Chilly's World

Krispy Kreme Brownies -- OF DOOM

2012-01-13T06:54:00.003-07:00

There was a recent question posed asking about Krispy Kreme brownies. Nathan wanted to tackle it by making this recipe sent to us by Karen (who really DID prove herself!).

In case you don't want to click over, I'm just going to c&p the recipe so you can see how amazing this is:
Brownie Ingredients

3 Krispy Kreme Glazed Doughnuts
1/2 cup White Sugar
2 tablespoons Butter (unsalted)
2 tablespoons Water
1 cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup Milk Chocolate Chips
2 Eggs
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2/3 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Brownie Doughnut Glaze Ingredients

1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Now the modifications we made:
-I accidentally put in powdered sugar instead of flour -- Lisa corrected that mistake so there WAS flour, but also extra powdered sugar. (I don't cook a lot, apparently.)
-We added more doughnuts on top of the brownies.
-We used cream instead of milk for the glaze. Also we made way more glaze because I get really excited when working with cream.

To the pictures!

We started mixing. First, I should mention that before Nathan arrived, I was making a spicy, creamy pasta that Allie told me was her favorite (it should be noted that anything spicy is Allie's favorite -- also Doritos). It was basically butter, garlic and crushed red peppers mixed with spaghetti sauce and cream over pasta. Super easy.

Except I started making it while I was on the phone with Melanie. I stopped paying attention to how much crushed red pepper I was pouring in the pan until I realized the kitchen was smokey and Lisa and I couldn't stop sneezing (it took HOURS for my sinuses to feel settled again). But other than that, I kind of liked it. Maybe less red pepper next time...My esophagus felt like it was burning from the inside. But in a good, albeit unsettling, way.

Step 9 is to eat a doughnut. Check! I am (or at least was) so in love with Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

The brownie batter looking deliciously fudgy. This is pre-unnecessary powdered sugar and very necessary flour.

The pieces of doughnut (three for inside the batter, one for on top).

Nathan arranged everything in a eye-catching flower pattern while three girls looked on with approval.

The finished product. Okay. Our kitchen smelled AMAZING. Like the oven was made of the most heavenly fudge. I couldn't wait to try it, but we had to make the glaze first.

Which I poured artistically over the carefully-arranged brownies.

Nathan got the rest of the brownies to take home. I also dumped the rest of the glaze in the container because what else was I going to do with it? Which is why he has an inch of straight-up glaze.

From the top. Brownies. Coated in glaze.

My favorite thing about this picture (not the lighting. Our dining area struggles with photography-approved lighting) is that you can SEE the glaze dripping off of Nathan's spoon.

I only ate most of one brownie. He had two at my house and one more at Karen's. After two bites (the second bite was the BEST because that was when the delicious fudginess of it all hit me) I started to feel the effects of the sugar. I had this distinct moment where I went, "So THAT'S where my pancreas is! And THAT'S what it feels like when it starts producing insulin on high!" And all the next moments of thought included, "I feel SO ill..."

Heather, Lisa and Stacy all tried them. Heather, who doesn't eat much sugar, had one bite and declared she felt like she was, "having morning sickness!" (and this is Heather being not dramatic). Lisa had two bites before the straight-up dessertiness hit her. Stacy had one and wondered how Nathan had eaten two. Agreed.

Nathan and I washed an impressive amount of dishes (when I cook, I try to use every dish at least once so none of them feel left out) before I told him he had to leave because I no longer felt well (also we played Robot Unicorn, but that has nothing to do with food).

Then I spent the rest of the night alternating between lying on the floor telling Heather and Lisa I was going to die/be sick and craving another bite (they really are good).

Would I make them again? Absolutely. They are AMAZING.

Would I eat an entire brownie again? No way.

Am I excited to take the leftover brownies to my parent's house tomorrow for my dad's birthday so everyone can try a bite? You bet!

I still have enough doughnuts left if anyone would like me to make them a batch.... Besides, Nathan and I were wondering how they would taste if you threw on a layer of chocolate frosting over the glaze. Any volunteers to try it?

Another Sports Post

2012-01-06T12:17:00.003-07:00

I know. Two sports posts EVER? That's weird.

But the other day I read on the Parenting Fails blog this quote:

My mother texts me: Hey… Dad wants a ticket to the game in Green Bay for Christmas… I believe it's a football game and I think it's the Packers against another team… Possibly the Yankees.

It immediately reminded me of this moment in my life.

I sent it to Heather who asked if the "mother" in that story wasn't my own. She is not, but someday I could be that mother!

And then Heather and I laughed. And I reavowed to never pretend to know about sports to impress a boy....because I will fail. Hugely.

2011 Favorites

2012-01-04T12:40:00.004-07:00

Chance just did his 2011 favorites from his Photo A Day on his blog, so I thought I thought I'd post mine. Though, technically, the "a day" part kind of....didn't happen. However, Lindy has committed to do it with me, so I'm going to be better.

(And, Mom, here's a link to my Photo A Day. I know you struggle finding it sometimes (o: -- Love you!)

Honestly, looking back, I can't believe all the things I've done this year.

In hardly any particular order:

Umm meeting Julia Murney AND Stephanie J. Block was not only a favorite picture, but also a favorite moment.

Aww, three days of Brooke and Jon. Totally wonderful.

It's so weird to me to see Lily be THAT LITTLE.

And now Lily is big.

I know I didn't take it, but that was such a great birthday lunch! I'm so happy Heather, Lisa and (especially!) MamaLynne were able to take time off for it.

Also didn't take this one, but, man, that was a fun trip.

And, more importantly, it's been a fun year. Here's to more adventure! And way more documenting that adventure (o:

Things That Make Me Laugh

2011-12-28T08:34:00.002-07:00

My recent weeks have been thrown off. I'm not sure if it's from the holiday, staying with my parents (Lisa's family was at our house), catchings Gigi's "little germ" (she had a stuffy nose, I now have a stuffy nose -- plus muscles I forgot existed ache), or staying up all night playing video games (Mario, to be specific. Fun fact, my parents didn't love me, so I never had a Nintendo growing up. Hence, I am REALLY BAD at all the Mario games).

Actually, it's been (sort of....selectively) fun staying with Mom and Dad. Especially the night Jenny and Co. slept over. Though, I did make Ziggy cry. That was probably not the best auntie moment ever.

Dad gave the kids these little ball things that spin, have lights and play music. I asked the kids if I could see them (like, bring them closer and play with them) and Ziggy told me no because it's his toy (actually, the first thing he said to me when they came over on Christmas morning was that he had all these cool toys and I couldn't play with them because they were his. Oldest children are SO difficult!). Gigi brought hers over, of course. She's a sweetie. Then Ziggy had put his away and Dad gave me my own (SCORE!), so I was playing with it and Ziggy came over to play with it. I told him he couldn't because it was my toy (being COMPLETELY not serious, of course). He started SOBBING. When I said the same thing to Giselle, she just picked up the toy, said, "Kristy, you're teasing me!" and walked away smiling. Ah well, at least one of them knows when I'm teasing (o:

I also slept on the futon out in the sun room (that room is SO COLD!) one night because Mark and Ziggy had my bed downstairs and Jenny and Giselle were in the upstairs guest room. The upstairs guest room is connected to the sun room, so we opened the sliding glass door so Gigi could talk to me before she went to sleep. She kept yelling, "Kristy! CAN YOU HEAR ME??? CAN YOU SEE ME???" even though I was no more than 15 feet away from her.

That girl can talk. A lot. All night long.

The next morning all Ziggy and Mark could talk about was how comfortable my bed was. Yes, yes it is comfortable, but sleeping on the less-comfortable, freezing-cold futon is great, too! Actually, I found their comments funny because they weren't saying them to be mean.

Good thing I brought my space heater with me!

Speaking of funny, it seems that things haven't made me laugh quite as much since August -- that or I'm just bad at writing them down. In any case, here are the few things that made it to the wall for remembering.

