Happy Valentine's Day! Or Discovering the Joy of Frosting...

Hope you all had a wonderful Love Day! We sure did!

Oh, February, You Tease!

Three days of beautiful blue skies and mid-forties temperatures gave way to:


And now I'm cold again. Ah, it's good to be back!

Simple Sundays

Just watching my boys play computer games - well, Dylan tried to, anyway...


*Sigh* They are so cute.

All the Socks I Could Find...

So, I guess my question is: how does the washer know which socks to eat?

Simple & Super Sunday

Gabe went to a friend's birthday party yesterday at a nickel arcade. When it was time to go he still had nickels to burn, so he and I headed over to the skeeball lanes and had a blast! I luuurrve skeeball. It's the reason I never really minded going to Chuck E. Cheese's and I certainly didn't mind sticking around yesterday. There's something so dang satisfying about landing the ball in that ever elusive 100 hole. We alternated turns and watched the tickets stream out of the machine. I loved watching Gabe decide between all the little prizes, silly as they were, he was thrilled and proud to pick them out. We ended up with another army guy and a punching balloon. Not bad! As much as my kids can make me feel old, it's nice to know it can go the other way, too.

The other simple pleasure was watching the Super Bowl with the fam after enjoying a scrumptious roast dinner (yeah, another one!). It was a very exciting game and insanely close. I loved it. Go Giants! And thanks to my hun for teaching me about football to begin with! The most enjoyable part of the evening was probably half time, though - and not just because Tom Petty rocks, but because we had our own half time dancers right here and they stole the show. As usual.

Happy February 1!

**Apparently my new posts need not have rhyme nor reason - just a heads up**

How sad is it that I am elated to be done with January? I'm so happy that we are finally into February, even though I know that we are still at least another month and a half away from semi-warm weather. But that's OK, 'cause every little bit helps. I am sure I have been pretty clear about the fact that I am so not a cold weather person, so forgive me for being neurotic about it, but you were warned!

And here's the thing: I am so hungry right now! Not related to the weather, but it sure adds to my general craziness. Somehow I got some darn stomach bug on Monday and have not eaten much this week. Yep, all week. Now those of you who know me, know that I can't usually make it three hours without eating something, so this has been a rough week. I am weak and tired, but luckily, I am starting to feel better. I keep peeking around the kitchen for something that I can have and the funniest song keeps going through my head. It's from a Disney movie I saw as a kid, called "Mickey and the Beanstock" and there is a scene where they are all famished and Goofy starts singing about food; there is a line that goes something like "Pancakes piled up 'till they reach the sky..." But the line that keeps running through my head is "I wanna eat and eat and eat and eat and eat until I die!" My usual mantra anyway, but truly applicable today!

Yipes!

It has been crazy weather day here! Warm and freaky windy this morning, turning quickly into freezing and freaky snowy! Seriously - full on blizzard weather for more than 4 hours. I even kept Gabe home from school today. I didn't feel quite up to putting all our lives in danger just to get him there, only to have to turn around 3 hours later and do it all over again. The thing about this weather is that it A) stresses me out and B) makes me feel cold, even though I am in my nice, toasty house. I am on my third cup of tea, and I see a fourth in the near future. See, we have no window coverings on the windows of our main floor, so at any given moment I can glance outside and see all the snow and then immediately get the chills. And then that keeps me from doing much besides pacing. Which gets me stressed, because I have lots to do, but I dunno - I just feel all anxious and can't focus. It's amazing I can even type, but then again, this is probably not the most coherent post I have ever done!

And to think this is my first post in over a week! To fill you all in - last week was just weird and a little crazy. We started out the week by trying to potty train Dylan (yes, trying). It's always fun to attempt something so potentially messy and lunacy-inducing with THE MOST STUBBORN and DEFIANT child int he WHOLE world. Ahem. And I'm breathing...it is so, so very good for his well-being that he is adorable. His only saving grace. It all began well, the first day was very successful and so was most of the week, but I am sad to say we got back to where we started by Sunday. I was wound so tightly yesterday I could barely breathe. Today we have done better, so I hope for everyone's sake that it is a sign of things to come!

Simple Sundays

Today's simple pleasure?
Eating all the leftover sweet & sour pork, straight out of the paper take-out container whilst standing over the sink - before its even had the chance to get cold - a pretty top-notch way to cure a bad mood.

Cooking Oops!

So, here's a tip I feel I should pass along to ya'll in case anyone feels the need to do what I did: when you are making chicken and a cream sauce and you don't have any whiskey, but want to try something besides vinegar to deglaze the pan, don't use red wine. 'Cause you'll end up with a purpley-brown cream sauce. And while it will still taste good, it will be, as I mentioned purpley-brown. Not super appetizing! Learn from me, please, learn from me.

