Since our evening of sharing a diet coke (see last post), the girls and I have moved on to “harder” stuff.

Last week when Jan had a client dinner the three of us shared a bottle of this,

A bit decadent perhaps?

But life is short, people.

Take it from us, it was meant to be ENJOYED!

(Nothing like a little non-alcoholic sparkling cider to get the blood flowing!)

Clara’s speech has taken off in the last few weeks. I mean she hasn’t turned into Winston Churchill or anything – but she has been saying some real winners.

Of late my two favorite things were:

As I was giving her a slice of pizza she said to me,

“Thank you, my darling.”

Later in the week when we were at the drive through she said:

“This my lucky day!”

And yes, we have eaten out every night since Jan has been gone. Judge me. I don’t care. We are going out again tonight, with friends and it is more than likely we’ll be going out on Friday night too.

Like I  told you before, we are a dangerous trio!

…goes out of town, he takes all the testosterone this house has ever known with him.

And crazy things start to happen.

I think of them as “extreme female moments”

By far, though, the best female moment I have shared with the girls was during our weekly Family Home Evening — when Millie, Clara and I sat on the sofa and shared a diet coke! We opened with a song and prayer so that makes everything okay….doesn’t it?

I don’t know.

I just don’t.

But one thing is certain, there is just no telling what kind of mischief this trio is going to get up to in the next 48 hours!

Come home soon, dad – I don’t think we can be trusted!

TACO SOUP.

It may be utterly uncool, made in a crock-pot, and a Mormon comfort food

but it is good!

The other day my good friend’s little girl came home after a really scary, four day hospital stay. So, I took this family taco soup. As I made it I felt like it wasn’t good enough (for all the reasons mentioned above). But that evening, as I ate it I realized something, uncool or not – taco soup is TASTY!

I for one would like to say that I eat it, I like it and it makes me very happy.

&

speaking of admitting to being a fan of something that is “uncool”

THIS JUST IN (and especially for my sisters):

I went to pick up our mail and the unthinkable happened. I looked through the Land’s End catalog and found multiple things that I LIKE and WOULD WEAR!

This is not just CRAZY TALK, my friends, I mean it!

Check it out and see if you concur

See what I mean?

And the prices are VERY reasonable!

Check out Land’s End’s groovy new brand, CANVAS

&

perhaps

Like me, you may be pleasantly surprised!

If there is such thing as an “anti-hero” could there be such a thing as “anti-cool”, which in the end, turns out to be TOTALLY GROOVY?

Ponder that, over taco soup while flipping through the new Land’s End catalog in a parallel universe…or something!

Did you know that I have 28 posts in my “draft” section? That’s nuts. I think I will post a few of them. Not because they are any good, just because reading one of them is better than reading nothing or old posts (I’m probably the only one who does that around here).

Without further ado, here is one that I wrote last year!

*******

When you look at this picture, what do you see?

A cookie Jar, my little “junk catcher” with a birdie a top, a bread box and a butter nut squash. No?

For some unknown reason when I looked at this combination of objects this is what I imagined,

I will just come out and say I am not a big fan of the holiday. This year I really tried to love it because Stephanie Nielson loves it so much, and she is one of my heroes. I even ventured to Pottery Barn to BUY some decorations but….I just couldn’t. I mean, it’s cool if you love it and it’s your favorite time of year.

It’s just not mine.

I’d rather spend my energy on Christmas.

This year I did “make” my daughters costumes. And this might be the last time I do that.

As I don’t normally go to these lengths I had to document my efforts.

The girls were flower fairies.

(Clara’s wings & wand courtesy of Aunt Summer! Thanks again, Sum!)

We even decorated our trunk for the ward’s Trunk or Treat, thanks to Jan.

We went to Stop & Shop to grab some decorations about an hour before the party was due to start (he, he, he). Well, there were only Christmas decorations for sale — all the Halloween decorations had been sold or cleared out.

But we were able to find some black and orange card stock.

So we sat down together and every one of us worked together (even Clara made something) to decorate our trunk.

Here’s what our trunk looked like…

Not bad, eh? Considering the last minute nature of our efforts.

Hope you had a happy one!

and now,

BRING ON CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(and a little Thanksgiving in the middle)