Seriously, this is Easy Alfredo Sauce

As are most of my recipes, this is also snagged off of Allrecipes.com. We lurves it in our house, even Miss O. It can be gussied up or down and served with whatever your favorite pasta is. Tonight, we're having it with mushroom raviolis. Yum.

Enjoy!

Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
2 teaspoons garlic powder (we put in minced garlic because that's who we are!)
2 cups milk
6 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
(and I add some nutmeg for giggles and grins)

DIRECTIONS
Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Add cream cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps. Stir in Parmesan and pepper. Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long. Toss with hot pasta to serve.

"High Risk" for nasty weather tonight.

Ugh (or Uhg, as I just typed. Maybe that's the more severe aggravated sigh???). Man, I hate nasty weather. Not because I am afraid of it, but when it happens at night, I worry that I won't hear any tornado warnings sirens going off and we'll sleep right through it (we tend to sleep with white noise makers). I have to kinda laugh at myself about that last statement because, truth be told, I am often wide awake during bad parts of storms because I am worried about sleeping through them.

The GOOD news is that now we have 30 posts out of our garage, Super J will be able to park the "White Giant" (aka his big ol' white truck) in the garage so we don't have to fret about hail damage.

Yay Mailbox replacement day.

Busy day planned...and (just updated) some unexpected things.

So, Super J has been out and about this morning since the wee hours, pulling various neighbors mailboxes out of the ground. This is part of a neighborhood beautification opportunity that he set up to replace some plastic mailboxes (or other less attractive options) that were put in when the subdivision was built with some really sturdy, set in concrete mailbox posts. I think he's replacing about 30 of them. A local fence company has come out this morning to dig holes and pour the concrete and then once everything gets set, Super J will stain the posts and put on the mailboxes (maybe not in that order...I am not 100% sure the hows/whens parts of this project).

For me, I'm going to be getting stuff ready for my trip tomorrow. I'm heading to the next state to visit my mom...by MYSELF! Yay. This means I need to do laundry and get stuff ready for the girls to spend Friday with their aunt (while J is working). I'll be back Sunday afternoon. This is kind of a tradition I started when pregnant with Miss O and it was so nice.

This could be an interesting weekend for Super J. Yesterday evening, I got onto Miss E because she had fallen asleep and then would not WAKE UP. I mean, she'd wake up but then make herself comfy again to fall asleep. So, I had her come sit at the table until dinner was ready and served. This was maybe 5 minutes, and she grumped the entire time (and, let's be honest, who wouldn't?). It was, seriously, maybe 75 seconds after I set her plate in front of her that she started dry heaving and we rushed her to the bathroom where she puked.

AND another Mother of the Year award, gone. Whoosh. Just like that. Because there is nothing finer than the feel of being miffed with your child who turns out to be running a temp and is actually sick. Yay me.

Meanwhile, at this very moment, Miss O is in the office with me. I just took her off our second computer where she was pushing all the monitor buttons (a favorite thing for her to do, even though she knows it's a "no no".). So, she's sitting at my feet, trying hard to calm down because she is in a "calm down" time out.

Super J and I have noticed that Miss O is quite the combination of us, emotionally. She has this crazy courage and curiosity that I think she gets from her dad, but she also has this need to be recognized and acknowledged when she's upset and then she can calm herself...for the most part (which she gets from me). That is what is going on with the "calm down" time out (or "clam down" time out, as I just typed, which either one works for me).

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Ugh. Why are shoes such a big issue? The girls want to go outside. That is GREAT with me. My girls each have croc-like shoes that they can just slip on. Except that Miss E wants to wear her tennis shoes. Fine. She just needs to be able to put them on herself. Ohhhhhhhhhhh the high and holy drama that now is unfolding.
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Update 10 minutes later: Okay, just back from cleaning up some more puke from Miss E. Thank goodness Super J just came in and was able to assist. Holy cow, I need to get a clue that when Miss E is completely unwilling to compromise and seems off her game, well...There. Is. A. Reason. sigh. For now, though, gotta go and re-mop the floor which still smells of vomit. Hooray.

But with taxes...?

I just had to post this as it made me feel pretty good. It's definitely more than I "earned" as a librarian, but I'm not so sure how the retirement plan works. lol.

