moving mayhem

In spite of what these pictures show, we now do have places to sit and sleep. Actually, we do have most of our stuff put away if you don't count all the stuff we stuffed into the third room and shut the door to hide!

Space, Glorious Space!

The big move is over and done with now and we are reveling in all our extra room. Thanks to our many willing helpers (hurrah for the Elder's Quorum!) and Rob's seriously fabulous ginger cookies to keep our energy up, we were able to move our entire household in about half a day. Of course, the cleaning and organizing will go on for awhile. I have pictures of the mayhem that is our new apartment, but for some reason they are not uploading in a timely manner and I need to get to bed. Suffice it to say, I do like our new place in spite of the hideously pink counter tops and the ghoul we have living in the water pipes (re: Harry Potter). We are no longer crammed in like so many sardines and we will even have space left over when everything is put away. Also we have new carpet and tile, which could very well be the only time in our lives that we ever have new carpet and tile. The layout is enough like the old place to make it feel homey and familiar, and enough different that Sam and Grace keep running into walls they are not expecting. (Alright, I admit I ran into a wall too, but in my defense it was the middle of the night and pitch black!) For those of you interested, our phone numbers stay the same and the address is also the same except for the apartment number, which is now B305. Good night!

Talk Like a Pirate Day:

Ahoy, me hearties! Tomorrow is Talk Like a Pirate Day. For those of you land lubbers who need a little help with pirate jargon, check out this video. Aarrggh!

Autumn of Pie Update

Made an apple cranberry pie yesterday. Did much better on the crust then my last attempt. I'm ruefully realizing that when they say cool to room temp before serving they really mean all the way to room temp. Otherwise you just have juice everywhere! I also ended up with about two inches of space between the top crust and filling once baking was done. Anyone know how to avoid this w/o precooking the filling? As far as taste go, I thought it was excellent, though I will defer to Rob's superior judgement if he has a differing opinion.

The Horror

Is there anything more disgusting that a parent has to do then potty train their child?
This little girl, though she looks an angel, is really a fiend from the firey depths when it comes to the potty. She knows what to do; has demonstrated countless times that she can recognize when to go and how to do it. And yet it is almost a game for her to have 'accidents'. Last week she even locked me into the bathroom so she could go have an 'accident' in her room. I thought she was just trying to close out the noise of my hair dryer.

Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

As I was scanning through our many photos, I was struck with how many of them feature food. I'm not sure why we have felt it necessary to document our food adventures. Rob and I do like to take on culinary challenges and many of these pictures represent hours of labor. Everything from scratch, of course. I present them to you now. Enjoy the feast.

Rob became interested in Pizza many years ago. It is now a Friday night tradition during non-summer months to fire up the oven and bake us some pies. He's amazingly good at it by now.

This one is a particular favorite of mine. Strawberry creme cake. I think it was for Rob's birthday two years ago.

Here we have Rob about to commit crabicide for our crab boil. For those who don't know what a crab boil is, let me enlighten. You fill the big pot with potatos, onions, corn on the cob, crab, shrimp, sausages, artichokes, spices, and who knows really what else. There is an art to it since everything has a different cooking time. Once everything is cooked but not over-cooked, the pot is then drained and the food is dumped down the center of the table. Everyone has their own bowl of melted butter and away you go. As I am anti-seafood, much to the consternation of Rob's family, I content myself with a pan-fried chicken breast.

Here's Rob's German Chocolate cake from last year. This one took quite awhile to make. The frosting is a bit of a process. I'm ashamed to say that this year Rob got a German Chocolate from a box. We threw it away after a few bites and promised never to open another cake mix again.

Rob braved a late spring storm to make sure we had our grilled kabobs for dinner. They were worth it.

These are pitas made from my good friend Collette's recipe. I've made them a few times since then and they just keep getting better.

And finally, I have proclaimed this the Autumn of Pie. I feel it is time for me to learn how to make a really good pie crust and a stellar apple/pumpkin/any other type of filling pie. Rob has generously volunteered to judge my efforts and eat up the disasters. This pictures is of my first attempt. It's apple, and it was really good!

Under Construction

I've decided to reinvent myself, blogwise. Stay tuned for changes...

First Day of School!

