to cornmeal mixture. Add onion and red pepper. Drop by spoonful in hot deep fat (375 F) and fry until brown. Should you like a lot of crust, these may be patted flat. This makes approximately two dozen. While there is a great deal of speculation as to the origin of hush puppies, there should be no speculation on the tastiness of these.

Except that I omitted the green onion tops and used onion powder for the grated onion. Next time I might double the baking powder because I think mine's not acting as well as it used to. Plus I scooped them out with the little mini P-Chef scoop and they came out SO CUTE and roundy.

So you get the hot pups and the pork-n-sauce on the table, get the canned potatoes and green beans out of the micro, put the white bread on the table, pop open some cole-slaw you got at "the Place" and chow! Too bad we don't drink sweet tea!

What Does It Mean?

2009-04-22T15:14:00.002-06:00

So I just walked by Jules' room and she was in there, in classic Kid Mode, playing dolls. She was doing the voices and the different characters and everything. And it got me thinking.

They say that kids' play is practice for social situations and growing up. And it makes sense, to see Jules in there playing dolls and loving her little ones, and imagining her growing up and being a good mother from all her practice.

The question is this: if Jules practices for motherhood by playing with dolls, then what is Eric practicing for when he spends hour upon hour building legos and Bionicles? What adult-hood practice is he getting, building so many robot monsters? Is it problem-solving? Is it preparation for his intended career: inventor? Or is it just something to pass the time and should I just be grateful it's not video games?

What does it all mean?!

What Russell Did Just Now

2009-04-13T14:23:00.002-06:00

Oh. My. Gracious. Russ has been having a hard time lately. I believe it's because he's just turned three, and his whole world has been so tumultuous lately and a lot of good reasons, but also I fear that it's because he's secretly insane and will later have serious mental problems.

Anyway, he was over at the couch playing Little People and then he got out this HotWheels car wash thing and he was getting SO FRUSTRATED because the slide/ramp WOULDN'T STAY UP. He was stampling his little feet and screaminating and I was like, What? What?! I want to HELP you!! And he ended up just running away in frustration. This always happens in movies and on tv, but we weren't allowed to do it in my family growing up. So I let him go, to see what would happen. And what happened was, he put himself to bed. I just went down there and he was snuggled up under his favorite green blanket, hugging onto his favorite stuffed animal, Humphrey the camel. And he was totally calm. He just needed to get away, DANG IT. And now that I just peeked in there again, he's fast asleep. He put himself in for a nap when things got too hard. He really is my kind of boy after all.

The sad part is, that I have to wake him up in like five minutes to go drop him and all the other children off at the cousins so I can go for my post-cancer Endocrinologist appointment and get my Synthroid dose adjusted.

To the Chunky Girl in New York

2009-04-09T09:42:00.003-06:00

Dear Chunky Girl,

Remember that, in the summer of what? 1982? 83? when we were both enrolled in that free-ish summer program at Colton elementary school? and my two big brothers were there also, and my little sister? Remember that? Well, do you remember the time you brought your boom box and while we were waiting for the doors to open, you played "Beat It" by Michael Jackson? Remember that? That was awesome.

At the time I didn't realize the song was by the King of Pop. But I did realize that it sounded REALLY COOL. That bonging and bomb-dropping at the beginning of the song caught my interest so that forever after that I thought of you and how cool that song was that you played for us doofy little nerd kids.

Several years ago my awesome husband Seth got me the album "Thriller" for Christmas. And when I got my ipod I ripped it onto there. And I would hardly ever listen to it. And then a couple weeks ago I got a Jones SO STRONG to listen to it, that I had to start it up RIGHT THEN. Chunky Girl, I still LOVE THIS SONG. Also, Billie Jean and Wanna Be Startin' Something and Thriller. In fact, I just created a new playlist on my ipod called Super Dance Favorites just for these songs. Also I put in Boogie Shoes and Saturday Night Fever.

So, Thank You, Chunky Girl. You opened up a fabulous musical realm for me, even though I didn't really enter that realm until 25 years later. Nerd, remember? Here's hopin' you're still rockin' out, Chunky Girl in New York.

Rock On!
Elizabeth

Having Fun on a Snow Day

2009-03-27T15:21:00.002-06:00

We sent sledding this afternoon to take advantage of our huge snowfall. We're just now getting around to having our hot chocolates. I gave the packets to the big kids to open themselves. Jules RIIIIPS hers open, which usually makes it spray everywhere. This time it didn't. And her rip just happened to form a perfect spout on one side of the envelope for pouring the hot chocolate powder. And then my smart little dumpling proceeded to pour the powder out...

the other, more shredded side.

Make a Guess. Now Double It.

2009-03-24T15:53:00.002-06:00

Did you see Amadeus? There's a part where Mozart is gleefully explaining his new piece of music to the Emperor and he wants the Emperor to guess how long he can keep up a certain musical thing. The Emperor guesses two minutes and then Mozart tells him to double it. And double it again. And the guess winds up being eight minutes, but Mozart's actual answer is 20 minutes. He's able to keep it up for 20 minutes.

So here's a fun game. I'll describe a certain medical thing and you guess how much it cost. Then I want you to double your guess. Then double it again. Then I'll tell you the real cost. This'll be fun.

So I went for my radioactive iodine treatment to finish curing my cancer. It involved me going to the hospital, having had nothing to eat all morning, and sitting in a chair. Then they took a blood sample to make sure I wasn't pregnant. Surprise! I wasn't. So then they told me all the precautions and warnings, and then the doctor came in and told me all the precautions and warnings. Then the little duder brought me a little tiny radioactive pill inside a vial inside a lead vessel. I swallowed the pill and they instantaneously ushered me out. Out! Get out, radioactive swine! And that's it. So now, do your guess. How much did the hospital charge me for this service: sitting in chair, having blood drawn for pregnancy test, counseling on side effects, and pill swallowage. Have your guess ready? Now double it. Now double that. Have your answer? And now I shall tell you the actual answer. The amount the hospital charged me for this hour-and-a-half service was:

$8,000. Eight Thousand Dollars. Eight Grand. Eight-Zero-Zero-Zero. Lotta zeros, eh? Lotta buckage, eh? Musta been some FABULOUS counseling. Musta been a SUPER EXTRAORDINARY pill. It did cure what was left of my cancer, as far as we can tell, but eight THOUSAND bones?!!!? DANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS We do have insurance. We will not be payin' no $8000 dollars for this. Don't get me wrong. I'm super grateful to have been able to go radioactive for those weeks, and to have my cancer cured. But DANG!

A Birthday Gift

2009-03-14T14:38:00.003-06:00

I spent my birthday at the hospital with little Scotty. Late that evening Seth came to visit us and he even brought me a couple birthday gifts. One of these gifts was a Klean Kanteen. I had asked a while back for some sort of steel drinkin' bottle. Not aluminum: Alzheimers. Not plastic: reproductive harm rumors and whatcetera. So, steel. And Seth somehow remembered and brought it to me on my birthday.

Mine is the blue one. I was worried that the steel would make the water taste all metallica, and also that the water would taste bad, like remember those metal canteens from Scout campouts and hikes? Remember the ugly ones with the stripey blanket stuff on the sides. Ewww. No WAY those are ever getting cleaned out. So that's what I was afraid of. But I've been pleasantly surprised. I fill it up with my delicious Aurora tap water and I drink...delicious Aurora tap water. No yuck metal taste, no mildewy grodiness. Crisp and clean, no caffeine.

In conclusion, I really like my Klean Kanteen. The doofy "K" spelling is mitigated for me by the fact that they spell Klean with an "ea" instead of two e's. So, thumbs up!

Product Review:Toffifay

2009-03-11T15:16:00.002-06:00

My sister Dorothy goes to this "Place" for groceries. More on that later. But at The Place you can get all this weird-o candy stuff. This last week, she brought me Toffifay and I will now discuss it.

First of all TERRIBLE NAME. How do you pronounce this???! I assume Europeans can and regularly do pronounce it somehow. But we're in America now! Talk American!

Secondly, this product is described as being "A whole hazelnut in chewy caramel with chocolate hazelnut filling and chocolate. And that's pretty much what it is. The packaging is cool looking, with each piece in its own little dimple in the golden tray. And the candy is cool-looking, like a bullseye or something.

Lastly, the taste. Yummmmm! I love caramel, nuts and chocolate. So this candy really works out well for me. Thumbs up!

