Happy Birthday to me

Another year older, another year wiser (stop laughing, Doug), another year happier. What a great birthday this year. Mary kept asking me when my friends would come over for my party. Approximately 10 "why?" questions later, she finally understood that I wasn't going to have one. Ah, kids. Doug surprised me with a pedicure gift certificate as did my wonderful girlfriends. If you've ever taken a gander at my tootsies, you would know that is money well spent. My friend, Nicole, started the day off right by treating me to mango pancakes at Climax Coffee. Yum! Mary, Adam and I then had a nice time at the playground and we finished the day with a favorite comfort meal of pork chops and spaetzles. Last night, we hired a babysitter and escaped to Four Seasons Steak house; teppanaki, Japanese style. It was a-maze-ing. Garlic steak tenderloin with shrimp (lobster for Doug) and garlic fried rice. The vampires were in fear of us last night (and possibly this morning too). On a funny note, we both ordered a glass of the house red. The waitress set a glass on the table and as she was starting to pour she said, "Say stop." Huh? We were a bit confused but as she kept pouring and pouring we figured out what she meant and Doug said, "stop?" when it was dangerously close to the edge. I wonder if she would have let it spill over if we hadn't said anything. I didn't want to look greedy, so I said, "Stop" when it was at least 1/4 of an inch from the top. Hey, when you're paying $5 a glass, you might as well get your money's worth, right? What a great evening. And this morning, my birthday week wraps up with quiet, alone time, listening to the relaxing sound of a water fountain, eating a cup of vanilla ice-cream with corn flakes (what?), while receiving a fabulous pedicure. I'm thinking 36 is going to be a great year. Happy birthday to me.

Happy Thanksgiving 2010!

Gobble,gobble,gobble... Thanksgiving day at the Putthoff house consisted of yummy sausage cheese balls for breakfast, making turkey place mats for the kid's table, some cleaning, some cooking and a wonderful dinner with friends. We had our friend, Nicole, and her girls and a new single officer that just moved here and is working in Doug's office over for dinner. We had a great relaxing (as much as you can relax with 4 toddlers running around) evening.

Mary and I had a great time making turkey place mats out of her hand prints. We had to use water colors since we couldn't find the finger paints, but it worked well enough. She stamped out prints, cut them out, glued them together with other cut out pieces of paper and voila', turkey place mats! We then sealed them with contact paper to keep them safe. They were so cute.

Adam was a bit grumpy and clingy when he woke from his afternoon nap. I think he knew something was different when he saw Mary's table in the dining room, but he just didn't know what was happening. Of course, he's always happier with food, so he got to chow on a spinach puff while waiting for dinner. At least it was edible. A better alternative to rocks, sticks, bugs, dirt, sand...Hey, it's a special day.

Mary and Jessica worked on some holiday activity pages I printed from the Internet. It kept them busy for a few minutes. (yes, Mary wanted to dress up like a ladybug and the closest thing she could find was her ladybug dress and hat). Adam and Michelle used this rare moment to check their e-mail while the big girls were busy.

And Doug carved the turkey. Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Love you and miss all of you that are so far away.

The house will always win

Yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny, clear sky kind of day. We had a great time playing outside with friends, grilling steaks and chasing bubbles. We are always telling Mary to watch where she's going. Sometimes she gets so involved with what she's doing, that she's unaware of her surroundings and often runs into things. Today, she was chasing bubbles and apparently didn't see the house. BAM! She ran right into it and bit her lip.

This is what it looked like last night and this morning. I couldn't get her to stop blinking when I took the pic this morn, so I finally settled on a close up. Lesson learned: When it's you vs. the house, the house always wins.

A beautiful day calls for an outdoor activity. Since it's no longer fry an egg on your car hot or walk outside to a steam sauna humid, I told Mary the animals would be awake at the zoo. Because every sane person knows when it's hot and humid out, the animals hide in their special rooms and sleep, right? It was a great morning. It really has been a long time since we've seen the animals and it was nice getting some fresh air and pretty much having the whole place to ourselves. It was so peaceful and quiet. Once again I am reminded what a great savings the annual pass is and I'm so thankful we have one.
Mary rode the elephant.Adam snuck off and attempted to eat 2 rocks and a small snail.

