Sauerkraut, sausage, and dill - Oh my!

Last week, my neighbor let me take a sample of the soup she was making for dinner home to taste.  I admit that I wasn't at all excited to do this; she told me it contained sauerkraut, sausage, and dill - three food items that I usually try to avoid individually, let alone collectively.  But, to be polite, and because I said I would, I gave the soup a taste.  And then another, and another, and then I called Shane over who also tasted most gingerly and then eagerly.  So, even if you aren't a fan of these items, or even soup in general, I think you will like this.  She calls it "Edie's Angry German Soup" and it is delish.

Ingredients: 
4 Cups chicken broth
1 Can cream of mushroom soup
1 – 16 Ounce can sauerkraut – drained and rinsed
(Or just drained if you like it kicked up a little)
8 Ounces Sliced mushrooms
4 Carrots chopped
2 Potatoes cubed
1 Medium onion chopped
4 Stalks celery chopped
¾ Pound smoked sausage chopped
½ Cup cooked chopped chicken
2 Teaspoons dried dill
½ Teaspoon pepper
Salt to taste

Her instructions:  Simmer in a crock pot or on a stove until the vegetables are done. Serves 6 – 8

My variations:  I bought two recipe-ready chicken breasts and boiled them for about 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, my awesome husband cut up all the vegetables (he likes to do this so that he can snack on them along the way. It works for me!).  I chopped the onion (don't anyone die of shock that I actually cut up a real live onion; usually I use the canned ones!) and added it to the chicken broth (here, again, I used water & chicken bullion cubes, and I increased the water to about 8 cups just because I didn't want all the vegetables to suck up all the water.) I added an extra can of cream of mushroom (to make up for the extra water.)  I added the vegetables once the water was boiling, then the sausage and chicken (which I cut up before hand.)  I added the mushrooms, then the sauerkraut (which I drained and rinsed for good measure) and last, the dill and black pepper.  I let it cook for about an hour until all the veggies were cooked.

My kids weren't completely sold, but Shane and I enjoyed it a lot.  It made enough for tonight and we'll have leftovers tomorrow.  The dill, sausage, and sauerkraut give this soup an amazing flavor.  Seriously - I wouldn't touch sauerkraut in most situations if you paid me to.  Well, maybe if it was like a million dollars or something, but...yeah.  Trust me. 

Let me know if you try it!

All together now.

A few months ago, I decided I wanted a new couch.

I hate writing that sentence.  I don't like to talk about buying new stuff because I don't like feel I'm the type of person who buys a lot of stuff. Sure, I often have a hard time turning down buying a book/shirt/orange juice, but big purchases don't go down very often at our house.  I don't want to spend the money and I feel like what we have is doing just fine.

However, our furniture put the four people in our family in different places during our favorite family activities.  Sure, three of us could pile into the badly-scratched-but-very-comfortable recliner, but 4 of us couldn't.  Or I would find myself stretched out alone while my three boys cuddled on the couch.  There just wasn't any place for all of us to be in the same place without sitting on the floor.

So, in July, we bought some couches.  There are 5 of them, and they all go together in an infinite (okay, maybe not infinite, but many) number of ways.  The current set up puts an L-shaped couch in front of the TV with a smaller corner chair across the way. 

And tonight, all of us are sitting together.  Ben and Thomas are playing their DS's, I'm blogging, Shane is watching the game.  The cat is stretched out across Shane's lap, her right paw just barely brushing against the side of my knee.  My feet are right next to Ben's legs, and he is resting his elbows on my shins.  Thomas's back is leaning up against Shane's shoulder.  Finally, we can sit together.

I know that money doesn't buy happiness, and neither do possessions.  But man, who knew a few couches with some extra leg and elbow room could turn a family room into a little bit of heaven.

Sandy Eggo....

