So, I use Dashboard something or other to track the traffic to my site.

And I got my first Google search.

“jc penney portraits smiles by wire”

Ha.

First, I got a cucumber from our garden this morning. It tasted gross, for the record, so I put it in some vinegar with salt and pepper. Maybe Mike will like them. Maybe they’ll get better as the summer progresses.

El Pepino Solitario

Second, I made pizza last night. I’ve been making my own dough for a while now, but I was reading over at Lindsey’s blog how to perfect the pizza dough and she had some excellent tips. So keeping in line with cleaning out the freezer and pantries, we had hamburger and mushroom pizza. I had a jar of Wal-Mart pizza sauce that I had bought a while back for about $1 or less, we always get our cheese from Sam’s and I break it up into 2 cup baggies and freeze them, I always have flour and yeast and such, so I thought, PIZZA!

Long story short, the pizza was probably the best I’ve ever eaten, and that’s saying something. I love me some pizza. The trick was letting my yeast and water sit for a few minutes and the cornmeal.

CORNMEAL, PEOPLE!! ON THE BOTTOM! ON MY PAN! ON THE CRUST!

Oh. My. Goodness. I will be making pizza again very soon, with pictures! And directions! Yea! Yahoo for pizza!

I might like pizza.

And lastly, we’ve got some friends involved in City on a Hill this week. I’m making a dessert for their dinner tonight, so I thought I’d use it as blog fodder.

Behold, the dessert:

You should click on the video links below. They are worth it.

This is what you’ll need:

It’s helpful to have your butter cut up before you start, to keep things moving. The more you have prepared before you start (i.e. cutting butter, measuring out dry ingredients, etc.) the quicker and more efficient things run.

Berries on the bottom. I personally used 3 cups of Sam’s triple berry frozen blend and 2 cups of fresh strawberries. There weren’t any complaints at dinner!

Here’s how to put on the cobbler topping:

Cobbler Topping

This is what it should look like right before you put it in the oven:

The delicious, bubbling cobbler:

Bubbling Cobbler

In hindsight, I should have turned off the Cars soundtrack.

Enjoy!

I love this time of day. About 1:30 in the afternoon.

I grab some reheated something, or maybe if I’m feeling feisty some Pizza Rolls and a Mountain Dew.

And I sit. I give myself the time that it takes me to eat my lunch to just sit.

I can blog (you know, now that I’m so cool and I have a blog)

I can read blogs

I read people.com (a guilty pleasure)

Really, I can do anything I want as long as it’s not work – like paying bills, researching a recipe.

I enjoy this time. Elsie is down. She’s been putting herself to bed for her nap recently. I have the kids wait until everybody is done eating before they get down from the table, so Elsie has taken the option of just going to bed several times. She heads to the potty, washes her hands and crawls into bed. Two hours later she comes bounding down the stairs saying something like, “Good morning, Mommy. Peez have gummies? Where Peeyer [Peter]?”

Tess goes down at the same time. Although she doesn’t put herself down quite yet, she really isn’t any trouble. The way we do things for Tess around here is when she first wakes up (morning, naps) she gets nursed. Then she plays around until the next meal is ready. She eats with the family, plays for a bit more and then goes down. I don’t rock her to sleep, though I do rock her and sing a sweet song and give her her blankie. Done. Off to Sleepy Town.

I let Pete watch a movie and drink a little bit of something sweet – juice, tea, Sprite – which is a real treat. He’s pretty easy going. He just doesn’t need a nap and it’s more trouble than it’s worth to make him lay down.

Then I sit. For a good 30 minutes. Then it’s back to the field.

A video came out yesterday showing a then-16 year old Canadian, Omar Khadr, being questioned by Canadian Military Officials while being held at Guantanamo Bay prison camp for throwing a hand grenade that killed a U.S. soldier during a fight in Afghanistan in 2002. He was 15 at the time.

In the video, the “boy” was crying for help while he was being interrogated.

His lawyers received the video from U.S. officials at Guantanamo Bay, which until recently was labeled “secret”, then released about 10 minutes from the 7 hour video. I personally watched the 10 minute video at CNN.com.

The boy’s own family has said repeatedly that he has strong al Qaeda ties and sympathies. Look, I know that the boy is probably scared, but I really do think that’s best. If he was “man” enough to be fighting in Afghanistan and killed someone, then shouldn’t he be “man” enough to answer some questions?

Human rights groups, like Amnesty International, has called for his immediate release because he isn’t being treated fairly.

Is it fair that he killed a U.S. Soldier who was trying to make him free?

Since he is a young man, I think that our Intelligence should try to get as much information out of him as they can. I think that he has a life ahead of him that he can turn around. I mean, everyone wants to catch Bin Laden and take down al Qaeda, right?

I’m tired of people’s “rights”. Why does this kid have the right to a plush bed and a warm house and any comfort at all when he chose to fight in a grown up war?

