Amsterdam Parting Gift

My blogging has been...sporadic (to put it nicely).  I know all five of you that read this are biting your nails waiting for my next exquisitely written post.  Here you go...

After joining Kel in Amsterdam (a post on this later, and I guess Spain needs to be up here also) in June for a week, we returned to normal life and celebrated the 4th of July.  A few days after I began eating like I was a bear approaching hibernation, then just the thought of food made me run to the bathroom...

You guessed it...two lines apparently means another kid!

Meet baby #2 coming next March - oh and to make it interesting, it's another boy.  I've already told Kel that our bathroom will soon become MINE and he can share with the other standing urinaters! 

So that is part of my reason for not being here much - you know, the vomiting and all FOR 15 WEEKS! 

Eating isn't a problem anymore (don't know if that's a good or bad thing)!

I Hate Painting!

However, I got sick and tired of looking at the nasty green walls in our guest bath, so pulled out the brushes (and beer).  **This was done a few months ago**

It took me the better half of an afternoon and evening to put on two coats, but I am so pleased with the results!  I also exchanged the mirror that was in there for one that we got in Mexico several years ago. 

I'm slowly moving onto some different house projects as I have time and (more importantly) money! 

Before...yucky green

After...nice brown!  It looks a little deeper in person, but you get the idea!  I really like how the white stands out so much more now!

Back behind the toilet...

Those little grass plants survived the journey from Dubai and I really like my Seattle painting better against the brown.

Organization in the Making

Yes, I am organized.  I am one of those sick people who enjoy filing/creating filing systems/labeling.  My clothes are in rainbow order in my closet and here are my shoes.     

Dylan seems to be taking after me (in at least one positive aspect). 

He did such a good job matching the pictures to the shoes and I think he enjoyed the project as much as I did! 

The Pitfalls of Dressing Professionally

REALLY??  All of this for five work shirts.  I'm thinking that the nice folded packaging is overrated.  Not pictured (well) are all the pins that hold the craziness together.   

Dylan turns 2...and 3 (maybe I'm a little behind)

I guess with the potty training right after Dylan's 2nd birthday, I didn't post anything about his birthday party!  I'll just do a little flashback for you with all the highlights!  As most of you know, I'm a planner.  That means that I annoy a lot of you about what I'm 'planning' to do.  The first birthday, while a huge milestone, did not have much in the way of a theme.  So, for #2, I did an airplane motif.  D was enthralled with basically any motor vehicle (and still is).  Unfortunately, Party City (or Micheal's or Hobby Lobby or Target) has failed to make a Dubai appearance, so I had to traipse around getting all the necessary decorations.  I even lucked upon a mini airplane cookie cutter at some strange Japanese version of a dollar store.  Airplanes 'flew' around the room and we even had packaged peanuts!  Thanks to my good friend, Shannon, who took all the pictures for me.  Also notice Dylan's special birthday shirt - on the front, Captain Dylan, and on the back, Flight 0002.

A party in Dubai wouldn't be complete without some freak occurrence.  On this day, my kitchen gas ran empty about 30 minutes before party time (exactly when all the food was being cooked)!

And, now...onto 3!  Dylan and I discovered Dinosaur Train (a show on PBS) sometime in January, and we've been hooked since.  It's incredibly educational (seriously, I've learned a ton about dinosaurs) and has a cute little catchy title song.  Everyone's happy.  So, for birthday #3, I decided to do a dinosaur theme.  Birthdays 1 and 2 were challenging for any games, but I knew that this year they would perfect!  I made 'fossils' and buried them in a sandbox for the kids to dig up.  I also had the kiddos hatch dinosaur eggs (balloons) to get the baby dinosaurs out.  The kids hunted for dinosaur eggs (spray painted Easter eggs) that were filled with goodies.  We also attempted some water painting of dinosaurs.  My crowning glory though was the cake!  I made a dinosaur landscape complete with a 'smoking' volcano! 

This birthday was special because the grandparents (and even a great grandma) helped Dylan celebrate!  While the grandparents made it to Dubai for his first birthday, it wasn't possible for them to make it for #2. 

How To Be a Cajun

Marrying into a Cajun family has opened my eyes to a whole new culture. I cook A LOT, but never attempted anything remotely Louisiana-ish. My mother in law makes a killer gumbo and my husband had been craving it and asked if I could try to make it. Let me say this – I can cook pretty much anything if I have a recipe. There have been a few failures (fried chicken being the most recent), but I’m usually successful. So, I hunted down an Emrill gumbo recipe and went to work. I had my chicken, sausage, and homemade stock. My veggies were chopped and prepared. I just had to make the roux.


