Love = Friendship + Fire

Today, I wore a 12 year old (what?!) Pan Dance (sorority formal) t-shirt for my walk.  As I was thinking about how long ago that was, I happened to remember that's the night I met Jonathan.  The shirt has the formal date on it (Oct 20, 2000) so I now know the exact date I met my husband.  Crazy.  I've known him over a third of my life.

By the way, in case you were wondering, he was playing video games in the ATO house.  We were introduced, he said "hey" and that was it.  No butterflies, no love at first sight.  I honestly only remembered his name because everyone called him by his last name, which is now our last name, and that's not an easy name to forget.

"Love is a friendship set on fire."  Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)
We used this quote on our wedding favors.  It's hard to imagine life without him, and beyond strange to think that we almost never were.  Thank God for broken hearts.  :)

What's Up My Sleeve? (2)

Back in April, I wrote a post entitled "What's Up My Sleeve".  I had intentions to do another post of that nature much sooner-- not a full six months later.  Let's just say I'm not the most creative gal in the world and these brilliant ideas don't come to me too often.  But I do have a few I've been excited to share with you all!

Dog beds  I love my dogs.  However, they rarely (if ever) sleep in the bed with us.  So of course they have to have their own beds.  We've had a series of ugly, annoying, and/or bulky dog beds in our seven years of dog ownership.  My mom made us some really fantastic "dog sofas" a few years ago.  They were attractive and easy to vacuum but couldn't be deep cleaned easily and were quite large.  We couldn't take them with us anywhere and once Dane was born we just didn't have the room to keep them.  Not to mention the smell that just wouldn't go away after a while.  We replaced them with some fluffy, tufted little numbers that our dogs loved.  Unfortunately, they proved not to be very durable, could be washed but not dried, and impossible to vacuum all the little aggravating crevices.  I started researching all the options to replace our dogs' beds.  Being 7 and 9 years old, they needed something other than a pile of blankets, especially on our tile floors.  The best option for us looked to be a cot-style bed for dogs that ran about $70.  Jonathan and I talked about it and decided we would purchase some when the old ones gave out.  While in the baby/toddler section of Wal-Mart, I noticed that toddler cots are $25.  I looked at the weight limit -- 75 pounds.  It was perfect!  The dogs LOVE them.  They were cheap, come with a fitted sheet that can be machine washed and dried, and they fold up for travel!  Perfection.  (Cleveland agrees!)



Equate brand Proactiv  When I was pregnant my skin was perfect.  I am not even kidding.  I didn't have to wear foundation.  After pregnancy?  Holy hormones!  My skin was looking rough.  I have used Proactiv in the past and had good results, but it's expensive and you can't just buy it in any ol' store.  While looking for something to combat my "welcome to motherhood" gift from mother nature herself, I stumbled across Wal-Mart's version of Proactiv.  (What is UP with me and Wal-Mart lately?  I swear I only go once every other month, but I guess there are just some things you can only find there!)  Anyway, it's insanely cheap and my skin is looking much healthier.  My wallet is happy and so are my pores.




Moroccan oil knockoff  My hairdresser (back before I became too cheap and began cutting my own hair) uses Moroccan Oil treatments on my hair.  It smells like heaven and it does wonders for my hair.  It ought to at around $40 a bottle.  Although I love the results, I was unable to convince myself to spend that kind of money on hair oil.  Thankfully, I like the results of Garnier's Moroccan Sleek just as much.  You can find it at Target for $5.  It smells great and has made growing out my very dry hair more pleasant.  I use it before drying my hair and after styling.  My only complaint is that the packaging is poorly designed and it's easy to get way more than you wanted.  "Hello.  My name is Melissa and I did brush my hair with a pork chop this morning.  Thanks for noticing!"  Anyhow, just keep this in mind and you'll love it as much as I do.



Dry erase marker  Ok, you're right.  I didn't discover the dry erase marker.  But my husband did come up with a brilliant new way to use it, especially if you're a parent.  Our son has asthma.  When it flares up, we have trouble remembering what time we gave him allergy medicine and breathing treatments.  So we write it on the mirror in his bathroom where we already keep all his medications.  Everyone who has ever had a sick child knows how difficult it can be to remember when you last gave him ibuprofen.  Sleep deprivation from aforementioned sick child being up all.night.long doesn't help matters.  Thanks, brilliant hubby!  Parents everywhere (especially me) will thank you!

