Little girls and their toys

The 'kids' who are too little for taco soup had cheese porridge.

He's leaving today

First, to Great Lakes in northern IL for bootcamp, 8 weeks. 

Then, 4 weeks of culinary training while still at Great Lakes.

Then, to Groton, CT for 4 weeks of submarine training.

After all the prep for the going away party my arm was just too far gone to decorate the cake, so my brother did it.  Hopefully the Navy has better ships than this SSJake! LOL!!

6'3"... Just how is he going to fit in a submarine??? LOL!

Jake's leaving Sunday for bootcamp

We're having a going-away party Saturday.  So far, I've baked and frozen the cake, (tip I learned at the bakery field trip... makes a cake more moist and less crumby) made 2 kinds of cookies, cut the celery and carrots and bought (well, had Tom stop by the stores today) other stuff.

We're having: burgers, dogs, chili, veggie tray with carrots, celery, broccoli & cucumbers with fiesta ranch dip, chips (regular, fritos, tortilla) and dips (french onion and bean-n-cheese with homemade refried beans.)  I'll probably end up coming up with more stuff I just 'have' to make too by Saturday noon..

I asked my mom to make him some cream puffs, they're his favorite dessert she makes :)

It's just family, us, both brothers' families (minus one brother since he has to work) and mom & dad.

I was upset about having to move the party to Saturday (was planned for Sunday when EVERYONE could come) but what are ya gunna do...

Jake's leave date, Feb 2nd???

Aaaahh, the Navy.  Ya gotta love government reliability.  By their own standard we should have believed them when we were told Jake will leave for bootcamp on February 2nd.

Here's a link for your viewing pleasure...
http://web.utk.edu/~leon/rel/overview/reliability.html
So, this doesn't really mean they should have to stick to their word?

All this to say, Jake's bootcamp leave date is now January 31st.

(and don't forget, this is the 3rd date we were given... and I suspect the last since the time is so close now LOL)

I WANTED to wait till summer to get a new printer

My printer hasn't printed in black for some months now.  I don't know why.  I cleaned it, put in new cartridges, tried injected cartridge, nothing worked.  It WAS printing the first 1/2 of the page fine, then the rest was lined like an old TV with the vertical hold going bad.  Sometimes it'd print, sometimes nothing at all black.

The color is FINE!!  I don't get it!!

Anyway, I WAS going to wait till summer to get a new one.  I've already taken everything I need for schooling to the library to make copies for the rest of the year. (History Pockets, etc)

But, DUH!!!!  I can't do my taxes without being able to print BLACK!!!

So, I got a new Canon printer tonight at Walmart.  $40.  Got the extra-large sized cartridges for it. (A very nice invention!!  Over twice the ink for not twice the price!!)

Guess I'll be back in business, once I decide to install it...

Fieldtrip @ the bakery

     

They made chocolate chip/M&M cookies and coffee cakes and decorated cupcakes.  They got to watch how a cake is decorated too and had a grand tour of the whole place.  It was a blast!!

While the cookies and coffee cakes were baking we used our Pizza Hut Book-It coupons for lunch.

A meal with some of our food sent from 3000 miles away

 

The bottled teriyaki sauce is YUMMY!!  Gunna use that before making my own with the mirin.

We used the somen noodles this time. 

YUMMY!!!!!

Don't mention Biggest Loser in front of your 12yo son

I mentioned something about joining Biggest Loser Part 2 on the Sonlight Forum at dinner a few days ago.  Christian burst out laughing.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when he tells his friends...  His mom's a biggest loser.  Apparently that's hysterical.


So, we're into the 3rd week.  I've only lost 2#, but hey, slow and steady wins the race right?  Besides, I don't want to lose weight the way I did last time I'd lost 50#.  Maybe I can actually keep it off this time.

I'd lost a little weight over the summer, before we went to Disney World in September, then gained about 5# back before starting this adventure.  Maybe I won't mind wearing shorts this summer, long shorts, at least to the knees anyway... My thighs are NOT cute after having all those lipomas taken out, and scars being left.

We'll see what happens, the contest is 8 weeks long.  Out of 6 (I think) teams we're in 3rd place.  The lead team has had a woman who's lost so far around 20#!  In 2 weeks!  I doubt we'll catch up.  Oh well, I didn't join for glory, just to lose a little for myself.

And btw, Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred video is the Devil's spawn!  I've only done it twice.  The first time I injured my calf.  I had to rest for 3 days.  I tried it again today.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow...  but my plan is to alternate that with T-Tapp Total Workout.  Maybe I'll get at least 4 workouts in a week.  That's my hopefully attainable goal.  If I set my sights too high I get overwhelmed and shut down totally.  I did something TODAY, that's all I can look at.

THANK YOU KRIS!!!!!!!

It was Christmas a little late around here.  Gifts from our pen-pals in Japan arrived today!!!!

Oh my we were soooooo excited!!!  There was another box which arrived a few days ago too.  It contained FOOD!!  Noodles, sauces, 'crackers,' cookies and candy.  Can't wait to try them out!!!!

Today's gift box contained toys/games/puzzles/folders/coloring books/FUN erasers and candy.

Samurai and maiden nesting dolls.  As I type this they are currently in battle...

Nerf  'hot potato' game. FUN!!!!!

Puzzles!!  One is a village nearby Mt. Fuji, 2 other village scenes (with pieces so small I don't know if we're going to be able to SEE them let alone get it together!!) and one is a world map.  That'll take us some time! LOL

A game called "Fundex Mexican Train Game."  Never heard of it but it looks fun!

