The Disappearing Act

Hi Everyone :)

I hope your Saturday has been great so far. Mine has been JAM PACKED! Sorry I disappeared last night. I needed a night free of technology and things to do. Linsey and I ended up getting Qdoba for dinner and I had the grilled veggie burrito naked with black beans, pico, corn relish, lettuce, guacamole and a little sour cream. It was really good. I have a thing for Qdoba and Mexican food in general.

Then we basically vegged out all night and hanging out at home. Nothing too exciting, but low key and just the four of us. Trust me - after the week we've had we needed it. Regan did a little entertaining act at the piano after dinner though...Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is a smash hit around our house!

Not to worry though because we've made up for it today. The morning started out with dirty dishes and coffee! Much needed coffee after the wake up call Jason got!

The girls are IN LOVE with the new kitty, Maggie, and after the Maria version of a good old fashioned southern style breakfast - vegetarian maple flavored sausage, scrambled organic-cage free eggs, flaky biscuits and organic grape jelly with real irish butter - Jason took her to see the vet.

She has ear mites and a tape worm. She needs to be spayed and get shots, but the vet at the Humane Society is so great that he's working out a payment plan with us since we rescued her and told him we tight on the cash flow. She weighs 6lbs 6oz and will be just fine after meds, shots and lots of love. The girls couldn't be happier that she's here - I can't really say the same for the dogs, but they will live I'm sure.

While Jason and Maggie were at the vet I took Linsey and Regan to do a little Christmas shopping for my Secret Santa at work (I have two) and for Jason. We ended up getting him something A-W-E-S-O-M-E thanks to the lovely sales lady who will go unnamed for now at a store that will also go unnamed for now. I would have taken her photograph, but for secrecy purposes we chose not to!! Can't let him know what his gift is or where it came from now can we???

After an afternoon of shopping with crazy, maniac shoppers all over the city of St Louis the girls were hungry and I knew I wouldn't be able to get Regan home and awake without feeding her some lunch first. I went against my better judgement and made a stop at the foodcourt - UGH! We had Sbarro's beause that's what the girls really wanted. I made the best choice I could find. One slice of mushroom pizza with a side of tomato & cucumber salad. I only ended up eating about half of it because the pizza was GIANT!

We finally made it home, got Regan in bed and hid the purchases that needed to be. Then Linsey and i got to work on sorting a week's worth of laundry. I talked her into watching Food, Inc. with me if I helped her sort the laundry (which is one of her ONLY chores) and of course she agreed. I had already seen it, but thought that having her watch it would help give her answers to a lot of her food questions. She feels (a lot of times) uncomfortable or different or weird because she is a vegetarian. There are very few at her school and most of the kids she knows buy their lunches everyday. I know of a few times that she's even been made fun of for my food beliefs. She was called a 'vegetarian freak' by a little girl not too long ago and that's been a source of anguish for her. I feel bad that this kind of thing happens to her, but I stand very firm on my choices and wanted her to understand why. The movie hit home pretty hard for her and me too. I realized something that had NEVER crossed my mind before. Monsanto is the DEVIL!!! And they are behind almost ALL of the veggie foods that I eat in some way. This leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth and lingering feeling that more changes will be made in my home and to my (and my children's) diet. Tomorrow's Sunday Segment will be about all of this. I'm already working things over in my head!!

Off to spend some more time with the fam now. Jason's done with finals studying for today so we're going to make gnocchi, red sauce and a caeser salad. He's currently bugging the HELL out of me while I type this so I'm sending him to the store to pick up a few needed items just to get him away while I type! :D

See you Sunday...