Sometimes Parenthood Stinks :-(

Sometimes I don't like having to be a parent and having to deal with punishment. As our children get older we have a harder and harder time with life lessons. The oldest came home from school yesterday with a bad day, and bad really is an understatement to say the least. How do you deal with days like that? He is very strong willed and when he makes up his mind that it wasn't his fault there is no getting through to him. Calls from the principle is never a good sign, and as wonderful as she is, I dread getting to talk to her. She called yesterday to explain what really happened and needless to say it put me into tears, causing me to deal out a lecture about right and wrong things to say to or about people. Well this punishment went very differently than usual. Usually we deal out the no talking on the phone to friends, no video games, etc. This time it went something like this... The only entertainment you will have this weekend is... Reading. You will pick a book and do a 200 word book report on it, explaining the life lesson the author is trying to tell you, the main characters and a bit of history on them and your thoughts on the book. Then you will write a letter of apology to the people you hurt and why it is wrong to say mean things to them. You will also do your homework packet (which isn't due till next Thursday) by Monday morning, and once all that is done you will do chores to fill the time. Sometimes I don't like being a parent........
Sometimes Parenthood Stinks...

Love day!

Normally our Valentine's day is spent apart. Paul has been out to sea for most of them, sad to say. So usually I am making Valentine's with the boys for their friends at school and then I get a sitter and go out with the girls and enjoy anti love day! Well this year with shore duty our "normal" is anything but... Paul & I decided that since this is the first year we really get to spend it together, we were going to do the whole day as a family!
We started the day with a visit to our favorite spot called "Barbie's Cafe" it is right on the marina of Seabeck. We love it there, a quiet, cute cafe that we feel very at home in. Everytime we go there we always have the best service. After than we ventured to town. Yes you heard me right we ventured to "Town" (20 mins away.) We then went to a couple of shops and looked around, sometimes it is nice to just look! After that we decided to take the boys to see a movie. Holy cow let me just say here that movie prices have gone way up. Can you tell we don't go see movies in the "Real" theatre very much, usually we go on base were it is $3.00 for a movie, $1.50 for unlimited soda, but they only have 1 showing and they were not showing the movie the boys wanted. Anyway... We went and saw none other than..................................................

The Tooth Fairy, not the best movie, but the boys enjoyed it.

Tickets for 4 to the movies $30
3 bags of Candy bought earlier and snuck into the movie $5.00
1 Large popcorn & 2 Large drinks $19.50
Seeing your children's faces when they realize you are going to see the movie they have been begging you and begging you to see....
Priceless

So I hope everyone had a Happy Love Day, I know we did!!!

Paul's Birthday!

Yesterday February 10th was Paul's 27th birthday. When asked what he wanted to do for his birthday dinner, go out or stay in, he decided to stay in and for me to make dinner. Now what's for dinner? Tri-Tip, Coleslaw, Twice Baked Potatoes & Homemade Sourdough Bread. So Tuesday night we took the tri-tip and rubbed it down with none other than Santa Maria Seasoning and let it marinate in the fridge over night. Yummy. For those of you that don't know what Tri-Tip is or what Santa Maria Seasoning is, all I have to say to you is you poor deprived child!!! Tri-Tip is a type of steak, a beautiful piece of meat that is traditional smoked or bbqed, until perfection. Santa Maria Seasoning is a blend of spices. Here is a recipe for this blend

• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons white pepper
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 4 tablespoons granulated garlic
• 6 tablespoons salt

Mix together all ingredients in a small bowl.

or you can order your own here: http://www.susieqbrand.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&c=1&p=7 I also believe Smart and Final has it for sale as well. Anyway... Around 2pm on Wednesday I put the tri-tip in a dutch oven with a little bit of beef broth and put it in the oven at 350* and let it go... 5:30 and presto, a beautiful piece of yummy goodness (as Paul would say.) Follow that by Homemade Sourdough Bread, Twice Baked Potatoes & Coleslaw. So with that I think Mission Paul's B-Day Dinner = SUCCESS!!!

Mondays...

I am being to think that Mr. Monday is against me. We all have been enjoying weekends around here a little to much I guess. It's hard not to enjoy them now that we get Paul home with us every weekend. This morning was a hard one for our household, none of us wanted to get out of bed, not even Violet, she stretched and groaned and yawned a lot on her way out the door to go use the doggie potty aka. the backyard!!! So all I have to say to Mr. Monday is I think you are out numbered. I think it is about time that you, dear Mr Monday take a vacation say 1 week! Good it's settled!!! Happy Monday everyone