Dip Night

We have regular game nights with our friends Chad and Carlie. We’ve been doing this for about 16 years. We started when our oldest kids were babies. Now we each have four kids of the same age and opposite gender. Our youngest are now 8. Time flies when you’re breeding and playing board games.

Anyway, game night usually starts at 4:00 pm on Saturdays, and we have dinner. We take turns hosting. Occasionally we like to have Dip Night where dinner consists exclusively of dips. 

We had such an occasion over the weekend. Our dips were:

Neiman Marcus Dip

This was my first time trying this dip. It was good - a lot like a cheese ball with bacon in it. It also has slivered almonds, which I love because I appreciate a little crunch.

Italian Hoagie Dip

This was really more like a salad, but the recipe calls it a dip, so it’s valid. The flavors were great, but it was hard to get it to stay on a piece of bread. I ended up tearing up little bits of bread, mixing them in the “dip,” and eating it with a fork… like a salad! I’m not sure if I’d make this again… considering I could just have a sandwich.

Seven(ish) Layer Dip

Carlie made seven(ish) layer dip with Chad’s homemade guacamole. Chad is our designated guacamole maker.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Carlie brought this one. I think she went the Costco route on this one. I didn’t ask.

Scotty stretched the rules a bit and made some Buffalo wings on the smoker (I didn’t get a photo). He said they count for “dip” because you can dip them in ranch or bleu cheese… which no one did. This was his first time smoking wings. 

For sweets we had:

Oreo Dip

Zoe helped me make this, and we sampled it right away, and it was delicious! I liked it more before it sat, and the Oreos got soft. It was still good later, though. We dipped strawberries and apples in it.

Brownie Batter Dip

We’ve had this one at Dip Night before. Zoe asked if she could eat just this dip by licking it straight off her plate. I let her… because it was Dip Night, so why not?

Dip Night was a success, and since I know there are two of you who care (Cyndi and Krystle), here’s our game selection and winner list for the night: 

Ark Nova: Scotty

Splendor: Britt

Azul: Britt

Bohnanza: Britt & Chad tie

Ticket to Ride (Europe): Britt

Five Crowns: Carlie

Quixx: Carlie

Quixx: Britt

(Scotty, who normally dominates Game Night is not handling this well).

Dentist and Healer

While I was busy making our costumes for Fan X, I chipped a tooth. All of my dental inconveniences happen after office hours on Fridays. Like the time my crown fell off (Milk Duds. Can’t stop, won’t stop), and I had to deal with my exposed tooth nub for the weekend. I couldn’t keep my tongue away from it. My chipped tooth was no different. It happened on a Friday afternoon, and it drove me nuts all weekend. 

I called the dentist’s office right when it opened on Monday morning. They had me come in at 9:00, and I was out of there, good as new, by 9:45. It was amazing! 

I am continually amazed by the dental and medical marvels we have available to us. Over that weekend, while my jagged tooth made me crazy, I kept thinking about how all would be well within a few days. Annoying as it was, it was great to know that it was fixable. I’m so grateful that we don’t have to let our teeth rot to bits and fall out of our faces.

Now I just need my subconscious to get on board with this fact because I always have dreams that my teeth crumble and fall out of my mouth. Where my fellow tooth dreamers at? We are a special sort. According to this article, recurrent teeth dreams occur in 16.2% of sleepers, and 8.2% report having teeth dreams regularly. Shout out to the 8.2% You are my people!

A friend of mine who used to have teeth dreams told me that she had to have a tooth fixed a few years ago, and she hasn’t had teeth dreams since. She believes the experience reset her subconscious because she knows teeth can be repaired (or replaced). 

Even though my little chip was hardly a thing, I’m kind of hoping for the same results. Perhaps, in addition to healing my mouth, my dentist can also heal my mind!

Deep.

In the Bag

The other day I took a break from my household chores and spent a few minutes cleaning out my church bag. When my congregation got divided last month, I had been working as the Young Women secretary. 

Every week my family would take two bags to church; our family bag, which had activities, coloring books, and snacks and my personal bag, which had all of my supplies I needed to serve as a Young Women secretary. That is the bag that I decided to clean out since I am no longer the YW secretary (no calling for me yet in the new ward. I’m absolutely terrified of where I am going to end up. I had my fingers crossed that Scotty and I might get to do something together for a change, but Scotty has been claimed). 

As I cleaned out my bag, I felt quite amused about what I had in there. Some of the things I tote around are very practical; other things are a testament of how fussy and weird I am. For example, I always have whiteboard cleaner in my bag.

I like a nice, clean whiteboard, so I like to have the ability to wipe off stains and freshen them up around the church. There are a lot of things that happen to the church whiteboards that make them dingy. For example, people use chemicals on them that leave a film on the surface and make the markers harder to erase. I’ve seen people use baby wipes and Windex on them. Those are not good for melamine whiteboards. Water and oil from peoples’ hands can also affect the melamine whiteboards. So I usually keep a bottle of cleaner in my bag so I can clean whiteboards.

My new church building, which pre-dates Noah and somehow survived the flood, has mostly chalk boards. I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with that. 

On the more normal side, my church bag had a lot of folders and notebooks in it. As secretary, I was the keeper of all informational things - calendars, lists, agendas, etc. It’s all in the recycle bin now.

But back to my fussy and weird side, I’m probably the only person in my entire ward, nay, my entire stake, who hauls around my own doorstops. It drives me nuts when I need to prop a door open, and I can’t find a doorstop, so I keep some in my bag, and when I need one, I drop it on the floor, and slide it into position with my foot. At that point I consider it a donation because I’m not going to perform the amount of work it takes to bend over and retrieve a doorstop after church. They come in a two pack at the dollar store, and, as you can see, their rubbery texture makes them pick up all the dust from the bottom of my church bag.

But like normal people might opt to do, I keep some lip gloss and hand lotion in my church bag. We mustn’t have dry hands or dry lips at church!

I usually have a stash of cough drops because there’s something about church that just makes you need to cough. The quieter it is, the more you need to cough.

And I have a few whiteboard markers. Even though I can use the church’s, I always like to have a few of my own. That way I know that they aren’t dried out, and then when someone needs one, I can be like, “Hey! I got your back!”

For many years, there have always been smarties somewhere in my bag. Every week at church, our dear Sister Argyle has passed out smarties to the kids. Sometimes my kids eat them right away, but sometimes they stash them in my church bag. Sister Argyle is in the other ward now, so there will be fewer Smarties in my bag.

I can’t be the only one who sometimes needs a flosser or a disposable toothbrush at church! There are always a few in my bag, which comes in very handy when I sit down at church, and one of my stinker kids starts whispering in my ear, and I become aware that they didn’t brush their teeth.

I also usually have gum and/or mints. 

When cleaning out my bag, this is what made me laugh the most! Every Sunday while I’m getting ready for church, I grab a pen or two. I have noticed that our stash of pens and pencils in our kitchen cupboard has been dwindling. I have now found the culprit! There were over 40 pens, pencils, and fine-point Sharpies in there.

It’s me, hi! I’m the problem, it’s me!

Last of all, though this is an incomplete list, I keep a small container of Play-Doh in my bag. I like to have busy hands, and Play-Doh gives me something to fidget with during church besides my phone. I also let my kids play with Play-Doh during church (scandalous, right?)

Next I need to clean out the family bag, but I’m not ready to tackle that mess. I try to clean it out about once a month. 

Do you have anything unusual in your church bag?

(My) Kids These Days

Nicky

-Just finished the golf season and didn’t really enjoy it this year. 

-Was cast as “Windward” in The Little Mermaid at the high school. He’s a seahorse. Can’t wait to see what his costume looks like. Update: I now have his costume in my possession and have been tasked with adding sequins.

-Works two nights a week belaying for rock climbing classes. 

-Is on seminary council and the stake youth council. In other words… is way too busy. 

-Is heading to the Shakespeare competition in Cedar City. He was hoping his scene wouldn’t be chosen for the competition, but it was. 

-Went to homecoming with his friend Regan, and just got asked to Sadie’s. 

-Is participating in all the high school things and having a good time.

-Is trying out for the swim team even though his mom and dad have tried to point out to him that he can’t fit one more thing in.

Daisy

-Just turned 14 on September 14th.

-Is on the junior high dance company again this year.

-Had her choreography chosen for the winter dance concert. She wouldn’t let me help and doesn’t want me to see it until the concert.

-Was moved to a different dance class at the community studio. She’s sad that she’s not with her peers that she’s been dancing with for many years, but she is being challenged more in the new class, so it’s a good change. 

-Is socially awkward and painfully insecure in all the same ways I was at her age.

-Is obsessed with Ken and Draco Malfoy. She keeps a Ken doll in her backpack, and she wears Draco Malfoy earrings and makes everything customizable (like the wallpaper on her phone) into something Malfoy or Slytherin related. 

-Likes to check out all the boys at Lagoon (but acts like that’s not what she’s doing).

-Is having a hard time with the ward boundary change because she got separated from some of her besties.

-Has a very messy room. On Monday I hid this DI find in there, and I’m still waiting for her to discover it!

Zoe

-Is doing Lego League for school, so I take her to school early twice a week.

-Still has big dreams all day everyday. One of her latest things is that she is writing books to donate to her classroom. I warned her teacher in an email at the start of the school year that Zoe would impose a lot of Big Ideas on her. 

-Has been learning about conservation at school and is on a “save the earth” kick. I’m like “How about you do things at home to help the earth? Like turn your closet light off?” But she’s more into breeding endangered animals and starting elaborate “save the earth” clubs. 

-Made her own sock puppets for a presentation at school… about conservation. 

-Wants chicken noodle soup all the time. 

-Sometimes surprises us by coming home from school and doing the dishes on her dish day (Wednesday) without being asked (it depends on her mood and what she wants).

-Is really into flannel right now, and always asks for flannel shirts when we go to DI. 

-Has very explosive emotions.

-Has a very hard time with friendship. She has been through some heartbreaking things. 

Eva

-Wants to be taken to a store everyday and thinks she has unlimited funding to buy anything she wants. 

-Is in an after school program called Tennis & Tutoring.

-Hit benchmark for reading for the first time ever! But is apparently not good at math and is performing at a kindergarten/1st grade level (she is in 3rd), so yippy. 

-Fights with Zoe non-stop.

-Asks for a pet everyday. She promises that she will take care of it, and that we can kill it if we ever want to go on vacation (she's full of solutions).

-Creates a trail of messes everywhere she goes and leaves her stuff all over the house. 

-Always brings stuff home from school and says her friends gave it to her. She’s either a klepto, or she has a sneaky way of getting everyone to give her stuff. 

-Is really funny and incredibly demanding.

-Totes around a skeleton from Dollar Tree and calls him "Grandpa Gary."

Thank Heaven Tomorrow is Pay Day (and ten other random facts)

Fact #1: I'm having a hard time getting going today. I started out with a bang. I've been awake since about 4:30 (typical for me lately), and I lived an entire lifetime before I dropped the final kid off at school. After that, I ran some errands and worked on some projects for the high school. Then at 10:30, I hit my wall, and I've been a vegetable ever since. Well, maybe vegetable isn't the right word for me. I'm more of a Hostess snack. Whatever I am, I'm tired, fluffy, and I'm not moving much. 

Fact #2: I’m so glad that the writers’ strike has come to an end. Now let’s all get back to writing my shows! But don’t get sloppy because you’re in a rush! I’ll wait for your best work.

Fact #3: Every time I blow dry my hair, my watch gives me a noise warning. That’s the only time it ever happens. My kids can scream bloody murder in my ear, and my watch doesn’t care, but the second that air flow hits high, I’m getting a lecture. 

Fact #4: During this time of increasing costs of all things, I am so grateful to McDonald’s for continuing to have my back with the $1 large drink (my apologies to those of you who live in places where McD’s doesn’t have this). Never mind that the former $10 Bundle is now called a Classic Cheeseburger Pack and costs $17.89 (true story). We get dollar Cokes!

Fact #5: The other night I had a dream that the gym rearranged all their equipment, and I was livid! 

Fact #6: I’ve never been to a pumpkin patch. And that’s okay. 

Fact #7: We managed to grow a baker’s dozen pumpkins this year.

