A few days ago I was listening to one of my favorite programs.  The topic of the week was about one person ruining things for a group. There were different angles taken about different topics but the one that stuck with me was the bad apple theory.
According to one study done with groups of people trying to accomplish an objective, one “bad apple” can indeed ruin the barrel.  Study participants were split into groups, some with a planted bad apple (an actor being a downer/antagonist) and some without.  They were then given a task to complete.  The groups with the downer in them did significantly worse than the others.   (more…)

I think I’ve come down with a case of the Winter Blues and looking at the calendar, it may be a little early.  My head tells me I should be happy about the moisture the good Lord is providing by all this snow, and I should be happy that we had a relatively warm Fall season, but my emotions and the cold wind tell me my head is stupid. (more…)

Last night, my daughter woke up at 2 am. She squirmed, cried, wriggled, sighed, talked, whimpered, and otherwise drove us all batty until 5am, when she finally dropped off to sleep. At about 5:05, my son woke up screaming about his ear, which he yelled was killing him.

This is not a good way to start a day. (more…)

I’m a fan. (more…)

The Primary Presidency, in all its wisdom, has decided to have me teach Sunbeams next year.  Oh help me.

We recently discovered our TV has a show tunes channel.  That’s pretty much where the dial stays, people.  Don’t TOUCH it!

I’m gearing up for a lot of driving.  Pray for me.

That’s pretty much it.  The holidays sure do take a toll on the posting round these parts.

Give them a piece of the moon.

I had a dream last night that to save space on the plane, my husband disconnected my baby’s head from her body, and stuffed her body in a suitcase.  Then, he accidentally dropped her head, causing serious injury.  I started screaming to him to find her body because she needed more blood, and he furiously unpacked all the suitcases, but couldn’t find it.    Finally, he held up an old potato chip bag.  Her body had been wrapped in there with Ruffles crumbs.

I have no idea what this says about me.  (more…)

OK, maybe it’s just because it’s been 5 seasons.  But I am getting a little bored with watching cheftestants crash and burn at catering events.  I kept expecting Nikki to show up with her blueberry mushrooms.

First, the quickfire.  Fabio - “When I was six, I was evil.”  I think that should be the next Top Chef T-shirt.  (more…)

Like everybody else in America, I have a lot to do.  Some wrapping, some cleaning, some laundry, and some packing, trying to get ready for our trek to Utah this week.  I have no idea how we are going to get Christmas AND 10 days worth of clothes for 4 people into 3 little ‘ol suitcases.  Maybe we’ll all just wear the same thing, over and over and over. That would make laundry fun, wouldn’t it? (more…)

Little Man officially qualified for speech therapy today!  Hallelujah and amen!

The meeting began with the typical “here’s this score, and yes, it’s low, but not low enough” etc. etc. and I was gathering up my mama bear speech, until we got to THIS score, and it definitely qualifies him, so….Yippie-ki-yay, we HAVE an IEP! (more…)

The day started out innocently enough. I had a new cookie recipe, passed along to me from The Wiz, that I was going to make for the ward party. (more…)

Do NOT tell your kids about Santa.  Ever.  Because it’s possible your 5 year old son will figure out how to get onto the roof and look for your chimney.  He just wants to ascertain the size, to make sure Santa and a BIG bag of loot can fit in.  It’s possible you will find this out because of your next door neighbors. (ht:wbpraw) (more…)

When I heard the concept of the quickfire, I thought it was going to be like last year, where they had to distinguish good olive oil, fake crab from real, etc. etc.  Cool!  Bring it! Identifying ingredients in a soup/sauce a la “name that tune” seemed a little strange to me, but I guess they have to mix it up. (more…)

Anyone else ever open up your 50 pound bucket of (9 year old) sugar just to get that last 1/3 cup for the cookie recipe you’re trying? While simultaneously cooking the remaining ingredients on the stove?  Just a few days after you opened up the (equally as old) 25 lb. bucket of oats for a different cookie recipe?  Then did you marvel that the same size bucket can be so different, as you never thought about how sugar weighs more than oats when filling a 6 gallon container?  No? Just me then?   (more…)

I’m at the Red Brick Store. Come visit!

I grew up taking piano lessons. You would think, then, that I would be a good pianist, given that I played for like, 10 years.

If you thought that, you’d be wrong. (more…)

It’s called ‘The Apron Stage’  Go check it out.

Also, our mommy-blogging friends at Tales from the Crib are closing shop- we didn’t want them to go without a vote of thanks.

This post isn’t going to be funny, or even relevant to a lot of you, so if you skip it today, I don’t mind. This post is about Joan Regnell, my professor, mentor, and friend. I just found out she passed away 2 years ago. (more…)

Ok, so, y’all know how I feel about exercise, right?  I don’t like it, I don’t do it, and basically, it makes me hurt.  And look stupid.  And hurt.  It’s a complex relationship, which basically consists of me saying: Exercise, you suck, and exercise saying:  Do not.  Nanny, nanny, boo, boo. (more…)

Best line ever: “I’m cooking middle eastern food for a bunch of women with unsophisticated palettes at 6:47 in the morning.  Yeah, I’m pissed.”

Oh, surfer boy, you crack me up. (more…)