Budding artist!

[caption id="attachment_880" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Fun with sidewalk chalk"][/caption]

The fact that my son loves and excels at coloring is not a surprise to me especially since my husband is very creative (graphic artist, videographer, musician, writer). I came home from my Sunday morning walk to Lil B and my husband playing with sidewalk chalk in the shade. All day, Lil B insisted on going outside and was relentless if he didn't get his way. Even I got into the action and made a beautiful butterfly. It's better than watching the movie Cars over and over (I swear, I have that movie memorized).

This has inspired me to start doing more crafts. Sure, they do crafts at day care but it would be cool to help Lil B excel in this area. Anyone have any ideas on books or websites?

You can view their sidewalk art here on my Flickr page.

I.AM.JEALOUS.

I told myself a few days ago that I would stay off twitter and Facebook and turn off the @wilcohq updates to my cell phone. Why? Well, the Solid Sounds Festival is happening right about now and well, I'm so mad my family is not there.

I've been intentionally been looking past their twitter updates all week until I read this morning that you could dunk Jeff Tweedy as he'd be in a dunk tank and you could "pay a price" and dunk him. Here is proof of the said dunking:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Tweedy. Dunked."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="514" caption="Tweedy. Dunked. Again."][/caption]

My question for you Mr. Tweedy ... Why the beard in August?

I'm going to curl up and read a book because I.AM.JEALOUS of everyone at the Solid Sounds Festival.

A day at the fair

"What? You have never been to a county or state fair? You're from Nebraska!"

Yes, that is true, until Saturday, I have never been to a county or state fair. I have been to a carnival (SeptemberFest) and amusement parks (Peony Park, Adventure Land, Worlds of Fun). I have seen livestock shown by 4-H kids (River City Round-up which come to find out IS NOW the Douglas County Fair -- they merged a few years ago to now for River City Rodeo). So, when the Deschutes County Fair rolled in last week, my husband decided it was time to introduce Benjamin to a tradition of his childhood.

(now, on a side note, I have NEVER been to a rodeo either which is shocking considering my dad was a bare back rider in the 70s and has an expansive belt buckle collection. He stopped his rodeoin' before I was born. I see a trip to the Sister's Rodeo in my future next summer).

First off, holy hell -- parking was a nightmare in Redmond! Finally after 10 mins in traffic, we found a spot not too far from the entrance.  The toddler was in amazement at all the people and was clingy to his stroller which is funny because earlier that day he was practically the only boy at a toddler birthday party and showed those girls how to party (by running all over the place and not minding). Our first stop ... to see livestock.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Sheep at the fair"][/caption]

We stopped by the goats and sheep. Lil B was repeating "bah" over and over and over. It was funny the first twenty times but enough was enough after the 100th time. I guess I should be glad he's finally talking.

His favorite were the pigs especially when the pigs were up milling around and snorting. He was giggling away at those pigs and was in love with the piglets.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Priceless pig face"][/caption]

We were all hungry and armed with $30 we had a brat, corn dog, pulled pork plate and two ice cream cones for dinner.  Fair food rocks. I was sorta wishing I had enough money and stomach room for a funnel cake but both didn't pan out.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Lil B's first ice cream cone"][/caption]

It was almost toddler bed time we walked out to our Jeep to find it was blocked in on all four sides.  There was no way we could leave. The Redmond Police and fair folks had no idea what to do. Luckily, one of the cars blocking us was a Jeep with the top down.  They ended up jumping in it and moving it so we could move our Jeep. I feared we were going to have to call for a ride or take a cab home.

I'm looking forward to going to the fair when Lil B's bigger so he can enjoy the rides and I can mortgage my house to pay for him to go on those rides.

Embracing my inner cabbage

I don't like coleslaw. I have tried it and can say that I have never met a coleslaw I like therefore, I gave up on trying to like coleslaw along time ago. A lot of it has to do with it being made with mayo which is another thing I will never like. (On the other hand, I do like potato salad which has mayo but more mustard than mayo ratio so it cancels out the mayo part). My mom made me eat too many mayo and cheese on white bread sandwiches that I have this crazy aversion to mayo now.

One time, my husband and I were enjoying lunch at Crater Lake Lodge when my entrée came with a side of coleslaw. My husband knows I don't like coleslaw but he insisted I try it. I made horrible awful face that the lodge manager noticed and came over to see if everything was ok. I explained my dislike for coleslaw and he came back with a side of green salad.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="143" caption="Trader Joe's Island Soyaki: good for a lot of things"][/caption]

Fast forward five years and in my CSA basket I'm presented a head of cabbage. Last year, I gave cabbage away each time but my friend Linda wouldn't take the whole head. Instead she suggested that I make crunchy Chinese cabbage salad with my Trader Joe's Island Soyaki. This particular Soyaki I often use as a marinade and salad dressing (mandarin oranges tastes yummy with this sauce) . It's a staple in our house. I tell you, if we ever move, one of the requirements will be that there has to be a Trader Joe's in that city. I can't live without that place.

