Pumpkins and PJs

It's Halloween and here's what we are up to: nothing. Peanut was supposed to be batman, but it is a little too cold for those pajamas, plus he got new Thomas PJs and a robe today because it is freezing in my house and short sleeves just will not cut it anymore. Daddy brought home some electric pumpkins that he and Little P are currently placing all over the living room in an attempt to decorate for the festive evening. It is sort of difficult to get into the spirit when we live on a very busy road that does not get any trick-or-treaters due to the danger of being hit by a speeding car, but Daddy is making a good attempt at decorating. We are currently watching Oswald on NOGGIN and this catchy little Halloween tune came on. It is stuck in my head now; awesome.
Have a safe and happy Halloween!

The Afternoon in Review

We tore up the floor in our bathroom and then I decided that since I was already in destroy-mode, I might as well take down all the icky tile. So I did. It took about 4 hours to do the floor and the tile. Somebody else gets to clean it up... I have to work tomorrow, so Peanut and I are going to bed. Yes, I am aware it is not even 7:30; no, I do not have a life. Night!!!

The Results...

Of our Home Depot trip:

8 cases of tile

4 bags of mortar

1 roll of shower pan liner

1 shower drain

and a partridge in a pear tree.

The plain tile is for the shower walls and the bathroom floor. The mosaic type tile is for the floor of the shower. I am taking all of the icky green tile off of the walls, so we will have to put up new drywall, but we'll talk about that next time. Then I am going to do light brown walls with dark brown texture (never done that before, so we will see how that turns out).

This is going to be so much fun. We actually did not get everything we need, because Daddy was afraid my car would be overloaded and we would not make it home, but we have enough to start the project. I am going to tear up the bathroom floor and remove the vanity right now.

Time to Call in the Tile Guy

The new shower has been framed and is almost ready for whatever we are going to do with it. First we have to decide where the plumbing is going to go, and we have to go pick out the tile. We looked at shower inserts a couple days ago, but I think we have decided that the shower would lose too much space (which is not enough to begin with). We are going to tile it, but we are going to have to enlist some help for this part. Good thing one of my friends from work knows how to do this stuff and has offered to help out; we are going to need it!
Before we do anything to actually make the bathroom look nice, we are going to have to finish tearing it apart. This afternoon I will be tearing up the floor, and (if I can talk Daddy into it) I will be removing the awful green tile from the walls. I would love to tile the walls as well, but I would settle for new drywall, texture and paint. I do not think we can tile the shower and floor and leave the rest of the bathroom the way it is. That's just wrong.
Anyway, I am going to work out and then come back and try to get Daddy up and ready for a trip to Home Depot and Lowes. Yeah! One of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday.

Son, It's Too Early...

I guess I bring this on myself, but it has been a long morning, and the sun is just now coming up. Right now, as I write this; I have been up for three hours already. I got up at 4 to go work out. Fine, no big deal. I came home, washed the dishes and took Uncle James to work. At 6:15 I got home and was just sitting down to read my book until Peanut got up when... Peanut got up! At 6:15. I scooped him out of his car bed and took him to my room to lay down with Daddy and I, hoping he would fall back asleep (miracles do happen). It was nice and dark and quiet for five minutes.

Peanut: "Hi, Mommy."

Me: "Hi, Baby."

Peanut: "Hi, Daddy."

Daddy: "Hi, Peanut."

Peanut: "Give me your hand, Mommy."

I hold my hand up in the dark... somehow he finds it (I think he may have infrared vision)

Peanut: "High Five, Mommy!!!"

Me: Sighs.

I guess it is time to wake up, since Daddy then gets a high five and Little P tries to climb over us to get down.

It is 7:22am. We have already played dinosaurs, taken a bath, gotten dressed, eaten breakfast (Kiwi, string cheese, dried cranberries, milk and a marshmallow)

I am not sure where he learned about marshmallows, but he talked about eating one the entire time he was taking a bath. He must have been dreaming of them.

I am going to make some coffee.