Facin' It

2009-03-11T14:24:00.002-06:00

Seth joined facebook a couple months ago. It was fun to stand behind him and watch him click "accept, accept, accept" and to watch his "friends" tally rise. And then I was like Find me so and so, and he was all, Find your own friends on Facebook. So I left it at that for awhile. And then Jodi came to take care of my family while I hung out at the hospital with Surgery Scott. And Jodi is Facebook crazy, a little bit. So she signed up me and Dorothy. I have to boast that I am a little bit more attentive to it than Dorothy, so far. It could be that during the last week since we signed up, I have been able to abdicate most of my responsibilities to somebody else due to Chillin' with Scott, but I'm sure pretty soon Dorothy will be kicking my Facebook butt too, like she does in everything we do. Love you girl!

So, join me at Facebook. Become my friend. And if you're not on Facebook, follow my lead and get over the hype and just join it up! Because it really was the hype that was bugging me. Everyone was all Facebook this, change my status that and blah blah. But it turns out to be kind of fun to see what miscellaneous people from your past you can re-connect with and it's a little bit comforting just to be able to let people know what you're doing, without an elaborate phone call or even an email. Or whatever. Just check it out.

New Superhero: RadioactiveMom

2009-02-23T00:51:00.002-07:00

My super power is: knitting. I'm radioactive this weekend to cure my cancer, meaning to kill the remaining thyroid cells in my body. So because of that, I'm isolated in my sister's basement guest room, and I'm just watching movies and knitting. Also napping and reading magazines. I've always had a superpower for napping, so that's nothing new. But I am knitting my first real sweater from a real pattern. I started it late last night and I already have three really cool-looking inches done.

My sister Dorothy asked me if I wouldn't wreck the laser in my little DVD player somehow, with being so radioactive. This brings me to my next point: lasers and radioactivity are two TOTALLY different superpowers. Most people might not realize this, but it's true.

It's funny if I have to go upstairs for something, like getting this laptop. I have to dance around the room to avoid getting within three-to-six feet of people, so they don't get nucularized by me. Little Jimmy started coming right at me while I was standing there trying to catch a glimpse of the tv-edited My Cousin Vinny that Dorothy was watching, so I was all backing away and dancing around the kitchen island to get away from him.

And if you're wondering, NO, my pee-wee and breast milk DON'T glow in the dark. That's been the most disappointing thing about this whole weekend. You go radioactive and you expect at least SOMETHING to glow in the dang dark, but no! Not a thing! Ah, well! Take what you can get, I guess.

Krappy Kancer Diet

2009-02-10T08:02:00.003-07:00

I have the last major treatment for my thyroid cancer coming up next week and in preparation for that, I am on a low-iodine diet. It turns out that everything I love, food-wise, is riddled with iodine. I don't normally keep track of how much iodine is in my diet; after this is over I won't have to because I don't have a thyroid gland anymore! Sweet, huh? I don't even have to use iodized salt if I don't want to!

The main things that are terrible about this diet are the restrictions on Dairy products and Eggs. I LOVE THESE ITEMS!!! AND there were some totally great Cheese Sales in the last week or two, so now I have all this exciting cheese in my fridge just laughing and laughing at me. Laughing Cow, indeed. Plus I can't eat commercially-made bread, with its insidious iodate dough conditioner. I can eat up to 6 ounces of meat a day, but with no cheese, no buns, no milk, and no scrambled eggs to go with, it's not very exciting. Basically I can eat a ton of fruits and vegetables, and popcorn. Also unsalted peanuts. I made my own dang bread loaves yesterday, with un-iodized salt, but no milk or eggs, and it's better than the stinkin' loaf I made Sunday, which had no oil for some reason. It was so crusty I sounded like the Quarry Cereal commercial trying to choke it down.

The good thing about this low-iodine diet is that I have lost five pounds since I started it on Saturday. The funny thing about this low-iodine diet is that I knew I needed to start it two weeks before my radioactive iodine treatment on the 20th, so last Friday night, late, I started looking up the particulars on the internet. Last minute medical preparation is so great! I got depressed-er and depressed-er, sitting at the computer realizing what all I couldn't eat for the next at least two weeks. The main depressing things are cheese and ice cream. And milk. My sister owns a stinkin' ice cream store, for cryin' out loud! I almost called them right then, at 9:30pm Friday, to ask if I could rush in to the Baskin-Robbins for one last enormous ice cream treat, but then I was thinking maybe it would just be fine to wait until morning. It's a two-week thing, after all. Twelve hours won't make that big a difference. So that's what I did: I dropped the children at their Primary Activity on Saturday morning and went straight to the ice cream store for my breakfast. I had a big old drippy thing that had the following layers: scoop of World Class Chocolate, brownies, bananas, hot fudge, scoop of World Class Chocolate, hot fudge, whipped cream, nuts. No maraschino cherry, thanks, I'm on a low-iodine diet, wink wink. Oh, red food coloring number 3 is also taboo!

