Noodles and Popcorn

You think this post is going to be some crazy recipe...don't you??? Well, ha, it's not. It's about our new foster kitties. We said good-bye to Mellie, Dino and Riley today (so sad to see Mellie go) and brought 2 orange brothers home from the vet. Noodles is dark orange with lighter orange stripes and white paws and Popcorn is an orangy-tan with white paws. They weren't too happy earlier, but they did have surgery today. Tonight they were much sweeter and more playful. The kids are eager to play with them tomorrow. I asked the lady from Luna's House where the cats got their names and she said kids named them. She didn't want to hurt their feeling by changing them so Noodles and Popcorn it is. Their sister, Dragon, has already been adopted. Crazy names, I tell you!

Dan's Home

Dan got home late Tuesday night. We had a quiet day yesterday doing nothing and he's back to work today. I did manage to get to the store yesterday by myself and it was wonderful. Granted, I spent almost $100 on school supplies for the kids. The shopping wasn't really about me, but I was still alone and that made all the difference! Having 3 kids hanging on you 24/7 for 3 weeks can really drive a person batty!

Today, we dropped Riley and Mellie off at the vet for spaying/neutering and later we have a pool play date with one of Jaelyn's friends...if it doesn't rain like it's threatening. We are picking up Riley tonight (aka Little Fluff) along with 2 new kittens, and Mellie and Dino are leaving us. I'm a little sad to see Mellie go. If I could have kept one, it would have been her!

Bunny in a Box

I lectured the kids about touching wild animals last night. I warned them that animals bite. I tried my best to scare them about rabies and big, mean, hurting rabies shots if they are bit. Well...it worked, partly. Allie came running in the house this morning "I caught the baby bunny in the bug box." She didn't touch it, she promised. Instead she trapped it in the bug box and closed the lid. I let the bunny out at the fence. It hopped out and then hopped right back in. It's not a very smart bunny. I'll grab my camera and take a picture WHEN it happens again. I'm positive that's not an IF, but a WHEN! Ughhh...

New Backyard Friend

We had a small bunny that visited us last year. He ate my zucchini and cucumbers. This year, we've noticed little teeth marks in our fallen peaches so we were pretty sure the bunny was back. Once we spotted him, we realized how much he's grown. We found the spot where he's barely slipping through the fence and blocked it with bricks. Well...

This afternoon, I was sitting on the couch watching a movie when Allie comes running in screaming "Jaelyn's caught a bunny. She has him in her hands." I raced down the stairs to find Jaelyn, in the basement, with a teeny, tiny, shaking and shivering, baby bunny. I made her take him outside and put him down. He was terrified. Thank God he didn't bite her! We managed to get him over near the fence and he hopped to safety.

While we were outside, we noticed this hole that's been chewed through our back gate. Hmmm...I guess the big bunny didn't like my brick!

Kilgore Falls

After sitting at Toyota for 2 hours this morning to get the oil changed and the tired rotated, we decided we deserved a treat. Our friends, Miss Krissy and her boys, were free so we all piled in a van and headed to Kilgore Falls. It was perfect! Last week was insufferably hot (pool like bath water), but today was in the 80s with very little humidity. The falls were packed with people.

Our water shoes we bought for Big Kahuna's came in handy with the rocky creek bed. The kids had a ball playing in the waterfall. To begin with, no one would go near it, but we promised Rita's to everyone who went into the falls...and everyone EARNED their Rita's several times :).

It took Caden a little while to build up his courage to go near the falls. Once he found a spot on the rocks where it wasn't as deep, he was in waterfall heaven.

Jaelyn caught a dragon fly.

Allie, Tyler, Jaelyn, Nathan and Caden

Tyler has made a friend in Allie. She was his little shadow and he didn't mind at all. It was cute.

Caden and his best buddy, Nathan

Jaelyn and Kelly

After the falls, we made our stop at Rita's as promised! It was a picture perfect afternoon!

