Day 12 - What You Believe

Man, this challenge went from favorite TV shows to beliefs? Interesting. Let's keep this light, shall we?

I believe strongly in laughter:

laughing at a most likely inappropriate wedding toast

I believe in hard work:

years ago, moving to college (i think)

My partner teacher and I working hard... or hardly working... during Spirit Week

I believe in living a simple life - free of clutter, free of over-planning, free of drama. I have seen lots of people that have "everything" and are some of the unhappiest people because of their choices.

on a road trip with John early on (2008)

I believe that I can beat anyone at Bananagrams:

not my picture

I believe that while at times it can be unhealthy, food can solve your problems:

Pizza from the Kennedy School in Portland, OR

Thanksgiving 2010

John and I really enjoyed our second Thanksgiving together. We are thankful for our families, our jobs, our beautiful home, and what we've accomplished together as a team. We are truly lucky for where we are at right now and can only hope to continue our personal success so that we can help others.

Here are some pictures from our annual Portland trip:

I was craving my Grape Crush donut from Voodoo Donut, but the line was long every time we checked in... :(

We went to a place my mom had heard about called the Kennedy School, which is owned by the chain McMenamin's. It's an elementary school that has been converted into a hotel, theatre, event hall, and restaurants/bar/breweries. I feel a special connection to all things education, but it was a REALLY cool place. We ate at the Boiler Room bar, which had an upper level and a lower (just like a boiler room). There was a restaurant in the old cafeteria, and a tiny Detention Bar and Honors Bar, too. The theatre has armchairs instead of row seating and the hotel rooms are old classrooms complete with chalkboards. Pretty neat.

Top of the boiler room bar

I just love that the sign for Home Ec is right by the Bar sign

Front of the school

Also, can you tell some of my pictures are slightly edited? I'm still learning it, but have been playing with Picasa, a free photo editing program from Google. You can make blog banners and digitally scrapbook, too. I'll let you know what I learn!

Day 11 - Favorite TV Shows

Well, let's start off with my number 1 pick. I don't know how to spell the sound of a tiger purr, but if I did it'd be the caption for this tasty little man morsel, also known as Dexter Morgan (really, it's Michael C. Hall, 6 feet Under star, cancer survivor, overall hunk of a ginger).

Oh, what the heck, let's post a few more pics of this delightful character.

Defending crime one serial killer at a time.



This pose is a little Spiderman-esque for my taste, but handsome nonetheless in his killing outfit.


Other Top Shows:

We drew teams for a work pool and I have Nick and Vicki. I would NOT have guessed they'd make it as far as they did. And can you believe how much they lucked out last night? jeesh.

I know what I'm doing Monday Nights.

A funny show I'm just starting to get into

We don't have cable and usually just watch stuff on Netflix or on the network websites, which saves us money and works just fine for us right now. I also enjoy almost anything on TLC and HGTV. :)

Day 10 - Something you're afraid of

Butterflies

Heights, Edges of High Places

30-Day Blog Challenge Catch-Up Days 7, 8, 9

Day 7-Favorite movies

 I'm not a huge movie goer, but here are some classics:

1. Rainman
2. Little Miss Sunshine
3. Cabaret, Hair, Chicago, almost any musical movie
4. Elf

Day 8-A place you've traveled to (and I'm adding recently)

Day 9-A picture of your friends

The Great Turkey Thaw (or, a lesson in planning ahead)

Me and the hubs just got back from our annual trip to Portland Thanksgiving weekend and what a great time it's been. Let's start with Wednesday night, however.

My parents decided they wanted to try something new and deep fry a turkey this year. My sister's boyfriend happens to be quite the Fry Daddy and offered to do it (at least I think this is how it all went down). Being a frugal woman, my mom decided that the price of the oil required to fry a turkey wasn't exactly cost effective for frying just one turkey, so she decided to do 3 (or decided that the sister's boyfriend, Drew, would). John gets turkeys through work and was able to snag 2, which was great because they are free. However, we did not acquire said turkeys until Wednesday, and they were frozen. This is what I learned about turkey thawing:

1. You cannot defrost a turkey on the counter (okay, I already knew this but it was more a matter of convincing John of this fact)
2. It takes 3-4 days to thaw a frozen turkey in the refrigerator (so that was not an option)
3. It can take 2+ hours to defrost a turkey in a microwave. And if you have 2 turkeys to defrost that is quite a bit of nuking you've got yourself into. Also the turkey has to fit in the microwave. (so that was not an option)
4. It takes 6-8 hours to thaw a 12-16 pound turkey in a cold water bath. 

Well, jackpot. I've got a double sink and 6-8 hours to kill. Everything is under control. However, the requirement is that you must cook the turkey shortly after thawing it in cold water. Furthermore, you must change the water every 30-60 minutes so that it doesn't get too cold and thus ineffective for thawing.

Let me rewind a bit. For those of you who don't know, to deep fry a turkey is a dangerous undertaking. The turkey must be both completely thawed and thoroughly pat-dried inside and out (a job I most certainly did not volunteer for). Favorite quote from Dad: "Man, I just found another crevice in this thing!"

