. . . you know the drill . . .

. . . here's the thing . . .

. . . up until monday, 

i thought i wasn't going to be home 

on halloween night . . .

. . . i underbought 

as far as candy is concerned . . .

{i knew bill wouldn't want to answer the door a thousand times 

and sitting outside all evening isn't really an option for him}

. . . and i hadn't bought 

any pumpkins at all . . . 

{my dad would be seriously disappointed in me}

. . . so today, 

i repented of both sins . . .

. . . i stocked up 

on twice as much candy . . . 

. . . and, after staging 

an internal battle, 

i resigned myself 

to carving some pumpkins . . . 

 {my finger's looking better, isn't it?}

. . . first stop ~ home depot . . .

. . . no pumpkins left there . . . 

. . . but i did buy a cordless drill 

just for me . . . 

. . . i mean, what's a girl to do? . . . 

. . . since, you know,

 tyler doesn't 

live here any more . . . 

. . . also fresh out of pumpkins 

were fry's and wal*mart . . . 

. . . thank heaven 

for the overpriced pumpkin patch . . . 

. . . it wasn't too bad . . . 

. . . 3 for $20 . . . 

{i even found some that weren't completely rotten 

from sitting out in the sun for a month}

. . . moral of the story? . . .

. . . don't leave 

such important purchases 

'til the last minute . . . 

. . . halloween waits for no one . . . 

{spooky nearly full moon}

. . . two hours of shopping for them . . .

. . . two hours of carving, 

scraping and drilling . . . 

. . . two hours of glowing . . . 

. . . and these three pumpkins 

are now in the green trash can . . . 

. . . i learned many years ago 

not to leave them out overnight . . .

. . . one word: teenage gremlins/

 smashing pumpkins . . . 

{okay ~ that's four words}

. . . bloops! . . .

. . . if boy oops! are boops! . . . 

. . . and girl oops! are goops! . . .

. . . then i'm going to refer 

to the newest in the oops! lineup 

as bloops! . . .

. . . blanket oops! . . . .

. . . bloops! are 100% cotton gauze

 swaddling blankets . . . 

. . . perfectly sized for newborns 

who love to be wrapped up 

burrito style . . .

. . . these are super lightweight . . .

. . . with just the right amount 

of crinkly stretchiness 

that makes it easy 

to get that wrap 

nice and tight . . .

. . . bloops! are finished 

with a narrow rolled surged hem . . . 

. . . bloops! are reversible . . .

. . . this first batch of bloops! 

are available 

in basic baby colors . . .

. . . pink, blue, and {my favorite} white . . .

. . . the white features 

allover floral embroidery . . . 

{hard to photograph, but really pretty} 

. . . bloops! are nice for those times

 when you'd rather not wrap up baby 

in jungle animals or dinosaurs . . . 

{#notusuallyafanofbabyishprints}

. . . introductory price 

through the end of 2012 

is $10 each . . . 

. . . another yummy salad . . .

. . . and i'm pretty sure it's 

mostly kind of gluten free . . .

. . . how's that for commitment? . . .

. . . this salad fed two of us,

but could have easily fed three . . .

who knew? 

. . . ingredients in bold . . .

•2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

marinate at least one hour (up to all day) in:
•2 tablespoons gluten free soy sauce (the brand i found is called san-j tamari gluten-free soy sauce)
•2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
•1 teaspoon minced garlic
•fresh ground black pepper

grill (to keep it from drying out so much, we like to grill about five minutes per side, then finish with a meat thermometer [165ºF] in a foil covered pan in the oven.) 
let rest 10 minutes.
slice.

meanwhile . . . 
•cook and crumble about half a package of kroger bacon (i always slice into half-inch pieces then cook the whole package and save some for breakfast burritos. only now they're called breakfast tacos. no more flour tortillas.)
•wash dry and shred two hearts of romaine lettuce.
•dice one bartlett pear 
•and one honeycrisp apple.
•1/2 cup craisins
•1/2 cup chopped pecans
•2 ounces feta cheese
•6 tablespoons brianna's poppy seed dressing
•2 tablespoons newman's own light balsamic vinaigrette

in a large bowl, mix lettuce, pear, apple, craisins, pecans, bacon and feta.
in a separate small bowl, whisk together dressings.
toss salad with dressing.

transfer to a platter.
top with sliced chicken, kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.

inspiration here.
pinned here.

