The Quilted Bear (Saratoga Springs, UT)

Have you been to the Quilted Bear?
If you've never been (or even heard of it) and you live in the Salt Lake area, you're missing out!



According to their website The Quilted bear is the "... number one destination for unique handmade gifts, décor and accessories." and  is the "...the largest handmade gift, accessory and home decor store in the country."
 

Believe them!

 This store rocks my socks every time I'm able to go! It's booth after Booth of handmade goodies. Everything from American Girl Clothes to Hand-painted signs to huge-mongo stuffed bears.
It's eye candy everywhere you look!
You can't help but have a good time when you walk in the door!

Don't believe me? Here's some Proof:

Gardening with Grandpa (Saratoga Springs, UT)

So, we'd finally arrived and had a nice,
long, sound sleep at my parents home.

And when we woke up, it was to blue skies and cool breezes! The kids wasted no time in getting outside, and were soon helping their Papa harvest vegetables from his small (but incredibly awesome!) vegetable garden.

It was pretty neat watching the kids pick their own produce,
and it was even neater watching all of their hard work go
to good use.  My sister-in-law, Julie, made the most delicious zucchini bites from the freshly picked stuff while we there. These little bites are packed with flavor and  a hit with everyone!
(recipe at the bottom)

Watching the kids work in the "field" with their Grandpa
reminded me a lot of our summer trips home to see my
own Grandparents. I can remember wandering between the
rows of watermelon and corn stalks hoping behind their home, hoping we'd find something ripe to eat. I loved it then, and apparently, my kids love it too!

Thanks Papa! :)

Grandpa and the kids

 

Dominick searching for some ripe squash

Diana and Dominick racing down...

Working the "field"

Brooke and the huge zucchini


Little cousin Tyson was working hard too!

Zucchini Bites

Recipe adapted: The Naptime Chef

yields: 12 mini muffins

1 cups zucchini, grated
1 egg (1 large egg equals 3-4 tbsp when whisked together)
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1/4 cup cheese (cheddar or Parmesan work the best)
1/4 cup bread crumbs - I used Italian style
Salt and Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a mini-muffin tin with non-stick spray, set aside.
2. Grate the zucchini and then place in a dish towel to squeeze out the excess water- like when using frozen spinach; if you skip this part, the middle of the zucchini tots will be really soggy while the outside gets crispy and no one wants that.
3. In a bowl combine, the egg, onion, cheese, bread crumbs, zucchini, salt and pepper.
4. Using a spoon or a cookie scoop, fill the muffin cups to the top. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the top is browned and set.

The Commandments for Flying with Kids ... Part II

Commandment 4:
Enjoy ye your children. For they are but young
and are trying very, very hard to be good.

So, we were finally in the air! .. again.
We'd left Memphis and we were well on our way to Salt Lake at last! As drinks were being passed out, the flight attendant took the time to tell me how well behaved my children were just in time to see my son stick candy buttons up his nose. She laughed and said "Trust me, I've seen worse!" High praise indeed! :)

I couldn't pass the moment up, and joined in his goofiness!




And Lastly,

Commandment 5:
Pat thyself on thy back.
Because thine children are pretty awesome
and they have learned all of their awesomeness from thee.

They are good travelers because YOU are teaching them to be good travelers.

And that is A.O.K!

The Commandments for Flying With Kids.

I love to fly.
I love everything about flying.
L-O-V-E
Love it.

And thank the heavens, so do my kids! I like to think I've done my part to raise a tiny little clan of future pilots and flight attendants.

So, how do we do it?
How do we fly across the country and still want to do it again and again? How do we keep the kids happy and the parents sane?
(Or parent in this case as I was without my spouse)
Simple, we know the 5 Commandments for flying with kids. 

Join us on our 1800 mile, 4-airports-trip from
Knoxville, Tennessee to Salt Lake City, Utah and learn ye too the commandments to making what could have been a long stressful day into nothing but wonderful family memories.


Commandment 1:
Prepare thou offspring for what lies in store.
Don't wait until you're untying your
shoes to explain the TSA checkpoint to your kids and don't
wait until they're kicking the seat in front of them to explain why it's inappropriate. Set down the rules and the expectations for your children long before you pack your bags.

