give credit where credit is due

I love to get recipes from people, especially in their own writing.  Many times I'll ask someone to write out the recipe on one of their own cards (makes it more special for some reason) so I can put it in my box.  That way I'll think of them whenever I pull it out.  I inherited this practice from my mom.  :)

So recently as I gave one of my recipes to someone, I thought about the proper etiquette as far as properly stating who exactly the recipe was from.  For instance, if friend A gave you the original recipe and friend B wanted a copy, if they didn't know each other, would you write "Recipe from: Friend A" on the card?  In my opinion, I think you should just write that it is from yourself.  Then when your friend passes it on, they'll write that it is from their kitchen and so on.  The recipe from my sister for her Hot Pudding Cake wouldn't be as fun to bring out if it said it was from some random person I didn't know.  But is that not giving proper credit???  Hmm...

my day over the past 24 hours

7:45- while eating dinner, realize I'm not feeling well
8:30- go to bed
10:00- throw up A LOT
11:00- the other kind of sick requiring the toilet
12:30-same as above
1:50- throw up again A LOT
toss and turn remainder of the night
9:00a.m.- throw up all the Gatorade the doc told me to drink
1:30- attempt 1/2 a piece of toast thinking it will help me feel less weak...throw up


Conclusion: Food poisoning is not fun.

p.s.

When I got back this afternoon, Chris and Cam weren't home yet, so I decided to do some baking. Normally I don't think a cookie is worth eating unless it has some sort of chocolate in it. But I decided to try this recipe and they are FABULOUS!! For a non-chocolate cookie, I would give them a 10!!



Click here for recipe...

glen ivy

Today three friends and I (Cheryl, Emily, Jen) went to Glen Ivy for the day. Emily had 4 free passes so we couldn't pass it up! I couldn't go all the way into the jacuzzi (being pregnant and all), but I was able to dip into a warm pool, lay out, enjoy a yummy lunch, and most importantly, talk, talk, talk. :)

At the end of our time, my friends decided to dip into the mud pool. I just couldn't make myself do it. The thought of dipping in muddy water and wiping mud all over yourself, only then to let it bake on by the sun was SOOO unappealing to me. Call me a wimp, but I was quite content to watch and take pictures. Speaking of pictures, we didn't get many and the ones we did were of us in our swimsuits. And speaking for myself...I'd rather leave those pictures on the computer! :) But it sure was a fun day!

Chris took Cam to OT this morning and then to Palm Springs for lunch and to a new golf store. They are currently at a park out there and will then head home. Tonight we will begin to assemble our upstairs again after all the upheaval with the painting and tile that has been going on.

Ok, that's a quick update. Sorry again for the lack of pictures!

the time has nearly come...

So Cam's new room is almost complete, which is bittersweet. Sweet because I'm excited to see it all put together (I'll include a pic later), and bitter because it means we have to start the transition to the big boy bed. I am not very optimistic about it all. Cam has never slept a night in a real bed. When he has woken up at 2 or 3 in the morning when on vacation and we have had to pull him into bed with us, it hasn't been pretty (meaning it took about an hour and a half of squirming for him to fall asleep).

Anyway, wanting mainly to limit the number of middle of the night interruptions, I would LOVE, LOVE some advice from those of you who have made the transition already. I would like to know things like:

*Is it best to start out trying to get him to nap in his bed, before attempting a full night?
*Should I try and sleep next to him or on the floor for the first few times?
*We were thinking about putting the baby gate at the door, knowing he'll probably get up and try and get out. Good idea?
*He has never slept with a pillow and he detests blankets. Should I just plop him on the bed with just the fitted sheet at first?

Any and all suggestions are welcome!!!

back

We are back from the weekend with Chris's family. More than just a visit, we went for a very special event. Chris's great aunt, Bertha Ragan Tickey, had the local high school's new softball field dedicated and named after her. She was an AMAZING softball player for a few decades. In fact, many of you have heard of the Heisman trophy, which is given annually to the MVP of college football. Well, the equivalent for college softball is called the Bertha Ragan Tickey award! Pretty cool. :)

Cam and I didn't get to attend too much of the actual event. The meaning of it all seemed to be lost on him in comparison to the fun he was having in the new boots grandma bought him. It was pretty drizzly most of the weekend, which made for some killer puddles for stomping.



Ok, after a long day of traveling, there is nothing we feel like more than putting Cam to bed and enjoying some Tivo catch-up!

