Levi's First Book

Levi wrote his first book yesterday. Naturally, it was about Star Wars. He is still just a tad obsessed.

Here is the cover. I really do not know who this is a picture of. Somebody in Star Wars I guess. But he did give the book a title. It is just on the second page.

The second page. It says "Darth Maul." Now, I was helping him with spelling and all, so if any of these Star Wars-y names are spelt wrong, completely my fault.

Page Three. This says "Darth Maul and Obi-One." Anybody who knows Star Wars, and now I know, that Darth Maul has a double light saber. Both ends are red. Obi-One is supposed to have a blue light saber. Momentary lapse in judgment.

Page Four. This says "Qui-Gon ghost." Obi-One received his Jedi training from Master Yoda and Master Qui-Gon. Darth Maul kills Qui-Gon, thus turning him into a ghost.

Page Five. This says, not in order, "Darth Maul fell into the big hole and died." You see, Darth Maul had killed Obi-One's teacher, Qui-Gon. Darth Maul and Obi-One fight, and Obi-One successfully defeats Darth Maul.

What is in a Name

Warning! This post is about a stupid television show that I am addicted to!!!

Okay, so we all know that I like watching Survivor. It is a bit childish and moronic, but whatever, I still enjoy it, and I will still watch it.

However, there are a few problems with this season thus far. Remember, only two episodes have been shown; There are still another 15 or so to go...

First of all, you know how when you like something or have something that another complete stranger has, you feel this strange connection? I remember when I bought my first brand new car. I got a Saturn. I was so in love with that baby. Ahh, memories. Anyway, as soon as I drove it off the lot, I noticed everybody had a Saturn. They were everywhere! Other drivers would wave and nod their heads at me, just because we were both driving Saturns.

In reality, there were no more Saturns on the road that day than the previous day. I just happened to notice them.

It is the same way with names. I think in my life I have only known one other person named Levi. And he was a brother of a high-school friend, so I don't even know if that counts. Naturally, now that I have a son named Levi, I see that name everywhere. There was a grocery bagger at the Safeway on Roosevelt named Levi. A family in student housing had a baby about a year ago and named him Levi. The family that moved into our old apartment at student housing has a son named Levi. And lately, there is Levi Johnston. Naturally, I like all of these men/boys, simply because of their names.

My father's name was Russell. Levi's middle name is Russell. I like the name Russell. Unfortunately this season of Survivor is starting to give a bad rap to the name that I love. You see, there is a man on Survivor, named Russell of course, who is a complete jerk. He is seriously a conniving ego-maniac. He is already a multi-millionaire, who just wants to be on Survivor to "keep things interesting." He lied to his entire tribe by telling them that his dog that he had for nine years drowned in Hurricane Katrina. He told this sob story about waiting on his roof for two days before he was rescued. All the girls were teary eyed.

Plus, this is really the gross part about Russell, he walks around in his tight boxer shorts. Not a pretty sight ladies! Add to the picture his pot-belly and I think I paint a not too pleasant picture. To make matters worse, Russell teamed up with the second lamest player in Survivor, Ben. Benjamin is my brother's name. Ben is a trash talking, condescending, vindictive baby. The player, not my brother. Jeez.

At least on the other tribe there is another player named Russell who is seriously awesome. Good Russell's team is kicking Bad Russell's team, so Survivor has not spent tons of film time on him. But I get a good feeling; he has dreadlocks.

Anyway, I really cannot stand this Russell character. Ben either. Sorry Carrie!

My Day Alone

My neighbor and I are trading babysitting days. Today was our first trade, and I was the lucky mom who went from 8:30 to 3:00 without any children. That is right. I was all alone today.

The feeling was rather weird. At times, I really did not know what I should do, which, oddly enough, is a strange sensation for me. But I did manage to get a few things accomplished. Obviously, some were more important than others. Like, I really did not need to spend as much time on hulu. Or I probably should not have been on facebook for so long. Other activities, like showering, were immensely wonderful to be doing by myself. Here is how I spent my day:

Watched the new show Modern Family on hulu. (loved it!)

Washed, folded and dried seven loads of laundry.

Made almond milk and a kick-ass dinner.

Went on a long run in a fancy neighborhood.

Watched Glee on hulu.

Watched The Daily Show on hulu.

Took a long shower.

Re-organized my bathroom.

Made all the beds and picked up all the toys.

Ran the dishwasher two times, and put away all the clean dishes.

Made a delicious and healthy lunch.

Patched a pair of Levi's jeans.

Sorted through Claire's and Levi's clothes. Put away the ones that don't fit and moved the next size up into their drawers.

Planned my home-preschool lesson for Tuesday.

I think it was a day well spent. Except for hulu. Man, that place is addicting. Don't tell Josh; I like to let him think that every day is emotionally and physically exhausting.

