My life has been changed...

2 things have recently changed my life.

For the first, I give all credit to our friends the Akers. They introduced us to the amazing Allegro marinade. It makes the cheapest steak taste almost as good as Outback. I recommend marinating steak 4-8 hours (it tenderizes too, so the cheaper the steak, the longer you want to marinade) and chicken not more than a couple hours. Don't add any salt until you taste it because it is pretty salty (that coming from a salt-aholic.) We are going to try adding it to burger meat the next time we grill burgers! It comes in a skinny bottle and you can find it with barbecue sauce at the grocery store. There are 3 flavors - original, hickory and teriaki. I like the original the best but Rick likes the hickory. I'm sure the rest of the world already knew about this (except for Cristy, and she can testify that this is awesome) but we are usually the last to know about anything anyway, so what else is new!

The other thing is Innertube on cbs.com. We live in the dark ages and don't have cable or dish or anything like that, so if I miss a show, I still actually TAPE it, ON A VIDEO TAPE. Hello. My name is Teresa and still use a video tape. However, last night, I realized with dismay at 8:30 that I had forgotten to tape Survivor, and we were at church in a meeting. But this morning I went to the CBS website and watched the entire episode, free, full-screen on my computer, and clearer than I can get on the TV! And there were only 2 commercials! I am going to watch Shark later today because I was too tired to stay up late last night to watch it! I may even get hoocked on more shows (like I really need that to happen). Did anyone else know you can watch full episodes of network shows online? Hello? When did that start? So, if there happens to be anyone else in the world (besides mom and dad!) who don't have TVo or DVR or whatever, you need to check this out! (I think it would probably be an exercise in frustration if you don't have high speed internet, though.)

Anyway, just thought I'd share my life changing experiences with you? Anyone else have any new and amazing products that I need to know about?

Micah is on the run!

Well, Micah has officially declared walking as his primary mode of transportation and is experimenting with speed now! I wouldn't call it a true run, but there is a quickening of the pace when he is headed towards something he's not supposed to be in to and he hears me calling him and coming to get him! He has also discovered the perks of walking as they pertain to the transporting of objects. He finds he can steal stuff and run, buying himself more time before he is discovered and the contra-baby item confiscated. He is no dummy!

I guess if I could summarize his personality right now, I would compare him to a very charming wrecking ball. He is very sweet and funny, but he can destroy almost anything, and quickly! Unfortunately for us, he is growing faster than his ability to understand "no" or a swat to the bottom. He can reach stuff that is on the kitchen counters already! Yikes! So, once again, I am re-Micah-proofing the house! By the time we see some of you next, we might be living in bare, padded rooms!

The Many Faces of Katie...and one amazing cake!

Well, Katie had a great birthday. Actually, it was more of a "birth-week" celebration! I think that the coolest pics of Katie's bithday are her funny expressions! Note the fancy earrings! They were not made by Rick!

I also had to include a picture of the cake! I am quite proud! It was my/our (Rick was grunt labor) first attempt at a real cake - decorating tips, fancy pan, etc. If you factor together the cost of the stuff, the 4 hours it took to make the thing and the ache of my back when I finished and then subtract from that about $25, which is what I could have bought a cake for, I don't think I came out very far ahead. But it was made with love, and 3 lbs of powdered sugar, so it was tasty!

Katie's party was fun! Only minor injuries, to pride and self-esteem, with the game of musical chairs, and no one was taken out by the pinata stick, although it was close. I didn't consider how long the thing should be. Note to self - 48 inches is too long for a stick being swung by a 40 inch tall 5 year old with 12 of her closest friends nearby! There should probably be some sort of equation for that!

Anyway, she is officially 5. She asked me today when she would be totally 5. I guess that is a pressing concern with her! But she is as 5 as she can be, and a sweet 5 at that!

Kids are funny...and gross.

Kids are funny. Today I let Katie wear a dress to school since it was her birthday. (Usually I don't let her because somehow, her legs always end up in the air, flashing her bottom to the world. Not sure how that always happens.) Anyway, she was doing prissy spins and dancing and she stopped and told Rick "Daddy, do you know why I like this dress so much?" There is never any telling. "Because it has pockets for me to put rocks in." I guess that is as good of a reason as any.

But almost as often as kids are funny, they are gross. My friend Heather and I have discussed poop more often in the last year than we have discussed anything else, I think, and not our own poop (I hear that comes later). And why is it that children believe moms exist so that they can wipe their noses on moms shirt? I consider myself a highly successful parent because Katie has only vomited once in her life (and that was in someone else's house!)

But beyond all those body fluids, I have decided that the most disgusting thing is having to brush a kids teeth less that 10 minutes after they have finished eating goldfish crackers, especially the orange ones. I don't know why, but that gags me every time. The chewed up cracker gets all gunked up in the brush. And pink barbie toothpaste smells yuck to being with, but mixed with cheddar gold fish....

Just for fun, what is the grossest thing about kids to you?

By the way, I do plan to blog about Katie's birthday! We just haven't finished the partying yet!

