P.C.D.

Post Christmas Depression...
Here are the facts.

• My face is cultivating a zit farm.
• I feel the need to go shopping for birthdays, Valentine's Day, Ensign Ranch, (my side of the family celebrates Christmas in January) Easter and of course, Christmas.
• I've taken the tree down and all the decorations, yet tinsel is showing up everywhere...in the laundry, the bathroom, tangled in the vacuum cleaner. It's sweet.
• I have a lot of work to do and all I want to do is read my new books.
• I have a top secret plan taking place at this very moment which is and will give me great joy for years to come.
• I'm really thankful it didn't snow again. Not that it was in the forecast or anything, I just loathe driving in the snow. I love that its been pouring buckets of rain. A beautiful green Christmas was exactly what I've needed for a few years now.
• My brother, Adam and his family are on their way to my house. They'll be here an hour or so. Cassie and I are going to JoAnn's to buy fabric and make dresses for her daughter, Kaylee. I love going to JoAnn's, making dresses and Kaylee!
• I made four pounds of BBQ pork this week. Tonight we will feast on Pork Fried Rice and four pounds of BBQ pork with Chinese mustard of course.

I think that's about it. Happy week after Christmas!

Today, December 15, 2010

*I ate too many chips with salsa at the mexican restaurant.

*I put Anna's ponytail in 10 rollers. Tomorrow it's going to be really curly.

*We fed the kids dinner after they were supposed to be in bed.

*Then Nicole and I watched a movie.

*Matthew got his 6th grade sweatshirt with all the names on the back. He LOVES it.

*Anna put teeth marks in the skipbo cards.

*Nicole had a mean band sub who wouldn't let them sit in chairs.

*Ken and I went on a date to Costco.

*I ate my oatmeal with my lunch (pbj) because I forgot about it.

*I never rotated the laundry.

*Matthew didn't have bad breath at bedtime.

*I had a good day.

I like change!

I'm feeling the need to rearrange my blog. The change I'm thinking about is making one long blog list as opposed to a list for each state I have blogs to stalk.  I've created a poll over on the right hand column for you to help me decide what to do. Please vote!  gracias

Also, stay tuned for more polls in future. I like them.

ps, if you have any suggestions for me, (about blogging or how to make this blog more user friendly (for my 4 readers)) please feel free to comment on this here post.

Ugly Ties and Pumpkin Pies

Last night we had a dinner in our ward for the adults. The theme was 'ugly ties and pumpkin pies'.  Anyone could wear an ugly tie and anyone could bring a pumpkin pie or any other flavor as well.

Ken's tie was too short. Since it looked weird being 2 inches above his belt line he went ahead and made it about 6 inches too short. It was funny at the church and embarrassing at Walmart after the church. He didn't care so I got over it.

 Here are all the participants of the ugly tie contest.

I got a lot of the descriptions of the ties on video. I'm sorry it's so wobble-ey.

All in all it was a fun evening. Good food, nice conversation and some good laughs.

From a text message

I don't typically use my blog to share cute or funny things I receive in email or text, but I think this is really cute, so here you go. Enjoy these little drawings.

Watch Spencer Play.

See Dedra.

See Spencer.

See Dedra play Rockband.

See Spencer  play Rockband. 

Watch Dedra play Rockband on Expert. (left side)

Watch Spencer play Rockband on Expert. (left side)

Sale at the Supermarket...

Clearance Item:

 Endcap Special:

 Sale on Candy Corns:

We bought paper towels and Wheat Thins

In memory of...(don't worry, no one died)

When I had only been married about a year my mom gave me a waffle iron. I LOVE my waffle iron! Do you know what you can do with a waffle iron? A lot more than make waffles, that for sure.

A little over a year ago, June 9, 2009 to be exact, our ward did an Enrichment Meeting (now known as Relief Society Meetings) where each sister brought their favorite gadget from home and gave a little 'infomercial' on it. I was stumped on what to bring until my genius friend, Liz, suggested I bring my waffle iron.

Why do I love my waffle iron so much? Because, like I said only 2 paragraphs earlier, you can do a lot with a waffle iron. Here is a short list of the things you can make/cook/iron in a waffle iron:

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Fried Eggs (not with a soft center)

Cake

Chicken (boneless)

Cookies

lastly, but not most importantly...

waffles (I don't heart waffles...unless they have my sister's homemade blackberry jam on top of them. Last night I heart-ed my waffle!)

