Do You? Do You? Do You?

Identity Crisis

I'm having an identity crisis. A blogging identity crisis. Not with coming up with posts, but with the design/background of my blog. I had the same layout for years (and now I can't remember what it even looked like). It was suggested that I change it and try out a new background. I did. I liked the new one but it was hard to read on it, so I changed it. I didn't like that one, so I changed it again. I decided that I really didn't like that one (that one was the orange swirly one that I just had) so I went in tonight to change it again and couldn't come up with a combination that I liked. I decided to go for a "default" setup. For now I have the robots background. Do I like it? No. I'm not feeling creative tonight so it will do. For now. Besides, Miles thinks robots are cool.

I'm a Week Behind

I've had a cold that went straight to my sinuses so I'm behind on recording the mundane details of my life. It's a catch-up day...

We went to Tucanos the other day. Jonathan surprised me and said that he wanted to try meat. He tasted the garlic sirloin and said that it tasted good but was really greasy. Miles, the suspicious eater, wasn't going to touch anything on his plate. He'd forgotten that he likes mashed potatoes. I put some potatoes on my finger and forced the potatoes into his mouth. After his standard coughing and gagging, he realized that the mashed potatoes were really good and then he spent the next 40 minutes shoveling them in his mouth.My parents took us to Arctic Circle for ice cream. Miles experienced his first "playplace"; yuck. He had a great time climbing through the tunnels, but was too scared to go down the slides. Nolan thought the play structure was fun too, even when it was pointed out that he is too big! Les and Pie came along. Don't they look excited? The ice cream was typical. Arctic Circle was a pain and wouldn't give my dad his receipt; he persisted and insisted and finally succeeded!

Yesterday Miles finally got around to opening his last Christmas present... 3 cubes and 3 tunnels (since our other Playhut stuff somehow ended up at DI). He loves them and spent a lot of time crawling through them. Miles had another milestone yesterday. He finally got brave and is no longer afraid of his Wild Animals board book. He's been okay with the tiger, orangutan, "shiny" frog, and lion pages, he didn't care about the toucan, but he was deathly afraid of the snake, lizard, tree frog, and gorilla pages. He would close the book after the lion page,take the book out of my hands, and put the book away. On Tuesday night I spent a lot of time showing him the pages in the book and talking about each animal- showing Miles the animals' body parts and encouraging him to pet the animals. Eventually, he accepted the snake. He'd look at the first 4 pages of the book, then turn the book over and look at the snake on the last page. Then he accepted the lizard and then the tree frog (he likes to point out the tree frog's eyes). Finally on Wednesday, he was comfortable enough with the gorilla to give it a "noggin".

Pear Flip Flop

Last week I had a whole bunch of pears that were overripe. Nobody wanted to eat the pears, but I didn't want to throw the away. I decided to try to find a recipe that I could put the overripe pears in. Sunday morning I was reading the Parade magazine that comes in the Sunday paper. It had a recipe for something called "Pear Flip Flop". It sounded unoffensive and I had all the ingredients on hand, so I decided to give it a try. Oh, yum! It was fantastic! Actually, it was so good that I let more pears get overripe so I could make the dessert again.

Pear Flip Flop
4 1/2 Tbsp Butter
3/4 C Flour
3/4 C Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
3/4 C Milk
1 1/4 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 Cup (or more) peeled and sliced pears

Heat oven to 350. Put butter in 9" pan and melt butter in oven. Combine: flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk in milk and vanilla. Pour batter over melted butter. Distribute pears over batter. Bake for 45 minutes, until top is golden and toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 45 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar. Serve warm from the pan.

Yum! Just finished my dish of "flip flop" from today's baking!

Jonathan's Clarinet Debut

I'm so late on this post!

