Recipes

I thought I would post this easy treat recipe. Once again, Kraft Foods, I love you.


Oh, and if you like spinachy pastry thingy's, you might like these.

Overheard

I think Steve's been spending a little too much time at the hospital. He was reading Allison Disney's Cinderella as a bedtime story. I overheard him tell Allison that Cinderella had two wicked stepsisters, Drizella and "Anesthesia."

Oh, and just to clarify, the creepy Thanksgiving poem was a joint effort with my husband. I promise that we aren't really that scary--it was kind of an inside joke gone bad.

Silence of the Turkey

There's a body in our fridge.
Hacked and hewn,
Flesh ripped from the bone,
A hollow shell of its former self.

In the dark of night
We carefully pick its bones,
Place the carcass in a large garbage bag,
And sneak out to the trash.

We heave and puff,
Pushing it over the edge of the can.
It lands with a resounding thud.

We put the lid on
And stealthily tread back into the house.

Relief.

It's finally gone.

That was one good bird.

Don't tell the Department of Labor

I've been looking over my recent posts and I realized that I have strayed from my original intention for this blog. I originally started this to keep in touch with family and to share a few pictures. I seem to be spending more time venting than sharing pieces of our normally happy lives. So tonight I say, here's to less thinking and more pictures.

Wow, I'm tired. That sentence sounded better in my head.

We've been thinking about hiring a maid. We're not sure child labor laws will allow this:


For a two-year old, she does a pretty good job. If the maid thing doesn't work out, I'm thinking about teaching her to cook. Surely she can at least cook something better than this gourmet meal:



Steve has put her to work in the yard raking leaves and weeding. He says that he his going to cut her pay in half for this little incident:



On the other hand, he did get her back.



Lindsay is just nervous for her turn to come. As soon as she can hold a dishrag, we'll put her to work.

Train up a child . . .

Finally! Today I finally got feedback from my child that I am teaching her correct principles:

Me: "Hmmm . . . should we go to Wal-Mart or Target to do our shopping?"

Allison: "Mommy, I go Target."


Wow. Am I a great mom or what?

On living simply

At the park today I noticed an attractive young family. The mother was stylishly dressed with an attractive coat and scarf. She was perfectly coiffed with a cute short hair-do. Her kids were adorable--the toddler boy riding a fun retro tricycle and the baby packed into the coolest stroller ever.

When I looked down at myself, I realized I had carrot spit-up down the front of my shirt and my stretched out yoga pants. I contemplated my face free of any make-up and my ponytail with the strands of hair being held in by at least 10 bobby pins, and I sighed. I thought to myself, "Self, when I grow up I want to be like that mom."

About five minutes later, I heard the mom yelling at her toddler in not a very nice way. Even though she had a most impressive British accent, it didn't cover the frustration she was taking out on her little boy.

So I said to myself, "Self, maybe I should rethink that goal."

I've been thinking about priorities a lot lately. About how some of mine are good, and some of them are kind of messed. I've thought a lot about a poem that my mom gave to me several years ago:

"To live content with small means;
to seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion;
to be worthy, not respectable,
and wealthy, not rich;

to study hard, think quietly,
talk gently, act frankly;
to listen to stars and birds,
to babes and sages, with open heart;
to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely,
await occasions, hurry never.

In a word, to let the spiritual,
unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common.

This is to be my symphony."

--William Henry Channing

Sometimes I have to re-read this poem to be reminded how I want to shape my character. I've got a lot to work on.

Lindsay is crying. Time to go work on some priorities.

Thankful

I really meant it when I wrote that I can't participate in NaBloPoMo. I just need to focus my life right now. I do, however, need to share something tonight. Just for me. (Don't expect anything tomorrow.) I read Patty's thankful list tonight and I really need to write one for myself.

Tonight I am thankful for . . .

1. A great visiting teacher who is willing to help at a moment's notice.

2. The temple

3. Repentance--we can ALWAYS fix things with a little help from

4. The Savior

5. Prayer

6. Scriptures

7. My family

8. Brownies (Thanks again to my visiting teacher)

9. Ibuprofen and Tylenol

10. My soft warm bed

Goodnight!

NaBloPoMo-- No Go

I mentioned that November is National Blog Post Month (NaBloPoMo) a few days ago. I thought I would see how many days I could post before getting burned out. I went three days. THREE MEASLY DAYS!

I have no stamina.

