Taste Test - Adult Edition

After subjecting my kids to various taste tests over the past 6 months I decided I needed some fresh meat. Last night my family was getting together to celebrate Erica and Jacob's birthdays with a hamburger cookout. I decided to add to the fun by bringing a little appetizer for everyone to try.

Enter sushi.


California rolls, Philly rolls with salmon, and spicy tuna rolls. I wasn't sure who had and who had not already tried sushi, but I was fairly certain there were a few sushi virgins among the bunch. I was not disappointed!

First up was my dad.


He'll try anything.


And pretend he doesn't like it! I should tell you that he tried all three types and said they weren't bad despite this look he gave the camera!

Next up was my brother, John.


He didn't mind trying it. He had tasted some before and wasn't crazy about it.


Not bad. I don't like the seaweed taste in it though. I've had some that had rice paper instead of seaweed, and it was better.

Next up are the outlaws...I mean in-laws.


Michelle and Paige are my lovely sisters-in-law. Paige loves sushi so she didn't mind it at all. Michelle was a little nervous but a great sport!


Down the hatch...


Not bad.


The seaweed is kinda chewy though. (I have to tell you that Michelle is adorably cute, and not one picture I took showed this. I must scour my files for an adorably cute picture of Michelle to post later to make up for these not so cute ones I am posting now.)

And Jeremy...


My brother-in-law.


Who said something about how much he loved when we lived in Turkey.


But that he would rather try sushi than do that thing I made them do last time. Jeremy loves us! (He really does...he's a great sport and lots of fun!)

Next up...my mother.


My mom said she wasn't going to try it. I wasn't going to make her. (Like I could make my mother do anything!) After the others tried it and lived to tell about it she decided all on her own to try it. She even tried the spicy tuna. Raw fish and spices. Wowza!


Not a big fan. That's all.

Then we have my sister, Vanessa.


Vanessa was nervous.


She doesn't like dark meat chicken because of the sliminess of it. Here she is about to try some raw fish. On purpose.


She ate it. She didn't like it, but at least she tried it. What a good sport.

Then it was Matt's turn.


Matt is the youngest of the 4 of us. Matt is married. Matt has two beautiful girls. Matt is stubborn! "I'm not trying it. You can't make me. Neener-neener." Little brothers. Sheesh!


Vanessa's youngest tried it.


And she liked it!


Jacob tried it and thought it was pretty good.


Anna Grace loves sushi!


Matt's oldest daughter tried it.


Another one of Vanessa's kids tried it.


He actually went back for seconds!


She didn't. But at least she tried a bite.


She passed it off to her mother.


And we're back to Matt. "I'm not trying it. You're not the boss of me!"

If you missed any of the previous tastes tests and want to see what all the fuss is about here are the links.

Taste Test #1

Taste Test #2

Taste Test #3

Taste Test #4

Taste Test #5

fun times overseas

For those of you missing Turkish culture posts here's a little ditty. A friend of mine in Turkey recently wrote this on her blog...

Last night we were invited to our neighbor's home for dinner. We have been invited into various homes for tea and have, of course, dined with Turkish friends who are connected to the school, but this was a first for us and was an invitation we happily accepted.

Just before we walked out the door, we endured (caused) a big commotion about house shoes. The neighbor lives right across the hall, so we had several options regarding footwear:

a)wear outdoor shoes to walk across the hall and wear our socks in the house (which would make the host feel obligated to provide house shoes for all 6 of us)

b)run across the hall in socks (which would cause them to worry that we might all get sick because we didn't have outdoor shoes in the hallway)

c)wear outdoor shoes and take a big pile of our own house shoes to put on after we got there (which might make them think we didn't expect them to be good hosts and provide enough house shoes)

d)wear our house shoes across the hall (which would make them be considered 'dirty' when we entered the house)

