Sean Penn is worried...

About me and my posterity's opinion of me. Isn't that nice?



Well, Sean Penn, I'm so glad to have caught your attention. Funny thing, I really don't think that my children and grandchildren will be ashamed of me. In fact, I think they'll be proud of the moments in my life where I have stood for my convictions, proud that I drew a moral line amongst all of you 'crazy, homo lovin' sons of guns'. Another funny thing, I think that homosexuals do have the same rights as me. They just don't have the rights they want. But you probably aren't interested in understanding me, are you, Sean Penn? So happy to see you using your platform and your expansive knowledge of everything to promote a movie that you happen to be in.

Ahh, its a good thing this post is all the further I'll think about you today, or probably this week, or maybe even this year (unless you happen to be in another movie and happen to visit Regis and Kelly while I kick some bootie on the elliptical), because unlike you, Mr. Penn, I don't believe that Hollywood actors are the source of all knowledge and, as such, I choose other sources to educate myself on issues regarding morality and politics in our great nation.

The love goes on and on...

We just can't lose that St. Valentine feeling here in the 'Burg although the holiday has come and gone. We are loving so much lately that I wanted to share some of our favorite new loves with you.

• The Magic Jack. Have you heard of it? We get our phone service for $40 a year. Yes, a year, not a month. Magic Jack is a VOIP. We have had Vonage for years and have only been partly satisfied with our service. Magic Jack's service is better than Vonage and loads cheaper. The only downside that we can see so far is that we have to leave the computer on to get phone service, but if we're being honest here, the computer is never off at our house, so it's not a real huge issue. Gosh, I wish Magic Jack was paying me for the glowing endorsement of their product...
• Those of you not familiar with my faith won't get this next love at all. I'm sorry. Email me, I'll explain as best I can. But for all the rest of you, which may in fact be all of you, I have one word for you. Carinessa. Holy cow. And I mean holy. The church has decided to embrace a little spandex. It's a beautiful thing. Revolutionary.
• The ghost that has been haunting our house. He sure looks a lot like Brady, and Brady does all his sound effects, so it's not hard to see why we love him so much. I don't know where Brady got on his 'ghost' kick, but it's so stinkin' cute! He walks around the house "Woo"ing followed by a surprised, "What's that, Mommy?" waiting for us to declare our fright at our friendly ghost.
• Ground turkey. We've been eating it pretty much all the time if we don't go meatless or have chicken. I can count on one hand the number of times I've had ground beef in the last few months. It has 80 fewer calories in a 4 oz serving than ground beef and only 1 gram less protein. It also has 11 grams fewer fat grams per serving. Maybe the taste is acquired, maybe you won't be able to tell a difference. We don't mind the difference and love the healthfulness of it. We definitely watch for sales and have bought most of it at 2.50 a lb or less. If you can find a good deal on 93% extra lean ground beef, its only 10 calories more a serving than the turkey, but I have a hard time finding that lean of beef on sale for 2.50 or less.
• I know I've mentioned it before, but I am still very much in love with the Ann Taylor Loft. Gosh, those people know how to make clothes for women's bodies, or at least this woman's body. I just got this top in a pretty gray and this one in a rich navy and they are so cute! Tyler especially loves the navy one. A lot.
• Cooking blogs. I've printed a kajillion (yes, I really have printed that many, a kajillion...) recipes from blogs and sites I've been perusing. Some of my favorites? Allrecipes.com has a healthy cooking tab and they quite often will list the calorie count of a recipe. Myrecipes.com has all the Cooking Light recipes, so I love that one, too. Love Bakerella, of course. Who doesn't? I mostly just look, but there are few things I'm planning to splurge on. We just tried the Pioneer Woman's Cauliflower soup a couple weeks ago. To. Die. For. We used a bit less butter and evaporated skim milk instead of half n half. And we even forgot the sour cream! Still yummy! Also love Hold the Onions. Real women. Real families. Real food. Yum. A few more good ones I've found: For the Love of Cooking, Becoming Betty, Prudence Pennywise, Smitten Kitchen (although her blog intimidates me A LOT), and oh, I could just go on and on. Ask Tyler. If I've been on a computer, I've been searching for recipes. I don't think my requirements for recipes are too crazy, but I need food that's healthy, that's cheap, and I'd like it to be relatively simple, although I find myself spending more and more time in the kitchen preparing dinner. I'll be sure to share any great new recipes I find!
• The Crafty Crow. I can't tell you what a great idea resource it is. Not only do I have a stack of new recipies, but I've got a list a mile long of things for me and the kids to do on a rainy day (once I can get my hands on some supplies...no craft store in the 'Burg).

