~So Creative

I wondered where all the Pringles cans were disappearing to---now I know. Found these in Courtney's room the other day while cleaning. They seem to be a place for her to keep her littlest pet shop animals :) I didn't realize animals are sorted by season!

The Banana one is funny--she had a little stage and he was singing on it.

The Potato head pic is Cora. Cody's buddy was over and jokingly said he loved Mrs Potato Head so Cora was chasing him around doing kissy lips. The girls had a friend over too and apparently she has a crush on Shane cuz when he arrived she was screaming and hiding and pestering him like 10 year old girls do to 13 year old boys that they think are cute. See why I need those BOYS & GIRLS signs from the last post?!?!?!?!

~This weeks finds

So very fitting. My Bro-in-law was over one night while courtney was having a slumber party, girls were running everywhere, cody was playing Guitar Hero at top volume & the kids kept taking animals over to show him- he laughed and said "It's like a zoo in here!"
Yes, it is :-)

I spent a looooong time at the craft store Friday walking around trying to figure out what to do with "the girls" room. I have a few projects going right now. This is one that I got done last night. And these signs might come in handy when the kids are both teenagers and have friends over. They are hanging in the hallway between their rooms :-)

~Gunner & Ozzy & Mickey

Thank God for sunny patches!





It's not the dog eating the cat food, at our house it's the other way around.



and this is hilarious!...............

The hamster cage was open and Ozzy, who is always trying to get Mickey, saw that as his opportunity. Guess he didn't know that the hamster wasn't in the cage! So Oz settled down to wait for him to come back. He was chilling with his paws tucked up under him and everything! Good thing I just cleaned the cage out.

~ummm is that safe?

Ran to the store Friday and this was the scene that greeted me when I came home. Yikes!!! I think it's awesome and slightly amazing that Cody took the initative to do a job without being told BUT maybe waiting until someone was home (someone that could drive to the ER 'just in case'!) would have been a better choice. Then again he is 13.

~The bane of my existance... today

arrghhh!!! Duane got the new P90X system and I would love to do these intense workouts with him HAHAHAHAHAHA !!!!! He has this nifty pull-up bar and I was dying for him to leave so I could try it out- (didn't want to attempt it in front of him!) Dangit all- I can NOT get up! I haven't attempted a pull-up, on purpose, since high school. I had no problem at all back then. As a kid I was always always always climbing, jumping, running, and I loved pretending to be an olympic gymnast on the bars. I was constantly flipping over the monkey bars, even out by the barn I would used the cow cage for an impromtu gymnastic bar routine. Guess this is one of those 'use it or loose it' moments. I've certainly lost it! I find it ironic that the sign above the door where he put the pull up bar says DREAM lmao!!! It should say "keep dreaming". I'll get it eventually.....I'm gonna go try again for the the 30th time...................I'm going to hurt tomorrow aren't I ? :-(

~What to do? What to do?

I'm trying to pick out colors for Courtney (& Cora's room). My niece stays here enough to warrant her own bed in the room, So I got the girls matching quilts. I'd like to find another headboard and footboard to paint white (or get D to build one). But for now the little metal frame will work. I even thought about painting it white so that it blends in a little better until I find a new bed for Cora. Courtney's always wanted baby blue walls (like the blue in the tinkerbell poster), and there is a little blue in the quilts. I thought maybe blue on the bottom and yellow up top. I would like to do a pale pink but the girls aren't getting any younger so they probably won't like that for much longer.

I'm covering the corkboard by Cora's bed in a plaid material and making the girls name signs for above their beds. Cort wasn't too thrilled with the white curtains cuz you can't see them right now, but once I decide on a paint color (and that could take a long time!) they will pop out. I'm also getting them white bedskirts that I will embellish with ribbon (to hide the stuff under their beds!)

