Note to Self

Dear Jeanette,

Three things:

Getting up at 8 is not enough time to get Owen to school "punctually." Five days of school have shown you that, so tomorrow set you alarm earlier.

I saw you eat the last three cookies all by yourself instead of sharing two with your boys. I can't decide if that makes you a self-preservationist or just plain selfish.

Arguing with Jeremy at 12:30am about the nation of Panem's feelings on global exploration, the philosophy behind comic books, and the correct part of speech that the term "steampunk" belongs to is just not a good idea. . . on so many levels.

You might want to work on those things.

Sincerely,
Me

Under Construction

OK here's the deal. . . I'm getting a dot com. I've wanted to do it for a while. One of the reasons is my blog's current lame name. When I started this blog three years ago I came up with a name that was personalized, and also had some (maybe not so original) alliteration (I'm a sucker for alliteration) but in truth it was kind of cheesy and, really, kind of boring.

Now I will have a name that is definitely personalized, won't have any alliteration, but the trade-off is it won't be lame. And the biggest feature is--it will be all mine. With the switch in name I will also be doing a site makeover.

There will most-likely be a LOT of construction dust on this site for the next 24-48-72-? hours. The truth is I don't really know how all of this is going to go down. I'm doing this through Blogger and basically anyone who visits this site is supposed to be redirected automatically to the dot com; however, anyone reading my posts via a feed reader will need to update their RSS feed with the new address. . . (Haha I just said all those words because OTHER people say them when they make website changes. I don't actually know what any of those things mean, but I'm sure if you use a "feed reader" you'll know what you need to do.)

In order to make the transition easier for everyone I will be having a giveaway starting on Monday to say thanks for making the jump with me. Anyone is welcome to enter. After all, I have recently passed my 200th blog post and my 10,000th visitor--it's time for a giveaway!

Hop on over to jeanetics.net. See you after the jump!

Surprise!

We were walking in our yard this morning, after some serious rain last night, and we found this:

Surprise! A little wild strawberry plant in the middle of our grass.

Keep a weather eye on this blog, because there's going to be a big surprise (and maybe a little one or two) coming soon.

Betrayed

I tried, really hard.

I've been daydreaming and making lots of plans. I've been l0oking into all the fun things that we can do this summer, all the opportunities we'll have. "It'll be different this year," I promised myself. But it's no use.

Two miserably humid days into summer. . . And ten mosquito bites on my poor itchy baby later. . . and it's official:


I hate you Kansas.

Eating

The Great Food Experiment is over. I lasted 84 days, and I only filled in make-believe dinners for two of the nights. But the sad truth is. . . with only 10 days left until my due date, lately dinners have consisted of a lot more pancakes, waffles, cold cereal, and oatmeal than they normally would. So I figured since the whole point of writing down our dinners was to get an idea of how we "normally eat" that this wasn't really continuing to be accurate.

So here are the final numbers after 84 days:

34 completely vegetarian meals (50 non-vegetarian meals)
54 meals (including vegetarians) with less than a full serving of meat per person.
So we only had 30 meals where each family member ate a "full serving" of meat.

63 Homemade meals plus another 11 meals made in the home of the prepackaged tortellini/frozen burrito type variety (not TV dinners).
10 restaurant or takeout dinners.

One interesting thing about our "less than a 1/2 serving of meat" meals, I noticed we use a lot of bacon and Italian sausage. These are both really flavorful ingredients that can spice up a mostly vegetarian dish, particularly pastas which we eat a lot of, and we love them.

And for the reference of anyone interested, and my own future reference (read: after the baby is born) here's the list of all the strictly vegetarian main dishes we ate over that time.

Baked Ziti
Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas
Black Bean Burritos
Breakfast Burritos
Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Burritos, Frozen bean and cheese
Cheese Ravioli/Cheese Tortellini
Cheese Souffle
Fritatta, Potato and cheese
Mac and Cheese, homemade
Minestrone Soup
McMuffin, egg cheese and jelly
Mushroom Agnoli (filled pasta)
Mushroom Risotto
Pasta Alfredo
Pizza, Onion and Pear
Potato Soup
Steamed Vegetables and Soba Noodles
Sweet Potato Fries
Taco Salad
Tomato Basil Soup

Housekeeping

Or is it Blogkeeping?

First, the results of the poll from the great car color debate are in. There were 7 votes for silver. 2 votes from people not wanting to get involved (one of those votes was Jeremy--the pansy) and 3 votes for tan. I also got word that someone else wanted to vote tan but the poll was closed already. So 7-4 in my favor. (I didn't vote.)

Granted--this poll proves nothing. But based on the results of the poll I will continue to call my car "a silvery color" without shame or guilt. And in a few months, I can take pictures of our new van with pots and pans on the hood and we can all decide what color it is as well.

Second, I've been posting our dinner main dishes up in my left sidebar. I post them sometime the week after we eat them. This is because I am not a strict menu planner, and sometimes even when I grocery shop for a certain meal it will end up getting pushed off to a later date.

Basically recording what we're eating is something Jeremy and I are interested in doing for the sake of curiosity. We often tell people that we don't eat a ton of meat, which leaves the question of what do we eat? Part of this little experiment is to see what we do eat. The interesting thing is that I've been doing better at planning our meals so far this year, and for some reason when I plan out our menus strictly we end up eating more meat--I think we're all hardwired to think a meal must revolve around a meat choice.

I'm also interested in monitoring the homemade to prepared ratio of the foods we eat, for the sake of health and getting rid of artificial ingredients and preservatives in our family's food. So here's the results of January, with 31 days:

10 vegetarian meals
19 meals (including the vegetarian) that included less than 1/2 serving of meat per person.

21 homemade meals (+ leftovers 2 nights)
4 prepackaged food-based meals eaten in the home (i.e. take and bake pizza, frozen burritos, packaged tortellini)
We went out to eat 2 meals and brought home takeout food 2 meals

I feel pretty good about last month. We ate out/took out more that we normally do I think because we were sick last month--and that takes out the desire to put effort into food. Obviously we ate leftovers more than twice last month but this list was only dinner meals. Jeremy is actually really good about taking leftovers for his lunches, and every once in a while I decide I'm not in the mood for peanut butter and I'll have leftovers too.

I don't know how long we'll keep up this cataloging of our dinner meals, but for right now the project is still holding my interest.

Third, my "using eggs" posts (see the link up top) will start soon. My blog and I were just working through some relationship issues the last two weeks, and had to get that sorted out first.

Fourth, my comments are functioning again, if you ever feel so inclined to leave one.

Out of Order

Me 'n' my boxes of lotion-injected tissues are taking up permanent residence on the couch until further notice! Uhg. . .

Diego saves America!

This is the movie Owen checked out from the library this week.

Jeremy was impressed. "Diego saves Christmas? Is there anything he can't do?"

Which led us to thinking we really should think about putting Diego on the case of the national deficit--or maybe health care reform. . . he might be just the one we need to get these problems sorted out.

Sometimes I Feel Like a Teenager Again

And I've never before wished so badly that my name was Kelsey.



This is my summer anthem. Of course in reality I'd never go for a guy that spent more time doing his hair in the morning than I do--although that wouldn't give them much to work with. . . Oh well, Jeremy doesn't mind!

I'll be enjoying my summer anthem while on my summer vacation starting today. Have you taken yours yet? This is the last chance to vacation before school starts up again.

Quick--go do something fun!

Steampunk

Jeremy has a new hobby.

Steampunk is a genre and subculture that revolves around the victorian, industrial "steam-power" age society, but with more advanced and modern, sometimes futuristic, technologies that rely on the steam power and clockwork gears and cogs of the era to run on, as opposed to our modern types of power. The "punk" of steampunk comes from the movement being slightly anti-establishment, mostly demonstrated through empowerment of the individual.

Jeremy's interest in this movement has been growing over the last year or two. He's long appreciated from afar the handiwork of fans who have modded modern technology like laptops and cell phones to look Victorian-era. But this month Jeremy decided to take the plunge and declare his steampunk nature by entering an online photo contest: "What does Steampunk mean to You?"

So in his own words I give you: Why in the world Jeremy would be interested in something so random. . .

Steampunk is the perfect foil for us in our current techno-centric world. In the age of steam, little humans were able to harness a power with unlimited potential. The question they had to answer was: are we going to use this power for good, evil, or awesome? Today we are constantly discovering and inventing products that defy our imagination. So, how are we to know the way? By looking to the past and in the case of steampunk an alternative past more suited to our present.

The steampunk world is pure romance. You can be whomever you please, you can imagine and invent using technology that is available to everyone and comprehensible by our basic standards of education. To be a tinkerer, a steamer, a clacker, an inventor, a scholar, a new renaissance individual is the dream of many.

The steampunk movement offers many the opportunity to create original work. Instead of going to the store and consuming our clothes and props, the hallmark of a true steampunker is personal craftsmanship and an attention to detail that comes from the love of creating. It is this level of craftsmanship that makes steampunk look so cool. You can't leave anything half done because if you do it will not be believable. Thanks to all the creators out there who have inspired me.

Our Hero arrives at the zeppelin station.

Look at the time! I'm going to miss the symposium.

Where is that zeppelin? It should be here by now.

Ah yes, finally aboard.

AMBUSHED!

We'll settle this like men!

The Victor

BTW I'm such a jerk I forgot to recognize our awesome friend Jonathan Swinton took these photos. You can find him now in SLC!

Good Eats

The potential for great summer entertainment just increased by twelve points at our house.

With the exception of our current house, we have always had cable TV because it was included with our rent or with our internet service. We loved it-who wouldn't? But when we moved to this house we made a decision.

No cable.

After all we're in school we should be trying to live frugally. We decided though, that since we were saving money there, we could afford to spend some money on entertainment that we otherwise might think was too expensive.

I mentioned before that Jeremy and I like Anime--that it was the reason we got together in the first place, but Anime is a pretty expensive hobby. We decided though, that if we would potentially spend $200 or more a semester on a cable subscription, that we could afford to buy a $75 DVD box set a semester, and still be saving hundreds of dollars a year over cable.

We've also included in this "spending plan" our favorite cooking show. We love Good Eats. Alton Brown is like "Bill Nye the Science Guy" for cooks. He talks all about the Why's of cooking giving us what he calls a roadmap for cooking so we can find our own way around, as opposed to just giving turn-by-turn directions where if we took one wrong turn we'd be lost.

Buying a Good Eats on DVD is like the show that keeps on giving. It's entertainment for sure. But then it provides recipes like buying a cookbook. But then it's like no cookbook you ever bought before because it shows you how to make the recipes along with giving you the knowledge to avoid common troubles. (Am I a fanatic?)


We purchased our latest installment of Good Eats this week. Our last installment we bought two years ago, and we have enjoyed over and over. Some episodes are so good we've watched them 4-5 times during that two years (I love you "The Muffin Man").

The DVDs arrived yesterday, hooray! We already watched "Jam Session," an episode on jamming and canning.

Oh, Good Eats, we're so happy you decided to join our family. We hope you are as well-rounded and bring us as much joy as your older episodes, and we promise to love you and appreciate the increased culinary knowledge you bring us forever and ever!

Long Winter

Winter lasts way too long. Today we were especially stir-crazy still cooped up indoors. So we built a fort.

Fort-building is one of those mommy "tough calls." As in: Do I really want to tear up the living room and drag in tons of junk from all over the house for what may only be 15 good minutes of actual play time?

But we did it, because we are bo-ored!

And yeah it only lasted like 15 minutes.

But speaking of winter being too long. . . I turned up my thermostat. Sure I was all about saving money when fall began but. . . I'm tired of being cold OK?!

Spring Break 2009!

Wish us luck. . . see you again on Thursday!

<<< Carrots >>>

Seriously, I struggle with side-dishes. I mean I just spent an hour on an extravagant main dish, and now you want something to go with it?! Of all the nerve!

Really, It's more of a one-track mind thing over not having time or energy. I just don't think about it until it's too late.

However when I do plan ahead I try and make sure it adds to the overall nutrition of the meal, otherwise, I might as well just save myself the time and effort. And it's only a benefit when it's simple enough I can remember and don't have to dig through recipe books.

So this recipe (I'm using that term very loosely) is for Glazed Carrots. Sometimes we eat carrots plain straight from the fridge. Sometimes we dip them in Spicy Ranch, and sometimes we eat them glazed. Really variety is important to help keep the family from dying of boredom over their vegetables.

Start with however many carrots your family will (hopefully) eat and cook them to your desired doneness using your preferred method. I put them an a small pot with enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. Bring it to a boil, then cover the pot and reduce the heat so that they half boil/half steam. Either way when they are done drain out any remaining water.

The glaze is made up of equal parts of butter and brown sugar. Here I was using about a tablespoon and a half of each. Stir that around with your carrots. The heat of the carrots and pan will most likely give all the heat needed, but if the brown sugar looks "grainy" at all turn the heat on low for a minute to get the sugar crystals all melted.

The last step is the surprising yet delicious one. Sprinkle with a bit of dill weed. It gives it a great flavor that gives this more "grown up" appeal. If your kids won't touch speckled carrots, then leave it off for them, but do give it a try-at least once.

As you see I knocked myself out this night with two vegetable side dishes. -I know!- Actually I made the peas for the baby, because he loves them, and I wasn't sure that he would eat the carrots. Ha! He loved the carrots. (Also as you see we were using paper products. Cut me some slack, I've got a lot on my plate =wink= right now.)

Coming Soon:

• Another recipe in my year's goal of eating more vegetables. The "funnest" way to eat sweet potatoes you've ever seen!
  
• "Overheard" words exchanged at bedtime that I hope my child won't repeat at church.
  
• And a very green party for a lucky little boy!
  

BTW: Yesterday I checked out an HTML book from the library. . . Look out Blogosphere!

Punctuality

Oh yeah! I am the model of punctuality. Remember that $5 rebate I told you about? Well, although I mentioned it was good through February 16th, that was actually the purchase dates it was good through. The last date that you could actually mail the rebate form in was March 2nd--yesterday.

So being the being the bright shining model of punctuality that I am, I mailed it off . . . yesterday. I can't bother with getting things done early, see because I'm too busy getting other things done on time.

