Great picture of the brother bonding in the snow together! It must take you back to the days of building snowmen!

My son loves zucchini, and I may consider that! We love those wonderful little baby ones that can be quickly sauteed in olive oil, and garlic. That's a good suggestion, KaeEll... The last time he was here, we had asparagus (at his request), so the zucchini would be good.

I'm being very lazy today after not sleeping all that well, and in my attempts to recover from cleaning out that turtle tank. Ugh! I really do have to get my fanny in gear, though.

KaeEll, my husband and I were just recently horrified by a child in our neighborhood, and it's really sort-of disconcerting. We had the most wonderful neighbors across the street from us, for many years. They raised three kids, boy-boy-girl, all three of whom turned out to be extraorinary people, and very successful, in different fields. The oldest is a businessman (with three kids), the middle son is a lawyer (three kids, and one on the way), and the daughter is a doctor (two kids).

Anyway, the younger son (lawyer with 3-1/2 kids) bought his parents' house about five or six years ago, and we were thrilled because it was such great continuity, and it meant that his parents would be around the neighborhood quite a lot. Well, his wife is VERY laid back about raising the kids (and John isn't home much because of career demands) whereas her in-laws had suffered no nonsense when raising their three! The first two children are twins (a boy and a girl), and the pregnancy was really a difficult one; she was hospitalized for several months. The third child is a little girl, and the one on the way is another little boy. The two little girls are adorable, but the little boy is turning into an absolute hellion! He'll be four next month. When my husband and I were outside the other day, and visiting with them in their front yard, the little boy was behaving absolutely monstrously, and the mom appeared to be entirely oblivious to it all. I really do adore this entire family -- our former neighbors, all three of their kids, all of the grandkids, etc., etc., and I know that our former neighbors must be really upset at seeing this with their little grandson.

I don't think that I have ever seen this little boy smile. He's always looking suspicious, is ready to cry, is already crying, or is in the process of throwing a tantrum. I'm really worried that, if this isn't addressed soon, he's going to grow into a very angry person.

Moore, I sympathise, big time. It is one thing when lovely young people raise a little beast, but quite another when the parents are already horrible. Those kids never stand a chance.

Sometimes it's not the genes, though. We had neighbours where I grew up that had 6 children, and all turned out beautifully except their one and only son. He always was the black sheep, getting into trouble all the time, and he grew up to be a ne'er-do-well.

Jojo, Nick has been a little off since he got back. For one thing, he's grieving over the g/f. They had been constant companions for almost 3 years, and it ended 2 weeks before he came home. He, out of comfort or something, has gone back to chumming about with old high school friends, and one lad in particular I refer to as "that little worm", and with darn good reason. That's the group planning on spending 3 weeks in Europe in May. He promised that right after he gets back from that trip, he's going to settle into a new "real" job. As I predicted, existential angst has taken hold of him. He's got a month's grace for that, then I'll get out my cast iron skillet, lol.

I'm off to the grocery store for some supplies, then scooping some doggie treats from the back grass. Trade your turtle tank task, Moore?

Well hello ladies. Today was another not so wonderful but kind of eventful nonetheless kind of day. We woke up relatively early and hung around the house waiting on the call from my sister's boyfriend to tell us that she was wheeled into surgery. So we left and got to have breakfast at IHOP, a favorite of mine because of their stuffed french toast (you guys see why I joined weight watchers?) and then were off to the hospital again. My sisters surgery was a little over 2 hours long...Turns out she shattered part of her elbow. Plus the doctor said that he doesn't see very often people who manage to break both their elbow and their wrist at the same time. Only my sister.

So we were stuck in the waiting room there for a couple hours with the two girls so by the time we got to see her both were ready to bounce off the walls. And Hailey flipped out again upon seeing her mom all layed up. So we took the kids to that evil place Chuck E Cheese. Evil but an easy way to entertain the kids, especially with the rainy weather that Moore mentioned.

Also found out just a little bit ago that the woman who killed Kayla (the little girl whose name is in my ribbon) was let free by the jury...So that just stinks.

Kae, those vegetables you spoke of sound divine...I am going to make them when I restart my diet this week...and I sure hope that life with Nick gets back to normal sooner rather then later. And Moore asparagus sounds really good too.

moore do you think that if I use olive oil it will work as well as butter....As soon as I get home I am going to cut out the animal fats again...

Sharon shouldn't need pins. Good Lord I hope not. The surgeon said he wanted to start moving her elbow in a couple of weeks.

Just got finished watching the tail end of Desperate housewives and am afraid I missed a good part of the movie.

I am so beat from the long day but at the same time really want a little more ME time before heading to bed.