Activities That Are Better Than Thinking About the Election

What is better than thinking about the election? Moving a chicken coop! Laura decided today that she wanted the chicken coop on the other side of the yard so off we went! We pushed and dragged and grunted our way across the mud and then used the little red wagon to pull it the rest of the way.  We were so proud! You can just barely see the little red wagon under the coop.  I thought the poor thing would buckle but Laura  never doubted.

Finished product! This will hopefully get rid of the fly problem, or at least move the flies away from the house.  The brown chicken has been brooding lately so I researched yesterday how to get her to stop and was surprised (and amused) to find that dunking a brooding hen in a cool bucket of water will usually snap her out of it! Turns out chickens, like humans, experience a rise in temperature when they're ovulating or ready to nest, so a quick dunk in cool water will lower the temperature and switch off the nesting need in their brains.  Maybe we should do this with baby hungry teenagers....

Pleasant Surprise

Dear Friends,

I saw this mormon ad on a friend's blog post today and went into it thinking "Great, another Mormon video specifically designed to manipulate my feelings and make me cry. Fantastic." However, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't sappy, it was upbeat and all around a feel good video without the underhanded manipulation. So enjoy!

Dear Friends, I'm back! Katelyn is going the way of all the Earth and it reminded me that I really did enjoy blogging.  I am back again to being (for the most part) unemployed but this time around it's great.  I feel guilty that Felipe is working so much, but I am not bored in the least.  Part of this is due to my new favorite website, coursera.org. Some of the courses I've signed up for haven't started yet (like intro to Astronomy-for which I am MOST excited!!) but the physics class through Udacity.com is taking up a lot of my time and I love it.

Another thing that is keeping me busy right now is this little thing:

We've been acting sort of like foster parents for her for the past two weeks.  Her real owners got her from someone who had found her in the wild, but then they went out of town and couldn't care for her and we've kept her a little longer than originally planned because she was so sick and tiny.  I've really enjoyed having her around!  Our two cats have warmed up to her and they all get along fine, except for when the little baby is trying to eat and one of ours tries to get some food too. She'll growl them away and slap at the food so they can't get anything.  If she hadn't been so feisty, I doubt she would have survived as long as she had so there's something to be said for that.

Another fun new thing I've been doing is requesting patriarchal blessings for direct line ancestors through LDS.org.  Now this has been really fun! I mentioned what I was doing to Violet and now she's on board too.  It's been fun comparing notes and I wish I was going to Utah for Thanksgiving so we could compare notes in    person. I especially loved my Grandpa's Grandpa's blessing, Frederick Granger Williams (b 1853). We're trying to swing a trip to Utah for Christmas and get all of our left behind stuff then but don't know if it'll work out.  We'll see.

Lazy

I feel so lazy, and I hate it! College seems like it was a complete waste of time. I've spent the last 18 years of my life in school--19 if you count preschool. Grad school has always been an idea but now I'm seriously considering it just to have something to do. We even checked out a GRE prep book from the library. Without school, my life just feels so aimless.

To add to this laziness, I was kicked out of my job last Friday. It was a campus job so I was only allowed to work there until two weeks after I graduated. This is only day two of unemployment but I feel a severe case of cabin fever coming my way. Felipe can't work yet because he hasn't gotten his paperwork back yet allowing him to work. At least we are bored and lazy together.

I've always hated lounging about. Even in high school, I hated the feeling of staying in my pajamas all day. So I now dutifully get up and shower and get ready for the day, but then have no where to go and nothing to do. And, my little baby nieces just moved to Chicago so I can't even play with them. But let's be positive. Here's a list of the things we have done to add some productivity to our lives:

1. Last weekend we took my two youngest brothers out for ice cream, visited, and then brought them home to watch a movie.

2. Mother's Day we had a big fun family dinner, candles included (insert Tim's panic here) and then watched a movie at my house with Katelyn and Ian

3. Last weekend we checked out a truck load of books from the library, almost five of which are now read.

4. We started our little seedlings and care for them each day (which doesn't take much time, but at least we can look forward to the day when they can go outside and be a garden and consume hour upon hour)

5. We haven't quite made it to the temple yet but at least we talk about it....

6. Errands left over from the wedding

7. Hours and hours of Ticket to Ride

8. Going on walks--last night we went on a great walk down the provo river trail, and stopped at a park to swing. I haven't done that in a while. I was also asked by somebody if I had a cigarette...

9. Watching our favorite baby boy (aka Sammy)

I hate feeling lazy. But I do love all this time I get to spend with my wonderful husband.

Mmmm Cookies!

I found a recipe for these peanut butter and Reeses cookies on my friend's blog and, wanting to do something domestic yesterday, made them. They are delicious! I had great fun making them because:

1. It made me feel more like a wife

2. They were easy

3. I learned new things

4. I got to use our new hand mixer and

5. They are absolutely delicious

If you want to try them out, here's the recipe:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 cup flour

15 Reeses peanut butter cup miniatures

Makes about 30 cookies (26 for me)

Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars together with an electric mixer. While mixing add the egg and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl (salt, baking soda, and flour). Add the dry mixture slowly to the other ingredients. Mix until you can not see any of the flour. Cut some Reeses in half (I used about 13 whole ones). Form the dough into 1 inch balls, placing one Reeses half into the middle. Cover the candy completely with the dough. Bake at 375 for 7-9 minutes.

When I was making these I realized that we did not have any vanilla. So I looked on-line as a last ditch effort to see if there were any household substitutions, and I found this great website! I felt so culinary. Also, it is really hard to get half a reeses into a 1 inch ball. So don't sweat it if you can't do it. I tried rolling it in like the recipe said and I also tried placing it on top like a shortbread cookie. I personally like it rolled into the ball of dough.

I was so excited to get to use our mixer. I use to have a thing about hand mixers, thinking they were for the faint of heart who couldn't muscle it with a spoon, but that foolishness has left me. I loved the mixer! It was great fun.

I hope you enjoy!

Ps be forewarned that the cookies spread out quite a bit. They're not runny, they just grow.