Thanksgiving Dinner Preperations

I love Thanksgiving dinner.  A few years ago, I started doing the cooking and now I seem to do it every year.  I don’t especially like spending three days cooking for a meal that lasts maybe thirty minutes tops but I love having leftovers for the week and a half after Thanksgiving Day.

I’ve used a few recipes over the years but for the last three or four, I’ve stuck with the same basic menu because it’s got something for everybody and everything for me.  Our feast consists of the following:

• sausage stuffed mushrooms
• deviled eggs
• French-cut green beans with almonds and fried onions
• ranch mashed potatoes with bacon
• baked sweet potatoes stuffed with marshmallow and pecan strudel
• savory mushroom stuffing
• regular stuffing
• potato crescent rolls
• German chocolate pie
• pecan pie
• pumpkin pie

It’s Time For A Gallery Update

Some of you may have noticed some changes to our gallery page.  I’ve recently started using the NextGEN Gallery plugin for Wordpress.  I like it much better than Coppermine which is what I was using before. When combined with the WP lightbox 2 plugin, it makes a very nice gallery.

At Holly’s request, I’ve also re-enabled the password protection on the page.  It’s not 100% secure since I currently have a random preview image showing in the sidebar, but it should help keep unwanted visitors from lingering a bit too long.

To go along with this new gallery format, I’ve added pictures from Halloween and Nick and Chelsea’s wedding.  I’ve also added a pic of me feeding a mouse to an owl and some random images of the kids.  If you would like to check them out, and don’t remember the page password, please feel free to use the contact page to let us know that you want to see things.  Or, you can just give us a call and we can tell you.  Whatever is easier for you.

Halloween 2008: The Aftermath

So Halloween this year was pretty good.  We started our festivities early in the week with some pumpkin carving.  We had five huge pumpkins but a lack of time so only three of them ended up getting carved.  Holly decided that it would be fun to do Shrek and I unleashed my inner geek (what’s new?) and did Mario of Super Mario Bros. fame.  Emma decided to do an original creation which turned out pretty good.  Like every other year, there were lots of dads commenting on how cool our pumpkins were as their kids took our candy.

This year will be known in my mind as the year of the recycled costume idea.  Emma decided that she wanted to be a devil, Alex wanted to be a tiger, and Hannah wanted to be a clown.  Whether it is dumb luck or just coincidence, we have each of these costumes in the appropriate sizes in our costume box.  Everybody was happy and we saved money.  You can’t ask for more than that - especially if said costumes yield free candy.

Trick Or Treat!

Holly is out with the kids, roaming the neighborhood, asking strangers for candy.  I’m on door duty.  I’m sick of running up and down the stairs and it’s only 7:00!  I anticipate that I’ll have more content to post in a few hours but, in case I don’t get to it tonight, I wanted to wish everybody a happy Halloween.

Remember, if you decided to play a Halloween prank on somebody and try and scare them so bad that they we themselves, be careful.  You might get punched in the face.

Curse You Will Wright

I’ve always been a big fan of games created by Will Wright.  For those who are unfamiliar with who he is, he’s the mastermind behind games like SimCity and The Sims.  If you have ever played one of those games, then you know how addictive they can be.  You also know that they are so engrossing that it’s possible to sit down with the intent to play for twenty minutes and get up fourteen hours later wondering where the time went.  It’s almost like time travel.

Will Wright’s most recent game is called Spore.  It is a combination of every other one of his sim games and then some.  You basically start off as a cell, eating either small plants or meat chunks.  Eventually you grow and evolve into a space faring civilization.  The fun part about it is that you get to choose how your creature evolves.  Will it have multiple eyes and spit poison?  Maybe it will be aggressive and eat other creatures?

“It’s Like We Have A New House”

Over the past week, a lot of things have been done to our house.  First, I finally finished the drywall in the basement and have started working on installing baseboards.  I also managed to get the doors hung but one of them is a bit tweaked so I’ll need to spend some time working on getting it corrected.

I’m hoping to have everything finished by the time that Chelsea gets married a the end of the month.  That gives me three weeks to finish baseboards, prime and paint the walls, and get flooring installed.  I’ll also need to get doorknobs and window coverings installed but that’s about it.  It’s so nice to finally be able to see a light at the end of the tunnel that doesn’t resemble an oncoming train.

The Pinks Of Their Eyes

This morning, Alex woke up screaming.  Holly went in to see what the problem was and found him standing in the middle of the room with his eyes closed.  Holly asked him what was wrong and he told her that he couldn’t open his eyes.  She asked if they were glued shut and he said that they were.  He also said that Emma did it.  (Emma can be so mean. )  She took him into the bathroom and cleaned the excessive amounts of eye boogers out so that he could once again see.

It was at this point that Holly was convinced that she, Alex, Emma, Chelsea, and maybe Hannah all have pink eye.  She took the kids to the doctor where her thoughts were confirmed.  Chelsea got lucky and just has allergies.  For now.

Another Weekend In The Mountains

Last Friday we loaded up the van and headed back up into the mountains to do some more camping.  We liked where we camped a few weeks ago so much that we decided to go a few miles up the road.  Actually, the campgrounds were all reserved months ago.  We just happened to get lucky in the fact that they were great places to pitch a tent.  But I digress…

Camping with friends is always more fun so we went with our friends, John and Dana Rimington and their three daughters.  For additional fun points, we also brought along Chelsea and her soon to be husband, Nick.  We tried to get my brother, Ryan, to come too but he had to work.  Maybe next time…  It was really nice spending time with everybody.  The kids enjoyed playing with John and Dana’s girls and they loved having Nick and Chelsea along.  I know though that if Ryan had been able to make it, he would have been the star of the weekend.  The kids love playing with him so much.

The Great Outdoors

Over the weekend we took the kids and once again went camping.  This time, we decided to avoid Logan Canyon and headed up to the Uintah mountains.  We had a great campsite and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  We didn’t do much except sit around camp and eat marshmallows but it was nice to relax and enjoy nature.

Holly’s sister, Jen, and her family came with us.  it was nice to be able to spend some time with them.  Her brother, Lynn, also brought up his kids for dinner.  We were sad that they weren’t able to spend the night but it was nice that they could come up for a few hours.

While we were there, I managed to get in a little bit of fishing on the Duschene River.  The fish were jumping like crazy but I didn’t even get a bite.  We’re heading back up for a two-day trip in a few weeks.  I better check the fishing reports before we go so that I can have better luck.

For The Birds

Last week, Holly was surfing some internet classifieds and came across a listing for a free parakeet with two cages.  She immedately asked if we could get it, making sure to let me know how much Emma would like to have a bird.  Me, being the nice guy that I am, told her to go ahead and call to see if the bird was still available.  She told me that she would and I didn’t give it much more thought.

Later that night, Holly had a study group for school so she was gone for the evening.  When she came home, I was in the front yard with the kids.  As Holly pulled up into the driveway, I noticed a bird cage on the passenger seat in the van.  Sure enough, Holly had gone and picked up the bird.  I could tell that she was excited since there was huge grin on her face as she opened the car door.