Chicken Pot Pie

I have a crock pot chicken recipe that I make every now and then. I normally serve it over egg noodles, but every time I've made it, we comment on how good it would be in a pot pie. So...today, I made it. This morning, I threw 3 chicken breasts, a little thyme, a diced onion and a can of cream of chicken soup in the crock pot. Later in the afternoon, I added mixed veggies and shredded the chicken. I mixed in half a small package of cream cheese and poured it all into a pie shell (Pillsbury, not home-made). It baked till the crust was golden brown.

It was delicious. If I want a compliment from my cooking, I have to specifically ask for one. Dan never volunteers whether he likes dinner or not. Tonight, before I had a chance to ask, he told me it was really good and I should add it to the regular rotation. That means it was really, really good! Allie gave it 2 thumbs up. Jaelyn and Caden had peanut butter sandwiches. I'm so thankful I have 1 child who will eat normal food.

The Highs and the Lows of Camping

This camping trip had quite a few highs and lows. You could look at this two ways. First were the temperatures. It was 94 when we got to our camp site on Friday. That's hot to be outside setting up camp, playing, and going to sleep. Everyone was a little cranky when they went to bed and it just got worse. It was hot. The kids were crying, Dan was snoring and I wanted to pack up and go home! Thankfully, Sunday night was cooler, bordering on cold...maybe temperatures in the high 50s or low 60s. We still had snoring and tantrums (a DS came mighty close to being thrown in the dumpster that night by Mean Mommy and I don't throw things away), but at least we weren't sweating. We also had highs and lows with behavior. We had crying, arguing, tuning out, time-outs...and then there was the kids' behavior :p.

Here are the kids before the crying and bickering started requiring a game of musical beds.
Friday night, Allie ended up on the floor in the middle of the tent, Jae ended up with Dan and I ended up with Caden. The second night, I ended up with Jaelyn and Allie and Caden ended up in the floor while Dan basically slept on the ground because Allie played with my fingernail clippers and put a small hole in one of our air mattress. I had to hunt under Caden (gingerly so I didn't wake him) in the middle of the night for my ear plugs because Dan was snoring so loudly. We need a battery for his c-pap machine desperately.

There were 4 things around the camp that kept the kids relatively entertained: the bikes, the hammock, the trees and the dirt! When they weren't arguing over the hammock, it was loads of fun.


Allie couldn't resist playing in the dirty, nasty sand. She kept sneaking water from the spigot to make mud pies. You would not believe how dirty she got.We had a great climbing tree where Caden and Jaelyn spent most of their time.
Can you spot my monkeys in their tree? They got pretty high. I was picturing one of them falling and breaking a bone the whole time. Thankfully, we only went through a box of bandaids. We were very boo-boo prone on this trip.

Friday afternoon, we ventured out on our bikes to visit an observation tower and check out the big guns.


Even with the heat on Friday, we built a fire to make s'mores and roast marshmallows. Honestly, it wasn't very enjoyable.

We've determined that camping for our family needs to be a late fall and early spring activity. We couldn't take the heat.

Saturday we made a trip to the beach in the morning and again in the evening with a bike ride sandwiched in between. We've never been to the beach when it was warm enough to really get in the water or where we didn't have to worry about tar balls and oil. The kids had a blast playing in the surf and the sand.

I love this picture. It's looks like Allie just poured Caden out of her bucket :p.Look at those happy faces!

Saturday was also Dan's birthday! Happy Birthday, Danny! I improvised with hostess cupcakes and a pink candle (it was all I had).
We packed up our gear Sunday morning after breakfast and headed to the beach for one last hour. It was cool and nice on Sunday morning. The fog was rolling in before a storm. We took the frisbees to throw around and had some fun, family time.

I was really glad to get home Sunday afternoon. Our trip wasn't nearly as relaxing as it's been in the past. For me, it was probably the fact I started on antibiotics for a sinus infection on Thursday. I'm not sure what every one else's problem was :).

Allie's Polly Story

Allie brought home her Writer's Notebook by accident today so I took a peak. I love what she wrote about Polly Pockets today.

