Missing In Action

It has been brought to my attention (by my mom) that I have not blogged since Thursday.  I did indeed realize that I hadn't blogged since then, and to be honest I'm fine with that.  I intended to blog several times since then - namely for my Flashback Friday post - but I just didn't have the inspiration to do it.  We had a busy weekend and this week is John's midterm week, so I've been staying up late as a show of solidarity to my husband as well as chasing after the Terrible Two during the day.  I also needed some time away from the computer and to read some books.  I'm back now, and I will promise to blog when I have something to say, but I can't promise that it will be every day (as my parents seem to want - love you both!).  :)

Here are some things that I might have blogged about: 

1) The soft pretzels that I made for snack on Friday.  They were uncooperative when I tried to fold them like pretzels - they fell into their own shape while boiling.  I have to admit, I didn't like this recipe.  They tasted too much like yeast and were too soft inside in some areas.  I think that the method of boiling that the recipe called for wasn't very good.  So, I am going to try other recipes I found until I find one that works for us.  I love soft pretzels (w/o salt), especially dipped in cheese sauce.  However, I also realize that the soft pretzels & cheese sauce you buy at places are not healthy for you in the least.  In fact they contain artificial ingredients that I try to steer our family away from, so I am trying out different homemade recipes in the hopes of being able to make a healthier version.  There are lots of recipes out there and I will let you know once I find one that I think passes the test.   

 

(I realize the pan is gross - this is our ugly pan, but the only one big enough for all the pretzels...then again, the pretzels are pretty ugly too.)

2) Johnny fell from a chair yesterday and scraped his leg all the way down his shin.  It is a bright pink color and after he fell all he said was "ow".  No crying or anything.  He'll randomly come up to me and hold his leg up in the air and have me kiss it.  He loves any form of attention.  :) 

 

 (I couldn't get a picture of it that adequately showed its color & ugliness.  And yes that is a "bread sandwich" - when I cook dinner Johnny will go and play with his kitchen set and make me a bread sandwich...2 buns w/ a piece of toast inside.  My favorite!)

3) Johnny pretended to be a fearsome dinosaur today and stomped around the house growling at me.  He would giggle when I gave him kisses.  Even dinosaurs can't be mean when their mommy gives them kisses. 

4)  I love love love the dollar section at Target.  I always find awesome little educational toys, maps, flashcards, or other things like that for Johnny.  When we were at Target this weekend Johnny found these bendable fabric flowers in the dollar section and so we let him pick out two for us to buy.  He has been playing with them ever since and pretending to smell them even though they don't smell like anything.  I think he is ready for spring as much as I am! :)  I will be partaking in urban gardening this spring on our patio - I am planning to grow some vegetables and herbs mainly, with a few flower pots.  I need to buy seeds in the next week or two, so hopefully I figure out where to get those and the various containers I need.  I am hoping to get some vegetables and herbs out of my garden, but am mainly planning on buying produce from farmer's markets and from pick-your-own orchards/farms.  I really hope to find a pressure canner at a reasonable price at a yard sale this spring or summer so that I can can some fresh produce this summer to get us through the winter. 

 (I plan to build some sort of pretend gardening container or something with flowers & vegetables for Johnny to pretend garden this spring)

5) A sentence from Johnny yesterday when we had just gotten into the car to go run some errands:

 "Go...out.  Go out?  Go...church?" ("Church" was a little garbled, but you could tell what he meant)

 I was so proud of him for using a sentence and asking a question! :)  I of course explained that we had gone to church the day before and were not going to church that day.  After I answered him, he said " 'kay" and then started looking out the windows.  Sometimes he is so adorable that I forget that he beat my thigh up with a plastic baseball bat the day before.  Well, almost. ;)

6)  I finished two books since Thursday: 

 

(Click here to see source of picture)

This was my first time reading The Red Tent - it was amazing! When we were back in Spokane for Christmas, I had coffee & conversation with a friend from the Religious Studies program at GU.  Both of us are waiting to apply to Grad school because of our significant others' schoolwork.  And we both greatly miss being in the classroom and having theological discussions.  When you are an academic at heart, you crave intellectual stimulation.  It runs through your veins for the rest of your life and there is no changing who you are.  So, both being desperately in need of theological discussions, we decided to start a two person book club.  We will alternate the responsibility of choosing a book each month and the only criteria is that the books must be religious in nature (though they can be fiction, like the The Red Tent), and hopefully they will have something that sparks conversation and discussion.  Christina picked the first book - The Red Tent - which was already her favorite book.  I had never heard of it but I'm so glad she suggested it!  The gist of the story is that it is a fictional story based on Dinah from the Old Testament of the Bible.  Dinah is the sister of the 12 sons of Jacob and is only mentioned briefly in Genesis 34.  The Red Tent is a story about women and the "red tent" where they would go when menstruating and they would pass on stories of womanhood, and it is the story of Jacob's wives and Dinah.  The author fills in a lot of the blanks of Dinah's life based on historical records of how women lived in that time, other stories from the bible, and intuition as a woman.  The story is elaborately woven and includes other people from the Old Testament.  I loved this story because the couple of sentences about Dinah in the Old Testament could have been describing something different than how it is commonly read and this book tells a story of very real women who had a larger role in the lives of the biblical men and who were empowered their daughters - all of the women are connected by the very fact of their ability to give life.  If you have never read this book, I highly recommend it!  It is tragic, beautiful, thought-provoking, and empowering.  I am looking forward to discussing it with Christina. :)

(Click here to see source of picture)

This is the second time I have read The Lovely Bones - the first time was shortly after it came out when I was a sophomore in high school.  As amazing as it was the first time, it was just as amazing - if not more - the second time around.  Since the movie is coming out (or maybe already has), Barnes & Noble was selling the book in paperback for really cheap.  This book has been on my list of books to own someday since I loved it so much (I read it from the library the first time around) and so I bought it with part of a gift card.  I just finished reading the book today and it was just as horrific, tragic, and beautiful this time around.  I cried, I smiled, I laughed, I hugged my child, and I got lost in the story just as much as the first time I read it.  Even though I knew what was going to happen the entire time, I still got lost in the book and was sad and lost along with the family and I rejoiced when things worked out in a tragically beautiful way in the end.  My hair rose on end every time I read about the killer again.  I also recommend this book, if you haven't read it.  Especially before you go and see the movie.  The books are always better than the movies based on them.

7) Have I ever mentioned that I love Craig's List?  I love that I can find things that we need in almost new condition for a fraction of the cost, and also help prevent an item from making its way to a landfill as well as preventing me from going out and buying a new one.  I had taken a break from Craig's List for a while, but this weekend I ended up getting a really sweet deal on a few items we had been keeping our eye out for over the last few months.  We got 9 board games in almost new condition (with all their pieces!) for a little over $1 each.  Anybody that knows John & me knows that we are really into board games!  The problem is that a lot of our games we have either played a lot or are games you can only play with more than 2 players.  We ended up getting some games that you can play with 2 + players as well as some other games for groups.  Now we're hoping to find some reasonably priced board games for little kids, since Johnny is almost to the age where he can start playing games too.  John's parents own a game called Spaceopoly that is loads of fun and I hope to get at some point for Johnny.  We also got a deep fryer in good condition for $5 (this was on our list of kitchen appliances we wanted to own at some point, but it wasn't one we were willing to pay a ton of money for either since it would be used infrequently, but this was a great deal!) and a hand/immersion blender that has only been used once and still has its manual for $10 (good for smoothing out soups or for making your own baby food).  I am really really really looking forward to yard sale season!!!

