Category Archives: Friends

An afternoon with the Kansas Freezer Meal Queen

Posted in Friends, Noms by

This morning I’m sitting on the couch, looking like a Buddha in yoga pants and a maternity t-shirt, humbly contemplating the blessings of true friendship that I have.

Friends from back home in Texas who, even four years after I abandoned them to the storms and mosquitoes, still regularly keep in touch and send gifts to my boys. Friends from all over the Internet, some of whom I’ve never met, who care for my family and are helping welcome our new son.

I have one friend who sends me morning text messages checking up on me when she somehow just knows it’s going to be a rough morning. I have another who sends me silly Facebook messages and keeps me laughing.

And I have this friend who, even though she juggles four kids, a yard full of dogs, a household and her own successful, busy blog, still took an entire Sunday out of her schedule to shop for and prep a freezer full of meals for my family and me.

Superwoman here, she’s working on running 500 miles this year. She’s mastered a gluten-free lifestyle for herself and her family. Her birthday parties are epic. And she can turn a cart full of groceries into nearly a month’s worth of meals in one afternoon.

Greta presents Freezer Meals!

Yesterday after a tasty brunch we hit up a few stores for supplies. Greta was kind enough to refrain from making fun of me as I huffed and puffed and grunted my way down the aisles. I had chosen eight or nine different casserole recipes that used groups of similar ingredients and spent about $150 on food and pans – not bad for a dozen dinners (that will yield plenty of leftovers)!

When we got to the house, Greta roasted the chicken, browned the ground meat and boiled the pasta, all while looking cute in her coordinated pink apron/shoes/phone combo. I sat in a chair at the table, ate chocolate and whined about my pelvis.

She makes cooking look cute.

Over a period of about three hours, we assembled a variety of baked chicken pasta dishes, a couple of Mexican-inspired tortilla bakes, and one very badass macaroni and cheese. There’s some greek chicken pasta in there, some pizza pasta, an enchilada casserole that I’m using all of my willpower to avoid cooking RIGHT NOW and a tater tot casserole that will be my guilty pleasure one day.

casserole collage

My kitchen was a glorious wreck through much of the process, although it cleaned up right quick when we finished. Looking back, the whole experience was an absolute blast and I look forward to being able pay it forward and do this for another mom one day. In the meantime, I plan to make “Freezer Cooking Day” a new tradition around here.

If you’re interested in giving freezer cooking a try, you just need about an hour on the Internet, some good organizational skills, a great friend to help out and one afternoon a month.

I hope to show off some of these meals on Fridays after the baby is born – you know, once I can form coherent sentences again. In the meantime, check out a few resources if you’d like to get started on your own freezer stash!

Our Best Bites

Happy Money Saver

Denise Rudolph’s Pin Board

 

Full term and fabulous

Posted in Family, Friends by

Yeah, ok, so not really. When the OB asked how I was feeling today, I told him I felt like an irritable, sore gummy bear. And it’s true! I have very little patience. My pelvis is coming apart in places. My belly is so big I can’t reach my feet to tie my own shoes and I’ve officially got two chins.

So here we are, nine months and twenty pounds into our pregnancy. My rings still fit but just barely. I haven’t been able to breathe out of my nose for at least the last three months. I am SO. OVER. IT.

But damn, my hair looks good. So there’s that. (I took this pic this morning. If you compare it to the one I took a couple weeks ago, it looks just about the same, which kind of cracks me up. I have A LOT of purple maternity shirts, yes?)

Almost done

And the little guy seems happy to bake away in there. He measures up around the 77th percentile now, a sizeable jump from the 47th percentile last month. According to the ultrasound, he looks a lot like Homer Simpson – which totally explains the cravings for donuts and beer.

Anyway, now that we’ve gotten our twin blizzards out of the way and my husband is officially forbidden to travel anymore, I do declare that we are ready to have this baby. Not that the declaration influences him one way or the other, of course. I think he’ s perfectly content to continue harassing my rib cage.

