Odor Advice

Yesterday I asked for help with the burnt popcorn odor.  I got an e-mail from my aunt suggesting I simmer cinnamon in water.  It smells yummy.  I'm hoping this and the bacon I made for dinner will help with the overall odor.  Thanks, Auntie Pam.



I've made it two months with a picture/post everyday.  Can you believe it?

Do you know what this is?

An experiment gone WRONG!



Today started out just like any other Saturday.  I got to sleep in a little.  The kids were up watching tv or playing the computer.  Mickey made a run to Lowes.  Then he took Meg to a softball practice.  (Yes, already, and yes, it was indoors.)  Megan also needed to finish up a little work on her science experiment.  Mickey helped her with it.  I was still lounging in bed (one of the perks of having a great husband) when Meg comes to the door asking where the air freshener is.  I asked why.  Oh, the popcorn burned.  Right after that I could smell it.  I got up and I could see the smoke filling the entire house.  (This is really good when your house is on the market.)  I went to the kitchen to see what the damage was.  Just really smokey.  The windows were already open.  I lit a candle hoping that would help with the smell.  I got a fan to blow the smoke out.  After most of the smoke was gone I got out some Febreze and sprayed that stuff everywhere.  It's now about 10 hours later and the smell is still here, although I'm getting used to it.  How do you get the burn smell out of the house?  We have a ton of realtors coming through on Tuesday and another showing on Wednesday.

Family Night with ND

A couple days ago Mike, Mickey's dad, asked if we'd like to do something other than watch a movie on Friday night.  ND has family nights with fun planned activities.  This Friday, today, was a night at Strikes & Spares.  For $5 a person we all got to bowl, play mini-golf, and drive go-karts.  That's a deal when one ride on the go-kart is $6.

(Isn't this the cutest bowling shoe you've ever seen?)

Afterward we stopped at Steak & Shake for some ice cream.  We were a little nuts doing this since it's frigid and snowing.



It's getting late.  Tomorrow I will post a link to an album of pictures I took tonight, until the battery died.



Edited:  Here's where you can view the album of pictures, if your interested.

Date Night

Tonight I had a date with my mom.  We went to see "New Moon".  I'm not going to comment on the movie since I don't have many nice things to say, although it was better than the first, only a little.  It was nice to spend time with my mom and give her something different to do.  Thanks for going with me, Mom.

(Sorry, not the best picture.  It was dark and I don't know how to work the little camera as well as the big one.  But you get the idea.)

Meanwhile, at home, Mickey got the kids to bed and then Chris came over to play games.  They really get into killing people.  Good thing it's not real.

Two Showings Today!

This morning I'm on my way to drop Meg off at school when my cell phone rings.  This takes me totally by surprise because it NEVER rings.  So I answer it even though I'm about to enter a no cell phone area by the school.  (Not sure what the sign means since a lot of kids come out of school and turn theirs on.)  It's Deborah, our realtor.  She cheerfully tells me that she has two requests for showings this afternoon.  I said "What!?"  I had to rework one of the times since I have to be home for Mat to get off the bus.  (This will show you I wasn't thinking.  I could have told Mat I'd pick her up instead of her taking the bus.  It was 7:30 and my brain barely works then.)



I get home and tell Mickey the news.  He's quickly figuring out when he can leave work so he can help me clean up.  After I got home I realized I never scrubbed the tub.  And yesterday someone was nice and painted the laundry room for me.  They also forgot to plug the sump pump back in so when I did a load of laundry last night the laundry room floor got flooded.  Yikes.  That's pretty much cleaned up.  Thank goodness.  I'm kind of hoping that Mickey will be willing to pick up my slack and scrub the tub for me.  Maybe he'll do that right after he tackles this.

This is the room of our pack rat.  (You can see why this didn't get photographed for the blog on Friday.)  I think it's all going to be swept into boxes and left there until we unpack in the new house, which we haven't found yet.  Getting her a loft bed was a huge mistake.

I'm off to clean.  Thankfully I've been keeping up with laundry and dishes.  The kids now have a "clean up your mess" rule that they're made to follow and that helps immensely.

Pancakes & Pajamas

That was the theme of the day at Kade's school.  (It seems like I have more to report on him.  I guess it's because he's with me more and his school does more fun things.)  Kade started out in his Star Wars jammies but I noticed they were about 3" too short and the shirt just barely covered that pot belly of his.  I talked him into his Scooby-Doo ones that fit better.  He took his Citrus Dragon with him to share the day.  I helped out with the event.  (I didn't end up doing much, filling cups for the kids and taking pictures of everyone.)  The day was a success.  The kids all had fun eating breakfast and wearing jammies at school.