From CNN:
Mother's love worth $117,000 per year, study says

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- If a stay-at-home mom could be compensated in dollars rather than personal satisfaction and unconditional love, she'd rake in a nifty sum of nearly $117,000 a year.

At-home moms reported working an average of 94.4 hours per week, said the survey.

That's according to a pre-Mother's Day study released in May by Salary.com, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based firm that studies workplace compensation.

The eighth annual survey calculated a mom's market value by studying pay levels for 10 job titles with duties that a typical mom performs, ranging from housekeeper and day care center teacher to van driver, psychologist and chief executive officer.

This year, the annual salary for a stay-at-home mom would be $116,805, while a working mom who also juggles an outside job would get $68,405 for her motherly duties.

One stay-at-home mom said the six-figure salary sounds a little low.

"I think a lot of people think we sit and home and have a lot of fun and don't do a lot of work," said Samantha Russell, a Fremont, New Hampshire, mother who left her job as pastry chef to raise two boys, ages 2 and 4. "But they should try cleaning their house with little kids running around and messing it up right after them."

The biggest driver of a mom's theoretical salary is the amount of overtime pay she'd receive for working more than 40 hours a week. The 18,000 moms surveyed about their typical week reported working 94.4 hours -- meaning they'd be spending more than half their working hours on overtime.

Working moms reported an average 54.6 hour "mom work week" besides the hours they spent at paying jobs.

Russell agreed her job as a stay-at-home mom is more than full-time. But she said her "job" brings intangible benefits she wouldn't enjoy in the workplace.

"The rewards aren't monetary, but it's a reward knowing that they're safe and happy," Russell said of her sons. "It's worth it all."

Ahhhhh, thwarted bribery and other things

It's been a weird sort of day at my house for some reason. Not bad. Just weird.

It probably started with a visit from a friend of Miss A's whose mom stayed to visit and chat. It turns out she was just lonely (the mom, I mean), and I felt very guilty because I was (argh! Truth be told...or turth, as I just typed) dreading it because she is a T.A.L.K.E.R. and I was concerned it'd turn into an all afternoon event (see how petty and small I can be????). But it turned out to be a nice length visit because, Turth be told again (or truth, whichever you like best) Super J came home to have me help pick up his truck from the oil changing place.

Anyhoo, long story short, I told the girls if they behaved during the afternoon "quiet" time we could probably, maybe, in all likelihood go to our little neighborhood pool after dinner.

Guess what? We've had one of those weird, pop-up thunderstorms that is currently raging, replete with lightening and heavy heavy rain. I guess this means that Super J won't be mowing the lawn while we are at the pool because...well, we aren't GOING to the pool. Oh well.

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What is odder than being in a mood yourself, knowing you are in a mood? Why yes. You have correctly said, "It is having your spouse be in a mood." And (or should I say, especially) if your spouse isn't female (ha!), it's kinda hard for him to pinpoint WHY he's in a mood, so it's very mysterious. Ahhhhh, good times. The spouse and the mysterious M.O.O.D. I cannot even say a word because normally (NORMALLY, I repeat) it's ME in the M.O.O.D. sigh.

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Miss A has told me that she is going to find her Mariposa Barbie wings and learn how to fly. Okay, I told her. Just be careful. She said she was going to wake up Super J (he's currently napping, trying to fend off said weird mood) when she gets it figured out. I think that if she can indeed figure out how to fly with Mariposa Barbie's wings, she DEFINITELY should wake up Super J to show him.

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I now have a constant computer buddy when I am reading my favorite blogs or even typing in a post for my own. Yes, Miss O has discovered that if she drags in a stool from the kitchen, she can sit at the computer and watch You-tube entries of "Yo Gabba Gabba" or "Sesame Street" or, as I've just put on, a random DVD (this one is the one I got from my Humana Nurse called, "The Happiest Baby on the Block." I haven't even seen it, but she is having a wonderful time trying to touch all the babies she sees on the screen. I am a wee bit worried for when New Baby gets here.). This, to her, is quality time spent together. I don't mind, actually, until she starts pushing buttons on the computer screen, turning it on and off, or messing with the mouse or getting crabby that I'm not changing shows fast enough for her. She's quite bossy when watching You-Tube, I gotta say.

