Anna is Engaged!

My "little" sister Anna is engaged! At last! Not that she is old it is just that she and Scott Silver went to WA to visit my parents in August and I have been on pins and needles ever since. The date has yet to be set because the Mt. Timp. Temple is closed for cleaning on the original date they planned. These pictures of the happy couple are from her facebook account. I am not sure what is up with the Ghostbusters suit but it is pretty sweet, eh? Congratulations Anna!

First City Council, Then the World!

I just turned in the paperwork to run for City Council. Aughhh! I have always wanted to do something like that. In High School I ran for either Jr. or Sophomore rep. That was the biggest disaster. I made up signs like the one recreated for you above. Except it was centered, vertical and looked better - but the eye grabbing hot pink and the cool box with the vote check mark are accurate and oh, so sure to make you win. Except I had no experience and was so nervous I wouldn't practice my speech. I would walk past my posters in the hall and want to rip them down because I didn't want anyone looking at me, or talking about me or augh! I don't know but if I was Brian I would have broken out in hives. As it was I gave literally the worse speech ever, no eye contact, shaking voice, the funny parts weren't funny - I walked on that stage just wishing I could sink into the ground and went off knowing I had just sealed my losing fate - but glad it was over at least. No amount of well designed posters would help at the voting booths.

To run for City Council I had to have at least 10 people sign a petition to have my name put on the ballot. I was feeling sick over this. I don't know 10 people in town so I would have to knock on some doors. I realized that I was freaking out and did one of the exercises from the Feeling Good Handbook. I mentally listed my feelings, the negative thoughts I was having, identified the fallacies and thought of more realistic outcomes. You know what? It really helped. I sent all my family members a copy of the Feeling Good Handbook - read it!

Moving on, I had decided not to run for two more years until our neighbor M. came over Tuesday night to have us sign his petition to run for Mayor and convinced/flattered me that they needed people like me on city council (ie people who actually think and don't just rubber stamp things). So I pick up another copy of the application, had some people sign it last night before YW's and knocked on some doors on my way to City Hall to get the rest of the signatures. Do you know what? All of the people I asked to sign were very friendly and nice and not mean at all. The people at City Hall - not so helpful. I asked if there was anything else I needed to do or know and they just kind of shrugged and said, "nope, we just need your paperwork." I don't think they think I am a contender - but I am.

From what a lot of people have said the city government is kind of clique-y and not efficient. So if I can somehow run as the "Huxley Outsider" but still with enough experience and sense of community to do a good job...? How much should one campaign for a Small Town City Council position? Ideas? I don't want to totally lose but I don't want to over kill either. I think I will definitely have Brian and I on the main road in and out of town during morning and evening commuting on voting day with "Remember To Vote Gardunia" signs - the girls would be cute - Vote for My Mom!

How about this for a sign: on cardboard - cheap, easy, shows willingness to work for the community - or poor homelessness and not very classy - but memorable? Let me know what you think my campaign strategy should be.

I Love Fabric

I know my brother thinks blog giveaways are lame - but I would really like to win one. The patern and material to make this is being given away at V's. Don't feel like you have to go over there and enter though. No, stop, now. I mean she has a fun web site and all but I don't need the competition. :) Oh, wait, how about you enter and then you can give me the fabric for Christmas. Ok, go and enter, now, fast. :)

To Love a Book by It's Cover

Brian brought me home a late birthday present yesterday and I LOVE IT! The recipes are good and the pictures are AMAZING. I love all the vintage cooking pictures and can't wait to try the Honey Frosting. She also wrote Sow and Grow and See and Sew. Put them on your Christmas list now. Hint...Hint...

Do you Digital Scrapbook?

I just visited my SIL Charlotte's scrapbooking blog Scrappity. Love it! I hadn't been over there in awhile and she has a whole bunch of new FREE downloadable scrapbooking papers. Head over and check it out. I wish all the patterns came in fabric too. As you can tell from my side bar I am in a quilting rut right now. Not actually doing any quilting, but thinking about it! This week I am going to organize and clean and then watch out! Maybe...I hope...

Double Breakfast

Today before church we got double breakfast. I found a baked oatmeal recipe a few months back and was making that for breakfast when the girls came in from their run with Brian and said they had talked about making pancakes for breakfast. That was ok because I had just found a blender pancake recipe I wanted to try out. So we had pancakes for breakfast and will have leftover baked oatmeal for lunch.

The great pictures aren't mine - they came from the sites I found them on. I am going to try to make more things from the Everyday Food Storage Recipe site. I'll let you know what I find.

