granola

Every now and then Mont will get a healthy hankering, which I'm always too happy to oblige since they're so few and far between. This morning I was trying to guess what he was saying... it kept sounding like "gorilla." When I finally got it, he said, "mmhmm!"

So, after a fb request from Julie, here is the recipe we used this morning for 

Mont's Gorilla Granola: 

2 1/2 c oats

1/2 c packed brown sugar

1/2 c chopped nuts *I omit

1/3 c butter

1/3 c honey

1/4 c wheat bran *didn't have

1 t cinnamon

1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 325º

On greased cookie sheet, put mixed ingredients on, and shift occasionally, baking for 20 - 25 minutes.

Mark enjoys his with milk, but I love it most straight out of the oven 

when it's still soft and chewy... mmm. 

practice

I haven't yet decided if I'm done with this painting.. yesterday I nearly painted over it to start over because I did something weird with the layering look.. it was driving my crazy but I tried something and I think it saved it. 

This is now at the point of: if I paint more I might ruin it or I might finish it.. I'm always afraid of this point. Last night I had to pack all the paints and brushes away again for dinner guests... and now I hit that point. Do I unpack it and try to finish a bit more? Or leave it. I have to decide.

It's been a year since I've painted anything (a picture, I mean), and I've been itching to do something.. itching like crazy! There's a friend of mine (It's your old neighbor, Sarah!) that lives down the street who has just begun a painting business and she's doing quite well with it. Not that I'll ever do the same thing, it's motivated me just the same. Last year while passing through Utah on our drive out here I got to talking with a good friend of mine (one of Mark's mom's bests) and offered to try to paint her a fruit / veggie of her choice. 

"Tomato! .. Or watermelon! .. No, no, tomato. Oh, you choose." 

When I started to ask what she likes about either, she said that she absolutely loves the red in the tomato, the juicy, ripe red color that is only found in a straight-from-the-garden-tomato. 

It's taken a while for me to work up to this point of finally getting the paints out; digging through the containers in the garage, setting up temporary spaces is a pain. I'm just glad I finally did! I have to start the practice paintings so that when we go to a wedding this next week I can do one for a family reunion auction.. painting is SO enjoyable for me. I really do love it.

Well, I hope she likes it! Mark has a camera now that I think will be able to take great reproduction shots of my originals that I give away. I have given away quite a few that I wish I had better pictures of.. This is the beginning of an effort to keep better track of my art! 

(if I add more to this painting I'll update the pic)

red juice!

Sorry Dad.. guess I'll have to get you more cranberry juice. He found it. Yuck!

house hunting | haunting

Ever so often we have a warm and free Saturday morning where we go house hunting with some friends of ours. They have three boys that we use as weight to test the floors. I'm kidding. But it is nice being with another family for all of these explorations of ours. Below is a house that is the largest we've been in so far. Our second time driving up to this house (returning to extract some windows a few pictures down), there was a huge owl perched in the top attic window. There was no sign of it once we were on foot. Spooky.

Below is the entrance (the easy entrance) on the right side of the house (from the point of view of the pic above). Walking up to this area smelled strongly of skunk, but fortunately, nothing in sight. It probably was under the floor boards though.. 

This is the kitchen with all the very cool appliances still here. This house must have belonged to someone very wealthy; signs of the wealth - the curved ceiling moldings, tin ceiling plates, wallpaper layers (they must have changed it, or rather, added upon it at least 6 times), many rooms, large house. 

After the kitchen this must be the family room. Here you can see layer upon layer of the wallpaper. I have a close-up picture of it, but it sort of made me sick last time I looked at it, so I'll spare you. But there are about 6 or 7 different (completely different) styles. Florals, geometric, regal, etc. Many different moods must have been experienced in this house. 

So many pink rooms!! Either this house was full of girls, or of a family who's mother loved pink! We even found an old crib:

I'm not sure what this very small room was, but there was a window into the hallway near the top of the wall, and a tall window to outside; maybe it was a room for time outs. Or a restroom. (?)