Mmmmmm....Cake

This is one of our family's favorite home-made cakes, banana.  (Most of mine are Duncan Hynes I'm not ashamed to say.)  I got the recipe for this cake from my mom.  Not sure where she got it from.  As with most recipes I've altered it a bit, cut out the fat and it's a lot more moist.  (And here I had told myself no more sweets until Kade's birthday/Easter.  But there's so much fruit it's not really a sweet, right?)

Banana Cake

Place 2 teaspoons lemon juice in a measuring cup, making sour milk.  Add enough milk to make 2/3 cup.  Sift 2-1/3 cups flour, 1-2/3 cups sugar, 1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt into a large bowl.  Add 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, 3 mashed bananas, and sour milk; mix until all flour is dampened.  Beat vigorously for 2 minutes.  Add 2 eggs, beat 2 minutes more.  Bake in 2 greased and floured 9" round pans at 350 for 35 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes in pan.  Remove and cool completely before frosting.

Now I like to bake this in a bundt pan.  It bakes for around 55-60 minutes.  I have a one of those silicone pans so I don't know if that takes longer to bake.  I also use the Duncan Hynes Cream Cheese frosting.  I warm it in the microwave until runny and drizzle over the top.

The cake is almost gone.  I did take 1/3 of it to our friends along with dinner but when I make this it goes fast.

Enjoy!

House Link

Here's a link to our house info, if you're curious.  Oh, and here's another one I just found, too.

Making Lunch

Yesterday while cleaning out some cabinets in the kitchen I thought I had better boil some eggs.  There's a little person who often asks for a big egg, meaning boiled.  They finished cooking and then I ran them under cold water....and put them in a bowl in the refrigerator to use/eat later.  A few hours later I was making dinner and pulling some stuff out of the fridge when I decided the eggs needed to be cracked.  I did it the fastest way I knew how, I knocked the bowl onto the tile floor spilling the eggs everywhere.  That started the makings of our lunch today.  After we got home from church I peeled a few and Kade used a tool my sister-in-law gave me.  It's a small food processor thing-a-ma-bob.  It worked very well.  Kade and Mattey both had a turn turning the crank.  (Kade's picture turned out better.)

I then added the mayo, mustard, salt, and pepper and we had lunch.  Quick and easy.  Just like I like it.

Haircut & Go-Karting

Kade had his date with Mickey today.  Mickey really needed a haircut and Kade kind of needed one too.  After stopping for some lunch they went to the barber shop.  Kade got his hair cut by Mike.  Today he got it spiked.  Afterwards Mike used the "dassager" on Kade's back.  It's his favorite part of the visit.

For the second part of the date Kade went to Strikes and Spares to race the go-karts.  He "raced other people and one was behind and three was in front of me".  This was his third time going and it's now his most favorite thing to do.  I'll have to go next time to watch this kid in action.  Maybe we'll get some video.

For Sale

We did it!  We put our house on the market today.  We are excited and a little nervous.  I'm hoping all our hard work pays off.  We have enjoyed living in our house the last 14-1/2 years but the house isn't growing along with the kids.  924 sq.ft. can only go so far.  And some kids are not meant to share a room.



If you or someone you know is looking for a new house in the South Bend area take a look at these.  Our home has 3 bedrooms, 1-1/2 baths, an updated eat-in kitchen, 2 car attached garage, and a family room and office in the basement along with laundry room and storage.  It also has a new roof (5 months old), new septic (not quiet 2 years old), newer well, and newer central air and furnace.  We are planning to leave all appliances also.  The house is in a quiet neighborhood close to two parks, Notre Dame, and lots of shopping and restaurants.  If you're interested please contact our realtor, Deborah Crowder, at 574-514-7650.  When it's been put in the MLS system I will post a link.

Miss Liberty?

I think not.  Mattey had fun dressing Kade up.  I just had to post this picture.

Family Night at Chick-Fil-A

Thursday is the night to go to Chick-Fil-A.  You buy one meal and you get one children's meal free.  It worked out in our favor today that we "needed" to eat out.  Yummm.

A Little Pampering

Tonight Mickey and I (really just me but he agreed to it) decided we needed to pamper ourselves a little.  We've been working hard at fixing up the house and doing our normal full time jobs.  After the kids were in bed we sat down to watch an episode of NCIS:  Los Angeles and ....

