Top Chef

It's Friday during Lent, so I just served the kids fish sticks and tomato soup.  Not a gourmet meal by ANY stretch of the imagination.  Lauren said "You make the best food all the way to China!"

For the record...

Soy milk is nasty, nasty, nasty!  Anyone want two half gallons of Silk plain?

The Commissioner

I've been thinking about my friend Mark all week, and I could use a laugh, so I wanted to post a funny story.  He was a loan officer at the mortgage company I work for, and also a realtor.  When my brother Chad, a police officer, bought his house a few years ago, Mark was the one to help him.  Before he'd even had a chance to run any numbers he asked my brother how much he wanted to spend on a house.  Chad came up with an astronomical number, way higher than he could have afforded.  Mark and I started laughing, and Mark asked him, "Who do you think you are, the police commissioner?"  Ever since then, whenever I saw Mark, he'd ask me how the Commissioner was doing.  Whenever Chad came to see me in the office we'd even call him that.  It's been a long running joke that never got old.  

There's so many things that I'll never be able to hear or see again without thinking of Mark: Napoleon Dynamite, badonkadonk, and so many more I can't even put on this family friendly blog!  How he used to sit in his office in the dark with his jazz music playing.  Our annual holiday dinners at Morton's, courtesy of the big-hearted man.  Driving to Oakland with him for an A's game.

I've got a message on our home answering machine from Mark that I've saved for years - literally.  It was early 2004 and I was out on maternity leave, waiting for Lauren to arrive, the late little stinker.  Anyway, Mark and our friend Cass were out together one night after work, and they'd had a few drinks.  The message consists of them telling me how much they missed me at work, all the while fighting over who got to hold the phone.  My favorite part of it is when Mark says that Cass is so buzzed he's going to take her out to put a steak in her.  He then interrupts HIMSELF to say not a vampire stake, a real steak - like I would've thought otherwise!

I miss that man.

Ash Wednesday

So I've been trying to think of what to give up for Lent, when the answer was decided for me today.  Long story short, I've been trying to figure out what is up with my stomach troubles lately and this morning was my appointment with a GI doc.  He wants me to go on a dairy free diet for a month to rule out a lactose allergy.  No cheese, that means.  Seriously, I could cry!

Until we meet again

Have you ever had a friend who, no matter how bad of a day you were having, could cheer you up just by walking in the room?  That was my friend Mark Baker.  The man could make you laugh like no one else, and he had the best laugh ever.  He passed away this morning at just 47 years old, the end result of two heart attacks on Friday.  He was so generous and - well, I'll never be able to find the right words to do his life justice.

Mark loved life, and we all loved him.  He will be incredibly missed and never ever forgotten.

Tokens + sugar = fun times

This morning we headed over to Chuck E. Cheese to help our friend Paloma celebrate her third birthday.  It was our kids' first time there, and they had a blast.  But neither one of them would go anywhere near Chuck E., surprise surprise.

Playing Mommy's favorite game - ski ball!

Paloma and Lauren in the giant rocking horse.

She loved playing air hockey.  It's one of her 

favorite Wii games, too, now that I think about it!

The toddler version of Whack-A-Mole.

Owen the Builder

Zoo day

We went to the Folsom Zoo today with some friends and here's a few pictures from our adventure.

Lauren looks like a mama duck watching over her ducklings in this 

picture - that's what you get when you're the oldest one at a play date!

Gorgeous peacock

A bear gnawing on some tree sap

Part of our gang

Sweet siblings

The kids loved this rope ladder

Our men folk for the day

Spinning siblings

Our farewell train ride

Unseasonably warm

I don't know when roses are supposed to bloom, but I've been hearing with all the warm weather we had here earlier this month and last that it's completely confused all the plants and flowers.  Last week I noticed a lone white rose blooming in the center of my living room picture window looking out onto the backyard.  I've been meaning to take a picture of it and finally got around to it this afternoon.  

I can't help but think it is a greeting of some sort from my Noni, since this is her house we moved into.  White roses are the symbol of a new beginning and are often used as an expression of remembrance.  Here's more on the meaning of white roses.

Made with love

As is usual weekend tradition here in our house, Adam made us breakfast this morning.  In honor of Valentine's Day, he used red food coloring to dye the pancake batter and eggs.  He even made the kids some special heart pancakes, complete with red sugar crystals.  Happy Valentine's day, Daddy, you're the best!

Easy dinner idea

I made a pretty yummy dinner tonight so I thought I'd share here.  The other day in the doctor's office waiting room I was flipping through a Martha Stewart Living magazine and came across a recipe whose picture looked so good, I asked the receptionist if I could tear it out.  Once she gave me the go ahead, I tucked it in my purse and planned to buy the ingredients soon.  

Cut to today.  I had taken some chicken tenders out of the freezer yesterday and didn't really have a plan for them, other than to use the crock pot and be lazy on Valentine's Day.  This morning I remembered the recipe in my purse, but I hadn't made it to the grocery store yet, so I decided to improvise.  I put the following in the crock pot: 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, a layer of chicken tenders (or breasts, whatever you've got), and a sprinkling of garlic powder.

I turned that on high for a couple hours.  In the meantime, Adam julienned some red, orange, and yellow mini sweet peppers and sliced some celery into bite sized pieces.  We added them to the crock pot along with another can of stewed tomatoes and cooked on high for another hour or so.  I made some israeli couscous to serve with it.  It was so good and I can't wait to eat the leftovers tomorrow!