Training Camp 2009-10

It's beginning feeling like an Al Qaeda camp around here. We currently have the following training sessions going all at once:

• Potty Training
• Sleep Training
• Jumbo Jet Flying

Recipe Successes

Well, it's all over...sigh. We had grand Christmas, spent with good friends and family. Over the course of the past few weeks, I've been trying out some new recipes. Considering that my oven died a few weeks ago--so the extent of my cooking has been done on the stovetop--I've found some real recipe winners. I thought you might be interested in seeing what I've made. If I was super awesome, like The Pioneer Woman, I would've taken beautiful photos of each step-by-step process but, alas, I'm not, so consider yourself lucky to get links to these recipes.

Potato Leek Fondue Soup
(courtesy of {cringe!} Sandra Lee)

I don't have a hand blender and didn't feel like transferring the soup to the regular blender either, so I just left it chunky. Aside from having to make sure to spoon from the bottom when serving (all of the chunky goodness went to the bottom of the pot) it was perfect. I highly recommend serving this with a crusty sourdough bread on a cold day.

Roquefort Pear Salad
(courtesy of Jana)

Yum. The dressing alone is going to become my new salad dressing staple in this house (naturally, we have to keep a trusty bottle of Ranch on hand as well, for a certain toddler). I couldn't find Roquefort at our grocery store, so I used bleu cheese. This salad is dressy enough to serve with a nice dinner but simple enough to use often.

You Won't Be Single For Long Vodka Cream Pasta
(courtesy of Rachael Ray)


I made this for our Christmas Eve dinner. Oh Holy Night, indeed! This pasta was awesome (if I do say so myself)! I don't normally cook with heavy cream or this much butter, but for a special occasion, I absolutely plan to whip it out again. We ate the leftovers tonight for dinner and I think that the sauce improved after spending a couple of days in the fridge. I served this with the above salad and some crusty bread. The toddler ate 2 helpings of it on Christmas Eve (almost making us late for church!) and then ate another 2 helpings tonight at dinner. That's saying a lot...this child who eats like a Hollywood starlet.

Olive Cheese Bread
(courtesy of The Pioneer Woman)

I prepped this then flash-froze it at home and then baked it at my mother-in-law's house for our Christmas evening festivities. It got rave reviews from even the pickiest of eaters, who looked sceptically at the copious amounts of olives piled on top. Again, not the healthiest option, but really good for a special appetizer.

Anna-isms: Christmas Eve Edition

"We wish you could marry Christmas. We wish you could marry Christmas. We wish you could marry Christmas and a happy new year!"

'Tis the season for...

writer's block, I guess. Thanks to Jana, I can now eek out a blog post and call it a day. Here's my Christmas meme:

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Egg nog...yes, egg nog! Promise Land Dairy makes the best. Preferably the "light" version. Silk's soy version is passable too, if you really want to reign in the calories.

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? I think that when I was a kid, Santa wrapped some of the gifts (in different paper, which really helped to prove the "Santa is real" theory). I think that at Kevin's house, he didn't wrap the presents. So far, at our house, he hasn't wrapped the gifts, because they've been the big gift (toy kitchen, etc). This year, however, Santa is bringing any and all gifts that are difficult to wrap--because he's super generous like that--so, no wrapping for Santa this year.

Colored lights on a tree or white? White only...but, the older I get, the more I'm warming up to the idea of multi-colored lights on a tree. It makes a tree look so happy.

Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.

When do you put your decorations up? The weekend after Thanksgiving. I try to get the most play out of my Holiday decor as I can because I usually yank it all down as soon after Christmas as possible.

What is your favorite holiday dish? Hmmmm. Maybe Kevin's mom's cheese ball? (We don't typically do a big Christmas dinner anymore)

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes, the kids get to open one gift from us on Christmas Eve--it's always pajamas. Then, they get to open their gifts from their Paw Paw and Granny.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? White lights and lots of mismatched ornaments. I love that our tree tells a story. We used to get an ornament every time we traveled. Lately though, our travels aren't too exotic. We also have ornaments that were given to us as wedding gifts as well as ornaments that the kids have been given. I love all of our ornaments.

Snow: Love it or hate it? Love it, as long as I get to stay home and enjoy it.

Can you ice skate? Um...no.

What is your favorite holiday dessert? I'm a pumpkin pie kind of gal.

What is your favorite holiday tradition? I love our Christmas Eve. We spend the day, lounging around the house then make a nice dinner for Paw Paw and Granny. This year, we'll be going to church, then coming home to do some gifts. Christmas Eve is, by far, my favorite day of the year--so calm and relaxed. Christmas Day just feels like a rat race.

