Let's Try This Again Next Week

I just typed a post and then it disappeared-- which pretty much sums up how this week has gone.

To summarize:

B got sick again last night after eating (small amounts) of dinner so indeed, a full week of missed school for him.

C started crying in the middle of the night that her belly hurt.  I finally just slept on the floor of her room after shuffling up and down the hall so many times to attend to her cries.  She hasn't yet gotten sick but I'm on high alert.

Awesome all around.

See you next week!

Snow Day!

This post was constructed in its entirety from the warm bed!

It's a good thing, too, because I had NOTHING to report this morning.  I even polled the other 3 for tidbits and they all let me down.  We'll try to do something interesting today, although I'd be happy with just picking up the mess we call a house!

He's Sick AGAIN?

Well, that's just HAIR-RAISIN'!!!!

Indeed, after 30+ hours of not being sick and a full day of pretty much seeming normal, the B-man sealed the deal on a 3rd day of missing school after losing his dinner.  While it might have been just a case of "too much, too soon," I've also heard of this pattern (feeling better for at least a day and then getting sick again) happening to other kids at his school so...better to be safe than sorry, right?

Sigh.

Puzzled

It's possible I enjoyed my first jigsaw puzzle in years during the snow this weekend.  (Thanks to Sheils for her help!)  It was a generic "teddy bears in a flower shop" scene that I had picked up on deep discount at Weggies some time back, but it actually caused me to realize that I might enjoy doing another one.

I set out Sunday afternoon to wander a few stores and was thrilled to find not only a puzzle but also a fun one of potential-interest-to-children, too!!  They didn't help me quite as much as I thought they might, but the BG and I worked to put this one together.   So tell me-- what do you think about the titles that were included?  

I have never heard of Pockets and definitely have never read Time For Bed, although it might sound kinda familiar.  Pretty sure I haven't read Runaway Pancake or the second one from the left on the top shelf, er, row.  The writing at the bottom says "Carp With a Harp" but nothing popped out at me on a quick google search.

Kinda already itching to find another one....on the cheap, of course!

Solidarity

Sounds like all my friends in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex got jealous of our recent winter weather and got an ice day off from school today for themselves!!  We actually have a 2-hour delay, not because anything new has fallen, but because all the melting yesterday when it got up into the high 40s caused some serious ice problems this morning when it got back below freezing.  Two-hour delays means a little bonus father/daughter time in the morning:

In case you're wondering why there is no son in the picture, it's because he's asleep on the floor of the bathroom after throwing up multiple times during the night.  Totally came out of nowhere--and hopefully will be short-lived-- but he was healthy and happy all weekend to celebrate Grammie's birthday on Saturday!

My efficient/practical/frugal side was so excited to realize the dollar store number candles I'd just bought for our January birthdays worked perfectly for....her birth year!!!  (Gotta do math to figure out her age!)  And, y'all, seriously, the Ultimate Chocolate Cake from Wegmans might just be the best cake ever.  Not sure it even makes sense ever to bake an iced chocolate cake again. 

Oh, so yes-- Grammie was able to fly out yesterday, even after our 9 (!!!) inches of snow that fell Saturday.  (They had predicted 2-5" so it was pretty exciting!)   She also made it back before the icy stuff happening there.  So, while we didn't have our NYC adventure as planned, we did manage to have a wonderful visit!   Thanks for coming, Grammie!

Plan, Schman

Sooo....the whole reason Grammie came up here again so soon after her Christmas visit was because, several months ago, loyal reader JC asked if we'd like to meet up with her this weekend in NYC to see Helen Mirren in her latest Broadway production.   Billed as not only a Part Deux of a girls trip to NYC the three of us took when I was in high school but also a celebration of February birthdays, the adventure came together pretty smoothly in our excitement!  (Even the BG agreed to take today off to stay with Miss C which is pretty much the first time he's missed school due to something other than a birth, a death, or a football clinic!)

