George...

Like much of the nation, I've been watching the news and activity warily over the threatened impending economic doom. Economics is not my strong point and I don't know what the answer is, but I truly hope that those that are responsible for fixing it figure it out, otherwise life a year from now could be pretty gruesome. I think George says it best:

Too cute for that suit...

Caught Caden trying on my swimsuit, I think he wears it better than I do. I think the Cars underwear really "make" the outfit, don't you?









These days in September are always a little hard for me. My dad's birthday was earlier this week, and I enjoyed a nice talk with him. Happy Birthday, Dad! Tonight/Tomorrow marks the 22nd anniversary of my mother's death, and it's hard to imagine that it's been that long. That night is by far my most vivid memory, and one that has and will continue to impact me for the rest of my life. I clearly and vividly remember holding her hand as she passed, and the heartbreak I felt knowing that the world as I knew it was gone. Part of me will always be that 10 year old girl who misses her mom, but another part of me is a different, stronger person for having that experience. I think that it's affected many of the decisions in my life. My sister Liz wrote a beautiful post. Love you, Mom, still miss you.

Thankfully, I have a fun weekend planned to keep my mind occupied. I'm going up North with several girlfriends for a "Girls Weekend"! We'll be staying at a beachfront cabin on Gull Lake at Craguns. Facials, shopping, and probably a few drinks (rare for me). It'll be fun. Brent will be holding down the fort at home, but that's ok - he owes me as he'll be in Vegas on business next week, and I'm still bitter that he's going to one of my favorite places without me!

Birthday Leftovers...

Here's a few pics from Caden's "real" birthday party. It was tons of fun, we had grilled chicken and beef kabobs (Jo - if you see this THANKS for the idea :), grilled corn on the cob, spinach dip, clam dip, fruit and blueberry dip, and of course, a CARS cake. Actually, it was a pull apart cupcake cake, which ROCKED! No mess, no knife. Plus I bought the premade ice cream cups, so we didn't even need plates! These things were made for slackers like me.

Cade got his plasmacar, and LOVES it. Other big hits were sidewalk chalk, more CARS merchandise, and a huge semi that holds all his matchbox cars.

Fogo De Chao

Oh, my.

Last night we had a rare treat. Brent's aunt generously offered to have all 3 kids come and spend the night. Woo hoo! We decided to take advantage of the situation and planned a nice evening out, with dinner and a movie... well, actually since we had to make our reservations last minute, it was movie and a dinner as our reservations were not until 9 PM.

Brent had been wanting to see Death Race. It had the dude from The Transporter in it, which I'd enjoyed, so I thought "what the heck". I'm pretty eclectic in my movie tastes, but I tend to squirm a bit during those with loads of gratuitous violence and mayhem. This one, I actually really enjoyed. Wow, that sounded bad. It's apparently a remake of an older movie from the 70's that I never saw. Without going into details, it's kind of a "The Fast and the Furious meets Gladiator"... though not as good as either of those, it still kept my attention for an hour and a half, and I left saying, "that was pretty good".

We'd made reservations for a place that opened up last year in downtown Minneapolis. We've been hearing RAVE reviews about it, and thought it was time to check it out. Fogo de Chao DID NOT let us down, wow, I think I have a new favorite. Fogo De Chao is a churrascaria, which is a Brazilian Steakhouse.

When you are seated, you first had the option to head to the salad bar, which I will tell you is AMAZING. Be careful not to fill yourself up, although I could easily do so with all the wonderful things they have. My personal favorites were the wedges of baby swiss cheese, fresh crispy asparagus, marinated palm and artichoke hearts, and OF COURSE the makings for fresh caprice salad (fresh mozzarella balls, sliced tomatoes, and basil). Heavenly.



After we each had a modest plate from the salad bar, the real fun began. I know of a few of my readers are vegetarians, so I hope this doesn't gross you out too much, but I loved it :)

At your table you each had a special "coaster" that was red on one side and green on the other. If you turn it to green, you pretty much immediately have a string of gauchos presenting their hot sizzling spits of various cuts of meat directly to your table. You can say yes, or pass and go on to the next. They carve it table side and you use a little set of tongs to grab it from them as they slice. It's all you can eat, and as soon as you have enough on your plate, you flip your coaster over to red. When you're ready for more, flip it back to green. flip. repeat. flip repeat, and so on until you're DONE.

