To Be or Not To Be ...

About a month ago, on a whim, we decided to stop by the Humane Society. I fell in love with one dog, but alas, the time was not right. We left without a new family member, K crying and talking about it for at least the next few weeks. The white dog, we referred to her as fondly together.

So, needless to say, the conversation of getting a dog has been a frequent one in the house. Earlier this week, I went to visit a friend who just had a baby. I had O with me. She had a lovely little terrier and O and the dog bonded instantly. Many hugs and kisses ensued. I just know my boys need a doggie.

After running a few errands today, you can imagine my surprise when D suggested we stop by the Humane Society today. (You see, in the conversation, he's been the one who's most resistant.) So, I agreed. Apparently about 50 other people had the same idea. I have never seen the parking lot so full. We went to go visit the dogs ... and there were a lot of them ... and the heat of the day had made the muggy air full of a pungent, stale odor. K immediately wanted to leave, he couldn't handle the smell. He plugged his nose and kept pleading to leave, we dragged him around. But alas, he couldn't bare it. So we walked back to the car ...

Only to turnaround and go back in ... because D started waxing about the chocolate lab puppies (they had six of them.) So, yes, we walked back in and spent another good hour talking to the various dogs, testing temperaments ... However, every time I would think that I had found a dog I had a connection with, suddenly a volunteer would tag an "I am on hold"  tag and I knew the dog was going to its forever home soon, and it was not our home.  In the end, we were thisclose to leaving with a dog. But our family of four, remains a family of four. There just wasn't the same magic spark that I had with the "white dog" (okay, not true, there was one dog that had the spark, but it was going to his forever home with two lovely little girls.)

So, the ultimate question ... will we get a dog? What's the right frequency to go and visit the Humane Society? Or do we look at other options? Is a dog the right thing for the family? So many questions ... you'll have to wait to find out the answer.

In the Land of Dolls

As the mother of two boys, I have pretty much come to terms that my house was not going to be overrun with dolls. We walk past the Barbie aisle and I am secretly grateful that my house isn't full of pink tiny shoes and miniature clothing ... but then a small realization hits me. My house is completely overrun by dolls ... they just have a different name: action figures.

Oh yes, my boys have so many varieties of action figures they fill up bins in the play area. And while I don't have tiny shoes or small dresses, I have superhero hideouts and a city's worth of vehicles and weapons. And did I mention it's all hard plastic? So, if one is accidentally left behind from his comrades, my foot becomes the ultimate seeker and unfortunately finds it  - with a side dish of pain.

So, while I don't have an excuse to play with Barbies in my mid-thirties, I do get to pretend to be Batman, the Green Lantern, Catwoman (yes! They do have female action figures!) and myriad other heroes and villains.

It's Garden Time!

Yesterday we made it to the Saint Paul Farmers Market to pick up our vegetable plants for our garden. Normally we don't go to the market until Sunday, but due to other obligations we found ourselves at the market on Saturday. It's definitely a different vibe - that was our first observation. A much larger crowd, a few additional folk asking for money on the side of the road, and it felt like more stands. (That could have been the case for Sunday, too as the season progresses.)

Fortunately, I knew where I wanted to get my tomato plants (we had great luck last year with some heirloom varieties, so I wanted to get plants from her again) and I'd been eyeing another booth for some other vegetable plants. After some helpful discussions with the farmers, we carefully selected the plants that I hope will lead to our bounty this year: two tomato plants, cabbage, onions, green beans (a first for us this year), basil, arugula and zucchini.  Just enough for our two little raised beds.

When the boys get older and we decide it's time to take down the play set in the backyard, I am looking forward to converting that into a larger garden space. Our small little garden is great, but I just keep thinking of some of the other treats we could be planting ... and my mouth waters.

I picked up some asparagus and rhubarb at the farmers market, so I can't wait to figure out what I want to make for the boys with those delicious items!

Here's to summer!

Mediterranean and Mexican Fusion

It's hard to believe that the third Saturday of the month had arrived and another wine club adventure was due. This month, we went to La Chaya Bistro. La Chaya consider their food a Med-Mex fusion, so I was quite intrigued. And let's be transparent here ... I had been studying the menu for a few weeks so that I could be somewhat prepared to order. (Alas, what I've learned is rarely does my preparation really make it any easier when it comes time to order.)

We arrived at 6:15, for 6:30 reservations ... and literally we all arrived at the same time ... it was kind of bizarre (but in a good way). When we entered the bistro, it seemed quiet, there were only two other tables seated, so I have to admit I was a little hesitant. Well, let me just jump ahead for a moment and tell you that apparently 7 is the magic hour, because the place quickly became packed and loud!

But now ... to the food. We all started with salads, as they had four intriguing selection ... and a special. Which is what I opted for ... it was called a Mexican salad:

The salad was composed of fresh greens, radishes, onions, cotjilla cheese and a white balsamic vinaigrette. It was great - and a really good start to the meal - just the perfect size, where I didn't worry that it would fill me up before dinner, but made me satisfied so that if dinner took a while, I wouldn't go all crazy. And frankly, he could have just brought me the two cubes of cheese and I would have been a happy camper, because I love Mexican cheese.

Everyone else enjoyed their salads, so when our main entree arrived, it was not too surprising that we were all once again delighted. I had a roasted sea bass over mashed potatoes topped with pumpkin seed sauce & poblano peppers. If you know me, you know this dish pretty much had me at the pumpkin seed sauce.

