Sunday, March 6, 2011

Roasting a chicken and Rango

So, I am a pretty handy cook, but one thing I've never attempted is a roasted chicken. I tend to buy chicken of the boneless/skinless variety. But today, I'm going for it! I am sure I can do it, I mean I've done a turkey for Thanksgiving before! I haven't decided on my seasonings yet though, I guess I'll scope out some recipe websites before we head to Stop & Shop. *fingers crossed* I think I can, I think I can....
We are hoping to take Sophie to see Rango today too. She asks every time the commercial comes on! "you take me to the movies mommy? we eat popcorn and juicey?" I'm sort of on the fence though since it's supposed to be a very rainy day, which means the theater will be PACKED! Maybe if we can get to the first showing this morning it won't be too bad...
Alright, I'll be back later to update on the chicken adventure!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

After a very long hiatus...

Wow, I can't believe I've been away for over a year! Holy cow! Guess that little toddler truly kept me busy!
Well, we survived Sophie's first year of life :) She is just such a joy! I can't believe how smart and well rounded she is. She has such a personality! Lately I have noticed how "grown" she is. I can have real conversations with her, for instance, if I ask her how her day was- she actually tells me! She goes on and on about what she did, what she ate, what she watched on TV, what books she read, etc. It's hilarious!
I am getting that second baby itch though :/ I would so love to have another, but things are kind of messy right now and I don't know if its such a good idea. My parents are still in their mess and I rely on them as babysitters- so throwing a newborn into that mix may not be the best idea. We are struggling financially, so that's another factor. Yes, I know you can "never afford" kids, but things are pretty tight right now. Sal has confirmed that if my parents can get themselves together (i.e. either mom or dad gets a job) then we can start trying. I hate that I have to base our decisions on them, but we really kind of have to :/ We definitely can't afford daycare. Especially around here. And yes, maybe I am being a bit picky, but I am not sending my child(ren) to just any daycare. It will be the best and unfortunately the best is about $1500 a month. Ha! That's almost as much as my take home!
Anyway, I am glad to be back in the blogging world, I've missed just throwing my thoughts out there. It's good to purge once in a while.
I'll keep this short though, I hear a little person waking up from her nap :)

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

There's so much to be thankful for this year! I have been given the most precious gift- my daughter! She makes everyday worth living! I can hardly wait to get home from work everyday just to see her adorable little face. I cherish the 7 o'clock hour when she's in her pj's and sitting in my lap having her bedtime bottle (even when she's trying to backflip off the bed). Every smile, every giggle, every babble is etched forever in my mind. I am so blessed.

Last weekend we went to JC Penney Portrait Studio and had our Christmas pictures taken. Sophie, of course, looks perfect in all of them! I, on the other hand, look like I'm crying. A few days before, I went to the eye doctor, thinking I scratched my eye. Wrong! I had an ulcer on my cornea! My eye was itchy, sore, blood shot, teary, light sensitive...all around yuck. By Sunday it seemed somewhat better, but not great. Well, everytime the camera flashed my eye squinted (light sensitivity!) and started tearing. So out of about 10 family pictures, one was decent enough to put on our Christmas cards. I didn't even get an 8x10 of it. Oh well. We'll take other pictures throughout the holidays and hopefully we'll have a nice one in the mix.

Anywho... Hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving, we're going to Kati's house today for it. I made homemade mac&cheese, greenbeans with garlic and soysauce, watergate salad (because my Grandma Evelyn used to make it all the time) and I'm bringing the crackers and cheese and rolls. I even pureed some green beans for Sophie (sans the garlic and soysauce!)

Happy Turkey Day!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Vacation 2009

