Traveling the Tightrope

Absolutely the best Cinnamon Rolls ever!

2011-06-12T15:17:00.004-05:00

I'll be working on making these over to be allergy friendly but if you don't have allergies you'll have to give the original recipe a shot!

Mock Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls

These are THE BEST cinnamon rolls! The recipe is from Todd Wilbur's MORE TOP SECRET RECIPES. Ooooey, goooey and rich! The dough can easily be prepared in your bread machine, just follow your manufacturer's order of ingredients. I put the ingredients in the night before to make my dough, and then refrigerate it over night and roll out and bake in the morning.

12 servings

1¼ hours 1 hour prep

1 (1/4	ounce) package dry yeast
1	cup warm milk
1/2	cup granulated sugar
1/3	cup margarine
1	teaspoon salt
2	eggs
4	cups flour
FILLING
1	cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2	tablespoons cinnamon
1/3	cup margarine, softened
ICING
8	tablespoons margarine
1 1/2	cups powdered sugar
1/4	cup cream cheese
1/2	teaspoon vanilla
1/8	teaspoon salt

For the rolls, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl.
Add sugar, margarine salt, eggs, and flour, mix well.
Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour.
Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, until it is approx 21 inches long by 16 inches wide.
It should be approx 1/4 thick.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
To make filling, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
Spread the softened margarine over the surface of the dough, then sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon evenly over the surface.
Working carefully, from the long edge, roll the dough down to the bottom edge.
Cut the dough into 1 3/4 inch slices, and place in a lightly greased baking pan.
Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown.
While the rolls are baking combine the icing ingredients.
Beat well with an electric mixer until fluffy.
When the rolls are done, spread generously with icing.

June Allergy Friendly Meals

2011-06-07T16:51:00.004-05:00

I found a cool new reciepe site when I was surfing through some PCOS blogs and I'm starting to fill up my June calendar with meal ideas.

Don't these look divine!
I love experimenting in the kitchen and luckily I've got a pretty good taste testing audience (at least they eat it whether they like it or not LOL). So some new additions to our regulars this month will be Bombay Sweet Potatoes and grilled chicken, Chicken in Tomato Peanut Sauce which is a crockpot meal and will go perfect with a light side salad,Grilled Shrimp over Bean Salad, Spicy Broccoli with Beef served over brown rice, Coq-au-vin-Nouveau , Black Pepper Beef with Green Beans .

Eric is not nearly the fan of Quinoa that I am so I'll probably whip up some of these either when he's not around or for lunches. I love quinoa and the protein punch it packs!

Shrimp Sausage and Quinoa Jambayla (Yum), Toasted Quinoa Salad with Scallops and Snow Peas and since Eric can't have corn this yummy dish is all mine Chilequiles Verde ... well as much as I can wrestle away from the kiddos anyway.

And no meal planning is complete without something sweet! I saw these and thought I would try the brownies at some point for Eric and the Mocha meringues will be a sweet addition to the first birthday party we have planned this month.

Gluten free chocolate peanut butter brownies
Double chocolate mocha meringues

Cheers and happy cooking!
Traci

Happy Memorial Day! Gluten Free, Egg Free and Corn Free Style

2011-05-29T10:26:00.002-05:00

What's on your menu? We've got a roasted pork loin, roasted sweet potatoes and sauteed kale on the menu. I started a produce delivery service last week and I am truly loving the push that it's giving me to get out of my comfort cooking zone. Now to find something yummy to make with purple basil! :)

Gotta run Tyrant Number 1 is ready to put on a puppet show and I need to make him a stage to do it from!

April Meal Plans - Week 3 ...the clean eating continues

2011-04-16T14:14:00.003-05:00

It has been a crazy week...hmmm those words are nowhere near strong enough to describe the insane chaos that has surrounded this week. Livi still has awful allergies which has thrown her schedule into the black hole of early mornings and she is currently boycotting naps. These are not fun times people, but they will pass. To ride out the storm some extra indepth planning was called for.

So I'm sitting here today to plot out the next week worth of meals and snacks for everyone so that at least one thing will run like clockwork in this house.

April Meal Plans - Week 2

2011-04-10T13:08:00.004-05:00

This week is all about trying to use up what I've got and clean out the pantry and freezer.

Monday: Crockpot Port Tenderloin and Cinnamon Apples, served with quinoa
Tuesday: Grilled Chicken and Butternut Risotto with sauteed baby spinach
Wednesday: Crockpot meatballs, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli
Thursday: Tosca's Tilapia, steamed brown rice and sauteed lima beans.
Friday: Clean Eating Broiled Round Steak, roasted potatoes and squash

In an ongoing effort to trick the testosterone infested members of my household into healthier eating there are a few random veggies that have snuck in here and there throughout these meals. I also want to take this week to start really going through the stuff in our pantry that seems to outlast the month. Some are random ingredients we just never seem to use and I'm not quite sure how they made our shopping list at one point but nevertheless I need the prime real estate they are taking up.

Off to grab some coupons and hit the store! Happy Sunday!

April Week 1 Meal Plans - Allergen friendly, PCOS friendly, Calorie friendly

2011-04-03T15:33:00.006-05:00

Whoops I forgot to post last week's recipes. We did eat out one night so here's the rest. More to come later today for this week's meal plans. After last week's craziness it's going to be crockpot central around here!

April Week 1 Meal Plans (many from PCOS Diva's new blog)
One Pot Kale and Quinoa Pilaf
Raspberry Balsamic Chicken
Cincinnati Spaghetti
Baked Potato Casserole (Recipe Below)

Baked Potato Casserole

It's super easy!
Slice 4-5 good size butter gold potatoes thick au-gratin style, drizzle with EVOO, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake at 425 for 30 mins.

Top with 1 lb of browned & cooked ground beef, sprinkle with a few pats of butter, top with 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, cover with foil and bake for 20 mins.

Take out and serve topped with chopped green onions and sour cream. Delish but it took way to long for this busy momma! I'll be making it in the crock pot next time.

Social media as a customer service tool

2011-03-28T21:23:00.003-05:00

Image via CrunchBase Finally a lazy Sunday to catch up...well as lazy as a Sunday can be around here. Kids are up before dawn, husband is spending the three day weekend finishing up our landscaping, I'm playing online working on the dining room re-design and then there is the usual cooking, cleaning and never ending "will you play with me" questions that I hate saying no to. :)

I've been pretty MIA from cyber space lately. My sister in law is now a Mrs. and weekends are now no longer dedicated to wedding plans, Alex is officially not in preschool any longer (OMG how did my baby turn into a Kindergartener??) and Liv is walking...plenty to keep me busy. It's funny how attached we become to our information sources. I use Twitter to stay up on news and to interact with friends, and lately also as a venting outlet for crappy customer service issues.

I hate dealing with customer service numbers. It never works out well for me. I end up in a never ending loop of hold music and lack of answers. Boy does that make me mad...enough that I had pretty much given up on calling anymore. Instead I got mad and shot my mouth off on Twitter. I had a rough day, McDonalds screwed up my coffee, Target wouldn't let me enter a prescription online (well they would, just at the end of the process they kicked it out since the person it was for was 9 months old and needed an adult...seriously like my prodigy 9 month old was entering it herself), Lumber Liquidators wouldn't refund half my money for a product I had never picked up for some unknown reason, and Sam's Club had double charged me and messed my order up and I was stuck in an endless loop of them insisting both issues were fixed because they refunded the overcharge. Not my best day and perhaps I can be forgiven for getting a little testy and shouting off on Twitter.

Imagine my surprise when I almostly immediately got direct messages back from Sam's Club, McDonalds and Lumber Liquidators. Direct messages asking me why I was frustrated (kind of hard to explain in 140 characters but I did my best). Direct messages flew back and forth and ended with me giving them my phone number. Within minutes my phone rang and without a minute on hold I was speaking with an awesome customer service rep based here locally. To keep this post out of the novella range suffice it to say that the morning ended with all my refunds being processed (plus some! Rock on Sam's Club for offering a 200% money back guarentee on flowers LOVE THAT), and McDonalds sending me out a coupon for free coffee.

Who knew how powerful venting on Twitter could be and closely some stores watch their brand. Target was the only store to never respond at all and believe me, I'll call 3 out of 4 a win win!

March Allergy Friendly, PCOS Friendly Meal Plan - Week 1

2011-03-20T14:15:00.003-05:00

I've been following a few blogs focusing on meal planning for a while now and
I'm inspired to start tracking my meal plans and posting them in case they help someone else out as much my favorite sites have helped me. With our family's various persnickety issues meal planning is a must and fast, healthy, tasty food is a bit tricky. This week we're attempting some new recipes to spice things up. All of these recipes will be slightly altered where necessary to be gluten, corn, soy and egg free (except the friatta which will be for me :)) Happy Cooking!

Monday: Beef Daube Provencal in the Crockpot
Tuesday: Brown Rice Penne with Sausage, Chard and Artichoke Hearts
Wednesday: Spring Chicken and Buckwheat Soup in the Crockpot
Thursday: Poached Chicken with Tarragon and Peas
Friday: Spring Rolls and Spicy Thai Curried Lentils
Saturday Lunch: Spring Chicken Salad & Toasted Pitas or homemade gluten free bread
Saturday Dinner: Mini Shepherd's Pies with roasted veggies on the side
Sunday: Mini Meat Loaves with sauteed broccoli and mashed potatoes

Breakfasts will be a combination of Friattas and Oatmeal and lunches will be made up of Pitas with whatever fillings I have on hand. I'm sure the occasiaional quesidilla will also make it's way in since it's a common standby in this house.

Quick Blog Update and then back to my lazy Sunday

2011-03-13T10:51:00.002-05:00

Life is flying by so quickly recently I feel like someone in a movie who's standing still while everyone moves in fast forward around them. Livi is growing up so quickly, Alex is a self-proclaimed genius who never sits still and the daily grind just never lets up.

We're sitting around today doing our taxes in our jammies (don't knock it...it takes me a bit of motivation to get around to taxes... a jammy day and a mocha latte are significant motivation in my book). I use Turbo Tax and while I'm waiting on hubby to supply the numbers I've requested I decided to flip over and update my very neglected blog. Sorry blog, there are just not enough hours in the day for everything calling my name recently.

Soccer season has started and I'm happy to say Tryant #1 is enjoying his time on the field and I'm highly enjoying the hard core serious soccer playing that gets interrupted every 5 minutes by one of the boys bringing us flowers, or pointing out a plane or just dancing in circles instead of watching the ball. It's hilarious! Tyrant #2 quite enjoys watching the chaos and I truly appreciate the 2 hours a week when I'm forced to sit outside and do nothing. Ahhh

I have so many plans and such limited implementation time! Stay tuned for upcoming blogs on free business resources, great ideas for work at home mommies to stay organized and productive and some great stress relievers like online journals.

Dealing with Milk Soy Protien Intolerance -MPSI

2011-01-15T11:23:00.006-06:00

Image by Veganbaking.net via FlickrI'm not vegan but lately it's become my primary adjective when I search for recipes. I find it far easier to locate a good looking, yummy sounding vegan recipe and then add on meat then the other way around.

A few nights ago my husband was quite brave and dug right in to the vegan Alfredo sauce I made to go with our gluten free brown rice pasta and blackened chicken. If you've ever thought about making a white sauce with no cheese, no butter and no milk, then you and I have shared a moment of "I just spent 30 minutes slaving over this and no one is going to eat it" panic.

Over the last five months I have experimented, avoided and substituted to no end. Although I can point you in the direction of a fabulous dairy free, soy free, gluten free chocolate bar, I can hardly remember the taste of real milk. Since I've fielded lots of questions lately on allergy free cooking and getting started I thought I would put together my top ten list of must haves for allergy free cooking and hope it helps someone else down the path to better health.

Coconut milk-I was pretty pumped when Jillian Michaels jumped on the coconut milk bandwagon since this is one that really needs to become more mainstream. It tastes fabulous, makes one heck of latte and works in everything from baking to mashed potatoes. I buy the vanilla for baking and unsweetened for everything else. It has no coconut taste or smell whatsoever and they make everything from milk to yogurt to ice cream and coffee creamer from it. My favorite brand is So Delicious and you can usually find at least 2-5 items of it in my fridge.
Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta- We tried a lot of pasta when my husband first went gluten free and if you cooked them just right they didn't turn to mush on your fork. Then along came Tinkyada with their fabulous brown rice pasta in all shapes and it's now back in our weekly rotation.
Cashews-ground up superfine and cooked into a coconut milk sauce these lend (believe it or not) a cheesy texture and taste. I also through some nutritional yeast in there to increase the "cheesy" texture. The Alfredo sauce I mentioned earlier in this post was made up of olive oil, ground cashews, nutritional yeast and coconut milk, thickened with a tiny bit of arrowroot powder (could use corn if you aren't' corn free like we are).
Rice flour (white and brown)- buy it in the Asian section or from an Asian supermarket to get the fine flour that works wonders in baked goods. I make my own flour mix up of 1/3 brown rice flour, white rice flour and sorghum flour, and substitute that cup for cup in any regular recipe calling for all purpose flour.
Sorghum flour-see above. It's a staple in my house and I find it quite cheap at the Indian market. If you don't have something like that in your area try amazon.com.
Starbucks Via-I love coffee and since Starbucks only offers soy or dairy milk I suffered for weeks before grabbing a pack of the VIA and trying it out. IT'S AMAZING! I use an inch of water, micro it, add my via, top it off with vanilla coconut milk, stir and micro that and there's my latte!
Gluten free rolled oats- I'm a dessert fiend and most of my favorites went out the window with the milk soy protein intolerance diagnosis. My new favorite (healthier) replacement is a small corningware dish filled with frozen strawberries and mangoes (no sugar added, just plain frozen fruit), sprinkle with cinnamon. Then in a separate bowl melt a little Earth Balance dairy/soy free butter spread and mix in a few tablespoons of gluten free quick cooking oats and brown sugar. Top the fruit and bake for 30 minutes until cobbler like.
Frozen fruit-I buy the big bags from Sam's Club and use it for everything from the recipe above to smoothies. Lot's of smoothies.
Oatmeal (Quaker makes packets of instant with whole grain rolled oats) I use instant for a quick breakfast or make up a batch of oatmeal pudding (recipe to come soon) and eat on it all week.
Google-There is so much information out on the web from people who walked this path before me. I am grateful for Google and all the help, recipes and suggestions it has brought my way!

I hope this information helps you or someone you know who is dealing with elimination diets for Milk Soy Protein Intolerance and be sure to email me or comment with any questions or suggestions.

Holiday Recap-Recipes, Pictures and More

2010-12-30T14:17:00.007-06:00

It took me getting sick and camping out on the couch to find time to write this. Two kiddos, work, hobbies there's just not enough time in the day is there.

