Is That The Mouth You Kiss Your Mother With?

My mommy made the most awesome dinner last night: Garlic steamed spinach greens, lemon & walnut rice pilaf and almond crusted chicken breasts. Oh it was so yummy. Later we had a little conversation about it on Skype and since I've been such a blogging deadbeat latly, I thought I'd take the easy road and share the amusement here for all to enjoy!

Wonder-Rachel says: Noah still has spinach in his mouth.
Pastry Mama says: OMG!
Wonder-Rachel says: I bet Kristiina and Mummu would like the lemon & walnut rice pilaf...
Pastry Mama says: yeah - probably......
Pastry Mama says: and Mummu would probably like it with the brown rice that is called for.
Wonder-Rachel says: Yep
Wonder-Rachel says: She loves all that shit.
Pastry Mama says: are you calling brown rice, shit?
Wonder-Rachel says: Only in the sense that anything that is a noun is in peril of being called shit by me at some point, yes.
Pastry Mama says: LMMFAO

Deed Is Done

So I got tagged in a little housekeeping photo-blog yesterday by my friend Sus. Lucky for me I didn't catch up on my reading and see it till this afternoon! Noah has been sick & needy for three days so my house is kind of a mess. But again, lucky for me, last night was my night off and I did a couple dishes! lol So I have taken the pictures, the deed is done. Now I shall post them here and then you can be sure I'll spread the love. Hehehe

The rules are to take the pictures just as they are right now. If I'd had creamer for coffee today I'd have taken pictures of an unmade bed and a girl in PJs.

1. My Kids

Like I said Noah is sick so he's a little cranky and just wants to watch Playhouse Disney shows on DVR. Dante is taking an afternoon break from his school work to keep him company while I take pictures. Yep Noah is clutching a mini-Mater in his hand. He Looooves Mater.

2. My Closet

My closet can only be seen in halves so here they are. I need more hangers. Most are holding two or more shirts each! Do you know what this many visible hanger ends says? It says We are all sleeveless shirts and we belong in California or Las Vegas!

3. My Favorite Shoes

This is SO hard. I'm a girl - I love love love shoes. But of the dozens I own, the "favorites" are probably at the top of the heap so let's have a look. You can see my Sketchers slip ons the third pair I've owned and loved since nursing school, a pair of black leather lace-up boots I got these from the Gap over 10 years ago and wear them all the time, my silver dancing shoes HAHAHA Where did those crawl out from! I don't know the last time I went dancing LOL, my tiny thin flip-flops these feel like I'm not even wearing shoes, my memory-foam slippers since I teach and work at home, I wear slippers a lot.

4. My Kitchen Sink

I'm just lucky it doesn't ask for a picture of the oven range dirty or the kitchen counter a few more dirty dishes than in the sink!

5. My Fridge

We have no light in our fridge. We replace the bulb and it burns out sounds like a bigger problem than just the bulb to me... I'm hoping for a new fridge in the next year! But with the flash on my camera you can see it all amazingly well. I should just take pictures whenever I want to see what we have!

6. My Laundry Room

as I've said before, hubby does the laundry more than I do so it's all his doing that this room isn't a complete wreck!

7. My Favorite Room

That's the bedroom hands down. I've always loved my room best. And lets face it: all the best things happen in the bedroom anyway!

8. Self Portrait

So I'm gonna tag my friend Val! Let's see it Val. Get out that camera and take some pictures. xo

The Space Between

I have this pink ceramic box that's shaped like a book. I keep spare change, a special necklace that's broken, my debit card, Drivers license, Costco card, Library card etc., scraps of paper, receipts, hair bands... It sits on a bookshelf by my bed. I came into my room and didn't notice it was missing, but I noticed Noah was missing. I looked around and didn't see him right away. Then the curtains at our sliding glass door rippled. Our bed sits about 15 inches in front of the doors and Noah loves to pace round & round the room going behind our bed in his circuit. So rather than walking around to see if he was behind the curtains as we usually do when he hides, I peeked straight over and behind the headboard - what do you think I saw?

Noah had somehow snagged it off the shelf and was checking out the contents behind my bed! As soon as he realized he'd been spotted he made a break for the open spaces of the bedroom but I cut him off. Still he was clearly very pleased with himself.