We’ve gotten a bit of rain this week

There were probably ten more on the vine that never would have made it to adulthood because they grew so late in the season. I picked the last two today and started pulling the vines out of the garden. I now have tiny cuts all up my arms from the spines. Speaking of which… I got a pumpkin spine in my thumb a few weeks ago. I’m not always diligent about wearing gardening gloves, and I ended up paying dearly for it. My finger ached for days until it forced the spine out. 

Fact #8: Sometimes when a song comes on the radio, my kids start asking questions like, "Mom? What's a honky tonk badonkadonk?" and I have to be prepared with answers like, "It's a buttocks of exceptional quality and bounce seen in a small bar that plays country music."

Fact # 9: I keep a list on my phone of ideas for blog posts, and sometimes I can't remember what I meant by what I wrote. For example, my current list says "Babybel cheese," and I have no idea what I wanted to write about Babybel cheese! I can say this, though: there's a show on BYUtv called Food Factory USA, and there's an episode about Babybel cheese. I was so excited to see how they get the wax on the cheese, and then right at the point in the episode where I should have been privy to such information, they said it's top secret. Why, Babybel? Why can't you show me how you wax your cheese?

My bedtime snack for tonight

(Maybe that's what I wanted to say all along. Glad I didn't waste an entire blog post for that). 

Fact #10: I am having a hard time reading right now. I can’t get into it. I don’t know if it’s me or the books. I just keep quitting book after book. Meanwhile, I’m half listening to The Hunger Games because I don’t have to be 100% focused. 

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears!

At school this year, Nicky is on the competitive theatre team. Every school calls it something different. Ours calls it Play Pro (or Play Productions). This week they are heading to the Shakespeare competition in Cedar City.

When Nicky decided to try out for Play Pro, I reminded him, “You know you’ll have to do Shakespeare, right?” Nicky hates Shakespeare. Heck, so do I. I can handle Shakespeare in small doses… as in one-line. “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” (Richard III, Act V, Scene IV). After that, I zone out. To read Shakespeare or to watch a Shakespearean play would be absolute torture to me! I gave my time in school. I respect the genius of iambic pentameter, but I don’t know what the hell that guy was talking about. 

(You can read about my first experience with Romeo and Juliet here).

I digress…

Nicky decided he would endure Shakespeare to participate in Play Pro, so off to the Festival he goes!

With his position on Play Pro comes a parental responsibility… I am officially a Drama Mama. To cheer the students on this week, I helped some moms decorate the drama lockers.

One of these is Nicky’s, and he told me he doesn’t even know which one is his. Hope he enjoys his Shakespeare decor! My kid refuses to use a locker! And I’m like… but you could keep food in there! And… he has TWO lockers. TWO!! (The other one is for ceramics). So much wasted space!

I wasn’t in charge of the lockers - I just went to help. My assignment was to put together some goodie bags for the students. The competition is for both Play Pro and Dance Co, so they asked me to do a small gift/treat for everyone (47 kids) and a larger break-a-leg gift for Play Pro (21 kids). 

For EVERYONE, I made a little bag with a tag that said, “Shine at Shakespeare like the star you are!”

Please excuse my blurry photos. These were taken at night, and I think my lenses were smudged.

The bags each have some Starbursts, a star bracelet, a finger LED light, and a Shakespeare sticker. 

The stickers are fun because each one is different, and I like how they show through the cellophane star bags like peeping Toms.

For PLAY PRO, I decided to make Shakespeare insult bags. This was so much fun! I read through tons and tons of Shakespearean insults to come up with the ideas (way more Shakespeare than I should ever have to read as a person who graduated high school 21 years ago) (I did it for the kids)!

I initially thought of this because Scotty and I read The Wednesday Wars years ago, and since then, we’ve often called each other “pied ninnies” which comes from Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest and is one of the phrases that tricked Holling Hoodhood into liking Shakespeare. 

Any time I think of Shakespeare, I think of “pied ninnies,” so when I started brainstorming ideas for treats, I couldn’t help pondering the brilliance of giving everyone a tiny pie. But then my plan evolved, and I came up with this:

“Good luck go with thee!” Break a leg & share a Shakespearean insult!

Now before someone lectures me about saying “good luck” to actors, I’M QUOTING SHAKESPEARE! Superstitions don’t apply!