This is Soooo Not Cool

So, we knew we were going to have to redo the floor in our "master" bathroom soon, and probably replace some of the structural wood in the shower because of Dry Rot. Not too big an issue, but something we would have to work on soon. Daddy found this contractor that needed some work (big surprise with this economy), and decided to hire him to do the work. I am so glad, because our little bit of structural damage turned into a HUGE project! Oh my gosh, I do not know how the shower was still functioning. I cannot believe it did not cave in on us and we did not fall through the floor. The walls were rotted all the way around and the floor was completely ruined by very extensive water damage. By the time Mike (the contractor) finished removing the rotten wood (for today) we ended up with no walls and barely any floor. There are large holes in the bathroom floor; I can see the dirt under my house. That is something I never wanted to see, ever. Bottom line, we need a new everything in the bathroom, and we are so glad we hired someone to help us this time! Hopefully this will not take too long to finish. In the meantime I will just chant the mantra that I have chanted since we first started pouring sweat and tears and money into this house:

"I love my house. I love my house. I love my house"

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Today is Daddy's birthday, but since we all had to work, we had a party yesterday. It was fun; I invited tons of people, but only family and a couple others showed, which is great because my house is not big enough for major entertaining. Jim's brother AND sister came, which is a miracle in itself, because the three of them together is a rare occurrence indeed. Everyone is always busy at different times, and it keeps us apart too often. We had a BBQ and I made a lovely cake and we all just hung out for the afternoon. It was very nice. I drank two glasses of wine, and it was one glass too many. Bedtime for Mommy was 7:30pm. Low tolerance for alcohol, or something. There is tons of food left over, so come and have dinner with us if you are in the area!

Crrrruuunnncchhhh

That is the sound the door of my car made this morning when a freakin' truck ran into it. Let me just tell you that this crunching sound is even more scary when you are directly on the other side of the crunching, and the only thing separating you from the the bumper of a truck is the door currently crunching in. Nice.

That is the dramatic version. Now, here is what happened. I got a $10 off coupon for Best Buy, and since we have a lovely new Best Buy here in town, I decided to go there and get the Leona Lewis CD I have been wanting (but not wanting to spend $14 on). So I got a new CD for $4 (which is about what CD's should cost anyway).

And the day was happy.

Then I had to go to Kmart because they had an ad in the paper last weekend and I wanted to see if the shoe organizer I wanted was still on sale. It wasn't, but that is OK, because I really did not need it, I just wanted it if it was cheap.

And the day was still happy.

Then I had to go to Safeway to get coffee creamer and a few other food type items. I ran in while uncle James and Peanut sat in the car listening to my lovely new CD. I grabbed my creamer, a new toothbrush, some dried fruit for Peanut and I was out of there. Record time in the grocery store.

And the day was quite happy.

I got back into the car, looked behind me and waited for a guy to walk behind the car before pulling out. So far, so good. I pulled out of my space and had just started to put the car in drive when suddenly the back of a truck is headed straight for my face. My brain hoped for a tenth of a second that the truck would see me and stop, but there was not time to finish the thought before the crunching told me that stopping was not going to be an option for this driver.

And the day was NOT happy!

It turned very sad, very quickly.

I pulled back into my space and got out my insurance info, we traded stuff, I took some pics with my phone and then we went home to call the insurance company. The man was very nice on the phone, and when I talked to Daddy he said it was all good, too. So, I am currently calming myself down. I am not so much upset about the accident as I am about my car. My beautiful little car was not in mint condition before today, but I am never happy when something big happens to something I still owe so much money on! I am glad I actually witnessed this accident, though. My car has two other nasty dents and some pretty bad scrapes from three other cars smashing into mine in parking lots while I was at work; and of course, nobody thought to leave any insurance info when those happened. At least I can get this one fixed, and nobody was hurt; I guess it's all good. Still, upsetting. Just thought I would share.

Peanut and I are off to a play date at a friend's house... wish us luck on the road!

Dinosaurs

Peanut loves dinosaurs. He does not have any idea what a dinosaurs are, but they are loads of fun. He is obsessed. I guess there are worse things.

What To Write...

