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Happy Monday to You

We had a nice weekend away … but I was ready to be home. The kids were too. They do not sleep as well away from home and so consequently neither do we. They miss their toys and their routines and their familiar surroundings. We make a big effort to leave the mountains early to avoid traffic and to get back early enough that we can get things all ready for Monday because of course, we’re always busy. Here’s the update:

  • A while ago, my laptop started having issues. Anytime I needed to do something graphically intensive, it would BOMB. Flat to the ground. So it has to be sent back to Sager to be fixed (under warranty happily) … but I am now sans laptop for at least a week.
  • Now my Netbook (tiny backup laptop mostly good for websurfing) is on the fritz. Its power cord is no longer holding a connection. You have to hold your mouth just right and plug the thing in and then it is OK … so basically everyone in our house is forbidden from moving the netbook even a millimeter.
  • And to make things a bit more fun, one of our plastic spoons fell onto the heating element in the dishwasher and melted/burned … killing the dishwasher (well at least the heating element) and smelling up the house and all the plastic stuff IN the dishwasher. It should be fixed today at least. $200 I could easily have spent elsewhere, THANKS. We ate out a bit more than usual last week and dipped into the supply of paper plates.
  • I started a 6wk session of bootcamp today … it is MWF. So far my body isn’t pleased with the long run on Sun/bootcamp on Mon combo. I might have to change that up a bit. I might be inclined to drop the long run all together, but I really don’t want to have to walk 13.1 miles on April 10.
  • St. Patrick’s day is almost upon us! Check out my round up of Fun St. Paddy’s Day activities on FTMB.
  • We have freezing rain here … cheers. But in typical CO fashion, it is projected to be 60 by Wednesday … cheers (for real).
  • Tabby arrived home to find more presents from her Nashville grandparents. She is delighted with her own spending $$ in the form of a Target gift card and a darling magnetic ballerina “paper doll” set.
  • It will be a nice spread-out birthday for her. We’re doing our special Tabby date this weekend where she gets to go paint her own pottery. I am almost as excited as she is.
  • She also gets to take cupcakes to preschool tomorrow for distribution to her friends. She requested to wear her cupcake t’shirt that I made her as well. I am glad she likes it. We will be bringing the cupcake form of this delectable Strawberry Milk Cake I found on the interwebs (more about this tomorrow maybe). When presented with this plan Tabby sweetly said, “It’s OK, Mommy, we can just make the Funfetti.” My family is clearly corrupting her as this was the cake my mom made for her this weekend. I spent a small amount of time trying to explain the ethos behind “from scratch” but I fear my diatribe was more or less lost on four-year-old ears.

Hope you are all off to a good start to your week!

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Happy B’day Baby Girl!!

My most darling Tabby turned 4 years old today. I have hardly any words to describe my feelings about her going from the pink cherubic little baby to this big, sweet, funny, amazingly capable little person.

[flickr size=”small” float=”left”]462291713[/flickr]

 

 

 

 

 

We talked at dinner tonight about all the things she couldn’t do when she was Ben’s age (almost two) that she can do now. She is skiing like a champ (spent about 4 hours today doing just that). She knows all her letters and can write her name and read quite a few words. She is getting good at simple addition. She goes potty all on her own. She dresses herself. She helps with little chores around the house. She is an amazing big sister to Ben. She plays computer games. She rides her bike. She “skins the cat” (a gymnastics move). And the list goes on and on. It was neat to see how for the first time this year, she really seems to grasp what having a birthday is all about. She seems to understand that quite a bit of time has gone by since her last one and what that means. It’s pretty cool.

She had a wonderful day (she even said so). She requested baked french toast for her b’day breakfast, complete with bacon and Papa’s custom smoothies to drink. Then we hit the slopes for a few hours of fun in the sun. She got to have hot chocolate at the lodge and then ski down and take the bus home. I was happy it worked out for her to get a nap … she needed it! After her nap we opened presents from Mommy and Daddy so Tabby could see and wear her b’day t’shirt. I’m extremely happy to report she loves it!! We went and had dinner at a restaurant in town. She requested STEAK and received a kiddo sized portion of prime rib and mashed potatoes plus a Shirley Temple – extra cherries. Then it was back to the condo for a grandma-made birthday cake, heavy on the funfetti and some more presents. It was a tired girl who crawled into bed way past her bedtime.

