Privacy issues...

My family know no boundaries and pretends as though they have never heard of personal space. That is why this is so funny.

Me: Hey, you knocked on my door. Where did you learn that? Certainly not from anyone in this family.

Ethan: What can I say? I watch a lot of T.V.

That kid was born cool. The girls are totally going to fall in love with him in a couple of years.

I love that kid.

A Birthday Bag

Here is yet another completed birthday present! Go me. Remember this picture?

It is for a friend of mine who is turning 15. It is completely one-of-a-kind. There is no bag like this anywhere in the universe. I made the pattern myself using a Kroger paper grocery bag. Here is the during picture and the final project which I have decided to name the Rachel Bag (I know, super official sounding):

She is several inches shorter than me so the bag will go down farther on her.

Let the Countdown Begin

Yesterday marked the one month away date of my trip out West! I can't wait. Friends, family, and countrymen, I can't wait to see you.

Recovering from the weekend...

It is always strange to me when I'm glad to go work so that I can recover from a long weekend. My parents went out of town for the weekend so I got mom duty. I cooked, cleaned and even managed to squeeze in a quick jog (go me!). On Saturday night, I was crazy enough to have a musical party. I know, I know, you'd think having 6 kids for a weekend would be enough work. By Sunday night I was so exhausted that I went to bed before 10 only to be woken up around 2 am by two very grumpy sisters. Per usual, I failed to take a single picture.

Thanks for all the recipe suggestions. Here is a list of things that I ended up making this weekend:

• Waffles - I'm super addicted waffles right now. I can't explain it, it just is what it is. I eat one huge one and I love it so much that I am forced to eat a second one even though I'm not at all hungry. And then even though I feel kind of sick afterwards, I still do it the next time I have waffles.


• Messed-up hash browns. I can't figure out how to make good hash browns. I think I just need lots of practice.


• Mulled cider - I put in a whole can of lemonade concentrate. Pretty tasty.


• Pizza soup - I loverly this one.
• Cornbread - 1/2 into making it I realized that I only had 1/3 c of cornmeal and the recipe called for 1 c. What to do? I just substituted polenta. Fortunately, it still turned out just fine.


• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies - I made this recipe. Pretty good except I thought I would have actually put in less of the chocolate chips and baked them a couple minutes longer than the recipe called for.


• Ham and Cheese Bread - this was totally unplanned. We forgot that there was a supper after evening church. Fortunately, mom had just bought an entire bag of frozen bread dough and so Aaron and I whipped these up. Everybody seemed to love them.
• Even though this isn't food, I made some of these for our Reformation Celebration.
  

Recipe Wanted:

Does anybody have some good fall dessert recipes? We're having a party on Saturday and I need something yummy to go with mulled cider. I was thinking that it might be tasty to have some molasses chocolate chip cookies, but I couldn't find a recipe anywhere.

Super Random

One of my super random jobs is to go through the Ohio County Times Newspaper. Why? Well, it is kind of complicated so lets just say I have look through the paper and the obits. Ohio County is a super small, hick county that is next to the county I live in. The paper is also super small town. They only publish it once a week and it is often filled with pictures and advents like "Aiden Celebrated Her 1st Birthday!" Oh, and recently there was an article on how their high school football team had won their first game since 2008. You get the picture.

Anywho, imagine my surprise when I turned to the back page to find a picture and a short paragraph on how some Ohio County resident had met N.T. Wright. I know, bizarre.

In other news, I have had the hiccups on three separate occasions today. The worst is getting hiccups at work and still having to answer the phone and greet people who walk in.

Busy and Blessed

A while back I posted about how I wasn't stressed out at all. It was true. My stress level was only at a level 1 out of 10. I knew it was a just a stage of life and wasn't bound to last very long. Too true.

I am beginning to feel it slowly creeping up on me. So much to do, so little time. I keep trying to go to bed early and catch up on sleep, but somehow it just isn't working.

Because I like lists, here is what i've been thinking about lately:

• Reformation party, games, a team challenge, who is going to do the pinata, does anybody have talent?, fake mustaches, people to call.