Last Wednesday, Jonathan was one of the soloists at the THS Concerto Night. There were 5 soloists- a trumpeter, a double bassist, a vocalist, a violinist, and a clarinetist. Each soloist played a movement from a concerto of his/her choice (except for the vocalist who sang from Carmen) with the high school orchestra accompanying. Jonathan was the "finale" and he played the first movement of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto. While the orchestra struggled with their part of the piece, Jonathan was amazing! He played for about 13 minutes and I wasn't ready for his piece to end. He's been playing the concerto for over a year now and his progression has been amazing, especially the progress he made on it in the past 2 months. It was really fun to listen to him. He had great support- several friends from band, his Teacher's Quorum, and family (me, Dan, Nolan, Parley and Bona, Leslie and Pieter, Liz came down from Bountiful, and my parents drove out from California; we hired a babysitter for Miles). The most amazing thing about Jonathan and his clarinet playing is that Jonathan is essentially self-taught. He is a product of group lessons from the public school system and a short stint with a college-age teacher. He has natural talent. His band teacher is encouraging him to be a music major; Jonathan is considering a double major- music and biochemistry. Jonathan says that no matter what, he will find groups to play with. Way to go Jonathan.

My Space

There is only one place on this earth that is "mine". Well, I share it with 4 other people, but the space is mine (ours). The four walls that surround me are my sanctuary from "everything else". I (we) get to choose what is allowed in my (our) house. We choose everything that comes in our house (expect for mice, which I haven't encountered yet, bugs, and most dust), everything from the clothing to the media, the phone calls, and the people. Maybe that's why I am so bugged when I feel my sanctuary has been invaded- I let the invader/annoyance in my home. The other day I was thinking about a meeting I was asked to hold in my home. I agreed and then throughout the whole meeting I was annoyed because I was not up to having one of those people in my house. It was just someone who really knows how to push my buttons without knowing what she is doing. I remember the way I felt when she walked out my door- complete relief. My house was my home again. Several months ago I attended at party where I ran into someone I hadn't seen in a while. She knew we'd moved but didn't know exactly where. She wanted my address so she could stop by and see our new place. I felt instant panic. This person is someone who is "fine" most of the time, but she's not someone I really want to maintain ties with. The thought of her invading my home was more than I could deal with at that moment. I immediately steered the conversation in a different direction. I didn't give out my address. My home is for me and my family and our invited guests and things. I really don't think I need to allow every whim and person out there into my space. Saying "no" to people and things is okay but is easier said than done because I hate to offend people and believe in being accommodating. However, I am learning that controlling what is allowed in my home helps control my anxiety and helps a feeling of peace to abide in my home.

Two Dozen Teenagers

There was a party at our house last night. Over Christmas break, Jonathan had a party and invited his marching band over, but his party was the night of the "big storm" and the weather and roads were so awful that only a few people made it to the party (I would not have taken Jonathan to a party in that weather). Last night there was another marching band party at our house. This time the weather was fine so the kids came. A lot of kids came. And since "kids" means teenagers, they were loud. They were really well behaved though- they hung out in the basement the entire time and talked, laughed, played ping pong and Wii, watched a movie, played games, and ate junk food. When the last kids cleared out around 11:30 p.m., I hesitantly went downstairs to assess the damage. Believe it or not, the mass of teenagers left the basement cleaner than the way my 2 boys leave the basement after one night of brother-bonding. Most of the band kids were really polite and thanked me on the way out for having them over. The band will be invited back, but not for a while (there have been 4 different parties here in the last 3 weeks plus all the Christmas and New Years things and I need a break)! Last night we didn't get a true count of the kids that were here, but I did take a picture of most of their shoes, purses, and coats. Today Jonathan helped me make a list of who was here... we came up with 24 kids.

Mozart and Miles

Miles loves the Allegro movement from Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik. It's his YouTube video of the month. He gets really exited during this long crescendo.

Pep Band

A strange side of Jonathan emerges on Pep Band nights. He oozes school spirit. Here's his football season look. And here's his basketball season style. He's one of a kind.

Wow! What a Set of Wheels!

