Puh-thetic!

You should have seen me this morning...I was crying by the toilet. Ah, the pathos! I'd finally had it and indulged in a pity party. I've had a sore throat for days now, then it brought some friends to stay named Cough and Congestion. I lost my voice and have squeaked and sqwaked instead of conversed. I haven't slept well because I can't breathe and I can't indulge in NyQuil or anything that actually works because of the bun in my oven. I've had so much lemon and honey over the past four days it's coming out of my pores. (That and I have permanent peppermint Tums breath courtesy of the worst heartburn I've ever experienced in a pregnancy.) You might think that I'd get a pass from morning sickness in light of my other annoying problems, but no. So, this morning after a rotten night's sleep and family scripture study that I vaguely remember involved the Last Supper, I went to the bathroom to heave up my guts. In my hurry to avail myself of the facilities, I didn't ensure that the toilet seat was securely up and it came crashing down on my nose. (I have a fantastic bruise.) That was really...just...it. I sat on the bathmat and cried and felt sorry for myself. I knew I was indulging in useless tears but it made me feel better and helped to clear my sinuses. Plus Chad was so sweet (he's actually always that way but I was extra appreciative this morning). I think this will be one of those moments that will be super, extra funny when my life's history is replayed before the Lord. We'll have a good laugh then; it's actually decently funny now.

Catching Cobras

Merritt wrote a short essay in his best penmanship. It was entitled "How to catch a King Kobra." I thought it was hilarious so I'll share. (Spelling as in the original.)

"How to catch a king kobra.
First get rich.
Sencond buy an unbreakable glass cage.
Third go to where the king kobra lives.
Fourth open the cage.
Fith put some thing king kobras love to eat.
Sixth hide and watch the snake eat the food.
Seventh then close the cage.
Fnaly go home with the snake.

If you want to catch a king kobra this is how to do it."

Here's the ferocious captured creature...I love the alliteration of King Kobra all spelled with "k's"...cobra should totally be spelled with a "k", it looks much more fierce.

It's all in the hats...

We put on a "play" of sorts for FHE earlier in the month. It was grandly titled "The History of Thanksgiving!" It involved the wearing of hats for everyone except me, cuz I was the narrator and what kind of hats do they wear? Chad was a pilgrim father (isn't he so long-suffering!) and Grace was a pilgrim child. She's holding a baby because that's Oceanus, the baby born during the Atlantic crossing. (It's not that SHE had the baby...the children played WITH the baby. Let's get that straight.) Anyhoo, Grant is Chief Massasoit and Merritt is Squanto. He really liked being Squanto because he thought the name was cool. So, I don't know how much they learned about the first Thanksgiving, but we ALL learned that construction paper hats make everything more fun.

In Focus

One of those "branded in my brain" memories is when, at age 5, I walked out of Logan's Standard Optical with my brand-new glasses. They were blue plastic, which my father fondly told me brought out the blue of my eyes. Dad, I've seen my school pictures...yikes! Oh well, I wore them with all the confidence of a 5 year-old who believed she looked pretty because her daddy told her so. But I digress, back to my story. I walked out of the store, took a look around me and exclaimed in surprise that there were trees on the mountains! Who knew? Prior to that point in my life, mountains had been big brown blobs. What a surprise to find they had definition and rocks and bushes and trees.

Grace came home with a note a few weeks ago...it was from the school nurse. She'd failed her eye exam. Sigh! I called a gal in my ward whose little guy wears glasses, hoping to get a referral for a local doctor, but alas! She takes him to see a specialist in Salt Lake City, no luck there. I looked up our provider list, randomly picked a name, and called but got the answering machine. I don't like business answering machines - I figure if they want my business they should answer the phones...I'm picky like that. Anyhoo, I chose again and this time hit the jackpot. Not only did they answer, the doctor turned out to be a great guy who totally put Grace at ease and made the whole process fun (minus the dilating eye drops which Grace hated and which made her declare between sobs that she wanted to go home!). My little gal did not want glasses, she said they were bad for her eyes, but Dr. Jensen (who wisely asked what her favorite color was) took us out to the kids eyewear section where everything was at child-level and presented her with a pair of pink glasses to try on. It was all over from there. We tried on about five pair before she settled on one and from then on she couldn't be budged. And I did try to budge her because I had a sinking feeling that she'd picked the most expensive pair in the store, but, as Chad noted, if it means she'll wear them then it's worth it. And wear them she does; Grace has been a very conscientious eyeglasses owner. Plus, I got that warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from doing right by one's child when we walked out of the store and she declared, "I see trees! I see bushes!" Not too bad, and (taking a leaf out of my father's book) I tell her that she looks beautiful in her glasses, and she does.

Tired Musings

My children don't care what the clock on the wall says...they follow their own internal clock. Daylight Savings Time may be over and the clock may say 5 am, but Grant's little eyes popped open at what he thought was 6. Grace followed close behind at 5:15 and then Merritt at 5:30. We made everyone stay in bed until 6, but nobody slept including Chad and I who had to deal with each child in turn plus one potty break. Lack of sleep makes me think rather randomly...it's a sort of "stream of consciousness" thing.

I've been really hungry lately. I guess it's make up for 6 months of not eating much of anything. For a while, cereal and I were not friends. That was such a tragedy! It's no good to be on the outs with cereal...it's the world's easiest food...instant gratification in a bowl. We are now buddies again and I am currently in love with Corn Chex. Yum. I also have a thing lately for milk, eggs, and bananas.


Grant is irrational because he is tired. He doesn't know whether to laugh or cry.

