The County Fair

We decided to all go to the fair this year.  As opposed to last year, where Craig took Bentley one day, and then Kendra another day.  In the hope of maybe one day becoming the "fun" parent, I thought I should get to be involved in the fun this time around.  But then we got there and I immediately understood that there's a reason I'm never the fun parent.  Because I don't really like the fair.

I love the idea of the fair-- I picture some sort of homey, local, happy kick-back to a bygone era of innocence and trust.  Like we'll be magically transported into The Music Man, or something.  But in actual practice, I find myself looking around wanting to refer to all the workers as "Carnies" and hoping that I don't actually belong to the same class of people that I see wandering around near me.  (And feeling guilty because I'm such an awful snob.  But not guilty enough to suppress those feelings of supremacy, apparently.)  I have thoughts like, Why is it you see more pregnant women at the fair than anywhere else?  Is it really only poor people who are breeding any more?  Or has that always been the case?  Does having four kids automatically put me in the same category?  Or does my master's degree-- and the fact that I still have all of my teeth-- put me in a different rank?  I know, I know.  I'm a terrible person.  You don't need to tell me.

I did my best to try and keep all this turmoil at bay, and managed to have a pretty nice time with the kids.  I absolutely loved the fried Oreo's-- good thing I can't get my hands on those very often!  And there was one hilarious moment when some teenage boy sat down on the bench I was making a beeline for, hoping for a spot where I could feed Colton.  He got there before me by just a few seconds, completely oblivious to my designs.  I looked at him.  Pondered my options.  Saw that there weren't any.  And sat down and proceeded to feed my baby.  I was very well covered, but I still figured he'd be more embarrassed by it all than I was.  And I was right-- he left about a minute later.  Win!

But then we got home and Craig made the mistake of telling me how much our charming little evening had cost, and I vowed never to go back again.  It was a decent evening, but not worth that price tag!

Anyway, here some pictures from the night:

Happy Colton, chewing on his butterfly

Kendra and Ryder were very excited for the pony rides

Ryder was actually upset by how large his pizza was.  Not having any way of cutting it, I finally just folded in half New York style, and then he was happy again!

I like Kendra in this picture

I ordered a Philly cheesesteak sandwich, which turned out to be both expensive and gross.  So I gave it to Bentley to try...

This is the face Craig pulled when I said I wanted a picture of him with his fries.  Now I know where the kids get it from...

Rather than the ponies, Bentley opted to ride the bumper cars

I'm sure that rust is perfectly safe...

Ryder was too short for this "train" ride, as he called it, so I had to ride it with him...  Lucky me!

A very tired Ryder musters the energy to steal one of my fried Oreos...

At the end of it all, I took the baby home and Craig stayed with the big kids for the Monster Truck Rally.

The fact that we were all excited about this truck tipping over probably means we're as much white trash as everybody else...  {Sigh.}  Let's hear it for the Fair!

Compliment

I am not hip.  I do not know what's cool.  And I'm totally okay with that.  I feel like your Cool Card is confiscated as you leave the hospital with your first baby (possibly even as early as when you see that "+" sign, although certainly some teenagers out there remain in denial about that aspect of their forever changed lives).  And honestly, I doubt I was very cool even before that, so it wasn't a huge loss.  And, as an uncool person, I'm aware that I know very little about what's happening in the music scene.  If a song is current and I actually know it, it's probably thanks to either Craig or Glee.  But thanks to those two sources, I know a fair share of what's on the radio these days, certainly more than I did when I was in college and rarely watched TV or drove anywhere!

So it was kind of fun last week when Craig announced that he had a new song to play for me and I had already heard it!  And it wasn't even on Glee (yet)!

The song was "Roar" by Katy Perry.  Now, I'm not really a fan of Katy Perry.  It's not that I actively dislike her, I just don't see the point.  Of her.  I mean, she's not a great dancer or a great singer, and I doubt she writes her songs.  So why is she a famous performer?  Why can't we just have Lea Michele sing all the stuff Katy Perry wants to sing, since she can take a nice pop song and make it kind of beautiful?  Katy Perry just feels superfluous.  At least, if I was a songwriter, I'd take all my stuff directly to Lea!

And the song "Roar" is not spectacular, but it's catchy enough.

