Our Day Of Thanks Giving

I've decided that Thanksgiving should not be a compound word. It should be a day of giving thanks for all we have been blessed with. And to make it into two words: Thanks Giving, seems so much more meaningful to me. My family and I have been blessed in so many ways and I am thankful for the time we had to pause last week and think of all that the Lord has blessed us with. Our gratitude and thanks giving don't even compare to his love for us. My kids loved writing in our Gratitude Journal. I think it was a great experience for them to take a few minutes each day and reflect on the hundreds of small things that blessed their lives that day and be thankful for them.

As you can see from the above picture, my turkey I was so worried about turned out just dandy. I was nervous because I had never brined a turkey (or anything else) before. But from here on out, I will and forever more be a brinin' fool. We were blessed to be able to have friends and family join us for Thanks Giving. Here's the proof:

Monday Morning Musings - In Utah We Stack Cups. In Bangladesh They Stack People.

I am glad to have something to look at in my back yard now. When we bought this lot, there were so many horses behind us. And silly us, we thought they would always be there. But they haven't been. We did have a few horses all summer and the kids loved talking to them through the fence. But it's been empty and boring for a while now. I was excited last week when I came home in the middle of the day to find this whole giant heard back there. I would be lying however, if I didn't say I was just a tad bit nervous. You know. With last time and all. When we had a bull tromping wildly through our newly sodded, sodden yard. There was a day last week that there were about 5 of these cows with their heads sticking through the fence eating our grass. One or two more, and I am almost certain the fence would have no longer been standing. Steve had to go out and...persuade...them to go back on their own side. It's all good though. It has been far too quiet around here lately. We need a little excitement. And since it's winter and not spring, I am not too worried about the children being trampled.

We have a covered patio out back and apparently it is a good shelter for stray animals at night. We woke up this morning with 3 different types of tracks leading up to the back patio. We believe them to be deer, cat and raccoon tracks. Fun, fun. We also have all kinds of tracks over by the chicken coop. And it seems that we have 2 stray cats now squatting in our coop. Almost every time we go out to tuck the ladies in for the night, we have to chase out the cats. I don't mind it if they will keep the mice away and stop pooping on my patio. WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH ALL THE ANIMALS THINKING MY PATIO IS THEIR OWN PERSONAL TOILET??? If you're gonna squat here, don't take the term squat too literally! Please!


Last night, Steve and I were watching the Amazing Race. The last pit stop was in Dhka Bangladesh. At the beginning of the show they were giving facts about the city. They said that there are 100,000 people per square mile. SAY WHAT? Steve said, "Did he just say what I think he said?" So we rewound it and listened again. Sure 'nuff. That's exactly what Phil said. He then went on to say that that would be the equivalent of taking all the people in The United States and Mexico and putting them in the city of Los Angeles. HELLO! We had to pause the TV and take that in for a full 60 seconds. Then we had to rewind it and hear it again, just to make sure we weren't imagining it. Dude!


Usually, the night before a big event, I will have nightmares all night long where everything that could possibly go wrong at the event does. Well, the night before Thanks Giving, I fully expected to have Thank Giving Day nightmares. But I didn't. I did have the freakin' weirdest dream though. I had a dream that I was a teenager and someone asked me my age and I couldn't remember how old I was. I knew I was 16 or 17, but I couldn't remember exactly. And I kept trying to figure out how old I was and why I didn't know. Then I woke up and there was a man in bed next to me! And that's when I realized I wasn't really a teenager, I was married. So I tried to remember how old I was and I started thinking, I'm married and I think I have kids. And I was remembering Zac and Emily as little kids and I thought, I must be about 23 or 24 years old. Then I remembered that I was about to turn THIRTY-SEVEN! It was the weirdest feeling to be awake and not know that I'm a middle aged woman with 4 kids and a husband in bed next to me.


My children have this obsession with cup stacking. I don't know where it comes from. I would rather have them stacking cups instead of watching TV, but, I must admit- it kinda gives me the crazy shakes. I kinda have this thing about things having a place where they belong and I feel much better when things are all in that place where they belong. When there are 70 million cups and other various items stacked all over my kitchen counter and table, well, that's a lot of stuff that is not where it belongs. Even if they are all red cups that can easily be put together and where they belong in a matter of seconds, all I see are 70 million things out of place. It's a personal problem, I know. Here they are Thanks Giving night, stacking away.

