Holy Snap'in Turtles

Is it cold out. Man, have we had our share of winter this year! I am soooo longing for the days of capri pants and flip flops, perhaps a nice ice cold beverage in my hand... Sitting on my deck, watching the kids splash in the water, play in the mister, run through the sprinkler... In my head I see this:


And in reality, I'm greeted by this: (this little gem doesn't account for the windchill of course). Adding that made the temperature seem like -34°. Sweet...

You KNOW it's cold out, when your back door is iced over. Gruesome.

Since my last post, the kids finished up their swimming lessons. Madelyn advances on to Salamander, and Mason to Swim Kids 4. Man those two LOVE the water.

I have spent the last week battling a dreadful sinus cold. The kids started skating lessons, which went very well. Mason did great; I can tell he's really going to get the hang of it this time. And Madelyn, well, she's Madelyn, but that defiant attitude is certainly going to make her a better skater! She did great, and hardly fell at all. We've also gone from above zero, (last Tuesday) with snow melting like crazy. (And when I say crazy, I mean, it was hard to cross roads, on account of the rivers of water making it's way to the drain) To a Saturday night blizzard, that left us with another whopping 10-15 cm of snow, and a plummeting temperature. We've been through A LOT in the past week!

Not to mention that we're on the verge of our very first LOST TOOTH! Mason has a bottom front tooth, that's hanging on ever so slightly. Seriously, it could go at any minute. He's had friends lose teeth now for the past 2 years, so he is definitely ready. He wants to leave a note for the tooth fairy, because he'd like to keep and save his very first lost tooth. I told him that him starting to lose teeth was going to break my heart, and his response to me was:

"That's ok Mummy, you still have Madelyn".

Ahhh...Such a sweetie. So now it begins. The teeth falling out, and those darn big teeth growing in, that will look so out of place. Thankfully they grow into those big ole chiclets...

So that's my update for the past week. Tonight, I went swimming. I can't believe it's been so many years since I've done it, and I can't believe I forgot how much I enjoy it. Tonight I swam 1250 meters, that's 50 lengths. Not bad, didn't know the old gal had it in her! Now, to incorporate it into my life on a regular basis. I'm going to try my best. Ideally, I'd like to get it in twice, maybe three times a week. Is that realistic for me? I don't know. My body is screaming at me, "exercise... what's that?!" But it's something I like, so maybe that will be the motivation I need. Plus, I bought a new pair of goggles tonight. What a splurge!

Speaking of a splurge, we had Whiplash Chicken for dinner. Holy mackerel was it good. I think it might just be one of my favorite dishes. It's out of one of the the best of bridge cookbooks, Grand Slam I think. I don't think you'll be disappointed. I LOVE this line of cookbooks. I have a lot of favorites within the pages of the different books, I highly recommend them. This recipe is a must try. The nice thing that I've finally realized (after how many years) and started to do is make the recipe the way it says to, and divide it into 2 dishes, then we eat one, and freeze the other. In the past, I have tended to reduce the recipe, so it feeds our meager family of 2... Oops, I mean 4. (Yeah, like dinners go so WELL at my house) Any way tonight, was part II, it came out of the freezer, and we had a grand meal, with very little preparation. Yum-O!