The Marriage Wish

The Marriage Wish by Dee Henderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the first Dee Henderson book I have read and ironically, it's the first book she wrote.  This book gives me great hope in writing my own book one day.


It's not at all what I was expecting.  It's an easy read that makes you want to see the couple get together in the end but the intense healing that has to take place is deep.


Final thoughts on reading it.....I'm thankful for healthy kids and I don't ever want to take for granted them or my husband.


Also, I may need a puppy.


View all my reviews

Angie's Kettle Corn for Valentine's Day

I recently received an email asking me if I would be interested in trying Angie's Kettle Corn. I've been asked a few times to try something but nothing ever sounds like US...but popcorn did.

I mean, who doesn't like popcorn?

I said yes and had no idea what to expect.

On a snowy, blustery, cold day with sick kids laying all around various parts of the house, my ever so cheery and pleasant UPS man braved the snow to make a special delivery.  When I opened the super light box, I found this....

I don't know what I had thought I was getting, but this was cooler than I thought it would be.

There were TWENTY bags of popcorn in this bag.  And 20 stickers, of course.  The stickers were all sort of whimsical.  The idea is to fill out the stickers to put on the bags to give as your classroom Valentine's Day "card".

That is a cool card idea even I could handle.

I had to try the popcorn, of course, so I opened it up and tossed a few kernels in my mouth.

I ended up dumping what was left of the bag in my mouth to get all the sweet saltiness I could get.

Then, and I am terrible to admit this, was glad no one was feeling well to eat this other than me.

When S4 asked about the delivery, he called small bags of popcorn "crazy".  He then tried it and said Daddy's was better.  I was happy - more for me! - but then he didn't stop eating it.  At all.  I think he liked it way more than he let on and said that just so his brothers wouldn't try it.

As the boys got over their flu, they kept grabbing a bag to munch on.  In two days every bag was GONE.

All that deliciousness....gone.

I have one bag hidden away.  I'm afraid to get it out.  The boys, all well now, would devour it as soon as I opened it, I am certain.

It is really that good.

The great news for you is that Angie's Kettle Corn is now available at Target stores - available just this month for the first time - and you can get this great bag for Valentine's Day treats for only 5.99.  I didn't think that was a bad price at all - I'd spend three or so dollars on a box of cards they would just throw away at the end of the day.  This is WAY cooler - and yummier.  They also have other sized bags available for purchase.  I think I'll need that one for me...

And who doesn't like to go to Target?

I think this is going to have to be our new keep in stock snack.  It's so easy to have it in the single serve bags.  But more than that, the boys have some friends with severe food allergies and when they visit I'm always nervous somehow I am going to give them something that is terrible for them.  I don't have to worry about this with Angie's Kettle Corn.

On the back of the bag is the adorable story of Angie and her kettle corn.  Being a sucker for such things, I had to share it with you as well.... (I actually took this right from the website, the shorter version is on the back of the bag...but this story warmed my heart even more.)

The Angie’s Kettle Corn Story

Company owners Dan and Angie Bastian began Angie’s Kettle Corn as a side venture when their 2 children, Aunikah and Tripp, were just 5 and 3. Hoping to both earn extra income for college funds and demonstrate the importance of hard work, Dan and Angie started selling Angie’s Kettle Corn at outdoor events in 2001. The couple enjoyed regional popularity at outdoor events, but all that changed when Dan and Angie decided to gift the Vikings players and coaches with bags of kettle corn after a long day at training camp in Mankato. The team was so impressed with the snack, that they soon became the official kettle corn of the Minnesota Vikings. The players weren’t the only ones impressed. In no time, fans wanted to know where they could buy Angie’s in the off-season. In January 2008, Dan and Angie made the decision to bring the operation indoors and begin manufacturing their treat for retail.

And they’ve never looked back. Ten years after their small venture began, the company has grown from the husband and wife pair to more than 100 employees producing 80,000 bags a day. Their Classic, Lite and Caramel varieties can be found in 50 states in stores including Costco, Super Target, Whole Foods, Lunds, Byerly’s and all SuperValu-owned stores.