The Red & Green Xmas Survey

A few weeks ago I had begun to author an entertaining post about my decision to finally murder Santa. It went along the lines of my usual Christmas rant: I'm not Christian, I certainly don't want to celebrate the commercial aspect of the holiday... thus, exactly what am I celebrating? Anyone who knows me has heard me complain about my personal/religious/family/community conflicts surrounding the holidays. Well Anthony and I had a very intellectual and enlightened discussion about the whole thing and decided we wouldn't teach Noah about Santa. Dante is so close to figuring it all out anyway I figure now was the perfect year to murder Santa.

Then Noah learned two new words this week: Claus and Ho-Ho-Ho-Ho!

Fuck. Fine. So now I'm resigned to diving headlong into the Santa/baking/giving/celebrating aspect of the holidays foreverafter. And in my attempts to resurrect Santa and the spirit of xmas in my life, I have set a few tasks for myself. The first two are the obvious ones...

PUT UP THE TREE We have little ones, this is a necessity - so we have a tree now and it's very pretty.

BUY & WRAP PRESENTS FOR THE KIDS. Okay so that's pretty much done.
DO SOME XMAS BAKING. This helps me feel like there are some redeeming aspects of the holidays that even I, the heathen, can celebrate. I've done a bit. Hubby has been a big help. And likely I'll crank out a billion cookies after Dante leaves for CA. But this year I won't be able to send any baking with him. Not enough time. I wish I had pictures of the hot cran-apple tartlets I gave to family last night but oh well. Here are the apple-pie tartlets I made last week - good stuff!


POST THAT XMAS SURVEY. So here it is!

If you feel so inclined, gimme your own responses to any of the questions below, or paste the whole damn thing into the comments section & tell me all about yourself! lol I got this from my mom and my husband so I guess it's my turn...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. It takes longer, but I think it looks nicer.
2. Real tree or Artificial? We have an artificial tree we've set up each year, but I do like the smell of real trees.
3. When do you put up the tree? after December 1.
4. When do you take the tree down? A couple of days after we all open our presents. (That's never on Christmas for us - sometimes it's the first week of January. This year, December 22 but we'll likely leave the tree up till after Dante gets back on January 5!)
5. Do you like eggnog? Grocery store eggnog, yes.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hands down it was the My Little Pony Dream Castle.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Anthony
8. Easiest person to buy for? Dante
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Nope. My own little babies mean more to me than that one, no offense.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Neither. I'm terrible. I'm considering a yearly card in March since xmas means nothing to me but March is when we have all our own birthdays.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Geez I've been trying to come up with an answer to this one for days! Finally I realized I don't really have any memorable least favorite gifts! If someone cares enough to give me a fucking present, I'm damn happy to get it! That's just me.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Story of course! "Fra-Gee-Lay! ...must be Italian!"
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? When the money comes in!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Oh yeah. Gift exchanges are great for that!
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?Pot-roast, rolls & gravy!
16. Lights on your house/apartment? No lights! We've had enough broken bones thanks!
17. Favorite Christmas song? I know I know - I rail against all the CHRISTmas stuff and wonder why I celebrate since I'm not Christian, but I like Still, Still, Still and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay at home!
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Let's see... You know Candy & Brandy & Lyric & Bunny... Destiny, Kendal & Dylan & Honey... Wait, sorry, those aren't the reindeer!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star. Angels are kind of too over the top & fluffy-foo-foo.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Whenever the fuck I feel like it! Or whenever fits in with Dante's trip to see his dad.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? All the traffic, wasted ad newspaper & needless consumption.
23. 3 Favorite ornaments? The painted puzzle piece picture frame of Dante that he made in 1st grade, Two red eggs Anthony & I got at the Bennett Grown Grand-children's xmas party and all the bows I made myself.
24. Does your tree have a theme or color? Yes it has two and it alternates each year which one it wears. This year it's in orange & gold tones. Next year, like last year, it will be in Pink. It's beautiful.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A hand-steamer or a pole for the playroom!

Let the feats of strength begin!

Festivus is here and the feats of strength have begun. Lately Noah does this thing where he gets into the kitchen pantry & begins pulling all our large Costco size bottles off of the bottom shelf and bringing them to us somewhere else in the house, one by one. This is no small job for a toddler of not-yet-two-years! Anthony said several nights ago: "Yeah, start hauling the bottle of Canola Oil around and then I'll be impressed kid." That's why I snapped a picture of the Feats of Strength collection that took place the very next day while he was at work. Since this picture was taken he has added two more items to his Feats of Strength: Two full 3lb jars of Jif Super Chunk peanut butter. He's a little go-getter. HAPPY FESTIVUS!

