Evening Routine

Madeline and I are hanging out on the couch relaxing after a long day of work. We are learning to make the most of our evenings. George and I have always eaten dinner pretty late at night...typically, we eat dinner around 8ish, b/c I used to run errands, do homework, etc after work and George would work later. However, that is now starting to change. After we pick Madeline up from her babysitter, we pretty much eat immediately (I'm trying to do dinners that involve low prep time). So, I guess we're like the rest of you now :)

This Saturday, George and his friend Derek are playing (acoustic guitar) at a coffee shop near us. They are playing for 2 hours (30 min each individually and an hour together). So, George has been busy practicing. Madeline and I will be going to support him.

Madeline is getting more and more interested in "being in the action." If she is in her swing or chair, she likes to be able to see us. She also seems to like sitting up. It's actually pretty funny, she tries to sit up when she is reclined in her bouncer or carseat....it almost looks like she is doing sit-ups or crunches.

Here she is in her "Bumbo" chair. She has just started to use it. The little giraffe in her hand is "Sophie" and was sent to us by Angele (a friend in Paris). She said that it is the most popular toy for babies in France. 

Madeline loves her bath time! Here is a post-bath "selfie" of the two of us :)

George and Brian trying to get the babies to interact with each other...they seem oblivious of one another. 

On Sunday, I was holding Madeline and reading for class. She seemed so interested in what I was reading! 

Madeline Pictures

Well, I am officially back to work and school. Both went smoothly and we are all adapting! I am working on dinner at the moment (Thai Basil Chicken again per George's request!), but I wanted to quickly share some pictures with you all. 

Madeline and Paisley. Paisley recently got her hair cut and it looks so cute!

Fast asleep...

 Wide awake!!

 Enjoying our favorite spot on the couch!

Hanging out on the floor

We took a walk with Madeline the other day and George took this picture of the silos in our neighborhood...

Thai Basil Chicken

Around lunch time today, I had the desire to cook. I've had my eye on Thai Basil Chicken recipe for a couple of weeks so I decided to give it a shot for lunch. I got the recipe off of anniechun.com. I had never heard of that brand, until I bought their udon noodles at Costco (which is what I used in this recipe). So, here it is...

• 2 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1 clove chopped garlic
• 1 tsp chopped chili (optional for those who like it spicy) **I used a little bit of sriracha**
• 1 cup chicken, cut into 1/4 inch strips
• 3-4 TBSP Annie Chun’s Pad Thai Sauce **I just used the Target brand of Thai Peanut Sauce**
• 1 cup broccoli florets or green beans **Green beans are my favorite so I used those**
• 2 scallions, sliced
• 1 cup loosely packed basil leaves
• Udon noodles **The recipe did not call for noodles, but trust me, it was a good addition!**

1. Heat oil in pan. 
2. Add garlic, chili, noodles, and chicken and stir fry until the chicken is cooked **I boiled the chicken breasts ahead of time, which I would recommend (that way your noodles don't get dry)**
3. Stir in sauce
4. Add broccoli, scallions and basil and mix until heated through. 

I love anything and everything with basil. I don't normally associate basil with asian food, but it really complemented the peanut sauce well. 

As you see in the picture above, I also made some cucumber honey lemonade. During Marie's bachelorette party we went to Postino (a delicious restaurant/wine bar here in Phoenix). Everyone else was drinking fancy drinks with alcohol and since I was pregnant, I obviously couldn't. The waitress recommended their cucumber honey lemonade for me. It really didn't sound too exciting when she mentioned it, but I ordered it anyone. I was so glad I did -- the cucumber flavor was so refreshing! It is pretty pricey for a glass of it there ($3/glass, no refills), so I decided to look for a recipe online. You can find anything on google. 

Here is the link: http://abitofbeesknees.blogspot.com/2012/02/true-food-cucumber-honey-lemonade.html

If you decide to make some, here are my suggestions:

-Boil the honey with a little bit of water. It will help it dissolve and there will be less "clumps" of honey at the bottom of the pitcher

-I doubled the recipe so I just put it into a pitcher instead of individual glasses as the recipe suggests

-We only have a citrus juicer (which I used for the lemons). We didn't have a juicer for the cucumbers so I just peeled the cucumber, sliced it, and stuck it in the blender with the amount of water that the recipe calls for. It did the trick....there were zero cucumber chunks, it was completely liquid. 

The recipes/cooking experiments will go out the window next when I start back to work and school. Until May anyway...which is when I am done with school. 

Jeremiah's Blog

As many of you know, Hannah's boyfriend, Jeremiah, is doing an engineering internship at Disney World this semester. He has started a blog that he plans to update each week: engineeringthemagic.blogspot.com. I just read his first post and it was great...very Jeremiah :) He is a very good writer. 

Blogging has been fun for me over the years (this blog and my Europe blog, www.heatherexploreseurope.blogspot.com) so I love following other bloggers. 

What's in a Name?

George's mom stumbled across this essay that George wrote in high school. We both got a good kick out of it so I thought it would make for an interesting post. Unfortunately, that means I need to type it out. Here is goes...

What's in a Name? 

by George Lucas

What is it like to be George Lucas? Well, I've been George Lucas for 18 years and I still don't really know. It is part funny and part serious. It is part annoying and...well, it's really annoying. There is no one word that describes what it's like to be me. 

It's funny when people say that I could be related to the REAL George Lucas. As if I'm not considered REAL. It isn't fair. I'm a person. Don't I deserve to be real? That's ok though. It just comes with the territory of being the crazy person I am. It is endless. There isn't a day that goes by that some person doesn't say something to be about Star Wars or Indiana Jones. I kind of miss those days when kids would call me George Washington or George of the jungle. At least it was mixed up every once in awhile. I need some variety when people make fun of me. It isn't like people are flat out degrading me, but nonetheless, they are making fun of me. 

