I could eat Thanksgiving leftovers FOREVER

How could you not? Hello, MOIST MAKER!!!

Happy Tykey Day*

We had a lovely Thanksgiving Day. Ernie came over from Ptown and joined me in the kitchen immediately. It was fun spending the day with him. We were laughing because he was texting me yesterday, asking if he could bring anything, and I asked if he wanted to bring a veggie tray. He texted back, "I was going to bring over andouille stuffed squash with peppers and onions, but yeah, I can do a veggie tray." Haha! Yeah right. I ended up making the veggie tray. 

This year I decided to make tomato aspic for dinner - the S family fancy dinner favorite! It was a Thanksgiving dinner staple at Neenaw and Gran's house and kind of a rite of passage, when you were finally old (and brave) enough to try the aspic. Gran made it and we always joked about it, till we tried it...mmmmm. Earlier in the week I asked on FB if anyone would care to share our aspic, since I knew it would go to waste at our house, and though most people "yucked" it, Chrisie G was kind enough to accept some. We took her little bowl of it over to their house this morning.

For appetizers we had the veggie tray, a pickle/olive tray, and a fruit and cheese tray with crackers. By dinnertime we were all stuffed, but we had the usual turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, Ernie's squash, corn, glazed broccoli amandine (oooh fancy), refrigerator rolls (totally a disaster like last time, I just dumped the dough in a cookie sheet and baked one big roll that we cut up and NO one could leave it alone), cranberry sauce (I forgot it in the fridge), and ASPIC! No one would touch it but Bella, Ernie and me, but you know what, it's tradition, so there.

We spent the rest of the day playing board and video games and watching TV and movies. Very relaxing. Ernie ended up spending the night on the couch, he was so tired.

I'm thankful for my wonderful family and all their goofy traditions this year. :)

*Gran always called turkey "tykey". He also called maple syrup "maple serple"

Slugs are really, really sticky.

And you can quote me.

I came home from practicing at Deanna S's house for this song we're doing in Sacrament meeting on November 30, and when I walked up the front steps, I saw this nasty old slug trying to make its way into my house. Yeah right! So I picked it up and tossed it into the garden. And then, DANG, my fingers felt like I'd just Krazy glued them together. It wasn't just sticky, it was persistent! Wring those things out, you could make some nice glue.

Days for Girls Meeting

Maybe "meeting" isn't the right word. :) I was still sick as a dog with the fun lung virus and was coughing and weak and tired. Fortunately only Kristin G and Ariana L showed up, each separately. We talked and made plans for a get together in January. Here's the stuff we collected (which I am super excited about):

From Barbara P

From me :)

From Ariana

All the stuff

Some other ladies from my ward are interested in doing this too, so hopefully we can get a little group together and really pounce on this.

After meeting Ariana, I decided I was done and went home and got into bed and died for five hours. Hack, hack, hack! Glad I have my family and my bed.

Collie Hit By A Trolley

A silly pic of the classic menu. Mom had a poster of this in her kitchen when she lived out in Touchet, WA.

"You'll Eat Like A Hog When You Try Our Dog"

Joke

Feeling a little crappy today. I think Rosalind's virus decided to spread the joy, to me. Thanks virus!


Since our lungs are threatening to jump ship(s), we decided to go to the doctor this morning.

She doesn't look that sick

We both have coughs - mine is just persistent, but Roz's is bad. She sounds like a barking dog. Roz was given a nice inhaler with some asthma-type medication, and I was prescribed some lovely pills to quell my cough during the day and a syrup to take at night. My cough syrup supposedly tastes so disgusting, not even the pharmacist could stomach it - he said he took one dose and threw the rest away. Whoa!! That's how you know it's bad.

Today I'm grateful for medicine, not having pneumonia, and Dole's orange banana strawberry juice

Now the joke:
Q. What's the internal temperature of a tauntaun?
A. Lukewarm.

Thank you Brennan!!

Dear Lungs,

I never fully appreciate you till you're messed up. 

Hackingly yours,
Nat

(Also today: I tried taking an online test to see if I have attention deficit disorder, but got distracted by something else.)

First World Problems

We awoke this morning and did our usual "bribe Harrison with doughnuts from Safeway so he'll be on time to early morning Seminary", only to find that our usual Safeway doughnut lady QUIT. *anxiety* 

I went to the bakery and there were NO DOUGHNUTS. I had to buy muffins instead. MUFFINS. Harrison said, "What if they don't have doughnuts tomorrow either?" My poor tender guy.

I can't believe she did this. Where are her priorities? 

And about those muffins - I ate an almond poppy seed muffin, which sounded like a marvelous idea until it became clear that Doughnut Lady (who was obviously suffering and on the verge of a doughnut related breakdown) must have spilled the entire bottle of almond extract into the batter. And now, YIKES. My mouth tastes like an almond flavored moonshine still.

