Meet the Cullens. So, you may not know them by face, but if you have been alive in the world for the past couple of years, you may know that they RULE the pop culture world. And this is a world in which I am always on top of current events. That's right people, I'm talking about Twilight.

Teenage vampires...yada, yada, yada. Trust me, it is not my typical genre of choice either. In fact, I passed over it for a good 6 months before my book club chose it. And then I read over 2,000 pages in just over 3 weeks. I have four children, so you do the math on how "involved" I was as a parent. It's not a book, it's an obsession.

So I just saw the movie tonight, and it was great...not as amazing as the book, but good. Edward takes some getting used to (in my mind he was played by James Franco), but I think I like him. Let's face it people, they are trying to cast the perfect, immortal man...and since Michael Denckhoff is a little tied up with his crazy family, they had to go with this guy.

If any of you out there are looking for a good read, Twilight will not disappoint. Yes, it was written for 15 year olds, but it seems the stay-at-home mom crowd is really in on this action. Since I have read it, I have literally hooked 3 other unsuspecting souls on the series. Powerful stuff.

Say hello to my little friend...

Meet our baby...little J. Our youngest, biggest surprise. We are parents to 4 amazing children, and little J came along quite unexpectedly, just two months after we brought our twins home from their very extended stay in the hospital. But look at him...how could I have survived even a day without this???


With my three oldest in school 5 days a week, it's just me and little J. He's all mine, every morning. Without fail, we do a puzzle--big castle, or Elmo, depending on the day. I have a diet coke. He has some sort of cracker. I change a dirty diaper. We errand run. We clean. For four hours every morning, life is just that simple.



Some things you should know about little J:

He is a fierce red head.

"No David" is his favorite book...and it is currently lost, if anyone has seen it lately????


He does not chew chicken very efficiently.


His birthday is April 15th, tax day...which means he will either be incredibly responsible and have his taxes done before his birthday, or a complete procrastinator who will celebrate before filing. This is yet to be determined.

He is a big fan of yogurt, and prefers it in a squeezy tube (Go-gurt) vs. a yogurt drink.

He is not afraid of the deep end of the pool/diving board.


He is a cuddler. The last of this almost extinct breed in our household.

He will do anything for an M&M.

This ENTIRE blog is inspired by the events of Thanksgiving 2008--the story of a clueless 32-year old cooking a bird and all its fixins' for her mother and father in law (who happen to come with 30+ years of turkey roasting/hosting experience). Pictured: me attempting to show dominance to the 18 pound turkey, and demanding its submission.

One would think we would have taken it easy on our inaugural thanksgiving...yes, that would have been the smarter plan. But I am not smart. Nor am I prepared or organized. I do have grand ideas that come to me, usually at the last minute. Thanksgiving is no different.

As I began researching how to actually cook a turkey without killing my guests (on Wednesday evening, around 6 pm), I came across countless suggestions for roasting a juicy turkey. Here's where we introduce brining. Soaking your raw bird in a bath of salt water. Literally covering the entire turkey with salt water and soaking it overnight in the refrigerator. Sounds like a good idea, right?

Right. Until the only container I could find to soak the freaking bird was a yellow drink dispenser/cooler (like you see on the sidelines of a football game). Which required us to remove shelves in the fridge to fit the contraption. Not to mention that I was soaking the turkey in salt. SALT!! Around 10 p.m. on thanksgiving eve, I started to hyperventilate--and my husband thought it was hilarious.

So we woke up on Thanksgiving morning and kicked it into gear. Big breakfast for the kiddos, which included our newest tradition, spam. Sold to the kids as rectangle bacon. No this isn't a joke, I grew up in Hawaii, the state with the largest per capita consumption of spam. Yum. Don't knock it till you've tried it. And for the love of God, do not attempt to eat it raw...you must fry all the jelly off.

The kids got in on the action with some crafts (which turned out lovely) and pie baking with Mimi:

The turkey went in at 3:30, the green bean casserole was made. Kids were napping and toys were hidden in every possible (enclosed) closet and bin. I even went for a run. My guests arrived to a festive house. And then 6:30 rolled it's bad self in.

6:30 is the time I planned to begin making the sweet potato risotto. Sounds good, right? That's what I thought, until I spent the next hour chained to the stove top. Risotto, folks, is maybe the most hands-on, high maintenance dish I've ever made. You stir, and stir, sip some wine and stir some more until all the liquid is absorbed at a painfully slow pace. My mistake. In the meantime, we watched the turkey for signs of doneness. 6:30, no button pop. 6:45, nothing. 7:00, still waiting. At 7:15 we made the decision to screw the button and trust our instincts. Same said instincts which led me to soak a turkey in salt and cook risotto...hmm. Out of the oven she came, and in truly IRONIC fashion, the button popped almost instantly. Why spare the drama on my first Thanksgiving?

So, the moment of truth was here...was this truly a juicy birdie, or was brining a sick joke made up years ago by a masochist who wanted to see the lengths people would go for good meat?

People, brining is no joke. It works. Holy cow, does it work. The meat practically fell off the bone. Thank God. See happy smiling faces proudly claiming yummy turkey.