Anyway, I'm getting ready to go upstairs and make my special low-iodine recipe for today: Cauliflower Soup! Mmmmm!! I can't wait!!! No it should be pretty good actually, since I am getting hungrier every day. Even cauliflower soup can be good if you can't eat anything else.

The children had leftover spaghetti last night and I was so jealous. It was all tomato-ey and noodley, with meaty chunks and delightful herbs, and it was packed with iodized salt and other no-nos. I went to the dang store and bought myself a bunch of fruit, and then I splurged on the cauliflower, plus peanuts, and popcorns. Cauliflower is a splurge, too, by the way since it was nearly five bucks for one stinkin' head. Anyway, here's hopin' this makes my remaining thyroid cells good and thirsty for iodine, so the dang Nuclear treatment works its Nuclear Magic!!!!

My Kancer Kare Kit

2009-01-28T16:41:00.002-07:00

My awesome brother and sister-in-law, Will 'n Jodi, sent this to me for Christmas. Now most of this loot would be fabulous anytime, but they put it all together for my cancer treatments. In the kit were a Zen Rock Garden, Special Foot Cream, Special Lip Balm, Special Cancer Socks, the BBC/A&E Pride and Prejudice, a Buttload of Fancy Chocolate Bars, and an Enormous Jar of Cancer-B-Gone pellets. Holy Hospital Motherlode, Batman! This makes having cancer almost fun!

One of the fun and clever things in the Kit was this pair of Special Cancer Socks. The package says "Cancer Socks: walk all over cancer," which makes me laugh every time. Plus they're really warm and comfy woolly cancer socks. I'm a little annoyed that my Komfy Kancer Sweats I had to get for recouperation made fuzzy black pills all over my Special Cancer Socks.

Then this is maybe the best and most clever part of the Kancer Kare Kit. My brother Will, an amateur pharmacist, mixed up this concoction, which the bottle tells me is "safe and effective" and not to be shared with children. My daughter Jules bought into it, hook-line-and-sinker. She asked me one day what my special Cancer Pills tasted like and I honestly answered,"cherry." I wish I could post the package insert on here. It's really hilarious. It tells me that Cancer-B-Gone pellets are not to be used by Ballerinas, Vampires, Flensers, Nazis, Indentured Servants, or Eskimos, and that this particular brand of Placebo has been associated with a higher risk of "Chocolate Baby Syndrome," a non-life threatening condition in newborns.

Will and Jodi are totally awesome and extremely clever. Just the laughter they sent with this Kit went a long way in curing my cancer, since it's the proverbial Best Medicine. You guys Rock the House!!! Thanks a billion!

My Little Scotty-dog

2009-01-25T10:53:00.002-07:00

Well, he's not my only news lately, especially since he's been here for awhile. But he is my cutest news. He's so good and sweet. I can't fault him for anything. Most babies only cry when they need something, if you think about it. Scotty doesn't seem to need as much as other babies, especially his big brother and sister. As a result, ironically, I want to hold him and play with him and snuggle him MORE. He gets a TON of snuggle time, because he LOVES it and it calms him right down. Not to brag, but maybe a little bit, Scotty gets in our bed with Seth and me, and he sleeps right on through the night. Out in his bassinet, he wakes up a couple times a night. Maybe he's hungry, but maybe he just misses us...

Like a Baby

2009-01-25T10:38:00.003-07:00

There's something I've been noticing about babies for the last nearly eight weeks since Scotty was born. Babies don't defer to anyone for anything. They know they have a need and they do everything they can to fill it. They find comfort and they do all that they can to keep it. They say something when things aren't right for them. They demand that their needs are met and don't apologize when their needs are met. They don't gloat either.