I have a lot of Polly Pockets. They men a lot to me. Pluss I have more than 100 Polly Pockets. Because I bin bying Polly Pockets at every toy stor in the holl wide wold. And pluss you can finde Polly Pockets at any toy stor. And I promiss you that. So if you go to a toy stor and go to the girls side you might finde Polly Pockets. And I think thats all I can tell you about Polly Pockets.

Preview of Things to Come

We went camping last weekend. I'll work on blogging about it tomorrow, but for now, a picture...

20,000 No More

My stat counter wasn't working earlier in the week so I logged in to fix it. While I was there, I noticed the option of choosing it to show unique visitors per day rather than page loads; so I changed it. It's going to be a long time before I see 20,000 again!

What Do I Do All Day?

A friend asked me how I'm enjoying my kidless days. I'm enjoying them! She wanted to know how I'm spending my time. Are your enquirering minds wondering too? I actually had plans of propping up my feet and watching TV or reading a book every now and then, but that has yet to happen. I have been busy. Today, for instance, as soon as I put the kids on the bus, I headed to my doctor's office for antibiotics for a sinus infection. Next, I stopped by the pharmacy to pick up the prescription that wasn't ready yet. Then I spent 2 hours stapling and cutting for Caden's kindergarten teacher before going to get my hair cut. After that, I went back to the pharmacy and then came home. Since I've been home, I've eaten lunch and started cooking dinner . Now I need to get the laundry started, clean up the kitchen and do general picking up so everything is done when the kids come home. It makes our afternoons much less stressful when I can devote all my time to the kids rather than thinking about chores or dinner because homework has been crazy - still working out that system. So, that's my day. Tomorrow, I plan to devote myself to getting the car cleaned out and pulling all of our camping gear out for our camping trip on Friday!!! Yea! Next week, I hope to finally start painting the basement!

Allowances

I put my allowance plan into place last week and so far, it's going wonderfully. I made a list of 8 things I expect the kids to do everyday. I also made a job jar with extra things like straightening the living room, helping with dishes, swiffering the bathrooms, etc. The kids have to pick 1 job out of the job jar every week. So far, they've each chosen 2 things. I'm not making anyone do their chores. If they do them, they get a reward in the form of allowance. If they don't, they don't get an allowance. They earn a nickel for every check at the end of the week. A side benefit is that Caden has already learned to count by 5s. He'll be ahead in math class.

Last week, Caden didn't work too hard so he only earned $1.30. Jaelyn did more, but not all and earned the top amount at $2.45. This week, they are really working. This morning, in addition to getting ready for school, the beds are made, clothes are in the laundry basket, the living room is straightened, the dishwasher has been unloaded and reloaded (with a little help from me), and the craft table is picked up. I love it. It's making my life so much easier.

The kids want to make Daddy a chore chart. I can think of several things from the kids'chart I would include on it :p, but I won't. Dan works hard to support our family; so if we have to trip over his humungous shoes he leaves in the middle of the walkways, we'll just try not to hurt ourselves when we fall!

It's the Little Things

It's the little things in life that make me happy. These are the things that have made me happy lately.

When we moved into our house 3 1/2 years ago, there were several little things that needed to be done. One of the things that bugged me in our 1/2 bath was the missing caps to cover the bolts and nuts that hold our toilet in place. I finally remembered when I was at Home Depot and viola - the rusty, nasty bolts and nuts are covered! It makes me smile every time I walk into the bathroom. When I told Dan, in the 3 1/2 years it's been driving me crazy, he hadn't even noticed.




It took me 3 tries to get it right, but I was bound and determined. The perfect ratio was 1 cup of water to 3 cups of sugar boiling for 1 minute. We had tiny crystals by the next day. I still haven't let the kids eat them. I'm a mean Mommy, but hey, I wouldn't let them eat a tablespoon of sugar either. I don't see the difference.


I picked up my bowl from Amazing Glaze and I think it turned out fabulously. I mixed a bright, sunny yellow with a brown to come up with the perfect golden yellow to match our house!




While my brother had Star Wars figures growing up, I had smurfs. My mom saved my smurfs and my kids have loved playing with the boxful every time we visit. I was especially looking forward to playing with them in June because the kids had seen the preview for the Smurf movie in the works. Well, my mom forgot to mention that she sold me box of collectible toys at a garage sale in May. Can you believe it? She never mentioned a thing. By the way, the Star Wars toys are still at her house - seems like a double standard to me. Just sayin'. I was at Target today and they had Smurf figures in their dollar section. I bought 6 Smurfs to start my NEW collection. Pay up time Jeannie Linguine :p!

What little things make you happy? For Dan, it's 3 pairs of new toe socks.

Fishie Funeral

I guess I spoke too soon yesterday. This morning, Moe was thrashing crazily around his tank and a few hours later, he was belly up. Jaelyn and Dan had a little fishie funeral for him in the bathroom and then Jaelyn flushed him down the toilet. She described every detail of his swirling to me (roll your eyes with me). Anyone know what I use to clean his tank so whatever killed him won't get a new fishie? She wanted a new one today, but I told her she'd have to wait until I could clean his tank.

Don't Pet the Fish...Again

This goes on the list of things I never thought I'd say. A while back, we noticed that Moe's fish tank was very cloudy. Allie admitted to feeding him and swirling his water around with her finger. Since that day, Moe has never been the same. He stopped swimming and has looked like he were going to die any day. Allie eventually admitted to catching Moe in her hand and holding him out of water so she could pet him. "But I wanted to pet him, Mommy," I believe were her exact words.

Moe has developed white spots that could be ich...maybe. I don't know. I'm not good with fish. I bought some ich medicine to treat his tank. For the cost of the medicine, I could have euthanized Moe to put him out of his misery because he doesn't look happy and bought Jaelyn a look-alike fish. I bet she wouldn't have even noticed. Oh well, for now we are going to extreme measures to save Moe. I had to explain to the kids what I was doing and why what Allie did could have introduced bacteria to his tank or stressed him enough to make him vulerable to getting sick. I ended my lecture with "Allie, you may not pet the fish...again!"

Anybody Get the License Plate

A truck ran me over Monday evening and then it came back and hit me again on Tuesday. Okay, I'm being silly. I wasn't in an accident and a truck didn't really hit me, but I've sure felt like a truck hit me. The kids have had sniffly noses or maybe my uncle sent me some of his sicky germs through the phone lines. I don't know which caused it, but I woke up Monday with a sore throat and by Monday night, I had a head that needed to explode from pressure, sore joints, sensitive skin, and chills. The kids were out of school on Tuesday for elections and I'm glad because Dan was out of town and I couldn't drag myself out of bed until 8:30. Thankfully my kids are pretty self sufficient. They fixed themselves breakfast and were racing with Mario on the Wii. A fever added itself to my list of symptoms that day and I somehow survived till Dan got home Tuesday night. Wednesday, I got the kids on the bus and took a 4 hour nap. I woke up tired, but without the fever or the majority of the pressure. My head is still woozy today, but I thinks it's more from lack of food than anything else. I managed to defluffify 3 pounds (Denise - like my word??? :p)...not the best way to defluffify pounds. My plan today is to take another nap and eat. I just wish food tasted right. Hopefully, I'll feel more like myself tomorrow!

Mommy's Stored Up Silly Band Love

I mentioned last week that I bought Caden a new pack of Spiderman Silly Bands. I wear one at night to store up all my love and then give it to him to wear at school right before he gets on the bus. When he gets home, he slides it back on my wrist to store up love for the next day. It seems to help. I've seen him sit on the bus on more than one occassion and hold his silly band clad wrist up to his cheek (ala The Kissing Hand). He came home yesterday and told me his silly band had broken. I asked if he threw it away, but he said no. He'd put it in his pocket. Now, he had 4 pockets in his shorts that he knew about. Do you think he picked those pockets? No...my precious little boy picked his shirt pocket where Mommy's stored up Silly Band love could be right next to his heart! I think God blessed me the sweetest little boy in the whole wide world!

My Little Performer

Check out her tooth - one central is gone and the other has pushed down and into the middle. She's a funny snaggletooth!

Wordless Wednesday

Sweet

Scary

I should probably add some words for this one. I went to bed early one night last week and Dan stayed up late to watch football. I found several self portraits on my camera the next morning...all very goofy and somewhat disturbing at the same time! :p

On the Bus He Went

I don't think I blogged about Friday. Before school started, I remember thinking how I'd be bored in the day with nothing to do. That sure hasn't happened. I've gone non-stop from the time the bus picks up till it drops off everyday since school started. I'm ready for a day where I do nothing and am bored (maybe today since I have a sore throat and don't feel good). Anyway, not the point of my post.

