Auntie Bear

We've all heard that saying about a momma bear protecting her cubs. Is there such a thing as an Auntie Bear?

Photo borrowed from internet.

I have no kids of my own. I would love to have them one day, but right now I just love everyone else's and then give them back to their rightful owners when I tire of them. I may just be an Aunt, but boy do I understand that Momma Bear instinct.

I'll never forget the first time my sister shared with me the story of my oldest nephew's first broken heart. I had tears streaming down my face and it even chokes me up thinking about it right now. I hate seeing loved ones hurt at any age, but there is something about watching someone you love have to learn those first lessons in heartbreak we've all learned at some point in our lives.

And now, my other nephew appears to be going through it. I don't like it. Not one bit! 

Here's how it went:

Sunday afternoon: I talk to my sister who tells me that my nephew has been "hanging out" with a girl, but they aren't dating. They want to take things slow. She's supposed to come over that night and take him out to dinner for a belated birthday dinner.

Sunday 5:48pm: Facebook post from my nephew - "When you cant wait for the moment to come and then it's cancelled a half hour before it happens." Dislike! 

Monday evening: I talk to my sister again. "She better have had a good excuse, I say." My sister tells me she did and she ended up coming over later that night with a present for him. Ok fine. We'll let this one slide.

Wednesday 7:44pm: Facebook post from my nephew - "High school relationships... Haha why do we even try?"  Dislike again, but I think... How wise of him. I'm pretty sure I never thought something like that in high school!

And then today, 2:27pm: Facebook post from my nephew - "Now you're just somebody that I used to know..." Did you hear it too? The breaking of his heart and the cracking of mine? Ugh!
I responded to him, ">:o( Dislike again! Do I need to come up there??"
His response? "Guess so...:(" Did you hear that again? That was my heart actually breaking! Not just cracking!

That Auntie Bear comes out in me! I just want to take all the kids I love into my "den", heal their sweet little hearts, and be able to promise them they'll never have to go through it again. But we all know that's not possible.

I don't know how all you parents are able to sit back and let your kids go through their life's lessons without over protecting them and more so - without kicking the asses of the people that hurt them!  The part of me that thinks I'm a bad ass comes out and wants to go find the person and.... and what? Give them dirty looks? Lord knows I could never physically hurt someone. Perhaps I could tear them down verbally, but then I would probably turn around and start crying because I felt so bad for saying the things I said. LOL I would never do anything of the sort, but man does it infuriate me!

I truly don't know how parents do it though! It makes me question my ability to be a parent. If I feel so passionately about it as an Auntie that I want to get in my car and drive 8 hours to get to my nephew, I can't imagine how his mom feels about it. Now I understand why my mom was the way she was when I had a bad friend or crappy partner.


I guess it's a good thing I live 8 hours away from my nephew. It gives the girl an 8 hour lead to either start running, or change her mind and make it right.

Introducing - CONE KID!!

"Slow for the Cone Zone"

Yep. That's me inside there!

Today was National Bring Your Kid to Work Day. My boss approached me about a month ago and asked if I would represent Caltrans as Cone Kid. I reluctantly agreed. (But was also secretly a little excited. LOL)

The events leading up to me becoming Cone Kid were nearly tragic, comical, and overall fun.

Yesterday, we were checking out the costume and being sure the pants and shirt fit before the big day. I took a look at Cone Kid himself and thought, "Oy. I hope I don't get claustrophobic in there." (I am not really sure why we didn't test out the whole outfit right then, but we didn't.)

So, today is the big day. I suit up five minutes before the event is to start. My boss slides Cone Kid over my head and..... INSTANT PANIC!!!! :o(

Oh, no! Am I going to be able to do this? I mean, come on! How irrational am I being? What could really happen to me in that suit? 

Well, let me tell you what could happen.

• What if I fall over? 
• What if there is an earthquake and I have to run and I cant get out? 
• What if I get nauseous and throw up inside Cone Kid? 
• What if my stomach hates me and I have to run to the bathroom? 
• What if I freak out inside that thing and scare the kids?
• What if I pass out?
• What if some kid bullies me?!

The catastrophic scenarios were racing through my head. Not only would I not be able to run, but I wouldn't going to be able to get that cone off my head without the help of someone else. What? I have to rely on someone else? This is NOT a comfortable feeling for me.

Thankfully, my boss found a great solution. Instead of being in the costume for the entire welcome session (about 30-45 minutes) she suggested I wait in a closet and at the end of her presentation, she would come get me. We'd have the kids just take pictures with Cone Kid and I would only have to be inside the cone body for about 10 minutes. I could do 10 minutes. Couldn't I?

I sat in that closet for about 20 minutes running all the scenarios through my head again. Then laughing at myself, I returned to my original rational thought: Really? What was the likelihood that any of those things would happen in 10 minutes? Sure. It could happen in some freak scenario, but the odds were pretty low. Plus... I LOVE kids. And the kids are going to LOVE Cone Kid. I wouldn't want to take Cone Kid away from them! So... I was able to sit in the closet, talk myself off the ledge, then (for not the first time in my life) I came out of the closet with a bang!

The kids ooh'd and aah'd and cheered and smiled. It was great. They each got their picture taken... even the big kids got their pictures with Cone Kid:

High Five!

He was so stoked! I guess some of us never fully lose our innocence!

I thought it was a little bizarre at the time, but when I saw these pictures I thought it was HILARIOUS! He's totally wearing the hats and safety jackets we gave out to the kids. I am pretty sure he was more excited to be getting high fives and pictures with Cone Kid than the actual kids were. He even had someone video tape it! LOL! I'm not even 100% sure this guy works with us!

Also hilarious about this day... instinctively, at every click of the camera, I would catch myself smiling from ear to ear inside Cone Kid as if my face was going to be in the picture! Every now and again, I would catch myself and chuckle wondering why the heck I was smiling. Never the less, the next click of the camera, there I was from inside of Cone Kid smiling and thinking, "Cheeeeeese".

So, it was nearly tragic in that I almost couldn't be Cone Kid. But thankfully, I was able to talk myself off the ledge. Find it comical. Laugh at myself. Get over my irrational fears and end up having a great time.

I might even consider doing it again next year. 

Crescent Pizza Rolls

Photo courtesy of The Girl Who Ate Everything

The Recipe:
(Adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything)

Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) package refrigerated crescent roll dough
4 cheese sticks, halved
1 (3.5 ounce) package sliced pepperoni
optional - marinara or ranch sauce for dipping

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Take each triangle of crescent roll dough, brush a thin layer of marinara on the crescent roll triangle, and place about 6 pepperoni on the bottom of the triangle. Place half of a cheese stick on top and roll up. (I sort of tucked the sides up so the cheese didn't make too much of an oozing mess.) Place seam side down on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-14 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with a side of marinara and/or ranch. (I preferred dipping in the ranch first and then the marinara.)

The Review:
Delicious. Quick. Easy. Fun. Would be a great appetizer/finger food for a gathering. I think kids would think these are fun and would be something they could easily help with/make on their own.

The Final Product:

Trying to find a tag for my pics... Not sure I love this one.

Parmesan Garlic Pasta

 This dish (found on this blog via Pinterest) is perfect for my household for four reasons:

1. I love all things garlic.
2. I love a quick and simple meal.
3. K cant do red sauces so this creamy white is perfect. 
4. My good friend Ms. Rink always enjoys my recipe blogs, but she's vegetarian so a lot of my dishes would require alteration. This one, Ms. Rink, is already vegetarian, just-for-you! :o) No altering necessary!

The Recipe:

2 tsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp butter
¼  tsp salt
½ tsp pepper (I left this out. K literally cant do any spice.)
3 cups chicken stock (I used broth - is there really a difference?)
½ lb spaghetti or angel hair pasta
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
¾ cup heavy cream
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (I would say this is optional, but it does give it a nice pop of color.)

In a pot, bring the olive oil to medium-low heat. Add the garlic and stir, allowing it to cook for 1-2 minutes. Mix in the butter until melted. Add the salt, pepper and chicken stock. Raise the heat to high and let it come to a boil. 

Once it is at a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook for as long as the box’s directions indicate. Reduce the stove to medium heat and mix in the parmesan until completely melted. Turn off the heat and stir in the cream and parsley. Serve immediately.

Add a little broccoli to top it off and vuala! You have a perfect meal.  

The Finished Product:

The Review:

Mine turned out on the salty side which baffled both me and the sister-in-law so we went on a mission to identify the saltiness. 

• Sure, chicken broth tends to be salty, but that shouldn't have been it. 
• I didn't use fresh garlic, I used Dorot Crushed Garlic frozen cubes. They had salt in the ingredients, but it was the second to last ingredient, so that couldn't have been it. 
• We brain stormed a little more, and then she tasted the parmesan I used. AHA! That was it! I used the fresh grated parmesan that comes in pre-packaged tubs in the refrigerator section. 

What I will do different next time: 

• I will suck it up and by a hunk of parmesan and grate it myself to see if that will help with the saltiness.
• I will also forgo the 1/4 tsp salt the recipe calls for. 
• Could add chicken.
• Serve with garlic bread! (I don't know how this didn't happen to begin with.)

Cookie Monster

In November of last year, I got a new co-worker. She filled my old position after I got promoted. It was pretty much friendship at first sight. We hit it off from the get go and quickly realized we are alike in a lot of ways... right down to our unruly natural curly hair.

We both enjoy baking and baking for other people. This is one of the many things we have in common. However, she actually has talent and creativity. It's impressive really.

She brought in cupcakes first. And then she made cookies a couple of times. Her skills we so impressive that the Director asked her to make cookies to celebrate one of our partnerships and she would give the cookies to them. You kind of have to know our Director to understand what a big deal that is and what a compliment that is.

Here is what she made (I made the tags, thank you very much!):

She personalized each cookie.

Then today, she came in with these adorable cookies:

Happy Easter!

She made those for our co-workers kids. He didn't show up to work today and he's off tomorrow, so guess who these cookies are going home with tonight? ;o)

I am already recruiting her (aka - begging and bugging till she agrees) to make some cookies for Relay for Life. I foresee some boob cookies and/or cupcakes in our future!