Nearly Wordless Wednesday

So I think I may need to rename this post title every week. It started as Wordless Wednesday, but then became Nearly Wordless Wednesday shortly after because I just couldn't handle not posting a caption at the very least. Now I've just abandoned the "wordless" concept completely and have somehow moved on to storytelling. Oh well, here are this week's photos...with a few words! :)

Our family is really big on the dentist-we go every 6 months religiously. I love flossing and get a new toothbrush every few weeks which I'm aware is excessive. I wasn't always good about the dentist...as in I don't think I went at all while at ASU. At all. I'll give you a moment to let that nastiness sink in. And I'm sorry :) Anyway, when your parents aren't pushing you to make the appointment and the other option is day drinking at the pool, guess which one I selected in college. Yes. So, I want to be sure Connor gets a good start with the teethies! His first appointment was in September of 2008 and he was about 16 months old. This past week we had his 3rd appointment and I was equally crazy with the camera this time around.

In his last two appointments, the dentist did Connor's exam while on my lap laying down. This didn't really allow for any picture taking so this time I made up for it. The dentist asked Connor if he wanted to sit by himself for his checkup and Connor not understanding at all said Yes! So, he got to have the exam in the actual dental chair. Here are some pics of us waiting for the dentist.

He did amazing, truly amazing. The hygenists were gathering to oooh and ahhhh at him because he did so well. I don't know...maybe they put this show on for all parents who look concerned that their child will spaz out at any moment. He laid there calmly the entire time and the dentist said he did better than most kids who are 3 or 4 who sit in that chair. He gave him a balloon (blown up dental glove reminiscent of a cow udder) and won him over for life. The dentist even let Connor hold his little spit sucker machine. It was so cute watching him decide when he had to use it. Hilarity.

The exam itself was positive too. Connor sat well enough during x-rays and even I hate that part. the pinching! He has all but 4 teeth-his very back molars which typically come in around age three. No cavities at this point, but we were told that his first molars have very, very deep crevaces so we need to pay extra, extra attention to them because it's going to be easy for food to get stuck there and missed by good brushing. He told us that it may be a good idea down the road to seal them just in case. I guess we'll consider it with the adult teeth and try to practice good brushing on these baby ones :)

(I took lots of pics this weekend, so I'll probably do another post tomorrow!)

Crock Pot Tuesday

i see recipes that call for brown sugar all the time and always want to try one out but I don't seem to have all ingredients on hand so I've skipped some. This recipe has 3 very random ingredients - things I wouldn't ever really put together typically. But I did. And it came out great.

Sweet & Spicy Pork Chops

2-3 bone in pork chops - though boneless would be fine too
1 cup italian dressing
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup spicy brown mustard
s&p to taste

Combine dressing, brown sugar and mustard in bowl and mix well. Lightly season chops with salt and pepper and then place in crock pot. Pour liquid mixture over and cook on hi for 2 hours. **I decided to marinate the chops for a bit so I poured my mixture in a bag and let the chops soak for about 5 hours. Overnight would be fine too.

we had our chops with green beans and some bread - so easy.

That's really it. Simple. The chops were really great. I've never been a big pork chop fan, so you've got to dress them up a lot for me to like them. I'll certainly have them again. The recipe I found called for 4 hours but after 2.5 they were looking a bit parched. I pulled the plug and they were great at that point...even though we ate dinner at ten minutes to five (blah). Next time I'll do it for two hours and just let it stay warm for a while until we're ready.

Bonus - Connor even ate some. Miracle.

Fridays Dose of Brilliance

One of my best, besties Patricia found this site. And since she's such a cool chick she sent me some of her favorites from it. The site has an interesting concept that I really like. You send in a saying...like a one liner and they create a design from it. The guy, Sam Brown...aka Adam Culbert also has books of his fun drawings and often makes them into shirts and other stuff. The drawings are done in photoshop I think and there's nothing complex about them, but I like.

I really like this one...You are no longer a supervisor

Patricia likes this one...I can't control you but I can love you

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

I took a week off of blogging this past week. I felt like a slacker for sure but there was just no getting around it. I was sick, super sick. I'm feeling lots better but still getting over the dry cough and grossness of a pretty bad cold. Here are some pics of our weekend...two weekends ago.

