Old men in the clouds

Adam took these cloud pictures the other night at the Concert in the Park... look closely (you may have to click to enlarge) and you can see several 'old-man' faces!

Frozen in Grand Central

Wow! I don't know what I would do if I had been in the middle of this! =)

http://lolvideoz.blogspot.com/2008/02/frozen-grand-central.html

It all started with a few shelves…

...well, actually it probably started before that, with the news that we were expecting a second child. I went into full nesting mode… and then three or four weeks ago, it got even worse…

We had been talking about the new nursery and decided to get started on setting it up. We had a crib and a changing table/dresser – still in the boxes and a green room that needed to be turned pink. The room currently still contained an old desk and a closet full of photo albums and other miscellaneous stuff that needed to find new homes. It seemed a rather daunting task, so we started trying to figure out what to tackle first. Off to Lowe’s we went – with fabric swatches to be paint matched (which was the fun part) and with measurements for shelves for four rooms (after all, if we were going to get one room organized, we might as well go ‘whole hog’). Of course, the shelves weren’t really the fun part – being artistic is way more fun than finding studs, measuring, and then moving and re-organizing. But, it all had to be done.

So, after a very fruitful Lowe’s run, we pulled in the driveway with shelves for four rooms (I think that we had 17 shelves plus another shelving unit), 2.5 gallons of paint, organizational stuff for Addy’s and Newbie’s rooms, anchors for attaching furniture to walls, hooks, and things that I’m forgetting, I’m sure. The car was full!

And then, we started to work too. Adam started putting shelves in our closet for all of our pictures and I started putting shelves in Addy’s room. Adam’s shelves worked like a dream (they were the white wire closet shelving) and we were excited about them (yes, actually excited). However, the shelves that I started were a little less exciting. Though they were prettier, they had an incredibly bad design flaw – they didn’t actually work as shelves. Using all of the anchors and screws provided, they leaned away from the wall. But, convincing myself that they were supposed to look the way that they did, I put some books on the shelves (less than the 15 pound weight limit) and went about my business. I wasn’t completely sold on the shelves, but decided to try them out for a couple days before I made a final call. I put Addy down for a nap and continued on nesting.

BANG, BOOM, BANG, BANG. I looked in on Addy – nothing was stirring in her room. I checked the door, thinking that maybe someone was knocking. I couldn’t figure out what it was. Not being able to figure out what the noise was, but convinced that everything was ok, I went back to other things. Then, BANG, BOOM, BOOM, BANG. I repeated everything from before… and still couldn’t figure it all out. Then, Addy woke up… crying and a little startled. When I went into her room, I saw what all of the commotion had been. The shelves had failed. Never mind the four anchors for each shelf – each holding only 10 pounds.

Frustrated at the need to not only redo it all, but also at the need to figure out something else for the books, I stopped worrying about the shelves for that day.

The next day, though, I was thinking about it again. We had seven shelves that we had to set up the same way – and I was less and less convinced that they would actually hold weight. But, I was determined to make it work. Off to Home Depot, Addy and I went – we bought L-brackets – really intended for framing, but I was determined to get these shelves to work. Four anchors in each L-bracket, and two L-brackets to each shelf – these shelves were not going to fall again.

We got home and I set to work - only to find that because of the way that the shelves were designed, the L-brackets were pretty much useless. The shelves leaned further away from the wall, and while I was sure that the books wouldn’t fall, it all looked rather precarious.

Frustrated with shelves in general, I gave up for another day. And went to Target the next. At this point, I was sure that the remaining shelves (that were yet to be hung) and the ones in Addy’s room were going back to Lowes. Not knowing what I was looking for and not knowing how Target’s shelves would be different, I went in looking the solution to leap into my cart.

Enter in the wondrous invention of the ottoman.

Yep – you read that right.

I stood there in the aisle looking at the ottoman that was $20 off, knowing that it was a sign. Yes – that could go in the playroom for books. Oh and the two smaller ones – those could go in the girls’ rooms, also for books. Oh and then there were two little knick-knack shelves for other random things – in the two different woods that are in Addy’s and Newbie’s rooms. Oh and then there small chairs – perfect to make two reading corners in the two rooms and pillows for the playroom reading corner. AND all of these things were just a few more dollars than the shelves themselves. But we were gaining so much more than just shelves on a few walls. AND, the ottomans, being at ground level made it possible for Addy (and eventually Newbie) get books on their own and put them away on their own too.

