Welcome to my world. I see stuff like this on a daily—and sometimes hourly—basis.
Month: March 2015
Kitchen Lego Battle
A bunch of Owen’s Legos migrated to the kitchen counter… He said they were having a battle.
Playground during spring break
She can finally—most of the time—make it up the tube herself!
Target Kids
Owen showing Katie what she looked like with her new headband.
Tonight’s jammies
Helloooo HelloFresh!
I’ve been thinking about trying HelloFresh for months, so when a friend offered a free box ($60 value), I grabbed it!
I selected the Omnivore box and then selected the meals I wanted, opting against one of the suggested meals because I am not a big artichoke fan:
- Rosemary Beef Flatbread with Caramelized Onion & Broccoli
- Spicy Shrimp ‘Fra Diavolo’ with Garlic Crostini
- Pan-Seared Calamari over Bulgur & Chorizo Hash with Parsley Gremolata
It’s refrigerated and shipped UPS—you pick what day it’s coming so you know for sure. I was very impressed upon opening the box—everything was superbly packaged and labeled (each meals’ ingredients are bagged together, minus the refrigerated proteins) inside an insulated bag. I was surprised they actually used frozen water bottles instead of dry ice (I tweeted them saying it was cool, and they replied that it was to reduce their carbon footprint) so we got four drinkable bottles of water as well! The three days’ worth of meals arrives in one box.
Once I actually started the meal prep, I was even more impressed—shrimp were peeled and deveined, garlic heads were peeled, everything was the exact amount required (except the red pepper flakes!), and the instructions were beautiful and detailed (I see why it’s as expensive as it is!). For us it’s above budget, but as a treat now and again to try new dishes it’s definitely worth it!
I discovered I like fresh oregano:
Spicy Shrimp ‘Fra Diavolo’ with Garlic Crostini (download recipe):
It was quite good. It wasn’t something I’d likely make regularly but it was a nice change of pace. And I had been worried about portion size, but Tom and I had a full meal and even had some leftover!
If anyone is interested, using my personal code AV8W2E will get you $40 off your first box! (I also get a $20 discount on a future box.) I definitely recommend trying at least one box as it’s definitely worth it for $20. There are no minimum purchases, you can postpone up to three months of future deliveries, and you can cancel at any time. They also send you a reminder email on the last day of meal selection to make sure you have either picked the meals you want or paused that week’s delivery. Of course they’re hoping you will get sucked in, and I can easily see how that would happen—I only planned on getting this one box, but I find myself looking ahead at the upcoming recipes to see what’s being offered…and drooling. 🙂
I can’t wait to make the other two meals!!
Yay! The meat people finally found us!
Yes, we buy frozen meat from someone’s van! We’ve done it for ~14 years now across every PCS move and have NEVER once been unhappy!
LET’S GET GRILLING!!
Katie roars!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEisMIDvWyQ<
Twirling!
How quickly I feel a 180.
Ever since Katie got healthy, she’s been a complete pill. Whining and crying about every. stupid. thing. Like daddy was in the garage. Or I wouldn’t carry her to the table to eat. Or her sock/shoe/marker/toy wouldn’t work. Or she wanted her iPad but she couldn’t reach it. And it wasn’t her normal 30-second-and-over-it tantrum, but on and on and on and on and on and on and on.
Today she wouldn’t stop crying about stupid shit so I just put her in her room every time she wouldn’t stop crying because I wasn’t going to listen to it (so she could cry, but not bother us). I think I did it three times. Tom would bring her back down when she stopped crying, and I wouldn’t even say or do anything and she’d be crying within minutes. For no good reason. It didn’t take long before I was at my limit.
It was amazing how quickly I went from fearing for her life (i.e. being paranoid about her fever) to being annoyed by her very presence.
Isn’t parenthood fun?
Bedtime hugs.
Does anyone else see a college boy?
Sometimes I catch a glimpse of Owen and he looks so old.
Shopping hugs.
I can’t believe we own a minivan. A MINIVAN.
But of course it wasn’t easy. 🙂
Tom went for the test drive at 8:30am and long story short, that one wasn’t the car. So I was researching cars at home and texting him info—the dealership had a few other Siennas on the lot so he was test driving those as well. In the end, we decided that we were going back to a FWD instead of an AWD because there were a lot more 2012 FWD cars available to choose from. (We’d still have preferred AWD, but figured for the few times we’d really need it—the few times it snows that bad here, I just don’t go anywhere and for the once every year or two that we go to Michigan in the winter—it just wasn’t worth it to spend the extra money.)
On a whim, I had Tom look at a 2014 because, well, why not? A 2012 was cheaper, obviously, but it was already four years old. There happened to be a 2014—loaded, even!—for CHEAPER than the one we had looked at (and had been interested in) last night! And Tom said it was REALLY nice. And it had super low miles—about 6,700! (The lady had bought it new and decided she wanted an AWD!)
