Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Sometimes people are layered like that. There's something totally different underneath than what's on the surface. But sometimes, there's a third, even deeper level, and that one is the same as the top surface one. Like with pie.

The above is a Joss Whedon quote.  I love Joss Whedon.  He is the creator of some of my favorite television shows.  Like Firefly, Angel, and Dr. Horrible's Sing a long blog.  If you don't know, wiki him and check out his work.  He is lovely.

So I've been away for a while.  Seth had to stay home yesterday to work on school work because he was falling behind because of his real job being so busy.  I'm also getting ready for ouIr trip to Orlando.  I'm so nervous about traveling with the baby, but I'm sure it will be okay, and if not, well then I know we won't be traveling until she is older!

Only one more week left of my blog's censorship and then the political race will be over and I can come back full force! 

I have been having playdates set up by Nurse Carol.  The Mom and her lovely daughter are coming over today!  They are new to the area.  I am glad to have a Mom friend to get together with. 

Alright I'd better get the house ready for company!  I'll leave you with my new favorite bread recipe from Pioneer Woman:

Ingredients

  • 20 ounces, weight Bread Flour (all Purpose Is Okay, Too) - About 4 Cups
  • 8 ounces, fluid Water
  • 4 ounces, fluid Melted Butter With Chopped Herbs Of Choice. We Like Chives, Rosemary Or Thyme.
  • 2 teaspoons Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Active Or Instant Yeast (if Active, It Would Be Best To Sprinkle Yeast Over The Water To Let It Start To Work Before Mixing It In)

Preparation Instructions

Combine all ingredients together in the KitchenAid stand mixer with the dough hook (it can be done by hand…it just takes longer).
I mixed them together for about 10 minutes or so until I could successfully achieve a windowpane with the dough. This is where you can pull off a small chunk of the dough you’re kneading and stretch it gently to see if it is somewhat translucent. If you can do this without it tearing, it’s ready.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
After the dough starts rising, it should be kneaded for a minute or two so that the yeast can redistribute. Form it into a dome and place in a covered cast iron pan after coating it with olive oil and a sprinkling of kosher salt. Cut a large ‘X’ into the surface of the bread dough so it can bloom!
Bake on the center rack of your over for 30 minutes with the lid on, them remove the lid to finish it off for another 15 to 30 minutes.

Love (bread and butter),
Carrie

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Practicing for Halloween

Somehow my daughter's inappropiate dancing is ten times funnier when she is dressed like a tiger.


 
I wish she was old enough to actually go trick or treating, because something tells me it would be fun.

Love (my little tiger),
Carrie

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.

Today's quote was said by Jerry Seinfield.  I used to watch his show.  I didn't really get into the cult love of it.  But I love bookstores, so I used this one.

Because I don't have a lot of time, and I don't have a lot to say today, I decided, at least until the election is over, I'm going to post some of my favorite recipes for you all to try.  Then you can tell me how it went. 
Plus I already have this recipe all typed up for a friend.  This one is the BEST.

I've never found one like it on the net, Italian Bob gave it to me.
1 gallon of whole milk
1 quart of 1/2 and 1/2
1 quart of water
3 tablespoons of sugar

Using a large heavy pot, combine all the above ingredients
Using a candy thermometer, heat to 75 degrees then add 3 tablespoons of salt.
Let cook to 200 degrees stirring continuously

Mix
1 quart of buttermilk
4 tablespoons of vinegar

Add to the mixture in the pot when it has reached 200 degrees

Stir the whole mixture LIGHTLY in the pot over LOW HEAT until the mixture cracks and is ready to boil
Bring mixture back up to 200 degrees.

Take the mixture off the heat when at 200 degrees.  Cool but do not stir for 20 to 30 minutes

Spoon out with a slotted spoon, cheese cloth, or sieve and leave a little bit of water with the finished ricotta so it doesn't get to dry.

Yields 4lbs and will keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator, 6 months in the freezer.

Love (cheese),
Carrie

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Seek simplicity, and distrust it.

