Skateboarding, pod casts, and swine flu

I woke up this morning, and had no idea what day it was. I had to sit there for a second, on the edge of my bed, and really wrack my brain to try & figure out if I needed to be getting up at 5:30am to take a shower or not. I still wasn't even sure when I walked into the bathroom & turned the shower on, but I had a hunch it was what I should be doing. That was a first for me. I guess this is part of getting older? Losing your mind for teeny, tiny chunks of time? I suppose I don't have to worry until the day I can't figure out the answer to "what day is it?" (I ended up figuring it out this morning by looking at my calendar, and seeing which day didn't have an "x" through it, after my shower.)

Zach informed me yesterday that he would like to try skateboarding, in addition to signing up for soccer this summer. The skateboarding kind of took me off guard, not in a bad way, but just because we've never really talked about it unless we've seen someone wiping out on one during America's Funniest Videos. I told him I would be letting to let him try, as long as he promised to wear a helmet and knee-pads in the beginning. He thought about it for a second, then said, "ok", so we're going to head over to Academy tonight & price things out. It'll be interesting to see how far this goes.

I played Rock Band for the first time ever on Tuesday night. Z and I went up to Aaron's store so Z could see him before bed (Tuesdays are Aaron's long nights, and he gets home after Z is in bed), and we moseyed over to Best Buy after dinner. Z was intrigued by the Rock Band set-up they had there, and I couldn't resist the opportunity. WOW, that game is a blast! I can see why kids get hooked on it, seriously. I kicked major ass on some song I've never even heard before, and man, I looked cool doing it. Hopefully Z will ask for one of those down the line, so I don't look like a loser buying it for myself.

This week, so far, has been all about this swine flu. I got nervous in the beginning, having visions of "Outbreak" & everyone walking around in jumpsuits by the week's end. I'm better now, but still washing my hands more than normal - you can never be too careful. A friend of mine on Facebook just wrote a status update that said a kid tested positive for it at her daughter's elementary school - eek. That is the first I've heard of it in Austin, though I guess it showing up in Austin was inevitable. First off, Mexico is so close, and second, it was already in San Antonio & Dallas, so we were sitting ducks - right in the middle. I'm just hoping & praying that my kid's school goes unscathed. A 23-month old in Texas died from it Tuesday, but they haven't released where in Texas the child lived. I'm just thankful I'm not a Mom who has their kid in daycare right now. I'd be stressed, even more so than just the stress of having them in there in the first place.

On a lighter note, I have something to look forward to this weekend - a date night! Yahoo! I live for these, it seems. This one is actually going to be a double-date, which should be loads of fun. A nice dinner at PF Chang's (Mongolian beef & Jade martinis, come to Mama!), and drinks afterward. Ahhhh, sounds perfect. Saturday can't get here fast enough, though Sunday can take it's time getting here, since we have to spend the whole day up at our church. It's the school's annual "Fun Fest", and I'm chairing the cotton candy booth. Not my idea of a relaxing day ...

Lastly, I recently discovered Anthony Bourdain's free podcast on iTunes, and I couldn't be happier. The podcasts basically consist of him chatting with other interesting people, including Eric Ripert (love him!), Tom Colicchio (him too!), and Morimoto (he rocks!). I've been in heaven today, listening/watching these podcasts at my desk & I just have to say, technology rocks my socks. The more Anthony, the better.

Three things I'm grateful for today:

1. Free podcasts.
2. Date nights.
3. All the rain we just through having.

Peace & pastriest to all ... until next time.

Monday again?

Last week got really busy, starting Wednesday, because Aaron got sick. It happens very rarely, but when it does, it usually knocks him down for a few days. This time was no different. He was miserable, but pushing through it so he could go to work anyway - what a trooper. Needless to say, I didn't have much time or energy to be blogging, but here I am now to catch up.

Thursday was a fantabulous day for Zachary, because Toni invited us to come out to where she works & meet Mack Brown. The idea of meeting Coach Brown got my son extremely excited, so we drove out to the UT Golf Club around 6pm and we were introduced to the man himself. What a charming guy! I can see why he's so good at recruiting!

This was my son, about 30 seconds after meeting Coach Brown. He was literally high on endorphins.

What a great experience this was for our little guy. He even told me on the way home that he might want to be a coach when he grows up. Ya know, I could actually see that.

Sidebar:  

A cool sky we stumbled upon, after the Mack Brown event.

Friday was our big rescheduled trip to the San Antonio Zoo. Aaron was feeling a little bit better by then, so he tagged along with us. We drove Z, his 8th grade buddy Jeremiah, and one of his other classmates down to the zoo in our car. Although they were worried about rain the Friday before, it still rained this Friday too. But, the kids were ok with walking around in the rain, as long as it meant they could still see all the tigers, rhinos, and monkeys. They were ecstatic!

