random

I know I've said this a zillion times, but if there was just a few more hours in the day..... oh boy.

ML and I got all the donation letters for the silent auction ready to go out in the mail. This year we are sending 135 letters out. Fingers crossed that this year we have our best return yet. It took us two evenings to get it all put together with some help from a neighbour.

I adapted a recipe this weekend and whipped up a batch of maple pecan cookies. I was concerned it was going to be a huge waste of butter, but they actually turned out pretty delicious.

I really have to get my passport.

The kids kicked my ass tonight.... Abby in a dance off because she is a rock star with some pretty sick moves. Maya..... just by being Maya. Apparently I hurt her feeling really badly when I asked her to unload the dishwasher.

Wholefoods makes some incredibly delicious sausage. Spinach and feta chicken sausage for dinner yo.

I really don't want to put the clothes in the dryer right now because I really want to crawl into bed, but it's either do it know while hydro is cheap or pay the premium hydro prices tomorrow afternoon.

Night all..... give me five minutes then come to make sure I haven't fallen asleep in the laundry room.

i'm gonna shout

The girls are still singing at church every Sunday... well Abby is. Maya sings about 12% of the time. She's a champ at practice though. We are very lucky to have an incredibly talented choir director at our church. She's presenting lovely music every week with both the junior and senior choirs. Pretty much every week I die from the cute when the little ones sing.

So in what may become a regular feature I've decided to video their weekly song. This week I just have the Abster singing. Maya ran off set just before we started to film. Yeah, she didn't sing in church either today, so no shock there. I've toyed with the idea of filming the actual performance, but there is more than just my kids up there.... so....

I do know there will be a small market for these types of posts if nothing else... I'm looking at you Granny, Uncle Dave, Auntie Mel and TLP.

Enjoy.

I'm Gonna Shout

maya's report

Yesterday Mike and I got to spend the morning with Maya at school. Yep, it was time for parent observation. I have been dying to hear what Maya's teacher would have to say about her. She is still such a riddle to me. A completely adorable riddle, but a riddle just the same.

Just to give you a little insight to what I'm dealing with.....

If you ask her for a hug or a kiss she asks you what day it is because there is a schedule. Sundays are kissy days. Fridays are painting days. Saturdays are snuggle days. Mondays are huggy days. Please do not try to deviate from the schedule. Unless, of course, it suits her purpose to deviate from the schedule.

The other night I asked her to unload the dishwasher. She looked me right in the eye and said - you know what I'm going to say and it starts with an n. And she doesn't mean no, folks. Nope, the n stands for never! I will say she's very calm and matter of fact about the whole thing. There's no drama, no anger. She's just telling you like it is, according to her of course. She does this with just about any chore that's put in front of her. All with this attitude of 0h well if I don't, what are you going to do to me? I mean really, what's the worst? Because let's be honest here, my worst isn't going to be all that bad and she knows it. Where as Abby can't stand being sent to her room or having a time out, Maya is all like... whatevs.

When Abby was small I told her if she was lying to me I would see a dot on her forehead and oh boy did she fall hard for that one. I can always tell when Abby is trying to put one over on me. Always. Her guilt gives her away every time. All I have to do is glance in her direction and she folds like a lawn chair. She can't confess fast enough. My favourite was the day she was going over to play with a friend and attempting to take something with her that she knew wasn't to leave the house. I looked at her to say good bye and she blurted out... you know, don't you? Well, I thought to myself, I do now.

Now Maya on the other hand I cannot read at all and none of my Mommy tricks will get her to crack. Now someone has been dropping their TP beside the toilet instead of in the bowl, so I line up the suspects to get to the bottom of it. Now I am already 99% sure it's Maya and not Abby, but if I'm wrong Abby will be throwing herself on the mercy of the Mommy court faster than I can say cottonelle. We get down to it and immediately I can tell it's not Abby, she's almost beside herself with worry that I think it might be her, so I know it's not. So I turn to Maya and the little fart looks me straight in the eye and not only swears it's not her, but says I think Daddy's doing it. Fast forward to thirty minutes later when I overhear her say to Mike - it's not me, I think Mommy's doing it. For real life... I'm afraid I may be raising an evil super genius over here.

