Weird Eats?

There are some shows on the Food Network and Travel Channel that take eating "Weird stuff'" to a whole new level. Sometimes I start gagging just watching them, and I'd probably lose any of the "food challenges" on Survivor. (Unless I was in the finale of a show like that and I was only one larva beetle away from a million dollars).

Anyways, we do a different version of weird eats around here. It's "whatever it takes to get these kids to eat breakfast." This parenting style has not been without its consequences. For example, about 2.5 years ago, Matt offered Brooke a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast.... which she was thrilled to accept. Now, she will ONLY eat PBJ at breakfast time. If you suggest putting one in her lunch box, or having one for dinner, she looks at you like you are on crack. "Mom, I only eat PBJ forBreakfast!" Ironically, she doesn't say that when I tell her we're having pancakes for dinner. Another item that has been reduced to a breakfast item is grilled cheese sandwiches. So far, I've not even offered that to Hannah for breakfast b/c it is a go-to item for lunch and dinner for her! I personally could eat them any time of day. And I can't physically eat a cup of tomato soup unless I have grilled cheese to go with it.

This blog post was inspired by the fact that this morning when I went into Hannah's room, she said "cookie?!"--- and I told her no. When we got downstairs and got dressed, she asked for a "nack"--snack. I've been battling to get breakfast down her lately.... today I figured out a magic solution (for the moment), I made her an eggo waffle (which she used to gobble up with syrup on it), and drizzled a little melted chocolate on it. I know, I know, not the greatest thing. But I want her to fill her little tummy up. She ate the entire waffle. Whatever works, I say!

Other dazzling combinations that have been seen for breakfast around here.... cheese and crackers and fruit. Fruit cups and cheese sticks. I've been known to take some leftover cream-chicken stuff from dinner the night before and put it over toast (because the leftovers are so good and I don't want to wait till lunch or dinner to eat them!). I've never been one to eat cold pizza, but I will warm up spaghetti for breakfast on occasion for myself.

Let me tell ya, sometimes you just need a break from granola bars or yogurt.

So, are you a weird-eats family too?

Catching Up, Our First Field Trip, and a short Rant.

Go ahead. You can say it. BLOG SLACKER. I'm going to get back on track. Really I'm pretty boring and feel like I'm mostly writing for my own entertainment here, so I just didn't get it done! But if you want to call me a blog slacker, I'm going to call you a blog-reader-slacker! No one participated in my "let's share some recipes" post. Big L on the forehead little ones...!

This month has been a busy one. We celebrated my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary. We got a sitter for the very first time (since they are usually our sitter), and treated them to dinner at Kobe's, along with another couple. Then we all came back here to enjoy dessert- a little wedding cake I had picked up. It was a great evening. I wish I could afford to eat at Kobes every week. But then I'd be saying I wish I could afford a personal trainer!

Here are a few pics from that evening:

This week- on the 13th- I got the opportunity to be a chaperone on Brooke's first school field trip. All five kindergarten classes went up to the fire station in Park City to start the day. We got a tour and then they have a fabulous fire-safety clown show that they did for us. It was at least a 45 minute presentation, and I was so impressed by how well the kiddos sat and listened. That doesn't happen in my house! After we ate our sack lunches on the floor of the fire station garage, we got back on the busses and made our way to the pumpkin patch. It was a cold, breezey, drizzly day. But it wasn't all-out raining, so we got on the hay racks, rode out to the muddy field to pick out our pumpkins, and then went back and played for awhile. The kids had a blast, the adults were all freezing.

Here are some pictures;

I had four kiddos that I was in charge of that day. Brooke, Ella, Kaylin, and Kamden. Kamden lives in our neighborhood. His mom is one of the ones I blogged about on my bus-stop version of desperate housewives. Not the neighbor or the psycho up the street; the other one. Anyways, Kamden is a sweet kid who has way too much energy for his own good. He's ornery but really seems to be begging for affection and attention. So he was in my group. He did pretty good, but the pumpkin patch was a trip, literally. He had on these cowboy boots that were way too big for him (we were supposed to wear shoes that could get muddy, and boy did they get muddy). He lost a boot halfway up the steps onto the hayrack. Between that and the "I told you it was too big" pumpkin he had in his "borrowed from the teacher because he forgot his" backpack, it was a trip getting him onto the hayrack. This was after he flat out faceplanted in the muddy pumpkin field. I was really glad when that part of the trip was over!

