Culture clash meal.

Blame it on pregnant, Blame it on the new cookbook I got. Not really sure, but today we had a multi culture meal. To start with we made this awesome:

Moroccan Chickpea soup.
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 can chopped tomatoes
3 cans chickpeas
1 quart Veggie broth
2 tsp sugar
salt
black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2.5 oz fresh spinach leaves, chopped

Cook the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft, not browned. Add the spices and saute a minute or so. Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, broth, sugar, salt and 10 grinds of fresh pepper. Bring to boil and simmer low for 45 minutes. Stir in butter. Remove soup from heat. Mash up a portion of the chickpeas and stir back into soup. Add the spinach and stir well. Let set for 5 minutes or so to cook the spinach. Serve.

Very easy soup from Dave Liebermans cookbook.

Then for the other dish we made:
Potstickers

Veggie Filling:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 leek
3 cups finely shredded cabbage
1 garlic clove, chopped fine
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 medium carrot, grated extra fine
1 (1 inch) piece of ginger, peeled and grated
2 tsp soy sauce

Heat oil in skillet. Cook leek about 4 minutes. add cabbage, garlic and vinegar, cook about 4 more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Meat filling:

1 pound ground pork
1 egg
2 Tablespoons finely chopped scallions
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 (1/2 inch) piece ginger, peeled and grated.

Mix all ingredients and cook till meat is done in pan.

Use wonton wrappers and place filling in the middle. Wet corners and fold to close. You can use veggie and meat seperate or you can mix them together. IT MAKES A LOT of food. I would recommend HALVING the orginial recipe, unless you are making them for a large family or party. Or if you only make one (veggie or meat) then it would be fine. After you have stuffed the wontons, put a little oil in the skillet and cook for a few minutes, then add about 1/2 cup water and steam them until browned/done. You could probably bake these as well, if you prefer.

Sauce for dipping:
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 piece fresh ginger, grated finely
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
juice of one large lemon

Mix all until sugar is dissolved. Serve with wontons.

Outdoor activities

I have been enjoying the springlike weather seems to have come back to us. Last night some moms and I played Volleyball. We joined a league and most of us haven't played since High School. We lost all 3 games, but had a really fun time anyway. I will post a picture of us next week. We call ourselves the Hippie Chicks and we got some cool Parenting shirts that match.

Today I mowed the yard for the first time this season. I planted some more flower bulbs also. About half of my perinneals have come back so far, I noticed today some green on a few more. I have high hopes for my flower garden this year. It is year 3 for it, so it really out to look spectacular.

FINISHED SAMPLER QUILT

So this is my second 100% finished quilt. I have two more quilt tops done. One is ready to quilt and I plan to start it this week. The second one, I have to do a border and then finish it. So far my quilting style has been what they call "stitch in the ditch", meaning sew over where your seams are. It worked WONDERFUL for my first quilt. It gave me more problems with my second one. I think I will try a different style next quilt and see how that looks. I think this quilt will be for Dominic. It is a little less than full size, little more than twin size and pretty gender neutral on the colors. It has a solid light blue background.

Finishing week.

So I am trying to finish my two quilt tops. It is actually going pretty fast on the first one. So I might actually get it done today or tomorrow. I cleaned the dining room table totally off and I am quilting it there. It works so much better cause it is a big table. Anyway, I will post a picture when I am done.

We have 4 cars, 1 working right now. ARRGH! So I am stuck home today and we missed our homeschool preschool group. Dang it.

DH will be slaving away tonight to make at least one of the other cars go!

Chicken Creole

I do like to cook. Especially when everyone in my family loves it. Today I made Chicken Creole and it turned out wonderful. I used this recipe: http://southernfood.about.com/od/cajuncuisine/r/bl80308e.htm I made a few changes, cooked and diced chicken for the shrimp, red bell pepper instead of green, can of Rotel instead of plain diced tomatoes, and Creole seasoning. I don't see how you can make it without Creole Seasoning. It made the dish. Of course, tonight is Moms Night Out. We are going to a Mexican place. Its ok though. I ate a bowl of the Creole at 3:30pm. I will be hungry again by 7pm, when we eat at the MNO.

Today was a do nothing gray dreary day. I did manage to cook, clean up the kitchen and clean up the living room. The vacuum bag was overfull and since I changed it, it doesn't work right. I also cleaned the filters and had to unplug the hose which was full. Geez. Didn't realize it had been so long since I last checked the bag.

What we been up to.

Here are a few pictures of what we been up to. First one is a picture of my Sampler Quilt we did for the Quilt A long. I started posting pictures of each block and got side tracked. ANyway, here is the top finished. Now I need to get backing and finish it. It has been my goal this week to start finishing some of my projects. I now have two quilt tops ready to quilt them. My hold up is that I need to buy a couple sheets to use for backing. I am going to do that tomorrow when we go to Dance Class.
This next picture is of Gioia shooting baskets in the back yard. Notice the Wonder Woman headband. Something funny she does is when someone asks her name she says this: "Gioia Didi GoodWolf Beast Kitty Mouse Roadie Wonder Woman Kara-Kovu Elaine". I swear it cracks people up, and they usually ask her to repeat it. Then she will say that people call her Gioia. All those names represent the personalities she has been or thinks she is.

This last one is Dominic painting. You can only paint paper for so long, then you have to paint yourself.

The 5 finger discount.

Gioia and I went to the grocery store this morning. I had to get only one thing. When we were in the check out she wanted candy but I told her no. Later at Dollar General I noticed she was walking with her hand in her coat. I asked what she had. It was a Rolo Candy she had stolen from the grocery store. So we had a talk about that and how that was stealing. Then we went back to the grocery store and paid for it. *kind of like her Aunt Mel huh?* She was worried and told me NOT to tell them she was stealing, only tell them she was sorry and we would pay for it. HA HA! So thats what we did.

In high school we used to call this getting the 5 finger discount. I knew a guy in school that stole stuff all the time. He got away with it A LOT, then he gets caught one day, stealing a bunch of gloves. What a moron!

Springtime!

I am so excited that Spring is here or starting to be here. We have been getting out and doing more already. Thursday we went to Science City at Union Station for the first time. We met up with Kellie, Abe and Ivy. It was really fun to hang out with them. Kellie is my cousin, but from the other side of the family so we really haven't ever had a chance to get to know each other very well. Turns out we have tons in common and had a great time. Science City was way cool and the kids didn't want to leave. We were there over 3 hours and I was tired of chasing the kids.

Then Saturday we got to go to Deanna Rose Farm. It is a children's farm with goats to pet and things to explore. The kids love it and we go a lot every year. Oh and its free to get in, so that is really nice too.

We were sick at the first of the week. Now DH has come down with it. Lovely. So we are going to miss our preschool coop on Monday. Several families have it and we have to stop sharing germs so we will stay home.

We got some organic fertilizer from a mom that sells it. You dilute it in water and put it on the plants. We did this to our flowerbed and it stunk to high heaven. I mean it was really bad. Well right, it is fertilizer you say. Organic, made from FISH nasty fertilizer. Seriously, DH said we can't put it on the yard because our neighbors will hate us. So I am saving it for the flowers and garden only.

Catch up pictures.

Here are a couple pictures I been meaning to post. The first one is Easter Sunday of the kids. The second one is from this weekend. We went out to our land to hang out and be outside for a bit.

