Sibs

Apparently yesterday was sibling day. Were you aware that there was a day for siblings? I was not. That is until I checked facebook this morning and found a plethora of statuses about Sibling Day and photos of my friends with their brothers and sisters, many of them at least ten years ago.

Had I known about sibling day I doubt I would have behaved at all differently, but I do like the idea of a day for siblings. After all, what's better than your sibs?

I'm the middle child in my family. Each of my parents had a kid with another partner before they got hitched, then they had me and my little sister. Technically there are four of us so there isn't really a middle kid, but only three of us ever lived together at the same time, and each parent only had three children... so I'm in the middle.

I was thinking about this today as I watched my first ever episode of "The Middle" 

(I was underwhelmed, but it had its moments.) 

In this episode the father mentions that his oldest son is his favorite child  and the middle kid (the only daughter) makes it her mission to bond with her dad so they will have more in common and, basically, so he'll like her more. Kind of sweet actually, but the daughter is annoying and the dad soon tires of all the father-daughter time. Ultimately the daughter decides that her brother gets more attention because he's more trouble, and she tries to act out to get noticed. This backfires and the family doesn't notice her when she goes missing for a few hours.

(I really hope I didn't just ruin this for you. 

For a show I wasn't too into, I clearly have plenty to say about it.)

Anyway... I completely get the middle child thing. 

Overall my sisters were much more trouble than I was and it was easy to skate by pretty unnoticed. 

Over the years I've guilt tripped the heck out of my folks for some of these middle child slights (and some of them truly did upset me as a kid) but the truth is 

I LOVE my place in the family. 

I love that I have awesome older sisters who can share their experiences, give me useful advice, and 

always had the coolest clothes and makeup. 

I also have the most fabulous little sister 

(now a good 4 inches taller than me) 

who kept me silly, taught me how to be responsible, and is probably the real reason I was sane 

(and not totally wild) when my parents split up 

when I was in jr. high.

You three are amazing and the bestest siblings 

a girl could ever have!

-Mia

Checklist

Today was a crazy one! After I posted yesterday I got to work on transferring my teaching certification from Delaware to Kansas... and ended up confused and overwhelmed do to some crazy and befuddling paperwork. Ugh.

So, today I decided that I would have a day

I could be proud of. A day of accomplishment!

S I made a list.

And accomplish I did!

Today I:

1. Emailed 3 people about my certification and cleared up yesterday's befuddlement.

2. Made social plans for tomorrow (yay!)

3. Ordered official transcripts (bye $14.50- I'll miss you!)

4. Applied to volunteer at the animal shelter and donated litter that Gus has deemed not up to snuff

5. Played with Gus and ate real food for lunch (ie. not cereal)

6. Called my mother

7. Emailed a sister

8. Applied for another (part-time) job

9. Took the first step toward making Paul and myself new Christmas stockings

10. Did dishes.

Some of those things were nice and quick, but some of them took waaaaayyyy too long. (oh, 11. Gus and I watched "Switched at Birth." But it wasn't exactly on my to-do list.)

 Phew. I'm beat.

Time for some packaged Indian food, I think!

And, to reward anyone who put up with a blog post that is actually just my to-do list- photos from our epically long hike!

What is this?? It's like a toad and a lizard had a baby.

Not bad, eh?

Bison.

Enjoy and have a lovely evening!

Mia

The First Day of Fall

The J-Ms had themselves a thoroughly entertaining time this past weekend! (and we hope you did too!)

Paul took Friday off for Gus's procedure at the vet

 (we made an appointment with a rabbit specialist, so we have to drive out of town, which basically becomes a day-long affair.) but since the vet was sick we ended up with an unexpected 3 day weekend!

We got some things done (including finally planting the mums i bought last week 

and filling up some holes around the house that we're terrified mice will consider welcomes signs 

once the weather cools down), but we also had a great time 

hitting up our favorite second-hand stores (I bought some sweaters and pants to be turned into

 delightful new stockings this Christmas) and taking an epically long hike.

Ok, the hike wasn't supposed to be epically long, but due to some misunderstandings, it became so.

After hour 3 it also became my nemesis as I realized that I hadn't used any 

sunscreen and there is no way one can hike the prairie for 3+ hours without getting mega-burnt. 

(The irony of getting the worst burn of my summer on the first day of fall did not evade me.)

We then followed up our epic hike with some (veggie) burgers and

 (drumroll if you please) 

pumpkin ice cream!

I didn't take a picture of my ice cream, but it basically looked like this. mmmmm....

