applesauce

What else says fall besides homemade applesauce!

We ate it before we took pictures of the finished product. But rest assured it tasted good. Especially on Whole Wheat pancakes. And JaDee added cream on top of that to make it taste even more like pie than it already did.

I just put in apples, water and cinnamon. Then cooked and cooked and cooked it at a slow boil until it turned into applesauce!

is anyone else bugged by this?

I sat down to Oprah the other day. I used to be a faithful Oprah fan. Read her book club books (and wondered why I did when I was finished with one); got her magazine (you know the ones with only her on the cover) and followed her advice in fashion, shoes, psycho-babble and a-ha moments. Not all bad (except some of her books but I did discover Christopher Bojhalian from one of her choices and I love him).

Then she got full of herself and started in with the celebrities and it started a disconnect with me. So needless to say it has seriously been a couple of years since I sat down to an episode.

At first I thought I had stumbled on a Jerry Springer show. Except that since the "guest" was the daughter of a celebrity rock star from the Momma's and the Poppa's and thus, a celebrity herself. Therefore it makes what she revealed, "Oprah worthy."

I'm sure you heard about it. The incest? Google Mackenzie Phillips if you didn't but be prepared. It made me sick.

And again a little worried that I was on Jerry's show. But no the host was indeed, an African American woman. So why did Oprah have her on?

First, I have come to the very late-in-life conclusion that most guests on talk shows do it as publicity. Their PR people arrange it with Oprah/Ellen/Conan/Jay to have them on to push their latest movie/book/album/TV show. Then to provide a shocking little tidbit only helps both parties involved with ratings/sales.

Second, Mackenzie said she wanted to put a face on this. That surely she is not the only person who has gone through this. And you know, I don't doubt it. I am sure she is not the only one out there. But good gravy, why did it seem so glorified by her interview with Oprah?

This morning at the gym The View was on and I was reading the subtitles as I listened to my various artists on my running track. I could write a whole other post about this show, but I digress. As they, too, hashed out the details of Mackenzie Phillips I thought how lucky I was to come from a relatively normal, albeit slightly (in comparison) dysfunctional family. And to be able to raise my kids in a normal albeit, slightly dysfunctional family;)

How many times as a kid did I wish to be part of that famous set? How many times did I wonder what it must be like to have a famous mom or dad and gobs of money at my disposal; never having to wear hand me downs from cousins, or gasp! have my mom make my lunch in a brown paper sack. How many times did I wish the boys in Teen Beat and Bop were my boyfriends as I pinned up their faces on my wall.

Yesterday I was grateful. That I have the truth in my life. That I have the knowledge of the gospel and the important roles of parents in my life and in the lives of my children.

To sum it up, a few lines from this year's Primary Program song has been hummed by my daughter the past few weeks:

God gave us families!
To help us become what he wants us to be.
This is how he shares his love,
For the family is of God!

Mix it up

I have a very long living room. It is 14x30 actually. The front half of the room was intended to be the "living room" while the back half was intended to be the dining room. But we have a baby grand piano thus the "dining room" was the "piano room." My red couch floated in the middle breaking the 14x30 space in half and created a great place for the fireplace to be a showcase.

But I wanted to open the huge space up.



So this is what you see from my entry. I moved the piano into the bay window at the "living room" end. The fireplace is kind if hanging by itself but oh well.



Here is the opened up seating arrangement. We use it a lot more since it is closer to the kitchen.


I got all my pictures from the photo shoot this summer with Vanessa and got them in frames above the couch. Catherine called it the Wall of Fame when she saw it Wednesday. And exactly to the left of the last frame on the left is the entry to our kitchen.



And at Christmas I am planning on getting the biggest tree ever (and a new ladder to string the lights) for my 2 story window that the piano is sitting in front of, so I guess the piano is going to have to move again in a couple of months. Lets see what I come up with then!

I give you this word

Well 2 words actually:

"Termination Dust"

What is this, you ask (I had to). Turns out it is not volcanic ash (always a possibility in Alaska) that is signally your certain death. It is, however, a fancy way of saying first snow on the mountains and thus the end of summer. When the Termination Dust is first spotted on the tips of the peaks it is said we have 3 weeks until it hits the valley and remains with us until May.

I also found this handy website for all the Alaskan Slang around here.

Culture

One of the things I was worried about in moving to Alaska was the exposure (or lack thereof) my kids would get to the arts. Carter and I went to the Utah Symphony right before we moved and he had the chance to meet and get the autograph of the guest musician that night. He left that experience with a light in eyes and a bounce in his step. I didn't want life to become one camping/hunting/fishing trip after another without some balance in there.