Much Better

It's only taken me 3 hours of working on my blog this evening to get it close to how it was. Ughhh...I couldn't find my directions on how to edit the html and the old templates didn't work even if I had found my directions. In the end, I printed the html from a friend's blog (thank you, Sandi!) which looked similar to mine and matched her old codes in a hit or miss fashion on the new template's html with my images until it looked right. Did that makes sense? Probably not...it didn't make sense to me either, but it worked. I still need to play with the width a little, but my head is spinning so I'm stopping for the night!

Under Construction

ARGHHH...while playing with blogger's new template designer this morning, I accidentally hit a wrong button and I can't get it back. My custom template is gone. It might take me pulling all of my hair out, but I will figure out how to get it back by this evening!!!!

Our Afternoon in Pictures

The kittens love the Zacster. He's playing just like a kitten, only a really big 14 pound kitten.

Jaelyn loves her Boggle and had me play MANY MANY games with her.

We spent some time outside enjoying the flowers,

(my favorite picture of the day)

and the butterflies,

and the slip 'n slide,

and a book with my feet propped up.

Then we got hungry so we came in and tried a simple recipe.

Roll out biscuits and add a handful of blueberries and powdered sugar.

Fold them over and seal.

Bake for 15 minutes and top with left over icing from breakfast cinnamon rolls (oh we've been bad today). YUMMY!

It's raining now so I think I'll go lay on the couch and watch a movie. I promise to not take a picture of the TV to post later. : )

Swim Lessons - Session 1

Last year, I went way over board on the blog with pictures and videos of the kids swimming. Dan was in Iraq though...he needed to see them. This year, he's gone again and well, I guess I'm just being lazy. I've only taken the video camera to swim lessons 2 times. Oh well, you can only do the best you can do, right??? Here are a few of the highlights.

(Pay close attention to Caden's front crawl. You can see his laid back personality even in his swimming)

They had their swim test on Thursday. Allie passed with flying colors to level 5. She hasn't been wanting to swim the length of the pool during lessons so I wasn't sure if she would be willing to for the test, but she did. Jaelyn did awesome and moved up to level 4. I am so impressed with how far she's come. Last June, she wouldn't put her face in the water. Caden had a bit of trouble with the elementary backstroke so he'll be repeating level 3. That's okay. He's only 5 and for a 5 year old, he swims really well. I wasn't going to sign them up for the second session because I hate the early mornings, BUT I'm a glutton for punishment. The kids want to keep going so we'll be at the pool bright and early a week from Monday to do it all over again!

Introducting Moe

Jaelyn is still working on spending her birthday money. From Uncle Chad and Aunt Karen, she bought herself a beta fish with a tank. She named him Moe. I don't have a great track record with fish. After we moved to Maryland, we bought a small fish tank and I killed fish after fish. I did keep a beta alive for several years when I was in high school, though; so I'm hopeful that Moe will live a long, happy life.

Amazing Glaze Birthday Bash

Jaelyn had the best party today. She chose to have it at a paint your own pottery place. 4 of her friends came so it wasn't too big. They provided the pizza, balloons, paper products and entertainment, I just had to bring drinks and cupcakes. I loved it. In additional to painting something, Jaelyn also gets this awesome plate that all of her friends signed.

Jaelyn and 2 of her closest friends...they all chose to paint a seahorse and they were silly, silly, silly.

Jaelyn named her seahorse Kiwi. I have no idea why.

Jaelyn's Birthday Questions

A friend of mine from high school has just written a book called The Birthday Questions. Here's a quote from the website:

The Birthday Questions is a collection built year after year, a safe place to capture and keep even the smallest memories of your child’s life. Inside you’ll find a series of questions to ask your child every year on their birthday, which you capture on video, building a library of video snapshots of priceless, irreplaceable memories. The questions and instructions contained in these pages will stand as a record of who you are, who your child is, and who you both will become.

If you could sit down and watch recordings of your parents, yourself, your husband, or your wife answering questions as a child, what would that be worth? And what if you could take simple, easy steps to give your child that priceless gift beginning right now?

