11.30.07

Party planning

Posted in Emma, Parenting, Recipes at 10:53 am by Anne

So, honestly, I have a good reason for not blogging lately. Emma’s LAST MINUTE THROW-TOGETHER BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA is Sunday and I’ve had to plan the cake. Can you sing, “Hello Kitty, Hello, Hello, Kitty!” My cakedecoratingartist friend came over yesterday to supervise my template since she is the Queen of buttercream transfers. I’m using her strawberry cake recipe and her decorating cream cheese icing recipe too.
Earlier in the week I made HK lollipops for party favors. Twenty. Stay tuned for pictures of those pretty little freakish delights; I’m not sure I have it in me to ever make them again.

For some reason Emma doesn’t want one little girl in particular to attend. Which is so unfortunate since I’ve already invited her family, and especially so since Lily and Emma both went to this little girl’s party over the summer and it was a blow-out complete with a real-life Belle who led them on an adventure. From the very start of party planning Emma told me, “But not Kimmy. I don’t want Kimmy to come to my party.” I would explain that yes, Kimmy was indeed coming and that Emz needed to get used to the idea. When Emma started tossing out the “Well, then I am going to shoot Kimmy.” (WTF? We don’t shoot people, we don’t even pretend to shoot people at our house.) I had to explain how we do not use words like that, nor do we ever pretend to shoot our friends. This conversation was repeated a few more times through the week and I thought we were over the idea until last night as we were heading out. Lily piped up, “So is Kimmy coming to Emma’s party Mommy?” (Are you trying to stir things up child?!) I answered, “of course.” and turned to make sure Emma understood. I guess she did because she opened her eyes really wide (as only a three year old can) and announced in her serious tone, “Well. There WILL be guns at my party, too.”

sigh.

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11.26.07

Three’s a charm.

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:19 pm by Anne

Today is Emz’ 3rd birthday. She wanted eggs for breakfast. She got them. She asked for a turkey sandwich with cheese for lunch. She got it but picked off the cheese immediately. Now she wants pizza for dinner and I’m going to suggest pasta instead but if she cannot be swayed, well, it’s her birthday.

By now she is almost completely potty trained. She can recite the Pledge of Allegiance. She can dress herself. She can wash her hands all on her own. These things rule.

She is my middle child, my night owl, my cartoon voiced little imp who likes Hello Kitty and anything else that Lily likes too. She keeps our homelife vastly interesting. Did I say challenging? To sum: she rules.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

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11.21.07

pre-thanksgiving

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:43 pm by Anne

Rose collection

Originally uploaded by Dux

How wrong is it that I cut these flowers today? The day before Thanksgiving? How wrong is it that the rose bushes seem to be in love with themselves right now?

It’s almost as if they are getting their one last hurrah in before the winter freezes. If it freezes at all this winter, that is.

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Me Me

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:36 am by Anne

Jenny at Stickyfeathers got me and I’m going to get the last few people who came to my blog. But first…I’ll complete the meme because man, that’s just the kind of person I am.

7 weird or random things about me: (where to begin where to begin?)

1) I used to have the strange habit of rocking myself to sleep. Yeah, try explaining that one at preteen sleepovers.

2) My spices are alphabetized.

3) Although I am not a lesbian, I really like the way short spikey hair looks on women. Unfortunately, that particular hairstyle makes me look like a lesbian.

4) The movie and book ‘Communion’ about alien abduction so rattled me back in the day that I still wake up in the middle of the night panicky sometimes, searching the darkness around the bed for little grey men with giant eyes. Try explaining that one to your husband.

5) I have too many pairs of pants but not enough shirts.

6) I do not own an ipod. (I know. BIZARRE!)

7) I owned two snakes and a lizard as a little girl. Well, maybe owning another living creature is a crappy way to describe how I cared for them until they died.

And now for the fun part: I nominate the following people to do this thing:
JC, Jamie, BJ, SJSFalter, Zoe, Kelli (despite my knowing most of her freaky attributes), and finally Elissa.

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11.19.07

Like having a big soak in Calgon.

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:16 pm by Anne

What’s this?

Piper is sleeping in her crib, the other two are up the street at a friend’s house, and I am at my computer…fiddling around with possible Christmas card pictures and reading blogs. What? All I need to make this perfect is a little cabana boy to do my toenails, wash the dishes in the sink, and put away the laundry.

I am trying to stay ahead of turkey day. By the end of the day gravy will be made despite how much I enjoy that last minute mad-dash to throw it together while every last guest putters about aimlessly, trying not to get in my way or jack me up even more with the pressure of entertaining. And cranberry sauce is already cooling in the fridge. And the rolls? Done. Thanks to Cooking Illustrated, they are shivering prettily in the freezer.

And this year will be different. Instead of trying to do it all myself, there will be delegating. My MIL is bringing the dressing. My close friend, the sweet potatoes. My Cecily? Oh Cecily. She will be assisting me. My own personal sous chef bitch. And Shan will be in charge of deep-fat frying the lovely lovely bird. The end of an era, the era of doing it all by myself is so over.

You can thank Pipes for that. but maybe I will instead.

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11.16.07

oh brother

Posted in Uncategorized at 11:48 am by Anne

I may be the only woman on the planet who doesn’t LOVELOVELOVE the book Eat Pray Love . A good friend of mine lent it to me, another good friend of mine is reading it as I am reading it but I came to the conclusion this morning that I no longer want to read it. I simply do not care about the author enough to follow along with her on her clever travels.

For one, she is constantly patting herself on the back for being blonde, and beautiful, and screwed up, and taking medicine, and getting a divorce, and not wanting kids, and for hating republicans, blablabla…honestly, her book is sort of like a never-ending blog entry except unlike how I feel about ya’ll, I don’t care about her life.

Part of my problem is that I am at least 3 New Yorkers behind and 1 women’s health behind. Not to mention there is far too much available reading material everyplace anyway should I ever become bored with the tedious ennui that fills my life.

So count me out of the Oprah reading club this time. I’m not a fan of hers either.

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11.14.07

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:07 pm by Anne

So Thanksgiving is when? A little over one week? What?

Normally, by now, I have the menu figured out. The ham, the turkey, all the sides, and desserts…and this year I thought it might be fun to even purchase some wine but for some reason…well, for many reasons…many upon many…here we are eight days away from the biggest celebration my houses ever sees, once a year, and I am so unprepared I might laugh if I had the energy.

I keep refraining lately that next week will be less busy but I’m no longer even fooling myself.

Do the pizza shops stay open the day after Thanksgiving?

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11.09.07

Dinner

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:33 am by Anne

Setting:

A kitchen, filled with the tantalizing smells of freshly grilled bone-in rib eye steak as it rests with a dollop of garlic smashed butter melting slowly on top. A perfectly baked sweet potato sits on one plate, the other holds a salt-crusted baked potato, split open and filled with butter, shredded cheese, and a dollop of full-fat sour cream. Steamed spinach is there too, spritzed with a freshly cut lime. The only thing missing is bread, but wait, there it is! Sliced and waiting for redemption is the sourdough baguette. Each slice lavishly spread with a coat of pale butter and begging to be tasted.

The wine (Dynamite cabernet) has been poured, the plates have been filled and just before sitting down…

a hard plastic cup plunges to the floor, breaking into a million pieces. Emma cries out an apology. Lily needs juice. Piper demands another handful of cheerios and while you’re at it, a fresh diaper too. and the dog…well, she has to go outside NOW.

Me: Happy Anniversary husband.
Shan: Happy Anniversary wife.

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Birthday Cake

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:41 am by Anne

Birthday Cake

Originally uploaded by Dux

This is the best coconut cake I have ever made. It came from a recipe book given to us way back when we were married. Eleven years ago, yesterday.

Eleven years seems like a long time to my children, as if they can even comprehend time passing to that extent, but I assure you, eleven years is a flash in the pan to Shan and I.

What is eleven years when compared to the age of the nation? Or the age of the pyramids? When considering the dawn of time?

It’s nothing.

But for us it is everything we know now. In eleven years I have seen his boyish face gain a few character wrinkles and he has seen the destruction that three children does to a body. It’s alright. It’s all for a good cause. We’ve purchased homes and cars, eaten countless meals, seen movies and discussed books. Despite the stigma, we freely admit to those heated unproductive arguments which took us to the brink of divorce but which led to a few very useful trips to the marriage counselor. Most importantly we are raising three of the most precious girls this world will ever see. It’s not easy. And we have our own personal negative moments pretty regularly but each day is still a new day.

Together.

Here’s to another year, Babe.

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11.07.07

Saved by the BIL

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:49 pm by Anne

At 9AM:

ring… ring… ring…

Bil: (quietly) hello?
Me: Hi John!
Bil: oh hey…
Me:I just got a ticket…BIL… I am so upset!!
Bil: Did you mention my name?
Me: No. He was a real d.i.c.k. and I don’t think it would have mattered. Besides that, I don’t really know how to work you into a conversation when I get pulled over.
Bil: Well…let me look into it for you. Maybe I can help.

See. There are a lot of reasons why I like my brother in law. He is great with kids. He is fun to hang out with. He is very sweet to my sister…the list goes on and on. Add to those aforementioned qualities that he is a police officer in town, that he patrols our neighborhood even though it’s not even in his ‘area’, that he checks up on us whenever Shan is out of town and you have a good idea of what a bad-ass he is and how lucky we are to have him here. I can call him whenever and I know he will always be around to help.

This morning I wasn’t paying attention to speed on the way to preschool. Lily had asked me to find a particular song on the CD and I paced the car in front of me while screwing around with the dials. Too bad that car in front of me was speeding. (53 mph in a 40) Too bad the motorcycle cop busted us both. Too bad we each got a ticket.

Too bad that other woman doesn’t know my BIL because he helped me out of this one. And for that we owe him a very nice steak dinner. So John. Let me know your schedule next week. and Thank you so much.

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