Anna is quiet today

Hotel for Dogs (Full Screen Edition)She has a sore throat, otherwise she'd be her usual loud and rambunctious self. Right now we are watching Hotel for Dogs, she says it is the Best Movie Ever!   I'm not paying attention so I don't know what is going on only that Emma Roberts is in it.

This morning when I walked into our pantry, I got a most wonderful surprise, Tom had clean and organized it.  Circle today on the calendar, that doesn't happen every day, every week, every month or even every year!

It's so clean I can share a picture:

And I am almost caught up on the Laundry, and basically that is an oxymoron.  Is anyone ever really caught up on laundry. I got a new/old washer on Mothers Day that I bought with part of my pay from my Tastefully Simple party the night before.  I love it.  It is about 8x as old as the one we had, It has about 1/3 the capacity and no electronic panel.  What it does have is all your basic washing machine parts that work and have worked for a long time.  While our 'old' washing machine:The Kenmore Oasis with Canyon something and a whisper package and no agitator, that is only 3 years old is broke again. 
Sears would like $75 to come out and more to fix it again, or we can buy a repair package that is good for a year for $225.  Ya sounds great, We did that when it stopped working about 16 months ago.  So I went on Craigslist last week, looked up garage sales and called around until this nice lady in Alsip said  she had a washer that worked but was nothing to look at and she'd take $75 for it.

On Sunday we picked it up.  It was my Mother's Day gift to me from me.  Then Tom and I tried to move it into the basement by ourselves and I had visions of the washer sliding down the stairs and landing on Tom.  The washer is just too heavy for me, I called Tom's brother and let them move it down the steps. 

Other exciting news around here is that our strawberry patch is bursting with strawberries.  They are not red as of yet, but when they are, fresh organic strawberries are the best!
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So tired!

It's been one super busy day.  First off, I didn't sleep well last night, and then Patrick woke up with a fever and a sore throat.  Again.  This seems to be happening every few weeks.  I've got to call the doctor, maybe he had some kind of strep thingy, ugh.  Or it's the power of mind over matter, and his desire to stay home from school.  As he tells me all the time and usually in tears on Monday mornings, he hates school. 

Why does he hate school? He can't do what he wants.  What does he want to do?  Oh you know watch TV, play video games, write stories, eat a lunch at home. 
Only 17 more days of school and he'll be one step closer to being done with school.  I'm going to have to try that one on him.  He's already logged just about 5 years of school, might as well finish it up ( in 7 more years plus college-but who's counting!)

Tomorrow morning is the Teacher Appreciation Breakfast at Patrick's school.  I have been coordinating it with help of the PTA Pres, and this will be my first assignment as the new Hospitality PTA person.  I hope it goes well, of course my biggest worry is:
1. not enough food
2. not enough coffee.

I was cooking all day to complement the items that are being donated by parents and a few businesses.  I used a couple recipes from pillsbury.com because I needed breakfast-y caserole type options  and then I found a recipe in the coupon section of the paper from sunday for a Cheesy Bacon Egg Bake.  So I've got that along w/ Bacon and Cheese Tartlets (made with bacon bacon, so the muslim staff can eat it) and Bacon and Cheese Biscuit Quiche Type things.  (made with turkey bacon)  I also washed and cut up fruit, and made 3 different bagel spreads w/Tastefully Simple Products: 1. Bacon Bacon Spread 2. Sweet Strawberry Spread and for a veggie spread, Sweet Bell Pepper Spread.   And I went to the local Jewel a few time today to get additonal supplies. 

The exciting thing is that 1. all the stuff I made fit in the fridge and on one shelf, so everyone knew not to eat it tonight.  The neverwracking thing is getting 10 packages of turkey brown and serve sausages all heated up and in the crockpot w/o the middles being cold.

Wish me luck that is goes well and we have happy full teachers!  Don't tell anyone but I am hoping to get in a nap after the breakfast is over  :-D

Cancun Continued.

Black Magic Sanction (Rachel Morgan, Book 8) have to remember to go over to my library and pay the fine I owe for forgetting to return a kids cd-rom then I can finally get Black Magic Sanction book 8 in a series. This series of books rocks. I really love it, thax to Barbara who clued me into the series when she posted that the first book was free for kindle.


I'm also looking forward to the next book in the Mercy Thompson series. I love heroines!


Okay back to Cancun. The picture of me outside our room is right before we went to dinner on Friday night. We stood in line for the most popular/exclusive restaurant at the resort, which just means we had to wait in line, it wasn't like we couldn't get a table unless we knew someone. So we wound up have dinner with a bunch of other people at this restaurant that was called like Mo No Mama or something. The restaurant has Japanese/Asian Cuisine. They have chopsticks, if you want a fork, you've got to request it. Somewhat strangely in keeping with the Asian theme, the Mexican hostess has to wear a kimono. At least she doesn't have to bind her feet, she was pretty crabby already. I just looked at the chopsticks and tried to hold them like a couple pencils, and thought about trying to stab the maki rolls on the table. Lucky for me, my wonderful Tastefully Simple Sponsor, showed me how to hold the sticks and better yet explained to me how to hold them. So there I was grabbing sushi with my chopsticks, I am worldly now, I am wielding chopsticks. 

I took a second roll and popped into my mouth with out dropping it. Quite exciting. I held back from eating more sushi to make sure I had plenty of room for my entree, something that sounded like Beef Gideon. The waiter gave us our plates with some flourish and the entree sizes were reasonable vrs. the usual 4 servings on one plate you find at restaurant here in the States.  I even had a most yummy Mai Tai with my meal.  Then all of a sudden , I was done.  I couldn't take one more bit of my entree and I broke out in a sweat when asked about dessert.  I felt terrible.  So terrible I was afraid I'd puke on the way back to the room. I was in bed with the covers over my head by 930pm.

The next night we went back to the same restaurant because it was the best one at the resort, IMO, and Tom wanted to go back.  When we were seated Sat night, I looked at the maki rolls on the menu and realized why I was sick on Friday night.  All of the sushi rolls they serve, include avocados.  So the food their is great, it was me with the allergic reaction. Tom was relieved to find out it was me and not the food.

Actually on Saturday night we were supposed to eat with the same fantastic crowd as the night before, but we didn't make it to the restaurant to be seated with them because the door fell off our room.  The humidity had rotted the wood around the hinges and the door was almost completely off. It is the door's fault I fell for the second time.  With the door broken we could close our door and in between the time when the door broke and the maintenance guy showed up to fix it, which he couldn't, he thought it was a lock problem not a wood problem.  Whilst we were waiting for  him, every surface of our room became slick with moisture from all the humid air now streaming in to it.  This fact was made clear to us when I got off the bed, and on my second step to the dresser.  Splat on the floor goes me.  Tom was dumbfounded.  One second I was standing, the next I wiped out.  That is when we noticed our room floor had turned into a hockey rink.  This was completely apropos, as Tom was watching Blackhawks highlights on the laptop. Just in case you were wondering if it was the floor or mai tais, I don't need any drinks to fall, apparently I am super good at falling w/o any help.

They couldn't fix our door, so we moved down the hall to a new room, which was nice, the bellman moved our stuff and we got fresh towels and soap.  Because of the way the resort rooms angle out, maximizing any views for the guests, our room was just a bit different from the previous one.  You see each room had a big stone column, which gave a sense of separation between the bed and the bathroom.  In the middle of the night, I used the restroom and when I walked back to the bed I walked, wait for it,
yes! right into the column.  Can you believe it?  Tom is on his laptop right now taking out some additional life insurance on me. 

Sunday I was ready to come home, not because I wasn't having fun and memorable times, but because I missed the kids and home.  Being the incredibly caring wife that I am, I sat in the middle seat on the way home.  Fortunately I was able to fall asleep and not notice in was in the middle seat for most of the ride.

We arrived home to rain, temps in the 50s, but that was alright because I knew that we have the rest of spring and all of summer to enjoy. 

Now that it has been just over a week since our trip, the getting sick and injuring myself  parts of the trip are already fading in my memory into just a funny story and what remains is the first vacation Tom and I have had together in 11 years.  We spent more time together and talked to each other more than we have in a good 5 years. 

Now I have to do the mastercard thing.
Trip to Cancun: free cause I earned it, walking into a column: one knot on my forehead, finding out that I still like spending time with my husband: PRICELESS!

No really it's true, I went to Cancun and I didn't come back with a tan or a lousy sunburn!

This picture is from Friday Night in Cancun right prior to us going to dinner.  behind me you can see ocean.  Ohh Ahh I love the ocean.

Many nice people have asked how was my trip to Cancun.  If I can be cliche in a word it was memorable.  We drove off with our minivan taxi driver at 5ish AM on Saturday morning, it was cold for sandals.  I wore them anyway, the minute we were out the door I was on vacation. 

