Bust out the champagne! At 11 months old Cason, J-Si’s baby boy, takes his first steps on his own! Watch J-Si as he told us about it .
J-Si’s Blog: Cason the crazy Mexican walking machine
Oh, just another blah day at the Chavez residence… not really! The event that took place yesterday around 5:30 is one small step for Cason, and a whole lot more work for man kind. Yup, Cason took off last night. He finally got the cajones to let go of that couch, and started walking. He did take a couple tumbles, but he laughed, got up, and tried again. It’s weird how they just choose a random moment to start doing this. He threw his hands up and waddled towards Kinsey… over, and over, and over again. Yes, Kinsey busted out crying, which she tends to do every time Cason reaches some sort of milestone. She then got up and opened up a bottle of champagne to celebrate. I would have said she “popped” a bottle, but I keep thinking it says “pooped” a bottle, and that is weird. At this point, Cason will only walk on carpet, and he will only walk with his hands over his head, as he throws up a high pitched laugh/scream. We will now practice walking, and I will have him out in the football running some sprints in no time at all! I can’t believe this lil guy, who was not here at this time last year, is already walking, saying a some words, and developing a personality. So awesome!
Cason got me into reflection mode with his lil milestone. After I take a trip to Mexico, I usually start talking about how lucky we are. I know that I may not have grown up with much, but as a kid I had a home, toys, a couch, and food on the table. For some reason, I could not stop thinking about the kids I see in Mexico. They are everywhere: on the streets, in the small pueblos, in parking lots. These are kids that range from 3-15 years of age, and they spend their entire day selling gum, or candy. They come up to you in packs, and ask you to buy something, and if you do, more gather around you. You could potentially have around 10 kids impeding you from moving because they are so desperate to make 50 cents. Is it a bit annoying? I would be lying if I said “no”. Truth is, anybody hounding you can get annoying, right? The problem is that these are kids, and you feel incredibly guilty for feeling that way. You can see the pain in their eyes, they don’t go to school, their home is usually a bunch of cinder blocks and some sort of tarp or plastic piece for a roof. They don’t have a fridge, washing machine, a TV, or air conditioning/heating. Things we take for granted. They work all day, and have nothing to show for it. How lucky are we? Even if we are what is considered “lower class” in this society, we are bounds and leaps ahead of what these kids have. Just to think, that could have been one of us in that lifestyle. You are born into it and there is nothing you can do about it… and getting out of it is almost impossible. This put my year into perspective. Yes, I called this year the “bad luck 2012″ tour, but when I look back… everything that happened to us this year is nothing. We have a house, we have cars that work, we have food, we have things that I consider unnecessary (TV, cable, internet), and we have our healthy… and a walking baby. These kids didn’t just sell me some delicious candy, they put me back into line. Gracias
Good news: we made it back from Mexico with no problem! Yay!
It was not one of those flawless trips though. I should have known something was up when we arrived in Mexico and had to wait about an hour an a half to go through immigration and customs. Two flights beat us at the landing the plane game, and those planes were the big double decker ones. Yup, a few hundred people waiting in line in front of us… and only 4 windows open. haha! We stayed at bio dad’s house the first night we got there. The second day, we headed out to the grandparent house to celebrate “tanksgiving!”. I will give it up to bio fam… they did it right! We had a full on turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, cranberries, gravy, mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes. This is where it got a lil Mexican. The sweet potatoes were just mashed potatoes with marshmallows on top. Then it got really Mexican because we had a piñata! I am not sure if other families celebrating thanksgiving had a piñata, but we did, and in true piñata fashion, at least was person was accidentally hit with the stick. That person would be my 4 year old brother. He got excited because a lil bit of candy came out, but my cousin kept swinging.