Well, there weren't any Eggos, but we had generic Kroger brand waffles this year on vacation.  In sunny San Diego.  (Don't you love my play on words?  I also like to call Harrison Ford's character in Star Wars Hans Olo.  I'm fun like that.)

We had such a good time!  We didn't get the same room of the past 2 years with the view of Mission Bay (sad face), but they did give us a studio that had a kitchen (happy face!)  This meant we had a toaster and real plates and silverware and a microwave.  Oh, and a tea kettle so Shane and I didn't have to fight over the coffee maker so that he could have his morning joe and I could have hot chocolate.

This year was so relaxing. As in: I read an entire book while on vacation. That never ever happens to me.  I read in the car, I read on the beach, I read at night after dinner while laying in bed, I read by the pool while the kids swam to their hearts content.  I loved it.  I had my exchange book, and I loved reading it on vacation.  I wrote little notes of what was happening IRL along with my thoughts and expletives aimed at the characters.  Since I never managed to get out the journal I brought along on the trip and write anything, I guess it's as good a travelogue as anything else.

Ok, so what else did we do?

We went to the Wild Animal Park (Now called the Safari Park.)  You all know I despise the zoo, but this was way more than the zoo.  We sat in a clearing with a real live baby cheetah (who was pacing around the clearing on a leash with his trainers and his doggy pal.)  We watched a grown up cheetah run the 100 meter dash in less than 6 seconds.  We took the tram around the African highlands and looked at the giraffes and deer and one of two norther white rhinos left in the world.  We ate giant pretzels.  We saw the gorilla family (but sadly not the baby gorilla - more sad face.)  The kids loved it and walked around without complaint.  It was an awesome day.  I  was almost as impressed with the drive to the park - the route we took had us go past some beautiful vineyards in the dry hills above Escondido.  Awesome.

 Shane's hand has got nothing on a gorilla...

 An Okapi.  It reminded me of The Poisonwood Bible, so I took a picture of him.

 My cute boys...

 A lion hanging out on a Landrover.

The next two days we just hung out on the beach.  It seemed kind of boring at the time, but I'm so glad we kept things low key.  Both days we walked to our favorite spot on the beach and played to our heart's content.  We had hoped to do some snorkeling at the La Jolla Coves, but when we went to rent snorkeling gear, they told us it was a red tide so we wouldn't be able to see anything.  It at least explained how dirty the water was; I'd wondered why it seemed so brown!  The seaweed was totally out of control as well, so we didn't spend a ton of time in the water, but the boys spent hours digging for sand crabs and chasing seagulls.  Our timing always put us on the beach during low tide, and it was amazing to watch how far out the water would recede over the afternoon.  When the kids got sick of the beach we would walk back to the hotel and let them splash and swim in the pool.  They spent more time in their swimming suits and pajamas during the vacation than any other article of clothing.  That sounds like a successful vacation to me. :)

Looking down at the beach between Mission Bay and La Jolla.  The beach is pebbles right here, so when the surf would go out, all the pebbles would shift - it was a beautiful sound.

 The great sea wall and the sacred pool...full of sand crabs.

 I never get tired of seeing this...

 Handstands on the beach.

My kids could live in this pool.  They looked a little buggy in their goggles, but they had a blast.

 Shane took this from the freeway.

Ben can always be trusted to fall asleep before anyone else.

Things we did that we'd never done before:

