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I have nothing really interesting to report, but I'm posting anyway just so I don't fall behind. We had a somewhat busy weekend. Parker had a couple birthday parties to attend, and I hosted a book club meeting. Parker helped with the mopping.

Book club. Just a small group, we meet once a month and take turns hosting. We meet in the evening so we just do dessert and wine, which is pretty easy on the hostess.

Parker's new thing is checking the weather report. I'm not sure if she's really that interested in the upcoming weather, or if she just likes the graphs and pictures and reading out loud to us. Either way, it's a nightly event.

Parker seems to be slowly recovering from her ear infections. I can't tell if she's still feeling run down or if she's just having trouble adjusting to not being pampered 24/7, but she's been somewhat crabby. She reported today that one of her ears "not popped" anymore....meaning she can hear out of it finally. One down, one to go.

Barley Jambalaya

Don't mistake me for a food blogger, but I wanted to share this recipe. It's super easy, delicious, healthy and filling and I did it all with stuff from my pantry and freezer.

I got it from a Dallas Morning News article, the recipe with my modifications is below.

BARLEY JAMBALAYA

**Notes:
I used frozen mirapoix veggies instead of fresh.
I made half the recipe and there were still leftovers, but I did NOT half the spices.
I added frozen shrimp at the end.
I didn't think it reheated that well for leftovers, it seemed very gloppy and stiff. Maybe I should have added liquid before nuking.e Your mileage may vary.

1 tablespoon canola oil 1 ½ cups onion, diced in 1/2-inch thick pieces 1 cup celery, sliced 1/4-inch thick 1 cup green bell pepper, diced in 1/2-inch pieces 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 (28-ounce) can tomatoes, chopped in juice 5 cups water or broth 2 cups pearled barley, uncooked (see note) 2 whole bay leaves 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon dried thyme 1 cup turkey sausage, sliced 1/4-inch thick (see note)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Add oil to a large saucepan or roasting pan and heat on top of the stove. Add the onions, celery, green pepper and garlic; mix well. Sauté 5 to 10 minutes, scraping bottom of pan periodically.

Add the tomatoes (with juice), broth or water, and barley. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring often. Add the bay leaves, salt, cayenne, oregano, black pepper and thyme; mix well. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the sausage.

Place the covered pan in the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes. Check and stir after 30 minutes, adding more liquid if needed. Remove the bay leaves before serving. Serves 6.

Note: Pearled barley can be found in supermarkets, usually near the rice and dried beans, and in bulk form at health and natural food stores. Recipe instructions call for regular pearled barley. You also may use quick-cooking barley, which is pre-steamed to shorten the cooking time to about 10 minutes. Adjust the cooking time per package instructions.

You may substitute ham, beef smoked sausage, chicken or shrimp for the turkey sausage. Add chicken or shrimp later in the cooking process to avoid overcooking or precook and stir in during the final 10 minutes to warm.

PER SERVING: Calories 363 (16% fat) Fat 7 g (1 g sat) Chol 20 mg

Sodium 1,466 mg Fiber 13 g Carbohydrates 64 g Protein 16 g

Daddy/Daughter Sweetheart Dance

At Parker's school, around Valentine's Day, they have a Daddy/Daughter dance. (prior to that, there is a Mom/Son skating event). Lots of Parker's friends attend, so there was no way she was going to miss it.

Bob tried for a corsage, but couldn't find a suitable one, so he brought Parker flowers. She was thrilled.

Just to add to our chaos, it was the night before we left on our ski trip, so Gigi, former hairsylist, was here. It took both of us to do a suitable 'updo'. I didn't really get a good picture of it though...the back was a cascade of curls , and the very front was 2 braids that wrapped around (that was my part, at Parker's insistence)

How sweet do they look? Bob called all his friends, and yep, they were all wearing suits, so he did too. Just what someone wants to put on after they get home from work on a Friday night. He looked great though.

At the dance. Bob said she had fun - they do a combo of dancing with friends and dancing with dads and running around in circles.

Maybe next year I'll look for something darker for her to wear. She looks so pretty in that color that I couldn't pass it up....but it is more of an Easter dress than evening wear.

More ski pics

(this is a little out of order, but I'm sure you can still follow the chronology).
Since this was a special occasion, we used our airline miles to upgrade to first class. This is my first flight in first class (actually, business class). I walk past the first class seats all the time and think "what's so great about that?". Well, in case you haven't tried it, IT IS GREAT. Here's the lunch:

This is a salad w/ buffalo chicken and big chunks of bleu cheese on it, chips, dressing and dip for the chips. Prior to that we got hot wet cloths to clean our hands, and before that, WARM mixed nuts. And they bringing you drink refills until you say whoa. It's more like being a guest at someone's home than it is having a flight attendant wait on you.
Folks in economy class got a free softdrink and could purchase chips or granola bars.

