The Coffee Nazi

Today I decided to make the trek across town, for what else, the great toilet paper sale at Target. Rick assured me that it was a better deal than Costco, so off I went. Besides, it gave me an excuse to stop at my favorite Coffee Shop, which is also, unfortunately, all the way across town. I love the coffee there though, they have the greatest selection of flavors for the best price...20 oz for $2.25. The only problem is that you have to order correctly or risk getting reprimanded by the owner....reminds me of the Soup Nazi in that old episode of Seinfeld. When you order, you have to include whether you want the coffee hot or cold, how many shots, and what type of milk. I find that that's quite a mouth full, so I'm always leaving something out.

On top of that, I don't think the owner is particularly fond of kids, so I feel like I already have one strike against me every time I bring Tyler with me to the window, especially when he repeatedly asks for a sucker. In my attempt to please the Coffee Nazi today, I bought a bag of dum-dum lollipops at Target, so that Tyler would not have to ask for one at the window. Then when it was my turn, I asked for a 20 oz hot honey vanilla latte. The owner rolled his eyes and asked, "Two Shots?". Yes, I squeaked. Then he let out a heavy breath, took a tone and asked, "Whole Milk, 2%.....?". I crossed my fingers and replied, Skim Milk. Yikes, that was close. It hasn't happened yet, but I swear one day he'll shout, "No coffee for you....NEXT!!".

The weather has been around 50 degrees lately, making it hard for Tyler's poor little marigold seeds to sprout. But they've got the best seat in the house, the windowsill in my scrapbooking room. After 10 days, he has 4 teeny-tiny little sprouts.

Hopefully it will start to warm up a little bit around here...Spring is right around the corner, right?

Not Bad For A Smell

It's been a pretty quiet weekend around here so far, nothing much going on. Tyler and I have been keeping busy playing board games and such in the mornings until Rick rolls out of bed sometime around the 12:00 hour. It must be nice. Yesterday, he took Tyler bowling in the afternoon and then to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream. Today, they went to the park for a while and then stopped at Costco to buy some kitchen staples. You know....bread, milk, eggs, the exciting stuff. Meanwhile, I was able to catch a few hours to myself to get a little reading done. I finally finished reading Eat, Pray, Love.....man, that book took me forever! I don't know what it is about non-fiction books, I just can't get into them the same way as other novels.

Tyler was in the bathroom with me this morning as I was doing my morning routine. He was smelling my new perfumes as I was standing at the sink washing my face. He picked one up, gave it a whiff, and says, "Hmmm, that's not bad...for a smell". That made me laugh, it's not the typical sort of comment I receive. Oh well, I guess it better than hearing, Peeuw, that stinks!

So tonight I made a new recipe out of Rachael Ray's latest magazine. I'm glad I finally found something that I wanted to try, her last few magazines didn't really have anything that appealed to me. This one is called Sunset Orzo with Spanish Shrimp.

I thought it tasted good, but anything to use up my million dollar saffron threads is a good thing too. I was feeling a little guilty having them sit in my cupboard collecting dust. Of course, like a lot of Rachael Ray's Spanish recipes, this one called for Spanish chorizo, which is impossible to find here, so I left it out. It tasted just fine without.

For now it's time to head upstairs and get our nighttime routine underway....read books and watch an episode of Micky Mouse ClubHouse, the usual.

Handy Mammy

Hardy, hardy, har...I just had to give Tyler a hard time. The last time we went bowling, he typed my name into the computer as "Mammy". So I guess that should be Handy Mommy, but it just doesn't have the same ring to it, now does it?

The UPS man must have done one of his famous drop and runs last night, because I found a package on our doorstep this morning when I went out to get the newspaper. Delightful, reminds me of Christmas morning. Turns out it was the cat bed/gym/toy thing we ordered online from Costco. I almost forgot about that! The only thing, of course, is that it required assembly. So I broke out the massive screws and L-wrench and got to work. About 20 minutes later....

Nice, huh? Hopefully that cats will enjoy lounging around on this as much as they love lying all over the master bed and dining room chairs. The picture makes it look huge! It's not that big...it's only about 3 1/2 ft tall. Both of the cats have gotten on it and clawed at the posts. Good, better that then our staircase!

In other events, Rick's sister had her baby the other day, which had Rick and I reminiscing about the day that Tyler was born. His memory of the day was conflicting with mine, so after arguing back and forth for a few minutes, I finally said, "Listen here, I'm right about this...Do you really think I could possibly forget what happened the day Tyler was born?". Well, I guess I can. The argument was about the room. I swore that there was only one room, from the minute I entered the hospital, I stayed in one room. Rick, on the other hand, swore up and down that I switched rooms. So, I'm conceding now...Yes, I switched rooms. I still don't remember doing so, but I remember the differences between the two rooms. There you have it, I'm officially losing my memory. That can't be a good thing!

I Love Fiber That Turns Into Pancakes

I bought some Fiber One Pancake mix at the grocery store this weekend and couldn't wait to give it a try. As I was preparing the mix this morning, Tyler says, "Ohhh, I love Fiber One that turns into pancakes!" I said that was a good thing because that's what we were eating for breakfast. So I go on my way and continue making the waffles, which stuck like crazy to the waffle iron, by the way. Maybe I should have gone the pancake route, only I didn't want to be standing over the stove flipping pancakes all morning long. Anyway, after the first batch was done, I started putting the waffles on our plates, to which Tyler says....."Nooooooo, I don't want waffles". Huh, wasn't he just professing his love? Suddenly he wants cereal instead. I don't think so, I made him eat the waffles. There is worse torture, right?

