Halloween Adult Style (aka boring)

I am growing up. I guess. Halloween just isn't the same as it used to be.Clue 1: Pumpkins went uncarved.
At least they'll be of use for the next holiday after I bake and freeze them. (for instructions click here) They should make some good pumpkin cheesecake or good pumpkin bars. I'm still not a big fan of pumpkin pie. (lots of pumpkin recipes here)

Clue 2: I didn't dress up on Halloween
I dressed up for the church Halloween party a week earlier, but it was a pretty lame attempt. My boy however, was a chubby crocodile success! Look at those round, squishy cheeks!
Clue 3: No motivation to walk around for candy handouts
Above is a Boehms chocolate box that my mom brought to me from Issaquah, WA. I ate pretty much the whole thing. With chocolate like this and Godiva, etc. that I can buy for myself ANYTIME, who needs the Butterfingers of the world? (That's what I bought for the kids b.t.w.)
Even with all this chocolate consumption, I have somehow managed to fit into all my old clothes again.
One of the best highlights from this year's Halloween was decorating my back porch for the kids. (the backs of the houses all face each other where we live) My parents helped me put up lights and a spider like the one above. I won a best decorated prize, but some of the little kids were too scared to walk past the spider. We have to filter out the weak ones:) There was one little Tinkerbell that wouldn't stop coming to our door. She was too cute. Probably too short to see the spider.
So I guess I have different things to look forward to in the upcoming Halloweens. This year I just couldn't get over how ADORABLE kids look dressed up in costumes! I'll leave you with a better picture of my favorite kid.

spider killer or spider wussy-pants?

The other day there was a knock on my door in the middle of the day, and my neighbor Nicole was standing there looking terrified. She said there is a strange noise in her house, and she thinks it's an animal. I went right on over to investigate, but in the back of my mind I was wondering why she asked me, and why she hadn't even tried to find out what it was. Sure enough, as soon as I walked in I heard a LOUD weird animal noise. Based on what I've seen in Psych, Monk, Murder She Wrote, etc. I deduced by the open screen door and the telephone lying on the ground that the nasty rat or whatever must be under that small table. I crouched down to look at the dirty beast. Nicole stood in tense anticipation behind me. "A squirrel?!" I said a little disappointed. It was the cute fluffy gray kind, and not even the freaky, beady-eyed black ones. It was all hunched in the corner looking more scared than Nicole. Once again, it seemed that she wanted me to take care of it. I ran the possibilities through my mind of coercing it out with a trail of nuts, or scaring it and then trafficking it out the door without getting bitten. It seemed like a potential for a lot of fun and dumb pictures, but I still had a baby sleeping upstairs at my house. So I just called emergency maintenance and let them take care of it. Later I was telling Britton how our neighbor expedcted me to take care of the squirrel problem when I noticed spiderwebs on the gate latch. "Ewww, Britton open it for me." I'm such a hypocrite.
I realized that sometimes I'm the spider killer (like with roomates) and sometimes I'm the wussy-pants demanding my sister to vacuum the spider up. (It's more humane) My theory is that whoever is startled by the spider first feels like they have the right to demand the next person to take care of it. Let's see what you think.

Message from Will

Hey guys, Halloween is coming up soon and I'm getting scared. There's no stopping this woman and her ridiculous dressing up shenanigans!

Weekly Veggie Challenge

Most of you can probably relate to the "What do we do with all these zucchinis?" problem. We experience something like this each week. We signed up for a weekly veggie delivery from local farms, but have no say in the type of veggies we get. Two weeks ago we got some sorrel, and it's just been sitting in our fridge.
Sorrel has a surprisingly lemony, tart flavor and I found out it's commonly used in salads, fish dishes, and soups. Britton grilled some fresh halibut steaks, and I made a sorrel chiffonade to go with it. That's right, a chiffonade. I'm not sure what it means either. Here's our sorrel success with sides of potato salad and sourdough bread.
I just found out that sorrel is also a laxative. That would have been good to know before I finished off the chiffonade.

Next week's challenge: leeks
If you have any good ideas let me know!

Will's Photo Shoot

I wish I had a nice camera. Well at least we have friends who do. In fact, one particular friend brought over a whole suitcase full of photography gear. Thanks you Chris for the following pictures!

Little Stomper

Everyone loves feety pajamas!

Ferry Trip

Earlier I mentioned that our church had an activity taking a ferry across the bay. I forgot my camera, but luckily my friend Nikki just bought a fancy schmancy camera and took lots of pictures for us.

We'll start with pictures of Will's fan club.


Elise, holding Will in the first picture, was super nice and shared her sushi/miso feast with us! Later the Sr. Olson fam joined us and brought us another scrumptious picnic.

Nikki managed to get pictures of each person in the family.

Alex had fun throwing stuff in the water. I think there was lots of grown up boys throwing stuff in the water that day too.


Here's KK with one of her many rescued animals, Moto. She actually rescued a five day old kitten that weekend too!

Here's Jeff in his portable shade throne, and Margo not-so-patiently waiting for her rightful turn to hold the boy.

Here's Britton's fan club all looking up at his wonderous flying machine.Here's us with both of our babies.

Finally the ferry took us back across the bay, and we had a last amazing view of San Francisco.

All in the Name of Science...and $75

Hi, my name is Renee and I'm a survey-aholic. Online, on the phone, or in the mail I always take the survey. I blame it partly on my sociology background, partly on my missionary rejection experience, and partly on vanity. I like to think that my opinions are important, or sometimes I like to skew their data. "No, I've never drunk alcohol EVER. Ha! Deal with that outlier!" Well, this past week I moved past the casual survey and participated in my first psychology experiment. I saw an add on Facebook saying you could earn $75 for participating in an experiment at Stanford. An easy $75 and I don't even have to go far...I just have to be White...check, and not diagnosed with any mental illnesses...thank my lucky stars, check.
So I reported to the Stanford Psychology department with some wariness because the only thing I've heard about this department is Phillip Zimbardo's sketchy prison experiment. As luck would have it, one of the first things I see when I walk in the building is Zimbardo's name with a room number. I guess he's still around. It's kind of weird when you realize that the people you've read about in textbooks are real people you might actually run into. I walked forward to the experiment anyway. This experiment involved LOTS of surveys, gruesome pictures, collections of my spit, and electric shock. You might wonder if $75 is really worth all that. I did too after I heard the electric shock part... But after hearing their reasoning I decided it made sense. They want to look at DNA (spit) and see if they can identify any connections with the way that people regulate their emotions. (Gruesome pictures and electric shock tend to create strong emotional reactions... and then the surveys and all kinds of wires give them feedback on how you react and regulate your feelings.)
It was interesting and almost fun, but there's got to be better ways to make $75.
Don't worry, the next post will be all baby:)