I am a little bit obsessed with office supplies.
I really can't be allowed to walk through Wal-Mart during back to school season. It's a drug! We NEED more boxes of crayons and they ARE SO CHEAP. And Ticonderogas. Are you kidding me? Why do other pencils even exist? I will need 7 more packages to go with the 5 unopened from last year. Oh and a spare pencil sharpener in case the other breaks and, heaven help us all, I can't use my Ticonderogas. And notebooks. Please, I will definitely need one of those (college ruled, because I have some dignity) for the 4 subjects I am definitely not studying this year. And Mia and Zoey will need their own notebooks to scribble in so they don't touch mine. Don't forget the Sharpies because NEW COLORS and NEW BRUSH TIP. I didn't know I needed a brush tip but that's obviously necessary in my collection. And hey there binder clips, you sure look nice. I even bought a pencil box. I just...I don't know. So much love.
It's like the line from You've Got Mail . . . you know. You don't? You mean you didn't fall asleep to that movie every night for 5 years? You must be kind of a weirdo. Well, it's the most romantic thing ever said in any movie ever. I'm nice, so I'll help you and put the line here:
"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."
That is someone who knows how to show love. (I think it's safe to assume the bouquet is made up of Ticonderogas.)
Let's move on. Okay? Good.
Yes. I love office supplies of all flavors, but lately I'm all about pens.
I grew up in a home with a lot of pens. That's a weird thing to say, because who didn't? But I feel pretty safe saying I didn't just develop my love of office supplies out of nowhere (cough, dad, cough). If you know the Rog, you know he always has a pen (and a comb*) handy. The kitchen counter at my parents' house always has some new interesting pens sitting around and it's my job to test them out.
Also. I steal them sometimes.
Mostly not on purpose. It just happens.
I always knew I loved pens, but the last one I lovingly permanently borrowed from my parents changed everything.
EVERYTHING, PEOPLE
The last pen I thought changed my life was a great pen, but Adam, who will go to great lengths to avoid using a pen to actually write, loves to twirl pens between his fingers (he's probably doing it right now)...and then lose them when they drop. I could probably explain that process better, but I am not going to. Anyway, I had this awesome pen and Adam dropped and lost it and for years I have told him he owes me one new good pen. YEARS. Ask him, he'll know what you're talking about.
My new pen may have him off the hook.
Because once I acquired the TUL fine needlepoint , wooooo baby, my penmanship improved dramatically. Like, my journals are legible now. LEGIBLE.
I feel very much like this Amazon commenter that said:
"The ink must be derived from the tears of black unicorns. It is smooth, quick drying, and never skips. If I were ever going to die, I would write my will with one of these pens."
My stolen pen died, so I had to take to Amazon to hunt down some new ones because I couldn't handle looking at my sad useless pen sitting on the nightstand while I wrote in my notebooks with a completely uninspiring hotel pen.
I found my people on Amazon.
Do you know how much money people spend on pens? Single pens. Not like, on pens over a lifetime of buying pens. The most expensive fountain pen on Amazon is almost 70 THOUSAND dollars. THOUSAND. (It's cool though, the shipping is free)
Those are not my people. But the people who like really awesome pens made from black unicorn tears that sell for under $10 are my people.
Also: this Wall Street Journal article really opened my world up to new ideas on pens and handwriting. So I'm going to try out this fountain pen business and see if it's really as fantastic as it's hyped up to be.
But then when I started looking up the (not $70k) fountain pens I got directed to books on penmanship theory and practice manuals and WHERE HAVE THESE BEEN ALL MY LIFE???
There is no point to this story. But if there were it would be this:
1-Amazon is a dangerous place for me to hang out.
2-There is a whole world of office supplies that I haven't even started to understand. But I'm ready my friends. So ready.
*Sadly I did not inherit his interest in having well kept hair
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Monday, September 01, 2014
and now a story.
I am not sure this story will translate to a blog. The sound effects are pretty crucial. But we're going to try and see what happens. It might be fun for one and all. It might make you question my ability to care for small people. Regardless, I'm sure to chuckle as I remember it, so I win, you maybe win, sounds good to me.
Here we go.
Tuesday night I fell asleep and woke up in a foggy delirium about 12:30. In my daze I looked into the hall outside my bedroom and was CONVINCED some tall dark shadowy man was standing looking in my linen closet. (Don't steal the linens!)
Usually when I wake up and have delusions (more frequent than anyone wishes for) I'm kind of paralyzed and can't move or talk and I just make weird gaspy sounds. This momentous occasion I actually started yelling.
WHO ARE YOU!
WHO'S THERE!
GO AWAY!
Poor Adam. He immediately jumped out of bed and started hollering at the dark shadow stranger of my mind. By the time he actually got to the hallway I was REALLY awake and wasn't yelling anymore ... since there was nothing to yell at. But Adam was all adrenaline so he was still going. When he got to the hall Zoey was standing there (either because she heard the commotion or because she was the original dark shadow stranger in the linen closet).
Zoey looked at me, looked at Adam (who was still charging at her and yelling) and her eyes got huge, her face pale, and she threw her arms down to her sides and started to wail. Because, of course, she was terrified.
Adam immediately stopped and scooped her up into a hug, but it took a nice long while to get her all settled and back to bed.
I am really bad at reacting to things properly. Example: in 4th grade, at my end of the year ballet recital, I was so nervous about all the people watching me dance without any coordination, I just giggled to the point I could barely dance at all. No one wanted to dance by me ever again.
In this story I felt SO BAD for Zoey. She was probably traumatized for life after that, but I COULD. NOT. STOP. LAUGHING. The visuals of the whole event still make me laugh until I can't breathe. I was holding Zoey and apologizing over and over again and telling her it wasn't her fault, but everything I said was accompanied with constant laughter. I'm sure she was completely unconvinced of my sincere concern for her wellbeing.
Anyway. Things did get calm. But here's my favorite part.
The next morning I said, Zoey, did I scare you or did Daddy scare you last night?
Daddy.
What did he do that scared you?
He said ROOAR!
Here we go.
Tuesday night I fell asleep and woke up in a foggy delirium about 12:30. In my daze I looked into the hall outside my bedroom and was CONVINCED some tall dark shadowy man was standing looking in my linen closet. (Don't steal the linens!)
Usually when I wake up and have delusions (more frequent than anyone wishes for) I'm kind of paralyzed and can't move or talk and I just make weird gaspy sounds. This momentous occasion I actually started yelling.
WHO ARE YOU!
WHO'S THERE!
GO AWAY!
Poor Adam. He immediately jumped out of bed and started hollering at the dark shadow stranger of my mind. By the time he actually got to the hallway I was REALLY awake and wasn't yelling anymore ... since there was nothing to yell at. But Adam was all adrenaline so he was still going. When he got to the hall Zoey was standing there (either because she heard the commotion or because she was the original dark shadow stranger in the linen closet).
Zoey looked at me, looked at Adam (who was still charging at her and yelling) and her eyes got huge, her face pale, and she threw her arms down to her sides and started to wail. Because, of course, she was terrified.
Adam immediately stopped and scooped her up into a hug, but it took a nice long while to get her all settled and back to bed.
I am really bad at reacting to things properly. Example: in 4th grade, at my end of the year ballet recital, I was so nervous about all the people watching me dance without any coordination, I just giggled to the point I could barely dance at all. No one wanted to dance by me ever again.
In this story I felt SO BAD for Zoey. She was probably traumatized for life after that, but I COULD. NOT. STOP. LAUGHING. The visuals of the whole event still make me laugh until I can't breathe. I was holding Zoey and apologizing over and over again and telling her it wasn't her fault, but everything I said was accompanied with constant laughter. I'm sure she was completely unconvinced of my sincere concern for her wellbeing.
Anyway. Things did get calm. But here's my favorite part.
The next morning I said, Zoey, did I scare you or did Daddy scare you last night?
Daddy.
What did he do that scared you?
He said ROOAR!
Friday, August 29, 2014
you again August?
There are a lot of things that happen in a whole year of things happening.
Let's discuss some of the more interesting and less interesting things.
In order to remember to these events I will refer to my Instagram to find out what I've been up to. I'd include some pictures here, but we all know you're really here to read a giant wall of text. It's what the ADD generation dreams of, am I right or am I right?
