Book review: Ape House

I just finished reading this book this week:

I checked this book out at the library only because it was by the same author as this book, which I LOVED:

I'm sorry to say I was a bit disappointed.

Water for Elephants had such rich characters, I felt I devoured it page by page. I also loved learning something of the world of the traveling circus in the 1930's, as well as elephants and their complex and human qualities. It was fascinating and a very quick read.

Ape House, however, did not read as quickly. While the intent I'm sure was again to teach us something, this time about bonobos rather than elephants, the story fell short. The characters weren't as developed, and the plot seemed a bit contrived. I finished it because of my genetic need to finish a book or movie once I've started, but it was more of a quest to move on to another book than to see what happens next.

I appreciate the pressure a new author must feel to follow up to something that was so spectaculary received— a movie is even in the works for Water for Elephants—but I would not suggest rushing to check this one out. I think the author is still fine tuning her proven storytelling skills.

One more pumpkin recipe

In case anyone else is still in the pumpkin mood, I will give you one more to add to your collection. I made this one to take along when we visited someone recently and it was yummy.

I get the impression that making cheesecakes intimidate people, as so many people I've talked to say they've never made one, but in my opinion, they are one of the quickest and easiest desserts to make, and they feed a crowd. They also freeze great. Just cut into sections, wrap with saran wrap, and then with foil, and it will come up just as it was when you froze it. I almost always use the light cream or neufachtel cheese and you can't tell the difference. You will need to invest in a springform pan if you don't have one to make cheesecakes.

Marbled Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake (From Libby's Pumpkin):

Crust:
1 1/4 c graham cracker crumbs
1/4 c (1/2 stick) butter, melted
2 T sugar
1 c (6 oz) semi-sweet mini chocolate chips, divided

Cheesecake:
3 pkgs (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 c sugar
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
4 lg eggs
1/2 c evaporated milk
2 T cornstarch
1 tsp gr cinnamon
1/8 tsp gr nutmeg

Crust:
Combine graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar in small bowl. Press onto bottom of greased 9" springform pan. Sprinkle with 1/2 c morsels.

Cheesecake:
Microwave remaining morsels in medium bowl at 15 sec intervals, stirring until smooth; cool to room temperature.

Beat cream cheese and both sugars in lg mixer bowl until smooth; beat in pumpkin. Beat in eggs, milk, cornstarch and spices. Remove 3/4 c pumpkin mixture and stir into melted chocolate. Pour remaining pumpkin mixture into crust. Spoon chocolate pumpkin mixture over top; swirl with knife.

Bake in preheated 350 oven for 60-65 minutes or until edge is set but center still moves slightly. Cool in pan on wire rack. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Serves 16. (about 121 points total for WW using light CC).

Santa and God

Spoiler alert; young readers who still believe should not read on.

I don't know about you, but I am struggling a bit differentiating these two to my kids.

Watching you all of the time? Check.
Sees everything you do? Check.
Knows things without you telling them? Check.
Invisible to our eye but always present? Check.

I love the naivety of children, and the wonder of magical things like Santa. I support the myth for now.

However... I understand those who choose not to propigate the whole Santa thing to their kids. Because—I really don't like lying to them now. I find myself giving vague answers and then changing the subject. As reasoning skills improve with age, naturally questions become a bit more complex. And, because my kid is coming home on almost a regular basis lately teaching me things he's learned that I either didn't know or already forgot, my idiot meter is on full alert, so my ability to give sound reasons for how these things are possible is getting weaker by the minute.
{Did you know there were five oceans? And one of them is called Southern Ocean? WTF? Why have I never heard of that?}
And, once we tell them, and then continue down the list with all the other fakes that we've been propigating, it's natural that they'd wonder if we've been making up the whole God thing too.

So, in preparation for that, I have changed some of my answers lately. So, when I'm asked, "Can Santa hear everything we are saying and see us now?", I say, "No. Only God can do that. Santa isn't as powerful as God." Where before, of course, the answer was always yes, to elicit the best behavior possible prior to Christmas.