I hope you can find at least one thing that would be useful to you in this post.  If not, maybe What's Up My Sleeve 3.0 won't take six more months! :)

White Bean Kale Soup

There are a lot of recipes on Pinterest lately that are some variation of white bean and kale soup.  I've tried a couple and they weren't inedible, they just weren't something I'd make again.  So I went with my gut (which never works out for me in the kitchen) and made up my own.  It turned out surprisingly well.  This recipe for Tuscan Bean Soup from Saveur was my starting point.

1/4 cup canola oil
3-4 ribs celery, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped (I'd go with 4 next time)
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
8 cups vegetable or chicken broth (I mixed mine b/c it's what I had)
1-2 tsp granulated garlic
2 medium red potatoes, cubed
seasoning salt to taste
3-4 handfuls chopped Kale leaves (I used about 1/3 to 1/2 of the bag I bought)

Heat oil in large stock pot over medium-high.  Saute celery, onions, and carrots until onions are translucent.  Add garlic and saute for another 1-2 minutes.  (Be careful not to scorch the garlic.)  Add beans, broth, granulated garlic, and potatoes.  Boil gently until potatoes are done (about 20 minutes).  Turn soup down to a simmer.  Add a few handfuls of Kale and cook for five more minutes.  I took an immersion blender and partially blended the soup to thicken it up and it gave it a perfect consistency.  (You all know how I love my immersion blender!)

The original recipe calls for squash, but I worried that it would add too much sweetness to the perfect savory flavor that it already had.  It also calls for fennel seeds, which I don't love.  And dry beans, which not only could I not find the right variety in the store, but they're a pain in the butt.  It also calls for water instead of broth.  I think my improvement in this particular ingredient is a no-brainer.  I can't compare the two recipes because I never actually Tuscan Bean Soup, but I can say this:  Thanks for the inspiration, Saveur!

I think next time I'll get some crusty bread to serve with it.  Mmmm, bread.

Hope you enjoy.

The Things We Say

We've all heard the line "kids say the darndest things."  It's true.  My sweet nephew once told his Gramma he couldn't possibly go to sleep because his eyes were too big.  Smart, huh?  My friend Mary's children really say hilarious things.  She blogs here to document all the fun.  (**side note: You must check this out.  Even if you don't have kids, it's funny.  And if you know Mary, well, it just makes it that much more fun!)

As funny as little people can be, I am most amazed at the change in myself.  It's true, parenting makes you sound like, well, your parents.  *Shudder*  Once in a while, I catch myself saying something absolutely and truly ridiculous and I feel the need to share.  Here are a couple of my awesome mom moments:

"Dane, give the booger to Daddy."  This one is self-explanatory.  I mean, what the heck do I want with Dane's booger?

"Dane, eat your marshmallow."  Stupid, stupid, stupid.  Honestly, I was just trying to have an adult conversation with my BFF after dinner one night.  She had served s'mores for dessert so we gave the boys marshmallows.  Dane said "want down, go play" about 80 times before I could get him out of his high chair, and "eat your marshmallow" was my response.  Mom of the Year.  Right here.

"Oh, wow.  I put his poop-stain undies on him for his 2-year well check."  I said this right in front of our pediatrician.  I guess I wanted her to know that I noticed and he doesn't always wear poop-stain undies, but the minute it came out, I felt even more embarrassed.  

"Please get your hand out of your butt crack."  Ever since we potty trained Dane, he has an obsession with his crack.  I have no idea why.  There is no rash.  As far as I can tell, it doesn't itch.  He just has better access to it now I guess.  I don't expect I'll stop saying this one anytime soon.

What are some goofy things you've noticed yourself saying to your kid(s)?

What I Learned at CPST Training

Last week, I spent three days taking a course to become a Child Passenger Safety Technician (CPST).  I know, I know.  How could it possibly take three days to learn how to install and check a car seat?  I thought that too.

I had all my dress clothes packed and ready to go.  (My company paid for this training because one of my "hats" at work is Health and Safety Officer.)  I'm expected to represent the company in a professional manner, and had packed clothing appropriate for a business function.  A day or so before I left for the training, I got an email from the instructor advising attendees to dress in "workout type clothing."  Um, what? Well, thank goodness I listened!  For three days, we went back and forth from the classroom to the field, taking three written tests and three skills tests.  Other than lunch, we really didn't have a break, and sometimes class ran late.

I couldn't believe how much information there was!  I guess when you look at the fact that every vehicle is different, every child restraint is different, every child is different, and then throw family dynamics into the mix, there are endless possibilities.  My brain is still buzzing with all the things I *thought* I already knew.  I even found two things that we were doing wrong in our own car seat installations.

Since I cannot possibly check each and every one of my friends and family members' car seats, and I'm sure many of you don't want me to, I thought I'd just hit a couple of high points.

