Alton, your my hero.

There are some people who never let you down--  my gas station friends who can order a case of nacho cheese and it arrives the next day, Ryan Reynolds for obvious reasons and Alton.  You cannot however count on the tooth fairy. She has stiffed Jonny 3 days in a row.

 We have been seeing this dish pop up for years on our trusty "Food Network."  Since there are no "Chicken and Waffle restaurants here in Hamilton.... I know... shocker we decided to follow Alton's recipe and try it.   It was delightful in a very weird and bizarre way.  So here is a huge shout out to our friend Alton. I think I am going to try to make his home-made candy corns this week because let's face it, all candy corn is gross.

Death of the Hamster

We didn’t have the best of luck with pets as a child. Jenny had a horrible little crab that used to escape and we would find it in weird places. My first hamster’s sad little life ended quite tragically. I had spent many hours crocheting a leash. (Don’t judge me, all children in Wyoming crocheted their pets leashes.) Anyway, I then proudly harnessed my hamster and took her on a walk down to the Lancaster’s. Yet we never made it to the destination because a very scary dog showed up, barked once and my little hamster died instantly from heart failure.


We (Jenny, Jared, Jason, and I) were then entrusted with a second hamster. Oh, the hours I spent dressing up the hamster in all my doll clothes. He was a very happy companion at a time when my older siblings made up horror stories to scare me into staying at home rather than accompanying them to the park. To this day I am still afraid of all dogs, Nazi’s and anyone over the age of 75. Sadly one day our beloved pet also left us. Not by death, but by escaping into the wild to live with all the other happy hamsters.

Last week my parents visited us  in Montana bringing with them my favorite bag of doll clothing for Sarah to play with. It was quite the shock when Sarah’s friend came up to me holding the sad remains of our beloved hamster. Yes, it appears I might have left the poor dressed up hamster in my bag where he must have died slowly and then decomposed over the next 30 years. Well at least it wasn’t the crab.

Where's the s'mores?

Reasons why I need a vacation
1.  Any time you leave your house you return smelling like a campfire.  This is not a bad thing if you are camping and get to experience the happiness of Reesus Peanut butter cup s'mores.  Not as much fun when you are going to the library.

2.  Every time we leave the house Jonny expects to see zombies or some other kind of monster.  It does look somewhat like a horror movie outside.

3.  Nathan chooses to point out what the signs of a red moon mean.  Thank you to all past teachers for this.

Many of our ward members are being evacuated, they're wearing masks outside the lab for bad air quality, but the biggest sign to how dangerous a situation we are in is. (drum roll)  Oh yes my friends, they have cancelled Football practice.   



Please send prayers this way, especially for all my friends who's homes are in danger this week.

False Pride

Ok, Scrabble is not my strong point. Sadly the only people I can beat without cheating are Kettie and my children.  It’s alright; I have mad skills at many other games. So, I am not sure why today’s conversation with Ben was slightly disturbing.


Ben: “Hey Mom, how do you know “so and so”?

Me: I used to know her in an old ward. Why?

Ben: “I have been playing her Scrabble on my ipod”

Me: “What?”

Ben: “You said I could use your Facebook account to play scrabble with Grandma.”

Me “Seriously, how many of my random old friends from high school now believe I have a 5th grade vocabulary?”

Ben: “Uhhhhh, well right  now it's just Dodi?”

It appears for the last couple YEARS Ben has been playing scrabble under my facebook account. In looking it up it appears he averages losing by around 200 points per game. So if you are one of the many secretly gloating over killing me you should  know you suffer from false pride. I am sure I would win if I played you. Of course I might have to cheat.

Summer Vacation: Is that what we call it?

I know it has been awhile. I have been slightly busy. Finding a new house, moving into a new house, leaving for vacation the day after we moved, going to Utah, Evanston, Denver, back to Evanston, back to Utah, back to Evanston and home and of course preparing for the “Ravalli county Fair.” Ha ha ha, o.k. not the last one. In fact, the religion known as the “Ravalli County Fair” is the reason my kids are still enjoying summer vacation. We can’t let something like education get in the way of a good deep fried Twinkie.


We also started football. Oh yes my friend, they are all just as crazy as ever. In fact, we need our own reality TV show. We would be famous because you know our line coach used to play for the Bobcats.

So now we are ready to get back into homework, schedules, and blogging. Well, after the fair.

