hold the meat~

Every year the kids get to pick their favorite meal around their birthday and they help make it. We were a couple weeks late but Megan got hers tonight. Beef flank steak in home made soy ginger marinade with scalloped potatoes and "squeaky" beans. Squeaky beans are simply fresh and crunchy green beans.

Elise and I had a conversation that went like this during dinner...

Elise (who is almost 8 years old): I am not eating that, I am a vegetamian. I won't eat "aminals".

Me: Really, you know vegetarians don't eat pepperoni pizza either

Elise: That's alright, I'll eat veggie delight pizza. I'm not eating milk or eggs or fish either.

Me: hmmm, no cheese on your pizza or ice cream huh?

Elise: (deep thought)

Me: Tomorrow I was planning to make hot dog* roll ups.

Elise: UGHHH, I am going to be a vegetamian the day after tomorrow.

Megan and I could not help laughing at her quick recovery. Not yet 8 and already putting off healthy lifestyle changes for later in the week! That's my girl!

*On a side note I have to mention that, although I am not Jewish, I take advantage of their strict food guidelines and only buy Kosher Beef hot dogs. I may spend more, but the absence of snouts and tails makes it all worth it!

My lovelies have returned! 

They were tired, dirty and grouchy-- but they are back. Funny how you look forward to the break and then miss them when they are gone. 

Tell me it won't be that way when I stop having a period?! I won't ever miss that, will I? 

Happy Tuesday, enjoy your short week!

Memories or the lack of

I choose to think about memories today and the odd ones we have.  Some things it would seem we should never forget, yet we do. Other things live with us forever for some unknown reason.  Recently I was talking with 2 people that should have many of the same memories I have. Yet we all remember completely different things. Some memories they have, I would have sworn I was not even there for.  It was like hearing a story for the first time. My mind just did not register the memory like theirs did.

Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.  ~Michel de Montaigne

It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.  ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.  ~From the television show The Wonder Years

And this I believe to be so true and perhaps my favorite...

Memory is a child walking along a seashore.  You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up and store away among its treasured things.  ~Pierce Harris, Atlanta Journal

VGNO- Party for us bloggers!

Happy Memorial Day weekend ladies! Word on the street is sunny here, hope the same for you wherever you are! 

Tonight I will be drinking

BLUEBERRY MOJITO-

Mojitos are my favorite cocktail!

Blueberries are full of antioxidants . Will that help to counteract the rum?

4-5 sprigs of mint (mint tops)

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

1/2 ounce simple syrup 

4 tablespoons blueberries, divided

1/4 cup white rum

1/4 cup club soda

Place mint sprigs, lime juice and syrup and 3 tablespoons blueberries in a highball glass. Muddle with a muddler for few seconds, holding the glass at its base. Fill up with cubed ice, white rum and soda. Stir and serve with a sprig of mint and remaining whole blueberries.

I will need it because my day includes playing hooky with my kids and doing some of this...

The kids want to go on a hike today. 

Every Memorial Day weekend My Dad & his Wife take all the Grandkids to go have a total kid weekend. So I will do this 

Wave goodbye to my lovelies while wearing my white tuxedo

and look forward to this

I Hope I have enough coffee because I plan on laying around and drinking it for a large chunk of the weekend. I plan to make it to the gym as well but that seems a bit counterproductive to the whole relaxing thing-the greater good I suppose.

Enjoy your time ladies! This hopefully marks the beginning of a wonderful summer.

Visit Ann for more people playing tonight

They grow up so fast

LIFE magazine, 1942 

Yesterday Trevor announced that he wanted to play spin the bottle. 

Today he came home with a girls phone number in his pocket.

Tomorrow he will probably ask for the car keys. 

Boy, 7 is the new 17!

Once we told him that spin the bottle had to do with kissing he changed his mind. He did put the phone number in a safe place though!

Sorry Buddy, Mommy did not mean to poison you

My little boy has what is considered a potentially life threatening allergy. He is allergic to peanuts. Peanut allergic reactions can range from mild to fatal. He falls somewhere in the middle.

I discovered he had this allergy when he was about 11 months old. I now know it was probably not a good idea to feed him peanut butter cookies, but in my defense they were home made and de-lish-e-oh-so! After all Moms tend to make their favorite cookies, and mine definitely are peanut butter!

