Another Item On The Checklist Is Done!!!!

I was able to get this done today! I didn't have my camera with me, so the picture isn't the greatest, but you can see it's done! This is Jon's grandmom's wall with the verse she chose!

Woo Hoo!!

One More Recipe...

I know I just did a recipe, but I had a few requests for this one. I just made it today for Jon to eat while he enjoys the Raven's Game. It's the Olive Garden's "Zuppa Toscana." Enjoy!

1lb ground Sweet Italian Sausage
1tsp Crushed Red Pepper
1 Large Diced Onion
1Tbsp Bacon Pieces (pre-cooked or Baco’s)
2tsp Garlic, crushed

10C Water
5 Cubes Chicken Bouillon
1C Heavy Cream
1lb Diced Russet Potatoes (about 3 large)
¼ of a bunch of Kale

Cook sausage and red pepper in soup pot. Drain fat and put in the refrigerator until needed again. In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic for about 15 minutes, or until onions are soft. Add water and bouillon and bring to boil. Add potatoes and cook until soft – about ½ an hour. Add cream and cook until heated through. Stir in sausage and simmer. Add kale just before serving. Serve garnished with fresh shredded parmesan cheese.

Monkey Munch

I have been wanting to make "Monkey Munch" for awhile now and decided to take the plunge today. It's really good! Don't care for the TV show that promotes it, but will definitely make this again!

Enjoy!

Monkey Munch

Ingredients:9 cups Chex® cereal (any variety)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Preparation Directions:

1. Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside. 2. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, stir together chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Microwave uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag. 3. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Stove-Top Directions:

Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside. In 1-quart saucepan, heat chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter over low heat, stirring frequently, until melted. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Weird Wet Spot

So I was vacuuming my Sienna this afternoon because it finally stopped raining and my van was in desperate need. When I lifted up the front passenger mat to get underneath I was startled to see a wet spot on the floor! Upon further investigation I find that nothing else is wet....not even the carpet piece that lays over it! So I Goggled it and found that this is a problem in some Sienna's and now I have to call to take it in. I made it over a year so far without having to take it in, which is more than I could say about my last van (piece of junk MPV). While it's there I'm going to have them also look at my manual sliding door as sometimes it doesn't latch and stay open. Little issue I've had for awhile but not worthy of a wasted afternoon at the service center.

So, if anyone has a copy of Karen Kingsbury's final book in her series and won't be using it this week, can I steal it for something to read? I'm hoping to make the appointment for Tuesday.

As if I have nothing else better to do with my time......

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Busy Busy!

I've been so busy lately I haven't had time to blog! I'm trying to get into a groove and it's not quite happening. If anyone knows how to add four or so hours into the day, please let me know!

We've had quite a bit going on here. My grandmom had hernia surgery two weeks ago and called me from the ER last Sunday morning. She had an ambulance take her because she had extremely bad pain in her neck and thought something was really wrong. Well, they diagnosed her with a pulled muscle and muscle spasms and gave her a morphine-based pain killer as well as a muscle relaxer and sent her on her way. Needless to say, she does not remember that day at all. I told her she was coming hope with me for a few days. Has anyone ever taken 24 hour care of an elderly person? I'll tell you, it's worse than having a newborn baby! I had her stay until Friday. I was wiped by the time the week was through.

Speaking of newborns, my sister-in-law had hers two and a half weeks ago! She is beautiful and perfect but it's been far from easy for her. First Jenna ended up back in the hospital at five days old due to her bilirubin being very high. She stayed for two nights. Becky got barely three more days in at home and then ended up in the hospital herself. She ended up needing three units of blood and a D & C. So, she was starting over from day one as far as healing was concerned. Coincidentally, the next few school days after I dropped my grandmom back home were spent helping Becky.

So, all is well now. Becky and Jenna are both troopers and in spite of "pumping and dumping" when Jenna was ten days old and having to supplement with bottles, she's now over her birth weight and nursing exclusively. Yay for that!

In addition to all of that, I'm in charge of a big Women's Ministry Event at church that we've started planning, as well as helping with retreat stuff. On the school end of things, I'm the School Spirit Committee Chair and I'm trying to get events and spirit wear stuff together. I had our first committee meeting last night. After that I headed to Jon's grandparents house to start on their verse on the wall. She is hosting Canasta in October and wanted it done by then. Looks like it'll happen! Also at school I'm class mom for both kids' classes and I'm a steady volunteer in Ella's classroom and now the media center (thanks, Mary Ellen! Hee Hee Hee...!!). Someone remind me that I'm a STAY AT HOME MOM? Don't even get me started on the gym!

Oh and I almost forgot! While I was home with my grandmom last week I managed to pull together 15 meals for my quarterly meal swap. I needed 12 for the actual swap and the extras I had went to Becky and Jon's cousin who had a baby last week. I'm going down there to meet that baby tomorrow!

So this week my goal is to pull my house together to prepare for Sunday. I'm looking forward to the get-together and competition!!!

Now I'm off to enter in all the PTA members into the database on my computer. Oh, did I not mention I do that, too???

Yearbook Yourself!

Alright, so Steph peaked my curiosity! Here are some pics of me from this site:

I'm not going to post all the years.......but they pic are too funny!!

I actually really LIKE this last one above...what do you all think??

And, without further ado....JON!

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!

The Yellow Jackets are GONE!

Finally! I broke down and paid someone to come take care of them yesterday. I had a pile of about 45 that I had killed in my living room just in the morning hours! I went out there this morning and there is NO activity at all! The guy that came told me I had a large nest in the wall. No kidding!

And now we've moved back to ants. In my kitchen. Again. Because my house just must be so irresistible to little things like that. We had ten bats in our crawlspace in the spring and last year we had an issue with European Hornets (yep, they were THAT BIG!) in the crawlspace (and occasionally flying around the 2nd floor) as well. And the other night, as I lay in my bed, I hear something above me in the other crawlspace (what is it with crawlspaces?) and Jon and I decided it must be a mouse (I'm thinking positive here...don't rain on my parade and tell me where there is one there is more....!). So, I set traps last night and what did I find this morning? A missing trap. I'm not kidding.

I love my cape cod, but I HATE the crawlspaces!!

Blech!

Looking cute waiting for the bus this morning!

Wall Art!

Well, I got to two of Ella's "brands," if you will, on her bedroom wall. I have all eight drawn in pencil and now I have to go back and paint them. Avery took a nice nap, so I was able to paint two! Now, granted, they are easy one's (only one color...), but they still took some time to do:

And to give you an idea of actual size:

The other six logo's I've sketched on her wall are: Camp Rock, Cheetah Girls, High School Musical, Hello Kitty, Hannah Montana and Littlest Pet Shop. I think the Camp Rock one will be my ultimate challenge. Maybe even more than my Raven's Cornhole design was...

Anyway, while I'm at it here, I thought I would share my other wall projects. It all started in the kitchen:

Then traveled to the powder room:

Thinking this was fun and relatively easy I decided to do one in our master bedroom. This one took forever because I used wall paint instead of the other stuff and so I had to do multiple coats. Plus it's quite large:

Next I perched on the washer and dryer and tackled the laundry room (which is my favorite so far!):

Then I wanted to do something fun in Ella's dress-up corner so I came up with this (in glitter paint, of course!):

I promise Bible verses are coming....I'm actually working on one for Jon's grandmom and pop. I'll take a pic when I'm done with that one as well.

To help get me thinking about verses for my house, which is your favorite (short!) verse you would love to see on your wall??!!??