500th Post

I logged on to try to catch up on my blog and noticed that I was at 499 posts, so for post #500, here's a picture of a real cutie-pie:

Caprese Stuffed Meatballs with Tomato Pesto Sauce

From Rachael Ray:

Caprese-Stuffed Meatballs With Tomato-Pesto Sauce

Ingredients

• 5-6 slices of bread, torn up
• 3/4 cup milk (eyeball it)
• 1 pound ground sirloin
• 1 pound ground veal
• 4 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
• A small handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1/2-3/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 egg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cherry tomatoes, stems removed
• 4 bocconcini (mini mozzarella balls), look for ones that are about the size of a cherry tomato. If they are bigger, cut them in half.
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), plus additional for drizzling, divided
• 1 can San Marzano plum tomatoes (28 ounces)
• 1/2 cup homemade or store-bought basil pesto (eyeball it)
• Zest of 1 lemon, if using store-bought pesto
• A loaf of crusty bread

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 425ºF.

Place the torn bread in a small bowl with the milk (make sure all the bread is submerged) and reserve.

In a large bowl, combine the ground meats, garlic, parsley, grated Parmigiano Reggiano, allspice, egg, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Squeeze out the excess milk from the soaking bread (it should be loose and in small pieces) and add it to the meat mixture. Mix everything with your hands to combine.

Divide the meatball mixture in half and score each half into eight sections with the back of your hand. Take one of the portions of the meatball mix and slightly flatten it out in your hand. Place a cherry tomato in the center and evenly wrap the meat around the tomato, completely encasing it in the meat. Repeat the process again with another portion of meat and one of the bocconcini balls.

Transfer the stuffed meatballs to a baking sheet, using one half of the baking sheet for the tomato one and the other for the bocconcini one so you can keep track of which is stuffed with what. Repeat the processes until the rest of the tomatoes and bocconcini have all been rolled in a portion of the meatball mixture. Wash your hands after handling the raw meat.

Drizzle the stuffed meatballs with some EVOO, transfer them to the oven and roast for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown and firm to the touch.

While the meatballs are cooking, place a saucepot over medium-high heat with two turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Add the canned tomatoes and break them up with a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon. Add a little salt and pepper, bring up to a bubble and simmer while the meatballs are cooking.

Once the meatballs are ready, remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the pesto. If you are using store-bought pesto, add in the lemon zest. Transfer all of the sauce into a serving dish and nestle all of the meatballs into the sauce, keeping the cherry tomato-stuffed ones on one side and the bocconcini-stuffed ones on the other. Serve with some sliced crusty bread alongside.

My notes:
I stuffed them all with cheese, and kept some separate from the tomato sauce for T. to eat (since he hates red sauce). I also served it with pasta, since the red sauce was soooo yummy! I was very impressed with how the lemon zest really made pre-made pesto and canned tomatoes taste so yummy! Oh, and I used 1/2 lb. gr. pork--not 1 lb. gr. veal!

Ten Things I Love That Begin With The Letter...

Ten Things I Love That Begin With the Letter M.

Mo gave it to me. Comment here and I'll give you a letter, too.

In alphabetical order:

Magazines
I love to read, but don't often feel that I can give up as much time as it takes to read a book (unless it's for book club or something). I'm not someone who can pick up a book and read a chapter and then put it down, so it's a day-long endeavor for me! Magazines, on the other hand, are full of little self-standing stories and articles and even if I *do* read the whole thing, it's a lot shorter than a book anyway. :)

Magenta
Long before Blues Clues made it famous, magenta was my favorite color (thanks, Crayola!). It's not really my favorite now, but I do still love it--and I like saying it! (ditto for vermilion, but that's not an M word...)

Mall
I love to shop and now that our local mall has become a "town center", I enjoy shopping there even more! I do still love regular malls, too. I remember being 14 years old and visiting my first mall ever. I thought I was in heaven!

Marriage
Well, specifically my marriage. :) I didn't know how else to get G. into the list! But I really, truly do love being married and my marriage in general. Color me happy.

