Thankful Thursday

Jen H. does this almost every week and I want to be more like her, especially this week.

Here are 10 random things, random order:

1. Food network online. Now we don't have cable, I can still get all the recipes online.

2. Maternity clothes. Comfort is paramount, especially after months of sickness, sore muscles and getting kicked about from the inside.

3. Getting kicked about from the inside. We're grateful for the pending arrival of another little boy.

4. Joseph's pillow. I use it whenever he's out of town. Best pillow and best gift ever, since I gave it. I'm a pillow snob and wish I could find one like it for me. (He has offered it, but I can't take something so good away from him!)

5. Good eyesight. I wanted glasses in third grade when my friends were getting them, but Joseph is agonizing over doing Lasik or not, and I'm glad I don't have to worry about that.

6. My mother-in-law is staying with us and it's sincerely a joy having her around (and no, she doesn't read this blog, yet). Who knew we'd get along so well, like "a house on fire?" as she would say.

7. Internet. Thanks to Al Gore. And we love our Sunday webcam talks with "Grandma Reindeer" and Gramps!

8. Toddlers - mostly Samuel of course, who came up with the name "Grandma Reindeer" yesterday.

9. Hot tap water. Remember Jane Eyre breaking the ice to wash her face at Lowood?

10. The Doctrine and Covenants. We started reading this as a family on General Conference Sunday and we are at section 76. I think we've only missed 3 days and it's been great. Samuel has read (call and response style) several sections all by himself!

and a few things I could stand to be a little less grateful for:

• Clearance candy - my latest binge was on $.80 bags of black and blue Batman-themed Reeses Pieces. I got 4 bags because no chocolate = no caffeine, unlike the last binge of $16 on Halloween candy bars.
• internet - what a time waster!
• Library hold requests- what do I do when I have the maximum number of items requested and then there's something I really need to get? They won't let Samuel get a card yet...and then things get lost so easily when you have 20+ items checked out...

Hello Gothic Revival - vacation episode 3

I couldn't get enough of Château Frontenac. Quebec City was lovelier than Montreal -- better preserved as an old city. This meant, of course, more stairs. We spent a long time hiking around looking for the Plains of Abraham. The details of this battle are mind-blowing. The French made mistake, after mistake after mistake. If not for this place, a lot more of us would be speaking French right now.

Vacation to Vermont & Quebec - episode 2

Samuel napped at Place d’Armes in front of Notre Dame Basilica. When he fell asleep, we just stopped wherever we were and relaxed. Joseph was happily entertained by his new Blackberry which was our map and tour guide as we wikied historic locations, battles, and restaurants.

















Jean Talon market was high on my list and I wish I liked eggplant or had the occassion to buy one of these bouquets.


















St. Joseph's Oratory was another hike. Inside there were some escalators, but again, mostly stairs. And we went to the top. We had the option of going up on our knees on the stairway reserved for pilgrims, but I forgot my rosary. St. Joseph's is famous for healing cripples and they have walls covered in canes inside from those who came lame and left walking.
























This folk art sculpture was at Stash Cafe. Going to an authentic all Polish restaurant was a highlight. I cried when I told the waiter I wanted one of everything, and I am only a quarter Polish. (Last week I got emotional again when I saw the billboard for Sobieski Wodka Polska on 610 Loop at the Galleria. ) The BYU MOA had an exhibit of these wood carvings years ago and my parents have a couple. Dibs!

Vacation to Vermont & Quebec - episode 1

One of the first major events of our vacation was Samuel's decision to change his favorite color from green to pink for obvious reasons:

















The Ben & Jerry's brochure had this pink ice cream cone on it and Samuel was determined to have one. But alas, the free sample of the day was white mint chocolate chip.














We drove from Vermont to Joseph's mission stomping ground, Montreal and suburbs. We climbed the stairs & trails to Mont Royal (getting lost because Joseph had only done it in the snow once 10 years ago!). Samuel and Daddy had lots more energy than Pregnant Mommy who trailed behind, complaining that this reminded her of the hike on our honeymoon when we also got lost. In a startling similarity, we learned at the top of both hikes that we could have driven to the top. But we are better people for walking.

Happy Birthday Samuel!

Samuel celebrated his 3rd birthday on October 29th by skipping a nap which threw off the train schedule and required me to simplify the cake design.

We held a party with Aunt Elizabeth and family, Uncle Paul, and Grandpa and Mumsie.

He got some Sunday shirts, books, trains, cars, dumptruck, elephant figurines, a Thomas video, a sit-on-bouncy ball, and a Sam the Tank Engine cake. After 11 tries he extinguished the 3 candles and chose to eat 2 wheels.

He has done little besides play with his new trains and cars. We tried to take his 2 new elephants to the zoo (baby Mac has the same birthday as Samuel) but we left them in the car by accident. We will be sure to take his elephants to visit the real elephants when we go to the zoo again.

Kitchen Day

Finally our kitchen is put together enough to do some real cooking. I worked on 4 main dishes and 2 desserts today:

Black bean lime chili
Pasta Milano (Macaroni Grill copy-cat recipe)
Spicy thai lentils
Chili spread with mexican red beans (crock pot)
Lemon bundt cake (used powdered eggs, butter and buttermilk from food storage, but fresh lemons)
Papaya sorbet

I hope Paul and Joseph can pick up the pace eating so I can have another big cooking day. Some of this will have to be frozen for lazy days to come. I have my doubts that Samuel will eat any of the main dishes, but we'll try.

a boring post-hurricane musing

• We watched the hurricane on tv from our vacation in Montreal where 20,000 people lost power when it hit there. That's nothing compared to Houston, but Montreal is practically a continent away. Big storm.
• No power for 12 days, 3 of which were spent at the house before evacuating to Jodie & Damon's spacious, air-conditioned, doughnut and fudge-laden lodgings.
• Some people have thought that since I have a lot of food we were in great shape for the aftermath. Not necessarily. After three straight hot cooked meals, I was wanting pasta salad, yogurt, milk, anything cold. This is a type of food fatigue I hadn't considered. And anything food storage related has been my pregnancy loathing (my alternative to craving).
• A gal in our new ward suggested that 90-day food storage could be completely prepared without electricity. Figure our how you're going to cook everything and have your menu all worked out.
• If our tree had fallen on the kitchen I could have gotten a nice new kitchen. Let's work on that next time.
• My prediction for the next hurricane: Nov 2008.