“First Thanksgiving” family pics:

I think Anna’s trying to get Sasha to smile:

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We had a busy, fun day in the kitchen doing one of my favorite activities—making yummy food! Here’s what we had:

• Smoked turkey breast (David’s the “smoker” in this house, and he’s great at it!)
• Cornbread dressing
• Orange Sweet Potato Casserole
• Green Beans with Orange Essence and Toasted Maple Pecans
• Best American Dinner Rolls
• Apple-Cranberry Pie
• Praline Pumpkin Pie

Want a couple of recipes? Here you go… (more…)

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I’ve been trying to document Anna’s “milestones” on my blog, and most of them are pretty straightforward—the first time she had a bottle, the first time she rolled over, etc. But sitting kind of snuck up on me. A few weeks ago, if I put her in a sitting position, she would stay there a second or two and then topple over. So that didn’t count, in my opinion. Then she could stay a few seconds, as long as she didn’t try to move at all. Then she could sit a few seconds and even reach for something, but she still toppled over pretty soon. And so forth. But now, all of a sudden, she can sit. For a really long time. So we’ll just say it happened sometime around 8 months.

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I set up a Facebook account a while ago, but I never really did anything with it. Until yesterday, that is. And holy moly, I went from about 14 friends to 48 in one day! This thing spreads like wildfire. Whether you like Facebook or not, you have to admit it’s pretty amazing how quickly you can reestablish connections with people you haven’t seen in 15 years.

I started by adding some current friends from church and such. Then I got a friend request from someone in high school, so I started looking for high school friends, and there they all were—Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer… I forgot we were all named Jennifer.

Then I wondered about old youth group friends. I found one or two, then looked through their friends and added a few, and then noticed there was a group entitled “Kirk Wooldridge or Mark Gibbons was my youth minister.” Yep, that about sums it up, and there were all my old youth group buddies.

So I can see why people get hooked on this now. It’s kinda cool. There are some design things I would do differently (or maybe I just haven’t learned how to use it yet), but I’d say it’s a pretty good tool. But then, my experience wasn’t as frustrating as David’s.

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Anna is 8 months old today! She was a very busy girl, but she was kind enough to let me take some photos:

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Anna and I went to Target today, and I decided that an almost-8-month-old was old enough to not be hauled everywhere in her baby carrier. I’ve hesitated to put her in the seat part of the cart because she still can’t sit up on her own for more than a few seconds. But I have one of those shopping cart seat covers that has a strap on it, so I thought I’d give it a try.

I got her settled and strapped in, and there she was—this teeny little thing about the size of a 4-month-old, engulfed by this huge fabric seat cover, looking up at me very seriously and wondering what was going on. She looked so big and so little at the same time. I wish I had a picture. Maybe next time.

She did fine, by the way; she didn’t flop around too much. This is going to make shopping a lot easier. That is, until she figures out how to drop her toys over the edge of the cart.

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Put meat in it, and no veggies. :)

Here’s my quiche recipe. It started as a spinach and bacon quiche, but by substituting the spinach with chicken, it became something we both will eat for dinner. I kind of morphed a couple of different recipes into this one.

Spinach and Bacon Quiche

• 1 pie crust, pre-baked or partially baked
• 1/4 large onion, finely chopped
• 8 oz. frozen chopped spinach
• 1 Tbsp. margarine
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup cream
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 6 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
• 4 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, grated

Heat skillet over medium heat; sauté onion and spinach in margarine 5-7 minutes or until onion is softened.

Whisk eggs, cream, milk, salt, and pepper. Stir in spinach/onion mixture, cheese, and bacon. Pour into pie crust.

Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or just until set. (If necessary, cover edge of pie crust with ring of foil to prevent over-browning.) Let cool a few minutes before serving.

Variation—Chicken and Bacon Quiche: omit spinach and sauté onion by itself. In place of spinach, stir in 1 1/2 to 2 cups shredded cooked chicken.

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… is Anna suddenly fascinated with taking her socks off NOW, just as the weather is turning cold? (It’s always the right sock, too.)

In fact, she’ll go to great lengths to get that sock off, including, apparently, taking off her footed pants. I didn’t know 7-month-olds were old enough to take off their pants! This is what I found in the crib last evening:

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I’d like to publicly thank Matt Perciful, a fellow member of our church and husband to a beautiful wife and father to two adorable boys, who is serving in the military overseas right now. Thank you so much for your sacrifice and service, and thanks to your family as well for the sacrifices they have to make on a daily basis. You all are remembered and appreciated!

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It really is convenient that my polling place is at the Sports Center. I walked in, cast my vote, and went upstairs for a little jog. Doing what’s good for my country and my body at the same time—now that’s efficiency.

And I’d like to say to all those political people who kept calling me and trying to get me to vote early (like I’m sure they read my blog): I had absolutely no wait today. Literally. I walked up to an empty sign-in table, then walked over to an empty voting machine. I commented to the lady that I must have picked a good time to come, but she said it had been like that all day.

I did get a nice little “I voted” sticker, but I really thought I deserved an “I jogged” sticker. 

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