...soak our feet.  It was very relaxing.

Bedtime

A few weeks ago I was thinking about all the stuff I do around the house and especially what I do for the kids.  (I was probably having a mini pity party.)  I realized that I have to get the kids up and out the door 6 days a week by myself.  I mentioned this (complained) to Mickey.  I told him I didn't think it was fair that I had to do that and I still had to put them to bed every other night.  He agreed with me and now he's putting the kids to bed 6 nights a week by himself.

I love it!  After prayer and hugs and kisses I can disappear into the office or where ever and do whatever I want.  Life is a little less stressful at night.  The only thing that could make it better is if I had a big tub to soak in.

A Day Off

Why do the kids not have school on President's Day?  I think they're missing out on a great learning opportunity.  There's not much I can teach them about those guys and places like the library are closed.  I did appreciate getting to sleep in though.  We had a very mellow day off.  The kids actually got along with each other.  Maybe those prayers are finally getting answered.  I only got mad at them once.  That's amazing with them being home all day.  The kids entertained themselves by watching movies, playing video games, and eating their valentine chocolate.

Two bags of Doves are gone and the third would be gone too but it's missing.  Somehow Kade misplaced his but the girls were nice and shared.

Happy Valentine's Day

On Thursday I got a delivery.  Mickey sent me flowers.  I must say they didn't look like they were going to make it.  They were all buds and looked like they'd been out in the cold too long.  I followed the directions that came with them and by the end of the day they were looking a lot better.  They have been blooming and are beautiful.  Thought I'd share a picture of what they look like today.

Broadway ROCKS!

Tonight Mickey treated me to another Broadway Rocks! show.  (Here's last year's.)  It was AMAZING!!!  The symphony orchestra was fantastic but the singing was even better.  I don't know if I can say anything else about it but WOW!  And I can't wait for next year.

Thanks mom for keeping the kids and getting them in bed.

Canasta Caliente

Tonight we had Tia and Tio (Amanda and Chris) over for the movie and then games after the kids went to bed.  Mickey thought we should start with a card game first since the kids weren't too keen on going to bed.  (And when the boys play video games the girls are excluded.)  He pulled out Canasta Caliente.  This is a game that we learned from the Mears.  Sometimes it would get a little rowdy when we played with them.  Right, Richard?  Amanda and Chris had not played before so we started with a practice hand.  The boys ended up getting a lot of points and instantly Chris is saying he really likes this game.  That's how the first half of the game went.  After the third hand of negative points I was ready to give up but us girls endured all the cockiness from the boys.  Then the tides started to change.  The girls came back with a vengeance.  We got to stick them with all their cards in one hand.  It was interesting to see how the boys' attitudes changed along with their luck.  It came down to the last hand to see who was going to win.  Let's just say that we had over half the cards laid out before the boys could lay a single thing.  Here's the picture to prove we won.

Are Your Valentines Ready?

Ours are.

Of the 7 dozen I made, about 5 dozen will be leaving the house tomorrow.  The girls are each taking some to school and I'm going to deliver some to our new neighbors.  If you'd like to make your own here's the recipe.

P.S.  Janel, you better get on a plane soon before they're gone.

No School and Lunch with Dad

We haven't gotten the amount of snow that's been forecasted but Kade's school was closed today because the owner was worried about the possible lake effect snow we could get.  Wednesdays Kade stays at school until 2 and I usually have a busy day running errands and doing other things he doesn't like to do with me.  Today he got to tag along on my busy day.  First we went to the post office to mail a package.  Then we went to the library, which is what we do after I pick him up.  Then I had to get a few things from Walmart.  We dropped off our things and grabbed some lunch items and had lunch with Mickey at work.  Kade was happy about this "errand" and kept talking about playing that "ball" game, meaning fuss ball or foosball.

We enjoyed our lunch, finishing with some Valentine cookies.  Yumm.  Then Mickey and Kade played a little fuss ball.  Kade was a little loud during the game but I think most of the people enjoyed him.  We stopped at Mickey's office so he could shoot some hoops and play with cars and airplanes.  (You would not believe how many toys Mickey has in his office.)  We said our goodbyes and headed home.  But that wasn't the end.  We dropped off the lunch stuff and went to JoAnn.  I'm looking for some fabric for an order and didn't find what I wanted so we went to the near by Hobby Lobby too.  We left empty handed there also.  We got home to rest for a few minutes before having to get Meg.  During all our running around Kade made the comment of having a busy day.  I told him that if he would have had school he would have missed it all.  I don't think he would have wanted to give up his lunch with Mickey though.  Who doesn't like being the center of both parents' attention?