This year we hosted a dessert party, did a day trip to Houston and back on Christmas Eve, and managed 4 Christmas celebrations in 42 hours. Talk about controlled chaos. The new van came in super handy, the kids were fabulous and I enjoyed every minute. of course I kept thinking to myself on the road...if I had an IPad I'd be writing right now hehehe! Thanks to all the family and friends who showered me with gift cards I think there's an IPad in my near future.

The natives are restless so I'll keep this short and sweet!

My favorite holiday recipe...hands down it was the Crockpot Chocolate Pudding Cake I made for our dessert party. It was quick to prep, cooked while we were out and about and combined with the timer on our coffee pot, allowed me to arrive home minutes before our guests and have everything ready to roll!

Crock-pot Chocolate Pudding Cake (dairy free, gluten free, corn free, soy free options)

1 pkg (3.9oz) Jell-O Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix (or check out www.allrecipes.com for an allergy free recipe sub)
3 cups milk (regular, almond, coconut)
1 pkg (2 layer size) chocolate fudge cake mix (I use Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix)
2 squares Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate chopped (sprinkle Enjoy Life chocolate chips for dairy/soy free)
2 cups thawed cool whip or whip cream (Soy whipped cream if soy tolerant, or omit, I didn't mind the omission :))

To Make It:

Spray your crock-pot with cooking spray, or lightly coat with shortening. (Some Pam sprays have soy so check labels). Beat pudding mix and milk in your crock-pot with a wire whisk for 2 minutes. The recipe calls for a 3 1/2 quart but I have the larger oval and it worked fine.
In another bowl prepare the cake batter according to the boxes instructions. Slowly pour it over the pudding mixture. DO NOT STIR. Cover the crock-pot with the lid.
Cook on low 2 1/2 - 3 hours (or on high 1 1/2 - 2 hours) until toothpick inserted comes out of cake clean. Top with chopped chocolate or chips. Turn off the cooker and let stand covered 30 minutes to allow the pudding to thicken. Serve with cool whip and dusted with cocoa powder or chocolate shavings.

My Must Have Kitchen Gadget for the holidays: Hands down it was my new Beka sauce pan. I whipped up quick quesidillas, chocolate sauces, you name it in there and was able to wash and reuse in minutes. The non-stick coating is amazing and a few more of these will be on my Christmas list for next year. And even better...this company has an environmental record that puts most other companies to shame. I just love them! Check them out here.

My 'Couldn't get dinner on the table without it' recipe sites: I have two favorites without question are Dinner Tool and All Recipes. Dinner Tool lets me meal plan, add my own recipes, create shopping lists and have a quick printout of my weeks plan. Allrecipes.com lets me search by ingredients so I can plug in something I'm trying to get out of the pantry or fridge and up pops a slew of choices. LOVE IT!

My favorite photo sharing site: With all the IPads, E-readers, and smartphones out there we've become a society of digital sharing. In most cases I'm right on that bandwagon but some vestiges of society are being lost in the cyber rush. I firmly believe it teaches real values for kids to recognize the generosity of Christmas and respond with a heartfelt thank you note. However I've found that over the last few years it is tough to interest my oldest in writing them. This year I stepped up my game and we used Smilebox to create digital thank you cards we could send to family. Normally this would have gone against my edict that thank you notes are personal and it's hard to get that touch with a digital card, but Smilebox allows you to add video clips to your card. So we sat down and recorded a bunch of 10-30 second clips on our Flip with my son thanking friends and family for their gifts. Each person got an individual thank you card with a video clip of Alex thanking them. Better than forcing him to sit at the table and write his name on cards he couldn't read, this worked great. He could relate to this and I loved the message he got from working with me to put it together.

Last but not least to catch me up over the last few weeks...Livi turned 6 months. It's been an amazing time with her and we are truly blessed to have such an angel living with us.

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Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Corn Free Pumpkin Cookies

2010-12-09T12:51:00.003-06:00

I was seriously upset about the lack of pumpkin pie in my holiday future, so I tweaked some recipes and came up with these. They're delicious and have added benefits for nursing moms. I also made a quick icing glaze for about half of them and it was the perfect touch!

Ingredients:
2 cups gluten free flour (I used 2/3 cup each: Sorghum, Brown Rice and White Rice)
1 1/3 Gluten free rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp guar gum
2 Tbsp Brewers yeast
1 2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup canola oil (for corn free use grapeseed oil)
2 Tbsp molasses
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp ground flax seeds
1/2 cup cranberries or raisins (I used cranberries)
1 cup walnuts finely chopped (optional, take out for nut free)

How to make:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease your baking sheets. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, guar gum, and brewers yeast in a mixing bowl.

In another bowl mix sugar, oil, molasses, pumpkin, vanilla, and flax seeds. Add contents from the first bowl to this one and fold. Fold in nuts if using, and cranberries.

Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to fill your cookie sheet. (I made one sheet and then filled the next one and froze it. once the cookies were frozen I put them in an airtight container and they were ready to bake anytime I needed them...plus they lasted more than 24 hours :)). These don't spread a lot so you can flatten them if you want crispier cookies.

Bake for about 15 minutes. This recipe makes about 4 dz cookies.

NOTE: If you are not gluten free, use all purpose flour, and omit the guar gum.

Gluten Free Fake Out Take Out Beef Stir Fry

2010-11-29T18:23:00.004-06:00

Q: What do you get when you add a teething baby, a tired mommy, and hours of work still to do?
A: Take Out, well it would be take out if take out didn't have gluten, dairy, corn syrup and a host of other things our family can't have.

So instead it's Take out fake out night! :)

Adapted from Dianne's Dishes

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of grapeseed or sesame oil
1/4 cup of low sodium gluten-free soy sauce
1/4 cup of rice vinegar
1 scallion, chopped (green and white section)
1 clove of garlic, chopped fine
1 pound of steak, cut into cubes and all visible fat trimmed
1-3 Tbsp olive oil
1 large carrot shredded
1/2 onion cut into large strips
2-3 stalks celery, cut thinly
1 cup of cooked sticky brown rice per person (Note: Remember that most brown rice takes about 50 minutes to an hour to cook. The stir fry itself takes about 20-30 minutes.)

In a bowl or a canning jar mix together oil, gluten-free soy sauce and rice vinegar until incorporated. Stir or shake in scallions and garlic to mix. Add steak and toss or shake to coat. Marinate for at least 1 hour to overnight covered tightly in the fridge. The canning jar works fabulously for this.

In your skillet or work, heat 1-3 tbsp olive oil and sautee the carrots, onion and celery until tender. Dump the contents of your bowl or jar into a large skillet or wok and over medium heat bring to a boil. Cook the beef until the liquid evaporates, the mixture thickens slightly and the beef is tender. Serve over rice with steamed broccoli.

Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Pumpkin Creme Brulee

2010-11-26T16:04:00.002-06:00

All I can say is it smells delicious and I'm having a very hard time not taste testing it before dinner tonight! :) I'll post pictures after it's been "brulee-d" tonight! :)

Adapted from Emeril's Version Ingredients

1 Can Coconut Cream
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar, plus 4 teaspoons
8 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon pure gluten free vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 cup mashed cooked pumpkin

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Arrange 8 (1/2-cup) ramekins or custard cups in a large metal baking pan.

In a medium saucepan, combine the coconut cream, brown sugar, and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Bring to a bare simmer over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks until frothy and lemon-colored. Slowly add 3/4 cup of the hot cream mixture, whisking constantly. Add the egg mixture to the remaining hot cream, and whisk. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin, and whisk until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl. Divide among the prepared custard cups.

Add enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake until the custards are just set in the center but not stiff, 45 minutes to 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight.

Sprinkle each custard with 1/2 teaspoon of the remaining sugar. Using a kitchen torch, caramelize the sugar. (Alternately, preheat the broiler, and broil until the sugar melts and caramelizes, watching closely to avoid burning and rotating the cups, about 1 to 2 minutes.) Place on small dessert plates and serve.

Turkey Day...Gluten free, dairy free recipes

2010-11-24T20:38:00.004-06:00

Image via WikipediaWhoops, time got away from me and now we're down to the wire, the night before Thanksgiving and I'm in random assembly mode instead of my usual organized, planned and plotted OCD-ness.

I tried to make the broccoli, rice and cheese (my mother's recipe...mmmmm good!) while I made the Chicken Pad Thai for dinner and that worked out okay until I threw in the gluten free Quinoa stuffing. Then I started to fret, the baby started to cry, the husband started to ask why I'm so crazy always taking on so much and I started to laugh hysterically cause in a perfect, non crying, non questioning world, I would have adored the time spent in the kitchen.

All's coming together nicely but man are the dishes piling up. Can someone send me a monkey that does dishes! I'd love him forever!

Time to hop off the computer, and go brine the turkey breast we're taking for dinner tomorrow so we "allergy infested" folks can enjoy the turkey too! :)

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, allergy free Thanksgiving!

Quinoa with Fresh Herbs, Pecans & Pomegranate Dressing (adapted from Gluten Free Foodie)

3 cups cooked and cooled Quinoa (I made mine in the rice cooker)
1/3 cup chopped mixed fresh herbs (parsley, basil, cilantro, etc.)
4 oz crumbled Feta cheese (I subbed pine nuts and 2 Tbsp of brewer's yeast)
1/4 cup pecan pieces
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds (if desired)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper
2 tablespoons pomegranate concentrate
squeeze of lemon

Directions

Cook about 1 1/2 cups Quinoa to yield 3 cups cooked, cool.

In a large bowl, combine the quinoa, chopped herbs, pecans, feta cheese & pomegranate seeds (if desired.)

In a separate bowl, wisk together oil, pomegranate concentrate, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Pour dressing over quinoa and mix. Serve.

Belly Dancing...For Fitness????

2010-11-17T22:18:00.003-06:00

I’m not a big fan of working out. Well let me re-phrase I don’t mind working out so much as I mind the time needed to get ready, get my kids ready for someone else to take care of for a bit, get to the gym, get to actually workout and then get home, where inevitably I walk in the door to a chorus of “Mommy, What’s for dinner?” How is that any fun? So short of running away to the Biggest Loser Ranch where there's nothing to do but work out, I find myself getting frustrated daily trying to find time for those magical 30 mins of daily exercise that will make the sleepless nights (nope baby is still not sleeping through the night) all better. So bottom line...I rarely work out. I know I need to but the logistics escape me. Then I got a copy of Belly Dancing for Fitness in the mail to review for TTT’s Holiday gift guide.

All I can say is this was not a spectator sport! I waited until the house was empty, the baby sleeping, and then turned it on and tried it out. It was a blast. The video quality isn’t tip top, and the audio was a little wonky (either that or I messed up the receiver again…don’t tell hubby) but the belly dancing instruction was good and overall it was a ton of fun. I laughed myself silly trying to learn moves that the instructor did effortlessly. I finally decided she was born with double jointedness and as long as I was moving, then the laughing was giving me an ab work out if nothing else.

That’s the name of the game for me! If it’s not fun I can’t get into it, keep doing it, etc. So with all those New Year Resolutions ahead of us, check out some fun fitness for the friends and family on your list. I may even let my preschooler talk me into doing it with him. Actually that might be my evening entertainment...:)

Holiday Gift Guide

2010-11-17T22:07:00.003-06:00

I've been blogging for a while now and frequently get asked to review items that are new on the market or going through a PR push. Lately I've been collecting items to review that I thought would make fabulous gifts for the holiday season. I'll be posting my reviews of many of these pieces over the next few weeks and you can find links to purchase many of them under the Holiday Gift Guide tab. I hope you find these items as, emmm, entertaining as I have! :)

Elimination Diet - Round 2

2010-11-17T07:19:00.003-06:00

Image by Danny McL via FlickrWhat would you not do for your kids...that's the question right? Three months ago I gave up dairy to help with Liv's tummy issues. I was resigned to no more cheese, milk, yogurt, milk chocolate, ice cream, you name it, for the duration of my nursing her. And then all the symptoms came creeping back.

Screaming fits. Arching. Doubling over. A fussy, unhappy baby all day long! Then came the lack of sleep, and now we're on to no sleep so I broke down, called my pediatrician with my special, VIP, have my own parking space I pay so many co-pays, dedicated number (just kidding, but I really should have one) and heard exactly what I expected. No fever, no rash, equals we can see her but it doesn't sound like there is anything wrong illness wise.

Now I love my pedi and her team of nurses so the snarky...wanna come watch the show tonight, it's an all=nighter, reply stayed in my head. And we started talking alternative ways to address this. We ended up on dropping known allergens and seeing if it made a difference. See the worst part about food allergies/intolerance is the best way to diagnose is through an elimination diet which means there are no instant answers or results. So the plan was to drop dairy and soy, give it ten days, then if needed drop Egg, Nuts and Peanuts (yeah I know but they seperated them too...I would have assumed Peanuts fell into nuts), give it ten days and then if needed drop corn and gluten.

So instead of the next month of trial and error today marks day one of my allergen elimination diet. I'm going to toss them all for the next ten days and if we see massive improvement I'll start adding them back slowly. We'll also do a round of blood testing to confirm for her records.

So the sad, sad story is that heading into the Holiday season with it's food, fun, and desserts, I'm heading into it able to eat anything made with no dairy, soy, eggs, nuts, peanuts, wheat or corn. Sounds like a lot of fresh food to me...sorry Stovetop!

Delightful Dark Chocolate Allergy Friendly Brownies

2010-09-22T09:06:00.003-05:00

It's been a long week, and it's only Wednesday! It's the kind of week when I head to the kitchen more often than I should. Baking relaxes me, cooking does too if it's not the 5 pm, kids screaming, "what's for dinner" rush. In the last week I've been called to make gluten free, dairy free pineapple upside down cake, my own special dairy free dark chocolate cake, dairy free dark chocolate mousse (which still needs work) and a homemade, almost as good as the original dairy free version of the Starbucks Toffee Mocha. Quite a week even for me! Sleepless nights and teething babies will do that to you!

Today I started thinking of all the great recipes I've experimented with but have been to much of a slacker to get put up here. One of my recent favorites was a dark chocolate gluten and egg free brownie recipe. This could easily be made dairy free by using an all purpose gluten free baking mix that doesn't contain dairy. Pamela's, the one I used, contains buttermilk solids.

Delightful Dark Chocolate Allergy Friendly Brownies
1/3 cup Pamela's Baking Mix
1 cup water
1/2 cup or 1 stick Flieschmans unsalted butter (only the unsalted is dairy free)
2/3 cup unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder
2 cups white sugar
1 tsp vanilla (gluten free)
2 cups Pamela's Baking Mix
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional...just omit if you are nut free)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.
2. In a heavy saucepan combine the 1/3 cup of baking mix and water with a whisk. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thick. Transfer to a mixing bowl and set aside to cool.
3. In a small saucepan, melt butter. When melted add cocoa and mix until smooth; set aside to cool.
4. Beat the sugar and vanilla into the cooled flour mixture.
5. Stir in the cocoa mixture until well blended.
6. Combine remaining baking mix, baking powder and salt, stir into the batter until just blended.
7. Fold in walnuts if you wish.
8. Spread evenly in the prepared pan.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
10. Cool before cutting into bars.

