Batters Box

Mike and I finally had a date night again. For some reason they have not been as often as I would like. Mike has been concerned that our time in Major League Baseball territory could be getting shorter. So instead of waiting for our normal free tickets, he bought a few games off of one of his season ticket holder employees. So off we went to dinner and arrived at the game a little late. As we were getting ready to walk down into our section (which were nice seats to begin with) we got stopped by a diamondbacks girl who is apparently in charge of "our" section. She asks us if we would like to upgrade our seats to the Batters Box. Instantly, I was confused. Are we going to have to pay for this upgrade? Is this really an upgrade (for those of you who are laughing at me, yes I had NO idea where these tickets were)? I hate accepting something and then being told "Oh, and that will just be $XX.YZ, Thank YOU." Now, Mike on the other hand, after gathering his bearings and the girl telling us we would be closer to the batter than the pitcher, said okay immediately. As we are walking and talking I just keep smiling this confused, yet pleased look. Why us? Where exactly is this? We find out the why us on route to our new seats. She saw our season tickets that we were holding and wanted to treat us, since we were in her section and they are doing a new program for the season ticket holders. Yeah, I am still a little confused too, besides that she thought we were season ticket holders. (Okay, a little slow, Mike just told me they wanted us to upgrade to those seats. Apparently, it didn't occur to me because I would never do it.) We didn't correct her because she really didn't let us and the people that have the tickets are actually in a group that share the tickets, so...



So, she dropped us off at the top of our section and said have fun. We started to go down and we met the next seating person that helps you find your seat (and keeps you out of the section if you don't belong). She smiled and said, "Do you know your way"? No, actually, so she graciously showed us all the way down. You can't even see it from where the top. There are about 18 seats in this little walled off area, for privacy, that used to be a suite. I was very glad to find out the everyone else there had been invited as we had. As we sat down I looked at the tickets more carefully to see how much they would cost....Oh, Nelly. Once in a lifetime opportunity! Unless we hit the Jackpot. (Do we have to buy lotto tickets to do that?) Our heads were just above ground level and we were amazingly close. You could smell the dirt and the grass. It smelled like there had just been a gentle rain. Our little section was all a little taken back by it all. We had a hard time completely concentrating on the game. Mike was thrilled to be close to Greg Maddox as he pitched the game. (Maddox used to be a Cubbie, Mike's true team, although he enjoys the Diamondbacks). Here is the link to our picture in front of the glass we sat behind. Yeah, that close. Amazing. By the way, the new Jumbo Tron screen at the park is awesome too. Can they get any bigger? In a few years....

Disney on Ice

Have you ever been to Disney on Ice? Growing up, every once in awhile I would see advertisements for a Disney on Ice show that was in a city far away. I would have loved to go, but even if we lived closer I am 99.9% sure that we would not have gone with 7 kids in the family. Now in the hotbed of "Big City Life" we finally have the chance to even be close enough for it. So last Saturday was my first time ever and it was so fun to go and enjoy it with the kids. We got a great deal on some tickets the day before and popped on downtown to enjoy a couple of hours of ice skating and tight spandex combined with fish costumes. My expectations were actually very low before we went, I was excited for the kids and hoping they would enjoy it more than anything. However, Disney really delivers. It was nearly the whole Finding Nemo movie on ice. It was really quite something to see the sets and the technical stunts that make it happen. Christian and Katie were on the edge of their seats the entire time. Katie smiling, Christian was not. This was not because he didn't enjoy it. He was just concentrating, as I found out later because he exclaimed as we exited, "That was TOTALLY AWESOME!" (We live in a Valley so this vocabulary is completely acceptable. :)

Because I am lame and did not remember to take my camera here is the website to see video for just a taste of what it looked like: http://disney.go.com/disneyonice/findingnemo/index.html

I inherited some...well,...thriftiness from my parents. As we left the parking garage I set out the game plan with the kids that we would not be buying anything when we got into the building. This was complete inspiration as prices were nearly double what you would see at Disneyland and we bought things there. $10 for cotton candy with a plastic hat shaped like Nemo, $22 light spinning Nemo's, and $4 cookies. Hey, even though we are horrible consumers, the people in front of us are doing their part to keep our country out of a recession.

A great day. If you ever have a chance to go, take it. It was fun!

The Tax Man Cometh...

What do I do when there is something I really don't want to do...put it off of course. Luckily, I didn't put off doing my taxes until it was too late, but it was a big year, a turning point for me doing my taxes.

When Mike and I first got married, we had some crazy financials and I was pregnant and going to grad school so we used our trusty CPA. Life is a lot more simple but we never took the plunge to do it on our own. I am not sure that I will always do it on our own. However, after I mentioned to my sister that I was sending in my tax documents to get done by a trusty CPA, she told me that we should just get Turbo Tax and do it myself instead. She has a business degree so I thought sure you think so, but she promised that she would help me if I needed to do it. So I purchased the Turbo Tax and waited...for two months. I was afraid we would owe money or that it would take forever, so I put it off.

