but camping is FUN!

Luke Skywalker, here, is not the best camper.

This is a photo from camping last summer. In the summer. When it's warm. And camping includes going swimming or hiking in lava tubes.

Luke Skywalker went camping last night. In February. In Utah. ON a lake, not by a lake, ON a lake. He was cold, and had to do winter camping stuff like look for your gloves every 10 seconds because where did they go?

He came home from camping this after noon. He sat down at the computer and started playing games, and eating snacks. Here is the conversation he had with his sister:

Middle Daughter: Why are so many of your camping snacks left? Didn't you share them with the other scouts?

Luke Skywalker: I did share them. With Caleb. Everyone else was too busy shoving me in the snow where they peed.

That's all folks....
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Fudge.

I have some really great friends. One of my really great friends made me some fudge.

This is Bonnie. She made me fudge. I can't post a picture of the fudge, it was gone waaaayyy before a camera could get anywhere near it.

Here is the story of how it disappeared.

Bonnie and I go out to lunch every month. It's her fault. She moved away, and I can't just drop in at her house down the street whenever I want, we have to PLAN now. So when we went to Wallaby's for lunch (don't go there - it's habit forming), she brought me fudge she made just for me (well, not just for me, but she shared so she gets full credit anyway).

After hanging about and chatting for two full hours (yeah, we got nothing better to do) and annoying the staff at Wallaby's so they were wondering if we were EVER going to leave, we said goodbye and she gave me the fudge.

I displayed AMAZING will power and didn't eat it all before we left the parking lot (oh yeah, Thing One is with me, so I have to share....grrrr). We each ate one heavenly mouthwateringly rich piece of fudge. Heaven.

We had to run home and get Middle Daughter for some reason that now escapes me, and when Thing one offers me another piece and helps herself as well, we both start to groan with the utter satisfaction that only good chocolate products can produce, Middle Daughter says "I WANT SOME!!!!!"

"Some what?" I ask her, all innocence.

"Whatever you are having that is so good!"

"What?"

"I don't know, just GIVE ME SOME!!!!!"

And the fudge is now gone.

The End
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Ice Castles (NOT THE MOVIE)

We went to see the Ice Castles at Zermatt resort in Midway last night. Put EVERYONE in the car (FUN!!!!!) and drove 30 minutes through the canyon on icy roads, joy and laughter all the way (actually, bickering and "quit touching me" all the way).

We took lots of pictures.

For you, Aunt Debbie, since you are the only person who reads our blog.
Eclair and Luke Skywalker hamming for the camera. Aren't they cute?

and here is Thing One going through one of the tunnels with her ski poles.




This one is probably 15 feet tall (the biggest was 30 feet tall). This picture taken in daylight, not as good as after the sun went down...wait a minute and I'll show you.

We hiked all over, went through tunnels and generally held up everyone behind us taking silly pictures. Like this one.

I hope you can see and fully appreciate this face. It's awesome.




We talked some nice people into taking this picture for us (sign said no tripods, maybe they're allergic to ice, or disturb the cosmic properties of the ice castles, I don't know).

Thank you Claire, for saving us. Without that lovely smile we might look like a perfectly normal family. Keepin' it real, kid.

So, now we are REALLY COLD (see previous top ten post on COLD!). So, luckily, we are at the amazing Zermatt resort, where they invite us into the beautiful lobby to enjoy the fire and hot gourmet cider. Let's take a look at the family enjoying cider:










The fireplace was very warm. Thawed my frozen backside quite well.

So, the sun went down and we went outside to take these AMAZING photos:





Great, wasn't it! Kinda reminded me of Carlsbad Caverns. Alas, it will all melt away when (IF) it gets warm (maybe August?).

So, the funnest part of the trip was actually on the way there. We were driving past a campsite where Thing Two once went camping with his scout troop. He said and he pointed to the site: "Hey, that's where the cops told us to keep the campfire under 12 feet tall." Also funny was this line from Claire "Hey, Joey's not sharing his groceries!" (he had Sour Patch candy).
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Top Ten Reasons Why It Should Stop Being So Freaking Cold and Be Spring Already.

So, I was listening to KSL this morning while getting people ready for school when the weather report came on. The man said it was 16 degrees.

SIXTEEN DEGREES.

So I guess winter is not over quite yet after all and that stupid groundhog was right again.

On with the top ten.

Top ten reasons why it should stop being so freaking cold and be spring already:

10. Because I hate wearing gloves.

9. So my dog can stop living in my laundry room and go back outside where she belongs for more than ten minutes at at time.

8. Because Karen looks really bad in those crazy little knitted caps of hers.... (jk karen, you're cute)

7. Because it should take less than 40 minutes to warm up the car in the morning.

6. So I can make my family walk places - imagine the time and money I would save if I didn't spend my whole day running hither and thither picking people up and dropping people off because it's too cold to walk?

5. So I can open some windows and paint my ugly house already!

4. I would like to see something alive and green again before I die...

3. So I can send some of these stir crazy children oustide to play for THE ENTIRE DAY without risking frostbite.

2. The Questar Gas bill. THE OUTRAGEOUS QUESTAR GAS BILL!!!!!!

1. Because I'm tired of it being so freaking cold!
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Maim Karen Month

SO, I am clumsy as dirt. If that doesn't make sense to you, think of it this way: Dirt is always on the ground. BUT despite being clumsy, I very rarely actually INJURE myself. But this month appears to be out to get me, so here's a tally of what we've got so far, and when they occurred, if I can recall)

