Don't judge me - I can run farther than . . . well, not much

We survived March and April. This is no small accomplishment. As you know, it's Jack's fault really. No one stepped up to be his driver/secretary, so that was left to Lane, Taylor and me. Track is winding down, FCCLA is over except the big Gala (which, naturally falls on the same day as the end-of-Track team party), and all of the Pow Wows are done. Whew. Now to gear up for the Eagle project.

Amongst all that, Jack's team won the championship for the March league, his track team has done well, and he is almost certain to qualify for Alpine Days in shot put. I am grateful that he wants to be so involved, but - wow - he is REALLY involved. Did I mention he wants to be considered for FCCLA officer for next year? Yeah. That will help with all the busy-ness.

I took us all in to the eye doctor for a checkup. The kids haven't been for 2 years. Turns out I hadn't been for 4 years. That explains why my contacts were so uncomfortable and blurry. Last time Addie was checked her vision was -.5. Now she is up to -1.75. That explains a lot. Isn't she cute in her new glasses? I talked her into a new haircut too. Darnit, she looks too grown up.

Of course there must be cupcakes. Easter is the excuse this time. The coconut was far too sparse because I relied on my memory ("No! You don't need to buy any coconut. You have plenty at home") instead of checking on the coconut inventory ("Yeah. There's almost no coconut.") On top of that I was chastized for using plain old jelly beans instead of the mini eggs or jelly bellies. Oh, the shame.

I took 6 pictures on Easter morning. Not one of them has all 3 kids smiling and looking the same direction. This is the best of the bunch, and Jack looks like he's going to cry. Or maybe he really needs to go to the bathroom. Who knows with him.

In March I took a running class at Runners Corner. As I suspected, I was in fact doing everything wrong. So between the new shoes and the (supposedly) improved form and technique, I am still plugging along. I set out the other night hoping to go 2 1/2 miles. I went as far as I could and Google Maps later informed me it was 1.93 miles. Not too bad considering this new form/technique is forcing me to use muscles that haven't seen the light of day in . . . well . . . probably ever. Somehow my abs are sore from that run. And I think my music selection was counter-productive. I tried running with a metronome to set my pace, but that made me crazy after about a half mile. If I could eliminate some of the clutter from my schedule, I would be able to get out more than once or twice a week. Good grief, I've been training for over a year and am only up to 1.93 miles?

In other Where-In-The-Crap-Did-The-Time-Go news, Lane and I will celebrate 20 years of wedded bliss next Tuesday. We are getting away this weekend for some R&R. 20 years. Wow. We're really old.

Only serious applicants need apply

This was the result of another Cupcake Experiment Day. As a lover of the delightful combination of chocolate, caramel and pretzels I put them together in a cupcake. WAYYYYY too rich to make very often, but pretty good I think.

My company buys daffodils for all the female employees this time of year. It's a fundraiser for cancer. They smell good and really go a long way to brighten up a cubicle.

Taylor has found a job, at long last. She is working at the Cinemark in American Fork. This provides her with an occassional free movie. Since she is the only movie-goer in the family, it's a good fit. I wish she had found something closer, but we are all just glad she found something. She seems to like the More Money - Less Family Time concept that having a job provides. She thinks she has outgrown us, I think.

Jack could have just hired her to be her secretary/driver, of which he has a tremendous need. He is so busy right now. The FCCLA conference is over, so that's a huge relief. He had a lot of fun at the conference in Layton - which included 2 nights at a hotel - and he scored a silver medal with his Plarn presentation. Somehow in all the madness of packing his bag and checking it twice, and bedazzling his presentation board, we forgot to pack his Plarn hat. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Lane drove up to pick Jack up on the last day of the conference to get him to his track meet at Lehi High on time. Then we had to go pick him up from the track meet to get him to his scout activity close to on time (ok, 15 minutes late. Lehi traffic is terrible!) Hopefully there won't be many days like that one. But I do have to pick him up from his next track meet early to get him to basketball practice on time. See - I wasn't kidding about the driver and the secretary.

We are to go see Dr. Day at PCMC on Monday with Addie. That's always an eventful trip. Fingers crossed for no surprises. Addie does like to throw us the occassional curve ball.

I went out for a run this evening. I haven't run outside yet this year, and I was really curious as to how it would go. I had planned a course that included a lot of downhill, since it's been a while. Even over the winter I have been far from consistent. Well, I am pleased to say that it went pretty well. I made it 1.6 miles before it started to get dusky and I thought I better head home. With the days staying lighter longer, I should be able to extend that out. It is also worth noting that the instructor at the running class I took recently encouraged running on uneven suraces, like gravel, grass, etc. With all due respect to those in charge of such things, I think many of the paved roads in this old town of mine easily qualify as an uneven running surface.

My goal is to do a 5k this summer and actually run the entire 3 miles. My stride is so short and my cadence so slow that I will never, EVER be a contender but a "real" completion would be nice. Especially if I could convice some 5k committee to start the race at my house and do the entire thing downhill. Except for the real runners. They should have to do some uphill. Just to even things out.