But you know what we're not doing today?  Getting on a train.  We found out yesterday morning that poor JC took a tumble outside her house and isn't in any condition to be getting around, let alone driving herself to NYC.   Grammie and I could've gone anyway but, since Amtrak had already bumped our train rezzie to a different one today (we're having historic cold and they canceled a bunch of trains), and we're expecting wintry weather tomorrow that would probably complicate our return travel, we decided to throw in the towel on the whole plan.  So much for our grand adventure.

Such a bummer but what are you gonna do?   No, really-- what ARE we gonna do?   Suddenly, we have to come up with local activities to fill two extra days...but did I mention that it's currently 1.8 degrees?!!  All the schools have issued a 2-hour delay this morning to help buses and buildings get their heat up and running so we won't be putting B on the bus until 10:20-- once we do, however, I'm prettttty sure we'll be headed to Wegmans to try and cheer ourselves up.  After all, someone has a birthday tomorrow and is in NEED of the Ultimate Chocolate Cake they make there!!

(Being efficient with my signage):

HAPPY FRIDAY!

PS:  Hope you're "up and at 'em" soon, JC!  We love you!

They Finally Got Their Snow Play

Often when we get snow around here, it's "warm" enough (say, 30 degrees) to enjoy playing in it.  That has not been the case of late, however, so the kiddies hadn't been out to play in Monday evening's snowfall....until yesterday afternoon when their daddy very kindly took them out. Here they are all bundled up:

And.....Miss C lasted about 7 minutes.  Turns out it was COLD.

She much preferred her couch snuggles with Grammie:

Win-Win

Enough snow to cancel school but not enough to mess with Grammie's arrival yesterday afternoon?  Win-Win!!

The girls got right down to some relaxing screentime business:

Sheils would probably want me to tell you this pic was taken at the end of a long travel day and all her makeup is gone, but I think she looks adorable:

Ready for a fun week!

Extended Play

They canceled school at 8:30 last night so you would think we'd all take on a life of leisure and sleep in.

And you would be wrong.  I just commented to the BG that it feels "way later than 7:13" since we've been up for awhile!  There is just something so exciting about opening the front door for the first time after an overnight snow-- how much is on the ground?  What will it look like?  I will say I was relatively unimpressed this morning as we very much got the low end of the forecast: prob 3-4".  But we'll take it!

I walked by C's room at one point over this extended weekend and had to giggle when I found this sight:

She only very rarely falls asleep during quiet time anymore (and somehow her brother snuck in there) and pretty much can be counted on to make a huge mess in her room.  It wasn't until after I snapped this pic that I noticed the display of paper cups with a pony on each one.  That girl loves herself some cups (and ponies).  I seriously find cups all over the house, all pilfered from their resting places on the basement shelves.  Those ones pictured above?  Totally from this party which was, um, six years ago!!

Long Weekend

Today is a delightful Day 3 of a long holiday weekend....that's surely going to get longer.  We're supposed to get 4-8" of snow starting later this evening-- it's about time!!   (Of course, this is also the week that is supposed to feature various traveling adventures so it's not the ideal time for us to finally get our snowstorm but we're going to hang loose and see how it all shakes out.  More to come on that...)

We didn't do much to celebrate Valentine's (Valentines?) Day unless you call waiting 4.5 hours to get new tires at Costco after being quoted a 2-hour wait a romantic adventure!   Saturday night, however, a legit "snow squall" came through and we were plenty relieved to be the type not to be out on the town having a V-day dinner.  While it only dropped about an inch, there was a period of time where we truly could not see the houses across the street because the snow was blowing around so much.  Gusts up to 68 mph were reported.  It was crazy!!

The kiddies enjoyed some red-tinged hugs on the couch:

And this was B's bag at his school party.   Absolutely classic B-man to have it barely colored compared to his classmates....but he was the only kid who had written anything, let alone such a sentiment:

I didn't leave the house yesterday because the wind chills were below zero and all the roads around us were icy.   I eventually took a bath....and just put on different pajamas.  HA HA HA.   Probably not going to do much of anything today, either, except for wait for the snow to come.

