Thanksgiving

I am thankful for a lot.

Today though I'm thankful for the opportunity I have to cook thanksgiving dinner.

I really do like to cook it. I love to cook big meals and spend hours in the kitchen.

Day to day cooking sometimes get's me down, because I'll cook something and the kids complain about it, or I'll just be busy running kids around to different things and not have time to really make a good meal.

But Holiday cooking? When I get to spend the day in the kitchen going from one dish to another dish in preperation for the big meal...

I love it! :)

So... here's what I'm making, what are you having for your Thanksgiving meal?

Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed Potato's
Gravy
Sweet Potato casserole
Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry jello/walnut salad
Homemade rolls
Olives
Green Bean Casserole?? (I bought the crispy French's onion rings to try it- I've never made it before)

I was planning on making a pumpking cheesecake for dessert, but I've got pie's from a school party that were never touched, so we will probably just eat those instead.

We are just staying home this year for Thanksgiving. We aren't even having anyone over, so we'll have a fun time just as our small family. I'm excited.

What are you doing, going, and having for your Thanksgiving? :)

Sunday thoughts

So today I taught Rich's Sunday School class. When I got there all the girls were discussing the movie "Twilight" and I told them to not get into to many details because I hadn't seen it yet, and didn't want to hear all about it before I saw it.
So they finished their discussion and we started the lesson. I hadn't known I would be teaching till that morning, and hadn't had a chance to do more than grab the lesson book from the library and glance at the lesson.

The lesson was on Eternal Marriage. Most of the lesson focused on the story of one young woman and how her thoughts and belief in eternal marriage changed throught the course of her own civil marriage and a subsequent pregnancy.

We actually had a great discussion about Eternal Marriage, the Plan of Salvation, and the goal of not only having a Temple Marriage, but having a Celestial Marriage. We talked about some traits and qualities that we see in those around us that can help in achieving a Celestial Marriage. I had a good time and enjoyed teaching the class. I hope the kids were able to take something from the lesson that will stay with them.

Movies

Last night Rich and I went to a movie. While we were sitting there waiting for the movie to start I realized that we were watching Commercials on the screen. Regular commercials that you would see on the tv for local car dealerships, and retail stores. What ever happened to the movie trivia facts that they used to have a reel of going during the 15-20 minutes before a movie started.

I don't really have any other point to this, just that I missed having the movie clips and trivia they used to show. I don't really enjoy watching 20 minutes of commercials... I can watch commercials at home on my tv... I don't want to see them at a movie theatre.

I've come to realize...

1. I've come to realize that my kids... are funny!

2. I've come to realize that my job... is hard and easy all at the same time.

3. I've come to realize that when i'm driving... I can't do math problems in my head.

4. I've come to realize that i need... quiet time to balance myself.

5. I've come to realize that I have lost... a lot of my intellect

6. I've come to realize that I hate it when... I have to repeat myself to the kids- but I really hate it when I have to repeat myself to Rich.

7. I've come to realize that if I'm drunk... I'm probably asleep and dreaming.

8. I've come to realize that money.... helps solve some problems, but opens the doors to many others.

9. I've come to realize that certain people... don't see me in the way I perceive they do.

10. I've come to realize that I'll always... love chocolate

11. I've come to realize that I have a crush on... Rich

12. I've come to realize that my mom... did the best she knew how to do.

13. I've come to realize that my cell phone is... a leash

14. I've come to realize that when I woke up this morning... I was still halfway in a dream state.

15. I've come to realize that last night before i went to sleep... I fell asleep before I kissed Rich goodnight.

16. I've come to realize that right now I am thinking about... Cuddling up in a nice warm bed and sleeping.

17. I've come to realize that my dad... likes to talk on the phone.

18. I've come to realize that when I get on Myspace... I don't like it.

19. I've come to realize that today... is a busy day.

20. I've come to realize that tonight... I'll get to go on a fun date with Rich.

21. I've come to realize that tomorrow I will... get to do a lot of laundry.

22. I've come to realize that I really want to... loose some weight.

23. I've come to realize that the person who is most likely to repost... has already posted.

It's a small world

So today I was reading through some blogs. I use the rss feeds of blogs and really scan through a lot of them. If a title catches my eye, I click on it and then go to the whole article.

So I'm scanning through and see a title "Mormon's are Pretty" and of course that caught my eye...

