man! i screwed up dinner last night! i'm so bummed. i was really looking forward to it. one of those meals my mom used to make when we were kids, ya know?
well, i cooked my stuffed peppers for 1hour at 350. not long enough. already had everyone at the table and the potato casserole was all hot and melty and the bottom of the peppers weren't cooked and about a marble size of raw meat in the center of every single stinkin pepper! blech! if you have littles, you know how difficult this scenerio was. once they're at the table and thinking food is on the way - not a pretty sight to have to kick them out.

so they went through a few sleeves of crackers and potato casserole while the peppers were back in the oven. no one went to bed hungry, so i guess ultimately everything went fine. now i just have oodles of left-over peppers in my fridge!

on the menu for tonight: chicken (cooked in cream of broccoli soup) with butter herb wild rice and green beans.

there are days, every now and again, that parents have to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak. last night, with the raw dinner debacle already under our belts, was one of those nights. V refused to take a shower because he was absolutely certain there were 'red eyes' outside the window in the bathroom. so we talked him into a shower as long as someone was in the bathroom with him. the girl still had 30 minutes of reading to do for the night. a-ha! we found our victim - i mean volunteer.

after a few minutes, i stuck my head in to check on the two of them. this is what i see:

hilarious!
wondering why she has the book IN the shower, i said, "ummmm, whatchya doin'?"
"showing V the pictures" of course.
just too funny!
and i think he enjoyed his storytime


yes, yes... i am still knitting, spinning, and LOTS of crocheting - more on this tomorrow :D

Christmas has come and gone and now another year has begun. *sigh
i'm not ready! why can't we just have a week between Dec 31 and Jan 1 that is a "week of catch up". just to be able to get done a few things that you swore you'd be getting done before the ball dropped and didn't. wouldn't that be nice!?!

speaking of the ball dropping, my sherry lives in NYC now and was there! one of the crazy 2 million. SO jealous! can you imagine!?! i mean, this is the stuff we've been watching on the tube all our lives - and she was there! actually there in the midst of it all!! forgive this small town Texas girl for being so giddy - this is big-time excitement, ya'll!

sitting here thinking about it (the coming of a new year), i wonder why i'm just not 'feelin' it'. i think it's because winter hasn't started here yet. i mean we've had cold and really cold and 2 days of snow. but nothing substantial. not like we usually get. it comes and goes. it was 68 yesterday! there have been no snowmen! no snow ice cream. no kids outside playing until it's just too much and the chill brings them in with teary eyes from the pain in their fingers... which, of course, i immediately rescue them from with hot cocoa and a warm fire
MUST be global warming (read that with as much sarcasm as you can--- sorry folks, just not a believer). anyhow, so that's that. ooooh wait, nope, not done yet. it rained yesterd. huh? just odd.

what was the big hit on Christmas morning at your place?
here? the wii

the girl also got high school musical 'sing it!' which has so far been a major hit. everyone loves it. we all did a little karaoke last night between dinner and baths. fun fun
just looky at her with aunt chelle


alrighty, well gotta go get dinner ready.
on for tonight: Stuffed bell peppers and potato casserole mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm