Monday, December 31, 2007

Auld Lang Syne...


I know I've been really lax about posting Christmas stuff - will do after the New Year! For right now, I wish everyone lots of love and a joyous New Year in 2008!

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Happy St. Nick's Day!

So today is St. Nicholas' Day. Every year, Santa comes and leaves the kids ONE gift in their stocking on this day (Dec. 6). This year he gift-wrapped candy bars and dropped them in their stockings! Gracie had Reese Cups for breakfast, LOL! Not the most nutritious thing in the world, but it was a special occasion! :)

Tonight I went to KMart while Gracie was at Girl Scouts (Lexi stayed home with Daddy and Josie because she threw up this morning), and I bought some gold ribbon for the Christmas tree. All of my ornaments are red and gold, so I needed a gold ribbon. Tomorrow I'm going to take all of the ornaments off and put the ribbon on, then reposition the ornaments (all of them will still be around the top of the tree, so Josie can't get to them!). I also got a string of white lights to go around the dining room window, so that'll be fun. The girls will get a kick out of it, anyway, and that's all that matters. :)

Gracie had her first spelling test ever today, and she got 100%. She's so smart! She also said something pretty amazing to me on the way to Scouts:

Gracie: Mom, I'm glad we have a star on top of our tree.

Me: Me, too. Why are you glad?

Gracie: Because when those guys went to see Jesus, they had to follow a star to find him. When they found him, the star was over him, so that's why we're supposed to have a star on top of our tree, to remind us of how those guys found him.

Me: *stares open-mouthed*


So my daughter absorbs more than I think she does, apparently. Note to self: be more careful what you say around little ears - they just might hear you, after all.

Monday, December 3, 2007

So.

My Dad recently told me that he hadn't had a good egg custard pie in years, so I baked two of them tonight. Also this weekend, I made a Hawaiian Wedding Cake, which turned out lovely - we couldn't stop eating it! It was moist and dense and so sweet... am I making your mouth water yet? ;)

Also, found this website where you can "elf yourself." http://www.elfyourself.com. Here's the link to ours - and make sure the sound on your pc is turned on! http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1154900300

That is all for today!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Wow!

I was so not in a decent mood today, until dinner. I tried a new recipe for pasta, since Grace and I are the only ones who like the tomato-based sauces. Josie and Lexi normally take their noodles with just a sprinkle of Parmesan and a drizzle of butter (they're both picky eaters)... but tonight, I found the mother of all picky-eater pasta recipes! And it's simple, to boot! Since I was so wowed, I thought I'd share with everyone. This was really good with some buttery baked chicken.

Rich Pasta for the Poor Kitchen

8 T butter or margarine
2 T minced garlic
salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 T chopped fresh parsley, or 1/2 T dried parsley
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 c grated parmesan cheese

Cook your spaghetti noodles as you normally would (I used penne). Drain and set aside.

In a large skillet, melt the butter or margarine over medium-low heat. Add the garlic. Season with the salt, pepper, parsely, and cayenne pepper.

Add the pasta to the skillet. Toss pasta until it's well-coated with the butter. Increase the heat to medium and cook until the pasta has absorbed some of the butter.

Remove from heat and stir in the cheese.

Even LEXI liked this! As a reward for eating so well, the girls are now getting ready to make some really lovely microwave fudge (doesn't sound good, but it is to die for)! Amazing how a good meal can boost spirits, innit?

Monday, November 26, 2007

Back with more.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We got up and went shopping on Black Friday - and I have to say that the highlight of my day was lunch at Texas Roadhouse! Later that night we went to Light Up Charlestown, which was interesting. The kids had fun, and Josie actually loved Santa. She said "Ho-Ho!" She signed the word "hurt" for the first time, too!

Went to the Dollar Tree today and found a small treasure for the girls. I have one mug with Santa on it, and they always fight over who gets to use it for their nightly cocoa - so today, I found two Santa mugs and brought them home. They were uber thrilled! Will post pics of them later.

As for me... well, I don't know what's going on. I haven't felt right in a few days, and I can't figure it out. There's no other way to explain it - I don't feel sick, I just don't feel right. Anyway.

Night all.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Blah.

This has been a hard week. I've had problems with Gracie's teacher, I've had problems with the school itself, and I'm trying hard not to, but I'm still stewing about those things - especially the teacher. Of course, it doesn't help that one of my favorite shows (CSI) lost one of my favorite characters (Sara), and I don't like the way that they did it. :(

Anyway, to reiterate, it hasn't been a very good week. Hasn't been the worst week of my life or anything like that - just not good.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Well...

I guess a decision has been made. I have been dithering for a long time about Grace and whether or not to push for her going through an honest to goodness ADD/ADHD assessment. I am going to call first thing tomorrow morning to see if I can get her in to be tested. I have researched it to the hilt, and I swear that every symptom I have seen listed fits her to a tee. She needs some kind of help, whether it be medication or simple behavior modifying strategies - but the fact remains that she needs help, and I am the only advocate she has for getting that help. I feel like I would be failing her as her mother if I didn't explore every avenue I could.

I finally put my Christmas tree up on Saturday. We listened to Christmas music, made gingerbread cookies from scratch, drank hot cocoa (in Momma's case, spiked with espresso), and decorated the tree. Lexi was in raptures during the whole process, since Christmas is her favorite holiday. Josie was a little more alert this year, but has been surprisingly good about not touching the tree (so far). Ha!

I watched a bit of Dexter on tv tonight, and have to say I'm disappointed. They surely didn't follow the books very well, did they? That stinks. I hate when they do that to books I like.

NFL - GO STEELERS!!! I am loving Ben! (Not that I didn't before, but still.)

In other news, I joined Facebook, and am totally, utterly addicted! My favorite thing to do on there is fight with my zombies, vampires, and slayers! It's not an RPG (a role-playing game) - it's more like Myspace, but... cooler. Here's the link to my profile:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=694689294

I also looked into a printer tonight that would print out 12 x 12 pages (for scrapbooking), and great googly moogly, they're freakin' expensive! I don't think I'll be getting one any time soon. :( But that's okay, it's still fun to digiscrap anyway! Plus when I can, I still do it the regular way, too.

I think that's it for now. Hope everyone had a good weekend, and have a great week!