Matt's Magic

Well I just wanted to congratulate my brother-in-law Matt Ethington on making the cover of the "2009/2010 Surface Skis Catalog"... He makes a nice poster-boy since he has such a sweet-face. The people from "Surface" came to Brighton one day and caught a picture of him in action for their catalog. Here is the "Surface" version:

Surface Catalog

Here is Matt's version:


Wait a second Matt! Why are you wearing 1999 K2 skis in a "Surface" photo shoot??

Well, would ya look at that?!

Okay, this is probably so lame to the rest of you, but SO COOL to me! I recently Googled my name. I am a nerd and have done this several times before for no reason. This time, however, I actually had a purpose. I had just created a Facebook account and wanted to make sure my privacy settings were correct. And what did I find? So apparently a paper I co-authored for my graduate studies was finally published! My name was appearing and being referenced in like pages and pages of articles! Here is a quote from an article from WebMD (for some reason I thought the WebMD one was cool because I've gone here a bazillion times to play pediatrician for my kids, he he):

July 28, 2009 -- Students headed off to college this fall beware: The infamous freshman 15 is for real.

A new study shows that nearly one in four freshmen gain at least 5% of their body weight, an average of about 10 pounds, during their first semester.

"Almost one quarter of students gained a significant amount of weight during their first semester of college,” researchers Heidi J. Wengreen and Cara Moncur of the department of nutrition and food sciences at Utah State University in Logan write in Nutrition Journal....

I think this is so cool to read my name in that context because I spent so many hours and hours researching nutrition topics and referencing authors. It's also cool because there were so many articles referencing our research which means a whole bunch of people were actually interested in it!

Well anyway, it's just nice to be so dang famous, he he. Don't worry, I'll still remember you all when I make it big!

Marin's thoughts on Santa Clause

Marin: Does Santa Clause live at the mall?
Me: No, but he visits the mall so we can go sit on his lap and tell him what we want for Christmas.
Marin: Santa Clause is really nice, huh?
Me: Yes Marin.
Marin: Just like Jesus.

Later that day...

Marin: Mom, I want 1-2-3 (counting on her fingers) princess dollies from Santa. And a Barbie castle and Sleeping Beauty dress and a Strawberry shortcake house and dolls, and a new kitchen and .... (it went on, basically naming off everything she had looked at in the Walmart Christmas thing we got in the mail).
Me: Marin if Santa brings you all the toys, then he won't have enough to bring all of the other kids and they'll be sad because they won't get toys for Christmas.
Marin: Well... I just want all of them anyway.

And lastly,

Me: Marin, Santa only brings presents to little girls who listen to their moms and talk nice.
Marin: (in a horrified voice) But mom, if I don't talk nice then Santa won't bring me that little doll that pees?

The "Parent Tax"

I keep waiting for my sister Avree to post Halloween pictures on her blog so I can steal them! In a fit of rage Marin threw our camera on the wood floor. It didn't survive. Luckily for her... it was already starting to fall apart. Now I'm holding out for the after-Thanksgiving sales to get our new camera.

So I will follow this post with a few pictures if I get them. For now I'll just say that we had a great Halloween. We had a little party with the Nelsons and the Ethingtons (what else is new...these great people are who we spend all of our special occasions with!) We had pizza and I tried my hand at caramel apples... next year I'm buying caramels. Even though unwrapping the little suckers is about the most tedious job in the world, I think I'll do it. The caramel from scratch I made was way yummy, it just didn't quite stay on the apples. Or rather, it dripped off of the apples within seconds.

Marin, of course, was Cinderella. It was only fitting since she has worn that dress every day since we got back from Disneyland. She was all about trick-or-treating. That's my girl. She doesn't care so much about her candy, she just loved the getting it part. She has actually kind of forgotten about the candy. That's not my girl. I love candy. I have decided that whenever I take my children out trick-or-treating I am going to impose a "parent tax". Because I get (notice I did not say "make" here?) the costumes and tromp around the neighborhood in the freezing cold, I will get dibs on 1/10 of the candy bars from each bag. Doesn't that sound fair? If I bring my children up thinking this is standard parent behavior, they may not know the difference. Well, until they start talking to their friends... "What?! Your parents don't steal 1/10 of your candy-bars?! My mom said that was a Halloween rule!" We'll see how this goes.

I overheard Marin asking Mitch if we could go trick-or-treating again tomorrow. If only....

The Happiest Place on Earth!

Yes, Disneyland. My wonderful parents took our family to Disneyland last week and we had a blast! The entire trip was basically planned around Marin and the rest of my family members were pretty good sports about it. Warning: Picture overload ahead...

