Postal package delight!

In the world of Edge, there is nothing more exciting than getting a package in the mail. The minute we get a package we go through the routine of calling Grandma to see if it is something we can open "now"(vs. waiting for birthday, Christmas etc.)
Today Oscar, the spideysuperbat hero, received a new addition to his super-hero wardrobe. A spiderman glove that has multiple attachments including water-sprayer web action, actual silly spray action, and a torpedo/suction cup shooter. Now what in the world could a super-hero fanatic want more?
He has spent the last two hours alternating between the three attachments.
Grandma seems to know just what is the coolest stuff kids could want. Poppy was given this super-cool all zipper purse that if you unzip any of the 17 zippers that make up the bag, you can see inside. What girl wouldn't love a bag like that??
Grandma also likes to include things of great humor quality...
While they were visiting a couple of weeks ago. We went out for Chinese food. Oscar was quite sleepy and grumpy at the time and was not the usual lovable boy we typically enjoy. No, we actually left the restaurant, me carrying him, with him screaming "I WANT A FORTUNE COOKIE!!!!".
Quiet amusing for the other customers and grandparents... to the parent traumatic.
Grandma was gracious enough to include in the package a delightful little box of fortune cookies. Clearly compensating for the mean Mommy's denial of said cookie, because of poor behavior.
Thank you Grandma for supplying all the truly fun things we own and enjoy. You definitely know how to make the grand kids happy!

The Eaton Ranch and a recipe...

Today we Edgies had the pleasure of going to the Eaton ranch. This is owned by Nikki (a friend I met who takes my spinning classes) and her family. They raise organic beef...If you are in the market for some sweet beef check out thier website.

We had the pleasure of roaming the Wawawai grade hills, shovel in hand, eliminating the thistles that dared to rear their fuzzy heads. The kids and Smiley had a great time roaming in the freedom that only a farm can bring. Here are a few pics from the day trip.
Recipe: This is a tasty recipe we like to eat over rice. Poppy loves the stuff... Hope you like it. I would give you the source for the recipe but, my lawyer husband informed me it would be copyright infringement. So, I omitted the source. If you like the recipe and want more like it let me know and I'll tell you where I found it! ;0)

Cajun Skillet Beans

1 medium onion,

chopped 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 celery stalks (about 1 cup chopped)

2 green or red bell peppers (about 1 1/2 cups chopped)

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme (1/2 teaspoon dried)

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil (1 teaspoon dried)

1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano (1/2 teaspoon dried)

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (or more to taste)

pinch each cayenne and salt

2 cups chopped fresh or canned tomatoes (14.5 ounce can)

1 tablespoon honey or molasses 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

4 cups cooked black-eyed peas or navy beans (2 10 ounce frozen packages or two16-ounce cans, drained)

chopped scallions (optional) grated cheddar cheese (optional)

In a heavy saucepan or skillet, saute the onions and garlic in the oil on medium heat. Chop the celery and bell peppers and add them to the pan. Continue to saute for about five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the thyme, basil, oregano, black pepper, cayenne, and salt. Cover and cook for five minutes or until the onions are golden, stirring once or twice. Add the tomatoes, honey or molasses, and mustard, and simmer for 5 more minutes. Add the beans, cover, and stir occasionally until thoroughly heated. Canned beans will be hot in less than 10 minutes, but frozen beans need to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Top with scallions or grated cheese if desired, and serve.

A day in the life of another...

After posting my previous post I re-read it and realized how ungrateful and whinny it sounded. I do still have the dialog but really...did I need to post such trivial matters? Today as I logged into our Internet and our home page came up. NPR web page if you must know...there on the screen was an image from Iraq. It was a Picture of a little girl with blood on her face standing amidst some soldiers. My heart sank and I felt this pang in my heart for this little girl who was in the back of a car that was fired upon by US soldiers. The blood on her, was that of her parents.
As I pulled up the picture Oscar (who had been eating lunch on the table behind me) said "Mom what is that?". I explained it was a little girl who lived in a place where there is a war going on. He went on..."What happened to her?" Deciding that I should tell him the truth (clearly wanting to illustrated that "war" is not a topic to take lightly.) I explained that she was injured by soldiers that accidentally fired on her families car.
Oscar's eyes got very big with sadness and asked "Are the Soldiers bad guys?" (how exactly was I supposed to answer that one?) My response was that they were not "bad guys" but that sometimes in war bad things happen like this.
Oscar then asked..."What about her parents? Why is she so sad?"
I explained that her Mommy and Daddy died and the soldiers were trying to help her.
Oscar got really sad, looked forlorn and went and sat on the couch. I gave him a big hug (a hug that if I could give that little girl I would) and told him that the little girl was probably taken care of (to this I'm not certain). He then asked if her mommy would come back to life? I told him no. The soldiers would find her a home with someone to take care of her.

I'm saddened that there children in the world who don't have a Mommy to explain things to them. Sad that humanity has the capacity to do such horrible things. Yet, hopefully that I may give Oscar the capacity to love and to feel sorrow for those in distress and a hope that he may be able to comfort and care for those less fortunate than himself.

It is about his time I question my decision in sharing this information with my 4 3/4 yr old. I want him to understand that truly there are horrible things that happen in the world. At the same time I also want to shelter him and prevent him from ever having to experience such sadness and terror.

