Blogging Funk

I'm still here.

I promise I will be here more often soon.

The last month plus has been a bit crazy and while it would have been good to be able to get on here record and remember things...it just wasn't happening.

Memorable events in the past month since I last posted...

In no particular order....

• My baby turned five! I definitely will be doing a post on my darling Catherine and her fifth birthday. But you know what that means? I also have to do a post on my beloved first born's sixth birthday....yay, just a bit behind on things.

• Matt suffered from an undiagnosable stomach ailment that resulted in not one, but TWO, emergency room visits. I guess I should do a nice detailed post about it just for posterity's sake, but man, a little more time needs to pass before I feel like processing through all of that again!

• Our kitchen got attacked by weevil moths. I am not a big lover of bugs (surprise surprise), but I have to say that these things now top my listed as most hated bug ever. Yes, more so than the dreaded stink bugs which now just seem like a part of our family (kidding...kind of).

• We went on vacation to New Jersey for our week long beach trip with my family. Matt's stomach ailment put a major damper on things, but despite that we had a lovely trip with great weather and time together.

• Ella started first grade. My big girl is gone from 9-4 every day and it's kind of hard to believe that she spends more waking hours a week at school than at home. Sniff sniff. Makes me appreciate weekends that much more!

• I coached Ella and her team in their first soccer game on Sunday. The whole soccer coach thing had been fun so far - thankfully the girls didn't seem to mind losing 10-0 :)

• Finally - tomorrow Catherine starts her PreK program.

Each of these events (even the darn weevils, advice is needed) deserves the attention of an individual post. So now you know what you have to look forward to :)

I promise I'll get there.

Slowly.

At the moment I'm busy taking pictures of myself using Photo Booth. It's quite addicting. If I actually knew how to use it other than to take really really ugly pictures of myself I would post one on here. Don't worry, I'll figure it out soon.

So much to look forward to I know!

Cancun!

This was my view for seven days.

Sigh....

This was my view from my lounge chair every day...

We had a favorite spot and were able to get it every day - with that view, can you blame us?

I spent a lot of time doing this...

I read almost five books (finished number five on the flight home). Bliss!

When it got too hot (which it often did...wow, the humidity in Mexico is intense!) this is where we would head to cool off....

You can tell by the slight wave at the bottom of the picture that we are actually in the ocean...not the pool. I think if not for that wave you might not believe me. The water was really that blue and beautiful. This pics are straight from the camera - no editing needed! (not that I have a clue how to do anything more than crop, straighten, good old basic Picasa stuff).

Along with all the relaxing there was a lot of silliness...

from trying to pose on the edge of the infinity pool and realizing we were about to fall over the edge...

to playing in fountains while all the other tourists watched us thinking we were nuts!

In case you were curious I did also go on this trip with my husband of ten (almost 11) years.

It was our first time getting away on a trip like this and I so enjoyed having all that time with him apart from all our typical daily responsibilities and pressures.It was such refreshing time for us that was so needed and I for sure don't want to wait another ten years before doing something like this again. Our marriage is definitely a worthwhile investment!

We definitely had plenty of time for this....
hee hee...and moving on....

You can be the closest of friends in everyday life but how well you vacation together really defines a relationship.

We had such a fun time with Jon and Renee and I can't imagine having a better time if we had gone alone. Sometimes a girl just needs to chat and while I love my husband he is not a chatter. That's what Renee was for! And Matt had Jon for beach volleyball and body surfing. Mine and Renee's attempt (one single attempt) at body surfing was pretty disastrous. Let's just say that I found sand in my ear the next day and I can't be certain that I didn't inadvertantely flash some of our fellow vacationers. That was just my experience, I can't say with absolutely certainty that Renee's was the same. That's up to her to share!

This trip was truly a blessing. I loved being with my love and just enjoying each other.

It's been a great ten (almost eleven) years...


Here's to many many more....

It's Almost Here...

In two days I will be on my way to Mexico for a long awaited week long trip celebrating 10 years of marriage to my wonderful husband!

We are lucky enough to be going on this trip with our friend's Jon and Renee so we're looking forward to having fun with them as well as having time together with just the two of us.

We'll have free wi-fi in our hotel so I hope to be able to blog a bit while I'm there, especially so I can post stuff for my kids to see.

But in the meantime, I have packing, laundry, cleaning, organizing, list making and checking off....basically all sorts of stuff to do. All on top of a not so fun cold that really kicked me in the butt yesterday!

So I'd definitely appreciate some prayers that there isn't too much stress between now and our departure. Times like these bring out my tendency to be anxious (about all the little things that I might forget or might go wrong)!

Adios Amigos!!

Beating the heat

So we're in the middle of a heat wave. Today it actually hit one hundred degrees (I caught the car thermometer at 101) and it's pretty ridiculous. It seems like the excessive heat is causing our power to repeatedly go out when we run the AC during the day. The main breaker trips and it all turns back on when we reset it but it would then happen an hour later. We're trying not to run too many appliances and the AC is basically our priority so at the moment I have a load of half dry laundry in the dryer and I know I'm going to have to rewash and hopefully find a way to dry it - I might have to set up a clothesline outside - with this heat everything should dry in a matter of minutes.

