Claire's Life

Somehow I realized that I had forgotten completely about Spaces and haven't read people's blogs in over a week! Sheesh. I'm back now.

I'm so irritated - I'm tired of having a cold! Two weeks ago was when the girls had their extended fever thing, and I ended up getting a touch of congestion in my chest. I'm pretty sure that was H1N1, but there's no way to know.  After I was on the mend from that for a day or two, I came down with a cold. A gross one too - I was so juicy, and my decongestants weren't doing much for me for the first few days.  Yuck.  When we went to church, I had to say a million times, "Don't shake my hand, I have a cold." Everyone was very grateful for that though.  That lasted most of last week. By Friday I was feeling pretty much normal, and I was looking forward to getting back to the gym today.  Except that, you guessed it, Saturday evening I started to feel weird, and Sunday I woke up with a sore throat.  Ugh!  So irritating.  The good thing is that even though I'm congested, it's just staying put (sorry for the gross details) so no sneezing, blowing my nose, etc.  I sound congested and my throat is really sore in the morning, but for most of the day I'm feeling fine. I will be back at the gym tomorrow.  Since it's more minor than last week, I'm feeling like I can probably exercise and not suffer too many ill effects from that.  But still, can I catch a break here?!  I'm tired of this sick thing.

I think I've mentioned many times before that John's been looking for a new job for quite some time.  Well, through a friend of a friend, he got an interview with a great company.  (I'm not really sure if I should mention their name; sometimes companies are weird about that.  And I certainly don't want to cause any problems.  Let's just say that to work for this company would be a HUGE step up for his career.)  So he had the initial screening interview. Passed that.  Had a technical interview, and even though he didn't think he did well, he passed that one. Had a second technical interview, and passed that, so now they want him to come on site and do real face-to-face interviews.  This company has lots of different offices, and John was uncertain if they were doing just a general interview, or an interview for a specific location. (They wanted him to fly to CA for the face-to-face interviews, so we were concerned.  NOT looking to move to CA!)  Well he found out today that they'll consider him for all open positions, so he booked his tickets and flies out Wednesday night and comes home Friday morning.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that A) the interviews go well, and b) they offer him a position in Reston.  That was the original goal - live and work in the same town.  The thing is that I'd be totally shocked if they didn't offer him a position.  I know that we all probably think the best of our loved ones, but I feel like I can objectively say that John is truly one of the brightest people I know, with a great business sense, and such a strong work ethic.  They'd really be missing out if they passed him by.  He hasn't had much luck in the job hunt thus far, I think because he just doesn't have a lot of contacts.  (You know, they say 95% of jobs are gotten through networking.)  He hasn't been working very long, and the company he works for now is mostly old, retired government employees, so that's not going to get you far.  He's had three offers thus far but turned them all down due to the pathetic salaries.  So I think he's going to get an offer, unless he totally bombs on Thursday (unlikely), but I don't want him to get an offer for another city.  Because I don't want to tell him no, I'm not moving, and you can't work for this phenomenal company that will change your work life and our financial life so much to the better...but I don't want to move.  So I'm not going to think about it for now, and just hope for the best.

OK, I think that was long-winded enough for now. Later!

We were able to get our H1N1 vaccinations last Friday.  After hearing first-hand that it was definitely at Anna's school, that made me feel more urgent about getting it done. Unfortunately, I later learned that for kids, the first dose just primes their immune system, and two weeks after the second dose, they actually have immunity.  And the second dose has to be 28 days after the first.  So the kiddos won't be protected until December, assuming we can get a second dose at that point.  Oh well.

