What's in your wallet?

I don't know about you, but we get tons of junk mail credit card offers. {I'm pretty sure we aren't the only ones.} Some people don't use credit cards. But we do. I feel like they can either work for you or against you.
When we first got married we got a GM card. {after being rejected for the Ford card we tried to get, but I think it turned out better in the end.} We earned 5% of whatever we spent as a rebate toward a car. We used it for years and actually almost gave up on ever seeing that money. But when our trusty Sentra bit the big one, we were able to buy our Vibe using their current promotion plus our rebate to boot. We actually could have traded it back in and made money on the deal.
Our Chase card gives us decent cash back. But the thing I really like about that one is that I figured out that if I save up my cash back until it reaches $200, then they will send me a check for $250. Easy as pie. Extra fifty bucks. That's what I just did today. Nice!

Daddy Date

The Professor took Easy to see the Nutcracker on Saturday night. She was really excited. He even asked me to make her a corsage. She made me put it on with a safety pin.

Cuddles and I went to get a Happy Meal and ice cream while they were out. As soon as Easy found out she didn't get a Happy Meal, she made her disappointment known. I guess you can't win...

It also made for a pretty late night, since the Nutcracker started at 7:30. Let's just say that The Professor told me on Sunday, "I learned something today. I should listen to you. The kids definitely need to go to bed on time." Ah, music to my ears.

Christmas Tour

I don't remember ever feeling reluctant to take down my Fall decorations, but this year I actually was. Maybe it's because I spent so much energy focusing on Thanksgiving.

But our Christmas decorations were itching to come out, especially after spending last year in storage. {I'm still searching for my Muppets Christmas Carol DVD...} For some reason, though, all the stuff that seemed to crowd our house before just doesn't seem to have the same impact now that we have some elbow room. But it is a definite improvement from last year, so I'm not complaining!

Have you ever tied the perfect bow?? I apparently did on this one. No idea how. Probably won't be able to do it again. Just wanted to show the world that it is possible.

My mother in law gave us an extra tree. So we have one by the front window and one in the family room. I noticed I need to stock up on ornaments at this year's after Christmas clearance. So we have pretty much all the ornaments on the tree in the family room. But a certain 5 year old decided that this garland must be on the front tree. She keeps putting it there. I keep putting it back...

And speaking of a certain 5 year old, after seeing the Barbie Nutcracker movie a few years ago, she decided that her Barbie needed her own Nutcracker companion. And I needed to replace mine. Thankfully I got a great deal yesterday at Rite Aid of all places where I was picking up some candy for our stockings {MnMs are $2 this week}

I tried to pull together some decorations with other stuff I had. Like some old grapevine wreaths. I had sprayed them in a metallic color for another project that didn't quite turn out, but then I took some garlands from the dollar store and just wrapped them around. I think it worked. But can anyone tell me why wreaths are so expensive??

See where those ornaments are hanging from? Doesn't seem very high until you actually try and climb up there to hang stuff...

muffin recipe

I used to get Family Fun Magazine for a few years. {Recently I check it out from the library for free} and I have to tell you that they have some really great recipes.

I was thinking about these muffins I made a few years ago, and just checked their website for the recipe. They taste like donuts. I'm thinking breakfast for tomorrow!

In the middle

I was in the middle of putting a ponytail in Easy's hair. Cuddles was in the other room. He hollered that he needed me. I hollered back, "I'm in the middle of something right now." He hollered back, "Well, I'm in the middle of needing something." Well, in that case...

Recovered

My ironing board was getting pretty grimy. Stuff I ironed would actually be dirtier after it was ironed. Not a good thing. And since I don't need any extra reasons not to iron, I thought I would try and spiff it up. I found this tutorial and got to work.

Here's a "Before" shot. Nice, huh?

I looked for a while for some fabric that would match what's in the laundry room so I could stand to look at it if it were hanging on the wall. After a few trips to the fabric store, I decided to bag that idea.

Here is what I ended up with.

I was almost to the end of the process, trying to actually put the new cover onto the ironing board and I had to resist the urge to hurl it into space, because it was a pretty tight fit. But I really didn't want to have to start over, so I kept adjusting and tightening and adjusting and made. it. fit. {phew.} And so, my advice to anyone with a mind to attempt this project, it would be to your advantage, it seems, to err on the side of too big rather than too small when measuring/cutting/sewing the cover. Other than that it went pretty quickly. I think it took me a couple hours.

