Observations Of An Out Of Towner

This weekend, we're hanging out in St. Louis at my in-laws. We have a thing about being home on the actual holiday of Christmas so that Santa can visit the wee ones in our own home. This year, we're coming down the weekend before Christmas to spend four days here with the in-laws. It's been fun.

Today, we went to the Rams game. And by "we" I mean my husband and I and his best friend from here. The wee ones stayed at my in-laws who watched them, along with my SIL and niece. By the time we got home, it was time for our first Christmas dinner and then the massive present opening spree.

Somehow, we brought down some arctic weather with us from Chicago. It was 2.8 degrees this morning when we were eating breakfast. This is really not so acceptable for me. I come to St. Louis, in part, because it's warmer than Chicago. Ok, so granted it was 5 below in Chicago. Still, I remember walking around in shorts on year because it was so warm. Is 40's and 50's so much to ask?

A few observations:

• St Louis people wear jerseys to the games, which I totally get. What I don't understand and will never understand, is that in St. Louis, they feel as though jerseys are dress shirts that need to be tucked in and belted. Really, it's not a fashion look. I will say that at least my husband has finally given up this habit.
• It was so cold that one of my husband's friends at the tailgate (seriously, they still had a tailgate) opened up a can of pop for his six year old son. The pop froze as he was trying to drink it. Literally. People should not have to be outside in that kind of weather.
• When I went to go get my free pop because I signed up to be a designated driver (a perk many stadiums offer, by the way), the concession workers told me that they were supposed to consolidate. No new kegs were to be tapped. When they ran out of something that was open, they were to refer people to other stands. Assuming they were open. Lots and lots of the concession stands were just flat out closed today.
• The Rams are pretty bad this year, and the crowds showed it. The Dome was pretty empty, and my husband's tickets are in the upper section. We went down to the lower concourse to do some shopping -- my husband's idea -- since the Ram Store was having a huge sale. By the time the boys finished shopping, the first quarter was half over. I seriously felt like I was in a mall that happened to have a football game on a tv nearby.
• People will do anything for something free. There was a pickup truck handing out free bottles of Monster energy drink as we were walking (ok, running) to the car. We couldn't get past it because of how many people were crowded around the truck. I heard one person say he got a half dozen. I heard another say he grabbed one but doesn't even like it. Ohhh, how I love people. Let me count the ways.
• And my favorite from this afternoon's game. My husband is such a girl. At the end of the game, all the men were standing outside the women's bathroom waiting for them to finish their business. Me? I was the only woman standing by my lonesome outside the men's bathroom.

It's always a different world when you go elsewhere, and we've got a couple more days to go. On the plus side, tomorrow we're apparently going to the mall down here to see Santa. That's another thing we haven't had a chance to do yet this year, and I was sort of bummed that we weren't going to have any pictures with Santa. Now if I can just get those New Years cards out....

Gee, Thanks!

I think everyone's heard this one before, right? The Mom Song? It's pretty famous, and personally I think it's hilarious.

The other day, it was on XM Kids. Mister Man, Little Miss and I were driving umm somewhere. They asked me to turn it up, so I did. At the end of the song, I turned the radio back down again, and there was silence in the backseat.

Mister Man: Mom. That song sounds like you.
Me: Umm. Really? It does?
Mister Man: Yeah. That sounds just like you.
Me: Really? Do I nag that much? Am I that demanding?
Mister Man: No. I mean that voice sounds like you. She has your voice.

Phew! I was really getting worried there for a moment!

It's a Charlie Brown Christmas

Mental note to self: plan ahead for Christmas next year.

I've pretty much given up on sending out Christmas cards this year. I haven't written the letter, I don't have good pictures to put in the card (nor are they printed), and by the time you read this, I'll be on my way to St Louis to visit with the in laws for a few days.

The wee ones have also not visited Santa. I haven't wrapped a single present. My husband's gifts have been planned for a month, but I haven't actually bought them yet. Oh, and two gifts for my mom and my in-laws will be arriving after the Blessed Day. Oops.