Melanie (When we hired someone new -- Our new people keep having babies and leaving): "I told her, 'I don't like meeting new people. Come back to me if you're still here in six months.'" Oddly, the girl is still here, but it's Melanie who's left, so I guess it's good they didn't become friends.

Daniel (on raising kittens): "I also love showing them the mirror and asking them existential questions."

Leslie: "He's so fresh off his mission he probably still makes his bed." Such a great description of recent-RMs.

Kendall: "How cool would it be to be a beekeeper like in space." I honestly do not remember what sparked this conversation, but I do remember how serious Kendall was about this career prospect.

Melanie (back when we were going to build that bed that I no longer have): "Send me the bed link again - I want to stare at this PROJECT that will most likely kill us." And in a way it DID kill me....with sadness.

Jake: "I can't use vacation time to go to the DMV. I don't have enough. I go to Hawaii too much." I told him this needs to go on WhiteWhine.

Daniel (on making an apple pie from scratch. Basically our entire conversation was hilarious): "I would recommend waiting for them to code a universe that produces Perfect Apple Pies(tm) and then fast forwarding to that part."

Kristy (wishing Gordon a happy birthday!): "Hey, good job being born!"
Gordon: "Why thank you! I consider it one of my crowning achievements."
Kristy: "LOL!!!! The pun is appreciated, but the visual is a little unnerving."
Gordon: "The pun...? Ohemgee what have I done That may have been my worst unintentional pun." I must admit, I am STILL laughing over that one. It was one of my favorite moments of that week.

Nathan (on why his niece hates him): "She was lying on the ground one day about two months ago, and I threw myself onto the floor in front of her. She let out the 'I'm dying, Mom, please help me' scream. She's been scared of me ever since, even though I've told her it was just a joke."

Heather (who is bad at wrapping gifts for her niece): "I may have taped it a little." Andy: "Heather! She's just a baby!" Poor Lily. That thing was TAPED! Like, nothing was getting in there.

Andy (after Lily opened the stuffed monkey I gave her for her birthday and she gave it a BIG KISS): "Kisses, Lily? On the first date?" Heather: "Lily, we've already talked about this!" Lily is a girl after my own heart [wink, wink].

Laurel (On Lily turning ONE! and getting her very own cake): "You're a woman now!" Heather: "And you should know that food is going to be your only happiness in life." Heather and Laurel did not win at advice-giving (o:

Shauna: "If he doesn't give me editor's choice, I'll calculate the efficiency of me punching him in the nose." She was joking (o: But I still found it hilarious.

And there we go. In good news, I'm going back home tonight so that will hopefully reset my weird schedule and things can be back to normal again!

Christmas Songs for Everyone

2011-12-09T11:33:00.002-07:00

I was talking to my dear friend Daniel the other day about the Muppets.

It reminded me how I have John Denver and the Muppets singing "The Peace Carol." I listen to it fairly frequently at Christmas, in fact. As I sang along, I though the lyrics were, "What child is this who was probably born?" Turns out they He is actually "poverty-born."

I always thought it was a weird lyric, but the song was catchy enough that I didn't care. The real lyrics make more sense.

In any case, Daniel offered to start writing me some (PARTIAL) atheist-appropriate Christmas songs. While he was doing other things, of course, so we only have four. Enjoy!

Once in royal David's city stood a lowly cattle shed
Where, according to tradition, baby Jesus lay his head
This, of course, is not supported
By the studies we've retorted

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
Some baby named Jesus lay down his small head
The stars up above us were there too that day
That baby named Jesus asleep on the hay

I heard the bells, on Christmas day,
Their old, familiar carols play
They pealed their song, I sang along,
But only 'cause I like the tune

Joy to the world, a baby's come!
The earth increased by one!
I hope his house has lots of room
And that ... his toys are fun?

Then he had to get back to ripping down walls and painting things. But if anyone feels like adding to the list, you're more than welcome.

Speaking of Sleep....

2011-12-06T06:48:00.002-07:00

I'm not the only one who is struggling with her sleep schedule lately:

We put on Rudy (which I had never seen) one Monday afternoon when things were slow. Mom was tearing up as the opening score played. And then she promptly fell asleep.

VERY asleep, because I got two pictures off (with flash -- not my camera), before she woke up and noticed we were laughing.

However, to be fair, she handles not sleeping way better than I do.

Why I've Spent Every Day of the Last Week Crying. Also, Things Can Still Go Wrong

2011-12-05T11:49:00.002-07:00

I've committed to that title in case anyone from that other site decides to Google it to see if it actually exists (o:

I'm going to preface ALL of this by saying I haven't been sleeping or eating well lately. I'd like to think I have a firmer grip on reality when I do eat and sleep.

So, this past week! It's been....good times.

I think I'll start with Wednesday. First, I started to get a weird stomach bug. I left work early feeling super-ill. Then I spent the night feeling, well, ill. Also not sleeping. Not at all.

Oh, before that, Melanie called my furniture guys last Monday to ask when my bed would be delivered (I hate calling people). They said on Thursday and would have someone call me with the exact time.

Then I called them day before to see if they had an exact time. They did not. Tomorrow, for sure!

Then I called FedEx (they were the deliverers) Thursday morning (because I intended to go into work and just leave to meet the furniture guys) and the said I'd called the corporate offices, but the Salt Lake offices won't open for another hour (no, I did not sleep at all, so I called early). I waited an hour and called the Salt Lake offices and they said they hadn't made the assignments yet but would be sure to let me know when they had.

So, I went about doing other things when, lo and behold, 20 minutes later the FedEx driver calls and says he's AT THE HOUSE (the one I am NOT at, of course), with my bed and no one is answering. I maybe freak out as I'm not dressed. Then I start crying (and never stopped).

He says he can't do anything for me and is leaving.

I call Heather, who says she's home (and didn't hear the guy ring the doorbell?), and then call FedEx again. They promise to send the driver RIGHT BACK as it hasn't even been two minutes.

I take a quick shower and run over with wet hair and no makeup. The driver did not come back. I call again. The guy I answered, John, told me how it was my fault that this happened and I wasn't going to get my bed until either Friday or early next week. I told him it was their fault (because, remember, I kept calling so I would be ready) and I wanted him to call the driver. He said he couldn't do that because the driver's communication was down. I told him to call the driver's cell phone. He said their drivers don't HAVE cell phones. I was all, "And what do you think he called me on??" And then John started raising his voice and talking over me and I was still crying so I, in a rare moment of assertive frustration, told him, "No! Stop telling me I'm wrong! You guys messed up and I expect you to fix it!" and he again told me it was my fault so I told him he's a jerk and I don't want to talk to him, I want his manager.

Which I got. Shane! Shane was waaaay nicer. He was all, "Their communication is down, sorry." And I brought up the cell phone thing and he was all, "I don't have the driver's cell number." And I was all, "But I have it! Because he called me on it!" So Shane called the driver and said the driver would be back in about an hour.

It is now 9:30-ish AM. I've been crying for at least the last hour.

That hour comes and goes multiple times. The driver arrived around 2 or 3.

I specifically had chosen delivery to a room of my choice (what with it being a 600 lb bed), but the FedEx driver said it's against their policy to go inside homes and he left it in the garage.

I called the Home Furniture Showroom, from whence I ordered the bed, and explained that I had inside delivery but FedEx didn't do that. The girl, Kelly, was super nice and kept talking to managers and stuff. Then she offered me a $50 return if I could just find someone to do it myself. Well, it cost me more than that to miss work and deal with it, plus it's a 600 lb bed, so that was insulting and unacceptable. Also I was tired, unfed and weepy.

Then she said they would get someone to move it tomorrow (Friday).

I IMed one of their online support people, Michael, Friday morning (EARLY morning. Again with the not sleeping) because I knew if I called, I might start sobbing on the phone. He said they were getting someone out and they would call me back as soon as they had things worked out.

