having just put chocolate cupcakes into my new oven, that I made with my new kitchenaid mixer.

I must admit my gronky brain first came up with: "You made an oven? Man those KitchenAid machines can make anything!"

But that was followed by, "mmm. Chocolate cupcakes!" so that trumps the gronk.

I'm going to be flying from San Juan to Albuquerque in January (3 weeks before the baby is due) with Ellie. I will likely have two car seats with me, plus a stroller, and two other large bags.

The cheapest way to get there (by about $200 per person) is to fly JetBlue to Orlando and then Southwest to Albuquerque. I'd have a 2 hour layover. BUT, I would have to get my luggage in Orlando and re-check it with Southwest.

I suppose I could find a porter to carry the luggage and 2 hours seems like it should be enough, but I'm worried. But, it's a savings of $400.

HAPPY Birthday SPARKY!!!!

t /is not here. is w/th DHfam

::is also glad SeanK and S arrived!::

Is it possible to ship the two large bags ahead, like we were discussing yesterday? Or the second car seat, since I'm assuming it's for later?

Stephanie, I wouldn't do that unless you have a porter. That sounds really stressful. It is a lot of money to save, though, so the porter would be worth it.

So, I just wrote up the story of dinner last night. Anyone want to read?

It's Sparky's birthday? Happy Birthday, Sparky!

That's considerable savings. Plus, you'll be pregnant so you can always play that card. Hopefully, everyone in the airport will bend over backwards to help you, Stephanie.

Oh, and anyone commenting on what a pregnant woman is eating deserves a punch in the throat.

Aimee, I will gladly trade you your whiny three year-old for a cranky 21 month-old AND a whiny 3 1/2 year-old. Liv doesn't want me sitting near Owen and cries and tugs on me when I do. Owen doesn't want me touching Olivia and yells for me to put her down when I try to calm her down.

I want chocolate cupcakes.

bug, I want to hear the story!

Happy Birthday, Sparky!

I may ship the bags ahead, but that can get expensive. Which I wouldn't normally stress about but the dogs are going to NM as well (because I'll be there for 6 weeks this summer, too) and their tickets are $299 a piece, one way.

eta: and I want chocolate cupcakes too! with chocolate frosting!

Oh, wow Stephanie! That's gonna be crazy!

Ok...story...

The Best Kind of Ruined Dinner

My immediate family is currently in Lawrence, Kansas to celebrate Thanksgiving, and even more importantly, meet the newest member of the family--my one-month-old nephew, Cooper. We have been having a wonderful week. We are relaxing and helping my brother’s family when we can. One of the ways I decided I could help was by grocery shopping and cooking the main meals, partly so we weren’t eating out for every meal, which gets very expensive when you have six people. So, mom and I created a menu and went grocery shopping on Sunday, prepared to cook until Thanksgiving Day, which we would grocery shop for later.

Well, that “later” came yesterday. During a yummy lunch of taco salad we all prepared the menu for the feast that would be Thanksgiving dinner. After creating the grocery list, mom, dad, and I headed out. We dropped mom off to get her nails done, and dad and I went and wowed the other shoppers with our shopping skills. We were so organized that it was almost hysterical. We got done shopping, put the groceries put in the car, and drove back across the street to pick up mom, but she wasn’t ready yet. As a matter of fact, she still had quite a bit of the process to go, so I decided to get my nails done as well.

When we finally finished getting our gorgeous new nails, we all ran over to the cottage where we are staying to drop off a bunch of the groceries that we didn’t need right away (there is only so much room in one refrigerator!). By the time we were heading back to my brother and sister-in-law’s house, my youngest brother called to make sure we were okay. We had been gone quite a while--quite a bit longer than we had anticipated.

We got the rest of the groceries put away, and I had to finish a paper I was writing. I sat down to work on it, realized the time and started to panic. I was supposed to cook dinner, and I just couldn’t see how I was going to get that done as well as my paper. So, mom offered to help. I was supposed to be making my famous roasted chickens, roasted fall vegetables, and mom made a yummy harvest salad. I told mom what she needed to do, got out the seasonings I usually use, set the oven to preheat, and went back to my paper. About 30 to 45 minutes later, mom suggested we put the veggies in the oven. I hadn’t realized how much time had passed. So, we put in the first pan of veggies and took the foil off of the chickens so they would brown nicely.

Thirty minutes later we checked everything. The veggies were still a little hard, and the chickens were still pretty white, so we left them in and checked them about every 15 minutes. The veggies came out, and I checked the temperature of the chickens. They were nowhere near done. I went to set the table, and it dawned on me. I had forgotten a fairly important step. You’re supposed to roast them at 425°F for the first half hour then turn the oven down to 350°F. Oops. Big oops.

So, we turned the oven up, and I suggested that we start dinner with the lovely salad mom had made. We ate the salad and chatted a bit, and I went to check the chickens. They were looking better, but when I cut into it, mom and I realized right away that they were still nowhere near being done. My brother suggested that we microwave it for a bit. So, into the microwave went one of the chickens. Five minutes later we cut into it. STILL not cooked. By this point, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I had almost cried earlier, but this seemed to be the time to start laughing. And laughing some more. I went to the refrigerator, pulled out bread, mayonnaise, lunch meat, and cheese and took them to the table announcing, “Change of plans!”

I came back into the kitchen to help mom put the chicken back in the pan to go back in the oven. I started laughing, almost hysterically, and heard everyone else laughing too. My brother had announced in his best maitre de voice, “The chef regrets to announce that we are out of the roast chicken and suggests our world-famous ham (continued...)

( continues...) sandwich instead.” When I head that, I really split. I came back to the table, apologized to everyone, and we started making our sandwiches.

Dad was holding a sleeping Cooper, and he asked if we’d ever heard the story about my Aunt Eunice’s first big family dinner. We didn’t remember it, so he told the story. Apparently, the turkey was so big, that the oven didn’t close all the way, so it never fully cooked. For the next hour and a half, we all sat at the table while dad told us about his family. Some stories I had never heard before, and more of them I had forgotten bits of. We heard about how Grandma Winters met her birth family, about Grandpa Winters and his brothers, and many other great stories. It may have been a ruined dinner, but it was the best evening we’ve had since we came. All because I ruined the dinner I wasn’t even cooking.

Oh, and the chickens did eventually finish cooking--about the time we were starting to clean up the table. We’ll be eating them on quesadillas today and freezing the rest for Ben and Ashley to have a quick dinner sometime after we leave. Someone deserves a quick dinner out of the chickens that took three and a half hours to roast!