egg-cellent

Today we crushed another barrier in allergy-free foods. Maggie is allergic to a whole bunch of stuff, including eggs and dairy. So chocolate chip cookies aren't exactly at the top of the list of things she can eat- butter, eggs, milk in the chips. Which I think is a huge bummer. I mean, really. Who doesn't like to whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough when you're sad/cold/tired/hungry/happy/watching a movie and pig out until your stomach hurts. What do you mean that's just me?

But today, we changed all that. I stumbled across Pure Hope, a blog by a mom living with lots of family allergies, and found an interesting recipe for egg-free and dairy-free chocolate chip cookies. I'll admit that as we mixed it, the dough seemed doomed- all flaky and not really sticking together. But it tasted good:


and Maggie about ate her weight in "just one more" bites. So, we put it in the oven and out came some really, really awesome cookies. I don't think you'd know they were dairy and egg-free unless someone told you.


See? almost gone. Mmmmmm. I think my favorite 'yes' is when Maggie asks me, "Is it Maggie-friendly?" Oh yeah, sister. Totally.

girls for president

I've been very proud of the way my children have been aware of the political season. They knew who the democratic nominees were, and they knew who ran for president. They knew who was running for Congress in our district and could recognize him when he showed up on my facebook page.

I realize now that, in an effort to help them understand the election process, we may have simplified things too much. Brian's elementary school had a presidential mock election in October. The 8th graders went to each class and talked about the candidates, then a few days later the school voted. When I asked Brian who he voted for, he told me Barack Obama. "Why did you choose him?" I asked. "Because he's the good guy. He's a...democrat. And McCain, he's a republican, and they're bad guys." Oh. Okay, so I might have said that, but, uh, let's talk a little more about what that really means...

And just this morning, Maggie and I were saying our goodbyes and doing the Obama "bump", a new variation on our old high five. I asked her if she was Michelle or Barack. She said, "Michelle" and I said, "Good, because I want to be Barack. He's the president." Maggie's response? "Mommy, you can't be president! You're a girl!" Seriously?! Whose child are you??

clean up your act

I've been struggling to keep up with the mess in our house. I can't even end that sentence with "lately" because it's more like an "ever" kind of thing. I mean, cleaning up isn't my forte, but even Kelly Ripa would have a hard time here...the constant un-doing of anything I've just done is pretty darn defeating.

So, we hired a monthly cleaning lady. Which means that once a month, we really commit to getting everything off the floors, counters, desks, dressers, bedside tables, and any other level surface that accumulates junk so she can clean.

Last night, we were back at it, trying to make a fun game out of this project. "Let's go, Team Tidy!" (Team Tidy is something they have at my son's kindergarten that seems to work.) My 3-year old daughter says to me, "Mom, what is Team Tidy?" I explained the super-exciting idea of a group of cleaners. "I don't think I'm on this team. Who is Tidy?" Okay, next trick.

Not long after this, I hear Brian (5) muttering, "I don't get it. Why do we have to clean for her? She's the cleaning lady!"

Pumpkin Love

Have I mentioned how much I love my husband? Well, I do. And one thing I especially love about him is his dedication to the Smashing Pumpkins.

Some may say that Billy Corgan has a nasally, whiny voice or they have egos from here to eternity. Whatever your opinion of the band, there's no denying that Rob loves them and just watching him as he listens to Siamese Dream is a whole lot of fun. He plays air guitar with intensity. He drums until you think his arms might fly off. His eyes are closed, squeezed tight together during the really, really good parts of the song. And let's face it, with 2 crazy kids, the daily grind, and a mortgage, sometimes it can be tough to find your own little piece of joy. When life gets rough, the Pumpkins are Rob's go-to band.

From: Rob T
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:09 PM
To: Tami
RE: sp advance tix

Tami, I ‘bout fell out of my chair when I heard the Pumpkins were going to be playing in C’ville. Despite some rumors to the contrary and the fact that I had a blast at the Modest Mouse show, the Pumpkins have always, and will always, be my favorite band. Do you remember several years ago they were supposed to do a surprise show at Trax and Jimmy hurt his eye so they never played? I was so bummed. What I’m excited about it the fact that they have been playing my favorite song recently, Mayonaise. I’ve seen them live 6 times and have only heard them play it once (at US Air Arena).

Allison may have mentioned the organist played Mayonaise at our wedding! Allison was actually going to pursue having the actual Smashing Pumpkins play at our wedding. Can’t you just see the letter to Billy now…”My husband is your biggest fan… It will mean so much to him and his grandma if you could play at our wedding. PS – Does Darcy know the base line to the Wedding March?”

Thanks again, Rob

----

From: Tami

Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 3:20 PM
To: Rob T
Subject: RE: sp advance tix Hi Rob,Thanks for the story. I always like to hear from true fans. We get so many disgruntled ones! Would your grandma really dig the Pumpkins if they had played at your wedding? (just kidding)

Tami

Hothead

Why do kids like to dress inappropriately? Although I'm sure it's out there, I'm not talking about little guys and girls all pimped out. I mean little girls who like to wear snow hats when it's 90 degrees out and 100% humidity.
And if that weren't enough, insist on sleeping in said hat?
And then, just to make me really crazy (you know me, stickler for fashion), include it in the self-assembled ensemble the next (hot, summer) day?

