Dear Bill,

Seventeen years ago today was our wedding day. It was beautiful, fun, silly, eventful, and crazy! We were married in the morning, had lunch with your family, set up for the reception, partied with all our friends and then went back to our hotel room. The one your parents reserved for us. The one that had the twin beds. Yep, remember that? Our honeymoon suite had twin beds. Just what, exactly, was your mother trying to tell us? Oh well, it all worked out in the end, and they weren't even charged for the broken nightstand.

We didn't make plans for today. No special date, dinner, or movie. It was just another day and that's OK. No cards, no gifts, no apologies, and certainly no obligations. Just the way we both like it. At one point I even thought to myself, "nobody besides us even knows today is any different than any other day." Well, my mom did and I was sure our friend Sue would because she remembers all that jazz. I started to get sad that we didn't do something special to commemorate these past 17 years, but then I knew what I always know: it's not necessary. This day is not the day that defines us. It's all the other times that matter most...

• It was last week when we sat in the chapel at the temple waiting for a sealing to start and I felt like I was 18 and holding your hand for the first time.
• It was the baseball game we attended on an hours notice while I was still pregnant with Payton.
• It was the day you sounded unsure of something on the phone and I met you for lunch and we worked everything out.
• It was the text message you sent at just the right time.
• It was the game you muted to find out how mutual went.
• It was the dishes you did because you knew I'd had a long day.
• It was the way you didn't yell at me when I got the car impounded for being stupid.
• It was the back massage that was just a back massage... and the one that wasn't.

But most importantly, it really was today. This day that I inadvertently made fry bread for dinner. Fry bread reminds me of the fair. and last time either of us went to the fair was while we were dating. You didn't even remember. I couldn't remember who we went with. Then the girls started asking questions. "When was your first kiss?" Like I remember!?! But you did. How sweet was that? "What was your first date?" My face still hurts from smiling so much. And then we recalled the World Series that we watched together and the baseball movies that we shared as a common interest.

We abandoned the table and the dishes, got the kids in their jammies and plugged in a VHS tape of Field of Dreams. I couldn't place why we both liked this movie so much until tonight. That couple is so us. They are nuts and they joke around and poke fun at each other. They get each other and so do we. Even better, Kyra gets it. She sat in the chair tonight giggling when she knew what was going to happen. I've caught her giggling at us as I call you a jerk and you demand something from your woman. I've found myself telling her quite often lately that her parents are nuts. Again, she giggles and tells me that she knows. I believe she likes that about us and so do I. Thanks for not taking life too seriously, it would really be a drag.

I don't remember when I changed from saying, "love you" to "love us". It was probably shortly after I responded to your "I love you" with a resounding, "shut up!" Anyway, Happy Anniversary Babe. Seventeen years and counting. We should throw a party at 20!

Love us,

H

Shameful, I Know

In order to switch the laundry, fold the clothes, put them away, hang wet jeans on the line, heat up and eat my breakfast, and check my email...I plopped Payton down on the bed with his basket of "toys" and a Baby Einstein video. Yeah, TV at 6 months, I know. Shameful.

Ya gotta be impressed with his unique toys though: a tube of lotion, an empty lemon juice container, saline nose drops, a pretty green plastic party cup, a spoon, and an oxygen mask.

Of course you know why he's naked, right? His diaper leaked. Again. His clothes were washing.

"Hooray, no spam here!"

That's what my computer told me today when I deleted the 99 messages in the spam box. The 99 emails that were trying to sell viagra, sex pills, and fake watches. Nice combination, huh? I don't empty that folder very often but now I will. I like it when my computer cheers me on.

"Hooray!"

Some Things are NOT Bloggable

That being said, these were the players:

• a mom
• a 6 month old
• automatic flushing toilets
• automatic air hand dryers
• poo, cloth diapers, and a sling
• the itsy bitsy spider

Use your imagination. I'm sure your story is a lot funnier and entertaining that the actual truth.

Hope you have a happy Monday!!!

Breakfast for Dinner

On Sunday, when I'm at a loss for what to make for dinner I usually end up with breakfast. We've had a late lunch and possibly a nap anyway. After you wake up, you need breakfast, right? I'm not really a fan of breakfast for breakfast, especially not anything sweet, and definitely not blah pancakes. I like some umph to my pancakes, no syrup, but still a little fluffy. Allrecipes did not fail me and the key ingredient, orange juice, was growing in my backyard.

Orange Whole Wheat Pancakes

In a blender combine until smooth:

3 egg whites

1/3 cup applesauce

1 cup of orange juice

1/4 tsp lemon extract

In a bowl mix up:

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 TBL sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Mix 'em both together, just until moistened. Put 2 TBL at a time on a hot griddle coated with cooking spray. Flip and cook like typical pancakes. (Do you really need instructions on this?!)

Umm. Yumm.

White Cheese Chicken Lasagna I made this when my fridge broke and I had spinach, chicken, and mozzarella cheese defrosting. I actually had ricotta and fresh parsley in my fridge, which is very odd. The cooking gods must have known appliance failure was in my future. I used spiral noodles 'cuz I don't do lasagna. Lots of cream and butter in this baby- a heart attack waiting to happen.

