Galaxy!!

Yesterday, Noah and I spent the day having fun. Seriously!! My friend Wendy invited us to meet her and her boys at Galaxy Golf and Games for the afternoon. The place is awesome! It has a 3 story play gym filled with ball pits, climbing walls, slides, and rope ladders. Noah insisted that I play too, so thank goodness everything was kind of adult-sized! But I will admit, my knees were killing me after an hour in those tubes. Enjoy the pics...and get over to Galaxy if you have a chance. They have a special on Wednesdays for unlimited play in the gym and lunch for $4.95...pretty good deal!!

What a weekend!

This past weekend, I had very special visitors!! Teresa and Jenelle drove all the way from Michigan just to come and see me for the weekend! There was just no way this wasn't going to be fun! They came early enough on Friday night to have time to have some lasagna before heading up to Whole Foods. It's always fun to take someone who's never been to Whole Foods before...it can be so overwhelming and overstimulating! But we perservered! We shopped almost evey aisle! When the girls had had their fill, we headed straight to Graeters for some of that wonderful ice cream. I don't think the girls were disappointed! It's so good!

On Saturday we had a lazy morning, followed by impossible pie for breakfast...and then got ourselves prepared to go scrapbooking. It was definitely fun, but I didn't get too much done...I talk too much. I know, surprise, surprise, surprise!! After Cord Camera kicked us out, we headed down to meet up with Sheri at Jeni's for yet another wonderful serving of ice cream. And might I say that again, the girls were NOT dissapointed! I think Teresa is still dreaming about it, LOL!! If nothing else, I know my ice creams! :)

After we were all sufficiently satisfied, we headed back to my house, where Sheri and I made dinner. It was almost 9:00 pm by the time we sat down to eat, but that was ok. After all, we were still full of ice cream! Oh yeah, and don't think that just because we had ice cream before dinner that we skipped dessert. We definitely did not. We had Sheri's frozen lemon puff (featured on Party in the Pantry). It was divine! Here are the girls at dinner...
Also on Saturday, Barry and the kiddos took off to spend the night at my mom's. That was really nice, because I could just kick back and relax with the girls. Sheri ended up staying overnight too on Saturday, and we got Sunday up to make my famous blueberry sour cream pancakes. YUMMY!!!We had another lazy morning on Sunday, and then Teresa surprised me by asking if we could head back up to Dublin to go to Trader Joe's! Of course!!! So we did that, found some goodies, and then ventured over to Don Pablo's for lunch before they hit the road back to Michigan. When I got home from all that, Barry and the kiddos were home, just waiting for me to get here. What a weekend!

And Teresa...my dog misses you so much!!! He was totally in love with her, people! I really think he wanted to go home with her...

There was so much more I wanted to take the girls to see and do, but I guess you can only fit so much in a weekend, eh? Maybe next time!

WHAT?!?!

This morning, my sweet little boy came down and crawled in bed with me to snuggle. After about 15 minutes, he said, "It's wake-up time, Mama! Wook! The sun is out! It's wake-up time!" I tried to bribe him into snuggling for just a few more minutes, but he jumped up on my bed, threw the covers back and proclaimed...

"You can sweep when you're dead! Come on! It's wake-up time!""

Where did that come from??? Kendall says it's from Alvin and the Chipmunks....remind me to throw that movie away... :)

A Little Funny for Your Monday...

I got this a while back from Kate, and I laughed so hard I couldn't see through my tears. Then I read it again OUT LOUD to Barry tonight, and we were both cracking UP! Enjoy...and I think we all know how true it is.... THANKS, KATE!!!

HOW TO SHOWER LIKE A WOMAN:

Take off clothing and place it in sectioned laundry hamper according to lights and darks.

Walk to bathroom wearing long robe.

If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.

Look at your womanly physique in the mirror -- make mental note to do more sit-ups/leg-lifts, etc.

Get in the shower. Use wash cloth, long loofah, wide loofah and pumice stone.

Wash your hair once with cucumber and sage shampoo with 43 added vitamins.