Dutch Oven goodness.

So pretty much everything tastes wonderful cooked in a Dutch Oven. Camping food, stews, all good things. So today I was hungry for some kind of soup/stew. I had the stuff for chili and was about to make it when I saw the recipe for Beef and Barley soup. Just so happens I had bought some barley. So I made it with a few changes. I added Veggie Stock instead of beef bouillon cubes. I also used fresh carrots and celery instead of frozen veggies that the recipe called for. It turned out WONDERFUL! Really hit the spot. We ate it with salad and garlic bread.


Also in honor of April Fool's Day, we decided to make treats instead of tricks. So we whipped up a batch of cookies. They are dark chocolate macadamin nut oatmeal cookies. I also used Stevia instead of sugar. I have to say they aren't quite as good as usual. I am out of Vanilla. Bummer. Still pretty great cookies though.

Food Journal

So my midwife asked me to keep a food journal for 3 days. Nothing special, she has everyone do it to see if you need to make any changes. I started yesterday and thought I was doing pretty good. I was severely lacking in the vegetable department. So today we had salads for dinner. Actually we had big chef salad with ham, chicken, tomatoes, mushrooms, and cheese on them. MMM!! Then to balance it all out I made homemade Crab Rangoon. Fried, yes, but fried in olive oil. Hey the cream cheese and crab count as protein. LOL!!!

Green Eggs and Ham

So my 4.5 year old is reading. She has been really reading for a couple months now. I am so excited about it. Of course, most people think it is only a parental pride thing but really it is a LOT more than that. I love to read. I read all the time. If its not a book, I am reading on my computer. I read to the kids. Gioia loves to read as well. From an infant she would bring me books and just want me to read all day. Dominic is just getting into books. It took him longer but he really enjoys them now. SO I have been waiting for the day when Gioia can start reading and really get to experience stories and exploring worlds in her books.

We started with Bob Books and some Dick and Jane stuff. She has really done well with them. So the other night we were going to read stories for bedtime. I picked Green Eggs and Ham. The kids love it, DH likes to read it. We asked Gioia to read the first page. It says "I am Sam." Then she precedes to read the entire 60 page book to us! I am serious. I was stunned and SO HAPPY! Of course we had to help her with some of the really hard words, but basically after we told them to her one time she would remember them the next time. It was so cool. I had to go get my sister and have her come watch. Then the next morning she was reading it again. I videotaped her for a minute or so reading. I asked her to read a little louder, so she is practically shouting.

Anyway. That is my mama brag of the week. :)

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter everyone! Well it is 8:20am. We have Hunted Easter eggs, went to Church, had breakfast at church and are back home. Sunrise Mass was at 6:30am. So we decided why not? We rolled out early. The kids hunted their easter eggs really quick and then we rushed off to church. We don't do the Bunny thing. I just told them mom and Dad hid easter eggs for you and they are totally fine with that. They don't care who does it, so long as they get presents. HA HA!! I did take some pictures but haven't got them loaded on here yet. I know we are all taking a nice Easter nap this afternoon. MMM!!! Knights of Columbus puts on a breakfast (free, they just ask for donations). It was really good. They had pancakes, eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy, milk and juice. Dominic ate really well and I stuffed myself.

We aren't going to see family this year as traveling to Italy took all our travel vibes for the month. Massimos family was busy with the in-laws so that didn't matter anyway.

Nasosympatico

So next time you have a sinus infection you don't need antibiotics. I yes, I did say that. :) YOu need Nasosympatico and a few homeopathics. Here is an image of a lady doing Nasosympatico. Notice she only has one Q-tip in her nose. I had 3 in each side. That makes 6 folks. I was brave and it seriously only hurt a tiny bit when he put it in the sore side of my face. But I feel 80% well today only 24 hours later. I am sure by tomorrow or the next day I will be AWESOME!! :)

Today it is almost 70 degrees. So we went to a coffee shop at a church, they have an indoor play area for the kids. We had a picnic lunch there. Then we walked around the pond and feed the geese. The kids played on the playground and now they are sound asleep in the car. I just left them there. I am sitting outside soaking up the sun waiting for them to wake up. Yes, the car windows are down. :)

K&Company

A friend of my moms is a high up in K&Company. I believe she is Creative Director? Anyway, at a recent get together at my moms house she saw some of the scrapbooking things I did for Christmas gifts and she said "She needs some K&Company stuff." GUESS WHAT?? She sent me some stuff. It is really nice stuff too! I haven't scrapped anything since Christmas. After making 4 calendars all scrapped I was exhausted. Now I have the motivation to do a few more pages. That and all the great Italy pictures. I can really do some fun layouts. Here is all my loot! THANKS PAM!!!

Food blog

I love to cook new and interesting things. I was searching for Food Blogs once and found a good one. The lady moved and stopped posting. So I moved on too. The other night I found this blog: http://smittenkitchen.com/
So far I have gotten 4 recipes from this blog I am going to try. I made this, Pasta Puttanesca.
It was wonderful. Today I am going to try the Chicken and Mushroom Marsala, and also the puff pastry with custard and fresh berries on it. I can't wait!!!

Last night we went to a birthday party for a boy we know. It was pretty fun. They had it at the Childrens Museum, the kids had a blast, and they had cupcakes. What is better than that?

Finally closing!

Well its the day we been waiting months for. We will finally be closing on our land today. Yippee! We have decided to wait until next year to sell our house and build the new one. I think it is a good choice. I hope it works out ok. This housing market being so unpredictable, one never knows whether it will be better or worse next year. For us it is harder than most people cause we have 2 (almost 3) kids and the 2 large dogs. So we can't rent an apartment. We will have to rent a house or something where we can have the pets with us. We are hoping to be able to rent something close to our property then we can go out and work on the house every day or whenever we need to. All of this also means we have a year to figure out all the perfect things we want our house to have. We got a lot of good ideas about things we like when we were in Italy. Looking at the homes there was nice.

So this afternoon we are closing on the land. Then we are going out to eat to celebrate! This year we will be out there a lot just letting the kids run around. Possibly planting some trees. Camping out there with friends. I can't wait.

Italy Pictures.

Well I took quite a few pictures. Actually looking at them. It doesn't seem like much, but we were sick and my mind wasn't into it some days. This will give you the short version of some of the cool things we saw. The town in the pictures of the group Family was Trieste. It is near the border. They actually went into Slovenia and had lunch. It was about 30 minutes away. There is sea on one side of this town and mountains starting on the other. Massimo didn't take a picture of it, but our Gioia was really excited that the sea had all these Jellyfish in it. I guess it is quite common to see them all bunched up by the shore. Dominic and I didn't get to make it on this outing because we were sick that day. It is where my husbands father and his half sisters Mia and Gioia live. His dad sells products from Sardegna. It is one of the Italy islands and is where Massimo was born. There is a picture of him working at his booth at the market.

Link to Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24599218@N06/sets/

We are back!

Wow. Where do I start. It is too much to tell in one post so I will do the good and bad version.

Good:
1. We got to see Rome. It was pretty neat. Loved the old structures.
2. We got to see all our family.
3. We got to eat wonderful Italian food all week.
4. The kids were wonderful on the planes and traveling.
5. We did excellent with our Italian. We mostly held our own with the help of pocket dictionaries.
6. Massimo's dad and sisters visited with us two days. It was good. For the first time he might actually try to form a relationship with us.