Today's quote is brought to you by Alfred North Whitehead The reason I chose it is because I have a story regarding Lord Whitehead. 
Back when I was a senior in college and my last name was still Whitehead I  was running out of classes to take in my major to fill my schedule and I was shying away from super hard math classes, which seemed to be what my adviser thought I needed to take.  So I decided to take some classes from the Social Work tier, just to be with some of my friends where were social work majors.  I signed up for Introduction to Sociology.  When the teacher was going thru the class roll, she about cried in delight that there was a "Whitehead" in the class.  She asked me if I was any relation to "THE GREAT LORD ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD, world renowned philosopher and teacher?"  Now I knew the best way to get a grade, especially in a small liberal arts college, was to get on good terms with the teacher.  If the teacher liked you, she/he would cut you slack, or help you out with special tutoring or put you in the best groups.  So in a split second I said "Oh yes!  He's like my great, great, great uncle or something to that effect, but he's in the family tree."
I have no idea if I'm related to Alfred North Whitehead.  No idea what so ever.  But I wasn't about to tell her that.  She was so excited and you better believe that I got a GREAT grade in the class.  In fact she encouraged me to take more of her classes and I got great grades in those too.  End of story.

Mommy blogging
Okay so I have this little "safe" area in front of the tv where Evie and I hang out most of the day.  I have baby proofed it pretty well.  Seth calls it Evie's preschool.  All of her toys are there, I have layers of blankets down to keep the carpet from getting vomit bombed.  There are tons of books and obnoxious noised toys and even odd things that she has loved playing with around the house.  She has a container full of binx that she likes to take out one at a time, put in her mouth and then put on the floor.  She has an old keyboard since she loves to pound on our keyboard, so she has one of her own.  She has toddler cups and bowls since I read something that said to give them to her so she gets used to using them.  Needless to say she has tons of shit to keep her busy.  But for some reason she finds everything dangerous, disgusting, and downright annoying to put in her mouth, tear apart, or break.  It is driving me crazy.  Here is what caught her doing yesterday:

Yes that is the cat tree.  No I have no idea how she got up there.  This is what I deal with daily people.



Alright I have to go do some research for my breastfeeding mentoring session tomorrow!  Hope you all have a great day!

 Love (trouble),
Carrie

Friday, October 15, 2010

About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends

Today's quote was brought to you by Herbert Hoover.  Not to be confused with J. Edgar Hoover, who was the head of the FBI and a cross-dresser.  Allegedly.  Herbert was a president and he hated FDR, thanks wikipedia!

Halloween
I got two sets of really good coupons to Target's photo studio and I have been thinking of taking Evie there and getting her picture taken in her Halloween costume, but like my Dad says, do we really need more pictures of Evie?  Well professional ones anyway.  We always need lots of pictures of Evie. 
I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween.  On one hand it, I love that it signals fall is here and I like the colors and the weather and the costumes and most of all, the CANDY.  On the other hand I hate the kids that are like 45 and trick or treating and the people who ruin the spirit of it all with meanness. 
Most of all I hate Haunted Houses.  Seth has been trying to get me to go for YEARS now and I tell him that if he drug me to one of those that would constitute a divorce.  I have friends that love going to those things and making an event out of it every year.  Not me.  You can forget to mail me that invite, thanks.
Every year I want to have a scary movie marathon.  But then I get scared and chicken out.  My best friend Pam taught me this trick, when things start to get scary, fall asleep.  So that is generally what happens.

Back on!
Did I mention our trip to Orlando is back on?  I'm pretty excited.  I hope Evelynn does well!

Flu-poo
I made the mistake of getting Evelynn's flu shot this morning so she is pretty miserable right now.  I'm going to go rock her for a couple hours and sing her hymns.

Love (vacations),
Carrie

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Unknown
I decided it might be more advantageous to credit the quotations I use in my blog titles.  So that is what that is about.

Back on!
Hooray!  Our trip to Orlando is back on!  I'm excited.  Mostly because I wasn't ready to put away the tub of clothes I sat aside to pack for the trip.  Full of swimsuits and sundresses.  I'm super ready for some warmth.  This morning it was so cold that after bundling up the baby and myself I went downstairs and got the mini fan heater to use in the living room.  And now I'm about to go heat up some oatmeal for breakfast.

Random Questions
Lately I've had a lot of random questions, here are a few:
Who are the people who sing the songs on kid shows, and do they feel as ridiculous as they sound sometimes?  How do you get that job? 
What happens to the stuff on the clearance aisle when no one buys it after it has been discounted?
I wonder what things that I expirenced as an infant/baby shaped who I am today.  Like is the fact that I sing hymns to Evelynn (I swear, when I have to sing on the fly, hymns are the only thing that I can remember) mean that they will be stuck in her head forever and they will be the only thing she sings to her babies?
Where does Evelynn's desire to dance and bop around when she hears music come from?  Did she learn it from me, or is it natural?
What is with the fall weather in Nebraska?  67 to 90 in two days.  Ugh.
What exactly is febreeze made out of?  Is it just heavily scented water?  Because I spray it on myself all the time.