Massage
When G. and I were in college (where we met), we were both pre-Physical Therapy majors. (Neither of us got into the program--their loss!) Part of our pre-PT training included learning how to give massages. Needless to say, it totally rocks to have a husband who not only gives massages, but gives professional massages!

Maternity
I was pregnant three times and (despite any complaints at the time) I loved all three of my pregnancies. I loved eating for two; I loved wearing maternity clothes; I loved feeling the baby moving inside of me. I loved being pregnant!

Math
Although I'm a certified Science teacher, I've been tutoring HS Math and Science and I've found that I really, really love the math part! I wish I'd stuck with it and done Calculus, and I'd love to go back (although I fear that my brain wouldn't wrap around Calculus at this point...).

Meerkat
Meerkat is the nickname we have for M. After years of hemming and hawing over whether we wanted a third child or not, we're pretty darn happy that we had one. :)

Microbiology
My major in college was Secondary Broadfield Science and my minors were Biology and Chemistry. The last class I took for my Biology minor was Microbiology, because I didn't think it sounded very interesting. It turned out to be my favorite Biology class ever and if I had taken it any earlier, I'd probably have changed my major!

Mom
Specifically, my mom! She's been my inspiration for parenting and she still is the first one I call when I have something good (or bad) to share.


That was fun! I almost thought about making a list of 10 Things I Hate That Begin With the Letter M, but that can wait... Leave a comment and I'll give you a letter!

DirecTV rant

I was complaining on an email list about how I cannot wait until our DirecTV contract expires so I can switch and never, never, never give them any more of our money, when someone asked why I hated DirecTV so much.

So I wrote it up:

We have had DirecTV for about 5 years now. The first
few years were a gift from my brother, so I had no
idea how much it cost. Then he moved and (insert long
story here) my mom was paying for it for us. As my
mom was nearing retirement, I didn't think she needed
to be paying our cable TV bill, so I told her we'd
take it over. I was floored at what she was paying
(even with no premium channels or HD or
anything) and so I did some price comparing and
decided to go with Dish Network. (it was a LOT
cheaper) Dish has this cool thing where one DVR works
on two TVs, so we could record stuff and then (at
least theoretically) watch them in the livingroom OR
our bedroom. Unfortunately, we had a lousy installer
and whether due to the fact that our house has plaster
walls or that we're very near three TV broadcast
towers, we could never get it to work. So we
canceled (in the 30 day trial period) and went back
to DirecTV, since we knew that it would work in our house.

Since then, I have been on the phone with DirecTV every month,
complaining about how they have incorrectly billed us.

We were offered an additional $10 off a month for our
first year (of a 2 year contract). That $10 came off
once, but then disappeared. I am STILL working (15
months later) to get the credit applied because
although it's listed as a "12 month programming
credit", it only comes off when I call about it.

We were offered HBO at $10 off a month (it's $13 a
month) for six months. So we took that deal, but they
again "forgot" to apply that credit. We ended up with
the "deal" extended, but we also paid several months
at full price due to their oversight.

We had to sign a 2 year contract with DirecTV. Now,
if it's a contract, doesn't that mean that you're
locked into pricing? Apparently not. We signed up
for a package at $42.99 and it has since that time,
it's risen to $47.99 a month. To compensate for the
"inconvenience of our price increase", they offered
another monthly credit for six months. You guessed
it--a year later, I'm still calling to try to get that
applied EVERY month as it appears for one month and
then vanishes.

The DVR is a piece of crap. After we had it two
weeks, it completely stopped working. I can't count
the number of calls put into customer service for
that, before they finally told me they'd send out a
different DVR (they'd have to charge my account for
it, but would refund the money after I packaged up,
drove to a shipping center, and mailed back the
defective one). Imagine my surprise when they
replaced my *new* DVR with a reconditioned one.

And three months later, it died, too. I should
mention that we had spent three months recording
movies from HBO to get our money's worth, and all of
those movies were GONE.

