Why We Can't Have Chickens

Well, besides the fact that they're illegal within the city limits of Chapel Hill (for now).

We have a little fox who lives in our back yard. He decided to come out and play in the sun a bit this afternoon. I should probably dislike him, but he's sooooo cute! I can't help it.

A Little More Random

Adelle got a harmonica yesterday from a birthday party in her class. She loves it, which I get. It is very cool. However, first thing in the morning, before coffee, it makes me want to hurt myself just a little.

And Evie? Evie put a piece of cat poop in her mouth this morning. EWWWWWW. Jamie caught her right away, got it out of her mouth and scrubbed her mouth clean. But still... EWWWWW. I have also finally discovered Evie's quirk. Adelle's was obvious - as soon as she was mobile, she was picking fuzz off the carpet. She still defuzzes her crocheted blanket and holds it while she sucks her thumb at bedtime. Evie, however, has started rearranging the furniture. I am assuming she has an intuitive sense of Feng Shui and is trying to help our home be a little more zen. God knows we could use a little more zen around here. Although, she would do more to up my personal zen meter by not eating things she discovers on the ground... such as cat poop that has escaped the little box. I'm just sayin'.

A Little Bit of Random

I almost never blog these days because not too much is going on that I would consider to be blog worthy. But some of my favorite posts on other blogs are not really important, they are just the random little goings-on that make up life. So, friends, I will try to blog more often... even if it means that all you get to read about if how many cups of coffee I've had today (only one... amazing!).

I only have two weeks left with my current Bradley class and I start another series tonight. I am going to miss the two couples in my almost-finished class something terrible! They are both so wonderful and if it wouldn't cross all bounds of professionalism, I would totally be friends with them. Such as it is, though... sigh. I hope I click with my two new couples tonight, too.

Adelle and Evie's birth stories have been 'published' online here.

I love the dollar spot at Target. I scored stocking stuffers, cute wrapping paper, Christmas headbands for the girls, and a calendar there today. Nice. I need to take photos of the girls soon for our Christmas cards, but can't figure out where to do them at. You know what one of my biggest problems is? I put way too much time, thought, and energy into EVERYTHING I do. Including where to take photos of my children. Sigh.

Ah well, enough randomness for today. The dirty bathrooms are calling my name. No really. They are. They sound like old lady smokers.

Happy Halloween!

We had a very fun Halloween this year. Both girls got to trick or treat and fun was had by all.

No surprise that Adelle wanted to be a bride since Aunt Alyssa just got married last weekend. :)

Our little Pooh bear (last year she was Tigger. I'm seeing a trend here).

Mommy and her sweet girls

We also had some great family photos taken this morning by a local photographer. Check them out if you wanna.

Oh, thank you for my AZ

Well, we're back in NC now and mostly recovered from the best wedding I've ever been to (mine included, but that one's easy to trump). To all you single ladies out there - when it's your turn to get married, find a wedding venue that does pretty much everything for you. You will be glad you did. Alyssa got married at the lovely Regency Garden and it was the easiest, stress-free wedding ever. Thank you, RG. Everything was spectacular.

We kicked off wedding week with the rehearsal and dinner about three hours after we arrived in AZ. It was fun. We at at Rustler's Rooste (and my kids both tried rattlesnake. I kid you not). Lovely views overlooking the city.

Thursday was visit with Kristen day! It was so fun to see her again (come visit sometime, Kristen!). It was also mani-pedi day. My stepmom cried for the first time about the upcoming wedding as we were all sitting together waiting for our nails to dry (she was happy we were all together). Thursday night was the bachelorette party. Kelsey, Alyssa, and I enjoyed a fun dinner at BJ's (Get the hefeweizen. It's the best. As Kelsey put it, "It's like drinking a loaf of bread". Delish!). Afterward, we surprised Lyss by taking her to Dave and Busters where we got her all gussied up like a bachelorette and met some of her friends there. Since Alyssa couldn't drink, she got to pick all of Kelsey's drinks for the night. It was way fun and we learned that for every drink Kelsey has, her volume raises one decibel.

Friday was a chill day. All the out of town family came over for dinner on Friday. The sisters and I watched YouTube videos in the livingroom. This is the best one, hands down.

Saturday was wedding day. Chris (the hairdresser, not the groom) came over and did everyone's hair. We just had fun getting ready together. We then went to the wedding location, got dresses, took a few pictures and got Chris (the groom, not the hairdresser) and Alyssa hitched. The dj for the reception was THE BEST EVER. The garter was my favorite part. First off, Chris did his homework and came up with a hilarious act for getting the garter (Lyss had no idea what he was going to do). He unbuttoned his jacket, walked around her, then went under the dress to get the garter. Only he came out with a red thong. Ha ha ha! Alyssa turned one shade of red. The dj sent him back to find the garter and he came back out with handcuffs! Alyssa turned five more shades of red and my Nana laughed so hard I thought she was going to fall off her chair. The third time was the charm and he came out with the garter. All the singles guys then lined up to catch it and four were chosen to 'compete a bit'. They were given small basketball hoops with a ball hung from it by a string to buckle around their waist. They then had to score as many points as possible without using their hands. Shaking hips and pelvic thrusts ensued. I seriously laughed so hard I thought I might pass out. Good times.

Kelsey drank an entire bottle of champagne. We took silly photos, rode in the limo home, and Kelsey fell out. Classy. ;)

So now we're home and I miss my west coast family. Come visit soon guys! And congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Bargren.

When life gives you apples...

you make 12 quarts of applesauce, five batches of apple pie filling for the freezer, four batches of sliced apples for the freezer (for apple crisp... YUM!), four gallon-sized bags of dried apples, and two loaves of apple bread. That's what.

I still have half a box left, but will be making said loaves of apple bread plus another batch of dried apples tomorrow. That ought to finish them up nicely.

I've had several people ask me for my recipe for applesauce. It's not so much of a recipe as it is a process, but here goes:

Peel, core, and slice apples.


Place them in the biggest pot you can find (and add any other fruit you'd like. Here we have the makings of a primo batch of strawberry-raspberry applesauce). Add a bit of fruit fresh to prevent browning, if you like. Add about 1 cup of water, just to prevent the apples from drying out or sticking to the bottom of the pot. Cook the fruit down until it is very soft. (You can also cook them in the crockpot all day or overnight if you've got the time).


Run the cooked apples through a food mill. If you don't have a food mill, you have three options: 1- use a potato masher for chunky applesauce, 2 - use a blender for very smooth, baby food-like applesauce, or 3 - borrow my mill.


Now either put the applesauce in the fridge or can it. I opted to can it since we won't be needing ALL that applesauce just now.


Voila. Applesauce. I believe this is plain, blueberry, and cinnamon applesauce here.

Guess what I'll be doing this week?

Yep. Thanks to my Gramps for his super awesome apple trees (and generosity) as well as my step dad for driving them down to us, I'll be happily busy with various apple preserving projects. On the menu so far are applesauce, blueberry applesauce (requested by Adelle), dried apples, and probably sliced apples to freeze for apple crisp as well. YUM.

Thank goodness for an electric apple peeler.