i-gift

Today is Lexee's birthday.

Gone are the days of PRINCESS parties, QUEEN parties (because after you are a princess, you become a queen), ART parties, SPY parties, and SURPRISE parties
(I'm not very good at those... reminder from last year's here).

These days, Lex would just like a day off from painting.

And an i-phone 5.

I could tell you about my extensive efforts this week to find one.  I could tell you how frustrating it is to have every Apple Store employee give you different or new information.  I could tell you about how thrilling it is to wait at the mall (NOT one of my favorite places to hang out) for 3+ hours waiting for a "shipment" to arrive to see if perhaps there would be an extra highly-desired-newly-released phone for actual sale in the store.  (NOPE.)  I could mention how fun it is to call and re-call the Apple Store, per employee suggestion, listening to awful elevator music with a "There are 5 callers ahead of you" thrown in every 20 seconds or so.  I could tell you about my begging and pleading to several of my local Sprint store employees, followed by daily phone calls in hopes that my name could be moved up on the waiting list.  But that would be a long, drawn out story of frustration and agitation, so I'll skip it.

In the end, my efforts paid off.

ONE phone was available at my Parker Sprint store IF I could make it there in the next 15 minutes.

It was black, instead of the preferred white, but it would do.

I wanted to surprise Lex a little (she knew I had been working on it all week), but I think when her T Mobile line was suddenly cut, she had a clue.

Regardless, we gave it to her a day early ('cause the girl can hardly survive without her phone).

 (How about that pile of unfolded laundry on the couch?  I think it had sat there for a good 2 days.  And Mar had just showered after swim practice.  We know how to throw a party around here.)

 (I think the surprised expression is a bit contrived, but she WAS thrilled.)

Shilo was a little disappointed that I couldn't come up with two (I AM a magician, you know), so she is patiently waiting to purchase her i-phone as soon as one comes available.  I will continue to assist.

Happy 19th Birthday, Lex!

We love you!

A Currant Bush

This past week I have had the song Simple Gifts on my mind a LOT (I listen to the Alison Krauss/Yo Yo Ma version).  I have heard it several times over the course of the week as I listened to my ipod and painted (4 rooms down, 2 to go + as many baseboards as I can get done).

To me, the meaning of the song totally relates to submitting ourselves to the will of our Heavenly Father - and how, through turning and bending (challenges and trials) we become perfected, or we "come 'round right."

Making the "turning" a "delight" is what we are all trying to learn.

My internet default page (not sure what it's really called) is set to lds.org, and this morning when I got up to work on some Primary stuff, I noticed a few new links on the homepage.  I was delighted to find this one:

Just what I needed to get through this next week.

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be.

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,

To bow and to bend we will not be ashamed.

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.

Still learning patience (and trying to submit gracefully),

Humiliation and Recompense

First for the humiliation part.

We are still in the middle of restoration.  It has felt like an eternity.  Today Bill lugged the broken toilet - the naughty culprit of our chaos - out to the curb for the garbage men to haul away (yes, they actually pick up stuff like that around here - even sofas and other large items, if you let them know in advance - I LOVE THAT!).  Normally our garbage men are here early.  Like around 8am or so.  Early enough that you have to be on your game to get it out on time.  We have had many a morning of rushing around in a panic, grabbing garbage from all over the house, and running our heavy-laden can to the street in our pjs as we hear the rumblings of the garbage truck coming down the street.

Naturally, because we had a nasty old toilet sitting on our curb today, the garbage men were late.  So late that when I got home from helping at the Book Fair at the middle school around 11:30, they still hadn't shown up. HUMILIATING.

I wasn't home for long before I had to run a few errands, and was relieved to find when I pulled into the driveway around 3pm, the toilet was gone, baby, gone.  I think we will have another toilet at the curb next week.  People are going to think there are some crazy things up at the Syddall's, but I'm trying to not worry about what people think these days (trying to take care of my own dirty windows).

I would have taken a picture, because there was some humor amidst the humiliation, but I have been too darn busy for more than just the thought that it would make me smile... a month or two from now.


On to the recompense.

About a year and a half ago I was all wrapped up in painting my house (reminders here and here).  The end result was not exactly what I had envisioned, but I have tried to get over it and move on, with an occasional comment to my husband, children, or neighbors about how it just doesn't all seem to "go" as well as I had hoped.

