Dancing Christmas Pooch

Princess has an affection for animals.   She loves Grandma's dog, and has recently asked for one of her own.  But let's face it, that's not gonna happen.  Imagine that?!  I asked her if she'd rather a pup or a sibling and she shouted with a bright smile, "Dog!"

Taking care of a dog is like taking care of a child.  One child is enough for now.  Who knows?  When she's old enough to take care of one, maybe we'll change our minds.  For now, this is the closest it gets to us owning a pooch.  I'm kinda diggin' this Christmas dancing pooch.



Weather Anchor Mama

Easy to Make Pecan Pie

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I was fortunate to have the day off! But, not so fortunate in the cooking department. My mom and sis hosted this year, and I had very little time to spend in the kitchen. However, I was able to whip up a quick desert with help from my trustee sidekick.

I searched online for a simple pecan pie recipe, and found the perfect one. However, I had to make some tweaks to make it my own.

DON'T FOR GET TO SELECT THAT TINY WHEEL AT THE BOTTOM RIGHT OF THE VIDEO TO WATCH IN HD:)


It was so yummy! I posted the recipe in the description box of my YouTube Channel, in case you wanna try it out.

What's your favorite Thanksgiving dessert?

Down the Wrong Hole

What happens when your little one casually says, "I gotta pretzel in my nose?"  You try your best not to freak out, of course!

Like every other tot, Princess is always getting into some kind of mess.  From writing on doors and leaving permanent handprints on walls, it seems like she's done it all.

But nothing prepared us for what happened the other day.

It only took seconds for it to happen.  Once we heard those frightening words, my hubby and I sprung into action.

I told my hubby to get the tweezer.  I quickly sterilized it with alcohol, and sat Princess on the floor.        I could see the look of worry in her Dad's eyes, but I knew there was no time to panic.  I remember telling her, "Stop inhaling honey.  Just try and blow your nose."  That obviously didn't work.  Daddy  stabilized her arms and head, while I attempted to extract the pretzel from her nose.  She didn't cry, but she did fuss a bit.  That was actually a great sign.  Crying would have meant pain and since she wasn't screaming for dear life, I figured that we could get this thing out on our own.

After a few attempts, I pulled that sucker out with the tweezer.  It only measured about a half an inch.  Thank goodness.  Another emergency trip avoided.

Weather Anchor Mama

My Hair Discovery & Thoughts on Eco Styler Gel

Every now and again I'd spot some left of straight ends and snip away.  One day I got a little too scissor happy.  Plus, check out my latest find for taming my edges.

What do you use to tame your edges?

Weather Anchor Mama

Parent Teacher Conference: Things to Work On

The last parent teacher conference was a bit of a shocker.  Princess was only 9 months old, and considered a grape by this particular daycare standards.  At the time, her teacher said we needed to work on her eating habits (which I took with a grain of salt).  You can read more on that in this post.

This time around I was expecting a little good mixed in with the not so good.  Princess has been going through a scratching phase.  As I explained in my recent babycenter article, we grew concerned about her hurting her friends.  We weren't exactly expecting the "your child needs a therapist" speech.  But, was prepared to hear about how to help with Princess's meltdowns.  When her teacher said that she's gotten much better, my hubby and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"She's using her words more.  If she gets really frustrated, she may push a little.  She's gotten much better though" he teacher explained.

Other positive feedback includes:

She's fully potty trained
She follows directions well
She loves to paint, color, and cut with scissors
She enjoys singing and reading
She's very social and plays with everyone
She's very talkative (like her mama)
She participates in class activities

Things to work on:

Putting together puzzles
Jumping and controlled running  

I'm not sure what "controlled running" is.  But, we're always racing in the backyard.  She does pretty well, and usually beats mommy and daddy.

Puzzles have become our fun mommy daughter pastime.  Sometimes she likes to pull the pieces apart and scatter them all over the floor.  As far as jumping goes, Princess has always had a hard time getting one leg off the ground.  I'm so proud at how much she tries.  It is kinda funny though. lol



It's so much fun watching her learn new things.  I know my baby girl will get there when she's ready.

Weather Anchor Mama

I First Attempt at Using a Crock Pot

I'm flattered when people compliment me on how well I balance my career and motherhood.  But I can't front, it's MAD hard.  Now that Princess is eating more, she's quick to put in her menu requests.  The other night she asked me for chicken.  Just a few months ago I couldn't pay her to eat a tiny piece of poultry.  Needless to say, I had to take full advantage of this and strike while the iron is hot.

As far as dinner goes, I have a pretty set schedule.  I usually make Sunday dinner, which lasts until Tuesday.  I'd throw something together for Wednesday and Thursday.  Friday is pizza night, and Saturday we alternate.  Sometimes we'll either take Princess to our favorite family restaurant or I'd whip something up.  The bad weather combined with school and work has made these last couple of weeks a bit hectic.  With finals around the corner, it's only gonna get worse.  So, I have to step my cooking game up and figure out a way to save time.

I dusted off the crock pot my sis gave me.  Let me preface by mentioning that I've never used one before, and I don't have any recipes.  In fact, I had no idea how to work this thing.  To avoid burning down the house, I read the manual.

Thankfully, my hubby took the chicken out of the freezer, which meant that the bird was pretty well defrosted by the time I got home.  I cleaned and washed the chicken with lemon juice and vinegar.  When it came time for seasoning, I literally added all the spices from my kitchen cabinet and threw in some veggies from the fridge.  I was way to tired to even think.

Here's a quick rundown.  Sorry, I didn't include measurements.

Lawry's Seasoning
Jamaican curry powder
Thyme
Onion
All spice
Barbeque Sauce
Black pepper
Garlic
Green Beans
Celery
Carrots

I placed everything in the crock pot, covered it, and put just the insert into the fridge overnight.  All I had to do the next morning was turn that baby on high!  I dropped Princess off at daycare, enjoyed a good workout, and completed a quiz for school.

This is the final product!

It took four hours to cook.  Don't let this pic fool ya!  It was yummy and flavorful!  I was pleased at how much I was able to get done while it cooked.  This should last for at least a couple of days.  Now I can get some work done.  There's no perfect balance between career and motherhood.  But, I do what I can to make it work.

Princess loved the chicken, but passed on the veggies

Have you ever used a crock pot?  Got any recipes you wanna share?  Hit me up!

Weather Anchor Mama

Emergency Room Trip Avoided

How many times has your little cried wolf?  Every other minute it's a different body part that hurts.  That's exactly what I experience with Princess not too long ago.  It turned out something was painfully wrong.



Weather Anchor Mama

Here's Why I've Been M.I.A

Weather Anchor Mama

Sandy's Aftermath:

Sandy not only washed up the sandy beaches of our coastline, it's caused major devastation across the northeast.  My hubby snapped these pics, and this is not even close to the worse of the damage left by this storm.

Storm surge led to flooded streets in our hood.  This is the closest he got.

We live near the water, but far enough to not have to deal with flooding from storm surge.

There were a lot of power lines down

Plenty of down trees 

This fallen tree shut down the entire road

We were left with no power, no heat, no hot water, and no phone or internet service for almost a week.  Thankfully, we were able to stay at my mom's house because there was no way I could keep my two-year-old in a freezer much longer.

No electricity, so Princess turned her socks into gloves to keep her hands warm.

I'm so happy we fulfilled our checklist before the storm hit, otherwise we would have been screwed.

Here's my Sandy preparation checklist:
-Full tank of gas
-non perishable food
-laundry (in case the power goes out. We need clean clothes lol)
-Flashlight with batteries (I'm scared of using candles with the little one around)
- car phone charger 
-a freezer full of ice (if the power goes out, the food will last longer)
-Water 
-Garbage containers in the garage (don't want the winds to blow them a

way)
-First aid kit
-Go bag (in case I can't make it back home from work)
-CASH

Despite crossing off everything on this list, we still came up short in the gas department. We finally got everything back. But, now I only have enough fuel for one day of work. We drove around and saw a bunch of parked cars. A closer look revealed that drivers were on line waiting to re-up. Lines like this stretched for blocks. Some places only allowed you to fill up 20 bucks worth, which doesn't benefit us because we already have that much left in our tank.  Waiting long hours to get back what we already have didn't make much sense.

Some people ran out of gas while waiting on line. Others tried to avoid being assed out by leaving their cars behind and fueling up containers instead.

I'm hoping that this gas problem will get better soon.  If not, I gotta figure out how I'm gonna make it to work this week.

Despite all this, I thank God that we had some place to go and come back to. Some people aren't so lucky.

Weather Anchor Mama