A boy obsessed.

I'm not sure where this spidey obsession started, but I do know that Dave only has three pairs of Spiderman jammies, so if I don't do laundry every 3 days I am in big trouble.

Just in case you were wondering where I work...

According to Dave, my building is the one in front to the right with the tree blocking the entrance. Just look for the circus tent and hot dog stand. You can't miss it.

Wordless Wednesday: Where my heart is.

Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light.

If you drove down our street tonight after, say, 6:30 or so this is what you'd see:

A jolly little elf named Mike hung these festive red lights after his last day of classes last week. One semester down, three to go! Woo Hoo!

He was a little afraid to hang our snowflake lights out on the gable by Dave's room, though. Then he refused to hold the rope attatched to my waist while I risked my life on the steep part of the roof to hang them. Any ideas?

Crazy Women Drivers

I don't like getting in trouble.

And I don't like driving. If I were rich I would hire a chauffeur to drive me everywhere, instead of a cook or someone to clean my house (although both of those would be nice as well).

At the risk of sounding a little nutty, let me just say that I never professed to be a good driver either- so it may not be really out of character for me to get pulled over for DRIVING IN THE WRONG LANE OF TRAFFIC.

Not exactly driving, but apparently pulling into the wrong lane of traffic to turn left at a very confusing construction site that I pass by nearly every day. Despite being pulled over and humiliated on my way back from the local Blockbuster, however, I did not get a ticket for actually driving in the wrong lane of traffic, but for not having a current insurance card in my car. The current card was sitting in my email inbox. Unfortunately, since October I have only thought about printing it when I pass a cop on the road.

Hairspray was good.

Merry Christmas to me.

Little Tree

I made Mike a Christmas ornament out of this poem once when we were dating. He laughed at it, but I still think it's cute- and appropriate for our first tree.

little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower
who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly
i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don't be afraid
look the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,
put up your little arms
and i'll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy
then when you're quite dressed
you'll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they'll stare!
oh but you'll be very proud
and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we'll dance and sing
"Noel Noel"

e.e. cummings

True Stories of the ER: It's been a while.

Sometimes you call 'em wrong. At least I do. I'm pretty good about 75% of the time picking out the sick ones from the ones seeking 'secondary gain', if you will. I guess that's why we have protocols and I bring anyone over 35 with chest pain and a history of heart problems back into a room, even if I think they're full of it.

That's what I did last night, thinking- there's nothing wrong with this guy. So you can imagine when I heard the 'Code Blue' button alarming while triaging patients I was a little surprised. I rushed back to see every nurse in the department, except me, in the room with the patient whom I had checked in walking and talking almost hour before.

Now it was my job to bear the bad news to the 10 people waiting to check in, and those in their rooms waiting on pain medicine or ready to go home. It's going to be a while. Our hospital isn't huge, there's not a ton of staff, so when disaster strikes everything bottlenecks, of course. Apparently other people don't get that.

Most everyone was fine with the explanation I gave. Even the one whose stomach was not being kind, from either end. Their eyes widened and mouths shut when I explained that another person's heart had stopped and the rest of the staff were trying to help him live again. There's always that one, though, who just doesn't get it- and never will.

Umm- ma'am- how much longer is it going to be? My ride is waiting on me?

It's going to take a little more time. Hopefully they can get your paperwork to you soon, but the doctor and other nurses are tied up in a patient's room who's heart stopped. They are trying to stabilize him and get him breathing again.

I understand that, but it's been twenty minutes and I need to go.

blink. blink.

Exciting News!

I decided yesterday I had nothing left to blog about. I resigned myself to give it up and remove my blog from the interweb, but last night a phantom phone call gave me a reason to keep going. I was sitting at the nurse's station, stewing over all the work I had to do- all the people needing things from me and all at once- when a little voice came through line 1281:

Barbie?
Me. confused. Hi Lindsey...
Did you..
Oh my gosh!