Being George Lucas isn't all it's cracked up to be, but there are some good points. Sometimes I get the director's mail. It's interesting to see, but I can't open it, which sucks. I can get into Star Wars movies for free. I just have to say, "Let me speak to your manager." The manager eventually comes out and lets me in cause he doesn't know what's going on. It's a nice little scam. I really don't know what my parents were thinking when I look back. I've asked them several times and they never tell me. Sure, they say they named me after my grandfather George, but I know the truth. How can you name someone George Lucas and not know the repercussions? It's not like I wasn't born in that time period, ya' know, when all that Star Wars stuff happened. 

That's ok, I'm not bitter. The real turn is that my father's name use to be Lucasawitts (funny huh). Well, I guess when his parents moved here from Poland they decided Lucasawitts wasn't really fitting, so they changed it. I can't imagine trying to spell Lucasawitts in kindergarten. That would be hard to get on a name tag. 

More to the point, what it is really like to be George Lucas can be explained in a little anecdote that I have. It happened when I was a little kid. This Ronald McDonald character came up to me when I was walking around in this fair and said "what's your name little boy?" I said, "George." He said, "George what?" I said in a muffled, scared voice (shaking because clowns weren't my thing)..."George Lucas." He burst into laughter right in my face. I can remember walking back to my father somewhat distraught and confused. I had a long road ahead of me. It is funny looking back, but I will never forget that as long as I live. 

Of course, being George Lucas isn't all that bad. I have my fun at times. If nothing else, having the name has taught me to be relaxed and calm; to play it cool. It's worked out for me so far. I can't complain. But, it's an issue of character for me. I have a hard time believing that people look at me as person, instead of a dude with a funny name. Do they see my character or do they make the assumption that I love movies and will someday grow a beard that will make me resemble a large woodland creature? My mom is famous for saying, "life is not fair." Boy, don't I know it. 

Yes, like many people I enjoy subtance in my relationships So, with every begging of the school year, with every substitute teacher, with every job interview, and every new person in my life, I sit back and wait patiently. What can I do? Some people think I should change my name, and to that I would say, "Yeah, right." I am definitely no quitter. 

Happy 2014!

Happy New Year!! To kick off the new year, George and I have been doing some major cleaning and organizing. Not too fun, but it feels good once it is done. We have been specifically working on the garage, some closets, and our small bedroom...which is becoming a guest room/exercise room. We moved the treadmill and some other exercise equipment up there. We officially have all four bedrooms in useable condition....our room, Madeline's room, guest/craft room, and guest/exercise room. Lots of guest space, which means we need some guests in 2014 :)

Since I last updated we went to the Lucas Family Christmas party (last Saturday), celebrated New Years (our street organized a block party), said goodbye to Jeremiah (he is heading to Disney for 5 months), and took Madeline to her 2 month appointment...among other things of course. Those are just some of the more notable things. 

Yesterday, at Madeline's appointment, she weighed in at 10lbs, 8oz and 23.25 inches long. She is long/skinny, just like George! Poor baby had to get her first round of vaccinations yesterday too. Fortunately, many of the vaccinations are now "bundled" into one shot so she only had a total of two shots. She was not too happy about the whole thing, but recovered pretty quickly. 

George and I also managed to see some movies over the past few weeks (we have lots of family members who are VERY kind and babysit for us from time to time). Madeline even went to one...and slept through it (we timed it just right)! The movies we saw were Saving Mr. Banks, Anchorman 2, and The Wolf of Wall Street. Saving Mr. Banks was very good, I thought. Anchorman 2 was pretty stupid and not as funny as the first one. And The Wolf of Wall Street was long (3 solid hours) and very inappropriate. 

My back to work date has changed to Jan. 14 instead of Jan. 6. I spoke to my "leave specialist" at work and found out that I had 6 more days that I could take. I went back and forth on it, but decided to take the additional time. I need to use the time wisely though...which means, use it to get ahead on some school stuff b/c school starts on Jan. 13 (Happy Birthday to me)!

I should really update more often because I feel like I am playing "catch up" and my post is all over the place! I'll leave you with some pictures and a couple of new recipes too!

Jeremiah's parents had us over for BBQ on Monday night to bid farewell to Jeremiah before he left for Disney. Hannah and Jeremiah left on Thursday to drive out there. Today, they are stopping in New Orleans and tomorrow they will arrive in Orlando. Anyway, I offered to bring baked beans. Not sure what possessed me to bring those since I had never made them before :) I found this recipe and they turned out to be tasty: 

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pats-Baked-Beans/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=baked%20beans&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=%2fmy%2fdefault.aspx

I made beef stew when our friends, Sergio and Andi, were in town. It is a very good stew. One of the things I really liked about it was the rosemary. I really the flavor of rosemary! Here is the link to the recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/beef-stew-vi/detail.aspx

**Note: I added some additional water/cornstarch for a thicker consistency. I also added fresh parsley and 1/4 cup of red wine (those were both recommendations from the reviews)

My parents got Terrisa and I iron-on milestones for Parker and Madeline. It is such a cute way to keep track of their changes from month to month. Here is Madeline's 2 month picture:

The Lucas Family Christmas party always has a visit from Santa. Madeline got her first picture with Santa (aka Grandpa Lucas!)

Paisley and her babies on Christmas!

We picked our first lemon last week. We had orange, lemon, and grapefruit trees put in last March and we have fruit the first year. Only one orange, a few lemons, but quite a few grapefruit.