Random Notes

• Eliza has started to do pretend things. Yesterday I saw her "eating" something out of a lid and thought that there must have been some random crumbs or lint in there that she was devouring, but it was totally empty. Later in the evening she was doing it again and decided to share her treats with Brian and I. This continued through bathtime where we got a video of her eating from my hand and saying "mmmm". As soon as she got up today she was ready to pretend eat some more. Then at breakfast time when she ate for real she ended up looking like this:
  

• A local grocery store (Safeway near Arundel Mills) now has TV Kart shopping karts for kids. You strap your child into a little car shaped section and then they can pretend to drive around (sounds familiar to the car carts already in use) but they also have a small TV screen inside where they can watch a variety of kid's shows. Eliza watched about 10 minutes of "Bob the Builder" while we picked up about 5 items. The adult can choose the show and change it throughout the shopping trip. The adult even has their own screen to watch parenting tips and ads (lucky us!). I kind of like this new addition because Eliza is not happy about being strapped into the top of the cart. She climbs out every time and once fell into the main basket. Luckily she wasn't hurt because she fell onto some softer food items. We now let her ride in the main basket but she can still fall out of there (just ask the lady who stopped us in Costco yesterday to tell us so). The TV Kart kept her entertained and happy but if you know me well enough you know that I don't like the TV. I can see some families letting their kids watch TV all day at home then ride to the store watching TV in the car and then shop with even more TV. This drives me crazy! Not that we won't use TV in the car if necessary (it was necessary on our 4 day drive from Utah back to Maryland) but I don't want Eliza to be a couch potato. So no TV at home or on regular days in the car, but bring on the TV Kart at the store. Yeah!
  

• I have been cleared for graduation through Kansas State University. My commencement ceremony is on May 16th at 9:00 am in Manhattan, KS if any of you would like to attend. This will be the end of a long journey towards my degree and I am so excited. This is definitely not the end of education though, I'd like to pursue a Master's and/or a Doctoral degree in a few more years.
• So far, I have interviewed with one of my internship options. The rest do interviews in the first two weeks of March so keep your fingers crossed for some phone calls coming my way. If nobody else calls though I feel pretty good about the interview I already did. Even if all of the places interview me I can only "match" with one program so it doesn't really matter how many call so long as one of them likes me enough to rank me in their top positions.
• On our dinner menu this week and next: Cheeseburger Soup, Beef Stroganoff, Fish Tacos with Chili Lime Cream, Ginger Garlic Beef Lettuce Wraps, Spinach Cheese Wheat Raviolis, BBQ Chicken and Spaghetti with Ricotta. For dessert: Cinnamon Apple Crostata.
  
• I'm sick of the wind and cold that just doesn't seem to end. I really don't like winter, but this year seems to be worse for me. Maybe because running the heater at a comfortable temperature hiked the utility bill for our rental house to just over $600!! I might be okay with that total if I were actually warm, but I'm still cold and would gladly raise the temperature even more. I honestly don't really think it was our temperature choice - something has to be wrong with some appliance. Our bill is 3x higher than the highest bill ever for this home. Yeah that the record had to be set on our watch.
  
• This is how Eliza looks after she pulls out her piggy tails from church:
• Brian and I celebrated our 9th engagement anniversary on Friday the 20th. We remember the date so easily because we got engaged on 02-20-2000. We made chocolate cherry fudge brownies with Bruster's cherry cobbler ice cream for dessert and shared it with friends after dinner at their house. I forgot to wear my wedding ring that day. Ooops!