So yesterday we took the boys to The Lion King. Ethan declared it, "Better than the movie," and Carter was way impressed with the orchestra pit and the individual LCD screens that each musician had at their stands to avoid having to look up at the conductor.

There were dancers, singers, actors, props, amazing costumes and everything you would expect from a show of this magnitude. I was particularly impressed with actresses that played both the Young Nala and the grown Nala. Such strong women characters. I bought Olivia the Nala doll as a token to remember to teach her to be a strong influence on the lives of the ones she loves. That she was super cute too.

Culture complete.

what to do

I am sorry if this is another political post, but I have to process these thoughts. It is of course, about health care reform.

In our 24+ hours together in the wilds of Alaska, Catherine and I solved many problems of the world. And she brought up a very valid point about why health care costs so much: torte law. In other words the lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that drives their malpractice insurance through the roof. I know of doctors that pay $5000 a month to cover just their insurance against someone suing them. Ridiculous. That is $60,000 a year just for that.

So maybe the lawmakers need to be looking at the laws they are making and decide if this is really going to solve the problem.

Shifting gears. A few months ago Carter asked me about why some people do not have health care. I told him for various reasons but it boiled down to a lot of them being job related. Either you do not have a job with benefits, or you do not work, or you choose not to have health insurance, or you can't afford your part of the premiums, or you are waiting for benefits to kick in or whatever.

I told Carter that we were very fortunate to have health insurance. I do not have to hesitate to take any of my kids to the ER for an accident of any kind because that is 100% covered. My prescriptions that enabled my hormones to level out to get pregnant with Olivia were covered almost completely. I have well visit checks and vaccines covered. I sleep easy at night knowing this.

I also said it is not fair that some people don't have it. My own mother does not have health insurance. However, life is not fair. And life is a series of cause and effect consequences.

To illustrate how we ended up with a job that provides benefits I asked Carter a series of questions that followed JaDee's career path backwards. I asked, how did dad become an engineer? College.

How did he get to college? Good grades in school.

How did he get good grades in school? He studied and did his homework.

How did he know how to have good study habits? He did his homework in elementary school.

Then Carter asked a question, "So to be able to take care of his family, Dad like had to make good choices in 1st grade?"

Pretty much.

Now before you cry privilege to JaDee's white male status you have to know that his parents did not have health insurance. They were farmers. Every broken bone (4 on Mitchell alone) every leg brace, every time JaDee or AshLee almost died from an allergic reaction to something (and you should hear her bone chilling tales of rushing to the hospital and making it just in time and how JaDee was even allergic to the carpet so his mother had to staple cotton sheets to the floor to keep him breathing) staph infections in bones, appendicitis, 3 hernia operations and several hospital stays for pneumonia, a premature baby, and a near fatal bout with pre eclampsia were all paid by Brent and Darlene.

In fact, Darlene is known to joke about it took until JanaLee was in kindergarten to pay of her birth (the one where Dar was in a coma and didn't even name her daughter when the baby was released from the hospital).

What I am trying to say is that in a capitalist free society we are allowed to choose and make mistakes. And with that freedom and choice comes consequences. Some of which are tragic, sad and not fair. Some consequences are rewarding and a result of hard work.

how do you tell?

How can I tell it is Fall?
Is it the lawn chair no one is sitting in?


Is it the glow of the woods in my backyard?


Is it the trees across the street?


Is it the wood waiting to burn in the fireplace?



No.

It is my cats. Both have taken to napping inside.

A sure sign that the weather has changed.

Love for Bridger

Because being bald is HOT!

hiking pictures

Fall is in full force here. We had a spectacular day on Friday and we did not freeze Friday night. Check out these pictures!

200

This is my 200th post. I should have something grand to say, but given post 199, and that my week only got marginally better (what with 2 back to school open houses, a science experiment presentation and a husband who is replacing the transmission on an old VW bug) I do not have anything grand.

But I do have a few random thoughts.

1- The slushy machine at my regular gas station is not working. Olivia's blue raspberry has been coming out hot for 2 days now. When I mentioned this to the wisp of a girl behind the counter, she murmurs, "Oh. I didn't know." Really. After 2 days I am the only person to mention this. And I see her almost daily so I know she was here both days of the hot slushy-ness.

2-Olivia started preschool this week. And as I have typed the word "preschool," several times on FB and in e-mails, I marvel that it is all one word. It looks like it should have a hyphen btween "pre" and "school," and not look like a word pronounced "pres-chewl."

3- I hate (with a fervent passion) the ABC show, The View. Rarely have I felt such loathing for a group of people. Specifically Joy. Oh that ignorant, magnanimous, big mouth. I wish she would just go under a rock and be eaten by maggots. This weeks trigger of disgust was over President Obama's address to the school children. Joy went on about the "right wing conspiracy" out to get President Obama because he is black. Sounds a little like Hilary (maybe a roommate for Joy under that rock??) when Bill got caught with his pants down.

