Baby vs. Chocolate Chip Cookie

Or reason #103 why my parents need to come out and visit Max and Mae.

Just Popped Up!

The Dining Room

So I decided that I needed to finally take down the wall paper. Yes, I know that many of you have expressed your like of it, but I HATED it!


So not my taste. After a year of looking at it I decided to take it down. Now being me, I decided to have it coincide with book group at my house cause I am stupid and glutton for punishment and misery. So with the help of babysitters and long nights here is the result. I like it better already. I am thinking of painting it a bluish green color eventually. But I am just so happy the paper is gone for now.

Baby in a Basket

She's not much to look at

So I was in the mood to bake yesterday. Decided to make some Apple Blackberry pies for some very deserving ladies. For my birthday my mother bought me a well "pattern" for decorative crusts.

before

after
yeah, this was actually my second time attempting to use this thing and this was the better of the two results.

So after some patch work

I threw it in the oven and it didn't look too shabby in my opinion.

Okay maybe a bit shabby but hey, free pie, so who can really complain. The real victim was my kitchen.

Hey, Good Looking!

Because of a combination of good coupons good sales and a bit of mild curiosity I bought the jeans diapers for Mae. I gotta say they are fun. They even look better under darker clothes then the normal diapers. This could be a really good line of thinking for them. They also work well for Mae since her fat thighs are too big for jeans.

yum

So this is my first recipe post. I found this in Cooking Light Jan 2010 issue and have made it many many time. So good it needs to be shared. For those who have eaten my food, know this, this dish is the best I have made in a long time. This has shot up the charts to one of my classics. So it is worth the try.

When Bad Hair Happens to Okay People

Hmmmm.....I should probably burn the dress too. Mae looks good though.

MOO

So Max has not wanted Jeff to go to work recently. They had the following discussion the other day.

Max: Dad, I don't want you to go to work.
Jeff: I have to go to work to make money.
Max: Dad, I don't want money. (Max has shown recent interest in money.)
Jeff: We need money to buy food. (Appealing to Max's constant hunger complaints.)
Max: But dad, I'm not hungry, I don't need food. Stay Home!

TTMG XI.2

Okay I can't believe I forgot the one that made me want to do this edition in the first place!

5. 24th of July Celebrations outside of Utah: The 24th of July celebrates the pioneers reaching Utah. I have no problem with that, good for them. Yay Pioneers! But it just feels weird to celebrate it when you don't live there. I am pro pioneers and yes, I know it is supposed to be called Pioneer Day. But I don't know it is just weird to me. Maybe I am just bugged cause I got roped into making either coleslaw or potato salad (two of the most disgusting dishes EVER!) for the stupid celebration here. WE LIVE IN ARKANSAS! We should not be celebrating this. In fact it was the Arkansan settlers that were killed by the Mormon Pioneers at the Mountain Meadows Massacre, so even more awkward. No one but the Hawaiians celebrate King Kamaeamaeh Day.

Things That Must Go XI

Are you excited?

1. FOX News: I used to see clips of Fox News on The Daily Show, (which is obviously liberally biased,) and think that they were taken out of context for laughs. How could it really be that ridiculous. Surely these clips were picked out just to make conservatives look bad. Nope, I actually had to watch about an hour of it in the hospital waiting room and yes, it is that bad. I cannot stand criticism of the government that is just for the sake of criticism. If you don't like something try to fix it. And don't wait until 2012 to do something, do something now. You all know I voted for Obama, oh wait my dad reads this now, ummm, oh whatever, so I don't agree with everything Obama does, but I don't want him to fail. He is our president, I want us to succeed. Not everything is a left wing conspiracy and people who think it is are wasting their time and talents.

2. Facebook suggestions to reconnect: If I wanted to talk to that person I would. I have a cap for facebook friends, which I have recently increased from 100 to 115. When it was at 100 I started deleting people to add more. This caused me to really evaluate who I wanted to know my business and connect with. I deleted about 8 people I realized I probably shouldn't have added in the first place, or really had nothing to say to them but they were a friend of a friend. I am now pretty selective so if you are still there, good for you, that means you are intelligent, witty, and a good friend.

3. Summer Vacation: Since I don't have kids in school, summer is mostly marked by the absence of my friends. Right now most of my dearest friends are out of town for various amounts of time. It is already hard enough to live away from family, I hate having my friends gone too. You should see our ward on Sundays it's like a bomb went off and took away 2/3 of all the people. (Or maybe they are just not coming cause I have offended them all.) Anyway, come home everybody. And no, I am not going anywhere.

4. McCafe's: My real beef, (Ha.. Ha.. Ha.. totally not intended,) is with the idea of turning all the play places of the fast food world into sheik coffee houses where children are not welcome. What happened to the day of giant foam insulated playground/domes where you could shove your kids into and watch from behind the quite peace of Plexiglases? Why does everyone want to go after the hipster market. I remember reading an business article a few years ago about how Burger King missed the ball by not making itself the "hipster" place for yuppies while McDonald's was going after the family market. Burger King tried to get the kiddies too and just looked like a pale imitation. Now that McDonald's is dropping the kids maybe Burger King should pick them up. I want PLAY PLACES! Now my Utah readers will have no idea what I am talking about cause play places are in abundance there, but this is not the case everywhere else. We have had lots of McDonald's open round abouts lately and none of them came with play places. Only one in the area has a play place and they NEVER clean it. Chick-fil-A has them, but you can only eat so much overpriced chicken. There are no others. Now that I have rug rats I want a place for them to run, cause heaven forbid I should take them to a park or something.

My mom is more talented then your mom.

Sometimes there's bragging and then sometimes there's just truth. I got this lovely bonnet in the mail yesterday. Thanks Mom!

When I was a kid...

They didn't have water slides at birthday parties. When I was a kid they maybe had a slip-n-slide which my mother forbid us from ever going on. (still never been on one to this day.) Oh the wonders of this age. Max and Mae attended a birthday party for baby Lillian and had a blast! Note the excessive fat rolls on Mae, Love it!

Needed a Second

So I needed to do some serious cooking for an Enrichment Pool Party and yet had to keep the kids occupied. I put Mae in her high chair and let her have control of the spoon. This worked well because she is always fighting me for the spoon. Yes, Max was home. Here he was watching Star Wars all prepared to tag in if needed.