*Cry*

Yesterday the Mama & Papa Warrens came by on their long roadtrip to Knoxville. It was great to see them and to see Aly's reaction, she loves her grandparents so much and she's always asking where they are. While they were here Lorelei decided to show off. She crawled to where I was sitting on the floor, put one hand on my leg, the other on my arm, and preceded to make her way to a standing position, all by herself. I kept my arms out to catch her if she fell, and though she did teeter a bit a couple of times, she did it. She even stepped towards me and let go holding on with one hand. My baby is growing up. I knew it would happen, and if I stood back and looked at her age and rate of development, this wouldn't surprise me. But it does. Time keeps passing, babies keep growing, and next week I'll see them graduate college.

Here's Lorelei going up, up up, getting into her box o'toy.

She's an adventurous one, always with another mountain to cli... exersaucer tunnel to explore.

I made doughnuts. Molly likey.

Wild Things

I have my own island of wild things.

Yesterday Matt went to the store since we were out of baby food, and he decided we shouldn't have to go back for, eh, a year or so.

Aly smiled at me today, and I was startled by how much she resembles the monsters from Where the Wild Things Are. Maybe I'm crazy, you be the judge.

Lorelei found Nemo...tasty.

I have decided to start some spring cleaning. I have been sweeping, mopping, sweeping some more, and polishing the living room floor until it almost looks clean. Next: vacuuming and shampooing the rug, sofa, and chairs, folding clothes, cleaning glass, dusting, and arranging the bookshelf. Then cleaning the rest of the house. Probably all at once, as I have cleaning ADD. Yes, these are things I should be doing all the time, but I'm lazy, and I don't want to. Usually the normal picking up after baby tornados and dealing with two year old stress is enough for my day, thank you very much. So, these should be weekly rituals that I haven't done in who knows how long will be done by tomorrow, and Aly and Lorelei will have destroyed it by Thursday. But it may stay clean for a couple of hours, you never know.

Recipe Time

Since Carole is going to start cooking *wink wink*, and Mother is trying to get a few easy recipes that are healthier, I'm going to list a few of my current favorite recipes. They come from either allrecipes or weight watchers, and I'm just going to use the stock photos if they have them since I haven't thought about taken a picture of the 'delicious foods' until they're already gone ;).

Spinach and Feta Pita Bake (found at allrecipes.com)
6 6-inch whole wheat pita bread
(whole wheat pita pockets work as well; you can use in lieu of the pita bread rounds or stuff them)
1 6-oz tub sun-dried tomato pesto
(I listed a recipe below for the pesto in case your store doesn't carry it or you'd rather make your own.)
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch baby spinach, rinsed and chopped
4 fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup reduced fat feta cheese
2 tbsp grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
3 tbsp olive oil
1 pinch freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spread tomato pesto onto one side of each pita, placing them pesto side up on a baking sheet. Top with tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, cheeses; drizzle with olive oil and season with pepper.
3. Bake for 12 minutes or until bread is crisp. Cut into quarters and serve.

So seriously, the prepping and assembling takes about five minutes. Tack that onto the baking time, and you have a good meal of Mediterranean pizzas in less than 20 minutes. You could add other things, like substituting the tomato pesto for basil pesto, or adding things like onions, olives and bell peppers, whatever you like.

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto (allrecipes)
4 oz. sun-dried tomatoes
2 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
(I have used 1 tsp. dried basil and parsley when we didn't have fresh, worked just as well)
1 tbsp. chopped garlic
1/4 cup chopped pine nuts
3 tbsp. chopped onion
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1/3 cup crushed tomatoes
(you can substitute diced if you can't find crushed)
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
salt to taste

1. Place sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl with warm water for five minutes, or until tender.
2. In a food processor or blender, combine sun-dried tomatoes, basil, parsley, garlic, pine nuts, and onion; process until well blended. Add vinegar, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, and red wine; process. Stir in olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Season with salt to taste.

I've read that others substituted red wine vinegar, but I can't attest to how it changes the taste. This goes a long long way, freezes really well, and has about 40 servings. I've tossed about 1 - 1.5 tbsp. with enough whole wheat spaghetti or angel hair, yummy and fast. Since it does go such a long way, there are only 45 calories a serving :).

So if you've bought the whole wheat pita bread and have some left over and don't know what to do, never fear... Pita Chips are here!

Pita Chips (from allrecipes.com)
12 pita bread pockets
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. dried chervil
(aka 1/2 tsp. dried parsley and 1/2 tsp. tarragon)

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, black pepper, garlic salt, and chervil. Brush each side with mixture, or each piece after slicing.
3. Cut each pita pocket into 8 triangles or slices (I like crispier chips, so I sort of butterflied each pita pocket and made 8 slices from each side, essentially getting around 16 slices from one pita pocket. I would brush each side of the disassembled pita pocket with the mixture before I sliced them into the 16 pieces). Place triangles/slices on lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if wanted.
4. Bake for about 7 minutes or until lightly browned and crispy. Watch closely as they tend to burn quickly.

Last but not least, a really good Weight Watchers dip. I mentioned the pita chips recipe primarily because the local markets don't carry pita chips, and I wanted to use them with my dip. So, of course, you can just buy pita chips.

