My sad, sad kitchen....

Loyal readers, hi mom, know I love to cook.  On my recent birthday trip to Tahoe, I had the privilege of baking and creating masterpieces, or at least edible meals, in a gorgeous kitchen.  Every Christmas vacation, I get to cook in my mother-in-law's kitchen where things are organized and there is plenty of counter space.  

Today, while dealing with my twitter addiction, one of my favorite tweeters and bloggers, busydadblog posted this picture of his spices and kitchen.

First of all, I am in awe.  This looks like heaven.  Check out busydadblog for an explanation of the post-it notes.  All of this made me question my inability to keep something I love organized.

I mean look at my spice area.  

Now scroll up and check out busydadblog's spice rack again.  

I am ashamed. :(

Ok, maybe I am not ashamed as that would be silly, but I am determined to fix this.  Tomorrow Jeff is taking Lilly and James to Yo Gabba Gabba live by himself.  (This will be an entire post unto itself if Jeff survives.  His idea, by the way, and I wish him luck!)  While he is gone, I will organize this one cabinet.  We are about to undergo a house renovation which will include a kitchen remodel so I don't need to go crazy, just get organized.  I have a mission.  Unless I decide to nap.

happymommy

Much to the chagrin....

I know people, all four of you, where have I been?  I turned forty and now I am never around to entertain you with stories of James and Lilly and talk about my weight.  It is no mystery.  My life has been taken over by an iPad. 

I rarely turn on my laptop anymore.  I could blog from my wonderful iPad, but to be honest, Steve Jobs has really done a poor job with the keyboard aspect of both the iPhone and iPad.  Blogs take a little longer and more effort than one handed chicken pecks.  

My goal is to try harder and blog more.  So while I gather my thoughts and think of the next story to share, I leave you with a picture of Lilly at ballet.

Isn't she lovely, and so talented!

Also, lately I have been spending a lot of time reading this blog.  You know, because I have nothing better to do!  For those of us who use autocorrect on our iPhones or any other smart phone, you will find this immensely hysterical.  I have spent way too much time laughing until I cried.  This site is NOT SAFE FOR MY MOTHER TO READ!

happymommy

Still tired...

So, as you know I went away for five days with no children and I am more tired than I have been in a long time.  Four days of acting like I was twenty-one and then thirty-one is exhausting.  I cooked more, laughed more and hung out more than I have in five years.  I had the time of my life, and I couldn't be more thankful to Jeff, my in-laws, parents and sister for making it possible.  Not to mention the wonderful friends who took the time to come hang out with us.  

We came home to a sick baby, and immediately felt at home.  I mean what is Monday afternoon without diarrhea and a trip to urgent care.  We are on the mend and ready for the weekend so we can be all kinds of busy again.  And how in the world is it Thanksgiving?  I mean really, time moves so fast.  I must remember to appreciate every minute of it even when James is crying, Lilly is whining and I have to figure out what to make for dinner.  In-n-Out it is!

happymommy

Where is happymommy?.....

Happymommy is on VACAY!  WITH NO CHILDREN.  However, I have been gone from them for 24 hours and I miss them immensely.  I guess it shouldn't be surprising that I miss my kids, but I didn't think I would miss them so much, already.  

 Happy Grandparents!

Jeff rented a house for us in Tahoe for five days and so far, it has been spectacular.  I am so lucky to have a husband who loves me, who gets that I need some time away and who really wants me to be happy!  And, the grandparents who flew in from Denver to care for our kids? I mean who is so lucky?  And the other grandparents who are on call to pick Lilly up, take James for a day and take over when the Denver grandparents have to head home?  Jeff and I are so very blessed.

The house Jeff rented is beyond fabulous!  I would sleep in the kitchen if I could.

We have been cooking and playing and having the time of our lives.

Oh, and I am blogging!

happymommy

Pixar and Good Ol' Soul Food....

Today the happyfamily had the most wonderful day.  So often we tend to spend Saturdays in our pjs doing nothing and then wondering what happened to our weekend.  I wanted to take the ferry into the city and eat oysters at Hog Island Oyster Company, but remembered the SF Farmers' Market happens at the ferry building each Saturday morning.  Today was a beautiful fall day with a hint of fog, and I figured it would be crazy busy and not great for avoiding stress.

Instead, we headed over to Oakland to see the Pixar exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California.  I can not say enough about how wonderful the experience was.  Lilly was entranced.  James was in awe of all the Buzz Lightyear pictures everywhere.  If you live anywhere near Oakland, this is a great half day excursion.

 I see Buzz.....

Look....

Since I was craving oysters, I went to the interwebs to find a great seafood place in Oakland.  This led me to crave some good ol' Soul Food.  Not sure how oysters led to collards, but it did and boy howdy, I was not disappointed.  After an extensive Yelp search, we ended up at a down home, new as of April restaurant where I had Shrimp and Grits, collards, fried cabbage and peach cobbler.  BayLeaf was wonderful and I will go there again and again.  Every one had something different and everyone raved about the food and the atmosphere!

Fried Chicken, Collard Greens & Cornbread...

Yummy!

And we got to see our favorite little baby Sadie!

Today was another day I am pleased to say, life is good.  We are blessed.

happymommy

Update:  I have been in no way compensated for either visiting the Pixar exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California or eating at BayLeaf in Oakland.  My family enjoyed these on our own dime.

The World Series Champions - The San Francisco Giants...

In case you were unaware, or currently living on Mars, the San Francisco Giants won the 2010 World Series on Monday.  Today the celebration continued with a massive parade and gathering in downtown San Francisco!

                       photo credit:  Eric Risberg /AP (via sfgate.com) 

We only had one representative from our family attend the event along with hundreds of thousands of others.  I am thinking he had a great time!

           photo credit:  The Opa (via his iphone)

Congratulations SF Giants!  We are so proud!

happymommy

Death by a Hot Pocket

I have no reasonable explanation as to why I was trying to eat a Hot Pocket today.  Hot Pockets and frozen burritos are not usually in my repertoire of food.  But since today marked the fifth day of no Jeff, I really needed me some Hot Pocket.  Please don't ask why I even had one, but I did, in my freezer.  

I popped the thing in it's little sleeve, set the microwave to 8 minutes and did some Twittering while I waited.  Some sort of Twitter fight erupted over some blogging conference thing.  A few moms were upset about children and many many people ate candy.  A normal day on Twitterverse.  I started to notice a weird smell.  Thought it was the dog, or maybe a neighbor grilling.  No need to point out it was 10:30 in the morning, but you never know.  I kept thinking, wow, this is a long 8 minutes.  Well then I started to cough.  There was smoke everywhere.  The house was closed up because it was cold outside, like a freezing sixty degrees.  

I ran downstairs and was immediately engulfed in smoke.  It smelled horrible and I couldn't stop coughing.  I open all the windows and doors, threw Bubba outside and started to investigate.  The Hot Pocket had blown up in the microwave and there was a small fire INSIDE the microwave.  Um, according to the package, you only microwave Hot Pockets for 1 minute and 45 seconds.  Where I got 8 minutes from is unknown. 

The house still stinks and my hair smells like a forest fire.  Lesson learned?  Read the instructions and never assume your neighbors are grilling at 10:30 in the morning.  Or that your dog smells like someone grilling.

happymommy

To all you single moms and dads out there:  I have no idea how you do it.  My hats off to you for being able to get out of the house wearing pants and remembering to bring your children with you.