Oreos and Easy Cheese

Last summer Porter was introduced to a culinary concoction at a Scout Camp......that, well, only a 13 year old boy could love.

Oreos and Easy Cheese.

Eaten together.

Yes, a nice mound of orange fake squeeze-cheese-in-a-can, squirted onto an oreo cookie and shoved into one's mouth.....(feelin' a little sick just typing that last sentence)

Anyway, after this deliciously wholesome snacking experience at Scout Camp, Porter came home and begged and begged me all last summer and fall: "Pleeeeeeaaaaaaasssssse buy some Oreo cookies and Easy Cheese, Mom, please, please, please!", "It's sooooo good, you HAVE to try it", "I'll even buy them with my own money......"


Well, I positively refused.  (I never buy Oreos OR Easy Cheese)

And we heard nothing more of it for a few months.

 Last week, I walked into WinCo,  and right in the entrance, sat Oreo Cookies and Easy Cheese - displayed right next to each other.


Call it a sign from heaven above, (I couldn't help but smile) - but right then and there I grabbed a package of cream-filled cookies and a can of Easy Cheese (sharp cheddar) and stuck them in my empty cart.  I'm not quite sure what came over me..... you could probably call it a soft spot for a super great kid:)

I came home, unloaded the groceries, then asked for Bill to follow me down the hall, where I showed him my spontaneous purchase.  He agreed that it would make our son over-joyed, and we decided to hide them away in my closet, to be pulled out on a future date when he needed a boost in spirits.

Well, last night they made an appearance.  And it was pretty grand.

Bill and I timed it perfectly.  The girls had been asleep for a while.  It was getting to be Porter's bedtime. Bill and I were back in our bedroom,  and we knew that Porter would be coming back to ask us a question at any moment.

When Porter came into our room,  both of us sat upon our bed, with Oreos stuffed in our mouth, I holding another cookie with a mountain of cheese and Bill in the process of squirting cheese on the Oreo that he held in his guilty hand.  (Of course, the oreos in our mouth were cheeseless - we just wanted the effect of two crazy parents going to town, gorging themselves on this disgusting concoction to the shock and dismay of their teenage son.)

The reaction we got was not what we expected. (We thought he would be mad at us for not inviting him to partake.)  But rather, he came to the entrance of our door, began to ask his question, then stopped and stood there with huge eyes for a second before running and jumping onto the foot of our bed, excitedly grabbing the goods from us and exclaiming with glee, "It's AWESOME, isn't it???!!!!!" 


I think our coolness factor as parents just went up a half a notch in our son's eyes.

Eagle

Porter received his Eagle Scout Rank, on Sunday January 29.  He had about 50 family and friends in attendance to show their support.  It just so happened that his father got to present him his Eagle because Bill is the Scout Committee Chairman.  Bill also presented Porter the Eagle neckerchief and slide that his mother had given him when Bill became an eagle.

It was extra special to see so many uncles, a father, a cousin, and several mentors sitting in the Eagles Nest with him.  Pres. Kirk Kirkham, who spoke on Porter's request, gave some especially neat thoughts and advice.

The night was a sweet experience all around.  One of those moments that remind us as parents that raising kids is SO worth it.

I CAN'T believe it.

Has it been a year?

Why yes.  Yes it has.

Just finished putting the chocolate mousse inside the chocolate layer cake.  I'll frost it tomorrow for our celebration with Grandma and Grandpa:

Happy 1st Birthday to my little Margaret.  What a glorious year it has been.

Halloween

We had our neighborhood Trunk or Treat tonight.  I found a cheerleader costume at the D.I. a couple of months ago for Evelyn - only $3.  Margaret got a painted black nose and whiskers.  What a cute little black kitten.

A little enthused to go get candy:

And now to get geared up for my teenage son's Halloween party tomorrow night.  On the agenda:  "Creature from the Black Lagoon" movie with loaded nachos, popcorn and candy.  To be followed by some 'Night' geocaching and then warm butterbeer and donuts upon arriving back home.  Should be a lot of fun!