Day 1: Plane ride and 1st day at Disneyland

We thought we had better go straight to Disneyland since we had hyped Marin up so much about it and she thought the plane was landing in Disneyland. Our plane left pretty early, but Marin was wide awake, bouncing off the walls with excitement. She thought it was so cool that they brought her pop and pretzels. She loved the take-off. I kept looking over at her and she'd give me this huge cheesy smile and say, "I'm SO excited!"


Kate wasn't quite as thrilled, but she fell asleep before take-off and was an angel for the ride!


Next up, DISNEYLAND!!

Oh what a day! It was everything Marin had hoped for and more! She enjoyed herself thoroughly. She was such a trooper! My mom bought her a Cinderella dress and she put it on and wore it the whole day. She looked so dang cute with her little tennis shoes poking out of the dress!



Kate had a blow-out at every single day of our trip. We just kept collecting plastic bags from all of the gift shops to put her soiled clothes in! My mom bought her this little Mickey Mouse outfit and it was so cute, but we needed a red bow or something because little Kate looked like a boy! This is inside "It's a Small World" ride. They've really improved this ride since I was last there! Kate was completely mesmerized by it!



With my mom at the Sleeping Beauty castle.


Pixie Hollow


Blake was a good sport and watched Kate during a few of the rides. I can't believe he let himself miss out on the Peter Pan ride here!


The parade was so great that Marin wouldn't turn around for a picture!


Disneyland can really tucker you out!

We took the kids to our sweet hotel rooms (thanks dad), fed them, and put them to bed. My parents stayed with them while Mitch and I, Avree and Matt, Jaren and Callie, and Blake went back to Disneyland. We rode all of the bigger rides and had a way fun time. The park is open until midnight so that's how long we stayed. It was great, not busy at all. Blake totally kept us all laughing, he's the funniest kid ever.

Day 2: Newport Beach!

When I was growing up we vacationed several times to Newport Beach. It's such a beautiful beach and it's never been too crowded. It was sunny and warm (high 80's), we couldn't have asked for a better day! Mitch rented a surf board, I did a little boogie boarding. Marin loved it. We stayed all day and she never got sick of it.



Hang loose!


This is what Marin loved doing for hours. Just jumping the waves.


Building sand castles..Marin didn't really have the patience for this. I wanted to build an awesome huge one, but Marin and Spencer (my sister Avree's boy) would just knock them down.


My brother Jaren's wife Callie and Marin. Marin totally loves Callie and Callie puts up with Marin begging her to play with her like every second!


This was also a good time!


I boogie boarded for an hour or so, it was great. It is something sporty I can actually do! Funny story though: So my swimsuit bottoms were a little loose. I had been working at catching a good wave for quite awhile. My brother Jaren was giving me pointers. I have a hard time getting out to where the waves break because, well, I'm a wuss. So anyway, I saw this wave coming, it was just starting to form right behind me... I jumped on my board, started kicking, Jaren's giving me pointers "scoot up, point the front down!..." and I catch it. One small problem, my swim bottoms are around my ankles. I look around, no one's close enough to really see, so I ride it in, bare white butt in the air! It was great... until I got too close to a guy on the beach, at which point I bailed and jumped under the water and pulled my bottoms up. It was worth it. I love boogie boarding!


Day 3: Sea World and Phil's Barbecue

Well we had some camera problems (great, you're thinking, no more pictures!). Our camera broke and Avree took some nice pictures, but... Matt accidentally lost them. Luckily, Jaren and Callie took some cute ones. I just have yet to get them. We had a really fun time at Sea World. Marin thought Shamu was amazing. There were some fun rides too. Marin's favorite was the Elmo ride.

My favorite part of the day though was the ribs at Phil's Barbecue. I read about it online and we thought we'd try it and although we had to wait about 45 minutes and were all DYING of starvation after being in the sun all day, it was worth it! SO GOOD! Recommend it to everyone! Best onion rings I've ever tasted!

Day 4: Sunday, church, Richard Nixon Library
This was a great day to relax and enjoy ourselves. After Google Maps led us astray once (it took us to a golf course, not a church) we finally found a ward to go to. Nice that the church is the same everywhere... not that I expected it to be so different in Anaheim, but you know, it's just nice. After that the kids napped while my Avree and Matt, my dad, and I went to the Richard Nixon Library. It was super cool because we are all nerds. Sadly, we lost the pictures of us all outside his helicopter making the peace sign with our hands. Classic. The inside of the helicopter was so great. All mustard yellow and orange. It was pretty small too. Nicole (my sister-in-law history teacher) you would probably have loved it.

Day 5: Disneyland again and HOME!

This was the day I scheduled our lunch with the princesses. It was so fun, Marin was in heaven. She got to meet every princess (except Jasmine, she informed me!). The food was good too!