Back to skiing....

Here's a group picture taken at Lake Louise. It's sort of hard to tell, but the sun is shining on the top of the mountain behind us.

Scenery picture at Lake Louise.....the actual frozen lake, not the ski area. We did a little sight seeing on the way home from skiing one day. Again, pictures don't do it justice. I think I forgot to mention earlier, but all of Banff and the area we were in is in a National Park.

Other ski pics of interest

Last group of ski pics.....

Here are some sheep that were on the side of the road. I don't have a picture of it, but there are all these small bridges going across the highways, but they aren't paved, they have grass, etc growing on them. They are for wildlife crossing. More info here:
http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/banff/docs/routes/chap1/sec1.aspx

After 4 days in Banff, we went back to Calgary for 2 days. They have a really neat downtown area and we stayed at a nice hotel. They Dallas Stars also played while we were there, so we had to go. It was really neat to attend a hockey game in Canada. They love their hockey! One of the most amazing things was that nearly EVERY person in the crowd was wearing a red Flames jersey. Not just a t-shirt or something with a logo on it, but an actual (replica) jersey. I'm used to seeing about 20% jerseys at Stars home games.

Part of the neat downtown area. There is one street where all the shopping occurs, and they close that down to traffic on the weekends. They have very pretty lights strung across the street, and you can't tell from the photo, but there are long lights that hang down and appear to 'drip' like an icicle. Super pretty!

And as per usual, nearly every time we go skiing, Parker gets sick. I guess it's just a typical February thing, everyone has colds or worse around this time. We usually do a good job of dodging illness compared to a lot of kids her age, but at some point the law of averages catches up with us I guess. In this picture, she's not sucking her finger, she's doing the elementary school child 'check for wiggly teeth'.

She's better now, by the way. I'm not looking forward to the double detox after being pampered by Gigi and then catered to by me while being sick.

Canada Ski pics

This year for our ski trip, we decided to go somewhere extra special to celebrate Bob's 40th birthday. Since Whistler, our first choice, in Vancouver was going to be busy with Olympics, we chose to go to Banff, Canada. We flew into Calgary, and had a 2 hour drive to Banff. It's a very easy drive because with each passing mile, you are getting close and closer to mountains and there is beautiful scenery all along the way.

We went with our usually ski companions, Nick and Cindy. Nick also happens to be Bob's boss, so they also go on the work ski trips.

We went to two different ski areas, Sunshine Valley and Lake Louise. They both had an ok snow base, but really needed fresh snow, so the skiing was pretty good, but not great. Lots and lots of icy conditions, so you couldn't ski very hard or fast. Luckily, there views and scenery were UNREAL. The temps were in the teens, and the sun was usually out and shining on the mountains which made the snow and any falling snow TWINKLE and sparkle. It was amazing.

Here are some random pictures, but they just don't do it justice. Most pictures were preceded by "oh wow, look at that! take my picture!"

Traditional lift picture. Bob takes these by holding his phone out.

One very cool thing was the layer of clouds or fog that would hover over the valleys. After this, I skied down a different direction, not in the direction of the black diamond on the sign behind me.

For whatever reason, the cold maybe, the snowflakes would land and keep their perfect shape. I'm used to clumpy wet Texas snow...I've never seen this happen before.

More pics coming soon....

More snow pics

Here are some more snow pictures of the house and yard - Gigi took these. So pretty!

Front yard

Pretty tree in driveway.

Pretty Parker in snow. She saved this snowball and one other for me and Bob in the freezer.

Backyard view from the back of the kitchen

Most of the snow is melted now....I went for a run today and in nearly every yard there is a slumped, half melted, half dressed snowman. But no people....I guess Texans can only handle so much cold weather and snow play.

Snow Pictures

What? You were expecting some other kind of pictures? Not ski trip pics? Ok ok, I'll do ski trip later.


But to put the other ones in context, all of the RECORD SETTING SNOWFALL in the DFW area happened while Bob and I were in Canada skiing and celebrating his 40th birthday. Ironically, there was nearly zero new snowfall where we skied in Canada.

These are mainly pictures from Thursday, after school. Bob's mom, Parker's "Gigi", stayed with her while we traveled. I was so happy to know that Gigi was able to reach the sled on the hook in the garage.

Our snow angel

It snowed all night, reportedly, and school was canceled. Here's the view from the front walk:

There aren't any pictures of Parker playing in the snow on Friday because it was too cold...both indoors and out. Around midnight on Thursday we lost power along with many many others (180,000?). Gigi and Parker stuck it out for part of the day until they were rescued by Bob's Dad, Parker's "Papa". He drove up, packed everyone up, and they all took the 2 hour trip back to their (cozy, heated, electrified) house for the night.
I can't imagine what a PITB all that was for Gigi and Papa, but Parker thought it was a great adventure.