So began another adventure. Finding a way to make all of this fit in the Target cart (yes, I know that I could have made more than one trip, but where’s the fun in that?). So I loaded the big ottoman into the big part of the cart, put a smaller one on top of it, put the other small ottoman not on, but across Addy in the riding part of the cart, put the chairs on the bottom and pushed the other items in around the ottomans. We must have looked quite a site – the 17 month old Addy and 6.5 month pregnant me – going through the store to the checkout. And then we probably made even more of a spectacle as I stopped outside the car (the refuge after navigating a cart that I couldn’t see to push), and took some pictures of Addy – buried in furniture. But oh well. It’s a fun story – and it all took place at Target. It also made me a happy Mommy with a way to continue nesting…

And I’m pretty sure that it makes me a wacky individual to be so excited about this. But I am.

Our cart!

Addy and the stairs

I'm sorry - you'll have to forgive the sideways-ness of these again. These also look like they've been taken by a drunken sailor (not that I really know what that would look like, but I'm imagining) with as much as I move while filming, but I thought that they were cute anyway.

Addy has been navigating the stairs without much difficulty (in her cute little way) and I wanted to make sure that we captured it before she's walking them normally. She's never turned over the way she did in the first video, but Dad was below me and then walked away and I think that she wanted to see where he was going. The second video is the rest of her descent down the stairs.

I know - another LOL cat...

...but I thought that this one was particularly good!

Orange chicken and The Business of Being Born

We've tried a number of new recipes since I last posted... I don't know where to start! I guess we'll start with orange chicken. I'm a huge fan of Panda Express' orange chicken, but Panda Express no longer exists anywhere near us anymore, so I thought that I would try making my own. The recipe really does get pretty close and is pretty good. It will definitely hold me over until we get to a place where Panda Expresses exist!!

As for the movie, we didn't watch this movie while we tried this recipe, but we can pretend, right? =)

The Business of Being Born - hmmm... I was really excited to see it. It's a documentary about the way that we give birth. It's produced by Ricki Lake and is very pro-natural birth and pro-midwife. The topic is one in which I'm very interested and I thought that this movie would be right up my alley. I told Adam numerous times that he really didn't have to watch it with me if he didn't want to, but he said he was game and so we watched it. I had been concerned about the graphic nature of it all, but that part was actually handled pretty tastefully. (Having said that, I still wouldn't watch the movie on a first date or anything like that...). However, I was still rather disappointed with the movie. It did a lot of handwaving when talking about specific problems in the doctor-driven birth system today and hard numbers were rarely given to support most of the statements made. I was left wondering if the picture that was presented was really accurate and I questioned some of the over-arching statements that were made. Still, it's probably worth watching if you're interested in the labor process... but I wouldn't expect to be won over by it's convincing arguments. Anyway, ratings (out of 5) follow below.

Orange Chicken
Prep Time: 40 Minutes
Cook Time: 40 Minutes
Ready In: 3 Hours 20 Minutes
Yields: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS:
Sauce:
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Chicken:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
1. Pour 1 1/2 cups water, orange juice, lemon juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce into a saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Stir in the orange zest, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, chopped onion, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, and cool 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Place the chicken pieces into a resealable plastic bag. When contents of saucepan have cooled, pour 1 cup of sauce into bag. Reserve the remaining sauce. Seal the bag, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

3. In another resealable plastic bag, mix the flour, salt, and pepper. Add the marinated chicken pieces, seal the bag, and shake to coat.

4. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place chicken into the skillet, and brown on both sides. Drain on a plate lined with paper towels, and cover with aluminum foil.

5. Wipe out the skillet, and add the sauce. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Mix together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water; stir into the sauce. Reduce heat to medium low, add the chicken pieces, and simmer, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Ratings:
Movie - Adam **1/2, Melanie **1/2
Chicken - Adam ***1/2, Melanie ****
Note: The chicken is very orange-y. I think that next time I would reduce the orange juice and zest by half. I think doing that would make this recipe a solid **** for Adam.

Talking Addy

So, I'm not sure how to rotate this, but it's not that important anyway, since the noise is what I was filming. =) This is how Addy spent the last half of the flight home from Pueblo - just talking away. You may have to turn the volume up a little to hear her over the airplane noise, but she was heard probably fairly well by those on the plane (but at least she wasn't crying!). She's often talking - I guess she takes after her parents! =)