We love being in love and would love to hear about any new loves you have! (that means share, people!)

Hot Date Saturday Night

Last Saturday, Ty and I had a hot date.

This Saturday, Lainey, Brady, and I had a hot date.

I'm a lucky girl, aren't I?

We didn't go to a fun restaurant or play a borrowed Wii this week, but instead, stayed in playing with dough that was totally edible (after it was baked... or before it was baked, too, but gotta watch that raw egg business) and yet totally inedible looking.  Ahh, the magic of artificial food coloring.  

If you find yourself in need of a fun project for you and your kids, try these cookies!

Play Dough Cookies

3/4 c. butter, softened

3 oz cream cheese, softened (we used the less fat stuff)

1 c. white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 3/4 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

assorted food coloring

1.  In a bowl, cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla.  Beat until smooth. 

2.  In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt (who really does this???  I just plopped it all in with the wet ingredients).  Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.  Stir until soft dough forms.

3.  Divide dough into fourths.  Tint each with a different food coloring.  The trick is to use good food coloring.  No, all food coloring is not created equal.  A gel or paste food coloring works best.  The liquid drops will just make pastel colored dough.  For a bright, vibrant colored cookie you gotta get the good stuff.  Wilton's gel food coloring works great.  Wrap each color in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.  I just put ours in the freezer for 20 minutes.  It worked great.

4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Shape colors into balls.  The recipe I have says to shape it into 3/4 inch balls, but this, in the end, will make ginormous cookies, so we made ours half that size and they turned out great.   The kids loved making the balls.  If there is one thing any 2 and 5 year old can do, it's make a ball out of play dough.

5.  For each cookie, put one ball of each color together and roll it into one giant ball.

6.  Roll each multi-colored ball into a snake about 12 inches long.  You now understand why this was such a hit.  Balls and snakes.  More balls and snakes.  Until they were utterly sick of making balls and snakes.  Lainey and Brady loved it!  Starting at one end coil roll to make the cookie.  If you're totally OCD like I am, you may even flip your rolled cookie over to see which color pattern you think looks best.  Place cookies 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 8 minutes or until lightly browned.

I saw some that had lollipop sticks baked in them.  I saw some color themed for holidays or birthday parties.  Can't you just picture them all pink and purple and yellow for a princess party?

A journey of a thousand miles...

I've done some really smart things in my life. Earned a place at a good college. Married a great man in the right place. Listened to my mother when she told me not to pick my nose. I've even been blessed with the strength to do a few amazing things. Like have 2 adorable children. Like lose 86 pounds.

But a week and a half ago I did something not so smart. Something I didn't have the strength to do.

I ran. Outside, on a trail. I was going to go for a little over an hour. It was a Saturday. The air was crisp, but not bitterly cold like it had been. I had very low expectations. I was prepared to slow to a walk at at least one or more points during my first outdoor run since high school.

Tyler knew the length of my run wasn't wise and warned me. But I knew I was in great shape, knew I'd be using different muscles, but thought my leaner, more toned body could handle it. I passed other runners and felt a sense of camaraderie that comes from finding someone else doing something that few people actually enjoy. I listened to Abba sing their greatest hits and pounded the dirt while Kelly Clarkson belted out a ballad.

I didn't stop to walk until my turn around point. I was doing great. I walked part of the way home, but I was okay with that. I ended up turning around later than I thought, but that was okay because I felt great. Part of the new me is this crazy part of my brain that tells me to keep going and going and going and going. And while I'm going, I feel pretty good.

The kids were dressed and ready to go when I got home to cool down and stretch. Tyler even got the Christmas lights down (finally). I was so proud of myself. For like 3 hours. You see, I could still walk for the next 3 hours, but the 10-24 after that, I could hardly keep one leg swinging in front of the other. That Saturday happened to be a day we were heading to Seattle to run some errands, like at a mall or two.