(Really. I'm serious. No pictures, I am at my Mom's and without access to my pictures and way too lazy to access any of the 6 million cloud picture storage systems I've made Adam set up)
I'll get some pictures another time. Just stop crying about it, geez.
Now. A review instagram style, without pictures.
August 2013:
-Mia drew a panda.
September:
-Mia started Preschool (and thus commenced a year of misery ... she loved it, but it turns out I hate leaving the house in the -15 degree winter of death. Also, it was a really fun game of everyone yelling at everyone to GET IN THE CAR SEAT for 20 minutes twice a week. I miss that so much.)
-The Athenian Room in Chicago still makes the most delicious food. Have you been there? Let's go on a double date there, every day, ok?
-Oh yeah, I graduated from BYU! Wooooo. Never been so glad to have something off my mind.
-Zoey sat atop a slide (but never went down)
-Zoey ate cheeseballs.
-I found a turtle crossing sign and my life was complete, but would be completer if I had it in my house.
-Zoey fell asleep on me in a dimly lit auditorium. Very memorable.
-I was asked to be in Young Women's at church. Then I panicked. Then I started sleeping again in November (more on that to come). Can I just put a good word out into the world for teenagers? I really really enjoy how much I laugh in their presence. I would like to bottle my YW and open the bottle every time I need a good chuckle. Why do we joke less as we become adults? I mean, I know the answers to this question. But it's still unfortunate.
October
-We took an RV adventure, borrowing an RV from Adam's place of employ. We managed to not break anything on the RV (that trip)
-Mia and Zoey dressed, respectively, like an egg and a chicken. It was adorable.
-A pumpkin became a homely jack o lantern
November
-I deleted 12,000 unread emails
-I cleaned up millions of piles of coats and hats and boots and shoes and socks and mittens and scarves and on and on and on and I love winter so much why can't we have it all year long?
-Our ward had it's first Evening of Excellence program after me being put in YW. It was lovely, the girls were lovely and once it was over I stopped having nightmares that everyone showed up and no one had a plan for what to do. Sleep restored.
-Zoey graduated from the crib and, while she made this decision herself, now resents me fiercely for taking away her crib.
-Babies dressed like supermen
-Mia turned 4, because she's practically an adult.
December
-Mia acquired an ear infection and went through the stages of grief in about 5 minutes. My favorite stages "I'll never be happy again." and "This can't be happening to me"
- Zoey, half dressed, put things on the Christmas tree in a very disorganized way. It remained that way.
-I hid in the bathroom eating chocolate covered cinnamon bears. Because...Christmas.
-Gingerbread houses and happy Christmas faces.
January
-Everything became an icy tundra and a piece of my soul died.
-I painted a piano
February
-We almost bought a house and then backed out for the 4th time. We're extra good at that. Raise your hand if you want to be our realtor?
-I learned to curl my hair. (because there was nothing else to do after a month of not leaving the house)
-I got to experience my first stake dance as an adult leader. It was amazing. And by amazing I mean, so awesome not to be 15 anymore.
March
-We went to a circus that announced things like "Tell your parents to buy you a Circuuuuus Spectaaaaaaacuuuuulaaaar stuffed animal. Accept no substitutions!" We were the parents who didn't even pretend to offer substitutions. Instead we offered, "No freaking way."
-Zoey (and by consequence Mia) got her own bed (don't do the math there)
-Zoey and I, in an effort to find joy amid the bleak winter of pain and sadness, ate Captain Crunch for breakfast.
April
-Mia found a bloody antler in my mom's yard. Then she made me touch it and we all washed our hands every 2 seconds after that for the rest of eternity.
-No one would stop jumping on the couch so I took a picture to remember it and pretend like it wouldn't always be happening forevermore and I would need a picture to remember the preciousness of something that will not stop happening.
-Zoey got a masters degree in scuzzing people off.
-We saw the sun once. (Only 2 more months before that happened again)
May
-Jackson won Zoey's heart so she fell asleep on his heart.
-Our first Nauvoo trip offered (you guessed it!) MORE SNOW and lots of fantastic colored trim. The RV did not fair as well this trip. There was a certain incident with a tree. Details need not be mentioned.
-School ended. The heaven's rejoiced.
June
-The sun came out and we could sit on the back patio in our after church pjs.
-Grandpa took Mia and Zoey (and their tagalong mother) to their first Cubs game. I do not know who won. It probably wasn't the Cubs, but if you leave early you always get to pretend they won.
-I went to girls camp for a week and left my children with Grandma. On day 3 of camp, Grandma Jan-o gave me a call that she was going to potty train Zoey. AND SHE DID.
July
-We spent as much time as possible in the sun and didn't wear any sunscreen in hopes we'd be burned enough to keep us red and warm until next July. (Parts of that statement were not true, stop being weird about things parents say about parenting on the internet)
-Nauvoo Pageant! Best thing we did all summer. Go do it. You will love it. There was so much there for kids to do and this is all my kids ever want to do. (Adam's parents were kind enough to let us crash in their apartment so we wouldn't have to damage any motorhomes)
-New line. Same subject. The Nauvoo temple is seriously insanely pretty. It's definitely worth making time to visit the temple while there.
-Todd and Heidi moved here! Cousins!
-I unpacked all my china and fancy dishery almost 2 years after moving in. Not out of (pure) laziness, but because I finally found and refinished a china cabinet. Huzzah!
August
-Zoey completed potty camp '14 and wore a wonderful cheeseball grin
-I ate a hotdog on Wrigley Field and Adam used the urinal in the dugout. Dreams came true everywhere.
-No one thought it was possible, but I left my children for several days to go to Utah with the Adam-o-nator (a review of this event, forthcoming.)
-Fam reunion for Adam's family (snap snap) in . . . Nauvoo. You keeping count on the Nauvoo trips yet? It was hot and thus, I've never been happier. Also Meesa taught me to French braid and my life was complete.
-Mia caught a lot of frogs and butterflies and grasshoppers and I pretended like it didn't make me want to throw up. But it did.
-We accidentally found ourselves looking at a house again. And because I unpacked my china and will have to immediately repack and move a million little glass items, we decided to buy the house. And good news (for Sarah Leonard) we haven't changed our minds yet! We'll close on it Sept. 24. We'll still be in the same city, just a couple miles away.
Now.
We can end the text wall.
Let's discuss some of the more interesting and less interesting things.
In order to remember to these events I will refer to my Instagram to find out what I've been up to. I'd include some pictures here, but we all know you're really here to read a giant wall of text. It's what the ADD generation dreams of, am I right or am I right?
(Really. I'm serious. No pictures, I am at my Mom's and without access to my pictures and way too lazy to access any of the 6 million cloud picture storage systems I've made Adam set up)
I'll get some pictures another time. Just stop crying about it, geez.
Now. A review instagram style, without pictures.
August 2013:
-Mia drew a panda.
September:
-Mia started Preschool (and thus commenced a year of misery ... she loved it, but it turns out I hate leaving the house in the -15 degree winter of death. Also, it was a really fun game of everyone yelling at everyone to GET IN THE CAR SEAT for 20 minutes twice a week. I miss that so much.)
-The Athenian Room in Chicago still makes the most delicious food. Have you been there? Let's go on a double date there, every day, ok?
-Oh yeah, I graduated from BYU! Wooooo. Never been so glad to have something off my mind.
-Zoey sat atop a slide (but never went down)
-Zoey ate cheeseballs.
-I found a turtle crossing sign and my life was complete, but would be completer if I had it in my house.
-Zoey fell asleep on me in a dimly lit auditorium. Very memorable.
-I was asked to be in Young Women's at church. Then I panicked. Then I started sleeping again in November (more on that to come). Can I just put a good word out into the world for teenagers? I really really enjoy how much I laugh in their presence. I would like to bottle my YW and open the bottle every time I need a good chuckle. Why do we joke less as we become adults? I mean, I know the answers to this question. But it's still unfortunate.
October
-We took an RV adventure, borrowing an RV from Adam's place of employ. We managed to not break anything on the RV (that trip)
-Mia and Zoey dressed, respectively, like an egg and a chicken. It was adorable.
-A pumpkin became a homely jack o lantern
November
-I deleted 12,000 unread emails
-I cleaned up millions of piles of coats and hats and boots and shoes and socks and mittens and scarves and on and on and on and I love winter so much why can't we have it all year long?
