The Deer: Nature 1, Pam 1

Melody was taking a summer camp program at her Elementary School.  I parked the car between two other cars in the parking lot and got the kids out.  Tori was an infant and being carried, and Melody was holding my hand.  We stopped between the parked cars while I looked for driving cars.  There were none, so I started us walking into the parking lot when a deer ran one foot in front of us at full speed.  Melody screamed and jumped back, I contorted my body to shield Tori, and all of our hearts were pounding.  Yes indeed, we almost got run over by a deer.  As our fright settled down, I had a few bars of "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" running through my head.  I tried to imagine how I would try to explain that to the paramedics had I been about one second faster and we were nailed by nature.  "No sir, the deer hit us.  No, there was no car, we were walking.  I don't know why the deer was hauling ass through a parking lot!"   At least I won this round since we did not get hit!

The Raccoon: Nature 1, Pam 0

I was over 8 months pregnant with Melody, lying on the couch with my feet up as far as they could go to try and get my ankles to reappear.  For those that saw my feet then, it was scary, but nothing seemed to help.  So I'm lying there, enjoying a warm spring day with the screen door open on the front door.  I see something run past the door, and look to see which neighborhood cat has decided to hang out and bother Slim Kitty.  I turn my head to look closer, and I see a cute little raccoon face look at me.  I sit up on the couch to call Rob into the room, when the raccoon breaks through the bottom of our screen door and walks in the house.  I now leap up on the couch, and start jumping around with arms flailing screaming, "Raccoon!  Raccoon!"  Rob comes running down the hall to see what the crazy pregnant lady is screaming about, and he comes face to face with the thing and he screams, "Aahh!  A raccoon!"  OK, so he may have used a few more colorful words, but you get the idea.  As luck would have it, the basement door was open, so as Rob came flying down the hallway, the raccoon ran through the kitchen and into the basement.  Great.  Rob goes down to try and chase him out, and in those few minutes the raccoon had found a bag of garbage we had brought down a little bit before to put in the can.  So our friendly raccoon is munching on a meatball and Rob goes down tot get him out of the house.  Apparently raccoons do not take kindly to people getting too close to them while they are eating meatballs and the thing starts growling at Rob.  He backs up while I start screaming something about rabies and get that thing out of the house.  So, Rob goes back upstairs, out the front door to open the garage and starts throwing cookies at the raccoon to lure him through the garage and again out of the house.  It's a very good thing that raccoons like cookies more than meatballs because he fell for Rob's trap.  The raccoon hung around for a bit more that day.  He climbed up on the roof at one point, ran around the back yard some.  Then finally found a home in the dead tree behind our house.  The tree was deck level, and every now and then if we were grilling something, we would see that little face peek out of the tree hole and watch to see if we were sharing with him.  Not likely!

The little kayaker

Melody all ready to go kayaking!

I can't believe she sits still on the boat the whole time.

Have you ever seen a little kid so happy?

Summertime Tea Party

Melody enjoyed setting up her tea party for Dino and Tiger. Tori was not invited. Even after Rob took them to the park to play some, you would figure she might be inclined to give her sister a seat at her picnic. But no, not yet. That day will come.

Tori was happy to go to the park in the wagon.

Pam vs. Nature

I was recently at a family gathering, and as usual, many stories came out of our mouths and drinks came out of our noses.  A good time!  I did start to notice a theme with my stories.  It seems nature has a special place in it's heart for me and loves to mess with me.  I do my part.  I recycle, put my veggie remains in the compost pile, turn out lights and save water.  Still, with all of these Earth friendly steps I take, Mother Nature is always there laughing at me.  The next few posts will re-tell  a few of these tales.

100 Calorie Snack Pack

These days my 100 calorie snack packs are only giving me 33 calories. I have Mooch #1 and Mooch #2 ready and waiting to "help" me eat them. Come on guys, it's not like they're that filling to start with!

Almost a threat

Melody is diligently working on becoming a teenager. She doesn't like to do things without being able to do it perfectly, so she decided to start at age 4. That way, when 13 gets here, she'll be a pro. For Christmas she received a bunch of Squinkies. For her they are the best toy ever. For Tori, they are a death trap. I can't imagine making a more choke-able toy. Melody decided to play very nicely by herself today with her Squinkies, and Tori decided to try with all of her might to get them. I finally told Melody she would have to play with them on the kitchen table because it was just too dangerous to have them in the living room. With her best ever teenage attitude, she decides to threaten my by yelling, "FINE! Then I'm never going to play with my Squinkies again!!" I have a feeling she needs to finesse this a little bit, because my natural response was, "That would actually help me out a lot."
She didn't like that very much...

Timing is everything

Why is it that at 4:00 AM Tori will scream her head off for hours at a time, but after her nap, she will sit and play forever? Isn't the night just a long nap?

Christmas Play

Melody has the Little People Nativity play set. She was playing with the Baby Jesus piece and accidentally knocked it over on it's side. She got all upset and said, "Oh no! I tipped the Newborn Savior Over!"

Hark The Herald Angels...

Melody was in her Christmas Pageant in church today (so cute, pictures to come), and they sang Hark The Herald Angels Sing at the end of the play. We noticed that she didn't sing along because she didn't know the words. After we got home we asked her if she wanted to know the words to that song. She smugly answers, "I know how it goes." Then she proceeds to sing with all her might, "Here the Herald Angels sing, Christ is born in Bethel-hem"

The Mall Picture

The mall couldn't get a good one of the two together, but we were able to get a couple of decent ones for each of them.