But really, Baby Homer, anytime is fine. Mom and Dad are ready to meet you. Big Brother is beginning to think Mom is lying about there being a baby in her belly. Aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins are looking forward to tickling your toes and snuggling you – and several of them are even flying all the way up here to do so!

Your friends from all over the world, the ones who read this blog and comment and keep your mom sane through everything, they’re ready to see you too. They’re ready for Mom to stop whining about being pregnant and just post baby pictures already, dammit. They’ve even sent gifts for you – outfits and toys and this beautiful, handmade blanket from sweet Jennifer who writes Just Jennifer and lets mom sit at her lunch table on Twitter from time to time.

blanket

You are already so loved. See you soon.

We don’t need cocktails, we have retail therapy!

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There is a sacred, holy day each month (sometimes twice if I’m lucky) where I observe that ever-so-blessed occurrence of the ultimate in female bonding – a lunch and shopping date with my best friend.

That glow isn’t the sunshine, no. It’s the happiness we’re radiating because for a couple of hours (not counting the blissful car ride there and back during which no sippy cups will be thrown and no seats will be kicked) we’ll get to enjoy a hot meal we don’t have to share and then pop in and out of stores at our own leisure without having to check strollers for stowaway merchandise pilfered by kleptomaniacal toddlers.

Usually that meal involves chopsticks, instruments with which I am almost proficient. It’s always a good day when I don’t have to pick rice out of my cleavage.

Our shopping today centered around cute clothes for the kiddos, including the one who isn’t scheduled to make his appearance for a few more months.

With our firstborn, my husband and I decided on a monkey theme for his room and clothes. Luckily, everything in the stores was completely monkeyfied at the time.

This time, we thought that whales might be cute. I was worried about that, since I’ve never seen a single whale on an outfit or nursery bedding set, but I do like a challenge.

Anyway, Greta and I walked into Carter’s and there was this whole wall covered in a layette of little whales.

It took me like 30 minutes to pick out two outfits. It was so tempting to just grab one of everything. Oh, the restraint I am able to practice in my old age.

Sweet Greta completed the baby’s “coming home” outfit with his first baby gift, a cuddly whale blanket.

While I pray that he stays put for at least another 15 weeks, I am already getting antsy about meeting him. Judging by his mama’s belly at not even 24 weeks, he’s gonna be a big guy!

Chick O Cheat

Posted in Friends, Kansas City, Monkey by

I gotta tell you, the last thing this mama wanted to do tonight was go trick or treating. I was barely getting by on the three hours of sleep I’d gotten after last night’s Madonna concert and still being waterboarded by my own snot thanks to this lingering cold.

For some reason, my husband was determined that we go, so after a short nap I dragged myself out to the truck to head over to our friends’ neighborhood for what ended up being probably one of the best Halloween evenings ever.

Last year, Monkey dressed as a gnome and rode around in the wagon for most of the night. His dad would carry him up to each house for treats and he’d just stare at all the happy, friendly candy pushers.

This year, he quickly figured out what an awesome deal this whole Halloween thing was.

You mean, I just wear some silly outfit?

And I get to pull the wagon around in the street?

And if I walk up to a house and yell, “Chick O Cheat” they’ll give me candy? (Don’t forget to say thank you! See you later!)

And Mama will let me eat my weight in M&Ms as long as I turn over all these orange square things?

So up and down the sidewalks we went through a neighborhood full of clowns and witches, fairy princesses and well-muscled super heroes. The dads toted small coolers full of autumnal brews while the big kids filled pillowcases with sugar-laden treats to be bartered for extended bedtimes later.

The moms wheeled the smaller kids around in wagons and strollers, stashing the good chocolate in their pockets when no one was looking. Ok, so maybe just one mom did that. Shut up.

After we’d filled the buckets and baskets, we headed back to our friends’ house for some pizza and warmth while the kids sorted their candy and the men chilled on the porch with their drinks and cigars.

On the way home, Monkey was asleep before we hit the highway. His father slipped him quietly into pajamas and under the covers before stretching out to gently snore on the couch.