There has been absolutely nothing going on this week. It was a pretty uneventful weekend, except we went to Denios Farmer's Market in Roseville for a day out. What better way to spend a Saturday morning than walking around looking through people's old stuff and some new stuff for great deals on stuff you probably don't need? I love it. It's like going to a ginormous garage sale and discount store all in one, and outside. Cool.

I spent the rest of Saturday moving wood from various piles in the back yard to the carport, because it is almost time to start using the fireplace. Yes, the fireplace. The house we live in has terrible insulation, and the furnace does not put out hot air, so most of the time the house is freezing, and colder than it is outside. This is great in the summer; but when you wake up in the morning and it is 42 degrees (NOT and exaggeration) in the house (and heats up to a maximum of 54 degrees by afternoon), the wood stove comes in handy. True, we must spend the day and half the night huddled in the living room, but it makes for great quality time with the family. I am not complaining. I wish it was warmer in the house, but at least we have a house, and a wood stove is better than nothing. Anyway, I spent the afternoon moving wood to the carport so that I do not have to hunt through the piles in the rain for dry pieces like last year. It is really rather pathetic, but I remember bundling up Peanut and putting him in his backpack carrier and going out to hunt for dry wood in the yard (no uncle James living with us then to watch him while I went outside, and Daddy was at work). Oh, I have learned much in the way of county living. Don't try to light a fire without kindling and never store your wood in piles under tarps in the yard; they get wet, no matter what. So, I got my workout yesterday doing that.

Then I went with a friend from work to have sushi. I had it for the first time a couple of months ago, and it has grown on me. I have even learned how to use chopsticks. I try to stay away from anything too raw, though. I had a lobster roll that was scrumptious (and all cooked) and even the leftovers were good, which is rare for sushi, I think.

Anyway, my Peanut and Daddy are good. Just living life and being cute, as usual. I am pretty sure Daddy would like to be referred to as something other than "cute" but I am running short on intelligent thought right now. I have been working out like a crazy fool, so I am really tired, but still not much result. A quarter of a pound, in three weeks. I feel pretty lame about that, but I am becoming addicted to working out and find myself getting up every morning to go to the little County gym to start my day. The good thing is that I am getting a workout partner, I hope. Her first day is tomorrow, and we will see how long she lasts, but she is pretty dedicated, so it might work out well.

I guess that's it. So much writing to say so little. Life is quiet, and I like it that way, but it does not make for blog fodder.

I Love Chickens

Tonight I was making waffles for dinner (yes, I am lame that way sometimes and cannot prepare a decent dinner for the family), and as I was getting out the eggs I started singing this little ditty I made up: "I love chickens, I love chickens..." I cannot carry a tune to save my life, so I figure that if I feel like singing out loud, the lyrics may as well be as interesting as the voice belting them out. Anyway, I was zipping around the kitchen singing and a few moments later I hear Peanut outside singing "I wuv Chick-ins, I wuv Chick-ins, too!"

Glad what I was singing was innocent, because Peanut was nowhere in sight when I made up that song, and an hour later... he is STILL singing it!

Richard and Hannah's Wedding

Today we got all dressed up and drove two hours to Sierra City, Ca for my cousin's wedding. He and his new wife have been together since they were in grade school, so all I can say is "it's about time." It was seriously a sweet little wedding, but Peanut isn't really interested in weddings, so he got to play outside with uncle James during the ceremony. After the wedding we walked over to the community hall and stayed at the reception for a little while, but ended up leaving early because it was incredibly crowded and Peanut was all about running around like a crazy toddler; besides that, it was going to be a long drive home. The day really flew by, actually, and before we knew it we were in Downieville having pizza by the river. I lived in Downieville for a couple years with my family and I consider it my hometown, even though I was born in the Bay Area. There is nothing like small town life, and I wish I could have lived there longer. Instead I will just have to live vicariously through my cousin and his lovely bride, as it seems they are making quite a life for themselves up there in the mountains. We are home again, and glad to be, but take a look at my beautiful mountains and say a happy prayer for Richard and Hannah's new life together.