Tonight the power went out again so we only have the air on in the girl's rooms and I am sitting on the couch sweating. To avoid focusing on my discomfort I am remembering what I was doing just five hours ago....

Matt had off today and we decided to beat the heat with a beach trip! I love the beach and as soon as we crossed the bridge onto the island I just felt so happy. We had umbrellas, chairs and coolers full of food and drinks to last us all day. It really was a great day. Although it was still blazing hot, with the constant beach breeze, you never felt that bad. If you did, the cool clear (woohoo - clear Jersey water - a miracle!!!) water was a few steps away. The waves were nice, not too rough and there was no undertow - really the perfect beach day!

Ella spends 90% of her time in the water. I took her out pretty far and we alternated riding the waves on the boogie board or just jumping or swimming over them. After each time of almost getting knocked over both of us had to make sure our swim suit bottoms were still doing their job and covering out bottoms - pretty funny!

Catherine loves the sand and digs and builds and fills her bucket up with water and pours it over everything and then starts over. We did get her out in the water swimming around and she didn't mind too much when Matt forgot to lift her over the waves and she got pummelled.

All in all it was a great day and I feel like I could go again next week! Definitely looking forward to a week long visit in August with my entire family!

All Around the House

Something I look forward to doing every day this time of year is going out in the morning to check out how everything is growing....

As you can see our cucumbers are doing quite well! We've already picked four and are expecting a bumper crop this year - I've already wanted to be able to use that phrase!

Hello Romaine lettuce - thank you for giving us such lovely salads.

Tomatoes! Tomatoes? Oops, forgot to upload a picture of our tomatoes, but we have a ton of green cherry tomatoes and I am looking forward to the morning when I first see the color starting to change to red. We also have a few regular tomato plants, a ton of zucchini and some green beans over at a little garden plot on our church property. We've picked a few zucchini and
while I typically don't like zucchini apart from baked goods, I am excited to try this recipe from my favorite food blog.

All that is well and good, but you can't forget about the color! I planted these pettunias a month ago and I just love the colors of the dark purple and striped pink...
with a little splash of yellow thrown in as well!

Currently these beautiful blooms are making me the happiest....

Here's a closeup of one that is almost completely bloomed.

I have three bushes filled with various shades of pink, purple and blue hydrangeas and it makes me so happy. Ten years ago (verging on eleven) I so wanted these colors of hydrangeas in wedding party bouquets but September is not the time to get a good price on hydrangeas! I'm convinced that these flowers are just a teensy tiny blessing from God - just a reminder that He is good and He knows my heart and loves that it puts a smile on my face each morning. I'm not too crazy for thinking that, right? :)

What is growing around your house this summer? What are you excited about?!

Summer Stuff

We just got back from a relatively spur of the moment trip to the beach and I hope to be sharing some pictures and stories late on this week. I have to sort through the 50+ I took of Ella and her cousins trying to balance on a surfboard and see if there are any worth sharing!

In the meantime I figure it's been awhile since I shared a recipe and this is one that is so simple and yummy. It's my favorite summer salad dressing. I just happen to have some now and it makes me actually want to make a salad so I can use this dressing!

Sugar and Vinegar Dressing

1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove (minced)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Combine the first six ingredients in a blender or just one of those nice little salad dressing jars. Shake or blend it up. Add the oil and combine. Stir in the basil.

Enjoy. I promise you will. You might just make it your new ketchup and dip everything in it! :)

Family Resemblance

Last month Matt and I and the girls visited the Please Touch Musuem in Philadelphia. As always we had a great visit and the kids just love it every time we go there.

I love these pictures that we took. First of all because they are just cute. I love the girls on the roller coaster :)

But I also love it because I feel like it's a good opportunity for me to get some feedback. You see I always hear who Catherine looks and who Ella looks like and it's never consistent. Sometimes they both look like Matt, sometimes they both resemble me, so I figure what better way to really determine who they look than when you can only see our faces!

But seriously, it's really just an excuse to post some cute pictures!

Dancing the night away

I can't believe it's already mid-May. This month is flying by, we've had some busy weeks and just when I feel like things are starting to slow down I take a look at the calendar and realize it never does!

A few weeks ago we had a very special occasion...Ella's went to her first school dance! A little young I know, but I totally trusted her date to take good care of her - in case you didn't guess, it was a Father Daughter Dance. It happened to fall on the Friday of one of the busiest weekends we've had in awhile. I had a catering job Friday afternoon, the dance was Friday night and then there was a big fundraiser that Matt and I were both involved in, him with the organizing of and me with the food side of it. So needless to say that the reason I never appear in any of these photos is that I had just come from a Mexican themed meal and was prepping food for a Chinese themed fundraiser the next day and I wasn't looking too pretty (I'm being generous with that).