Well, it wasn't complete smooth sailing, but we (I, with my #1 supporter sitting next to me on another computer) got it done. It should be a lot easier next year. Especially if I remember anything from this experience. And we actually got a refund from the Federal Government. Yeah. We owed for Arizona, but not much. So my subconscious stress was for "nothing" or at least very little.

So a shout out to everyone that helped me feel like I could do it, whether you knew it or not. And to my sister, even though you didn't answer my phone call, I figured it out. :) To those of you still getting around it, good luck!

You Can Do It!

When I find something that is fantastic I just have to share. Take it or leave it, but if it is helping me, I am sharing it.

So, it may come as a shock to many that I am not the world's greatest mom. (Not really, oh well... :) ) My kids have been battling me on certain issues the past few week and I was wondering what was wrong with my mothering (and honestly, sometimes, them). General Conference was coming and I was really praying that even if there was no talk specifically about my need that I would at least be inspired with what I could do. The programming on BYUTV is always so great around conference time, so many times I just leave it running after or in between. While Mike was gone for the Priesthood session a program called You Can Do This: An Approach to Raising Wonderful Children came on and I was instantly intrigued. The parents on the program had struggled with parenting and had started to use the ideas taught to them and they testified that it was really working for their family. The BYU McKay School of Education has put together an awesome website to help parents in disciplining children in a positive way. Of course, when the kids went to bed that night I made Mike watch it with me and we started to look at the website together and identify things we could do immediately. It encourages positive discipline vs. just punishment, building relationships, focusing on what's important and much more. Surely there will still be frustrating circumstances, but we started using some of the tips yesterday and it has already made a difference in our home. I love my kids! This is giving me tools to keep the love there while still loving and disciplining them when it is necessary while not having it become a punishment for me as well. I still haven't made my way through the whole site, but I have a feeling it will become a good friend to me, possibly even more than my gobble bag that hasn't seen the light of day for awhile.

Yummy Food...

Recently, when I have taken food into those that were in need of some help, the recipes have been requested. We had one of the dinners tonight and although the recipes wouldn't go together for a theme night, they are just great.

First, we will start with the zucchini side dish. I started using the Bountiful Baskets co-op last August and we get zucchini regularly. Since I use the co-op to have healthier stuff around, I didn't think it prudent to use it for zucchini bread, so I started to search my favorite recipe site allrecipes.com. Let's just say, even Christian eats this one, although Katie doesn't like it as much, but she likes fresh veggies more.

Sesame Parmesan Zucchini

INGREDIENTS

1 medium zucchini, quartered and cut into 1/2-inch slices
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, toss the zucchini with the olive oil, sesame oil, sesame seeds, Parmesan cheese, cayenne pepper, and garlic salt. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. (I actually just shave the Parmesan right over instead of toss it in)
3. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned.

This next one is just fantastic. I love it. The enchiladas don't require enchilada sauce and I usually have the ingredients at home. The salsa it calls for can be hard to find, so I just use regular salsa and for the 14oz of green chili salsa I stir in a 4oz can of green chilies into 10oz of salsa. I also halved the onion from the original recipe, it is a little strong even for me with a whole onion. This picture also has Monterrey jack cheese in it, always good with Mexican food. I just ran out of cheddar, but that also tastes great!

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch cilantro
1 cup sour cream
2 (7 ounce) cans jalapeno salsa
2 (7 ounce) cans prepared green chile salsa
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and shredded
1/2 onion
12 (6 inch) flour tortillas
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. To Make Sour Cream Mixture: In a blender or food processor, puree cilantro, sour cream, jalapeno salsa and 4 oz of the green chile salsa. Set aside.
2. To Make Chicken Mixture: In a large bowl, combine shredded chicken, onion and the remaining green chile salsa. Mix well.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
4. Heat tortillas in conventional or microwave oven until soft. Pour enough of the sour cream mixture into a 9x13 inch baking dish to coat the bottom. Place 2 heaping tablespoonfuls of the chicken mixture in each tortilla, roll up and place seam side down in the baking dish. Pour remaining sour cream mixture over all and top with shredded cheese.
5. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 30 minutes, or until dish is heated through and bubbling.

Happy cooking everyone. I hope you enjoy it!

Multi-tasking

Multi-tasking. We all do it and women often hear that we do it well. Lately, I have been thinking about the state of my mothering and how I can do it better. Sometimes I try to rationalize that, "I am not doing too bad", then I think, but I know I could and need to do better. Now this is no guilt party. I am just trying to "be a little better". When I saw this video this morning, even though it is not about mothering, I thought, how many times do I multi-task and not give the words of my children my full attention. There are times when that is completely impossible, but other times when I maybe chose not to, to get more done (or tuning out, heaven forbid) instead of letting my little ones feel completely heard and loved. Giving the the "best" instead of just "good". And maybe I should go "topless" a little more around my children too. Yeah, I got your attention didn't I? But watch the video and it makes un-x-rated sense.



If the video is not working, see below:

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=7201330&ch=4226721&src=news