Enjoy!

An Allergy Free Cooking Makeover

2010-08-24T16:06:00.002-05:00

There's a new look on the blog! With the addition of cutting dairy out of our diets (added to the gluten, corn and egg free diet) I've found little time to think or blog about anything else. With that in mind and with the goal of helping others find information and recipes on dealing with food allergy issues I have given my blog a makeover. I'll be indexing all the recipes over the next few days for easy access and adding in several new favorites. I also added a store to Traveling the Tightrope to make it easy to find the right ingredients and baking essentials. Family updates will still pop up now and then but with most the family on Facebook I am finding an outlet for my kitchen creativity here! Hope you enjoy the new look!

Alex is Four

2010-08-03T16:20:00.001-05:00

What a year! Filled with attitude, funny faces and a fair share of time outs, it's flown by. Enjoy the laughs!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Time flies

2010-08-03T13:35:00.004-05:00

Boy does it! Four years ago, right this minute I was trying to hold off asking for an epidural to dull the pain of my stubborn child who flipped backwards and didn't want to join the world. I didn't know if I was having a boy or a girl, I had no idea that the next nine months would hold NO sleep, or that there is no feeling in the world like having a child who holds your heart.

Over the years he's been a tyrant toddler, a precocious preschooler and now a little boy. He's growing fast and we are so very blessed to have been given this gift from God to raise and call our own.

Since I'm in a nostalgic mood, let's take a walk down memory lane! LOL

Birth to One Year

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One to Two

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Two to Three

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

and Three to Four is on it's way. Check back later for updates!

Reflux and Colic Elimination Diet

2010-07-30T20:46:00.000-05:00

So Liv has awful reflux. You can hear it all day long, and the poor thing will be perfectly happy and then hiccup and scream. After a week and a half on the prevacid, gripe water and gas drops I decided my sanity and my poor little munchkin deserved more drastic action.

Dr. Sears has a reccomended elimination diet to help determine what is causing your infants reflux/colic so you can avoid it. Instead of dropping one food at a time to determine the trigger, you drop all but a few basic foods for two weeks and then add back foods slowly. This way generally shows faster improvement since the baby gets instant relief from whatever is causing their pain.

So I'm am eating a bland diet of turkey (breast, sausage and ground lean turkey), rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash and zuchinni and pears. For two weeks! I love food, I love cooking and my husband will back me up when I say I hate eating the same thing over and over. I don't even eat leftovers. So now I'm trying to find out how many ways/dishes I can prepare these limited ingredients with only salt and pepper for seasoning.

Day 1:
Breakfast-Turkey sausage and diced small red potatoes, sauteed in a skillet and seasoned with salt and pepper
Lunch- I ate the breakfast leftovers since we were having a crazy day and I didn't have time to cook.
Dinner- Red Himalayan rice and grilled turkey breast.

Day 2:
Breakfast-Turkey breast and rice
Lunch-Ground turkey sauteed with new potatoes
Dinner- Grilled Turkey breast with sauteed squash and roasted new and sweet potatoes

We're on to day 3 now. So far so good. I'm down 3 lbs and Liv slept 5 hours last night and only had minimal fussing. Here's hoping it keeps up since sleep and a happy baby will make the next 11 days much easier.

Tonight's appetizer---Gluten Free Shrimp Bruschetta

2010-07-23T16:59:00.004-05:00

Ingredients

* 4 slices GF bread
* 10 shrimp sauteed in olive oil, butter and lemon, tail removed and chopped
* 2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
* 2 TBSP basil pesto
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Slice the bread into 1/4-inch pieces on the diagonal. Put them onto a baking sheet and bake them, turning once, until they are golden brown on both sides, about 10 minutes.

In a bowl combine the shrimp, tomatoes, basil pesto, and salt and pepper, to taste. Put a tablespoon of the mixture onto each piece of bread and serve.

Yummy Monte Cristo Sandwiches...Gluten free to boot~

2010-07-19T09:44:00.001-05:00

I came across this recipe from Pamela's Products past recipe competitions. It's delish!

Easy Monte Cristo Sandwiches

2 cups Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix (same as for the gluten free doughnuts) a BIG bag is $15 but lasts a while
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup plus 2 Tablespoon milk

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
12 slices gluten-free thinly sliced ham
12 slices gluten-free thinly sliced turkey
2/3 cup strawberry fruit spread
powdered sugar for sprinkling on top

Yield: 6 servings

Instructions:
Heat oven to 375º.

Lightly grease an 8-inch x 8-inch square baking dish. Mix the Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix and the butter with a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, add the milk, and stir with a fork. Put half the mixture in the bottom of your baking pan, then sprinkle on 1 cup mozzarella, 1/2 of the thinly sliced ham, then 1/2 of the thinly sliced turkey. Spread strawberry fruit spread on top spreading to within 1/2 inch of the edge, then layer the last half of the ham, then the last half of the turkey, then sprinkle on 1 cup mozzarella. Spread the rest of the baking mix on top, and bake for 30 minutes. When nicely browned remove from the oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Allow to sit for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting and serving. Cut into wedges and enjoy.

I think this would make great lunches / cute tea party sandwiches if you made mini versions in a muffin tin.

Gluten Free Donuts--Amazing!

2010-06-26T10:19:00.003-05:00

It's official! We have a new family favorite recipe for breakfast. It's been years since we did a family donut run (although Alex and I have snuck off a few times). A few days ago I was playing on the Pioneer Woman's website and hopped over to www.TastyKitchen.com. They have a whole section of Gluten free recipes and this one caught my eye.

I have to admit, I've made them twice and they are FABULOUS! No eggs, no corn, no gluten and easy to substitute the dairy if you need to (I used Almond Milk this morning). These are baked, cake like donuts and are absolutely delicious.

Ingredients:

* 100 grams Cream Cheese
* 60 grams Sugar
* 4 Tablespoons Canola Oil
* 8 Tablespoons Milk
* 5 milliliters Vanilla
* ¼ teaspoons Salt
* 200 grams Gluten Free Baking Mix

To make:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease doughnut pan well with oil or butter or margarine. I didn't have a doughnut pan so I used my mini bundt pan and it worked perfectly.

Mix cream cheese, sugar, oil, milk, vanilla and salt together until well blended. Add baking mix and mix until well incorporated. I used Pamela's baking mix.

Place mixture into a ziptop bag and snip off one corner. Pipe into the doughnut molds. Bake in the middle section of your oven for approximately 25 minutes. When they are done, the doughnuts will pull away from sides of pan and spring back when touched, just like a cake.

Remove from pan and either frost, glaze, or sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve. I made a variety by melting a little left over chocolate frosting in the microwave and dipping the tops in that. I covered the chocolate in sprinkles for my kiddo. Eric prefers the ones dipped lightly in melted butter and then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and I love the with chocolate and a light dusting of powdered sugar. These were great warm, but they are just as good cold. Enjoy.

Unconditional Love

2010-06-14T09:57:00.002-05:00

To all my parent friends! I read this yesterday and loved it and decided to share! Our kids grow up so fast these days we rarely just let them be kids. A general lack of sleep, the frustration of selling a house, having a new baby on the way...our house is filled with a whirlwind of mixed emotions. This hit me at just the right time to remind me how precious these childhood days are and how truly fast they fly by.

Please, Mom and Dad...
My hands are small. I don't mean to spill my milk,
My legs are short---please slow down so I can keep up.
Don't slap my hand when I touch something bright and pretty. I don't understand.
Please look at me when I talk to you. It lets me know you are really listening.
My feelings are tender--don't nag me all day. Let me make mistakes without feeling stupid.
Don't expect the bed I make or the picture I draw to be perfect. Just love me for trying.
Remember, I am a child, not a small adult. Sometimes I don't understand what you are saying.
I love you so much. Please love me just for being myself, not just for the things I can do.
Author Unknown

Snow cones, Contractions & and Gifts

2010-06-13T21:11:00.009-05:00

What a weekend!

I can't remember the last time we had a truly lazy, do what you want, nothing HAS to get done, spur of the moment weekend. I'll have to schedule more of these for sure! I had funny moments, fantastic last minute one on one activities with Alex and best of all a few quiet solo minutes to enjoy being pregnant and feeling the baby squirm. Since we're only 17 days out the kicks and hiccups are limited and it was lovely to slow down and enjoy everything.

Alex and I hit up a local snow cone stand! I've been craving snow cones for oh, 9 months now, but unlike where I grew up there aren't stands on every corner. I finally spent some time on Yelp, found the one snow cone stand within 20 miles of my house and Alex and I loaded up and hit the road. They were delicious and we'll be headed back soon!

A funny moment when I saw Princess and the Frog! LOL Around my house that's not a movie it's a random moment caught with a blurry camera.

Also on the schedule this last week, Alex started swim lessons. Other than one meltdown on a bad day, Alex has really enjoyed his lessons and is rapidly learning how to swim like a fishy!

We're 17 days out from July 1st, Baby's anticipated arrival date and the closer we get the more ready I am! The contractions have started, random, but enough to be the first warning signs that A Baby Is Coming SOON!!!! Bags are packed and waiting by the door, her bed is ready, and I know family and friends are just as ready we are to meet and greet our little Princess. I can't wait!

Working with children at home

2010-06-09T07:04:00.003-05:00

I have to admit, 2 weeks ago as we approached the end of the school year I was very worried about how to keep my kiddo busy while I worked. Working from home is probably very tough for a toddler to understand. Mom is home, available and should be ready to play right?

Normally I would have arranged for a summer camp, but none will take a three year old, even a potty trained, articulate, just finished Pre K one. Too bad cause this little guy hums with energy and I would gladly hand over some green to find the soccer came that would wear him out! Since there were no takers on a short camp option over June, Camp at Home began.

Week One: Getting in routine. Learning the ropes took about a week. There were a few tantrums, not a lot of TV and a good bit of "but Mrs. Pack says" (his teacher and the end all authority figure in his book). Not a lot was accomplished other than my learning that Alex has a terrific memory and amazing talent and love for puzzles.

Week Two: Camp out week. We had mini sub sandwiches made from hot dog buns, turkey, cheese,and fixings. Spritzers with juice and sprite, set up a tent in the playroom and napped in it, and set up our earning system for TV and computer time. So far things are going great and without jinxing myself I find that I'm optimistically looking for additional things for him to do.

I checked out a great book called "When the Kids are Home from School" and it's filled with advice and ideas that have inspired me to plan a little ahead and ensure he has lots to do during the day.

Eggplant Parmesan...An Italian Eviction

2010-06-05T17:38:00.003-05:00

Image by stringparts via Flickr

Recently I've been offered funny, entertaining advice as I near the end of my pregnancy. It cracks me up sometimes how this advice, offered in earnest, well meaning tones has survived for so many years. A few quick minutes of google searches and you can read for hours on things that will start or stop labor, ways to have a quiet child (yeah right I missed that one with Alex!), birthing quickly, you name it!

My favorite of the last few weeks has been the labor inducing Eggplant Parmesan. I told my husband about it, joked about making it as we got closer to our date, even sent him the link to this "baby making dish".

Then today my mother in law called and invited us out for Italian. Now eating out for Italian food is a big treat around this gluten free, corn free, egg free household! Lucky for us the new kid on the block Maggianos offers a great gluten free menu I've been dying to try. I got a huge chuckle too out of glancing over the menu and Eggplant Parmesan being the first thing to catch my eye! We're almost 37 weeks, have 25 days to go, so I'm not planning an Italian eviction just yet, but if it comes down to Pitocin vs Italian I know where I'm setting up shop!

Adventures in Telecomuting ...Day 2

2010-06-02T13:43:00.003-05:00

So yesterday was the first day my son was out of school and home with me. He's on summer vacation, ready for the pool, playtime and never ending fun, and I've got work to do! I've adjusted my hours, am working hard and fast and spending time in the evenings plotting out things to keep him busy. It's just to bad his attention span is so short.

I have to admit though, so far so good! I'm able to work a steady 7-3 with minimal interruptions that I like to think of as "Smoke Breaks" since I don't smoke by my old office mates do. I know they take those every few hours so I don't beat myself up about mine!

With 29 days to go before Liv's due date, my maternity leave and a whole summer of fun with two kiddos before me I'm working to clear the decks and it is taking organization like I've never had to have before!

Shout if you have any suggestions for self-entertaining, not wrecking the house kind of activities for little ones! I'm looking for anything I can get my hands on!

Delightful Gluten free dinner

2010-05-27T18:42:00.002-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

YUMMMMMM!

A wonderful neighbor brought me a recipe for an Italian Pork Loin cooked in the crock-pot and I paired it with Parmesan risotto and green beans sauteed with bacon and almond slivers. It's been a long time since I enjoyed a dinner as much! Thank you Kathy for the wonderful inspiration.

Even better, thank you Rice cooker and crockpot for giving me dinner with only about 30 minutes of prep work put into everything!

Work Life Balance Words of Wisdom

2010-05-25T07:06:00.003-05:00

I started this blog as my journey into a comfortable balance of work, family and fun, but throw pregnancy into the mix and everything else goes out the door. We're nearing the end of this pregnancy and have hit the sleepless nights, can't get comfy, crazy dreams stage. I can't wait to meet my little girl and at this rate I'll probably get more rest when she gets here...maybe!

It's amazing how many people I've talked to lately have issues with work-life balance. A college roommate working up north, my Mother in law, my husband (although he would like a little more work in his balance)have all complained recently about the balance they have. It makes me wonder what about today's culture is driving us to make work our life instead of a means to support our life.

Don't get me wrong I love my job, but it is a job. J. O. B. Something that I do to support my family, pay my bills, and contribute to society. However none of those reasons are good enough to ignore my growing family, miss an important event or lose my personal time with the ones I love.

Working at home was a tough transition with this since I was suddenly in the "office" 24 hours a day. But whether you physically shut an office door at 5 pm or close and lock away the computer (pregnant women work from the couch around here!), you have to set limits and establish a quitting time when you shift from working bee, to your at home self.

My top 5 rules for working from home:
1. Set your schedule and STICK TO IT...If you have trouble with this, physically lock the computer away, turn it completely off and schedule an activity for yourself right at quitting time. Just a walk around the block will get you out of the house and back in a personal mind frame.
2. Get up, get dressed, and pretend you are going to the office. Your commute may have shrunk to 15 seconds, but you are still going to work. It will be much less tempting to turn on the TV and channel surf while you work if you are up dressed and at your desk at a normal working time.
3. Establish office space in your house. Having a place for your office supplies, computer, to work, will all make you more productive and give you somewhere to "leave" at the end of the work day.
4. Don't work weekends. Unless it's an emergency and you would be going into the office to handle it, don't work after hours and on weekends from home. If you do, co-workers will get used to having you available at all hours and will not hesitate to call. A polite but firm, "I'll handle that when I get to the office tomorrow", should let them know that you are offline and no longer working if they manage to catch you.
5. Work hard, but recognize that you are working...A lot of new telecommuters have trouble rationalizing not working crazy hours since they are at home. They take a break to throw in laundry or set a crock=pot for dinner and see it as a reason to need to work overtime. However in an office co-workers would take a coffee or smoke break, visit over cube walls, in other words, use the same amount of time in office social niceties that you are using in productive non work related matters. Cut yourself some slack, take a normal amount of break time and then get back to work so you can confidently call it quits at the end of the day.