Friday afternoon Renee was kind enough to come over and help with the fun task of deboning and cutting up 12+ pounds of chicken for lo mein. Afterwards, as a way of thanking her, I let her fix Ella's hair for the dance that night! ;)

Love that Ella is totally playing with her toenails. She decided how she wanted her hair done, with a braid in front and pulled to the side. I was pretty impressed that, whether she knew it or not, she picked something that was in style!

Here is Renee putting adding a flower as a finishing touch. It was one of the ones they used for their Easter worship dance and matched her dress perfectly. (As an aside...anyone willing to place bets on how many years Renee will end up doing this? I'm thinking that it wouldn't be too far fetched to say 12, and counting Catherine, 14. Yikes!)

Ella and her dad, all ready to go!

A close up.

Before the dance we went over to a friend's house and met up with other girls and their families for a pizza party. It was mainly a group of us who have known each other for a few years as our girls were in preschool together and now that they are in kindergarten they have weekly playdates together as well. It was nice to have a break from the craziness at our house and just hang out with friends. The girls were all having so much fun that night I think they could have stayed there and played all night long. It was pretty cute because they were all dressed up, as soon as they got there, Ella and her friends went out in the backyard and starting collecting caterpillars. By the time they ate they had at least 30!

Here are all the girls....looking cute....I love that Catherine was included in everything...she fits right in with everyone (good thing she thought to wear a dress! that's only funny if you know Catherine because she wears a dress for every occassion. she changes out of play clothes to wear a dress to a park....) After 20 pictures later and much silliness this is how they ended up....

Again, I loved that they were so silly and falling down - I wouldn't have been to excited if they were taking it too seriously....I mean that's what is prom is for!

Finally, we couldn't not post a picture with the dads!


I didn't hear much about the dance other than Matt being dismayed that he didn't know it was a 60's (or 70's, don't remember) themed dance. I asked him if he would have worn a leisure suit had he known and he said yes - so I am hoping, praying, crossing my fingers that this theme is repeated at some point over the next 5-6 years and I can hold him to it!

Oh yeah, notice that Matt is wearing a tie. For those of you who know Matt, you'll know how rare this is and it is a result of major compromise on Ella's part. Initially she requested...actually demanded...that he wear "wedding clothes". She started to get mad that he wasn't making an effort to get wedding clothes so thankfully she was fine with just a tie (Matt on the other hand is saying "just a tie?")

The first Father Daughter dance was a success and I will continue to look forward to every dance where my girls get to take their father as their date...if I have to think beyond that I start to get nervous!!! ;)

Chocolate Lover

I love chocolate. I do, I love it. As I've gotten older my taste buds have become a bit more discriminatory. While I will always love a good old milk chocolate Hershey's bar (preferably with a roasted marshmellow and graham cracker!), I so enjoy and appreciate some high quality dark chocolate.

Two weeks ago Ella was going to a birthday party for a school friend and it turned out the party was located right next door to a gourmet chocolate factory store, Antoine Amrani. I knew nothing about it, would have had no clue, if not for the sign saying it sold gourmet chocolates. I stopped in after dropping Ella at the party, took a look around the elegant small store front (the majority of the place is their factory) and of course enjoyed a sample of delicious, delectable dark chocolate truffle.

When I picked Ella up for the party she begged to go in the chocolate store to try something out. I couldn't say no so we went in but there were other people there sampling and actually buying stuff, so no one offered us anything and it felt awkward to be browsing around when it was obvious that my six year old just wanted some free chocolate! So I scouted out the cheapest thing I could buy which was a big square chocolate covered brownie. Of course when I was buying it they pulled out the samples and Ella got to indulge in a yummy taste of truffle - I was so proud of her because she loved it! She's her momma's girl!

Anyway, to make a long short story a little less long...

I waited awhile to break into the brownie. I even thought about giving it away a few times! But eventually I opened it up and took a little bit. Swoon. Seriously, it was so good. A thin coating of chocolate surrounding a rich fudgie brownie - delicious!

I've been taking little tiny bites every couple of days- I really can't imagine eating it all at once, it would be way too rich (ok, who I am kidding, pre healthy-eating-lifestyle I would have totally eaten it all at once.). The other day I broke off a bigger piece than intended so I figured it would be the perfect chance to share the love.

"Matt, you gotta try this gourmet brownie, it's so good..." and on and on...so eventually he agreed and took a bite.

Do you want to hear what he said? I'm still in disbelief days later.

He said it tasted like a Swiss Cake Roll!

I still can't wrap my head around the comparison....seriously.... a Swiss Cake Roll? If you could see my face as I typed that, you would see a look of shock and disbelief!

So anyway, any chocolate lover's out there want to join me in my next visit? It's either that or I take Ella with me!

Random bits

We've been keeping busy enjoying all the beautiful weather we've been blessed with these last few weeks. The girls have spent hours and hours playing with the neighbor boys and there are sidewalk chalk drawings up and down, not only our sidewalk, but the neighbor's as well!

