Christmas and home again

Well, the presents are all unwrapped, it's bare under the tree once again, and Eleanor's new toys are strewn everywhere. It seems like Christmas was just yesterday, but no, it was in fact 5 days ago, and we celebrated several states to the east with my family in New Hampshire. We're just too lazy to put all these new toys away...even though I did manage to fill a whole laundry bag up with "old" toys and bring it up to the attic to make room for the new ones. We might be seeing a toy chest in our future.

All in all, we had a great holiday week with our family, filled with lots of our favorite things: cut-out cookies (a Ben favorite), downhill skiing (Heather), LOTS of dogs (Ellie), fondue (Heather), doing computer things for my dad (...Ben?), eating out and eating often (all of us), AWESOME PRESENTS, and seeing all of our big family!

The only hitch in the entire wonderful week were the two crumby 14.5- and 15.5-hour drives that bookended our vacation. The first drive we left around Ellie's bedtime and hoped to simply drive through the night, baby sleeping soundly; however, she did not understand this and took 2 hours to go to sleep, and then proceeded to wake up and cry at every toll booth and gas stop we made along the way. The result: thanks to a borrowed car DVD player, we were all enjoying Sesame Street videos at 1am. That and a wrong turn that we didn't know about until 40 miles later which forced us to take an impromtu alternate route left the first journey less than easy. On the return trip, we tried a different method of leaving at around 1pm in the afternoon, hoping to arrive in Ann Arbor around 2am. The baby aspect of this drive went incredibly well, she was very good and watched a lot of Sesame Street videos (Thomas the Train proved too boring). The unexpected aspects were having to take 2 45-minute breaks during the day for Eleanor to get some energy out at rest stops, and then a surprise snow storm outside of Cleveland that turned a simple 100-mile drive into a 3 hour white-knuckled experience where we passed several cars that had spun off the road into ditches. After checking the weather radar via my dad on the cell phone, we decided to hold strong and drive it out, but I was close to calling it a night and pulling over to a Motel 6. We pulled in our driveway around 4:40am, and fell into our beds, exhausted. Eleanor surprised us both by sleeping in until close to 10am, so we did get some sleep before Ben headed off to work for a half-day. I get tired just remembering this trip!

Now we are all home again, but our poor house isn't quite in tip-top shape yet. We are almost all unpacked, but still have loads of laundry to do and boxes to put away and new toys to find storage spaces for. We are having 2 families from our baby play group over tomorrow for dinner (since none of us can really go out for actual New Years with our dear babies in tow), so I am going to "dream the impossible dream" and plan on all this junk being picked up and food being cooked and ready by 6pm tomorrow, just in time for Ben and all our guests to walk in the door.

My musical rehearsals for NINE are back in full swing- we thankfully get tomorrow and the weekend off, but our show opens up in 2 weeks from tomorrow, so we're really trying to polish things up and get ready!

We forgot to bring our camera to New Hampshire (and amazingly that's the only thing we forgot), so no pics to post yet...


HAPPY NEW YEAR, FRIENDS and FAMILY!

Ellie's 18-month check up

Hi friends and family,
Today Ellie went to her 18-month check up and she's right on track!
Her stats:
35 3/4 inches tall, 100% percentile (she's been 100% in height since 2 months old)
29.06 lbs, 95% percentile (actually this is the lowest percentile she's been since she was a week old)

She's the height and weight of a 50% percentile 2 1/2 year-old, and she's 1 1/2 years old ;)
So yes, she's a big little girl, but as the doctor points out, she's simply following the growth curve (side track-- just got to clean up Italian dressing off the carpet. She's curious too, ps.), her growth curve just started out higher than most babies and continues to be high.

Eleanor also got her second H1N1 booster shot, so she is all immunized. I just heard today from the nurse that the H1N1 vaccines are now available for the general public, so hopefully I can get one sometime soon.

A funny side note- while waiting to see the doctor, we found out there was another little girl (maybe 4?) named Eleanor there as well. The confusion arose when the nurse called for "Eleanor" and we both stood up ;)

Eleanor now recognized the song "Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer" when she hears it on the radio, and will point to her nose. We've been watching a few holiday clips on the computer, and she knew Frosty was a snowman when we first saw him (we have many snowman ornaments on our Christmas tree that she can locate if you ask her, too).

Excited to see some of you soon!

