It was a take-out day

One of the ways I keep our food budget down is to cook at home, mostly from scratch. Today wasn't one of those days.

I took Mom for an appointment and on the way home she offered to treat us to a quick lunch, so I suggested Boston Market. I pass it once or twice a week, but in two years of living here, I've never gone in.

We got the rotisserie chicken, three sides which were creamed spinach (all right--wouldn't have been my choice), mashed potatoes and gravy (waaaaaaaaaaay better than KFC's), and hot cinnamon apple slices, with three little (very sweet) corn bread cakes. It was all really good!

Before we got home I stopped at Papa Murphy's take 'n' bake pizza because I had invited the LDS missionaries over for dinner and didn't feel like making our usual homemade pizza.
I got a pepperoni, a double cheese, and a Canadian bacon, then added cheesy bread and a cinnamon wheel. Everything cost $20. At home I added pineapple to the Canadian bacon one to make a Hawaiian pizza. Although now that I think of it, a Hawaiian pizza really should have Spam and pineapple on it.

Our guests arrived right on time. After we made our introductions to each other, I told my mom that when I saw the guys at church on Sunday, one of them reminded me of someone . . . who? She took a look and said, "well, he reminds me of Kevin." Bingo. That is who I thought of too. I'm not saying he looks exactly like Kevin, because he doesn't, but he did remind both of us of him.

Can you see it?

Anyway, here are C and me with the missionaries too:
I sent the two pictures to the missionaries' mothers. I know I really appreciated when I'd receive the occasional email from mothers in San Diego with pictures of David in them, and I'm hoping for some karma when Kevin goes on his mission in a couple of months.

"Heterosexual Pride Day" in São Paulo?

Who would think someone would think there would even be a need for such a thing?

Mr. Apolinário, who has the support of Brazil’s powerful Protestant church lobby, said, “The creation of Heterosexual Day does not symbolize a struggle against gays but against what I believe are excesses and privileges.”

Opponents shot back saying the move was nothing short of divisive homophobia.

This reminds me of when I was in high school and all the teens recognized that when you did't have any real answer, you just called names. "Divisive homophobia"?? Mr. Apolinário probably "hates" homosexuals too, or is it just in the United States that if you don't embrace the homosexual lifestyle, you "hate" homosexuals?

I think it is fine to have different groups of people--gays, whites, Catholics, immigrants, straights, Republicans, poor people, you name it. I don't think we have to have special days to "celebrate" their differences. I don't think they all have to mix and mingle either, unless they want to.

How about "live and let live"?

Extreme couponing?

In the United States there is (was?) a reality show on TV called Extreme Couponing. Each show follows two shoppers as they use sales and coupons to buy their groceries for very low prices. The show has come under a lot of criticism because many of the people on the show keep HUGE stockpiles of food in their basements, garages, or stored in various places around the house. Of course anyone has the right to store any amount of food she wants, but a lot of people have wondered if someone really needs 67 bottles of yellow mustard or 1,000 packages of Yakisoba Noodles. Then there is the problem of some of the couponers' using the wrong coupon for the wrong product, i.e. using a high-value coupon meant for a particular higher cost item on a lower-cost product from the same company. For a good explanation of this, see Jill Cataldo's blog post.

Anyway, I'm an "avid" couponer, but I don't commit fraud and I shop in quantities my family can use or can easily share with others.

All that said, here is what I bought last night for $9.69:

*4 boxes of cereal and 2 gallons of milk (a special deal at Fry's)= $10 minus 4 coupons that doubled to a total of $4 = $6

*2 dozen eggs (Target-"come see our new grocery store" special) = FREE

*3 one-pound boxes of strawberries = $.77/each

*1.79 lb of grapes = $1.38

TOTAL $9.69

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday: Beef and Bean Chimichangas
Tuesday: Citrus-marinated chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetable
Wednesday: Quiche
Thursday: Eat at a friend's house. If not, DIY Pasta Salad.
Friday: Easy Grilled Nacho Pizzas

I think car things are done

In June and July:

Another car and I backed slowly into each other. Oops. Had to pay a big deductible to get my bumper fixed.

Someone rear-ended another car while driving our Suburban. $750 to mostly fix the damage.

Another car rolled or backed into my car. Just got it fixed this week and the other insurance company paid. It looks good.

Someone in the family got a Robocop ticket for running a red light. Big fine.

Someone in the family got a Robocop ticket for running a right turn red light while driving my car. NOT ME. And it wasn't dh either.

Trying to sell Mom's Jeep and don't have the title. Have a buyer, but California is taking forEVER to pony up the duplicate title. Hope the buyer stays with us.

Dh is buying a car tomorrow. I'm not really happy about it.

My clothes closet

This morning I was reading a blog post from Life As Mom about the same clothing problem I have. You go to the closet and open it and although there is an adequate number of clothes in it, you have nothing to wear because things don't fit, are damaged (stained, loose seams, worn out), don't have any coordinating things to go with them, are outdated, or the wrong season. That describes my closet pretty well.