Time to improvise.  I did a little research on google and came up with this fabulous recipe!

Shannon's Crunchy Chinese Cabbage Salad

1/2 head of Cabbage
2 green onions
1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds
1/2 cup Trader Joe's Island Soyaki
1 package chicken flavored ramen noodles

Chop the head of cabbage into thin strips.

Chop the green onions and combine with cabbage in a large bowl.

Add almonds and toss Trader Joe's Island Soyaki.

Right before serving, add one package of crushed up ramen noodles.

Enjoy!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Crunchy Chinese Cabbage Salad"][/caption]

No mayonnaise was harmed in the making of this recipe!

I’m in a pickle

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="pickling cucumbers"][/caption]

Last week I was sitting at a business meeting at a newly re-opened restaurant enjoying a veggie sandwich when I took a bite of what I thought was a dill pickle. My lunch companion noticed that I really didn't care for a bread and butter pickle cut up to look like a dill pickle.

"YUCK!" I said as I spit the pickle out. Not my finest moment but this gave me the opportunity to talk about my love of dill pickles, especially my Grandma's homemade pickles. My Grandma used to spend the summers canning veggies and sauce and making homemade jams. Each summer she'd make her famous dill pickles and they'd be all eaten up by the end of the week!

When I moved from Nebraska, I knew I would miss those pickles and fortunately for me, my 86 year old Grandma found an easy recipe  I could make without too much fuss. She calls them "Polish Sun Dill Pickles." Yes, you read that right, SUN PICKLES.

First, get yourself a large glass jar ... like the one you use to make sun tea with. Now, when I bought my sun tea jar, my husband was puzzled ... "you don't drink tea?" My response, "SUN PICKLES." He scratched his head last summer when I told him and was a little worried about my state of mind.

Wash your pickling cucumbers and place them in a jar with half a head of garlic and 6 springs of dill. I don't usually measure how many pounds I buy as I usually take the sun tea jar with me and fill it up at the store and then put them in a baggy.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="299" caption="Yes, that is a sun tea jar full of pickles"][/caption]

Mix together water, vinegar, 1/2 cup of salt (I used kosher salt) and alum powder and pour over the cucumbers. Put in the sun for 48 hours.  Yes, they are THAT EASY.

Now, when they are done, I put them in jars with the pickle juice and store in the frig. My Grandma was telling me that I don't need to put them in the refrigerator but I just do it to be on the safe side.

Enjoy!!!

Polish Sun Pickles

6 1/2 c. water
3 1/4 c. white vinegar
4-6 sprigs dill
1/2 c. salt
1/2 head of garlic
1 tsp. alum powder

Wash cubes and put in large sun tea jar. Mix above ingredients and put int0 jar. Set in sun for 2 days.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="299" caption="Sun pickles chillin'"][/caption]

And my 6 pound baby is now 2!

Where did the time go? My child turned 2 almost two months ago and I'm finally writing about it. Life has been hectic so give me the "bad mom of the year" award now. Just get it over with!

[caption id="attachment_820" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Someone really likes the Thomas the Train"][/caption]

I put a lot of thought into what I wanted his party to be like. The little monkey is really into Thomas the Train and as luck would have it, a local grocery store had the makings for a Thomas cake. I ordered party favors and cute invites and sent them out to my friends. If you live in Oregon, you know that May's weather was cold and rainy and I hoped and prayed for no rain or snow for that matter. I told friends, "if it's raining at 3:30, the party is at my house." Definitely didn't have rain but it was definitely not sunny. My friends are troppers and gathered at the park and showered my child with fun fabulous gifts. We also saved the gifts relatives sent in the mail for the party. He was pretty into the first couple of gifts but after that, my husband had to open the rest. You can see the photos from the party over here.

Two has been relatively easy for us. Lil B is talking more and more each day and it's really helped that we switched him to a pre-school rather than daycare setting.When we can understand each other, it's all smiles and unicorns. When we can't, well, I sit on the floor trying to figure out what he actually wants. Yesterday he wanted juice and not milk in his Lightening McQueen sippy cup. Oy!

We have three big things coming up in our house:

1. breaking the bottle habit


2. breaking the binkie habit


3. the move from crib to toddler bed

[caption id="attachment_821" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Cake and trains!"][/caption]

I'll be better about documenting those adventure here. I promise!

Cheap things to do around Central Oregon

We hardly drive to Redmond, OR for fun because there are plenty of fun things to do in Bend so why drive to Redmond? Well, when we heard they had a cool fountain kids could stay cool from the hot sun we decided we had to drive up and see it. And it was WORTH THE DRIVE as you can see in this cute video.