Mette

In the quest to decide on a name for our little Margaret before she was born, our family went to drastic measures.  We very much like old names, family names, historically important names, and tend to steer completely away from anything trendy or overly popular.  I liked Helen.  Porter liked Lucy.  And Bill had his heart set on Margaret.  We knew that the middle name would for sure be Deloris, after Bill's late mom. A bracket was drawn up one night (think college basketball March Madness here), with our top ten or so names.  Bill, Porter and I each filled out our own brackets, pinning name against name to see who would move on to the next bracket.  In any event, I don't really remember the outcome, just that it didn't really help much.

As time pressed on, I eventually softened to the name Margaret Deloris.  In fact, I grew very attached.  And when Margaret was born (on Deloris' 75th birthday) I wondered how I could have considered calling her anything else.

Just this past Sunday, Bill and Porter were having fun on a website where you can type in your full name and see how many people in the U.S. have the same name as you.  They typed in Margaret's name and it also suggested other forms of her name to try, like Maggie, Meg, Marjorie, and............Mette. 


Mette?

Before Bill's dad Brian passed away, he was an English professor.  He was also a playwright.  One of the plays that Brian wrote was entitled Mette (pronounced Metta).  Brian wrote this play about his Danish great grandfather Anders Nelson's first wife Mette, a stalwart, brave, faithful woman who Brian greatly admired (enough to write an entire play about her!)

Astonished, Bill went to wikipedia and typed in the name Mette.

This is what he found:

Mette: a female name of Scandinavian origin, descended from the name Margaret.

I must say, it sent chills up our arms to find this.

People have often asked us if Margaret was a family name.  We would tell them that mostly we just loved the name.  We both had Margarets in our family trees, but they were way, way back in the family lines that we didn't have any histories on them.

But now the name Margaret, the name we love, means ever so much more.  And one day, our Margaret will be able to sit down and read the incredible play that her grandfather wrote about a strong, steadfast  woman from our family history, who shares her name.

the gem of our neighborhood

Evelyn thinks the world of our neighbor Ed.

If ever I can't find Evelyn in the house or yard (she is a world renowned escape artist), I know I need to look down the street with the kids in the culdesac, or across the street at Ed's house.

When Ed comes across the street to visit or say hello, and Evelyn is anywhere in close proximity, we know that Evelyn will want to be involved in the bulk of the conversation....because Ed is very exciting to talk to.

And Ed makes Evelyn feel very important.

Recently, I found Evelyn sneaking back into the house through our kitchen sliding door, carrying the Arctic Circle coupon flier that we had gotten in the mail that afternoon.  I asked her where she had been and she, without hesitation replied, "I wanted to show Ed the Square Pumpkins.  I think he needs one for dinner."

A couple of weeks ago, just before bed time, she wanted to show Ed her bubbles:

He's a wonderful, wonderful man.

One of those people that just restores a person's faith in the inherent goodness of mankind.

The 50 cent smile

Porter received his marching band uniform today.

And just in time, because every middle school and high school band in our city have been practicing all week for tonight's half-time performance of the Marching Extravaganza.  (It was awwwwwwesome!)

 I thought he looked exceedingly handsome and so I asked him to follow me out onto the deck so I could take his picture.

Porter, who very much likes to tease his mom, was trying to act all serious on me, so I asked him to show me a great big toothy grin.

And this is what ensued:

After many attempts to just get a normal smile out of him, I called in a the special forces, a.k.a. Evelyn with her knock-knock jokes:

And this is what I got with a 50 cent bribe:

"Mommy, Max and I will smile for 50 cents too!"

the HAPPY kitchen.

My kitchen is the room in my home where I love to be.  It's the room where my kids look for me first if they aren't sure where I am.

 I LOVE that.  Because I was the very same way.