A Feast with the Beasts - our Thanksgiving day at Hogle Zoo

Thanksgiving day dawned gray and wet, but we had a date for a Feast with the Beasts so we bundled up and headed to Noah's favorite place: Hogle Zoo!

There, we met up with my Dad who delivered to us my cutie niece Meghan - we were without Dante (in CA again) and she was boarding with my parents for a week while my sister & her husband went on a cruise (poor suckers - Fun & sun... but no Pumpkin Stomp!) and my two other nieces stayed with a different grandma, so we thought we'd drag her along with us. I think she loved it.

So armed with umbellas, we headed for the elephant habitat, where they were said to be stomping pumkins at 10am sharp. And they were...

Apparently this is yummy stuff for elephants cuz they chowed down!

Next stop: the great apes - for yummy Thanksgiving pie (well, I didn't taste it but I'm sure it was delicious)!

And this curious little monkey got a paper mache turkey

He wasn't sure what to make of it at first. He snuck up, took a swing at the mysterious object and jumped back as it rolled off the pedestal.

Then he quickly reached inside and yanked out some chopped veggies to munch on.

Meghan was squeeling with delight over the little monkey while Noah was staring in awe of the huge orangutan in the next habitat. She was getting her own thanksgiving treats and impressing the crowd with her strength by shaking her climbing tree with all her might.

And on our way by, Meghan & I still got a peek at the orangutan.

The rhinos are always a favorite but they never seem to be close enough to get a good look at them (see Zebra shot below)!

But we got lucky on Thanksgiving and both Noah and Meghan were happy to see them munching hay so close to the observation window.

Noah even gave an excited squeely "why-wo!" to impress us.
Both mountain lions were up and pacing. I was sad Dante wasn't there to see them. They're his favorite.

Up at the Asian Highlands habitat the tigers were getting pumpkins too.

And it was SO crowded at this point, we didn't get any more pictures of the cats! But Noah managed to spend a fair amount of time with his favorite big cats:

The statues. Hehehee

Some other favorites we saw:
The giraffes,

a grassy-ass black bear,

and the aforementioned shy zebras.

A favorite we did NOT see: The Red Panda. My favorite and so shy! But it was getting cold & windy so we decided we'd had our fill. We hit the Conservation Carousel and then headed back to my parents for some turkey dinner of our own!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Precious Moments

My boys are 8 years apart but they're pretty good buds - they'll be 10 & 2 this spring. Dante goes away every month to visit his dad in California. It's been interesting and a little sad to see my baby recognize the absence and miss his "big bubba" each time Dante goes. And there is a definite change in him. I think he likes the alone time with Mommy, but I can tell he misses his brother too.

Today I called Dante to check on him since he was home alone at their condo while his dad worked. We were talking and then I said "Hey Noah, you wanna talk to Bubba?" His face lit up and he reached for the phone, grinning ear to ear. He got the phone to his ear and squeeled "Hi!" which is the first time he's ever said anything to the voice in the phone! Dante laughed and talked to him for a second and Noah answered with some long crazy baby-talk! He even said Bye when I told him to. It was so sweet - the first time he decides to really talk on the phone is with his far-away brother. I cried a teeny bit.

Finding Nemo In My Living Room (and asian cartoon warriors on my front lawn)

So I know I'm a little late with the Halloween post, but in my defense, I came down with an awful flu bug ON Halloween so I've been recovering since then and hey, I can only post so much! So the week before Halloween we took the boys (and my sister and her three girls) to Hogle Zoo for Boo at the Zoo trick or treating. It was a lot of fun, and more crowded than I've ever seen it. My husband read an article that said attendance at the zoo that day hit a record high, breaking the record set years earlier when ZCMI hosted a free-all-day event.
It wasn't a huge costume production for us: we threw their costumes on, tried to leave as many accessories at home, skipped hair & makeup and headed for the zoo. Dante was Inuyasha, Meghan (niece #1) was Mulan, Anna (niece #2) was Sleeping Beauty,

Eloise (Niece #3) was a dalmatian (who didn't like her hood very much)

and Noah was Nemo.

