What a fabulous dinner...

Sometimes dinner doesn't go so well (like last night when I tried to make a non-crockpot recipe into one and we ended up eating sandwiches). Sometimes it does... like tonight. We are playing in a Recipe Zaar game where you "tour" different areas of the world. This week we were doing Central America... we had the most amazing dinner tonight... I am not really big on steak, so I made shrimp in addition to the steak. We had some friends over and had a great time (wine too!)

Black Bean Salad - http://www.recipezaar.com/213207


Peruvian Rice - http://www.recipezaar.com/310204


Beef & Chimichurri Sauce - http://www.recipezaar.com/307536


(same recipe, just a view of the sauce after I made it - yes, me, Candy, made the sauce - and the bean salad actually!)


Shrimp (I'll link the recipe when it posts)


Jamie, I think, was the only one at the table that liked it ALL. That child will truly eat anything :) And yes, he drops food on himself -- just like mom. I'm forever making a mess. LOL

Tom's new ride...

... well, new to him anyway... it's a 2006 :)

My new theme song...

I hate car shopping (Tom needs a new one). They tried to flip us at closing - Tom goes up there and gets it settled and I just come up to sign. Apparently they think I'm going to stay there. No. I'm there to sign papers. If you change it, I leave. So Tom wasted a few hours of his time yesterday. Ugh. I think because I know what goes on behind the door and when the sales people say "I'll be right back, let me talk to the desk" I get annoyed too easily. Working in finance for a sales place probably ruined me. LOL.

Heard from.... The... errr... Living Room

Friend and her daughter are over here and Cassie asked if they could play a video game. She informed the mom that it is 'a very appropriate game.'
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My photo won Honorable Mention!

http://www.diyphotography.net/at-my-home-photo-contest-the-winners

How cool is THAT?!?!

It was for this picture - which I am immensely proud of... :) I openly admit I'm an amateur and if I get a good picture, it is sometimes a little bit of luck and sometimes a little bit know-how.

You can hear them talk about it on their podcast although for some reason they don't talk about mine, but hey, that's okay. Although I would have liked to hear their opinions.



Okay, I promise I'll stop posting that picture now... LOL... I know, it's JUST honorable mention, but take a look at some of the other photos... there was some amazing ones!

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Meet Fru-Fru... errr Dark Blood

I'm thinking Jamie used to beat small children in a former life or something. It's the only thing that explains why this child has the worst luck. So, Cassie got a rat that is pretty active and social and well, doesn't bite.

Jamie got... well... he got Fru-Fru. Fru-Fru was a black hamster that looked nice enough in the pet store.

Then we brought it home.

Jamie stuck his hand in there to put it into it's house mansion and it bit him. Yeah, now it's name is Dark Blood. Nice.

We are, of course, hoping it was just upset and confused and scared. Me? IT IS A RAT. IN MY HOUSE. I NOW HAVE A LIZARD AND RATS LIVING IN MY HOUSE! DO YOU HEAR ME? THIS IS A PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!

*breathe breathe breathe*

My point? It won't bite me because I'm NOT touching it and if it gets out, I'm getting a cat. Or borrowing one. Or something. Whatever.

So, here's Dark Blood and his house mansion. I also got a shot of him through the bars eating. Yes, I could have opened the door, but he was too close for comfort and... yeah, that's not happening.







He even looks like a menacing little shit, doesn't he?

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Meet Fuzzy Wuzzy

The kids kept up with their chores and made sure Julie was fed and stuff (for the most part) so now us parents had to keep up with our end of the deal (TOM!) and they got their own pets.

Cassie got a gerbil that she named Fuzzy Wuzzy. He's pretty docile, likes to chew - A LOT. And likes to run in his wheel at night (thankfully she seems to sleep through it).

Me? It's a freaking rat. In my house. If it gets out, I'm totally setting one of those snap traps for it. I don't care. You call it a pet. It's a RAT. Don't make me buy a cat. I don't care that the two males in the house are allergic. If that rat gets lose, it's hungry kitty food.