Strange dreams
I've had some crazy dreams lately.  One was about my friend Pam, she found out she was going to die and decided to fake her death so that she could go to her memorial (not something Pam would do AT ALL by the way, if she found out she was going to die she would go live on a tropical island with butterflies for her remaining months or something) anyway, I knew she was alive because I helped her fake her death (is that a felony?) so we were on our way to her memorial (she was incognito) and I didn't know how to get there and somehow we ended up in this hotel elevator, which was HUGE with a bunch of people and it was storming outside and the elevator got turned off because we were at the top of the tower and the wind was swaying and something disabled the elevator.  Anyway we got stuck and then I gave birth.  Very very strange.
The second weird dream I had was that because of the crappy economy the government limited couples to one baby each (what is this China?) and if you wanted more you had to go to court and get permission and take someone else's "couple child claim".  So we went to court and had all of our brother's cards, since we decided that they would never have kids.  So we had four cards.  Then Seth's brother Cody went and had a kid and we had to hide our fourth kid from the government so they wouldn't take him and kill him.  Because apparently I was living in communist China.  I don't know why they wouldn't go after Cody's baby, but either way, weird dream.

Off the grid
So I have been phoneless for about two days now.  I actually don't mind not being able to talk to anyone on the phone, because you know I hate that.   But I do miss the easy accessibility of my facebook, twitter, and internet.  Also my pedometer app, and my pandora app.


Sons of Anarchy
Love this show, and last night it made me so mad, and I realize it's because it is great story writing.  But come ON, can we have one couple that doesn't cheat on TV please?  There are people in the real world in everyday life who don't cheat on each other.  Not just in Nicholas Sparks novels.  I've recently been following the creator on his blog and twitter, Kurt Sutter, so I'm officially obsessed with the show.  Plus his twitter is hilarious.

Better get to it!
Well Evie needs some lunch now, and a lot of attention.  She is all into everything today!  I hope you all have a great day!!

Love (SOA),
Carrie

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content.

Me?  A Mentor?
Guess what world?  I'm a mentor.  Nurse Carol asked me to mentor a young mom on breastfeeding.  I guess she is having some trouble and Carol feels like the girl would be more receptive to taking advice from someone her own age.  Apparently she is college educated like I am and just had a baby.  I don't know much more, I'm waiting for her to get into contact with me via email.  I hope I'm helpful!!

WHY?!?!?  !HY?!
The Carrieberry is dead.  Oddly enough I was headed into the Verizon store to get a camera pixel fixed and on my way there it just decided to give up and die.  By the time I got to the store all that was left of signs of life in my phone was a faint blinking red light.  Of course I tried the battery pull and when I got to the store THEY tried the battery pull, which apparently is the universal fix all for smart phones.  It reminds me of when Nintendo first came out and if your screen went all screwy you had to pull the game out and blow on it and then restart the game.  And for some reason Verizon things this is some fix all secret that no one knows but them, so they do it all cocky like while you tell them vehemently that YES YOU ALREADY FUCKING TRIED THAT.
So they told me it was dead.  And I told them I had a warranty.  So here is something you may not know.  Verizon has these local owned boutique stores called Verizon Z Premium retailer stores.  They are locally owned and deal the exact same product.  Normally I would shy away from crap like that just because it feels like the Walmart brand of cell phone stores, and you know when shit hits the fan and you have to deal with corporate, they will be all snotty about you going to the Z store.  But here is where things are different in my world.  In the Z stores, I actually get more help, more answers, awesome customer service, and I usually leave (though it is usually hours later) with a solution to my problem.  Twice now this has happened.  Frequent blog readers will remember when I was pregnant and we had to get our cell phone numbers changed.  Even though it took forever and we had to deal with corporate, the people at the Z stores sat thru the call and helped us get to the right people and say the right things to get our number changed.  Yesterday was no different.  They even called the store we originally went to and got our policy number and everything we needed to get the phone replaced. 
The bad news is that I have no phone until Thursday.  Hells Bells.  I feel completely disconnected from my life.  I MAY have cried about it last night.

Starving
Okay I'm about to eat my own hand and my lap is all hot from having Nero the netbook on me all the time while I facebook stalk.  I mean, look up really important things on the internets.  Talk to you later!

Love (my phone),
Carrie

Monday, October 11, 2010

We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.

