EE and I ended up at a Super WalMart late yesterday afternoon to get our tire situation taken care of. Of course the wait was about an hour and a half, so we had plenty of time to waste walking around WM. Sounds like a super fun time, right?! ;)
Since this is Super WM they are equipped with a eye place, a hair place, a nail place, a photo place, and McD's. First EE and I went and tried on glasses at the eye place. Just getting her prepared for when her genetically defected eyes go bad on her. Mine happened around 6th grade and dh wasn't until high school, so maybe we have a few years. She liked the glasses that made her look like Harry Potter while I liked something a little trendier from the Hannah Montana line (for her anyway). I didn't find any I was super jazzed about for me.
Next we went through the clothes. They actually had some cute t-shirts in her size that looked like what you might buy at The Children's Place for a whopping $4. Every one I showed her and said, "Isn't this cute?" she said, "Nah, not really." Okay, no new shirts for you! Same with the shoes. "Mom, I don't need any shoes." What a blow! Is this really my child?! First she turns down clothes and then shoes? Hopefully its just a phase.
We continued to wander around WM aimlessly for another 45 min. I offered her a snack, so she wanted one of those $1 containers of Oreos. The first one I grabbed the container was all smashed, so I grabbed another one. Totally empty. Nice. How PWT can you get? Eat all of a $1 worth of Oreos while you are visiting SWM and leave the empty container. Do you feel better about yourself for saving that $1? EE got a nice lesson on how that is stealing. We eat many things while we are shopping, but we always pay for them.
After a good hour and a half of mother/daughter shopping time were finally able to go get our vehicle and get back home. Hopefully I didn't run into any screws on the way there.
Our Trip to SWM
One lemon: 62 cents
Grab-n-Go container of Oreos: $1
Honey Nut Cheerio Snack Mix: $1.89
Two new tires: $ 245
Bonding with my daughter: priceless
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
I'm Screwed
Literally. As in I have a freakin' screw in one of my tires. Nice. How do these things seem to happen only to me (and my friend Robyn)? I mean seriously, I've had the van 2.5 years. I've had 2 screws in 2 separate tires which averages about one screw a year. One could be fixed with a plug/patch costing less than $25. Not this one, we need a whole new tire.
So I'm a "matchy-matchy" kind of gal. Trying to find a matching tire to what I have on there is proving to be next to impossible. No one has them in stock in about a 300 mile radius. I have found one place that could get one here by Monday afternoon, which isn't too bad. Other places were next Thursday or beyond. And of course its not a cheap tire. Grrr.
I'm waiting to hear back from dh to see how to proceede. We can always get one mismatch, that would work. We're thinking about getting two off-brand tires and replacing the two that I have screwed. The one that was patched tends to leak air and I'm topping it off every three weeks or so.
In the grand scheme of things is this really a huge deal? No, of course not. Was it a pain in my ass to call 50 different tire places looking for an ever elusive tire? Yes. Do we really need to spend that $170 for a tire right now? No. Oh well, such is my life.
So I'm a "matchy-matchy" kind of gal. Trying to find a matching tire to what I have on there is proving to be next to impossible. No one has them in stock in about a 300 mile radius. I have found one place that could get one here by Monday afternoon, which isn't too bad. Other places were next Thursday or beyond. And of course its not a cheap tire. Grrr.
I'm waiting to hear back from dh to see how to proceede. We can always get one mismatch, that would work. We're thinking about getting two off-brand tires and replacing the two that I have screwed. The one that was patched tends to leak air and I'm topping it off every three weeks or so.
In the grand scheme of things is this really a huge deal? No, of course not. Was it a pain in my ass to call 50 different tire places looking for an ever elusive tire? Yes. Do we really need to spend that $170 for a tire right now? No. Oh well, such is my life.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Summer Recipes
On my moring blog stalk, I came across this post from BigMama. Once again, she is on the blog roll of Jenn, whose friends I pretend to know. ;) Anyway, Big Mama was requesting good summer recipes that don't involve meatloaf, gravy, or frying hot things in oil. I recently made a new-to-me recipe which was quick, easy, and good (according to me, anyway--remember that I'm a picky eater.)
