hair dos and hair don'ts

Matt spent some time last weekend in his basement workshop. This is his second favorite room in the house. (His first favorite would be whichever room I'm in, naturally.) Here he is making improvements to "Lauren's" mini-chopper. He started to build this mini-chopper for his first-born when she was 6 months old. Ever since then she has wanted nothing to do with it. In his attempt to get her more interested and less afraid he custom made a muffler for it.

Here is the completed muffler. The coolest thing (according to Matt) is that you can just pop it on and off. So if he wants to be loud he still can. Maybe this weekend we'll try it out and see if Lauren wants to ride on it (with her Dad of course.)

And speaking of Lauren...

She let me put her hair in braids the other day.

lots of braids

I think they pulled a little tight on her brain because she went a little crazy.

but she sure liked all her curls the next morning

Tyler got his hair cut yesterday.

Don't let his sweet smile fool you. He Was A Pain! I don't know where he gets his stubborn and disobedient streak but I was actually embarrassed . The nice lady at Supercuts (who didn’t smell like an ashtray today) asked him to look up so she could trim his bangs. He told her a flat out “NO.” He didn’t stop there. He actually told her, “Stop pulling my hair.” “Stop cutting my ears.” “Stop telling me that.” He refused to cooperate with her in any way whatsoever. After what seemed like forever she finally was able to finish his hair cut. Tyler hopped off the chair and said he wants his sucker. (I have some serious work in the manners department with that boy.) Miss Chelsie got down to his level and said, “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you a sucker this time if you promise to be nice next time.” He said Ok, picked out his sucker and all on his own said Thank You.

He has potential.

Weekly Menu

This week's recipes are from the March 2009 issue of Everyday Food.

Monday: Chicken with Artichokes & Penne Pasta
Tuesday: Broken Noodles with Tomato Sauce and Ricotta
Wednesday: Emeril's Turkey Bolognese
Thursday: left-overs
Friday: Roast Pork Loin with Carrots and Mustard Gravy
Saturday: Southern Mac & Cheese
Sunday: Smoky Beef Tacos, Cumin Rice and Beans & Spicy Pineapple Salad

Bunco Recipes and Recap

I really enjoyed my turn to host Bunco yesterday. Last time I hosted I was stressed and uber- obsessed with having everything be perfect...and wanting everyone to like me. =) This time I relaxed and everything just came together. (and yes GG...I still ironed my tableclothes...you taught me well.) It took a while to finish all 18 games because we were so busy talking about Important Suburban Issues and just enjoying each other's company. =)

I wanted to provide a full menu of what I made in case anyone reading is wanting a menu idea that serves 12 or (if I can be a little full of myself for a minute) if any Bunco friends would like any of the super fantastic food recipes. [wink] For the recipes just click on the highlighted links.

Drinks:

Margaritas, Pina Coladas, Stawberry Daquiries, Coors Light, Red Wine, Soda, Water.

Appetizers:

Veggie Tray with Ranch Dip (store-bought)

Crackers with Warm Feta & Artichoke Dip

Pita Bread and Hummus (recipe below)

Hummus – Christine Style
Makes 3 3/4 cups, 1c = 421 calories; 21g fat (high estimate)
Ingredients:
· 2 - 15 oz cans of chick peas (garbanzos), one drained, one un-drained
· 1/4 cup raw sesame seeds (I omitted these)
· 1 tbsp olive oil
· 1/4 cup lemon juice (or 1/8 c if using from concentrate)
· 1 garlic clove, minced (I used 2t. jarred minced garlic)
· 1-2 tsp cumin
· ¼-1/2 t. cayenne
· ¼ cup chopped black olives
· 3-4 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
· ½ T. capers
· fresh ground pepper
· optional additions/substitutions: roasted red peppers, herbs, seasonings etc. etc.
Directions:
· Place all ingredients in blender in order listed.
· Blend until smooth.

Dinner:

Italian Baked Ziti

Italian Salad (I did not use the fennel in the salad...too distinct a taste and I thought not everyone would like the hint of black licorice.)

2 loaves Quick Italian Bread with Garlic Butter (I halved the garlic butter recipe.)

Dessert:
fresh fruit: strawberries, grapes & blueberries
Italian Rum Cake
the game lasted so long that everyone was pretty tired by the end and, well honestly, I forgot to bring it out. Sorry!! Here's a picture though.

Happy Valentine's Day

Matt gave me a card today. (he can't do flowers because the cat would eat them... she would not stop obsessing about them until she has knocked the vase over and eaten the blooms.)

