bfmomma's spot

family vacation

2009-08-20T11:35:00.003-06:00

we went to an Appleton Timber Rattlers game with G's sister and her family:

M--at school

2009-03-09T13:05:00.000-06:00

This photo made it in the weekly newsletter, sent home from M's class:

PSA

2008-09-22T09:39:00.000-06:00

Me, popping in with a public service announcement ;)

While McDonalds' Iced Coffees are really yummy and a great deal, the new McCafe mochas are gross and highly overpriced.

OK, it wasn't GROSS, but it tasted like hot chocolate. Or like one of those "capuccinos" that you get from a dispenser at a gas station/Quick Mart thing.

And at close to $3, I'd rather go to a REAL coffee shop.

JMO, of course ;)

The Sarah Palin's Children Meme

2008-09-04T17:30:00.003-06:00

This one's just too funny NOT to do.

Found numerous places on Facebook, blogs, email:

Sarah Palin kids' name meme,
From Wikipedia:
[Sarah Palin] married her high school boyfriend, Todd Palin, on August 29, 1988.[6] The Palin family lives in Wasilla, about 45 miles (72 km) north of Anchorage. The Palins have two sons (Track, 19, and Trig, four months) and three daughters (Bristol, 17; Willow, 14; and Piper, 7) [ages as of August 2008].[98] Todd Palin has said Track's name came from the interest Sarah's parents had in the sport and the fact that he was born in the sport's season; Bristol was named after Bristol Bay in Alaska, where Todd grew up and where he does commercial fishing; Willow was named after Willow, Alaska; Piper got her name because it is uncommon and "a cool name"; Trig's name is Norse for "strength".

1)Your first-born will be named after your parents favorite sport: Ping Pong

2)Your second-born will be named after a nearby area that you're not from but you like the sound of part of the name, and maybe you have nostalgic memories of said place: Presque

3)Your third-born will be named after another nearby place, for no reason other than you already have two children and don't have time to put much thought into another name: Escanaba

4)Your fourth gets a "cool" name: Brock

5)Your fifth gets something mythological, possibly straight out of Lord of the Rings: Pandora

First Day of School 2008

2008-09-02T07:38:00.006-06:00

(NOTE: edited to add more pictures at the bottom)

Though I haven't been posting on this blog much (using the 3 simple things one more), I thought I'd put the early back-to-school pics here.
And of the moms, who went out for coffee after the tearful drop-offs:

Changing Gears...

2008-04-14T13:26:00.004-06:00

It's very obvious that I am not doing a good job of keeping up with blogging! A dear (online and IRL) friend does a list, each day, of at least three things that made her happy. I'm stealing it flat-out from Michelle, and thinking/hoping it'll revive my posting here.

Stay tuned...

p.s. Me again. I realized I may yet, someday, want to return to this blog or to post recipes, or I might start knitting again... At any rate, I decided to instead set up another blog just for my list of three. Here's the link:

3simplethings

I hope you'll join me there.

Easter fun

2008-03-23T14:23:00.004-06:00

Easter is so early this year that it seems to have snuck up on us!

But we got some egg-dying in last night:

Here's a cute picture of the kids waiting for T. to finish he Gameboy game so they could look for baskets and eggs:
And the baskets--and CANDY!

Second Snowiest Winter on Record

2008-03-23T13:55:00.003-06:00

We've officially surpassed almost all other winters in terms of snowfall. The "official" snowfall for Milwaukee this year (recorded at the airport) is 96.9 inches, with 12.9 inches falling on Friday the 21st (yep--C's birthday party).

Luckily we had gotten some bare spots and the roads and sidewalks were bare before this snowfall. We still had banks built up, though. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we'd not had any settling...
We're several miles north of the airport, and closer to the lake and we got at LEAST 14 inches. You can see it piled up on the wishing well below:
But since it was such heavy, wet snow, it was perfect snow for making snow bunnies:
or snowmen in the neighbors' yard:
Temps hit 50 on Saturday and (unfortunately) both the bunny and the snowman lost their heads...

