A New Crush

Okay, not really, but I really like this guy. This is the page you find him on, his web site. It's Steve from SteveSongs. If any of you watch PBS kids in the afternoon, you've seen him. "I have a cat, named, Mrs.B." Just so catchy. I really liked Joe from Blues Clues, too. Can you tell I'm a mom. I don't think Brad Pitt Is attractive, just Joe from Blues Clues. Anyway, that's really all I have for today.

I guess a chicken update. It is up and walking, um, limping around. It can now get to it's own food. I think we may quarantine it from the others so it's wound can heal. Other than that, It looks like it may live. It is now half the bird it used to be, but I'm sure it'll fatten up again. it's still laying, so it must not be too bad.

Did anyone catch this? It was the Barbra Walters 10 most fascinating people special. I don't usually watch this stuff, or buy People's top what ever issues, but there was nothing else on.
The part that bothered me the most, was her interview with the man that had a baby, and was pregnant again. He made this comment "gender is a social label" and it just made my stomach turn. Now instead of going into why this is so wrong, I will just share the conclusion I came up with. It is now more important than ever, that we give our children the truth and knowledge in our homes. They Will Not be getting these things from school, TV, or peers. We as parents have a very important job, that we cannot hope or even want our children to get somewhere else. We should not leave it to out side influences to teach our kids Morality, civility, or ethics. It is our job, and we cannot fail.

On My Mind Monday

On Saturday, I filled my tank up fot 28.00. That is under 30 bucks. That hasn't happened in years. At least not since we got the van, 4 years ago. I'm thinking that's pretty dang close to a Christmas Miracle.....
Here's the problem. High gas prices drove up the prices of , well, everything. And, even though gas has come down, nothing else has. I guess I'm just grateful that gas has come down. I can afford the other things, you know those extras like food and heat, because gas is less. We have also, learned to drive less. It was getting pretty tight around July.
Husband works for the Church, in their welfare division. He is a job coach in the facility where they build the mattresses, tables and beds. He said that the only thing that has come down with gas prices, is their steel. And not to what it was 5 years ago, last time gas prices were this low.
I'm wondering why. Does anyone have any insight on this? Right now, I'm just chalking this up to greed. I hope there is more to it. Like maybe when petro was at it's peak, they held out raising their prices as long as possible at the expense of themselves, and now they are just making up a little of their losses before the adjust their prices to current fuel prices. Not not the " people paid this $ for our goods, so they will probably keep paying this, not matter what the $ should be" attitude.

Free recipe Friday / Thanks Neighbor

Just a quick thank you to my neighbor who save the red hens life. She came out and noticed the dog had another bird in his mouth. Luckily it was in time, and no harm was done. but did make his current situation more urgent.
Right now he is allowed full run of the yard. we are on a half acre, so he has room to run. But instead of being happy with that, he's dug under the fence to go play with the neighbors dog. I get it, they are pack animals. Then as mentioned before, the birds keep getting out, and eaten.
So solution one, tie him up on a long leash. Pro, poop all in one area, out of neighbors yard, and if a bird gets eaten, it's their own fault for getting too close. (just kidding, we are moving the birds this weekend, to another part of the yard.) Con: it's not nice.
Solution 2. Put him on in the side yard. Pro: he's confined, out of neighbors yard, poop all in one place. Con: it's small, he would probably bark, and there is no grass.
Solution 3. Get rid of him. Pro: No poop, out of neighbors yard. Con: kids like him. And I like him.
So, I'm not sure what to do. I have to keep him out of the neighbors yard. I like to have him in the house. But not all the time, and as soon as I put him out, he goes next door. And if we block the spot he gets through, he makes a new one.

Now on to my recipe. I had a version of this recipe at a little Greek restaurant on State and 30th.
2 tomatoes cut up in to bite size chunks
1 cucumber peeled and cut the same way
1 half sweet vidali onion in wedges
1 green pepper cut into chunks
put into a bowl with 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
and 1/4 cup olive oil 1 cup chunked feta cheese
mix together. It needs to be eaten with in a few hrs of making, so only make what you will eat.

Gain Some and Loose Some

Last night was our youths annual trip to Temple Square. So, we packed up the kids and headed out. And from the look of the place, it was every wards youth Temple Square night.
Then a few teeth firsts. 3 of 5 lost his 1st tooth. 5 of 5 got tooth # 4, 5, and 6 last week. And 2 of 5 had his first root canal. Yes, my 7 year old. It wasn't technically called a root canal, because it was a baby tooth. Apparently he has this buckle on his molars that make it hard to get food out of a spot, so the dentist filled it about 2 years ago to prevent this. He lost the filling, food got in it and decayed. He'd said his tooth hurt about a week ago, so we made an appointment for him. We go in today to get the rest of the old filling out and the tooth capped. "Why not just pull it" you ask? Well, if you pull it, the permanent one comes in, and the roots aren't formed yet. And his mouth isn't big enough for that big of a tooth. And, the let time a tooth spends exposed to air, the healthier they stay.

