I'm cleaning up my music collection.

During the grueling music research process (and I do mean grueling...do you know how hard it is to listen to music and choose what bands I like), I realized a lot of my music in my iTunes folder were either a) not there anymore b) not accessible anymore or c) kids music. (OK so that last one I realized when I did a Facebook meme...most of the music on shuffle was my kids music!) So I am in the midst of deleting music and adding it back on, and procuring some new stuff, and some old stuff. Sorry I don't have a great music post this week.....I thought it was more important to clean up and out my iPod to make room for my research. If you are dying for some different music, just look to the right and maybe listen to The Black Keys. I'm not sure what I think about them yet, so I'll so some more research and get back to you!(Maybe in next weeks post!)

I'm a Mom that has a new recipe to share!

In honor of Fat Tuesday, I made Gumbo Style Chicken Creole last night for dinner. Now I know it wasn't authentic, but it was really good. Here is the original recipe: Gumbo Style Chicken Creole INGREDIENTS 1/4 cup oil for frying 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 green bell pepper, chopped 1 onion, chopped 2 cups cooked, chopped chicken breast meat 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green Chile peppers, with liquid 1 (4.5 ounce) can sliced mushrooms, drained 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (I used 2 tsp dried) 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon white sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 3 dashes hot sauce Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until mixture is the color of a copper penny. Reduce heat to low and stir in bell pepper and onion. Cook 10 to 15 minutes, or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add chicken, tomatoes with green Chile peppers, mushrooms, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper and hot sauce. Stir together, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve over hot cooked rice. Now, as I was making this, I realized a few things could be added or omitted to taste. I omitted the mushrooms, and added 1 can of chicken broth, 1 can of diced tomatoes. If I would have thought about it, I would have added 1 or 2 cooked beef sausages (or turkey or chicken whatever...just NOT pork breakfast sausage). I also thought I had more rice than I did, so I made a few noodles for the kids and Seth, but I'm not sure how it tasted (make sure you have enough rice....it definitely looked nicer). Overall this was easy to make, and most of the ingredients are usually in my pantry. I used some frozen cubes of Rotisserie chicken I had on hand, but I am sure any cooked chicken would work. Let me know if you try this, and how your families like it. I think I will make it again soon, as long as I have enough rice!

I'm a Mom that wants to win something...anything!!!!

You know I am constantly entering contests online. Well...I guess they are more like giveaways. I have never won anything...or at least I don't think I've won anything....sometimes I go overboard and forget where I have entered a giveaway and then can't check back! (I'm getting better though!!!) Anyway....I know that Vanessa from I Never Grew Up is a contributor to Little Window Shoppe, but I didn't check out her own site. I don't know why...I just didn't. BUT she is having her 1 Year Birthday... is giving away a ton of stuff. I put the button to the right, but you can click on the button below and check it out! (I wanna win the cordless vacuum...that would be perfect for my son to use in the basement!)

I'm the Mom of a 6 year old that wants to be a rock star.

(I started this post yesterday, but didn't have time to finish and post it yesterday...so it's late...so sue me!) Since today is Colin's 6th Birthday, and today is "Turntable Thursday" I thought I ought to let Colin share some of his favorite music. For the last few months Colin has rocked the air guitar, and for the last few weeks he has been singing up a storm. Not all of it makes sense, not all of it is on key, but he has been having fun with it, so I let him keep it up. Here are some of his favorite songs to "sing": Anything from Chicken Little. More specifically the BNL song "One Little Slip". "Route 66" from the Cars Soundtrack. Although he doesn't get the word correctly then gets mad when I try to sing it the right way, and if I try to tell him that song has been around a long time, he doesn't believe me. "Buzz Buzz" by Laurie Berkner (his favorite singer) "Contact" by Citizen Cope (finally! Some grown-up music) "Bandages" by Hot Hot Heat (more grown-up music!) AND last but not least: "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot" by Colin Behunin. It's his favorite made up song. Now that I have a 6 year old...possibly we will start listening to a wider variety of music, but most likely even though he knows who The Tings Tings and The Killers are, he'll still just have his own tastes.

I'm a Mom having a bad day...and a Mom hoping it will get better!

You know it is going to be a bad day when: You wake up an hour later than planned and you still have to get yourself and two kids ready for playgroup in 45 minutes, and it takes you an hour. (That hour you used to sleep in) Your kids are nutso AFTER playgroup and treat you like you are invisible and not talking to them in every store you go into. Your son doesn't ask for help getting out of a shopping cart at a store, almost tips the cart and your daughter over and onto the floor, while in the meantime he is flat on his back after falling out. (Again, wasn't listening when I asked him if he needed help) Your son STILL isn't listening and while you are at the next store, he hangs onto the end of the shopping cart and weighs so much that he tips the cart forward and almost brings him and his sister tumbling out of the cart and onto the concrete floor. You have to take your kids shoe away from him because he just can't seem to keep it on everytime you stop to put an item in the cart. You have to cook the hamburger for tomorrow's meal right now because your DAUGHTER DIDN'T LISTEN and poked a hole in the package and thought it would be cool to play with the contents (Luckily I had some antibacterial wipes in my purse). You decide it is an OK day to clean out the nasty car, or at least take out all the stuff that SHOULD be in the house, and the kids won't help, even though it is their mess, AND you find a spot where your daughter didn't tell you she spilled SOMETHING covered up by 2 coats, 3 socks, and a couple pair of shoes GROWING MOLD IN YOUR NEW CAR! YOUR NEW CAR! I should have stayed home today when I realized I'd slept in.

