Gag Me!

Wish me luck....tomorrow I have to down a bottle of "orange nasty" loaded with 50 gms of sugar to see how well my body handles glucose. I have to accomplish this in 10 minutes without puking. Not my finest hour in my previous pregnancies. I told my doctor I could down 12 fun size snickers in 10 minutes and well, couldn't that count? I took the laugh as a big fat NO.

I can't help myself!

I must confess, I've been listening to this (and many other festive CDs) since the day after Halloween:

and spraying this EVERYWHERE in my house:

And totally craving these and wondering WHEN Target will get them on their shelves!:

And formulating my Christmas list to Santa and I'm including THIS:

I love this merry time of year!!!!!

Post Now....

or you can forget it happening later. And this is too cute to NOT tell.

Deklan and I were looking at pictures from the past. I'm a firm believer in putting your pictures at your fingertips rather than hidden away for some future time. And so we were looking at the pictures at our fingertips. And we came across this one from February of this year.....

And when Deklan saw it he said in utter shock and disbelief while rubbing his current head of hair, "Mom, what happened to my hair?"

Apparantly he doesn't like the shaggy look.

And now I'm thinking.....will I someday be the victim of comments like....."Mom, what were you thinking?" or "Geez mom, were you trying to get me beat up at school?" or "Yikes mom, what IS that?"

And so I proudly did my part today when Sadie came downstairs ready for school in an adorable dress with her tennis shoes. Eeegads....a dress with tennis shoes? Fashion BEFORE comfort my dear! And so rather than insist she go change, I simply said...."uh, Sadie, your brown shoes would look much cuter than those tennis shoes. You can wear what you want, but in 10 years I don't want you to ask me what I was thinking letting you out of the house in a dress with tennis shoes". She looked at me like I'd just spoken Greek but promptly went and changed.

Rock and Roll!

Ah, Yuma....what can I say?

The Peanut Patch was not much to look at....but had plenty to eat! And lucky for us they had a "Guide to Yuma 2008" magazine to browse through while eating peanutty ice cream.
Who knew? Yuma has a camel farm? Hey kids, Yuma has a camel farm!!!! And off we went to the camel farm. I will admit, I had to laugh when there were signs posted everywhere that said, "Enter at your own risk!" and "Animals bite!" and "Do Not Feed the Animals"......but would you like to buy a cup of food to feed the animals? Uh, yea, I guess.... But less you think we only saw camels let me mention I saw things I'd never seen before. Like turkens and zeedonks and a mini hini. And Deklan was quite fond of the ostrich named Moe. And did you know that camels do NOT store water anywhere in their bodies? For real people. Did I just rock your world? And I thought I knew about camels having ridden a camel across the Egyptian desert a few years back (summer of 96 to be exact). But my confidence was restored when it was confirmed that yes indeedy long eyelashes protect their eyes from blowing sand.

I can't forget to mention that I did get to eat a chicken ala mundo salad from Kneaders. And yes, that would be Kneaders as in Utah Kneaders. Yummy!


And then finally, here is THE library....a current pic and then a pic of what the completed building will look like. So come one, come all....buy your LBD and join us next May for the Grand Opening of the Main Yuma Library. On second thought...I'll get back to you on the LBD.....it may be "camel farm attire".

Santa's Brilliant!

I think Santa was simply brilliant in his idea to bring Sadie an easel for Christmas last year. That four legged outlet for creativity has been one of our most played with toys E-V-E-R! It is the place where Sadie writes the "schedule" when playing school, where pictures have been drawn and painted, where spelling words have been practiced and my personal favorite.....where notes back and forth between Sadie and the rest of the family are left.

Last night when tucking Sadie into bed I noticed her latest note to self:

When we go to Yuma we are going to rock and roll!

We are going to Yuma today when Sadie gets out of school. Why not? Tomorrow is Veteran's Day so Sadie doesn't have school. We can stay in a hotel, swim, lounge, shop, eat out and finally see the progress Erik has made on the Yuma Library project he has been managing.

So as soon as chef Deklan and I finish making our cinnamon rolls, we will pack our bags, do a little cleaning and then get ready to rock and roll!

Cousins Defined

According to Sadie and Deklan, a "cousin" is any person who lives a great distance away, with whom you are guaranteed to have a great time, and upon their departure you are overcome with sadness.


A "cousin" is often mentioned in prayers such as dinner prayer tonight offered by Sadie...."and please bless Drew and Ian and Owen to be safe until we see them again in 3 1/2 weeks".


To alleviate the emptyness we felt in our house after the departure of the Summers we went on an evening walk and then had donuts and wassail. And while I binged on my donuts and wassail I had to giggle at the thought of Johanna's warning to her son as he begged for yet another piece of his Halloween candy which was sure to remedy his hurt toenail....."Emotional eating is not allowed Ian. It leads to obesity." Parenting is so much more fun when done with a touch of humor.


And so in honor of our "cousins", the Summers, I give you from the friend of a friend a yummy wassail recipe.

Wassail

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 3" cinnamon stick

12 whole cloves

1/2 c. fresh lemon juice

2 c. water

1 1/2 c. orange juice

1 1/2 quarts of apple cider

thin lemon slices (optional)

Directions: Bring cider, sugars & spices to a boil. Add water & other juices (at this point you can pull out the whole cloves & cinnamon stick or just leave them in. Another option is to put them in cheesecloth that way you can just pull it out at this point---I left them in & think it's fine). Heat and serve with lemon slices. Yields 3 quarts.

Happy November!

My Little Spooks

This is what Deklan was supposed to be for Halloween:

But he had other ideas. And these ideas started brewing on Thursday when I attempted to get him dressed in costume for his preschool Halloween party. He wanted nothing to do with it. I threatened, I begged, I bargained. No deal. "Fine, you're going to feel really sad when everybody is dressed in their costume and you're not." Uh, not so much. Not when his buddy Kash shows up to preschool sans costume. He was vindicated. I attempted again the next day, with not as much wasted effort on my part, before heading to Erik's work party. We managed a Spiderman t-shirt, but other than that.....well, his face pretty much tells you what he thinks about this silly holiday.

Think he changed his opinion before trunk or treat? Only when Daddy saved the day by dressing up as a soccer player and convinced Deklan to do the same. Then there is Sadie...always poised and ready for any photo op. This time as Princess Ariel. And can you guess what I am? Give up already? O.K., I'll just tell you. I'm a "smarty pants". Get it? (Well, neither did most people...except one witty gentleman who shall remain un-named who suggested I tape them to my backside and then I could be a "smart...A"). Funny, funny, funny, Brother B.

When the night came to an end I concluded that this was one of the best Halloween's we've had. The trunk or treat at the church rocked! Cotton candy, throwing darts at balloons, Charlie Brown on the big screen, chili, cornbread, face painting, crafts and oh yea, did I mention the trunk or treating? Good times!