Cameron loves...
eggos, a.k.a. "waffas". Do you think he noticed a difference with my new waffles, made from whole wheat flour and olive oil? Nope! Too bad Chris doesn't fall for the same trick. :)



Cameron could care less about...
these two surfer pictures which have been in his nursery, but I sure think they are adorable. Since he is moving to his big boy room (decorated in sports), I have no need for these and would love to give them away. So if you have a child or know someone who would want two cute, pratically new, surfer wall decorations, let me know!



Cameron is learning about...
the baby inside mommy's tummy. Watch this...

misc.

*This weekend I plowed through several boxes of girl clothes from my sister-in-law. I have to admit it was quite fun to envision our new little one in all the cute outfits...again proving my (and many people's) theory that there is so much more out there for girls than boys!



*I mentioned before that my sister gave me a subscription to Rachael Ray for Christmas, with the stipulation that I have to at least try one recipe from each issue. I tried my first one, Orange-Balsamic Chicken Thighs with Pecans and Sage Butter Pasta (long name, huh?). I used chicken breasts instead as chicken thighs gross me out. It was pretty good, but not a "wow". Will try again next issue!



*Our painter comes tomorrow to start on repainting our guest room so we can make it Cam's room in addition to re-painting the nursery for baby girl. I'm so excited! We are also having him paint the guest bath as Chris has always hated the color. I actually love it (it is a bright blue), but seeing as he still hates it after 3 years, I gave in to repainting it. :)

*We are back in the thick of 24. We took last season off b/c we were a little burnt out, but it is good to be back with Kiefer :)

*Had to go get Cam from nursery yesterday and go home early. I was bummed because this was the first time in a while. Unfortunately there were a lot of babies crying or making noises (even baby's happy noises make him cry).It is obviously a reality when you have a room full of babies, but it sure was heartbreaking to walk in and see him, sitting by himself facing the wall, crying. I cheered him right up as we left by stopping by the donut table. :)

*For some reason one of the chores I hate the most is keeping our kitchen counters clean. I'm fine keeping them clutter free, but I hate making sure they are crumb free. I also hate when I run my hands across them and there are lots of spots of caked on food. The best way I know how to get rid of them, besides scrubbing, is to put super wet pieces of napkin on each one. I let them sit for about 20 minutes, and then they easily wipe off. Not sure why I included this one in my post, but I always like finding out how people clean.

redeemed

So after several of your comments encouraging us to give The Gourmet Pizza Shoppe another try, we decided to go for it. I'm happy to report that we are officially fans. I wouldn't say "die hard fans"...but we really enjoyed our meal last night and will definitely return. We tried two different kinds, Annie Oakley (ranch, chicken, bacon, angel hair pasta, cheese) and some Wild West one (meatballs, potato wedges, cashews, cheese). Both were quite scrumptious. :)



By the way, I need to claim false advertisement on Jen's part for telling me what a HUGE fan she was of the place. When I texted her as to what flavor we should try, she replied that she has only really had pepperoni or Canadian bacon. As I told her, I feel that is tragic (considering they are known for their unique pizza flavors) and it is similar to going to the Cheesecake Factory and ordering plain cheesecake. Who does that??? :)

H-E-double hockey sticks

Yesterday was kind of a day from you know where. We dropped Cam off at my parents' the night before so Chris and I could go to a couples game night with our church. I decided to spend the night since this was the first time Cam had spent the night at my parents and I wasn't sure how he would do. After waking up briefly at 4:15, he was up for good by 5:00. He was super duper cranky all morning (except for the 45 minutes I was gone and he was with my mom...I 'm weary of analyzing why this is ALWAYS the case).

After OT, because he was so tired, I could not keep him awake for the drive home. I thought since he had only slept for 15 minutes in the car, I would attempt a nap a littler later. That flopped as a few minutes after putting him down he started screaming bloody murder. I finally went in only to find the poor little thing had his ankle stuck. I felt so bad but knew he wouldn't be taking a nap.

Walmart was the kicker. I was so over his crankiness that I violated my "I can't always give him a snack at the store" rule big time. I wish I could have taken a picture of him with one hand holding a sucker and the other hand going in and out of a pretzel bag I had opened for him.

After going over his TV limit for the day due to not knowing what else to do, I decided it was car play time. This is his new favorite pastime where we sit in the car and I read to him or sing while he climbs back and forth and plays with all the buttons. While we were in there, all of my frustrations melted away in an instant...as soon as I heard him start to sing "Jesus Loves Me" all on his own. Granted, I only knew it was this song by the tune and the few scattered words I could actually understand, but it made me forget the entire day. It is amazing how one moment like that can erase hours of yuckiness!

Here is a pic of him quite excited about "car time":

burning questions

Here are a few things I've always wondered... (really. If you know any answers, please share!)

1. If grapes (or any fruit for that matter) are sour and not sweet, are they still as nutritious?

2. What is the difference between green onions and scallions?

3. Can you put raw ground beef into the crockpot instead of having to brown it first (I feel like having to brown it first defeats the purpose of "fast and easy")?

4. Which is the healthiest part of the broccoli, the trunk or the tree?

crafts and kelly

Whenever I've been asked what hobbies I'm into, I'm always at a loss. The only things I really love to do are cooking and baking. I know many people are into crafts, but I just can't jump on board. In general, I'm not a huge fan simply because I lack motivation to work on things that I can't use. Since I'm not into displaying crafty things in my home, I rarely participate in making them. I usually skip the craft time at my Mom's group because I see them more as things that will clutter up my house, which I'm a huge proponent of VERY LITTLE clutter in my house (in fact, I think one time my sister accused me of being to sparse of a decorator!).

Scrap booking seems to be huge right now. Here are my thoughts on that:
A) It is an expensive hobby (but again if I was INTO it, it wouldn't be a waste of money because it would be something I would just budget for...so I don't think it is a waste)
B) If I can be truly honest, unless someone specifically tells me, "Take a look at the pages I made", I always tend to look just at the pictures themselves. I would venture to guess this is the case with most people, unless they themselves are into scrap booking.
C) Knowing my track record with crafts, I can see myself buying all the cute stuff, then getting tired of it and quitting half way through, leaving 1/2 a book that would never be completed.

There is one craft that I really enjoy doing, which is cross stitch. I rarely do them because again, I would never hang them in my home because they just aren't my style. And I wouldn't give them as gifts, so I just never get them. However this year I decided to start the tradition my mom has with my sister and I, which is to give us a new ornament each year. I thought it would be a perfect excuse to do a cross stitch because it would make a great ornament and I found a super cute one of Pirates of the Caribbean (which is one of Cam's favorites at Disneyland). However we are now two weeks into January, and here is where I'm at...



yep...I lost motivation and yet another craft sits undone...oh well. Maybe someday I'll find some sort of hobby. :)

restaurant review

First off, welcome Sierra Grace!! My sister had her third daughter yesterday. We are so thankful she was able to get to the hospital on time as her second daughter came VERY fast! The only bad thing is that I won't be able to meet her for a couple years since they live across they world. :(

Ok, so onto my restaurant review. We had heard good things about The Gourmet Pizza Shoppe (in Redlands and Calimesa) so we decided to give it a try. The menu is almost overwhelming to look at based on the number of pizzas to choose from. We decided on The Brando, which included cream cheese, pesto, pepperoni, sausage, cashews, green onions, angel hair pasta, and mozzarella.

Chris gave it an 8, I gave it a 7. It was good pizza, but considering all of those tasty toppings, I was expecting a flavor explosion in my mouth. I couldn't really taste much else besides the meat, cheese, and occasional cashew (which actually were good!). It also has thin crust, which doesn't appeal to us "thicker the crust the better" people. Considering that a large pizza is about $25, I don't think we'll make this a regular stop.

Sorry this is so fuzzy. We were using my little pocket camera and it wasn't behaving.


So there you go. If you are interested in trying a pizza with really unique toppings, this is your place. If you want to fall on the ground because the pizza is so good...hmmm...I can't quite recommend it.

belated Christmas

This is a little late, but I wanted to post a few pictures from our Christmas with Chris's side of the family. We celebrated Jan. 4 at our house. Chris' parents, along with his aunt and Deb came out early so they could golf on Friday. Saturday we began with yet another round of Land of Nod. Am I obsessed with this breakfast? You bet. But I probably won't make them again until we have another special occasion, which I'm sure our arteries will thank us for!

Sorry this one is a little dark...


Cameron and Lauren playing with the new fridge toy he got from his aunt and uncle...


Cam and his cousins were spoiled with presents from their relatives and Cam got a few in particular which have proven to be among his favorites! After presents, we enjoyed a non-traditional meal of carne asada. Since Cameron, I have become quite an advocate of simplifying holiday meals, especially when I'm hosting!!

Here are a couple of pictures from when we were in Vegas and Cam stayed with grandma and grandpa. He did so well and it was neat to let him have a couple of days to bond with them, without me there. :)

With grandpa up in Oak Glen...


