The Other Side

I made it!!!  I made to the other side of the move!  I feel like I need to celebrate with two days straight of sleep or a HUGE party, neither of which I can do because there's too much still to do... But we are moved in and fully functional, for the most part, in our new home.  When I'm away from it, I miss it.

We closed on Tuesday and worked straight for three days - tackling things like painting, carpet, moving "stuff" over to the new house, cleaning up at Mimi's... I was fully disconnected from life as I know it - I did not answer my phone unless it was related to the move.  I turned on my "out of office" at work, and I worked on my house from sun up to sun down.  I had LOADS - an army, in fact - of help. My dad and father-in-law are my heroes - truly, my knights in shining armour. 

On Tuesday, I worked from home because I had to run over to our house a few times - to check on the painters.  I had to go into the office, however, to give a short presentation to our new employees, and my dad accompanied me.  It was such a fun time for us!  We worked the rest of the day on moving loads over to the house.

Papa's farm hand drove down to Atlanta and helped load up his truck and trailer with all of our miscellaneous "stuff" - all the stuff that is too small for the movers or too breakable - TVs, computers, clothes, papers, yard stuff, some furniture.  We worked all day long and I have to say... I loved it!  I loved working all day, stopping for lunch (and eating like a construction worker, I must say), and working some more.  There was something so refreshing to be away from life as I know it - no computer, hardly any cell phone talking - it was all about "fluffing the nest" here at home for my family.  I think I would enjoy a lifestyle like this - simple - work for a day's pay, eat well, enjoy family and that's it.  Doesn't that sound so nice?  I tire sometimes of all the excess - gossip, finding the right clothes for a certain occasion, computer, email, phone, rigorous schedules of having to be here and there... Anyway, no sense in going on about that because my life isn't like that.  I'm not a cowboy or a carpenter. 

Here we are driving to my house looking like the Beverly Hillbillies.  We drove no more than 25 miles per hour and there I was hanging my head out the window with my camera so that I could document it.

Everyone pitched in.  Mimi and my mom were inside cleaning while we were outside unloading the trailers.  Here's a picture of Benjamin backing up the trailer on our very steep driveway.  This is no easy task, let me tell you.  Lots of sparks flying from the place where the trailer met the driveway - loud noise of metal scraping cement, some skidding.  I think my dad had tears in his eyes out of pure joy that the truck and trailer made it up.

I loved the satisfaction of accomplishing all that we did.  I slept hard that night, and I know all of my "helpers" did, too.

On Thursday, my dad gifted me his painter, Paul, for the day. Paul, my friend, Chris, and I painted our den, kitchen and other den.  We worked for about 8 hours and transformed my house into "Davis" style.  My friend, Chris, is a master renovationista (I just made up this word).  She has a knack for interior design, so she picked out our colors - bittersweet chocolate and cappuccino white.  She helped us paint for several hours. 

She's this amazingly laid back, genuine friend with tons of talent.  Thank you, Chris!

My dad worked on window treatments for me this week - making sure the kids had proper window coverings.  My dad is Mr. Meticulous.  I know that when he does something for me, it's going to be done....right.  No shortcuts.  No rig-job.  Right and strong and sturdy.  He is truly a brilliant carpenter. Here he is after a long day's work sitting on my front steps enjoying an ice cold beer.  He brought his compass to find out exactly which direction my house faces.  Little things like this just fascinate and interest him.  I love it!

I have loved having him with me all week - he's such a funny guy, too - VERY entertaining.  In fact, when going through a box this week, I came across a mullet wig that Matthew wore for Halloween a few years ago.  My dad was on his way to Mimi and Papa's and we decided that he should wear the wig over there, so he did!  He's a hoot - enjoys life to the very last drop....everyday.  Shouldn't we all be doing that?

Bulldog Movers came on Friday and I expected the whole move to take around 5 hours (because we had moved so much stuff to the new house already), but it took 9 hours - 2 trucks, 6 movers.  I was never so happy to see someone leave my house!  We hit the bed around 11 that night.  

