Now this is official!

We have broken other records this winter as well.  No snow yet and warm temperatures.  We have a dusting of snow on our yards, and that will disappear by the weekend when temperatures are suppose to be in the mid-thirties once again.  My neighbor told me a fun story today.  Her son lives in Seattle and they rarely get snow.  Well, they just had a huge storm and got about 8 inches of snow, and of course, no one owns a shovel.  She said that their dog wasn’t sure how to go to the bathroom because the snow was way up to his tummy and he’d just keep walking around in circles.   I think they may need to buy that shovel and make a path for that poor dog.  I’m sure that was quite a surprise when he first walked outside this morning.  Brrr…

After work today, I came home and treated myself and Kelly to a nice cup of hot chocolate with a scoop of peppermint ice cream.   Mmm…that was the perfect “warm-me-up” for a chilly January day.

Chocolate & peppermint...a perfect pair.

What else do you need on a cold night…comfort food.   Since Megan is still needing soft food, I made a Chipotle Mac & Cheese dish.

No Kraft dinners in this house!

It was very good and as my friend Sheri says…Mac & Cheese with a kick!  It did have a nice kick and warmed our tummies nicely.  Now we’re enjoying a fire downstairs while watching the Wild Hockey game.  Who cares what it’s like outside, when all the warmth is inside.

Yesterday I met up with my friend, Betty, for lunch at Panera Bread Company in Eagan.  Betty & I met about 17 years ago, when I transferred over to the preschool center that she was working at, on Grand Ave, in St. Paul.  I actually became her boss, but that was just a title for me, she ran the school much better than I did and I could certainly rely on her for any and all questions that I had.  We made a great team and had a fun time working there.  I eventually left to be a stay-at-home mom, but we have kept in touch ever since.  We used to see each other more often than we do now, but our lives have gotten busier and we manage to see each other once each season…spring, summer, winter & fall.    Although it’s been so many years since we worked together, Betty & I can sit down and start talking like it was yesterday.  We keep each other up-to-date on our families as well.  My family updates are much duller compared to her stories.   Betty’s are like a soap opera and I can’t wait to hear what I missed.  Sad, isn’t it?  But we share the good and the bad news and that’s what keeps us connected.  Betty is retired now and is enjoying traveling with her husband, playing with her grandkids and having lunch with good friends.  Sounds wonderful doesn’t it.  Yay Betty, you made the blog!!

Betty & I goofing around w/my camera.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day…it is also the day Megan gets her braces put on.  This morning, I drove Megan over to the orthodontist for her appointment.  It was suppose to take two-hours to put these full-mouth braces on, but after an hour, she texted me and said that she was done.  I took that as a good sign.

Working on a beautiful smile...

When I was in 9th grade, I had to have braces, so I knew her mouth would be a little sore for a day or two.  This got me started on a day of cooking soft foods.  I had gone grocery shopping the day before and picked up some cinnamon rolls (one of Megan’s favorite treats).  I read the directions and it said to take them out, put them in a pan and let them rise for 4-6 hours, then cook.  Perfect, I thought.   I’ll make them for an afternoon treat.  Well, by 2:00, they were still as little as when I took them out.  No rising had occurred.  So I put them in the microwave and made chocolate chip cookies instead.

Nothing like a pan of warm cookies!

My plan worked…the heat from the oven, helped the cinnamon rolls get started on their rising process and by 5:00, they were ready to bake.  So instead of afternoon treats, we enjoyed them for dessert.

Mmm...dig in!

Some of my other “soft foods” included, Wild Rice Soup for dinner tonight and I made a big batch of spaghetti sauce for the crock-pot tomorrow.

Warms you right up!

Just add garlic bread!

Megan appreciated the easy-to-eat foods.  It’s tough those first few days and just trying to adjust to your eating habits.  The one thing Megan was craving today was a smoothie.    Since it was so nice out today, she and her two friends walked over to McDonalds and enjoyed these.  Nice idea and good to hang out with friends to keep your mind off of your teeth for awhile.

I’m sure Megan will be chewing her food in a normal fashion within a few days and all will be well again and no Motrin needed.  I’ll be happy about that, because I’m not sure how long I can go, only making soft, mushy foods.  ha~

I loved this cake! So creative~

Today, Megan, Kelly and I went to my nieces’ baby shower.   Lindsey has about 3 1/2 weeks left until her due date (February 7th) and she is doing well and looking fabulous!  The shower was hosted by her mother-in-law, Dee, at her house in Hastings.   Lindsey’s theme for the baby is Dr. Seuss, so this room we were in, was decorated in this manner.  It was adorable and beautifully done.  I couldn’t resist taking pictures.

