Five Things Friday

Despite the fact that I often complain about my uneventful life, I've actually been quite busy lately.  Not busy in the earning lots of money in a lucrative career sort of way; not in the curing cancer or volunteering to help the homeless kind of way.  I've been busy Neurotic Housewife style:  gym, coffee, shopping.  You know, busy in the shallow kind of way. 

Although, I did donate money to two different cancer charities at two different stores today.  Guess I am helping cure cancer.  You know, by purchasing groceries and a pink basket for Caroline's room. 

Anyway, I've been pressed for time these past couple of days.  Which thusly (is that a word?) explains this post of five bulleted points of nonsense.

• I got to meet up with an old friend yesterday.  Mandy, my first ever Army wife friend, and her family just moved in to the area.  We haven't seen each other in over ten years, since our days spent in Hawaii, working together, chatting, watching The Real World and doing 8 minute Ab videos.  Oh, to be young again.  Thanks to the miracle of email, Facebook and blogging, we've been able to keep in touch the past couple of years.  It was great catching up with Mandy and I cannot wait to spend more time with her and her three girls.  Plus, they have a pool right next to their house.  What more could I ask for?
• I had coffee with my gym friends for a final time before school lets out.   (Insert cries of despair) We meet at Great Harvest, a fabulous bread shop, drink coffee, taste free bread samples and gossip away.  You'd be surprised by the amount of juicy, gossip-worthy, stuff that happens in the gym.  Also, at the request of Caroline,  I brought home a loaf of cheddar garlic bread.  It's awesome.  Hopefully we won't eat through the entire loaf in two days.
• Two more days of school left.  Boo.  Hoo.  I spent the majority of my afternoon running around getting end of the year teacher gift cards.  Caroline has two main teachers, plus one full time assistant.  I got the teachers gift cards to the movies and Noodles and Company; for the assistant, a gift card to Kohls. 
• I actually did a lot of shopping today.  So much, in fact, that my debit card was smoking by the time I concluded my final transaction.  They were mostly necessary purchases, like the gift cards and a few summer workbooks to help keep Caroline's memory fresh.  The end of the school year is expensive.  So it my shopping habit.  A habit which is fueled by my endless search for the perfect _______.  I'll never be happy.  I always want to change something.  Or upgrade.  Or reorganize.  Or freshen things up.
• Soccer tournament tomorrow.  Two games in the hot sun (11:45 and 3:45), followed by an 8 am game on Sunday.  Perhaps another game at 1:15, depending on how well they fare in the first three games.
  
  Happy Friday!!

Books 'n Pans

I'm practically as giddy as a school girl because recently I've had the opportunity to introduce Caroline to some of my favorite childhood books.  Together, we read through the Ramona Quimby series a few years ago, which I loved as much the second time around as the first.  But now that Caroline is older and capable of reading chapter books on her own (she's on number seven of the Harry Potter Series), I'm so happy that The Baby-Sitters Club books have made a reappearance.  For quite some time, they were noticeably absent from library and book store shelves, but for whatever reason, they're back, baby.

I grabbed one from the library shelves a few weeks ago and, just as I did, over twenty years ago, Caroline read it with gusto.  The Scholastic Book Club  had a set of 6 for $24 in their last school flyer, so I quickly placed an order.  And tacked on book number seven, for good measure.

Now Caroline has some summer reading material.


I have a confession to make.  I've been a little extra indulgent on the shopping front lately.  I lack nothing; I need nothing; I should buy nothing.  And yet, I've been hitting the stores like it's my job.

A part of me is yearning for some freshening up.  Another part of me knows that during the summer, I won't have the opportunity to shop much because Caroline is NOT a willing shopping buddy, so I'm storing up my shopping, like a squirrel gathers nuts for the winter.  Actually, it's probably good that I won't shop much for the next few months.  It's not like I need anything, anyway.  The bank account shall thank me.

However, I did, kinda sorta need these new pans.

Excuse the horrible picture, please.

Would you care to wager a guess as to how much I paid for these three pans?

Did you guess .98?

Yep, .98.

Don't worry, I'm not some sort of bargain hunting wizard.  I earned some Amazon.com gift cards from my credit card and redeemed them to purchase some new cookware.  My current skillets are quite tragic looking; they're well loved, well used and well...they've seen better days.

I love this one.  It's huge.  And deep.  It's oven safe, too.

Totally worth .98.