Scotty for example, says, "eahh..." when he's uncomfortable. We come and put our hand on his tummy and this calms and comforts him. Without thinking, he uses his little mini fists to lasso your hand to his tummy, because it's something he needs and he wants to keep it. When he's hungry, he calls out for food. You give him his lunch and he gloms right on to that, without apologizing, and then gets what he needs and falls asleep. He's unashamed to eat, because that's what he needs.

I'm not sure I'm expressing correctly the idea that I want to share. We need to be like babies. Instead of deferring to others, we should have our needs met unashamedly. I need a hug. I should call over a child or husband or friend and hug that person. There's no shame in being human. Sometimes I make scrambled eggs for breakfast and there's not enough for everyone to have all they want, so I hang back and let my family eat them all. But I love scrambled eggs, with salt and pepper, mmm, that's so tasty. Why don't I just step in and take me a reasonable-size portion, because that's what I need, and there's enough for all. Others needn't be gluttons because I'm trying to be polite. When I'm sleepy, so sleepy I can barely think, why should I stay awake watching a show to be polite? I should say, I'm too sleepy. I need to get comfy in my bed. Why would I not? Where is the glory in being a martyr every second of the day? When something is comfy or not comfy, needed or not wanted, I think we should be like babies and just claim the right to have our needs met reasonably and be calm and happy when they are and not be guilty or ashamed and definitely not gloaty or self-righteous.

Sunday Movie

2009-01-25T10:36:00.002-07:00

We have the late church schedule, 1-4. I was just getting ready upstairs all morning and the children were playing upstairs, after being nice and quiet and calm all morning. So I just came downstairs for the first time today and the first thing I hear, is the line "...and Runaway Girls!" from Pioneers in Petticoats.

Classic!! LOVE that show!

Seth Rules Pretty Hard

2008-12-29T15:25:00.003-07:00

Seth got me this for Christmas. I have wanted it for several years. We got a set of RevereWare for our wedding that was destroyed by crappy rental-unit stoves, which is retiring now that I got this new set. It is so pretty. So Pretty. Shiny, well-designed. I am LOVING this Christmas gift. I didn't even have the gumption to put it on my list this year, but Seth is so awesome that he snuck it in there. I was shocked when I opened it. I was just crying and crying. I love this. I also love not having to wonder how crappy my next rental-unit stove is going to be because I own my own dang stove now. I don't RENT.

Hung For the Holidays

2008-12-27T20:05:00.002-07:00

My sister Laurel gave us this CD for Christmas a couple years ago and we finally opened it and listened to it this year. It turns out, I really like it. I like that William Hung, because he has a really good attitude. I hope he made some bucks off being embarrassed. Maybe it's not embarrassing for him. That would work out real well. William sings all the Christmas classics on this disc, and it's good because it's not the same old beautiful Mormon Tabernacle Choir or Bing Crosby or whatever. It's just a regular guy with a fun Asian accent singing like a regular guy. And when I sing along, he makes me sound good. So if you're open-minded and like a novelty, like me, this may be something to check into.

I also got a disc called Bluegrass Christmas at the Dollar Tree several weeks ago but then I misplaced it and haven't been able to listen to it. I still will, though, whenever I find it. Another novelty Christmas disc! I love it!

I Had A Baby

2008-12-17T12:38:00.002-07:00

And his name is Scott. Enough already with the carrots, right? I have real news. After causing us trouble all summer and trying to get out early, Scottie finally arrived right on time, Monday December first. It was a super-quick delivery, where we made it to the hospital within 20 or 30 minutes of delivering the baby, and if we had hesitated any more, we could have had a Bad Night. He came whether we liked it or not. I did it without an epidural. So now I've had one of every kind of birth: induced labor, preemie, c-section, vbac with epidural, "natural" delivery. Did I miss anything?

The funny part is that the whole time I was praying for Scott to be born the SUNDAY after Thanksgiving. I need to work on my enunciation or something, because Heavenly Father must have thought I was saying MONDAY that whole time. No sweat, though, because I couldn't have asked for a better birth. I was afraid to ask for a better birth, in fact, because just the timing was blessing enough. But I did sneak in a couple prayers where you're like, So if you want to bless me with such and such a fabulous birth with this baby, that would be great and I would be so grateful.

