Meet me on the Equinox

Yesterday I was listening to the radio and I heard the new Death Cab song from the New Moon soundtrack. It got me a bit excited for the release of the next silly teenage vampire romance movie.

Are you a bit excited, too?

She's READING!!

Thank you, Talking Letter Factory video. What we started together over two and a half years ago is starting to pay off. Yesterday I caught Katelyn READING!! simple three letter words all on her own! Today we went to the library and checked out a "my first reader", and bless her...she is trying! Does this mean she should start school in 2010? I was really hoping to put it off until 2011.

When Life Gives You Apples

Today, life gave me apples.

Anne delivered them to my doorstep, all the way from a little farm up north. But in my opinion, this farm is more like an orchard. And it's a pomegranate orchard...not an apple orchard. Is that confusing?

Anyway...life gave me apples, so I made applesauce.

The steam fogged up my lens, and I played with it. Katelyn wouldn't let me take her picture, so here is foggy me and foggy cinnamon. (Sometimes my vision looks foggy like in the cinnamon picture. Is that bad?)

My house smells really good. Like apples and cinnamon and cloves. In the colder months, my mom used to boil a pot of cinnamon and cloves on top of our wood stove. The smell brought me back. And it was a little bit cold today....Oh, who am I kidding? It's never cold here.

P.S. The applesauce is good; way better than Mott's! (Pssst....have you heard about the scandal??)

How to Knit a Harry Potter Scarf

Tonight was our church Halloween party. It was super fun!! Zach was drunk off of candy. I think he almost puked on me once. He didn't eat much of his chili dinner...only what he could suck from the lollipop that he was dipping into the chili bowl. He sure was cute, though!

Zach's a goldfish (not a chicken like most people thought, and definitely not a frog, like one person thought). Katelyn is...well, you know who Katelyn is...although the same lady who thought Zach was a frog also thought Katelyn was Hermione. She was obviously confused! (Hermione doesn't wear circle glasses!)

The party tonight was my deadline for the Gryffindor scarf, so I finished it this morning. It turned out nice, but I made it way too wide for Katelyn's little neck. Oh well. Here it is:

Directions:

First, I looked up "how to knit" on youtube...a very important place to start!

I bought regular sized Red Heart yarn and size 8 straight needles. The colors are burgundy and gold for the Gryffindor house (or USC, I'm told).

I used a Garter stitch throughout, but use a knit stitch if you want it to be more like the scarf in the movie.

I cast on 35 stitches across, but like I said, it was still too wide for Katelyn. 20 stitches across might have been better?

I alternated colors about every 3 inches, starting with burgundy and ending with burgundy, and kept going until it was about 45 inches long. Again, that was probably too much for my little Katelyn. Oh well.

Last of all, I added the tassels. I wrapped the yarn shortways around the DVD case 5 times, then snipped and attached them. I used a crochet hook to pull a loop through the bottom edge, then pulled the loose ends through the loop to tighten. I put eleven tassels on each end. Easy-peasy!

If I Had Been Blogging...

Long time, no blog.

But, if I had been blogging...

...I probably would have written about how our friends, the Haneys, came down for some Disney Halloween fun. This is the only picture we took that day. Sorry, no Haneys.

...Or about our annual trip to the Irvine Park pumpkin patch.

(She's definitely taller than last year.)

2008, 3 feet 2009, 3 1/2 feet

Zach couldn't stand up last year, but this year he's about 3 feet.

...More Disneyland

...And California Adventures

"Gimme an R!"

...Or how we made more Harry Potter cupcakes. The ones with green eyes are from the books, and the one with blue eyes is from the movies.

...Or the monkeys at the zoo...sorry, no pics.

...I might've also blogged pictures of Tim McGraw on the Today show, because the kids decided to sing along...so cute!

I most definitely would NOT have blogged about how Katelyn has been grounded from TV and playdates all week for saying things like "You're not my mom anymore!", and (dare I repeat it?)... "I hate mommy!", and for being a stinker in general. Tough times! I wasn't expecting to hear anything like that for at least 10 more years. Please tell me this is just a phase??

Please??

Ka-Chow!!

Yesterday as I was driving with my kids, I pulled off a tricky maneuver (and dangerous and stupid) and Katelyn loved it. She told me how much she liked my cool moves and she said that even our car knew it was cool. Then we gave each other high fives (another dangerous and stupid thing to do while driving). After a few minutes had passed, she said "Let's pretend our car is shiny." I laughed because I had just been thinking about what a junky beater our car is. She said she wanted to pretend it was shiny so we could pretend it was Lightning McQueen. What a compliment...(she thinks I am a racecar driver!), but sooooo far from the truth!

On The Road Again

On our way home from St. George, we decided to take a detour to see the famous

Hoover Dam. Afterall, it was only 40 miles out of the way, right?

Little did we know, the traffic gets so thick that the last 5 miles take an hour to drive!

All the marathoners in the car said they could have run faster, but going at that rate

we were able to notice a few novelties along the side of the road. For instance--

a sheep...and a play on the word "DAM". It was well worth the wait (sarcasm).

Finally, we arrive!

Once was enough for me!

St. George Marathon

Spectating is a grueling sport.

Finally, we see someone!!

Jon came next, but we didn't get his picture.

(Obviously, he runs too fast!)

Then came Mom, but she was too busy listening to her music to notice us.

Her loss. At least I got a pic!

Congrats to all the runners...

...and spectators, big and small.

Carbo Loading Part Two

*My brother, Jon, looking very satisfied after a good meal.

Today we drove to St. George. I sat the whole way there in the tiny back, back seat of the Explorer, surrounded by gigantic strollers and luggage. I hope nobody noticed me trying to get in and out during pit stops. I was like a contortionist...but less skillful and less graceful. It wasn't pretty!

We ate lunch/dinner at The Pizza Factory near Washington, UT. Or maybe it's really considered St. George...I don't know. The bottom line is: It was delish! The HUGE salad bar alone would have been enough, but then they brought us gourmet pizzas and seasoned bread sticks on real sticks. I never knew I could eat so much! The owner was awesome. He picked up our tab because he was friends with Adam's brother (who was also with us) way back when. He even gave all the kids fancy lolipops on the way out. It was seriously nice of him. I highly recommend The Pizza Factory in Washington (or St. George), Utah. And if you go, be sure to order the breadsticks. They're amazing!

Please enjoy these pictures of Katelyn, who was so impressed by the food and atmosphere, she was inspired to conduct imaginary music with one of the bread stick sticks. She looks pretty professional if you ask me...and my opinion counts--I hold a DEGREE in music.

Okay, honestly, I'm just biased. My lowest grade EVER was in conducting. May I present...

Katelyn Tilson Thomas:

...and Zach!

Carbo Loading

*Me and my sis. Our babies are 3 days apart.

Today marks the beginning of the marathon weekend. Adam's running it, and I will be watching it with two young kids...which is almost as difficult as running, sooooo...we are both carbo loading to prepare our bodies.

For dinner tonight we made one of our favorite high-carb meals:

Spaghetti Quesadillas

They were invented in high school by my older sister. It's probably one of the top most valuable things she taught me. She also shared her trendy clothes with me even though I was annoying. Now that's love! Thanks, Jana!

Here is the recipe:

Tortilla
Cheese
Spaghetti

Sprinkle the cheese on the tortilla and melt it a bit. As with all recipes, the more cheese you use the better it tastes. Put some spaghetti on one half of the tortilla and fold the other half over the spaghetti (like a taco). Cook on each side a bit so the spaghetti is warm and the tortilla is a little crispy.

This recipe is great for left-over spaghetti.

I'm not kidding. It's kinda good.