The KAT's Meow

Mom: Can you get out of the kitchen please? 

Jet: No.

Mom: Why not?

Jet: Cause I love you... so much.

Mom and Dad (laughter laughter laughter)

Haircuts

We finally got around to some much needed haircuts. I forgot to get a before picture of Jet and an after picture of Jeremy. My blog has pictures of Jet before and you'll see pictures of Jeremy after later on my blog.

Anyway, with the rest of them enjoy the Cousin It transitions.

Catch of the Day

May the Fourth

Jeremy had a balloon gig with a Star Wars theme for May the Fourth. 

My brother and I wished each other, "May the Fourth be with you."

Simple celebrating this year.

We also had orange juice because May the Fourth was National Orange Juice Day.

It's Spring

You can tell it's Spring because there's green on the hills.

Baby Tuna

May 2 was Baby Day and World Tuna Day. So we made pasta salad using tuna, baby shells, shredded baby carrots, a baby pickle (because that was all that was left in our big jar) and a bit of pickle juice, and baby Miracle Whip.

Yumm.

 

Bridal Veil Falls Is Open!

You know one of my traditions I look forward to for six months. Bridal Veil Falls is closed from November 1-May 1. No stopping at the overlook. No driving on the road by the falls.

There's a good reason for that. Avalanche danger... as we see from last year when there actually was an avalanche and that area was closed much longer than May 1. See July 21, 2023 blog post.

When it does open up like normal, I like to go as close as I can to the beginning of May. I did this year.

Jet and I went on May Day, May 1st, and stopped at the overlook. I told Jet we were going to take a picture of the waterfall and he called out, "Smile, waterfatl," because "Smile" is what you say to someone when you're going to take their picture. 

Have I mentioned he's adorable?

And wiggly?

Another day, we drove the road and stopped down there to say Hi to the waterfatl from a different angle.

One of these times we will walk to the waterfall on the trail.

I love Bridal Veil Falls!

Fun With Peeps

After our birding meeting on March 21, one of our birding peeps gave a package of marshmallow peeps to Lucky to take home. She didn't want them. He was okay with that.

Jeremy and I were talking one day and we realized we'd never shown our kids peeps in the microwave. So... the boys and I tried it out. We found a package of really old peeps and tried one of those first. It didn't expand very much. 

Then we took one from the package Lucky got (new peeps) and it expanded much nicer than the old one.

Now we know.

 

Terry Pratchett's Birthday

April 28 was Terry Pratchett's Birthday. We decided that morning to celebrate with a Terry Pratchett themed dinner so we used what we had on hand to create what we did. #shelfcooking

We also played a Discworld video game from the 90's and our oldest son played "Thud" with his siblings, a homemade game he got for Christmas.

We made a Vimes BACON lettuce tomato sandwich, 

Dibbler's sausage in a bun (with onions and mustard), Captain Carrot sticks, bananas for the librarian at Unseen University (ook), cheese trolley, sludge from the river Ankh to drink, and Dirt.

We also had "the fifth elephant" as a centerpiece.

My favorite thing was the luggage cake we made. I am not a cake decorator but I think it turned out well. 

And of course there were Terry Pratchett books all over to read.

And... dwarf bread to fight with.

I love celebrating with this family.

Palindrome Days

It's always fun when there are interesting dates on the calendar. Remember 2-22-22?

Or 12-31-23?

 

I recently told my brother of an experience I had.

Me: Happy 04-14-24

Paco: That's a good one! Happy sequential day to you, too!

Me: Thanks. It was funny how I realized it. I was putting away dinner leftovers and as I was putting the date on the label, I saw 4-14-24, thought it was cool, and quickly added a 0 to the front.

Palindrome dates are fun, too. We had fun in January of 2021 with 1-21-21 and 1-22-21, etc.

 

My brother and I texted each other a few times during recent "palindrome days." 4-20-24 through 4-29-24 or 42024 through 42924. Palindrome days!

