Not a Medium anymore

Today was my return-Christmas-present-day, but this year was a little more depressing than most. I had to return every single piece of clothing given to me this year. Not because I'm picky and didn't like the color, not because they were the wrong style, not because the sleeves and inseams were too lengthy, but because *eek!* EVERYTHING was too small. The sweatshirts were too tight, the shirts too short and hugged my love handles a little too closely, the jackets couldn't button...Every single clothing item returned for a bigger size.

I don't know whether I should be flattered that I look smaller than I truly am, like I "hide" my extras in all the right places, or if I should be downright depressed that the size I used to be is in the very distant past.

I think I need to go drown my sorrows in a milkshake.

Mom's Cheeseball

I'm no Betty Crocker, and this isn't going to be a blog that resembles anything close to a cooking web site, but thought I would share this recipe today. This has been a family tradition for the holidays since I was old enough to appreciate a good cheeseball. It's a pretty simple recipe and every time I bring it to a friend's house I always get the same response: "I didn't know people could make cheeseballs!" I guess some are under the impression they grow on trees?!?

In any case, below is the recipe.

Cheeseball

1 box cream cheese (8 oz)
2-3 Tbsp A-1 Sauce
3/4 C shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 C diced onions
1 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 C Chopped Pecans

After the ingredients are mixed, chop up another 1/2-3/4 cup of Pecans and spread out on cutting board. Roll up the mixture in a ball and roll around on chopped pecans to completely cover. Serve with favorite crackers.

A little surprise lurking behind the bushes

I guess you can tell I'm a new blogger because I want to post every chance I get. I'm thinking this will taper off with time.

This is the moose that was eating the unidentified bush in our backyard this morning-this was not zoomed in and was taken from my back door. Having a bloodhound around always ensures that a moose won't come within a mile radius of your home without you knowing about it, so I wasn't expecting a moose to be so close to the house. She's a pretty small cow (for those of you non-hunters out there girl moose are called "cows" and boy moose are called "bulls" just like cattle...took me a few mistakes of calling them "lady moose" and Jake constantly correcting me to finally call them by their politically correct terms.)

Can Hardly Wait

I discovered this Christmas that when my parents don't have children living at home (this is also their first Christmas as empty nesters, even though their nest wasn't empty as we practically lived there all weekend) they, in particular my father, are too impatient to wait until Christmas day to open up presents. The day before Christmas Eve, Dad persuaded Mom to open up one of two of her gifts from him, so she could "fully appreciate" the movie night with her new heated pillow with little massager balls. Then, as Christmas Eve came to a close, Mom gave in and had Dad open one of his smaller gifts, which she thought was a Blu-Ray DVD (which would then give away the bigger still wrapped gift of a Blu-Ray DVD player) but after opening it, he found it wasn't in fact the Blu-Ray disc, but the DVD game of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (which, by-the-way, is one of the lamest games ever produced.) So, too anxious to stop now, Mom made Dad open his other small gift, the Blu-Ray disc. Of course, then Jake threw his hat in the lets-not-wait-until-Santa-comes wagon by pressuring Dad to open his last and final gift from Mom so the disc could be played on the Blu-Ray player (boys and their high definition). After we got home Jake was so excited about the gift opening extravaganza at Mom and Dad's he wanted me to open all my gifts from him, and his from me. Needless to say, I didn't have a single gift to open come Christmas morning. At least I have the presents from my sibling gift exchange coming in January so I will have a little post-Christmas surprise...I just can't help but wonder how Jake will hold up to the constant begging of our future children who get their lack of patience from their father during Christmastime. Am I the only one that enjoys a little bit of anxiety until Christmas morning? Oh well, it's the child in him that I can't help but love.

Holiday Synopsis

This is me presenting our first Christmas tree (I know, married for three years and our first tree. We've never bothered before because we weren't home on Christmas). Problem is with me standing next to it it kinda dwarfs the tree. Oh well. In our little house we couldn't fit anything bigger any way.

As our first Christmas holiday in Alaska comes to a close, I thought I would quickly reflect on the quiet events. Although we are in our third year as Alaskan residents, this was our first Christmas spent up here, as we had always visited family in Idaho. I think we both were a little nervous that on Christmas we would get that sinking homesick feeling. (Although we had my parents up here as they moved here last summer, it wasn't going to be the big family party like it is in Idaho). Luckily, we were both pretty fried from a couple ringers life had to throw at us the last couple months, including some pretty discouraging news from the state on the time frame for Jake's certification last Friday before Christmas weekend, so we were in the mood for some quiet R&R.

So, with that our weekend got of to a rocky start, but we were quickly cheered up by my parents taking us to our new favorite movie Saturday, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets. After a good movie you can just see Jake's demeanor change as he talks about his favorite scenes. We enjoyed a VERY good dinner and CSI marathon at the parent's house that night. Sunday was pretty quiet, although I had to admit I was proud of the lesson I taught in young womens (I'm on of the leaders in our church's youth program, specifically I work with the teenage girls in the ward.) With the help of my mom the night before and using ideas from various websites (Young Women's Connection is every Young Women leader's dream) I put together a wonderful lesson I felt the girls really appreciated. Sunday afternoon we (again) ate dinner at my parents house with the missionaries, glazed ham and broccoli casserole. Nothing like mom's cookin'! It was later that evening my mother decided instead of traditionally cooking the turkey she was going to smoke it in the oven, a feat she had never attempted before...so the next day was spent calling an old friend, getting directions, purchasing all necessary items and starting the project (the dang thing takes 12 hours just to cook so we started early Monday night). My favorite part of smoking a turkey? Getting to inject the uncooked skin with the brine mixture Mom had prepared. After ten or so injections, I was getting into it and taking that job very seriously. (You are supposed to put a syringe full of brine every inch, so on this twenty pound turkey we had a LOT of injections). That's the closest I will ever get to injecting anything in any animal, as I will leave the medical stuff to the many siblings we have who are in the medical field. Evidently, I'm not one for needles unless it's a dead turkey and I'm preparing it to be eaten!

Welcome, One and All!

After being a random blog snooper for the better part of this year, I have broken down and decided, yes, to maintain (or at least make a valient effort) a blog of my own. I have titled it "Simply Me" because in a lot of ways my life is pretty simple. I complain, as most do, that I am way too busy and always have too much on my plate, but in reality I don't. No kids, no job, left everyday to feed our dog (Sitka) and clean our house. Of course, life won't always be this uncomplicated as Jake (my husband) is in the process of starting his own real estate appraising company and I will be going back to school full time in the summer, but for now, I am basking in my short-term break from stressful jobs and daily obligations.

I should put in a short disclaimer that although I consider english to be my best subject in school, I am in no way a talented writer and could never compare to the blogs I read that keep me tied to them every day, but will try my best to portray the humor and interesting "Alaskan" experiences I get to enjoy.

So with that, I will welcome you to my first blog entry!