For Mature Pallets Only

When I was in high school I once showed up to my friend’s lunch hang out spot and declared, "My mom made THE WORST thing for dinner last night.” My friend Jupawsly shook her head in disbelief and said no matter what my mom cooked, her mom’s dinner was worse. That is when Dan piped up and said, “I’ve got you all beat, my mom cooked ham hocks and lima bean soup! Disgusting!” In unison Jupaws and I said, “NO WAY! THAT IS WHAT MY MOM COOKED!” I’m not kidding, you can’t make this kind of thing up.

It wasn’t a staple around the Phrogbottom house, but about once or twice a year Mom would fire up a batch. So she wouldn’t have to endure the whining of 8 children, she simply dished up two bowls; one for herself and one for my dad and told everyone else to, “fend for themselves”, which we happily did!

I don’t know when I started liking ham hock and bean soup (I’ll do beans, but not lima beans!), probably about the time that I started liking watermelon. Tastes develop as you age. But I do remember shocking my parents with my mature tastes on a trip to Brigham City. It wasn’t too long ago. I was visiting my family in Utah. My Dad had recently bought a haunted woolen mill (which was recently in the news) and he took me up there to show off the ghosts. As strange as that sounds, the only things stranger was the little café we stopped at for lunch. There was not a girl in the place under 40 that didn’t have the same freaky hairdo. It started out like a decent A-line and then out of no-where there was a peacock explosion at the base of their neck supported by an over abundance of gel. It was crazy. Well, upon sitting down, and without looking at the menu, I declared that I would like a bowl of ham hock and bean soup, like every restaurant in America had it on the menu. My parents nodded proudly at my selection and happily said the restaurant had a fine ham hock and bean soup and ordered 3 bowls. It was a coming of age.

Today I was talking to Cincha on the phone and she said that her husband had made a batch and she was basically trying not to wretch. I boldly told her that I was making a batch tonight. You would have thought that I had betrayed her. She said, “I thought the Phrogbottom girls were united in their dislike of ham hock and bean soup (how could you do this to us!)”

(Now for the segue so that I can post pictures of one of my adorable kids…)

Either Abizella is an anomaly or she has a pallet well beyond her years; hers puts the young Phrogbottom’s pallet to shame.

She will even eat ham hocks and beans off of a horse's hoof…


Seriously, it is a good thing for blogs or valuable history, such as this, wouldn't ever be documented.

"Just What I've Always Wanted!"

After a month of sprinting to the Christmas tree before even wiping the sleepies out of her eyes, Abizella's tenacity finally paid off. Her fast little feet got her to the Christmas tree before she fully had her eyes open, but once she did squeeze them open she exclaimed, "My Unicorn! Just what I've always wanted!" and gave "Lucky" a big squeeze. 

All this while Superkid soundly slumbered across from the Christmas tree...

But once we all were awake we found We ALL got LOTS of things we have always wanted...

Including LOTS and LOTS of time with Daddy who took a few days off of work to piece together our many treasures...

Which he immensely enjoyed (don't let his expression fool you, I think that Star Wars Lego stuff was meant for dads)!

YEE! HA! Merry Christmas Everyone!

Without Excuses...

You'd think that someone who was snowed in all last weekend, and even had church cancelled, could throw up a couple of pictures (in the very least) and rattle off some long drawn out story of shoveling and playing in the snow complete with beloved childhood memories. It seems a little silly to post such pictures on a day that was 60° (albeit, just one week later), but what seems a little sillier is that we shoveled at all considering that there is barely a speck left.

But since they are such a hard working and good looking crew, I will throw up a few pics...

Settling up

Apparently the Bishop made a big impression on Superkid at tithing settlement because on the way home from Church Superkid called a meeting at "his desk" (which you'll remember is his dresser) and invited Dad to attend. I am just reporting on the parts of the meeting that I heard from the other room. Superkid declared that he would be taking up a collection of tithing to support his new church which would be located in Australia (Pops later told me Australia, he just pointed to a well thought out place on the globe on "his desk"). Superkid said that he would be making all of the rules for the church and then listed a few, most importantly running and speaking loudly are required.

Superkid has actually spoken of his new church before and has even built models of it from his Legos. I think he is pretty happy to find out where all of the money comes from to build a church so he can make his a reality. 

Superkid's World

Superkid had 4 play dates in 4 days. The first was one of Superkid's oldest friends. These two guys were supposed to be born 6 weeks apart, but turned out to be 12 weeks apart, due to Superkid's early arrival (4 weeks early) and HP's late arrival (2 weeks). Sadly, HP moved North of the city shortly after he was born so we only see him a few times a year. To be honest, we actually haven't seen him in a year. As we were talking about going to HP's house for a party Superkid said that he remembered him but added, "It has been a long time since I have seen him so I will have to re-friend him." He then explained, "It is kinda like recycling, Mom."