Emily asked me to take a picture of the "stuff" (no pun intended, you know, with the Stove Top and all) she stacked. I took the picture and as soon as the camera flashed, Addy who was standing right next to me went straight into her modeling pose:

The day after Thanks Giving, we took the kids to the dollar movie to see Despicable Me. Then we went to a display nearby that had all these Nativity's from all over the world on display. They also had some Nativity type activities for the kids to do. There was this puzzle there that had all the Nativity figures and they all fit inside this stable. It was making me crazy trying to help Addy put it together. I finally gave up, figuring that it was not a suitable children's activity, because there was no way in the world anyone could actually figure out how to get all those pieces in there. I was filling Steve in on the whole thing, and he just stood there looking at the puzzle. He was like, "Really? You can't figure that out?" All smug like and all. So I said, "FINE! Mister smarty pants, you give it a try!" So he nonchalantly started picking up the pieces and putting them in the puzzle. In about a minute, he had the whole thing put together. Whatever. It must have been the angle he had on it from standing up. I was sitting all squished up in a little tiny chair with Addy sitting on my lap helping me. That must be it, right?

Fabulous Four!

Four years ago today, my sweet little Addy was born. And life has never been the same since...

We had a Princess Birthday party yesterday with her friends.

Today we had a special Birthday Dinner of her choice. What was on the menu? Hot dogs and Mac 'n cheese. Mmmm...good stuff. At least we didn't have to eat leftovers from Thanksgiving again!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEET ADDY GIRL!

Flashback/Flashforward Friday - Why Should Anything Change

FLAHSBACK THANKS GIVING 2005

I've just come to accept the fact that I am always and forever going to be living in an unfinished project. A work in progress. Slow, slow, and not quite steady progress. The picture above was taken around Thanksgiving 5 years ago in our old house. I remember how unhappy I was about the destruction of that fireplace. Unhappy because I knew exactly what would happen after the demolition. If you've been around for awhile, you know. If you're new here, you can read up on it by clicking here.

FLASHFORWARD THANKS GIVING 2010

Nothing says, "Welcome! Come on in, sit a spell, and enjoy Thanks Giving dinner with us!" quite like a big blob of yellow snot oozing from the front door.

See that front door. It is always the first and last thing people comment on when they come to our house. Well, just so you know, it's the stupidest door ever invented. It has a funky mcjunky locking mechanism. We have to have this huge skeleton type key to get into it. And the only way to get into it is with the key. We learned that the hard way when we first moved in and ran outside for a second and got locked out. It also has no insulation. The other day, we had a "blizzard" here. We had snow 3 feet into our living room from under the front door, which was covered with frost. So my dear husband decided to do something about that, the very night before Thanks Giving. He doesn't understand, bless his heart, why I get so CRAZY when he starts a new project. Bless his heart. He's luck I love him so much. I had no idea, until late last night, after all the company had left, that my front porch looked like this. Ohhhh, Stephen I do love you.

Here is a picture of our family on Thanks Giving day 2005.

Just a side note: I do have THE HARDEST WORKING husband around. He works long hard hours to provide for our family and then he comes home and works some more. I love you babe! Thanks for giving us a laugh at your expense.

What's For Dinner - I'm Bringin' Back The Parsnip

When I read that title, it reminds me of the time I was picking out carpet for my house. I wanted a low nap, grey, berber kind of carpet. The man who was helping me wouldn't show me any samples of berber because he said no one gets berber anymore, especially not grey berber. Everyone gets the same shaggy brown, and I would be sorry if I didn't put something like that in my house. I tried really hard to explain to him that the reason I wanted the berber was for the exact reason he felt I shouldn't get it. He kept telling me it wasn't in style. And I looked at him and said, "Well, I'm bringin' it back". He wasn't amused and just looked at me like I was stupid.

You might think I'm stupid too, with the whole bringing back the parsnip thing. But this is my goal. To make all of you start eating parsnip, so they will carry more of it in the store, so I can find it without a 10 minute hunt in the produce department. I had never had parsnip before, but we got it in our Bountiful Basket Co-op a while back. It is so good. It's like a big giant white carrot, but it tastes so much better than a carrot. I'm so not kidding. It is the new carrot, as far as I'm concerned. So I actually bought parsnips at the grocery store the other day when I was doing my Thanksgiving shopping. Who would have ever thunk it? I'm going to make the same dish I made before when we had parsnips. Because it was really super fantabulously yummy, everyone liked it, and I have been craving it since I last made it. And I think the beautiful fall colors will look dandy on the Thanksgiving table.