Later:
Watching Monsters Inc. with Roz, and enjoying her impression of Roz the monster. 

Went to a friend's funeral today.

Read Dave's obituary here.

Happy Veterans Day

Last night I dreamed that Marvin Gaye was in my ward choir and man, was that guy a flirt.

2:06 PM: Listening to the wind whistle outside... The cat has been parked in front of the window most of the day, watching and enjoying the mayhem. Earlier I watched some surprised sounding geese fly west, doing about 80 mph. Fun storm so far. 

Later: Just drove home amidst uprooted trees, taped off streets, total darkness, and debris everywhere. Be safe and stay warm, everyone... 

So tired.

Hello, Tri-Cities*

But first: It was "mitch match" day at school today.

Melanie texted me this morning, asking if I was going to Neenaw's birthday party in Boise this weekend. I texted back, "What birthday party?"

I texted John and Karen. "So I hear you guys are having a birthday party for Neenaw this weekend." They texted back, "What birthday party?"

Long story short: A party ended up happening, and Ernie and I decided to head to John and Karen's. We drove as far as his house in Richland tonight and are spending the night at his house, and stopping to see Mom in Pendleton tomorrow, and heading to Boise after that.

*sigh* Family.

Also, note to self: The kids keep staring. Apparently I took too long between hair dye jobs.

*Feel free to imagine me saying this in Jerry Seinfeld's "Hello, Newman" voice.

This is the best thing I've ever SEEN.

POT'S LEGAL IN OREGON! OH MY FREAKING HOLY CRAP

Meh, it's been legal in Washington for two years. 

For what it's worth: The decriminalization of marijuana here hasn't changed my life much, except to give me more opportunity to laugh at the bungling of state legislators who clearly had no idea how to handle this new wrinkle. As my law enforcing husband says, better to recriminalize alcohol than criminalize pot - statistically, alcohol ruins more lives. As a Mormon, I don't use either one and am grateful for my beliefs. They hold more sway on my decisions than whatever goofball thing the general population decides.  

Well I NEVER

Was just honked at and flipped off a few minutes ago, because I wouldn't turn left into oncoming traffic. Oops, my bad!  Stay classy, Vantucky!

*cough* Harrison *cough*

The child who conducted tonight's FHE insisted on being called Swag Daddy.

So, good news

Cut down my first tree today. I am woman, see me chainsaw. ROWWWRRR

Halloween 2014

Had a little trauma today at school. Apparently Roz put on her costume for the afternoon party and she said some kids were kind of giving her the stink eye about her costume. They didn't say anything, they just "looked at her funny" and Rosalind figured it was because her costume wasn't girly. Like ninjas can't be girls?

So after we came home from school, we went upstairs and she desperately searched for some princess-y thing that would fit, but upon finding nothing, I tried to convince her that her ninja costume is wonderful and that girls can be ninjas. That was not enough to persuade her, but this video was:


So we got busy, and voila:

I French braided her hair, thus:

That'll work

And she was very, very happy. Whew!!

Beautiful ninja baby

The adult children and Harrison were of course not that interested, Carter went with Ethan and Tyson to trick-or-treat, so it was just Roz who went. Kind of lonesome, awww.

I stayed home and passed out candy. We didn't have as many trick-or-treaters as last year. I decided that at 8:30, the lights go off and the chocolate is mine. All in favor say AYE.

Our attempted Jack o'lanterns

Her costume must have worked, because she made quite a haul and was very pleased.

Ann P played this as a piano solo today.

Cue Nat bawling and sniffling, accompanied by Sandy P.

Ugh.

Had to have the "Some boys are icky" talk with Rozzie today. Sorry to burst your bubble, baby.

One of our ward members, Gemia C, had to call our school librarian about some issues of National Geographic magazine in the school library, and some boys finding some pictures and making wildly inappropriate remarks to her daughter. SECOND GRADE. Sickening. 

I told her, if any boy says ANYTHING remotely gross to her, she needs to tell me so I can go kick his disgusting little punk ____. And tell him that her dad has a gun. :)

I may have hammered it home a little too well. She kept changing the subject.

I've found that there are some things you don't ever think you'll have to say to your kids, like "If you find a National Geographic magazine in the library at school, with certain pictures inside, DO NOT head to the nearest girl and make body-related comments." You would hope this would be a given, but apparently not. 

More than anything I wanted to give her a sense of "This is NOT okay, and your parents and teachers are your advocates. No one gets to talk to you this way without consequences."

Just this morning I was thinking that it would be so great if medical intervention was available for people who make really, really stupid choices.Like a shot or a pill or something. "Here, take this. It'll cure your stupid."

After school I asked her if any of the boys were ICKY today...she heaved a big disgusted sigh and said, "noooooo." Whew!