I waited at the house just in case they showed up instead of calling again. Mostly I just laid on the floor of the basement and cried because I was not handling the situation as well as a rested person probably could have. Oh, and i watched the first X-Files movie. I was putting it on because I'd seen it before and I thought the background noise would be good to sleep to. Of course I ended up watching the whole thing. Any time I started to drift off, something interesting would happen and I'd be awake again.

Of course I never got a call back, no one ever showed up, and Dad and Mark ended up moving the whole thing. But Dad brought me my new mattress!

Oh, also, looking at the boxes and the room, I decided it wouldn't fit well. I mean, it would fit, but it would be SO cramped. So that was sad. Dad decided to take the bed and use it for their guest room. It really is a beautiful bed. It was sad to watch it go.

So now I have a night stand (sort of. It's a tiny desk, but I've always used it at as a night table), a mattress on the floor and PILES of clothes everywhere.

On Saturday Heather and I went shopping (again I'm not sleeping or eating) for bedroom stuff. I nearly cried at Bed, Bath and Beyond at the prospect of having to pick bedding. So I didn't do that. But I did get bathroom stuff. We also went to three different stores to find a shower curtain (o:

Dad, Mark and Jenny came over and brought my couch (love it!) and desk, then we went to Red Robin for Heather's birthday dinner. I fell asleep at the table MULTIPLE times. People came back for an after party, but I went to take a nap. Heather woke me up after and we went grocery shopping and I started to tear up at the thought of making choices, but we survived.

But after that nap I STILL didn't sleep.

I was starting to get into the non-functioning zone (o:

Then yesterday while setting up my bathroom I discovered the shower head doesn't really work (the water all sprays out where the fixture screws in) and the tub doesn't drain. Also I am pretty sure there were a few other smaller things that just kept adding to the general misery of it all.

At one point on Thursday or Friday I called Mom sobbing and Ann was at her desk. Ann sent mom home with a children's book ("The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes") to cheer me up. That was embarrassingly sweet (o:

Then yesterday Lisa, Carli, Paul and I went to the Christmas devotional. Lisa fed me dinner and gave me an Advil PM so I could FINALLY sleep and I feel way more like a functional person. And after work I'm going to get my computer fixed (it won't turn on again -- in case I needed more things that are adding to my frustration), and then we're having our annual SCROOGE PARTY. How can anything be wrong with a Scrooge Party?

And there we go. I think the answer to most of my recent life problems involves me needing to sleep more.

Joy to the World

2011-11-23T14:32:00.002-07:00

I've had the song "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night stuck in my head for days now. Days. So I was singing the song all morning (technically all night because I took a lot of pain pills without realizing they had caffeine in them, but that was a different kind of fun).

Mom heard me singing it and said, "That's a really old song. Dad used to sing it to you when you were little." I was surprised by that and asked mom, "Why? That song has drinking and sex in it!" She demanded to know why I knew the lyrics to a song that references drinking and sex (let's forget that we probably ALL could name a few songs like that just because, that's how it goes sometimes). I was about to apologize to her for knowing and singing such a song when I remembered Dad used to sing it to me when I was little!

I no longer felt that my apology was required.

I was reminded of this exchange as the song just came on my iTunes shuffle.

Another "joyful" thing is this awesome video that I am now linking. Melanie wanted to do a phone training help topic for our website. We'd seen this video before, but she wanted me to find it so she could embed it.

Tell me that doesn't automatically make you happy! Assuming you can get through more than 30 seconds of it....

There's a pretty "hip" and "catchy" song at the end, though, if you just want to go to that!

Thankfully, that is a song I will never have stuck in my head.

Once, When It Was Halloween

2011-11-21T09:35:00.003-07:00

Remember when I used to take pictures every day and blog them all the time? Yeah, those were good times. However, not carrying a camera everywhere has done wonders for my sore back and stress levels. So that's been nice.

First, some other things that have happened:

Heather and Lisa moved into the NEW HOUSE this past weekend. I am not sure if I want to move in next week or after my bedroom furniture arrives.
I don't handle change/limbo very well. Apparently my body handles it by rejecting food entirely. It's been a long week and a half or so. Anyone who talked to me last week, I wasn't eating and I was probably short with you. I'm sorry.
In a related note, I've spent a lot of time in bed not feeling well. I've also managed to watch two seasons of the X-Files in one week. I sort of adore my new Roku/Hulu+ account.
In a different related note, Jenny and Mark have been over helping my parents paint the house. One of those times Giselle came to my room and wanted to watch X-Files with me. I put on a totally non-scary episode (it took some work to find one that is three-year-old appropriate). She LOVED it. Though she kept asking if Mulder and Scully were friends. She kept trying to sneak down and watch it again.
Jenny also cleaned out my old bedroom which is the sewing-room-in-progress now. It had boxes of all my old toys. Giselle loved my collection of My Pretty Dollhouse. A quick Google search shows me they do not make those any more. Also she ended up with my tea set, a few dolls, some stuffed animals and some Sylvanian Families toy raccoons that I'd long-forgotten about. Ziggy wondered why I didn't find anything for him. That's what you get when you go to a house that only raised girls, buddy. He loved My Pretty Dollhouse, though.
Did I mention how lovely the NEW HOUSE is? Lisa bought the most darling ottoman for the main room. It's big, well-lit and just perfect. And tree outside the main room is perfectly orange and beautiful right now. I wish I'd brought my camera on Saturday, but I did not.
Josh and Becca had their baby's blessing two Sundays ago. I met them via LiveJournal, so I know all of their family via LiveJournal as well. When Heather and I went to the chapel for the blessing, we walked in and Josh's family immediately recognized Heather before noticing me. This happens to me all the time. But it was so great to see Margaret (Josh's mom) again and meet his sister Kjerstie. It was like an internet meeting dream come true! They were SO delightful and fun.
I already bought my white elephant gift for our office Christmas party. I don't think I have coworkers who read my blog. Hopefully the racing nuns go over well. Since I bought them early, they were sitting on the table and Ziggy asked what a nun was. Mom and Jenny explained it's a religious woman who never gets married (keeping it simple, here). The next day they were over for dinner and I was leaving early to go see Heather. As I was walking out they were talking about how I'm moving in with Heather and Lisa (and they could visit me since they couldn't come with me at that moment) and Ziggy asked, "Mommy, is Kristy a nun?" He knows I work for a church and am not married and I do wear a lot of black... That Ziggy. He's so tender.
And, totally unrelated to anything, I'm completely addicted to Whirly Words.

So, really, aside from the move, not a ton of stuff going on.

But, Halloween! Jenny threw a party for just our family. She said costumes were REQUIRED. She also said she wouldn't uninvite us (in a voice that said she would consider it, though), but the kids would be very disappointed in us.

We are not a very costuming family. I threw on a dress, heels and tons of makeup and a lab coat and went as Dr. Addison Shepherd from Grey's Anatomy (post divorce, since those were the best seasons -- I even wore a fake wedding ring to show I put effort into it). Mom wrapped a scarf around her head and went as a gypsy. Dad put on a lab coat and was a mad scientist or something. Jenny didn't appreciate our creative lack of effort.

Jenny made Ziggy's costume. He's Perry the Platypus. He didn't want to pose for pictures. I LOVED the beady little eyes.

Mark was the most unenthusiastic of Professor Snapes. He changed into pajamas after about 10 minutes. I wished I'd brought my pajamas. No one was sure what Jenny was, but she was very enthusiastic about it. She gets WAY more into holidays than I do.

The kids watching Hocus Pocus while Jenny made dinner.

Mad Scientist Dad pulling out the dry ice for the root beer.

It took a lot of convincing to get the kids to touch the dry ice fog, but once they did, you could not get Giselle away from it. Every time Grandpa would pour in more sugar (to make the smoke billow), he'd ask Gigi's permission. She would solemnly look up and say, "Do it." She took her job as mixer very, very seriously.