-Our ward had it's first Evening of Excellence program after me being put in YW. It was lovely, the girls were lovely and once it was over I stopped having nightmares that everyone showed up and no one had a plan for what to do. Sleep restored.
-Zoey graduated from the crib and, while she made this decision herself, now resents me fiercely for taking away her crib.
-Babies dressed like supermen
-Mia turned 4, because she's practically an adult.
December
-Mia acquired an ear infection and went through the stages of grief in about 5 minutes. My favorite stages "I'll never be happy again." and "This can't be happening to me"
- Zoey, half dressed, put things on the Christmas tree in a very disorganized way. It remained that way.
-I hid in the bathroom eating chocolate covered cinnamon bears. Because...Christmas.
-Gingerbread houses and happy Christmas faces.
January
-Everything became an icy tundra and a piece of my soul died.
-I painted a piano
February
-We almost bought a house and then backed out for the 4th time. We're extra good at that. Raise your hand if you want to be our realtor?
-I learned to curl my hair. (because there was nothing else to do after a month of not leaving the house)
-I got to experience my first stake dance as an adult leader. It was amazing. And by amazing I mean, so awesome not to be 15 anymore.
March
-We went to a circus that announced things like "Tell your parents to buy you a Circuuuuus Spectaaaaaaacuuuuulaaaar stuffed animal. Accept no substitutions!" We were the parents who didn't even pretend to offer substitutions. Instead we offered, "No freaking way."
-Zoey (and by consequence Mia) got her own bed (don't do the math there)
-Zoey and I, in an effort to find joy amid the bleak winter of pain and sadness, ate Captain Crunch for breakfast.
April
-Mia found a bloody antler in my mom's yard. Then she made me touch it and we all washed our hands every 2 seconds after that for the rest of eternity.
-No one would stop jumping on the couch so I took a picture to remember it and pretend like it wouldn't always be happening forevermore and I would need a picture to remember the preciousness of something that will not stop happening.
-Zoey got a masters degree in scuzzing people off.
-We saw the sun once. (Only 2 more months before that happened again)
May
-Jackson won Zoey's heart so she fell asleep on his heart.
-Our first Nauvoo trip offered (you guessed it!) MORE SNOW and lots of fantastic colored trim. The RV did not fair as well this trip. There was a certain incident with a tree. Details need not be mentioned.
-School ended. The heaven's rejoiced.
June
-The sun came out and we could sit on the back patio in our after church pjs.
-Grandpa took Mia and Zoey (and their tagalong mother) to their first Cubs game. I do not know who won. It probably wasn't the Cubs, but if you leave early you always get to pretend they won.
-I went to girls camp for a week and left my children with Grandma. On day 3 of camp, Grandma Jan-o gave me a call that she was going to potty train Zoey. AND SHE DID.
July
-We spent as much time as possible in the sun and didn't wear any sunscreen in hopes we'd be burned enough to keep us red and warm until next July. (Parts of that statement were not true, stop being weird about things parents say about parenting on the internet)
-Nauvoo Pageant! Best thing we did all summer. Go do it. You will love it. There was so much there for kids to do and this is all my kids ever want to do. (Adam's parents were kind enough to let us crash in their apartment so we wouldn't have to damage any motorhomes)
-New line. Same subject. The Nauvoo temple is seriously insanely pretty. It's definitely worth making time to visit the temple while there.
-Todd and Heidi moved here! Cousins!
-I unpacked all my china and fancy dishery almost 2 years after moving in. Not out of (pure) laziness, but because I finally found and refinished a china cabinet. Huzzah!
August
-Zoey completed potty camp '14 and wore a wonderful cheeseball grin
-I ate a hotdog on Wrigley Field and Adam used the urinal in the dugout. Dreams came true everywhere.
-No one thought it was possible, but I left my children for several days to go to Utah with the Adam-o-nator (a review of this event, forthcoming.)
-Fam reunion for Adam's family (snap snap) in . . . Nauvoo. You keeping count on the Nauvoo trips yet? It was hot and thus, I've never been happier. Also Meesa taught me to French braid and my life was complete.
-Mia caught a lot of frogs and butterflies and grasshoppers and I pretended like it didn't make me want to throw up. But it did.
-We accidentally found ourselves looking at a house again. And because I unpacked my china and will have to immediately repack and move a million little glass items, we decided to buy the house. And good news (for Sarah Leonard) we haven't changed our minds yet! We'll close on it Sept. 24. We'll still be in the same city, just a couple miles away.
Now.
We can end the text wall.
Monday, August 12, 2013
mmmmPie.
Zoey loves pie.
Well. Everyone loves pie and if you don't you're just lying to yourself. One day you too will learn, you love pie.
Anyway.
If it's sweet and delicious, Zoey calls it pie. She's working with a pretty limited vocabulary, so pie is a pretty good substitute for I LOVE THAT AND IT'S AMAZING.
On Sunday I had a primary meeting after church and since we opted to drive one car (I gave them the choice!) Adam and tots played on the lawn of the church for an hour . . . or more . . . There are crab apple trees on that lawn and usually after church the kids pick some and then we're on our way, but apparently with more time on their hands they picked several POUNDS of them.
It went something like this:
Meeting ends, children are gathered and we run to the car.
I get in my seat.
Me: Adam, there is a huge bag of crab apples in here.
Adam: I know. We had a lot of time.
Me: What are we going to do with them?
Adam: We want to make a pie.
Me: What?
Adam: We want to make a pie.
Me: I don't think we can make a pie with crab apples.
Adam: I've looked into it. We can make a pie.
I laughed a lot about this. And it's really got me thinking, why do people plant crab apple trees? No one does anything with crab apples. They are tiny and like 60% of people think they are poisonous (a very scientific percentage based on how many people told Adam they were poisonous as they saw him feeding them to our children. Don't worry, he looked into it.) Allllso, they are just really annoying. They make a huge mess when they fall off the trees. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY CRAB APPLE TREES? I just looked up crab apple to figure out if it's one word or two, I'm 80% sure it's 2? And the definition is: a very small sour apple. Now. Doesn't that sound just useless? I think I'll plant 30 of those trees in my own yard some day.
I digress.
Crab Apple Pie
I used this recipe because it didn't tell me to peel the crab apples. Excuse me for a moment, but who on this good earth is going to PEEL AND CORE crab apples. I just . . . can't deal with the idea. This recipe also made me feel extra awesome about leaving the peels on by captioning the picture "Not peeling the fruit results in a rich red pie filling" Yup. That's what I want, no, NEED. A rich red pie filling. Leaving the peels on. It's the right thing to do.
The post containing the recipe is also called "Crabapple Pie is a Labor of Love" and I was like, yeah. I must love my family to be doing this. So I gave myself a few pats on the back for making them something nasty that required coring a million crab apples (every time I type the word I accidentally type crap abbles instead. It's getting frustrating.).
Because I had no faith in this project, there was no way I was going to make my own pie crust, but happened to have an old one from probably Christmas in my fridge. Pie crust improves with age, right?
After coring ALL. THOSE. TINY. APPLES. I threw them in the pie, like so:
Crab apple pie. Catch the wave now, before everyone starts figuring out what to do with their nasty little sour balls they think are poisonous and you can't find any crab apples of your own. It's even so early you can be the first to start crab apple pie dessert bars and crab apple pie shake shops. Better get on board the crab apple bus before it's trendy, if you really want to be hip . . .like us. I mean, you think frozen yogurt got big. Just wait till you see what people are going to do with crab apples.
Well. Everyone loves pie and if you don't you're just lying to yourself. One day you too will learn, you love pie.
Anyway.
If it's sweet and delicious, Zoey calls it pie. She's working with a pretty limited vocabulary, so pie is a pretty good substitute for I LOVE THAT AND IT'S AMAZING.
On Sunday I had a primary meeting after church and since we opted to drive one car (I gave them the choice!) Adam and tots played on the lawn of the church for an hour . . . or more . . . There are crab apple trees on that lawn and usually after church the kids pick some and then we're on our way, but apparently with more time on their hands they picked several POUNDS of them.
It went something like this:
Meeting ends, children are gathered and we run to the car.
I get in my seat.