OK, I'm perfectly happy being second snowiest--we can be done now. No, seriously!

C's Birthday Party

2008-03-23T13:25:00.006-06:00

Her 13th birthday isn't until next Friday, but with Spring Break, we decided to have C's party this Friday.

She had 12 friends over for a 70's themed party that lasted SIX hours (yikes....).

They painted pet rocks:

People brought 70's music and they danced, played twister, watched The Brady Bunch, and generally hung out and did teenager things. :)

There was pizza--and cake, with singing:

The cake was a layer of chocolate and a layer of yellow cake, with mocha cream filling and buttercream frosting.

That's five boyfriends, if you're keeping track...

I think a good time was had by all--and six hours wasn't "too long" after all!

500th Post

2008-03-14T13:17:00.000-06:00

I logged on to try to catch up on my blog and noticed that I was at 499 posts, so for post #500, here's a picture of a real cutie-pie:

Caprese Stuffed Meatballs with Tomato Pesto Sauce

2008-03-13T14:42:00.004-06:00

From Rachael Ray:

Caprese-Stuffed Meatballs With Tomato-Pesto Sauce

Ingredients

5-6 slices of bread, torn up
3/4 cup milk (eyeball it)
1 pound ground sirloin
1 pound ground veal
4 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
A small handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/2-3/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
1 teaspoon allspice
1 egg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cherry tomatoes, stems removed
4 bocconcini (mini mozzarella balls), look for ones that are about the size of a cherry tomato. If they are bigger, cut them in half.
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), plus additional for drizzling, divided
1 can San Marzano plum tomatoes (28 ounces)
1/2 cup homemade or store-bought basil pesto (eyeball it)
Zest of 1 lemon, if using store-bought pesto
A loaf of crusty bread

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 425ºF.

Place the torn bread in a small bowl with the milk (make sure all the bread is submerged) and reserve.

In a large bowl, combine the ground meats, garlic, parsley, grated Parmigiano Reggiano, allspice, egg, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Squeeze out the excess milk from the soaking bread (it should be loose and in small pieces) and add it to the meat mixture. Mix everything with your hands to combine.

Divide the meatball mixture in half and score each half into eight sections with the back of your hand. Take one of the portions of the meatball mix and slightly flatten it out in your hand. Place a cherry tomato in the center and evenly wrap the meat around the tomato, completely encasing it in the meat. Repeat the process again with another portion of meat and one of the bocconcini balls.

Transfer the stuffed meatballs to a baking sheet, using one half of the baking sheet for the tomato one and the other for the bocconcini one so you can keep track of which is stuffed with what. Repeat the processes until the rest of the tomatoes and bocconcini have all been rolled in a portion of the meatball mixture. Wash your hands after handling the raw meat.

Drizzle the stuffed meatballs with some EVOO, transfer them to the oven and roast for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown and firm to the touch.

While the meatballs are cooking, place a saucepot over medium-high heat with two turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Add the canned tomatoes and break them up with a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon. Add a little salt and pepper, bring up to a bubble and simmer while the meatballs are cooking.

Once the meatballs are ready, remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the pesto. If you are using store-bought pesto, add in the lemon zest. Transfer all of the sauce into a serving dish and nestle all of the meatballs into the sauce, keeping the cherry tomato-stuffed ones on one side and the bocconcini-stuffed ones on the other. Serve with some sliced crusty bread alongside.

My notes:
I stuffed them all with cheese, and kept some separate from the tomato sauce for T. to eat (since he hates red sauce). I also served it with pasta, since the red sauce was soooo yummy! I was very impressed with how the lemon zest really made pre-made pesto and canned tomatoes taste so yummy! Oh, and I used 1/2 lb. gr. pork--not 1 lb. gr. veal!