Sour Cream and Roasted Red Bell Peppers Dip (weightwatchers.com)
2 tsp. cilantro
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
(or a teaspoon of minced garlic)
1/2 cup basil
16 oz. roasted red bell peppers, drained
1 cup reduced-fat sour cream

In a blender or food processor combine peppers, sour cream, basil, and garlic powder. Season to taste with salt and pepper, garnish with cilantro.
1/4 cup=serving

Life in Technicolor

This past weekend was not so great and great. Saturday was not fun, with Aly making two messes that I won't describe, ruining the whole day. Sunday was Mother's Day, with Matt and the girls being wonderful. Unfortunately due to another headache we weren't able to see my mother until the afternoon, but she really seemed to like her gift of blueberry bushes :).

Lorelei has really taken on crawling, moving longer stretches each day. She learned to sit herself up this past week, and we seem to always find her sitting up in her crib now. With Aly I was always excited about the next phase in development, but I've learned with Lorelei to just enjoy every part as it happens.

Here are some pictures of Aly from this weekend. She's a strange little girl, but we love her anyway. ;)

5/09
Aly put the teething ring around her ankles and penguined around the room. It was so funny, and then she did a Marilyn Monroe pose when Daddy got the camera out. Methinks I know what she and Grandad have been watching...

Braaaiinnnnnssssss

5/10

This has been the weekend that she wanted to layer things on. Saturday she put one of Lorelei's night shirts under her dress, put another of Lorelei's shirts on her head (I was so impressed, one arm was actually through the armhole), and one of Matt's shirts on top of the whole ensemble. Sunday, as the picture below shows, she took apart their mat and made an outfit out of the letters. Just when I think I know what she's going to be when she grows up, she surprises me again. Now she's going to be fashion designer, and we're all going to be wearing puzzle/mat pieces in the future.

The Last Warrens in Mississippi

Since most of the people who read this blog are Warrens, it comes to no surprise that M's parents completely moved to Texarkana last Thursday. Wes had been working over there for eight months, so quite obviously they're really happy to finally get the Clinton house sold and get settled into their new home. So, now that B and D are in Knoxville, W and Ce in Texarkana...we are the last ones here.

Most of you have quite possibly been on the receiving end of M's complaints about his job. While he enjoys the security, pay, and having weekends off, he's quite bored with it. He's always wanted to move up in retail (go figure) and be in management, and has transferred his dreams of higher Target management to Frito Lay. This past week M had a problem with his route and a client that he could not control. To keep it short, he resolved that problem in a way that impressed his boss, leading to comments that once M made his route into a positive rather than a negative, he would recommend M for promotion to District Sales Lead (I think that's the title). M said this wouldn't happen for months and months, but it's a start.

Once M gets this position, he would be transferred. I am especially excited about this, since I've been wanting to move out of Mississippi for a while. I am not trying to degrade staying in the same area you were born to, for indeed there are wonderful advantages to that; i.e. ready-made babysitters, seeing family whenever you want, having history and heritage in one place. I just have always wanted to see new places, new people... and have been feeling stuck.

It would be nice for M to get home earlier than six, and definitely nice for him to be able to take off time if he needs it.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

May excitement

I caaaaaann't wait! Agh, so excited! I just got a shipping notification for the new Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead and Gone, by Charlaine Harris. I preordered this months and months ago and had mostly forgotten about it. I love this series, I've been following it since I was a sophomore in college. Go get the first book, Dead until Dark, and start reading! I promise you'll be hooked! If you don't like the HBO series True Blood, that doesn't mean you won't like the books. I think that Alan Ball just took the setting, the names of the characters, and made up his own storyline.
I also am getting to go see Wicked with the sister this July. I love Broadway shows and haven't been to one in nine years, so I'm seriously overdue. This is one I've been wanting to see for a while.

Since I posted last L has mostly learned to crawl. She kind of rocks back and forth and then hops a little, then gets up on her toes, and suddenly she's a foot further than she had been. It's the oddest crawling I've ever seen, but she still has time to master it :). She also learned to sit herself up last night, but I wasn't there to see it :(. Her word/sound of choice at the moment is 'dada', though I think she might be saying it just to say something, rather than knowing the meaning behind the deconstructed noun.

A keeps saying more and more words, making more complicated sentences, and astounding us with what she's learned. This may be normal for a two year old, but a few nights ago she counted to six (skipping four, she doesn't like four). After that the rest of the night (except when we tried to get her to do it for Grandma and Granddad) she would at least count to three when I asked her to count. Her favorite word for the past few days is "Awesome!", her favorite phrases tying at "Oh Goodness!" and "Aw, man!"

I added a video of M and A, with A saying I love you to Granddad and Grandma. Yes, that's only to two people, but if you haven't seen her in a while you can watch her be shy for once.

Speaking of videos, I was looking through the ones lately and found the one Matt had shot with the web cam when L first did her bunny crawl. I would put it up, but it's kind of long, she doesn't go as far as we were hoping, and I look like a beached whale. I avoid mirrors, but this I could not avoid. I honestly did not realize I had gotten that fat, I had become that person in the supermarket that I could relate to myself and say 'At least I'm not that big' (yep, sensitive I know). So, super weight loss time. No more excuses. Any time I'm feeling tired and don't want to cook, or want to eat the Puff corn M brings home, I'm going to watch this video. Then picture that cow walking down the aisle in a bridesmaid dress. Weight watchers and Slim in 6, here I come.