Ahhh, home again home again clickety clack. We had a wonderful vacation, despite the horrific heat! Seriously, it's not cool when you get in your rental car and it tells you its 104 degrees outside. Here's the run-down:
Sunday: had a 6 am flight, so we were up by 2 to be out of the house by 3. Now, I am a morning person, but not that early! I was a ball of nervous energy. I suddenly was overcome with all sort of irrational fears about flying with Sophie. We got through it though and she's a champion flier! Seriously, the most well behaved kid on the plane! Fast forward- we land in Orlando and neither of us are dressed for the oppressive heat. We hop in the rental (got a Kia Soul- so cute!) and head to Target! I needed shorts STAT! Can I even tell you they didn't have any shorts?! It's FLORIDA and there were NO SHORTS in Target! I ended up getting yoga shorts and calling it a day. We had to kill time, so we went to an early lunch at Logan's (my fav steakhouse in Kissimee!) and then drove around, checked on my Grandma's house, moseyed through Celebration, etc. Still having to waste more time- we went to Downtown Disney and did a little shopping and added "No Expiration" on our Park Hoppers. We couldn't check in early to the time share, we tried to though! Once we did check in though- HEAVEN! Our villa was amazing! We had a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, full kitchen, washer/dryer, patio overlooking the golf course piece of fabulousness! We didn't do much other than shower (because we were gross from travelling and sweating), unpack and go to bed!
Monday- We put on our swim suits and hit the pool! Sophie absolutely LOVED it! She was a little uncertain at first, but once she realized it felt good and splashing was fun..she was hooked! Later that afternoon we lunched at Breezes in the resort- they had a fab deal where you buy a frozen cocktail for $7.95 and you get to keep the cup. Then every frozen cocktail refill in that cup is $5! Awesome! That night we went to Hollywood Studios, mostly out of boredom. Took Sophie on 2 rides- she did really well! Then it started to rain, so we hightailed it outta there! It was already hot and humid, wasn't really looking to add being wet to that combo!
Tuesday- Pool day again! We really enjoyed just laying by the pool/in the pool. Met some nice people sitting around us, carried on a few little convos, etc. Went to Cracker Barrel for a late lunch, went for a walk with the babe around the resort, then found sanctuary inside! Ahh blissful air conditioning!
Wednesday- Kati, Brian and Alyssa arrived at 8:30 am! Brian hit the sack, but Kati and Aly came to the pool with us for a while. Around noon we went back to the villa and woke Brian up to come to the lazy river with us. We did the lazy river for a few hours then went back to the room, showered, changed and went for a late lunch at Logan's. Once we got back to the villa we had plans to get apps and drinks that night but Kati, Brian and Aly all conked out at about 5 pm for a "nap". We tried to wake them at 5:45 and 6 but they were out cold so we went out without them. We got back around 8 and Kati finally started stirring. She came out into the kitchen where I was washing dishes and was all "are we going out?" I laughed and said, "we did and we're back already!" She was all confused "what time is it?" etc. I just told her to go back to bed! We had a big day the next day!
Thursday- Happy 4 Years to me and Sal! We had a Character Breakfast at the Polynesian's Ohana restaurant! It was fabulous! We met Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto. Aly had them all sign her autograph book, we took pictures, etc. Soph loved Pluto! After that we went over to the Animal Kingdom. Kati, Brian and Sal all left their sunglasses on the Dinosaur ride.. Brian and Sal's were recovered, Kati's got jacked. Of course, cute girl sunglasses are not going to be returned to the Lost and Found. Kati, Brian and I went on Expedition Everest leaving Sal with the girls. He swears we were gone for over an hour (it was really about 20 minutes LOL). Then we watched the Nemo show. After that we called it a day there- we were dying and Kati and Brian wanted to check into their room. We reconvened at 5 pm at Epcot. It was the Food and Wine Festival! But honestly, it was so damn hot, all we had were frozen drinks. The thought of hot food was a turn-off. Not for my hubby though! He ate in Greece, France and ... somewhere else I can't remember. We had Sophie's pictured taken for one of the those 3D crystals.. $200 and 45 minutes later we finally got a pic. You have to sit completely still for 6 seconds to get a proper picture. Not an easy task!
Friday- Magic Kingdom day! We got to the park by 8:30 so we could see the opening ceremony! Aly loved it, she was so excited to see the characters arrive on the train. We did a bunch of rides, Soph conked out for It's A Small World, which was fine, it was air conditioned so I didn't mind holding her sweaty little body LOL At 12:30 we left to take a break- shower, etc since we all sweated through our clothes again. Met back at the park at 4:30 and discovered it was only opened until 7 pm. WTF?! So we inquired about getting tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. They were $60 each! For 3 more hours?! I don't think so! Needless to say, we didn't spring for them. If they were $20ish we were going to get them for the 4 of us and stay, but $240?! No way!
Saturday- Pool Day! Kati and Brian had to do their time-share tour crap, so we decided that we'd each do our own thing. We hung by the pool, then hit up the Super Target again- almost made the whole week on just one pack of diapers! I love Super Target... just sayin'.
Sunday- Time to go home... boo! We were extremely early to the airport since we had to check out at 10 am. Our flight was at 2:30. It wasn't too bad though, we got lunch in the airport and walked through the shops. Oh and Soph had a massive poopy diaper right before we boarded! Thank you for your good timing lil mama!

So all in all, we had a wonderful time. Was it hotter than hell? Yes most def! Did it ruin our good time? Certainly not!! Can't wait for next year!! Already planning...

Friday, October 2, 2009

Almost Disney World Time!

I so can't wait for Sunday. We're taking a long awaited and much deserved vacation! We are taking Sophie to Disney World! And a bonus? Kati, Brian and Alyssa are coming too! I checked the 10 day on weather.com and it looks like it's going to be hot... which I am not too thrilled about. I like warm, but 87-90 degrees is a bit much for my liking. So, we'll see how that goes.

Speaking of Florida.. I went tanning this week. I figured if it was going to be hot and sunny I needed some sort of base tan, especially since this body hadn't seen a bathing suit all summer (seriously, not once!). So I went Monday and Tuesday- no problem at all. Then I went last night and I am BURNED! Holy crap. I didn't stay in longer than the other days (8 minutes all 3 days); the only difference was I went in a stand up last night. Whoa nelly! So today, I will smell like a salad because I had to break out the vinegar to take away some of the sting. Owww!

In other news- Sophie is growing like a stink weed! She's 5 months and a half and as gorgeous as can be! She's got such a personality! She's very into "mommy" these days. Not that I truly mind, I love being with her, but sometimes things have to get done! Eh, I suppose it's just a phase.

Gotta run, have to get dressed and go to the Chiro (that's another story for another day...)

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Stole this from Tracy

I've neglected this blog- it's hard working full-time, being a mommy full-time and writing regularly! Anyway, here's a Meme about naming your kiddos! I took it from Tracy's Blog "What's on Mommy's Mind".

1. Do you have any cultural or religious naming traditions?
Nope.
2. Did you or your partner come to the marriage with pre-selected names?
No. I had "favorites" from childhood/teen years, but when we first started dating, then got married, we weren't sure we were going to have kids.
3. Did you consider the sound of the first and middle and last names together? Did this make any sad eliminations?
Oh yes... this was absolutely necessary. Not much sounds good with Monardo. Personally, I think my own name sounds weird with it.
4. Did you have veto powers?
Of course. There will never be a Salvatore Anthony Monardo Jr.... too Staten Island for me.
5. Did the baby naming cause arguments?
No, Sal was pretty good about just agreeing with me :-)
6. Do you think it is easier to name boys or girls?
It's hard both ways for us, again because I think most names sound weird with our last name. We do have a boys name and another girls name picked out though if/when we have another. And the boys name is actually all family names- as long as you don't steal it, I'll share: Jack Thomas Bryce Monardo. I really hope I have a boy because I love the name.
7. Did you eliminate names because of people from your past or present who you don’t like or because a certain image comes to mind?
Yes, but at this very moment I'm drawing a blank on what it was... I just remember being very adament!
8. Did you / would you survey your children to get their thoughts on the name?
No we didn't. And honestly, my M-I-L hated Sophie's name. But tough cookies because mind was made up!
9. Did you tell people the name or possible names before the baby was born or were they “in the vault”?
Yes, but we weren't swayed.
10. Did you use baby name books?
Yes, but they weren't the deciding factors.

Drumroll Please…What did you name your kid(s)?

Sophia Jayne

Thursday, May 28, 2009

An Unexpected Visitor

The title of this post will be serving a duel purpose today. There are actually 2 unexpected visitors in my world.

First, I'll tell about the really unwanted visitor- my period. Yes, I'm just over 5 weeks postpartum and I got my period. I swear I jinxed myself because I told the doctor on Tuesday that I was feeling cramps. He told me that cramps can appear a few weeks before my period arrives. Cool. I can deal with cramps, they're not so bad. Then Wednesday the cramps invited their friend dull backache along. Wednesday night, cramps took a break and sent "the headache" in for a round. This morning, cramps, headache and dull backache were all in attendance for the big show! Ugh! At least I can start back up on my BC. Just annoying.

My other visitor is one of the spirit variety. It seems Grandpa Bryce has been hanging around my house the past few days. I smell him. Know how all grandpa's have that distinctive scent? Yeah, he did too. And every time I smell it, Sophie looks up to a particular corner of the living room and smiles. I asked her the other day "Who's up there? Is that Grandpa Bryce?" And she continued to smile. I firmly believe that children are more open to seeing the paranormal- they do not have the knowledge of what they are "supposed to see" or "not supposed to see". Before I was believing it was my Grandpa, I did search around the house to be sure it wasn't something else. I checked all my candles, air fresheners, etc. And it wasn't Sal's cologne- he so very rarely wears any. I think Grandpa was just checking in on us and peeking at the latest addition to the family. I often "talk" to my grandparents and perhaps they sent him down to see what all the fuss is about :-)

Anyone who knows me well, knows about how haunted my parent's house is. And we're all in the belief that the spirits are my deceased grandparents. The sightings didn't start until the passing of my Grandpa Jack. And with each death after they increased. Why they picked my parent's house, I can't say for sure, but my mother has always been "sensitive". So maybe they figure it's they best place to be noticed?!