Baking

So I guess my new title is "Office Baker". Heck I'd trade in Office Manager for that any day. :)

A few times my boss has brought in over ripe bananas and I have taken them home and made banana bread. Next thing I know he buys me a 3 pack of pumpkin bread mix, which I've made two of. Well Friday he went to Costco and asked what I usually go through with the baking and I mentioned sugar, flour, and oil.

I come in today and there is 5 quarts of oil, a 10lb bag of sugar, and a 25lb bag of flour! I better get to baking. My coworker says he just wants me to open a bakery. Heck we have a full kitchen here, I could make anything fresh for them.

Justusisms

Here are the latest:

The other day he informed me he wanted to ride a squad. I was like a what?!? A squad. After much questioning I finally figured out that it was a quad that he would like to ride.

Last night I had a headache and asked that he be a little more quiet. He said "I sauge it for you mommy" and rubbed my head, what a sweetie.

Irony- in "G" Major

How Ironic is it that R and I could walk into any county office or almost any church, tomorrow, and ask them to marry us, and they would be none the wiser, now how ironic is that?!?

Christmas Memories

I got this from Sonya and figured why not, blog content!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? For Christmas I prefer wrapping paper.

2. Real tree or Artificial? We were doing real but then they got so expensive and we found a beautiful, huge fiber optic on clearance one year and used that, When J was born we didn't want to worry about the fibers so we now have a small 3' prelit one, that's sparkly green!

3. When do you put up the tree? Sometime after Thanksgiving Day, usually later then I like.

4. When do you take the tree down? A week of so after the first.

5. Do you like eggnog? No but I LOVE Starbucks Eggnog Latte, go figure.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Oh I got so much good stuff, I could name a listful.

7. Hardest person to buy for? We don't buy for that many people anymore, but probably my grandma when I do because I want to make sure it's special.

8. Easiest person to buy for? J because he'll love whatever we pick.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? No but I'd like to.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? That would probably have to be the mayo
knife/honey scoop for me AND the giant coin trivet for R, both lovingly from my grandma. She just tries to clean out her house.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I like The Santa Clause and R loves the old cartoons.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Probably 2 weeks or so before for most gifts, but J will be right after thanksgiving so we can do birthday and Christmas shopping at the same time.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Sweets especially homemade cookies and See's Candy.

16. Lights on the tree? Yes! Lots! And I prefer clear on a crisp green tree but R prefers colored. Our prelit green sparkly tree with green lights pretty much makes our decision for us. :)

17. Favorite Christmas song? I like lots of them. More traditional ones I like are "Away in a Manger", "Silent Night", "Mary Did You Know", "Carol of the bells", well pretty much all of them actually. An older but hipper songs I like is "Last Christmas", and "The Christmas Shoes" always get's me. Newer songs I like are "Thankful" (Groban) and "River"(Sarah) . R's fave is Little Drummer Boy and My Mom's is Grandma Got run over by a Reindeer. And my all time Fave Christmas album,"Winter Solstice IV". TMI I know, but I love music.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? "travel", but only by car within about 50mi which I think is worse then out of town. So much driving.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yup

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Pooh bear Angel right now, but I've been looking for a nice star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Here's where the traveling comes in. Christmas Eve with my mom's side, Christmas Early Morning at home with the three of us, Christmas Late morning with my dad and sister, Christmas evening with R's family.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The traffic and dealing with other shoppers.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? We pick out an ornament ever year for Me and R and now J picks one out for himself. Besides those special ones, I like the clean globe ornaments. We have silver, clear and purple and then a few with designs on them.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Ham (honey baked if lucky)

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A sewing machine
Tag if you wanna!

My Child the Scent Dog!

I swear, the child can smell anything, anywhere. And it's not just smells either, it's sounds and sights, and other things. It's crazy really and all part of his 6th sense. Examples of his extreme smell ability:

I had a banana muffin in the car in a grocery bag. I opened the bag to get something out and he says "I smell pupcakes, why do I smell pupcakes?"
This a.m. he comes to me and says "did you buy chocolate chip cookies?" um no, "I smell chocolate chip cookies"- R had eaten them the night before out of a ziploc and had closed the baggie but had it next to the bed.
Again this a.m. When we got out of the car. "what's that smell" it was someone burning a fire in a fire place.
Once in a public bathroom, single stall thankfully "It smells really bad in here" 'I know' "I need to get out of here it's so stinky." as he nearly gags.
And one time after I ate chocolate "Mommy! What do I smell."

And these are only the times I can think of off the top of my head!

I'll go into sounds and sight later, when I can think of several.

ESP?!?

