Our House, Our Week: Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down...

So, uh. My blog! My oldest daughter Brittany got married and now blogs every week. She challenged me to do the same, so here I am!

Where to start....
We are the Clines. We live in our house, in the middle of our street (great old 80's song... "Our House", look it up if you don't know it). Jim and I have 5 children: Brittany, Mary, Sarah, Stephen, and Danny. But enough about us.... oh wait, that's what I'm writing about. JUST KIDDING!

Danny,9, is obsessed with Calvin and Hobbes, the comic strip by Bill Watterson, and wants to be just like Calvin. He has read most of the books. I don't have the heart to tell him that there won't be any more now that the artist has retired.
Thumbs down: Calvin has a rather sarcastic sense of humor, is a picky eater, and spends most of his school hours daydreaming. Apparently Mr. Watterson doesn't much care about the influence of his character on children. Not surprising, since according to Wiki, since he has no children of his own. Go figure.
Thumbs up: Danny wants a haircut so he can spike it like Calvin's, wants to know what he can do to have a better imagination, and (since Calvin has a pretty amazing vocabulary for a kid that's always getting beat up at recess), is learning words like ethical, veritable, monochromatic, and polarity.

Stephen, 14, just attended his first dance last week. Sarah helped him pick out an outfit, and role-played "How to ask a girl to dance". Lesson one: Do not slap the girl on the back, and say HEY, WASSSUP!! Simply extend your hand and ask if she would care to dance.
Thumbs down: Stephen seems to enjoy wandering through the middle of the dance floor more than actually dancing.
Thumbs up: He danced with 8 girls and had a great time, (thanks to the influence of his wonderful YM leader) and then came home and wrote in his journal.

Sarah, 17, is employed again at the local animal clinic and is enjoying her summer, which has been full of vacation, movies, friends, work, and Brittany's wedding.
Thumbs down: I can't drive her car much anymore without sneezing, due to the cat hair that transfers from her cute scrubs to the vehicle's driver's seat on the way home from work.
Thumbs up: Even though she caught Britt's bouquet, she has absolutely no desire to get married for a VERY LONG TIME!

Mary, 18, got engaged to Derek (27), one month after Brit's wedding. There ought to be a law that a sibling has to wait to announce this at least until after the leftover mints from the first wedding have been consumed. I will say we at least saw it coming. Mary and Derek sat with us in Sunday school in my brother's ward the day after Brit and Chris left for their honeymoon. When introducing ourselves, Jim and I said we were in town because of our daughter's wedding. A very nice man came up to Mary and Derek afterwards to "congratulate the newlyweds". They laughed, and although they did clear up the misunderstanding, neither of them was afraid of the idea enough to even blush. The wedding will be in late December, and the colors will be red, silver and green.

Thumbs down: I'm really not emotionally ready to plan another wedding. Especially one in Idaho, smack dab in the middle of winter. Average high and low temperatures for Rexburg in December are respectively, 30 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit. We'll all freeze our geezers!!!
Thumbs up: Derek is very stable and seems to be very good for Mary. He can talk her into doing things she doesn't want to do, and she even admits there might be such a thing as love after all.

Brittany and Christian (the REAL newlyweds), are settled in their tiny basement apartment nest, home until they finish BYU. It's very cozy, with pipes on the ceiling, folding chairs to save space, and their "food storage" cans on the bathroom shelf. I quote my SIL Nicole, "Hey look, you can go to the bathroom and figure out what to make for dinner at the same time!"
Thumbs down: Britt and Chris have this cookbook that apparently has like a zillion ways to cook ramen, and they seem to be determined to try them all.
Thumbs up: They couldn't be happier.

Jim's latest project is painting the "scout outhouse" (try to say that 5 times fast standing on your head) this last Saturday on his parent's property. I haven't had the opportunity to see it in person, but he brought a picture home for me to see. It will be nice for the Scouts when they go out to camp on the property. Thumbs down: This will encourage him to spend more time with the scouts on the property, which means even less time with me. I'm already sharing him with two jobs. Thumbs up: It has a little moon cutout and looks very authenticly vintage, but not to the point of using Sears Roebuck catalogs.

And me? I had a lot of plans for this fall...what I was going to do once the wedding was over and the kids were back in school. Things have changed.

Thumbs down: I can't go back to school like I wanted. I can't do the repairs to the house as previously planned.
Thumbs up: I just finished my painting for the stake arts festival, going strong on girls' camp next month, and I've got some other plans up my sleeve as well. Wait and see!

OH...I almost forgot... I promised Britt I'd post a recipe. Here's the dip recipe my book club liked so much...

CREAMY SPINACH AND ARTICHOKE DIP

1 box (9oz) frozen artichoke hearts
half a 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup defatted chicken broth
1 Tbls. minced garlic
1/2 cup lowfat mayonnaise
1 Tbls. lemon juice
1 Tbls. grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp each of salt and pepper

In a medium sized heavy skillet, bring artichoke hearts, spinach, onion, broth, and garlic to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 12 minutes, stirring several times, until artichokes are tender. Drain in a strainer.

Process in a food processor until almost smooth. Scrape into a small bowl. Partially cover and refrigerate at least one hour or until cold. Stir in remaining ingredients. Makes 2 cups.

I originally got this recipe from Relief Society