Thursday, February 25, 2010

Dear Diary, February 24th was the most embarrassing day of my life.

Yesterday morning, we were all getting ready to leave for school when Zach went to retrieve his breakfast burrito hot pocket from the microwave and realized something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong. He warned me the smoke detector would probably go off, and so since we've had plenty of experience with these kind of situations we jumped right into our plan of attack. He flipped the oven exhaust on and ran to open the front door. I grabbed a chair and a magazine and began furiously fanning the smoke detector. Sure enough, it went off. And kept going off. Seemingly getting louder by the second. We began to worry that we were waking up our fellow apartment dwellers, so Zach instructed me to take the detector off the wall. Detector kept shouting at us, so Zach ripped it open hoping to take the batteries out. None were in fact inside and so we were at a loss for how to stop this screaming buzzer. I was beginning to panic out of intense embarrassment. Before I know it, Zach had had enough and with one quick snip, CUT the wire going from the wall to the alarm.

Finally! Some quiet!.... kind of. We could still faintly hear an alarm and after walking outside realized it wasn't just OUR apartment alarm we had triggered but each individual apartment's. By this time most everyone had evacuated the building and were generally confused. To make the situation even more fun, as we were apologizing we hear none other than our trusty community fire department (sirens, lights, bells and whistles) and the lovely campus rent a cops. And then as if on cue, Reagan proudly proclaimed, "Fire truck to the rescue!"

The enemy of good is better, right? Well the story gets better. We desperately needed to get to class so we just kept getting ready for school amongst all of the commotion. As if the brouhaha could get ANY worse, when the firemen came up to check us out, I hear his dispatcher say through the walkie talkie, "All campus building alarms have been triggered."

Awesome. Now it is truly impossible for this situation to escalate any further.

Finally the alarms gave up and there was peace. We scurried out the door and miraculously managed to make it to class semi on time. Granted, Zach heard a couple "why does it smelled like bonfire in here" or "does anyone else smell smoke" whenever we entered the room but after he explained that the hot pocket was to blame most people understood.

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I felt like I needed to do something for our neighbors to show them our remorse for yesterday mornings' events. During class during a break from class, Katie and Casey helped me brainstorm some ideas. We came up with some winners. They included, but weren't limited to;
  • some type of food utilizing a donkey cut out and written on the donkey it would say something along the lines of "Sorry for being a pain in the..."
  • sugar cookie cut outs in the shape of fire trucks
  • a "Sorry!" game piece and a tag line of something like "Sorry! for starting your day out with a bang" or "Sorry! for waking you up at the buttcrack of dawn then forcing you stand in the snow while wearing your pajamas..." Here is Katie's artist's rendering of her vision:

  • Zach suggested writing "...taking wake up call requests for the rest of the semester!" on a card
  • My personal favorite of Katie's was to deliver cookies and have my boom box playing Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" in the background
I ended up making some inside-out whoopie pies, wrapping them up all pretty and attaching a nice apology note.

I think my peace offering went pretty well and at the end of the day when it was all said and done, I've learned that whoopie pies really suck to make.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Adventures in cooking.

Zach was gone the begining of this week on a bball trip so Reagan I were roughing it on our own. I always struggle with what to cook on those kind of days since I know between just the two of us, there will be a ton of leftovers. I am usually better about making from-scratch-ish breakfasts on the weekends which works out well because then I freeze all pancakes/waffles/muffins and then grab a few each morning to defrost for us. I didn't do that last weekend so I decided on the ol' classic: "breakfast for dinner" meal. I tried a recipe from my go-to cookbook which is the Better Homes & Gardens newlywed one, and found the best, most delicious, most fluffy,pancakes ever. This recipe is what has been missing from your lives.


