My Blaaaaaaaahg Wish List

1. Cool pictures and thingys on the right. (Martha - ya gotta clue me in a little)
   
2. Really obvious and easy formatting tools for posts. (How come Landee's looks so good?)
   
3. More than 8 fonts to choose from. What the....? (Come on...really??? 8?!?)
   
4. Courage to post the things I write. Too many I've written that end up in the crapper. (I tend to write things as they blow in with the emotional state at the time and usually decide 2/3 of the way through that they're dumb)
5. A personalized, one-on-one tutorial. (I know I'm brighter than this....geez!)

Recipe of the Week

I think I'd like to have at least one recipe per week posted for you. I LOVE to cook. I LOVE to bake. I really enjoy finding difficult things to make. Food Network is awesome. I also enjoy fabulous kitchen gadgets. I'm pleased to say that my influence convinced Landee to get a new pizza cutter. Congrats Landee. I hope you love it. Now, I don't always cook. In fact, I've been in a down slump for several weeks. Hopefully doing this weekly post will help to motivate me to start cooking more again. In the meantime, I have quite a few recipes hiding in my box that I know you would love. Feel free to share if you have one also, and always let me know what you think if you try something out.

I got this from my Mom. I haven't tried it yet. I will, however, be making it for my Beehives this coming Sunday.

Pudding Brownies

1 Family size pkg brownies, baked according to the 'cake-like' instructions
2 pkg Dreamwhip
1 pkg instant pudding
2 1/4 c milk
Cool Whip

Bake brownies to come out 'cake-like.' Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temp. In a bowl, combine the Dreamwhip and the instant pudding. Add the milk and whip until smooth and thick. Pour over the top of the brownies. Refridgerate until set. Before serving, spread Coolwhip on the top. Heaven!

Martha's Crazy 8's

Saw this on Martha's blog, who saw it on Jamaica's. So I'm throwing one out there too. Thanks Martha!

8 Favorite Shows (in no particular order)

1. LOST
2. Heroes
3. American Idol
4. Grey's Anatomy
5. Good Eats
6. Bizarre Foods
7. Diner's, Drive-Ins and Dives
8. Spongebob

8 Things I Did Yesterday

1. Dr. appointment for one of the boys
2. Ate lunch at Twisters
3. Hobby Lobby
4. Tiffany's House
5. Picked up a key at Wrought'n Apples
6. Made cute handouts for my Beehives
7. Took kids to piano lessons
8. Papa Murphy's for dinner

8 of My Favorite Restaurants (plus 1 because I had to)

1. Michael Mina
   
2. Alize
   
3. Bouchon
   
4. Del Frisco's
   
5. California Cafe
   
6. Texas Roadhouse
   
7. Cheesecake Factory (mostly for the cheesecake)
8. Mt. Fuji Southlands
   
9. Sushi (currently Yutaka in Parker)

8 Things on my Wish List

1. Same hair, same hair girl, less money
2. Instant 20 lbs gone
3. Mary Poppins to teach Will's 3rd grade
4. More alone time with my husband
5. More time with my friends
6. More time with my sisters and mom
7. Shoes, purses, shoes, purses, shoes...
8. MAC and Benefit makeup - Neat dangly earrings and Brighton bracelets

Tag! You're It!

Colin's Testing

Today, Colin and I went to see a child psychologist who specializes in determining educational needs. Colin is a very smart boy who seems to struggle quite a bit socially and emotionally. Our pediatrician recommended that we have him tested by this woman and spoke very highly of her.

First Test: She gave Colin a drawing and asked him to copy it. No tracing or anything, just drawing the same thing on a separate sheet of paper. She was very impressed with his drawing, for a 7 yr old, she said, 'that is very good.'

Second Test: She put a very cryptic looking machine on the table. It had a red light, a green light, a number display (with three spaces) and a blue button. The blue button reminded me of a buzzer on a game show - except that it didn't buzz. With the first test, Colin needed to press the blue button. It would give him a point, shown by the red light glowing and the score visible on the number readout. The catch - if he didn't wait long enough between pushes, he wouldn't get a point. The green light only comes on when the test is complete. The all time high for her 7 year olds was 38. Colin scored a 37. (maybe this was to test for impulsiveness? To start, Colin kept pushing and pushing and pushing the button - then finally got the hang of it and did much better until the end)

Third Test: Same machine. This time, in the center space, numbers flashed randomly. Colin had to watch and press the blue button only when he saw a '1' followed by a '9.' He scored 41 points out of a possible 45.

