Happy Halloween!

Ahhh... the official start of the holiday season. I love Halloween--I love extorting candy from neighbors.

But we do love the pumpkin carving...


We start first thing in the morning, scooping guts.

Then tracing and marking and cutting...


Then they got silly and started posing...

At one point, Scout and N gave a demonstration of couture posing while carving. Notice N's arched back in the second picture... So couture.

The results were grand...

I did the Y for BYU. No one has stolen it yet... Odd. H did a peace sign.


bnlfan_1 made Dr. Who (David Tennant) and the Tardis and M did an angry Jack O' Lantern.


N did Arnold Schwarzenegger.


And M's Pièce de résistance...


Her favorite line... "The forbidden fruit always tastes the fruitiest."

No e-mail AGAIN!

Frank didn't e-mail us AGAIN! ARGH!!!

One Week

I'm so glad this week is coming to a close. It's been stressful and long! I have definitely decided I do not like being a working mom. It's okay to occasionally have to be somewhere that takes all day, but day after day of it is crap. And my house shows it.

I subbed for my librarian friend again this week. She's having a hard time bouncing back from her surgery and the decline in health of her aging parents. I am happy to help her out, and I have really enjoyed the chance to "teach" library, but being gone from home has been an issue. I enjoy being here when the older kids get home from school. And by the time I would get home, it was time for piano, horseback riding lessons, cello lessons, volleyball, or whatever so nothing got done beyond the basics.

In addition, it is the end of the term so everyone is stressed... And we've had orchestra and choir concerts to attend, to boot. I love seeing my kids perform :)

Here's some pics...
M's Central Singer's Choir Concert... They sang Abba songs. That shouldn't be allowed.


N's first orchestra concert as a junior high student... She's the odd one out in our family, playing the violin.


M's orchestra concert... M enjoys orchestra only because she really enjoys the company of the other orchestra geeks she sits by. She refuses to try for first chair because then she couldn't misbehave with the basses and 8th grade cellos. That's my M!


and bnl_fan 's orchestra concert... She's orchestra president again this year and is working so hard to make it fun and cool. She's got the orchestra involved in the Homecoming activities, something they've never done, she's arranged for fund raisers for a CA trip, something that's never been done, and she's hosted parties--here--that was weird. Orchestra kids are just weird.


Strange that they didn't notice the large yellow arrows above their heads...

Thai Coconut Soup

My sister brought this soup to M's baptism. It was so good, I have been craving it so I made it Saturday. aloha_sushi 's was better, but it was still delicious. Try it, you'll love it!

Thai Coconut Soup (Tom Kha Gai)

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons grated ginger
4 to 6 teaspoons Thai red curry paste
6 cups low sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons fish sauce (soy sauce may be substituted)
2 (14 ounce) cans coconut milk
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and sliced thin
into 1-inch strips
1/2 pound white mushrooms, trimmed and sliced thin
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
salt
1/2 cup whole fresh cilantro leaves

1. Heat the oil in a large stock pot over medium heat until
shimmering. Stir in the ginger and curry paste and cook for 1 minute.
Add 1/2 cup of the broth and stir until the curry paste dissolves.
Stir in the remaining broth and the fish sauce. Bring to a simmer and
cook, partially covered, for 15 minutes.

2. Stir in the coconut milk, chicken, and mushrooms. Simmer until the
chicken is cooked, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lime juice and season
with salt. Sprinkle the bowls of soup with the cilantro leaves before
serving.

Rachael Ray Hula Joes

These looked good and easy as I watched her make them yesterday so I gave them a try last night. Yes, they were yummy. I needed something easy because I worked again yesterday... The librarian I subbed for last week needed me afternoons this week as she eased herself back to work after her surgery. Then, as soon as I was done there, I had to run Scout (now asking us to call her Dillian?) to horseback riding lessons. Finally, at 7, we got home and I started dinner.

Hula Joes

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon EVOO - Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/4 pound smoked ham or bacon, diced
• 1 1/2 pounds ground pork
• 1 sweet onion, such as Maui or Vidalia, finely chopped
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 cup fresh pineapple, chopped
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 4 Kaiser rolls
• 1 cup shredded yellow cheddar cheese

Yields: 4 servings

Preparation

Preheat broiler.

Place a large skillet over medium-high heat with one turn of the pan of EVOO, about 1 tablespoon. Cook bacon in the pan until crispy, about 3-4 minutes, and remove it to a small bowl.

Return the pan with the bacon fat back over the heat, add the ground pork and cook until golden brown and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook until soft, about 5-6 minutes.

While the pork and onions are cooking, in a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire and tomato sauce. Pour into the skillet with the pork and onion, cook about a minute, then stir in pineapple. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

While the filling is cooking, split open the rolls and toast them under the broiler. Be careful not to burn them!

To serve, place a bun bottom on a plate with a scoop of Hula Joe mixture and a sprinkling of cheese. Top with the bun cap and serve some Pacific Rim Potatoes alongside.

Pooh Sticks

This weekend was a long holiday weekend for us here in UT. We were going to go back to Delta (my choice), but the kids rebelled a bit so we decided to stay local. One day was spent doing our part to aid in the economic recovery of our great nation. We even got Dilbert into a store! It was good, although he's feeling a bit of sticker shock after seeing how much it takes to buy just a few pieces of clothes for each of the girls.

The next day we puttered around here, getting the yard and house ready for winter but with the weather so beautiful, it is hard to really get serious about it. We wont really get going on the winterizing until the big snow is imminent (at least that's how it's been the last few years.)

On Saturday we went to the city library and then to the creek behind it. My kids insist on playing Pooh Sticks every time we go there, no matter how old they are. For those who don't know what Pooh Sticks are, here's a lesson. First, find a bridge over a stream, creek or river. Next, select a sturdy, recognizable stick. Hold the stick over the water upstream and drop it.


Then rush to the other side of the bridge and watch for your stick to come under the bridge. The first stick to pass under the bridge is the winner. Then repeat the process until your parents loose patience with the game and tell you to stop.



We are very fortunate to have such a lovely park so close to home. It is really like a hideaway with a thick canopy of trees and cute little paths. AND a library! Whoohoo!





I realized that I hadn't marked the passing of our anniversary moving here to UT. We moved here conference weekend, 2000, so it's been 8 years. It doesn't seem it could possibly be that long! But yeah, it has. I still miss my TX friends, but enjoy it here in UT so much. I went for a short hike yesterday to enjoy the changing leaves on the bench above our home (and take a few pictures with my new baby). Apparently everyone else had the same idea, there were so many people on the trail, it was ridiculous.

Photography

This is only for those who have nothing but chores to do but are instead looking to waste some time on the computer, instead.

I have had so much fun with my new baby. I have found I really enjoy the photography experience and I also LOVE the editing. So I've been playing with my Photoshop Elements program and have made these macro pictures. Some worked great, some I'm still working on, and some are awful. But I'm having fun avoiding work.