A conversation with Shannon

Shannon, why are you still up and not sleeping? It's past your bedtime and you're exhausted.

Because I need to update my blog. I have lots of pictures of J's birthday party to post.

Ummmm...I don't see your blog updated.

Well, that's because I updated the other one first and now I need to do this one and the photo blog and....

Did that really take an hour? Just one post on one blog?

Noooo...I had to check Facebook and read my RSS feed and make some comments on other blogs and just basically waste time....

So, go to bed!

But...

BED!

Okay. Good night. I'll try to update tomorrow night. Really. Eeep. I need a timer like my kid and I need to be banned from RSS feed reading except for certain windows of time...

Darn. I procrastinate too well for my own good. And why do I have to channel my mother to do what my body's been telling me to do for hours?!?!! WHY?!?!

Sigh. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Tweet Tweet cupcakes here I come...

The other day I mentioned that Maggie was doing a give-away of super cute cupcake kits.

They were both adorable, but I really liked the Tweet Tweet kit. I entered her giveaway, which I sometimes do when I see something that I really like and I really think I'll use and that maybe I wouldn't (or couldn't) get for myself. But I don't win. Ever. And that's okay. I also never win the lottery.

Until today.


These are coming my way! How exciting...I'm not sure what occasion I'll use them for or what kind of cupcakes I'll make, but I'm excited.

USA - Hershey's Miniatures Chocolates

Postcard from the USA from Kdawg

Description: On September 1, 1939, Hershey Foods Corporation began marketing HERSHEY'S Miniatures chocolates. The miniature bars, still produced today, are a favorite of chocolate lovers of all ages.

Jocie Lola Tinkybell deet birfday twoooooooo

Yup...two years ago I was lying in a hospital bed with a tiny little bundle snuggled up to me wondering what had just happened in the past 48 hours. It all seemed surreal! Two days before it had just been me and Alex. And a few hours before that all changed when that little voice (loudly) announced her arrival.


And sometimes it still seems surreal, but it's not. It's very, very real. That little bundle was very real!

She changed our lives completely. When we do things, what we do, and how we do them are all influenced by her. And she's worth it!

The last two years have been wonderful, educational and full of awe-inspiring, love-filled, crazy times. We've laughed, cried, and pulled our hair out.

We've lamented the lack of sleep and how quickly she grows and changes.


We've changed how we relate to each other, to our families, to our friends, to our jobs, and to the world.

But we love it. And undeniably we love her. Change is good. Jocie is good.

The first year was crazy - we were all learning. Some of us needed to learn how to adjust to less sleep, to low energy levels, to meals that should take 30 minutes to prepare taking 3 hours to prepare. Some of us needed to learn the difference between night and day and how to properly suck in order to get enough to eat. Those days are a blur. A happy blur for the most part with little reminders in photos and videos and even the occasional real memories!

The second year was crazy for a whole other set of reasons - some of us needed to learn how to spend the whole day without mom and dad and needed to teach our immune systems to be strong. Some of us went back to work part-time then full-time and needed to figure out how to have a (kind of) tidy home and get dinner on the table in 3.2 seconds flat.

But we did it...and now we're into year three and in two weeks or so (again with the start of the new school year) we will be making all kinds of changes...and there will be more learning. But maybe it won't be as hard this year because we already worked out some of the kinks (like getting dinner on the table in 3.2 seconds...most nights).

But here is our little lovely Jocie just a few days ago, fresh out of bed, with crazy hair.

• She has more than one verb (deet)
• She makes simple sentences - she really, truly said "I have a fishy cracker" just like that and with words that even a stranger would recognize two nights ago. If you don't have kids, you won't necessarily realize what a huge milestone that is!
• She can identify most colours...including strange ones like grey
• She can spell her name (I know, right?) and she knows most of the letters in the alphabet...walking through a parking lot takes FOREVER!
  
• She sleeps through the night most nights! YAY! (Now Mommy just needs to start going to be a bit earlier and maybe the two years of sleep deprivation will start to dissolve and become a distant memory)
• She wants to help everyone get better and kiss all their owies away for them
• She loves books and colouring and slides and puppies

My baby is a big girl now!

Martha leftovers...

It's been hot.

I don't want to cook.

Martha doesn't include what do with leftovers.

I made these (again!) on Monday - we had them for lunch for two days. And then no one wanted them anymore. But I still had a bunch of chicken.


What to do...well...I still had all the extras except the avocado/guacamole plus we had some cheese, so...

Quesadillas!


