North Texas Job Prospects: 2
Darrell: 0
Back to the drawing board. 🙁 No real reason was given but we suspect they found a qualified person to take their original low salary offer.

I added pureed red bell peppers (2 lg) and jalapenos (2) to my masa dough. Onion would be good too if it weren’t for my DH disliking them. Hidden vegetables!! Both Andy and Brendan like them.
I made the same chile-lime (McCormick) seasoned pork bits but after marinating them in the seasoning for a few hours, I added a T of cornstarch to the bag and coated them and then fried them in canola oil with the juice of half a lime.
I topped the hot huaraches with jack cheese, nuked them for 20 seconds, added the pork and then topped it all with guacamole made with garden tomatoes, more lime juice, cilantro and jalapeno. Mmmm-mmmmm!
Here’s a pic of the first batch I never posted.

I ran across these books at Target. I am in love with them. I immediately bought Brendan “My Book of Easy Mazes”, “Let’s Sticker & Paste” and “Let’s Fold”. All say for ages 2, 3 and 4. I’d be dang impressed to see a 2 year old do any of it.
“My Book of Easy Mazes” was an instant hit. He discovered it on the table and started working on them without me even aware of it. The mazes are amazingly detailed and beautiful. He tells a story to himself as he goes through them. I can’t wait to advance to the other Maze editions.
“Let’s Fold”- This one is tough. Precise folding is a difficult skill to master and he loves the results, but the process… not so much. I help him a lot on these and he enjoys the results.
“Let’s Sticker & Paste”- He hates the idea of free play. Give him a blank ocean and some fish stickers and he doesn’t want to do anything. Give him a picture of an apple with a big white circle in it and a round red sticker- and he wants to get the sticker just so on it. He likes to fix and obvious problem and do things with obvious answers. He did this one just now and I have to laugh- only 1 correctly placed item. To give him credit- here in the land of sun & heat, he doesn’t remember what mittens are and has never seen a scarf. But the shoes make me laugh the hardest. Rotating them didn’t occur to him. LOL. I was rather impressed with the explanation that stickers are a pre-pasting activity. They are learning to paste an object down without having to deal with glue or paste yet.

Except for the mazes, each page gives you dialogue you can choose to use and great instructions. The beginning of the books detail how to use them. They tell you not to progress through the pages too quickly- to leave your child wanting more. And also, to let them make mistakes. That one is hard for me. They are made extremely well with high quality paper and bright colors. They only cost $6.95 too.
I am looking forward to buying more when he has completed these.

From this

to this

And by special request, these…

About what I expected. :/
Hello Jennifer:
Thank you for contacting McDonald’s.
We are sorry you are disappointed that our international products are not available at your local McDonald’s. With approximately 14,000 U.S. restaurants, we are always reviewing our menu and trying to provide variety while meeting the taste preferences of our customers locally. As such, we offer some products in certain parts of the country while not in others. Your comments are important to us and will be shared with our regional management responsible for the McDonald’s restaurants in your area.
Again, thank you for your interest in McDonald’s.
Shasksia
McDonald’s Customer Response Center

Hey! Andy says ball now! 😀

Ohhh… this would make me so happy if it came true! I’ll let you know if they respond.
July 23, 2007
Dear McDonalds,
I keep reading and hearing about the neat menu items that different McDonalds locations carry around the globe. We want to try them! Wouldn’t it boost your sales dramatically to host a McDonalds meal from a different country once a month for a year?
Shrimp nuggets! Gyro burgers! Teriyaki chicken! Imagine the excitement! And it would cost tons less than other specials- no inventing or public testing necessary!! Please bring the world to my McDonalds!!
Thank you for your consideration,
The H Family

