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Archive for ◊ February, 2008 ◊
Check this out:
I just registered and you should too if you blog. I mean who doesn’t like free coffee? Thanks Leah for the tip!
I’ve posted on my other blog…check it out..comment there.
http://catholicramblings.stblogs.com/2008/02/29/fascinating-and-potentially-very-controversial/
-j.
Triggered by a recent comment, here are some wines and Anne and I both enjoy, with varietals, as appropriate:
Red Diamond - http://www.reddiamondwine.com/ - Cab. Sauv.
Banrock Station - http://www.banrockstation.com/ - Cab. Sauv.; Shiraz Cab.; Semillion Chardonnay
Jacob’s Creek - http://www.jacobscreek.com/ - Pretty much everything; their sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir is particularly good, given the (Indiana) price tag of $11.99 / bottle.
Lindemans - http://www.lindemans.com/ - Another wine with a good range.
You’ll notice that many of these are Australians - we’ve consistently gotten good bottles from this wineries, so we’ve stuck with them.
-j.
Seems obvious, does it not? Yet, read this article….
An excerpt:
SCIENTISTS AT CALTECH and Stanford recently published the results of a peculiar wine tasting. They provided people with cabernet sauvignons at various price points, with bottles ranging from $5 to $90. Although the tasters were told that all the wines were different, the scientists were in fact presenting the same wines at different prices.
The subjects consistently reported that the more expensive wines tasted better, even when they were actually identical to cheaper wines.
Well….looks like I’ll be telling everyone that my $3.99 Cabernet is really a $39.99 Cabernet…
-j.
A wonderful magazine, which I recently discovered browsing the stands at Wal-Mart. It’s connected with America’s Test Kitchen. What’s even cooler is this recipe test program, where they send you new recipes to test on a weekly basis. This week’s recipe is called “No Roll Pizza Bianca” and looks delicious.
To sign up for the test recipes, see here.
-j.
We have pretty well-established nicknames for Claire - peanut, goof (”I not a goof!”), fish-breath, diplomat (”I not Uncle Matt!”), Drama Queen or DQ
Madeline, we are still working on, but a few we’ve come up with are:
1) The Hun (Think Attila, not “honey”)
2) The xx-inch (insert height here) Terror
3) Gigantor (From Night at the Museum)
4) Silent Destruction (Silent as in movement, not as in action - “Where’d Mads go off to?” *crash* from the other room.)
5) The Little Sister who is built like a humvee and always thinks things should go her way (HT to Beofish - here)
6) Wait, she can pull a plug cover off?
-j.
Both of our daughters feel it necessary, when one is sitting down in the living room for a quick English muffin in the morning, to bounce up and down at one’s knees, mouths open, like starving baby birds, as if they had not eaten in days. (Think seagulls from Finding Nemo…) Madeline says, “Wheeze, wheeze” until she gets some, and then when the food is gone, says “Oops…assident” as if the food vanished totally on its own. Most amusing is when I am holding the plate at a certain height, and Maddie’s eyes appear over the edge of it with a plaintive, hopeful, expression.
Of course, it is impossible to deny her, or Claire for that matter.
-j.
Sherry writes about toddler proofing. This hits so close to home after the Madeline incident of last week. Incidentally…honey, I’m really sorry, but the toy room that you cleaned tonight has been turned upside down by our 33 inch terror. I will clean it later. I’m sorry!
And this. Well, let’s just say this does hit close to home…. Ahem….right Jonathan?
Yet ANOTHER snowy day. I think we got about 6 inches last night. At least it’s pretty white fluffy snow. Opposed to that ugly white snow. Ha! It is warm today too which is a bonus….30 degrees and overcast. Claire will be thrilled to be able to go out and play in the snow at school.
Today is my nephew Teddy’s 3rd birthday. Teddy is OBSESSED with Spiderman. OBSESSED. At his party this evening, he requested that everyone come dressed as Spiderman. He was wearing his Halloween costume and there were about 8 little boys dressed the same. It was very very adorable.
Our girls had a great time at the party, even though we kept them both out way past their bedtime. Madeline was a trooper! Usually she turns into a Gremlin when you take her out past 6:15, but today she was going strong until 8ish. She gave us a little bit of a scare though — I set her down as we were getting ready to leave so I could get a napkin to wipe the Spidercake off of Claire’s face and I turned around and she was GONE. I looked up, saw the open door to the basement and nearly had a coronary. There she was…little red pants…at the bottom of the stairs. The report from the Kindergartener-in-charge in the basement said that “the baby fell from the top step”. I don’t know — I think she must have either slid down the stairs on her butt or just tumbled down because she was at the bottom of the stairs on her hands and knees about to get up when I got there. THANKFULLY there was nothing broken, bumped, or even bruised on her. That was one of those moments though as a parent that your heart sinks to your feet and you just go into utter PANIC mode.
Anyway, both girls are fine - snoozing in bed. Here’s hoping both girls have a good night!
Well after three sick days this week, I am back to work. Claire had croup and I have some strange respiratory/sinus nonsense. It’s always fun to come back to 230984 emails, but such is life!
Claire cracked me up yesterday morning. Her voice was finally coming back and I said to her “Claire, it looks like the frog is gone from your throat!” She replied to me…”Yes mommy, last night I opened the window and he jumped out into the cold!”
