Candy Corn

All of my favorite candies are seasonal.
I wait impatiently all year for candy canes (and peppermints are not the same), and those caramel-filled Cadbury eggs, and -of course- Candy Corn.
Candy corn is the number 1.
I have eaten an entire bag of Autumn Mix Candy Corn this week. I eat them in order.
A regular, a chocolate, a regular, a chocolate, a pumpkin (green top first), then I repeat.

Sometimes in February or August I get the craving for Candy Corn and buy the cheap-o generic yellow corn-only Candy Corn in the candy isle of gas stations.
I think "If I can't have real candy corn, this will have to do."
But it doesn't do.
It makes matters worse.

Because that candy corn is so filled with corn syrup that it hurts my teeth.
But the equally unhealthy Brachs Candy Corn is made with real honey, and something about that real honey balances out the sugar and corn-syrup and I eat it until I throw up and then I think
"I need another bag, since that last bag was wasted."

I never feel remorse for eating it.
Although my current bag is nearly empty and I will not eat any more after it is.

For at least a few days...

Brown as an African

I am not quite as brown as an African.
That is a fact especially clear when I am seen standing near to Africans.

And yet, Travis and I are both pretty brown, (helped along by yesterday's day at the lake.)
I promise pictures are to come, both from Africa and from this week since we've been home.
The ones from this week may include Travis and I in umbrella hats at the parade, a picture with our friends Cole and Suzie before they left for New York, and a group picture of the Pitchers at the parade.

But I am at work now, so I don't have all my pictures.

I wanted to share one of my theories about the fourth of July:

The things we do to celebrate the fourth of July are a smaller version of the things we love as Americans.

For example: We go to parades.
Americans (I'm stereotyping now, don't get all huffy) like useless but pretty things that are just for show. Americans like showing off what they've done or can do. Americans like sitting around and watching things happen without being involved.

We ride carnival rides.
Americans like to do things that are risky or exciting or scary, just to prove that they can. Americans like to have exorbitant amounts of fun, (even to the extent that they may not actually be having fun - Calvin and Hobbes, anyone?)

We wear costumes/dress the same as our whole family.
Americans LOVE costumes. Haven't you ever been to a city? or a marathon? And those grumpy middle-aged men who can't be talked into a costume still wear the same blue American-flag bedecked Old Navy t-shirt as all of their kids and as their wife under the pretense of... keeping together? Americans have some of the most boring clothes as well as the most useless income, so the need for costumes makes perfect sense. (When I say useless income I mean, after paying for the necessities there is still money left... what should we spend it on? Costumes, of course.)

We wave flags, shout out the constitution, and dress very patriotically.
Because even Americans who claim to hate the USA can't help but be ethnocentric.... I mean.... patriotic.

Okay, I'm done.
Happy 6th of July.
And happy independence day.

Easter

Check out pictures of our family dying easter eggs on our photoblog: Tandem Bike Photography.

Week in Pictures: Family Comes, Happiness Ensues.

I remember that they are crazy.

Kathryn is almost five. FIVE!
Baby Isaac is three (maybe four?) months old and boy can he laugh!
Jack and I look exactly the same, especially now with the same haircut.

mostly, I love this picture since Renn and Isaac are making the same face.

Week in Pictures: Holi Festival

I am going to try to go all week without writing, just posting pictures. These words, of course, don't count. And since today is Sunday, the beginning of the week, I figured I'd start today by showing you what I did yesterday.

For more pictures see Lana or Paige's blog.

Squinting at the sunlight. Oops, those are words. Maybe I'm allowed to caption some pictures...

Pi Day, Ides of March and St. Patrick's Day

This is one week of entirely goofy holidays.

But who's going to complain about pie, togas, and people dressed in entirely TOO much green?

Not I.
No sir, not I.

p.s. Is it sad that I tagged this post with things like togas, green and when I started to type in PIE it popped right up? I guess I've tagged posts before as being about pie.
:)

Christmas (a.m.)