Bad:
1. Rome is really expensive.
2. The dollar's value sucks and the conversion rate is awful.
3. Traveling all those hours by plane sucks.
4. We got sick. Turns out it is Influenza. The kids and I are still sick.
5. One of our flights was cancelled and we had to buy new tickets out of pocket.
6. One of our flights was delayed and hour as well.
7. Rome airport, big bad, lots of stairs.

I promise pictures in the next few days.

Uno Giorno

ONE DAY!! WHEEW! We are so excited. We are mostly packed. I have be printing out directions to the hotel and things like that. I have a list of places I would like to go and see. Charged up the DVD player and my video camera. It is just going to be wonderful!

Heard from my husbands sister in Italy and we are to call them to set up a time to met up when we get there. We plan on asking them to come see us. That way we don't have to drive an hour to their house.

Due Giorni

2 Days! We are getting so close. I plan to pack our suitcases tonight, that way I have tomorrow if we are missing anything.

Here is my thoughts that I shared on my moms board this morning:

So apparently there is no where to get dollars exchanged for Euros in Kansas City. This is ridiculous. I mean, I know we are not a huge port city or anything, but surely there are plenty of upper class people in KC (leawood) that travel to Europe occasionally.

What a pain in the ass. I was trying to find a way to convert our money before we get there because we will be arriving in Italy on a Sunday. The banks will be closed.

Good NEWS: As I was typing this post DH found out that a fellow Marine at work has 100 euros (150 dollars) he came back from Spain with. SO we are going to exchange with him. That should get us by for several days.

Damn though, times like this I really feel like KC is hick-ville trying to pretend it is a city. :roll:

And we will never change the USA to Euros anytime in my lifetime, because the old white men running the country believe it to be a sign of Armageddon to have one world currency. :roll:

Plus I have a freakin' migraine this morning. UGH! I am going to see the Chiropractor today. I think it is coming from my neck.

Tre Giorni

3 days people! 3 days until we will be on a plane with small children! What? you don't want to come? Ha ha!! I think it will be fine. We have lots of snacks and things to play with.

I have had no energy or motivation for these last few days. Lucky for me, the kids fell asleep on the way home from dance class this morning. So I unloaded them and got to take a nap. I feel better but still dragging.

We had an appointment with our Midwife last night. She is wonderful. We are excited to be working with her.

Quattro Giorni

4 days! This is getting good. Today is more laundry and getting ready to go.

Last night we were talking to my MIL who said that the family is coming to visit the USA in August. Rita, Cinza and Diego (and their two kids) will be here for almost 2 weeks. It will be great. We are already thinking of places to take them. I don't feel like Kansas/Missouri is very exciting place to visit in the USA. We do have Oceans of Fun that the boys might like. I believe they are 13 and 8 or something like that.

Cinque Giorni

5 Days until Italy! Today we accomplished going to Walgreens and getting our travel toiletries. Toothpaste, razors, that kind of stuff. We also started gathering things for the kids carry on. We need snacks, juice, crayons, color books and a couple new books to read.

WOO HOO! We are on the countdown!

What to do.

Knowing what to do with life situations is really hard sometime. We supposed to be buying land. We really like it and I think we would like living there. BUT. The county is being difficult and stubborn. Not so fun when you think of having to go through them to build a house and all that. :( So now we are at the point of several decision impacting the others. LIke A) do we try to sell our house and move to a rental? b) Do we try to build our house this year? c) I will be having a baby in september so.....that is a big factor as well.

BLAH!! We are going to call and have a pow-wow with the builders we think we want to use and get a feel for the process and what they think about the county rules and that kind of jazz. It is so many unknowns and I am a planner and do-er. I hate to wait around for someone else to get there shit together. I know there will be lots of that when we build though. UGH.

Looks like we ultimately may wait until next spring to build so we will have everything lined up the way we REALLY want it.

Its alive!!

Update: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X9krcjmxTY

The electric car lives! Massimo took it on its maiden voyage today. He had to take it to get the wheels aligned. It still has a few mechanical quirks he needs to fix. Such as the heat, radio, the brakes need more work, things like that. I have a video I am trying to upload to You Tube. I will post about it when I get it working. It is just a 30 second clip of the car driving down the road. Its pretty exciting.

We are on the countdown to Italy. I am also on the countdown to actually having to speak some Italian. Luckly, most places people speak some english. So i figure between the two we will get by fine. We leave in 12 days. WOO HOO!

We had a nice weekend with my mom. Got to go visit my Aunt Roberta. She is in a nursing home. She is doing excellent and might be able to move to assisted living at some point soon. I hope so, she misses her pets and seems really bored at the home.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day! I hope everyone has a good one. I don't have much to say. We are on the countdown to listing our house for sale and also for our vacation to Italy. It is going to be great fun!

It is finally sunny again today and the kids are outside playing. Says it is 47 and feels like 39. But the wind isn't blowing much and the kids think it feels pretty good out there. I just looked at Weather.com and the weather in Rome is upper 50's getting into the 60's for the weekend and SUNNY! WOOO HOO! I hope it stays that way (or warmer) in two weeks when we are there! I am so excited ya'll! I am taking lots of pictures. I am taking both my digital and film cameras. Probably my video camera also.

I am working on completing another quilt top. This one is from my Quilt a long. It should be about twin bed size. So I shouldn't have a problem quilting that one. I need to quilt the Futures So Bright quilt I made. I think it is about full to queen size. So i need to measure it and get the backing materials for it.

Park day!

To brighten up this gross blah weather day. I am posting picture of our 72 degree park day yesterday. Missouri and Kansas are expecting snow tonight. Wonderful. I am glad we got our Vitamin D yesterday.

68 Degrees!!!

Holy cow its 68 degrees outside! This is awesome. I think I will take the kids to the park. I can't believe it. It is supposed to be 31 and snowing tomorrow. Welcome to Kansas/Missouri!

Maybe I can post some sunny February pictures when we get back!

Tacos at 3pm.

Hey all. I am still here. Still alive. I actually haven't felt that bad at all, just unmotivated. I am already up to 8 weeks! Wow Times fun when your having flies! HA HA! I was just thinking you know you are pregnant when you are eating Tacos at 3 in the afternoon. I left all the food out because I know I will want more in about an hour. I am sure there are lots of people that are eating at 3pm today, because they partied last night for the start of Mardi Gras festivities and they just now feel good enough to eat. BTDT. My sister was bartending last night, so I hope she made a bunch of money.

We got out taxes done finally. They turned out pretty good. Our refund was about what we expected. We need to adjust things a little more for next year but shouldn't be a problem. Turbo Tax is wonderful. Although I get really sick of everyone nickel and diming me, pay 40 for the software. Then we had to pay 17 to file state electronically, and 17 to file the federal electronically. Then if you would like that deducted from your refund, its 29.50? What? No thanks, I paid with my debit card for free.

I guess today is the Superbowl. We don't watch it because we don't have TV stations. We limit our viewing to movies only. To be honest, I don't know when I ever had the time to watch TV in the first place. I got the new Stephen King book "Duma Key". So far it is good. I am on page 136 already.

Oh I went and got a massage on Saturday. It was great! Just what I needed. If I was rich I would get a massage once a week. Oh yeah.

Futures so bright.

I finally finished the quilt top of my Future's So Bright quilt. It is a quilt another momma did and posted on her blog. I love it! It is so fun to look at! Here is it. I love how the like squares make a row running down it. The big squares make a row the other direction. Click on the picture to see it bigger.


And here is what sleepy looks like. Dominic fell asleep on his dads shoulders.

Skate City

My sister and I took Gioia skating Sunday afternoon. It was really fun. G had about forgot how to do it but by the time we were done she was doing pretty good. Her favorite thing was the Chicken Dance. We had some pizza there and a great time. There were at least 5 kids having birthday parties. Our original plan was to go ice skating but she chickened out on that. She said she didn't want to fall down. So we did roller skating instead. She still fell down, but no as much.

The rest of our weekend was pretty much hanging out. We have had colds for 2 weeks and then last night Gioia threw up. Lovely. :( I hope that doesn't hang around.

I went Friday to a lunch potluck and ate some new foods. Friday afternoon I was throwing up. I asked a friend what she put in the food. Quinoa! I am allergic to it, it makes me throw up. This time I only ate two cookies with it in it. So really it was not alot. I seem to be getting more sensitive to it each time I am exposed. I am never going near it again. I will have to be alot more careful about eating new foods.

Viewing Day

Today was Gioia's dance class viewing day. It was so fun. The girls danced on the stage and the parents got to sit and watch it. They just did what they normally do for their class. It was cute. I videotaped it of course. For their recital they are doing "Walk the Dinosaur". The theme for the recital is Totally 80's!

We had a meeting last night for approval of the land split that needed to be done so we can buy our property in Missouri. There were several neighbors there all worried about it and protesting it. It still passed because no one really had a valid reason for it not to. Most were just worried we would divide it further and make a subdivision. UM NOT!! Damn that is why we are buying the land. But of course, I understand their concern and they don't know us. I hope that when they see how well we take care of the land, planting trees, gardening and such they will appreciate us as neighbors.

Forced annulment keeps couple apart..

So I read this story on Yahoo today. It is very sad. The situation for women in Saudi Arabia is just awful in general.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Two years ago, a knock on Fatima and Mansour al-Timani's door shattered the life they had built together.

It was the police, delivering news that a judge had annulled their marriage in absentia after some of Fatima's relatives sought the divorce on grounds she had married beneath her.

Link to the whole story here. STORY

So here is what really bothers me. These people have it so bad. The women have to have permission from their family to marry. These people are FIGHTING to try to be able to have their family back together. Yet, here in America everyone I know gets divorced at a blink of an eye. I think it all comes down to respect. Respect for that other person in the marriage. If you respect that other persons feelings then you aren't going to yell at them or hit them. If you respect your partner you won't go cheat on them. If you actually mean to be married forever, then you work on problems when they come up instead of giving up. I have known two couples over the last year that "Fell out of love" with each other. AKA. Didn't work on keeping their love and relationship alive.

I know that I am not an expert. But I have been married for 7 years now and I think that is pretty damn good start. It hasn't been easy and I admit that at the beginning of it there were times I thought about walking out the door. So what is the nations problem that Americans have such a high divorce rate and a lack of respect for the other person? Maybe we are all spoiled brats that we have all these luxuries here. Just get divorced and move on. Get a new man. Now not to be labeled cold hearted, I do want to say that I am sorry for the person in the relationship that is the hurt one. The one who was cheated on, or treated awful.

I just found the above article something that made me feel grateful that I can marry my husband and love him forever and not have to worry that a family member could annul it for me.

I just might make it after all..

Starting to feel a little more human. Ugh this has been miserable. My hubby was so sweet that he came home early yesterday and let me nap for a couple hours. Then he helped me put the kids to bed so I could go to bed early. Afrin nasal spray has been my best friend. I LOVE IT! I can breathe! AHH! I changed all the sheets and pillow cases. I hope we can keep from passing it to everyone in the house.

Today is Dh's birthday. I had some great plans, but being sick ruined that. Instead we just went to Olive Garden. It was great. We all felt pretty good today. Dh thinks he might be getting my cold but hopefully it won't be this bad for him.

Also you know how it is when you feel all sorry for yourself and you get one of those "messages". I got one today. A sweet friend from high school (a real good friend of my sister) her mother is in bad shape at KU Med right now. She is having a liver transplant tonight. So if you read this say a prayer for her. She wasn't even sick a month ago. After Christmas she thought she had the flu. NOW!? Liver Failure! It is very sad. SO say a prayer for Debbie.

I could be dieing....

OH MY GOSH! I feel like ass. NO WAIT! Before you start making the Duh your pregnant comments... this has NOTHING to do with pregnancy. I have a horrible sinus cold. My head is plugged up, yet I can breathe through my nose? What is up with that? My head hurts and feels like a migraine brought on by the pressure. Ugh. My hubby just called on the phone and he is getting me some cold medicine and I am going to go take a nap in a few minutes! YYEAHH! It sucks because normally I would kick this thing with some homeopathic meds, some Oregano Oil and a few others. Well I can't take some it when pregnant. Great. So i suffer.

Oh and did I mention that Migraines make me feel nauseous. Nice. If I puke I am absolutely sure my head with pop off. Explode. Done. So send me some feel better vibes.

Furry happy Monsters and Triangle

This has to be one of my all time favorite Sesame Street Videos. The first video is with REM. I love REM. They are great fun. Anyway, enjoy this You Tube clip. The second one is James Blunt singing My Triangle. It is also great!

Good news

Our family has some good news. Here it is.


We are expecting #3 sometime middle to end of September. We are really excited. We planned to wait and tell everyone in a few months, but you know how that goes. ONe friend found out, then more asked or figured it out. We decided it was silly to try and be sneaky so we called our moms last night and told them. My sister in law was the most excited. She has 3 kids and regrets not having more. We are really happy. There are a ton of moms on my parenting board that are pregnant this summer/fall. I have 3 cousins pregnant too. AND THEY ARE ALL SISTERS! How crazy is that? As usual, I feel sad when I think of telling my good friend Jackie. She and her husband have been trying to get pregnant for about 7 years now. :(

Divine Romance

Wheee!!! Last night I went out to a friends house for a Divine Romance party. It is lotions, toys and other fun adult stuff. It was pretty clean since there were babies in attendance. By law she couldn't bring the really adult stuff, but you can look at the catalog or online and order it. It was still really fun. I got some Pheromone Fragrance. It smells awesome, but we found out it really relaxes my husband instead of turning him on. It is pretty funny actually. May be just what I need to wear around him, his job has been stressing him out lately. I got to see a couple friends I hadn't seen in a while. That was nice. 4 men/spouses even came. Massimo was in no way interested in going to that kind of party. As irony would have it, my parents were having a Nut fry last night. As in cow nuts, Mountain oysters and eating them. Always a good time at the nut fry. Again, not something my husband is interested in. I think he is afraid of nuts. LOL!!

Ok. This is getting way crazy for a Sunday post. So I will go now. Maybe back with pictures later.

HOLY FAT THIGHS BATMAN!

