Calling all cheesecake lovers...

Quoted from their own website:

"Celebrating “30 Delicious Years,” The Cheesecake Factory is serving up several sweet initiatives throughout 2008. To kick-off the anniversary celebration and in commemoration of National Cheesecake Day on July 30th, 2008, The Cheesecake Factory restaurants will offer every delicious slice of its more than 30 varieties of cheesecake with a dollop of nostalgia by featuring all cheesecakes at $1.50 per slice, limit one per guest, dine in only, on that day—as they were when the restaurant first opened in 1978. In addition, a special, limited edition cheesecake, the 30th Anniversary Chocolate Cake Cheesecake, will be introduced on July 30th with $0.25 from the sale of each slice sold this year benefiting the national hunger-relief organization, America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network. Additional activities will be announced throughout the year."

Yes, you read that correctly. A slice of Cheesecake for only $1.50!! What a delicious bargain! Let me know if you would like to join me! You know I will be there.

(I originally found out about this here.)

More pics...

This is my attempt to take "artsy" pictures. (and wishing I had a cool new camera to do it with!)

Tulsa

This weekend Michael and I are driving to Tulsa to visit his family. No, this is not a romantic getaway with just the two of us. Evelyn will be with us for the entire drive!! Sounds crazy huh? This is an 8 hour drive without a 4 month old in the back seat...so I think we are expecting it to me more like a 12-14 hour drive after all the stops we are going to have to make. Stops to nurse her. Stops to play with her and let her just get our of the car seat. Stops to just calm her down when she gets fussy. Stops for us to relieve ourselves. You get the picture.

Now don't get me wrong. I think Evelyn is a very good baby. She usually doesn't cry much and is pretty easy going. But she has NEVER been a good car rider. She just doesn't like being strapped in the car seat. I mean, do you blame her? She was not one of those babies you take out for a car ride to get them to fall asleep.

I am definitely looking forward to the trip otherwise. Visiting in-laws. Playing with our 6 nieces and nephews. Eating yummy bakery food. Showing off Evelyn to relatives. Letting Grandma hold Evelyn as much as she wants.

Any advice on traveling with a 4 month old? Help. Please!

isn't she the cutest?!?

Just for fun...

My bad.

Every day around 3:00 I put Evelyn down for a nap and I start dinner. So last Thursday was no different. I got out all of the ingredients for dinner, and put a pot of water on the stove to start boiling for corn on the cob. I turn the front burner on "high" and walk away to check on Evelyn. Meanwhile, Michale's mom calls and I start talking to her for a while. I go back to check on my boiling water and am a bit confused as to why the water wasn't even hot yet. It must have been at least 10 minutes since I turned it on. OH NO!! I turned on the wrong burner. Now this is not the first time this has happened. Michael gets a little upset at me because I have a history of being pretty careless in the kitchen. (I have scars to prove it too!). Anyway, this wouldn't have been such a big deal except that the burner that was on had a glass bowl sitting on it. I look at the burner, which is red hot, and the glass bowl sitting on it and immediately realize that this is not good! Oh, and I am still on the phone with Michael's mom. So with my bare hands I quickly reach out to take the glass bowl off of the burner. I must have set it down on the counter so quickly because I never felt the heat on my hands. When I set it down I started to smell a smoky burning scent in the air. The bowl was already burning through our counter tops (which is basically particle board with a thick coat of paint and sealer). As I was reaching over to move the bowl off the counter, I hear a loud "pop". The bowl cracked into pieces. I had got the bowl so hot that it melted part of it and as it cooled it cracked. Bummer...this was a part of a set that was a wedding gift and I loved this bowl. So, I picked up the bowl, this time with a dish towel, and placed it on another part of the counter. I thought it had cooled enough by this point. I was wrong. I started burning through the counter again. I eventually got all of the big pieces under a towel. Meanwhile, I was still on the phone with my mother-in-law and she had no idea what was happening!


Here is what out counter top now looks like:


In this first picture you can see the blisters in the counter to the left of the burn. That is where is set the bowl down the second time!
A close up of the damage.





