Zoo time

We recently renewed our Zoo membership and have really taken advantage of it. Every morning as W gets ready for preschool, he asks if we are going to the "animules house." If it's a nice day, I'm prone to say "Let's go." W gets a kick out of all the animals and telling me what they say. Here are a few pics from a recent trip where we met up with a couple of my aunts and 2 of my cousins' children.

A beautiful water lily.

W taking it all in at the "animal house." He's really into the Zoo and animals right now. I probably heard 50 times on the way to the Zoo, "I wuuvvvvvv animules." HA! G on the other hand was just happy strolling around and sucking on his strap.

The lion sleeps tonight.

ROOOOAAAARRR. What a beautiful tiger!

The Three Stooges looking at vultures. When I asked W what vultures say, he responded with "gobble, gobble." I guess that works.

The "pippo" as W likes to call her.

W and his cousin, T, playing in the water.

T and E having a girls moment.

These are so much fun. W kept on trying to figure out where the next spray was coming from. I wish they had been around when I was a kid.

mama on my mind

My mother is constantly in my thoughts. I am still grieving hard for her. It's been 2-1/2 months since she passed away and it's still so very surreal to me. I can't believe she's gone and I miss her so much. I miss talking to her and hearing her laughter. She was always the first person I ran to when I was hurting or upset. She always knew the right thing to say. I never feared that she would stop loving me. She was my mother first but she was also my best friend. I know I will never experience that kind of love again and my heart is broken. People tell me it gets easier, but in some ways, I hope it doesn't. Am I being masochistic? I don't know. I just fear that when the pain dulls so will the memories. I don't want to forget anything about her. I am so thankful for her presence in my life. I see a lot of her in me and I find myself striving to be more like her. I often do things and think she'd like this or she'd approve of this.

On Friday, the monument went up at her gravesite. It was tougher than I thought going out there. The monument brings home the cold, hard truth - that she is gone and isn't ever coming back. That reality is like a punch in the stomach. I am trying to hold to the belief that we will be reunited in heaven. I really want to believe it, but that kind of blind faith is something I struggle with. But one thing i know for sure is that I believe in a God that allows us to question, who often encourages us to question Him, so that we will seek the Truth.

With all of that said, we chose an angel to be engraved above her name and information on the monument, because she was an angel in many ways to those who knew her. So on Friday, I went to visit with her and brought her some pretty fall flowers. I "dressed" it up and I think she would have like the flowers I chose.

G's Baptism

Today was a day of mixed emotions, we had our youngest baptized today. As a Christian, to experience this sacrament is a wonderful thing. To know that God's love surrounds your child is such a blessing. But, in some ways it is was a little sad too, the realization that both grandmothers were not there weighed on S and I. Two years ago, we had beaming grandmothers ready to show off their sweet grandson son. This year, we had 2 beaming grandmothers smiling from Heaven. We love you, Gigi and Grandma, and we missed you both so terribly much.

Enjoy the slides from today:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Spinach & Sausage Pasta Bake

Among other things, I like to cook and try new recipes. I recently discovered this Southern Living recipe and have altered it a little to my tastes. You can certainly lighten this one up by using turkey sausage, light/lf cream cheese and whole wheat pasta.

Ingredients

1 lb box of uncooked rigatoni

3/4 cup finely chopped onion

1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1-1/2 lbs mild Italian sausage

1 (28-oz.) can Italian-style diced tomatoes, lightly drained

2 (8-oz.) containers chive-and-onion cream cheese

3/4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preparation

1. Prepare rigatoni according to package directions. Brown and crumble Italian sausage in large frying pan sprayed with non-stick spray.

2. After sausage cooks, spray pan with non-stick spray and sauté onions until translucent. Mix hot sausage with cream cheese while onions cook.

3. Drain chopped spinach well, pressing between layers of paper towels.

4. Add spinach and onions to sausage and cheese mixture. Mix in tomatoes.

5. Spoon mixture into baking dish, and sprinkle evenly with shredded mozzarella cheese.

6. Bake, covered, at 375° for 30 minutes; uncover and bake 15 more minutes or until bubbly.

here we go again

Let's get the party started. I've let our old website lapse and have decided that this may be a better option for us. I've decided to keep our names out of the "public" for safety reasons; therefore, I'll just go by initials or aliases.

- I'm P. I'm a 34 yo who is probably be best described as going through an identity crisis. Over the summer, I lost my job and more importantly, I lost my mother and my grandmother. As a result, I'm trying to figure out who I am without them.

- I'm married to "S". He's an analytical environmentalist who is working on an environmental engineering degree. S is pretty laidback and puts up with a lot of my crap. I think he's pretty special guy for that.

- We have a 2yo "W", whom I may just dub as Zipper, because he loves to run and zips all over the place. His current obsessions are "Thomas train" and "Eye-tin Mic Keen" (aka Lighting McQueen from Cars).

- And then there's, sweet baby "g". g is 6 months old and is such a happy baby.