• Walked down to Belmont Park.  We watched the giant wave machine and the kids all trying to be badass surfers on it.  It was fun.
• Drove into La Jolla.  Holy cow, we didn't see any cars that weren't BMWs, Mercedes, or VWs (our Mazda didn't get too intimidated though.)  And the houses on the hill?  Wow. There was a kind of outdoor mall that we drove past on our way to the coves that looked like so much fun (I was with 3 boys - there was absolutely no way they were going to window shop with me. Sad face.  Maybe next year I'll go on my own for a few hours...)
• Drove down the 5 from Irvine.  I had a wild hair on our way to SD to take the 91 when I saw a sign that said "Beach Cities."  I knew what I-15 had to offer, and I was dying to see the ocean.  So we took it.  It might have added a little bit of time to the drive, but it was so worth it.  Seeing the ocean for 90 extra miles was awesome. Plus we got to drive by the San Diego Temple on the first day.  I love seeing it!  I'll never forget our first sighting of it on our way out of town 2 years ago. It was such a shock to all of a sudden see a temple on the side of the California freeway.  I never get tired of seeing it.
• Felt like I knew where I was going.  I can navigate pretty well after 3 years.  I don't know if I could do LA, but I can hold my own in SD traffic.  Not bad for a Utah girl.
• Ate at a little bar on Mission Bay for lunch one day.  They had giant garage doors that they opened to the street so even though you were sitting inside, you felt like you were outside.  We haven't been too adventurous in our eating arrangements, so it was fun to find a local hot spot to enjoy.
• I went to H & M in Caesar's Palace.  I found a sweater that I LOVE.  My true motivation for going there was so I could say I'd been to one before they opened in Salt Lake.  Whatever.  I am now very very excited for them to be here!  Although they can never recreate the feel of being in Caesar's Palace, matter how cool SLC is.
• Thomas got sick in Las Vegas. He spent the night on the bathroom floor throwing up. I felt bad for him laying on the floor of a LV hotel bathroom - who knows what has gone on in that room! But I also wasn't about to clean up throw up on vacation.
• The red tide wasn't very cool in the day, but at night it made the breaking waves glow aqua. We watched it one night for a long time.  It was an amazing sight, and probably nothing we'll ever get to witness again.

Stuff we do that we do every year:

• Ran on the beach.  I never get tired of that!  Although I'm never going to be able to re-create the excitement I felt the first year - there is only one first run on the beach in your life, right? It's still pretty dang awesome to be running with a giant ocean to the side of you, though.
• Stayed at the Catamaran.  Love that hotel.
• Ate at Joe's Crab Shack.
• Watched the sun set over the ocean.
• Ate at El Torito. Pretty sad I have to drive 700 miles to get really good Mexican food.  Our side of town just doesn't deliver the goods.
• Stayed a night in Vegas on the way down.  Circus Circus - you really dissappointed.  Our room was in the old section. Yuck.  
• Visited Shane's grandpa in St. George.  We ate lunch with him on the way down and the way home.  It's so nice to spend time with him.
• Blah Blah Blah.  You know.  There's only so much you can say or read about a vacation before you kind of want to vomit.  Sorry.

It was awesome.  We might be ready one day to branch out an do a different vacation. But we were happy to return to our current favorite for another year. 

September List

I'm going back to my 10 lists for my monthly updates.

Things I loved in September:

1. Cooler running weather. I even had one day where I wore a long sleeved shirt. I didn't wear it the whole time, but it was nice to get know it could be cool!
2. My long runs. I did a 10, 9, and 8.  I  love the thinking time that long runs give me; it is amazing how much stuff you can mull over in 2 or so hours.
3. That fall TV returned.  Although we are *this* close to turning off our cable and just doing Netflix, I did like having a DVR full of Grey's, Biggest Loser, Glee, and The Office to entertain me.
4. Fridays.  I worked almost every Thursday for the 2+ months my kids were on track, which meant I only got one day to myself.  But let's be honest: I kind of didn't know what to do with myself for an entire day while my kids were in school for 7 hours.  Fridays were nice because I could run, shower, entertain myself (read: stare blankly at the ceiling for a while; I'm weird like that), and be ready for my kids to come home.
5. Chore charts. We started one and now my kids do chores. Almost willingly.  I love seeing them clean (maniacal laughter.)  Seriously, it's nice not doing all the cleaning and letting the offspring pull their weight.
6. Zupas. Holy cow. I resisted my friend's encouragement to eat there for months. But then one opened in Jordan Landing and I tried it and now I'm addicted.  The turkey spinach artichoke panini and lobster bisque soup are good enough to cry over.  Well, just when they are gone, really.  Mmmmm.
7. A limited supply of Vanilla cokes.  I've cut back to just imbibing on the weekends (or when I'm having a particularly bad, bad moment - but even then I can usually resist.)  I don't feel bad when I drink it, but I feel better when I don't.  It's nice to not be drinking it all the time though.
8. Looking forward to our San Diego trip (I'll post about this later!)
9. Taking an afternoon to get a pedicure.  I didn't love how she shaped my nails (I'm always worried about ingrown toenails - what would that do to my running?!) but I love having cute toes.
10. Getting my under arms lasered.  I had bought a groupon forever ago, but I could never get in for an appointment. It's kind of a weird thing to be excited about, but I take my kicks where I can get them!