Community Involvement

Angie’s is now the official kettle corn of the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx professional sports teams. In addition, Dan and Angie donate their time and resources to a variety of community fundraising events and programs, including March of Dimes, Kids Against Hunger, Salvation Army, YMCA, and many others devoted to supporting children and education.

For many different reasons, local and national media are highlighting Angie’s Kettle Corn. In March 2011, Food & Wine magazine featured Angie’s Lite, and founders Dan and Angie Bastian appeared on the Martha Stewart Show on the Hallmark Channel in January 2011.

Meet the Owners

From a kernel of love popped something bigger than two people. Meet the founders of Angie’s Kettle Corn, husband and wife, Dan and Angie Bastian.

Dan “Reno” Bastian:

Dan was born and raised in Minnesota. Before working full time at Angie’s, he was a high school Spanish teacher and baseball coach. He still coaches his daughter and son’s sports teams.

Angie Bastian:

Angie was raised in the Midwest and in Florida. As company namesake, her role in the business has evolved from behind-the-scenes in her spare time as a full-time nurse, to full-time President. Despite their successful business, Angie and Dan have never lost sight of the importance of family and consider parenting to be their most important and rewarding endeavor.

So, because it was so yummy, I ASKED to write this review.  Try it yourself and see if you don't agree with me.  I know we are now Angie Kettle Corn fans...for good.  I have a sneaky suspicion the boys's classmates will all be trying it on Valentine's Day. 

But we'll still be happy to have Daddy make us popcorn...

The Deliciousness of A Good Book

When I was a little girl, I loved to read.  My nose was buried in a book any day, often all day.  If I was not buried in a book, on little pieces of orange notebook paper my uncle brought home to us in bulk, I would write out stories.

When my brother and I would play for hours at our creek or out in the neighbors hundreds of wooded acres across the road from us, I would make up amazing stories that we would be the hero and heroine of.  We lived many great adventures.

On days my mom and dad would have us helping with weeding, stacking wood, shoveling manure, helping with canning, etc I would make up stories in my head to make the time go faster.  Often I would tell made up stories to my siblings...especially my brother.

My brother has an incredible oral story telling ability.  He amazes me.  He can have me on the floor laughing or scared to death to get out of my vehicle at night...and I'm a grown woman!  I, on the other hand, am the writer of my days (pretty obvious, I know) but a speaker?  Not so much.  Public speaking scares me insanely much.

When my boys were being born and little, it occurred to me one day for some reason that I could not even remember the last book I had read.  When I dug around the house I found some book I had read...the year before.  Since then I have tried to be much more conscientious of reading.  Back when S2 was a baby, I had no computer (can you imagine!), no cell phone, no cable tv, no facebook, no twitter, no blogging (but journaling sporadically) and I was not reading.

Now my time is being pulled in every direction.  The boys are older and one would think that would make life easier and while, yes, I'm not changing diapers anymore, I am also busier.  The amount of food I make in a week is startling to me.  School keeps us hopping.  Work.  The farm.

My husband feels reading is about as thrilling as watching paint dry.  And me curled up with a good book can be annoying to him...if all he did was sharpen chainsaw chains when I wanted to spend time with him, I would be annoyed too.  (Chains for cutting wood...that sounded slightly odd, didn't it?) So we find some tv series we love to watch on Netflix and spend our time at night cuddled on the couch watching tv.  We love it.  Who doesn't love to cuddle with the love of their life?

Alicia introduced me to Goodreads and while I am not very good at keeping it up to date, I do find it helps immensely.  You can make a reading goal for the year and this year I decided to be brave and say I would read 26 books this year.  Considering I had a hard time reading ONE book a month last year this was a huge commitment to me.

Alicia?  She thinks she can read 75 books this year.  She's a reading machine.  I love this about her.

Last night, Jake had to go plow.  I was not happy about this because we had a night planned - nothing  big but still.  I mopped floors, cleaned the kitchen, blogged...I know, I am thrilling...and when I crawled into bed I thought, "Gasp! I could read for a bit."