Chicken Bow-Tie Pasta Salad
from Summer 2007 Kraft Food & Family with my own modifications
2 c. farfalle (bow-tie pasta, or as my girls call it--butterflies), uncooked
2 c. fresh broccoli florets (when I made it we were out of broccoli at the moment, darn it) ;)
1 pkg. (6 oz) Oscar Mayer Grilled Chicken Breast Strips (I grilled my own boneless/skinnless chicken breasts and used those)
1 c. halved cherry tomatoes or roma tomato, cut into chunks
1/2 c. Kraft Light Zesty Italian Reduced Fat Dressing (I used the Kraft Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette dressing--MUCH BETTER imho, its why I liked this dish so much)
1/2 c. Kraft Natrual 2% Milk Colby & Monterey Jack Cheese Crumbles (do find the crumbles instead of regular shredded cheese)
1/4 c. sliced ripe olives
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
Cook pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the cooking water for the last 2 min of the pasta cooking time; drain.
Toss chicken, tomatoes, dressing, cheese crumbles and olives in large bowl. Add pasta mixture; mix lightly.
Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate several hours until chilled.
I have a habit of trying new recipes and they don't come out quite as I had envisioned. This one was better than expected. Like I mentioned above, I really liked the dressing I used and have since used it in a couple other dishes. This recipe is low cal (350 cal in a 2c. serving) and packs the protein (24 g). If you use the Oscar Mayer chicken breasts strips, there is no "cooking" involved other than boiling the pasta.
I am one of "those" moms who cooks almost every night. I usually have a week or two's worth of meals planned out and grocery shop for what I am making although I usually always 1. forget something I need and 2. buy so much other crap it off-sets the whole meal planning idea. At one point I had even made a spreadsheet listing out all the possible meal ideas and then I would date when I made them last so we wouldn't repeat too often. The initial idea was great, I just didn't use it for long. I still refer to the list, though. In the summer we do a lot of grilling--burgers, chicken breasts, pork in various forms (chops, ribs, etc), and steaks. Yum. In the fall I start breaking out the soup recipes and winter is great for the crock pot. None of my meals are fancy and my idea of a side dish is heating up a can of green beans.
I do get a lot of my recipes from Kraft Food & Family. Heck, they even go so far as planning out a week's worth of meals for you and giving you the grocery list. I usually don't go that far because I cannot eat that many processed products in a week and I like a little more variety. Don't get me wrong, I like the majority of their recipes but I don't feel the need to make 101 meals from mac & cheese.
If you want anymore recipes, just let me know--I love to swap recipes!
Chicken Bow-Tie Pasta Salad
from Summer 2007 Kraft Food & Family with my own modifications
2 c. farfalle (bow-tie pasta, or as my girls call it--butterflies), uncooked
2 c. fresh broccoli florets (when I made it we were out of broccoli at the moment, darn it) ;)
1 pkg. (6 oz) Oscar Mayer Grilled Chicken Breast Strips (I grilled my own boneless/skinnless chicken breasts and used those)
1 c. halved cherry tomatoes or roma tomato, cut into chunks
1/2 c. Kraft Light Zesty Italian Reduced Fat Dressing (I used the Kraft Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette dressing--MUCH BETTER imho, its why I liked this dish so much)
1/2 c. Kraft Natrual 2% Milk Colby & Monterey Jack Cheese Crumbles (do find the crumbles instead of regular shredded cheese)
1/4 c. sliced ripe olives
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
Cook pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the cooking water for the last 2 min of the pasta cooking time; drain.
Toss chicken, tomatoes, dressing, cheese crumbles and olives in large bowl. Add pasta mixture; mix lightly.
Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate several hours until chilled.