Beat the Cold

Our family has been fighting a cold for about 2 weeks now. It hasn't been just one, I know I have had 2 or 3. So have the kids. Luckily they haven't been those death warmed over colds. I can still get up and do my job, I just have had this constant runny nose. Which is better than a stuffy nose. And sneezing, and the cough that leaves you with that itch in the back of your throat. I'm wondering if any of you know of any cold remedies, that are not medicine. I don't like the way cold medicine makes me feel. I'll take a nighttime dose, and sleep if I can't on my own, but I don't like the day time stuff. I'm loopy enough with out it. Cough drops make me want to throw up. NyQuil is the grossest thing ever invented. Can't they make it taste like bubble gum or something. even the cherry and grape flavoring is just wrong. I will usually just stick to my Tylenol ibuprofen combo, but I'd like to know what you take. Or what you do. I did get up and run yesterday, and that cleared out my lungs, but I'm just not feeling like doing that today. BTW I did 4 miles in 30 minutes. Which equates to just over 7 minutes a mile. I was dying after, but it felt so good. Nothing like a nice sweat in the morn. I'm hoping to be up to 7 miles by January.

On My Mind Monday/ Long Time No See

What a long weekend. Between company, sickness and a munched bird, I am so glad it is Monday, and the kids go back to school. Let me start from the beginning.
Wednesday, we had friends over, which was just fun. Then my parents came. and then bed.
Thursday, I got up, husband didn't feel good, 3 of 5 was sick, and I got started on dinner. Husband did the turkey, and he infused it with a garlic butter. It was truly the best turkey I had ever had. And, by Friday, the leftovers were even better. Dinner prep was hard, but I love cooking holiday meals. Luckily, also, I ran up at the HS before it all started, and that always puts me in a good mood. (sorry Call, I forgot about Saturday. My days were all screwed up.)
Thursday was also the day that I let 1 of 5 take her cousin out and play with the birds. I don't let them do that, because 1, they are not pets. and 2, they are not nice to them. So I look out the back window, and her and her cousin are carrying around the birds, teasing the dog with them. My aunt and mom are laughing "you can't eat those bird, they love them, they are pets" which is exactly why we don't let them play with them. And no, they are not pets. We have also stressed over and over and over again, to keep the birds away from the dog. The 2 just don't mix. Chickens are on the bottom of the food chain for a reason. They are yummy.
We all settle in, and go to bed, and about 1 in the morning, cousin has a nightmare, or something and starts screaming. I have never heard anything like this. It is like an hr long fire drill at 1 am. My mom hauled her out to the garage, but it was still very loud. On the plus side, the kids all slept through it.
Friday was pretty uneventful. Luckily. Everyone was just exhausted. And everyone was sick. And, since I had gotten up at 5 am to get my aunt to the airport, I took about a 30 minute nap. Can't take much more than that with 7 kids running around.
Saturday we got the kids up to get their pictures done. My parents had decided to leave on Saturday instead of Sunday because they (dad) was just done. I don't think I have ever seen anyone pack as fast as he did. I get it, that is exactly why we don't travel with kids and stay with people. It's hard on everyone.
Which brings us to Sunday. Remember the events with the birds on Thursday. keep that in mind. we get home from church, and go look at what the dog is doing on the back patio, we are all looking. He has got a chicken in his mouth. One of the problems, the dog has never cared about the chickens. So they have been out in the yard. They come and go as they please, they were not afraid. one of the other problems. 1 of 5 was shoving the bird in the dogs face, and teasing him with them. The bird is alive out there. we're not really sure what to do with it. Hopefully it'll recover. If not, do we eat it? bury it? It's not a pet, and I'm afraid if we bury it, it'll give that impression. I guess, it's alive, I don't have to worry about that yet. Another problem. She didn't tease the dog with her bird, (or the one she claims is hers) She did it with 3 of 5's bird. So guess which one he ate. And another problem, it was one of the birds still laying eggs. We only have 4 of the 7 laying right now. What kind of consequence do they get. We have asked her and asked her not to do that, and she does it anyway. Then exactly what we told her would happen, happened.
Which brings us to today. It is Monday, thank goodness. It couldn't come soon enough.