As we were leaving last night to go get* ice cream* that Justus asked for all.day.long, we noticed a big grasshopper on the side of the house, just sitting there. Us walking under him didn’t seem to phase him.

On the way home J says “he flew away”. So I asked who, a plane? Nope. The moon? No. A cloud? No. What then? The grasshopper. Hummmmm ESP?!? I should have called R and asked him to go check, but obviously that wouldn’t have mattered unless he was still there. He was gone when we got home.

*aka frozen yogurt

Eavsdropping

I admit it, I love to eavesdrop. Heck it’s funny to hear what other people are talking about and sometimes too easy to listen. Two prime examples.

The weekend before the election I took J to the bookstore to look at books and play with the trains. While I was sitting near the trains I overheard a group of ladies talking about who they were voting for. And one lady chimed in…”I always think about which one I would trust my kids with.” Very interesting. I didn’t hear who that would be but I figure it would have to be Obama because really, who would want to come home while their child is jumping all over Manny McCain saying “look ma he’s playin dead, he’s good at it huh?”

This very same night, while getting out of the car two moms are walking by with their, oh I’d guess 14mo old (if that) kids on their hip. And the one girl says to the other O.M.G. Jen (yes like that, text talk ) we should have taken them to Chuck-E-Cheese!!! Yes ladies because two barley walking toddlers would love to get trampled by a bunch of 4-8yr olds who can actually enjoy the value of Chuck-E-Cheese, mediocre pizza and all.

My son the Democrat

Even at 2 my son is already following in my footsteps, I'm so proud!

On Monday they read a story at school about the Fox and the Bear who wanted to be in charge of the forest. That night we were suppose to read the story again and talk to them about it and then on Tuesday they were going to vote.

The story basically ready like this: Fox wanted to be in charge of the forest so he stood on a box and shouted out his plans. The porcupine said vote for Fox he is Fair and strong. Bear wanted to be in charge of the forest and said I will listen to you and sat down in the chair. The mouse said vote for Bear because he cares.

I asked J who he was going to vote for and he said Bear. I asked him why and he said "because he cares." This Democratic mom couldn't be more proud and I did NOT prompt him in anyway. I knew who I would vote for as soon as it ready "Fox shouted out his plans".

Unfortunately Fox won.

The Aftermath

As much as I am excited that we finally have a Democrat back in the White House, I am equally saddened and angry at the results of Prop 8 here in California. I do not envy President-Elect Obama, for he has a tough job ahead of him, but I hope we will see the change that we need to uplift this country once again.

Closer to home, I could not be more disappointed in the Prop 8 decision. While there is still another 5% of votes to be counted, it has already been said that Prop 8 has passed and that the state constitution will be changed, to include discrimination.

Today I read that a Yes on 8 spokesperson said “we just ran a better campaign” to which I shuddered. They did NOT run a better campaign. They were dirty and deceptive, and their lies abundant. They used innocent children as a scare tactic and the religious right as their podium (not to mention income). What happened to Love Thy Neighbor?!? Hate is not in born, it is taught.

We do not want to change or challenge marriage. We don’t even care to get married in “their” church. We just want the Equality that we deserve. And do people really believe that we will ruin the sanctity of marriage? From what I have seen the high divorce rate and infidelity took care of that long ago.

And I am also angry because many people left the poll line once they got a text message or phone call telling then the outcome of the Presidential election. How many of these people might have voted No on 8?

I hang my head, knowing I should have done more…BUT the fight is not over! We shall prevail.

Exactly!

6th Sense

I don't know if it's his ESP or some kind of serious 6th sense, but the other day Justus took a pear from the fruit dish and threw it away announcing "this one's yucky". Well I had just put in a new bag and the pear was perfectly fine so I fished it out, told him it was good, and put it back in the bowl. After work R came home and J asked for a pear. So he cuts into the pear and the middle was all mushy and brown.

Now how on earth did that child know that the INSIDE of the pear was gross? I swear to you there was not a bad spot anywhere on the outside. There is no way anyone could have known just by looking at it.

Spooky.

Booo!

Here is a slideshow** of some of the pictures from our Halloween activities. If you can't view the slideshow scroll down for some regular pics as well. And Justus was extremely happy to get several bags on N-ah-Me's (aka M&M's) which this morning are now just N-ah-Men's which really isn't as cute as N-ah-Me's.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2lHIP94WswAANAndlYvwu3gs_y5hSirpEUjnPshSKxiRRkvaMmonv4U9SjsSSDE_n1NNYGXL27SzUe13ozlw_gjXoej6bRfomY5y8oq9mlHpPHOs2ui6CtXt7ATfkX-rnh1Yf/s1600-h/trick+o+treat+%285%29.JPG
**stop music at bottom of blog before viewing if playing

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com