Chef Ronan

Once a week, sometimes twice especially when we don't have any sports engagements at night, one or both kids will cook a meal with a little help from me. This evening, Ronan wanted to cook dinner. Menu for tonight, Spicy Chicken with basil over rice since we had fresh cut basil from the pots that we had planted early this spring. The temp today reached to a steaming 90degrees so Ronan was in his birthday suit all afternoon. However, he did agree to wear an apron when it was time to cook.

INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs chicken breasts
2 tsp light soy sauce
2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp sesame oil

Cut the chicken into chunks. Combine the soy sauce, cornstartch and sesame oil in a bowl with the chicken
Heat a large skillet and add oil. When oil is hot, add chicken and stir fry for 5 minutes.

REMAINING INGREDIENTS
2 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tsp hoisin sauce
2 tsp chili bean paste
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp plum sauce

Mixed the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Pour into the skillet with the chicken and cook for another 5 minutes.
Then add a cup or two of basil and stir fry for another 2-3 minutes.

Sprinkle with some sesame seeds when done and serve over steam rice.
VOILA!
Needless to say we had a yummy dinner tonight! And many many many many years from now, his future wife will thank me for teaching him how to cook.

Sexie Weekend

Girlie Girl movie event of the year premiered nationally on Friday night. To celebrate the opening Sue hosted a Sex and the City Martini Night at her house. Check out her drink menu!



We watched a few old episodes of Sex and the City...and enjoyed the fashion (especially the shoes) and the angst of dating. Glad I'm done with that.
Billie made awesome chocolate martini (that I unfortunately could not have), but it smelled so good!
Jennifer enjoying a Mr. Big Martini---dirty martini. She and Sue actually lived in Manhattan during the STC years.
And here's CeCe trying to have a taste of my reformed Samantha Virgin Martini (Pomegranate, Passion Fruit and Club Soda)The girls dressed up as one of the STC girls. Carrie and Charlotte were the popular outfits. This would have been a really cute photo had I not had an olive in my mouth! Jennifer as Carrie and Beth as Charlotte.
Lots of laughing, eating and drinking!


And on Sunday afternoon, twelve of us went to see the BIG movie. We enjoyed it a lot. Nice to see Mr. Big bigger on the big screen. Awesome wardrobe, makeup & hair department, and lighting crew! Some would not enjoy the movie as much but those of us hopeless romantics and lovers of shoes and good hair color enjoyed it. And beyond the fashion and good makeup, the movie is really about forgiveness, love and friendship! I'll be waiting for it on DVD to add to my collection!

Da Bay Bears

Patrick's coach made arrangements to have their T-ball end of the year party at Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile, AL (home of the Mobile Bay Bears). Yes, THE Hank Aaron who broke Babe Ruth's homerun record -- without the help of any performance enhancing substancesWe had the party at the stadium's beach club before the game started. Here's Patrick with one of his buddies, Adam (who happens to be Patrick's coach's son). They are so funny to listen to. Patrick's T-ball team got to go on the field, introduced by the announcer and got to say their names on the microphone. Patrick thought that was pretty neat. They stayed on the field for the national anthem as well. I thought that is pretty cool thing for a six year old. I was 25 yrs old before I got to sing the national anthem with a professional team. Thanks to Maria Fortuna--I was her guest when she sang the national anthem for one of the 49er games at Candlestick Park. We got the star treatment that night and I got a date with a 49er safety two weeks later. Ah youth...but I digress.We sat on the front row, field level. Sweet!


Teddy Bear--the team mascot . He danced, he stood on his head and as Ronan says "he shook his booty".
Ronan's new best friend, Andrew, who is also coach's other son kept Ronan entertained during the game. Jim and I laughed at the heckling that went on on our row...'hey mister, give us a ball! give us a shirt! throw the ball here" After 3 hours of that, Andrew caught a baseball thrown by one of the players. He was so thrilled.Coach gave away the trophies at the game. We are fortunate to have a wonderful set of coaches. Word is that Little League is competetive, practice and game schedule difficult etc etc. It is definitely more "competetive" than Y-Tball but at the age they start T-ball they are ready for a little "competition". It fosters team work and improves focus/concentration and the kids start seeing the "big picture" of the game. We had a fun season--I don't even remember how many games we won or loss. All I know is how well the kids played together as a team--win or lose. It also helps that the parents were cool and were focus on how the game is played not winning. Thanks Coach Scott, Coach Joe and Coach Beau's dad (oops I can't remember his name). Fireworks after the game was a special treat. Ronan wanted to take pictures..so here are some of his fireworks shots. Not bad for a 3 year old.