Candy canes: yum or yuck? Eh. I could take them or leave them.

Favorite Christmas show? I usually try to watch as many airings of A Christmas Story as possible between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It doesn't feel right to watch it any other day of the year. But, Christmas Vacation is definitely my end-all and be-all, as far as Christmas movies.

Why marriage is beneficial to your health:

Because your wife might walk in the kitchen one evening, only to discover that you're about to confuse the carton of Egg Beaters with a carton of Egg Nog and intervene just in the nick of time.

But how awesome would it have been to see his face, after taking a giant gulp of Egg Beaters?

Scenes from the season, so far

A few pictures to tide you over. Here's our new formal living room. It used to be this God-awful urine color. I've suddenly become quite a fan of blue and this color makes the room look so bright and clean.




This goofy, dinky table, that I've had for years always seems to be my favorite focal point in our living room, when decorated for Christmas.

I think this is hilarious. Jack on the left and Anna on the right. They're such different kids.

More snow day pictures

In lieu of interesting prose and creative writing--I got nothing, folks, sorry--I thought you'd enjoy a few more pictures of our snow day.

When the first flurries began to fall. The older I get, I'm amazed at how pointy my profile gets. Wicked Witch much?

Someone should really put a hat on that poor baby, but get a load of those snow-covered eyelashes

All bundled up and ready to play

We asked Anna if she wanted to make a snow angel and we were completely prepared to show her how it's done. Before we could even get the words out of our mouth, she'd plopped on the ground and began going at it. We have no idea how she knew how to make a snow angel.

Snow Day 2009

Delicious snow

Jack found one downside to having long, supple eyelashes..."snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes"

What a fun day

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Christmas! The decorations are up and there's snow in the forecast for Friday (yes, snow). Things are looking up.

Great Moments in Creature* Care

*I say "creature" here because this epic failure in care-giving involves not just my child, but my pets as well.

We're out of wet cat food--completely out. Now, don't you worry about my cats because they have piles of dry food in their bowls, but they've grown accustomed to having wet food at night. Due to the weather today, I just didn't make it out to the store to buy wet food. So, 5 pm rolls around (which is kitty dinner time) and I'm trying to decide what to give them in lieu of wet food. So, I grab the step ladder to peek on top of the fridge (where I typically keep the wet food) to see if, by some twist of fate, a wayward can was lurking up there. No wet food was to be found, so I was going to improvise and use cat treats instead--essentially, giving my pets junk food for dinner. Thank goodness I'd never feed my children junk food for dinner. (Insert sarcasm here)

So, while I'm up on the step ladder, grabbing the bags of various and sundry cat treats from the top of the fridge, I spot a brown paper bag up there, covered in dust, with Anna's name on it. I look inside and it's the entire contents of Anna's Valentine treat bag from school...from 10 months ago. It looked completely untouched. Poor child.

The top of the fridge is about the only place in the kitchen where I can stash things that I don't want Anna to have (out of sight, out of mind). The only thing I can figure is that I shoved the bag up on top of the fridge, as soon as she got home from her Valentine party. Then, I promptly went into labor with Jack and, the rest is history.

Now, I'm pretty excited because it turns out, there's some good loot in this bag. The fact that it's 10 month old Valentine candy doesn't bother me one bit. Stale candy hearts and a half-melted Blowpop--score!

Open Letter Tuesday: Grumpy Housewife Addition

Dear stack of Christmas cards,
If you could just go ahead and address, stamp and mail yourselves, that would be great.
Thanks,
Me


Dear HEB,
If you could just bring one of those 18 wheeler trucks of yours directly over to my house to re-stock my pantry, fridge and freezer, that would be great.
Thanks,
Me


Dear Wynonna Judd*,
If you could refrain from pissing in our breakfast room, that would be great.
Thanks,
Me

*our cat, not the country singing sensation


Dear other bloggers,
Blogger (and I'm sure Wordpress as well) has a snazzy spellchecker, so you don't have to publish your posts with glaringly bad spelling throughout. Also, "Holidays" doesn't need an apostrophe, unless you're using a possessive form of the word (such as "the Holiday's end").
Sorry, but I had to say it,
Me


Dear audience of Rachael Ray's talk show,
Please don't applaud every blessed time Rach adds garlic or EVOO to the dish that she's cooking. It's stupid and one of the main reasons that I always have to change the channel.
Thanks,
Me

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Hope you did too.

