So I didn't mean to lie...

I know I said I would blog more if you commented more. Do you think I'm a lair now? I have sat down like 10 times to blog this week only to remember I need to send this rebate or that Christmas card or check the status on that package or I need to make this and take it to so-and-so....you know how it gets. But from here until Christmas I'm going to CHILL. Seriously, I feel like I have been sprinting and still can't seem to catch up. But guess what? I'm done shopping and returning. I'm done sending cards (okay, maybe a few stragglers). I'm done making candy/bread/food. I'm done running for a bit (btw, this is totally figurative running. I will still be on the dreadmill...)
Anyway, now I'm going to cover some high and low-lights of this week....
Highlight- popping popcorn and forcing myself (seriously forcing) myself to lay on the ground and watch Rudolph with the kids last night. I loved it.
Lowlight- having a conversation with a completely and totally buck-naked stranger in the women's locker room and not knowing where to look or what to do. And I totally don't even remember what we talked about because all I could think about was where not to look and to try and not look really uncomfortable. It was weird. Plus she kept calling me "Hayley" which I thought was strange. Like, "So what are you doing for Christmas, Hayley?" and "It was nice talking to you, Hayley, and you have a good day." She was totally nice but it was just weird. Put some clothes on, Rebecca.
Highlight- getting packages from Gama and Papa with cozy new blankets.
Lowlight- getting ogled by a 50 yr-old man with glasses in the car next to me. I didn't even notice until I tried to pass him up and he went faster and kept up with me. Then I slowed. So did he. So I looked to see who was being so obnoxious and he nodded and mouthed, "hey". I gave him my worst "leave me alone" smile and ignored him. I could feel his gaze burning into my skull. I glanced again and he was STARING. Again, the nod and "hi". So I put my hand up and gave him some attitude and was like, "WHAT?" in my sassiest DON'T MESS WITH ME body language (oh, no you dih-n't). He got the hint and left me alone. Eew. I can't even be excited about being picked up by THAT guy. Gross.
Anyway, HIGHLIGHT- my sweet sweater party tonight. Chili, fresh and hot bread, cranberry salsa, hot chocolate, toffee, veges, ginger snaps, cocoa, games and laughing...we had a great time.
Lowlight- when I ran into my open cabinet door because I was looking down. And I teared up but didn't cry because I'm a big girl now.
Highlight- watching my piano students at our recital. I love that they are learning music and that they are learning it from me.
Lowlight- being late to my own piano recital and have everyone waiting for me.
Highlight- eating the most delicious oranges from Gless Ranch.
Lowlight- diarrhea from eating too many oranges from Gless Ranch.
Highlight- listening to Christmas music.
Lowlight- having to listen to "Simply having a wonderful Christmas time".
Highlight- cuddling with boys in the bed.
Lowlight- losing my temper.
Highlight- taking pictures in the ever-beautiful Newport Beach of a lovely engaged couple on a perfect evening. (see photo blog on right)
Lowlight- having a guy at the gym tell me I was using the bicep curl machine wrong. Then getting annoyed at him for throwing off my groove. And then realizing I really was using it wrong. Then wanting to tell him to go away and mind his own business. Show off.
And some more highlights to top it all off...
opening one of the doors every morning on our advent calendar and seeing what little gift it is. my kids love it.
rain.
growing grass (finally!)
getting a handful of picked flowers from my yard from Carter and having them in a cup in my kitchen.
pomegranates (we have SOOO many)
finding matching jammies for the kids (I can't wait to see their faces!)
having a clean house for Sunday
going to bed after a long Saturday
(goodnight)

Stuff I love, recipes, pics and more.

There have been a few things on my mind lately and I'd like to share them. Be not alarmed that they are in any way serious or make any sense at all.

First and foremost. Why can't I eat all the toffee I want to and not gain an ounce? This is a serious flaw in life and I firmly believe that everyone would me much happier and kind if we were not accountable for the food we ingest. And there's no use trying to convince me otherwise.
So don't try.