You laugh, but we stood in our entry for a full 5 minutes trying to figure out what to do. This is a BIG deal here. Cleanliness is part of the religion prevalent in this country. Not wearing outdoor shoes in the house is a BIG deal. But also, making sure your feet are in shoes is a big deal because many believe illnesses are caused by being in socks only (or worse, bare feet...little do they know what a hillbilly I really am in secret). Everyone was throwing out suggestions. Mary Erin had an enormous armful of house shoes to carry over, convinced she had the right idea. Eva had her crocs and her puffy princess shoes in her hands and was planning to carry both. Annika had her house shoes already on. Ross was saying to me, "Are THOSE our house shoes? Where did we get those? I thought you said we shouldn't take all those shoes, why are you telling us to bring our own house shoes now?" I finally halted everyone and said, "Look! Just trust me. I don't have time to explain..Ross, wear outdoor shoes and take no house shoes. Wear socks in the house or take the house shoes they offer you. Girls, wear outdoor shoes and take your own house shoes. That way they can provide shoes for the adults but don't have to outfit all of you kids." Then Esther panicked, "But I don't HAVE house shoes, they are at school!" (Yes, the kids wear house shoes in the school when it is wet outside and they come in from recess.) So I said, "Ok, Esther, just wear outdoor shoes and then your socks unless they give you shoes." Mary Erin said, "Mom, my feet are big enough for adult house shoes, can I just wear my outdoor shoes?" "YES! Now GET OUT the door!" We also quickly discussed how to handle the prayer and decided that since it was their home, we'd each bow and have our own silent prayer. 3 seconds later we had crossed the hall, all smiles, pretending we had no stress, and accepting house shoes for anyone who didn't come with their own. Can you believe all that?

The story made me laugh thinking about how true it is! We have experienced similar issues when visiting the neighbors in our building. If you are interested in hearing more from them you can check out her blog here.

Weekly pics

Continuing my New Year's resolution/goal of taking at least one picture everyday...

January 4

A ceramic tray from Morocco with some scented blue candles from Ikea!

January 5

Rocks I picked up on the Black Sea coast

January 6

Rocks I picked up on the Mediterranean coast

January 7

Wet wipes that were given out after a meal at restaurants in Turkey. This is all I have left! I love these things. They are perfect for washing hands before meal.

January 8

The window seat in my bedroom I sometimes sit at to surf the internet. Notice the pillow with the R on it. The people who used to live in our house left it since it matched the room. Their last name starts with an R. Yep...I've left it there despite the fact that our last name isn't Rixon.

January 9

Will brought this fabulous piece of art home from school on Wednesday. He actually picked art for an elective when we got to the states! Mrs. Lundy, his art teacher in Turkey, would be so proud! The shapes are made from folded paper strung on a piece of wire from a hanger. The bottom is just a piece of wood.

January 10

Yesterday we celebrated Erica and Jacob's birthdays with the family. Here they are blowing out candles on their shared cake.

And we don't even have a dog yet.

Today I was faced with an issue I seem to have. Well I've known I have it, but today I have a slight headache so it was more of an aggravation to me than normal. My issue...cleaning perfection. Now don't misunderstand and think I have to have a perfectly clean house. That's not it at all. While I love a perfectly clean house I know that it will be a rarity. My issue is more that when I clean I end up redoing things until they are done...really done. For example...today I vacuumed. It has been exactly a week since I vacuumed last. We have had guests and lots of tracking in and out so it was time. I spent 30 minutes vacuuming the kitchen and living room. That may not seem like a lot of time, but considering there are 6 more rooms to vacuum it is. I should not spend 2 hours vacuuming. The vacuum cleaner is probably the best one I've ever owned. I would think I was done and then see a dust bunny under the desk. Got it. Then walking to the kitchen to unplug the vacuum cleaner I would notice crumbs along the edge of the carpet. The carpet that I had just finished vacuuming. The carpet I vacuumed after vacuuming the wood floor next to it. Did crumbs from the carpet jump off onto the wood floor to try to save themselves from sudden vacuum cleaner death? Why, no matter how many times I went over those two rooms, did I seem to see places I missed? It was quite frustrating. I was sweating by the time I stopped. I still don't know that I am finished with those two rooms I just had to get out of them for a few minutes.

Now it's lunch time. I have to walk back into the kitchen. I am scared to do that. I'm sure I will see crumbs that have come back out of their hiding places to mock me.

(For those of you who swear by the Roomba I must respectfully decline to be involved in that phenomenon. With hardwood floors and area rugs I would just get even more frustrated with it I'm afraid.)