In other good news, another friend of our family has moved BACK to Massachusetts! That is TWO families in ONE year!!! I can't think of another family that has moved BACK in the more than 7 years we have lived here. The Snell family is BACK and Scotty is the same age as Superkid! We went over to play with them on Monday (sadly no pics to prove it, but we will see them soon!). 

Tuesday, Superkid's new buddy came to play. These guys play happily for hours together.

And yesterday both Pops and I had meeting's at the church so the kids got dragged along. On the way there Superkid asked, "Mom, will the Cherrey's be there?" I said probably not... but I was WRONG! AND as a bonus his pre-school buddy and their family were there too. It was a regular party in the gym.

Now all of this would be unmentionable if it were Abizella. It seems we have lots of play dates with 2 and 3 year old girls. All of these years Superkid has been so good to play well with little girls. After all of this running around for Superkid's sake (at least that is what he thinks), Superkid is starting to believe that the world revolves around him. This fudge is evidence of it...
I don't think I would have been half as irritated with his sampling if he would have kept his spoon (Abz would have used her fingers) to one tub of fudge. When I confronted Superkid he gave the fudge two thumbs up.

The Night Santa Came to Town

It is a good thing that Santa Claus came to our church Christmas party. The kids had some requests to put in before the jolly old fellow loads up his sleigh. 

Superkid wasted no time, he just walked right up to Santa and jumped on his lap, while all those other foolish kids actually lined up for a turn. In fact, he mounted so quickly he was actually taken off guard when Santa asked what he wanted for Christmas. Without any previous mention, Superkid blurted out, "a bulldozer". Santa and I both were taken back. We had heard about Legos, Transformers, airplanes and even rocks, but a bulldozer was news to us. But Superkid has held firm to that conviction; only Christmas morning will tell now.

Although Abz looks like she is looking into the recesses of her brain for an answer, she was very decisive with Santa. Only a unicorn will do. 

And all Tadpole wants is to get the heck off this creepy guy's lap!

What's On The Toad's Happy List?

We had the sleep over of a life time over Thanksgiving Holiday. Even though Andie and HH cooked up a "Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat", it was the pillow time, not the dinner time, that our family keeps talking about!

And in other Joyful news, IT SNOWED TODAY!!! Wahoo! As Superkid said, "It was Jesus' sign that Christmas will be here soon."

And what good is snow if you don't throw it around a little bit? Here is Superkid slamming me in the face...

...and his FAST retreat

And look who was the recipient from Abizella's recoil (see previous pic)...

When we woke up to the snow this morning, Superkid ran around to every window in the house with me (we had to make sure that the snow was everywhere, I was not convinced) while I opened the blinds. When we opened the blind looking into the neighbor's driveway, Superkid noted that their windshield was covered in snow and they would not be able to go to church. I told him they could just wipe it off. He said they did not go to church. I told him they did, but to a different church, they don't know about our church. Superkid suggested we send the missionaries over there. I told him the next time he played with Ice he could be a missionary and tell him what he liked about our church. So I asked him, "Superkid, what do you like best about our church?" He said, "When it is time to leave."

...I have to admit that leaving church was on every one's happy list today. While it is great to be there it is EXHAUSTING! So as Lisa Simpson says, "Ahh, the best time of the week, the most possible time before more church!"

Also on our happy list are two fun excursions we went on this week. We joined play group at a wildlife hospital. The tour guide was lot of fun and Superkid was right by his side the whole time. I was shocked to see that MY kids touched a tortoise, boa constrictor, and lots of other creepy lizards. And although no one dove their hands into the worm farm, I was very proud of them. As I was cringing in the background after being brave and petting something nasty, one of my friends turned to me and said, "Aren't you a Biologist?" I was more into plants. The other excursion was to our local Natural Science center. It too had lots of interesting animals. But my favorite part of the two days was Tad's reaction. He walked around "woofing" at all the animals. He actually makes the noise entirely through his nose. He is making the woof noise in the picture below... our neighbor dog Sumo came out to play.

And on Abizella's happy list and ONLY on her list is a cheese, honey, pepperoni sandwich. Her own creation. This after she told me my chicken pot pie was disgusting.

"I Didn't Recognize You With Your Clothes On!"

That, my friends, is the quote of the week...heck, quote of the century for this church lady.

Hanging out with people that I normally see quite a bit of their skin was a real eye-opener for me. The occasion was my swim coach's baby shower. I made my grand appearance about 2 and half hours into the party. After yucking it up over one of my buddy's warm welcome line I made my way to the refreshment table (famished after the usual marathon day of church). I was dumbfounded to see that there wasn't even a small dent in the MOUNTAINS of catered food at the conclusion of this party. That is when it hit me; GOOD athletes (of which I am not a part) do not eat. I finally realized what I have been doing wrong...EATING! If that is the sacrifice, I am TOTALLY fine with mediocrity.

Even though I will never be an extraordinary athlete, I was happy to be included in the mix of hard-core hard-bodies.