Me:
I hate making decisions with only partial information.
My Sister, Amanda:
Calm yourself ! Just remember that you have birthed five children. If you’ve done that then making plans with only partial information should be a cinch. Just remember….they don’t offer epiderals for indecision. So man up.
Me:
Putting on Big Girl Panties Now
Last week, the Man of the House and I went tango dancing. It was marvelous! We both loved it-even though we were beginners. We have tried merengue, salsa, waltz, and square dancing before. We had fun with those but TANGO is our dance. I intend to make sure we continue with it!!!!!
The tango music was familiar to me and I remembered a movie my sisters and I LOVED watching when we were girls.
Some Like it Hot with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemon.
So funny! (“How do they walk in these things? It’s like Jello on springs.”)
Jack Lemon’s character, Jerry/Daphne the Bass Fiddle player, is my favorite. Tony Curtis (Jo/Josephine the sax player) makes a prettier woman, but he isn’t as funny.
Probably my favorite quote from the whole movie is when Tony Curtis who has been masquerading as Josephine, changes into sailor clothes to pose as a millionaire–attempting to woo Marilyn Monroe. Jack Lemon is angry about it and gripes him out.
Jerry/Daphne : “And where did you get that phony accent? No-body talks like that!” You have to hear it though and I couldn’t find a YouTube of it. Because actually, Tony Curtis is doing Cary Grant’s voice and doing it perfectly.
So glamorous! (Marilyn Monroe & Tony Curtis making out fully clothed for hours. That’s how I formed my first ideas of what sex was. I haven’t decided if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But I do know it is preferable to all the movies today that just throw people naked in bed with no prelude and no prettiness.)
I got a hair cut today and it is okay–not a disaster or anything–but it doesn’t look like the picture I showed the stylist AT ALL 😦
I really had my heart set on cute bangs–and there are no bangs!
After drowning my sorrows in jalapeno nachos, I’ve decided that I like my hair cut after all.
Also, I can do this with it:
Blogger’s new templates finally worked for me! I’m so happy about having a 3 column blog! Finally. I might weep a little for joy.
Thanks, Blogger. I don’t know what you did, but it worked.
**happiness**
I did get some sewing in before Christmas! It was all presents for other people.
This sweet little lamb is just a white pom pom I made out of crochet thread. Then I cut out a little black face from acrylic felt and used elmer’s glue to glue it onto the pom pom. I made the little bow from ribbon and glued it on as well. You can’t see, but there is a black pipe cleaner, bent in half and tucked through the middle for his feet and a ribbon tied through his middle for hanging.
I made these sweet silhouett ornaments for my MIL.
RootsandWings gives a great tutorial/pattern for. But I forgot to take a picture. They turned out so well that I’ll be making some for myself, so I’ll take a picture for you all to see then.
Remember this hat I made with a felted rabbit angora wool sweater? I used the leftovers and Chez Beeper Bebe’s pattern to make 4 cute Beddie Bye Beasties for the big kids.
I made 2 rabbits and couldn’t find one of them for the picture. that is why there are only three for you to see. (Just in case you thought I couldn’t count.)
I was worried because I only had enough red to make 2 and then I came up with the brilliant idea of using the white wool for the fronts. So each child got one with a very cuddly side. That felted angora is amazingly soft for rubbing your face on. Judging by how much the beasties are carried around the house, the kids love them. 
For Cutie Pie, I used Mama Byrd’s Mortimer the Tortoise pattern. Cutie Pie saw Thomas over at Mama Byrd’s house and did not want to be parted from him. So I knew she needed her own.
She was most joyful and has named her little guy NapTurtle. Which I am sure is short for Naphtali.
Here she is bestowing him with many kisses.
Here he is watching Ponyo with his little mistress.
One of my friends mentioned in passing to me that she had always wanted a flannel night gown like the ones I made for my girls last year. I thought. I could do that! Wish Granted:
(well I had to try it on to make sure it would fit! I made it without a pattern. Good thing I did, too, because the arms were too short and I had to lengthen them.)
If you have a peasant blouse pattern or know how to make one, that is all I did. Just make it 60″ long.
My amazing and talented cousin has started a blog listing great groupon deals
What is a Groupon, you ask? I didn’t know either. It is like a coupon and like a gift certificate. You buy it, but it is good for usually at least twice the money you paid for it. Sweet, huh?
It all seems rather overwhelming to me, but my cousin is taming the beast and creating nice shortcut lists for us so we can look and click and not have to sort through pages of lists to find groupons we would like/use.
You can experience the Groupon List by clicking here and then seeing the daily list by clicking on “blog”
Happy Deal Finding!
Plus you need to get on there so you don’t miss sweet deals like this one.
$85 for $155 custom made jeans.
**sob**
That would have been a Merry Christmas to me.
Here’s one I’m considering:
That would be a Merry Christmas to the Man of the House
Lost Valley, Arkansas, is an AWESOME place to visit!
Following my handy camping checklist that I made last time, we had a lovely time and didn’t lack for any cooking/first aid tools.
The camping sites were a little close, so it was noisier and not as restful as some of our trips. The kids all helped set up the tent this time.
Our neighbor to the left had about six 11-13 year-old kids. What we heard from their direction all evening was: ” You guys come help me.” “I could use some help here.” “come ON, guys!”
Hopefully, with a little more experience, that Dad will learn to give specific job assignments/requests. Then he’ll have help.
Building blocks are provided at each campsite for your rich entertainment.