We went home and rested up after the huge dinner because were gonna hit up my uncle’s ranch. Now, I had never been to his ranch… this thing was humongous! We needed to use a four wheeler to get back and forth from the guest home to the party area. He had 12 horses, a pony, exotic birds, a rodeo stadium with stands. You name it, the ranch had it! This is also the place where Cason and I became the party ruiners. It is probably not our fault, but it happened. First night there, about 2 hours in… I fainted. Yup, I fainted in front of the entire bio fam. I was sitting next to Kinsey, we were all talking, and next thing I know… I woke up with every. single. person. around me. Not the best feeling ever. So that fun event ended things for the night. Now, I am supposed to go to the doctor again. I blame it on the travel, and on being too much of a fun guy.
Fast forward to the following day: big party, everyone having a good time, and Cason projectile vomiting all over the place. If it went into his mouth, it came out with extremely awesome force. He would puke, and keep on trying to play while smiling. Good times. Luckily, we had a doctor at the ranch with us: my grandpa. He gave us some direction. So bio dad and I went on an expedition to find a suppository and some pedialyte. This was the first time Cason got supper sick, and the first time I had to administer a suppository. Not the best feeling in the world having to put that thing in your own son. Doctor offered, but I felt that I needed to complete that duty. I wont go into much detail, but it got messy. We spoon fed him water and pedialyte, and he would return it to sender. That ended the party for us. We could have kept going because bio dad got us a nanny for the weekend to make sure we enjoyed ourselves, but Kinsey did not know how to let the nanny help. haha.
Not all was bad, we did get on some horses, and Kinsey did attempt to speak Spanish the entire time. Poor Kinsey would sit there while we talked with a fun look on her face. She wants to get Rosetta Stone again. So thats a nice lil Christmas gift hint. I also rode horses, even though I am afraid of them… but nothing compares to the fact that I drove in Mexico. WHAT?!?! Yup, I did. By far, the scariest experience EVER. My grandpa has bad eyes and bio dad asked if I would drive the car back from the ranch to Mexico City. Here are the rules in Mexico when it comes to driving:
1. Don’t use your blinkers
2. you want to merge, dont bother if there is anyone there.
3. Honk for no reason.
4. drive while you straddle the traffic lines.
5. Here in the US my peeps tend to drive a bit slower… in Mexico, there is no speed limit, apparently. Theres one posted, nobody follows.
6. And please make sure to tailgate at a very dangerous distance.
Today is the day. I know most people wait until the first of the year to make a change of their eating habits. New Year, New You, right? Well, I can’t wait. I have semi started already but today, I am really getting serious. And if things go well, at the first of the year, I will have already lost 10 pounds and I’ll be well on my way. I know dieting is boring stuff to talk about or even read about but I had to put it out there in an attempt to try to START to hold myself accountable.
I spent Thursday with the entire family. Like I said in the last blog, the only thing that was missing was the “smell” of Thanksgiving. The house didn’t smell of Thanksgiving because the food, as good as it was, had been prepared somewhere else. But the feeling of the day way unmistakable. The entire family gathered around. We said Grace and dug in. We told some old stories and then some new ones too. I showed everyone the Killer Karaoke video clip with the girl with the snakes. And we watched football. And as pathetic as the game was, we still had a great time with one another.
The day before, Wednesday evening, I was at the bar and one of my Friends/customers asked me what I was doing for Thanksgiving and I told him that Friday morning, I would be going to Mexico to spend a couple days. I made the casual statement, “you should get a ticket and come with me.” Well, he did! He pulled out his phone and checked the rate on the flight. He called his wife to get the ok from home. She signed off on it. Then, Friday morning, the two of us were on a plane. How’s that for spontaneous? I changed my one bedroom to a two bedroom and we were set. He is a pretty laid back dude so there wasn’t a big need for me to do any activity planning. We pretty much just wandered around and drank beer. He seemed fine with that plan. The two of us have hung out at my bar before but we had never taken a trip before. In fact, we had never even talked about taking a trip before but it was a pretty cool weekend so maybe we will again at some point.
The big office Christmas Party is this weekend and yes, I have bought my date a dress. More on that tomorrow!
