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J and I just returned from our trip to the Florida Retirement Resort. It was great. J got to sample a variety of resort activities including, but not limited to...



Ocean exploration... J has no fear when it comes to the water and the great big Atlantic was no exception! Getting knocked over by waves and the undertow didn't deter him from trying to "swim" by himself. He gave me many mini heart attacks!

Golf lessons....When you live near a golf course and watch the golfers in the morning, you need to practice your own putting-- indoors because it rained for two days.

Horseback riding... J got to experience his fair share of carousel rides at a great park and at the zoo.


Dressing up for formal occasions.... Happy Easter!

Searching for hidden treasure.... egg hunting also took place indoors because of the rain.

The best line of the week occurred during Easter brunch. The Easter bunny came to visit our table. J was so excited to shake his/her hand and had been talking about how the easter bunny would bring him bacon at the restaurant (strange, but true). After his little tableside visit, J said to his furry friend, "Bye bye, go back to the mall." We couldn't stop laughing. This kid makes so many connections, it cracks me up and amazes me.

Now it's back to more ordinary things like pulling weeds, laundry, and grocery shopping. All good vacations must come to an end.

Wash Out

I was hoping to post some pretty pics of the planting I did yesterday, but the torrential rains we had today foiled my plans. We were excited to find that some asparagus is growing in our garden (even though we haven't gotten the garden ready yet!)

J and I are off tomorrow to rage with the spring breakers in Florida. Actually we will be doing our raging at Grandma and Grandpa's retirement condo, but we hope to get to the beach to build a few sand castles. Hope everyone has a nice Easter and gets to eat as many (or as few) Peeps as she likes.

I Wear My Sunglasses...

I haven't given much of an update of the goings on around here lately. I started that post about 2 weeks ago and never finished it and now it seems pretty unimportant. I did finally upload some new pics so you can see all of the new styles J has been sporting. I hope he doesn't hate me for it someday.

J and I got tattooed (temporarily). Mine was from a Moroccan tea party. His was from his birthday.

We got a new table and chairs on craiglist. It matches our cabinets perfectly. I just need to recover the cushions.

J likes to do his own hair now. For you close lookers, my hand is not on my stomach for any particular reason, so don't get any ideas.

Practicing his stroke in a new swimsuit. It has those bubbles in it so you kind of float in the water. Makes his legs look so skinny. Sorry kiddo.
Fabulous red Crocs and new sunglasses (which he actually keeps on now!)

We have a bunch of parties this weekend, which should be fun. A double birthday party Saturday morning for the kids of a dental colleague/soccer teammate of B's, an adult party in the evening to say goodbye to some friends that are moving back to Dallas (dang those people who unexpectedly get better jobs elsewhere!), and a St. Patrick's Day party on Sunday afternoon. Somewhere in between all that we need to continue working on getting our yard ready and start planting some flowers and such. I need to read up on what to do with our garden and start getting some tomatoes planted, too. I can't believe that spring is here already. I'm excited, but it feels like it was just Christmas a few weeks ago.

A Look Back

Feathernester just posted a sweet pic of L on her blog inspired by J when he was about the same age, so I thought I would share his with you as well. It's one of my favorite pics out of the 5000+ I have taken. (Not all of those pics have been of him, but it's pretty darn close.)

Blueberry Heaven

If there is anyone you really love in your life, you really need to make this for breakfast next weekend. Or tomorrow if you have the day off.

Blueberry Pecan French Toast
Serves 6 Generously

1 baguette
3 cups milk
6 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 cups blueberries (frozen is fine)
1 cup pecans
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1tsp. butter
1/4 tsp. salt
Syrup: 1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup maple syrup
1tablespoon lemon juice

Cut baguette into 20, 1 inch slices (no more than that because it will expand in the pan)
Place in a greased 9X13 baking dish
In separate bowl, mix eggs, milk, vanilla, 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, and nutmeg.
Pour over bread. Cover and let refrigerate at least 8 and up to 24 hours. (Most of the liquid should be absorbed by the bread.)
Set oven to 350. Toast pecans for about 8 minutes on a shallow baking dish. Toss with 1 tsp butter and 1/4 tsp. salt. Sprinkle blueberries and pecans over bread.
Cut butter into small pieces and place in a small saucepan with 1/4 cup packed brown sugar. Cook until butter is melted. Pour over the top of of pecans and blueberries. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Make the syrup while the french toast is baking. Add syrup and blueberries and bring to a boil until blueberries have popped (about 3 minutes). Place through a sieve and push blueberries through. Add lemon juice and stir. (I didn't sieve and just kept the pieces of blueberries in the syrup) Serve warm with french toast.

This french toast almost tastes like a custard when it is done. It will be a little on the soggy side, but the flavor is absolutely heaven and the texture is so light and fluffy. Trust me, you will not be disappointed with this one!!!

Crazy Caucus

We just got back from caucusing a few minutes ago. It was nuts. The precinct was not prepared to handle the hundreds of people that turned out. In fact, the Democratic chair said that normally they have about 10 people show up for a caucus. As we waited in the lobby of the community center, I jokingly said to B, "I wonder if all these people voting in the Democratic primary are actually Democrats." This old biddy, and yes, I will call her that pipes up with, "No. I'm not a Democrat, are you?" I told her I was an independent, but voting in the democratic primary this year. She said, "Well, I'm a mischievous Republican and my conscience brought me out here to vote the right way. It's legal and I am exercising my right." So there. I told her that I didn't find that to be ethical, but if it's her prerogative, so be it. She replied with, "I have no problem with it" and proceeded to tell the same thing to the person on her other shoulder, who seemed to have a similar view and they hit it off much better. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Sure, she has every right living in this state to vote in either primary, just as I do. But casting a vote to sabotage someone instead of casting a vote for someone with whom you believe shares your values or ideals just seems wrong to me.

Thank goodness the community center child care was still open or B and I would have had to leave. J was pretty squirmy and all the people were overwhelming him a bit. It's really hard to carry a 2 year old anywhere, let alone hold him for over an hour. Once we were let into the caucus room (1 by 1 as they checked the voting roll to make sure you voted there earlier) you signed your name and picked your candidate. There was a bit of a scuffle between a woman who was told she couldn't carry her Hillary picket sign into the gym (she turned out to be an ID checker) and a caucus observer who sported a Barack My World handbag. One accused the other of not performing her duties correctly. I didn't get a chance to see how that all panned out.
It would have been interesting to see how the caucus meeting actually went, but it was getting to be too late and the line to sign in was way too long.

Bonus for J for staying up late: firemen who were called in to help get everyone into a safe line that wasn't crowding the exits, and the police cars that were stationed by the driveway. He really enjoyed his election day. As we were walking in, he was happily shouting, "Ca-kus!! Ca-kuss over there. Ca-kuss not over there." And so on about 10 more times. Such fun being involved in the political process at such a young age.

Oh and anyone staying up late for results might just want to go to bed. I heard that it may not be until morning that we have results from down here.

His Mama's For Obama

The S family took to the polls this morning before B had to go to work. J really wanted to vote because he loves those stickers, remember? We used the computerized poll so we didn't have to sit and fill in bubbles. J really wanted a chance to vote for himself and didn't like the fact that he has to wait 16 more years to get a chance. As we were getting in the car, he kept asking for a boat. Boat? Boat? BOAT!!!!! J want BOAT!!! I think he was getting his consonants confused. While we were at the polling place, we kept encouraging J to say "Mama's for Obama!" which he did continuously. We really wanted the local Republican commisioner candidate to hear him, but she was busy. Seriously, this woman has probably spent just as much money running her own local campaign as the national candidates. And we really don't want her to win because she wants to build a toll road to get to the toll road with taxpayer money...don't get me started.


Anyway, we went about the rest of our day. J and I were at Panera eating lunch when he needed to have his diaper changed. Small tangent rant.... if a place has high chairs, they should also have a changing table... I'm sure they aren't expensive, so the fact that I had to put my child on the floor of a bathroom stall to change his diaper really makes me mad...and I will be writing a letter of complaint. As he was laying as still as possible because his head hurt on the tile (can you blame him?) he started yelling, "Mama for Bama! Mama for BA-MA!" The lady in the adjacent stall was cracking up. I told J that he should become a delegate and get on the campaign trail. He liked that idea and said, "J delegate for BA-MA! On campaign trail! On campaign trail!" This made the lady laugh even more, which made J squirm all over the place, which made the hard floor diaper change very unpleasant...(if you're wondering, I don't carry around a big diaper bag anymore, so I don't carry a changing pad with me since we never seem to need it)


Later on tonight we get to vote again in the caucus, which is part of the "Texas two step." It's kind of strange that you vote twice, but it's kind of cool at the same time. B and I find it very exciting that Texas has a chance to do something good for a change, after providing this country with such a moron for the last 7 years.