And, I gotta say, people post A.LOT. of crap on You-tube, even in the guise of children's programming. SCARY (or SCRAY as I just typed). Whichever you prefer. There are a couple of gems, though. But that's for a post of another time/day.

Golden Arches

Update @1:54pm: I realize reading this that it sounds kind of braggy, and that's not what it's meant to be. I was just happily pleased that they offered a meal to make up the goof they made. Does that make sense?

The Setup: For lunch, we went through the drive-thru at McDonalds. I was very excited to see if I upgraded my beverage to a large, I got a free DVD rental from Redbox (I tell you, Redbox is going to put Blockbuster out of business). I ordered Happy Meals for the girls and I got my normal: A #7 meal, which is a grilled chicken sandwich with NO mayo. I always get this. I used to try to have them put mustard on it (my condiment of choice). HA. HAHAHAHAHAH. You should see the problems I have trying to get regular mustard on any McDonald's sandwich. It just doesn't happen.

ANYWAY. We get our bags and come home (remember: going through the drive through). As I'm bringing stuff in, the first thing I notice is that my cup is horribly misshaped at the bottom. I don't know why I didn't notice it in the cup holder, but it's true. It's leaning like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Nice.

Then, I open up my sandwich. Hmmmm. I notice the white goo oozing from the sides...and the crispy chicken. Uh oh. I look at the receipt and find that they have indeed mixed up my order and I have received someone's crispy chicken BLT with EXTRA ranch dressing. Ugh. I can only imagine someone's reaction to my grilled chicken with no dressing, at all.

So I called and am now "in the books" to get a free extra value meal. I appreciate that, I have to say. I hope the ranch person calls and gets one, too.

Now I have a "free" dinner and a movie! So, what's vaguely disappointing (the ranch dressing is so gross! I scraped as much off as I could and then ate it anyway), turned out to be kinda okay. Yay!

An Update: back from the doctor's...

I might have mentioned that I'm at the "visit the doctor" every 2 weeks now. Very exciting. I'll be doing this until sometime in July when I switch to visiting EVERY week. Holy smokes. Time is flying. I'm fine and the baby is good. Of course, today she kept moving around when the doctor was listening to the heartbeat so we had to chase her a bit, but her heartbeat is strong and beautiful to hear.

Let's see...I was told my blood pressure is just great, which is always good to hear. Especially today, because I spent the morning cleaning my house like a crazed woman. Why? Well, because I had a new babysitter coming over, don't you know. And, of course, all that work this morning and I was only gone for about...maybe 40 minutes, total (I know I've mentioned this before, but just gotta say: I love my doctor!). Oh well. I got some exercise and my blood pressure rebounded appropriately.

Oh! And I passed my glucose screening. Wahoo! So, I've now been given all appropriate shots and had all my blood work done and basic tests are finished; now I just have to keep my appointments to make sure all is going well and wait for baby to arrive.

Queen of Unrealistic Expectations Strikes Again!

Update @9:30pm: I'm feeling a bit better. Still don't know what I'm going to do, but at least I feel a bit better.
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The Setup: I am a ninny. I know that I am a ninny. I am an unrealistic NINNY!!!! A passive aggressive, unrealistic NINNY! But still...

I have a "calling" in our church, which means that a year ago I was asked to lead the music in Primary, our children's organization (ages 3-11), because the other chorister was pregnant and unable to continue because of her pregnancy.

So, every Saturday night I usually remember that I need to pick out songs, which I do, and then I email them to the secretary so she can put it on agenda for the day and I print out two copies of the outline, one for myself and one for the pianist. I've done this for about a year now.

On Sundays, I lead this selected music. I practice songs we are learning for our annual Primary program (which we do in November, before the entire church congregation); we sing welcoming song and birthday songs, if need be. We sing WIGGLE songs. We sing quiet songs and reverence songs and theme songs. If there's a special occasion/holiday, we practice those songs so we can sing them in front of the congregation, too. I try to make it enjoyable and fun--spiritual but not boring. In fact, the last month we learned how to lead the music, which went really well.

So. I lead the music for two hours...actually I lead the music for about a total of an hour and 25 minutes, give or take, in both junior and senior Primary and then I go to Nursery and do music with the 18 months-3 yr olds which is about another 10-15 minutes of animated music leading. Truth be told, it took me a while to fall in love with this opportunity of service, but I have. I'm no musician or choir director, that's for sure, but there is a sweetness that these kids have that really comes out in the music they sing.