Matt and I are in week 5 of our P90x workout/eating regime. So far so good. I'm definitely sticking with the workout part of it more strictly than the eating. I have been doing well curbing my tendency to snack throughout the day, but when I fall I tend to fall hard. Case in point, I made homemade chocolate chip cookies (what was I thinking, baked goods are definitely one of my weak points) and took them to our small group meeting last night. I lost track of how many cookies I ended up eating!

Another random bit of news. I am slowly coming to grips with the reality that Matt is going to buy a (used) truck. This has been developing for a long while now and I voiced my strong opposition to it, but apparently he has not been persuaded by my fine arguing skills! If anything his obsession with craigslist and other used car sites persuaded me to not make a fuss over it anymore, because after a year plus of it I realized he was not giving up. So I grew up in Central Pennsylvania in a small town where hunter's safety was a required course in middle school and we got off of school for the first two days of hunting season every year and we always got tons of snow every winter - all that time, my family never had a truck. Now, living 15 minutes from the biggest mall on the east coast, smack dab in suburbia, I am soon to be a truck owner. Still can't picture myself cruising around in the truck when Matt's home with the kids and I'm out running errands. I may come to love it, but then again, I may become even more grateful for my minivan!

Finally (nothing like a completely random blog post to catch up on a few weeks of absence)...Ella is definitely one of those kids who gets caught up in having the latest and greatest cool thing. The other day she said something to Matt and me that topped all her other requests...

"Mom, when I'm old enought have a cell phone, I want an iPhone. Just so you know."

Seriously, her words exactly. What do you do with a six year old who says that?! After laughing out loud, I told her that she would have to have a job that would pay for the iPhone......but to myself I said, puh-lease child, there is no way you are getting an iPhone before your dad does! :)

Have a great weekend!

Three Things and more...

Three things to share with you all today....

First of all, thank you so much for all the input, via comments on the blog and on facebook, regarding the naming of my new venture. Please keep throwing any ideas or suggestions my way!

I would love it if you would weigh on the two ideas that, thus far, I like the most. I won't tell you who suggested them (even though you could go back and read comments and figure it out) but this way you don't have to worry that your opinion will make someone feel bad!

Delectable Dishes It was suggested as DeMontaigne's Delectables, but I changed it a bit, but still leaving credit with the first person to mention Delectable.

Piece of Cake Catering (and more). I really like the tag line that was suggested..."we make all your catering needs as easy as pie." So clever! But does it limit me to coming across as more of a dessert person?

There were many others I liked and I can't even say for sure that these are the only two I'm picking from. If someone suggests something that jumps out at me as really fitting, I'll have to go with it. But these are the ones that have stuck with me all week.

Let me know what you think!

Secondly, we had a wonderful Easter weekend. I know this should be first, but I felt like I owed and update on the whole naming process going on. Can you remember the last time we enjoyed this type of weather over Easter?

I think the last time we had nice Easter weather is probably the last time we took a nice family picture at Easter time. With Matt out the door a few hours before us and home after us, we rarely are all in the same place, sitting still, while still wearing our dress clothes (our dressier clothes probably qualify as most people's regular Sunday attire!)! In fact, just minutes after taking the below picture, both girls spilled orange juice on their dresses and changed the second we walked in the house.

I had the camera handy because the girls had danced in church and I took lots of pictures. But I'm saving them for another post because I have confidence in my ability to download the video I took and post it to the blog. It's only happened once before using our actual video camera (as opposed to a video taken using our regular digital camera) but I really have faith that I am going to find the elusive cord that makes it possibly and share it with you all later this week!

Thirdly I think most people end up serving ham as the main course for Easter and I wanted to share a yummy recipe for those of you looking to use up some of your leftovers. It's super simple and pretty healthy.

Jamaican Ham and Bean Soup

1 TBS oil
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 16oz cans vegetarian refried beans
1 can whole kernel corn with red and green peppers
1 can white shoepeg corn
1 small can chopped green chiles
1/2 cup chunky salsa
1 can fat free/low sodium chicken broth
1 tsp Jamaican jerk seasoning
1 lb cooked ham, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2oz can sliced ripe olives drained
1/3 cup lime juice.

Heat oil in large saucepan and saute onion 3-4 minutes until tender.
Add next seven ingredients (up to the ham), mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, simmer five minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add ham, olives and lime juice. *My husband doesn't like olives but he is fine with this b/c they are easily picked out. I usually don't add the whole can. Also, the lime juice is pretty strong, but an essential flavor to the soup. If you are uncertain how you'll like it, just add a bit at a time and sample it. * Cook until thoroughly heated, about 3-4 minutes.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and lime slice!

