Heredity...

I guess I'm more like my dad than I thought.

When I was a little girl we regularly had liver and onions because my dad would give blood and Mom was trying to get his iron back up.

Let's just be clear, I hate liver and onions to this day, however, since I was 18 years old I have given blood.  I always thought it was just what you did because it was what Dad did.  This year I was told I can't give blood for at least 15 years.  I thought I handled it pretty well when I was told in April.

This brings us to today, the 2nd of the blood drives we have at work each year.  Giving blood has been a way for me to feel close to my dad so I was feeling pretty sorry for myself and was a bit snarky about it.

Then I looked over at a bin on my desk and saw these:

For my family this will not require explanation, in fact they are probably laughing right now.  For the rest of you.  My father was born in 1933.  He was one of 10 children.  He grew up in extreme poverty.  They lived in tents, the back of a pick up truck, one room shacks, chicken coops and various other assorted structures.  Paper was a luxury.

Up until he died he never used a complete napkin.  That was wasteful.  He would take his napkin and tear it into 4 pieces, use 1 and leave the other 3 in a pile.  When he passed there was a large pile of torn napkins on the table. 

Thanks Dad for the memory.  I love you!

New Glasses & Pumpkin Painting...

HT has been complaining that his eyes were burning in school lately so his mom had his eyes checked.  The results are in and he needs glasses for distance.  I think he's very handsome.  Don't you agree?

In other news we picked up pumpkins yesterday and had a fabulous time painting them.  EM is in the middle of his blue period.  He says this one is a blue kitty with a black bum, bum.

HT painted an Angry Bird...

Recipe Blogs

My mom wasn't the most adventurous cook.  In fact she didn't learn to cook until after she married my dad.  Plus there was the fact that with 8 kids and a husband who was a student and then a pastor there wasn't much money and or room to experiment.

I didn't really start to like cooking until after she passed away.  When I learned it was at a boarding school where we cooked large quantities for lots of people.  Not a lot of experimentation happening there either, mostly the quick, easy and lots of it.

So, now I like to troll Recipe Blogs, it's fun finding new things to try.  It's amazing to me how many people are publishing these blogs and that so many of them are taking a recipe from one blog and changing one thing, i.e. whole canned tomatoes that you cut up with scissors before you dump it out of the can instead of diced tomatoes or maybe 1/2 teaspoon of salt instead of a full teaspoon.  Then they may or may not say it was "adapted from so and so" and it may or may not include a link. 

What's up with that?  Just once I want one of these blogs to say yeah, I didn't develop this recipe and I didn't really change it but I really liked it so I'm sharing it with you.  I get that it's hard to come up with your own original recipes, but you really shouldn't be calling yourself a "recipe developer" if all you are doing is tweaking someone else's recipe.  I especially find the disclaimer at the bottom disingenuous, you know the one, it says if you use my recipe please link back to my site and give me credit.

Well, I guess I'll go see if I can find something new to cook for dinner.   Who knows I might blog about my "newly adapted" recipe.  

It's a smile.. right?

This one sat on my legs yesterday afternoon as I was trying to nap on the couch and asked me to take his picture.  I told him to smile and he very firmly told he me he was smiling.

I took the picture and showed it to him and he said "see my wips are turned up". 

First Day of School

HT went back to school on August 21st and he told his mom that he was sure it was going to be cold and rainy so he had to wear his new R2D2 hoodie.  Needless to say he was a bit warm all day.

 

 EM started back to preschool today.  He gets to go 3 days a week this year, I'm sure his mom will be wallowing a bit in all the free time she'll have in the mornings.  You know, she'll be eating bon bons and watching TV.  Or perhaps she'll keep up with her normal stuff, cleaning, laundry, etc.

 

This boy.

He's so creative, it amazes me the things he makes.  He sees what he wants to make in his head and makes it using ordinary household stuff.  This day it was glasses made of pipe cleaners.

Pythons & Kittens.

A long while back the Tyrant's Mama told you that the youngest wanted to be a kitten.  Well he hasn't outgrown that and in fact still meows every chance he gets.

In other news his big brother has decided he wants a Burmese Python for a pet.

Good times.  

What does it mean...

if your sister abandons a blog you started that she took over and you pick it up again?

Is it a bit schizophrenic for those reading it?

The past year has been incredibly full of changes.  The Tyrants and their parents moved out of my basement and into their own house in November.  

Since that time they don't have internet and only access the web when they come visit me.  She says that's why no blogging, however I have my doubts.

Who knows at some point she might post again, in the meantime I believe I will from time to time.  

Here's a couple of shots of the Tyrants for those of you who haven't seen them in a while.