Vida. Risa. Amor.

I have been bored with food lately...I seemed to have lost my taste for spaghetti and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so I thought I'd branch out and try and actually make something special since it was the kids last day of school. About a year ago I made these awesome steak kabobs for the family that required making a homemade marinade....they turned out perfect and my family loved them and left no leftovers. I don't know what happened to my kabob recipe yesterday but I have decided that from now on I am leaving the meat marinading, and grilling to my husband...who is an expert. As the kitchen manager of the Elephant Bar, he is always learning new recipes from their menu there and then cooks us delicious food at home....but this is kind of a problem since he works in a kitchen full time and he doesn't exactly like to cook on his days off. He's gifted though, and I always remind him if he wants to like what we eat at home, he kind of needs to take over the meat part of dinner! (I let him have the T.V. remote on these nights).

I don't really like to cook....no, actually, I think I hate to cook. I know I can prepare a meal, I do every day, but it's always the same typical meal that has a meat, a side dish, a vegetable, and possibly bread...(the pillsbury croissant kind). The kind of cooking I hate most is when you have to look in parts of the grocery store you've never seen before to find all the ingredients....and the worst is when you don't even know what a certain ingredient is, (what are shallots or orange zest anyway?)...or have to go buy a whole $10 on a spice you'll probably only use once.

So yesterday I thought I'd chop up my pot roast meat, instead of crock-potting it, and turn it into meat for the kabobs. (Mistake #1.) You really can't grill that kind of meat and then think you can actually chew it. My kids almost choked it was so tough. I thought that if I had everything marinade for a whole day that it would be okay...so not the case...and I also thought the more marinade the better. (Mistake #2). My husband needed goggles to keep the smoke out of his eyes when everything went on the grill. So altogether I probably spent about half an hour shopping for everything, 20 minutes on blending and mixing the marinade, 15 minutes cutting the meat into chunks, 10 minutes cutting the vegetables, another 30 minutes putting everything onto the freaking kabob sticks. (Mistakes #3, #4, #5, #6, & # 7). (Side note: wooden kabob sticks burn on the grill...and then scrape splinters of wood onto the meat for you to stab your mouth)...fun. (Mistake #8).

Kabobs are over rated. They look cute and organized, but they're a lot of work. It's too much effort to put all the meat and vegetables on the sticks without stabbing yourself, and then a lot of work to take them off and then more work to have to cut everything into bite size chunks for the kids to eat anyway. I told my family that I was sorry for making such a failure meal. Luckily I made two rice dishes and tortillas to go with everything. The moral of the story: always make delicious normal side dishes because they sometimes get turned into the main meal....then follow up with a great dessert like cookies and ice-cream.

I'm having a good laugh today. I'm remembering what it was like to be 14....and it's hard to believe that was 21 years ago. I can remember how much I "used to" like to lay out in the sun, be with my friends, listen to loud music, and eat junk food....(okay, maybe not much has really changed)...but I'm having a "flash from the past" moment as my 14 year old daughter is laying out in the sun in the backyard, while inhaling rootbeer and popcorn mixed with chocolate chips with her favorite radio station blasting on the radio.

She sure keeps me busy, and I spent the week trying to keep up with all of her plans...from her talent show at church, 4 days of soccer try-outs, the Jr. High 8th grade "celebration", a swim party and carpooling to it with all of her friends, boyfriend football games, shopping, last nights sleep over, and getting her to her last week in Jr. High church this morning. I know that it is important for her to be where all her friends are since there's only 4 days of school left, and less than a week until everyone disappears for their vacations.

I usually pretend to be "invisible", and observe her activities quietly on the sidelines, but somehow last night I got sucked into the teepee wars. I remember the rush of playing a harmless prank and getting away with it, but looking back, I'm guessing there were a couple of boys families that I'm sure were sick to death of the monthly mess we left in their yards. The biggest difference is that when I was that age we didn't actually tell our parents and we'd sneak out late at night when they were sleeping. Well, thank goodness times have changed because of the dangers of wierdos around and better curfew rules...and these days you just can't let your teenage daughter walk around the neighborhood on a Saturday night. I make it a point to try and know what plans she tries to conspire, so for my secret personal entertainment and safety reasons, I designated myself as the "getaway" driver. What's funny is that I'm pretty good friends with both of the boys Moms, and one of them had installed a camera in their driveway....just for moments like these. So, since the girls knew about it they dressed up in my boys batman and transformers masks and did a little dance in the driveway for the video camera...and scribbled a few goofy messages in sidewalk chalk while finishing off their palm trees with Toilet paper. I observed this all in the comfort of the "getaway" car and tried not to laugh too loud to give them away....they had their undercover ninja rolling techniques perfected by the time they were finished.

I know revenge is coming soon though...but that's the beauty of it...SHE will be the one to get to clean it up!!

The end of the school year seems to make life seem busier than ever...even busier than the Christmas season. My brain doesn't seem to want to put together sentences well at the moment, and I don't even think I can put words to describe my thoughts either...I don't remember having any this week. All I know is that I thought I was going to have a week or so to be able to catch my breath after Rylan's birthday and Mother's Day, but as it turns out, I was wrong.

There have been yearbooks to buy, teachers to appreciate, projects to finish, sing-a-long shows, treats to donate, carnivals to volunteer in, costumes to create, and a dozen or so posters to create...(Lanie wants to run for student council treasurer). Add to that birthday gifts to buy, appointments to schedule, allergies to prevent, pre-schools & high-school to investigate, Vacation Bible Schools and fall sports to sign up online, and church camps to save up for. 2 days ago I sewed on 10 girl scout patches that were falling off, organized a garage-sale, un-organized a garage-sale, wiped slime and fingerprints off the van windows, and went through a half a can of Raid trying to get rid of the ants invading my kitchen. Today I cut, trimmed, aligned, peeled, and ironed 24 soccer Mom t-shirt transfers onto shirts. There really are more than 101 ways to ruin a t-shirt transfer.

Growling hurts your throat later. I also can't remember what I fed my kids today. My 4 year old drank 6 or so milk sippy cups I think. I made cookies...out of the package. I eat a PB & J every day. My teenager steals my tweezers and shoes. I need to start buying conditioner by the gallon. There are soccer tryouts tommorrow, football practice, and a talent show at church. Russel Crowe makes an awesome Robin Hood.

Maybe I've inhaled too much bug spray. I do have one clear thought...that in only 2 weeks I will be sitting with my toes in the sand. On a beach. With an adult beverage in my hand.

This is the last week you will get to be three. I'm not sure why this is such a big deal for me, but having you turn 4 is definately making me realize you are my last child on their way out of the baby stage, and I think I'm realizing it's happening too fast! It always makes me smile when after I tell you I love you, you tell me right back. I love it when you tell me first.

You've kept me busy this past year that is for sure! You never like to be left behind when I have places to go, and you're a fun little sidekick to bring along when I run errands to the library, grocery store, and your all-time favorite: Target. If I buy you popcorn and an icee I can get you to sit in the cart the whole time....that is until we get near the batman toy aisle. You tell me you're "just going to look" and you just want to have "one little ting" but I have to remind you that your birthday is coming up and you just have to wait. You've gotten a little better about not crying horribly when you don't get your way, and sometimes I can get you to stop crying if I tell you we're going to McDonalds after so you can be happy with the toy that comes with the happy meal. I always eat most of your cheeseburger anyway...so I guess that makes us both happy.

Today you jumped on the trampoline naked. I know I came out and yelled at you and furiously put your clothes back on quickly, but when I went back inside I laughed my head off. That was seriously the funniest thing I've seen any of my kids do. Ever.

I love watching you line up your star-wars toys mixed with superheroes, and lightning McQueen cars. Every day I clean up a few darts in random places around the house from your nerf guns. Pretty much everything you play with get's turned into a weapon and I'm so happy you are smart enough to know you don't have true super hero powers and haven't attempted to jump off of anything too high.

Every night you start out sleeping in your own bed and end up stumbling onto the floor of my room around 3 a.m. Sometimes I don't hear you, but this has become such a consistent habit that I don't even fight it anymore and have a bed set up right there for you. You don't ever go anywhere without your "dee-dee" either, (your blue ni-ni). You cuddle with it while sucking your thumb. You probably only have one more year left until that won't be so adorable anymore.

You know a lot of words to the songs on the radio and it's funny to hear you sing them in the car....your favorites are: "Shawdy's like a Melody in my head"..., and "Give me Reason....(the transformer song), and "shush girl, shush your lips, do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips"...Yeah, so I'm pretty sure I'm failing in teaching you proper preschool songs and that your Kindergarden teachers are going to have their work cut out for them. I keep hoping you're learning a little something from Moose-A-Moose on Nick Jr. or the Mickey Mouse club house since that's on for most of the morning while you throw down a few milk sippy cups. I've been a little concerned that the batman cartoon DVD's we've rented from the library are way over your head, but you always tell me it's okay. I tried to get you into a free preschool program for kids with special learning needs...we even tried to stop teaching you proper pronunciation so you could qualify, but turns out you're just too smart. We hope to get you into a preschool program this year.

We've said good-bye to the crib and diapers, and soon it will be the training wheels on your bike. You're a big boy now, and I really should make you walk instead of pushing you around in the stroller....but I'll love you forever and you'll always be my baby man....my chunk punk lee...my stunk chunk loo....my super cool dude.

Your birthday is on Mother's Day this year.
You'll be 4, and it reminds me how much fun it is to have FOUR!