Jenn's Pen

We survived the eight hour trip home for Thanksgiving.  The car ride is always entertaining.  Sometime after five hours we all get a little loopy.  Rob, of course, teases relentlessly to stave off boredom.  This trip was no different.  As we came upon Dead Man's Pass, the fog closed in.  We were enveloped in a dense blanket of white that blocked out sight and sound.  It was eerily beautiful. . .and apparently inspiring.

Do you remember the movie Baby Boom?  Where Diane Keaton, powerful New York business woman, inherits a baby girl against her will, which results in her losing her job and moving to a cottage in Vermont. Of course its quaint.  Of course there is a love interest--a local vet.  And of course she makes a success selling homemade baby food from her apple trees and lives happily ever after.  

I am off to have a fun weekend, but for those of you are interested in hearing more from me I will be guest blogging today over at Blogging Around the World.  It's a fun site that links blogs by state and "flies" around introducing us to each other and where we live in.  Feel free to join me.

Prompt of choice:  1.) Write a haiku about what you see out the window.

My Bigsby is a night owl.  Every night we get numerous visits from her with all sorts of things she needs to "tell" us.  It gets frustrating.  So in an attempt to keep her off guard we are always coming up with strange ways to get her to go back to bed.  Sometime Rob growls, which worked for a while.  Sometimes I threaten to tickle torture her.  Sometimes Rob pretends to call, Santa, the tooth fairy, the easter bunny, the candy man (which ever holds more sway that day--you get the idea) to tell them  Sig has been naughty and shouldn't get . . .whatever they come bearing.  

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . .

The girls thought it was a great idea for them to get their own, separate birthday parties this year, but seriously, you try throwing two parties the week after pulling off a night of Young Women in Excellence AND making two Halloween costumes.

 It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. . .

Following my last comment, it nearly goes without saying that while the girls are indeed getting smarter, clearly I am regressing. But I got smart quick enough to buy their cakes instead of making them.

It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, 

Hannah fully believes, and expects a party every year--she has had one every year since she turned two, but Signe has never had one.  You should have seen the look of sheer incredulity and pleasure on her face when she awoke to a house decorated just for her and a house full of cousins to share it with.

It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness. . .

Light shone from Sig’s eyes when she opened her very own “American Girl” doll. (Does she really need to know it was actually a Madame Alexander doll that while looking exactly the same only cost a third the price? I think not.) 

And of course Hannah was the star during the High School Musical Karaoke fest we had before. . .

. . . we entered the dark theater for a night out watching High School Musical 3 (And posing with Elvis and

 Marilyn)

It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. . . 

They both hoped it would last longer, and both despaired when their day of glory came to and end.

We had everything before us, we had nothing before us. . .

Now looking at my house I certainly have everything before me. . .again.  Meanwhile, Marilyn’s got nothing on Signe. . .and Hannah hears nothing before her--now that she has her new iPod to block us all out!

We were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--

The girls were in heaven. . .I’ll just leave it at that.

In short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Ummm. . .there were lots of presents. . .and noise. . .and present comparing.  That’s the same right?! It was definitely a period of parties. Sig went to two over the weekend, then we had hers and then we had Hannah’s.  

In short, everyone had a good time.  

In an attempt to be more organized--and to make finding my favorite recipes easier--I have launched a recipe site where I will post my recipes from now on.  All the recipes I have previously posted now reside at A Taste of Jenn's Kitchen.  So if you get a hankering for Turkey Tortilla Soup, like I did last night, or perhaps a little Apple Blueberry Crumble, you can find them at:

The Lady of the Masquerade