How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

I just thought I'd share with you how I know Jared and I were meant for each other. 

 As you can see from the picture, I sorted out all the marshmallows so I can eat the cereal.  The marshmallows go back in the bag.  He would eat the marshmallows straight, while I can't really take that much sugar.  

We are a match made in heaven.

How to offend people

For those of you that know me, you know I like to offend people- A LOT.  If I've never offended you, lucky you, but that doesn't mean I may not try in the future.  Seriously, it runs in my family.  My dad, bless his heart, rarely thinks before he speaks and regularly says hurtful things to everyone around him.  In fact, a good day growing up was when I didn't hear a comment about my weight or my acne.  Not just from my dad, but also my mom.  Even the days when they said my skin looked great (rarely), I knew it wasn't a compliment but more of a bewildered question (i.e. Your skin looks great!  What did you do differently?  Did you actually wash your face?).  No, tact was not necessarily taught well in our home.  But I don't TRY to offend people, it just comes out that way.  Like today.  I finally posted to the FSA blog only to find out that the people I wrote about were not the couple that actually shared their adoption experience.  I had written the wrong names down in my notes.  Maybe someone else should be writing that blog..... Anyone? Please?

Works for me Wednesday

I found this recipe on the internet for pancake mix and thought I'd share for Works for me Wednesday (sponsored by Rocks in my Dryer).  I've been really disappointed with whole wheat pancake mixes from the store because they're all so gritty and heavy.  Jared won't eat pancakes unless they're light and fluffy.  So, I used whole wheat from my food storage and ground it in my mom's wheat grinder on the finest setting.  I also added powdered eggs from our food storage.  You probably can substitute dry nonfat milk for the buttermilk powder, too.  They turned out EXCELLENT.  Jared didn't realize they were whole wheat (not a speck of white flour).  I keep the mix in the freezer and it's ready to go whenever I want pancakes.

* Exported from MasterCook *
BUTTERMILK PANCAKE MIX
Serving Size : 10
-----MIX INGREDIENTS-----
2 c Buttermilk powder
8 c whole wheat Flour
1/2 c Sugar, granulated
8 ts Baking powder
4 ts Baking soda
2 ts Salt
-----PANCAKE INGREDIENTS-----
1 Egg, beaten
2 tb Vegetable oil
1 1/2 c Pancake mix
1 c Water, or more -as needed
MAKE PANCAKE MIX:
Sift the ingredients together well.
Store in a container with a tight-fitting lid. 

(or in a freezer bag in the freezer)
MAKE 10 PANCAKES: Mix ingredients until blended together. Let it stand five minutes. Cook some pancakes. Eat and enjoy.
NOTES: * A make-it-yourself mix for buttermilk pancakes -- This recipe comes from the “More Make-a-mix Cookery” cookbook put out by HP Books. The premise of this book and its predecessor, Make-a-mix Cookery is that you can save time and money by making your own mixes for every stage of dinner planning. It seems to work.
Yield: 10 cups of mix of mix.
* Use the mix within 6 months of when you make it.
* The pancakes made from this mix aren't as sweet as those made from Aunt Jemima mix, but they are good. You can always add sugar, of course.
* Although we haven't tried this (yet), you could probably vary the recipe by using a different type of flour to make, for example, your own buckwheat pancakes.

I didn't mind that it's not a super sweet pancake, just because we always use syrup.  I also love putting blueberries or chocolate chips in.  If you're feeling adventurous, Jared's dad always used Kool-Aid in their pancakes when he was growing up.  That sounds gross to me, but I bet kids would love it!  Have fun making pancakes!

Blue Bunny Bathroom Twilight Zone

I just realized what I wanted to blog about today.  I started surfing blogs earlier this morning and have come across some really funny women out there in the blogosphere.  I was really feeling like I didn't have anything to add to everyone's lives, but then I remembered Saturday.  

Saturday we had nothing we HAD to do.  Sure there is always cleaning and other things to do around the house, but we decided not to do that and instead go window shopping.  We started the day at the big furniture store in town where they give out free popcorn and have massage chairs out on display.  Can I say that that is the one thing I really miss from our early days of marriage, living downtown near Trolley Square and The Sharper Image store?  The massage chair always made for a great cheap date.  G-man got a kick out of watching me get all jostled by the kneading and pounding settings.  (sorry for the visual, I know- tmi).

We then headed over to Target and roamed around for a while, but the real excitement happened downtown.  Apparently they have started a yearly cultural festival in town.  Culture here in southern Utah = belly dancers.  Scary, huh?  It gets better.  We stopped into the Blue Bunny ice cream store for a treat and I knew I needed a potty right away.  I am wary of the potties at the Blue Bunny ice cream store for good reason, though.  The last time I ventured into that bathroom, I was sitting on the pot and all of a sudden I became aware of a conversation happening in the stall adjacent to mine between a mother and her little girl.  