 

4-20-24 I'll blog about later. But here's a hint.

 

4-21-24 Tuna Rights Day. Lucky ate tuna. Bwah ha ha ha!

I walked home after choir after church.

4-22-24 Jelly Bean Day. I had a handful of jelly beans.

 

4-23-24 Cherry Cheesecake Day. I made Cherry Cheesecake from a box. Jr. Jr. loved it. He ate more than anyone else.

4-24-24 Pigs in a Blanket Day. I made Lil' Smokies in a Blanket.

We also got Nichole home from BYU!

My brother texted me: Happy 42424! Not as cool as the last one, but is a palindrome for Life, the Universe, and Everything. 

 

Speaking of Life, the Universe, and Everything, Jeremy and Nichole went to that writing conference in February. During these Palindrome Days, they watched some videos online from another writing conference for fantasy. And Nichole shaped a cheeseball that looked like a dragon for them to snack on while watching classes.

4-25-24 Telephone Day. Nichole used a cell phone in a video game. 

Zucchini Bread Day. I made zucchini bread (and the next day I took some to a friend who I knew liked zucchini bread). 

World Penguin Day. We had fish sticks (and zucchini bread). 

National Plumbers Day. Jr. played Mario music on guitar. 

Perfect Date Day. It was nice weather until it rained. My sister and brother-in-law went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. I didn't but here's a picture of tulips.

4-26-24 I text my brother again to wish him Happy 4-26-24

 

4-27-24 I made baked donuts but... filled the batter too much so they had muffin tops. So Lucky and I pulled off around the outside parts to make them a little bit more donut shaped.

4-28-24 Terry Pratchett's birthday. Look for a blog post about that soon. 

4-29-24 We had family home evening while I was making dinner so the kids colored pictures while sharing the table with ingredients.

 

Those were our recent Palindrome Days.

National Garlic Day 2024

I'm enjoying trying things out in A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page. There's definitely some shelf cooking going on, too, which is the point. Use what you have. Make substitutions.

Definitely some new flavors, some of them so good. We made red beans and rice and hush puppies for the first time. Yumm. Definitely going to do that meal when it comes around again next year (and I want to make hush puppies again sooner than next year just because they tasted good).

I made Salsa Chicken in the Instant Pot. The other recipe with that meal was Cheesy Southwest Rice. How it turned out was I made tostadas out of corn tortillas in the oven. We had those and the rice and lettuce and the chicken topped with sour cream or whatever. Yumm.

 

Some of the meals were so so. We made Spring Minestrone and Garlic Bread Swirls.

 

Some of the dishes I couldn't stop picking at when they came out the oven. I made American Goulash and Garlic Parmesan Cauliflower and I don't know how much of the cauliflower I ate before it got to the dinner table.

 

Some I didn't get pictures of.

 

Some I don't want to talk about liking or not liking because I want to finish this blog post and go to sleep.

Ham and Cheese Sliders and Classic Cobb Salad.

Caribbean Pork Chops. We had leftover Cheesy Southwest Rice along with pineapple rounds, sliced tomatoes, and bread and butter.

 

And of course we celebrated with some of the meals. For National Garlic Day on April 19, we had Tomato Garlic Pizza. I liked it. I thought it would make a good base for a vegetarian pizza. Add some bell peppers and red onion on there? Mmmm mmm.

Sometimes I still can't believe I was such a picky eater when I was little.

Supporting Family Again

My sweet niece graduated from college. I went to her senior concert to listen to her and her band perform music that she wrote. She is so talented. I am excited to see what she does with her degree.

I had a good time chatting with other nieces and a nephew and of course with my sister.

My brother-in-law was going to take a picture of my sister and me. At the last moment my niece came up and joined in the picture and I didn't realize until looking at the pictures afterward that the other nieces came up behind us for the picture. That made it even better.

I love my family.