My point is that Friday was a problem. Caden has gone to school great everyday...until Friday. Last week was hard because they had Monday and Thursday off. By Friday morning, the novelty of going to school had worn off. The real work had started and he wanted none of it. He was also exhausted because he and Jaelyn have been waking up at 5:30ish and refusing to try to go back to sleep. As soon as we got to the bus stop, Caden started crying that he didn't want to go to school. I calmly explained all the reasons he had to go to school and the reasons he could stay home (throwing up and fever of which he had neither). When the bus pulled up, he clung to my legs and refused to let go. I did my best to reassure him, but there was no way he was letting go. The girls climbed on and I put Caden in the car to drive to school.

My only thought was Caden had to go to school. I can't teach him that by crying, he can stay with Mommy longer. When this happened in preschool, I rewarded him with little trinkets so I asked if he would like to earn a reward for getting out of the car nicely and going into school. His eyes lit up and he decided on a trip to the Dollar Store. He was gung ho and I was feeling confident he'd get out of the car on his own; so confident, in fact, that I got in the car line instead of parking. Big mistake! As soon as I pulled up and opened the door, he got out of his seat and froze. The tears started flowing again. I couldn't pull forward out of the long line extending all the way to the road because he was out of his seat. I jumped out and yelled to the school counselor who was thankfully standing in the doorway. She came to take Caden out of the car. He was bawling at this point, but I had to go...the line was growing by the second. I gave him a quick hug and kiss, reassured that Mrs. E would take care of him. I pulled around and parked on the road where I could see the front of his school. One of his friends walked up and Mrs. E took them both to look at posters in the hallway. He calmed down quickly (as always) and his teacher emailed me later to say he looked like he'd been crying, but was fine when he came in the classroom.

I'm not sure he totally earned the Dollar Store because I had to get him out of the car, but I fudged and let him earn his reward which leads me to this morning. He started crying while eating his breakfast. Caden said he doesn't like school because he has to write numbers in his writing notebook. Caden hasn't mastered the fine motor skills for writing yet and it's very hard for him. I managed to get him to eat and he got ready on his own; although, he did stop to take crying breaks. About 8, he started complaining about a tummy ache so we gave him "tummy medicine" (a tiny piece off of a tums) and then worked on distracting him. He was wearing shorts and it was chilly outside. I offered to pull out his winter box in hunt of pants I "hoped" would fit him. He loved going through his friend Nathan's hand-me-downs. We picked out a pair of jeans and a green camo jacket. I have no idea where the jacket came from, but it still had the tags on it. Putting on the new clothes seemed to give Caden some confidence. We turned on the TV and I gave him my Iphone to play Angry Birds while we waited for the bus.

At the bus stop, I gave him a Spider Man silly band I'd been wearing for a day. It had a lot of Mommy love stored up in it ;-). The bus pulled around...no tears. Allie climbed on first, then Caden and then Jaelyn who had been instructed to help encourage him up the steps if she needed to. He wasn't smiley when he blew me kisses and waved, but he did it! He earned 2 stickers on a sticker chart (2 for riding the bus, 1 for Mommy driving him, none for crying). When he has 4 stickers, he'll earn a prize for everyone. I'm hoping that'll help Wednesday since tomorrow is another stupid holiday. What was our school district thinking when they planned the school calendar??? It makes it so hard on the kids who thrive on routine!

Serious About Soccer

Today was Caden's second soccer game and wow, was it a good game. Caden got right in there with the rest of the kids. He was smiling to begin with.

And then he got serious.

The kids were tough. I saw pushing and elbowing. Caden, apparently can be tough right back. Maybe that comes from having 2 older sisters. He surprised me here...he's holding the back of the kid's shirt (who was mean, btw) so he couldn't get to Nathan, who had the ball.

Caden wasn't just Nathan's guard, he got some ball time too. He didn't score, but he made 2 attempts.

We didn't win today, but we didn't lose either. The game was a tie!