Yesterday I had to go to DI. I wasn't in a DI mood, but I had to go get a pair of pants and a belt for Nolan to wear in the swimming pool today as he earned the BSA Swimming Merit Badge. The trip to DI was a "business trip"... in and out as fast as possible. I really did not want to got to DI. As Miles and I were leaving DI, a car was pulling into the lot. It sounded like a bulldozer. I looked up at and thought, "Whoa". It was the ultimate 1970's beater-mobile. I first was a little excited because I thought it was a Ford Torino, but it was a Buick Skylark. This car was making the worst sounds imaginable. It was rusty. It had rugs tied to the roof. It had lots of other stuff tied to it was well, things like rolls of plastic and a sleeping pad. It had a bike rack on the back. It had half a car carrier on it as well. It didn't have much of a suspension. The icing on the cake was that the car had 4 flat tires- so flat that it was basically driving on its rims. The car was so impressive that I wanted a picture of it and I actually had a camera with me! I circled the parking lot 3 times trying to get a good shot of the car. I'm guessing that the car belongs to a rich homeless person- one who can afford gas! I wonder how it passes the state safety inspection?

Haircut

Big News! I finally got my haircut. My last haircut was 20 months ago- May 2009. Yes, 20 months! It was hard maintaining a haircut schedule with baby Miles and then my stylist had a set of twins, took some time off, and I never went back. My hair was insanely long for me and driving me nuts! Amy & Leslie have a hair-friend who just moved here so I set up an appointment with her. I had her make two initial cuts of 8". I can donate my cut ponytails to Pantene Beautiful Lengths who will turn my hair into a wig for a lady who is fighting cancer and has lost her hair. Unlike Locks of Love, Pantene provides the wig to the fighter free of charge, and they only require 8" of hair compared to the 12" required by Locks of Love. So, while my hair is a little shorter that what I'd ideally like, the cut ponytails are going to a great cause.

What a Friday Night!

Hopefully most everyone else in the world had a more exciting night than I did. It was a "stay at home" night. Jonathan was off doing Pep Band. Nolan was playing on the Wii. Dan and Miles busy being buddies. I decided to clean the storage room and rotate the food storage. How exciting is that? For the past many weeks, I've been really bad about putting things in the storage room where they belong and putting the "bonus food" away. The food has been stacked around the outside of the storage room door and the inside of the storage room has been piling up with things to the point that there was only a cluttered path in the storage room. I organized the non-food stuff in the room and put things back on the shelves where they belong. Then I attacked the food side of the room. First, I collected 4 plastic grocery bags stuffed full of those plastic grocery bags (which I recycled today). Then I started collecting all the empty cardboard boxes. Rather than take the empty boxes out of the storage room, my boys prefer to throw them on the floor. There were so many boxes that I had to take them to a recycling dumpster because our recycling can couldn't handle all of them. Then I reorganized the food and put away the stuff I'd bought. I put the same types of cereal together and arranged them by expiration date (newest in the back). I put all the V-8 together, sorted the tuna, etc. Not real fun, but now I can find what I'm looking for!

So what food do I store? We have the typical wheat, rice, beans, flour, and sugar. We have lots of pasta. While organizing the food, I found an extra case of spaghetti sauce that I didn't know we had, so it's a good thing there is a lot of pasta. We have canned fruit, but not canned vegetables because we don't like them (so I have vitamins to take to cover the "stuff" we'd miss by not eating canned vegetables). We have lots of cereal and oatmeal. I store fruit snacks and granola bars. I store laundry soap, dish soap, and paper towels. I store vanilla extract and salt. Most uniquely though, I store candy. Lots of candy. Candy is important. I have a 5 gallon bucket full of candy bars and another tub loaded with fun sized candy and bags of M&Ms. Upstairs I have 12 bags of Lindt truffles that haven't made it to the storage room. It's recommended that you store food that will be helpful in times of stress. Candy is helpful to me. I also think that if something ever happens and people actually have to live off the stuff they have in their homes, then my candy will become a valuable bartering tool. Everyone will have beans, but who will have the candy? Me! But in the meantime, when I need to have a sugar fix, anything I could possibly want is waiting for me in the basement.

Food!

For the first time in as long as I can remember Jonathan did not want a pancake for breakfast! I've made him a pancake almost everyday for what seems like the past 10 years. This morning I didn't start his pancake first thing because I was busy doing something else, and Jonathan went and got the Cheerios out of the pantry. I asked him if he wanted a pancake and he said that he was fine with Cheerios today. Yea! Variety! Nolan still wanted a pancake when he woke up.

