Today

Today I'm grateful for
1. The BEAUTIFUL sunshine that is so rarely seen around here.
2. The gorgeous roses (and tasty dinner) I got last night that are as yellow as the sunshine with a
hint of pink.
3. That I get to stay inside in my sweats and sweatshirt today.
4. That tomorrow is March, which means Springs coming!!
5. Food.
6. My husband who likes to snore like he has narcolepsy just to make me laugh. To me it's
hilarous. :)
7. Yummy grapes that are crunchy.
8. Life.

What are you grateful for today?

The New You (or should I say Me)

This is my new site!! Thanks to Kelly!! She did an AMAZING job and I'm so very thankful!! So, welcome to my new blog site!! I'll hopefully be featuring recipes, tidbits and probably recipes that I didn't like so much over in the Crumbs and more section. I think I want to go make a cake, thanks to the big picture of the tasty looking slice of cake at the top! Enjoy!!

variation

Ring around the posie
Pocket full of rosie
rashes, rashes,
we all fall down.

as sung by my four year old.

correction

I was not wearing my husbands plaid coat. It was a plaid quilted shirt as it buttons down with shirt buttons. Not coat buttons. My error has been pointed out to me and in turn need to inform whomever reads the below story so that all the information is correct.

Bad Manners?

Is it bad manners to shovel the driveway in your pajamas? Oh well if it is, because I just did. I had my husbands green plaid heavy coat on, his snowmobile gloves (that have three fingers) and a bright red ski mask thing and my red plaid pajamas and yellow striped ankle socks (and my big boots of course). Though the snow/slush kept getting down my boots and on my ankles. A bit chilly, but it made me move a lot faster.

The weirdest thing is shoveling snow, it's sleet/raining and thundering out. Last time I saw snow and heard thunder/saw lightening was on our honeymoon to Colorado. Very odd.

I guess I should get out of my jammies.

V-day dinner

Since my birthday is the day before Valentines and we usually go out, staying "in" is the norm for Valentines day. Last night I attempted a meal I had never made before. I actually worked backwards and made dessert first and the main dish last. I printed out a menu for Ed and this was our meal:

Starter:
Queen of Hearts Salad

Main dish:
Chicken Scallopini with Apricot Ginger Asparagus

Dessert:
Orange Cheesecake Mousse

The salad was AMAZING!! We both gobbled it up and it was so easy. Lettuce, artichoke hearts, homemade croutons and mandrain oranges with a mustard-garlic-oil-vinegar dressing. A picture is shown for you to drool over. SOOOOO tasty.

Main dish was pretty good. Yummy chicken with a breaded exterior and simmered in chicken broth and apple juice with mushrooms served over spaghetti.
I slightly overcooked the asparagus as I've never made it before and never made it to the apricot/ginger part as I was so ready to eat!!!
I also cut out some busicuts in the shape of a heart (one for each of us). They were pretty good...thanks to pillsbury!

Dessert. Lets just say I was about cussing with this dessert. I had to read the instructions I don't remember how many times, but I think I dreamt about it last night because it was infused in my brain. It did NOT come out like the picture. Not in the least! The picture made it look SOOOO easy. Just pipe the cheesecake and coolwhip out and tada!!! It'll look great. Try: squeeze your hands so hard around the bag that it doesn't even come out except in a big glop and tear out one of the bags because it won't even move out of the bag when squeezed with a vicegrip!! Ok..I didn't use a vicegrip, but it probably would've been easier. The little tidbit said that it was a nice fluffy dessert to go along with a heavy meal. It was heavier than the meal as it was so rich and waaaaay to orangy. WAYYY to orangy. Neither of us finished it and the extra is sitting on the counter as I won't touch it. I know exactly what I would do different next time. I'd make something else! One thing about the dessert that made me feel good was that Ed thought I bought the little chocolate hearts, when I had made them! :) What a guy!

Overall though, it was a fun night once we got to eat and the food was really good. I'm still cleaning up from the mess.

just another day

So yesterday was my birthday and I survived!! My birthday day actually started Sunday when my hubby surprised me with a large gathering at Macaroni Grill of friends and family. It was a HUGE surprise for me and lots of fun! Yesterday I woke up with birthday wishes from Ed and my kids. I had to make some errands after dropping Ed off and one stop was the bank. Michael, the regular bank drive up guy wasn't there, but I don't think he's there anymore, but I did recognize his trainee guy who helped me, and appears to be the regular drive up guy now. So I made my deposit and he sent me out the slip and said, "thanks so much Jean. And have a happy birthday". Surprised the life out of me! What a nice guy! Though I need to break him in about asking if I need any suckers as I had two unhappy sucker loving kids in the back.

Worked until 1:30 (Mondays are now my busiest days) and then had company for a bit, went and got Sam from school, got home, put the kids down for naps and then got a call from one of my cronies from highschool. What a great conversation for 45 minutes! We haven't talked in about a year and here she was wishing me a happy birthday! It was great catching up and encouraging eachother. Oh how I wish we lived closer!!