My dreams have been really bizarre. Last night I dreamed my feet were swollen and my toes looked tiny and pudgy and weird. My feet were also really, really white. They kinda looked like beluga whales. I don't know why I'm worried about pudgy feet, they've only been puffy once so far. And why was The Love Boat theme playing in my dreams last night? How about this one...I dreamed I was a little Italian grandmother and my son was Chef Pisghetti from Curious George...only he wasn't a nice chef, he was some kind of mafia king pin and when I tried to turn him in to the police he shot balls of electricity out of a hair dryer at me. Amazingly, I was extremely agile and he missed. All this happened to the theme of Miami Vice. (What is up with the theme songs? I didn't watch Love Boat or Miami Vice back in the day. I was actually deeply resentful of Miami Vice because it replaced a cop show I liked where the main character had a mustache and was cute. I don't remember what it was called. My brother Chris watched Miami Vice though. Why did they think Don Johnson would look good in pastel t-shirts and white pants and a white jacket? The 80's were weird.) Oh, I also dreamed that Chad brought home a new-born baby! He was so excited because he'd saved the poor little thing from harm and adopted it the same day. He thought I would be thrilled but I was just confused because we were three months from having another baby and what on earth would I do with all these babies? Pregnancy makes for odd dreams.

It is snowing like crazy, but I'm okay with that. I was getting tired of all the 70 degree weather in November...that's just not normal. Besides, I'm hot! Now it is cold and I am finally comfortable. It's all about me people!

I have two new front tires on my car, so that is good. I barely made it up my driveway a couple of times last year, but now I'll look like those drivers in Jeep commercials just plowing through snow banks and junk.

I think I might be full. I ate poached eggs for lunch. I decided to try and make a poached egg in the microwave today. Do you know they explode? I didn't know that either but it sure was interesting to watch.

I've been learning Dutch - sorta. I've been indexing baptismal records from South Africa in the 17 and 1800's. South Africa used to be a Dutch colony. I know that "gedoop" means baptism and "kinderen" means children and "geloofs" means beliefs and "moeder" means mother and "vader" means father. That should have been a clue to Luke Skywalker don't you think...Darth "Father" and all that? It wouldn't have been such a nasty surprise if Luke had known some Dutch!

It's time for me to lie down...my tired musings are tiring me out.

Happy Food Finds

I made some mystery dinners this week that were really good. I thought I would share, cuz it's the nice thing to do. The first is cornbread. I haven't always been friends with cornbread, but have come to really like it as I've gone along in life. It is a tricky thing to make though, because it can be dry and then it is no fun. This was moist and delicious...I think the buttermilk makes the difference.

Cornbread (from Tasty Kitchen)

Ingredients

• 1 cup Cornmeal, Fine Grind
• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• ½ cups Sugar
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
• 10 T. Melted Butter (5 oz. by weight)
  
• 1 whole Egg
• 1 cup Buttermilk

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare an 8×8″ glass baking dish with baking spray.

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a medium-sized mixing bowl.

Melt the butter in a pan. Pour the buttermilk into a glass measuring cup, add the egg and whisk to combine. Finally, add the melted butter to the wet ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Top with butter and honey and serve hot!

Next comes the soup. I took a picture...the soup is way better than the picture. My additions are in red.
Cream Cheese Chicken and Vegetable Soup from My Kitchen Cafe

2 tablespoons butter
1 yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 cup diced carrots (about 2 regular carrots or a handful of baby carrots)
3 cups chicken broth
2-3 potatoes, peeled and finely diced (I like to leave the peels on red potatoes, if using them)
1 cup milk (more if needed to thin the soup later)
4 tablespoons flour
1 (8 oz. package) regular or light cream cheese
2-3 (about 1 pound) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced (I used rotisserie chicken)
1 tsp. garlic powder
dash of cayenne

In a large pot, melt the butter and add the onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Saute, stirring often, for 3-4 minutes, until the veggies are slightly tender and the onions are translucent. Add the chicken broth and potatoes. Bring the soup to a simmer and cook, partially covered, until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. In a liquid measuring cup, vigorously whisk the flour and milk together until smooth. Whisk the mixture into the soup, stirring quickly, and cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, until the soup begins to thicken slightly. Stir often to ensure the soup doesn’t burn. Soften the cream cheese in the microwave until it is very soft/melty. I usually place the unwrapped cream cheese on a plate and microwave it for one minute at 30% power. I like it really, really soft so it doesn’t leave lumps in the soup. Add the cream cheese to the soup in small tablespoon-size pieces. Let the pieces sit in the soup and warm through then whisk or stir the soup until the cream cheese melts and mixes in well. Add the cooked chicken and heat through. Season with salt, pepper garlic powder and cayenne. Serve.

Finally, a pasta dish.

Citrus and Pepper Fettucine Alfredo (adapted from a Tasty Kitchen recipe)

Ingredients

• 1 pound Fettucine Pasta
  
• 4 Tablespoons Butter
• 1½ cups Heavy Cream
• 1 pinch Nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons Fresh Grated Lemon Zest
• 1 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Salt To Taste
• 2/3 cups Freshly Grated Parmesan Or Romano Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to boil. When the water is boiling, add 1 Tablespoon of salt along with the pasta to the pot. Stir well. Cook according to package directions until al dente.

Put the butter and cream in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, until the cream has reduced almost by half. Add the nutmeg, lemon zest, black pepper, salt, and cheese. Stir to combine, taste, and adjust seasoning as needed.

Combine pasta and sauce. Serve with additional cheese or topped with chicken. Whatever floats your boat. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

They're all yummy...enjoy!