Finders, Keepers

I have no idea where Shadow found this rawhide bone at, but I subscribe to the "finders, keepers" theory when it comes to these things so I let him keep it. Within an hour, he had completely devoured half of it.

People and Animals Dressed as Food

Connor and I were at Target yesterday when he spotted Halloween costumes for dogs at the end of the pet food aisle. It sounded like a good idea to dress our dog like a hot dog for Halloween, and it was only $9.99, so we bought it. Shadow doesn't seem to mind wearing it either.

Ian got a hold of Shadow's costume this morning and decided that he would try it on. I don't which one looks more cute - the dog or the kid!

*Blog readers: Do you have any pictures of people or animals dressed as food? If you do, please send them to me so that I can post them here!*

Meine Familie und ich, tailgating - 07.04.2009

In display of unrivaled classiness, my family and I tailgated in the parking lot of a strip mall in Hilliard and watched the local 4th of July fireworks. We ordered pizzas from Papa John's, parked in their parking lot, popped open the back of my station wagon and had dinner and a perfect view of the fireworks.


Shadow joined us for the event. This is his first 4th of July with us and I wasn't sure if he would freak out once the fireworks started. He was as calm as ever and wasn't bothered at all by the noise.


Connor, Ian, Stacey, and David


Our decision to tailgate in the Papa John's parking lot was very last minute, but worked out perfectly. We had a great view without having to deal with the crowds in the park. I think that this will be a Stewart family tradition!



The big show!

Employer of Choice - 05.15.2009

I love my job. The main reason that I love my job is because I like the work that I do. It's fun and it's creative. I also work with great people. There are other benefits to my job, like the fact that I mostly work from home. When I do have to go to our "corporate headquarters" for a meeting, I get to spend my time in a kick-ass office.



Exhibit A: A humongous wine refrigerator.



Exhibit B: A fridge that is usually stocked with Diet Coke and other goodies.



Exhibit C: A fully loaded pantry.



Exhibit D: My boss lets me bring my dog with me so long as we aren't entertaining clients.

Unfortunately we are not hiring at this time, so please do not post your resume in the comments section!

Pizza & Game Night! Tuesday - 4.14.2009

Let's start with dinner. Tony had a play-date with his BFF, Glizow, and another friend last night. The kids and I ordered Papa John's while he was out and about. We got an extra-large cheese pizza (because it was on sale with the coupon that I had) and an order of cheese sticks. I was very excited to see that our pizza was delivered in a promotional X-Men box. Why was I excited? Take a look at the next picture....


My boyfriend, Ryan Reynolds, is in the new X-Men movie and was pictured on the box! He's sooooo dreamy! But he's only my boyfriend. I'm still married to the love of my life, Paul Rudd.


Connor loves the cheesesticks. He ate almost the entire order. I don't know what I'm going to do when he and his brother are teenagers. Tony always tells me that they are going to eat us out of house and home and I can see it coming already... Connor already has a bottomless pit for a stomach!



The first game that we played was Mr. Mouth. I LOVE this game. I have spent many hours perfecting my fly-flicking technique. But sadly, Ian always wins due to his special "place the fly directly in the frog's mouth with his hand and without using the flipper thingy" technique. Not surprisingly, he's nearly 100% accurate with this strategy.



Next up - another family favorite, Trouble. Ian actually plays fair at this game and never cheats. Connor, on the otherhand, is always "forgetting" where his game piece was and tries skip ahead several spots as he moves forward.


Ian won Trouble fair-and-square. He then did a shirtless victory dance. "I won! uh-huh! You lost! uh-huh! I won!"

Shadow sat with us and watched us play our games, all the while wondering why none of them involved spit-covered chew toys.

Late night snack - Twizzlers!

Tuesday - 3.31.2009

Here's breakfast... Like an Egg McMuffin, only better. I used smoked ham, sharp cheddar cheese, one egg, and a whole grain english muffin to make this sandwich. It was tasty!

Here is Ian enjoying lunch with his recently collected Happy Meal toys. He has 8 chicken nuggets, a small order of fries, B.O.B., Ginormica, and The Missing Link on his plate.


My cousin Olivia has been helping me out this week by picking the kids up from school and baby-sitting them while I work. Here is Ian in her car, waiting for Connor to get out of school. He managed to find the one toy in her car, a rubber ducky. Of course he proceeded to grab her water bottle and drown the duck in it. That's just how his mind works.


Shadow loves to go for car rides and always goes with me (or in this case, Olivia) to pick up the kids from school. He's a happy, and spoiled, dog.


Judging by last week's posts, it would appear that I almost never cook at all. That's actually far from the truth. A lot of nights I end up cooking not one, but two meals. I don't like red meat and Tony won't eat anything even remotely spicy, so that rules out us ever having the same chili recipe for dinner. Connor and Tony had chili for dinner on Tuesday.


I love spicy food, as does Olivia. She stayed for dinner on Tuesday and I made homemade Chinese Hot Pepper Chicken. I used 10 jalapeno peppers, a lot of crushed red pepper, garlic, onions, and scallions to make this. It was yummy.

This is How We Roll - 3.26.2009

Ian starts his day shirtless and with a chocolate ice cream cone. Why? Because he can, that's why. (note: Ian is on the small side and is on a doctor order high fat, high calorie diet. Otherwise I would really rather he wait until lunch to eat ice cream).

That's a tent in the background. It's spring break and the kids have been camping in a tent in the living room.


My kids and I are all big fans of salty carbs in almost any form. Popcorn is a staple in our house. Connor started his day with a snack instead of his normal bowl of cereal. This is fresh popped white popcorn with sea salt, not that crap that you pop in the microwave.






Despite Wednesday's fiasco at Kroger, I decided to take the kids to Target today to pick up some odds and ends. The kids enjoy the fine foods at the Target cafe and each got a pretzel before we headed home. I can't believe that I am about to type this, but Connor actually looks like Tony in this picture. Connor is my mini-me but he really resembles his dad in this picture. He must have gotten his snarl from Tony.


Here's our dog Shadow. He's waiting patiently for his dinner of Moist N' Meaty and grilled chicken. He's a 5 year old beagle mix and we adopted him from a shelter about 6 weeks ago. He is BY FAR the best behaved member of the Stewart family.



Here's Tony's dinner - wavy potato chips with French onion dip. Please note that the mess in the background is an air mattress and blankets. The kids decided to camp on the air mattress instead of in the tent last night.


Connor eats uncooked cookie dough on an almost daily basis, and that's yet another reason that I shop at Sam's Club. They sell the biggest bucket of cookie dough that I've ever seen. Connor asked for cookie dough last night and I was surpised to discover that a spoon was already in the container when I opened it. When I asked Connor why there was a spoon inside the cookie dough, he said "I'm just trying to save some time. Go ahead and leave it in there for next time, okay?" I guess he's.... um... being innovative. For the record, I did NOT leave the spoon in there. (For those who are worried about food bourne illnesses, please don't let my kid's consumption of uncooked cookie dough concern you. The eggs in the cookie dough are pasturized)