Our DVR still doesn't work completely correctly. We
can watch things, but it will flake out and miss
recording things or will record multiple copies,
filling up the memory, at will. But I still have
movies to watch, so I'm not sending it back. I'm sure
it's out of warranty by now anyway.

This latest thing was the worst. The one thing that I
can say is that, though I am on the phone with
customer service for an average of 45 minutes every
month, at least the employees are polite and they DO
apologize and at least attempt to apply a credit to my
account.

I had called in when January's bill was again missing
our credit. The CS person apologized and told me that
she'd made a note on my account to start up a
new/different credit in February and told me that it
should be fine, but if I didn't receive the credit in
February, to call back at that time.

You guessed it--no credit in February. The CS person
apologized and transferred me to the customer
retention department (heh... they need a whole
DEPARTMENT to do that? doesn't that tell you
something?) and I was connected to the most rude woman
I have ever spoken with. She wouldn't let me speak.
I told her that I was late for a doctor's appointment
and I asked that she finish applying the discount and
simply email me to let me know it was resolved
(they've done that before) and she YELLED at me,
telling me that my rudeness was assuring that
SHE would work that much slower to resolve the issue.
She told me that I was not the only customer in the
world and that I wasn't entitled to anything, but she
would SEE if she could figure things out. She refused
to give me her name and every time I tried to say
anything, she spoke over me.

So today I finally called back today and after another 45
minutes, I got a one-time $60 credit. I sure hope
this resolves it--and I'm counting the days until our contract
expires and I can switch to another provider (September 23, 2008, btw).

A Flooded Road

This has been, far and away, the strangest winter I can remember.

We were planning to go on a "mini-vacation" to a local water park (just a half hour's drive away) and woke up to the road in front of our house flooded:It had been raining most of the night which, on top of the melting snow, caused quite a back-up:
Add in the fact that certain workers did not do an exceptional job clearing the storm sewer drains, and you get flooded streets. We called the village, and they said, "we've got people on it".

After another hour, G. and I went out and got soaked and sore, but shoveled and chipped out our storm sewer drains. By the time we actually left on vacation, our side of the road was "dry".
But our sidewalks are still under water.

Blechhh...

M's story

Our local PBS station (maybe it's all PBS stations?) does a yearly Writer's Contest for kids in grades K-3. This year the top prize in each grade wins a laptop computer. I told M. about the contest and she was very excited! I explained that the book has to have at least 50 words and at least 5 colorful pictures illustrating it. The instructions say that the text can be handwritten, or typed on a computer, so M. started typing hers out.

This is her story--all in her own words, typing and spelling by her:

A butterfly friend’s with a flower

Once there was a butterfly that had a friend, which
was a flower.
The flower said I love you to the butterfly. The
butterfly said
I love you to! The flower and butterfly were happy.
They
Loved each other. They lived together. They knew each
Other well. They loved each other so much. They liked
Living together. They love each other so much!


(me again)
As adorable as it is, I don't think it's contest-winning material (yet)!

A Celebration of Learning

T's class had a "Celebration of Learning" yesterday afternoon. The kids got a chance to show off some of the things they've been working on in school.

First we went to the computer lab, where they showed up the Power Point presentations they've been working on in Social Studies:

Then any of the kids who played instruments could do a demonstration, so T. played his violin:
All the kids have been learning about advertising and marketing of products. They paired up and came up with commercials for products they invented. T. and his friend created the Miceaway 3000 mouse trap:
Then they sang and danced to a song they'd learned in music class:
Then each kid read a poem or two that they'd written about someone special in their lives. Here's T., reading his:
And his poems were:

L.

Wife, teacher, mom, sister

Creative, smart, enthusiastic, fun

Lover of cooking

Who believes in honesty

Who fears centipedes

Who wants to be successful

Who gives happiness

Who says “I love you”

A.

Mom

Helpful, loving

Helps, cooks, plays Guitar Hero

Helps me do my best

L.