I was explaining all this to Craig when he said, "I just kinda liked it 'cuz it reminded me of you."

From the chorus:
I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire
Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me ROAR
Louder, louder than a lion
Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me ROAR


That might be one of the best compliments I've ever received.

So, yeah, Roar.  I sort of have to love it now.

Thoughts from Stake Conference

*I wrote this back when we had Stake Conference, in May.  I have no idea why I didn't publish it at the time, but I just found it and liked it.  So I'm publishing it now.  Better late than never, right?



-I still have a hard time sitting still for two hours.  Asking my kids to do it just seems ridiculous.

-Funniest line ever was when I was out in the hall with all the big kids and found myself saying to Bentley, "No, we need to get back to our seats.  Daddy is going to open his eyes and wonder where we all went!"  Some man helping his kid get a drink of water heard that and burst out laughing.  Oops.

-But while I'm on the topic, Craig and Colton did manage to have a nice nap together.  It was cute.  I resisted the urge to take pictures.

-New Stake President!  And the man they picked used to be the first counselor in the stake presidency.  I absolutely adore him, so I was kind of excited.  Craig just felt sorry for him.  As he put it, "That's twenty years!  You get less time serving for murder!"

-Aaaaaand, the new 1st counselor in the stake presidency is our former bishop, Brother Goodfellow.  He's another person I absolutely adore, so it was exciting to see him up on the stand, too.  President (!) Goodfellow once gave one of the best talks I have ever heard in my entire life.  I will forever love him for that talk alone.

-When Bentley was a baby, I sort of resented all the times I had to leave the room to go nurse him-- whether it was church or a restaurant or whatever.  Nowadays, I'm pretty comfortable nursing in public, but during church I'll still use the mother's lounge (apparently there's a lot of controversy about that amongst other Mormon women-- maybe some day I'll write a post detailing all my thoughts about that).  Stake Conference was the first time that I realized how lucky I was to have an excuse to leave my three squirmy, loud, "big" kids with Craig so I could nurse my sweet baby to sleep.  It was awesome!  So peaceful and relaxing, I didn't want to go back!  I think that was the onlyh part of Stake Conference that I even really heard.  What a wonderful break it is to slip away so I can feed my baby!  Funny how much your perspective changes with your fourth kid...!

"She Needs to Sort Out Her Priorities!"

~Ron Weasley, talking about Hermione, of course

Life is always an adjustment.  And my challenge is to adjust along with it, which is not something that comes easily to me.  

Shortly after Colton was born, as I began trying to function as a mother again (as in, actually getting dressed and leaving the house, not just sitting around in my pajamas feeding the baby), I noticed a rather alarming trend.  I kept managing to leave the house without brushing my teeth!  How gross and embarrassing is that?  But no matter how hard I tried we always seemed to be running behind and rushing to leave, and that one more thing to do kept getting forgotten.  

Fortunately for everyone around me, one day the solution hit me.  Like a ton of bricks.

I could just be late.

Now, I HATE being late.  I'm that person who will show up for your party five minutes early, while you're not even close to being ready for guests to show up.  (And then I'll probably stand around chatting with you, rather than actually letting you get ready or-- gasp-- helping you out!)  I'm going to be mean to my Mom for a bit and blame her for this.  Because my Mom, although perfect in just about every other way, has one flaw and that is that she is almost always late.  We were that family that always walked into church after it had begun.  I was that kid left standing in the parking lot after everyone else's mothers had picked them up.  And it wasn't fun.* 

So I became the on-time person.  

And I've been the on-time person ever since I got my driver's license, which is more than half my life now.  And I'm finally realizing how ridiculous I'd gotten about it: I would get angry if I was a few minutes late to play group!  Play Group!  As in, a bunch of moms bringing their kids to a park to hang out!  No one cares if you're late to play group!!!  Or even to the store, I'd be rushing out the door like I had an appointment to keep.  (Sure, I had a baby who might suddenly decide he was hungry.  But it turns out that I'm pretty good at nursing in public these days, so even that's really not a good excuse...)

Realizing that I could be late to some things is like breaking through chains.  Sure, I'm still trying really hard to be on time for important things, like church.  Or catching a flight.  But I'm finding more and more that for most things, being a few minutes late just doesn't matter.

