thanksgiving and giving and giving

winco's good turkey price will go through thanksgiving, as far as we know.  we want a turkey for christmas, so we were thinking it would be a good idea to save a few dollars and get it now.  now, we just want a small one, so we really mean a few dollars, but they all count!  so on saturday we realized it just might be possible to fit it into our freezer and we made it happen.

probably like everyone else in the world we have many things in our freezer that have been there who knows how long and your guess is as good as mine as to what's in that recycled "tupperware" container.  (sour cream, cottage cheese, margarine, and even winco peanut butter and honey containers all are 99% interchangeable on the cups and lids.  if you can pair at least one see through one (from the peanut butter or honey) - lid or cup - then it makes it a little easier to remember what it is.  i like to do the same in the fridge, too.)  if we've used a "real" tupperware container the chances are higher.. : )

anyway, we found a couple of things that could come out, and a couple of things we thought would need to come out.  i ended up being able to fit some frozen fruit in a "real" tupperware (even real tupperware brand!) bowl back in, which was great news because i really wasn't too excited about the smoothie idea in our frigid winter state.  and it wasn't even that hard : )  but what did come out was put to use for our meals yesterday.  we had the sloppy joe leftovers we found for lunch yesterday, then used the turkey we found to make turkey noodle soup for dinner.  we didn't even use a recipe.. : )  our 12.something pound turkey (cute little thing) fit easily into the freezer and will block my view and get in the way for the next month, but it will be well worth it : )

as i was chopping up the vegetables and will was putting the turkey into the pot with the broth, etc, he commented something like, "who else can say they made their thanksgiving turkey last all the way until the next thanksgiving???"  hehehe  should we be embarrassed??  this is, indeed, the turkey we cooked on the sunday after thanksgiving last year after we got home from our san diego trip.  we've used the turkey and broth from it throughout the year for various things, and not really thought about "needing to eat it up."  that turkey just kept giving and giving and giving! : )  so now, yes, the turkey is gone (well, there are soup leftovers now : ), but there is still some of the broth in the freezer.  i just forget it's there and it's so much easier to open a can!

thanksgiving food is on my favorite foods list!  i've determined it's probably because i like salt.... ha  i have always really loved stuffing and that might be what i'm most excited to eat this week!!!!  but i really do love it all : )  let the leftovers keep on giving and giving and giving!!!

and let us keep giving and giving and giving!  our stake patriarch talked a week or two ago about being thankful, and giving and how they go hand in hand.  here is a quote from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf i found in an article in the church news section of lds.org.  He was speaking at a rotary club luncheon:

“Where there is gratitude, there is humility as opposed pride; there is generosity as opposed to selfishness.”

The article says he has been a Rotarian for almost 40 years and he spoke of the seasonally appropriate (and always) motto:

 ”'Service above Self'—a worthy motto for all of us.“

 President Uchtdorf also said:

”With all the busyness and business going on during this time of year, it is easy to focus on the feasting and not so much on prayer and praise!“

what a good example, and good things for us to think about, especially this week.  as much as i love the food and am excited for it, let us remember to be thankful to our Heavenly Father who has provided us with all of our many, many blessings.

"the worst"

When I think of paper cuts I think "the worst.". And when I think of "the worst" I think of paper cuts.  Don't they make you want to squint your eyes shut and protect every tender vulnerable inch of your fingers and hands???  (I don't know if i've had one on any other body part... have you?)  I got one yesterday.  It was the worst!!  I usually immediately grab hold of the poor unsuspecting spot and hold it tight until I can bear to look and see the damage that's been done.  There are certain tasks that I take great care and caution in because I fear the dreaded paper cut (the worst!!) so much, but yesterday I guess I had my guard down in my great rush.

Someone once (elementary school?) talked about paper cut torture between your fingers - that super tender and sensitive valley!! Oh the inhumanity!!! It could give one nightmares to think of that!!

