Kitchen Queen

 That's me, only my tiara a is a little sparklier.  I've been spending my afternoon cooking, washing dishes, and wishing for just a little more time.  (I got ousted for a while by the roommate.  I guess she needs to eat dinner too.)  I made tomales tonight.  They weren't perfect, but they were tasty.  I overate.  My stomach is as big as my head.  Quite a site to behold.  (I have a very large head.)  I'm also working on pickling asparagus. (Which, as I learned today, is not spelled with any e's just a's and a u.  Go figure.)  I wanted to try making bagels too, but it takes too long for tonight.  If I don't get to it, I may be up past my bed time as it is.  We all know that would be a disaster.  The roommate just exited the premises, time to rock and roll! 

Woot! Woot!

Willamette men have reclaimed their title as the Northwest Conference Track and Field Champions, and the women have continued their streak for an 8th season!  It was a pretty fabulous weekend of running, jumping, throwing, and vaulting.  I'm a little wind chapped, a little tired, a little behind on the house work, but pretty stinking excited and proud to be a part of this program.  Here's a link for a run-down of the weekend, but you really had to be there.  http://www.willamette.edu/athletics/teams/track_and_field/  It was awesome.  

Run, run, as fast as you can...

...You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man.

I went running today, and everyone wanted to run me over with their large SUVs.  I didn't think that was a very nice thing for them to do.  Maybe I looked like I was dying, and they were just trying to help.  I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.    

Oh yeah, there's more

Don't think for a second that I've finished blogging about Easter. It is one of my favorite holidays remember. We had family over, so naturally we had to make enough food to feed a small army. That's just how we roll (right Jessica?). So here are a few prep pics.

This is Mama Jo making coffee and me getting ready to scrub taters.

Shae making either another loaf of de-lic-ious artisan bread or a fancy shmancy Boston Cream Pie.

This is me making mini candy carrots for my carrot cheese cake. Ross thought they were real, and wondered why I was putting dirty baby carrots on cheesecake. He doesn't give me much credit.... ;-p

Mom is taking pictures of the progress.

Jesse doing his part.

Here are some pics of the finished products.

The pig. Mmmmm meat.

.

The army digs in.

We love food.

I could go on, but that might be overkill. I'll just end with a pic of the crew. Mom looks like a shorty in this circus.

When the cat's away the mice will play.

I saw a mouse today.  It was huge.  He was residing in my compost bin.  Fat and sassy.  I named him Raul.  I hope Raul is just a very fat and healthy mouse, not a rat.  I can handle mice.  Rats are scary.  I'm glad it wasn't a possum.  Have I shown you my compost bin?  I meant to.  Ross got an itch one day and decided he needed to build us one.  I was pretty excited about that itch.  He built it mostly square.  I'm very proud of it.  One of these days I'll take a picture, maybe Raul will pose for it too.     

Ross isn't here tonight, so the dog and I have decided to chill in front of the TV for the evening.  Here are some more pics from the weekend.  My mom and I raced on Saturday in the Pear Blossom run.  It was pretty sweet.  

This is Mama Jo racing in her new duds.  She was easy to spot in her orange, and super cute.  She's always super cute and matchy.  

This is me and my pal.  I don't know his name, but he kept me rollin'.  

Mi madre y yo post race.  Girls don't sweat.  If you were wondering.  

That's my little bro.  Isn't he precious?  So little.

High five!

The Crew. 

EASTER

I love the Easter season as much as I love Christmas. There isn't quite the hype surrounding Easter commercially, but I think that makes it even better. When I think of Easter, I think of spring, lilacs, renewal, family, the best candy of the year :), and hope; hope for eternal life with Christ, and hope that this winter might actually be coming to an end. Someone once told me that God gave us seasons because as humans we crave change, but he gave us the same four seasons year after year because we also need consistancy. Did I say four seasons? Somewhere there might be four, but here in Oregon we have winter and not winter also known as rain and not rain.
I'll leave you with a few good looking pics of me and my family, but I'll be back. Yeah that's right, I'm not done with this one yet. (I just needed to get something posted that didn't include Youk poop.)

Pop Quiz

WARNING: the following content is graphic and is not recommended for those with weak or upset stomaches.  (By the way, don't you think dried apricots should come with something of the same warning?)

So I have to first start by saying that Youk: 

is in lock down.   He's been more or less living in his crate for about five weeks now.  Here's a picture of his crate: 

    

Notice the nice pink sheet we have in there to give him a little extra cushion and comfort.  Now, here's your poop quiz...pop quiz.  What do you think Youk has been doing all day in his crate? I'll give you a couple of hints.

         

 Why, Youk, what lovely pink poops you have!

A few thoughts (very small ones)

My lips hurt real bad. 

Can I just point out that we saw the sun today?

I watched super skinny, super fit runner girls (and guys) compete all last night and all day today at the Willamette Invite then I came home and ate pizza and cookies.  Mmmmmmm.

I'm boycotting my house.  It's just going to get dirty as soon as I get done cleaning anyway.

Who am I kidding?  I can't help myself, it has to be cleaned. 

My boyfriend brought me lunch today on his own volition, and gave up some of his day to sit and eat with me and watch some races.  It was pretty stinkin' nice.  

Wow, my lips really hurt.  

That's all the thoughts I have.  I'm spent.