I am writing thispost thinking about Noah or Noah bean as we like to call him.  This kid just LOVES popcorn.  He could live on it 24/7.  Now the kid has had his obsessions.  There was a run of Chicken nuggets that lasted 1 1/2 years.  The nuggets had to be “perfect”, aka look like McDonalds.  Now he is on a hamburger run.  This is all good since he is underweight for his age.  I guess he inherited my fast metablosim.  But…..nothing compares to his love of popcorn.  He has loved it since he was able to say popcorn.  He would eat bags of the stuff in one sitting.  Whenever we go to someone’s house and they say they are serving popcorn and a movie we have to warn them about Noah’s ability to eat large quantities of popcorn.  When we pop a bag we always put some in both the kid’s bowls and add some M and M’s.  Cooper simply picks out the M and M’s and leaves the popcorn for the dog but Noah not only eats his bowl but sneaks down to find the bag of popcorn and runs upstairs with it and finishes it.  We pretend to not see him but laugh.  He has eaten popcorn after every bath since he was little.  Whenever he is about to leave the tub he tell me,”fire up some popcorn mom.”

My passion runs a little simpler, Texas Cheese Fries at Chilis.  I think I mentioned it before but I love it.  Oh I love the jalapeno ranch dressing.  Oh my motto is everything is better with cheese and sour cream.

Apparently Cooper believes in my motto.  He too loves cheese.  He always pulls the cheese off the cheese fries.  He will even scrape the cheese off the sides of a dish.  You’re my boy Blu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The kids had a blast at xmas and so did I.  We had so much fun over Carol and Steve’s house.  I will post a boat load of photos of all the week’s festivites soon.

Gregg got me a Zune which is Microsoft’s version of the Nanopod.  I told Gregg I wanted a Nano(even though I don’t know how to work one) but he got me this because he said a nano only holds 5 hours of video where a Zune holds 100 hours.  Woohoo for me if I can just find 100 hours of video.  So far I only have two songs on my Zune.  I love Jet and if you haven’t heard them here are two songs I LOVE.  I hope you like them too.
Look What You’ve Done

Are You Going To Be My Girl

Now I have some Cocteau Twins to download so I have some sleepy time music.  Wish me luck downloading!  I need it

I am so tired.  I was up all night cooking.  I decided to do all my Xmas eve and Xmas day cooking early.  I have all my food made except the quiche for tomorrow.

At the end of summer this year I had a happy hour where I showcased many champagne cocktails.  Well there is going to be an encore tonight!  If you like champagne like I do then this is the reading for you(did you check out the other post with the great cocktail?).  I like to make different champagne cocktails.  There is the original champagne cocktail(CC’s for now on) which you place a sugar cube at the bottom of a flute and sprinkle a few dashes of bitters on the cube then fill with champagne.  The other CC’s I make involve ice cubes.  Usually you would just pour say OJ in a glass and fill with champagne to make a mimosa.  Well I twisted it and made OJ ice cubes and just dropped a cube in my glass.  That is really nice when having a happy hour when it is 90 degrees outside.  Last time I couldn’t find any ice cube trays so I used baby dixie cups and only filled the cup 1/3 and put them in a brownie pan and froze them.  Then we just removed the paper and slipped the cube in.  Well Carol’s flute had a narrower opening than mine and the cubes wouldn’t fit in her glasses so then we had to cut them.  Needless to say it made for quite a mess.  Well this year I found something great(thanks sarah and carol).  Ikea sells these cute ice cube trays.  They are like rubber trays and they come in all kinds of shape like stars, hearts, wine bottles, and tubes(for bottle water).  I bought the hearts.  There are 16 hearts in a tray.  I even checked the size against the eight .99 cent champagne flutes I bought.  Now for some great ideas-freeze the mentioned liquids(except lemoncello) into ice cubes and serve with champagne……………….

Champagne Cocktail Combinations

Lemoncello- pour lemoncello liquor into bottom of glass and top with champagne and a lemon wedge.