I know this calls for a tsp of Jamaican jerk seasoning and I imagine not many of you have it. I bought it years ago for this recipe and have used it for a few others as well. I never mind buying a specialty spice like this since it's a flavor I like and it's still good after all this time. If you're local, feel free to come borrow a teaspoon from me!!! :)

It's a pretty healthy dish, not sure how low carb it is, but it's all good complex carbs so I think it would pass the P90x test....which is the workout and diet plan that Matt and I are currently on week three of. Because of my current weight if I was sticking strictly to the diet plan I would only be allowed one portion of carbs per day. I intend to stick to it, but I allow myself some wiggle room (hmmm...like, you know... Easter dinner!) so I can sustain it over the next few months. The eating plan is coupled with an intense workout plan that I am hating less and less as the weeks go by, but I still miss my quick, but still difficult, workouts with Jillian Michaels! I'm still in the early stages of this and hoping I can see it through to the end.

I think that ended up being more like four things. I wonder if I should go back and change the beginning? Nahhh...then I'd have to delete this sentence and that would be 10 seconds I'd never get back. Ok, I should stop before I head down this road of randomness....

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! He is Risen! Or as my girls say...He is rose. He is rose indeed! :)

What's in a Name?

Not only do I drop off the face of the blogging world, but when I return it's to ask for help!

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had a small catering job. I did light breakfast and full lunches for a group that was using our church building for a training session that met five times, three times each week. It was definitely a good experience and something I've been looking to get started in for a long time now.

It started a few years back when I was doing some occasional part time work with a caterer/party planner. I would just work the events, most of which were high end, fancy schmancy ordeals, which provided me with a window into the catering world and some money to help pay for things like vacation and Christmas. Somewhere along the line the woman realized that I was "into food" and at one point she was talking to me about having me do the baking for her events. This would have definitely been a big deal and a great opportunity had it worked out!

For the last year or two I have been wanting to start selling homemade baked items, specializing in cupcakes and cakes, all sorts of varieties, focusing on quality ingredients and taste rather than your basic grocery store purchase. I even made up some lists of different options and looked into pricing.

The main thing holding me back was a name. I knew I couldn't do something like this if I didn't have a name for my little endeavor, whatever it may be. Something that would convey what I was doing, perhaps something that sounded a bit old fashioned, a bit clever and not too cutsie.

Piece of cake (hahaha!) right?! Not really since that was over a year ago and I haven't really come up with anything.

Since then I have been floundering, unsure whether or not I was going to move forward at all. Then this whole catering gig happened and that involved more than just baking. After doing that I realized that I really did enjoy planning and cooking the whole meal, not just the dessert! I could see myself doing more stuff like this in the future, small corporate functions, baby and wedding showers, dinner parties, etc.

In fact while one of the ladies at the training session asked me for a business card (ugh) and talked about possibly having me cater a First Communion party.

Now I have another chance to work with this group coming up next month and I'm determined that I will have business cards with me, which means I need a name!!!

Help me! I need some ideas and people to brainstorm with me. Make as many suggestions as you like....I don't care if you think they might sound silly, I really need all the help I can get!

I don't think Megan deMontaigne Catering really sounds that great. Also, catering might suggest a much larger scale operation, when I really want to focus on smaller events.

Ok....I am counting on the few blog readers I have out there to give me some guidance and suggestions. If you do suggest the name that I end up picking I will send you in the mail a thank you package of homemade goodies!!!

Catherine stories

I've been sitting up in bed hoping that my kids eventually fall asleep. I didn't mind getting to sleep in this morning since they didn't know the time had changed, but it backfired tonight when 8 o'clock rolled around and they were nowhere near being tired enough to fall asleep when to them it felt like 7 o'clock!

Since I have the computer and I'm stuck up in my bedroom (so much easier than going up and down when the girls venture out of their rooms for one reason or another...so far we have, "I'm thirsty", "I'm scared", "My shoulder hurts" and "I need to be tucked in") I figure nows a good time to jot down a few little stories I've been collecting that I don't want to forget.

Catherine says and does so many things that crack me up and I know I'll regret it if I don't record some of them to look back on. Here are a few of the recent ones...

I was driving the girls home from somewhere a few weeks ago when I heard Catherine ask me a question from the back seat.

"Mom, why are we poor?"

What?! Oh no, did I give her the impression I think we're poor? I asked her to repeat the question and once again she asked "mom, why are we poor?"

Oh man, I was sweating it because I can't imagine she would have gotten that impression from anyone other than me. I know our house is smaller than most in the area and if we could afford something bigger, we would jump on it, but that's definitely a choice we made with Matt's occupation and wanting me to be able to stay at home with the kids. But that doesn't mean we're poor. Did she hear me complaining about wanting more space or a bigger house? Have I ever actually said something like that in front of them?

My mind was racing.

I gathered my thoughts and began to explain to her that we weren't poor, that we had a house, a car, plenty of food and clothes, stuff that many people don't have and we should be thankful and grateful for all that we do have.

I was met with silence from the back seat, until Ella spoke up and said "mom, she asked "why are we small"

Oh.....because of course Catherine can't do her "sp" sound so small can across as pall which I somehow heard as poor.

I really didn't know whether to be happy that I hadn't given my daughter the impression we were poor or disappointed that my little impromptu speech had probably fallen on very confused ears!