I knew that I could find my mom in the kitchen.  It's where she paid the bills with my dad and helped us with our homework.  It's where we snapped beans and shelled the peas from our garden.  It's where many a memorable family conversation took place standing by the kitchen sink or sitting around the table.  Often times the counter tops were covered in rows of hot cookies, waiting for a household of 9 hungry mouths to devour them.  It's where I remember my mom shaking a heavy pot over the stove, making popcorn the old-fashioned way for a family home evening treat.  I also remember thinking how efficient my mom was to have two or three of us on the kitchen floor with hot, soapy rags, mopping away - each of us with a butter knife in hand to scrape up any stubborn, dried food that wouldn't come up with our wet rag.  (Yes, even that is a happy memory.)  When I go to my childhood home, it's still the room where I find my mom.   The room that I want to be in.

When we moved into our home 6 years ago, this is what my kitchen looked like:

 It was a clean kitchen; decent size.  But the green wasn't my favorite, and something I knew I would eventually change.  I spent months thinking about what color I would change it too.  And one word kept coming to mind:

 Happy.

I wanted a happy kitchen.

 And yellow makes me happy:

  The mug holder makes me very happy.

And here's a close-up of three of the many things that make OUR family happy:

What's not to love about homemade pie, rootbeer (in a frosted mug of course), and popcorn (still made the old-fashioned way)?......Yes, not the healthiest arrangement of signs - I know.  But all things in moderation, right?       

It's a happy kitchen.

a breather

I put my blog on hold for nearly a year and a half with the hopes of trying to be able to grab hold of the reins of life for a while.

Did it work?  Naaaaaahhhh.

But I do know that in this time, a lot has transpired.

For instance, I have a teenager now:

 And he's 6" taller.  And very entertaining.



Oh, and I had a baby:

But she's not a lil' peanut anymore:

She's almost one!

And my Evelyn....oh my Evelyn. Where do I start?

 Lets just say that she's not just adding gray hairs on her momma's head :)

One of my favorite photos...

They're looking remarkably calm considering there were barking dogs on the other side of that fence

Thanks Linds.  You are an amazing sister.  And photographer.

Our Thursday

Spent the day watching Porter's second to last game of the season.

He's had an amazing one.

And his little sis readily agrees.

I hope to slowly start blogging again over the next little while.  We'll see.  

I've been busy growing a little one in my womb as of late.  And I'm still green.

  

from green to......???

And so the renovations begin.

It actually began over a month ago, but I'm just now getting the time to post these pictures.

Our kitchen is getting a facelift.  And it has been so much fun!

My sister-in-law once told me that the kitchen is the one room in your house that should make you giggle when you walk into it.  I really love that philosophy.

This past month, we have been working on adding trim, hardware, and painting the kitchen cabinets.

My kitchen used to, in the not so distant past, look like this:

notice the color, and the flat fronts of the cabinets and drawers 

And then we decided to get creative and add some interest and functionality with our self - constructed hanging mug holder:

Oh how I love this mug holder!  It has brought me joy.  Really it has.  (And giggles)

We began the next phase of kitchen renovations by taking the cabinet fronts off and adding a simple piece of trim:

  Evelyn watched in amazement as Bill ran a bead of wood glue down the trim before he nailed it down.  She ran over to me confused, and said, "Mommy, why daddy put mustard on it?"   We laughed and laughed! 

We then spent the next week and half painting three coats onto them, letting them dry really well in between coats.  We added some black knob hardware, and this is what we ended up with:

Ignore the underside of the countertop please...it's getting replaced very soon.

I think it's really amazing how much the hardware and that little bit of trim has given the cabinets an entirely different look.

I gave myself headaches trying to narrow down a color.  But when all was said and done, it always came back to this buttery yellow.  Why?  Because I have always loved yellow.  Yellow makes me happy.  And I love what it has done for my kitchen.  It's welcoming, bright and cheery.    

We are going fairly dark on the new countertop that will be installed.  They are actually going to be similar in shade to our wood floors.  That should happen within a week.  And then comes the building of the dining room arch and painting the kitchen walls. 

The fun is just beginning.

And I plan on documenting it all.