The initial reaction happened something like this...

Put chubby little baby Charlie Brown in his highchair-that is who he looked like. I'd load and actual picture but after the massive PC crash of 2006--I do not have one! At the time we were living in a temporary home while our home was for sale. After all, what kind of moron wants to try to sell a house you live in with your 11 month old twins and a 3 year old? Not me. Fortunate we were, because my grandmother had a rental they were getting ready to flip that we could borrow for a few months.

Fussy baby needed a snack so Mom can get something done. Fresh peanut butter cookies will do the trick, who knew you weren't supposed to give babies peanut butter...NOT ME! I know, I know...this was before my adventures in nursing school.
I am way smarter now! Did I just see my Mom smirk?

Fussy baby becomes swollen baby...hmmm, quick thinking on Mom's part. Look around and wonder what he is reacting to. Old lead paint falling off the ceiling, spring time pollen, dust, something in the cookie? Either way, remedy came in the form of a dose of benadryl.

I wondered and wondered all day and night...what could it be?

My solution was this...next day move highchair to someplace with less paint falling down and offer him another cookie. Guess what? I don't have to tell you do I? Well it was not the paint that made is eyes swell it was the peanuts...I do not think I have made peanut butter cookies since then. Sad for me.

That story leads into the tag line for my post...

Yesterday, when I made the kids lunches, I nearly killed my son. I gave him his sisters peanut butter sandwich... I go through this every morning. I make his sandwich first so I do not cross contaminate any of the containers. I then put his sandwich in his lunch bag before I start the others.

I double and triple check myself. I am a bit OCD about making sure his lunch is safe. What happened? I am not sure, I think I just made a mistake. Lucky for me he realized it immediately and spit his first bite out. He had no significant reaction. Lucky me, that would have been really a tough thing to live with. I can laugh now but man, what would I have done? God smiled on me and I am grateful!

Today they all got tuna fish! After all, the last thing I want is for him to think Mommy has it in for him. Imagine the call I would get from the school nurse, "Hi Trevor's Mom, we had to use his Epi-Pen today because you gave him a peanut butter sandwich in his lunch. You do remember he is allergic to peanuts, don't you?"

How long do you think it would it take CPS to get to my house?

fashion courage and the ultimate gift

Do you ever wake up and think that maybe this is the day you want to start a new fashion trend?

Do you think this one will take off?

I love going to Dead shows for so many reasons. You can wear anything. People applaud you the more insane your attire is! Our weekend with the heads was a blast with only minor damage...darn sunburn.

The Venue was the The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, WA. Get it- George is the name of a city in Washington state. Pretty creative huh? However, corniness aside the view is nothing less then breathtaking.

The above picture was taken while The Doobie Brothers were playing. Neither my sister or I are fans so we took the view in from much higher up. It was pretty empty when they played...maybe they don't have many fans left?! I did learn something though...apparently they aren't even really brothers! What the hell? All these years I figured they were actually brothers. Man, next thing somebody will tell me Doobie is slang for something and not really anyone's name at all...nah couldn't happen.

Our reserved seats were pretty close so my view looked something like this...

Bob Weir is 62 years old and if you ask me he looks a little like a mad professor but I would not have missed seeing him! I just loved sitting and watching him play. I could not help but smile, but then again that might have had something to do with the herbs that were being enjoyed around me. The air is pretty fragrant at these shows...intoxicatingly so. I did not have kids with me so I was allowed to not worry about a little second hand smoke and sat there and smiled!


Phil Lesh, yup he is 69 years old but that is a wicked cool bass guitar. He also took about 15 minutes to talk about organ donation and how his life was spared because someone gave him the ultimate gift of a new liver after years of fighting Hep C. I have to agree my childhood best friend is alive and well today because someone gave him their heart when his no longer worked well.

Please consider organ donation and make sure to express your wishes to your family. If they do not know you want it, it just might not happen. It also opens the avenue for discussion about their end of life wishes as well. I know it is not a fun thing to consider. I hate to say that is it crucial but that is what it comes down to.

I am not sure where this soap box came from or how I got on it. I suppose it is just something I am passionate about and would like to convey the need to share your wishes.

Thanks for visiting me!

P.S. No new piercing or tattoos...this time.