I put this mirror above norts bed yesterday (a lil too high in my opinion) and i was going to add a "hanging ribbon" to it. BUT at bedtime she made me take it down because her friend recently told her about "bloody mary" so now she wants NO mirrors in her room Grrrr. The poster is just there as filler until we find some nice art work. It's a good size wall, so I'll need lots--to the right of the pic there is a bookshelf, a bean bag and cort's dresser and hutch and the closet door.

~Easter

Oops! I don't have any pics of Easter :-( I'm bummed too. I had everyone over, the kids even had an Easter egg hunt and I took no pictures. Easter fell on Duane's birthday this year and I didn't even take any pics of the b-day boy! What a picture slacker I've been lately. We made Ham, spinich/strawberry/walnut salad, potatoe salad, baked beans, deviled eggs (or as my MIL says "angel eggs") strawberry pretzel dessert, pistacio dessert, carrot cake, rolls/bread, and I know I'm missing something else cuz there was a LOT of food. But what it all adds up to....is my big booty! 2 birthdays and an Easter feast all within a week + 1/2. That really blew my good eating plan out of the water. I really need to learn how to control that in a party environment. I do I have picture from yesterday. Courtney and her friend were playing frisbee and it got stuck on the porch roof outside Cody's window. So while he went to get the frisbee I jokingly said to Gunner "wanna go help Cody?" and he DID! He jumped right out the window onto the roof! I threw the camera and reached for him, but now I'm wishing I would have just taken a picture.
Now that I see the pic I guess I should have told him to get the sticks off the roof while he was out there. LOL

I took some pics of the kiddos this morning as they headed out the door. No reason-just that the everyday things are just as memorable as "special" days.






hee hee aren't I just sweet?

~St Pattys Day Dinner

This Irish stew and bread was delicious!!! I'm feeling more Irish already.
What makes it "Irish" stew? It certainly wasn't made in Ireland and neither was I. (I do have that Irish blood running thru me tho) But the fact that I threw a bottle of Guinness in it does!!! I was going to make the bread myself but time didn't allow for it--so I ended running to the store to fetch some. I couldn't decide which one to get there were so many that looked yummy-so I ended up with 2 loafs. And I ate most of it all by myself :-) When I came home with it Duane said "yay! crusty bread I love crusty bread!" So I definately want to MAKE some for him when I have time.
I found the stew recipe here: http://www.gumbopages.com/food/irish/stew.html
(look, you can still see snowlady in the yard!)

~petting zoo

Boo Boo the Bear. She was squealing like a pig LOL!!!
I found out she's got pretty sharp claws already when she was trying to climb up onto my head

look i'm britney!! ha ha
This dude weighed a ton! and right before the pic was taken, he kept turning his head to look at me and I asked if he still had his teeth and the answer was yes---that's why i've got a "oh #%*^" look on my face LOL!!!

~yummy surprise

I looked out on the porch to find this yummy, pretty surprise today. As soon as I saw the package I knew who it was from :-) So THANK YOU Anne & Hunter!!!! :-) Courtney has already adopted the cute boxes to play with and I've eaten all the 'candy crack' and I've got minty fresh breath LOL Miss you guys!!!! xoxo

~We're gonna party all night! (literally!)

Courtney had a slumber/birthday party with 3 friends last night. Note to self.....................

never let nort have a slumber party again!!! :-) Those girls were up till almost 4 am!!!! I thought I'd protect my sanity by trying to cut back on the sugar. Pizza, chex mix, cheese & crackers, veggies & fruit were on the menu. But of course the cake and ice cream sent them over the top. It's 6pm and courtney is already passed out on the couch. Bedtime can't come soon enough for the rest of us :-)

The girls showed real maturity by offering to serve themselves cake and ice cream.......

I was loving that. Less for me to do :-)

Then they showed their true age by playing with their food......