I have a habit of trying new recipes and they don't come out quite as I had envisioned. This one was better than expected. Like I mentioned above, I really liked the dressing I used and have since used it in a couple other dishes. This recipe is low cal (350 cal in a 2c. serving) and packs the protein (24 g). If you use the Oscar Mayer chicken breasts strips, there is no "cooking" involved other than boiling the pasta.
I am one of "those" moms who cooks almost every night. I usually have a week or two's worth of meals planned out and grocery shop for what I am making although I usually always 1. forget something I need and 2. buy so much other crap it off-sets the whole meal planning idea. At one point I had even made a spreadsheet listing out all the possible meal ideas and then I would date when I made them last so we wouldn't repeat too often. The initial idea was great, I just didn't use it for long. I still refer to the list, though. In the summer we do a lot of grilling--burgers, chicken breasts, pork in various forms (chops, ribs, etc), and steaks. Yum. In the fall I start breaking out the soup recipes and winter is great for the crock pot. None of my meals are fancy and my idea of a side dish is heating up a can of green beans.
I do get a lot of my recipes from Kraft Food & Family. Heck, they even go so far as planning out a week's worth of meals for you and giving you the grocery list. I usually don't go that far because I cannot eat that many processed products in a week and I like a little more variety. Don't get me wrong, I like the majority of their recipes but I don't feel the need to make 101 meals from mac & cheese.
If you want anymore recipes, just let me know--I love to swap recipes!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Lazy Days of Summer
We are being lazy this week. Breakfast after 9am, maybe dressed by 11am, and not much to do. After running around all over creation last week, we're all just ready to lay low. I feel like a boring mom, but that's what they're getting this week.
On Sunday the girls were both blowing bubbles and as soon as I realized how adorable they looked and ran inside to grab my camera, they decided they were done. These pictures were snapped with the bribe of a Starburst jelly bean if they would re-inact their previous fun. ;)
Do you see our poor lawn in the background? It looks horrible. Just a week or so ago, it was lush and green and neighbors commented on how nice it looked. Now that we haven't gotten any rain in two weeks, it is dying. The roots aren't deep enough to use any moisture deep in the ground--they sodded the yard in November of last year. Of course now I am complaining that there isn't enough rain when the rest of the state is probably hoping it doesn't rain for a good long time!
On Sunday the girls were both blowing bubbles and as soon as I realized how adorable they looked and ran inside to grab my camera, they decided they were done. These pictures were snapped with the bribe of a Starburst jelly bean if they would re-inact their previous fun. ;)
Do you see our poor lawn in the background? It looks horrible. Just a week or so ago, it was lush and green and neighbors commented on how nice it looked. Now that we haven't gotten any rain in two weeks, it is dying. The roots aren't deep enough to use any moisture deep in the ground--they sodded the yard in November of last year. Of course now I am complaining that there isn't enough rain when the rest of the state is probably hoping it doesn't rain for a good long time!
This poor girl has inherited my hair.
She will hate me for it later in life, just as I blame my mom for what I got (which she got from her mom). Its straggly, it won't grow, and isn't like many girls with "cute" hair at this age. Oh well, at least she herself is cute even if her hair isn't.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Friday Random
Had sort of a busy week, here is what we've been up to:
- Playdates. I love that we are in a neighborhood that has lots of kids. Monday we went to the park with our group for a couple hours. Tuesday a neighbor called for EE's to come over and play in the sprinkler. Wednesday we met EE's preschool friends at a park. Thursday we played over at a neighbors and had a picnic lunch. Today we'll put up our sprinkler. Man, the girls have been getting lots of outside time which is great!
- Shopping. Dh's birthday was yesterday so I had to finish up some things. Monday we traveled to the "Big City" and hit a few stores but didn't really ever find what I wanted. Tuesday was a haircut for me and shopping at the mall. Wednesday was Target, WalMart and Lowe's. Thursday we didn't go shopping (gasp!). Today was Target yet again.