So if you want to try it, and I feel that you do, here's the recipe. I call it:

Allyson's Scrumptious Roasted Root Veggies

diced carrots

diced parsnips

diced sweet potatoes

diced any other kind of potato you have on hand

(I think mine were russet)

diced onion

diced red bell pepper

diced zucchini

(i know the last 2 ingredients aren't root veggies, but i had then and i wanted to get rid of them so i threw them in)

pour some olive oil over the veggies, add some salt n pepa, a lot of minced garlic, and some italian seasonings, stir,cover with foil, bake in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes or until tender.

Yum! So this is one of the dishes that will be making an appearance at my table on Thursday. I really sometimes can't stand blogger because it does dumb things such as: not letting me change the font color back to normal. Anyhoo, another thing that will be gracing my table, which I am a little nervous/excited about? This turkey. (click on the turkey word to be taken to the link)

Go buy parsnips! So I can show that carpet man exactly what I mean!

GO AWAY ORANGE TEXT!

Let's Get This Show On The Road

"Cause everything is better worn with sleeves...."

"Oh girl you've got to believe...."

"I could not believe my eyes... "

"Shhh! Can you guys please be quite for a minute and listen to us!"

Our Stake did Roadshows this year. I was co-director of our wards Roadshow. It was so much fun. I really enjoyed it and was glad for the chance to work with the youth again. Steve and I did our wards Youth Conference this past summer and when it was over, I was sad. I'm kinda sad now that Roadshow is over. I guess I need another job...



We performed our show 3 times last night. The kids did an awesome job. We did a fun little cheesy "Glee" type performance. We were assigned the topic "Dress and Appearance" from the For the Strength of Youth book. We sang our own special song to the tune of "Fireflies". I can't even remember the real words to that song anymore. And I hope not to hear that song for a really long time now. Addy will be glad it's over. Every time she heard me singing the roadshow words she would get really mad because "THAT'S NOT THE WAY IT GOES". Well Addy, sorry, but this is the way it goes for me and most of the people around here from now on:



(Girl solo)
I could not believe my eyes
When this group of clean cut guys
Walked down the streets of *insert the name of our town here*
(All Girls)
Their pants were pulled up to here
No earrings were in their ears
They looked so good
I had to just stand and stare

(All Boys)
Oh girl you’ve got to believe
That modesty makes you pretty
(All Girls)
It’s hard to say that I’d ever wear
A dress without some sleeves
‘Cause everything is better worn with sleeves

(All Girls)
‘Cause you’d turn a thousand heads
If you’d get rid of your dreads
Can’t you remember what the prophet said?

(All Boys)
Don’t leave your stomach bare
(All Girls)
Not too extreme with your hair
(Everyone)
How would you feel if the Savior were there?

(All Boys)
Oh girl you’ve got to believe
That modesty makes you pretty
(All Girls)
It’s hard to say that I’d ever wear
A dress without some sleeves
‘Cause everything is better worn with sleeves
(All Boys)
That girl wears sleeves

(Everyone)
Don’t lower your standards for anything
Don’t wear too tight fitting clothing
Don’t disfigure yourself with strange tattoos
Or pierce your body, ‘cause then you lose

(All Girls)
To all of you clean cut guys
I hate to say goodbyes
And I fear my dream is coming to an end

(Everyone)
But now I know where you are
And I won’t have to look too far
‘Cause you know what the Strength of Youth Standards are

(All Boys)
Oh girl you’ve got to believe
That modesty makes you pretty
(All Girls)
It’s hard to say that I’d ever wear
A dress without some sleeves
‘Cause everything is better worn with sleeves
(All Boys)
That girl wears sleeves

(All Boys)
Oh girl you’ve got to believe
That modesty makes you pretty
(All Girls)
It’s hard to say that I’d ever wear
A dress without some sleeves
‘Cause everything is better worn with sleeves
(All Boys)
That girl wears sleeves

(Boy Solo)
Oh girl you’ve got to believe
That modesty makes you pretty
(Girl Solo)
It’s hard to say that I’d ever wear
A dress without some sleeves
(Boy & Girl Duet)
And now my dream is over so it seems

What's For Dinner Wednesday - A Delightsome Pear

So, somewhere along the way, I lost a whole day. I was trying to decided what kind of post to do today and thought that "What's For Dinner Wednesday" would be good. But guess what? Today is not Wednesday. Who knew? Anyhoo. This is one of our family's newest most fav-O-rite desserts. We have been getting a lot of pears from our food co-op lately. We have had this like 100 times in the last month. Well, maybe not 100, but pretty close.

