No Tomato Aspic For Me!

I love Thanksgiving! I love that we get to eat lots of the tastiest food. I love that we get to spend nothing but TIME with family. I love that we laugh and burp and sleep and burp and play games and EAT!!! (Not necessarily in that order.)

Apparently Inigo enjoyed Thanksgiving too. I will share the essay he wrote the day he went back to school:

(I am thoroughly enjoying the essays he is writing now. His 2nd grade teacher has done such an excellent job getting him to write! His brain moves much faster than his hands do, so in the past his writing has been sketchy and frustrating. The ideas flow but it took too long to write them out. This year, his teacher has really worked with him and taught him how to get the thoughts on paper. Yay! I'm so grateful!)

"Dear Me,
On Thursday I saw the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!
It wasn't very exciting because mostly just singers for the whole parade. I also went to (Guilder) for dinner. There was this salad that had green olives. I didn't dare try it. Also there was regular green olives and regular olives! It was like paradise. It was amazing.
The end"

I laughed when I read the part about the salad with green olives. It's called Tomato Aspic. Have you ever heard of it? My parents LOVE it and their children DON'T!!! They're okay with that though, because then they don't have to share it. And we are more than HAPPY to let them have ALL of it! :)

I lifted this picture from my sister's Facebook album (hope that's okay Red!) so you can see how my niece, SaJo, and nephew JackO felt about the salad...

The rest of the post will just be pictures of our fun weekend:

As you know, I am a treat maker/baker. My assignment usually is baking pies. I sometimes throw in some extra yummies, like these Oreo Turkeys and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup pilgrim hats. They were somewhat time consuming, so I loaded my iPad up with Netflix and watched my favorite TV program while I made everything... can you see what I watched?

I made 4 different kind of pies

I also made a couple loaves of lemon poppyseed bread. I promise to share the recipe with you some time! It's so YUMMY and easy to bake!!! (Thanks Mama Chef!)

Buttercup puts on her best, "I HATE crafts!" face (this is a posed picture). She did a beautiful job, in spite of her hatred of decoupage, wood and scrapbook paper.

My mom and I were dishing up olives. Sadly, I am surrounded by people who LOVE pimento filled green olives. I HATE them!! Right when this picture was snapped, I had just gotten a wiff of the olives.

YUCK!!!

When you go to college a thousand miles away from home, this is the next best way to keep in touch with family!

WE LOVE SKYPE!!

Ready to eat!

One of our new traditions is letting my cosmetologist wannabe daughter give everyone facials. I think everyone LOVED the experience!

Inigo loved the facials so much that he is begging me to make an appointment for him at the school so he can have another one!

I loved this picture of SaJo. We wore her out playing spoons and BS

Pure Joy

"Mom, this has been the best snow day EVER!!!"

I hope so, son, because I don't think we've EVER had a snow day BEFORE Thanksgiving before!

Nuthin'

I've had a serious lack of motivation to blog lately... call it writer's block. I mean, do I write about what's going on every day? About how we get up, get the kids to school, go to the gym, wash a dish or two.... blah blah blah. YUCK!! How boring is that? Yet, that's what my life is.


However, as boring as it is, there never seems to be any free time! I'm sorry, but whoever said being a Cub Scout leader was easier than Young Woman presidency was full of stuff and nonsense! I'm tellin' ya... I think Camp Director was easier! (Which I still haven't been released from. I'm starting to get nervous!)

Now, I have a whole two paragraphs completed on this post and I'm sitting here thinking... what do I write? Do I write about the MAJOR snowstorm we got today? About how we got 4+ inches of new snow? And now there is a gale force wind blowing the snow into drifts and I'm hoping... really hoping... that there will be a snow day tomorrow.

A snow day in November? Wouldn't that be AWESOME!!!

And what would be even better is that I would be relieved of my Monday morning kindergarten music commitment and will have all the time in the world to start baking my Thanksgiving yummies, which are many.

Don't get me wrong... I love going to Kindergarten every Monday morning to help Max's cousin with music time! The kids are dang cute! But that's another lesson that I get to prepare each and every week. Trying to find age appropriate music to teach them can be draining. The songs have to be simple and the music prompts that I make have to be simple too. The kids are just starting to read and so I have to draw a lot of pictures. And believe me when I say, I'M NO ARTIST!!!

Which reminds me... I'm now the "Art Mom" in Inigo's 2nd grade class room. That's ANOTHER lesson I get to prepare every other week. Believe me when I say, I'M NO ARTIST!!! But I'm going to learn how to be one, dad-gum-it, if it kills me...

