Listen here, Bakerella...

Recently a friend introduced me to this blog. Bakerella creates amazing sweet treats, takes fabulous pictures of them, and inspires readers everywhere to attempt new culinary feats. Including me. After taking a look at this recipe, I decided to try it for my mother-in-law's birthday cake. Oh Bakerella. You make it look so easy.


Uniform layers? Nope. Crumble-free layer of icing on top? Nope. Richest yellow cake I've ever tasted? Yep. Hey, if I was only going to achieve one of the three, at least I picked the most satisfying.

In other events, our living room became a toy vomitorium last night after we celebrated Christmas with my in-laws. Holy. Crap.

First, raise your hand if your Nana is a librarian!


And that's not a complete accounting of the books received by the girls yesterday. Bless her heart, Nana can't resist a good book when she sees one. And since she's a librarian, she sees a lot of books. Between holiday gifts and Hey-it's-great-to-see-you-again! gifts from Nana and Bumpa, the girls probably receive 20-25 books per year from them, all with a personal note inside the front cover. (I love the idea of a personal note, but it also immediately eliminates those books from our donation pile; I simply cannot give away a book that has a personal inscription. I just can't do it.) Between their librarian grandmother and English teacher mother, my children are doomed to a life buried beneath stacks of books they may never get to or appreciate.

The highlight for our family was the 11-in-1 Game Set Bella received which includes chess, checkers, pick-up-sticks, Chinese checkers, mancala, go fish, tic-tac-toe, and some other cool games I cannot recall right now. We've had so much fun playing pick-up-sticks, and Bella fancies herself something of a expert in the game of "Chest."

Perhaps best of all was the nice visit we had with my in-laws. As is the case in most homes, the kitchen ended up being the hub of activity, and that activity included eating, visiting, laughing, snacking, Web surfing, and more visiting. I love the ability of my husband's family to sit back, relax, and enjoy the moment without feeling the need to rush somewhere or "do" something. In fact, it reminds me of one of my favorite Story People. Maybe I'll give myself that print to celebrate...nothing at all.

It will always be you, Kevin...

My all-time favorite movie from approximately 1986-1998 was Footloose. I owned the soundtrack (on vinyl--hard core), knew every lyric to every song, and learned as many moves to as many of the dances as possible. When I couldn't figure out the choreographed moves from the movie (e.g. the Kevin Bacon solo dance scene in the warehouse), I would make up my own moves that were painfully literal interpretations of the lyrics. If the lyrics included the line, "You can never hide your heart," you'd likely see me wagging my finger right before cleverly covering my heart with my hands. Take that, Janet Jackson.

No doubt part--much?--of the appeal of Footloose was Kevin Bacon as Ren McCormick in the film. (I like to call it a film because it suggests artistry, and that validates my love for it.) Kevin Bacon was hot. Foxy? A beefcake? No, no. He was never a beefcake. That conjures images of huge biceps, and there's a reason Ren McCormick never doffed his shirt. Anyway, I found him incredibly sexy. I've seen the movie well over a hundred times and even found a way to incorporate it into my Puritan teaching unit during my student teaching semester in 1999. (Imagine my disappointment when my students weren't as moved as I have always been.)

I'll admit, it's been several years since I've watched Footloose. In fact, I don't even own it on DVD. Sure, I worry a little that my love for the movie will have faded in the last decade once I do finally watch it again, but I'm certain that I will always love Footloose in an irrational, illogical way. It was a huge part of my adolescence, and it qualifies as one of my first loves.

I suspect this is the way many 11, 12, 13, 14...maybe even 15 year olds feel about High School Musical. Merchandising in 2008 is much different than it was in the mid-80s, so you have to virtually be living in a hole (or without children, television, and radio) to not have at least heard of High School Musical (and HSM2...and HSM3). That's all I had done: heard of it. That is until my daughter entered elementary school. Even though she'd never seen the movie, she began pointing out--and gesticulating over--High School Musical merchandise in stores. She knew all about Troy and Gabriella. It didn't matter if she'd seen the movie or not, this was part of her culture. So for Christmas we decided to give her the movie. I mean, if you're going to be obsessed, you should be fully armed with the necessary information.

So on Christmas night, we popped HSM into our DVD player for its maiden voyage, and what an adventure it was. We laughed! We cried! Well, we laughed. And we replayed scenes. And we sang along. Ah, yes. I now fully comprehend the draw of High School Musical. If I was 12, I'd be sporting a "T" necklace and snuggling up in my East High fleece pajamas. (Let's be honest, if they made East High pajamas in Misses sizes, I'd be snuggling up in them right now.) This movie appeals to every cell of Little Girl left in me. I'm not going to lie: I've considered learning the dance moves to "We're All In This Together," but I can't think of anyone willing to participate with me. My Footloose dance routine buddy is now pushing 40 and most certainly unwilling to go all "Wildcat" with me, and there's something tacitly sad about dancing to "We're All In This Together"...alone.