Hi blog world!
I hope you aren't too mad at me about my self imposed censorship.  I did it for my daughter and my sanity.  Politics are not very nice.  It's like government sanctioned and protected bullying.  I realize people need to know the truth, but it should stay in the political arena and not stretch to a person's family or their personal beliefs, if I joke about wanting to quit motherhood on my blog because its been a hard day and I'm frustrated and using my blog as a outlet, it shouldn't come back that I'm a terrible mother who would easily abandon my child at the drop of a hat.  That is just not right at all.  My Mom isn't running a dirty smear campaign and it sickens me that they have resorted to this.  And I'm sorry you dear readers, have to suffer too.  Bare with us, its only like 22 more days. (That is a guess, evil reader minions of my Mom's opponent, it does not mean that I don't care about the campaign or I don't even know what day election day is because I don't know anything about the constitution because I went to DOD schools, it is a guess because I have a seven month old sleeping on my lap and I have approximately 15 minutes to write on my blog before she wakes up and we go on a walk, so I didn't have time to count the exact number of days.)

Anyhoo, on to more light hearted topics.

Vacation, all I ever wanted
It sounds like our vacation is canceled.  Seth is really upset, his group isn't going to the conference in Orlando anymore.  I'm back and forth with my feelings.  I WAS really upset last night because, as readers who have seen the archives know, I LOVE space.  I dream of the day space is like a tourist trip where we can go and maybe I can live on the moon.  Because Lord knows I'm not getting there with my math smarts.  Oh sorry, detour, anyway I checked to see if we could visit the Kennedy Space Center while we were in Orlando because we missed it last time we were there for our trip to Disney World.  I found out, for the second time in my life, I would be in Orlando for a space shuttle launch and would not be able to attend.  WOE IS ME.  If I got to attend something like that, it might be the third most awesome thing to happen to me in my life.  It would be one of those things that Seth suffers thru, bored to death because he thinks the space program is wasteful and that there has to be a better way, a way using renewable energy sources to launch something into space.  So he spends most of the time thinking of ways to fix the space program and I spend the time oohing and awwing like he would if we were at the secret IBM lab or something.  Anyway I found out that tickets were already sold out.  *pouts*  Even worse is there is like four more space shuttle launches left before they retire the shuttles.  So one of my bucket list items will never be achieved.  BAH!


Things I'm working on for my return
I'm going to do a blog staple 101 in 1001 list, suggested by our friend jeni friend over at www.jenifriendphotography.com
I'm going to try to post a weekly picture of Evelynn and her family
I'm going to try to blog a little more about the cats, I know you miss them
I'm going to try a weekly review of a tv show



She's awake! 
Off to do flash cards, or if you are seven months old, eat some flash cards.  Hope you all are having a great day!!!

Love (space),
Carrie

Friday, October 8, 2010

Don't worry readers!

Due to my mother's political campaign turning grossly negative, I have had to suspend the archive portion of my blog. 
I'll continue to blog and post pictures of our vacation and such, I just don't want these vultures to twist anything I write and use it against my Mom, as they have already proven they have no morals and will boldly lie and manipulate facts for their use.  I  can't even imagine  the Momma Bear mode I'd have to go into if they attacked my daughter.
Once the campaign is over in November, I'll be back to full force public!!!


Thanks for the support and for reading!

Love (my momma),
Carrie

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.

Happy Hump Day. It feels particularly humpy today. I am seriously lacking motivation.

Its like a game, really
Evelynn is at that stage where she is actively crawling around and all over the place and into everything and she is putting EVERYTHING she finds into her mouth. Cat toys, fuzz, crumbs, shit off shoes, shoes, slippers, cat body parts, her own spit up, the list goes on and on. And its gross. And not only does it make me feel like a horrible mom, it makes me feel like a horrible housekeeper. As we speak she is playing in the cat toy bin. Just trying to find the grossest grodiest cat toy imaginable to put in her mouth.

I give up
Here are pictures of my kid. Enjoy.




Space bags rule











Love (Toots and Doots),
Carrie

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Equations are the devil's sentences.

Hi blogworld! Evie is busying herself with making music on her fisher price table and alternately trying to lick a cat. So I have a minute.

Evie's a chunk!
Okay not so much, she actually only weighs 14 pounds. Which was a little bit of a disappointment because Nurse Carol comes every other week now and I thought she would make more of an improvement on her weight but she is just too busy I guess. She has had some problems pooping, she is all stopped up so I have to go and get her prune juice or something.


As promised my TV updates.
Sunday:
The Glades- Is over, and ended in the most irritating way, are they going to get together or not? UGH.
Mad Men-We haven't watched this week's, but I'm hoping Roger doesn't go anywhere but it seems like that is where they are heading
Sister Wives- Man I'm stuck, I want to watch constantly! And I'm constantly judging.