Ten Things I Love That Begin With The Letter...

2008-02-25T18:44:00.003-06:00

Ten Things I Love That Begin With the Letter M.

Mo gave it to me. Comment here and I'll give you a letter, too.

In alphabetical order:

Magazines
I love to read, but don't often feel that I can give up as much time as it takes to read a book (unless it's for book club or something). I'm not someone who can pick up a book and read a chapter and then put it down, so it's a day-long endeavor for me! Magazines, on the other hand, are full of little self-standing stories and articles and even if I *do* read the whole thing, it's a lot shorter than a book anyway. :)

Magenta
Long before Blues Clues made it famous, magenta was my favorite color (thanks, Crayola!). It's not really my favorite now, but I do still love it--and I like saying it! (ditto for vermilion, but that's not an M word...)

Mall
I love to shop and now that our local mall has become a "town center", I enjoy shopping there even more! I do still love regular malls, too. I remember being 14 years old and visiting my first mall ever. I thought I was in heaven!

Marriage
Well, specifically my marriage. :) I didn't know how else to get G. into the list! But I really, truly do love being married and my marriage in general. Color me happy.

Massage
When G. and I were in college (where we met), we were both pre-Physical Therapy majors. (Neither of us got into the program--their loss!) Part of our pre-PT training included learning how to give massages. Needless to say, it totally rocks to have a husband who not only gives massages, but gives professional massages!

Maternity
I was pregnant three times and (despite any complaints at the time) I loved all three of my pregnancies. I loved eating for two; I loved wearing maternity clothes; I loved feeling the baby moving inside of me. I loved being pregnant!

Math
Although I'm a certified Science teacher, I've been tutoring HS Math and Science and I've found that I really, really love the math part! I wish I'd stuck with it and done Calculus, and I'd love to go back (although I fear that my brain wouldn't wrap around Calculus at this point...).

Meerkat
Meerkat is the nickname we have for M. After years of hemming and hawing over whether we wanted a third child or not, we're pretty darn happy that we had one. :)

Microbiology
My major in college was Secondary Broadfield Science and my minors were Biology and Chemistry. The last class I took for my Biology minor was Microbiology, because I didn't think it sounded very interesting. It turned out to be my favorite Biology class ever and if I had taken it any earlier, I'd probably have changed my major!

Mom
Specifically, my mom! She's been my inspiration for parenting and she still is the first one I call when I have something good (or bad) to share.

That was fun! I almost thought about making a list of 10 Things I Hate That Begin With the Letter M, but that can wait... Leave a comment and I'll give you a letter!

DirecTV rant

2008-02-25T13:49:00.003-06:00

I was complaining on an email list about how I cannot wait until our DirecTV contract expires so I can switch and never, never, never give them any more of our money, when someone asked why I hated DirecTV so much.

So I wrote it up:

We have had DirecTV for about 5 years now. The first
few years were a gift from my brother, so I had no
idea how much it cost. Then he moved and (insert long
story here) my mom was paying for it for us. As my
mom was nearing retirement, I didn't think she needed
to be paying our cable TV bill, so I told her we'd
take it over. I was floored at what she was paying
(even with no premium channels or HD or
anything) and so I did some price comparing and
decided to go with Dish Network. (it was a LOT
cheaper) Dish has this cool thing where one DVR works
on two TVs, so we could record stuff and then (at
least theoretically) watch them in the livingroom OR
our bedroom. Unfortunately, we had a lousy installer
and whether due to the fact that our house has plaster
walls or that we're very near three TV broadcast
towers, we could never get it to work. So we
canceled (in the 30 day trial period) and went back
to DirecTV, since we knew that it would work in our house.

Since then, I have been on the phone with DirecTV every month,
complaining about how they have incorrectly billed us.