So here you go... this is Fuzzy Wuzzy and a shot of her house mansion





We will meet Jamie's new pet tomorrow...

*evil laugh*

Now, listen up you lurking lurkers...

Okay, non-lurkers too... I want you to cook something. Well, except for you, Dy, you are as scary as I am in the kitchen, so you just bring some sweet 'taters over and Tom will cook for you.

Go, get the ingredients and make these (no nuts, yes to raisins for me). We've been making them for a few years and they are to DIE for... trust me.

Disappearing Sweet Potato Muffins



Now, go cook.

That is all.

Heard From the backseat... errr... dinner table

Jamie: "At night I turn into a pokemon and hide in the chimney... No, really! I really do!"

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Books Books Books and More Books

I know this comes as a huge surprise to anyone that knows me - even in passing, but...

I love books. I love to read, I love to hold books and choose which one to read next. I love when I get a new book to read. I wish I had an entire huge room to devote to a library, but really, how practical is that?

Ah... yes. I'm also a "get rid of it" type of girl. Things have a 6 month rule in this house (well, they used to, we are trying to get back into that again). If no one has used it or otherwise enjoyed it within 6 months, it's gone. The only thing safe are special cooking gadgets, holiday decorations and to-be-read or otherwise special books. I still, every now and then, weed through them to take out those that I'm either no longer interested in reading or I don't remember why I wanted it in the first place. I get rid of those. Either through Paperback Swap or giving them to a friend or whatever. They are gone. But it's so hard. I want to be one of those crazy book hoarders, but it's just not in my nature... I have a few books that I keep, but for the most part, I figure if I want to re-read something so bad that it will go above the 150 or so books waiting for me to read them, well, I can just get another copy somewhere.

So, recently, I weeded through my bookshelves... they look all clean and tidy again. Well, except for the kid's stuff around it. Ignore that. When do they move out again?



Tom's side is even reasonably clean (trust me, as much as I love the man, he's a huge slob). I have noticed he's been stockpiling some in his room, but it's the man cave and he can do whatever he wants in there, so I'm trying not to go in there and start grabbing and Frecycling... *laugh*

The Big Sleepover Compromise...

I came home from book club on Sunday night and found this in the hallway...



Apparently, they couldn't decide which room to sleep in (they were having a sleepover) so they decided to sleep in the hall.

Whatever works.

WATER BALLOONS

Note to self: Check to make sure camera is set right before taking picture.

This the only one I could marginally salvage... but we let the kids have a bit of a water balloon fight... they had a great time!

Ticked off Cassie

She has been ranting and raving all day... Doesn't want to clean her room. So now she's not allowed out of her room until she has cleaned it. No idea how the red ski cap helps. But Tom and I both are hitting the Advil.

Soccer Team Party

The Spring soccer season is over. Tom coached this year and Cassie loved it. We had a team party at CiCi's Pizza and the kids had a great time.

Here's Cassie getting her medal from Coach Tom


The kids at pizza


And we did the cute photo cake thing again (kids loved it!)

First Summer Craft --- SAND ART!

Yeah, so for whatever reason, my kids went crazy about this stuff. They wanted to do sand art. So I bought sand art. I said we would do it the first week after school was out. We did it Wednesday.... and survey says...



I think they were a little disappointed. I think they were expecting this big huge deal with the sand and decorations and mixing it up, I showed them how to make it layered, but then Cassie's settled and she fell and it got all wiggly and she had a melt down and wouldn't let me take a picture because it wasn't any good anymore, so we added sand to them both and man... Jamie's expression says it all.

I think I'm gonna just let them play outside with dirt and sticks. That seems safer somehow. Maybe I'll get Jamie a beebee gun and a slingshot and Cassie can have some matches.

Or something.

Anything.

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Jamie is an ewok... or just has long hair?