My trim color is a little too yellow.

Maybe I should have done the lighter trim around the roofline.

The green is so dark.

When I see my house from a distance, I have become accustomed to telling myself it looks just fine, and that there are certainly much worse color combinations... around.

Today my friend and neighbor Rebecca just happened to ask me if I had some of the old quarts of sample paints from back then, as she needed to have her rental house painted and was looking at similar colors.  She specifically asked if I had the color Grass Clippings.  "Oh," I said, "I think that's the color of my house."

She said she thought it was a little different, since she had some sample chips and they weren't really a true match.  I told her I would check, since the painters had left a partially-filled 5-gallon bucket of touch-up paint for us after the job was done.

The paint color on the bucket:  Snapping Turtle.  When I told Rebecca, she said she had never heard of that color before, which made me think I hadn't either.  Since I often have hormonally-induced fog-brain, I wondered if that was something I had just forgotten.  The more I thought about it, the more I decided that, no, I had NOT heard of Snapping Turtle.  I shuffled through my files (in the filing cabinet in the living room) and found the folder where I had kept the required HOA approval form with my paint selections.  Sure enough, I had chosen Grass Clippings.

Rebecca brought my quart sample back so I could paint it on the side of the house to compare.  Yes, we concurred, it was a better color.  A little lighter.  A little warmer.  It was more cohesive with the brick and trim.

I called the paint company.

Sure enough, they had the record of my selection (Grass Clippings, remember), and also record of the purchase of 15 gallons of Snapping Turtle.  They were apologetic, and offered to repaint.

I have had a renewed sense of faith in myself.  I DID choose a good color.  (At least I hope I did.)  We'll all know for sure the last week of October, barring snow and bad weather.

I can't wait.

Speedy Recap

I don't have a lot of time these days, but I wanted to {quickly} post what we've been up to the past while.  Please remain seated (I've learned that the hard way), keep your hands and feet inside the ride, and have fun.

The fence started going up.

Our little deers returned for some more zucchini.

Shilo received her first Academic Letter (that's her shaking hands with the principal, in case you were wondering... I have some pathetic photography skills).

Bill and I asked to snap a picture after the letter awarding ceremony, and despite Shi's pleasant expression, she was not thrilled to oblige.  Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the ceremony was before school and, as we were leaving the auditorium, school was getting ready to start.  Our kids often try to get out of public pictures with the statement, "Nobody else's parents are taking pictures."  Too bad we can always glance around and find several other children dutifully posing for camera-happy parents.

Cheyenne didn't seem to mind the picture request as much.

I caught Lex at work at Carinos one day when I stopped by for lunch.  She was not thrilled about a picture request either.

Still working on that fence.  Of course the only picture I took would have Bill with his eyes closed.

We are still living amongst the mess of the flood.  See?  I'm learning patience.  Our goal is to have it all back together by the end of the month.  It's already been a month living in chaos (so unnerving for me).

Mar tried out for the Aces Swim Team.  We were a little nervous about whether she would make it or not, since she hasn't been swimming for a year.  The first night of Rookie Week they popped her into a group that, for the most part, was full of older kids who had been swimming over the summer.  I could tell she was ready to call it quits after the first practice.  She decided to give it another try the next day, but we talked to the coach about moving her down a practice group, which was a much better fit.  It made us nervous when, on the final night of rookie practices, the coaches said they were "optimistic" that they could place about half of the kids who tried out on the team.  We were thrilled to get the notification a few days later that Mar had made it.  Phew.

I've been trying to squeeze in time to work on Bill's Align Group Insurance blog and Facebook page - tricky assignments for someone as technologically challenged and inexperienced in social media as myself.  It's all still a work in progress, but I look forward to the day when it's all aligned (no pun intended), connected, and only requiring regular updates.  You should check them out.

Over the holiday weekend, Mar went camping with Lauren and Lauren (and Chase and Bro. Billat).  They went to the Royal Gorge area and had a wonderful time.  Mar purchased a couple of small geo rocks as a souvenir, and couldn't wait to try crushing her first one open.

The inside was sparkly and beautiful (not quite captured by my mad photography skills).

