Santa needs to get a life.

Connor: "Santa" while pointing at an ornament on the tree
Maddy: "That's not Santa. That's Santa's mom"
Me: "That's not Santa's mom. That's Santa's wife."
Maddy: "No, it's his mom"
Me: "It's not his mom, it's his wife"
Maddy: "No, they are like Mom and Dad. Like you and Larry."
Me: "Yeah, I'm Larry's wife."
Maddy: "No, a wife wears the pretty dress and the stuff on her head."
Me: "That's a bride."
Maddy: "oooooooohhhhh"

Santa is like what 300 years old and still lives with his mom? Jeeze, what a loser!

Injury after injury

Connor had a rough night last night.

I was doing the dishes and he pushed one of the kitchen chairs out into the middle of the kitchen. I don't know why. I really wasn't paying attention to him. I just heard the chair go across the floor. I guess he was trying to see what I was doing. He climbs up there and I don't know what happened but when I looked over at him he is falling head first. I mean he is seriously upside down. His whole body is straight and is feet are pointing towards the ceiling. He lands on his head and the rest of his body all hit at once. He is sprawled out flat on his back. And screaming. Considering the event it was a relatively quick recovery. I picked him and we went and sat on the couch together. He screamed, I cuddled and before long he was pushing me away. So I go to finish the dishes.

I don't think I even washed one dish and he goes zipping across the family room. When he gets to the couch he starts screaming again. I figure this is just leftover from a moment ago. You know, maybe he saw the chair in the middle of the floor and had a flashback or something. He was fine a minute ago so I leave him to work it out on his own. But he doesn't stop. Larry goes over and picks him up to find his foot bleeding. Not bleeding a lot, bleeding the absolute least amount that something can bleed. But he had a cut on his toe. On the bottom right where the toe meets the foot. In that little chubby crease. So again, he is screaming and won't walk on it. You can tell it hurts. We would get him calm and then he would go take a step and start crying again. It had a little skin flap so Larry took him upstairs to put a band-aid on it. I think getting the band-aid was more traumatic than getting the injury. OMG I could hear the screaming from the kitchen. So finally they come down. Each with a band-aid on their toe. Connor kept showing it to me. Which was the cutest thing ever! He would sit down and hold up that cute little foot with his toes all spread out and point to the band-aid and say "cut". Then he would point to Larry's foot to show me his. So proud to have a band-aid just like Daddy.

We had a visitor in the night...

the Tooth Fairy!!

Yup, Maddy lost that tooth!!

Remember how Maddy told us about her loose tooth while we were eating corn on the cob? Last night we were having it again and she says "look mom, its red." I look at her corn and it has some blood on it. I look in her mouth and sure enough, that tooth is missing. We look everywhere for it. I keep asking her if she swallowed it. All the while Larry is saying "its in the corn" but it doesn't really register to me what he is saying so I just keep looking. Finally I really hear him and I look in the corn. There it was, stuck between two kernels. I was surprised how teeny tiny it was. I was also surprised at how quickly it fell out. As a kid I remember having a loose tooth for what seemed like forever. I remember my mom teasing me cause it would literally be hanging by a string and I wouldn't pull it out. But none of that with Maddy. She is tougher than I was, she really is. She likes the drama but deep down she is pretty tough.

So the tooth fairy came last night and gave her a gold dollar coin.

I'm an accidental shoplifter

I went grocery shopping today. I get into the checkout line behind a guy who is buying nothing but beer and in front of him is an old lady doing her weekly shopping. Now, I have three options when it comes to unloading my groceries.
1. Let Connor do acrobatics on top of the shopping cart.
2. Strap him in and let him scream.
3. Let him get down.

Today I let him get down. "What were you thinking?" you ask. I was thinking that maybe he would be good. hahahaha. So I'm unloading my groceries and Connor is pushing the cart into the main aisle. I get him to stop doing that and then starts to help me by taking things off the shelf and putting them on the belt. Things I don't want, like a light up Finding Nemo pen and a deck of cards. When the old lady up ahead hands me a pack of batteries that Connor had snuck into her order I decide he needs to go back in the cart. I put him back in the seat but now the seatbelt is all twisted and stuck so I just leave it. He is standing up on the seat and sitting on the very edge scaring the crap out of me. Needless to say... I was a little distracted. Finally, I pay and leave.

When I get out to the car I realize that I have a potato that I forgot to pay for. It never made it out of the cart when I was unloading. This is not new. Usually I forget to pay for the 24 pack of water that is on the bottom of the cart. So I guess one lone potato is an improvement.

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree. How lovely are your branches.

We put our tree up yesterday. I love having the tree up. love love love it, until Christmas day anyways. As soon as the presents are unwrapped I want it gone. I have been known to take it down ON Christmas day. I wait til the night time but that is just out of courtesy to the rest of the family. I pretty much want to take it down before I even clean up the wrapping paper.

But right now, I'm still in love. I love sitting in the dark with just the tree lights on, maybe sipping some egg nog. ahhhh. The kids did most of the decorating, it was very cute. I put the pics up on my photobucket account if you want to see them.

Also, having the tree up really puts me in the mood to shop. I need to get more presents under there! So that is my mission in life this week. On friday I'm going to order everything I need to order off the internet. So I need to have my selections made. My hope is to time the orders just right that they will NOT come while we are at Disneyland. Last year two things arrived about 2 hours after we left the house. They sat on our porch for 4 days. Well, that's a lie. I don't know how long they sat there cause they were stolen. My guess is they were stolen on about day 2. So I will not be making that mistake again.

Anyways, I hope to basically finish my shopping this week. That is the plan anyways.

OH! I almost forgot. My new recipe for this week. I'm adding a new meat to the menu. Pork. I have never cooked pork before so I'm trying it out.

Polynesian Pork Chops

4 boneless pork chops, 3/4" thick
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can Campbell's Golden Mushroom Soup
1 can (8 oz.) pineapple chunks
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. honey
2 cups cooked Minute White Rice
Sliced green onions

HEAT oil in skillet. Add chops and cook until browned. Add onion. (I drained excess fat and oil)

ADD soup, pineapple with juice, water, soy and honey. Heat to a boil. Cook over low heat 10 min. or until done.

SERVE with rice and garnish with green onions. Serves 4.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobble. Gobble.

I hope everyone had a good day. We went to my brother in law's house. It was pretty fun. Everyone ate themselves silly. I think I only had about 2 bites of turkey, I filled my whole plate up with sides that the turkey was kind of an afterthought.

Its crazy how big the kids are getting. You realize it when you get them all together. The babies joined in on the feast and Trent and Maddy were outside hanging out in the back of Scott's truck, like the big kids they are.

The people that tried my peanut butter brownies liked them, but there were soooo many sweets there that I don't think everyone tried them. That's cool though. Pretty much what I figured, I just wanted to try them out.

I'll pay more attention next time.

I went to Walmart yesterday and had an embarrassing moment.

First off, Walmart was packed. I had been wandering around the toy section for at least 15 mins cause I have no clue what to get Maddy. I was walking down the aisle and I look down at Connor and he was looking straight up at something. So I look up and see that he is looking at the bikes they have hanging from the ceiling. So I'm looking up there and saying something like "oh wow, look at all those bikes". (ok, I'm going to pause here for a second to make sure you have a clear picture. I'm walking down a toy aisle, in a packed walmart, looking straight up at the ceiling. What could possibly go wrong?) Well, I feel my cart hit something and I look down and there is this 50 year old man bent over picking something up. I had hit him right in the ass with my cart. He had to take a step forward to keep from falling. LMAO. I was just like "oh my god, I'm so sorry. I'm SO sorry. I was looking at the bikes hanging from the ceiling" But I couldn't stop laughing. He said it was ok and turned the way I was planning on going but I couldn't go after him. I just left. I didn't want to "run into" him again.

Oh and on the Walmart complaint email, so far nothing but an annoying response asking for information that has nothing to do with anything.

Corn on the cob

I made corn on the cob with dinner last night. We were all sitting at the table eating dinner and Maddy says to herself “It sure is hard to crunch this corn since my tooth keeps moving around”. My eyes got all huge and I looked at Larry. I wasn’t even sure I heard her right. But sure enough, the bottom right tooth has a little wiggle to it. I can’t believe it.

I remember when she got that tooth, I should dig out her baby book and check the date. I was feeding her breakfast and I felt something with the spoon, a little sticking point. I put my finger in her mouth and there it was. All cute and pearly. And now that tooth is going to fall out. I’m kinda sad.