An Inconvenient Truth

Tonight I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few last minute items. It was getting late and I had both the girls with me. After hurriedly finishing my shopping, I walked out and loaded Lindsay into the car. I was about to take Allison out of the cart and put her into her car seat when I spotted it. The pair of Leggs Black Silk Mist pantyhose that I had not paid for. Sitting in the bottom of the cart.

Since I have been shopping with two kids in the cart, this has occurred with increasing frequency. Grocery items get stuck under Lindsay's car seat in the shopping cart ALL THE TIME. I don't realize that the unpaid-for item is still in my shopping cart until I get out to the car. Hauling my kids back into the store to either pay for the food or to hand it to the customer service desk is painful.

I've considered leaving with the item in question, but I just can't. I know that my conscience would bug me until I would have to return to the store at 2 am (this is when my conscience is most active)and pay for it.

Luckily there was a Kroger employee gathering carts tonight. I gave him the nylons and drove away in peace. Sometimes being honest is a real pain in the neck.

A Friday Favorite

My good friend Stephani blogs every Friday about something she loves. Stephani and her husband are currently out of the country on vacation, so while she is gone I thought I would steal her Friday Favorite idea.

I have two Friday Favorites to blog about today. One of the things I miss the most about St. Louis is Eckert's farm. Eckert's is a pick-your-own-produce farm that has a fun fall festival each year. I have yet to find something akin to it here. I miss the apple picking, hayrides, and the FABULOUS gift shop and restaurant at Eckerts.

While on our recent vacation, we went to another fun fall activity. Gardner Village is a collection of shops and restaurants set up in an old mill and factories. They have different events throughout the year. Around Halloween they decorate the old mill and shops with giant witches. They have hayrides with a witch and they encourage customers to dress up in their costumes while they shop. It was hilarious to see a bunch of middle-aged women dressed as witches while they perused the boutiques. We had a great time!

My brother took some cute pictures of the kids.



Then we took some pictures of these strange, but good-looking people.

We're seriously thinking about hiring a dating service for my sisters. Anybody know any single men between the age of 25-30? (NO LOSERS NEED APPLY! MY DAD OWNS SEVERAL LARGE RIFLES AND IS AN EXCELLENT SHOT.)

This man is my real Friday Favorite. Look at how cute he is!

Halloween fashion show

Did you know that November is National Blog Posting Month? The people at this website have issued a challenge to post something everyday during the month of November. Can you imagine? I would never get anything done--I would be too busy reading blogs all day. So I don't know if I can make the challenge, but I thought I would start by at least trying to post every day for the rest of this week. We'll see.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the kids for Halloween. We went through many options to arrive at our FANTASTIC final costumes. (I think that all kids must go through this, Dory!) Allison originally wanted to be a princess. As you can see here, we really like princesses at our house.


Next she decided that she wanted to be the black Spiderman. I think she got the idea from this little friend. Allison ran around the house for several days singing the Spiderman song and shooting pretend spiderwebs out of her wrists. I was glad when the Spiderman costume was no longer a popular option at our house.

Allison went through many other costume ideas--clowns, mermaids, pumpkins, etc. I personally thought it was funny when she decided to try out the whole Lucha Libre look. I was going to buy her some stretchy pants, but Steve thought that it was a little too macho for his little girl.

(Yes, that is a pair of Little Mermaid underpants on her head. Don't ask.)

Steve and Allison then decided to try out the popular pirate theme.

(Yes, I do know it is not politically correct to make fun of handicapped pirates. I had a serious talk with Steve.)

Lindsay decided to get in on the action. She liked being the queen of the house, but Allison didn't like anyone else moving in on her current title.


Then Lindsay thought she would try to recreate that scene from A Christmas Story--the one where the kid can't move because he's got too many winter clothes on.



So here are the final costumes. This is Allison as a ladybug princess. I had her ladybug costume from last year, and I didn't want to make or buy a new one. Allison became really fixated on being a princess, so we compromised by letting her be a ladybug princess. That way, all I had to do was give her a crown and a wand. (Thanks for the idea, Lindsay P.)


Our little Lindsay was the cutest bunny on the block. Okay, she was the only bunny on the block, but she was still cute.


Steve decided to go a little crazy and be a doctor for Halloween. I decided to be a witch for Halloween--that way I didn't have to dress up too much.


I hope you enjoyed our Halloween fashion show. We had a great time trick-or-treating with the kids and spending time with Rachel and Jesse. Have a good day!