 

(Really similar to the one we bought)

(Click here to see source of picture)

8) We also finally bought a kitchen island using some gift cards to Sears that we got for Christmas.  Our apartment has a spacious kitchen which is really nice, but the tile from the kitchen seems to go really far out and wastes space.  The space seems to beckon to John and me every time we're in there that we need to put something there.  A while back I put a large rug in that area that Johnny likes to sit on and play, but it still doesn't seem to do the job for us.  We also don't have lots of counter space to do prep work in the kitchen - the "openness" of the kitchen is really more this giant space of tile rather than counter space.  John has been mentioning us getting a kitchen island a lot lately so we decided to use our gift cards and go and get one.  It should be shipped to us sometime this week or early next week (shipping was free too since we went into the actual store to order it - sweet!).  I will post pictures on this blog of our new kitchen island once we get the kitchen island, set up, and I take pictures. We're both really excited to get it because it will fulfill our needs of more counter space, more storage, and a filler of obnoxiously wasted space in our apartment.  :)  I just wish that the process of ordering the kitchen island in the store had been a lot less stressful (inexperienced woman who didn't know how to use a computer/claimed she processed the order and took our gift cards/we get home to realize that we have no confirmation e-mail because she did in fact fail to process the order/John spent over an hour on the phone fixing the problem)...Johnny and I did have a lot of fun going up and down escalators in Sears though while John dealt with the order information (okay, okay, so more like Johnny enjoyed forcing mommy to take him up and down the escalators while other shoppers gave us looks - I just smiled at them).

9) I am really into a show called The Tudors right now - I love love love it!  I have always been fascinated about history and the soap opera-esque history of the Tudors, and this show which is aired on Showtime is feeding into that fascination.  I only recently learned of this show's existence since we don't have cable or satellite television or anything - just regular channels with rabbit ears/digital converter box.  It follows King Henry VIII (he is a lot more attractive in this show than the paintings of the actual historical king) and his break from the Catholic Church, his six wives (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived - this saying tells you just how crazy the story of him and his wives is), and his children.  My absolute favorite character of the show, however, is Saint/Sir Thomas More.  But he was beheaded near the end of season 2 so I don't get to enjoy him anymore.  There are four seasons, and I'm fairly certain that the fourth season is the last season of the show.  I watched the first two seasons online for free and am currently getting the discs for the third season through Netflix.  The fourth season is saved to our Netflix list for when it finally releases - which should be soon.  I can't get enough of this show!!  The show is really well done, the acting is great, and I'll admit it is a little graphic but the show is so incredible that I'm willing to overlook all the nudity and the sometimes very bloody and graphic executions.  I think I want to own this show on DVD someday.  

 

(Click here to see source of picture)

10) John left the lights on his car today when he went to class, and it drained the battery.  Johnny and I got dressed and drove all the way across the city to John's school to give him a jump since nobody had time to stop and help him...and of course we got there 30 seconds after someone finally stopped and helped him jump his car.  It was all for nothing.  I'm just glad that we got the car started.  

11) This next one could be gross depending on how sensitive you are: I shaved my legs for the first time in a couple of weeks.  It was glorious.  I usually shave my legs every day in the shower but for the past couple of weeks Johnny has been extra clingy and the only way to keep him from getting in trouble while I'm in the shower is to put him in the shower with me, which means I don't get to shave my legs.  I finally shaved them today because I was starting to look like a mountain man and it was an instant pick-me-up.  I can never feel clean or put together if my legs aren't smooth.  I hope that I can go back to my habit of shaving them every day.  Maybe you could put in a good word to my Terrible Two?  {I apologize if this was entirely too much information, but my mom wanted to know what we have been up to the past several days, so I am blogging about it all...including what may seem gross or mundane to the rest of you. ;) }

12) We found out this weekend that John's family/the in-laws (parents and one of his brothers) will probably be coming to visit in March/April after we get back from our trip to Spokane.  John is excited.  I do not have any more details than that at the present moment. 

***

That was my weekend in a nutshell.  I'm sure most of it was thoroughly boring, but that is what I would have been blogging about had I blogged since Thursday.  I hope that exciting things will happen this week that I can blog about, but if not, you are forced to hear things like this.  Can you deal?. ;)

Now are you happy mom? :) 

Oh, and Happy Groundhog Day (I don't care what P. Phil says - I demand no more winter!  Though winter has been extraordinarily mild & warm here thus far...knock on wood)!!