Grandma RosiePepper's Conversation with the Princess Last Night

**Kleenex Alert** (Don't say I didn't warn you)

The Princess had a really neat conversation with her grandma last night. The conversation was subsequently emailed to me. I can't say it any better than grandma did in her email to me, so I'm just going to copy and paste her email here.

"G-- asked me to talk to the Princess to help her believe two things - that her grandmas pray for angels to be with her, and that the angels keep the monsters away.

So, when she got on the phone, he had her ask me if there are angels in her room. I assured her that there are, because I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers, and every night I pray that her angels will be with her so that she has nice dreams. She asked more questions - can the angels see the monsters (because some monsters are hard to see) - yes, because angels are Heavenly Father's best friends, and Heavenly Father can see everything so he makes sure His angels can see everything. She was still skeptical, so, remembering something she once (or more times) said about wanting a big sister, I said that maybe one of the angels is her big sister angel. She said something like "My big sister angel? Is she my age?" Yes, or maybe even older. "Like 10 or 17 ... or 18?" Yes, she could be that old, and she watches over you. The angels make sure there aren't any monsters, so that you will have nice dreams. Oh, and she did ask if there really are girl angels. YES!

I think that's about it - if I remember any more gems I will let you know. She was so genuine, so convinced that the monsters are real and needed so much reassurance that there is protection. Yes, I do believe that she, and all of us, have angels watching over us, keeping the "monsters" away. Every day, all day, when I pray for all of you, all of my family, to be safe and feel His and my love, that's praying for His and your angels, and the Holy Ghost, to deliver that message. I didn't lie to her, I didn't make anything up. I don't know exactly who her angels are - she has plenty of ancestors, and others who love her, who are watching over her - and you!"

Thanks, Grandma RosiePepper - I know you helped her sleep better last night.

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Snow Day!

Snow is a pretty rare thing here. The last "big" storm was in 2004. Meteorologists were only predicting 2-4 inches, but it's apparently a pretty big deal to have ANY snow here. I ran to the grocery store to pick up bread on Monday night, and the lines were INSANE.

I think we ended up receiving about 3 inches in our neighborhood, but all of the schools were closed (DH informs me that this wasn't due to the amount of snow on the ground in the morning, but due to the fact that if it had kept snowing all day, students would have been forced to stay at school overnight like they were in 2004 - we're not well-equipped to deal with snow around here), and DH was allowed to work from home.

We didn't tell The Princess about the possibility of snow the night before, because we didn't want her to get her hopes up and then be disappointed. She's still feeling pretty homesick, and she's been sad at the lack of snow here. So when she woke up in the morning and DH told her to look out the window, she was thrilled. We were hard pressed to convince her to allow everyone to dress warmly before going outside to play.



Catching snowflakes on her tongue...



It was REALLY cold, so DH convinced her to zip up her jacket.



Posing with daddy - isn't he handsome?





Sparky managed to last outside for a few minutes, but she wasn't really a fan of the hat, and my jacket wasn't warm enough for her, so we went back inside and made hot chocolate for The Princess to enjoy after playing outside as long as possible.



A couple pictures of the backyard after the flurries finally stopped.

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Easy Chicken Recipe

This is the easiest dinner I've ever made. You could probably make it in your sleep (I think I was half asleep when I put it in the crockpot this morning). Even though it's simple, it's really good.

Frozen Chicken Breasts (I used 3)
1 Bottle Italian Dressing
1 Cup grated Parmesan Cheese

Plop frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot. Cover with Italian Dressing. Cook on low for about 4 hours, then flip chicken breasts over and smother with Parmesan cheese. Cook for another 3-4 hours on low.

That's it! You can actually put everything in the crockpot and cook on low all day without turning everything over, but my chicken breasts were kind of big, and I wanted to flip them over halfway through to make sure everything was covered in Italian dressing. I wouldn't have needed to worry about it if I'd marinated them in the dressing overnight.