Books & poems all around the room.

I think these are burp cloths. Cute idea!

Lindsey is a pharmacist, so she works every-other weekend.  So rather than trying to find dates for showers, she combined three of them into one day.  She had both sides of the families present as well as her girlfriends.   This resulted in lots and lots of gift opening!  Lindsey did a great job and kept the presents flowing at a good pace.

Should’ve used my panoramic setting to get them all in!

The girls and I bought Lindsey the diaper bag that she had registered for and a rattle & teething ring to go inside.  We all liked her choice of a diaper bag and decided that it was one that Zach could carry around and not be too embarrassed about.  It’s not “cutsie” like some diaper bags can be.

A “manly” color.

One of Lindsey’s favorite gifts came from Aunt Terry & Grandma Sailer.  A diaper genie!  She was thrilled when she opened this.

A must have for every new parent.

Gifts from Peggy & Nikki Sailer. A Lorax blanket.

How cute are these?

She certainly got some very nice gifts and some fun Dr. Seuss things to decorate the baby room as well as decorate the baby.  There were Dr. Seuss blankets, pictures, figurines, a Grinch house, and even a Dr. Seuss onesie for her to wear.  Very fun!

On the back, it says, “Grinch” on the butt! ha~

The shower was a lot of fun and everyone had a good time.  But I have to say, my favorite Dr. Seuss thing of all, were these two boys who came dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2.  They had blue wigs too, but wouldn’t keep them on.  I manage to snap a photo of these two while they sat on Lindsey’s lap.  I had to be fast!

The next time we see Lindsey, it will be at the hospital with her new baby daughter.  I can’t wait!  We are all waiting to find out what name they have chosen.  That’s still a secret….but not for long~

Kelly’s new instruments!

This year, the music department got a set of timpani’s for the percussion section.  Kelly got to be the first person to play these.  She did a great job and really had some powerful sound coming from the back of the band.  All eyes were on her during this song.  It was fun to watch her having fun on these timpani’s.

On Tuesday night, Megan and I had tickets to the Wild hockey game.  We started our night out by going to dinner at a restaurant called, Burger Mo’s.  This is a burger joint about two blocks down from the Excel Energy Center, where the Wild play, that I have been wanting to try for some time.  So last night I asked Megan if she was interested in a hamburger and she said yes.  So off we went.  We ordered the Mo’s Burger Basket and we were not disappointed.  The hamburgers were delicious and Megan enjoyed hers with a raspberry malt to top it off!  What a delicious way to start out our night.  Good food and good conversation.  It’s fun hanging out with my teenage daughter.

The Burger Basket. Yum!

Megan couldn't wait to dive into this!

One thing I found interesting at Burger Mo’s was this updated jukebox.  There were no buttons on it, just a touch screen.  It looked so “futuristic.”  But here it was, sitting right next to me.  Of course, I think it cost a dollar to play a song nowadays.  No quarters allowed here!

So sleek looking!

Then it was off to the game.

Sitting in our seats at the Ex.

The Wild were playing the San Jose Sharks.  It’s been a tough month or so for the Wild.  They started their season out so well, but have been going downhill ever since.  So I wasn’t  expecting to see a win, but hoping for a good game.  Again, not disappointed.  We thought it was a sure win with only 3 minutes remaining, the Wild were up 4-2.  Then the Sharks scored two goals within a minute to tie the game.  Grrr….  The game ended up going into overtime and then into a shootout.   Lucky for us, we got two goals past their goalie to win the game.  What a nail biter!   And we got free hats for attending the game!  It all turned out okay.

Megan & I sporting our Wild hats.

It’s been a fun and busy start to the week and our second half of the week is just as busy.  I will be sure to blog about it on the weekend.

Nate & I played around on my iPhoto Booth

Happy 2012!!!   We had a lot of fun bringing the new year last night.   This year was a little quieter than most because we stayed at home and celebrated rather than going to our friends house, like we have in the past.  Megan, however, did have plans and went to her friends house where she & her girlfriends rang in the new year together.  We texted to her at midnight to wish her a happy new year.  Kelly invited her friends, Lauren & Marika to spend the night and celebrate with us.

Nate had planned a Prime Rib dinner about a week ago because it needed some prep time before we could eat it.  He found a recipe that called for the meat to be dry-aged, which meant that it sat in the refrigerator with cheesecloth over it for eight days.  Then he adds a dry rub of mixed herbs all over the meat and slow cooks it for a few hours on low heat in the oven.

Kelly helped put on the rub.

Before

After!

