Back online soon...

After over 7 years of living life with growing girls, we'll be writing up our adventures again very soon. Stay tuned!

Homemade goodness

The other thing that we really got into is cooking stuff from scratch. Eric makes a great homemade pizza with Caputo flour; he stretches the dough by hand and even tosses it to get the appropriate "window-paning" effect. We also joined a CSA at one of the grocery stores and have been getting some great local produce - everything from veggies to bread to meat to dairy. It's been a great adventure in food. We've tried some new veggies such as swiss chard, patty pan squash (those cute ones that look like flowers), and meats such bison, grass fed beef, etc. And because of trying new foods, it's really forced us to find some interesting recipes such as black bean and swiss chard empanadas with homemade dough. The girls really liked them. I even made it with soaked black beans vs. canned black beans. It was quite the undertaking but a lot of fun.

With the CSA, we've also gotten a ton of squash so not only have we been making zucchini bread every few days (and frozen for later enjoyment) with stuff from our garden, we made some great zucchini fries, and this great zucchini - egg casserole. It was so colorful, I couldn't resist taking pictures. Check it out.

Take away the garden veggies and I've been making (not lately) homemade granola - which is delicious with yogurt or as a cereal - and granola bars. You can not go wrong with either of these in case you're interested in trying them.

Also, check out these BLTs. We use Fritz's Smoked Meats thick cut bacon (a local favorite) and discovered a great garlic mayonaise from another recipe and it turns out awesome. It's perfect this time of year with fresh tomatoes. Our suggestion - just find some good bacon. If you're looking for another good sandwich for tomatoes, pair a good tomato with some fresh slices of mozzarella and fresh basil. Yummy! Grill it to melt the mozzarella; you can also squeeze out some of the juices from the tomato slices by pressing it between paper towels) to decrease the soggy factor.

Oh - I can't forget my Saturday trips to the local farmers market. I have this thing for getting blackberries and blueberries from one particular farmer. He's become my supplier. Before they are out of season I have no doubt we'll have a freezer full of berry goodness to be enjoyed throughout the non-local fruit season - fresh blueberry pancakes, blackberry cobbler, smoothies, etc.

Fast forward to summer

It's been quite some time since I last posted. I guess that's what happens when you get back in the daily grind - you blink and it's summer's end. Yikes!

Well, since my last post, spring arrived and so did a new garden in the backyard. It's quite a nice 12x6 plot for a new gardener. This is in addition to the 4x8 community garden plot just down the road. This has been a fun experiment since I can't even seem to grow potted flowers. So far, we've been able to harvest lots of zucchini and basil. (Oops - I guess I have some carrots in the community garden...I wonder how those are doing now.) I'm trying my hand at growing San Marzano tomatoes so that we can make our own spaghetti sauce. Those are coming along slowly. I'm still hopeful about those. As far as the zucchini - we've been baking a lot of zucchini bread. Who knows, if you're around here, you may get some in a goody bag.

We also went on a nice family vacation to Whistler and Vancouver, B.C. for my cousin Jason's wedding. We went around the July 4 holiday and spent some wonderful days in Whistler hiking, walking around the village and then on to Vancouver for fun in the city and the wedding.

School is just around the corner now so we are gearing up for one more vacation before school starts - Disneyworld. This should be so fun. The girls are really looking forward to it - seeing Mickey, Minnie, and everyone else. Eliza is also hoping to go to Mickey's Clubhouse. More to come on that vacation...

Pizza, art, and cupcakes

Molly just turned 6 years old - I can't believe it! Where has 6 years gone! We were in the midst of planning her birthday party when she changed her mind of doing paint-your-own pottery at a store downtown (with someone else cleaning up the mess) to having a pizza party (and now the mess is at our own house). It threw me for a loop but, in the end, it turned out rather nice. We were able to have a five of her school friends over to make their own pizzas, create their own art masterpiece, and decorate cupcakes. Highlights from the whole shindig:

• Making Grandma's cake icing recipe from scratch (need to practice that recipe just a little bit) tinting the icing ourselves! Molly was giving me pointers based on her experience with Grandma.


• Using the dough docker on the pizza dough is always fun (if you don't know what a dough docker is, visit Shakespeare's in Columbia - it's the thing they roll on the dough to make little holes, so the crust doesn't have big bubbles).


• "Taste of the Hill" pizza sauce from Urzi's in St. Louis, yummy - enough said.


• 550 degree double ovens to bake the pizzas just like (almost) in the restaurants. It only takes about 5 minutes per pizza!


• Painting their canvases but even more fun was mixing paint colors to create new hues.


• Decorating the cupcakes with lots of icing


• (This one's purely for me...) Timing the activities just right so that I had enough time to clean up the table for the next round of activities.

Here's a short video from the party!