We were offered an additional $10 off a month for our
first year (of a 2 year contract). That $10 came off
once, but then disappeared. I am STILL working (15
months later) to get the credit applied because
although it's listed as a "12 month programming
credit", it only comes off when I call about it.

We were offered HBO at $10 off a month (it's $13 a
month) for six months. So we took that deal, but they
again "forgot" to apply that credit. We ended up with
the "deal" extended, but we also paid several months
at full price due to their oversight.

We had to sign a 2 year contract with DirecTV. Now,
if it's a contract, doesn't that mean that you're
locked into pricing? Apparently not. We signed up
for a package at $42.99 and it has since that time,
it's risen to $47.99 a month. To compensate for the
"inconvenience of our price increase", they offered
another monthly credit for six months. You guessed
it--a year later, I'm still calling to try to get that
applied EVERY month as it appears for one month and
then vanishes.

The DVR is a piece of crap. After we had it two
weeks, it completely stopped working. I can't count
the number of calls put into customer service for
that, before they finally told me they'd send out a
different DVR (they'd have to charge my account for
it, but would refund the money after I packaged up,
drove to a shipping center, and mailed back the
defective one). Imagine my surprise when they
replaced my *new* DVR with a reconditioned one.

And three months later, it died, too. I should
mention that we had spent three months recording
movies from HBO to get our money's worth, and all of
those movies were GONE.

Our DVR still doesn't work completely correctly. We
can watch things, but it will flake out and miss
recording things or will record multiple copies,
filling up the memory, at will. But I still have
movies to watch, so I'm not sending it back. I'm sure
it's out of warranty by now anyway.

This latest thing was the worst. The one thing that I
can say is that, though I am on the phone with
customer service for an average of 45 minutes every
month, at least the employees are polite and they DO
apologize and at least attempt to apply a credit to my
account.

I had called in when January's bill was again missing
our credit. The CS person apologized and told me that
she'd made a note on my account to start up a
new/different credit in February and told me that it
should be fine, but if I didn't receive the credit in
February, to call back at that time.

You guessed it--no credit in February. The CS person
apologized and transferred me to the customer
retention department (heh... they need a whole
DEPARTMENT to do that? doesn't that tell you
something?) and I was connected to the most rude woman
I have ever spoken with. She wouldn't let me speak.
I told her that I was late for a doctor's appointment
and I asked that she finish applying the discount and
simply email me to let me know it was resolved
(they've done that before) and she YELLED at me,
telling me that my rudeness was assuring that
SHE would work that much slower to resolve the issue.
She told me that I was not the only customer in the
world and that I wasn't entitled to anything, but she
would SEE if she could figure things out. She refused
to give me her name and every time I tried to say
anything, she spoke over me.

So today I finally called back today and after another 45
minutes, I got a one-time $60 credit. I sure hope
this resolves it--and I'm counting the days until our contract
expires and I can switch to another provider (September 23, 2008, btw).

A Flooded Road

2008-02-18T08:14:00.000-06:00

This has been, far and away, the strangest winter I can remember.

We were planning to go on a "mini-vacation" to a local water park (just a half hour's drive away) and woke up to the road in front of our house flooded:It had been raining most of the night which, on top of the melting snow, caused quite a back-up:
Add in the fact that certain workers did not do an exceptional job clearing the storm sewer drains, and you get flooded streets. We called the village, and they said, "we've got people on it".

After another hour, G. and I went out and got soaked and sore, but shoveled and chipped out our storm sewer drains. By the time we actually left on vacation, our side of the road was "dry".
But our sidewalks are still under water.

Blechhh...

M's story

2008-02-13T21:40:00.003-06:00

Our local PBS station (maybe it's all PBS stations?) does a yearly Writer's Contest for kids in grades K-3. This year the top prize in each grade wins a laptop computer. I told M. about the contest and she was very excited! I explained that the book has to have at least 50 words and at least 5 colorful pictures illustrating it. The instructions say that the text can be handwritten, or typed on a computer, so M. started typing hers out.

