~ Another week ~

So it's not Friday....but whatever.

Here's my list this week.

1. I'm allergic to banana's....an odd thing to be allergic to, but it's true.

2. I brush my teeth the exact same way every day. If I get distracted I start again...

3. Lately I've turned off my TV and opened some great books. Not that I watched a mad amount of TV before...but sometimes I decompress from my day by watching whatever is on. Over the summer I read 10 books...I've read 4 this month. Some great, some good...some okay. It might be harder lately as new seasons start for the shows I enjoy...but night time is my time...so I like to read.

4. I like darkness. Once the kids are down and the house is quiet I like to be in the dark (makes it hard to read though). When I'm in the dark then my world is smaller and more manageable. Brian is always telling me...turn on the lights, why are you sitting in the dark. Cause my stress is less in the dark.

5. Brian has a side smirky smile that I love.

6. Jack is going to be one in less than two weeks. That's crazy. I was saying my prayers on October 4th last year, it was late...around 11 and I said "October 5 would be a good birthday" My water broke two hours later, which has never happened on its own...I had him by 3 am. Maybe I should have pointed this out to the Lord in my morning prayers. Jack almost had his place of birth... Trans Canada Highway, Langdon Corner.

7. Joanne and I wrote endless letters to each other growing up. I have them all.

8. I had a few boyfriends growing up....some of you are rolling your eyes, stop it. ANYWAY...most meant nothing to me. A few meant a great deal to me. They impacted my life. Brian is everything that they weren't...which is why I chose him. Why he chose me, well that's another story and one I tease him about. He didn't know what he was getting himself into...silly man. He should have asked Doug.

9. I love camping. Brian hates camping. So I take the kids camping myself. What I love about camping is sitting around and doing nothing....generally by a fire. My life does not allow me to sit around...when I'm camping there's no email, no fax, no piled high desk....my job provides the extra we need, but most days I would walk away from it.

10. Why is it when you have straight hair you want it curly and when it's curly you spend a lot of time straightening it out. I don't think guys have this problem.

11. I like driving fast, the photo radar man likes it too.

12. If Jack had been a girl his middle name would have been after my Grandma Grunewald. She was not very nice to me growing up...but I understand why now. She's been gone since I was pregnant with Tyler...it took me years to miss her. I wish I could have gotten to know her better. One day....

13. What else, I'm sitting in the dark as I type. I did 13 last week....hmmmm. Ahhh...here's a good one. When I was 19 I told my parents I was going to work, but I really flew to Vancouver, ferried to Nanaimo and met up with a boyfriend. Beat that!! Yes my mother knows....though I only confessed a couple years ago.

Have a good week!

~ New Recipes ~

In my last post I said I like to cook. So I've already tried three of the recipes from the Kraft Kitchen magazine, and they were a big hit. They're easy and yummy....try them out. Click the title to take you to the Kraft site that has the pictures.....trying more new ones this week...will let you know.


Layered Enchilada Bake

Prep: 15 min
Ready In: 1 hr 35 min
Serves: 8

1 lb. (500 g) lean ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

2 cups chunky salsa

1 can (19 fl oz/540 mL) black beans, drained, rinsed

1/4 cup KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing

2 Tbsp. chili powder

6 flour tortillas (9 inch)

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup KRAFT Tex Mex Shredded Cheese


PREHEAT oven to 400ºF. Line 13x9-inch baking dish with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of dish; set aside. Brown meat with onions in large skillet on medium-high heat; drain. Add salsa, beans, dressing and chili powder; mix well.
ARRANGE 3 of the tortillas in single layer on bottom of prepared baking dish; cover with layers of half each of the meat mixture, sour cream and cheese. Repeat all layers. Cover with foil.
BAKE, covered, 30 min. Remove foil. Bake an additional 10 min. or until casserole is heated through and cheese is melted. Let stand 5 min. before cutting to serve.



Speedy Chicken Stir-Fry


Prep: 10 min
Ready In: 25 min
Serves: 4

300 g (1/3 of 900-g pkg.) angel hair pasta (capellini), uncooked

2 cups small broccoli florets

1 lb. (500 g) boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips

1/4 cup KRAFT SIGNATURE Asian Sesame Dressing

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1/2 tsp. each: ground ginger, garlic powder, crushed red pepper

1/3 cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts


COOK pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the boiling water for the last 3 min. of the pasta cooking time.
MEANWHILE, spray large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 6 to 8 min. or until cooked through, stirring occasionally. Stir in dressing, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and crushed red pepper; cook 1 min., stirring occasionally.
DRAIN pasta mixture; place in large bowl. Add chicken mixture; mix lightly. Spoon evenly into four serving bowls; sprinkle with the peanuts.



