Sunday, November 22, 2009

How Pumpkin Pies are Made



Happy Thanksgiving one and all! I made some yummy Pumpkin Brownies tonight for after dinner at Debbie's house.

Falisha is home for Thanksgiving and it was a blast spending time with the family. My kids LOVE Aunt Debbie and her kids. They always are excited when they're able to go over to their house.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Springville High Football Takes 2nd in State & embarrasses us all!


Yes that is my nephew Bradley #54 suited up for the state championship game!



ksl.com - High school football: championship preview


http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705346195/4A-Timpview-35-Springville-6.html

Darin and I love our city and our high school. We love attending all different activities offered, even before we moved 2 blocks away from it. Or before we named our blog "dixondevils" in part after the Springville Red Devil's mascot. We've watched almost every home football game for the sophomore team (our nephew Bradley plays) and the varsity team. I even splurged for shirts at Wal-Mart in Springville boasting the Red Devil colors and emblems to wear to community events.

In short, we have great pride for our little city that's slowly growing into a large city.

That is why our state championship game at Rice Eccles Stadium on U of U campus in SLC was such a disappointment.

Springville High School separated from neighboring city Mapleton this year when Mapleton's high school was finally completed. Taking Springville High from 5A to 4A. Our football team hadn't been to the state championship game since 1985. 26 years. In fact not since the current head coach Scott Mitchell, played quarterback for the team himself and the only state title Springville has known. Mitchell is the new head coach this year and lead the varsity team to win all but one game in the regular season.

Unfortunately the coach didn't have what it took to make the city proud on Friday November 20, 2009. And I'm not speaking of us losing 6 to 35. Yeah, that hurt a bit, but we went to state! We won 2nd place! There's nothing to be ashamed of there.

In the 4th quarter when our loss was ensured, our football players, to most of the fan's astonishment and embarrassment, turned into thugs. I've heard that Timpview, from Provo, can really smack talk on the field. Who the heck cares? The fans can't see or hear smack talk, but when your team is down 29 points and are called on over ten personal fouls in the last four minutes of the game, we see that our team knows nothing of maturity and sportsmanship.

Furthermore, our coaches know less. Why weren't 13 and 23 taken out of the game? After several late hits and shoving on the field, why wasn't second string put in? It was embarrassing the first couple of fouls we received. It was enraging and ridiculous after going on for the remainder of the game. Okay we lost to a great team. We lost BIG to a great team. Unfortunately we also lost our honor, we lost our pride.

Our usually talented sophomore quarterback, Steve Bate, threw four interceptions in the game and wasn't relieved until the last few minutes of the fourth quarter. Why wasn't he relieved earlier? The replacement quarterback did a fantastic job running plays.

http://www.deseretnews.com/video/1563/4A-high-school-football-championship-Timpview-vs-Springville.html

Friday, November 20, 2009

New Moon

Fabulous! I'm so glad we know Debbie, and that she knows everyone in Springville. She has an underground network more rewarding than the mafia. Her friend rented out a theater for the midnight showing and assigned seats for friends and family members.

That meant no waiting in mile long lines, we walked into the theater and walked right into our seats. We must do it again for Eclipse, and this time Dorie needs to be with us. She waited in line for 4 hours in Washington, otherwise she would've been outside in the rain!



There were door prizes for everyone and then random prizes. I won a car decal that says "I have OCD, Obsessive Cullen Disorder". So happy! Darin won a box of Jr. Mints just for being a guy and having the guts to be there.

I was elated because I was truly mistaken for his daughter (I had my hair in a ponytail with bangs). It was a great and fun time!

The movie was fabulous! Absolutely fabulous. There were a ton of lines straight out of the book, and the things that were different made sense anyways. The first time Jacob takes his shirt off is unexpected and I nearly choked on my extra buttery popcorn. How can a 16-year-old have that many muscles? Wow.

I highly recommend the movie to anyone who'd like to have Edward dreams for a week!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Thursday Dinner


Whilst heating up some cheese sauce for the Potato Bar that I was making for dinner, tragedy struck. I heard a gun shot go off in my microwave.

I jumped startled, and what to my wandering eyes should appear, but the entire jar of cheese exploded on the ceiling of the microwave and dripping heavily onto the bottom rotating glass plate! I was shocked, angry, and then I just started laughing. I mean, how can you not? I've never seen anything like this before!

Enjoy! Oh, and the potato bar was delicious and my kids even loved it!

The First Showing Tonight


My husband Darin, sis in law Debbie and I are going to New Moon midnight showing. We will be in our seats an hour early, we have assigned seating because a friend rented out the theater, so that means 11pm tonight.

My nephew is coming over to sleep at our house, so my kids are set.

Is it just me or am I getting too old for this? Usually Darin and I love watching the first showings for Harry Potters, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and any other big hits. But this time, I can't stop thinking about how painful it will be to get up and get the kids off to school. Especially if the movie is close to 3 hours long. . .that would put me to bed after 3am!