Look, this isn’t going to win any prizes for being a culinary masterpiece, but it tastes good. So there.

This is one of the recipes I submitted for Zion’s new cookbook. You can find more tasty recipes in the church’s cookbook, coming sometime at the end of the summer. Let me know if you need a copy.

Tess is my baby. Sure, we’re planning on having a dozen more or so, but for now, she’s my baby. I still rock her every night, I don’t let water get in her eyes in the tub, I nurse 4 or 5 times a day still.

This morning I “caught” her standing, yes, standing next to a toy I have out for Logan, an 18 month old that I watch a few mornings a week. She was having a blast. She was squealing and laughing out loud with it.

I forgot that she is growing up.

We spent the morning cleaning Elsie’s room, and I found some great toys that I had forgotten about. I thought I’d bring them down for Tess, just in case the teething rattles weren’t doing it for her anymore.

She crawled faster than I’ve ever seen her crawl to those toys. She played with them for a good 20 minutes, which for an 8 month old isn’t too bad.

My baby’s all growed up. Sniff.

I’ve been out of it, for lack of a better phrase, lately. My house always seems to be messy, we never have anyone over, I start each morning feeling more overwhelmed than when I went to bed. I feel like I’ve been in a fog or something.

This week, I’m really starting to feel better. Mike helped and encouraged me this past weekend by telling me that I did a good job at various things. It worked, you know?

I started Monday with a bang. The kitchen and main living areas were spotless when I woke up, and it just jump started my day. It made me feel like I wasn’t drowning. I could actually make some progress in our house.

I know that it’s only been two days, but I feel like I’m on to something here. This morning we cleaned Elsie’s room from top to bottom. Cleared out clothes that were the wrong season (yes, I know it’s July) or too small. Put her toys where they belonged. The throngs of dress up clothes were (probably temporarily) contained. I feel awesome.

Plus, check this out:

I can probably count on one hand how many times that’s happened in the last six months.

Now, on the one hand, I should be doing this stuff all the time, you know, a clean house and what not, but it’s just really, really hard for me. Plus, when you go to other people’s houses it’s usually for a party or something, so they’ve spent extra time cleaning and you feel completely inferior.

Ladies, what say you? Is your house always clean or are you barely keeping underwear in the drawers (wink wink)?

So, every month for the kids’ first year I get their pictures taken. We “invested” $19.99 to become members which gives us a free sheet each time we come in, “Smiles by Wire”, which is a fancy way of saying they send it to your email address, and, of course, free sittings. Their second year we go every 3 months, their third year we go every 6 months, then after that, they go every year on their birthday.

Guess how many months I missed with all three kids? ZERO!! I’ve been to JC Penney Portrait Studios 44 times in 4 1/2 years. Wow. Good news is, they send you nice coupons in the mail, and fancy dancy “coupons by wire” to use as well. Their package is $7.99 which includes just enough pictures to keep the relatives happy. Also, on each envelope of pictures you get back, you can take a survey and get an additional $3 off, and if you take another survey, you get 15% off. Grand total for pictures each month? Priceless, er, I mean, $4.24. Reasonable, huh?

The folks that we had in St. Louis were unbelievably good at taking my kids’ pictures. We had this one lady named Jannelle, and every time she saw us she said “Hi, Peter!” She just knew us and she knew what I wanted.

Now we’re in Lincoln. I don’t like the JC Penney studio here in Lincoln. I’ve had nothing, and I mean NOTHING good come out of the studio in Lincoln. It seems like every month we get pictures I end up saying, um, I guess that one. I’ve actually had to request to not have someone do the kids’ pictures because I have ended up in tears. Who wants to be crying at pictures?! That’s sill, right? You’ve never had the people I had, then.

So last week it was time for Tess’s 8 month pictures. I called in, made sure that so-and-so wasn’t going to be there so I might get some decent pictures. She’s no longer with the studio.

Squeaky wheel gets the oil, I guess.

They were having some promotional day, which basically meant that I had to do Tess’s pictures with a Fourth of July theme. No problem. I love America, God bless her.

Also, JCP is moving up with the times…they no longer have the boxes that you put a dirty rug over and then actually sit your precious, clean-for-pictures baby on top of. The kids sit on the floor and the photographers move with your kids. It’s just like Portrait Innovations (which we love, but you can only get their “special” deal every three months, and although they don’t track it, I would probably have a heart attack trying to pull one over on them) or Picture People (nice pictures, but ridiculously expensive). They were still working out the kinks, like half of our session was lost, but, hey, you get what you pay for, right?

The pictures weren’t too bad. Better than usual, I would say. Tess is at that hard phase where she doesn’t stay still and you can’t really make her stay still so you put her down and she crawls away. Doesn’t make pictures easy.