. . . mandersras . . .

. . . happy twenty-ninth birthday,

 amanda joanda . . .

. . . we're proud to be your parents . . .

. . . and we love the way 

you always manage 

to make us smile . . .

. . . i'm trying . . .

. . . but it's kinda confusing . . .

. . . something about old dogs 

and new tricks . . .

. . . let's just eat corn tortillas, 

corn tortilla chips and corn chex 

for every meal . . .

. . . mmmkay? . . .

. . . with a couple of honeycrisp apples

 thrown in for good measure . . .

. . . i need to know where 

the udi brand of gluten free bread 

is sold . . .

. . . i've heard it's the best . . .

. . . i also might have to get some 

stronger reading glasses . . .

. . . food labels and teensy print 

seem to go hand in hand . . .

. . . row row row four . . .

. . . if you have eagle eyes, 

you might have spotted 

what i was working on 

at quilt group . . .

{that's my empty chair on the upper right}

. . . it was the first chunk of time 

i'd had since row four came out 

a couple of weeks ago . . . 

{when i was otherwise occupied}

. . . apples and cores 

and leaves and stems . . . 

. . . in a nod to animal prints, 

{since my butterflies have cheetah bodies} 

i figured why not 

green zebra striped 

apple leaves? . . . 

. . . i only made two mistakes . . . 

. . . and i'm leaving them both in, 

by cracky! . . .

. . . upside down numbers 

in the granny smith core block . . . 

. . . and the leaf on the right side

 instead of the left 

in one apple block . . . 

. . . oh, well . . .

. . . two places for the evil spirits 

to escape . . . 

. . . right, peg? . . .

. . . here're the first four rows 

all together . . . 

. . . and wouldn't you know it? . . . 

. . . row five is available now . . . 

. . . i'm always running behind . . .

{total number of pieces in row 4: 141}

{total number of pieces in rows 1-4: 428}

. . . october quilt group . . .

. . . i ask you ~ 

what could be better 

than eleven friends sewing, 

talking, and lunching together? . . .

. . . not much . . . 

. . . i've said it before 

{and it's still true} 

that this is about my favorite day 

of each month . . . 

 . . . we were missing 

a couple of friends . . . 

. . . it's even better 

when they're with us . . . 

. . . hopefully next month . . .

. . . gina amazes me . . .

. . . her brain goes 

a million miles a minute . . . 

. . . she never stops . . . 

. . . designing and testing patterns, 

thinking about the next quilt show,

 scheming ways 

to get rid of her enormous stash, 

and planning a quilters' cruise . . . 

. . . and i'm all "i pieced an apple" . . . 

{actually several apples and cores and leaves and stems. 

and they're really darling! i'll show you tomorrow.}

{besides, my finger hurt.}

. . . but, let's be honest . . . 

. . . the real reason we get together 

is for the lunches! . . .

. . . this month's was provided by janet,

 who is obviously 

trying to raise the average . . . 

. . . everything was delish . . . 

. . . won ton tacos . . .

. . . genius! . . . 

. . . it's easy to see 

why i look forward 

to the fourth wednesday 

of every month . . . 

. . . i didn't call 911 . . .

. . . but apparently, 

according to my new friends 

at the fire station, 

some people do . . .

. . . and, yes, these nice guys 

will actually come to your house 

to cut off your wedding ring . . . 

. . . i opted, during a phone call 

to check their availability, 

to save them the trip . . .

. . . and they are jokesters . . . 

. . . on the phone, 

one of them asked me 

if my ring was really stuck 

or if i was getting divorced . . .

. . . trust me . . . 

. . . it was stuck . . . 

. . . i hadn't worn it in a month . . . 

. . . not since i made all that jam . . . 

. . . i think it must have been 

the acidity in the fruit . . . 

. . . and the fact that 

i peeled three boxes of peaches 

by hand . . . 

. . . my finger was irritated 

when i finished, 

but nothing like this . . .

. . . so i gave it a month to heal . . . 

. . . then on sunday 

i put it back on . . . 

. . . and all this happened 

in just three days . . .

{you can see the injuries i sustained from the mini jaws of life}

. . . i'm bummed about my broken ring, 

but windex didn't work . . .

{think my big fat greek wedding} 

. . . ice didn't work . . . 

. . . vaseline didn't work . . .

. . . and it was super painful . . .

. . . i'm relieved it's off . . . 

. . . and in case you're wondering . . .

. . . the firemen were cooking

something with bacon for dinner . . . 

. . . i still smell like it . . .

. . . switcheroo . . .

. . . the contracts had expired 

for most of the users 

on our family cell phone plan, 

so we decided it was a good time 

to switch providers . . . 

{fingers crossed for better service, please!}

. . . it didn't hurt that 

four of us had birthdays 

about that time, either . . .

. . . after nearly a month, 

we finally received 

our fancy new phones . . . 

. . . one word: backordered . . . 

. . . then i thought, 

"how hard can this possibly be? 

i'll just log into iTunes, 

back up my old phone, 

then plug in the new one 

and transfer all my info. 

i'm a big girl. 

i can do this" . . . 

. . . yeah, right. guess again . . . 

. . . my version of iTunes 

needed to be updated . . . 

. . . i tried . . . 

. . . i really tried . . . 

. . . but the operating system 

on my computer was too old 

to support the new iTunes . . . 

. . . so then i tried 

to update the computer . . . 

. . . and then i gave up . . . 

. . . brent to the rescue . . .

. . . it's great having 

an IT person in the family . . . 

. . . he spent a long time 

on the phone 

with a tech support guy . . . 

. . . we learned that 

the update i need 

is no longer available 

as an online download . . . 

. . . i need to purchase a disk . . . 

. . . a disk they could have to me 

in a couple of weeks . . . 

. . . what the ____? . . . 

. . . but for an addtional $8.00, 

i could get it faster . . .

. . . JUST SEND THE DA*N CD . . . 

. . . the good news is, 

even though i'm still waiting 

for the CD, 

this cute package 

arrived in the mail . . . 

. . . complete with washi tape . . . 

. . . and even better 

once i opened it . . . 

. . . megan was again 

a photoshop whiz . . . 

. . . designing exactly 

what i requested . . . 

. . . so even though 

it isn't really working yet, 

at least my fancy new phone 

looks adorable . . . 

. . . go here to see more

vintage printage creations . . . 

{*=R, of course}

. . . 'til we meet again . . .

. . . seems like this is becoming 

more and more common . . . 

. . . i suppose we're just at that age . . . 

. . . saying goodbye 

to our sweet parents . . . 

. . . everyone pictured here 

has lost at least one . . . 

. . . this beautiful morning, 

was a celebration of the life 

of arliss ellsworth . . . 

. . . julie's mom . . . 

{l-r: koko head, julie ellsworth logan, todd lorenzen, 

robert charon, julie petersen, julie woods, and me}

. . . and though the occasion is sad,
 there's just nothing 

like seeing dear old friends . . . 

. . . we all grew up 

in the same ward . . . 

. . . we've known each other 

for over forty years . . . 
{our photographer remarked that a few years ago, 
he wouldn't have had to back up quite so far 
to fit us all in the photo. 
the nerve!}

. . . and, oh, the stories we can tell! . . . 

. . . the "c" babies . . .

. . . first is colby . . . 

. . . miraculously eating 

real people food . . . 

. . . chick-fil-a waffle fries 

to be exact . . . 

. . . you know ~ 

since at age fourteen months 

he finally has four teeth . . . 

. . . all that messy eating 

necessitated a bath . . . 

. . . with new tub toys, of course . . .

. . . second is cameron . . .

. . . just proving that 

his tractor photo 

wasn't a fluke . . . 

. . . he makes this face 

all the time . . .

. . . tonight, though, 

it was chocolate coated . . . 

. . . and why, you may ask? . . . 

. . . from sharing a scotcheroo 

with "c" number three . . . 

. . . uncle chris . . . 

. . . funny babies . . .

. . . all three of 'em . . .