I Couldn't Resist

Notes on the Day

- I love watching my husband chop down trees with a chainsaw.  I also love the smell of chainsaw exhaust and pine chips on his clothes when he comes in the house afterward. 

- There really IS such a thing as to many Snickers bars.  Kids?  The halloween candy is gone...*burp*

- If I need a hug, I just have to start singing "You Are My Sunshine" and Brandt comes running to cuddle me.  Works like a charm.

- Last week, a friend was trying to figure out my dream interior decorating style to which I helpfully replied, "I would hang a rusted cheese grater on the wall".  Then I became very concerned.  What exactly does that say about me??  So today, after some deep soul searching and Pinteresting, I am proud to tell you my style is Scandinavian-French Country-Mountain Lodge-English Cottage.  I feel so defined now.  Or maybe just really confused...

-  Trout would taste about 300,000x better if I wasn't for all the bones.  I'm in a constant state of fear imagining a bone getting lodged in my esophagus and the pain and agony that would inevitably cause. 

- I love snow and I love evergreens and I love mountains.  You might say I'm blessed :-)

Brandt, Boo Skin, and the Phantom Chicken Nugget

Today we went to Cody, WY.  It's a great place especially in the fall when the tourism is down, the air is crisp and everything is on sale.  Seriously, if you ever go to Cody, go in the fall. 

The kids and I went to one of those tourist traps in which Charissa fell in love with a stuffed, improbably pink horse with "Wyoming Princess" embroidered in silvery letters across its chest.  It was 20% off, so, shucks, I bought it.  Brandt discovered a brown rabbit pelt, stroking it with love.  I asked him if he liked "the bunny skin", a comment which obviously insulted him when he responded with a deep growl "BOO skin!  Rawwl!" and he made claws with his chubby fingers.  So...it's apparently a bear skin.  My bad, son.  Please don't take my calling it a "bunny" as an insult to your masculinity.  The Boo Skin has joined the pink princess horse as part of our family.  Brandt carried it with him everywhere for the rest of the day. 

On our way home, we grabbed two, 5-piece chicken nuggets from Wendy's for the kids to munch.  It had been a long day with no nap and lots of activity. I chuckled watching Brandt's valiant attempt to finish all five pieces without nodding off.  He finally zonked out with one last bite between his fingers, the empty box in his other hand.  I reached back and removed them, finishing off the bite myself. 

Literally 45 minutes later, I noticed Brandt stirring.  Without opening his eyes, he lifted his still-pinched fingers to his mouth and began to eat that last piece of phantom chicken nugget, his mouth munching away.  He finally realized something was amiss and one eye cracked to look, then the other eye joined to glare, at his empty hand.  He then lifted his other fist which clutched the phantom chicken nugget box.  His eyes blinked and focused as he stared into the air held in his hand.  Where DID that last piece of nugget go??  Finally, exhausted with the effort of understanding, he heaved a deep sigh, dropped his hands into his lap and went back to sleep for the rest of the trip. 

I'm glad he managed to sleep because I was about to pass out with suppressed laughter.  He's in his bed now, tummy full of four and a half chicken nuggets, hand resting on Boo Skin. 

I love this kid.

Whole Wheat & Honey Pumpkin Bread

This isn't my recipe, but I wanted to direct you to it.  It's yummy without being super sweet, holds together beautifully and has super-healthy ingredients!  As you can see, it was met with approval by the "sweet tooth" queen.*  Just a tip: forget the "let cool for 30 minutes" part because that means 1) you lose optimum butter melting temperature and 2) you have to wait that much longer.  Another tip: I melted the coconut oil because it was 2 degrees this morning and my oil was like a rock.  It combined with the honey and cooled enough it didn't cook the eggs. 

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Here's the recipe over at Cookie & Kate: Ultimate Pumpkin Bread

Here's my link to making pumpkin puree if you're feeling homemaker-ish: Pumpkin Puree

* And there?  On the queen's head?  That line that looks shiny?  That is Vitamin E ointment over what was a gaping hole that has (blessedly) healed quite well with prayer, steri-strips and lots of panic by me.  I'm sure the panic accomplished most of the healing (not).

Traffic Blessings

I'm back home after 2 1/2 weeks in Colorado visiting family with my kiddos.  It was long enough that I could "just be" rather than scurry off to the next event.  Glorious.  More pictures to come.

I had to drive through Denver on my way.  A fender-bender closed four lanes of traffic (I have no idea how they managed that) and backed up traffic for a good hour.  This mountain girl was feeling pretty claustrophobic.  Then, I saw him...

He was watching the traffic start and stop with the "I'm watching but I'm only half interested" look only a mule can have.  His head would occasionally vanish only to pop back with a new mouthful of hay.  I wished I could just hop on his back, weave through all those stopped cars and head for the hills.  He made me laugh and feel a little more at home in that big 'ol city.

Yesterday, when driving through "The Park" (as everyone calls it), the mule came to my mind as a great herd of buffalo backed up paranoid tourists, undoubtedly chuckling under their buffalo beards at the chaos they were creating.  I punched my steering wheel and wished someone would just drive through the herd - they WILL move, folks. 

But then I had to stop and give thanks that this is the only traffic issue I face on any sort of regular basis. 
So I grabbed a snack and tried to look disinterested like my friend mule.

  

I'll take tourist rage over road rage any day.