To my dear neighbours

Fireworks all through the night maybe your way of celebrating the fourth, but after I've just gotten two babies to go to sleep, I'd appreciate if you'd stop with the whistling ones. Also, I don't find it "cute" or "funny" that you've smuggled in illegal fireworks-I think it's just dumb and would rather not spend the night worried you're going to burn everything down. I hope your type dies out before passing on your genes.

Love-Miranda

I say we go back to togas - one size fits all

I have a pet peeve (yes, just one at the moment). It's called clothing sizes. Thanks to a lack of standardize clothing size here in this country, I've had to guess a lot the past couple of weeks. I love the 18 year old girls that are, ahem, larger than I am, who tell me blandly they are a size 4. And sometimes they are. That's the problem.

In the past few years, something called vanity sizing has popped up. Meaning that people haven't gotten smaller, sizes have gotten bigger. Yeah, Marilyn Monroe was a size 16...in 1960. Meaning, she would be a size 4 or 6 now. So I want to smack these little girls who complain that size 0 doesn't fit them. Wish I had that problem.

I say we rebel and stop wearing clothes.

By popular request

Recipes for mocktails:

Cosmopolitan

1 serving

3 Tbsp (1.5 oz) nonalcoholic Triple Sec or orange flavored syrup

3 Tbsp (1.5 oz) cranberry juice

1 Tbsp (.5 oz) fresh lime juice

lime slice for garnish

Shake all ingredients except garnish with ice; strain into martini glass. Garnish with lime slice. (For a sweeter flavour, moisten rim of glass with lime juice, then dip in granulated sugar.)

Shirley Temple

1 serving

3/4 cup (6 oz) chilled ginger ale

1-2 tsp grenadine

orange slice for garnish

maraschino cherry for garnish

Gently stir together ginger ale and grenadine in a wineglass. Add ice cubes; garnish with orange slice and cherry.

Tina Colada

1 serving

3/4 cup (6 oz) unsweetened pineapple juice

1/4 cup (2 oz) cream of coconut

4 ice cubes, coarsely crushed

pineapple spear or toasted coconut for garnish

Combine pineapple juice, cream of coconut, and ice in a blender. Cover and process at high speed until smooth. Pour into a tall glass; garnish with pineapple spear or toasted coconut or both.

Virgin Mary

serves 1

3/4 cup (6 oz) tomato juice

1 Tbsp (.5) oz fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/8 to 1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce

pinch of celery salt

pinch of black pepper

salt to taste

1/2 tsp horseradish (optional)

celery stalk with leaves or lime wedge for garnish

Shake all ingredients except garnish with ice. Stain into a tall glass; garnish with celery or lime.

Nojito

1 serving

1. crushed ice
2. 8 mint leaves
3. 3 ounces lime juice
4. 1 1/2 ounces sugar syrup
5. 2 ounces club soda
6. Mint for garnish

Fill a pint glass 1/3 full with ice, then add mint leaves. Add the lime juice and sugar syrup. Lightly mash the leaves together with the liquid using a muddle stick or wooden pestle, careful not to tear the leaves. Fill the glass with more ice, then add club soda. Garnish with mint, serve, and enjoy!

Even in my sleep deprived state....

I can still beat Justin at Trivial Pursuit.

Justin got me the 25th edition of TP. They added two new twists: one being easy, medium, and hard questions based on what you roll and two, an outside track that means you can challange others on questions, move other people's wheels, and get a chance on getting a "freebie" wedge. It was interesting and did make the game go faster (no four hour long games because no one can get the *&%$ sports and leisure wedge), but I think the hardness level is very abitrary and ultimately think that I like the original better.

Sorry for the delay...

I'm up to my neck in cheap satin and broadcloth. I hate this play!

Some updates:

Liam can now turn doorknobs, which means I had to reverse the doorknob to his room so it could lock from the outside. It feels cruel, but it means he's not wandering the house at 3 in the morning.

I took the kids to the zoo for the first time on Friday. It was a nightmare, I got lost twice, and to the annoying woman who was walking down the middle of the aisle causing me to miss out on a parking space and have to park across the very busy four lane road: next time, I'm just going to run over you. I have a few pictures, but not a whole lot because with two kids it was too difficult to capture Kodak moments. I think Liam enjoying walking around though. Thanks to Faith's mom for helping me keep my sanity.

I discovered I really like non alcoholic cosmopolitons.

Some stuff

Catching up on blog worthy things that have not made it here:

Alana is a smiley baby. She smiles at everyone, but her favourite person is Liam. She's also learned to stick out her tongue to communicate (yes, I teach my kids this). So she and Liam sit there with their tongues hanging out at each other. I haven't gotten a picture yet.

Liam is talking in sentences! The child I have struggled with to get to say ANYTHING for the past year decided to start with sentences! He asked Justin "what is this?" and asked me "what are you doing?". Ummmm, when did stuff like "me hungry" happen?

Alana is also a talkative baby. She coos and giggles when she's trying to get your attention, has your attention, or doesn't want attention. Sis. Stauffer, sitting in front of me on Sunday, heard her, turned around and said "She's a talker isn't she?". I told her it was proof she was definitely from my family.

Liam has learned all these crazy things lately; I'm not sure how. He decided to try to climb a ladder at the kids' gym. And succeed. And not fall. He's also learned how the remote works, how to climb into his high chair to let me know he's hungry, and put puzzles back together.

Five years

Friday was our anniversary. We got a sitter for Alana, my brother and his wife graciously agreed to watch Liam, and went to Spark Lounge. It's a restaurant in Provo that's trying to be like the upscale lounges of larger metropolitan areas except that it's complete non-alcoholic. The food was good and the drinks were interesting. I had a kiwi martini that got a little tart by the end and a Shirley Temple that was REALLY good. Justin had a mango mojito and a lychee-tini. It was fun and I'll probably go back again, but mostly for the drinks because the food was really over priced.