These next two little ditties are similar, but again, cracked me up enough that I had to get them written down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One night last week we were at friend's house for dinner and afterwards Catherine and Nolan were playing a game that involved throwing balls at plates trying to knock them over. Apparently this was only a two person game and they told Ella she couldn't play with them. Naturally Ella was very upset by this and we talked to the kids and told them that Ella needed to be included.

Catherine came into the kitchen to tell Ella with great enthusiasm that she figured out how Ella could play with them...."hey Ella, when we throw the ball and it misses and rolls away, YOU can go get the ball for us!!!!!" Seriously, you would have thought she was offering her the role of quarterback or pitcher and not ball girl! There may have been some bursts of laughter from the adults! It was doubly funny to me because I could tell how earnest she was and not trying to manipulate things at all.

Today the same type of thing happened excepted I was the one given the role of "ball girl". Somehow we were talking about clubs and they were trying to think what their club would be and I suggested sister's club. They were excited about that and I said, what about mom's too? Can I be in the club? Catherine immediately responded with "of course mom, you can be our server. You can serve us food when we're hungry!"

So basically this is just an imitation of everyday life club!

Catherine is just such a funny girl. Tonight Matt was trying to get her to wind down for bed and had already read books and sang her a song, but she was still super chatty. I guess he was getting ready to leave and she said "dad, I still have LOTS of questions for you!"

Just like both girls love listening to me read blog posts about them as babies, I know how much they'll enjoy reminiscing about their antics as preschoolers. Definitely a good incentive for me to keep blogging, whether once a week or more!

Checking out

I have much much much to update on and I promise that it will be coming soon! We just got home from a nice weekend away with friends and I am getting all settled in to watch the Oscars, but I feel like the Winter Olympics are just so last month and I figured it would be nice to get a new post up for the start of the week.

Also, this was just one of those things I had to share....

Last week I headed to my favorite money saving grocery store, Aldi's, to do my weekly shopping. I had taken Ella to school so I was getting my shopping started early and I was looking forward to a productive day and was actually calculating how much I would get done before Ella got home from school at noon (crazy, cannot remember where Catherine was...somewhere with Matt I know).

I got to the register, all my food was rung up and I slid my debit card only to have my card denied. Gulp! The cash register worker told me that it was expired, so I immediately checked the date to see the expirations being February 2010 and of course it was the very first day of March! Aldi's doesn't take credit cards so I had no other way to pay. They pulled my cart aside and I said I'd be back. I ran over to Wal-Mart and grabbed the stuff I hadn't found at Aldi's (just slightly tempted to reshop, but it's just too much cheaper at Aldi's!), ran (ok, drove) back home, brought the few bags I had in to the house, grabbed my new debit card (It's coming back to me, I remember calling Matt saying that I my card was expired and he reminded me that it had been sitting there on our computer desk for months just waiting to be activated....I have no idea where he was and what Catherine and him were doing.)

Headed back to Aldi's with my new card, not sure if they still had my cart of groceries waiting for me. Thankfully it was still there and the cash register worker was very kind in quickly scanning my receipt and having me pay without waiting in line and had pulled aside some of the perishables allowing me to go grab fresh ones.

Overall, not too bad, but it cut into my productive morning and was basically a realization of a fear I have everytime I go to check out at a store, that I won't be able to pay.

Skip one week forward to tonight. I was tired after being away all weekend, up too late, and up too early, but I have a catering job this week (more on that coming soon) and I knew I had to get shopping so I could focus on cooking tomorrow morning.

I zoomed through the store, grabbed a take-n-bake pizza for dinner and headed to check out. All the groceries were scanned and reloaded into my cart when I reached in my purse for my wallet only to realize it didn't appear to be there. I set it down and proceeded to rummage through it, because I have so much junk in there that often it only appears that my wallet was missing, but no it was just hiding behind that bag of goldfish.

I found my cut up, expired debit card (I can't even take credit for that, I tried to use it again at Wegman's a few days later and that time the register worker cut it up for me. Apparently this is a lesson I am having a hard time learning.) but no wallet. It truly wasn't in there.

I said something like "oh my gosh, I can't believe this happened again, " and the lady working said "oh yeah, like the last time with your card."

That's right, same employee as last week. Two times in one week she got to be a part of my forgetfulness and actually remembered! I wonder if I have a reputation?

Thankfully my wallet was in my car and I didn't have to go home. Not sure if I would have had the energy to come back!

Now it's time to watch the Oscars and lay on the couch until I fall asleep, perfect ending to the weekend! I hope to have time to update on what's been going on this past month besides the Olympics and my inability to pay for groceries :)

Olympic Memories

Last week I blogged three times in one week.

Then the 2010 Winter Olympics started. I'm an admitted Olympic junkie.

One week went by. After staying up way too late and getting sucked into many hours of competition I'd figured I should share a bit of why I love the Olympics....

For me, one of the best things about the Olympics is the seeing the proud parents cheering on their children as they chase after a dream that they all sacrificed countless amounts of time and money and actual blood, sweat and tears in order to achieve. I love it and I watch my children play sports and thank God that He chose not to bless me with a child who shows signs of being a future Olympian. I just couldn't handle the stress!!

