K,T&C

Well, I turned on the captcha.  Have fun proving you're not a robot!  Enjoy the blurry word and blotchy number!  ...Or don't comment.  No wait.  How about some written letters?  Some old fashion correspondence??  hm? 

I CHALLENGE YOU TO WRITE AND SEND ME A LETTER WITH A BLOG-POST COMMENT.  'Cause that not nearly as troublesome as the captcha.  Is it?

...If you don't know my address write it anyway and someday ..someday...

As a kid, if I ever expressed a desire to receive mail, my mom would say, "If you want a letter, send a letter."  I would just sit back and hope that somebody out there had a mother telling them the same thing and they decided to heed that wise advice.  ...And was, of course, going to write to me.

I was waiting for that letter.



Speaking of baggage I never did get a cabbage patch doll.

-------segue-------

OK now,  I've got pictures from Christmas that I never posted/journaled.  I glanced through them and thought eventually, I'll post these...  And while sifting I glanced at this sad iphone picture of my 3 handsome brothers.  

They're not sad.  The picture quality is.  I think Colton just beat someone at Scramble.  Was it me?  I think not.  Tyler is being a gracious ...loser?  Was he the beaten opponent?  Kendall is eating ice-cream a few of us had just picked up after stopping at Taco Bell.   

Whoops.  The TBell trip was a secret... 

But the reason I'm just posting this one is WHAT THE HECK IS THAT WHITE BLOB IN THE MIRROR????  I don't think my parents have a giant lamp with sticks and leaves...

If you squint it looks like a ghost/monster eating salad.  You know, like this:

It's vegetarian, which makes it more charming than scary.  (Hey Tyler- "I don't like meat, I just like to call meat late at night and hang up...")


Did you hear that New York is banning large sugary carbonated drinks?  (just heard that on the news)  Oh, and there is talk of making cigarettes a prescription-only thing?  (also heard in the news while at the dentist's office today)  ...Meanwhile, pot is fine.

sigh.

I miss my brothers.

I lived with them for nearly 2 decades but was busy pining over cabbage patch dolls.

This will NOT become a cooking blog for obvious reasons

Mike and I both made cookies today.  It wasn't planned.  I mean, I didn't wake up this morning thinking this was a cookie extravaganza day.  I actually woke up thinking MY ALARM IS JOHN MALKOVICH.  You get it right?  'Cause that guy is ALARMING.  whoa. 

Yeah this is good blogging.

I made cookies first.  I had been tracking my calories and around 4 pm I deserved a reward.  Cracked wheat for breakfast, veggies for a snack,  ...COOKIES!

Yes, this is good dieting.

I propped up the ipad on the counter to enjoy 'Doc Martin' whilst baking.  They kissed!  Doc and Louisa KISSED!  Oh, but then of course, he ruined the moment.  AND I decided to go with chewy chocolate instead of traditional choco chip.  ...Probably due to nature's monthly cycles. 

This is getting intense.

The cookies ended up just mediocre.  (The only saving quality was the bit of almond flavoring I snuck in to feel rebellious.  ...Is snuck not a word?  I'm getting the squiggly line.  sssnuck.  There it is!)  Sometimes these cookies are amazing, sometimes not.  I refuse to believe that it is due to my refusal to measure everything.  You know how annoying it is to scrape shortening out of the tablespoon scoop?  Eyeball it people.  Dry ingredients end up mostly on the floor and that's OK.  I don't let that make me sad 'cause I'm making COOKIES!

When Mike came in (probably to make sure I didn't make the mistake AGAIN of broiling the dough instead of baking it.  ...I'm a good cook .) he commented that baking cookies in our little toaster oven is so tedious.  I said yup! with my mouth full of warm cookie.  He said 'Hey! I'll be at my dad's tonight, how about I make up some dough and take it over there to bake on BIG cookie sheets and then we'll have cookies all weekend and more to take to church since we promised the kids in our classes that we teach that we'd have cookies on Sunday!'.  I said gluYUPmph! (mouth still full).

Did you not know that our oven is broken?   

The 3 people reading this already know.  ...They've been in my kitchen.  They have even perhaps had my cookies.

Well, the 4 of us are getting bored...

FUNNY PICTURE OF SUZIE!!

Suzie likes the cookies and wizard-princess-fairies never lie.

Oh, and I lied about John Malkovich being my first thought this morning.  I do find him alarming though.  Alarmingly AWESOME!

Also, I should have those little "rate this post" options at the bottom of each post.  Yeah?  Except instead of having boxes like 'funny' 'useful' or 'inspiring' they would be options like 'waste-of-time' 'go-to-bed-Lindsay' or 'impeach-Obama'.

Lots of great ideas on cookie day!

Who first introduced me to Good'n Plenty

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

Here's some light entertainment for your special day-

And for some sentimental humor, can you guess the movie??

Professor M: What's that? Who's talking? 
Mrs. L: Well, it's only General Gordon. He belonged to my late husband. I had four. 
Prof: Husbands? 
Mrs: No, parrots. And now I've only three. 
Prof: Parrots!
----------------------------

Junk man: And it's a brown horse, eleven years old, and answers to the name of Dennis.


Love you Dad!

warning- short post

Well, my washer just peed all over the laundry room. 

...How about a blog post?



I HAVE NO RESOLUTIONS FOR 2013. 

Nope.

Moving on!


Here's how we welcomed in the new year-

Sparklers in the front yard! 