It was a perfect card. It said "I'm one of the luckiest guys in the world because of you." I feel the same way. I know I'm one of the luckiest gals in the world because of him. He's my perfect Valentine. I hope he knows this too because I did not get him a card. I will, however, share my popcorn with him when we watch some more episodes of "30 Rock" tonight.

The kids really enjoyed Valentine's Day. I didn't bother to tell Lauren that V-day is actually today. She thought Valentine's Day was her party at school. I made the executive decision that L and T got enough candy and cards from her G'ma, G'pa, MeMa, PaPa, Grammy, GG and friends from school that she didn't need anything else from her parents. (This is one of the perks of having 2 kids under 5 years old...you can let some holidays slide.)

playing with the styrofoam peanuts from the box from G'ma Jan and G'pa Michael

showing me his bag of suckers

decorating their bags to store their loot

Lauren at her school's V-day party

Before I tell you about Tyler's rough day he had let's take a look at some of L and T's favorite things:

coloring with markers on cars (to make them dirty)using a wet wipe to give them a wash down

hours of fun!

Bunko ran a little late last night and with clean-up we didn't get to bed until midnight. Matt and I wanted to sleep in a little so we sent Lauren downstairs to play. Here's what we found when we came down:

she had put all of her puzzles together on the kitchen floor

And now I'll briefly tell you about Tyler's rough Thursday.

1. He woke up with a cold in his eye so I had to use a warm wash cloth to loosen up the gunk so he could open it.

2. On his way down the stairs he FELL (from the top.) I saw this in slow motion and cried out with the echo-ey Noooooooo you hear in movies. He went head over heals with two full revolutions before hitting the landing. He cried because he dropped his sippy cup of water. I gave him his water and he stopped crying. No concussion, No broken bones, No broken C6, just a dropped sippy cup.

3. On the way home from picking Lauren up from school he wanted his window rolled up. So I rolled it up. Unfortunately, he didn't move his fingers out of the way before they were squished. He screamed.

4. And on another trip he was climbing into his car seat and slipped and fell out head first toward the ground. Luckily his foot was caught in a strap so his head didn't bash into the concrete.

It was a rough day for Mr. T.

Hey Y'all.

I got my hair done. This was "Part 2" in going back to my natural color. I'm trying to save money by going back to my natural BLACK. Not bad, eh? I feel So Much Smarter now.

On Monday, Lauren had her dance class. I managed to finagle my way to the front of the 'observation window' to take a picture of my beautiful princess dancing. That's her in the blond ponytail.



So I finally made dinner this week. Matt left for a training class in Houston on Sunday, and the kids and I had some special dinners all week long. (cereal, frozen pizza and peanut butter and honey sandwiches) Basically, I didn’t lift a finger. (well I may have lifted the finger to some way-too-slow drivers on the road, but I didn’t do much with it in preparing dinner.) [wink] But since Matt is on his way home I decided to actually cook and finish off my Mexican Week with the CodVeracruz



...I'm not too trrilled with the Cod Veracruz. It was a little too bland for me. ...Try it and let me know what you think...



This Friday, I'm hosting the monthly Bunko game. I've been slowly preparing all week. Today I wrote out my menu and grocery list. I chose a romantic Italian food theme to celebrate Valentine’s Day ...as opposed to my other option of having a spooky theme to celebrate Friday the 13th. (My life is so complex with all these difficult decisions I have to make.)

The Menu is as follows.

Antipasti:
Home-made Pita Bread, Veggies & crackers served with Home-made hummus dip, Feta & Artichoke dip and good ol’ Ranch dressing.

Secondi: (does this mean main meal?)

Authentic Baked Ziti
Italian Salad
And Quick Italian Bread


Thirdi: (now I know that this isn’t correct but I don’t feel like looking it up)

Italian Rum Cake
Fresh Fruit

Today I made the pita bread and hummus and also mopped the floors and cleaned up the dirty handprints off my walls, doors and blinds.

Freak Out Moment:

My neighbor “Mr. Buddy” e-mailed me to say I should shut my garbage can into the garage and also lock down my lawn furniture because a storm was a-comin’ our way. So of course I asked him about my husband’s flight… this very evening… from Houston to Atlanta. He said it should be fine. So I called said husband, Matt, at 6:15 when Delta.com said the flight had landed. It went straight to VoiceMail. I called 5 times after that. Matt finally called at 7pm saying they had just landed. Apparentally they went down for a landing at 6:15 but due to “weather” they had to immediately take back up to the sky. As worried as I was here on the ground I can only imagine how worried my husband and fellow passengers were on the plane…to go down for a landing, almost land, but then rise back up. Too Freaky. Anyone have a job offer out there where my husband doesn’t need to travel…by plane…AT ALL?!!!?