Another VGNO--party Blog style

Gee, I wonder how many of my family blog followers I have lost with all this talk of blog parties and Gene Simmons? What started as a little family blog to update the family as to what is going on in our neck of the world has become Mommy's outlet...sorry guys. I will still mail you Christmas cards, OK?

Tomorrow morning I will be getting up and going to see The Dead with my sister. We will camp and play like we are young again. All the living members will be there so I am quite pleased to be able to see them again, who knows it could be the last time. I promise I will not get any piercings this time!

This week at Ann's she is talking sweets. This is perfect because my cocktail tonight in honor of VGNO looks delish! If I was not dreaming of summer time I might have one in real life but alas only a virtual drink tonight.

There's nothing like a Cherry Garcia Cocktail.

What you need:

1. A blender, food processor, or a martini shaker
2. A half a cup of white Irish Cream
3. 2-3 spoonfuls of Cherry Garcia
4. Half a shot of Smirnoff Black Cherry vodka

Pulse the blender until you can liquify the ice cream. Pour ice cream into martini glasses and enjoy. The chocolate bits will fall to the bottom, but you can use a spoon to eat them.

Happy weekend Ladies!

i went, i saw, i bought my kids art...

Nope, I was not lucky enough to buy the KISS inspired Mona Lisa picture! Another lucky Mom got that one from her son---maybe next year mine will push the envelope like that.

Painted by Leonardo da Vinci

I can certainly see the likeness, how about you? Wouldn't da Vinci be proud that 5th graders are creating art inspired by her? Do you think he would mind she has the face of Gene Simmons?

I am still annoyed that they even tried to pass this off as a fundraiser. Today they offered that if I was unable to make it last night for a minimum donation, I could purchase my kids school art projects. Last night I took every piece displayed and took it home...possession is 9/10th of the law, right? I made a stinkin' donation, because that is what we do...but it still pisses me off!

Wonder what in the heck I am rambling about...read this.

I ♥ this little Face!

This weeks theme is "laughter". It certainly is a tough picture to get at just the right moment. I think I got the picture, just unfortunately with a cheapo camera. It looked way grainier then I would have liked once I cropped it down...

I love the look on her face. How perfect is this -- today is her 1oth birthday!
I ♥ this little Face!

Happy Birthday Meg!

When life gives you lemons...make lemonade. I played up the graininess to make it more so. I tried to fix the color.

Note to self...do not take a cheap camera to Disneyland just because it will fit in your bag. You will regret it!

For me?

This took so much longer to compose then I ever thought it would.

I have been honored to receive a blog award. Thanks Audrey! She is an incredible writer that is sharing her journey with us about her fight with stage 3 cervical cancer. A battle she will conquer and then write a fabulous book for other people facing the same scary journey!

This award is not free, I actually have to share some personal facts with my readers? Do I still have any readers? I have not blogged regularly enough lately, I may have lost all of them...please don't leave. I will do better, I promise!

Okay. 10 Things You May Not Know About Me:

1. My computer is a Mac! LOVE IT!
   
2. The first time I pierced my nose was in the parking lot of a Grateful Dead show in 1994. I think he was stoned. Sometimes I still wonder why it got infected. :)
3. I was once a best man in my best friends wedding. Yup! The bachelor party pretty much sucked!
4. My first car was a 1972 Chevy Nova my parents bought it because they thought it would keep me safe. The irony is I ended up hitching rides with so many strangers because it was always leaving me stranded late at night! It was a total P.O.S!
   
5. I might have a wee bit of a crush on John Stewart from the Daily Show.
6. I cannot seem to fall asleep without the TV on, terrible I Know! Frequently it is the fella from the previous item that I fall asleep watching.
   
7. I hate sleeping in hotels, to many Dateline episodes I guess.
8. When I was 19 my best friend/room mate and I found a tattoo parlor in the phone book and went for tattoos on sudden whim. I find it interesting how many tattoo parlors are closed on Sundays...I think it is less about the day of the Lord and more about the Saturday night sleep off. Ask me if I would get the same tattoo again... Nope! I tell that to my kids a lot. Hopefully they will learn from my error. I love tattoos---just not my tattoo.
   
9. I have had the same Cell phone number since I was 22 years old--16 years.
   
10. My children are obsessed with how many blog followers I have. If I have befriended others. If I will post things or not post things. They did a big happy dance recently when one of my favorite blogs I read, became one of my followers as well. I think partly because they get a huge kick out of the picture on her header...check her out -- She is awesome, but we just call her Sticky.
    

