Quick, boring, takes

Joining Jen and others for some quick takes to round up our week thus far.
I will warn you now, the boredom from reading may kill you.

1) One of my 2 besties here in the Bend moved far far away yesterday (I know, way to start the quick takes off on a bright note, Ana, you're the best!). But it's pretty much the main piece of news I've got for the week, and has left me only 96% down in the dumps, not too bad. I plan on writing a little homage to her at some point, but I am assuming that will require some actual thought and that it maybe shouldn't be written while fending the girls off with my feet. So, it may take a while.

I'm going to be fine

2) On that note, the interview process for a new best friend has commensed, I have written up a few criteria that I plan on sending out int he local news papers. Here are a few:
WANTED: A NEW BEST FRIEND. Must have:

• a cheerie disposition
• rosie cheeks
• be willing to play games
• no warts
• never cross or cruel
• are you catching on?

3) As a result of these recent sad occurances, I have been eating away my sorrows, as well as patting myself on the back for a job well done, with these little PUPPIES. Seriously, why did it take me so long to look up a recipe for oven-less chocolate chip cookies, it is JUST LIKE EATING COOKIE DOUGH. What could be better?

VIA

Now I must give the disclaimer that I substitute every even remotely healthy ingredient in this recipe for the unhealthy variety: all I can say is if you do that you will not be disappointed. I cannot speak for the healthy form of the recipe, but I know is my gut tells me that chocolate chip cookies should never try to be healthy. the end

4) We're having some fam-a-lam come to town in a few days, which means it is time for some of my semi-annual house cleaning, which I have motivation to do only when comparing it to the motivation I have for the alternate activity of working out. There is NOTHING I want to to less than to work out. Why?

5) Um, maybe because, since it only ever rains here or is so humid that you cannot breath and are left pealing your own skin off, that makes it so that going for our little morning jaunts is no longer a possibility. This leaves me with only one other workout option here to be done in the house. Which is pretty much like throwing yourself into a lion cage every morning.

So I chose to clean.

6) I am a whopping 27 weeks pregnant now, with no belly pictures for you, because you will be utterly convinced that I have my due date wrong and am in fact a full 40. Let's just say I am somewhere between this:

And this:

So maybe next week.

7) We are celebrating the triumphant return of QUINCY THE BEE! this week. A long lost family friend/pet who has come back a larger, hairier, totally different bee. The short explanation: dead bees make excellent house pets. The link above will provide much more explanation.
I will leave you with a not-so-quick video showcasing some of the excitement on his return:

Babies, Food, Pinterest, Pregnancy: Quick Takes

I'm steppin in up a notch in the realm of blogging this week.

Last night I checked my Google reader "deats and stats" or whatever it's called and it said that I am averaging 4.2 posts a week, up from 3.3!! What the heck all this .2, .3 crap is about I do not know.

So I am going to keep up that current stat by joining Jen and others for some Quick Takes this Friday.

1.

I am positively delighted that 1) it has gotten below the 100 degree mark outside so that I can justify baking in my home without sweating everyone out and 2) that I have an occasion to bake for tomorrow morning (I've offered to host a prayer group, pretty much just so that I can bake. joking?)

2.

Thanks to Grace's inspiration I will be making THESE at some point today. Because making cinnamon rolls may just be my very favorite thing to do in the world.

3.

I would really like to be known for my famous cinnamon rolls when I am an old lady, I think I am on the right track with this recipe. Also, I have been receiving subliminal messages from the baby in utero that these must be made and eaten pronto, there must be some vitamin I am lacking that is only present in maple frosting...

4.

I looked on Baby Center's website last night to see where the baby is developmentally and was so pleased but mostly confused to learn that she is the size of a rutabaga. Rutabaga, really?!?! You couldn't pick a vegetable/fruit that people actually eat/know what the heck it looks like? I navigated to another site that said "cauliflower", that's more like it. 

5.

I am 25 weeks, 2 days today. Yippee! Only 12 weeks left until I can start doing things to try to get this baby to come out.

About to go do some "exercise" aka pregnant body flopping about with 70 lbs o'children + clunky double stroller. Face left out for your benefit, it's still too early for a head shot.

* Picture taken with photobooth, a low enough quality photo that my blogger lets me upload it. I still haven't figured out my photo-space thing.

6.

I got off of Pinterest a few weeks ago in the interest of not wasting any more time on the interwebs than I already do. Also so that I would stop feeling like a less-than-adequate housewife. But I am not going to lie, I may be going through some withdraw. I just need to see some beautiful pictures of food/houses/clothes, you know. Why is that?? 