Everyone's always bloggin' it up about their babies and putting pictures and stuff, and it's not my intention to let Scott take over and dominate my blog. But he is super cute and super cuddly and super sweet. This last saturday night, at age 12 days, Scott slept from 10:30 pm until 7 in the morning. DANG!!! He's a really good blessing and I am super ultra grateful for him.

It's weird, too, because I'm grateful he caused so much trouble. Without it, I wouldn't have been diagnosed with cancer and I would be ignorant or it and it would go on growing and getting nastier and nastier. I had the last pre-surgery ultrasound this morning on my lymph nodes and it looked good, with no obvious signs of contamination. A few more fun tests and we are GO for surgery!

We Grew Carrots...But Not Good Ones

2008-11-25T20:20:00.002-07:00

The title pretty much says what happened. On a bit of a whim I planted some carrot seeds and when nothing came up I replanted the row with cucumbers. So halfway through the summer, in between all the cucumber vines, here come these carrot greens growing strong and healthy. My mother-in-law gave me the seeds and told me that when she went to harvest her carrots, they were tiny stumpy nubs, so to leave mine in the ground, which I did. I finally brought them in after Halloween. Here's the entire carrot harvest, from largest to smallest. I was just pleased something grew at all. We...didn't eat the little guys.

Oh, and that IS my big fat old belly there, at the bottom of the picture. Sometimes I think I'm not that huge-looking, and then something will happen like this picture, and I'll know for sure that, yep, I'm tremendous in size. Anyway, here's to a better carrot harvest next year! Cheers!

Tomato Harvest After All

2008-11-19T14:39:00.002-07:00

I was really disappointed when it got all frosty one night many weeks ago, so I had Seth go on out to the garden and just retrieve all the tomatoes that were on the bushes, green though they were. He brought them in all in a big bucket and just left the bucket on the kitchen floor. Not too much faith they would actually do much, eh? A couple days later I had a party in here, so I had to clean up stuff. There's not a real good way to make a big old bucket of green tomatoes look party-ish, so I used my Design Sense and lined them all up on the windowsills in the kitchen, living room, and my room. They looked pretty cute, I thought.

So but they sat there, very green and very hard for many many days. And then a couple of them began to blush, just a wee bit. And then the blushers got red. And then MORE started to blush! And it went from there, to where we had some getting actually ripe. My idea in planting five tomato bushes was that we would have an abundant harvest and process them into canning jars or whatnot. But obviously, with that plan dashed, we were still able to have an abundant harvest! I am still pretty pleased with this. Some went the way of all the earth before we were able to consume them, may they rest in pieces out by the tree where Seth chucks bad fruit. Some I made into a colossal batch of homemade tomato soup, which took me SO LONG that I had to put it away for several days before I got up the gumption to get it out and finish making it. Eric actually dug it pretty well and asked for seconds and asked to have it again. Seth said it was really strong, which it was.

Some we were able to use in salad or tacos. And the last of them I ingeniously used to make homemade spaghetti sauce, which when mixed with a can of regular sauce, was not too strong. Pretty good, actually. There was a ton of it and we had it for dinner two times in four days.

So Tomato Bounty after all that worry! It wasn't a nine-dollar salad tomato after all! With all these other brothers and sisters going ripe long after the fact, the average price-per tomato actually went down to where I would consider it a tomato bargain! And, sorry Seth, next year I'm planning to plant the same number of tomato plants, but suck it up and go get them MUCH earlier in the season, and coddle them and poultry-manure them and reap an even more abundant harvest!!!

Sometimes I Make Stuff that's Ugly

2008-11-19T14:31:00.002-07:00

The idea was that it would be a football. It's the third or fourth cake I baked in my P-Chef batter bowl. It came out far, far uglier than the others. It stuck to the bowl and turned into a stupid pile of crumbs when I took it out. And then, to make it even doofier, when I cut it in half, I missed the line of symmetry and ended up with a very lumpy , terrible, lopsided footballish-type thing. After that I was all, Seth I love you, but I am not loving this cake, so Sorry! I just slapped on some homegrown brownish frosting and this is the end result. I even forgot to bring candles to Dorothy's for the party so that's a tealight up top. Delightful smell, though! I believe we were all calling it The Turd Cake. Me especially. Next year, Seth, you'll get a decent, respectable cake. Next year.