•Cat scratches up and down arms {Last week}
•Raw fingertips (cracked, small cuts, peeling [re, dry skin? Except my skin isn't dry...?]) {Past five days}
•Smashed pinky toe (Explanation: I have mutant baby pinky toes. I'm convinced my little toes are missing a joint, because they're only 1 cm long when the rest of my toes are normal sized. These small toes are remarkably easy to smash on corners and poles and other objects. And they make it impossible to wear toe socks...) {EVERY FREAKING DAY}
•Bruised knees (not sure how I got those...) {A week ago?}
•Scratched up ear (courtesy of Gus [one of my cats] attacking my hair) {3 AM yesterday}
•Shaving nick on ankle {Sunday}
•Five inch bruise on thigh from banging into chair while cleaning theater {Last night}
•2 mm round second degree burn from popcorn kernel flying out of popper and down my shirt [landing on my necklace for a few moments], and another on my stomach from when it fell further down my shirt {Saturday}
•Twisted ankle from missing a step going down stairs while cleaning theater {last night}
•Bump on head from hitting open cupboard in kitchen {Week and a half ago}
•Welt on eye from smacking self with hardcover book {First week of the month}
•Sore tailbone from slipping while walking to bus-stop {Last week's snowstorm}
•Got jabbed in the boob too...but that happened on the first of this month and I really can't remember how, but it still hurts.
•Stepped on thumbtack {Early this month}
•Rolled over foot with swivel chair {Two weeks ago}
•Pulled muscle in neck while laying on floor {Week and a half?}

Now that I've whined, here's a quick fun story. Sunday night, somebody's car was robbed out in the parking lot, but the culprit left behind their movie ticket stub receipt, which they had paid for with a credit card. Guess who's gonna get caught when corporate calls the PD with their info? :D

Once upon a time, I LOVED photography. Ate, breathed, loved photography. Here is why:



This photo was shot with a completely manual camera and FILM. Remember film? It was a chance "the sun is going down this could potentially be amazing pull over and just let me take the picture, Matt!" photo. That's my oldest daughter, age 12 holding my baby age 4mos.

I have a lot of photos like this that I love. That made me feel like taking the camera out was worth it. Like I have some small amount of talent and ability, and I knew my f-stops. I could meter in my head, and my camera obeyed my every command.

Then the world went digital.

and ruined my life.

For three years I have been trying in vain to make the digital do what the analog did. Obey me. Just a little? What I see in my head does not appear on the computer, and I spend hours mucking about in photoshop trying to make repairs (repairs that were never needed with FILM).

I don't want to use full auto. It doesn't do what I want it to do. Fooling around with the camera settings has on occasion netted me a photo that I can say I love, but not in the volume of loveable frames I produced with film.

So.........with this blog I'm going to try harder. Find a way to produce what I used to, before digital. I've found to some sites that will make me work harder on photo assignments that make me feel like I'm in school again (that is a good thing).

Maybe someday I'll get to the point when you ask me if I will shoot your wedding, I will say yes. Happily and confident that I won't screw it up.
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Spaghetti Sauce

Such a quaint title, no? But it is a highly APPROPRIATE title.

First, a little background. Mom is a WONDERFUL cook. Mom has many recipes that I will eternally love, and I am convinced that my future children will request to have when we go visit. But the past month has been...lamentably sad in the food department. Between the funeral at the beginning of January, too much sickness toward the end, the family diet has consisted of ramen, frozen pizza, and basically whatever one can scrounge up once 9PM comes around and you realize you haven't eaten yet. Mom has just not had a chance to cook a real meal.

(A real meal, in this house, is one that has been cooking for long enough for the delicious scent to saturate the house in a heavenly aroma. The kind of heavenly aroma that when you walk in at 11PM from working a 7 hour shift and you smell it, you immediately lament and turn to mother with puppy eyes, "You had ____ without me???")

Now the important part! ME! Not really, but kinda. I offer up myself as an example of how the rest of the family must feel after this sad month of not-so-great food. I have not had much of an appetite the past few weeks. Nothing seems appealing, except perhaps an obscure food that I perchance ate three years ago at that one restaurant that we went to that one time. But even then, it just doesn't SATISFY.

Tonight, I walked in the door from work and smelled the heavenly aroma of Mom's spaghetti sauce. And I was rejuvenated.

As a simple summary: My mom's spaghetti sauce PWNS any other spaghetti sauce on the planet. Because seriously? Would you honestly consider sitting down with a cup of spaghetti sauce and eating it with a spoon? Because that's exactly what I did.
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Top Ten Reasons Why We Should Start a Blog

10. Other peoples blogs are only nominally more entertaining than shelling peas.
9. Gives me another place to post random photos of eggshells and AstroTurf that I took years ago for some reason that now escapes me.
8. To force me to upgrade my photography skills so people won't think I'm such a ditz.
7. To force me to upgrade my cooking skills so people who live here won't keep saying "Can I make Ramen instead?"
6. Everyone else has one!
5. I have SOOOO much time on my hands and NOTHING better to do.
4. We're funnier than the average turnip.
3. So I can spend even more time hogging the home computer so my kids can't play games on facebook or do their homework.
2. So I can constantly pester my friends with "Have you read my blog??????"
1. Why pass up one more opportunity to embarrass and humiliate my family in public?

The Experiment Begins

The experiment begins. My oldest daughter and I will attempt to make a record of the many odd happenings and projects that take place in our home.

This is going to be a work in progress, as we create pages for the following topics: Food, Glorious Food, Photography, Top Ten, Random Ramblings and Look What I Made.

We hope you will be entertained.

In case you are wondering, "there was a bright flash of light" is a Roperism. Something that Matt always says when, for example, the car keys are missing:
Me: Where are the car keys?
Matt: There was a bright flash of light!!!!! and this conduit opened up in the ceiling!!!!!! and these aliens!!! with suction cups!!!! took the keys back up into their space ship!!!!
(lots of drama, this script. he really enjoys it when we set that one up for him. yeah, he's nuts.)
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