Last night we tried another Rachael Ray recipe, Chicken Piccata Pasta Toss. Geoff really enjoyed it, and I thought it was okay. The things I didn’t like (very lemony, and the shallots) were the things Geoff enjoyed the most. But I am willing to branch out and try these new recipes.

What’s funny to me is it seems all Elijah watches is the Food Network and Spongebob.

So, it appears the loan will go through, so Geoff said he’d talk to Tammy. Geoff has to work on Saturday, so I don’t think we’ll be looking at houses Saturday. Sunday morning we meet with our small group, so I think Sunday may be out too, since that is also grocery day. We’ll have to see.

Now you know all there is to know. I’m closing with a quote from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Frylock: [reading] The Curse of the Mummy is actually just a figure of speech. Vomiting locusts for 1000 years is just an old wives tale. The real curse of the mummy is that he is completely socially inept, devoid of all manners, gold-digging, manipulative and a selfish brat. Don’t ever wake him unless you have a lot of time and money on your hands. Thank you for buying “Mummies For Dummies.”

For all the plans I make, I never seem to accomplish them. 🙂

Saturday we were treated to a sleep in, so I didn’t make it to the museum. Instead it was a nice family morning, Elijah sleeping and Geoff and I getting to spend quiet time together. Also no festival for us this weekend, maybe next year. Sunday was the usual, church, groceries, and house cleaning. This morning we were able to get started on being approved for the home loan. Prayer warriors unite! Please pray that it goes through with no problems. The only sticky point may be the visa, in which case, we’d have to wait until the H comes, and that may be at least 3 months. Once we get the call about the loan the house hunt will begin. Part of me wants to leave the brunt of the work for Tammy, but the other part wants to look now. I can get very specific if needed, or I can be vague. We just want a place so badly.

I’m so ready to start packing. I look at our apartment now through packing eyes, what can we do without for the next few months? What stuff won’t we take with us? There are more than a few things that need to be replaced, like our glasses and the blender (which broke a few weeks ago). We’ve had this set of glasses since we got married, and there are only 7 that haven’t been broken. We’ve got the next batch picked out at Crate & Barrel, a set of juice glasses and a set of pint glasses. These should serve all purposes.

Thursday I went out to Gunther Toody’s again with Mary. Elijah likes it there because it’s not too dark. I had my heart set on Chick-Fil-A, but I wasn’t up for driving out there, since Mary was already in this neighborhood. Besides, we were a party of 7, so a big booth at GT worked out well.

It was cooler this weekend which was great. It allowed Geoff to go running, but more importantly I think it helped Elijah sleep better. He’s sleeping more like he did months ago, where he’s only up like once a night. It’s all ups and downs, this is the up after a period of down. I like up much better.

Well, I’m going to close with a quote from Toy Soldiers.

Jonathan Bradberry: Oh yeah, that’s wonderful. Now all we have to do is get Cali out of the Headmaster’s Office which he hardly ever leaves, sneak past the guard, switch the chips without setting off them bombs, and then get out without being seen.
Billy Tepper: That’s right. That’s it exactly.
Jonathan Bradberry: I was attempting to be sarcastic.
Billy Tepper: Well you shouldn’t have been. You should have been writing it down.

Talking to my mom today she enlightened me to something I did not know. There are Tim Hortons south of the 49th parallel. In just 3 states away, almost 20 hours driving nearly 1300 miles I could have a maple dip in my paws.

Hey, if I didn’t have my job as a stay at home mom, I’d be hopping in Gary, and cranking the tunes for a road trip! Okay in reality, even without a young son, I have a husband who would not traverse over several states for a donut. Someone in this marriage has to be grounded at all times. He keeps me from crazy things like this, I keep him from spending money on new toys at the Apple store.

Chris & Roland both posted a while back about their most influential or favorite albums. I don’t think I can say that any album shaped me, I’ve always been more of a song person than an album person. But I cut down my list to the 25 best cds in my collection (and it was hard to cut it down). These are albums I’m most likely to listen all the way through. In alphabetical order…

Barenaked Ladies – Stunt
Blue Rodeo – Outskirts
Breathe – All That Jazz
Captain Tractor – Bought The Farm
Counting Crows – August & Everything After
Del Amitri – Change Everything
Easily Amused – Novice
Feeding Like Butterflies – John In His Earthsuit
Great Big Sea – Play
Hall N Oats – Rock ‘N’ Soul Part I
Hackers Soundtrack
Mars Hill – Mars Hill
Matchbox Twenty – Yourself Or Someone Like You
Matthew Good Band – Underdogs
Meatloaf – Bat Out Of Hell
Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon
Radiohead – Pablo Honey
Radiohead – The Bends
R.E.M – Life’s Rich Pageant
Spirit Of The West – Go Figure
Styx – Greatest Hits
Toad The Wet Sprocket – Bread & Circus
Toad The Wet Sprocket – Coil
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Greatest Hits
Tragically Hip – Day For Night

Alrighty, I better sign off. The boy is getting antsy. I’m closing with a quote from Meet The Fockers, which we watched last night.