2 c flour
1/4 c sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 c milk
1 c sour cream
1/3 c butter
1 c blueberries

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I've never made hamburgers patties before (always just buy them) but I was curious to see if there is a big difference between them. Well. THERE IS. Recipe also from same cookbook, I decided to get all fancy and do stuffed ones too. AH-mazing. Party in your mouth. So filling though that Zach just ate one and I could only eat half. I tweaked it a little by addng chopped peppers into the stuffing, lawry's salt, hot sauce and provolone instead of mozarella cheese into the meat mixture (in regards to the cheese mix up: first time thats ever happened/ever will happen since you'd assume we think cheddar and mozzarella are the only cheeses that have ever existed. oh and the mexican mix one.)

pre-stuff
post-stuff

George was busting his trash to grill these up...
I like how you can make them so much thicker than the dinky frozen ones. Obviously this takes a lot more time to prepare but I could very well do these and... my answer to everything... freeze them! Also, what I like about this book is that there are step by step instructions next to the things that you might have trouble assembling. De-boning chicken, setting a table, cutting sugar cookies, hollowing out potatoes for twice baked potatoes, etc. So there you go, me expanding my knowledge as a wife and mother right before your very eyes. (I'm well aware this post wasn't very interesting, I'll try to make up for it later in the week.)

Monday, February 15, 2010

Things we've been up to;
...as to why I haven't updated in a while and you've been forced to keep looking at Drew's-lame-half-birthday-face



*be dominated by the stomach flu-- CHECK!

During Reagan's birthday/Super Bowl, a few played a non-birthday related game where a baseball was (purposefully) thrown at Zach's lap by his #1 BFF Tony. The throw was "successful" and caused a lot of vomiting on Zach's part.
We thought that was the end of it, so I went to bed to let Tony deal with the consequences (i.e. Zach's barfing). Shortly after I fell asleep I awoke to them shouting my name, when I came out to see what arose such a clatter, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a newly three year old boy, vomit spewed and smeared all over himself and #1 friend Tony. Tony had heard Reagan wake up and went into his room to put him back to sleep. Reagan gifted him with a world of upchuck. If you remember THIS, then you know R has a special talent of choosing good times to get sick. Turns out the baseball throwing incident only jump-started the inevitable reign the stomach flu had over our house the whole beginning of last week. Zach and Reagan caved first and then the next day, within an hour, I was down and out as well. That night Tony was a trooper, he kept his cool while helping me out with the large boy (Z) and the small boy (R), running to get gatorade/pedialyte and consoling a very smelly, puke saturated, Reagan. Poor guy though, really best form of birth control for a single 22 year old guy.

*complete Reagan's homework- check!

WHAT?!?! Yes, I said homework. It's mostly coloring and pasting things but he has a special folder that we bring to and from school now. I actually think it's really fun because he really, really LOVES being able to say he has homework and he willingly sits and colors with me! Major score on my part!
this is his cubby box for his days at school (where I keep extra clothes and such for him), of course I had to decorate it. So here mom, this is what it looks like:



*challenge Reid and Sam at Dave & Busters for our pre-Valentine's day double date because every married couple knows its actually more fun to do your Valentine's day date with other people. -- CHECK!

We got mentally prepped for the night by dressing the part which was fun at first then old halfway through the night because our dinner dates were dressed super cute and I had on shorts with leggings plus my junior high P.E. shirt. BUT our attire did bait us the victory which is all that really matters.
(Zach being the master photographer he is, took one picture the whole night and it only has me plus this brick wall. Sam would have been to my left, succumbing to my ski ball supremacy. God love him.)

We had stinkin' awesome babysitters while we were out (Erin & Andy + Jason + Nick) and when we got back we celebrated Andy's upcoming 21st, which was the next day, with ice cream sundays for all...
(this pose is funny)

and with our D&B tickets we bought him a very special set of branded shot glasses. How thoughtful of us, right?

*hem 30 pairs of baseball pants-- CHECK!

(plus 16 more that Grandma Darlene gracefully whipped out, BIG shout out to her! Such a blessing!)

ironically I didn't even pose for that one

Reader: "Ashley, your head looks abnormally small. Do the scraps from the pant legs fit over your head?"
Why don't you see for yourself.
(I may or may not have kept some to use as headbands)


Now throw in tests, our own homework, and keeping our son alive as other priorities and proof as to why it's taken me a while to update!

RAW - 3 years old

Guess who's thrEE!!




Try not to be too distraught, but all of my personal cake decorating classes are occupied to capacity! I like how the 'd' looks like it's been injected with HJH.


Guess what is in that red bag? See video below to find out.



The question is, why wouldn't Locy and I take a portrait picture together. Awkward if this was my facebook profile picture? It's ok to say yes.
He's been asking for a bat foreverrr and was SO excited. If you ever see the rest of the pictures I took, than you would notice everyone in the background in a protective stance with their hands in front of their faces/bodies.



