Happy Birthday Mama!

Today is somebody's birthday. And I'm not talking about Honest Abe.

This is my mom.

She made me learn how to type, even though I protested bitterly, and swore it was a skill I didn't need.

She taught me to sew, even though I refused for many years to learn to thread the machine, and swore it was a skill I would never use. (This is Alex Anderson, who is in no way related to us. Maybe mom should adopt her; she probably would make a better quilty daughter than me. I'll bet she doesn't give up in tears on half-bound quilts and shove them off on her mother to fix.)

She (mom, not Alex!) taught me what it is to be a mom and how to love silly children, even though I swore I would never have any of my own.

Moms have a way of knowing what you need to know, and finding a way to trick you into learning them. Then you turn around and it's you trying to trick your own kids into learning how to boil a chicken. And even though you would never in a million years force your own kids to eat tomato aspic, you will, every now and then, try to slip a crazy little recipe like "meatless" loaf past them. Of course, they will reject it and ridicule you, much in the same way you ridicule your own mother still for forcing you to eat that nasty tomato jello.

Thank you, Mom, for making me learn.

You were totally right, of course.

You always are.

Because you're the mom.

And I love you.

You're the Tweetest

This is for all my tweeple.

You're the tweetest!

Happy Valentines Day!

I've enjoyed getting to know you in 140 or less characters at a time!

This card was made from a pdf file I purchased from upupcreative. Julie just reduced the price on her Valentines, so go check out her shop!

Family Valentine

This is our valentine to each other this year. It's been posted on the fridge since the beginning of February.

I've been busy making and sending Valentines all over the world. I actually got a Valentine from Norway in today's mail! How cool is that?
This is just a sampling of the Valentine craziness that has been happening on my dining room table.

My favorite is coming up with silly Valentine rhymes.

Stay tuned for more Valentine goodies!

Beautiful Day

I've introduced you to my brothers. Brian is a fire captain and Jon is a pastor. They both like to tell people what to do. (It's sort of a family trait; I seriously have to restrain myself from doing it all the time. Except to my kids cuz that's my job.)

Today I'm going to let Jon tell you what to do. Think of him as a guest blogger of sorts. Because I didn't exactly ask him for permission. Well, hey, it's youtube and it's fair game. And although I didn't ask, I did tell him I what I was doing, and in my book no response means yes. So here ya go. Pastor Jon, lay it down.



Find out more about Beautiful Day here.

Tattered Recipes

It's getting close to the end of the week, and we're running out of stuff, like eggs. That's when cooking gets fun! I like the creative challenge of making something yummy from whatever I can find in the kitchen.
Okay, well, sometimes I like that creative challenge; I guess it just depends. Not really sure what it depends on, but it just does. Today I was up to the challenge. No eggs, and I needed something sweet. Leave it to reliable ol' Betty Crocker to come up with the goods.

Hot Fudge Sundae Cake, page 258.
You mix all the dry ingredients straight in the pan. Then you dump in the milk, oil, and vanilla, and stir it all together in the pan. (Did I happen to mention that you do all this in the pan, which, of course, means one less dirty dish. Hey! I'm all about less dirty dishes!) At this point your 16-year-old son comes in and makes disgusting remarks about the appearance of your awesome dessert, upon which you inform him that you are not obligated to share with him if he's going to be so rude.

The next step is kind of weird. First you sprinkle brown sugar over the batter, then you sprinkle unsweetened cocoa powder over that. Check out this awesome action shot.

The next step is even weirder. (I have decided that the word "weirder" is truly one of the weirdest words out there. The more you look at it, the weirder it looks. Just look at it. Weird!Ack, I'm freaking myself out.)

Weirdness aside, you pour hot water over the whole thing, and you don't mix it.

This is when your 13-year-old son wanders in because he can smell sugar from a mile away and mentions that it smells like hot chocolate. He is not rude. He will be partaking of this awesome dessert.

Now, I can't show you what it looked like straight out of the oven, because I do have a life. A life in which I must drive. All over creation, to be exact. So elder son redeemed himself and pulled it out of the oven for me. I guess I'll let him have a piece after all.


This is the awesome yumminess that is hot fudge sundae cake. Only vanilla ice cream could have made it more sublime.

All Played Out

This is what happens when you go straight from basketball practice to swim practice:
One tuckered out kiddo.

Sometimes I wish I could crash on the couch underneath my motocross quiltie . . . .

Unseasonably Warm

Yep, that's what they're saying on the news. I'm so sorry if your weather isn't exactly cooperating. You're more than welcome to come visit. Word to the wise--come now. Unseasonably warm in February is downright chilly in June.
Unseasonably warm makes activities like this ever so much more enjoyable. Especially considering this is an outdoor meet.

A little butterfly action...followed by some backstroke...

This kid has a tan even in the dead of winter!
Okay, for brothers and grandparents who care about such details: Brian dropped time in 5 events, deaked in the 50 back for not having a continuous turn (turned too soon; let's just not mention that the flags were moved after warmup, so all stroke counts were rendered invalid, but I'm not bitter), Q time in the 200 IM.

For all you non-swimmers out there, sorry for all the swim speak I just threw at you.

Unseasonably warm. It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow (81) then a cold front is moving in and we'll be dipping down to a chilly 65-70. Brrr!

I'm boasting now, but I'll be griping come July.