Modern Maternity Clothes

2008-11-13T09:40:00.003-07:00

When I was pregnant with Eric I got me some super-comfy fun maternity clothes. I still have the shirts but the one beloved pants and the other not-as-beloved pants had to go, for style reasons. They were really comfy clothes, with lots of stretch and forgiveness.

So I'm more moderner now and with Russell I was blessed to be able to go in and buy some modern-day maternity clothes, mostly from Target. So Liz Lange, bless her heart, has these maternity clothes and they're supposed to be all stylish but mom-friendly. I will now review her work.

This isn't going to be a positive review. Liz apparently thinks modern and stylish pregnant moms don't care about a) comfort, b)wedgies, or c)their gut hanging out. I have had problems with all these things while wearing Liz's "maternity" clothes. One big thing is the stretchy panel up front. I avoided this altogether on my first maternities, with Eric. I thought, ewww! stretchy panel! So Liz Lange must think that also, because most of her maternities have a big fat stretchy waist-band that's designed to sit at your actual waist. That's pretty ok when you're not very pregnant. But once you hit actual pregnancy size and shape, it's STUPID!! My main problem with this waistband option is that it's super-uncomfortable having stuff right there all over your already uncomfortable fatty old belly. Then you have a contraction and boop! the whole thing slides right down to your crotch. This is Lame. So I give these pants a thumbs up for style and early-pregnancy comfort, but a thumbs down for late-pregnancy everything. They're great for going home from the hospital, though, when you're still all fatty but not pregnant.

Then the other style of pants Liz does is the "below the belly" waistband. I have one pair of these, that was on sale for like $5.41 or so. They are great, in that they don't give you a wedgie all day nearly as bad as stretchy-panel maternity jeans. BUT the downside is that if you don't want your gut hanging right out from under your shirt, these are not the pants for you. Mostly they just slip right down to the crotch pretty much all the time. So, not that comfy out in public or modest. So bless their heart, these pants were a good attempt to keep that big stretchy waistband off your uncomfortable "belly" but don't turn out to solve the problems.

And shirts. Traditional maternity shirts are big and wide and long and comfy. But they do make you look big and wide and huge and enormous. So modern-day maternity clothes involve little shirts. Little stretchy shirts. Oooh, so cute, look at her little pregnant belly. I despise the word belly and all attempts to make your baby gut something cute. It's really not attractive, people. It's just something you have to do and Look Like for a few months in order to score the real bonanza. So, like the pants, little stretchy maternity shirts are cute and flattering early in pregnancy, when regular clothes are too tight but regular maternity shirts are WAY too big. And then you get to the "actually big and pregnant" stage and they become RIDICULOUS. First, if you do have pants or jeans with a stretchy panel, whop! Here it is right out in everybody's face, because little stretchy modern maternity shirts aren't long enough to cover that fun stretchy ugly panel. It's not good looking and I for one, want it covered. Second, even if there were something cute about a pregnant baby-gut, and it were great to wear a little tight stretchy shirt over it, the shirt should at least COVER the baby-gut. Sweet old Liz Lange wants her modern-day maternity shirts to be short. For lack of a better word. She feels it's more stylish and flattering, which may be true when you're not that pregnant. But when you're big and fatty, like me right now, longer is INFINITELY more flattering. I tried on a modern shirt the other day and it was so ludicrously short and stupid-looking that I took it off instantaneously. I didn't even want Russell to see it on me. Really dumb. Plus I am super uncomfortable all the time, if my shirt is sticking a) on my butt or b) on my tummy. I feel like Big Edna in the movie "UHF" adjusting my shirt down constantly all day. These shorty little shirts are murder for a person like me, adjusting and pulling constantly, all day, all day.

Finally, I have something to say about stretchy panels. Nothing will ever be as comfortable as my first un-stylish maternity pants that I don't have anymore. I now have and wear pants with the stretchy panel. They might-well work for some ladies. Me, myself? I am in a state of constant Wedgie-ness. In my attempt to be cute and stylish, and wear modern-day clothes, I have succumbed to vanity at the expense of comfort. Is having a wedgie all the time comfortable? No. But then almost nothing about being pregnant is comfortable. That sounds like whining and it might be. Proto-whining, maybe. So either I can have a wedgie literally all the time, except right after a wedgie-pick and before moving a muscle, or else I can wear the waistband-down-to-the-crotch Liz Lange pants and have my gut hanging out all the time. I feel justified in a little tiny dash of whining. I do get into my jammies as early in the evenings as I can. They are regular clothes, but nice and stretchy and comfy. They make me look really tubby and I don't care. I rave about their comfort. Two thumbs up for comfort, if only for 9 or 10 hours all in the night.

