Mellow on the homefront

Mark has been working a ton between Morongo and the Westin Mission Hills. He works on call there and they've been calling a lot. So, that leaves me and the kids at home missing him. I decided to suprise him with a day date! One of my favorite types of dates. I planned it out and asked Jen if she and Christophe wanted to join us. We decided to keep it a suprise and each day give clues to the guys. It's been fun to see them get into it and sending in there guesses. Tomorrow is the date so stay tuned. Here are the clues they've gotten...

1. There may be mud
2. A pink flower
3. Healing waters
4. Carrots, Limes, & Cherries

We should have a good time!

Recouperating

We're back from vegas and it felt like a whirlwind of a trip. It was like a high school reunion meeting up with old friends and laughing so hard till our sides hurt. These guys make friends wherever they go and had the party pit at Harrah's on their side. Unfortunately, I came down with a nasty, nasty cold which took a toll on the trip. I did my best to suck it up and not be a debbie downer for Mark but this is what I looked like.........

I was constantly walking around with toilet paper in my hand, blowing my nose and wiping my watery eyes, all with different tissues of course. This is Sergio supporting me as I make my nose more raw. We did though have a highlight of the trip which was running into VH1's favorite celebreality star: FLAVA FLAV. He was playing roulette a few tables away so the guys HAD to have their picture taken. I myself was extremely embarrased to be taking the picture but it was a funny memory of the trip.

The other good news was that Joey found out he's going to be a dad. What a way to celebrate your 30th birthday. I don't have a pic of them together but here is the happy mom to be, Lindsey, who was an amazing trooper. As most moms know the first trimester is the worst when your sick, exhausted, and hungry but she never let it affect her. I on the other hand look like I should be laying in bed and not sitting in a bar in Vegas. Ugghh, I still have the cold and want so bad to be back to normal. This is the time I wish I had family around so I can hand off the kids for a few hours while I sleep and get better.

Suprise Trip...sort of

We're off to Vegas today completely spur of the moment. I can't believe we pulled it off. My mom's watching the kids, we booked our rooms Wednesday and now we're off. It's feels very strange not having planned for months but I'm very excited despite the head cold I'm fighting. People without kids do this all the time and it feels so fun and carefree. We're going to celebrate my wonderful friends Joey's 30th birthday. Wow, he's old!
Lot's of pics to come.......

Favor...disaster

Sometimes thoughts should stay just thoughts. I had the bright idea of making carmel apples as one of Carly's baby shower favors and thought it was a brilliant idea. My wonderful chef of a husband insisted that we make the carmel and everything will be fine, so Thursday night we did just that. He cooked up the carmel on the stove, I had all my apples in line and we were off. It took just about and hour and they looked pretty darn tasty. We let them sit over night and I checked on them in the morning. Not so pretty. Apparently there was too much corn syrup in the carmel and it never quite thickened enough. The carmel and nuts has slid down durning the night into a messy puddle. It was pretty pathetic. Thankfully, my wonderful and controller of the kitchen friend Courtney came to my rescue. She insisted we make pink chocolate covered pretzels with pink sprinkles and it would be a piece of cake. Umm...did I really want to go there since I was told the apples would be a piece of cake? Not really, I was over it and ready to throw in the towel. I hate being in the kitchen. Everyone knows that, but....she thankfully didn't take no for an answer. She, along with her adorable twin boys, came over and literally went to work. All I had to do was supply the chips, salsa, guacamole and margaritas and she was off. She dipped all but one pretzel, but I do have to take credit for the sprinkles. I can shake on sprinkles like nobodys business. They turned out very cute and were quite tastey from what I was told by shower-goers. I owe her a huge thank you, so Court, you're the best. I couldn't have done it with out you. Best of all, the kids had fun playing together.

The progress

The end result

Luke and Drew

Take Home Chef

For those who don't know, Take Home Chef is a show of TLC where a chef approaches people (usually attractive women, such as myself ) in a grocery store and convinces them to take him home and cook a meal for the family. I myself have never watched the show (I despise cooking shows unless it's the cake making challenges) but have heard about it from Mark. Well now I proudly have my very own Take Home Chef, desert style.

Mark got a call the other day from a food writer who had written an article on him last year. He needed a chef to do a local version of Take Home Chef called Desert Magazine Chef Suprise, so Mark happily agreed, but then quickly started having second thoughts wondering "what did I get myself into?" With the cameras all around and the photographer snapping away he completed the meal and it will be featured on the news and in the Desert Magazine in April. Not to worry, I'll make sure to remind everyone.

