Food, Glorious Food!

The cravings are killing me!

At least this time they are cheaper than the last pregnancy.

I MUST have two McD's plain biscuits with honey in the morning.

After that I start to crave any of the following. . .

- Oranges, but not just any orange. A cara cara pink orange. They are in season in winter so I have no idea what I will do when they dissappear from the produce section.

- Cheetos puffs. This craving is mild, I don't need many, but between Jeff and I we can plow through a bag very quickly.

- Chocolate milk. But it has to be the stuff that is premixed and sold as Chocolate milk. For some reason (I'm sure I don't want to know) it tastes better.

- And always ready to sneak up on me is the rare craving for a steak. It is rare, but when it hits. I HAVE TO HAVE ONE!

Of course to go along with this are the foods I feel queasy about eating.

- Eggs. I'm not sure what it is, but I can only stand the thought of hard boiled eggs at this point. None of this scrambled stuff, thank you very much. For some reason even the thought of smelling eggs cooking is enough to make me feel a little green.

- Fish - I thought fish sounded good the other day. Wrong! I'm thinking this is now to be avoided because it did NOT sit well.

I'm thinking the two avoidances are leftover morning sickness things. I once read that some scientists think that morning sickness is an evolutionary thing that is designed to keep mothers from eating foods that could compromise the development of the fetus early on.

And yes, Mimi, you told me this once too. ; )

Maybe I should just give in and drive home quickly to get a travel cup of Chocolate and bring back that Cara cara sitting on the table. . . .

Watching your dollars

Did anyone catch the President Obama speech last night?

I caught most of it, but I started to get a bit sea sick as I watched Nancy Palosi and Joe Biden do their imitation of 'the wave' behind President Obama. I wished Palosi would just sit down and let the man speak.

I checked CNN.com this morning for a little news and wasn't surprised to see more stories about how the public gets wind and reacts to spending habits.

The leading stories were (in my words):
-Bank that received loan money spends too much for PGA party.
-Bank CEO gives $60 million in personal bonus money back to company
-Palin called on the carpet for using state money for personal travel. But she swears she'll pay it back.

Bravo for the news for trying to keep people honest . . .but does it make you a little nervous about how you spend your own money and who might be watching?

I'm almost afraid that the local news will post a story about me.

"Local woman who lives two blocks from work wastes precious gas by driving to work everyday."

or

"Local preggers spends almost $3 a day to get daily ration of McDonald's biscuits and coffee. Learn to cook lady!"

True I have to drive Alaina to daycare in the mornings which is about 3/4 of a mile on the other side of the office. But if I were a govt employee or a celebrity, would they care to post that?

I'm glad for the honesty that Obama is promising by saying he will disclose all of the spending from the stimulus package and try to do the same for the budget. (At least that's what I heard when he spoke.) Because frankly, the press would love to be able use it for headlines and tear him apart for it.

Meanwhile, I'm going to try to resist having my personal plane take me to Fiji to soak up the sun for the weekend. ha ha

Fat Tuesday

Well that glorious day has arrived!

Fat Tuesday!

The day that we . . .

umm, the day that we . . .

Well, Nuts.

I can't think of a single thing that we do to celebrate this celebration of all celebrations. Mardi Gras just isn't a big deal in Nebraska I guess.

Personally, I can't decide if this is a good or a bad thing. In a state that was largely populated by German, Czech, and Slavic immigrants, I guess we are more of a Wilber Czech Festival kind of people.

I think that this is an instance that our new Attorney General would have refered to us as cowards for. . .

What, sis? You mean you don't know what I'm talking about? Well, allow this Anderson Cooper addicts to enlighten you.

Our oh so lovely Attorney General gave a riveting speech in honor of Black History Month in which he called us all a 'Nation of Cowards.' He basically railed at all of society for staying in our comfort zones, leading the whites to congregate with whites and blacks to congregate with blacks in social, religious, and familial situations, leading to a society induced segregation.

I can't get this out of my head, its been milling around for the last week. The illusion of the USA as the "Melting Pot" was mentioned, but I've never bought into this pesonally. So many people have tried to retain some of their roots and maintain their cultures that we've never seemlessly melted together. I've always pictures us as more of a salad. Different foods that are mixed together in one dish. We each retain our own tastes and structure, but together we become something more interesting that we were on our own.