Chicken Scampi Silly chicken, scampi is for shrimp! Well, not in my house. This was made for dinner twice in one week, I believe. I subbed shrimp in a couple times when I made it for myself for lunch. Serving it with quinoa is OK, but noodles are better. I also cut the chicken into pieces instead of strips- it pains me to watch my little yahoos try to cut meat sometimes. (My big yahoo does fine!)

Steak Diane with Rosemary Potatoes works great with beef strips as well, 'cuz I'm afraid of steak and don't like to pound it out. This has many of my favorite ingredients: butter, cream, rosemary, worchestershire sauce, and mushrooms. Yum.

Buffalo Style Chicken Pizza I went through a buffalo wing sauce phase there for a while- putting it on all types of chicken, including the nugget form before I cooked them. This pizza was delish. Use whatever pizza crust you like, spread the dressing (ranch or blue cheese) on like you would sauce, and you can just drizzle the hot sauce over the chicken if you don't want to dirty another bowl like me.

Four Cheese Margherita Pizza You know I made this just because it has "margherita" in the title. Actually, I'm not a big fan of regular pizza pizza, especially not with red meat on it. I'm always looking for the non-red sauce, veggie, to-die-for recipe for pizza. The big hit on this one are the fresh tomatoes and basil, and feta cheese. Can't go wrong there!

Rosemary Chicken with Sausage and Potatoes We had this for dinner tonight and before they tasted it both Bill and Kyra said, "this is a keeper." I used a keibasa sausage and chicken breasts cut into pieces, along with the 5 potatoes I had left. This is basically a no-measure dish- my kind of cookin'. I also put it out on the grill to cook 'cuz my oven is done broke.

Green Onion-Parmesan Mornay Sauce I don't know what "mornay" is but we licked the pan clean on this sauce. I served it over noodles and chicken.

So, there you have it. That's what I've been doin' for a while now. The other night I made some chicken in the crock pot and I usually shred it into the broth that I cook it in. It then makes for a fairly dry topping for noodles. This time I pulled out the chicken and made a sauce with the liquid. Oh yeah. I'm good. I'd give you the recipe, but I made it up and I doubt I could duplicate it.

That's right folks, she can cook! It's a miracle.

Not really. I just have to WANT to cook. It's happening more and more these days.

R.O.F.L.

Rolling On the Floor Laughing (for you non-texters)

I'm a fan of allrecipes.com. I can search for anything and find it. I can list ingredients and get something for dinner. I can list ingredients I don't want, and not have them. Whatever. I like it because they send me a recipe every day which makes me think about dinner, which, in turn, gets me to cook dinner. Allrecipes.com has gotten me to cook. Thank you.

I sort of like that there are many takes on certain foods. Take, for instance, a search for "tuna casserole". How many ways can you combine tuna, noodles, and a cream soup? Apparently 56 different ways. Some have cheese, some veggies, some crushed potato chips, and some have french fried onions. How do you pick? Well, I'd not pick one with peas if I don't like peas. If I don't have potato chips, I don't think I'll pick that one. Seriously, with 56 recipes, I can be picky.

So I read the reviews. Ugh. The reviews. But you kind of have to read at least some of the reviews because they are helpful and sometimes there is a drastic mistake in the original recipe. (I read several comments on a chicken recipe that said the chicken was burnt...apparently the original directions said to cook it at 450 for something like 45 minutes. Yeesh. It was a typo, should have been 350.)

But here's where some people crack me up. (Bear with me, I'm almost there.) These are the first 2 comments on the Easy Tuna Casserole recipe I decide to go with:

Reviewed on Jan. 14, 2008 by ChgoFoodieGal
The recipe's fine as is. I don't understand the need on the part of some to completely re-write the recipe. If you do that, you've created a NEW recipe, so why bother rating this one, as is? (Am I gonna be banned/kicked off the recipe.com site now for pointing out rudeness?) Just curious. :) This is a new take on the tuna casserole recipe. You either like it or you don't. I think it's fine, as written. Thank you to the creator for posting their creation.

Reviewed on Oct. 23, 2008 by Bennybbc
Great recipe but I'm completely in agreement with the review and comments by, "ChgoFoodieGal". And in that spirit I made some changes to the recipe. For the macaroni I substituted flour, baking soda and baking powder. For the tuna I substituted eggs. For the onions I substituted oil. For the cheese I substituted buttermilk. I ended up with a batter that I cooked on a hot griddle and ended up with pancakes. But it was a great tuna casserole recipe! ;~} Honestly, making a minor change to a recipe you're reviewing is one thing but most of these reviews have changed so many ingredients that I don't see why they bother to review it. It kind of misses the point of posting recipes with specific ingredients, doesn't it? This recipe is either good as it is, (or with a minor modification) or it isn't.

That being said, my noodles are cooking, I'm subbing cream of mushroom for chicken and possibly adding some corn or peas. A-HA! L.M.A.O.