It's St. Pat's at My House Today

I'm cooking corned beef -that delicious Irish treat- for the the first time today. I'm not sure if I'm doing it right or not. There are so many ways you can cook that big hunk of meat. I'm trying the crock pot. My house smells good, but the meat isn't red like it is supposed to be. Hmmm. I guess we'll see if this is a good idea or not when dinner rolls around.

I've been trying to cook more...it's hard with a demanding toddler and teething baby, but it's worth it. So far I've accomplished all the meals I've wanted to cook this week and now I'm onto my next goal: get a toddler pool for the boys.

This is a big deal. The boys want to spend all day outside, but in the Florida sun? No thank you. A toddler pool will be a refreshing break for ALL of us (yes I'm pretty sure my behind can still fit in a toddler pool...let's hope). I want one of those hard plastic ones with the built-in little slide. End of story. The problem is...we don't have a truck to haul it. Determined to the end, I visited Home Depot and Lowes (I had heard you can rent trucks from them) but nope, that was a dead end. None of our good friends have trucks either. I started considering Uhaul (yes, crazy BUT determined!) and then I found the perfect solution: a smaller version of my dream toddler pool at the BX on base. Can we fit it in Andrew's Celica? (Hey don't laugh. We've gotten two Adirondack chairs in there and a dresser!) We shall see tonight.

If all goes well, we will have a yummy dinner and a toddler pool in our backyard before the sun goes down....

He has re-discovered Lady and the Tramp after we finally unpacked our very last box

Hint: Mother's Day is almost here. I am on top of my game this year and both my mom and Andrew's mom have their gifts on the way! Andrew wanted to know my favorite flowers (can you tell he is not a flower-buying kind of guy?) and I quickly assured him I'd rather have a snowcone machine. Really. I crave them this time of year and I always think back to my childhood Charlie Brown snowcone machine with the best of memories....and then I laugh because I remember Mom had to crank it over and over to get the crushed ice out. Thank God for more modern snowcone machines ;)