This was the juiciest and most tastiest meat that I can remember enjoying.  You barely needed a knife to cut through it.  Nate & I enjoyed a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino, which was a perfect compliment to Prime Rib.  We rounded out the meal with fresh zucchini & yellow squash, stir-fried in olive oil with a touch of parmesan cheese and a baked potato.  This beats eating appetizers all night long, by a mile!  I vote we do this every year.

A plate of goodness!

While Nate & Kelly were preparing the meat, I whipped up a batch of homemade Baileys.  This is a favorite recipe of ours and we usually make it this time of the year and enjoy it all weekend long.

I love my Bailey’s!

Nate didn’t just stop at dinner, he also made a fabulous dessert that we enjoyed later in the evening (we were way too full after dinner).  He made a Banana & White Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding.  This was not a low-calorie dessert, but hey, it’s new years and you’ve got to have some fun!  This recipe was your basic bread pudding with one exception…it called for banana liqueur, which meant that he needed to ignite the liqueur in the pan to burn off the alcohol.  Okay, I’ll admit, I was a bit nervous to watch him do this, but it worked and he didn’t lose any eyebrows over it and our kitchen is still in tact.  I actually video taped the process and took a picture.

Nate working the flambe’!

It was cool!   The bread pudding was delicious and turned out perfect.  We decided that we should only eat this once a year though, otherwise our pants won’t fit for too long.

Love it!

When we finished eating dinner, Megan left for her party and Kelly’s friends arrived for ours.  Marika was kind enough to bring us a gift of Swiss Chocolates & a nice card to go along with it.  Very sweet of her.

Had to sample these too!

It was only 7:30, so we had plenty of time or rather…I needed to do something to stay awake until midnight.  So Nate & I watched one of our favorite movies, “When Harry Met Sally” and Kelly and her friends, did makeovers up in the bathroom.  They had so much fun putting on makeup and doing their hair.  They kept busy at this for three hours!!

Bathroom, turned Salon.

Who are these cuties?

Told them, “Show me attitude!"

When they were finished, they certainly looked like they were ready for a New Years Party.   They joined us downstairs and I poured glasses of Sparkling White Grape Juice for all.  We counted backwards from ten and watched the ball drop in Time Square.  It was Lauren’s first time every seeing the ball drop and she was so excited.  When it was over, she says, “That was it?”  ha ha~  We laughed at that and told her, “Yep, that’s the big deal you’ve never seen.”   How funny.

Having fun at midnight!

What a fun and enjoyable night.  I hope you had a good time wherever you spent New Years Eve.

Happy New Year!    I look forward to another year of blogging!     Cathy~

Over the St. Croix River and through the Big Woods…to Grandmother & Grandfather’s house we rode.   The drive to Sheboygan Falls couldn’t have been better for December 26th.  It’s a very strange winter for us Midwesterners, but I have to say that I’m enjoying it very much.  Once we got there, it was time for an authentic Wisconsin Christmas…minus the snow.

On Monday evening, we began our Solberg Christmas by visiting Grandma & Grandpa Solberg and enjoying a home cooked pasta dish that Jere had prepared for dinner.

Megan & Grandma enjoying some “girl time”.

We could also smell something sweet & delicious.  I curiously slipped into the kitchen only to find a homemade lemon meringue pie sitting on the counter.  It tasted heavenly and the perfect dessert to end our meal.  It was relaxing to just sit and visit with them and let the girls spend some quality one-on-one time with their grandparents before their cousins & aunt & uncles show up the next day.

Doesn’t that look yummy?!

The next morning we woke up, had our continental breakfast at the hotel we were staying in and then the girls and I went for a swim in the pool and then relaxed in the hot tub afterward.  Nate hung out on a couch next to the fireplace in the lobby and read his book. What a nice way to start out our day.

We then headed over to Grandma & Grandpa’s again for our Christmas with the Solbergs.  This time everyone came.  Chad & Jody with Hayley & Melanie, and Brett brought his dog, Kimber.  She was a lot of fun to watch all day.  A dog with a lot of energy!  But she did well with all these people in the house.  I think it made us miss Jazz a bit too.

Melanie, Megan, Kelly & Haley enjoying dinner together.

Chad, Jody, Nate & I get ready to play the white elephant game.

Never a dull moment at this table!

Brett & I like to find out “what’s new” with each other.

The Solberg men...hey, where's Grandpa?

An intense game of tabletop pool.

I love the holidays, but I sure love when they are over as well.  I need to get back to some “normal” eating habits and stay away from the cookies and candies.  They sure are delicious and I appreciate all the effort that goes into these meals, appetizers, salads, breads, desserts and even drinks.  Now it’s time for a diet of water only.  ha~

After a late night of celebrating, we headed back to our hotel.  This morning, it was time to head back to Minnesota and pick up our dog, Jazz.  We made sure to stop and say goodbye to Grandma & Grandpa and thank them one more time for a fabulous time in Wisconsin….even though I’m still not a Packer fan!  (okay..I just had to throw that in there).