When I travel, as I do about quarterly thanks to my super awesome part time job livng the life of a jet setting Tastefully Simple Lady,  I like a few things to go a certain way.  Just think of me as a female version of Ryan Bingham in Up In The Air, without 97% of the issues.  I had my pre-boarding Egg McMuffin and Venti Starbucks (black).  Can I just say, this is the perfect traveling breakfast, as long as you are not adverse to using the plane's bathroom. (Venti is a lot of coffee).  I like to sit in the back-ish of the plane and must have an aisle seat. Ah aisle seats how I love aisle seats.  "Up in the Air" was the movie for the flight, a movie that takes place in airports and on American Airlines-the same airline we were flying. 

Have you ever been to Cancun?  I really don't like wintertime and I am the one who says bring on the heat, I can handle the humidity.  righhhhttt.  Let me put it this way, people who live in Cancun like to travel to Florida to experience the dry heat.  When they visit Chicago in August and we are enjoying 90% humidity,  they bring a coat so they won't be chilly.  Walking from the plane to the baggage claim my hair went from straight-ish with some wave to boing!  Frizzy city.  The plus was I didn't spend any of my vacation on hair styling. 

Tom walked into the resort and looked around and his mouth dropped opened. He was impressed.  The resort is all tile and marble and has beautiful stainglass ceilings.  It reminded me of a Las Vegas Hotel big, sensory overload, and you have no reason to leave the place except to catch your plane home. When we arrived at the resort there was really really long lines for check in, which was bad because I was starving, and good because they had a cocktail bar and snacks next to the check in line.  Because I am almost 40 and wise in the ways of drinking alchohol, I grabbed a margarita, and no snacks.  I told Tom, I didn't want to waste my hunger on chips and salsa. 

Once we got to our room we checked out the minibar, which was included in the all-inclusiveness of the place so we opened the wine in our room, toasted to the view, took a picture of the liquor dispensers, checked out the robes and I made Tom get in the hammock for a picture. The courtyard our room overlooked had a bit of an ocean view, lots of palm trees and birds were singing.  I remarked to Tom that the birds reminded me of our honeymoon in Hawaii.

Clearly this picture isn't going to end up in the resort brochure touting how relaxing it is at their resort. 

We had a lovely room.  As we were starving we wanted to get right out there and enjoy the all-inclusivity, and I wanted to wear my most awesome shoes.  Micheal Kors sandals I got via mypoints.com daily deals.  Obviously the man didn't appreciate the awesomeness of the shoes.  Not only are they cute but also super comfy, except if you wear them for a night out then you might get a huge blister on your big toe like me!

I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but I am know for my falling.  I trip from time to time and fall and it is funny every time.  Something about seeing someone fall down is always funny. So there I was feeling stylish and trendy in my cute shoes and my casual dress walking around with my hubby with the ocean breeze.  A lovely stroll, and then I walk over to a bathroom over by one of the pools and whooops.  I slipped and fell right when another lady was walking out of the stall I fall smack on the floor on my knee.  The kind lovely lady says, "Are you OK?  I did the same thing!"  I laughed and made a mental note to text my good friend and let her know I had fallen again.  It's not a fun time til I fall down.  That lady probably didn't really even fall, she was just trying to make me feel better or she thought I was drunk and she wanted to humor the drunk lady.

In my defense of falling:

1. I don't fall that much, I just happen to fall around others.

2. I learned the hard way not to walk or run and look at my iphone.

3. I run 20-30 miles a week so on average I don't fall anymore than anyone else.

4. I didn't fall until I after I sprained my ankle really bad, I blame my bad ankle.

We had a really yummy dinner and I think I let the nice waiter give me a bit too many cervezas.  I mean the guy was taking my glass when it was 3/4 empty and giving me a fresh mug.  It was a fun night, Tom was Mr. Social and lucky for me I switched to water!

At the crack of dawn, the birds woke me up.  They were louder than my alarm clock and not welcome at all. Tom the morning person that he is, was up and working on a presentation for work and pre

paring for his conference call at 8am.  He was grumbling, and I dug thru my carry-on, found the ibuprophen and went back to bed.

On our walk to breakfast, we decided we aren't cut out for a vacation of drinking.  Tom said we should have been practicing by drinking frequently in the weeks leading up to our trip (tongue-in-cheek).

After breakfast Tom had more work to wrap up, so I took a nap, because I could.  Naps cannot be overrated. Tom's work was wrapped up and we finally got to check out the pools. When you have lots of freckles, such as I do, you learn how to put on loads of sunblock.  Much to the disappointment of Ms. Anna, we came back with no suntan. 

