Yeah, it was a fairly long light

I was driving down Sprague the other day (big 5 lane road for those of you NOT from Spokane) and got stopped at a light. I glance to my right and there is a man standing there advertising Dominos Pizzas for $5. He catches my attention because he is holding the sign up in front of his face and he's shaped a little like my ex-BIL Brandon (tall, roundish guy). So I keep watching to see what he actually looks like. While I'm waiting for him to move the sign my gaze drifts down to his right hand, which, bytheway, is holding a lit cigarette.

Appetizing.

Then my gaze drifts right and I notice that his shirt does not quite cover his paunch (read: beer belly) and there's a lovely band of underwear showing at the top of his pants. His pants look like someone took the requisite fast-food-polyester-black-uniform-pant and cut them off into very long shorts. They're the kind of pants the don't have a button or snap but use that little metal hook and loop system.

Ask me how I know that. Go on, ask me.

The answer is because his pants, while zipped up, were in fact, undone. In public. Without a shirt long enough to cover them.

Mmmm, let me get some pizza from you.

I tried to get my cell phone out and get a picture but by the time I had snapped out of my amazement that someone would feel it was just fine to go to work on street corner half dressed with a cigarette, purposely drawing attention to themselves, and was NOT in fact a hooker, the light had changed and I had to go.

This should serve as a good reminder to the rest of us: Always do up your pants. Or at least make sure your shirt covers them if they're undone.

It's about cookies - mmmm, cookies

I like cookies. I think I've mentioned this before. I know I've posted about these particular cookies before and yet they are sooooo good that I am posting about them again. Hey, it's been almost a year. Plus, bonus for you, this time there are more pictures! YAY!!! I know you're so excited and impressed that I bothered to take pictures of cookies whilst I was in the process of making said cookies. C'mon, you know you are.

Aile was having one of her famous fits on the day that we made this particular batch so she got to 'help'. She didn't quite know what to do with it at first, but once she figured it out she was much, much happier.

By the time I cleaned her up she had cookie dough EVERYWHERE, including up her legs and between her toes. Talk about some tasty toe-jam! (yeah, I know that's gross). Don't go leaving me comments about how she could get salmonella from the eggs in the dough, blahblahblah. I ate cookie dough all growing up and I'm fine.

Shut your mouth, yes I am.

Eating cookie dough is one of childhoods greatest pleasures. Also fun for adults. See, good for the whole family.

Anyway, on with the cookies!

Monster Cookies
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 1/4 C packed light brown sugar
1 C granulated sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t vanilla
2 t baking soda
1 12-ounce jar creamy peanut butter (or 1 1/2 C)
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 bag (medium size) M & M's
3/4 bag mini chocolate chips
4 1/2 C quick-cooking oatmeal (not instant)

Preheat oven to 350' F. Cream butter, peanut butter, sugars, eggs, salt, vanilla, and soda. Stir in oatmeal, chocolate chips and M & M's.

Drop by large scoops (like an ice-cream scoop) onto baking sheets.

Flatten slightly with fingers. Bake approx 15-16 min. Do not overbake.

Let stand 3 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Makes 3 doz.If you make them tablespoon size, bake 8-10 min. Makes considerably more.

Now for all 4 of you that read my weightloss blog you should know that we gave away at least 1/2 of the cookies. Plus, I very judiciously am only eating them when the kids have one (and sometimes not even then) so that I don't eat them all by my lonesome. 'Cause you know, I like cookies.

Silent Saturday

It's a long story but you can power through it

Way back in December my neighbors son was getting married two days after Christmas. His bride had ordered a fake cake (they were serving cheesecakes) but it came smashed to pieces and there was no way that they were going to get a replacement in time. So they cancelled that cake and my neighbor was preparing to make a real wedding cake, which normally wouldn't be a problem for her since she can do anything, but at the time she was sicker than a dog.

