Twilight

Ok, Katya and I were totally belated in our viewing of the hit "Twilight". But with good reason.

The director of "Twilight", Catherine Hardwicke, has family that lives here in Central Oregon and decided to do a screening and a Q & A afterwards. I found out from a fellow Bend blogger and immediately called the Sisters Movie House and bought Katya and I some tickets.

There was a 2-hour talk with the director where I guess she talked about where the movie was shot, how she did certain shots, technical details...etc. But that was by invitation only through the Film Oregon Alliance (I think I got that right). We didn't score any invites to that.

The talk was from 3-5pm and it said that the movie would show afterwards. So I figured (without double checking anything, dork that I am) it would start around 5:30 or 6:00pm. At 3pm Katya and I headed to Sisters and pulled up to the Sisters Movie house to grab the tickets and get the true time - 7:30pm. We were a bit early.

Not a big deal! We found a bookstore, bought some good books, went to the Sisters Coffee House and had some warm drinks and read for a couple of hours. It was so nice!

We went out to find a place to have dinner but were disappointed to learn that we couldn't get seating anywhere because of a football game called the "Civil War". It is between the Oregon Ducks and the Oregon Beavers (University of Oregon and Oregon State) and it is a big deal. Some day I'll blog about the whole Duck/Beaver phenomenon that we have here, but not today.

Luckily the Sisters Movie House has warm food and we had ourselves a couple of very yummy cheeseburgers while we waited for the film.

The movie itself was really good! I was surprised somewhat because the book is always better than the movie. But I was seriously disappointed by Jacob not making more of an impact on-screen. But you do what you can when trying to film a movie. Things get cut out. But some of the sceens in the movie were amazing. Like the standing in the tree over the Columbia River Gorge. WOW

The Q&A afterwards was very interesting. I never really gave much thought to what a director of a movie did, so I learned a lot. I hope that she comes back after filming the sequel. I'd love to do this again!

Holiday Photo Shoot

It is that time of year again to get holiday portraits done of the kids for Christmas gifts for the family. Sears is always a good bet for us since it is affordable and they work so hard to try and get good pictures.

This photo shoot was just as painful as previous ones since Alexis has again decided that getting her picture taken is just about the worst thing in the world. I had to opt out of a group shot of the three of them together and instead I ordered some collages.
Logan was awesome! He loved the props, smiling for the camera and being the center of attention. The only problem with him was that he was so busy running in circles, jumping, rolling on the floor....etc that we had a hard time getting a picture of him standing still.

Katya of course took amazing pictures. She is so beautiful inside and out. I had the hardest time picking which pictures of her to buy.

Since getting a picture of the three of them was going to be impossible, I settled for a picture of Katya with her little brother. This is so cute!

Grading Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving for me was a day of non-stop cooking in the kitchen. My day started at 8 am and I finished cooking / serving around 6pm.

All in all the food turned out pretty good, but I now know why we normally ate at 1pm. Then you feel that all of your cooking efforts were worth more when it turns out to be an all day eating feast instead of a fancy dinner. Plus, you actually have time to sit and visit with all of your friends and family that came over to share it with you. If I ever have to do a full T-Day dinner by myself again, I'm taking shortcuts. Like buying mashed potatoes from COSTCO.

Our menu was:

Turkey (cooked in a bag): Everyone liked it, but I still though it was a bit dry. Not sure all the trouble of brining it was worth the effort.

Sausage, Cranberry, Apple Stuffing: I really liked it. I did use "stuffing" bread from the bakery downtown which I think made a difference.

Make Ahead Gravy : A+ all around. I made it the night before using turkey wings and it was marvelous!

Mashed Potatoes : Next year I'm going with the COSTCO ones. Not worth all the time with peeling and boiling.

Cran-Raspberry Sauce: Always wonderful and quick to make

Sweet Potatoes: I tried a fancy recipe where you whip them with vanilla and cinnamon. Nah, next year I will remain a purist. Boiled, sliced, topped with brown sugar and butter and baked. THAT is my favorite. Easier too.

Carrots w/ Bacon: Yummy, but too much orange food overall. Next year I will just try something simple like steaming green beans and have them with Hollandaise

Caesar Salad: Ed brought this over. Quite yummy

Fresh Fruit: Bob's mom brought a big fruit salad and Logan ate most of it.

Rolls : From the Great Harvest bakery downtown. Wonderful as usual.