Maybe you can convince me to get back on...

7.

And now this marks the 14th time I've been interrupted in the last 14 minutes trying to write this, so I am going to go ahead and be done. You're welcome.

Sweaty sweet summer

 Enjoying a nice 90 degree day here in the Bend,

 filled with several 20 minute outdoor spurts for the girls,

 (I am a little hyper paranoid about sun burn)

 And putting Mike to work on our dinner.

He worked hard on perfecting his grilled chicken today putting together a crazy brine to soak it in prior to grilling

I have to say that this was honestly the BEST chicken I have ever tasted in my entire life. Mike was pretty proud -rightly so- and showed it by asking me a few questions while eating, like: "Did you know that chicken could be juicy?" and "Is it possible that chicken can be too juicy?".

It may be the case I am notoriously the very worst cooker of chicken on the earth, it usually ends up being something like the consistency of a dog bone and all parties are chewing on it just about as long as a dog would a bone. This, on the other hand, had more flavor than I ever thought it was possible for chicken to have, and I am advertising for no one, except my culinary genius of a husband.

Maybe one day I will share is secret, but I must consult the master first.
Happy Sunday!

Things you should know about

  

1. I finally finished an insane clothing organization project this past week, resulting in my drawers finally closing and many bags of clothing (dating back to high school) being given and thrown away.
2. Mike has been reading "Little House on the Prairie" to Naomi every evening, which I was pretty sure she was not entirely absorbing, if at all, since she is only just 3 and usually looks pretty spaced out while he is reading. Then, a few days ago, I walked into the restroom with her, and she looked at our plunger in the holder and asked, "Is that a butter churn?" I said "no" and begged her never to try churning butter with it. At least I know Mike's reading is not totally futile.

3. My sister came to visit on Thursday with her Beau, and we got to make lots of great food and go visit my favorite SB hot spot: the history museum, because we're cool and exciting.

4. One of the recipes we made is definitely worth sharing: THIS ONE by the Pioneer Woman. I am still drooling like a teething baby thinking about them, and I am having to restrain myself from going into the kitchen and polishing off the plate of leftovers. I cannot take any credit for actually making them, since my sister did all the work (I was making my first crab bisque), but I did do a bang up job eating them.

Picture from the cookbook because we ate them too quickly to take a picture of our own finished product.

5. Mike spotted these awesome glass canisters at the best thrift store in the world a few days ago and I went back the next day to buy them in order to organize my crazy pantry. AND since no one will see or care about this because it took place inside a pantry that pretty much only I open, I decided to force you to enjoy the glorious results with me:

before

after

I think the total for all four canisters was $6. Best. thrift. store. ever. Also shown: my ingenious idea for storing our borrowed library books on tape. I could sit and stare at these pictures all day.

6. And last but not least (I have to stop at six so it doesn't look like I'm trying to do 7 quick takes on a Saturday- never!), I know what you'll probably think when you see that I've posted youtube videos--"oh, it's just a youtube video that she thinks is funny and I don't have time to look at videos other people enjoy, besides she probably has no sense of humor, and I have a life." But seriously, do yourself a favor and watch these, but IN ORDER--the first one is an actual real music video that people apparently like, and the second is a parody. This will ensure that you laugh today. (Warning: there is at least one bleeped out F bomb in the second video that they do a terrible job of actually bleeping out, so perhaps this is not good to watch around young children.)

Snow blogging

Alright neighbor Greg, you win. I will never again attempt to nap as you have apparently memorized our nap schedules and will only run your unbelievably loud snow blower during this time- you must know that I am behind on blogging. I am flattered, I didn't even know you followed me! But for real, I think you should get the muffler on that thing checked. Enough.

So Mike and I sometimes act like chubby college girls and make ridiculously fattening desserts at night for fun and then eat all of it over the course of the next few days. 

Sometimes meaning almost never, but we did last night and this has resulted in me eating death by chocolate for breakfast and lunch today. Needless to say this is not helping with our post-Christmas weight loss endeavors. I think we are going to work on perfecting this one though, because it is pretty awesome.

our finished product

I think we'll use devils food cake with chocolate chips for the cake layer next time and I only had light whipped cream, which was a mistake because it's "death by chocolate" and anything "light" just doesn't fit in there.

I had a lovely long morning break today and went on a little excursion to the mall with a friend to hunt for boots (thank you Hannah). I found these and words can't express the shame I feel for buying anything with the brand name "Jessica Simpson". But they were cute and soooo comfy. I may return them though on principle, we'll see.

 What do we think?