Actually, until Saturday the only ice cream I had ever made was 

Mark's Award Winning Strawberry Ice Cream (the recipe is in my first ever post) 

and I've been kicking myself for literally years, because when I asked for an ice cream maker

I pictured myself making pumpkin, and cheesecake, and apple cider, 

and flavors-yet-to-be-invented ice cream. I was therefore all the prouder of myself for finally getting my tush in gear and making something fantastic (and fall-flavored!)

Here's the recipe I used. The ingredients were basically what I expected

 (and I love that they include the recipe for a "sweet cream base." I see this coming in handy) except for the eggs. I didn't even think about it, but then Paul asked if there were raw eggs in it and I realized, why yes there are. So far no salmonella here, but that does seem odd.

 Is this normal for an ice cream recipe?

Well, that was (roughly) Friday and Saturday in Emporia. What were you up to this weekend? Did you enjoy the fall weather? Or get the worst sunburn ever?

Hope you're having a great start to your week!

-Mia

My Cup of Tea

With all the free time my unemployment has provided me, I've been trying to work on some projects. For the most part they've been home-related (like painting and distressing my dresser in peacock blue!), but after a quick trip to Goodwill the other day I realized I had found my next project.

For a grand total of $10 I bought a set of 10 tea cups with matching breakfast plates (they're like ginormous saucers with room for your cup and your food.) They're very cute- white with gold trim and gold on the handles. 

They look a lot like these --------->

I thought I couldn't be happier with them... until I realized the painting possibilities and broke out my porcelain paints.

 

I have high hopes for these little beauties. So far I've painted two. The first one is a face (it's cute, not creepy. But I don't have a photo so you'll have to take my word for it.) The second one looks like this:

It still needs to be baked (to set the paint) but I can only hope it looks half as cool to other people as it does to me. Because I think it looks awesome! 

So here's the question: what should I do with my other 8 tea cups and plates? 

Suggestions so far have included hippos, whales, clouds, hot air balloons, and bees. Paul thinks I should paint dogs playing poker. I'm not so sure he understands my artistic limitations. (Also, how cool would dogs playing poker be?? Assuming it was done incredibly well. Probably pretty cool.)

Do you have any suggestions? (Now being aware of my limited talents.)

(Also, here's another thing I've mastered during unemployment. Everyone's getting hats for Christmas!)

 Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!

Mia

Somebunny Loves You

This is Gus. Gus is a bunny. Gus makes everything better.

Do you want to know how? Love. 

Don't get me wrong, I love my family, my friends and of course my husband, and I feel very strongly that they love me back. And I appreciate that. But there is just nothing comparable to the love you get from a pet. 

This morning I was experiencing some residual aches of frustration that stemmed from yesterday's job application process (how can just signing up for subbing involve so much paperwork? and so much money?? and how do they not understand that the employment-challenged such as myself don't have a spare $120 to put down in an attempt to find an intermittent and under-payed substitute teaching position??? I digress.) Anyway, I was bummed. Like really bummed. And then there was Gus. And as I sat on the floor moping, watching TV and messing around with the IPad, he came over and sat by me. He covered my jeans in tiny bunny kisses, leaving little wet tongue spots and jumped in and out of my lap (and left hair all over me because this dude is in the middle of a serious molting) and gosh darn it I felt loved. Gus can't do squat about the root of my problems (you know, my lack of job) but he can sure address some of those symptoms (like self pity and sitting on the floor feeling yucky.) So Gus and I watched the rest of whatever we were watching, and I got up, got myself to the Zanzibar Room (that's my work space) and got some stuff done! 

Thanks for the boost, Guster. I needed that!

Ps. Guster is going to the vet for a certain gender-specific surgery on Friday and this bunny-mom is feeling a little anxious. Cross your fingers, send some good energy, or pray for my little dude, ok? I know it's a super routine surgery, but it never feels routine if it's your little pal.

Theme Night

Technically the husband and I are still in the happy throws of newlywed-hood. While we've only been married for just under 5 months, we've been living together for over three years and we've been a couple for a whopping 7 1/2. (Wow... feeling a little old now...) Therefore it should be no real surprise that "making it legal" didn't really change anything in our relationship. We had already semi-merged our finances (we like having our own cash), we had long divided up the household duties, and we were plenty aware of our less-than-lovely traits (ie. my morning hair.) In an effort to change things up we've been working on creating some new married traditions. So far my favorite is theme night! We've only had two, but I'm hoping to make it into an every-other-week tradition. So how does Theme Night work, you ask? Let me enlighten you.
1. Pick your theme. For Example, ABC.
2. Pick food that accompanies your theme. For this theme you can only eat things that start with A, B, or C. (Think Alphabet Soup, Angel Food Cake, Clementines, Boston Cream Pie, Cheese... use your imagination.) I must admit, sometimes we cheat and switch numbers 1 and 2   if we're in the mood for something specific.
3. Pick a film or TV serious to accompany your theme. The obvious choice for this theme being "Big Fish." Am I wrong?
4. Consider decor to accompany your theme. For ABC I suppose you could hang up some classroom posters or blackboards. Decor isn't super necessary here.
5. Are there any activities that lend themselves to this theme? Um, yes. Scrabble.
6. This is optional: Is there any way to surprise your partner/pal/other while adhering to the theme? For Example, secretly buying a dessert or the makings for chocolate cake? While not necessary, surprising someone ups the ante to any theme night.