Here is our house:

I love my new house for so many reasons.  I love the culdesac street.  I love looking outside and seeing tons of kids playing.  I love my backyard with a play set and trampoline.  I love that we now have a basement... it's just wonderful for my family.  And yesterday, a neighbor brought us the most delicious dinner (which we shall enjoy tonight), and another neighbor brought us some pumpkin bread!  On top of that, Allison (my sister-in-law) and family brought us a cooler full of beer and tacos.  Can't beat that!

I hope today to get some pictures hung.  Small goals.  Can't make goals that are too big because we've got sports commitments and birthday parties that are going on throughout this moving process. 

As we settle in, I'll be blogging more.  I made some killer malted chocolate chip cookies before we moved that I want to share with you.  I'll be cooking much more regularly very soon. 

Thank you, Mimi, for keeping Brooke happy and well this whole week while we moved and thank you for cleaning at my new house.  Can you come back weekly?  :)  Thank you, Isa, for all of your months of taking care of Brooke while I work and especially the last few weeks of helping me pack and move.  Thank you, Mom, for cleaning my new house and for unpacking my ENTIRE kitchen on moving day.  Thank you, Dad, for spending your whole week with me working on window treatments and thank you for gifting 8 hours of your painter's time to make my house just the way I want it.  Thank you, Papa, for gifting us 8 hours of Benjamin's time to transport loads of stuff over to our house. Thank you, Chris, for helping us paint and make our house so beautiful!!  Thank you, Matt, for our beautiful home where I hope to make a lifetime of memories!

Thank you, Mimi and Papa, for NINE months of hospitality, generosity, and round the clock help.  Thank you for not one time making us feel like we were too much.  Thank you for all the  meals - all the babysitting, all the surprise folded laundry, all the glasses of wine that just appeared after a long day... I could go and on.  Sometimes in my crazy life now, I think, oh, when I'm older and retired, I can finally rest and chill out - sometimes that thought gets me through the craziness!  You were there in your mode of relaxation and we disrupted that - but we had a great time and it'll be 9 months of memories that we'll always cherish. 

My dad has a saying, "Short time live, long time dead."  Let's live it up!!

Losing My Cool

How was your Valentine's Day?  We had a really great day!  The kids popped out of bed yesterday morning with a pep in their step - wish I could think of a reason for great excitement everyday so that it wouldn't take them so long to roll out of bed. 

I prepared my little Charlie Brown-like decorated table the night before so they were excited to come downstairs to pink pancakes at a Valentine's Day table (I took this picture with my iPhone):

They ate happily and opened their little presents - it was as fun morning.  Then I went into Matthew's class and facilitated the Valentine's Party game.  I embellished an ice breaker we played at work.  I took a heart and cut it into 2 pieces - and put matching words or math problems on them.  So, one half said, "Lady" and the other, "Gaga"; one said, "20/4" and the other said, "5"; one said "Prince William" and the other half said, "Princess Kate" and so on... Each child got half a heart and had to find their match - once they found their match, they had to come to me to pick up their word search.  Did you know that you can do customized word searches online?  I did one and used words that pertained to their class, school, and Valentine's Day.  The first three teams to finish won prizes.  It was a fun game!  If any of you are doing a game for a party later this Spring, instead of hearts, you could use circles and call them beach balls.  At Christmas time, half the class could get Christmas trees and the other half stars... It was fun and the kids really enjoyed it!

After school, the kids did their homework and played for a bit.  We had early dinner reservations at 6:00PM.  As you know, we are moving next week, so I have been busy setting up utilities and so on... I had set up service with one company and then decided to go with another.  So, I called the original company to cancel (which they told me so long as I cancelled at least 24 hours in advance, I could easily cancel).  Long story short (Debbie got the long version on our run this morning :) ), 2 1/2 hours, SIX phone calls, one disconnected call, 4-5 different phone agents, an "F" bomb spoken by yours truly followed by some tears, "Sir, my son only turns 11 once and my whole family is inside celebrating and I'm out here talking to you...." I finally got the service cancelled and I'm all set.  I'm sure that AT&T has my name in HUGE letters somewhere with the words, CRAZY LADY, beside it.  After that marathon of phone calls, I had a couple of very LARGE glasses of wine.  I felt like what I imagine a high up executive feels like after a stressful meeting or something.  I was FIRED up!  

