I really love thrift stores...

and I can't imagine my life without them. There is a thrift store in town which is only open 3 days a week. I have taken quite a liking to this store. Friday night I knew I had to go and see if they had my Williams Sonoma ebelskiver pan.

I've been lusting after this pan for about a year now. I had a funny feeling and I felt compelled to check. I went with my mom and my hubs on Sat. and what did I find?? YES! My Williams Sonoma pan!!! I was freaking out in the aisle bobbing up and down and making squealy noises. My poor hubs thought I'd lost my mind! This is like my thrifty find of the month because I only paid $10 for it.

Anyway, if you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, just check out this pic from Williams Sonoma. How cool is that??? Oh yeah, the Williams Sonoma website has videos showing how to use the pan so you can have a look at that, too.

Play Dough Recipes

Someone on a message board posted a link to a page full of recipes to make your own play dough. Last night I finally broke down and looked up a recipe and made a large ball of blue tinted squidgey stuff.

That has to be the best use of 10 minutes of my time EVER. Once the goo went onto the table I didn't hear much from the boys at all. I'm thinking that the person who put this page of recipes together is a genius! Check out the link and see what you can come up with.




My little guy decided to make a Crabby Patty. He was convinced that it looked very tasty.

Our Evil Neighbor: Community ALERT

The day we moved into this little cottage, we unwittingly began a war with one the neighbors. This guy went out his mind and had a complete psychotic break when I accidentally startled him. He threw stuff us and screamed for 30 minutes all the while doing his best to intimidate us. I was so shocked that all I could do was stand and stare at him. Finally, I'd made up my mind that he was just a special kind of freak and we should ignore him. Well, that is to say that I did my best to ignore him until he decided to pee on my laundry when I hung it out on the clothes line. He did this several times. The final straw was when he climbed a tree and whizzed on my daughter's head.

This horrible neighbor of ours seems to be on some kind of extended vacation. I haven't seen him a while. Maybe he's in jail?? I think it's too much to hope that he's dead or permanently incapacitated. I am fully prepared to do battle with this hairy jerk. I'm including a photo of him so that the entire community can be warned of his mental instability and avoid him at all costs. Please be aware that he often uses foul language in the form of high pitched peeps, squeaks and excessive chittering. He is also often armed with blunt objects in the shape of acorns and walnuts. Local citizens should use caution when outdoors.


Because I couldn't get an accurate photo of my neighbor I've had to use one of his twin. Courtesy of:

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

You know you're in the Great Frozen North when...

The town parade takes place even though it's only 27 degrees out and snow flurries are expected. Friday night we had the first snow fall. Yes, we've sort of skipped the slow cooling and went right to the frozen part of the year-which is a bummer. Our leaves are still green on Main St. for goodness sake. I was looking forward to the leaves changing color but now I'm not sure what will happen. I took some pics at the parade saturday morning. Our university was celebrating homecoming. YAY! We stayed as long as we could until the boys hands were too cold to make dashes into the street for more candy.





Our 2 frozen boys awaiting the start of the parade festivities.


A photo of Main St. showing a smallish portion of the turn out.


This would be the USD Marching Coyotes. I felt bad for the poor mostly frozen baton girl in front. I hope she thawed out ok.

The Farmers Market

This is one of a couple of pumpkins we picked up at the local farmers market. We're on a pumpkin kick over here because they're all over these days. How can anyone pass up this beautiful red pumpkin? I couldn't do it so it came home with me. I've since roasted 3 small pumpkins and the flavor is absolutely amazing.

All I did was chop them up-leaving the skins on and then brush on some olive oil and shake on salt and pepper. Roast the pieces skin side down in the oven until done which can take 30-60 minutes depending on how ginormous you chop your pieces. Once the pieces cool you can peel off the skins and use the flesh any way you like.

I used my roasted pumpkin chunks in Succotash Saturday night. The kids ate the roasted seeds and stole hot pumpkin chunks off the trays. I have enough left to take a run at making a soup. I'll let you know if it works out.





This is a little pic that makes me wish we had "smell-o-vision" or something so everyone could get a whiff of scent of roasted pumpkin. YUM!

One other item we picked up at the market was butternut squash. I've seen butternut squash at the grocery store recently for $1.59 per pound. Our seller at the market sold us the squash for 50 cents per pound. Yeah, the huge difference in price is crazy. Our market runs through the month of October so we'll be sure to hit it every Thursday to stock up on these veggies to put in the basement.