This may be the last time I do this midnight showing crap, we'll see. I'm just crazy enough to keep doing it though.

I am looking forward to the movie, however, I hope it will be all that the teaser trailers have hinted that it will be.

I need Stephenie to finish Midnight Sun, because Ed is one of the best characters ever written. Anyone? Anyone?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Thanksgiving Dinner

What an exciting time for my family!

This year Thanksgiving will be hosted in our new home with all of our closest friends and family invited. I made up the menus last week.

Main: 
Turkey (of course, prepared by Debbie again this year)
Sides:
Potatoes (a la Mindy Grove)
Gravy (a la HJ Dixon)
Funeral Potatoes (a la Mom Dixon)
Broccoli SoufflĂ© (a la Kendra Dixon)
Cheesy Onions (a la Gramma Weber)
Sweet Potatoes (a la Andrea Kestner)
Green Bean Casserole (a la Campbell's)
Green Bean Almond Dean (a la Gramma Weber)
Orange Dessert Salad (a la Taste of Home 2000)
Stuffing (a la Peperidge Farms)
Rolls (if I can live through it - a la Mom Dixon)
Cookie Salad (a la Mom Dixon)
Shrimp Shell Salad (a la Mom Dixon)
Dessert:
Pumpkin Roll (a la Sandy Kestner)
Pumpkin Pie (a la back of pumpkin pie mix can)
Snacks: Like we need them!
Caramel Popcorn (a la Mom Dixon)
Chex Mix (a la Chex)
Ranch Snack Mix (a la Taste of Home)

Then I purchased all of the non perishable items on Monday to beat the rush.



I will purchase all fresh items by next Monday to ensure that we're not running around the day before to three different stores because everyone's out of "canned pumpkin"!

We look forward to good food and good company. Our family has a lot to be thankful for this year!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Vampires


Darin asked me tonight in bed if I was sick of reading vampire books yet. I looked up from Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat and rebuked him that I can't get enough! I really enjoyed Interview with the Vampire, although I found it pretty depressing - in a good way. Poor Louis. But as I'm beginning the first pages of the second book in The Vampire Chronicles, it's so animated and energetic from Lestat's perspective. Any of you who haven't read it, don't be afraid. No sex, no relations at all. In Rice's world vampires don't feel anything but the need to drink. It consumes them, and any other pleasure from their human experience is felt during the kill. If Edward would've lived in this world, he would've drained Bella straight away and then mourned it for the rest of his existence, as Luis always did.

I've burned through so many vamp novels and am coming to a close. I will read all of the series of Rice and Vamp Chronicles, however, like the vampires I have a great need to be satiated with more! If you know of any other good vamp novel, please share. I've read about Ed & Bella of course, Sookie Stackhouse, Anita Blake and Louis, Lestat and Armand. Any others?

Thanks!

Monday, November 9, 2009

High on Life

Saturday Night Darin mentioned, as he dug into the kids' Halloween candy bags, that he felt a little hypocritical eating the kids' candy when we don't allow them to eat any.

His comment caught me off guard, I don't withhold candy from my kids for no reason. . .I just forget about it being there. There is the occasional, "You're grounded from your candy today because you were a MONSTER in primary." But usually it's because I'm going, going, going during the day and never stop to fill up my kids on anything but breakfast, lunch, dinner and healthy snacks.

On a whim, I decided to call my children upstairs and see if they'd put on their pajamas like I'd asked minutes before. Surprisingly they all came up ready for bed. I was so proud. I then let my children know that they could eat three pieces of candy each before bed! The kids were beyond elated. You may think I'm an abusive mother, but it was 9:45pm at this point. (My children are usually in bed by 8pm.)

The next 30 minutes Darin, Rosalie, Tyriq, Rashad and I ate candy to our heart's content. We had two big bowls of Halloween candy set up in the middle of our kitchen table and we went to town! The three piece rule flew out the window with Rashad, and I realized too late that he didn't know how to count. The silliness and laughter that followed was not unlike a party with alcohol.

After the kids had consumed their candy and were almost falling out of their chairs, I started giving them pixie stix shots. It was fabulous. I had each child throw back their heads and emptied a small pixie into the back of their mouth. When I did this to Rashad he clamped down his jaw, and it immediately seized up in a sour attack spasm. It was awesome. We giggled like the little boys and girls we were and the kids haven't stopped talking about it yet.

Near the end of the party Rashad was squealing with pleasure, it ended when he threw is head face first into one of the bowls of candy. Darin and I exchanged looks of shock and laughed happily at our "high" children.

They finally wandered off to bed around 10:15pm. When we checked 45 minutes later, they were passed out in their beds.

They didn't seem to have headaches the next morning, so I guess the hangover wasn't too bad.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

New Moon Movie


I purchased tickets for myself and husband on Saturday. A friend of a friend of my sister-in-law rented out a whole theater (amazingly I didn't exaggerate at the reference). So no waiting in lines, seats are saved! I'm so stoked. I also purchased some New Moon candy hearts last weekend. I can't wait to look at them, eating them would be totally gross.

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