On Saturday, Dan was listening to "Prairie Home Companion" on NPR. The residents of "Lake Wobegon" were sharing their holiday happenings. One couple shared how they avoided "the weight gain" associated with the holiday season. I think they may have consulted with Miles who must have been acting as their dietitian because their allowed holiday foods were the same as Miles' two favorite foods- ketchup and snow. This lovely couple from Lake Wobegon decided they would only eat ketchup for meals and then for dessert, they would have snow. Miles would think this was the perfect diet!

Frozen scrambled egg patties. Have you tried them.? A few months ago, Costco had bags of frozen scrambled egg patties on clearance for $3.97. Because I am on a constant search for easy and good tasting protein sources, I decided to give them a try. I brought the egg patties home and put the bag in the freezer in the garage and promptly forgot about it. Today I found the bag and decided to try a frozen scrambled egg patty. I think there is a reason that Costco was this discontinuing this product. They are odd. Each patty is one scramble medium egg. It can be reheated in the microwave in 45 seconds. This appealed to me because while scrambled eggs may be about the easier thing to cook, I hate cleaning the pan afterward. The patty I heated up today ended up with a "skin" on the surface that was nasty and I had to peel it off so that the rest of the patty was semi-edible. The texture is spongy and it tastes more like pepper than egg. By themselves, I think they are terrible. However, cut up and served as a breakfast burrito with lots of salsa, they may actually taste fine. I think the patties would be good solution for scout camp or anywhere you want to have eggs, but don't want to have to take raw eggs with you, but I don't want to eat them on a regular basis. Maybe I'll send the rest of the bag with Dan when he takes his scouts on the Klondike in a couple of weekends.

Lamingtons

McKenzie makes the best treat. It's Australian and called "Lamingtons". It's a spongy cake that is cut into individual pieces then coated in chocolate icing and rolled in unsweetened coconut. So good! I have her recipe and I've tried to make it twice without success. I don't what my problem is, but I cannot get this recipe right. The first time I made it, the cake was just nasty so I threw it out. Yesterday I tried to make it again. The batter was very runny and I was skeptical about it turning out when I put it in the oven, but 35 minutes later, I checked the cake for "doneness" and the toothpick came out clean, so I took the cake out of the oven. I let it cool on the counter for 5 minutes before inverting it on a wire rack to allow it to finish cooling. I flipped the cake onto the rack. All appeared well, but then I lifted the rack up and the cake stared dripping out of the center. It was gloppy as can be in the middle (which makes no sense because the toothpick came out clean!!!) and the edges were rubbery and initially tasted like egg before another not-so-yummy taste took over. I have no idea what happened, but I think I'll have to get a private "Lamingtons" lesson from McKenzie.

Musical Miles

Everyone "big" in our family plays an instrument. Dan plays the violin. I play the piano. Jonathan mainly plays the clarinet and alto sax. Nolan plays piano and violin. Miles loves music. He often drags Dan over to his violin and indicates to Dan that he (Dan) should play the violin for him (Miles). But Miles doesn't play an instrument. He has a drum, but doesn't play it. At one time he liked to bang on Jonathan's practice drum pad with real drum sticks, but he's not been interested in doing that lately. He can push the buttons on the Guitar Hero guitar, but that does NOT count as an instrument. Yesterday Miles found an instrument that he can play. He actually taught himself. He plays the "egg slicer".

Back to my Blonde Roots

Today I went to run some errands with Miles. I noticed that as we were driving down the hill the air was getting "soupier". The Wasatch Front is in the middle of a typical winter inversion so the valley air looks nasty. I was surprised to see how "thick" the air seemed. The closer to the valley floor I got, the thicker and soupier the air was. It was getting harder to see out my car windows as I drove. I got to where we needed to go, shut the car off, and then realized that the reason it was hard to see was because my windows were fogged up.

Miles and I went back to Smiths today. We got a few more awesome deals... .25 for KitKats and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, free vitamin water, free Gatorade "Recovery", and a .39 box of nice, moisturizing Kleenex. Gatorade Recovery? What is that and why would anyone pay $2.49 for a 16 oz bottle of it? For FREE, I'll take one. I bought some BOGO Herbal Essence items... yesterday I was charged .90 per item, but today the checker entered the coupon differently and I paid .60 per item. Mr. Checker also enter the Old Spice stuff differently. Instead of paying .10 per item, today, Smith's paid me .20 per item to take the deodorant and body wash home. I bought 24 items... 8 personal care items, 10 candy bars, Gatorade Recovery, Vitamin Water, Kleenex, bananas, a bagel, and doughnut holes for the boys... and paid .39 per item. Most expensive item? Bananas.

