Welcome Baby Natalya! Born at 12:30am 6lbs 1 oz. We are almost Birthday buddies!

Sometimes you get what you ask for... in weird ways

You know how last week I wrote that I wanted to shampoo my carpets? Well, yesterday I had to pick up Big P from school because he was not feeling well. He came home and took a nap (a rare thing in his life). After his nap he seemed to be fine. So I pulled out the carpet shampooer to do the living room before we set up the tree (which I wanted to do last night and we did do it). little p comes running downstairs and says, "pablos (how he says it) threw up". I run upstairs and Big P is on the futon couch, with vomit all over him, the couch, the blankets, pillows- you get the picture. and little p threw up in the middle of the floor! So I rush the boys into the bathroom, give them a shower to clean them up and then tackle the extra room. little p is not sick, but Big P is still sick and I have had to not only shampoo the living room carpet (what I wanted to do) but the boys bedroom carpet, the extra room carpet and DH said this morning why don't you get that spot that is on our bedroom carpet while you are at it?!!? So, all of my carpets are clean, a number of our blankets are clean, the futon cover is clean. Definitely be careful of publicly stating what you would like to do... you might just get to do it but in a weird, roundabout way! Hope your day is not so cleaning involved as mine has been (but we do have our tree up and after I eat lunch I am going to put up the rest of our decorations- although all of our outdoor lights have died! I may just have to buy some of those new fangled LED lights:) And at least I have some great Christmas music via www.pandora.com to listen to while I do all these things.

December 2- check in (only 23 days until Christmas)

Went Christmas shopping with mom today. Found some great gifts (esp. for my niece, miss m). Even found some bonus gifts for little p:) We draw names in our family and I was able to buy my secret santa a gift today, too!

Iam sometimes the last to know about cool things on the internet. DH told me about www.pandora.com We have each created our own radio stations with our favorite artists. Yesterday I created a Christmas radio station. I was already getting tired of listening to the all day Holiday stations on the radio (with all their commercials and way to jazzy renditions of Silent Night... you may know what I mean; although you might also like that kind of Christmas music:) So I now have my own Christmas radio station. And I can add songs or artists or even genres (be forewarned that if you add Christmas Traditional you will get a lot of older (i mean medieval) music in Latin...not that that's bad, it was just surprising when I really just wanted a decent version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman"... I do like some of that medieval latin Christmas music!) Anyway, go make your own commercial free radio station:)

We had a lovely Thanksgiving that lasted for about a week. We can never do things simply, we always have to extend everything to the bitter end. Sunday night was Thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle's because they are now in Austria for vacation. Wednesday night was a spaghetti (or, if you are little p, scabetti) dinner at my parent's home to meet our long lost cousing mike (we didn't even know that we had a cousin mike... he lives in kentucky). Thursday was Thanksgiving as it is meant to be. Friday I spent the day with my children at my parent's home. DH was working (although he drove to work and came directly to my parent's after work), my mom also was working but was sent home early. My brother and sister in law came over (they went to her family for Thanksgiving Day). Saturday we met my parents and my sister and her children in downtown P-Town for some window shopping and lunch. We separated from the group and went to Powell's to look at books with the kids. Then headed to Next Adventure to check out their used camping gear and scored a used lantern that uses white gasoline rather than propane (we are doing away with all propane camping gear- we have my parents old stove and DH has his new backpacking stove). It was $15 and looks brand new and came in a sturdy plastic case! Sunday we went to church and then came home and then went to my parents home because we had left one car over there (when DH drove over after work on Friday). We ended up making some more scabetti with marinara sauce for dinner.

Did I already tell you to create your own Christmas radio station? Go Do It Now! I am listening to it as I type this and I love it!!!