We got our Girl Scout cookies tonight. We were looking at the ingredients to see just HOW bad they are for you. The chocolate peanut butter ones are 150 calories for 2 cookies and that is a serving size. 75 calories per cookie. *ACK** We are not talking about large hand size cookies either. Small 3 bite cookies, or 1 bite, you choose. :) Plus the first ingredient is Sugar. AHH!! Next year I promise not to buy any.

Cleaning frenzy!

My sister helped me get the house back under control this week. She cleaned and dusted. I took down the Christmas stuff. We moved a bookshelf to the kids room. We boxed up all my books off the shelf. We bought space bags and put alot of stuff in storage. My baby diapers, baby blankets, kids clothes they have outgrown. Mel painted a wall in the kids room that was all scratched up. We got alot of things done. Today I am doing lots of laundry and I bleached the kitchen sink. I will NEVER have another of those white kitchen sinks. I hate them! After a few days they are brown and stained. I have to get out the soft scrub and bleach it. Next time I want stainless steel that I can just wipe down.

Gonna work on some sewing too. I think I am really close to finishing my Mile-a-minute quilt. Which did not go at a mile a minute! LOL! I need seven more blocks. I know I have enough scraps to make at least one. I also have to do my 8th block for my quilt a long, sampler quilt.

Andiamo a Italia!

WHEEE!!! It is so exciting. We are on the countdown for the Italy trip. We leave March 1st. Less than two months. My Italian speaking is nowhere near as good as I hoped. So I am cracking down on the kids and I. Massimo can get on board or be highly embarrassed when he can't keep up. His family was sad last time that he didn't remember very much. He was born in Italy and it is his first language. It is in his brain, he just needs to dig it out.

I booked our hotel room for Rome. Click here and be all jealous! We thought we wanted something outside of town in a rural area to explore, but reality made us realize that with small children it is better to be next to all the public transportation. The airport is about 20 miles or so outside of town, but we can take the train into Rome, so hopefully it won't be any big deal.

I had a major scare concerning all this last night. When I booked the airline tickets I had to call on the phone because Expedia was acting up. So the lady was supposed to email my itinerary. I never got it. It was back in September. I remembered that my credit card statement had the airline info on it. SO I called US Airways and asked them to look up my info so I could print it out, etc.. The can't find it. They search by ticket number, credit card number, all that. Finally they find it. After 30 agonizing minutes. The other concern I had was the flight stops were listed wrong on my credit card. Luckily, when they finally found out tickets, the flights were all correct. Turns out they misspelled our last name on the tickets. They spelled it with a T instead of P. I was so relived they found the tickets that I forgot to ask her to change it. Oh well, I will call again today and have them correct it. Shouldn't take long since I have all the info and confirmation number in front of me.

61 degrees today

WOO HOO~ It was 61 degrees today in Kansas. IN JANUARY! Nice! I swear it is Gods way of saying Don't give up winter isn't forever! Spring is just around the corner. DH and the kids and I went to the park for a long hike about an hour. It was great. The guys both got their hair cut today. Dominic was a champ. He held really still and asked for his sucker the whole time. LOL!

I am working on a really fun quilt but it is taking forever. I have about 3/4 of the top blocks cut and sewn together. Then I will have to piece it all together. Sew that. Then find a backing and actually do the quilting. I think it will take me about a month or so to get it all finished, maybe more. The quilt-a-long is back on. We had a week off for Christmas. I got block 7 finished. There are only 12 blocks. So in another 6 weeks I should have that finished as well. Then the lady says she thinks we will do a quilt-a-long with various star patterned blocks. That DEFINITELY sounds cool. I have been thinking of making my brother a quilt for his birthday. It is in June. So I might be able to finish the star one by then. It would have to be western style, or some print/colors suitable for a bachelor cowboy. If it is stars I could even do Americana style. I will just have to look around and see what kind of fabric I can find. I will post a picture of block seven tomorrow if I remember.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!

Happy New Year to all our friends out there. Hope 2008 is great for everyone!

We are recovering from traveling two weekends in a row to family. We still have one more stop next weekend at my Dads house. My little brother turns 18.

I am working on 3 different quilts at the same time. I might get them finished some time in the next year. HA HA!

Car clock

One of DH's Christmas gifts was a car clock. It is black with a white racing stripe on it. The hours are different cars and at the strike of the hour, the clock makes the revving engine sound of the car it is pointing to. So last night at 10 till 8pm DH says "Ok in ten minutes we are going to hear an Olds 442.". I just burst out laughing. He said it with such enthusiasm. :) I told him that had to be the Christmas quote of the year. Then today he said It was Dodge Dart-o-clock.

What a car geek. I love him. HA HA HA!!

Block 5 and 6

Ok. I am now officially caught up in the Quilt-a-long. I have blocks 5 and 6 completed. I can't wait to see the next one and work on it.

SO here is a quicky post to put the pictures up.

Merry Christmas 2007!!

We have had a great Christmas so far. We went to my moms house this weekend. The kids got lots of loot. We had 5-6 inches of snow. My brother works for the MO highway department and had to work 12 hours on Sat. and Sunday both. Here is Dominic after opening his Lightening McQueen car. His response was "GET IT OUT! GET IT OUT!"

Block 4

The quilt a long is going good. I really enjoy making all these different blocks I have never made before. Here is block #4.

Quilt-a-long

So I am joining some ladies on the net in a Quilt-a-long. We will be making 12 blocks for a nice quilt. This week is week 6 but I am playing catch up. I have done three blocks so far. Here are the blocks (in order) 1, 2 and 3. I love this! I have never done triangles before and they weren't really hard. I think it is nice because they were big sized. To give you a size reference these blocks measure 12.5" square. Here is the blog where we are quilting in case anyone else wants to join in. :) http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/

Wintertime fun!

I need to catch up on some picture posting. Here is the kids with their dad sledding in the snow. We were projected to get 7-9 inches. Luckly, we only received 2-3 inches. This was on Saturday that this happened. The kids had a good time playing outside, but it didn't last long as it was about 22 degrees. BRRR!!

Petunia - my new friend.

We have a new friend in our house. Petunia- the sourdough starter. We whipped Petunia up last night and she has been bubbly and alive every since. Tomorrow it should be ready to start using and I am going to make some amazing looking Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls. If they turn out good I will post a picture and the link to the recipe. I also got a recipe for Sourdough Rye bread and Sourdough dinner rolls. With Christmas dinners coming up I believe it will come in handy. DH loves anything sourdough.

I went to a new salon for color and hair cut this weekend. My sister went too. It is called Chop Tops and they are in Merriam. It was great! When we got there they asked if we wanted something to drink. They offered beer, (PBR, Miller High Life, Schlitz)....um..no thanks. But we did have a glass of White Zin. I just think its hilarious. Then we got 50% off our color service with the hair cut included. I got some blonde highlights and a few funky blue pieces. I love it. It is very fun! DH said I should get the whole head blue next time. Don't think so. You can check out their MySpace page here http://www.myspace.com/choptops.

My little buddy.

I was just thinking today how much I enjoy and love my son. He is such a snuggly guy. When he was a baby if he cried in the car you could let him hold your hand and he was be happy. Then for the first 2 years of his life he nursed to sleep every night except a few when I ventured out to Moms Night Out. When I started phasing out the nursing at night he went to snuggling. His version of snuggling is sticking his hand down my shirt. HA HA! A real ladies man, this guy. He still wants to "snuggle" at night, but I have got him to just put his hand on my chest and not copping a feel. He and his sister mostly sleep with us. Occasionally we can get them to sleep in there own beds. Really it is musical beds at our house. Some nights my husband ends up in the kids room, some times he and Gioia are in the kids room, sometimes we are all in one bed. It is always anyones guess where we all will land. Lately he is the biggest chatterbox and he calls me Mama. I love it. Today he was singing "I wanna be sedated" at the pizza place. Bam bam bam bam, ba bam bam bam bam....