Potato Leek Soup

I made this soup for the first time this week and really liked it. I took several recipes I found online and modified them to one that was both easy and somewhat healthy.

2 medium-large leeks, leafy tops cut off, and chopped finely
2 lbs white potatoes, peeled and chopped to approx. 1/2 inch cubes
3 cups chicken broth, or 3cups water and 3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 peeled and chopped (as finely as you want in soup) carrot
1 cup whole milk (I am sure skim or lowfat would work well too, I just went for the creamy factor)
2 T. margarine or butter
2 T. Dried parsley
2 tsp Rosemary
1 tsp Thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

In medium-large soup pot sprayed with non-stick spray, heat margarine/butter and leeks on medium heat, stirring until just bubbly. Then reduce heat to low and cover, simmering for 10 minutes. Stir every 2 minutes or so, do not allow leeks to burn. If leeks are getting stuck to pot, spray in more non-stick spray.

After 10 minutes, add the broth/bouillon and water, potatoes, carrots, and seasoning. Heat covered pot on medium-low for 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender, stirring frequently. Once potatoes are tender, remove from heat and use a potato masher to mash potatoes directly in pot. More mashing for finer soup, less for chunkier soup. Finally, add milk and salt and pepper to taste. Can add more milk for thinner soup. Serve immediately.

Entire batch using whole milk is 20 WW points.
Makes 4 meal-sized portions, or 6-8 smaller portions

Boun Appetito!

November Good Times

Eleanor has learned what to do when you say "Smile!"

The fall season is finally in high swing around our house! We are gearing up to visit Ben's side of the family next week for Thanksgiving. I am optimistically planning to bring all the Christmas presents for that side of the family in effort to avoid shipping them, but still have a few more things to pick up before next Wednesday. Our combined extended family has grown by 4 people in the last two years, with Ellie, two new brothers-in-law, and a new little niece, so perhaps it's better to break up the shopping into two groups, one before Thanksgiving and one after. I also am feeling good that I've picked up a few gifts several months ago due to some awesome 75% off sales I ran across in the summer months. We were also blessed to rediscover some "Reward Points" on an extra credit card we rarely use anymore, so that brought us a nice check to get gifts with.

My rehearsals for the musical NINE have been going pretty well, also. I have learned from all the publicity for the new movie version of NINE that the original musical and the new movie are different in many ways-- characters have different backgrounds, there are several new songs in the movie, and there have been many other original songs taken out as well. So, if you do get to see the movie, I believe the basic premise remains the same, but our version is not nearly as hip and flashy as the movie-- no Kate Hudson go-go dancing ;) Our serious dance rehearsals begin the week after Thanksgiving. If the audition was any preview, we will be working hard and sweating a lot in the coming weeks! I am excited to hopefully get in better shape!

I am playing my flute in church on Dec 13th with a flute trio- we are playing "Carol of the Bells," a fun song for flutes. It will be our last Sunday at our church before Christmas, since we'll be leaving the following weekend for New Hampshire.

Ellie is full of energy and spirit these days. Ben is convinced she can actually run now, although I haven't seen it for myself yet. I am happy that she gets to see all her family over the next month, she has grown a lot and is more and more like a little kid each day (and less and less a little baby :( ). She is very cuddly and sweet, friendly, interactive, and would like nothing more than to sit on your lap with her Bah-Bah (blanket) and have you read her a story.

I'm looking forward to seeing many of you soon!

Stuffed Bell Pepper Soup

Hi there- a good low-fat soup I tried tonight and really liked!

Stuffed Bell Pepper Soup

(actually a Weight Watcher recipe,
says makes 12 1-cup servings at 1.5 points a piece,
but I think it makes closer to 7 or 8 cups total...)

1 lb extra lean ground beef or ground turkey (I used turkey)
1 cup chopped white onion
2 cups chopped green pepper
15-oz can tomato sauce
15-oz can diced tomatoes (I used one with basil and garlic included)
3 cups water
1 Tblsp (3 cubes) beef bouillon
1 cup cooked brown rice (or more-- I used 1.5 cups)
2 tsp Basil
2 tsp Oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown beef/turkey with onion, drain. Then you can either use a crock pot or cook on the stove:
For crock pot/slow cooker: Place all ingredients in and cook on low 6-8 hours.
OR for stove: Place in large soup pot and simmer on low for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

It is definitely a hearty soup, similar to a chili but with an Italian feel. It went great with some warm bread, and baked apples for dessert-- a good November dinner.

