Sad, sad day

I know it's a sad day when I have M&M's, Reece's PB cups, jelly beans AND half of a cake all sitting in front of me and four cartons of ice cream in the freezer and nothing, not one thing, looks appetizing one bit. There is no shortage of chocolate in my home. Any one need any??

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).

Idea

I was riding home with my friend yesterday and we started talking about sale bargains. It's common amongst the two of us, and yes, very sad that we get SO excited about HUGE sales on pork or chicken. But hey, it's always fun to compare.

ANYWAY,

we started talking about her HUGE bargain she got on cereal. $20 off 10 boxes of cereal and the cereal was on sale. So, she buys 10 boxes and it came to $25, so she got the $20 off and then had a gift card for $6, so she got 10 boxes of cereal for free.

We continued talking and she came up with this BRILLIANT idea. See, she loves having people over for parties, but is trying to be $$ conscience, so she came up with the idea of having a breakfast party (but in the evening). She has enough cereal, and gets milk free, that people can come and it would be a smourgashboard of cereals and that's what we'd have to eat. She said her husband asked what she had been drinking and thought she was off the wall, but how FUN that would be! It just occured to me, what if everyone came in their jammies. Or make it a girls party (then it wouldn't be so akward with being in the same room with guys in their jammies, cause some don't wear ANY). I told her she should do it and who cares if the men in the household think she's off the wall. Besides, she's pregnant, so she can do ANYTHING she wants to :)
These pics bring back memories of digging in a newly opened box for the prize at the bottom without trying to spill too much out of the bag or ripping the box. Oh the thrills of digging through dried, surgary cereal just to get something that your mom paid $2 for. Oh for the old days :)

Out of the mouth

I experienced this "out of the mouth of babes" yesterday. Actually, it was out of the mouth of a four and a half year old.

It was my first experience of going on a preschool field trip. My husband has taken Sam before, so this was new territory for me. Do I follow the other experienced parents around? Do I venture out and act like I know what I'm doing when in fact I haven't the slightest clue?

We made it inside the building without a hitch. This was going to be one exciting field trip to the road commission to look at the snow plows. Of course, the kids thought this great fun, especially the boys. All six of them.

Inside, we sit in this room and watch a video that in a nut shell said, "get out of the way of snow plows or else you'll get hit and die". The man who was taking us on this tour then started asking questions about the video to make sure the kids understood it.

So the kids start getting bored and start rasing their hands to just say anything that comes out of their mouth. Enter my son. Thinking he was the "quiet type" in settings that he's not familiar with, I was surprised that he was going to say something. And scared what was going to come out of his mouth.

"My Mama?? Well...she ummm...was driving to see a friend? (everything comes out sounding like a question at the end when he's talking). And she was driving along? And um....she didn't see this car? And she hit this amublance? And she smashed our old truck." Ummm...did he just say what I thought he said? Gasping tour guy, gasping parents and that tense little chuckle around the room that people do when they don't know what to say or do.

At that point, face was flaming. The tour guy said, "she hit an ambulance? That's not good.". Wanted to go put myself in front of one of those snow plows just to end the misery. Of course, I couldn't redeem myself and tell the actual story, so I sat there realizing that everyone thought I hit an ambulance and just had to shrug my shoulders and say, "oh well". So goes life.

After the video, we took a tour of the building and one of the dad's came up to me and said, "So you hit an amublance?" Guess he was listening. I then got to set the story straight with at least one parent.

I took Sam aside later and said, "It was not an amublance I hit, it was another truck". I wanted him to make sure he got his story straight in case he decided to tell someone else about his mom's accident (that happened last April).

I don't think any parents are going to want me escorting their kids anywhere. Crazy lady who crashes into ambulances.

**My friend had one of those nifty camera phones and took a picture of the truck after I crashed it. I showed it to Sam and of course he saw the fire truck in the picture and still has not gotten it out of his head that I hit it. Doesn't matter how many times I say that it came AFTER the accident to HELP mommy. How it has transpired into an ambulance is beyond me.

today's question

Seeing the sunshine today is a rare coincidence around here. I think the sun has been seen 3 times in the past 20+ days. There was a stretch of 15 days without any sunshine. Very depressing. It's amazing how the sun can cheer any one up after not seeing it for a long time.

What I want to know is this. If I'm sitting inside, in the rays of the sun, I get all warmed up, tired, feel cozy and want to take a nap. But the sun is not melting the snow. I understand that the air is cold and all that, but why is it warm inside, but not outside when it's the same sun? Why don't the snowmen melt, like Frosty? Is it because the sun is SOOO far away?

Maybe I should ask Anne. She'd know.

Shaking with laughter

Let me share some of the jokes that are being heard in our house.

Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?
Because he didn't have the guts.

What did one sandwich say to the other?
Boy, you're full of balongna.

How much does it cost a pirate to get his ears pierced?
A Buccaneer!


Why did the coach go to the bank?
He wanted his quaterback!