Me: Adam, there is a huge bag of crab apples in here.
Adam: I know. We had a lot of time.
Me: What are we going to do with them?
Adam: We want to make a pie.
Me: What?
Adam: We want to make a pie.
Me: I don't think we can make a pie with crab apples.
Adam: I've looked into it. We can make a pie.
I laughed a lot about this. And it's really got me thinking, why do people plant crab apple trees? No one does anything with crab apples. They are tiny and like 60% of people think they are poisonous (a very scientific percentage based on how many people told Adam they were poisonous as they saw him feeding them to our children. Don't worry, he looked into it.) Allllso, they are just really annoying. They make a huge mess when they fall off the trees. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY CRAB APPLE TREES? I just looked up crab apple to figure out if it's one word or two, I'm 80% sure it's 2? And the definition is: a very small sour apple. Now. Doesn't that sound just useless? I think I'll plant 30 of those trees in my own yard some day.
I digress.
Crab Apple Pie
I used this recipe because it didn't tell me to peel the crab apples. Excuse me for a moment, but who on this good earth is going to PEEL AND CORE crab apples. I just . . . can't deal with the idea. This recipe also made me feel extra awesome about leaving the peels on by captioning the picture "Not peeling the fruit results in a rich red pie filling" Yup. That's what I want, no, NEED. A rich red pie filling. Leaving the peels on. It's the right thing to do.
The post containing the recipe is also called "Crabapple Pie is a Labor of Love" and I was like, yeah. I must love my family to be doing this. So I gave myself a few pats on the back for making them something nasty that required coring a million crab apples (every time I type the word I accidentally type crap abbles instead. It's getting frustrating.).
Because I had no faith in this project, there was no way I was going to make my own pie crust, but happened to have an old one from probably Christmas in my fridge. Pie crust improves with age, right?
After coring ALL. THOSE. TINY. APPLES. I threw them in the pie, like so:
I just laughed and laughed the whole time I did this knowing how useless the gross pie was going to be. At least it looked pretty for the picture. Enjoy your shining moment crab apples, it's the best you're going to get!
The recipe only calls for sugar (and oodles of it), a bit of salt and some water. This sounds lacking, I know. But, what did I care, I knew the pie was a bust. It doesn't matter what you add to it, IT'S STILL MADE OF CRAB APPLES.
Well. Christmas pie crust and all, it was AMAZING. It almost tasted like a tart cherry pie? I don't know. It was way better than regular apple pie, which is definitely the ugly step-sister of the pie family, so not a terribly high bar, but it was good for any member of the fruity pie family, which, as it happens, IS a high bar. Adam loved it, Mia loved it and Zoey said PIE! So I guess that's rave reviews all around.
Crab apple pie. Catch the wave now, before everyone starts figuring out what to do with their nasty little sour balls they think are poisonous and you can't find any crab apples of your own. It's even so early you can be the first to start crab apple pie dessert bars and crab apple pie shake shops. Better get on board the crab apple bus before it's trendy, if you really want to be hip . . .like us. I mean, you think frozen yogurt got big. Just wait till you see what people are going to do with crab apples.
Tuesday, August 06, 2013
where did you go joe dimaggiooooo
Is this thing on?
Testing, testing?
Oh, my keyboard still works?
Weird.
So. Let's examine what exactly went wrong the last 9 months. I had a sickness. A sickness called, not having been graduated from college after seven years of undergrad. Now. This isn't a sickness for everyone. Some people just decide not to get the sickness by, ohhh, finishing in a timely manner, and others keep the sickness at bay by just walking calmly away from the university and never looking back.
I let the sickness in.
When I had Mia I needed THREE classes to graduate. Just three. THANK HEAVENS that I ended up doing school that last semester when I was pregnant. Halllllelujah. I can't imagine what the sickness would have been like had I had a zillion more credits to finish. Iyiyiyi.
Anyway. The sickness prevented me from sitting in front of a computer without feeling an overwhelming guilt that I wasn't working on school. (Not that it made me actually do school instead, just made me stay away from computers most of that time.)
But I finally decided to buckle down, sign up for that last terrifying Shakespeare class and get my degree.
Everyone kept saying, OHHHH that's all you have to do? JUST DO IT!
And I'd say
OHHHH! WHAT A GOOD IDEA! I JUST HAVE TO DO IT! I HADN'T THOUGHT OF THAT!
Because saying do it is a lot easier than doing it. Just FYI.
In basically all my 4000 English classes at BYU I would hear classmates talking about their Shakespeare class and it was just angry student after angry student talking about how much they hated it and the teacher was a crazy and it was TOO HARD. So I, being poetry challenged had it built up in my mind as an impossible class. But I seriously had no choice but to try. Even more terrifying was the prospect of doing it without classmates or professors available to get help and bounce ideas off of.
After a lot of gnashing of teeth and plenty of weepy moments I had to learn to read and analyze Shakespeare. And you know what? IT WAS REALLY REALLY REALLY HARD (don't judge me if it was the easiest class you took. You're the best okay? Two thumbs up for you. Go home.)
And you know what else? I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY liked it.
And now I'm finally done.
DONE DONE DONE! GRADUATIIIIIION! It's honestly nothing short of a miracle. And especially one for my poor mother who basically had to raise my kids while I did this. So, thank you Jan-o.
And I learned a lot about doing hard things and that I do not like school, but I really like learning things, so I'm looking forward to learning all the things I WANT to learn now. Especially history. I don't really understand why I didn't major in history? No one does. But now I get to study history and read cheesy young adult literature just because I want to and never feel bad that I should be finishing school. It's the best feeling really.
I'm also looking forward to painting everything I see.
But enough about me. It's been so long since I've let you see my cute babies.
They're the best.
Yesterday Mia said to me:
"Mom. Can you put this lizard in this Cinderella dress for me?"
And yesterday Zoey said:
"LET ME GO, MOMMA! LET ME GO!"
And that pretty much sums them up as people.
Let's look at them now. (Sadly, of course, all my pictures are from my phone. Time for someone to invest in a big girl camera . . . blech)
Here we are on the Sunday before the 24th (which is such a depressing holiday outside of Utah. You know everyone there is having fun and . . . well. . . I wasn't.) Back to my people.
Mia's a little crazy and Zoey's planning her escape. That's just how it goes. Unless there is anyone Zoey is unfamiliar with and then you can't PEEL her off me. They're good people. Let's look at some more of what they've done in nine months.
You can't see them here. Unless you are magic, so pretend you are magic, but we got a tandem bike this summer and have been really enjoying the bike trails around here. Mia and Zoey LOOOOVE it. Every time we go in the garage they climb in the trailer and we have to force them out. It's lovely. I love turning around to watch them while we ride (Adam doesn't love this as much since I accidentally jerk the bike when I do it. The bike has also taught me I'm a control freak, because I tend to try to steer ummm . .. always and well, I wouldn't recommend that. But we haven't crashed yet! [knocks on wood])
Earlier this summer my brother Carson and his wife Heidi and their Evelyn child came to visit and my dad took us fishing to fulfill all of Mia's biggest dreams. It was So. Gross. And she, of course, loved it. She just wanted to play with the tub of nightcrawlers and touch the nasty fish. It was one of the most horrible things to watch, but she loved it. So I endured. They caught a zillion fish and Mia's was the biggest of all. She still talks about it and I still try to forget all the fish blood. Everywhere. I'm incredibly grateful for people who like to do things I hate, so Mia can have fun...
Speaking of Grandpa, these children love him. (And Grandma, but she's never cooperative for a picture)
My parents got them these little folding chairs and HOOO BOY heaven help the child that sits in Zoey's chair.
We go to home depot. Kind of a lot. And on the short list of things I hate, these stupid carts come in just under war and the thought of space travel. I just don't have the ab strength required to steer these beasts and I don't want to develop it walking through Home Depot crashing into paint displays. So, naturally, the carts of evil are the girls' idea of true bliss. They always win this battle.
But this one visit I was glad to get the cart because it meant I got this picture. Zoey was pretending to be Mia's baby and Mia was comforting her. It was cute. Then it wasn't cute when they started screaming a couple minutes later. But, at least this:
Ahhh. Another of my favorites. Have I mentioned I love Illinois in the summer? I LOOOOVE Illinois in the summer. This picture is just very them. So I like it.
