“Oh my, we are totally the best Christmas elves ever!” —Delaney
“Yeah, we totally are! —Kacey 
Send your own ElfYourself eCards
Delaney’s Kindergarten Christmas Party December 17, 2009
Delaney had a great time at her kindergarten Christmas party today celebrating the holiday with her friends! The kids made a snowman out of paper plates and fun decorations, played Pin The Button On The Snowman, enjoyed eating candycane cookies with milk, and had a cool little book gift exchange. Yay for Christmas! :)
Happy Thanksgiving! November 26, 2009
Today I’m thankful:
- that we’re enjoying a wonderful meal with family
- that someone else is doing most of the cooking
- that we have three healthy children
- that two of those three children played with their cousins all afternoon so that I could enjoy some grown-up conversation
- that we live in a country with religious freedoms
- that so many people are willing to risk their lives to defend our freedoms
- that I was able to enjoy having a childhood and am now able to provide that same luxury for my children
- that I live a life wherein one of the most stressful parts of my week was figuring out how to get the lights on our pre-lit Christmas tree to work again
Things I just don’t understand: part five November 12, 2009
Déjà vu
Why anyone would wear high heels to the grocery store on a Saturday morning just for fun
Why water expands when it freezes while everything else contracts
Why people get so caught up in the fact that Tiger Woods is an amazing golfer that they ignore his temper tantrums and use of profanity
Why it’s important that deodorant be pH-balanced for women
Chronic negativity
When Nutella became healthfood
Why french-press coffee is supposed to be better
How the airlines calculate airfares
Why it’s called “chicken-fried steak” when it has nothing to do with chicken
Why everyone knows that The Little Mermaid’s name is Ariel but hardly anyone knows that Sleeping Beauty’s name is Aurora
Why we can’t prove once and for all the (non)existence of the Loch Ness Monster and other legendary creatures
Hypnosis
How an insurance claim can get held up indefinitely just because of a little paperwork detail
How real estate got to be such a racket
Why my t-shirts always get little tiny holes in the front when I wash them
Why anyone would use the word hate in relation to a person, even in jest
How skaters keep their pants up when their waistbands rest at mid-thigh
Who continues to loan the U.S. money
Why Hollywood assumes a celebrity is pregnant just because she ate a big lunch and her stomach is protruding by half an inch
How bears can smell something more than a mile away
Why everyone pronounces the word realtor with three syllables
Why it took me so long to realize that most things just taste better with bacon
Why some people are comfortable taking credit for other people’s work
Why the passengers would be loaded before the airplane proceeds to sit on the tarmac for eight hours
Why, about an hour into the ordeal, the passengers aren’t allowed to deplane and roam the airport freely for the other seven hours
How anyone could not believe in God
Why some people are light sleepers while others are sound sleepers
Why people say “literally” when they don’t at all mean to be literal
Why clothes shrink just from hanging in the closet
Why bowling shoes are always bi-colored
Why the signs of the zodiac still carry any weight when you can basically choose between two when scheduling any baby’s birth
Why canned vegetables foam when you run water over them
What’s so terrible about comic sans font
Why Columbus Day is a holiday
How anyone can honestly say she has no regrets
Why some people wear their ballcaps crooked
Why we instruct kids to “cover your mouth with your hand when you sneeze” when we know their germ-ridden hands are just going to touch everything around them that would’ve gotten sneezed on if they hadn’t covered their mouths
Why anyone would ever hurt a child
Recipe Box: Chicken and Cornbread Dressing Casserole November 10, 2009
Last month was my turn to host bunko, and twenty-one women were in attendance. I had promised on the evite that our menu for the evening would feature comfort food, so I fixed (with lots of help from Brian!) chicken and cornbread dressing casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans with bacon and almonds, and a very simple salad with Romaine lettuce and dried cherries (you know, because women are supposed to like salads *wink*). My co-hostess, Jennifer, baked a delicious apple pie that looked straight out of a magazine, baked some wonderful peach cake, mixed some sweet tea using a recipe from her grandmother, and made some hot apple cider with a concoction of spices that made the house smell like I wish it always would! The bad news is, I don’t have any pictures of the evening because I take a lot of pictures and sometimes think people will begin to fear me as the women behind the camera and will constantly be reapplying their lipgloss using the shiny side of their cellphones as a mirror of sorts whenever I happen by. The good news is that people seemed to enjoy the chicken and cornbread dressing casserole. Several ladies asked for the recipe, and I am not being falsely modest when I say it always surprises me when someone asks me for a recipe. I come from several generations of women who know how to chicken fry, can bake rolls that aren’t literally as light as air but are pretty darn close, and could attempt three variations of gravy (without lumps) while overseeing the carving of the primerib and chopping just the right amount of Butterfinger candy bars to sprinkle over one of many desserts. In addition, I married into an epicurean family who can pronounce, spell, and successfully render things like aioli, crème brûlée, confit, hollandaise, and hors d’oeuvres. I, however, do not possess these talents. Is it any wonder that I stand in a constant state of awe and intimidation while in their kitchens?
