Peapod Squad Stuff

Happy Mother's Day...a bit early

Tonight was shaping up to be an early night for me. I got the kids in bed, got a lot of my own work done, got comfy on the couch with my laptop and was excited to have some quiet time for checking email before heading to bed at a decent hour. Then...Sweet Pea woke up crying. Bad dream. She wanted her mommy to stay "wiff" her.

I laid down on the floor by her bed and she crawled down there with me. There we were...on our sides, facing one another, nose to nose. She fell asleep quickly. I started to get up. "Not yet, Mommy."

So I made myself cozy again. I waited. ((soft snoring)) I started to get up. Again, it was too soon.

We did this little dance, my daughter and me, for quite some time. She would be sleeping peacefully until she sensed any movement on my part. Then those beautiful brown eyes would open and her sweet little hand would land on my arm. "Not yet, Mommy."

Sure I had things I wanted to do. But wasn't this just the perfect way to spend the evening before Mother's Day?

I need only to remember those miserable Mother's Days of years gone by when we were desperate to have a baby and had our hopes eroding bit by bit. This is exhausting. But that? That was unbearable.

So I may be a little sleepy as my Mother's Day begins tomorrow morning. But oh how full my heart will be.

It's not what it looks like!

This is an art easel, right? There's probably a cute little girl painting a masterpiece on the other side.



Nope. Think again.



It's a race car driver sitting back there!

Nice try, Snap.

I need a drink of water. I need to go potty. Mommy, I'm just so thirsty. Hey Mommy, can I go potty again?

It drives me nuts. I know I'm not alone in this. We give them their vitamins, help them brush their teeth, give them a sip of water, make sure they each go to the potty, tuck them in, pray, sing songs, tell a story and then lie in the room until they are all settled down and almost asleep. It's our routine. It works for us. Until we get suckered into the whiney drink/pee cycle. And if we give in...it can go on and on and on and on.

Snap is our master negotiator. And he can talk most anyone into most anything. We joke all the time about renting him out to the CIA. He could get top-secret info out of the toughest terrorist.

He had already had his drink of water. He was just certain, however, that he needed "a tiny bit more." I argued a bit with him (I know mommies aren't supposed to argue with their children...but...) and finally said, "I have said no more water. I mean no more water. If you ask again, I'm taking one of your sleep toys for the night."

Silence for a moment. I ignorantly think this discussion is over.

"Mommy?"

"Yes, honey?"

"But I'm so very very thirsty and if you don't get me a tiny bit more water, I will haff to spit on the floor and then lick that water into my thirsty mouth. That would be awful, Mommy. I might get sick and haff to go get shots at the doctor's house. You don't want me to do that, do you?"

Seriously?

And the winners are...drumroll, please.

Thank you to all who entered the DINOSAUR book giveaway in April! We have our winners...

Congratulations MJ!!! You are the winner of the ROARING Grand Prize Pack ($88 value)!

• A copy of the hard cover book DINOSAUR
• Five (5) additional young reader's titles from the Little, Brown bookshelf including: Tumtum & Nutmeg, Rumblewick's Diary, The Mousehunter, Daniel X, Ignatius McFarland: Frequenaut.

Congratulations Danetta, Victoria, Nicole D. and Cathy W.!!! You are runners-up and will receive a copy of the new hard cover book DINOSAUR ($20 value each)!

{You should have received an email from me notifying you of your winning status and requesting your mailing addresses. Please respond to that email as quickly as possible. I'd like to be able to give the information to the publisher next week.}

I hope you enjoy your new books!

American Idol Season 8: Top 5

Tonight's show was great. I just love the sweet ballads...really shows what these guys (and gal) are made of vocally.

Adam, once again, rocked my socks off. He was incredible. And the voice teacher in me was flabbergasted to see how perfectly flat his tongue was on that sustained crazy high note. This kid has it going on!

Danny, Allison and Kris were also really REALLY good this week.

I predict Matt-in-the-hat will be checking out tomorrow night.

Looking in the mirror

Don't you just love when your kids hold up the mirror for you?

Split Pea was being especially sweet this evening and I gave him a big hug and said, "You know what? When you're acting like such a good boy, you are just precious!"

He grinned and said, "You know what Mommy? When you're not screaming at me, you are precious too!"