But don't worry-- the snonuts have been procured!

Happy Presidents (Presidents'?) Day!

The Moves

Just as I said in Wednesday's post:  #8 makes me so happy!


(Apologies for the way the vertical video sways a bit crazily within the larger youtube box.  I can never remember to hold the phone the other way when recording and it always looks fine on the phone itself, anyway!)

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

The Birthday Report

I had a fabulous day yesterday!

It started out kinda slow because there was a 3-hour window of time for a guy to come by to measure for some blinds we're finally getting.  Thankfully, he came on the earlier end of things so Miss C and I could hit the road for some birthday fun.

First up-- Starbucks for my free birthday drink.  I had a very cute companion:

Then, knowing I should be pictured but that being a difficult thing to accomplish, I asked the 4-year old to snap a photo of me with her cake pop.  On the little phone screen, I thought it actually looked like a good pic:

(but then I got freaked out by the combo of shadows, angles, an early morning, and a lot of years laughing and coudn't deal with my crazy-looking eye.  Now you can't un-see it, right??!)

We then wandered around a few stores including World Market where I spent both my $10 birthday rewards and a $10 shoppers reward earned from shopping there previously.  Yes!  So much fun to treat oneself!   I then decided to call ahead to our local sandwich shop and order their delicious club sandwich as a takeout lunch treat.   At home, next to the gorgeous flowers that the BG completely surprised me with earlier in the morning:

I only ate half the sammie and homemade chips, however, because I knew what was coming.  First up, a flourless (read: super fudgy) chocolate cake:

To clarify: first up was baking the cake-- the eating didn't happen until later, after our big sushi takeout feast!!  After work, the BG drove all the way to our old stomping grounds to pick up dinner from our fave sushi place.  Yum!

Sprinkled through the whole day were texts, calls, Skypes, emails, and lots of FB happy wishes--- best.day.ever!!

Oh, the balloon I bought on January 14th for B's birthday has now made it through all THREE of our days!!   Like my new cake stand from World Market?  (We obviously liked the cake...!)

36 Things That Make Me Happy

(in no particular order)
1.  Warm, fudgy brownies
2.  Bubble bath with a captivating magazine or book
3.  My fam happily giving me hugs when requested
4.  Making connections
5.  Free shipping
6. Farmers markets
7.  New friendships
8.  Watching B's and C's dance moves
9.  Freshly fallen snow
10.  Reminiscing with the BG about "the old days"
11.  Brand name bargains at thrift stores
12.  M&Ms, Oreos, and hot fudge as ice cream/fro-yo toppings
13.  Giggling
14.  Crusty bread with salted dipping oil.  Cheese also welcome.  And cured meats.
15.  Finding the perfect emoji for a text
16.  Getting an A on something
17.  Flannel pants, slippers, and a fuzzy robe
18.  Memories of my daddy
19.  Buying My Little Pony and Lego "blind bags" for the kiddies
20.  Singing Pass it On
21.  Grande nonfat vanilla lattes
22.  Personalized stationery and address labels
23.  Inside jokes
24.  Quick Quizzes with my brother...especially when I win
25.  Walking around Baylor's campus
26.  Chips & Salsa...with salt
27.  Old photos
28.  Catching up with dear friends, especially if involving #1, #13, #14, #21, #26, and/or a tasty adult bevvie
29.  Shopping trips with Sheils
30.  Songs to which I know the words....generally country songs from 1998-2002ish or pop songs from the 80s/90s
31.  previously.tv forums for extending the TV-watching experience
32.  Wandering through the aisles of any grocery store, but especially Weggies
33.  People saying they remember my smile
34.  Actually writing legibly
35.  Tear-inducing video montages set to music, preferably with voice-over
36.  Sharing today (albeit across the miles) with my twin and loyal blog reader, Carrie!!!   Hard to believe it was exactly 20 years ago that our parents surprised us with a limo that took us to Ithaca for a Sweet Sixteen Italian dinner with friends!!!
----

It's funny:  I remembered making a similar list on the blog 5 years ago on my 31st birthday but I didn't let myself look at it until after I'd come up with the 36 things listed above.  Turns out it was actually a List of Things I'll Probably Do Today-- ha ha ha!!