I actually blame much of it on Little Miss being in the hospital all last weekend. Last Friday was my day to get the Christmas letter and pictures done, and the cards were to go out last Saturday. Obviously that didn't happen. And work has been an absolute bear lately with me working until 7:30 on a few nights, plus working on my off days. That's kinda thrown a crimp into my life. I still need to plan better though.

Our tree is a good example. I refuse to have a non-live tree. I tried to go look at fake trees last Christmas, and I tried to find one I could live with but I just couldn't do it. In fact, I really prefer to go to a tree farm and cut down my own. I love the experience of doing that, and I'm sure the wee ones would, too. There was never a free weekend day that we could have gone though. Oooo, brilliant me. I'm going to write that date on the calendar for next year right now.

See. My brain does work sometimes.

In any case, we finally went to Home Depot to get our tree. Another mental note to self: don't get a tree the weekend before Christmas. I literally had six trees to choose from. And they were just a tad picked over by that point. If only I'd taken my camera so you could see how sad those empty tree boxes looked.

Instead, we came home with this:



All it needs is a little love, right? And maybe a blanket wrapped around the bottom?

Fortunately, we have plenty of lights to weigh down some of the branches. The only problem with weighing down the branches is that it exposed ummm light midway up through the tree. Oh well. That's what ornaments are for, right?

The wee ones got right on that. They had so much fun hanging ornaments on the tree!






Let's just say it all together now. Ready? Awwwwww.

I promise. There was no fighting over who got to hang what ornament. There were no tears when all the Santa and Frosty ornaments were hung. No pushing and shoving occurred at all. No one grabbed ornaments out of anyone's hand, nor did anyone purposely knock ornaments off the tree that someone else had hung up.

Another mental note to self: do not decorate the tree just before bedtime when they're tired next year.

In the end, we ended up with a lovely tree. See?


And yes, the ornaments were hung in clumps. Raise your hand if you think I left the ornaments in clumps. What, not a single one of you raised your hand? You must know me too well. Yep, I had to more artfully rearrange the clumps. They were disturbing my tree zen.

Oh. You want a picture of the whole tree put together? Yeah, sorry. There wasn't enough love in this house to magically turn the Charlie Brown tree into a miracle. Maybe next year. When I cut down a beauty all by myself.

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On the plus side, I'm really realizing how much I love my ornaments. Don't they look all fancy and expensive? I got them at Fields years ago on clearance each year after Christmas. They're actually laquered paper mache and ... unbreakable. Kids or cats can knock them down and no harm, no foul. The actually breakable ones only the adults hang up. And we put them much higher in the tree.

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At least we had fun decorating it, right?

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It's The Giving Season

Ok so a couple of updates here for me on a Friday snow day.

First, I got a call from school yesterday at about 8:30 to say that school would be canceled today. This was after my work sent out a note at 2pm telling people to start heading home because of the weather. Since I was working at home at the time, I actually asked people if it was snowing there but no it was still sunny. And while I appreciate getting a call at night, can we at least wait until the first flake starts falling? Snow didn't start until after 11 last night. Granted, it was a lot and school would have been canceled, but it still seemed weird.

Second, we went to the dentist on Wednesday and yay - no one has any cavities. Little Miss has some pitting in two teeth, but they aren't soft, so we'll just keep brushing well and monitoring them. Unfortunately, they both announced that they never want to go to the dentist again.

Third, Little Miss is on more meds, and I'm not real comfortable with that. Her pediatrician wants her on steroids twice a day for the next few weeks and once a day until summer. When I look at the side effects of Pulmicort -- including a weakened immune system -- I just don't feel like this is a good idea. How do I tell this to my pediatrician? Little Miss is also on antibiotic ear drops for her first post tube removal ear infection. We lasted three weeks after the tubes came out; this isn't looking good. Interestingly, I also read that many ear and lung issues are caused by a dairy allergy that can be taken care of by eliminating all dairy from the diet. I'm debating trying this, but when I start looking at all the foods that have cassein and whey in them, this is a major change for my milk, yogurt and cheese girl. Has anyone had any experience with this?

And lastly, it's Christmas, and it's a rough Christmas for a lot of people. Then there are those who are trying to make the world a brighter and better place. Who are these people? They're everywhere. They're helping out at schools and nursing homes. They're adopting families and helping them for Christmas. They're shoveling neighbors' walks. There are all sorts of neat and great things people are doing.

And it doesn't stop there. I've found all sorts of bloggers that I read regularly who are working on brightening the holidays for their readers. Who are these people, you ask?

First up, we have Jaci, who's giving away Fiestaware. A whole place setting of it even. That stuff is so cool (and yes, it comes in purple - plum, technically). You've got until Christmas Eve to pop in over there.

Kat at Sunshine and Lemonade is giving away three prizes this week! She has the coolest scrapbooking Disney album sets. As an added bonus, she shows us all how she made some great photo books from her own Disney trip. You've got until Saturday!

The SITS girls - one of my favorite sites out there - is giving away a $40 gift certificate to LaLa Baby Boutique. Again, you have until tomorrow to go visit the boutique and let them know how you'd spend the $40. It wasn't hard for me to find a way to spend umm just a touch over the $40. A lot of bloggers are trying to figure out how to get more readers and commenters, etc. This is a great site to network on to gain more of both.

Dawn at her Because I Said So Reviews is giving away Word World Moon Sand. The wee ones saw this show's "people" last winter at an event we went to and fell in love with them. Again, you've got until Saturday (tomorrow) to enter. And Dawn is also giving away a grocery list electronic gadget that I am absolutely drooling over. It's called the SmartShopper Grocery List Organizer, and you have until Monday to enter. She has another one (c'mon, Dawn, you're making everyone else look bad!) for Dunkin' Donuts that also ends on Monday. You can get a pound of coffee and a travel mug.

And Outnumbered2to1 is giving away a four pack of Disney on Ice tickets in Milwaukee for Thursday February 5 at 7pm. You've got until January 23, but ... only enter if you or a loved one can make it, deal?

Good luck, and I promise tomorrow I'll be more together. These snow day things really throw me! And no, I didn't send the teacher gifts to school yesterday. That would have been too easy!

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

I know you're getting a ton of letters this time of year, and I'm pretty sure a lot of them are going to be coming from mommies. I'm hoping you have room for one more.

Really, I have a very small request. I'm not asking for jewelry or for personal servants or for anything luxurious even. All I want for Christmas is a good night's sleep. Ok, so maybe that's not such a small request.

Let me explain, Santa. I try. I really do. I lay down in my bed a good nine to ten hours before my alarm is going to go off. That should be plenty of sleep, right? People only need about eight hours, or so I've read. So long as I still remember how to do math, eight is less than both nine and ten. I should be set.

Let's take last night as an example though.

My husband went to bed before I did unfortunately. I could hear him snoring from downstairs, which isn't a good sign. When I turned off my light after reading an article in a magazine, I poked him so he rolled over onto his side instead of his back. And continued snoring. It took awhile for my to fall asleep. Santa, maybe you could help my husband stop snoring while you're at it?

I finally fell asleep, and Mister Man walked in around 11:30. He was crying because his side hurt. I rubbed it sleepily and asked if that felt better. He told me it didn't, so I suggested going potty or taking a drink to see if that helped. He walked into the bathroom and did both. Then he came back to tell me he still hurt. We finally discovered that wearing two pairs of underwear was causing the pain, so he removed one of them and trotted off to bed. I had to deal with the snoring again. Common sense for Mister Man, Santa? A larger bladder? I'm willing to work with you here.

Around 2:30, I was awakened by the snoring again. From a deep and sound sleep. I swear it was vibrating the bed. Needless to say, it took me awhile to fall back asleep after being so rudely pulled from my peaceful slumber. We're back to my husband and the snoring thing again, Santa. Any suggestions?

At 3:26, Little Miss started crying. My husband wasn't moving, so I hopped out of bed to find out what the problem was. She needed a hug from Mommy. I'm guessing it was a bad dream, as she went straight back to sleep. Me, not so much. How about helping Little Miss sleep through the night? Or maybe wave your magic wand and have my husband wake up quicker?

Around 4:30, I was again awakened by the snoring. This time a quick elbow to the ribs silenced it long enough for me to fall asleep. Eventually. Ok, we really need to address this snoring thing, Santa. Seriously.

I heard Mister Man head to the bathroom again -- must have been that late night drink -- around 5:20. Apparently I wasn't so soundly asleep after that last snor-wakening. Yep, a larger bladder is the solution for Mister Man. He didn't even come into our room to announce that he had to go potty. I just heard him pattering down the hall et al.

After that, I was pretty much sunk. I laid awake, counting down from 200 in the hopes that I could fall back asleep. I know you're aware that this is my personal insomnia solver. It would have worked, I think. I was down in the sixties when my husband's alarm went off. He snoozed it, the meanie. It went off again nine minutes louder. Maybe you could bring him an alarm that just reaches out and pokes him. Quietly.

I laid awake and listened to him shower. When he turned the light in the closet on and left the door open so he could find his socks and such, I sighed and tried to roll over. Light is not exactly conducive to sleep for me. Ok, Santa, I know asking for a house that's large enough that the closet is a giant his/hers set next to the bathroom with the door to the hallway where the closets are, but I think that's the solution. See, a good night's sleep is so simple next to this!

By the time I heard the garage door closing, it was beyond hope. I was exhausted, but I knew sleep wasn't coming back to me. I gave up and hauled myself into the shower to start the day about forty-five minutes early.

On the plus side, Santa, I did have one of my most productive days ever. I got so much stuff done. Maybe this whole sleep thing is overrated.

Nope, sorry. I need my sleep. Santa, please, this is the only thing I'm asking for. Take pity on a mom with bags below the bags on her eyes. I promise I'll be a better mom this year if I get more sleep. Just one good night. Pretty please?

Love,



PS I promise I'm making extra yummy cookies for you this year. Not that I'd try to bribe you or anything. That would put me squarely on the naughty list, I know.

Whoah! Starbucks Alert

Ok, maybe I'm a moron here and you all already know about this. Me? I'll admit to being a bit out of the loop. Karen mentioned the other day that she used her Gold Starbucks card to get 10% off her drink. Hmm....

Me, always being on the lookout for cool things like, ohhh I don't know, 10% off at Starbucks -- where I only drink the frou frou $4.60 or whatever yummy things. I asked her what she did to get a Gold card, and she said she just bought one for $25.

Interesting. That of course prompted a visit to the Starbucks website for me to further investigate. I don't have a Starbucks habit -- I'm not big on caffeine, it's expensive and oh yeah it has a lot of calories when I drink it -- but I certainly go there periodically, as does my husband.

Yep, she's right. You can buy a $25 Gold card. So what do you get for your Gold card?

1) Buy it in the store and you get a free drink (any size, any drink) immediately ($25 - $4.60 = $20.40 cost so far)

2) On your birthday, you get a free drink, again any size of any drink. ($20.40 - $4.60 = $15.80 cost now)

3) 10% off almost anything you buy in the store. I thought initially it was only for drinks, but exclusions are just for gift cards, the membership, books and magazines, and digital downloads. That means I could get the Starbucks mug or a CD or coffee and get 10% off those, too. I know me though, and I'll just be buying my usual. With the cost effectively at $15.80, I only have to buy four drinks over the course of a year to make money. Errr save money, I mean.

4) You get up to two free hours of wireless access via AT&T each day. You have to register with AT&T and all, but what a great way to encourage people to hang out and get some more of perk number three! The only downside is that it's one shot of access per day, so you can't go in for an hour in the morning and then for another hour later in the day. I'm ok with that though.

5) Apparently I'll get other "exclusive offers and discounts" throughout the year. These aren't specified, and they may be worthless to me (which is why I didn't include it in the above calculation), but if it's 20% off the first Tuesday of the month or upgrade a grande to a venti for free during spring break or something along those lines, I'm good with it. Hmm, maybe I should go work for Starbucks in their marketing department.

And this isn't the only kind of thing Starbucks has. You can also register your gift cards with Starbucks and get free stuff. It sounds as thought you can only do the Gold card or their Starbucks Card Rewards for a single purchase, but I still need to go into a Starbucks to verify that (hey, if anyone knows all this already, pipe up!).

So why would you want the Starbucks Card Rewards instead? Here, you get some different benefits that may be more beneficial based on how and what you buy. You do have to use the registered gift card (and you can register up to three at a time) for at least part of the purchase. Details include:

1) When you buy a drink, you can get an add-in for free. I can't tell if it's only one add-in, or if you can do as many as you want to really customize your coffee. Again, I'll have to verify. If it's anything, I'd get my venti brewed coffee and pop in some caramel syrup, hazelnut, and soy and be good to go. That would be cheaper than the 10% off my venti caramel macciatto.

2) When you're hanging out at Starbucks (and when the wee ones are in school and I have time to myself, I will become one of these moms!), you get free refills of brewed coffee (hot or iced) for as long as you're there. I can't tell if you also get the free add-ins, but hmmm....

3) When you buy coffee beans there, you get a free tall cup of whatever you want with your one pound purchase. Of course if I were to buy Starbucks beans (for my husband), I'd buy them at Costco where (shhhh) they're far cheaper, but still not a bad perk for those who buy their beans at Starbucks!

4) The same free wireless offer as the Gold Card.

Maybe I'm totally out of the loop, and yes, that's not out of the realm of possibility, but if this is news to you, how cool is this? And if everyone in the world knew about this already but me, can you at least not rub it in too badly?

Any guesses as to what I'm doing once Little Miss wakes up from her nap today? Actually, scratch that. I can't have caffeine past about noon. Let's try this again. Anyone know what I'm doing tomorrow morning once I drop Mister Man off at daycare?

Tasty Tuesday!

Well, apparently Tasty Tuesday will stick around - at least for a little while. I have another recipe that I made last week (yes, before the hospital visit) that was a huge hit in our house. Unfortunately for Melisa, I seem to be on a pork theme, but I promise the next one will be kosher-able.

This one is from my friend Denise who made it as part of our supper swapping. It was something I would never have made for myself, as I am not at all a pork fan, but I let her make it since she makes so much pork in her house and I was vetoing all her recipes. I'm really glad I did! Not only is it super yummy and healthy, but it's incredibly easy to make, and it uses one of my favorite inventions - the Crock Pot! Mister Man even helped me make this one.

Crock Pot Pork (I have no better name than this):

3-4 pounds pork tenderloin
8-10 cloves garlic, sliced
2 large onions (or 3 medim), sliced
2 bay leaves
1/4 c water
3 T soy sauce
salt and pepper, to taste



Yes, that is IT! Super easy. For the pork, I prefer to remove the silverskin and trim it up a little, even though it usually comes pretty clean. For the silverskin, I slide a knife under it and then use my fingers to pull it off entirely (cleaning if needed with the knife to keep more meat on the tenderloin and not pulled off with the silverskin).

Once cleaned, slit the pork in a few places, and shove in pieces of sliced garlic here and there. My friend's recipe called for 2 cloves of garlic here, but I used more like 6 and would have been ok with more. Salt and pepper the pork, and set aside for a moment.

Slice your onions like you're going to put them on a hamburger (rings), but cut in half. Toss all the onion into the bottom of your crockpot. It's going to look like you have a ton, but they really cook down.



Place the pork on top of the onions. See how you can spot the garlic peeking out of the meat?



Add the garlic, bay leaves, soy, and water. Make sure the garlic is not sitting on top of the pork by itself or it will get burned a little by the end. You can even poke it into the middle of the pork loins.



Cover, and cook on low for 8-10 hours. You can also do it on high for 4-6 hours, but I prefer cooking on low to really get it tender and juicy. The meat may not all be in juice to start, but by the end, it will sink down and become yumalicious!



I wish I had a picture of the finished product in the crockpot, but everyone was so anxious to eat it that I had to dish it up as soon as it was ready. I will, however, say that it is kid tested and approved!

This is one of our newer favorites, and I know I'll be cooking it again several times this winter. Enjoy!