Fourth Test: Same machine. Same numbers, except that now they are flashing in all three spaces. He has to wait until he sees the '1' and then the '9' consecutively, but only in the center space. The numbers were flashing pretty quickly. Colin scored 35 of 40. She said that typically, her 7 yr olds miss about 20.

Fifth Test: She gave Colin a clean sheet of paper and reminded him about the picture that he copied. She asked him to draw it again...just what he could remember. He didn't get to see it again and she told him not to worry too much because she hadn't told him that he needed to remember it. He drew for a little while. Got quite a bit of it, actually.

Unfortunately, I have to wait until next Saturday to find out the results of the testing. I'm very anxious to hear what she finds. It was SO fascinating. I'll keep you posted!!!

Happy Saturday!

Coraline

I took the kids to see Coraline today. I thought it would be a fun Friday afternoon activity. I surprised the boys at school, picking them up about 20 minutes before their day was over. We went right to the theater, got popcorn and snacks...Icee's even. It was awesome.

We own The Nightmare Before Christmas, after all. We love that movie. Pumpkin Jack is a legend in our house. The Corpse Bride was a little odd and I wasn't very thrilled with it. We still haven't seen Monster House. And, Egor was just plain stupid. Don't bother. Still, I decided to give Coraline a chance. It wasn't the 3D version. I was bummed at first. Only at first. At some point during the movie I was very relieved that we weren't watching it in 3D. I'll tell you about that in a minute.

It should have been a clue when Landee texted me and said "I heard Coraline is a skosh freaky." I was a little too busy marveling at yet another example of Landee's fabulous way of describing things to pay too much attention to what she was really saying. I'd already purchased the tickets anyway. Then later, as I was getting ready to leave the house, my sister said that my other sister said that it had some weird stuff in it. She warned me about a particular scene and I was watching out for it.

For a little background, Coraline lives in a very old house with her parents who pay absolutely no attention to her and are always telling her to go away because they're busy. She finds a little door that goes into another world where there's another set of parents who love her and make her good food, blah, blah, blah. In this other world she visits the 'other' neighbors and stuff too. One set of neighbors are these two old ladies. In their house there are posters of them when they were younger. Beautiful, not wearing very much. I couldn't tell what the posters were. Circus performers? Dancing girls? Whatever.

The problem came when Coraline went to visit the old ladies in the 'other' world. They're in a theater doing some kind of show. And ---- nearly naked. Oh yes. Old, VERY LARGE 'girls' and nearly naked. Are you kidding me? The first lady is in a mermaid costume. She has some sort of a bustiee and there are a few rolls showing underneath. Phew, I thought. If that's the dancing part I'd been warned about...I can handle that. Nope. That wasn't it. The curtains part and here comes the second old lady. She has the biggest 'girls' I've ever seen on an animated character (or even real person, for that matter). She's wearing, ahem, a small bikini bottom and blue flowery pasties. PASTIES!!!!! No bra. No jacket. No nothing!!!!! Just PASTIES!!!! Is this a kids movie? What the HECK is going on? Could you imagine those large 'girls' with only pasties on them in 3D!?!?!?!?

After that scene, I wasn't really that impressed with the movie anymore. Just waiting for it to be over. My kids liked it. But, I think what they liked more was getting to go to a movie and having popcorn for dinner.

Don't go see it. Don't rent it. Don't buy it. And to those who made the movie? FOR SHAME!!!!! Those stinkin' movie people.

......gag...........


http://z.about.com/d/movies/1/0/S/S/S/coralinepic5.jpg

Getting Started

Just for the record...I do not like the word 'Blog.' Never have. What is that? I know it's very old-personish for me to dislike these new terms that appear all the time, attached to the techno surge we're all living in. However, my friend Landee has the FUNNIEST blog I've ever seen. So, here I am, trying to create my own.

Blog. How did they come up with that one? Log...yes. I can see that. Blob? Blah? Blah-log? Whatever. Log isn't a good word sometimes. Neither is blob. You see what I mean? I just don't like that word. I don't like the word Loiter, either. Do I even have to go into that one? Say it ten times and tell me what you think. I recently said something on my FB about the candy Nik-L-Nip. What the...? Why does that make me feel like someone is pulling a dirty word over on me and getting away with it?

I'm beginning to feel like I'm in way over my head. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Welcome. Hope I can think of some interesting things to write about.