Saturday, Anna came down with a fever.  I read that it is a side effect of the H1N1 mist, but since it lasted for two days, I think that it probably was just a coincidence. She went to soccer practice in the morning and on the way home she was complaining about not feeling well.  Fever it was.  It wasn't too bad on Saturday - about a two hour period where it was pretty high - so she mostly just played with Molly.  Sunday was worse though.  It was higher for longer and she was definitely feeling pretty bad.  She took a nap around 4:30 and when she woke up it had broken.  Then she woke up yesterday with no fever, but we kept her home (trying to adhere to that "fever-free for 24 hours" thing before sending her to school).  She and Molly played all day.  Then last night after dinner John and the girls went out to play, and when they came home they finished their dinner, ate candy apples, and then Molly just broke down.  I asked her what was wrong and she sobbed, "I'm just so tired!"  Poor baby.  She feel asleep on the couch (before the teeth-brushing - darn it! can't be good to go to bed with candy apple in your teeth) and I was thinking, uh oh, this can't be good.  Sure enough, this morning she's got a fever.  She's currently sleeping, and I'm thinking there will be lots of TV in store today.

While they played yesterday, I spent the day in the kitchen.  Literally.  I played games with the girls for about half an hour, and I did eat lunch and get on the computer a few times, but other than that, it was a kitchen day for me.  I made: spinach-cannellini bean dip, granola, two loaves of bread, candy apples, and baked and pureed 4 sugar pumpkins.  And made dinner of course.  Seems like it shouldn't have taken so long, but it did.  I was wiped out by the time the last dish was washed and put away.  Then John gave me a back rub.  Ahhh, that was nice.

(Had to take a short break.  Molly is now under a blanket on the couch, eating cinnamon-sugar toast, our "sick food" of choice, and watching Arthur.)

Unfortunately, this wreaks havoc with our plans for today. Molly's last art class is today, so she'll have to miss that.  I was supposed to provide snack and help out at Anna's first Daisy Scout meeting after school today.  Not only that, but I hadn't even bought the snack yet.  So I scrounged around and found something that would suffice and sent it in with Anna and will try to find someone else to help. I also volunteered to provide a pumpkin for Anna's class' Thursday party; I was going to buy that today and bring it in, as long as I was already at the school.  Guess not.  *sigh*  The best-laid plans...

All right, that's the happenings in my world right now.  Stuck home for day #4. We'll see how long this goes on...

I have to admit, it's kind of nice to have Anna home early on Monday.  In the beginning of the year I thought it was just weird and kind of annoying to have a different schedule one day of the week.  But now that the busy-ness has set in, it's nice to just have her home and be able to hang out and do stuff.  It was nothing special today - we just went to a playground and they played for awhile - but I truly don't get to spend those long blocks of time with her.  On a normal day, she'll come home and we'll chat for a few minutes, and then she's off to catch up on her playing and I have to work on dinner.  A few evenings a week are busy, but even if she's home, she plays with John while I do dishes, and then she goes to bed.  On the weekends, it seems like things have just been busy lately; I guess we're usually together (like going to events or to family members' houses) but it's not the same thing as just having a down afternoon to relax in.  We'll be getting together with my mom every other week on Monday afternoons so that Anna can see her, but I'm going to try to not schedule anything for the other Mondays so that we can have a relaxing day.

Mondays are nice for me also in that there's nothing on my cleaning schedule!  I know that means I should probably do one of those oft-neglected chores, like cleaning baseboards, but it's kind of nice to have a day off from it.  I also didn't do any baking today either (except for a quick batch of whole wheat blueberry muffins for dessert, but that was seriously about 5 minutes), so it was calm.  What we did do is errands this morning.  By the end, Molly was basically begging to go home.  Ha!