...For Brenda.  (Suzie preferred watching and Garret stood by the car confused)


This post is short.

Are you surprised?

Will blog for cookies

If I play my cards right, I might just get through December without blogging.  (This one doesn't count 'cause I put 'This one doesn't count' in parenthensis.  ...parenthesis.  no n!)  Not that I have a problem with blogging mind you, I just feel much more evolved considering a year ago I would be having a tizzy over such gaps in my journal.  Today I'm like, Hey blog, I don't need you to feel good about myself.  I have crocheting and Netflix now.  Have you met them?  Yeahhhh... they don't correct my spelling. 

Netflix is a proper noun!  This little squiggly red line is making us all look silly.

I have never experienced drunkenness.  (Nor do I plan to.)  I have, however, had a dangerous amount of cookies and milk in the last 20 minutes.  There are no other adults here currently to say 'All right buddy, you need to take it easy.  Is there someone you can call?'.   After spending over 30 minutes acting and reenacting the scene where the kids buy a ticket to the north pole for Frosty in Frosty the Snowman, I needed to blow off some steam.

Brenda had the kitchen set up like a train station and she fed me every line.  I got to play the ticket master a couple times.  "No money?!  NO TICKET!"

Dang, she's adorable.


Can I just say- last week sucked.  It SUCKED.  The shooting at the Clackamas mall, then Friday in Connecticut.  I even heard there was another shooting somewhere in a church...

Another cookie?  Don't mind if I do...

The other day, in defiance of my helpless frustration I spent my day, filled with everyday errands and chores, getting outside of myself.  I sparked up friendly banter in the checkout line.  I was a patient, generous driver.   I helped a stranger carry a heavy box.  I looked people in the eyes and smiled.  I complimented peoples babies, hair, Christmas-head pieces...  I made a conscious effort to not be so reserved and do something good, as small as it may be. 

Maybe I scared a few people...

But, I don't know, it seems all I can do.  Drown out the bad with good.  

Well now!  Did I just get profound???

That deserves another cookie.

Mario, ignoring Suzie with a camera.

Merry Christmas everybody.  Let's all hug and smooch the people we care about.  -specially Garret, 'cause he's got Nutella on his face...  

(Blogger is letting me know that it does not recognize 'Nutella' as a word.  I say, in the spirit of goodness, THANK YOU BLOGGER!  You're always watching out for me...)

I've ROOWINNED Karate Kid

A few minutes ago I found myself staring at the tv watching He-Man, alone.  ...How long has Garret been out of the room? 

No more excuses.  I'm doing a journal entry.

I'll avoid all the details of the last month because I'm already yawning and wondering what's on tv besides He-Man.  (I typed Heman, HeMan and He Man and nothing looked right.  So I googled it in absolute desperation.) 

.

I'm not the same person I was a month ago.  -If you think that sounds dramatic you should have heard Brenda screaming "You ROOWINNED Christmas!" today when Suzie kissed an ornament...   

No really, I can hardly call myself a runner (it's temporary), I am no longer the Young Women President at church (kill me now ...or not 'cause good grief Lindsay, life goes on), I relearned how to crochet and bought a pair of reading glasses (do I stop dying my gray hair now or wait until this afghan is done?), and I let my finger nails grow long (they're real pretty and I'm tapping everything).  So I don't even recognize myself anymore.  Did I mention I cut myself some bangs?  I know, wild stuff.  

But things are keepin' on here nevertheless. 

Suzie is demanding more and more independence.  It's cool when she wants to get herself out of her car seat, into her dress, or make a sandwich.  It's not so cool when you intrude on her as she's applying mascara to her face, her hair, the cat...

Brenda has become a con artist.  Yesterday she approached me with my phone and said "Call my daddy".  I dialed Mike to see what would happen (Mike was just in the kitchen) and Brenda ran to her room as he answered.

Mike: Hello?  (We hovered over his phone on speaker curious what Brenda was up to)

Brenda: HO HO HO!  Merry Christmas!

M:  Is this Santa Clause?

B: HO HO HO!  ...Yes.

M:  What can I do for you Santa?:

B: HO HO HO!  You get a Christmas tree tomorrow!

M:  Tomorrow?

B: HO HO HO!  ...Yes.

M:  Hey Santa, what is Brenda going to get for Christmas?

B:  HO HO HO!   a snowball making machine and a dog!

M:  I don't know about the dog, Santa.  Maybe the elves can make something else?

B: HO HO HO!  ...OK.

M:  OK thanks Santa.

B: HO HO HO!  bye.

She came out of her room, set my phone on the table and casually went back to her activities without a word.  ...On another note, guess what we bought today!

Garret's been melting my heart lately.  I've made rolls (one of his favorites) almost every other day lately just to see him bounce around the kitchen. I even got a roll-breath nuzzle-kiss.  Yup.  Oh, and he's been sleeping better lately which makes for exciting mornings as he sprints and giggles to the bus ...with me chasing after holding his shoe and backpack.

Mike's been keeping us warm with fires in the pellet stove, and keeping us fed with warm, yummy dinners.  I'm going to go kiss the cook as soon as this is posted...

So who knows when my next journal entry will be.  I've become rebellious with this blog and I'm hand making multiple Christmas presents.  (Hey Monica- death by doily.  teehee)  And really, I need to spend some more time working on my Karate Kid impression-

We'll call this the before picture and I'll practice bunches...