That's a little taste of what it's like to be Maya's Mom.

So, yeah... very interested in the teacher's take on her.

She was fantastic at school. I thought she might be clingy with me in the classroom, but she barely looked at me, just went about her normal schedule with barely a look back at us. She was picked "Happy Helper" so she had a lot of responsibilities to attend to, like the weather and the calendar and delivering the attendance to the office. She was quick with her seat work and was actually helping one of the kids in her group with her work.

Her report card was tremendous. Lots of consistently's. The teacher has no concerns. She's a pleasure to have in the class, she's polite and helpful and has made lots of friends. She's still a little reserved, but she can take a long time to fully warm up to things. Her teacher was shocked... I mean, mouth hanging open shocked, when she heard the dishwasher story. Apparently at school, MyPie is beyond helpful. Which I was fine with too. I said I'd rather she save that stuff up for Mama. You raise your kids in the hopes that when they are out in public people think, what a nice little girl and not oh my gosh, what a demon child.

Actually I fibbed just a little bit, her teacher does have one small concern, that Maya may be getting a little bored. She's been getting a little bit pokey in the last month. Her teacher thinks it may be a case of her knowing she can do the work, so there's no real sense of urgency when it comes to getting it done. Which I tend to agree with. She begs for homework every night when Abby is doing hers. Maya has one little assignment to complete a week. So we talked about things Maya could do at home to keep her challenged. So we'll start that and see how things go, but we really couldn't have asked for a better start to school for her.

friday high five - on top of my bruger

Friday night often finds me at 10pm watching Triple D with my secret boyfriend Guy Fieri. Which is awesome because I love it, but also sucks because it makes me want to eat a hamburger because they always go to at least one place that makes kick ass burgers. You may not know, but burgers are my ultimate favourite thing. I could eat burgers everyday for the rest of my life. True story.

So for today's Friday High Five, my five favourite burger toppers.

1. Purple onion. Yeah, I know they call it a "red" onion, but have you seen one? That's purple, my friend. Also my girl the Mommy Project calls it a purple onion and she's all kinds of cool.

2. Havarti or really any nice creamy fabulous when melty kind of cheese.

3. These uber yummy spicy sandwich stacker dills. Maybe with a pickled pepper ring or two thrown on for good measure.

4. Regular old iceberg lettuce.

5. Zucchini relish. I love all kinds of relish... dill, corn, regular green, but zucchini is my first love.

the answer was all of the above

So I kind of left you hanging regarding about my multiple choice quiz from our time in Toronto, didn't I? It was not my intention, but I have been on tired Mama this week. I even slept through The Office and if you know my mad crazy love for that show, then you know that's a huge development. I mean Packer was on. So now I'll be forced to play fast and loose with my bandwidth cap and watch it online. Or perhaps I should finally get myself a PVR or a DVR or whatever you wanna call it.

But back to the quiz.... not sure what I'm talking about, you can get caught up here, go ahead, we'll wait....... okay, ready?

Story #1 - Maya gets sick at school.

True. Maya's recent infection and subsequent antibiotic use, left her more than a little bit blocked up, if you know what I mean. She made it part way through her school day before she became just too uncomfortable. Now I had been saying to Mike that I was feeling a little bit anxious about going away because the kids were spending one night with Grandma Sandi and one night with Granny and they had school in between, so we were counting everybody being where they needed to be when they needed to be there.

Then the school calls my cell.