April 24 brings our 20th wedding anniversary. We should do somthing really exciting to celebrate. I don't know what. At our advanced age, and the exhaustion that is keeping up with the busy schedules of our family, that something exciting might be a quiet night in and going to bed at 10. Maybe 10:30 if we are really feeling like living on the edge.

It's probably more than you really wanted to know

It's a terrible thing to have to waste a PTO day acutally being sick. I don't frequently get sick-sick. Normally it's just more of an "under the weather" sort of thing where I lay around mostly. But this was sick-sick. Knock-Me-On-My-Butt sick. Thankfully it appears to be a 24 hour sort of thing.


Everything was all well and good yesterday. Nothing out of the ordinary. Went to work, made dinner with Lane (haystacks), and then went out to pick up Jack from practice. Driving home I started to feel pretty blah, but I had promised to take Taylor to buy a few things she needed, and I had wanted to go to Kohls. But as I drove home I kept feeling worse and worse, and despite my better judgement - which was to put Taylor off and go get in bed - I went ahead and took her to Walmart since it's way closer than Kohls. I sent her to get one item while I went the other direction to get the other hoping it would speed things up. But finding her item took a little longer than expected so I kept sitting down on a bench every few minutes because I was afraid I might actually pass out. We got done in a reasonable amount of time, and I checked out at the jewelry counter to speed things along and I drove home, sprinted into the house, and climbed in bed.


It proved to be one of the most miserable nights of my life and I stayed home today. After the kids all got off to school, I finally fell asleep for about 3 hours and felt tons better after that. I even managed to make it to my dentist appointment today, which worked out pretty well since I was already miserable. I hate dental exams.


In other news, Jack is super busy these days. His basketball league regular season finished up at the end of February. His team made it to the semi-finals where they lost to a really good team from Lehi. He is now in March league and they have only played one game and his team won. He also decided (with only a little prodding from me) to join the track team at school. So on Tuesdays and Fridays he has basketball practice from 5 until 6 and he has track practice every day from 3 until 4:15. That means on Tuesdays and Fridays he doesn't get home from school at all until 6 pm. Add to that this month he has Pow Wow at BYU on 2 Saturdays, a band competition, and and FCCLA Star Event and State Convention, for which he needs to make more Plarn. Lane decided to make the ultimate sacrifice and let Jack use his cell phone so we can keep track of Jack. As part of his Ultimate Sacrifice he got a new smart phone, which he is still figuring out.


Taylor is still looking for a job. I think 16 1/2 years of indoctrination have worked since she is thinking Snow College might be the best place for her to start college. College. How weird is that? She took the ACT exam this week and will likely take it again next month. She also has Choir Tour coming up in April and will finally get to go to Disneyland, since her mean and neglectful parents have never provided that opportunity. I hope it lives up to her dreams.


As for Addie, we have an appointment scheduled for her at PCMC in early April. Her PT/INR has been good for a while now and so we haven't had to make any adjustments to her coumadin and she has to get her blood drawn only about once a month. Much better than every 2 weeks.


So my new stove is totally awesome. I love getting a new toy. Finally, all of my appliances match - or so I thought until I realized the range hood is still almond. I guess I'll need to replace that. It's so good to be rid of that stupid smooth top stove. Whoever invented something so stupid? They should be shot.

This is what Taylor refers to as an Epic Fail

And that's what happens to cupcakes when you bake them for 30 minutes before realizing that the baking element in your oven has not only died, but broken clean in half. I can deal with the loss of potential delicious peanut butter cup cupcakes, but they were actually for a friend to present to his wife for her birthday, which obviously didn't work out. And that makes me extra sad.

I know it's possible to purchase a new baking element and replace it. I also know that a new baking element only costs $30-$40. I also know where said baking element can be purchased. I even know what the store hours are for the store to purchase the baking element. But what's a girl to do when she already hates the stove she has with the white hot passion of a thousand suns? The girls says "Honey, I need to buy a new stove." And well-trained Honey says "Ok."

So off we went to Home Depot to look for a new oven. I am evidently the only surviving person who hates (again, with the white hot passion of a thousand suns) the smooth top stoves. Home Depot had 2, yes 2, electric coil stoves. And both were unacceptable to me.

So we went off to Best Buy, where we found 1 electric coil stove, which was even less acceptable than the ones at HD. We happened upon a very helpful salesman who directed me to the store website where I found the perfect one. Except that it can't be here until next Wednesday. Sigh.

I guess I will have to go visit my mom and borrow her stove to re-do the failed cupcakes. I don't want to wait a week to remedy the problem - I have the frosting all prepared and waiting in my fridge.

I will have to go a week, A WEEK, without using my oven. I may cry a little bit. I do love me some baked foods.

No baked potatoes for a week? Oh, wait. I can use my crock pot. I might make it after all.

Vote Lari for Mean Mom!!

Jack had to do a Recycling presentation for his FCCLA conference on Monday. He chose to do Plarn, which is yarn made out of plastic grocery bags. He convinced Taylor to loom a hat out of said Plarn, which we stupily forgot to include in the photograph.