Kelly hanging out with cousin, Hayley.

Love seeing grass in December!

When you think of Christmas in Minnesota, the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind is…snow.  This year, we have been given a gift (or at least, I think so).   We have no snow on the ground, the temperatures have been hovering in the high 30’s to mid 40’s for a couple of weeks now and all we see is brown grass.  For those of us who have to travel, this is truly the best present you can ask for.

Last night was Christmas Eve.  At our house, it is tradition that we go to church at the 4:00 mass, eat a nice dinner, then open our presents.  Every year, one of the girls always tries to break tradition by asking, “Can we open presents first and then eat dinner?”  This year is was Kelly.  Once again, the answer was, “No…sorry.”    I kept her busy by having her help make the appetizers for Christmas at Aunt Terry’s.

A Festive Cheese Ball!

We opened our gifts one by one and once again, were very surprised and delighted at what was before us.  This was the first year that both girls went shopping at the mall for their gifts.  They typically shopped at the St. John’s Shopping Spree after church one Sunday, but both have outgrown that and going to the mall is way more fun!  Megan bought me a nice zip-up sweater and Kelly bought me the new Janet Evonovich book.  Love them both!    Nate got a scarf from Kelly and a movie from Megan.  Great gift ideas!

Always a good read!

27 Dresses. One of his favorites.

The best part of the night was watching the girls open their last gift.  They started unwrapping their boxes and the letters HP started showing.  They both looked at it and new what it meant, but were certain that it was a fake box.  They continued (without speaking) to open the box, only to find that there really was a laptop inside each one.   They were speechless for a few minutes until reality hit them and the smiles & cheers began.   Such fun to watch them get so excited.  Nate & I were pleased with our purchases.

Kelly still can’t believe it’s real.

Today is Christmas and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, and having teenagers in the house, we didn’t get to these stockings until 9:45 this morning.   There’s no more of this getting up quickly to see what Santa brought, now it’s just sleep in and we’ll get to it later.  Ha~     I still love seeing the girls in the morning with their stockings, peeking inside to see what is there.  Megan’s favorite item was her eye-lash curler.  Kelly was thrilled to find a Slinky inside.  And Nate always fills the stockings with yummy candies and this year was no exception.  I will enjoy them this week while relaxing with my book.

Still waiting for the girls to wake up...

Good morning girls!

This afternoon, we drove over to my sister, Terry’s, house and enjoyed a wonderful ham dinner that she cooked to perfection.  She claims that she’s never cooked a ham before, but I have my doubts.  It was juicy and delicious.   The rest of the family was there and brought appetizers, breads, salads & desserts.  We were stuffed, as usual.

Our Mommy-to-be is looking & feeling great!

Our hostess with her boys.

Courtney was home from college.

We had a special guest join us this year.  Sandra’s mom, Gloria, was here in town from Puerto Rico.  It was really nice visiting with her and I really think she enjoyed her Minnesota Christmas.   With no snow…it must have reminded her a bit like Christmas back home in Puerto Rico.  Well, at least, I like to think so.

Megan, Kelly, Sandra & Gloria chit-chatting on Christmas.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas this year and spent it with family and friends.  The holidays can be a stressful time of the year, but they can also be a wonderful and fun time as well.  Thanks again Terry, for a wonderful family get-together.

William made an appearance.

On Thursday night, the Enrichment group from Hidden Valley performed the play, The Taming Of The Shrew, by William Shakespeare.  Kelly was very excited to be a part of this play.  She didn’t get the part she wanted, but she did a great job as one of three narrators.  She knew her lines, plus the lines of most every other part in the entire play.  She has a gift for memorizing and this came in very handy for her teacher, Mrs Sommerstead, because she took Kelly on, as her Assistant Director.  During practices, Kelly was off-stage helping the actors with their lines, if and when they forgot them.  A huge help!

Kelly narrated in a beautiful gown.

This was one of the funniest Shakespeare plays that I have seen.  All of the kids were great at their parts and were easy to understand.  Sometimes I have problems understanding the “thee’s & thou’s” in these plays.

There were many male roles in this play.

The dance scene.

They practiced over a month before performing for the entire school.  They did three shows during school and one show for the parents at night.  Kelly said that performing in front of their own sixth grade class, was the most difficult because they were all a little nervous to see their peers out in the audience.  There was a wedding scene and Kelly got to play the Wedding March on the piano during this scene.  Her piano teacher will be thrilled to know this.