At the Enrichment Meeting I decided I was going show the world (The Great Bend Ward) how to make cake in a waffle iron...german chocolate cake to be exact and I even bought the yummo frosting to go on top. When it was my turn to present, a horrible thing happened. My beloved waffle iron of 11 (ELEVIN!!) years would not heat up. It was a sad moment. Luckily because of the interest my friend Gloria had in my waffle iron demonstration, she quickly produced hers for me to borrow. (We were in her home. No, she doesn't just carry her waffle iron around with her. BUT, if she did...I'd love her even more.)

Her waffle iron was a fancy belgium waffle maker and it quickly heated up, much faster than mine ever did...even when it wasn't ancient. The german chocolate waffle cakes were a hit. There may have even been a run on waffle irons that evening at the local Wal*Mart. The only sad part of the evening was I left with no waffle iron, only the memory of it, and later a picture that was emailed to me by Liz...or Ben.

NOW, imagine a whole year without a waffle iron. I missed it and wanted to make lovely waffle-ey treats and lunches for the famdango, but alas, we were unable to replace it. When I moved out of Kansas, a few of my closest friends threw a little going party for me. We all wore aprons and ate delicious food outside in Linda McCowan's lovely yard, including waffle cakes for dessert. My going away gift, from Gloria, was A NEW WAFFLE IRON! (Say it like Rod Roddy used to say it on The Price is Right. RIP Rod.) Not just ANY waffle iron either, it was a fancy belgium waffle maker. I love it. I've had it for 4 months and used it many times already. We learned last night, that it does make good waffles.

This is my old waffle iron...post mortem. This is my new waffle iron, after it made lovely waffles last night. I tried 4 times to get a picture that would show how shiny it was, but the only thing it really shows is the dirt spot on the bottom left side. Whatever. I love it!!

Dress Up Clothes

The latest addition to Nicole's dress up collection is a wedding dress. I made it for her this weekend. As I finished each piece she would put it on. Sleeves over her shirt, the bodice without sleeves as a vest, ribbon tied around her waist. She was really cute. She wears it while doing homework and puts and apron over it to sweep the floor. It's a hit.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Uhaul Trucks...

You may think that the best part about having a Uhaul Truck is that it is a fantastic tool to get all your stuff from one location to another. I think that same thing! Sadly, I've been informed that both you and I are incorrect.

Matthew knows there is something WAY better about said truck that the fact that it transports all our junk.

We kept the truck until Friday, even though we were done with it Tuesday night so he could play. His birthday was on June 3rd (11 years old now!) and all he wanted was a an airline ticket to Washington + a week with his favorite cousin (check!) and a Uhaul truck in the driveway (check!). He's actually been asking for these things since July of last year, it was a fluke that it worked out so well, but he doesn't need to know that until he's older and decides to read this blog.

Free Haircuts!

When I was a little girl I had 1 Barbie. My older sisters had them when I was too young to really care about them and my little sister had a couple when I was too old. The one I had, I got when I was in 3rd grade. I didn't really like Barbies and never asked for them until this one Christmas and that was because I wanted to cut it's hair. Thankfully Santa saw my thought process and gave me a 'Barbie' from the dollar store. I cut it's hair on Christmas Day, did a really bad job and threw it out in the trash before New Years, then went back to baby dolls...my true love.

Nicole got a Barbie for Christmas. I did not see her true interest and she got a real Barbie. She too cut is hair and did a really bad job. I wish I would have taken a picture of it before I fixed it. Here is a picture of the finished product. The layers are choppy but it's super cute and remember, I was working with Barbie hair.

Later on in the day, we had our friends, the Draper's over for Christmas Dinner as well as Brother Robinson. While we were eating I was telling them about Barbie's haircut and Ben asked me why I didn't give her a mullet. I don't know why this happens, but I was saddened because I didn't think of it and consumed with the idea of giving Barbie a mullet. Luckily for me, Nicole had 2 Barbies from last year that she never plays with so I found them and went to town.

Here is a video of me cutting Barbie's hair. During part of the video I was talking to my little brother Kyle. Other parts we were talking to the kiddos...but I still think it's funny.