We had fun at Mo Mo Ya and came home to cookie cake and present opening.  It was really fun!  Matthew had a great birthday!

I want to share with you this really cool baseball shirt that's on the market for our kids.  When kids start pitching in baseball, things can get a little....well...wild.  The ball comes in FAST and HARD and sometimes may not be right down the middle.  Or your son (or daughter - shout out to Katie!!) might be on the mound when a ball is hit RIGHT down the middle - with no protection, this has the potential to be a devastating injury.  This purchase is an easy thing to do on the front end for major protection during the season.  It's called Evoshield chest and back guard.  Here is a picture that I copied from the website.  It retails for about $90.00, but it's amazing!  You buy the shirt and the pads come with it but they're soft when you buy them.  Then you put the shirt on, insert the pads and they mold to your son's body and sort of harden - in the front and in the back.  It's comfortable, light-weight and provides excellent protection.  It's available at a bunch of different stores including Jonquil and Better Baseball. 

I'll try to blog throughout the next week, but we close and move next week - Yay!!!  So, if I'm "MIA" for a bit, that is why!

 

Valentine's Day and Brooke's New Clothes

I'm thinking about Tuesday and Valentine's Day, which also happens to be Matthew's 11th birthday.  The pressure is off for Matt and me because we decided long ago that we'd make this holiday all about the kids. 
I stopped by Learning Express today and picked up a couple things for the kids - nothing big - but they wrapped it up and I was out of there for $30.00 with gifts for all three of my chickens.  I have a little plastic Valentine's Day table cloth, so after they go to bed on Monday night, I'm going to set the breakfast table - plates, forks, wine glasses for orange juice, maybe even a candle... I've decided that I'm going to make pancakes and color them red with food coloring - maybe add some chocolate chips.

Then we'll commence later on Tuesday to celebrate Matthew's birthday.  Unfortunately, because our baseball schedule was not nailed down until late last week, I did not make a reservation WAY in advance (I'm just not that "together" to pull that off), so we'll probably end up eating at home.  Not sure yet what his birthday fare will include, but it'll be his choice (pizza, I'm guessing?).

So, I went shopping for Brooke this weekend.  What fun this was.  My goodness - it's more fun than shopping for myself (not that I enjoy that very much at all) - it's shopping without the hassle of having to try things on.  It was SO FUN!  Of course, I was wishing that my wallet was bottomless -  I sure saw some ADORABLE smocked dresses and outfits that exceeded $100.00 - but I just can't come to terms with spending that much on a baby item. 

Check out her new outfit.  It's comfy and cute - I just love it! 

I picked out a VERY frilly spring/summer outfit (this was a stretch for me as I am a jeans and a t-shirt kind of a gal) that I cannot WAIT to see her wear.  Seriously...who knew this girl stuff would be so much fun?!! 

The boys and I had an outing this morning and Matt and Brooke had a father-daughter morning.  I got a text from Matt with this picture:

And the text said, "Shopping makes Brooke sleepy."  They went to Dicks and bought her first pair of Nikes.  We've been talking about her first pair of Nikes since she was born!  So fun - Daddy is very proud :).

All that fun shopping - cute outfits, some cool new kicks - and we get home and the boys want to put her in Champ's basketball jersey :). 

Are you thinking E.T.?  Seeing her in this jersey reminded me of E.T. when they dressed him up.  

This week will be all about packing up, baseball, birthday and studying for tests.  I thought that my days of stressing about tests and projects were over.  I thought that when I graduated from college, I was done stressing about these things.  Not so.  I am reliving my youth through my boys... it's all so much, isn't it?  Keeping up with their test schedules, quizzes, homework, agendas, projects... it's enough to make a perfectly sane person go MAD!  I'm trying to come up with a better system for staying on top of it all.  If you have any ideas, please use the comment feature at the bottom of this post (I think I finally got this feature up and running!).

