top ten trash foods that i willing eat

as long as we're in list mode...

1. Pop Tarts
2. Oreos
3. Cheetos (the crunchy sort)
4. Kraft Mac n' Cheese
5. salt & vinegar chips
6. cheddar & sour cream Ruffles chips
7. hot dogs (especially from Holiday Oil)
8. McDonalds 89¢ cheeseburger
9. plain marshmallows
10. Grandma's cookies

my apologies you you don't consider one or more of these items to be trash foods. i still think you're a decent human being.

eight is great in 2008

'i'm the king of eight and i'm here to state that everything here has to total eight.'

8 things I'm passionate about:
1. the English-Kelly-Ash fam
2. art/making art/art education
3. gardening/home grown tomatoes
4. spending time outside
5. cooking food and feeding people
6. good bread
7. spending time with family and friends
8. sweaters

8 things I want to do before I die:
1. have a few (3 or so) more little ones
2. take my family to Switzerland, the homeland
3. speak Spanish, well
4. create a device that hangs up my clothes for me
5. learn how to knit
6. run a bakery or B&B or restaurant
7. live outside of the country
8. have a yard that looks like the Uintas (wild flowers, stones, big trees, moss)

8 books I have read recently:
1. People of Paper - Salvador Placencia
2. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
3. My Antonia - Willa Cather
4. Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
5. East of Eden - John Steinbeck
6. 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Marquez
7. The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
8. currently: The Book of Imaginary Beings - Jorge Luis Borges

8 things I often say:
1. mexcellent
2. sweet baby one
3. supa
4. indeed/indweed
5. does that make sense?
6. yeash (like Micheal Scott)
7. i love you
8. thanks, love

8 things that attract me to friends (i stole all of these from zi):
1. kindness
2. sincerity
3. sense of humor
4. ability to engage in meaningful/real conversations about important things
5. interests and passions
6. integrity/loyalty
7. adventuresomness/sense of wonder about the world/creativity
8. the way they treat their family

8 songs and albums I could listen to over and over:
1. Revolver - The Beatles
2. Andrew Bird... please don't make me choose
3. Betting On Trains - Hem
4. Information Error - the Slackers
5. The Osmonds Christmas Album, yes
6. Chicken With Its Head Cut Off - Magnetic Fields
7. Somebody to Love - Queen
8. Symphony No. 5 - Mahler

8 things I learned this year:
1. love has no boundaries or limits
2. patience, perspective, perseverance
3. some people never cease to amaze
4. becoming a mom is incredible
5. you can't give when you are emotionally depleted
6. daily walks outside are the best medicine
7. i'm not so good at confrontation
8. don't buy clothes at Wal*Mart. never

8 random things about me:
1. i sang alto in the Utah Symphony Chorus
2. i've lived in Utah my whole life
3. i love Back to the Future, part I
4. i am Rick Rivers
5. i broke our couch when i tackled my dad, age 15
6. i'm watching season two of Felicity on DVD
7. i've never pierced my ears
8. i never set the alarm for a time ending in 5 or 0.

8 people i tag
1. linds
2. ash
3. jo
4. lindsey
5. cate
6. kylie
7. janice
8. gatsby

January's birthstone: garnet

our church was handing out free calendars so we took one. it's spiral bound with a flap on the top to tuck the new month's picture up into. most of the pictures are temples with the occasional CCA Christensen painting and an interior shot of the Tabernacle. every day has an event from church history printed at the bottom. for instance, today it says: 1882 - Elder Joseph F. Smith dedicates the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in SLC, Utah. and tomorrow it says: 1950 - LDS Missionaries arrive in Paraguay for the first time. on the 16th it says: 1839 - Brigham Young helped Prophet Joseph obtain financial aid... so some days are a bit of a stretch. 'Family Home Evening' is printed in blue letters on every Monday. birthstone and flower are listed in the corners and then there are some quotes in the empty spaces. yeah, they're really packing it in. on the flap we find advertising for Magleby Mortuary in a fancy calligraphy font with three locations listed for your convenience.

this month the picture is a portrait of George Albert Smith and one of the quotes is his:

"It will not be long until calamities will overtake the human family unless there is speedy repentance. It will not be long before those who are scattered over the face of the earth by millions will die... because of what will come."

so...
i wonder if Magleby had anything to do with choosing the quotes. either way it's an odd thought with which to start off the new year, don't you think?