First we had to go get John's car from the shop; the stupid water pump was leaking so we had to have that replaced.  $650 later we have the car back.  I hate that!  I shouldn't complain too much - that car has been very good to us, and with 140K miles on it still runs really well.  Anyway, then we went to Target to look for some tights for the girls...yeah, I can tell I waited too long to do that.  They had barely any selection at all.  Oops.  Guess we'll have to keep looking.  Then CVS to pick up my pictures that I had printed, except they hadn't arrived yet (I did it online and I guess that location can't print them or something, so they had to be printed elsewhere and then shipped).  Then Whole Foods to get red lentils (and chestnuts, but when it turned out that they were going to cost me about $16 to get the proper amount, I dropped that idea and decided I would just substitute walnuts in the recipe).  Then Michael's to get some stuff for Anna's Halloween costume (a fairy) and picture frames (for the pix that CVS didn't have).  We were supposed to go to Home Depot to get a replacement part for our ceiling fan (the stupid light chain was pulled completely off and there's no way to turn on the light now) but, like I said, Molly really wanted to go home and I was getting kind of hungry anyway.  Yeah, another thing I waited too long for? Seasonal flu shots. Oops.  Walgreens, Target, and CVS were all out.  I tried calling our doctor, but I swear I was getting a busy signal every time I called.  That has me a little concerned - are there a whole bunch of sick people calling for appointments and then going, because I don't want to go there just so that we can get sick.  I'm going to keep calling around.

Fairfax County is running clinics this weekend to vaccinate children for H1N1 and we're going to do that.  I was a little nervous about it at first, but I've come to terms with it and we're just going to do it.  Even though the girls don't have underlying health concerns, the potential for serious complications just frightens me too much to ignore it and hope they don't get it.  I want to get it too, but it sounds like it will be available for the general population.

I also found out that due to tremendous budget difficulties, Fairfax County is considering chopping all sorts of services at the schools next year, including full-day kindergarten!  Seriously?!  I would be so disappointed.  I mean, I know, it wouldn't kill me to have Molly home for half the day, but I was thinking of all the great things I could get done in the 7 hours both girls would be gone.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.  I bet it will be cut though - it's a serious budget shortfall they're facing.

I found this great recipe (courtesy of moneysavingmom.com) for pumpkin pie oatmeal - I think I'm going to make it tomorrow morning, subbing walnuts in for pecans since we don't have any at the moment.  Sounds delish, doesn't it?

I was thinking that I didn't have much to say, but I was going to try to write something, but then, as I was opening Writer, I remembered I DO have something to say.  Let me just say, argh!

OK, so remember when I bought my car, oh...a year and a half ago?  Well, because we bought it in MD, the dealership didn't get VA plates for us and put them on.  OK, fine.  We let let our temporary plates go basically all the way until they expired, and then got the new plates at the end of July.  I put the back one on, but then when I went to put on the front one, I realized that there weren't holes in the license plate holder and thought that we would have to drill through it.  To confound things, the holder didn't come off the car.  I told John there was no way I was going to do that, given that I am so prone to making mistakes in projects like that.  I didn't want to accidentally drill into my car's bumper.  So the project was put into his lap. After a couple of months (say maybe in September) we finally got the screws so that he could at least do it if he was so inclined.  Spring 2009 arrives and I hear how a friend's husband got a ticket for not having a front license plate on his car.  I tell John this and emphasize that we really need to get the plate on the car.  Talk about it a few more times over the next few months.  Nothing.  Early summer 2009 I drive by a cop and he pulls out behind me, and I'm pretty convinced that he's going to pull me over.  Turns out to be a false alarm, but that night I tell John that we have GOT to put the plate on the car.  Nothing.  In his (small) defense, in all this time John does attempt to start the project a few times. Once he got the drill out, fully intending to go out to the car and put the plate on...but nothing happened.  We brought the drill over to his mom's one Sunday, thinking that he would have more free time there to be able to go out and do it.  Except he didn't.  Fast forward to this past Monday, almost 15 months since we had gotten the license plates.  I'm driving over to Megan's to see my mom, and guess what happens?  A freaking state trooper pulls me over and gives me a ticket.  Wow, what a surprise. Didn't see that one coming. $25 ticket plus court costs brings it to $90.  Oh joy.  I was, and still am, furious over this incident.  I'm taking deep breaths to calm myself down right now.  Whoooo.  When we got home after our visit with my mom, I went out to the car, bound and determined to just put the damn thing on myself, and if I screwed it up, oh well.  I get out there, look at it again, and this time I think to myself, 'You know, I think I might just be able to push the screw through the plastic and not really have to drill.'  I get the necessary supplies, and lo and behold, don't have to drill.  It takes me a grand total of about 4 minutes, including my trip back into the house to get the screwdriver.  Seriously.  Seriously.  If John had just bothered to look at the damn thing, it would have been done at least a year ago.  But noooo, that's just too much work.  Ugh, he makes me so angry sometimes!  I'm to blame in that I was wrong in how the thing had to be installed, which made the project sound harder than it was.  He's to blame because he did nothing for 15 months.  Which is worse? 