I told them that I had a fake cake for my wedding and in fact we still had it and they could use it if they wanted to. So the bride, who I think no longer cared at that point, said go for it. Then my dear neighbor was going to make a small cake for them to cut at the reception at which point I told her that I would just do that. It wasn't a big deal, just a six inch cake with some scrolls on it, all in buttercream. Fairly simple. I'd post a picture but that button has chosen to no longer work today. Even though I already uploaded one to this post. Whatever.

Anyway, a few months later the grooms sister tells her friend whose brother is getting married (are you lost yet?) in April that I do wedding cakes. This couple just wants a small wedding cake to cut and then they were serving sheet cakes - oh so smart. A whole troupe of them came over on Valentine's day, decided what they wanted and I GOT HIRED TO MAKE A WEDDING CAKE.

In - Sane.

I've made a few wedding cakes before but just for family and never for profit. This is a first for me. It's white fondant with a design piped with a shell tip in buttercream and topped with fresh daffodils. I was actually pretty happy with how it turned out and the family was thrilled that it turned out, was there and they didn't have to worry about it. I don't know if the happy couple liked it or not since by the time I left they still hadn't made an appearance and the reception was starting in 40 minutes. Apparently they got married and then went back to their apartment.

I don't think they cared about the cake.

Anyway, here it is, my very first PAID wedding cake. Please don't turn me in to Cake Wrecks.

Too stinkin' smart for her own good

The other day my wonderful neighbor Susan dropped by with an armful of bananas. She had stopped by one of the many fruitstands in Spokane and had bought an entire box of bananas for $3 so she was sharing the wealth.

Aile loves bananas.

So we chat for a few minutes and Susan goes home and I went back to reading my lesson for RS on Sunday. Pretty soon Aile goes into the bathroom and starts having a fit because she's trying to get the step stool that we keep in there out and she keeps getting it hung up on the door. So I got up and helped her bring it out and then shut the bathroom door. I'm unsure about why the door to the bathroom was open in the first place since we don't want her in there. But I digress.

The boys are coloring quietly at the kitchen table and I'm back to studying my lesson when Aile starts screaming. This is, unfortunately, not unusual. I pretty much ignored her since it was just run of the mill frustrated screaming instead of hurt screaming. Believe me, you can tell the difference. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Caden get up from the table and go in the kitchen and the screaming stops. Hallelujah. Caden sits back down.

Then I heard a thunk.

So I get up and head toward the kitchen and this is what I find:

Yeah, in that last one she has actually bitten off a chunk of the peel. I may not have mentioned this before but Aile loves bananas. Can you believe that she's just 14 months and problem solving like that? I'm in trouble.

Aile's pigtails

She may not have a ton of hair on top, but she's no Briaunna. Many of you may not know who Briaunna is - she is my now 14 yr old niece who at almost 2 years was still practically bald. I may be slightly exaggerating. Slightly. ANYwho, since about 13 months Aile's been wearing her hair in two pigtails in back. Everywhere we go people come up and comment on how cute SHE looks. Hallelujah, they can tell she's a girl.

This was our first attempt, I'm better at doing it now. Her pigtails stay in practically all day unless she does a lot of head rubbing - on the floor when I change her, in her carseat, in the stroller when we go for our walk, etc. Okay, pretty much they're cute first thing in the morning and then it's all down hill from there. But like I said, Hallelujah, they can tell she's a girl.

Happy Easter!

Yeah, yeah, I know it's late. We had an Easter egg Hunt at our neighbors on Saturday. Aile had so much fun finding the eggs in the grass. All Caden and Lincoln really cared about was finding the cascarones (not sure if I spelled that right), which are essentially egg shells dyed like Easter eggs then filled with confetti and finished off with a piece of tissue paper glued over the opening. When you find these you get to smash them over someone's head - and EVERYBODY is fair game. We spend from New Years to Easter saving our egg shells so there are always a lot to find. We've learned this from our neighbors in past years and have made it our own tradition too.