And brushing your teeth DOES matter.  Definitely a good reason to be a couple minutes late.

*Ironically enough, Craig is the exact opposite.  His Mom was always on time, so he tends to run late for most things.  If I manage to come fashionably late to your party, you can thank Craig for managing to hold me back.

Near Tragedy in DC Suburbs (Viewer Discretion Advised)

MANASSAS, VA

A young giraffe was nearly killed in a blatant hit-and-run this week, occurring near his home in Manassas, VA.  First-Response EMT Craig Smith rescued to the scene of the crime, performing impromptu surgery to save the young giraffe's life.  "It was a gruesome sight, really-- the twisted legs and neck, the glazed eyes, the stuffing leaking out of a gaping wound across his back...  I really thought he was a goner," noted Smith, explaining that he was reluctant to even administer treatment, feeling that the giraffe was probably beyond saving. 

Lucky for his adopted mother, Kendra Smith, that EMT Smith is an optimist.  "Just getting him upright and putting a few stitches across his back and it was like he was as good as new again.  These guys sometimes have more life in them than we give them credit for," Smith continued, modestly refusing the many honors that mother Kendra offered to bestow upon her son's hero.

Still wanted at large is the couch, seen in the background of the picture of the crime, believed to be responsible for the hit-and-run.  Anyone with information on the crime is encouraged to report to Chief of Police and Truancy Officer Alanna Smith.  "We'd like to wrap this up as quickly as possible.  We want to ensure that all of our citizens are safe, even from errant couches," noted the Police Chief.

A New Blog

Today I'm making this for dinner.  It's one of those recipes that is kind of a pain-- you have to make corn bread, and then salad dressing (although I use a different salad dressing, just so you know), and then chop and grate stuff up, and THEN put it all together.  Unfortunately, it's so dang good that I feel it's worth all that effort.  And I feel it's pretty healthy, too, so that's a nice bonus.

Anyway.  I was searching for the salad dressing recipe I like to use for this.  And that was a pain.  And it occurred to me that I needed one spot to start saving all my recipes.  In the past, I've tried to do this with Word documents, but then you have to scroll all down to find the right recipe, and that's still sort of inconvenient. 

So I decided to start a blog. 

Yup, I just did what millions of other Mormon women have done, and I started a recipe blog. 

Don't hate me.

I'm going to explain right now that the purpose of this blog is to be a sort of recipe index for me.  So I won't be posting pictures, or even going into great detail about how to make any of the recipes found there (although I will answer questions, if you ask).  It's just got the bare facts so I can find them all in one spot. 

And yes, it will take me a while to get them all posted there, and I hope to be continually adding to it, although the new recipes will all be ones I've taken from other (actual food people's) blogs.  No original material on my blog, thank you very much.  I'm posting the link when there is one, so hopefully I'm not breaking any copyright laws or anything.

So if you're bored or looking for some dinner ideas, feel free to check it out.  The healthier recipes will be coming later, if that's what you're interested in, I promise.

alannachansrecipes.blogspot.com

Happy eating!

And a Few Pictures to Boot!

Just a few more:

Colton loves his Mommy.  There's nothing like a baby to make you feel appreciated!

Recently Ryder has been taking very good care of his "babies."  Probably not coincidentally, he's also been calling Colton by name, which is adorable.  Anyway, when he announced that his baby was poopy, there was only one solution...

Bentley made a bumble bee out of old wood and some leaves and a nail-- notice the "stinger" on the left!

Colton is continuing to play the part of Ryder Part II by learning to suck his thumb...

My sister Natalie passed along a hat of mine, which originally belonged to my Grandpa Bentley.  I've been having fun making my kids try it on!

She pulls this off remarkably well, I think

This is the face Ryder pulls when you tell him to pull a funny face.  As opposed to when you tell him to smile and he closes his eyes tight!

Very dapper indeed!

And you gotta love a baby in a polo shirt!

Polyface Farm

I read most of The Omnivore's Dilemma a few years ago and, true to form, told Craig all about it as I read.  One of the things we found most intriguing was Polyface Farm, where Michael Pollan spent some time working and learning (and then writing about) their back-to-the-earth, beyond-organic way of raising cows, chickens, etc.  We knew the farm was in Virginia and talked about visiting it some day, so when we realized that it wasn't too terribly far out of the way when you're en route to Kentucky, we decided that now was our chance.