A nice, quiet weekend

Not much to blog about, but we have had a nice quiet weekend so far. We went to a fundraising auction for a co-op preschool at a Methodist church in town on Friday night. We have several friends whose children have attended the school (it is actually affordable compared to other preschools!), so we went with our friends Nate and Sonja and their daughter Miriam to check it out and try our luck at the auction. There were over one hundred great items up for auction, everything from gift certificates to restaurants and salons to handmade quilts, a doll house, tons of gift baskets, and even an exotic trip for 7 days to Africa (I think? I don't remember where actually). Anyway, we thought maybe we could get something for a decent price, considering how many things were up for auction... but we were wrong. There were 5 ladies sitting 2 rows in front of us, and in the first 50 items, they collectively won probably fifteen items. They were going crazy! Lots of items were going for pretty high prices, which I guess is good considering the auction was a fundraiser, but we were just hoping for some bargains. We left shortly after intermission, as it was after Ellie's bedtime. But it was not a total loss: during the auction, Eleanor and Miriam played in one of the classrooms with childcare and had fun, and we had some tasty cake and chocolate fondue on fruit kabobs. So it was a free evening out for us!

Today (Saturday), we headed over to the original Cottage Inn restaurant downtown and had a lunch out with Nate, Sonja, and Miriam. The Bairs are often out of town on the weekends visiting family and friends, so it was a treat to get to see them twice this weekend. We then wandered around campus, soaking in the sunshine and warm weather while most of the students and Ann Arbor population was at the big Purdue/UofM game a few streets away-- we could hear the announcer calling the plays. Saturdays are very busy here in Ann Arbor when there is a game at the stadium, and the only time to really get around downtown and avoid massive traffic back-ups is to go during the game.

We came home and managed to get the rest of our leaves raked into the street for the city leaf-pickup that happens this week. Ben is currently working on bottling some homebrew that may be making an appearance at a holiday near you! Cleaning, sanitizing, drying, filling, and capping probably over 100 bottles makes for a very long afternoon and evening. Hence my opportunity to blog.

Hope you are all doing well!

Fun Halloween Times

November is finally here! Which means Halloween festivities are finally over. We had a busy weekend in the Wing household with our church's Harvest Party on Friday night and trick-or-treating for the first time on Saturday night.

I was one of the party planners for the Harvest Party, so it was a lot of prep work, but it ended up being really well-attended and a lot of fun! I invited 3 families from my "Babes with Babes" play group, and they all came which was very cool. There were 7 toddlers from our play group alone, plus lots of other kids from the church and friends that were invited.

Ellie was a very adorable pink "Buttahbah" (butterfly, in Ellie) and I am pretty sure she enjoyed wearing the c

ostume. We tried it on one or two times earlier this week, and she

really liked seeing herself in the mirror. For the party, she also got two pink lipstick circles on her cheeks, which she was really excited about. She always sees me putting on makeup and I (obviously) never put any on her until this weekend, so that was

very special. I think she could have just looked in the mirror and t

ouched her cheeks all evening, but we had places to go! The party was very busy for me, as I was the emcee for the evening and announced various contests, games, and kept the evening rolling. Ben did a great job taking Ellie around to the games, and she even was smart enough to figure out how to find candy during the Candy Hunt. It was a fun but tiring evening for the lil' babe, and for the big parents.

A partial-group shot

Trick-or-treating went really well, also. Dad Dustin got to see Ellie get dressed up via G Chat, and to see her get excited a second time for her pink lipstick cheeks. We went up and down 2 of the little streets in our nei

ghborhood from 6 to 7 pm. She walked most of the way by herself, with only a few legs of the journey on dad's shoulders. Although she couldn't say "trick or treat" or "thank you," she did say "Bah-bah" (bye bye) at every house and wave to the person. She got some good loot, which she wanted to stop and open after every house. We would tell her, "Not yet, Ellie, we have to get more candy!" and she'd look at us and say "Moh?" (more? a concept she understands well, thanks in part to baby sign language). Then we could persuade her to continue to the next place. She did get to sample a few treats once we got home, and she definitely liked everything she tried except a Sour Patch Kid gummi. She would try it, make a sour face and take it out, look at it, and then try again... and again... and finally gave up. It was funny to watch. It was also neat to see a kid dressed up at Cookie Monster come to our house-- Ellie was pretty amazed that Cookie Monster was there! And that he had a little boy's face coming out of his mouth! Another cute moment.

