"Can you name the truck with four wheel drive, smells like a steak and seats thirty-five.
Canyonero! Canyonero!
She blinds everybody with her super high beams, She's a squirrel crushing, deer smacking, driving machine!
Canyonero!"
We went and picked up my new (to me) car. We've (I) have had issues with the Honda Pilot because it wasn't really rated to tow our trailer. Every time we towed it I worried incessantly. It was not fun for me (because I was worried) and it was not fun for Dewey (because he had to listen to me). We also have 3 kids with all their stuff plus Dewey who has more stuff than they do. Add all that together & we needed a bigger vehicle. I know that is a vastly unpopular sentiment in these Toyota Prius times but I can't help it. I would love to be able to own 3 cars so that I could drive a little fuel efficient car to work but we can't. We ended up deciding to go with the Toyota Sequoia. It's gigantic, has plenty of room & could tow a house. I love it though it's going to take some getting used to. The part I'm most excited about is the backup camera so (as Andrea says) I can see what I'm hitting. :) I'll post pictures when I get around to taking some.
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I've spent so much time blogging about our trip that I haven't blogged about Evan in forever. We came home from Disney to a taller little man who talks up a storm & climbs. It was a bit of a shock. I can't believe how grown up he's gotten. It's more fun every day b/c he learns new stuff all the time. We also took him for another haircut. When we were done the barber shop guy put gel in his hair. It is so cute. I have yet to be able to get it to look the same when I fix it but I'm going to keep trying (not everyday, just when we go somewhere).
This weekend we had Will & Nicole. Evan lives for these weekends since he thinks the sun rises & sets in his brother and sisters. He's always very sad when they go home. I try to use this fact to convince Dewey that we should give Evan a brother or sister. It doesn't work. He suggests we get a cat. :)
This is a meme type thing going around Facebook. I did it as a note there so I figured "what the heck!" so I put it here. Feel free to participate on your blog or in comments. Enjoy!
1. I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada though I'm from Winfield, Alabama, USA.
2. I am married to Dewey & have an 18 month little boy named Evan. I also have two stepchildren: Will (10) and Nicole (8). They live with their mom & we have them every other weekend.
3. I love to travel & hope to do more traveling soon (waiting for Evan to grow up a little).
4. My #1 place I want to go is Italy. I'm hoping to go next year with Dewey sans kids.
5. I feel guilty for raising my son so far away from my family.
6. I love visiting Winfield (my home town) but I could never live there again.
7. I love to blog (http://merryanddewey.blogs
8. I am addicted to Facebook and check it obsessively.
9. I love my Blackberry & my iTouch b/c it lets me keep up with my addiction mentioned in #8.
10. I'm not that religious anymore. I believe in God but don't like organized religion that much. I had a really great church in Austin but haven't really found one I like since.
11. I am democrat but I tend to be pretty apathetic about US politics. I'm always amazed at how closely Canadians follow the US elections, though.
12. I love to go camping in our new camper even though I'm afraid of bears. We have a great group of friends we camp with & it makes summer so fun.
13. I love to hang out with my friends when I can. I've found a great group of ladies since I've moved to Calgary. I would go crazy if it weren't for them!
14. I love being a mom more than I ever thought I would.
15. I would love to have another baby but probably won't.
16. I'm glad that I've connected with my old friends from high school on Facebook. High School was really hard for me so it's nice to reconnect with people so that I can remember the good parts.
17. I love to do crafts (sewing, crochet, etc) but I don't very much because I'm too busy.
18. I sell Pampered Chef in all my free and spare time (Ha!).
19. I love taking pictures. I would love to know how to use the manual settings on my camera but my brain will NOT hang on to that information.
20. I am addicted to TV. I love Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Bones & Criminal Minds.
21. Watching crime dramas on TV bother me much more now that I have Evan. I have to make sure I don't watch them too much b/c I worry.
22. I am a huge worrier/stresser. Dewey always says "It's a hard world where you live isn't it?" He's always trying to get me to chill out.
23. Having a baby has made me a nicer person. I'm less "screechy" as my mom would say. It has made me more of a worrier, though.
24. I would love to have eye surgery. I have a really high prescription on my glasses/contacts. Surgery might not correct it fully, though, and might make some things worse so I'm going to wait a few years & hope they come up with something that will work.