And Mama is tired, and still feeling under the weather. But she is also round and content and grateful to be able to live such a beautiful, simple life with some truly excellent people.

A time for heroes

Posted in Family, Friends, Monkey by

Beside a cornfield in a small town in Kansas, a quiet, unassuming boy waits patiently to fulfill his destiny.

Or for his turn on the slide, whichever comes first.

From the makers of Scarecrow 2010 and Gnome 2011, it’s Clark Kent 2012!

*Thanks to Greta for the invitation to Monkey’s first ever costume party! Super Toddler walked in the door this evening after the festivities, put on his jammies, announced “I SLEEPIN” then conked out cold. 

Happy Birthday @Gfunkified!

Posted in Friends by

Blogging brings different things to different people. For some, it’s money. For a select few, fame. For others, a much appreciated audience.

For a lucky handful of us, blogging brings true friendship – friendship with someone who gives as much as they take, who listens patiently and advises supportively. Friendship with someone who pushes you to be better by just doing what they normally do – being awesome at life.

I’m blessed to have such a friendship with this crazy girl.

And today is her BIRTHDAY!

I know she thinks that being the mom of four small kids means that her place is usually behind the camera as the candles are being blown out, but I want to take today ask you to help me tell that girl that THIS is HER cake day. If you would, go wish her Happy 29th HERE or HERE or HERE!

I want to remind her that one day, those little kids that she spends so much time showering with affection and guidance – those kids whom she ferries to school and swimming lessons and doctor’s appointments – those kids will grow up and understand what an amazing mom they have, and her birthdays will be an occasion for them all to gather with their spouses and children to celebrate someone really special.

So Happy Birthday, “Getta!” Thanks for letting me rant, for loving my kid, and for being my lunch date on the weekends!

It might be time to get my hearing checked

Posted in Embarrassing photos, Friends by

Somehow, I always end up on the phone with my cousin when she’s in the bathroom. It’s not that she’s in the bathroom more than the average woman in her 30s, it just works out that way.

She’s not particularly shy about having a conversation with you in person while she’s on the throne either, come to think of it.

Anyway, I ask her if I’ll be seeing her next week when we head to town.

“Sure,” she says. “My Porsche should be delivered by then.”

“Your what?” I ask, surprised. She’s got high school boys who play sports, and she’s always hauling half the team around. I’m curious as to why she’d try to cram them into a sports car. Maybe she bought it for the oldest, who turned 16?

Surely not. When she was 16, we were driving around in her busted gray hoopty, blasting Snoop Dogg on cassette and feeling pretty fancy, even if the previously flooded car did smell like a sheep’s ass.

“My pole. For my hallway,” she clarifies. Her pole? I mean, I know in our advancing age that exercise is important and all, but pole dancing? In the hallway? That’s a little out there, even for my family.

Maybe it’s a fireman’s pole? To get from the game room upstairs to the bathroom downstairs more quickly? I mean, we’ve already established that she’s in there a lot.

“I’m sorry, your huh?” I ask again.

“My floor,” she says, slightly annoyed. “In the hallway. We’re finally getting it put in.”

Well, that’s logical. They’ve been renovating their house for quite sometime now. Porsches and poles make little sense, but of course you need a floor. Everybody has floors. Whew.

“Ok,” I say, relieved. “Well, I’m going to let you finish your poop and I’m going to work on some stuff online.”

With that, we hang up. My husband, who has been eavesdropping, looks at me curiously.

“Poles and poop huh?” he asks.

“I was talking to Jenny,” I say.

“Ah,” he says. “Well that explains it.”

Ain’t no party like a MonkeyMash party…

Posted in #BloomWhereYourePlanted, Friends, Monkey by

In nine days my son will turn two and like all other parents I’m left scratching my head and wondering where that time went.

I brought home a little squeaky thing in the summer of 2010 and I’ve watched him grow into a great kid. He loves his friends and family. He’s affectionate and silly. He enjoys conversation, food and playing – all with contagious gusto.