This is her story--all in her own words, typing and spelling by her:

A butterfly friend’s with a flower

Once there was a butterfly that had a friend, which
was a flower.
The flower said I love you to the butterfly. The
butterfly said
I love you to! The flower and butterfly were happy.
They
Loved each other. They lived together. They knew each
Other well. They loved each other so much. They liked
Living together. They love each other so much!


(me again)
As adorable as it is, I don't think it's contest-winning material (yet)!

A Celebration of Learning

2008-02-12T13:23:00.000-06:00

T's class had a "Celebration of Learning" yesterday afternoon. The kids got a chance to show off some of the things they've been working on in school.

First we went to the computer lab, where they showed up the Power Point presentations they've been working on in Social Studies:

Then any of the kids who played instruments could do a demonstration, so T. played his violin:
All the kids have been learning about advertising and marketing of products. They paired up and came up with commercials for products they invented. T. and his friend created the Miceaway 3000 mouse trap:
Then they sang and danced to a song they'd learned in music class:
Then each kid read a poem or two that they'd written about someone special in their lives. Here's T., reading his:
And his poems were:

Wife, teacher, mom, sister

Creative, smart, enthusiastic, fun

Lover of cooking

Who believes in honesty

Who fears centipedes

Who wants to be successful

Who gives happiness

Who says “I love you”

Mom

Helpful, loving

Helps, cooks, plays Guitar Hero

Helps me do my best

Then they sang another song:

And all the families posed for pictures:

Super sized sandwich

2008-02-09T11:54:00.001-06:00

G. and I went to a (couples) baby shower a few weeks ago, and there were a TON of scrumptious goodies to snack on. One of the coolest things, however, was this giant, warm, gooey sandwich. The hostess kindly gave me the "recipe" and I've made them twice already!

You buy foccacia bread at your local bakery (ours is from Pick N Save--the foccacia is not thin like classic foccacia, but taller and just topped with cheese and other stuff) and cut it in half lengthwise. On the bottom, spread flavored cream cheese (I used onion and chive). Top that with your choice of lunchmeat (this time I used ham, salami and pepperoni; at the party some had just ham and some had just turkey), choice of veggies (I sauteed onions and peppers and then stirred in some picked sandwich peppers), and choice of cheese (I used mozzarella this time). Place in a warm oven for about 20 minutes, or until the cheeses are nice and melty. Cut into wedges and serve. Here's what the inside looks like:

It was such a hit the first time that I made two the second time. The best flavor foccacia at the party was a jalapeno cheddar one, but I couldn't find those either time at my store. This is a tomato and parmesan one.

I served it with assorted potato chips and grapes.

A haircut--of necessity

2008-02-08T21:36:00.000-06:00

T's hair was just starting to get long again:
But this week we shaved it to half an inch:

Why? Because I got a phonecall yesterday from the clinic at school, telling me that one of T's classmates was found to have head lice, so they checked the whole class and found nits on T. (and four other classmates).

Me and my big mouth--saying earlier this year that we'd been able to avoid lice because anytime one of "the notes" came home from school, I washed all my kids' hair with Tea Tree Oil shampoo. I didn't get a chance this time--I hadn't heard anything about lice until the phonecall to pick Trav up.

So it's been a crazy 24+ hours, spent shampooing, combing and checking heads and then stripping every bed in the house, washing all bedding and hats and coats in HOT water (turned up the water heater), then drying on high, and then sending to the attic for below-freezing temps (Yes, I know I go overboard on this kind of stuff, but I'd rather be safe than sorry...).

This week has really sucked...

Will this winter ever end?

2008-02-07T20:49:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we had yet another big snow storm. This one had been predicted pretty well and almost all local schools (including the kids' and G's) were closed, as well as malls, libraries, museums and almost anywhere you'd want to be!

