FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!

My media center is FINALLY in and being delivered this Saturday!!! Yeah!!!!!! I was worried that it would come in and they'd want to deliver while we were in Florida, but woooooo hooooo it's coming this week! Now...how to fit it in that living room.

It's always something.

The Final Countdown

The McKay's are officially in the final countdown to DISNEY!!!!! WOOOOO WHOOOO!!

We leave in a week and there is still so much to do and so little time to do it. It recently occured to me that I have to get all of our gifts to the kids teachers wrapped and delivered to them before we leave and the same for our family out of state. It'll be too late to do this when we get home. I'm under pressure now because one of the gifts for my brother requires some time sifting through photos and scanning them into the computer. I also don't want to grocery shop for the house because we won't be here to eat it but my fridge is BARE. Good thing my kids don't eat

A and the boys put up the christmas tree and strung the lights on it while I worked this weekend. Is it soooo bad of me not to want to hang any ornaments on it? It looks pretty with the colored lights and I figure that we'll be gone 1/2 the month of December so why bother? All I can think is "all that work to decorate the tree just to be able to enjoy it for like 10 days total before I have to take it down". Maybe I'll go to the dollar store and buy like 4 boxes of cheap bulbs and let the boys knock themselves out decorating the tree. I usually don't let them get too involved with decorating the tree every year as I have some ornaments that I don't want boy paws on, but this may be super fun for them and I can throw the crap ornaments away when it's time to take the tree down. I likey this idea the more I think about it. I didn't put up any other chrismas decorations either.

I shall leave you with this little morsel of Disney magic

I'm a slacker

Here are some pics from halloween:

L after he tried to draw his own 'stache

L's K-class

The boys

We could use a little prayer

So Luke was diagnosed with pneumonia. We had been fighting a fever since Tuesday and his teacher announced at conferences that strep was in his room so I made an appointment with the doctor just to make sure it wasn't an ear infection or strep. She listened to his lungs, noted his cough and had us go to my hospital for an x-ray. We got the news today that he does have pneumonia. She had the foresight to write me a script for an antibiotic for him if the xray did come back positive so at least we're on antibiotics right away. Please say a little prayer that it doesn't spread through the family as we're only 2 1/2 weeks out for our Disney trip! I shudder to think!

Any and all positive vibes and prayers would be so appreciated!

so many things

I'm in a shitty place.

Maybe it's because I don't get SHIT for sleep anymore because of Owen, maybe it's because the anti-depressent I'm on is for shit, maybe it's because I'm just effing stressed about this trip, maybe it's because my house is trashed from having no time to clean because I'm working full time, maybe it's because of school as I'm nearing the end of the semester and my final exam week is the same week that we're going to be in Disney.

Maybe it's one of these things, maybe it's all of these things. I don't care why, I care that I'm in this place and I want the fuck out. You know what else? I miss my mom. It's going to be 5 years that she's been gone and I miss her. I want to touch her again, I want her to see my kids, I want to call her and talk to her, I want to ask her if I never needed sleep as a toddler like this kid I have, I want to spend the holidays with her. I miss her. I miss her so much. 5 years doesn't mean shit, it still feels like yesterday.

I have two sick kids. I think it's ironic that I have two sick kids that I'm on the verge of losing it with and this is what I want to do when I graduate from nursing school, work with pediatrics and neonates. Irony at it's best 'eh?

I think I'm working too much. I enjoy the paychecks though so I keep doing it. Nothing is getting done around here. Honestly, it's ridiculous and it's bringing me down. It's not that A isn't doing anything around here, he does a lot. I just can't seem to catch up though. After working 12 hours and getting home at 745pm, having to bathe two hyper boys and struggle to get them to bed by 830pm, the last thing I feel like doing is homework and cleaning this house. My schedule is so effed next week. I work 5 -12 hour shifts in a 6 day period. Holy shit. Why do I do this to myself? Oh I remember now, I'm going on a trip where the freakin' gas will cost more than the actual trip itself.

Bah.

An open letter to Kinex

Dear Kinex,

I'd like to thank you for sending my kids that free sample of your lego-like toy. They thoroughly enjoyed watching me put together the little helicopter so they could tear it apart 30 seconds later. I'm especially appreciative for that sample because it made me realize that I will NEVER buy your product. Less than 30minutes of being in my house, I stepped on one of the pieces and it's still embedded in my foot. Less than an hour later, we'd already lost 4 of the pieces (excluding the one in my foot). So kudos to your company who allowed me this small window of opportunity to discover a "No Buy Toy" before I actually bought it.