To do this week:
Work Wed, and Fri.
4 loaves prosphora for church
St Nicholas gingerbread cookies on Thursday for the school.
Moms and Tots on Thursday.
Wedding of my god-sister on Friday evening at Holy Trinity.
Saturday morning- hierarchical (sp) liturgy at St. Nicholas.
Dr. appt. Wed. for Big P (this is a big appt. with the neurodevelopmental physician- we meet every six months and review his progress and this time we have made some great big huge progress!).

Would like to do:
clean the carpets (with carpet cleaner)... HA- don't think this will get done this week!
finish Christmas shopping (I am almost done)

What do you have to do this week? What would you like to do this week?

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!

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).

Salt Shaker Philosophy

Last Thursday was a "bad" day... you know, one of those days where six different things happen and if each of those things had happened over a couple of weeks, I would have been able to "handle" it in a much better way. But, no, as my mom says (and the Morton Salt girl), "When it rains, it pours." That was one of those days. I am feeling better now (two of those things were taken care of over the weekend). One of those things I have to just accept. One was annoying. One is a wait and see. And one has no solution. That one is that my bike was stolen off our back porch. Yes, we have a fenced in backyard but I didn't lock my bike up. And the funny thing is that they didn't touch DH's bike or Big P's bike. Just mine. I am glad they didn't take DH's bike as he uses it to commute to work (but, as far as value goes, his is worth more than mine). It's just annoying that this has happened. I spent Thursday morning cleaning out our garden beds and filling our yard debris recyle bin. I needed a "healthy" outlet for my frustration at these circumstances. I think I did ok:)

Good things: I had a conference (yes, it's that time of year) with Big P's teacher. He is doing well. I started watching a baby girl last week (two days a week). We went to the pumpkin patch with yiayia on Saturday. Is it just me or are pumpkin patches (and Christmas Tree farms) becoming so gimmicky?

Picture: Little P painting.

Anyway, here is dinner from last night... it was yummy!
Beef Stefatho
2 lbs lean beef (I used a roast that I cut up into big pieces)
1 med. onion cut into big chunks
1/4 tsp. ground clove
1/4 tsp. allspice
2 bay leaves
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup red wine
4 Tbs. olive oil
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 cloves garlic

So I did this in the crock pot. The recipe calls for simmering it in a deep sauce pan for 2 hours but I just put everything, in order, in my crock pot and cooked it for 10 hours. Then, I served it over Gluten Free noodles (ancient harvest brand). Yummy!

Menu for this week:
Mon: beef stefatho
Tues: leftovers
wed: baked lentils and rice
Thurs: grilled cheese and tom. soup (we have swim lessons and I have a meeting at school)
Fri: veggie soup in crock pot
sat: salmon with red potatoes and salad

UPDATE: Me feeling sorry for myself is just plain dumb. There are others who have to work with bigger problems than I have... please keep my sister, Katherine, and her family in your prayers. They have a lot going on right now...

Next contest link...

Here is the link for the next contest in the month of September. Aren't those wooden animals adorable? I believe my Little P would love them:)

I am on facebook now, are you?

My mother in law started a blog to keep us informed. Here is a link:)

Is it weird that I use so many smiley faces? Am I just annoyingly happy? My friends in college called me "cheese" (that is even the nickname on my official tri-delt beer stein (yes, I was in a sorority and proud of it!). One roommate made me a poster that said something like, "The Queen of Cheese Reigns Within".

Anyway, time for another picture. This is from the beach trip to Newport that we took with my sister, her children, and my mom. It was a fun trip. Not as relaxing as I would have liked it to be, but fun (esp. for the kids! They love each other so much. There is nothing like cousins who are your own age!).

First day of school...

Pictures taken yesterday, the first day of school.

The Picture I tried to Post the Other Day...

Us, camping, over 4th of July.

Would You Like Something From Starbuck's?

Today was one of "those" days. My very good friend called me from the Starbuck's drive-thru and asked if she could pick something up for me. Normally, I am just perfectly content with my cup o' ordinary black coffee from my home brewing machine (aka. coffee maker) but today was one of "those" days. I normally don't do soy. I just don't do it. But I had her bring me a grande-vanilla-soy-latte. So, thanks, friend!