Ramblings

Yesterday I ate better. But I also remembered that you have to exercise moderation even when eating "better". I was thoroughly sick by mid-afternoon... 6 cups of steamed green beans should be considered "excessive". But they were so good.

Miles knows how old he is. Yesterday he told me that he was "do".

Nolan is showing signs of music ADD. Currently he hates playing the piano, and hates playing the violin. Last week he wanted to learn the clarinet. This week he's decided he wants to play the trumpet for a year and then switch to the French horn. I really don't care what he plays (except quitting piano right now is not an option and I want him to commit to an instrument and not instrument-hop every year) but he needs to make a decision and understand that he will continue the piano for at least another year.

Yesterday I bought Nolan 4 sets Old Spice deodorant and body wash and paid .76 (before tax) out of pocket. He's stoked.

Jonathan completed his homework last night without me having to stand over him threatening to brain him with a frying pan!

Last night I went to a class on literature. I limited myself to ordering 11 books this morning. I love books. The ordered books span and large cross-section of literature and a variety of reading levels. I bought an animal ID book for preschool-early grade school level, 2 intellectual religious books, several teen/young adult books (one about Jamestown, 2 fantasy/sci-fi "popular style" books, and 3 others), a picture book and "grown-up" book on the same subject (the Candy Bomber), and a classic. It appears that I have my reading set up for the year. I faced my book dilemma while ordering the books. I like used books because they are usually cheaper and more environmentally correct, however the author doesn't get royalties from used book purchases. Well, 9 of the 11 books I ordered are used (sorry authors and publishers) and 2 are new (you're welcome to the previous mentioned people). Now I'll be stalking my mailbox for the next 2 weeks for my new treasures; however, I can't start a new book until I finish Cleopatra (who had one screwed up family tree).

Us Versus Miles and His Toys

For a long time, Dan has joked that Miles likes things a certain way and when we "rearrange" his things by picking up his "million messes a day", Miles doesn't appreciate it and must do everything in his power to return things to his level of organization. I've always laughed and thought "whatever", but now I'm starting to wonder if there isn't an element of truth in what Dan is claiming. One of Miles' favorite places to store/stash certain toys is behind his activity cube in the living room. It drives me crazy. The same "toys" keep ending up there- part of a mobile, a Halloween bucket, an airplane, a helicopter, a pencil, and a random Mr. PotatoHead body part. The other day Miles watched me pick up these "toys" and put them in his room. Immediately, he removed the toys from his room and put them back behind the cube. Victory was his for the day. The next day, Dan picked up the toys (without Miles knowing it) and put the toys in Miles' room. They stayed there for 2 days before Miles realized that the toys were in the "wrong place" and he put them back behind his cube in the living room. This cycle repeats itself on a regular basis. Today I looked over towards his cube and the toys are back.

Peanut Butter Oreo Cheesecake

Yesterday I swore off sugar for a while. I've been eating like total garbage and I felt like garbage as well. Yesterday I committed to healthier eating. Today I found a recipe for Peanut Butter Oreo Cheesecake and I changed my mind. I had all the ingredients on hand to make this treat so I thought I'd better make them. They are yummy and easy to make. I figured that if I was going to eat sugar today, then I may as well have another indulgence day. I also had brownies and soft Australian black licorice. Guess what? I feel awful again. Tomorrow... eat like a normal person...

Peanut Butter Oreo Cheesecake
Line 15 muffin cups with cupcake liners. Place an Oreo in the bottom of each one.
Beat 8 oz cream cheese with 1/3 cup sugar until fluffy (3 minutes)
Add 1/2 cup peanut butter (use creamy... I used crunchy and it makes for an odd texture)
Add 1 egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Spoon a heaping Tablespoon of filling over each Oreo.
Sprinkle with crushed Oreos, pressing slightly so Oreo sticks to the filling
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.
Cool completely before eating

New Book... Must Read!