"Do you know what to do if you get in the stall and there's no TP?" she says.  

"No, Mommy, what?

"You just ask your neighbor if they can spare a square.  Do you want to try that?"

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!

All of a sudden I was Elaine from Seinfeld.  NO! I CANNOT SPARE A SQUARE!  Seriously?  Who does that?  That's why you carry Kleenex or baby wipes in your purse.  I just about lost it when I saw a hand appear under the stall wall.  I shoved a wad at the hand and got out of the bathroom as fast as I could.

Thus the reason I am wary of the blue bunny bathroom.  But I had to go, so I found my way around the corner and pushed open the door to a stall.  Everything went without a hitch until I came out to wash my hands.  One of the belly dancers had come into the bathroom to change her outfit.  I guess more outfits when it comes to belly dancing = more culture.  

Now, I respect the fact that most people probably don't have the same needs as I do, when I comes to modesty, but she was quite a large belly dancer, so I was a bit uncomfortable washing my hands next to a naked belly dancer with only inches between us.  Nevertheless, I waved my hands under the sensor, soaped up and began scrubbing my hands as she babbled away beside me.  Why do those sensor thingys never work when you need them to?  When I tried to rinse, the water wouldn't come back on.  I stepped away, waved my hands, got close up, everything I could think of, but it wouldn't work.  WHY couldn't I get out of the twilight zone with the naked, overly friendly bellydancer?  She leaned over and got the sensor to turn the water on and I went on my way.  

I will NOT be returning to the Blue Bunny Bathroom Twilight Zone again.  

Thanks Michaelene

Before things get out of hand today, I thought I'd post some pics especially for G-man's birthmother, Michaelene.  I just wanted to show you how much he loves the cute blanket you made him.  

Potting, Canning, and Not My Kind of Oral Hygiene

So last week started out with some fall repotting of plants.  G-man was kind enough to get me started.

I think we may need to work on the remorse a little.

The remainder of the week, I worked on fulfilling my role as a stay at home mom.  Because I've started being involved in our finances again and keeping track of the budget, it's become very clear to me that I need activities that will contribute to the saving of money, rather than the spending of it (canning, food storage, etc. instead of shopping).  You can see that it's going well.  Judy and I went to the dry pack cannery and canned our hearts out for two hours.  And that didn't even satisfy me because when we went up to Provo, we stopped at a roadside farmer's stand and bought five bushels of tomatoes and a bushel of pears.  So now Judy and I have 25 quarts of tomatoes each and I have another 10 quarts of pears.  Yummy!  Maybe next year I will plant a garden again.  The only problem with that is that our soil is so poor.  Last year we put 5 bags of manure down in the garden and we had great tomatoes- the first batch anyway.  After that first batch, there was almost no taste to them.  So, I think I may just go back to the farmer's market again for tomatoes.  It's so much easier to deal with canning for one day instead of continually through the hot summer.  

Today I recouped after a long weekend at work.  We had twenty some babies in the nicu last week, so I picked up Saturday night after working Thurs. and Fri.  I promise that I am not trying to neglect G-man, but this afternoon something happened that may indicate that I need to pay better attention.  He pulled himself up to the edge of the couch right in front of our little dog Necia and opened his mouth for her to kiss him.  She obligingly licked out the inside of his mouth.  EWWW!  I wish I'd gotten a picture.  THAT might keep the girls away from him.  

Sometimes the Answer is No

The G-man is starting to 'talk' a lot more.  He basically just crawls around saying da-da-da-da-da-da all the time, but it is definitely more pronounced and almost conversational these days.  I made a comment the other day that it can get a little frustrating to talk all day to someone who really has no comprehension of language.  There is one word he gets, though.  Almost the first time I had to tell him No- he got it.  Maybe it was the tone in my voice, but he immediately stopped what he was doing, looked at me, and then his face just crumpled.  My heart broke.  I immediately wished that I would never have to tell him no again.  But that's just not realistic.  He needs to hear No.  We all need to hear No.  Whether or not we choose to hear it, God has to tell us No, too.  Sometimes its to keep us safe, sometimes our actions will hurt others, and then sometimes He just knows more about our situation and the consequences of our actions than we do.  Luckily for us, I think he's better at saying yes than most parents, too.  And lucky for G-man, some words don't really need words to be communicated.  I've been telling him how much I love him for months now and I think he understands.