A Pocket Full of Tools

"I'm pretending my underwear is my pocket." Ian announced this afternoon.

Note that he's driving with his phone in his pocket.

And for good measure, here's Molly's new trick. Standing up. And playing with Ian's tools while he's asleep as he doesn't share them very well when he's awake.

Noah's favorite part about the store.....

Noah wanted to share his favorite part about going to the grocery store with everybody.



They have cart's just his size....

Ian's birthday

Here are some great pictures from our friend Ryan Halverson of Ian's birthday party. We had a great time and only wish that you could have been here with us.

I realize it's dangerous to go on record with these sorts of things...

but people keep asking me about politics. For your entertainment (and my future humiliation), here are a few predictions and thoughts about the election cycle. Some of my thoughts are well-grounded in political science theory, courtesy of my poli-sci colleagues at NCSU. Some are totally mine. See if you can guess which are which:

1. When I visited y'all in January, I predicted that Obama would be the next president. He is now the favorite to win the nomination. I stand by my prediction, but...
   
2. I also said the Republicans had no chance. Now that McCain is likely to win the Republican nomination, I am giving the Republicans a 1 in 3 chance. McCain is the least conservative of the Republicans and is a nightmare match up for Hillary or Obama...
   
3. Related to #2: If you were a Romney supporter, do not mourn. He would have gotten destroyed by Hillary or Obama. It would have been embarrassing and sad. Better to bow out now than destroy your party's chances. He was smart enough to realize this.
   
4. Hillary will not win the Democratic nomination. Stick a fork in her--she's done.
5. The above may not be true. Clintons have been known to rise from political death.
6. A big chunk of Obama's appeal is the "empty shell" factor. Most people don't know what he stands for and tend to project whatever they want him to be onto him. Policy-wise he isn't much different than Hillary, yet many many people support Obama and strongly dislike Clinton. The Republicans strategy in the general election will be to undermine this by defining him as a liberal.
   
7. Ron Paul is not a libertarian or Republican. He is a crazy man. Use him as a protest vote if you must, but please realize that a movement to the gold standard is an insane economic idea.
8. Mike Huckabee gives me the heebee-geebies.
   

Those are my thoughts for now. Stay tuned.

Jello Salad

As you know I have been posting healthy recipes that my family is trying this year. I know that this one sounds not very healthy. But for a dessert (Yes you read that right Jell-O does NOT count as a fruit serving even though we call it salad it is not!) it is pretty healthy especially if you use the sugar free Jell-O and the low calorie cool whip.

I do have to say that I don’t usually like Jell-O. I particularly don’t like Jell-O salad with stuff in it. But this is really good. It is kind of tangy and I think that is why I like it. Give it a try.

Becky’s Jell-O Salad

1 box lemon COOK pudding and ingredients to make

1 box any flavor jell-O (we really like green)

1 package cool whip

1. Make pudding according to package directions. Leave out the sugar.
2. Dissolve Jell-o in boiling water (if you want a thicker salad leave out ½ cup water)
3. Wisk together and let set up.
4. Top with cool whip.
5. If you want to be an overachiever add some lemon pudding to the cool whip before topping.

kids say the darndest things

Ian just snuck a tube of chips ahoy cookies to eat in front of the TV. When I told him that he had not eaten enough dinner to qualify for unlimited cookie consumption he very matter of factly informed me that he was just eating four, not six.

Well, clearly four is OK then. ;-D

Tell me it doesn't look like fun (3 items)

#1
So Ryan just asked me this and had me watch this video of a rally cross event. Um, my answer is no.

Note: The silver Sentra is driven by a couple in Ryan's Mazda club. If you watch the video all the way through you'll see it twice, once for the lady and once for the guy. We don't know who drives which time. Upon their encouragement, Ryan has invited me to attend the "chicks only" autocross novice school in May. (Tobin and Ryan are going the first of next month.)

#2
It was 70 degrees here today and our first camilia blossomed. The following picture isn't as cute as the moments before when Ian was bending over smelling it with his nose in the blossom.

#3

Today's funny moment.....

I use google's customized homepage all the time. If you haven't seen it, or don't use it, you should. It aggregates a whole bunch of information into one webpage. I have all kinds of things on mine like slashdot, The Onion, CNN, quote of the day and like 30 other things (including this blog). Today I found quite the combination.......

The mood at the Mazda club meeting last night...

was giddy.










The # 70 Speedsource Mazda GT RX-8 kicked butt and took names at Daytona. Among the key names taken: Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, and Corvette:

Key parts of the news:

The SpeedSource Mazda team beat the runner-up Porsche by over five laps. The win was the 22nd class win at the race for Mazda and a ended a lengthy winning streak by Porsche at the biggest 24 hour race in America. Along the way, the SpeedSource number 70 car beat over two dozen Porsche 911 GT-3s, a handful of Pontiacs, a pair of Ferrari 430 Challenges, a Corvette, and a BMW M6. There were a total of 55 lead changes among 10 cars in the class, but no one could pass the RX-8 for the final 185 laps.

Our favorite things.

Our Favorite Things:
1. The Letter Factory Movie--Noah loves this and he is learning his letters and sounds.
2. Tiny Spicy Chicken--MMMM what more can I say

Tiny Spicy Chicken

3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast- cut into 1” cubes

garlic salt

2 beaten eggs

cornstarch

SAUCE

1 -2 tsp Samball Fresh Chili paste

1¹/2 cups sugar

³/4 cup ketchup

3 tsp soy sauce

dash salt

³/4 cup chicken broth

6 T brown sugar

³/4 cup white vinegar

Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt, and let sit for 1 hour in the refrigerator. After the hour, dip chicken into beaten eggs and then coat with cornstarch. Brown chicken in fryer until golden brown. Put the chicken into greased 9 x 13 pan.

Mix sauce ingredients in saucepan. Cook only until sugars are dissolved. Pour over chicken.

Bake chicken @ 325 degrees for 45-50 minutes, turning the chicken every 15 minutes.

• When you pour the sauce over the chicken, it will be very liquidy. The sauce thickens as it cooks, making a nice coating over the chicken.

3. Home canned Peaches--Gracie Loves peaches, she will eat an entire bottle if you let her.
4. Going to the Zoo--Willow park zoo now has monkeys
5. Going to the fun park--we love to go and play in the soft play. It is more adult friendly then Macdonald's and only $2.00 for our entire family.
6. Going to Grandma's house (isn't that everyones favorite)
7. Eli Stone-the new TV show. We watched it last night and it was excellent. It kind of reminded us of Joan. Check it out.
By the way Jack Bristow is in the show and Matt told me this new joke. If Jack Bower, Jack Bristow and Churck Norris were in a fight who would win??? I'm not sure but everyone would end up shot in the knee with a round house kick to the head.


What are you favorite things? I challenge everyone to post a list of their favorite things.