I love this toffee with all my heart and every fiber of my being.

(1lb. each of butter and Imperial margarine plus 4C. white sugar. put in sauce pan and cover until boiling and add 1 C. slivered almonds. Cook and stir constantly until 310 (use candy therm.- depending on how moist the air is this will take about 45 minutes or more). Pour into 2 lightly buttered cookie sheets and spread. Let cool slightly and dump a whole bag of milk chips on top to melt. Spread and sprinkle with chopped walnuts (also white chocolate with coconut rocks my world))




MMmmmm....I can feel my thighs expanding just looking at it.


Next thought...I had never really experienced Mexican food until I moved to SoCal. Or cilantro!(!!!) Oh sweet cilantro, how I love thee. Out of all herbs, you are my favorite. And you are never more perfect then when scattered all over delicious, fatty mystery-meat tacos with double soft corn tortillas from my next door neighbor. (p.s....long story but someone convinced me to kill (yes, KILL) my lawn and plant some beautiful winter rye grass. After it's dead you have to kill it then scalp the lawn with the mower, which means setting it all the way to the ground and kicking up a ton of dust. I was in the process when my neighbors were having a party and brought me this as a peace offering to get me to stop getting dust in their food. It was a tad embarrassing and I'm pretty sure they thought I had no idea what I was doing. Oh, and my grass has yet to pop up so both lawns are completely yellow and dead. But I got some sweet tacos out of it. Mmm...)


Okay, moving right along...I can't get myself out of my kitchen lately. I think I'm suffering from withdrawals because I literally did not turn my oven on more than 4 times in the summer. So I've been making sweet dinners (and speaking of sweet, my new favorite food? sweet potatoes. oh so sweet and mushy and full of fiber and lots of other nutrients. OOH! Maybe I should put CILANTRO on them! My head my explode.) Pictured here is Shrimp etouffee from the BH&G cookbook...


This bread is incredible. Nay, FANTASTIC and I haven't had to buy store-bought bread for like a month now. Normally I just make regular whole wheat bread but this day I was feeling a little CRAZY and whipped out some Zucchini Herb Bread with fresh basil and rosemary. Then I dipped in a mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was so good I packed up some immediately and took it to my hubby at work.

Here's the recipe for the normal WW bread...(try it, I promise you won't be disappointed. If you are then you made it wrong and therefore cannot leave me a hate comment)
Proof 2T. yeast in 1/2 C. warm water for 10 minutes. (i'm assuming you are using a Kitchenaid or Bosch or something with this...)
Add 1 3/4 C. water, 3/4 T. salt, 1/3 C. honey, 1/4 C. oil, 1 C. gluten flour (sometimes called "high gluten", 1 C. whole wheat flour. Mix. Gradually add 3-4 C. flour until dough mostly doesn't stick to sides and let mix for 10 minutes. Spray a large bowl with PAM, cover with hand towel and put somewhere warm (preheat your oven for like 2 minutes at 170) for like an hour or until doubled. Punch down and divide into 2 1/2 loaves (I do 2 large and 1 mini...btw, this recipe is 1/2ed for small families like mine) Spray loaf pans and let raise for like 15 minutes in the cold oven then turn the oven on and let preheat with them in there and bake for like 20-25 minutes until gold on the top and sides and sounds hollow when thumped. Cut and spread butter all over it and honey and try not to eat the whole loaf.)

Okay I better stop writing about food because it's almost midnight and I am getting hungry and don't want to spur a midnight binge. Let's move on to Thanksgiving......wait. That's all about food. I'll leave that part out...
I ran my first ever 5K race Thanksgiving morning and placed 6/75 in my division. What that means, I have no idea. All I know is that I ran it pretty fast at 25:15 and felt awesome the rest of the day.
My kids had a blast playing at their cousin's house and Nolan perfected his super man.









Needless to say they both played hard all day and here's what finally happened...