I have never had muscles so sore in my life. I couldn't hardly lift my leg into the car. The people bustling around me at each stop must've thought I had some serious medical problems because of the awkwardness in my gait and the stiffness in my legs. Needless to say, it was the longest shopping day of my life.

I admit it. Not the brightest bulb in the bunch here. I was sore for like a week. And I hurt my ankle. So now I can't exercise at all which is driving me totally bonkers. Why the public admission of stupidity? I dunno. So all you experienced runners can laugh at me. So someone else doesn't try what I did. So next time I'll be more careful. To say that I did it and because of the results may never do it again. And even though it hurt like heck I'm still in some crazy way proud of myself for running that long. Even though I may never do it again.

Ever.

Okay, friends. You can't leave me feeling like the hugest idiot ever. What's the stupidest thing you've ever done?

Recapping the recap.

I had the

BEST.

VALENTINE'S.

DAY.

EVER.

Thanks to these guys who partied with us all weekend long and even wrote about it, too. The only things I want to add to her witty synopsis of our day is that we got pink pancakes with whip cream and strawberries for breakfast. And we made these with the kids the day before (love that website. So many ideas for varying ages). And the cake pops. They taste as delectable as they are cute. So yummy. I recommend forgoing the 'pop' part and just make chocolate cake balls. Sinfully delish! The Banks brigade helped make V-day a great day. Love that fam!

But I have to say, it was mostly a good day because I just can't get over how much I love my husband. He spoils me something rotten. Really. I love how we decide not to give gifts to each other and then I get a ton of them. Flowers, chocolate, the twinner t-shirt, a mixed cd, the pedicure, a subscription to Real Simple (AAGGHH!! Can't wait for those to start arriving!), the movie 'Get Smart', the dinner, the dessert... I'll stop now before anyone gets too jealous. I'll just say again, I love my husband. His thoughtfulness always floors me, probably because I'm not nearly so thoughtful. Or because I believe him when he says we won't exchange gifts.

I find myself saying regularly lately that I just don't deserve the kind and loving people who have a small corner in their hearts for me. This is especially true of my sweetheart. Love you, babe!

Martha makes it look so easy...

Happy love day, friends.

To spread the love in our abode, Lainey and I decided to make these from Miss Martha.

Looks simple enough, right? She doesn't even number the instructions because it's sssooo basic. Who hasn't melted crayon shavings with an iron? And we've all got a bag full of crayons too small to save but can't bear throw away because that would just be plain wasteful. Perfect solution for Valentine colored nubbins right here, not to mention the fact that we have all supplies for this project on hand.

Lainey loves projects and LOVES holidays, gets it from her dad. So we tucked Brady in for his nap this afternoon and got to work. Well, actually, I got to work. Lainey watched.

Have you ever tried to sharpen crayons in a pencil sharpener? The wax builds up around the sides. And continues to build up. Until you can't make shavings any more. But before you can't make shavings, the crayon gets really hard to turn. Lainey's little hands just couldn't get that crayon to twist.

Plus we must have some really cheap crayons because they kept breaking. And they were already nubbins, so once they broke we couldn't shave them any more. It takes a TON of crayons to get a decent amount of shavings too. Like maybe 3 whole crayons. And did I mention we were working with nubbins?

And you know, Martha never mentions the static factor. Half the shavings are sticking to our hands because there is so much electricity running through our hot bods. Then, once or twice, you try to blow it off and back into the shavings bowl, but wait, that just blows it all right in your face. Yum . . . wax. In my mouth, on my floor. Everywhere.

So like an hour and a half later, we're hoping we got enough shavings. To the ironing board we go. Even had a paper sack on hand to protect my iron. Oh wait... the color seeps through brown grocery sacks. Remind me to clean that up before Tyler irons a nice white shirt.

Needless to say, the whole thing took the whole afternoon. And by the time I ironed all the wax paper, Lainey was more than done watching me do our project which actually was a good thing because after all the time I spent on this stinkin craft there wasn't any way on earth I was going to let her 5 year old scissor cutting skills near my hard work.

So I cut them into hearts, put them on a string and taped 'em in a window.

Martha's look way better.

Dang that Martha.

Next up, Bakerella's cake pops for my church class kids.

I must be a glutton for punishment.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Winter fun!

My men.

My family.

My kids.

My girl.

My sweetheart.

My life.

Sigh.

Love it.