All the meats were absolutely wonderful, although I was full well before I'd had to chance to try everything that I'd wanted. I got a lot of my taste preferences from my Dad, and this meat was hot, rare, and well seasoned, just how I like it. There was no steaksauce (A1 sauce is an atrocity in my mind), and after the meal I asked Brent if he'd considered asking for it (he has ruined many cuts of meat by pouring that stuff on, much to my chagrin). He said that he didn't cause he didn't want to get kicked out :).

My personal favorites were the filet mignon (of course), Frango (wonderfully seasoned chicken drumsticks), and Beef Ancho (the prime part of a ribeye).



They also brought a few additional sides to the tables. There was a fun chewy bread that had cheese baked inside, which was enjoyable. Buttery toast with paremsan, which was nice. The mashed potatoes were just "eh" and I chose not to waste any of my carbs on them. I thought they were fake, but Brent was tacky enough to ask while were leaving and they assured him they were not, so they must have just been overly whipped. He just wanted to settle a score with me, but I was mad at him for asking :). They also had fried bananas, which I was skeptical of since I kind of have a "thing" against cooked fruit (except applesauce) - I did try a tiny bit. The flavor was strong, and they were hot, and not really my thing.

All in all it was wonderful food and a very nice evening. We'll definitely be back, but at $47 a person, it'll be a special occasion type of place for us.

We're off to pick up the kids in a little bit, and then I'm going to try to talk Brent into going furniture "looking" - we desperately need a new kitchen table set and bedroom set. Have a happy Sunday!

Who should you vote for?

Ok, this is not the best of these tests I've seen, but it's only 25 questions, so I took it anyways. Brent and I "fight" frequently over politics, but in all honesty I take the opposite side mostly to antagonize him. :) I am SO split on the major issues, that there's no candidate that I'm completely happy with. I suppose most people are in that predicament.

Your Issue Profile: 60% Obama, 40% McCain

Truth be told, you're not really satisfied with either of the candidates. You could vote for either of them. You are the typical coveted swing voter. You may want to narrow yourself down to a particular set of issues in order to pick your president. Or start looking at third party candidates. One of them might suit you better.

Should You Vote for Obama or McCain?

The second one I took was even fewer questions regarding fewer issues and clearly left me in favor of Obama. Oh, bother.

You Should Vote for Barack Obama

Where you and Barack Obama agree: Cuba - Education - Global Warming - Health Care - Immigration - The War in Iraq - Taxes Where you and Barack Obama disagree: Abortion

Who Should You Vote For?

The wheels on the bus...

It's that time of year again. Freshly sharpened pencils, a backpack full of notebooks, binders, and glue sticks. $120 calculators that will be lost by Christmas, but they have. to. have. A closet full of new clothes. Anticipation and excitement from the girl and a resigned acceptance from the boy. Madison spent an obscene amount of time organizing and re-organizing all of her school supplies. William took his all to the open house and left the whole shebang in his locker, backpack and all.

The kids started back to school on Tuesday. Madison loves it and William's tolerating it. I haven't decided if he *really* dislikes school, or if he just thinks that as a cool 7th grader he's just supposed to say that he does.

Caden had a fun time going to the open houses. He took his little "Cars" backpack, filled with the necessary supplies. Toy cars, a crayon, and some animal crackers. He was just disappointed that he didn't get to ride on the bus. 3 more years!

Here's a few pics... I'm lucky to have gotten one of William at all, he told me in no uncertain terms that there was no way he was posing for one outside where his friends could see...

Happy Birthday, Dear Caden...

My boy is 3. I look at him and can't believe that my "baby" is now a little boy. He's potty trained, as of a few weeks ago, he's smart, he's funny, he's a handful, and he's mine. He had a good birthday, and is having a small family party on Sunday. We did take him out to Chuck E. Cheese's (aka Chucky Cheezits) tonight, which was followed by a small cupcake party and opening a few small gifts. He was thrilled :)

Happy Birthday, Sweet Boy!

A Fair Day...

Bear with me, I’m way behind on posts! The last few weeks of summer were nice and busy, and chock full of fun summer activities. The Minnesota State Fair is one of my very favorite places to go. I’ve been living here for over 13 years now, and have only missed it twice (with protest). This year, we had a perfect day – the weather was a mild 70-something (since it’s in August, it’s not uncommon to hit high 80’s or low 90’s during the fair), and we all had a lot of fun.

Caden and Daddy watching the parade:

Caden LOVES corn!

Madison had a “Fair-Do” done, and loved. Here she is BEFORE the Fair-Do:

And AFTER! She chose to do it in SeaDevil colors J

We spent a good deal of time climbing on tractors and ATV’s…

Taking a Break…

Fun at the GIANT SLIDE!

Caden is SUCH a chick magnet!

It was a fun day at the fair!