• The weekend featuring babysitting, party at my house, grumpy toddlers, becoming a mom to 6 kids overnight, food to make.


• Christmas presents to make, birthday gifts, deadlines.


• Future plans, obsessing about small businesses, brainstorming, researching, learning, trying to be a grown-up, work, obsessing about buying a house and what sort dishes should habitate my kitchen.

Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. My stress level is only around a level 3 or 4. I'm just not sure how to do it all at once.

Have you ever been paid to Facebook?

One of my superiors was uploading a photo album to the company's facebook account when he had to leave for a meeting. So he asked me to post the album to the profile page after it finished uploading.

Yes, I am being paid for facebooking.

New line for my resume: "Capable of navigating through facebook."

lol

The other day I was reading my Bible and this totally cracked me up:

"And He (God) took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty."

-Exodus 14:25

I just kept imagining it as an old black and white movie in fast forward. I can just see a bad guy in a ridiculous Egyptian costume jumping out of his chariot, jumping up and down in rage, and then kicking the chariot only to hurt his foot.

I love that we serve a God who possesses a sense of humor.

Pom poms revisited

I still love those tissue paper pom poms that I made. After the party, I wasn't really sure what to do with them. My mom saved the day and revived the pom poms by hanging them in my room from the ceiling. They look great there.

Ash's Birthday Present

I used to be able to throw my sister, er, I mean friend Ashley a birthday party. Now I can just send her a small card. So I tried to add a little party to the rather boring party. I know this is a really bad picture and everything, but it is the only one I have. It is a polka dot garland meant to be hung up at a party. Hopefully it didn't break and Ashley will be able to use it!

Happy birthday, Ashley!

Secret Codes

The past couple of weeks, we've been reading and discussing Sayer's Nine Tailors for Omnibus. Since I am an evil taskmaster, I made my students write a quick "poem" containing a secret message. Needless to say, they turned out interesting. I believe they included mention of beer, mice, ice, mountains and even babies. Today I decided to do my own version. I plan to give it to my students next week and then give a prize to whoever can crack the code. Here have a crack at it:

ODE TO AUTUMN*

Give golden Autumn to me,
Just the sweet liberty to breathe
deeply or hear leaves crunching.

Give icy fingers to me
Coating in frozen death all I see.
But stinging cold to
Please the chilly morning's hand
Overtakes morning's dew.

Over a toasty fire, the warm growing inside,
Chocolate fills my belly.


*I refer to this very loosely as a "poem." I do not actually write poetry. Ever.

Again

I used to lock my keys in my car, but now I've done it twice in the past 3 months. At first I thought it was because I'm growing more careless, but I then I realized that it had never happened to me because I never used to lock my car. So believe it or not, locking my keys in my is actually a sign of me becoming more responsible rather than less.

Those crazy little girls

Bella: Currently wearing her shirt both inside-out and backwards. Now that is an accomplishment.

Jubilee: Starts every single prayer with "Dear God, sank God..."

How Old Navy Made Me Skinny

This past weekend, Mom, Abby and I got to go shopping in a city slightly larger than our hometown. I have been looking for new work pants for ages. I wanted either khaki or dark brown pants. After trying on quite a few in various different stores, I stumbled upon Old Navy. To be honest, I have never bought Old Navy pants and I haven't even been inside an Old Navy store in 6+ months. Since they were having a pants sale, I decided to try some one. I first pulled out a size 6, but they looked ginormous so I didn't even bother trying them on. I next went for a size 4, but they were still too large. Finally, I landed on a pair of size 2s. Surprisingly enough, they actually fit! I have never been a size 2, but thanks to Old Navy, I am now apparently a lot skinnier than I used to be. How nice of them. I think I'll go eat cake while wearing my pair of size 2 khakis.

The start and the finish

Wonderful morning! I had a great night last night and now this morning I've already had waffles, Earl Grey Tea, and now I'm working on a birthday present. Here is a sneak peek.

Here is my finished cross stitch. Someday it will hang in my kitchen. I've been waiting for my own kitchen for about 5 years. Someday I will have it! I am going to decorate with dark reds, sage greens, and blue. Basically, all the colors that you see in this picture: