Happy Birthday!

To my big nerdy husband. Brian turns 31 today (June 27th) and this marks the 10 year date for how long we've been together. It's amazing how fast time flies when you're having fun with someone. Love you honey! Here's my tribute to you with a few dorky (but always cute) pictures.....

Nice pants! High waisted is not a very flattering look. He's the one on the right in both photos.

Brian's high school graduation party (we both graduated the same year). This is taken 2 years before we started dating, can you tell we feel akward together in this photo? All I remember is his mom insisting we take a picture together, and now I'm happy she did. (I knew moms were good for something). Please note how Brian looks exactly the same, heck he probably still has that shirt and shorts and would still fit into them! I, on the other hand, have gained what looks to be 70 pounds! Maybe I should start running again like I did in high school. Nah.

Nerd-O-Meter

What does this mean? Your nerdiness is:
Not nerdy, but then again maybe not all that cool either

I want Brian to take this test, I'm very curious to know HIS nerd score.
Please comment honey so that everyone can see :)

Healing Needed

Please keep a healing prayer for Adam and Brian in your prayers. Adam has been really sick since Thursday and I'm ready for it to be over. He has a fever, is really congested, has a runny nose and infected eyes. Because of this he can't sleep, doesn't want to eat and doesn't want to drink anything. All he wants is for mommy to hold him constantly while he watches Go Diego Go! That means that I'm up every hour throughout the night comforting him and during the day I have to sit by his side all day and "force" feed water into his system so that he doesn't get dehydrated.
Brian is also very congested which just means I have 2 kids to take care of ;)

I'm starting to think that it's more fun to be sick myself than have to take care of other sick people.

Who's Ticked..

at Xanga right now?

Not me, I'm on blogspot and doing just fine thank you very much.

Currently Cooking

I used to dislike stuffed peppers until my mom made this recipe with yellow, red, and organge peppers. In the past she always made a version of stuffed peppers with green peppers. I can not stand the taste of green peppers but if you prefer them be my guest and use the greenies.

If peppers are on sale somewhere I will make a whole recipe with 4 peppers and freeze half the recipe for a future meal. It freezes well.

Stuffed Peppers serves 4

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to taste
12 ounces fresh chicken or turkey sausage, removed from casing. (if you prefer a vegetarian version use a dried version of TVP soaked in chicken stock instead)
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
3/4 couscous
4 bell peppers halved lengthwise, seeds and ribs removed
1/2 cup shredded colby jack cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Cook until onion is translucent, about 3 minutes.
Add sausage (or TVP) and cook, breaking up with the back of a spoon, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Add tomatoes and 1 cup of water; cook until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in couscous.
Fill pepper halves with couscous mixture. Arrange peppers in a baking dish just large enough to hold them. Add 1/2 cup water to bottom of baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil, and bake until peppers are tender, 35-40 minutes. Remove foil, and sprinkle with cheese. Return to oven and bake uncovered until cheese has melted and peppers are very tender, 10-15 minutes more.

Something you never want to hear

is your 2 year old saying "Mommy please come change my sheets."

I go into his room and find him standing next to his bed completely naked, diaper laying on the floor and there's pee all over his bed! I guess it could've been worse.... could've been poo.

The splash park tour continued on Thursday with the best one yet. Red Oaks Waterpark is sooo awesome! The preschooler area is like a giant playscape set to water, with slides for little kids and everything. Josh and Adam had so much fun. We will have to return again sometime soon. The picture above is what the 2 of them looked like walking around the park. As soon as they saw each other they wanted to hold hands and cruise around together, too cute! Even cuter was the conversation they were having with each other.

The American Accent

Apparently I have a "Northern" accent. Gee, tell me something I don't already know.

You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for.

What is your American Accent?

Currently Blessed

This is a weird blessing but I thought I should note it anyways.

I rarely ever by boxed cereals but on Monday I had a craving for Honey Bunches of Oats. Having little money and desperately needing kitty litter I ran out to the pet store that morning. On my way home I was stopped at a stoplight and there were people standing on every corner. The lady at my corner ran up to my window (which was down) and says "Would you like some Honey Bunches of Oats?" Before I can answer she throws 6 mini boxes of cereal into my car. I said "thanks" and went home to eat some cereal. Pretty neat!

Neti Pot - A Miracle Worker!!

I heard about this thing called a neti pot on Oprah one day. People that used it claim that their allergies and congestion are completely gone when they use this thing on a regular basis.

