Long Overdue Halloween Pictures - part 1

An impromptu visit to a local church fall festival. We improvised a costume with bunny ears from Gramma's house. Little Mister was dressed as, uh, a toddler. Who doesn't have much hair.

Weekly Menu

Lunches
Chickpea Salad
Garlic Bean and Vegetable Soup (recipe from chickpea bag, I'll post if good)

Dinners:
Double Potato Soup and Bread Machine Rolls
Mushroom Orzo and steamed broccoli
Mushroom, Pepper and Onion Pizza (using Bread Machine dough)
Black Bean Tortilla Soup

Five Latest Favorites - Tag

Tagged by Heather.

The task is to report on my five latest obsessions. 'Obsessions' is a bit strong, so I'll post on my five latest favorites.

1. Pumpkin Bread. Still making this recipe. I made some this yesterday and we've already polished off one loaf. All four of us love it.

2. Jasmine Green Tea. I love the Good Earth brand, followed by Stash. It has the double whammy of good taste and soothing aroma.

3. Healthy Eating. Now that I'm back home full time, I'm relishing in being able to cook and serve good, healthy meals again. We ate okay while I was working, but some nights I was just too tired to try new recipes or cook some old recipes that take longer than 30 minutes.

4. The pitter patter of little feet on our apartment hardwood floors. Such a sweet sound.

5. Just being a mama. Not having to split my focus is wonderful.

We're here!

Hi! Just a quick update.

We have settled into our corporate apartment in San Antonio. We'll be here for the month of November. After that? To be determined....

We'd love some prayers as we try to find a house or decide if we should rent for awhile. So far, no luck on the home buying front. We put a low offer on one, but were rejected (or, more accurately, rejected the counter the seller proposed). It's nice, but quite overpriced for the square footage. The seller is pretty adamant about keeping the selling price above appraisal price and we are having a hard time justifying paying above appraisal, especially in such a buyers market. But, we may get desperate....

We're looking daily and hoping something good will come on the market soon.

It's funny to be in an apartment again; I feel like I should be donning a back pack and heading to class. We have Little Mister sleeping in a play pen in our closet (someone call CPS) and this morning he was up at 4:45 (darn you time change), so, of course, we were too.

I made the mistake of showing Little A the pool yesterday and she swears that she won't be cold if we go swimming. It's 70 out, which is a bit cool for swimming. But, I may get desperate. Trying to entertain two kids in a 900 sq foot apartment with minimal toys will be a challenge. In fact, I just turned around to see that Little Mister made his own fun by unraveling the paper towel roll.

Yesterday Little A looked at me at 3:30pm and said loudly "I'm boring. Let's go somewhere."

Reunited

Friday night. I walk into the house after a long day of meetings, flying and travel. Head pounding, body aching (I’ll realize on Saturday that I have the flu). I drop my bags at the door and head to your room.

I see you and your Dad sitting on the bed with a stack of books. Blond curls, mismatched pajamas, sparkling blue eyes and the smile. THE smile. The smile that makes me whole.

‘Mama!’ you giggle. I am now more than whole.

I change out of my work clothes, wash off the airplane funk. I lay down next to you. You nestle into me, your bare feet on top of mine.

“I've been missing you mama.”
“I’ve been missing you too.”

Because life had gotten boring and all

Husband starts a new job on Monday.
In San Antonio.
I will work my last day on Monday.
In Fort Worth.
We will move at some point.
And find a house.
And move out of our current house.
I don't know anyone in San Antonio.
Oh, and we must decide what to do about our unexpectedly vacant home in MN.
And we are all sick.

Whew.

Cowboy Game

Husband and I got the opportunity to go to the inaugural game at the new Cowboy stadium. It's impressive and we had a fun night out. Thanks to Dave and Erin for babysitting for us! Great Seats!

$14 Margarita. Yummy!

Little Mister 1.5

Words: Quite a talker. He loves to repeat whatever you ask. He is putting 2 words together now, like ‘bye mommy’ and ‘more cheeos.’ He can identify most of his extended family members and loves looking at pictures and telling me who he sees. Words we hear often: dink, all-done, mo (more), mommy, daddy, sissy, NO, baby, apple, oh-no, I dunno, walk, outside, NO!, raisin, softie (for his blanket), eyes, nose, mouf, ears, micky mouse, elmo, abby dabby, walrus, effant (elephant), puppy, zeba (zebra), hold you, NO, show. And an impressive array of animal sounds. My favorites are his versions of snake and elephant.

Eats: Lots of dry cereal (cheerios, wheat chex and shredded wheat are his favorites), oatmeal, steamed broccoli, pasta, peanuts and raisins, oranges.

Actions: He loves to climb and is getting pretty adept at mastering ladders at playgrounds. Granted I’ve saved his life several times, but he can do it on his own more often than not. He loves to get a reaction from his sister, whether it be by turning off her favorite show, taking a puzzle piece away from her and running away or walking over to her and bopping her on the head while she plays. It’s great. He is also really determined to get his point across. Several times he’ll say something to me over and over, seemingly roll his eyes when I can’t figure out what he’s saying and then take me hand and lead me to what he needs, be it a specific snack, toy or book. I love how much he loves books.

Things I want to remember at this age:

• How he likes to sing songs before bed and that he’ll tell me no if I sing a song that isn’t of his choosing. I’ll just keep starting different songs until he finally tells me ‘yeah.’ Then he claps when I finish the song, which makes the initial rejection worth it.


• How he buries his head in the left side of my neck when he is tired.


• The way he happily says ‘bye’ to his day care class each day when we leave.


• His fish face.


• How excited he is to find a picture of a dog in a book and how he’ll usually hug and kiss it, all the while saying ‘ahhh, puppy.’

Weekly Menu

I'm determined to get my act together this week, starting with planning our week's meals. As of now, I'm not traveling this week, so I plan to enjoy a full week of meals with my family.

Saturday - tomato basil soup and grilled cheese
Sunday - lunch: bowtie pasta with creamy mushroom sauce, dinner: baked potatoes and fruit
Monday - beans and rice with cornbread
Tuesday - Bruschetta pasta, bread machine bread
Wednesday - Scrambled Eggs, toast (using leftover bread from Tues), fruit
Thursday - Costco Ravioli and fruit
Friday - collapse in a heap and get dinner out

Minnesota Labor Day

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