I'm a forgetful Mom too.

I keep forgetting how much I LOVE Kate Nash. I also keep forgetting I have her CD in the CD Player of the car Seth now drives. I drove his car yesterday evening, and I listened to Kate Nash Made Of Bricks, almost all the way through. I know one of my first music posts was about Kate Nash and last year's BAFTA awards, but since it has been about a year, I thought I would revisit Kate and her awesomeness. I put a few of my favorite songs on my last.fm playlist. My favorite, favorite song, Dickhead, is one that everyone could possibly play for at least one person in their lives at any given moment. That is why I love it! (Disclaimer-if you are under 18, or don't like songs with questionable lyrics, choose another Kate Nash song to listen to -K-?) That is all for today class...next week- Duffy? Adele? Santogold? Hmmm....just wait and see!

I'm a person that loves many things.

I read a blog called "Clever Girl Goes Blog" whenever she has a chance to post. This week Tia did a meme, and offered to let her readers choose if we wanted to participate. Since I haven't posted in a while, I thought I'd ask her to assign me a letter....and she gave me "C". Below is the meme, hope you enjoy!

(I'm supposed to make a list of 10 things I Love that start with the letter "C"...then I am supposed to tag other people and assign them a letter to keep the meme going. Ummm...I don't like playing tag, so let me know if you want a letter-had to steal Tia's idea on that one)

1- Children- Or more specifically MY children. Colin (almost 6) and Lilly (2) are so awesome, and I am so glad I (we) chose to have them. I love the title they bestowed upon me when they were born "Mom".

2-Chocolate- Or more specifically PW's The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever, hmmm I guess that is 2 "C" words "chocolate" and "cake"- YUM! Ooohh and I LOVE Chocolate Martini's too. WAY YUM!

3-Chuck- Nope, not the nickname, and not the dog (although he is pretty talented) I mean the TV show. Well, I guess I mean TV in general, BUT I didn't get the "T" so I used that instead. (BUT to be fair, I think Chuck is a great show, and he is cute, and I enjoy watching it every week!)

4- Clan- Meaning family. I love my imediate family (Seth, Colin and Lilly) and I love that we can count on most of my extended family for anything at anytime!

5- Chillin'- I LOVE, and I mean LOVE Chillin' with friends. Whether it is a MOMS Club event, or just hanging while making S'mores Crack Chex (hmmm, more C words!) it is so well, nice and cool to have friends that I can just hang with.

6- Coffee- I LOVE Coffee. Normally a Vanilla latte or coffee with creamer and sugar from home. Nothing too fancy.

7- Crack Chex- Any flavor, any recipe, I love it. Mostly because Katie makes it perfectly every time.

8- Companion- Well, I mean my husband. He is a great companion, friend, father, provider.

(Imagine pic of Seth here....I don't think he'd approve of a pic of him on my blog)

9- Clogs- I don't really like just clogs per say...it depends on the style, but I love shoes. I have been trying to be frugal and not do any shoe shopping lately, but I think I might have to go again!

10- Crayons- Right now I love crayons because they are one of the only things that will quiet the kids when I need a minute or 60 of downtime. Blank paper and a box of crayons make my day!

That's all....be grateful you got a post today....I haven't had many things that I actually want to post lately, but hopefully that will change.

I'm a football fan too.

OK so this post is a little late. Like a week late. I should have posted my Super Bowl menu last Wednesday, so you could take one or two recipes and use them yourselves. I'm slow. You can use the menu for the Pro Bowl if you want.(It's on Sunday at 2:30 MST) For those of you that don't like football, you can always make them for whatever the hell you want (yes, I said "hell" deal with it!) So on Super Bowl Sunday, I made: 1.PW's Spicy Roasted Chicken Legs 2.PW's Wing sauce for Chicken Tenders 3.PW's Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies AND 4.Queso (but not PW's...just mine, kinda) 1. My niece and I loved the chicken legs. I had to use Lawry's Season Salt instead of Morton's Hot Salt because I couldn't find any. I will try this recipe again after I look high and low for the Hot Salt because I think it would be delicious! I just had leftovers for dinner tonight: 20 minutes in the oven at 350...yummy! 2. I liked this wing sauce too. I think it would work a lot better with actual WINGS, but since my hubby doesn't like "bone-in" meat, I tried it with the tenders. I need to find a recipe on how to make the tenders look/taste more like wings, and use this sauce. Anyone have one? 3. Ummm....I think anything with bacon is to die for. I loved these! They were soo good, but a little rich (I had huge peppers so there was a lot of cream cheese). I had these for dinner tonight too, and I liked them the second time as well. 4. The Queso I made was OK. Well, let me be frank...Seth made the queso, but I bought the stuff for it. I forgot to buy No-beans chili to make chili Queso, so we used a can of Ro-Tel tomatoes instead. I should have had Seth add a little bit of cream cheese to the mix, or have him drain the tomatoes, since it was a little runny. Next time. OK...that was our line up...lots of food for 3 adults (the kids had frozen pizzas) but it was all food I wanted to try out. Who best to try it on than family??? I guess I should say something about the game too....it was a good game, but the team I wanted to win didn't. In reality the team I wanted to go to the Super Bowl didn't even come close to getting there, so I was pretty indifferent about the game. So there you go, a pretty lame anaylsis of the game.