Here's Tori at 10 months


Here's Melody at 4 1/2

The Christmas Card

Me: "Let's just put the kids in front of the Christmas tree and take a few pictures for our Christmas card."
Rob: "How about we don't put their picture on it."
Me: "We HAVE to have their picture on it. How hard can it be to take a picture of the kids?"

Well, after about 5 million pictures, we did not get one this particular evening. We tried again a few nights later and we did get one that was OK. We then brought the kids to get their pictures taken by "professionals" at the mall, and since they couldn't get any good pictures of them either, we didn't feel so bad.

Rob wanted to pick this picture for the card. I'm all for a funny picture, but something about a screaming baby and a toddler whose entire nostril is filled with a giant booger doesn't really give me the Christmas spirit!

The Perfect Cookie

I can't cook to save my life. I even burn frozen pizzas. That's OK, because no one in my house actually eats food, so no one seems to notice. But, the one thing I can do and take great pride in, is baking. I can make a mean cake, scrumptious cookies, and I do not fear a pie or a homemade crust. I do have one flaw with all of these yummy talents. I have lame chocolate chip cookies. They taste great, but they end up completely flat as if they melted, with the chocolate chips sticking up like mountains among the flat desert cookie. Because they're so flat, the edges tend to get a bit too crispy, and when displayed, they just look bad. The flavor has always been there, but they look like a failure.
I have tried every recipe I can find and nothing seems to work. I would go to a party and see these fluffy billowy cookies and I would ask for the recipe. "Oh, I just use the recipe on the Nestle Tollhouse bag." WHAT??? I've used the same recipe! I switched from butter to margarine, to shortening, to less salt, more salt, fresh baking soda and I got nothing.
Until... I found a recipe that has given me the perfect chocolate chip cookie. One that I can display proudly, one that Rob will eat up, one that can be frozen and then doled out a few at a time for convenience. I will share this recipe with you so that no one has to ever endure lame chocolate chip cookies again.

Pam's Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

375* 9-11 minutes

Combine the flour, soda and salt in medium bowl. Cream the cooled melted butter and sugars together in a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Stir in flour mixture until just incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips. Place bowl in the fridge for 10 minutes (or up to 6 hours) until dough firms up.
Drop by heaping spoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. (Don't be afraid to make big cookies, this dough can handle it!)
If you want to freeze them, drop the balls of dough onto parchment covered cookie sheet in the freezer for 20 minutes, then place in a ziploc bag. Just take out the number of dough balls you want to cook! You may need to add a few minutes to the baking for the frozen ones.

Sorting Laundry

I was sorting the girls laundry the other day. I carefully placed the light and dark items in their appropriate piles and looked at them. There's no need to sort them anymore. I had one pile of dark pink, and another pile of light pink. One big pile of just pink laundry probably would have been sufficient.

The Mothers Curse

All of the years I was a teenager doing all of the things that I did (even though they weren't really that bad) I somehow avoided "The Mothers Curse." You know, the one where your Mother yells at you in a fit of rage "I hope you have kids just like you one day!" I thought I was home free. So, I get married, have my kids and I realized something. I should have tried harder for the curse, because I ended up with kids just like my husband!

Too many nicknames!

While I was pregnant, we asked Melody what we should name her little sister. She decided Light Stick was a good name. It took a few months for us to convince her that we could call her Light Stick, but we couldn't name her that. So, Melly still calls Tori Light Stick. The other day, Tori was screaming because she was starving since it had been an entire hour since she ate last (she's a much bigger eater than Melody ever was). Her little face was all red and tears were streaming down her face. Melody looks at her, then tells me, "There's a little Red Faced Bobble Head over here!" So now, Melly has switched gears and now calls Tori the Little Red Faced Bobble Head. Go figure!

Welcome Home Victoria!

In preparation of bringing baby Tori home, Rob made a sign for the piggy to hold.



Tori is very content to be home. The hospital was fine, but it's better to be here!



Melody is very eager to show Tori all of her toys, as long as she doesn't play with them!

Why I haven't blogged in forever....

I've been a little bit busy!

The french fry

We went out to dinner for our Anniversary to Applebees since we had Melly with us. A nice kid friendly place, and as long as I didn't have to cook, I'm happy! We order some burgers, and Melly wants chicken and fries.
Our meal comes, and on the first bite of french fry, Melody takes a bite, and accidentally drops the rest of the fry on the ground. Sometimes at home, I may have the "5 second rule", but in a restaurant, if something even hits the table, it's a 'no go' for eating. So this french fry is on the floor, and Melody starts crying. Not really sure why, so we start asking some questions. Come to find out, she's crying because she wants to eat the french fry. We explain to her that it has germs on it from being on the floor. She cries some more and protests:
"But Mommy, remember I washed my hands and got the germs off"
I then explain that the germs are on the french fry, not her hands.
"But Mommy, the french fry already has my bite mark in it, I need to finish it"
I remind her that she has an entire plate full of french fries that still need her bite mark in them.
While all of these excuses are going on, she's wailing quietly on her chair, really upset about this french fry. Rob & I try everything to get her to stop crying and maybe eat something. The tears are popping out of her head, her nose is running, and she's just not into eating. We even try taking bites out of our own french fries and putting them with her dropped one so that it would have friends. Still no good. The wailing continues while Rob & I eat our entire meal.
I then tell her a story about how all the food that's left on the plate gets taken away to a special place in the back kitchen where they get to have a party together. That seemed to do it enough for her to eat some of her food. She was still upset, not in a great mood, and fell asleep in the car on the way home!

Melody as a girl!

Well, here's the proof! Melody in her dress, and her sock-pants going to Addison's baptism.










We had to go to WalMart to buy more of them, and she wore a skirt with sock-pants to Alex's birthday party too! Wow!