(As far as the title goes I am thinking about the dog hair that will have to be vacuumed up. Of course that might mean that there won't be crumbs, but I'm not sure which I would rather have...)

Back to the daily grind.

The kids went back to school today. Finally! I was happy to have them home for a couple of weeks, but I must admit I was ready for the routine that school provides. One of my most favorite things we did over their break was play games. And boy did we play games! First up we have Settlers of Catan.

I can't even begin to tell you how many times we played this game! Once or twice a day for a week I'm sure. Anna Grace wasn't a fan of this game, but she decided that that was ok. The box did say for ages 10 and up, and she is only 9. To make AG happy we played several rounds of Take the Train.


This is a fairly easy game to play as there isn't much strategy involved. You play the cards dealt to you as soon as you have an open spot. Easy peasy.

Another fun discovery was Bananagrams.



Brian's aunt, uncle and cousin sent us this game for Christmas. It is similar to Scrabble but much more fun in my opinion!

There were also a few rousing games of Blokus.


Simple to play and always fun!

I thought we were done. Back to school. Back to real life. Then we went to Barnes and Noble to browse this afternoon. We came home with a new game. Carcassonne.



Brian had seen this one before Christmas and mentioned it to me. Today we bought it, because as Brian said, "We've been there!" (We had a chance to visit Carcassonne on our trip to France back in September.) We played it for the first time this evening. Fun game! I'm sure there will be many more rounds of it in the coming days as we work on perfecting our strategies!

Game playing...I must admit. I love it! (But not those games where you have to yell out things or make a fool of yourself singing or have some crazy instructions you have to carryout. No. I prefer games where you have to sit and think or mindless games you can talk through. No action games for me!) (Did I just alienate some of my readers again? I think I'm getting good at that!)

2009 Goal #1

I got one! I figured out one thing I want to do in 2009. Actually it's more like 365 things. I am going to take one picture every day in 2009. At least one. I'll do weekly posts highlighting the photos from that week. Sunday to Saturday. And since today is Saturday...well technically Sunday since it is 12:50am...I will post my pictures for Jan 1, 2, and 3. Well for Jan. 2 and 3 anyway. Ok fine...I didn't actually take the January 2nd picture...AG did, but she used my camera so I am totally counting it! No pictures were taken on the 1st so I'll have to modify my New Year's goal to be 364 pictures this year. And really since these weren't taken with this goal in mind you have to cut me some slack about the quality and subject matter! And now without further ado...

January 2nd


January 3rd

Trying to take the fun kids picture for my last blog post myself and realizing that using the wall of mirrors in my bedroom wasn't going to work!

Potluck

Remember that One of us got glasses post from December 2007? Well Jacob is no longer the only Dixon kid lucky enough to have four eyes.


Yep, Anna Grace joined Brian and Jacob as a glasses-wearing Dixon.


So now we have the smart kids...


and the fun kids. (My forehead looks freakishly huge...actually my whole face looks to be moon-sized! Wow!) (And I guess I should admit that I am a former glasses-wearing Dixon. I had lasik surgery in 2001 and have loved the results. Of course that makes me a smart AND a fun Dixon. Of course...)(And really if you look at the picture of the smart kids you can tell that they are quite fun as well. I mean look at Brian...really. So in reality I guess my smart vs. fun, glasses vs. nonglasses wearing people doesn't hold water...oh well.)


While perusing the Valentine aisle at the grocery store (I can't even believe they have Valentine stuff out already!) I came across this little wonder. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy it near as much as the Santas. The marshmallow to chocolate ratio is just all wrong here!

And finally...

Because The Over-Thinker requested a full length picture of my outfit from the first picture in this post I had to oblige her. What you can't see here...my turquoise Keds. Yep...I was looking good! (My mom made my outfit. And it is an outfit if there ever was one. The word outfit never looked so good!)

Edit...
That Over-Thinker...she wasn't satisfied with the full length shot. No...she wanted a shot with the shoes too! Ok...after much digging (not really...I knew pretty much right where to look to see if there were more pictures.) I have come up with another version of the full length outfit. Enjoy!