Blender Wheat Pancakes

1 Cup Milk (translation for powdered milk is 3 T. Milk and 1 C. Water)
1 Cup Wheat Kernels, whole & uncooked
2 Eggs (2 T. powdered eggs 1/4 C. Water)
2 tsp Baking Powder
1-1/2 tsp Salt
2 Tbs. Oil
2 Tbs. Honey or Sugar

Put milk and wheat kernels in blender.Blend on highest speed for 4 or 5 minutes or until batter is smooth. Add eggs, oil, baking powder, salt and honey or sugar to above batter. Blend on low. Pour out batter into pancakes from the actual blender jar (only one thing to wash!) onto a hot greased or Pam prepared griddle or large frying pan.Cook; flipping pancakes when bubbles pop and create holes.

Note: When I made this this morning the batter was a little runny - more like blender crepes, yumm - so I added a couple of tablespoons of flour to thicken it up.

Baked Oatmeal

From: My Kitchen Cafe

6 cups oatmeal (you can use quick or rolled - quick gives it a smoother texture)

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup oil

2 cups milk

4 beaten eggs

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased 9X13-inch baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm with milk and fruit... or not.

I have halved the recipe and it works great, but I do suggest making the whole pan...it is great for days!

Note: I use unsweetened applesauce instead of oil and cut the sugar down to 11/2 cups and it is still super sweet. One time I even forgot to put in the sugar and we just sprinkled it on top.

I cooked some frozen blueberries with just a bit of water, ground ginger and cinnamon and ladled that over the top of the oatmeal - super yumm.

Prairie Fest '09

We had the BEST.TIME.EVER. at Prairie Fest, our local small town festival. The weather was beautiful and I just wanted to stay out all day. It started Friday evening when we went downtown and let the kids jump and play on the inflatables. Brian was lucky enough to score some free wristbands for the kids (not that anyone was really checking wristbands, it was more of and on-your-honor type of thing). As it started to get dark we noticed the 5 hot air balloons a block farther south in a field. They were AMAZING. I realized that I had never seen hot air balloons in person before. I can't explain why but they are just awe inspiring. There is a balloon festival about an hour south of here in the summer with hundreds of balloons - we are definitely going next year. At about 10:30 the fireworks started! I know! Fireworks at a small town shin-dig. It was a pretty good show. We (Brian, Colleen and I) stood outside with our neighbors and gabbed and watched.

Colleen had a hard time going to sleep that night but Brian still woke up early to run the 10K race. He placed last and was very sore but we are very proud.

After he got back we got ready and went out to see the parade. We sat in front of G.'s house and watched the floats and got lots of candy. Halloween in August. Some of the highlights of the parade were the high school marching band, the old tractors and cars, the people dressed as bananas on bikes and the 5th and 6th grade football team. They were all riding on a trailer and as we were at the end of the route they had run out of candy to throw and were all yelling at the top of their lungs for us to throw candy back at them (so they could have it or throw it I don't know, but it was something else). After the parade we went for lunch at the church across the street from us. It was their annual fund raiser and I had a Made-Right sandwich - think sloppy joe with out the sauce. It was actually pretty good. And the homemade pies for dessert! Amazing! I think next time I might just go for pie.

After lunch the girls went to our neighbor M.'s birthday party -they had a blast. Brian napped on their couch with Kate while I hit all of the garage sales in town. I won't bore you with the list but I totally scored! OK, you forced it out of me for $23 I got: 2 cork boards, markers, crayons, balls, play dough toys, 2 carry-on-roller suitcases, a small carry-on duffel, an exersaucer, huge cool piggy bank, loaf of homemade zuchhini bread and 4 baskets. It was a good day!

After the party the girls wanted to go back downtown. Brian stayed and napped with Colleen and the rest of us checked out the dancing, dog show and mud volleyball - and of course went on more inflatable rides. The mud volleyball was hilarious. There were 8 people on a team and they could barely move in that ankle deep muddy water. The girls were disappointed they could not be on a team until they were 18 and decided we should make a court in our yard.

After dinner we went and picked corn a truck load of corn and then went to check out the magician. The only snag was when Brian and I both thought Aleah was with the other that evening as it was getting dark. I was terrified. She had been lost at least 20 minutes but came running right up when we called. She had been standing off by the gazebo the whole time - she told me later she had only cried a little. A funnel cake on the way home finished off the evening and they went to bed dirty, tired and happy.

It was one of those indescribable good, happy days.