There were no crazy addon fees so out the door (and with our trade-in) it was still less than the 2012 we walked out on! YAY!
After a family test drive back to the dealer (they royally screwed up our address so had to redo the paperwork plus we had to give them the second key and pick up our floor mats), these are the major bonuses we’ve noticed thus far:
- I don’t have to duck to get in the car. Plus? The driver’s seat AUTOMATICALLY reverses when you turn the car off to allow more room to exit (and then renter). It freaked me out the first few times and I thought it was stupid. Now I love it.
- Maybe most importantly—and one of my absolute requirements for the new car—was the rear backup sensors/alerts (the Acadia had them and the Mazda didn’t and it drove me insane since I’m horrible at backing up). The Sienna has front, rear, AND side sensors—and they’re amazing!! (Of course it also has the parking assist lines which are cool but will take some getting used to.)
- The lift gate opens more easily via the remote…AND you don’t have to unlock it first! (I was used to that with the Acadia then the Mazda didn’t do it and it frustrated me endlessly!)
- The doors automatically unlock and lock more easily with the smart remote (the Mazda was a crapshoot if it would work nicely or at all).
- There’s a button to fold in the side mirrors. What what?! As someone who can’t judge distances well and is paranoid about hitting the mirrors at drive-up windows—and as such usually ends up having to open the door to reach—this is a total win. 😀
- The bluetooth sync works much, much better. In the Mazda, it seemed like my phone rarely automatically connected and you could either listen to XM or your phones’ directions but not both at the same time (but sometimes it would work…?!). This car does it seamlessly and perfectly. I was also able to transfer ALL my contacts to the car in about 30 seconds with one button press.
- The navigation is amazingly better. It’s not just newer with better map info, but it has more POIs and it’s much quicker to find something. It’s not perfect but I know I’ll use it more than we did the Mazda.
- The kids are BIG fans of the DVD player.
- The floor protector we had for the Highlander—that we moved to the Acadia and then the Mazda even though it wasn’t a good fit—fits nicely (even though it’s the wrong color).
The only meh thing so far is there’s no good place for my magnetic phone mount. I haven’t tried the CD changer spot yet (which was recommended for the Mazda and worked well) because I don’t think I want to cover up the touch screen this time. It fits in the slide out cup holder, but it’s too low to be useful for navigation. But that’s minor.
So overall we’re very happy. Of course we don’t like the bigger payment (we’re back up to what we were paying before we downsized to the Mazda) but it is what it is. 🙂
Katie’s finally feeling better!
I finally caved.
About a week ago I thought “Shoot me now. I’m starting to think about a minivan. Just barely, but it’s there.”
I understand the love and convenience…I’ve just NEVER wanted one. Not that I really care what anyone thinks, but I didn’t want to drive a “mom” car. I like my cars a bit sporty-ish. And I’m not good with long cars.
But I’m tired of being packed in like sardines when we take trips. This last trip was a test because it was a smaller car than we had for the last road trip—and we didn’t have the dog (there was just NO way she’d have fit with us this time). And it doesn’t help that I don’t really love my new car. But, overall, the Mazda is just too small for us. We are both big, tall people and both have to crouch and duck to even get IN the car, we both constantly smack our heads on the lift gate (things we didn’t really consider when buying it), and it just feels really cramped inside. And with the kids getting bigger it’s harder for them to get in and out, too (I know kids are agile, but it’s really pathetic the contortions that Owen needs to take to get in and out of the car). And the doors open wider than any of our previous cars… Basically, we don’t love the Mazda and need something else, so we’re moving up to the minivan.
We test drove two (Honda and Toyota) before we got the Acadia and I didn’t love either. But, I reasoned, if we’re going to do it, I want it done before July when we trek to Michigan. But I despise car shopping/buying and don’t want to go through the hassle again so soon (less than a year since we got the Mazda). Ugh.
As one of my friends commented:
I will never love a minivan (nor will I trust a person who claims to 😉 ) but it’s by far the most practical vehicle at this stage in our lives. Just add it to the list of sacrifices we make as parents!
So I had to bring it up with Tom. After he gave me a sufficient amount of grief of all kinds, we researched a bit…found a loaded 2012 Toyota…and Tom went to test drive it today. (I was going to go but Katie was still sick.) He was able to bring it home for me to drive and it wasn’t bad. We decided to see what kind of a deal they could give us, so Tom went back to deal. He was texting me updates and I was Googling and sending him info and basically, my blood was boiling—they added about $4k in stupid fees. Really?! And they wouldn’t budge on ANY of them!
Base $30,988
PDI (“Pre-Delivery Inspection”—it’s Toyota Certified) $1495
Trim package (which we didn’t ask for—they just automatically add it to all used vehicles!) $475
Processing fee $499
…
Total delivered price: $34,874
They won’t take off any of the addons so we walked. Buh bye. And then I started researching more and found some at another local dealer so Tom made an appointment for tomorrow morning. Fingers are crossed.
Katie’s still sick.
Katie doesn’t like to cuddle when she’s sick, which has both good and bad points. So when she wanted to sit with me on Day 3 of being sick, I let her.
Otherwise, this is pretty much what she looked like for two straight days:
Fevers suck.
What freaks me out the most is her fever. This is her first time being sick sick (maybe she had a touch of fever when she was a baby but I don’t recall). Her fever has increased slightly (99 this morning…to 100…to 101.5 now) so of course I was worried and paranoid. She just looks so small and pathetic. 🙁
I have the baby monitor set up in her room and at least she was quiet…until just now when I started hearing little whimpers. I hate to hear her cry, but she honestly looks dead on the monitor (it’s about 18″ away from her face) so I like any sign she’s alive.
I don’t anticipate sleeping much tonight. The only positive is that we preemptively barf- protected her room.
It’s Katie’s turn to be sick.
It’s been three days since Owen was sick (he also missed a day of school!) so I was hoping she missed it but apparently she didn’t. At least my laziness paid off—I still had the towels on the couch and the floor from when Owen was sick so it saved me a bunch of cleanup.
She still has a little bit of attitude as you can see. 🙂
She pretty much lived on the beanbag and thankfully kept drinking water (which wasn’t too bad to clean up when it eventually came back up).
Typical bedtime attire
I’d say 90% of the time, she has to wear a tutu to bed. 🙂
He LOVES his t-ball stuff.
As soon as he walked in the door…
Puzzle Queen
This was a totally new set of puzzles. I showed her how one set matched and she did the rest with very little help. (Sorry about the beeping in the background.)
Owen’s first T-ball practice
He actually missed the first practice since we were on vacation, but this was HIS first practice. He was VERY excited.
Running the bases before practice!
The ages of the team are 5/6 but Owen is honestly a full foot taller than most of them! Most of the kids are about the size of Katie!! (I think there’s another age 5/6 team but it’s for kids that have previous experience.)
Katie was a great cheerleader! “Owen, good job practicing. Keep practicing with daddy! Good practicing!”
Throwing drill:
Katie does whatever her big brother does—she was throwing pine cones at the fence just like Owen was throwing balls at the fence!
Getting their team hats and shirts! They’re the Raptors!
How Katie paints.
She puts so much water on that I always hear “Mooom! My paper ripped!” And shortly after: “Mom! I need more water!”
Charlie helping Katie draw
Yelp ROTD—Sushi Jin
Much to my surprise, this happened while we were on vacation (on March 16)! I haven’t had a Review of the Day since 2011!! See the full review on Yelp!
Not a surprise we wanted.
Owen had said his belly hurt after dinner but we didn’t think much of it since he says that now and again and it’s never anything.
So I forgot all about it and went to bed excited (though late), thinking there’s nothing like falling asleep at midnight planning on your first, nice, deep, uninterrupted sleep in nine days (post-vacation)…only to be awoken at 12:30 by a kid crying in your doorway saying they’ve puked and need help cleaning up.
Holy hell.
It was everywhere. And it was some of the worst I’ve smelled. I knew right away there was no way I could handle it all by myself, so I had him wait there while I quickly went to wake up Tom. Between the two of us, it still took a good 30 minutes to clean up.
We had put a huge bowl next to his bed (“just in case”) but there was no point as he had obviously just puked and then rolled over the edge of the bed and puked again. There was puke covering about a 4′ square section of carpet, he was covered (hair, PJs, face), all of his bedding (including bed skirt!) had to be removed…and it had even started soaking through the mattress protector. We had to clean the carpet as best we could without getting out the Rug Doctor (which would surely have woken Katie up) and we had to get out (and blow up) the air mattress (since I wasn’t going to put him back in bed without a barf-proof mattress pad cover). Then we covered the floor with towels and started a load of laundry. And hoped that would be our only wakeup call.
The only thing I could think was “At least we were at home and not at the condo or in a hotel or in the car.”
I think this sums up our vacation nicely.
Except our trip also had nice weather and grandparents!
But seriously, it was fun overall and I’m glad we got the chance to go. That said, it would have obviously been a lot better if Tom hadn’t been sick for most of it. He spent probably the first two full days between the bed and—TMI—bathroom. Neither of us got much sleep, as I woke up every time he got up (the first night there, we were both up from about midnight to 5am). Then he got to sleep all the next day while I had to function with the kids (and deal with the beach and sand and baths, etc.). But the weather was gorgeous, the kids had a great time (which is the most important part), and it was wonderful spending the week with the grandparents!
Someone else’s turn for a nap!
For someone who rarely naps, he had a good nap, too—just under two hours!
Stopping to stretch!
“I have got to stop wearing blue and yellow!” (Grannie Lin had kept teasing him about wearing blue and yellow instead of green and white.)
