Rock on Snowman!

Preston brought home this fine piece of artwork today from school and I was so freaking proud. It's not everyday your first born makes a tie-dye snowman!



The snowman is now proudly displayed in the kitchen and he will rock out daily with us and remind all who come to work hard, party hard. I'm pretty sure that isn't what Preston had in mind when he created the masterpiece but that is my motto.

Maren had her first gymnastics class tonight. Unlike Preston she didn't have the chance to participate in 427 different mommy and me classes (I was pretty burnt out after living la vida loca with Preston, we did every class under the sun and then some).

Maren & I pretty much stuck to the basics like music, gym and swimming. She was all alone tonight with me watching from the sidelines and did terrific. It's amazing how well your kid will listen to a complete stranger. I totally expect my daughter to be an Olympic gymnast after seeing her performance tonight!

Girls have Vajamama's

Yep, as you heard I had to clarify that girls do not have 2 butts. Fast forward to our now daily conversation about who all has a "Vajamama". You just have to love kids and their open innocence and willingness to talk about anything. I'm certainly not going to clarify what a Vajamama is but I will enlighten you with some of the other odd pronunciations that Maren uses.

wopcorn - popcorn
woptart - poptart (we of course don't eat these here)
rareplane- airplane
brokli- broccoli
chuck - truck

It was a long week of funerals with both friends and family. It's nice to arrive at Friday and know that we can get together with our friends cook, drink, eat and know that just for a few minutes everything is right with the world.

I'm giving this new recipe before I try it because I don't plan on having pictures since I'm still without a lens.

Creamy Zucchini Spaghetti

Lightly saute some garlic, red pepper flakes, zucchini (julienned) and salt/pepper in olive oil. Add some butter in to melt and then add sour cream, fresh lemon juice and some milk and flour to create a cream sauce.

Cook your noodles and then pour this over the noodles adding in some fresh grated Parmesan cheese and some additional fresh grated pepper. Bake for 20-30 min and serve with a crisp green salad and lots of wine.

Like most of my recipes I don't have exact measurements but if you really want them, just ask! This should be a light fresh cream sauce similar to Alfredo. I'm using Spaghetti because I heart the way it bakes up with some crispness to it.

I have 2 butts!

I'm going to keep this as clean as humanely possible and I guess its a really good thing that my camera lens broke yesterday. I spent the morning explaining to Maren (who is just about to turn 3) that she doesn't' have 2 butts.

I had heard rumors about this for a week because we are very free flowing with talk about Preston's parts. Not so much with the girl stuff, the words just aren't as "nice sounding" so I stay far, far away from it.

I know that most of you are saying what an irresponsible thing to do, not to give your kids the correct names for each part but I must say at least I didn't name it some cute fluffy name. Like all boys have a we willy winky and all girls have a fluffy bunny. I kept it real....until this morning.

It took 20 minutes of talking and convincing and it even involved bodily fluids. I was able to prove her wrong (victory!!) with talk about the origination and final resting place of poop (sorry but you know this would eventually go south).

I feel like Mom of the Year now that both my kids can refer to their parts with the correct terms. Off to reward myself with some quality reading materials (Us Weekly) and a glass of hydrating water (wine).

Before I go, I'm throwing in a random picture just because it will be awhile before my dear husband stops at Best Buy and buys the lens my camera needs. Feast your eyes on my new lens.

Death Trifecta & Superstitions

I will warn you nothing in this post will make you think of rainbows, small furry bunny rabbits or a Disney princess.

Let start with the obvious Death Trifecta, I was introduced to this thought process years ago and it was more in relation to celebrities and how they seem to die in sets of 3. Over the years I have watched the patterns in my friends, coworkers and acquaintances (because I have very little family to see the theory play out).

Sure enough you tend to see death come in 3's. Sometimes its all in one family or sometimes all in one month or sometimes not much rhyme or reason other than 3. Like I said before it very rarely impacts me because I have so few family members.

Until today, My grandpa passed away unexpectedly, you would add this to the fact my friend Rachael lost her Grandma a few weeks ago. We are up to 2 (in case you are slow in math like me). The problem is Rachael's husband lost his Grandpa today also so we are at 3. You might be thinking we are in good shape not so quick, Rachael's husband is also watching is dad (who is so young) fight for his life.

That is the spooky part, if we loose him then the Trifecta starts over and somehow I have to deal with losing 2 more people. Let's think positive and with lots of prayers.

Now onto the superstition, this habit of mine has really increased as I've gotten older and had kids. I believe somethings just shouldn't be messed with and I'm afraid I messed with something I shouldn't have.

When I was pregnant with Preston my Grandma gave me a Celtic cross from Ireland (they are originally from there). I never took that cross off in the 5+ yrs I have had it until Friday. Wouldn't you know it, I take the cross off and lose my Grandpa 2 days later. I'm probably a wee bit more emotional right now but that just seems down right spooky to me.

yep, I'm a downer. Maybe tomorrow I can crack a smile, we shall see how several things play out.

Sunday, Birthday party, Sunday

Preston has a birthday party all the way in the city (ok, its only 30 min away) so I figure I will take my laptop and actually go sit in a coffee shop and work. I'm not sure I will actually be able to focus on work without the normal interruptions of "Can I have some water", "Come watch me pee" or "He hit me" but I'm willing to give it a go.

It's a dreary Sunday here and I'm the first to admit I LOVE IT!! I love the soft snow fall and the cold winter coloring as it makes me want to stay home bundled in sweat pants and a blanket by the fire. I'm going to have to venture out, after P's birthday party I'm going over to the ice rink to run again. I stopped running after I hurt my back and am glad to be back in the saddle. It gives me a solid hour of daydreaming potential and/or problem solving time - love it!

We are entering birthday party central here - 1 today, 2 next Saturday and then Maren's party is the following Saturday and then we pick up a chunk in February and then finally Preston in March. I'm sure that I missed some and we will have other pop up.

Here's a picture of this week's crafty project, wondering if anyone can guess what I used to make it. Excuse the kitchen parts in the pic, I was too lazy to find my smaller lens or to move the craft project.



I also hate that I have 2 great made up recipes to share but no pics of them. I made Veggie Lasagna last week and the filling was so yummy you could eat alone with bread or crackers. This week I made Sweet Potato Pasta, good but not great. I think had I been a tad less tipsy when cooking it would have been really great. The secret ingredient to both is Ricotta cheese, so rich yet not so unhealthy like heavy cream.

In fact we have a dinner party coming up and I'm going to take one of my signature dishes, Vodka Penne and work some ricotta into it and see what happens.

In regards to my facebook fears, I'm ok with it now. I needed some time to sift through all the memories and what I concluded was it was my friends that made the time so memorable. The other stuff/people I can forgot now. I do like how we have all grown up, some have kids and everyone has a life.

crap, my Grandpa just passed away unexpectedly. very sad, he was a wonderful man.

Serious Ranting!

Again I suck at blogging right now, I'm in a total funk and can't figure out why. Life is same old, same old so that isn't the problem (or is it). I love winter and it is really winter here right now (-10 below) so that can't be it. Who knows but I'm cranky and not talking about it right now!

I finally took the plunge with Facebook, I need to understand these sites from a Social Marketing perspective for a work project and I was tired of getting pestered to actually check my page. It has been an interesting ride so far reconnecting with old friends brings back so many memories. I remember most although some are blurry due to underage alcohol consumption (I can't get into trouble for admitting that now, can I?), some are humbling since I had some big family things that went down on a regular basis and some are hard to stomach because I was so shy and insecure back then.

I have a hard time reconciling the person I was back then with who I am now. I really shouldn't let that stop me from catching up with old friends and walking down memory lane but it stirs things up I pushed way down and sealed off. Sometimes i think I should have stayed in Colorado and not come to Minnesota so many years ago - was I running from my problems, not dealing with difficult situations or just ready for a change. I don't know and I'm not sure I want to know.

Housewife rant - I'm officially on strike, nothing in my job description says I should have to pick up stray socks from random places or attempt to carry a six pack of empty soda cans from the bedroom.


Some of you will know this new strike is in addition to my previous dry cleaning strike of 6 months ago. I need to come up with a name for this all encompassing strike that would include soda can removal from any area of the house, dealing with laundry remnants and crumb wiping up.

A heads up to anyone who lets their kids play unsupervised while they blog, this could happen to your pool table! Notice the strategically placed dog tail(he was too dumb to move). How in the world did they get all those pillows and blankets past me (some are in the basement but most are from their beds - BAD MOM).



On a final note this is the face Maren made most of Monday night while at the hospital. She made this face when telling the doctors "I won't eat poop anymore".



This is the poop she is referring too - thanks Nana!



Sometimes I wonder if this is really my life????

I suck!

I suck so bad I can't even manage a blog post to wish everyone a happy and healthy 2009!!!