Visit from the tooth fairy...

Big P lost his first tooth! Finally... I can't believe it took so long for that tooth to come out. Here's a picture but it's a close up. He lost his bottom tooth (can you tell?). Very exciting. I am supposed to be making my contribution to the Thanksgiving dinner today (I work tomorrow so no cooking for me). I am making gluten free stuffing, gluten free pumpkin cheesecake, and boiled rutebaga (is that spelled right?!?!). Paul likes the rutebaga... he's the only one, I think. So I make it every year for Thanksgiving. It kind of stinks up the house when you are boiling it:)

Big P's nouna has left. We are all sad. They will probably be back in January but then they will be gone:(

Yesterday was so beautiful and I am looking out my upstairs window at the overcast sky and thinking that today is not going to be so beautiful.

New blog to check out... It's my god-daughter (some of you know her). Check it out and leave her some mom advice:)

Happy Nameday to all the Katherine's (my sister, mother in law, sister in law, yiayia) out there.
I missed a post on St. Nektarios' feast day on Nov. 9th. Sorry. My dad was not able to go to Aegina for the feast day but he did go later that week. I think he bought us an icon of St. Nektarios (I told him, though, that we have about 4 icons of St. Nektarios and he said, "but do you have one from Aegina?" He got me there:)

All right... that's all I have for now. Nothing too exciting, but nothing too boring either (I hope).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Milestone Reached...

Little P actually reached this milestone a few weeks ago but now it is official.. I have packed up the cloth diapers and wraps- Little P is potty trained! He is close to being potty trained at night, too! I was going to use cloth diapers as his nighttime diaper but he has been waking up with a dry Pull Up so I have packed up the diapers. And since the Pull Ups are only used at night (just in case) and since he is waking up dry, I have been re-using the Pull Ups until they get too raggedy or he has an accident. But, during the day, he is in underwear, all day long! WooHoo!

New blog...

My sister is moving to Moscow, Russia (her husband is alread there, actually). So she has started a blog about the move and she hopes to continue it when she is there. Here's the link!

Being Dad for an Evening... (and meal plan for the week)

Last night I was my mom's date to a fundraiser dinner for Camp Angelos(which I attended as a camper the first year they had the camp and I was a counselor their for a few years, too.. we also have our annual Men's retreat (obviously, I don't attend that) there and we have had our marriage retreat at the lodge... it's a very beautiful, peaceful place to be and I have many wonderful memories from my childhood of this place). Every person present receives a ticket for a drawing. Top prize= $1000. 2nd prize= $500 and then there were various other prizes. A little background- my dad is in Greece and so I went in his place. My dad ALWAYS wins raffles. I don't know why but he is always coming home from fundraisers like this with some sort of prize (even something small like a bottle of wine). He just always wins. And me? The person he took his place at the dinner? I won! I won $500! I couldn't believe it! And what a great time to win some extra cash- right before the holidays when I am trying to budget gifts (even little gifts) for god-children, family, friends- you know, nothing really fancy, just a few nice things. And now I know how I will pay for it AND have some left over (mom made me promise to take $100 and spend it on myself- how does one do that? Spend money on oneself? I'm not sure I remember how!).

Meal Plan: It's the week of the lamb- as in, we received over the weekend the lamb we bought at the monastery fundraiser dinner in September (we are splitting the whole lamb with my parents). Just in time for the fast to begin on Saturday!!! DH is very excited to have lamb this week. So here are our lamb themed meals (I hope I don't have too many leftovers:)

Sunday: ok, no lamb. Leftover lasagna for men, I went to the dinner with my mom:)

Monday: Crock pot lamb shoulder roast cooked with onions, garlic, tomatoes, and wine served with rice (it's a Greek recipe I have adapted for the crock pot).

Tuesday: Gouvroulakia- my all time favorite food!!! Greek meatball soup with potatoes and egg lemon sauce (made with ground lamb) with salad.

Wednesday: Vegetable soup

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Black beans, salsa, tortillas, etc.

Saturday: We always eat fish on Saturdays so salmon with potatoes and salad

I have to make some Vegan Brownies and Lenten Apple Cake for Sunday- there is going to be a going away get together to say goodbye to Pavlos' nouno and nouna (although I don't think his nouno will be there as he is already in New Jersey) and their children. (nouno=godfather and nouna=godmother BTW).

All Saints...

Our trip to the Pumpkin Patch and Archangels Gabriel (aka Big P) and Michael (aka little p). Don't they look angelic? My favorite part was we videotape all the children and ask them to tell us about what saint they are and a little bit about the saint. little p managed to say, "I Michael" and that was about it. Pretty good for 2. Big P talked a bit about Archangel Gabriel (he flies and he's God's messenger, etc.) and then, at the end of his video time he let out an extremely loud burp! Now, I know that he can't make himself burp but this could have been controlled better. Even better than the burp? They played the video at the end of the party and everyone got to hear Big P's burp. A lot of laughs...

Go vote!

Enough said:) on that topic.

Menu plan for this week:
Monday: Gluten Free Lasagna with salad
Tuesday: Beef stew in crock pot with Gluten Free corn bread
Wed: Vegetable soup in crock pot
Thurs: Leftovers or crock pot chicken curry (i haven't decided yet)
Fri: Homemade refried beans with tortillas and trimmings
Sat: salmon with potatoes and salad
Sun: fundraiser dinner with my mom:) because dad's in Greece.

Dad is on his way to Greece, leaving today. My brother in law, Leo, is in Moscow, Russia and will be there until mid-December when my sister is due with her baby girl. Then he will go back to Moscow and my sister and the children will move there in March. Lots of change. We will miss them so much!

We had a lovely All Saints party. I will post a picture of the boys in their costumes as soon as I upload the pictures from my camera. And we had a wonderful Saturday with my sister and her children- they came for the weekend.