I have to share more of the trip, more falling, learning to use chopsticks, our door falling off our room. I'm going to try to tell the rest of the story tomorrow, but I might not get to it since at 7pm tonight (Thursday) I realized that Bryce's 1st communion is at 10AM on Saturday, and he doesn't have a suit to wear and I have to get an xray on my toe because it's probably broken.  Too funny!  Really I am organized, and in great health!  It just doesn't sound like it! 

Tis Tuesday!

It's Tuesday, that means in 48 hours will be in Cancun and my parents will be spending an afternoon with Anna.  Hopefully they won't try to go shopping after school with her, because she is the worst when you are trying to get a few things from the grocery store or to check your coupons to save a couple bucks.  How can that sweet Anna be a nightmare at the store?  Well lets see:
1. sitting in the toliet paper/paper towel aisle on the toliet paper.
2. picking up a cucumber after the mister mists the veggies and licking off water.
3. Opening the egg boxes and taking out eggs.
4. saying she is tired and sitting in the middle of an aisle
5. running off in the store then when you walk over and get her, she starts saying MAMA YOU ARE HURTING ME.
6. this one only happened once, wanting to know how babies come out of their mama's tummies. (the last one was pretty cute, 1-5 not so much)

In about 15 minutes I have to take her with me to the dentist.  :-(  I hope my phone is charged up so she can watch the zack and cody video on it.  I tell ya the iphone has paid for itself 50x over between the use as a distracting to keep a kiddo from being bored to death, directions to host's houses, and even blogging!

smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

this is an opinion website that if you join you can get free samples, complete surveys for points/rewards cash. I like these sorts of things because I have opinions and I like to try new stuff. :-D So check it out!

I am typing today on my new Toshiba laptop from good old best buy (same as cash 18 months) my last laptop which I loved died a sudden death :-( a couple of weeks ago and so I was using Tom's laptop which he didn't like so now I have a new one. So there is a tax deduction for 2010. This one has a 10key pad on the right hand side of the key board andn I keep hitting those buttons when I am looking for the delete button. I guess I will so get used to it. This one also has skype built in, so if Oprah ever calls me and wants to skype me into her show, I'm all set!

Tomorrow I am going to be at the Relay for Life Oak Forest Craft Show at Kenootz Pizza, I have some really cute teacher's gifts that I'm sure people will grab, it's our Sweet Strawberry Cheese Ball and a bag of the twisty grahams in a nice white organza bag, it looks like you put thought into the gift, it's edible and shows you care all for only $16.00!

Tomorrow night I had a Tastefully Simple party scheduled but my host has mersa, poor thing! So we had to reschedule for the 2nd 1/2 of May. My May is getting really busy. Which is good, I am working on 1. saving $$ to send the kids to daycamp (a must for summer sanity --mine) and b. saving for our trip to my parents new home in Georgia (and to visit my bro and his family too).

And I'm closing in on earning the incentive trip to Disney, earning this trip is a must as I've already told the children we are going to go! I think next April will be a good time to go, Patrick will be 10, Bryce 9, and Anna 6.

Wicked wicked allergy week around here, I stocked up on some benadryl today, for me and Patrick and. Bryce. It's been fabulous outside though, which helps mitigate the allergy suffering.

Curently I am on a sandwich kick, for dinner I adapted a recipe for Brie and bacon panni that I found on the Trader Joes website http//traderjoes.com
So here is my interpretation of the panni

Take 2 slices of bread and brush one side of each with tastefully simple Roasted Garlic Infused oil
On the other side of the bread spread our new Bold &Bossy Honey Mustard
On the other slice layer thinly sliced apple (I used A fuji apple
Then on top of the mustard slice layer the ham of your choice, I used Hilshire Farm Brown Sugar Ham.
On top of the ham put slices of Brie cheese.
Pit the slices together to make your sandwich and grill in an iron skillet about two minutes on each side and then it is YUM!

All day today I thought it was thursday , I guess tomorrow will be Deja vu!

Facebook | Kraft Macaroni & Cheese

I have a soft spot in my heart for the mac and cheese in the blue box. It never disappoints. The only mac and cheese that could rival my love for Kraft Mac and Cheese was Annie's Homegrown Organice Mild Mexican Shells & Cheese. Which I have not seen  in a store for a few years.  :-(  Anyway back to the Kraft.  Not too long ago Jewel had a sale on the kraft and I stock up on 10 boxes at 79 cents a box.  This was quite the deal and we have just a couple left.  Now when I was a kid I swear there was a lot more in the box, but I do enjoy the noodle shapes that they have now.  We are big fans of the Spongebob and the Spiderman boxes.  Today I was checking out Rachel's mashup mom site and she had on there the scoop on how you can get a coupon for a free box of the new Cheese Explosion Kraft Mac and Cheese if you are Kraft  Mac and Cheese's facebook friend.  Obviously I friended the Kraft Mac and Cheese a long time ago and took this opportunity to make it facebook offical! I put a link to the Kraft Mach and Cheese facebook page on here as well as a look at my fav mac and cheese that they apparently don't make anymore.




