Nudge The Nest & Pray They Fly
Me: Girls, your dinner is getting cold. Go sit down and eat.
Aubrey: (In a very high-pitched, I’m-better-than-you-voice) I am a Queen. And Queens don’t eat dinner.
Me: Whatever….
Today I took Aubrey (4) and Emma (3) to the water park with our bestest friends from Savannah, Georgia. We haven’t seen them in almost two years so it was great to catch up with my friend Gena and to see her two boys. They came in the house to play briefly while we waited for the water park to open.
On our way to the water park the conversation went something like this:
Aubrey: Momma, those boys WRECKED my room…
Me: They are your FRIENDS, and I think they had some help wrecking your room.
Emma: Yeah.
Aubrey: Momma, those boys are so messy.
Me: They are your FRIENDS, Aubrey. Remember?
Aubrey: I think they forgot. Boys forget everything, Momma. Like my Daddy…
Me: What are you talking about?
Aubrey: Daddy’s cell phone. (OK, so it had been missing for a couple of days…Emma found it last night…in the toy box.)
Emma: Yeah.
Aubrey: Momma, if those boys don’t clean up my room are you gonna open up a can?
Me: Say, WHO?
Aubrey: IF THOSE BOYS DON’T CLEAN UP MY ROOM ARE YOU GONNA OPEN UP A CAN?
Emma: YEAH!
Me: (Um, oops…) I think we can handle it by ourselves….
Emma: Yeah.
Emma (3) very thoughtfully took Sadie’s (6 mons) clothes off for her this evening then begged me to let her hold her baby sister…”I want to hold hurrr, Mommy.”
Me: OK, sit on the couch.
Emma: (held up her arms and said in her best baby talk voice about 2 octaves higher than her usual voice) Come ‘ere you BIG GIANT BA-BEE!!
After a LOOOOOONG day of playing, cleaning up her own messes and spending a considerable amount of time in time out, Aubrey curled up in her Daddy’s lap with her blankie and said, “I wanna be a baby and just drink formula and booby milk all day long.”
It’s hard being four…so many responsibilities.
I come from some FUNNY people y’all. I just got this email from my sister, Aunt B, and laughed so hard my head still hurts. I immediately thought of YOU, and thought you would enjoy B’s story…
So all of a sudden Uncle Lou shouts “Oh, Blair he’s up on his front legs!”
Me: You mean his arms?
UL: Um, yes. I’m around babies all the time…can’t you tell?”
Got a request from ONE person for my meatloaf recipe so, of course I assumed YOU prolly wanted it too…this used to be Paula Deen’s BBQ Meatloaf, but I tweaked it a little to my specifications and it is one of my favorite meals. If Aunt LuLu tries to claim this one, you’d better check her meds.
All my measurements are guess-timations, so more or less…you get the idea.
1 1/2-2 lbs of ground beef, pork or turkey (or a combination of the 3)
1 small onion diced
1/2 bell pepper diced
2 or 3 cloves minced garlic
1/3 c ketchup or tomato sauce
1/2 to 3/4c ITALIAN breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
2 eggs
olive oil
Saute the onion and pepper in olive oil until soft, add the garlic and warm but do not brown. Put all ingredients in a large mixing bowl (I’d wait until the veggies cool off, but they’re your hands) and mix together. I usually make several small meatloafs (meatloaves???) because they freeze well, and cook faster, but make them the size you prefer.
Sauce:
1 can of tomato sauce
1/4 c brown sugar
3 T balsamic vinegar
2 T mustard
2 T Worcestershire sauce
2-3 cloves of garlic (you can smash them and remove the skins and put them in the sauce whole and remove after simmering the sauce or mince them, your choice.)
Simmer sauce until it reduces and thickens.
Bake meatloaf at 400 degrees for about an hour (THIS IS GOING TO DEPEND ON THE SIZE YOU MADE THEM! Use a meat thermometer if’n you need to!) After about 20 minutes, remove from oven, pour off grease and begin basting with sauce, repeat once more. Serve with sauce on the side.