So I clicked on it and start reading. The author is not LDS, and has just through blogs been exposed to lots of LDS members. She talks about how she has noticed that a lot of them are just very pretty and then talks about one specific blog that is a family of 4 girls that are all beautiful. She then links to the blog. I'm reading along and I'm like "I know that blog!". It's a friend of mine in our ward, so I jotted off a little email to her to let her know about the link.

She was surprised and had never commented on that blog, but reads it and once had linked to it in one of her blog posts. Apparently the author of the other blog keeps track of who links to her, and has been reading her blog all this time.

So... something like this could happen and it is a reminder that what we put on our blogs is viewable to others. It can make us decide to keep blogs private, which is fine. I think it also can allow us to realize that we are having an impact in people's lives. I can write something on here, that through some randomness is read by someone and it causes them to sit up and realize that yes I'm LDS, and I'm still a normal person. I have struggles, and I have highs and lows. That I've choosen to live my life and strive to follow the teachings of my church, and that it's not a blind choice, but one that I've choosen to make and am happy with my decisions to do so.

So.... I'm reading and apparently I use the word "So..." a lot... lol! I'll try to stop using it as much. :)

Blogs

I reminded myself today that I have another blog set up for the family, and I've been neglecting it.

http://newtonaaaa.blogspot.com/

So from now on I'm going to try and keep the family stuff to the family blog- trip reports and funny things the kids do...

And keep this blog more for my thoughts and getting tagged by friends...

We'll see if I can remember to blog over there. :)

Background

Okay... so I had to put something in the background because I didn't like the plain white...

I want to figure out how to put the floral around the title on the sides, but I'll be content with this for now.

Tagged!

Okay I was tagged...

So, tag list :
1- Show both hands in writing something,
2- list 5 of your 50/50's..
3- 5 pet peeves and
5- 5 things that don't mix well.
ready, set, go!


Here's both hands writing a phrase:


5 of my 50/50's:
1-Chocolate chip cookies/Straight chocolate
2-Cozy chair, good book, blanket, and cup of cocoa/Couch, good movie, popcorn and a soda.
3-BYU Football game live- at the stadium/watching the game with a big group of friends
4-hearing giggles from the girls and knowing there's a mess to clean up- Going right in and making them stop and clean it up/spying, seeing it's not a property value draining mess and just enjoying them playing together and having them clean it up later.
5-Going to DisneyWorld with the kids/Going to DisneyWorld with just Rich.


5 pet peeves:
1- Stupid... it's an overused word that assigns intellect to non animate things... I get a visceral reaction to it being over used a lot of the time. (hey it just asks for pet peeves- it doesn't say it has to make sense to others! lol!)
2- Closing doors... really... the fight the kids have every afternoon when they all file in the door and fight over who was in last, and should close the door- Pet Peeve!
3- Shoes... I swear shoes multiply in this house. I have no idea how my girls have gotten so many shoes into their shoe drawers... oh wait... I'm the one that put them there because they rarely ever put them away, but how did we get so many in this house??? (I fully admit that I am part of this problem- as said before it doesn't have to make sense to be my pet peeve! lol!)
4- Hystronics... I am pretty even keeled with my emotions, and Rich is too so how did we get kids that so easily dissolve into hysterical fits?
5- I'll steal this one from the person that tagged me- stepping in something wet with socks... and then having wet socks...

5 things that don't mix well:
1- Again I'll steal from the person that tagged me... she posted that she had found a chocolate caramel mint candy... Chocolate and caramel- heavenly, Chocolate and mint- refreshing, chocolate caramel and mint all at the same time? Don't mix well in my mind.
2- Mommy with little sleep, and little kids with lots of sleep and energy- don't mix well.
3- Reading a bunch in my comfy chair with my cup of cocoa next to me, and having a clean house- Don't mix well... (or would that be for a list of 5 impossible things to happen at the same time?)
4- Loud computer typing program for son, and daughter practicing piano loudly right next to the computer at the same time- Don't mix well.
5- Peanut Butter and Mayo sandwiches- Don't mix well (but when I was 10 I thought they did! ewww)

New Soup Recipe

So last night I made a soup for a dinner I went to. I wasn't positive it would be liked, but everyone seemed to like it. They said that it tasted like a pumpkin pie!

I kind of made up the recipe, so I'm going to try and write down what I remember about it... :)

Take two medium Butternut squashes. Peel them and then cut them in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds, and then rub them with oil on both sides and place them on an oiled baking sheet. Sprinkle them with a little bit of sugar, and salt, and cover with foil, sealing the edges on to the baking sheet. Bake for about an hour and a half at 325 degrees, until it's fork tender. Then pull off the foil and let it bake for another 15-20 minutes to give the outside a bit of a carmelization.

