Happy Halloween!

My Birthday and California

California was SUCH a good idea, I'm glad Mark's work decided to send him there for the week of my birthday :) I wouldn't of gotten away any other way. Our hotel room in Ontario had a Mall View, what more could a girl want?


Oh I know what more a girl could want. Her entire birthday cruising Ontario Mills Mall (with all its outlet stores) with no kids (or even husband) telling her how long to stay at any one store or what stores to go into. I even irked the kiosk gals because I had them try extensions in my hair, and the latest sea salt scrubs and a professional curling iron and flat iron. No, I didn't buy any of it, but it was fun to listen to their spill and play around! The best fun? Perfumania. I spent an hour picking out a new perfume (which eventually some day I'll be able to afford). I think I decided on Hugo Boss Deep Red. Or Angel. Or DKNY Midnight something or another. You can see why I didn't buy any now. But to be able to sit and browse stores for 5 hours straight without anyone getting tired or upset was absolutely great!

That night we went out with Aunt Sue and Uncle Jerald (Mark's side) and they took me to Claim Jumper. I have only been to one once 7 years ago, and the food was the absolute best! Here was my birthday cake and me.
Red Devil YUM!

The next day we went to my brother Malcom's house (after visiting Hollywood Blvd. and Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. Awesome Waffles by the way!) As we stopped to get a Mt. Dew Slushie, Lindsey mentioned that Brooke White's house was right around the corner and we should drive by it. I am a big fan of Brooke and love her music, but I didn't want to be the stalker, but Lindsey said it would be fine. So I made Malcom ride with Mark and Lindsey drove me up to Brooke's house.
Isn't it cute? I can see her designer touches. Anyhow, as we're turning around and leaving, their garage door starts opening up. And this house is in a small cul de sac with one way in and out. So as we're trying to leave, Brooke and her husband Dave are driving in right by us. Of course we're caught like the canary, so Lindsey rolls down her window and says Hi. I'm hoping she doesn't put two and two together and think I'm a stalking fan. But Brooke is so down to Earth, I can see why everyone is friends with her. After chatting about movies to watch and going to the beach for 5 minutes or so, we're off to Santa Monica Pier.

I'll let the pictures tell the stories for a minute.

Recognize the Zoltar from the movie "BIG" ?
We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for dinner. Everything is based on Forrest Gump, so there are ping pall paddle menus and you flip a license plate that says Run Forrest Run to Stop Forrest Stop to get the waiter/waitress to stop and help you. Well, since Malcom and I have birthdays so close I joke that we should tell them it's our birthday today, that we're twins, and see if we get free dessert or something. Lindsey says "Oh yes, we are so telling them it's your birthday, this is still your birthday weekend." Now none of us have ever been to a Bubba Gump restaurant before so I was wondering what big hat they were going to put on my head or song they were going to sing. So instead, when they came over, they asked me to stand up for just a second. Then they asked me my name and how old I was. I thought it a little weird to be standing their, answering questions about myself, when he says "That's great, I don't want to make a big deal about your birthday but, "HEY EVERYBODY, I NEED TO TELL YOU ALL SOMETHING" (Still yelling) "My friend Lexa here, she and I go way back. She's 31 today, and she told me that the only thing she wanted for her birthday was to be able to dance for all her friends here tonight. So if you'll clap along side me and give her a beat, let's let her dance!" So he starts singing some nonsense song and everyone in the entire restaurant is clapping and watching you, and you're supposed to DANCE! I tried to be a good sport about it, but it was SO very embarrassing. But I gave it the good old college Disco Dancing try. Even though it was embarrassing, the food was outrageously good and pretty affordable too. We got plenty of souvenirs, and headed back to Mark's Aunts house.

The next morning we got ready to head back to Ontario for the Airport, but ate cereal with Aunt Sue first. The funniest thing was when she opened the cupboard and pulled out huge serving bowls to pour the cereal in. "This is what my boys always ate their cereal in" she said. I believe it too! Mark now has it in his head that I need to get a set of serving bowls for his cereal addiction.

I have not had more that a few hours with Mark alone since our oldest was born, it was a great chance to hang out with other adults and act like normal humans instead of just parents!