This is what I love about it. It's good. Dang good. It is the easiest thing ever to make. It's kinda fancy nancy if you are trying to impress. And it is totally healthy because the main ingredient is fruit. You pretty much have to eat it, for your health's sake!

This is what ya do. You take a pear. Cut it in half. Scoop out the seeds. I have a small melon baller and it works perfect for that job. Place the pears in a baking dish, put an oh-so-generous pat of real butter in the hole you just made with the melon baller or spoon. Sprinkle some brown sugar and chopped pecans on top. Then pop 'em in the oven 'til you can't stand the yummy smell any longer and you just have to devour them right there at that very moment. Sometimes I bake them at 350, sometimes, if we can't wait so long, 400. Whatever. It's not rocket science. But it is good. If you are in Texas, serve it with a scoop of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. If not, you can serve it with some other inferior brand of vanilla. My inferiority of choice is Bryers Natural Vanilla.

Here's Aubrey patiently waiting for me to take the picture so she can finally get at it.


And I must give credit where credit is due. Thanks goes to me mum, who is the one who first showed me how to make this little delight.

Monday Morning Musings - Chotskies And All

So Addy had no trouble adjusting to the time change last week. But it's catchin' up to her now. Saturday and Sunday night she fell asleep at the dinner table before she even took a bite of her food. We carried her up to bed at 6:30 both nights and she slept until about midnight both nights. She is giving a whole new meaning to midnight snacks for me. She wakes up starving since she didn't eat her dinner. I have to take her into the kitchen and get her a snack and then put her back in bed. Then she comes in again and wakes me up at 6:30 in the morning. My alarm goes off at 6:45. And I have this thing about getting every single minute of sleep I deserve before that alarm goes off. So to be cut off from my snoozin' even 2 minutes before my alarm goes off is a tragedy in my opinion. We are gonna have to figure somethin' out and figure it out real quick like.

My children, I love them. More than anything, I do. They can talk though, lemmetellya. Sometimes I feel like I might actually have a nervous breakdown if they don't stop talking and give me a few minutes of peace. One big problem is, our house has a ridiculously major echo..echo..echo.. And sometimes they all talk nonstop for like an hour. All at the same time. To me. When I'm in the middle to trying to do something. And usually that something is a thing that requires a lot of concentration. Addy last night when we were having our midnight snack, I don't know how she managed to eat anything because she was jabberin' the entire time. I was like..ADDDDDDYYYY. Pleeeeease. I. Want. To. Go. Back. To. Bed. EAT! But I must admit, it was kinda cute to hear all the funny things she had to say. She is a funny girl.

Aubrey has been learning about the pilgrims at school and she is telling me all the things she is learning about pilgrim children. Like they didn't have chairs for the kids to sit on to eat. Or that kids didn't have their own beds. One night, I was trying to make dinner and do about 50 other things at the same time. The kids were sitting at the counter and they were supposed to be working on their homework. And they wouldn't stop talking. And I started to shake a crazy nervous sort of way because I felt like I was gonna lose my mind. So Aubrey said, "Hey mom! Why don't we do like the pilgrims did? Their kids couldn't talk unless an adult talked to them first!" I said, "Aubrey, that is the most fabulous idear I have heard all day!" Yeah....my kids wouldn't have made very good pilgrims.

There are certain things that always happen at our house when Steve is out of town. For one thing, burritos always show up on our dinner menu. Because the kids and I could happily eat burritos every night for dinner, but for Steve, he thinks it is some sort of punishment when he has to eat a burrito for dinner. Another thing that always happens when he is out of town in the month of November, we set up the Christmas trees. Because he thinks it is some sort of crime to put up a tree before Thanksgiving. Well, phooey on you, Mr. Scrooge! I sent him a text last week when we were putting up the tree and asked if he would be mad if he came home and the trees were up. He sent me a text back and said, whatever makes you happy sweetheart. And then I sent him a text back and said, who is this??? Anyway, we were able to decorate the tree Saturday night.