It Is Raining

Well, it's started. Yesterday was a bit overcast, but still warm and even sunny sometimes. Today looks like the middle of winter, and it feels like it, too. It is suddenly very cold and raining, which means we could not go outside to play; so what did we do?

I have been working on deep-cleaning the house for the last couple of days, but today I had one too many cups of coffee and really went to work. I swept vacuumed as usual, but then I dusted (which happens about once a year), scrubbed walls and floors and moved furniture around. I still have some energy left, so I might go clean the bathroom...Nah!

Peanut played all day long, and while he was a little grumpy about not being able to go outside, he managed to keep himself busy. He played with his farm and airplane, he ran around the house like a crazy person and he pretended his new dinosaur was eating the fish right out of the fish tank. Now he is crawling around asking for a bath and being incredibly tired. I think the furniture arrangement has thrown him off, as he has been used to certain hiding places and jumping platforms, but now he has to stop and look around for new places to hide when he plays Hide-and-Seek with uncle James.

Daddy and James cleaned the gutters... in the rain... they will probably both catch cold and I will have to make more chicken soup. Speaking of soup, the recipe I posted the other day turned out fantastic. I was pretty impressed with myself, especially when I reheated the leftovers tonight, made some drop biscuits and had dinner ready in fifteen minutes. Nice. More time for cleaning.

Well, off to the bath and then to bed. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow; I will tell you about it when we get back.

Folsom Premium Outlets (a.k.a. Disneyland)

The good thing about me working 12 hour days is that I have lots of days off to spend at home with my Peanut.
The bad thing about me working 12 hour days is that I have lots of days off to spend with my Peanut. Not that I do not love to spend every second with my baby, but we (read: I) get bored sitting at home; that means we have to go out and find things to do that do not require spending too much money while keeping both of us entertained. We spend most of our time playing outside at home, but when I simply cannot look at my yard anymore I decide we must go out. We go to the park a lot, and we still play with some of our friends from my old baby group, but sometimes I really want to go shopping. Peanut does not generally like shopping, but he has been going with me since he was two days old, so he knows what to expect and he tolerates it pretty well. Today we went to the Folsom Premium Outlets to play. We have been here lots of times, as I used to work for Famous Footwear at the Outlet store, and Peanut loves to go and visit all of our old friends. Today we did something a little different than just shopping; we went all over the center and Paul got to play in all of the little rides.

I put him in one and put in 50 cents, but he actually did not like when the car moved, and asked to go find another one. We went to another car and he played in it for about 15 minutes (not running) before asking to get out. I thought that would be the end of our little adventure, but we passed another car (there are about fifteen of these things around the mall) and he had to play in it. So, we came to a truce. Mommy would get to look around a store, but then we had to go play on a ride. One ride for every store, and mommy got to look around as long as she wanted, but Little P also got to play for as long as he wanted without me telling him it was time to move on. He did not whine at me, and I did not whine at him. We were there for four hours. When it was clear that we were both tired we walked back to the car and my Peanut had a meltdown because he was leaving the "cars". I mean a giant meltdown, to where he was hyperventilating and still whimpering after he fell asleep (about 10 minutes after we started driving). I think one should only throw a fit like that when leaving Disneyland, but then I thought: Food, shopping, rides, lots of people... The Outlets are the Happiest Place on Earth!

Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

One of my friends at work made this soup and brought it to work for lunch. It is fabulous, and I told her so, so she gave me the recipe. Admittedly, I have not made it yet, but it is on the menu for tomorrow night's dinner. I will let you know if it turned out as good as hers, and you can tell me if yours was good, too.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts (I am going to use boneless breasts, but you can cut up a whole chicken, if that's your pleasure)

2 cans black beans (14 1/2 ounce) undrained

2 cans stewed tomatoes (14 1/2 ounce)

1 can tomato sauce (14 1/2 ounce)

1 cup of salsa (your favorite kind)

1 small can of green chilies

Throw everything in the crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours.

When it is finished, dish it up and add shredded cheese, crunchy tortilla strips and sour cream.

Yummy.