Unfortunately, the snow didn't come right away--it started with slushy, rainy stuff, which then froze under the snow. Up to 20 inches were predicted--officially we only got 12.5 inches, but I beg to differ.

And then the wind came, causing all sorts of drifting. G. and I were out shoveling at least three times and it just kept coming.

Here's some pictures from today--after the clean-up. Look at the snow on the roof:
Snow banks so high that we can't get car doors open unless we park far on the side of the driveway:
Snow in the yard is up about two feet and that's ice on the sidewalks under the snow:
This one is out our kitchen window at the neighbor's Arbor Vitae "fence" between our properties. Tons of heavy, wet snow is bending the bushes in half:
And record-breaking cold and wind-chills are forecasted for the weekend. This winter has been the worst that I can remember.

Refinancing...

2008-01-31T19:09:00.000-06:00

We bought our house in November of 2000 (though we moved in the next January) with a 30 year mortgage through a first-time buyer's program (lower rates) and with scraping every penny we could. Just over a year later, interest rates dropped and we refinanced (for 30 years). We were pretty comfortable that we had among the lowest rates we could get (5.875%), and our house had increased so greatly in value (in just one year!) that we were able to drop the PMI.

Last year we paid off our mini-van and realized that we could afford to put an addition on our house. We shopped around, and found the best rate on a Home Equity loan (6.79% for 15 years).

This weekend there was an article in the paper about how loan rates had dropped and that it was a great time to re-finance for all the people who had bought houses during the housing boom of the last few years. For the heck of it, I checked rates at our Credit Union and found that they were lower than our current mortgage and WAY lower than our Home Equity (5.75% for 30 and 5.625% for 20 years). We called to see if we could refinance--maybe even dropping to 20 years--and roll the two together.

After making the appointment and getting the stats (we'd be saving a couple hundred dollars a month even with the 20 year loan), I happened to look at the website for our credit union again and saw that 15 year loan rates were even lower (5.125%). G. went to the appointment and had our loan officer crunch the numbers.

And we decided to go with the 15 year!

It is kind of scary, as our payments will go up about $100 from what we were paying for both loans, but it's unbelievably exciting, too. We will be saving THOUSANDS of dollars in interest and we should be completely debt free in fifteen years! (right now the mortgage and home equity loan are our only debts other than month-to-month credit cards that we always pay off)

I'm so very proud of us!

I'm all caught up!

2008-01-31T14:03:00.001-06:00

First the explanation...

The holidays are chaotic for EVERYone, so I barely got time to post in December.

After that, G. was home and I was subbing or volunteering, or socializing ;)

And then I got SICK!

I'm still not really WELL, but I am feeling better. I just spent the morning catching up on blog posts. I have a few December ones to add pictures or details to, but the ones I updated today (should you want to go back and read the pathetic details) are:

G's Birthday

Curried Winter Vegetable Soup

Lazy Vacation Days

My Baby is Five Years Old

M's Birthday Party

Schwa eats a worm

Knitting and Un-knitting

The subbing report

Happy Birthday To Me!

Wow! Not bad! No wonder I'm so tired...

A day I thought I'd never see...

2008-01-19T20:41:00.000-06:00

T. just said to me, "Mom, I just finished Summer of the Swans. It was a really good book!"

This from the boy whose only experience with fictional works was, for years, Captain Underpants. This from the boy who COULD read when he was three, but who never chose to read for fun. This from the boy who still does prefer Calvin and Hobbes, Paper Airplane books, and an occasional Star Wars novel...

