Friendly neighborhood health environmentalist.

I made it under the deadline! (eyes the Bogles)

I made Patty's recipe she posted on the Southwestern Pork Roast and took it to work today. The office went nuts over it. Everybody was telling me how good it was and impressed they were that I actually knew how to cook. I had about 1 cup of it left by the end of the day, so there's supper. :P I used honey mustard and honey barbeque instead of regular flavors and that gave it a slightly sweeter taste and I used only 2/3 of the large onion. Needless to say though, for only having an ounce left out of 4lbs, I must say, it went over really well.... Just hope they don't expect me to cook more often.

Ariel and Linzy, along with her parents and best friend went down to Florida for a few days, Fri-Wed, on a little vacation. I decided to save my hours and take off a week at christmas. Linzy absolutely loves the beach, all the sand to play with and the waves that tickle her toes. She did get a little sun burnt though, not too bad, hopefully it won't make her itch much.

Maybe one of my sisters can teach me how to post slideshows/pictures on my blog sometime.

Linzy's 1st trip to the Movies and more.

We went and saw Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs... almost a complete success. Linzy watched the previews and then when they were over she thought that we were done and it was time to go. (so cute). She watched the first half of the movie with no problem, then for about the 3rd quarter of the movie she wanted down and to run through the aisles and play in the seats that flip up(she didn't weigh enough to keep the seat from flipping up) and then at the last bit of the movie she got interested again. On a side note, she ate half a bag of popcorn, the most I've seen her eat in awhile.

On July 4, Ariel's family had a party. when it started getting darker we went outside and started lighting the fountains and sparklers. Then I started firing off those 'mortar' rounds. Basically its a ball on top of a little cylinder, all wrapped up with a long wick. you insert it into a tube and then light the wick. Well, I had 2 in my hands. I placed 1 into the tube and the lit the wick. One of the sparks flying off the lit wick hit the one in my hand and ignited its wick. Upon seeing this, I threw it far away from me and dove for cover. Needless to say the spectators were a little surprised... and no, I didn't throw it towards them. Rest of the fireworks went off without a hitch. Linzy was sad that she didn't get to hold a sparkler or help me, she was kept back the whole tiem with nothing to do but watch.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

.... or some such spelling....

Anywho, I made some the other night and despite not having the right pans (i wanted to use a broiler pan, but had to skillet fry them instead) It turned out pretty well.

2 lbs of chicken breast (I got them with bones still in)
Thick sliced ham (not the thin sandwich slices)
Mozarella cheese slices
Wheat flour
Nature's Blend Seasoning

First debone the chicken breasts.

then butterfly cut them almost entirely across and lay them open.

Roll a slice of cheese up in a slice of ham and place it into a chicken breast.

close the breast and fix in place with toothpick.

Place in a plate and coat with flour and seasoning.

Coat bottom of skillet with cooking oil.

Fry in skillet on med-high until done. (the cheese will start to drip down to the skillet)

Enjoy.

I even saved the scraps from when I deboned the chicken and made some chicken tenders :)

Ok can't figure out how to post a slideshow: http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z215/bladerunner_83/florida/?albumview=slideshow

Florida was great, we had an awesome time and Ariel just wanted to come back, get Linzy and then go back. We did a lot fun activities and yes I did forget my camera for much of the trip. We spent some time on the beach and yes we did get burned, spent 6 hours instead of 2... ouch.

I had fun despite being on a giant sandbar(florida). We saw stingrays swimming through the ocean and watched a few of them jump out of the water, some even did flips, which was pretty sweet. We went out one day and the waves were 10ft high, needless to say we didn't stay out too long that day.

Joe and Ashley got re-engaged while we were down there, I believe their wedding is set for 2010.

Strawberry Pickin's

I hope to get pics up on this when I return from training. Sunday, I took Ariel and Linzy strawberry picking. It was fabulous! We initially wanted to only to one tray, but we got it finished in no time, so I went and got another one. Linzy was initally a big help, (didn't eat any and didn't go tromping through the rows.) She carried the berries to the tray and even managed to pick some nice red ones. Like i said, the first tray went fast.

When I got back with the sencond one, we slowed down a bit. Ariel and I let Linzy eat a couple fresh strawberries as we picked them and of course, we indulged a few as well. Linzy soon became covered in the juices, her hands and face stained pink and her sleeves and shirt... even more so, but she loved it! Linzy also decided to see how soft some berries were by squishing them in her hands and walking through the rows (not between them) to go look at berries that caught her eye. And of course, right before we get up to leave, she does her business in her diaper. (lucky me)

We got the two trays paid for and went home. Linzy, after walking in the door, grabbed her pacifier and baby doll, climbed the stairs and went to her bed all by herself and without anyone telling her it was nap time.(she was of course still wearing stain clothes) Poor baby was pooped and we had to go visit with Ariel's grandparents yet. When we got back, Linzy slept at the granparents for an hour, I spent a little time cleaning and slicing up half of them before i had to leave to drive out to somerset for training. Ariel's mom had the rest done before Ariel got home from work that night.(she had a evening shift)

A great day outside and we got to eat strawberries, a nice weekend.

Link to Slideshow: http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z215/bladerunner_83/strawberries/?albumview=slideshow

Rising of the Terrible Two's!!!!

It happens with every child, the dreaded terrible two's. When all you want is a little peace and quiet and all they want is their way. While she is not yet two, Linzy is quickly showing us how close 19 months is close to 24. The 'fits' have started developing their way into her behavior, ex. she will be told to stay away from something or not to touch something and she will grin and do it anyway. We of course proceed to pull her away from it or pick her up and move her away from it and tell her no again. She then proceeds to throw herself to the floor and cry. Or she will kick and scream. Great fun.

Our response to that is to ignore her until she stops or, if she screams, send her to the time out corner until she calms down. To her credit, when told to, she will get up, walk to the said corner, and sit back down without a hitch. Never fails to impress me how obediant she is when it comes to that sort of thing. Its like she is saying, "ok, I know I got out of control, I'll go"

A couple nights ago, I babysat Linzy while Ariel was at work. All was going as well as can be expected when she only had a half hour nap. (I was holding everything together, but it wasn't easy) Then Ariel called while I was getting Linzy ready for bath. Linzy decided she didn't want to talk to mommy and when Ariel hung up, (she was on speaker), it was end game for her. I mean the floodgates opened up. When Linzy realized that her mom actually hung up, she just fell apart. She kept pointing to the phone and begged me to call Ariel back, unfortunately that particular phone chose to malfunction at that exact time, so I couldn't call Ariel back. So I ran into my room and got my verizon phone (yes, I have 2). I tried to call Ariel on that phone, but she had already left her break and went back to work. So, I had to give Linzy a bath and get her ready for bed, the whole while, she just bawled her poor head off. Luckily for me, when I laid down with her on the couch, she went right to sleep. the poor baby was exhausted. We got up the next morning at 6am and played for an hour before I had to get Ariel up so I could go to work.

Work has been fine, i had a training session May 4-7 and I have another one the 18-22. Then I get memorial day off and I think my last real training trip will be june 8-12 . The exciting thing is that I will be on vacation the 30th-6th. Ariel, me, Joe and some of our friends have rented a house down in Panama City Beach, Florida for the week. Ariel is really excited about it, though she tries not to think about how much she will miss her baby, (Linzy won't be going). Ariel's birthday is the 26th and this trip is supposed to be part of the celebration. I'm not as excited about it yet, though I suppose it is because there is still plenty on my schedule between now and then.

Almost forgot, I saw a couple episodes of "The Legend of The Seeker" on tv the other night. Its based on a book series that I have. "The Sword of Truth Series" by Terry Goodkind. No dvds are our yet for the series, but i think that Dad would like it, he has read the books too...I would like them too, but as I said, no dvds are out yet...

The Evansville Wilsons (in a couple years anyway)

I've enjoyed being out of the classroom training, though I'm not busy at work. Due to the economy, people aren't building new homes, so I'm not getting many applications for permits and I'm ahead of schedule on my inspections... all in all, I have a lot of free time. My coworker recommends getting a side job, he buys and sells stuff, using his free time at work to research possible purchases and such. I'm not sure what I can do in my free time, but i'll look around to see if i can fill a need.

Ariel and Linzy are doing well, for the most part. Linzy has recently gone to the doctor and she hadn't gained any weight since the last visit, Olivia weighs more than her. The doc has told us to give her milk and get her to gain weight. So, we've stopped giving her juice and increased her milk intake. Hopefully that will help, but she is a bit of a picky eater. Sometimes it is hard to get her to eat much at all, and other times she eat piles of food.

Her potty training continues, we got her to use the potty for #2 for a second time. She is starting to voluntarily tell us that she needs to go potty now, rather than us just putting her on the potty every so often in hopes we time it right.

Ariel's getting pumped about our vacation coming up at the end of May/beginning of June. As the days go by I notice she's getting more anxious. I've never been to Florida and my concerns are more about the state of the US than about the weather or whether there are a bunch of jellyfish in the gulf near the shore.

Ah well, we're gonna have a good time, but that's another post.