Time to go make bread.  I think the kneading will be good anger management...

Kate's birthday was this past Wednesday so we went over to Megan's to help them celebrate.  Kate was so excited that it was her birthday!  I got there and she wanted to show me her presents (totally tried to con me into getting them down for her) and her cake - the beautiful princesses!  Then she wanted to put on her Belle dress but mean ol' Daddy made her go potty first and ohmygoodness did she ever have a fit over that.  But then she went and zoop! on went the dress.  She was just over the moon with the whole thing.  She kept asking, "Is it time for presents yet?"  She totally didn't even care about eating the cake (though she did have a piece eventually) - we sang to her and we all had cake while she opened her presents. Correction: most of us ate cake while she opened - I was busy getting the stupid toys out of the boxes for her - man they really strap those babies in!  Aunt Claire was feeling pretty good because Kate just looooved my present - an Ariel "Barbie" (not really Barbie brand but same idea) and a shirt with Ariel on it.  She shrieked, "Ariel!"  She just loves Ariel. What a cutie she is!  I can't believe she's 3.  Megan and I were getting a little teary later in the evening.  Seems like just yesterday that I was at my mom's for Columbus Day weekend and Megan called and woke us up in the middle of the night telling us Kate had been born.  We were just so excited, and then I got to fly out to meet her in November; the way she used to like to flop her head over when she fell asleep in your arms.  Here's a great picture of that:

It didn't matter how many times you moved your arms to prop her head up, she just insisted on having it like that.  Must have been comfortable, I guess. Seems to me like it would give you a crook in your neck.

And here she is, asleep on me:

OK OK, so we were sleeping together.  Kate, my sweet, we are so glad that you live here and I LOVE that you know who I am and even *gasp* like me!  So much better than you living all the way across the country.

So here are the pics from this week (stop reminiscing Claire! no more crying!)

(Wow, remind me to clean my children up before the pic next time...sheesh!)

  Hugging the Ariel shirt...

and loving the Ariel doll.

We had that yummy squash again Saturday night with Megan and the rest of the fam, and we ended up bringing home a lot leftovers (it wasn't quite as good as normal; I think I had the proportions off because there was so much - 2 mongo squashes).  I wanted to use them but didn't think that we would just eat it plain.  So I hunted around for a recipe and this is what I found. Oh my goodness, can I tell you how good this was?  Wow.  I just wanted to keep eating and eating. One caveat - I don't think the recipe would be good as it is stated.  Way too bland (and what is with the cheese?  How American - just add cheese, it'll be good!    I used to do the same thing - I cannot even begin to tell you how much cheese my roommates and I used in college).  Here are my changes:  1) Use the herb-crusted butternut squash that I gave you the recipe for before.  2) Saute the onion in olive oil (1 tbsp is sufficient).  3)  The croutons can be plain (I just toasted leftover dinner rolls, cubed, in the oven); the squash has enough seasoning already.  4)  You don't need more salt if you've already added some to the squash when you baked it.  5) I used low-sodium veggie broth.  6)  I used 1 1/2 cups cooked pinto beans. 7) Omit the cheese.  Like I said, it was sooo good.  Very Thanksgiving-y, and perfect for a cool fall day. Mmm.  We just had a salad with it.  (Can I add an aside?  Goddess dressing is my new favorite.  Oh my it is so good!  I've had it before and didn't really care for it, I think because I used way too much.  That's the great thing about it - it's so strongly flavored you barely need any.  Just enough to coat your lettuce a bit.  Delicious!)  Anyway, this recipe is now in our rotation.

