Saturday Morning

This is not the best photo I've ever taken...I took it with my iPhone from my car...because it was early and chilly.

This is a picture of Brooke (green sweatshirt, pink socks on the left) at her third soccer practice this season.

This was 9 am on Saturday morning and it was only 30 degrees outside, and did I mention the breeze....so glad we moved from Alaska to Texas. After two and half hours the temp had risen to only 40 degrees, but that little girl didn't complain once.

Brooke decided to leave recreational soccer behind and so she signed up for Academy soccer this season. It's more time, more money, some traveling and a big commitment from all of us. But I know she's enjoying it so I think we made the right choice.

GO, Brooke, GO!!!!

Je sais cuisiner

Je sais cuisiner is french for "I know how to cook"....and I do know how to cook. It's also the name of a new cookbook that I received yesterday from my mother in law.

photo credit from Amazon

She has been cooking from the French version of this cookbook forever and it was recently translated into English. It is a huge cookbook filled with many simple, yet lovely recipes. It was an awesome gift and I am eager to use it....unfortunately, what I'm about to show you is a gastronomic atrocity of the worst kind...and is definitely not from this cookbook or any cookbook I've ever seen (and I collect cookbooks so I know these things).

I am not proud of tonight's dinner, but it is what it is. I will say this - Brooke was supposed to have soccer practice tonight, which occurs during dinner time, so I planned something quick and easy that could be prepared by anyone in our house...or as you will soon see...anyone who can read package directions....or a chimp!!!

Behold (if you have a weak stomach or you are a health nut you may want to look away)...seafood delight......yes that's right....

Fishsticks......it's the Gorton fisherman

mac and cheese....but it's the swanky Velveeta version...

and corn...all served on my lovely Villeroy and Boch china plates...

I know...it's a travesty.....but even the most atrocious dinner looks good on plates like these.

Bon appetit...I promise I do cook normal, healthy, non packaged meals most nights. Strangely, my kids enjoyed it.

I have to be honest. This was a regular at our house when Charlie and I were first married. I don't think I've made fish sticks in like 5 years. And for my Alaska friends...fish sticks are parts and pieces of fish that you would probably use for bait, that are breaded and served as actual food.

Don't you think it was good of me to bare my soul and be honest about what actually came out of my kitchen and went into our stomachs tonight? I promise as soon as I cook something from my new cookbook I will show you....but for now I'm heading to look for my handy dandy antacids!

I'm hoping your dinner tonight was most enjoyable too.

Spurs Game

Last week two teachers at our school won a large number of NBA tickets to go see the San Antonio Spurs. They chose to give the tickets to the kids who are Self Managers (kids who have their act together and have a badge and special privileges to prove it) and EAFK students (our school's version of Student Council). Since Brooke is both a self manager and on student council she received free tickets on Tuesday.... for Wednesday night's game.

See being good has its rewards Brooke...thank you for realizing this early in life.

Well, she got two free tickets and that's 3 short for this family of five...so a very nice friend offered me her tickets (because a very nice other friend offered her their tickets for a different night...see we've made so many nice friends.)

We still needed on more ticket for Charlie (who was kinda on the fence about going basketball is his least favorite sport) so we bought a ticket from a "very nice gentleman in the ticket resale business" right outside of the arena. I know great service right?...we didn't even have to stand in line...it was as if he knew we needed a ticket and offered to sell us one. It was actually a better seat than our free tickets but Charlie sat with us anyway...such a nice family guy.

Here we are getting our pregame sustenance....

Foot long hot dogs and drinks. Then we headed into the game....

I know, I know...impressive. You don't get great shots of the court like these sitting too close to the action. I sent a photo and texted a thank you from the game to my friend who had given us the extra tickets and she texted back "wow, if you were any closer, you'd be on the court"...NOT!

But the good thing is....

Cotton candy tastes delicious no matter where you sit.

Unfortunately, the Spurs lost to the Utah Jazz but it was a fun experience for our family. We've done pro football, pro baseball, pro hockey, and pro soccer so this rounds us out for stateside major pro sports.

A final note: our free tickets ended up costing us...

$15 for the extra ticket

$20 for parking and gas

$63 in food and drink including hot dogs, soda, cotton candy, nachos, and a pretzel

so, $98 is not exactly free ....but as they say, it was priceless family time!!!

Long Weekend

Last weekend was a long weekend for us. We had Friday off for a teacher work day and Monday was the MLK holiday so 4 days of what are we gonna do?

We decided to go bowling and take the kids to lunch. And we had a lot of fun...if you consider making fools of yourself with supa bad bowling skillz fun..and we do!!

Zach who started off strong...

Brooke who consistently got better and better and refused to use bumpers...

Miles who kicked some major bowling booty the first game and completly forgot how to bowl during the second game?????

Here I am bowling....lets just say that I was super duper excited that my bowling shoes were:

1. pretty close to brand new, reducing my chances of contracting some random foot fungus and
2. navy blue, a very nice match for my outfit.

I also learned that being a Wii bowling rockstar does not transfer to real bowling...who knew?

And here's Charlie, who was completely stunned that Miles beat him in the first game. Charlie is a master of games, but for whatever reason....that first game was not happening for him. Miles has sports skills too and him winning at bowling is not surprising, but him beating Charlie is GLORIOUS....for all of us!

