two new tricks

The other day I tried putting Zeb's feet up to his mouth to see what he thought about it. Now he won't stop. he's obsessed with his toes. He'll rip his socks off and nibble on them at all times of the day! He can't do it with pants on cause the pants squeeze his belly too much and he can't breathe. It's really funny.

Trick number two is not such a cute trick. The little wombat is still mixed up with daylight savings and has been waking up before seven everyday...plus a wake up between 4 and 5. It may be a result of being sick and trying to get back on a better eating schedule or a result of the time change, probably a little of both. It's making me nutty! luckily I have the best husband in the world and he helps out immensely. I am just not a coherently responsible parent at four AM...or at six for that matter :)

this may be a redo for some of you.

I've been tagged by two people (amie, a month ago, and lindsay n) so I figured I had better respond. I was tagged back in the beginning of our blog so many of the "facts" about me are the same but there are lots of new readers to the blog since then... so happy reading :)

1. I have been in fifteen car accidents. I have never been driving in any of them! The most recent involved a white trash couple (the man had no shirt, only sandals, holey jeans and his pregnant wife with him on a motorcycle. and of course neither had helmets). The worst was when I was thirteen. We were in Idaho at a family reunion and were hit by a drunk driver. Our car rolled, my cousin flew out, and my dad gashed his head so bad we could see his skull.

2. I would rather have a baby (with an epidural of course) than get a cavity filled. I had to be sedated to go to the dentist when I was younger. Having a baby includes gifts, visitors, meals, and a baby.

3. Kent and I have decided that instead of a funeral, the first to die gets turned into a diamond that the living spouse gets to wear! Really. we are serious. It costs about half of a funeral. Our original wish was to keep each others skulls but we can't find any place that will preserve just a human skull...I guess the defleshing/debraining is too intense.

4. I have a small obsession with entertainment news. I check People.com at least once a day to look at photos and read the latest dirt on celebs. They intrigue me (I have NO idea why!).

5. At BYU I did a research project on Urine therapy. For part of the research I drank my own pee for ten straight days. It wasn't bad at all. Urine is very sterile.

6. In college we woke up to find a dead cow in our living room. We were in the newspaper, on CNN, on the news in Idaho and Utah, and even made the Late late show with Craig Kilborne. It was so fun! We have left our legend at Ricks college! People still talk about it regularly up there. I get stopped all the time and people ask "weren't you the girl with the dead cow in her living room at ricks?"

I'll tag Laney, Lindsay D, Jill L, Julie S, Keriann F, and Brittani C. You have to post 6 interesting/unknown facts about yourself and then tag others.

tonight on the news!

Kent and I were yelling at the television! I cannot believe that we have come to the point where we blame others for EVERYTHING. What ever happened to agency and personal accountability? The segment was on the number of fast food restaurants in America. There is one for every 1500 Americans and it is causing obesity. Oh gag. In South LA there is apparently some major problem because so many fast food restaurants are opening! Some registered dietitian stated that these restaurants are "making healthy living difficult" and "if we show people all of these restaurants they will believe it is all they are entitled to eat." Kent and I found this ridiculous! I'm sure the employees are going out and dragging people into their restaurants kicking and screaming and then shoving french fries and hamburgers down their throats! How can she state that they are making it difficult to live healthily? These restaurants wouldn't be opening if we weren't going into them!! I certainly hope that we aren't stupidifying ourselves so much that just because we see lots of fast food we think that it is all that we can eat. South LA wants to enact ordinances called "healthy zoning ordinances" that put a moratorium on fast food restaurants. I only hope that we don't have to turn to the government to parent what we eat. My goodness people. We are fattening ourselves up - not the restaurants!

so the picture doesn't look too tasty....

Thanks to some inspiration from Lindsay next door I tried making Ravioli soup. I really didn't follow a recipe though. I used the regular chicken stock soup base and added until I ran out of things to add.

The picture doesn't look amazingly appetizing because I forgot to take a picture and this is actually "day old soup". Lots of the juices were absorbed by the raviolis and veggies! Kent gave the soup "a surprising ten". I guess he was very hesitant about the raviolis but loved it in the end. It has gotten quite chilly and soup is the best fall/winter meal!

So, here's the recipe (with what I remember!).

1 small yellow squash
2 small zucchinis
1/2 an onion
1-2 cups carrots
1 stalk celery (I hate celery so I only put in the one stalk)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 shredded chicken breast
1 package wheat/spinach/cheese ravioli (really you can use whatever kind you want. I found them in the fridge section of the grocery store near the cheese and there were 2.5 servings in the package)
4-6 cups chicken stock (I just used water with bouillion)
1 small can tomato sauce
salt and pepper
oregano
parsley
basil
garlic

I sauteed the veggies (minus tomatoes) with the garlic in a little bit of evoo while I got the stock and seasonings boiling. I added the veggies and boiled until tender (7-12 min). I then added shredded (cooked) chicken and the tomatoes and tomato sauce. lastly I added the raviolis and boiled for 7 more minutes. It made 4-6 servings.

Serve with bread/rolls!

yes, we are documenting our entire lives via blog.

Tonight we cast our ballots! it was really great to vote on issues that I really felt strongly after being here such a short period of time! I'm glad we made it in time to support the parks, library, and COSI. Oh, and since neither Kent nor I could decide on a second school board member we both wrote in our neighbor, Eric Dockter, as a candidate. He likes kids so we figured he'd do a good job.

Zeb also voted. After fulfilling our role as good citizens we decided to reward ourselves with a treat. Baskin Robbins does one dollar scoops on Tuesday nights! mine was absolutely disgusting and I threw it away. Thank heavens it was only a dollar. It was all freezer burnt and nasty-o. Kent thought his was quite tasty.

Downtown Detroit

Detroit is a little dilapidated for a big city! There are lots of huge abandoned buildings and very scraggly looking businesses. We still enjoyed driving around the city and trying to maneuver our way around all of the one way streets. I get into these laughing fits when we get turned around. I laughed so hard that I was crying and poor Kent had to pull over and look at the map because I was of no help. We were actually trying to get to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. We opened a new checking account with a bank here and they gave us twenty five dollars for doing it! we decided to splurge :)

Little Z was just happy to get out of the car. He really enjoyed Hard Rock. I think that all of the music and lights mesmerized him.

Here is the rugrat after a taste of lemon. It's pretty fun to have our own baby to try these tricks on!

Elections tomorrow! (I FIXED THE LINK)

To whom it may concern (toledoans that read my blog):

I've been trying to figure out all the info I can about the elections tomorrow... and here is a lot of what I found! I believe that we are in district two and will be voting for City Council, School Board, Judges, a budget amendment, and the four levies (all are replacement levies except for the COSI one, it would be a new tax). The following link is a voter's guide that has a lot of info from The Blade. Some of the articles are biased but at least I got all of the names and positions so that I could do my own research.

I don't think there are any other issues on the ballot for us. If you know of any or have any other info, let me know!

Click here for the guide.

Elections are tomorrow and the polls are open from 6:30 am until 7:30 pm.