I think she's being influenced by her peers.

E.T. Phone Home

On the way home from West Virginia, we stopped at the Green Bank Telescope. My husband and son are really into all things space-related, so I thought this would be a good adventure to break up the trip.

This thing is really cool. And HUGE. It's different from an optical telescope in that it maps space using radio waves and can therefore "see" space in a different way. When you get out there, it feels a little bit like a 1950's Cold War government operation. Because they're doing everything they can to minimize radio interference, they don't allow cell phones (there aren't any cell towers anyway) or digital cameras...and they only allow diesel cars near the telescope because spark plugs have an arc that causes interference. So they have a fleet of 1950's era cars that are really low-tech (and they're all painted sky blue).

It's a bit of an undiscovered gem- the tours are free, the people are friendly, and they didn't mind our kids running around like maniacs in the visitor center. Maggie was super excited about riding on the bus for the tour. All in all, a good adventure with some educational value hidden inside.

p.s. This picture is not of the big radio telescope. This is the "original" radio telescope, built in 1937, by Grote Reber, in his backyard. It includes parts from his Model T Ford. Seriously.

God Bless our Consumer Nation

Coming down off Maggie's birthday party celebration, my son, Brian, is feeling a bit left out. He told me in a tear-filled confession tonight that he is jealous. He doesn't get as much attention as Maggie and he didn't get what he really, really wanted. A Care Bear.

I couldn't hold back my surprise and I said, "Seriously? You want a Care Bear?" I mean, I'm all about boys liking girly stuff and all, but I can't even figure out why Maggie is so into Care Bears. Sorry all you CB-lovers out there. I was never into them as a kid when they were "originally" popular, so I guess my bias should come as no surprise.

Anyhow, yes, he really wants a Care Bear, some super-huge one that's as big as he is. So I gave him the usual, "Well, I'm sure you could ask for it for your birthday or Christmas." (Poor kid, both are in December for him, a point that did not go unnoticed.)

"That's so far away! Isn't there something else in between? Like Thanksgiving? What is that all about, anyway?"

What, me? Stress?

My daughter, Maggie, turns three next week. We've created a tradition of going to my grandparents for birthday party at their house in West Virginia. My mom's birthday is the week before, so we share the party and get twice the cake. What a deal!

Maggie has been planning her birthday since December. We've known for quite a while that it's going to be a Mickey Mouse party. For a while, Maggie was hoping to get a stuffed Minnie Mouse as a companion to her faithful Mickey, but my mom found my old one in her attic, so that was taken care of. But we quickly moved on to bigger wishes/demands. At dinner a few weeks ago, Maggie announced, "I'm havin' a moon bounce at my party. A pink one. And you're going to get it for me." To say the least, I was shocked at how certain Maggie was that the moon bounce was going to happen. I asked, "Who do you know who's had a moon bounce at their party?" Pause... "Me." Insert giant roll of the eyes here.

Having called the ONE moon bounce guy in WV (yeah, I caved, partially because I wanted to see what my grandparents would do when a giant, blow-up princess castle arrived in their back yard) and finding out that he was booked, I came up with another cool idea. A Mickey cake. Easy, right? I made a killer treasure chest cake for my son's birthday so this would be great. I ebay'd it and...holy cow, $35 bucks for a cake pan? No way. So I waited...and waited...and got outbid...and finally got an awesome cake pan. That arrived on Friday. We left on Thursday. Which left me totally stressed (as if I wasn't already) about how the heck to make a Mickey cake for my adorable/demanding daughter.

I'm not going into even more detail of how we got here, but the end result was a slightly sunburned, kind of odd Mickey cake that tasted really, really good. Don't let the gray frosting scare you.

When I returned, a lovely package awaited me at my front door. Anyone in the market for a top-notch Wilton Mickey cake pan?

Battling It Out for the White House

The other day my son Brian, who is 5, was watching the news and asked my husband, Rob, "Who's the republican guy again?"

Rob: John McCain.
Brian: And who's the democrat?
Rob: Barack Obama.

Brian: Are they fighting?

Rob: Well, they're battling for the presidency.

Brian: With swords?

I'm not going to make any political analogies here because I think Brian has done the work for us. Rob adds that McCain is kind of short and Obama is kind of a big guy...you take it from there.

I will say that I think it's great that my daughter, who is nearly 3, keeps asking me, "Who is the lady?" and she means Hilary Clinton.

All hail the beginnings of political knowledge!

On the Road Again

Finally, after laying around on my a$% for what seems like forever, I'm back on board with the W4MTP. What? You don't know what that is? It's the Women's Four Miler Training Program, a program that gets non runner-types like me up off the couch and running (at all speeds and no speeds) down the road.

Last time I participated, I ended up looking great and feeling great, as you can see in my pic on the left. (Apparently I also became a sinewy British citizen. It's amazing what running can do.)

I'm proud to claim two previous finishes in the 4 miler, and have even graced the pages of the Hook doing it. So I know I can do it...I just need to DO it. Thankfully, I've already found several friends who are also running this year and hopefully we can get through this together.

I'm looking forward to another summer of sweatin' it out on the local hills and feeling great pride on August 30th at about 9am.