And, keeping on the corn on the cob theme, Connor finally figured out how to eat it. He holds it tight with both hands and takes a huge bite, but he still only gets half a kernel.

But it's still night time!

Connor aquired the very lovely habit of waking up at who knows what time. EARLY. Before dawn. I just looked and it says "Begin civil twilight 6:36 a.m." So if I had to guess I would say he was up at about 5:45. Well before "civil twilight" as it is apparently called. He did this for a few days in a row and I was beat.

So on Sunday he woke up early and we played in his room, in the dark for a while. I also had to explain that "no, we can't go get the mail." and "no, we can't go bye bye. It's still night time!" Then we went downstairs and laid on the couch together. I refuse to turn on any lights or feed him until 7:00 am. I refuse! After breakfast he seemed tired so I put him back down. Before I climb back into bed I turned the baby monitor back on. I swear I did! Anyways, I fall asleep. I fell hard and fast. I woke up in the same position I laid down in. But here is the kicker. It was 11:40!! 11:40! I slept for 4 hours. And Larry had to come wake me up, who knows how long I would have slept. I was like, "I'm sorry. I didn't hear Connor wake up" And he says, "Well you turned the monitor off" ok, no I didn't. I admit it WAS off, but I don't know how it got like that. I KNOW I turned it on because I heard Connor fuss a little before he fell asleep. I honestly have no clue how it got turned off. Divine intervention I guess. The God of sleep came down and turned the monitor off for me. That is the only reasonable explanation I can give.

I want a coupon for some free abuse!

So I had one simple thing to do today. Get my oil changed. Its the first time I've had the oil changed in the van. Yes, I've had it for 6 months but it only has 3500 miles on it cause I go nowhere. Anyways, against my better judgment I took it to Walmart. I should have known better because the last two times I have been there I've wandered around Walmart for an hour only to be told they couldn't change my oil for whatever reason. Wanna take a guess at what happened today? Yup! I wandered around for an hour only to be told they couldn't change the oil because they didn't have a filter. "Why didn't someone call me?" I ask. "Oh I just found out." he said. Yeah, sure, ok, whatever. They were kind enough to let me know that another Walmart about 15 miles away has the filter. So I guess they thought I wanted to spend another hour walking around a different Walmart. Um... no thanks. I'll just go to Jiffy Lube. Which is what I did. They charged me $60.00 but at least it's done. I sent Walmart an email complaining and asking for a coupon for a free oil change. I'm not holding my breath.

But on to tastier things....

This week I'm putting together two old things to make one new thing. Two weeks ago I made Peanut Butter Cupcakes and they were pretty good but the best part was the frosting. It was so good. It got kinda hard but would melt in your mouth. And it tasted just like the peanut butter inside a Reeses. So I'm going to make that frosting and put it on brownies instead. Holy crap that is going to be good. Here's the recipe for the frosting. I'm just making brownies out of a box, fudgy not cakey.

Peanut Butter Frosting
1/3 cup peanut butter (name brand, don't cheap out on me here)
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons milk

Cream peanut butter and sugar in a small mixing bowl. Add the honey and vanilla. Beat in enough milk to achieve a spreading consistency.

Thomas vs. Elmo.

I went shopping for some shoes for Connor this morning. I got him a cute pair of Thomas the train shoes. For the same price they also had some light up Elmo ones. In theory the Elmo ones were a better deal since they light up and you usually have to pay extra for that. I was really torn.

So there he was walking up and down the aisle with Thomas on one foot and Elmo on the other. While I stood back biting my nails and wearing a face like I was contemplating Faraday's Law of electromagnetic induction. In the end Thomas won simply because the Thomas shoes were dark blue and the Elmo ones were white. And I just think that dark shoes look nicer with jeans.

Oh , and I made the apple chicken last night. It was just ok. Larry gave it a 6. I think I'll give it a 7. But, I haven't given up on it yet. Our main complaint was that it was too vinegary. So I think next time I'll use apple juice instead of vinegar. Maybe that will make it less vinegary. Well I know it WILL make it less vinegary since I am taking out the vinegar, but maybe it will make it taste, you know, better. Also I'm going to serve it with rice next time instead of the recommended baked potato.

For sale: One slightly used bottle of apple cider vinegar. Just 1.99. Pick up only.

Puzzling

Maddy is really into puzzles and I think that is pretty cool. She recently started doing 100 piece puzzles. So I thought this would be something we could do together. But the problem is that we can't really do one where Connor can get to it. I'm sure you can see the problem there. Add that to the fact that any puzzle that will be fun for me at all is going to take more than one sitting to do, and you can see my puzzle problem. My "puzzle puzzle", if you will. Well, I found this mat that you do the puzzle on and then you can roll it up half done and it keeps the pieces in their places. So this weekend I bought that and a 300 piece puzzle to go with it.

Maddy picked out the puzzle. I tried to kind of guide her towards the fairies or the farm animals, but no. She wanted the kittens. Kittens sitting on a window sill playing with sea shells, to be exact. It's called "Seaside Memories". Well, come to find out that even with help a 300 piece puzzle is too hard for her to do. So I'm sitting there alone, throughly engrossed in some "seaside memories". You should just give me some bi-focals and call me 100. I did finish it in just two sittings... I was pretty proud of myself. :)

Can you tell I'm hungry?

I lost 3 lbs this week. Pretty good. I had 8 to lose, so that is almost half of it in just one week. yay! The retainer was perfectly timed. :) As were the new batteries for the scale.

What else? I'm going to try to make it til the end of the month without eating out. But its already impossible cause I have breakfast plans with Shane and then lunch plans with Jennifer. Eating out is so social... I really don't even know what else to suggest to do. Hey, instead of lunch lets take a walk. haha... no. I mean really. (edited to add that not eating out means not eating out during the week, the weekends are a lost cause)

My new recipe for this week is Apple Chicken. I'm making it on Tuesday, I'll let you know how it goes. I try a new recipe each week. I guess I'll blog about it, why not.

Apple Chicken

Serves 6

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts -- cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/4 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 Granny Smith apples -- cored and sliced into 1/2 inch wedges
3/4 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet. Add chicken and brown on all
sides. Add apple slices, sauté 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add
1/2 the wine and chicken broth, reduce heat, cover and simmer 10
minutes. Mix remaining wine and broth together with remaining
ingredients, add to skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring
constantly until sauce thickens.

Per Serving: 161 Calories; 2g Fat (15.5% calories from fat); 7g
Protein; 24g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 16mg Cholesterol; 246mg
Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch) ; 1 Lean Meat; 1/2 Fruit; 0 Fat;
1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS: Baked potatoes, baked butternut squash and
steamed broccoli.

Think Santa hits the drive-thru?

So today is day 5 of not eating out. I'm pretty impressed with myself. That is a record for me. I can't think of the last time I went that long without eating out. Maybe back when I was pregnant with Maddy. I was so poor, I couldn't afford groceries let alone eating out. I did spend 50 cents on a soda yesterday to take with me to the park, but I really don't count that.

I've also started Christmas shopping. I have two people totally done and one person I have an idea for but I just haven't bought it yet. Then come the hard people. I have Connor half done, but Maddy and Larry I haven't even started. I have NO CLUE what to get either one of them. I'm sorry but the things Maddy is asking for are dumb. Maybe I shouldn't judge like that but I really don't see long lasting play out of these expensive gifts, ya know. She wants a rocking horse, same as last year. You know why? Because we have this book that my mom gave her "Baby's First Christmas" and in that book the baby gets a rocking horse. I try to explain that she isn't a baby, and it's not her first Christmas. But to no avail. A rocking horse stays on her list. How much play do think this rocking horse would really get? I'm guessing about 5 mins Christmas morning and that's it.

Oh but the point of bringing up the whole Christmas shopping thing was to say that I'm trying to get all my shopping done before we leave for Disneyland. Which is in three weeks and two days!!! I can't wait!

School

Hello,

I forgot to write about my classes that I signed up for. Yes, CLASSES, not class like I was planning. One class met twice a week so I figured if I was already going there twice a week I might as well take another class. Usually night classes only meet once a week. So I'm taking Physics and World Religion. Sounds super fun huh? I'm actually pretty excited about both. Physics could be fun. There is a lab once a week so that could be kinda fun, especially if there are some fun people in the class. I'm hoping going at night that it will be some older people, not all people fresh out of high school. So I'm optimistic.

I have six more classes to take after this and I have my associates. How cool is that? There is an end in sight! Well, a middle anyways.