I love decorating the tree. When I was growing up I hated my parents tree because of all the mix matched ornaments. I wanted a fancy nancy schmancy tree where everything matched. And now, I love our tree with all of its mix matched, homemade ornaments. Every year when we put the tree up it is like a trip down memory lane. The kids remember when they made certain ornaments that are special to them. And we get to remember all the trips we have taken over the years. When we go on trips we always buy an ornament from the place we are visiting. It started with the very first trip Steve and I ever took after we were married, and it still continues today. Here is a picture Emily took of our new Disneyland ornament we just bought.

I have to be honest and say, the ornament idea came from my extreme dislike of souvenirs. I hate souvenirs. My favorite thing to do with a souvenir after we get home? Throw it in the trash. It's the hard, cold truth. But you know, when you are visiting a place, you feel like you have to buy something to remember it by and to be able to say, "HEY! I WAS HERE!" But I can't bring myself to spend money on something that I know will end up in the trash two days later. Thankfully most every place we visit happens to have an ornament section in their souvenir shops. There have been a few places we have had to improvise, and we might have a few key chains hanging on our tree as ornaments. But hey, if you are going to have a chotskie tree, you might as well go all the way with it, right? That's what I'm sayin'.

As for Mr. Scrooge, he's getting soft in his old age. I think he likes having the tree up now just as much as the rest of us. And he says he is finished going out of town for a while, which is good for us. It might mean no more burritos on the dinner menu for a while, but we'd take him over some beans and cheese any old day.

Gratitude

This is the time of year to remember all that we have been blessed with. I pray everyday that I will remember all that the Lord has blessed me with and that I will be able to teach my children to recognize their blessings and have gratitude for those blessings. Some of the things I am the most thankful for are my wonderful husband, my children, my testimony of the restored gospel and my Savior Jesus Christ. I could go on and on, but those are the things I am most thankful for. You might remember our "Wall of Thanks" we did last year at Thanksgiving time. If not you can click here for a refresher.

This year my mom gave me the idea to keep a "Family Gratitude Journal". You get a notebook and number it from 1-1,000 ever November. Then you keep it out on your kitchen counter and every time you sit down to eat everyone writes some things they are thankful for in the book. And when you have guests over, you can invite them to write in the book also. You try to get 1,000 things in your book by Thanksgiving day. And you keep the book from year to year and can go back and see and remember some of the blessing your family enjoyed in years past.

I used to keep a running list like this a long time ago. Each night I would sit down and write down everything that I was thankful for that day. I remember that when I was doing that, I noticed so many little things that normally would go unnoticed. But when I was looking for things to be thankful for daily, the smallest things gave me such a huge sense of gratitude.

So I made these notebooks today. One for our family, another for a friend. This is a new family tradition we are going to start this November. I hope that it will help be an answer to my daily prayer, that I will be able to show gratitude and teach my children to show gratitude for the things we have been blessed with. So, what are you waiting for? Go grab a notebook and let the gratitude begin!

Flashback/Flashforward Friday - Revenge Of The Nerds

The above picture is a picture of me when I was in 6th grade (I think). We were having some kind of crazy dress day at school. The below picture is of Zac taken just a few weeks ago (his is in 7th grade) when they had nerd day at his school. I was so proud of him for letting his true nature shine through! I had to pick him up early from school for an ortho appointment and forgot that he was wearing this, so I didn't bring him a change of clothes. Poor boy had to go to his appointment like this.

Veterans Day, Apples, & Friends

Thanks Applebee's for our 1/2 priced dinner tonight. Steve got his meal free since he is a Veteran and we went to Emily's and Aubrey's Parent/Teacher Conferences today and they both got "A" is for Applebee's cards for being such super smart cutie patooties so their meals were also free! Yay! I didn't mind taking the night off from cooking. While we were there, Addy kept putting her cheek up next to mine and drinking her drink. I couldn't figure out what she was doing. Then she said, "Now we look like them!"

Thank you Veterans for your sacrifice and service!

Monday Morning Musing Which Were Actually Mused On A Tuesday Night, But Who's Counting?

