Position of Chef Filled by…Will

Our ward Chili cook-off sparked something in Will this year.  He made a fabulous black bean Brazilian Chili (say that 10 times fast).  As he was adding the bacon and the sausage I couldn’t help being a little surprised with the sausage.  Who gets sausage in links these days, anyway?  It looks like we do!  For those of you who ate it…don’t worry, he didn’t use all of the sausage.  Hopefully, this prevents any possibilities of imminent heart attacks.

Now that Will has proven that he can cook, I think I will be adding him to the chef lineup.  

Through the Eye of a Pumpkin

We carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening this week.  I helped Annie with hers and I botched it something aweful!!  As I was cutting out the fangs for the pumpkin, I accidentally did a triple root canal/nosectomy removing all of them plus the nose, creating a rather large cavity.  The blood sucking pumpkin very quickly turned opera.  Yes, Hudson did say Annie’s pumpkin looked like it was singing opera.  I guess the death aria from the Magic Flute has been on at our house too often.  Annie had no idea what was going on.  She thought it was supposed to look that way.  I wanted to take a picture, but was embarassed with our final outcome so I present to you, “through the eye of a pumpkin.”

After all, it’s not what we are given, but what we do with it…I guess in my case…it was what I did to it.

Superheros to the Rescue!!

So I secretly want to be a superhero.  When I was younger I walked around most of my life thinking I was indestructable (That feeling now only occasionally favors me with its presence).  Of course the Heroes show is just feeding my dillusions.  I’m amazed each week at the introduction of new super powers.  The writers are so creative.  All of these thoughts have led me to wander down an interesting path cognitively.  What power would I have?  I was joking with Will the other day telling him that I should have eyes that glow red and burn through or melt things.  Honestly, if I could chose, that probably wouldn’t be my power.  Maybe I would fly or be really quick.  Can you imagine having all of your chores done for the day in a few minutes?  Oh well, I have been dealing with the notion that I am infact NOT a superhero, but can’t a girl dream?

All Things Furry

After the kids are in bed each night, Will and I usually end up flipping on the TV and snuggling on the couch.  I make the snack and open all of the windows, the double doors and the garage to let a breeze through the house.  It really is heavenly.  Well, my world has been partially shattered this last week…twice…due to some unexpected visitors.

Take 1…Will is sitting on the couch and I am walking over with popcorn.  I get about 5 feet from the door ready to sit down when I see this huge looking rat thing turn from the french doors and scurry away.  I only got a good look at the back so the thick, naked tail hinted that it wasnt a cat.  It looked to be about 10lbs. so the logical part of my brain told me it wasn’t a rat, while the illogical part of my brain wigged out and started doing a heeby geeby dance on the ottoman long after it had left.

After making Will google rats, moles(to his chagrin) and other rodents I identified it as an opposum(I know they are supposed to be mostly in the south, but I would swear that was what I saw…and no I haven’t seen any UFOs lately).  Classifying it felt good, but didn’t make the heeby geeby feeling go away.  I kept the doors shut for several days.

Take 2… Two days later, after I get brave enough to open the doors again…Will is sitting on the couch and I am walking over with tortillas and honey.  We have a repeat.  This time, I can identify it right away.  I notice the bushy black tail with the white stripe.  Logical part of my brain says, “Jessica don’t spook the skunk!” (Actually, I recall Will telling me those exact words at the time).  Illogical part of my brain kicks into geer overriding the other parts and I actually scream.  Lucky for me, he didn’t think I was that great to look at either.  He took off and didn’t even leave us a perfume sample.  Afterward, the consequences of having a skunk spray the livingroom registered in my mind and I made a decision.  Note to self: Don’t scream at a skunk.

Harvest Festival

We wanted Hudson to see the elementary school he would attend next year so we took him to the Harvest Festival they had over the weekend.  What a fabulous festival!  Hudson was almost fearless in the face of the “flying bathtub ride.”  He and I rode together.  He can take on spinning tea cups like nobody’s business, but I thought he was going to puke and then pass out on the ride, poor little guy.  The picture doesn’t give the ride justice.  It shows us at the end of the ride when it was getting ready to stop.  The ride actually gets significantly higher and spins just like the tea cups(hence the little steering wheel in the middle).

He tried his hand at everything, ring toss, pumpkin ring throw, fishing, and the bottles.  He climbed the inflatable climbing wall several times.  While Hudson and Will were in the haunted house, I took Annie to get her fingers painted.

Hudson beat us back to the car after everything was said and done.  This is how we found him.  Even though he didn’t win any of the games he got candy each time.  Oh the selection…oh the choices to make!