Words of Wisdom from a Veteran Telecommuter! :)

Happy Mother's Day and Austin Sweet Songs Benefit

2010-05-05T21:35:00.003-05:00

Image by pixiepic's via Flickr

This weekend is Mother's day and I can't wait. Not only will I get to spend it with my son, my husband and extended family, I'll get to spend it surrounded by Moms and their families! I'm helping out at the Austin Sweet Song's CD release benefit party and the event has grown quite close to my heart! Not only is this great group of signer songwriters producing great children's music, but all proceeds are going to benefit the Austin Mother's Milk Bank. With several friends who are parents of early preemies, I know the important job the milk bank does and am very proud to do my part in helping their group out.

Earlier today I overheard a discussion at a coffee shop I frequent. The theme seemed to be what the ladies wanted in gift form for Mother's day. Although presents are always nice, I've never associated Mother's day with a major shopping holiday, mostly because gifts from the heart rarely seem found in stores. Shortly after the "what I want" discussion, a few friends of mine arrived and my confidence was restored as one of the ladies in my group pulled out a letter written by her son on plain, lined school notebook paper. The three short lines were simple and to the point...Thank You Mom...I loved it...It meant so much to me...Love your son. She teared up just reading it to us, then carefully folded it back up and put it away to read another day.

So all the flower shop ads and cell phone commercials aside, be sure to take a few minutes this weekend and recognize the mother's in your life with more than just a token gesture. A few thoughtful words, recognition of the round the clock job motherhood really is...it goes a long way to warming our hearts!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies in my life! I salute you and know that no other job can be as hard or as rewarding!

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Olivia was showered with lots of love!

2010-05-03T10:30:00.001-05:00

We had a wonderful time at our Sprinkle on Saturday. Our friends and family were so generous and it couldn't have been a better way to kick off the homestretch of this pregnancy.

Hope you enjoy the pictures! :)

The Art of Balance

2010-04-23T07:19:00.002-05:00

Image by racoles via Flickr

This week has flown by, largely because I've been so blasted busy. There's a great conference here in Austin that I've been attending and it's crazy how much more time attending a conference in your home town takes, rather than attending one out of town.

I'm still making dinner each day, only now I do it at 6 am in the crockpot so the guys have something to eat!

I'm still driving home after the conference and networking sessions but that means not getting home until around 9 each night.

I have had little to no time with family except to shout instructions on what's for dinner as I'm dashing out the door.

It's amazing how much less energy an almost 8 month pregnant lady has! I'm doing some work helping the Austin Sweet Songs group pull their CD Release Party and benefit together, have my baby sprinkle next weekend, and still need to find time to sit and relax before this new little one decides to join us. That doesn't even start to take into account the regular work that must get done, house cleaning, or anything resembling fun like reading a book or studying up on the Hypnobirthing I want to do this time around. More than anything I need to revisit my own goals for balance.

This whole blog started out of my attempt to balance telecommuting, charitable work, my family, and fun. Just like New Year's resolutions, goals to be more balanced need to be revisited occasionally to keep us on track. I personally find that it takes more commitment than a new gym regimen to focus on myself and ensure some personal downtime is built into our schedule.

So I guess it's back to basics and re-evaluating how to travel the tightrope as I get closer and closer to an even busier schedule in just under 10 weeks. The count down is on!

Hill Country Beauty

2010-04-12T19:25:00.006-05:00

Oh I love spring in the Hill Country. Every year we sneak out and find a time to take bluebonnet pictures. I love this time of year and those are some of my favorite photos to look back on.

Starting with this year's, join me for a quick walk down memory lane!

2009

2008

2007

It is such a gorgeous time of year here in the Hill Country and makes me so very glad to live here.

The Great Google Takes A Tumble...

2010-04-05T16:32:00.002-05:00

Image via CrunchBase

at least with me! I'm a huge google fan and generally use just about all their services. I mean they are free, usually right on the money with what consumers want and work well.

Or did until today. Late yesterday I got an email from my Mother in Law telling me my blog wasn't working. I went to check and sure enough it wasn't. Apparently Google Apps, the entity I purchased my domain name through, didn't bother to email me that it was up for renewal. Now there is nothing to be done except pay a good chunk more than the yearly renewal fee to pull it out of redemption status, or wait a few days and try to beat anyone else to it on the open market. Grrr all the way around.

I've reverted back to the blogger provided, free url for the time being, but have to say Google Apps has definitely achieved Buyer Beware status for me after a little research showed this was an EXTREMELY common issue.

My advice to Google, STEP IT UP! How hard is it to set up auto emails to go out on this kind of thing!

On a slightly better note the Gluten Free Asian Shredded Beef that's been slow cooking in my kitchen all day smells delightful and I can't wait for dinner!

Pregnancy Brain Strikes...

2010-03-31T17:17:00.004-05:00

Ok we all do stupid things at times...when pregnant with Alex I put the milk in the pantry and my cell phone in the fridge, and blamed pregnancy for my absentmindedness. Thank goodness Eric wasn't far behind me and fixed everything :). So far this pregnancy I have yet to do anything truly blog worthy until today.

I met our Realtor, the wonderful Kristin Castillo, at the house for sale for a quick meeting, to snap a few updated pictures of all the new features and to put out two air fresheners. Sounds easy right...well it should have been.

Instead after we had dropped all our stuff off in the kitchen, I assembled the air freshener (one of those nifty new ones that sprays every half hour or so) and walked out to the garage to set it up. As I walked through the door I jiggled the handle and it felt locked, so I flipped the lock, to make sure we could get back in and then shut the door and set up the air freshner...surely you see where this is going. Instead of unlocking the door, I locked it.

So we opened the garage and walked to the front door which Kristin had left unlocked when she went in like all good Realtors do. Well I'm so well trained to lock doors behind me that I had locked that one as I followed her in. So now we're standing outside the house with no purses, no cell phones, no house keys trying to figure out what to do. Luckily she had her car keys and with the gas light on empty in her car we drove to our current house which is luckily close by. We could have driven to my inlaws to get a key but with no wallets there was no way to get enough gas for the car to leave the neighborhood. Even I realized that stranded by the side of the road was worse that stranded at a house with air conditioning.

Once at our current house (thank goodness the garage door panel let me in) I dialed the only number I know by heart anymore, my husbands (since all other numbers are handily stored in my cellphone which was inaccessible) and asked him to help me out. He made a few calls to my Father in law, which went to voice-mail (he has the only other key) and finally with time running short to pick Alex up from school, Eric had to leave work to come home and let me into the house.

I do believe this tops the phone in the fridge and milk in the pantry...

27 weeks tomorrow

2010-03-31T16:51:00.002-05:00

This pregnancy is flying by! I'm so excited about the upcoming "sprinkle" (a mini shower...get it! :)), getting ready for our little girl and getting Eric in pink mode after 3 years of blue.

A quick pregnancy update for those who've been asking. I'm doing pretty good, but have had a few high blood pressure readings so they are watching that closely (next appt tomorrow). I'm still having all day long, never ending, yeah right first trimester only my rear end sickness. This has led to a few unfortunate episodes in public, once again making more thankful than I can ever say that I telecommute! I recently adopted Eric's gluten free diet and am happy to say that has kept the pregnancy weight gain to a minimum, safe level since it was out of control with Alex. Alex is super excited, wants to know when Olivia is going to be here and if she is going to arrive ready to go ride bikes with him.

Alex is doing great, although we are having daily meltdowns over next to nothing. Today has been a great day with no volcano like eruptions so I was not surprised at all to find that he actually napped today. Although as I type this he's going into whiny toddler who needs a nap mode. It really stinks that by the time his neighborhood friends are home to play he's not in any condition to be a good friend since 5-7 is the witching hour in our house. On a good note though he is sleeping through the night much better. So good in fact that when we wake him up at 10 to go potty he generally falls back asleep on the toilet. One of these days I'm going to get a good video of his "sleep talking" during this. :)

I am really looking forward this upcoming weekend. It's hard to believe it will be our 5 year anniversary. :) Now if only I knew what to get Eric to celebrate!

Life Happens

2010-03-22T17:03:00.003-05:00

Ever wonder where the time goes? It has been chaos central around here.

We are currently dealing with:

The ongoing drama of a Tyrant Toddler (I'm waiting for a publisher to offer me a life of easy with a huge advance to chronicle my journey trying to parent this crazy tyrant :))
The exhaustion that hasn't quite gone away this whole pregnancy
The morning sickness that made an uninvited return after only a month on vacation
The daily drama of meal planning and keeping our household running...why oh why does that take so much work???
Scheduling showings and keeping our other house ready for a buyer to swoop in any minute and take it off our hands

Add that to a full time job, a husband that travels and the general day to day stuff that comes out of nowhere and time just flies right by.

I can hardly believe that we're already 6 and a half months along with baby number 2. We can't wait to meet our baby girl and I'm so glad I can take a few solid months off to spend some time with her and Alex. These moments are so precious and they fly by so quickly!

It's a gorgeous day outside and Alex is "helping" aka telling Eric how to clean out the garage. I've had more laughs from him lately. We are really clear on the kind of language he should use and "Oh my God" is not something you hear in our household. Alex, however, doesn't hesitate to correct anyone who crosses his path if he hears those forbidden words. Add that to some gender confusion over boys with long hair, his general "by the book" attitude towards all rules and my kiddo is kind at heart but bossy to the core. It's going to be an interesting few years ahead.

Now off to figure out something yummy to make with Beef Cubed Steaks and then some fun in the sun...Thank you very much Daylight Savings Time!! :)

Catching Up

2010-03-16T07:53:00.003-05:00

So it's been a crazy whirlwind for weeks and I have sorely neglected my blog and journaling. :( I have about 10 minutes before we have to dash off to my 25 week appointment so let's see what all I can catch up on.

Baby Watch: For those that haven't heard (so sorry Nicole, I forget sometimes the whole world isn't on Facebook) we're having a Girl! Her name will be Olivia Faith and my sister has already nicknamed her Little Liv which seems to be sticking. :) Alex is so cute about the baby and is asking the funniest questions like how the baby will get here, if she can see him and why she kicks me. I would have loved to have kids closer in age but I wouldn't trade these precious moments for anything. :)

Gluten Free: In an effort to streamline our grocery shopping and make cooking easier :) I've decided to try gluten free with Eric. So far so good although I have to admit I'm not above a cheat day for a really good Chocolate cake.

Speaking of chocolate cake, check this baby out! I had a blast recently at two cousins baby showers and had fun making all kinds of cakes, decorations, favors, etc. Probably my favorite piece of the bunch was the bumblebee chocolate cake I made for my new Cuz in law's shower! :)

There's lots more to come, the gorgeous corsages my sister made for the shower (Love having a floral designer in the family!), crazy telecommuting work stuff and updates on my tyrant toddler but my ten minutes are up and we're out the door! :)

Pink or Blue...You Can Find Out Too!

2010-02-18T22:05:00.002-06:00

Join us tonight, Friday the 19th, at 8:00 pm CST for Cupcakes and Answers!

Hoping the New HomeBuyer's Tax Credit Works for Me!

2010-02-11T14:58:00.001-06:00

Nope we're not moving again...we're selling! Today was our first day on the market and we had two showings regardless of the miserable weather!!!

Come on baby... Sell this house! $8000 new homebuyer tax credit, a carpet allowance, possible repainting of the great room...what's not to love!

Here's a link to the listing...pass it on to anyone looking for a great home!

In order to qualify for the credit there must be a contract before April 30th!

Guess Baby Synatschk's Gender

2010-02-10T17:41:00.000-06:00

So this time around Eric's talked me into finding out what we're having. And there's not much longer to wait! :) Next Friday, the 19th we'll find out the gender. A few family members are coming over for the big announcement and everyone else can tune in right here on my blog for a live announcement at 8pm.

For now, what's your best guess?

PollPub.com VoteGuess Baby Synatschk's Gender

Telecommuting, Toddlers and Pregnancy

2010-02-10T09:23:00.000-06:00

Did you know that U.S. workers actually spend more time commuting to work than vacationing each year...how depressing is that!

If I still lived in Dallas and commuted just 25 miles round trip into the office, Commuter Challenge estimates my commuting costs me $3821.04 per year. I could do a lot of things with $3800 dollars! Makes me glad I work from home, have my son at a school right down the street and only need to fill my small SUV up once every three weeks or so.

Having an overactive toddler, a husband who travels and a new baby on the way makes me one grateful momma that I work from home. Yes it's a challenge and I hear time and time again...I couldn't do that, I would be to distracted. Well not to revert back to toddler hood but "can't never could." It takes effort, but so does leaving the office group chit chatting around the copy machine to go meet a deadline in an office. As a very social person I actually get more done at home with out the social distractions of visiting with peers.

I have also, over the last 20 weeks had multiple opportunities to be grateful that as a soon to be new mommy I could clock my hours in a flexible fashion. Some days the baby just demanded a nap at lunch time, and others I was too sick to work first thing in the morning. Working from home allowed me to work when I was best able to and not be held to a 9-5 mentality.

I have become friends with several telecommuters over the last three years, many virtual friends from Twitter and Facebook. For anyone working from home or considering it I just started the Work From Home Handbook by Diana Fitzpatrick and Stephen Fishman and am really impressed. Unlike many books that tout the benefits from an anecdotal point of view, this book has the statistics and information to wow your boss when you pitch telecommuting. From job satisfaction ranking higher among telecommuters to a cost benefit analysis of working from the office vs home, it's a must read.

As a mom, a career woman and a loyal employee I find telecommuting to be a perfect fit!

Stumble Upon how I love thee...

2010-01-26T21:37:00.005-06:00

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I love Stumble Upon. Basically it's a toolbar that lets you set preferences and then surfs the web for you pulling up sites that it thinks you will enjoy.

A few of my favorite finds today:

Presented by Online Education

Wall Tatoos...

Must Have Web Apps for the Hi-Tech College Student...

AMAZING Cupcakes (perfect for anyone like me who loves to entertain!)...

Cool online photo editing...

I love Stumble and the random neat things it brings to my attention!

A bit of this and a bit of that

2010-01-20T21:07:00.001-06:00

So I've been pretty MIA here on TTT lately unless you count my HVAC rant and a couple of random latte postings :). Life's been crazy. Between the early pregnancy symptoms, my favorite little tyrant toddler and general daily life there just hasn't been the time I want to escape into cyberspace.

So to catch up a little here we go!

I'm roughly 17 weeks pregnant and finally starting to feel good instead of sick constantly! Thank the good Lord for small mercies!

I've rediscovered my love of the crockpot! :) There is nothing like complete five o'clock exhaustion to make you so proud and happy that you made dinner at 8am. (Tonight was Pork chops and potatoes with a side of broccoli-delish and took all of 15 minutes to put together!)

I've fallen in love with a few new blogs that do both gluten and corn free baking, discovered a great GF/Corn Free pound cake recipe that seems to be on the menu every week, and am still experimenting to try and find that perfect bread recipe.

When I have time I like to take my favorite new Christmas present (an external flash for my Olympus E 410) out for a test drive. Here's a few of my favorite pictures from today's impromtu photo shoot of Alex.

Enjoy!!! More to come soon! I promise.

You've Heard of Angie's List... This is Traci's List of The Worst HVAC Contractors in Austin

2010-01-15T21:02:00.000-06:00

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I love my house, I love my house, I love my house...I have to keep telling myself that because recently I haven't liked my house very much. We've had ongoing drama with HVAC issues, no heat, a short evacuation due to safety concerns and more than our share of inept HVAC contractors. Oh and not to be forgotten frozen pipes once we finally got heat back.

Angie's List is a database of contractors with high approval ratings from customers, great track records and successful jobs. Traci's List is the exact opposite. With the exception of Bluebonnet HVAC, this list reads like a Who's Who of the Worst contractors in Austin.

Let's see if I can summarize quickly:
So for a few weeks we've had colder weather. That doesn't generally hit Austin to any real degree until the middle of December. From the moment we switched our energy-efficient programmable thermostats to heat it was Game On. We would sit downstairs bundled up (ok just me) in a snuggie, while upstairs would quickly reach sauna levels. I'm talk 83 or 84 degrees upstairs and 67 downstairs. We have a warranty company who takes our money, sends crappy contractors and doesn't believe a word we say so we hesitated to throw more service call fees their way until it truly got unbearable. Then I placed my call to Allied Home Warranty and the games began. I'm not sure what their screening process is for contractors but it needs to be re-evaluated. I won't even get into the 6 visits in two months we had back in the summer on this post but suffice it to say they would send one group out to install something and another to fix the problems that one caused, over and over and over. But back to our current dilemna...it all started when the temperatures dropped, a pregnant wife put her foot down and refused to be cold anymore, and we began to fight over the one and only snuggie in the house.

12/29/09: All Texas Air Conditioning's first visit. They spent over an hour trying to find the issue, determined nothing was wrong and bailed when it started to rain hard since he needed to get his company truck out of the dangerous weather. Not sure if he's from the desert but rain isn't generally considered worth hazard pay here in central Texas. Funny enough I continued to have a 15 degree temperature difference between upstairs and down, a weird clicking in my furnace and needed my snuggie at all times downstairs.

12/31/09: All Texas Air Conditioning---where do I even start. The contractor arrived with his son and grandson in tow. I'm not sure if either one is in the business (especially since the grandson was all of 10), but since they spent several hours here and all they managed to do is replace a thermostat that was working fine, break a suction valve on my outdoor unit while replacing 2 lbs of freon, get stuck in my attic for 1/2 an hour (still not sure how that happened but he was starting to sound panicky), and then left telling me everything was fine, I'm just going to chalk them up to incompetence and recommend that you NEVER call them!

1/2/10: We have roaring heat upstairs, no heat downstairs and our HVAC is literally running 24/7 shutting off every 10 mins for about 30 seconds. So I call our not so beloved warranty company again. They tell me to call Texas Heating and Air. I do but get a "there's nothing more we can do for you, everything works fine" response. They call the warranty company and ask that I (probably as a troublesome client making crap up) get assigned to a different contractor. The warranty company sets me up with Dave's Heating and Air. I call them to confirm they can come out, but upon mentioning my warranty company, am told that my warranty company sucks, they don't pay their bills and Dave's Heating and Air really doesn't like to deal with them. But since I'm in a pickle they connect me to Dave himself, who reassures me he'll have a guy who's very familiar with my type of systems out first thing Monday. Monday arrives but no contractor and when I call to verify what time they'll be here I'm told that they no longer work with my warranty company. GREAT! Based on that unprofessional bit alone, I'm no longer recommending Dave's Heating and Air, even if I can sympathize with the fact that Allied Home Warranty sucks. Back to the warranty company, who is surprised when I inform them that they've been fired by a contractor and finally by fate, luck of the draw or God watching over my shivering self, they set me up with a decent contractor - Bluebonnet, who is onsite within a few hours.

1/4/10: Bluebonnet HVAC discovers several disturbing things. One-a suction valve on the outdoor unit has been tightened so far it busted allowing all the freon in my entire system, along with a good bit of oil, to leak out. Hmmm that must be the same valve son or grandson tightened when adding my 2 lbs of freon. (No wonder my heat pump wasn't working at all). Then when I called him inside to check out the click click click we kept hearing for the last month, he spent all of 10 minutes upstairs before coming down and telling me the furnace circuit board is bad and the safety cut off for the gas is not working. He had to shut the entire system down since gas blowing but not igniting is a MAJOR safety concern. Can you imagine how happy I was that my family was sleeping in a house that could have concievably blown up anytime in the last few weeks. Nope mama was not happy at all! Best yet, during Austin's first freak freezing cold 12 degree spell in years, we're not going to have any heat. Better prepare to invade the in-laws again.

1/7/10: Bluebonnet HVAC puts my original downstairs thermostat back on the wall since the new thermostat ( installed in October by an inept, rude, cursing, blame the client for everything contractor -- Southern Comfort H.V.A.C. Inc --another who makes Traci's Worst List but is recommended by Allied Home Warranty) was continually calling for the Heater to come on. They replaced the suction valve on my outdoor unit which, for those of us who steer clear of HVAC training and education, apparently keeps all your freon from leaking out causing your unit to not work. We lost 10 lbs of freon after the former inept contractor added 2 lbs and then tightened the valve to the point it busted and fell apart...and then they just left it. Seriously thank goodness for Bluebonnet. Jeremy Cook knew what he was doing, was responsive and didn't ever bail in the middle of a job due to the big bad rain storm or a tricky problem. And finally after weeks of wondering if it would be easier to sell our home and move into an apartment...we have decent, normal, safe heat!

Bluebonnet HVAC: THUMBS UP!!! You can't go wrong with these guys!

Austin Air Rescue: Undecided. They seemed good and identified the problem but then refused to fix it since an incompetent contractor had messed it up. Allied ended up sending in Bluebonnet to save the day. (anyone seeing a pattern here...)

All Texas Air Conditioning: THUMBS DOWN!!! DO NOT CALL.
Southern Comfort H.V.A.C. Inc: THUMBS DOWN...ridiculous, even cursed me, called me a liar, slammed my door and lied to the warranty company...too bad I take a crap load of pictures and had proof they were wrong. Not to mention they made three visits here and fixed nothing, broke a fan motor, fried a defrost board and eventually Allied Home Warranty sent in Bluebonnet (yep same Bluebonnet) to fix things.
Dave's Heating and Air: THUMBS DOWN...these guys are good, but they make my do not call list do to the unprofessional approach of dropping a client in need after promising service. That's just bad business in my book.

Ok that was no where near as short as I intended but it was seriously two weeks in chaos and that's kind of hard to summarize....LOL.

Make your own latte!

2010-01-13T09:07:00.001-06:00

Who needs Starbucks...yummy hazelnut iced coffee coming right up!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Someone please invent this

2010-01-10T09:46:00.004-06:00

Image via Wikipedia

Traci's Solution to Meal Planning Annoyances:

I'm working on meal planning for this coming week and realized how much easier my life would be right now if someone would invent a hand held barcode scanner with USB cable. Then I could scan everything I have in my pantry, download it into my computer. If this hypothetical device came with a menu planning program it would analyze all my potential ingredients and tell me what I could make with what I had available. How nice would that be!!! Well if there are any inventing geniuses out there who are interested I'd be happy to provide a layman perspective on what it would need! LOL

Great Gluten Free Maize Free Site

2010-01-03T17:04:00.005-06:00

Image by Marcin Wichary via Flickr

In my never ending search for more information on cooking for someone with allergies, I came across this Gluten and Corn-Free Getting Started Guide.

I found the information very helpful and if you cook for or live with someone with food allergies, or have food allergies yourself, it's a great place to start.

Goodbye 2009

2010-01-01T16:19:00.002-06:00

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2009 was a FANTASTIC year for us. Alex is growing by leaps and bounds and never fails to amaze me with his questions, insights and imagination. He loves Phineas and Ferb, a cartoon funny enough to entertain Eric and I too, and of course Cars, the movie. He's constantly quoting his favorite characters and starting to make up his own songs. All in all a joy to be around...now if only we could FINALLY teach him to sleep!

Eric and I are still plugging away. We've installed new doors, upgraded a few appliances and generally just kept pace this year. I hope 2010 will be the year for us to get some gorgeous landscaping done, finally paint the guest room and get some finishing touches done on our decor.

Our Hoppin Johns are in the crockpot and we look forward to the luck they'll bring in 2010. Eric's a stick in the mud and refuses to "have" a new year's resolution, but I'm determined that we'll do more as a couple.

From our family to yours we hope 2010 brings health, wealth and happiness and sees you surrounded by family and friends.

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Southern Folks take on the Snow!

2009-12-23T08:09:00.005-06:00

A few of my favorite pictures from our weekend playing in the snow!

2009-12-21T16:01:00.003-06:00

We spent a few amazing days in a gorgeous winter wonderland surrounded by our wonderful family!!!!

The most wonderful time of the year!

2009-12-01T07:41:00.002-06:00

I love the holidays! From hanging with family over Turkey, to shopping for gifts and decorating the house, this whole season just fills me with joy. Alex has declared himself in charge of turning on all the lights each night and I just love seeing his face when everything lights up. His imagination abounds and I'm so looking forward to our first season where he "gets" all the Christmas traditions.

A Fireman's Real Job

2009-11-24T07:12:00.004-06:00

Alex was in fine form last night and was having a blast rough housing with Eric. At one point he got frustrated with Eric pinning him and told us he was going to call the police. Of course I grabbed the camcorder! :) (password to view it is alex)

Dad's Fired! from Traci Synatschk on Vimeo.

Gluten Free Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole

2009-11-08T17:21:00.002-06:00

Just saw a yummy GF chicken-broccoli-rice casserole and decided to try it out! Stay tuned for results :). Here's a link to the recipe!

If you need it, build it! :)

2009-11-04T16:19:00.006-06:00

We have "market days" coming up at Alex's school and we needed to create a "farmer's market" style stall for the kiddos. We have a table and are going all out on the table cloth but I wanted a neat attention getting sign, so I called my Dad, asked his advice and headed off to the nearest Lowes.

On Dad's recommendation I got PVC pipe, connectors and end caps, came home, measured, sawed and voila...$11 and 15 minutes later I had the frame for my sign for this and many future projects.

Here is a quick do it yourself, step-by-step tutorial!

Assemble your items. I had the saw, tape measure and sharpie already, but everything else here cost $10.24. That and a little time and we have a very multifunction piece that should work for the preschool for a while!

Measure your PVC pipe and mark the height and width you want your stand to be. I did 7 feet high and 7 feet wide, so I cut all three pieces of my PVC pipe to seven feet.

Use a hack saw and cut the PVC pipe at your measured marks. The PVC pipe cuts easily, just be sure your cut ends go into the connectors so you don't scratch yourself.

Get your connectors ready. From here on out it's like putting legos together!

Use your short brace pieces and connect them to the sides of your T connector. The top of the T will hold your tall stand pieces.

Add your elbow connectors to connect your side and top pieces:

Alex helped put the finishing touches on. Here he is adding end caps to our stand:

The finished product! We're going to wrap it in brown crepe paper to make trees and decorate it with fall leaves, and hang a Shoreline Market Days banner across it, pictures coming soon!

Race for the Cure 2009

2009-11-03T14:16:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Ready, Set, Go....

2009-10-27T16:32:00.003-05:00

The Holidays are almost here which means it's time for PARTY PLANNING!!! Yeah! :) I volunteer at my son's school to help with parties and really enjoy seeing the kiddos get a kick out of everything we pull together. This year we're doing a Fall Fun Day for the preschool and it amazes me how much coordination goes into something like this. I've been working on volunteer rotations, donations needed, and just general planning for what will amount to one morning for 60 kids. I CAN"T WAIT! There will be awesome pilgrim pictures, hayrides, a farmer's market and more. I want to give a special thank you to the great folks at www.volunteerspot.com which is making organizing volunteers and donations so much easier! :)

Needless to say, between a few friends getting married in Oct, our own fall entertaining, travel for both myself and Eric and Race for the Cure on the horizon, this is shaping up to be a busy month!

Wedding Weekend Numero Uno

2009-10-04T15:23:00.003-05:00

Well this month has just kicked off and already it's jam-packed with things to do. This past weekend we hung out with friends in San Antonio and got to see some great friends tie the knot. I took way to many pictures, and am still sorting through them all, but here's a few of Alex from the weekend.

Thanks to Eric's frequent travel, Marriott upgraded us to a penthouse suite! Alex loved having the room and we didn't mind too much either. :) Thanks Marriott!

Before we left town Alex had to try on his tux...and then proceeded to ride his scooter around in it.

Before the wedding Alex hung out with the girls...he was in charge of Ring Security.

The only family shot I managed all weekend.

Alex had a blast at the reception playing with Marly.

We managed a little time on the riverwalk in between wedding events.

Alex was super excited that it was rainy and he got a chance to use his Humbrella! (nope not misspelled, that's what he calls it!)

More pictures to come next weekend...Another Weekend, Another Wedding!

Gluten Free Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

2009-09-28T18:42:00.003-05:00

I love to bake, but have seriously tried to cut back lately. Sometimes though I just can't help myself! My Mother in Law's birthday was a few weeks ago and I took the opportunity to try out a few things that had caught my eye.

1. The Betty Crocker Gluten Free Cake Mixes (thank you, thank you, thank you Betty Crocker)
2. The Boston Cream Pie Cupcake recipes that are flooding the foodie blogs

The results...FABULOUS!

The Betty Crocker cake mix got mixed reviews on several of the blogs I checked out so I used some easy suggestions like adding pudding mix and orange juice to dress it up. I added some custard cream I found of google and drizzled some chocolate ganache on top. So easy and delicious...hubby at 3 before I got them put away for the night.

Betty Crocker Cake Mix
Boston Cream Pie Custard filling recipe from Annie's Eats
Chocolate Ganache Recipe

and a close up of the goodness...

Twitterholics, Facebook Fiends and Social Media Mavens

2009-09-25T09:48:00.000-05:00

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Ok I admit it, I'm a social media fiend. I love twitter, facebook, linkedin, and blogging, and all together these types of applications are known as Web 2.0. There are so many great applications out right now that can make keeping in touch, or promoting your business so much easier. I've mentioned this guide to several of my friends and wanted to share it here for anyone looking for a great getting started guide for Twitter and business.

How to use Twitter for Business Guide by HubSpot

I'm working on several presentations for work and Web 2.0 and how to use social media for business is playing an integral part in each one. The age group with the biggest number of uses on facebook is 25-45. Financial gurus who know are forcasting that Twitter's stock is fixing to go through the roof and the number of uses to quadruple.

So if you are looking to dive into this new era of marketing and advertising I highly recommend checking out the guide above, trainings on Hubspot, and other free trainings like Googles Marketing Professional designation. These are resources that take nothing but your time and will drastically broaden your horizons on communicating with a wider audience.

Enjoy and Happy Friday!

Time Flies

2009-09-21T22:00:00.000-05:00

My birthday is coming up soon and it's causing me to ponder... :)

I've never been to upset about getting older. Let's face it we all want to rush to those first big milestones, 16 so we can drive, 21 so we can drink, and then reality hits. Work, responsibility, getting dinner on the table, you know what I'm talking about. Nope getting older isn't bothering me, it's that weird sensation that time has gone so fast I've missed something. Cliche as it sounds, it feels like yesterday that I got married, and only a short while ago that we had Alex. Today I looked at him while we were waiting at the doctor's office, really looked at him (he was quietly pretending to read a book so I grabbed the 30 precious quiet seconds :)) and saw a little boy. Not a baby, not a toddler, but a little boy like the ones you look at in the store and think "they're old enough to know better." There have been so many warning signs lately that I should have seen this coming. He's refused to hold my hand recently on the way into school, "It's not the parking lot Mom...," He can full dress himself head to toe (who cares if his underwear are on inside out, he's darn proud), and most telling of all he asked us to cut the strings off Puppy.

A little background on puppy :).

Here's what Puppy looked like when DeeDee and Dad gave him to us at our baby shower.

And here is a "before and after" 3 years as a constant companion to Alex shot :).

From the time Alex became attached to puppy, the strings that should have been used to tie him to the crib were held in or near his ear as he went to sleep, any time he was scared and finally just out of habit. I caught him putting them near his mouth one to many times and threatened to cut them off which resulted in a major tantrum. So imagine my surprise last Thursday when he calmly came and repeatedly asked us to cut the strings off Puppy.

Fair warning for later in life I guess...if I don't cut the apron strings my son will do it for me!

Changing the Way You Think--Suzy Welch's 10-10-10

2009-09-16T13:31:00.001-05:00

Reading is far more than a hobby for me. It’s a passion, a method of escape and relaxation. Unless it is a super busy time, I almot always have a book I’m reading, and one on deck. I just finished Suzy Welch’s 10-10-10. Her PR company contacted me by email and asked if I would like a review copy of the book. We’ve already covered that I love reading so it should come as no surprise that I quickly agreed to review a book that I’d never heard of…I mean come on books aren’t always cheap and my library can’t keep pace with my addiction so I quickly jumped on a free book deal. The book arrived and I did what I always do, I scanned the book jacket to see how intriguing this might be…are we talking a lock myself away and ignore life for three days, Twilight-esque read,or a flashback from college, plodding away to garner slivers of insight through pages of words.

Obviously since you are reading this it was a GREAT read. Suzy writes in a down to earth, easy to read way, letting you see yourself in the stories she shares. 10-10-10 looks at logical ways to make decisions. Large or small we typically either know instinctively what decision we want or need to make, or we spend far to much time agonizing over a decision. Suzy touts looking at how the consequences of any decision (from work to parenting) will affect your life in ten minutes, ten months or ten years. By looking at the short term, mid-term and long term consequences of your decision you can make a rational choice on what the best over all outcome will be for you. We’ve all made decision on the fly that we would have changed later, or agonized over what the right choice is, but this helps you put a rational, defensible approach to decision making, taking the guesswork and the guilt out of the equation. I highly recommend this book for anyone and everyone. It was a great read and I’m passing my copy on!

Congratulations Jeremy and Michelle!

2009-09-16T13:17:00.001-05:00

We spent the weekend out in West Texas celebrating the wedding of Jeremy, my husband's cousin, and Michelle, Jeremy's new bride. I LOVE weddings. This one was beautiful and touching in a way that not all weddings are anymore. This wedding reminded me days gone by when a wedding was a promise, a celebration of life-long vows and joining of two families. Today many weddings are productions (I should know mine was one! :)) that can drive any sane female not obsessed with planning into depression before the big event. For one day of perfection, many of us spend a year or more planning, preparing, negotiating, and working towards finding the right caterer, DJ, baker, florist, decorations, you name it. Sometimes it's just wonderful to see something different. Like I said I LOVE weddings and big or small they all celebrate that special moment for two people joining together, but after this weekend I have to admit there was something incredibly sweet and touching about a wedding that obviously centered around family and friends. They were surrounded by family in church, celebrated the traditional milestones in the church reception hall, and were the guests of honor at a beautiful backyard BBQ...sounds great doesn't it! To Jeremy and Michelle, I wish you guys all the best that life can offer for health, wealth and happiness. Keep yesterday's joy with you forever, we are so very happy for you!

Oh and I had a little fun playing with the camera! :) Here are some shots of my favorite little tyrant from that weekend too! :)

My little rule abider...raising his hand for cake! LOL

Helping to unwrap the bride and groom's cars.

Having fun at the reception.

I think he went through 10 bubble tubes before anyone left! :)

Couldn't keep his hands off the decorations!

Opening presents with the bride and groom.

Random thoughts

2009-09-04T22:25:00.000-05:00

We hung out with some friends tonight and seeing my kiddo running around with their kids brought me an amazing amount of joy. I grew up in a great neighborhood with a good bunch of friends, and together we spent every afternoon riding bikes, racing around, and generally just having a great time. Maybe it's just my quiet neighborhood but I haven't seen any kids running around playing like we used to. I hope as Alex continues to grow that he'll see the fun in turning off the TV and heading outside to play!

Now What?

2009-08-29T10:12:00.002-05:00

We spend so much of our time running around from activity to activity, that the random day like today (one that's not packed full of things to do) throws us! Alex threw a fit this morning when he heard that there was no school, no church and no errands to run LOL. I explained that it was a day for us to hang out as a family and his answer...ok but where are we going?

Hmmm maybe I need to work harder to build some downtime into our days.

Gluten Free Crockpotting

2009-08-27T10:49:00.001-05:00

Ever since Eric went gluten free I've tried to balance my love of cooking against an ongoing effort to eat healthy within the bounds of what Eric can actually eat. At times I find it MOST unfair that going gluten free helped him lose 30 pounds while not helping me at all...but that's the way the cookie crumbles I guess.

One great resource I wanted to share with any fellow crockpotters like me is Stephanie's A Year of Slow Cooking Blog. Tonight we're cooking yet another of her recipes!

Crockpots can make any meal planning momma's afternoon easier! And when you're trying to avoid dairy, wheat and corn like us, it sure helps to not be staring into the pantry at 5 pm hoping inspiration is going to jump out at you!

End of Year Party and an Incredibly Moist Cake Recipe

2009-08-26T17:41:00.000-05:00

Alex and I had a lot of fun whipping up some super yummy snacks for his end of year bash. I'm just getting around to posting this since the start of Preschool has kept me so busy, but this recipe deserves its five minutes of fame and then some!

I always love a new recipe but a new healthy recipe is just great! Recently there was a lot of discussion in one of my Mom's groups about the "Sprite Cake." This cake was a huge hit with my weight watchers crowd back in the day since it cuts all the oil and eggs out of the recipe helping to keep down the calories and fat content.

The added bonus is the INCREDIBLE moistness of these cakes. Seriously...you won't believe it until you try it.

Are you ready...

Take one box of cake mix (any kind) and mix it with 10 ounces of regular soft drink (I used Coke with a chocolate cake, and Sprite with a yellow cake). Add two TBSPs of sour cream, mix it up and bake as a cake or cupcakes. That's it! :)

For the frosting I like to buy regular frosting, whatever happens to be on sale for the week, and make my own lighter whipped frosting. Just put a can of frosting into your kitchen aid (or a bowl and use a hand mixer), add any flavorings you might like, and whip the frosting on medium to high for 4 or 5 minutes. Voila, yummy, light, whipped frosting.

Since this recipe didn't involve any eggs, or oil, Alex got to do the honors of pouring in the coke and turning on the mixer. I handled the sprinkles, only because of a previous Easter cookie incident that involved having to re-sweep and mop all the floors! :)

Hope you Enjoy, the kiddos in Alex's class sure did!

Alex is Starting School...

2009-08-24T21:18:00.004-05:00

Ok Preschool, but still I have to drop him off, he has to take himself to the bathroom, he has lessons with weekly tests to see how he's doing...sounds like school to me!

Things seem to be changing so fast that days like today when I get a chance to step back and really look at what all has happened recently I'm just amazed.

A month after ordering it, Alex's new bedroom furniture is in, delivered, installed and finally incorporated in his room! I happened to stumble across the exact bedding I wanted for his room on clearance at Target today so Thank you very much Aunt Christine, Alex loves his birthday gift from you and Derek! See how wisely momma spends his gift cards! :)

Alex is super excited about the newly decorated bedroom.

Tomorrow's our first "First day of school photo!" How bittersweet!

Gluten Free Goodness

2009-08-16T21:27:00.003-05:00

Going gluten free had a lot of positive health benefits for our family, but man does it make shopping, cooking, and snacking a whole lot tougher. A few weeks ago I got an email from a great company called GoPicnic asking if I would be interested in reviewing some of their specialty snack boxes. They have vegetarian, kosher, and best of all GLUTEN FREE (GF) boxes full of great tasting treats. I immediately shot off a response offering to taste test anything they could send that was GF. Eric is also avoiding corn, but even then, 4 out of the 5 boxes they sent me were perfect for a quick after work snack, travel food, or best of all since he flies all the time, food to eat at the airport.

If you are looking to try these meals out I HIGHLY recommend the family pack of gluten free snack packs. Here are a few of my favorites. My son, husband and myself all took samples and tasted items in the boxes. We all loved the cookies, the trail mixes, and the beef jerky. My three year old didn’t care for the sunflower crunch, but I loved it. None of us liked the cheese in the boxes, but we’re all a bit spoiled with nice, fresh deli cheese. Outside of the cheese we devoured the boxes.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. The great people at GoPicnic have teamed up with us to give one lucky reader a sample pack.

Read how to enter below and spread the word about this great gluten free giveaway!

Contest Rules: VISIT www.gopicnic.com, and then come back and tell me how you could use some of their boxes! Camp, back to school, travel, how could these meals make gluten free, or dealing with allergies, more convenient for you.

EXTRA ENTRIES:
To receive these extra opportunities for entries, you must fulfill the first REQUIRED entry. But for extra entries, you can:
* Tell your own story about how going gluten free has turned your life upside down.
* Tweet the contest with the following text “Traveling the Tightrope Gluten Free Giveaway—GoPicnic Makes Gluten Free Life Convenient: http://su.pr/42dSBp”. Leave the Twitterlink in your comment.
* Blog about the contest - add a link to Traveling the Tightrope and the Sponsor GoPicnic
* Add Traveling the Tightrope widget (on the right under the blogroll) to your site OR add Traveling the Tightrope to your blog roll.
*Become a Traveling the Tightrope follower.

One person will be randomly chosen when the contest ends on Friday, 21st at midnight CST. I will contact the winner directly through email or the blog link that you leave when commenting.

The Beach Cake

2009-08-11T07:49:00.002-05:00

I loved this cake! Not only was it right up my ally being pretty simple and yet impressive looking, it tasted fantastic! I'll be the first to admit that I typically go overboard with my son's birthday parties, but I did make an attempt this year to keep myself in check with everything but the cake.

Our decor consisted of a few inexpensive banners and one beach bucket full of snacks, some paper plates and napkins and we were set. We did go in with most of the family and get an inflatable water slide for Alex's birthday present this year. Throw that in with a regular kiddie pool, and the inflatable soccer goal Alex got last year for his birthday, and my backyard became a kids inflatable land dream. :)

Then there was the cake. My brother joined our decorating team this year and made such notable contributions as the teddy graham chicken fight, and the bouy. My sister carefully crafted a kayak, helped with the bouy and served as general managing director of the decorations, and I was the brains behind the surfer, the beach babes, the lifeguard and the tree. All together we got a nifty cake that served the 50 or so people who came with very little leftover.

I used 3 boxes of funfetti cake mix to make the 11 x 15 cake, a thin 8 inch round and two cupcakes so I could test the results before the crowd. :) Once both cakes were cook, I put them in the fridge over night to lock in the moisture. The day before the party I brought them back to room temp, arranged the 8 inch round in pieces to create the beach and added a crumb coat to make frosting it easier. Once the crumb coat had set for a bit I tinted store bough whipped white frosting with orange extract (colorless) and did a white layer over the entire cake. I quickly added finely blended graham crackers (they were powder like consistency) all over the beach by patting them into the icing. Then I tinted another can of whipped white frosting blue for the water and mixed it with the white to create white caps in the water. Then came the fun with the teddy grahams and gummy drops rolled and cut up into shapes. Here see for yourself!

Prep Day

2009-08-07T08:32:00.006-05:00

We've been prepping for Alex's party all week. We always use entertaining as an excuse to get the house in tip top shape. And I entertain enough that we get a good deep clean once a month or so. Between, cleaning, decluttering, shopping, baking, and more cleaning you would think we would be exhausted...but nope I love this!

Last night Alex and I made his cake. An 11x15 funfetti cake, and an 8 inch round funfetti cake, and two funfetti cupcakes. There's a method to my madness! :) I always recommend making a single cupcake out of any cake you make. Just use a small spoonfull of the batter. that way you get a preview of what you're going to serve. :) The 11x15 cake will be a beach cake, and the smaller 8 inch round will be carved on the corner to give rise to the actual beach portion (pictures later today).

Ever year this is one of my favorite parts of Alex's birthday. My sister comes to town and together we spend far to much time making his birthday cake. I love the time with my sister, love knowing I made Alex's cake when I see his face the next day.

Here's the last two years...

plus about a zillion of these

Then the next year...

And a ton of cupcakes decorated in boats, planes and cars. (We did a Planes, Trains and Automobiles party :).

This year it's surfs up and a beach cake. And I promised no cupcakes...so I did brownies instead. I really just can't help myself! :)

Three Years Old Today

2009-08-03T07:38:00.014-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXANDER!!!!

Hard to believe that three years ago today we were in a hospital room in Dallas, anxiously waiting for Baby A to make an appearance. We didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, how little sleep we were going to get, and I asked Eric yesterday if he could believe it had been three years and he laughed and said Yes. men are so funny that way...

Alex was 7 lbs 6 oz when he was born and 21 inches long.

Two Months

Six Months

Nine Months

One Year

By two he was thirty pounds and 34 1/2 inches

and now he's hovering right around 35 lbs and 37 inches tall.

Growing, growing, growing! We had the first of three celebrations planned last night and had a wonderful time celebrating with some golf, some pool time and some cake.

For those of you checking back in, here's a walk down memory lane and an absolute OVERLOAD of pictures from the last year. I snuck in a few sneak peaks of our family photo session for those brave enough to watch the whole montage! :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here I Am

2009-07-29T10:30:00.001-05:00

I'm not in hiding, I've not entered the witness protecton program, it's just been another busy week flying by. I've been at the Texas Affordable Housing Conference here in Austin all week and the long days of exhibiting, speaking and learning have worn me out!

What's New

2009-07-22T12:29:00.006-05:00

I've had several people mention lately that we haven't had any family updates. :) Man has it been a busy summer.

Over the last few months we have traveled all over visiting family
Learned that Alex loves roller coasters as much as his mama
Discovered that sick or not he's going to be up at 6 am, vacation be damned, and all round just really had a wonderful time.

Hope everyone elses summer is turning out as enjoyable as ours!

Telecommuting Advocate

2009-07-16T21:56:00.002-05:00

Over the last three years I have become a huge advocate for telecommuting as a flexible option for work. It saves money, it's easier to keep up when children have illnesses, and I flat out get far more done!

I recently decided to share what I've learned about working from home by writing occasional articles for an online site here in Austin.

You can check them out here, and see a preview of my introductory article.

Fill-In-The-Blank Bio Templates to Write Your Personal or Professional Bio

2009-07-12T11:19:00.001-05:00

Copyright © 2008-2009 Barbra Sundquist

It's not hard to write a personal or professional bio when you use the fill-in-the-blank bio templates provided in this article. All you have to do is choose one or two sentences from each of the four categories and add your details. The result will be a first-rate personal or professional bio.

To structure your bio, choose one or two sentences from each of the four categories below.

1) who you are 2) what your expertise is (credentials and experience) 3) why the reader should care about your expertise 4) how the reader can contact you

I've organized the bio sentence templates below into the four "who, what, why, and how" categories. Choose one or two sentences from each category, fill in the blanks, and you'll be done!

Bio Category #1: WHO you are (choose one or two sentences)

NAME is a _________ (your job title) with ___________ (company name). In this role, NAME looks after/coordinates/manages/leads a team providing (choose one of the foregoing) all aspects of _______, including _____, _____ and ______.

A big believer in ______, NAME supports _______.

NAME is a qualified __________ (your professional designation, e.g. electrician, property appraiser, esthetician) and holds the _________ degree/certification (choose one) from ______ (name of educational institution). (Note: some people prefer to put the education part at the end of the professional bio, just prior to the contact information.)

Bio Category #2: WHAT your expertise is (choose one or two sentences)

NAME is no stranger to ________ (your industry or type of work), having spent ___ years as a ________ and a __________ (occupations: e.g. fitness instructor, computer programmer, entrepreneur, professional dancer, corporate executive), which taught her/him the importance of ____________.

NAME has more than ____ years of ______ experience in _______.

Prior to starting his/her _________ (type of business) business, NAME spent _______ years as a ______________ and a __________(your relevant experience).

Before joining ______ (company name) in ______ (year), NAME worked for ___ (years) for a diverse range of organizations, including _____ , _______ and ________(e.g. small business startups; large corporations; private sector; non-profits; government agencies).

In this role, NAME was responsible for ______, ______ and ____.

Bio Category #3: WHY the reader should care about your expertise (choose one or two sentences)

NAME helps _________ (your target clients) to ___________ (a problem or goal your target clients have).

NAME offers a wide range of programs and services - from ___________, to __________ and __________ (your services)

Drawing on _______ (many, several, XX) years experience in ___________, ___________ and _________ (former jobs or industries), NAME now focuses mainly on __________ and ________.

After a successful career __________ (what you've been successful in), NAME now coaches/teaches/advises (choose one) other people how to achieve the same success.

NAME'S varied background in ___________, ___________ and _________ (former jobs or industries) provided the perfect foundation for _________ (what you are doing now).

Passionate about ______and its possibilities, NAME provides ______ services that help _______, _____ and _______ to ________.

Her/his book ________ (book title) was published in ____ (publication year) and has since helped _______ (number: hundreds? thousands?) of people to _______ (problem book solved for them, or what it taught them)

NAME has _____________ (your accomplishments, e.g. published articles in; received playtime at; had exhibits at; consulted to) ______, _______, and ______, among others.

Bio Category #4: HOW to contact you (choose one sentence)

To contact NAME please email ______ or go to _______ (your web site).

NAME is available for private consultations on ______, and can be reached at (PHONE NUMBER) or by email at ______

A final word about writing your professional bio: use these bio templates as a starting point but try not to feel constrained by them. If there's something that you think is interesting or important to add, by all means do so! Trust your own judgment and let your personal or professional bio reflect what is unique about you.

About the Author:
Barbra Sundquist, MPA has over 20 years experience as a technical writer and business coach. For more help on how to write a professional bio, please visit http://www.BioTemplates.com where you can get a free copy of Barbra's report "84 Sentence Starters for Writing A Bio."

Read More Articles by Barbra Sundquist
Source: thePhantomWriters.com Article Submission Service

Forming better habits

2009-07-11T16:38:00.001-05:00

Brownie points for working out on vacation!!!! Yeah. Amazing how much better that makes you feel. It takes 30 days to make a habit...woohoo day 4 :).

Where does the time go?

2009-07-10T15:41:00.001-05:00

How did my goal of 30 days of working out turn into three solid days with great workouts and then a two day break....ahhh the motivation is there but somehow time just dissapeared.

On another front I'm half way through Suzy Welch's 10 10 10 and absolutely loving it. I hope to finish it this weekend and get a good review up here!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and if you're in the south try to keep cool. We're sitting tight at 106 right now... YUCK!

The USDA is on my list!

2009-07-03T15:09:00.001-05:00

Image by edlabdesigner via Flickr

I woke up in an off mood today. I had to deal with my Grandfather’s wake yesterday afternoon, a late evening phone call from my mother reassuring me everyone was okay in case I caught the news (there was a shooting at the funeral home I had left just a few hours earlier), and then I came out of a dead sleep to my husband yelling at my toddler for daring to be chipper before the sun had fully risen. All told, not a set of circumstances that would help anyone be in a good mood. I got my son out of the room, hoping my husband would catch a bit more sleep and wake up in a better frame of mind. Fast forward a bit and I hear “Ohh Traci this is going to make you mad,” …never a good sign.

Turns out MSN ran this article today, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31719136/from/ET/, and like any husband who knows his wife Eric instantly spotted that it was sure to set me off.

When I first started college I was premed. Shortly into that first semester I realized that my future was looking a little more green then red and I happily began following a course load that should pave my way into environmental lobbying. My family viewed it as eccentric but even at that point I knew there was something wrong with how we grow, process and store our food. With the rise in illnesses, cancer, and problems like diabetes becoming a household word, we are looking to medication to band-aid the problem instead of our lifestyle to solve it.

Although I wanted to pursue a career in lobbying my moral fiber would never let me work on an agenda that could harm. I find it irresponsible and ethically detrimental to society for high ranking US officials to knowingly discuss selectively banning known neurotoxins. As a firm believer in the adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” I find it very disheartening that our government would seek to undermine their own label in the interests of big business. Many consumers, including myself, use that label to guide purchases that are better for our family. I for one will be very careful moving forward trusting a label that can so obviously be bought.

Ms. Robinson, I say shame on you!

In Memory

2009-07-01T09:17:00.002-05:00

Isn't ironic how hard fate works to keep us humble? I've been so geared up for vacation, some mental break time, and some good time spent without distractions with my family. We headed off to visit my dad and two days into our 10 day vacation we got a phone call that my grandfather had passed away. Although several family members told me to stay and enjoy our vacation, it only took a few minutes running through a 10-10-10 analysis (an awesome new book by Suzy Welch) to realize that flying home was the very best decision for me. So Eric rearranged our travel plans and today we head off for my hometown to bid my grandfather a final goodbye.

I'm not usually very good with dealing with death, but surprisingly my two year old put it in the best possible perspective for me. When told that Papaw was gone he said, "then he's not sick anymore?" and in just a few little words helped me to let go of the sadness that was hanging over me. We're heading home to celebrate a wonderful man's life and I'm determined to remember the grandfather of my childhood who teased and made me laugh rather than the shadow he became as a lifetime of smoking took its toll.

Papaw, you will be missed, but always remembered.

We love you always!

Competitive Butterfly Hunting

2009-06-27T13:58:00.001-05:00

It's our first day of vacation and we're almost to the beach! The weather is AMAZIING and at least 10 degrees cooler than what we left...such a treat ;).

All the travel went great this morning and Alex has been an angelic little trooper. After we got off the plane and we're waiting on our luggage a herd of lacrosse players passed us by. Alex noticed them and cracked me up when he asked if they were off to catch butterflies with their nets.

Then and now it makes me laugh to picture this team of big bulky lacrosse players running around the field trying to beat each other to the butterflies.

Can't Catch Me I'm the Gingerbread Man

2009-06-25T14:38:00.001-05:00

I read that story to Alex last night and as I was reading I realized that it sounded like my life right now. :) Work, regardless of the fact that I work from home, has been insane lately and has culminated in my nutty week of bouncing around Texas for work events. Each day I'm somewhere else, my son is telling people I work on a plane and I am almost literally holding my breath for Saturday and the start of our vacation. I know posts have been infrequent or really nonexistent lately but hold on and I'll be back in action in a few weeks. I'm reviewing some really neat books, have discovered that even an organizing afficianado needs a little help and have plans to make ghee!

Love to all and hope your summer's are moving at a slow and relaxing pace!

Happy Fathers Day

2009-06-25T14:32:00.001-05:00

Had a great day in Spicewood...so relaxing after the week I had and the one that is coming!

Happy Father's Day everyone!

Sorry Jessica Simpson, I should have listened to you

2009-06-10T08:16:00.000-05:00

I never thought I would say this, but I should have listened to Jessica Simpson. From the time I was fresh out of college and living in Dallas, Jessica Simpson has been seen at all hours of the day and night promoting Proactive. I'm not a huge fan of star studded infomercials, and will actually watch far more of one if it has "the common man" I can identify with, but here I am 6 years later saying my official apologies!

A PR company contacted me and offered me a trial version of Proactive in exchange for blogging about what I thought. Sounds good to me, I thought! I'll try it out, and it surely can't be any worse than the really bad skin I was having at the time. Actually it was a great move on my part! Within a few days I could see a visible difference. My skin really did get much clearer, much smoother and my pores shrunk. Most of all I didn't see the crazy out of no where breakouts I was seeing before that. Of course I slipped and forgot to use it for a few days and IMMEDIATELY saw a resurgence of my evil acne, but the good news is that getting back on the bandwagon, got me back to my results. If you're looking for a good solution for yourself, a daughter, or a friend, this really did work for me, and I have generally tried everything in the book.

I was originally put off by the $20 price tag to try something unknown, but now having seen the results, and knowing I'm not going to be spending far more than that a month on cleanser, toner, moisturizer, cover-up, and still be frustrated, I will be much more likely to continue ordering.

My only issue at all is that I hate putting anything that's not all natural on my face. But having said that, Proactive got results when the all natural items I tried didn't, so I guess in this case the proof is in the pudding. I'm sure that my search for an all natural solution won't stop here, but until I find it, I'm quite happy with not having to wear makeup these days!

Thank you Proactive for giving me the chance to try this out!

My toddler is no more

2009-06-09T07:57:00.002-05:00

He's morphed into a little midget man with one haircut. Eric's been trying to convince me to get Alex's hair buzzed for a while. It would be cooler and cheaper if I would let Eric do it himself. Well I compromised the other day and got the back buzzed and faded into a short top. It was bittersweet and although you can now start to see the older boy emerging, I'm quite sad that the little baby seems to be gone forever.

Thank heaven I took around 12,000 pictures over the last few years! :)

The Best Laid Plans

2009-06-04T07:04:00.002-05:00

are no match for children and dogs who conspire together to torture parents with sleep deprivation. :) I tried to get ahead of the curve last night and worked late into the night, knowing that Alex was off school today and I would be occupied keeping him busy today and wouldn't get my usual uninterrupted 8 hours in. Well by the time I was ready to call it a night, Alex began having nightmares about unfinished milk and needed to be consoled...I was cracking up at that point and reassuring him that he could finish his milk in the morning LOL. I came back downstairs to shut my computer down and the dogs started whining and causing a ruckus to go outside. By the time they decided to come back in (30 minutes later) Alex had picked up his crazy part of this tandem act and was back up crying again. This went on until a little after 2 when everyone settled down and I quickly grabbed a little under 4 hours of sleep. Poor Eric brought Alex to me at 6:30 and then tried to take his sick self back to bed but in my sleep deprivation cattiness I threw a fit that he thought he deserved more sleep since his 9 hours and a day of dozing gave my 4 hour sleep deprived self no sympathy. Cattiness ensued and by the time I finished making the tiny tyrant breakfast he had arrived downstairs to crash on the couch and keep an eye on things while I sit here and work to be both awake and coherent.

Here's hoping you all had more sleep than I did!

Summertime is here!

2009-05-31T14:45:00.003-05:00

It's summertime, and that means ridiculously hot temps, time spent poolside and lots of entertaining. Well we would be entertaining if the family ever stayed well long enough! It's time for fun in the sun...YEAH! I love summer, it's my favorite time of the year. The heat is nothing a nice cold pool won't fix, and longer days means more time spent hanging out with family and friends. Eric has his 10 year reunion this year, we reconvening with my mom's group and sneaking in a trip to see my parents in Maryland! Throw in the new Harry Potter movie and it's totally my kind of summer coming up.

Alex, in celebration of the heat, just got his first true big boy hair cut, clippers and all. Stay tuned for some photos.

Oh and just for grins, check this out! http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=80e_1238603586. I now feel like I have seen just about everything.

My Kind of Weekend

2009-05-26T18:47:00.004-05:00

(Warning: this is a long post since it contains two full recipes)

The holiday weekend has been absolutely wonderful. It was jam-packed full of projects and anyone who knows me knows that is just the way I like it. We did a lot of laying around, unfortunately a lot of cleaning up after sick dogs and a partly potty trained toddler, and best of all I spent a ton of time in the kitchen. Now that may not be every ones idea of a great weekend but when I have the time, there are few places I would rather be. Eric’s recent need to go gluten free has driven me to new creative heights and I have been quite upset when a new experiment went bad. Luckily this weekend was smooth sailing as I tried out a few new recipes that are bound to join our family favorites.

This weekend’s project line up:

Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls
Gluten Free Buttermilk Bread
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Barber family recipe Strawberry Icebox Cake
Custom designed vellum wrapped votives
Apple Pie Popscicles

Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls
Serves 8 or 9

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons shortening
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup of milk, room temperature
1 packet yeast (about 1 tablespoon)
1 egg
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup potato starch
1 cup corn starch (I used tapioca starch successfully)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons xantham gum
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

TO SPRINKLE ON BOARD COVERED WITH PLASTIC WRAP
1 - 2 tablespoons sugar

FILLING (*see Ellen's note at end of post)
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 cup chopped nuts - optional

GLAZE
¾ cup powdered or confectionary sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
milk to thicken (I used soymilk)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In medium bowl, combine shortening and sugar. Mix well. Measure warm milk and add yeast to milk. Whisk well to fully dissolve (**see Ellen’s note).

Add milk/yeast to sugar mixture. Add remaining ingredients. Mix very well, being sure to remove all lumps. Dough will be quite soft (***see Ellen’s note).

Take a piece of plastic wrap and lay it out so it covers a 13 1/2" x 13 1/2" square. Sprinkle sugar on the wrap. Lay ball of dough on top of that. Then pull out another sheet of wrap and gently lay over the dough. Pat the dough down into a roughly squarish pancake. Lift the top wrap up and then reposition it. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough in between the two layers of wrap. Occasionally you'll have to lift and reposition the wrap because it gets "stuck" under the edges. You might have to occasionally flip the whole thing over. Make sure that when you're done you've got ABOUT a 13 1/2" x 13 1/2" square of dough.

Remove top piece of wrap. Combine filling ingredients. Spread evenly across dough's surface. (Original recipe poster suggested leaving about a 1 1/2" sugar free edge because when you roll the dough all the sugar shifts and fills this in; otherwise all the sugar spills out).Use the bottom piece of wrap to lift the edge of the dough and start to roll it up forming a long cylinder. Start with the sugary edge, which will be the center of your roll and roll toward the sugarless edge. Cut off or trim up the irregular ends of your "log". Then cut into 8 or 9 slices of similar size, about 1 1/2" wide. Place rolls into a greased round glass pie pan.

Bake approximately 20 minutes, until tops are lightly browned.

Combine powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk to make glaze. The amount of milk you use will depend on how thick you want the glaze to be. Stir until all lumps are dissolved. Drizzle over warm rolls if desired.

Gluten Free Buttermilk Bread

Liquid Ingredients:
3 Large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup Oil
1 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon milk into which 4 tablespoons dry buttermilk has been dissolved.
Heat milk such that liquid mixture will end up at room temperature.

Dry Ingredients:
2 cups Brown rice flour
1/2 cup Potato starch flour
1/2 cup Tapioca flour
3 1/2 teaspoons Xanthan gum
1/4 cup Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
2 1/4 teaspoons Active dry yeast

Preparation
Mix all liquid ingredients together and pour into breadmaker. Mix all dry ingredients, except yeast, together and spoon over top of liquid ingredients in breadmaker. Sprinkle yeast over dry ingredients, and avoid letting it touch the sides of the pan. On the Welbilt ABM3300, the settings are 'Basic', 'Light'. I beleive this corresponds to your basic loaf settings on most machines. After bread is done, do not remove from pan until any 'Stay Warm' cycle is finished and the bread has cooled down.
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Check out Ginger Lemon Girl’s blog for detailed recipe and instructions. These cookies were amazing; definitely not something you could identify as gluten free. I had to hide them away today in a cookie jar to keep from over-indulging.
Barber Family Strawberry Icebox Cake

Sorry the recipe is a closely guarded secret! ☺ But here’s a picture of the yummy goodness.

And probably my favorite project of the weekend…

Custom vellum wrapped votives for a wedding reception at the zoo.

Family Friday

2009-05-21T22:23:00.005-05:00

So for this past Christmas one of the toys I wanted Alex to get was his very own camera. I know he's only two, brilliant but only two, but still if he had his own, my much more expensive camera might not look so attractive right...

Well Alex loves his camera, but I think we need to spend some time working on his skills! Still he's definitely having fun shooting at everything in sight.

If you ever wanted to know what the world looks like to a toddler, take a second and a walk in Alex's shoes. You can see in a few where someone stole the camera to take pictures of him and boy was he not happy about that! We also have lots of self portraits going on here before we learned to turn the camera the right way! :) Enjoy!

Thinking Thursdays

2009-05-21T22:02:00.003-05:00

At least one day a week should be devoted to deep thoughts right? LOL! It was a crazy day at work, as anyone within shouting, distance would know. :) I am working on a training series for June and to kick off the marketing for it I have been labeling about a bazillion postcards to be mailed out. Well closer to 800 but still 800 postcards with a return address label, a mailing label, a stamp, you get the picture. They're done and I'm extremely happy with them but that kind of work leaves lots of time for thinking.

So this week I've thought a lot about where I am in my life. I have a great husband, who does far more than his fare share of the housework and doesn't even complain when 3 nights out of 5 he comes home to a wife arguing with the pantry for not giving her inspiration. I have a great job that I love to do, and even with the craziness that accompanies it I truly fell blessed to get to work from home and be here for my family. With Eric's travel schedule its so nice for me to be pretty solid.

I also had to go over to our old house today to meet a contractor work on one of the kitchen appliances (yeah extended warranties, I will mock you no more), and it was like going back to high school after college. The house felt small, and nothing was quite the way I remembered it. The kitchen felt tiny, and it truly brought home how much I really love our home that we are in now.

After the chaos of sickness, drunk drivers, and other daily nuttiness today's reflections really helped me focus on the positive, the good, the joy.

I know this is a sappy post, but what's not to love about a happy Momma?

And just for grins, here's a favorite recent picture of mine! We went to a family member's baptism over the weekend and boy did my little guy have a blast showing off for anyone and everyone! He sang, he danced, he didn't crash until the car ride home!

Mindless Banter Monday

2009-05-18T18:56:00.002-05:00

UGG still sick with allergies. Yuck Yuck Yuck. I have nothing for you except for last week's contest winner!
To find the winner I count how many entries we have, then use random.org to randomly select a number and...congratulations MEREDITH!

You will love these muslin wraps and I hope they keep your little girl all snug and warm!

Introducing Foodie Fridays

2009-05-15T07:59:00.002-05:00

I love to cook... well most of the time! Someone recently asked me when I find the time between a two year old, working full time, my multitude of hobbies and the daily chaos that comes from raising a small family. It made me think about it because believe me there are days when cooking is the last thing I want to do, but on those days when I have time, when I catch sight of a new recipe that inspires me, on those days the kitchen becomes a haven instead of a prison.

Recently I came across a blog called the Big Red Kitchen and boy does this lady have some fabulous ideas. I tried out her Cream Cheese Sheet Cake for Mother’s Day (recipe below) and plan to find a reason to make her cinnamon rolls. I didn’t tweak either of the recipes to make them gluten free since I’m still getting my feet wet in that arena but the cake was awesome without any changes needed.

I plan to start posting my favorite recipes and those that I get asked for often under the tag Foodie Fridays, so stick around and see what I cook up! ☺

Big Red Kitchen's Cream Cheese Sheet Cake...mmmmmmm
1 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 1/4 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups cake flour

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cheese, and sugar for 3 minutes on high speed. Add vanilla then one egg at a time mixing well after each egg. Add flour and mix well. Pour batter into a greased 15x10x1 inch pan. Bake at 325° for 25 minutes or until cake springs back when touched. Frost immediately with this glaze:

Chocolate Glaze:
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a medium sauce pan combine sugar and milk and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 3 minutes. Do not stir! After three minutes add chocolate and butter and stir until blended. Pour and spread over cake. Place in freezer for 45 minutes.

Thinking Thursdays

2009-05-14T19:29:00.001-05:00

I spent today looking for profound thoughts to post about but I love this so much more! :) Alex and I had a blast in the bluebonnets a few weeks ago and when Scholastic ran a contest for their magazine cover I couldn't help but enter. If we make the finals I'll post the info here so you can vote for us and help us win! :)

Make a Smilebox postcard

Works for Me Wednesday -- Google Reader

2009-05-13T16:53:00.003-05:00

REMINDER: Aussie Muslin Baby Swaddle Wraps contest ends today. Click here to sign up!

I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday and I’m just getting a chance to log on. I love themes, for parties, for coordinated Christmas wrapping paper and newsletters, and prompting me to log on and blog about something. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my daily “to-dos” that I forget about things that used to excite me. I’ve always loved to write but was never disciplined enough about it to get the relaxation that comes to me from blogging.

So on to today’s theme…Works for Me Wednesday (special thanks to We Are That Family for my recurring Wednesday prompt). Today I had a couple of meetings with friends/coworkers and all of them seemed to center or quickly focus around being organized. I think sometimes those of us who have to work at organization want it the most. My husband thinks he’s funny when he says I’m the best fake organized person he knows. I like to talk about it, I love to teach others how to do it, but I’m not the best at implementing it. Well, working at constantly being more organized is what keeps me moving in the right direction.

I love gadgets (probably too much), am addicted to sites like Stumbleupon.com where I learn of fascinating new things to help me get even more organized (somehow that additional knowledge tends to take way more time than doing something the old fashioned way, but hey, it's fun!), and am always searching for a new tip or trick that will allow me to do something, anything, better.

In honor of this I want to highlight one of my favorite things to date…Google Reader! If you like to bookmark blogs so you can read them later but never seem to have time to check back up on them, you’ll love it too! I have a blackberry (I did admit to liking gadgets right?) and with the Google reader downloaded on my phone, standing in line at the grocery store, or waiting for prescriptions is now my time to relax and quickly catch up on the blogs I love to read.

Each blog you add pulls together into a running list of posts from your favorite sites. Although you can read this online, I find that I stay up to speed far better catching this in short bursts during time I would otherwise have spent getting impatient. Ok enough rambling, if you’re a blog reader go to Google, Click the More link at the top, Click on Reader and check it out! Soon you’ll be slowing down the grocery store line by not paying attention too!

Oh and the Aussie Muslin Swaddle Contest ends tonight, so be sure to head over here and sign up before its too late! ☺

La Dia del Madre!

2009-05-10T20:51:00.004-05:00

What a great weekend. I took the weekend off of work, hobbies and my to-do list and spent it having some great quality family time. Eric’s IPod is kicking the bucket so we spent some of that quality time Saturday at the Domain here in Austin getting to know our local Apple store a bit better. And since Alex isn’t able to visit the Domain without a penny pitching trip to the fountain I snuck in some photo time! Check out the mini scrapblog below!

An organization I happily support, called MomsRising.org knows all about being a Mom and the work it takes and awarded me an honorary Mom of the Year award. You can read more here and spread the fun! ☺

Then Sunday it was off to brunch to celebrate Mother’s day at one of my fave restaurants called North by Northwest, who luckily enough have a great Gluten Free menu for hubby. I’m trying to embrace his lifestyle but cheated today and had an AMAZING pork tenderloin with this fantastic bacon, spinach and cheese risotto. YUM! Then back to the Domain for more Apple store time and home for naps and mommy time.

And how did I spend Mommy time you ask? Filing ☺! I had over 1200 emails sitting in my email inbox and I’m a fanatic for filing all my emails into nice neat folders and only having a week’s worth of emails at at time. Recent craziness has not allowed me time to file and I was going nuts with my overflowing inbox! Am I nerd or what!

Works for Me Wednesday--Frugal, Sanity Saving Tips for New Moms

2009-05-06T08:26:00.009-05:00

I was recently asked if I wanted to review some new muslin baby wraps by aden and anais, and to possibly blog about them. They are Australian swaddling cloths and are large enough to continue to be useful after the days of swaddling (or squaddling if you are talking to my father) are over. Since swaddling saved my sanity when Alex was a colicky, fussy wee one, I thought I would give this a shot. Even better, the picture shows the set being given away free to a reader this week!

The wraps arrived and were that lovely soft feel of good cotton, and as the packaging promotes the more you wash them the softer they get! They had cute designs in a light green and brown pattern that was pleasing, but not in any way gender specific, and best of all as soon as I took it out of the package my two year old made a grab for it and took off using it as a cape, thus proving that far beyond their days of swaddling and lulling fussy infants off to sleep, these blankets would still find use around our house.

The blankets are about twice as large as the hospital giveaways you come home with and are very thin, light cotton. They were very easy to use in a typical swaddling fold and my out of practice husband even got a refresher course in swaddling how-to as I was playing with them.

In the last few weeks this cloth has done double duty as a light blanket for our already overly warm Texas nights, is the perfect size rolled up to fit in the diaper bag and travel anywhere with us, and unlike the mountains of nice, fluffy fleece blankets we have left over from Alex’s babyhood, these stack and store in a minimal amount of space.

I’m a huge fan of swaddling babies and am often suggesting to friends that they should try it out to help baby, and them, get more sleep at night. My frugal tip for Works for Me Wednesday is to try swaddling. Before you buy Mylicon drops, before you buy a white noise machine, before you look for the latest gadget you simply must have to help you get some sleep at night, reach for blanket, or better yet a aden + anais double layer muslin wrap (you can win one today for FREE, how’s that for frugal ☺) and swaddle baby up tight for bed.

When we started swaddling Alex my family thought it was some new trend in parenting…but it’s not. Swaddling is a time honored tradition of helping little ones adjust to life outside of Mommy. All that extra space and lack of Mom’s cramped quarters can be upsetting for babies, but tucking them up in a tight swaddle brings back the security of Mommy.

If you’re a recent new parent or even a veteran that is looking for something new to try, check out this week’s contest and give swaddling a shot!

Free Giveaway for Frugal Works for Me Wednesdays!
Aden + Anais is giving one of you a free set of two double layer muslin wraps (retail value $49.95): Read how to enter below and spread the word about this great giveaway!

Contest Rules: VISIT adenandanais.com and tell me some other uses they have listed for their swaddling wraps or something about these wraps that I haven't mentioned in the above post!

EXTRA ENTRIES:
To receive these extra opportunities for entries, you must fulfill the first REQUIRED entry. But for extra entries, you can:
* Tell your own story about how swaddling saved your sanity.
* Tweet the contest with the following text “Traveling the Tightrope Great Giveaway—Free Aussie Muslin Wrapshttp: http://easyurl.net/TTCGiveaway”. Leave the Twitterlink in your comment.
* Blog about the contest - add a link to Traveling the Tightrope and the Sponsor aden + anais
* Add Traveling the Tightrope widget (on the right under the blogroll) to your site OR add Traveling the Tightrope to your blog roll.
*Become a Traveling the Tightrope follower.

One person will be randomly chosen when the contest ends on May 12 at midnight CST. Check back next Wednesday when we announce the winner. I will contact the winner directly through your email or blog link that you leave when commenting.

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