 Classic Cocktail- place sugar cube in bottom of glass and dash bitters on top of cube. Fill glass with champagne and a twist of lemon peel.

Bellini- peach puree cube and fill with champagne

Fuzzy Fizzy Navel- peach puree & OJ cube and fill

with champagne

Mimosa- OJ cube and fill with champagne

Nikki- yea I’m going to name this after me.  OJ, Pommegranet, & lime juice cube and fill with champgane.  Served with a lime wedge. 

 ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pour champange slowly when you add any ingredient as it tends to fizz even more!Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG, OK before I was really pissed but now I am fuming.  Court TV is now going to BE Tru TV.  They are changing.  It is not just a slogan but a whole channel move.  Oh and if you saw the shows they are touting.  It is a FOX TV type lineup.  There is no mention of the court cases they show.  Here is their line up.  Can you believe that shit.  Oh I am so mad.  I can’t believe that with all the high  level cases that they haven’t made enough money.  I mean in the last few years we had Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson, and Phil Spector.  That had to have brought in a pretty penny.

OK well now I must rest.  We are meeting Norma tomorrow.  She is from Mi and here in TX visiting her niece just a couple of miles away.  We are going to Rudy’s for lunch and ya’ll know how I love that place.

Gregg got some wonderful presents from people at work.  We got a Tom Tom from his general manager, Pam.  That was quite generous and very much appreciated.  Things are changing here so quickly.  Google doesn’t even have my address in their system and my navigation system doesn’t show half of the streets.  This GPS system is awesome. 

His boss got us a gift certificate for Rudys!  The best brisket and BBQ in town.  Oh man their potato salad is to die for.  Thank god we didn’t live here when I was pregnant.  This was the first meal I had when I pulled into town.  His sales person got us a gift certificate for McCormick and Schmicks.  Gregg hates fish but I love this place.  Oh I can’t wait to get a babysitter.

As I said things are changing so quickly here.  When I lived here last time there was literaly nothing here.  2 months after I moved they opened the outlet mall and Ikea.  Now there is a great variety and they are stil growing.  They are building two more shopping centers on either side of the outlet mall.  One of the pad sites has a new French bakery/cafe.  We also got a big movie theatre, Chillis and Fridays.  Oh the jalapeno cheese fries with the jalapeno ranch dressing is to die for.  The habanero ribs will make you die if you eat them.  Good idea not to order a margarita when eating the habanero!  Any way there is so much growth that we are all excited waiting to see which sign will go up on the next building.  There is a Steak and Shake going in down the street.  I don’t know what that is but I hear they are yummy!

I’m going xmas shopping now.  Wish me luck!  Carol has already beat me out of the house and to the stores!

Our Jungle Java is set to open by of before May 1st.  We have signed the lease and got the keys.  Today I met with the architect and contractor at the site and we talked plans.  We have some great ideas.  I forgot to take pics of the place but I will later this weekend and post them.  I am so excited and ready to go.  This is such a great place to open anything kid related.  The child popultaion is booming.  There is so much to do now and I am very excited to get started.  Soon I will be the bread winner and Gregg can retire in the next year.  LOL

On a BIG side note.  Noah is now pooping on the potty every day and cleaning himself up!  With that behind(ha ha) me I thought I would start on Cooper.  Every once in a while he likes to potty on the potty so I thought this would be easy.  I guess he just likes to go when he wants to do it.  Every time I put him in underwear he pees in them.  I guess we will just have to keep at it.

OOOHHHH If you are looking for something fantastic to serve at your holiday party here is an idea.  If you are on the path please do not click on this link or you will not be surprised Monday night.  So here it is.  Read the article to find out where to buy the product.  I just love my champagne/sparkling wine.  Merry Christmas!!

Little known fact about me I can’t stay asleep.  I am the type that if I wake up I am up for the rest of the day.  That is why the dog next door may mysteriously disappear one day.  The damn thing starts barking at 6:30 every morning.  But my hardest time for sleeping is really some time around 1:30.  This is usually they time I wake up and can’t fall back asleep.  It is 3:13 now and I have been tossing around since 1.  I have no problem falling asleep but I just can’t seem to stay asleep.  Usually I have to turn the tv on and fall asleep to a monotone sound.  That usually stops me from thinking. 

