Interesting article...

Who knew I commanded such a high salary? :) Wall Street Journal Coupon clipping article

Find out how I spent my Saturday...

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Soccer Season...

Philip hasn't ever played soccer before... at least not on a formal team. So, I was surprised when he came home at the beginning of Jan telling me that he was trying out. Actually, the conversation was more like, "Mom, I need soccer cleats, pads, and shoes by tomorrow so that I can try out for soccer." Um, yeah. Why do kids ever only give you about 3 seconds notice for something they deem life and death? After determining that yes, everyone makes a team so I am not buying soccer gear just to spend money, Rik took him to Sports Authority and dropped $70 on the cheapest stuff that money can buy... read just good enough to make it through said soccer season. How come cheap stuff still costs a lot? I figure even if he wants to play again next year, he will have grown, so I will have to rebuy it anyway. I'm sure that's why they make cheap gear.

So, now he has tried out, made "C" team - and was told he almost made "B" team (cool since he has never played before), we are a few games into the season. He is in a defender type position. I'm not up on my soccer terminology having never attended more than just a few games that my nieces and nephews played in when they were 5 and no one really payed much attention to the positions anyway. I'll get back to you on what it's called. All I know for sure is that it's not goalie! They have won one game, lost one game, and tied two. And, soccer looks hard. I know I couldn't get the ball going anywhere near the right direction with people chasing me. I think I'll just stick to more individual sports!

He's #12 in the photos.

Annual anniversary trip

Our pick this year? Silver City, NM. Why? Rumored to be artsy, outdoorsy, fun place to go. Well, some of it was true. So, when we woke up on Friday morning... we saw snow! Who knew? It did melt within the day, but it was foggy most of the day, which meant no driving anywhere. Except to Walmart 3x (we didn't even have an ice scrapper with us!). And we did visit a lot of galleries in which we couldn't afford anything. But, the owners/artists were really nice. And I think they really wanted someone to talk to. ;)

Day two... Catwalk. Cool walkway along an old mining trail. It is over a stream so it makes it even cooler. It would be awesome to start backpacking there. It is right on the edge of the Gila wilderness. We tried to also find a trout hatchery... unfortunately we found a one land winding mt road that ended at a ghost town. It was a nice ghost town as far as they go, but we never saw the trout hatchery.

Day three... City of Rocks. Nice place to go to. Cool petroglyphs. Then home.

Trip summary: Lots of fast food (WHERE were the fun places to eat????), snow (yay!), Rik (yay!)... so, while I wouldn't recommend going there for more than a travel stop on the way to a cool backpacking trip... I was with Rik the whole weekend... the phone didn't ring... I didn't drive one kid anywhere... and I slept in a very warm room (ours is on the cool side).

Fun stuff...

Think back to our trip to Wyoming/Utah this past summer... what was one of Rik's favorite things? Kneaders french toast. So, I tried to copy it... it turned out really well. Very easy... make your favorite cinnamon roll recipe. Instead of making it into rolls, make it into bread instead. Slice it up and make into french toast. Now just to replicate the sweet cream butter.... ;)

And, I got these cool dishtowels - and I saw a cool idea for decorating them out there on the internet somewhere... so, I ended up doing this. Of course, the kids have been instructed on how to wash their hands (again!) so as unlike every other dishtowel we own they hopefully won't end up with a big gray stain in the middle.

Eggs!

So excited! I have found a lady who has real, honest to goodness chickens in her yard that lives about 10 min away. She is selling her eggs for cheap - like $2/dozen cheap which for free range organic is cheap since she could probably get $4 or $5 at a farmers market around here. I got 2 dozen. They are so pretty - light brown, dark brown, off white, and blue/green. The kids are fascinated. They of course want the blue/green ones first! It's really cool because she even penciled in on the egg which eggs were laid when! It's the little things that get me way too excited. I. must. get. a. life.