Fetish Friday

I just got back from a day at Sea World with my Carrie (my sister), Madison (my niece), and Lucas. We had a lovely day. Lucas was wonderful, even though he only had a 30 minute nap at 4:00, and we made it home and got him in bed by 10:15 or so.
I'm in the mood for comfort right not, but didn't want to feature my signature slippers. I decided to go the comfy kid route instead. These beauties are from Converse. Lucas had the lace-up kind, but then I discovered this slip-on style. We'll definately score a pair of these some day. They are a bit more expensive than the regulars, but it's probably worth it. You can find them at Milkshop and other fine stores I'm sure. They come in girl colors too, by the way.

Yummy Soup Recipes

I thought I would share some great soup recipes I tried.

Russian Mushroom & Potato Soup
5 T butter
2 leeks, chopped
2 large carrots, sliced
6 cups chicken broth
2 t dried dill weed
2 t salt
1/8 t ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
2 pounds potatoes, peeled & diced
1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 cup half-and-half
1/4 cup flour

Directions:
1. Melt 3 T butter in large saucepan over med. heat. Mix in leeks, carrots, and cook 5 minutes. Pour in broth. Season with dill, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Mix in potatoes, cover, and cook 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender but firm. Remove and discard bay leaf.
2. Melt the remaining butter (2T) in a skillet over medium heat, and saute the mushrooms 5 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir into soup.
3. In a small bowl, mix the half-and-half and flour until smooth. Stir into the soup to thicken.

Notes: I added a little garlic with the veggies. If you don't want to splurge for leeks, use some onion instead. AND, if you cook with wine, it was really good when we added white wine to the mushrooms while they cooked. I didn't do it the time I made it by myself and it was still perfectly delicious. You can also use various types of shrooms. I used plain old button mushrooms when I did it. Mmmm. Yield: 12 servings

Spicy Coconut Chicken Soup - from Cooking Light, March
This recipe is actually supposed to be Spicy Coconut Shrimp Soup, but I made chicken instead and liked it that way. So easy, so good.

3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup sliced mushrooms (I used more)
1/3 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1 T light brown sugar
1/2 t grated peeled fresh ginger
1/2 t red curry paste (you can use more for more heat)
1 cup light coconut milk
1 lb. chicken, cooked and cut into pieces (or 1 lb shrimp, peeled/deveined)
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
2 T thinly sliced fresh basil
2 T fresh lime juice (or more!)

Combine first 6 ingredients in large saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in coconut milk; cook 2 minutes or until hot. Stir in the chicken (or add shrimp to pan; cook 3 minutes or until shrimp are done). Remove pan from heat; stir in onions, basil, and juice. Yield: 4 servings

Fetish Friday

I guess I have a thing for juicy brown peep toes lately. I considered other shoes to feature today, but none of them gave me that happy feeling in my tummy like these shoes do. Sorry for the similarity to last week's shoe.
This little beauty is "Feisty" by Antonio Melani. They come in this nutty wrinkled patent leather, as well as red or black snake skin. I really dig this nutty color.
If you want some feisty in your step, these can be yours for $89 at Dillards. Happy shopping and Happy Easter!

Ben's been paying Dr. Oz

I was wondering where all our money has been going. Now I know - Ben must be sending it to Dr. Oz. (the doc who is always on Oprah). Today Dr. Oz did a special show on men's health. He hosted the whole thing and the audience was all men. The wives and Oprah were in another room backstage.
Of course one guy had to ask about sex. Dr. Oz said it will increase men's life spans if they have sex 4 times a week. FOUR TIMES! Apparently the average is once a week, which I thought was just fine. So, Dr. Oz made all the wives feel guilty like they were killing their husbands.
It's just a good thing Ben hates watching Oprah! And it's good he doesn't really read my blog, too! So, he'll live a few less years. They've been happy, right? Maybe I'll just try to feed him healthier food and encourage his weekly basketball excursions - that ought to add a few years and make for a nice balance.

Mall Musical

This is pretty much how I roll at my house:

Fetish Friday

This saucy little number is the Beatriz by Charles David. I love the peep toe and the color degradation. I'm showing it in brown/tan, but it also comes in a red/wine.
I think it would look snazzy with a posh suit or skirt.... or designer jeans. These babies can be your's for $195 at Piperlime.

Bump In The Night

Last night Ben and I were in bed by like 11:00, which is really good for us. We were both sleeping like babies until 1:00. Suddenly Ben jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. I was a little peeved at first because he totally woke me up, not even trying to be quiet, turning on the closet light, etc. Then he grabbed his glasses and went out to the hall. Whenever the glasses come out, you know it's got to be something good. So, I hear him go down the stairs, turn on some lights, open the door, close the door and come back up stairs.
Apparently he heard a huge banging noise and wanted to make sure it wasn't someone at our house.

Then he came back and got in bed and we kept hearing this banging noise and couldn't figure out what it was for the life of us. Ben though it sounded like someone banging on a door, I thought it sounded louder than any human could possibly make. I could feel it in my ears, I swear! Perhaps someone was building in their garage or working on the construction down the street... Finally we couldn't take it anymore so we went to spy out the window. We discovered that our neighbor's garage was open across the street. Then their lights turned on and we saw them peeking out the window, too. So we turned our light on so they could see us. Since they were up, Ben got dressed and decided to go outside and tell them to close their garage... and see if he could figure out what the noise was.