I just can’t stop thinking.  And I think of absolutely nothing important.  Like Jamie Spears.  What was she thinking….what kind of a role model is she….what did her mother do wrong to have such screwed up kids…..Will or should Nickelodeon get rid of her?  Or I think about Noah and all the funny things he has said or done and how I have to get all this on video tape….then I think OK where is the video camera which of course switches my mind to …..I need to better organize the house and get it cleaned up a little more which leads me to…I need to hire a house cleaner now where did I put those flyers they were leaving on my doorknob.

Yea it kind of starts with one thought then progresses to another.  Again it is nothing important I just need to shut my mind off!!

On a side note, we have signed our lease and I am meeting with the designer and contractor at our location on Friday!  This is so exciting.  Our location is only 2.5 miles away from the house and Noah/Cooper’s school is right on the way in our subdivision.  I’m very excited to get started.  Things are going to get real busy after the first of the year.  I will have a lot to do.  Eric and the Jungle Java gang have set us up nicely.  I have everything I need to get started and they have been a tremendous help.  I will take you all on my journey of opening a business.

OK I better try to get to sleep now.  Only 3 more hours til that damn dog starts barking.  Bon Huit!

It is another 76 degree day here.  Yesterday it was nice and blue sky but today it is gray outside.  I think it may rain tonight.  We are having another family fun night outside.  Carol and I were talking about how much we like to be able to get the kids outside during the winter.  She is a transplant from Buffalo.  It’s nice for them to get outside and run around.  The boys are getting scooters for xmas and it will be great that they can use them right away.  Last year Cooper got a push car and we weren’t able to use it for months.  He would just look at it and ask me to push him in the house.

I can’t believe they dropped the Natalee Holloway case.  How bad did they screw that up?  Those three boys just do not seem smart enough to pull this off but I guess I was wrong.  The police believe that they did it but don’t have enough proof.  I’m guessing that she was some nice fish food pretty quickly after death.  I’m sure those natives knew right where the hungry fish live.

No rant today about Drew Peterson.  Loser!

We had a great time at Saturday movie night at Carol’s.  Pictures of the event will be coming soon.  The kids enjoyed movies in two rooms while the adults played Texas Hold’em in the kitchen.  Thank you Carol for the champagne(you know me so well) and Sarah for the Lemon drop martinis.  The poker game ran long again.  We started at 9 and I was out by midnight while Rachel, Brandon and Steve played until 2:45(Carol stayed awake for moral support).  I will win a game eventually.  Always a bridesmaid…….Congratulations to Steve on a one hand wins it all!!!!

Been out of it for a couple of days.  I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy on Monday.  Lovely!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Colon cancer runs in my family so I get a colonoscopy every 3-5 years.  I had an endoscopy to follow up on my Celiac Disease.  As many of you know I have an autoimmune disease called Celiac.  In simplest terms my body over reacts when I eat gluten found in wheat, rye and barley.  It destroys the villi in my small intestines which are responsible for absorbing nutrients. 

This time they only found one polyp in my colon.  They unfortunately found something in my esophagus too.  They said it is common but they biopsied it anyway.  It will be a few days until I get the results.

I usually have these procedures done at HFH in West Bloomfield.  This was my first time with a new doctor and hospital.  Man did they get me in and out of there.  I registered at 7am and in the surgery room by 8 and in my car on the way home at 9:30.  I barely remember anything.  The nurses kept talking to me and I don’t know if I repsonded or not but I do remember asking questions.  They couldn’t find Gregg and the kids.  Finally they paged Gregg and I was on my way home.  I can’t beleive they wheelchaired me out of the hospital.  I’m used to sleeping it off and then walkin out.  It was definitely weird but hey Gregg was happy.  He didn’t have to entertain the boys in the hospital anymore.

Well more later the demons at the HEB parking lot are calling me and Cooper!