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Cooking class was so much fun! If it wasn't for my lack of interest in anything competitive- culinary school would be a blast. When I get around to making some of the dishes we were shown I'll be sure to post about them in more detail. My favorite dish was the oranges in simple sauce with mint slivers. I was both surprised at the simple things I learned by watching a professional chef and the things I already knew that seemed to be new information to a lot of attendees. The best basic tips I walked away with were how to properly dice an onion, chop up and store herbs, and zesting citruses.

If you do not care about my cat skip this section :) - In non-cooking news, our cat is officially an outdoor cat. He has gotten progressively whinier since Eden was born and the climax was last week when he meowed all day long, waking Eden during her naps, and then to get our attention at 2 am knocked a wooden bell my parents had given me off of the dresser- breaking it. This wooden bell has a chime box that plays Edelweiss and my dad used it to put me to sleep. I loved it growing up. Luckily for the cat, he just broke off the handle and in such a way that it is fixable and will never be noticed- but still. He can come and go into the laundry room through the dog door but we keep it closed off to the rest of the house. It's been 3 days and he's only begged to come in once- and half-heartedly at that. If you live in Nacogdoches, please do not hit him if he's in the street :). I don't want to talk about it too much because you will all discover I really am a crazy cat lady- a realization I stumbled on the other day. Thomas told someone that Joseph's last name was "Underfoot" and I caught myself just before I could exclaim "don't you know his last name is Middlebrook?! you accepted him as family when you married me! Underfoot can be his middle name." So now he's outside, distancing himself, and I can be rescued from crazycatladyitis.

OK- in news you all actually care about- Eden is the cutest kid ever! Seriously, I haven't laughed this often, this hard, in YEARS. I wanted to have a kid this "young" for several reasons, but one was because I liked the idea of being a youthful parent. The truth is this kid would have made me feel young no matter my age. She reminds me to be playful, laugh at crazy situations (like the unfortunate pooing of March the 2nd which I will refrain from sharing in such a public place), and not take everything so seriously- especially other people's opinions. These are goals I have been trying to accomplish for a long time. Who knew it was as "simple" as having a kid ;).

SAVER TIP FOR THE DAY:
I was just thinking that Thomas and I do not utilize the library enough- especially for movies. We rented tons of movies before Eden was born. Even though we don't do it very often now, we're pretty bad about racking up late fees- which are higher at the video stores than at the library. The biggest drawbacks of the library are the lack of new releases and the limited amount of copies for the newer ones. Then today I read Abigail's blog and found a great tip- Free Movie Monday's through RedBox. You can find instructions for getting and using the promotional code here, and check in on each Monday for the new code here. THANKS ABIGAIL!