A simple word for a process that is difficult to explain and follow. You’re not supposed to stop stirring and the flour is supposed to turn brown, but you can’t burn it. It smells AWFUL and doesn’t look appetizing either. I followed the rules though and stirred it for hours until it looked right and then I made my first mistake. I added ALL the roux to my pot with the chopped veggies. Apparently the recipe only calls for two cups and I put in at least four. I didn’t catch my mistake until I’d added all of my homemade chicken stock. Thankfully, I hadn’t put the meat in yet. I took a quick taste and gagged, so I added more stock, and tasted again. Still awful. I added water because I’d used up all of my homemade stock. Another taste and all I got was burnt flour.

The disappointment on Kel’s face made me jump in the car and buy a jar of roux and more chicken stock. Back at home I started over with the exact measurement of roux and stock. Tasted it and still awful. Kel decided that we needed to add a can of beer. I thought it was a waste of a beer, but in it went. Tasted it. Burnt flour with a hint of beer. Our next bright idea is to let it simmer. I sit down (now that I’ve spent 5 hours on the failed gumbo) and massage my claw of a hand. I glance over at the mess on the stove and watch as it foams over the top of the pot. FAB U LOUS.

I turn off the heat, let the whole thing cool, and put it down the disposal. Then I call Papa John’s.

After my failed attempt at gumbo, I was a little leery when Kel wanted to host a crawfish boil. I would go nowhere near those southern lobsters until they were hot and on a table. Luckily a friend offered his assistance for boiling all 100 pounds. I used my expertise in peeling tails to prep for (gasp!) etouffee. I decided not to totally give up on my grafted Cajun branches and searched for another Emrill recipe.

My hand seized up a little when I read that you needed to prepare a light roux, but relaxed after seeing that it would take just a few minutes. I added the holy trinity of veggies and sautéed, deglazed with some sherry, and threw the tails in. Added a bit of stock and seasoning and let it simmer for a few minutes. And then, the moment of truth. I took a bite, then another, and another! It was good.

So maybe I can hack this Cajun thing. Just don’t make me eat Boudin.

Toma (long A)to/Toma (short a)to OR Adventures in Gardening

I'll be the first to admit that I don't really have a green thumb.  It's surprising because MANY people in my family are full blown gardeners that speak in the gardening vernacular...growing, planting, tilling, composting, mulch, cold crop, bed...So, I figured that I need to tap into the gardening genes and utilize my backyard. 

With the late freezes this winter in the south, tomatoes from Florida will be at least triple the cost from last year!  Some may bitch say that I'm a little cheap thrifty, so paying that much for tomatoes won't fit my grocery planning. 

Anyway, to prepare myself and further my knowledge, I took an intense vegetable gardening class and have been reading as much as possible about organic gardening, composting, full sun/partial sun, manure (blech), and water ratios.  I know, I know, boooooorrrrrrriiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnng.  I bit the proverbial bullet and bought six different tomato plants and two tomatillo plants.  I know what you're thinking - salsa and FRESH tomato/basil salad!  Funny, that's what I was thinking! 

I'm actually trying to do the tomatoes and tomatillos in containers instead of a bed.  Mainly because my raised bed isn't finished yet.  My needy husband Someone likes to eat dinner and have clean clothes to wear.  Compromises, compromises. 

I am optimistic because all of the plants have grown in the past week that they've been in their new homes and some already have flowers.  (hoping that's a good sign)  Watch next week for growth updates (definitely exciting blog fodder) and flower status. 

Before their new homes

Only the best for my little tomatoes! (This was before I found some cheaper organic stuff at Houston Garden Center)

All in a row...taken on 3/13 (much bigger already)!

My helper (LOVE the gloves) - so took me twice as long to plant

Stay tuned for the next entry about composting!  Fun stuff indeed!

Things I Never Thought I'd Say on the Phone

"I've got to call you back - Dylan's trying to climb on a llama!"

Three Minutes Unattended...

While Dylan was plunked in front of the tv watching Dinosaur Train I was in the bedroom getting dressed.  I noticed an absence of sound - that eerie quiet that all mothers recognize as TROUBLE - and came out of the room to investigate.
 
I Someone mistakenly left the cable remote within reach of the toddler; the same toddler who crawled for the first time in order to reach a remote.  So, you can imagine his delight upon discovering the remote just sitting there, practically RIGHT next to him, with all those colorful buttons just waiting to be pushed AND mommy out of sight.  I know exactly how he felt - on our first trip to Vegas I was giddy when I realized you could walk ANYWHERE with an alcoholic drink!