Sincerely,
A satisfied customer

Pay it forward

I've found another excellent opportunity to pay some kindness forward to someone.

This woman bakes and sells cookies that are sent all over including overseas to Iraq. For $9.00 she'll bake an extra dozen and send them to the troops in Iraq. Think of how many soldiers we could treat if everyone who reads this blog contributed just $9.00. It would be awesome! Here's her link and story:

Club Nine. Supporting our troops

Make me proud my friends!

I'm pumped!

We ordered our new media center and chair for the living room this weekend. I've been looking EVERYWHERE for a media center as I knew what I wanted in my head but couldn't find anything that I liked. I happened to stroll into JCPenny and lo and behold I found it! It was pricey (figures) but I really liked it and it was exactly what I wanted in design. Then I saw the chair...OMG I totally fell in love with it! I don't fall for many inanimate objects but this....this was love at 1st sight. I thought DH would be hard to convince but surprise! he liked it too. Here are some pics from the store as it won't be shipped for a while.















And the boys acting like boys:

The cider mill w/ 13 three year olds

Is there anything that SCREAMS fall like a trip to the cider mill in 85 degree weather? Cheeze and Rice it was hot. Anywho, I went to the Plymouth cider mill with O's class last week. We did have a good time but the heat and the freakin' bee's that were all over the place were a bit of a downer. On the plus side, O had fun, it gave us time to bond w/o Dad and L, the fresh apples were delicious and the doughnuts ROCKED!! We did find a 3 y/o kid there without shoes wandering around the pumpkin patch with no parent/guardian in sight. Every mom thought that he belonged to one of the mom's in the area but when I saw him wandering off and crying for "mom", I intercepted. We looked for his mom for like 10 min. before we enlisted the help of the staff at the cider mill. This kid was wandering around for at least 15 min. before I took over so you gotta figure he was wandering alone for like 30 min. I noticed a non-chalant mom stroll up to the cider dining hall and I asked her if she was looking for a child. She said yes, like she was answering whether or not she wanted fries with that, and I told her that he was inside with the staff. She had the audacity to look annoyed and it took everything I had not to punch that stupid heffa in the face. Thank God O decided at that moment to announce that he had to go potty or I'd have said something to her. What a effin ass. Do people not understand that there are people in this world that PREY on little children? I just don't understand. I never will.



Here are some pics from our trip:

Recipe of the Day

This recipe ROCKS! You HAVE to try it...trust me!!
Here's how we ate it:
On the toasted pita bread, I spread a little hummous then put the chili and coucous on top (I mixed the coucous and chili together after both were cooked, this is the only way to go!!!) and ate the pita's like they were tostadas. OMG this was even better on day 2 and 3! I NEVER eat leftovers much less day three so this is a winner to be sure! I could eat this every day.

Morrocan Chili with 10,000 grains of sand
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 pounds ground lamb ( I used 1.5 lbs of fresh ground turkey breast)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 bay leaf
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, eyeball it
1 (14-ounce) can tomato sauce

Couscous (10,000 grains of sand)

2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
A handful golden raisins 4 dried apricots, chopped
1 1/2 cups couscous
3 to 4 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
A handful fresh parsley leaves, chopped
A handful fresh mint leaves, chopped
3 tablespoons finely chopped chives
8 pita breads, cut into wedgesfor scooping

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Heat skillet with extra-virgin olive oil, add meat and brown. Season the meat with salt and pepper, to taste, chili powder, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and paprika. Add the bay leaf, onions, bell pepper and garlic to the pan. Cook until onions are soft, 8 minutes. Add lemon juice and zest, Worcestershire sauce and tomato sauce. Stir and reduce heat to simmer. Bring butter and stock to a boil in a pot with tight fitting lid. Add dried fruit and couscous, stir then turn off heat and set lid in place. Let stand 5 minutes. Add nuts and herbs and toss with fork. Toast pita wedges in hot oven or under broiler. Pile chili in bowls, top with "sand" and serve with pita wedges for scooping.