Good thing I don't have a fancy camera!  I have no idea when she took these, or even what the first one is!  I found 13 pictures on my camera.  Hmm...

 

Funny, we were over at Brie's friend Logan's house swimming on Saturday, and talking about how one of our friends' sons broke a pair of $130 sunglasses at Logan's birthday party last weekend.  I was saying to Josh "I can't remember Brie ever breaking anything, is that because she's a girl?" and he responded by saying "um, she broke two cell phones (by chewing on them when she was a baby), a couple of plates, and our DVD player."  Oh yeah.  Selective memory.  Then, yesterday, as if to prove that she can be destructive after all, she cut up her dress while "napping" in her room.  Josh said he should have known something was going on when she was so quiet, but I, erroneously (silly me) thought she was actually NAPPING at NAPTIME.  Silly.  She was acually playing with scissors, and this is the first time she has cut anything other than paper.  I figure we should be glad it wasn't her hair.  Anyway, I couldn't take a picture of her in it afterwards, as that would have probably encouraged the behavior, so here's a picture of the grisly aftermath.  Julie, you want to fix this with your sewing skills?  :)

I'm having an ethical dilemma.  On one hand, I want to be a good citizen and not support animal cruelty... on the other hand, who can believe everything they read?  Also, I remember the circus being great fun when I was a child and I want my children to have memories like that.  Hard to know what the best thing to do is.  I'm not really sure if most circuses abuse their animals like you read about.. The Shriners Circus is in town this weekend and Josh's grandpa wants us to go (he's a Shriner).  I did a bit of research last night (online, granted), and found some appaling information about their circuses (they outsource to other small circuses).  Not really something that makes you want to go.  However, I don't always trust PETA - they are a bit radical and definitely have a slant.  I DON't KNOW WHAT TO DO!  Josh says "just don't tell any of your liberal friends if we end up going."  Haha.

I was never much into journaling - for some reason, blogging comes so much easier to me.  Maybe it's easier for me to sit and type a thought rather than getting out a journal and writing it down.  I don't know.  Anyway, I am finding having a blog is really neat for me - it's a great way to look back at pictures without having to sort through CD upon CD of shots... and everything is dated, which is great!  Then, today our friend's wife sent out an email chronicling her first 5 weeks with her baby... it's hard for me to remember back that far and remember what it was like for us (she's lost all but 5 of her pregnancy pounds!! that bitch!  :)).  I couldn't remember how I felt about being up all night, breastfeeding, etc.  So, I just opened my blog, clicked on "December 2005" and read.  How cool is that.  Technology is amazing.  Now I just can't figure out what to do if someday the blog disappears or if I get rid of it.  Print it all?  Save it to disc somehow???

Okay, in the quest to give up high fructose corn syrup, I've had to give up store-bought granola bars (at least, the ones we were getting).  So, I thought I would make my own... I thought they were really good, but maybe didn't realize others might like them as well.  However, at work today they were a hit with a couple of my coworkers.  So, let's share.  You can find the recipe here... it's a bit long with pictures, so I'm not giong to paste it all in here.  They turned out JUST LIKE THE PICTURES (doesn't happen very often), and were really easy to make.  I used some sesame seeds b/c I didn't have sunflower seeds, loved them that way.  Next I'm going to try modifying with peanut butter and some chocolate chips to maybe woo Brie into liking them...

Here are a couple of pics of my garden... it's been taken over by a "volunteer" cantalope that took hold while we were gone.  Now we have mostly melon, some big basil (time for pesto!), some green onions, and peppers getting ready to grow little baby peppers.  The cantalopes seem to be a favorite of the pill bugs - they are all over the outside.  Strange.  And, they are covered (the leaves) in pests (I think aphids) that I don't have a good natural cure for.  Normally I would get ladybugs, but apparently it's too hot now for them.  So... the vine will die, I'm sure.  Hopefully in time to plant other fall things! :)

Brie and I decided to make a mask yesterday... a midwife we met wtih gave me supplies for a belly cast.  Who knew that nowadays you get gauze pre-prepared with plaster of paris???  I remember when I made a mask years and years ago, you had to dip the stuff in plaster that you mixed up.  It was A LOT more messy.  This stuff, yo just dip in water and use.  Cool! 

 

It's strange, becoming a mother, and forgetting what to do with yourself when your child is not around.  Josh and I decided this school year to start Brianna in her "pre-preschool" program, meaning she is on a schedule for school, rather than just being in daycare when I'm working.  Since I only work 2-3 days a week, this means she's at school even when I'm not working.  Typically, the way we've scheduled it, only one of her 3 school days is when I'm working - then grandma watches her the other work day (we're trying to stick with Wed/Thurs and then my weekend days).  This means two days of the week she's in school and I'm hanging around or doing errands, etc.  It's kind of lonely!  You get used to always having someone with you, for better or worse, I might add, and then when you're alone it's like "okay, now what!"  Friday I actually forgot about her school day, made a doctor's appointment for 9 am, so she was late.  Oh well.  It's hard to get used to every MWF her being in school from 9-1 (longer, of course, if I'm working).  Today I had to run a couple of errands after dropping her off - what silence in the car to listen to my music!  She's becoming quite a chatterbox - constantly asking "why?" "what's in that" (I.e. "what's IN strawberries?") "what are you doing?" etcetcetc.  It just never stops.  By Sat evening I felt I was losing my mind.  It's kind of what I imagine it would be like if you were schizophrenic and heard voices.  No rest for the weary.  Except when you sadly drop your child off at school and wonder what you will do until 1 pm!!!  It's these days that I wonder if we should cancel the housekeeper and get back to cleaning house myself, but then I realize we're having another one in about 3 months and AM I CRAZY!

... since I've made them twice in a week!  Last week we took them to a party, and today we took a batch to our midwife, but YUM.  You kind of have to build your pantry of ingredients to make these recipes (no refined sugar, wheat flour, etc), but they are so yummy.  We also had some great quinoa for dinner tonight - Josh skipped out on the mushrooms, but it was really good.  And finally a healthy break from our streak of fast food/pizza/Mexican food that was making me feel a bit ill...  This recipe, like all my recent cooking, is from 101 Cookbooks and her print cookbook.  We made them from the recipe last week, and then today I substituted coconut flakes and raisins for the nuts and chocolate chips.  Left the banana chips, though, they add a nice crunch.  Also, last week I used normal whole wheat flour (from the supermarket), and this week actually got the whole wheat pastry flour - they were less "wheaty" this week.  Good both times, tho.

 

Banana Chip Cookie Recipe

If you can't find whole wheat pastry flour, regular all-purpose white flour will work. If you can't find wheat germ, substitute an equal amount of flour. I look for organic banana chips - the ones I like are made with organic coconut oil and bananas.

1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (see head notes)
1/2 cup (toasted) wheat germ
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup banana chips, loosely chopped
1 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, racks in middle/upper middle. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, wheat germ, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, or stand mixer, beat the butter until lightly and fluffy, then beat in the sugar until it is the consistency of a thick frosting. Beat in the eggs one at a time, incorporating each fully before adding the next, and scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times along the way (important!). Stir in the vanilla. Add the reserved flour mix in two increments, stirring/mixing a bit between each addition (but not too much). By hand, stir in the banana chips, chocolate chips and walnuts - mix just until everything is evenly distributed.

Drop 1 heaping tablespoon of dough for each cookie onto the prepared baking sheets 2 inches apart and bake for about 7 - 8 minutes, until barely golden on top and bottom. Resist over baking, they will come out dry and not as tasty. Cook on racks.

Make about 24 cookies.