Everyone wins ... literally

Last Tuesday, my neighbor called and told me that on Monday, her sister had won a contest that Sunny 92.3 was sponsoring. Listeners were asked to submit their favorite recipes that included mayonnaise, and each day a winner would receive a $50 gift card to Walmart and would be in the running to ... wait for it ... win a Hellman's Mayonnaise NASCAR jacket.

I know. You are now wishing you hadn't missed out on this contest. I'm so sorry.

Well, my neighbor entered on Tuesday and, lo and behold, she was that day's winner! So at this point I figure no one must be entering this silly contest and I sure could use $50 to Walmart so I decide to go ahead and enter as well. It briefly crosses my mind to submit a recipe for Mexican grilled street corn we had at cooking club in July, but my conscience shut that one down pretty quickly since I've never even made the corn.

I opted for my go-to lunch of avocado on whole-grain toast smeared with mayo (which of course is usually the generic version, but what does Hellman's need to know?!) and mustard and my conscience felt much better after that.

I also felt even better when the next day, I got my call from Patty at Sunny 92.3 that I was Wednesday's winner! At this point I immediately email my friend from cooking club who brought the Mexican grilled street corn and urge her to enter this recipe. She does. And has a genuine interest in winning the jacket. For the fun of it I'm guessing.

Well, I'm guessing you know what is coming next. On Thursday, this friend wins and on Friday, wouldn't you know, she wins the jacket.

Have you ever heard of contest victories coming this easily? Now to really gild the lily, today the girls and I swung by the radio station to pick up the Walmart gift card. The receptionist made some kind of mistake which led her to offer me my choice of either a Walmart gift card or an American Express pre-paid gift card.

I imagine you can guess which one I chose.

Thank you Hellman's, AMEX and Sunny 92.3 ... you made my day!

A simple summer

Nothing about this summer has been earth-shaking for us. We've had no major adventures, events or life changes. We haven't gotten in the car much on the weekends, other than for me to run errands. A toddler and infant keep at least Matt or myself home much of the time and in bed early more often than not. It's been a simple summer. But isn't that how summer is supposed to be? Full of small pleasures and lazy afternoons and no real agendas or schedules (other than sleep schedules - that's not something this sometimes uptight mama can let go of very easily!)

Here's some of what hasn't made the blog this summer, but has made this season simple, and special, for us so far (this isn't a goodbye to summer blog post that's for sure ... we still have quite a few weeks left to enjoy!):

• watching our ordinarily very cautious Emery take to the water like Michael Phelps (ok, that's an exaggeration, but you get my point. She likes swimming. And that makes us happy.)
• being able to go to the pool on a whim, since it's only a five-minute walk from our house
• struggling over our vegetable garden, but then reaping the benefits of a yard that doesn't stop giving ... our backyard fig tree that appears to be centuries old bestowed on us more figs than we could possibly ingest and just this past weekend, i discovered a gigantic crop of cherry tomatoes hiding in front of our backyard swing!
• letting Emery play in the sprinkler in the front yard ... and then seeing an older woman drive by twice in five minutes just to watch her
• frequent visits for Emery, Anna Kimball and myself to our neighbor and angel's house for much-needed afternoon diversions
• watching Anna Kimball grow and share her incessant smiles with any and everyone
• making the most of blueberries, cantaloupe, tomatoes and looking forward to falling temperatures that will make grilling fun, not just tolerable
• time with friends, new and old
• Emery and Anna Kimball becoming friends ... so far, the admiration and affection is mutual!

Quotable Emery

"I'm all done the God song," after letting me listen to a worship song. Then it was right back to "Where is Thumbkin?" Sigh. However, her new toddler music CD has been capturing her attention for unprecedented amounts of time, so I can hardly complain about that!

"I eat the water!" while playing in the sprinkler.

I forgot

Anna Kimball's 6 month birthday. It was yesterday. I didn't even get a picture of her. The most recent shot I have downloaded on my computer is one from the Detroit airport taken about two weeks ago and it's not even that great of a picture!

BUT! She is so forgiving! She is almost always smiling. Her eyes light up whenever I walk into the room and, well, unfortunately her shrieking usually coincides with my exiting the room. We love you to pieces, Anna Kimball - happy half-birthday, one day late!

Fun in Michigan

We recently returned from a week in Fenton, MI, where Matt's parents now live fulltime on a lake. I hesitate to call any journey a vacation when it's with an infant who thought she was on a cruise ship and entitled to twice or thrice nightly buffets, and a toddler prone to whining and impeccable at waking for the day at 5:54 on the nose .... BUT there was much about our time that was vacation-like, including a shopping spree for me (thank you, Grammie!), plenty of delicious meals both in and out, too many ice cream cones to count, free babysitting and lots of time in the sun, water and sand.

What? You don't eat waffles with peanut butter at 6:11am with umbrella toothpicks, a sunhat, a giraffe and a monkey? 

You should start, it's really quite fun!

Anna Kimball lasted about seven minutes in her new swimsuit, but in her defense, it really was quite hot. She still managed to look adorable despite the heat - would that I could say the same for myself!

And here she is again, getting in the spirit for the 4th!

Little Miss Anna Kimball isn't quite so little actually, and so we decided to give solids a go a bit before the 6 month mark. She doesn't mind!

And finally, our little swimmer, who is getting so very brave in the water, whether she's in a lake with fishies or a pool with, well, lots of chlorine and rowdy boys.

Thanks for all the fun and memories, Grammie and Grandpa - we will be back!

Quotable Emery

"I want some more dirty bread," in reference to the angel food cake our neighbor shared with us yesterday. Why Emery thinks it is dirty bread is beyond me, but maybe it has something to do with the golden crust on the white cake?

My zucchini might be green

but that doesn't mean my thumb is ... yet. We've taken advantage of the raised bed the previous owners had in the backyard and planted loads of tomatoes, wisely only ONE zucchini plant, some bell peppers, cucumber and butternut squash. And some beets on a whim, but I have zero hope for those.

I can't say I do much more than water the garden each morning and try to pull a few weeds when I notice them. But I'm beginning to think I might have beginners luck, or just a thumb that's getting greener, because everything seems to be sprouting along quite nicely! (though you will notice some diseased leaves on our tomato plants ... suppose I need to address that soon)

Also, just pretend that fence isn't there behind the bed and that's what it would be like if our neighbor's backyard were really ours. :) But what can I say? We prefer a more, oh romantic English style garden, that's all ... otherwise you know we'd be sporting the terraces and manicured shrubs.

As for what to do with the glut of zucchini that will continue to overwhelm our palates, I'm already going the pancake route with these zucchini fritters. The only changes I made were to salt the zucchini after grating and let the water drain out for about 20 minutes and use buttermilk pancake mix (because I already had it and want to use it up) instead of flour. They were delicious and fortunately much crispier on the outside than I anticipated!

And then there's the fig tree we planted this spring.

Just kidding of course. It's been here for eons I am sure. It won't be long before we are up to our ears in figs. Thinking I might need to set up shop at the farmer's market and start selling them for $5 a pint ... with Emery and Anna Kimball in tow and in some straw hats and gingham dresses, don't you think I'd do some good business?