So I called Granny, then Grandma Linda's house, then Grandma Linda's cell and got no answer anywhere. Got Papa on his cell and didn't tell him it was me, but instead started talking about how Maya wasn't well and had to be picked up, that I couldn't get Grandma Linda on the phone, but my Mom would pick her up later at their place if he could please go get her and I'd call the school back and tell them he was on his way. I found out later that he didn't know he was talking to me and couldn't figure out half of what I was talking about, but he did know someone had to go get Maya. And that someone ended up being Grandma Linda, who was sitting by the phone, but didn't answer my calls because she didn't recognize my cell phone number. Phew! It's enough to make an anxious Mom swear to never leave town without her kiddos again!

Story #2 - Only 1 bed for 3 people.

True. So very true. One night of the convention we were sharing a room with ML and then she had her own room for the next night. I wish you could have seen the look on Mike's face when the guy told us our room had one king bed and there wasn't another room with two double beds to be had in the entire hotel. A hotel of over 1300 rooms I might add. There was actually lots of problems checking in amongst the convention attendees this year. The guy at the wicket next to us was irate as he'd been waiting for his room to be ready for 5 hours. As a person in the customer service game I felt for the folks working the front desk. Anyway back to the bed issue after we realized there was nothing much to be done about the bed situation Mike turned to me and said... you're in the middle. So that's what we did. The bed was huge and each of us had enough room to sleep comfortably, there was no crowding.

I was the last one to use the bathroom before bed, I come out and Mike let me in the middle and turned out the lights. Once we were laying there, three in a row, I bust out laughing. Such a funny and yet absurd moment. All involved had a great night sleep. The Royal York has the best beds out of any hotel I have ever stayed in. The mattress, the pillows and the duvet are all top drawer. It's a pretty short list of folks I would be willing to let sleep with my husband and I, shorter even still is the list of folks we've actually done that with.... on the list, just ML.

Story #3 - Drunk girls on the subway.

Mostly true. Yes we were on the subway when a couple of party girls got on and started ripping the advertising signs down from above our heads. They specifically wanted the maps of the subway line. I should mention we were riding in the very first car, you know where the guy driving the subway sits. Since they were drunk they thought that would be a good place to start defacing the subway. Eventually a younger kid got up to tell the conductor what was going on and the girls started calling him some not so nice names while trying to look cool and be funny/witty which isn't easy to do when you're 23 and drunk off your face. Since they were ratted out they did the best thing they could think of which was to move their subway map stealing ways to the next car back... you know cuz none of us could see them. In the end the driver made a announcement over the PA system warning against the evils of thievery, which I'm pretty sure scared them straight.

And that was our trip to Toronto.

what's cooking wednesday - pecan pie

It took me a long time, but I finally figured out the best gift for Papa for his birthday. I promise to make him one dessert a month for 12 months. I love acknowledging birthdays and special occasions with a gift, but as I get older I struggle with the "stuff". The past couple of years I've been trying to give more gifts of time, rather than just more stuff. So this works out perfectly. Since I have recently mastered pie crust I thought I'd give a new recipe a whirl.... pecan pie. If you read my no go foods list then you know I dislike pecan so as an extra added bonus it would be real easy to give away.



I used the Pioneer Woman's recipe because, where else would you go for a great pie recipe? I won't copy her work here, but you can get the recipe over on PW's cooking blog.

Recipe Notes: Since I don't do pecans I had to take my tester's word for it's deliciousness. Mike gave it a solid 5/5, so there you go. I will definitely make it again because it's one of the easiest pies I have ever made. In fact I plan on making it soon for one of my favourite sister-in-laws. She's been dropping pecan pie hints on facebook that I am pretty sure are directed at me and I'll take any excuse to see that girl because she's awesome times ten.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page.

*All front page links will be deleted!*
*Posts that aren't linked back will be deleted*
*Posts that don't include some sort of a recipe will be deleted*

Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

don't put it on my plate

A little discussion popped up amongst some of my favourite tweeps about foods we don't like, so I thought I would compile my list of food no go's here....

I cannot stand the following.....

