Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Drumroll please
Some of my favorite runners up were "Mo Carthy Than You Can Handle", "Elvis Don't Live Here No More", and of course, the crowd favorite, "Emergency Pants and Other Necessities.". I just couldn't bring myself to use that one since I am supremely hopeful (please, Lord) that the part of my child-rearing that involves emergency pants is drawing to a close. Amen.
This and that
First - Evan has been telling us since last spring when soccer season ended that he wanted to play basketball. Insisted really. Basketball was totally going to be his thing. So. Yesterday was basketball registration at church. When I told Evan we were getting ready to go to register for basketball, he looked up at me and said, "I don't want to play basketball." WHAT?? Long story short: I think I figured out that he thought he was going to actually play basketball last night. And he was very tired and pretty grumpy. Left over from his super fun camping trip with Corin (more on that later). Anyway, after a few phone calls to friends' moms to make sure he'd have buddies playing, we got him registered without further incident. And now he's excited.
Next - I do NOT understand how such big poo can come out of such little people. TMI, I know. But I had to plunge TWO potties last night. Back to back. And the second one overflowed all over the tile floor while the peanut gallery stood on stools brushing their teeth and
making aggravating comments. And it continued to overflow even after I shut off the water. Seriously, I do not know why these things only happen when Corin is traveling or working late. Arrrghhh.
Finally - when I took Evan to school this morning, it was raining which always guarantees a long, slow moving carpool line. After Evan got out of the car, Pressley looks up and says, "Come ON, people!" in this very exasperated tone. Oh, wow. I wanted to fuss at her and tell her that was no way to talk, but when I realized that I was hearing myself repeated back to me, what could I say? I've just realized I need to be a bit more careful what I say out of frustration in the car.
Luckily, I've had some much needed down time today and I'm ready to go back to doing my best to be a good mommy instead of a grumpy mess.
Monday, November 9, 2009
A winner (almost...)
Must. Go. Unwind.
Friday, November 6, 2009
A bloggy contest
My favorite (and the one that inspired me to jump on the bloggy bandwagon), is Shay's My Other Blog is a Hybrid. I'm not really even sure what it means, but it amuses me. Her good friend Molly (whom I've never met, but I'm pretty sure we'd hit it off if we ever did) calls hers Southern Spunk - and has a super cute pic of her daughter running around in front of some azaleas to punctuate the southern. And then there's Thoughts and Inklings of an Artist (who rarely updates anymore, but still has a clever name), Confessions of a Rambling Mind... And of course, BooMama, BigMama, and MckMama (whose children all have McDonald's inspired bloggy code names to ensure their relative anonymity. Clearly she has more than six readers. As an aside, do click on over to MckMama's blog if you have a sec. She has a very ill little boy who may be having heart surgery in the next few days and could use all the additional prayers he can get. I am definitely praying for Stellen. Are you?)
Yes, I follow a lot of blogs. It is a sickness. But in my defense, I keep up with them on my iPhone so as not to spend an inordinate amount of time away from my family.
Anyhoo. I am very interested in all suggestions for a clever new name for my blog. Please don't leave me hanging by not posting any comments. It would be ever so embarrassing to host a contest with no entries. My feelings might get hurt. So, if you are one of my 6 readers, think hard, be creative, and post a suggestion. I'll leave the contest open for as long as it takes to get enough entries to make it interesting. Or until I see one I love. Or until it becomes painfully obvious that no one is going to participate. Whichever comes first.
Have a great Friday. We're off to dinner with friends followed by a puppet show. Later gators.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Happy Halloween
After the photo was done, we separated and set about trick-or-treating. Now, I have always thought the concept of trick-or-treating was pretty intuitive and straight forward, but this year, it was like herding cats to get our kids oriented. Every time they came down some front steps, it took a good 30 seconds to get them facing the right direction to head on down/up the street. Then, at the next house, it was like they had never heard of the concept of walking up some steps and ringing a doorbell and asking for some candy by saying "trick-or-treat." They were like some deer in headlights. Like, "What is this foreign thing you ask of me?" Seriously! We had to give blow-by-blow instructions all over again -I kid you not- at EVERY house. I guess no gifted classes in these kids' future. (Don't get all bent out of shape. That was a joke.)
A bunch of our neighbors go all out. This was the lawn inflatable in one neighbor's yard:
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Trick or Treat - Kilpatrick style
Here they are posing with a Cinderella we met along the way. The two princesses were very impressed with each other's costumes. It was quite the mutual admiration society....
This bowl of candy had a skeletal hand that clasped down over the candy triggered by a motion sensor. Pressley liked to taunt it. Also note the giant spider on the wall that dropped down when it sensed motion and had red beady eyes that lit up. Our Lil' P from last year's Halloween would have run screaming away in terror.
Finally, a shot of the fam in the KS lobby on our way out after a fun-filled afternoon.
Friday, October 30, 2009
The cupcake eating, I mean, pumpkin carving party
I've been feeling kinda miserable these last couple of days (just a cold - no flu; swine or otherwise), so if I had it to do over again, I may have done a few things differently. We were invited to bring an appetizer or sweet to go with the couple-of-crock-pots-of-chili-type-dishes and drinks that were being provided. I would normally sign up for a sweet so that in the event of a busy week, I could just swing by the Publix and buy some cupcakes. I'm apparently not the only one who thinks this way because there were lots of cupcakes at this bash - at least until my children were unleashed on them.
Anyhoo, this time I signed up for an app instead. And decided that I would try to come up with something other than a dip and a chip to take. So I researched. I looked first at the Weight Watchers website because they have some surprisingly good recipes most of the time. I found a recipe for an artichoke tart that I found intriguing, so I printed it and then moved on to Rachel Ray's website. There were MANY many recipes there that involved something with some kind of "dipper" on the side. RR apparently loves her some dippers. And everything seemed pretty complicated.
So, I decided to go with the artichoke tarts and just not tell anybody they were from WW. I bought all the ingredients earlier in the week before The Cold hit, so I was kinda stuck with following through. Seriously, they were awesome. They were the hit of the party. Well, not with the kids. Even in my organic-buying, baby-wearing, CSA-belonging, hippie neighborhood, apparently the children will not experiment with an artichoke tart. My own child told me in no uncertain terms before we left the house that though she thought my tarts were pretty, she'd be having none of that. And she stuck to her guns.
But the moms and dads were fans. One mom said to me, "Oooh. These are incredible. I feel so fancy. Have you tried one of these?" To which I got to reply, "Oh, yeah, I brought those." Doesn't happen to me all that often. I even admitted in a separate conversation with some other moms that the tarts were a WW recipe that I had slightly modified since I was making it for a crowd (because, you know, Corin tells me that there is really never any good excuse to served fat-free anything to people you want to continue to call friends).
Sometime in the evening, after darkness fell, some of the dads did actually carve pumpkins. Let me tell you though, that was no place for a protective parent to be. Darkness, knives lying about, children running amuck. It's all fun and games until a toddler starts running around with a carving knife. I'm just sayin'.... I had to get out of there just for my own sanity. Plus, by then it was too late and dark to get any really good pictures, and that was really the only reason I dragged my sick self over there. That and to accept the compliments on the artichoke tarts.
Here's Matt - on of the party hosts - scooping the guts out of his pumpkin. Ick.
Here's Corin working on ours. Which turned out really cute. I'll try to get pics of the finished product tonight or tomorrow night. By the time Corin and the kids were back home with the finished product, I was in my jammies moaning about the fact that my sinuses just might explode. So, I didn't remember to go get the camera.
Ingredients6 spray(s) cooking spray
16 pieces wonton wrapper(s)
1/4 cup(s) low-fat shredded cheddar cheese (I used the real stuff)
4 oz fat-free cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat rather than FF)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp sweet red pepper(s), chopped
7 oz canned artichoke hearts, without oil, drained and chopped
1/4 cup(s) parsley, fresh, sprigs (I omitted, because, who am I? Martha Stewart?)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 16-hole miniature muffin pan with cooking spray.
Gently press 1 wonton wrapper into each muffin hole, allowing ends to extend above cups. Coat edges of wrappers with cooking spray and set aside.