It truly is a slippery slope. Does anyone else find this difficult as your kids age? What tricks/tips/advice do you have in dealing with this?

Overdue recaps

I am considerably overdue mentioning two very fun weekends we just had. Well, not just, but a few weeks ago, seein' as how I said I'm overdue.

Anyhoo, my sister and her family visited over Halloween weekend. I was so excited for the visit; she hadn't been here since 3 weeks after we moved here, and her husband had not been here yet, so I couldn't wait. We had a great time. We ate too much, drank too many beers and martinis, (blah blah, broken record, yes I eat and drink too much pretty much anytime I'm with people I love) played boggle, sat around in our pj's till noon just like we wanted to, got a babysitter and went out to dinner and a movie (can we really call Jackass a movie-but still funny!), and went to a fun Halloween party. Though they were only here for 3 nights, it felt nice and long since we mostly sat around, and that's exactly how we wanted it.

I'm so glad you came! I loved it.

Awww.

Guess what sister, bet no one has any trouble figuring out who the younger one is here, now do they?

Guess our "good side" for a photograph hasn't changed over the years

Heather and Aaron at martini/sushi bar

Jack, Luke, Evan and Carson.

Do I organize an pyramid shot, without fail, whenever I'm in a group? Yes.

-------------------------

Another fun weekend following on the heels of that one. We met up with our good friends Chris and Cindy in the corner of Wisconsin/Iowa/Illinois at her parents house. They are dairy farmers, so this visit was a real treat for all of us. We got to watch a milking (needless to say we voted for the p.m. milking vs. the a.m. milking....lightweights...) and got to bottle feed calves. So much fun! Cindy's parents were more than gracious hosts and it was so comfortable there. We even got a night out for an adult dinner. We capped it all off with a daytrip to a waterpark. Thanks for a great trip!

Oh, Luke

Just in case anyone out there is tossing fitfully at night, fretting that after moving to a small farming community in Iowa, the Miller family may have lost touch with their fashion sense....

Fear not.

We are still creating outfits in the most artful and creative sense here. Such as this little number, modeled by our smallest fashionista:

This look shows how to playfully mix patterns, ala Lady Gaga. If you believe you can pull off a look, you can.

In early April, this look embodied the spirit of "I'm ready for summer". The pants on backwards emphasize the individuality that encapsulated spring's fashion attitude. Spiderman sandals polish off this look.

And, of course, who can forget sweater vest on alone look #2. This trend really says, "I know you are looking at me, and I like it. Don't be jealous. Only imitate."

You can rest assured he had a long sleeved shirt under that when I dropped him off at preschool today. You know you are in for a treat when you pick him up and the teachers say, "You are going to die when you see your son." Apparently this was a midday wardrobe change while in the bathroom.

I'll share a few quotes from Luke today as well:

"Your butt looks big when you bend down, but it doesn't when you stand up. Look! (asks me to stand up straight now to emphasize point). It changed small!" (this last part said to the tune of, It's a Christmas miracle!)

"I  hope that no one ever kills us. I'm glad we have army guys to protect us from the bad army guys."

Good to see the Veterans Day convocation really hit home today at school.

And then there was one from Jack, as we ate dinner:

"MMM, this salmon is really good Mom!", he said enthusiastically. "Is this from dead fish?"

Just so you know....

The little one has determined he wants to go by the name 'Ham' from now on. He pleaded with me to please change his name to Ham. So consider this my public declaration on Luke's behalf for his name change.

Also, he likes me better when I wear glasses, and he wants to move to Colorado. When I pointed out he has never been to Colorado, he said that was ok, he knew what it looked like.

Which furthers my hunch that he might have lived a previous life. Possibly as a dog due to many growling type mannerisms he exhibits, but that's beside the point. I think he's been around this circuit once before.