Then we had dinner and Giselle had a meltdown because she hadn't had a nap. She wanted me to take a picture of the pumpkin lights, so I did. Then she spent the rest of the evening crying about everything (I totally know how that feels, buddy!) and the family and I went home. It was fun to see the kids dressed up, though. I like them. Also I'm sad I didn't get a chance to steal any Halloween candy from them.

2011-11-09T14:36:00.002-07:00

I don't think I've mentioned my new-found love of Pinterest. And it is, indeed, love. Thanks, Bridget for introducing me! You're the best!

I've pinned a lot of things (a lot), but I've only tried a few so far. Mostly food. If I'd had some foresight and wasn't taking a break from my camera, I would have taken pictures of my attempts. Though I'm still going to talk about them here in no particular order.

Oven Cleaning: This one was a fail. A BIG fail. Nothing I could do at all would get the baking soda off of the oven. So...the oven just looks like it has an infectious disease or something. Probably I would not do that again.

Step-by-Step Eyeshadow: Totally useful. I love it.

Winter Car Tips: I only tried cleaning my wiper blades, but I didn't have rubbing alcohol or ammonia, so I used astringent. Whatever, right? I guess it worked? And I did the vinegar spray the night before it snowed. I didn't see any ice on the windows I sprayed. But I also didn't see any ice on the windows I didn't spray. I may try that again when it isn't going to snow.

Microwave Apples: SO easy and divine! I love apples. I love cinnamon. I also love microwaves sometimes. I prepare these in the morning before work and then add water and microwave for lunch.

Chocolate Pie Pastry Sticks: They were really good. Next time I want to try Nutella. I did NOT win on trying to make an icing for it.

Pretzel Bites: Delicious. I made some for my office party and Mom's office party (both on the same day) and we did not have many left. I made A LOT. I did the cinnamon one since it was a last-minute baking decision (I was going to go with fruit salad until Mom said she needed something) and we didn't have stuff for the other kind.

Monkey Bread: I didn't love it, but I didn't love the frosting I made. I didn't really follow the recipe. Everyone else thought it was great, though.

Eggnog Pound Cake: I made this last night and ate it as a snack today. I wanted more. It was so yummy. I need to make a light frosting for it because nothing is ever, ever sweet enough for me.

Granola Wrap: I started with the idea, but we didn't have granola so I used Special K cereal and we didn't have strawberries so I used raspberries and I don't like bananas so I used blueberries. Despite all that, I still loved it. I am not good at following recipes.

Pumpkin Muffins: They were okay. A little bland. I added chocolate chips, but next time I'm using a spice cake mix.

Mini Omelets: It was fine. I didn't love it. I think because I like my omelets to be made fresh.

Mini German Pancakes: REALLY didn't love. I don't think bready things freeze well. At least, I've never liked them after they've been frozen. It was also the same week I made the mini omelets so I could have just been in a bad food mood.

Pralines: Did not work. Did. Not. I think it was a problem with me, though. They tasted great but looked horrible.

Burrito Casserole: I didn't like it. At all. Mostly for texture reasons (next time I'm blending ALL the vegetables and not just the tomatoes). The taste was fine. Everyone else liked it.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili: I made this last night. I didn't have about a third of the ingredients so there was some...umm...slight modification. I also used white grape juice instead of beer (good cooking decision) and it tasted a little grape-y at one point until I added more garlic. But after it was done, wow, I loved it. In fact, I am eating it now. Same thing with blending the vegetables, though. I don't love their texture.

And there we go. Pinterest has enriched my life and my food options. I will love it forever. Or until something new and more awesome comes along.

A Crisis of Internet

2011-11-07T10:04:00.004-07:00

This happened last Friday and everything is resolved so it's funny now.

I was ready for work and waiting for MamaLynne. She came downstairs very upset saying, "I am SO FRUSTRATED! I hate this! I just hate it!" and I'm like, "Holy snot, what happened???"

She explained with a more-raised-than-normal voice that her iPad was BROKEN and it wouldn't connect to the internet all night long and she couldn't do important things like use her Flipboard or play Words with Friends (which game I've given up on, but if anyone wants to play with her, let me know) and she hates it and it's horrible and broken and she doesn't want to use it any more and she wants a new one.

We take our electronics very seriously.

Being the sympathetic person I am, I shortly replied, "Dude, Mom, the internet isn't connecting because you have wifi turned off!" And then she aruged that she did NOT have it turned off and Dad's works fine and mine works fine and maybe there was a limit on how many electronic devices could use the internet at the same time.

Then I turned her wifi on (even though it was "already on") and all her little Words with Friends notifications came in and I was like, "See, it was off," because I am not above gloating. And she said, "Well, I still hate it. I hate this one. It's a horrible piece of technology and I want a new one."

And I less-than-patiently reminded her she didn't have to use it, she got it for free and no one was forcing her to use it. And then she got mad and I got mad and there was yelling and an icy car ride to work.

Also, she just barely got a new iPad because the other one stopped working (it had condensation in it -- I suggested from charging it in the bathroom while she takes baths -- something about how the mirrors get steamy means it's probably bad news for the electronics, but that idea was shot down).

It's been a very traumatic week for iProducts.

Then I was talking to Melanie about it because she knows I completely impatient when things like this happen. Melanie then suggested I send her this:

Which I did and then I called her so I could hear her reaction as saw me taking her trauma lightly. I think I like the idea of painting my feelings the best.

Luckily when we got home I was able to get her internet to work and so that chart is funny instead of mean -- I think I would have cried if we had a weekend of internet-less mom. Apparently we're both very dependent on the outside world.

In more different news, Lisa closed on her new house and within the month Lisa, Heather and I will be moving. YAY!

A Conference Story

2011-10-27T17:24:00.003-06:00

MamaLynne sent me an e-mail today that MAYBE made me tear up a little. I found the original post online, so I feel okay quoting it. This is from Elder Brett Bertola in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Wow! Saturday in the morning was so powerful. This also might have been the best session because I got a huge answer to my prayers. Friday night I was thinking how I want Papas, the Dad from a part member family that is selling his car, to hear the Prophet. Because I knew that if we weren´t there right at 12, we would miss the Prophet speaking at the beginning. So I prayed that somehow the Prophet would speak during the session and not just at the beginning. Well, I doubted a little bit. But, I knew that God could do anything. Just as I thought would be the case, we got there late. So, I had no idea what happened at the beginning of the first session. But, I do remember my joy when the Prophet stood up and talked half-way through the session!! I couldn´t believe it. Papas was able to see and hear the Prophet! It was such an awesome answer to my prayer. God really can do anything.

Just in case anyone was still wondering why he was late to conference (o:

For the record, and on a less-serious note, I am still trying to get the Saturday's Warrior explanation to catch on. Because that would be awesome.

A List of Things

2011-10-24T09:07:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure what happened, but my interest in pretending my life is mildly fascinating is totally gone (o:

In any case, here are some things that have happened in recent times (or not-so-recent times, but I remember the recent ones better).

