quick catchup

Nothing new to report really. We are still keeping very busy it seems. Parker is spending more time upside down than right side up. Her cartwheels have gotten very good also, I'll try to get some pics of those up soon.

New kitchen planning is moving right along. I've mapped out where everything will go in the new cabinets. We're still finalizing quotes and materials, etc and will probably start for real in a month or so. That will hopefully give me time to brush up on my crockpot skills.

Egg dying - quick pics

Just some quick egg dying pictures. I'm way behind on blogging, we had a very busy week....the dreaded kitchen remodel is set to begin soon, so we're doing lot of shopping and picking out and measuring and researching and calculating and comparing and making spreadsheets and mock ups.
In addition to that, Parker had a grumpy week, followed by a sleepy weekend. I checked today and she's grown 1/8th of an inch. Tall, not around of course.

Good Friday totally snuck up on me. No school that day...Parker had a friend over for egg dying. It's such a big build-up and lengthy setup, but the actual egg dying is very short lived.



Final product.

Snow Pictures

Before I do anything else, let me TIME/DATE STAMP this blog entry.
3/21/10 9:40 PM
Nothing like putting away your tank tops for a day and dragging all your snow gear back out. The snow we got back in February was very fun, but from what I could tell from the lack of people out playing in it, everyone is over snow and ready for spring.

Here's Parker, showing the snow depth:

Bob wins the Parent of the Day award for sledding and snowman building:

Spring Snow

Last night when we went to bed, there were some nice little snow flakes falling. I expected to wake up with just a dusting. Instead, I see this when I look out the window. Notice how the snow is all piled up on the SIDE of the tree trunk because of the wind. I'll give you one guess what Parker wants to do.

Breaking news

Parker can ride her bike with no training wheels!!!

Favorite low-tech toy

Last weekend, after 3 weeks of illness and antibiotics and droopiness, Parker was finally cheerful and full of energy. She channeled all that energy into learning to jump rope. She's tried and tried before, and finally it clicked and she had a great time seeing how many times in a row she could jump before getting tangled up.
The audio to this is:
"WATCH ME, WATCH MOM, WATCH. WATCH! WATCH!"
*THWACK* "ONE!",

*THWACK* "TWO!",
*THWACK* "THREE!",
*THWACK* "FOUR!",
*THWACK* "FIVE!",
*THWACK* "SIX!",
"SIX! I DID SIX IN A ROW. DID YOU SEE ME?! WATCH!"
(repeat for 12 hours).
On monday, her legs were so sore she was walking like Fred Sanford.

Matching PJs

I haven't updated the blog recently because I've been busy doing stuff like this - making matching pajamas for Parker and Elizabeth. There are 3 pairs total....2 regular cotton and 1 flannel. Hopefully Parker will be over dressing alike by the time she grows out of these pj pants.

50's Dress up day

Today is 50's dress up day at Parker's school, and this is the outfit that we threw together at the last minute. The leggings underneath the skirt were her addition, and she will only keep the glasses and the scarf on for the picture. Given her usual morning freak-outs over her clothing not looking/feeling/fitting right, it is a miracle that we pulled this off with minimal drama this morning. Don't miss the fake saddle shoes. Black duct tape over tennis shoes.

No news

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.