Family Time in Iowa

Ginny in her car seat, thrilled to be
going for a drive.

Every morning, when my toddler wakes up, she asks if we are going for a drive. She really loves going for drives. I don't understand the thrill, but if it makes her happy, so be it.

This past Friday morning when she asked, we told her that we were indeed going on a drive. It would be a long drive, though. We were heading to Iowa to visit her cousins, aunt, uncle, and grandparents. She was quite thrilled at the prospect.

As she ate breakfast, DH and I finished any last minute packing and loading the vehicles. Our trip had two purposes this time. We were going to visit my DH's family, and drop off the DH's old Buick with his parents. So, instead of riding in the same car together, Chris would drive the Buick and I would drive the minivan with the kids.

Once we were in the minivan, Ginny became concerned because Daddy was no where to be seen. I explained that he was in the car in front of us. For the first hour of the drive, I heard my toddler asking, "Daddy?" I would point Daddy out in front of us, which would satisfy her, until five minutes later when she would ask again. The drive took about 6 hours, with the girls and me getting off I-80 before my husband as he headed to his parents to deliver the car and I headed straight for his brother's house.

When we arrived at my BIL and SIL's house, Ginny was extremely excited. She couldn't wait to see her cousins, Jacob and Ainsley. We were able to relax a bit after our arrival, but soon had to change clothes and prepped for family pictures. I readied Grace and Ginny in their blue jeans and black Ts that their Aunt Kim picked up for the pictures. Then I got myself ready. We headed over for the pictures where we met up with my FIL, MIL, my foster BIL, and husband. The pictures seemed to go nicely and didn't take too long, a blessing after a long drive. From there we went out to dinner then back to my BIL's house.

Riding the train with Jacob

The next day was fabulous! It also meant another drive. After all, we didn't want to disappoint Ginny, our two-year-old. We loaded all eight of us in the van and drove an hour to Des Moines so we could go to the farmer's market.

The Des Moines Farmer's Market is unlike any farmer's market I have ever been too. I have been to farmer's markets in larger cities (Des Moines really isn't that big), but they don't come even close to rivaling the size found in Des Moines. The market is HUGE. The market has a great variety of goods. Not only does it have your standard fare of fresh produce, but also lots of crafts, baked goods, ice cream, and cooked delights to try.

Grace loved the Farmer's Market too,
can't you tell?

We arrived around 10 a.m. and didn't make it through the whole thing in the 2 hours we were there. (The market ends at noon.)  The food was quite good. I started my day there buying (and eating) a cream horn. My husband got a sausage filled with cheese that we ended up sharing. We tried Gooners, a food made like crab rangoon but filled with stuff other than crab. We tried the sausage queso gooners. Quite good. We also got some chicken dumplings from a Russian food vendor. Our market food adventure ended with homemade ice cream.

At one point, we stopped for a bit while my SIL went to get some more cash. We waited next to a small tent that had a young man playing guitar and singing. Ginny loved this! She was released, temporarily, from her stroller. She proceeded to dance, even trying to get her baby sister to dance with her and her dad, who happily complied despite his aversion to dancing.

 From there we found the little "train" that is set up to give little ones rides. Ginny and her cousins rode the train. Ginny couldn't wait to ride with her cousin Jacob, holding his hand in anticipation. Grace found her stroller seat comfortable enough that she napped for over an hour while we walked around. Overall the day was a huge success. The rest of our day was spent relaxing, with Ginny taking a nap then playing in the back yard with her cousins. She even discovered a sand box for the first time. She loved it! Don't most kids?

The joys of a sand box

The next day, we went to mass then headed to my FIL and MIL's for a visit. We stayed for lunch and visited the rest of the afternoon. We felt awful because there was some miscommunication between my DH and his mom. She thought we were staying for dinner too, but we had told his brother we would be at his house for dinner. We would have changed our plans, but Chris had promised to play golf with our niece after dinner. It was a tough decision on what we should do. We decided should keep his promise to Ainsley. I'm glad we did that. We found out once we arrived that Ainsley had been looking forward to golfing all day. They ended up having a lot of fun on the golf course.

Grandma holding Grace!

Yesterday morning, we headed home after our long weekend. Ginny was still just as thrilled about taking a drive. Eventually, we made it home. I had plans to get things done today, but I feel like I need a day of rest after all the driving and visiting. I'll join the real world again tomorrow.

Pizza Friday

The finished pizza. Yummy!

The last few days I've had issues with being motivated enough to blog. Sad, right? It isn't that I'm lacking stuff to blog about but just didn't feel like writing. So, instead of doing anything deep, I figured I would let you know about another recipe that I found on Pinterest and tried. Nice and easy blog for the day.