Oh, and for you folks who I KNOW read this blog but never comment, you can do that by clicking on the word "comments" just below this on the right hand side and putting your 2 cents in!

I just wanted to share pics of Micah's first trip to the beach. We spent the weekend in Myrtle Beach with the teens from church and Katie and Micah partook of the sand and surf! Katie already loves the ocean and Micah would most definately be to Africa right now if I hadn't kept pulling him out of the waves! He was amazingly unafraid of the waves and curiously TERRIFIED of the 9-floor elevator ride in the hotel! It was a fun but exhausting weekend! There were 2 of them, 1 of me (while Rick was working with the teens), a very large ocean and much, much sand!

As a side note, Micah appears smarter than we might have previously thought! He never did try to eat the sand. Surprising, since he seems to eat everything else! Other note - Micah does have a bathing suit, but this first "Let's just look at the beach" excursion grew to a "Let's just get our feet wet" and then to "Hey mom, since I have my bathing suit on under my clothes..." And you can imagine the rest! Micah wasn't dressed for the occasion, but then, we Castleman's rarely are!

Lest you think that we have misplaced the girl-child, be relieved. She is still very much alive and well. We do actually take pictures of her too. They just aren't all quite as charming this week! It's the teenage years....which seem to have struck a little early here in South Carolina. It might be those hormones in milk or meat or something like that that I read about!

Anyway, there have been a few endearing moments. A few! She had her first experience bowling this past weekend with her preschool friends! What a hoot! The balls were really hazardous to bouncing little 5 year olds, and the shoes were not quite cool enough, but they were so cute cheering each other on. I think Katie's score (with the bumpers up) was 58 by the 6th square when they lost interest in it and began to dance! She would have you note the lip gloss! I think my favorite part was the cheering and the high fives, which were shared for every toss of the ball! They considered actually carrying the ball to the line worth celebrating. Getting it to roll down the correct lane without stopping part way was cause for celebration again! I had never observed anyone using the "kick the bowling ball" strategy before this day! Katie was succeesful in using the lime green ball each time, since it matched her skirt! That must have helped the score! There is so much to learn from an almost-five-year-old!

Ok - so here is my Katie Quote-of-the-Day. I bought a pinata for her birthday party, which is in a week. She said, "Mom, how are you going to get stuff in there? Are you going to bash it up and put stuff in and then tape it back together?" I said the same thing I always tell her when I don't feel like explaining something - "I'll just use my awesome powers." At this point, she believes in my awesome powers still. So, she sneaks the empty pinata out of the kitchen to play with it and then I hear her yell from her room a few minutes later - "Mom - good news! You don't have to use your awesome powers. There's a hole in the back!" Oh phew...

I had to post another pic of the day. This one, Rick's dad took at Cracker Barrel last weekend while they were here. This is the reason why you have kids, certainly why you have a second child. We chalk the first on up to an experiment. If there are no moments like this with the first one, there is rarely a second one! Fortunately, children have these amazing moments of sweetness, probably instinctively, to further the human race. Of course, what is not pictured is the explosion of mac and cheese that followed, the refusal to drink milk and the poopy diaper, all which occurred while I had only one wipe in my bag. But anyway... the moment was very sweet while it lasted! May you have a similarly sweet moment today!

Katie has such a fun sense of humor. This is a picture that she took with her camera of Micah then stuck to the fridge with a Cinderella magnet! Clever! Someday though, I bet there will be paybacks! I just had to share!

More birthday fun...

I wanted to post a couple more pictures from Micah's birthday! I love the fray that is created when 5 preschoolers/kindergarteners try to "help" a one year old open his presents (like every kid is not born knowing how to rip stuff up!) This is an ariel shot - I guess it's what my living room would have looked like from a satellite!

Of course, leave it to a kid to disregard all of the fabulous new things he has just received from his honored guests, and creep off to a corner to play by himself with a free balloon! Good thing he is so charming! By the way, we do typically dress the kids, although somehow, Micah ended up in the buff for most of his birthday pictures! Oops.

This is my pick of the day. It's dad and butterbean (that is Micah's name at home, for those of you out-of-the-loop) having some last minute mullet-love before the haircut!

Micah's Big Day!

Well, it happened. My baby turned one! What a day! The cake and the presents were a lot of fun but the hardest part was the hair cut! (Note the before and after shots.) We decided it was time to do away with the mullet! I'm not a real fan of the mullet, but it was the concept of my baby starting to look like a little boy with a bowl cut that I was so sentimental about! He did surprisingly well, considering it was a new experience, having a buzzing, vibrating thing on his head! I only hacked it in a few spots. It just made me sad to cut off the sweet baby hair! Now he looks so grown up! Yikes!

We had a great party - 3 families from church that Micah likes came over and the cake I made was a four foot long caterpillar, all green, with antenna and fun eyes! It was fun to make.

By the way, someone needs to fill me in on how to make the pictures on this blogger line up right! (Sorry my postings are so funky - the never look the same on the editing page as they end up looking on the post.)

I hope you had as good of a day as we did!