I snuggled into bed, pulling my special Strawberry Shortcake blanket around me and propping pillows. It was eleven.  I'd been tired all evening, I'd suffered a severe headache on the right side of my head that had set my eye brow to twitching and while I was feeling fine now (and in large part because I refused to look up my symptoms on the internet, it would have me dead by morning, I was sure) I knew I shouldn't read too late.

I had read the first chapter a week or so before and thought it so so.

About four chapters in I was hooked.

I couldn't put it down.  I had to know what happened.  I heard a vehicle rumble and thought Jake was back from plowing perhapes...but it wasn't him. No, it was my neighbor.  Leaving. For. Work.

That's right...it was nearly five in the morning.

I had no idea, and I was *this* close to finishing.

At five thirty, I finished.  I closed the book and rubbed the cover.  It was a delicious evening this book and I had had.  I sent a text to Alicia, who I knew was just waking up.  She was the one who told me to read The Hunger Games series, I shouldn't have doubted that she would know I would like this book that normally I wouldn't even bother to look at twice.

After a few hours of sleep and a *few* cups of coffee, I am still thinking over this book.  That's the fun about the books - even when you are done reading you aren't done living the story.

I was thrilled and pained to see there is a second book coming out in May.  

This post - rambling long as it is - isn't to tell you read this book (although I would recommend it in a heartbeat), it's just to remind you to read.  A book.  Not just your computer or a magazine but a book where you live with the characters.  

It's a delicious thing, a good book.

I'm THAT Mom - the one of Hillbilly Recipes

Kellyn, you may not want to read this.

Every morning that I drop the boys off at school, a troop of boys come out to greet me at S2's classroom.  I love it.  There are four of them total, including my S2.  S3 and S4 make a big deal out of giving all four them high fives and hugs that are so big they can lift them up off the ground - yes, my six and seven year old lifting their older brother and friends up off the ground in a hug.

Only my boys.

Anyhow, recently Jonathan - one of the four - actually stopped me before the morning greetins.  "Can you tell me how to make squirrel?" he asked.

Now, there are lots of things running through my mind but the biggest was this...

I have officially become a hillbilly.

Jonathan continued...and this I loved..."Because my mom says she doesn't know how to cook it and I know you do so you could tell her how to cook it and then we could finally eat some!"

I know Jonathan's mom...and I'm sorry...I just couldn't resist.  "Well, honey, you just get that squirrel as clean as you and your brothers can then you have your mom stick it in the crock pot with a bunch of cream of mushroom soup and cook it till it's tender."

His eyes were adoring.  He was thrilled.

"Great!" he nodded solemnly.  "Can you tell my mom that?"

"I sure will," I promised.

I did not, however, tell his mom - or Jonathan - that when one cooks squirrel like that it ends up looking like this.......

Yummy, huh?

No matter how carefully it is cleaned, when it is done cooking you will in fact find bits of hair still on it's cooked meat.

And that your boys, looking at that tiny bit of meat that doesn't even take up half a dinner plate, will think it is the best looking dinner ever.  

They will carefully carve off bits of the meat and savor every bite, pronouncing they have the best cook in the whole world and their brother to be the best shot.  And the cook (being the mother) will do the motherly thing and make sure all her boys have all the food they can eat - sacrificing her share of the meat to the hunter who provided the meat.

The funny thing is THE WEEK this happened to me - Jonathan asking me about how to cook squirrel - another friend sent me a picture of her son eating...SQUIRREL.  She knew I would appreciate such a picture...and understand her horror.

When the weekend was over, I asked Jonathan how it had gone eating his squirrel.  "Well," he said, "My mom says we would need a whole lot of squirrels to feed us all so it may take some time.  But then we'll make it like how you told my mom!"

Pukes NOT Pucks

(a post not for the soft stomached)

Yesterday, I left my house for the first time since Thursday morning.

After dropping the boys off at school

ON TIME

I went home to make Death by Chocolate Scones.

Then I went over the library that I love so dearly.

The library I just happen to work at.

There we ate scones, drank delicious tea from quaint tea cups with saucers and watched this movie.