We never did get the lake effect snow.  In fact most of the morning the sky looked like this.

And for the record I paid Mat the ten dollars she "won" from me on Sunday.

Snow Blowing

The snow has been falling down today.  We're expecting more tomorrow.  The county was on the ball this morning.  They had pick-up trucks with plows on the front out plowing our little side roads.  I was happy about that because I didn't want to get stuck anywhere.  The main roads were a little slippery at times but not too bad.  Must be the new tires.  Mickey had to pull out the snow blower after he got home from work.  I like watching the flying snow, especially when I know it's not on the driveway anymore.

The Music Girl

Mattey is definitely gifted in the music department.  She doesn't always like to show off her talents though.  I wonder who she gets that from?  (Totally me.)  She has been singing since she could speak in sentences.  For her third birthday we got her a karaoke machine.  She loved that thing.  You can often hear her singing to herself.  She's even written a few songs.  At age 7 & 8 she took piano lessons for a little more than a year but got discouraged because she wasn't playing fun songs and their teacher moved away.  This is also a Mattey trait, to get bored or frustrated and give up.  (That's me too.)  I've let it be for now but I'd love for her to take up the piano again.  I'm not going to push it because that will make her run away/fight me more.  She did choir at school last semester but decided she didn't like it that much so didn't continue to the end of the year.



Today, out of the blue, she asked me where her piano music was.  At first I thought this was a stall tactic to get out of unloading the dishwasher but once she found it she actually sat down and played.  I couldn't believe it.  I was hoping this would happen some day.  She even played a song for Family Home Evening.

Who knows how long this interest will last.  I really enjoy playing for myself and sometimes others so I hope it lasts for years and years.

Check out that finger nail polish.  It's one of her favorite colors right now.  Turquoise.

The Super Bowl

Of course this is what we as Colts fans have been waiting for.  I got some game food made and we gathered in the basement to watch the Colts play the Saints.  We thought the Colts were holding their own until the 3rd quarter when it just went down hill.  We're a little bummed about the outcome but what can you do?  Mattey is happy because she won a "deal".  I told her at the end of the first half if she could be quiet the rest of the night I'd give her $10.  I couldn't believe it when she went to bed and still hadn't said anything.  That's quite a feat for her.  Meg only lasted a few minutes.

It's a Dirty Business

This is the reward I get for working on other things this week.  Actually this occurs about 2-3 times a week or whenever the kids clean their rooms.  I don't really mind dirty laundry except that it NEVER ends.  I had the hamper empty for about 4 hours one day this week only to be filled again the next day.



As for the other stuff I was working on here's a couple pictures of the finished quilt, front and back.

When I took it in to church this afternoon a few people asked if I would make them one or tried to walk off with it.  I was sad to see it go but it doesn't really work with any of our decor right now.  I ended up sewing two more tops and turned one into a quilt.  I had help tying that one.  Now I have to get back to work on a bag order.

Friday Night...

...is pizza and movie night.  The last few weeks I've been making home made pizza which most of us say is better than the Papa John's we had been getting.  I don't know about that but the little people are happy.  Everyone gets a personal pizza because no one can really agree on what they want on their pizza.  Some want sausage, pepperoni, sausage and pepperoni, or ham and black olive (me).  Some want a lot of cheese or sauce and others want a little.  You see why we all have our own?  It's just easier.  Now today's picture could have been taken today but it's actually from two weeks ago when I was going to use it but used something else.  We were in a rush to eat tonight so I thought I'd use it now.

The movie for the night was Daddy Day Camp.  The kids said they'd seen it already.  I guess that was when I was at a crop or something.  They stilled seemed to enjoy all the bodily functions that were supposed to be humorous.  I wished I wasn't eating through some of the movie.  If you like that kind of humor then this movie is for you otherwise don't waste your time.  It's getting harder and harder to find good family movies.  Anyone have any suggestions?

Is He Rabid?

Kade was acting a little strange today.  After dinner he was foaming at the mouth.  Could he have rabies?  No, it's just alfredo sauce.  I think the odd behavior can be attributed to his being four and a little tired.

A Day of Running

I really wish that meant I've been on the treadmill running all day.  But no.  I've been running the kids and myself around in the van since 7:30 this morning.  The picture is us waiting for Meg to come out of school.

