The Soup Guy

Last Thanksgiving, when my Dad came, he made lots of different soups. That's pretty traditional in a Polish household (though I didn't really know that until I went to Poland). In my Dad's family, that's the way it always was, so he had many years to practice throwing things into a broth and making a delicious soup out of it all. Well, about the third bowl into the soup fest last year and Brian decided that soup is easy to make, tastes great and should become his newest hobby. ha, ha

He tried a few times after my Dad left and everything was a little bland, or too spicy, or not enough something, and then the soup fever died down a little. Knowing that "winter" was coming and the FEVER would probably hit again soon, one day I happened upon a soup recipe book while standing at the Walgreen's checkout line perusing the checkstand offerings. The book was $4.00 so I thought, why not?

That book is inspiration and contains so many different yummola soups! The first one Brian made was the chicken and rice soup which uses rotisserie chicken (who can argue with that?) and delicious spices. This soup made a believer out of me, even though Brian thought it was "just okay."

Look at this soup!!!! Just okay?????????? No way. It was so good, I didn't even add SALT and I always add salt. I think the best spice in it is tarragon. Who would have thought that tarragon was the spice of the gods? There's also petite peas (petit pois) which I didn't know would be such a great addition to soup!

If any of you have any great soup recipes, send them to us and let us critique them. ha, ha We're enjoying the cold so much more now.

Halloween fun!

What fun would Halloween be without carving pumpkins? None at all (for Brian)! Actually, we held off carving until the very last moment this year. Last year, I'm thinking, we had mushy pumpkins by the time Halloween rolled around. This year, they were fresh and tough (to carve that is).

Brian completed the bulk of the job. However, he let the kiddos dig in with their hands, but he used a utensil. That's what I call cheatin' (if you ask me).

Look at those ooky guts. The kiddos actually were scooping it out to start with (until they got grossed out by the texture).

W0uld he dare? Nope he didn't. But the shot was good so I'm using it.

Caitlin was a "bat" this year. She chose her costume (though we had a few fights about some of the other bat costumes she wanted). What is up with the skimpy costumes for kids? Next year I'm going to encourage the cutting two holes in a sheet idea and wearing a ghost costume. We got Cody's costume from our babysitter Carol. It was a little big on him, but Cody liked it all the same.

Here's a close up of the jack-o-lanterns. Brian tried to make a friendly faced one and a scary faced one, but I'm not sure either of them look frightening. One looks more cross than anything. On the front one, the eyeball popped out, so it looks almost crazy. Ha!

We decorated the walkway a little bit more than usual this year. However, that netting for a spider web is harder to work with than cotton with maple syrup on your hands.

I made the ears for Caitlin because she didn't think people would realize she was a bat!

We took them around the neighborhood and made sure they were good and tired before they filled their little Halloween bags up. (Thanks Grandma Diane!) We had fun though and our teeth are not rotting out of our heads, so it's all good.

Finally that boy is THREE!

Finally, Codes' birthday has arrived! Cody kept saying to me this morning, "When can I have my birthday??" He was getting upset about it when I told him all day was his birthday. Then I figured out he meant the cake and presents. =) Cody seemed really PROUD of being three today. He told everyone that called us!

Brian decided to take the party to S a f a r i Sam's (SS from here on down) because it does allow us to all have fun together and it wears these two out!


Here's a pic of them trying to go through the Black Diamond course. The sign says that in order to be able to try this course, you have to be able to get yourself on top of this blue cube. It's HARD! I always have to get a running start! Cody decided he didn't want to do it (after standing on the rope ladder) so I had to haul him up and out. Caitlin and Daddo were able to make it through though.

We did go through some of the jungle gym and went down the windy slide.

Cody tried to go down headfirst on his back. This is how he came out of the tube.

This is Caitlin's favorite game ever! She loves to try to win candy out of these "try 'til you win" types of arcade games. We did get a lot of loot from it though.

There's also a bouncy area that we've never tried before. The theme in the bouncy area was F i n d i n g Nemo. So this particular bouncy area had some great parts to play on.

See what I mean?

Here's Cody. This is his usual when we first get into SS. He always climbs on this ride (right in his initial line of sight) and pretends to RIDE. It's still a little too big for him, but it sure doesn't stop him.

There's also this SpongeBob driving game. Cody doesn't do too well when you put money in, because he can't remember to keep his foot on the gas. So, we tend to let him think he's playing when it just plays through the game trailer.

Unlike his Dad, Cody seems to like any type of pop. But, he does call them all "Pepsi."

Cody blowing out his three lone candles. Brian doesn't yet know the Andrusiak tradition of always adding "one to grow on."

Bri had to relight these candles because as soon as we starting singing, Cody started to blow them out!

Caitlin and I headed over to Albertson's to pick out a cake for Codes. We decided on cupcakes since there are only a few of us and we didn't want to be eating leftover cake all week long. Caity decided on these Halloween and Birthday ones!

These are the 4-wheelers that Caitlin decided to give him for his birthday. She knows how much he LOVES them and picked them out first.

Here is Codes unwrapping his Medical cart toy. I thought it might help to have him NOT just think about 4 wheelers and motorcycles. I wanted to help promote the idea that someday he might just not want to be an extreme sports athlete, but to consider becoming a doctor. heh, heh

It was a fun day. We hope for many more happy birthdays for all of us!

Pumpkin Patch!!!!!!

We usually go to this family owned pumpkin patch to buy our pumpkins. We had a beautiful sunny day and decided to go play and take a little tractor ride.

They have these wonderful hay bales that the kids love to play on! (They also usually have a hay bale maze for kids, but this year they were just stacked into rectangles.)

Here's Cody having some fun on the hay.