(but then again I have a few friends that had chocolate cake on their faces not so long ago LOL)

~~~~~PARTY ANIMALS!!!

And I know this will surprise Alisha, but nort has already cleaned up the basement :-) I can't believe it either!!! They made such a HUGE mess down there. Streamers, balloons, silly string and toys were everywhere, and who knew courtney's CD player was so loud. gosh!. As of today I say she will NEVER have another slumber party but I'm sure I'll be giving in again soon cuz I did overhear her friends say that "her mom was cool" :-)

~Happy Birthday Nort!

itty bitty courtney age 3

Courtney age 10 3/13/2008

My baby is 10 today!!!! I've enjoyed every minute of the past decade. What a lil angel she is. This sweetie has a huge heart and is super special. Messy....but very special LOL

We took her to town after school to pick out 3 new webkinz and a new DS game-she's been dying to get the build a bear game and they finally had it :-) and it even came with a t-shirt for her b.a.b animal. She also got a bunch of littlest pet shops and the Snow Buddies DVD from us. And Daddy had to get her something "special" just from him. I guess they can go hunting together now. (!?!?!?)

(duane took her out after her party guests left-she did good!)

~Snowman/lady

day 1


Our "big snow" snowman......or maybe it's a lady. Cody tried to make a hat out of snow for it's head, but I think it ended up looking more like a beehive hairdo, so perhaps it's a snowLADY.



day 5

I guess it really is a snow "lady" look at those curves! LOL
but she lost her head :-(

~Holy snowstorm Batman!

This is what I saw first thing morning....... look how high the snow got on the window!

Deeeeep snow!

While Cody & Gunner were outside shoveling,

the cat was inside staying toasty warm by the fire. What a slacker!!!!

~ Concert @ the Q

Thanks to the Army we went to another concert this past weekend :-) George Strait & Little Big Town (who I LOVE) were in Cleveland. We were in the nosebleed section but who's complaining, it was free! Had I known my Mom loved George so much I would have taken her and sent nortney to a friends house cuz all she did was ask when it would be over. She had no clue who George was. She was really only there for the nachos and to go out to eat before the concert. I was only there for Little Big Town but George was great too, I forgot how many #1 hits that guy has. They all sounded exactly like they do on the radio. The opening act (sarah johns or something) was NOT so good. You shouldn't sing about getting baptisted followed by song about kickin your mans A#@.

Its nearly impossible to get pics of the kids any more. They always look away or put their hands up. I had my finger over the flash so Cody wouldn't see it coming :) Sneaky me got a pic of him enjoying the concert Mwahahahaha

~The Big Green Flop

Ahhh the importance of following directions & staying OFF the phone while cooking. Last night I was GOING to make chickpea burgers......................
the recipe can be found here:
http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/hamburger-recipes/vegetarian-chickpea-burgers/article.html



I was so excited to try it, but I choose a bad day to try something new (did ya read the post below??? My head was not exactly screwed on straight) and I had too much chaos going on around me (the kids had friends over, the phone kept ringing, I was trying to make too many different things at the same time). I didn't have flat leaf parsley leaves so I threw spinich leaves in the food processor (cuz i throw spininch in practically everything!) But that made the whole mixture very green.


So I added some worchestershire sauce, browning sauce & liquid smoke to try to make it a little "browner". Which didn't really work :-(



So I decided to try cooking them anyways, I mean, just cuz they're green doesn't mean they won't taste good right? Besides it's almost St Pattys Day.




After cooking them for about 10 minutes each side and they still didn't firm up, I realized that I had added the oil that was meant for the skillet to the mixture while I was on the phone with a neighbor! They were waaaay too moist. oops! So I tried putting them on a cookie sheet and baking them in the oven. Thankfully I thought of making alternatives while I was making this. I had hotdogs in the oven on a cookie sheet, seasoned potatoe wedges and then I put frozen burgers in a skillet once I realized that the great green goo was not going to get eaten for dinner.


Funny thing is they did eventually turn brown---and Duane asked me why I was throwing away 3 hamburgers LOL Fooled him :-)

I sauted garlic and mushrooms to top the burgers with onion buns and it was really pretty good, even tho I practically burned the shrooms while I was on the phone with Duane. He calls every night to make sure the Cavs game is being DVRed Grrrrrr :-(