Bailey-bonics

My sister used to have a quote book in which she would write quotes that she liked as she came across them, or, as often was the case, someone in the family said something funny. She might still do this, but since we don't live together I can't directly confirm nor deny if this still goes on. I can confirm that some of the good quotes will go down in family lore now though.

Rominal and I have kinda the same thing with Bailey, except that we were too lazy to write them down. When she was little she would say the cutest things and we have coined them "Bailey-bonics."

For example, instead of saying "animals" she would say "am-min-nals" or instead of saying "music" she would say "mus-gick." Another favorite was "someotherbodies" used when talking about anyone besides herself.

We had quite the dilemma, do we correct how she says certain words, or do we let her keep saying the words wrong just because it's so cute?

Needless to say, we held on to the Bailey way of saying things for as long as possible and I often say words the way she used to just because they became our version of normal.

As she has gotten older the Bailey-bonics have decreased, much to our disappointment. However, last night we got a great one. We were watching the television show "The Office" and Pam, a character on the show had just come back from maternity leave. Another character asked her how her maternity leave was and Bailey yelled out for us to pause the TV.

(We never watch anything live, we DVR everything and then watch it later. This is fantastic except you get so used to being able to pause TV that I sometimes forget that you can't pause real life. There have been times when I will be doing something and Bailey will be talking to me and I will ask Bailey to pause so that I can finish what I'm doing and then focus on what she's trying to tell me. She will just look at me and give me that look that says, "really Mom?")

Anyway - back to the story - Bailey asked us to pause the TV because she had a question.

Bailey: Wait, it's maternity leave?
Me: Yes, maternity leave. Why?
Bailey: Oh. I thought it was maternity league.

We giggled about that for quite a while - and I'm obviously still giggling about it today.

Have a great weekend!

Busy, busy, busy

Sorry for not posting for a really, really long time. Just so much going on these days. Let's see if I can catch you up. Here's my random string of thoughts.

My daughter - Sunday, April 11 (I give you the actual date only to show that this has been brewing for a while), she decided to become a full-fledged, license carrying, pain-in-the-butt teenager, complete with attitude and angst - all aimed at us. Gosh, what fun!

She is still under punishment.

This is an old joke, but it still makes me giggle, "Now I know why animals eat their young."

Girl Scout stuff - This Saturday we are hosting a 4 family garage sale at our house to earn some money for our trip to London in August (provided the whole volcano thing is done by then and the airways are open again - like I needed something else to worry about).

Two weeks ago one family dropped off 2 (yes, that's 2) cars worth of stuff at our house because they are out of town for the next couple of weeks and won't be here for the garage sale. We managed to get everything stacked just right so that it would fit in front of Rominal's car in the garage with just the slightest amount of room for him to maneuver around to get in and out of his car. So far, he's managed to keep his grumpiness about this whole thing down to a slight murmur for the most part, except for last Friday night. (We aren't garage sale people - we'd rather take all of our stuff to Goodwill and just be done with it.)

Last Friday night our toilet wouldn't stop running. So, we went to Home Depot and he bought the necessary toilet parts. When we got home, I got into my pajamas (I love to be in my pajamas) and proceeded to plop myself in front of the TV for the night.

What? It was Friday night! I had worked all week! HGTV and FOOD Network was calling my name!

Anyway, Bailey was helping Rominal with the toilet and I noticed he seemed to be stomping around more than normal so I ask her what's going on. Turns out that he needed several of his tools to fix the toilet, and guess where those tools were? Yup, that's right - they were in the garage cabinet behind the big, huge stack of stuff that we are storing for the garage sale. He had to move everything out of the way to get to them and wasn't very happy about having to do it. So, I quietly went downstairs and piled everything back up for him. And, our toilet is now working properly.

This week has been spent gathering as much stuff out of our house that we can add to the garage sale as possible. Last night Bailey and I reduced our collection of board games by half. We've been needing to do that for years, so that felt good. I plan on tackling other rooms each night. Friday night the families will all get together at our house and get everything ready, for what will hopefully be the sale of the century on Saturday. Stop by if your in the neighborhood!

Saturday during all of the garage sale madness (or at least I hope it will be madness) my good friend from Colorado, Jae, will arrive. She's going to spend one night with us before she has to go into Dallas for business. I'm looking forward to seeing her and I hope I'm not too worn out to visit and can still make complete sentences. On Sunday, another friend of ours from junior high school who we have recently found again via Facebook will come by my house for lunch and the three of us will catch up. Should be tons of fun!

So, that's my schedule through this weekend. I know you have been dying to know what's going on in my life. HA HA!

And, that's about all I know for now. Hope everyone is well!

Pizza Dough

The other day I went to lunch at a nice restaurant in Dallas. For an appetizer, we had flat breat with Parmesan cheese and olive oil. It was yummy. So yummy in fact, that I tried to create it again for dinner that night.

This wasn't quite the same as what I had at the restaurant, but it was still good. And this was very easy to make as well. I got the original recipe here.

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar (I, of course, added just a bit more)
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

Directions
1.Combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and warm water. Spread out on a large pizza pan. Top as desired.
2.Bake at 375 degrees C (190 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

Here's my dough - I used my Kitchen Aide to mix it up.



Here's my pan, greased with olive oil.


Before I baked my dough, I spread olive oil on top,



and I grated this much Parmesan cheese,

I sprinkled the dough with kosher salt, cracked pepper, oregano, and the cheese.

Then I baked it following the directions. Here's the finished dough.

We sliced it up and ate it with dinner.

The leftovers were good toasted the next day too.

Enjoy!

Dallas Farmers Market

Last Saturday we got up (kinda) early and went to downtown Dallas to visit their Farmer's Market.

It's a colorful place, and I took tons of pictures.


We bought some cilantro, basil and thyme plants.

And we bought some of these tomatoes. Yummy!

We got some onions and red potatoes.

And look at the size of these peppers!

The displays were very pretty. So much to chose from.

I ended up taking these too home - they were too cute to pass up.

Lots of flowers even.

It was a beautiful day, perfect weather for shopping!

After the market, we stopped by at Rominal's work. He works in downtown Dallas. Bailey enjoyed seeing his office. Since it was a Saturday, most of the lights were off.

My brother Eddie works there too, and he had to work on Saturday - so it was nice to see him as well.

We stopped to take some more pictures outside.

And then it was off to find some lunch.

Saturday night for dinner, we had fresh lemon chive pasta with red peppers and onions and sliced tomatoes with fresh basil and mozzarella cheese - all of which was bought at the Farmer's Market.

Hummingbird!

Right outside my breakfast/kitchen window, I have a hummingbird feeder. I never quite know when to start to put out the food, but I'd rather error on the too early side, then error on the too late side.

So, last weekend I put some food out and I've been watching and waiting to see my first hummingbird.

On Saturday, I saw my first hummingbird buddy!


Welcome back!


The food here is great! Please tell all of your friends!

In a couple of weeks, we will have lots of them flying around my feeder. I can't wait! I love to watch their antics!