And swimming. I thought this would be the year Mia took up liking water. I was not right. My visiting teacher invited us to go with her family. Her 9 year old carried Mia (wearing a life jacket AND floaties) into the water and Mia still asks me if I remember when she almost sunk and drowned. She didn't. If you're wondering, but she's as convinced as can be that she was in grave danger. Next year?
And now. Because, why not just keep your reading this for the next 9 months, just in case another 9 passes. I'll be covered.
Furniture.
I found out that whenever I'm overwhelmed I start a furniture project. I can't decide is this is self-help or self-destruction. Why adding more on my plate is my solution, I'm not sure. But I like it. So I do it. And it does seem to help.
When I first started getting serious about finishing Shakespeare I knocked out this nightstand. Because I'm excellent at taking pictures I do not have (nor have the motivation to go take) a picture of it with the hardware on. It's cuter with it, but alas. Lazy.
While doing the nightstand I thought, why not a desk too? And added the blue and gray desk. It looks green every time I take a picture. Again. Time for a big girl camera.
Mmmm. My yellow chairs. When we moved in, OH YEAH, BEETEEDUB, we are renting a cute little house, the one I looked at before crashing my brand new car, yeah. So, back to the story, when we moved in these splintery chairs were out on the patio and I took matters into my own hands to keep us all a little safer. Since they aren't in my house and I don't have to always see them I decided it was time for some extreme color. They are definitely bright and just right for sitting in the sun.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND breathe.
Let's do this again sometime.
Testing, testing?
Oh, my keyboard still works?
Weird.
So. Let's examine what exactly went wrong the last 9 months. I had a sickness. A sickness called, not having been graduated from college after seven years of undergrad. Now. This isn't a sickness for everyone. Some people just decide not to get the sickness by, ohhh, finishing in a timely manner, and others keep the sickness at bay by just walking calmly away from the university and never looking back.
I let the sickness in.
When I had Mia I needed THREE classes to graduate. Just three. THANK HEAVENS that I ended up doing school that last semester when I was pregnant. Halllllelujah. I can't imagine what the sickness would have been like had I had a zillion more credits to finish. Iyiyiyi.
Anyway. The sickness prevented me from sitting in front of a computer without feeling an overwhelming guilt that I wasn't working on school. (Not that it made me actually do school instead, just made me stay away from computers most of that time.)
But I finally decided to buckle down, sign up for that last terrifying Shakespeare class and get my degree.
Everyone kept saying, OHHHH that's all you have to do? JUST DO IT!
And I'd say
OHHHH! WHAT A GOOD IDEA! I JUST HAVE TO DO IT! I HADN'T THOUGHT OF THAT!
Because saying do it is a lot easier than doing it. Just FYI.
In basically all my 4000 English classes at BYU I would hear classmates talking about their Shakespeare class and it was just angry student after angry student talking about how much they hated it and the teacher was a crazy and it was TOO HARD. So I, being poetry challenged had it built up in my mind as an impossible class. But I seriously had no choice but to try. Even more terrifying was the prospect of doing it without classmates or professors available to get help and bounce ideas off of.
After a lot of gnashing of teeth and plenty of weepy moments I had to learn to read and analyze Shakespeare. And you know what? IT WAS REALLY REALLY REALLY HARD (don't judge me if it was the easiest class you took. You're the best okay? Two thumbs up for you. Go home.)
And you know what else? I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY liked it.
And now I'm finally done.
DONE DONE DONE! GRADUATIIIIIION! It's honestly nothing short of a miracle. And especially one for my poor mother who basically had to raise my kids while I did this. So, thank you Jan-o.
And I learned a lot about doing hard things and that I do not like school, but I really like learning things, so I'm looking forward to learning all the things I WANT to learn now. Especially history. I don't really understand why I didn't major in history? No one does. But now I get to study history and read cheesy young adult literature just because I want to and never feel bad that I should be finishing school. It's the best feeling really.
I'm also looking forward to painting everything I see.
But enough about me. It's been so long since I've let you see my cute babies.
They're the best.
Yesterday Mia said to me:
"Mom. Can you put this lizard in this Cinderella dress for me?"
And yesterday Zoey said:
"LET ME GO, MOMMA! LET ME GO!"
And that pretty much sums them up as people.
Let's look at them now. (Sadly, of course, all my pictures are from my phone. Time for someone to invest in a big girl camera . . . blech)
Here we are on the Sunday before the 24th (which is such a depressing holiday outside of Utah. You know everyone there is having fun and . . . well. . . I wasn't.) Back to my people.
Mia's a little crazy and Zoey's planning her escape. That's just how it goes. Unless there is anyone Zoey is unfamiliar with and then you can't PEEL her off me. They're good people. Let's look at some more of what they've done in nine months.
You can't see them here. Unless you are magic, so pretend you are magic, but we got a tandem bike this summer and have been really enjoying the bike trails around here. Mia and Zoey LOOOOVE it. Every time we go in the garage they climb in the trailer and we have to force them out. It's lovely. I love turning around to watch them while we ride (Adam doesn't love this as much since I accidentally jerk the bike when I do it. The bike has also taught me I'm a control freak, because I tend to try to steer ummm . .. always and well, I wouldn't recommend that. But we haven't crashed yet! [knocks on wood])
Earlier this summer my brother Carson and his wife Heidi and their Evelyn child came to visit and my dad took us fishing to fulfill all of Mia's biggest dreams. It was So. Gross. And she, of course, loved it. She just wanted to play with the tub of nightcrawlers and touch the nasty fish. It was one of the most horrible things to watch, but she loved it. So I endured. They caught a zillion fish and Mia's was the biggest of all. She still talks about it and I still try to forget all the fish blood. Everywhere. I'm incredibly grateful for people who like to do things I hate, so Mia can have fun...
Speaking of Grandpa, these children love him. (And Grandma, but she's never cooperative for a picture)
My parents got them these little folding chairs and HOOO BOY heaven help the child that sits in Zoey's chair.
We go to home depot. Kind of a lot. And on the short list of things I hate, these stupid carts come in just under war and the thought of space travel. I just don't have the ab strength required to steer these beasts and I don't want to develop it walking through Home Depot crashing into paint displays. So, naturally, the carts of evil are the girls' idea of true bliss. They always win this battle.
But this one visit I was glad to get the cart because it meant I got this picture. Zoey was pretending to be Mia's baby and Mia was comforting her. It was cute. Then it wasn't cute when they started screaming a couple minutes later. But, at least this:
Ahhh. Another of my favorites. Have I mentioned I love Illinois in the summer? I LOOOOVE Illinois in the summer. This picture is just very them. So I like it.
And swimming. I thought this would be the year Mia took up liking water. I was not right. My visiting teacher invited us to go with her family. Her 9 year old carried Mia (wearing a life jacket AND floaties) into the water and Mia still asks me if I remember when she almost sunk and drowned. She didn't. If you're wondering, but she's as convinced as can be that she was in grave danger. Next year?
Sometimes Zoey is very complicated. Like last night. She was very happy about wearing Adam's socks. But she wasn't very cooperative with the picture taking process. Every time I'd squat down to take her picture she'd squat too (this is a recurring problem with pictures of her) and then I couldn't get the socks in the picture. It's a problem
So I put a pencil on the floor and asked her to STAND behind it. This was an unforgivable thing to do and she cried for many minutes of insanity. I think the socks maybe just made her feet too hot and made her rational-ometer over heat. I know that always does it for me.
And now. Because, why not just keep your reading this for the next 9 months, just in case another 9 passes. I'll be covered.
Furniture.
I found out that whenever I'm overwhelmed I start a furniture project. I can't decide is this is self-help or self-destruction. Why adding more on my plate is my solution, I'm not sure. But I like it. So I do it. And it does seem to help.
When I first started getting serious about finishing Shakespeare I knocked out this nightstand. Because I'm excellent at taking pictures I do not have (nor have the motivation to go take) a picture of it with the hardware on. It's cuter with it, but alas. Lazy.
While doing the nightstand I thought, why not a desk too? And added the blue and gray desk. It looks green every time I take a picture. Again. Time for a big girl camera.
