CALEB'S THEORY & MISCELLANEOUS RAMBLINGS

As we got ready to leave Bible Study last night, both of my boys decided they wanted to trudge through the deep snow to the car, instead of walking in the plowed parking lot. "How did I end up with two boys?" I asked. I was referring to the fact that if I had girls, they would probably be afraid of getting their pretty shoes wet, while the boys want to see how wet they can get. Eben said, "I don't know, Mom, how did you get pregnant?" I said, "I didn't ask how I got pregnant, I asked how come I had two boys." "I know, Mom", replied Eben, "but if you hadn't gotten pregnant, you wouldn't have had two boys. So, how did you get pregnant?" I wasn't ready for this conversation, so I took the easy way out. "God just said it was time for Mommy to get pregnant."

"I know, I know," Caleb said. "Daddy fluffed in the toilet, and Mommy got pregnant!"

Priceless.

Other thoughts this morning:

I thought of another couple of holiday treats I enjoy at Christmas time: Mom's Chex mix. She makes it special just for me---only rice/corn chex and peanuts/cashews. No pretzels. No wheat chex.) And also McDonald's Custard Pies. They came out with these the year of the first Toy Story movie. Some years they have them, some years they don't. Last year, Mom and I went to McDonald's almost every day because the cashiers would say, "Not yet, but they should be on today's truck." We never got one.

We very much enjoyed the Polar Express. In fact, my Christmas cards this year feature a picture of Eben and Caleb on the train. You can't really tell that where's they are, so I put an "On the Polar Express" in the signtaure line, hoping that people could figure it out. I ordered my pictures online this year. I was so proud of myself. I uploaded my pictures ALL BY MYSELF. I had so much fun doing that, I'm hoping that Billy Rhythm might agree to put a picture album type of thing on my blog, like he's got on his. That way, all of you lucky people can see all of my pictures too!

For our wedding anniversary, we had a snowstorm. We had hoped to go to Portland to do some Christmas shopping and get some lunch, but that was really out of the question. We decided to just go to our WalMart instead, and then go to Applebee's. (And lo and behold, a week or so ago Mom bought us an Applebee's gift card as our anniversary gift! So, thanks Mom!) I had my normal: Steak topped with parmesan cheese sauce and grilled shrimp. I didn't get the mashed potatoes this time though. They had introduced new sides--macaroni & cheese, and crunch onion rings. The onion rings were awesome, and the macaroni & cheese was pretty good, too. The only thing that could have made it better was a little more cheese sauce.

For our anniversary supper, I tried a new recipe. That's always scarey, but this sounded so good, that I couldn't resist. It was tilapia (a fish), topped with a can of Campbell's Cream of Shrimp soup. You then crush 24 Ritz crackers on top of that. Then add a cup of shredded cheddar cheese, and top with 1/2 cup milk. Bake, covered, at 400 degrees for one hour. This was awesome! And for those of you following a low-carb diet, you could probably just omit the Ritz. (But for me, the Ritz crackers are the best part!)

Caleb and I made bread in the bread machine yesterday. After we started, I realized that I was out of all-purpose flour. I had some self-rising flour, so I used that, figuring a 4-year-old wouldn't really care. I just omitted the salt from the recipe. Then, I only had half the amount of yeast that I needed. What a bust that was! Actually the bread was edible, but I wouldn't recommend it.

After the bread fiasco, I decided to try the self-rising flour in some cookies. We made reindeer cookies. They were peanut butter, with a red M&M for a center, chocolate chips for eyes, and broken pretzel twists for the antlers. For the first batch, I decorated them as instructed, which was to put on the stuff immediately upon coming out of the oven. Unfortunately, the cookies would start to harden up before I could get all the stuff on/in them. Plus, Caleb couldn't help, and that wasn't making him happy. So, we decided to put the decorations on first. Caleb spent 1/2 hour putting on the faces and antlers on one tray of cookies. He was absolutely meticulous. Then, he decided that all of the reindeer needed smiles, so we broke up pretzels and added mouths.