Ham as Annakin Skywalker

Jack as Darth Vader

Trick or Treating rural style

A stagger down memory lane

I recently entered the dark depths known as the "storage area" in our basement to find something.

Jack had mentioned that he'd like to try out an Easy Bake Oven, and it just so happened that I had one.

Oh, isn't that cute, you think, she saved hers from when she was a kid! Well, not quite....you see, there are a few things I desperately wanted as a kid that I didn't get-a Sit N' Spin, and an Easy Bake Oven, off the top of my head. So Rob bought me the Easy Bake Oven for my 30th birthday. I remember we had friends over and all baked one of the cake mixes together so we could taste it. Yummola. Not so much.

So, I entered said dark depths in search of the oven, and, well, as these things go, encountered many other things along the way.

I don't know about you, but I tend to be a "saver", and so was my mom. I have totes upon totes of stuff from my childhood, both that my mom saved, and later, when I was old enough, that I saved. And once you enter Pandora's box my friend, you are sucked in so deep that you can only emerge 6 hours later, hair disheveled,  parched and gasping for air. Or, at least, that was my experience.

Here's a few things I found:

• Strawberry Shortcake dolls, still in their strawberry home-all smells still intact
• 3rd grade pencil box from school
• 48 or so newspaper copies of any event that I was in the newspaper for (honor rolls, sporting events)
• brownie sash
• $2 bill from my grandpa, still in my fuzzy number "3" piggy bank-when he gave it to me, he laughed and said, "Now don't you ever spend this!". Bet he didn't know I'd take him seriously.
• Newsweek 1-1-01 issue with cover Welcome to the 21st century
• wooden shelves and racecars I made in industrial arts
• a letter home to Mom from Grandma's, in 4th grade, including reports of my brothers regular bowel movements, and tattlings on my sister and the embarrassing things she said in earshot of the Amish whom we'd just given a ride about "not smelling too bad"
• business cards from my first real job out of college
• corsages from my high school proms
• almost all of my report cards from grade school through college
• just about every note that was written in high school. They usually went something like this:

Hey, whaddya up to? I'm in algebra. It's so boring. I really don't have anything to say. What are you up to? Do you like my new pen color? I got it yesterday. I hope I pass the quiz. Well, I really don't have anything to say. Write back soon! LYLAS! and then it was folded all weird into some hieroglyphic pattern that was impossible to recreate once you opened the note. And I saved bucketloads of these notes. And sat and read them for hours. And you know what? I actually felt really sad for teenagers now, because with all of the texting, and emailing, they will not have any of these paper trails to read when they are 37 and sitting in their basement for 6 hours. (Did I say I feel sorry for them, or I feel sorry for myself?)

•  I actually found a takeout menu, from the bar where I celebrated my 21st birthday and my roommate had written down the names of each of the shots I did that night. And I really, honestly, cannot believe that I did not die, nor did any of my acquaintances, on our 21st birthday celebrations. The number of shots we did were staggering, and as a mother now, whoa boy. God was looking out for us then, there is no doubt about it.
• stacks upon stacks of college notebooks. And I wondered, how did I absorb all of that back then? Because honestly, I don't even understand what I was writing down now when I look back at it. We were talking about some heavy stuff, and I can only say prekids my brains capacity must have been at some otherworldly level to understand all of that stuff. Pat on the back kiddo! You were smart once!
• And this last item I will share, I treasured. Remember this?

"It took me like three hours to finish the shading on your upper lip.

It's probably the best drawing I've ever done."

Lookee look, I got me my own drawing too!!!

The inscription on the lower left says "To the one I love, Rachel". Sadly, our  love did not last as I cannot definitively say who this was from. I thought first it was from my boyfriend Dan in 9th grade who was really artistic, but upon further study, this shirt really looks like a rad black/red plaid shirt I wore extensively junior year, so it might have been drawn by Nick. Anyway, it is actually pretty good. Oh, young love gone awry.

Have I inspired you to go diggin' in your old stuff now? Anyone... anyone????