Walnuts
Pecans
Pop
Plain potato chips - unless you've got dip.
Cooked spinach - on it's own. I'm okay if it's in with something like pasta.
I don't care for bones in my meat, but I absolutely despise a pork chop with a bone.
Whipped cream
Pumpkin pie
Spam - even the smell makes me gag
Plain peanuts - honey roasted are a whole other delicious story.
red grapes
green olives
fish of any kind - tuna sandwiches are good though
rice pudding
milk or sugar in my tea
liver
fruit peel in baking
coconut
strawberry and banana together

I'm sure there is more, but that will do for now. What would you put on your no go food list?

multiple choice

So we all survived our trip to Toronto. Mike and I. The kids. All the grandparents. Because in the end it did take all of us to pull it off. Did I even mention why we were in Toronto? Have I mentioned that Mike is now President of our local Agricultural Society? He is and as such the society paid for us to be in Toronto for two days to attend the OAAS convention, held in the swanky Royal York hotel. So there were meetings, seminars, round table discussions, showcases and receptions to attend, but there was also time for visiting with other fairs and we may have snuck in a bit of fun here and there.

If we're friends on facebook... and if we aren't yet, how come you haven't added me? Then you know I alluded to having a story to tell, but not being sure if I had clearance to tell it. Well lucky for you all, I did get clearance, but then I thought it would be too easy to just tell you what it was, so we're going to play a little game. I'm going to tell you a bunch of little stories and then you try and guess which one is true... only my best gal Robin doesn't get to play because she already knows what went down. Good luck.

Story #1
On the way to watch Mike pick up an award for our fair (we were named fair of the year for 2010 by the amusement company we deal will) I received a call from the school. Maya was sick and needed to be picked up. I called various grandparents and couldn't get an answer anywhere. Finally got Papa on the phone, but he didn't know who he was talking to or what I was talking about.

Story #2
When we checked into our room we found 1 king sized bed and not 2 doubles. In a hotel of 1365 rooms there was not another room with 2 doubles to be had. Did I mention we were sharing a room with ML one night? Some quick and dirty math will tell you there was three of us and only one bed. What to do? We risked the scandal and shared the bed. Me in the middle, Mike to my left and ML to my right.

Story #3
Riding the subway a couple of young and very drunk ladies got on and began vandalizing the car we were riding in. Security was summoned, a scuffle ensued and one of the very drunk young ladies ended up sprawled across our laps with her skirt a titch higher than it should have been.

So what do you think? Which one of those things actually happened?

i'm off

I'm headed to the big city for a couple of days with Michael and one of my best girls. It is convention time once again. So things will be quiet around here... well the internet version of around here. The kids will be hanging out with a couple of Grandmas. I highly doubt it will be quiet. Now it is way late and I am in no way ready to go... oh and did I mention we're leaving straight from work tomorrow? So I really should be packed to go, but I'm not. Why? Well because I had a cake to decorate tonight and Survivor was on! Did you watch? It was awesome times ten. Truly.
Okay off to pack!

what's cooking wednesday - peanut butter pancakes

Well my kids love pancakes and they love peanut butter, so when I came across this recipe I knew I was going to have to give it a try.



Peanut butter pancakes adapted from this recipe at allrecipes.com

1 cup pancake mix
2 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup peanut butter
5oz milk

In a bowl, mix together pancake mix and sugar. In a small bowl whisk together peanut butter, egg and milk. Stir into the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened. Pour 1/4 cup of batter in a greased non-stick pan on medium heat. Flip the pancake over after bubbles start to form.

Recipe Notes: The kids liked this, but I thought it was just meh. The batter burns much more easily then your standard pancake batter. You need to cook these low and slow, which kind of ruins pancakes being a quick and easy dinner. For me they are just a little too fiddly to be worth it.

But like I said the kids liked them.....






What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. *All front page links will be deleted!* Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

happy valentine's day

Happy Valentine's Day to all my bloggy peeps. We don't really make a big deal about Valentine's Day around the Blogmother Ranch which is good news since I'm sure Abby's vomiting would have thrown a monkey wrench into the works. Poor thing woke me up at 5am, but she assured me it was a one-off and she was fine to go to school. She did make it to the sitter's, but didn't make it beyond that and the theme for the rest of the day was, what goes down, must come up. Throw in a slight fever, head ache and sore stomach muscles from all the retching and we had one heck of a party. Oh and did I mention Mike had a meeting he had to be at this evening? Story of my life, right? Now she's sleeping, restlessly, but sleeping none the less and I'm going to try and figure out how to sleep in this new/used recliner of ours.

What did you do for Valentine's Day?

further proof advertising works

If we're friends on facebook then you know that I recently bought myself a sexy new lamp for our bedroom. Just this past weekend Mike finally got around to disposing of the styrofoam that it was packed in.

Mike: You know it's a real pain in the ass that these garbage bags just shred when you put anything with a corner in them.
Abby: Well are they Glad bags? Because they don't rip.

I guess I should be pleased that she's paying attention to all the commercials and not just the toy and McDonald's ones. Right?

ugh

I love where I live. I love my tiny little village. Even more so now that there appears to be a resolution to that tragic event that happened just after Christmas in the form of an arrest. I think you could actually hear the collective sigh of relief yesterday morning. Now as they say in real estate, location is king and I do love my location. Being an old village the majority of the houses are, well...... old. Ours turned a 100 years old last year and as you can imagine it lacks a lot of the amenities that today's families find so appealing in newer houses. It's not unusual to see folks buy houses out here and then do massive renovations or build new on the property.

These days I have a bit of a love hate relationship with my house. It's great for the four of us... for the most part. I do wish the girl's bedrooms were bigger, but they have a playroom for themselves so they only really sleep in their rooms. Recently we had a birthday dinner for Maya that we had to have at Papa and Grandma Linda's because ours sucks for larger scale entertaining... in the winter. I mean we have lots of great parties in the warmer months when folks can head outside. It's times like these that I wish for a brand new house that is full of open concept entertaining space.

Now this week was a busy week for my kitchen. Lots of baking going on and that's when my irritation level is off the charts because that kitchen in there is the exact opposite of a cook's kitchen. Again it's fine for making dinner for a family of four. Despite the fact that everyone who walks into our kitchen for the first time says..... wow big kitchen.... there is only space for one person to work comfortably. When I'm doing a lot of baking well it gets to be quite the juggling act. For the most part I've got it figured out, but sometimes I get caught standing there with a hot pan and no place where to put it down. So I've been on the internet researching ideas to make the whole thing more workable. Ideas that won't break the bank.



That is the extent of my counter space in my 12x24 kitchen. I'm open to suggestions.

friday high five - board games

I love board games and I had decided long before I had kids that I would make this a board game family. Almost 9 years into this Mom deal and I am happy to report we are a board game family. The girls get just as amped up about board game night as we do. I have to admit I am looking forward to them getting older so we can move into games that are a bit more "adult". I mean Candyland is fun and all, but it doesn't hold quite the same appeal as say Scrabble.

So last week I told you what my favourite card games were so to keep with the theme for this Friday High Five - my favourite board games.

1. Balderdash Board Game - It's been a while since we've played this one, but some of the biggest laughs that have occurred around our kitchen table have been a direct result of this game. Auntie Mel once came up with an answer in Balderdash that was so epic we still quote it.

2. Scrabble Crossword Board Game - I triple love scrabble. I love how even little words can be big scorers if you use the board to your advantage. Scarbble is probably the game that gets the most adult play in our house.

3. Trivial Pursuit 25th Anniversary Edition Board Game - Now Trivial Pursuit is something we play exactly never, but I do love it. We have the Saturday Night Live edition, which I've played once. You have to find that perfection combination of board game/SNL lovers for that one. Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel are the perfect choice in that capacity, but they are continuing to refuse to purchase that house that's for sale a few doors down. Jerks.