Anyway, here’s what’s in the bags:

“I’ll beat thee, but I would infect my hands!”

(Anti-bacterial hand wipes)

“Like the toad; ugly & venomous”

(gummy frogs)

“This kiss is as comfortless as frozen water to a starved snake!”

(chapstick & kisses)

“Come, come, you froward and unable worms!

(sour gummy worms)

(also, not a typo - the word is “froward.” it means “difficult to deal with).

“The rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended  nostril!”

(tissues)

“That roasted Manningtree ox with pudding in his belly!”

(pudding)

And the final item is a Shakespeare insult sheet:

“You impertinent, fat-kidneyed horn-beast!”

I saw this on Pinterest and recreated it to fit the gift bags. 

As much as I love a pied ninny, I abandoned the pie idea after trying to find an affordable option. Walmart used to have mini pies for 50 cents, but you know how that’s going lately (price increases and fewer flavors available). Pudding was a lot cheaper. 

I had a blast putting these together. I love doing stuff like this. I hope the kids get a kick out of it and expand their vocabularies. 

Currently (General Conference Edition)

Reading:

I’m really struggling with reading right now. I can’t focus, so I keep starting books and giving up.

Sick of: my kids fighting. 

Cooking; scones (as we call them in Utah) or fry bread (as people will correct me). That was our General Conference breakfast. As the scone fryer, I now have a coat of oil on my eyeballs.

Aside: when I was working at our local dairy fresh out of high school, we had “scone season” at Christmas time. I aways felt like my eyeballs were coated in oil from Thanksgiving until Christmas. I probably always smelled like a fryer, too. Scotty probably loved it. 

Suffering from: too much General Conference food (thanks to my mother-in-law, who is a woman of abundance). 

MIL’s food assignment: milk and juice for breakfast, nacho toppings for lunch. 

MIL’s contribution: assigned food + caramel & apples + two Crock Pots of chili (in addition the two kinds of meat my SIL brought) + seven-layer dip + sugar cookies + apple crisp and ice cream + two kind of Oreos + Costco bag of Halloween candy + two Costco boxes of bagged chips.

Annoyed by: my kids sticking stuff in my face all the time.

Wanting: to do a new Christmas tree this year. I’m not sure if I will (because money, and I don’t have a grand idea), but it’s been on my radar lately. I’ve been keeping my eye out for a color scheme or theme that I like. 

Wearing: my Sunday shirt. 

Dreading: fall break. 

Sad about: Nicky being the only kid his age in our new ward.

Embarrassed by: the combination of my baggy eyes and my zits. Am I young or am I old? My face can’t decide. 

Happy about: cooler weather. I still can’t wear pants for a full day (it gets too hot mid-day), but I’m getting closer!

Making:

Daisy and I have been making bracelets while we listen to General Conference. 

Feeling: PMS-y. It’s taken me most of my life to finally recognize it and call it what it is. When everyone is extremely annoying to me for three days straight, and I’m on the brink of running away from my family and living in a cave in the mountains, Aunt Flo’s a-comin’. 

Saying: “Hold on to your butts!” every time I make a left turn from Merry Lane to 35th (IYKYK).

Struggling with: being in large groups of people. 

Listening to: 

I figured I’d listen to the first three books again in anticipation of the new movie coming out next month. It also works well with my brain fog because I know the stories well enough that I can check out for a while and still know what’s going on.

Looking forward to: riding the new rollercoaster at Lagoon. We have an appointment - which is so funny to me. “I’m sorry, I’m not available this evening. I have an appointment.”

Buying: snacks for the theatre kids at the high school for the upcoming Shakespeare competition. 

Smelling: my kids’ burps. Remember how they keep getting in my face? 

Playing:

This one has caused a little bit of contention in my marriage. 

Craving: pizza. 

Worried about: everything at once, and then nothing, and then everything, and then nothing.

Watching: General Conference (45 minutes left).

Trying: to save money because A) I want to go on vacation and B) I’m worried that one (or all) of our cars will poop out on us at any moment. Ask me how it’s going…

Needing: to clean my mother-in-law’s house. My kids and their cousins have trashed the place during Conference. 

Thankful for: shelter.