The zucchini was an extra special surprise! And now I know that I am going to be grilling up zucchini all summer long. (I also want to give kudos to the waiter, who double-checked that the sauces didn't have gluten in them.) The fish was cooked to perfection and the pumpkin seed sauce was everything I'd hoped for. The peppers didn't add much to the dish (but that is probably because I was so thrilled for the zucchini) but they didn't take anything away from it either. I would say, the dish could have used a little more color, but from a taste perspective ... it was on the mark for sure.

The only true fail of the evening was dessert. They had three desserts, all had gluten - when I asked if I could just get a scoop of ice cream with mangoes (because they had mango salsa on a few items) the waiter told me all the mangoes were in the mango salsas and they didn't have any plain. And I really didn't just want a scoop of ice cream. So I passed on dessert, but the other ladies had some lovely desserts.

So, Med-Mex fusion ... it works!

New Girl

My DVR is hurting. I am so behind on watching the serials that I have invested in ... but clearly not enough to religiously watch the shows each week. Part of it is time, part of it is ... time. We're just so busy with extracurricular activities that frankly I don't have much time to watch TV, so I am easily 8 episodes behind if not more on many of the shoes. I am hoping that I can catch up during my extended weekend/vacation the next week. Because let me tell you, social media is rampant with spoiler alerts and I am getting tired of diverting my attention so as not to be "spoiled." Here's to healing my DVR.

In other news, I have started a new job at work. Truth be told, I'm still doing the old job (or at least portions of it) so it's a bit of a juggling game at the moment. But I'm excited, I've got a boss who is going to be willing to push boundaries and we'll try new things ... it's supporting the multichannel efforts of the big company ... so I'm thinking we'll get to make sure our communications reflect what we are already supporting, but unfortunately for her, week two and I'll be spending it at home with my boys as a previously planned staycation. So, while this first week has been a whirlwind, I'm hoping to start my third week and really make her glad to have me on her team!

The Mighty Bee Hunter

Apparently this morning, O was stung by a wasp. I learned this via a text message from D. I called him to get more details, and he just explained that he had at first thought K had hurt his little brother due to the loud scream/crying. But when he came down, there lay the wasp on the ground ...

It was not until dinner tonight that I got a much more illustrative story about what actually happened.

K proceeded to tell me how he saw the wasp on the floor and knew it needed to be killed. So he went and got a tissue and then gave it to his brother (who is 3.5 years younger) to kill the wasp. Yes, big brother is so afraid of bugs, he gives the task to his 2-year-old brother. So, O, as the brave bug warrior, went right to task and grabbed the wasp with his hand.

The wasp was not a fan of being attacked. So he stung him. He got over it pretty quickly, though and became the jovial little man we know him to be. (And D properly disposed of the pest.)

Upon hearing this story, I let K know that the next time he sees a wasp in the house, he should get daddy though and not assign the bug termination to his little bro.

Soccer Season Is Upon Us

Spring is in the air and the soccer fields are getting busy. We happen to live in a city that has the largest soccer complex in the state ... this equates to an abundance of traffic on the weekend. (Mind you, we're a soccer family, and D is actually coaching K's team this year ... so we take things a little more in stride than if we weren't a soccer family.)

However, I often have to question if the city's infrastructure can actually handle the soccer craziness that happens every year. The Target, the coffee shops, it all becomes crazy busy beyond belief. And when someone is cranky and in need of caffeine, this doesn't not equal a positive equation. That was this morning. As we were on our way to the Living Green Expo, we decided we needed a little caffeine to kick it all off. First stop, Starbucks inside the Target (because we also needed to get cash) The soccer line was crazy (funny, I never knew coffee was a hydrating drink perfect for a post-game refreshment.) So, I told D, let's just go to a cash machine, and maybe the Caribou further away from the fields would be better.

Wrong. The drive-thru was long, and the inside looked insane. But we waited, then because it was so loud inside, the woman taking our order had to repeat it three times and still had it wrong. D's vanilla latte was sans the vanilla. Clearly, management missed the thousands of people on the soccer fields and didn't staff accordingly.

Oh, well ... we've gotten used to it having been here for six years now ... but now it's just needing to remember ... make coffee at home.

Princesses Have Kidnapped My Son

In the last year, there's been a lot in the media about the princess-ization of little girls these days. Every thing is about Disney princesses and modern women are struggling with their young daughters thinking they should wait for Prince Charming. Of course, Disney is combatting this with new princesses like Tiana from A Princess and the Frog. Nevertheless, it's apparently an epidemic and books have been written about it to guide parents in this tragedy affecting little girls everywhere ...

So, then, what's a parent to do when her son is obsessed with princesses? You see, that would be O. He loves the princesses, when he gets to pick a movie it's either a Scooby Doo flick, or it's a princess movie. When we're at the bookstore and he gets to select a new book ... he immediately gravitates to the princess section. When it's bedtime, he tells me to read princesses, princesses.

It got to the point where D actually made a comment about people looking at him when his little son kept yelling "princesses, princesses!" with glee. But it doesn't bother me. The kid likes pretty ladies in fabulous dresses and has an appreciation for a good fairy tale ... if only we could all be that lucky!

Because at two, life should be as wonderful as fairy tales with lots of happy endings.