Flirty and Thirty (A Blog Recommendation)

Just taking a moment to update my Friends and Family Sidebar, and thought I'd add a new blog that I love: Flirty and Thirty.

Carrie Scott is a friend from high school who I recently "reconnected" with via Facebook. She's always been a terrifically enthusiastic, fun, caring person with an amazing spirit. She started this blog to share her experiences as she attempted to go on thirty first dates (in 51 days) before her thirtieth birthday. She didn't quite make it, but I loved reading about her experiences. When the set-ups started to stall, she switched her focus to "flirting with life." She says that she is committed to "thirty weeks of flirting with life," where she will "create a life-enriching experience and then blog about it." She's doing some awesome things, and she's really an inspiring lady. I can't believe she's already on week 22. I will miss reading about her adventures, acts of service, and self-improvement ventures. If you get the chance, I encourage you to read through her blog and be inspired, too.

A Month of Dinners (A List of Shame)

I expect this post to be extraordinarily boring to most folks, so feel free to run away now. But if you have nothing better to do, let me explain where I'm coming from with this. As a stay-at-home mom, I am in charge of making dinner the vast majority of the time. As I attempt to plan meals and provide my family with something decent each night, I wonder. What do other people eat for dinner every night? How often do they order out or eat out? Do they ever resort to having cereal for dinner? Do their kids eat what they serve? How often do they make meals truly from scratch and how often do they simply heat something up? So, in case there are folks like me out there, I am sharing this List of Shame (which is made even more shameful by the fact that I didn't even quite make it the whole month of recording dinners: only 28 days). I am hoping that you will grant me just a little bit of slack given that this list is from the month of September when I was between 7 and 11 weeks pregnant. I was exhausted and nauseous and found it difficult to find both the energy to make dinner and the desire to eat much of anything.

I have tried to note when my dinners came from frozen (which was quite often). If nothing is noted, it was homemade. The boys actually ate it unless otherwise noted. In the cases where they did not eat it, it was not because they didn't like that particular dinner but because they were full of snacks, which is our downfall far more than pickiness, which enters the picture only rarely. I am especially ashamed of numbers 17 and 21. But hey, that's real life around here!

In return for baring my soul here, I am challenging you to bare yours. I would LOVE to have some of my fellow bloggers post A Month of Dinners on their blogs, or have any of my readers E-mail one to me to post here. Perhaps, if this is amusing to people, I will post another Month of Dinners in a few months during the energetic second trimester!

1: green salad with cheese, grilled chicken, avocado, and eggs
2. Pork Jambalaya (made from a mix) and sweet corn(Jack had late snack and didn't eat.)
3. Chicken nuggets, French fries, and broccoli (all from frozen)
4. Digiorno pizza
5. pasta with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, chicken, and Parmesan cheese
6. (Jack's birthday party) cold cut sandwiches, green salad, fruit salad and Doritos
7. grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup (from a can)
8. chicken and rice casserole with broccoli (kids had late snacks and did not eat)
9. Slow-Cooker Beef, tomatoes, and noodles (kids again had late snacks and did not eat)
10. Leftovers of above dinner
11. Cinnamon Apple Pork Chops and potatoes
12. chicken nuggets and french fries (from frozen)
13. Papa John's Pizza courtesy of Justin's parents
14. Creamy Slow-Cooker Chicken over noodles
15. Chicken Patty sandwiches with sweet corn (both from frozen)
16. Chicken Enchiladas
17. cereal
18. egg noodles with spaghetti sauce (jarred)
19. Stromboli (store-bought)
20. fried chicken (from frozen), mashed potatoes, sweet corn
21. pears, cheese sticks and breakfast bars
22. straw and hay (fettuccine with a butter/cream sauce, ham, and mushrooms)
23. hot dogs, boxed mac-n-cheese, peas
24. rottini with spaghetti sauce (jarred)
25. chicken nuggets, french fries, peas (all from frozen)
26. Moms' night out for me, Pizza Hut for the guys
27. Stauffer's chicken casserole for boys w/ babysitter Aunt Eileen, Ruby Tuesdays for J and me
28. leftover casserole

Blog Name Soon to Change

News Update:
Mark your calendars! If all goes well, you can expect that the name of this blog will change to "Two Plus Three Is Five" in mid April, 2010.

Happy Blogohouseoversary!

I started this blog on March 2 of last year. Happy one year bloggoversary!

We bought this house on March 17th of last year. Happy one year houseoversary!

YIPPEREE!

Contest!

Alright, so fodder for the blog has been a bit lacking lately. So, I've decided to start a contest to liven things up! It's simple. Write a poem, essay, or short story about your superpowers, or why you're better than a superhero. Email it to me at BethaChiang@comcast.net. Submit your entry by 8:00PM Friday January 23rd. The winner will receive a $10 gift card (based on who wins, I'll choose an appropriate place.) I'll post all the entries and the winner will be based on reader comments and whatever else floats my boat. Hey, I'm the blog owner. I can do things how I want! I want everyone to participate should you have the time and inclination, but I'm especially interested in what my writer friends and family can come up with. Justin, Dad, Matt, Mara, that means you! If no one participates, I'm taking myself out to lunch! ;)

I'm not the best, and I came up with this with my two kids underfoot this morning. I bet you can do better! I hope that my dad and Mara will refrain from judging me based on proper form, meter, and whatnot. You grammar geeks, you! Oh, and the two of you are also especially well-equipped for this challenge given your comic obsessions ("Hobbies," "obsessions." Semantics.)

"Hello, my name is Supermom
and I'm not just cool; I am the bomb!
I have real super powers and you'll soon see
Spider Man's got nothing on me!
Sure, he can scale walls and he fends off doom
but can he grow people in his womb?
He's caught a few bad guys for the police to arrest.
I make the perfect food right in my breast.
I know the words to a thousand songs
and I've taught my kids to sing along.
They don't even care if I sing off tune!
Beat that, Green Lantern! You're just a cartoon.
I can function on minimal sleep,
though they say you go crazy if you don't get to dream.
I can cook, I can clean, I can sew, I can drive,
though sometimes it's impressive that I keep us alive.
So you have super strength; so you're able to fly,
I'd like to see you quiet a kid asking, "Why?"
"Why do I have to learn how to write?
You can't make me stay in my bed tonight!"
I teach potty training and numbers and letters.
Yeah, you're a superhero, but can you do something better?
And last is my greatest power to tell:
I know the consistency of kids' poop based on smell!

Welcome!

Welcome to our new family blog! We hope you'll check in often to see what we've been up to. You'll be treated to pictures, videos (should I successfully figure out how to upload them from my camera), and tales of our adventures.