Grandma introduced him to a new computer game where he would try and name the animal sounds. The horse sound always got a particularly good reaction!

scratch your dirty neck

When we were kids and one of us would prove the other wrong, my sister and I would say, "So scratch YOUR dirty neck!". I know we didn't just make this up, but I'm not sure where it came from. Over the years I've introduced the phrase to my friends and it has become somewhat of a joke. Another similar phrase that was my sister and I's creation was, "Mided!!". It stems from "moded", which I think many of you probably used as kids. Don't ask me why we changed it. :)

I'd like to go ahead and use the phrase on my sister right now. She claimed that by me keeping all of my old emails in my inbox (they actually go back to 2006), I am slowing down my computer. I disagreed. So I asked my computer savvy husband, and turns out I'm right. You see, Susan, with free email (like yahoo), all of your emails are stored on their server, which they hold and control. I am simply reading my emails off of their server...not storing them on my computer. So scratch your dirty neck!

One other thing I have been able to say this about regards rice. Back in college, my roommate and I disagreed on the proper cooking method of rice. She claimed that you had to follow the instructions, which stated you couldn't lift the lid before the rice was done, otherwise it wouldn't turn out. I don't know a time that I have NOT lifted the lid. I do every time just to see how it is coming along. And my rice is perfect every time!! So you are mided Cheryl!! :)

Lastly, the jury is still out on this and maybe some of you can help out. This again involves my sister and I. She maintains that it isn't good for a microwave to open it mid-heat. I maintain that it is fine and that is why the clock keeps the time remaining for you so you can pop it back in if need be! If it wasn't, wouldn't it put you back to 0, so you would have to start over???

back to real life

Chris and I had an awesome time in Vegas. It was the perfect length of time as we have both learned over the years that we are not long vacation people. We tend to be done after about night three or four. Plus, anything above 2 nights in Vegas is a little much for us. Anyway, here are our highlights:

We both loved being able to wake up and just stay in bed for however long we wanted. We still woke up rather early, but to not have to get up and tend to Cam was a nice break. The first morning Chris went and got me breakfast so I could watch Good Morning America and eat my breakfast without ever leaving our bed!



I've said before that we love to eat out, but don't do it terribly often. Vacation is the perfect excuse to do it every meal! My family has always been notorious for spending much of our vacation analyzing where we are going to eat. I think this has rubbed off on Chris as we also enjoy planning out what restaurants we'll eat at ("What about Italian? Hmmm..we had it last night. Well, if we eat here, then we could go here for dessert. Hmmm..what about here?...") Here we are the second night after deciding on Maggiano's.



We love to walk around and people watch. Here we are at the newest hotel, Encore. Very pretty.



Chris enjoys Blackjack, and that's about it. Typically he only plays at the $3 and $5 tables so he can play longer for less money. I think gambling is boring, however Chris couldn't resist sending me to the War table to play a hand. Yes, War, just like when we were kids. The dealer and I flip over a card. The highest one wins. Pretty easy. Luckily after two deals I was up $10. That was it for me! I think the dealer was a little surprised as typically when you are up you want to keep going to continue your "lucky streak". But I like to walk away right then with the knowledge that I just made about three frappuchinos!!



One of the best parts of the trip was the excitement of coming home to Cam. Throughout our time we would both say, "I wonder what Cameron is doing?". So it was quite exciting to get some big squeezes and kisses as soon as we walked through the door. :) Thank you Debbie and Wayne for making it so we could truly relax and never worried about Cameron at all!



p.s. Yes, I cut my hair also. I have been annoyed with it lately as all I ever do is stick it in a pony tale. Yesterday Chris wanted to go to a few golf places to shop around. I saw a Fantastic Sam's across the street and decided to cut it. It isn't anything special, but at least now I have to somewhat do it each day.

Yipppeeeee!!!

Bags packed, Cam in GREAT hands with Chris's parents...and we are off until Tuesday!! Viva Las Vegas!!!

wild new years

Yesterday we had a great New Years, including yummy appetizers and time with wonderful friends. The only difference between our New Years and probably most other people's was that all of this was over by 6:00. :) We drove out to Jeremy and Ana's for the afternoon and just hung out until about 6:00, when we headed home and put Cam to bed. We had SUCH a fun time with them and equally as fun was that Cam did amazing at their place. We had thought we would need to get him out to a park, but we literally stayed inside their home for 3 hours and he did awesome! So exciting for me, considering I am always a little hesitant about how he'll be at someone else's home.



Once we got back to our house and put Cam to bed, we enjoyed a lovely fancy New Years dinner of Bakers (for you non-Inland Empire folk, it is basically a McDonald's, but way better). As anyone with little-wake-at-the-crack-of-dawn-ones know, staying up late isn't as easy since you don't get to sleep in. So Chris and I retired well before midnight. I won't embarrass us by telling you how early, but let's just say it wasn't too long after New York celebrated! But let's be honest, I never stayed up until midnight even before Cam!