Stacy and Clinton

So, my friend Kayla is doing a fashion challenge where she gets to choose 30 items from her wardrobe and only use those thirty items for the next thirty days and she must reconfigure the items to make a new outfit for each day.

I can barely type that without my brain imploding. So I thought I would assess the situation in my closet, and doing so I realized that there is something that you all should know about me. Most of you have probably noticed already, but for those of you with an untrained eye I'll just say it - my entire wardrobe consists of thirteen identical shirts in varying colors.

(not pictured here are the brown and teal shirts, as well as several repeat colors in different sizes. That's right.)

*gasp*

I know, right? Stacy and Clinton are rolling over in their proverbial graves!

I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but I guess I just found a type of shirt that I felt comfortable in and then.....went for it, really went for it.

I'm not proud of this little fashion crisis of mine, I'm really not. But what is a girl to do? Remember how I lacked a mentor to help me navigate through things like puberty and make-up? Same holds true for fashion, and now I just feel hopelessly lost. So yeah, I will not be taking the 30 day outfit challenge this go around, but there's always next year, right?

P.S. I will totally not be offended if you nominate me to be on What Not to Wear. Here is the link for how to submit my name. I'll even provide the frumpy pictures of myself for you. And I am also willing to fly for this occasion, that's how dire this situation has become.

Good Eats

I am not sure when I decided that I liked cooking. It certainly wasn't in my youth. I kind of shudder at the nonsense I would eat back in those days. I did have a knack for making spaghetti on the days that I would get my braces tightened (I had those bad boys for FIVE years, that is a LOT of spaghetti my friends!), but other than that I would get most of my nutrition from vending machines.

Blaine was nice and always told me I was a good cook even back in the days when we were first married and my dinner rotation consisted of three recipes I learned from my mom and a wide variety of cold cereal.

At some point in life I mastered the art of making my mom's chocolate chip cookies. It was a proud day, and actually it is a proud day that I got to relive about seven times since every time we moved across the country I would have to relearn how to make chocolate chip cookies in our new elevation.

But that was about it...chocolate chip cookies, a handful of newly acquired recipes, and so on. Then when I moved to Texas and showed up to my first social function with a plate of cookies I was a little embarrassed. Ralphie and Janssen had brought amazing delicacies, I can't remember exactly what, but they were good...and they looked way more impressive than cookies. Knowing Ralphie and Janssen they probably even had special serving dishes for their culinary masterpieces.

I knew that if I were going to fit in I would need to step things up a notch. It was then that I discovered www.allrecipes.com. I love that website. I still love it. I love the star rankings by the recipes, I love the viewer suggestions, I love that you can do a search based on the last three ingredients in your fridge and that it will find something for you to make. Love it. And eventually through the grapevine I heard of new cooking blogs and branched out and tried new things.

And all of the sudden I realized that I really like to cook. I'm not always good at it, for example two nights ago for a family function I served key lime soup that, at one point, was intended to be key lime pie. I have all sorts of disasters on a daily basis, but when I succeed......oh man, nothing makes me happier than getting a nice compliment on a meal.

A few posts ago I discussed things that people say that change your life. Well, one time while visiting Texas my Mother-in-Law and I decided to make bread. Even though I had branched out and really started to love making things like dessert and dinner...bread still baffled me. I had tried, oh how I tried! My bread usually turned out like something between a brick and loaf of flour flavored chalk. I don't know what the problem was. So I asked my Mother-in-Law to help me make bread. And I was scared out of my ever loving mind. Anyway so we are making the bread, and the bread is sitting in the Bosch all in one hard lump spinning around (which is where things always started to go wrong for me), and she told me to add more water. I was concerned because the recipe did not call for more water. Anyway, in a profound moment that completely changed my baking life she said, "It's just bread dough, it's nothing to be afraid of". It's just bread dough. It was a total epiphany. I could add more water, I could add more flour. Gosh I sound like a freaking moron, but that....that... is when things turned around for me in the bread department. I stopped being afraid of bread dough.

And soon I was the one bringing rolls to important functions, and one time Janssen said she didn't normally even love bread but she loved >>my<< bread. And obviously that compliment meant a lot since I am still talking about it as we approach the two year anniversary of the compliment : )

So for today's nablopomo post I am just going to throw out a plug for my recipe blog (thanks fo the idea Jo!)

itwasamazing.blogspot.com

I started it a couple of years ago. It's not really a pretty blog. I don't always post pictures, but I post real recipes. Ones that I actually use, and I tell you what I change about them. If there are funky ingredients in the recipes it is because I actually have those funky ingredients and recommend you get them, but really there aren't even too many of those. I tell you what I change about the recipe, what I substitute, what I omit, how I would do it better the next time. And you can post there too, I would love it if you did.

