Oh wear are my eyebrows?

The Queen B has tagged me with the seven randon things meme. Yes, that means today you are going to learn 7 things about me that I'm sure most of you don't know (and probably really don't want to know). So, hang on and enjoy the ride.

1. After a "near death" plucking incident in high school where one eyebrow (I'm not telling which one because those who know me and see me often will be staring at my eyebrow instead of my whole face next time you see me) was almost completely lost, I nnow have to fill-in (I mean major fill in) my eyebrows. Nice, huh?

2. My OCD plays into this one a little too much. Ok, so I need to have all my light/ceiling fan switches going the same direction. So, if for instance you go into a room and flip on the light from one end, I really need you to go back to that end and flip the switch off instead of using another switch. Can we say, therapy?????

3. I'm not really a collector of anything except the mail we receive that needs to be shredded. Instead of shredding anything I don't want (that contains our mailing information) as soon as I receive it, I put it in the special "shred" drawer until that sweet, little drawer gets so full to the brim that it is screaming for me not to open it again. It could have been so full today (because it hasn't been emptied since we moved into our house at the end of June this year) that it actually screeched when I opened it.

4. Husband had to help me with this one. He reminded me that most people DO NOT pluck their eyebrows in the car, but apparently I do. This could have led to the demise of my eyebrows from #1.

5. Husband also pointed out to me that not many people clean their cars with their swiffers while stopped at a stoplight. A clean car is a happy car, right?

6. Ok, this could be my OCD kicking in again. I don't like rattles/noises in the car. If a cup is in a cup holder and not situated properly and it makes a noise, it drives me crazy. I need to get to the bottom of all noises/rattles IMMEDIATELY and take care of them. Are you seeing any OCD tendencies????

If you have a weak stomach, I would stop now.

I warned you...weak stomachs, DO NOT read #7.

Last Chance...

Ok, here goes...

7. If you have made it this far in my list of random facts about myself, let me assure you that I have saved the best for last. Growing up, I lived on a farm. A farm that raised horses, cows, pigs and an occassional batch of chickens. We also had various other animals from dogs to cats to goats to lambs. You name it, we probably housed it in some form or fashion on our farm. Well, on a farm, when you have male cows, sometimes they have to be "cut." The result of this cut is something called a mountain oyster. These "oysters" are actually eaten and I will admit that I have consumed them. NOW LET ME JUST SAY THAT I DID NOT ENJOY IT AND I HAVE NOT EATEN ONE SINCE I WAS VERY YOUNG! Trust me, when they say it tastes just like chicken, sometimes they lie.

Well, that's about all the time we have for today. And let me leave Mandy, Ree & Big Mama with a "tag" you are it. There is no pressure for each of you three lovely ladies to let us get a bit more insight on each of you. Nor am I pressuring you with the fact that 1000's will be waiting on pins and needles to read your list of things (ok, maybe not 1000's, but it sure made it sound better).

Happy posting!

Mom, look what I've got for you

So D-Man was waking up from his nap today and called me in to get him out of his bed (yes, he's 28 months and still sleeps in a crib because this mom can't handle having her baby sleep in a big boy bed yet. Yes, the big boy bed is in our garage, the bedding has arrived, the bedrails are in hand due to a frantic call I made to The Queen B when D-Man went through a 3 day, I'm-going-to-climb-out-of-my-bed stage, but I still can't bring myself to make the change).

He may be in the crib until...I know, I need therapy. It's that whole "he's not going to be a baby forever" syndrome.

Anyway, back to the nap story. I went in to get D-Man out of his bed and he said, "Here's a booger, mommy!" Yes, you read correctly, D-Man had been picking his nose, but instead of finding an alternate way of getting rid of the "prizes" he found, he kept them for me. His Mommy. The one who birthed him. The one who nursed him. And the one that he so sweetly gives his boogers to.

The Fall of the Yeast

Ok, so I decided while at the grocery store last week that I really needed to try my head at making some type of bread that involved having to use yeast.

No, I hadn't lost my mind, I was just merely thinking of my family.

I settled on this...

Notice the fact that it is a wheat pizza crust (very healthy, don't you think) and that it is HIGH in fiber (always good for all that comes out in the end, you know!)

Anyway, as D-Man slept this afternoon, I read the directions on the box and determined that I would need to start the dough making process about 4 pm in order to have the dough ready to bake by 6 pm. I did my afternoon chores and at 4 pm, I began the yeast activation process.

Now for those of you who have never made bread before that involves yeast (YES, let me say again that I have never done this process) you must activate the yeast using hot water (around 110 degrees). Well, this trusty baker didn't have a thermometer to measure the temperature (until later when I remembered that I had a meat thermometer that would have worked), so I first used 1 cup of hot tap water to activate the yeast from one of the packets. This didn't work, so I heated the water first in the microwave and then dissolved the 2nd yeast packet in it.

I seriously think they include 2 yeast packets for bakers like my self.


So,the yeast dissolved (or appeared to) and I followed the rest of the directions on the box ending with putting the ball of dough into a bowl that had been greased . The bowl was then covered with plastic wrap and a towel and set in a warm room so that it would have time to rise.