In the most dramatic way I can possibly choose to word this: If I could not successfully thaw my share of the turkeys, Thanksgiving was ruined.

Alright, so the plan is to eat at 4. If you've done the math and have figured in pat-drying, flavor injecting, cook time (approx. 45 minutes p.b. - per bird), and other miscellaneous preparation, PLUS the 8-9 hour window I've allotted and the requirement that the turkeys are cooked not too long after thawing, that put me at approximately 1:00 am to begin defrosting.How could I not accept this challenge? The fate of Thanksgiving rested on one woman's shoulders.


There is a moral to this story:
If you are not sure if you're ready to have children yet, try thawing 2 15-pound turkeys. Seriously, getting up every hour to change the water in the sink must be as close as you can get to having to get up and feed/comfort/change a newborn baby. I have concluded that I do not want children yet.



Did I mention I don't even eat Turkey?

There's no evidence of me sleeping on the couch and babying my little turkeys, but here are some other pics of the successful Turkey Fry:

Drew hard at work on Turkey 1 of 3 (he infused them with 3 different types of flavoring)

Now if that's not couple's team-building I'm not sure what is. I'm not sure what this step is called, but I'm pretty sure it would come out inappropriate if I tried to name it.

The true test of how well we dried the turkeys - Drew took one for the team by sitting next the the fryer the whole time.

The parents' Thanksgiving Table. Note the perfectly sliced can o' cranberries.

The slightly concerning good news is that we now have a deep fryer. Don't even think I haven't begun considering what I could possibly fry up with that bad boy.


More pictures/sharing about our trip soon. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

Hey Good Lookin', Whatcha Got Cookin'?

 **EDIT** I played around with the table a little more. Still want some candles or something. Getting there, with some help from some nesties.

During my 2nd snow day I decided to be a little more productive. I made my pie for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Then I started to decorate my table for Christmas. I would say that I'm far from where I imagine it being, and will probably buy less... red and green... things next year, but I worked with what I already had since there are other things I'd rather spend my money on. What do you think, for a novice?

Day 6 - Picture of something that makes you happy

Well, the first thought I had of what makes me happy is very indicative of my priorities in life:

But I suppose I could pick something a little more sentimental:

www.ultimatecampresource.com

Now, let me explain. I realize this also has to do with sweets, but there's more. This marshmallow gun represents Christmas with my family - which is something that makes me very happy. But why a PVC marshmallow gun?

Because 3 years ago my mom thought it would be fun to make a marshmallow gun. When it turned out to be very simple, she made 5 more. Then she decided it would be funny to give John a bag of marshmallows for Christmas, then attack him with marshmallows. This started a new family tradition of having a Marshmallow Gun Fight every Christmas Day. We don't really get toys to play with and so this is a fun way to play together.

 We all wear eye protection (from my dad's shop), which makes it that much more silly. And let me tell you, it's a necessity - the three men who play (dad, John, and my sister's boyfriend) put such power into their marshmallows that I usually end up with red spots all over.

You would think it's not that fun the second or third year around, but it is. We will never not laugh from hitting someone in the butt with a marshmallow and hearing that "smack!" sound. It also never ceases to amaze me how the guys plan out their tactical moves - where to hide, where to attack from, how many marshmallows to load in their gun at one time.

Overall it's a fun time. The marshmallows don't stain, and even if they get smashed it's easy to remove. It's funny finding marshmallows in weird places months later.

Anyway, consider this as a possible holiday tradition for your family - after all, what classier way is there to spend a holiday with family?

It's beginning to look a lot like Crafts-mas..

Now that I have completely filled the dining room table and floor with crafts/wrapping, I decided it's time to start getting the craft room under control. Eventually (read: eventually) the craft room will become a kid's room so I'd like to enjoy my own space while I can.

Anyway, since today was a snow day I decided not to sit on my butt all day and went through my crafts and make a plan for the room. Who knows when we'll decide to spend the money on getting this room in ship-shape, but at least I've got a plan.

Looking in from the stairs. Trash box to right.

Sorted: Nostalgia, Scrapbook, Paint, Fabric

Current Projects, wrapping, school stuff, stamping

Starting design board...

Design Board includes:

• Corner Desk (pictured from Ikea, $120
• Lime/White accents
• Pendant Light from Home Depot, $30
• Shelving to hold bins, Ikea - $120 --- not sure about this yet
• Some sort of bins for the categories listed
• Tool Hangers (from hardware store)
• Corkboard covered in fabric for ideas/projects, etc.
• Chair and Rug?

I hope to not spend more than $350 on this room. We'll see what kinds of deals I can find...

Day 5 - Your Siblings

Another great member of my family is my seester, Lauren. You can call her Lalo, she likes it.

She's 3 years older than me so we grew up pretty close - really, she's my best friend. I often bullied her when we were little and she put up with it. Things have mellowed out in our old age and now we text often, talk and get together when we can, and joke around a lot.

Sorry fellas, she's taken.

Isn't she lovely?

Isn't she wonderful?

So very precious.

And helpful too!