But we did have the opportunity to share our over-abundance of delicious dinner with the tent on the right, saving them from a disastrous dinner of hot dogs. **shudder**
I was tired of dutch oven recipes that featured Cream of *whatever* Soup and searched around until I found this baby. In one word, it was *mouthwatering*. We’ve made it at home since then–it’ll be a regular on the menu.
Dutch Oven Cheesy Chicken Italian-o
the recipe says that it serves 16. I think it accurately serves 8 hungry adults. I was too tired when I packed to do any math, so I made the entire recipe. My husband thought I was crazy, but it all got eaten 🙂 It was that good.
Ingredients:
1 lb bacon (you KNOW this is gonna be good)
8 chicken breasts, cut into chunks– or do like me and just throw the frozen bag in the cooler for worry- free car travel. Even if they are still frozen when you dump them in the dutch oven, you can chop up with your spoon later in the process.
3 cloves garlic, chopped or minced
1 large yellow onion, sliced
1 29 oz can diced tomatoes or 6 tomatoes, diced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
4 cups Minute Rice
**
1 can tomato paste
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp ground oregano
2 tsp basil
1 1/2 tsp. parsley
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
**
1 cup Mozzerella cheese
1 cup Cheddar Cheese
1 cup Parmesan Cheese
I mixed up the sauce part (tomato paste through black pepper) at home and put it in a tupperware to save some space in the cooler and preptime at the campsite
Bubba and magpie helped with chopping veg.
The recipe directions included lots of steps–cook A, take it out, cook B, put in C and A, yadda yadda. That was way too much work for a camp meal. And before you raz me about the amount of cheese, I’ll have you know that is 1/3 what the recipe actually called for. That’s right the origional was 3 cups mozzerella, 3 cups cheddar and 1/2 cup parmesan. Can you believe it? We tried it that way and this way and there is no taste sacrificed by reducing the cheese.
Here are the lazy camper instructions:
Heat a 12″ dutch oven using 30 charcoal briquettes on the bottom. Chop bacon into 1″ chunks and add to hot oven. Fry until brown. Remove bacon from oven. and hide it between 2 paper plates. Try not to eat it all.
Pour out some of the bacon fat–reserving at least 2 Tblsp. in oven. Layer in all ingredients, except the cheese: onion, chicken, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, rice, and sauce mix.
Put lid on dutch oven and transfer 15 briquettes to the top. Take family on a hike to wait for food to cook–sort of like Goldilocks and the 3 Bears.
Find the Bear’s Toilet.
After 30-45 minutes, return to camp and the heavenly smells calling you. Lift the lid and stir in the cheese and the reserved bacon. Put the lid back on for five minutes to melt the cheese while everyone washes their hands.
Enjoy the most tasty meal you ever ate on a camping trip!
The next morning we set out on our hike to see the waterfalls and caves of Lost Valley.
We packed sandwiches, water bottles, and granola bars
None of the pictures I have capture the scale or beauty of the things we saw.
My favorite part of the hike happened when we stopped to eat our sandwiches
We stopped to eat our sandwiches in Cobb Cave (so named for the ancient corn cobs and other indian relics found there. We were happily eating our lunch, when suddenly we heard singing. A beautiful hillbilly love ballad, ringing through the cave–which was shaped like a natural amphitheater. I looked around and saw, clear across the cave on a heap of rock, a man, singing to his lovely lady. It was so sweet. They were far enough away that I couldn’t even really see their faces clearly, but the cave amplified the sound, so I could hear perfectly.
After teasing my DH a bit for not serenading me, we went back to our lunch. The song ended and then to the delight of the lovely lady and everyone else, our bold singer went down on one knee and asked her to marry him for all the world to hear–at least all the hikers at Lost Valley that day heard– because of that natural amphitheater effect I mentioned.
Happy Sigh.
The lovely lady was suitably ecstatic and after laughing, crying, jumping up and down and clapping her hands, she kissed her bold singer very enthusiastically several times. I went back to my sandwich in order to give them as much privacy as one can expect when one proposes in the presence of a family of 7, a large boy scout troup, and 3-4 senior citizens who got on the wrong OATS bus and ended up hiking Lost Valley instead of going to water aerobics at the YMCA.
Happy Sigh.
**BTW did you know that it is almost impossible to carve a “Pie” pumpkin? I found that out the hard way.
I only made one costume this year. Bubba has been planning to be Grover–from Lightning Thief–for the whole year. He read all the books and he and his friends at school pretend they are the characters all the time.
I found this marvelous goaty fake fur at Jo-Anns and used a Pajama pants pattern to make the goat legs, complete with tail and hooves.
After the movie came out, the deal was almost off because, suddenly Bubba though Grover should have a molded leather vest thing. I said No Way. I intended to create an orange Camp Half-blood T-shirt, but I didn’t quite get it done. That’s me, scrimping by on the least possible effort. Look, a mostly orange t-shirt. That’s good enough.
I got the clay and forced Bubba to make his own horns which I hot-glued to some black hair barretts. They didn’t stay in very well.
He had practiced a “goat walk” which was freaky, accurate, and hillarious! My son is awesome.
The girls all borrowed costumes from a friend. I love that kind. (both costume and friend)
MagPie got this floaty vampiress dress. She looked so eerie and floaty and perfect in it and then she insisted on having her face painted and that just cheapened the whole thing and she looked common. Sad day. But it was her costume, not mine, so I tried to keep my disappointment to myself.
Marvelous Pigs in Satin 