Amazing

I heard about a sunflower field near our house this week. After Caden's soccer game today, we found it. It is amazing. There are 2 fields filled with sunflowers - gentle hills of solid yellow. Since pictures are worth a thousand words...

She "Loves Him More Than Anything!"

This summer, Allie said she was going to marry Lucas. He "broke up" with her the first week of school and isn't really talking to her. She doesn't seem too upset as she and Alex are thick as thieves again. On Tuesday night, his mom (Krista) told me he said he blew her kisses in class the other day. He sits right across from her where they look at each other all day. Krista emailed me this morning to tell me Allie wrote Alex a note yesterday that said "Alex, I love you more than anything." She's putting it in his baby book. How cute is that?

What's 17 going to be like if this is 7??? I'm really hoping she'll hit the "boys have cooties" phase soon?

A Needed Day Off

Today is Rosh Hashanah and the kids were out of school. I was really glad for a day to stay in bed a little bit longer. I feel like I've been run ragged this week. Tuesday, after all that with the carpet cleaner and Zoe, Dan took care of soccer practice while I went to the kids Back to School Night. We started with a little talk from the new principal. I really like him. I knew our school was busting at the seams, but we are at 135% capacity. How crazy is that? And there are 2 schools very close to us that aren't even at 100%. There's lots of talk of redistricting that is freaking everyone out. Anyway, I enjoyed being there, seeing some Mom friends and listening to the 2nd and 3rd grade teachers talk about curriculum and expectations.

The 3rd grade teachers are serious about learning, which is great, don't get me wrong, but it scares me just a little. Jaelyn is just at grade level. I worry about her being able to keep up and have success. We are already struggling with homework and she's not getting all of it yet. I'm going to have to think up some major motivation and rewards.

Allie's teacher is loads of fun. Allie is going to love her. She closed out the night. The assistant principal came in to stand at the back of the room as a "hurry up." When we left, the rest of the school was dark. The kids were fast asleep when I got home.

Yesterday, was a day of errands and an afternoon of tantrums over homework. At least Allie and Caden are doing their homework without a fuss. I really need to devote an entry to Jaelyn and her explosions. School has started, fall is approaching and she's ready to blow at any minute these days after a calm spring and summer. We've been walking on egg shells the last 2 weeks. Prayers would be appreciated.

So today, I slept until 8. The kids took care of their breakfast with a little help from Dan before he left for work. They watched cartoons while I got ready and then we headed to the giraffe park to play. It was a beautiful day - 70s and blue skies. I wish it would stay like this. I love the beginnings of fall, but not the end when it turns into winter. Yuck. We ran into friends at the park and then had lunch with Dan at Chick-fil-a where we ran into more friends.

The wind was blowing perfectly so we headed to the soccer field after lunch for some kite flying. It was great. Normally it's very frustrating with twisted tails and knotted strong and only me to help three. Today, we had minimal issues. Everyone got their kites up into the air.

We also stopped by the library where we saw another friend before heading home for the day. I'm looking forward to school tomorrow so I can get to the gym. It'll be my 3rd workout of the week! I'm doing good!

I'm a Genius

Most days I feel like a scatter brained ditz, but today I'm a genius. Yes, I'm being serious. I had a brilliant idea. You see, the kids all have reading homework every night. The girls each have to read for 15 minutes (them reading, not me reading to them) and Caden has to read or be read 1 book a night. If I do the reading separately, that's 35-40 minutes a night. The kids don't get home to 3:40. Add in snack, homework, dinner, play time and baths, we barely make it into bed by 7:30. I had a light bulb moment today on our way to the library. We checked out 3 copies of the same books. The girls and I each got a copy and Caden looked on with me. Just like reading in school, we read round robin stopping at each period. It worked great. No fighting over being able to see the book. The girls followed along, never losing their place. They didn't get bored or overwhelmed. The best part was we were done in 15 minutes and everyone had met their reading requirement for the day! Genius, I tell you!!! Pure Genius!!!


I thought you'd enjoy seeing a picture of how Jaelyn read with us...this is reminiscent of my brother when he was little. He would watch TV standing on his head. At least Jaelyn could turn the book upside down so she was reading right side up. My mom couldn't turn the TV for Chad :).

A Monday on a Tuesday

I should really go to bed. Instead I'm blogging. Have I mentioned that I'm addicted to my blog???

