A real post

It has taken me hours and multiple tries to get some updated pictures on this. Why am I so blog challenged?

As some of you know I put a put a gingerbread village under my tree every year (thanks to my mom for the awesome tradition). This year my family got together at Thanksgiving and baked all the houses (we were going to get done early!) SO my goal was by the first week of December I would have my house decorated and my gingerbread up and Christmas was going to be awesome this year. I got my house decorated and started on my gingerbread. Finished assembling and decorating the ski lodge and the santa house and left them overnight to dry. Let's just throw it out there that to get to that point takes all day. I came downstairs the next morning to discover my fat, pig dog had eaten my gingerbread. The evidence was all over her face, her fur and her bed. Needless to say I wanted to cry and it took me a week to recover from that and to start over from scratch and rebake the houses. Then it took me another couple of days to decorate them and by the time I was finished it was mid-December. Then Dogzilla ate what was under the tree and the rest was demolished by my children. Why do I do this every year?

This is why I don't blog....

This is what happens when I get on the computer and ignore my kids for 3 minutes....

This deserves a good comment

Check out this article:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1908194,00.html

I'd like to know your thoughts...

Well actually....

That last post was meant for a recipe blog that I started last year, but I accidentally put it on this one. Those of you that want to check it out are welcome: letseatfamily.blogspot.com

It is suppossed to be a place where my sisters and I post all the recipes we tried and liked, but so far only one has been posted from someone other than me. Figures...

Cucumber Salad

You know the really good kind that you get at Japanese restaurants. So fresh and so yummy and SO EASY. According to Mutsumi, my Japanese friend, you are supposed to let this sit overnight so the cucumbers soften and really soak up the flavors, but I made it an hour before dinner the other night and loved it.

2 English Cucumbers
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt

In a medium sized bowl combine vinegar, sugar and salt. Whisk until sugar is dissolved. Take wrapper off of cucumber and quarter lengthwise. Then slice up each quarter trying to keep an even thickness. Add to vinegar mixture and toss with spoon to coat each piece. Let sit covered in the fridge overnight or at least for an hour on your counter.

sort of confused

i am not really sure why i have this blog

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch with the Whitakers and each picked out the pumpkin we wanted. John 5 loves pumpkins and was elated to be around so many. Of course on the day we went there was literally a wind storm and there was so much dirt blowing everywhere the poor kids had to close their eyes. When we got home we all brushed our teeth to get the layer of dirt off. Looking at the sheep

John and Parks talking about the goats.

You can see the wind blowing the corn stalks over.