A Milestone Missed

Today Annamaria pushed herself into a standing position using her bouncy seat and I was unable to capture any photographic evidence of this amazing feat. "Why?", you may ask. Because for some strange reason our digital camera is not cooperating. Upon closer inspection Vince found that the memory disk had been scratched and is pretty much useless now. It kind of looks like maybe, oh I don't know, maybe Harrison put it in his mouth and scratched it with one of his canine teeth. How he came to finding it, pulling it out of the camera or the computer adaptor and sticking it in his mouth, then putting it back, I'll never know. Maybe he's getting a bad rap and he's completely innocent, but that really would fit in with his behavior these past couple days. He's been in trouble for one thing or another for what seems like forever, and it's really trying my patience. I'm hoping it's only a phase. I thought he pulled off the "terrible two's" with uncommon style, but it looks like the "terrible three's" will be something to remember.

Taking Care of Business

My husband is being very responsible right now, and is meeting with a Life Insurance guy from the Knights of Columbus. One of the reasons he joined the Knights was because they have unsurpased life insurance. So after four years of being a Knight, he's taking the plunge and buying into it. Home owner's insurance is required by our mortgage company, and car insurance is required by law, but it's hard to voluntarily pay for something that you don't get anything physical for. And that hopefully you won't see the benefits of for a very long time. But I guess that's part of growing up and becoming an adult.

Our kitchen is coming along nicely. We had granite countertops put in last week. Santa Cecilia is the name of the granite we chose. Funny, Cecilia is one of the names I was considering for Annamaria. Before she was Annamaria that is. So my upper cabinets are done. My lower drawers are in, just need to be faced. And I have about four more lower cabinets that need to be put in. Vince is constantly working, but I don't see much progress, until "boom", he comes in with everything finished and just puts it all in. I have to keep that in mind when I start getting impatient. Now we need a drywall guy to finish off the walls in the kitchen. And the paneling and ugly, ugly paneled ceiling in the den needs to be covered over and finished off too. I keep trying to think of things I can do around the house to help out, but I'm very limited it what I can do on my own. I need to touch up the paint in Sophia's room. I never finished off around the ceiling real neatly. We were going to put up crown moulding in there, then changed our minds. And Harrison tore down part of the wall paper border when he was still in the nursery, so that needs to be repaired too. Our "To Do" list seems insurmountable. Do you ever get your house to where you consider it "done"?

Check These Out

Cool videos.

Oh my gosh. I haven't laughed this hard in I don't know how long. My sides hurt.
Check out this video

And this one isn't funny, but it's pretty cool

I promise a more personal post soon.

I Used to Scuba, But Now I Scooba

UPS finally delivered my robotic floor cleaner last night. It was Christmas all over again. I was so excited. So after charging its battery overnight, it is now ready for use. So cute, like a big, blue hockey puck. I immediately became attached to it. As I blog away, my kitchen floor is being swept, scrubbed, and dried. It is a thing of beauty.

Unfortunately Harrison was so mezmerized by it, that he failed to tell us he needed to use the potty, and pooped in his pull-up. If there was only some automated robotic thingy like the Roomba or Scooba that changed diapers. The Pooba. Now that would be worth having.

2006 So Far

I still need to get a 2006 calendar. I keep finding myself looking up, trying to figure out what the date is, then realize I'm looking at December 2005. Pretty fustrating. So from what I can figure today is January 9th. Where has the time gone?

Let's see . . . we followed our little New Year's Eve celebration tradition again this year. I made way too much food, enough for about 10 people. Of course it was just me and Vince and the kids, but I can never help myself. Since we had Sophia, we've just stayed home, and I've made Asian food galore. This year I made beef satays with mango dipping sauce, vietnamese spring rolls with a garlic/lime dipping sauce, fresh spring rolls with a spicy peanut dipping sauce, pork & peanut wontons served with a sweet chili dipping sauce. Then I bought sushi and some potstickers to round out the meal. I must have been recovering from Vegas still because I only drank caffeine-free Coke all night. Woo hoo, you go girl!