Oh, the other thing that took a while was threading the super long string {which I saved from the original cover} into the hem. I always dread that part.

And speaking of ironing boards, here is a hilarious commentary on them. For some reason I couldn't get it to post to my blog, so you'll have to click over. But its worth it.

While we dream by the fire

It's been snowing basically since Sunday. This little girl can hardly contain herself. But sledding sure takes it out of you.

And here's one of my favorites from our Holiday menu:


Brownie + Peppermint ice cream + whipped cream + chocolate syrup + crushed candy canes =
pure holiday dessert satisfaction. Goes great with your favorite Christmas movie for Family Night!

The Book

Ever since I can remember we have faithfully used our Entertainment Book coupons. But I have to tell ya, this year I was disappointed. We tried really hard to use the coupons, but for whatever reason, somehow a lot of the coupons suddenly were no good. Sometimes we would drive all the way to a restaurant to use the coupon, only to find that the restuarant no longer exists. Or we would get through our meal and then they would announce they no longer honor those coupons. {That made us real happy and was reflected in our tip.} Or even just the fact that so many of the coupons now stipulate that you have to buy two drinks or something extra. It used to just be a straight buy one, get one free.
I have decided to give it one more chance. This year, we will buy the book and I will closely monitor how much actual money we save as a result. And it helps that they are $10 off with free shipping here. {Until December 15}

The Bird is the word

For as much as I cook, you would think by now I would have posted some recipes. It’s probably the perfectionist side of me, knowing I could never compete with some of the amazing chefs out there. However, everyone must have at least a few things worth sharing, including me.
So, I’ll start with the low-down on our Thanksgiving feast. I went to a Relief Society Fantastic Friday last month, and my sweet next door neighbor had prepared all kinds of Holiday foods, including turkey and stuffing. After tasting it, I knew that I must know how she did it. These are her instructions as I followed them:
Have you ever done a brine for your turkey? Well, she uses Coke. So my defrosted turkeys spent the night in a coke bath. Then in the morning I blended together a paste of these spices and spread that underneath the turkey’s skin.

I was pretty excited that our new oven has a built in thermometer. I slow cooked {and basted} the turkeys and it took almost precisely twenty four hours. Then I pulled all the meat off and kept it in the crockpot until Show Time. I wanted it to be ready early, because it has been known to happen that the turkey wasn't ready on time...

I might as well mention that I knew the recommendations are 1 to 1 ½ pounds of turkey per person. We were planning on twenty people, so I was looking for a twenty pound turkey. However, Walmart only had 12 and 13 pound turkeys, so I brought home two, and counted on having some leftovers. No problem-o. EXCEPT my gigantic crockpot was practically overflowing with turkey and by the time dinner was over, we had barely gotten down to the rim. Lesson learned: Don’t count children when figuring how many servings you need. Since half of our guests were kids, I would have been just fine with one twelve pounder. But in this case, everyone got to bring home a pan full of turkey leftovers, which as we all know is the one drawback of not hosting Thanksgiving: no leftovers. And at 40 cents a pound, no harm done.

Okie dokie. On to the stuffing. Usually I just spruce up my Stove Top with some celery, onions, and craisins. But this is the recipe I used this year:
1 bag {15 oz} herb-seasoned stuffing {I used Stove Top}
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1/3 cup chopped fresh sage {I didn’t use quite that much}
Bacon, cooked and cut into 1” pieces, or crumbled
2 cups chopped onion
3 Tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped celery
2 cups diced peeled apples and/or pears
1 can {14 oz} chicken broth
1 ¼ cups apple cider
Heat oven to 350. Prepare shallow 3 quart baking dish
Combine stuffing mix and parsley in large bowl.
Melt butter in skillet and sauté onion, celery, apple/pear 10 minutes or until tender. Add broth and cider. Combine with stuffing mix in large bowl. Gently toss to mix.
Spoon into baking dish and cover with foil. Bake 30 minutes; uncover and bake 15 more minutes.

I also made this cheesecake {I didn’t use a water bath and it was still scrumptious} and this key lime pie which was quite easy and super tasty.