I originally wanted to make the slow-cooker version of the chicken and cornbread dressing casserole that we got from Brian’s sister—who is a far more adventurous and fantastic cook than I will ever be—but I didn’t allow enough time (shocker!) and had to improvise. I have included both the improvised oven version and the slow-cooker version below to accommodate those of you who plan ahead and those of you who, like me, often can’t seem to manage. :)
Brian’s and my families gave us a recipe book for a wedding gift. The recipe book included a compilation of everyone’s favorite recipes along with some “sage” advice. My uncle Steve wrote this bit of wisdom: “If a recipe calls for chocolate, double it. If it doesn’t call for chocolate, add it.” While I don’t necessarily share his views on chocolate, I do, in general, feel that way about meat. So, if I may offer one bit of advice for this recipe (hey, it’s my blog, I can do whatever I want!) :) it’s that you almost can’t add too much chicken! Granted, these are my texture issues speaking, but you’ve done good if your casserole includes some chicken in every bite. Lots of chicken, people!
“You know that I have always liked meat, and I have always tried to get as much of it as I could at every opportunity.” —Ray Barone
Thanks for a fun evening, ladies! And thanks for being brave enough to enjoy and compliment something I cooked!
Chicken and Cornbread Dressing Casserole (oven version)
1 large chicken (or two small ones), cooked and deboned
2 boxes Jiffy cornbread muffin mix, baked and crumbled
1 1/2 cups celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups chicken broth
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons butter
Mix the first ten ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon mixture into a greased, 9 x 13 baking dish. Then sprinkle the top with salt and place little pats of butter evenly all over the top before baking for 30-40 minutes at 350°.
Chicken and Cornbread Dressing (slow-cooker version)
1 large chicken, cooked and deboned
1 box Jiffy cornbread muffin mix, baked and crumbled
4 slices firm white bread, torn into pieces
1 14-ounce can chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 Tablespoons butter
Mix the first ten ingredients in a large bowl. Lightly mist bottom and sides of a 5-quart slow cooker with Pam. Transfer mix to cooker. Dot top evenly with butter and cover the cooker. Cook on high 3-4 hours or on low for 7 hours.
Enjoy! :)
Happy Halloween! October 31, 2009
Forget the glass slippers. When Cinderella goes trick-or-treating in Colorado she wears snowboots! At least that was the case at our house this year where Halloween came on the heels of a three-day storm that left more than two feet of snow in the area and kept us housebound for the better part of it. Fortunately, because this is Colorado, all of the snow has almost melted already. Can’t say the same for the Halloween candy because we devoured it before it had a fighting chance. As much as I dislike this holiday on so many levels, we did have a fantastic time trick-or-treating and celebrating with church friends! It is, after all, all about the kiddos, and I’m certainly willing to venture outside my comfort zone to insure them a memorable childhood. The girls couldn’t decide what they wanted to be this year, so they kept switching among Snow White, Barbie, and Cinderella (both the original version and the “bride” version, Delaney informed me). Have I mentioned how sad I’ll be when the “princess” phase has passed and I actually have to help them be creative with their Halloween costumes? Jack just went as Jack, in part because I’m just too cheap and lazy to spend time and money organizing and paying for an adorable costume when what he really needs is some winter clothes, in part because he’s not old enough to care yet, and in part because he’s cute enough already. :) Please enjoy these photos from our superfun Halloween adventures!
Bowling Night! October 20, 2009
This week we enjoyed a bowling night with our lifegroup. It was so much fun! I hadn’t bowled since 1998, and, with the exception of the two rogue strikes in a row, my game absolutely reflected that! But we had a fantastic time anyway! Thanks to Mark and Kathy for generously offering to watch our kids for three hours, and thanks to Kaci and Heather for the great idea!
