Portioning

I'm going to Texas for Thanksgiving to soak in my sisters hottub!

Oh yes, and see her family and eat turkey.

So I will leave you with this one pressing question. The other day I made pot pie... a full 9X13 panful.

(Yes, it may not be pretty, but it tastes good. I just make a cream of soup with lots of vegitables and stick it between some pie dough.) (It reminds me when we ate out after Jenny's wedding at a REAL resturant (I think it was Marie Calenders... I didn't get out much) and I saw they had pot pie on the menu. POT PIE?!? Those little frozen things all my friends got and I NEVER got? I was so excited. I remember asking if it would be OK if I ordered it.... It didn't come in the little tinfoil pie pan. It was in a big white ceramic bowl with the pie dough spilling off the side. Ya, pretty disappointing.)

So here is the question. Why do I make that much when my freezer looks like this?
There are 13 ready to eat meals right there. You can't even see the peroskies piled behind the containers... or the containers full of stack-up sauce, spagetti sauce, and soup stock.

And how many servings is a 9X13 pan of pot pie? 12-14. That means I have to eat pot pie for lunch and dinner straight for one week or freeze half of it.

I need to learn portioning.

An Oratorio

Many of you are wondering where I've been.

No really, I've been gone.

I've been sick and this is the first time I've gotten on my computer at home since I went up to Provo this weekend. I tried to stay home from work to get better but there is so much to do that I couldn't do it for long. Then I was so tuckered out when I came home that I would just go straight to bed.

But enough of that, lets talk about fun things! I went to Provo to watch Angela's concert! I may have been ill, but I did have fun hanging with Emily! I'll blog about that some more later. Lets talk about the concert. Every 2 years Ricks College (they may have changed the name but it's my blog and I can call it what ever I want) commissions sacred music in the form of an Oratorio. They always perform it in Salt Lake City at the tabernacle and since Angela was a part of the orchestra, I drove up.

Emily and I met Angela for dinner at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building to keep up tradition. When Bethanie was on the tour we did the same and when Jenny came with her singing group we ate up there too. Of course, we take our sisters to the Garden Cafe, not that other expensive steak place.

We enjoyed our meal. (Don't go for the fried pickles, they aren't worth it)

Angela was somewhat stressed going out with us because this year they had everything planned out including dinner. She even mentioned maybe getting an F in her class (I told her they probably just wouldn't take her back to Rexburg on the bus). Her friends snuck up on her while we were sitting in the lobby after texting her that she "was so caught". They got her pretty good cuz she was really worried!
Then we dropped Angela off at the back of the tabernacle (Emily and some choir boy hoisted her down the stairs cuz I was too sick to help....).

Of course they wouldn't let us take a camera into the tabernacle, but we had our phones!
Can you see Angela getting ready on stage? We had a pretty good view, wouldn't u say?


Oh, and there she is bowing at the end. Do you see her up there?

If you look close you can see her wheel and maybe some red hair. Emily wanted to go up in the balcony, but I thought it would be better on the floor. Unfortunately all the good seats on the floor were saved for some high faluting music folks. Hello, we paid just as much to see the show as they did! (tickets were free)

Here's a better picture of her. We walked out with her and then waved as she got on the bus after the concert. And everyone on the bus waved back. Everyone we passed seemed to know Angela. I guess a girl in a wheelchair is pretty distinctive :-)

It was a fun evening and I'm glad we got to see Angela, although it wasn't for very long. The music was very good as well and it only lasted an hour. Just enough time to enjoy it without getting overdone. Emily pointed out that the 2 hymn arrangements added some familiarity to it as well.

And on a final note.. Emily showed me how to take video on my camera.
l
Here's what she I missed at the end cuz apparently I can only record 30 seconds on my phone. I told her I would splice them together on my computer but I'm too lazy.. I mean, ill.
Isn't video fun when it isn't of you?

Gifts

So.. One of my favorite things about crocheting is the oportunity to give it away to grateful friends and family.

OK... Well... Truth be told, my favorite thing is people telling me how wonderful I am for making them something.

Therefore, I was thinking the other day my little sister needed some lovin'. Besides, I wanted to crochet little socks out of yarn and my little sister has little feet. PERFECT.

I crocheted them. (Isn't it awesome how I can always get them to come out the same size? Yes.. that's pretty awesome, though I do say it myself)

Then put the label in so she will always remember what a wonderful sister she has (Bethanie's kids think the sun is a squished spider),

And sent them off to my dear little Angela.

You know what my favorite FAVORITE thing about giving away my crocheted items? The thank you note/phone call!

Ah hem. Waiting.

My Plaque

For Kokopelli, they sent me home with instructions to go to a web site and order my plaque.

Remember that I got third in the fat ladies under 39 division?

This is why I stay fat. So I can actually win something.

And you thought it was just cuz I like food.

Well.. it came! They let me upload any picture I wanted. Thank you Melissa for being our photographer. I'm really sad that we didn't get one of ALL of us, and I hope you are not offended that U are not in the picture, but I wanted something other than their "stock" photo.