Wash your hair again to make sure it's clean.

Condition your hair with grapefruit mint conditioner.

Wash your face with crushed apricot facial scrub for 10 minutes until red.

Wash entire rest of body with ginger nut and jaffa cake body wash.

Rinse conditioner off hair.

Shave armpits and legs.

Rinse off.

Turn off shower.

Squeegee off all wet surfaces in shower.

Spray mold spots with Tilex.

Get out of shower. Dry with towel the size of a small country.

Wrap hair in super absorbent towel.

Return to bedroom wearing long robe and towel on head.

If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.

HOW TO SHOWER LIKE A MAN:
Take off clothes while sitting on the edge of the bed and leave them in a pile.

Walk naked to the bathroom.

If you see wife along the way, shake wiener at her making the woo-woo sound.

Look at your manly physique in the mirror.

Admire the size of your wiener and scratch your butt.

Get in the shower. Wash your face. Wash your armpits.

Blow your nose in your hands and let the water rinse them off.

Fart and laugh at how loud it sounds in the shower.

Spend majority of time washing privates and surrounding area.

Wash your butt, leaving those coarse butt hairs stuck on the soap.

Wash your hair. Make a Shampoo Mohawk.

Pee.

Rinse off and get out of shower.

Partially dry off.

Fail to notice the water on floor because curtain was hanging out of tub the whole time.

Admire wiener size in mirror again.

Leave shower curtain open, wet mat on floor, and light and fan on.

Return to bedroom with towel around waist.

If you pass wife, pull off towel, shake wiener at her and make the woo-woo sound again.

Throw wet towel on bed.

If there is anyone who did not laugh at the truth behind this, there

is something SO very wrong with you.

Have a great day..... and woo woo!!! :)

Party in the Pantry!!!

Do you all remember on New Year's Day when I posted about things I was looking forward to in the coming year? And one of the things I was looking forward to was "good things to come to my blog?" Well, I wanted to find a way to talk a bit more about cooking and food, and of course, incorporate my friends into it as well. But I didn't want to take away from keeping up to date on what was going on with my family, since that is the reason I started this blog in the first place. I had a vision...so I ran my idea past Sheri and she was game...more than game, actually. She has been a major force behind making this idea happen! So here's the dealio, peeps...

Sheri and I are starting our own food and cooking blog!!!

It's called "Party in the Pantry!", and it's all about having fun in the kitchen. We're planning to try new recipes, feature our tried-n-trues, and talk about kitchen tips, as well as have riveting discussions about food.

Why do we want you to quit buying Cool-Whip? Don't worry, we'll address that one early! Party in the Pantry will debut on Valentine's Day, and we sincerely hope you'll stop by and join the party!

Cinnamon Roll Sunday!

Don't you just love cinnamon rolls?

I do...but I'm not crazy about store-bought ones. If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time now, you know that I am a huge fan of The Pioneer Woman. Right around Christmas, she made homemade cinnamon rolls for all of her neighbors, AND shared the recipe! Sheri and I have been talking about getting together one weekend and making them ever since. Finally, this past weekend, we had time. Sunday was wide open for both of us!! So we made our plan, picked up our supplies, and got busy. At one point, we were rolling the butter/sugar/cinnamon slathered dough up into a roll and the butter was running off the dough and pooling all around the counter. We were giggling and panicking all at the same time. We didn't want to lose a bit of that butter gooeyness! It was too funny! But hey, time in the kitchen with friends should be fun, and if you're not laughing and having a good time, then you're doing it wrong. At least, that's how we look at it!

Now, you should know that this recipe makes about 7 pans of rolls. It takes 9 cups of flour and 3-4 cups of butter. Yes, I said 3-4 cups of BUTTER! We don't fear the butter, folks! We figured with that much butter, we could screw it up royally and the cinnamon rolls would still taste good. And boy, were we right. They are so good...and even better once they've sat a day or two. That being said, Sheri and I completely agree that we will be making them again and tweaking things a bit. We think we can tone down the butter and even some of the sugar/cinnamon. And the icing? Yeah, a whole bag of powdered sugar just feels a bit...gratuitous. So we will tweak and experiment, and then we will bring our results to you. I know you can hardly wait! HAHA!!!