In an interview with Evan Lysacek's mom she said that she doesn't watch him skate and for his gold medal performance she was in another building watching in a private room iwth a glass of wine! I can barely watch when Jeff Reed of the Steelers is about to kick a game winning field goal so I totally sympathized with her. In fact I think I'd want the whole bottle! ;)

Speaking of Evan Lysackek, tell me that you watched his electrifying performance Thursday night? I forced myself to stay awake until the very end to see if he won gold!

Growing up the Olympic moment that stands out the most to me was when Dan Jansen finally won a gold medal and skated his victory lap holding his daughter Jane, named for his sister who passed away years prior, for whom Dan dedicated the race. Tell me you've seen the commercial...

I remember that we taped the race and the victory celebration afterwards (tears were shed) and I knew it was a moment that I wanted to remember forever and that I never wanted it to get recorded over. The commercial is great, but it's nothing compared to the real thing and I am hoping my mom reads this and feels inspired to rummage through our old VHS tapes in case it turns up! (Ok, I'll admit that I came close to buying the complete coverage of the 1994 games just so I would be able to have coverage of the Dan Jansen race - a bit obsessive I know!)

So far the event my kids have been most interested in has been the snowboarding. Both girls are big fans of Shaun White and were very excited to see him compete....watching it the next day on DVR, not waking them up in the middle of the night for anything! :) We watched both the guys and the girls and while I love the American girls, I was totally captivated by Torah Bright of Australia. She has this beautiful smile and just radiates charisma and spirit. During the opening ceremonies she was the flag holder and the announcers talked about how her parents weren't going to be at the games, that Torah was engaged to be married later on this year and she really wanted them to be at the wedding (which would be in Canada as well) so they were going to wait and make the trip then.

Of course it totally makes sense. You can't miss your daughter's wedding. But as I watched her win gold in snowboard halfpipe I couldn't get them out of my mind. I said to Matt I can't imagine watching your daughter win a gold medal in the Olympics on TV halfway across the world.

I promise you that it's worth it....go read THIS article.

One of those touching Olympic moments, one that I will never have on tape and never see on a Visa commercial since the networks totally missed it, but in a way that makes it all the more special.

Hope you're enjoying the 2010 games!

Free Collage - Today Only

I just figured I had to post this -it's too good to pass up and it's something you can do quickly tonight because it's only good for today.

Thanks to dealnews, my husband's favorite website in the world, we saw that Walgreens is offering a free 8x10 photo collage for today only. Simply enter "VDAY" at checkout and it's totally free (savings of $4). Can't beat that!!!

Completely unrelated....Anyone out there as excited as me about watching the Winter Olympics? If you have Comcast digital cable, their On Demand programing has a section for Olympics and I spent some time today with the girls watching different segments on the various athletes. Ella is very excited about snowboarding and ice skating! She also says she's a fan of Shaun White. I think there will be daily updates to the On Demand with the daily highlights - should be an easy way to catch up on the big events!

Always On My Mind

I have an issue which involves me constantly thinking. If things are busy, I have so many thoughts and things that come to me that I am afraid I am going to forget that I have a hard time falling asleep at night.

Matt often makes fun of me and tells me to STOP THINKING!


Ella without a doubt takes after me in this sense. Always at nighttime, no matter how tired she is, as soon as the light goes off she is full of questions and wondering all sorts of random things. For awhile I had to put a limit and let her have three questions, but that back fired because she always felt like she had to have three questions and she would stall and hem and haw until she could come up with three and then they were usually things like "how do they make air?" "how do they make boxes" and so on...



The other night she reached a new level of inquisitive non stop thinking. She had had a cough and cold the past couple of days so I went in around midnight to check on her and see how she was doing and double check that she didn't have a fever. I placed my hand on her forehead (nice and normal thankfully!) and straightened the covers. As I did, she rolled over, opened her eyes and the brief conversation went like this

Ella: "Mom, do I have four Webkinz or five?"

Me: "Uh....I don't know"

Ella: "I think I have five, but I'm not sure."

Me: "Uh...Ok, sounds good, goodnight."

Ella: "Goodnight mom"

She rolled over and went back to bed.

So weird and yet it felt scarily familiar!

Super Snowstorm Part 2

(Click HERE for Part 1)
Sunday morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny day and two coughing girls. Ella's didn't sound good so she had to stay home from church and miss the birthday party of a classmate as well. Catherine is never one to be left out so you whined about going to church with Matt, summoned up some pretty convincing coughs of her own and stayed home with Ella and me.

Ella was ok with staying home for, oh, about 20 minutes, and then she went into a downward spiral of grumpiness based around how un-fun it was to be stuck at home when she could be at church (which just figures because there are some Sundays when she complains about going - she is not too consistent in her likes and dislikes, it all depends on her mood.).

When Matt got home I told him he had to take the girls out for some snow play time. I know, I know, they both were slightly under the weather, but I thought the fresh would help their mental health (and mine) as well get some nice cold air in their lungs (ok, no idea if that's a good thing, it just sounds better than stale house air).