Quote for the day October 19, 2009
One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
—Albert Einstein
Painting with the Ladies October 16, 2009
Last night my friend Kylie invited a group of ladies from church to go to a painting party. As evidenced by the photos, you can see that we had a fabulous time! We all gathered at this quaint little boutique near downtown Denver and spent some time together while attempting our best renditions of a painting called “The Aspens.” My favorite part of the evening involved watching the creative process as everyone’s paintings gradually came to life. At times I would look across the table at one of the girls and appreciate the expression on her face as she studied the paints and the canvas and the juxtaposition of the two. You don’t witness those expressions very often, those of a woman diligently lost in her work, inhaling the moment and creating something that is hers, and hers alone. Most of us, on a weekly basis, exhaust the possibilities offered by Play-Doh and coloring books and markers and Moon Sand as we encourage our children to bust out their creative genius. Tonight, it was our turn. Though none of us are artistic “geniuses,”—well, Kaci might be (wink)—we worked and laughed together, and in the end, each produced a painting that is as unique and beautiful as we as individuals are. What an interesting and indulgent way to spend an evening, and what a fun group of Christian friends with whom to spend it. I can’t guarantee that I’ll hang my painting above the mantle (it does seem a waste to dismount the big-screen tv, after all), but I can assure you that the experience creating it will stay with me forever. Thanks, ladies, for a wonderful night together!
Recipe Box: Avocado Black Bean Salsa October 15, 2009
AKA: That Amazing Stuff That Heather Made!
Because of my texture issues and the fact that I’m not overly open-minded when it comes to food, I don’t try that many new dishes, especially those that look like they include five unidentifiable ingredients or more. Consequently, I’m impressed very rarely. To further complicate matters, Brian’s and my food preferences don’t overlap very often. When they do, I stand up and take notice. Such was the occasion the other night when we were introduced to this fantastic salsa at a lifegroup gathering. It’s delicious, easy to make, and healthy. As an added bonus, you could pretty much customize the ingredients in order to cater to your individual tastes. Like tomatoes? Throw in an extra one. I guarantee it’ll still be delicious. Enjoy!!!
Avocado Black Bean Salsa
2 avocados, diced
1 tomato, diced
1 cup of corn
1 cup of black beans
1 cup of red onion, diced
1 handfull of fresh, chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
The directions are easy: just throw everything in a bowl and gently stir it up together before serving with tortilla chips. If you’re really ambitious you could bake the corn first with some olive oil at 350° for about 20 minutes to give it some extra crunch (again, I have texture issues, you know how I feel about crunch!), but this step isn’t necessary. Hope you love this salsa as much as we do! :)
She’s Come a Long Way, Baby! October 11, 2009
Delaney’s writing assessment from school, week 1:
Delaney’s writing assessment from school, week 4:
Things I just don’t understand: part four September 25, 2009
Black holes
Who gets to decide when plaid makes a comeback
Why I want to live at Hogwarts so much
Why the freeway exits in California aren’t numbered
Why most of the Disney princesses don’t have mothers
Why someone who works at the nail salon doesn’t have a native English speaker proofread the signs before they hang them up
The space-time continuum
Why, if Verizon purchased Alltel several months ago, I can’t just walk into a Verizon store now to update my phone
Why the Bible is so ambiguous in some places
Why we still get asked routinely in the supermarket, “paper or plastic?” Why can’t plastic just be the default unless we specify otherwise?
Why baby socks never fit the way they’re supposed to
The Trinity
Why anyone would ever drive when drunk
Why anyone would drive a few miles out of his way to save 3¢ a gallon on gas
Why the hostess always seems to seat us right next to an occupied table when there are unoccupied tables all over the restaurant
Why Panera doesn’t plan ahead to avoid running out of chocolate chip cookies sans nuts before noon every day
Skinmatching make-up
Why Easter can’t occur on a set date rather than changing with the moon’s cycle
Why the other car insists on parking right next to us when there are empty parking spaces everywhere
The song “25 or 6 to 4″
Why Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio consider themselves part of the Midwest when they are clearly east of two-thirds of the United States
Why spiders get cut any slack just because Charlotte is nice
Why I’ve never watched “The Office” when I think Steve Carrell is one of the funniest people on earth
Why God designed the human body so the umbilical cord could ever get wrapped around a baby’s neck
Why, when the waitress tells me the plate is very, very, very, extremely hot, I feel the uncontrollable urge to touch it just to make sure
Why able-bodied people will circle and circle for a parking spot instead of walking an extra forty yards
Why my old junky phone ran on network time and automatically reset itself for daylight savings time but my new Blackberry doesn’t and won’t
What made dinosaurs become extinct
Why God created dinosaurs in the first place when they pretty much wouldn’t be able to coexist with humans
Why we ever think sarcasm does more good than harm
Why men’s and women’s pants button and zip in opposite directions
Why the top button hole is horizontal while all the rest are vertical
Why the English language doesn’t have a gender-neutral, singular, possessive pronoun that can be used in relation to a person so we don’t mistakenly use “their” or be relegated to the awkward “his or her”
Why egg cartons can’t be recycled
Why the person in front of me at Starbucks always seems to be ordering a coffee drink with seventeen adjectives
Why our kids always move the most slowly when we’re in the biggest hurry
Happy Grandparents’ Day! September 13, 2009
We feel very blessed that our kiddos have four wonderful grandparents in their lives who are young and energetic and thoughtful and who love spending time with them. Thank you, Mom and Dad and Chuck and Hazel, for giving us a break from our kids now and then and for loving them and helping make their lives special. That truly is the greatest gift you could ever give. Happy Grandparents’ Day to all of you! You are awesome!