Simple Sundays

Of my hubby's New Year's Resolutions, here is my favorite: learn to cook! YAHOO!! YIPPEE!!
*Ahem*
Forgive me for that, but this is cause to celebrate. I think it is fantastic that he is taking an interest in something I love to do and also, it's nice to share the work with someone - it makes it ever so much more fun. And as his Grandma says "Now he will learn that cooking is hard work and the food doesn't just appear out of nowhere." Hee, hee - go Grandma! Tonight we are having his family over for dinner and we are going to attempt our first-ever pot roast, inspired by one of the funniest cooking blogs ever. I'm really not much of a red meat eater, or much of a meat eater at all, for that matter, but there is something about a pot roast that just says "Sunday Dinner", so I figure it is worth a try. Wish us luck!

Simple Sundays

There's something really satisfying about having an idea in your head and then seeing that idea translate well into reality (especially since that almost never happens!). We couldn't decide which art we wanted to hang in our bedroom for ages. One day my hubby had the great idea to develop some of our favorite Virginia/N.Carolina shots in black and white and put them in frames. Then I had a picture of one of my favorite views blown up into a 16x20 and done in a wrapped canvas for Aaron's birthday last week. The contrast of the black frames with our Silver Sage paint looks fantastic (the above pics do not do it justice) and it's fun to have all these reminders up of a place I love so much.

Favorite Bumper Sticker Ever

**Warning: Political Post!**

I saw this sticker on a sign in NC and knew that there was no better way to sum up how I feel. I picked one up for myself on cafepress.com, a very cool website (thanks, Ern!). Only one more year!

Dylan To the Rescue!

It's Christmas Eve!

I really am so excited! It's so nice to be home for the holidays and the snow makes it perfect. Well, as long as I'm inside. ;o)
Gabe and Dylan are just beside themselves with anticipation. Granted, Dylan is still a little young to grasp it all, but he has caught on to the fact that Santa gives him presents at some point and that is all that matters. Gabe has been diligently moving the advent calendar to the right day all month and I thought he would burst this morning when he put it on the last day. We have been trying to do fun Christmassy things lately, but I have been sick, so that has made it hard. We did manage a cute little graham cracker house yesterday, though. My first as a mommy, and I will say I can only get better from here! Good thing Gabe is easy to please. Later today I will start on the bread pudding for dessert tonight and then on to making tamales. We figured we'd branch out in what we made to eat, since a ham does not appeal to me at all right now and after all, tamales are traditional to lots of people! While I am cooking, the boys will go sledding with Daddy and some friends. So far, a pretty nice start to Christmas. I hope it's the same for all of you.

A Near-Perfect Day

View from my front porch.

Over 12 inches of freshly fallen snow; a warm glow from the tree lights; scones baking in the oven; the boys watching A Charlie Brown Christmas and hubby working from home. Love it!

Simple Sundays

My favorites from the week: Superman jammies and Moon Boots. Worn together. By a two-year-old. While he makes his "tough guy" face and strikes the superhero pose.

Simple Sundays

This week's simple pleasure: web surfing. I can look for anything or nothing; e-mail, chat or blog. If you are reading this I obviously don't need to sing the web's praises too much! But I do just love it so! Whenever I get too stressed or overwhelmed, I give myself five minutes and sit down and surf away. **POOF** Stress vanishes. The only rule to surfing for the sake of de-stressing is to not read any news headlines! That will only add to the stress and top it off with a little despair. But I digress. I looove surfing cooking sites and coming up with new recipes. It's not quite the same as getting a new cookbook, but it sure is cheaper. And if the recipe bombs, I'm not out any money. Blogging is quickly becoming a new favorite. I just used to do this to keep in touch with family and friends, but I am starting to enjoy reading new blogs. It's fun to learn about other people and always a great reminder that we're pretty much the same, no matter where we live or what we do. I'm not quite brave enough yet to blog out in the open, like my dear Ern, but maybe one day! Another favorite web activity, especially this time of year: shopping! Kind of obvious, I know, but man - I do adore Amazon and eBay and all kinds of fun, quirky shopping sites that let you find the perfect gift without freezing your keister off. And much, much easier than dragging the boys to various stores, only to find out they are out of what I needed (happened last year)! Long live the Web!

November Recap

Well, since today is the last day of November and my previous post was about Halloween, I feel that I should touch on what was really quite an eventful month!

