Here are some favorites from this week.

do jean jackets look stupid
I suppose it would depend on a lot of things. Did someone attack the jean jacket with a Bedazzler? Then there’s a pretty good chance that the jean jacket looks stupid. But I’ve seen some jean jackets lately (this one, for example) that look stylish and a little retro, in a good way. So you see, the answer is not clear-cut.

And thus concludes our fashion lesson for the day. This coming from a woman who spends 95% of her time in her pajama pants and leopard-print fuzzy slippers.

crock pot recipe toddler
I just HOPE that someone was searching for something to make in a crock pot that a toddler would eat, and NOT a recipe for how to cook a toddler in a crock pot. No matter how bad it gets, how cranky they are, and how much they make you want to tie your tubes YOURSELF WITH A KITCHEN KNIFE AND SOME YARN, cooking them in a crock pot is never the answer.

Consider that your public service announcement of the day. I’m here to help, people.

sisters arse filterui:aspect-wide
I had absolutely NO idea what this was all about at first. Then I realized it was actually an image search for ’sisters arse’ and the filterui:aspect-wide part was an option for Google Image search for finding images oriented horizontally. So I guess it makes more sense when you look at it that way. But… sisters arse? This is the page on my site that was a hit for this one. I searched for ’sister’ and ‘arse’ in the text on this page of my site, and the only ‘arse’ that was on this page was in the word ‘reheARSE’. Good searching Google. IT’S NOT EVEN AN IMAGE.

gilmore girls squeegee beckenheim
Let’s hear it for Squeegee Beckenheim!

deal with nasal rocks
I’m gonna assume that ‘nasal rocks’ is some kind of hip lingo slang for boogers. In which case: just call them boogers.

brain boil
YOU GUYS. I’m #1 on Google for ‘brain boil’. I cannot tell you how awesome that is, because a lot of the time, that’s exactly how I feel. And probably how I act, too.
More posts like this:

• cleaning off the dust February 25, 2006
• mosaic of me November 9, 2008
• out of my life and off my list! September 28, 2005
• feedreaders October 21, 2007
• it’s FOXY! November 29, 2008

Last June, we went to the beach with our friends and their family. The dinner rule is, each family picks a night to make dinner for everyone else (all 18 of us, including the kids!) The nice thing about it is that you only have to worry about dinner once- the rest of the week, it’s someone else’s job! Plus, you get to come home with recipes like THIS ONE. My friend’s sister-in-law (who I can now call my friend! Hi Colleen!) made this and OH. MY. GOSH. is it yummy. Dan loved it and immediately was like, Jen, you have to make this. End of story. And I have, several times.

Let’s start with combining the sauce ingredients: cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, and roasted red peppers.

Then add the sun dried tomato dressing.

Mix it all up. (Like my Mix-n-chop from Pampered Chef? I DO.)

Wow that looks gross. heh. But trust me, it won’t be.

Cut the chicken breasts into chunks however you want- I like longer pieces, like strips (Colleen actually used chicken tenderloins, but I always buy the breasts (that’s what SHE SAID.) so I just used what I had on hand.

Put it all in a casserole dish, cover with foil, and bake it for about 45 mins.

Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes, and it will come out like this:

Serve over angel hair pasta. And heck, throw on some more parmesan cheese while you’re at it!

(I got so excited about eating this that I forgot to take a final-final picture with the pasta. So just imagine it in your head, mm-kay?)

Roasted Red Pepper Chicken

Ingredients
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 8-oz blocks cream cheese (I suppose you could use fat free, but where’s the fun in that?)
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 1/2 cup parmesan / romano cheese
1 jar roasted red peppers
1 bottle sun dried tomato dressing
1lb angel hair pasta

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients; bake 45 minutes covered with foil. Uncover and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Sauce thickens as it stands.