I so love this movie.

I really love the book as well.

While I have read it before, I never did finish the book in time for this book club.

It was a grand time.

After the movie and chat (we are going to stick with reading woman authors and taking suggestions), we decided to read Little Women next.  My ultimate favorite book.  And Alice hasn't read it and this makes me a wee bit worried about her. ;)

After all that girl time, I picked the boys up from school and we headed to Meijer so they could spend the Christmas money that has been burning holes in their pockets.

S1 loaded up on clearanced hunting gear, and was shocked d things can add up to $45 dollars rather quickly.  He was nearly ready to get in an argument with the cashier, but she was right, not him.

S2 got BB's, air soft bullets, nerf bullets and a target.

S3 got a new game for his Leapster and a case to carry his Leapster.  It was fun to hear him say, "YES! Now I can do subtraction!"

S4 found himself a lego boat he can use in the tub (can it get any better?) and sunglasses.

I was thankful I had some girl time earlier in the day.

But it wasn't long after we were home that S1 informed me he wasn't feeling well, and it wasn't long after that he was puking.

It's been years since he has been this sick, since his Boar hunt, actually.

I don't handle puke well.

Like, at all.

Husband does things like that shockingly well.

I can change diapers, I can clean disgusting things, I can do most anything.

But not puke.

As we heard S1 puking throughout the night, husband (exhausted from hours of plowing and hours of fixing plow trucks) said sleepily, "Go help him."

To which I - and yes, I feel some shame in admitting this - said, "What am I going to do? Just let him puke it out and fall back asleep."

Yah, I'm that kind of a mom.

At around one in the morning, S2 came down and began puking too.

Thankfully, we have two buckets.

This morning I wrote a facebook status bemoaning the fact that I had puking boys.

But I wrote PUCK instead of PUKE.

Which is funny to me, hilarious really, and that could be because of my lack of sleep and the fact that I have been dealing with puke for nearly two weeks on and off.

I could well be sick of pucks.

Because this is a picture of my boys over the weekend.

And people know my boys well enough to know that they COULD have pucks IN the house and how that always seems to turn out.

I'd so much rather have that then this.

My poor sick boys.  I am bleaching and lysoling and hoping that I don't catch this bug at all.

Say a prayer for us.
Say a prayer that I can handle dumping buckets of puke.  I know that sounds awful, but it's really hard on me.  And my two oldest boys are as pale as the snow and lifeless today, I feel so awful for them.

Feed, Korene and an iPhone4s

Last week, as I was rushing to get us all out the door for school, I noticed S4 digging out two apples from the fridge.

"You only need one," I told him, silently thinking what great boys I have to want healthy food.

"It's not for me.  It's for Whiskers and Bunny," he answered me.

As in, Whiskers and Bunny the bunnies that live on our front porch.

"Just give them their feed," I replied.

"Well, that's just it, Moma.  Their food is kinda icky.  It got wet and then it got hard," he explained.

"And things are growing on it," S2 added.

"And I am just now hearing this?" I demanded.

They nodded silently.

And I knew what my day would now entail, heading to the farm store for feed.

My friend Korene, who will be starting a craft blog soon, stopped me to see how my morning was going and I spilled this whole story to her.

She giggled.  "You'll make it funny, just you watch."

And so I prepared myself for my fun surprise twist of the day.

As I headed into town, my phone rang.  My cell phone.  Since our house phone was down (but ATT fixed so well!).  And my cell phone was acting up.  The call was my husband and I asked him if he minded if I could stop in at the Verizon store and see about an upgrade.  He assured me it was a great idea.

I walked in with my blackberry, with this picture as a screen saver...

And asked for help.

I have a fear of cell phone stores.  I have had to deal with a totally awful one.  As in, T E R R I B L Y awful.  This one, well, this one had the nicest, super knowledgeable employees.  They didn't just try to sell a phone, they wanted to know what would be the best fit.  They listened and offered advice.

Since I was looking for the iphone anyhow, they asked me questions about what I would use an iphone for and looked at my rebate I was up for and said, "The iphone4s is for you."