So anyway, here they are...the fabulous cinnamon rolls...


Kate, I still have your pans waiting! Get in that new car and get down here!! :)

Build A Bear!

Grandma Luanne got Kendall a gift card to Build-a-Bear for her birthday, and she was dying to use it, so we headed out to Easton Friday night to check it out. It had been awhile since we'd had a family night out together, so we figured we make an evening of it and go out to eat as well.

When we got to Build-a-Bear, Kendall took her time choosing which bear she wanted. Noah was getting antsy, of course. Kendall picked a panda, and when we headed over the the "stuffer", Noah decided he was getting gypped. He wanted to do it too!!! Barry and I decided that Noah sat through this the last 2 times we had done it with Kendall, and yes, it was high time he got to build a bear too. Of course, he picked out the cheapest bear...gotta love boys!!! And the highlight for him was "the stuffer"...he was so excited about it that the lady running it let him stuff his own bear all by himself. Boy, was he tickled!!
Then we headed over to the "bathing" station and the kiddos cleaned up their bears...After they finished cleaning the bears up, we picked out names for each bear. Kendall named her panda Bamboo, and Noah decided his bear would be Dexter. Finally, we headed over to pick out some clothes...it took Kendall forever, but we were so proud of her in the end. She was a very savy shopper and truly got the most for her money. She compared prices, combined outfits...it was great to watch! She ended up with a pair of HSM pajamas, a pair of jeans, and a t-shirt. And she even had $5 left over!

Noah, on the other hand, loudly proclaimed that "Bears don't wear clothes!!!". And so Dexter has no clothes...and that's the way Noah likes him. Funny...they were running a special where we got $5 off, so Noah's bear ended up costing us a whopping $5!!!! You just can't beat that! And doesn't he look happy???After Build-A-Bear, we headed over to California Pizza Kitchen for a late dinner. We hadn't been there in forever, and I was NOT disappointed...it was SO GOOD! And the kids behaved very well, so it was a nice evening out. Of course, they both fell asleep on the way home...and we went to bed really early too. But hey, not a bad start to the weekend!

It's that time again...

Well, it's that time of year again.

The time of year when my *usually* very sweet Barry starts following me around, asking me 4 times a day if my income statements are finished yet....if my mileage reports are finished yet...if my expense reports are finished yet. Basically, if I have my records finished so he can get our taxes done and filed. I HATE this time of year, because it makes me really bitchy. It makes me want to turn around and say...

"Yes, my love...I finished ALL of the records today. But I hope you're not hungry, because I didn't have time to get dinner made. Oh yeah, and I hope you have some clean underwear and socks for work, because I didn't get to the laundry either. What?!? The electric bill is overdue? The checking account is overdrawn?? That must be because I was sitting in front of the computer doing RECORDS all day! I'm sorry...who was that on the phone? The school? I forgot to pick Kendall up? Holy moly...I must have forgotten because I was so involved in my records!! Every single toy we own is in a pile on the great room floor? And Noah is nowhere to be found? How did that happen? Could be because I was so involved in my records, I'll bet."

Yes, I am being facetious and ridiculous. But honestly!! I get these things done every year in plenty of time. But I don't have an entire day to devote to it...nor do I want to do it that way. I like to do it in chunks. The income statements one day. The first half of the year's expense reports one day. The second half another day. 4 months of mileage reports one evening, 4 months the next, 4 months the next. You see how I operate, don't you? So after 14 years, why doesn't Barry see it, I ask you? If my personality were conducive to sitting at a desk all day, I'd still be working in corporate America!! Geesh!

All I'm saying is this..."Honey, I rarely drop the ball...and never on something so important. Back off and give me some space, ok? I'll get the damn things done...eventually."

Anyone else out there share my frustration? Or am I still just being bitchy??

Shit. That's what I THOUGHT you'd say... :)