Dinner and I mean dinner not lunch

Ohh I have always dreamed of the following scenario...

Me: Dwarfs! Time to set the table for dinner please

It would look something like the below and yes I know I am dreaming but work with me!

Dwarf:#1 I will get the plates
Dwarf #2: I have the silverware and napkins
Dwarf #3: I will get the drinks

Prince Charming: Thanks guys (as he is BBQing the steaks outside)

after dinner?
Me/Prince Charming: Dwarf #2 its your turn to load the dishwasher and Dwarf #1 you bring the plates in and Dwarf #3 you clear off the table

Dwarfs: Easy peasy

How wonderful would that be?

Now reality ha

Grab plates already made up and go eat on your lap...Set the table? What table? Wash the dishes? noooooooo just leave them as I don't trust the dwarfs to hand wash dishes since we don't have a dishwasher.

Oh how a girl can dream of a table someday.

snow wife
All great change in America begins at the dinner table.
Ronald Reagan

Passion for what?

Back Story:
So I have decided in the last month or so to change my eating habits just a bit - ok alot. I am now eating fruit as snacks as breakfast and some type of vegetable with lunch and dinner.  This seems obvious to most to do so but not me - I never liked most fruit or veg.  I am older now and realise I need these nutritious things in my daily diet.

So I am telling Prince Charming about meal planning and explaining this new recipe which is part of my eating plan and it is so yummy and our conversation goes like this.

Me: oh honey I went shopping and got this steak and marinating it and yummmm.  Best part it is on my new eating plan

PC: Do I have to be on this diet too?

Me: It's not a diet. You can have rice, potatoes, meat and chips BUT you always have veg or fruit

PC: So I have to eat this way?

Me: Yes darling and we get to try a bunch of new recipes

PC: Well you have that passion for cooking and love trying new cooking adventures

Me: Passion? haha it's not a passion it's a necessity.  Are you going to cook?

PC: Haha I cook anything right out of the freezer and that's cooking!

Me: That's reheating and that's why I do the cooking since frozen food and canned beans are not the healthiest of meals haha

PC: Fair enough you keep your passion and I will keep eating it

Me: It's not a passion and now I will be teaching you to follow basic recipes because I know you can do it ;-)
PC: but you are so good at it I don't want to interrupt you and your cooking (sarcastically)

Me: Nice try mister - game on

Amazing how Prince Charming made it thru years without me and is still fit.  Now its my turn to get fit since we can't afford a chef to cook every night it will be me and in turn Prince Charming learning to cook.  Hey we take turns and I got him cooking enchiladas from beginning to end and it was good!  It takes baby steps. 

snow wife

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Chinese Proverb

4th of July - American Favorites

As all my American pals celebrate 4th of July with fireworks/BBQ/large sized Jenga with family and friends I will celebrate a few of my favorite American blogs and past times.

I love the thrill of a championship game in a bar with friends - no matter what sport.

I love a good afternoon or happy hour (we don't really have happy hour here)

I love a good night of friends hanging out in someones backyard with a few beers and BBQ.

I love Mexican food ;-)

I love fireworks and sitting on the lake as they go off.

I love having a paid day off for Independence day.

Few American blogs I have come to love and keep me laughing over here across the pond.

1. The Bloggess - http://thebloggess.com/
Absolutely hilarious and reminds me of "talks" I have with my Prince Charming - thanks SS

2. Motherhood in NYC - http://www.motherhoodinnyc.com/
Marinka is a funny, dpwn to earth person who I enjoy reading as her cat has great adventures as well

3. Wendi Aarons - http://wendiaarons.com/
I found this funny lady when the maxi pad letter starting hitting out inbox - read it here

4. Mouthy Housewives - http://www.mouthyhousewives.com/
A mixture of a few above answer the funniest questions from readers - always read for a good laugh

5. Post Secret - http://www.postsecret.com/
Ya just have to read it to get it - HA

6. Le Shallow girl - http://goingofftheshallowend.blogspot.com/
Good Stuff!

I love any blog that is honest and shows the funny side of relationships - it makes me feel normal!

Happy 4th of July!

snow white
Yeah the British came in 2nd this day ;-p

I'm a...

Well besides being a stepmom, daughter, sister, aunt, wife, stepsister and friend....

I have become a lass, m8 (mate), chick, bird, pet and feel as if I have made more true friends.

Not that I didn't feel as I had friends before but wow the circle is growing and everyone is so lovely.

I do have to admit it takes some work getting used to being called chick and pet and I am Prince Charming's bird.  Well for one I don't belong in the zoo but they are terms of affection really.

I am proud to be one of the lasses and a mate. I think being American helps me as I will talk to anyone which seems to work for me and I have gained some very cool mates.  Of course it takes time but if you aren't willing to put yourself out there, you will never know right?