Caden trying to sneak up on Mom to smash an egg. The adults got a lot of body hits since the boys aren't quite tall enough to reach the top of our heads.

Lincoln - can you tell he dresses himself? Sweatshirt and dresspants. Very nice. ;)

Here they are in their Easter finest after church. We did our own hunt after church because the Easter bunny doesn't come until you go to church and celebrate the REAL reason for Easter. Notice how happy Aile is holding her two little candy bars. She is definetly a girl and LOVES chocolate.

My little bunny. ;)So sweet.
Hope yours was good!

So very random

Aunt Carleen and Uncle Mike gave Caden a couple of suits when we were visiting last month. Here he is all dudded up. Such a handsome boy. Thanks guys! Lincoln also needed his picture taken since we took one of Caden. Also such a handsome boy!When we had our girls lunch Aile climbed in someone else's car seat - backwards.

One of the games we play on laundry day. The boys push Aile around in the laundry basket or take turns pushing each other around.

Yee-haw!

Wrestling is a nightly occurence at our house.

Soliciting for Advice

I've got this Etsy Store. I've sold a few things and gotten a few looks but it's not exactly bringing in the dough in these economic times. I would like it to do better which brings me to the point of this post. Wait, don't stop reading yet, I'm not asking you to buy anything!!

The other day I got this email from some random blogger via my Etsy Store saying she was a blogger blahblahblah, she wants to promote things that she thinks are cute on her blog blahblahblah, if I want to give her one of my horses for free then she'll play with it (or maybe her kids will) and then write a review of it and then maybe I'd also want to participate in a giveaway to one of her readers.

So basically she wants me to give away 2 of my horses plus eat the shipping on them (which is seriously $10 without them going to Canada, which, bytheway, is where she's from). I've seen giveaways on blogs before and even when I've thought stuff was cute it didn't make me want to buy it if I didn't win it. So already I'm not knocked out with the awesomeness of this opportunity. Should I be?

Then I thought, well, maybe she has this huge reader base. But how do you figure that out? I checked her profile views - I don't know if that's the best way or not. She had 500 hits less than I have, and I'm not even close to being on anybody's favorites list (uh, present company excluded, I hope). And her comments on the few posts I scrolled through were like 5 max.

Am I being stupid and passing up a golden opportunity? I'm just not feeling the love. Honestly, if I wanted to giveaway a horse I could do it on my own blog and not have to do it twice and eat the shipping twice.

So tell me what you think, please. Should I take up her up on her offer? Should I actually do a giveaway here? Should I just continue to stick my head in the sand and hope that something cosmic happens to make them all hot commodities? I just don't know anymore.

And Double Yum!

Go to the Outback Steakhouse. Order the green beans as one of your sides. Just trust me on this one, they are soooooooooooo worth it. Then, try this recipe and see if they taste the same to you:

Steam your fresh green beans for 8 minutes. Blanche them in cold water to stop the cooking (uh, that means dunk them). Drain them and set aside. 5 minutes before your going to serve them saute in 2 Tablespoons brown sugar, 1 1/2 Tablespoons butter, and 1 clove of garlic, pressed. Saute 3-4 minutes and serve 'em up hot.

So very delicious, I will be making fresh green beans much more often.

Yum!

You tell me

Am I the only one annoyed by all the ads for singles to hook-up? They're EVERYWHERE! I'm not single, and I don't really want all the skank girls who are posing for the ads staring me in the face with their come-hither looks and their tops popping out of their tops, ifyouknowwhatimean. Nor do I want them doing the same to my husband because, uh, he's married to me and that's gross.

Am I alone?

Shriek of the Week

Bethany and Sharla, I apologize, you were right: girls do scream. And while I admit this it still doesn't change the fact that I. Can't. Stand. It. All of a sudden Aile went from my best baby ever to the author of the most annoying sound in the world. Eeeeeaaaawwwwhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

About a month ago I couldn't get her to stop no matter what I did. So as a last ditch effort at my sanity I gave her a bath. Hallelujah! It calmed her right down. I do feel I should qualify that this event fell in what was one of the worst weeks with her since she was getting in all four of her molars at once. Consequently she got bathed far more often than she normally does.