The wallpaper had peeled off, or disintegrated so much that in many places, this is all that was left of it.. everything about this house is like a ghost:

Windows!!!!! My friend and I were so thrilled to find windows in tact.. let me tell you! Our dear husbands just rolled their eyes and helped us load 'em up. We figured they're just here left exposed to the elements and animals and rot, so we are saving them and doing the old owners a favor by sparing them more broken glass in the future. They are absolutely beautiful all cleaned up.

This room just gives me the creeps. This is upstairs in the back left (from the pov of the very first pic). The couch is so so old, and probably really smelly (I imagine). The ceiling is ghostly, and when I went back to the closet to peek in, I stood up and freaked out since the fluttery material was brushing my face. There were torn pages from a book everywhere on this floor that I thought to favor; they were all about engineering and had pictures of boats like the Titanic. It was all very interesting, but all very dirty. Pink, pink, pink.

The stairway was scary. On the way up, you could slide your foot into the stairs and climb just fine.. but on the way down, I could barely place the ball of my foot down (there were maybe 3 inches of stair), while holding Mont's hand (I couldn't hold him, no way - we would have both fallen), while not hitting my head on the ceiling, while holding on to the decaying wall. It was not my favorite moment. My friend went first, then Mont, then Me. Mont was a brave boy and loved exploring, but I made him hold my hand for sure! I would have taken a picture of those STEEP, VERY STEEP AND NARROW stairs but my thoughts were nowhere near taking a picture at that time (okay, I did think about it, but rational took over). If I had been the queen of this house I would have put in a slide, for sure. 

made ya

... smile!

number 1!

I am still in a state of disbelief when I look at Emmy here and realize that she is now a 1 year old. It's shocking that it has come so fast. A part of me thought that she would remain a baby for ever, I suppose.. 

This past year has quite possibly been the most stressful, busiest, and most fun year that we've had in our 6 years as the Mark and Jayci Reeder family. I still haven't even uploaded the pictures I snapped on our drive cross country where we watched Old Faithful's eruption with a wild, uncaged Buffalo 4 feet in front of the kids' stroller at sunset (yes, it was taking all my strength not to scream and run), or where we held our growing boy up so his head was next in line at Mt. Rushmore. We have really done so much in this little girl's short lifetime so far; I'm proud of us for making it through happily. To just sit back and enjoy the last 5 months of North Dakota life has really been a breeze (a chilly one, but a breeze nevertheless)...

Her day began beautifully. We woke up before the sun, like we always do, and we set our music to get our energy flowing. I was having a neighbor over (who I conveniently visit teach!) for lunch with her youngest, and new that morning would be the best time to knock out the cake baking. I had my assistants nearby helping me make extra messes:

Emmy even got to enjoy the batter with Mont this time... after all.. what good is a birthday without some new tasty treats? I'm still in love and over the moon that she has my mother's eyes (don't know how, but somehow she's got 'em!)

After an entirely too-messy session trying to make the butter cream frosting, I whipped up these bad girls with a ziplock bag. You can't even see the cupcake under that mountain of frosting! That's good, right? Oops.

What's that Sprinkles? Sure! You can hire me.. if you insist.

Thought I'd do both cupcakes and a cake... so I divided the batter into 6 lg cupcakes and 1 round cake. Checkered lines was about all my talent allowed for. So sorry, Emmy. At least the colors were cute..

I was stumped on what to get for our little sweetheart.. the only thing I could think of that would be safe enough and special enough was a little doll. My sister used to have Madame Alexanders and I remember my mother saying how nice of a doll they were; that they would stand the test of time or something to that extent. Well lucky for Emmy, I didn't just find a Madame Alexander, I found one that was soft! She is in a little snow suit that is blanket soft, and just like a pillow. We don't think Emmy has even held a baby doll before, so it was precious to watch the sweet introduction. She was thrilled and smiley, touching the doll's face and hair and hands, poking her eyes and so forth. She is such a nurturer, this Emmy of ours. Just see for yourself.. ; )

Someday I'll find and upload the pictures of all her travels Eastward, but for now I just have to say, we are so happy this little girl is ours. Her laughs are sometimes hard to get out of her, but her smiles are always at the ready for us. She is a goof with her brother and they are always putting on shows for one another, usually with Mont ending up in the fit of giggles. They are quite the pair, our two. I love them to pieces.

Happy birthday little Emmy dear!