The Holidays really aren’t my thing. I’m not sure why it seems the older I get, the more I dislike them and the more I kinda stop caring that it’s a holiday. I said I wasn’t going to cook for Thanksgiving and I actually managed to avoid it-unless microwaving store bought Thanksgiving food is considered cooking. I had this nice lunch planned for my mom when she came into town on Thursday and I ended up eating it all alone throughout the weekend. Candy had the stomach flu so she hardly left the couch all weekend, which made me feel awful. I didn’t let that stop me from celebrating Thanksgiving with my other lonely friends at a bar eating cheeseburgers and drinking something called crack babies. I had hoped Candy would be feeling better by Friday night, so I made dinner reservations somewhere really nice and took her to get her hair and makeup done beforehand. Wasn’t really thinking that one through when I made her appointment at the mall on Black Friday. That was the beatdown of all beatdowns. It took an hour to park, an hour to get through the mall and an hour to get makeup done. Big day. I did score a sweet leather jacket about 80 percent off so that was a plus;) I was really excited to take Candy to one of the nicest steakhouses in town, but I knew she wasn’t feeling good when she ordered a baked potato for her meal. So, I ate a steak and drank some delicious drinks and realized that this expensive date wasn’t going anywhere. I felt so bad for her and she just went home and went to bed after that. It only took 3 days for me to polish off the entire store-bought cornbread pan. Is it weird that I can literally feel my muffin top growing when I eat muffin-type things? I really gotta start getting in shape for my beach vacation. Summer bod in the winter is not an easy thing to accomplish, especially when Sundays are spent laying on the couch, eating bad Mexican fast food and crying while watching The Vow. I literally threw a bunch of food in the trash just so I wouldn’t eat all day. I was so excited to see my roommate after 4 days of her being gone, that we went on a walk around the block with the fat dog and then napped together on the couch. What would I do without a roommate? I get lonely enough as it is which is funny considering how much I used to love being alone. Now, I can’t go half a day without some kind of human contact. I think the combination of that and the crying while watching a bad romance can mean only one thing. I have gone soft. It’s over for me. Full girl for sure. The jealous texting someone at 1 am really means that I am a girl. Erasing someone’s phone number. Definitely a girl move. I don’t like feeling girly. I’m going to do some not girly things this week to get rid of that.
- Jenna
Dr. Phil called Kidd Kraddick in the Morning to talk about his brand new book…Find out why he says that it’s sure to become one of Kellie Rasberry’s favorites!
1. Take everything out of the turkey. There will be a giblet bag and some other stuff.
2. Next add vegetables to the inside of the turkey. You don’t even have to peel anything. This is easy because the veggies are just for flavor — you are going to throw them away later.
3. Take the onion and cut it into quarters.
4. Chop a nice long carrot.
5. Do the same with a couple stalks of celery.
6. Add several cloves of garlic that you mash between a broad kitchen knife and the kitchen counter.
7. Throw it all inside the turkey.
8. Then rub the turkey all over with olive oil — not butter because butter usually has salt in it and salt is the enemy of a moist turkey. Make sure the whole bird is covered in olive oil.
9. Put the turkey in a roasting pan and cover it with a large brown paper bag.
10. Staple shut. If you have a huge turkey use two paper bags at each end. It wont stick to the bird because of the olive oil.
11. Sprinkle the bag all over with water.
12. Place into pre-heated 375 F oven. ON THE MIDDLE RACK.
13. The bag wont burn because paper burns at 451 and we’re at 375 degrees.
14. The advantage of the brown paper bag over the Reynolds cooking bag is that the paper breathes so the turkey ROASTS. In the Reynolds bag the turkey STEAMS, giving it a different taste.
15. Roast for 13-15 minutes per pound.
16. When you think it’s ready, shove a meat thermometer through the bag and into the turkey and give it a minute to register. Make sure it doesn’t touch the bone.