Pony Party

When her brother used to line up all his vehicles, he'd called it a "Car Line."  Miss C, however, is having a "Pony Party":

I know the headboard is a bit of strange place for a clock but the projector arm projects the time upside-down when on the ceiling.  (Quality.)  Since it now has to be projected on a wall, it makes sense to have it on the wall she can see from her bed.  Grainy proof:

Please Look After Th(ese) Bear(s)

The little bears and I embarked on an adventure Saturday morning since the biggest bear left at 7am for an all-day football clinic.   I think my new favorite time to see a movie might be 9:30 in the morning!  So quiet and cozy!

Before we even made it into the theater, however, we had a spot of fun (see how English I can sound, in honor of the movie?  ha!):  there was a PINEAPPLE TRUCK parked right outside.  I put that in all caps because that's what we yell when we see one of these trucks on the road.  Our old house was near a food wholesale area so there were lots of produce trucks but this very colorful one caught the eye of a young Mr. Brooksie back in the day and we've been IDing it ever since.   I freely admit that I have been known to yell PINEAPPLE TRUCK....and then realize I'm in the car alone.  In any case, we don't see them very often since moving away so we were excited enough to take a quick snap!

Sidenote:  I'm so glad I took hats & mittens for them-- it never ended up getting as "nice" as the weather report had suggested.  Brrr!

I had so many hopes of posting this pic in a collage with one of me in first grade dressed as Paddington Bear but, alas, my photo collection failed me.  Guess I know what I'll be looking for the next time I'm in Dallas!

B and I really enjoyed the movie!!   It is just delightful!   The little miss is still overwhelmed by the sounds and sights in a theater, however, so she was less than captivated.   Ah, second children-- B didn't even go to a movie until the summer before Kindergarten and she's already been to several.

Once in the theater, B informed me that I had forgotten to give him new socks.   Sigh.

After the movie, we grabbed a quick lunch at Potbelly and then walked to Target where, obviously, our first stop had to be the video game display.  It was during this game break that I got a text about our 3 pm playdate with a school friend being canceled-- boooo.    I did let them play for longer, however, and I was perched across the aisle by a display of clearance shoes and it's possible that a pair of $8 flats made its way into my basket...

On our way back from Target to the car, Miss C requested a photo with this statue.  It's like they're used to getting their pictures taken or something.  Weird.   ;-)

Friday Randoms

• I have been on a hunt for pants suitable for wearing to play out in the snow (you know, like a slick material since snow clings to lots of fabrics).  Searches always seemed to lead to super expensive ski/snowboarding pants which...no.  But I finally found some online at Dick's and they arrived yesterday.  

1. The cost of the pants was below the free shipping threshold and that just pained me.  So I decided to buy two pairs (in different sizes) and will take one of them back to the local store (which carried none of them).   Anyone else out there do things like this? 
2. I am proactively depressed that the smaller size is going to be too small so I haven't even opened the bag yet. 
3. Why did I even bother since every forecasted snow storm this winter turns to RAIN before it arrives??!  BOOOO. 

• Seriously-- it's 11 degrees as I type this, yet conveniently before the next storm system arrives Sunday night, it will have gone up to the mid-50s and be too warm for snow.  Every.Single.Time.

•  Five years ago, it was NOT too warm for snow.  Behold a flashback from Feb 6, 2010!  