We didn't even worry about hair-combing. And little Anna, my spit-fire niece that reminds me so much of myself, had to wear a shirt under her off-the-shoulder Sleeping Beauty dress or flash the world her little girl chest.

It was a fun day, even if it was so crowded we could barely breathe. At least we didn't get parking tickets like so many others!

For real trick-or-treating, the kids were a bit more polished (I know the date on this picture isn't Halloween: Dante & Meghan dressed up in full regalia for the Utah Symphony event they go to each year and it was the only picture I had since Dante went to CA to see his dad again this year - like every year).
Dante wants me to post this picture because you can see his sword Tessaiga:

But I like this one better because you can see their faces:

Noah didn't love getting his face painted but he seemed to tolerate it well enough. His first night of trick-or-treating was great fun. He started to get the idea about half way through. "Okay, they give me candy and I wave bye-bye and move on to the next house for more candy. I can do that."

He got a ton of candy, most of which mysteriously disappeared while he slept (Wonder-Rachel says as she innocently wipes chocolate from her face), and I think by next year he'll know how to say "Trick or Treat" on his own.
So despite my own flu-bug misery & the near rain we had to worry about, I think the kids had a great time this year.

Yes, I voted - and it feels so good!

To really get into it, sing that title to the tune of Reunited and it Feels So Good
I voted today! Got the boys up (well Noah was up at 6am cranky & sniffly), got us all dressed and fed, piled us all into the car and drove through the snow to the elementary school down the street. Noah isn't feeling well (he has the cold I'm just getting over - poor baby) so that was kind of a nightmare. He was extra cranky and so needed to carry both Beeya (his Bear) AND Ooh-ooh (his monkey) all over with him. Not easy for a 95 pound girl to haul around 25 pounds of puffy-coated baby clutching two stuffed animals! LOL But I did it and I'm pretty excited. My ex-husband would be shocked and mortified to know I voted all democrat this time. Hm, I guess it's no surprise we're not so compatible anymore huh (wow that's the understatement of the year).

I voted for Barak Obama (obviously) and I'm pretty excited now. I also voted to issue bonds to raise funds for Hogle Zoo and Tracey Aviary. I have so many great childhood memories at both those places, and my boys really love going to the zoo. We're regular visitors. :)

Now it's like Christmas Eve... will I get what I want? Have to wait and see... oh the anticipation!!

This is a way cute video of Noah - he's in love with the polar bear on our Renew the Zoo campaign sign. We had to preserve it for posterity. Ironically he had his own agenda this time. Most times he loved to go through naming every last part on the bear face over & over.

The Cupcake Charade

I decided to make cupcakes last week for Dante's soccer party. I let Dante & his friend Tyler ride their bikes to the store for cake mix & frosting because when I say MAKE cupcakes I mean by adding oil, eggs and water of course. I'm not my sister after all. And I got the awesome idea of frosting them red since they are Team Inferno with red jerseys.
I hit a snag when I found the box made 24 cups and I had a one dozen pan. So I knocked on a few doors around the neighborhood but no one was home. Except Jill. So I gathered my courage and knocked on the door (Jill and I don't get along ever since she said Dante broke her Santa yard sign and I slammed my door in her face). We played nice like all hateful women do, and I asked to borrow a muffin pan for the boys soccer party (Yeah it helps that Joey is on the team too). Amazingly she didn't have a single muffin pan. Is that strange? I don't know. But she had bread pans galore and was happy to loan them to me. So I took them and decided I'd make do.
Dante helped crack the eggs and they both helped me rinse the dishes.

Noah looks like he got a little drunk on cupcake batter:

And then he got very mad when it was all gone.

There were 12 in my muffin pan and 6 cups nestled perfectly into two large bread pans. After 15 minutes in the oven I pulled out 12 perfect cupcakes and 2 loafs of cake. A dozen round and a dozen that needed to be pulled apart around a bunch of fallen squared muffin cups.

Once they were cooling we set to making red frosting. HAHAHAHAHA! Let me just say that no matter what you do, if you start with white frosting, and you use red food coloring, you're going to get pink. Period.

The good news: not one of the boys at the soccer party gave a damn that their treats were bright pink. I was going to get a picture of them eating them happily to prove my success, but it just happened too fast. I blinked and all the cupcakes were gone.