The "surprise meal" was for a family in Cathedral City celebrating a wedding anniversary. The man had worked for Wally's Desert Turtle for 26 years so he definately knew food. The concept is that the family provides the food and kitchen and he makes the meal using their equipment, spices, dishes, etc. not knowing ahead of time what they've bought. Apparently it went really well and the family enjoyed every bite. Afterwards he was asked to compete in a Chef of the Desert competition coming up soon. I'm a very proud wifey. In do time, my husband will soon have his own line of cookware coming to a store near you :) BAM!

The menu:

1st Course: Heart of Romaine Salad w/ Roquefort Vinergarette

2nd Course: Spinach Ravioli w/ carrot basil mash, pancetta crisp with a creme fresh butter

3rd Course: Herb Marinated Veal Chop, roasted Shitake mushrooms, sauteed fingerling potatoes and asparagus finished w/ a red zinfindel butter

Dentist

Ding Dong the tooth is gone! FINALLY. Peyton has had his front tooth loose since December. It would not come out and he wouldn't let us near it. Basically he started brushing around it and it became quite a pretty shade of yellow. Sort of like the color of my walls, gross, I know. He was terrified of the blood that would come with us pulling it so he would shut his mouth tight whenever we just asked to look at it. I just couldn't take it anymore and finally made a dentist appt. While there they said they start kids off at 1 year old so they would be happy to clean Drew's teeth. Hmm....a little girl with a horrible shrill scream. Do I really want to go there? Of course I do. I absolutely love to torture myself, so why not. Actually, she did so wonderful I was amazed. She loved showing off her clean new teeth and Peyton's tooth popped right out that it was a great dentist visit. I was too busy filling out the mounds of paperwork that they were done with both kids before I could get pictures of them in the chair so I took pictures of them picking out their rewards.

Drew proudly showing off her clean teeth

VICTORY

Last weekend Randy and Katie came to visit.Of course we had a blast but Mark and I had been talking about all the bowling we've done lately so of course the competitive side of us all came out. Randy and Katie challenged us to a few games which we happily took on. Now, according to Randy, they beat us and we basically had no chance. In my eyes, they did win the first 2 games, but, out the total points for all three games Mark and I came out ahead by 10 pins. So, Katie, if you read this, your cute matching bowling shirts couldn't bring you ahead! Sickenbergers claimed VICTORY! Although, I do have to admit. As chessy and geeky as bowling is, we've had a blast doing it lately and want our own matching shirts to wear too. I was a little bit jealous that they beat us to the punch. We tried to have our shirts for the night we went out for Emilys birthday but I just didn't have my act together. As far as the name for them goes, 3 strikes and 6 tacos. A long story going back to when we were in Hawaii but it was absolutely funny that they made that their team name.

Happy Valentines Day

I'm not a big fan of the day. I DO NOT want any type of gifts, cards, bears, candy etc. I'm a person that would rather have my spouse surprise me with those things on a random day. To me, that's more special and it definately makes me feel a little more loved. But.....since the day is supposed to be about love, I thought I'd quickly post mine.

I love that Mark still makes me laugh after all these years and that we have fun no matter what we're doing.

I love that Peyton is missing his front teeth.

I love Drew's frizzy fro and crooked smile.

Bowling Party

Peyton also had a party last weekend at the Casino Morongo Lanes. It's brand new, super clean and bright and a great layout for kids. The theme was pirates and we had the kids dress up. They all looked so cute. The pictures do the party justice.

A blurry picture but they are giving me the best ARRGGHHH

Green icing in the best.

Zach in the cutest skull shirt. He was the modern day pirate.

The adults taking in the action.

Peyton's Birthday

So much has been going on I'm a little behind. The actual day of Peyton's birthday we went to his school and brought pasta/garlic bread for all the kids and teachers. The kids were so excited and kept telling us enough how it was the bestest pasta ever. They fell in love with Mark. It was like he was Santa. As soon as they were done they were all over him. The kids then gather around and sing Peyton happy birhthday as they crown him king for the day, while he opens his presents. Before we left 3 of the girls sang me a song and gave me a little dance. I kind of felt like a celebrity. They all wanted to give me a hug and hold my hand. There was probably paperazzi hiding under the desks waiting to take the perfect shot.

Later that night we went to Red Robin for a quick dinner and birthday desert. It was a LONG day.

PIRATES!! Arrgghh