Let the squash sit and cool down for about 10 minutes. Then in batches puree it in the blender. I did two batches- so there was one whole squash in the blender at a time. Add a little bit of liquid to help it blend. I had some vegetable stock and added that at first, and used about 1 cup of it. Then I ran out of vegetable stock and used about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of Apple juice with the second squash.

Pour the puree'd squash into a pot and turn the stove onto a low heat. I then added about 1 cup of half and half, 1 tsp of cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg, and about 1/4 tsp of salt. I wanted it to have a little bit of sweetness to it so I added about 1/4 cup of sugar. Then to give it a little more wintery sweetness, I added 1/4 cup of brown sugar. It seemed a little thick still so I added about 1 1/2 cups of milk to the soup. I then let it simmer for about 2 hours.

When I came back to it it was still very thick. I added about 2 cups of water to it and let it simmer for another hour.

When I came back to it this time, the consistency was fine, but the spices and the sweetness seemed a little bit too heavy. I added about 1 cup of plain unflavored yogurt to it, and it gave a tiny bit of a tartness to it that cut the spices and sweetness. (in the future I might just not put as much sugar and spices in, but this worked well this time).

Then I just let it continue to simmer until I packed it up and took it to the dinner.

DisneyWorld Trip

Okay... so I am finally going to get stuff posted about our trip. In order to kind of keep things in order, I'm going to post date all the trip posts, to the days that the trip actually took place. So the first day that we drove... will be posted and dated as Oct 11th... and then on through the trip. Here are links to each of the days so it's easier for everyone to find them. :)

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10 & 11

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!!

Happy Birthday to my sweetie! I'll get mushy here for a second... because, well Rich isn't a mushy person and every once in a while I have to get a little mushy and tell him how great he is...

Happy Birthday Honey, I love you and I love the person you are. You are a wonderful Father, and a wonderful spouse. I am so happy that you are in my life. You grow more and more handsome to me each year, and you can still make my legs turn to jello. :)

Happy Birthday! I love you! Julie

Halloween pictures:

Here are our halloween pictures. First Alyssa and Angela LOVED helping clean out the pumpkins to carve them. Then we had a lot of fun carving the pumpkins... The order of the pumpkins are: Mommy's, Ashley's, Angela's and Alyssa's (Alex didn't want to carve with us). Then we have pictures of the trich or treaters... Alex got to go trick or treating with his best friend Cole. They both were storm troopers. Alex is on the left, Cole is on the right. Ashley wanted to have a friend go with her too, so we invited her friend Peyton to go trick or treating with us girls. Ashley was a Witch, Alyssa was a Good Witch, Angela was a princess, and I can't remember what Peyton was, but it looked cool! :) We had a fun time and the girls got WAY TOO MUCH candy... we are still trying to eat (get rid) of it...

PIcture problems

I figured out what the problem was...

When I put the fancy backgrounds on, I did something in the code and basically made it so the larger pictures wouldn't fit...

I'm going to put it back to this plain background for now, and then maybe in the future I can figure out how to put the fancy backgrounds back on and not mess up the size of the columns and stuff. :)

what???/

Why are my pictures not reducing in size... it's cutting off the right side of them...

Well... when I get this figured out, then I'll put up a bunch of pictures...

Rich??? Wanna help me figure this out?? :) Pretty please??? :)

Ok... I'm going to barrage ya'll with pictures... I'm trying to get my write-up about our trip done, but first I'll start with the not so distant past, and then move further in the past to the trip.

Halloween:

Ashley had a book report due on Halloween day. It was a biography on a famous american. She choose Betsy Ross. She wasn't thrilled with the costume I came up with, but she didn't want it to be her halloween costume, so I told her since we bought the halloween costume, I wasn't spending money on this costume.


Alyssa and Angela and I started carving pumpkins while the older kids were at school. They had a BLAST! and loved pulling out the guts.

I really have been neglecting the blog lately. I hope to get back to blogging more in the coming weeks, but for now I just haven't had much time to sit down and sort through pictures to post, and then I feel guilty that I haven't posted about our trip, and feel like I can't post about everything else going on...

But I really will try to carve out some time and get the blog caught up. I like to keep family caught up on what we are doing, and I like to keep a record- after all the primary function of this blog is as a journal for me, it's easier to keep it here, than in a paper journal.