Dear Fall...

Hello, you. Can I just say how much I enjoy your autumn-y goodness?
I love your soups...
Your pumpkin bagels from Einsteins...
Your allowing me to have my windows open all day and sleep under my blanket again at night...
That I get to buy sweaters for TWO people now. And I L.O.V.E sweaters...
That I am only 3 short weeks away from my favorite production of the year, Thriller...
So, pretty much your overall delightfulness...

Now, when the time comes, if you can just tell your pesky friend Winter to get lost, you and I will be best friends for life. Promise.

Love, Juliana

P.S. If you could not tell Summer we had this talk, that would be awesome. Thanks!

Fair-y Educational

A few things I learned at our recent trip to the Utah State Fair:

1. I no longer have a baby. I have a little boy. Look at all those teeth!
2. The state fair has it's very own vegetable freak show, which happened to be my favorite event. Check out this freak pear!

3. Sheep STINK! So do all the other animals, but not as bad. Farm animals are not my favorite...

4. Holden was inspired by the poultry building, and actually let me capture his duck face on camera...Wait, are ducks poultry?

5. 4H kids are WAY more talented and crafty than me...and also grow way better tomatoes.

6. Reo LOVES bears on scooters.

7. and funnel cake. 8. They re-use the butter for the butter cow every year...Economical? Yes. Less wasteful? Also yes. Really, REALLY gross? Totally.

9. For some reason I am not quite sure of, fanny pack vendors were out in FORCE at the fair. So if you are in need of a fanny pack update (and who isn't?) the fair is your place to be!

10. My camera does not like deep fried pickles or giant pumpkins...It broke while taking pictures of both of these things..

11. Because my camera broke, I didn't get to take nearly enough pictures of crazy fair people. But if you use your imagination, and then multiply the number of sleeveless man-vests and fun shaped belt buckles by about 12, you should have a pretty good idea.

Hope you enjoyed your lesson in Fair-ness!

1 + 1 = Almost One!

Holden is now 11 months old. In his 11 months on this planet, he has developed some personality quirks that I have deemed worth sharing...Sorry if you disagree.

ONE... In the last couple of months, pictures taken of Holden have decreased from about 14 thousand per month to only about 7 or 8 thousand per month. The reason behind this? When you try to take a picture of him lately, all you will get is an action shot. He cannot be bothered with cameras anymore.

TWO... Unlike the majority of babies, he despises riding in the car. Especially if he is forced to ride in said car for a long time (which for him is anything longer than 10 minutes). The only thing that makes him slightly less angry about being in the car is when you sing to him. Therefore, on long car trips, Old MacDonald has had some pretty interesting animals on his farm. My children's song repertoire needs some work.

THREE... He especially hates having visitors in the backseat of the car with him. That is his domain, and his domain only.

FOUR... Holden only recently learned how to clap (later than most babies). This is because up until a few weeks ago, when you would clap for him, he would get so excited about the praise that he would break out into "spirit fingers."

FIVE... Holden will not hold his own bottle. He CAN hold it, he is fully capable of this task, he would just much rather have you hold his bottle for him, in order to allow him to leave his hands free to rest behind his head, hang down by his sides, or otherwise just leave his options open.

SIX... Oddly, this relaxed attitude does not transfer over to eating at his high chair. There, he cannot be bothered with you feeding him anything, even things that are meant to be eaten with a spoon (ie, oatmeal, pureed macaroni and cheese, etc). Just plop it on his high chair and he will do his best to ensure some gets in his mouth, thank you very much!

SEVEN... Good news: Holden has said his first word! Bad News: He is his mother's child, and that first word was "Oww!" Unfortunately, he has inherited my clumsy gene. There is a possibility he is bitter about inheriting this gene, as the only other word he can say is "Da-Da."

Do Over

1 generous donation of peaches

+1 pre-made frozen pie crust

=
1 (kinda) good looking pie!

AND it did not taste one bit like burned graham crackers. Success!

Pie in the Sky

I am not a huge fan of pie in general. The one exception to this is pie that involves fresh fruit. So, after obtaining some peaches, I went to work to make a fresh peach pie. Specifically, this peach pie, from tastykitchen.com. It got 5 hot mitts (the highest of all honors), so being the trusting individual I am, I got out all the ingredients and got to work.

However, being the domestically challenged individual I am, it took me an embarrassing amount of time to notice that this "crust" did not call for the typical pie crust ingredients. But, not being a huge fan of pie crust, I was not alarmed. A little curious, perhaps, as the crust I was making seemed to resemble more of a meringue than a crust. Then a little bored, because even in my KitchenAid, getting my egg whites to form "soft peaks" took FOREVER!

This is what my crust looked like before hitting the oven for 50 to 55 minutes.

Odd, right? And this is what it looked like when it came out.

At this point I am a more than a little skeptical about what this pie will taste like. But I pressed on.
Now, I am much less skeptical, because I just added the two best parts of a pie, the filling and whipped cream.
I summoned Reo and we tasted the pie. We give it an overwhelming...Ehh...It wasn't horrible. I am not sold on the crust, but it wasn't a total disaster. Tasted a little like...slightly burned graham cracker maybe?

So, what do you think? Is a meringue-type crust a common baking technique that I couldn't wrap my non-baker little head around? Did I completely mess up some step along the way? Don't be shy, help a domestically challenged gal out!

Also, if you make this pie (which why wouldn't you, after the rave review I gave) it calls for WAY too much cinnamon. FYI.

Happy Tuesday!

Umm, Passive-Aggressive Much?

Holden and I were leaving our condo on a little excursion yesterday when something caught my attention.

Sorry, independent copy store owner-man next door. Your grassy parkstrip patch has apparently decided to protest your lack of upkeep. I guess you would prefer a sign to having the weeds start to take over your store and try to strangle you a la "Little Shop Of Horrors."

Might I add that the only neighbors this grassy knoll has is a certain (somewhat ghetto) condo complex, home to Crazy Russian Lady and The Curtain Nazis. Coincidence? I'm just sayin'...

A Mary, Mary Finale

See HERE and HERE if you need a Mary, Mary refresher course.

Bad news.
My "tomatoes" were diagnosed (by me) with Failure to Thrive.

Each day I nursed those plants with water and love. And I fully intended to use the tomato fertilizer I bought, but it looked kind of messy, and messy = overwhelming to my brain. But you only use fertilizer if you want giant State Fair sized tomatoes, right?

Day after day, I went out to check my little plant's progress. Day after day they looked the same. I would count 16 sprouts, about 3 inches long. The first week, this was exciting. The second, slightly frustrating. By the third week of this, I decided some "tough love" was in order, so I stopped watering them. I mean, at this rate, I wasn't going to end up with tomatoes until February!

On the 4th week, I put them to sleep.


Pray for me when the Apocalypse comes. I don't think I could be self sustaining if my life depended on it.