Pumpkin Pies: A tradition and yummy. Katya was bummed I didn't get them baked and cool enough for breakfast. She had to have some for lunch instead.

Apple Pie: Not a big mover. A great pie, but too ordinary. Next year I will cook a marionberry for sure.

I was totally wiped out last night. We only had our family, Bob's mom, Bob's sister, Diane and our friend Ed (his wife was sick and couldn't come). So, it was the smallest Thanksgiving dinner I think I have ever had. But it was lovely and everyone seemed to enjoy the food. I did miss the crazy chaos that usually surrounds holidays with my huge family.

Our turkey was organic, and I learned the hard way that those birds don't have a lot of dark meat on them. Quite a bummer for me, but good to know for the future.

I hope that everyone had a lovely Turkey Day no matter what you did. To those that joined me for dinner, thank you for coming and sharing the day with us. To all my family in San Diego - I missed you terribly.

Kaput

That is what my car did right after we pulled into the garage last night.

It went ka-put.

I thought I would just put the babies in the house with Katya so I could run to the store to get some stuff for T-Day. But when I got back in it I turned the key and the engine sputtered and died. I tried valiently to get it to turn over, but it wouldn't. I am so thankful that it waited until we were in the garage though and not somewhere in the dark on a side road.

I am so BUMMED!

I hate it when my car doesn't work. I just feel so trapped when I don't have wheels! I am a huge maintenance girl because I always want to avoid situations just like this.

I had to miss going into work this morning because of the whole lack of wheels thing. At 8 o'clock I will call a tow truck to haul my beauty to the repair shop. I hope it is just a fuel pump or something relatively quick, easy - and cheap - to fix.

Bob and I are going to attempt to do a bit of carpooling today so I can still go into work for a while. But we'll see.

Christmas on the Brain

I know that Thanksgiving isn't until Thursday, but I can't help thinking about Christmas!

There is so much family that is coming up here for the holidays and I really would love for them all to have a wonderful time while they are here. I'm trying to make sure that I do what I can to make sure everyone feels loved, busy and full.

In preparation we bought a new futon mattress for the "Lounge". An 8" innerspring one, it feels awesome! We are keeping the old one for one of the boys to sleep on while they are here. I only need another twin mattress and we will be all set for sleeping arrangements for my brother and his family. I will be putting them in the Lounge and I am sure they will be most comfy with the TV, DVD player, puzzles, crayons and other craft supplies and desk space. Then there is the "Art Room" that is clean and ready for occupation. It has the foos ball game thing in there as well as lots of floor space for my spunky nephews to utilize with their gifts. After all, everyone needs their space to run to when they have had enough visiting.

I have been giving the menu planning a lot of thought and I am planning on lots of crock pot meals since I will be insanely busy. But it all has to be yummy.

Then there are activities. I will have to work two full days while they are here, but I figured that they could go tubing at Mt. Bachelor one day and I am open for suggestions for the other day. One day we will stay home and bake and decorate sugar cookies. We will have to find some snow to play in at least one day, maybe two. Then there is the High Desert Museum with their bug exhibit. What little boy doesn't like bugs? One day we could hit the Family Fun Center and maybe Bouncing Off the Walls. Anyone else have some ideas? I'm thinking just one outing a day to keep people from becoming fried and to keep costs down.

I put up my Christmas lights on the house today. Tomorrow I'll pull out our little light up deer. I just love twinkle lights! After Thanksgiving we're going to the forest to cut down our tree and get it all decorated. Now all I need is snow and lots of it. Keep your fingers crossed that they get a white Christmas.

Harlem Ambassadors

Last Saturday night was the big basketball game with the Harlem Ambassadors. This was a charity event to help Campfire raise much needed funds in this economic downturn.

I had first heard that we were getting the Harlem Globetrotters. Then I heard it was the Harlem Globetrotter Ambassadors. The truth was they are just the Harlem Ambassadors. And although they were not the famous basketball team I was expecting, they were excellent and entertaining nonetheless. I know that we had a good time and I think that the people that went to the game had a good time too.

Katya was a referee and I think that she did an excellent job. She was a little freaked to make a call on them in the first half of the game, but she warmed up and was all over the place the second half. They even had a bit of fun with her which was fun to see. I got some video of her dancing with the other ref, so check that out on You Tube.

The babies couldn't have cared less about the basketball game, but they were kept entertained by Bob, Ginger, Danae, Debbie K (with her mentor child), Ed and Barbara.