I just have to tell you about this new book we just got. It's fascinating and I'm sure it's just a matter of weeks before it's on the New York Times Best Seller List- hardcover, non-fiction. It's called Sintering of Advanced Materials: Fundamentals and Processes and it was edited by Zhigang Zak Fang. I thought the most enthralling chapter in the book was chapter 15. I just couldn't put it down or get it off my mind. That chapter is called Sintering of Ultrahard Materials (notice- not just hard materials, but ultrahard, wow!). Here's the cover of the book... And here's the table of contents page which features chapter 15... Did you notice who the author of Chapter 15 is? It's Dan! Dan's friend Zhigang (or "Zak", as we know him) was asked to put together this technical book on Sintering. He asked Dan to write a chapter on sintering ultrahard materials, so Dan did. The book was published and released at the end of 2010 and we just got our copy of it. It retails for the rock bottom price of $255 on Amazon (with free super saver shipping!). I had to ask Dan who the audience for this book is and he said its written as a reference for materials development companies and for graduate level classes. So, other than the instant fame that comes with being a contributing author to a best selling book, Dan was compensated with several books from the publishing company. In addition to the book he helped write, Dan is now the proud owner of Ceramic Matrix Composites, Materials for Energy Conversion Devices, and Surface Coatings for Protection Against Wear. Wow! Now those books sound really exciting! I hope Dan will forgive me for this good-natured mocking. It's just because I'm jealous. The only thing I've ever been asked to contributing anything to is a ward cookbook!

New Years Celebrations

New Years Eve was celebrated in, what may be becoming, the standard Belnap way. First the boys went skiing and nearly froze. It reached a high of 1 degree Fahrenheit by the end of the ski day. Nolan got so thoroughly chilled that he went and sat in the lodge by a roaring fire for an hour and a half but didn't completely warm up until he had a long soak in the tub. Dan rewarded the boys for being such good sports with an early dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. Miles and I got to go to the airport and pick up Amy. Around 9 p.m., Jonathan met up with Jacoby and went to a Tri-Stake dance. He had fun hanging with his band friends and dancing with "hot chicks". Nolan, Miles, Dan, and I partied it up at home. Nolan wanted a TV dinner (a Hungry Man Fried Chicken sodium fest). We watched the movie "Gremlin's". Dan fell asleep on the floor before midnight while Miles stayed awake and watched Nolan celebrate the stroke of midnight with 3 cans of silly string.


Obviously Miles didn't think much of Nolan's method of celebrating. I picked up Jonathan and Jacoby from the dance at 12:30. Dan and Miles were out cold by the time I got back. I promptly went to bed while the Big Ones decided it would be fun to pull an all-nighter and watch "Ernest" movies. With the help of Coke, the boys made it through 3 movies before going to bed at 6:30 a.m. Nolan woke up at 11 a.m. and we hauled Jonathan out of bed at noon and had "lunner" at Dan's parents' house at 1 p.m. The Big Ones were fairly grumpy for the rest of the day, but were proud of themselves for their all night feat.

New Years Resolutions?

Happy 2011 everyone. Many people like to set goals at the beginning of the year to give them things to focus on throughout the year. Many, many people set "weight loss" as a goal. Well, today I stumbled across a product that may be of help to anyone out there how would like to lose a lot of weight but can't qualify for or afford gastric bypass surgery. Amazon.com sells a laparoscopic gastric bypass kits that would, in theory, allow you to perform this procedure in the privacy of your own home. The best part is that it's under $300! Seriously... I am NOT kidding. Here's the kit; Notice it comes as a three pack, so you and your 2 BFFs can take turns performing the procedure on each other or you have 2 back-ups in case something goes wrong the first time you have the procedure done on yourself. I don't think it comes with step-by-step instructions, but I bet you can find them on Wikipedia. Still don't believe me? Then check out the Amazon page yourself http://www.amazon.com/Medline-Laparoscopic-Gastric-Bypass-DYNJS0303/dp/B000K6OQFY/ref=pd_sbs_hpc_4 Just wondering, can you sue yourself for malpractice and/or stupidity?