COOKIES!!

Last night we went down to Olympia and took part in a tradition shared by most families, but never by mine. We made cookies! Jim's Mom is an amazing cook, and has been giving me pointers so that one day I too can feed my family delicious and edible food! Cookie baking has been a family favorite for them, and they where gracious to pass on the knowledge! We made two batches of loved and well known cookies, Jan Hagel (which is to die for!) and sugar cookies for decorating, we also made a new one, we'll just call them "stained glass cookies" instead of the weird name the recipe called them. In these cookies you basically make a sugar cookie dough, cut out your shapes then crush candies and put them into the middle cutout of the cookie (we used Jolley Ranchers) then when you bake them, the crushed candies melt then re-harden when cooled, and in the end they look like a very lovely stained glass window!

Despite one very un-timely and uncomfortable asthma attack, the evening was wonderful! Having everyone in the kitchen laughing and working was so much fun! I can see why families love to bake cookies for the holiday's!

Weed and Weights Don't Mix

My best friend and I recently made a goal to run a 5k this spring. I know that's not the most impressive thing you've heard all day, but for two asthmatics, 3.1 miles is a big deal! Anyway, we run three times a week in the lovely and convenient weight room located in the "A" building across the parking lot. Today was day three of this weeks workouts. Bethany came over, we bundled Ammon and made our way towards the treadmills. As we where in-route I was telling Bethany how I had scared myself a few nights before letting my imagination run wild while running late at night, that perhaps someone was hiding in the bathroom. I got so scared that I left early! I had just finished telling my tale when we entered the room. We heard voices coming from the bathroom! We suppressed giggles at the irony and started getting ready when two very young and somewhat suspicious boys emerged from the bathroom and quickly exited without saying a word. Hardly half a minute passed and I hear Bethany exclaim "You've got to be kidding me!" I ask what she's talking about. Then, pointing toward the bathroom she says, "they hot boxed the bathroom!" Sure enough at that moment I could smell it too, those two juveniles had violated the weight room with weed. Trying not to laugh I went and told the manager down the hall. Heading back towards the weight room I could now smell it in the hall. We decided to skip out today (we didn't want to bake Ammon's little brain as well as ours) and headed back to my apartment. As funny as something that "situational" can be, I'm still miffed! Now even something as wholesome and personal as working out has become a thing I have to be cautious about, stepping around other peoples bad decisions. I hate that Ammon was there just as much as I hate when people curse around him or when we have to walk through a cloud of smoke every time we leave a public place. On top of this now I need to "scope out" the weight room to see if there are any half baked teenagers hiding habits from their parents before I can work out. I only wish I'd gotten a better look at em.

We, like sheep

Mass transit...do we even know what that is around here? I thought I did. I thought the answer to the problem would be some trains, you know, light rail! monorail! subway! the CTA to be transplanted right here in Seattle! Wouldn't that be great? We'll it worked for cities like New York and Chicago, why not here? Yea, I thought I knew....till I had to write a 10 page research paper for my English 102 class on "travel" or something having to do with it. I decided to talk about the huge void of mass transit in Seattle, something I greatly miss from the mid west. Well for one of my sources I stumbled upon something rather interesting, check it out. I think this could be the coolest thing to ever happen to the great northwest!

http://kinetic.seattle.wa.us/~prt.html

Holy Birthday!

What happened to the days of the b-day count down? You know what I mean, you would tell your friends "15 days 12 hours and 27 min till I'm _____(insert age here)!" You look forward with great anticipation to the new privileges and responsibility your age and a new year would bring. This year all I could think about was a paper that needs to be written, laundry that is starting to smell, Ammon needs a bath and wait...my birthday is tomorrow? Huh how weird! Maybe it's just the simple fact that there is nothing particularly amazing about being 22. 21 is a big deal, 25 is a milestone, 22 ehhh just nicely tucked in between. I'm just "twenty something" still too young to rent a car. This year though has found me in a beautiful setting. My son each day finds something more to learn and laugh about, we are drawing closer to Christmas break, my husband is the most amazing thing that continues to happen to me (who is, in fact, at this moment shopping for what looks like will be a very promising birthday dinner.) I have to say, life is good. I have really felt lately that this IS what we're made for, family, a loving one at that. It's no wonder I feel joy every time Jim comes home from work or Ammon wakes up with a huge smile on his face. Now, it's not easy, I think that the things worth doing in this life are never easy, but so worth it. So as overlooked as this birthday has been, I think it's by far the best!!!