Mexico

Sure, we probably didn't have the money to go and yes, we probably shouldn't have taken so much time off work, but when you take priorities into account, how could we NOT go?

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

"For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
It's always ourselves we find in the sea" - E.E.Cummings

As a warning: There are over 90 pictures here (about 1/4 of those taken) so it's kind of a big file

What to Make

I'll be the first to admit that these are the most stereotypical "icky vegetable" that there is on the planet. HOWEVER, I made this recipe two nights ago and all three of my picky eaters gobbled them up. First, quarter and trim your brussels sprouts (yep, I said it, I saw you cringe, trust me, their going to be good). Toss them with olive oil that has a little salt & sugar dissolved into it. Then lay them out on a lightly oiled, rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Mix together a little parsley, butter, pepper and lemon zest then toss with the brussels sprouts. Top it off with some parmesan cheese and voila - yummy taste and good-for-you too!

It's like living with two little mice

UGH! Okay, to set the stage, here's what happened:

We went to Cabo for a week and came back with LOADS of pictures (I'm talkin' over 400). So instead of bogging down my memory card in my camera, I uploaded them to Grandpa's laptop in the thought that I'd just get them from him when we got home. Good idea, right? Right. Fastforward to Monday morning and he offers me a memory stick filled with the pictures to take home and upload to my computer and just return the memory stick when I get a chance. Still all very good ideas. I got home and dropped off a bunch of stuff in the office (the kids didn't even get out of the car), including putting the memory stick on my desk. We headed from there to the supermarket and ran some other errands.

Having said that, you would think it would be smooth sailing from there, right?

The next morning (yesterday, Tuesday), I couldn't find the memory stick on my desk. SO I of course, asked the kids if they knew what happened to it and they of course did not know. The eldest began bringing me things that she THOUGHT I was looking for but weren't the memory stick (many of which I HAD been looking for previously, grrr). I mentioned it missing to hubby last night.

This morning we both did independent searches to no avail. He then came home at lunch and we double teamed the office and car hoping to work off of each other's insights. Nope. No dice. He headed back to work having given up and resigned to telling grandpa it was lost. I was frustrated and not willing to give up, having found several little "stashes" around the office of things (my AAA card, stale pretzels, a bracelet, old mail, a camera battery, etc) and I kept up my search. I repeated my rounds again on my knees (to be at their eye level) and it came to me...they play under my desk! A quick search of my desk drawer found another lucrative stash of treasures that they had slid over the back edge from under the desktop. Given another hefty search around I found it! The memory stick had been set on a little lip under the desk and blended (black on black) so well that I would have never found it without being nose-to-nose with it.

Maybe after this my little guy deserves the nickname "Stuart Little"....

Georgia

So, it's been ages since I posted and for good reason. We've been BUSY BUSY BUSY! For a week we were gone to Cabo (more on that hopefully soon) and then we got home last week just in time to turn around and head back to the airport on our way to Georgia for NASCAR. We had a spectacular time and are so very very lucky to have family who live close and are happy to take the kids for the weekend. The kids get time with their grandma/grandpa/great-grandparents (who they went to visit) and Mom & Dad get some time alone together. Everybody wins!....except Carl Edwards, who came in a respectable third....