Circus Freaks

We had a great time at the circus last night. Our favorite part was definitely the elephant ride! This was Franny's first visit to the circus and she did okay considering it was late for her. She really liked the beginning thanks in large part to Jill and her generosity when she purchased Franny her beloved "blue" (that's what she calls this light-up toy.) She really started to flip out at the end, but it was still a great experience.

Left: Franny before she had the blue; Right: Franny after she got the blue. (Thanks Jill!)

I almost forgot to mention something crazy that happened. When Franny starts to get upset, sometimes she'll just throw whatever she has in her hand on the ground. I had to retrieve her sippie cup at least three times. Well, towards the end of the evening, when she was getting close to hitting her limit, she threw her "blue" and it fell on the ground underneath the bleachers we were sitting on. Jill kindly went to go and find it for me and a circus employee offered to go underneath and retrieve the "blue." Emerging from beneath the bleachers successful with the toy in his hand, he asked Jill, "are these your keys, too?" They were her keys. She didn't even know she was missing them! Well, I soon realized later that I shouldn't have given Franny the toy back, because right after I did she chucked the blue five rows ahead of us and hit a woman in the head! Sorry lady!

Shrimp Pad Thai

Our last cooking club for this year was last night at Erin's house and we had such a good time! The theme was erotic ingredients, and we had some pretty crazy stuff there! Just kidding! The theme was exotic ingredients. The food was great! My exotic ingredient was fish sauce. It's been in my cupboard for a long time and I finally decided to use it. Fish sauce smells like feet.

I made Shrimp Pad Thai and it was pretty good. It comes from my Everyday Food cookbook, so it's like Thai Food for Dummies, but it was pretty decent. Another unusual ingredient for me in this dish was rice stick noodles. That was the first time I had ever used those as well. Bobby feels strongly that Asian food is best eaten in Asian restaurants and I'm going to have to agree that Thai, Chinese, and Japanese cuisines taste better when it's prepared by the pro's. It was fun to give it a shot though, since I can't get Thai food anywhere around here.

Cleaning house

Bobby and I have yet to have our own garage sale, but last year we participated in one for the first time and we got rid of all of our VHS movies, some clothes, and a lot of children's books that we didn't need. This Saturday we are participating in our neighbor's garage sale and I am parting with some old treasures, and although they haven't had any use in at least five years, I am still finding it a little difficult to let them go, so I thought what better place to preserve their memory than on my beloved blog.

First, our rollerskates. Bobby and I roller-skated together every Monday night when we first met. At Ricks, Monday night was skating night and it was free for us because we had our own roller skates that we carried in vintage bowling bags. (It was a whopping $1 if you had to rent skates.) We were both pretty good at it- especially Bobby. He could do jumps, skate backwards...

From left to right: Bobby and I in our skates; Bobby's sister Molly, me, and our wonderful friend Janelle; and Janelle and our old friend Trevor on the floor.

When we were done rollerskating at about 11:00 pm, we would head to everyone's favorite Rexburg spot in those days- the famous Craig-O's for chees-y-gooey-oh-so-delicious breadsticks, pizza bombs, and Oreo shakes. (When I think of Craig-O's, I always think of Bobby ordering his food. "Can I get a pizza bomb with pepperoni and an Oreo shake, and can you not charge me for the shake?" I was shocked at his boldness and then even more shocked when they would just give it to him! I also think of the time I stole a half-eaten pizza that I thought had been abandoned, and suffering from excruciating and painful embarassment immediately after when it's owner called out in surprise, "Hey, that's my pizza!" But most of you have heard that story. Someday I'm going to write an entire blog entry about my top 10 most embarrassing moments. I have some good ones and luckily, I don't have a problem laughing at my own foibles.)

So all of these wonderful memories are tied up in these roller-skates. I'm sorry to see them go but can't justify keeping them anymore. Thanks for all the good times, roller-skates!

And then of course there is the backpack I picked up in Poland. I did study-abroad in 1999, and when I got there I saw a lot of people wearing these cool backpacks. I knew there were on their way to the US, so I started keeping an eye out for them so I could come back looking super chic with my new stylish backpack! You know, I never saw one when I got back, but I wore it for a couple years anyway. America just wasn't ready. Goodbye backpack.