I just tried some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins from there today, posted by a friend of a friend, they were absolutely delicious.

So anyway, hop on over if you like. And if you feel like you've got recipes to share shoot me an email and I can add you to the list of contributors, I would love to see what you are eating for dinner and try it myself!

And for Pete's sake, if you try a recipe and like it leave a comment, it makes me (or whoever posted the recipe!) feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

And if you are overwhelmed by the selection of recipes, here are some of my favorites to help you get started....

Let's see here, for dinner how about...
Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Broccoli and Bowties
Italian Beef Sandwiches
Santa Fe Veggie Wraps
Black Bean Soup with Cilantro Lime Cream
Pesto Pizza with Feta and Pine Nuts
Lettuce Wraps

Or if you have no regard for calories you should definitely make this alfredo or this one.

And, since you don't care about calories, go ahead and try these dessert recipes

Magic in the Middle Cookies
Chocolate Eclair Cake (um, you could so make this one low calorie!)
Andes Mint Brownies

And for breakfast don't forget to try Blender Pancakes or German Pancakes

And don't worry, if you are counting calories know that I always am too (well, sometimes more than others). And I post lots of healthier recipes as well. Like light lemony chicken.

And this always gets lots of attention at parties, and this will just knock your socks off.

Let me know in the comments if you want to be added to contribute!

"You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away...."

Every once in a while I surprise myself and take a pretty decent picture. It doesn't happen a lot, but when it happens I get excited and tell people all about it.

And I usually throw something dumb in there like, "yeah so if you ever want family pictures I would love to take them so I can practice!" But the thing is, no one usually takes me up on that kind of offer (because they all know my history as a photographer). But then one day my sister in law did.

And the pictures, to everyone's astonishment, turned out alright. I mean, I'm no Ralphie, no Meleah, no....anyone who is actually a photographer. But I was kind of bustling with a little sense of accomplishment.

And then Laurie asked me if I would take her family's pictures. And some of them turned out alright too.

But also.... some turned out like this...

And while I've never understood why people take pictures of their children prancing along railroad tracks-- like it's something they do every day just for fun -- I can appreciate that they usually turn out cute and fun. But this? This looks like I tied my friend and her family to railroad tracks and then photographed their final moments together or something. But....practice makes perfect, right?

Can't we all just get along?

Has someone ever said something to you that just sticks with you? Maybe it changes the way you do something or changes the way you think about something. There have been so many instances in my life where something that someone says sticks with me and makes a significant impact in my life. I am not talking about profound things we read or hear from significant leaders or anything like that. Rather I am thinking of just something that someone says in passing.

It can be for good or bad too. I remember once at a Young Women's activity I was being a little rambunctious. We were walking around in downtown Salt Lake City and looking at the Christmas lights. I don't remember what I said or did but one of the leaders snapped around, looked right at me and told me I was being annoying. She probably didn't think twice about it, but boy, that sure changed things for me. The tiny sliver of self confidence that I had at that time was shot. Completely gone. I didn't want to show my face in her class the next Sunday. So I stopped going to Young Women's altogether for a while, and I started to think of myself as annoying. I am certain that people had probably told me I was annoying a million times before and it had never bothered me but for some reason, this time it stuck. And I know it is silly that it hurt so much, but silly or not doesn't really matter when you are 13.

Remembering that instance horrified me when I became a leader in the Young Womens program. I was so careful about everything I ever said because I was never sure when something would stick. I think about it a lot as a mother too.

I can think of other things that people have said too. Things they weren't meaning to say to alter my way of thinking. But things that did.

One time while sobbing to Ralphie about being so sick (and pregnant) and feeling so ugly she told me "you know, you just gotta get up in the morning and shower and do your hair, everyday, even if you don't feel like it". That was asking a lot at that point in my life, and I was pretty darn perturbed that she would say that to me. I could barely walk without vomiting three times.And even if I spent hours getting ready each day I surely couldn't look half as amazing as she does. But it made me realize that I have no right to complain about feeling ugly if I'm not even trying to be presentable. And so now, I shower. I do my hair. And it's certainly a lot easier now that I am not pregnant : ) But on days that I just don't want to get ready mostly on the pretense that no one will even see me that day, I still do. Because Ralphie said that thing, that one time.

I remember in highschool my friend Jed, when asked how he was doing, would respond, "it's my best day ever!". He'd say it with such enthusiasm that you almost had to believe him. I've caught myself using that answer a lot of times, it is fun to see how people respond to it. It really does give you a unique perspective on life when you take on that approach.