Dad, Corliss, Jeffrey, Connor & I were supposed to go to Las Cruces to meet up with some family we never get to see. My dad's step-mom Jean is my last grandparent...connor's last surviving great grandparent and she lives in Arkansas. One of my dad's step-siblings was going to drive her across country to visit family. Las Cruces was as far west as they were coming so we decided to meet there. Unfortunately, Wednesday before we left town my grandma got pretty sick and it was decided that they wouldn't make the trip. Besides the obvious reason, we were really disappointed. I want to see her badly, and really want Connor to meet her. We were all also pretty hell bent on getting out of town that weekend. I'd had enough of sweating it out in AZ and needed a bit of an escape-even if just for the weekend.

We decided to touchbase with Dawn and her mom and see if the Payson cabin was available that weekend instead. It was! So we packed it up and the 5 of us planned to spend a weekend relaxing up north!

So, the plan was for Jeffrey to get Connor from school and pick me up at work at 3pm on the way out of town. My dad and Corliss went up earlier that day to do some shopping. In true fashion, at 2 something I got a call from Connor's teacher saying he had a fever and some pretty disturbing diapers (read: cold, infection, awesome.). We acted fast, got him a 3pm appointment at his peds office and got out of town right after. It's just a cold and he was acting fine. No plane ride, no crazy activity so we just figured anything we do up there is like doing it here at home. And we were off!

The drive up to Payson is pretty easy. Unless I'm the passenger. I hate the twisty mountain roads when I'm not driving. It freaks me the crap out.

We met up with dad and Corliss at the cabin and unpacked all the food and booze we'd brought up for the weekend. We decided to try out one of the little diner places in town and picked the Cafe 260. It was a cute place-exactly as you'd imagine. We all had the catfish special and Connor ate all of our fries. The owner and waitress were wonderful...continually reaffirming my desire to live in a small-ish town... They tolerated Connor's wildness and even made him a special little plate. He dipped everything in ranch as is his trademark way. They gave us a free piece of pie and asked us to come back sometime for breakfast-swearing that their pancakes were the best.

After we got home from the restaurant, dad and Connor threw the baseball around a bit. (like we could go out of town w/o bringing the ball, bat and glove along.) After Connor went to sleep, we broke out the Trivial Pursuit and Jeffrey and I kicked the crap out of them. Not really. I think we won by a pie, but a win all the same. :) I freakin love trivia.

Saturday morning we got up, had coffee and cereal out on the porch. That porch is one of my absolute favorite things about the house. The view is amazing. Truly amazing. If I lived there, I'd do nothing but eat, drink and relax on that porch. There's even an owl on the porch-meant to be! There was lots and lots of baseball playing this weekend. "play baball with papa", "play baball with mama", "play baball with dada", "play baball with tashi (somehow tashi=corliss)". He gets so excited and it's difficult to refuse him. :)

After lots of coffee and baseball we decided to head into town to do some shopping in the stores along Main Street. My dad and Corliss are both big collectors. My dad has an amazing collection of brass antiques, and other pieces that he's been collecting for decades. I could say that they are Chase and Frankart pieces...but I don't know if that means anything to anyone. :) He's been dragging me to antique stores my entire life, but i've only recently started to enjoy it myself. The first store we hit my dad ended up educating the store owner on items he was selling. Amazing. The guy was also a retired professor like dad (except he was a Wildcat-boo) and is somehow related to other Van Hooks. Small world folks. We toured a few more shops until Jeffrey and Connor just couldn't take it anymore. Connor did find a few things he liked including this old school catchers mit (shocking) and a little red car. I considered getting the red car until I remembered that my name isn't Lindsay Rockafellar and that he'd surely break the pricey little "toy" before we got it out of town.


Saturday evening we had bbq and it was great. I started feeling pretty yucky sometime on Saturday and wasn't too surprised. When you're the person pulling the boogers out of a sick two year old, it's not long before you start to feel it too. Plus, i'm no good at holding back my hugs and kisses when he's sick. Oh well. By Saturday night I was full-on sicko but I dealt with it with only occasional complaining.

I said "go stand by the tree" and this is the pose he struck. Holy senior photo.