Afterwards Katya and I headed over to join the team and the other Board members for a spaghetti feast at someone's house. It was excellent and we even had a chance to talk to a couple of the players. I love it when opportunities arise in our lives to be a part of fun stuff.

Recipe Thursday

Today I bring you a quick, slap together with stuff you probably already have in your fridge/cupboard, takes less than an hour to make from beginning to end, but tastes totally awesome and was a COMPLETE hit in my house recipe.

If you are coming to visit this Christmas, you will be eating this for dinner some night.

Easy Mexican Casserole

1 pound ground turkey
2 cups salsa
1 (16 oz) can black beans
1 (16 oz) can corn
2 -3 cups torn up corn tortillas or 2 cups of crushed tortilla chips
2 cups sour cream
1 (2 oz) can of sliced black olives, drained
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook ground turkey until no longer pink. Stir in salsa, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Stir in beans and corn; heat through.

3, Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 torn up corn tortillas (or 1/2 chips) in dish. Spoon 1/2 meat mixure over tortillas. Spread 1/2 sour cream over beef (and follow with olives and onions if you want) and 1/2 tomatoes. Top with 1/2 cheese. Repeat another layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Fabulous! Everyone in my house was fighting over the leftovers. That is when you KNOW it is good.

And if you want to make it a smidge more healthy, use light sour cream and stick with the corn tortillas. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is coming up remarkably soon and my family is all going to San Diego for the dinner of all dinners.

That leaves me here in Bend with the few family members that Bob has that are staying in town. I guess I'm doing the cooking.

I am used to doing the pies, the cranberry sauce, jello salad and veggie. I've never done the whole thing before. With one oven.

All Recipes.com has been an awesome find for me and I am cruising for yummy recipes that I can make for turkey day. I plan on doing:
* a turkey in a bag (that is the only way I know how to do it)
* try some "Make Ahead Gravy"
* cranberry sausage stuffing (not cooked in the turkey for once)
* mashed potatoes
* candied sweet potatoes (for me)
* some kind of veggie
* pumpkin pie & apple pie

How I'll do all this, I have no idea. However, if you are a seasoned T-Day cook I could sure use some advice on how to pull this off. Also, if you have any amazingly fabulous recipes that you are willing to share - I'd love them.

If you are a fellow Bendian, you are welcome to come over and share with us. Dinner will be followed by a viewing of my favorite holiday movie "Scrooged". It'll be a good time.

Debbie K's Camera

I had noticed the last time I was visiting Debbie K that she had some really cute pictures of my kids that I had never seen. I asked her to kindly hand over her memory card so I could copy them off. She did.

These are some of the pictures that she had captured over the past year of my little ones that were too cute not to share.

Powder Puff Football

Thursday night was Katya's first big Powder Puff Football game.

For two weeks the freshman girls had gotten together and had some impromptu flag football education and practice.

Bob came home early so that I could bundle up and go out with Terren to cheer my little darlin' green monster on. It was freakin' cold and although I was bundled up in my warm boots, warm jacket, gloves, hat and thermal shirt - my bum was freezing from sitting on those aluminum bleachers. I'm buying myself a bleacher chair.

Anyway, the Senior vs Sophmore game was first. It was a good game, but the sophmores beat the Seniors. Ouch.

Next up was Katya's game. She is a tiger out there! She got tackled a couple of times when she dove for that football and she had no problem chasing girls down to rip off their flag belt. She had teachers commenting on how agressive she was all day. She is such a good athlete. She gives every game her all.

Unfortunately, the Juniors were a tough team to beat and they triumphed in the end. But it was a great game and everyone had a good time. I even got to meet Katya's hunky new boyfriend, Luke.

*New* Recipe Thursday

I have lots of people coming up to Bend for the holidays and I can't wait. Over the past year I have collected some wonderful dinner recipes for feeding my family, which I will use next month.

But really, my favorite meal of the day is breakfast.

I would gladly forgoe any fancy dinner in exchange for a plate of biscuits and country sausage gravy for breakfast. Or pastries. Or a hobo scramble with lots of bacon.

So, with six people decending on my house for the best and most important meal of the day I have been researching breakfast recipes. Both warm and just muffins. My family are always willing guinnea pigs.

I thought I would share my new favorite recipes and if you have one or two that you love, please share.