Who wants a picture of chicken stock on their winning plaque? Not me.

Here it is.... sitting on my brown carpet. I zoomed in cuz I was too lazy to bend down and pick it up.
It looks more like a picture I should hang up on the wall than a winning plaque, but you should never look a gift horse in the mouth. No complaining cuz I WON (third place)!

Plus, it was free! (well... minus the 95 bucks I paid to race :-)

A Very Spooky Guy

A few Halloween's ago, my friend Mauvia sent me this green singing Hamster.

It makes me happy.

During the Halloween season (and after), it sits on the kitchen table and every time I pass it, I push the button and rock out.

I'm a very spooky guy!

The kind you don't take home to Mother!

Unfortunately, Spree has taken a strong dislike to the thing. He hisses, he screeches, he flaps his wings and flies away.

I admit.. sometimes I tease him with it.

Poor Spree.

But for some reason, he isn't afraid of the vacuum. In fact, he'll sometimes even go after it if it's doing something he doesn't like.

Like... sucking up dirt. I have to put him in his cage so he doesn't get sucked up too.
I'd take a picture of him vs. the vacuum, but my vacuum is in the shop. Apparently a hundred dollar vacuum can't survive vacuuming up the edge of a blanket.

The blanket didn't survive either.

Listen to Spree complaining in the background. "I'm a Super Freak! Super Freak!"
If I was a little bird, I'd think a huge sucking vacuum would be much scarier than a little green singing hamster.

Maybe he was traumatized as a baby by a green hamster.

HALLOWEEN!

I know you are all just dying to know how my huge sewing project turned out, those of you who knew I had a huge sewing project. The rest of you are... well... anyway, here you are! (Movie Quote.. kinda)

I have to preface this post with the fact that Bethanie is the one that came up with the ideas for the Trunk-Or-Treat. I had nothing.... I told her I had a dress and a tea set and she ran with it. If you ever need ideas, ask Bethanie. I couldn't do the Columns and Lions, but the rest of her ideas were pretty good.

Bethanie suggested I take my tea set (a couple pictures were taken today),
and I remembered I had my cool lamp and doilies,and set up on a chair and table for tea. (In my naivete, I though I could go out Saturday to Walmart and get an ornate patio set but apparently they are out of season. IN VEGAS? Also, furniture is expensive. Just FYI. )

She had many suggestions for what to put behind me, but I settled for an ornate picture and flowers (I wanted a BIG SPRAY of those artistic branches, weeds, and grasses behind me but... well.. apparently I have NO concept of price). I was going to be working on embroidery, but in the haste to get out to the car I had put the hoop somewhere and I didn't find it until this morning (on top of the cookie jar).
Do you like my table cloth? It's my half finished alter cloth from about 4 years ago. I'll finish it eventually.

And then, there was the dress... (ignore the hair... no time)It turned out much better than I thought. My shawl looks nice too, huh? Too bad I put beads on it and now I very much dislike the little clicking sounds they makes.

Here is the problem with a train though. At least its washable.

Most of my time was actually spent on the underdress. I took a picture of it using my timer where the view is weird and... well.. here it is. (Ignore the pile of finished projects to the side. I have WAY too much free time and don't know what to do with a bunch of baby outfits and blankets)I look rather large. The outer material is shear so for the bodice I actually had 3 pieces of material to work with. Even so, you can still see the line of my petticoat under it at the neckline.

The dress was a little tight and I didn't have time to put in all the hooks down the back (which I wouldn't have been able to do up myself anyways. Do you know how hard it is to do up a dress like that BY YOURSELF?)...
Hence why I wore the overcoat. I had a better picture of it gaping in the back but then it was a little...

Be glad I didn't put the picture in.

And I didn't have time to hem the bottom shear material or the lining.
You didn't even notice that in the trunk or treat pictures did you? Ha... that's what I thought.

Then, as long as I was undressing and taking pictures... here is my petticoat.
Had you worried for a sec, didn't I? I thought u'd rather hear than see my testimony.

And here is the back. I know you've seen the bottom of this before. The skirt of the petticoat is a little more period correct than my costume. The pattern I was using didn't have any pleating/gathering in the back and I didn't notice until I put the skirt onto the bodice.

Sometimes my middle name is more of a reminder.

The underdress would probably fit better with gathering in the back which is why I didn't worry too much when the bodice was a bit tight. I did add material to put two pleats in the back of the overcoat, but had thought I had added enough material to make more. Well it is just a costume. The sleeves are WAY too big to be period and the train is so NOT.

Not that I know these things.

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! I love a chance to dress up. I just hope my ward doesn't think I am even more socially unacceptable than they already know me to be.

PS. I ran out of my chocolate (Reese's) candy in the first fifteen minutes (I had bought over 150 pieces) that I started giving out ONE smarty each. Then I went to Smiths afterwards and got myself more. Now I'm having my own after Halloween party.

PPS. I'm a little worried about next year. This year was SO MUCH better than last year but I don't know if I can top this one. Although I did see a lady at Smiths dressed up as Willie Wonka (complete with goggles and top hat). Ah.. the possibilities.