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What’s Cooking: Volume ???

One of the best things about coming home is being back in my own kitchen. While we’re at home, eating out is a nice treat, but while traveling it becomes monotonous and excessive and all any of us wants is to be back in our own kitchen eating “normal” food.

Here’s what we’re cooking up this week:

  • my parents had us over for 4th of July and made salmon using this recipe, a family favorite, and corn on the cob, green beans and a fruit salad … possibly the perfect summer meal
  • we made up buffalo chicken salads using Frank’s Buffalo sauce on breaded chicken tenders (though we’ve done just grilled chicken tenders) … we serve them up on mixed greens with carrot shreds, blue cheese and a dressing 2 parts buffalo sauce and 1 part ranch
  • we made one of my all-time favorite salmon recipes, salmon with lemon relish … it is super good for summer since you serve it over a bed of spinach
  • Ben’s new favorite fruit is cantaloupe and I’ve been recently making up fruit salads with cantaloupe and strawberries – it’s incredibly pretty in the bowl

Stuff I want to try SOON Continue reading “What’s Cooking: Volume ???”

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A Long Strange Trip

So a funny thing happened on the way to the airport. Well I guess technically it was the days leading up to our flight. Matt’s stepmom mentioned something about our flight being at 10AM. I knew it was a morning flight and this seemed about right to me, though I thought it was a smidge earlier. But when we checked in online and printed our boarding passes the night before both Matt and I looked at our flight times and sure enough … right there it said 10:49am.

Upon arriving at the airport, we tried to log in and check our bags and got errors. The clerk informed us after some back-and-forth that our flight was actually at 9 AM and we had just missed (by minutes, I swear!!) our cutoff for putting our luggage on the flight, and ourselves as well it seems. No amount of cajoling, crying, etc. mattered. We could NOT get on that flight. Since we’d already checked in and it was just a matter of our bags, it was pretty irritating, especially since, as I noted later, they’re happy for your bags to be on a different flight if it suits them, but if you make the mistake, you are screwed.

Quadrupling our mistake was the fact that we were 1) a family of four 2) flying on a holiday weekend. Standby was not much of an option since they predicted they could get us on basically one at a time, maybe two. And the idea of hanging out in the airport all weekend to see who stupidly missed their flight (like us) with two little kids already at the end of their vacation rope was not much appealing. We could also pay fare-difference and fly as a family on Monday for around $600, but as we were already packed up and ready to go, heading back to Matt’s parents’ house, unpacking, etc. etc. was pretty depressing, especially since we’d miss the whole weekend and all the time we needed to get ready to go back to work.

We checked out other airlines which were either entirely unavailable or ridiculous (thousands for us to fly on such short notice, one-way). So we hit on a slightly crazy idea … rent a car and drive back. For around $400 (though I think once all fees, etc. were paid, it was closer to $500) we could rent a car, drive back and be home the next day. It wasn’t a cheaper option, but it was in many ways a more palatable option. We’ve done the trip many times before and it’s all easy-interstate. Everything was packed and we could just go from the airport and head out.

So … we did. We did a long stop-over in Paducah, KY for lunch at a Chick-fil-A with a play center and a stop at Walmart for various other provisions. $90 netted us a portable DVD player with two screens and that plus the $10 copy of Scooby Doo, Where are You?? we picked up, plus some various other bribes, kept the kids happy for MANY hours. We grabbed some road-trip food and an insulated bag so we had snacks. We made stops here and there for traffic and gas and … POTTY/diaper breaks.

We made our best time after rush hour and when the kids were sleeping, so we pushed through to Hays, KS and stayed at the dubious Days Inn, home of the worst shower I’ve ever had. The next day after our continental breakfast and another 5 hours in the car, we finally made it to the Denver International Airport and returned our car.

Matt and I are both still FLOORED at how amazing the kids were. Of course possibly watching mommy lose her sh*t in the Nashville Airport impressed upon them the gravity of the situation. Or maybe they were so engrossed in Scooby Doo they just didn’t care. But they were amazingly good. The road trip overall was kind of fun in a weird way. It felt sort of like we were back in college again and someone had dropped two unsuspecting children into our back seat.