Another good fall thing - honeycrisp apples!  Ahh, heaven.  I was so happy when I saw them at Wegmans a few weeks ago!  I've been eating them everyday, sometimes 2 a day!  Before I found them, I really debated about what I would do if I couldn't find organic honeycrisp.  We eat organic apples because they're on the dirty dozen, but I wasn't sure if anyone would grow organic honeycrisp.  Well, when I first saw them (in non-organic form) in Wegmans, the debate was over: I bought them.  I washed and scrubbed them well and then just enjoyed them.  Well last week I found organic bags of honeycrisp!  For 38% less money than conventional honeycrisp!  Can I just tell you that I was practically jumping up and down for joy in the produce section?  Haha.  I bought a bunch of bags and am in apple heaven.

OK, time to go fold some laundry.  Wow, is it ever getting dark early these days!  It's cloudy today, so I suppose that's exaggerating it, but it's so dark outside already!  Hopefully John and the girls get back from their walk soon.

The weeks are just flying by!  Seems like I hardly ever get a chance to sit down these days and just relax.  I guess that's not really true; I do try to relax in the evening after the girls are in bed, but it doesn't always happen.  Seems like there's always something else to be done.

My aunt and uncle are in town (and staying with Megan and Jay) so we spent a lot of this weekend over at her house.  It's fun to see them again; the last time was 7 years ago at our wedding!  It's hard having family be so far away.  We always just seem to pick up where we left off though, just chatting and laughing.  It's been fun.  We'll be over there again Wednesday for dinner (it's Kate's 3rd birthday, if you can believe it!), but I think that will be it for our visits with them. They're trying to fit in some tourist stuff while they're here, so hopefully they have fun doing that.  This visit makes me think of the rest of my mom's side of the family who I haven't seen in so long - basically since my wedding.  We really should plan a trip out there to visit (to the Chicago area, that is, for those of you who don't know).

I had to attend an informational meeting for Girl Scouts last Friday. The whole way I was driving there, I was saying to myself, "I am NOT going to be sucked into leading!"  There's just no way I want to do that.  Then all the moms were talking and trying to figure out who was going to lead, and it seemed like we were getting no where.  I was pretty much keeping my mouth shut, but thinking to myself that I could help out with the paperwork stuff.  I don't mind doing administrative stuff like that and I'm pretty organized, so it didn't seem like it would be a big deal. Finally someone volunteered to actually be the leader, and I told her that I would help with the paperwork.  I am NOT interested in leading every meeting - we all know I don't like children other than my own and I am so not creative enough for that - but I can help out on the sidelines.  Hopefully if we all do something it won't be too much for everyone.  Famous last words, right?  The meetings are going to be right after school, which will be really nice. It's so irritating trying to fit in dinner quickly after John gets home and have to rush out the door to an event (which we do Wednesdays for choir and Fridays for soccer).  It will cause its own difficulties - like I'll have to go get Anna right when I should be cooking dinner - but oh well, we'll figure it out.

Things are feeling less busy than that one crazy week, but I still think I'm only going to sign Molly up for one class next session.  It's just challenging having two mornings a week completely taken up by these things.  She likes both her classes though, so I'm not sure which one we'll stick with.

Oh yeah, I keep planning on posting my recipe for squash, but keep forgetting.  I think I could wing it now so I don't have to walk all the way downstairs to get the recipe card.  The original recipe calls for doing this in wedges, but I just peel it and chop it all up -it's easier to eat.  You need about 1.5-2 pounds of squash, cubed. Toss it with 3 tbsp oil and 1-2 tsp herbes de Provence and roast at 375, covered, for 30 minutes.  Then uncover and roast for 20-30 minutes longer. I do mine about 3/4" cubes and it takes a total of 50 minutes.  And Erin - the banana bread.  Just use your regular recipe but use an egg substitute.  You can use Ener-G egg replacer, but I've found the more effective methods are: 1) one heaping tbsp of soy flour and 1 tbsp water, or 2) use flaxseed like this website details.  Happy baking!

OK, time to get Anna off the bus. This early Monday thing is so weird...