Yesterday was Sam's first day back at preschool. I think everyone in the family is excited for him to be going back to school. Except maybe Grace. She misses Sam much and is rather jealous that she doesn't get to go to school. Sam is excited to be seeing new friends and to be riding the bus again. I am not excited about the fact that we are now the first stop for the bus which comes at 7:10! We'll have to see how we do with such an early time this week. We might start driving him in the morning, especially in the winter when it will still be dark at that time.
In other news, it looks like we'll be moving next weekend on the 22nd. I think we've finally sorted out all the paperwork issues. There is just one more form for me to take care of today and then we'll be done (knock on wood).
Also, almost as soon as I published my last post asking for help in finding an Alabama quarter I found an Alabama quarter. We went to Baskin & Robins yesterday for a FHE/first day of school treat and I decided to use cash and there it was, in my change. In good condition too! However, if you still feel like keeping an eye out for coins for me, Rob told me yesterday that he wants to collect the new Lewis & Clark nickels. We have the one with the first sighting of the sea (Oh, the Joy!) so if you come across any others, hold on to them for us.

Your mission...

So I didn't know this about my husband till after I married him, but he likes to collect coins. I think its a gene that he gets from his father, the consummate collector. Lucky for me, Rob sticks to coins as opposed to the everything that Murland collects. So we have proof sets of different coins stashed here and there for the kids to inherit. We've started collecting the presidential 1$ coins and we've kept right on top of the state quarter collections. Except for one quarter. I'm not sure how it happened, but we don't have the Alabama quarter from 2003. So I'd like to enlist all of your help. Go through your change jars, check when you get change at the store, and if you have or find this quarter, send it to us!!! You will be more then fairly compensated and have our life long gratitude! Here's what the coin looks like:

Happy Hunting!

The Plot Thickens

Ok, so it turns out the lady that I thought was being lax on our moving deal wasn't exactly being lax though she DID forget I had talked to her about us moving. The apartment manager, however, appears to be the real culprit. A key form which she was supposed to send in to the housing assistance people is still sitting on her desk two weeks after she was supposed to turn it in. She's pregnant which really is the only excuse I can allow her for not getting things done, though I have noticed that she was prone to flightiness and forgetfulness even pre-pregnancy. So we'll spend today trying to get things back on track, though it is looking more and more doubtful that we'll be moving next week.

D#**% Bureaucracy

So we've been pretty excited the past few weeks to be moving to a bigger apartment. Move in date is scheduled for next Saturday and we have help all lined up. Even Rob's mom and sister are coming all the way from Seattle to lend a hand (and bring our table which has been in Elaine's house for about a year now). Even the hassle of redoing ALL the paper work with the landlords was bearable (if only just...it took HOURS). This morning I finished the last of the paper work that had to be notarized and stopped by the office to turn it in only to find out that the lady in charge of our housing assistance FORGOT about the conversation I had with her two weeks ago about us moving and hasn't done a lick of work on her end to get our move approved. Considering it takes at least a month for all that stuff to get done, there is no way it will be ready for a next week move. I'm not sure of the repercussions of this error. We may still be able to move next week, but most likely will have to pay much more in rent for this month then we had planned. Good thing I didn't get Rob that iphone for his birthday.

Trip Pics

Gas caps and dead cats

I'm home again and very tired but happy with the way the week went. A very big THANK YOU to Whitney and Marc for putting up with us for so long. I decided to leave a day early and come home yesterday instead of today. Partly to give Whitney a break but mostly for a birthday surprise for Rob. Of course, he's spent his birthday keeping track of the kids and doing all the laundrey while I recuperate from the long and busy week and the long and stressful drive yesterday. It wasn't the best road trip that I've ever had. Outside of Bosie I lost my temper with Grace and actually pulled off the freeway to issue some discipline. Taking the time to do that meant that I was at the wrong spot at the wrong time in Payette, ID and was pulled over for not having a front license plate. That became more serious when I realized that I didn't have my current insurance card in the car AND the officer was suspectful of my driver's license since apparently I don't look like I did 2 years ago when I got it. However, he took pity on my since I was obviously in distress (crying), had two young children in the back and was just passing through and didn't give me a ticket. So I was back on my way again, still a bit shaken over my very first encounter with a police officer ever (never been pulled over before!) when a very big and, from the brief glimps I had, beautiful cat ran right in front of me. I was going way to fast to even think of swerving until after it was too late. From my rear view mirror it looked like the cat just exploded on contact. Sam was awake at the time so I had to come up with an excuse for the noise and my reaction. Luckily he is easily pacified. To cap this all off (no pun intended), at our next stop I realized that I had forgotten to put the gas cap back on when I had filled up in Boise. All in all, not a great trip, but Rob was really surprised to see us and happy to have us home so I think it must have been worth it. I don't know if the cat's owner would agree.