Brooke was freezing because her idiot mom didn't put her in a warmer coat that had a hood.

My little group:

They allow two parents per class to ride on the bus and the other ones follow in their own car. Since I've volunteered in the class several times, the teacher asked me to be one of the bus parents which I was thrilled about. It was really fun. I love being a part of the classroom.

Last night was the Mothers and More Open House. I helped with/did door prizes for the one in 2005, was the coordinator of it in 2006 and 2007, ended up doing a lot of the work and helping the person who did it in 2008 when I was trying to take the year off from it, and then was the coordinator of it again last night. It is a lot of work, getting about 30 door prizes, about 2o things to go in goodie bags, helping my table decor team figure out what we want to do there, getting the flyers and postcards made and distributed, etc. I'm so glad it is done. It was a smaller turnout than I'd hoped/expected, but the evening in general went well which I'm so glad for.

Did I title this post, in part, "a short rant??" Well since I did, I better go ahead and rant. Last night, much to my absolute shock and disbelief, someone came to the Open House I had not expected. My husband's step-cousins (lesbian) girlfriend. I don't specify the lesbian part here because I care or have big issue about it; but just a fact that shows how funky some of this family stuff can get. To put it bluntly, most of the family does not like her. At all. Because she is a bitch, she stirs-the-pot all the time, and she is always doing stuff for attention. (I was going to use the phrasing that Matt used tonight, but I think some of you are still trying to decide if i'm a decent person after my desperate bus-wives post. So i'll try to be good). ANYWAYS. She shows up at this Open House. Don't like her. Totally shocked (apparently we had some good advertising somewhere). Once I got over the inital shock, and made my "YOU WILL NOT BELEIVE WHO IS HERE" phone call to Matt, I went back into the banquet hall to greet guests, mingle, make sure everyone was settling in okay. I thought to myself "better go talk to her or she'll say some horrible crap story about me being a snob if I don't." So I MADE A POINT of walking over to her table and chatting with her and her friend for a few minutes. Then I continued on the rest of the evening. I was a speaker, door prize hander-outer, etc. It was busy. But I did my part and at least went and chatted with her. SO TONIGHT, I take a peek at her facebook page, because I just know that at some point she is going to have something to say. We're not FB friends, but she doesn't have her profile blocked so I can check it out when I want to see what kind of junk she is saying. So it says, "...I had the most interesting evening. I went somewhere new tonight, was totally shunned by family...I guess the Bible was right, the more people are mean to you the more God Blesses you. Thank God I'm more mature than that. AND the behavior was noticed by strangers!..." HELLO. I did not shun her. I WANTED to SHUN her, but I made a POINT of NOT shunning her so she wouldn't talk crap about me. My cousin in law (her "sister in law" if it was a legal thing) was there too and she came and sat with me, so that is obviously part of the problem. But I INVITED her and saved a seat for her, so of course she would sit with me. Anyways. Just pissed me off. She thinks I shunned her? she has NO IDEA.

on that happy note- here are a few other cute pics of the girls playing dress up.

She loves these earrings

Love-me.

A Blog-hosted recipe exchange

Tis the season to start doing some cooking that is fabulous for the cooler weather. I decided to try to host a little "blog recipe exchange".

Here's how it will work. First it will only work if you break down and actually leave a COMMENT. Leave your favorite recipe in the comment section, or the LINK to your favorite recipe somewhere out there. Let's make this one be for main dishes or appetizers! Then I'll post them all in another post along with sharing a few of my favorites.

If you all do a good job in sharing, then we can do another one for sides and desserts! :)

Yippeee!

SO--- listen to your stomach, dig out your favorite recipe; and share with the world!
(don't know how to post a comment? See the little blue word "comment" on the bottom of this post. Click it- and go from there!)

And I don't know about you but TGIF tomorrow. TGIF. It has been one hell of a week!