Birthday Cake

For Baby Rhett's 1st birthday, I made him a bulldog cake. I've been wanting to try fondant for a while. I printed the instructions off 2 years ago and finally thought his birthday would be worth the effort. It was easier than I thought and was pretty fun.

I wish I'd kept the face plain white. I was trying to make a light tan, and added a little brown food coloring but it looks more pink. Rhett walked by before the dark brown stuff was on and asked: "Wait...are you making a bulldog or a pig? Why is it pink?" So this is my pig/dog.

For fondant instructions

RJ is one!

Last year, we saw our beefy baby for the first time!

We love this little guy. Happy Birthday!

Girls' Trip 2009

Thanks to Southwest Airlines' super cheap flights, I was able to meet up with my girlfriends from Missouri in the Windy City, and head off to South Bend to spend a few days with Erin, my life-long ballet friend. The weather was perfect. Natalie & I saw Marry Poppins on Broadway--magical. Some shopping, great food, and the best part--hilarious, fun, friends. Although, who exercises on vacation? All of them except me. I held all their junk in my jumbo purse and laid on the beach relaxing (what vacation is for), getting the photo of a seagull, and enjoyed the sun, all while they jogged along the river.

It was so much fun and I'm glad I came. Natalie's husband told her if the tight-wad (me) went, she had to go too, assuming I would back out. Well Ray, I hope your surprised.

Ashley, Natalie, me (in my new raincoat), Jayne, Katherine

moving on to the next half of my trip:

NOTRE DAME

The main reason to take the train east to South Bend, Indiana was to visit Erin. But I was really excited to see the Notre Dame campus, where her husband is in grad school. Why am I so attached to a university I've never seen?
My favorite movie is Rudy.

When I was talking to Erin about potentially coming to visit, she promised me good food, and she totally delivered. She's a great cook and everything was delicious and I had so much fun chatting, eating, and being introduced to Arrested Development. We went on a tour of a mansion in South Bend and the tour guide was self proclaimed "Irish, through and through" but later on the tour he revealed he was part Cherokee, so I questioned all the other stuff he told us on the tour too. The chocolate dipped cannoli from an Italian bakery looked better before I inhaled the first half, but I think you get the point.

It was fun to see so many great friends this weekend, and I've come home refreshed and excited to see my two Rhetts.

***I always seem to do something really stupid whenever I travel. This trip my phone was freaking out the night before I left, so I took my mom's and forgot to inform everyone of the new number. I brought the charger to my bluetooth, not my mom's phone, so two days in I had to turn it off and save the last bar for the call to pick me up from the airport. Compared to other traveling chaos, this trip was pretty smooth.

For other travel blunders by Jessica:

Crapping her pants outside the Sistine Chapel

No ID Chicago

If no one else, Katherine F. will appreciate this...

I didn't win, but my roadkill was featured in a contest. It's pretty great.

check it out.

Remember our dead deer?

Isn't It Supposed To Be Spring?

We woke up this morning to all this snow...crazy!

Childhood Memories

I've been cleaning/ organizing my mom's house and found a couple of items showing my childhood lameness.

Case #1: Hobbies of an 80-year-old granny

This is my first crochet project. A little purse. I can't remember how old I was.




Case #2 Type A 1st grader.

I guess I am a control freak. I would force myself to color each page in order, even if it was a picture of a lame cage. I always colored inside the lines and with appropriate realistic colors--no green skin or purple hair. The Rescuers Down Under was about 1/2 way colored and I rebelled coloring the last page out of order. As I was flipping through I found a page scribbled all over in black. Completely out of place. On the binding I'd explained by writing "Herschel :(". Apparently he'd violated my coloring book without my permission. No wonder I'm the way I am...this red flag was apparently ignored.

Case #3: Ballet Obsessed

Disney's Little Mermaid Soundtrack cassette tape. Oh the memories that came flooding back when this little baby popped up. November 1989. I had just turned 5. I remember watching The Little Mermaid in the theatre, my mom's best friend took her kids and all my siblings. It was amazing. Especially "Part of this World" where she finishes by lunging up on the rock, with the waves behind her. (I later found that kind of drama is hard to recreate on a trampoline that has a sprinkler under it) I was in little girl heaven. After the movie, we were standing in the cold of our neighbors driveway waiting for an older kid to go break in the garage to let us in. My best friend at the time, Danny Webster, who was also 5 started making fun of Ariel. The older kids joined in, saying it was so funny when everyone shriveled into little weeds and they wished they'd stayed little weeds--that would have made the movie a lot better. Oh man. Trashing Ariel was a personal attack on me. Danny and I got in a fight, but I think he won because my older brother would have sided with Danny. I mainly remember the feeling of total betrayal at my best friend knocking my new hero.

But back to the tape. This thing is 20 years old and well worn. We had a huge "ghetto blaster" I'd drag outside on our cement basketball court. I'd move all the toys and junk off to clear my stage. I'd put on my pink or lavender dance dress--they were hand-me-downs from our cousins (Caroleena & Tara) so all their clothes were two of the same, but different colors. I'd put in Little Mermaid and dance barefoot on the cement all day. You think I'm exaggerating? No. All. Day. Until it was dark and I'd turn on the back porch light, which by the way, made an awesome spotlight like a real stage.

