Go Gecko Go!

Gary the Gecko has been with us for more than a year now.  He's a wonderful and entertaining addition to the family.  Recently we added some fake foliage to his tank and he has discovered a love of climbing.  Unlike other geckos, the leopard spotted geckos do no have suctioned cuppped toes, so they don't usually climb to the top of their tank.  That doesn't seem to slow Gary down any.

Here are some interesting points I have learned over the past year.

• No matter what they say ahead of time, kids don't actually take care of their own pets, parents do
• Gecko's are very low maintenance
• Crickets are not low maintenance
• Having escaped crickets in my house doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would
• Chirping crickets bother me a lot
• Having cats is very important to the capture of escaped crickets
• Crickets are like chips to cats, they can't eat just one
• Geckos are equally entertaining for cats as they are for people
• I would consider getting another lizard
• Hilary would not consider getting another lizard

Open Adoption Interview Project

It's that time of year again.  Heather from Production,m Not Reproduction and Open Adoption Bloggers is hosting the annual Open Adoption Interview Project.

I debated (again) joining in this year.  After all I don't really blog about adoption any more.  I've only written about adoption twice this year.  But one thing you learn pretty early on as an adoptee, it's that adoption is with you every day, no matter what.  Casual comments from co-workers, TV story lines, Doctor's questions or your own inner deep thoughts late at night.

When it comes to blogging though, I really don't have much to say these days.  There are so many other folks out there who are saying it so much better then I ever could.  Check out these great writers (just to name a few):

• Dawn at This Woman's Work
• All the writers at Lost Daughters
• Lori at Write Mind, Open Heart
• Claudia at Musings of the Lame
• Rebecca at Love is Not a Pie

I still follow the adoption blogs, chat with folks that I now consider friends that I met through adoption forums and keep up on adoption related news.

The one thing I don't have is updates on most of the adoptions in my own life.  I haven't heard from Iris, my birthmother in over a year.  And we haven't heard from K, Liam's first mom* in even longer.  Liam still asks about her and his siblings and it's still hard.

We do have updates on one adoption in our life. Back in 2008 we found out that Hilary had an older 1/2 brother that had been placed for adoption when he was born. Reunions entailed and it turns out that he and his family live pretty close to us.  We've gotten together a few times and have plans to visit with them again soon.  It's nice to have at least one adoption related area that is going well.

So I will dive into the Open Adoption Interview Project and maybe that will help spark some creative blogging juices on the adoption front.

Are you participating?  Be sure to sign up here by Thursday!

*one day I will figure out why I use birthmother for my mother and first mom for Liam's mother.

Photo Dilema

When Liam's first set of school pictures came back, we were disappointed that there was a huge glare from his glasses.

 

The photographer offered to touch it up digitally, but 2 years ago he did a lousy job doing the same thing.

So this year we decided to have a retake. Liam can't be the only kid that wears glasses, and how hard can it be to tell a kid to tuck his chin in so that his glasses are at a better angle to avoid the glare? Instead, the photographer's solution on retake was to have Liam take his glasses off.

I'm torn on this one.  To me, that doesn't look like Liam.  He has worn glasses since he was 5 years old. He puts them on before he gets out of bed and takes them off as he turns off his bedside lamp.  We rarely see him without them on.

So the question now is, do I order either of these pictures, or do I simply take my own version and print off copies for friends and family?  I'd love to hear everyone's feedback!

Daring Kitchen - Feijoada

Blog-checking lines: Rachel Dana was our October 2012 Daring Cooks' Challenge hostess! Rachel brought Brazil into our lives by challenging us to make Feijoada and Farofa along with some other yummy side dishes traditionally served with Feijoada, which is a delicious black bean and pork stew.

I don't think that I had ever eaten Brazilian food, let alone cook it before this challenge.  Let's just say that it was so tasty (and relatively easy) that I will be doing both again soon.  Feijoada is a traditional black bean and pork stew, served over rice.  Rachel's recipe called for smoked/salted meats that I couldn't find, so I went with a plain old piece of pork roast, along with spicy sausage and chirizo.  I was doubtful that the overall stew would have a lot of flavour, given the simplicity of the ingredients, especially the lack of a lot of spices.  But I was pleasantly surprised.  It was full of flavour and richness.  

The Farofa is an odd dish that is hard to explain for both taste and texture.  The recipe called for Yucca (manioc) flour, but that was just not be found in Halifax.  Our hostess suggested that corn flour (not corn meal) could be used to substitute.  Since we had a lot left over from making tamales, I was all set.  Farofa is basically fried onions that you fry an egg on top of, add already cooked bacon, a whole lot of butter and then the flour.  So you really end up with flavoured fried flour.  It tasted great, especially alongside the stew, but it did have an odd flour-y consistency. 

The other 2 sides were sautéed greens (we had farm fresh Swiss Chard) and a vinaigrette which was very much like a fresh salsa.  All the flavours complimented each other well and made for an overall delicious meal.

A strange coincidence happened the same day that this challenge came out.  I got a Groupon email for a 50% a Feijoada meal at a local Brazilian restaurant.  Of course I signed up for the coupon  right away.  We haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I look forward to seeing how my meal compares to the real deal.

You can check out Rachel's original recipes at Daring Kitchen.  And for those of you who have asked about joining up and participating in their monthly challenges, check out this page.  I would love to have some friends along for the challenges.

Daring Kitchen - Paella

Blog-checking lines: Our Daring Cooks’ September 2012 hostess was Inma of la Galletika. Inma brought us a taste of Spain and challenged us to make our very own delicious Paella! 

One of the things that I find amusing is that whenever one of these cooking challenges calls for a slightly obscure or random piece of kitchen ware, it often turns out that we already own it.  Homemade pasta?  No problem, we have a pasta roller.  Need to steam something in a bamboo steamer? Sure thing.  Need to cook rice in a huge, shallow pan that serves no other purpose?  Of course we have one of those too.

Hilary inherited her Paella Pan from her Granny.  She's made wonderful Paella's a few times over the years, but now it was my turn to give it a try, thanks to this month's Daring Kitchen Challenge.

Paella is a rice dish that usually includes chicken, pork, and seafood, but can contain a variety of proteins.  I used chicken, chirozo sausage, shrimp and mussels.  Unfortunately I didn't let the mussels cook long enough and we ended up tossing most of them.  Luckily they had been on sale so I was only out $2.00.  Even without the mussels it was delicious.

Be sure to check out the full recipe with step by step pictures over at the Daring Kitchen.

This is getting serious!

Not only do Liam and I go to 3 TaeKwon-do classes a week, we can now practice at home whenever we want!

My Grandma

One of the best parts of my trip to Ontario was getting to see my Grandma.  It had been more then 2 years since I had last seen her.  It's hard to believe that she will be 90 years old in November!

It was also a great time to have all 4 generations together.