Of course it’s much easier to be Zen about all this now, but we definitely made some lemonade and dealt with the situation pretty well. As we kept saying, it could have been much worse. We decided there were four people on standby who needed to get to Denver for whatever reason much more urgently than us. And we’ve got 4 flight credits on Frontier for our next trip. That said, not something I’m keen to do again in a big hurry.

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Nashville, Baby!

So we were gone last week. My good girl side wanted to pre-write a bunch of stuff and let it post automatically while I was gone, but my get real side revolted when she realized how much packing she still had to do. Packing up 3 people to head off on vacation (Matt packs himself, of course) is no joke. Neither is getting to the airport and wrangling all of the crap (giant carseats). But usually after I get all of it squared away, I can kick back and more-or-less enjoy vacation.

Such was the case with our Nashville trip. We left Denver on Thursday and got in very late. Friday we spent the day with Matt’s mom and caught up with a friend from Matt’s childhood and his family.

Saturday we left for Gatlinburg, TN, gateway to the Smokies, with Matt’s step mom, Sherrie, and his siblings and his sister’s husband. We checked out Cherokee, NC (tourist trap), rode go-karts, went to Dollywood, went hiking, checked out Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge (tourist traps again) and generally had a nice time, however hot and sticky it was.

We got back into town mid-day on Wednesday and the kids were DONE with being in the car (it’s about 5 hours from Nashville to Gatlinburg). They had fun running around Matt’s parents’ house and got good naps before we went to dinner with some good friends and their darling new baby.

Thursday we met up with Matt’s mom again for breakfast at the Pfunky Griddle. There are griddles in the middle of the table and you get unlimited pancake batter and cook them up yourself adding whatever selection of toppings you’d like. They also had delicious mashed potatoes that you could grill into potato pancakes. Super good. We also explored that area which has many new and interesting shops. The kids got home in time for naps and got to spend the evening with their grandparents while we went to dinner with friends and enjoyed a quiet kid-free evening.

Friday we headed off to the airport early … and that is where it gets interesting. I’ll save the rest for tomorrow. More photos here.

 

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Ben at 26 Months

I love this kid. He is so … fun! Crazy! Loud! Granted it’s not all sunshine and roses. He can throw hellacious fits. He is stubborn beyond all reason and those lungs … they are impressive. But just a couple months into his third year, he is still very happy to snuggle while he drinks some milk or gets around to waking up. He will make a little nest in the middle of the floor with his “wees” (blankets, in Benjeese – short, we’ve discovered, for “lovie”) and cuddle up in it.

But in between, he is on the go. He currently sports scabs from head to toe. He has several bug bites all around his face that have been scratched. He has a cut on his lip from a fall and twin scrapes on his arms from the same fall as well as one on his knee from this fall plus several more from other falls. There are a host of other scratches I have no idea from what. Most of the time he doesn’t cry about his little mishaps or indicate in any way that he is hurt and so I have no idea.

He is talking a blue streak and we are understanding more and more of it. He is not super articulate yet, but he definitely gets his point across. To get our attention at dinner the other night, he would scream, at the top of his lungs, “GUYS!” until everyone turned to look at him. When bouncing on the bed and doing his tricks, he would say, “Mommy, this! Nana, this! Gaga, this!” which meant he wanted us to “watch this!” He and Tabby have been playing a sing-along game in the car. She sings a bit from a song and then allows him to fill in a word here or there. He does remarkably well and seems to know just about every song his beloved “Sissy!” sings. The two of them doing this is just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. He has also figured out that all of his people have other names they respond to, so he will repeatedly say, “Mommy, Jess! Daddy, Matt!” and when prompted, “Sissy, Tabby” except that his “Tabby” doesn’t really sound much like Tabby but more like “Cappie!”