Then they sang another song:


And all the families posed for pictures:

Super sized sandwich

G. and I went to a (couples) baby shower a few weeks ago, and there were a TON of scrumptious goodies to snack on. One of the coolest things, however, was this giant, warm, gooey sandwich. The hostess kindly gave me the "recipe" and I've made them twice already!

You buy foccacia bread at your local bakery (ours is from Pick N Save--the foccacia is not thin like classic foccacia, but taller and just topped with cheese and other stuff) and cut it in half lengthwise. On the bottom, spread flavored cream cheese (I used onion and chive). Top that with your choice of lunchmeat (this time I used ham, salami and pepperoni; at the party some had just ham and some had just turkey), choice of veggies (I sauteed onions and peppers and then stirred in some picked sandwich peppers), and choice of cheese (I used mozzarella this time). Place in a warm oven for about 20 minutes, or until the cheeses are nice and melty. Cut into wedges and serve. Here's what the inside looks like:


It was such a hit the first time that I made two the second time. The best flavor foccacia at the party was a jalapeno cheddar one, but I couldn't find those either time at my store. This is a tomato and parmesan one.

I served it with assorted potato chips and grapes.

A haircut--of necessity

T's hair was just starting to get long again:
But this week we shaved it to half an inch:

Why? Because I got a phonecall yesterday from the clinic at school, telling me that one of T's classmates was found to have head lice, so they checked the whole class and found nits on T. (and four other classmates).

Me and my big mouth--saying earlier this year that we'd been able to avoid lice because anytime one of "the notes" came home from school, I washed all my kids' hair with Tea Tree Oil shampoo. I didn't get a chance this time--I hadn't heard anything about lice until the phonecall to pick Trav up.

So it's been a crazy 24+ hours, spent shampooing, combing and checking heads and then stripping every bed in the house, washing all bedding and hats and coats in HOT water (turned up the water heater), then drying on high, and then sending to the attic for below-freezing temps (Yes, I know I go overboard on this kind of stuff, but I'd rather be safe than sorry...).

This week has really sucked...

Will this winter ever end?

Yesterday we had yet another big snow storm. This one had been predicted pretty well and almost all local schools (including the kids' and G's) were closed, as well as malls, libraries, museums and almost anywhere you'd want to be!

Unfortunately, the snow didn't come right away--it started with slushy, rainy stuff, which then froze under the snow. Up to 20 inches were predicted--officially we only got 12.5 inches, but I beg to differ.

And then the wind came, causing all sorts of drifting. G. and I were out shoveling at least three times and it just kept coming.

Here's some pictures from today--after the clean-up. Look at the snow on the roof:
Snow banks so high that we can't get car doors open unless we park far on the side of the driveway:
Snow in the yard is up about two feet and that's ice on the sidewalks under the snow:
This one is out our kitchen window at the neighbor's Arbor Vitae "fence" between our properties. Tons of heavy, wet snow is bending the bushes in half:
And record-breaking cold and wind-chills are forecasted for the weekend. This winter has been the worst that I can remember.

Refinancing...

We bought our house in November of 2000 (though we moved in the next January) with a 30 year mortgage through a first-time buyer's program (lower rates) and with scraping every penny we could. Just over a year later, interest rates dropped and we refinanced (for 30 years). We were pretty comfortable that we had among the lowest rates we could get (5.875%), and our house had increased so greatly in value (in just one year!) that we were able to drop the PMI.

Last year we paid off our mini-van and realized that we could afford to put an addition on our house. We shopped around, and found the best rate on a Home Equity loan (6.79% for 15 years).

This weekend there was an article in the paper about how loan rates had dropped and that it was a great time to re-finance for all the people who had bought houses during the housing boom of the last few years. For the heck of it, I checked rates at our Credit Union and found that they were lower than our current mortgage and WAY lower than our Home Equity (5.75% for 30 and 5.625% for 20 years). We called to see if we could refinance--maybe even dropping to 20 years--and roll the two together.

After making the appointment and getting the stats (we'd be saving a couple hundred dollars a month even with the 20 year loan), I happened to look at the website for our credit union again and saw that 15 year loan rates were even lower (5.125%). G. went to the appointment and had our loan officer crunch the numbers.