I realized that I neither had breakfast or lunch. And I was so busy that when I was sitting talking to company, Alina came up to me with a banana, so I gave it her to eat and then here she came with another one. I asked her if she wanted strawberries, she asked for waffles and cereal and it dawned on me. I totally forgot to feed her lunch!! Poor kid!! Talk about a neglective mother that your daughter would eat two bananas because she was so starving hungry!!

So at dinner I was scarfing down my salad and steak. I was so hungry!! Those little snickers I had eaten earlier didn't satisfy me! Then I ate too much. Oooooo my belly!! It was making all the groaning and moaning noises last night in bed that I couldn't even go to sleep.

One last stop after dinner to Meijer for diapers and the goods for our special v-day dinner tonight. Can't wait!! yay! :)

Home and everyone went to bed. Adding another year to my life has sure tired me out!!

on my own

Today is a sad day for me. My hubby is on a jet plane on his way to the cold state of WY for work. We were all up at 6 this morning to take him to the airport. It's amazing how busy the airport was. He said the plane to Chicago was packed. I'm guessing a lot of business people going to work. I've talked to him twice already. He's still in Chicago as he had a 2 1/2 hour layover. I forget they're an hour behind. He flies into Denver and then takes a puddle jumper plane to Gillette, WY. I hope he gets to see the mountains. He loves the mountains. He'd live there if we could afford it.

soo....anyway...he's gone. I'm home with two crab apple kids and this guy was honking at me this morning to get a move on to turn left into the airport. Snow, blinding headlights of a truck facing me turning left the other way. I started "talking" to him. Ed just smiled (he knew what I was thinking). Like I am going to TURN LEFT when I can't see a stinking thing and get hit again!?! I don't THINK SO!! Man...that guy put me in a BAD mood this morning!

ok...whew! done spewing.

Today consists of taking Sam to preschool, going to the store to get the first ever round of valentines day cards for Sam to take Monday (see these hilarious v-day cards I found on google), home to keep an eagle eye on an ebay bike for Sam's b-day (e-bay gets me riled up...especially if I lose), go get Sam and then naps for all!! yay for naps!

Holy COW I have to take Sam to school!!!

Ed's b-day

Jan. 27 was Ed's b-day. We took him out to Macaroni Grill and had a smashing time of good food. Saturday was my turn to take him out all by myself.

I had slipped and he found out we were going to Noto's. We got all dressed up and Sam took this picture (hence why our legs are cut off and it's an an angle facing up b/c he's really not that tall) :)

Then to Noto's we went. Such yummy, yummy food. I had a bread crusted rib eye and Ed had a chicken with mushroom sauce. Along with salads, we were stuffed to the gills.

Then I surprised Ed with an hour at Oasis. We stayed in the new Nova Scotia room (picture below) that is enclosed except the back wall where all those little panes are open, so there was a nice breeze coming in . Ohhh...it was SOOOOO nice and relaxing. We were both wrinkled, wobbly noodles when we got out and it was hard to stay awake all the way home!!

It was a really fun night and we were able to just sit and talk without little people demanding our attention.

losing my cookies

I have a lot to catch up on over the past week and a half. Life has gotten out of control and much more busy now that I have taken over laundry responsibilites. So to start off, I will tell a story that happened Tuesday.

Sam wanted a snack. Nothing new there. I told him I needed to finish working first and then I'd help him. I guess he was so starving hungry, he took it upon himself to get his own snack. The bad thing about kids is that they watch you and remember how you do things. Like peel an orange. I peel an orange with a steak knife (make slits and then peel the skin off). Little did I know that he was doing this exact thing. "MOMMYYYY!!!!" screams come from the kitchen and he comes into the living room holding his orange under his arm, a very long 10-12 inch sharp knife in the other hand (which looks a LOT longer than it is being held in a 4 year olds hand), and a finger dripping blood that he starts to shake because it hurts. Without throwing my computer down too hard, I grab him and put him over the sink and start rinsing off his finger. All the while he keeps saying, "I'm so sorry mommy!!" and I just keep saying, "I'm sorry for you that you cut yourself!!" Do you think it would stop bleeding? I'm thinking hospital, stiches, infections, and then it did stop bleeding. Once the bandaid was on, life was better.

I couldn't eat for a good four hours after seeing all that blood.

And then later that day he tries the same thing again. Ei ei ei!!!!

Milestone

Last night was a milestone in our family. Our little baby went on the potty for the first time! Some may not think this to be that big of a deal, but if that means not dishing out $13 every two weeks for diapers, I'm ALL over this.

The problem is though, she only went in reaction to her brother standing there going to the bathroom. She was sitting there on her little potty, looking all cute and naked, her brother comes in, starts going to the bathroom and sure enough, she starts going. We were all cheering and clapping for her and she was looking at us like complete idiots and had NO idea what was going on. Sigh... Does this mean that I have to drag him into the bathroom every time I want her to try?

Considering she's not quite two yet, I know I have time. But hey, she showed me she can do it, so that's it. No going back. She has no choice. ok...maybe she does. But it was exciting all the same! :)

(And yes, I will say that I did take a picture of her sitting on her potty, but am thinking she probably wouldn't appretiate it if I showed the world) :) I'll just put it in her baby book and show the guys she starts dating (when she's 30).