Sloppy Joes 3 Ways

Yes, I know it's not fine cuisine, but sometimes a Sloppy Joe just sounds good. I hadn't made them in a while and so it was a new meal for Katherine. She was excited until she pulled something out of the meat and asked/demanded: IS THIS AN ONION?!? And in my mind I said, "DARN YOU JASON!" At dinner at our house during the holidays, he enlightened Katherine on the subject of onions. With the new knowlege, the Sloppy Joe was smashed.

Katherine then made herself a different kind of Joe, a Katie Joe, if you will, that was filled with 5 cup (or Ambrosia) salad. For a moment I believed we had a winning sandwich until she discovered the shredded coconut in the salad. Not quite as evil as the onion, but close.

Out of buns, we turned to sliced bread for her third sandwich, the banana peanut butter wonder. The only problem is that she didn't want to smash the bananas.

It is the last time I let her have options. What a mess.

Little Girls

Yesterday Katherine sang the song from Annie, "Little Girls, Little Girls" and I remembered that song all day as we had Jessica at our house to play. It was so fun to hear them as they made up imaginary scenarios and took turns being the puppy dog or the princess. There was a little fighting (mostly Katherine being bossy) and Jessica graciously giving in. What a good girl she was and cleaned up all of the play-doh mess by herself, Katherine being no help at all.

After 4 hours together, it was time to relax a bit so the girls chose to watch Sleeping Beauty. I was asked to bring them chips and strawberry Crystal Light as a treat and then they plopped down on the couch to watch. I thought it was so funny that of all the places one can sit in the family room, they're cuddled close together, sharing chips and chatting throughout the show.

Hoar Frost

Because of the bitter cold weather, the trees are covered with hoar frost. It is a serene drive through the tree lined road up the mountain to our house as the pine trees are blanketed in white. The scenery looks unreal, appearing dream-like. Looking out at the pines and aspens in my backyard, their branches seem to be covered with fluffy, white mittens. It is a beautiful sight and one of the reasons I can tolerate this cold and foggy weather.

These are some trees at a house in our neighborhood. I wanted to get a better picture, but I 1) forgot the long lense and 2) was too cold to actually venture out of the car and into the deep snow to get a picture.

Friday Night With the Super Shopper

My friend, Jolinda, invited me to attend the Super Shopper class she presented this evening. I thought that she had already taught me everything she knew about saving money on groceries, but I learned even more! Not only is she a wealth of knowledge but a great teacher, too. I've been using the methods she teaches since she invited me to be her protege for the following news story (click on the video link once you're at the site):

http://www.krem.com/news/local/stories/krem2-112008-super-shopper.1d1239e53.html

Jolinda treated me to DQ afterwards and then we chatted in the driveway until after 11 p.m. I was gone a lot longer than I expected to be so Greg teased me about being at a shopping class for 5 hours. When I tried to tell him how much fun I had and that I laughed a lot, he said we should take the coupon comedy show on the road. Yep! I'm the Super Shopper's Sidekick, the Ed McMahon to her Johnny Carson.

P.S. I really do have enough peanut butter to last a year and a half!

Greg, a Literary (if not hairy) Character

This is a fun backstory to how Greg became a literary hero:

http://blog.annettelyon.com/2009/01/how-not-to-name-character-or-hairy-ape.html

Hmm. Hairy Ape character? Hairy, but not ape-ish.

Snowdown at the Rocking GK Corral

The Rocking GK is the latest casualty of the abundant snowfall over the past month. On Friday morning the roof of the barn at my dad's ranch caved in under the weight of the snow. Greg, Kat and I went out to inspect the damage which is very much. Two beams went through the roof of the "cowboy condo" (horse trailer/living quarters), crushed the roof of the John Deere tractor (it still starts, fortunately) and parts of the roof are sitting on top of the boat. The Sea-Doo's survived unscathed. It's just a big mess and will probably require a crane of some kind to lift off all the pieces.

View from a distance:
Dad and Jason searching for extension cords--trying to get heat to the horses' water troughs:

What a mess--at least the John Deere still starts: