142 posts from 2007

I apologize that I have, in typical fashion, totally disappeared again.  We left for NJ on the 19th for 8 days, then tried to catch up back at home.  Two days ago, it was raining and we were bored so we took a hammer to our bathroom.  That's what most people do when they are bored, right? Home renovations?

In a few days, once I have a bathroom back and things are calmed down, I promise to write a Christmas summary and send a link to pictures. 

In the mean time, here you go.  Check out our current hall bath.  Lovely, huh?

Hallbathduring

...alcohol or Lysol to make this day any better. 

Want to hear?

So this morning starts out fine enough.  I get the girls off to school on time and decide to hit up a store real quick for some Christmas shopping since part of the beauty of having a baby is that they can't and won't tell their siblings what Mommy bought for them while they were gone.  Plus they can test drive a toy for you and won't remember when you give it to them again a couple weeks later. So there I am with Madilyn (who is barefoot, by the way. It was 80 degrees here today so she spent most of the day barefoot), in the store with a cart full of holiday goodies when it hits. My stomach problems. Lovely.  I need a bathroom..like NOW.  But alas that bathroom was not equipped to handle barefoot mobile toddlers so I labor breathed my way through it and headed to check out. They had one lane open. There were 8 people in front of me. Yea, not good.

We managed to make it home (without incident thank goodness!) and I got Madi settled in for a nap.  I putzed around and did my thang while she rested then it came time to go pick up Alyssa from preschool. I go in to get Madilyn, not leaving a moment to spare, and am faced with a leaky diaper.  A leaky poopy diaper. And she had rolled. Like all over the crib.  Oh and her pants were off.  Yeah, not good. 

I have never cleaned a child so fast.

We manage to get Alyssa on time and come straight home, so I can finish cleaning up the mess.  As Alyssa is eating lunch, she announces that her belly feels funny. I tell her to go rest in bed until I was done.  A minute later I hear that dreaded, "Mommy! I threw up!"  I go running.  She was in my bathroom. She had tried to make it. But let's just say she left a trail so she could find her way back to bed.  Yeah, not good.

It was not even 2 p.m yet.

Some time goes by, Matt comes home, I head out for more holiday shopping and get home much later than I had expected.  I walk in and the second I set eyes on Lysse, I knew.  She had a fever.  My mommameter was slightly off though tonight...by 1 degree.  However, she did have a low grade temp.  She said she didn't want her dinner but "wanted fruit and vegetables to make her better". She picked out a green apple.  I served it with some cheese. A second later?  Yep, she got sick again.  At the dining room table. Yea, not good.

So now they are all in bed. Poop and vomit free. For now.  Poor Alyssa, who we have determined does not have a stomach virus but rather a really nasty post nasal drip and hacky cough, is missing a playgroup tomorrow but hopefully will be ok to return to school in a couple days since it's her last week before winter break.  Plus she has a Christmas program to perform in on Friday!

Here's to a better day tomorrow because today was surely a day I do not want to repeat.

...how dare they close before 9pm on a Sunday. Don't they know that there are moms that run themselves down all day long..running non stop, give themselves a headache from hell, make themselves almost sick to their stomach with hunger and who only take in a whooping 300 calories and realize, after their children go to bed, that they need a quick way to make up the other 1700 they missed all day?  Sheesh.  So thanks a lot Subway...about time to think about putting a 24 hour policy in to effect. You really ticked off this momma tonight 

Madilyn is still loving food--any food. Actually, yesterday at Alyssa's gymnastics class, she was walking around asking for hand outs from the parents.  And although she eats any table food she can get her hands on, she still really enjoys pureed foods (it's the one way I can get her to eat a lot of broccoli!).

Two of her latest purees are sure to make most of us cringe but she loved them. Last night she had whole fat, plain greek yogurt with fruit puree that had fish oil in it, then I added some lima bean puree and wheat germ.  She ate it all up. This morning was a huge bowl of organic oatmeal with blueberry/fish oil puree, cauliflower puree and ground flaxseeds.  Yep, gobbled it up.

I have to wonder....how long will this last?

This has started to become a trend...a trend of just really, really bad days.  Each time Matt goes out to sea, I swear it's like each day becomes longer and longer.  We used to say each day felt like a week apart and now it seems with each passing day, it feels more like a month away from each other.  Today ended horribly which is never good. Bedtimes should be calm, peaceful, and reassuring not pure hell for everyone involved.

There are seriously days I question if I am cut out for this Navy thing (which we have been doing for over 8 years now) and to know it's nowhere near an end--we have so many years left-is just so discouraging.  Matt has offered to get out. To get a "normal" job, but then I shudder to think of returning to civilian life when the Navy is such a guarenteed paycheck and medical coverage for our children. A career where he can retire at a mere 39 years old and receive a pension.  We're almost halfway done. We would be fools to get out.  Or so we have said about everyone else that has done so.  It can provide a very nice future for us. However, is it worth it at the expense of our present?  A present where the girls are living through a life with a pretty much absent father and a mother who is, little by little, going completely insane and becoming a parent she does not want to become simply because she is burnt out and has nothing left to give? 

(sigh)

Ok, enough of that. Pity party over.  Where is the Vodka?

So like I mentioned, I received my copy of Deceptively Delicious last month. I have been flipping through and marking which recipes I wanted to try. I was a puree making fool this weekend and was all set to go.

Ok, let me save you the trouble--don't bother with the Spinach/Carrot Brownies and Avocado Chocolate Pudding. They taste like dog butt. Actually licking a dog's butt probably tastes better.  I have asked a few friends to try them to see if I did something wrong but wow...just wow...they were that bad.

I was anxious to try the Sweet Potato hot chocolate and Squash Mac n Cheese. The recipes are totally from scratch. Yea, I wasn't quite in the mood for that yet. Soooo..I took boxed Velvetta Shells and Cheese and mixed in 8T of butternut squash.  Wow, that was a good trick!  It was awesome.  I think about 6T would be ideal even to the most picky and observant of eaters; 8 was pushing it a bit but still good.  Today I made the sweet potato hot chocolate for Jules and it's incredible.  I put in 3T of sweet potato puree, Swiss Miss powder mix, and 3/4 cup milk into a blender, blended for a moment then heated and topped with whipped cream.  I tried it and couldn't tell a hint of anything.  Jules had no clue. 

Tonight we are making homemade chicken nuggets with cut up chicken breast, dipped in broccoli and egg then rolled in parm cheese, breadcrumbs and ground flaxseed. I'll post once it receives its reviews from the midget critics.

*UPDATE*

Ok, we had the chicken nuggets.

They are not horrible but not super great either. However, with that said, I think they could be pretty darn tasty if I fiddle with the coating abit. It was a bit bland so I think with the right spices and such, they would be tasty!

The basic recipe is chicken breast cut into small chunks, dip in an egg and pureed broccoli (or spinach or beet or sweet potato) puree mixture then dip in a mixture of breadcrumbs, flaxseed, parm, garlic, dried onion or onion powder. Then cook in oil on a skillet until done. Easy enough but a little bit of a pain in the rear. The girls thought they
were pretty good but again really bland on taste and certainly not McDonalds BUT you could not taste the broccoli at all--you could see it but not taste it. Sweet.

Today actually started off pretty well. Granted I was woken up by horrible stomach pains again very early this morning, but I recovered pretty quickly and went on to have a busy morning yet managed to handle it without even getting a headache. The day, however, quickly started to go downhill around lunchtime and hit rock bottom by dinner.  Nothing huge happened, it was just all the little things--like burning food on the stove, my less than a year old $300 steam cleaner suddenly stopped working, trying two new recipes that ended up in the trash, listening to Jules and Lysse bicker non stop and then opening up the cable bill to see they *still* have not removed the service fee charge that was a mistake to begin with and now have marked it past due.  That on top of Matt being gone *yet again* just makes everything seem well...crappy. Downright crappy.  The girls went to bed incredibly early because Mommy just needed today to end so we could start over tomorrow. 

It's 9p.m.  and I have yet to eat anything decent since 10 this morning.  Crappy days are a real appetite suppressant.

Oh did I mention Matt is up for possible orders to Iraq *again*?  Lovely.  I'm getting kinda burnt out on this single mother stuff but will remain grateful that he atleast pops home every once in a while to do some laundry and help me bathe a child or two. 

I thought I'd give a little update on the preschool situation since some people have been asking...

Alyssa is doing well in her new school.  She is making friends and getting settled and has nothing but positive things to report each day at pick up time.  However, as with just about any new situation, there are pros and cons.

Ok let's focus on the pros first:

--Really small class size.  There are only 9 kids; she and I both already know all the kids.  I am slowly learning which children go with which moms, but I don't know the moms' names yet.

-Warm and welcoming. Everyone--especially the director, teacher and a couple select parents--have been extremely welcoming of Alyssa. They make a huge deal when she comes each day.  One of the little girls even grabbed her by the hand on Monday and took her off to play dollhouse. That is great to see.

--Huge classroom. Holy cow, it's as big as the rooms in Jules' elementary school!  Alyssa's last school had a closet of a room with 20 kids packed in. Plus, hey, they have a class pet!  Sparky the fish ;p

-The school itself.  It has a great lay out, great drop off and pick up routine and there is no tripping over kids and parents while being packed in like sardines like in the old school.  They even have that huge gym to use on yucky days.

Now the Cons:

-The drive.  I didn't think it'd be a big deal. It's only about 6 to 7 miles, but I tell ya, it's an annoying drive. We had become so used to only going 1 1/2 miles through our neighborhood to the old school and now we have to battle lights, traffic and annoying roads.  It takes me about 15 minutes compared to 3 minutes before. That adds up when you are going to and from, to and from.

--The gasoline expense.  Ok, I admit it-I didn't factor in gas costs when looking at tuitions.  I was sticking my nose up at the places charging almost $175 to $200 a month that were right up the road.  So I picked a place that was $135/month that was further away.  However, its going to cost me atleast $40 a month in gas. Oops.

In the end, it'll take some adjusting for both of us. We're still tweaking our morning routine. Dropping Jules off then rushing home to grab Alyssa's stuff and get her to go potty, etc then jump right back in the van--whew, it's very stressing.  Then, for example, today we ran into an accident so we had major traffic to deal with; something we never had before just driving through our quiet neighborhood.

However, this place has so many positives that the other school didn't have.  And most importantly, Alyssa wants to go to school now and is away from that other child.  I can tell Alyssa misses her old school though.  We went back yesterday to pick up a reimbursement check for 1/2 of November's tuition, and I could see it in Alyssa's eyes although she wasn't admitting it.  This morning, we left at the same time as the neighbor.  Alyssa saw that little girl going to ALYSSA"s old school and Alyssa said, "man..she gets to see my old teacher today", and once again I got hit with that infuriating feeling of "this is not fair! Lysse did nothing wrong! Why does that girl that caused so many issues still get to go?!"

To finish up this long update, let's break it down in cliche Mastercard fashion:

--Cost of the new school's registration fee for the year?  $75

--Cost of extra gasoline to travel to and from the new school for the year? $300

--Seeing the local stray dog take a dump in the neighbor's garden each night? Priceless

Macandcheese

Ingredients:

1 box of Kraft Mac and Cheese
3T. milk
1 1/2 T. butter

Directions:

Cook pasta, add milk and butter, stir well, shovel mixture into bowls and throw onto table making sure to add, "Hey, atleast I'm feeding you something".

****************

If you couldn't tell, there hasn't been much creative cooking going around here. Old time favorites haven't even seen my dinner table lately.  Matt's been gone so much, and I've been so exhausted that my children are lucky they are not living solely on cold cereal.  So please excuse my lack of posting photos of food and recipes, but I think you all know how to boil a hot dog and microwave Kid's Cuisine.  So until I find the energy or inspiration to cook something of some interest, you're on your own.

I did, however, receive Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious" for my birthday and have been getting somewhat inspired to start cooking and experimenting again.  Somewhat meaning "not quite", but "maybe sometime soon". 

Hmmm...what to try first? Spinach/Carrot Brownies or Cauliflower Scrambled Eggs.  Decisions, decisions.....

Our Christmas lights are done!  Here is video of our holiday lights 2007.  Enjoy!