I had to ask my husband first, that handsome man who loves my chickens too.

"Yes! Yes! Get it right now!  That's a great price! I figured you would! Go right ahead!" he cheered me.

And so I did.

And so my day to get feed for bunnies - and chickens, wild birds and the cat - got me an iphone4s.

Korene was right, it was a great day.

And my new iphone....oh. my. goodness.

I do believe it's the most wonderfulest phone ever. I also know I just know the tiniest bit about it.

But I do know fully well how wonderful my hubby is.  As in, the greatest ever.

(Even if he didn't get the iphone for me, he'd still be great.  But this sure makes me grin at him a bit more.)

Snow Day!

This morning we awoke to snow.

Not tons of snow but snow timed to make the roads nasty and dangerous.

Giving us a SNOW DAY!

 Honestly, I didn't think we would get one.  I made the boys pack lunches the night before.  Clothes were laid out and showers taken.  But at five am I was awake checking my texts for word of a snow day.  I was watching the news...watching all the schools around us close but not us.

But then we did!

All winter we have had mild temps in the upper 30's and 40's.  I have to admit, I have loved it.  But if we are going to get snow, let us have the snow day!

We made waffles for breakfast and then shoveled off the vehicles and shoveled the walkways.  I fed all the wild birds that were flocked at the feeder while the two youngest boys went in to get warm and the two oldest went out to see if the snow mobiles were taking the trail in the back of our property.  When our tummies began to rumble for lunch, S4 suggested a picnic.  And then he set it all up himself.

 He was rather proud of his creativity.  He had everyone spots picked out (I was to sit between S3 and S4).  Dinner was tuna noodle, the food Daddy hates so we eat on all those "special occasions" when Daddy isn't home.

 Do you see the bunny behind S4's foot and next to the Angry Bird stuffed animal?  The bunnies.  Yes, those bunnies were part of the celebration of snow day as well.  They had breakfast with us.  They played hide and seek.  And at some point they hid so well everyone forgot they were there until it hopped up to you so you scratched it's little ears and it hopped away.  The bunnies, I believe, loved snow day.  I, on the other hand, believe I may not be liking that the boys left the bunnies in the house for so long today.  But back to our yummy lunch.

 Here I am sitting, enjoying the fun of the moment, thinking this is grand that we don't need to worry about a mess.  That's when I spilled my entire plate of food on my lap.  Go figure.  The boys ate without incident.

While S4 has a bit of cheesy grin here, he was truly happy with the way this all worked out for us.  He loves picnics and that everyone did just what they should do and sat in just the spots he chose and the bunnies were in on the fun...well, this was the best snow day ever for him, i do believe.

 After lunch S1 plowed the driveway with his snowplow he built for the tractor he and my dad built.  I don't think any boy has been happier plowing snow.

After we had cleaned the junk drawer - S4 now deems it the clean drawer, it only had 6 years of collection in it (haven't cleaned it since I was nesting last) - we took down the Christmas decorations.  My sister in law called and ended up stopping with her two boys on the way home from the vet.

My brother just purchased this adorable Pomeranian puppy for her.

 The puppy, you must know, is only two pounds.  Full grown she will be ten pounds.  She pranced around the floor and was a great delight to us all.  I believe I said, "She is just the cutest! And look at her cute curled tail!" a zillion times.  S2 was sure the puppy knew his voice and was just the most amazing puppy in the world.  Jr - my nephew - would then tell us all how to properly care for the puppy.

It was a really great time.

Even if this picture captures them all looking a bit crazy.

YOU try getting a good picture of six boys and puppy!

My husband arrived home from plowing snow exhausted and hungry.  He was going to bring us pizza but it got too late for that so we had leftover lasagna and birthday cake.  You really can never go wrong if your first thought for dinner is ice cream - and you then you have ice cream.

The boys and I stayed up late watching a movie all cuddled on the couch, bunnies tucked away in their home outside.  I painted my nails - because you all wanted to know that sort of information - a bright sparkly glitter pink.

Why yes, it was a rather perfect snow day.