Mouthwatering Monday Recipe: Peach French Toast

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 T. water
2 cans sliced or diced peaches, drained
12 slices (3/4 inches thick) of day-old french bread
5 eggs
1 T. vanilla
ground cinnamon to taste

• Stir brown sugar, butter and water together in a saucepan. Bring to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
• Pour mixture into bottom of 9x13 pan, being careful to evenly coat the pan.
• Add sliced or diced peaches.
• Arrange bread slices over the peaches, trying not to leave any gaps.
• Mix eggs and vanilla in a large bowl and then pour over bread.
• Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• Let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before baking for 30 minutes at 350 or until nicely browned.
• Serve with syrup or powdered sugar.

Delicious! I found this recipe online and fell in love with it. It's like a fabulous combination of peach cobbler and french toast.

Play along with Mouthwatering Mondays at A Southern Fairytale.

I used to love gardening.

Used to. Our yard is looking so beautiful lately, and I've really enjoyed planting new flowers and trees this spring. Until yesterday, that is. Until the fire ants attacked me.

I was kneeling in the flower bed planting some irises my mom had just given me. I thought the pine straw mulch was sticking my leg, so I just shifted a bit and kept on digging. When I stood up, I saw that my leg was totally black from the knee down...covered in hundreds and hundreds of tiny fire ants. Angry fire ants. And did you know that each fire ant can bite/sting multiple times? Oh yes. I know that now. And they don't just bite/sting, they grab on with their mandibles.  Once they've anchored themselves to the skin, they thrust their abdominal stinger and venom into the victim (that would be me)...7 or 8 times...usually in a circular pattern around the area where the fire ant anchored itself. Doesn't that sound like fun?

And I'm very clear now on why they are called fire ants. Yeah.

So the icing on the cake was when my dad came to drop off some Benedryl for me. He saw a big snake. I'm pretty sure we'll be staying inside from now on.

Happy Spring, y'all.

American Idol Season: Top 7

With a couple of exceptions, this is the most talented group ever. EVER. I think Lil and Anoop have played their stuff out. But the others? Wow. Allison continues to deliver powerful performances that leave me forgetting that she's just 16. Danny is consistently impressive. Kris and Matt grow on me more and more each week. And Adam...good grief that guy is just phenomenal. I cannot believe we've not heard of him before this competition. And whether he wins or not, he's going to have a HUGE career.

This is me eating crow and REALLY loving Yanni.

So when I was given 2 free tickets and backstage passes (and some of my non-blogging friends think blogging is such a waste...ha!) to a Yanni concert, I was all "oh I'm not going to love this music but at least it's a free night out."

I. Was. Wrong.

I did love the music. As a fellow blogger, Secret Agent Mama, said, "This isn't your mama's Yanni." Gone are the cheesy mustache and the long hair. This Yanni is modern, hip, still incredibly passionate, funny, engaging, totally personable. And the singers Yanni now showcases are simply amazing.

I admit it. I'm a music snob. Allow me a moment of extreme self-indulgence to explain that statement. Hubby and I met while rehearsing an opera we were in. We both have undergrad and grad degrees in voice. We have performed and recorded with world-class orchestras (New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Symphony...to name a few). We teach music now. We know good (and not-so-good) music. Hubby wouldn't even go to the concert with me because he "knew" he wouldn't enjoy it (so I had a great time with another blogger, Bridget,  instead!). He should be terribly sorry. Because it was AWESOME! Those singers are phenomenally talented. It was, without a doubt, one of the best concerts I've attended. I'd go to another one in a heartbeat.

And meeting the singers after the concert (boo for Yanni not showing up for the meet and greet) was a huge thrill. Yes, there's the obvious "Wow, those 2 guys are hawt!" but the singers are also really, really nice people. They remembered Mishi from Blissdom '09 and seemed genuinely interested in how she's doing. I was impressed. And in spite of the fact that they'd just given an unbelievably energetic performance and still had 6 hours of road trip ahead of them, they took tons of time with us. Very cool indeed. And did I mention that Nathan and Ender are SUPREMELY nice to look at? Consider for a moment: Exhibit A.

(Yep, that's me...bad hair and all...sandwiched happily between the 2 dudes. I bet Hubby really wishes he'd gone with me now! And just to remind y'all, the camera adds 10 pounds. And there were at least 5 cameras aimed at me at this point. And I birthed triplets. Just saying...)

So, I stand corrected. And if you have a chance to see them on this North American tour, you should TOTALLY go. You will be entertained and blown away.

I want to give a HUGE thank you to the fabulous Arianne of One2One Network and my beloved Alli of Allison Worthington Media for giving me the opportunity!

I leave you with a couple of other pictures I took with my "no cameras allowed" camera. Oh, the pictures I could have taken had our fabulous seats not been directly behind the camera police. Doh!