Ellen

Ellen is my hero. Nap time around here is my free time. This could mean time spent doing any or all of the following: folding clothes, prepping dinner, paying bills, reading blogs, putting toys away, napping myself (although it's usually just a 15 minute power nap) but I cannot miss Ellen. I hope 50 looks as good on me as it does her. I just love her show. The monologues, the dancing, the guest stars, the games, the giveaways and her surprise telephone calls. I am always amazed that she is never huffing and puffing after dancing all over her studio just to find her way to her seat. She's always kind, especially when she has children on as guests. Those are probably my favorite interviews. Yesterday she had an 11 year old girl on from my state who knew 11 languages! Holy cow! It was a great interview. She has this way of being comedic for the audience while being entirely engrossed in the kids' talents. I especially love it when she calls people on a whim and how genuinely surprised they are. Her show just makes me happy and want to dance...ok maybe not, but she definitely gives me that extra boost to tackle mini#2 when he wakes up rejuvenated from his nap. We both are ready to take on the rest of the day. Now, if I can just think of some talent to teach mini#2, we can dream of being a guest on Ellen one day. Is it just me or are there other huge Ellen fans out there?

**Special note not pertaining to this post: Oprah had Rick Springfield on today. The first concert I ever attended was his when I was in 6th grade. I also had the pleasure of seeing him in Atlanta in 2000 with a bunch of office mates. Both times I squealed like a teenager. This man does not age. After all these years I still wish I was Jesse's Girl. He can sing to me any day.

Meds, Meals, Memories and a Movie

It's been a busy weekend. We're all finally feeling better. Mini#2 did have an earache so he's on antibiotics. Unfortunately, he does not like this medicine at all and he's on it for 10 days twice a day. I've gotten smart and added a tsp of water to dilute it slightly. Is this ok? Oh well. It's the only way he'll attempt to take it. This morning I had to pretend each sip was a different food. Once it was strawberries, once chocolate cookies, bananas, pizza... You get the picture. In all I named about 8 things to get it all down while he giggled. We have 7 more days of this!

Anyway I've been thinking that May is a very amorous month because February is filled with birthday parties and new babies around here. Friday night I took dinner to a friend down the street that had baby #2 on Feb. 7. Get this. Her first turned 1 on Dec. 13. Barely fourteen months apart. Yikes. Another neighbor I don't know too well had her 2nd on Super Bowl Sunday. They expected girl#2 and had a boy! I would have freaked. How do you recover from a shock like that? I know I'm late on this one, but I've just made chocolate chip cookies and bought them a gift yesterday to take over on our way out to another birthday party this afternoon. It's kind of nice NOT to have to make a meal for them, but I feel a little guilty, too. The mothers in my Bunco group and playgroup all make meals for our friends that have babies. These women get meals Monday, Wednesday, Friday for at least a month! Is this a southern thing? Just curious. I think it's great, but then I'm kind of glad I didn't have all those meals in Georgia. These ladies can cook. I'd be as big as a house right now if I had had my kids here.

It's Oscar night. I love the red carpet interviews best and miss Joan and Melissa Rivers. Joan really knew how to embarrass herself. I went to see Juno with my friend and college roommate Friday night so I could at least say I saw one oscar nominated film this year. We had a nice time catching up over some appetizers before the movie. We also went to high school together in another city and...do I admit this...we're having our 20th reunion this year. Neither of us can believe it's been that long. We're excited to see/hear what everyone did with themselves or didn't as I'm sure could also be the case. We had 540 in our graduating class and we probably discussed half of them Friday night. My friend and I left for college 2 weeks after we turned 18. Our b-days are 5 days apart. We were just babies! Now we talk about our babies. The circle of life they say. Ok, off to jump in dreaded inflatables. I'll be standing back with a somewhat fake smile drinking a diet coke counting the minutes 'til this party is over. Ha! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Earaches, colds, cancelled plans

It's been a long week. Mini#2 woke up last night crying. His 10 day cold has settled in his ears I believe. We missed playgroup yesterday and library reading Wednesday. Which leads me to a little complaint. When my child is sick I do not take little precious to playgroup, nor library readings. Why can't others follow this simple Mother 101 class rule? I know he got this "bug" from library group. It's a small library with an even smaller reading area where they host weekly preschool read along, sing alongs. Last week, as I sat among the wee and their mothers, I saw about 7 running noses and heard beaucoup coughing. I wanted to run, but when I noticed, class was about 10 mins. from finishing. I mean I know we're all desperate to get out of the house during the winter months, but please. Respect others mothers and keep your ill children home! Any opinions on this?

Muffin Tin Meatloaves

I was asked to post this recipe. It's definitely kid friendly. It's low fat and has carrots and zucchini hidden in it so the kids don't know it's in there. It's not even a Sneaky Chef recipe. It was in a low fat cookbook. I served it with brown rice and asparagus with a browned butter sauce. Awesome! I sound like my 1st grader. Of course the minis didn't eat asparagus. I gave them green peas which mini#1 had to mix with applesauce to get down. Hey. Whatever works.

MUFFIN TIN MEATLOAVES

1 1/2 lbs lean ground turkey
1/2 lb lean ground beef (93/7)
1 cup shredded zucchini (about 1 small zucchini)
1/2 cup shredded carrots (about 1 small carrot)
1/4 of a grated onion (I grated so kids couldn't see onion)
2 egg whites
1 cup soft breadcrumbs (I used canister plain crumbs I had)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp poultry or Italian seasoning (I used a little of both)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup ketchup

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine turkey, beef, shredded
vegetables, onion, egg whites, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce,
poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Using your hands, squeeze
together until evenly mixed.

Pack the meat mixture into 12 muffin cups. There is no need to
grease the pans. These can be made up to one day in advance.
If doing so, cover tightly and refrigerate. Just prior to baking,
top with ketchup. Bake for 30 mins. Unmold from muffin cups
and serve. Per serving: Calories: 235 Protein: 37 g Fat: 5 g
(Saturated: 2 g) Carb: 9 g Fiber: 1 g

ASPARAGUS WITH BALSAMIC BROWNED BUTTER

30 asparagus spears, washed and trimmed (1 1/2 lb)
cooking spray
kosher salt/pepper
2 tbsp butter (not margarine)
2 tsp low sodium soy sauce
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange asparagus in a single
layer on a baking sheet and coat with cooking spray. Sprinkle
with salt/pepper. Bake for 13-15 mins until tender.

Melt butter in a small skillet over medium heat; cook 3 mins.
or until lightly browned, shaking pan occasionally. Remove from
heat; stir in soy sauce and vinegar. Drizzle over asparagus,
tossing well to coat. Yummy!!!!

Monday, Monday.

It's Monday...and school was out. Need I say more. The house is a wreck, I'm tired and Intervention is a repeat tonight.

However, yesterday was a "me" day that I enjoyed immensely. Husband kept boys all day. I shopped 'til I dropped, but restrained myself nicely. I am on a budget. I was so excited to see all the preppy plaid shorts out. Don't get me wrong. My kids aren't total preps. I love dressing them hip and sometimes even skater, but I'll always love classic clean prep look. Luckily right now they don't care what they wear and probably won't be as difficult as I hear girls are as they get older. Anyway I also saw 27 Dresses yesterday. It wasn't too bad. Katherine Heigl's sis really aggravated me and Ed Burns isn't the heartthrob he used to be. However, loved Katherine's wardrobe and makeup. She looked so fresh and pretty the entire movie. Definitely a chick flick.

Today I didn't even try to venture anywhere with the minis until late afternoon. It was rainy this morning and none of us even got out of pj's until about 11:00. Hadn't done that in a while. I organized my closet, chased mini#2 out of my room with some play doh he found (only in the kitchen!), played crazy 8's and Go Fish with mini#1 as mini#2 napped, prepped mini turkey meatloaves (bake in a muffin tin. very tasty recipe), went to karate (mini#1, not moi!), ate dinner and gave baths. Since today was so incredibly boring (is anyone still reading this?) I even let the minis take their baths in mommy and daddy's big tub. Then I remembered why I don't do this. It breaks my back and they splash all my cute decorations. Oh well. I hope everyone else had a more exciting day than the White house... I'm off to shower my day away.

Glass and Ice

We experienced another first tonight as a family. We took the boys to see the '06 national hockey league champs, the Carolina Hurricanes, play the Florida Panthers. Woo hoo! Just 2 hours prior, the NC State Wolfpack basketball team played and lost to Clemson (Clemsongirl is celebrating as we speak) in the same arena. I would have liked to be there instead, but I actually had a nice time at the hockey game. Let me now mention that we were in hubby's company's box complete with free parking pass 4 steps from the door and free eats/drinks. Now that's the way to go to a hockey game! Well minus the kids, but then it wouldn't have been a family first.

The kids were reasonably well behaved. The 30 minute behavior speech hubby and I delivered prior to departing the White house was still fresh in their minds. I did have to say "danger" to mini#1 about 3 times. Danger being our code word to straighten up or else! Mini#2 charmed everyone with his beaming toothy grin. However, I watched as he left one fingerprint after another on every inch of the glass separating us from those outside of our cozy box. I kept wanting to bound out of my seat and look for some Windex to clean the distracting prints. Whoever invented Windex had kids for sure. Right? After the kids started winding down I noticed mini#2 had his sleeve, white of course, in his mouth. The sleeve was now RED. He had been eating tortilla chips. The yummy tri color salty ones. Except he had only wanted the red ones. He called them NC State chips (we're red/white). We think he was still confused and thought he was at a NC State game because we had been to this arena recently to watch basketball. The Hurricanes are also red. It was funny, but the stain is not. I better go start on it now while it's on my mind...

Old Friends (I hate the word "old". Forever young is better.)

Just returned from a nice lunch with my former roommate. She and I lived together just out of college when we were newly thrown into the real world. I remember we used to go eat at "Darryl's" restaurant on her discount. She waitressed lunch through dinner and job searched in the mornings. We still partied like college and had tons of fun times. When we moved back to NC from Atlanta in '06 she was living in the city we ultimately settled. Unfortunately we just don't see each other enough!

The place we went to today to celebrate her birthday is so cute. It's a cafe/gift shop combo. My heart sped up a bit when I saw all the cute napkins/patterns/black and white color combo accessories. I would love to have a gift shop. I forgot to mention that mini#2 joined us. He was in rare form. We had a short wait in which I had to chase him around without bumping into displays. One time he ended up under a table piled high with baby gift items. I was mortified.During lunch he pitched a few mini 2 yr old fits. Therefore friend and I had to stop and start a few topics and even try to remember where we left off. She and her husband don't have any children so I'm sure our lunch just postponed that even longer.

While there I also saw a sorority sister that I hadn't seen in years. She moved back to NC from CA a year before we did. She has 2 daughters. My lunch friend who also knew this girl commented that I should be the one with girls and sorority girl should have the boys. She knows me well. I'm such a girl, but wouldn't trade my boys for the world. Back to the mini#2, the little devil. He was a pure angel in the car on the way home. It figures.

Ordered this yesterday from The Pink Giraffe. I've wanted one for a while. Of course my monogram will be pink, not blue. Can't wait to see it.