Heather and I went to Michigan. It was AWESOME. I edited half the pictures with the intent to blog them.
But then my computer died (admittedly it was just this past weekend, so I have to find another excuse for the previous two months). So that's a problem. Good thing I already stopped photographing everything!
The idea of maybe needing a new computer is making me sad. And stressed. Both of those things. Good thing I have a backup system! (o:
My parents went to St. George this past weekend. I was home alone. I decided this was the PERFECT time to wash my comforter. The one that said "dry clean only." Because, hey, why not? Also it was super dirty. It was a miracle I got the whole thing in the washer and more of a miracle I got it out. But it worked, so, no lessons were learned.
Lisa is buying a house (fingers crossed). It is darling and I approve of it completely.
I'm addicted to Pinterest.
I will never make even a small portion of the things I've pinned.
Last night, however, I made pretzel bites (coated in cinnamon and sugar) and they turned out fantastically.
Other ventures (monkey bread, pralines and burrito casserole) have not fared as well as I would have hoped. I think the problem might be me?
My hair now is long enough to go in a ponytail (yay!!)
Heather and I have been teaching Primary. I brought a TSM puppet to class yesterday. He congratulated kids on jobs well-done. It was sort of hilarious. I love Primary. Love, love, love.
I hope the potential new ward puts us in Primary. It's really the best calling.
I bought THE BEST skirts ever. They are knit and are adorable and I get so many people asking where I bought them.
A month ago we (Mom, Dad, Jenny, Mark, Ziggy, Giselle, Alicia, Heather, Gen and I) went to St. George and stayed at my uncle's house and saw Little Mermaid. I intend to someday post photos of that, too. Though they're mostly of Giselle, who I find adorable 100% of the time.

And there we are. Mostly I just work (which I love) and am boring (o:

Things That Make Me Laugh

2011-09-06T08:49:00.002-06:00

I spent a lot of time lately telling people, "If things still make me laugh, I would find that funny." Mostly because I'm never in a position to record things for my blog. I did get a few things and they are all products of timing. Other funny things have happened.

For one, I came back from Michigan with a teal feather in my hair (I sort of love/hate it -- Love because it's a nice color pop with my red hair and hate because I always forget it's there when brushing my hair and then it hurts. Also the feather is starting to look a little worse for wear). Our dress code, of course, does not allow non-natural hair colors (they word it differently, but I am going to imagine everyone knows what I mean). Since I work in HR, I was interested to see if anyone said anything. David saw it, asked if I'd colored a piece of my hair teal and seemed worried about it. I told him it was just a feather that's hooked in. He was fine with that. Crazy dress code. They certainly don't have anything in there about feathers.

Someday soon I'm going to get someone to take the dark thing out for me.

So, actual things that have made me laugh:

Heather (talking to Nichole who, by her own admission, likes to push boundaries and shock people): "You always say things that make me think....and then blush."

Heather: "You're not moochy, just...attachy." I do not at all remember the context, but I love the word "attachy."

Allie (About her brother...I think?): "Also he was a juvenile delinquent, not immoral but just illicit."

Daniel: "I am trying to think of a witty way to put sort of an end stamp on this topic that isn't horrible and disgusting, and it isn't working out for me."

David: "That's what Ken said, verbatim....pretty much."

Allie: "I think if a feminist side doesn't hate everyone, you're doing it wrong." I think I was PMSy and feeling indignant toward all men. Good times with emotions!

Daniel (About the Kardashians): "I've heard it said that they're all hot, and that's something, but looking at them I feel like they're being held together by an uncanny-valley level of plastic and CGI."

Heather (when talking about her being left-handed): "I actually never used top-bound notebooks. Probably would have been a good idea, but I just wanted to be normal...and fit in."

LeAnne: "That's the thing about working in HR; you can fire me, but I know how much it will cost you to fire me." Oh, so true!

Leslie (on Giselle): "I can't identify with people who are scared of the wind." I, however, can identify with people who get ready for church and then have an emotional breakdown right as it's time to leave. Sometimes church just happens during nap times (o:

Brooke: "I always forget that they are the same person and then I think, 'Man, the whole freaking Board is in medical school.'"

Brooke: "I don't know how to solve this for you. I used Netflix to feel all stretched out! That is all I know, plus there was a lot of stretching." I think she was helping me feel non-tense. But it didn't work.

Heather (on her favorite lotion she calls her "special lotion): "It's too late now. They probably all smell special." We were going through security and her lotion was 4 oz (a $25 bottle. Totally unused) so they took it away. I told Heather to go to the International area, get something to mail it home with and do it that way, but she decided it was too late and they'd probably used it all. Then I got to hear about the special lotion the entire day (o:

Happy VERY BELATED Birthday, Ziggy

2011-08-23T12:41:00.003-06:00

Apparently I've given up on blogging for the summer, which is too bad, because I think I remember doing fun things (though, somehow I've managed to maintain the PAD, which is some sort of miracle). In any case, Ziggy's 6th birthday was, oh, like a month and a half ago. I celebrated it, took pictures and now I am going to blog about it! Sweet!

For Ziggy's friend party, Jenny rented a giant water slide thing. It was a little intimidating. I'd let Jenny borrow my swimming suit, so I didn't even get to go on it (not that I really minded. I don't love being wet).

Jenny and Gigi sliding for me. Ziggy would NOT slide for pictures.

If Jenny and Ziggy share one thing (which they don't, because they share MANY things), it's their love for parties. Jenny is explaining the crafts to everyone.

Ziggy surrounded by friends.

Giselle, braving the wind, was outside long enough to get her face painted and then wanted to be inside for the rest of the party.

Ziggy had birthday cupcakes (which Giselle and I downed after everyone went outside) -- Jenny spelled his name wrong, how embarrassing! (o:

Which meant I spent the entire party inside with this kid because she is afraid of the wind still. She spent the time trying to turn my necklace into a magic necklace and I would die if I wore it. Apparently it just put me to sleep because I fell asleep on their most comfortable couch ever while the friend party ended and Mark's family party began.

For Ziggy's actual birthday, we had our family party starting with lunch at the Olive Garden. Ziggy wanted the Mayan again, but we've finally nixed that because NONE of us wanted to eat any of that food again. If anyone goes and they've started cooking good things again, please let me know. He was absolutely delighted to have all the waiters sing happy birthday to him, though.

I couldn't get Jenny and Ziggy to pose and smile and look at me all at the same time together.

Then we went back to Jenny and Mark's house to open gifts. Another thing Ziggy has in common with Jenny is his abundance of excitement for everything.

The gift from Grandma and Grandpa was the biggest.

And the most exciting!

It was a very Harry Potter Lego themed birthday. He claimed he wasn't going to sleep until it was all set up, but that turned out to not be true. Also, once he had it set up, he told me it was for looking, not touching. Which is another way he's like Jenny. Jenny's toys from growing up are all in pristine condition. Mine are probably mostly buried in the sandbox.

Mark and I particularly liked Ziggy's nerf gun.

Mark shot it at me for taking his picture. You can see the dart heading straight at me (the blurry part by Mark's face).

And then the dart hit and attached to my lens and Mark felt bad, but not bad enough to stop laughing.

And then Dad shot at me, but he kept hitting my arms, which actually hurt. I got him back, though. I waited until he was asleep on the couch and unloaded all the darts at him. I kind of want one of those.

Babysitting Times

2011-07-27T07:56:00.003-06:00

There has been an unusual amount of babysitting (or assistant babysitting, or being present while other people are babysitting) for me this past week, which is weird because usually I'm busy and my sister doesn't let me watch her kids (o:

The first was when Lisa was watching her niece and nephew Abby and Ben.

We had Abby showing off her mad dance skills (she also did some Jillian moves with Heather, but I wasn't allowed to photograph that).

And we let Ben play in the rocks to keep him from crying (he gets VERY sad when his mommy leaves him -- even at a fun place like Aunt Lisa's house).

Then Abby wanted a picture with HER rocks.

Then Lisa had to show off her rocks, which were the best rocks of all.

Heather saw me taking a picture of her stealing the neighbor's flower bed lining (good thing we know the neighbors) so she could have the BIGGEST rock, and she didn't want her picture taken so I only got a blurry one. Don't worry, she put the rock back.

Then we skipped on home to enjoy movies, Ben being angered by Lisa's iPod music selection and plenty of junk food.

Next, I got to spend part of an afternoon with Lynlee. She loves my camera. I took her to Jenny's house since Jenny and I were going downtown together to meet Bridget (and, sadly, to give Lynlee back) and see the Pioneer Day concert.

Lynlee loved cuddling with Giselle's giant bear, but she didn't think I was very amusing.

Good thing Jenny's house has two built-in entertainers.