When we got back from Thanksgiving I spend 2 full days transforming my house with Christmas decorations. I couldn't wait for the kids to make their gingerbread houses. They loved it and it turned out to be completely stressful for me trying to get them not to eat all the candies. But they turned out super cute.


*note- we did not make the snow globe.


After gingerbread houses we made cookies for my piano students.


Then we decorated the tree that night. This Santa was my favorite ornament all growing up. The one I used to dig through the Christmas boxes for so i could find it first and put it on the tree before my brother could get to it. I inherited it and it now sits at the top of the tree almost as high as the star. This photo was taken in a rare moment of generosity where I let Nolan touch it and it won't happen again. Mine...


There's me!


YESSSS!!! LOOK WHAT I HAVE CREATED....I AM WOMAN.


Because our tree is totally fake I use this to make our house smell yummy. And yummy it is. Makes me want to curl up by the fire...oh wait...we don't have one.


Okay, almost done, I swear.
We went to our church Christmas party last night and i got to be in charge of taking pictures. Here were are testing out the background. *note- I couldn't care less that everyone else looked weird in this picture. My double-chin wasn't showing and I'm in charge, so there you go.


Another test picture. And I had no idea I looked this retarded. (what the heck was I doing? I'm such a geek and I really can't help it) But I liked my sweater, so there you go again.


Carter got to play "Tiny Tim" in the impromptu Christmas Carol play. You should have heard the crowd when they announced he was going to do this. Everyone went "AWWW!!!" (like as in "cute", not "shucks". My child is a ward celebrity.


You have officially reached the end.
Thank you anyone who reads my blog- I know I'm a nerd and I've been a horrible slacker lately but I'm going to do better. I'll give you a hint- the more you comment the more I post. So if you give a crud about reading my posts, comment! I don't care if you secretly stalk my blog unless you are seriously creepy. Then don't.
Until next time...

Please tell me...

that my kids do not have to attend school/socialize with the nincompoops we saw at the mall tonight?
Wait, let me back up...
First, we made the mistake of going to the mall tonight after dinner for a little Christmas shopping. And I'm pretty sure there was absolutely no one normal there except for me and hubby.
What is WITH high-schooler's trying to look as hideous as possible?!?
It's like they are making an effort to look ugly. Yet somehow they attract each other. It's amazing. And what's with the tight black pants trend that are hanging on for dear life UNDER the butt? Seriously, butt hanging out. EEW.
Black eyeliner.
Long, greasy hair.
Really long, skinny shoes.
Goofy hat?
AHH! I swear 26 is not that old but I feel 97 as I write this post.
And all I can think is, how is it going to be 10 years from now and how am I going to battle this? Anyone else feel a little overwhelmed??

Too cute

You can't get any cuter that a stinking cute little boy in a hospital gown.





p.s. don't be alarmed-it was his 2 yr. "physical".
p.s.s. pictures taken with my blackberry. that explains it.

From Out of the Vaults

(I know I got back from my Houston trip a couple weeks ago but never followed up on my first post from the trip. So here's my follow-up)
HOW SWEET IS THIS EASY-BAKE OVEN? If that doesn't have 1980's written all over it I don't know what does.
In my recent trip home I found that my parents had found this in their attic, along with a few other childhood toys and I was way more excited than Carter to play with it. I kept trying and trying to convince him to use this thing and finally had to wait for my nieces to come over to whip it out. Believe it or not, I did not even have to change the 100 watt light bulb. And it only took 20 minutes to cook one single cookie (or rather, to burn it on the bottom and leave the top completely doughy) Anyway, it was awesome.



Next, check this out. This is a picture of the lake where my parents have a lake house in Houston. Now maybe you will see why Southern California looks really, really, really dead and brown to me. I like green.


This boy is the cutest thing.


No, wait. This boy is the cutest thing. Okay, they are tied for first. We took out the boat and fished our little hearts out, cutting worms with our teeth and catching loads of sea weed fish. Finally we caught one and I let him reel it in. Needless to say he was busting his little life jacket buckles.


