{Ahh..the little things}

camp cooking?

We are preparing to go away (camping) for the weekend again, and this time I am trying to get creative as far as cooking goes.  Last time, it was a cold meat/hot dogs over fire type weekend, but  we are going with another family this time (my new step sister's) and she is a home cookin' kind of girl.  When we started talking about cooking, and I asked what she had planned, she laughed talking about all of the great recipes/ideas she was working on.  I want to be able to hold my own (LOL) and not have my family feel as if we are stuck with hotdogs for life :)

I've heard that foil bags are a great idea, and you can put about anything in them.  We will have electricity, so I even considered bringing the old Foreman because we did not even bring a grill at all last time.  In fact, I bought a skillet early one morning to make eggs & bacon, and used it for kielbasa one afternoon too, and that was all I cooked.

So, do any of you have tried & true camping recipes?  The only thing I am SURE of right now is baked apples.  Core the apples & add butter, cinnamon and sugar to the center and bake in foil over the fire.  YUMM....

happy

post for wordless wednesday

stuck

I am not sure why, but lately I am not feeling like blogging at all.  I feel like I do not have much to say for some reason.  We've been keeping busy, but when it comes to sharing it all here, it does not seem like you would want to read about another trip to the lake, or what each of my kids have been doing to drive me crazy, LOL  :) 

I've not been commenting on other blogs much either, so maybe I am just taking a break?  Who knows?  It is almost as if I think I do not have anything great to say, either here or on comments...it is so strange.

Random things...

• Zander's preschool physical was this morning & we went to buy his first backpack to start preschool after that.  You guessed it, a superhero one.  oh the joy.
• I picked up my camera on Thursday night (we also had a date night - woohoo!) and it already failed to work this weekend, and now will not even turn on
• Both of my big kids are sleeping over somewhere tonight, and I am getting a taste of the simple life with just the two little ones (can you say Ahhhhh.......)
• soccer starts this week & the big kids are both playing which means we will live at the fields in the coming months
• Ellie has the same 1st grade teacher that Kaden had, and she is VERY excited
• we had another fun weekend at the lake, I can't believe the summer weekends are almost gone!
• last week I had my e-bay/pay-pal id used for an unauthorized transaction of $950.00, today (after MUCH fighting/phone calls/talking in circles/blah, blah, blah) we had to close our account so I now have to re-route all of our automatic payments, etc.
• i LOVE McDonald's sweet tea
• i am strangely excited about buying school supplies for the kids
• today Ava also had a ck up, and before the Dr came in, I asked her what her name was & how old she was...she answered that she was SEVEN.  I always say she is a 3 yr old trapped in her little body, but seven?  She is just too much  :)

 

bedhead at it's worst...

look here for more wordless wednesday

time is flying

I know everyone feels that way, but there are times it really hits me, and last night/this morning it has...

Not only (the obvious one) did Zander just turn four, and I can remember his birth and the summer he joined our family like it all just happened.

Then there is the fact that July is almost gone.  WoW, just like that, it has come & gone.

Last night I was talking to Mandy about the next couple of weekend plans, and realized that August is right around the corner, and our kids go back on the 20th.  It seems I was just counting down the days until school was out, and now it is *almost* time to go back.  Crazy how time is just going so fast right now for me.  I wish it would s-l-o-w down some.

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This week & weekend were lots of fun.  On Zander's b-day we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese, and Daddy came home early so we could have dinner/cake/presents.  The original plan was to take the kids out to eat, but after the trip to Chuck's, I wanted to relax for the evening.  Zander picked McDonald's & the grown ups thought Chinese sounded great, so I went after food, and we ate at home and had cupcakes.  It was a fun day, and I think he is liking this FOUR thing  :)  THere are SO many pictures from the weekend, so I just picked some of my favorites to share...