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Blue Ribbon Chili

Hope you had a nice time watching the Super Bowl last week.  How rockin' is Madonna?  I was impressed.  At our office park at Children's last week, there was a Chili Cook-Off.  Employees were invited to bring their crock pot full of chili to the tasting room where our executives tasted and judged each entry.  I decided to enter the contest with a brand-new recipe.  I'm so excited to tell you all about it!  Giada is my favorite Food Network chef.  She's adorable, relatable, and her recipes are not too labor intensive - and they are always delicious.  I went to the Food Network website and did a search for "Giada Chili", and up popped her Short Rib Chili.  I read through it and it looked manageable, so I went for it.  Ohhh hhoooo oohhhh, let me tell you that I really came across a gem of a recipe with this one. 

I arrived at work on the Friday morning before the Super Bowl and set up both my crock pot full of Short Rib Chili next and my bowl of Creamy Polenta and toppings (bacon bits, chopped green onions, sour cream and lime wedges).  I didn't think I would win the competition because there were some really good looking chilies present.  But I thought my chili was pretty darn good - very different from a traditional chili so I guess you could say that I had "high hopes." 

The executives judged the chilies - this took about 45 minutes.  Afterwards, all contestants were called into the big room where the party was taking place and then came the announcement.... Third place went to so and so... Second place went to so and so... First place goes to.... (drum roll, please) "Christa Davis!"  I know it's just chili, but I was soo excited!  Wooo hooo!!!  I think I was so excited because I really enjoy cooking, but having a couple of picky family members results in no one getting all that excited about what I cook.  So, to have won the chili cook-off (out of 8,000 employees!  Okay, Okay - only 9 entered, but still!!), well, it was thrilling for me!  The judges said they were fighting for the last bits of the winning chili  - my crock pot was empty when I went into the room to retrieve it.

It was really not that labor intensive - some chopping and pureeing on the front end -and then it cooks for 2 1/2 -3 hours before you have to debone and shred the meat.  I would absolutely make it again and again.  I only do recipes again if they meet 2 criteria - they must not be too labor intensive AND they MUST be delicious.  For example, I made some enchiladas a couple of months ago (a recipe I got from Pinterest), and I took pictures throughout the whole process thinking I would blog about it.  Let me just say that it took 3 HOURS hands on - chopping, food processing, rolling, mixing, etc. - I was exhausted when I was done and while the enchiladas were good, they weren't THAT good.  I felt like I could get the same result in 1/4 the time, so that recipe got chunked. 

For the chili, I retrieved the some of the interesting ingredients for the recipe:

I browned the beef short ribs (seasoned with salt and pepper) on all sides in a little olive oil and then I set them aside.

Then, I cooked my chopped red onion and garlic. 

While that was cooking, I cooked a couple of chipolte peppers (in sauce) in water on the stove.  Then I pureed that mixture in my little blender which resulted in a chipolte "stock."



I then added all of the other ingredients and put the short ribs into the pot to cook for 2 1/2 hours.

After the 2 1/2 hours, I took the short ribs out, took the meat off the bone and shredded it.  Then I added the shredded beef to the pot as well as the black beans.  Then I let it cool and several hours later, I skimmed the fat off the top (the meat produces a lot of liquid fat which, when cold, turns into a lovely layer of solid fat on the top) - ew - gotta get ride of this, folks.

I urge you to try Giada's Short Rib Chili.  Click here for the recipe.  My tweaks are below:

• Instead of New Mexican Chiles and Ancho Chiles, I used 2 chipolte peppers (in sauce) instead.  I added them and cooked them in the water and then pureed the mixture.
• Instead of Dark Agave, I used 1 TBS molasses and 1 TBS Light Agave.
• The recipe says to sprinkle some shaved dark chocolate on top - I forgot about this completely - so I'd be curious to know what it does to the taste!  I bet it's pretty good!

Matt loved it.  I served it with sour cream, chopped green onions and bacon bits.  I also made Giada's Creamy Polenta (recipe is found with the Short Rib Chili recipe), and this soaked up all the juices from the chili - it was just all around DELICIOUS!  Because I went home with an empty crock-pot, I ended up making more for the Super Bowl. 

Now that Winter has finally come to town, go for it and make this chili!  It was delicious!!