The first two weeks, um, what happened? Gosh - they must have been good, 'cause I can't remember much! Or maybe I have just blocked them out, because I do have faint memories of beginning our bathroom remodel. It was obviously Aaron who did most of the work, but the trauma carried over to me! Remodeling is stressful and expensive. And Messy! Oh, and it still isn't done - my dear hubby cracked about two days before Thanksgiving and decided he was done with the bathroom for awhile. That was the nice, edited G-rated version of what was said! I sure can't blame him, though. Personally, I would have snapped and taken a sledgehammer to the toilet way before that! Anyway, it really is almost done and it looks, oh, I don't know - about 1 million times better than it did. Although darkish blue paint with drip marks all over, and a peach toilet and tub does make a unique statement, we thought we would take it the other direction. I hope to have updated pics soon. Rebath will be here on 12/10 to install the new tub. Yippee!

On November 18th, my sweet baby Gabe, turned 6! That really amazes me. It doesn't seem like it has been that long since we brought him home. But he is so big now and so smart and a terrific big brother. The day of his birthday he had a special waffle breakfast, then we went to Grandma's and Grandpa's (his great-grandparents) for rice curry and birthday cake. Gabe got his very first camera as a gift from them; very fitting since they ran their own photography studio for years. Later that night we had more family over for Gabe's requested dinner of Chinese food! Isn't he discriminating in his tastes? We made all kinds of good stuff: egg rolls and beef with broccoli, but his favorite was fried rice that his aunt made. And yes, our lives revolve around food. Why? ;o)


The following Wednesday, my wonderful sister Janie and her hubby Trent drove down from Idaho to spend Thanksgiving with us! She was a great help and made very yummy treats, like smoked salmon mousse and chocolate pumpkin cheesecake. To die for! We hosted the big dinner at our place and in turn, I got out of most of the cooking. We had about 14 adults and various kids at our house. Some family from both sides and some extra friends. It was very cozy, but once we all sat down it worked perfectly and everyone had a lovely time. We capped off the day with dessert at Grandma's with the rest of Aaron's family. All in all, a pretty perfect holiday.



The last big event of the week was Saturday when we had Gabe's birthday party with his friends. It was an army guy party! Sweet, eh? We got a camouflage cake, camouflage goody bags, but the best part was a real-life camouflage soldier! Gabe's awesome uncle, my brother Peter, came to the party dressed in his desert camo and talked to the boys about what it was like to be a soldier and some different things he did when he was in Afghanistan. Then he painted the boys' faces with camo paint and they were so excited. They even had a secret mission (scavenger hunt) in the backyard. It was a very fun, crazy day! I was so thankful to have my family around to help and to take part. That's the one thing I missed in VA.


This week has been one of recovery! We did have a really fun time Sunday putting Christmas decorations and the tree. And Tuesday afternoon and night it snowed! The boys were beyond excited! Aaron took them out front and they had a snowball fight, built a snowman and then a snow fort. And I got to sit inside and watch! It was perfect and made me count my blessings and thank God for my amazing life. My attitude was different the next morning when I actually had to go out and drive in it, but we don't need to talk about that...


There you are! All caught up on my month (maybe more than you needed or wanted to be)! I think the lack of blogging makes sense now, but I vow to do better in December. Famous last words, I know.

Halloween

What a fun Halloween we had this year! The day was crazy busy and started out with me helping to put on the party at Gabe's school. We had been told that there were usually lots and lots of extra parents to help, but we ended up with just two! It was still fun and I was grateful the entire time for how very un-picky kindergarteners can be.


Gabe is the cute wizard, hard at work on his treat bag. The firefighter is one of his best friends.

The rest of the day was just as chaotic with mad dashes to Pa's office, then off to Grandma and Grandpa Terashima's for dinner. Home in time for Daddy to take the boys trick-or-treating while I stayed home to hand out candy and recover. Then a quick trip over to Granny's house and another trip to see Pa, this time at his house. Phew. Tired yet? I was! And Dylan and Gabe were so tired of their costumes by then. But we really did have fun and I loved the madness of it all.

Here is a pic of Dylan in his costume:

He might look like he is Blue from "Blue's Clues", but indeed he is not. He is a blue monster! Doesn't he look fierce in his floppy, squishy costume? I know it's silly, but I got him to wear the costume, right?!

Simple Sundays

There are few things as pleasing to me as a cup of tea in the morning (or any time of day). English breakfast tea or even plain 'ol Liptons - as long as I have some Silk Very Vanilla milk to pour into it, I am set. This is my morning ritual and has been for a while now. But since the mornings have grown chilly again, I have rediscovered just how delicious and lifting, not to mention warming, a nice cup of tea can be.

In the afternoons, I have taken to making a hot cup of green tea - I love genmai cha - made with toasted brown rice, but another fun twist on plain green tea is Tazo's Zen blend. It has lemon verbena, mint and lemongrass in it - yum!

And if your stomach is upset or you are just feeling a bit stressed, nothing does the trick like a nice cup of mint tea. It's soothing and relaxing - a mini day spa trip in a cup!

Say it with me now: "Tea is good!"