*Note: One of "those" days generally means one or both of my lovely children are involved in doing things that are driving me absolutely batty. Thank God I do not have too many days like this. Sometimes it seems as if everything just builds up to a certain point and my patience runs out and then I have one of "those" days. I think everyone wants to get back to school (not just me wanting eldest son to go back to school... he has wanted to return to school since the first day of summer vacation:)

In other news... my mom has a plan. She wants us (her, my sister, my sister in law) to set up a booth at the upcoming Artisan Fair for our school. We will make baby/children clothing items and blankets. I have this idea of doing kids aprons with cross stitch animals, bugs, etc. on them and then selling them. We'll see how this goes. I took a cross stitch class this summer at the Greek church and made a very nice bookmark (class was taught by a wonderful Greek woman who really can cross stitch (like my yiayia)). So I am getting "in" to cross stitching (with all my spare time...HA!). I will definitely keep you posted because if this goes well, mom has plans. She wants to expand, go to other fairs, maybe even open an online store?!?!

I leave you with a somewhat recent picture of the family (we rarely have pics of us together). Oh, and I added an Amazon widget to the ole blogging page. These aren't necessarily books that I recommend, more like books that I have read this year.

Nevermind the picture... blogger won't let me post it for some reason. I will keep trying.

Oh, and I added a picture to my page. It is called The Secret School. It is a famous Greek painting. We are hoping to buy a copy of it for our living room, someday. It is our favorite painting (it shows a priest teaching children secretly under the Ottoman Occupation while a Greek soldier stands guard).

Hi! How are you? Where have you been? and meme...

Where could I possible begin to update? I bet that no one is even checking this blog, anymore!

The other day I was cleaning the bathroom when Big P walked in and asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was cleaning the bathroom. He then said, "Thank you, mommy, for cleaning the bathroom for us." And then he ran out of the bathroom. I think that is the first time anyone has ever thanked me for cleaning the bathroom:)

We are enjoying these warm days. Our garden is coming along and we have plans for next year (more raised beds, etc.). We ride our bikes (Big P is really coming along in the bike riding). DH has even been biking to work! We've been going swimming at the local outdoor pool in the evenings (Big P used to be REALLY afraid of water). I think by the time fall rolls around, he will be ready for swim lessons. Little P likes it, too.

We had our first big camping trip and discovered our new tent from REI leaked horribly. So we returned it and will purchase another smaller, good quality tent like we already own. Live and learn.

Below is a meme that I have seen going around. I love, love, love to read so it is a good meme for me. And I may use this list and read the 42 books that I have not read.

In the gluten free world... did you know that Rice Chex (the cereal) is gluten free?

Hope you are having a wonderful summer (we are!).


What books have you read? Bold the ones you have read, italicize the ones you are planning on reading and underline the ones you loved:
1.Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen -
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien –
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte –
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling -
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee –
6. The Bible –
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell-
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman- I read two of these books before deciding they were not worth my time.
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens-
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott –
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller-
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare – Have read some, but not all (wouldn’t that be a feat?).
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier –a favorite... I love the movie, too.
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien –.
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks –.
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger -.
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger –.
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot –.
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell –
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald –
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens- I am a fan of Dickens.
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy-.
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams –.
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh -
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky -.
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck -.
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll-.
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame-.
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy-
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis-
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen-
36. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini-
37. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres –.
38. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden-.
39. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne-
40. Animal Farm - George Orwell- I read this in the 2nd grade. I pulled it off my parents bookshelf thinking it was a story about animals. Needless to say, I did not understand what the book was really about until a few years later (it is a pretty good animal story:).
41. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown-
42. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
43. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving- high school english class. I had an interesting english teacher.
44. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -
45. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery –
46. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
47. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
48. Lord of the Flies - William Golding-
49. Atonement - Ian McEwan
50. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
51. Dune - Frank Herbert- have read the whole series but the first book is good.
52. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
53. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen-
54. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
55. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
56. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens-.
57. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley-.
58. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
59. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez- my fav. by GGM
60. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck-
61. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
62. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
63. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold -
64. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
65. On The Road - Jack Kerouac -
66. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
67. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
68. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie- I actually have this on my bookshelf from my sister!69. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
70. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
71. Dracula - Bram Stoker
72. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett -.
73. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
74. Ulysses - James Joyce
75. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath-.
76. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
77. Germinal - Emile Zola
78. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
79. Possession - AS Byatt -
80. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens-
81. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
82. The Color Purple - Alice Walker- .
83. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
84. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert-
85. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
86. Charlotte’s Web - EB White - .
87. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
88. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
89. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
90. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
91. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery -
92. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
93. Watership Down - Richard Adams
94. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
95. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute-.
96. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
97. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
98. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
99. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain-
100. A favorite book not on this list? Exodus by Leon Uris (actually, anything by Leon Uris)
I have read 58 out of 100.