Friday was the day his stitches came out, and he was pretty scared, but they were out in no time.  He spent the rest of that day getting DIRTY outside since I had been trying to keep him clean all week (which was tough for him!). I was telling a friend at the Dr office about it & she reminded me of Pigpen from Charlie Brown. I've since decided that "pigpen" is a great name for him, as he LOVES the dirt and all things dirty & boyish!

Saturday was his party day, and it was h-a-r-d for the kids to wait until 6:30 (note to self to never plan an evening party again).  Once Jessica & Eric and their kids arrived, things were better though, as the kids were SO excited to see them and that also meant that it was almost time to go!  The party itself was small and laid back, just a few friends and family hanging out at the park and having cupcakes & ice cream.  We also had a pinata, which is always a big deal for the kids.  It was SO hot (which is why I planned it later in the day) so we were all ready to leave when it was over.  We came home to the AC and some margaritas, so the day/night was a success for the grown-ups too  :)

Sunday was another HOT day, but Jessica & I and the kids played outside in the water.  I bought a new hopscotch sprinkler (this thing is SOOO cute!), and bought Zander a new Spiderman slip-n-slide with his birthday $$ (thanks Nanny & Papa, and Grandma & Grandpa) and they had a GREAT time yesterday with all of th new water toys.

We do not have much planned this week, other than a MOPS picnic on Wednesday.  I am sure we will end up at the pool a few days, and then next weekend will be here before we know it. We are going to camp up at the lake for Lakefest, and I am already SO excited to get away for a little while again.  There are 2 birthdays to celebrate, a fireworks show, a parade & more!  It is going to be lots of fun...

Looking through my pictures I found this one too.  Zander took this of Ava early Saturday morning & I LOVE it  :)

                                 

Happy Birthday Dear Zander...

Happy Birthday to YOU :)

light at the end of the tunnel

Even though things have not been going my way, I have started to see a light at the end of the tunnel this week. 

There is  a birthday & a party to look forward too - woohoo!  I can not believe that Zander is really going to be FOUR.  We've bought most of the supplies for his party (thankfully since Harry is still working out of town), and he decided on a transformers theme.  This boy & his characters are making me crazy.  I've mentioned beforethat I am not a fan of characters.  Not on clothes, shoes, parties, or anything.  BUT, if you see my boy these days he is wearing one of his 3-4 superhero shirts and a pair of Hulk "crocs".  He will probably be carrying a "man" or two as well.  He is a BIG fan of these guys these days, so I figured it is his party after all, right?  Transformers, it is  :)

It will just be a small get together at a park on Saturday, and on Thursday (his actual birthday) Daddy will come home a little earlier than normal so that we can take the kids out to dinner.  Most likely we'll go to Friendly's or someplace else that he can get a special dessert too.  I am looking forward to it!

As for the rest of the week, we are still busy with VBS each evening.  The kids are loving it, and Ava did well in the nursery (!!!) last night which made me SO very happy.  I love it too, working with the 3 yr olds is quite an adventure & I leave feeling so excited yet exhausted at the same time.

Today & maybe tomorrow I have the sitter coming to allow me to go to the pool for a few hours with out the little ones.  Zander still is not able to swim yet, and Ava I'm just leaving so that I can relax a little.  I am looking SO forward to it.  I've not been in 2 weeks between camping & the stitches, so I am ready to get some sun today (and some relax time, of course)!

Zander's stitches come out Friday morning, so I might take them in the afternoon for a few hours, but we'll see how he is doing.  He is already getting around great, he just keeps his foot tilted a little so there is not weight directly on his stitches.  He can run & play just fine though, so that is awesome.

The basement is still a disaster, I am working on it slowly, and when Harry gets home and I am home from VBS (read very late tonight) we have to get the wet carpets out of there.  I've had fans going the whole time to help it dry out, so I am hoping that we do not end up with mold, but the carpets have been wet for 3 days now - UGH.  With the wet carpet is out, hopefully everything will be dry.  I've finished the laundry (thank God for laundromats) and thrown away everything that was sitting in water.  The carpet is the last of it *fingers crossed*

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Gina tagged me with this one a while back & I just noticed that Mandy had posted it too...

