Bananas Foster

Bananas Foster

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup half and half
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 bananas, sliced thin
Vanilla ice cream


Melt butter in skillet. Once melted, add in brown sugar and whisk until sugar has dissolved. Next, add in cinnamon and nutmeg, then half and half. Continue to whisk for 1-2 minutes until mixture begins to thicken. Add in bananas and turn off heat. Scoop ice cream into serving bowls and spoon bananas and sauce over the ice cream.

(Photo comes from Brennan's Restaurant in the French Quarter in N.O. where bananas foster was invented. I hear that the REAL DEAL in N.O. is spectacular. I hope to someday try it!)

Tuesday!

• I had my six month evaluation at work today. I got excellent remarks and a lapel pin! Woot woot!


• "Good Luck Chuck", while a little juvenile and filled with boobies...was pretty cute and funny.
• I'm trying to be better about being "green"...but reading about Lunapads and the like really make me gag.
• Poison ivy...still itches.
• Something like...59 days...until we leave for Canada. I'm really starting to get excited.
• I made Bananas Foster last night and it was wonderful. Recipe to follow.
• Ava has started getting very upset when I leave in the morning from daycare. Lily...she's fine. Runs off, starts terrorizing the kids. But Ava CLINGS to me and screams, "No Mommy! I wuv you! No go bye bye! No Mommy"...break my freaking heart. Yesterday, I could hear her outside of the building. I hope this is just a phase and that it ends quickly.

It's been awhile...

Yeah, yeah, yeah...STFU Sarah. Not everyone leads such an exciting and blog-worthy filled life like YOU.

Anyway. Now that I got that out of the way.

1) Brandon is at the grocery store picking up the necessities for my wonderful bananas foster served a la mode. I know you are jealous. Deal with it.

2) I have poison ivy all over my person. All over. I'm none too excited about it. It is a direct result of either my husband's inability to keep his paws off me or my sucky army crawling skills, through many yards of timber and mud. While I wish I could say it was the former...I'm certain it was actually the latter. I did get a turkey, and I plan on eating the bastard tomorrow night.

3) After I make the bananas foster, we'll be watching "Good Luck Chuck". I fully expect it to be raunchy and stupid.

4) I really want to start working on the girls' second birthday party. I know how stupid that is, as it's only the end of April. But come on...who doesn't love a party?!

5) I've been eating terribly! BUT, I haven't gained a pound back. Back on South Beach starting tomorrow! Really, I eased back into it today and had terrible caffeine headaches. But then someone brought it cookies and I have the willpower of Star Jones (pre-stomach shrinkage) next to a cake buffet. I ate a good, South Beach friendly lunch, and then was okay with dinner. But now...the bananas foster. Oh well. P90X starts soon! (How long have I been saying that?!)

That's about all for now...but I'll try and be better about updating! :p

Long time, no update!

Work has been a crazy freaking mess...so this Sunday evening, as I sit in the recliner...kids in bed, husband staying at his Mom's in preparation for opening day of Spring Turkey Season, I have found time to update!

The conference was good. I was ready to get home and see the girls though. And Brandon.

Other than that, it's been fairly quiet. I'll try to be better about my updates. This was just really to let everyone know I hadn't forgotten about them!

:)

Yay Friday!

1) I'm in an outer office upgrading the Internet connections. I have spent my whole day just jacking around. It's been nice.

2) I leave for KC tomorrow and I've heard it is supposed to snow there? WTF?!

3) We had some severe weather in the area last night. In fact, in the town I'm authoring this post from, a tornado touched down. Riddle me this...the location that it touched down at just happened to be the farm belonging to an actively dying Hospice patient. The family had to leave the poor man in his hospital bed (because he's unconscious) and run to the basement to protect themselves. The house was relatively untouched, but the remainder of the outbuildings were destroyed, as well as some of their livestock were lost. Now...why them? This man is hours to days away from his last breaths, and his family is having to deal with all of that. Now, on top of the sadness and grief of losing a loved one, they have to clean up from a tornado?! To say life is often unfair just doesn't cut it.

4) My Dad called me this morning and was so excited to tell me that he purchased a half-off gift certificate for a party rental place and one of their "bounce houses". He wants it for the girls' birthday party. How awesome is he?! The girls will be in Heaven.

5) I'm going to miss my daughters and husband so freaking much this weekend. I'm starting to get sick to my stomach just thinking about it. He'll be fine, and the girls will be fine. It's ME that I worry about.

6) Michael Johns should NOT have been voted off American Idol last night. This is almost worse that Chris Daughtry's early exit.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

I bet you all thought I was dead...

But I'm not! P90x didn't come until yesterday...so THIS might be my last entry! Brandon read through the intro manual last night and then he seemed almost...discouraged. GREAT! If he's already doubting himself, I'm a goner.

I wish I had something funny or exciting to share. But, truth be told, work is a complete cluster with my having to do a bunch of work on laptops, Internet connections, and other tasks that keep me running non-stop. Top that off with some drama going on at daycare and I just find it hard to be witty and entertaining. I'm sure you all forgive me.