Making yogurt and other things...

I am going to make yogurt today. This recipe is very similar to one I did a few years ago during Holy Week. I got it in my head to make tzatziki completely from scratch, so I made my own yogurt. It worked well but I know now that I need to strain the yogurt for a longer period of time in order to attain that Greek-ness:) And I must start making yogurt because both P's eat Trader Joe's Greek Style yogurt with honey (which happens to also come from Greece) every evening before going to bed! And it's kind of pricey! But I definitely do not want to discourage in any way the eating of this great snack. So, I have saved all of my TJ yogurt containers and will put my new, home made yogurt into those containers. I'm pretty sneaky that way:)

In other news... the downside of having the boys share a room is if one wakes up early, he will wake up his brother. And then, all of a sudden, there are two little boys in our bedroom asking to watch a movie at 4:30am! Which is what happened this morning (little p was cute, though, because he just kept saying over and over in his 2 year old voice, "moowie, moowie"). Of course, they did not get to watch a movie and had to go back to bed but it is now 10am and little p is already down for a nap! Could be an interesting afternoon.

And I couldn't stay mad at them for too long because while I was getting breakfast ready at a more reasonable time (7am in our home because Big P has school) I could here Big P leading his superheroes and star wars figures in the Liturgy (Let us pray to the Lord, Kyrie Eleison, etc.). And then he sang "Christos Anesti" at the top of his lungs. And then there was something about Superman taking one of the knights who was hurt to the church so that we could pray to God to heal him?!?!

Anyway, have to go make some yogurt... Have a wonderful day!

(ps. my parents are in Greece for two weeks and DH is leaving for St. Anthony's tomorrow for 4 days and my sister is coming down this weekend with her two children for Big P's 6th Birthday! whoo. lots going on. Oh, and my sister and I are in the midst of planning a 60th birthday party for dad at the end of May... there really is a lot going on!)

Say goodbye crib, hello big boy bed!!!

Little P has transitioned from the crib to the big boy bed!!! Woo hoo!!! I am ready to take down the crib. Big P and Little P now share a room. Big P sleeps on the top bunk and Little P sleeps on the bottom bunk. We have a 3 bedroom home which means, once the crib is taken down, we have a third room to do whatever we want with!!!! Yeah! We are going to move our TV (which is in a nice wooden storage cabinet) from the living room to the 3rd bedroom and turn that into a TV room. We may even move the computer up in there, too (although, I do like having to computer in the eating area because then I can watch pavlos play his computer games, etc... there's something about closing yourself off in a room and playing computer games which makes me nervous... not at his age... but when he gets older... anyway, I digress). Right now, our big bookshelf and a smaller bookshelf are in that room and so is a table with all my starts for our vegetable garden.

Anyway, my baby is getting older...

Happy First Birthday, Petros!

May God grant you many, many years:)