Month: October 2009 (Page 2 of 2)

It’s my sweetie’s birthday today. And to Ryan, I’d like to say:

You’re looking old, dear. Much older than your younger wife. What are you, now, 42? Yep, that’s pretty old. What? I’ll be that old soon? Well, you’ll still be older.

Love you!

You can never tell what those kids are going to like. The other night, we faced yet one more in an endless string of “what’s for dinner?” nights, and I thought, “tater tot casserole”. As I thought about it more, I realized that I did indeed have tater tots, but since the great freezer thaw of ’09, I didn’t have any ground beef in the freezer. I did, however, have chicken, and it was already cooked and ready to be used. So, in about 2 minutes, I threw together our dinner.

–shredded chicken,
–one can of cream of mushroom soup
–one can of french cut green beans (also kind of an improvisation, as I usually use regular cut green beans, not french cut, but oh, well, that’s what I had on hand)
–1/2 a bag of tater tots

That’s all folks. Then I put it in the oven for about 30 minutes and declared dinner done.

As we sat down at the table, I was dreading the whole experience. Hubby was was not going to be home for dinner, as he was helping my parents with some sort of cable issue, so I had no back up. It’s just me trying to wrangle these 5 kids and make them eat dinner, which I knew would be fraught with complaints.

I set out the dinner, which was said tater tot casserole and some other stuff (stuff like salad and grapes, maybe some carrots for good measure). “What’s that?” one of them asked.
“Tater tot casserole!” another one said with joy.

They SNARFED that casserole down. They even asked, “Do we have to save some for Dad, or can we eat the rest?” I was in shock. I mean, I hadn’t even made it right, using chicken (which is practically a swear word to one daughter), and they still loved it. Apparently, tater tots make everything better. They raved about this casserole, eating every last bite of it (well, except for John, who when I asked if he had tasted it, said, “I tasted it once before, and I don’t like it.” It wasn’t worth the battle, so I just let him eat his apples instead).

So, every one in a while I hit one out of the park. Even without trying.
And while we’d probably NEVER hear Martha saying this, I’m going to quote her anyway..

“Tater tot casserole. It’s a good thing.”

You want to know what love is? This post by Amy took my breath away, and made me cry. She really puts into words her extremely personal feelings about her late husband.

I hope I can appreciate and cherish my family, and especially my dear husband now, and this post reminds me that I need to express my love to them more often. I hope to do better at that.
Thank you to my husband, who puts up with my crazy life. I mean, really, he should have known when he married me that I wasn’t going to be content to just sit home and clean all the time. But he’s gone along with my silly plans to go off and do things, my obsession with winning things, and my creative ideas for family fun. He holds down the fort while I pursue my fantasy of being on stage, and supports me in all things bell choir related. He is sweet with the kids, patient and loving when needed, but tough when he has to be. He even dressed up in a Darth Mall Costume and let 9 crazy 5 year olds take him down. He supports our family without complaining, which is a quality that not every husband has. He lets me make my own choices and would support me in almost anything I decided to do. No, he’s not the greatest help when it comes to housework, but I guess I can live with that. He loves me unconditionally, and he loves the kids as much as any father I know. He can fix just about anything, except maybe the neighbor’s computer, which he’s been working on for about a week, now. And that laptop that he was going to fix and give me for mother’s day. *ahem* He knows all kinds of useless trivia, but at least he knows it. If I were on a game show, he would most likely be my “phone-a-friend”. Because he really is smart. He honors his priesthood and faithfully fulfills his callings both as a ward clerk and nursery leader, and he loves it when the little kids call him “Daddy.”

My tribute may not be as good as Amy’s but there is no shortage of love there. Ryan, You da Man, and I love you!

I got into my car today only to be met with a nasty smell. It only takes one water bottle spill or someone to leave a wet towel in the car to give the car that mildewy smell. I couldn’t find any fabreeze, so I grabbed a can of air freshener and started spraying. It didn’t seem to help.

I felt like I was in that one Seinfeld episode where the valet transfers his BO to the car.

I had to go somewhere, so I quickly pulled out the offending floor mat (yes, it was a leaky water bottle–I knew it!) and left the windows open just a crack for the rest of the day. Yes, it was about 48 degrees and I’m driving with my windows open, but you do what you gotta do.