Kelly w/good friend Kirstyn...who played a servant.

Tallory, Marika & Kelly stay late for pictures. ha~

The show on Wednesday, was taped for them.  So on Friday afternoon, they got to have a cast party and watch themselves on the big screen.  This was a lot of fun for them.  Gave them a chance to relax, enjoy some treats and congratulate one another on a wonderful job.  All of their hard work, really paid off.

The cast & good friends.

They are done with plays for this year.  Kelly is already looking forward to trying out for plays and musicals next year in Junior High.  Break a leg Kel!

Now that’s a hot grill!

We started our dinner off with soup & salad.  Then our chef showed up and started to grill some fried rice.  This was so delicious.  We could’ve enjoy this as our entire meal.  The chef took an egg & balanced it on his spatula then twirled it on the spatula before throwing it up in the air and landing it in his hat.  Cool!   While we were enjoying the rice, he had the adults drink Sake shots from his squirt bottle and the kids had water shots from his baby bottle.  This was so funny to watch.  Some of us were good with this, others had liquid running down into their laps.

Nate was the best at this. He said it brought back college memories.

Megan gets a shot from the baby bottle. ha~

Next, it was on to the sesame noodles, meat and vegetables.  We all got to taste-test these, in a very different way.  The girls had their noodles placed above their mouths, while he made them reach up to grab their meals.  Poor Lauren, she tried to get her noodles, and then he dumped them on her face.  Good thing Lauren has a good sense of humor, she thought it was pretty funny and we all could laugh along with her.

Open up Lauren!

Kelly leaned way back to avoid noodles in the face.

Our tasting of the vegetables was interesting as well.  The chef chopped them up on the grill and then put a piece on his spatula, then tossed it across the grill and we had to catch it in out mouth!  Hilarious to watch.  We all looked like baby birds waiting to be fed with our mouths wide open.   This was not an easy task for Megan.  I happened to be sitting next to her and I ended up with a lot of vegetables bouncing off of me.  Finally, after four or five attempts, she caught her zucchini.

When dinner was finished, we heard a big gong go off.  This signaled that there is a birthday in the house.  Lights started spinning and the song Happy Birthday started up, which we all sang & clapped along too.  A waitress brought out their traditional birthday head for Megan to wear.   She was a good sport as well, and put it on while I started taking pictures.

Love that look!

It was a very fun night out and the food was delicious.  I think she’ll remember this Golden Birthday~

Can you spot the b-day girl?

Last night, Megan had her birthday party.  She will turn 14 this Wednesday.  She invited six of her good friends to spend the night and they had a good time just hanging out, watching movies, playing games and of course, lots of talking…as teenage girls will do.

They started their night out by attending the Junior High dance, which probably helped tire them out a bit.  They said there weren’t as many kids at this dance like others, but they had a great time and such fun just socializing with their group of friends and now, boyfriends as well.

Nate & I drove over at 9:30 to pick them all up.  When we got home, I frosted Megan’s cake (at 10:00) while they all got settled in downstairs.  The girls decided that they wanted Megan to open her presents first, so we watched that and had lots of laughs while she went through those.  Our favorite was watching Megan open Kristins’ gift.  She wrapped it in tissues paper then used duct tape rather than regular tape.  It was hilarious watching Megan try to open that!  Great idea.

Good luck opening this!

She got some very nice gifts from her friends, including iTunes gift cards, bath & body lotions, cd’s, hair accessories, and most importantly…candy & gum.

The goods!

After gift opening, we headed upstairs for cake.  Megan, for the second year in a row, couldn’t blow out all of her candles.  She left three lit this year!!!  All of the girls told her that they were going to tell Matt (her boyfriend).  Funny~

Oops, still three left Megs!

The cake was done, now it was time for the slumber party to begin.  We said goodnight, but I did get one last sentence in before they headed down.  I shouted out, “I don’t want to hear any of you after 2:00!”  They all responded…”okay.”  It must have worked, because they were all very respectful and kept to a low volume all night.

Earplugs to help me sleep.

This morning, I was sneaking downstairs to let Jazz out for a bathroom break.  I quietly opened the door and found all of the girls awake and chatting in a circle.  I was surprised to see them up already.  We told them that we had donuts & juice upstairs.  Within a few minutes, we had a table full of girls enjoying some treats to get their day started.

Breakfast in jammies!

Megan told us this morning, that she was really happy she had a birthday party.  “It was fun, thank you.”   Now that makes me smile.  She’s such a wonderful girl with great friends.

Emily, Beccah, Andra, Courtney, Megan, Kristin, Noelle