Papa and Connor playing on Carol & Todd's toy

Papa, Corliss & Connor lounging in their sock money pajamas...and Connor with his baseball of course

Connor started getting really sick when we got home from Payson. I think the cool, clean air up north was doing him good but then we got home and the fever really spiked. The kid doesn't stop running around when he's not feeling well, so we could tell it was somewhat serious when he laid in bed for 6 hours just watching The Sandlot over and over again-right in the middle of the day. His fever got pretty high-104 on and off for a few days which is concerning as the kid is pretty low. The nurse at Connor's ped office told us that if it got to 105 we were to call 911 or head to the ER ourselves. Not great news. Long story short, he stayed home from school a couple days and then went back and has been fine. Here's a pic of him at the height of the fever. We had to change the bed sheets pretty often because he sweat so much. :( Even super sick, he manages to be adorable.

Crockpot Tuesday

Italian Chicken

2 large chicken breasts

one 28 oz can/jar of pasta sauce

1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning (or whatever-see below)

1/4 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp black pepper

Spray slow cooker and place chicken in pot. Combine all other ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook for 6 hours.

This was really good. The chicken ended up really tender. I didn't have any of the Italian salad dressing packets left so I used an onion soup mix packet for the Tablespoon of seasoning. Italian seasonings are really made up of equal parts of oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, sage and savory. Do you have savory in your spice rack? I don't. You can really dump anything in there, so no worries.

We had it with a box of rice a roni and some yummy carrots. It was a pretty great meal all around. Connor on the other hand had a hotdog, pineapple and a couple slices of cheese. Super.

Friday's Dose of Brilliance

Today's post is kinda a three in one deal. I love FML (F My Life) and GMH (Gives Me Hope) but never posted it here for some reason. Recently a coworker, knowing my love for funny websites, sent me a new site that I'd never heard of. It's similar to FML, but I think it's way, way funnier. It's My Life Is Average (MLIA) and is full of hilarious, average happenings. This is one of my more recent favorites:

Today, I locked myself out of my house. Knowing that my parents had hidden a key in the backyard, but not knowing where it was, I invited a couple friends over and turned it into a treasure hunt. I gave the guy who found it a piece of cake. MLIA

Here's a quick sample from FML:

Today, I received my passport in the mail. They got my birthdate wrong. Then I picked up my birth certificate that I had sent in with the application. Turns out my parents have been celebrating my birthday on the wrong day for 16 years. FML

And lastly a sample from GMH:

I work in a childcare center and, while telling the children what to play with, a teacher inadvertently knocked over a young girl's blocks. A boy from across the room yelled "HEY!" and he ran over to where the teacher and the girl where. He started setting her blocks back up for her. His care GMH.

(Warning: do NOT spend time on GMH if you are at work...the stuff will make you cry so you'll look like an idiot. Lesson Learned)

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

we found a shady spot in the park this weekend and played some baseball. i think we lasted about 45 minutes because it was still too damn hot.

just like mama - totally enamored with the rain. that's what happens when you're an AZ native!

showing off his ribbon for advancing to the Starfish swim classes. Please ignore his shoes...Jeff puts them on him because he's mean and knows how much I hate, hate them.

I named this photo Obsessed in the computer...he won't go anywhere without his ball and glove. the kid is truly obsessed with baseball. you can't really truly understand it if you haven't seen The Obsession in action.

It's a Pajama-jammy-jam

Today is PJ day at Connor's school so he's rockin his sock monkey PJs from papa!!

Crockpot Tuesday

Ham & Cheese Casserole

1 lb of cooked ham, cubed

1 can of cream of whatever soup-i used mushroom

2 cups of shredded cheese

1 can of green beans

1 pint of sour cream

12-16 oz cooked pasta

super simple ingredients - all of which we had on hand. that's a deal breaker with me

Spray bottom of crockpot. Dump a third of the ham, cheese and pasta in bottom. Next layer green beans over that. Spread another layer of ham, cheese and pasta. Continue layering until ham, cheese and pasta are all in crockpot. Combine the soup and sourcream until smooth. Pour this over last. Heat on Hi for 2 hours.