Remembering Heroes

The Gulf Coast Symphony has an outdoor concert and fireworks every year in honor of those who serve the armed forces. This is one of our favorite events to attend here. The program consists of patriotic hymns. One of the numbers is a medley of the armed forces songs and they ask all vets and people currently serving to stand up when they hear their song.
We went with the Reynolds family and the Kangs with their two cute maltese babies. John got back earlier this year from deployment in Iraq.


I scanned the park grounds for WW II vets. There are not many of them around anymore. I am so grateful for all those who serve but the WW II vets I am most thankful for. My father was a young boy when WWII broke in the Philippines. He doesn't talk much about it but he would sometimes tell me snipets. His father died protecting one of his sisters during a Japanese raid in Manila in which during the chaos his whole family got separated. While hiding from the Japanese, he watched his pet dog killed by one of the invading soldiers. Then the Americans came. He freaked out the first time he saw a tank. He remembered the Hershey chocolates that troops dropped from the planes to the villages. But most of all he remembers HOPE brought by the Americans. What would life be had the US not gone to the Pacific ? I know I would not be here blogging away. I would not have the life I have now.


So on this day, I thank those who have served and continue to serve in the armed forces. I thank the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice. I thank the families who are left behind some temporarily some permanently. Lastly, I thank my friends currently serving, especially my sister in law, Berni, my brother in law, James and my husband for serving without complaint, but do it humbly and quietly. You are heroes!

Tickle Fight

The boys have waited four months to do this with their dad!

TODAY is the day!

Jim is coming home late this afternoon! WOO HOO!! Two days later than scheduled but it's better than two months later. Patrick has been marking the calendar and the highlighted areas are the possible days he would be coming home. We can't wait for him to be home and become a complete family unit again.

After over 20 hours of flight time, Jim is finally home! One of his bags didn't make it out of Baltimore but that's okay as long as he made it home!


We are so happy for him to be home. It's been a challenging four months. But I really can't complain when so many have longer deployments and are deployed in more dangerous zones. The boys and I kept busy with school and other activities which in some ways made us miss Jim more. He is pretty involved with household duties and especially with spending time and playing with the kids.
Our neighbors across the street made this sign for Jim. I was so touched when I saw it. I am so very lucky and so very BLESSED to have such wonderful friends and family. They have helped me so much this past few months. They've brought meals, watched the kids, kept me entertained and laughing. They've also been so understanding and patient when I was negligent at returning phone calls or making phone calls. So many people have told me that if I ever need any help all I had to do was ask. I don't think they know how much that meant to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you wonderful friends and family

Welcome home Jim! and I silently welcome uniterrupted showers/baths, trips to the grocery store by myself, time out with the girls and some itty bitty quiet time.

Spring Splash Serenaders

Dora, Boots, Sharks and Crawdads!

YES! ALL IN ONE DAY! Yesterday was Jim's birthday. Although he wasn't here to celebrate it, we celebrated his special day with awesome friends who were also celebrating birthdays. Blake's Morgan turned 3 and Shannon's Hayden turned 6. Cynthia and Jenni just wanted to celebrate spring and the crawfish season by hosting a Bonfire and Crawfish boil on the beach. It was a fun day of sun, sweets, sweets, more sweets and crawdads!!!










Birthday girl with Dora and Boots










The girls loved Dora! Some of the kids got a little scared of boots. But then again, a blue monkey on an early Saturday morning might scare me too











The boys were looking for Diego. I told them he was sleeping in.









After Morgan's party we headed off to St. Andrew's swimming pool for Hayden's birthday party. He had the best tasting Scooby Doo birthday cake.
The kids had a great time swimming and sunning and eating! I was just happy hanging out with the other moms.










Scooby Doo where are you?










Enjoying the sun and the pool











What a ham!













After Hayden's party we went home and took a two and a half hour nap. And I'm glad we did! We were the last ones to leave the bonfire, crawfish boil. There were about I think at least 8 families. We all had a blast! The Boskovitch & Neff family hosted the event and they did an awesome job!!! All we had to do was bring side dishes.

Our awesome hosts!!

Check out the spread!

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