Well, you might ask, how was the pizza that night? Well, it ended with this...

Yes, that's right, a store bought pizza crust. Apparently I had killed the yeast with the hot water from the microwave and so the dough became a big ball of blah that was as hard as a rock and was the same size as when I originally added it to the bowl.

Moral of the story...always have a back-up plan when your yeast goes astray or kills over.

Food for Thought...About Santa

So, my sister, A-Girl, has posed an interesting question that I thought I would share with all of you (in hopes that you can give her some kind of answer that would help her out).

Her son, Goose-Man, asked a very riveting question the other day that caught A-Girl off guard. "Mom, what happens when Santa dies, do the parents just take over?" Hmmmmmmmm.....

A-Girl really didn't think about it at the time and just gave the old, "I don't know, Goose-Man" answer. But, later really pondered it and wants to broach the subject with him again with a more intellectual answer.

On one hand, she pointed out to me, if you say that Santa never dies then you are putting him up there on a pedestal with Jesus and that is in NO WAY what one needs to do. On the other, if you say, yes, the parents take over, will the magic of being a kid and having a mysterious man with a snow white beard dressed in a red suit leave all those things you've been wanting really be there anymore?

I don't know...food for thought. What do you all think out there! Weigh in so that we can help A-Girl give that A-plus parent answer!

Titles on Tuesday with a Twist

Today's Title on Tuesday entry is acutally a music CD title. It is the new Christmas CD by Michael W. Smith called It's A Wonderful Christmas.

I received this CD to review as I prepared for the Christmas holidays.

This is one that is very appropriate to add to your Christmas collection. My favorite on the CD was song #1 called "Christmas Angels." There are many other original songs as well as a familiar favorite, "What Child Is This."

Visit the website and check it out for yourself!

Is there sap in that thing?

***Updated****

Well, the buzz of the Christmas holiday has begun and I am so giddy and so happy I can't hardly stand it! This is my absolute FAVORITE time of the year! Even more so now that I have a child of my own to experience the magic that Christmas brings. To me Christmas is about tradition and family and most importantly about the birth of my Savior, Jesus Christ (more to come about this ultimate gift in later posts).

So, I decided that this year I wanted to start some new traditions. We have already trimmed the inside trees (we have to have artificial ones because I love to have them up for too long for the life of a real tree to withstand) and the outside has been decorated. Well, you might ask, what more is there to do? And the answer is, decorate the deck with a real-go-to-the-woods-and-cut-it-down cedar tree. Yes, that's right. No tree farms for us; we have to have the rocks, hills and muddy slop that comes with trekking through the woods for the perfect D-Wold (like Griswold) family Christmas tree.

We set out to find that "perfect" tree roaming the pastures of Husband's parents farm. We drove from corner to corner hoping that we wouldn't have to get out (since it was raining and the temperature was very-near freezing...OK maybe only around 40 degrees, but it felt freezing to me).

Here is Husband and D-Man scoping out our options from the driver's seat (yes, D-Man is not in his car seat because we are driving in the middle of the pasture and Husband wanted him to get all he could out of the experience).

No options were to be found from the inside of the heat-blowing-on-high cab, so into the woods we went.

D-Man wasn't always happy to be trekking through the rainy, wet woods, but he persevered.

And we walked and walked and walked until I thought I could walk no more (well, not really, I just thought it made for a more exciting story). We actually walked just a few hundred feet and then we came upon this (imagine that song from Christmas Vacation is playing and a bright spotlight is shining upon it)...

This tree is what we believed was the "perfect" tree for our deck. Yes, the top is not able to be viewed because it was quite possibly a little taller than we expected.

So, Husband and D-Man set out sawing the tree down.

And they hauled it over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house...oh sorry, I mean they hauled it through the woods and to the truck. D-Man liked the look of Husband dragging the tree and so he walked from behind.

And we (I like to feel I had a hand in things since I was the "official" photographer) took it to the truck only to learn that it might be a little bigger than anticipated (imagine the Griswolds cutting the rope that was holding their tree closed only to find that it completely filled their ENTIRE living room--we had this same feeling).

Now the Queen Mother commented on an earlier post that this might be the ugliest tree she has ever seen (and I admit, looks can be deceiving). But let me assure you that to us it became the prettiest real tree we have ever had (wait, this was the first real tree we have ever had, so I guess we really have nothing to compare it to). Anyway, we brought it home and Husband cut about 3 feet off of it. We put it in the tree stand, brought it onto the deck, decorated it with colored lights and ta-da, we have...

Our D-Wold Family Christmas Tree! OK, so I admit that it isn't the fullest, perfectly round tree that you find at the tree farms or in the tree lots, but it is more about the memories that we made and the fun we had and the experience we shared, don't you think?

***Update-The tree know stands, I mean lays, in a heap on the deck because a big wind blew it over last night. All I wanted was a new tradition of getting a tree ourselves in the woods. Is that too much to ask?????***

What, we have a Christmas tree in the back of the truck

This is a taste of a journey I will tell you about later in the week. Let's just say that this photo might give you some hint of what could turn into the Griswold's family Christmas. Do you think it was supposed to be this long?