Do you know what today is???

Well, according to this site, today is Insane Answering Machine Message Day...I can't believe I almost missed a holiday as important as today. In observance of Insane Answering Machine Message Day, please leave to craziest message on your machine. After all, Insane Answering Machine Day only comes once a year (thank goodness).

A weekend in Summit County

We love going to the mountains. This weekend we were able to go with the Bauer-Martinez family to Frisco. This weekend was also the International Snow Sculpting Festival...it is so amazing to see what these artists come up with. Each artist starts with a twenty-ton, 12-foot-tall blocks of snow...it is amazing!

On another note...our Ford Explorer Exploded...a cracked radiator. Our friends are letting us borrow their car until we get it figure out...it's always something, isn't it?

Roach-Coach Tacos

Being in a job where he is constantly on the move, Andy has had the opportunity, I dare say pleasure, to sample the fare off the Taco Trucks of Denver...he came home one night asking to make Roach-Coach Tacos for us...I was a little put off by the name, but decided to give them a try. These are now a huge favorite at our house. Try them, you'll like them.

Here's what you need:

Corn Tortillas

Chicken breasts - one breast per adult

tomatoes I usually do 3 if there are 4-6 people eating

1 jalapeno

1 medium yellow onion

bunch of cilantro

3-4 avocados

2-3 limes - for squeezing over the tacos

The trick to these Roach-Coach tacos is to make everything fresh.

Salsa

Chop up tomatoes and onions - I usually do three tomatoes and one yellow onion. Be sure to seed the tomatoes to get rid of all the juicy parts. Seed one jalapeno and chop up really small. Chop the cilantro - you won't need all the cilantro...I usually put the cilantro in last so I can mix it as I add it to make sure I didn't add too much. Mix the salsa with the juice of one half of a lime. Add a bit of salt to taste.

Guacamole

Remove the avocado meat from the peels. Mash up in a bowl. I also mix in lime to the mashed avocados, oh, and some garlic. I usually add a few tablespoons canned salsa.

Chicken

Season the chicken breasts with whatever you have on hand...chile powder, cumin, coriander, some lemon pepper...once I used some tequila and it was so good. I grill the breasts whole until they are just pink in the middle and then I put them on the cutting board and cube 'em. Put them back in the skillet until they are cooked through.

Corn Tortillas

In a hot skillet, place a corn tortilla in the middle and let it warm until it is soft (5-10 seconds), flip it over for just a few more seconds and place between sheets of foil to keep warm. Most people usually eat 3 (sometimes more) of these tacos.

How it works:

We do these tacos buffet style.

Just put everything out on a table and let everyone fit their taco how they like it. Be sure to slice up some limes to squeeze over the tacos...the limes make it so good. We usually take the tortilla, spread some guac over it, add our chicken and salsa and then squeeze the lime over the top. These are also great with black beans, or shrimp instead of chicken.

Climbing Update

Thank you for the lovely suggestions as to how to keep my child from escaping from her room...I appreciated them all...especailly the duct tape one. Thank you, Courtney.

Yesterday I decided that I needed to buy a baby gate to put at Blake's door so that she would have to stay in her room...my mom took Blake for the afternoon and evening (thank you mom!), so I had plenty of time to set the thing up. I showed Blake her new gate to her room and she was having a good time playing with it. Bed time finally came around and I put her to bed like I always do and I explained that I would be closing the gate when I left. She did fine until she heard the "click" of the gate...then, she completely lost it. She went hysterical. Now Blake's emotions are fairly level (especially for a two year old), so for her to lose it, was big. I put her back in her bed, kissed her good night, again, and the next thing I knew, I had a toddler standing in our kitchen. She somehow, silently climbed over the gate. This girl is amazing! She must have sticky feet or something. I put her back in her bed again. It took me way over an hour to get her to drift off to sleep and when she finally did and crawled (yes, I actually crawled) out of her room, that lovely "click" woke her up again...hysterical. So, after dealing with this for the last week and being up between 3:30 and 4:00 AM each morning with my daughter, I finally had enough. I brought her into bed with me and we actually slept most of the night.

On another "fun" note...Blake had three accidents in a row yesterday while we were running errands....we had three glorious days of no accidents...what happened?! Oh the perils of potty training!

By the way...did you know that if paid, Stay at Home Moms would earn $134,121 annually? Hmmm...isn't that interesting.