Ice.

Like my title. My friend Jen always has these witty titles and posts about profound things. I sadly do not. Back in high school I fancied myself something of a writer. I would always have my nose stuck in a book and would write stories. Most of my stories were characters based on all my friends. I would cleverly change everyones name and then just make up stories about them. I still think that is pretty good for a 11-12 year old and my friends always got a kick out of it. I think that in recent years my brain has turned to motherly mush. Maybe learning a foreign language will help kick start it again. I do know that i have been reading lots of books again and that makes me feel good.

So the title above is ICE. Yea, we got ice. It is not as bad as they told us it might be. It was still bad enough that 1000's of people in KC and surrounding areas are without power today. My dad for example has limbs falling on his roof from the Maple in the backyard. He tried to go out with the chainsaw and cut them up but more kept falling. He said Screw that, and went inside for a cup of joe.

This week: We have been doing an Advent calendar here at home. Gioia really likes it. She likes to open the little doors each day and count down to Christmas time. DH stayed home today due to the ice. He was able to make it to the movie store and get the newest Harry Potter. I can't wait to see it. I have read the books. Gioia has learned all the words to Santa Claus is coming to town and singings in every day. Yesterday when we were at Costco she saw a man with a big white beard and a red sweatshirt (and jeans). She asked him if he was Santa. He said yes. Then he asked her if she was being nice. She said, yes I am on your list, on the nice list. He asked if she made a list. SHe was confused. She then asked him in awe, IS THAT YOUR LIST? pointing to his hand. He said, Oh well, this is my grocery list. My wife gave me this list. Needless to say, she thought it was really cool that Santa was at Costco shopping. The man told me that he plays Santa all the time (with his real beard). It was pretty cool.

Kids say the funniest things....

So a friends blog reminded me that I needed to write down some of the funny things my kids say and do. SO here goes. Hope it gives you a laugh.

Gioia singing : "You better not shout, you better not cry, you better not Krout...." Santa Claus is coming to town. Krout? I think that should be POUT! LOL!!

Gioia always says that when she is X age she can do stuff. The other days she said when she was 31 should could have her own gum and she wouldn't have to ask anybody for it. :) Yesterday she said when she is 10 she is going to have a gun and shot a deer.

Last night DH was holding her on his lap, she was standing. Then he put her over his shoulder and was being silly. Well her tummy was pressed on his shoulder and she let a big fart right next to his head. He was grossed out, but my sister and I about died laughing.

Dominic, he loves to sing but never has all the words so he mumbles or skips them, it is really cute.

Naked....they love to be naked. They pull their underpants off and run around singing "NA NA NA DO DO. NA NA NA DO DO!" Don't know what it means but it is funny. Dh says it is fine as long as it stops before they are teenagers. HA HA!!

I will try to think of more things that have happened this week and post.

Holiday Dance Recital

Last year we didn't do the dance recitals because it was Gioia's first year in dance, and I wasn't sure she would do it. I thought she might freak out or cry. So we skipped it. Oh and also because it was 130 dollars. Yikes!! This year however, I had time to plan for the money and I thought she would be big enough to do the recital. Early in the year the teachers also started a group they call "Lucky Stars". The Lucky Stars have 3 additional shows that they do on top of the 1 regular recital. I thought that would be good for her to do and practice for the BIG show they do at the end of the year. It has been great. The first Lucky Stars show was at a nursing home. It was really nice. They did a Halloween show and we handed out treats to the residents.

The holiday show was this weekend. It was good. Gioia's group is the youngest 3-5 year olds. Well the Lucky Stars (same age group) go on stage to dance to Santa Claus is Coming. One little girl started crying and ran off stage to her mom. The rest of the girls stood stock still and no one dance, no one except Gioia and maybe 2 other girls. 2 more girls looked at the wings and cried the whole time. It was pretty funny actually. Then when her class did their number together all the girls danced and it was wonderful.

Here are some pictures from that day.

Merry Christmas too me!!

My Christmas present came today and my lovely husband was nice enough to let me open it early. Well really here is the deal, I needed a new sewing machine. I am making some gifts for Christmas and I couldn't even finish them with my old machine. SOOO... Here it is. I love it!!!!



I also got to finish the placemats for my Stepmom that I was making. I think they turned out great on my new machine! YEAH!!! They are patchwork style on the front and snowmen on the back.

YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We just found out that the land we want to buy, we got it!!! We have to finalize financing and all the legal stuff, but we want it and they want to sell it to us! WOOO HOOO!!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it. It will be hard to sleep tonight! We will close on it the end of February. So we have a while to save up for our down payment and to get all the paperwork done.

On another note about life changes. Dominic is weaning from breastfeeding this week. Today is day 3 and it is going really well. He still asks to nurse but I just tell him its all gone and we can have chocolate milk in a cup. Who can resist chocolate milk? Ha ha!!

Success Finally!

I did it! I am so excited! I finished my first quilt. With no help from my ancient, crappy sewing machine.

I swear my seam ripper and my sewing machine are in it together. Sewing machine is playing wingman for the seam ripper. I imagine the water cooler conversation going like this:
Seam ripper: Man, i am depressed. I don't think Jaime likes me anymore.
Sewing machine: What? No dude why would you think that?
Seam ripper: She just never spends time with me. I think she doesn't love me.
Sewing machine: Must be nice. She has been wearing me out about every day. I need a break, I am not as young as I used to be. HEy.... I think I can hook you up?
Seam ripper: Really? Oh buddy i would owe you one. I mean that would be great. I haven't had any action in weeks. Its starting to get to me.
Sewing machine: Not a problem my friend. I can bind up and skip stitches and break needles like nobody's business. Watch the master work.

So on it goes and I curse and get pissed. My sewing products all the while mocking me. Still I prevailed and this is the result. I am pretty happy with it.

Tree Decor

Here are a couple sweet pictures of my little man decorating the Christmas Tree.

Thanksgiving 2007

How do you like my witty title? LOL! Just kidding. Ok. Since I am a total blog slacker this week i will recap.

Last sunday and Monday we went to my moms. It went much better than expected. Nothing of consequence happened and that is how we like it! :) Mom was feeling better and able to enjoy the beautiful 70 degree November weather we had. It was lovely. The kids played outside, we rode the 4-wheeler and cooked some meals. My brothers came and acted silly for us. Colt made my mom laugh so hard her incision hurt. That crazy dude. Imagine an over 6 foot tall college football player PRANCING around the dining room in his boxers and you will get a vivid picture of the wackyness that followed.

Tuesday we cleaned house and again enjoyed the nice weather outside.

Wednesday my Mother-in-law and Massimos brother Anthony arrived at our house. They stayed until Saturday. We had a great time visiting with them. Gioia slept with Grandma each night and I am not sure if she or grandma enjoyed that more. It was sweet.

Thursday we had Thanksgiving dinner here. The menu was Turkey (cooked on the smoker), green bean casserole, baked sweet potatoes, cheesy potatoes, salad, deviled eggs and Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake for dessert. All homemade thank you! My dad and stepmom joined us as well. We all ate too much but it was wonderful.

Friday, Black Friday! I decided to go try to get a few things that were on sale. I made my list and had it all planned out. I got up at 6am, grabbed an iced coffee and headed off. First i went to Walmart here in town. I try not to shop there on principle for numerous reasons. However, I made the exception because they had something i had been looking for quite a while. I only got 3 things, was out of there in no hassle and moved on. Target was next and I got a couple good deals. They had Christmas Story DVD for $5.00 but were sold out. Instead I paid a little more and got a 3 pack of Elf, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, and Christmas Story. So we enjoyed some great movie watching this weekend. Deck the Harrs with boughs of Horry! Ha ha! Then I made the mistake of going to Toys R Us. Oh boy. Parents are insane? Why do they spend this kind of money and time? The line circled the store twice. No joke. All I wanted was a 5 dollar item so I said Adios and left. Even worse was Joann's Fabric store. Dear lord. Who knew crafty people were also insane? When I got there I took a number for the fabric line. It was B 4. I wanted to look at and get a good deal on sewing machines. I figured by the time I was done with the sewing machine purchase I would get my number called. 30 minutes or more later, there were still all the A numbers 1-100 in front of me. NO thanks. No deal is worth hanging out in line for 2 hours. I can't say i wasn't warned. My friend told me she went one year and it was just like that. All in all, I got a few things I wanted. We went back to Target later in the day with my MIL and she got a couple things for the kids for Christmas.

Today, Saturday i got to go to lunch with my good friend Jackie from college. I was in her wedding and don't think I have seen her since. So it has been years! It was great and felt like old times again talking with her. They are going to be transferring (military) next summer and are really hoping to get sent back here to Kansas. That would be wonderful!

Oh and today we also got our Christmas tree put up. It looks good. Even better was that we sorted and got rid of toys. Now all the pieces are back together and we can find things again. All broken or not loved toys went away. More are coming in from Christmas I am sure.

Looking for a place to call home.

Today we went and looked at land again. I think we might have found a winner. I LOVE the land we looked at. I would totally pay full asking price for it, but we are of course hoping to get it for less. I guess one issue is that land around there has been selling for less, so it may help us to get it for less. On the other hand, we need it to appraise to the price we buy it at, so if we pay more it has to be worth it to the bank. Everyone say a good thought for us. We really loved it and want it to work out. I am optimistic about it and think we can work a deal. We met the sellers and talked to them and they are nice folks. The dude is a definite hippie, so we can relate. I think he would find it very interesting that we want to build earth sheltered homes on the property. In case some folks don't understand, we are buying with another family and splitting the land. So the "we" I refer to is our friends, not the turd in my pocket. LOL!!

Tomorrow the kids and I are going to my moms to visit her. She had surgery a week and half ago and is still recovering. Gioia has been worried and wants to go see Grandma. We will be staying all night and coming back home on Monday afternoon. I have to admit I am pretty nervous about it. Last time we were there my parents and I had a few words and disagreement. I think it will all be fine, but I have this nervous, need to walk on eggshells thing around my dad, (again for the 100th time). Sigh* it sucks. I am just going to be proactive and have planned things for the kids to do, to keep them busy to try to avoid any issues, namely them getting on my dads nerves. Also DH isn't going with along, so it will just be me. Wish me lots of luck!!

Sewing and baking

These are my favorite things to do these days, but my sewing machine is ancient and it pisses me off almost every day. I am asking Santa for a new one. :) I am working on 3 quilts. One I have the front finished, just need to quilt the backing on. I am going to ask my Grandma to help me. Then I have a second on that is from the Mile-a-minute pattern. It will take longer to do since I am using scrap material and making it for a full size bed. The third one will be for Dominic and it is coming along ok. I need to get some more material for it. I will post pictures when I get some finished products.

I am also making placemats for my step mom for christmas. Some other gifts for people that read this blog. *So I can't post the pictures now.*

Tomorrow is a homemade bread day at a friends house. Everyone is making bread, bringing the recipe and sharing it with lunch. I am going to make Foccacia Bread. I think I might also run to the store and get the stuff to make Spinach Artichoke Dip. I think that would go nicely together.

I hope to have some new pictures to post in the next few days.

Hello out there! I am sorry to have dropped off the planet for a week at a time these days. The nights are getting a little better, however the little man doesn't want to sleep in his bed. Neither does his sister. *Sigh*... most nights we all end up in the same bed. That part doesn't bother me as much as DH always seems to have to move to another bed for feet in his face or being crowded clear out.

We went to St. Louis Monday and Tuesday this week with DH's work. Yesterday we drove over and just hung out at the hotel in the afternoon, had dinner then went to the mall. Today we went to the Zoo. It was almost 70 and beautiful. We saw the elephants eating and drinking water right by us. Got to watch them feed the sea lions. We rode the train and many other fun things. The kids did well although I ended up carrying Dominic alot. I used to be able to have him in the sling, but he wants to get down and walk so much it makes it hard to take him in and out. I want a Sit-N-Stand stroller. Like this. It even says that you can snap in an infant carrier to the front for whenever we have another little one. So it would be great for now and years to come.

Mama said there'd be days like this....

Ok. Actually nights. GRRRR!!! Dominic is driving me crazy. We were doing well on the not nursing during the night. Then he was sick last week and I gave in. The boy wasn't eating any solids. Now he is well again, I am putting my foot down. I just want to sleep at night. Not be an all night buffet. He is 2 years old. SLEEP DUDE! Then almost worse is the fact that I let him start "snuggling" which really means stick his hand in my shirt and hold my breast. Well it never works that way anymore, he pinches and twiddles and rubs around. STOP!!! AHH!!! It is annoying. SOOOO.... I said, we can nurse to sleep, but no nursing or snuggling at night time. Oh course it makes him sad, but I think we will all sleep better once he realizes it is a done deal. I mean a couple weeks ago he slept 8-4am before crying in Gioias bed with her and then the next night 8-1am and then 1-4am type stretches. Since then however, it has been waking up and being pissed off when I don't nurse/snuggle him. It is hard. :( So everyone be thinking of us this week as we struggle to enforce the new bedtime rules.

My mom had surgery this week. It was a planned surgery for some issues she was having. She is home and doing pretty well. My sister and brothers will be home this weekend deer hunting and helping her out. Her girlfriends came with many meals and some gifts. She has to be off work for 6 weeks so I think we will try to go up next week or so maybe if it works out.

Dominics face is finally healed up again after his fall on the sidewalk. So I want to try to get a few pictures of the kids and possibly the whole family this weekend. It is supposed to be 65-70 this weekend, so it will be a good chance to do outdoor pics.

Zicam! Oh my....

My mom emailed me over the weekend about a friend of hers that used nasal spray Zicam and lost her sense of smell and taste. She said after googling Zicam it turns out this is pretty common, in fact they have brought lawsuits and payed 340 people this last year.

Here is a really well done news video about it. http://zicam.vanosteen.com/video.asp

It also aggravates me that they market this under Homeopathic medicine and are therefore hiding behind the shield of "you can't prove it, because we haven't had any trials done on it". The FDA doesn't regulate herbs and homeopathies. I am glad they don't, but there are groups and systems in place to follow for safe homeopathies. Obviously this company didn't care about that. They are just trying to make a buck. Real homeopathic remedies are specific to the individual and for specific symptoms and problems. On the whole these remedies are not blank remedies, like Zicam was claiming to be for the common cold.

Halloween

We survived trick or treating. Massimo ended up carrying both the kids on the last block home, but we had a good time. Dominic didn't want to give up his pumpkin full of candy and screamed when i took it from him at home. Gioia eventually fell asleep on Aunt Mel's lap around 8:45pm.

Gioia had a party at her dance class Wed. morning. We have pictures and video of that but I haven't got it developed yet. The video is priceless.

Tomorrow we will do our annual candy trade in. We let the kids pick out several pieces of candy to keep, then the rest we "trade in" for a toy at Target. Of course, I actually just leave the candy for the cashier and pay her money for the toy, but the kids don't know that and they like getting a toy to keep.

Italian Cooking Day.

Today I hosted Italian Cooking Day at my house. 3 other moms and their kids came. It was fun! I made Chickpea soup with Noodles, an Italian recipe and then we all made Ravioli and homemade breadsticks. The kids shaped the breadsticks and helped stuff the raviolis. I think everyone had a good time. We didn't have as much pasta dough as I wanted. I hoped everyone could make a couple batches. I didn't realize the dough called for 4 eggs in each batch. We made 2 and 1/2 batches and everyone had enough for one meal I believe. I made mine after everyone left on the last 1/2 batch of dough.

Tonight we are eating for dinner, the raviolis and a pizza with Sausage and Roasted red peppers on it. MMMM!

Speaking of all this food. Last night DH grilled pork baby back ribs. OH MAN! They were to die for. It was awesome. We also had salad and Ranch Potatoes in the oven (potatoes, dry ranch mix, and olive oil = shake and bake for about 30-40 minutes). Then after the cooking was done, the fire in the grill was campfire-esque, so we roasted a couple of 'mallows over the flame. Perfect!

Also perfect is that I look out the window and see my son is in the sandpile, FULL OF WATER! AAHHH! Nasty muddy sandy mess. Guess I better log off and clean him up.... in a bit. :)

First I have one more thing to say. I - HATE - FLIES!! Maybe my total hatred of flies comes from my early years on the farm. We had pigs and I remember battling the flies ever time I came near the hog house. Or the time my sister got her long hair caught in those sticky fly strips that hand from the ceiling ( of course it was covered in dead flies) BARF!!! Anyway fast forward to NOW and the flies are invading my house. The kids have destroyed the screen on the patio door again. So now anytime someone goes out the door, 50 flies rush in. I am not exaggerating when I say that last night I went on a fly killing spree and the floor was covered with them. I had to sweep just to avoid stepping on the carcasses. Then I had to do that same thing again this morning, and AGAIN just now.

Homeschool party

So it always cracks me up at peoples misconception of homeschoolers as sitting at home all day. NEVER happens. When we get to be home its like "Oh how relaxing!" Ha ha. Whether it is dance lessons, or our homeschool group getting together, or a field trip somewhere homeschool kids are always learning through their environment. Its how its supposed to be. I learned more working at my grandmas store when I was a teenager than several years of high school combined. I mean, that work actually translated into life experience that meant something. I really hope my teenagers (when we get there) will have lots of opportunity for internships and life skill events.

Anyway this week we had our homeschool halloween party. It was grand. We played games, painted pumpkins, face painted and ate some cookies, snacks.




In my not so humble opinion, here are the next two most pretty girls after Gioia! HA HA! We went to Iowa this weekend to visit our family. It was good. I took a few really good pictures of my nieces. I thought I would share for my family that hasn't seen these girls in a while. They are 6 (almost 7) and 11! I can't believe it. I feel old.

It doesn't get much more white trash than this....

Celebrities never fail to amaze me as to how they got that way in the first place. Case in point. One of everyones favorite rockers proves that no amount of money can make you any less skanky.

Kid Rock arrested outside waffle house

10/22/2007 7:00 AM, AP


Kid Rock was arrested early Sunday after a brawl at a restaurant and spent about 12 hours in jail before being released, police said.

The musician stopped at the Waffle House restaurant shortly after 5 a.m. after his performance at The Tabernacle in Atlanta, authorities said.

"He and five members of his entourage were involved in a fight with a male customer inside the Waffle House," said Mekka Parish, a spokeswoman for the DeKalb County Police Department.

Brawlin' at Waffle House. Gotta love it.

Mama brags.

We were at the Chinese restaurant after church Sunday and we got fortune cookies. Gioia wanted to read hers by herself, but she can't read yet. So I told her that she could read the lucky numbers. I helped her figure out 39, and 13 then the next number was 26. I said, what number is 2, 6,? She said "8". After I picked my jaw up off the floor I said, Yes, 2 + 6 makes 8. But when they write it like this>>> It is Twenty six. She said Oh ok. Twenty six. WOW! We have been working on simple addition, but I wasn't sure it was clicking yet or if she was just counting.

We got Handwriting without Tears workbook. I explained that it was a "real" schoolbook and when we did the pages I would like her to work hard and be serious. She took that to heart and LOVES IT! She did 10 pages or so the first day. She is up to 27 pages total this week. It has about 90 pages total in the book. She does it when she wants and for how long she wants.

Dominic is into animals and knows the names of tons of them. He can also pronounce the Italian words really well. I am working on teaching him his colors. We need to work on our numbers to 10 as well.

Hayride.

Last night we went on a fun hayride and campfire with our friends. There ended up being 40 people. 10 were kids under 3, the rest was 4 and up. It was really fun. We roasted marshmallows, had apple cider and the kids ran around and played. It was nice. It rained all day yesterday, but cleared off and was a nice evening.

Here are a couple pictures. Oh and for all of you wondering what is up with Dominics nose?...well he fell at Deanna Rose last Monday. He fell on a rubber track where they drive pedal cars. So it gave him this awful rug-burned scrap. On the way home last night he pulled that huge scab off. It looked so painful. This morning however, it looks loads better.

New things I have made.

I am really starting to get the hang of this sewing stuff. It is really fun and since I moved my sewing machine to the living room, I can get a lot more things done. Of course it makes my living room look more cluttery, but whatever. I live here and I want to be able to do things in the living room. So I couldn't post before what I made because those people read this blog. But since they have received their gifts. I will post now!

First is turkey placemats I made for my mom for her birthday. Second is the quilted style placemats I made for my cousin and his wife for a wedding gift.

So far so good.

Well yesterday I was A LOT better about what we ate. Breakfast : Oatmeal Lunch: Bean burritos with cheese on whole wheal tortillas. Snack: Veggie chips (baked), apples and carrots Dinner: Cooked Chicken on Salad ( raw carrots, raw broccoli, raw cauliflower, peas, ham, lettuce). Homemade Clam Chowder. We ate mostly the salad, and everyone had one bowl of the soup. It actually is only about half dairy and half water, so not that bad. I resisted my urge to go get ice cream after dinner. :)

Tonight we are having some friends over for dinner. We are making Smoked Chicken Legs, salad, Spicy Beans, and strawberry shortcake. Should be fun. I have to go run the vacuum and maybe get the yard mowed today.