But what about this comfort zone theory?

Is it so bad to have a comfort zone? For the people who are afraid to take a chance, comfort zones are all they know. But in a society today where international travel is getting to be as common as going to a neighboring state, what is the harm in settling back into your comfort zone?

Does it really relegate us to being called a 'Nation of Cowards?'

In related news . . .

Dear Ishmael,
Its funny how things can be related in the weirdest ways.

Last night on CNN they had a wild life specialist, Dave Salmoni ,talking about the chimp attack and how regular people shouldn't be allowed to house wild animals as pets. They talked about how the owner of the now famous "attack" chimp treated the animal like a person.

Anderson Cooper asked Dave last night to respond to the chimp owner's statement that she loved the chimp like a son.

Dave's response to Anderson Cooper was just AMAZING.

"Loving an animal is not enough. To raise a wild animal, just because you love it and treat it well, doesn't mean you know what you're doing. There should be laws that say that you know enough and have the right enclosures. . .etc etc."

Sounds like a pretty standard answer right? So why did it impress me so much?

Because directly after that story came this one. . .


Crazy Octo-Mom to lose house to Forclosure.

So I thought,



You could apply the same speech with a few altered words to this situation as well. "Should this woman have been allowed to have invitro?"

And the answer would be . . .



"Loving the thought of having a child is not enough. Having more children, just because you love them and treat them well, doesn't mean you know what you're doing. There should be laws that say that you know enough and have some way or a plan to provide for them. . .etc etc."


Granted, that's a little strict, but in the case if invitro, I think it isn't too far out there to think about screening women before they are allowed to do this. After all, adoption agencies screen parents so why can't we watch out for babies that haven't been created yet?

What do you think Ish. Too radical?

Tattle-Tale

Dear Ishmael,

Last night I just needed someone to talk to about how things had progressed with Alaina. Jeff decided to allow her to get up, put on pjs, and read a bedtime story . . .but didn't enforce my original point of brushing her teeth.

So I called female family members for emotional support.

Jeff heard me talking to Mimi about the situation . . .and I truly wasn't being a tattle-tale, I just needed someone with two XX chromosomes to hear and respond to my situation. Preferably someone who's 'been there and done that.'

But Jeff doesn't quite get that about the females of the species.

That's been a constant area of unhappy mention in our relationship since day one and frankly I don't see it changing.

So how do we reach a happy medium?

Anyway, this day can't get any rougher . . . I've been up since 4 am unable to sleep.

And by the time I made it to work I realized I had:
- Forgotten to put on deodorant
- Have the smell of Runza oozing out of every pore thanks to a stupid meal choice for last night.
- Forgot to change my broken glasses for contacts
- Forgot to bring shoes to wear other than my sneakers

Don't I sound like a pleasant person to be around today?

End to a bad day

Dear Ishmael,

To steal dear Lydia's letter from Beetlejuice

I am Alone.

I am utterly Alone.

Today just won't end.


I actually cried over chocolate this evening.


I was devastated to find out after looking through the little purple bag that Alaina's treats were sent to daycare in, that all of Alaina's classmates were sent home with huge chocolate peanut butter hearts.

And the teachers apparently didn't get anything to take home.


So I cried.

But the hormonal winning streak didn't stop there.

Right now my daughter is in her bed screaming her head off. She didn't think she needed to go to bed.

So she refused to go potty

refused to brush her teeth

and refused . . .well, to do anything.

So I picked her up and put her in her bed, kicking and screaming. My husband found this to be a good time to inform me that I should have just let him step in and Alaina would do what he asked because she always listens to him.

I didn't dare to even open my mouth to tell him what a terrible time it was to say that to me.

I'll just sit here and pretend that the terrible twos are going to end exactly on her third birthday.

And try not to ruin it for me, Ishmael or I may cry again.

Stress Relief

Dear Ishmael,

I've never been much of a "Dear Diary" girl, let alone a diary writer at all. But looking back, that's exactly what this blog has become. I have to say whether anyone reads this or not it provides a much needed stress relief during my A.M. break. So I'm taking advice from Mr. Melville and I'm going to 'Call you Ishmael.'

The second day of my mental slump has arrived, with a stormy outlook. I feel a bit on edge, but am unsure why. Perhaps it is the anticipation of handing back the responsibility of the CIO's schedule to her regular secretary tomorrow upon her return from vacation, or the fact that after my prenatal appointment tonight, I have nothing left for evening activities this week.

Granted, Jeff will be parked in front of the TV for his new addiction of Husker basketball tomorrow night, but I'll jump that hurdle when I get there.

The latest installment of The Alaina Chronicles was a humorous mention from yesterday.

Since Alaina's Val's Day party was delayed because of the snow on Friday, I figured that the catch up event would occur Yesterday. Apparently I was the only parent who felt this way, because I was one of the few that brought their treats in. The teachers get chocolate, while the kids get temporary tatoos. Am I a practical Mommy, or just a mean one? ; )

So the cute little purple bag that all of her treats for said teachers/classmates was left on a high shelf at daycare to wait for the party today. Somewhere during the day, Alaina realized that the contents of this bag were treats.
Not just any treats, but treats that her Mommy had brought which could only mean that they belonged to her.

She realized 15 minutes after we arrived at home that the treats had not accompanied us.

Up until this moment I didn't know that she knew what was in the bag until she asked for her purple bag of treats. I explained they were at daycare and that we would not be going back to get them, then all I could do was laugh at my daughter's attempts to pout in the corner.

You see, she had picked a rather unfortunate corner to pout in.

Jeff and I could see her sneaking glances to check how her efforts were progressing.

Our laughter led to a full out pouting session.

Even that cat was amused. Kitty proceeded to stalk Alaina as she would peek around her little corner. With every peek, kitty crept a few inches closer. Thankfully the pouting session ended before that cat went in for "the kill."

Alaina's father deserved an honorable mention from yesterday too, although I didn't find it humorous at the time.

I have no idea where he found them, but Alaina said she wanted hotdogs for supper. Jeff asked if we had any. For once, I knew the answer because we had just bought a new package last week.

So I left him to prepare her dinner as I prepped to go to my parttime job.

When I came back, the room smelled like feet and he was feeding her a hotdog that was very obviously not a red Fairbury Dog from the new package I had brought home.

I have no idea where he found that hotdog, but when i asked what smelled like stinky dead feet. He held up the plate of hotdogs.

And Alaina was already eating them.

I asked him why he didn't throw it away, and can you guess what his answer was?

"But she's eating them."

Ewwww!

She hadn't gotten more that one bite in before Mommy came to the rescue and brought a new hotdog from the new package to satisfy her tastebuds.

Thankfully she hasn't appeared to have any digestive repercussions from the stinky dead feet dog.

Anywho, its off to finish the work day. If things go well, Alaina and I will be going to visit Grams tonight, a follow up to the guilt-inducing-call from Grams on Sunday as Alaina and I were in the grocery store.

She is either very good at those calls, or I'm just easily rattled. Either way, I hope I can achieve that kind of power over my grandkids when I'm her age.

Take care Ishmael.

"There's no crying in the supermarket!"

First, a two part question.

Do you take the kids with you grocery shopping?
Does the hubs come along?

Ponder that while I tell my weekend tale.

One of Jeff's friends (AKA Stupid boys) was coming to town Friday. Jeff has said we were going to have supper together with his a his fiance, but it turns out he just wanted Jeff to meet them for drinks.

Frankly, I was upset because:
1) I've yet to meet this woman, who has birthed his baby . .
2) Jeff didn't call to clarify his plans with his friend until 20 minutes after I should have started supper.

Strike One

Then we have the grocery store incidents. . . I really don't like grocery shopping alone with Alaina, its a challenge to keep her in line and successfully get all the items on my list.

Saturday, I was going to run a few errands. Return movies, hit a great sale at Penney's and buy $2 shoes that I had been watching for 2 months to go dirt cheap (several styles were in Alaina's size) , and buy groceries for the steak supper I wanted to cook for Jeff and I that night.

Problems that arose:
-Alaina wanted to watch a movie in the car, a privilege she only gets on trips 40 min or longer
-After getting her a dvd at the movie store, now she REALLY wanted to watch her movie
-Once we were in the grocery store and Alaina has a little cart to push around, she decided she's rather be in one of the big plastic seat carts designed for more that one kid and drives other shoppers insane as you try to manuever down aisles with it
-She HAD to have a cookie (She knows now that she can get a free one at the bakery)
-After her cookie, she HAD to have a drink of milk which we didn't bring along
-And worse of all, they didn't give me my discount at the registers for bringing in my lovely green bags

Strike Two and the decision was made to skip Penney's.

Then on Sunday . . . .

I took Alaina to the mall and when I got to Penney's they had sold all the shoes in Alaina's size. (Dang it!) She was desperate for a "hammy-burger" (AKA a runza sandwhich) which it took her 45 minutes to eat.

Then later that day it was trip 2 to the grocery store to catch a health market sale and get groceries for the week.

The high/low lights are:
- Alaina cried for a balloon the entire time
-I went to the check stand by the alcohol cellar and they didn't know how to ring up the sale for the health market items so I had to reload my cart and go back to the front.
-Alaina was devastated that we had to go back to the front since she could see our van and cried about not getting to go outside yet.
-While I was in line at the second register, I realized I had forgotten to buy pull-ups and a few other items. But I was so upset by then I decided just to head home.
-A nice (evil) cashier heard Alaina's pleas for a balloon and gave her one.

Strike Three.

I started to cry on the way out to the van. Then I dropped Alaina off at home and took ten minutes to go back and get the things that I had forgotten.

Where was Jeff you ask?

One the couch.

Both times.

Valentine's Surprise

Cheese!

Jeff was supposed to work late last night for testing. But they called off the testing so he decided to run and get Alaina and I Valentine's presents so he didn't have to battle the snow today or tomorrow.

I got a dozen roses . . .which the cat keeps trying to eat.

And the one thing I asked for:

A cookie from Eileen's!

There is absolutely no better cookie in the world than an Eileen's chocolate chip cookie with frosting.

Since school was already called off today, Jeff is now spending the day at hoem with Alaina, no doubt shoving her full of bits of her cookie and watching lots of good movies.

I'm just happy that the CIO called to say she would be working from home. Snow days are my favorite days to be at work because I get A LOT done when no one is in the office.

Yay snow!

Stress - CTU style

I'm stuck at my desk . . .

I am literally terrified to leave it.

the secretary for the CIO is out for the next four days and I'm in charge of her schedule.

This sucks worse than death and taxes combined.

Don't get me wrong, its not the people involved, its the pressure.

When she pokes her head out of her office, I have to be here. If I'm not, Senior level managers don't get papers they need, deadlines aren't met, and critical information isn't passed along. I was so antsy I took 7 minutes for lunch to drive thru and grab food to eat at my desk.

Yikes!

They DO NOT pay me enough for this. I hope Chloe was paid more at CTU than Jack Bauer and Bill Buchanen

COMBINED!

Memories Box

Sis called last night with an off the wall question. . . .

"Did you save all of your report cards from grade school?"

I couldn't remember but two or three years ago, I took it upon myself to go through anything I could drag out of Mom and Dad's house from childhood that didn't need to stay in their house collecting dust. Frankly, we had just moved Grams out of the farm house, and it was pretty rough watching my aunts, uncles and parents try to divy up things. Some of the crew were just down right uncooperative.

So I took everything that I though belonged to me and me alone, brought it to my house, and started to go through things. It took about two days to sort through all of the stuff, but I ended up with a tote full of beloved stuffed animals and toys, a jewelry box of trinkets, and what has always been refered to as my "Treasure box."

Here's what's still residing in my treasure box.

On the left of picture one shows all of the items I have to scrapbook from elementary through High school. It will fill two scrapbooks one of which is mostly done, the second is waiting for me to have surgery sometime in my life and have a meaningful task to do while on bed rest.


Items include:
- medals/certificates of achievement for varying tasks.
- newspaper clippings and pictures.
- report cards from k-college (yep, I kept them all sis)

In the middle is my salutatorial trophy from Trumbull and the very few letters I kept from pen pals I wrote to from 4th grade through high school.

On the right are all my diplomas and mortarboards (sp?). There are a few momentos from college, but very few.

For some reason I have two 2003 tassels, but none from high school . . .What's up with that?