Last but not least, goodbye old school NES. Thanks for all the great hours of Dr. Mario, Paperboy, and T&C Surf, as well as Super Mario Bros. 1 and 3 (Super Mario Bros. 2, you were just okay.) Zelda, you haven't seen the last of me. I promise you this: someday I will defeat you!

Waterproof Remote Control?

Lately we cannot find the remote control to our DVD player. It's driving us both crazy. We keep buying universal remotes, and they were for a month or so, but then they inexplicably cease to operate the DVD player. The universal remotes have never worked on our VCR, so we are forced to keep tabs on three remotes! I was blaming the baby for the last two days because I know she loves to play with it- I thought maybe it was hidden somewhere in the baby toys. Turns out I was pointing my finger in the wrong direction...

I've made an observation about myself that I'd like to share with you now. Granted, I have never been a perfectionist, but I feel like I used pay attention to the details and take the extra time to do a job right. I feel like with age and the addition of two children to this family, there is sloppiness where there used to be precision in household chores. I used to deal with all stain-fighting challenges head on, as soon as they came my way, and now I'm lucky if I remember to squirt them with Spray 'n Wash and leave them in a pile in front of the washing machine. [Sigh], last night I called to Bobby, "I found the DVD remote." It was in the washing machine. Sunday after dinner I grabbed the tablecloth after Franny spilled on it and wrapped the dirty bibs and wet washcloths used for wiping messy hands from the meals that day and carried the whole mess to the washing machine. I said to Bobby, "There's no way it still works, right?" I mean, the batteries were outside of the remote at the bottom of the washing machine. I couldn't imagine that any remote control could survive all that churning and rinsing, not to mention the Clorox 2! Bobby said we should give it a shot, so I handed him the so fresh and so clean remote along with the batteries and we were both shocked to find out that it worked! We were grateful for this little miracle until this morning when it didn't work anymore. Boo.

As for my sloppiness, I am slightly anxious to see what the future holds with more children. Oh yeah, another example of sloppiness (or maybe the word is absent-mindedness] - three times in a row I forgot about doctor's appoinments I made for my kids. I haven't been back. I'm too embarrassed to show my face. How does someone forget THREE TIMES IN A ROW?

Watermelon Bombe

This picture is not a great one. I even considered not posting about this at all, but I really simplified it this time and I thought you might like to hear about it. When Betsy and I made this together three years ago, we used haagen-daaz pistachio, vanilla ice cream (store-bought) and I made a watermelon sorbet that the recipe calls for- that looked realistic, but didn't taste great. Also I mixed in chopped chocolate wafer cookies to look like the seeds. We had to mix green food coloring into the pistachio because it was all natural and white (same problem as with Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip.) This time Ashley picked up Blue Bunny pistachio almond. Already green, so that saved a step. Instead of the watermelon sorbet, we did a raspberry sherbet filling and this time I mixed it with mini-chocolate chips, which tasted a lot better than soggy chocolate cookie bits. It was easy and the presentation is so cool. I really like this dessert. Sorry about the crappy picture though! You can barely see the inside!

Here's some cute video of Franny from yesterday:

Sophie's first swing

Al Fresco

I mentioned the other day that I came up with a new salad dressing recipe, but I wanted to wait to tell you about it until I could take a picture. I am proud to present to you Ranch Dressing with Avocado and Lemon... or Avocado Lemon Ranch- whichever you prefer.


I usually use a buttermilk ranch dressing mix and follow the directions, and then I just mash up an avocado and mix in some lemon juice and add that. I bought a ranch dressing mix, but somehow it didn't make it home with us from the store yesterday. Luckily I found a recipe for ranch dressing made from scratch and just added the avocado to that.

Avocado Lemon Ranch

1 c buttermilk
1 1/4 c mayo
1/2 tsp garlic, minced
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp parsley
1/2 T minced onions
1/4 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp salt
juice of half of lemon
1 avocado, mashed

Mix the first eight ingredients together, then add avocado mixed with lemon juice.


Erin's chicken and spinach stuffed shells and homemade oreos. Erin made these for us after Sophie was born and I've been dying to have them again ever since.