Sunday Morning

Sunday morning looked like this...

and this...

and this...


Which prompted me to bake this, from scratch...



That's right kids. It's time for another exciting episode of
Recipes with No Nutritional Value


Monkey Bread

Ingredients

• 4 (7.5 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
   
2. Grease one 9 or 10 inch tube/Bundt® pan.
3. Mix white sugar and cinnamon in a plastic bag. Cut biscuits in half. Shake 6 to 8 biscuit pieces in the sugar cinnamon mix. Arrange pieces in the bottom of the prepared pan. Continue until all biscuits are coated and placed in pan. If using nuts and raisins, arrange them in and among the biscuit pieces as you go along.
4. In a small saucepan, melt the margarine with the brown sugar over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute. Pour over the biscuits.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35 minutes. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a plate. Do not cut! The bread just pulls apart.

Creamy Hot Cocoa

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream

Directions

1. Combine the cocoa, sugar and pinch of salt in a saucepan. Blend in the boiling water. Bring this mixture to an easy boil while you stir. Simmer and stir for about 2 minutes. Watch that it doesn't scorch. Stir in 3 1/2 cups of milk and heat until very hot, but do not boil! Remove from heat and add vanilla. Divide between 4 mugs. Add the cream to the mugs of cocoa to cool it to drinking temperature.

Turbo Tax and Other Calamities

This month we courageously set out to prepare our own tax return.
Clarke and I have been spoiled up until this year because my uncle's accounting firm always did our taxes for free. Unfortunately, my uncle sold his practice and moved to Arizona following last tax season. That left us with one seemingly inexpensive choice this year: Turbo Tax.

First we shopped around and finally purchased Turbo Tax Home & Business Edition because we had to file a personal return and a business return.
The Home & Business edition seemed to meet our needs.

((((cha-ching))))

The catch: Home & Business does not offer the form 1065, which I needed to file my "business" return, which just happens to be a "corporate" return.
(which we found out after loading the software because no where on the box
is it printed that the software does not feature form 1065)
GRRR... (mental grinding of teeth)

This calamity meant that we would have to purchase the Turbo Tax Business Edition.

((((cha-ching))))

The Business Edition does not file form 1040, so we would have to keep the Home & Business Edition as well and use both editions to file our taxes this year.
Doh! (mental head slap)

Are you still with me?

Here is the second catch: The Turbo Tax Business Edition does not prepare a form 1065 for the state. Apparently, you have to purchase the Turbo Tax Business State Edition as well.
Duh! (mental eye roll)

((((cha-ching))))

Oh goody! THREE Turbo Tax editions to file our 2009 taxes!
And for only $280.00! Are you kidding me???

BUT, wait! The Turbo Tax Business State Edition is missing a state!
It does not feature the state of Idaho.

WTH???

This expensive and pointless attempt at filing our taxes has finally left us with no choice but to have our taxes professionally prepared this year by an accountant and not boxed software.

The moral of the story: TURBO TAX SUCKS LEMONS!!!!

The best is yet to come

Finally!
Twenty-two days into January and I FINALLY took a picture of Brock.
To be more precise, I took 192 pictures of Brock.
Sadly, I only have time to proof one. Just one.
Which means...

The best "picture" is yet to come.


The problem is that my characteristically slow January has been anything but slow.
In fact, I haven't had a weekend off since October! Booked every weekend,
five shoots, alone, during the week of Christmas, and two shoots today, in addition
to wedding consultations for the upcoming summer season!!!
What a blessing all this business has been!
And I'm sure Brock appreciates a break from being continually paparazzied by mom!

Helpless...and Quite Frankly, Pathetic

You've seen the movie clip.
The helpless damsel maliciously tied to the train tracks.
The locomotive thundering toward the woman.
And then the male hero courageously bursts into the scene,
momentarily panicked by what he sees,
before unbinding the heroine (in record time!)
and rescuing her to safety mere seconds before the train thunders past.

****

I was the helpless damsel this morning.
Sitting in my car in the Joann Fabrics parking lot.
Mortified. Humiliated. Pathetic.

The rope that bound me was a flat tire and my "locomotive" was the clock.
Just like the helpless woman tied to the train tracks, I had no idea what to do
...besides call on my very own superhero (enter Clarke).

Yeah, but here's the thing: I DON'T want to be the helpless female.

If I had been smart and clever, I would have taken Clarke up on his many
invitations to learn how to change a tire and then I would have been
a modern day Rosie the Riveter, flexed my muscles, and changed my own flat tire.
Then, I could have bragged to Clarke about my ordeal over dinner
rather than pathetically appealing to him over the phone to rescue me.

It was humiliating.
And humbling.

As a result, I am going to change a tire on my car this weekend. Just for fun.
(and with superhero supervision...just in case I break something)


So, no more of this "stupid girl" stuff:


From now on, I'm going to be this:

Hitting the Bottle

I'm not even 30-something yet and already I find it necessary to "hit the bottle."

