Team Smith

Butter, vanilla, sugar and vanilla tickles the air in my kitchen...why? Because there is a homemade pie in the oven! My mom would me make lemon pies without using an electric mixer. I would often regret offering to help when it felt like my arm was going to fall off from whipping egg whites for 20 minutes or so! All of that would soon be forgotten with one bit of tart lemon and sweet graham cracker crust. Now I use a handheld kitchenaid the hubby bought me one year. It takes less than 3 minutes to get perfect meringue. My mom was very happy the year I bought her a hand held mixer for Christmas though :-) Recipe 3 medium sized lemons 1 can of condensed milk (currently on sale at Whole Foods) 2 egg yolks 3 egg whites some sugar some vanilla about 1 package of the 3 in a regular box of honey graham crackers round 8 inch pie pan some butter First Crush the graham crackers either in an open ziplock bag with a rolling pin or in a food processor. Add sugar to taste and mix well. Melt some but

Have I mentioned that I LOVE getting pictures at work? After sifting through emails,it's nice to get a surprise peek at my family. Matt took this pic with his phone this morning. It all started a few months back when Cassidy started giving me grief getting in and out of her car seat. It was so frustrating and sometimes painful when she would squirm and kick! I had broached the topic of getting a different seat to make this an easier task and Matt at first did not believe it was in our budget. So our compromise was that he would always be the one to put her in the seat and we would rearrange our schedules as need be to minimize the number of encounters I had. I was good with taking her out of the seat though. This system was working well. Over the last couple of weeks Cass has experienced a serious growth spurt. She was between a 3T and 4T, then jumped to a 5T. My poor baby was not sleeping well and her eating was off. It was a rough one! But quick. Fast forward to last week... I n

Brookfield Zoo is free to the public from January 1 to February 29th! Amazing. It's a beautiful zoo. The animals appear to be well taken care of and the zoo makes a solid attempt to recreate natural environments, provide enrichment opportunities and educate the public. I can't imagine how hard their job is, something tells me that giraffes are not meant to live in Chicago! The way I think about animals is ever evolving. This past semester I co-taught a class with Dean Alzada Tipton. She is fabulous! And quite possibly the biggest animal advocate I have ever met. Our class was on the relationship between animals and people. I think I may have mentioned it before. In short, we went over a vast amount of topics from factory farming to clothing to cock fighting to the Kentucky Derby. We discussed class systems, religion, food, the environment, science and medicine, the domestication of dogs, why frogs are important to mankind and more. This class was intense! Alzada pu

Cassidy really likes waffles, french toast and pancakes. Which is a small miracle since she doesn't like cake, pie, candy, or ice cream! Pureed pumpkin is one of my favorite things to have in the house because it's an awesome substitute, much like applesauce! For these waffles this morning, I didn't make them from scratch. I ran out of flour. Instead I used the original bisquick box. It has maybe 5 ingredients and all things I can pronounce and picture! Instead of adding oil, I added a 1/2 cup of pumpkin and they taste almost the same! Yummy. And pumpkin has lots of good fats, fiber and flavor :-) I was lucky to get these two pics since the moment I put the plate down she was reaching for one...

We had one desk at home. Mr. Smith, full time PhD student extraordinaire, has made this desk his command center. This is a nice way of saying his stuff is all over the place! So my supportive hubby agreed that I needed my own space. Where do we turn when in need of such an item? Craigslist of course! I found a beat up, scratched dark wood desk for $25. It's light, but sturdy. Small, but ample storage. I washed it down, sanded it, relined the drawers, painted it, then added hardware. This Home Depot trip was the best I have ever experienced. I like to think they had a new training workshop of sorts where they re-emphasized customer service. Matt likes to think it was my mini sweater dress and boots. Whatever the reason, I walked away with everything necessary for the beautiful transformation of this new-to-me desk! Next, with help from lots of people, I sewed my first set of curtains. I love the damask pattern, but it can be a bit much. So I made short curtains. They are not even.

Home means Nevada, home means the hills! It was a brilliant trip! We love visiting Nevada and seeing our family and friends! Sorry if we didn't connect with you on this trip, let's hope to do so on the next. We are missing many pics of fun times had by all on this trip, but if I spent the entire time taking pictures, I would miss out on good times! Thank you to Sally Turk, Vanessa Vancour and the Richmers for letting us stay with you! We got real quality time with an overnight! It was much needed. Thank you to Great Grandpa Charlie for financing our trip and bringing the entire Smith family together! Thank you Pat and John (Grandma and Grandpa) for the legos (and stories, and playtime...)! Thank you Kitty for hosting and letting us come "home". Thank you Kitty's fridge for holding all things delectable! Thank you Maria for the beautiful hand made scarf you gave Cass- it's so perfect and just what we needed! Thank you Sue for organizing the TShirts and for Cass