17. The thermometer should register between 163-170 degrees.
18. Remove from oven, cut away the bag and remove the basting pan.
19. Do not throw out the drippings!
20. To make the gravy, strain the pan juices into a really big pot. Any juices that accumulate on the turkey platter get poured into the pot.
21. Add six oz. of boiling chicken broth and 1/8 cup of cornstarch to the gravy to thicken it up. Cook on low heat and stir and cook and stir.
22. If it seems it isn’t going to be thick enough, add a little more cornstarch.
Twilight’s Kellan Lutz aka Emmett Cullen, stopped by to hang out in the studio with Kidd Kraddick in the Morning. Check out the video and see all the pics from his visit. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 opens in theaters November 16th.
Your kids may know him from Disney’s Drake and Josh and now he’s starring in the new movie Red Dawn. Josh Peck was live in studio and also showed Kidd some dance moves from his next movie.
“popped” a bottle, but I keep thinking it says “pooped” a bottle, and that is weird. At this point, Cason will only walk on carpet, and he will only walk with his hands over his head, as he throws up a high pitched laugh/scream. We will now practice walking, and I will have him out in the football running some sprints in no time at all! I can’t believe this lil guy, who was not here at this time last year, is already walking, saying a some words, and developing a personality. So awesome!
give it up to bio fam… they did it right! We had a full on turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, cranberries, gravy, mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes. This is where it got a lil Mexican. The sweet potatoes were just mashed potatoes with marshmallows on top. Then it got really Mexican because we had a piñata! I am not sure if other families celebrating thanksgiving had a piñata, but we did, and in true piñata fashion, at least was person was accidentally hit with the stick. That person would be my 4 year old brother. He got excited because a lil bit of candy came out, but my cousin kept swinging.
The day before, Wednesday evening, I was at the bar and one of my Friends/customers asked me what I was doing for Thanksgiving and I told him that Friday morning, I would be going to Mexico to spend a couple days. I made the casual statement, “you should get a ticket and come with me.” Well, he did! He pulled out his phone and checked the rate on the flight. He called his wife to get the ok from home. She signed off on it. Then, Friday morning, the two of us were on a plane. How’s that for spontaneous? I changed my one bedroom to a two bedroom and we were set. He is a pretty laid back dude so there wasn’t a big need for me to do any activity planning. We pretty much just wandered around and drank beer. He seemed fine with that plan. The two of us have hung out at my bar before but we had never taken a trip before. In fact, we had never even talked about taking a trip before but it was a pretty cool weekend so maybe we will again at some point.
Friday. That was the beatdown of all beatdowns. It took an hour to park, an hour to get through the mall and an hour to get makeup done. Big day. I did score a sweet leather jacket about 80 percent off so that was a plus;) I was really excited to take Candy to one of the nicest steakhouses in town, but I knew she wasn’t feeling good when she ordered a baked potato for her meal. So, I ate a steak and drank some delicious drinks and realized that this expensive date wasn’t going anywhere. I felt so bad for her and she just went home and went to bed after that. It only took 3 days for me to polish off the entire store-bought cornbread pan. Is it weird that I can literally feel my muffin top growing when I eat muffin-type things? I really gotta start getting in shape for my beach vacation. Summer bod in the winter is not an easy thing to accomplish, especially when Sundays are spent laying on the couch, eating bad Mexican fast food and crying while watching The Vow. I literally threw a bunch of food in the trash just so I wouldn’t eat all day. I was so excited to see my roommate after 4 days of her being gone, that we went on a walk around the block with the fat dog and then napped together on the couch. What would I do without a roommate? I get lonely enough as it is which is funny considering how much I used to love being alone. Now, I can’t go half a day without some kind of human contact. I think the combination of that and the crying while watching a bad romance can mean only one thing. I have gone soft. It’s over for me. Full girl for sure. The jealous texting someone at 1 am really means that I am a girl. Erasing someone’s phone number. Definitely a girl move. I don’t like feeling girly. I’m going to do some not girly things this week to get rid of that.