But I digress... I love going to kindergarten! So I would be sad if I can't go tomorrow. We're going to teach them Over the River And Through the Woods and who doesn't love singing that song?!?! But listening to the wind howl past my window, tomorrow's school day could be iffy.

I'm still wondering what I should write about?

Would it be divulging too much info if I write about the medical procedure Buttercup has to go through this week? She has a mole on her thigh that we biopsied a couple weeks ago. It's okay now, but the cells in it have the potential to turn cancerous sometime in the future (tomorrow? next month? when she's 80? No one knows!) The dermatologist has declared it must come out so we scheduled it for Wednesday.

My poor baby is stressed to the max about it. She doesn't do blood. She doesn't do doctors. (However, she will walk up to a HUGE spider sitting on the wall and scoop it up with a paper towel --without flinching-- then turn around and call me a wimp when I scream.) The doctor called a prescription of Valium in and she'll take that before she goes, so hopefully she'll be completely and fully relaxed. She took Valium once before, when she had a dental procedure, and SHE WAS LOOPY!!! I won't confess my plans to take my camera to record this for posterity's sake. heh heh heh (evil laugh!)

Anyway, it's a fairly simple procedure. We'll be in and out of the dr.'s office in no time at all. She'll have a couple little stitches and a LONG weekend to recover. Even though I don't think she'll need much time. After all, we have a huge group of family members who are coming up for Thanksgiving who all want facials!

I've been called heartless before.

Still wondering about how to fill my post... and I'm drawing a blank.

I took this picture of Inigo and our dog, Lola, the other night. It cracked me up. Inigo always wants Lola to sleep with him and believe me, I WANT HER TO TOO!! Actually, I would be happier if she just found a spot in front of the fire and didn't sleep on the beds at all, but she's pretty stubborn.

She's also a bed hog. You can nudge her and push her and even kick her (through the covers of course) and she won't move from her spot. Winter time is worse. She's cold and she thinks she needs to share body heat. Thus, she crawled right up to Inigo and snuggled up under his covers.

I usually wake up with her sleeping under my arm pit. And she takes up 1/3 of my queen size bed. It's awkward and uncomfortable.

Oh, I'm still having fun with my cloud blog. I haven't emptied my file of cloud pictures yet and I have a lot of friends and family members that send me pictures! It has been a lot of fun looking up into the sky and it's also been fun as I hear from people as they say that they are working harder at taking the time to notice how beautiful clouds can be.

Well, I guess I'll just give up. There's just nothing to write about at all. I hope that the next week will give me some inspiration so I can get out of this writing funk!!

UPDATE: Snickers Cupcakes

Back in August I posted this recipe. These Snickers Cupcakes from My Baking Addiction were TO DIE FOR!!

I have wanted to make this recipe using miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for quite some time and was looking for the perfect opportunity to give it a try.

Enter Buttercup's friend C.B. She is enrolled as a freshman at the University and -- lucky for me -- had a birthday last week. She is a darling girl, living away from home for the first time and I just knew that she needed some home baked LOVE for her 19th birthday.

So I got busy. Kind of.

I bought a bag of Reese's mini's and promptly put them in the freezer. Then I ran out of time. Then I needed a chocolate fix and seriously.... there's nothing better than a frozen Reese's mini. (AM I RIGHT!?!?)

A couple days passed and the supply of Reese's slowly diminished. It was diminished enough that I seriously doubted that I would have enough for a full batch of cupcakes. So I went back to the store and bought more and threw them into the freezer. And before I could even think about opening that package, I made the cupcakes.

HELLO GOODNESS!!!

I thought the Snickers cupcakes were TDF (To Die For) but these sent me into spasms of such delight and ecstacy that I was removed to another realm for a while.

Okay, so you all know that I worship at the church of peanut butter and chocolate. That's obvious. And you all know that H.B. Reese, the GENIUS that put PB and chocolate together, will have a special place in Heaven reserved just for him. Well, ol' HB is going to have a big platter of these cupcakes sitting on his footstool... I just know it!

Thank you, My Baking Addiction for giving me this recipe!

Here's what I did:
Make the cupcake recipe. Instead of putting a mini Snickers bar in the batter, put a frozen Reese's mini. Bake as directed in the recipe.

Cool.

For the frosting I don't have an exact recipe. Sadly, I don't usually make frosting with recipes. But I can tell you what I did: I made my basic chocolate buttercream frosting (butter, dutch cocoa powder, dash of salt, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla). THEN I added about 3 TBS creamy peanut butter. I would have like to add more, but Max doesn't like peanut butter and I didn't want to overwhelm him with the taste. (I love him anyway...)