So a couple hours into our journey, we detoured off the beaten path towards the town of Swoope, Virginia.  Polyface Farm is well hidden-- you wouldn't find it without good directions!  But it certainly was charming.  I tend to think of farms as being flat, with straight lines of corn or something.  This was hilly with lots of trees-- I loved it!  And it gave the kids a nice chance to stretch their legs, which is always a good idea on a long trip.

Looking at the bunnies

Craig liked their watering tubes, which were fastened to buckets on top of the house-- this worked to keep the roof on, collect rainwater AND give the bunnies a drink!

While we were there, we bought a small chicken for roasting, eggs, a tomato, and some beef patties.  (We'd brought a cooler with ice so we could transport all this stuff.)  And then at Natalie and Cameron's we ate it all.  The chicken was good (I wished I could have had Julia Child there to determine if it tasted good and chicken-y!).  The eggs were good, although very rich.  And the patties and tomato were AMAZING.  You can DEFINITELY taste the difference between grass-fed beef and corn-fed beef!  I think the only burger I've ever had that could compare is the Shake Shack's burgers in New York.  The tomato was so sweet I considered eating it like an apple.

Looking up the hill to where they kept chickens and cows

The little store

 Craig had done his homework on the place by reading Folks, This Ain't Normal, by Joel Salatin, the owner (or I could just call him "the farmer," although that paints a picture of a very quaint, simple hayseed-of-a-man, not the very sharp, down-to-earth business man he seems to be).  I've been reading it too, now, and I have to admit that he makes a lot of great arguments.  It's certainly inspiring Craig and I to finally get our act together and plant a garden, if nothing else!

Those things that look like steps are henhouses

We didn't think to get a picture from the top of the hill looking down, which was too bad because that's where the best view was.  But we were glad we got to go and are hoping to visit again and go on one of the official tours some time soon!

Bluegrass State

Last week we visited my sister Natalie, who just moved to Kentucky!

It was my first time seeing this lovely state, so I was excited to go.  Added bonus was that my sister Tracy ended up coming for the same weekend!  And also exciting was the prospect of seeing their new home!  Natalie's husband, Cameron, just finished his residency at the Penn State Hospital in Hershey.  So now he has a brand-spanking-new job and with that, they got to finally buy a house with a yard for their boys to play in!  It's been a long time coming for them, and I couldn't be happier for them!  Their new home is just lovely-- I told Natalie I wanted one just like it.  And I really do!

We didn't do a whole lot while we were there-- mostly we hung around talking, eating, and watching the kids all play together.  The usual Bentley activities.  We'd talked about visiting some caves (Bentley is still a fan of bats, so we figured he would enjoy them), but then we learned that the main cave with oodles of bats-- appropriately called the Bat Cave-- is closed because too much tourism is bad for the bats.  And then it was an hour away, which seemed less appealing after the six-plus-hour-drive to get to Kentucky and back again.  And the final nail in the coffin was when we saw that you had to wear tennis shoes inside the caves, and I had only brought flipflops (well, and a pair of heels for church).  So we took the kids to a nearby splash pad and let them run around there instead, which was probably just as much fun! 

Extra bonus, the splash pad was in Ohio, which led to Ryder repeatedly yelling, "Hai-yo!!!" in the car, and ever since.  It's almost as much fun as when he yells, "Boogawaaaaay!"  That kid can find fun in anything!

Here are some random pictures from it all:

Besides the beautiful hospital, the main industry in Ashland is the steel mill.  The 20-foot high blue flame was pretty impressive at night!

Bentley and Kendra enjoy getting wet

And Ryder enjoys running around making mommy nervous that he'll slip and fall

What a nut!

Time to sit on Daddy!

Colton is one cool stud

Caleb generously shares his train tracks with his cousins

Bentley and Samuel find a great reading nook

Ryder "naps" in a big chair

Happy Colton (who looks vaguely like he's sporting a comb-over!)

Napping during Sunday School

Story time with Aunt Tracy, right before church

My kids are already asking when they can go back!  And, if they can live at Samuel's house!  Ooh, ooh, me, too!