The Power of a Note & Homemade Laundry Detergent

As much as the mommy in me has longed for a house of our own again, there are some MAJOR perks of living with Mimi and Papa.  The perks far outweigh any frustration I've felt while I living here.  I don't have to cook every night, and when I do cook, I have a cooking buddy (Mimi) to chat with while I'm cooking!  She even pours me a glass of wine without me so much as having to ask.  The glass of Cabernet appears on the island in the kitchen every evening. 

I had some errands to run one morning last week and Brooke and I came into the house after several hours of being out.  I put down our bags and found this note on the counter:

Now, after a busy morning out...to come home to this sweet note and know that I was one call away from giving her my grocery "wish list"... well, you busy moms know how much this means!  I love it because this is SO Mimi.  She is the ultimate caretaker/homemaker.  She always has fresh juice or sweet tea on hand.  She can ALWAYS feed you and cure your ailments.  She is such a great listener and she's always happy.  She's truly a pleasure to be around.  I came home from work tonight to a kitchen full of food -freshly made chicken salad, warm butter croissants and the most delicious banana pudding that you've ever tasted.  One good thing about moving in a few weeks is that I'm sure to lose a few pounds!

Her note made me reflect on notes in general... they are so wonderful to receive, especially when they're hand-written.  I still value a nice hand-written note.  Quite often I put a little note in Champ's lunchbox.  They are usually short and sweet - they go something like this:  "Champ, I'm proud of you.  Have a super day.  See you in carpool."  Or "Champ, you played a great basketball game last night.  You rock.  Mom"  It takes me less than half a minute to jot something thoughtful down and slip it into his lunchbox.  A couple of months ago, he came downstairs for breakfast one morning before school and he was looking through his open lunchbox on the counter - I thought he was looking at what I put in it (I was waiting for him to say, "Mom, I didn't want a ham sandwich...", but a few seconds later, he walked over to me with a pen and piece of paper in hand and said, "Here mom, you can write your note with this."  Talk about melting my heart... Now, I do realize that any day now, these notes will become embarrassing and may spark anger if he sees one, but I'll savor each day until then!

These little notes mean so much.  Matt worked late last week and Matthew left a sweet note for him that said something like, "Dad, I hope you had a GREAT day!  I love you so much.  See you in the morning!"  Matt saw that note after a 15 hour day and it warmed his heart (those are not Matt's words - just my interpretation). 

If you're not a note writer but want to put something in your child's lunchbox, Learning Express sells cool little lunchbox notes that say cool facts and fun statistics.  I think they cost under $5.00 and you can grab them at the checkout counter. 

Now... www.pinterest.com has become a pass time for me.  I find myself scrolling through it on my phone quite often throughout the day.  I've actually become somewhat of a "Pin-aholic" - but I've gotten some great ideas (remember the chalkboard from a few weeks ago?) and tasty recipes from it.  Well, inspired by Pinterest, I made my own laundry detergent a few weeks ago.  I was intrigued by the fact that it costs $.01 a load (I figured that regular detergent costs about a quarter a load), and I am TIRED of paying so much for laundry detergent each week. 

I bought the supplies:

I don't think I spent more than $8.00 on the three of these items.  I bought them at Publix on the cleaning aisle. 

First, grate 1/3 of the bar of Fels-Naptha. 

Put your grated soap in a pot with 6 cups of water and heat on low until the soap melts. Don't let the soap boil. Once all the soap is completely melted, add 1/2 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup borax and stir until it is dissolved. Continue stirring until the mixture thickens (almost as thick as honey) Remove from heat.

Pour 4 cups of hot tap water into a big 5 gallon bucket. Add the soap mixture and stir it up. If you want to add a few drops of essential oil to give it a certain smell, now is the time to do it.  I have read that tea-tree oil is a lice repellent - I thought that if I had some one hand, that would be a great one to add, but I didn't add any essential oils to mine. 

Now add one gallon of hot tap water plus 6 more cups.   Stir well.  At this point, I used a funnel and poured this into three empty detergent bottles (that I saved).

I then used some masking tape to label them.



My clothes smell clean - I still use Bounty dryer sheets.  Would I do this again?  Sure!  At $.01 a load, the 20 minute process was worth it.  The true test will be when baseball starts back up.  I'll report back and let you know if the red clay comes out of the boys' white baseball pants.