Anyway, this is what I saw on the tv when I walked out to the living room.

My two year old evil genius son figured out how to use the split screen feature using the CABLE remote, not even the tv remote.  Here's the kicker:  his electronics guru daddy didn't even know that it had that feature.  AND, daddy was out of town, so I had to figure out how to get it back to normal if I wanted any kind of sanity.  Plus, I wouldn't want to deprive the child of his educational programming. 

It took me twenty minutes (after the twenty minutes I spent on punching every button combo I could think of), the tv manual, two different remotes, and much yelling to finally fix the damn thing.  All the while I'm listening to the toddler wail "moooooooooommmmmyyyyy, where's dinosaurus?  I want to watch them!  MMMMMMMooooooooommmmmmyyyyyy, where's the choo choo train?  I like it!"



  

Conversations with a toddler - #1

"I want a big boy, pink cup."

Don't we all honey, don't we all.

Times, they are a changin'

A bit of a pictorial for you today...apparently we are turning into losers.

New Year's Eve 2007 (some hotel party)

New Year's Eve 2008 (we're out, but now it's only dinner)

New Year's Eve 2009 - you guessed it...Chuck E. Cheese.  Yes, we suck.

Experiments on my toddler - #1 (well maybe #2)

I guess I have to count potty training boot camp as experiment #1 which turned out hellish but worked ok, so I have moved on to #2.  Cue the Mr. Burns laughing and finger steepling...

During a visit back to Texas (before the move) I was still a bit jetlagged and intoxicated up late.  As I flipped through the channels I landed on an infomercial for Your Baby Can Read.  I sat enthralled as these tiny little kids were reading words!  And, I mean tiny like 8 months!  Because of my teaching background in reading, I knew the value of kids being able to read young, but 8 months???!!  The skeptic in me is thinking that this is all a crock (a big crock too at $180)!  But, I continued to think about it and decided there might be something to this.  Because of the alcohol jet lag or my overloaded brain, I forgot about it (or maybe it was the high price tag).

Flash forward to this January.  At a visit to my best friend's house, I saw some flashcards on the floor of her son's room and asked her if it was from YBCR.  Of course it was and she demonstrated - or rather her 2 year old read the words on the flashcards!  I was impressed.   

I don't know that Dylan is a genius above average, but he likes to learn new things and I've noticed him comprehending and asking questions about the gossipy shit I've been talking to my friends about on the phone intelligent conversations Kel and I have (so he's already figured out how to eavesdrop AND not look like that's what he's doing).  But, and this is a big but...I was NOT spending $180 on this thing!  $180 on my kid's future doesn't seem like a lot, but most of you have met Dylan and momma likes to go to Vegas.  After some searching and bargaining I got YBCR for about $40.  Now, $40 I am willing to invest in D's future.

I won't bore you with the whole process, but basically you watch a DVD with your child over a certain period of time and go through ten flashcards with each DVD. 

We started this mid January and within a week Dylan knew 5 of the 10 flashcards.  What I realized though is he had memorized how they looked on the card and by background color (the cards have different fonts and colors...).  Because I'm so smart I wanted to be thorough, I tested this out.  I wrote down the words he knew on paper and he couldn't tell me what they said.  I also asked him to read me the words in a book (the same ones he knew) and he could not. 

We've been on this for about a month and now he's starting to recognize words in books that he knows from the flashcards, but more importantly he tracks with his finger on the page while we read and he points at words and asks me what they say.  It's a small step, but very important!  I think he's also getting the concept that letters make up words.  He loves the letter 'D' and points it out often.  

Also, another milestone - the word 'hi' was on the first DVD, but not on a flashcard in the first set of those.  It's also on the second video and in the second set of cards.  Without any practice on the second set, he knew 'hi' and read it immediately.  He loves has a preference for the color, pink and so all of the words on a pink background he knows.    

I haven't been able to capture anything on video yet - but stay tuned.  I'll try again in the next few days.

The flashcards     

Channeling some Creativity

Not long after our arrival back in Texas, the events started filling up the calendar and one of the first was a baby shower and girls' weekend in Austin. 

Back in Dubai, my friend Shannon taught me how to make a diaper cake and I really wanted to make one for this baby shower.  After a few trials of rolling the diapers and experiments with tissue (not to mention a few pricked fingers), I came up with this!  I was pretty proud that my first solo attempt came out so nice!  

Only in Dubai...