Here's the run down of the day:



7:30 - Meg to school

7:40 - Mat misses her bus (for the third time this week)

7:50 - Mat to school

9:03 - Kade to school

9:15 - Back home to workout and shower

11:16 - Take meds to Kade at school

11:30 - 30 minute drive to get massage (ahhh)

1:07 - 30 minute drive home

1:47 - Pick up Kade

2:12 - Go home to wait for Mat's bus (Kade got out 10 minutes late so we had to skip our library trip)

2:50 - Pick up Meg

3:04 - Meg to dentist (Mickey's picking her up on his way home.)

3:30 - Leave dentist, Mat to orthodontist

4:08 - Go home



I know it's not that bad but I'm tired of being in the van.  I'm such a home body.  I only have one more trip tonight.  I'm going to church to do some quilting.  Speaking of quilting I still have a little more to work to do on mine before I can cut all the yarns and tie them.  My fingers and lower back are so sore.

February 2nd

Happy (?) Groundhog's Day.  Today started off with a bang for us.  I woke to very soft music playing.  Thinking it was my alarm clock I looked over to turn it off.  It wasn't my clock and it was 7:30!  My alarm usually goes off at 6:55 so I can get the girls up and ready for school.  Yesterday my clock got unplugged and I later learned I had the alarm set for p.m. instead of a.m.  Oops.  So I don't know where the music was coming from.  Maybe a guardian angel or something.  I got up and woke up the girls.  Couldn't believe they were still sleeping.  Told them we overslept and they needed to move it.  We were out the door 17 minutes later.  Can you believe that?!  Meg was about 10 minutes late but Mat was right on time.  I wrote notes for both just in case.  I was so glad Mat was buying so there was no lunch to pack only money to find.



After dropping them off I checked the news on line to see if that rascally groundhog saw his shadow or not.  They say he did.  6 more weeks of winter.  Darn it!  I was not happy with reading this news but living here we don't usually get Spring until mid to late April anyway.  I thought about going out to ask our resident groundhog what his thoughts were and also wondered if I could use that as my picture of the day.  But when I looked out the window at the snow coming down I decided I'd stay where it was warm.  (We really do have a groundhog living under the shed.  He doesn't bother us and we don't bother him.)



I wasn't really thinking about what I was going to shoot today but Mickey took care of it for me.  I have been working on a 90" X 90" quilt for the last several days.  An area leader of the woman's organization at church has asked us to make quilts to donate to the LDS humanitarian services.  She has asked us (all the women in the area/stake) to make 100!  Our congregation/ward is making 13.  Oh, and she gave us two weeks to get them done.  I really got into this challenge.  I remembered that I had an unfinished project I could use to make a quilt.  Years ago I was inspired by a quilt in a Target ad.  I wanted to make the girls matching quilts.  I bought all the fabrics and cut up all the squares.  (I can't remember if I had my rotary cutter or not.  If not that was a lot of cutting.)  I had one twin one done except for the borders.  I had also started sewing the other one.  Since the girls would not like these quilts now I torn the borders off the first one and used pieces of the second to add to the first.  Long story short I got the top done and had plenty of fabric for the back.  I got it all sewn together (pillowcase method) today and I've been tying it since 3:00 with lots of interruptions.  I think it's beautiful.  It also has 500 squares.  There's no way I would have taken on something like that if a lot of the work hadn't been done already. I hope my quilt provides comfort and warmth to whomever gets it.

All day Kade has been giving me compliments about the quilt.  He's also asked several times if I'm done yet because he thought it looked done.  For the past few days he's been asking me if I can make him a quilt.  The girls have chimed in that question too.  I've told them not now.  Those projects will have to wait until my life is a little less crazy, maybe during the summer when I'm not running them around everywhere.  And do I really want to spend 100's of hours (and dollars) working on something they'll just stain or tear?  I might have to wait until they are much older.

Scriptures and Sundaes

You may be wondering at the title and the picture.  Scriptures aren't just for Sundays but for everyday.  We have been reading scriptures as a family pretty much everyday since August 1st of last year.  Mickey thought it would be a good idea to celebrate the little things this year like we did for the honor roll girls.  So for January we decided to set a goal of reading everyday and the reward would be going out for ice cream.  We also thought this would help the kids get into reading with us and maybe remind us to read.  I don't think that really worked but we did it.  We read at least one scripture for all 31 days of January.  That's a nice little accomplishment.  Now that we've had the reward maybe the kids will get into it more.