The instructions on the box say to add water, but I decided to use buttermilk since I had a fresh jug in the fridge. They were delicious and simple (even with the sticking to the iron bit) and much better than Bisquick.

Rick is out of town again for a few days, so I have to work twice as hard (well, maybe not that much) to entertain Tyler. I decided to take him to the library to get some new books. I really wanted to go the the duck pond because we have some bread heels ganging up on us in the kitchen, but alas, it is only 37 degrees outside today. That's why we're staying indoors. We picked up 9 really cute books, it should be fun reading tonight. On the way home, as part of my campaign to stay warm, I stopped at Starbucks and picked up a Green Tea Latte. It was good while it lasted, but it had a suspiciously high foam to liquid ratio. I felt a little jipped out of $3.08.

I told Tyler to give me 5 minutes to work on my blog and he is literally timing me and apparently my time is up! So back to the board games I go...

The Exciting Part

I took Tyler to Ace Hardware yesterday for the monthly craft, which was flower pots. He was given a small terra cotta pot that he decorated with foam animal shaped stickers. Then he filled it up with potting soil and planted a few marigold seeds. It was also his birthday month, so he was allowed to pick a present for himself from the giant chest of gifts. He chose a kit that had two small unfinished plaster figures, a dog and a cat, with some acrylic paints and a paintbrush.

Here is our first attempt at taking a photo of his finished project. I thought I could do better so we tried again.

This is our second try, in which I gave Tyler specific instructions to look at the camera and smile. Sigh. I guess one out of two ain't bad!

I need to get on the ball and get some pictures printed at Costco, so that I don't fall behind on my scrapbooking again. In the meantime, I've been working on some small 4X6 recipe cards of my St. Patrick's Day recipes.

Yum, Irish Soda Muffins...I can't wait.

The holder I am using is actually a 4x6 photo holder that I stole from Rick. We had it sitting in the office and it had pictures in it, but we never flipped the pages, so I don't think it was being fully utilized. I decided it would do better in the kitchen full of recipes....yes, yes, yes! Especially for the muffin/quick bread recipes I make all the time.

I got up bright and early this morning, or at least that's what it appeared as long as I didn't look at the clocks that had jumped ahead an hour, and got my shopping out of the way. I stopped by Old Navy on my way to the grocery store and picked up a few t-shirts. The parking lot was so dead that I wondered if they were even open yet. Wow, I guess I found the perfect hour to shop! Then after spending forever and a day at the grocery store, I stopped by Los Hernandez on the way home and picked up a dozen tamales for dinner. Mmmm, steaming hot, they smelled so good. Now all I'll have to do is cook up a pot of rice to go with them. Quick and easy, now that's my style.

Let's Play Again

Right now Tyler is a huge board game fanatic. He got several new board games for Christmas and has been playing them like crazy ever since. What I love is that he is finally old enough to play some of the easier family games like Sorry, Bingo, and Battleship because let me tell you, those preschool games get old kinda fast.

The other day I was looking at some of our old games that we've had since before Tyler was born, and realized that if he could play games that were for ages 6+, then he would probably be able to play Parcheesi. I was right, we've played it at least 6 times in the last 3 days.

We played 2 games of Parcheesi this afternoon and then played a game of Sorry and Monopoly Town after dinner. The score at the end of the day was 3 wins for Tyler and only 1 win for me. I don't know how he does it, it must have something to do with him always going first.

In between all the game playing I've been able to get caught up with a little scrapbooking and some magazine reading. I subscribed to the Food Network magazine and received my first issue the other day. I also got a Scrapbooks, Etc magazine in the mail today.

Here is my Valentine's Day layout...is it too pink? I don't know, but I still think it is the best Valentine's Day page I've done so far, probably because I used a PageMap for the design. I used my other new border punch (apron lace) on the edge of the striped pink paper and a $1 Studio G stamp for the words stamps around the pictures.

Snow Castle

On Sunday we went to the White Pass Ski Resort for their annual winter carnival. Our favorite part is the giant snow castle and tubing down hill. It really is a cool castle. You have to go through a tunnel and then climb up and around a ramp to get inside. Then there are several walls and doors you have to pass through before finally tubing down the big hill on the side of the castle.

Here is the castle from the back...see the giant dragon carved into the snow.

The weather was probably around 34 degrees, but we were bundled up much better this year, so it didn't seem that bad. Tyler, however, managed to complain about everything, from snow getting in his eyes, to his gloves falling off...you name it. He woke up so early in the morning with such anticipation that he ran out of steam fairly quickly after actually getting to the resort.

In between trips down the hill, Tyler was all about making snowballs.

Tyler and I headed down the hill.

Every year there are a couple of clowns that go around giving balloons to the kids, which Tyler especially enjoys. I think it's nice too, but the balloons are a little awkward to have when you are tubing down a hill! Check out Tyler's humongous gloves...they were size extra small, but not quite small enough. It is hard to find thick gloves in such a small size. He has some knit mittens at home, but those completely don't cut it in this type of weather.

Last, but not least, Tyler had some balloons painted on his cheek. I suggested he get a picture of a snowman, but he changed his mind at the last minute. Next year, I might think twice about the face painting, because those puppies take forever to dry!