trolly time

We took the boys for a Trolly Ride this weekend, it was a blast!

I think the hubs and I enjoyed it just as much as the kiddo's!

You can opt in/out on the jazz music with the short video montage

yummy fruits and veggies

We received another delivery today! I mentioned last night that we would be receiving another delivery and big E perked up and said "man, I hope there's mangoes again". I told him that we'd always get fruits, but it depended on the local farms that the company pulls from and/or what was in season.

Last night we cooked up the last of our previous delivery, all that was left was onions and potatoes, and we had some seriously yummy potato soup.

Today our delivery included:

1 bag of romaine lettuce - local
3 very large squash - local
1 jumbo yellow onion - local
2 large roma tomatoes - local
10 braeburn apples
8 red bartlett pears
6 oranges - FL
1 pack of 6 bananas

Along with each delivery comes 2 recipes that go with the veggies/fruits delivered. I love this company we joined with! Here's a yummy sounding recipe for squash:

Garlic-Cilantro Squash:

1 tbsp of minced fresh cilantro

1/2 tsp lemon juice and olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed

1-1/2 tsp of water

1/8 tsp of salt

4 small yellow squash cut in half

Combine cilantro, lemon juice, oil, water, salt & garlic in a bowl. Brush cut surfaces of squash with 1/2 of cilantro mixture. Place on grille over med-hot coals. Place squash halves, cut side down, on rack and cook 3 minutes. Turn squash, brush with remaining mixture, cook until tender. Serves 4.

spring breaks

It's been a while since I posted so I'm catching up. Blogging helps me keep a log of what we do, last week I spent some time reading old posts on my blog and some other blogs I read, it's interesting to watch changes occur in a timeline on a blog... anyway - here's what we've been up during spring "breaks" around here....

• Monday of last week we went to the dentist, only to find out that a)our insurance no longer covers dental cleanings and b)the appt. was for 12 and they didn't bother mentioning that they were running behind... until one HOUR later when I asked. So - we made another appt. after finding out that it'd be another 45 min before we'd even be seen!! I have better ways to spend 3 hours :) So, before the next appt. I'll be buying independent dental coverage to cover cleanings and basic maintenance.
  
• Tuesday we went shopping for spring clothes. Big E is really into his own style lately, and so we went and he was able to pick out everything with a budget set. He ended up with about 6 new shirts, 2 pants, 1 pair of shorts and a new pair of Sketchers. Little J ended up with a little less then that, but he also has a new pair of shoes (both boys needed those). That along with the clothes that we bought at the end of season on sale last summer should have the boys covered for a while! We also made a trip to books a million and both boy bought a new book. Big E is reading alot of the Hardy Boys series for fun reading, and Little J ended up with Thomas's Treasures book. We had lunch at the mall food court, total junk lunch, and we made it before TWELVE buses of kids arrived. TWELVE!! I assume they were at spring break childcare camp, they varied in ages but the food court was bombarded. I bet at the pizza place there were at least 100 lined up! INSANE!!
  
• Wednesday we had Little J's regular class, so big E brought his current read with him and hung out while we had class - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is this weeks adventure! We grabbed McD's, Big E received a gift card from a teacher at Christmas and he finally spent it (on nuggets and yogurt parfait, yum)!! Then in the afternoon we went BACK to the mall and I exchanged something I had bought for myself (I never try clothes on anymore!!) and headed back home for an afternoon outdoors since it finally stopped raining and warmed up just a bit.


• Thursday the boyz and I went to hang out with the BIRDS for the morning. We headed out around 9am and spent about 2.5 hours there bird watching and listening to the different birds calling each other. We had a BLAST!! The most interesting part for me was the Bald Eagles. That, plus the peace garden, and the blooming flowers, and the sounds, and the general atmosphere....oh - and my boyz holding hands 99.9% of the time during this trip.




• Friday we went to see Monsters v/s Aliens at the loudest possible theater ever!! Little J wasn't really into it at all, but did sit nicely during the entire film. Big E and I laughed at alot of the adult humor, and both of us agreed that it was just too loud. I've been to alot of movies in my lifetime, and this one took the prize for the loudest. It kindof took away from the enjoyability of the movie all together. There were some pretty funny moments in the film, Big E's favorite part was when the President played Axle F on the keyboard to the Alien/Robot.
  
• Saturday we headed to the eye doctor for Big E, and ordered some pretty snazzy eye wear. His vision isn't terrible, but he is near-sighted and will need glasses to see from a distance. The eyeglasses are pretty trendy looking, he picked out silver. The rest of the day Saturday was spent running errands, and nursing the sick - Jonathon is sick again :-(. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and spraying the house down in hopes that Little J doesn't pick it up again... he's been sick each 3 weeks since Thanksgiving and that's odd for him. In his 3 years, this past winter is the only time he's ever really been "sick". Big E and I have managed to skate around it several times, so hopefully we'll do that again this round!
• Sunday - It's Easter. We are spending the day with family and enjoying time together while celebrating the meaning of the holiday and adding in some fun for the kiddo's with coloring Easter eggs and a few other Easter crafts. We'll have Easter dinner with Mimi and Papaw at our house, we're all looking forward to that!

Otherwise we've been spending as much time outside as possible, weather permitting. I have a few pictures and will try to upload more later!! I need to update smugmug too... just too busy soaking up the sun and keeping the house in order to sit down to do it!! Today I bought a flat of Pansys and plan to plant them in my planter this afternoon. We're hoping to re-invent our front of the house landscaping in the next few weeks... mama is excited!!

unsetteling

It isn't odd for me to grab my cellphone and call my dad or my husband to see if they'll go to a local news website to find out what's holding me up in traffic lately. I drive from one end of the county to the other, literally. I generally take inner city roads to get there, as the highways are usually in worse shape for school commutes in the mornings. So I take Hwy 49 past UNCC to Harris Blvd to Sharon Amity to Independence to Idlewild to Providence and we're there. This is about 30-40 min one way, 4 times a day - depending on traffic. In the last 4 weeks, at least one time a week I will see a swarm of police helicopters along w/ news helicopters, followed by a rush of many passing police cars. I know this is the case in many major cities - but it's becoming almost a everyday thing during our commutes. This is just one more reason why we are looking into other options for our family, this includes location. The housing market stinks right now - but is it ever going to be wonderful? Maybe we should just put the house up for sale on our own, and little by little do minor fix ups and start looking elsewhere. We don't plan to look too far away, but outside of Meck. county for sure.

Here's what I ran into today, literally. I saw a helicopter hovering over/near Ezra's school area, and as I picked him up it was slowly moving toward Independence where we were headed, little did I know that it was a major arrest in progress. We were in VERY slow traffic, and when we finally were allowed to approach the intersection at Independence/Idlewild we saw the giant police van (like the one they use for SWAT or special situations), several news vans, police everywhere, and it was seriously right beside us, we could see everything. All the way down to all of the evidence they were gathering from the vehicle, they were putting it in brown paper bags for evidence. It's pretty sad this day and time what someone can be stabbed or robbed over - well, the word is really just 'pathetic'.

In the words of Hal David:

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

No, not just for some but for everyone.