Pop Tarts

let it be known that i love S'mores Pop Tarts. they are the best and i only buy a box twice, maybe three times a year because it's tough not to eat more than one in a sitting. the reason why they are the best is because of the graham cracker crust. i wish they made more flavors with the graham cracker crust. i've noticed that they've come out with a new cookie dough Pop Tart, which i've never tried so i can't say it's not good, but what they should really come out with is a cheesecake Pop Tart - with a graham cracker crust of course. they could even do a strawberry cheesecake or a special, seasonal pumpkin cheesecake Pop Tart. i'm pretty sure it would sell - big time! anyway, just some thoughts on Pop Tarts.

it's offically here

this week the Christmas season hit us like a big bag of oranges. on Wednesday night English, Ash and i did a little role playing for the ward's young women's activity. they held a 'Journey to Bethlehem' progressive dinner and we were invited to participate as the Holy Family. it was a bit awkward at first and i was amazed to see that many cell phones in use at one time but is was a quintessential experience - and the first time i'd ever dressed up to play in the Nativity. earlier in the day i was mentally going through our closets and drawers to create authentic New Testament garb and nothing was materializing. but what do you know? fifteen minutes before we were supposed to be on our way we threw together some pretty good costumes. English looked great as Joseph in the fool-proof dad bath robe accented with a yellow ocher bed sheet shawl and matching pillow case with ugly tie headdress. honestly, i looked less like Mary and more like the ghost of Christmas Pageants but i did wear sandals for that special touch. and Ash, well it didn't matter what she was wearing (white jammies and a flannel blanket)... everyone thought she was the best anyway.

besides looking the part English and i were also asked to share a few words concerning 'our thoughts' about the experience we'd had as Mary and Joseph. it went pretty well but the best modern rendition of Mary and Joseph's experince i heard on This American Life last Christmas. i was six months pregnant at the time so it was very dear to my heart. we listened to it again this year after the activity and it's still just as good. if you have eight minutes give it a listen (free on thislife.org). it's the last story but the whole show is worth the time too.

then last night was the ward Christmas Dinner and as one of two members of the activities committee i had a day filled with the usual party prep: pick up 13 cheesecakes from Costco, twist crepe paper down the length of several tables, figure out how to turn on the microphone in the cultural hall, rearrange the program at the last minute when the primary chorister doesn't show up, etc. fortunately my co-committee member is my good friend (and very organized) so we were able to get the thing off the ground without too much trouble. plus everyone loves turkey roast - even in Sanpete County. so it was a success! and it never ceases to amaze me how the clean up crew divides and conquers. i'm convinced that given an evening, a small group of Mormons could completely dismantle an entire town and folks driving through would never know that it was ever there.

the only negative feedback i got from the dinner was early this morning (around 1:00 am) when i awoke from a fitful sleep of repetitive dreams about consolidating pans and pans and never ending pans of funeral potatoes and i couldn't get back to sleep. i was compensated though... if i wouldn't have been awake, i wouldn't have heard or seen the half-dozen deer walking around our house and chewing on our lawn at 3:00 am. that was really neat.

firsts

the first real snow of the season suitably fell last night, making the first of December a white one. it's quite lovely. this morning around 7:00 the power went out and everything was so quiet and still. an hour later the annual 'Shop With A Cop' brigade was sirening down main street toward Wal*Mart to take some needy kids Christmas shopping - it's the first time i've ever heard of that. of course we had to check it out... then we had to check out the snow.




i think she's a fan.

Spiral Jetty, finally

after three years of encouraging my students to 'go see one of thee most famous earthworks - here in our very own state,' i finally went and did it myself the day after Thanksgiving. it was beautiful... and terribly cold.

recess chronicles

Ash really enjoys watching the elementary school kids play during recess so we usually go out to the backyard once or twice a day to observe the goings on from our side of the chain link fence. some days are better than others but today during fourth grade recess was especially good. we saw a couple boys loading one side of a teeter-totter up with gravel then one of them says, 'let's launch it!!' he runs over to the other side and with all his might pulls the heavy, industrial strength teeter-totter down on his side. when the empty side hits the ground the gravel shoots about oh, seven or eight inches in the air. the boys are thrilled. 'awesome!!' and the game begins again. after launching gravel a couple more times one of the boys stands where the gravel used to be as the other boy tries with all of his might to move him up into the air (maybe he planned on launching him too). but as it turns out, there's nothin' doin' since the standing up boy must weigh 'a hundred pounds', according to the boy who is trying to launch him.