Over all, a great weekend. We are trying to adjust Ellie's internal clock back so we don't get 7 am mornings. You may laugh, but we're more of an 8 am household, and thankfully so is our daughter. She is thankfully taking a late nap today, so hopefully we'll be able to stay up until our 8 pm bedtime.

My first rehearsal for the musical Nine is tonight! I am excited to meet my new cast mates. Hope you are all doing well!

"Nine" Update

So I finally got to see the cast list for the show. I was cast in the ensemble :/ I feel very mixed about it. I am guessing all the big dogs came out for the second night of auditions because the cast is filled with lots of big names in the civic theater-- lots of leading ladies from performances past. The woman who got the role I was hoping for is actually a choreographer herself, along with being a seasoned songstress, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she was picked over me. The main reason I feel uneasy about it is that I never got a chance to act in the audition-- I just sang and danced (and the later not too well in comparison to the others auditioning with me). Since there weren't call-backs, everyone was placed into roles only based on singing and dancing, which makes me think a lot was based on who's who in Civic Theater, since a lot of these women have undoubtedly worked with the director on past shows (he has directed several musicals).

SO I think I will probably take the role, mainly to have the opportunity to learn from these women who are very talented. As an ensemble member, I will most likely have MORE rehearsals than the individual roles (who each sing in 2-3 songs and then leave the stage), since we will have to know more songs (I think we sing and dance in 7 numbers) and be on the stage much more. Well, maybe I'll get into shape this fall after all! The director was nice enough to give us ensemble members individual names, so I am playing the role of "Maria." Our first read-through of the script happens on Sunday night, I'll let you know how it goes!

Some cute recent pictures of Eleanor

Oven Mit Baby!

See her ponytail??? =)

Little Ellie in Sunday School, wearing my old kilt

Waiting to hear back...

Well, I found out some good (?) news about my audition: there will not be call-backs basically because not enough people auditioned yet, so they are tentatively casting just about everyone who auditioned as in the musical, and they will sort out the actual parts once they scrounge up a few more warm bodies to fill out the cast (I am assuming they'll contact some civic theater "regulars" and persuade them to join up). This has happened in other plays and musicals I've been in, so I'm not surprised, but it's kind of a let-down when you don't get the rush of having beat out other people for a certain role. "Here, you can have this part, because no one else cares." Just doesn't mean as much ;)

I think the two main things that prevented a decent audition turnout were the facts that not many people were familiar with this musical to begin with, and the rehearsal times cut through the busy holiday season, with the show opening the 2nd weekend in January. Ah, well. I might know later tonight if I was cast yet in a specific role. I will keep the blog posted!

In more seasonal news, I am working on putting together all the games for our church's Harvest Party this Friday. I will attempt to paint a scarecrow later this afternoon for Pin the nose on the Scarecrow. Or pin the Tie, I haven't decided yet. We're also having Pumpkin Bowling (bowling small pumpkins), Musical Chairs, Pumpkin Ring Toss (tossing a ring onto some pumpkins), decorating paper bags for candy, a Candy Hunt, and a jar full of jelly beans to guess the #.

Well, the babe awakes, and so our afternoon continues...

Auditioning once again

A promo pic for Ann Arbor Civic's "Nine"
(that's me on the far left)

I just returned from an audition this afternoon for the Civic Theater's production of the musical "Nine" which will show in mid-January. It was a small audition with only 4 women, 1 man, and 1 boy, considering the show has probably 20 women, 1 man, and a few boys. There is a second audition tomorrow, so hopefully some more folks show up.

We did 2 dance numbers, and then each of us sang a song we prepared with an accompanist. The dancing part went so-so and we were all extremely out of breath afterward, but I nailed my song and people clapped, which they did not do for the others. I chose "Poor Unfortunate Souls" from the Little Mermaid, and who knew I could really belt it out. I'm so happy it went well, I actually just went over it with an accompanist this morning after church for the first time, and then the second time was at the audition. I'd really like to get a role with a name, as opposed to the nameless chorus again, and there is one character (the town whore, of course) who sings a really low belty-song "Be Italian" that I think I could do pretty well if given the opportunity. Here's to hoping! The call-backs are Tuesday night and we hope to know who is cast by Wednesday.