Shortly after moving here Brittany, who I went to high school/seminary with and then married her charming cousin, married her husband Chris. It was such a fun wedding and they looked so happy. Weddings are the best. Anyway. I refinished this for their wedding present. It really turned out awesome. It was my first experience with making chalk paint and probably my best. It is soooo smooth. I did a coffee table at the same time and I love it, but it's not quite done yet, so, you're really just going to have to try your best to wait patiently to see it. I KNOW THIS WILL BE DIFFICULT. But you can endure.
Mmmm. My yellow chairs. When we moved in, OH YEAH, BEETEEDUB, we are renting a cute little house, the one I looked at before crashing my brand new car, yeah. So, back to the story, when we moved in these splintery chairs were out on the patio and I took matters into my own hands to keep us all a little safer. Since they aren't in my house and I don't have to always see them I decided it was time for some extreme color. They are definitely bright and just right for sitting in the sun.
I feel a little ridiculous, because everything I'm putting on here, if you follow me on instagram, you've already seen it, but anyway, let's travel all the way back to Christmas. Santa, the very hard worker and Santa's mother worked crazy hours to get this thing finished in the midst of unpacking and getting ready to go to Utah for Christmas. Santa may have been on drugs to think this was a good idea. But I'm glad it happened.
Aaaaand last the best of all the game. This is my very favorite. This room has been an absolute disaster since we moved in. When my Shakespeare midterm was approaching I, very sensibly, decided to do this instead of study. I'd had this hideous sewing table sitting in my house since before Mia was born and had never gotten around to it, so, having become addicted to color after THE YELLOW happened to the chairs, I went for it. If Shrek were a seamster, he'd be very happy. I'm very happy and I'm not a green ogre. I don't think?
I always leave the door to this room open now so I can look at my table every chance I get. I can even see it from my bed at night if I crane my neck just so. I figure I should enjoy looking at it now, because in a couple years I'm not going to be able to figure out what the heck I was thinking. Future self: I was thinking awesome things. And you know it, so back off.
Not sure why the wings are up in this picture. But, it is what it is.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND breathe.
Let's do this again sometime.
Friday, November 09, 2012
some days.
Sigh.
Today was just one of those days.
Well, really it's just been one of those weeks. Today was just the cherry on top.
I went to look at a rental house because we decided the economy here in Illinois just isn't worth committing to and the housing market is too scary and the property taxes are too freaking high and blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah depressing things. So, despite finding the perfect house and getting our offer on it accepted . . . no go. We're going to rent.
So. I went to see a rental and I loved it. So that's good news.
Then I drove down the street and promptly smashed into a car coming the other direction.
Less than awesome.
I guess I just wasn't thinking? But I stopped at the stop sign and I saw a sign on the cross street and couldn't see the color and there was a cross walk and I didn't process the shape and so, thinking it was a four way stop and despite seeing a car coming, I just started going into oncoming traffic. Seriously. That's what I did.
Uhg.
Luckily the kids were totally fine although Mia was very worried about our "broken" car. Right after it happened she said, MOM DID YOU BREAK THE CAR?
I definitely broke the car. Our brand new (to us) beautiful, perfect car.
Smooshed.
But our babies aren't smooshed. So there's always a bright lining in that. But it was horrible and I'm feeling guilty as guilty comes for ruining someones else's car, our car which wasn't even on our own insurance yet which just makes it all even worse and just WHAT IF I HAD HURT OUR CHILDREN JUST BECAUSE I AM APPARENTLY QUITE DIM?
Of course I just stood on the side of the road bawling and holding my children while my realtor (do you need one, because she is faaaabulous?) moved my car and my mom came to get us.
And luckily the man I hit wasn't hit and he was SO NICE. Really. Sometimes I think the people in Illinois are maybe the nicest I've ever met. I mean, how much worse would it have all been if he had been a total jerk? But he wasn't. So that's all I can ask for.
Again. Uhg. Like I didn't hate driving enough already. Anyway. I don't really want to talk about it. I mostly just want to hide in my bed for a while.
And I think that updates you on things since we moved here. Still no house. Now 1 car. And hopefully somewhere to live soon. Sooooon.
NOW LET'S CHEER UP!
Here are some pictures of the awesome things that have happened to outweigh the unawesome.
We met Dennis Prager and Medved! At the same time! And if you know Adam and me much then you know this was a verrrry exciting thing for us.
And here we are listening to them. I tried really hard to get a picture where we didn't look like crazy people (and some of us like giraffes, ahem) but well, no luck. It was such a fun night and I'm really glad we went and got to hear Medved, Prager, Hugh Hewitt (who was like the nicest person I've ever met in my life), Dennis Miller (who just always makes me chuckle), a bunch of Chicago radio people and Glen Beck. It was fun. If not now a little depressing post election. BUT THIS IS THE HAPPY PART SO WE AREN'T TALKING ABOUT THAT!
Zoey really loved holding this basket. She was very professional about the whole thing.
This was the best picture I got of Zoey's cute costume, but you still can't see the hat and she turned away, so, sadly, you still can't tell just how adorable she looked.
Mia would have a breakdown anytime her hood came off. It was important. Okay?
Annnd in other news, ZOEY WALKS! She's been doing it for a while now. Which has been wonderful. Walking is SO superior to crawling. A couple weeks ago at church a guy said, "You know what happens when they start walking don't you?" and I said "Yes. They have cleaner knees." Mia took forever to walk (like 15 months old) so I guess I expected Zo to be slooow too, especially since she crawled and rolled and hit all those milestones later than Mia. But she's her own bird and does her own thing. That thing just happened to be walking at 13 months rather than 15, so YAAY!
She also loves wearing socks on her hands. I am not kidding. It's kind of weird. But it's true.
Yesterday my mom stuck some socks on her hands to bug her, because that's just what my mom does sometimes. Rather than being annoyed and taking them off she left them on. ALL NIGHT. I took them off when I put her to bed. And she was sad about it.
Then today she came toddling up to me with socks and handed me the sock then stuck out her hand. She even kept them on all through her nap and hours after it until Mia finally ripped them off her.
She maaay have also been decorated with some of mia's undies. And a dishtowel later for a superhero cape (which I didn't get a picture of). Zoey would even come up to my mom while she was folding laundry to try and get more clothes stuck on her (hence the sock in her hand in this picture)
They were saving the day. Or so Mia told us.
So. My babies are safe and cute and wildly entertaining. And that's good. So there crappy week! Take that!
Today was just one of those days.
Well, really it's just been one of those weeks. Today was just the cherry on top.
I went to look at a rental house because we decided the economy here in Illinois just isn't worth committing to and the housing market is too scary and the property taxes are too freaking high and blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah depressing things. So, despite finding the perfect house and getting our offer on it accepted . . . no go. We're going to rent.
So. I went to see a rental and I loved it. So that's good news.
Then I drove down the street and promptly smashed into a car coming the other direction.
Less than awesome.
I guess I just wasn't thinking? But I stopped at the stop sign and I saw a sign on the cross street and couldn't see the color and there was a cross walk and I didn't process the shape and so, thinking it was a four way stop and despite seeing a car coming, I just started going into oncoming traffic. Seriously. That's what I did.
Uhg.
Luckily the kids were totally fine although Mia was very worried about our "broken" car. Right after it happened she said, MOM DID YOU BREAK THE CAR?
I definitely broke the car. Our brand new (to us) beautiful, perfect car.
Smooshed.
But our babies aren't smooshed. So there's always a bright lining in that. But it was horrible and I'm feeling guilty as guilty comes for ruining someones else's car, our car which wasn't even on our own insurance yet which just makes it all even worse and just WHAT IF I HAD HURT OUR CHILDREN JUST BECAUSE I AM APPARENTLY QUITE DIM?
Of course I just stood on the side of the road bawling and holding my children while my realtor (do you need one, because she is faaaabulous?) moved my car and my mom came to get us.
And luckily the man I hit wasn't hit and he was SO NICE. Really. Sometimes I think the people in Illinois are maybe the nicest I've ever met. I mean, how much worse would it have all been if he had been a total jerk? But he wasn't. So that's all I can ask for.
Again. Uhg. Like I didn't hate driving enough already. Anyway. I don't really want to talk about it. I mostly just want to hide in my bed for a while.
And I think that updates you on things since we moved here. Still no house. Now 1 car. And hopefully somewhere to live soon. Sooooon.