You'd better sit down for this one.
Now prepare yourself, because....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

I found my first gray hair!

(see...aren't you glad you're sitting??)
Or rather, Clarke found it.
He also found numbers two, three, four, five, six, and seven!
In vain, I tried to pass them off as "shimmery" blonde
until Clarke plucked one out of my scalp and then...
(((hyperventilate)))


What the flippin' crap???
Gray hair is for OLD women.
Granny-panty wearing ladies who sport coke-bottle glasses,
hearing aids and never leave home without their dentures.
That's not me!

I'm not old!


Right?

$.10

Brock and I stood in front of the checkout counter at the library this afternoon, our arms burdened with illustrated adventures, political commentary, financial advice, and two dvds. Across the counter stood the library worker; circulation specialist, poorly paid government employee, or whatever you choose to call her. She was not a librarian. Nevertheless, there is something about a library employee that fully realizes that deservedly stereotypical vision of the snooty librarian; library science degree or not. I should know. For seven years, I worked behind a similar library desk, just like the visibly irritated library employee standing across the library counter from me this afternoon.

"You have a ten-cent fine."

"Okay," I said happily,"I'll pay it on our next visit."

She looked at me as though I had just threatened to strangle her grandmother.

Smiling condescendingly, she tensely replied "We really need you to pay that fine."

Or what??

Will the library crumble over night without my dime to help hold up the roof?

"I'll pay it at our next visit." I repeated, inwardly rolling my eyes.

She glared at me for a moment.
Yes, she GLARED, as though admonishing a small and disobedient child!

I felt like giggling uncontrollably because I knew how to play her game.
I used to be a champ at it!

Finally, she topped off her brilliant performance with the classic "snooty" librarian remark:
she huffed at me!

In that instant I felt like gleefully clapping my hands together and congratulating her on an oscar-worthy performance.

So the next time you're faced with a snooty library employee, as that person is glaring down their nose at you, perhaps drumming their fingers on the desk and speaking with a tsk tsk in her voice, remember that its all part of the show!



To be fair, I worked with some AMAZING librarians. Phenomenally nice and wonderful people.
Not every librarian acts like a "librarian." Thank heavens, because libraries are great places to be!

It Started Snowing...

On New Year's Eve, it started snowing.

Like flies to honey, my boys found themselves outside in coats and hats and they began rolling snowballs. They rolled and rolled until there was no "snow" left in my front yard, save for one giant snowman.

Cousin Kaleb helped!

And the snow continued to fall...

What was supposed to be a night out with family quickly became
a New Year's Eve party at our house as the roads
proved too miserably slick to venture out.

We ordered pizza. The kids watched movies. The adults played games.

But....
something curious always happens when you get a bunch of See boys together...

I can honestly say that I never would have imagined rolling a snowball so behemoth and cumbersome that it would require towing down the road with an SUV. However, when you combine an engineer, a carpenter, a mechanic, and a brother with a big, bad Suburban you've got the recipe for the most bizarre (and I concede, cool) way to spend a New Year's Eve: building the ultimate snowman!

Brock scaling between the two snowmen:

Tobi & Clarke hefting up the "middle:"

Marshall placing the crowning snowball:

The kids were awestruck with the gigantic snowman that the "dads" were building.
My DARLING nieces Anna, KayleeAnn, and Abby:

Some kids were smart enough to stay inside where it was warm and dry and cozy.
These yahoos were smart enough to enjoy the snow while it was fresh!
KayleeAnn, Becca, Jake, Brock, Anna, & Abby:

The architects of the New Year's Eve snowmen:
Marshall, Tobi, Paul, & Clarke

Blowing the head off the snowman was, I'm proud to say, NOT my idea.

I could blame it on crazy men whose brains had frozen over in the cold and snow, but
I know these See boys well enough to say that this should have been expected...

Expected, but, perhaps, not as anticlimactic.
Sparks! That's about all that happened, folks.
Happy New Year's sparks.

As the clock struck midnight, the snow turned into a wet drizzle.
By daylight, it was pouring rain and the only evidence of the New Year's Eve
snowstorm was found in the lumpish remains of two snowmen on my front lawn.

Happy New Year???

During the year of 2009, Clarke received a HUGE promotion at work; Brock became a Sunbeam and discovered Star Wars; Char's photography business was hugely successful.
But the rest of the year pretty much sucked lemons.

There is unquenchable sweetness to the much anticipated expiration of 2009; twelve months plagued with death, disappointment, and devastation for our family, immediate and otherwise. We've said goodbye to a beloved grandfather, numerous family friends, and most tenderly, our daughter, Amelia; a bruise slow to heal. Misfortunes, break-ups, broken hearts, weight gain and failures were all stumbling blocks along the way to 2010 and it was with no reservations that we kicked 2009 to the curb, at 11:59 pm last night, without a backward glance.

Will 2010 be a "happy" new year? Your guess is as good as mine. We thought 2009 was going to be hot, until it actually happened...

But there is always hope.