And to close…a funny story…one you really don’t want to hear about….(trust me on this)….

So Tyler was waiting for his turn to take a shower with his Dad. He was naked and running around the house while Lauren was taking her shower. I was relaxing on my bed waiting for the “OK” to help Lauren get dried off and into her PJs. While reading a really good historical fiction book (The Forest by Edward Rutherford.) Tyler came up to me and told me I needed to come clean up some “poop poop.” Apparentally in the 5 minutes between taking his clothes off and getting into the shower he had the urge to go Poo and didn’t have the urge to tell me about said urge. So I got to go clean up a Tyler accident off of the hallway carpet. What’s with this kid? The Toilet Is Your Friend! I need help.

sick no more...

I am so happy. We are sick no more and the weather is rapidly improving. It was 30 degrees at 9am and it is 60 degrees at 4:40pm. What could be better than warm(er) weather and a perfectly healthy household?!

It's not all good though. Things are startin' to change. Lauren went through 3 changes of outfits before deciding which one she wanted to wear to school yesterday. Luckily, she was able to decide on the sweater from Aunt Mili & Uncle Kevin, in time to make up some puzzles before school.

I'm asking them both to smile for the camera in the shot below.

hmmm-Tyler

They made up all of the Thomas the Train puzzles and then drove their trains on the puzzle tracks.

all this fun deserves a hug

(if you're wondering about Lauren's headband...her bangs are just way too long right now. I insisted she wear the headband to school so she could see her teachers.)

After school we stopped by a Supercuts. The "salon" smelled like a freshly smoked cigarette but the hair-cut performed by the aptly pierced and tattood hairstylist, only cost us $5. Awesome!

When we got home I asked Lauren if she wanted to do some of her school Valentines. I thought she would only write her name on a few and we would do the rest in the days to come. Not my girl...she wrote her name on all 15 of the Valentine Rainbow-Sunglasses that we are going to hand out to her pre-school class during her Valentine's Day party next week.

Here they are modeling the Valentine's Rainbow sunglasses. (When you look through them, all light sources have a rainbow around them.) way cool, no?

(and NO! my kids do not watch too much Mickey Mouse TV!)

For dinner last night, we had "Authentic Colorado 'Green' Chili"
It was very meaty and so yummy. I added shredded cheddar cheese and a dallop of Mexican Crema to my serving. We ate the chili over white rice and topped with broken up tostada shells. It was very filling and super-delish.

After school today we met up with friends, Abigail and Isabella (and their Mom's, of course) and had lunch at Chik-fil-A. I love these ladies and our kids are at the age where they enjoy playing together APART from us parents; so we had plenty of time to catch up with one another. I did have to snap this shot of a bunch of crazy kids playing unsupervised in the restaurant. I had no idea where their parents were and why they were putting up with this behavior but I thought I should have documentation in case I needed to notify DFACS.

Unbelievable, NO?! [wink]

After lunch we headed to the park to enjoy the warming weather and the beautiful sunshine. The kids played and us adults enjoyed the sun and chatted together. It was a perfect afternoon. About 15 minutes before it was time to go Tyler came up to me and asked if we could go out to the lake and watch the "gooses." How could I refuse such a sweet request. We went to watch the gooses and Claudine was the only one to take out her camera. (bad Mommy...but I'm hoping Claudine will e-mail me with the pictures...hint, Hint, HINT!)

As a side note, a local Kroger grocery store is closing in our area and they have significantly marked down a lot of their merchandise. I have been there 2 days in a row buying up good deals. Today I made my ultimate "catch." I bought up all of their "mixed drink buckets" for Bunko (which I host next Friday) and also I bought up a bunch of their gourmet Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I can have an olive oil tasting party if anyone is interested?! Don't tell Matt about this little expenditure! My Mom raised me right though, and she always taught me that there are some things you "can't afford NOT to buy." We can all agree right?!

food report from yesterday

Homemade Granola Bars

Yummers.

So far Mexican week is going very well. Tuesday's tostadas were simply delish and then I made the BEST Tortilla Soup for dinner yesterday. It has shredded chicken, onion, garlic, cilantro, sliced green olives, pepperjack, and plenty of spicy seasoning.

I topped it with broken up tostada shells and some delicious Crema Mexicana. (tastes like sour cream but has less fat.)

Well this was just a brief post to give you a couple of tasty recipes to add to your recipe filing cabinet.

I'm off to watch General Hospital before the kids get up from their nap. Here's a cute picture from storytime last night to keep you going until I post again. Enjoy your afternoon.