Lynlee LOVED Ziggy and Giselle and they loved her. Giselle cannot stop talking about her when she sees me. They could get Lynlee to laugh VERY hard...then she'd look at me and it was back to the solemn expression (o:

She was SO easy to watch. She fell asleep on the way to Jenny's -- and I wanted her to stay asleep because Bridget told me she needed a nap. I had her in the living room at the bottom of the stairs and at one point I was going downstairs, tripped, fell down the last three or four stairs, hit my arm against that corner of the banister (puncture wound!) and smacked down on the tile floor. I didn't want to wake Lynlee, so I bit my lip, rocked back and forth in the fetal position and
mentally chanted, "Don't wake Lynlee...Don't wake Lynlee...." In retrospect, it was a funny moment. At the time, it was a painful moment. Jenny heard the crash and thought it was Giselle hitting her wall or something -- then she played with Ziggy and Giselle, ate, was adorable and didn't cry at all. Also I could just TELL she loved my Broadway playlist. I love babysitting gigs like that.

Finally, Heather and I got to babysit her nieces on Saturday while her brother and sister-in-law Angie went to see Harry Potter.

We met Andy and Angie at the Gateway, picked up the girls and drove back to their house. Lily, as hoped, fell asleep in the car (I am REALLY good at putting babies asleep, it appears), so we started a movie with Macie (Curious George! Something about a baby elephant who misses her family). Heather made popcorn, so it was a REAL party.

Then Lily woke up and was momentarily sad that we weren't her mommy.

Macie took that opportunity to eat the entire bowl of popcorn.

Macie and Lily love each other. Macie cheered Lily right up.

Macie showing off her two missing teeth. I remember being really excited about teeth falling out when I was little...now with a lifetime of dental problems, missing teeth makes me a titch uneasy. Macie sported it well, though. She's so cute!

Macie loves to hold Lily, but they are almost the same size.

We took a quick trip to the park. Heather refused to let Lily eat grass. She's not a fun aunt.

But she would not be deterred. As soon as she was close to the grass, she just went for it.

Macie built sand castles.

And Lily quietly played (with Heather watching her for grass consumption). She's a really good baby.

Awkward sister hug!

I really need small children to photograph every day. I had so much fun with Macie posing.

She really is happy, even though she looks so serious.

The real problems started when it was time to feed Lily. Macie came to watch because it just wasn't going well...

That's sweet potato on her eyelashes....

I asked Macie if her mom had trouble feeding Lily, "No...she just does it really fast." Yeah....great.

She also used our distraction to take Heather's lip gloss and steal Starbursts from the pantry. I like opportunistic children.

Nothing made Lily happier than taking a big spoonful of food and then pushing it all back out again with her tongue. I think the mess was making Heather shut down a little.

Sneak feeding attack from behind!

About this time Andy and Angie came home and Lily's eating was there problem (except for how it's apparently only a problem for us).

We're the best babysitters ever. Hopefully we get invited back (o:

Pioneer Day Concert

2011-07-26T20:07:00.003-06:00

On Friday, after braving an already busy day of work (I am so close to not being overwhelmed any more!), babysitting my favorite Lynlee, and doing post-sealing family pictures with Jenny (the babysitting was also at Jenny's house -- apparently her kids are ENDLESSLY fascinating to Lynlee), I went to the Pioneer Day concert at the Conference Center.

Shooting went long, so my people (and Jenny's people, but they didn't sit by us, so they do not get to be in this story) met me downtown (they were SO accommodating. I'm so grateful for friends who roll with my poor time-estimation skills!) and we headed over to the Conference Center. With me I had Jennie, Lisa, Heather, Angie, Joanne and Shauna (though Joanne and Shauna sat a few rows back, but they went over with us). Jenny has Mark, his friend Bubba (I don't know Bubba's real name...) and Bubba's wife.

Since I hadn't really eaten anything all day, Heather was kind enough to make me a grilled cheese sandwich. I shoved it in my purse and ate it while we waited for the concert to start. I also talked to Auntie Liz who was sitting behind me. She asked how MamaLynne was (because she was in Alaska), so I texted MamaLynne who responded that they were having "A GREAT TIME!" She never uses caps, so it must have been very great.

Later MamaLynne wanted me to ask Auntie Liz how Grandpa was doing. I did. Auntie Liz said he fell and hit his elbow, so of course I texted back, "Auntie Liz said he fell, but not to worry about it because she was here to take care of everything, which is why she's the favorite daughter." Mom sent back a smiley face and, "She's always been the favorite." I love that my mom and her sisters are such good friends.

I got pictures of the choir and guest artists warming up before the concert, but the pictures after (during the ending applause part) turned out better. You probably can't even see it, but Brian Stokes Mitchell and Linda Eder are standing up on that stage.

The problem with the Conference Center is, even on the front row, you're still a mile away from the performers (o: Oh well, not a big enough problem that I wasn't excited to go.

Zoom a little more and there they are!

They both did a wonderful job. Linda can do no wrong. I wish they'd been able to sing more songs. Brian's dad was at the concert. They showed a movie of him talking about his military service. It was very touching. I maybe even teared up a little.

The organ pipes with different patriotic colors (why are we celebrating the military for our Pioneer Day concert? I do not even know, but I still enjoyed the concert). My favorite is when they had bursting stars during the organ solo.

Here I am with my people. Me, Heather, Angie, Lisa and Jennie. I had Jenny take the picture the first time and she didn't push half down to focus...I'm not sure what kind of lame photographer she is anyway (o: So I had Auntie Liz do it.

After we stopped off at Mom's office really fast and I gave the tour -- which wasn't NEARLY as impressive as the ones Mom gives, but you work with what you have.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening. I hope we keep having guest artists come for the Pioneer Day concerts, then I'll have something choir-related to look forward to other than the Christmas Concert (o:

Girl's Camp

2011-07-13T09:30:00.004-06:00

So, well over a month ago (maybe almost two months now, who can remember?), the ward girls decided to have a "girl's camp" -- actually, we decided to have it a lot longer ago than that, but our plan was actual camping, which I no longer do -- at the house in Green River.

Erin and I drove down first to open up the house and make sure the four-wheelers were working (VERY important job). Of course they weren't working, but a few phone calls later and some guys came out to help us. Actually, when I made the calls, the person I talked to asked, "I don't mean to sound rude, but do you have any men there?" We did not and I thought it was funny. One carts and two out of three of the four-wheelers were working when they left. Of course Erin and I had to take them for a test drive.

When we were done, the property circle (that we went around and around) had so much dust it looked like a heavy fog was settling in (hard to photograph well on a four-wheeler -- probably should have take my camera four-wheeling...).

The other girls arrived later. We had movies and food (TONS of food) and adventures and it was great.

I haven't really had much of an opportunity or desire to make an effort photographically lately (summer, starting in May, is my busiest time at work. I'm happy to just go home and wind down, not have to think about being creative), so it was nice to have quiet time to myself to read and walk around and take pictures.

Of course I still spent most of the time on off-roading adventures -- the best being with Mackenzie and Heather where we all thought we were going to die at least a dozen times in the hour or so that we were out.

I took a picture very similar to this in Egypt. It makes me want to go back and edit all my Egypt photos since most of my edits were lost when my photo drive was accidentally deleted. that was a panicky day.

The Green River was VERY flooded. We were warned not to go anywhere near it, and for good reason. Usually it's not this crazy.

For example, these trees are not normally IN the water.

A group picture.

And one of those "close, only get the faces" pictures for Steph -- I was the one setting the camera off, hence why I look like I'm jumping into the frame because I totally am).

I'm pretty sure this is going to become a tradition.