So... Jamie comes into my office earlier this week and Tom and I both said "Hey, you're an Ewok" thinking he remembered seeing parts of that movie or whatever. Yeah, not so much.

He said "No, I'm pretending I have long hair"

Okay, aside from the weird factor of that (this is Jamie, folks), if his hair starts touching the top of his ear he starts asking for a haircut continuously.

So yeah...



And yeah, I gave it a sand texture or something. I dunno, I was fooling around in PhotoFiltre.

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When the kids won't let me take their picture...

I basically have to resort to hounding poor little Julie when the kids decide to be anti-camera.

At least she's cute (even if not fully potty trained *TOM*).

Hiding from my camera...

The kids have been basically hiding from me. They are annoyed with me taking their picture. Yeah whatever.

Jamie let me take this because I told him I'd take away his Gameboy if he didn't (what? Oh please, like you've never been evil to your child. As if!)



And Cassie, well, she just thinks if she can't see me, I can't see her. She thinks she's that weird kid from Mystery Men (please tell me someone will get this reference) - Please?

Slideshow of the kids cooking french toast...

Tom and I do this contest for charity each year on Recipe Zaar. It's called the Zaar World Tour. Basically, a group of 10 (well, 16 groups I think) cook dishes that are from various countries. It's a lot of fun and a chance to try different things. This year, there was a Kid-Friendly Challenge and we had the absolute BEST time tonight... here's a slide show and more of the story under it...


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The story here is that Tom is the best Daddy ever and decided to let 5 year old Cassie crack the eggs. She made a huge mess, but it was so worth it. After the first one we were quiet while Tom cleaned up the shells from the bowls and you saw her little head peer over the lip and say "oops!" - we all cracked up laughing. Her big brother, Jamie, helped her in the bathroom to wash up after all the egg cracking was done.

Jamie is 7 and he got to cook - this is the first time we've let him actually cook something. He did great, even flipped them half way through! He also read the recipe to us and helped mix the sugar/cinnamon. We had a great time with a lot of laughs and this was truly a great memory - we all had fun.

The Man Cave - and Happy Early Father's Day

Tom has been griping about his video card (one blew out - yes, apparently he needs 2 for his system - whatever. So, I gave it to him early so he would just shut up already.

Make sure you click this to go to flickr to see my snarky notes and commentary :)

Jamie's Last Day of School...

I now have a 2nd grader, folks.

Let me say that again.

I now have a 2nd grader.

Okay, let's nevermind that I even have a KID (or two), but he's like in 2nd grade now. 2nd grade. Holy mackerel. Friday (5/30) was his last day of being a 1st grader.

Cassie spent the night with a friend on Thursday and as he was going to bed he got a little upset and started crying. It was really endearing because he had been doing nothing but talking about Summer and no more school and no more homework and water slides and pools and... did I mention no more homework? I think on Thursday night he finally realized that it meant he wouldn't see everyone everyday anymore. He was pretty broken up and when I told him we could call anyone he wanted to come play, he got more upset and crying harder and told me it wouldn't be the same. I tried to NOT feel like chopped liver cuz I'm sitting here with a whole list of ideas to keep them busy and entertained for the next THREE MONTHS. Anyway, so eventually he calmed down (through apparently no help of my own cuz I suck like that).

They had a party on the last day of school and Tom made these frog cupcakes for the class, which were apparently a hit.


Cute, huh?

In the meantime, Tom is enjoying not getting up in the morning because he can sleep through a missile detonating next to his ear. I'm still getting up early, which is good. I seem to do well if I can get my butt up and going earlier, but I so hate mornings. I'm a much better night owl. BUT the reality is that I own a business and need to keep some semblance of business hours.

I don't have to like it though.

Anyway, so I have a 2nd grader... and I have a almost-kinder one too. Wow. Both in school. I'm excited for Cassie, she's going to LOVE it, but a little sad too.

Posting this pic again just cuz I love it so much. It's so "Cassie"