Madeline had her 15 month checkup on Tuesday. She is still above the 95% in height and at the 95% in both weight and head circumference. It’ll be interesting to see if continues to grow at this rate. Jonathan has a lot of height in his family, and I do as well. Our doctor was really impressed at her vocabulary. He asked if she can say 4 monosyllabic words and I was like, um…yeah. Just then she saw some teeny piece of paper on the floor, picked it up, dropped it in the trash and said “oops, accident!”. He looked at me…”accident? That’s a 3 syllable word.” Two seconds later she fell off the bottom step of the doctor’s table and said “I fell down”. He looked at me and said jokingly “I shouldn’t be surprised…both you and Jonathan are talkers”. 
If only she slept as well as she talked….
Back to it!
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-Jonathan
EDITED:
There is also an RSS link on the left sidebar of the blog now. :) You can click on that to take you to the subscription page.
-Anne
This morning, I received an email from our music ministry people at St. Pius (our church). The individual sender noted that:
“If you need to contact me, please DO NOT click on “reply” to this message, it will not get to me, and will most likely be returned to you as a mailer demon.”
It’s supposed to be mailer daemon, really, but the funny thought which it sparked was, “Wow…we Catholics are serious about our unreply-able email addresses.”
“Not only will any attempted reply to this email not get to me, but I will probably send you a demon in return, who will possess your computer and terrorize your cats. And you thought a computer virus was bad.”
I have fond memories of sick days as a child. Spending the day on the couch with a blankie and pillow, watching The Price is Right and watching my mom iron. It was the best way to spend a day.
Now as a parent, I have to admit, I loathe sick days. Well, I don’t mind them so much if I’m the sick one, but when it’s one of the kids, the day is never as idyllic as my memories. For example, today Claire is home with the Croup. We nearly panicked last night and paged the doctor out when the barking seal appeared out of Claire’s room. A little steam and a little humidifier later she was soundly sleeping. Paranoid mom that I am, I slept in her room, getting up every 2 hours so that I could make sure she got her medicine. In between her seal bark and Madeline’s demanding cry from then next room I got approximately 49 minutes of sleep. Ok more like 3 hours, but still not enough.
Today I figured, hey Claire is sick, she’ll want to sleep. I’ll be able to get work done and be productive. Yeah, not so much. I think whatever virus is lodged in her vocal chords has invaded me. I feel feverish and congested. Claire on the other hand is now doing pretty well — her fever is finally down a bit and she’s eaten a few small things. And she keeps demanding The Backyardigans. If you’ve never seen The Backyardigans, you’ve lived a charmed life. A show that I thought was so cute when I first saw it has turned into the most obnoxious thing in the world. Maybe it’s because she wants to watch it CONSTANTLY and we only have 3 episodes on the DVR. Maybe its because my tolerance for annoying kids shows is less than zero right now. Whatever the reason….I want it to stop. I want those adorable cartoon animals to run away and never come back.
I think I need my own sick day. LOL.
Please just pray Madeline does not get sick too….
An interesting editorial on education and literacy in the United States. An excerpt:
Reading has declined not only among the poorly educated, according to a report last year by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1982, 82 percent of college graduates read novels or poems for pleasure; two decades later, only 67 percent did. And more than 40 percent of Americans under 44 did not read a single book — fiction or nonfiction — over the course of a year. The proportion of 17-year-olds who read nothing (unless required to do so for school) more than doubled between 1984 and 2004. This time period, of course, encompasses the rise of personal computers, Web surfing and video games.
Makes me more determined than ever give my children as many chances to into “for pleasure” readers as I humanly can….
POST UPDATED!
I’ve created a page for this contest - look on the bar at the top of this page.
Two years ago, my college roommate and best friend Sarah was diagnosed with brain cancer. She was pregnant and having horrible headaches and a few MRI’s later they found a tumor. She underwent surgery just a few days after her lovely daughter Katharine was born, and the tumor was successfully removed. She has persevered through radiation and chemo, but is cancer free today.In celebration for her recovery, I’ve decided to run a contest of sorts on my blog. Kim, of http://www.kdysworld.wordpress.com is running somewhat of a drive on her blog for www.chemocaps.com . Chemo Caps was an organization started by a woman who’s daughter, an avid knitter, died of cancer. She started her charity in her daughter’s memory so that people receiving cancer treatment and lose their hair can have a very soft hand knit cap to keep them warm and comfort their souls.
At any rate, here comes my contest. Every person who donates a hat to the hospital or hospice of their choice and leaves me a comment, will be entered into a drawing for a bunch of fantastic prizes!. You will need to comment both on Kim’s blog and on mine to be entered into both drawings and there must be some way for me to contact you. The deadline is March 31st, 2008. (See below for the “official” rules)
Before you get started, please read the www.chemocaps.com website for some general instructions about the caps. There are a number of patterns on her website that are available as well. It would seem to me that any hat that would be soft and warm with full coverage of the head (beanie style) would be suitable. I would think that Children’s Hospitals would welcome these donations as well - a great way to use up bits and pieces of your stash.
PRIZES
So far the following prizes have been offered for this contest:
THE OFFICIAL RULES
If I’ve forgotten anything, please let me know!
Thank you for your participation!!