Saladbar No More

Tonight I worked my first shift back at the cash registers. My period as the Saladbar manager at The Grocery Store is now over. Thank God.

As you all might have seen on my sidebar, I got a position as a teacher's assistant at Alex's school, and I am so excited. I'll still be working at The Grocery Store three nights a week to cover babysitting though. The store was remodeled, and after they finished, our store hours were extended to midnight. So, I'm going to be working the 6 PM - 12 AM shift Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The TA position is Monday through Friday from 9 AM - 2 PM, so the hours are perfect for me.

My mom is going to watch Sarah for me two days a week plus the nights that I'm at The Grocery Store. The three nights that I work should just about pay for the three days that I need a sitter. You've gotta love the logistics. I don't know how I would make it work without my mom watching the kids.

I'm not really sure what the whole point of this post was... You see, I'm kind of tired right now, so I don't think that I'm making much sense. Please forgive my rambling, I suppose I just wanted someone to know what was going on.

First Words

Sarah said her first, real, honest-to-goodness word last week.

I mean, she's been babbling and making sounds (that I wishfully interpreted as 'mama') for a while now, but this was different. Language is a funny thing. See, Sarah has been talking for a long time now, at least as far as she saw it. The rest of us just didn't understand her. She finally figured out though, that she had to put together sounds that everyone else could comprehend. Because language isn't just about words, it's about being understood.

What I love about babies and kids is how they never do anything halfway. She had to make such an effort to say that one word. Her face scrunched up, and her lips pursed, "Puuuhh....Puuuhh.....Puuuhhppyyy." Puppy.

Her first word. She had communicated, and she knew it.

The way her face lit up was worth a million dollars.

Fragrant

I just finished pruning back my mom's lavender for the season, and you could smell me from a mile away. I think I'm going to be lavender scented for a week. Man, this thing was unruly. I was knee-deep in that sucker. My mom hadn't trimmed it in a while, can you tell?

I meant to take pictures of the god-awful mess that I made of the patio with all of the clippings and flowers, but I forgot. Of course.

There are two other bushes (Lord help me) that need pruning. I forgot they were there. My mom was kind enough to remind me when I was knee-deep in the other one though.

That'll be a project for tomorrow when Sarah goes down for her nap.

I'll take some pictures of those so you can see the before and after. I wish that I had done it with this one, though, it was a monster.

Woohoo!!!

I got the job!

I am so excited, and this is such a blessing.

They really, really needed a second grade TA(someone backed out at the last minute), so the timing was perfect. The teacher I'm going to be working with is really sweet and she's great with the kids. They're going to start me as soon as I go through the screening process and orientation.

Even better, they have all of their bus driver positions filled, so I'll only be on call. Whew. Don't worry folks, the roads are still safe for now.

I'll try and warn you if they call me in to drive the bus.

Love ya,

Jen

Wish Me Luck!

Keep your fingers crossed, pray for me, tell me to break a leg.

I've got my interview at 10 o'clock this morning, and I am so nervous excited.

This job would mean the world to the kids and I. Hopefully it will be the first step on the road to us becoming independent and moving out of my parent's house. If I get the position, I'm going to be socking away money as much and as quickly as I can.

If I don't get the job though, it's not the end of the world. I'll have to believe that God has bigger and better things in store, that this just wasn't the time or place for me.

Besides, the job requires that I get a bus driver's license. Maybe the world would just be too dangerous if I was driving a bus...

The Lord's Day

The desire to survive keeps us at a mediocre level of living.

John Maxwell


"My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Galatians 2:20

Dollywood, Finally

Because I know that you're all waiting with bated breath to hear about our trip.

First of all, it takes about four hours to get to Dollywood from where we live, and I have to say that I was dreading it. Sarah screeches like a banshee, I mean this kids has lungs. And her favorite place to display this ability is in the car. Sigh.

So needless to say I was terrified worried that the drive would seem like an eternity. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought, much to my mother's and my relief. Alex didn't care, he was plugged into the DVD player and couldn't hear a thing.

We decided to go to Dollywood the day we drove up because it was supposed to storm the next day. Of course.

Those of you that have braved amusement parks know that they're hard enough to handle when you're well-rested, but throw in a 5am wake-up time and a four-hour drive. Yikes.

We pulled up to the entrance to the park only to be greeted with a honking huge crowd, a forever long line of cars, and a ton of people waiting for the tram to get to the gates. Apparently Dollywood was no longer the quaint little place that I remembered.

With much fear and trepidation we got out of the car, and to make matters worse, Sarah was soaking wet. Apparently I hadn't changed her enough during the trip. *coughcough* So before we even made it into the park, I had to change her into the one extra oufit that I had packed for her. Two day trip. One extra outfit, Not smart. But then again we've already discussed my mental deficiencies when it comes to travel.

When we pulled into the parking lot we couldn't even see the gate, but my mom went ahead and parked where all the other cars were parking. Can we say sheep? Baaaah. This was an interesting insight into human behavior that I'll discuss at another time. I suggested that we might want to drive further into the parking lot to see if there were any other spots, but that didn't happen. We didn't want to wait in the humongous line for the tram so we decided to hoof it.

It was a looooong walk.

There were ten parking spots in the lot by the front gate.

Well, I shelled out the $95.65 for tickets for Alex and I, and we finally made it into the park. I'm surprised they didn't charge me for Sarah...

All in all though, it turned out to be a wonderful day.

Alex rode his first rollercoaster.

He screamed like a girl.

He loved it and promptly drug me on the rest of the coasters in the park.

I screamed like a girl.

He and my mom went on the rapids ride while Sarah and I stood outside and watched. They got soaked.

My mom screamed like a girl.

I have to tell you, that was probably my favorite part of the day.

At the end of the day we were exhausted but happy. We had a wonderful time even though Dollywood isn't the po dunk little amusement park that I remember.

No Water

Let's play a game.

It's called, 'What's wrong with this picture?'

Oooh, oooh, I know! There's no water!

Yup, this is what we woke up to this morning. A water outage. Is that what you call it? Well, it's what I'm going to call it.

Oh wait, progress! (This was a couple hours later.)

Houston, we have lift off!

Thank goodness. Just when I had resigned myself to no shower and fuzzy teeth all day... Shudder.

The water pressure's still not 100%, but hey, I'm not gonna complain.

Mutant Cucumbers!

What? You thought I was kidding?

Nope, this baby is the latest progeny from our vegetable garden.

My mom and I have managed to grow very respectable tomatoes, some lovely basil, and even assorted lettuces. But our cucumbers? They all turn out like this.

It must have something to do with not getting enough sun.

You see, our garden is in a raised bed that my dad built for us, and my mom insisted on over-planting it. I told her she was putting waaaay too many plants in, but did she listen?

Nope.

So this is our penance.

Mutant cucumbers.

To Make Up For Yesterday

As a peace offering for yesterday's post, I thought that I'd post some pictures of the gorgeous flowers that our sweet neighbor, Julie, gave my mom.

Aren't they beautiful?

Julie got them from a vendor at our local farmer's market.

Our produce selection there is, unfortunately, pathetic. Which is ironic considering that produce is the whole point of a farmer's market, but I digress. What we lack in produce, this vendor makes up for in absolutely gorgeous floral arrangements. The photos don't do them justice.

There, isn't that better?

Unfortunately, I have to confess that juvenile outbursts like yesterday's aren't going to be uncommon.

Don't hate me.

Please?


~ Jen

Wait, I've been here before...

The other day I changed Sarah's diaper.

It wasn't two minutes later when I detected that telltale smell... again. Sigh.

Wait a minute, this isn't deja vu, it's deja poo!

We're Back

Yay! We're home!

It was a great trip, but it's good to be home.
We literally just walked in the door, so I'll be posting more about it later tonight or tomorrow.

Missed you guys,

Jen

Chicken Frito Casserole (a.k.a Male Ego Casserole)

I'm still not sure that I completely understand why it's called Male Ego Casserole. My guess is that it's easy to make, and, besides the chiles, there are no vegetables in it. Heck, you don't even have to turn on the oven to make it. It cooks in the microwave.

If any of you have a clue about the name of this casserole, please share, it's killing me.

Anyway, on to the food.

Chicken Frito Casserole (just because this is what I've always called it, and this is my blog. So nyaah.)

- 1 whole rotisserie chicken
- 1 bag of regular Fritos
- 1 small can of mild, diced, green Ortega chiles (unless you really like spicy, but it ruins it in my opinion)
- 1 can of cream of chicken soup
- 1/2 soup can of water
- 3 Tbl of dried, minced onions
- 1 C. shredded cheddar cheese

Okay, roll up your sleeves 'cause we're gonna get messy. Take the rotisserie chicken, pick off every bit of meat that you can and shred it. You don't need to be compulsive about the shredding, we're just looking for bite-sized chunks.

Put the shredded chicken and two-thirds of the Fritos in a 9x13 baking dish, and mix them together.

In a separate bowl mix together the rest of the ingredients.

Pour this mixture over the chicken and Fritos. Mix together.

Take the rest of the Fritos that you set aside and spread them over the top of the casserole.

Now here's the kicker, I know that this will go against most of your grains, put it in the microwave. Just trust me here, I promise that it tastes good. Cook it for six minutes, rotate it halfway, and cook for another six minutes.

Voila! Chicken Frito Casserole.

This is becoming a bad habit...

I really need to post things when I say that I'm going to post them.

Of course if there was actually anyone reading this blog it would be more of a problem.
Ahem, bout of self-pity over, aaand on to the post! Right.

So as I said, yikes, almost a week ago, Alex and I went and saw The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I was sadly disappointed. When I first saw The Mummy, I was disappointed because the previews had billed it as a really scary movie, and that's what I went in expecting. I wasn't expecting a somewhat cheesy, almost-parody movie. After I saw it for what it was though, I fell in love with it. It was hysterical. Not to mention Bredan Fraser is really, really sexy in these movies... Coughcough.

I was even okay with The Mummy Returns which was slightly cheesier, but still good. Especially considering that it was a sequel.

This one, however, was just plain bad.

First of all, Rachael Weisz wasn't in it which just ruined it for me. I think that she and Brendan Fraser have really good on-screen chemistry. The scenes involving their grown son and the parental angst that they have over not being good enough parents were just stilted and hopelessly cheesy. The whole thing was just so flat to me. It didn't have any of the depth or the character of the previous movies. Sigh.

It's really too bad because I liked the first two so much.

Alex, on the other hand, gave it an extremely enthusiastic thumbs up. Siskel and Ebert he's not.

Vacation!

My mom, Alex, Sarah, and I are going on a road trip. We're going to Dollywood, whee! I know, I know, terribly backwoods of us, but hey, when in Rome...

Just kidding, I've been to Dollywood once before when I was in junior high, and I really enjoyed myself. It had all sorts of neat crafty things as well as rides and shows. It has a whole street with nothing but craftsman stores and shops like a blacksmith, basketweaving, candlemaking. I love stuff like that.

I also love that there aren't going to be millions of people there like there would be at another big box amusement park *coughDisneylandcough* that I won't mention.

So, while I'm gone I'm going to use the nifty little schedule posts function. I know that I wouldn't want to disappoint my readers. *cricketschirping*

I'll see you guys in a few days, be good while I'm gone.

Love ya,

Jen

Library Fines

The whole point of going to the library is that it's free, right?

Well, that doesn't help when I'm not able to get to the library and return the FIVE videos which that I checked out for Alex. Videos which cost a dollar a day PER VIDEO every day that they're late. Sigh.

I really do think that I'm my own worst enemy.

When I go to return the overdue videos and pay the piper, so to speak, the differences between Southern California and North Carolina make themselves very clear. That's why I love this place so much.

Picture this scene:

I walk into the library, kids in tow, put the overdue videos in the drop-box, heave a huge sigh, and go up to the counter.

I hand the girl behind the counter Alex's library card because I'm not sure which card the videos were rented on.

Biting the bullet, I fess up right away, "There's going to be some fines on our card, I'm not sure which one they're on though."

She scans the card in and looks at the computer, "Okay, let's see... Nope, not on this one."

I dig out my library card, "They must be on this one then."

She scans in my card. "Oh."

Yeah.

In Southern California, my astronomical fines wouldn't have caused the cranky woman behind the counter to bat an eyelash. In this case though, the librarian leans closer to me, and whispers, "You owe $19 in overdue fines."

I guess she didn't want to humiliate me.

Bless her heart.

The Lord's Day

"God leads us onward as we journey. He also leads us with care and love as He leads us with purpose and intent."

Ouch

I have the upper cartilage in my ear pierced. This,

is what my earring used to look like.

This,

is what it looks like now. This damage was done while it was
In. My. Ear.

I was at work, bending over to undo the drain on a sink, and when I stood up, my earring caught on the edge of the sink. I honestly thought that I had ripped it out of my ear.

Yeah.

Ouch.

Lord Help Me,

I went and saw The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with Alex tonight. Yikes.

Gory details and review tomorrow.

I did enjoy the pizza and having a night out with just my boy though.

Toodles,

Jen

Cooking Lessons

I made dinner with my boy last night.

We made chicken and wild rice soup, fresh baked bread, and lemon bars for dessert. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with just him. I feel horrible because my attention is usually so divided, and I admit that he gets ignored sometimes because he is more self-sufficient than he should be. I forget that he is only seven.

So yesterday was a rare moment of uninterrupted time. My daughter was down for a nap, my parents and our family that's visiting from Ohio were at a movie, and my brother was out with friends.

It was just us, and it was lovely.

I showed him how to chop vegetables, and, of course, he had to do the rest by himself. We simmered and seasoned and tasted. He learned how to deglaze a pan (hey, you're never too young). We talked and joked and laughed. And I got to spend time with my son who is turning into a young man much too fast.

I need to remember to slow down. To take advantage of the moments instead of worrying about the days. To appreciate the little things because it is the little things that my kids will never forget, and they are growing up way too quickly.