It has been oh-so incredible to watch her grow and change these past four years. She is becoming a little person who I’m incredibly proud of and oh so thankful to have in my life. She’s a gem through and through.

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B’day T’shirt

One of the benefits of having a four year old is that she can’t read (well not really) just yet. This makes subterfuge much easier. Not as easy as it was when she was say … 2 but you get the idea. Thus I can make AND display her birthday t’shirt before her b’day without much risk of being found out.

 

So the t’shirt … it’s applique. I don’t know about that word. It just sounds old fashioned and dowdy to me. Kind of appropriate, actually, since a lot of the applique you see, even on the ‘net is just that: old fashioned and DOWDY. But it doesn’t have to be. The design is the big ol’ lynch-pin. You have to have a cool design. More on that in a minute. First, what you need.

  • cool design
  • scrap fabric in appropriate colors/patterns (cotton, light weight) … all pre-shrunk
  • surface to applique on (should be easy to get to the back – pockets are a bit hard, at least if you want to use your sewing machine) – pre-shrunk as well!
  • iron-on interfacing
  • sewing machine
  • coordinating/contrasting thread as appropriate Continue reading “B’day T’shirt”
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Popovers

I have to say, I really love popovers. They require no leavening agent and rely, rather, on high-heat generated steam for their towering height. They have a nice, slightly custardy flavor and are incredibly easy to make.

I think this was the second time I’ve made popovers. It seems to me there was a go before this, perhaps while we were in Vail, but it’s a bit foggy up there so I can’t say for sure. I was reminded of them near the end of last week and I thought they sounded like a good thing to make with the yummy loaded potato soup we had on Friday. Every time (whether it was once or twice), they came together quickly and easily and turned out perfectly. As an added bonus, I almost always have the ingredients around. Popover connoisseurs insist that these must be baked in popover-specific pans, but I make mine in muffin tins and do not succumb to the dreaded unitasker. I am sure they taste just as good.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 C all-purpose flour (I think it helps if you sift, but it’s not strictly necessary)
  • 1 C milk
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Directions
[flickr size=”small” float=”right”]http://www.flickr.com/photos/jesser80/5484034383/[/flickr]Heat oven to 450. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with butter or non-stick spray. Beat eggs gently in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk in remaining ingredients until just smooth. Do not over-mix. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins until they are about 2/3 full or a bit less. Bake for 20 minutes then reduce oven temp to 350 and bake another 10-20 minutes or until popovers puffed up nicely and golden brown on top. Enjoy as you see fit … I suggest butter and strawberry jam.

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Freezing Fog

We had a very cool weather phenomenon occur on Friday … freezing fog. We had beautiful fog in the morning and it sort of iced all the trees so that they came out looking subtly white and perfect. It was really beautiful. I have no idea what it did to all of our plants, but it was pretty enough I’m not sure I care. We had had temps in the 50s all week and unfortunately, the freezing fog ended our beautiful weather. But I hear tomorrow it will be back.

We had a fab weekend. Friday was chill and easy. We went to the gym, had a playdate, had naps and got to hang at home. I got to make loaded potato soup and popovers (more on those tomorrow). Saturday was similarly chill … gym time, a trip to the frozen yogurt shoppe, some errands, NAPS (again) and then dinner with my parents and grandma. The kids stayed over at my parents house and Matt and I met up with a friend in the AM and made it 6 miles at a good clip. Then we grabbed the kids and met up with a bunch of friends for a long trip to the zoo followed by a super chaotic (and fun) dinner at Wynkoop Brewery. Tabby made fast friends with our friend’s little girl who unfortunately lives on the other side of the country. And Mommy, who hadn’t eaten all day allowed herself a fairly rare and incredibly yummy BURGER, with fries. I think it’s fair to say that everyone enjoyed the day.