Somedays I reflect on all the people I know from all the years of my life and I am truely blessed to realise I have wonderful friendships spanning all cultures, states, countries and honestly couldn't ask for me...

*Ok I could ask for more but not in the friendship areana but I didn't want to sounds greedy and start in on the bathrooms again ;-)

snow white

Bathroom NO Bathrooms!

Have I been spoiled my whole life? No I don't think so.

I can't recall a time in my life where I didn't have more then one bathroom - seriously I can't.
Even as a child I am pretty sure we always had one downstairs and at LEAST one upstairs.  I am having a problem wrapping my head around looking for a new house and everything is one bathroom.  They call it the "family bathroom" WTH I don't want to share my bathroom and hand towels with the family.  My bathroom should be a peaceful adult space where you can go and its always clean and fresh with no toys, no shampoo across the tiles of the shower or toothpaste left in the sink.

I think I am looked at weird when I put my foot down and say I will not move until I get my own bathroom umm sorry en suite.  There are priorities and that is one of them - call me weird.  Prince charming keeps saying well we just don't do it that way.  My reply - we will do it that way.  I can't imagine 20 years sharing a bathroom, I just can't haha

Call me weird - its cool, I am just an American living in a new world and some things I can't let go.
1. En suite
2. Grass in my back yard (not my garden but I do want a garden to grow things in)
3. Open plan kitchen and living room
4. Oh and proper sheets not the 200 thread crap they call luxury here.


(You will notice a theme in my blog about bathrooms/linens - it has become a slight obsession with me.)

Do you share? Do you want to share?

snow wife

"Oh he is just someone I met in the bathroom!"

Coming to American Movie Quote

I left school years ago...

I always had decent grades and thought I understood things pretty well then WHAM you land in another country.

Let's just say I now have major brain farts on certain phrases and spelling of words.  I always thought oh that won't be me, I have lived so many years with US phrases and words engraved in my brain but it has happened.

Few randoms happenings:

1. I couldn't remember what what a car park was called for a brief moment duh parking lot
2. I actually used the UK 1st floor correctly and then had to think if it was right because here the 1st floor is the second floor because the 1st floor is the ground floor here. (see how you can confuse yourself?)
3. The Z and S conundrum  - organize/organise OR apologize/apologise I randomly do it both ways now!
4. Doubling the "L" - I see it and it looks right but US programs tell me I am wrong so it's another one I use both obviously  travelling/traveling OR fuelling/fueling
5. Using "pissed" this is common in our neck of the woods - He was pissed like...That is a full sentence. It means woah was he drunk and it isn't like anything.  The like is just an add-on like a valley girl would say but with a Geordie accent.

There are loads more but it is just funny weird to me how things creep into your vocabulary without realizing/realising you do it.

Snow Wife

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one."
C.S. Lewis

18 to drink?

We all know what we were like as dwarfs, we wanted to be grown ups and get there as soon as possible. right?

We dressed older? We might have had fake ID's? We were scoring cheap beer or crap alcohol just to drink because we were cool.

Obviously this still  happens but it seems here in the UK its younger and younger. Maybe because the drinking age is 18 so parents start letting dwarfs drink at home earlier (from my own experience) to take the "edge" off going out and drinking or sneaking around.

I am not sure how I feel about this...I am not sure when it's ok to let your dwarfs have a drink or try a type of alcohol.  I would let the dwarfs taste something sure but when is the age you let them actually have a drink?  When do you start looking out for the signs of your dwarfs going out and drinking at someone else's house?  How do you feel about parents of your dwarfs friends buying alcohol for dwarfs and letting them drink without your permission?

We don't want to be the hard core crazy parents because we know it will happen but we want it to be handled in a calm and respectful manor. We want the dwarfs to realise the outcome of drinking and what can happen to them not just the fun side of feeling everything is funny and you and your friends are having a grand old time.

At the age of 16 here as well as the US seems to be an appropriate age to allow your dwarf to have a liquid beverage in your presence.  Now I said "a liquid beverage" I didn't say get shitfaced drunk.  We have a few cocktails in front of the kids or when out to dinner or even around friends.  It shows responsible drinking as one of us is always driving - we try to set by example. So to allow them to "try" a sip in our presence seems like a better idea then to go drink god knows what, with god knows what's been put in it with "friends." 

I know the law is 18 to purchase alcohol but the age to consume is alcohol is 5 years old in the private house with parental consent (WTH) and at 16 they can drink when having a meal with with a parent (fair enough). It boggles my mind as I know I was no princess and I sure as hell didn't drink in front of my parents until I was 17 but I was a senior in high school (starting college/university the next year).

So how do you handle it? What if they are 12,13,14, 15 ?

snow wife

I began drinking alcohol at the age of thirteen and gave it up in my fifty sixth year; it was like going straight from puberty to a mid-life crisis.
George Montgomery