Thanksgiving on the Guadalupe

Little Hobo Baby explores outside

Omi helped Anna make the hand cookies that she'd been talking about for weeks.

Jack was diggin' on Aunt Cammi's quiche lorraine for Thanksgiving breakfast

...and he enjoyed some turkey at Thanksgiving dinner.

Anna was very excited to go and visit "Cowboy Santa" in Gruene. She had big plans to tell him all about the dollhouse that she wants for Christmas. However, once we got to Gruene and she spotted him, she chose to keep her distance. We'll write him a letter instead.

Anna Spots Santa

Jack was sceptical of Santa as well
Please note Anna in the background, still keeping a weary eye on the Jolly Old Elf

My boys (and a dirty trashcan) in front of the Gruene General Store

We've done gone and Elfed ourselves...again.

Oh, come on now. You know I can't NOT "Elf" us, at least once each year. I only wish that I'd saved each of our "Elfed" videos over the years.

Also, (and I say this with the utmost respect and love)...um, Kevin? Do you have something you need to tell me? No straight man that I know can dance like that.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Anna quote of the day

Backstory: We have two cats who vomit frequently, so watching out for piles and puddles of cat vomit is a way of life in this house. So...

Tonight, as I was giving Jack his bedtime bottle, Anna walked over to a spot in the living room--where I couldn't see--and said the following:

"Oh no! Someone crowed dup!"

Sure enough, one of the cats had "crowed dup" right in front of the tv.

Thankful Tree

I got the idea from Not That You Asked to do this Thankful Tree (downloaded from Nick Jr.). While, I'm sure that Thanksgiving and the concept of being "thankful" has been positively rammed down Anna's throat at school, (like so much pumpkin pie) she was a good sport for Mama and sat down for 5 minutes with me to label the leaves with things that she's thankful for.

The things that she's thankful for all turned out to be relatively normal...such as "playing with blocks," "friends" and "playing outside". What's decidedly not normal however, is the next picture...

Here, Anna puts her own sexy spin on Thanksgiving. She insisted upon posing only this way, after I snapped the one innocent, normal picture. Just what is Dora the Explorer teaching my daughter besides how to speak Tex Mex at eardrum-piercingly loud levels?

Jack: 9 months old!

Jack is 9 months old today. He went to the doctor for his well-baby check up which, in our experience with Anna, was trauma-free--no vaccinations, just a simple weight, length, head circumference check and the thumbs up to start table food.

Well, poor Jack's visit wasn't as trauma-free. He ended up getting a flu shot (not H1N1, yet) which wasn't too terribly bad but the worst part was having to have his ears cleaned. It was horrible. I had to hold him down while the doctor went after him with this tiny, crochet hook-looking instrument. He cried so hard, that after a while, he just sort of gave up and went limp. It broke my heart into 6 little pieces.

He's right at the 50% mark for all measurements of growth. That's my boy--completely mediocre.

He now weighs 20 lbs. Do you think these cords make his butt look big?

At 9 months old, Jack is the happiest baby on the planet (when he's not being held down, getting his ears cleaned). People come up to me on a daily basis, remarking on what a happy baby he is. He has the bluest eyes, with the longest eyelashes and what's looking more and more like blond, course hair with curls in the back. While all of these characteristics aren't genetically impossible, he's just not at all what any of us expected...he's way better.

Goodbye Puffs...

Hello to Baby Mum Mums! Jack loves them!

(To me, they look just like those Cuttle Fish bones that you put inside of a bird cage, but whatever. He loves them. He ate two packages of them in the span of 30 min! This is gonna get expensive.)

Anna Quote Monday

I had to go and pick up something at Walgreens this evening. I decided to see if Anna wanted to go with me--just the girls. You should know that Anna LOVES Walgreens. If you ask her what her favorite store is, she'll say, without hesitation, "Walgreens!". So, she was very excited to go with me tonight for our quick trip to her favorite store.

As we were walking in the front door of Walgreens, Anna exclaimed rather loudly:

"OH WOW! This is gonna be sooooo awesome!"

Everyone in line at the register, as well as a lady who was walking out past us, positively died laughing. I just shrugged and said, "Walgreens is her favorite store.".

First Things Wurst

The kids (Anna, Jack and Aunt Julie) all experienced their first Wurstfest last weekend.

Anna's first funnel cake. She didn't come up for air for quite some time.

Jack's first sausage. He gummed it into oblivion. Good little Czech baby.

Jack's first polka dance. That band was really great!

Exhausted in the Wurst way...

Edited to add: There were other firsts that weekend such as...