Another fun snack we had out on the buffet was this Blessings Mix. Everything has a meaning, and they actually taste surprisingly good together. But I will warn you that the bowl was laden with just the craisins and peanuts by evening…
Bugles {obviously little cornucopias}
Pretzels {arms folded in prayer}
Candy corn {representing the 5 kernels of corn the pilgrims had rationed}
Dried fruits {celebration of the harvest}
Peanuts or sunflower seeds {potential harvest}

Incidentally, if I ever started a cooking blog it would be called “Mel’s Kitchen.”

And that's a wrap!

The More we get Together The Happier We'll Be

Last year at Thanksgiving I sat around in our apartment dreaming up plans for when we would have a house and could actually host the festivities. I printed me a copy of Tip Junkie’s Thanksgiving checklist and have been planning ever since. And I have to say that it turned out wonderfully.
After deciding to make the front room into a dining room, I started looking for a table. I’ll tell more about that saga another time, but for now I’ll say that I told The Professor on Monday that I was ready to give up. But miraculously on Wednesday morning we were heading out to pick up this table. And I couldn’t have planned it better on purpose:

I just have to mention the salt and pepper shakers. Most of the ideas were gleaned from various blogs, but my salt shaker broke last minute and I couldn’t find one I liked {or liked paying for} and while I was at Walmart to get all the stuff for the turkey{s} I had an epiphany about how to use the cheap-o salt and pepper shakers--just cover them with festive paper. It worked perfectly.

We had two tables in order to fit everyone, plus the kids table. We almost couldn’t get them to eat, they were so focused on coloring.

We had a wonderful dinner; everyone brought great food. I will post more about the food later too. {I found some excellent recipes.} After dinner/before the pies we had turkey races and then watched Napoleon Dynamite. Good times.


As is usually the case with me, I realized after the fact that I was too caught up in what was going on to remember to take pictures, but here is a shot of two cute cousins gearing up for Black Friday.

The other picture I should have taken was of all the dishes covering the counters afterwards! It took a couple of loads in the dishwasher to clean up after twenty people…

Entertainment

I'm sure I'll get around to seeing New Moon. It won't, however, be very soon. No waiting in lines for me. I saw Twilight on video. Well, I watched it once and fell asleep. {Have I told you about me and falling asleep during movies??} BUT, in my defense {for those of my friends who are suddenly re-evaluating their friendship with me} I did watch the rest of it the next night to see what happened, which I don't usually do. And yes, that means, for those of you without any deductive reasoning skills that I have not read the books... {I'm a s.l.o.w. reader and those are big honking books!} Okay, so have you seen this one??

I am SO making these

I just saw these on this blog. I am adding them to my TO DO list.

Oh, and to clarify a little: I made those hair bows for Easy as part of my ongoing effort to get her to let me do her hair. It's a battle nearly every morning with the shrieking and the escape attempts. Having something beautiful and fancy helps my chances ... a little.

Recently she slept over at her cousins house. So after Auntie made her sit down and get her hair brushed in the morning she actually told her, "You're not as nice as I thought you were." I guess that makes me feel a little better, since I'm not the only one.

he's baaaack

Do you notice anything wierd about our pumpkins? It's probably hard to see in this picture.This is the view of the back of the Mr Potato Head pumpkin: No, this was not the work of a human. Remember our squirrel friend?? Well, he decided to come back and work on our pumpkins. See the little piles of bits of pumpkin shell on the steps? I think he was going for the seeds inside.

We are going to have one fat squirrel, come springtime.

Big Empty Room

So this room has sat empty since we moved in. {Aside from the occasional stray toys...} It's a little overwhelming coming up with 5000 square feet when you just came from 1600. BUT I think I have decided that instead of having it as a "Living Room" as we had originally thought, we're going to use it as a dining room.

I think we would use the additional eating space more than extra "sitting around" space. Especially fancy sitting space. And it's seems much easier to find a great deal on a table and chairs that I could fix up than trying to find a good deal on a set of couches that will look nice. I've seen some great projects that people have done to get my creative juices going.

Hopefully we'll eventually take out the carpet and try and match the floor to the hardwood we have in the entry/kitchen already. But I think we'll just use it with the carpet in there for a while.