Stuff we did:

1. Went to Deer Creek reservoir for a day of fun, sun, and friends on Labor Day.  It wasn't super warm, but it was warm enough to get in and swim around for a while.  I threw on a life jacket and swam in the water for a while.  It reminded me of all the times my family used to go boating there when I was a kid.  I went out on a jet ski with Thomas for a while and I was reminded so strongly of my dad for a moment.  He would have loved seeing me and my son out there having fun on the water.
2. Went to a carnival for a little boy in our ward with cancer. It was amazingly well put together; hey had a bounce house, a silent auction, a raffle, food, snow cones, everything! Shane and I walked away with 4 passes to the Living Planet Aquarium and 4 dinners at Cafe Rio for the bargain price of $30.  It was so awesome to see a community pull together for a little boy.
3. Watched Netflix.  Mad Men on Netflix has taken over our weekends. I still have a huge crush on Don.
4. Ran the Dirty Dash.  Well, not me, but Shane did, and I followed him around taking pictures and talking with a good friend.  It was fun to get up for a race at 8am, since he didn't have a start time until 11.  I loved walking around the beautiful shoulders of Timpanogas while my man got super dirty. I took a zillion action shots of him and his friends slogging it through the mud.  Maybe next year I'll do it.
5. Recruited a few people for my Ragnar team next year. It's going to be so fun; I can't wait!
6. Skipped out on church a few times. This almost never happens.  I'm not good at doing Sundays without church.
7. Sewed.  Well, not actual sewing, but cut out some pieces I'm going to applique onto a Halloween wall hanging I made last year.  Maybe it will be done in time for next year's Halloween. I always want to sew in the fall; something about the days getting cooler turns my mind to yummy fabric and sewing patters.  I need to get motivated, because a whole new batch of babies are going to be born in the next few months who need blankets. 
8. Went an entire week with the kids not watching TV or playing video games. It was a challenge, but I actually really enjoyed it.  We had an improv family dance night (after Thomas said "No TV will give me more time to practice my dance moves." Awesomest sentence from a 10 year old ever!), played board games, went on a walk.  Ah, so that is what people did in the olden days!
9. Bonded with the neighborhood.  It's funny how one neighbor who makes life hell for the rest of the neighborhood can bring everyone else a little closer together.  Am so enjoying the new closeness I feel with the people who live around me.  I'm finally feeling happy on my new street.

8 Chores my children now complete:

1. Dishes twice a week a piece
2. Cat box (three times a week for Thomas.)
3. Taking out the upstairs garbages
4. Scrubbing the bathroom sinks
5. Cleaning the inside and outsides of the toilets
6. Tubs
7. Shaking rugs
8. Vacuuming their bedrooms. 

What chores do you have your kids do?