Strawberry Shortcake, Banana Split

I am known to be impulsive and spontaneous. If you are reading this blog, you know that by now. Most of the time, it is a little crazy, but works out fine. Other times...not so. I was shopping with the kids, and was in the beauty isle, when I decided to dye my hair. First of all, shopping with kids, I don't always make the wisest decisions. Second, I'm usually rushing, and trying to do three things at once. NOT the best time to be choosing a hair color. So instead of going with my gut feeling, I picked up the "logical" choice. I came home and looked and looked at it for 24 hours. Didn't think it was right but "logically" it was going to be alright, right? I had a bad feeling about the color, but did the research and this was supposed to be the right color/brand/etc. Nope, Here's what it looked like.
Yes, ORANGE, with splotches of burgundy and BLONDE that didn't even take. I don't know how it went all so terribly wrong, when you follow the directions implicitly. So I had to head to the store again and try and figure out how to fix it. Mark met me there after work where he saw it for the first time in real light and his jaw dropped open. Yes, it was BAD. So I knew I couldn't go back to blonde, but was scared what the red would do if I went to brown, so I did another red. It's not bad, but it's not exactly what I was going for.
Yes, It's that exact shade. I had this doll as a child and played with its hair often and it looks (and feels) just like the hair on my baby strawberry shortcake. I am thinking of getting some strawberry scent so I can smell like her too. The good news is, I can just tell everyone I did it for Halloween and get it fixed at the salon Monday right?

Our First Solo Turkey Butchering (Not for the weak of stomach)

As many of you know, My mom is now living with us during the week, and her normal day off is Tuesday so we had plans to clean and purge and get ready for the rest of the work week. Little did we know those plans quickly changed when she saw that my turkey had prolapsed.

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, We bought a female hen turkey at the County Fair Auction. I thought I might be able to keep her around for breeding, but with the mutant crosses they do now to get these guys so huge, she was not going to be able to live and she was going to become thanksgiving dinner. When a hen prolapses, the egg she is trying to lay becomes attached to the lining of their insides, and basically they turn inside out. For cattle and people, you can sometimes just put it all back in, but with poultry they are pretty much done, and will only get infection and die.

So, judgment day came a little early for "Tonya" the Turkey. I told the kids not to name it, and not to get attached, but they all did anyway. So the first real butchering we did by ourselves began yesterday in a rush.

The last time we butchered (the proper word is processed, butchering is actually the act of cutting up the carcass later) we skinned the chickens. But who pictures a Thanksgiving Turkey without skin to golden over? So the only way to pluck a turkey is to scald it first. But you have to do this right after killing, so the water has to be just the right temperature (145-150 degrees) and you have to dunk the entire carcass. One problem with this scenario: Tonya was 30+ pounds. I didn't have a pot big enough, including the turkey fryer. So we are trying to find something to put boiling water in. Not a wash tub or a galvanized tub, if you heat it up you can let zinc out and possibly get zinc poisoning. Not a Laundry Hamper, the hot water will melt the plastic. So we finally found that our 55 Gallon Water Storage Barrell (Heavy Duty Plastic) was to become a turkey dunker. After we cut it in half.

Ok lets cut it in half....Anyone have a skill saw? Nope. Oh wait we have a battery operated Saws-all. Zippppp, Ziip... Zzzzz. The battery dies. Ok, what now? We have a branch saw by hand, does that work? No, not really. Finally we find a jig saw with a small little blade. Yea!!

Now, how are you going to heat the water to fill the 50 gallons? You can't light a fire under it, You have to boil the water on the stove top, and pour it in. 50 gallons? Yup. And yes, by the time you pour it in, it starts cooling. No problem, water boils at 212, we only need it at 145 right? Easier said than done. 2 hours later, we have the water in the tub at 145, the chopping block set up and Mark has agreed to kill it so I don't have to watch. Heavens sake, we named the thing, I can't kill something that ate out of my hands. Then Mark says, "Wait, I'll kill it, but someone has to hold it in the right spot." I had not mentally prepared myself and my stomach was churning at the thought. And my mom, who had all the answers on how to do this, refused to be a part of the actual killing of the bird. In the end, we all had to help, Mom positioned it and got out of the way, I had to stretch the neck out with a wire (I at least got to turn my head) and Mark had to do the deed. After that you have to hang the carcass up to bleed it, and it took two of us to pick her up. It was SO heavy! We then carried it over (one on each leg because one person couldn't hold it by themselves) and started dunking it and scalding it. The water was a little cool, but got the job done. We all got in and plucked and cleaned it off in record time (well, record time for us!). Then came the fun part. How the heck to clean out the insides without hitting something you're not supposed to! We were very careful and it took us another hour to figure it out (even with all the great picture tutorials we studied before trying this again). We all laughed how our grandparents (and Uncle John for sure) would be laughing at us not knowing how to clean a turkey out.

We just finished cleaning it out and making it look like dinner instead of a pet, when the kids showed up from school. It was quite a shock to them they all stopped mid-sentence when they saw this bird! I'll post pictures later, but this bird weighed in at 22 lbs. I guess that's average, but she was huge to us!