There is a small layer that goes on top, too.
This consists of
-books that my grandmother read to me when we stayed at her house
- Playbills from Broadway shows and college shows that I worked on.
- a keychain with a picture from our girl scout trip to Worlds of Fun in it.
- My ancient diary
- senior pics
- my first easter gloves which will probably make it to Alaina's play box one of these days
- a bag of state pins collected from state reps at National History day
- photo badges of me from Jr High (funny!)

And my treasured Silver round made from the silver used to develop the negatives of the Clay County paper. (My favorite high school graduation present)


Want to see what's in my jewelry box?

Me, too. Because I honestly can't remember!

So Cousins . . .do you have all of your stuff still at your parents house? Or have you tackled the task of sorting out your childhood and storing it in your own home?

Busy Weekend

The Brenneman clan had a busy Saturday.

We started by heading to Morrill Hall to the Disasters and Dinosaurs exhibit they had.

They had booths for activities for kids to do, but Alaina wasn't interested in stopping to see any of them.

As a matter of fact not very many things grabbed her attention at all. Runza Rex was there in all of his plasticky blow up persona glory and we ended up stalking him around the museum because Alaina was fascinated with watching him.

Just watching him.

No talking, no touching, no pictures.

There were a few interesting things that she got to touch and see. There is a badger hole that you can look down, complete with badger inside.

and she enjoyed seeing the elephants . . .

plus the giant mammoth outside. We prompty declared him to be "Manny" the mammoth from Pixar's Ice age.

I think Jeff and I both enjoyed seeing what they had to offer as well. In a few years, maybe we'll look into an annual membership, but for now, Alaina isn't quite there.

Then last night, mommy got all ambitious and decided Alaina and I would make cookies together. We used a recipe that came on the funfetti cake mix box which worked great. I scooped the cookie mounds onto the sheet, and Alaina "stamped" them with a glass.

Fun was had by all . . .even Daddy, who helped us eat the spoils.

Lunch clean out

For Org Junkie's round up this month is recipes. She has already challenged us to getting rid of all of those cookbooks that we don't use in favor of just keeping a few recipes.

But what do you do with "heirloom cookbooks?"

These are all the cookbooks that contain recipes of family, friends, teachers, and congregations? I have six!! (Seven if you count the Joy of cooking given the me by Jeff's Grandma with all of her handwritten notes.)

Do I move these somewhere else?
I usually only consult the front three for holidays, but they are all tried and true classics from my family and childhood.
But the three in back were wedding gift so do I keep them for sentimentality?

Anyway . . .

Here are the basics of my kitchen that I couldn't part with. . . .

Three for reference: Betty Crocker, Good Housekeeping, Joy of Cooking.

Three Rachel Ray - Which I flip through monthly for new ideas.

Slow Cookers Recipes - Which I consult monthly (at least!) for new ideas.

Paula Deen Kid's cookbook - This is a great new addition with many ideas to get Alaina involved in making meals.

And here are the trouble makers . . .

The Marlboro cookbook.
Jeff received this free many years ago when we still both occasionally smoked (Naughty us!) But it is the best grilling cookbook I have ever seen. We try new things from it every summer and there are several burger recipes that I could never part with and they have great pictures for every page!

Morgan Freeman and Friends
This is a new addition and is all carribbean recipes. I bought it late last year for a dollar and haven't had the time to flip through it and jot the recipes that I want to try.

Party Cakes for Kids
I can't part with the party cakes book because it is decorating pictures and instructions and since I don't have any other books like it, it had become a cookbook shelf book.

Great german recipes book
This is new from my sister straight from DisneyWorld/Germantown. I will treasure it always for the german phrases inside, the traditional recipes, and the cultural tidbits inside! The good news is I think it will fit in my new recipe box I received for x-mas!

I have one book that I plan to donate as soon as I go through it one more time to get any recipes that I want to try. It is a 15 minute cookbook from Light Cooking magazine. It has some good ideas in it, but the whole thing isn't worth keeping. So it is outa here by the end of this challenge!

So the results are in and (Drumroll please)

I kept 19 cookbooks.

I don't think I did a very good job . . .

Favorite Supebowl Moments

(Dialogue between Aliana and I while watching the longest Superbowl return in history.)

Mommy: "Wow, he's a machine!"

Alaina: "No, Mommy, he's not a machine"

Mommy: "My mistake."

Alaina: "No. You're not a mistake. You're my mommy."

Seriously funny.

OrgJunkie Challenge pics