Things that didn't make me happy:

1. A very good friend at work retired.  She and I had worked by each other for 7 years. We had shared books and space and lots of laughs and crazy family stories. I miss her so much!  Stupid retirement..
2. We bought some couches in July. It took until September 23 for them to be delivered. Lame.
3. Homework.  I love my kids, but those few hours when they need to do their homework and they have to read and they are late for karate and all they want to do is watch Phineas and Ferb make me grumpy.  I don't know why after school time has to be so hard!
4. I completely spaced a visiting teaching appointment that I had made.  I remembered in the morning, and by 11:30 (when I should have been heading to her house) I was on my way to pick up lobster bisque from Zupas and a giant vanilla coke.  My partner called me and I had to rush back to her house.  I am lame!
5. I realized I have become my parents.  You see, when we were growing up, my parents had a light with a dimmer switch. One day, the dimmer switch turny thingy broke.  You could still turn on the light, but you had to push the remaining metal post to get it to turn on.  This situation lasted for about 15 years, just something that they never got around to.  In June, the switch for the ceiling fan in my room broke. 3 months later, I am still using my tweezers to change the speed on the fan. Yeah, yay me.
6. Despite giving up soda and putting in 15+ mile running weeks (which I usually never, ever even attempt to attain), I've gained weight.  WTF?
7. I went over on my cell phone minutes and nearly had a heat attack when I opened my bill.  Sucky.

Please take this opportunity to complain.  I'm all ears!

6 songs that rocked my runs:

1. Strip, Adam Ant
2. Desperate, but not Serious, Adam Ant
3. Jar of Hearts, Christina Perri (I've loved the Glee version for a long time, but finally got the real version)
4. Changing, Airborne Toxic Event
5. Hands Down, Dashboard Confessional (I was on Haley's blog one day and watched the link on her blog. I went home and uploaded our Dashboard Confessional CD to my iTunes.  Thanks, Haley!)
6. Screaming Infidelities, Dashboard Confessional

What music are you loving? 

5 books I checked out from the library:

1. The Night Circus (holy cow - I ended up buying it because it. is. soo. good.)  If you are at all inclined - read it.
2. Girls in White Dresses (short stories - didn't love it, but enjoyed a few of them before I put it aside.)
3. The Submission. I haven't started it yet, but I've heard some good things about it on NPR.
4. One Day - okay, I didn't check this one out, but I bought it for my book exchange group. I hope they like it as much as I did! 
5. The Kitchen House (I couldn't get through it, though I really wanted to!)

Have you read anything that I should know about?

4 things my kids did:

1. Thomas passed off his multiplication and division facts. It has taken us 3 years to get through them.  I am a terrible mother.
2. Went to what was possibly the coolest birthday party ever.  Our friends had a party with a person who displayed all sorts of reptiles for the kids.  They loved it.
3. Got lizards.  They (the lizards) eat live crickets.  The store that we usually buy crickets from sells crickets that never make a peep.  However, one week we got crickets from a different store and the crickets chirped for a week straight.  I thought I was going to go crazy before the lizards finally ate them all.
4. Ben went to the zoo for a field trip.  And, despite my abhorrence for zoos, I went and chaperoned.  I went to bed that night still mentally searching for the the five little boys I was trying to keep track of.  One kid I kept calling by his older brother's name; nice! I've become THAT adult...And boys don't like to look at the animals at the zoo - they just like climbing on all the fences.

3 reasons I love September:

1. There is a feeling in the air that, despite the warmth of the day, you can feel that reminds you fall is on it's way.
2. We go on vacation in September.  It makes the summer last a little longer, and when we come home it's October - the holidays are right around the corner!
3. The trees on the Oquirrh Mountains changing to red.  They have been so beautiful this year!

What's your favorite month?


2 Things I'm looking forward to:

1. Flannel sheets. Bring 'em on!
2. The Halloween Half marathon!!  Registration is still open - join in the fun!!  I'm trying to figure out a costume that will be festive but not impede the running in any way.  Hmmm....

1 more thing:

1. One night, I was sad and missing my dad.  I called my mom and cried at her for a while.  Moms are great, and we never stop needing them, and they never stop being able to make us feel better.  Thanks, Mom.