Amish Breakfast Casserole

1 pound breakfast sausage
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
6 eggs, lightly beaten
4 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups small curd cottage cheese
1 1/4 cups shredded swiss cheese

1. In a large skillet, cook sausage and onion until sausage is cooked through; drain. In a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; stir in sausage mixture. Transfer to a greased 13x9x2 baking dish.

2. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until set and bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Moving On

The election is over and we have a new President. The country can stop holding it's breath.

I can finally watch TV without having to endure all the horrid election commercials.

Last night was so historic in many ways. Our first African-American President. How cool is that? Granted, a woman in office would have been a historic first as well.

I remain hopeful that since we had almost 65% of the country vote (first time since 1908, evidently) - the voice of the people demanding change has been heard.

It is still going to be a tough couple of years. No country can recover from what we have been through these last few months overnight. Last couple of years, really. The ripples will be felt far and wide and for too long. All I can do is be thankful I have a job, Bob's business has work and that people seem to have a new resolve to help each other through the tough times ahead. We all are being expected to go above and beyond just to make ends meet.

Personally, I know several people out of work. My uncle is going to have to commute from Bend to San Diego where work is. Lots of retired people that had lived off of savings and investments are returning to the workforce part-time. Some people that work construction are becoming truck drivers or getting work hours away. My hairdresser's husband is out in the forest cutting down trees in the snow to earn money. We do what we have to.

This Christmas will be a lean one. But this is our opportunity to show our kids and ourselves that "stuff" is not what makes a joyous holiday. Family, friends, good food, funky movies, corny Christmas music and home made gifts can make for a more memorable and important holiday than one with lots of "stuff" that you bought.

So, here is looking to tomorrow with great hope.

Getting Politics Off of My Chest

All this mudslinging on the TV and constant bickering between who considers themselves a Republican or Democrat is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

If I made the rules there would be no "party" affiliation. I think that candidates should stand on their own beliefs, convictions, education, experience and vision. No hiding behind the whole "you should vote for me because I am in your party".

So many people are so staunch in their belief that anyone who calls themselves a member of their political party should be good. When it comes time to fill out their ballot they just select everyone on their party's ticket.

The Independant party was supposed to help balance this out, but the two main party's still trump them so if you really want to be elected you usually have to commit to one or the other even if you probably don't agree with everything the party stands for. Also, if you want to access the large pool of money that the two party's have for publicitiy you must pick a side.

This whole thing is silly.

And don't get me started on the Church thing. I believe in separation of Church and State. If you wish to belong to a Church to worship - by all means do so. But someone's religious opinions are outside of their "job" in office. If you are a Jew, Catholic, Pentacostal, Christian, Wiccan, Baptist, Mormon ...whatever... I only care about the job you will do in office. It doesn't mean that you practice what you preach at home. I dislike others judging people because if you belong to a Church you are this way or that way. And I dislike Churchs throwing their support behind one candidate or another. When I was little I remember sitting in my Grandma's church while the pastor would say that everyone needed to vote for this person or that person. It seemed wrong when I was seven and it seems wrong now. The worst was when a pastor I know told the congregation that Bill Clinton was the anti-christ. Unfreakinbelievable.

So, my perfect world doesn't exist. It probably never will.

Hopefully everyone has already voted or will be voting today. Whatever you do - please vote.

And if I have totally irritated or offended you, I am sorry. It was not my intent.

Halloween

I was so not feeling the "mood" this Halloween. Not sure what my funk was, but I was not motivated to do much of anything Halloweeny. Katya was going to a football game and then movie night with some girlfriends, so she was MIA.

Lucky for me, my husband is a social butterfly and he had accepted an inviation to a family Halloween party with some friends of his. I actually had to don a witch hat and cape that I had stashed away so I could at least say I was dressed up. Bob put on a mullet wig and looked pretty funny.

Alexis was dressed up as a flower and she didn't want to take her costume off for anything. Logan was a dragon. He couldn't have cared less that he was dressed up. But he looked cute.

When we went with the whole crew trick or treating I wasn't sure how the kids would do. Alexis worked the "Trick or Treat" and often scored herself an extra candy. Which she promptly put into her mouth paper and all if she got impatient.

Logan refused to say "Trick or Treat" and instead resorted to the cute parade wave that he has going. Being a forceful guy, he would just reach in and grab no less than three pieces of candy a handful. That is skill.

Afterwards we went back to their house and noshed on BBQ meatballs and pumpkin cheesecake until bedtime. It was fun and hopefully next year I will be feeling more festive.