Because this is such a quick cook, I came straight home from work and started this rather than cook it while I'm gone for the day. Since I'd be rushing to get it going after work, I did lots of prep work the night before. After I cooked the pasta, I cut up the ham and combined them. That made the layering process lots easier. I combined the soup and sour cream ahead of time too. This was a really simple recipe and it was really good. I think next time I'll vary the type of soup I use...maybe go for cream of asparagus, broccoli or celery since those are my favs. I'll also add seasoning like minced garlic or something to it for more flavor. It was nice and simple as is though and great to mix it up with the ham.

Friday's Dose of Brilliance - but different

This weekend is all about Chi Omega recruitment for me. I loved rush when I was in college, but I love it even more now that I'm an alumnae. It's so great watching the college girls meet potential sisters and fall in love with them.


Those of you that I'm personally close to know that I'm pretty involved with my college sorority and the local alumnae group. I have been a Chapter Advisor for the ASU collegiate chapter for a couple years now and I really love that. Getting to know the women who are continuing all of our traditions and sisterhood has been amazing. On an alumnae level, I spent the last year as Membership Chair, recruiting new members to the alumnae chapter here in Phoenix. I also lead a book club for our group and serve as Active (collegiate) Relations Chair. So, clearly I'm kinda involved. Just this year, I was elected President of the Alumnae Chapter and retained the rest of my positions other than Membership Chair which my 'grand big sis' Jamie took over.


I'm really loving being so involved with the sorority. Of course, I had a blast while in college doing the whole sorority thing, but I think I enjoy it on a completely different level as an alumna. When we were in college, I wasn't too involved beyond the parties, rush, meetings, philanthropies, etc. I didn't do the leadership thing which is strange for me. I had a long term bf already (hubs now!) and worked full time while in school. I think that I'm striving to make up for that now that I'm alum. Now...i'm uber-involved.


My great friend and sister Jill nominated me to attend the Alumnae Chapter Leadership Conference being held at the Chi Omega Executive Headquarters in Memphis. I submitted my application and then held my breath, crossed my fingers and waited for an answer. They were only selecting 16 women from all over the US so as much as I wanted to go, I didn't have really high expectations of being selected. I received an email a couple weeks ago telling me Congrats! You've been selected to attend the ACLC in Memphis! SO EXCITED. I never went to Nationals as a collegiate but I've seen amazing photos and I am really looking forward to the opportunity. It's being held in the beginning of October and my flight is booked! I plan to take lots and lots of photos so you can expect to read all about it coming up. I'm so excited to visit this place!

Here are a few sites worth checking out! Have a wonderful long holiday weekend.

Arizona State University Chi Omega Chapter

Valley Chi Omega Alumnae Chapter


Chi Omega Sorority

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

We added it up and Connor has been to nearly 20 dbacks games in his two years. amazing. he is just obsessed with baseball. he freaks out during commercials when we watch games at home and wanders around saying "play baseball" until someone will play with him. the teachers at school tell me that they now have to play daily, as he's pretty insistent. hilarious. Here are a few pics of our last game we went to.

hanging out in baxter's den seeing how he measures up

running the bases with daddy


wow, he is obsessed with that little magazine you get at the games. he 'reads' it in the car, at home, anywhere. i see him reading it to aidan when they are at school.

hot dog time

probably my favorite photo of all time

We celebrated my dad's 67th birthday a couple of weeks ago. Connor decorated cookies for him which i am positive my diabetic dad looooved. We then packed a big picnic and went swimming with my dad (papa) and corliss. It was a great day.

well, someone had to taste them to be sure they were good enough for papa!

stained fingers for two days. smart mommy.

enjoying some fruit at papa's birthday party

We had our friends Adam and Andrea over to hang out earlier this month. Jeffrey and I set them up and this past weekend Adam popped the question. Success!! Congrats to them. Anyway, we just hung out and drank a ridiculous amount of booze, played games and caught up. It was the perfect evening!

These next ones are just some random shots at connor's school. He's still at Kyrene de las Brisas and he and Aidan are still bff. I love that they will grow up with each other and have been close since they were just a few months old. I think that's great.

Connor, Aidan & Marcus - these three are inseparable at school. Not sure about the kid eating his hand in back.

and we'll end with a cheese ball pic of my little man :)