Maybe this tablet keyboard could get second place for being "the worst" since it doesn't know how to do a front end quote mark... Or maybe it's just me... : )

Sometimes BYU football losing to Notre dame is the worst, too... Ask will... : )

Also: if you are somewhere where everyone else is quiet and would appreciate your silence as well, don't talk! Don't even whisper!! I can still hear you and every word you're saying, as quiet as you think you're being...  As hard as I try to tune you out, I can't!  You're just making me crazy!!  You're also starting to compete with that paper cut!


The opposite of "the worst" I guess, would be "the best."  And while not for us, today we became secret keepers for the exciting, joyous news of "the best" for a friend!!!!! : )

This may be far too much for you, : ), but I do like to tell will he's "the best." Like 5 minutes ago when he finished his picture organizing project on the computer for all our pictures!

Welp, here's to hoping for more "the best" for all of us, and nary a paper cut!

tuity fruity - like the broken candy sticks at chuck e cheese for 5 tickets

I know that it's supposed to be "fru-i-shun", but I always want it to be "fru-tay-shun.". I keep hearing it lately and I can't help but think of fruit.

I like fruit.  But sometimes you just need mint chocolate cookies and pumpkin squares.  And an episode of too cute.

But we can't always have what we want. So then we resort to nova.

One more day, then thanksgiving break!!

halloween 2013

did you notice that the title rhymes without even trying??

anyway, after requesting my family share their halloween dinners, etc from this year, it's about time that i get things together and share about ours.  i guess sometimes it just seems so hard to upload pictures?  maybe that's why the current pictures on the camera go back to girls' camp in july.... oops?  time to upload/save on the computer so we can move on to the next set of fun!

i guess we didn't take pictures of all our decorations like in some years past, but i didn't feel like anything was that earth shattering.  i did, however, take a picture of my new favorite decorations.  i got a fall vinyl table cloth that is too big, but we decided to keep it.  then, weeks, after originally seeing them in a different target, i found the napkin holders that i should have bought the first time around!  it was early september, though, and i was making myself "just look" and go back later.  i decided i didn't want things to sell out, so i went back to our own target where they didn't even have them... wah.  but when they showed up weeks later, i made it happen, and it looks so good on the table cloth : )  i didn't do the skeleton fabric on the table this year, i just couldn't figure out where to put it....  i found the spiderweb bandanna at hobby lobby a few years ago.

three saturdays before halloween we went to a friend's halloween party.  i didn't even think about taking our own camera, but she took some pictures and shared them on facebook.  we wore our costumes from last year - thank goodness they still fit! : )

two saturdays before halloween we went to a carpool party where there wasn't anything halloweeny, i don't think... just food, kids, and watching the new star trek movie since parts of it were filmed in the NIF at the lab that will and another of the guys does work for.  and no one took any pictures... i don't think : )  the kids who wanted to watched brave.  we still haven't seen brave, but it was much more fun, i'm sure, to hear the guys call out things like "there it is!", "can you believe they let them ____!", etc as we could see parts of the facility in the movie.  even i've seen the facility in real life at last year's lab family days!  so that was cool to recognize some things.

one saturday before halloween was the ward halloween party.  they had soups, chilis, desserts, rolls, cornbread(!), potatoes, carnival games "for the kids", and a trunk or treat complete with a trunk contest.  we had a good time eating, talking with people, and handing out candy.  those kids go around and around until you pretend you're out of candy!  well, most of the ones going around without parents.  i didn't think it was necessary to keep handing out all 285 lolipops... call us the scrooges of halloween!  we handed out several seconds, thirds, etc, then let our cauldron run low.  i mean, what if we actually got a trick or treater??? we'd need something!  and now we have lolipops for school and cub scouts!  (we weren't even close to stingy, really.)  notice our efforts on decorating the trunk!

i guess it was the friday before halloween we made jack-o-lantern cheeseburgers!  team effort - will is the man of the grill, but he likes me to do just about anything that involves the cutting board.  not bad for a first time effort, especially considering i carved with a regular big knife.  we'll try again next year!