Ask questions. Capture moments. Create a treasured and timeless keepsake. Make memories that will never be forgotten.

I'm all about making memories and documenting them for my kids so this book is perfect for me. We are a little late starting, but we'll blame it on Jeff since he just published it. I could have really used it about 6 years ago. Here's Jaelyn's first Birthday Question's video on her 8th birthday. I was a little surprised by some of her answers. I love her future occupation.

Check out his website and buy his book. I think you'll be glad you did!!!

Cherish Every Minute

There recently was a discussion on one of my message boards about parenting advice. Mine was pretty clique and simple "My advice would be to relax and try to enjoy everything. Everyone says kids grow up too fast, and it is so true. You sometimes spend those newborns, baby, toddler days and nights wishing for them to get a little bit bigger so your life will get easier. I did...it was all about survival mainly due to circumstances, but I wish I had been able to relax more and just enjoy my children and cherish every minutes." I have a lot of guilt related to my "survival mode." I missed the girls' newborn year and I wished Caden's away. Life was just hard and has continued to be hard for many years.

Now, I spend way too much time worrying about the details instead of just having fun. Part of it is my personality. I'm OCD (not clinical, but I like things a certain way). When my house is a mess, it's makes me brain a mess. I can't think; therefore, I feel the need to clean and pick up all the time. Well, the last 2 afternoons, I've left the 4 loads of laundry sitting sadly in their baskets and have taken the kids to the swimming pool. We've had a ball and you know what, as a friend said, the laundry probably enjoyed being in it's natural state :p. It was still there to fold while the kids had baths last night and if it hadn't gotten folded, was it really the end of the world?

What are you doing to cherish your kids today? Put down the laundry and leave the dishes for later. Just take a few minutes to enjoy your family! That's my advice for today!

Idiot

Remember me saying that the days all run together and that I never know what day it is? Weekend ~ weekday, they are all the same. Well, last night I baked cupcakes for Jaelyn's birthday party and made sure to get the drinks in the frig. This morning, we all got up, had breakfast and then got ready. Allie had me curl her hair and she put on her favorite "party dress." Jaelyn helped me ice the cupcakes. I had everything piled on the table, but something didn't feel right. And then it dawned on me....it's Friday today. Jaelyn's party...it's on Saturday. Idiot!

My Pie

As I already posted, we went blueberry picking yesterday with my friend Kelley and her girls, Alyssa and Brianna. It was a fun day...but kind of hot. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the first "closed" farm before heading to another local blueberry farm that was open.


This is my first attempt at baking a pie...ever. Up until now, Mrs. Smith has been my friend. I've always said, why put in the effort when Mrs. Smith makes it better. I was wrong...home-made was better and better for us because it was only a little loaded with sugar and had no preservative (well, maybe a little in the Pillsbury pie crust I used). Don't laugh at the crust pictures, please. As I've already said, it was my first attempt and I'm just happy the berry filling didn't ooze all out and make a big mess in my oven. And honestly, does it matter how something looks as long as it tastes good...

...and good it tasted!!!! The kids agreed. They ate every bite on their plates.

An Abundance of Squash

There's another mom at the swim session after us that has a garden this is over flowing. She brings in bags of vegetables every other day to share. I love it.



Last week I made an old favorite: Tex-Mex Summer Squash Casserole. I didn't have a lot of salsa; so I diced up extra tomatoes and I used left over scrambled sausage that was in the freezer over hamburger meat. It was soooo good. I think it's my favorite squash casserole. I ate it left over for breakfast the next day. The kids thought I was nuts, but hey, Dan likes cold pizza for breakfast and at least my left overs had veggies in them.




This week, I made a corn and squash soup I found in a Cooking Light Magazine. I liked it, but none of the kids did, even Allie who I was sure would love it.

Days Are Flying

I'm getting bad at my blogging again. The days seem so filled and are just flying by. We figured out that the kids only have 5 1/2 weeks of summer before school starts again. Where did it go?