Now, our children have all flown before, but I still give them a rundown of what's expected of them while we're in transit.  For this trip, the little's needed to be prepared for just how long a day it was going to be (11+ hours)  and my 15 year old needed to know that she'd be helping with a lot of the duties her Dad would pick up if he'd been able to go. (Helping with bags in security, buddying up with her little sister, etc.)

Waiting in our rocking chairs at McGhee-Tyson Airport in Knoxville.



Commandment 2:
Pack ye carefully and ye shall not want to rip ye's hair out whilst ye sits in an airport for a very long layover(s).

Seriously. Think about the ways your children entertain themselves at home and then try as best you can to bring some* of that along.

For my 15year old that meant:
Her Nintendo DS and her Kindle Fire
with a few new books loaded on.

For my 9year old:
His iPod, some Matchbox cars and his favorite book.

And for my 6year old:
A favorite stuffed animal, a coloring book,
crayons and access to my camera.

And for the love of all that is holy:
DON'T FORGET THE CHARGERS**!
*Some means some. Don't pack their entire bedroom as
you'll most likely be the mule shlepping it around when they tire of carrying it!
**Delta is great about having outlets very accessible in almost all of their terminals.

The kids entertaining themselves at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.




Commandment 3:
Research ye your airports ahead
of time and know ye what they offer.

So, we'd left Knoxville and landed safe &sound in Atlanta right on time around 10ish a.m. Thanks to my insistence that they eat a hearty breakfast, no one in our group was even remotely hungry. It didn't matter that the Atlanta airport has food courts and small food vendors just about everywhere you look, you can't eat if you're not hungry, and that was that. We decided we'd grab our lunch when we arrived in Memphis.

HA!
Having forgotten to obey my own commandment, I did not research the Memphis Airport and therefore did not know that Memphis, being a much, much smaller airport, offers considerably less than Atlanta in the way of food stuffs.

And having gone from "Mom, I'm not hungry!" to "Mom, I'm starving to death!", the 3 kids and I wandered the nearly deserted terminals in search of an easy meal. They were a few nice looking sit down restaurants but most were catering BBQ (not a huge hit with my kids) and most were well beyond the price point I was willing to pay in an airport, so we passed. We finally ended up at a sub joint called "Lenny's" where we found a decent meal at a decent price. Not exactly what we'd wanted, but it was good in a pinch.

So how would I do it differently next time?
I'd have bought cold sandwiches in Atlanta and put
them in our carry on to enjoy in Memphis.

Lunch at Lenny's in Memphis International Airport.


Continued ....

BARGAIN ALERT!

If you know me, and I hope you do, you know that Bargain shopping is my most favorite after school activity. I love scouring racks and sniffing out bargain. I honestly can't remember the last time I chose to pay full retail for anything.

My usual haunts are mostly thrift stores, but I'm not above trudging the Mall or big box retail stores to hunt down killer steals too.

And killer steals are exactly what we found when we did some shopping yesterday!

Let's start with BookLand. (Our teensy tiny bookstore owned by Books-a-million) Aside from the fact that they were having their $1 book blowout, we found THIS amazing leather tablet cover on sale from $40.00 to a measly $5 buckeroo's! And with my Books-a-million discount card, I only paid FOUR bucks. And yes, although it's made for the Nook, it fits Brooke's Kindle Fire perfectly!



Moving along. Next up .. JC Penny. I hadn't planned on going clothes shopping yesterday, but when I saw the huge $2 rack on the way through the store (you have to cross through to get into the Mall) and I was tempted. I'm glad I stopped. Brooke and I scored in the way of new shirts for me and new PJ's for her! She bought two new nightgowns and a new top for $6 TOTAL. And I walked away with 6 new tops and a new bathrobe for $15! SCORE! (I'd show pictures, but everything is in the dryer)

And lastly (and my most favoritisly) Books. And not from the Bookstore. Books from where you'd least expect them. The DOLLAR TREE! I've seen books in our Dollar Tree before, but they're usually bizarre or obvious "didn't make it" books.  Yesterday was something new entirely. Everything was in hardcover and they were all books we wanted to read! In total, we bought 10.
 

10 books that we liked and that will not sit on the shelves for the next year.



Retail, these books would sell for around $202.00. Granted, I would never pay full price for a book anyway, but let's suppose I'd bought them on Ebay (which is plausible) I would still  have paid around $65.00 by the time you include shipping. But we only paid 10 bucks for 10 books. So, yes, we hit the Mother Load!

All-in-all, I only spent $35 (before tax) the entire day and I call that  a good day for the Bargain Huntress!

Our Pinteresting Dinner

So, I spend a lot of time on Pinterest.
Maybe a little too much time.

And for all the pinning I do, I've never actually put any of those pins to good use.

Until now ....

For dinner last night, I resolved to make only the things I could find on my "Food for the family" board I have on Pinterest.

For our main course I made this yummy looking Chicken & Spinach Pasta Bake:

It was really easy to prepare and came out of the oven looking (and SMELLING) totally delish! Would I make it again? Sure! But I'd just about double the amount of sauce needed to make it extra creamy. It was a bit dry and the noodles on top got a little hard while baking.

   


Ok, for a side I made this simple Sea Salt Asparagus
It was so, so good. Nothing to add, nothing to change.
10 mins at 450 ... perfection!



Ok, and finally, for dessert we tried this awesome blossom "Banoffee Pie"

"Ban" for Banana.
"offee" for Toffee.

AND YUM FOR YUMMY!!! 

As advertised, it is so simple to make.
(And I especially liked learning how to make toffee from a can of Sweetened condensed milk boiled on the stove!) 

But let me warn you, this pie is sweet!
I mean REALLY sweet. Like, "Wow, I just popped a cavity" sweet. Or even "The kids are never going to fall asleep now" sweet.

I love sweets and this was even a little too sweet for me.
I'm thinking next time I'm going to try and tone down the toffee with some cream or maybe add more Banana's. ... Things to think about.


All-in-all, Pinterest night was a success! Enough of a success that tonight we had Pinteresting Beef Stew on the crock pot! (Which was too die for!)

Packing is Overrated.

The classroom looks like a laundromat blew up.

Clothes are strewn hither and thither, backpacks are gaping open waiting to be stuffed with essentials for travel, and I've just started what feels like my elevety ninth load of "I TOLD YOU TO BRING ME ALL OF YOUR LAUNDRY!"

It's chaos. But it's OK, because this kind of mess only means one thing : We're 'a leaving on a jet plane!

We're westward bound to spend 10 fun filled days with my family in Utah. It's going to be amazing! Time with my parents, my brothers and sisters and all of my nieces and nephews!

Only 34 more hours to go!

A blast from our Spanish past!

This post won't be all that interesting to anyone unless at one time your last name was Odom, you lived in Madrid and your dad was a spy. IF you meet those criteria ... read on! You won't want to miss this!

JANCINE WAS HERE!  Our Jancine!

She, Raul and their younger daughter, Gabriella, took a detour from their Coast to Coast American tour to come and visit for a few days.

For those of you not in the know, Jancine was our family's Au Pair while we lived in Madrid, Spain. The summer before Caitlin was born she came to live with us and our lives were forever better for having known her.

To see her standing on my front porch Wednesday afternoon was just a little surreal. 20+ years later and I kid you not, she hasn't aged a day! She is just as sweet, bubbly and beautiful as I'd remembered and she still has her British accent. Granted, I know she's British, but I associate her with Spain and I'd forgotten she'd still have it! LOL

That first night we sat around the kitchen bar and did nothing but reminisce about our time in Spain, filled in the gaps in the stories of our lives and caught up over the delicious wine they'd brought over for us from Spain. And to spoil us even further, they came bearing gifts for the kids and I. Beautiful glass jewelry necklaces for Brooke and I, a real soccer jersey for Dom and best of all, a gorgeous black and red Flamenco dress for Diana! She twirled around the kitchen all night.

The next day we did some running around. I took them atop Panther Creek State Park to the look-out. We walked down the shops on Main Street and had lunch at the little Java Garden Cafe. And what trip to the ol' U.S. of A isn't complete with an obligatory stop into Walmart?? (OK, actually I had to pop in for bread) I don't think they were all that impressed! ;)  

After the girls went swimming, and Diana had her ballet lesson, we met for dinner at the Sage Brush Steak House. Our waiter (who was the EPITOMY of all things Tennessee) took our drink order and without missing a beat Jancine leaned in and whispered "It looks like his Mum cut his hair with a knife and fork!"

I think my only regret from the entire visit was that I've let my Spanish get so bad. Raul and Gabriella speak very good English, but on the longer conversations Jancine still had to act as interpreter. I think I'm going to have to break out the Rosetta Stone and get my act together.  ... Especially if we ever hope to repay the visit!

I keep reading over this post and I know it doesn't
even begin to convey just how much this visit meant to me.

I can't wait to tell all of you more about it next week and pass
on the love from Jancine and her family to all of you!!

 ___________________

A few of the pictures from their visit:

 

 

Happy Days are here at last!

I'm back. 

And just so we're clear, I didn't entirely abandon the blog. There were many a night that I'd sit here at my computer and tap away at the keys only to delete the entire post.

While our spring was blissful contentment, our summer had a more tumultuous start. I was heartbroken, angry and spent more than a little too much time licking my wounds. I didn't want to write about the kids, the lake, the new car OR the nearly 250,000 followers I have on Pinterest. I didn't want to paint on a smile when all I really felt was the overwhelming desire to be petty. I wanted to shout and yell and vent away all of my frustrations. Thankfully for you, I didn't see that as being very good reading material, so I waited. I knew that with time* my heart would heal and the right words would come with the right feelings.

And they have. The storm has passed and the sun is shining.

Happy days  are finally here at last!




 


 *and many, many late night rant sessions and wine

Carnival 2012

The Carnival is in town.

And our littlest children have dedicated themselves to reminding their Dad and I
of this monumental event every moment of every day for the last 5 days.

We saw the Ferris wheel going up on Wednesday.
On Thursday Brooke has ballroom.
On Friday Diana had a 2 hour evening jazz class.

Saturday was spent cleaning and grocery shopping.
Sunday was Mothers Day.

And so, we knew today must be the day.
Despite a thundering headache, (And literal thunder outside)
I knew if we didn't get to that Carnival today,
there would be a mutiny on our hands. 

So, as the kids sat down to dinner, I told them just that.
You have never seen 3 children eat faster or more thoroughly.
Nary a crumb was sparred. 

Plates were cleaned and loaded before I could say
"Who wants seconds?"


And we went.
And it was wonderful.


20 minutes after arriving, the weather yielded to our desires.
The clouds parted, the wind blew gently and even the sun made a short appearance before setting.
It was perfect. Honestly.

Even my headache went away!
I think it was jarred loose by the neck-breaking motion of the tilt-o-whirl!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mothers Day 2012

A Step-by-Step guide to
making Mom so very happy!

Step 1. 

Let Mom sleep in.


Step 2.
Have Husband serve delicious breakfast in bed.
Biscuits-and-gravy, scrambled eggs and sausage.
Yum. 

Step 3.
Open presents from the family.

Book store Gift card, earrings, and card!
Awesome.

Step 4.

 Load children and  significant others into a vehicle. 

Step 5. 

Sacrifice your own happiness and take
Mom on a supa-dupa shopping excursion to her favorite
shopping center in Sevierville.

Step 6.
D-unch of champions.
Vanilla bean cheesecake to end an already amazing meal.


Step 7.

Entertain yourself at Books-a-Million
whilst Mom spends her gift card. 

(Try not to embarrass her too much)

Step 8.
Get home and allow Mom to take stupid pictures of only 1/2 the family.
(3 out of 5 ain't bad)
 

Step 9.
Know that you've done well!
Rumor has it that she  got all sorts of goodies she will love: 
 


It was easily one of Mom's favorite Mothers Days to date!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

And Away She Goes!

Diana is finally, FINALLY on two wheels!

Dom was being a pretty awesome big brother when he decided to make it
his mission to get his little sister riding solo.

Step 1: Take little sister to the top of the hill



Step 2: Gain little sisters trust and shove her off!


Step 3: Watch Little Sister ride her bike without the training wheels! HUZZAH!


And she kept on riding and riding and riding.....