I love Christmas. I love it more than any other holiday in the whole year.
This year we had Christmas morning with Travis's family, Christmas evening with the Patch family, and (hopefully) we will spend the rest of the holiday with my family up in Montana.
(we should be there now, but 12 hours before we were supposed to leave our car broke down.... again.)

So here are some of my favorite pictures of Christmas morning with the Pitchers:












I did get a little carried away with the burst mode on my camera, and took a lot of "action shots." My favorite are here:
Dave opening a gift (I think it was the bathrobe pictured above)


Tessa opening a gift (a zebra-striped pillow, I believe)


and my favorite blurry pictures of the day (and trust me there were lots of blurry pictures). This is Tate trying to tackle Tessa and consequently being thrown on to the couch and sat upon, oooh, it's fun to have little brothers to pick on!

It's a Wonderful Film

(apparently my theme for the day is "bad puns instead of titles")

We watched It's a Wonderful Life. Kayla and Charne had never seen it. Mind blowing. Charne, fine. But Kayla grew up in America, and Minnesota at that! Goodness knows Minnesotans love their holidays.

After the movie Kayla said, "It was pretty good."

She was the only girl in the room who didn't sob uncontrollably during the film, in fact, she didn't cry at all.

It's a Wonderful Life is not only the most wonderful Christmas film in the world, though. It is also one of the most wonderful films in the history of wonderful films.

The only copy that we could find in the entire city of Missoula was 16 dollars. Very pricey for a film over 60 years old, and a holiday classic. We couldn't even find it at Wal-Mart!
We bought it though. We've been needing a copy and my family couldn't find theirs so we bought one to watch.

Totally worth it.

High Time for Pie Time

I am thankful for family.
I am thankful for friends.
I am thankful for pie.

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving Day!

(p.s. Chelsea and I made the following pies: 1 smooth pumpkin, 1 rustic pumpkin, 1 apple, 1 angel, 1 peach. Surprisingly the peach was the favorite of most... )

Thanksgivins

We are leaving today.
In two and a half hours.
To drive to Montana.

I've been preparing all week.
No, I haven't been catching up on homework, don't be silly!

I've been making a mental list of all the things to not forget.

Been prepping my stomach for more food than it's used to (quite a feat, it's used to a lot!)

Been burning and then decorating a slew of CDs to listen to in the car.

My computer is charging as we speak.

My mind is racing with road trip food that we can't forget to pick up.

ooooh, Beef Jerky! I want to eat you NOW!

Family, I will see you soon. Maybe you'd best start mentally preparing yourselves for us, too.

Who can blame me for listening to Christmas music?

It certainly feels like the Holiday season.
It's cold outside, I drink hot cocoa or tea with my breakfast, and presents arrive on my doorstep every day.

I am usually too busy to write, (I'm sorry my blog has been lacking in posts.)
But today when we opened the door we got the most exciting gift yet.
It was wrapped in a big red bag, and white bow, like Santa just dropped it off.
and inside was a shiny beautiful Kitchen Aid Mixer.

I'm almost excited to write Thank You letters, because I'm so psyched for this present, and others. (Thanks to my Auntie and Uncle)
Some other favorites: A big basket of cleaning supplies, a beautiful Bridal Shower, which I know I didn't write about because I'm so lazy, but was amazing thanks to my wonderful friends, lovely copper-lined steel cookware, and lots of pretty dishes and kitchen supplies.
Thanks to all,
I am LOVING this part of being engaged.

Everyday is like Christmas.

(p.s. Bridal Shower pictures and stories can be found on dear Lana's blog, if you're interested.)

p.s.s. Imagine in your mind for a minute a little girl who is not allergic to hay and doesn't swell up around barnyard animals. This little girl loves ponies.
Now pretend that she got a new, shiny, perfect little pony.
I would say that when I unwrapped the Kitchen Aid, I screamed like a little girl, but I doubt little girls scream over Kitchen Aids. I screamed like a grown up girl who finally got her hypo-allergenic pony.
Of course, this pony of course requires little care, and works for you in the kitchen.