We are wrapping up our last day of swim lessons tomorrow and I'm very glad. 9 o'clock isn't that early, but I am having the worst time getting us to the pool on time. I'm leaning towards not participating in the 2nd session which is selfish since the kids are really enjoying their "private" lessons.

Dan's still in Louisiana and honestly, it feels like he's been gone for months, not weeks. We are both ready to put our house on the market and move on. Not that he wouldn't travel for a new job. I'm not so ready for the kids though...they are so settled with their friends and in school.

Jaelyn is very excited about her birthday party on Saturday. We are having it at Amazing Glaze and 4 of her friends are coming. It's going to be fun.

Today, we went blueberry picking. My friend, Kelley, and her kids rode with us. We were a little annoyed to reach our destination 45 minutes away and learn they'd changed their picking times. Thankfully, there was another blueberry farm 20 more minutes up the road. The blueberries aren't nearly as good as the ones we picked last year and it was a lot harder because the berry bushes were smaller making us bend down to pick them. So far, I've made a super yummy blueberry pie. It wasn't the prettiest pie, but my picky eaters ate it - I was impressed. I have the recipe for canning a pie filling and I am going to try to make blueberry jelly. We might have to buy our peaches at the store because I'm not driving back to the first farm and most of the peaches on our peach tree shriveled up and rotted.

The Jaelyn is 8

The Jaelyn (as she jokingly refers to herself) turned 8 today. I woke up to her smiling face in my bed. She's finally figured out she can sleep in the my bed instead of the sleeping bag on the floor by just climbing in and not waking me up when Daddy's gone. Sneaky, smart girl! I can't believe she's 8. She can't believe she's 8. We didn't do too much to celebrate today because her party isn't until next Saturday. I debated making her wait to open her big present until then, but I caved. She's wanted this doll for a long time.

Julie's groovy, man. We started braiding Jaelyn's hair like Julie's in the fall, I think.

I took the kids to Longhorns for dinner. Jaelyn picked it and then she complained about the food the entire time. Go figure. Towards the end, Allie kept asking me if they were going to sing and Jaelyn kept getting more and more upset. I was afraid she was going to hide under the table. I got the hostess to call off the waiters just as they were coming out of the kitchen with her brownie sundae. Silly Girl; however, Allie was mesmerized by all the waiters and decided she's having her next birthday dinner at Longhorn too so they WILL sing to her.

Jaelyn is a mini-me in so many ways. I think that's why we clash so much. She may not follow all my rules or do everything exactly like I do, but she can sure tell anyone who'll listen how I do things and where everything is. She is smart and funny and full of energy. She says she wants to be a dog walker when she grows up and her favorite book is the Foot Book by Dr. Seuss. Her favorite color is aqua blue and her favorite thing to do as a family is geocaching. I'll post more about her favorite things tomorrow when I have time to post sections of a video based on a book The Birthday Questions by a high school friend.

Happy Birthday, Jae-byrd! I love you and I am so thankful God chose me to be your Mommy!

Our New House Guests

I've had a dream about fostering little ones for a while now. Of course, in my dream, the little ones always walked on 2 legs, but I guess 4 legs will have to do for now. We picked up 3 kittens from Luna's House today.

Meet Mellie.

She came out of her cage purring. She likes to hide under the bed and spring at balls as they go rolling past.

This little fluff ball is Riley.

He is tiny and so soft. I was worried about the kids getting attached...it might be me to this little guy. He's taken a liking to Zac's Birds.

Allie likes Dino.

He's the little stinker of the bunch. I've already watched him tip toe across the top of our church pew. I'm afraid he'll be scaling curtains next.

He reminds me of a cross between Buster (one of Calico's kittens from my childhood) and Monster (the crazy cat we used to have).

Zac and Zoe haven't been formally introduced to our newest littles yet. Maybe tomorrow.

I think this is going to be a fun experience!

How can something so small make so much noise?