It is probably needless to say that Nicole was NOT pleased with my fantastic haircutting skills, so we took care of that in short order.

It's MAGIC!

Tonight we went to a magic show at the local city auditorum. It was an hour and half of free entertainment...a perfect evening if you ask me.

We met up with our friends, Ben and Liz. This is their handsome son, David.

During the course of the evening Matthew won a D.A.R.E. bracelet and 3 people sitting near us were picked to be volunteers on stage because our group was loud and got the guy's attention. The 2nd victim of the evening was our friend, Ben. I got a small part of his embarrassment on video but lucky for him, my battery went dead. I was worried that I was going to have to leave so that he didn't kill me or get me volunteered but sadley, their daughter threw up and they had to leave early. Sorry Ana got sick Liz and Ben! Here's video of the the short part of his embarrassment.

On another note....

Have you ever seen Napolean Dynamite? If not, we are no longer friends. If so, you know the part of the movie when Napolean is eating tator tots during class? Tonight I took the kids to Wendy's for dinner on the way to the magic show. Matthew stuck all his fries in his coat pocket and ate them during the show. I felt proud.

Here are the top 10 parts of Napolean Dynamite...if you have or have not seen it.

Here is the tator tot scene.

Cookies!

Last week during our snow day we made close to 6 dozen cookies. We probably would have made closer to 7 or 7 1/2 dozen if we didn't eat a pound of the dough. :)

We made peanut butter cookies first. Instead of doing the crisscross pattern with a fork, I pressed small cookie cutters into the flatten dough so they would be Christmassy. They were delicious and Christmassy.

Next we made our favorite Oatmeal Chocolate Chips Cookies. But I halved the chocolate chips and added caramel bits to them. They too were delightful.

Recomitting

I had 3 posts in September.  I had 6 in November.  I am going to do my best to post everyday for the rest of the month/year in hopes that I'll lose my antiblogging attitude.

Ceramics Classes at the Rec. Center

My friends Ashley and Liz and I are taking ceramic classes at the Rec. Center. So far  I've painted a Turkey and a Santa.  Ashley and I took a toll painting class and we painted Reindeer.  I never thought I'd enjoy classes at the Rec Center but I LOVE THEM!

Feeling Crafty

We had an enrichment night a weeks ago and painted these blocks say 'Family'.  Often times, I'll walk by the piano and see other words spelled out of these blocks...there is always room for sarcasm.

We had our friends, the Drapers over for Thanksgiving Dinner and when they left, David had spelled the word 'filyma'.  Good times!

Ken's birthday cake.

Ken turned 32 on 11-15. We made his cake.  The kids 'designed' it after looking through a cupcake decorating book.  It was fun to decorate and it tasted good.

Wrangling Alligators

So I started this post so long ago I'm not even sure I'll get the details correct!  Just in case I leave anything out, you can go here to double check my facts.  At the beginning of fall each year, our local zoo takes all the alligators out of their swamp and moves them to the airport where they sit out the winter in a lovely heated airport hanger.  We were lucky enough to be at the zoo on that day and got to watch them catch the gators.  Below are some pics from the event.  I took video that was too big to upload on blogger and my computer is too lame to put it on YouTube.  If you click on the link mentioned above, you can go to our friends, The Draper's and they have video and good info.  Sorry I'm lame!

Too early for flapjacks?

We make pancakes for breakfast A LOT at our house.  When I am feeling like letting the nice Mom out for a while, I cut the pancakes into shapes they like using cookie cutters.

Matthew LOVES airplanes.  The cirlce is a cloud...in theory.

Nicole is super excited about Halloween.

Ken LOVE Mickey Mouse.  The heart is because I love him.

I know you are dying to know what shape I enjoy eating my pancakes...afterall it wouldn't be fair for them to get awesome shaped flapjacks and mine are just boring circles.  Have no fear though...mine are the coolest of all...

AWESOME right??  Having trouble figuring them out?  Here's another photo.

Seriously, even nice Mom is not going to waste food and according to my THREE children eating at the dinner table this morning, those were ruined.  :)

Whenever we eat pancakes, I always think about the part of the movie 'Groundhog Day' when Phil is driving drunk thru town and the police are chasing him.  Here's a clip for you if you've never seen the BEST MOVIE EVER MADE.