- Baking. I decided to go with giant cupcakes for dh's birthday. He is sort of a traditionalist, so I figured he would want some sort of cake-type goodie and ice cream. This is how they turned out. Have I mentioned before that dh loves golf? Maybe a time or two. We went with a whole golf theme for him this year.
And here is the birthday boy:
Now I have about 1.5 months until the next birthday:
Other random things:
- EE is still determined to be a boy. Today she informed me that she will only wear short sleeved shirts and doesn't like tank tops. That doesn't go over well with Mom since there are 13 tank tops hanging in her closet. Maybe she will change her mind when it is 95 degrees out and the heat index is 110 later this summer. I just need to convince her that boys wear tank tops, too.
- We found out who EE's teacher is for next year. I don't know much about any of the individual teachers, but she got Mrs. Jordan. I was kind of hoping for Mrs. Tickle, purely based on her name. Isn't that a great name for a kindergarten teacher? EE isn't in class with any of the neighborhood kids which is sort of amazing considering there are at least 5 others that we know of. She also isn't in class with any of the college coaches or AD's kids (which means we lucked out and didn't get into the same class as ANB!)
- Dh had been suffering from chest pains about a week ago. They were constant and quite painful; on more than one occasion he was ready to go to the ER or call an ambulance. He finally went to the Dr. He is like most men and I can count on two fingers how many times he has gone in on his own for other things in the 15 years I've known him. After he's seen the bills for this last visit, I will be hard pressed to get him to ever go again. $1K later all he was told is "Its possibly heartburn/reflux. Try OTC Prolosec for two week" Nice.
- I'm finally losing some weight. I've been trying for oh, say the past 5 years and haven't been too successful. I'm just about down to where I was when I got pg 3.5 years ago.
- The house is clean, the kids are in bed, and I'm about to get on the treadmill. Apparently this whole losing weight thing involves exercise. Who knew?
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Father's Day Part Deux
I wanted to give a shout out to the actual father of my own children after giving my Dad such a glowing review. We had a very nice Father's Day and I'm glad my own girls have such a great dad. He may not have the patience of a Saint, but he loves his girls more than anything in this world. Even golf. (I think).
Father's Day started off in church with EE singing a few songs from vacation bible school we had the week before. This was from Amazing Grace, complete with actions for "I once was blind".
I had packed a picnic lunch and of course when we left church it was raining big, fat, slow raindrops. We headed off to our picnic destination anyway, hoping the blue skies we saw were an indication that the rain would end soon. It did. I snapped a few pictures of us walking to our picnic destination, and this was my favorite:
We ate our lunch under the campanile on the Iowa State campus. EE loves to go on campus and we promised her a picnic there one day--no better opportunity than Father's Day. Here is what the campanile looks like:
As we were eating under there, dh mentioned to EE, "You don't know how much this spot played into your actual existence here today." You see, we made many a trip to the campanile at midnight during our college days to "kiss under the campanile". It is a tradition I've mentioned before. The story is if you kiss a virgin under the campanile at midnight, a brick will fall off the campanile. Notice in the picture above there are no missing bricks. Hmmmm. Anyway, we were engaged under the campanile in 1996 at midnight on July 4th. We took wedding pictures there a year later. Now we are taking pictures with our two girls:
While we were picnicing, a newly married couple came to take some pictures. They said they were married on Saturday but another wedding couple was taking pictures there, so they didn't get a chance. We had to share our story of being engaged there 12 years ago. It was fun to see the traditions carrying on.
Across from the campanile is our student union. Outside of the Union is a fountain, so the girls made their wishes on pennies and got to dip their toes in.
Of course we had to pose with Dad there, too.
It is also dh's birthday this week, so we have lots of celebrating to do. I'm trying to decide if I make a dessert for him (chocolate cupcakes) or one that I like too (peanut butter pie. Yum). Any input?
Father's Day started off in church with EE singing a few songs from vacation bible school we had the week before. This was from Amazing Grace, complete with actions for "I once was blind".
I had packed a picnic lunch and of course when we left church it was raining big, fat, slow raindrops. We headed off to our picnic destination anyway, hoping the blue skies we saw were an indication that the rain would end soon. It did. I snapped a few pictures of us walking to our picnic destination, and this was my favorite:
We ate our lunch under the campanile on the Iowa State campus. EE loves to go on campus and we promised her a picnic there one day--no better opportunity than Father's Day. Here is what the campanile looks like:
As we were eating under there, dh mentioned to EE, "You don't know how much this spot played into your actual existence here today." You see, we made many a trip to the campanile at midnight during our college days to "kiss under the campanile". It is a tradition I've mentioned before. The story is if you kiss a virgin under the campanile at midnight, a brick will fall off the campanile. Notice in the picture above there are no missing bricks. Hmmmm. Anyway, we were engaged under the campanile in 1996 at midnight on July 4th. We took wedding pictures there a year later. Now we are taking pictures with our two girls:
While we were picnicing, a newly married couple came to take some pictures. They said they were married on Saturday but another wedding couple was taking pictures there, so they didn't get a chance. We had to share our story of being engaged there 12 years ago. It was fun to see the traditions carrying on.
Across from the campanile is our student union. Outside of the Union is a fountain, so the girls made their wishes on pennies and got to dip their toes in.
Of course we had to pose with Dad there, too.
It is also dh's birthday this week, so we have lots of celebrating to do. I'm trying to decide if I make a dessert for him (chocolate cupcakes) or one that I like too (peanut butter pie. Yum). Any input?
Imperfectly Beautiful
I'm always a day late and a dollar short, it seems. Yesterday a few of my fellow bloggers (a.k.a. Teri and Cristin) participated in Nester's photo extravaganza. The idea was to capture something in your life that is beautiful to you, but not necessarily perfect. We all know no one is perfect, no matter how much they claim to be a perfectionist. As much as I like things in their place, I am no where near perfect, either. And sometimes there is beauty in chaos.
Two pictures came to mind when I saw the title. The first is of some snap dragons I have growing at my house. I bought these from the neighbor girl as a fund raiser for the local school. When I got them, they were 6 tiny green plants and I planted them in a container and put them on the back patio. All my other flowers I planted have blossomed and proliferated, and I've only Miracle Grow'ed them once. These particular snap dragons have grown, and grown, and grown. They've only now just started to bloom. These things are ginormous (love that word)--I've never seen snap dragons get so big. They have withstood 50+ mile an hour winds on more than once occasion, sideways rain, and at least 10+" of precipitation.
One particular bloom has gone a little wonky. It makes a 90 degree turn out of the container, grows parallel to the ground, then makes a third 90 degree turn straight up. Imperfect, yet beautiful.
The second picture I love is one of LC. This is probably either right after her surgery or the day after surgery. She on the whole is imperfect (speaking in terms of how messed up her internal organs were), yet beautiful. Her scar is now faint, but I hope she wears it with pride.
Two pictures came to mind when I saw the title. The first is of some snap dragons I have growing at my house. I bought these from the neighbor girl as a fund raiser for the local school. When I got them, they were 6 tiny green plants and I planted them in a container and put them on the back patio. All my other flowers I planted have blossomed and proliferated, and I've only Miracle Grow'ed them once. These particular snap dragons have grown, and grown, and grown. They've only now just started to bloom. These things are ginormous (love that word)--I've never seen snap dragons get so big. They have withstood 50+ mile an hour winds on more than once occasion, sideways rain, and at least 10+" of precipitation.
One particular bloom has gone a little wonky. It makes a 90 degree turn out of the container, grows parallel to the ground, then makes a third 90 degree turn straight up. Imperfect, yet beautiful.
The second picture I love is one of LC. This is probably either right after her surgery or the day after surgery. She on the whole is imperfect (speaking in terms of how messed up her internal organs were), yet beautiful. Her scar is now faint, but I hope she wears it with pride.
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