Z and one of his best friends, Thomas.


One of the 8th graders, trying to keep the little ones busy
by an impromptu game of keep-away.


The giant hamster.
(Yes, it's a capabera.)


Parrots are purty.


I don't remember what these were called,
but they were breath-taking.


One of the zoo employees, with birds on her head.
Wasn't she scared they would poop??


Hahahaha - I love how they lounge.


Sleepy hyena.


Stunning!


Taking a bath.


Uh, yeah. He's a bad ass.


Imagine fighting off one of these things? eek!


Beautiful.


So sad they are going extinct.




A curious ostrich.






The rain I was talking about.


The biggest frog I've ever seen.
















Some happy little people.

In retrospect, I'd say the most exhausting part of the trip was the ride. Going there & coming back with three (loud, excited) kids was nerve-wracking. I've been telling other parents that I have one child, and one child only - for a reason. I'm not equipped to listen to high levels of noise for any length of time. One 13-year olds and two 6-year olds was a challenge for me, especially when one of them decided to sing the *entire* Hannah Montana soundtrack, word for word. Without stopping. No matter how much the other two were trying to drown her out. Gah!  I needed a drink when we got back, but instead settled for a Snickers & a Pepsi.  That's about as hard-core as I get, these days.

Saturday, Aaron had to work again, but he only put it in a half-day. That zoo trip probably set him back a day, in regards to recovering.  Z and I met Toni for breakfast at Kerbey Lane, then went next door to Goodwill to have a look around.  We headed back around lunchtime, and Aaron was already home.  From that point, we only went out to rent a few movies, then stayed at home & took it easy for the rest of the day.  We watched "Home Alone" & it was Z's first time to see it, and he absolutely loved it.  Then, we watched "Bedtime Stories", and headed to bed shortly afterward.  It was a great, non-eventful day - which is just what we needed after that whole zoo excursion.

Sunday was a really strange, long day.  I started out by going grocery shopping around 7:00am, because I'm getting to the point where I *can't stand* being there with other people.  A real dream for me would be a shopping spree at HEB, completely alone.  Honestly.  After so many years of battling crowds on weekends, and having to shop with Z alone when he was little, I'm done.  My strategy of early-morning-weekend shopping worked!  There were maybe six other people in the entire store, aside from employees.  BLISS!

Sidebar:  I took my blood pressure while at HEB, and it was 117/75.  This is vast improvement from my usual 128/85 that I've been getting for the past year or so.  Maybe the niacin and curcumin are doing something??  [clapping gleefully]

Anyway, we went to breakfast once I got back from the store, then dropped off some goodies for Becca's birthday, then made a quick trip to the mall.  Once we got back home, it felt like it was getting close to dinnertime, but it was really only early afternoon.  The weather was really weird - almost rainy, but it never quite broke.  Very lazy day.  We ended up doing some laundry, watching "Iron Man", and two challenges on Food Network.  The day seemed to just draaaaaag on, which was a change for me, since weekends are usually a blur.  It was a weird change, but not necessarily a bad thing.

That gets us to today.  A rainy, muggy, dreary Monday.  [sigh]  It doesn't help that I'm already restless and ready for another trip, but my dream is still 292 days away.  I can't wait to get sucked into the back-to-school hoopla, so time will start to go by faster.  I also can't believe I'm going to have a first-grader on my hands, but that's another blog for another day.

Three things I'm grateful for today:

1.  Becca.  Birthdays always remind me how I am

     grateful for having that friend another year.

2.  My new, red umbrella.

3.  Not having to chaperone another field trip to the zoo.

     Ever.

Peace & pastries, to everyone. 

299 days

The weekend was fun, albeit busy. I'm still yawning every 10 seconds, no matter how much coffee I drink. And it's Tuesday. Will I ever wake up? Am I too old for No-Doz?

Unfortunately, the field trip last Friday was canceled, last minute Thursday. Weather officials predicted some pretty heavy rain, which wouldn't bode well for zoo-browsing, so it was rescheduled to this coming Friday. Good thing, too, because it was thunderstorming and pouring, all day. That evening, Aaron's stepsister's son (aka - our nephew) came over to spend the night with us. Aaron was home with us on Friday night, for a change, because he had taken the day off to go to the zoo. So, he, Z, Brodi, and I all took a trip over to Gattiland for some games and pizza. It was PACKED! I had no idea so many people went to this place each weekend!

