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Link a Little Link a Lot

So … a few links I've gathered from the goodness of the web.

• First things first … drop what you're doing and go read my Cousin Ryan's hilarious (and well-written) accounts of college life with his roommate, Duffman, in Bro and Tell parts 1, 2 and 3 … actually makes me kind of nostalgic for college

on to the normal variety links …

• DIY microwave popcorn in a brown bag
• gotta love the satelleite photography alphabet
• I think I might need one of these cool light switch racks
• interesting sneaky card game designed by a kid from Australia
• terrifying portraits of child beauty queens
• will we all be part Duggar one day?? BoingBoing has the answer
• a long, detailed article about vaccines vs. pseudo science … very good read
• I love the wardrobe in this cool room

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Our Remodel

Well if the past three weeks have taught us anything it's to expect the unexpected. Everyone has been sick. Matt had to head out of town for an entire week and feels like he's going to have to do more of that. And in general, things have been quite a mess. This, combined with some fiscal analysis of the situation, led us to the conclusion that we should hire someone to handle the basement remodel for us. Pretty much anything we saved in DIY would be eaten up in rookie mistakes and also, we'd like this done in a timely manner.

Our neighbors had their basement finished this summer by a sort of one-man-band and we started discussing a plan with him last week … to be started in his next open slot, in January. But on Saturday we received a surprise call … his next slated job had to be pushed back, so he wanted to see if we would take the slot. We would!! He starts … yesterday.

Sunday we met with him to make firm plans and get all our ducks in order. Yesterday, he moved in materials and to our surprise, started framing up some exterior walls. Two are already done. So Matt and I are scrambling to get some fixtures purchased: bathtub (he frames around this) and light boxes for the recessed lighting (he will install these so handy hubby can wire things up after framing is done).

The pricetag freaks me out. I knew what it would be, and we do have the $$ for it, but it hurts. Big time. I like my savings account all big and fat not all trim and svelte. And even after the basement is done, there is still a lot we want to do to the house. It needs painted, probably by next summer (hope they wash windows while they're at it). We also really want to replace our high-traffic area carpet with hardwood floors. It's a light oatmeal kind of color and looks dingy and worn even if we clean it. And then there's the master bath where they thoughtfully installed CARPET. Yea, that's fun with all the moisture in a bathroom.

All that said, I'm glad we decided to stay in our house. I really love it and I want to make it work for us for as long as possible. I think eventually we'll probably want to move on to something a bit bigger, but right now our little cottage is lovely … and getting lovelier.

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Holiday Weekend Recap


What a great weekend! Usually, I do not work on Fridays, but with all the snow, Matt out of town and having to take Ben to the doc’s, etc. I was behind on hours, so my mom watched the kiddos and I went into work. It was one of those days where the stars aligned and I was super-productive. And in the middle of the day, mom and the kiddos showed up because we were having a Halloween Chili cook-off at work. It was a fun event and I look forward to doing it again next year. I did not win … don’t think I got even a single vote. Competition was pretty stiff … and I got a great new recipe for Chicken Chili. Yay.

Saturday everyone got up early for some reason and we had some breakfast and before I blinked we had to rush off to take Tabby to her first dance class. I will not say that it was an unmitigated success. She went AWOL twice and showed up in the parent’s viewing area saying it was time to go. But we sent her back in and I think she ended up enjoying it.

After dance and lunch, sister Kelly and I headed out to do the grocery shopping with Ben while Tabby took her nap and Matt carved pumpkins. Once we got home, we went on a cooking marathon, making bacon squash bites (yum!), Halloween Supper, and pumpkin chocolate chip squares (that turned out more cakey than I think they were intended to be due to a crying baby and a stand-mixer on auto-pilot). Dinner turned out fabulously and so did the pumpkin, which took Matt around 5 hours. Seriously.

After dinner, we drove the kiddos over to visit their sitter and she gave them candy and plied us with wine and cheese. Then it was back to our neighborhood where Ben stayed with my parents and eventually fell asleep and Tabby, Kelly, Matt and I went trick-or-treating. Tabby did very well with her script and only grabbed a huge greedy handful once or twice. She also refused to wear a coat.

The night ended on a total sugar-high heading into a bit of a meltdown, but overall, a very successful Halloween. Sunday … well more on Sunday later.

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Creamy Pumpkin Pasta

from: http://www.momadvice.com

Ingredients
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive oil
1 pound package of Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage (removed from its casing)
2/3 cup to 2 cups pumpkin puree (depending on your personal taste)
1 can chicken broth
¼ cup half & half
½ cup sour cream (low-fat or fat free)
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp white pepper
1 tsp sage
2 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
¼ cup Romano Cheese, shredded
1 pound penne or rotini pasta

Directions
In a large skillet sauté the garlic in the olive oil on medium heat. Add the turkey sausage and cook until no longer pink, breaking the meat up with your spoon as you cook it. Remove turkey sausage and garlic from the skillet. Pour the chicken broth into the skillet and deglaze the pan using a wire whisk, to bring up all of the flavors stuck to the pan. Whisk in the half and half, sour cream, pumpkin, and seasonings. Simmer for ten minutes. Meanwhile, boil the pasta in salted water until al dente. Drain pasta and stir into the pumpkin mixture along with the turkey sausage, simmering for another three minutes or until the sauce thickens and hugs the pasta. Stir in parsley and garnish with Romano and more parsley.

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Halloweeny Links

• Halloween on a Saturday kinda rocks … think I must make Vampire Pancakes!!
• there are a couple cute ideas (raining cats and dogs) in this round up of no-sew kids' costumes
• I usually make Halloween Supper, but I've been thinking about switching it up this year and this menu looks pretty good!
• some advice on photographing Halloween costumes
• some fun Geek Costumes
• some very nice Halloween wall paper to spruce up your computer
• there are quite a few great Halloween shirts available on shirt.woot … with expedited shipping they might even make it in time for the big day

… and links completely unrelated to Halloween

• I think Yvett definitely needs this Hello Kitty House!
• gotta love these Rosie the Riveter Bookends!
• I really dig this pretty printable chore chart
• I have no idea how to describe this, so you better just look at it!
• some simple ways to improve your photography – no new equipment needed

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A Duh Moment

I'm sure you've heard by now that Disney is issuing refunds for Baby Einstein Videos. And my honest reaction? I think the whole thing is a little insulting to parents' intelligence.

I don't know about you, but I never assumed the DVDs did anything but entertain. We own quite a few and they have played a key role in my ability to get a shower, get dinner on the table and complete an important phone call now and again. Neither of our kids has gotten a steady diet of them (maybe watching 2-3 per week) and I honestly do not see the harm. Maybe in the perfect world, there would be no TV for the under 2 set, or no TV for anyone period. But here in reality, they entertain my kids for a few minutes and I see absolutely nothing wrong with that.

And in general, I honestly find TV to be at least somewhat beneficial. Tabby knows tons of music terms from Little Einstein (and uses them in her every-day speech and pretend) and a respectable amount of Spanish from Dora (the child counted to 10 in Spanish correctly before English! and it's not like we weren't encouraging her in English). Of course it doesn't replace things like puzzles or books … largely, in my opinion because they frequently have the added component of parental interaction. And I can't quite see the logic behind the people that are so militantly against TV. Sure I've heard the studies, but there is a big gap between correlation and causality. For me, another old adage works well here and in most situations: Everything in moderation, including moderation.

So I will not be asking for my money back. As far as I'm concerned, I got what I paid for … a little entertainment for my kids.

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The Status Quo

I am hoping *knock repeatedly on everything wooden I can get my hands on* that we are over the sickies. Nothing remains of my illness except a bit of charming mucus and a bit of a raspy voice. It has been suggested to me repeatedly that this is “sexy.” Not sure I agree. Matt is mostly mended as well except for a few sinus headaches. It seems like the kids have missed whatever ailed us, thank goodness. I was worried on Friday when Ben seemed to be running a low-grade fever and fussing (with the cough he already had), but so far, it hasn’t developed into anything more and I pray it stays that way. I’d 100x over rather be sick than have the kids sick.

Obviously, we had a pretty low-key weekend. I end up missing my cousin Tana’s benefit gig on Friday to stay home with Ben. I really hated to miss it, but I feel like I did the right thing staying home with him. Matt and Tabby did get to go and enjoyed themselves hugely.

Saturday we made it to our friends’ Halloween party, which was great. They put a ton of effort into the planning and decorations and it really showed. Matt and I dressed up as two Geek Squad team members, which was easy and went over pretty well. The best costume we saw was a friend of ours who went as Octomom … long black wig, big sunglasses and a sling with 8 baby-dolls in it. Total crack-up. There were also 2 little mermaids with 2 King Triton daddies in their entourage. Tabby had a great time, but was more than ready to go home around 8:30. Two late nights in a row are hard on that girl, nap or not.

The rest of the weekend was spent running the bare-minimum of errands and catching up on laundry and house pick-up.