The four boys cousins. They had a blast together.


Pap and Nolan on a boat ride.


He loved the boat. The rumble almost put him to sleep.


And pretended in the sunset that he was driving the boat dock. This time of day at the lake is impossible to catch on camera. It is too gorgeous as the sun shines through the tree and reflects off the water....just beautiful.


Every night Papa read the boys books. He doesn't read a word but tells them his way with voices and all. Carter was in charge of sound effects and knocked on the wall every time the wolf would knock on the little pig's door.


And I got Carter to look happy about using a girl toy.

Everything's exciting to a kid...

...so I took my sweet time, like I always do, when Carter was going, "MOM! MOM! COME LOOK! THERE'S A SURPRISE IN THE GARDEN!"
I was thinking he was going to point out the 1/2 dead pumpkin that he didn't notice before or some bug but was pleasantly surprised when I walked around the corner and saw these, which had come over the fence for a peek in my garden.







And I thought about the little things in life and how they bring me so much joy and lift my spirits. Little tender mercies...

(You have officially reached the caboose of my train of deep thought)

Halloween

Okay I know I'm late on this and that everyone else is already over Halloween but whatever, here's my post, WITH PICTURES- Wahoo!
We got back from our trip to Houston yesterday and had a fantastic time. I have plenty more pictures to follow but I'm gonna have to do this in installments because I have SO MANY pictures to sort through and edit. It's gonna take me DAYS.

These adorable pumpkin lights are really on their last legs. Most of the paint has chipped off and some of the eyes have broken out and stuff but I love them and I'm pretty sure I've had them since I ordered them from one of those super cheap catalogs from China when I was in high school. So I'm kindof attached. I hung them on the railing of my front porch and enjoyed them SO MUCH and then my kids broke the lights and the light string wouldn't work. (And I may have been PMSing and I may have almost broken down into tears over it.) Spencer came home and saw my distress and I checked EVERY BULB while we watched some TV to no avail. The next day I went to Michael's to replace my lights and went to Time Out for Women before I had time to hang them bak up (same weekend my purse was stolen) and when I returned he had hung them back up for me and their snaggle-toothed smiles welcomed me home.



The night before we left for Houston we carved our pumpkins. Carter would NOT touch the goo and Nolan wouldn't NOT touch the goo. And who the heck didn't invent those pumpkin carving kits when I was young? We used pens, steak knives, tablespoons, corn holders, chain saws, and any other useful kitchen utensil and it still took hours. This year we got all pumpkins de-brained and carved in like an hour. Plus they are WAY COOLER than the ones we used to carve. Seriously, how cool is Spencer's pumpkin on the right? I have NO IDEA what it's supposed to be but who cares? it's sweet looking.


Now on to the real nights...(I say nightS because the night before Halloween we went to a trunk-or-treat party at my parent's)
First, lemme splain this outfit......
In my hurry in packing I accidentally packed two pair of pants and no black shirt for Nolan's "BumBum" (aka Batman) costume. So I improvised and he got to wear Carter's inside-out star wars shirt.
Second, we didn't have black shoes.
And third, all the orange jack-o-lantern candy buckets were gone. So we got yellow.


Carter got to be Spidy and had gloves that were about 3 sizes too big, which was really weird because the costume fit perfectly. So maybe he just has stumpy fingers, i dunno.






We hadn't been there for 5 minutes when Nolan got scared by a mean witch and didn't stop crying for the next hour (*note tear on cheek)


(*note really really sad face) (and the cutest witch and pirate there)


*note terrified eyes of hate. He hated it. Nolan, that is. Not my dad, who luckily did not pull this face all night.


But he finally figured it out.
Say "A-TREEEETTT!!!!!" REALLY loudly and get loads of candy. And then he was off and happy. And so was I.


HOW WAS YOUR HALLOWEEN??