My mom would let me bring my meals out on the steps so I could take a bite, gallop a giant circle around the court, take another bite, so as to not waste precious dance time to eat. My feet must have been one nasty callous because I ran around barefoot all day, twirling, hopping, jumping, oh and of course, singing my guts out. All summer long. Dancing up the steps to turn the tape to Side B which wasn't as great as Side A with all the songs. I remember waking up and it was still gray and cold outside, blasting "under the sea". We lived in in the suburbs of SLC, so small lots. I can only imagine all our neighbors annoyed to hear Little Mermaid all. summer. long. With a little girl singing as loud as she could too, until she got out of breath from running in circles.

**You can see combing my hair also was a waste of precious dance time apparently, and uh, I guess slips weren't a big deal either.

Last Little Mermaid tape memory. I'm not proud of it, but any time the tape comes up in family conversation this story surfaces to my shame. Sometimes my solo would welcome guest performers, mainly my little sister Lynette and our friends the Brooks sisters. We were trying to choreograph dances on the trampoline and I was obviously the boss. "Poor Unfortunate Souls" came on and I said: "Lynette this is your song. You have to be Ursula because you're fat." She laughs now but there's a reason she's never forgot. I was a total prima-donna, and still trying to recover. What a jerk! She was cute, unlike me--Skeletor.

<-- Ariel & Ursula

Happy Easter

You Need To See This

We rented a documentary by Ben Stein called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It shows the reality of the wall in the scientific community barring the theory of Intelligent Design--"certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection."

His main goal in the documentary is to show how educators and scientists are being ridiculed, denied tenure and even fired – for the crime of merely believing that there might be evidence of design in nature, and that perhaps life is not just the result of accidental, random chance.

It is very eye opening whether you are atheist, agnostic, or religious. Kind of crazy actually. One of the most interesting concepts in the documentary for me, it wasn't a battle between fanatical Darwinists vs Creationists. Scientists who don't necessarily believe in God are being ostracized from the academic community. They are not necessarily religious--they are merely posing the question that maybe life wasn't formed off a crystal, but there is some intellectual design to life, some organized planning and structure to everything.

I'm obviously religious and believe in God and what is interesting to me with my experience in science, how minimal it may be, what I have learned of science, especially organic science, supports and strengthens my religious beliefs. For example learning simple biology and the functions of a cell convince me that their was intelligence involved to create such complexity--for me this is God. But for some, many being these scientists interviewed in the documentary, the more they learn of science, the less likely religion is, and the more religious people are "primitive" and superstitious. One Professor from Cornell described his process of Christian to atheism really interestingly. Basically, once you give up God, then you give up morality, then you realize there is no purpose to life and you can finally give up all hope. For him, this was liberating. To me, that seems debilitating.

Whether you like science, are religious, atheist, or care about Darwin or Creationism, I think you will enjoy the documentary. I'm no scientist and I liked it. It uses clips as transitions that are really great--our favorite being "Shut up you freak!"...."It's a MAD HOUSE!" from Planet of the Apes. It poses interesting ideas and facts while entertaining all the time.

Go to Redbox, use the free code: DVDONME or BREAKROOM and check it out for free.

Rhett buys evolution text books for leisure reading and was really familiar with a lot of the brains interviewed, so needless to say he loved it.

Molly: Remember all the conversations you had to endure with Rhett talking all about Evolution vs Creationism? You would have loved being there watching this with him girl.

Happy 28th Birthday Rhett

Rhett was such a cute kid. We went to visit his family for his birthday and his oldest sister had brought her photo albums from the mid 80s with some gems.

I think Rhett gets depressed around his birthday..

Rhett updated his Facebook Profile:

About Me:

Married to Jessica. We have one kid (RJ). I'm 28 years old, I live with my in-laws, I'm tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and I still haven't entered my career, oh, and I'm like 20 pounds overweight. I am the coolest person I know.

He's not 28 until Sunday.

Photo from his 3rd birthday...when he was feeling much more successful.

Oh, and don't worry, I'll remind him how great he is so you don't have to feel obligated to in a comment. Maybe I'll remind him that he only has one more year of school... I think of that all the time.

Grandma Bean's Apple Slices

Molly and I were assigned to the same dorm in college and became instant friends. A couple weeks into our first semester, she noticed I liked to eat and told me about this recipe of her Grandma's. She explained how delicious these elusive "apple slices" were, and after we wiped up our drool she decided to call Grandma Bean in Indiana to get the recipe.

Upon receiving Molly's recipe request Gma B. told her "ummm...that's a really hard recipe Molly."

Molly explained she thought she could handle it, and there were other people who cooked around if she needed help. "Well.... I'll send you some other good recipes that are easier instead." So Gma refused to give up the recipe. A couple days later Molly received her care package and in it were the promised good, but easier recipes.