For those of us(myself included) who may take the Iraq situation lightly I would recommend checking out this blog. It is heart wrenching but helped me to truly understand the sacrifice that is taking place on both sides of this war.

If only there could be more peace and love on the earth (And a surrogate Mother for all who are without.)

Balance...

Often on mornings like today I find myself trying to decide between going to the gym or doing some other activity with my kids.
This is when the mommy guilt kicks in and says "Your kids will only be young once. You need to make sure every waking hour is full of some life developing activity." Then my physical body chimes in " You neeeeeed exercise...without it you are not the nice mommy you want to be!" Then the "want to please my kids" Mommy says "just wait until this evening when the husband comes home and then you can actually run outside!"
Physical body..."Don't try to pull that one on me...you know that when Dad gets home all you want to do is hang out with him and the kids."

Back and forth they argue until finally I put my gym clothes on and drag lazy rear-end and children to the gym. Then later in the day post-workout, I remember that indeed I am a much nicer mommy after I have worked out.
So the question is...why do I have all the dialog and indecisiveness in my mind when inevitably the result is the same?

Spring Means Color!

This past week we have been experiencing COLOR. With Grandma in town, Oscar and Poppy are now sporting their new found love for tie-dye. Daffodils are gracing my table (courtesy of my hubby and the grocery store). Oscar can be found basking in the spring sunshine on a Sunday morning. And the Popster has found her sunshiny throne in the living room.

This is the time of year when I find myself wanting to climb out of my wintry skin and bask in the beauty and sunshine of spring. Saturday I did a duathlon with my friend Betina. We had a really great time. It was so nice to be out in the sun in shorts and tank top. (In light of the fact that I post way too many pictures of me in Lycra, I have spared you the sight of my wintry white legs on this blog...should you want to see the some pics from the race you can check out the B-Happy blog.)

Two more days till spring and life is already awakening from my wintry stupor. Life is GOOD!

Bike ride!!!

Today was the First ride of the season. We delivered Oscar to his first birthday party at a "McDonald's".
Earlier in the week when we read his invitation to the party, our conversation was something like this...
Oscar "Mom do you know where McDonald is?"
Me "Yes, I know where McDonald's is."
Oscar "My friends at pre-school get toys from McDonald's."
Me "McDonald's is a place to get food and you get a toy with your food."
Oscar "No, I know, it's where you get toys."

I was quite pleased with the fact that he had never had a "happy meal". Although, being the well-rounded, fair mother that I try to be. I allowed him to attend the party. He had a very good time and exhausted himself on the play equipment. Adam's mother did inform me that he wasn't very interested in actually eating his "Happy Meal". He liked getting the toy but we accidentally left it at McDonald's. He was a little sad to have left it but he received a spiderman puzzle from the party mom so he was OK with the loss.

A little while ago Old Warrior gave me an article that is really interesting... here is the link "Unhappy Meals" .

The Ride this morning was so nice and it was great to feel the wind in our face again. I found that I have a much better imagination about how fast I'm going on my bike when I'm teaching my spinning classes. With a nice strong head-wind I was not a quick as I thought I would be. Today, I'm grateful that I've been spinning over the winter...no saddle sores from the ride!!! Wooo Hooo!

Happenings of a Sick Day

Yesterday we were privileged to endure another sick day. Once again I'm reminded that my two children react entirely opposite to illness.

Oscar becomes a slug. During the entire day he left his bean bag dwelling twice (once to eat applesauce and once to throw up).

Poppy on the other hand, spends the entire day in a

miserable perpetual whining state. She even managed to get herself stuck in the lazy Susan cupboard.

On the up-side I took Poppy out back (while Oscar slugged on the bean bag) and we did a little spring cleaning on the yard. It was such a pretty day! I took a run when rick got home from work and I wore shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt and I still felt over dressed!!

Oh, how I long for spring and summer...shorts, flip flops and no more flu season!

THE HALF MARATHON

Here are the results...

(bib #, name, city, time, place overall, place within age group.)
436 EDGE, Rick Pullman, WA 1:41:57 86 11
437 EDGE, Collette Pullman, WA 1:59:58 182 13

After a week of illness and uncertainty as to weather I was actually going to do the race. We did it (Ricky has very persuasive subliminal messaging tactics). But we had a great time. I'm grateful for his little extra push that made me consent.

Betina on the other hand (my friend who had been training for some time), was plagued with the flu and unable to accompany us. Believe me Betina.. you would have made a much more encouraging running partner than my MP3 player...I have discovered that Grateful Dead does not make my list of favorite music for such a long run! The songs are way too slow and long! It takes two miles to finish one song!!! Next time I will modify my play lists!

Rick had a great time of 1:41, I barely made my goal of 2 hours...in fact the picture guy took a picture of the clock just as I was crossing the finish line.

It was a really nice run (flat, no wind). Our friend Adam (who just turned 16) had a awesome finish as well. He came in 1:31. There is another great picture of a lady shooting a snot rocket but Ricky threatened me that he wanted to blog the photo. So, check out his blog for the sweet picture. Just in case it takes him a while to post it here is the link.

dichotomy...

Here we have the Super hero..."hey Mom take a picture of this!"(he then strikes a pose, to which I'm quite pleased to catch on camera) Yes, this is the boy who spends at least 70% of his wakeful hours, playing "Rescue Hero's".
Later in the same day you will find him at the grocery store insisting on the "Princess" fruit snacks...It must be nice to have such versatility!