The point is all ONE WORD answers.  Let me know if you do ti too, it was harder than I thought since I tend to talk alot, LOL  :)

1. Where is your cell phone? purse

2. Your significant other? Harry

3. Your hair? messy

4. Your mother? reliable
5. Your father? calm

6. Your favorite thing? quiet

7. Your dream last night? strange
8 Your favorite drink? tea

9. Your dream/goal? peace

10. The room you’re in? middle
11. Your hobby? scrapping

12. Your fear? loss
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? away

14. What you’re not? showered
15. Muffins? yum
16. One of your wish list items? house
17. Where you grew up? here

18. The last thing you did? dishes

19. What are you wearing? pj's

20. Favorite gadget? computer

21. Your pets? none

22. Your computer? important
23. Your mood? excited

24. Missing someone? yes
25. Your car? clean(!!!)

26. Something you’re not wearing? socks
27. Favorite store? target

28. Like someone? yes

29. Your favorite color? yellow

30. When is the last time you laughed? last night

31. Last time you cried? not sure

you want some of this?

I doubt it.

Back away from your computer, I could be contagious.

Is bad luck or bad karma (or whatever it is that is happening to me at the moment) contagious?  If so...GO AWAY, pretend you never read this post...

As if injuries AND lice AND stitches AND a husband working out of town for loooong hours were not enough for me...we added two more wonderfully aggravating situations this weekend.  Harry's transmission went out on his truck (of course while he was about 100 miles away) AND our basement flooded sometime last night during the horrible storms we were having.  Ours has only been "damp" before, so I never even thought to check.  We left for the day today, and when we came home, I decided to do some laundry before VBS.  I only had about 1/2 hour, but I figure I could at least get some started.  When I started down the basement stairs I smelled an AWFUL smell.  And I could see some standing water (not even an inch deep in a few low spots).  I could tell it had already receded, but there was a TON of stuff wet.  I had no time to get it cleaned up, as I am working at VBS, so I just opened the back door to air it out some, and decided to worry about it when I got home tonight at 9:15.  Fun stuff.

So far, I have wet clothes (both dirty & clean - we all need more laundry to do right?) wet towels, wet blankets, some wet scrap booking stuff, some wet picture frames, a Christmas tree sitting in water, and much much more.  I've only just begun, and I was already so upset I had to come upstairs for a break.  I'll be doing laundry all night and throwing away LOTS of stuff.  I had a shallow tote of scrapping stuff (under the bed style) and it was FULL of water, which means at some point the water level in the low spots was that deep!!  UGH

Can't a girl get a break?  Seriously, it is SOOO my turn...

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Lets' see if this scrapping thingee works this time.  The website is scrapblog if you are interested in trying it out

"touchy" subject

I'll just come right out & say it...I'm kind of a prude. 

But the thing is, I am not as much a prude as many people think, BUT there is something I rarely talk about to anyone, good friends included. 

S-E-X

So, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail asking me to review this book  *hiding under blanket* (apologies to my parents & grandparents reading, LOL).  You might be surprised to know that I agreed to read & review the book right. here. on. this. blog.  I came home from vacation to find that it had arrived in the mail, and I have tried to read it a few times, but the cover makes it impossible to just pick up and read a little, then leave on the arm of the couch.  I have kids that can read for goodness sake!

It may take me a while to get it read, but stayed tuned for my big review  :) 

scrapping again

or at least playing around a little :)

With my laptop not working, I have not been able to do any digi-scraps & I've missed it.

Yesterday, while looking through a Papercrafts magazine, I saw an ad for a new (at least to me) site where you can do digiscrapping SO simply. It is not like most programs, and there are not a TON of options like my trusty PS, but I can put pages together none the less & I am having fun with it. Here is one of mine, and I think if you click on it, you can see a few others I just finished too...