Totally.

Clumps and Stumps

When it comes to being a kid, Caroline is fairly typical:   messy, energetic and loud.  While most kids turn their noses up at even the thought of ingesting a green vegetable, Caroline asks for them.  She may leave her things scattered about and she might have to be reminded more than once to perform even the most perfunctory personal upkeep tasks, but that girl of mine sure loves her vegetables.

My palate may be a bit more adventurous than Caroline's, but our tastes and food preferences are really quite similar.  Our diets are predominantly comprised of our four favorite food groups:  vegetables, carbs, cheese and chocolate. 

From a very young age, Caroline has chosen, without any prompting, broccoli as one of her favorite foods.  I mean, she still loves Doritos, syrupy, sickeningly sweet, sweet tea, and things colored with red dye#40.  She asks for chocolate with a glass of chocolate milk for dessert and would dip everything in syrup or Nutella  if allowed.   She does not have a perfect diet, but at least I don't have to remind her, or plead with her, to eat her veggies.

Up until recently, we mainly ate frozen broccoli, but now we both prefer fresh to frozen, which has been 'steamed' for a few minutes in the microwave to eliminate that overly cruciferous bite and then quickly sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.   

 Over cooked broccoli is tragic.

And we both love the clumps

and the stumps.

How many nine year olds eagerly snatch a few sliced up broccoli stems to eat as her mom prepares dinner?


Now....if only I could convince her that fruit snacks aren't 'healthy' because they have the word fruit in their name.

Bowl of Cherries

Literally.

I suppose the saying 'life is just a bowl full of cherries' could apply to my life, but I don't even really know what it means.

I like cherries.  So, when your life is bowl full of them, I assume that's a good thing.

But Craig doesn't like fresh cherries.  I know!  So perhaps he wouldn't want his life described as a bowl full of them.


While we're on the subject of trite sayings, 'pretty please, with a cherry on top' comes to mind when I see this picture.

Honestly, though, I just like cherries.  Plain and simple. Caroline, too.

I'm pretty sure she's a fan of eating any fruit which requires spitting out the pit.  These days, with seedless watermelons more common than the seeded variety, kids don't know the fun of spitting out those little black seeds.
I'm sort of over that phase of my life, though.  Come to think of it, spitting has never caused me great joy.  Am I a dud, or what?  I appreciate seedless watermelons, however, my love for cherries shall never cease, even though navigating around little pits is a bit of a (messy) hassle.  And, not to mention, entirely unlady-like, as well.  We all know that I'm nothing if not a lady.

In other news, the weather is lovely today.  Eighty degrees and breezy.  The oppressive heat we felt this weekend is gone for a few days, and I couldn't be happier.  The air conditioning is off; the windows are open; my hair is a mess from the affects of the breeze.

I had a really hard workout this morning and am relaxing on my couch in front of an open window.  Soon we'll head to soccer practice, but until then, I shall enjoy some sitting.

A maybe a few cherries, too.

Sunday Morning Miscellaney

Just a few odds and ends on this Sunday morning.

Yesterday marked the end of soccer season.  The girls played their last game in the HOT sun and they won.  Caroline got hit in the face in the first quarter, but thankfully none of her teeth were affected.  Her lip hurt and then she said her ears hurt when she bit down.  She rested a bit and went back in to the game and by the end, she was feeling fine.

One of the moms, a former soccer player, said a few weeks ago, "you're not a real soccer player unless you've been smacked in the mouth."  I guess Caroline qualifies as a real player now!

We still have All-Star practice and the tournament, but other than that, we're done until the fall.

This year Caroline's league fielded two teams from her division for the All Star tournament.  They divided the teams into third and fourth graders.  The third grade team, Caroline's (and her friends, Jenna and Jordan) team,  is practicing once...and then the coach will decided if they need any more practice.  The fourth grade team has already practiced three times and will practice today and all of next week.  They're running laps, doing drills, sprinting, etc... Obviously that coach is ultra hardcore.

We have a much more laid back approach to soccer and thankfully, Caroline's coach feels the same way.

Following yesterday's game, we met at the coach's house for a bbq.  They live in an older home, not of the non-descript, postage stamp sized lot, subdivision type of house.  They have a real yard.  A gorgeous, tree filled, hydrangea blooming, grass covered lawn.  The kids had a blast.  I made peanut butter cup brownies and blissful snickerdoodle blondies.  Ebony was pleased to be working again, even though she's been temporarily retired.

