Cooking

Here is a list of things I have been really wanting to make lately:

homemade donuts
chocolate chip zucchini muffins
apple kuchen (pie)
caramel apples
samoas cookies
snickers salad
pumpkin cheesecake

I'm trying to figure out which one would make the best lunch...

Motorcycle

Calvin tells me several times a day that when he gets bigger he is going to drive a motorcycle. In the meantime, he uses combs as motorcycles. He has no preference which one and I have no idea how it started, but it sure is a convenient toy that entertains him for long periods of time.

The best thing to do with an apple:

Apple crisp is good, so is apple pie. Caramel apples are amazing, but when it's apple season you can't leave out Snickers Salad. You can make it as semi-healthy or unhealthy as you like. Chop up a pile of apples, add some spoonfuls of cool whip, and mix in a few chopped up snickers bars. Your welcome.
....Or I guess I should say thank you to Heather for bringing this recipe home from work. love it.

Closet

One day I told Calvin we should hide in the closet and surprise Brandon when I saw him pull into the driveway. Ever since then it's his favorite thing to do. At first it was for when he knew someone was coming over, like one of my siblings. I guess those events didn't happen often enough because he started to hide in the closet to surprise me. Only, I don't leave for very long so he would hide in the closet when I went outside to get the mail and another time when I just went upstairs for a minute.

Halloween prep

I was going to try and make Calvin a simplified Super Why costume (his favorite show), but this was so much easier and still really cheap. At first he didn't want to put on the jacket, just the hat. I told him we need to try it on to see if it was too big or too small (although, it was obviously too big) and as I put it on him he happily exclaimed, "it fits!" They only had size 5-7, which is great because now we don't have to figure out another Halloween costume until 2015.

Amazing treats by us

We had some friends over to make caramel apples with us the other day. We tried to recreate Rocky Mountain Caramel apples as much as possible, and I think we did a pretty good job. (although, we didn't get pictures of our prettiest apples - sorry) They tasted AMAZING. This site was helpful. We coated the apples in caramel, then drizzled with milk & white chocolate and rolled them in either: snickers, cookie crumbs, m&m's, or graham crackers.

And since we had lots of leftover chocolate, and some strawberries laying around.... and marshmallows, we ended up with a few more creations later as well:

tribal burn

The other day I was pulling an eggo out of our toaster oven and accidentally touched my finger on the top burner. It's kind of a funny burn because it has such a clear pattern. It's like a gang burn or something a tribe would give you. I haven't decided what gang/tribe I should pretend like I joined. One that likes circles I guess.

Football

Calvin has been a football fan for awhile, but recently he has actually watched some football on TV. Instead of playing catch with a football like we used to he has a new system. First he will squat with the football, then run for a little ways, throw it, and then dive to the floor (like he was tackled). Thankfully he lets us just throw it and not do the entire quarterback routine like he does.

October Illo

I know it's not quite October, but I don't always fit in any October illustrations. I'm better at Christmas, probably because the season lasts for awhile. I don't know why I don't illustrate more just for fun. I LOVE it, but never get around to it. It's so illogical.

Toddler prayer

Calvin likes to pray on his own now and "shhh"es me & Brandon several times before he'll start praying. He mostly just says thank you for several things, some samples include: thank you blue bowl, thank you orange cup, thank you food, thank you outside, thank you clothes, thank you library shirt, thank you green daddy's (his green shorts- these are what he was wearing at the time), thank you Ian (usually this is said multiple times), etc.
If you ever feel like your prayers are redundant, just open your eyes and look around for a minute because I'm pretty sure that's what Calvin's strategy is.

Extra Dangerous

I just bought a coleman axe for camping and after getting home I saw this warning on it about the chemicals it was made with causing reproductive harm and birth defects. Really? That seems kind of extreme that holding an axe could give my baby birth defects. Maybe if I eat it? Because I'm not planning on it. Still, it is a scary warning and I can't help but hold my breath a little when I walk by it.

Crash

Calvin has been really into making his cars and truck crash lately. He thinks it's so fun. He also thinks it must be even more fun to crash in a real car because when we were driving around the other day he asked me, "crash, mom?" I told him, no I didn't want to crash and he said, "please mom! Please crash!" Let's hope a lot of learning happens between now & 16.

Art Teaching

I'm going to be teaching my first formal art classes. I've done a lot of teaching in the past, and a lot of art, so hopefully I'm good at art teaching. Here's the info if you know anyone in my area that might be interested?