I am passing this all on to --->

Marci from Marci's Musings

Sticky from Not too sticky

The Good Cook

Right on Mom

Talking Trash

Jan from Jan's Place

Airing my Dirty Laundry, One Sock at a Time

Amy Kate from Little House On the Quarry

To my above mentions do not feel pressured to do anything. If you want just post the little picture on your blog somewhere and pat yourself on your back feel free. Just know that I think you ROCK!

I would like to offer this award to any new bloggers that have not gotten an award for your sidebar. Have at it baby, it is yours...let me know so I can come read your 10 things!

Girls night out blog hopping...

Wow, is it Friday already? I would say thank goodness but I have had the whole week off so every day has been laid back. It was an unplanned vacation, one of the problems with going to a strictly on call schedule...sometimes nobody calls. Looks like next week should be a little better, yeah for the paycheck!

Happy Girls Night out, I am going to be participating later tonight. All this talk at Ann's working out fired me up to head to the gym for a couple hours. Then I will come home and promptly blow the work out by drinking one of these...

A Dirty Mama
After all it is Mothers Day weekend

• 1 jigger Brandy
• fill glass Half-and-half
• 1 jigger Kahlua
• 1 jigger Vodka

Virtual calories add up to nothing right? Good thing, because according to supercocktails this little baby packs a mighty 420 calorie punch...ouch!

Who know maybe by the end of the night I will look like this...

This is still one of my favorite stupid movies! Something about Mary in case you missed it, I think my Mom might have hated it...Guess she won't be getting it for Mothers Day this year.

And just for the fun of it take a peak at this...

I am afraid if my Mom had made sushi when I was a child it may have tasted something like meatloaf. No offense to my Mom--I just don't think she has ever made sushi.

Happy Mothers Day to all you Moms out there. Enjoy the day you are supposed to relax and be waited on. It usually does not work out that way here-- but here is to hoping!

I ♥ Faces, week 1

I ♥ Faces is a photography site focused on the art of capturing faces and their various emotions. This week the theme is hats...gotta have one.

I love to cruise through the gorgeous photos and dream of a nice SLR camera...one day I tell you, one day! This week I am going to try my hand at it, just for the fun of it.

This picture is of my niece, Avery. My sister actually took the picture of her with her Nikon SLR. I fell in love with it. Her picture was pretty all on its own. I digitally manipulated it a little for a little more punch. I sharpened it, and boosted the color and cropped it down. I hope it meets your expectations sis! This is a collaboration submission, and since I am late and it doesn't count anyhow-who cares!

I do have pictures of my own kids but this is truely one of my favorite "hat" pictures on my computer. Since we all love this little cutie it seemed like the perfect picture for today.

My adult photo is one of the cast members at Disneyland from our trip last summer. Ahhh, makes me want to go back! It is a little darker then what I would like but not bad considering I took it with my daughters point and click... again I tweaked the color, sharpened and tried to get out some of the fading in the lower left corner.

I have to say that I love Picnik! I am inches from paying for their premium service.

What are they thinking?

My kids are all in a public elementary school. A school that apparently must not have any money at all. None. It must not, I swear.

They have come up with the most insane fund raising idea. I kid you not. Hopefully you agree with me and do not think I am the insane one.

You see, we pay property taxes. A large portion goes to education.

We go to school fundraiser auctions and spend more money to support our kids school.

We have bought magazines, wrapping paper, books, candy, kitchen storage containers and many more items that had it not been a school fundraiser, I would not have spent money to own.

I supply Kleenex, baby wipes, pencils, paper, crayons, and any other item they call on me to send in with one of my 3 children.

This one takes the prize though. Next Wednesday they are trying something new.

It offends me.

I have been writing this blog in my head from the moment I heard the plan. I have half a mind to complain.

Next Wednesday they are having Art Gallery Night. What is that and why does it have me so fired up? I know, that is what you must be thinking. Let me explain it to you.