• Is it just me, or have television shows gotten kinda boring?  I haven't even watched Scandal from last night yet because last week's was sooooo uninteresting to me.  I loved it when it was a show about a "fixer" but this whole international drama thing is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.   I've thought this a lot lately about many shows, however-- that I don't actually enjoy them as I'm watching them.  It's a strange day when I'm not excited to catch up on DVRd shows but that's becoming a more frequent day.  I will say that I treated myself to a month of Showtime and have burned through the recent seasons of Masters of Sex, The Affair, and Nurse Jackie, along with Amazon's Transparent, so it might just be that my standards for writing, acting, and production values have increased.  And I hate that I even just wrote that sentence because it makes me sound like a TV snob .  I don't know.   Sigh.

•  I really like cheesy bread.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

She Hopes That There Are Muffins

or....She Hopes To Have Muffins

Sentences constructed with the word "hope" were part of the study underway at COLLEGE yesterday for Miss C.  The linguistics department was looking for 4-year olds to see how their understanding of the word "hope" relates to beliefs and desires.   Think for a moment about our language:   we could say "I believe that it is raining" and "I want to have some rain" but would never say "I believe to have some rain" or "I want that it is raining."

"Hope" spins that a bit on its head, however, because it can be used in either construct:  "I hope that is is raining" as well as "I hope to have some rain."   (the more you know......ding!)   The researchers devised a very neat game using multiple puppets, various wooden shapes, and a big board to test the kids' understanding of these concepts.   I watched from a room next door:

See how she's also on the computer screen?  The volume was coming from there, too!   She had a great time giving Froggy stickers when he got what he hoped for.

I timed the appointment to match up with a meal.  (SHOCKER!)   Off to Jason's Deli we went where the little miss quickly tired of me trying to get a pic of what started out as a regular ponytail and somehow ended up on top of her head as if from the 80s!

You will note she is holding a mini corn muffin.  The kiddies just love their Jason's muffins....so I might have taken two home for big brother to have after school.   I snapped this pic because I liked the light but I see now the slightest telltale muffin bulge in his cheek!

Fake Cousin Time

Fake Auntie Christy had a birthday on Saturday so I offered to bring our babysitting services to their house so they could escape to do some shopping.  (They brought us back an Indian feast for dinner so it was hardly a hardship!)   The kiddies made a line-up before one of our trips outside:

And that wasn't even the only time we got to see C & O last week!  They came over to play Tuesday during the snow day that had perfectly clear roads.   There was some dress-up activity at one point and this happened:

B & B

In this case, Buffalo & Blue cheese!

I decided that, even though the Super Bowl was really nothing other than a football game on prime time TV for us, I wanted a little hint of buffalo* something.  So when I saw the giant cauliflower heads for a good price at Trader Joe's, I decided to go that route.  I mean, really, if all I cared about is the buffalo* flavor, then I might as well be eating it on a vegetable rather than meat, right?!

(It is also possible that I bought some gourmet salami and cheese to be eaten, as well, so it wasn't like I was going to be hurting for fat!!!)

I think I've actually made these Skinnytaste Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower Bites before but they hit the spot.  My only critique is that they didn't really "crisp" up at all.  Like, at all.  Even at 450 degrees.  So maybe they need to cook longer?

The REAL WINNER of the day, however, was the blue cheese dressing!!   I know that there are probably lots of you who cringe at blue cheese but oh my goodness this homemade version was 1) easy, 2) delicious, and 3) not full of whatever they have to put in bottled dressings.  Major recommend!!!

I didn't take a picture until yesterday when I got the leftovers out of the fridge to have some for lunch but here's the photographic evidence:

*not actual buffalo.  that would be weird.  and also, meat.

Keepin' It Real

This is an oft-seen scene in our basement these days:

We held out for a really long time but the BG finally has a video game system.  Oh wait-- or was it for the B-man?  Who can say?  All I know is that we've already acquired two additional controllers so these three can play games together.  The BG claims it helps build "dexterity" and "teamwork."  Or something.

All I know is that I just ordered myself this gem but I need those kids of mine to clear out all the toys they've dumped out on the rug so I have room to groove!