As you can imagine, I was pretty embarrassed that I made such a silly mistake. So I asked Michael to call the apartment for me to report it. I thought he would just say something like, "We accidentally burned our counter top, and just wanted to let you know about it." But no. He proceeded to tell them all of the details about how his wife turned on the wrong burner and heat up a glass bowl......." You can fill in the details of what he said! =)



One more reason to finally commit to a house now: I will have counter tops without burn holes!

truth

Eventful day = Long post

Last Saturday Michael and I took Evelyn to The Glazery to paint a plate for my mom's birthday. (Grandmas love those kind of things, right?!) Well, I use the word "paint" pretty loosely. Anyway, I would highly recommend going here. The owner is a really nice (and talkative) man with a good story about how he started the place. He used to be an attorney but once he had kids he knew he wanted to work around little ones. So he quit his job and opened up his shop. He LOVES kids and it is obvious. He is very passionate about what he does and has put a lot of love into making his place "kid friendly". In fact, Michael told me that when he went to the back of the shop to wash up, there was a changing table with diapers and wipes to use. Unfortunately, I forgot to get his name. He was so good with Evelyn and she couldn't stop smiling at him, even though she should of been really fussy since it was way past her nap time. He helped us paint Evelyn's feet to put her prints in the middle of the plate. We will definitely be going back to this place. And, I know it is too early to plan for Evelyn, but they do birthday parties too. And as some of you know, Michael is very passionate about small family businesses, since his family owns a bakery in Tulsa and he grew up knowing about all of the struggles that a small business faces. Because of that, he loves to frequent small family-owned businesses and see them succeed.

Then home again and a nap for Evelyn. That evening, we took Evelyn swimming. When we were getting ready to leave, I remembered that she had a princess robe in her closet that she received at one of her baby showers. It had always been too big, but I thought she just may fit into now. Sure enough it fit. It was TOO cute! It had a tiara on the hood of the robe. Now I usually am not a fan of "princess" things, but this one was jut too funny.

When we returned from the pool, I was in the bathroom and noticed that I was only wearing one earring!! Oh no! I must have lost one. These earrings are pretty special. Michael picked them up for me a few months ago when he was in Alaska. They are made of Woolly Mammoth Tusks. Sounds weird, I know, but I think they are really pretty. They look like little cream-colored pearls. I was freaking out. I was sure that I would never find it. So we looked around our apartment for a while then Michael suggest that he go back out to the pool and look. I was not very confident that he would find it at the pool. I mean, the earring is little and white. So, he put his swimsuit back on and left. About 25 minutes later he returned with earring in hand!! Can you believe it! He found it on the pebble cement by the pool! I was VERY happy but still couldn't believe that he actually found it. (this is now the second time he has helped me recover an earring. Last year, I dropped one of my pearl earrings down the bathroom sink. Needless to say, he undid the pipes under the sink and found it!!)

The day's events are not over yet people. So after that fiasco, Michael left for a bike ride. I few minutes later I hear a knock on our door. I had no idea who would come over so late on a Saturday night. It was out new neighbors bringing over a dozen roses for me!! How sweet! They moved in about a month ago and we went over and introduced ourselves that day. Then a few days later I made them some brownies and Michael took them over. But we hadn't heard from them since them. I just assumed the brownies were bad. =) But what a wonderful surprise to get roses! they funny thing is that Michael and I were at HEB earlier in the day and they had a huge table of roses when you walked in the front door. I told Michael I REALLY wanted some roses. Hint, hint. (But Michael has a silly rule: if I ask for something like roses, it will be 6 months before I get it. This is in an effort for me to not ruin surprises he may already be planning.) But, I got my roses anyway!!

The return of date night

A few months into our marriage, Michael decided that every other Friday night would be "date night". How fun! He always came up with creative (and sometimes romantic) things to do. Once it was dinner and dance lessons, once we went to Ikea (this was one of my favorites), once the symphony. You get the picture. Of course we also just had relaxing nights with dinner and a movie too. Regardless, the point was that we were able to reconnect and be together and just have fun. We tried our darndest to not schedule other events that might overlap with "date night" and our time together was special.

Then Evelyn came along. As you may imagine, date night has been forgotten for the last 4 months. I missed it. And I can't speak for Michael but I think he missed it even more than me.

So last night was the...dum dum dum...RETURN OF DATE NIGHT (imagine me saying that like in a superhero action movie!). We dropped of the little one at my parents house and headed out to a very low-key dinner at Gringos. I knew it was a special night when a switched out the diaper bag for my purse (which was already collecting dust in the back of my closet!).