Let's play a game called 'picture this'. Ready? Now I know it's hard right now, (for those of you in the states since it's so freaking cold) but picture a hot, sunny, July day in Dubai around 115 degrees. There yet? Think sweat trickling down your back, breathing air that feels like it came out of an oven, and (by far the best one) smelling the funkiest body odor you can imagine. Good, now while you're nice and sweaty, I want you to picture a two year old who gets into everything! Now picture seven men in your house. They don't speak English well and they are packing up all of your stuff. Now picture trying to explain to the movers, who don't speak English well, that the floor is not a good place for a utility knife because the two year old who gets into everything will find it and quite possibly hack off an appendage. Oh yeah, and picture not having a car. So, when said two year old hacks off said appendage we will be waiting for the ambulance to arrive quickly 'inshallah'.



This is what I endured for four days, YES, four WHOLE DAYS (it took two days in Houston to get our stuff packed up), while the movers packed up the villa so that everything could be shipped back to Houston.



If that weren't bad enough...on day two of packing, I came down the back hall and stepped right into a massive puddle of water. I was washing the last of the laundry that would go in our suitcases and the pipe that the washer drained into had backed up again. All towels had been packed up so I had to try and soak up the mess with packing paper. Note to self: packing paper has no absorption whatsoever. While I'm trying to stop the water from hitting the already packed boxes in the entry, I look and see wet footprints going down the hall. Soooo, the movers had just walked through the giant puddle of water and not said a thing. Fabulous.



The next day I had a guy come to disconnect and move our appliances to a friend's. Surprisingly the appliance transfer went smoothly. But, I arrived back at the villa to discover MORE water! The hole where the dishwasher had been hooked up was flowing like a river, well maybe more like a stream, onto my kitchen floor. Seriously? I had no idea how I pissed off Poseidon. This time the movers noticed the water and made a packing paper dam to stop the water from hitting the boxes, but had done nothing to try and stop the leak. I got my hands wet, literally, and most of the rest of me trying to get under the sink and shut off the valve. No dice. And, you guessed it, the tools had already been packed. AND, Dylan is thinking that this is his new favorite play spot. I called the maintenance number for the villa and waited for three hours for Emrill to arrive. After a quick peek outside I see an Emrill van down the street. I walk over there and convince one of the guys to come and take a look and explain that I called several hours ago. He told me that they HAD come, but no one answered the door! Eight people in the house and no one heard the door?? Come on! So I harass the poor worker and he brings his wrench over and tries to fix the valve. After his fiddling he realizes that the valve thingy is stripped and they'll have to replace the whole pipe/valve combo. Great. Luckily he stayed and the rest of his maintenance crew came down and finished within a few hours. We moved into our temporary apartment that afternoon. I walked into the kitchen and I kid you not, there was water coming from the bottom of the dishwasher. That was the moment I decided to finish my Jack Daniels project.



On the fourth day the container was loaded and locked and our flight out of the oven was booked for a few days later. Two days before the flight Kel tells me that we don't have our passports back yet. His visa hadn't been cancelled yet, but mine and Dylan's had. Great. I just knew he wouldn't get his back in time and I'd have to fly yet another time by myself with Dyl. I think Kelly was secretly hoping it wouldn't come back just for that reason. Somehow, it all got finished up and with three passports we headed to the airport for our scheduled flight.

Checking out the boxes

Packing tape, more fun than cars!

He even found a place to play with his cars during the chaos

That's what the movers thought our names were!
At last! Loading up the container.

Back in the Saddle Again

Helllllloooo my long lost friends!

I know it has been a long time, but the dust has cleared and I daresay that NORMAL is here to stay (except for the interesting events that a toddler throws into the mix). I will probably hop around in time for a while - there are still some Dubai tidbits that are too juicy to ignore, so bear with me.

After living with 110+ degree weather in Dubai, my body is having a hard time adjusting to this extreme cold! I would MUCH rather be hot than cold! There's nothing better than sitting in a pool (especially in your backyard) with a cold beer on a balmy August day or in the Dubai situation, balmy every month except for maybe January when it was just hot.

Since this freeze took over Houston, I find myself layered up, sitting in front of the gas fireplace (but interestingly enough, also with a cold beer in my hand). I am counting down until March.

We did take advantage of a rare snow day and built a snowman. However, 20 minutes outside was enough for both Dylan and me. Kelly didn't even leave the fireplace.

Not swimming weather...

D's first snowman!

"Whaddya lookin at?"

Hot cocoa to warm up. Notice the themed attire :)