Kindergarten, here I come! September 8, 2009
Today was a pretty big day at our house because Delaney went to kindergarten for the first time this afternoon. We’ve been talking about and preparing for this momentous occasion all summer, and we are excited for her to have a wonderful experience at this charter school she was accepted to back in May. It’s a 20-minute drive from our house, and after I drive her there each day I pretty much have to hang out in the area for about 2 1/2 hours as the drive back home isn’t really worth it, but the benefits far outweigh any drawbacks. The school requires an intense amount of volunteer work from the parents, which is a much more accurate indicator of school “excellence” than a bunch of engineered test scores, in my opinion. And let’s just say I’m all about the uniforms. Wearing uniforms to school is completely foreign to me as I was never required to, but they make me really, really, really happy.
We’ve never done preschool with Delaney, so I was a little nervous that starting school today would be a rocky transition, but she did great! She gave me a high-five before lining up with all the other little kiddos and walked into the school building with her teacher in the lead. After that, Kacey and Jack and I went to McDonald’s and Target to kill 2 1/2 hours before returning to wait for 45 minutes in a serpentine line of cars to pick her up. Definitely not my favorite part of the day, which is something I’m trying not to dwell on right now because it makes me second-guess our decision not to homeschool her, which would save hundreds of dollars in gas and countless hours driving and waiting in lines to drop her off and pick her up, among other factors. Someday I’ll write more about that, and someday I might change my mind, but right now I’m focusing on the fact that attending this school this year seems like a good fit for her. Plus, her teacher is a member of the Church of Christ! How cool is that?!? Her first day was—overall—a huge success, and we’re so proud of the way she cooperated and took everything in stride. Yay, Delaney! In celebration, she got to pick dinner, so we all went to Sweet Tomatoes (her favorite restaurant) to commemorate her milestone.
Here are some random thoughts I had today:
- How are we old enough to be the parents of a school-aged kid?
- How can I relay to the “people in charge” the thousands of ideas I have for making the pick-up process run more smoothly?
- How many days this school year will I sit in the McDonald’s adjacent to the school and eat french fries while waiting to pick Delaney up?
- Why did some random parent decide to make her first impression by walking up to me and criticizing Delaney’s backpack?
- Is it really going to be another nine months before Kacey gets a decent afternoon nap and isn’t hanging out with me eating french fries at McDonald’s from 1:00 to 3:00?
- My school experience was sooooooooo different than this!
Here are some funny things Delaney said today:
- I don’t want to wear my uniform to dinner because it’s too “school-y.”
- Well, recess is definitely the part I’m looking forward to the most.
- Yeah, we learned some Spanish today, but I don’t remember any of it.
- Wow, you were right, Mommy! All the girls are wearing the same outfit, just like me!
- But if I get to pick my uniform for tomorrow, how will I know what all the other girls are wearing?!?
- I guess I had fun, but I’m not quite ready to talk about it. When I’m ready, I’ll let you know.
Here’s to Delaney for being such a trooper today, and here’s to a wonderful school year ahead! :)
Our trips to California September 4, 2009
We had the opportunity twice this year to drive to Southern California while accompanying Brian on business trips. Just the five of us traveled there in February, and my parents went with us in June. Both vacations were super fun, and I have assembled a menagerie of photos to chronicle our adventures. Enjoy! :)
Quote for the day August 30, 2009
Dear Mom and Dad,
I didn’t get myself to bed at 9:00 tonight because I saw a big brown crawly bug in front of my bedroom door, and I was afraid to walk past it, so it delayed my schedule by about 15 minutes.
Love,
Ann
—a letter I wrote to my parents, circa 1988