1.  After-market products:  I never ever realized how dangerous these could be.  I mean, I know not to put my child in a snow suit and then strap him into the car seat, but items like this are essentially doing the same thing!

Anyway, if it did not come with your car seat, or didn't say specifically that it could be used with your model of car seat, do NOT use it.  There are other, safer ways to support a newborn.  (And they're free!)

One big culprit that Jonathan and I are actually guilty of is this little contraption.

I won't lie.  It's amazing.  It lets you get the seat belt super duper tight in seconds.  But you can actually get your seat belt too tight.  Sounds crazy, right?  But it's true.  These belt tighteners have been known to put too much pre-crash tension on the retractors of the seat belt and cause the retractor to fail in a crash.

2.  Switchable retractors that aren't locked:  Most newer cars have seat belts that are on a switchable retractor.  This means you have to pull it all the way out to lock it before strapping the car seat in.  We came across several car seats at our inspection station that weren't actually locked in the car.

3.  Not rear-facing long enough:  I knew that rear-facing as long as possible was the safest option, but I wasn't sure exactly why.  Well, the "why" in this equation happens to be a horrible thing called "internal decapitation."  It's where the skin and muscle is still connected, but the spinal cord is not.  Keep your children rear facing as long as they still fit the height and weight requirements of the seat.  This video does a great job of showing why it's important to keep children rear facing as long as possible without being graphic.  If you'd like more information on why it's important, there is a ton of information that can by found by searching Google and/or YouTube.

Lastly, I encourage you to find a CPST or seat check event near you.  You can search by county, zip code, or city on this link.

I Love Two-Year Olds

In all seriousness, I really LOVE two-year olds.

A couple of things seem to happening very quickly since Dane's second birthday a few weeks ago.  The first is that he has suddenly become very verbal.  He's always been chatty, but he's stringing together thoughts into sentences that *almost* make sense.  For instance, this weekend, I overheard him tell Jonathan (over and OVER again), "Read that one book, Daddy.  Read that one book, Daddy.  Read that one book, Daddy."  It's becoming very clear exactly what he wants from us.  The other night, he was crying in his crib and I couldn't quite make out what he was saying over the monitor.  When I walked into his bedroom, he was pointing at a corner of his blanket that was hung on a crib rail saying "Need help, Mama!"  Wow, this parenting thing sure is getting a lot easier when I don't have a guess what the heck is wrong with you, Dane!

He's also begun to have an understanding outside of what is immediately happening to him.  A week and a half ago, he was whining to go outside and get in the car before we were ready to leave.  He had seen us take his DVD player (which only goes with us on long trips) out to the car and wanted to watch "animal movie" right away.  He kept whining every time we passed by him as we rushed to get the car packed for an overnight stay at my parents' house.  I finally told him to go to his room until he was finished whining.  Not only did this keep him out of harm's way as we packed up, it removed the offending whiny child from our paths and reinforced for him that whining was not going to speed up the process.  This is my new favorite parenting technique.

When he's whining, I tell him he can either stop whining or take it to his room.  Everyone needs their own space.  Two-year olds are no different.  A little space can change a bad attitude in a hurry.  Monday night, I told him that it was time to clean up some toys.  He said no.  I said "Dane, you can either help me clean up your toys or you can go to your room while I clean up toys."  "Clean toys, Mama," he said and quickly began helping tote the mess back into the playroom.  He's such a sociable little guy that the threat of spending a couple of minutes alone, away from all the fun, are enough to get him to reconsider his actions.

This I can handle!  Now when he hits the teenage years, I probably won't be able to smoke him out of there.

Crock-Pot Meatloaf

My BFF made this delicious, simple, perfect meatloaf recipe for Dane's birthday dinner a few weeks ago.  She was sweet enough to email it to me and I made it this past Saturday for dinner.  It's easy and makes the house smell like you've been slaving away all day.  Best news of all?  It's cooked in the Crock-Pot.  Here it is below:

Meatloaf
2 beaten eggs
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian seasoned)
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1.5 lbs ground beef

Sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp mustard

Combine eggs, milk, bread crumbs, onion powder, salt, beef.  Mix well and shape to fit bottom of crock pot. Cook on low 5 or 6 hrs.  Combine sauce ingredients in small bowl.  Pour over meat.  Cover and cook on high 15 min.

The only thing I'd do differently next time would be to cut about a third (maybe even half) of the added salt out of the recipe.  It was great, but I just don't think Dane needs that much salt.  I might also double the sauce next time because it is just.that.good.  Mmmm.  And I don't even love meatloaf.

Thanks, Jamie!