Didn't you read the syllabus?

Dave is not a huge fan of texting.  He particularly hates it when he is giving a lecture and sees someone plunking away on their cell phones.  Yesterday, Dave was up in Missoula teaching Biology 280 when right in the middle of him saying something that I am sure was profound  a cell phone went off.  Not just a normal ring tone but an African like chant  that sounded like   IIyayayayayayayaya.

Dave:  (speaking to himself.... don't get annoyed, they're just kids) 
Phone continues to ring
15 minutes later..... Dave is sounding really smart when......IIyayayayayayayay
Dave:  (thinking.... Didn't they read the syllabus it clearly states no cell phones)
20ish minutes later.  I say 20ish because who can really judge time when you sitting in Biology 280 .......Iyayayayayayayaya

Dave really speaking this time. "Ok. seriously who's phone?,....."  Then Dr. Revelli notices the annoying sound is coming from his own computer bag... "Sorry class, it appears that I picked up my son Nathan's annoying phone instead of mine."

Why are they wearing that?

 Fashion choices you see Daily in the Bitteroot.

1. Fishing Vests worn all day.  They are not just for the river people.
2.  Camo can be worn everywhere from a nice concert to church.
3.  Our ice cream scooper girls don't wear cute red and white striped shirts.  They where black  "We'll work for Ammo" shirts.
4. Hunter orange ( I have actually seen this at a baptism)  Sadly, a few years ago I would not have known that obnoxious color of orange was called "Hunter Orange"
5.  Finally, today there was a woman wearing a spaghetti strainer on her head.  (If any of you doubt me ask Sis. Harmon she saw her too)  When I casually got in for a closer look while pretending interest in a book, I noticed she had pinned it into her hair.  I waited outside the library because I truly wanted a picture but she never came out.  Maybe she was getting a book on cool Fashions of the Bitteroot.

Random Thoughts

1.  Hamilton is currently celebrating Mule Days.  I don't think anyone even knows what that is but we just see all the signs around town and say,  "Huh, it's Mule Days."   Why is it that I live in a town that we celebrate Mules but no one mentions  "National Donut Day"

2. McDonald's just had their re-opening after being closed for two months.  I feel like this is a reason to celebrate because now there is one more place I can  get ice-cream after 9:00p.m

3.  Wild turkeys scare me.  They don't belong in the middle of the road.  They belong in plastic wrap in I.G.A.

4.  Sliced hot dogs topped with  mashed potatoes  and cheese  are one of those foods you have pleasant memories of as a child but don't carry over to adulthood.  I know I tried these again tonight.

5.  Jonny's picture was on the cover of our newspaper  "The Ravalli Republic" again today.   This is the second time we have made the cover photo.   I used to think that was a big deal, but now I realize it is kind of standard in a town our size.

Can you say that in a prayer?

My new "small home business" has three parties this week which makes my life a little crazy so I just thought I would give some highlights from my last couple of weeks.

1.  Someone said  "heck" in the closing prayer.  Can you say that in a prayer?

2.  I asked where all the happy ducks were that I pass everyday.  The family in my ward (who owns the ducks) said their grandpa ate them while they were out of town.

3.  We have some crazy politics happening here.  One candidate is suspected of releasing the other candidates horses. ( That is serious stuff)

Finally, I have invested in any item I might possibly need from our ward library.  Trust me, it's better this way.

Happy Cinco De Mayo First Grade!

There are not a lot of Cinco De Mayo celebrations happening in Hamilton this weekend.  So of course I hosted two of my own this weekend.  The most important being Jonny's first grade class.  It was going to be epic, Mexican Hot chocolate, crafts, games, nachos (If you can count the fake gas station nachos as real nachos) and of course Margarita's.  Now I know what you are thinking,

You:  "Jill, you have lost it.  You can't serve Margarita's even non-alcoholic ones to Jonny's first grade class."
Me:  "Of course I wouldn't do that.  I am calling them "Happy Fiesta Lime Drinks."

This was the plan until a very cute boy in Jonny's class name Jose raised his hand and said  "hmmmmm, what are these?  My parents have these and I think..."

As I was leaving later that day one of the secretaries stopped me in the hall and said.  "Did you really give the first grade Margarita's?"   I answered of course not,  because officially they were "Happy Fiesta Lime Drinks."