We were there about two hours total, which was quite enough. Whew! After heading home and relaxing a little bit while Z & Brodi played, the boys decided to watch "The Goonies" around 10pm. After the movie ended, Brodi and I stayed up till about 1:00am, hanging out, playing on the computer, and just getting to know each other better. He's such a special kid. Aaron and Z crashed hours before we did, but it was nice to have that time with Brodi. Although I remember what it was like to be 12, I think being 12 these days is far different than it was in 1986. It gave me some glimpse into what I've got coming down the road with Z. And it wasn't all terrifying! Yay!

Saturday, Aaron was gone early because he had to work, and I took the boys to get some donuts after everyone was up. During breakfast, we decided to take a trip down to Toy Joy and the UT Co-op on the drag, since Brodi hadn't been to either yet. It was fun to watch him geek out over all the toys and over all the UT stuff (he wants to go to UT). We even hit Dirty's for lunch while we were down there, which seemed to make an impression on Brodi. I don't think he'd ever had a burger so greasy, yet so good, in his young life. Glad I got the chance to escort him on his "first time".

Sunday was filled with more family time, as Kristi and the whole family came over for the day. We hung out in the backyard, listened to music, played washoes, and grilled. What a great day it was! I got a few pictures that day, so you can finally put a face with a name:

Sweet baby Mariska.


Mariska and Brodi.


Mariska & Z.


Giving her a smooch - he loooooves babies.


Jonavan.


Jonavan, singing to his sister.


Aaron & a rare photo-op of Kristi.


John & his baby girl.

Monday came fast. Ugh. The only good part of it being Monday again was going to Amber's official "goodbye" lunch. Of course, she picked South Congress Cafe as her lunch of choice, and we were all quite thankful that she did. We started out with the Pesto Goat Cheese Bruschetta, and then I ordered a cup of the Tomato Stilton soup. I was already in heaven! My entree this time was three Lamb Chops (cooked medium-rare), seared in a shallot-cognac demi glace, served with garlic mashed potatoes & a spring salad. It was amaaaaaaaaaazing. I wish I had had the forethought to take a picture of my gorgeous lunch before I devoured it, but oh well. Maybe next time. I did manage, though, to get a picture of Amber, on our last hoorah together:

I can't tell you how much I'm going to miss seeing her every day. [sigh]

On a lighter note, that catches up to today. In case you hadn't noticed the ticker I placed at the top of my blog, we indeed are going on another cruise. OMG! I could freak out, I'm so excited. This one will be another Caribbean cruise, but new locations. We leave from Galveston, and sail to Cozumel, Mexico/Georgetown, Grand Cayman/Montego Bay, Jamaica. Ahhhhhhh. We set sail 2/14/10, and could not be more ecstatic! We'll be going with Royal Caribbean again, but on a different ship. This one will be on the Voyager Of The Seas, when our last one was on Enchantment Of The Seas. I don't really care *which* one we're on, as long as we're on one at all. We'll be booking everything in about a week or two, so I'll post again about it once it's "official". I apologize, in advance, for how much you'll have to hear about this in the upcoming months. It's honestly all I can think about these days, and the thoughts never get old. I'll try to remember that it's probably a little different for those who aren't inside my head.

Still no more noise out of Neal. Thankfully.

Three things I'm grateful for today:

1.) Big dreams.
2.) Some websites.
3.) Our backyard.

Peace & pastries, everyone. More later.

Real quick

This red-headed kid is pure awesomeness.  Watch & get ready to laugh.

Yes, he even smacked his own ass.  *wiping tears away*  Kids rule.

... and we're back.

Hello friends, sorry for the long delay. I ended up getting pretty sick towards the middle of last week, so I was laying around a lot. Then Easter happened, so I was busy with family & cooking. I'm happy to now report that I feel much better than last week. I'm *finally* getting over the illness - just residual mucus and snot at this point. (Lovely, no?) At least there's no more pressure, itchy eyes, or sneezing. Now, I can actually breathe through my nose, and I'm not carrying my Puffs Plus box with me everywhere I go. Baby steps.

So what did you miss? Not too much, but I'll do a quick re-cap.

I finally christened my one & only Easy Bake Oven. This is big for me. I yearned for an Easy Bake all through childhood, but Santa never delivered (ahem, ahem Ma & Dad), but Ken came through for me on my 34th birthday & made my dream a reality. Granted, since I am 34, finding time to finally break it in proved to be a challenge, but I put my foot down & was determined to bake like crazy about a week ago.

Got everything set up and laid out.

Right as I go to choose which mix I will do first, I started wondering how this thing actually bakes. I've always heard it's a light bulb that creates all the magic, but I saw no light bulb anywhere in my box. I go to read my handy-dandy manual, and what do I see?

