Congratulations to Mama C-ta on the birth of Julian! He’s such a sweetie, Cara! You did good!!!

Eden is watching blues clues and Honor just woke up. I just poured him some orange juice and stuck a waffle in the toaster for him. I love the way he gets so excited over his morning waffle. “Up! Up! Up!” he says until I pick him up so he can watch the toaster. We stand there while he says, “Hot, hot” until the waffle pops up. Every single time, he jumps in my arms. Even though he’s expecting it, it still scares him. A split second later, he erupts in excited laughter reaching for, “HOT, HOT, HOT.” I never knew a waffle could be so exciting.

Because we were too lazy to get moving Friday and go camping, we decided to go up to the Grand Mesa Sunday for an evening picnic. (An interesting fact, the Grand Mesa is the largest flat-topped mountain in the world.) I CANNOT BELIEVE how many mosquitos were up there. It was unreal. The second we stepped out of the car, they swarmed us. All I have to say is thank God for deet. We managed to escape with very few bites.

The kids had a great time stomping on pine cones and throwing rocks. That and fighting with each other, I have a feeling it’s just beginning…

I thought that the kids looked cute dressed in matching gray sweatshirts, but Jim thought Eden looked like a boy. When I yelled at him for saying that, Eden said.

“It’s no problem. It was a joke.”

She’s so stinking cute. And Honor, well… he’s such a mess. Lucky for him he’s cute too.

We roasted hot dogs over the fire and by the time the fire died down, every mosquito on the mountain figured out that there was fresh meat just standing there. So we packed up and headed home.

I think next time we’ll opt for desert camping.

I was thinking of this the other day when I was making a spicy bean salad with pasta; I want to take on a little challenge for summer. I’m going to gather together 100 salad recipes. There are endless salad possibilities and I want to try them all. yum.

So here’s what I’d like from you, my faithful readers. Send me your salad recipes!

I’ve got just a few requirements.
*First that they only contain meat that is kosher, that means no pork, bottom feeder fish (shrimp, crab, lobster, catfish, etc…) Because I want to be able to eat it!
*Second, that you’ve tried the recipe and it’s yummy!

You can send your recipes via email to salads@pretendingsanity.com. Recipes can be in the form of a link to the recipe website where you found them or typed up. If you can include a photo, even better. If you mail me a photo, just send it in it’s original size. I can edit it myself.

I’m excited to see what kinds of salad concoctions you’ll be bringing my way!

EDIT: Here’s my salad progress so far. 100 salads

Monday
Chicken Fajitas

Tuesday
Chicken, rice and black bean salad

Wednesday
Taco Bell

Thursday
Dahl – if anyone has a good recipe, I’d love to have it

Friday
Tandoori Chicken Kebabs

Saturday
We’re going to a wedding

Sunday
leftovers

Be thinking of salad recipes, I’ll have more next week.

I finished the One Skein Wonder last weekend. I’ll post pics of it whenever the time correlates that Jim is here to take a picture and I don’t look like a slob.

Thanks to Joelene who inspired me to knit one and for the suggestions on changing the ribbing. Joelene’s the bestest!

Things are pretty even keel here, I’m just trying to figure out how to deal with a strong willed baby. Holy cow! is he a stinker these days. I know what it’s like to want your way, but come on HONOR! you’re not even two yet! My mom always said that my sister was in payment for my uncles childhood because he didn’t have any kids. I think I’m being paid back for my sisters actions as a child. NOT FAIR! But there’s one in every family right? I think it’s Gods way of keeping things….. interesting (and by interesting I mean… INSANE).

Have a good weekend everybody, I promise that I’ll be a better blogger next week.

“Mom, sometime when I get big, I’m going to have big, big, BIG boobs, like you and I can wear a bra.”

-Eden

We had a great 4th of July weekend. Except for the fact that I was sick and convinced that I was pregnant (I’m not). But that’s another story.

On the 3rd, we went with some friends to Mack, Colorado which is about 15 miles away from us and home to the famous Country Jam, USA. (I’m ashamed to be giving Country Jam even that much publicity, I loathe country music.) There, with about 10,000 other vehicles, we watched a great firework display.

It was pretty cool, we didn’t really know what to expect, having never, EVER been to Country Jam. So, we arrived to acres and acres of cars parked in a big grass field. Everyone brought their grills and fireworks and lawn chairs and some of them, like the people behind us, brought their whole liquor cabinet. (yikes!)

The firework show was fairly impressive, the kids enjoyed it SO much. Eden and her friend Alannah had so much fun oooing and aahhing over the display.

Honor was so excited over it too, every time a blossom would explode in the sky he’d shout, “MOM!” Just in case I didn’t see it.

There were so many cars there in Mack (what a name for a town huh?) that it took TWO HOURS to get out of there. We didn’t even bother to get in our cars, we just watched the vehicles in front of us inch along and the drivers yell at each other. Seriously, the truck in front of us moved two car lengths in one hour. We finally got out of there and were home by 1am.

For the 4th we went over to my friend Brooke’s house to eat tons of food and light off fireworks. You can’t tell by this picture, but the kids loved the sparklers.

There are no pictures of Honor holding a sparkler because it took both of us to keep mr. destruct-o-con from catching something on fire. I know that comes as a great shock…

On the way home, late last night, having stayed up WAY past her bed time for two nights in a row, Eden tiredly told us how things were.

“I don’t like the fireworks that go on the ground. I like the fireworks that go in the sky. The fireworks that go on the ground are a little bit scary.”

Since the little minions were driving mommy out of her mind, i opted to do a swap for a week, so she’s down at the office keeping the kids in line… and i’m at home masquerading as the spoon wielding harbinger of sore bottoms.

Well… actually my week has gone more like this…

But don’t tell mommy, she thinks we’re hard at working cleaning … something.

It’s kind of my unofficial vacation. Being self-employed one can never actually take vacations. We’re not like the cubical farm inhabitants of corporate America. Things like paid vacation, sick time and benefits are not in our vocabulary. They are mere shimmers of a dream, faint wisps of something far off that we read about in books, but ..

oh wait.. a dispute has arisen over the ownership of the sheep toy.. i must grab my spoon and investigate …

All is well, we were able to settle the dispute with peaceful negotiations.

SO.. where was i? Oh, the joys of self employment. i think i can sum it up best in the words of the old man. “Why should I work 8 hours a day for someone else, when I can work 16 for myself!”. Words of wisdom i shall cherish and someday pass on to my son when he decides to throw his sanity and financial stability to the wind and start his own entrepreneurial endeavors.

I should quit before this turns into a book, but rest assured as you all toil away in your grey fabric cells, munching your power bar and wasting your employers time reading my wife’s website… I SHALL RETURN!!

Now, where did i put my spoon?

I’d love for each of you to post the link to your blogs. Many of you don’t always post the link when you comment and I like to visit all of your sites. I’m going to build a page with all your links for easier browsing.

So send me your link!

(note: to cut down on spam, I have the comments set up so I have to approve comments that include links, so if it doesn’t show up right away, that’s why.)