June 26, 2008

A Few Things About Our Kids...

They love each other (hugging and kissing) and they antagonize each other (hair pulling and face smacking).

They have limitless reserves of energy. (Maybe we could harness it into fuel for the car?)

Rhiannon is a zombie when it comes to watching TV. (Someone could break in and she wouldn't notice.)

Brad will eat all day if you let him, but he is getting very picky with food lately. (His most intelligible word is more.)

Brad will not drink from a cup that is less than half full.

Rhiannon loves her "babies/darlings" and has started dressing and feeding Brad. (She also realizes now that babies are a lot of work. I snicker.)

Brad can shatter a glass with his screams, six states away.

Rhiannon is very matter of fact and down to earth, unless she is tired, then she's a raving lunatic.

Rhiannon is very independent and controlling, I guess like me.

Brad is destructive and mostly non-verbal, but is able to communicate exactly what he wants through a series of tazmanian devil-like grunts.

Brad will scream at Rhi at the end of his crib until she wakes up, then he smiles and laughs. She foolishly tries to reason with him into going back to sleep.

Brad sounds like a goat when he laughs.

Rhiannon hates to have her hair brushed but refuses to get it cut.









Lately my least favorite time of day is meal time, specifically dinner time. Rhiannon refuses to eat anything unless it's a hot dog, mac n cheese, or chicken nugget. I spend the entire meal begging, yelling, bribing and finally giving up. Brad usually eats what you put in front of him as long as it's wet. As a result, I have been drowning all of his food in applesauce, which also makes for a messier clean up. It is agony for all of us and puts such a damper on the end of the day when we should be enjoying each other's company and having nice conversation. (Or is that just on TV?) I have such anxiety over what to cook and I know that I am not alone. Jim and I are trying to eat more healthy, but I just wanted to give up on cooking dinner all together.

Last week I was in the library and I came across the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook, Deceptively Delicious. I remember seeing something about it on the news and I thought, what the hell...and I checked it out. Yesterday I pureed some cauliflower, sweet potato, and squash figuring I'd sneak them into our food. So far I am feeling a huge anxiety lift at meal times. I made the kids mac n cheese with squash mixed in an nobody was the wiser. Not even myself when I tasted it and I knew it was in there. Rhiannon also helped me make a banana bread with cauliflower mixed in and that lasted about 24 hrs! Today we had ramen noodles for lunch with sweet potato added to the broth. It tasted amazing. I could never eat them plain again. And did the kids eat it? Every last drop in their bowls. I would say success has been achieved!

So now can you picture it? I will be forever chained to my food processor mashing up whatever I can find that contains vitamins and minerals but cannot be tasted when added to regular food. It was a lot of work but I think in the end if it will make our one family meal together more enjoyable, it will be worth it.

June 17, 2008

Air Battle Manager Graduation

Wednesday Jim officially became an Air Battle Manager. He got the top academic award with a test average of almost 97%. He is so smart! The guest speaker at the graduation was stationed in Geilenkirchen and we got to snag a few pieces of information from him. Friday, our friends Matt and Sara found out they are going to Germany too! We have been hoping they would get it too because we have become good friends and our kids play together several times a week, and now we get to do that in Germany. Another pleasant surprise was that our friend Melissa also got assigned to Germany. We knew there was at least one slot open but it's even better that there were two and both of our friends got what they wanted.

Graduation Certificate

Getting New Job Pinned On

Top Academic Award

Father's Day was Sunday and we took Jim bowling and out to dinner at the Hofbrau Beer Garden where we practiced eating German food. I just love watching him with the kids. They love it when he gets home from work and run at him shrieking with excitement. I guess I get old after a few hours...He has been teaching Rhiannon how to play chess and little by little she is getting the hang of it.

June 9, 2008

Alyssa, Lisa, Danielle, Brad, Jim & Rhi at McGuire's with Money Cow

A Visit With Alyssa

After a minor snafu, Alyssa made it in Thursday afternoon instead of in the A.M. I just left her at the airport a little while ago and I already miss her. It seems she was only here for a few hours. It is relatively easy to live away from family and friends until someone visits. Then it seems like we are missing out on so much by not living back home. The time that we have spent away from everyone starts to hit home as well. But we definitely made the most of the time we did get to spend with Alyssa. We showed her a good time in Florida with a night at the world famous Toucan's in Mexico Beach, followed by night swimming in the ocean. Saturday we all went up to Destin to the sandbar. We rented a boat, tied Brad to the side of it, and planted an umbrella over him. The water was only about knee high on an adult with a slight current, and was crystal clear. We spent the day hanging in the water, playing catch, boat watching and listening to music. Rhiannon got her first jelly fish sting which we poured vodka on to dull the pain. I just happened to read about 9 green uses for vodka last week and that was one of them. Of course it worked like magic! There was a boat maneuvering through the crowd selling boiled peanuts and ice cream like we were at a baseball game. It was such a beautiful and relaxing day. The pictures can hardly do it justice. It is going to be really hard to leave this place...

Destin Sandbar

We had dinner at one of our favorite places, McGuire's Irish Pub. They make those crazy rum drinks called Irish Wakes, that kind of remind me of Scorpion Bowls. "Money Cow" is the name Rhiannon gave to the cow head that hangs on the wall, and of course the entire restaurant is covered from floor to ceiling in one dollar bills. She feels bad for the cow because he is dead and all alone on the wall so every time we go to eat there, she has to go visit him.




Lisa is/was also leaving today. Initially when we left for the airport, I said two goodbyes. But Lisa is back for a few more days due to a miscommunication from the "persons in charge". Turns out she does not have to drive to Utah en route to Arizona. Makes sense to most of us I know and it would have been more useful information yesterday! If only women ruled the world...sigh

Alyssa, thanks for the entertaining stories and the flashback to our "Spit" card game days. Had fun scouring Crooked Island for shells with you and only really finding Alligator bones.

June 2, 2008

Not much going on lately. The kids are getting really tan and it's been over 90 degrees this week. Rhiannon is done with school and we are excited for Alyssa's visit this weekend.

Dr. Bradley!

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