i put way too much time, energy, and grief into a costume idea.  while many teachers were going to be minions from despicable me, i just didn't feel like it.  i also didn't have good ideas to execute it.  well, that didn't involve buying something that i'd likely never wear again, like overalls?  come halloween i saw several different good ideas that i could have done, but oh well.  instead i bought a cheap tshirt at michaels and pieces of felt.  i cut strips and fringed them, then used a hot glue gun to glue them to the shirt.  i was a pinata!  i also glued them to two cones and those to a headband - i was lucky i could salvage my cheap melting headband from winco.  i guess the hot glue pushed it to its limit!  it was a well insulated costume for the morning, and i was impressed with myself that i wore the headband all day!  well, until after school at least.  it was "easy" in the sense that i knew exactly what to buy, exactly what steps to take, and i understood it.  i wasn't trying to piece something else together which sounded so much harder to me.  i guess we never took a picture of me in it, but i do have a hard copy print that a parent gave me.  (if i still know where it is?)  don't worry, it's now in the fall/halloween box for years to come!  eventually we'll have a costume box, but for now all the decorations, costumes, etc fit into one big plastic tub.  we probably should aim to keep it that way as long as possible!

if you're having trouble sleeping, let me suggest halloween with first graders!  i will admit that that day took it out of me!  i was so drained by the end of the day!  after the morning parade, getting through the day, and party with parents/grandparents/siblings in the afternoon, by pick-up after school it took all i had to stand there and wait for all of the rest of them to get picked up.  all i wanted was to curl up in a little ball under the desk.  when i got back to the room i didn't even know where to start and didn't want to!  i honestly cannot remember halloween at amelia three years ago.  when i saw some old pictures i could remember the morning parade, but i really can't remember anything else about the day.  have i pushed it from my memory?  or was this year somehow that much harder?? : )  it was nice to hear this last week that a parent who was there, and is in the classroom fairly frequently thought that halloween went well.  what a relief!  it felt like crazytown to me!  anyway, by the time we got home that evening, i knew that i just couldn't make the halloween dinner.  while i talked nonstop for a while about my day will made a frozen pizza.  we watched the charlie brown great pumpkin special and vegged while not minding that we didn't have to get up and answer the door for a single trick or treater.  no more lolipops down for the count!  believe it or not, the kids seemed great the day before and the day after halloween.  so... file that away for later! : )

two days later, november 2 we had a marathon day organizing and going through boxes.  we finally have all the stuff in the file cabinet, got rid of lots of stuff, and have a room that looks like we could get it ready for a child!  all of this was to make us feel better about how things looked/were organized before our home visit... if that ever happensssssssss!  that evening i made our halloween dinner!!!  i didn't want to not do it, but at that point i was done with halloween.  i'm glad we did!  i learned how to make a pot pie (yay!!) and now we have some good sized ramekins for all sorts of yummy things later.  when i went shopping for things for the dinner i was planning to just get the small disposable tins winco has.  but they were out!!!  clean out!!!!  i was so disappointed!  i didn't want to make one big one, i wanted personal ones!  a friend offered ramekins, but i decided it was just a good excuse to get some.  i got lucky at raley's when i did find a second one behind some smaller ramekins, even though it was dusty!  anyway, now the unveiling you've all been waiting for! : )

it was fun!  it was so much food!  i only ate half my pot pie.  the clot was a maraschino cherry.  and yes, apparently we were matching... : )


i didn't buy the cherries special.  i just happened to see the jar back there as i was getting other things out, and it wasn't a problem because i had to rush and type up/alter last year's menu moments before we ate.  i thought will had seen me put a cherry in each glass before filling them.  so it was fun when he asked if there really were clots in there... hehe : )  several of the things i already had names for, but there were some i just had to think of on the spot...  i had known "yummy mummy" for a days, though : )  and now that i have the jack-o-lantern  face cutters, next year's jack-o-lantern cheeseburgers will be easier!  it will also be much easier cutting through cheese with them... it gave me a red mark/bruise on the base of my palm that's finally almost all gone now to cut through the sweet potatoes/yams(???) with them.