My beautiful little Caito trying to jump up onto the bales. They were a bit high, but she managed to pull herself up!

We were the only ones on the tractor ride, so we got to sit up front by the driver (who had his dog with him). We were also sharing this yummy nectarine!

Caitlin and Codes just chillin'.

Look at all those pumpkins. We couldn't bring ourselves to buy some because it was the very first week of October and we felt we would have mushy, gross pumpkins by Halloween.

They had these crazy fat, but flat pumpkins out front that did look like they could be worn as hats. Not quite though. Hopefully, we will get back there sometime soon (though now it's all busy) and get some pumpkins!!!!

Seattle

{I'm just warning you that these posts are out of order, but alas, you get to see all the latest pics.}

So, we went up to Seattle to visit our friends, James and Tisha. I KEPT forgetting my camera, which was so frustrating! But, I did manage to shoot a few pics of this wonderful TROLL under the Fremont Bridge! I can't remember who the artists were, but it was made out of cement with a shiny metal eye!

Brian, Caitlin and Cody climbing all over the troll. It's really amazing how big this thing is, especially the nose! That's a Volkswagon Beetle under the Troll's hand!

Here is Cody climbing up on the knuckles.

Up close of Caitlin and Codes!

Here's James trying to feed Cody to the Troll! For his efforts, he got all dirty from Cody's constant state of Pigpenishness.

We had a great time and only wish we had taken photos of the fountain, the Children's Museum, the Arcade, Pike's Market, etc. But, maybe next time!

My 100th post!!!!!

Wow! I actually made it to 100! That's pretty amazing to me. Finding time to blog seems difficult, though it's mostly because having time to myself just to relax is SO MUCH MORE desired at the end of my days than doing ONE MORE TASK. Sadly, blogging does often seem like a task, especially when blogger puts the pictures at the top and you have to try to move them and move them and move them. Sheesh.

But, now I'm back for a little bloggin'.

{By the way, still not quite finished with that paint job. Sure is hard to do with two little ones underfoot. BUT, might get finished this weekend!}

Transformation (continued)...

I had to prime the wall with two coats because the first layer didn't cover enough of the green. But once I started adding my new color, it was love (for me - the jury is still out on whether or not Brian is going to like it!) {When I was priming the walls, Caitlin came out into the living room and said, "WOW, COOL, white walls!"}

Here's is the paint can - toasted honey this color is called. Wet it looks lighter than it really is on the wall. It's definitely brighter though and I already like it a lot. It feels so happy and energetic.

Starting layer one. The color goes on so smoothly with the primer on there. It also looked a LOT better than when I originally tried to paint over the green.

Wall one completed for first coat!

Wall two completed for first coat!

Here they are with the wall hangings up, just so I can see what I think. I really like it, but I still need to add another coat of paint as I have some "yellower" spots that you can see in person. I think it is going to look great! I'm going to paint the trim a BRIGHT white and accent with black. What do you think? Hopefully the other two walls can get done this weekend (or early next week).

Starting the transformation - primed and ready to roll...

Yeah! I'm finally painting the living room. I just wanted something brighter (lighter) since that room doesn't get a lot of sunlight and the green makes it feel darker than it should. I'm only getting started, but I'll post a few pics and then in a few days, hopefully it will be completed!

As you can see from the above photo (please excuse the TOYS - and books), the walls currently are this mossy green. I do still like this color, but it gets greener and darker in the long winter months.

I started with this wall because it's the first thing you see when you enter the house. I thought I would just get a "feel" for the new color by painting it and seeing how I like it for a few days.

But, then I looked at this lonely old wall and decided, "What the heck? Might as well prime that one too!" Hopefully, I will get both of these walls painted in their new color before Brian comes home and he can be the final decider on if the color is great or just yellow. (The new color is called "Toasted Honey" by the way.)

Swimming lessons

Here are some pictures of Caitlin's first time at swimming lessons.
Here she is with her new goggles (one of her birthday presents from Daddo). She is waiting patiently for her class to start. Doesn't she look so happy to be taking swim lessons?

What? This is the TRUE picture of how she feels. She told me that she's not afraid of swimming, she's afraid of water getting in her nose and mouth. I know EXACTLY how she feels!!! I still have to plug my nose when I jump in a pool. I never got to take swim lessons when I was little, so I'm hoping this helps her learn how to be in the water and feel a bit more confident about it.

I think she's telling Brian off in this picture. Not sure.

Here she is listening to her instructors. heh, heh.

See how she doesn't want to get her head wet? It's hard to see because I really don't want her to be afraid of the water. She loves being in the pool, or lake, or ocean, but is always afraid on the inside. We're really hoping that she gains some skills and confidence the next two weeks.

Settling in...

Here's a little better picture of Raja, lazing around on her new bed. She is doing better and better each day. She is starting to venture out around the house. Yesterday, she even had a chance to see Casey. She didn't seem all that loving towards Casey, but we will give it time.

We bought this little bed for her the other day (before we got her). It seems that she is comfortable in it and has no problem taking naps there. Caitlin was trying to give her the "royal" treatment and had a stuffed kitty in the bed, a toy, and that blue bear from Grandma Diane that was her music for relaxing. Caitlin is surely going to be a vet or else a crazy cat lady.

Here's Caitlin trying to give Raja her very own hotel room! Caitlin is just in LOVE with this little kitty and so far, Raja is purring her head off with all of us as well! The book is open so that she has something to "look at" while she is getting ready to sleep. She also has a tiny blue washcloth as a blanket. We have to pry Caitlin off this kitty most of the time. She is still learning about cat behavior vs. dog behavior. Overall, I think they are bonding quite well!