Young Love

Bruschetta, where you bin' all my life?

Roma Tomatoes
Really Good Olive Oil (thank you Samantha, and thank you Samantha's vacation in Italy)
dried Basil
Garlic Salt
dried Oregano
1 loaf cheapo grocery store french bread
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Dice the tomatoes
Mix first 5 ingredients
Slice the bread
Spread yummy tomato stuff on slices
Top with cheese
Broil on Hi until toasty golden brown (only a few minutes!)
Eat.
Think to yourself, "Holy cow! WHY have I not made this before?!"
I am VERY excited about using my own fresh tomatoes and basil this summer.

Pan Hands

Quincy I feel the same way about doing dishes.

Currently Inside My Freezer...Seriously.

Ok.

I SHOULD be embarrassed to post this:

...but I'm not.

soon to be joining the ranks:

Welcome, friends.
Thank you, Missie and Sarah! I'll throw in a tip for your superior scavenging efforts!

Our Monthly Visit

Today I made what is becoming our monthly visit to the doctor's office due to illness.
This month it was my turn.

Congratulations, Meg. You have an ear infection.
yuck.

Dear Clovis (yes. again)

Dear Clovis New Mexico,
It would appear I owe you a grand apology. It turns out that you are actually pretty awesome. You appeared a few weeks ago, after our internet service crashed and I had spent HOURS on the phone with Mrs. Fake Person Pretending To Be a Real Human On The Line Tech Support Lady and had FINALLY gotten our internet up and running again. I checked the blog and you were there. Flattered as I was to have another big fan, it bothered me so that you never left a comment to identify yourself.
Then you started to show up A LOT. Many page views, and also many hours spent idle on my blog. You'd even go check out my friend's blogs, and my sitemeter. It got me pretty paranoid.

But it turns out that you, Clovis, are a great fan indeed, and that I have no need to be paranoid at all because, well...

YOU are ME.

Yeah. Apparently during my little hassle where my internet was overhauled and reassigned, there was a little mix up and my address now shows up as Clovis, New Mexico ...not at all where I actually live.
Seriously.

I am my own stalker.

All the time on my own blog? I leave our blog open as our home page.
All the page views? What I had thought was someone reading and reading, then clicking "read more posts" to read even more..turned out to be me again. I often hit the "refresh" button when I walk past the laptop, to see if there are any new comments to read. According to Sitemeter, "refresh" = page view.
The out clicks to my site meter? Oh agian, just me...checking in on how many times Clovis/ME had stopped by and freaking out that they were always there!
The out clicks to my friends' blogs? Me again, reading YOUR updated posts.
How did you finally figure it out? Too much time spent investigating. It took me longer to figure out than it would have taken the average bear. I'm quite embarassed that I didn't realize it sooner. But at the same time...New Mexico? Who would have thought? What first clued me in was that Clovis used the same internet provider as me, so many states away. Also, Clovis made a visit to my brother in law's private blog, so either Clovis is me, or Clovis cracked the system.
Oh! ...and the more time I SPENT hunting down my stalker, trying to find their source, the longer Clovis appeared to be viewing my own blog and site meter info. I set myself up.

How's THAT for paranoid?

Still going private? Unfortunately, Yes March 1st. I have to. I had an unidentified visitor from the UK last week spend about 15 minutes on our blog. UK's website? "Fat Willys..."
Many of my in laws refer to themselves as "Willy's" as a nickname for our last name. So Naive Meg-o sees the referring website and hops over to "Fat Willy's" website to find out who her witty, overweight relatives in the United Kingdom are. Well as the page loads I read the full title "Fat Willies....(yadda yadda insert 3 more words of filthyness of your choice)" which is exactly what I saw an image of when the page loaded.

Yeah. "Fat Willies etc." = PORN.
Nasty.

Lucky for me, my content adviser (thank you mr. filthy filter) shut it down quickly before I got more than just a glimpse of what United Kingdom had been checking out before hopping over to visit me. But still. A glimpse was enough. Someone in the United Kingdom looked at porn, then looked at my family. I feel so violated. They haven't been back, but sick, right? I don't need any more incentive than that.

Time to take the bloggy private.
March 1st. email me, y'all.
United Kingdom, you are NOT invited to the party.

And deepest apologies to the actual people who live in the REAL Clovis, New Mexico. I may have cursed a word or two in your direction in my frustrated witch hunt.

And once again, I provide my readers with an exciting story in which I embarrass myself for their entertainment.

"How Do I Get That Goodness In Me?!"

Dear Everyone Everywhere...but Especially Makers and Sellers of Ice Cream, and Those Individuals Who Call Themselves My Friends,

Yeah YOU. I think you KNOW what this post is about.
I wait all year long for Girl Scout Cookie season. Not just for the cookies (which I do love), but particularly for Edy's Special Edition Girl Scout Cookie Ice Cream. CHOCOLATE Thin Mint to be more specific.

I can't take it anymore. Will you please stop teasing me?
Last year I only had ONE carton of this delicacy. One. One carton is like an appetizer. I didn't even make it to the main course before it was once again whisked away from the shelves, not to be restocked for another 11 month hiatus. Not Cool Ice Cream People.

THIS year, I STILL have yet to get your goodness in me.

EVERY time I go to the market I check the freezer aisle first. The too-small section reserved for Edy's Special Edition Girl Scout Cookie Chocolate Thin Mint Ice Cream is ALWAYS empty. ALWAYS. It's killing me. I even have many of my friends on the watch for such ice cream to appear in stock. They are instructed to call me ASAP should my mystery ice cream make a brief appearance.

