Thank You Notes

I think it’s time for another round of thank you notes

Dear Lottery,

     I tried twice last week to get in touch with you.  It seems that you answered someone else instead.  Maybe we can get together after Saturday night’s drawing?

Dear Guy that pulled out in front of me,

     Thank you for berating me with your middle finger in your rearview mirror because your spectacular driving made me get a little too close to your bumper.  Next time I will anticipate your rude and inconsiderate driving and roll out a red carpet for you - instead of blowing bubbles with my gum to show how uninterested I was with what your digit had to say. 

Dear Summer Vacation,

     Thank you a thousand times over for your annual appearance.  I certainly look forward to our visit this year.

           

Dear Lady at swimming,

     Thank you for looking your best at the pool tonight.  I really liked your hair.  Next week let’s try to decrease the perfume to just a gallon – I think the two you used tonight were a bit too much. 

Dear Dinner Gods,

     Thank you for providing me the strength tonight to cook dinner for my children. I just couldn’t do drive through for dinner again.  When you get the chance, I could use your help for some more dinner ideas for one adult and two children. 

XOXO,

Holly

Spring Break Smack Down

The weather was less than glamorous during Spring Break.  After all the laundry was folded, the kids needed something to do.  Well, they figured something out.

Spring Break Smack Down!

They played this game several times during the week.  Thankfully G's body slams got more and more wimpy as the game played on.

A Spring Break Miracle

It’s Spring Break week at our house.  Not that it feels like spring in any way, shape, or form.  The weather forecasters plan for a cold and snowy week.  Matt was home for the first two days of the week and is now gone until Friday.  Thankfully he could hold off his flight until early Wednesday morning so I could go to Recipe Club on Tuesday night.

My goal for this Spring Break week was to catch up on some movies, sleep, and get ahead of my nemesis, the laundry.

For movies, I’ve watched the third Twilight movie, Up In the Air, The Proposal, Karate Kid (the new version), and Swiss Family Robinson.  Have you ever watched Swiss Family Robinson?  What a fantastic family movie.  M and I watched this yesterday and loved it.  When she talked to Matt tonight she could not stop talking about it.  You should see it.

For sleep, we’ve been keeping the kids up past their bedtime, and thankfully they have been sleeping in to make up for it.  An 8:00 wake up is a beautiful thing.  M joins me in bed and turns on the TV while I snooze a bit more.  When G wakes up I bring him to bed with us and he will lie in bed with us until his belly growls for breakfast.  I think we’ve had three pajama days so far.

Finally the laundry - It is the last thing we want to do on a weekend, and it often ends up in a heap on the downstairs couch.  The recent construction put laundry even further down the weekend list since we’ve been trying to get the house put back together.  Our couch has now been named Mt. Laundrus.  I spent pretty much the entire day on Wednesday folding and putting away laundry.  The folding was not as bad as I expected, but the putting away was tricky, especially for M.  This is the time of year that I have to go through her drawers and purge the clothes that no longer fit.  That slowed the whole process a bit.  You will be happy to know every sock is matched.   Matt will be so impressed when he gets home.

Mt. Laundrus + another basket behind the couch to the left

No laundry in the washer

No laundry in the dryer - aka Dresser #2

No laundry on the floor

No laundry in the baskets - aka Dresser #3

We have our couch back!  For a few days, at least

Recipe Club

Have I ever told you about Recipe Club?  Each month some neighbors and I get together for Recipe Club.  We’ve been doing this since August of 2006.  We’ve grown to a group of ten, although it’s rare for all ten of us to attend each month.  I've been absent for the last few months due to Matt's ever changing work schedule.  

The hostess picks a theme (30-minute meal, crockpot, Mom’s recipes, Julie & Julia, and Homemade Beauty Products) and we all bring an entrée that fits the theme.  The hostess provides beverages and dessert.  As the years have gone on some themes have emerged for a few of the participants:

One person usually says her meal is really bad and did not work out well or she had to call her mom or sister for help.  It always turns out fine.

When we gather in the kitchen to share what we brought I always share first.

One person typically makes up her recipe.  She just uses what she thinks sounds good, and it always turns out good.

One person’s recipes are usually very straightforward and super easy to make.

One person’s husband often makes her recipes because his work schedule allows him the time in the late afternoon to make her recipe. 

Aside from the food we love to have the time to talk.  Many of us have children that are the same age or very close in age.  We can ask the "does your kid do this?" or "what do I do when my kid...?" questions.  The time away from husbands and children is like a mini vacation.  Some of the recipes from Recipe Club have become our family favorites like Josh’s Chicken Enchiladas and Shrimp and Tortellini Salad.  

This month was Soup and Spring Rolls.  We could make one of the themes or both.  I chose to make soup that turned out, eh OK.  I don't think I will make it anytime soon.  The part that was comical about this month was the fact that we needed so many bowls!  The hostess made a fruit soup and chocolate soup for dessert. 

Greek Lemon & Chicken soup, Sweet Cabbage, Meatball & Pasta soup, and Chicken & Green Chile soup

 
Cheers!

Holy Hail, Batman!

We drove back to my parents' house this morning to pick M up from her weekend with Nana & Papa.

The overcast and windy weather forced a menu change from steaks on the grill to pizza take out.  The men and kids stayed in the kitchen while mom, my sister and I set ourselves up in the sun porch.  Then the rain showed up.  The roofing material on their sun porch magnifies the sound of the rain to a deafening din.  For some reason the rain seemed louder than usual.  This is why...

Hail!

The kids' faces were priceless when they saw the hail land in the yard.  Just as quickly as it arrived, it was gone.

We are back to a family of four.  It feels good to have balance restored in the house. 

Ahhhhhh!

With every good comes a bad, right?

Well this week is the pinnacle of the bad.  Matt has been traveling pretty much non-stop since the middle of February.  LA, NY, Düsseldorf, Minnesota, and other little places in between.  In the time that he was gone a wall was constructed and half of the floors were refinished.

As a teacher there are four days out of the year that I have to work in the evening: Fall Curriculum Night, November Parent-Teacher Conferences, March Parent-Teacher Conferences, and Spring Open House.  Since we do not live super close to our families it's best that Matt is in town on these days.  We know well in advance of these dates so no problems, in my memory, exist.

Then there's this week.  There was a possibility of a quick one day to Brooklyn, but it could also happen anytime in the next three weeks.  This week just so happens to be March Parent-Teacher Conferences and Thursday is the day when I have to work until the evening.  M has a few days off and is going to spend a few days with Nana & Papa.  That will leave G and Matt to have some male bonding time on Thursday. 

Well all of a sudden there was a potential trip back to Minnesota this week.

"No problem, you just have to be home on Thursday."

I walked in from work  on Tuesday and Matt said that a trip to Minnesota is scheduled for Thursday.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you correctly.  I think you just said you're going to Minnesota on Thursday."

I heard correct folks.

"Well, you'd better find a sitter for G since I have to work late."

Our usual swimming babysitter has class on Thursdays so she is out.  Matt called our daycare provider to see if she could keep him late.  No dice, it's St. Patrick's Day for goodness sakes.

Today Nana and Papa came over to watch M at swimming and then take her home for the few days.  As Matt and I tried to have a civil conversation about who was going to watch G while he went to Minnesota, Nana and Papa saved the day to say they'd take him home til Friday.

Nana & Papa to the rescue!

While they took her to swimming, I used the electronic babysitter (aka a movie) to pack both kids during Matt's conference call with China.

As of now both kids are with Nana & Papa, and Matt has some splainin' to do.

I think this is a Calgon moment.

Japan

I recently came across the Stats button on my Blogger dashboard.  This tells me how many visitors have been to our blog in a given day, week, or all time.  I see that over the past few weeks I've had two to three consistent visits from readers in Japan.

When I heard about the earthquake in Japan, I thought about these two to three readers.  Are they near the epicenter?  Where were they when the earthquake happened?  Are they OK?   

If you are one of my Japanese readers, please leave me a comment.  I would like to know how you've been impacted and how your city has fared from the earthquake & tsunami.

13 hours later

We have a circuit breaker.

It may not be the most glamorous way to spend your hard-earned money, but for the safety of our family it was a necessity.  The electrician, Mr. C., came back to bring our house up to this century.  Mr. C. is recommended by Mr. D. and the boys.

For those born after 1980 - This is Mr. Cunningham from Happy Days.  

The Fonz called him Mr. C.  Our Mr. C. is not nearly this old. 

Mr. C. is an interesting guy; I think he has adult ADD.  He has a lot to say and switches topics as they fly into his mind.  That being said he worked straight through all day, and into the night.

The other interesting thing is the electricity in our house.  Looking at our panel you would see at least two auxiliary boxes and other random bits of conduit.  When I came home at lunch he gave me the rundown of what he'd done so far and a few head shakes about what others had done.

Fast forward to dinner time tonight.  I've picked up the kids and we're home for dinner, but there is still no power in the house.  The kids are cranky and G is hanging from the refrigerator handle demanding "Milk!"  The best I could do was open the door super fast and hope that breakfast's sippy cup is on the top shelf.  Then what do we hear......

The whir of the fridge! We have dinner!

As we continued with our evening, Mr. C. continued his day in the basement.  When the clock ticked past 8pm he lumbered upstairs with all of his tools.  Done.  I knew that he had not eaten since breakfast so I made him a pb & j sack lunch for the road.  Yeah, I'm a food pusher.

Dinner for 1+

Dinner is a little sketchy at our house lately.  With Matt's ever-changing work schedule I am often cooking dinner for just the kids and me.  I can only handle drive-thru dinner so many times in a week.  I have not quite embraced this new dinner situation as I thought I would.

My waistline is not taking kindly to this lifestyle change.  Now that I think about it, my whole body is not taking this well either.  I am exhausted by the time the kids go to bed and have no ambition to do anything physical.  Things have to change.  Just because Matt is not home does not mean that I should subject the family to a less than wholesome meal.  Here in lies the dilemma, by the time I get home with the kids we are all starving and not in the mood to wait for Chef Mom to put dinner on the table.  If I do make dinner at home I do not present the kids with the recommended amount of vegetables.  I need to get back into the meal planning gig, fast.

Today I am in the middle of planning a set of meals to get us through the week, and maybe some leftovers for my lunch.

Here's the plan for the week
Sunday - Spaghetti & Meatballs
Monday - Baked Potatoes with bacon, broccoli, cheese, etc
Tuesday - Pancakes (and maybe some eggs)
Wednesday - Shrimp & Tortellini (My kids LOVE this!  Popcorn shrimp and refrigerator tortellini - I put mine with romaine lettuce and Kraft Toasted Sesame dressing) 
Thursday - Chicken Quesedillas (Already in the freezer from my favorite meal prep business in town)
Friday - Chicken Pot Pie (This is already in the freezer - I just have to remember to take it out on Thursday to thaw.  This is my first time making the Pioneer Woman's Pot Pie recipe.  I hope it's good!)

We are also on the way to Trader Joe's so maybe we'll find more inspiration there.

New closets!

Matt has been working a lot!  He spent a mid-week through last weekend in Düsseldorf, Germany for a trade show, home for 18 hours, then on to LA for a day, and end the week in NYC.  Whew!

This was the first weekend he was home were we could do some more work in the house.  Our closets were on the top of the list today.  Since we have down sized our room so much, we wanted to make the best of the closet space.  We made the trek to The Container Store, with the kids.  We knew it was a challenge to our sanity to take G since the stroller is not his favorite spot these days.  We basically tag-teamed the closet planning process.  I told the lady what I wanted and passed it off to Matt once she started talking measurements.  Thankfully there were many, many things to keep G busy.  I don't think The Container Store meant for the props to be played with, but it bought us at least an extra 20 minutes in the store.   

He only knocked one stack of buckets all over the floor.  Not too bad!

Did you know The Container Store has a teacher discount?  It's 15% and it's awesome when you are buying a closet.  Teacher friends, sign up!

We hit G's shopping time limit and decided it was in no one's best interest for us to wait for them to cut our shelves.  We zipped home for lunch, put G down for a nap, and I painted our closet.  Matt went to gather our closet purchase.

Once we got all the pieces home it was time for Matt to get to work.

Before - check out that paint job

During

After! Shelves from floor to ceiling

After! Long & short hanging

A short time later - voila!

Did You Hear It?

You had to listen carefully, but when I turned off the shower this morning I heard it.  I heard the birds singing outside the window!  Spring is on its way!

Good Morning Sunshine!

I don't think I posted a photo of Zak Brown's pacthwork of the pocket door space.

He put some kind of wood glue/spackle over the new planks to fill in the seams.  He will sand that off in a few weeks.  We are trying like heck to not trip over the loose edge of carpet.  Surprisingly G has no interest in the very tempting flap of carpet.  At least the tack strip is removed so no Tetanus is coming our way.  Once he sands the kitchen and living room, it will look like it was always there.  

The electrical change over from fuse box to circuit breaker is going to happen.  It has weighed on our minds quite a bit since I saw the sad state of the wires in our house.  From what we have been told a switch to a circuit breaker and replacing the current cloth-covered wire to up to code wire would take one day for the circuit breaker and one day to pull and replace wire.  We need to have a sit down with whichever electrician we choose to teach us a bit about our pending purchase.  We seem to be on the cusp of high season for construction so we're going to make a decision in the next few days to hopefully capitalize on the slow season.