What I really wanted to talk about today though was something that Laurie said a long time ago. We were in the same married student ward and she was called to visit teach a girl named Jen. I was a little bit intimidated by Jen. See, at the time, I was the furthest thing from a granola that you could imagine. Not only would we eat *Cookie Crisp for breakfast, sometimes we would just eat plain old chocolate chip cookies! I thought homeschoolers were ... well, insane. And you would have had to pay me a million dollars to even consider cloth diapering. And birthing without an epidural? I would rather rip out my own eyeballs. I knew all of those things were admirable and good, but I simply had no interest, whatsoever, in doing them. And the thing about Jen was....she did, or wanted to do, all of these things. She wore her cute little baby in a sling, was knock out gorgeous, super healthy and into organic stuff, etc. I figured if she got to know me, and knew that I ate cookies for breakfast and placed my order for an epidural when I was only 5 weeks pregnant etc. that she would try to convert me, or judge me, or just think I was less of a person. So I never really bothered to make an effort to get to know her, I figured we were way too different to get along well. Since Laurie and I were pretty similar I figured things would pan out that way for her.

A few weeks later I asked Laurie how things were going with Jen. "Great!" was her response. I was puzzled. I asked her "but...well...what? How are things going great? Doesn't she make you nervous?" Now it was Laurie's turn to be puzzled. "Nervous? Why?" "well, because of all of her nutty granola stuff..." Laurie just kind of chuckled and was like..."I just laugh with her about it! She knows I don't do that stuff and she doesn't care. She doesn't take herself too seriously. She is so nice!".

My brain kind of imploded. I don't know, I guess I had just always assumed that people who were better than me....would act....better than me. So....I got to know Jen. And guess what? I love Jen!

I am so grateful for her friendship and I kind of get sick when I think about the fact that I could have missed out on a marvelous friendship just because she did things a different way and we didn't agree on somethings ( My feet are firmly planted in the epidural camp!! Firmly!)

So. Freaking. What. if you do things differently. People are awesome. People who you don't think you have much in common with, are awesome, and they will probably think you are awesome too. This seems so commonsense to me now, as I am sure it does to you too.

I am so grateful for Laurie's little comment "I just laugh with her about it". Empowered with that attitude, and realizing that people don't care if I do things differently or don't care about the same things they care about, has allowed me to be friends with all sorts of people that I normally would have just shrugged off as not a good match.

So, go on...if you are reserved don't be afraid to talk to people who love a good debate. If you eat mac n' cheese every night, don't fear the aspiring chef. If you need a cherry coke to make it through your day, don't worry about the person who only drinks water (and I've gotta say I am so with you on this). If your midsection has seen better days, fear not the supermodel. And for pete's sake, if someone homeschools - - it doesn't mean they are freaks, they'll still like you if you ship your kid off to boarding school (I have one foot on each side of the fence here). And all the while just think about how you will be able to laugh about your differences, and learn from each other. You don't have to change. They don't have to change. It's a beautiful thing, really.



*I use this example because when Blaine and I did our first shopping trip as newlyweds he approached me in the aisle ashamedly holding a box of Cookie Crisp, he looked up at me and asked if we could buy them. I said "sure!" and threw like three more boxes on top of them. He explained to me that his mom had always said that "we don't eat cookies for breakfast" which I laughed at and responded "wow, sometimes my mom would actually make us real chocolate chip cookies for breakfast!". So we've always had a good laugh about eating cookies for breakfast.

Locker Room

I grew up in a family of five. But it was kind of a weird family of five because I had three siblings who were older....like, WAY older ( I may be slightly off here but I believe my older siblings were ages 17, 14 and 13 when I was born). And the brother who was just four years older than me... well lets just say that for all intents and purposes I was basically an only child, with some of the joys of having siblings thrown in there like being impaled by horse chestnuts* each fall and having to look at him turn his eyelids inside out while in the backseat of the car (gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking back on it).

What I am trying to say here, is that I never learned how to be a girl. Really, I didn't. I mean sure, I would sneak off with Stef at recess and discuss the intricacies of menstruation. But I didn't exactly have anyone around who I could mimic- learn the ins and outs of being cool, of boys, and most importantly of things like make-up.

I mean, sure, I tried to mimic my mom, but when I did that I wound up shaving off an eyebrow and cutting my eyelashes off. Still not sure what happened there, but I was just trying to do something that my mom did.

What I lacked was someone two or three years older who was infinitely cooler than myself, who could be my mentor, and I simply didn't have that.