Time to be done.  I've been speed typing and even made my pictures smaller to expedite the download process.  It still took too long.  Today I hope to get carpet ordered and Lex's bright purple bedroom primed for a more neutral guest-room-friendly color.  I hope.  I've not had the best track record for successful paint color selection.  I promised Bill that he would not hear a peep from me EVER if I didn't like it, I would just live with my choice.  Wish me luck.

Cupcakes and Muffins

There have been a lot of references to muffins around here lately, mostly by me, thanks to my muffin-disguised-as-a-cupcake-top that seems to overflow every pair of my jeans and capris.  I have been wearing a lot of long knit maxi skirts lately (thank goodness for knits), and even with their stretchy waistbands, I still have a muffin.  Enter tops with elastic waistbands.  I'm thinking a muumuu might be my next option.

Speaking of cupcakes, I don't think I need to see another one for a good 6 months or so.  This past week was Cupcake Mania around here.  

Last Saturday, for a Stake Activity Day, I helped Cheyenne teach a cupcake decorating class to about 80 girls and their moms (divided in to groups of 40 - 4 separate classes).  Shi and Chey were supposed to teach the class, but Shi ended up having to work so I kindly stepped in to assist.  Saturday morning I was up bright and early making 4 double batches of jello frosting (for the girls and moms to frost their own cupcakes with - which, btw, I didn't have to bake, thank heavens), and a single batch of cream cheese frosting (for demonstration purposes).  You can check out our tips and tricks here.

After I returned home from the activity, I went about making more frosting for the 150 cupcakes I had made earlier in the week for Brendon's Open House that evening.  I LOVED the recipe I used for Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting (also found on the Activity Day handout), and will have to post it here soon, preferably when I have a picture or two, because despite all that frosting and all those cupcakes, I neglected to snap any.

My cute friend Sara, expecting her fourth child (after 13 years), had asked if I would make cupcakes for her baby shower on Thursday, unaware of my cupcake overload earlier that week.  I tried to think of a creative cupcake to make, but my brain was a fog and I deferred to the same cupcakes I made for the Open House and Activity Day... sort of.

(I'm trying to forget that I TRIED to make some yummy lemon cupcakes, but they didn't turn out as "yummy" as I had hoped.  In the end, I sheepishly dropped off my Shower cupcakes - selecting the very best of both kinds - neither as beautiful or as tasty as I had planned - which happens when you try substituting yogurt for sour cream because you already made one trip to the store and just can't bear making another AND when you try adjusting one recipe to make it something it was never intended to be - you would think I had already learned that lesson a million times over).

Note:  Never make Berry Blue Jello frosting.  It tastes like bubble gum and isn't a great mix with a lemon-cleaner-flavored cupcake (a plain yellow cake would have been much, MUCH better).  Period.

Enough with the long cupcake sob story, and on to muffins (which I don't have a picture of, either).

The good news:  We grew a zucchini.  Garden success.  

I forgot to take a picture pre-shredding, but here it is.

I was hoping for more than one, but these punks have been nibbling on them:

Yep, if the hail don't git 'em, those little deers will.

Anyway, I thought I would share my best Zucchini Muffin recipe.

I was going to wait until I made them again so I could take a picture, but I'm not too sure we'll even get another one.  We've had a boatload of blossoms, and every couple of days or so I will check to see if we have any squash.  I usually find one or two baby zucchini, but find only a few short days later they have been nibbled to a STUB. 

If you're wondering, they look a lot like these (minus the bananas, plus a few green flecks):

The original recipe is called Ian's Sweet Zucchini Cupcakes, but since I don't know Ian, AND I think these make much better muffins (with a few slight adjustments to the recipe, which technically makes them mine, right?), I just call them

Zucchini Muffins.
If you are luckier than I and have a plethora of zucchini, you will thank me for this.
And, if you want to slap some cream cheese frosting on them, you can call them cupcakes.

1-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups packed brown sugar (could be why they were originally called cupcakes)
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
3 cups coarsely grated zucchini
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 if using dark pans).  Line cups of 2 standard muffin tins with paper or foil liners.  In a large bowl, mix together flours, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.  Mix in nuts, if using.

In another bowl combine zucchini, oil, eggs, and vanilla.  Add to flour mixture, and mix just until combined (do not overmix).

Divide batter evenly among cups.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.  Cool in tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes; turn muffins out and let cool completely.  Makes 24 muffins.