I Rocked the Vote

2008-11-04T20:24:00.003-07:00

Yeah, I voted. Jealous!?

Everyone was all worried that it would be three-hour lines out the door and hassles til Tuesday because of fever-pitch excitement with this election. Seth voted by mail because he would be working in The Springs all this week, over the entire time the polls were open. People waited in line during the last couple weeks for early voting, for hours some of them. I was ready to stand in line, because I didn't want to bring my own little folding chair to sit in line. And I'm SO GLAD I didn't bother.

I walked Jules to school, which is also our polling place. I walked into the special gym-door marked "Voter Entrance." I showed my card, signed my name, and stepped into my computer-voting-booth pretty much instantaneously. I am leery of computer ballots with no paper trail; BUT there was a paper trail on this. Just my name and voter ID stuff, but there was the stack of papers relating to those who had voted on this machine, right there. So, more confident. Everyone was all, there are so many initiatives and amendments on our ballots, voting will be so slow. But instead, I took a little cheat sheet I made up beforehand, after researching the candidates and issues. So that made it go really quickly. I had Russell with me. He just sat on the floor eating a peanut butter sandwich, being so good. I had him come in my little booth and push my "vote" button for me. And then we went home. It was SO FAST. No waiting. No lengthy ballot-reading. Plus a sister from our ward was in the booth right next to ours when I left.

No fuss, not really a lot of muss. During the John Kerry/ W. election, I sat up all night, just chewing my fingernails watching the "coverage" and then the next day I had a humongous headache, because of the stress that had been building up for weeks and months. This time I am determined not to get that headache, even though I live in a 50/50 battleground state. My goal is just not to watch very much of the "coverage." Weren't there any fabulous car-crashes or kidnappings or business-closings today you guys can report on?

Second, Second

2008-10-16T13:06:00.001-06:00

This is a cozy photo of our couches right when we got them. Since then, I have taken away all the throw pillows. I got tired REAL QUICK of scolding the children to pick them up and stop playing with and on them. So, they disappeared from the scene. I do plan to make new more play-able and floor-able pillows using some pillow forms I got free from Dot 'n Jay, who got them from one of the storage-units they bought at auction, but obviously I haven't done it yet. How cozy and warm this picture looks!

First File, First Picture

2008-10-16T13:02:00.003-06:00

I felt so successful doing that tag thing with the fourth photo in your fourth picture file that I decided to do one with my first file, first photo. Maybe next I'll do the 2nd, 2nd and then the 3rd 3rd and so on.

I actually have no active knowledge about this picture. It's taken on the back deck of our townhouse we rented for a year when we moved to Denver. The date on the picture leads me to believe that it might have something to do with the first day of school. Why else would I just take a random photo of Eric on the back deck, and why else would he be wearing a shirt with buttons and an undershirt, unless I made him for a special occasion like the first day of school? So that's what I think it is.

Here's Your Tag

2008-10-15T16:16:00.002-06:00

Jodi tagged me to do the Google image search and I tried to do it but failed. Maybe in the future I'll try it again. THIS tag, however, proved to be the easiest one I've ever seen. This here picture is one of many, MANY pictures Eric and I have taken of his Bionicle creations. A couple of them he has uploaded to his Lego page and named. I don't know if this is one of them. I think this picture was actually taken by Eric, judging by the terrible framing. But it could have been me. You know what? No, it couldn't have been me. No way am I taking the picture and leaving the plunger in the frame. As a side note, Eric has been just taking the didge lately and grabbing his own photos of things, so it's a major blessing for Seth's peace of mind that my sister Dorothy found an awesome spongebob USB camera on sale at Target for 5 bucks for Eric's birthday. I feel that he will love it. Eric will. Seth will love Eric NOT using the family camera. I will love the software the comes with it and allows you to superimpose SpongeBob into your photos. So this is my "fourth file, fourth picture" tag and I don't know if it's fair to tag other people or if it will make me feel like a loser if they don't do it, so I'm going to go ahead and just tag.....mmmm...Gretch. And Jon. A little Blog Fodder for ya there.