And we decided to go with the 15 year!

It is kind of scary, as our payments will go up about $100 from what we were paying for both loans, but it's unbelievably exciting, too. We will be saving THOUSANDS of dollars in interest and we should be completely debt free in fifteen years! (right now the mortgage and home equity loan are our only debts other than month-to-month credit cards that we always pay off)

I'm so very proud of us!

I'm all caught up!

First the explanation...

The holidays are chaotic for EVERYone, so I barely got time to post in December.

After that, G. was home and I was subbing or volunteering, or socializing ;)

And then I got SICK!

I'm still not really WELL, but I am feeling better. I just spent the morning catching up on blog posts. I have a few December ones to add pictures or details to, but the ones I updated today (should you want to go back and read the pathetic details) are:

G's Birthday

Curried Winter Vegetable Soup

Lazy Vacation Days

My Baby is Five Years Old

M's Birthday Party

Schwa eats a worm

Knitting and Un-knitting

The subbing report

Happy Birthday To Me!

Wow! Not bad! No wonder I'm so tired...

A day I thought I'd never see...

T. just said to me, "Mom, I just finished Summer of the Swans. It was a really good book!"


This from the boy whose only experience with fictional works was, for years, Captain Underpants. This from the boy who COULD read when he was three, but who never chose to read for fun. This from the boy who still does prefer Calvin and Hobbes, Paper Airplane books, and an occasional Star Wars novel...

His elementary school does "Battle of the Books" (and C. participated in fourth and fifth grade--her team took second place in fifth grade) and he chose to do this on his own. He's been reading a lot of things that I don't think he'd normally have chosen. This year's reading list is:

Author	Title
Banks, Lynne Ried	Indian in the Cupboard
Blume, Judy	Superfudge
Bond, Michael	A Bear Called Paddington
Boyd, Candy Dawson	Circle of Gold
Byars, Betsy	The Summer of the Swans
Cleary, Beverly	Henry and the Paper Route
Coerr, Eleanor	Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
Conford, Ellen	Felicia the Critic
Dahl, Roald	James and the Giant Peach
Dalgliesh, Alice	The Courage of Sarah Noble
Fitzgerald, John	The Great Brain
Henry, Marguerite	King of the Wind
Holling, Clancy	Paddle to the Sea
Howe, James	Bunnicula
Lawson, Robert	Ben and Me
Lowry, Lois	Anastasia Krupnik
Morey, Walt	Gentle Ben
Sharp, Margery	The Rescuers
Uchida, Yoshiro	Jar of Dreams
Wagner, Jane	J. T.
Wilder, Laura Ingalls	Farmer Boy

They form teams of three, so he doesn't have to read ALL of the books, but I'm hoping he continues to enjoy them enough that he WANTS to read them all.

Color me a proud mama...

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's not terrible, but 38 FEELS a lot older than 37! I guess because I'm officially in my "late 30's" now! Actually, it could be the nasty cold that I've had for three days. Blechhh!


I got some great presents from my family (cooking things and clothing) and we went out for Chinese food. Instead of cake, I wanted a GIANT Rice Krispie Treat (which G. made).

And the biggest surprise of the day--my dear friend N. bought me flowers!
As much as I insist that I'm not a flower fan and that they're a waste of money, it is really, really nice to receive flowers... :) And especially roses...

The subbing report

I've now subbed three days--in three different schools and at three different levels.

My first experience was at the middle school--teaching 7th grade Lit/Lang. I didn't hate it, but I really didn't enjoy it. And when I considered that I made the same amount subbing for a half day with kids who were constantly trying to get away with something that I would have for tutoring a student who wanted help for an hour, it was a little depressing. I was also reminded of when I was teaching fulltime and never knew what sub I would be assigned for an absence. I left videos or worksheets. Now that I'm on the other side, I can tell you how boring it is to teach that stuff!