Why did the seagull cross the sea?
Because if he crossed the bay, he'd be called a bagel.

Of course, these are all being told by our 4 year old over and over and over and over again. daily. And we still laugh every time he tells them. (And how often can you find a Buccaneer quarterback talking to a coach all in one photo...my husband would be proud :)

update

Finally went to the doctor. He gave me allegra for the subacute sinusitus, nothing for the pink eye, which is still hanging on five days later, can't remember really what has happened this week, no contacts are allowed, so it's good that I know where I'm driving as I can't read a single thing, and my eyes were crusted shut this morning.

BUT

I did get the Christmas tree finally taken down yesterday, I can walk straight, I'm starting to get my appetite back, only one kid as pink eye again, my husband is the world's most amazing man (and tells me I'm hot even when my eye was swollen shut and it looked like I got in a fist fight), and I braved the public this morning and took the kids out for breakfast by myself and they actually ate and we had a lot of fun.

NOW

It's the weekend and I'm so thankful for that and we get to go to an adult only white elephant gift exchange tonight. Adults!! I'll have to refresh my brain as to how to interact with people over three feet tall.

Is it just me?

Are all the sicknesses coming to attack me? Aside from vertigo which is slightly still hanging on, a sinus infection has come to inhabit my face and head. Marching in with hammers against my head and hoses pouring green goo out of my nose. Then, as if I needed any more, my eyes started hurting last night and tada!!! Pink eye has decided to come live in both of my eyes. My husband asked if I was crying this morning b/c my eyes were weeping. No, no I said. It's just this lovely pink eye that seems to be dwelling in our house. I think today I'm going to Lysol the entire house. Including the kids. Time to go wipe the green gook out of my eyes. I just have to remember yesterday's sermon from church. Praise in the pit. Harder said than done....

Scientific experiment....

I found something out today that was very interesting. We used to have a guinea pig that when we opened the fridge, it would start to chatter. And my old cat used to get all excited when she heard her special dish come out of the cupboard. Well, our daughter comes running when she hears any type of bag being opened. Whether it be crackers, chips, candy, anything. She can be anywhere in the house, hears a bag and you hear her coming saying, "cacker!!cacker!!". Just found that out to be amusing today. And because she's so stinking cute when she does it, I had to put in a cute picture of her. :)

A Week in Weird

So thinking that the New Year was starting out great, our life has been thrown a few wrenches this week. It started with Alina's car seat breaking, which is no big deal, so Ed goes out and buys a new one. When he gets back from lunch, he finds out the news that our work is losing its biggest customer. Okay...so that's ok right? It wouldn't be that bad if that customer wasn't providing me work. See, I work at home, and have for the past four, almost five years. I work for the same company that my husband does. So losing this customer means I lose my job, which will be done by the end of March/beginning of April. That was Tuesday. Wednesday I woke up with the world spinning. Literally. I've had these dizzy spells over the past week. A day here, a day there. I'd take some IB Profen and it would go away. Not so much Wednesday. I was on the couch the entire day. It worked out where Ed was able to take a long lunch and take Sam to school and pick him up. Thursday, I again woke up with the world spinning, took some more drugs and tried to get on with my day. It started going away, so that was a plus sign as we had praise band practice that night. Ed took our only vehicle in to have it looked at and they ended up keeping it and found a lot of things wrong that weren't what he took it in for. Here the cash register dinging? That's the money being extracted from our pockets every hour they have it. So, Ed's mom was planning on coming up Thursday night through Saturday to watch the kids, and we could use her car. Amazing how that all worked out huh? Lets see....Friday, I woke up again with the spins. Called the doctor (yet another long story) and was able to get in. I couldn't drive, so Ed's mom took Sam to school, me and Alina to go get Ed, Ed took me to the doctor. Doctor says I have vertigo. Gives me drugs that are a bit stronger than dramamine and a prescription for valium (I haven't filled that one yet). Nice drugs. :) They seemed to help a bit, but I was still a bit tipsy. Make me kind of sleepy too. Today I wake up all foggy and dizzy again. Took my drugs and went to bible study (actually Ed took me. Feel like a charity case, but that's totally ok). Came home and slept for three hours. Got the kids up and noticed gunky green stuff in Alina's eye. Sure enough. Pink eye has come to our house. She has been out of the house once this entire week and that was Tuesday. So tomorrow I get to stay home with her while Ed and Sam go to church. All the pharmacy's around here are closed, so we have to wait until tomorrow to pick up her meds. My drugs are fading away and I can't take any again until tomorrow. If it's not gone by next Wednesday, I have to call in so the dr. can call in a CAT scan for my head. It's going to be a great year!! Talk about having everything thrown at you, being tested with my faith and prayer life and it's sure not a walk in the park. Ed has been amazing with being so patient with me and stuff around the house and the kids. Have I said that he's amazing? I guess I did, but he is!! Love him. So that's my past week in a nutshell. Don't know if anyone wanted to know all of that, but I just needed to get it out of me so I can sleep tonight :) Thanks for listening.