I keep thinking I will lose weight, so a couple of tops will fit better. But will I lose height and make the tops that are too short magically long enough? The fad a few years ago of tops that hit at "high hip" was brutal on a long-body gal like me. I need to ditch that stuff. I need to get rid of the top I've loved and worn for so long that the seams are starting to wear through at the neck. Those things are safe to get rid of. No amount of weight loss is going to make them look better.

I like the top I'm wearing in this picture (although I'm not showing it to its best advantage here) because it is a comfortable cotton knit and easy to wear, but it has some inherent detailing. That is the kind of top I'm looking for these days.

I need to purge my closet and get shopping!

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday:Asian chicken salad (from a kit I bought at Costco), rolls
Tuesday:Two-color Baked Ziti, broccoli
Wednesday:
Black Bean and Corn Enchilada Egg Bake
Thursday:Burrito Casserole, rice
Friday:Pizza and ginger ale

Mini S'mores Cones

And it only took 25 months!

Today was a momentuous day in our house--we unpacked the last, the very last box from our move here just over two years ago. LOL, shameful, isn't it?? Here is dh carrying the offender away.
The reason we finally got it unpacked is we decided to move S to her own room. We had been keeping the 4th bedroom as kind of a guest room, or available for one of the older kids to move into, but it became apparent none of them is going to move in with Mom and Dad in the immediate future, so we decided to use it for the children we do have at home. The final three boxes were stacked in the corner of this room and they had to go!

S causes the most distraction at bed time, so we decided to move her out of the large room all three girls have been sharing and into the 4th and smallest one. Here she is, and darn tootin' pleased she is as well.

I haven't a decorating bone in my body so I've been looking at some of the decorating blogs for ideas. I'd really like her to have something a little bit cute.

A few of my favorite pictures from our vacation

This is my father-in-law Bob. He's 81 years old and has been an amputee since he was in his 20s. He's always in pain from the effects of the electrical accident that caused his amputation, yet he hikes, camps, plays with grandkids, and is a very funny guy.
And here is my mother-in-law Jane. Those cute boys are her grandsons, my nephews. Jane is honestly one of the nicest people I know. She is thoughtful of others, never wants to give offense, and is a great conversationalist. She raised very kind and thoughtful sons, too. Girls too, but I see such kindness in her sons that I know she did a great job with them.
Here are my three younger daughters. They'll soon be entering 2nd grade (S) and 4th grades (C & E). They are lively and smart and super affectionate. We have a lot of love going on in our family!


I was really happy to take them to this pioneer outpost called Cove Fort. One of my favorite memories of my older children was taking them here at about the same ages. For some reason D didn't go, but I took H and K on a trip here. I hadn't taken too many road trips back then and it was kind of a BIG DEAL to pack up the car, drive there, take the tour, stay in a KOA cabin, tour the town about 35 miles away, then return home to Salt Lake City.

On the way home from this trip I stopped to see my old friend Kathy. Kathy and I met through her mother Peggy. Peggy was my neighbor across the street when I lived in Salt Lake City. She didn't know anyone who wasn't a friend and she gathered me right in. Her daughter Kathy and I became friends some time after Peggy and I met. A year ago Kathy developed some serious health problems and was hospitalized for a long time, then moved to a nursing home. She's doing a lot better, but you can see the vent, and it's reduced her ability to be out and about as she has always been. Her husband Andy is very attentive to her and she dotes on him. They are a wonderful couple. Just a note: I was startled when I came into Kathy's room because she had lost some weight and she looked just like Peggy. Peggy had snow white hair when she died a couple of years ago, but other than that, it was almost like I was looking at her when I saw Kathy. What a nice memory for me.
This is my son Kevin. He'll be going on a mission soon and it's probably the last time I'll see him before he leaves in October. It's scary how often we think or say the same thing at the same time!
And finally, a shot of two of the big focuses in my life--my family (part of it!) and Jesus Christ. Yes, I'm aware that this is a statue depicting Him (LOL), but I really try to live as He wants me to live.

A hawk!

C and I were in the kitchen when she suddenly ran yelling out the sliding glass door. She was waving her arms around and making quite a ruckus! Here is what happened:

She drew this picture to show the four chickens in the back yard to the left of the pool (with its cross-hatched safety net) and in front of the large privacy shrub (middle back) with a hawk swooping down on them. C said they were running around and making their "danger noise." By the time I got out there the hawk was sitting on the fence, then flew to a neighbor's tree, where it sat for about ten minutes, just watching.

As you can imagine, we hustled the chickens into their run where they are completely safe from the hawk.

source
I used my new birding book to identify the hawk which was a Swainson's Hawk light morph. I think we'll keep the chickens in their run for a few days and see if the hawk hangs around. From my reading I know they prefer to eat grasshoppers and insects like that, but during mating season they also go for small mammals and birds as large as injured ducks. Now that our four girls are our egg-laying pets, I don't want anything to happen to them!