Blakeley - A New Climbing Expert

Last week, Blake seemed to master the art of climbing out of her crib. I really do mean "Mastered." She is so good at it, I can be standing outside her door and not even hear that she is doing it. Her climbing skills has stealth qualities. Blake has always been tall, so we had put the mattress on the lowest setting it could go months ago. It is now taking us 40 minutes to over an hour to get her down for bed or during nap time. Once she is in bed, she sleeps just fine, but has been crawling in our bed around 4 O' clock. This has not been a fun situation. We finally took one of the sides of her crib down and put a bed rail so she won't fall out....but we are struggling to find a solution that keeps her in her bed. I haven't been able to work in the morning all week because when my alarm goes off, she is right next to me. Any suggestions from you oh-so-wise mothers out there?

On a much happier note, Blake decided Monday that she really wants to be potty trained. We had to go run some errands and before we left, she disappeared into her room and came out with her diaper off and a pair of pretty pink big girl underwear. Today is day four of wearing big girl pants all day long (except nap time) and we have only had one accident. I am the Oh-so proud Mama.

One more funny thing about Blake. She woke up on Monday and also decided that I am no longer Mama...I am now Mommy. I have no idea where that came from, but I kinda like it.

I love thrifting. We found this amazing thrift store in Lakewood that I try to go to once a week. There are so many great things I have found at this store. I have found some amazing vintage fabrics (a new love of mine), a retro cookie jar, a pair of Seven for All Mankind jeans, some faux Birkenstock clogs for Blake, some retro Pyrex bowls like these, a wonderful wool blanket that keeps me warm when I work at 5:00 in the morning, and today, I found some great children's' books.

It's like a game to me as I quickly dash to my favorite places in the store where I have found the best treasures. I often wonder what the other patrons of the thrift store are looking for....is there something on the shelf that is worth a ton of money and I have no clue? Are they looking for something they might have lost are maybe something that reminds them of someone who is now gone. I just love thrifting. Not only is it good for the environment (ahem, recycling), but it is good on my bank account, and I am entertained by the other thrifters at the same time. For those of you who do not thrift...give it a try, you might be pleasantly surprised.

I have the bug...

The traveling bug, that is. I really want to go somewhere different than where I am. Here are some places I wouldn't mind visiting:

San Francisco Bay Area...bring on the sourdough and good friends...plus, I really want to meet Mr. Tate Bowen

New York...mainly because I want to go to this bakery

Strawberry Hot springs...hot springs in the winter time is a wonderful thing

Ireland...I have been really interested in my Irish roots...maybe it's all the Celtic music I have been listening to.

Ethiopia...especially if I get to bring home our little girl.

There really is no way I will be going any where any time soon...For now, I guess I will have to enjoy the travel section at the Tattered Cover.

Books I have read recently...

I love reading, but I always go in cycles. I will read like crazy for a while and then I will take a bit of a break. I have started another reading cycle and here are some books I have been working on:

Chameleon Days: The Monbergs recommended this book to me months ago and just now got to it. This book is about an American boy's experiences in Ethiopia when his family were missionaries there.

Greg Mortenson was a mountain climber. After a failed attempt at climbing K2 he spent sometime in a village in Pakistan and promised the villagers he would build a school for them. This book follows Greg as he is working his way through Pakistan building schools for children.

I have just started this book...it is for the Book Club at our library. I have not been in a book club for a very long time but they are so much fun. I am looking forward to reading this book...I'll let you know how it is.

Belated Christmas Projects Post

I know that Christmas has passed...but my dear friend, Bessie Mae wanted me to post some pictures of the presents I made for Blake... I was bound and determined to handmake all of her presents this year...that was until my husband got the idea that she needed skis...

Our friends gave us this tent. It was faded primary colors and it had seen some better days...Well, when our local Hancocks Fabric was going out of business I stocked up on some fun, funky fabrics...25 yards of fun, funky fabric...so I have plenty to remake the tent. This was fun to make, but quite a challenge. I hate measuring things and this project had a ton of measuring...ugh! I also happened to sew part of it with the wrong sides facing out...that was a lot of fun to seam rip. I am so happy with how it turned out. I can't wait to be able to use it this summer outside.

Blake's other gift that I made was this doll. I love the dolls this very talented lady makes...so I decided to try to make my own. I have never ever made a doll before, but it was so much fun to make my own pattern and learn to do the embroidery for the face. The hair was the hardest part for me...I tried so many, many ways to get it how I liked it. It was tough, but I finally got it to look like I wanted it to. I named her Lulu...who knows if that will stay. I think my favorite part of this doll is here thrifted, felted sweater. I made Blake a felted sweater a few months ago that is like three sizes too big, I used the remains for this this little sweater.

After all that work sewing...I was presented with this amazing shirt from my parents Christmas morning...I love it!

Blake's First Skiing Adventure

I said I would post pictures of this day...here they are in a nice little slideshow.

Favorite Pictures of 2007