He loves to play with cars and anything he can pound together, including his Buzz and Woody action figures. “Buzz fly!!” is one of his favorite things to say. Buzz does indeed fly. And crashes a lot. He loves to get out blocks or legos, but doesn’t always build much with them. He seems to prefer spilling them out and sending them to the far reaching corners of the room. He will pick them up when asked, however. Story time is a huge thing for him and if he’s having trouble going to sleep, we can often get him to settle down by leaning into his crib and reading him a short book. He loves Daddy Hugs, Hippos Go Berzerk and anything Curious George.

He is still in his crib. Despite the fact that I’m sure he could climb out, he’s shown no interest in doing so. I am really glad since I’m sure he’ll be harder to contain when he’s not in the crib. He genuinely seems to like his crib, like it’s his little den. He’s got all manner of blankets and critters in there and when we remove some, he puts them back in. So peeking down on him sleeping is a bit like a nursery school version of Where’s Waldo … you have to find Ben amidst the blankies and animals. Whereas Tabby kicks off all of her covers, Ben cuddles up under his blankies, sometimes covering his head with just his little nose and mouth peeking out.

He is so much fun and I am really enjoying this stage of him. He’s an amazing joy and blessing.

 

Weight: 31 lbs
Height: would have to measure the mark on the kitchen wall, but he’s grown about 5 inches in the past 7 months and gained no weight … he’s currently about 4 inches shorter than big sis
Clothes: wears size 2T mostly and whereas last summer I thought he was about to outgrow them, I now have to cinch them in or they fall down! Diapers are a 4-5
Favorite book: Daddy Hugs wins out
Favorite movie: Buzz!! (Toy Story 1, 2 or 3)
Favorite food: cantelope
Favorite toy: Buzz and Woody

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Teeny Tiny FOOD

I was introduced yesterday to the concept of ReMent. Are you in the know? ReMent refers to tiny, quite detailed miniatures made by the Japanese company, Re-Ment Ltd. and now others. They started out with food and indeed, most of the offerings still are food or related to food but it’s expanded somewhat. I also see various furniture and some gardening equipment and children’s toys. I’ve also seen some of the pieces sold as necklaces which of course appeals to me and reminds me of some of the neat stuff I’ve seen on Etsy.

There’s just something fun about miniature stuff!

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Our (Pipe) Dream House

We’ve now lived in our little house for almost 7 years. I must say I really really love our house. But as much as I love it, it is not 100% perfect and Matt and I have always wanted to build our own house at some point in the semi-distant future. With the housing market the way it is now, we can’t/won’t sell, but we are thinking about buying some land and holding it until we can build up some equity and then eventually build a new home.

Anyhow, we’ve been looking casually at land and hatching this scheme and then today, I saw a great post at Ohdeedoh about what you’d ask for if you had a home makeover show at your disposal, which got me thinking about my “wish list” for our Dream House. Overall, I don’t want anything too big. I really like the size of our house and I do NOT want much more to clean. Still, there are some definite things on my wish list.

  • Author of the inspirational post on Ohdeedoh, Janie Lee, cited an outdoor shower as her personal fantasy project. I must concur. We had one in the house we stayed at in HI when Tabby was a baby and it was heavenly. I would love it on an upstairs deck, perhaps just outside of the master bedroom.
  • A REAL pantry. If you’ve been hanging around for more than a minute, I’m sure you’ve heard me bitch and moan about our black-hole pantry that I despise. I wish for a large closet with shallow shelves. The pantry Pioneer Woman installed in her “lodge” a couple of years ago still makes me swoon. I would want baskets as well for storing things like potatoes and squash.
  • I am a huge fan of outdoor rooms, the type that are covered porches with a wall or two. I would want one with a fireplace or fire pit (probably a fire pit for roasting marshmallows), nice seating areas, a ceiling fan and of course a grill.
  • I would love to have a mudroom and/or landing area for the STUFF. Bags, backpacks, coats, mittens, hats, boots … all near laundry facilities. Our kitchen sort of functions in this way right now, but it would be nice to have it a bit more portioned off.
  • Nix the dining room and living room. I have no use for formal rooms. I am not into formal entertaining or wasted space. I would ideally like a dining area attached to the kitchen with a giant stone fireplace.
  • A nicer kitchen. We are super lucky to have the great kitchen we have, but ideally, I’d like a slightly larger kitchen. Just a few more cabinets would be nice and, of course this is a bit silly and specific, but I would love to have a faucet at the stove for filling pans. I think it would be fun too to have the stove on an island with some seating around so guests could hang out while dinner was prepared.
  • And since we’re talking DREAM here, I would love to have a really cool personal space. It might be attached to the house or it might not be. But I’d love a space to chill out with my computer and my crafts and maybe my treadmill. It would be primarily mine, but I’d love some spots to work with the kids on this or that or to curl up and read books. This treehaus workspace is particularly cool.

There are of course, a few other things. I would love slightly bigger rooms for the kids and a guest room. An exercise room would be cool. A girl can dream, eh?

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Summer at the Lake

Well you know from yesterday what went into getting away from the weekend, but I shared nothing about the weekend itself. It was fabulous to say the least.

My mom’s brother and his family recently built a new vacation home in the mountains about 1.5-2 hours away from Denver. They had all of us (my parents, sister, grandma, Matt and the kids and myself) up to see it and enjoy a great weekend away. The house is beautiful and the company could not have been better.

Tabby and Ben both had a wonderful time. Tabby’s favorite thing was riding in the Rhino ATV my uncle has up there. The both loved the boat, but Ben in particular had a great time DRIVING the boat. In general, they both loved being outside and taking in nature. We saw a fox from the house, a bald eagle while we were on the boat, and as we came back through Rocky Mountain National Park, a moose and her calf, a bunch of deer and lots of elk. Matt and I enjoyed the leisurely pace of the mountains and also all the extra adult hands around, eager to snuggle our kids.

We’re very lucky to have such a nice extended family nearby.

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A Day in the Life

Fridays are my “day off” … day off from office work that is. I had an extremely busy yet pretty typical day on Friday and I wanted to write it down for posterity’s sake something, perhaps, to show the kids when they are parents of young children.

6 AM – Wake up and hop right on the treadmill. Hopping “right on” actually involves about 15-20 minutes of eye-rubbing, yawning, stretching, dressing and setup (fans, TV). Make it a paltry 5 of the 12K I have on the schedule.

6:45 AM – Hop off the treadmill and drag Matt out of bed, dress the kids, hand them some toast and hit the road. While on the road, I make a doctor’s appt for Ben since he STILL has the darn cough. That pretty much eliminates all possibility of going to the gym with Matt as planned.

7:30 AM – Drop Matt’s car off at the dealership for floor-mat recall and oil change.

8:10 AM – Check in at the clinic for Ben’s appointment. Children persist in touching everything in site and I imagine germs crawling all over them.

8:20 AM – Appointment begins with weigh-in. He has finally gained a teeny bit of weight (1 lb). Kids drive us nuts in the exam room. They have chosen to store the IV poles in the corner (who thought THAT was a good idea?).

8:30 AM NP arrives. I’m pretty sure she thinks our kids are out of control. Tabby won’t stop talking and Ben won’t stop climbing. After all the cursory exams, we leave about 20 min later with a script for amoxycillin and a diagnosis of sinusitis.

8:50 AM I send Ben and Matt to the car to wait while Tabby and I wait on Ben’s script at the clinic pharmacy. We pass the time by playing word and math games. “What letter does Amoxycillin start with? Which is a better deal – 100 claratin for $15 or 50 Claratin for $10?”

9:00 AM We exit the clinic with Ben’s bottle o’ pink in hand.

9:10 AM Arrive at the nearby Target and QUICKLY execute my shopping list for our weekend away.

9:50 AM Arrive home and see that Loki has dispatched the remainder of our almost new loaf of bread. Curse under my breath and then hop on the treadmill again while the kids destroy the playroom. I execute another 5K, bringing my total for the day to 10/12K. Good enough!

Continue reading “A Day in the Life”

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Good Intentions

I meant to post yesterday, but somehow I blinked and the day was over. Well I will make up for it today. Or not … we’ll see. So what is going on?