To celebrate the two years we’ve spent loving him, we decided to throw a combination Fourth of July/Birthday party, timed perfectly with the visit of his MawMaw and cousins. In an effort to keep things on a smaller scale, my husband and I each only invited one friend. Of course, when you add in spouses and children, we still ended up with a house (and yard) full of love and laughter.

My husband manned the grill while the big nephews and I worked on a little science experiment from Pinterest. Supposedly, pouring in juice in a certain order causes the colors to stay separate from each other.

We followed the directions on the Pin and ended up with purple juice. Tasty purple juice, but not the effect we were going for.

It was The Gamer’s idea to change the order of the juices and TADA! It worked! Even the adults wanted the pretty drink, so I got quite skilled in my presentation by the end of the party.

Outside, it was complete soggy insanity as nine kids ranging in age from one to 11 ran through sprinklers and wading pools.

Our poor bubble machine tried in vain to keep up, but the best it could do was sputter a sad little sphere here and there.

As the sun began to set, Monkey’s friends “helped” him open his gifts while sitting at the cute little picnic table his MawMaw sent him. When his Daddy wheeled out his gift from us, a shiny new Radio Flyer tricycle, the gasp from the short crowd was audible.

They helped him onto it and patiently waited for their turns. And oh, the silliness.

Later we did the usual ice cream and cake, then brought out the glow sticks for a mini-rave in the front yard. We tried glow bowling, which is harder than it looks in the dark, and then tromped up the hill to see the fireworks from the amusement park next door.

Monkey loved the fireworks, shouting “BOOM BOOM” with glee each time a new explosion lighted the sky. He’d scream, “Get it! Get it!” and reach out to try to grab the colorful bursts.

When the evening was finally over, we said goodbye to our friends and trudged home. While my husband snuggled with Monkey and waited for him to fall asleep, I chatted with my mom and nephews and helped them prepare for their journey back to Texas.

As the clock ticked its last few minutes before midnight, the house was blessedly silent, save for the occasional blast outside from those last few fireworks people just had to set off.

We slept, exhausted and content.

***

More Red White & Two photos here!

Marking the day

Posted in Friends by

My phone began vibrating violently at 5:45 this morning, stirring me from my sleep with that feeling of panic you get when someone calls too early.

I grumbled hello and two little voices answered back with their sleepy version of “Happy Birthday.”

It was the best wakeup call ever.

Throughout the morning my phone continued to throw fits, and I just want to say that I am blessed by the love, y’all.

I’m blessed by my sister and her boys, and excited to see them all soon.

I’m blessed by my mom, aunt and uncle who’ve gifted me with an extended trip to Texas and The Bloggess’ book on CD to get me through the drive. (Even though I’ll probably be laughing too hard to concentrate on the road. If you see a woman on the shoulder convulsing with laughter, say hi!)

I’m blessed by all the other family and friends who have texted and messaged through various social media. Yes, I know Facebook tells people it’s your birthday. Yes, it’s still special when someone writes on your wall.

I’m also extremely blessed to have built over the last year a special friendship with an inspiring woman. She’s showered me with love and attention for this birthday, including writing this post for me.

Greta, thank you. You mean so much to me.

A few things I’d like to share with you guys on my birthday:

* It’s also Kim of Mama’s Monologues birthday!

* I wrote a post over at JDaniel4’s Mom’s place for Pause Life for a Moment. It’s about another blessing, but one that came in disguise.

* Lastly, today marks one year since the Joplin tornado. I’ve been reading stories here and here about the tragedy of those lost and the triumph of the survivors and it’s both heart wrenching and beautiful. Joplin, we remember you on this day.

The Invisible Elephant Saga, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zoo

Posted in #BloomWhereYourePlanted, Friends, Monkey, Really long posts by

On Tuesday I’ll be 33. According to some think tank in the UK, that’s the age most people report to have been the happiest.

I certainly plan on doing my best to support that position with the help of some silly, smart, spectacular people in my life. Several of those people accompanied me to the Omaha Zoo on Saturday, a trip that’s been on my “Midwestern Bucket List” for some time.