Now that's what I call fashion ribbon

Once I got started I just couldn't stop!! {She had three of these two days ago.} Hold me back! I must be the best mom eh-vah!

{Or at least maybe this will get Easy to stop saying mean things about me in Primary. And I quote: "My dad is always nice, my mom is sometimes nice, and Cuddles is always mean." It was a real precious moment.}

True story--I totally spaced her friend's birthday party last Saturday. So that probably negates it right there, not to mention all the other mean awful stuff I do...

Lying Around

This poor unfortunate soul is spending the weekend lying around. And while he's at it, the rest of us are trying to find things to keep occupied {other than repeatedly sanitizing the house}. Yesterday I decided that Easy is much like a puppy. She's reeeeal good at entertaining herself. Just not in a manner that I approve of or enjoy cleaning up after... Also not unlike Curious George. A few minutes ago she said to me, "I am curious about lots of things." Yes. Yes, you are. . .

So I decided to try and do something constructive together while we are stuck at home trying not to inhale too much sick air and waiting in suspense to find out who of us will be the next victim of this wonderful germ. {I've had just about all the windows open all day to hopefully maximize the fresh air factor. And I'm holding on to the hope in a slight chance that the flu shots we got last year will benefit us in some way. Cuddles of course refused to get one.} I remembered a tutorial I had seen recently and decided to get to work with some of my ribbons that have been lying around {in my uber-organized sewing room} :


Neat freak I am not... but I feel that did not detract from the finished products thus far

It kept Easy busy for a full five minutes, until she poked herself and decided to be done...

I think this Halloween one is my favorite so far. I don't know about you, but I really dig the new additions of green and purple to the "Halloween color scheme."

And now, back to my ribbons. Or maybe I should take a shower sometime...

How Predictable

Does this happen to anyone else??

Whenever The Professor goes out of town, I end up with sick kids.

I should have seen this coming, because there has been some kind of nasty virus/flu raging through our elementary school this week. {One class had only 13 kids there on Friday.} And when it comes to Cuddles, if there is something to get, he gets it. Word was that it was the swine flu going around, but I talked with another mom this morning and she said she took all her kids in and they all tested negative for swine flu. I suppose that's a good thing....

Up to now it's been a little tough for me to take the swine flu seriously-probably because of its name, but it seems as if the whole swine flu thing is getting a little out of hand round these parts. We were thinking about getting vaccinated, but before we even knew they had arrived, they were out. Lasted 8 hours. And there was another round of shots today in SLC with people camping out overnight. Its a little ridiculous.


So we missed the Homecoming Parade this morning. Durnit.

My best guess

What time is it when a squirrell eats through your suit coat to get to the peanut butter sandwich in your hidden pocket??


Time to get a new suit!

For years I have kept the van door open whenever it is in the garage. That way the kids can climb on in when it's time to leave the house without me having to go open the door for them.

I am currently re-evaluating this practice in light of certain recent events. It appears that the stars aligned, and by stars I mean the garage door being open at the same time that the van door was open at the same time that there was a peanut butter sandwich left in the pocket of The Professor's suit coat at the same time that the suit coat was left in the van...and the only thing I can reasonably think of is that a squirrel found its way there.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't the deer. {They've been too busy leaving tracks through the baby grass and nibbling away at my plants. I thought I was pretty careful about getting things that deer don't want to eat, but the burning bushes have turned out to be their midnight snack of choice lately.}

Autumn in the air

One of the perks that lured us out here was having family around. It had been a while since our kids had seen their cousins and The Professor said yes to the guy on the phone who asked if we wanted a free night at their resort if we listened to their time share spiel. So the kids got to sleep at The Farm and we got to zip up the mountain and enjoy a peaceful fall outing in "the most normal city in Utah" {whatever that means. I guess if you consider a resort town full of reeeeally rich people "normal," but I digress.} And then we got to come home with a car full of pumpkins, corn on the cob and cornstalks for the front porch. I've been trying to come up with fall decorations without buying anything and the wreaths I've redone four times just weren't doing it for me. This is much better. Though I admit I feel a little bit like those lazy animals in the Little Red Hen. We'll help you Eat the corn...
Did you also notice the pots of hydrangeas and other shrubs scattered in the flower beds? This week I have been foraging local nurseries and garden centers for advice and clearance stuff for the yard. It has been educational, exciting and disappointing all at the same time. {disappointed about not being able to grow blueberries or aspen trees but excited about the peonies, hydrangeas, roses, honeysuckle, clematis, wisteria, fruit trees and all. The only thing that is still evading me is what trees to get. I mean, it's one thing to throw in a few of these and a few of those when it comes to flowers and bushes, but a tree is, well, a TREE. So many variables.}

Easy has not quite appreciated the experience as I have, except for the fact that garden centers have wagons to pull around and nice workers who give her free geraniums. She actually fell asleep in the cart at Walmart on Thursday after I had dragged her around all week. I can think of one other time she has done that, other than in infancy.

And here you can see how nice the grass is coming along in the back yard. There's the lineup of roses and peonies. The Professor actually said, "Are you sure you only want two rose bushes?" Say No More!! I mean, seriously, when I can buy a rose bush for twelve dollars versus a bouquet for ten--at the very least. No brainer.

What comes after Lightning

Right around lunchtime on Monday, wait, backup--Friday and Saturday we spent putting down peat moss and getting our grass seed topped off. It looked pretty tight, if I do say so. I said to myself, I need to take pictures for the blog. And we could see some green spots where the grass was sprouting.

OK, now to Monday, right around lunchtime I heard some thunder. Saw some lightning. Went to the window and saw some light rain. . .turn into a flash flood. That's right. And hail, to boot.The gutters literally could not contain it all, and the water was pouring down over the sides all around the house. I just stood there, realizing there was absolutely nothing I could do.

Here is a picture of the front yard right after the rain stopped. {It only lasted about ten minutes.} The water kept streaming for a while even after the rain went away since there was so much water. The glare from the light makes it hard to see the streams of water washing over the sidewalk. Bye bye, seeds. Bye bye, peat moss. Bye bye, topsoil. {And good night to the old lady whispering hush.}Here's the hail residue.You can see it better in this picture of the back yard. At least in the back yard the water didn't carry it off of our property. {We're going to have all kinds of stuff growing out of our storm drain with all that peat moss and topsoil that landed there.} Actually, after a few days we realized that it wasn't as bad as it seemed at first. Since there was a lot of seed that had already started growing, it pretty much stayed put. So we bought another pound or two of seed and filled in some of the bigger gaps and then topped it off with some more peat moss.

I guess the good news is that it got plenty of water.

grow, baby, grow

can you see them??

how 'bout now??

that's right. the seeds are in the ground. {or on the ground....}

it took a bit longer than I thought, but it was 3500 square feet after all.

and there were a few kinks to work out along the way...

now we just have to keep it wet.

here are a couple of things I learned today:

--the wind can work for you or against you when spreading grass seed.

--ants will carry grass seeds away.
--it's never as easy as it should be.

{wait, I already knew that.}

Convalescing

So Friday and Saturday were two days of miserableness out in the summer heat. Now I have a noticeable farmer tan/sunburn. I have regained the use of my limbs today. Fingers are still a little iffy.

Friday was spent raking out the rest of the medium rocks in the back yard and topping off the retaining wall with the extra big rocks. It was hot.

Saturday we spread out topsoil and finished the sprinklers in the back. It was really hot. My favorite part was having to dig back up a sprinkler head that had gotten covered up with the final grading/backfilling by the retaining wall. Took a while to find. It was really really hot. And then we tested the sprinklers. They were all in backwards. Had to turn em all around. Yeah, that little white line on the side that was supposed to be on the left...nope the other left.

We bought the seed for the grass. Cost $77. So, is it just me, or does that not sound significantly less than a thousand dollars for sod? Then why did all the landscape guys try to convince us that it really isn't that different?? They tried to tell us that by the time you water the seed and yada yada then you end up at pretty much the same cost. I don't know, but I will be surprised if we spend *$900* on water.

the moment we have all been waiting for...

First Day of Kindergarten Before/After:

everything you need to turn five

Package in the mail.

Check.
{She carried it around for three days.}

Sammies for lunch. in your jammies.

Check.

Cream puffs. Check.

Dancing.

Check.

Chocolate Cake with pink frosting.Check.

Pizza for dinner and flowers from Daddy. Check!