Last Friday, I decided to try a new pizza recipe. I adore pizza. I especially like calling my favorite pizza joint and ordering it, but that isn't always the smart way to go financially speaking. So, making it at home it is. My typical pizza involves a Boboli pizza crust, some pre-made pizza sauce (I love Taste of the Hill sauce), and my toppings. Quick and easy.

I figured it was time for a change of pace. When I want something fresh and different, I will make my own pizza crust, but I stuck with Boboli this time and changed up the toppings. The recipe I used was for Chicken Ranch Pizza on Fake Ginger's blog. I've only had a "white" pizza once before and it was good. I decided to take the chance with this recipe, especially since it seemed simple.

To start, I mixed up 2 cloves of minced garlic and 2/3 cup of Ranch dressing after I preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Then I spread it on the pizza crust. From there, I mixed up 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup shredded cheddar, and 1/4 cup grated parmesan. I put half of the cheese combination on the pizza crust. I added 1 cup pre-cooked chicken, 1/4 cup chopped green onions, and 2 cups diced tomatoes to the pizza. Once I had all the toppings on, I added the last of the cheese. This pizza is quite cheesy.

After the pizza was put together, I put the pizza into the oven and let it cook for 12 minutes. I probably should have left it in for another minute or two, but it still tasted great. My husband really enjoyed it. My toddler was not interested in it at all. She loves pizza, but this pizza didn't look like any pizza she had ever had before so she wanted nothing to do with it. Oh well. More for my DH and me.

Classless, Profane, and Cheap

When I started blogging, I had no idea how prevalent blogging had become. What I knew of blogging came from my sister who started her blog, Family Times, in 2007. Her blog was the only one I read. I thought blogs were like the Geocity pages of the 90s, all hobbies that didn't do much. My sister encouraged me to blog, at the time, but I couldn't imagine what I would write about. I figured my life was far from interesting. I was a single 1st grade teacher with no prospects in the dating world. Boring.

My mind was changed a mere 3 years later. I started reading some blogs and discovered the richness of the prose in some cases and just plain fun stories. It was nice reading about others going through the same things. I also had come to discover that I was pregnant for a third time after suffering two losses. I hoped to document the pregnancy, more for myself than anyone else. Unfortunately, I lost that baby too, but I continued to blog. I had tapped back into my love of writing and didn't want to stop.

Two years after I started by ramblings, I got on Twitter and discovered a whole word of bloggers I didn't know existed. These bloggers, like The Blogess Jenny Lawson, took blogging seriously. They wrote in their blogs frequently and had developed huge followings. Not only that, but these fabulous bloggers were earning money from their blog. While I can never hope to have a following like Scary Mommy, I found inspiration to do more.

During this journey of discovery, I found out that even popular mommy bloggers have heaps of critics. Some over some pretty inane things, like judging their skills as a parent. So, criticism over a post I make is expected. I have had a couple of challenges to posts I have made based on the content; all of it polite and respectful.

Recently, though, I faced something I didn't expect. Something I hadn't seen other bloggers face, although it wouldn't surprise me if they had. A person was critical of the title of my blog post, Mouthgasm! I have to admit to being floored. What was wrong with the word? I had posted the link of this blog post in a Catholic group I participate with on Facebook. A woman started a thread saying that we should refrain from posting made up words with sexual connotations and to keep things classy. I never have associated the word "mouthgasm" with sex since it has nothing to do with sex, and she was implying that I lacked class. Not cool.

My daughters reenacting my recent battle over my blog title.

I defended myself and my blog. To make matters worse, she later went on to tell me that the title "cheapened" my post and implied that I was trying to gain readership by using a racy headline (mouthgasm is racy??). She then said I had "reduce[d] [my]self to the profane." I was furious when I saw these words written. Cheap? Profane? If I decide to do a post on something cheap and profane, that is my right and I would have stood by that and said "thanks for noticing."  But, in fact, I hadn't done either of those things. I defended the title of my post and it seems I had several defenders backing me.

The funny thing is that all her ranting and claiming I would likely lose readership over a "racy" (again really?) title only increased traffic to the blog in question. Maybe I need to stir up controversy more often. Then I might be able to earn enough money from Google Ad Sense for them to cut me a check ($10 FYI).

The moral of the story? No real moral. However, this is my blog. I do write my opinions whether you like them or not. I will title things to help gain interest but never just to be racy. I want the title to be descriptive of the content inside. If you don't like what I write or my titles, then don't read my blog. I'm sure you can find a blog meant for you. Well, maybe. And if you do decide to still complain in a disrespectful manner, be prepared for me to rant about it on my Facebook page and later blog about it. I need material after all. ;)