However. I have 10 weeks left in my pregnancy and it is physically exhausting to do this calling. MONTHS ago, I asked the Primary President if I could get some help (this was in February, at least) because it's HARD to be so animated for 2 hours, and I tried to drop the hint that once the baby comes in August, I'm not going to be available to do this. I mean, I will have a nursing newborn that will consume my time and energy, and honestly, I won't be available for 2 solid hours until my baby is MUCH older! AND, this is my last baby and I want to be able to take care of her as needed, whenever she needs it. I'm not like some women who LONG for two hours away from their kids...I can't do it. HECK, we even turned down getting tickets for the visiting Broadway Touring company of The Lion King, which I'd LOVE to see, because I don't want to be away from the baby that long. And seriously, you aren't even supposed to be exercising for 6 weeks after you have your baby, and trust me, every Sunday is an hour and a half of aerobic activity. I come home and am TUCKERED out, even when I wasn't pregnant!

Ahem. ANYWAY! Last week, after chasing Miss O in the hallway all during Sacrament Meeting (the meeting prior to the 2 hours of Primary), I pretty much had a weepy nervous breakdown in front of our Primary Pres because I just couldn't figure out why they hadn't been able to find a replacement for me. I mean, if motherhood is supposed to be our noblest and highest calling, WHY hadn't they been able to find someone suitable? My only answer had to be that they had forgotten when *THEIR* wives were pregnant and they just hadn't put it together. But WHY had they not done something by now???? I just couldn't understand. My Primary President told me that they kept offering her visiting college students who were home for the summer, but I told her that she really needed someone who could handle doing the Primary Program in November. She completely agreed and told me she'd keep working on it (submitting names, etc.)

Now. Here's a caveat: In complete full disclosure, I should say that I have not come out and asked to be released from this calling, out and out. I have not verbally said, "I need to be released." I have said, months ago, that I needed help because this was dang hard and every Sunday, my body responds in a variety of ways. Even as I type, my feet are swollen little sausages. However, I have not asked to be released because I am already guilt ridden with having asked to be released from a calling 2 years ago when Super J and I team taught a Sunday School class from Hell (aka: the 16 and 17 year olds) when I was pregnant with Miss O (it's a long story, but seriously, we had such animosity because of that class that we were fighting at home and truly trying to move out of the ward boundaries. Ugh.). I just can't bring myself to ask to be released again because I don't think I can handle that guilt. I just can't. I can't.

So, instead, I have said that I will do what the Lord needs and if they can't find anyone, I'll trust that the Lord will give me strength to go on. And I've meant it. However, I have tried to talk to the President to let her know that something really needed to be done, hoping that she'd pick up on it. So. Last week, after my weep fest in the hallway, our Primary President came up to me after our meetings and said that she thought she'd found someone that could work. Relief washed over me. I would be released. Thank goodness.

Well. Today, she came up to me after meetings again and told me that it was "a go!" I was welcome to call this particular Sister and get things planned (I should say that I love this particular Sister...she's awesome, but I also know she hates leading music in Primary, so her agreeing to this really says something about her). Now, my Primary President told me, this is just an assignment for this Sister. It's not a calling. But, she said, "it should get you through to November, so hopefully that will help."

Get me through to November? To our Primary Program? Because, it'll be easier to be chorister in Primary with a 3 month old?????

Does NO ONE LISTEN????????

I am beside myself. Talk about a weepy thing...that was me, this afternoon.

Here's what's so hard. This is the last time I plan on doing this whole mothering thing. My last baby. And they are giving me, basically, maternity leave and then wanting me to come back, full time. It's NOT FAIR!!!!!!!

I know I am a faithless wretch, especially complaining about it. I know. I am showing a complete lack of faith. But seriously. I'm beside myself.

I just keep praying for a softened heart. That I'll be able to trust this decision. But I have to admit that when I think too much about it, I kinda start crying again. Ugh.

I'll be alright. I just needed to get this out. Maybe tomorrow it won't seem so dire and I won't be as angry about this as I am now. Maybe tomorrow my heart will indeed have thawed a bit. I hope it hurries, though.