By the time he got outside, they had closed their garage and gone back to bed, but he went across the street and I watched him stand there looking up the street. I just hoped he wasn't about to get shot. Then the lady in the next house came outside too with her big dog, so Ben went over and talked to her. She knew what was going on.

The guy three houses up from us had a visitor. Some crazy lady was kicking and banging on his door trying to get in. Ben heard her yell, "Well, if she ain't here why can't I come in." His response, "Because you'll tear the place up. You already messed my door up - this is a $500 door!" After that, Ben came home and could finally sleep because the mystery was solved.

The lesson here is don't be hooking up with multiple women, especially if one is strong and crazy. One is bound to come and knock down your door at 1:00 in the morning. I'm gonna try to get a glance at the dents in the door today.

Oh, after Ben came home we went back to bed. He kept laughing at me because I thought the noise was a drill, machine, truck, etc. He thought the whole time it was a crazy person and he was right.

I need your feedback...

Hey guys,

I'm working on a talk for church on Sunday on "Charity Never Faileth"
Just a few questions...
Ben said he always thinks of women when he thinks of charity. Is that the same for everyone else? Why?
I once had a bishop tell me that women are in nature charitable. He said guys learned charity on their missions. Do you think so?
What do you think of when you think of charity?
Any other thoughts?
Thanks!

Fetish Friday

Baby shoes are so cute, right? My sister, Lisa, got Lucas some sweet Converse shoes that are now too small for him, but he got a lot of compliments in them because they were different and lacked cartoon characters plastered to the side. I hope to always avoid advertising for Thomas the Train, Cars, Barney and even Sesame Street with Lucas's shoes, but we'll see...
Anyhow, I decided instead of hurting his feet, I would buy some new shoes for him, so we headed to Target. They had about 4 semi-cute shoes for us to chose from. Lucas picked between the two I deemed acceptable and we were off. "There just aren't enough cute boy shoes," I thought as I took my cute, but ordinary shoes to the checkout stand.
But for Fetish Friday, it is my duty to shop for shoes, so I thought I should try to find cute boy shoes... and I did.
Here they are: The brand is See Kai Run, and the style is Paddy. I found them here. They had lots of other cute things. But an even better site was Milkshop if you feel like doing a little shopping.

So I Married an Axe Murderer

Recently, on another post, Dani and Brenna commented that I was crazy for always thinking people want to kill me, etc. Well, the reason is probably that when I was younger, I liked to watch scary movies. Now I stay away from them. BUT, I adopted another scary habit - living with Ben.
He thinks it's so funny to scare me. Last night before bed I went to turn off the AC . I left Ben in the bed and when I came back he was in the doorway and it was dark. Luckily, I didn't scream loud enough to wake up Lucas. Then I said, "Ben, I hate you. I hate you, you stupid!" and I ran to the bed. I stopped hating him sometime in the night... probably around 2:00. I haven't hated him since.
Then there was the time that I was coming up the stairs in the dark. I successfully walked up the first half of the stairs and when I turned the corner to walk up the second half of the stairs, there was Ben sitting in the dark. AHHH!
The worst time he ever scared me was when I came home from the store one night. Lucas was in bed and Ben had been working on some house project. The downstairs was all dark once again. I drove into the garage and emptied the groceries into the hallway. Then I walked into the kitchen when all the sudden there was a drill going off behind my head! Ben was waiting in the hall for me and followed right behind me in the dark with a drill behind my head. Ugh. He made me so mad! I have to admit that it was ballsy of him to do that... really, is there a better way to scare someone then to turn a drill on by their head when they think they are alone in the dark? Probably, but I hope I don't have to experience it.

**Vote 4 Ben**

Ben submitted the Taking Tree shirt to another website.
Please go vote here.
It might only be up for a day or two, so please vote ASAP.
Thanks, you're the best!

*Feel free to blog about it, too.

Fetish Friday

I sort of forgot Fetish Friday until today, so it's gonna be a quickie.
This week I'm featuring the Bolo Ambrette - a beautiful sandal with a sturdy heel. Brown, with gold winding throughout the leather like a glistening stream.
I actually own these beauties and they look cute with skirts and jeans.
They retail for a couple hundred bucks, but I managed to get some for 75% off at Dillards. Good luck finding a pair of your own!

Raisins

Gross. I'm sitting here procrastinating the preparation of my lesson for tomorrow and I'm eating raisins.
I got home from the CROP Walk to find Ben and Lucas asleep on the couch - SO CUTE. We always talk about how we want Lucas to fall asleep on us and today Ben lucked out.
Anyhow, I'm starving, but can't make any noise downstairs. The pantry door creeks, so I couldn't get in there. So, my only source of nutritional sustenance was from Lucas's diaper bag. First I ate the shredded wheat, then the fruity Cheerios, and now I'm moving on to raisins. I'm really not a fan of raisins. I think they're quite gross.
I have to be pretty desperate to sit down and just eat a bunch of raisins. Lucas, on the other hand, pays homage to the raisin gods on a daily basis. He could eat raisins nonstop if we would let him. Once we timed how long it took him to shove 10 raisins in his mouth and he did it in less than 10 seconds, still picking them up one at a time. I bet he'd be even faster now.
If I didn't know any better, I would just send raisins to Iraq in hope of ending the war.