I'll keep you updated! The pic is from a promo pic the Civic Theater took several months back to advertise for the coming season, it was just by chance that they asked me to model in it. Although, being pixelated and gold wasn't how I had originally pictured my involvement ;)

Sick of being sick :P

Today I woke up early in the morning with my left eye crusty and swollen. Having dealt with Eleanor's conjunctivitis in both her eyes for the past 6 days, I knew she had kindly passed it on to me. She's so great at sharing ;)

So I had the unfortunate experience of calling up our insurance's 24-hour nurse line to spend 20 minutes going through a "virtual diagnostic" (the nurse reading me questions off a computer program) only for her to tell me I needed to see my doctor and she couldn't do anything more for me. She definitely erred on the side of "customer service representative" rather than "registered nurse" which she had stated she was... So then I called my doctor's office, which of course was closed as it's Saturday, but I got in contact with the on-call doctor who asked me one question, "So what is the problem?", I gave her one answer about my eye and the conjunctivitis I thought I had, and she said "Okay, I'll call in a prescription to your pharmacy, check with them in a few hours, bye." So I didn't even get a chance to ask her about how long I take it for, what the prescription even is, if I can take it and wear my contacts again, etc... I guess I will ask the pharmacist, but it was very strange to have the doctor not really care about explaining those details.

And the icing on the cake: Ben went at 6:30pm to the pharmacy to pick up my mystery medication, only to find that the pharmacy window at this CVS closes at 6. So I'm still dealing with a swollen eyelid and a bloodshot eye, and the cough and congestion from the cold I got 5 days ago. Ugh. I am ready to be HEALTHY!

On a positive note, I found out that the H1N1 vaccine being given out for free to young children at several public flu clinics in the next 2 weeks. I hope to go on November 3 and get Ellie her first dose (it's a 2-dose injectable vaccine). There are 6 clinics starting next Tuesday the 27th, and I have some friends that plan on having to wait several hours in order to get a shot for their child on that first day. I am not that brave and am guessing there are lots of parents planning to do the same thing, so I hope the later clinics have less of a wait.

Too busy NOT to blog

A common sight during my day

My First Post!
I sit typing this while honing my multitasking skills: baby on lap eating raisins, that just spilled all over the floor, Bee Gees playing on Pandora, with a version of my chicken noodle soup on the stove, add a dash of texting Ben about possibly picking up a prescription at the store on the way home.

After reading friends' and families' blogs, I decided I needed more of an outlet to my day-to-day affairs than my just Facebook status updates. Being a recent addition to the stay-at-home mom workforce, I have found the thing I miss the most is being in conversations with adults other than just Ben or the occasional phone call with a friend or family member. I find myself hanging on Ben's every word as he describes work meetings, work events, conversations he had over lunch, etc. A little sad, huh? So I'm trying something new. I hope to share my life, my daughter's experiences growing up, good recipes I've tried, and other sundry items. Hope you enjoy your peek into all things Heather! :)

An Addendum:

My lowfat Tomato Chicken Noodle Soup turned out to be a success, here is a rough version of a recipe (I cook by taste, so feel free to add/delete items as you go):

1 lb chicken breast, cooked and cubed

1 can Peeled Tomatoes with Basil & Garlic (do not drain)

3 cups chicken broth, or 3 bouillon cubes + 3 cups water

2 cups water

1 cup dry pasta of your choice- spirals, shells, bowties, etc.

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

1-2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 carrots, sliced to quarter inch slices

1 Tbsp olive or canola oil

(any other veggies you'd like to add- I added a 1/4 cup of chopped sweet bell pepper, maybe zucchini would be a good addition- just add near the end so it doesn't get too soggy)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Dried basil, thyme, oregano, bay leaf, any other seasoning you'd like. I'm partial to a "Tuscan Seasoning Blend" and a "Chicken Grill Mates Seasoning" that I use a lot ;) Add a little at a time, see how it tastes.

Heat oil to medium-high heat in large soup pot. Add onion and garlic and saute until onions are transparent. Add whole can of tomatoes, broth, and water and heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium and add chicken, carrots, pasta, and spices. Stir soup occasionally, and pay attention when noodles soften. When noodles are "al dente" (or to your preference), remove from heat.

Serves approximately 4 dinner-sized portions.