More posts like this:

• recipe: Sun-dried Tomato Cream Sauce Pasta with Chicken August 23, 2008
• recipe: buffalo chicken pasta November 14, 2006
• recipe: Taco Chicken November 25, 2008
• recipe: Texas BBQ Chicken Quesadillas August 7, 2007
• recipe: Slow-Cooker Chicken Taco Soup November 6, 2008

1. Pigtails. Her hair is getting longer and thicker, so her pigtails just keep getting cuter. And she keeps them in now without fussing with them too much, which is nice.

2. CRASH. Her new favorite word. Everything crashes: blocks when she knocks them over, books when she throws them off the shelf, her school bus when she, um, crashes it into my leg.

3. Phrases. All of a sudden, my kid talks in multi-word phrases, near sentences. When did this happen?? ‘Elmo friend!’ was one of the first (OF COURSE. DAMN THAT RED MONSTER.) (Just kidding, Elmo. I love you and how you give me the ability to write emails and cook dinner without having a short person attached to my leg.) But today she said ‘I did it!’ and squealed with delight. She was referring to when she stood her markers up on their ends like people. AND THEN SHE COUNTED THEM. Which brings me to #4…

4. ABCs and counting. She randomly launches into her ABCs while wandering the house- she sings it the whole way through, even the ‘Now I know my ABCs…’ part. And she’s been counting to 10 for a while now, off and on. Today when I asked her to count to 10, she said ‘Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen!’ She’s totally Harvard-bound. Or maybe Yale.

5. Just like her mother. This one drives Dan NUTS. He has this theory about me that if he mentions something, I’ll think it’s a dumb idea… until tomorrow when I come up with the idea, and then it’s the Best Idea Ever. So just a little while ago, given that she puked up her breakfast and I only fed her a little bit of food at lunch, I thought she might be hungry. ‘Do you want some animal crackers?’ ‘NOOOO!’ (spoken like she’s 13 and I just suggested she wear one of my shirts to school) Five minutes later: ‘AM-OOLS! AM-OOLS!’ ‘You want some animal crackers?’ ‘OKAY!’
More posts like this:

• friday, how I love thee. September 19, 2008
• I think I’ll call her ‘Red’. September 22, 2008
• Saturday. September 6, 2008
• cookies November 22, 2008
• another day, another sleepless night. November 11, 2008

January: Hello, 2008. So far, you’ve been just… meh. ah yes, I remember this well. We were in the midst of Sleep Training Hell with Maggie. Seems like we’re always in the midst of that.

February: People have asked me before why I blog. I don’t always have an answer, but mostly it’s just a habit now. I’ve been blogging for nearly 10 years. TEN YEARS, people. It’s a part of me. And I love you all.

March: I remembered! HA! No small feat when you’re a Mom. In this case, I remembered to participate in A Day In The Life.

April: If you haven’t seen it already, please read Emily’s post about her close friends and their 16-month-old daughter. Recent updates on Baby Emily’s health can be found here.

May: This weekend was ‘Project Weekend’. Heh, Dan would say that for me, EVERY weekend is ‘Project Weekend’. I get a little carried away at times.

June: Yesterday was one of those days where you thought ‘Hey, what a relaxing, empty day we have ahead of us!‘ but then, it got filled up with busy-ness and stuff and ended up not being so lazy as you thought. If I had a nickel for every time…

July: If you haven’t experienced it for yourself yet, let me tell you: Parenting is an adventure. Wise words.

August: This past weekend we went to visit some friends in Ohio. Wow that’s… probably one of the most boring first lines of a blog post EVER. I couldn’t have jazzed it up a bit?

September: This weekend was supposed to be fun and relaxing. Let me guess: SOMETHING HAPPENED AND IT WASN’T SO MUCH RELAXING ANYMORE. (ew, just read the entry and that was when Dan puked in my car and then it smelled like the RibFest. GROSS.)

October: Just a quick update before I crawl upstairs and crash in bed. SNORE.

November: So today is the start of NaBloPoMo. Three years in a row. Go me!

December: So NaBloPoMo is officially over. heh…I’m like a REALLY boring NaBloPoMo newscaster.

Doing this made me think of a good resolution for 2009: THINK UP BETTER OPENING LINES FOR MY BLOG POSTS.

Unrelated, but hilarious:

More posts like this:

• feedreaders October 21, 2007
• everyone needs some perspective April 1, 2008
• 2007 January 24, 2008
• the cure for a NaBloPoMo hangover December 1, 2008
• end of the year reflection December 23, 2006

In other news, I’m going clothes shopping tomorrow. ALONE. And I’m super-excited about it. I don’t usually get all that excited about clothes shopping, but I’m looking forward to it since I a) have some gift cards and money from Christmas, so it’s pretty much guilt-free shopping at this point! and b) most importantly, I’ve lost at least 8 pounds in the last month so all my pants are too big and WOW am I excited to go try on pants. And shirts. Because my back-fat is (mostly) gone and this makes shirt-trying-on much more enjoyable, you know? (Tomorrow is weigh-day, so we’ll see if I’ve lost any more since last Wednesday. I’m not feeling very optimistic since it was Christmas weekend and we had approximately 6,289 parties to attend and I let myself not track my Weight Watchers points at all for about 4 or 5 days. I didn’t go crazy with the food, but I know I ate way more than 21 points a day.)

Our plans for New Years Eve consist of dinner with my sister and her husband, their friends, and my sister’s in-laws (which sounds horrible but it’s not- they are awesome and fun and they took Scotty into their family so how bad can they be? Insane maybe, but not bad people, ha). My parents are watching Maggie- they volunteered to give us a night out and we were all OKAY LET’S GO OUT, SOMEWHERE, ANYWHERE! After dinner, we’ll be bringing Maggie home and changing into our pajamas and possibly watching a movie, or playing XBox (I got this game for Christmas and only played it for like 20 minutes so far) or possibly even just passing out way before midnight. Any of those scenarios? Will be just fine with me.

I have Dan at my disposal tomorrow and Thursday, which means he’ll be playing ‘cway-ons!’ with Maggie and possibly watching ‘gemmins!’ (which is ‘Happy Feet’ for those not in the know) and chasing her around the house for me for a few days. So I just might get some things done around here! Like putting away some Christmas decorations, or organizing my kitchen cabinets (OH LORDY, does it need done badly.) I do have a ‘2008 In Review’ post planned… I’m hoping to get it written before the first month of 2009 is over (you laugh, but last year I almost didn’t make that deadline!)

I hope you all have a fun (and safe!) New Years Eve!
More posts like this:

• I did a ‘touchdown’ sign with my hands when the first order went through okay. August 8, 2005
• I cannot believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve. December 23, 2008
• shrinking jeans report #2 December 10, 2008
• nablopomo hangover December 5, 2006
• more gushing about my kitchen November 3, 2007

Someone has been paying attention to my Kaboodle wishlist! She sent me these earrings, which I LOVE, and this cookbook, which is AWESOME. Just like Melissa.

Speaking of ‘Awesome’, my kid says that word now. Along with ‘Crazy’ and ‘You’re welcome’ and ‘Commins!’ which means ‘Penguins’. Yeah, I know: ADORABLE.
More posts like this:

• and I don’t think they tripped over any cat hair tumbleweeds! February 24, 2008
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• 8 week doctors appointment June 1, 2007
• Squeegee Beckenheim July 28, 2008

Wednesday: Christmas Eve dinner at my sister’s house. She made us all turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing… all of it, so good. Maggie got a few presents (my mom just couldn’t resist!) and then we headed home to wait for Santa.

Thursday, Christmas morning: Up at 7, breakfast, and then gifts! It didn’t take long for Maggie to catch onto the whole ‘unwrap the package and there’s a gift inside‘ concept. And she was surprisingly patient about waiting for Dan to put together and/or open some of the toys. Then it was hurry and shower, pack up the car, and head to my parents’ house by 10 (okay so we were like 15 minutes behind schedule- not bad, I don’t think!)

More presents and lunch at my parents’ house. Then, a Christmas miracle when Maggie napped without a fuss in her pack-and-play. For two hours! During her nap, we played Scattergories (JUNIOR!) and yes it might have been hard for us because we are old and our brains don’t work like they used to. But we had fun.

Before Maggie’s nap, we all settled down for Elmo. Because Christmas isn’t complete without some Elmo.

Out the door again by 3:30, driving 40 minutes to Dan’s grandma’s house. A bigger crowd, but Maggie wasn’t deterred. She pretty much had every single person there wrapped around her little chubby fingers by the time we left. She even helped pass out gifts to everyone. I kept asking myself, is this REALLY my kid?? She was a doll and so well-behaved.

We got home around 9:30 and were all passed out by 10:30. Exhausted doesn’t even begin to explain it. But it was a great, great day.

Today we had a smaller Christmas celebration with Dan’s parents and sister (home from her Army base in Georgia for the week!) I made beef barley soup and we opened gifts and while the three of them entertained Maggie, Dan and I laid on the couch and may have dozed for a bit. Maybe.

So, this pretty much sums up the last few days:

AND WE’RE NOT EVEN DONE YET.

Tomorrow is a Christmas round-robin thing with my dad’s family- 20-30 people in my house and yeah I have no idea how that’s going to work, but it will be fun. Then Sunday, we’re planning another visit with Dan’s parents and sister before she heads back to Georgia the next day.

Monday, I plan on zoning out on the couch for a few hours. Hopefully Maggie will comply with my plans.
More posts like this:

• Christmas December 26, 2005
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• 10 minutes till the end of work October 3, 2005
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• I cannot believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve. December 23, 2008

Since then, I have lost 8.6 pounds. I’m calling it 8 because I don’t want to be accused of cheating or anything. But yeah. This morning I weighed 122.4. ONE TWENTY-TWO! I haven’t seen that number on the scale since 2005, just after my sister got married. I had just switched jobs/careers to one where I was sitting in a cubicle and very quickly I gained 10 pounds or so, and then I got knocked up and… well, here we are.

I am absolutely thrilled and amazed that I’ve lost so much so quickly. I was even able to get into my ’skinny’ jeans earlier this week (not as in skinny jeans, but my jeans I can only wear when I’m skinny. just wanted to clarify.)

When I first decided to join in The Challenge, I wasn’t sure what my goal was. basically I figured even if I didn’t lose much or any at all by the end of the month, at least I would hopefully not have quite as much work to do after the holidays. I knew I wanted to lose at least 5, possibly 10 pounds. Which isn’t much compared to the 20 I lost last year or the 25 I lost a few years earlier, but that last 5-10 is the hardest, right?

And for some reason, this time, it’s even more exciting. I think it’s because after you have a kid, everything about you changes- mentally and physically. My body is so very different now. I have stretch marks I didn’t used to have, my hips are permanently wider (the bones MOVED and I could feel it while pregnant and LORDY DID IT HURT.)

The other night Maggie climbed up on the couch next to me while I was on the computer and asked to see ‘the baby’. She likes when I go through baby pictures of her on the computer and let her look at them- she likes to point out ‘Gramma!’ and ‘Shell!’ and ‘Michael!’ and ‘PapPap!’. So I went all the way back to the first day and first week of her life. While we were going through the pictures, I was remembering how awful I felt during those days. I was so happy and elated and in love with my baby, but physically and mentally I was a mess. I hated the way I felt and looked (and I STILL cringe when I see pictures of my puffy-self in those first days after she was born- those are the ones I have never shared on Flickr, heh) I just knew I would never, ever feel normal again.

But here I am, feeling normal. Actually, BETTER than normal. I am, dare I say it, happy with my body again. That’s something I doubted would ever happen again. Sure, I still have those stretch marks on my belly and my legs, but I’m fine with those. They are reminders of my beautiful baby girl.

And plus, jeans cover those up. SKINNY JEANS, even.
More posts like this:

• shrinking jeans report #3 December 17, 2008
• the incredible shrinking woman November 10, 2007
• battle of the baby bulge May 14, 2007
• shrinking jeans report #2 December 10, 2008
• progress… sort of. August 3, 2007

Whew! The past few days have been a whirlwind of stuff. Saturday we stayed at home and did nothing much and Lordy, it was fabulous. After last weekend’s Puke-a-palooza, it was nice to have some downtime in our pajamas that DIDN’T involve trips to the bathroom and feverish chills. On Sunday, we dropped Maggie at my parents’ while we went to church, and then came back to their house for lunch and the Steeler game (argh. What a crappy, crappy game.) Yesterday and today were spent finishing up Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, making this cheesecake for my sister’s Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow night, laundry, launching a site for work, finishing up last minute things for work before taking a few days off for the holiday… no wonder I’m tired.

But, I’m also counting my blessings and remembering how lucky we are as a family. There are a some people in our lives right now who are going through some horrible, traumatic things and it makes me want to just hug my daughter and my husband closer. Christmas should be a time of joy and fun and this year, for people I care about, it’s not going to be. And that makes me so sad.

And because I don’t want to a Debbie Downer, I’ll leave you with this video of Maggie being a ham once she notices the camera. Because who can be sad when they see this?

More posts like this:

• end of the year randomness December 30, 2008
• is there such a thing as too much Christmas? December 26, 2008
• good and bad: this week so far August 26, 2008
• here’s to great weekends November 20, 2005
• happy new year and all that crap January 1, 2008

But first! Some random things. Because I have been a bad blogger lately so I just have to smush it all into one post.

I got my scarf from my scarf buddy, Angela, for the Girl, Get Your Scarf On! swap. She made it herself! I can cross-stitch, but I’ve never tried my hand at knitting so I’m amazed at the fact that she made this. And for me! And I LOVE it. It’s long and lacy and the colors are perfect.

Maggie is starting to speak her first two-word phrases. ‘Daddy work?’ and ‘Daddy sleep?’ are her favorites, along with ‘Elmo friend!’ I’m working on ‘Love you!’ but she doesn’t seem very interested.

She has also pretty much mastered her colors. And today she counted to 13. Okay, so she skipped ‘8′ and ‘12′. But she got all the way to 13!

And in keeping with the random-ness, it’s the Friday 5! (Theme: Keeping It Positive)

1. What’s your favorite thing about the shoes you’re wearing (or the shoes you were most recently wearing)?
My shoes at the moment are my fuzzy leopard-print slippers. I love them because they are soft and warm and just super-comfy.

2. What’s your favorite thing about the people you work with (or the people you go to school with)?
I work with myself, so… my favorite thing about myself is that I’m awesome. And I have a casual dress code.

3. What’s your favorite thing about the climate where you live?
As much as I complain about the snow, I do like that we have distinct seasons. Yes, it gets freaking hot and disgusting in July and August, and yes it gets freaking cold in December through March. But, I like the colors and smells of the fall, and I love the lush green of the spring and how freeing it is to finally be able to put on flip-flops and paint my toenails after 8 months in boots.

4. What’s your favorite thing about Friday?
um… that’s it’s FRIDAY. I don’t think it needs any other qualification than that.

5. What’s your favorite thing about the year coming to an end?
I’m ready to move on from this year. Lots of good things about this year, but a few crappy things. I’m looking forward to a clean slate- kind of like how I like completing lists, I like being able to do a mental ‘reset’ with the new year.
More posts like this:

• I love you, Friday. October 24, 2008
• I’m all about the random posts lately April 21, 2006
• clothing dilemmas; my life is rough February 25, 2008
• 35 weeks March 7, 2007
• not a baby anymore October 15, 2008