I suffer from horrible allergies in my sinuses and at the end of last week I got a pretty bad sinus infection/head cold. Even though I feel good now I can't breathe out of my nose at all so I sound horrible and food tastes like nothing at all. So, today I stopped by the health food store and picked me up a neti pot!

The premise is that you pour a saline solution in one nostril, it fills up your sinuses and then pours out the other nostril. I was soo very stuffed up that as I started to pour in one side it wasn't coming out the other!! It finally started to come out but was only dripping out. I did both sides and when I blew my nose after the second side, this is totally gross but a true testament that this thing works, I was literally pulling out this thick string of snot that just kept coming out. It was so nasty but amazing at the time I had to yell "Hey Brian, come check this out!" to which he replied "Wow, that's cool" (only a guy would think that is cool)

I can breathe a little better and hopefully I'll sleep better tonight because of it. I plan to continue the practice until I really know what my son smells like! (It's hard for me to tell if he's smelly enough for a bath if dirt isn't physically visible)

The tour of Splash Parks

We've found a new summer love - Splash Parks. Ask any little kid and they will tell you how awesome they are. Remember the measley little sprinkler you had when you were a kid, now imagine it 20 times bigger with a theme. Adam and his hippie friend Josh (see photo) are currently on a tour of Splash Parks in Metro Detroit. Last week they hit Metro Beach and today it was the free one in Redford Twp.
Look out Plymouth and Canton - we're headed your way in the coming weeks!

Currently Cooking

I've been waiting for a non 90 degree day to make this soup and today was the day! This one is great if you have no idea what to do with those leeks you got in your box. Kids enjoy this because it's similar to a cream of potato soup without the cream and Cheddar Bunnies really love to dive in and take a swim - quick SAVE THEM!!! Get's them to put the food in their mouth every time. (to save money on those tasty little Cheddar Bunnies check out your local Big Lots store. Rather than paying $3.99 a box Big Lots has them for $1.30 a box, and Annie's mac n cheese is 80 cents a box!)

Potato Leek Soup serves 8

5 lbs. white potatoes, peeled and quartered

6 cups chicken broth

2 leeks, bulbs (the white part) only

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup white wine

2T fresh grated parmesean cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Cook the potatoes in the chicken stock until soft. DO NOT DRAIN, this can be tempting to to because it's such a habit. Put the potatoes in a food processor or blender with the chicken stock and puree until smooth (this may have to be done in batches). Half the leeks lengthwise and soak in water to clean. Drain and finely slice, saute in butter until transparent. Add the white wine and cook for 3 minutes. Add the cooked leeks to the blended potatoes and puree together until smooth. Return all the blended soup to the pot, stir in the parmesean cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook on low heat to desired consistency, adding more stock if nescessary.

Let those Bunnies dive in and enjoy!

Currently Blessed

On Sunday Pete was talking about the blessings that are coming for the people that believe in God and trust that he can do anything.
I've decided to keep track of all the blessings that happen to me in a "Currently Blessed" post. I think that hearing what happens out of the blue to someone who needs something is a great testament to God's work.

My next door neighbor is the nicest girl. She's our age and about 1-1/2 weeks ago getting ready for a trip to Hawaii for 10 days. She asked if Brian could help her with some computer problems so he spent a few hours helping her out. While she was gone I brought in her mail (even though she told me not to worry about it because it was getting stopped) because it came when it shouldn't have and was getting wet from all the rain. I also watered her plants so they didn't die in the heat and mowed her front lawn when I did mine so it didn't get too long.

Today Adam and I took her mail back to her and she thanked us by giving us a $20 gift certificate to the local market that I love to get produce at. Anyone who knows me knows that at times it can be pretty rough to pay for groceries and the beginning of this week is no exception. This gift certificate was a unexpected and wonderful blessing!! Thanks God!

Currently Cooking

Another RR fave that I altered a bit to suit my tastes (I ommitted weird things like peas, mushrooms and prosciutto). This one is a little expensive to make but is well worth it for a change from the everyday salad.

Salad Capricciosa (serves at least 4)

Salad ingredients:
2 Romaine hearts, chopped
1-14 oz. can of artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
1 tub of boccocini (bite size fresh mozzarella, drained and cut in half. Or, use larger balls and cut them into bite size pieces)
1 pint of grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in half

Dressing ingredients:
zest and juice of 1 lemon
3T prepared pesto sauce
3T olive oil

Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl. Add pesto, lemon juice and zest to a bowl and combine. Whisk in the olive oil and add to salad. Toss and serve.