Conversation with Cinderella:
Cinderella: Hello what is your name?
Marin: --- (just stares)
Cinderella: I love your shoes! I'm always losing mine!
Marin: (Big smile) Oh yeah!
Then she gave Cinderella a hug! This is big for those of you who know Marin. She's not really a hugger.





This was definitely the day Marin got to meet a bunch of characters. I'll spare you the pictures of all of them, but here's Minnie. Marin was most excited to meet her (well, besides the princesses). Mitch took Marin on Thunder Mountain roller coaster and she wasn't even scared. She kept seeing the big roller coaster at Adventure Land and saying, "Mom, I want to go on that train ride!" It was a great roller coaster though.


And, this is how we ended the day again! We just took our sleeping kids out of the rental car and let them sleep in their carseats at the airport. Oh, and our flight was delayed 2 hours. We ordered pizza into the airport and watched The Office on Matt's laptop. And then I left my nursing pump bag at the terminal.. security found it and brought it to me but it took 1/2 hour. We finally made it home at 2 a.m.

I love vacations, but it sure is nice to come home and sleep in your own bed! Thanks so much mom and dad, what an amazing time!

TP

I used to be the only person in our house to change the toilet paper roll. It is a subject that used to annoy me greatly. You would think with the type of personality Mitch has, he would always change the roll. But you would be wrong. He'll get a new roll, but leave it sitting on the counter for days. I've experimented. So now I just do it myself, and I figure there are much worse things a husband can do. So the other day I taught Marin how to change the toilet paper roll by herself. I thought I would start her young. I thought I was so smart until I found an entire roll of TP unrolled into the toilet and a new one on the holder. After the toilet flooded and I plunged it and cleaned up the mess I told her never to do that again. So this morning I found an entire roll unraveled into the bathroom garbage instead. Don't worry though, there was a new roll on the holder!

Salt Assault

Have you ever tried bacon sausage? Did you even know there was such a thing as bacon sausage? If not, don't worry, neither did I. Now I do. I'll get to it shortly. I must preface this posting with my history of cooking. When Mitch and I first got married, I was a pretty mediocre/borderline lousy cook. I quickly learned that if I fed Mitch dinner, he was a happy person for the rest of the night. Dinner is a big deal to him... so, I always cook dinner. In the past 6+ years of cooking dinner pretty much every night (well, that and what I learned from Chef Eric and Charlotte Brennan in my culinary classes) I've learned a thing or two. I'm still not an amazing cook, but I do love to cook and I try new things all the time. It helps that my husband enjoys food so dang much. We both do, but he will offer helpful advice such as, "Cara, wouldn't this taste awesome with a little more lime?" Sometimes this advice is taken gracefully, sometimes not so much. But I digress... when I have cooking fiascoes they always involve salt... like WAY TOO MUCH salt. I have many more stories, but the following salt fiascoes all happened in the past few months:

Salt Fiasco #1: I bought a sloppy joe mix and added tomato sauce instead of tomato paste. Tomato sauce has added salt, tomato paste does not (I checked), plus the mix had way too much salt anyway... therefore Mitch and I couldn't even swallow our first bite. It was that salty.

Salt Fiasco #2: Mitch enjoys pheasant hunting. Every so often he brings one home all cleaned and ready to cook. Normally he cooks it himself, but I decided to try my hand at it. His co-worker told him if you brine the pheasant in saltwater it has a great flavor. I tried this, but I forgot about it for 2 days. I decided it couldn't make that much of a difference so I made it into a Chinese sweet and sour dish. It would have been great, except it was so salty we about choked on the first bite!

Salt Fiasco #3: I was in a hurry and decided I would hurry and just cook some chicken in a pan with olive oil, garlic salt seasoning, red pepper flakes, and basil. We like to put this over pasta. I forgot and garlic-salted the chicken twice. It was quite salty. Edible, but just barely.

Salt Fiasco #4: (this happened tonight, thus prompting this posting) Two words: Sausage Bacon. Now sausage is salty, and bacon is incredibly salty... so who would put these two together? Well I guess Jimmy Dean knows. I sure don't. I was making biscuits and gravy for dinner since it's Mitch's favorite meal ever and I just have a hard time eating it for breakfast. So I'm cooking the sausage and I tell Mitch, "This sausage looks pink." He comes and looks at it and he agrees. I say, "I'm sure it's pork, I checked." So we look at the package it came in, sure enough-- pork sausage bacon. Well you can imagine how salty biscuits and gravy made with sausage bacon was. Again, edible, but just barely. Mitch told me I had better take off my rings, because I was going to swell up from all the salt and they wouldn't fit! He's probably right!

So there you have it. If you're ever around my house for dinner beware. You just might be salt assaulted.