Potpourri

We are back up and running. Well the internet is anyway. (I need to do some running, but that won't be happening! I'll start with walking...thanks.) Evidently the modem that at&t sent us was a lemon which meant that sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. Yesterday we stayed at home waiting for a service repairman to show up. The repair window was between 8am and 5pm. He came at 4:30. Nice. But he was able to replace the modem so hopefully that is the end of our internet troubles. So far it seems to be working nicely!

Speaking of running...which I am clearly not doing...I need to make some New Year's resolutions. My problem...all of it. This has been a most unusual holiday season. I have had so much else on my mind that Christmas was very much an afterthought. I only participated because it was expected of me. After all the shopping for necessities shopping for gifts didn't sound fun to me at all. I usually love shopping for gifts for others. I love giving gifts. It also didn't help that money was already going out much faster than it was coming in! I am thankful that the holidays are over. I am ready for the kids to go back to school on Monday. I am ready for some sort of routine again.

And now it's a new year with new opportunities around every corner. What do I want to accomplish in 2009? I have no idea! I am a list person. I love lists. I sat down the other day to make a list of ideas for 2009, but I ended up staring at my computer screen instead. What are you doing? Any ideas you have that I can borrow? At least until I come up with some of my own? Please...and thank you.


Oh...I bought this little gem at Target before Christmas to try to help me get in a Christmasy mood. Ok...and because it was a Christmas album by Rick Springfield. Um...hello...I didn't even know he was still around! The album...not bad. Surprisingly. I listened to it some, but I must admit it competed with this...


Introducing my kids to songs like The Streak, Mississippi Squirrel Revival, Gitarzan (yep...that's how it's spelled on the album), and It's Me Again, Margaret beat out listening to Rick Springfield croon Christmas most days.

And speaking of music I must say that I have loved listening to country music again! There's just something completely satisfying about it to me. I'm sure I've alienated many of my readers by saying that, but I can't help it. Songs about things being chicken fried and ticks and boondocks and it being 19 something just make me smile! So much so that I am posting the lyrics to Mark Wills' song 19- Something for your reading pleasure. You're welcome.

I saw Star Wars at least 8 times
Had the pac-man pattern memorized
And I've seen the stuff they put inside
Stretch Armstrong

I was Roger Staubach in my backyard
Had a shoebox full of baseball cards
And a couple of Evel Knievel scars
On my right arm
Well, I was a kid when Elvis died
And my mama cried

Chorus:
It was 1970- something
In the world that I grew up in
Farrah Fawcett hair-do days
Bell bottoms and 8-track tapes
Lookin' back now I can see me
And oh man did I look cheesy
But I wouldn't trade those days for nothin'
Aw, it was 1970-something

It was the dawning of a new decade
When we got our first microwave
And Dad broke down and finally shaved
Them ol' sideburns off
I took the stickers off of my Rubix cube
Watched MTV all afternoon
My first love was Daisy Duke
In them cut off jeans
A Space Shuttle fell out of the sky
And the whole world cried

Chorus:
It was 1980-something
In the world that I grew up in
Skating rinks and Black Trans Ams
Big hair and parachute pants
Lookin' back now I can see me
And oh man did I look cheesy
But I wouldn't trade those days for nothin'
It was 1980-something

Now I got a mortgage and an SUV
But all this responsibility
Makes me wish sometimes
Sometimes....

chorus:
It was 1980-something
In the world that I grew up in
Skating rinks and Black Trans Ams
Big hair and parachute pants
And lookin' back now I can see me
And oh man did I look cheesy
But I wouldn't trade those days for nothin'
It was 1980-something

1970-something
Aw, it was 19-Something

Now...after that potpourri of a blog post I should go. Bye.

Happy Connection Problems

I just wanted to come here and blame our internet connection for my lack of posts. It has been quite frustrating to tell you the truth. One day we have internet for awhile then later it cuts out. We never had internet issues in Turkey. Seems strange. There we had power issues. If the power was out we didn't have internet. I knew that when the power came back on we would have internet again. This...this not knowing why the internet is not working or when it will start working again is for the birds! We called about it on Monday, and they were going to fix it and let us know. We never saw them actually fix it nor did we hear from them, but it was working again yesterday. Last night it stopped working again.

This is not the New Year's post I wanted to write. That will come later. Sometime.