Additional pieces to the set Sophie was sent last year.  As you can see Kris, we had to build an addition and porch to the house she already had... rotflol!!!

Here is the mama's handy method of carrying all her kids... (can you see the mushrooms in the foreground they're going to pick? The corn field and river for fishing are down the lane...)

Thank you soooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!

The Bible is literal

I'm surprised to be learning recently how many people think the Bible is a book of fairy tales!

God is God, why CAN'T he do those miracles?!?!

All religions lead to God is another thing I've been hearing lately. Really?  No.

Another day in the kitchen

2 double batches of cranberry muffins
pancakes for lunch and rest for breakfast another 2 days
homemade crackers
beef stew

Lots done today!

I set my alarm for 8am, cuz, well, I'M LAZY otherwise...

*made 2 loaves rye bread (one for Christian and me and one for my mom)
*made cornbread
*made granola
*made chili con carne for the crockpot
*made a HUGE pot of oatmeal (part for the kids' lunch part for Tom's breakfast for the next 3 days)
*took kids to piano (leave the house nearly 1pm)
*home now, getting ready to make the pasta for the chili con carne, listening to Christian on the violin

Then, maybe grocery shopping with my sister-in-law if she's feeling up to it.

*whew*

Jesus should have been born in India

That's what Christian said today when I asked him what color did he think Jesus was.  He answered dark, as in the region he was born.  I mentioned the Bible saying he had hair like a sheep, so he had tight curly hair.  He said not black tho.  I asked why not?  Mary was given the seed of God, so it had nothing to do with parental DNA.  He said not possible because blacks were slaves.  I told him that was a valid argument.

Then, he said Jesus should have been born in India, so they wouldn't have had to wait so long for the word of God.  He said the Jews already knew, but the people in India didn't.

Interesting thought processes for a 12yo...

If you're going to tell your daughter that one of her new chores is to wash the towels,

teach her how right then and there.  Otherwise she'll think she can do it alone and put detergent into the 'bleach' comparment of your frontloader.

Good thing the whole thing pops out and can be rinsed!

So, to actually wash the load (cuz the detergent doesn't do any good when it's in the bleach compartment I found out...) I showed her how to do it right and rewashed the load.  We wrote the steps out too...

NOW she can take over the towels as a chore! LOL

Lazy Saturday

The kids LOVE Legos!!!

They usually make villages out of Legos, Lincoln Logs and blocks my dad made from 2X4's,1X1's,2X2's, 1X4.s etc and PVC pipe.  This is the 'war' that was going on in Christian's room when I woke up this morning.  Mostly, they play Medieval castle type stuff.  Note the catapult Sophie is lodging at Christian's foot soldiers, yeomen, knights, etc. (oh, and the stray Ninja... LOL!)

His room has been like this a week, I don't have the heart to tell him to clean it up!

I'm considering opening an etsy shop.

So, I've put up a poll to see what people might like to see in it.

Please vote.

Also, PLEASE leave any comments you think I need to hear!

Thankx!!

(I may not get it up till next Christmas, but if people suggest things like birthday aprons, holiday aprons, Easter dresses, etc. I may try to get it up earlier)

Happy New Year

Well, here it is.  The new year has begun.  It started out very relaxing, we watched the first 3 discs of "Liberty's Kids."  FUN!!!  Sophie didn't think she was going to like them, because they're educational... LOL!  But, part-way through the first segment she was glued.  So sad we have to wait to mail them back to Netflix and wait for the last 3 to come.

Hopefully school will restart without a hitch.  I'm hoping we have a little more energy.

One less outing for the new year, Sophie is no longer in Junior Girl Scouts.  I had a little chat with her this week, asking how important it was to her.  I'd been noticing her not being interactive with the other girls.  I tried to encourage her, but she still didn't interact much.  She wasn't sad at all about deciding to quit.  I'm relieved because I was one of the leaders (#3 of 3, so not high up, more of a full-time helper really...)  The meetings up to this year were in the evening, but this year changed to 3pm.  It was hard enough to get there at 3pm (in a different town since we'd quit our town's troop a few years back) let alone being called last minute to come early the last few meetings.  Ending school at 1:30pm is a pain when you've not prepared for it!  Again with people assuming you have all the time in the world when you don't leave your house to go to work.

I suppose I should make some goals for the new year.  I'll have to work on that...

Tom's work has pretty much put a stop to overtime.  It's taken some getting used to.  We paid off my van at the beginning of last year and hope to pay off Tom's truck this year.  Tom has decided he wants to dump our tax return on it, then the goal of paying it off might actually be attainable by year's end.  We'll see...  I'd also like to totally redo the school room over the summer.  I'd like to rip out the carpet (it's on a concrete slab and the room is basically a breezeway between the garage and main house,) rip out the paneling, insulate (cuz the garage wall isn't!!) redrywall and install new hard flooring and put in a natural gas heater.  That room only has one vent and without proper insulation needs a space heater.  I worry about an electric fireplace being on 24/7 but if I don't it gets sooooooo cold!  I think the on/off/on/off of the heater last year caused the CPU down there to get condensation.  We thought it was dead, but once it dried out late spring it started working again! YAY!!!  So, we keep the heater on all the time.  (plus, Christian works down there and he prefers it warm... LOL)

I made a menu for January today, so hopefully this year will start off well :)