So we go to order the pictures and they tell me that it’s going to take 15 minutes for the pictures to upload. Fifteen minutes?! They took like 20 pictures, and there was nobody before me or after me. Well, fine. I’ll carry Tess and try to hold Pete and Elsie’s hands and walk around JCP. No stroller, and it’s 12:45. It was a meltdown waiting to happen. We head back about 20 minutes later and they inform me that the pictures haven’t been uploaded because the second batch of pictures got lost. No problem. There were plenty of other ones to choose from. So, we wait. Again.

I peek around the corner to see what in the world is taking so long. I see the girl that’s our photographer basically playing around with JCP’s version of Photo Shop. I’m thinking, “It’s after 1 o’clock. The kids haven’t eaten. I’m only getting the basic package. Come ON!” But on the outside I’m trying to be nice, for the kids’ sake.

25 minutes later, she calls us back. Sister, I only wish I were joking. This is a good 50 minutes after we were done taking pictures. I tell her that the “special” pictures with fancy (ugly) fading and what not look great, but since I come every month I would just like to get the basic package for $7.99. She tells me that since it was a promotion day, the package, which included way fewer pictures, was $29.99. I tell her that I wasn’t aware of that and I wasn’t about to spend $30 on pictures that I don’t even really like and that we’d just reschedule (Mommy hasn’t eaten yet, either, and the kids are fighting. Loud.). She says, oh, then I guess we can give you the $7.99 package.

Little did she know that I was going to get 15% off and an additional $3 off. Tee hee.

But that, my friends, or something very similar, is what happens EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to Penney’s here in Lincoln. The price is right, but I don’t know if it’s worth my sanity!

Enjoy these proofs of Tess’s 8 month pictures.

Can you guess which one I got for the package? Do you see what I mean about the goofy fake Photo Shop images?

On for tonight, Mexican Lasagna. I’ve been going through our pantry and freezer to see what’s lurking in there. Voila! Mexican Lasagna!

First, gather your ingredients:

Mexican Lasagna

• 1 lb. lasagna noodles (you’ll only need 1/2 of this box)
• 2 lbs. ground beef (not pictured because, ew, gross! Who wants to see bloody defrosting meat?!)
• Onion
• 15-ish ounce can black beans, aka FRIJOLES NEGROS
• 4 1/2 cups salsa – use mild, because cooking the salsa somehow makes it hotter
• 8 oz. block cream cheese (because I like to make LOW FAT meals. Ha!)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• Salt
• 1/4 t cumin

Bring water to a boil for noodles and cook for 6 or 7 minutes, drain. Meanwhile, brown beef and onion, drain, return to skillet. Add cream cheese and mix until cream cheese is melted into the meat. Add cumin, more or less to taste. Drain black beans. Layer noodles, meat mixture, beans, 1/3 cheese and 1/3 salsa. Repeat twice. Bake for 30 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes for juices to absorb.

Bring a good amount of salted water to a boil in your large stock pot. While your water is heating up, put your beef and your shopped onion in a skillet and brown. If your meat has been in the freezer for an unknown amount of time, you might want to get it extra brown. Yikes. Boil your lasagna noodles for 6 or 7 minutes. Too much longer and they will be hard to handle for layering purposes.

Get some good help, if you can find it!








Drain meat and onions, return to skillet. Add cream cheese and mix until cream cheese is melted into the meat. Add cumin, more or less to taste. It should look like this:



Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add about 1/8 c oil to noodles, which prevents noodles from sticking together, then stir, drain and rinse. Set aside to cool.

Drain black beans.

Layer three-ish noodles, 1/3 of meat,



1/3 of beans, 1/2 c cheese,



and 1 1/2 cups of salsa.



Repeat twice, throwing the rest of the cheddar cheese on, because at this point, will an extra cup of cheese really make that much of a difference?



Bake for about 30 minutes in the preheated 350 degree oven. Do your (gulp) dishes from cooking. Have your kids clean off the table and freshen up for your husband’s arrival!



Let lasagna sit for about 10 minutes to let the liquid absorb.



DISCLAIMER: Do as I say, not as I do.

Our next door neighbor had their daughter’s 4th birthday party at the Spray Grounds at Woods Park Pool this morning. The whole thing is fenced in and no more than 6 inches deep. Plus, it was 79 degrees on our way there at 10:15 on only 86 when we got done at noon. It was just so much fun!

This is Tess right after she got a big splash in the face. She crawled all over the pool!

Guess how many times the lifeguards told Pete to walk?

Elsie down the yellow slide.

This was really the first time Tess enjoyed being at the pool.

Pete down the yellow slide

Elsie “swimming”.

Tess with her goofy two-toothed grin.

Pete fighting with the sprinkler. He punches everything these days.

Elsie down the green slide.

Look at my strong man. This kid’s got some muscles.

Elsie’s shadow.

Pete’s ball that he had been playing with landed under the water bubble. If you know Pete at all you know that he just hates to get his face wet. Problem. But he did it! I was so proud.

Finally his little sister held her hand over the top of water so it stopped in a large enough area for Pete to get underneath.

End of the day. What a fun time. Plus, Mommy got a suntan.