25. I have been committed to being more active for the last few months & it feels great!
Okay, I am totally bored of blogging about our trip but if I stopped now I would be skipping the best part. After 6 days at Disney World, we boarded a bus to Port Canaveral to board the Disney Wonder Cruise ship. It was massive & the ship's horn played "When you wish upon a staaaaaar". It was so cool! We spent 4 nights and 3 days on the cruise. We boarded on Sunday afternoon. We went down to the running track & watched as we cruised away. It was cool & we had the whole deck to ourselves. There was a party upstairs that we stayed at a little while as well. Then we went to get the kids registered for the Kid's Club. The cruise had activities planned for kids 3 to 12 from 9am to 1 am. That's right...the kiddles could stay there until 1 am! Usually they went to bed way before that but Nicole did stay up one night until it closed because they were having a High School Musical talent show & who can so no to that? Anyway, the adults had reservations at Palo, the adults only restaurant on the ship, so we had to get the kids fed and back to the kid's club before 8. Then we dropped them off & had the first kid free moments of the trip. It was nice to have some adult conversation & some wine. The kids went to see The Golden Mickeys, a live performance on the boat. Shayla loves to dress up as a princess & she even brought a dress for Nicole to wear. We never thought she would wear it in a million years but she surprised us & made a beautiful princess!
Dewey giving Will sand "boobs"
It's been awhile since I've participated in What's Cooking Wednesday. With Christmas, vacation, etc there hasn't been much cooking going on around here. I hope to change that (so far, so good this week) because I'm a bit tired of eating out. This recipe was in this months "Today's Parent". It is sooooooo good. It got two thumbs WAY up from both me & Dewey.
Sardinian Kebabs over Couscous
by Valerie Kendall published in Today's Parent
1 1/2 lb (750 g) boneless pork, chicken or lamb cut into 1 inch cubes
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
4 Tbsp lemon juice, divided
2 tsp crumbled, dried thyme
1/3 cup pine nuts
1 medium onion, chopped
4 gloves garlic, minced
1 small head cauliflower, broken into small florets
1 tsp salt
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup dried currants
1/4 tsp pepper
1 3/4 cups whole wheat couscous (340 g box)
In a bowl, combine the cubed meat with 2 Tbsp of the olive oil, 3 Tbsp of the lemon juice and they thyme. Mix well, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes (or as long as 2 hours). Soak six 8" bamboo skewers in water.
Preheat barbecue grill to medium heat. Thread cubes of meat onto soaked skewers.
Place the pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat and toast, stirring often, until lightly browned (about 5 minutes). Remove from skillet and set aside.
I a large, deep skillet or Dutch oven, heat the remaining 2 Tbsp of oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened (3 to 5 minutes). Add the garlic, cauliflower and salt. Cook, stirring often, until the cauliflower begins to turn golden (8 to 10 minutes). Add the tomatoes, broth, currants and pepper and bring to a boil. Stir in the couscous, remove from heat and let sit, covered, for about 10 minutes.
Wile the couscous sits, grill the kebabs, turning occasionally, until cooked to taste.
To server, stir the remaining 1 Tbsp lemon juice and the toasted pine nuts into the couscous. Spoon some couscous on each plate and serve topped with a grilled kebab.
Makes 4 to 6 servings
Recipe Notes: I used a pack of boneless pork chops for this recipe. It ended up being about half as much meat as called for. It was not as thick as they suggested so I cut it into strips and doubled in on the skewers. This turned out fine & it cooked faster. Another change I made was to only use 1 Tbsp oil in the couscous. I also substituted 1 tsp ground thyme for the 2 tsp crumbled thyme. I bought currants instead of using raisins I already had. I would recommend doing that. Currants are really tiny and their flavor add alot to the couscous. Since they were so small you got one in every bite. Yum! I will be making this couscous recipe again even if I didn't make the pork.
Don't forget to check out what else is cooking this week over at Shan's! This week she's teaching us how to make frosting transfer designs for kid's cakes. Fun!
Day Three we spent at the Magic Kingdom. I figured that this would be our huge day because in my mind Magic Kingdom was huge. Little did I know that it's really not that big. We went early to MK (8am) because we had the early extra magic hour. This helped us get a head start on the rides we wanted to do before the lines got ridiculous. The biggest disappointment of the day was that Splash Mountain was closed. We all rode it last time we were there & the kids were excited that it would be one of the few rides I would go on with them. Unfortunately, no luck. The guy working the "It's closed" sign gave us a cheerful "It'll be open in 2 weeks"! Umm...thanks...we won't be here then. Right after lunch we headed back to the hotel for a rest & then came back to the park for the parade & fireworks. I decided to forgo taking pictures of the parade. I already have a picture of every single thing in the Animal Kingdom Parade & I figured that was enough. :)
We did go back to Magic Kingdom for part of the day on Saturday. Some of the pictures here are from that day.
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On day two of our Disney trip we headed over to Epcot. (Just an FYI, I'm not going to do a post for every day of our vacation. We just took lots of pictures on the first few days so it makes sense to separate them....Don't want to bore you to death or anything!) Epcot has always been my favorite park. Unfortunately that feeling has faded over time. I think it's because as I've gotten older, I've gotten to REALLY visit some of the countries featured instead of just seeing the Disney version. Regardless, I still love visiting. We started off the day in the front of the park where most of the rides are. Jenn, as usual, was our trusty navigator. She insured that we saw everything we wanted before it got too busy.
The highlights were Soarin', which is just amazing, and Mission Space, which you couldn't PAY me to get on!
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