My second experience was at the local elementary school, teaching a full day of fourth grade. I had a FANTASTIC time! The kids were great--wanting to be helpful and to show off a little. The teacher left me REAL lesson plans. I also knew many of the staff (since my kids go to school there), so lunch was even fun in the teacher's lounge. Unfortunately, I was also informed that the principal has a policy of not allowing parents to substitute in their child's GRADE (not just class) and since T. is in fourth grade, I won't be doing that again.

My third experience was at the high school where I used to teach. I taught Geometry and Pre-Algebra. Though this was a bit more challenging (behavior-wise) than the elementary school, and the teacher didn't leave much that I could actually teach, I enjoyed this as well. The best part is that I was asked to do a long-term sub position (which, unfortunately, I really can't do this year). Still, it was flattering to be asked!

I'm pretty sure that I don't want subbing to be my main occupation--it's tough to not know what you're doing day-to-day and the pay isn't that great--but I do think it's something that I can fill in with on days/weeks that I have space. And I've learned that I'll pick elementary and high school positions before I go back to the middle school! Middle school teachers are a special breed and I admire them, but I don't wanna be one!

Finally, perhaps the worst thing that I took away from this experience is a cold that seems particularly nasty. Since none of the rest of my family has had this, I have to think that I picked it up on my own--probably at the elementary school.

Knitting--and un-knitting

First, the unknitting...

Linda's socks, which are now completely frogged (I tried them on her at knitting club, and the ankles were too baggy):
When I can stand the thought of re-trying, I'm going to do a simple, plain sock. Linda says she's cool with that ;)

Also, an IRL friend said that when her 4 YO daughter when sledding, her forearms froze--that area between the mitten and the coat sleeve was bare!

So I knit up some simple wrist-warmers with a slot for the thumb.
I was pretty proud of myself until I brought them to knitting club and someone said, "Oh, yeah, when my son was that age, I took an old pair of socks and cut off the toe!

(well, I did enjoy knitting them, anyway!)

Schwa eats a worm!

Actually, she ate TWO...

I think I posted before about Schwa's refusal to eat earthworms and how we had to buy fish for her. Well, all that we read said that fish is not an adequate food source on its own and that alternating fish and worms is the best thing you can do for a garter snake (short of feeding it mice--which we're NOT doing!).

We'd been trying to put worms into Schwa's terrarium, but she ignored them. I decided that maybe she would respond to a hand-held worm, so we tried again.You can see that the experiment was a great success! :)

Subbing, here I come...

It's official. I have my first two subbing jobs! Tomorrow I'll be at the Middle School (Lit/Lang) for a half day, and Friday I'll be at one of the elementary schools (fourth grade) for a full day. I'm hoping to get a High School position one of the two days next week that I can sub, so I'll have experienced all three levels and can decide if it's something I want to do!

Cross fingers for me? :)

M's Birthday Party

M. wanted a dinosaur party for her fifth birthday. I was thrilled to see that most of her friends who'd already had birthdays had simpler, at-home parties, so we decided to do the same.

She invited seven friends who came for lunch after morning kindergarten. They had mac & cheese, dinosaur chicken nuggets, petrified leaves (sun chips) and baby dino eggs (grape tomatoes).
They made dinosaur hats with googly eyes:
And played dino-themed games like "Pin the tooth on the Tyrannosaurus" and "Stinky Dino Egg":
After dino cupcakes and ice cream and then presents, everyone was exhausted (G. actually took a nap!).

M. got some great gifts, including THREE more Webkinz! Overall, I think it was a success. :)

My "baby" is five years old!

This is what a five year old looks like:

Present time!

She got some more Littlest Pet Shop things; an iDog amp'd; purple Crocs; bling for her iDog and mp3 player; Sims Pets; a bunch of My Weird School books, and some clothes.

She chose California Pizza Kitchen for her birthday meal, and then we came home for "Better than the Playground" cake (you know the one--with chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, hot fudge, whipped cream and Heath pieces):


and of course we had to measure her to see how much she'd grown...
She's 41 inches tall (the height T. was when he was 3 1/2) and 37 lbs.

So far I'm really enjoying having a five year old again!