Now I was very excited yesterday afternoon to realize, that if I could find a stamp, then I could simply put the envelope outside for the mailman to take away and I wouldn't have to go out with both boys in tow to get to the post office before closing. (Amazing and novel system that the US Postal Service is.)

So I started rummaging. The first stamp I found had a picture of an apple on it. It was for 34cents, and was dated with little numbers in the lower corner with --I kid you not-- the year 2001. Um. . . Jeremy and I had not even met in the year 2001.

I also found some 39cent stamps from 2006. Hm. . . getting closer, but I'm pretty sure stamps are up to 40-something cents now.

Finally I came across some more stamps from 2006, but these ones were First Class. SCORE!

Let that be a lesson to me: buy First Class stamps from now on!

(Oh yeah, and after I snapped this picture the mailman drove by =TOO LATE!= and I had to chase after him down the street to take my mail. Did I mind? Nope. I walked back congratulating myself, "Just in time!")

Mail Bag

Here's something interesting that showed up in our mailbox this week. It's from Dillon's, our local Kroger brand store.


Hmmm... Coupons for products we buy most? This ought to be interesting to see:


Nestle Chocolate Chips? Guilty, guilty as Charged.

$5.00 of Fresh Vegetables from the produce dept? We sure try.

Butter? Yes BUTTER. I don't believe in leaving the butter out of everything I make, we just eat less treats. . . less delicous treats made with real butter.

Old Orchard 100% juices. If you are going to drink juice-this is the way to go.

Post cereal? I do love me some honey bunches of oats, just don't get me started on their new product "Just Bunches." It's GRANOLA people!

Musselman's Apple Sauce. We buy their Natural Applesauce with no added sugar. I never buy "babyfood" applesauce. It's the same thing and ten times cheaper.

Quaker granola bars. Jeremy takes them to school, and I keep them in the diaper bag.

King Arthur Flour. Their unbleached bread flour is high-quality stuff appreciated in artisan bread-baking circles around the country. Jeremy uses it to make Baguettes.

That was a very interesting tour of gastronomical self-exploration. Can I just say that I'm glad Oreo cookies didn't show up on that list? Boy would that have been embarassing!

Farewell

Dear Couch,

Our introduction was such a sweet surprise. Although second-hand and left behind you were not too bad on the eyes. Your neutral color was non-offensive, and you didn't even have any funky smells lingering about you.

Although you had one broken gear you functioned more than adequately. It was a simple matter to pull you away from the wall and lay you down as a sleeper. Your "full"-sized mattress at one time or another cradled my mom, my sister and her husband, Jeremy's parents, his sister, and then both my parents. You even on occasion provided a slumber-party location for Jeremy and me to stay up late watching Anime and pretending to be in college again. I will always look back in fondness on those two years when I had the pleasure to call you, "a piece of my furniture."

It's just that your shape is so "modern." You don't really fit my style. And I don't know where we are moving next, I mean--will I have room for you the next place we live? Sure, I'd love to be buying a house but times are tough right now. . . And although we won't be finished and moving for another three months. . . I just felt there was no reason to prolong our inevitable break up. I couldn't lie to you like that, not after all we've been through.

And so my couch, I hope that you will forgive me. Although you came to me for free, and you never asked anything of me in return. . . I despair telling you-- I sold you for 80 bucks on craigslist.

Yours truly,

Jeanette

Tornado Envy

Today I thought I'd post something fun for your viewing and listening enjoyment. (Of course I may be the only on that thinks its cool.) In a recent discussion with my sister about the possible "ideal" state to settle down in, I mentioned the state of Oklahoma. To which my sister responded, "To be quite honest, I'm afraid of tornadoes."

Maybe I've seen one too many "Natural disaster adventure-thriller" movies, but I really think it might kind of be a cool to experience, with excellent bragging rights too. Last Monday I recorded for your listening pleasure, our monthly emergency alert warning system test. (You also get a great view of bleak Kansas winter weather.) We live between two groups of alarms. So we hear the one from the front side of the house, then the next group from the back side of the house. I like the ones from the back side best. Remember those laser guns you could get when you were little, that cycled through he five different "laser sounds?" Yep, that's what it sounds like.

So did you think that was cool or what? I know I'm nuts. In reality we were gone this summer when a tornado did hit. The guy sub-letting our house said he slept right through the sirens. (Some warning system.) At first I was bummed because we missed the tornado, and most-likely our one chance in our life to use the hand-crank weather alert radio my mom got us for Christmas last year, umm...and then reality hit. Who am I kidding? I would have been scared to death for my baby boys!

(But in my head . . . if I imagine I wasn't a parent responsible for the well-being, and life-long nurturing of two beautiful boys. . . I still kinda think it would've been exciting. Anyone with me?)