Gymnastics, Eyechart

For Christmas, Parker received a little doctor's kit. Almost immediately, all her stuffed animals fell ill or needed a checkup. When Parker goes for her well visits, part of the routine is an eye exam. Since her doctor kit didn't have an eyechart for testing vision, she made one:

In other news, last week we started gymnastics. We were discussing summer plans, and I mentioned that we might try gymnastics...and Parker thought it was such a great idea that she didn't want to wait until summer. She didn't even want to wait until the next day, she was ready right then. It really sealed the deal when she found out what the attire was: bike shorts and tank tops! Her dream outfit! We did a trial class and she loved it, and this week we went back for our first official class.
She's hard to see in this picture...she's wearing pink and blue and she's underneath the red smiley face leaning on a block. Not sure if I'll ever be able to get a good picture, my camera doesn't do action shots very well, plus I feel like a weirdo snapping pictures of kids doing gymnastics.

She is in the 'Bronze' class and they are working on the basics - cartwheels, rolls, and beginning skills on the various apparatus. She's catching on quickly and seems to really be in her element. Parents sit up on the padded bleachers and watch/read/surf on their iphone. It's a much more comfy setup than at ballet, which is a good thing. Something tells me I'm going to be spending a lot of time there.

Trip to the American Girl Store

Over Christmas break, we needed to fill an afternoon, so we took a trip to the Galleria area to the American Doll store. Parker's doll Elizabeth was in serious need of a trip to the AG beauty shop.

Walking in. You can see Elizabeth's hair is a total mess.

You choose your hairstyle and ribbon, and then wait while the stylist combs out a year's worth of tangles.

While we were waiting, we went upstairs to the little cafe, where girls and moms and dolls have lunch. I'm not sure if you can see in the background, but if you bring your doll with you, they have little booster seats so the doll can sit right up at the table with you. And if you don't have a doll, they have loaners.
We just sat at the ice cream counter and had some juice while we waited. Parker was getting a little tired at this point. She perked up a little after the juice.



This give you an idea of how the store looks. Doll displays and people everywhere. I've only been there during the holiday season. I wonder if it's less of a zoo during the summer.

The finished hairdo. You can see that Parker had had enough of the the crowds. Later she rallied a bit and really enjoyed the mall. She put Elizabeth in a shopping bag and drug her all over the mall with us, even though I could tell it was pretty cumbersome. Next year we'll have to make time to ice skate. She was super mad that we couldn't stay longer to skate.

And believe it or not, Elizabeth's hair still looks pretty good! This is her cowgirl outfit by the way (sans hat). Not sure if I've posted that or not.

White Christmas

Here are some pictures from our 'white christmas'. When the rain started turning in to snow, Parker was super thrilled. She spent a LOT of time running around on the patio catching snowflakes on her tongue. Like her hodge-podge outfit? Santa hat, purple gloves and white shirt and legging, chosen specifically to match the snow.

This was the accumulation we woke up to on Christmas morning. They said this was the first White Christmas in 80-something years. And one of Parker's Christmas gifts was a new larger, warmer coat, just in the nick of time.

In other (more recent) news, Parker got her first report card this week. They do them mid-year, and end-of - year. As expected, she did really well and has mastered nearly everything. But instead of letter grades they do a "D" for that skill being "Developed: Successfully completes tasks independently." It is quite a shock opening up the envelope and seeing a big string of D's though (as I'm sure my parents can attest). The only area where she received a "SD" for "Still Developing" is on writing the letter J. I'm pretty sure she can do that.....so I'm thinking the teacher just threw in the SD so it would look like she actually checked her on each an every letter and didn't just give her straight D's.
Her reading level is a 12 on the DRA leveling system they use. The goal for the end of the year for Kindergartners is a 3, so she's well past where she needs to be. I'm not telling that though....I don't want her thinking she can slack off the rest of the year.

Here are the teacher comments:
"Parker is becoming more and more fluent and accurate in her reading. (she has moved from a reading level of 3 in Oct. to 12 in Jan.) She enjoys reading to herself and enjoys reading with friends, as well. Parker is very polite and respectful of her classmates. She is never in a hurry to be first and will often give another friend the opportunity to go ahead of her. I would consider Parker to be a very giving, caring girl. She is a joy to have in class! "

Togetherness

Over the next few days, I'm going to try to post some of my blog backlog. With holidays, work and travel, we have been super busy, but I'm finally starting to catch up, so hopefully I'll keep the blog somewhat up to date. I know, I say that every time don't I? I think this has been my longest break. You know it's bad when blog readers start sending you cards in the mail mentioning that they are still waiting on Christmas pictures. (Hi Aunt Norma! Parker loved the card!!)

Bob took this picture of Parker and I reading together. There are not a whole lot of things that we do apart, actually. It's really nice now that she can read some independently, so reading time is no longer as much work for me as it used to be.