Vices...or just one more way I'm not "normal"

I came across an article on NPR's website...In Defense of Marmite. I love the stuff. Always have. And when I was pregnant with Kyleigh it wasn't just a craving...I was fully prepared to suck the jar dry in the grocery store.

Image via Wikipedia

The article not only clued me in on stuff I didn't know (Marmite is basically left over beer sludge--there's even a Guinness variety which I need to try), it also gave a few recipes...I'll be testing the Cheddar Crackers this weekend.

I also put dill pickles on my grilled cheese sandwich. My long suffering husband blames it on my British upbringing. I just call it Good Taste.



***UPDATE***
Made the Cheddar Crackers...delicious! Given the amount of butter--how could it be anything less than Yummy?! Next time--no extra salt. The Marmite had plenty to go around...especially with the sharp cheddar I used. And I depleted my supply of Marmite and my usual dealer was out on Friday. Must find new supplier.

The time...where does it go?

My morning was spent at the elementary school registering Jacob for kindergarten. As cliche as it may be, it truly seems like it was only yesterday I flung a pee stick at my baby's daddy...

A good day...

You know those days...those days where there's no where to go, nothing to do and no one anxious about it? Those days are scarce around here. But we had one today. And it has been delightful.

Even though there was nothing that had to get done--plenty was done. Couch cushion forts morphed into spaceships. Pancakes were made and consumed by all. Rousing games of Hide & Seek, Red light/Green light (with Purple light thrown in by the 2-year-old), hours spent creating Play-doh snakes, fish and monkeys...

All those years spent being a Responsible Adult? This is my reward. I'll take it over a gold watch any day!

Love your Mother...the annual "hippy" post...

Because She puts on such amazing displays of beauty for us...

We should be doing all that we can to give back...

So She will continue to feed us...

to nurture and provide for us...

Happy Earth Day!

Regardless of one's views/beliefs on climate change/global warming...it is our responsibility as Humans to be stewards of the Earth. To conserve. To act responsibly. To insure future generations have enough to eat, have shelter and a planet to live on. And that they too will know the same beauty we know.

Warm fuzzies come in all shapes and sizes...

Both of our peach trees had blossoms on them when we transplanted them. And both promptly lost them from the shock. Or so I thought...


I'm typically really not all that big on surprises. But what a delightful surprise to find wee little peaches! That's just the type of warm and fuzzy I needed!

So...what, exactly, is it that you do?

Sometimes people are just curious enough to ask me that question. Most of the time people assume I'm "just" a stay-at-home Mommy. I can assure you--none of us are "just" a stay-at-home Mommy. But that's different post on an entirely different matter.

I spent yesterday playing outside--in one of the beautiful (and local) state parks. I also got to play with about 900 other people!

Every year, the organization that pays my paycheck puts on an event called the Little-Big Adventure. It's an adult/child team adventure race--chipped timed and the team must stay together!

Half a mile canoe leg starts the race...

Transition to a three and a half mile bike ride through the woods on the bike trails...

And finishing up with a short mile and a half run!

The top finishers in each age group and gender group (based on the child racing) receive medals--and everyone receives a ribbon just for finishing!

Back to my part in all of this...my job is to fill the t-shirt backs with sponsors. And this year we've lost a couple of our big ones, but we also gained a few who stepped up and made this a fantastic, amazing event! The sponsors donate product for giveaways and also goodies for our race packets...free passes for climbing at the climbing gym, day passes for ice skating and laser tag, ClifBars, birthday party packages, IMAX passes, gift certificates and a white water rafting package.
I don't think anyone left disappointed.

All family members were welcome!

Even my own! Thanks to their amazing Daddy for bringing
them out to play for a little while.

Now...a few days off before it's back to work. We have two smaller, kid only events over the summer and another Little-Big in Raleigh, NC this September.

Because we weren't already full up on Cares and Woe?

In the mail today...addressed to me using my Very Formal non-alias name...a letter from the Educational Credit Management Corp. Informing me that I was--maybe--among the 3.3 million individuals who may or may not have had personal information stored in a portable storage device that was stolen out of a guarded safe way back in February. But, in an effort to make up for their (my) misfortunes, they were offering me a one year FREE trial membership to a credit monitoring service.

Just a tad bit too dodgy for my taste and the letter was tossed.

Imagine my surprise later this evening to find out they were legit. And somewhere out there, a Not So Nice person has--maybe--access to my social security number, my address and my date of birth: the sacred trinity of credit card applications. The shiny side? Our credit score is so far south that even a Not So Nice person posing as me with all the above information would--hopefully--be denied a credit card. But they're more than welcome to the student loan.

So, given the fraud issues we've already dealt with in the last six months, I dug through the trash--eww...diapers and chicken innards--retrieved the letter and took advantage of the complementary membership. And set an alert on my calendar for this date next year to remind me to cancel.