Layered Pumpkin Loaf

Prep: 20 min
Ready In: 1 hr 25 min
Serves: 16

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar, divided

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

4 egg whites, divided (I used whole eggs...it worked fine.)

1/2 cup skim milk

1/4 cup canola oil

2 cups flour

2-1/2 tsp. MAGIC Baking Powder

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (if you don't have this use equal parts of Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Ginger)

1/4 tsp. salt

1 pkg. (250 g) PHILADELPHIA Light Brick Cream Cheese Spread, softened

PREHEAT oven to 350ºF. Grease a nonstick 9x5-inch loaf pan; set aside. Mix pumpkin, 1 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 3 of the egg whites, milk and oil in large bowl. Add flour, baking powder, pie spice and salt; stir just until moistened. Set aside. Beat cream cheese spread, remaining 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar and the remaining egg white with wire whisk until well blended.
SPOON half of the pumpkin batter into prepared pan; spoon cream cheese mixture evenly over the batter. Cover with remaining pumpkin batter.
BAKE 1 hour to 1 hour 5 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Run knife or thin spatula around edges of pan to loosen bread; cool in pan on wire rack 10 min. Remove bread from pan to wire rack; cool completely.

~ Friday Smack Down ~

So it's been a crazy week. The kids have all been sick at one time or another. Which means they've been home from school, which means I haven't gotten a lot done. This isn't the best week for that as I'm pretty swamped with work. Plus, as many of you know, I've not had the best mommy week. I don't consider myself the greatest mother ever, but this week has been particularly bad. A combination of sleep deprivation from those sick kids, and other stresses in my life all hitting me at one time. There have been some apologies as I try to not scar them for life.

So I was reading Joanne's blog, my super fab cousin that I mega love....and she wrote some great stuff this week....so I'm following suit. She wrote 13 things, I'll be happy to come up with half that.

I have the greatest friends. I laugh with them, cry with them and generally act stupid when we need a little break from our lives. So my one friend D had a big let down yesterday and was in the dumps. After talking to her for a while and letting her vent it out....I just thought she needed a little more. It was already after 9 at night...but who cares. So I called up another friend K, we picked up a couple treats and headed over. The tears in her eyes when she saw us at the door....that was the best.

• Running is becoming an addiction.....I don't get out every day, sometimes not even every other day, but when I do I love it. For me it does so much. Gets me out of the house, pounds my stresses out on the pavement, causing the scale to show smaller numbers and lets me know every time that if you set a goal, you can achieve it. I have another race this weekend. I don't race to win, I race to finish. No one cares what my time is, no one cares what it took to get me at the starting line. But I know that it's taken a lot to be able to complete a 5k race...post 4 babies, post 5 pregnancies, post 1 traumatic birth, post everything. The body is not what is used to be....will never be what it used to be...but the jeans are fitting and the abs are tighter. My mom has always looked good and worked hard to look good, I guess I just want to be like that. I'll embarass my kids enough with everything else I do, I don't want them to be embarassed by how I look.


• Raising my children is the biggest challenge of my life. I am not a patient person. I get frustrated and irritated easily. I want things to be my way, I want well behaved children. That pretty well never happens. Not that I don't have great kids....I have really great kids. But day to day is a challenge for me as I try and be the mom I think they deserve.


• I wish I had more time to be crafty. I like to make things, and give them away. I'm going to set aside a time per week to make some of the gifts I have in mind. Maybe, if I have time, perhaps when I catch up on work, or on my scripture study, maybe at night when they're in bed. Hmmmm...


• I love where I live. We've been here for 3 years now. We don't have a fancy house, but it's our home. We're home-bodies. We just like to be at home. My kids walk to school and I never worry about them. They play out on our street and it's no problem. The school is close, the church is close, everything and everyone is close.


• I love to wake board. When we were out for a fun day with a bunch of friends a couple weeks ago I was riding in the boat. Not to do anything, just going for the ride and watching everyone ski. The one guy was done and they looked at me and said, " You want to try wake boarding". I was holding Jack who had fallen asleep in the boat (on the water in the sun is the best baby sleeping machine ever). No no, I don't need to...you guys keep going. They wouldn't take no for an answer. So they take Jack and say, you get in or we throw you in....it's your choice. So I strapped on the board and was rolling my eyes that it was going to take forever for me to get up, and they shouldn't waste their time. Well it seems that wake boarding is not as hard and water skiing...you pop up pretty fast. So later in the day when I jumped on the chance to go out one more time...they teased me that I was honing my skills for the Pro Waking Boarding Tour....mommy version.


• My Mr. O says funny things. Some of his words are a little mixed up, but we don't correct him because we think it's cute.
  

  
  

  
  

  For example...he says lasterday. Which can mean today or yesterday, it's interchangable.