NOW LET'S CHEER UP!
Here are some pictures of the awesome things that have happened to outweigh the unawesome.
We met Dennis Prager and Medved! At the same time! And if you know Adam and me much then you know this was a verrrry exciting thing for us.
And here we are listening to them. I tried really hard to get a picture where we didn't look like crazy people (and some of us like giraffes, ahem) but well, no luck. It was such a fun night and I'm really glad we went and got to hear Medved, Prager, Hugh Hewitt (who was like the nicest person I've ever met in my life), Dennis Miller (who just always makes me chuckle), a bunch of Chicago radio people and Glen Beck. It was fun. If not now a little depressing post election. BUT THIS IS THE HAPPY PART SO WE AREN'T TALKING ABOUT THAT!
Also! Halloween!
Mia was Little Red Riding Hood and Zoey was the wolf dressed as a grandma. I loved their costumes more than I can even say. And they LOVED them. It was great. Plus they kept them quite warm so they didn't need coats to cover the cuteness for trick or treating.
Zoey really loved holding this basket. She was very professional about the whole thing.
This was the best picture I got of Zoey's cute costume, but you still can't see the hat and she turned away, so, sadly, you still can't tell just how adorable she looked.
Mia would have a breakdown anytime her hood came off. It was important. Okay?
She also loves wearing socks on her hands. I am not kidding. It's kind of weird. But it's true.
Yesterday my mom stuck some socks on her hands to bug her, because that's just what my mom does sometimes. Rather than being annoyed and taking them off she left them on. ALL NIGHT. I took them off when I put her to bed. And she was sad about it.
Then today she came toddling up to me with socks and handed me the sock then stuck out her hand. She even kept them on all through her nap and hours after it until Mia finally ripped them off her.
She maaay have also been decorated with some of mia's undies. And a dishtowel later for a superhero cape (which I didn't get a picture of). Zoey would even come up to my mom while she was folding laundry to try and get more clothes stuck on her (hence the sock in her hand in this picture)
They were saving the day. Or so Mia told us.
So. My babies are safe and cute and wildly entertaining. And that's good. So there crappy week! Take that!
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
and we followed the birds. alternately titled: How I spent my Summer Vacation
So it's been a while. Yeah? Yeah.
It has. There's a lot to catch up on. So let's start with the important things.
1- Hilary Duff.
Look at Hilary Duff:
SHE LOOKS SO NORMAL!
It's kind of like I grew up with her and good ole Gordo and that other girl . . . and she's stayed that normal seeming person. (For now. I mean, Amanda Bynes wasn't wackadoo until she was/is) She got married. THEN she had a baby. And that baby is so cute! And she looks like she has a little baby, and I mean that in the best possible way. Because that makes sense and it's only polite to look like you've had a baby when you have, in fact, had a baby. And she just looks like someone I'd want to be friends with, unlike so many scary looking celebrities.
So Hilary Duff. She's normal! AND polite. Thank you Lizzie McGuire. Thank you.
2 - Now on to trivial matters.
Things are about to get LOOOONG. So take a nap before trying to deal with this.
Once upon a time, back in June I visited the Chicagoland. And I loved it there. Because I always love it there (as long as I pretend winter isn't an actual thing that happens).
And I was like, hey, Adam. I'm kind of tired of Utah (which, beeteedub, I love. But just wanted a change.) and he was like, I'm kind of tired of my job (which, was fine, but not going the direction he wanted) and then we were like. Cool. Let's move in about a year. To Texas.
Then we found out about a job in ye olde Chicagoland. And at first I was like. There's no way we'd do that. And Adam was like, eh I don't see how that would work. And then in about 10 minutes we were like HEEEEY MAYBE!
Then we went back to Utah for about a second. Where we celebrated the 4th of July in spectacular fashion at Stadium of Fire. Beach Boys! Scotty Mcreery! Fireworks! (and it turns out Mia shares my hatred of them and Zoey joins the rest of society in loving them. Horrible things.)
I got a lot hungry while we were there and Zoey was the best snack food around:
I mean, it goes without saying. But she was amused.
That's us. Try to keep up with me here.
Then lots of my family showed up for some extreme baby loudness. Which I say with fondness.
These tater tots organized themselves up there tallest to shortest and then sang to us. It was the cutestness.
Four seconds after that we took off to Colorado for a visit with Adam's family (snap snap) still not really knowing what we were going to do with the Chicagoness. We had a lovely trip and saw lots of family and Adam nursed his turf toe (which sounds way grosser than it is. And I'm pretty sure it's just a pulled something or other in his big toe). Toooes!
And I managed to take no pictures. Except this:
Which pretty much sums up Mia's experience in Colorado. Cousins! Friends! Pianos to pound! Joy!
We also found out Mia still hates driving in the car.
Example:
Such a beautiful child.
Then we got back from Colorado, took a deep breath and went to the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo!
I love the rodeo. And I LOVE mutton bustin. We used to go on the 24th every year when I was growing up because my dad worked with the Ms Rodeo Utah contest. This year was the first time I'd been since we moved and it was fun to share those fun memories with Adam and the tots. And the BEST PART was that we went the 23rd instead of the 24th so THERE WEREN'T ANY FIREWORKS! These are the things dreams are made of.
It looked like this:
I'm so mushy since having kids. Anytime I see a flag presented dramatically I get all weepy. It's weird stuff. But, go America!
There was a lot of baby chasing going on. I may or may not (. . .) have told Mia that if she left our box she would get squished by a bull. I mean. Anything is possible! And she sat still!
That smallish red shirted blonde boy that's not the smallest red shirted blonde boy actually smacked the rear of the rodeo clown when he came into our box.
Mia says her favorite part of the rodeo was the horsies. She just told me that. over and over and over again and then yelled it at me in exasperation THE HORSIES MOMMY!
So. LISTEN TO HER okay?
shifty eyes.
fam diggity!
One of the 4 times in her life Zoey has left a bow in her hair (at least long enough for the picture)
And next up: My favorite photo of the night. It pretty much describes what it's like to live with Zoey. All crazy, all the time. Good crazy, I'll add for the reference of future Zo who might otherwise hold that statement against me. WE LOVE YOU ZOEY!
RAWRGH!
Now. Where were we. July 24th. And we still didn't know if we were going to go to make the move. And we continued to not know for sure until July 30th when we decided to just do it and Adam went in and gave his two weeks notice that day.
We spent the next insane week getting the house ready to sell and then moving out.
This picture was on August 10th right before we left, with our 12 suitcases or something insane. And I still have a to do list tucked into my skirt. That's the kind of insanity that was going on.
On our way to the airport we found out we had an offer on our house and have been under contract for a while, but are waiting to find out if all went well with the appraisal. So, hopefully in a couple weeks our house will be sold.
We got to Chicago a little after midnight on the 11th, we went to church the next day, and then Adam started his job that Monday. Then, brilliantly, I decided in all the crazy to add to it and potty train Mia. Which is super. Super duper fun.
And on top of that pretty much since arriving here we've all been sick. So that's awesome. But I think we're all recovering now. Miracle of all miracles.
And now here we are. Things are a little settled and we're staying with my parents while we decide where we want to live. And how much we want to pay in INSANE property taxes. Good job Illinois! Way to be lame sauce! And yet still . . . awesome!
Well. I'm bored now. And I'm sure you feel even more bored. So let's all go do something different now.
It has. There's a lot to catch up on. So let's start with the important things.
1- Hilary Duff.
Look at Hilary Duff:
SHE LOOKS SO NORMAL!
It's kind of like I grew up with her and good ole Gordo and that other girl . . . and she's stayed that normal seeming person. (For now. I mean, Amanda Bynes wasn't wackadoo until she was/is) She got married. THEN she had a baby. And that baby is so cute! And she looks like she has a little baby, and I mean that in the best possible way. Because that makes sense and it's only polite to look like you've had a baby when you have, in fact, had a baby. And she just looks like someone I'd want to be friends with, unlike so many scary looking celebrities.
So Hilary Duff. She's normal! AND polite. Thank you Lizzie McGuire. Thank you.
2 - Now on to trivial matters.
Things are about to get LOOOONG. So take a nap before trying to deal with this.
