Best Garlic Rolls EVER

I was in charge of bringing garlic bread to the Thomas Sunday dinner this week. I had never really made garlic bread. I have always taken the easy route and bought garlic French bread from Walmart. Well, the Thomas family makes me want to go all out when I make something. This family loves food. They truly appreciate and understand the effort that goes into making things. Plus everyone is very free with complements. "Wow, that is amazing" is heard often.  It's very encouraging. 

So here is the recipe. I highly recommend you try it, if you love garlic and cheese that is.

Ingredients:
16 onces frozen bread dough -- thawed
12 cloves garlic -- minced fine
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 cup Six Cheese Italian Parmesan
1 tablespoon butter -- melted
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
vegetable oil spray

Directions:
Melt 2 tablespoons butter wit the olive oil in a small pan . Add garlic and cook until softened. Roll dough into 12in by 8in rectangle.

Spread dough with butter garlic mix. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Sprinkle with cheese.

Roll dough tightly and pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 one inch slices. Place in a nine inch round pan that has been sprayed with vegetable spray. Let rise until doubled. heat oven to 375 F. melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Mix in garlic power. Brush over top of rolls. Bake at 375 F for 20-25 minutes.

ENJOY!!

Parking Lot Idiots

It was after school, and I had all three kids with me for an outing of shopping. Generally I try to avoid going to the store right after school/work, but this time it was unavoidable. There is something about a busy parking lot that makes people crazy and inconsiderate.

I had driven up one row and was attempting to drive down the next when the Honda in front of me stopped. She had noticed that the car in the very first space had put on the reverse lights and wanted out. Well Honda was directly behind the car that wanted out. Honda flipped on her blinker (claiming her turf) and sat there. After about 3 minutes she finally figured out that the car was not going to magically remove itself while she waited... in the way.  The idiot Honda pulled forward down the aisle, kept her blinker on and put on her reverse lights. She wanted to make sure I knew that she intended to back up into the spot once the car was out.

Because of the diagonal direction the spots were painted in, and the location the Honda was waiting in, the car had to back out going in the wrong direction and into the main road in front of the store. It took a four point turn and more waiting for traffic to stop so the parked car could get out. In the mean time I am stuck watching all this and getting more annoyed by the second. The cars are stacked up behind me and this Honda woman is determined to back up. If I was my husband I would have pulled forward and taken the spot once the car was gone. I was perfectly lined up and in the prime location. But I don't do avoidable confrontation with strangers. Instead I pulled down the row and passed the Honda coming within two inches of touching mirrors and gave her my best "Seriously! You're and idiot" look.

I was most pleased to see that the car behind me pulled into the spot. Idiot Honda honked her horn and had a tantrum in her car. She parked five spaces down - but still got out and ran up to yell at the guy who "took her spot". I proceeded down the row, parked at the end, unloaded all my kids into a cart, and got to the store before those two were done fighting about the spot.

I hate parking lot idiots.

I am so glad I didn't take the spot.

Evan's first day of school

My little preschooler is back in action.

Evan had his first day at St. Luke's on Tuesday. It is a preschool run by a Methodist church. Just about every Mormon mom I know sends their kids to this school, so I figured I would follow suit. I think it is going to be a great match for him. Evan goes five days a week from 9am-12pm. He thought it was pretty neat that his school is a church. They do teach some bible stories and they pray over their snack but religion is not the focus of the school. When I told him that he would learn about Jesus he was pretty excited. In fact, after the first day I asked him how it went and he said, "Mommy I didn't learn a thing about Jesus". He had spent the whole morning waiting to learn something and was very disappointed when he didn't. If only his enthusiasm for learning about Christ could stay this strong forever. :)

He is one fine looking boy. If I don't say so myself.

Labor Day Fun

I feel extremely lucky to have been adopted by the Thomas family. They have us over every Sunday for dinner and we celebrate most holidays with them as well. They are a large family full of aunts, uncles, brothers, nephews, nieces, cousins, grandparents and in-laws. They don't have us over because they are lacking people to talk to. I think they have us over because they are incredibly generous and loving people. They found something in our little family that they liked well enough to keep asking us back. We are to the point now where there is no asking, it's assumed that we'll be there. This family has really made living here awesome for me.

One of our favorite things to do at their house is swim. As you can see in McKenna's picture they have a large pool in the backyard complete with diving board and basketball hoop. On Labor Day we spent the afternoon swimming and enjoying the company of some of the Thomas clan. As always, there was tons of good food and the BBQ was going all day. Unfortunately, due to Ryan's crazy work load this semester (you can read about here) he was not able to come to the fun pool day with us. The kids were pretty well behaved so I managed. It also helps that I can ask some of the older Thomas kids to help out with the older two in the pool while I exclusively manage Alana.

It was a wonderful day and I am truly blessed.

Goodbye to a Friend

The time came and my friend Royce Bradley has passed away. It was no surprise to hear but I was very disappointed with how I heard about it (or rather didn't hear about it).

Mr. B was taken from his home just over a week ago. I was pulling up to park as the medics were about to bring him out. His family was there so I didn't want to get in the way by going inside. I did talk to his niece and told her that I would get his mail and please let me know if anything happens. That was the last I heard anything. I found out he was in the nursing home (and not coming home this time) from my apartment manager when I went to let her know that he was taken to the hospital and wouldn't be around to pay rent on time. She found the address of where he was for me and let me know that he was not expected to make it through the week.  Turns out he didn't make it two days. But I was unaware of this. 

I found out four days after he passed. The only reason I even know is because I ran into another neighbor who also looked in on him from time to time. I asked her if she has been to see him. She said no and told me that he had died. She also told me that his family came the night before and cleaned out his apartment. I have never felt like an outsider as much as I do now. I have met his family (several times) and they knew that I checked on him everyday. The courtesy of a knock on my door would have been nice. I understand that this is a hard time for them and I don't want to come off as not being compassionate to their situation. But, I can't help but feel that I wasn't even worth their time. They were never shy in the past about their dislike for me because of my skin color. To them I was just the "white woman". They never even bothered to learn my name. 

I see that this may come off as bitter and whiny - maybe even a bit hyper-sensitive. But what I really feel is sad. Sad that I spent four days trying to figure out how to juggle the kids' and Ryan's schedule so I could go and see him. Sad that I spent four days thinking about what I would say once I could go. Sad that I never got to say goodbye. Lastly I am sad that his family made me feel discriminated against when all I did was care for Mr. Bradley. 

I wanted so badly to go and see him one last time. I was going to bring him a picture of Jesus Christ to have in his room. I wanted to tell him how much I had enjoyed getting to know him. That the Mother's Day card and kids' Birthday cards were wonderful. That helping to take care of him for the past year was a blessing in my life. Mostly I just wanted to get to say goodbye.

There has been no obituary or death notice in the paper. I have called every funeral home in the city without finding him. No one I can find seems to know anything about a memorial service. It's like he vanished. I ended up giving all his mail to the apartment office. I don't think the family will come to me for it at this point. 

Ryan said to me this morning that he is worried that I won't get my closure. I hadn't cried until I wrote this. It's hard for it to seem real with the way it all went down. With no memorial service of any kind in sight I guess this post is all the closure I will get.

So, Mr. Bradley, thank you for being a part of my life. It will be a long time before I can walk past your place without looking to see if your door is open and that you are ok. I will miss you.

Two Moms

Well it has finally  happened. McKenna's new best friend at school has two Moms. I suppose it was only a matter of time. I fear this will be a bit tricky to handle.

I met them one day when I stayed after school to let the kids play on the playground for a while. The family came over just to introduce themselves to me. They had heard so much about McKenna from their daughter Zoe so I guess they figured it was time for parent introductions.  Amber (who I had met at the open house) reintroduced herself and then introduced me to her partner Julie.

We talked for a while and I was a bit taken back with how forthcoming they were with personal info. Maybe they felt that it was better to just get it all out there. I have a feeling there will be invites to outside-of-school activities. I enjoyed talking to them very much and I think that we can be "friends because our kids are friends", but it does put me in a delicate situation.

Zoe is a great girl and she attached herself to McKenna right away. She spent last year as the only white/blond haired/super tall/with glasses girl in her class. I guess she got a lot of flack for it and never really had a good friend. Well, in walks McKenna who is white/blond/with glasses (but not so tall) and Zoe found her new BFF. So how do I explain our religious beliefs about homosexuality to a seven-year-old in a way that she will understand and still be sensitive to Zoe. The last thing I want is for McKenna to say "Having two moms is wrong and God doesn't like it". What a nightmare that would be. I would never want Zoe to feel bad about her situation. She has two Moms and a Dad. She is very loved. But....it's wrong in the eyes of God.

Now is the point where McKenna has to learn that the world is not simple. That she needs to love and accept the person even if she knows what they are doing is wrong. She needs to understand that what she says to Zoe about what we believe could really hurt her feelings and possibly end a friendship. That is some really heavy stuff for a seven-year-old who just wants to play with her new friend.

Now I have a headache.

Stinky, Stinky

I came out to my car this morning to take McKenna to school and it smelt awful! It smelt like bad movie popcorn butter, which is strange. I haven't popped popcorn in my van lately. I asked McKenna if she had any drinks in the back that might have gone bad. Nope, just bottled water.

After suffering the ride to school and back with the windows down, I cleaned out the van. I found old bags of popcorn from our last drive-in night. They did not smell. I found several grape juice boxes, all empty and all not smelly. Finally I found a McDonalds chocolate milk from five days ago. It was tucked under my seat. The nasty smell was located. Just for good measure I cleaned out the rest of the car and expected the problem to be solved.

Leaving to pick McKenna up from school this afternoon I found the same nasty stench. Evan dramatically held is nose and insisted that I change Alana's diaper. I had to tell him several times she was not what was stinky. Upon further investigation I discovered that the chocolate milk had leaked all over the rug. That is the stinky culprit.

Tomorrow I wash the carpets.