That was a close one!

For the last couple of nights at the dinner table, our six year old son has regaled us with a very fascinating story. I will share it with you~

His first grade class had a popcorn party out in the park two days ago during the Thunderbird show for the AFA's graduation. He is telling us about how they zoomed here and there, did spirals in the air... yada yada.... (we all saw the show ourselves a couple blocks away)


Then he says one flew RIGHT over the school. In fact... it was RIGHT over his head. (It gets better) Actually, it flew over his head - and he had to duck because it was so low....


Turns out, Alex said, the plane was just ....26 centimeters off the ground!! "Whoa", we say, "that was a close one! Glad you ducked!!!" He says, "yeah... good thing I ducked... I know that I'm taller than 26 centimeters!!" hahaha!!!

Kids are cute!

Kitty-cat corn and I don't care, kitty-cat corn and I don't care, kitty-cat corn and I don't care, my master's gone away! (Our daughters version of Jimmy- cracked corn...)

We were almost home today driving on the highway and the kids were hungry and thirsty! Our son knew we were getting close to our exit and said, "We're almost home! I can feel it!" Our 4 yr old daughter said, "I can feel it too! My fingers are on the window - see?? I can feel it too!"

Avalon (3) wants to grow up to be me. Awwww..... (cuz she says I'm pretty and have pretty stuff and get to eat chocolate.... awww again!)

Avalon is the tiniest little girl you have ever seen. She is three and a half and still wears 18mo size shorts and capris. (obviously the pants have to be 3's for the length) Anyway - she sat down on the toilet seat a little too far the other day and completely fell in. The seat was down and there she was just head and ankles staring out at me with big ol' bugged out eyes. I stood there trying not to laugh as I could see this was a semi-tramatic event for her. I took it in for a moment, and then came over to pull her out. We joked about it and she was fine... but man! Between you and me - it was funny! And oddly adorable!

oh gosh- I sat down to write some other cute stuff she said, but now it is blank - my mind that is. I can't remember what else I was gonna say... oh well.. I'll fill it in later if I think of it.

Smarty pants

I was in the kitchen yesterday while my two older girls (3 and 4) were in the livingroom. I had just told the older one how to change the television channel to '08' so they could watch kid shows. She changed the channel and the younger child was very impressed, and the four year old said, "Mom told me how to do it. She's a genius."

Did you hear that??!?! I'm a genius!! A genius!!

I must write this down and immortalize this moment.

I'll tell you what - it would really be something if it was ten years from now and my 14 year old was telling the 13 yr. old that I was a genius. That would be something!!

Dinner for two

Remember how I wrote to you and said that Patrick was making a mother's day dinner for me???

Wellll..... He rocked the house! The problem now, is... we both know he can cook!! haha! He might find himself in the kitchen with dinner duty more often!


He did an amazing job! Amazing!

Candlelight, wine, special food, cloth napkins - the man thought of everything.

We had lamb chops with mint/mustard dipping sauce (soooo good!!), two sides, and a limoncello dessert. The dessert was so freakin amazing that we have made it each night since! Yum!


The dinner was no where near low calorie... but man! I sure enjoyed myself!


Actually, just being taken care of in this new way, in such a rich way - even though it was just a dinner - was so refreshing and renewing.

I love Patrick so much and am so grateful for all of the wonderful, wonderful gifts he gives - both physically and of himself intangibly. Thank you Patrick for making this a wonderful mother's day!!

Cooking with Rachel

My husband is cooking me a meal for Mother's day. Because he wants me to feel special. Because I deserve it (his words). Because he wants to. (awwww....)

I'm excited and a little scared. He said I could pick anything from our cookbooks. I did. I warned him it seemed complicated. He was busy playing with children on the floor when I told him. I put the cookbook down and went to put the baby to bed.

Fast forward one hour: he is looking through the cookbook and says something looks good and that is what he is making for dinner. Guess what? - it was the same recipe I picked! (apparently he was paying attention to me while wrestling on the floor with our kids)

It is from the Rachel Ray cookbook 30min meals 2. (not the exact title here...but you get the idea) Lamb Chops with mint and mustard dipping sauces (with two sides and dessert) Mmmmmmm!!! Excited!!

Uhh... and a little scared because so far in this marriage his idea of cooking consists of heating up frozen veggies and grilling hotdogs. So....

However, I myself am NOT a chef by any stretch of the imagination - so it is this comment from my husband that caused me to write to you today. He was thumbing through the pages of her cookbook and said I should cook through her book and blog about it. (yes, yes, much like the Julia movie that just came out) Unfortunately, I do not have those kinds of guts. I'm too much of a wimp to commit to that and to you like that. Maybe he is just trying to get some decent meals around here... I dunno.

The recipes sound good - but seem terribly .... I don't know....professional. Plus, they like... have more than three or four ingredients. Scary!! If there are that many ingredients it must be complicated - right??? I'm intimidated by the titles of some of them alone. Sometimes I don't even get to the ingredient list before I chicken out!

So that is my story for the day. My husband is treating me to (what I hope is) a nice, quiet, romantic, delicious dinner. My hubby thinks I should cook through the Rachel Ray cookbook. I got a knot in my stomach and a giggle in my head thinking about it. And... thought I'd share with you!

To all the Mothers out there - happy Mother's day - and here's to no cooking!! Cheers!

Not the best start

I'm making this short because I have three hungry mouths to feed. But, thought I'd let you know how my morning is going:

It was 11am and I had accomplished - nothing.

I woke up to discover I had been given a ....gift. You know... the womanly kind. I haven't been gifted in a very long time since having a baby and all... so suffice to say I was...unprepared. Quite unprepared. Ugh.

I'm making breakfast, run the dishwasher and to shouts coming from my son realize the dishwasher is spilling gallons of water all over our kitchen floor. (it needs to be washed anyway) It took 5 drenched bath towels to sop it up.

I drop son off at school, and run to walmart. I shop, la dee da, and wait in the longest ever line to pay. One regiser open. I get to the front and - wa-la! I don't have my wallet.

I leave the store, load three little people into the minivan, run home, get wallet, unload three people back into the store and we pay.

Got home at 11am. Dishwasher still clogged, nothing done, but seriously - nothing else should happen. Right? Pretty sure I had as many surprises as one day can hold. You know what they say, it can only get better from here!