we were full and it was getting late, so we saved dessert for the next day.  we made the spiders in the graveyard, and even though will consented to let his spider have legs for the picture, he let me eat them as he doesn't like pretzels...  we still need to make the pumpkin smoothie!!  maybe i was less excited because while i do want to try the recipe, it clearly has the lamest name on the whole menu.... i was trying to hurry at the time, but i wish i had included some half-clever something with it... oh well.  it's still pumpkin season.

and there you have it.  the bulk of how we celebrated halloween all the way through november 3! : )  AND pictures for the first time in months!

dilemma

i am two thirds (?) of the way through my second of three bottles of medication that i'm supposed to take twice a day.  i feel like we're starting to make (at least some) headway, so i'm motivated to keep taking it, but it's a big fat pain!  the directions on the prescription say that i can't have eaten two hours before, or an hour after taking it.  in the beginning i took my morning one right when i woke up, then got ready, and just made sure it was an hour before i had breakfast.  this proved disastrous as these cute little blue pills make me feel very sick about 20-30 minutes later if i don't have food in me.  it took me a while to realize the correlation and i spent many mornings feeling like i was dying, needing to lay down, crying, feeling like i was going to throw up, dizzy, etc.  in short, it was not fun at all.  once i figured that out, i decided on school days i'd just have to take it at recess (if i can remember!), and on non school days i eat breakfast, then figure out the timing after that.  i must burn more calories at school, or it's just barely been long enough by recess, that some days i do still start to feel sick.  it goes away after a little bit, or after i've eaten something.  at night, though, it's a great way to eliminate snacking after dinner/before bed.  i've gotten more used to it all after 2-3 months, but they're still a hassle.

now, the real dilemma!!

once upon a time we moved into this cute little house almost 6 months ago (what????!).  we moved in in the lovely temperate month of may when we could dress almost any way we wanted and were always comfy at night.  then along came summer and it got hot.  then it got hotter and hotter.  we had days over 100 and felt it as we were too cheap to run the AC all the time : )  i'm not saying we never ran it, because we're not that dumb.  we noticed that unlike the apartment there weren't others to shield our ground level apartment or big trees to give shade.  we got by opening windows at night and running fans constantly.  then it started to cool off and it was delightful as we turned off the fans, opened the windows less and less, and got pretty comfortable again.

then it happened!!

it started to get cold!!!  we're still cheap and it's easy to put on more layers, so so far we've run the heater less than the AC (days between now).  yes, i know that november just started, and i know that it's snowing in utah, but for a few weeks now we've been feeling sorry for ourselves as it's dipped down into the 60s, and even the 50s over night!!  we discovered we weren't sleeping very well at night because we kept getting cold, so we've been adding blankets and comforters over the weeks to achieve optimal cozy temperatures at night.  we've also been piecing together the realization over the last several weeks that our cute little house's insulation is not very good at all.

now, back to the pill.  the prescription label also instructs to take with "plenty of water".... that's helpful.  i've always told myself that a full glass of water could be considered plenty.

here's the real real dilemma!!

we drink well water that is very hard and has quite a taste to it.  almost six months in i can tolerate it, but i don't like it.  the first night i could hardly stand to wet my toothbrush with it.  now i still make a face when i drink it and usually have to force myself to drink much.  we try to keep a good supply in the fridge, because the chill takes the edge off the taste.  and when you're really thirsty, it's fine enough.

the last thing i want when i'm already in slippers, a sweatshirt, and wrapped in blanket wondering if i should go dig out gloves is to have to drink a full glass of water from the fridge to feel like i've done my "plenty of water" duty for each single pill!!!

i guess the good news is the school pays for a little filtered water machine (whatever you'd call that) that i think tastes good that i can fill my water bottle up at so i can drink "plenty of water" at school.

maybe i should plug my nose???  send hand warmers to the (cheap) wimps in california!! : )