Grandma Bean had got out her typewriter and the following recipe was typed neatly on an index card:

Cherry Pie
1 pie crust
1 can cherry pie filling

Buy a pie crust. Open the can and pour the cherries into the crust. Bake according to the can's instructions.

We were laughing and it was obvious if this was an easy recipe than these apple slices probably were really hard in comparison. Luckily Molly's mom had the apple slices recipe, and every time I make these I think of Gma Bean and laugh. Especially since this is the photo that sticks in my mind.

So here it is for you, the secret recipe you have to earn, shared with Molly's permission:

GRANDMA BEAN'S APPLE SLICES

CRUST:
4 c. flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 c. shortening
2 tsp lemon juice
1 c. cold water
4 egg yolks, beaten

In food processor, combine dry ingredients. Add shortening and pulse until small pea size. Add water, lemon juice and yolks and mix until dough forms. Divide in half. Press first half in greased jelly roll/ cookie sheet.

**If you don't have a food processor, cut in shortening with pastry cutter or two knives instead

***This pastry dough more moist than regular pie crust. Gourmet bakers would probably chill the shortening before and chill the dough 15 minutes before pressing in pan, but I'm sloppy and don't do either.

FILLING:
5 c. tart apples, peeled, diced (I'd guess about 4-6 average sized apples)

2 c. sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c. flour
Stir to cover apples and spread on bottom crust. Roll out second half of dough between two sheets of wax paper. You can pick it up and make sure it will fit your pan, so roll it to the size you need. When ready to put the top crust on, take the top sheet of wax paper off. So you will have your perfect crust rolled out on a sheet of wax paper. Carefully position the crust on top of the apples. Then you just peel off the wax paper backing and you have a perfect crust on top. Go around the edges and press the top crust down over the apples and try to make a seal with the bottom crust. Cut some slits in the top to let steam escape.
Bake at 400 for 40-45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

GLAZE:
2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c. milk
Beat until smooth. Pour over apple slices while slightly warm.

I usually make a half batch in a glass 9x13. These are great for Thanksgiving because you have a full cookie sheet of apple pie-ish dessert, but I like these better than traditional apple pie.

I lost my wedding ring

My palm shows how I need to LOTION!


Last weekend we went to visit family in Delta. Rhett was between rotations and didn't feel obligated to study or anything so we had a full Saturday with a 70 degree forecast. Rhett's Dad owns a trilobite quarry in the west desert of Utah, and Rhett's brother Shayne operates a business on the quarry so visitors can come and dig all day and take home their fossils. It is called U-Dig Fossils (if you have time & interest to check out the website you'll find a gem photo of Rhett at age 10 cracking some shale and sporting the ever popular 90's bowl-cut hair style).



Anyway, having been in the fam over 5 years, it was shocking I'd never dug my own trilobite. So we thought Saturday we'd take the kid and drive to the quarry to crack some rocks all day.


I actually enjoyed cracking up rocks. They are shale and really soft and crumble in your hands some of the time. It was quite relaxing to hammer rocks and bust them up, occasionally finding fossils to give to the father in law too. RJ got to help drive the backhoe.



We were moving all our stuff when I ruined my day and everyone else in the family when I looked down and noticed my hand missing the only piece of jewelry I ever wear. My wedding ring!! Rhett was holding RJ and I squatted in shock with my left hand out, fingers spread whispering: "Oh no!" "Oh NO!!!" After rising from my panic squat I frantically stumbled down the hills like a rat with rabies searching areas I'd previously been digging. I was in a big pit and looked around and realized--my wedding ring is gone! It was more impossible than finding a needle in a haystack. I stood there staring at the ground and almost started to cry, but sense kicked in and I realized crying won't do any good so I continued running all around the quarry instead.



I finally gave up my 3 minute search and told Rhett that we could get a sterling silver little band when we get back. Rhett coolly said: "Well Jess, at least you can comfort yourself with the fact your ring is among the trilobites." I did laugh--better than crying I guess. "I only lasted 5 years before I lost my ring," I lamented as I grabbed our stuff and Rhett went to look around, basically walking around calmly through my tracks. I told Rhett's brother Shayne about how stupid I was and reacting like an adult, Shayne told us to go back to Delta and get his metal detector.



So Rhett dropped us off and drove the hour back to the quarry to comb the desert for my ring. He was gone all day and called at 8 pm. All my nieces kept telling me to pray that they find my ring and that's all it would take but I told them it was already gone in my head. Rhett drove up and I ran out and he got down on one knee and gave me my ring and asked me to be more careful with it in the future. I was relieved and grateful for prayers and metal detectors.

And to reward you for reading this far into our pretty uneventful lives, below I have sacrificed my dignity by sharing a REALLY close photo of my nasty face so you can enjoy my baby's sad eye being pulled off his face by my cheek. Poor bubba. ( the reward is supposed to be a laugh...or maybe just a chuckle...ok a smile...or a complete waste of reading the whole thing and an ending that's even worse)