Like his Kevin Bacon counterpart in 1984, Zac Efron is likely the biggest draw of the film. (Did you see what I just did there?) He can never be my Kevin Bacon since a) he's playing a high school student in a movie and I'm a high school teacher, and b) see a. However, I think he would've given Kevin Bacon a run for his money in 1984. Wow.

Then again, maybe he can be his own Kevin Bacon.

Happy Holidays!

It was suggested that I should at least offer up a "Happy Holidays" on my blog, even though I'm grossly delinquent in the whole blogging area. So, yes: Happy Holidays! I am, indeed, alive.

Mostly.

The speed at which Christmas is approaching is a little overwhelming, but I'm generally prepared. I made several gifts this year, which feels really good. I also feel like our shopping for the girls has remained reasonable, although there is a certain three year old who's proving very difficult to shop for. She only had one thing on her list for Santa: the Sleeping Beauty Accessory Kit. That's it. We already have more than enough "stuff" for them to play with, and their loving grandparents have snatched up many of our other ideas for them (marker, glue, ribbon, glitter, crayons, etc.), so I am admittedly a little stuck.

I have strep throat right now, so my ultimate gift to the rest of my family will be not giving them my bacteria. Wish me luck!

Weeeeeee!

whats your favourite brand of coffee? New Mexico Pinon Coffee

favourite brand of soft drink Diet Coke or Coke Zero, although I only drink soda occasionally

favourite brand of chocolate Cadbury (from UK)

favourite brand of ice-cream Ben and Jerrys or Cold Stone Creamery

favourite brand of cheese Gibbsville Cheddar, of course!

favourite brand of shampoo Paul Mitchell Tea Tree

favourite brand of cookie My dad's homemade Monster Cookies

favourite brand of crisps/chips Krunchers Mesquite BBQ

favourite brand of sandwich. Jimmy John's

I'm on a roll!

I decided the "tagging format" might be a good way to catch up on the last 6 weeks.

Highlights from the last 6 weeks, in the order they occur to me:

1. President-elect Barack Obama
2. Bella lost her first tooth
3. Our contract appears to be settled! (Only 1.5 years late...)
4. I saw a Brewers playoff game
5. President-elect Barack Obama : )

I'll Try Harder, I Promise

No sense apologizing for the lack of updating; I'm the girl who cried, "I'll do better! I promise!" Or something.

So thanks, Heather, for tagging me and forcing me to update this thing before it became brittle. I technically don't know how this tagging thing works, but I think I get the gist of it.

Six things I value:
1. Family
2. Integrity
3. Friendship
4. Laughter
5. Curiosity
6. Out-of-the-box Thinking

...Six Things I do Not Support:
1. Bullying
2. Insincerity
3. Rudeness
4. Intolerance
5. Selfishness
6. Arrogance

...Six People I Tag...Hmmm I'm going to tag as many as I can, but I know there won't be six! Sorry if I've re-tagged someone.

1. Mel
2. Hope

Five highlights of the weekend:

1. Cleaning the garage. Don't get me wrong: the work itself was as awful as you'd expect. However, the sense of accomplishment now that it's complete? Even better than I expected. Now we just have to get used to using the garage for, you know, our vehicle.

2. First trip to the apple orchard. We're lucky enough to live less than a quarter mile from an apple orchard--the same apple orchard I frequented when I was a child. For about a decade it was caught in a downward spiral until a local family bought and revived it. Now, under new ownership, they once again make fresh cider, offer hayrides, sell cider licks (cider frozen in a cup with a popsicle stick in the middle), and let you pick your own apples. What fun! It was unseasonably warm this weekend, so the girls weren't decked out in their usual apple-orchard-fall-pictures wear (see pic to right), but it was a perfect day for playing chase through the trees.



3. Put up more salsa. We've had a disappointing crop of tomatoes this year: our romas are mealy, our beefeaters and heirlooms often have little black spots, and all of our hybrids up and quit on us. Damn you, June flooding! Apparently it's been a bad year all around the county, but that doesn't change the fact that we had big plans for our 25 tomato plants! Instead we've had to focus our efforts on our top tomato-related priorty: salsa. So yesterday it felt good to put up 7 quarts of our favorite recipe (after having put up 4 quarts last week). We'll never have enough to take us to next year, but at least we should be able to get through January if we exercise some restraint. I may be able to get one or two more batches out of the garden, but we're not going to get the 25-30 quarts we had hoped for. (I'm starting to feel like Ma Ingalls with all this frontier wife talk.)

4. An abundance of time for the four of us. Rob was off on both Saturday and Sunday, and that rarely happens for our family. We stayed around home all weekend, cleaned, read books, played games, engaged in many tickle fights, and generally reconnected as a foursome. I {heart} weekends together.

5. My friend H's baby is on her way to a speedy recovery from major surgery. She's been on our minds, and it's wonderful to hear she's doing so well. Snuggles, Baby K!



P.S. Happy Birthday, M. Much love. xo