Things That Make Me Laugh

2011-07-02T10:44:00.003-06:00

I haven't been doing a very good job at writing down funny things my friends say, but I've been trying to do (marginally) better over the past few weeks. Which is good, because I especially need funny things right now. I had to get my nose cauterized on Wednesday (remember that funny time I bled in the restaurant bathroom? I think that was the deciding moment). It was entirely less frightening than I thought it would be at the time. Then I got home and my nose was black and it itches and I feel gross.

So I've been needing funny things to distract me from how disgusting my nose feels.

My life is hard (o:

Oh, in good news, Lisa is back from Uganda!

Patti's goat milk in the fridge makes me laugh every time I see it. It's just SO random to have at work.

Suzie (eating pancakes with whipped cream, strawberries and blueberries): "It's like the Fourth of July in my mouth."

Heather (at the Bee's game): "I broke a sweat starting the wave. You know what I saw down there? A bunch of blank faces!"

Heather: "You think I'm heartless? You wanna see tears? I'll show you tears!" I think we were still talking about her failed wave attempts.

Sarah: "Look! They're doing it again! They love it on top!" The top section at the game kept doing the wave. Heather couldn't get the bottom section to do it at all. Sarah took great delight in pointing that out. (Also, there was a "that's what she said" joke made immediately after, but I don't know who to blame that one on.)

Ann (helping with fashion): "It's a Big-O Tire shirt. If I see you wearing that, I will punch you in the face. You're welcome."

Wendy: "No amount of fat is going to ruin that perfect bone structure." Her children are going to have very good self-esteem (o:

Nicole (helping me answer someone's question): "Can you swear in your response? Because a good 'hell' can go a long way."

Bill (on buying a house): "Kristy, it's going to be mine! 'Ours' if you play your cards right...." Bill cracks me up. I love it.

Rich: "I think I'm tapping into a mean-girl vibe I didn't know was so strong in me" Rich's mean-girl vibe is HILARIOUS.

And....there we go. I imagine I'd have found more things funny if I hadn't spent most of the last two weeks home sick (stupid nose/bleeding problems). Oh well. I plan to spend the entire weekend regaining all my lost iron (I have NO IDEA how there is blood left in me. No idea at all), maybe sewing another pair of shorts (because I made some on Monday and I LOVE them).

I might as well throw out a picture of them while I'm at it (I hadn't hemmed the bottoms. I made Mom do that since this is the first time I've sewn anything since Jr. High...)

And there we go. A completely disjointed post. As usual (o:

Three Birthdays

2011-06-27T15:23:00.002-06:00

I keep having birthday pictures that I mean to post and then another birthday happens and I think, "I'll just add these to the list!" Well...clearly I am going to be suffering from this mentality forever, so I'm just going to limit myself to the May birthdays (a month later).

First up was my little Giselle. She turned three. It was cute and fun and there were presents and tears and princess dresses which is exactly as it should be for turning three.

Gigi wanted a Harry Potter party, but then Jenny talked her into a Tangled party. Here she is being a princess -- which she does so well. There is no way on earth this child is going to grow up not being a diva.

Jenny's favorite thing is decorating. She LOVES throwing parties and loves decorating for them. We are so unalike in so many ways! (o:

An important part to any party is the footwear. yes, she has little plastic rings on her feet. She was having trouble walking but refused to take them off.

She also likes having pictures taken of her hair.

Her little Tangled birthday cake.

I was holding her so she could look at the cake while Jenny lit the candles. Dad took my camera. This is what I look like when I'm trying to explain the camera too him, which is weird because he hangs out with Dave enough that I just assume he knows how to use my camera too (Dave and I have the same camera).

Still Dad. Trying to pose. Giselle is trying to reach out and touch her cake without us seeing.

Candles are lit and I'm back to camera duty.

Don't even worry, she's totally singing for herself.

She takes blowing out candles VERY seriously.

I don't know why she looks terrified.

And, as usual, my gift was the favorite!

Here is Giselle asking Grandma to look for her balloon. She did NOT give up on the balloon. We heard about it for weeks until Dad finally bought her a new one and told her he'd found her balloon for her. Thankfully we don't hear about the balloon any more.

She was a very sad princess back then.

For my birthday, aside from working in pants (everyone else was at a conference -- I didn't expect to say as long as I had -- It was so lovely!) and going to Maddox, the family all came over for dinner (of course Mom and I weren't sure we would ever eat again at that point). Ziggy drew me a picture of....a spider...eating a ladybug.

Isn't the cupcake flower darling? Yes it is!

Jenny clearly likes to be in charge of all lighting things.

The cake is even darling in candlelight.

I was supposed to look excited. I love that Mark is giving me bunny ears.

And I love that Mark and I are now leaning opposite ways.

I can tell you who absolutely LOVED her cupcake.

This one didn't get nearly as messy.

Yeah....

Grandpa let Gigi blow out the candle over and over again.

Giselle and Jenny -- Gigi is slightly outraged that she can't blow out any more candles. I'm not sure how they got her clean.

She's starting saying "CHEESE!" and doing a big, fake smile. I'm not sure who taught her that that is how we pose for pictures, but whoever it was is dead to me. Her natural smile is SO much cuter.

Finally, the last birthday, of which I took all of about two pictures of, was Lisa's. We had breakfast at Market Street Grill.

I wasn't at the table with Lisa, so....I only had the one picture of her that was my PAD. I was, however, at the table with Nicole who dropped her bacon on the floor, picked it up and commented on all the hair that was stuck to it. That part was way gross.

We had a wonderful time and I love May birthdays!

Not What I'd Intended

2011-06-16T14:44:00.004-06:00

I've been very nostalgic about summers gone by. This morning waking up to the sprinklers hitting my window (a sound I LOVE), walking outside to the smell of wet dirt and little water droplets on everything, I had grandiose plans of blogging about my fantastic childhood and it was going to be touching, descriptive and profound.

Then today happened and it happened much more interestingly than recollecting on the past.

First, this comic has had me laughing all week long:

I have no idea what that appeals to me so much. It's absolutely horrible.

But on to today.

Jenny, Ziggy and Giselle came downtown for lunch. Jenny picked MamaLynne and me up from work. I took my toy wand down for Giselle to play with (and toy Gumby and Pokey for Zigs, but that doesn't add anything to the story other than mentioning he was included).

We went to Gormandise because I was craving the chicken salad sandwich (which I ended up not getting). Also they had a kid's menu and Ziggy didn't seem too devastated of having to eat his second-favorite meal of PB&J. Giselle wanted to only eat things off of other people's plates and that worked for her.

We ate. I took pictures. Giselle would cast Harry Potter spells on me with the toy wand. It was great. Toward the end of the meal, Ziggy, who was on my left, sort of leaned back in his chair and one second he was there, the next he was gone. His chair had tipped back and he laid on the floor, feet up in the air looking stunned. I also wasn't sure how to react (though, "quick! take a picture!" briefly went through my mind). He looked at me and said, "Ut oh." Before Jenny got it together enough to run over and grab him. Mom and I started laughing (mostly at how he was just GONE and then the "ut oh." Not because he was scared. That part was sad). As I was laughing, I noticed blood.

That's right. Random bloody nose in the bakery.

I quickly go back to the bathroom, grab a paper towel and hope it will be done in a few seconds. But then it wasn't. It got worse. Then there was blood all down my arms and on my dress. People kept coming in and looking worried. A nurse came in and gave me an ice pack for my nose, a physical therapist grabbed and ice pack for the back of my neck, a grandma instructed me to pinch my nose and lean back...

Finally Jenny came to see if I was all right. I told her to pay the bill, get everyone and everything in the car and then come get me. This process took her forever. There was blood all around me on the floor. It was SO embarrassing.

She came back, we grabbed tons of paper towels, I rushed to the car (parked in front of a GIANT window. Could it get worse?) and we drove back to work. The entire time Giselle was asking me what happened to make me bleed. I told her it was her Harry Potter spells that she cast on me (I never said I was a good aunt). She looked excited and said, "Really???" and then kept apologizing for it.