None of my extended family (on my side) are members of the same church as us, except my cousin Lindsey who was just baptised in April of this year. She had planned on going to a college here in Texas after graduating from high school this spring, but had major surgery on her back this summer and deferred her acceptance for the first year.

She went to a meeting recently at the planned school of future attendance and decided it wasn't quite the right place, so she decided to apply to BYU. After only 3 agonizing weeks she got an email last night that she was accepted! Hoorah! I can't wait to help drive her up next fall!

Congrats Linds... I see a BYU sweatshirt for Christmas in your future...

I'm full of it.

(This one's for you Andi.)

Elfed

I had to copy Emily and make an elf dancing video of us. Just a little something to get us in the holiday spirit! Enjoy!

Winter Wonderland

That picture of me with the flaring nasal passages had to go.

It snowed in Texas on Thanksgiving. Some might say "hell froze over", but that hurts my feelings- so I'll just say "a cold blue narthern blew through". And even though 3 days ago it was 85 and we were using the AC, the heater is on today.

My brother came home as a surprise to my parents this Thanksgiving. We hid him in Dave's room and invited the 'rents over under the guise of a little pre-turkey pizza treat. This was my mom's reaction:


I really didn't expect that reaction. I don't think Jacob did either, as you can see. She's going to kill me for posting this picture, but I love this picture. I think I can relate to it more and more as I get older and holidays and years pass. It's weird the emotional significance that goes into this time of year. As for me, I had to work Thanksgiving night, so I was pretty crabby (hence why there aren't more pictures of Thanksgiving)- which was a bummer. But the food was excellent and the company was good. Oh, and Jacob won 3rd place in the Turkey Trot downtown! I love my family.

That was my sentimental moment for the day. I think I'll have a turkey sandwich now.

My uvula hurts. And my back is sore.

There is nothing more fun on a cool November Saturday than hanging out with one of your best friends in the world at a crowded amusement park- with your respective boyfriends- and giving your uvulas a workout. If anyone tells you different, they are lying.

The spinning airplanes. Probably just as scary as the "Batman" or "Titan".

You know you eat out too much when...

you're driving in the car, close to lunch time, and your two year old (without prompting) pipes up,

"Wanna junior bacon, Mama?"

...

Wordless Wednesday: Making his list, checking it twice.

It's all Greek to me.

We spent a relatively quiet weekend at home this weekend. But not really at our home. We were busy raffling off our junk at my parent's house (better location for ye olde garage sale). But after all the junk was gone we found some time to add extra fat to the winter proofing layer on our bodies by attending the St. Demetrios Greek Food Festival and sampling some of their spectacular baklava and other kafenio (Greek for dessert!). I have eaten baklava before, but never made by real Greek grannies- and believe you me- there is a difference.

We also got to see some Greek dancing. Reminded me of that one movie... ya know... Opa!

Here is their Baklava recipe. I'm going to try it one of these days.