Well, Andy woke up about 1 1/2-2 hours early. Then Brendan did as well. DH had to leave for an early consulting appt- and they pulled their “we’re not ready for you yet!” act on him the 2nd week in a row. Can’t you people call the night before?!
So we are all up.
Andy is being cute. He’s in his highchair eating banana bread and saying “bite… bite… hahahahahaha” over and over. He’s happily babbling and swinging his feet and chuckling. Evil morning baby. LOL.
Reminds me… Bren is getting better at noticing Andy. He really can’t help it- Andy is so obviously thrilled with any Bren attention he gets. Andy has taken to escaping to the bathroom any time he can. He loves the tub and once vaulted himself face first into it before I got to him. Last night, after realizing Andy was no longer in the room with us, DH went looking for him. He peeked into the bathroom and Bren was standing in the tub singing to Andy who was kneeling on the floor hanging onto the side. Awww. Bren really does a lot with Andy when we aren’t paying attention. 😀
*****
Here are some of my notes that I’ve been lax in posting about:
July 1st- Andy pulled up to his knees beside me while I was eating rice cake snacks. Kept saying “Bah! Bah! Bah!” I do believe he meant bite! 😀 Also, makes a choking sound or a fake cry to get my attention.
July 2- Bren: “This is gonna be the great food I ever yummy!”
July 5- Andy has 7 teeth- 4 top and 3 bottom. Turns off his nursery room light when you hold him close to the switch.
July 6- Bren: “Mom- would you cut out?” Haha- he meant cut IT out.
July 7- Me to Waynell: “All this stuff is Darrell’s to pack or figure out. Darrell’s bookcase… Darrell’s stuff in the storage room…the garage… and then most of what’s left we can’t pack yet… current clothes and bedding, our dishes….”
Brendan chimes in: “our hands, our eyeballs….” Lol!
Also, Mimi sat down on the couch next to Bren. Bren tells her “sit your butt down there (points to florr), there isn’t enough room on here.”
July 10- Pulled up to a stand 3 times on Mimi’s legs. Also day of tub. Note to self: Keep bathroom door closed.
7/14 Andy is the army crawling master and just now is doing some regular crawling. He says Mama, Dada, Mimi (his grandma), bite (bah), more (moh), hi and he understands “go get it”, “come here”, his brother’s name, ball and “up” (ie pick you up). He’ll even say “Wah?” when you call his name making him easy to find. He eats very well but is starting to refuse some veggies. He likes bold flavor!!!
He claps, high fives, snaps his fingers, waves hi/bye, bonks heads, kisses when asked, lays his head on your shoulder and croons “AAAAAA!” when you pick him up and loves balls of any kind, the foam tub letters, bubbles and magnets on the fridge.
ETA: Huh. As I was standing at the sink doing dishes, Andy crawled up, raised his arms and said, “Bup? Bup? Bup? Bup?” He wants UP!!! 😀 WOW, not yet 11 months and he says 7 words!
AF started yesterday (33 day cycle). Today = hormonal mess. I haven’t been taking any Metformin because I don’t want to pay for it or a gyn visit so it is good to see a normal for me length between visits.

DH’s request since he did a buttload of yardwork today. We have driven by it but never stopped. It’s been on his “must hit” list for awhile. We looked it up on the net and it’s a chain- largely in Iowa but another location here and there, one being here. The only one in Texas.
Anyway, just ordered a bacon cheddar thick crust and an italian sausage black olive. Plus the smallest order of ribs because I’ve always wanted to try St Louis style bbq. I don’t think I ever have. Supposed to be vastly different from TX style.
$30. WIth a coupon. Ouch. I hope it’s worth it.
ETA: Official Review
Pizza- their crusts are a notch thinner than I think they should be- Thick was original to me and while not crunchy, original was too thin. So that was a tad disappointing.
They got my order wrong. My pizza was supposed to be extra sauce (I could hardly detect any and couldn’t taste it at all), substitute cheddar (check), bacon (only got it on half the pizza) and onion on half (check). The bacon was good and plenty, the onion was minimal. Tasted fine. Not greasy at all. Could have used more cheese.
DH’s pizza was made correctly to his specs- you could taste the extra sauce and they gave him a ton of black olives. The sauce was really good. The crust was fine but nuthin special. The sausage- I don’t even remember it so nuthin special there.
My ribs…. UGH! Meltingly tender… NOT! They weren’t even RIBS- but rib ends or something. They were meaty (though not high grade meat) but the sauce was really excellent. I got such a small amount for $5 that I was disgusted before I tried them. It looked like a doggie bag of rejects. Disappointing. Very.
I’ll stick to my Papa John’s- though they recently ticked me off too by refusing to honor the coupon in the paper. Huh?! They almost lost me as a customer but I can’t find better pizza. We did go to a different location for awhile though. I will NOT pay $15 for a single large pizza unless it is chicago style.
I wonder what kind of new places we’ll get to try if we move? I know there is a Pizzeria Uno near the Ft Worth train station. YUM!

A- Attached or Single? Attached- 7 years married, 12 years together
B- Best Friend: I don’t think I have any that aren’t already family. That’s sad.
C- Cake or Pie: Cake. CAKEY!!!! But has to have deep fudge frosting or real buttercream. None of that whipped crap.
D- Drink of Choice: Diet flavored Coke
E- Essential Item: caffeine
F- Favourite Color: DK blue
G- Gummi Bears or Worms? worms
H- Hometown: Was born just outside of Chicago
I- Indulgence: CAKEY!!!
J- January or February: January- a new start
K- Kids: Brendan and Andy- my snuggle-bugs. 😀
L- Life is incomplete without: my family
M- Marriage Date: April 29, 2000
N- Number of Siblings: 2- I’m the girl in between 2 boys
O- Oranges or Apples? apples, I guess. How about strawberries, peaches, watermelon… anything else?
P- Phobia: Snakes, driving in traffic, heights
Q- Favourite Quote: it’s too early for this one.
R- Reasons to smile: We just might be moving closer to family!
S- Season: Fall- a blessing after scorching summers
T- Tag: If you’re reading this, you’re tagged!
V – Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals? Oooh! Definitely animals!
W- Worst Habit: Sugar Addict
X – X-rays or Ultrasounds? Ultrasounds!
Y- Your Favorite Foods: Thin hot chips with yummy queso, Lettuce Factory enchiladas and puffy tacos, CAKEY!!!
Positive Traits: Caring, honest, motivate others
Negative Traits: lazy, don’t much care for housecleaning
Likes: vacations, babies, having shopping money, having a clean house, date nights, books I can’t put down, cooking
Dislikes: toddlers ;), rude people, people who just don’t give a d@mn, being poor, being fat