We took a camel ride.

We took a train ride.
We watched the hippos eat a snack.We watched Adam eat a snack (something actually edible this time).We had a "batty" good time!

Oodles of Noodles!

Chicken and noodles. When I met Doug, I had never had chicken and noodles...well, not Kansas City style. Of course, I had enjoyed chicken noodle soup, but this is different. It's not Campbells or Lipton or even Progresso. This is delicious chicken and noodles (hence the name) with broth, poured over a heap of mashed potatoes. This is definitely a recipe and style I adapted to quickly. What's not to love? Even though I make a homemade broth, simmer my own chicken and peel and mash my own potatoes, I always use store bought egg noodles...until this weekend. Over the years I have heard (many, many, many) times about the wonderful homemade noodles Doug had as a kid. This week, Doug said to me in an excited voice, "Do you know what would be fun to do as a family this weekend? Make noodles!" I have to admit, I knew Mary would have fun, since she loves to be a helper in the kitchen and I've been down with this nasty illness that made it's way through our household so it did sound good. I promptly e-mailed his mom for the recipe and directions and decided to take on the challenge. We had a garlic rotisserie chicken from the commissary this week and we boiled the carcass with extra cloves of garlic, carrots, and onion. The broth was amazing. Add leftover chicken and it was ready for the noodles. Step 1 complete.

Saturday morning we awoke to a rainy, dreary day. Perfect for cold weather meal (ok, it's not cold here, but at least it looked cold). Mary had a fabulous time helping me stir and mix the dough. She loved really getting her hands in there and smooshing the egg and flour together.

Next, came the rolling. Mary used her play-doh rolling pin and thank goodness I have a huge heavy marble one to make the job a bit easier. It was still a pretty hard, dense ball. I quickly learned that it was easier to roll out smaller lumps of dough than one big one. Ok, maybe I should have known that. Ta-da! Time to let the flattened disks dry.

rolling up, slicing, unrolling and more drying.
Mmmm, soups on and noodles are boiling.
Adam even enjoyed his noodles and chicken and broccoli.
About to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Mary finished her whole bowl! Doug said as he went in for seconds, "Just like I remembered." I say that was a successful noodle making adventure.

practicality

We have really developed a fondness for practical gifts over the past years. Packing up and moving all our stuff every couple years will do that to you. Clutter drives us crazy. Actually, our favorite gift is one that is consumable, beer, wine, chocolate, apple pie...you get the point. One thing that always drives us crazy are the mementos for all the balls and fancy dinners we go to. Sure, I enjoyed the "free" wine glass that had the date and event etched on the side when I was just starting out in life and didn't have any. But you can never acquire a full settings worth (would you want to?) and they end up getting shoved to the back of the cabinet collecting dust after you go out and buy a set of "grown-up" stemware. It's just more stuff for us to move, more to worry about breaking, more to figure out where to put it in our new home. We rolled our eyes at the heavy bookend that that we knew would become a dangerous projectile in our household. We chuckled at the metal coffee mug that can't be placed in a microwave (but it sure makes pretty sparks). And, I'm sure you can guess our reaction when we saw this year's memento.

Yep, it's a gigantic key chain. The thing is huge and heavy and, dare I say, a bit gaudy. Of course, Mary loves it. Doug and I started laughing so hard when we saw this. Who would/could carry this around in their pocket? Adam immediately started testing it to see if it was real gold. It's not. Probably made in China with lead. Hmm, better not chew on that, boy.Well, being the funny man that he is, Doug is actually carrying the thing around. This is his set of keys. He gets many a good chuckle at work when he pulls it out. We joked that they should put a key on it at work and use it as the "bathroom" key like at gas stations (yes, it's really that big).