  • We leave for Nashville in about a week (our insane neighbor and his pit bulls and AK-47s is watching our place, so don’t even think about it). I’m both excited and a bit overwhelmed getting ready to go. The trip is absolutely jam-packed with stuff to do and people to see.
  • I have been finding it incredibly hard to get up early for the past couple of weeks. I want to snap out of it, but there are so many things to do at night I’m finding it hard to get to bed on time.
  • We have an awesome hummingbird hanging out in the tree in our back yard. We’ve seen her a few times sitting on her eggs and flying around. I’m hoping we might be able to glimpse her babies in a few weeks.
  • Speaking of wildlife, we were driving around last night looking for some land and we turned a corner and saw a black rabbit sitting on the side of the road. It looked just like my sister’s bunny, Hoover and definitely not wild! I thought it had gotten loose or something and then I spied about two more black rabbits! And a grey one! And a white one!! The lot on the corner is a huge farm/ranch thing and they had tons of animals, including, it seems a bunch of rabbits that sort of run wild. They seemed much smarter than the rabbits in our ‘hood as they weren’t playing chicken with cars.
  • I am finally getting my hair cut today after WAY too long. My stylist was on maternity leave and it is down to my shoulders again. I will be glad to have it short enough that I don’t have to blow-dry it every day.
  • Ii am also getting my new pimp tooth installed today, gold y’all (though covered in tasteful porcelain). What a fun way to spend $250 (not including what insurance covered).
  • Tabby is now the proud owner of her very own Camelbak. We got it in blue and green and hopefully Ben will be able to use it when she outgrows it. She has been quite a good hiker and we thought it was time. She was overjoyed and tried it on right over her jim jams and tutu (I was thinking of Bonnie in Toy Story 3 in the last scene where she’s wearing overalls, galoshes, a tutu and a macaroni necklace).
  • We will be gone this weekend too (remember the neighbor!!!), heading to the mountains to check out my uncle’s new place. There will be hiking and boating and general merriment. I am very much looking forward to it.
  • Loki, who is staying with our friends while we’re in Nashville, is hanging at the vet’s this weekend. He’s getting his yearly checkup and shots and also getting groomed. It’s like a spa weekend for him, only really really crappy and even more expensive.
  • As part of the pre-Nashville planning I’ve been boxing up the remaining Tabby baby clothes for my sister in law. It has been a nice trip down memory lane, but sad too. It kind of makes me want another baby. There are so many great reasons for being done, but it’s all gone so fast and I sort of want it to last just a little longer.
  • I bought the kids a couple of special things for our trip. I got Ben a copy of Bee Movie. My coworker’s grandson loves it and hopefully Ben will too. I got Tabby a  new DS game as well. There are a few greatlists on Amazon of DS games that are easier for kids who can’t read to play. She’s been so in love with her Dora game, I thought it would be a nice treat for her. I also got her an early-reader Skippyjon Jones book that I’m sure will be a hit.
  • I have been watching Greek on Netflix while I run lately and it’s been great. It definitely holds my interest and the stories movie fast enough for running (does that make sense?). And now that I can stream Netflix on my phone, I can even watch at the gym. W00t!
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That’s My BOY!

I’ve said many times over that one of the best things about having more than one kid is comparing and contrasting them. I don’t mean this in a “your sister would never do that!” sort of way. I mean in an it’s fascinating to see how they’re different sort of way. Obviously they both share the same two people’s DNA and they’re raised by the same two people, but nonetheless, they’re amazingly dissimilar. In some ways it makes me want to have another just to see another interesting and amazing permutation.

I honestly used to think that all differences between boys and girls were the result of socialization. I still believe that certain things are but there is absolutely no denying the BOYNESS of my boy. At 9 months old, he was saying “vrooooom!” as he raced a car, a block, nearly anything across the floor. He has had incredible aim when throwing since about 10 months old. He walked at 10 months and ran shortly after. He conquered the water slide a full two years before his cautious sister. He climbs EVERYTHING and turns our living room into an obstacle course. He loves to be dirty. He learned to slide out the back end of his plasma car while going top speed in my dad’s garage. I expect him any day to run out back and fire up the grill.

After all, he has a penchant for cooking as well. Check this out:

Continue reading “That’s My BOY!”