Today started with so much promise. I met my friend, Krissy, at the Ma and Pa Trail to walk. I laughed when she told me we were walking 4 miles and then I thought about crying when I realized she was serious. There might have been a few hills that I couldn't walk and talk at the same time, but I held my own. My legs did feel like jelly when we were done. Things started to go awry from there.

The carpet cleaner I rented stopped working halfway through the basement. Then I took Zoe to the vet for some "tummy issues." Turns out, she has giardia. Apparently, in addition to love and snuggles, our foster kittens also gave us intestinal parasites. $100 later, Zoe gets to take 2 medicines for the next 2 weeks. The vet said the chances of Zac getting it are pretty high. I got to put my half cleaned, torn up basement back together and I also got to disinfect a kitty litter pan, all before the kids came home from school. Praise God for pizza delivery because I sure didn't have time to think about cooking today!

I sure hope some of that rambling made sense. It's passed 11:30 and my ability to think and type clearly is coming to an end. Night night blogosphere!

There's Just Something About Kindergarten

...that makes your teeth get loose! Caden's bottom two middle teeth are loose. The little man is very excited about the tooth fairy visiting him. Allie's losing her teeth so slowly that if Caden keeps wiggling, he could catch up with her!

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend was Labor Day weekend and we had a great time. Dan had a 4 day weekend so he was off with me on Friday. It was fun to spend the day together without the kids. The last time we did anything without them was in June in Pensacola. We went to the gym in the morning and then had lunch at Famous Dave's before heading to the mall to wander. I never just wander around aimlessly. It seemed almost indulgent to have no purpose and nothing to do.

Saturday morning, we headed out Geocaching. We discovered a few new areas. Swam Harbor Farm is a really neat place we need to go back to and explore. There was a garden, farm land with corn and soy beans and a RC flyer's field. The geocache was on the edge of the soybean field. It was NOT fun. There were ugly stickers and tall grass. We tried walking out a different way, but that was even worse. We ran into poison ivy and little nettles. Jaelyn scratched up her leg so Dan carried her and Caden was lagging with the tall brush so I carried him. Not fun. After that, we called it a day for geocaching and headed to a park in Havre De Grace. We had a picnic lunch, Caden found one more micro cache that we hadn't intended on (we were 4 for 4) and we played on the playground.

Allie pitched a crazy fit when we tried to walk on the promenade along the water so we came home. She has pitched quite the tantrum in her day, but never in public and never with the intensity we saw on Saturday. I think the long first week of school finally caught up with her. We spent the rest of the day at home!

Sunday, we headed to D.C. The kids love riding the metro.

The escaletor to the clouds was pretty impressive too. I don't think I've ever been on one as high as this one.

Our first stop was the National Zoo. We've been wanting to take the kids there for a while, but we've put it out.

We were kind of disappointed to begin with because the only animals we saw were these stone statues. The first 5-6 habitats were empty...well, probably not empty, but the animals were probably tucked in the back having a nap.

Allie was the first one to spot any animals...the elephants. How could you miss them? Once we'd seen them, the rest of the animals came out to play.

We saw lions

and tigers

and bears, oh my! The pandas were my favorite! We watched one laying on a log on his back eating bamboo shoots. You just want to snuggle them they are so cute.

When we'd seen all the animals, we hopped back on the metro and headed for the Smithsonian. I wanted to see the Gems and Minerals exhibits in the Museum of Natural History. We awed at the Hope Diamond and the number of people crowded around it. That was insane.

We were fascinated by the space and earth rocks. The huge quartz were really cool.

We need to work on reading with the kids because I'm pretty sure the sign said "please touch," not "please lounge on."

After the Natural History Museum the kids were pretty pooped. They had walked a long way. We headed back to the Metro and came home. It was a great day! We want to go back when it's not so busy in the fall to see where money gets printed and go up in the Washington Monunment.

Monday was a day to catch up. I did laundry and spent an hour cleaning up from the disasterous previously posted about rock candy - ugh. The kids played on the Wii and Dan took them a park. This week is going to be weird for the kids. They go to school today, Wednesday and Friday. Thursday is a holiday. They actually don't have a normal 5 day school week until the last week in September.