4. Yahtzee Dice Game - Santa gave us Yahtzee this year for family game night. I don't think I'd ever played it before. Now the box says 8 and up, but I think it really depends on your 8 year old. Abby was not overly enthused with the game. I think it was a bit over her head. Mike and I both really enjoyed it and actually played another game ourselves after the kids had headed off to bed.

5. Movie Scene It? 2nd Edition DVD Board Game - I love Scene It. We have a couple of versions, the original, Disney/Pixar and Seinfeld. The Disney/Pixar version is a favourite of Abby and Maya's. Of course their favourite part of the game is answering the questions based on the movie clips they've seen.

What are your favourite board games?

*In the interest of full disclosure, all games are linked to my amazon affiliate account

listening in

So this afternoon Abby and Maya were playing with their Barbies in the living room while I surfed the web on my laptop. Well it looked like I was surfing, but in reality I was eavesdropping on their play time.

To set the scene it is important to know that Abby had a Barbie and a Ken doll. Actually I believe it was a Prince Charming doll. Whatever..... it was a boy doll. As for Maya, she had a single Barbie.

Abby: Hi honey, we're you're Mom and Dad. We live here.
Maya: No you aren't! I live all by myself.
Abby: No, we are your Mom and Dad. I was busy before and your Dad had to go off to war, so we gave you away.

Sounds like a plot from the Young and the Restless, doesn't it?

what's cooking wednesday - slow cooker french onion soup

Before we start I think it's a good idea to go over the what's cooking wednesday rules. Please remember to link only to your recipe post, not your blog's front page, link only to recipes and link back here, the home of what's cooking wednesday. Links that don't meet this criteria will be deleted. Don't make me be a jerk, guys!

I came across this one night as I clicked away from here to there. You know those kinds of nights. I have no idea how I ended up there, bu I'm glad I did. This soup appealed to me because it was dead easy.

Oh and no picture. I had planned on taking a picture, but all of the sudden my bowl was empty and I thought..... oh crap! But it's french onion soup, you can imagine it right?

Here is the original recipe

and this is what I did to it.

6 onions
3tbsp olive oil
1 carton beef broth
1 carton chicken broth
french bread
swiss cheese

So I diced up 6 large onions. I actually used 3 white and 3 red purple onions and threw them in my large oval crock pot with some olive oil. I didn't measure. I just drizzled some in so the onions were coated after I stirred it all up. Turn your crock pot on high and walk away for at least 8 hours. Pour in the beef and chicken broth and cook on high for 30 minutes more. Portion out into bowls, top with french bread and swiss cheese and pop under the broiler until the cheese is melty.

Recipe Notes - I love this recipe for how little work it requires. I cooked my onions for 8 hours, but I think next time I'd let them go longer, another hour at least. I used the biggest onions I could find, which is why I used two full cartons of broth. Mike and I had soup for dinner two nights in a row and I froze the rest.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. *All front page links will be deleted!* Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

who lives in a pineapple

I've just realized that I didn't show you Miss Maya's birthday cake. She wanted a pineapple cake. Specifically a cake that was shaped like a pineapple. Why? Well I wondered that myself..... spongebob's house. I know, seems pretty obvious now right?



So that's what I ended up with. I liked it.... Maya not so much. You see she's only just started to like frosting and only peanut butter frosting will do. Green peanut butter frosting is not acceptable.



Luckily there was a couple of spots that hadn't been sullied by green food colouring. Crisis averted.



I'm not sure if I'll ever have a call to make a pineapple cake again, but hey, if you do need one. Drop me a line. I am your girl.

knowing me, knowing you - february 2011

Time once again for everyone's favourite monthly interview project.. Knowing Me, Knowing You. I am always happy when I manage to get this out before I get a reminder message from the super fab Widney Woman.

1. Are you a morning person or a night owl?

Oh night owl all the way! Of course my life would be a whole lot easier if I loved getting up at the butt crack of dawn or better yet I could go with out sleep. Yeah that would be awesome. Of course I really do love crawling into my bed at the end of the day.