Monday:
Chuck- It was a good episode last week, I like the new Buy More. Its has been consistently well done. We need more Casey and Grimes though!
The Event (new)- Three strikes you are out. Deleted.
Mike and Molly (new)- Still hilarious, this is a keeper, I hope CBS thinks so too. I love seeing Sookie every week and featured in her own show.
Castle- I haven't watched this week's episode yet, but I am just sure it is going to be awesome as usual.


Tuesday:
Glee- I still enjoy the show, but feel it is stalling out. I hope it picks up a storyline soon. Like tonite soon.
Raising Hope (new)- Three and your out. I tried, I just couldn't click with it.
Life Unexpected - Last week's episode was a bit better, but come on, did they fire a writer from last season when it was better?
Parenthood - LOVE IT. This last week's episode was kind of so so, but still good.
Sons of Anarchy- HOLY CRAP, I just want to know what is going on and there is no spoilers out there! ARGGGG I can't wait week to week.
Teen Mom (don't you judge me.)- Um, please tell me Amber is being investigated for that beating she dealt her baby daddy. Should she really be allowed to take self defense classes?

Wednesday:
Undercovers (new)- I gave up. Sorry. It wasn't clicking for me.
Criminal Minds - I cried thru all of JJ's "goodbye" episode. Now I have ranted about them dumping her, but that being said, they did a nice job and left the door open for her in the future.
Law and Order SVU- As always, going good.
The Whole Truth- Still loving it
Law and Order LOLA- (new) I'm actually really enjoying this, and Skeet Ulrich is really good, even though i would love it better if he was still in Jericho
Top Chef Just Desserts - I'm afraid they are going to run out of ideas with a quickness
No Ordinary Family- (new) Eh. I just started it but I liked the first episode, I like Micheal Chiklas.

Thursday:
Big Bang Theory- Another good episode, my child laughs like Sheldon, so I get a kick out of the show even more now.
Bones- In the good, I'm not really liking Booth's girlfriend though, I'm not sure why
Destination Truth- still think they should dump the looking for a monster part of the story
Grey's Anatomy - Really enjoyed this episode, especially Christina's and Meredith's interaction. The end was the best part. But I hated how they played out Meredith's miscarriage.

Friday:
Ghost Adventures- Scariest episode ever. I had to stop watching. Twice.
Blue Bloods (new)- Loving it, it gets better with each episode, it maybe one of my new favorites.

What new show's are you all enjoying??

Love (falling in love with new shows),
Carrie

Monday, October 4, 2010

I hope that when I die, people say about me, 'Boy, that guy sure owed me a lot of money.'

Way-hey there world!
We had a lovely weekend with friends and family. Even though I can't say it's "back to the work week" since my job is 24/7 (Evelynn is screaming, clinging to my leg as we speak) it will always still feel like Monday is the start of a LONG journey.

Maybe she will be a hairdresser
Evelynn is currently obsessed with hair. Her own (which I can't decide what color it is, sometimes it looks dark brown, sometimes red, sometimes reddish blond), her father's (which apparently doesn't taste very good at all), and mine. Mine is the worse. She pulls it all the time and it takes everything in me not to have that gut reaction to elbow her in the face when she does it. It is awful. I would cut all my hair off if I wasn't afraid I would look exactly like my mom.

Book news
I just got in the mail Ken Follett's new book "Fall of Giants". It's like a billion pages long. I'm so excited. I can't wait to start it. Of course I need someone to be calm and/or take a nap to do that. But I swear she will be dead asleep and hear me turn the page and shoot up as if to say "What are yo doing? Is it fun? Can I do it?" and then she finds out its not something she can shove in her mouth or squish to death in her pincher like grasp and then the whining cry starts. So hopefully I can start that soon and be reading that forever, because Ken Follett books take a lot of concentration to read and this one is HUGE!

Seven Months
Evelynn has been on this earth seven months as of Sunday. I can't believe how much she has changed since when she was born, and how much more changing she has to do yet. She already likes or dislikes things then when she was born. For example, she used to HATE having a bath, now she loves it. She hated her stroller, loves it now. She used to love just laying and cuddling, and now it is just torture. She used to not mind getting her pants changed at all, and now it is equivalent to being held down by the man. She honestly gets smarter and has more personality everyday, its unreal. We have some friends having a baby and trying to have a baby right now and I just want to call them up everyday and say, IT IS SO WORTH IT. Even on the days it is a little more challenging than most.

TV
I have had grand plans to review my second week of TV viewing sometime this week. I wanted to do it today but someone is requesting that I take a nap with them. And Momma never misses a nap!

Love (growing up, but not too fast),
Carrie