Baklava
St. Demetrios' Anna Panagopoulos, with suggestions from Carnation Laverty, put together this home adaptation of the St. Demetrios baklava recipe:
Yields 24 triangles
Syrup:
6 cups sugar
3 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
Half a lemon
1/4 cup honey
Pastry:
1 1/2 pounds (6 sticks) butter (at St. Demetrios, they use a mixture of butter and margarine)
1 1/2 pounds walnuts or pecans, chopped medium-fine
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 pounds purchased phyllo dough
Syrup:
1. Stir all ingredients together in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil 30 to 45 minutes, until a thin thread forms when you let some of the syrup drop from a spoon. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
Pastry:
1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a warm burner and keep it warm over very low heat (at St. Demetrios, they use glass coffee carafes for this). Pour some of the butter into a bowl to use for brushing the phyllo; as the butter in the bowl cools, you will need to replenish it with the warm butter.
2. In a large bowl, thoroughly toss the nuts with the cinnamon.
3. With a wide paintbrush or pastry brush, brush the bottom and sides of a 9-by-12-inch pan with melted butter.
4. Take phyllo dough from refrigerator; remove a stack of 10 sheets, cover snugly with plastic wrap or a damp dishtowel to keep the phyllo from drying out and set aside (stack 1). Remove another 10 sheets, which you will use immediately (stack 2). Cover the remainder of the phyllo with plastic wrap or a damp towel (stack 3).
5. From stack 2, remove 2 phyllo sheets and fit them into the pan, folding if necessary. Brush the top thoroughly with melted butter. Repeat with 2 more sheets, buttering the top to coat, and continue buttering every 2 sheets until all 10 sheets have been layered into the pan.
6. Scatter the top of the buttered phyllo evenly with some of the chopped nuts, making sure to cover the corners. Remove plastic wrap or towel from stack 3 of the phyllo and place 2 sheets over the nuts. Butter and scatter again with nuts. Continue in this fashion until all phyllo in stack 3 and all the nuts have been used.
7. Remove the plastic wrap or towel from stack 1 and layer 1 phyllo sheet into the pan; butter thoroughly. Continue layering and buttering, 1 sheet at a time, until all sheets have been used.
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
9. With a sharp knife, cut the baklava in the pan into 3-inch squares; then cut each square in half on the diagonal, creating triangles.
10. Place the pan in the oven and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until golden on top.
11. Remove the pan from the oven to a work surface and immediately pour the cooled syrup generously over the phyllo in the pan to soak the pastry thoroughly. There should be some syrup standing in the bottom of the pan; the pastry will absorb more syrup as it cools. Swirl the pan to make sure the syrup is evenly distributed and let cool. Baklava is best if allowed to stand for 1 day.

Question.

If I were to eat a steady diet of mini almond joy candy bars left over from Halloween, would my butt eventually grow so big that it would render me unable to fit through the bathroom door, and cause me to rely solely on the use of adult diapers for my toileting? I guess that's why they call them "Depends".

I think my hair still smells like campfire.

Camping is relaxing. It doesn't matter how many children aged less than 5 you have to corral every now and again and keep out of the campfire. There is something about sleeping (and watching the second season of The Office on portable DVD) outside that is soothing to the soul.


Mmm. Charred campfire dog for dinner. Hain't nothin better.
Me leading the kids on a Beatles-esque morning jog.
For some reason the kids kept chanting "food and dreams!" while jumping on this air mattress. I'm not sure I get it. Then again, I'm not sure that there's anything to get.
Morgan's first fish! Better luck next time Dave.

Oh. And we brought along a potty chair "for Morgan", although I won't say I didn't enjoy the use of the potty chair when I inevitably had to pee out all my hot chocolate at 3 a.m.. I'll never camp without one again.

We have some prizes!

I have had my eye on these little pumpkin oil burners from Bath and Body, so I'm glad two women won the contest instead of men... (not that men couldn't enjoy an oil burner)...

These will be so cute and festive for Thanksgiving and I love the pumpkin scent! Hoorah for prizes! I think I'll have another contest soon.

Also- Amy and G- could you email me your most recent addresses so I can get your packages off soon? Thanks!

We're going camping tonight and all I can keep thinking is that I wish our old camping buddies, the Williams and the Eichelbergers (whom I have no digital camping pictures of:( ) were here to camp with us. We will be thinking of you as we inhale lung fulls of smoke and feed little chimpmunks our breakfast.

We have a winner!

Actually- 2 winners. G for guessing first the answer I was looking for- an egg, and Amy for most correctly guessing a hatching egg. So I was the egg, Dave was the chicken and I definitely came first (as Mike's shirt inquired). Have a fun halloween! I will be looking for your prizes tomorrow.

So close

You guys are getting hotter! I guess the white feathers gave it away. Still, no one has guessed exactly what my costume is- and therefore the prize has yet to be awarded. I give props to some very unique answers (ie: halloween rockette, "mother" goose) and for using the title of some of my old blog posts as your answer (see the seagull comment).



Here are some pictures that might help (ahem- give it away). Good luck, Happy Halloween Eve and may you be the first to post a comment.




(Mike's costume)