I am currently engaged in the battle of all battles in DaycareLand. I pay what I consider to be a lot of money for the girls to attend a top-notch daycare. And to be honest, until now...it has well been worth it. Not to sound overly braggy, but I've got smart kids. I know they aren't as intelligent as they are simply because of Brandon and I. They get a lot of good things from that daycare. Here's the problem right now, though. They have too many kids. Due to this, my kids (and about 6 other children) fall on this "cusp" of age ranges and must attend an "overflow" room. This room isn't really a classroom, because it's housed in an activity room that is supposed to be used for rainy days, when the kids can't go outside and play. That isn't even the part that bugs me. The part that pisses me off...there are no lead teachers or teacher coordinators in the room. Instead, they have "float" aides who aren't assigned to any certain room and just move around (hence the term "float") to different groups as needed.

This is a big problem with Momma Bear. Lead teachers are required to set a weekly lesson plan and follow curriculum. These floats aren't. And don't. So the kids run around like wild banshees all day. Last Friday, Lily came home with bite marks on her arm. Biting happens and I'm the first parent to acknowledge that. BUT! BUT! I should get notified when my kids are bit, and per state law, I have to sign an accident report. Neither of those two things happened. I kind of brushed it off. But, Monday...as I'm picking up the girls I walk in to find Ava following one teacher and she was crying. Once Ava saw me, she ran and grabbed on to me. Poor baby! The teacher then says, "I don't know WHAT her problem is!" Um, excuse me?! It was pure pandemonium from then on out. Once we got home, and I was getting the girls ready for bed, I noticed that Lily had yet another bite mark on her back...this one much worse than the one on her arm from the previous week.

Needless to say, I flew off the handle a bit (internally of course) and drafted an email with the subject: Concerns, to the director.

I have been going back and forth with her since then. And, it looks like I just might have made some progress. The past two days, the girls have been in room 5.

I'll keep at 'em to make sure my girls get what I think they deserve! Who knew daycare was such a cut-throat business.

This might be my last entry...

Because it would appear that our P90X system should arrive today.

That means Brandon will want to try it tonight.

That means, by all accounts, I'll be dead by 9 pm, Central Standard Time.

:(

The Weekend!

Friday:
I got to leave work early! Brandon and I met for lunch at one of our favorite places, Kelly's. We had a nice, quiet, leisurely lunch before running some errands and picking the girls up from school. It was so nice out that once we got home, Brandon and the girls stayed out while I threw the stuff for dinner in the crockpot. I went back out to snap some photos of the girls playing with sidewalk chalk and their Daddy.
Saturday:
Shopping Trip to STL! Brandon's Mom and Step-Dad met us at our house and we were at Cabela's by around 10 am (I think!). Brandon had this list that must have been 3 miles long...all in preparation for our Canadian Fishing Trip. I did pick out some kickass lures. I'm so good at that stuff. Colors are my thang. Brandon will be crying when I'm slaying the Walleye, and he's getting no bites. Who am I kidding...that won't happen. Plus, if he refuses to take the fish off my line, I won't be catching many fish anyway since I won't be taking my own fish off. We left Cabela's and hit Old Navy. I got the girls the cutest swimsuits EVAR! For some reason, I can't find them online, so I will be taking pictures tomorrow night (or at least trying). And last, but hardly least...I found my favorite wine at a "Missouri Mercantile" shop that carries a ton of local wines. I bought two bottles! :)
Sunday:
We spent the day with my parents, then finally made it home around 4 pm. The girls played outside some more while I put away grocery items. Not much exciting happened after that. Just the run of the mill Sunday evening. Preparing for the week ahead. I do have to say that I am really excited to set up my new Rolodex. Oh yes, office supplies get my goat!

Underbrinks!

And my day just got better!

Underbrinks Angel Food Cupcakes!

Now...go wipe the drool off your chin!

Random-o-rama for April 2nd

1) Today is day three for me of wearing the SAME outfit for work (Relax people...I've washed it each night!). With all the weight loss, I only have one pair of khaki pants that fit...and I had to buy them just for the "occasion". I don't feel like spending too much money on pants that hopeful won't fit for much longer. The only nice thing about wearing a predetermined outfit every day of an entire week is that I really don't have to think about getting dressed in the morning.

2) Ava slammed her head into mine last night while doing some freaky-deaky dancing to American Idol. The back of her head slammed into my forehead and I now have a dent on my face. Awesome. It's hurts like a motherskank.

3) I made Bananas Foster last night for dessert at my brother's house. He invited us over for dinner. It's kind of a tradition to watch at least one night of American Idol together. Anyway, back to dessert. I'm fairly certain that the Bananas Foster went straight to my ass. But it was SO good!

4) We're going to price a home tonight. Here is a picture of what we're looking at:

5) Ava and Lily love the word "boogie". And they are not talking about dancing, people. They are talking about actual boogers. If they feel like their noses are crusty, they'll come up to you and say, "Boogie? Boogie?" When they do this in public, I get pretty embarrassed.

6) Is it Friday yet?