We really enjoyed this chicken. I served it with pan seared broccoli and Parmesan mashed potatoes. Even The Princess cleaned her plate.

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My New Favorite CD

Okay, so I enjoyed the Twilight movie. I didn't think it was the World's Best Movie, but I think they did a good job. There were a few things I would have changed (such as not filming one of the scenes on an obviously sunny day when vampires aren't supposed to be outdoors at school on a sunny day), but I enjoyed it for the most part.

But I LOVED the music. Muse, Paramore and Linkin Park are already three of my favorite bands. So liking those songs on the album was a given. I think "Full Moon" by The Black Ghosts is my new favorite song, and I love "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" by Iron & Wine. So not only did the album include music from some of my all-time favorites, it also introduced me to a couple of new artists that I enjoy. Oh, and Rob Pattinson's voice isn't bad, either. Although I get kind of bored with the song halfway through, so I'm not sure if I love it, but his singing isn't bad. And "Bella's Lullaby" is pretty enough that it has me considering buying the score in addition to the soundtrack.

Anyway, whether or not you're a fan of Twilight, you might want to check out the music.

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Our Christmas Tree

I had resigned myself to not having a tree this year. The movers put our Christmas tree in the garage, and we have rather large spiders in our garage. I'm terrified of spiders (which is partially due to a traumatic experience involving spiders and a Christmas tree). So I didn't want to get the tree out of the garage and into our house only to discover a bunch of spiders. I figured the baby was too young to care, and The Princess would get over it when she opened her presents on Christmas morning. I told myself I didn't care that we wouldn't have a tree, but I kind of moped on the inside.

I had to go to Target today to pick up Sparky's Prevacid. Even though I activated the Benny card on Saturday, and the automated message said to please allow 2 business days for the card to work at the pharmacy, the card did *not* work at the pharmacy, and I now have to submit a very large pharmacy bill for reimbursement. I'm not very happy about that, but I digress.

I took The Princess to Target with me, and when we got home, she went into the house and exclaimed that daddy had put up the Christmas tree. I assumed he had taken the three mini trees from the spare bedroom and put them into the living room. So I was really surprised when I entered the living room and saw our adorable Christmas tree all aglow. We found the boxes of ornaments and had a wonderful afternoon decorating the tree.

It was so much fun unwrapping the individual ornaments and reminiscing about their origins.

This ornament was given to us by George's mission president during our first Christmas together.



This is the ornament I bought for The Princess' first Christmas.



I didn't want Sparky to feel left out, so I bought her an ornament this year, too. Although it doesn't have her name engraved on it yet...



Here are a couple of the really cool ornaments I bought at Old Navy last year after Christmas for 75% off. They matched my tree's color scheme (candy colors - pink, purple, blue, red, and silver, green, and aquamarine), and I totally forgot that I bought them. So it was like an early Christmas present this year when I discovered them. :)





Here's the nativity ornament that Lizzy picked out for us this year. I love it!



And I love The Princess' reflection in this image.



And a couple images of the full tree in all its' sparkly glory.





I think "Santa" is just about finished wrapping The Princess' gifts, and the stocking is already stuffed and ready for Christmas morning, so I'm going to turn into a pumpkin now. I just wanted to wish everyone the merriest of Christmases. I miss all of you soooooo much, and I can't wait to see everyone again.

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Email Survey

My SIL sent me this email survey. I've answered it before, but I can't remember who's received the email in the past (mostly people in the group, I think). So I figured I'll put it up on my blog, and then when I receive the email, I can be lazy and refer people to my blog. :)

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Nope - my name is pretty unique.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? A few days ago. I was looking at a competitor's website and became frustrated at the lack of regulation in the photography industry (both quality of work and pricing). It makes it rather difficult to re-establish and succeed in my chosen profession.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Depends on the day.

4 . WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Turkey

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Yes, 2 beautiful girls.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I don't know. I would definitely hope so.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Never. (Can you feel the sarcasm radiating from the screen yet?).

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS ? Yes

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Absolutely not. I don't like heights.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Lucky Charms - the real ones, not the generic kind.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Most of my shoes don't have laces, but no.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Not really.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Cookies and Cream milkshake from Chick Fil A.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their eyes.

15. RED OR PINK? Definitely PINK!!! I'm a girlie-girl that way...

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I get frustrated too easily.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My family.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Not really applicable since I'm not emailing it to anyone, but I'd love for people to do this on their blogs.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Blue jeans, no shoes.

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? A peanut cluster.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The Princess giggling and singing the ABC song as part of her bedtime ritual with daddy. And the heartbeat track playing through the baby monitor.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Too difficult to pick just one color. Especially with all the nifty Crayola-ish names.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Rain, Miss Sparky after I've slathered her with Baby Magic baby lotion, The Princess' hair after she's just had a bath and her hair is almost dry, my hubby after he's taken a shower (I love the smell of his shower gel and shampoo).

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My daddy.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS? Absolutely.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? I don't really like watching sports on TV, but I enjoy watching gymnastics and ice skating during the Olympics.

27. HAIR COLOR ? Red-ish.

28. EYE COLOR? Blue.

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Unfortunately, yes.

30. FAVORITE FOODS? Chick Fil A, Evil Jungle Princess Chicken, Chicken Parmesan, really well-made chicken curry.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy Endings.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? The first half of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? One of my hubby's old shirts - it's green with writing on it.

34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Spring and autumn.

35. HUGS OR KISSES? Both.

36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Thaifoon's Chocolate Volcano.

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? N/A

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND N/A

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Books? Ha!! I haven't read a book in a while. Although I'll probably re-read the last Twilight book soon.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Some sort of space scene - looks like a cluster of stars.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V.. LAST NIGHT? I have vague memories of half listening to Jay Leno's headlines.

42. FAVORITE SOUND? At this point in my life? Silence. Or Miss Sparky's giggle. The Princess has an adorable laugh, too.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles!

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? North Carolina.

45. ANY NEWS IN YOUR LIFE? Nothing that everyone hasn't already heard.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? WVC, Utah

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? N/A

48. WHAT TIME IS IT NOW? 12:28AM

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Tortilla Soup

I didn't plan my menus very well this week, so I was scrambling to find something to make for dinner tonight. I figured I had everything in the house to make Chicken Tortilla Soup, so I decided to Google some recipes. In the process, I stumbled upon a definite keeper. I changed it just a bit (extra cumin, added black beans), and I'm now out of diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, but it was soooo worth it!

This makes a lot of soup. You could probably cut the recipe in half and still have enough for at least 4 people. Lucky me has plenty of leftovers. :)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 tsp Olive Oil
1 Medium Onion, Chopped
4 Garlic Cloves, Minced
1 Medium Jalapeño Pepper, Chopped
1/2 Medium Green Pepper
4 Small Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
2 Cups Frozen Corn
1/2 Cup Dry White Wine or Water
3 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Chili Powder
4 (14 oz) Cans Chicken Broth
2 (14 oz) Cans Diced Tomatoes
1 (14 oz) Can Tomato Sauce
1 Can Black Beans, Mashed

Cheese and tortilla chips for topping (optional)

Saute onion, garlic, jalapeño, and green pepper in olive oil in a large pot until soft.

Add all the rest of the ingredients to the large pot and bring to a boil.

Remove the chicken after about 20 minutes, shred with a fork, return to pot, and simmer an additional 45 minutes.

I had a bunch of leftover corn tortillas from my failed attempt at baked chicken tacquitos, so I cut some of them into strips, fried them in oil and sprinkled them with salt. I personally prefer them to tortilla chips in my chicken tortilla soup.

According to the nutritional information, this recipe only has 3.1 grams of fat. Or course, that's before adding the chips and cheese. This is the first tortilla soup recipe that I would actually be willing to eat without the chips or cheese, but I didn't. That's why I still have about 15 pounds of baby fat to lose. That and the fact that I eat waaaaay too much chocolate...

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