I then asked her if I could have some of her blood if I ran out. She picked a scab off her chin and handed it over. I guess that...helps?

I think Ziggy has been traumatized for life. Every time he looked at me, it was with complete horror.

We dropped MamaLynne off and I took her car home to change. Then back to work. Apparently "deep emotional distress" doesn't qualify as valid sick leave (o:

Happy BEE-Day, Zito

2011-06-13T10:41:00.002-06:00

It's not really Erin's birthday just yet, but we celebrated it on Saturday by going to a Bees' game (which prompted the discussion of "When did they change from the Buzz," and "There are people who are actually fans of minor league baseball?"). I forgot my camera which was both liberating and tragic.

We reserved 20-ish seats all together. They gave us cupcakes and Zito got a Bees baseball and bat. Heather and I were saving our cupcakes (actually, I'm pretty sure Heather was never going to eat hers), but then Sarah, Amy and Emily were eating theirs and the little boys next to them kept staring longingly at them, so we gave the boys our cupcakes. The one little boy was so shy, he grabbed the cupcake and buried his head in his dad's chest. His mom reprimanded him, "When strangers give you cupcakes, you say 'thank you!'" Of course, we'd been sitting next to them for almost three hours at that point, so it was almost like we were all friends.

For some super weird reason they had a Santa at the game. Also they kept playing Christmas music. We were not sure why this was happening. We must have missed a memo somewhere in there. Santa gave Zito a hug and a candy cane.

The mascot, whose name, we learned, is Bumble (aww!) came over to give Zito a kiss...or eat her. I do not know which.

Then he doused Zito with silly string. Heather got him back by smacking him in the mouth, though (she claimed it was a pat).

With the silly string and the 20+ girls (and Jake) and all the eating (oh, the eating!), we weren't paying a ton of attention to the game, unsurprisingly.

Then Heather decided she was going to start the wave. She went down in front and counted for everyone to start and it didn't catch on. Apparently OTHER people were watching the game. You're supposed to start fun things between innings. Who knew?

Jake helped out in the next wave effort -- along with a random guy sitting in front of us who was sympathetic to our cause.

Security told Heather she had to sit down because she couldn't have her back to the field while a game was going (as an aside, I was lucky enough to sit behind Jake and next to Suzie who was next to E. Russell -- There was a wall of foul ball protection. It was fantastic!). Heather pointed to how far the wave went and said, "Look! It almost got all the way!" He told her that was great but to sit down.

Sections of the back two rows.

After the game (we lost. After like 15 innings.), they had fireworks....with Christmas music. There was some dancing, more laughing, prolonged goodbyes and we were away for the night.

Zito has the best birthday parties!

Three Things

2011-06-02T17:45:00.003-06:00

1. I don't think I'll ever get this lucky again.

2. I don't know that Kellie will ever play with me again.

3. I don't know that I'll ever feel this excited about a word game again.

Sorry, Kellie! I am pretty sure you realize this is not normal for me (o:

2011-05-28T15:19:00.003-06:00

In case anyone wonders how my last week and a half or so has been, this picture should sum it up:

Yes...that's my iPod. I dropped it in the driveway as I was walking out to my car to go to work.

If you would like more of an explanation of where I've been, well...

I've had a tooth that's hurt since early February. Every time I'd go to the dentist (and it was MANY times), they would tell me it was all in my head and nothing could be done (heat sensitivity? only ice water makes it feel better? that's weird. all in your head!). And that was frustrating.

Finally I went to an endodontist, who I LOVE. He realized one of my recently-filled cavities (the one filled in early February...right about when my tooth started to hurt all the time) had been filled too close to the root and it was infected and I needed a root canal and blah, blah, blah. He also did heat and cold tests just to be sure. I nearly broke his nose on my reaction to the heat test. That is a good sign of a problem.

I got my root canal, which was normal. Actually, better than normal. It was SO fast and well-done. I'm a pro at root canals, "I take more shots to numb me, I'd like laughing gas and a mouth block so I can sleep," so when my gums started having intense pain almost all the time (especially, oddly enough, when I laid down), I knew it wasn't normal.

I called the endodontist and got a pain killer (I'd blog the name, but I realize I'd be sentencing myself to a lifetime of Russian spam comments). Then I had a reaction to the pain killer. It made me SUPER sick. So I now had three options. 1. Being in constant, unbearable pain all the time. 2. Taking a pill that got rid of the pain for the most part but left me so sick I couldn't move from the floor. 3. Taking four Advil every 2 hours (yes, even all night long when I'd wake up in pain) for the rest of eternity.

I went with option 2 for awhile. I even went to work on option 2 because my mouth felt better. I remember absolutely nothing from that day, which could be nice. Apparently my coworkers were concerned about me. Heather was nice enough to get me from work because apparently I didn't sound or act like a person who should be driving.

Then I felt sick enough from those pills and annoyed that I hadn't been able to really go to work in a week that I tried option 3. But, joy of joys, my stomach is sensitive enough that option 3 coming out of option 2 left my unable to eat anything at all without excruciating pain (fixed by some antacids and not taking ANYTHING for a few days).

Now I feel great. My gum pain is going down (something about them being inflamed). I still love my endodontist. I am never taking those certain pain killers again.

But that's most of what I've been doing for the last week and a half.

Then I broke my iPod and that was a sad moment. But, in good news, I'm caught up at work and I'm only waking up in pain once or twice a night instead of every 2 hours. Also, I watched A LOT of TV while laying on the floor at home, so I think I've met my TV quota for a few months. Best of all, my desk at work no longer looks like a COMPLETE disaster. I'm a little behind on some online obligations (sorry Rich! If we were ever online at the same time, I would apologize there!) and my room is, understandably, a disaster of clothes that need to be hung up.

Other than that, I feel great and my tooth no longer hurts and I have a brand new iPod.

A Story of Giselle

2011-05-17T10:53:00.002-06:00

For the record, before I start, I asked Ziggy if I could take his picture and he started crying and told me no. Therefore, no pictures of Ziggy. Actually, the picture I have of Giselle is from Mother's Day because I haven't taken anything off my camera in a few days.

So, Giselle...

She LOVES her some Harry Potter. Her favorite character is Ron and she's constantly asking if she can get her hair cut like Ron's.

Jenny keeps reminding her she has Rapunzel hair so she won't cut it.

On Sunday they were over for dinner. Giselle is at the most charming age where she talks all the time, does funny things, is easily entertained, poses for pictures and, best of all, LOVES ME.

Giselle finished dinner and we played and took pictures. Then I went to my room to put my bags away from Vegas and grab my iPad for Ziggy. When I came back up, Giselle has snuck upstairs and Jenny was yelling at her to get back down. I cooed at Gigi that she was in so much trouble and Jenny just picked her up and kissed all over her face because Giselle is so darling that she can never be in trouble.

We continued playing and then Giselle went over to Jenny for some reason. Jenny stroked her hair and a big chunk came out. Jenny and Mark both freaked out. I asked Giselle if she'd cut her hair and she said she had but we quickly dismissed because she's three and three year olds don't always tell the truth.

Jenny spent the rest of the evening looking up reasons for child hair loss on my iPad and trying to tell Mark that they didn't need to go to Instacare (always their default reaction to any event). They had Ziggy worried that Giselle was dying (but he only worried for as long as it took for MamaLynne to replace my iPad that Jenny had taken away with her own iPad). Then Jenny and Mark wouldn't let Giselle play or have treats or anything because she was probably sick.

They eventually went home, but not before Giselle and I managed to get in a little dance party.

The next morning on the floor of our spare bedroom, MamaLynne found two pairs of scissors. We called Jenny who asked Giselle if she'd cut her hair. Again, she said she had. Jenny asked where and she said, "At grandpa's house!" She was so pleased.

I don't know that Jenny and Mark found the whole thing as funny as the rest of us did, but that doesn't matter because Giselle still has most of her hair and we're going to be better at hiding the scissors.