I admit that looked at my watch more than I should have, making sure that we would be back to my parents by 8:00pm, but just being alone with Michael and having some adult conversation was awesome!

(oh, and here is a tip for those of you who haven't had a beer in over a year. Drink it VERY slowly and make sure you have enough food in your belly. If not you will get tipsy while drinking it and get a terrible headache later that night. Yes, from just ONE lite beer.)

funny quotes from a funny husband

Michael: (while playing with Evelyn) I think she should be the Gerber baby. She is looking very Gerberish.
Me: Did you just say "Gerberish"?
Michael: Ya.


And a few days later I get this:

Michael: I am convinced that people want to steal our baby.
Me: What? Why do you think that?
Michael: Well, they are always telling me how cute and pretty she is. I think they want to steal her.

Commitment Issues

So Michael and I went to look at a house with our realtor today for the first time. I always imagined that I would be REALLY excited and totally ready to commit when the time came to buy a house. I mean I love our apartment, but now that Evelyn is here we are quickly out-growing it. But for some reason I felt a little strange walking into a home that could possibly be ours. I am not ready to commit. For those of you who don't know me well, I like to return things. I buy clothes, shoes, books...just about anything...and I end up returning them. In fact, the day I went to buy my wedding dress I walked up to the counter and the sweet lady explained their return policy. She politely told me that "all sales are final". For me that is like hearing nails on a chalkboard. I left that day without a dress. (the sales lady must have thought I was nuts!) I just couldn't buy something knowing that I couldn't return it later if I changed my mind. I eventually committed to the dress later that week after much coercing and convincing from Michael and my mom, but it was not easy...especially when they stamp your receipt "No Returns. All Sales Are Final" in red ink! This is the same reason I don't shop at Target as much as I would like (there is neither time nor space to get on my soap box about their TERRIBLE return policy!!)


I never really thought it was strange to return things until I met Michael and he NEVER returns anything. Once he buys it, it is his. This is a quality I would like to have...but obviously I am not there yet. =)


So over the last few weeks, when we have started to talk seriously about buying a house, I realized that this may pose a major problem for me. I am not sure, but the last time I checked you can't bring your receipt to your realtor a few weeks after moving in and return your house.


Anyway, back to the house we looked at this morning. It was beautiful. Nice wood floors, granite counter tops, an ideal neighborhood with good schools, beautiful trees in the front and back yard, a place for my vegetable garden in the back, almost everything I am looking for in a home. When we got back to our apartment Michael and I were talking about the house and I realized that even though it was great I am no where near ready to commit. I am afraid that there will always be something better out there. So all of you home owners, how do you know that a specific house is "the one"?


Here are some pics of the house. what do you think??












































(oh, and I made the Curried Corn Soup again tonight...YUMMY!)

4 months

Tomorrow Evelyn is turning 4 months old! Here are a few of the things she is really good at now:

• blowing bubbles in her mouth
  
• sucking her big toe
  
• taking good long naps
  
• screaming just to hear herself
  
• sucking her two middle fingers to look like she is giving a longhorn sign (we are still working on a gig'em thumb!)
  
• making wet and dirty diapers like no one's business!
  
• rolling over from back to belly and from belly to back
  
• enjoying her nightly bath time
  
• laughing
  
• laughing so loud she scares herself
  
• riding in the jogging stroller while mommy runs in the evenings
  
• sitting in her bouncy seat
  
• crying
  
• chewing on her toys
  
• and of course...just being darn cute!
  

tylenol math

So I was reading the back of the Infant's Tylenol bottle tonight. (No, this isn't something I read every night as part of a nightly routine...I just happened to see the bottle and was curious as to what it said.) Anyway, everything seemed fine and dandy until I got to the "Dosage Chart". There is a column for "weight", "age", and "dose (ml)". OK, good. Then under the "dose" for a 2-3 year old it specifically states 1.6 ml (0.8+0.8). WHAT?? If the person administering medication to a child can not figure out that 1.6 ml is 0.8ml+0.8ml I think they should seriously consider letting someone else give the kiddo the meds.

Now I am not saying that I am a math whiz...I am not. In fact I am always asking Michael to do simple math problems for me (usually because he can do them in his head much faster than it would take me to work them out and I am too lazy to todo them myself). But, I would like to think that I would know to give my child two 0.8 dropper-fulls of Tylenol when the dose called for 1.6ml. ugh.