2. What is favourite show of all time - you've seen all the episodes, you've watched it over and over and quote from it all the time?

It's a tie between Friends and Seinfeld. I owe the complete series of both on dvd and they were my best friends during all those sleepless nights with newborn Maya.

3. Who would you invite to a celebrity dinner party?

Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Smith, John Krasinski, Jeff Probst, Julia Roberts, and Anna and Kristina from the Grocery Bags.

4. Would you rather have breakfast out or dinner out?

Dinner! I know lots of folks are all about the breakfast out, but I have yet to find a place that rocks my socks off for breakfast. Here's the thing, I make a pretty kick ass omelet on my own so when we do have breakfast out I'm always vaguely let down. The omelets are always fine, but I can't help, but think mine at home would have been just as good for a fraction of the cost. What I need to find is a breakfast place worthy of Diners, Drive ins and Dives. Any suggestions local peeps?

5. Packers or Steelers?

Don't care either way. We aren't so much a football family. I will tune in for the very end, only to make sure that I don't miss a second of a brand new episode of Glee. Forced to pick, I'd say Packers only because I love Todd Packer on The Office. Sorry Steelers fans.




So now the rules, they're pretty simple. Post your answers to these questions on your own blog in the next few days. Remember to link back here in your post and sign the Mr. Linky too, so we can all see what you have to say. Please make sure you link to your actual KMKY post and not your blog's front page. Any front page links will be deleted. And most importantly, have fun! Have suggestions for next months questions? Leave me a comment or send me an email and let me know.

friday high five - shuffle up and deal

Well tonight was family fun night and the girls wanted a game. I was lobbying hard for cards, but they were pretty insistent on Disney Scene It, which we hadn't played in quite some time. Related, I think we could do with an updated version. We had to deal with a lot of Disney movies the kids haven't seen like The Jungle Book, The Rescuers, Duck Tales and Pete's Dragon, to name a few.

I do love to play cards, but it doesn't happen very often. My parents had couples over to play cards when I was a kid. We'd play with the other couple's kids while the adults played Euchre. I need to start doing that kind of thing more. Related, Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel need to buy the house down the street.

So for this week's Friday High Five - the card games I love to play....

1. Cribbage. I cannot begin to tell you how many hours I spent playing crib with my Grandpa. Countless, countless hours. Often just the two of us, but occasionally we'd play with four. Fifteen two, fifteen four and the rest wouldn't score. I can't tell you how many times I heard him say that. He always pointed out my missed scoring opportunities because he was "an honest crook". Very occasionally I'd manage to win and I've never really been 100% sure that he didn't let me. I can't remember the last time I played cribbage... I should do something about that. It's one of those games that makes me feel good because of all the happy memories associated.

2. Uno. Love Uno in all it's forms. We actually used to play Uno quite a bit with friends of ours. Of course this was before we all had kids and life got busy with stuff. We do play with the kids and it's a great game for that. Taking into consideration the four year age difference between Abby and Maya it's not easy to find a game to play that is suitable for both of them. Usually we end up with one of two secenarios - we end up playing a "baby" game (Abby's term) for Maya or Maya and I have to play as a team. Uno is one of the few games all four of us can play independently together.

3. Spoons. I have to give a big thank you to ML for introducing us to this game. It is a great game for a group. The rules aren't complicated and you don't need any special equipment, just a deck of cards and some spoons out of the drawer. You should give it a try at your next big family dinner. I will personally guarantee a fun time will be had by all.

4. Mexican Rummy. Remember our Uno playing friends from up there, well we used to play this with them as well. I wish I could remember the particulars of the game, but it's been a while. Although ML tells me that Phase 10 is pretty much the same thing.

5. Poker. Another game I haven't played in a while. Although Grandma Sandi has suggested a family poker tourney. I should probably get on that. Who doesn't like spending an evening taking cash from their nearest and dearest? I am far from a great player... heck I'm probably not even good, but it sure is a lot of fun when you win a hand.