Oh, by the way... I'm taking donations for my tuition. With all these medical bills for everyone I've been accumulating, it has seriously dipped into the money I was going to use to pay for school. sigh... the life of a parent... feeling guilty about going to school... who would have thought?

One last trip to the dr... hopefully.

I took Maddy to her appointment with the Pulmologist (forgive me if I spelled that wrong). It went ok, it wasn't a waste of time like I was hoping it would be. She had to do a breathing test where they bring up a picture of some candles and Maddy blows as hard as she can into this tube and it blows out the candles. It was actually pretty cool. Well, she could blow out all but one of the candles. The doc said that she has some constricting of her air tubes way down deep in her lungs. He said there are two things that cause asthma. One is constricted airways and the other is tight muscles around the airways. He put her on Flomax to help with the constricting of the airways and then she already has the Albuterol to help with the muscle tightness. She has to take the Flomax everyday, 2 hits in the morning and 2 hits at night. So that should do her. I can't imagine we will be back at Urgent Care again for this.

The appointment was pretty long, lots of waiting and Connor was getting bored. He entertained himself by opening and shutting the door about 750 times. He would open it, go out, close it, knock, come in, close it, repeat. So the whole time the nurse is explaining what to do and when and why. We are going over the two different meds and when to use them and the signs of everything and when to call the dr, when to take her to the ER, Connor is going in and out, in and out. Then when he got bored of that he found the light switch. I'll tell you there isn't much that is more distracting then having the light turn on and off while you are talking about important things. But at least he wasn't going through the doctor's things right?


edit: It is Flovent, not Flomax. sorry.

What's my age again?

So I got my new retainer today. Awww yeah. For those that don't know about 3 weeks ago I broke my old one. Thinking that since my teeth haven't moved for 13 years I was pretty safe without a new one I let it go. Well, I was wrong. They moved. So I went in and forked over $300 that I don't have to have this really cool (not) one made. It HUGE. I have to learn how to talk all over again.

On the bright side it is going to cure two bad habits that I have. I can no longer bite my nails, since I can not touch my teeth together. And eating on the fly is out. I have to remove this gigantic piece of plastic from my mouth in order to eat and its in there so tight it practically have to get a crow bar to pry it off my teeth. Grabbing that cookie on the way through the kitchen won't be happening. I really have to commit to a meal to make it worth removing this thing.

I am also registering for classes today at MCC. Or make that A class. Only one. But hey, its something. So between a trip to the orthodontist and registering for college... I feel like I'm 18 again. If only I didn't have to take Connor with me everywhere I go.

There's a new sickie in the house.

Larry. I'm sure I'm next, so let the paranoia set in. Is that a headache? Is my throat sore? Why am I so tired?

I was hoping this weekend was going to get us back on track here. Back to normal. But no such luck.

Maddy is doing better. She is at Shaun's this weekend. I called over there tonight and they said that she didn't need a breathing treatment today, and her cough still sounds loose. So yay! She has an appointment with a pediatric pulmologist on Tuesday. So we'll see what he says. Hopefully nothing and its a big waste.

Back to Urgent Care

My poor little guy. Connor was sooo sick yesterday. We ended up taking him to Urgent Care (yes, that means I've been there twice in two days. They are getting to know me there) after Trick or Treating was over. Not that he went Trick or Treating, but he just happened to get worse at about that time. His fever went from 102 to 104 in about an hour so I took him. They didn't do much, gave him some motrin and and prescription for antibiotics. The doc said that he has some fluids in his ears but it wasn't an ear infection yet. I think mostly he gave him the antibiotics because he didn't know what was wrong. Such a high fever for a little guy.

But again I got right in. There wasn't a soul in that place. Kinda strange that kids don't get sick on Halloween. Makes me think that a lot of kids show up there that aren't really so sick they need to be seen. Ya know, if the parents, and kids, have something else to focus on then maybe the sickness isn't so bad.

But Connor slept like a champ and only had a fever of 99.something this morning. He only woke up once during the night and that was to ask for his bear. He sleeps with 3 bears and I only gave him 2 when I put him down in case he threw up during the night he would still have a clean bear. Well, at about 2am Connor figured it out and just kept saying "Rock" "Rock" over and over until I put Rocky in his crib with him. awwww.