Greg Focker: Look, Little Jack was crying so I picked him up and gave him some hugs. Then I went into the kitchen to answer the phone and when I came back, he had let himself out of the playpen, put on Scarface and glued his hands to the rum bottle. Ok?

We’ve decided we want to be in our new place by November 1. We feel like we’ve had it here. The last 4 days there has been the constant sound of running water in the bathrooms, like there is a leak in one of the neighbors apartments. It’s not in our apartment, we’ve looked. We mentioned it to the manager on Monday, and the sound is still present. It is driving me crazy! We got in new neighbors downstairs, and lucky us, they smoke in their apartment. So now the bathrooms (and occasionally the kitchen) reek of cigarette smoke coming up through the pipes. I haven’t met them yet, but they must be local because they are moving with a pickup truck and their friends riding on the tailgate.

We spoke to Candy (the manager) and we’re all set to go month to month once our lease is up in September. We just have to give 30 days notice, which is good. I would ideally like to get all moved before November 1, simply because this is Elijah’s first Halloween, and I’d hate to not take him out because we’re busy moving that day/night. Speaking of Halloween, I may try to get out to Hobby Lobby to seek out the fabric for his costume I want to make. He’s going to be Friar Tuck, since he has the hair for the part. He’s got fuzz, a bald spot, then it’s all thick at the back of his head. I’m sure people will think he’s a Jedi, or a monk, but who cares. He’ll look cute in a little brown robe, and that’s all that matters. Plus it’ll be easy to make.

I’ve got the travel bug something bad. I’m spending way too much time thinking about getting away. I had big ideas to go out to Victoria next summer, but Geoff got an invitation to run in a marathon in San Diego next summer. So, we may end up taking our vacation in California. It’s still too early to think about, but I am desperate to get back to Irvine to see our church friends (and UCI & KUCI friends). We’ve even talked about me going with Elijah before then. Geoff will likely be going to Palo Alto in January for work training. That’s a 10 day course, and he’ll miss my birthday. I’m open to visitors coming down (or coming from the east or west)to see me. 🙂 Sadly Diane can’t because she & Glen will be in Mexico at that point. Yeah, this family travels a lot.

Anyways, it’s time for the boy to eat, so I’ll be signing off and closing with a quote from Toy Story 2.

Bo Peep: This is for Woody, when you find him.
[She gives Buzz a long kiss]
Buzz Lightyear: [cough] Um, okay, but it won’t be the same coming from me.

In honor of hockey returning…

You are the Montreal
Canadiens I would laugh at you, if you weren’t so sad. The
only reason you are mentioned anywhere in the
news is because of your past successes. Trust
me, the likes of Jacques Plante and Maurice
Richard will never wear a Canadiens jersey
again. You’ve got to catch up with the times if
you want to survive modern hockey. Some people
might feel sorry for you, others will probably
laugh at you; anyway you look at it, you are
one sad character.

Which Canadian hockey team are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Because we had some plans for the weekend, we did our trip to Peet’s on Friday night. We looked around Crate & Barrel at some stuff for the house, but we don’t want to buy anything until we move (less stuff to pack & move). Some of it is stuff we need, some of it was stuff we want once the kids have grown and left.

Saturday we went out to Mark & Shannon’s for a chili and sundae party. There were 3 different chilis and then everyone brought toppings for the sundaes. Geoff made home made caramel, and it was so good on my sundae with chocolate syrup, oreos and Napoleon ice cream. (I know it’s Neapolitan) This is a picture of part of their acreage, that’s Geoff and Elijah walking back from where the horseshoes were set up.

Last night we watched Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy. It was pretty humorous, I like Will Ferrell, probably not enough to watch Old School or Superstar though. It was definitely a “get-it-from-the-library” type of movie.

Since the middle of July, I’ve been visiting thenamelessnovel.com daily. It has gotten VERY interesting this week with the clues finally adding up to something juicy. Geoff is getting a kick out of it too now, so we visit it every morning to see what the day offers. It’s a Lemony Snicket thing, October 18th can’t come fast enough.

I was reading on Edmontonjournal.com that there will be an Alberta exhibit at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. next June. I sent that info to Kelly and she thinks we should try to come out there for that. I love to entertain the idea of going to D.C., I really want to go. First off to see Kelly, secondly to see the sights and museums.

Next weekend is the Scottish Festival in Highlands Ranch. I’m hoping we can go on Saturday and check it out.

Well it’s a tasty dinner tonight, corn on the cob and steak. I’ll close with a quote from Anchorman.

Brick Tamland: Yeah, there were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident!

Lisa is back from vacation! I sure missed being able to talk to her everyday.

I was channel surfing and discovered ESPN (or ESPN2) was airing the U.S. Open Of Competitive Eating. The U.S. Open? Man they’ll attach that title to anything. And apparently ESPN will air anything. If that’s going to be a sport, why not lump Fear Factor stunts as sports too. I tuned in long enough to see two guys trying to shove as much salad down their throat as they could. It was very disturbing, and I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who love to watch this.

I finally told Nicole today that I wasn’t come back to Harry & David for the holidays. What prompted me? She shared some bad news of her own, that Jen had been let go. So it looks like I won’t get a chance to say goodbye to Jen. I think I will try to get her number from Nicole so I can try and get together with her for coffee sometime. I promised Nicole I would continue to come distract her from her job, and she was thrilled. She enjoys seeing Elijah a few times a month, and she is one of the few people I know who lives in Denver.

I am hoping to take an infant CPR course in the next few months. It is something I think is important, since I’m with Elijah everyday. They offer one monthly at Fitzsimons, but I think they also offer one at his pediatrician, so I’ll check there too. The one at Fitzsimons is a 2 hour course in the evening, which means, I either take it alone and Geoff watches him, or we get a babysitter to come over (once we move into the new place) and Geoff can take it too. Geoff actually knows CPR already, but it’s something you are supposed to renew and he hasn’t done that in a while. I’ve never taken a CPR course. I remember once at Woodbridge that a child was choking, and thankfully the nursery worker there knew CPR and knew what to do. After that, they started offering a CPR course every few months, and it was strongly encouraged for all Children’s Ministry workers to take it. The church even offered to help pay for some people if money was an issue. I should check to see if our church here has people who are certified.

I mentioned back in March that Kelly was having a short story published in a magazine she works for, and I’d been searching my local bookstores for it. No one carried it, thought Tattered Cover said they may try to order it. Well, Kelly picked it up and sent it to me. It was exciting to see her name in print. The story is called Hack, and it is set in Washington. It’s about a journalist who has grown weary of his job and hopes to move into a new job as a writer. It’s a great ironic story, and if you can find the magazine Doublethink, I suggest you pick it up. I really hope this is the beginning of more fiction publishing for Kelly. Her website is kellyjanetorrance.com if you want to read articles she has written. I’m so proud!

I’m going to close now with a quote from The Muppet Show. (BTW- Season One DVD out on August 9. I think we’ll have to get this for Elijah.)
Rowlf: [treating a viking pig] I know all about them – they come from Denmark. One of my ancestors was a viking!
Miss Piggy: Oh, this isn’t going to be a Great Dane joke, is it?
Rowlf: Well, it’s a Dane joke, but I wouldn’t call it great.

A year ago today we “officially” found out we were pregnant. I took a test when we got back from Scotland, but this was the day the doctor confirmed it for us. It’s been a good year, and when I look into my sweet boy’s face, I can’t believe how quickly he is growing. I can’t get over how much I love him. Having our family grow from 3 (I count Honey Cat) to 4 has been the most amazing, wonderful thing in the world.

Mary and I finally connected on the phone, and we’ve set up a lunch date for next week. She had left a message for me when I was in Canada, and I called her back and left a message, which she didn’t get. So it was nice to finally speak. I got more details on Jeff departing Education Collections for Zoology. It was more of a lateral move than promotion. Also he never really considered Rich to replace him, but he did seriously consider me. It’s nice to know I was wanted. Obviously I still cannot take the job, since the H visa doesn’t allow it. Mary thinks they still haven’t hired a replacement, so maybe I should entertain the idea the museum would sponsor me for my own green card. 🙂 Ya right. Anyways, Zoology is a much smaller department, and they only have volunteers 3 days a week. I wonder how many from Education Collection swill jump ship to be with Jeff. I hope to make it to DMNS at some point this summer, even if just to say hi.

I’m not at all surprised to hear Echinacea does squat for colds. I’ve been saying that for years. But each person has their own treatments they like and swear by. Me, I prefer not to treat every little thing with medicine. I like to let my body try to fight it on his own. If it’s not working, I’ll seek other treatment. I just don’t want my body to become immune to certain medicines. That’s just me.

I’m going to close with a quote from Good Will Hunting, ’cause it was on tv yesterday and I like that movie.

Will: Do you buy all these books retail or do you send away for, like, a shrink kit that comes with all these volumes included?