I had a week and a half off from catering. A very nice break. Started cooking again on January 3rd. Ended up with four jobs last week, and I have three jobs this week. Nothing like starting out with a bang. And I must really be getting good at this catering thing, because I had dinner for 30 last Saturday, and I didn't start prepping until after noon that day. Then once I got started, I was done by 2:30 pm, and didn't have to be at the job site until 5pm. Plus I had the kids all by myself too. That's my kind of gig. They should all go so smoothly.

Since Vince's Christmas break, someone must have lit a fire under his ass, because he's really making progress on the kitchen. I have cabinet doors on all my upper cabinets, and drawers on my lower cabinets. We may even be picking out counter tops soon. I'm very excited, you just don't know what it's been like living with a construction zone kitchen for as long as I have. Especially with as much cooking as I do.

Now look at my girl go. She's not "properly" crawling yet, her tummy doesn't leave the ground, but boy does she get around. I can leave her in the den, and moments later she's joining me in the kitchen. Scoot, scoot, scoot. Now she's getting under the coffee table. Of course she usually lands on her face while getting "down", but she doesn't seem to mind. She's dealing with a gunky nose lately. Has been since New Year's. Now I have a gunky nose too. Poor baby has been sleeping in her car seat, in her crib for about a week now, just to keep her upright so she's able to breathe and sleep through the night.

January 6th was my Grandma's 83rd birthday. Happy Birthday Granny M. Vince stayed home with the kids, so I could go out with my Mom and Grandma to celebrate. We headed up to Valley View casino for a little gambling fun, but most of all for their buffet. It really is good, rivals any Vegas buffet for the price in my foodie opinion. Now those of you who have a 2006 calendar can see that the 6th falls on a Friday. Therefore, the casino was mobbed. We ended up turning around and going somewhere else. It was a bit dissapointing, but we'll be back. During the week I'm sure.

I need to get going, I have lunch for twenty tomorrow, and some laundry to get to. But first a picture of Harrison modeling his new Spiderman PJ's. And for some reason he loves his swimming goggles, wears them all the time. I think he's just a weird kid. Enjoy.

The Gifts Just Keep On Giving

My Christmas gift from my mom was a trip to Vegas. Vince stayed home with the kids, and my mom took me away for a couple of nights of rest and relaxation. Now the last time I was in Vegas I was pregnant with Annamaria, so my goal was to drink in abundance and do a little gambling. My goal was achieved. We arrived in Vegas Wednesday afternoon, and started with a light sushi lunch. Did a little gambling, then went to the oyster bar for dinner. Did a little more gambling, had ice cream sundaes for dessert. Then did a little more gambling. Once I thought I lost enough money, I headed up to the room. Did a little reading, then went to sleep. The next morning we got to sleep in. Hit the buffet for breakfast, then did a little more gambling. Now you may be thinking I have a gambling problem at this point, but really I didn't loose more than $60. Which is still more than I wanted to loose. Actually I wanted to win, but I never do. We had appointments at the spa at noon, so we headed to the spa and relaxed in the jacuzzi for a bit. Then headed to our massage appointments. Eighty minutes of muscle relaxing heaven. Thank you mom! After the spa my mom took me shopping, and we spent way too long in the Chico's store. As a belated birthday gift, she bought me a couple outfits. So that evening I got to wear one of my new outfits to Gallagher's in the New York New York to dinner. We dined on prime meat to our heart's content, and ate the best onion rings ever, while drinking Ketel One martinis. It's been a while for me, they were going down pretty easily. After our dinner we headed to The Big Apple Bar, and watched a great band until almost two in the morning, and sipped apple martinis. We "shared" about seven of them. Like I said, my goal was to drink in abundance, and I met my goal. The next morning we were both feeling a little green around the gills, so we just packed up, decided to skip breakfast, and head home. The problem was neither of us could remember where the car was parked. So after rolling our suitcases around one parking lot, and then another, we finally came across the car. All in all, it was a great escape. After getting over feeling guilty for leaving my husband home with three small children, I truly enjoyed myself. Looking forward to the next time.