You wanna...

Feel like a rockstar?

 Then make these bad boys for supper sometime.  

We tried homemade corn dogs for dinner last night (The joy of 9:30 church is that it leaves us lots of time to mess up the kitchen....).  They turned out awesome.  The girls had a blast "stabbing" the hotdogs and "dunking" them in our batter.  And they turned out just like the corn dogs we (the kids and  Tom, anyway.  I generally save my calories for chocolate...) get at the fair.  I was a rockstar, the girls had fun and Tom did the dishes.  Perfect.

Converts

"Green slime for breakfast?  Are you crazy?"  That was Brooke's first opinion on green smoothies.  Once the girls tried it though, they're hooked.  I have one every morning for breakfast and they always have a little and at least once a week, we "green smoothie it" for dinner.  Who knew green slime could be so great?

(This smoothie is made of 1 small banana, 4-5 cups of spinach, and two handfuls of frozen, mixed, tropical fruit.  And some water to thin it out. It made enough for 5 big smoothies)

Erin described her smoothie today as "A puddle of pure deliciousness!"

(Un)Lucky 7...

Erin and Alix turned 7 last thursday.  7.  It doesn't seem possible to me.  5? Sure.  7? No way!  But it's true.  7.  It was an unusual birthday.  Both girls were sick and couldn't go to school and we had to postpone their party.

This is how Alix felt.

 She was the sickest on their birthday.  

This is Alix and Erin at breakfast when they should have been at school, getting lots of birthday attention... 

 And this is where they spent most of the day.  Erin was a little better off than Alix. 

 I had made mini-cupcakes for Alix to take to their class and brownies for Erin to take. They both wanted to take in different things and how can you argue with that? One of the twin things I didn't think about when they were this big... (Alix on the left, Erin on the right)

 And I can't say I'd ever like to go back to this time, but it's fun to look back on and realize we survived....

 We love these girls so much.  Happy 7th birthday girls.

(And yes, we ate all the cupcakes and brownies and I just had to make more, so they can take them to class tomorrow... )

We're Just Related...

Brooke was helping (her gimpy mom) get a (huge) bucket of softballs down from the high shelf in the garage (our friend wanted to borrow them).  She was balanced on top of the chest freezer, reaching above her head and wiggling this heavy bucket toward the edge.  It was hard and she almost gave up a few times, but stuck with it.  Once she got it to the edge and tipped it down, I could grab it and pull it the rest of the way down.  It was some tricky work on her part so I said...
"Nice job, Brooke!  You must be Wonder Woman."
Brooke - "Nah.  More like her cousin..."

Since that makes me her sister, I'm ok with it... 

Pins and Kneedles....

(Two of the great friends who have been taking care of me while Tom is out of town...)

I had my follow-up appointment on my knee today.  The doctor walked in, sat down and said - "Now let me look through your MRI..."  And proceeded to sit there for 20 minutes (really it was more like 4 or 5...) silently looking at my MRI.  I sat there, all pins and needles (get the title now? Pins and Kneedles?) trying to read his expressions and keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed for good luck.  It doesn't work any better to cross your fingers as an adult, than it did as a kid...  It looks like I've completely torn my ACL and also have some tearing of my Meniscus.  It was a little hard to read the MRI because of the swelling in my knee and some loose tissue floating around and still hard to do a physical exam, since my knee is still roughly the size of a cantaloupe.  So the doctor wants to wait two weeks and re-examine it to determine what surgery I'm going to need.  It doesn't make all that much sense to me, but I'm certainly not the expert, so I'll trust him.  I'd rather be careful than too hasty and do something that wasn't needed.  So I have some surgery, some time in March.  Until then, I can limp around in my brace and try to rest my knee as much as possible.  Done.  Bring on the Soaps and Bon Bons.... =)

Quote of the Day

Sam - "Sorry mom.  I'm allergic to kisses.  If I don't wipe them off, it will be a tragedy!"


Sorry Sam.  I'm addicted to kisses...

Crossing things off...

Mentally that is.  I hurt my left knee playing basketball on Wednesday night.  Now, I don't know exactly what is wrong with it yet (I have an MRI on Tuesday), but when I hurt it, it felt... bad.  Really bad.  Like more than a sprain.  So, since then, I've been mentally crossing things off my list for the year.  

Like finishing the first ski season I've actually skied and had fun.

 Like running the half marathon I'm signed up for and have been training like crazy for.

 Like playing softball.  My favorite "me" thing in the whole world.

And like finishing out basketball season...

Maybe I'm prematurely crossing all this stuff off, but I feel like I have to be prepared for the worst... I'm really hoping I'll be super happy and surprised and back to running and shooting and hitting and skiing in no time...

ABC (gum)...

Sam didn't know what to do with her gum in the car and I told her to just swallow it (better to swallow it, than get it on my carpet...).  Alix, being helpful, told her she swallows her gum all the time.  Erin, being (less) helpful, told her she doesn't like to swallow gum.  Which led to this...
Alix - "I know!  Erin always gives me her gum to swallow for her."
me - "Really?"
Erin - "Yeah.  I chew it for a while and when I'm sick of it, Alix swallows it for me, so I don't have to..."
Alix - "I don't mind, I'm a good gum swallower!"

Ah.  The sweet joy of sisterhood...

And aren't they tiny all alone on the chairlift?  They go together all the time.  It's kind of amazing to me.  Erin is on the left, in blue and Alix on the right, in black.

Quote of the Day...

Sam - "Mom, what is that?"
me - "A super hero cape (I'd made out of an old sheet for primary)."
Sam - "Oh.  So it's dad's then."

And since I put up an old-school picture of me, here's one of Tom.  Isn't he delicious?

the Good, the Bad and the Beautiful...

The good - Someone has a crush on me... He's handsome.  He's sweet.  He's shy.  He's 3.  Noah is in Sam's preschool class and has the cutest little crush.  Good to know I've still got it...

The bad - I mentioned (complained) at spin class how sore I was from basketball the night before and how I'm not as young as I used to be.  The woman next to me made a comment about trying to keep up with "kids in their 30's."     "I'm only 32..." I told her.  She was SHOCKED.  And not in a good way.  She thought I was near her age.  Which is 62.  62!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Perhaps I don't still have it...

The beautiful - I teach an art lesson twice a month in the twins' class.  Last week a little girl pulled me down to her level and asked if I was the twins' mom.  "I am."  To which she replied with a whispered... "You're beautiful..."  Bless you child.

Well, majority rules.  I've still got it.  Whatever it is... =)

(And that stunning dish on the left?  That's me...)