As a member of the right wing conspiracy, I would like to clear the record in that we had nothing to do with this current bout of paranoia. We save our bombshells for things like socialized medicine and lying SOB's who cheat on their wives in office.

Anyway, I can go on and on about Joy. But I won't. Although rest assured she does make my blood boil.

Kind of like my slushy.

so far

So far I

woke up at 6:30
got Carter to Jazz band at school by 7:30
Got D and S dropped off by their parents for today's day care at 8:00
Picked up Braxton for carpool 8:35
Dropped of Ethan and Braxton at school 8:50
Dropped of S at preschool at 9:00

Still to do is:

Pick up S at 12:00
Drop off Olivia at preschool at 1:00
Pick up Livs at 3:30
Welcome Ethan home at 3:50
Pick up Carter at 4:30 from soccer
Piano lessons for Boys at 5:30 and 6:00
Scouts at 7:00 for Carter, Ethan and JaDee
Quick Relief Society meeting for me at 8:15

And here is the comforting thought...For the next 8 months every Tuesday and/or Thursday are going to look like this!!

Is it too early to wish for summer vacation again?

But yesterday we hiked Mile-Hi and since I was rushing around to get us ready while JaDee was off duck hunting I forgot my camera and so I stole these pictures from Diane on FB. It was a very steep hike, although I hear better than Baldy. But oh, it was GORGEOUS!!

At the top overlooking the Eagle River, Anchorage at the top center and the Cook Inlet

Eagle River and Anchorage (to the top left) and the Knik Arm (this is a fancy name referring to the mouth of the Knik River as it dumps into the Cook Inlet).

Super Woman J and daughter M. J is 30 weeks preggers!! And check out those fall colors. We ate tons of blueberries on top.

Choose the Right

So ends anther Sunday. And for many mothers in the LDS faith/culture, we are breathing a sigh of relief. I for one find the "day of rest" to be the hardest day of the week. Because of this I have to make a real effort to remember this is worth it.

This morning was the typical rush to get breakfast and lunch doled out at the same time to various shifts of people depending on where they were in their morning wake up routine, and also thawing a roast to go in the crock pot for dinner when we arrive home from our 1-4 PM church block. It was the usual fight over the 2 bathtubs for 5 people (you would think that would be enough), the search for black socks, and orders to brush your teeth, and straighten your tie. It was of course me, who was the last one out the door with a tube of lipstick in my hands to apply as we drive to the meetinghouse.

And on my way out of my bedroom I stepped on something sharp (as my shoes were in my hands).

And when I looked down it was a child's CTR ring. Pointy side of the shield up.

It is a good thing I Chose the Right in not uttering the expletive I was thinking.

It is the Sabbath, of course.

My day of rest.

Sigh.

What's going on in America?

I ask this question because I really don't feel like I live in the United States half the time. Our leaves are well into changing, with peak color about 10-14 days away. My heater is on in my house and that is to just keep it at 64. No frost yet but the mornings are nippy...I wore little gloves to drive the boys to school this morning.

Which they have been in since Aug. 19. Carter is in the jazz band playing drums. And doing after-school soccer. So he goes early and comes home late. He loves it. Such a happy kid from last year with Professor Umbridge...she is all but forgotten.

Ethan is my homework loaded boy this year. I really like the new school and the curriculum they have so I see a purpose in all of it. His teacher used to teach for the Ringling Brothers Circus and travel with them. She has also taught English in the Marshall Islands! Amongst other things. I feel really fortunate to have him in her class. He loves it and gets to be the weekly science professor next week.

Our gas is $3.27 a gallon. A gallon of milk is $3, or $2.75 at Costco. Other than that REI is having a great end of season sale and I got a North Face "gore tex" rain jacket for $40 off for my next back packing trip.

Wait, WHAT??

Yup I am going again. This time I am going with Catherine. She and I are the only ones we can think of that are not pregnant or nursing a baby so we are packing it up in a week for one last over nighter.

So tell me what is going on in the States?

One more thing

My friend Sarah, recently bought a journal to record all the things she is thankful for in Alaska. I have to tell you, upon Sharon's advice, I bought one too when I first moved here. Yesterday I had to be thankful for one more thing.

A plethora of woods that provide ample emergency pit stops for little boys.

There we were coming home from a birthday party at the bowling alley when Ethan announced he could not make it home. Even though it was only maybe another mile in the 3 mile distance from point A to point B. Well lookey here! A forest on either side of us on the main drag in Eagle River. I pulled over. He jumped out. Took 2 steps into the woods and safely did what needed doing. Hopped back in and off we went.

Very convenient. Thanks Alaska.