• Anna's first public performance of the Chicken Dance
• Anna's first ride on the Ferris Wheel
• Julie's first bee sting, so serious that it necessitated a trip to the New Braunfels ER, where she sat alongside all of the people who OD'd on sausage at Wurstfest.
  

In which I have my mellow harshed at the library today

We go to our neighborhood library's storytime most every Monday. It's a good outing for the kids. Anna gets to sing her favorite songs and do a craft project; Jack gets to watch all of the big kids do their thing and Mommy gets to see some of her friends too. There's typically the same crowd of parents and kids there every week. Well, we went today and lemme tell ya, someone let the crazies in. There was a mom's group there today who apparently had planned to meetup at this storytime. They were definitely an "attachment parenting" group--and I say this because I recognized one of the moms there today and she'd "witnessed" to me on the benefits of attachment parenting a year or so ago, while at the park and all of her other cohorts there today were cut from the same cloth.

Let me back up a little: I've got absolutely nothing against attachment parenting--in fact, I think that, overall, it's a good way to parent. Unfortunately, it's not something that would really work in my family. This is not to say that we don't borrow some of the ideologies of the parenting style--I just 1. Refuse to pigeon hole my parenting style as a "style"...I prefer to be more fluid and do what feels right (even if that means swatting my toddler's hiney after being a total turd and running down the middle of the street last week--here's the number to CPS: 1-800-252-5400, go ahead and call because I'm sure I deserve it) and 2. I've got a pretty strong-willed child on my hands and, so far, a "warm fuzzy" approach to teaching right from wrong isn't working so well. We're also big 'ol meanie pantses because our children both sleep in their respective bedrooms. They also both sleep upwards to 11 hours a night with little to no issues.

Anyway, so besides the one AP mom that I recognized, the others were all new to me. Their children all had names like Serenity (which, if Serenity is anything like the toddler that lives in my house, I can't imagine that name suiting her..."Serenity, we don't growl at our neighbors!") and Harmony. While I sat in the chair, holding Jack and quietly singing along to The Wheels on the Bus and The Hokey Pokey, these new moms flailed about wildly, putting their whole damn selves in and their whole damn selves out and just really seemed to groove on what it was all about. Then, when their kids would lose interest in the story and run amok around the room, they'd sit back and "let the child explore their surroundings" while my kid, who's been drilled about "using a 'library voice'" while at the library and "sitting quietly and listening to the stories" looks around in disbelief at the mayhem that was ensuing.

Then came craft time. One of the crafts involved Cheerios, but not for eating--for using in a drum-like, paper plate doohickey...I don't know. All I do know is that Anna wanted to eat the Cheerios, but, with all of the hands going in and out of the Cheerio bowl, I just couldn't let her do it (especially since we have 100% Swine Flu-Free Cheerios at home that the child won't eat to save her life). Well, the AP moms were busy little bees, helping their kids with their crafts, with much of the same levels of enthusiasm that were displayed while doing the Hokey Pokey. At one point, one of the AP kids was melting down, while his mom was diligently stapling his paper plate instrument together and I heard her tell another AP mom, "This is really stressing him out." I can't say that I blame him because I walked away from today's storytime pretty stressed out too. On the way out to the car, I asked Anna if she had a good time and she said, "When we sing at the library, you need to stand up."*

*Meaning, maybe she wants me to be a little more wacky during storytime next time. In my defense, I do usually try to participate in the songs, but couldn't today, due to the flailing about and rampant running amokedness coming from the AP mom and her kid next to me.

Halloween (another wordless post--the pictures say it all)

Wordless Friday: Goober Addition

School Parade

Today was Anna's Halloween parade and party at school. She dressed as a ballerina. Upon waking up, I asked Anna what a prima ballerina might like for breakfast and then mumbled under my breath, "Quaaludes and black coffee?" (due to a lack of daily adult conversation, I have to sometimes provide my own comic relief) to which Anna replied, "No. I don't drink coffee."

So, she had pancakes with copious amounts of pancake syrup, which probably has a similar effect to quaaludues and black coffee...especially coupled with the candy and cupcakes that she's sure to consume at her Halloween party today. She readily dressed in her ballerina get up and seemed to embrace the role. On the way to school, she declared that she was a "Mean Ballerina". My insistence that ballerinas are nice, not mean, was only met with louder growls and more insistence that she is, in fact, a "Mean Ballerina." Interesting kid, this one is.

Jack, waiting patiently for the Halloween parade to begin

I've been spotted!

Anna and friends, congregating in the gym after the parade

It's hard to pull-off "Mean" with pink tights and 10 lbs of tulle.