then a swarm of five or six girls, followed by one boy, runs by to the merry-go-round. the girls hop on while the boy, Bruce is obviously trying wreck things. two of the girls are very emphatic that Bruce stop touching the merry-go-round and they keep yelling, 'get away, Bruce! get away!' so Bruce takes off chasing one of the girls who wasn't on the merry-go-round yet.

and finally, three boys are playing tether ball only they aren't really playing they're just swatting at the ball and trying to hit each other with it. one of the boys, let's call him Short Sleeves, gets a pretty good run with the tether ball making another boy, let's call him Long Sleeves, pretty mad. mean while the third boy is just watching all of this play out. after all sorts of protesting and attempts to have the tether ball for himself Long Sleeves gets pretty mad and out of nowhere kicks Short Sleeves right in the crotch. Short Sleeves is obviously hurt but pulls himself together enough to start making his way toward the teacher who is playing jump rope with a some girls a few yards away. when Long Sleeves realizes where Short Sleeves is headed he starts booking it to get there first... and he does since Short Sleeves is a little slow due to his recent injury. before Short Sleeves even arrives Long Sleeves is pointing and saying, 'teacher, he kicked me!' Short Sleeves is outraged! 'no he kicked me!' and before he can even finish his side of the story Long Sleeves is making more false accusations (and of course lots of pointing at Short Sleeves and the tether ball and so forth). the teacher says something that i can't really hear and just as fast as it began it's over. Long Sleeves makes a run for some place else and Short Sleeves goes back to the tether ball to bring the third boy up to speed on what just happened. the bell rings and everyone makes a mad dash toward the school.

photos of autumn

why did Picasso cut off his ear?

last week in my 9:30 design class one of my students asked why Picasso cut off his ear. she also presented her first-person project on Michelangelo in a pinstriped button-up suit (dressed as the artist). yes, she has declared art as her major.

i got this email from a student who didn't show up to give his presentation.

hello Mrs brooks this is P im sorry i didn't come to class today i actually came late at 11:40 i know that is no excuse however i had my project done and was up all night finishing it. I was actually planning on pulling an all nighter and getting my character ready (what i was going to wear) though i know excuses wont get me anywhere. I would just like to explain that i took a nap and woke up at 11:30 i did however complete my project and would like to know if there is anyway i can still present it and if you could tell me what i missed in class to i would really appreciate that thank you for your time.

sincerely
P.

here's the reply i felt like sending...

P...

please use punctuation. you're right, excuses aren't getting you anywhere. in fact, telling me about your all-nighter doesn't make me think you are a dedicated student or deserving of a little slack. it just affirms to me that you don't know how to manage your time and you need to pull it together. i'll admit procrastination is part of the game here but instead of taking a nap after staying up all night, drink a BooKoo so you can make it through the last few hours of your sleep deprivation experiment and get to class to present your project. oh, and remember how last time you asked me to fill you in on what you missed in class i reminded you that it's your responsibility to find out from a classmate? yeah, same deal.

i didn't reply though. i just talked to the student in class today and reminded him that if he misses his presentation day he has to take a zero on the project. but hey... that's what blogs are for!

toothbrushes for Halloween - don't knock it

this year as we were brainstorming for pumpkin carving ideas we suddenly had the notion to carve my older brother's face into our awesome home-grown pumpkin. for obvious reasons it made both English and i laugh the whole way home. so here it is: the dentist of light...
third year for 'best over all' at the annual Pumpkin Carving and Wassail Party.

and here's a photo of my brother to reference (so you can tell that it's him and not Obama or someone else). he also hands out toothbrushes for Halloween like my Dad has for as many years as i can remember.

the skeleton dance

until last week i hadn't seen this for 20 years. my dance teacher used to show it to us each Halloween. i love it (and i love YouTube for having it). man, Disney used to be so awesome!

so long

a couple months ago i started a post describing our saga with the new landlady at our old place - after all it was quite a story - that i planned on publishing after we got our deposit back. but after the major blowout i deleted the post in an effort to eliminate any remnant of her from myself. it was a good idea, very therapeutic. however, i still feel the need to tell the story though. i don't know... call it what you will but there's a need. so the following isn't the original post. in fact, it's a link to something English wrote a few nights ago (i did ask his permission) but it sums things up nicely... and the photos help too.