Of course Charlie wasn't going out like that so he totally whooped us all in the second game, though I didn't do too shabby in the second game either.

Special note to the psycho military dad at the bowling alley: If you take your three kids to the bowling alley, without wife and mom, you will also need to bring your patience and maybe a side of kindness. Yelling at your 4 year old kid who has a stomach ache and doesn't want to bowl or threatening him every ten seconds doesn't make his stomach ache go away and it doesn't add to the Nowak family bowling experience in the lane next to you. So next time stay home or be nice...just sayin'!

It was great to get out and spend some time doing something as a family. As our kids get older I am always so happy that they are very agreeable to go out in public with us. People keep saying the tide will turn but I feel assured that as long as I keep plying them with lunch we are good to go. And speaking of lunch, that was our next stop.

We headed to Genghis Grill for lunch.

Photo credit Genghis Grill website

Everyone gets their bowl and makes their own stir fry selection and then they stir fry it up for you and bring it to your table.

Very yummy and lots of fun. And we had a wonderful waiter....and that always makes a difference!!

So yay for long weekends...yay for bowling...yay for fun family time.... yay for good food.....and yay for good service!!!

PSA

PSA....as in Public Service Announcement...(you can thank me later)

Panera's broccoli cheddar soup is now being sold at my Costco. You can not believe my surprise and happiness at finding this today while I was browsing for other things in the refrigerated section. This soup is 75% of the reason I love Panera.

I am currently making soup and chicken salad sandwiches on croissants for dinner. I know easy, tasty and oh so comforting.

Ketchup Anyone?

A few bits of "ketchup" before we move on to all things 2010.

What has been happening in our little corner of the world?

Our Christmas was lovely. It's my favorite holiday and the more Christmas festivities and traditions the better.

The kids built a gingerbread house....

And here is their finished product

This used to take so long and as they get older they seem to have such a quick system. Next year I plan to re institute the friendly gingerbread house competition among family and friends too, if they dare. My sister started this little online contest a few years ago and I really want to bring it back. Get ready for a more elaborate gingerbread house. I think there are blueprints in the works as we speak.

Our card display rack is bursting at the seams and we love all the cards we get each year.

Brooke's homemade decorations..that I love.

My final tree of the year...next year my final tree will be the Texas tree. I'm on the lookout now for my ornaments and decorations.

The kids with Grandpa baking our famous Grandma cookies (that his mom used to made for him).

To be honest this was our first baking session. We indeed made these cookies on two separate occasions in one week. Yes, they are that good.

We had Christmas dinner....

Played ping pong with Grandpa...

Brooke made pottery with her new pottery wheel. Messy and fun!

We hung out in our new jammies...

Said goodbye to all our decorations until next year..

Charlie's been thinking of ways to spend all his Harley Davidson gift certificates, the boys have been downloading apps on their new iTouchs and I've spent lots of time with this...my gift from Charlie. The Sony Reader...LOVE IT!!!

Our holiday was wonderful...hope yours was too!! And now...we officially welcome 2010...yes I'm fully aware that we are two weeks behind schedule..sometimes that's just the way we roll.

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

A few days before Christmas my parents hopped on a plane from Virginia, at the tale end of a snowstorm that dumped two feet of snow on them. They evidently brought the cool air with them because as soon as they arrived the temps dropped and except for a few days the temperatures here made a liar out of me, complaining about how we have no winter here.

They had never been to Texas before EVER so they were quite surprised to see the absence of cacti and tumbleweed everywhere. And since they flew into the city and stayed with us in "hill country" they were really confused... no flat desert plains. Every wild west movie they ever watched failed to prepare them for our little corner of Texas.

They did however enjoy themselves and we took them around to see some sites between celebrating Christmas, New Year's and my Mom's birthday.

We headed to Fredericksburg, Texas...

We saw this German pyramid....which reminded me and my parents of the German pyramid we used to have and set out at Christmas. I remember lighting the candles and watching it go round and round.

We walked around town and bought a few things.

We took them to see Luckenbach...

and to the Alamo....

Then to the Riverwalk for dinner and an evening river cruise...

And back to the Alamo later in the evening...

We also celebrated Grandma's birthday....

She's not old at all.

And they also did a bit of napping and resting up while they were here.

We were able to go shopping, spend time playing games, making jewelry with Grandma and watching some family movies. They were even able to visit my dad's best friend from his childhood who now lives near Ft. Hood. Grandma bought some jewelry and some more stones to make more jewelry and Grandpa bought a new pair of cowboy boots to wear with his Tuxedos and some new cuff links. I think I visited more western stores in those few weeks than the whole time I've lived here. We also had my cousin over for dinner who has lived here in town for 12 years, and whose house I pass every day to get Miles from school.

It was a nice visit but they were missing their dogs and probably their own beds too so off they went...home to Virginia, to more snow, and a real winter.

Thanks for coming to visit us!!!

Last Sunset of 2009

And boy was it a beauty....

These photos were taken by Brooke

We spent the rest of our evening preparing and eating our traditional New Year's Eve Surf & Turf meal. We had steak and shrimp, potatoes, salad and we of course watched the countdown to 2010 on TV. As the clock struck midnight we toasted the New Year....wished my mom a Happy Birthday and then headed to bed!

2010 will be even better than last year, full of interesting and exciting things to come!