I'm sure he'll stop carrying it soon when he starts having unexplained back aches, starts walking in circles or accidentally punctures one of "the boys" with an eagle wing. But for now, we laugh every time he goes for a drive.

Happy Veteran's Day

To all the men and women who sacrifice so much, I say, "Thank you."

To all the spouses, children, parents and siblings who also live a life of sacrifice, I say, "Thank you."

To the wonderful man that I married 11 years ago, who makes me happier beyond words, I say, "I love you."

We love our military man so much that we let him go out with friends for a fun day of relaxation, camaraderie ("boy time" per Mary) and golf. I'm still sick, but sitting in the house going stir crazy or listening to the kids go stir crazy, is not my idea of a fun, relaxing day. We got outside to blow the stink off us (and possibly the germs off me).
We drew a railroad on the driveway, complete with Mary's train station, Daddy's Garage, Mommy's Spa and Drool lake (guess who that's named after).
We found a cool branch of the mini pine cones to play with.Err, I mean, eat.We jumped from great heights.
We were admired by the little people.
And we practiced our camouflage techniques in the yard. Happy Veteran's Day!

Drum roll, please.....

And the winner on the first annual Putthoff Wet T-shirt contest is....

ADAM!!!!

100% natural, baby
Are you sure I won?
Yea! I'm so happy! I'd like to thank my parents, my sister, my teeth, my photographer....

medical mystery

Even though I'm in the medical field (well, sort of), it still flabbergasts me how much of it is guessing and how much is science. I guess I never paid too much attention when I was the nurse treating patients in the hospital. It's an entirely different story when you listen to the racking coughs in a tiny 3 yr old body, when you hear the wheezing and there's nothing you can do, when she cries in the middle of the night because she was coughing so hard she couldn't sleep. Mary got sick with whatever is going around over 2 months ago. It's been a steady stream of sickness, getting better and getting sick again in this family. I think we're all passing it around like hot potato. No one wants it, but we all have to touch it. Doug had the worst case that left him with bronchitis. I took Mary to the hospital 2 weeks ago for this persistent cough that she can't get rid of. She was diagnosed with allergies and given Zyrtec (I'm going to start calling it vitamin z, since all the kids her age seem to be on it) and Flonase nasal spray. I think we should start a vitamin z club here. Anyway, it really hasn't helped. The past couple nights, the coughing has gotten worse and now I can here expiratory wheezing when she's sitting next to me on the couch. It's much worse in the evenings. I took her back to the hospital today and yes, (thank goodness) the doctor also heard the wheezing. We now have an albuterol inhaler for coughing/wheezing episodes. It could be temporary, it could clear everything up and she goes on her merry way. It could only clear the wheezing, but not help the cough. If she has to use it regularly for 2 weeks, then she has a mild case of chronic asthma. She could clear up, but then get the wheezing every time she gets sick. It could be the crazy stuff floating around in the air here and she'll be all better when we return to the States. It's all so vague and confusing and frustrating and heart wrenching that I can't just magically make her better. So for day 1, we've had to use the inhaler 3 times (Luckily, she's not freaked out by it), it clears up her lungs, but she still coughs and coughs and coughs. My poor baby.

Some people use bathroom time as a way to catch up on reading, some prefer quiet, and some...sing. Enjoy.

Dolphin Park Beach

Today was gorgeous. Breezy, mid 70's, sunny, but partly cloudy for the occasional break from the sun...perfect. We headed over to Dolphin Park. This is the best of both worlds, a playground and beach. The kids had a great time playing in the sand.

Adam was happily munching away on some coral when he heard an airplane. The park is so close to the Air Force base that there was a steady stream of aircraft to draw their attention.

The water was beautiful, but a little too cold to frolic in. Thankfully, Adam wasn't brave enough to venture too close (I know that will change soon) and Mary was happy throwing large rocks and pieces of coral into the waves.
Hey! Is he finally outgrowing the "put everything in my mouth" phase? Nope.
Nope.
Ahhh, that's my boy.