teenwolf exodus blues

comfort food

Comfort food is typically inexpensive, uncomplicated, and easy to prepare. - courtesy Wikipedia

my comfort food is peanut butter and honey toast... preferably on Great Harvest honey whole wheat. of course i eat it on a regular basis but it was one of the only things i actually wanted to eat while suffering from postpartum depression and whether knowingly or not, i have it when i've had an exceptionally tough day... like yesterday (major blow out with the old landlady). peanut butter and honey toast truly is comforting.

what's your comfort food?

an idea

i like necklaces. they are my accessory of choice. up until just recently didn't have them in any organized fashion and it was kind of a pain to get them untangled or not be able to find the one i was looking for. of course i thought of a jewelery box but i know i would just end up piling all the necklaces on top of the box after a week or two. so then i thought of a key rack, you know like you have near the back door. but then i'd have to drill two holes into the walls of wherever i was renting... plus i was having a hard time finding a cool key rack that didn't have cherubim or elk on it. so after a couple weeks of brain storming and throwing ideas back and forth i came up with this:

i took one of my panels (just a piece of board) and painted it with some acrylic paint - yellow ochre - one of my most favorite colors. then i hammered five little nails in and fitted the back with eyelets and picture wire so it would hang like a painting. then hang up the necklaces all organized and nice and you know, i have to say it is quite artistic, not to mention aesthetically pleasing. so, yeah i was feeling quite innovative and i thought i'd share.

six months

and here we are a half year later. i'm completely enamored.

best if used before

i have this memory - the visual is a bit hazy but the audio is clear - of my G'ma Jones and my Aunt Shirley cleaning out the fridge at my house. i was probably five or six, hence the haze, but the thing that is amazingly sharp is the phrase, 'when in doubt, throw out'.

certain things have a way of piling up in the fridge. for me it's little tubs of different kinds of cheese (feta, parmesan, etc.). at my family's cabin it's pickles, 2-liter sodas, mustard, jell-o cups, and containers of frosting (?).

while English, Ash and i were staying there for a few days we finally decided to clean out the fridge and make some space. it was a mix between spelunking and visiting the Medical Oddities Museum. as more and more and yet, more jars of pickles were stacked on the kitchen floor (all of which were open and partially gone) we realized the incredible nature of this event and we had to document.

that's ten, count 'em, ten jars of pickles.

each of these frosting containers had about half an inch of frosting in the bottom that was dried up and resembled an old clay river bed.

the oldest thing in the fridge... any guesses?

a jar of Nalley Horseradish Mustard (one of nine mustards). over twelve years old. and the second oldest thing... the same type and brand of mustard, just a few months younger. you don't believe me, i know - so here's the proof:

o nine, o one, seventy-nine

you know those days when your shirt turns into a burp cloth?

i'm leaning into it.

in other news, English ran 28 miles along the Skyline Drive yesterday to celebrate his 28th birthday. Ash and i drove the 'support vehicle' and enjoyed the views. Ash chewed on her Grover at the stops and we chatted for most of the drive. English did great and the only casualty was that he sunburned the left side of his neck.

English & T.R. cresting the hill .......................... Ash passes some time

the finish line

so, does this make me an enabler?

back to school

so we've moved four blocks south and a block and a half east - more on that later - and our new backyard shares a fence with the elementary school playground. on the first day of school i heard a swarm of first grade voices yelling, 'all aboard!' then lots of laughing and screaming. i looked out the window to see 2/3 of the grade on the merry-go-round! it was awesome!

i'm pretty sure these merry-go-rounds have been banned from most school playgrounds so it was good to see that Ephraim Elem. still has one (for better or worse).

of course seeing this brought back all sorts of memories. during the early grades my favorite place to play was the monkey bars. i tried to do a 'cherry drop' once and got the wind knocked out of me when i landed in the gravel on my side. then in 3rd and 4th grade i was pretty much the rockin'est 4-square player in the whole grade.

but when i think of 'back to school' there are a few things that stand out in my mind:

the smell of freshly mowed grass
brand-spankin'-new clothes
Pee-Chee© folders

i wish i could get my hands on some Pee-Chee folders. the doodling possibilities are endless!

i love this girl!

ode to the garden

when we lived in Salt Lake on 2nd Avenue i grew tomatoes and basil plants in terra cotta pots on our balcony. i think i got five tomatoes... it was great! here in Sanpete where rent is cheap and land is abounding we've planted a 300 square foot garden with corn, pumpkins, zucinni, beans, peppers, peas, carrots, onions, potatoes, radishes, turnips, sunflowers, and of course, tomatoes and basil. this is the third year with our garden and i feel the need to sing its praise (with photos).





there really is nothing better than a garden tomato.