The moral of the story is that the locker room at the gym baffles me. There are people in there primping and prepping in ways that I never even imagined. People probably think it's a bit odd to see me gawking as they pucker up and apply layers of make-up, but....I still don't know how.

Basically what I am getting at here is.... I saw someone blowdrying their eyelashes yesterday. And I don't understand why. Is this something I should be doing? I am kind of panicky about it because I can sense a revisiting of the whole "shave the eyebrow" incident, only this time involving fire and eyesight impairment rather than just social suicide.

What else am I missing out on? And for the love, will someone just invite me over for a sleepover and teach me the fine art of putting on eyeshadow? I'm 28 years old, I think it's time I know.




*What is a horse chestnut you ask? The most ridiculous, pointless, stupid kind of nut there is. It's like a poisonous nut wrapped in, basically, the thorniest, pokiest, weapon like shell. We had a giant horse chestnut tree out back which rendered our backyard completely useless. Give me fire ants any day. Apparently it is tradition in our family to pass on a horse chestnut tree start to your posterity while on your death bed. It's totally beyond me. Not only will I burn the start if I ever get one, I will also take the opportunity (probably before memorial services are even complete) of destroying my parents tree. Whew...I've got some pent up issues here.

Kinder Picture

Well it certainly turned out better than any of my school pictures EVER did. But don't take my word for it . . .

Fairies

This little beauty turned six about a week ago. Thank goodness too. Is it just me or are ages 3-5 like the worst. For reals, I almost called it quits there a few times, but things seem to be on the up and up. I mean, sure we still get glimpses of the old "Grumpy Gwen," but only occasionally, and I can deal with occasionally : ).

Anyways, I can't believe six years have passed. The days go slow but the years fly by when you have little kids running rampant in your house.

I have a few tips for you when planning your child's first real, awesome, amazing, invite your friends birthday party.

1- That rule about only 50% of the people you invite showing up? Not always true. Sometimes 100% show up. Which is really, really, really awesome unless you forgot to count your actual kids when shopping for the goody bags. See, while the kids were making a craft they found a note sent from Tink (her signature was even all sparkly guys!) sending them on a wild scavenger hunt, filled with laughs and giggles and squeals of delight. Until those squeals of delight turned to screams of terror and rage once the booty was found and Blaine casually threw in there "oh...uh...looks like Tink didn't bring enough treasures for Gwen and Bentley....but that's okay because we are going to go open Gwen's presents now which are WAY better than these little dinky things" MAYDAY MAYDAY *boom* there went the party - at least for our kids. See it wasn't just that their lame-o parents didn't prepare well. Tinkerbell, her perfect self, forgot them. Yeah, it was bad. So yes, over-prepare your little hearts out. And your kids need goody bags too.

2- If you are making fairy pens and the birthday girl herself is clamoring for your attention- even if three hundred kids are in line for you to help them with their pens and you are kind of having an anxiety attack thinking about all of the glitter you will be picking out of your teeth for the next month - take the time to help the birthday girl. First, preferably. Because if you don't, you may finish the craft and notice that the birthday girl is AWOL, and find her in her room, in her closet, sobbing, because you don't love her. She doesn't care about the $100 of supplies, she doesn't care about the stress of cleaning, she doesn't even care about your shortened lifespan from glitter inhalation. You simply do not love her if you do this to her. And good luck getting her out of that closet. Good luck indeed.


3- Now, for a positive note...you remember the emotional breakdown that was Bentley's dinosaur cake?



I vowed to purchase a Costco cake for the next party. But when push came to shove, I simply cannot spend money on a cake. I can't do it. Impossible. But two glimmers of hope here 1) Bentley STILL talks about how awesome his big dinosaur cake was ("it was the BIGGEST DINOSAUR CAKE I EVER SEEN"). It looked like moldy frosting mixed with cake chunk vomit, but he loved that thing. Tells everyone about it, still! and 2) Luckily I had purchased four boxes of Tink fruitsnacks for the party and there were pictures of all the fairies on the back of the box. So I cut them out, stuck them on toothpicks and stuck those toothpicks in the cupcakes and BAM, fairy cake. Total smash hit. And also, I used a cake mix and premade frosting. It was almost sacrilegious for someone who loves to bake to do that, but you know what? It was so much easier. Maybe when those little kid taste buds are refined I will spend the time to make an awesome cake, until then though I am passing the buck to my good friend Betty Crocker.

All in all the party was a success. She eventually came out of her closet. Played the games (boy howdy we let her go first in everything!), she loved the attention, loved having her friends over, loved everything. I was glad we made the effort to have a party for her while fairies are still magical. What a fleeting, sweet, awesome time of life it is!