He did pretty well at the conference, considering neither one of us fully understood the instructions and judging criteria. He scored in the Silver range, and was given much helpful feedback so he can improve his presentation when he takes it to the state FCCLA conference. I am so impressed that he chose to be a part of this group, I didn't push him . . . or even give him a gentle nudge. He just came home one day early in the school year and announced he wanted to join FCCLA. And as far as I can tell, he's had a good experience and says he will participate again next year. Maybe he is not my son after all. I was too big a baby to ever do anything when I was in school. It's one of my many, many regrets.


It's getting to be time to psych myself up to do the taxes. I have all my paperwork now, I just have to do it. It's not a job that I enjoy - even less so than doing my checkbook, which is saying a lot - but I know I have money coming back so I better get to it soon. Taylor has a W2 this year. And since I'm auditioning for the Mean Mother title, I will make her do it herself. On paper. With a pencil. I am just that cruel. Maybe, if I'm feeling a little bit generous, I'll give her a calculator. My Mean Dad made me do my own taxes when I got my first job at 16. On paper. With a pencil. (Never mind that was the Way-Old days before Turbo Tax). Once I got done being mad about it, it was one of the best things I ever learned how to do. Yes, it was in fact the EZ form, but I was able to keep doing my own taxes - on paper, with a pencil - up until the time we bought our first house in 1996.


That should pretty much give me the title of Mean Mother. That and I took her phone away for not paying her bill. That was pretty mean too. And it's probably pretty mean to keep telling her she'll thank me one day.

I'm Calling it Mexicali Chicken and Rice

I took a whole week off work during Christmas break. I don't think I cooked a single meal between Dec. 26th and New Years Day. I had really good intentions. I did. I also had a bunch of restaurant gift cards. You do the math.

So I'm back to work and back to cooking dinner. Today was scheduled for those Buffalo Chicken/Bacon/Ranch wraps that we love, but I saw a recipe somewhere (not sure if it was email, Pinterest or where) and it sounded so good so I decided to bump the wraps in favor of something that can both thrill and terrify my family: New Recipe Night.

It is important to know that I refuse to buy things that I won't use up before it expires, or even worse, ever use again period. If I can't think in my mind where to find it at Macey's, I won't buy it. If I have never, ever heard of it, I won't buy it. If it requires a mid-week grocery store run, I won't buy it. This leads to a fair amount of substituting and improvising. Sometimes it works better than others.

So since I don't know what tonight's recipe was supposed to taste like, I have declared my substitutions/improvisions to be perfect. And who's going to argue with me? Exactly.

It is also important to note that this recipe exceeded my 30 minute meal rule (not by much) and required grilling (meaning Lane had to help. I'm not allowed to touch the BBQ). And I'm not sure what to call it since it isn't the same as the recipe, which means I am free to call it whatever the heck I want to. I'll have to think on that for a minute.

So here we go.

I started last night by marinating the chicken. It was supposed to be a store-bought marinade, but as I stated before that would require a mid-week grocery run. I also prefer to make my own stuff, whenever possible. So this is actually a fajita marinade, and I had almost 3 pounds of chicken to do:

1/2 c lime juice

2/3 c water

1/4 c olive oil

1/4 c soy sauce

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1 t salt

1 t cayenne pepper

1 t ground black pepper

The recipe says to marinade for at least 2 hours. Grill the chicken.

While the chicken is grilling, start the rice.

2 T butter

2 c long grain rice (not instant)

2 T dried onion flakes

1 pkg taco seasoning

4 cups chicken broth

1 8 oz can of tomato sauce

Melt the butter, and sear the rice in the melted butter for a minute or so. Add the other ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender. (Why did I write that? Everyone knows how to make rice on the stovetop, right?)

While the rice is cooking, start the cheese sauce.

2 T butter

2 T flour

1/4 t salt

1 c milk

1 c shredded cheese

Melt the butter. Blend in the flour and salt very, VERY well (stir constantly for at least a minute). Add milk, stirring constantly until thickened. Stir in melted cheese.

Next time I make this sauce, I will add some canned green chilis. I think that would add tremendous flavor. And maybe a dash of tabasco as well.

To serve: place rice on the plate, top with grilled chicken. Drizzle cheese sauce on the chicken and top with chopped tomatoes or pico.

ALWAYS use pico if you have a choice. And you do have a choice. Pico is super easy. I didn't have any green onions, so again, you improvise. All food of this genre MUST. HAVE. PICO. It's just a rule.

One more Christmas project. I made this for my neice, and aside from the fact that I clearly can't sew ruffles in a straight line, I totally love it. I'll be making one for myself soon.

Part IV

Once done with zigzagging both long twisty ruffles, fine the center of each piece and mark it with a pin.

Line up the two pin markings and pin the two pieces together.

Sew the two pieces together so the don't shift around when you wear your new scarf.

I didn't want to use myself for a model, so this is Addie's monkey, his name is Number One (seriously, I didn't make that up) modeling the new scarf. This is so easy, a beginning sewer can do it, and it's a fun way to use up your old tshirts. It took less than an hour, start to finish, including taking the pictures.

Now send me pictures of the scarf you make!