The zoos of today are a far cry from the rows of caged, stressed out animals from my youth. Zoos are heavily involved in education and conservation and have made many improvements in their animal display areas.

One such improvement is adding in more space – more space for the animals as well as more space in between them. And that means more walking for us, which, in most cases, we can totally use.

The Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha is a great sprawl of a place. When we arrived we were instantly dwarfed by the huge desert dome at the front. Inside the dome, I stood face-to-flapping-wings with a cave full of hundreds of bats. I walked through a dark swamp with alligators and nutria and felt like I was back at home in Southeast Texas. (Not that I ever actually walked through a dark swamp there. Alligators don’t tickle when you disturb their naps, even if you try to pacify them with marshmallows.)

We visited giant apes, some who were curious about us…

And some who were too busy contemplating the complexities of life to bother with our stares.

*Sidenote: Have you ever looked into a gorilla’s eyes? I got to, and the intelligence behind them was almost overwhelming. I wanted to hug this guy and tell him I loved him. I figure he’s not a hugger though, and I get that.

We took a little time to let our Monkey attend to some, uh, monkey business. He was in such a mood all morning, wanting nothing more than to be left alone in his wagon to eat. He ate nonstop for the first two hours of the visit, but eventually wanted to get out and look around.

Now here is where the aforementioned saga actually begins.

The entire first couple of hours at the zoo were spent in a descent through ramps and elevators, through the desert and swamp and apes and all, until we reached this guy.

At first it looks like he’s all, “Hai! I’m a bear!” but really he’s laughing at us. He’s laughing his dirty bear butt off because he knows what comes next.

The zoo map tells us that up the hill are rhinos and elephants and sea lions, oh my. The kids want to see all these fantastic creatures and so do we, so up the hill we hike.

We see the rhinos, muddy and quite fat. We watch the sea lions swim around in their pool and wish we could jump in because the temperatures are climbing. Then we begin the trek up yet another hill to see the elephants.

Only, the elephants aren’t there. Instead there’s a pretty sign that announces, “Future Elephant Site.”

By now we’re hot and sweaty and pissed because nobody likes invisible elephants. They’re useless. Our friend Tyson quipped that all of Nebraska must be uphill and it occurred to me later that this must be where all of our grandparents lived when they had to walk to school.

Monkey studied the map for awhile as we took a break to recover from the hill hike. I love his friends’ faces here. You cannot imagine the immensity of the effs they do not give at this point.

One of the older members of our crew, obviously seasoned in the ways of the zoo, suggested a train ride so we could rest our haunches and cool off.

I could have hugged this man. Not only did he do most of the pulling of the children up the hills in the wagon, but he saved our sorry selves with that suggestion.

The train route took us back up the hill so we got to enjoy the sights without huffing and puffing.

Little prairie dogs scurried up out of their burrows alongside us to stare as we chugged past. Monkey and I snuggled, waved at them and mugged for the camera.

When we left the train, we were reinvigorated and ready to finish our trip. But then the clouds rolled in, the temperature dropped about 15 degrees and it looked like it might storm, so the entire visiting population of the zoo crowded into the aquarium.

Our reactions to the massive mob were quite different. Some of us (the smart ones) moved quickly through and ended up on the other end enjoying sno cones.

I was not one of the smart ones, and ended up in a human traffic jam with my little six-year-old sidekick. We made the best of it though and got to see monster crabs, deadly jellyfish and happy stingrays.

One of our crew didn’t make it through though. Yup, that’s my kid, passed smooth out in his wagon where he stayed until we picked him up to put him in his carseat. Homedude was done, y’all.

The best days are those where you’re too tired to walk at the end, but you have a head full of memories and a disc full of pictures that will always remind you that you’re loved. Thank you Greta, Tyson, Henry, Ivy, Essie, Ervin, Maggie and Jim for joining my family as we visited all the wild and wonderful creatures Omaha had to offer.

Now, can someone please tell me WTF this is?