  
  

  "Mom did we go to the park lasterday"

  
  

  
  

  Lately he's been using 'seven years ago'. I don't know where this came from, but it's applicable to anything he says.
  Dad: Hey buddy did you have Preschool today?

O: No dad, Preschool was seven years ago.

Dad: Oh, well do you have preschool again this week.

O: (rolling eyes) Daaaaaaad, preschool is on Thursday seven years ago.

Dad looks at me and walks away very confused.

• If I had to pick one thing about myself that I like, it would be my hands. Weird I know...but I like them.

• I love little stinky feet. From the minute they're born until they won't let me do it anymore, I kiss the bottom's of my kids feet. Sometimes it's just kisses, sometimes it's a big production of how stinky they are...even if they're not

• The other morning I was changing Jack and, of course, kissing his feet. I wasn't making any sounds just kissing them and looking at him. He's started being vocal...he's got Mamama, and Dadadaaada down...he also has something that sort of sounds like Hi. So I'm kissing away and playing with him and he says.... 'Ewwwww'. Which is usually what I do when I'm making a big deal about the stinkyness.
  
• Brian is a pretty good guy and I think I'll let him stick around : )
  Sometimes I wonder why the guy keeps coming home everyday...as I said I'm easily irritated and stressed out. But everyday he walks in the door. Everyday he's a phenomanal Daddy, everyday he still looks at me at says I'm pretty cute.

• I love clothes. I love to buy clothes for me and for my family. I have to watch this otherwise my children end up with way more than they need, especially Miss S. I don't necassarily have the best wardrobe ever, combination of availble funds and losing weight. No use in buying a bunch of stuff that will be too big in a couple months. So I keep wearing the same old stuff as I trim down to the size that I'd like and then hope to get a couple cute things. One of my top favorite things to do....shop with Terra. Hope to go to take my annual trip to her house again next year and stock up on my wardrobe.
  
• Cooking is pretty fun and I enjoy it. It stresses me out when there isn't any food in our house. Which is ridiculous because there is always plenty of food in our house. So I guess is stresses me when the fresh stuff is low. I get this free Kraft Kitchen magazine every couple months. It has great receips and I pour over it and put sticky tabs on all the pages of the ones I want to try. I don't have to make pretty dishes, like those people on TV. I just like yummy ones.

• I love to travel, thanks to parents who took us places. Between now and next summer I'll be on four different trips. Some with kids, some without...one all on my own. Yippee!!
  

Wow...that's 13...guess I did have a couple things to say. So just because I'm a major over achiever, I'll beat Joanne at her game. = ) Love ya Jo.

• I'm messy. Hi my name is Tiffany and I'm a terrible housekeeper. I know it, and it's for sure that anyone that comes to my house unannounced knows it. So why is that? It's not that I don't like my house clean, and not that I'm not capable of keeping it clean...I just don't make it a priority every day. I get busy with my life and stuff piles up. Plus I have so much going on in my head, that if I'm not looking at it then I forget about it. So the kids homework and school papers have to be out on the counter, my calendar is constantly open with the long list of things I need to do. My office has piles of stuff...don't touch it I know where everything is that I need. So don't judge me, just love me. The house isn't dirty it's messy. It does get cleaned right down to the bones every week...but within an hour stuff starts piling up...whatever. It's not life ending, I'll pick it up tomorrow.

~ First Day of School ~

Ty and Syd started school last week. It was a long summer, but a fun summer. They were excited to go back...maybe not quite as excited as I was...but we're not talking about me = )

Tyler is now in Grade 5 and Syd in Grade 2.

~ Fun w/ Friends ~

So we are becoming quite the fish in our family. We have such a great group of friends in our ward...and even better that some of them have water vehicles. This Labour Day we had such a blast in Hanna. We had 7 families there playin in the water, diggin' in the sand and crashing as we tried to be fancy water skiiers or wake boarders.

I am now a successful Water Skiier and Wake Boarder. So fun...a little sore today, but well worth it.

~ Campin' with the Girls ~

I'm always two to three weeks behind in updating my blog...sorry, busy life.

So a couple weeks ago we went camping with a bunch of my girlfriends and their kids. The guys helped us set up...but then left and there were no husbands allowed. So fun. The weather didn't always cooperate, but we were troops. A client of mine had offered to let me use his trailer, so I jumped on that and organized a camping trip. We were gone for 6 days and had the best time. Lots of laughing and gabbing, the kids played and ran and had fun on the water. My friend Niki brought her boat and they tubed and water skiied until they were water logged. On the Friday my friend Cheryl brought their Seadoo and we had more fun. We were all sore and sunburned but had permanent grins on our faces. We had such a blast that we plan to do it every year, checking out a different camping spot each time.