Tuesday, September 30, 2008

mmm pumpkin

pumpkin muffins

Found a neat food blog Smitten Kitchen while looking for a pumpkin muffin recipe. I changed mine up a little bit because of some missing ingredients and I really really liked it...not a good thing for a gal who is doing so well on her weight loss!

Pumpkin Muffins


1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15-oz can)
1/6 cup vegetable oil
1/6 cup melted butter
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1¼ cups sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Put oven in middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put liners in muffin cups.

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, butter, eggs, spice, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.

Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about three-fourths full), then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

Monday, September 8, 2008

yes another one

10 things about me

Hopefully you read this blog even if I am not crafting. I am working on photo biz stuff and every once inawhile take a break to do something random like this. Read it, laugh and go do something like it yourself.

10 things about me, I am not really narcissistic.


1. ok maybe I am a little narcissistic. I am fortunate to have people around me that like me and let me know, it's quite an ego booster when you take it to heart (tip: take compliments to heart)
2. chile picante corn nuts and red vines licorice are prime staples for any road trip...I know!
3. I tend to listen to the same music over and over again until I am tired of it, then it becomes nostalgic
4. I'm considering getting a pilots license so I can go see far away friends whenever I want, but...I am a paranoid girl
5. I think I would like to own finches someday. I love the chirp they make.
6. I think my baby looks like Chevy Chase back in the "Fletch" days...it's her hair. It makes for weird nursing moments
7. I indulged in a secret junior banana split from Sonic this week
8. I didn't shower (yet?) today...what do you care?! ;)
9. One of my most memorable and favorite outfits was a pair of white capris and a flourescent pink shirt (1985?)
10. Favorite thing that happened today was miss B running around with an old cel taking pictures of barbies, shoes, me and the baby

Sunday, September 7, 2008

We interrupt (nothing) for this special bulletin

Yay! I can rest (for a minute)

So I guess I am all about the cause right now. I got this email forwarded from my aunt. I always find it difficult to make up my mind when voting for our president. Sometimes it seems futile given the choice in candidates. My candidate isn't on the ticket and I have to decide if I should write him in so my voice is heard and counted and practically throw away my vote in the process. The other choice is not so easy... vote republican as I often have, hoping the woman on the ticket whose record thus far is pretty nice, will do something to help fix this country's problems, or fall for the flowery promising words of the democrat whose liberal p.o.v. sometimes mirrors my own. It's better that I vote than to give up and not be heard.

The email:
This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived
only 90 years ago.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to
the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed
nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking
for the vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards
wieling clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage
against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'

(Lucy Burns)
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above
her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping
for air.

(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her
head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate,
Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging,
beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the
Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his
guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they
dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their
food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied
her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her
until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was
smuggled out to the press.

http://memory. loc.gov/ammem/ collections/ suffrage/ nwp/prisoners. pdf

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because-
-why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work?
Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new
movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle
these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling
booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the
actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote.
Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege.
Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history,
saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk
about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought
kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said.
'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use,
my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just
younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The
right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'

HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history,
social studies and government teachers would include the movie in
their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere
else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing,
but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think
a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a
psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently
institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice
Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for
insanity.'

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so
hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic,
republican or independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made.]

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

tagged

I obviously haven't been blogging much. I have had no REAL computer for almost a month and I am going to be swamped with work when it's finally back. I also have been contemplating so much because of Nie. That's been sad and enlightening and frusturating. My cute little family has come to join in with me when we say our night prayers. Little stinkers done even know who they are, but occassionally I hear "and bless the Nielsons" Makes my heart just swell.

Melissa tagged me with this and I can use the distraction

The Five

Ten Years Ago
1. I was living in an apartment
2. We were just getting ready to move back to NM
3. I was scheduled for my first surgery ever and worried
4. I thought I had some idea of where my life was going
5. I was wrong

Five Things On My To Do List Today
1. dishes
2. laundry
3. read to T
4. make dinner...enchiladas!
5. be patient

Five Snacks That I Enjoy
1. caramel-bad
2. scones-bad
3. almond and ginger oatmeal -good
4. melon mint gum
5. cheese

Five Things I Would Do If I Were A Millionaire
1. oh heck... I know I would donate a huge chunk of it
2. build my studio
3. grant some wishes
4. make some special trips with some special friends
5. invest some

Five Places I Have Lived
1. California
2. Utah
3. Alaska
4. Illinois
5. Virginia

Five Jobs I Have Had
1. Pizza place
2. sample giver outer
3. skate shop
4. preschool teacher
5. photographer

I Tag:
nobody :)