More funnies

On the way home from the store, Belle remembered that her microphone was still broken. I told her I had taken it one place (Radio Shack) and they couldn’t fix it. So, she began coming up with ideas of what we could do.1. Take it to the hardware store (We have a nice one here in town with very helpful people so this one is actually quite plausible)2. Call Handy Manny!! Her: “He can fix anything!” Me: “Umm…he’s just a character from a show, dear. We can’t call him.” Her: “Oh, yeah…”3. Ask a builder. This directly stemmed from the above thought, but involves a REAL person. We have a man coming to fix some things around the house tomorrow and I could just see her asking him to fix her microphone.4. Go to a music store; after all it is a microphone.It’s fun having these brainstorming sessions with her.

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Funny Logic

First I have to tell you that Belle is very concerned with being healthy. If fact, that’s generally our best argument when convincing her to try something new. That said, our conversation today in the car made me laugh:We were on our way to the “big” grocery store, which is somewhat of an event. I decided to drive around a little while because Bear and Lamb were sleeping. Belle was starving so I thought a nice treat for all of us would be a trip to Wendy’s. We were driving around eating our burgers and fries when we passed a Taco Bell.Belle: “I don’t want to eat there, it doesn’t look healthy! I don’t think we should ever eat there.”I tried to explain the irony in what she had said, but she didn’t get it.

5 Things I love today…

• Hearing Bear say Incredibles, it sound something like cuggabulls• Lamb taking a 3 hour nap, again today!!!• My new Rachel Ray Santoku knife-you can be sure I’m planning meals with lots ofchopping for the next few days!!• Vanilla-Brown Sugar Syrup from our Gourmet Cookbook-it is so delicious, it’s dangerous• Snuggling with Belle on the sofa after Bear is in bedHere is the long awaited photo of me with my hair cut (wearing one of my new headbands)…

Happy Birthday to me…

So today is my birthday. 32 years old. Each year passes more quickly than the last. I’m not the type that dreads birthdays. In fact, I greet them with similar excitement as my 5 year old. Well maybe not that much excitement, but you get the idea. There is still snow (now mostly just ice, but snow sounds prettier) on the ground from yesterday. The kids and I had a great time crunching around in it this morning. Lamb fell asleep while we were playing outside so I brought her in to nap. She hasn’t been the best napper lately so I was just hoping to get a little more time with the kids outside before she woke up. Well, she gave me a wonderful birthday present and slept for 3 hours!!! I went in to check on her 3 times to make sure she was still breathing! We will celebrate my birthday tomorrow as J has the day off.I feel a bit reflective today. Nostalgic even. But that good kind of nostalgia where you drift away for a bit remembering the nice times of childhood, and return still smiling thinking of life now. I prefer the glass half-full kind of thinking. I remember this one birthday, when I was turning 15 I guess. I’d gone on a ski trip with my youth group to Red River, NM. We left after school with plans to drive all night, thus maximizing our ski time. We were supposed to return home the day before my birthday. A huge storm blew through Eastern NM and the TX panhandle on our way to Red River. They closed the roads leaving us sleeping in our vans in Dalhart, TX. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the pleasure (note a bit of sarcasm here) of visiting Dalhart, but suffice it so say it is the epitome of dry, flat, boring West Texas. It didn’t help that I wasn’t in the “cool” bus with our youth group leaders, but instead was in the other bus with a well-meaning mother and the terribly boring Curate-that’s sort of like an assistant minister. This is a man who grew up in Dallas, but managed to speak with a mild British accent because it made him sound sooo intelligent…or so I always guessed. He spent most of the night telling us to just be quiet and go to sleep-HA! We extended the trip half a day to make up for the lost time causing me to spend my birthday driving back to TX. Only this time I got to ride in the “cool” van with the cute boy teaching us how to play spades. It was a good birthday indeed!

Snow Day!

Snow Day!  It finally snowed here at our house today. The kids were so excited to get all bundled (or bungled, as my 5 yr old says) up and play in the snow. We tried making snow men, but the snow just wouldn’t stick together. I did, however, allow Belle to gather some snow to make a “snow cone”. We added a little coke and she was thrilled!

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This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Library day!

We’ve had a nice day here at our little abode. Bear, Lamb, and I went to playgroup while Belle was at school. There are several kids close in age to both Bear and Lamb so it was lots of fun. It’s fun to watch Bear play with other kids. I haven’t done this often enough since we’ve moved. He’s so sweet bringing toys to other kids and playing with the other moms. I’m impressed with how well he shares in these situations. He does pitch a fit if one of the kids pulls a toy from his hands, but I don’t want him to be a pushover anyway!After lunch we headed to the local library. It’s pretty small and I haven’t had much luck with their computer system, but the librarians are very helpful. This library is connected to the larger system of libraries so they will place holds on anything they don’t have, which happens fairly often. We checked out several books including Little House in the Big Woods. And since today has now become yesterday (our little baby girl seems to be occupying my evenings lately), we began reading it last night. I tried to take time to explain the different lifestyle of Laura and her family. I feel like she probably got lost in some of the details (there are A LOT of details). We nearly finished the first chapter when we had to break to eat some pie. We’ll continue tonight.I feel like we’ve had a fairly successful week here. I’ve met most of my goals for the week and so has Belle (we have a new chart of her jobs on the fridge)!! Just one more job and she’s earned her dollar for the week!(Excuse the reflection of the back door on the fridge)

Recipe: Baked Potato Soup

I fixed this for dinner and we rather liked it. I don’t claim to be a great chef, but I do enjoy sharing good recipes when I find them. I got this from an insert in the coupons.

¼ c butter
½ c chopped onion
¼ c flour
1 can chicken broth
1 can Carnation Evaporated Milk (I used reduced fat)
2 large baking potatoes
salt and pepper to taste
Toppings:
Crumbled bacon, grated cheese, chopped green onions

Cook potatoes in microwave for 12 minutes. Melt butter in large saucepan (I used our medium sized dutch oven) over medium heat. Add onion; cook stirring occasionally, for 1-2 minutes, until tender. Stir in flour. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Gradually stir in broth and evaporated milk, stirring continuously.

Scoop potato pulp from 1 potato and mash. Add pulp to broth mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a boil.

Dice remaining potato (with skin) and add to soup until heated through. Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with toppings.

Serves 4

Cheese

Last night at dinner Belle asked how cheese is made. I started to answer but realized I didn’t really know the terms all that well. I tried passing off to J, but he didn’t know them either. So as soon as we were finished eating I did a Google search on how to make cheese. I found a great site here. It has some kind of video thing that is too small to see. However, it has a kid’s section that gives simple information on the cheese making process and even has some games. We had fun looking up the info, but mostly enjoyed the Tetris-based game with bottles of milk and wedges of cheese. So that was our unexpected lesson for today!Belle is always so amazed when I tell her how we didn’t have computers and the Internet when we were kids. I told her last night that I didn’t even have a computer in my house until I was 14. Her jaw dropped to the floor! Ahhh the things we take for granted!!

More Goals

Thought I’d share some of my other goals for the year. There’s something about putting them here on my blog that makes them seem real. I’ve always struggled with accountability.1. My blog goals as mentioned in the last post2. embrace my inner Flylady*3. figure out some way to make some $$4. weekly trips to the library5. read nightly with Belle***As annoying as all those emails are, it’s just the kind of slap in the face I need!! Remember what I said about accountability?**Lately her book reading time has merged with Bear’s, but it isn’t really fair to limit her to the books Bear can handle. I just get a little lazy sometimes…