Bountiful Baskets Day #2

After posting my bafflement about what to do with the kale, a lot of people contacted me with some fun ideas! I decided to sacrifice a small part of my centerpiece to try out kale chips. The recipe said to bake the chips at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes, but when I pulled my tray out at 10 minutes the kale was burned! I tried a bite anyway... that was a mistake. Perhaps I'll try again later. To go with our barbecue chicken sandwiches at dinnertime, I made a green salad with part of my head of lettuce and topped Ryan's with half of one of the tomatoes. My friend Jessica showed me how to determine if my pineapple is ripe, using a trick she learned on her mission to Brazil. It's not quite ripe yet, but when it is... yum.

Bountiful Baskets Day #1

When I mentioned on my blog a few weeks ago that I wanted to start feeding my family more healthy food, my friend Amanda suggested that I look into Bountiful Baskets (a food co-op). So I did.

On Monday I ordered a basket of fresh fruits and veggies for $15. This morning I got Sam up at quarter to 7 to pick up baskets for me and Amanda. It was dark and exciting outside, I loved it! We got so much food, I just had to blog about it.

Here's what we got:

1 pineapple

6 bananas

3 grapefruit

7 pears

7 apples

7 lemons

4 HUGE potatoes

2 bundles of broccoli

1 bundle of asparagus

1 head of lettuce

1 head of kale

7 Roma tomatoes

So for day one... Ryan and I split a grapefruit for lunch. I couldn't eat my half because I burned my tongue on hot chocolate last night and the acid kept hurting my mouth. I made lemonade, using all 7 lemons. It is pretty dang amazing (even though drinking it hurt my mouth). For dinner Ryan and I each had a baked potato, which we shared with Sam, and some asparagus.

Pretty good, right? I don't really know what to do with the kale, so right now it is sitting in a bowl on the kitchen table. It's purple and pretty!

In other news, Sam's canine teeth are coming in. He isn't eating a lot of solid food right now, so today he had a case of the super poops. Then he got bum rash from all the wiping. The poor little guy walks around like he has a stick up his bum. It would be a little funny if he wasn't so sad. Luckily he went right to sleep so he could get some relief. That pretty much sums up my day.

That was fast

This weekend Ryan and I were reminded yet again that the Lord is mindful of our needs and desires to bless us.

On Friday, we received word from the Village that because Ryan dropped a class last semester, we didn't have the required number of credits to live here anymore- and they wanted us out in 30 days. We appealed the decision right away, based on our personal circumstances that necessitated dropping the class. On Saturday, my friend Katie e-mailed the girls in our ward to let us know that an apartment manager position was opening at the apartments she used to manage, and that compensation included free rent at the complex. We let her know that we were very interested, and she hooked us up with the owner. He met with us yesterday, and offered us the job on the spot! The current apartment manager is moving this weekend, so he wants us to start next week! Thankfully it won't have to be a whirlwind move, as we still have 30 days left in our current apartment and the new one is close enough that we can make several trips. I am a little shell-shocked now that we won't have until May to adjust to the idea of leaving our Village lifestyle and friends. Ryan and I will be in a conventional ward for the first time ever (not just the first time since we got married). It will be weird. Sammy will have to adjust to new Nursery leaders and no playground right outside his front door. Overall, though, we recognize this as an answer to prayer, and we're so grateful that we have the opportunity to improve our financial situation while solving our problem of finding a new home. You are all welcome to come visit us once we're moved in!

Help!

Hey friends... I could use some help. Amazon is hosting a new author contest, and I'd like to submit my NaNoWriMo work. However, the submission deadline is coming up, and I need help editing. What I would need from you is:

Read 5 pages of the novel (I'll send you a random chunk)

Analyze for obvious spelling and grammar errors

Look for any contradictions within your own section

List character traits or statements that have the potential to be contradicted later in the novel (for example, if I say that Anna has brown eyes in your section, I want to be sure that I don't describe her lovely green eyes later on)

And I would need it no later than January 24th.

Who's with me?

New Year's Resolutions and Other News

Ryan and Kara took a nap one chilly day while visiting Kara's parents in New Mexico. They were enjoying the proximity of grandparents and using that proximity to hand off their son so they could go back to sleep. However, their nap was interrupted by the incessant ringing of Ryan's cell phone. Good news was to come their way: Ryan had been chosen to be a student teacher in the Church's Seminary program! Thoughts of sleeping were discarded as the Reynolds Tribe basked in the glory of knowing that Ryan was one step closer to his dream job of being a Seminary teacher.

Kara has always been the type of person to make New Year's Resolutions, but never keep them. Therefore, just like with her NaNoWriMo goals, she decided to post her resolutions on her blog so that her friends and family could encourage her. Her first New Year's resolution was to eat more fruits and vegetables in 2011. For her first grocery store trip of the year, she bought apples, bananas, oranges, avocados, asparagus, bell peppers, and an eggplant.

Her second resolution was to be more like her mom. You see, her mom was always very good about cleaning up after herself and the rest of her family and not procrastinating. Kara hated washing the ubiquitous messy dishes that come from feeding her family, and as a result often let them pile up and get disgusting. So she resolved to clean up messes shortly after they occur, and not "after another game of solitaire" or "once I finish this book."

******

Whew. That was harder than I thought. Wonder why this post is a little different? Check out Absolutely Andrew.

Little Funny Guy

Five Things Sam Does that Genuinely Make Me Laugh:

1. Chants "no no no no" while pulling Mommy and Daddy's books off the bookshelf

2. Puts the handle of his spoon in his food, then puts the scoop end in his mouth

3. Waves his arm like he's conducting when we sing hymns or when he hears the Tab Choir

4. Walks around giving kisses to his sock monkeys

5. Pretends he's ready to get up from his nap, but belly flops onto his Snugaphant when we try to pick him up

Jingle Bell Rock

So I bought Ryan a mini-donut maker for Christmas. I was pretty excited about it. You see, when we were first married, Ryan tried to make Spudnuts a few times, but they always tanked. Plus, he loves making new family traditions. I thought we could start a new tradition of eating mini-Spudnuts. But then the machine came, and it was pretty small. Also, Ryan (the snoop) found out what I was getting for him and informed me that you can't make Spudnuts with it. So we ultimately decided to send it back and get a better present, because we both decided the thing would ultimately end up collecting dust. I was able to sell it on our Amazon store for a good price.

Well, I know Ryan likes art projects. He also likes looking at neat houses. I thought I could get him a model house kit type thingie and we'd build it together. Those were pretty expensive, however. Then I remembered something we saw the first time we drove out to Utah for General Conference. It was April 2007, and the ZCMI mall hadn't been demolished yet, so after GC we hung out in the mall for a while with my friend Scott. At the mall, an old man was selling wooden models of the Nauvoo temple. I remembered that Ryan really loved it, so I tried to find one for him. I successfully managed to find one, and promptly ordered it, feeling pretty pleased with myself.

For some reason, Ryan was snooping around our Amazon account AGAIN and saw what I got for him AGAIN. When he got home from class, he told me he already had the Nauvoo temple model. As it turns out, my memory of that trip to the ZCMI mall was faulty: Ryan loved those models so much he actually bought one. And we still have it in a box somewhere. And of course by the time he told me this it was too late to cancel the order on Amazon.

So pretty much Ryan is not getting a Christmas present this year.