Once upon a time, back in June I visited the Chicagoland. And I loved it there. Because I always love it there (as long as I pretend winter isn't an actual thing that happens).
And I was like, hey, Adam. I'm kind of tired of Utah (which, beeteedub, I love. But just wanted a change.) and he was like, I'm kind of tired of my job (which, was fine, but not going the direction he wanted) and then we were like. Cool. Let's move in about a year. To Texas.
Then we found out about a job in ye olde Chicagoland. And at first I was like. There's no way we'd do that. And Adam was like, eh I don't see how that would work. And then in about 10 minutes we were like HEEEEY MAYBE!
Then we went back to Utah for about a second. Where we celebrated the 4th of July in spectacular fashion at Stadium of Fire. Beach Boys! Scotty Mcreery! Fireworks! (and it turns out Mia shares my hatred of them and Zoey joins the rest of society in loving them. Horrible things.)
I got a lot hungry while we were there and Zoey was the best snack food around:
I mean, it goes without saying. But she was amused.
That's us. Try to keep up with me here.
Then lots of my family showed up for some extreme baby loudness. Which I say with fondness.
These tater tots organized themselves up there tallest to shortest and then sang to us. It was the cutestness.
Four seconds after that we took off to Colorado for a visit with Adam's family (snap snap) still not really knowing what we were going to do with the Chicagoness. We had a lovely trip and saw lots of family and Adam nursed his turf toe (which sounds way grosser than it is. And I'm pretty sure it's just a pulled something or other in his big toe). Toooes!
And I managed to take no pictures. Except this:
Which pretty much sums up Mia's experience in Colorado. Cousins! Friends! Pianos to pound! Joy!
We also found out Mia still hates driving in the car.
Example:
Such a beautiful child.
Then we got back from Colorado, took a deep breath and went to the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo!
I love the rodeo. And I LOVE mutton bustin. We used to go on the 24th every year when I was growing up because my dad worked with the Ms Rodeo Utah contest. This year was the first time I'd been since we moved and it was fun to share those fun memories with Adam and the tots. And the BEST PART was that we went the 23rd instead of the 24th so THERE WEREN'T ANY FIREWORKS! These are the things dreams are made of.
It looked like this:
I'm so mushy since having kids. Anytime I see a flag presented dramatically I get all weepy. It's weird stuff. But, go America!
There was a lot of baby chasing going on. I may or may not (. . .) have told Mia that if she left our box she would get squished by a bull. I mean. Anything is possible! And she sat still!
That smallish red shirted blonde boy that's not the smallest red shirted blonde boy actually smacked the rear of the rodeo clown when he came into our box.
So. LISTEN TO HER okay?
fam diggity!
One of the 4 times in her life Zoey has left a bow in her hair (at least long enough for the picture)
And next up: My favorite photo of the night. It pretty much describes what it's like to live with Zoey. All crazy, all the time. Good crazy, I'll add for the reference of future Zo who might otherwise hold that statement against me. WE LOVE YOU ZOEY!
RAWRGH!
Now. Where were we. July 24th. And we still didn't know if we were going to go to make the move. And we continued to not know for sure until July 30th when we decided to just do it and Adam went in and gave his two weeks notice that day.
We spent the next insane week getting the house ready to sell and then moving out.
This picture was on August 10th right before we left, with our 12 suitcases or something insane. And I still have a to do list tucked into my skirt. That's the kind of insanity that was going on.
On our way to the airport we found out we had an offer on our house and have been under contract for a while, but are waiting to find out if all went well with the appraisal. So, hopefully in a couple weeks our house will be sold.
We got to Chicago a little after midnight on the 11th, we went to church the next day, and then Adam started his job that Monday. Then, brilliantly, I decided in all the crazy to add to it and potty train Mia. Which is super. Super duper fun.
And on top of that pretty much since arriving here we've all been sick. So that's awesome. But I think we're all recovering now. Miracle of all miracles.
And now here we are. Things are a little settled and we're staying with my parents while we decide where we want to live. And how much we want to pay in INSANE property taxes. Good job Illinois! Way to be lame sauce! And yet still . . . awesome!
Well. I'm bored now. And I'm sure you feel even more bored. So let's all go do something different now.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
no thank you.
Here's the thing. There is a bird living in the light fixture on my front porch. Right by the door. Right there. I'd take a picture of it, but I'M TOO SCARED TO LEAVE MY HOUSE.
Because of the bird.
I hate the bird.
The wind always knocks the top off the light and last year a bird took up residence one day. Really, we went to the store and there was no nest, we came home and there was a huge ole nest in the light. Adam went to remove the nest, thinking there was no way it would have eggs in it yet because um, it just appeared out of nowhere, and he knocked several pretty little blue Robin's eggs off and I watched them smash and splatter. SPLATTER.
It was definitely traumatic. I don't even like birds (again, I hate the bird.) but I was so sick to my stomach and had to run into the house flapping my arms around like I was deranged because BABIES! WE KILLED HER BABIES!
There were tiny blue shell pieces on the porch all summer because I couldn't face, or erase, the horror of it all.
Then, a couple weeks ago I opened our front door and heard the mad death flutter of momma bird wings and slammed the door and started trying not to die. She. was. back. It was so awful. I didn't use the front door for days. And, most importantly. I did NOT touch the nest.
Time passed and I was like, yeah, I'm brave I dare use my front door again. And Adam was like, you probably scared her anyway and she abandoned the nest, so you don't need to live in fear of the doorbell ringing and being forced to open the front door.
But of course, we left the nest alone. (I don't think adam was ready to deal with ALL THE EMOTIONS again)
Well, everybody, don't worry. She's alive, well, and still living in my light. I know because she TRIED TO KILL ME AGAIN today. (I'm being dramatic, [clearly] because she flies away from not toward me, but with the way I feel about it, she may as well be trying to peck out my eyes).
And so I ask, please don't ring my doorbell. Please don't make me open the door. Because I'm really not sure I can go out there until the birds go south. GO SOUTH, BIRDS! GOOOOO SOUTH!
Uhhhhg. Birds! So much badness.
Anyway. On another note, my kids are pretty awesome, if only just because they aren't birds. Except for mia. She kind of is. But the good kind of bird that doesn't fly at me or build nests in my lights. She just builds them everywhere else in the house. Really. We have a lot of nests.
Because of the bird.
I hate the bird.
The wind always knocks the top off the light and last year a bird took up residence one day. Really, we went to the store and there was no nest, we came home and there was a huge ole nest in the light. Adam went to remove the nest, thinking there was no way it would have eggs in it yet because um, it just appeared out of nowhere, and he knocked several pretty little blue Robin's eggs off and I watched them smash and splatter. SPLATTER.
It was definitely traumatic. I don't even like birds (again, I hate the bird.) but I was so sick to my stomach and had to run into the house flapping my arms around like I was deranged because BABIES! WE KILLED HER BABIES!
There were tiny blue shell pieces on the porch all summer because I couldn't face, or erase, the horror of it all.
Then, a couple weeks ago I opened our front door and heard the mad death flutter of momma bird wings and slammed the door and started trying not to die. She. was. back. It was so awful. I didn't use the front door for days. And, most importantly. I did NOT touch the nest.
Time passed and I was like, yeah, I'm brave I dare use my front door again. And Adam was like, you probably scared her anyway and she abandoned the nest, so you don't need to live in fear of the doorbell ringing and being forced to open the front door.
But of course, we left the nest alone. (I don't think adam was ready to deal with ALL THE EMOTIONS again)
Well, everybody, don't worry. She's alive, well, and still living in my light. I know because she TRIED TO KILL ME AGAIN today. (I'm being dramatic, [clearly] because she flies away from not toward me, but with the way I feel about it, she may as well be trying to peck out my eyes).
And so I ask, please don't ring my doorbell. Please don't make me open the door. Because I'm really not sure I can go out there until the birds go south. GO SOUTH, BIRDS! GOOOOO SOUTH!
Uhhhhg. Birds! So much badness.
Anyway. On another note, my kids are pretty awesome, if only just because they aren't birds. Except for mia. She kind of is. But the good kind of bird that doesn't fly at me or build nests in my lights. She just builds them everywhere else in the house. Really. We have a lot of nests.
 |
| This is Zoey teaching Mia how to eat. Obviously. |
Sunday, April 15, 2012
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