We were setting up our Christmas Trees tonight, I couldn't help it. I have been resisting since Halloween. We got our little tree up in our kitchen and it is all lit and decorated. We put the big one together in the living room but the lights and decorations will have to wait for another day. As much as I loved the spirit of Christmas that was present while putting up the tree, there just comes a time in my day when the majority of my children must be in bed. And if that time comes and then passes and all of my children are still out of bed, well, let's just say, it ain't pretty.

It was snowing here today and I had the radio on and Christmas music was playing and I could feel the heat (♪comin' off the street. she wants ta party-ooh-she wants ta get down-ooh-all she wants ta do is, all she wants to do is dance♪) in the radiant floors and it was so cozy in the house and it would have been absolutely perfect with a Christmas tree and twinkly lights. But alas, there was no Christmas tree with twinkly lights. I just had to do it. It makes the house magical. And I like magical.

When I was getting the trees and lights out, the kids were trying to get all the decorations out, but I wouldn't let them. I told them those had to wait until after Thanksgiving. I DO have my Thanksgiving decorations up, if that makes any of you naysayers feel better.

While we were putting the big tree up, which really isn't that big, but it's bigger than the small one, hence "the big tree" title. Anyhoo, while we were putting that one up, Addy kept getting in the box and saying, "Andy is going off to college. We need to be there for him." Or she would jump out of the box and say, "Hey! New toys!". She might have accidentally watched Toy Story 3 a few too many times today. Like 2 1/2 times. Before you get all judgemental on me- she watched it once. Then her sisters came home from school in the MIDDLE OF THE DAY (dang early release week) and they wanted to watch it so she watched it again with them. They were supposed to come tell me when it ended so we could do chores but it started over and played for about 30 minutes before I realized it and turned it off.

So this is the sitcheation. I am totally way behind in blog posts. Like months and months and months behind. I was going back through pictures today looking for something Addy needed to take to preschool. I saw all the pictures of posts I have been meaning to do forever. I am feeling the need to wrap things up, with the end of the year approaching and all. I was putting dates on my calendar today and I was like, Ok, it's one week until this major event, then the next week this major event, then the next week there's 2 major events, then the next week a another, then the next week a MAJOR MAJOR event, and then-BAM-Christmas-BAM-Wedding-BAM-New Years-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-2011. 2010 is over and I still have blog posts from June waiting to be done.

Can I just tell you what just happened just now? I was typing and I felt a sting on my left hand, I looked down and there was this huge mosquito biting me. Well, HELLO. First of all, they never bite me. Second of all, there is no second of all. But I killed it by hitting it with my right hand. The almost dead carcass was stuck to my right pointer finger and I could feel it twitching on my finger and it really freaked me out so I was trying to shake it off and it wouldn't come off and I was frantically trying to find the kleenex box but I just cleaned off the desk the other day and moved the box and in my freakout mode I couldn't remember where I had moved it to, so I leaned over to the trash can and frantically tried to wipe it off with a piece of paper and I gave myself a major paper cut between my ring finger and middle finger. Curse you you stupid mosquito!

So what I was trying to say before my comedy of errors took place is that, just prepare yourself. 'Cause I am sure sometimes you are like, "Would she just shut up already!" Which, by the way, if you ARE saying that, it's really rude and you should keep those kind of comments to yourself. But I'm about to unleash a whole slew of blog posts on your unsuspecting self. Which really isn't true, because now that I told you, you aren't exactly unsuspecting anymore. Are you? Yeah, I know. You're thinking the shut up thing again. Some people are just so rude!

Child Labor At Its Finest

Addy: Daddy, can I watch Ki Lan in here?
Steve: No, I'm watching a football game.
Addy: Mommy, can you turn Ki Lan on in your room for me?
Allyson: No, I'm about to fold laundry in there and watch Glenn Beck. Ask Em to turn it on in the playroom for you.

Addy leaves and I fall asleep on the couch. A while later Steve wakes me up.

Steve: Honey, you have to go in the living room and see what Addy is doing.
Allyson: Grrrr..I'm asleep.
Steve: You really have to go see.
Allyson: Grrrr..can you just tell me?
Steve: No, you need to go see this.
Allyson: *sigh* Grrr...fine.

In all she folded 3 loads of "large capacity" laundry. WOO HOO! I'll never fold the laundry again!