Easy As...

There's a pie contest this Saturday.

I fully intend to lose.

Edited to Add:

Me: I'm entering a pie contest.

Oldest Sister, T: You're kidding. Who's recipe, Mrs. Smith's?

Picture Perfect?

Braving the elements, the baby and I went to a nearby outlet center to forage for holiday portrait attire.

Alas, while we're still missing some essentials (most notably, clothes for the mommy that do not liken her to a blue whale), we were fairly successful:

1. To match a crazy stripe hooded one-piece gifted to the baby [after I openly oogled it], a crazy stripe scarf [for Mike] and gloves [for me]. I'm hoping the crazy stripe theme will be subtle enough to be charming.

2. Fleece-lined OshKosh corduroy overalls for $3.99. I was too cheap to buy a red corduroy button down at the Gymboree outlet for $12.99, but if I can find nothing else, Tom and I may be taking yet another trip to the outlets on Friday.

3. A delicious hot dog and french fry lunch. Definitely essential.

Hopefully Tom will cooperate with the photographer and we'll have some lovely portraits of him to treasure forever. Or until he pukes on them.

8. Avoid Eating Said Pad Thai

Rosie's latest party invitation assigned me to bring Pad Thai, a delicacy I've never ingested.

Consequently, My Pad Thai Recipe:

1. Go to local Asian market. Locate Asian employee. Beg for assistance.

2. Select excessively overpriced Pad Thai sauce and rice sticks [assume rice sticks = rice noodles].

3. Call husband. What do bean sprouts look like?

4. Go to everyday market. Locate bean sprouts, unsalted dry roasted [not cocktail] peanuts. [Also purchase fun-sized Crunch bars [for me] and Butterfingers [for husband].]

5. Overcook rice sticks.

6. Improvise. Saute vegetable oil, garlic, chopped onion, lemon juice, said excessively overpriced Pad Thai sauce, shrimp, beaten eggs. Mix in overcooked rice sticks, bean sprouts, chopped peanuts.

7. Attempt to beautify. Garnish with sliced lemons and a few raw bean sprouts.

Sale Sighting: GAP, Banana Republic, Old Navy

At the Give & Get event, 30% off all your purchases at GAP, Banana Republic, and Old Navy this weekend!

There are a bunch of links floating around via Google, but if you still need one, let me know.

In Which Tommy Became An Apple Monster

A few weeks back, we took Tom apple picking for the first time at an orchard we've been frequenting since we met many many moons ago:

The Orchard:




Oogling The Apple:




A Taste Test:




The Money Shots:






Good times.

Hypocritcal Oath

Date: Today
Time: 16:29
Place: Ubiquitous Big Box Store
Event: Me, buying organic baby food for Tom, and EZ Mac for my husband.

I'm Back, and I Know You Were Worried

You guys, I've gotten off the blogging bandwagon, but now I'm back.

I'm not going to agonize over proper wording for my posts anymore, because, frankly, I haven't got that kind of time, and I know my friends in the internet won't take offense, right?

So, here we go with the things I've been mulling for the past 24 hours:

1. My husband stole my Real Simple magazine. Purchased oh, three weeks ago, on a whim in the hopes that I would be able to read it someday, it sat on the island in the kitchen for as long as I can remember, reminding me of just how much time I don't have. Yesterday, I decided I was going to relax for a little while. That doesn't happen inside this house, so I had to Get. Out. I packed up the baby and grabbed for that Real Simple on my way out the door. Of course it wasn't there. Immediately, I knew the culprit, and not just because I haven't cleaned in weeks and therefore haven't had visitors, leaving one adult and one 5 month old as the only suspects. No, I knew it was my husband because he maintains a three-foot tall stack of magazines in the bathroom. I retrieved the Real Simple and headed on my way to drive the baby around until he fell asleep then sit in a Wendy's reading my reclaimed Real Simple.

2. Baby socks get lost in the wash much more easily than adult socks, which are themselves prone to laundry disappearance.

3. While searching the dryer (isn't that where everyone stores their clean clothes?) for Tom's (anonymity be damned!) alphabet socks, I noticed the invitation for Rosie's next party (OMG if I had known this woman throws so many parties I never would have gotten mixed up with my neighbors in the first place). I have to bring German Chocolate Cake, another dessert (double the 's' because you always want more), plus a pack of beer. I think it's the beer that irks me... I mean, she knows I can't drink (what with the boy on the boob, plus alcohol in general doesn't agree with me), and Mike (ha! now they're both named! and my name is Meagan! it's all out there now!) generally doesn't drink because I generally don't drink and being drunk alone is no fun, right? So why tell us to bring beer? And why do we have to bring so much food?

4. I use too many parentheses (but that's how it is in my head, so that's how it is on paper... er, computer screen).

5. I bet that Real Simple's back on the bathroom stack already.

Thanks for stopping by again and see you tomorrow.

Mock Trial

So, the little one's baptism date is set.

We have to invite people.

I had my eye on this invitation from Inviting Smiles, but our party is going to be decidedly less formal than that suggests. And $2.39 a pop? Um, nah, thanks.

So off the little one and I went to our local huge craft store conglomerate franchise to purchase supplies. Bless his heart, he let me wander around for over an hour contemplating paper styles and ribbon options! [I realize I have about 2 minutes before he says "I hate shopping, and I'm not very fond of you either, Mom."]

So I picked a few shades of cardstock and ribbon, but this is my first try... what do we think? It may not be up to Martha's standards, but I think we can make it work. [The text is clear when you click the picture, and click it again to zoom, but you likely don't really care enough to click twice, and I don't blame you.]