My cute "little" squeezer...

This past weekend was very eventful for the Squeeze Family. Daughter Squeeze (DS) participated in the Utah National American Miss "scholarship" pageant downtown. She raised $450 through sponsors (THANK YOU to our SPONSORS!!!) to allow her to participate. 

Although they tout this as a scholarship pageant, it doesn't hurt if you look good too. It really was amazing to see the spectrum of girls that competed... it's promoted as an opportunity to help build self-esteem and life skills along the way. Daughter Squeeze needs those life skills... sweetie, your looks only get you so far ;)   

This pageant doesn't require you to display a talent or walk around on the stage in a swimsuit (thank goodness because soccer really isn't a talent to showcase on the stage, much less in a swimsuit!), but she did have these required elements:

• Give an Onstage Introduction (name, age, hometown & aspirations) – 30%
• Interview (one-on-one with 5 separate judges) – 30%
• Formal Wear (escorted by a male family member) – 30%
• Community Donation (children's books & stuffed animals to local charities) – 10%

The NAM Utah Jr. Teen Group

She competed in the Jr. Teen category (ages 13-15). There were 47 contestants in her group, compared to 35 in the other 4 groups. You could start competing at the age of 4! And those little, little girls... well, there weren't the train wrecks that you see on Toddlers & Tiaras, but it was free entertainment...

Friday night was the Formal Wear competition... We have some great people in our neighborhood who have a bunch of formals for high school proms, pageants, and so forth and were willing to share them (borrow = FREE!). DS fell in love with 2 of them, but ultimately with the guidance of a friend of mine who is a pageant master, she narrowed it down to the final dress. And she chose her brother to escort her across the stage... they looked so cute and it reminded me of when they were little. Wow... time has gone so quickly <sniff>...

DS with her brother

She had practiced her walk in front of the family, friends, and even an occasional visitor. She had to be comfortable on that stage after all... And when the time came, she did it with grace and poise. Nice! And I do have to mention that her hair and makeup looked good too (we were trying to cut $ where we could, so I played hairdresser and makeup artist) ;)

Saturday was the big day... It began with Production Number Rehearsal (8am), then Onstage Introduction (10:30am), Interviews (11:30am), Final Pageant Rehearsal (12:30pm) and then the final Pageant at 5pm. Talk about a busy day... It was back and forth from our hotel to the pageant hotel. Thank goodness we were only across the street, but it was a super hot day and trying to find a parking spot... well, we got lucky on parking :)

Onstage Introduction

The Onstage Introduction was nerve racking for DS... she had practiced her part in the car, in front of the mirror, in front of Son Squeeze's friends, and at church Girls' Camp. She was ready. But they said that it needed to be 30 seconds or less, so we timed it. It was 42 seconds and that worried her. We looked at it and tried to cut things, but in the end, I told her to keep it as is. There were going to be girls who would only take 10 seconds, so she could take up the rest ;) And when it all happened, there were girls who took 10 seconds and one girl took almost 3 minutes! Poor girl... THAT one was a mess :( DS did FANTASTIC (I could be biased, but she did... I can't wait to see her score on that portion)... Clear, concise, good train of thought. She wrote it herself... I swear she should be a writer, but she wants to be a K-9 trainer for law enforcement...

"Sprinkler" move during
the Production Number

The final pageant was the Production Number and then the re-presenting of the girls in their formal wear. I don't think I've seen DS move SO fast... going from t-shirt and shorts to formal and heels in less than 3 minutes! But we did it and she looked beautiful... 

They had 2 groups on the stage: Jr. Teen (her group – ages 13-15) and Teen (ages 16-18) and presented the awards in a bunch of optional competitions (talent, actress, spokesmodel, photogenic, top model, most tickets sold, most advertisements sold, best sponsor thank you note, most recommendations, service). Of course most of the optional contests cost money because you win money, but we were on a budget this year.

They announced the top 10 semi-finalists, and Daughter Squeeze was named first! Good thing because then we could sit back and wonder who the other girls would be... it made it more enjoyable for us. I could only imagine what the other parents were going through...

The Top 5 finalists & Queen

They brought the 10 finalists for each group back up, so there were 20 girls on the stage, and then they announced the top 5 for each group... DS was named Utah Jr. Teen 2nd runner up (3rd place)... holy cow – her first pageant :) She was the youngest of the winners, and the tallest. She's growing up so fast... It was a good mother-daughter bonding experience. Thank goodness I didn't have to mime a dance routine in the back of the room when she was on stage ;)

A break from squeezing....

A few things have given us a break from squeezing this week, and it's about time... I'm getting all prune-y, if you know what I mean. So I'll share two things that are worth mentioning:

• Finally filling the front porch planters... for $7! How you ask? Well, apparently we were at the right place at the right time – Home Depot on a Tuesday around noon in the garden/nursery department. We needed some ant killer since our home is built over some monstrous ant colony, and after grabbing the BIG bottle, we decided to peruse the nursery for some cheap plants. We have had 2 empty pots on our front porch since winter (can you say "no money"?) and they've been looking really sad lately (and collecting spider webs, dirt, dried leaves, etc.). We know it costs $ (sometimes I can't figure out why annuals cost so much... they're going to die anyways). We decided to bite the bullet and give ourselves a budget. Just as Dad Squeeze mentions to me to pick out a couple of plants, one of the ladies working in the nursery says: "We've just put these 3 different kinds of plants on sale for 50¢ a piece... grab them while you can." I don't think it took more than 5 seconds for us to realize what she was saying, so we grabbed 2 of each variety to fill the pots and got on our merry way! The bag of soil cost more than the 6 plants :) So, for $7... not too shabby!

Thank you UPS man
for making it happen!

• Getting packages earlier than expected :) I saw an idea posted on another blog and realized that with our church youth Girls' Camp coming up, it would be a really cute idea. So I proposed it to the camp leader, and luckily another craft idea had been nixed, so they had the budget to do it. Of course, the main component (a mini hinge clip) was not available in any of the local craft stores (trust me, if you want to do this, order it online... early!), so I ordered it online. I thought I ordered them in time (yeah, I tend to think everything runs on MST – Mom Squeeze Time)... but when the shipping notification came in, I realized that it wouldn't be here in time to send up to camp :( I started sweating it – starting to think up a Backup Plan A, then a Backup Plan B... but neither was a likely scenario. I did find one local store that had one package of 15 (I needed 45!) so I thought at least I could show them what one looked like completed. And if I was going to have it to Girls' Camp on time, I had to get the project to one of the moms going up tomorrow morning so that she could get them set up for the activity on Friday... Well, what do you know.... UPS was kind enough to get them here TODAY... 1 day EARLY!!! So, now I was able to package each of them up with one of them being a sample. And it was worth the sweating and worrying :) 

So sometimes life gives you lemons, and sometimes there's a break from them – And it's nice to let those hands get un-prune-y once in a while ;P
 

Expiration date?

I always feel like an accomplished homemaker when I have thought out a meal plan and execute like a chef... and today was one of those days... well at least it started out that way...

(Premise) A while ago, when Dad Squeeze was working out of town for an extended period, I had Son & Daughter Squeeze go through one of my favorite cookbooks and pick out the meals that they thought they would eat. Having pictures next to the recipes definitely helps ;) So, they picked out a week's set of meals and off we went to shop for the ingredients.

Of course things come up, and as usual, not all the week's meals were made. And there's always the good intention that I'll make the meal so that the food doesn't spoil... I remember it's a good intention and I know I'll get around to it. And when I open up the deli drawer, I see the main ingredient staring at me, it's reminding me that I should get around to making that meal. 

(Point) So here we are... time for Sunday dinner. Mmmm... my daughter's favorite: Homemade Turkey meatballs with spaghetti and from-scratch sauce :) I've made this before and the meatballs take a bit of time, so I got up early and prepped the meatballs so it wouldn't take so much time to cook after church (since we tend to be starving come 5 pm – especially on Fast Sundays). I put all the necessary ingredients into the mixing bowl, and then opened up the ground Turkey (you know – the frozen kind that comes in the 1 lb. tube). The expiration date said I was still good until October... so when I slit it open, and the smell was a bit unpleasant.... well, let's just say I talked myself into denial that anything was wrong or the fumes may have put me into a state of denial ;) It's all good... meat tends to have just a bit of stench, right?

After church, I got the sauce ready, allowing the crushed tomatoes, herbs, garlic and olive oil to blend into a bubbly, aromatic, almost lava-like consistency. Now to add the turkey meatballs... The smell isn't as smelly, so yeah, it's all good... Cook the meatballs in the sauce, boil up some spaghetti, make a salad and some garlic bread.... Mmmmm.... it's coming along nicely :)

It's all ready... table is set, we bless the food and start serving it up. The quick cabbage salad is quite tasty (a little less mayo next time), and here comes the spaghetti and meatballs. Looks good.... add some parmesan cheese... first mouthful of the spaghetti and sauce. This is tasty! Ok, now for the meatball... One bite in – and it is OUT! I quickly ask everyone to NOT eat anymore of the meatballs... Son Squeeze immediately projectiles the mushy mass out of his mouth and onto the plate. Daughter Squeeze says she's feeling sick, and Dad Squeeze has managed to eat 2 of them and finally says that they tasted odd. Hun – the first one should have given you that impression.

So, needless to say, dinner came to an abrupt end. And I have learned a valuable lesson: The expiration date on a FROZEN meat tube is intended as a "use by this date if it's FROZEN"... not if you've thawed it. :(


Side note: I thought of feeding these now tasty treats to my dog, but my husband has forbidden me to since I don't scoop the poop in the yard. Runny poo does not scoop well...

A Warrant out on my mother...

So... guess this is a good one to start out the craziness ;) It happened yesterday, but I think it still counts since I actually set up this blog 2 days ago...

(Premise) We moved in my mother (Mummi Squeeze) last Saturday. She's going on an LDS Church Mission to Finland where she is originally from. Since my father passed away last year, she's been living on her own and now it's not necessary that she keep her apartment. We've been helping her out with things, and in this case: car insurance. Dad Squeeze left on a day trip to Los Angeles to purchase some equipment for work... he left REALLY early so I get a phone call from him still early in the morning. Our car insurance has been suspended... WHAT?! We just paid a buttload of money to get it taken care of. May I remind you we have a 16-year-old son and an 84-year-old grandmother (who doesn't have a clean record either!) on our car insurance???

(Point) Ok... now I have to spend the day trying to figure out:

• HOW to reinstate our insurance because it's the last day of the month (and we HAVE to have car insurance)
• WHY our insurance is suspended

After calling the insurance agent, it's because my mother's drivers license is suspended...Seems as though my mother had an accident and never paid for it. Well, after calling the city, she DID pay for it and it was recorded... BUT she had a speeding ticket back in 2008 and never paid for it. Hence, a warrant for her arrest. So, after getting her side of the story, we headed down to a different city court building to pay the $100 warrant fee (which right now is a large sum of money that we don't want to be paying, but must).

We arrive and my mother wants to plead her case to the clerk (as I'm slowly rolling my eyes into the back of my head...). My mother says that the judge would dismiss paying the fine if she avoids any traffic violations for 6 months. She listens, pulls up some paperwork, and then heads to the back office. She comes back and lets us know that she is clear and we don't have to pay the $100... WHAT??! I cannot tell you that almost all the things we've done to get her ready for her mission, she apparently has some help in higher powers.

So here comes the city clerk with additional papers and says: "I apologize... this was a clerical error... in fact, it was MY error." So here's the lady responsible for this... but at least she was apologetic and said that she would take care of things. We still had to head to the DMV to reinstate her license, but that would be taken care of as well. She handed us her business card in case there were issues. And yes... there would be issues.

So off we headed to the DMV... I can honestly tell you, at least it was air conditioned. Oh boy... the line... it seemed to go on forever. We finally got up the front, and received a numbered ticket. That's it?! We stood in line to get a number?! Yup... now to go sit on those lovely hard plastic chairs until your number is called. 

About 45 minutes later, and some fine people watching, our number was finally called. We headed up the the window and handed the papers from the city clerk. She looked like a deer in headlights. Apparently she deals with the druggies and drunkards... we were neither. So her supervisor came over and looked at them and said, "Reinstatement fee is $35". But we didn't make the mistake! It was the city court... let them pay the fee! 

Luckily that business card came in handy and I called the city clerk who made the mistake. She had been on the phone with the central DMV to try to get the fee waived. She explained this to the supervisor who had to find out if it was all legit. We went back to sit on those lovely plastic chairs, with the cold air conditioning blasting. After an additional 10 minutes of people watching, Mummi Squeeze's license had been cleared and reinstated with no money out of her pocket! Of course, this whole ordeal took 3 hours... and finally off to the insurance office to show proof ;)

If you are looking to kill time: head to the DMV...

Meet the Lemon Squeezers

A new month... a new hobby. It's time that I got on the "blog"-wagon... And since we've been squeezing a lot of lemons for quite some time, I can say, we are "expert" squeezers. Who are we? We're a family of 4 – a typical family of Dad, Mom, Daughter, & Son... 

Yes, this is us – The Lemon Squeezer Family... and this pic says quite a bit about each of us. I won't tell you what it's saying, but it's saying a lot ;) Although we've had our fair share of lemons for the past couple of years, this blog is not a sympathy blog. It's basically a place I can put some of the odd, wacky, crazy, sad, miraculous, and weird things that happen to us. Sometimes they are weekly, and sometimes, just sometimes, it seems as though they are happening on a daily basis.


I may refer to something in the past, but I'll give a backstory and you'll have to "suffer" through it as my husband refers to it. I like to set the premise, but if you can't handle the premise, then skim through and get to the end like you do with a novel :) So that's us and what this blog is about.... A family of 4 (& sometimes a relative) and how we keep going through all the lemonade we are having to squeeze...