But now I am starting to think that my friends aren't actually FRIENDS at all. They like to call me 2 days AFTER they've returned from the store to say "Hey, they have that ice cream you like in" or "Oh I saw your girl scout ice cream, but it was the chocolate kind, so I wasn't sure if that's the kind you like" or "I bought some of that girl scout ice cream and we finished it off in two days! You were right, it IS good!"

NOT friends at all. Is this a joke?
Um. Doesn't the fact that I actually requested that my friends be on the look out for ice cream exhibit just how desperate I am? Do I really need to clarify that I'm not kidding around here?
I gotta get some ice cream in me!

So...IF you are a friend, PLEASE do not wait 2 days to call me. Just put a carton of the freaking ice cream in your cart and bring it to me. I will pay you for it. I might even give you a tip. I won't share the ice cream, but I will be forever grateful.

Caution:
DO NOT make the same mistake that Aaron did this weekend by saying, "Happy Valentine's Day, there is a surprise for you in the freezer"
Meg: You found it? Really? How many cartons did you buy?!
Aaron (beaming): Just one, it's in the freezer...go check it out.
Meg: Yay! I love you!
I was thrilled. Full of anticipation, I RAN to the kitchen and my fuzzy pink slippers skidded me to a stop in front of the freezer. My balloon of joy was immediately deflated when I opened the door to find Edy's Special Edition SLOW CHURNED VANILLA Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie Ice Cream.

This is a CRITICAL mistake. Actually, several mistakes.

Mistake #1: Slow Churned ice cream is a JOKE.
Slow Churned = LOW FAT. Seriously. What's the point? Low Fat? REALLY? Don't bring that crap in my house.

Mistake #2: VANILLA. ONCE AGAIN let me tell EVERYONE that the ONLY Edy's Special Edition Girl Scout Cookie Ice Cream that is even worth paying for is the CHOCOLATE THIN MINT.

NOT Vanilla Thin Mint.
NOT LOW FAT.
NOT Slow Churned.
NOT Vanilla Tagalong-although CHOCOLATE tagalong might be yummy, if such a thing existed.
NOT disgusting.

Mistake #3: TELLING ME that my ice cream was in the freezer, when indeed IT WAS NOT. Not many things piss me off more (I know you are laughing right now) than thinking I am gonna get some REALLY good ice cream in me, and having to settle for something less than satisfactory.

I suppose I COULD go on and list intricate details of...
Mistakes #4: The Low Fat ice cream is SMALLER than avg. ice cream container size, and SERIOUSLY? LOW FAT? Come on!
Mistake #5: The cookies in the slow churned ice cream are all crumbled into powder. In the real deal they are broken into chunks of heaven.
and..
Mistake #6: Not being able to tell the difference between Edy's Special Edition Girl Scout Cookie Chocolate Thin Mint Ice Cream and ALL OTHER ice creams out there.

SO for those of you who consider yourself "friends"...Please help a sistah out, and if you're at the market and you see the CORRECT ice cream on the shelves, call me to clarify that you have a visual on our targeted product, and once we've established a accurate identity, take my order.
I'll wait anxiously by the door with an envelope of cash...after I throw out everything in my freezer to make room.

Eleven Words: Edy's Special Edition Girl Scout Cookie Chocolate Thin Mint Ice Cream.

Not Low Fat.
Not Vanilla.
Not Slow Churned.

This is a very important time of year. When I see the girls in brown and green romping around in their little uniforms I make a run for the grocery store.
Thank You Girl Scouts of America for connecting with the good people at Edy's (Dreyers) and creating one of the greatest mergers in the American Food Industry happen.
Shame on you, WalMart for not making more of it available for all the angry/hungry (in our house, those words are synonamous) pregnant women in America to purchase. If you are going to lay off 800 people in one day, you really should replenish your comfort food shelves.

'cuz when it comes to ice cream, I don't mess around.

"I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter..."

Note To Self:
Don't try to cut Reese's bangs at 6am when you are only half awake, and she is coming down from yesterday's sugar overload. She won't sit still, and the result will make you cry. Oh! And the added bonus is that it will look SO bad that you will have parents asking you if she cut them herself. You will want to be offended, but deep down, you know the answer to that question is:

"I don't know what I was thinking. She might as well have."

Today brought us another valentines party, more candy...and unfortunately a few more meltdowns.
I used to really love Valentine's Day.

Today I was hit in the back of the head with a shoe.
While driving.
Not exactly one of those moments where you proudly look at your child and smile to yourself thinking, "wow. I done good with that there child."

Luckily...today was also freckled with moments like this:

...also caused by a sugar overload. Seeing my children so overcome by silliness that they can't even maintain their balance, makes me think that maybe candy isn't so bad after all. I mean, the existence of candy has given us an excuse to invent some pretty great stuff. Without candy, we wouldn't have a need for awesome things like:


Barbie toothbrushes.
cardboard boxes shaped like a heart.
gingerbread houses and gingerbread men.
movies and over sized boxes to hold the movie candy
Candyland.
the Jelly Belly Fatory.
oops...that last word was supposed to be "factory"...but I guess a factory that mass produces candy might as well be considered a "fattery".
trick-or-treating.
The toot-sweet song from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Novocaine.
Augustus from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

and of course, candy brings us more of this:

...it's not a camera issue. I think that Q's eyes actually WERE red, yesterday.
Not shown in photograph: horns. tail. fangs. foam coming from mouth.

Candy. I forgive you.