Yes, they do involve the stove, but thankfully not for long. And they were yummy. And they used up almost all of the chicken. The rest I froze to go with the broth I made so that we can have chicken soup some cool fall or cold winter night.

My new imaginary friend

Did you have an imaginary friend when you were little?

I did. I had multiple. I could never remember their names though. They changed all the time.

But I have an imaginary friend now, and I'm not that little (and I can remember her name). Her name is AndreaClaire and you can read about her over on Writings from a Nobody.

She's part of The Great Book Challenge, she's doing her own Project 365 and she likes postcards.

So we had an imaginary cup of tea together. Because it just seemed like the right thing to do!

Uh oh...

I found a new paper site full of lovely things to covet.

Maggie over at Foodie Comes Clean is doing a giveaway today of these and these and they are from a company called Meri Meri and I think I'm in trouble. I'd never heard of Meri Meri before and it's probably a good thing or I might have more than two drawers full of fun stationery.

Mmmm...I'm loving this though. Good thing I haven't really jumped on the online shopping band wagon so far. Otherwise, yeah, trouble with a capital T would be an understatement!

Special treats

Please excuse all the photos. I dusted my camera off and was amazed at the lovely pictures it took compared to my phone. Must stop using the phone for blog pictures.

We were eating lots of granola bars. Too many really. I'm trying to cut back on things like that. I actually have a recipe for banana oat bars (with chocolate chips - SUPER YUMMY) and a recipe from Rebecca for granola bars and I'd much rather we ate homemade goodies than store bought because, well, at least then I have a bit of control over what's in them.

But it's too hot to turn the oven on now. I thought about alternatives, but I don't think my neighbours would appreciate it much if I decided to use a cardboard box oven in the courtyard. They'd probably call the fire department. So, all recipes with oven involvement are on hold for now.


But we had no granola bars for lunch snacks. Heck, other than fruit, which is awesome, we had no lunch snacks. I need a bit of carbohydrate between meals or I get a migraine. Alex is a male, so he just needs carbohydrates. Preferably lots of them.


I looked through my cookbooks and random recipes and found this in my BOOK (the book is the ruler of our house. I keep meaning to write about it and haven't, but I will, soon. If I remember).


I've made them once before, but they didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. I did note my changes on the recipe, so I decided to try them again.

I looked up 10oz of marshmallows and that's 283.5 grams. HUH? I don't have a kitchen scale (hello Christmas list) but even if I did, that's a whacky amount. After I made them the last time, I decided I'd check out the recipe for Rice Krispie Squares and adjusted the marshmallows and butter to be more like that recipe. Well, actually, a bag of marshmallows has about 4 3/4 cups marshmallows, so I used all of the marshmallows and only reduced the butter by 2 tsp, not one Tbsp.

ready...set...

melting marshmallows

more melted

mmmm gooey marshmallows

I felt like the cranberries were there by accident last time, so I almost doubled the dried fruit (I also added apricots this time to give it some more fun colour). I'd add more dried fruit than this if I make them again...the extra marshmallows and butter would let me!

marshmallows ready to go

stirring

I didn't use Martha's big cookie sheet idea this time. They were way too thin (much thinner than in her picture) and fell apart immediately when you picked them up. I used two 8x8 dishes (I thought one might be enough after the mess last time, but no) but next time I'd probably use a 9x13. Then they'd be a bit thicker, but a bit smaller and I think that's good.


It took way longer than an hour to set. It actually didn't really ever set (I don't remember Rice Krispie Squares having this problem) and I ended up putting them in the fridge. I'm not sure if it's because it's SO STINKING HOT or if it's because I used store brand marshmallows. It did this the last time too. And it was hot then. And I used store brand marshmallows.

I think I'll make these again...just maybe not when it's hot out!

*The one thing that drives me nuts about Martha Stewart's recipes is that none of them come with any kind of nutritional information...I found a calculator here, but if you know of a better one, I'd love to hear about it!

TOOOOOOOO HOT!

The heat and humidity are killing us. No one is sleeping. I have not had bags like this since I was, oh, I can't remember. Maybe right after J was born. We're all shiny all the time.

While I LOVE fall, normally I will take my fill of summer. I like summer too. I just love fall. But right now, I'd just like fall to arrive. And not the nice kind of fall that I like, but the cold wet fall that will make this heat GO AWAY!

It was 19 this morning at 7:00 when I turned the computer on. I'm not sure what the humidity is, but I feel gross.

UGH.

That's all.

Portugal - Lisboa

Postcard from Portugal from manuel37