Good mistake, or Gestational Diabetes

The other day I went to the doctor to have my glucose checked. (they see how your blood sugar is doing to make sure you don't have gestational diabetes, which is fairly common when you're pregnant) I didn't have it with Calvin so I wasn't too concerned that it would be different this time. I was pretty bummed when the nurse gave me the numbers and how high my blood sugar level was. She told all the steps I would have to do to take another more elaborate test and I wasn't looking forward to that.
After complaining to my sister for awhile about it and realizing I probably shouldn't eat piles of candy at the movies that night like I planned to, I got a phone call from the doctor's office saying they switched my test results with someone else and my blood sugar was actually healthy. I was so excited! What a relief! It seemed like something that would happen on TV.
I felt like I did when the bank deposited a check for me into my bank account that had someone else's name on it. I was happy for the mistake but wondered if I should trust my doctor's office (and bank) after that. oh well. People are human. Let's just hope they are better at delivering babies?

Big News at Shopko!

There I was, just walking along the pen aisle in Shopko when I saw it - the Pilot g tec c4!
For those of you that haven't followed my blog since 2006 when I first mentioned these, this is my favorite drawing pen that I discovered in Canada and it took a lot of work to hunt them down once I got back. The company said they weren't sold in the U.S. due to patent laws, but after awhile I found a place in NY that I could order from online. (I'm not the only one obsessed with these pens btw, it's quite common. Even my professor said he would try to buy them every time he was in England) Spread the good news everyone, pilot g-tec c4's at a store near you! ....Or near me, at least.

Rival

My sister and her family came to visit us from Seattle. We did lots of fun things like swimming, Thanksgiving Point, Pirate Island, etc. When we went to the Bean museum the kids each picked out a toy and my little nephew picked out a husky dog while we were at a BYU museum. Seriously, what were they doing selling those anyway? He named the dog Jake Locker. (UW quarterback, playing against BYU next Saturday) Everything he talked about from then on involved Jake Locker. "Jake Locker and I are going wrestle uncle Paul" "Calvin keeps taking Jake Locker" It was really funny. When Calvin gets older there will be some rivalry there because Calvin definitely wanted to buy the BYU helmet from the museum (it was just a decoration). In the meantime, they let their dad's battle it out.

Deluxe Park

It turns out where we live is pretty awesome. We moved here because we found the perfect house for us. (perfect, as in decently awesome and massively cheap) The longer we live here the more we discover cool things that make it even better. We love the bike trail that takes you over to a beautiful river and park. They have yearly parties like fiesta days, and a fair. And there are rumors that one day we will have a Home Depot, Chili's and even a Target.
On Saturday we went to this amazing park grand opening. Free carousel, pony rides, face painting, balloons, barrel rides, hot dogs, snow cones, more and more food, frisbees, live music, not to mention the amazing park they built. This place has different age level sections and unique toys and fun designs. There's also a splash park area, which was a highlight for Calvin. At first he said he wasn't going to get wet, but I knew as soon as he was by the water he wouldn't be able to resist. He was soaking wet in no time. I'm pretty sure this is our new hang out. If only the carousel would always be there.

Simple Gardening

My strategy for gardening this year involving buying a few packets of seeds at the store and throwing them in a dirt patch one day. The soil didn't look very promising, I didn't bother with weeding and I followed the instructions on the packets only if they were simple enough. The sprinklers were in charge of watering. I figure next year I can put some time into more preparation, research & maintenance.
My strategy hasn't gone too bad. There are no peas in sight whatsoever, and carrots have only grown in one small area, but the pumpkins are flourishing like crazy. There is one already big enough to carve, but really green. I'm guessing by the end of October it will be huge and orange. I can't wait. The weeds are also huge and have done really well.

30 going on 13

I've never been really into make-up. Not because I didn't like it, but I was intimidated that I would put it on wrong. Once I was approaching my mid 20's I started realizing it really wasn't that hard. Yeah, kind of a slow starter. But then I realized it was such a pain to get off, especially eye make-up, I didn't want to bother with it. I think I tried one make-up remover that was really soapy and I wasn't a fan, water involves so much scrubbing I saved make-up for only certain days.
I recently tried a new make-up remover that is so easy, quick and zero scrubbing. One cotton ball, a simple swipe and I'm ready to hit the pillow. Love it. I feel a new freedom like I can wear as much eye make-up as I want without the pain of taking it off. Now you'll understand if you see me and I look like this:

Comedian

Calvin learned his first joke last week. He repeats it several times a day to whoever will respond. It goes like this:

Calvin: "Knock, knock"

Me: "Who's there?"

Calvin: "Hahaha!"

And really, even though the joke makes no sense, it's still hilarious just because he's laughing. (0r fake laughing, depending on how times in a row he just told the joke.)