Cheese glorious cheese - and other things to be thankful for in 2008

If we were to ask Eliza what she's been thankful for in 2008, I think she would say cheese. This little girl loves her cheese - cheddar, mozzarella (even the fresh stuff), and even the cheese slices. I think her favorite of all has got to be freshly grated Parmesan; she can eat spoonfuls of the stuff and made quite a dent in a huge Parmesan wedge from our Christmas visit to Lolo and Lola's house which included a trip to Urzi's Italian market in St. Louis (told you that this was one of our favorite places to go...). Now that I think about it, this girl loves her dairy products - not only cheese, but yogurt, milk, and ice cream. Anyway, you've got to check out the wedges of Parmesan!




With the end of 2008 just around the corner, there are so many things that we can be thankful for but most important:

1. Our health - other than a few minor injuries (ok - mainly me with the broken finger) we've all been very healthy. Molly is learning the basics of gymnastics; Eliza was also in "gymnastics" for toddlers until her listening ears no longer worked - so now we're taking a break. Eric and I are just getting back in the swing after many holidays and our minor injuries.
2. Our families - we've been able to see all of our sisters and brothers and nieces and nephews this year! That doesn't always happen since 3 out of 4 of our siblings live in Texas. It's always great when Molly and Eliza can see all of their aunts, uncles, and cousins. We were able to host a Thanksgiving feast with all of my family and some of Eric's family for a blend of traditional Thanksgiving and Filipino foods. We were able to share an early Christmas with my mom and dad in Fredericktown and then also with Eric's family here in KC including his brother and family from San Antonio. The holidays have been great - full of family, fun, and food!
3. Our friends - we've been able to see a lot of our friends throughout the year and especially during the Mizzou football season. We've also been able to reconnect with long lost school pals through that crazy and addicting social networking site - Facebook. It's been quite fun "seeing" old high school and college pals and keeping up with their lives now that we're (still) growing up.
4. Our happiness - we're just happy people. Probably because Marbles is so entertaining...

Other notable happenings this year include Molly having a wonderful first half of kindergarten. She's grown into quite the 5 year old and has made so many friends at her new school. For Eliza - well - just reliving the world through the eyes and ears of a 2 year old is a joy in itself.

Now we're looking forward to a great 2009 with all new adventures!

The house that the Andi, the OT, built...

Well, it's been almost 4 weeks since the surgery on my broken finger. Less than 2 weeks to go! The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I will have the 2 pins removed. Happy Thanksgiving to me!!!

I'll still have to wear a splint for (hopefully only) 4 weeks - weaning my finger off of the splint, little by little. If I let my finger "droop" on its own, my 4 weeks start over. Wow!

X-rays tell the story

So much for a friendly neighborhood flag football game a couple of weeks ago. So much for Eric and me getting in "football" shape (running routes, changing our workouts, etc.) and throwing around the football for the few weeks prior to the flag football game. The day of the game, tossing around the football for some warm-ups, I caught the ball right on my fingertips. I remember saying to Eric, "Hey, I think I just jammed my finger. It looks really weird." I wasn't in any pain so I taped it up and played the game. The game was really fun and our "side" of the neighborhood won.

Little did I know then what I know now. The next day I went to our on-site health clinic to get it checked out. Again - no pain, it was a little swollen and there was a little bruising but I could still move it with no pain. They took x-rays and it appeared that there was a fracture. So I was to splint it and come back in 2 weeks to determine whether or not I would need to go to the bone & joint specialist (what?!!). (You have to understand - I've never had any broken bones...)

Well, a week passed and the swelling and bruising had gone away but my finger still looked a little funny. It just wasn't straightening like I thought it should be. So, I went back to the clinic to see if I should be splinting it differently so that it would be straight. Then, they suggested that I go ahead and make an appointment with the bone & joint specialist (yikes!) to get it checked out further.

So today, I went to the specialist - thinking very optimistically but also knowing that my finger still just didn't look right. I knew that something was going to have to be done. To the doctor, it was clear that my little bones were no longer aligned (which is causing the droopy finger) and to top it off, my extensor tendon (my dad would be proud of me for using medical terminology) that runs on the top of your finger, had torn a little bit of bone where it connected. After re-splinting my finger to straighten it even more and another set of x-rays with the splint, it was very clear now that splinting will not do the trick. (Oh man!)

So now...surgery with 2 pins to realign my bones and reattach the tendon and bone. Ugh! I don't know what's worse - the surgery or the recovery! Six weeks of wearing the splint 24x7 and then another 4 weeks to wean off of the splint. If my finger droops at any time, it's back to Start...4 weeks of the splint. Wow! Oh yeah - and during that time, limited physical activity...(we'll see how long that lasts. I'll get creative with some sort of exercise.) Wish me luck! Definitely more to come on this story.

**Eric's edit - humble Andrea forgets to mention that even with her broken finger, she snagged an interception for a touchdown late in the game, to seal the win. The Tigers could use her in the defensive backfield I think. They need some help.