My mom is in town now. She came down Friday and will be here for a week or so longer. She already gave us some of our gifts, as at least one was too big to try to hide from the kids, so we just opened it :P That big one was a breadmaker, and after opening it Friday night, I'm already making my second loaf of bread right now. Yesterday I made a loaf of cheese and cracked pepper bread. Right now I'm making a loaf of just regular white bread. It smells wonderful. She also got us a panini press that came with some olive oil and seasoning. She gave me this big green Japanese vase with cherry blossoms on it. GI Joe gave me a bottle of Miss Dior Cherie perfume the other day, and J also couldn't wait to give me his gift that he picked out all by himself, which was Burberry Brit perfume. He did a good job! The kids have already got a lot of stuff. Some books, clothes, a few purses and PJ sets for G and a new Dora blanket, J got a new stuffed animal and a penguin ornament, and I'm sure there was probably more that I can't think of. GI Joe and I are going to have a date night later this week :) Not sure where we are going to go, but probably to one of the new restaurants in town for dinner. Oh, and my new bag came in, but of course not without some hassle. It was supposed to have been delivered by FedEx on Friday by 7 p.m. Around 5, I saw a FedEx truck drive by the house a few times. Then right before 6, I decided to call and see where the hell my package was. I was told that it had indeed been received by our local FedEx, but it had not been put on the truck that morning. So I was pissed, because it was 2 day delivery, and she was now telling me that they could deliver it on Monday, to which I told her that was unacceptable, and asked if it was possible for me to pick it up myself, even though they were closing at 6. She called our FedEx (after telling me there was no phone number for them, that all she had was an extension to reach them), and they informed her that they could attempt to deliver it on Saturday, and that no I could not pick it up because they just don't do that. So I was like, ok whatever bring it tomorrow. But then I looked up a FedEx staffed facility (a Kinko's with FedEx service) and asked them if they had a phone number for the main FedEx location on whatever the hell street it was called that it's located on. And they did, so I got the number and called them. They told me that since they had such a large amount of freight come in that day, that I could come pick up my package since they weren't able to deliver it, if I could be there by 6:30. It was 6:08. So I headed out the door after putting on some jeans and leaving on my Dr. Pepper PJ t-shirt :P And I got there at 6:26, and got my damn package, with not much thanks to stupid FedEx.

Let's see....I've been putting off a new entry, not that I really have anything much to say, but I'm trying to keep up with blogging more often- it feels nice to just babble on about nothing in particular, even if I'm just rambing on to myself :P G had been constipated, to the point of needing medication, so she has been taking miralax for the past 3 weeks or so, and everything is going smoothly now, heh. I had been cutting back the dose for the past week, and I guess I cut back a little too much too soon, because she had a little trouble one day, and we are trying to keep things as, uh, well, as soft as possible for a month or two so that she will forget about the pain associated with pooping. It had set her back on potty training, she was refusing to even try to sit on the potty while she was constipated. And she is now taking a slight interest in it again, so hopefully she'll be getting back on track with that soon. One of her Christmas gifts is a Disney Princess potty seat, and a Dora potty book, so that will probably help that move forward a great deal.

My mom is coming down tomorrow to visit for about a week and a half. That's always nice. There will be much cooking and baking to commence in the next few days. Mmm, I can't wait for chocolate chip cookies and snappernipples (that would be snickerdoodles to you regular folks :P), those are my 2 favorites that we make at Christmas. Oh, there is also something else coming tomorrow... a brand spanking new Louis Vuitton Monogram Mini Lin Speedy 30 in the color of Dune :

http://www.eluxury.com/estore/browse/product_detail.jsp?id=11295238

(I tried just adding a pic to the post, but it shows up at the beginning of the post, and well, that just doesn't work :P)

I must say, I have a confession: I've become a label whore. Yes, me. Miss anti-establishment, tattoo-covered, Rob Zombie-listening, coupon-clipping me. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not like one of those pretentious little spoiled rich bitches that gets a new designer item every week. I'm still the same old me, probably the exact opposite of who you would think would like this stuff. But I just like a little something "special" every now and then.

I of course have not wrapped any presents yet. I always wait til Christmas Eve, even though I know I'm risking one of the kids getting up and catching me lol but oh well.

In the world of my cooking adventures, I made stuffed peppers today. Kind of just made it up myself. I've never made them before. I looked up a couple of recipes online to get an idea of cooking time and temperature, and a general idea of ingredients. They turned out pretty damn good. The meat mixture could have used a bit more flavor, so I'll add a little more seasonings next time. But it's definitely something I'll make again, even the kids liked them. G ate almost a whole pepper all by herself, minus some of the stuffing, as she decided about halfway through that she only wanted only the pepper lol how is that for a backwards kid? Most kids would eat the filling and leave the pepper :P Not that I'm complaining. Tomorrow night, I'm going to make chicken enchiladas, another thing I've never done before, and another thing I'm going to make up :P

While I'm thinking about it, and have typed it up for a friend anyhow, here is the recipe for the pancakes I made over the weekend:

Banana-Macadamia Nut Pancakes
Yield: 11 pancakes (it ended up making 12 in my batch)
3 points per pancake

Ingredients:1 and 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped ripe banana (about 2 small)
1 cup low fat buttermilk
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup chopped macadamia nuts, toasted
cooking spray

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Combine banana and next 5 ingredients in a medium bowl; stir with a whisk til smooth. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until combined. Stir in macadamia nuts.Pour about 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto a hot nonstick griddle or skillet coated with cooking spray. Cook 1-2 minutes or til tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Carefully turn pancakes over, and cook 1-2 minutes or til bottoms are lightly browned.

Oh my aching feet

I got the tree all taken care of today. I had my husband dig it out of the garage and shake it out really good. See, we have a fake tree- a fake tree that I leave assembled all year out in the garage. I take all the ornaments and lights off, but I leave all those fake ass branches in their handy dandy little slots 'cause I'm not about to take them out and try to get it all right again the next year. So then I got it in the house, bug free, and began the decorating. The kids helped after I got the lights all on. Husband was doing homework. G was very excited about the "pretty tree" and all the things we got to put on it. I'll have to take pictures of the tree tomorrow. Made the banana macadamia nut pancakes yesterday instead of today, and they were AMAZING. There are 2 left in the fridge and now that I am thinking about them, I wanna eat them, even though it's 1 a.m. and I'm about ready to hit the bed. This is a pitiful entry lol but hey, I'm tired :P

Tonight's dinner wasn't quite as good as I was hoping, but it wasn't terrible. I made a salmon salad nicoise from my 2008 Weight Watchers cookbook. I was really looking forward to trying the recipe, but I don't think it will become a favorite. The dressing turned out to be a little too sweet, so if I could tweak the dressing I think it would be super yummy. I think I'd make a dijon vinaigrette instead (the recipe calls for a dressing using stone ground mustard, white wine vinegar, honey, salt, and just a tad bit of olive oil). Tomorrow night is going to be Parmesan Ranch "Chik" patties, homemade onion rings and fried mushrooms, and possibly some fruit. Sunday I'm going to make Banana Macadamia Nut Pancakes for lunch (we aren't awake for breakfast, my kids even sleep late :P) which is also a WW recipe. Dinner will be yet another WW recipe, I don't remember the exact name but something along the lines of crab cakes on spring mix salad with lemon vinaigrette. I've not made either of those recipes before, so hopefully they'll go better than tonight's endeavor. This was actually the first WW recipe that I have made that we didn't absolutely love. But as I said, it wasn't awful, and I'd try it again with some minor adjustments. I'd post the recipe, but I don't feel like getting my cookbook :P

Well, this is my first post here. I've been in the world of livejournal and myspace for several years now, and figured it was time to branch out beyond my "regular" circle of internet friends and try something different, maybe actually blog more often instead of just when something major happens in my life or with one of the kids. I've been really into food blogs lately, so maybe I'll do some food posts, and weekly menus as I have been trying for the past several months to prepare a weekly menu and stick to it. And of course there will be musings about motherhood, and of all the things in the world that irritate me. I can be pretty outspoken, and I don't sugarcoat things- I say what I feel and I mean what I say. It might not always be pretty, and most of the time it is obscene, as I tend to have a potty mouth :P