Facebook Kraft Macaroni & Cheese

Upromise Guest Shopping for Victoria

Upromise Guest Shopping for Victoria

I went and checked my Upromise account balance today and found there is $45 in there. I guess each kid can purchase a notebook or 2 for college with that? Maybe a really cheap used book? Anna has informed me that when she grows up she wants to be an artist. So no need for college for that, she needs to leave home as soon as she turns 18, and find a muse. Or go stake out a spot at Navy Pier and paint pictures. Bryce wants to be a police officer, so I told him he can go to Moraine Valley Community College and live in the basement. Patrick wants to make video games. He told my friend that he wants to go to college via online classes so he doesn't have to leave home. I will have to remind him of that when he is a teenager, I have a sneakingsupicion that he will change his mind about not wanting to leave home.

Today I am making lunch for dinner. So we are having soup and sandwiches. I found this recipe in my Food Network Magazine Ham-Taleggio Grilled Cheese. Yum right? Now I noticed that the recipe called for Taleggio Cheese







And I said to myself, man that doesn't look like a cheese that they sell at Jewel or Aldi, I better go to Trader Joes since they have a more varied cheese selection and their cheese prices are lower than Jewel for the cheese in the cheese section.  Anna was even willing to go to Trader Joes and behave since they have mini shopping carts for the kids, they also always have a food demonstrator and she likes to try the samples. 
 
Well we went to Trader Joes and they didn't have any Taleggio Cheese.  I didn't know what would be a good substitute cheese, since I wasn't sure what kind of cheese Taleggio Cheese was (like hard, semi soft, soft) all I could determine from the name was that it originated in Italy.  Given that I bought Asiago Cheese, Brie Cheese and Guyere Cheese.  I skipped on getting gouda for some reason, I usually get gouda if I am buying cheese esp. if I am at Trader Joes.   Today I found a website that is my new favorite website it is called foodsubs.com and guess what, Taleggio Cheese is a semi-soft cheese not a hard cheese and so substitutes for it include Gouda and Fontina Cheese, not Asiago or Guyere Cheese.
 
Making an exectutive decision I am redoing the recipe as Ham-Guyere Grilled Cheese.
Ingredients
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions thinly sliced
8 thin slices white bread (Im using Trader Joes Italian Country Loaf)
10 oz of Guyere Cheese shredded
*note Tom won't eat Guyere Cheese so I am making his Ham-Swiss Grilled Cheese. The Swiss will be sliced
8 oz thinly sliced ham
1 green apple thinly sliced.
 
melt 1 tbsp butter with the olive oil in a large skillet over med-low heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and caramelized, about 20 minutes :-(  thats a long time.  For a short cut use onion marmalade in place of the caramelized onions.  *I wonder where one can purchase onion marmalade???
 
Lay out 4 slices of bread. Top w/ 1/2 the cheese, then 1/2 the ham, layer the onions and apple slices the the remaining ham and cheese on top, then the remaining bread slices.
 
Wipe out the skillet, melt 1 tbsp of butter over med-lowheat.  Add 2 sandwiches and cook, pressing gently with a spatula, until the bottom is golden and the cheese begins to melt, about 4 minutes.
Filp and cook until golden, about 4 more minutes.  Repeat.
 
We'll have the sandwiches, I am also making Lipton Soup because the kids probably won't go for the sandwiches and then baby carrots and Tastefully Simple Sun-dried Tomato Veggie Dip.

I am testing to see if I can blog from my iPhone. Test one two
Today we are at baseball practice and it is cold and overcast so I am very glad I can stay in the car.

Patrick is bummed that fast food Thursdays have ended along with choir practice, but I distracted him with a snack of flaming hot cheetos. I don't know how he can do it but his fav snack is hot cheetos and claussen pickles. Only classen pickles for Patrick and if I don't watch him the pickles are gone in one day. I can relate , I completely agree that Claussen Pickles are far superior to all other pickles on the market, however eating a whole jar in one day is so not good.

Back to baseball, the dads that coach these teams must really like baseball, the boys are so squirrely, I can watch closely or I feel compelled to yell at Bryce : stop messing around and pay attention to the ball!

I am going to get back to my book: Abraham Lincoln, vampire hunter, Bryce is up to bat.