Kung Fu Moves

Dang-it, these boys are cute. I love them!

A Food Post

Spokane has a wonderful variety of produce and an incredible amount

of summer sunshine in which to grow those fruits and vegetables. My neighbor has a rather large garden and has generously given much of his produce to us. I have canned a lot (strawberry-rhubarb jam, peach jam, and apple butter) and cooked a lot of delicious food. Here are just a few:

Whole-wheat cardamon bread:

Strawberry-rhubarb jam:

An uber-fantastic dinner with homemade naan, hummus, peanut satay sauce, curry rice, bruschetta, olives, grilled chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts:

Another delish dinner. Pizza with caramelized onions, broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes, basil and mozzarella.

Our neighbor also let us plant a few plants in his garden. Since I did not get around to doing so until July, I did not really think that anything would grow. So I let Claire and Levi pick out anything, since it was more of a learning experience than a growing experience.

Turns out, I was wrong. Levi loves cucumbers, so he chose those. Claire loves beans, so she chose green beans. We had a harvest party when we got back from Seattle:

Here is Claire and our neighbor, Owen, holding one of the millions of zucchinis that grew in our portion of the garden.

And here is Claire's green beans and Levi's cucumbers, which we ate for dinner that night. YUM!

Random Pictures

For Becca

Vanilla Almond Granola

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup light brown sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1/3 cup wheat germ

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup sliced almonds

Heat the oven to 300. Line two cookie sheets with aluminum foil.

In a large bowl, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt. Add the oats and wheat germ, then stir the mixture until it is evenly blended.

Spread the granola onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 20 minutes, stirring once halfway through to keep it from burning and encourage even baking.

Remove the pans from the oven and stir the granola again. Add the almonds, then return the pans to the oven to bake 10 minutes more. Note: Keep an eye on the granola during this period and stir it occasionally so that it doesn't burn.

Remove the granola from the oven and stir it one last time. Allow it to cool completely on the pans, about 15 minutes. When it has cooled, transfer the granola to an airtight container.

I will make the above recipe, but substitute unsweetened coconut for the almonds and omit the vanilla. Both are great cereals.

*recipe is from Family Fun's September magazine.*

Mommy Tag (2)

With Levi and Claire at preschool this morning, I had a lot of time to myself. Now that it is over, I wish I had been more productive...

But I did get some blogging done, some dishes done, some Internet perusing done. As I was looking over my blog archives, I found some questions that I had asked Levi about me. It was almost a year ago exactly when I asked him the following questions. Here are his answers today:

What is something mom always says to you? "I love you."

What makes mom happy? "When I do good things. Like when I am punching and doing bad stuff, you don't like that."

What makes mom sad? "When I am bigger, I don't wanna have kids. That makes you sad. I don't wanna have kids, because I don't know how!"

How does mom make you laugh? "You tell me jokes, and it makes me laugh. Funny!"

How old is mom? "4"

How tall is mom? "As tall as my bed."

What is mom's favorite thing to do? "Go to work out."

What does mom do when you're not around? "You exercise and do stuff."

If mom was famous, what would she be famous for? "Sewing."

What is mom really good at? "You are really good at dancing."

What is mom not really good at? "You are bad at doing... hum... hum... mom... you are bad at... I need to think of something that Papa is good at and then that will be something that you are bad at. You are not good at playing doctor, are you?"

What does mom do for her job? "Watch us while papa goes to work."

What is mom's favorite food? "Sweet potato chips."

What makes you proud of your mom? "You clean and mop and do lots of stuff."

If mom was a cartoon character, who would she be? "Bob, no Wendy."

What do you and your mom like to do together? " We go to the beach and do stuff."

How are you and your mom the same? "We are both white, and Bitty and Papa are tan."

How are you and your mom different? "I am smaller, and you are bigger. That is how we are different. And you have more freckles than me."

How do you know your mom loves you? "You cook dinner a lot."

Night out with Grandma

Last week, Joshua's mother came out to Spokane for the night to hang out with the kids. Since she has such little time with us, we tried to make it a really fun night out on the town.

Josh was able to get home early, so we all went out to dinner downtown. After that we walked to Riverfront Park to do the touristy things.

We rode on the carousel,

We rode the gondola over the Spokane River,

And then we walked across the bridge to the YMCA, where we all went swimming.

We had a great time! The kids loved seeing Grandma Kay and it was a wonderful night.

More Recycling Ideas

Spokane does not recycle cereal boxes. I feel guilty about throwing so many recyclable materials in the garbage, that I have been saving some to bring to Seattle next week to recycle there. Because we love cereal, we have tons of empty boxes. I thought those would make perfect magazine or paper holders. Lesley was over this past weekend and suggested that I decoupage them with some of Levi's artwork.

Here are the results: