I never thought I'd eat this...

I LOATHE oatmeal. I have loathed it my entire life. I just simply can't swallow it. It totally grosses me out. My children eat the stuff every single morning between ages 1 and 2. They all like it. The little boy I babysit, Noah, eats it almost every single day. He walks in my house every morning and says, "E-mom!" That means oatmeal. He's working very hard at saying "oat....meal". So cute.

Back to my hate of oatmeal.

My sweet new friend that I blog-stalked and emailed about going green, Rachel Supercinski, sent me this recipe for oatmeal. I thought, "Yeah right! But I will give it a try because it's SO healthy."

HOLY COW, BATMAN! This is my new favorite thing. I eat it every morning for breakfast, and sometimes for dinner when I'm in a rush. My older two kids won't even taste it, but Ava and Noah LOVE it.

Without further ado:

Thaw 1/2-3/4 cup blueberries in microwave for about 45 seconds. Divide between 2 bowls.

Add 1 spoonful of wheat germ and 1 spoonful of milled flaxseed to each bowl.

Boil 1 cup water with about a tablespoon of butter. Add 1/2 cup old fashioned oats and cook about 5 minutes. (It looks disgusting to me at this point, but hang with me.)

Pour oatmeal over berries in each bowl. Add a spoonful of brown sugar to each bowl.

Stir and eat.

If I'm making it just for me, I divide this in half. It doesn't look like much in the bowl, but I'm full until lunch. Nothing sticks with me like this does.

Happy eating!

Thanks, Rachel!

Happy Birthday, Claire!!!

September 1984

Christmas 1996 August 2000
Easter 2004
April 2007 April 2007

We love you! Come visit us soon!

Jacob: "To Nanny Claire: I love Nanny Claire because I had fun at the Festival with her and because she can hold me up high. And she and I had a lot of fun at Tante's house building the little lego jet plane. And because she gave me some crocs. We always have a great time. Love, Jacob. Oh, and have a great time in Dallas. That's it."

Happy Birthday, Ava!!!

Our sweet baby girl is one year old today. How in the world did that happen?! It was one year ago yesterday that I wanted to kiss my OBGYN when he told me he would induce me the next day. Seriously.


Ava is all smiles and such a mama's girl. Her newest word as of yesterday is "whoa!" She says this when I plop her down from standing (she can get herself up but can't get down.) It's adorable. She is such a sweet blessing.

I made this slide show of her first year. I know it's a lot of pictures, but I narrowed it down as much as I could.

Happy birthday, precious girl! We love you so much!

9/11

How is it that it's been six years since that terrible day?

Tony Melendez

What a humble man. We have had the blessing of seeing this man play his guitar twice before, and today we will take our children to see him in Lake Charles. We are so excited!!!

Obviously this performance was before Pope John Paul II passed away. And whoever posted this on YouTube needs to learn how to spell "hands", but you get the drift.

Mute

On Monday, Jacob's phonics lesson was on the long vowel sound of u. One of the words he had to read was "mute". He asked what that meant, and one of the examples I gave him was when we press the mute button on the remote to make the tv silent.

Last night he walked in the living room, saw the tv on with no sound and asked:

"Why is the tv deaf?"

Jacob made a funny....

Those of you who know our son know that he lives to talk and ask questions. Seriously, the boy hardly ever has a quiet moment, and those moments usually only occur while he's listening to an answer of a question he's just posed. One of his many talents is that he never forgets anything anybody tells him. Like ever. It's pretty incredible. The talking and questioning don't usually bother me unless we're in the car. This is when the questioning is like rapid-fire, and I can't get away from it. After several minutes, I usually tell him that it's time to stop the questioning until we get home or wherever we're headed. It usually works, and he either gets quiet or he starts imparting all sorts of random knowledge to Mary-Grace.

Well last night we were on our way home from a barbecue at my dad and stepmom's house about 30 minutes away; my mom was with us. The Star Wars line of questioning ensued. He is obsessed with all things Star Wars, but since he has never seen the movie, he relies on answers from other people to explain it to him. And he leaves no question unasked. I'm sure he'll be totally let down by the movie when he sees it because he'll have totally over analyzed it by then.

After several minutes of this, I told him to stop. He replied, "But Mom, I love to talk!" I told him to stop with the questions, and he did. But he started with the noise effects... shooting, banging, etc., you know, boy noises. This makes me insane in the car, mostly because it involves lots of spitting. I told him to stop. He obeyed.

About five minutes later, he started up again. The following conversation occurred:

M: Jacob, no more questions!

J: Mommy, it was just a commercial. (meaning his break from talking was like a commercial break)

Hysterical laughter followed by all adults in the van.

Jacob followed with more noises, and then said, "Mommy, I just have all these questions banging in my head and I have to get them out!" More noises. "Oh, and the noises too!"

That sweet boy. He's too smart for his own good!