Do you play cards? What's your favourite game to deal out?

tell me a story

So if you've been reading here for a while then you may know that for the past few years we have exchanged handmade gifts with my brother, Uncle Dave and his lovely wife Auntie Mel. I have to say that Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel rock the handmade gifts. They are way more creative than I.

For some unknown reason Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel have chosen to live two hours away from here. Actually, I know the reason..... it's because Dave got a job there, but now that I have allowed them to live up there for a decade-ish, I think it's time they did me a solid and moved back here. Heck, there's even a house for sale a few doors down.... and it has a hot tub. Win win, I say.

I have always appreciated the work Dave and Mel have put into their relationship with my girls. You'd never know they didn't live local just based on how crazy in love with Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel they are. It's just awesome times ten. All that to say, the theme of this year's gift from Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel.... bringing family together.

Being the uber creative types that they are, they recorded themselves reading The Fantastic Mr Fox and then burned it to cd. That way even though they may be two hours away they are still able to read the girls a bedtime story. For the past few nights Abby has popped it in the cd player while we focus fifteen the house. It's nice to be able to hear their voices fill the kitchen on a random Thursday evening. I'd never read the Fantastic Mr Fox before, so hearing the story has been a treat for me as well.

It is a truly thoughtful gift and I'm secretly hoping to see a new story under the tree next Christmas.

What's the most thoughtful gift you've received?

h2o

I have quickly figured out that the weeks in which I manage to drink lots of water and green tea are the weeks I am more successful at the scales. It's not as easy as you'd think to make sure you're getting enough liquids.... at least not for me. I won't tell you how many cups of tea I've let go cold. Occupational hazard when you're a Mom I suppose. There's always something interrupting me from the task at hand. If I'm feeling ambitious I'll throw it in the microwave to reheat, but most of the time I just drink it cold. I think I've developed a taste for it that way and every time I finish up my cold cup of tea I can't help, but remember my Mom drinking her cold coffee when I was a kid and we were living in our house in the city. Although I was young I can still remember wondering how she could drink it like that. Of course this was in the days before we all had microwaves on our counter, so there was no quick and easy reheating option... still it's funny, now I'm doing the same thing. Sorry for all that cold coffee Mom! xo

One thing I've found helpful in making sure I get in enough green tea is some fun mugs.



My Mom got me the pretty travel mug, there were two in the box so I'm never without a clean mug. I love that it looks like a take out cup, but it's actually ceramic....or whatever. I drink a cup of tea on my way to work. It's my only guaranteed hot tea of the day since my commute is only about 10 minutes and my goal is to have it gone before I get there. The other two I picked up myself because I liked the shape and the size of the handle. Nothing I hate more than an awkwardly shaped, placed or sized mug handle.

Sometimes the little things are big things, am I right?

How about you? Are you getting enough water?

what's cooking wednesday - tomato soup

Usually come the colder months I start making soup like crazy, but so far this winter I haven't. I'm not sure what that's true, but my best guess is weight watchers. Typically when I make a soup I view the recipe as merely a guideline. Soup can be pretty forgiving. So it seems to be a pretty daunting task to have to try and figure out the points for a serving of soup. For the longest time I've been meaning to give Jamie Oliver's tomato soup a try since it worked out to be a zero point soup, which is awesome times ten.



Jamie Oliver's Tomato Soup

Click on through to Jamie's site for the recipe and great how-to pictures.

Recipe Notes: Okay this is one super quick and easy soup to make. And it makes a pretty big pot, so hurray for lunches for the week. The taste is great, much better than anything out of a can. Even better, since it works out to zero points in the weight watchers world, it gives you some wiggle room to dress it up with grated cheese, hot sauce and/or some sour cream. Or I can leave it plain and add a bagel. It makes for a very versatile lunch. Odds are I'll start alternating weight watchers chili and this tomato soup for lunches on a weekly basis.