Along with the bat came these super adorable batting gloves... did you even know they made them that small?!?!



His big present was this John Deer Gator that Zach completely dedicated himself to... I mean worked until all hours of the night, slaving away (you can see the yellow and black "shocks" in the picture bellow... they were only yellow, my husband seriously took a black sharpee to them to make the plastic, completely superficial, shocks look more "realistic". Classic Zach.)


We took Reagan down to the basement and concocted this elaborate reveal... that completely backfired in our faces. Poor Zach. All he wanted to see was Reagan jump on in and just take off, but Reagan had zero interest and only wanted to show off his new tricycle pedaling skillz. Of course, if you know our child this totally makes sense because he revolts against doing anything anyone pressures him into. Smart parents we are to encourage him to be the fat kid riding his electric car when he just wants to pedal and exercise his little heart out.


We watched the Super Bowl afterwards and just had a nice, low-key, bittersweet day. I was sad having him turn THREE (really sad actually, because 'three' is definitely not a baby and 'three' is also on the outer edge of being a toddler).... but also excited for him to grow up and experience/learn new things. Zach and I are really happy that we get to be his parents. Thank you to everyone for all of your awesome birthday wishes, they were so very much appreciated!!!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Half Birthday- Drewseph

It occurred to me that when my brother Drew's birthday comes about we are usually on vacation (with him actually) and so he hasn't gotten the pleasure of a full on birthday roast on this here blog!

Oh this should be good fun.

So in honor of his HALF BIRTHDAY on this very day, February 1st, we shall spotlight...


Andrew Stevens Meiner

The day of his birth...
my dad looking nice a pervy and my mom relaxing after giving birth to this big boy with no pain meds, heaven help her.

Some things to know:


He kind of likes this person...
which works out well since that is who said person is named after


He was a groomsman in our wedding...

I hear he is decent at golf. And my sources are pretty reliable. He plays for Parkland College in Champaign but if you ask him he should probably quit tomorrow because he sucks.

Lately he's been looking like this...

but I think we should take a look back and see what used to be.

Okay, buckle up. This is going to be a long, not-really-wild ride.

Drew had this great talent of being able to fall asleep at the drop of a hat!
He still falls asleep everywhere, but this sorta stops being that cute when your 19 and six foot.

When he was little he was a HUGE HAM.


Dancing his heart out in that fabulous looney tunes cardigan.

I'm sure I'll get some hate mail from posting that one




You have no idea how long Christmas pictures would take because he would give this awful fake smile. He is the king of painful, forced smiles.



Strangling Simba?

Some choke action thanks to cousin Michael.



But he was also just a plain cute kid. Zach gets mad when we talk about our childhood because he thinks I was a bossy little brat to Drew. Completely true by the way. Zach always recites this home movie where we were at the beach and Drew was showing off this great sandcastle he had just made. I came up from behind and dominated his face into the sand then sang my own rendition of "Little Bunny Foo Foo" on top of the sand castle. Zach has a special place in his heart for childhood Drew. lol.


His middle name is Stevens because that was our Grandma Meiner's maiden name.

When he was in kindergarten he got this really bad form of strep where it went to his kidneys, he was in the hospital for a while and so on but now he's better. In 4th or 5th grade my class had to make our own books and mine was about this little experience of his. The title was, get this: "That Time." I know, I know... so original. I have no idea why I only got an honorable mention.


Drew also has this super weird thing where when he is in pain (like someone is pinching or hitting him) he giggles hysterically. Plus the way he laughs is just funny anyway.

(this video is all because he caught a paper sack in his door, he had to explain what he was laughing about to us afterwards. Also definitely ignore Zach pretending to be gangsta.)


See that dog at the bottom of the picture? That was our childhood dog Mitzie. When the dog was a puppy Drew held her by her legs and dropped her so her knee always bent the wrong way. She limped off and on for the next 12 years and I was always really empathetic/kind and told Drew it was all his fault.





In adolescence he repeated these phrases constantly:

Sick 'em boys!

What you looking at ya hockey puck?!


I think I got pretty lucky that the person and my sibling are bff/borderline neglect their families when around each other. I don't think I'd have it any other way though!


You can't help but see a little Reagan in all these pictures can you? SEE there is some Meiner in him not just all of Zach's dominent genes!


Now go live it up on your big half birthday!!