There's a "You Will Also Need From Home" section.
Light bulbs fall into that category.

Wtf? They don't supply your first heat source? And it can't be just *any* light bulb, it has to be a 100 watt, regular, normal light bulb. No soft light, or frosted, or energy efficient, or anything. Granted, this sounds easy enough, but try locating a "regular" 100 watt light bulb at your local store. It's not as easy as you would think. After a tenacious search, I found the bulb I needed, and tried this all again about four days later.

There's the first cake, on the right-hand side. Success!


Z frosting our first beauty.


The finished product.

Zach loved this cake. You would've thought he was eating a dessert made by the most amazing pastry chef on the planet. I think it was partly due to the fact that he was involved in the baking process, hence experiencing the fruits of his labor. Either way, I got one bite, and he finished the rest. Other than the frosting being a little grainy, it wasn't half-bad for something that was baked in a plastic oven under the heat of a non-frosted, non energy efficient, high watt light bulb.

After our Easy Bake experience, I had to bake for real, and made some pound cake muffins. Can we say delicious? I already had Cool Whip and fresh strawberries on-hand, so it was easy to whip up a yummy snack or dessert until the muffins ran out. That didn't take long, since Aaron ate them for breakfast, as well.

Pre-Cool Whip.


That's more like it.

Z had a few days off from school, which he thoroughly enjoyed. We colored Easter eggs on Saturday night, which went a lot faster and cleaner than it ever has before. I guess that's the perk of having a kid who's almost 7. This sort of thing isn't such a production, and I love that.

Aaron reached in the cup for an egg,
forgetting that crap stains your fingers.


Z laughing at Daddy's "smurf fingers".


He said this was Megatron.

After coloring eggs & putting Z to bed, Daddy & I got to work stuffing plastic eggs with candy for Z's egg hunt in our backyard the next morning. Last year, we stuffed some of his eggs with money, and we were sincerely hoping he wouldn't remember that. This year, the Easter bunny is dealing with a recession, so it was only going to be Twix and Kit Kats in those eggs. Thankfully, we got our wish. He didn't remember and was thrilled with his candy-stuffed plastic eggs.

The cutest things I found this year -
carrot shaped eggs.


Z's Ben 10: Alien Force-themed basket.

Easter was pretty awesome, and everyone came to our house this year. I'd rather cook than drive any day, so it was a welcome change from years past. My Mom brought kielbasa and potato salad, and it was scrumptous, as always. I made a ham, with homemade brown sugar glaze, and it turned out wonderfully. I also baked another blackberry pie and made some cupcakes for the kids (even though we all had a few ourselves).

My parents & Ken came over, as did Aaron's step-sister & her family. Z was *thrilled* to finally have cousins to play with, so having them over was a blast for him. We had them over for dinner again on Monday night, and I got some pics of Z's treasured, new-found cousins.

Mariska, my new favorite buddy.


Oh, the trials of having two older brothers.


Brodie and Mariska.


Despite the Transformer helmet torture, she adores them.


Jonovan. This one never stands still. Ever.


I forgot how adorable he looks holding a baby.

The kids have all become obsessed with one another, so I have a feeling we'll be hanging out with them a lot more. They ask Kristi when they can come back over, and Z is constantly asking me when they'll be back over. I'm just happy they even care about family. Makes my heart happy that they like the connection, and want more of it.

Z went back to school yesterday, and he was happy to do so. He really loves getting back to his friends, and being stimulated mentally during the day. I sent him back with a load of cupcakes to share with his class, since the teacher asked that we not bring treats for Easter last week, but instead wait until this week (although many other parents did it anyway).

Food coloring is ridiculously fun.

He brought home this paper yesterday, to show me how he's been practicing his days of the week. Getting things like this from him makes me realize how fast he's growing up. He would have never been able to print these words so well before he started kindergarten. Time just flies.

It's now Hump Day, thankfully, and we have a trip to the San Antonio Zoo to look forward to on Friday. This is Z's class' big trip for the year, and he is stoked. Aaron will be able to go with us on this one, which only adds to Z's excitement. I'll definitely take pictures of that, although there is a 70% chance of rain that day. That ought to keep things interesting.

For the inquiring minds that wanna know, we haven't heard anything else from Neal.

Three things I'm grateful for today:

1. The free supply of coffee at my job.
2. That I even have a job.
3. Kristi's kids.

I will try not to go as long again before my next entry. And I know I promised Spring Break pictures ages ago, but there are just so many. I'm debating on whether or not to just let that go altogether. Have an opinion either way? Leave me a comment & let me know.

Peace & pastries.