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Childcare Dilemma

Yesterday I found out we will be facing a childcare dilemma. Since Tabby was about 2 months old and I started back to work on a part-time basis, we’ve had one sitter who we adore. She came recommended by a coworker and we’ve loved sending our kids to her house for nearly four years now. My kids have a second home there and she treats them like members of her family. It has been pretty much an ideal situation. But yesterday I got confirmation on something that we knew was probably coming. Our beloved sitter is retiring. Continue reading “Childcare Dilemma”

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From the Mouths of Babes

A conversation between my babes a few weeks ago while riding in the car:

Ben: babble babble
Tabby: That’s a house, Ben. A  house.
Ben: babble babble
Tabby: Say house, Ben! Say house! You need to use your words.
Ben: *screams loudy*
Tabby: He doesn’t seem very interested.
Ben: House! House!

Tabby and I laughed the rest of the way home.

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The Haps

It’s been a busy busy week. And it’s only Tuesday.

  • We are ALMOST all over our colds (flu??) I’m still a bit hazy around the edges.
  • We’re planning a send-off for Uncle Buck (Matt’s brother who’s been living with us this month) as he heads back to TN and eventually to the army. We’re going to go play trivia at DNote on Thursday. Yay!
  • We’re going to see Gigi tonight because it’s been way too long.
  • I went to a very unsatisfying sports conditioning class last night. I’m pretty sure she was conditioning me to sleep … or maybe do yoga.
  • We are planning our LAST ski weekend of the season (how is this possible??).
  • We are planning Tabby’s 4th b’day festivities – TEN days people … TEN days!!!
  • Speaking of which, I have no idea what to get Tabby for her b’day … I was going to get her  a Leapster Explorer, but the bad reviews scared me off. I don’t want a ton more junky plastic. Maybe we’ll go shopping for an outfit and visit the paint-your-own pottery store. The girl loves her art.
  • The house is a semi-wreck from busyness/sickness.
  • My Visa has suddenly decided not to work, so I cannot pay my library fines. Now I have to spend time on the phone figuring out WHY.
  • The above is only ONE of about 100 phone calls I need to make … during business hours.
  • I am supposed to run a half marathon in less than 7 weeks and I have not run more than 4.5 miles since … December? That’s a problem.
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Ch-ch-ch Changes

After years and years of lovingly crafting my own blogging engine, I have finally defected to a pre-produced one. I am a bit sad about this, but I simply no longer have the time to maintain the code … so WordPress it is. It’s a good engine with lots of room for extension and excellent themes. Moving the data from my old blog was no mean feat and I spent lots of time creating scripts to convert the posts, comments, categories and recipes (converted to posts!). And then I had got to craft a new theme as well.

Things are far from done, but I feel like I’ve made a really good start on things and I’m quite pleased with how things are progressing.

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Inevitably ….

It is weird how these things work. Does anyone else have the experience of only watching a random TV show … say I Love Lucy or Family Ties or Hey Dude … only once in a blue moon; sometimes not for months and years, and yet if you DO catch it one random evening when you’re flipping through the channels it’s the SAME EPISODE you caught that other random time. Maybe it’s just me.

We also “laugh” about how when Matt’s out of town the kids get sick and/or it snows buckets. Maybe not ALL the time, but pretty darn frequently. When I was pregnant with Tabby, we’d had the winter from heck and I dropped him off at the park ‘n’ ride and I could hardly get back to the house because there were cars stuck in the middle of the road all over our neighborhood!

The kids were sick over the weekend and continue to be, so of course Matt left on a business trip this morning. Luckily we have Matt’s brother staying with us so I was able to go to work this AM and get meetings and essentials out of the way and then I could come home at noon and come home to be with my sick kids. We will be doing the same gig tomorrow and possibly Thursday.

They have been good, sweet kids … and of course the upside to them being sick is that they want to snuggle … LOTS … and they like to sleep, except perhaps in the middle of the night. Tabby is mostly on the mend, but Ben is still in the feverish throes of it and he does not appreciate being made to take Tylenol. He does, however, enjoy the Gatorade in his sippy cup. Woot.