Since she wasn't having a 'get clean' kind of bath Lincoln wanted to jump in with her. Poor kid just takes showers now - we're so mean. So he put on his swimsuit and got in and played. Those two are such good friends. I'm so impressed that he's so patient with her, especially since patience doesn't seem to be his strong suit at this point in time. 'Cause, you know, he's 4.

Dang I have cute kids. Caden also wanted to get in, but there just wasn't enough room for all of them. I did remind him that summer's coming at some point and then they can all get in the big outdoor bathtub together.

Happy Freakin' Spring

This was Thursday. Of course today is much nicer - sun shining, birds chirping, grass growing, high 50's kind of nice, but still. I'm so done with snow. So very done.

Good thing we're moving to Montana.

Snow Tubing on Mt. Spokane

It was a gorgeous day! It only took us about 20 minutes to get there - bonus! Everything went well except for the minor meltdow Caden had when we got there and realized that he had left his snowpants in the basement. Uh, this is why we told you not to put them on and play around at home. Luckily we had an extra adult pair so after a game of musical snowpants he ended up with a pair that would work.

The boys had a great time, and even Aile and Mom went on a few runs. Caden loved it from the get-go, Lincoln took a little more persuading but by the time we left he was loving it too. Aile was just chillin' the whole time - looking around and taking it all in. Everyone who asked how old she was was muy, muy impressed that she wasn't throwing a fit. But she definetly let us know when she was done. The girls bailed a little early and sat in the lodge, but the boys joined us after about 15 minutes, so we didn't miss much.

At the end of our session Ryan stayed on the mountain and got in some snowshoeing while the rest of us went home and had hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles with donuts on the side.

Mmmm, donuts.

Altogether a great time. Thanks to Daddy for the idea!

Now if I would just stop lactating

We went to Lynnwood a couple of weekends ago, a fast fun trip to see family and go to a couple of parties (wedding, birthday). It would have been more fun if I didn't have to get up several times a night to nurse the 13 month old. I have really enjoyed nursing with Aile, she is my last baby and knowing that going in made a huge difference in the experience of it compared to with the boys. But I'm done. She's 13 months old for crying out loud. She should be sleeping through the night, not nursing 2-3 times a night.

Yuh, I know it's my fault, that I should have let her cry it out a long time ago, but I didn't and this is where we are now.

So I did it. I weaned her. The mean way: cold turkey.

And you know what. She's just fine. She now puts herself to sleep for naps and for the night. And when she's thirsty she runs to the fridge for her sippy cup. She's grown up over night, and we're both better off for it.

The worst part was the engorgment. The horrid, horrid engorgment. Shouldn't have had it you say? She was 13 months you say? That just goes to show you how much she was still nursing. Plus there was another factor but we won't go into that.

But we're done. Finished. Finito! My body is my own again......ahhhhhh!

In an effort to give back and have a lot of fun in the process I had a 'ladies lunch' today. That probably sounds nice and dainty but was in fact 4 women (me included) and 11 kids, 3 of which are brand new 1 year olds. Hoo-rah! But in between the yelling and tears, requests for more food and water, we talked and laughed and got to know each other better. *sniff* Ah, female bonding.

When I called to invite them, all those lovely ladies asked me what they could bring. And my answer - nothing. They probably think I'm a controlling perfectionist - meh, not so much. My reason for doing it all myself was to serve someone else. It feels so good to do something for others since lately I've felt like I've been sitting in my little self-contained bubble sucking the life-force out of the universe. I'll take it as a positive sign that I wanted to do this, and didn't feel like I had to do it.

So ladies, thank you for coming and allowing me to serve you even though you probably didn't look at it like that. It was good for me, and a lot of fun too!