I completely forgot! Paul bought Happy Camper lotto tickets!

This Saturday Paul and I had the most fabulous theme night ever in the history of theme nights! (Seriously, we're only two in and I'm worried how this is going to be beat.) Here's how it went down:
1. Camp Theme
2. Pizza, breadsticks and chocolate chip cookies. (The cookies were made mid-movie marathon. and originally we were planning a potatoes meal so we could bake with tin foil a la campfire. However, while adhering to the theme is important, so is not having to cook a ton when one is tired and about to movie marathon it up. Pizza still seemed appropriate.)
3." Camp Nowhere" and "Heavyweights". Ah, 90s classics... I didn't think of it until later, but how great would "Wet Hot American Summer" have been? (plus I've seen the beginning of that movies at least twice and I have yet to see the end.)

4. We were planning a tent in the living room and lighting some candles, but we had spent the day cleaning the carpets and the living room floor was wet...
5. We baked cookies. I'm not sure why this seemed to fit. A few rounds of "War" or "BS" would have been more appropriate based on my camp experiences, but cookies it was. And they were delicious.
6. I have to admit, this was the best part. It's also probably why I don't think this Theme Night can ever be beat (and why I'm positive my husband is the best ever at being a husband. Although he rocked the titles of boyfriend and fiance as well... what an over-achiever.) HE SET UP A TENT IN THE STUDY! I thought he was off putzing in the basement or doing laundry or something, but no. He was setting up a tent using the poles he discovered in the ceiling while cleaning or basement (if only that was the weirdest thing we'd found) and furnishing it with every pillow we own. We bought an awesome projector screen at a flea market last week, so he plugged his mini projector into that and we watched our movie marathon and ate our pizza and breadsticks from the tent. Swoon.

Our makeshift tent. It's not a very good photo, but it was impressive, I tell you!

While I've been typing I've been trying to come up with some more Theme Night ideas. I think Gangsters would make a great theme. You could watch "The Sting" or "Some Like it Hot" and eat spaghetti and play poker. Or maybe an 80s night with Pretty in Pink or Say Anything... but what would you eat for that? Oooo, or Under the Sea with Back to the Future or The Little Mermaid and eat seafood. (Or fake seafood for the veggies like me out there. Or maybe something shaped like fish? Get creative folks!)
So, what do you think? Do you have any great Theme Night ideas? Do you have any traditions you recommend?

Easing into Autumn

It's that time of year. Autumn. The time when the weather cools down, you can break out your sweaters and scarves, and everything is apple and pumpkin themed. I freaking love autumn! The thing is, these days everyone seems to love autumn. There have been an abundance of facebook and blog posts lately proclaiming the love of fall colors and pumpkin spice lattes. While I wholeheartedly agree with every single ode to autumn, I sort of feel like no one else should get to proclaim their love. I'm a fall baby and growing up I was typically one of three with a November birthday in my class. Fall was my time. And mine alone. So who are all these people coming out of the woodwork trying to steal my most beloved season?

Summer a few years ago. Notice the pants? Clearly not 100+ degree weather.

 

As I work to conquer my obviously undeserving jealousy, I'm also dealing with the fact that, for the first time in ages, I don't feel ready for fall. Don't get me wrong, I'm still looking forward to fall, but I don't feel like I really got to experience summer this year. It's just been too freaking hot! Where the barbeques, the camping trips, and the kayaking?? For this reason I've decided not to leap into fall, but to ease into it. I might break out the sweaters and boots, but who said I have to give up on key lime pie and strawberry ice cream??

So to celebrate the end of the summer, here's my tastebuds' favorite part of summer!

Mark's Award-Winning Strawberry Ice Cream:

2 packages -10 oz.- frozen strawberries thawed and drained.  (sliced is best)
2 c. granulated sugar
4 c. sour cream

(My ice cream maker is a little smaller, so I halve the recipe.)

That's right- 3 ingredients and the magical flavor of summer is yours! Enjoy!