Winter Wonderland

I had to force myself to think of a positive title for this post. I wanted to call it "Winter Blues." But then I figured I would need that title sometime in mid-January to describe my fatigue with winter--today is only the first day of it. Let's be very clear--the salad days are over. Winter is here.

When I woke up, my first thought was that I left this outside

Luke and Sammie were thrilled with the snow.

They made snow angels

They played on our crappy swingset

They put snow in their hats

Then they came inside. They were out there for a solid 12 minutes.

Speak Up!

I rarely tell people who or what to vote for but if you live in California, please vote yes on Proposition 8. I am appalled at the latest tv commercial depicting LDS missionaries barging into a lesbian couple's apartment and tearing up their marriage certificate. If you want to see the ad or read more about prop 8 please go to my sister Ashley's blog.

Airing My Dirty Laundry

The other day, Luke took a look at the overflowing laundry basket and asked Sam why I never do laundry. Sam told Luke it was a great question and of couse, shared it with me. I promptly cornered Luke and told him to do me a solid and not ask dad those kinds of questions.

I have three baskets of clean unfolded laundry in my hall right now. They've been there all week folks. Now I'm doing laundry again and I still haven't folded and put away the laundry from last week. Granted, it was Halloween and there was a lot going on. But this happens every week. Each morning, Sam says "go fish" and reaches into one of the baskets to find a clean pair of, er, socks.

The truth is, I'm never on top of the laundry. I hate that you do load after load and even as I'm running the machine, new dirty laundry is finding it's way into the hamper. It doesn't help that I am very anal when it comes to washing and drying. Nothing navy, black or red or anything that I care about really, will ever go in the dryer. That means I have this bad boy in my bedroom just about full time. I don't even see it anymore.

This is really a cry for help. Does anyone enjoy laundry? What are your tricks for not having it take over your life? I prefer to do it all on one day because otherwise I feel like you have to dig through the hamper every day to put together a load of darks, colds, whites, etc. Help!

Is it over yet?

I know I said I love Halloween and I do, but it's getting old. Between helping with Luke's kindergarten party wearing this:

and bringing Halloween treats to the kid's teachers (to win their approval)

and letting the kids stay up late to carve pumpkins

I'm over Halloween. But here's the kicker: This morning Luke convinced me that he had to be Dracula instead of a Power Ranger to go Trick-or-Treating tonight. He showed me this whole costume he put together himself. He just needed a wig and face paint. So we headed to Walmart. (Why are there grown men in full costume trolling Walmart at 10:00 am?--I wish I had my camera.)

He went from this:

to this (before make-up--yes, he's wearing that wig and fangs all day)

The worst part for me is that he has to wear his new black Christmas cords and dress shoes!

At least these two haven't let me down.

10 more hours--Happy Halloween!

I'm Lovin' It

I Love McDonalds. I won't embarrass myself by telling you how often we eat there. All I will say is that I wish I had a franchise. Here is why:

The Diet Coke. McDonalds has the best Diet Coke on the planet. I don't know how or why, but they do. Maybe it just tastes better coming through the fat straw. When they were running the XL Diet Coke deal, I couldn't stay away.

Every McDonalds is exactly the same. You could visit a Micky D's in London or Vernal and you would get the same Chicken McNuggets with one glaring exception. There is a McDonalds in Victorville, California that was so bad, so dirty, so foul, I had to report it to Corporate and believe me, I have low standards. oh, and that huge one in Barstow that looks like a train--it's nasty too.

They have the best toys. We have collected a lot of toys from McDonalds, most notably, the Wizard of Oz Madame Alexander dolls. We also collected the Transformers, the Batman series and many many others. In fact, Luke began his obsession with Ninja Turtles from McDonald happy meal toys. He was into them for 18 months straight and never waivered. He had a Ninja Turtle birthday, he was one for Halloween. Now they are dead to him--it was a good run and it all started at McD's.



The restaurants are clean. My kids' preschool goes on a tour of McDonalds and goes behind the scenes to the food prep area. Spotless.

Ryan in a very clean McDonald's highchair

The fries--'nuf said.

Do you love or hate McDonalds? What do you order? For me, it's a 6 piece nugget with ketchup.

Fall Family Photos

Last week, my mom took these photos of us in her backyard. It is no secret that getting family photographs taken stresses me out. I usually turn into Bobby Knight (the coach who goes ballistic and throws chairs) and threaten the kids to smile or I will spank them, etc. This time it was a nice change. I bribed Luke and Sammie with a new toy of their choosing from Walmart and they both did a good job.

I have this bar from Rod Works in my entryway that I hang three photos from. I need one family shot and two other shots. This is where you come in. Please help me choose the best family photo and tell me if you like any of the other photos. I can't be objective on this. The only thing I focus on is which photo makes me look the least fat.

Family photos:

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Other photos:

Photo 4

Photo 5

Photo 6

Photo 7
Photo 8

Photo 9

Man Can Not Live on Bread Alone

I got this bad boy for Christmas last year, practically begged for it. How many times have I used it to make bread? Not once. I do feel bad about it. Sam made a few loaves in the beginning--which only made me feel worse. In my defense, I really did have good intentions. I imagined myself making breadsticks, yummy whole wheat bread--heck, we'd never have to go to Great Harvest again. But, the thing is, I like Great Harvest, a lot. And the manual for the breadmaker is kind of big. So one thing led to another, and somehow it ended up in the basement storage room. Bygones.

So today I decided to dust that baby off and start using it--at least have it sitting on my counter. I made pizza dough in it. Behold the final product, Hawaiian BBQ chicken pizza:

*I know my pizza stone is pretty nasty--how do you get those things clean?

I've had my eye on this panini maker for Christmas this yearI think I'm going to ask for some restaurant giftcards instead.