What a difference a day makes. Look, you can see the road and our car. You can also see the fun snow tunnel that Matt and the girls made after a special request from Ella.

I love this shot of Catherine.

Another cute one of her peeking through the tunnel. She was the first one to crawl through, Ella was to scared to go first, she thought it would fall on her!

Tunnel shot....from the other side...

Here Ell goes, crawling through....

Here she comes, safely on the other side...
Another event that the coughs put a damper on was the Super Bowl! We were supposed to get together with a few friends for yummy appetizers and munchies that evening, but the person hosting had a sick baby so Matt and I said we would host. But as of Sunday morning, three out of the four families had kids with fevers, coughs and all that good stuff. We joked that we should get together since our kids all had similar things - wouldn't that stink for our friend who had healthy kids. Sorry, you have to stay home because your kids aren't sick! :)

So our plans to watch the Super Bowl with friends were scrapped, but I was still able to try out the two new appetizers I had planned on making, both ones I found from Tasty Kitchen. Both were yummy and I will post them soon!

I am writing this while I look at the window at the second big storm in less than a week. They have us in a blizzard warning and I am hoping and praying that we do not lose power. If we do, I am planning on moving somewhere quickly....I don't know where, but I might start making a list of nearby hotels to have on speed dial!

Super Snowstorm , Part 1

We had a big snowstorm this past weekend. Big as in 20+ inches of snow big! I know this isn't any news to any of my blogging friends out there, because I believe the vast majority of you are on the East Coast and got hit by the same storm! But it was a weekend worth remembering, so here it goes....

Friday night we went to dinner at our friend's house. We figured that we'd be snowed in on Saturday and it would be good to get out of the house when we could! While we were there it started snowing so we figured that was a sign that we should.....get in the hot tub! We all changed into our bathing suits and ran across their deck in the snow and enjoyed a memorable time with the snow falling on our heads as we relaxed (oh wait, kids don't relax in hot tubs, they bounce from side to side, splishing and splashing everywhere) in the hot water.

When we woke up the morning, this is what we saw...

Here is our street! Can you even tell?

The plow made it down our low priority dead end street a few hours after it stopped snowing, but after the horror stories I've heard from heard from nearby counties and cities and faraway areas I really have no reason to complain. I am actually really impressed with how quickly the snow was removed - good to see my tax dollars at work!

Of course we didn't wait for the snow to stop or the roads to be plowed to go out and play in the snow, in fact, playing in the snow is much more fun when you have the whole street to play in...

That's Matt getting buried in the snow! I am the lucky one taking pictures :)

My cutie Ella enjoying the snow...
My little pink marshmellow Catherine taking a break from eating snow....

After snow time we came in and warmed up with hot chocolate and I made sugar cookie dough.

(As an aside, what is it about snow that makes us want to cook and bake and eat? Because I think I ate more cookies, snacks and carbs than usual over this past weekend.)

I just let the kids go to town decorating them. I really did, I was actually in the other room the entire time.

Catherine may have gone a bit overboard with the green sprinkles!

Ella did a little better...
That was Saturday, we still had a busy Sunday ahead of us....stay tuned for Part 2 to follow.

Easy Monkey Bread

I promised Steph that I would post this recipe and here I am, almost a week later, finally getting to it! Procrastination is a pretty regular theme on this here blog :)

I have tried a couple versions of Monkey bread and have settled on this one as my favorite. Many of the recipes out there use Pillsbury style refrigerated biscuits and I often had the problem of cooking it for the required time (and more) only to discover some of the biscuits were still a bit raw. Monkey bread is traditionally something eaten in the morning and it's not good to have to constantly be adding cooking time to something, especially when you're trying to get out the door for school drop offs and morning Bible study groups.

Also, with this one you do all the prep at night and just pop it in the oven in the morning!

As you'll see it calls for frozen dinner roll dough. Emphasis on dough. The dough unfreezes and (I guess) rises throughout the night, so don't be worried when it looks really small the night before. Don't be tempted to overfill. I have done it and my pan has overflowed! Sometimes this dough is hard to find so if you end up liking this recipe you can always grab a few bags to have in your freezer so you can make this at a moment's (or a night's) notice.

Easy Monkey Bread


24 ounces frozen dinner roll dough
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (we opt out of the nuts)
1/2 cup melted butter


Directions


1.The night or several hours before, grease and flour a 9 or 10 inch tube pan. Mix brown sugar and pudding mix together. Mix white sugar and cinnamon together. Place frozen dinner rolls in pan a layer at a time. Sprinkle brown sugar and pudding mix over first layer of rolls. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon mixture over the brown sugar and pudding mixture. Spread half the nuts and melted butter over first layer. Repeat with the next layer.


2.Place on counter over night. Do not cover. Next morning bake in a preheated 350 degrees F oven for 30 minutes. Let stand a few minutes and turn pan over onto serving platter.

Enjoy!