I was happy to be baking, too.  I kind of miss it.

Caroline's friend got an ipod touch for making the softball All Star team, which she brought it over last night to show Caroline.  She was not showing off at all, she was just really excited, but of course, Caroline was both impressed and jealous. 

She's now saving her money to buy one for herself. 

In an effort to make some extra cash, Caroline asked if she could do some chores around the house.  I told her I'd pay her $5 a week if she'd just keep her clothes--pajamas, dirty clothes, wet bathing suits, OFF OF THE FLOOR.  It's a constant battle and one that causes me great distress.  I'm even buying her a cute hamper for her room so that maybe she'll be more inclined to use it.

I also threw in an extra buck a week if she'd put her shoes in the shoe basket.

We'll see.

Only one full week of school left. 

Waaaaahhhhhhh!!

They go to school next Monday for their usual half day and then on Tuesday, June 21, for two hours and fifteen minutes.  Seriously, school is releasing at 10:55.  As dumb as I think that is, I'm using those last two hours and fifteen minutes to my full advantage, because at 10:55 on June 21, I shall wave a tearful good bye to my freedom.

Waaaahhhhhh.

Actually, Caroline is going to a girls camp with her friend, Alayna, the following week, so I'm not really giving up my freedom until July 1.

Okay, enough miscellaneous gabbing for now.  Time to rustle up some breakfast for Caroline.  Then we have a laundry hamper to buy.

Happy Sunday!

Aloha

It was Island Day at Caroline's school yesterday. 

When you have the word Island in your school's name, Island Day is not only appropriate, but entirely necessary.

Second grade Island Day:

 
It's like deja vu all over again.

Except this year, Caroline did her own hair.  I'm just sayin...

Oh, and the outdoor pictures, in the bright morning sun, resulted in some sinister looking eyes.  I promise, she's not giving you (or me) the stink eye, or plotting some sort of evil scheme; the sun was in her eyes.

Also? Those legs and feet of hers?  All Craig's.  Well, minus the pink skort and pink flip flops, of course.


I wonder where she got the attitude?




:)

Shattered Jar

Let me tell you a story about a girl and her obsessive pursuit to acheive optimal pantry utopia organization.  And how things can go very, very wrong.

There is some sort of hanging shelving rack on the inside door of our pantry.    On one of the shelves, I have had three glass jars.  Two jars were identical (Trader Joe's almond butter) and one was a little shorter and a little wider (with an unknown origin, but I'm sure it was something I ate).





I had drink mixes in two of the jars and straws in the other.  However, the jars containing the drink mixes were not the identical ones; for some reason I noticed that fact this morning and fixated on it for far too long.  Instead of standing in front of the pantry, mouth agape,  wondering how I could ever let this happen, I sprung into action.  I put the straws in the shorter, wider jar and tried to distribute the drink mixes between the two identical jars.

Notice I said TRIED.

As I was happily assuaging my obsessive desires, one of the jars came crashing to the ground.  Glass shards scattered about my kitchen floor, making a potentially harmful situation, thereby destroying my perfectly organized pantry state of bliss. 

It was tragic.

And now I have two non-identical jars housing the straws and drink mixes and a garbage can full of broken glass.

Someday I'll leave well enough alone.  Someday.

While we're on the organization topic, yesterday I tackled my pantry shelves.  AGAIN.  It seems like I'm always doing this.  What do you expect?  It's not like I have a life, or anything.

I bought some shelf liner, hoping that it would spiff things up a bit.

Because THIS is what the shelves look like in their au naturale state.              

Gross, right? 

So far the shelf liner is working, even though I had to use the staple gun to keep it in place.  And yes, I said to heck with my fear of the staple gun;  having a well organized pantry is worth facing even your most ridiculous fears.


In other news, I bought these popsicle molds in the dollar section at Michaels today.

They have a little straw on the end, presumably so you can drink up all the drips, instead of letting them trickle down your arm and on to the floor.

Not a bad idea, at all.

The molds were actually .50 because, unbeknownst to me, everything in that spot was on sale today.

I bought three of them,

and found it amusing that they felt the need to clarify serving size on the packaging.

I'm no Einstein, but it's pretty easy to figure out that a package of two popsicle molds would yield two popsicles.

Now I have to figure out what to put in the molds.  I'm thinking homemade Jell-O pudding pops.

Yes?