They will be selling the kids art work. Yes, the art work my kids have been working on. They want the parents to come and look at the kids art displayed in an art gallery setting and then buy it! Yes, I need to buy my kids art if I would like to have the pleasure of displaying on my fridge. Apparently only the parents can buy their own kids art-good news in case any of mine are a future Picasso. So of course we will have our usual "white horse" donors to the rescue. The rest of us will try to scrape up some cash to buy some of the art my 3 kids have created. What about the kids who's parents cannot attend? What about the parents like us that have multiple kids, how do you buy it all? How crushing will it be if I did not buy the piece that they thought was beautiful? The biggest question I have--what will they do with the unsold merchandise? Will it make its way home sooner or later?

I suppose if we were not in a economic meltdown perhaps it may be just a slightly bad idea. Considering that people are loosing jobs and homes, maybe this is terrible idea.

To make matters worse, they are totally pumping the kids up like Barry Bonds on 'roids. "It will be so cool that your parents can buy your art." They even had a period over a week where they did art every single day. I love it when my kids bring home special things they have made me. I feel like it is one of the glimmers in this public school machine I look forward to. I feel bad for the parents that cannot at this time "afford" the luxury of owning their kids art. My husband said I should not go out of protest. The problem is that will hurt my kids more then the school.

So next Wednesday, my checkbook & I will be attending "Art Night". Hopefully I will buy all their favorite pieces!

At least they were nice enough to let the kids pick one item to take home free of charge...kind of a teaser I suppose. The first one is free, the next one will cost ya! Geez!

Tag, your it!

I have been tagged - for the first time by Jan over at Jan's Place. You can call her Jan, I call her something else...Mom.

This should be easy, my task is to record ....

" SIX UNIMPORTANT THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY " in no particular order of unimportance

1. a pedicure
   
2. a perfect cup of espresso, espresso con panna for me
   
3. clean floors, no muddy paw prints or bits of paper
   
4. chocolate, the good kind. None of the waxy stuff here!
5. taking a perfect picture
   
6. the smell of clean laundry

Consider yourself tagged if you read this and feel up to sharing your list! Funny how sometimes the little things are soooo nice!

“Setting a good example for children takes all the fun out of middle age.” -William Feather

We have a bit of a Birthday season in our family...in less then 2 months we have 11 birthdays. This year we will have 12 since we get to celebrate the birth of a new member of the Spring Birthday Club. We are all very excited to meet the little guy so you won't hear me complain at all!

I would like to take another minute to wish my other half a happy birthday. You have seen a lot in your long life! Thanks for sharing all your wisdom with those younger than you. We sure appreciate it! Can you tell I am younger? You can bet I will not let him forget it either!

We all love you, even when you are goofy! Like in this picture taken while on a trip to Alabama for a car race. I was not there, but if I had to guess I might think you had a few drinks first.
Am I right?


I am going to hear about posting this picture...glad he does not know the first thing about blogging or he would remove it. I like it because he looks so happy. I try to not think about the fact that he was thousands of miles from home. Hopefully that did not contribute to his happiness.

A night out with the girls~ Virtually that is

Well, I think I will play tonight. Somehow with a pandemic going on I got the day off. Not sure how that happened but you can be darn sure I am not answering my phone if my boss calls!

I think I will have a mint julep as suggested by our hostess and enjoy the 70 degree weather we are having. You know, vitamin D is suspected to help prevent some respiratory illnesses. All the more reason to sit in the sun and enjoy a gorgeous day. Might have to pick up a bottle of the vitamins to additionally supplement since we live in land deprived of sunlight on a regular basis.

Tonight Ann spoke of potluck disasters. She was even honest enough to share her own. How nice, make me feel like I am in good company. I had one experience as a newly wed at a neighborhood BBQ. I brought a plate of fresh strawberries with a cream cheese dipping sauce. I think now that I missed the part about adding something to make it sweet. I happened to be behind some girls as they tried it and commented, "this stuff tastes like crap..." That was the last time I ever had that happen. Since then I regularly use a proven set of concepts, ones that never let me down. I also am the woman at potlucks scooping up huge servings of "crap" to spare the feelings of some poor soul that made a bad potluck contribution.

I went to a silent auction a few years ago for the kids school. Someone had submitted a home made decorated wood purse/container that no one was bidding on...well darn it all if I did not win that too! It still sits here on the piano reminding me to think of others feelings. All in all I think it was $30 well spent. If there was even one bid I would have just let it go, I just hated the thought of that person going to all that trouble and having no one want it!

Happy VGNO ladies!