Frost and top with chopped pieces of the candy. Voila! That's it!

I took them to church today to give to my class of 8 year olds. Yes, they'll eat a rock if I dress it up and tell them it's good, but the lip smacking and exclamations of delight were overwhelming! You should have heard them. One sweet girl even said, "PLEASE!!! Give my mom this recipe." And 5 minutes after the meetings were over, her mom walked up to me and said, "I hear I'm supposed to ask you for a cupcake recipe!"

That should be testament enough. If this recipe has 8 year old approval, then you know it's a winner!!

I'm anxious to hear if you try them! Let me know what you think!

That'll Teach Ya!

I'm not sure if I've posted this story before, but since I relive it once a year -- every fall to be exact -- I feel that I need to make sure that the story is out there!

Let me set the scene for you:
I was young. I'm not sure of my exact age, but I was under 10 years old... probably about 6. I was old enough to know better but young enough to think that I could get away with anything.

It was the Primary Program in my ward and as was/is the custom, I was sitting on the stand, surrounded by my peers with a Primary teacher sitting behind me.

What happened:
Details are vague... but here's what I remember: It was PARTY TIME on that stand! I was thrilled that I didn't have to sit by my parents who were incredibly strict and didn't let me goof off during Sacrament Meeting. Heck, they never let me leave the chapel to go to the bathroom or get a drink -- all my friends could go... but NO!!! my parents said I had to do it BEFORE the meeting started! I had to sit on the bench and be quiet!?!? Sheesh! What's up with that?

So there I was sitting on the stand and HAVING A GRAND TIME!!! I remember bouncing in the seat. (We had choir chairs that folded up and down. No benches at that time.)

Up and down.

Up and down.

I remember laughing.

I remember talking.

LOUDLY.

I remember the teacher behind me putting her finger to her lips and gently telling me to "Shhhhh."

I remember mocking that teacher by sticking my finger up my nose and in an incredibly sarcastic way, shushing her back.

I remember laughing at my funny joke.

I remember seeing the shocked faces of my peers who didn't think my humor was funny at all.

I remember looking down into the congregation and seeing my dad stand up.

I remember watching him walk up to the stand.

I remember him walking up to the row where I was sitting.

I remember my dad as he took my hand and walked me off that stand.

I remember the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach, thinking NOW I was going to GET IT!! and was fully prepared to leave the chapel to get spanked.

I remember my shock and then my shame as he took me to the bench where they were sitting and made me sit down to watch the program, unable to particpate anymore.

I remember sensing my parent's disappointment in me and wishing that they would have just spanked me. It would have been a lot easier to bear.

That lesson has stuck with me for 30+ years. Every year during the Primary Sacrament Meeting Program I look at those kids and remember the amazing lessons my father taught me.

He taught me a lesson about respect.

He taught me a lesson about reverence.

He taught me a lesson about expectations.

He taught me a lesson about being an example.

He taught me a lesson about patience.

He taught me a lesson about LOVE!

I remember these lessons every time I have the opportunity to sit on the stand during Sacrament Meeting. If anyone leans over to speak to me, I try to be polite, but I'd really rather not answer. My father taught me that as I am sitting in front of the ward, I need to set an example of reverence. My example helps set the tone for the meeting.

These days, I am proud to be a "mean mom" to my own kids. I expect them to be reverent during the meeting, no "goofing off" and only participating in quiet activities (I will admit that sometimes we get a little silly). And while I will allow an occasional trip to the bathroom, it is the exception -- not the rule.

Thanks Dad (and Mom!) for teaching me this valuable lesson!

Secret Teller

"What if I was in a restaurant and I announce our secrets to everyone...like, MY MOM'S A BOY!!"

--Inigo, Age 8

That's SIR Edmund Hillary!!

Halloween is over. Whew? I guess that means we're this much closer to Christmas.... ugh.

Instead of writing -- in rather boring detail -- about all the events of the day and about Inigo's costume, I thought I'd post an essay he wrote in school:

Hello! My name is (Inigo) if you're wondering. This Halloween I am going to be Edmund Hillary. I have a real ice ax. It is very sharp. It has little blades. But it can still kill you. If you whak someone very hard. Nobody will know who I am but my parents. And the people who we rent skis from. I want to get lots of candy and my friend comes with us. I will love this Halloween. Next Halloween I'm going to be the Avatar (Air Bender). I will love it next year. I don't know
who I will be the year after that.

The End

(We rented most of the equipment for Inigo's costume from the Outdoor Rec. Dept. of the local University. They LOVED talking to Inigo about Mt. Everest)