His elementary school does "Battle of the Books" (and C. participated in fourth and fifth grade--her team took second place in fifth grade) and he chose to do this on his own. He's been reading a lot of things that I don't think he'd normally have chosen. This year's reading list is:

Author	Title
Banks, Lynne Ried	Indian in the Cupboard
Blume, Judy	Superfudge
Bond, Michael	A Bear Called Paddington
Boyd, Candy Dawson	Circle of Gold
Byars, Betsy	The Summer of the Swans
Cleary, Beverly	Henry and the Paper Route
Coerr, Eleanor	Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
Conford, Ellen	Felicia the Critic
Dahl, Roald	James and the Giant Peach
Dalgliesh, Alice	The Courage of Sarah Noble
Fitzgerald, John	The Great Brain
Henry, Marguerite	King of the Wind
Holling, Clancy	Paddle to the Sea
Howe, James	Bunnicula
Lawson, Robert	Ben and Me
Lowry, Lois	Anastasia Krupnik
Morey, Walt	Gentle Ben
Sharp, Margery	The Rescuers
Uchida, Yoshiro	Jar of Dreams
Wagner, Jane	J. T.
Wilder, Laura Ingalls	Farmer Boy

They form teams of three, so he doesn't have to read ALL of the books, but I'm hoping he continues to enjoy them enough that he WANTS to read them all.

Color me a proud mama...

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-01-18T22:49:00.000-06:00

It's not terrible, but 38 FEELS a lot older than 37! I guess because I'm officially in my "late 30's" now! Actually, it could be the nasty cold that I've had for three days. Blechhh!

I got some great presents from my family (cooking things and clothing) and we went out for Chinese food. Instead of cake, I wanted a GIANT Rice Krispie Treat (which G. made).

And the biggest surprise of the day--my dear friend N. bought me flowers!
As much as I insist that I'm not a flower fan and that they're a waste of money, it is really, really nice to receive flowers... :) And especially roses...

The subbing report

2008-01-17T13:54:00.000-06:00

I've now subbed three days--in three different schools and at three different levels.

My first experience was at the middle school--teaching 7th grade Lit/Lang. I didn't hate it, but I really didn't enjoy it. And when I considered that I made the same amount subbing for a half day with kids who were constantly trying to get away with something that I would have for tutoring a student who wanted help for an hour, it was a little depressing. I was also reminded of when I was teaching fulltime and never knew what sub I would be assigned for an absence. I left videos or worksheets. Now that I'm on the other side, I can tell you how boring it is to teach that stuff!

My second experience was at the local elementary school, teaching a full day of fourth grade. I had a FANTASTIC time! The kids were great--wanting to be helpful and to show off a little. The teacher left me REAL lesson plans. I also knew many of the staff (since my kids go to school there), so lunch was even fun in the teacher's lounge. Unfortunately, I was also informed that the principal has a policy of not allowing parents to substitute in their child's GRADE (not just class) and since T. is in fourth grade, I won't be doing that again.

My third experience was at the high school where I used to teach. I taught Geometry and Pre-Algebra. Though this was a bit more challenging (behavior-wise) than the elementary school, and the teacher didn't leave much that I could actually teach, I enjoyed this as well. The best part is that I was asked to do a long-term sub position (which, unfortunately, I really can't do this year). Still, it was flattering to be asked!

I'm pretty sure that I don't want subbing to be my main occupation--it's tough to not know what you're doing day-to-day and the pay isn't that great--but I do think it's something that I can fill in with on days/weeks that I have space. And I've learned that I'll pick elementary and high school positions before I go back to the middle school! Middle school teachers are a special breed and I admire them, but I don't wanna be one!

Finally, perhaps the worst thing that I took away from this experience is a cold that seems particularly nasty. Since none of the rest of my family has had this, I have to think that I picked it up on my own--probably at the elementary school.

Knitting--and un-knitting

2008-01-16T22:45:00.000-06:00

First, the unknitting...

Linda's socks, which are now completely frogged (I tried them on her at knitting club, and the ankles were too baggy):
When I can stand the thought of re-trying, I'm going to do a simple, plain sock. Linda says she's cool with that ;)

Also, an IRL friend said that when her 4 YO daughter when sledding, her forearms froze--that area between the mitten and the coat sleeve was bare!

So I knit up some simple wrist-warmers with a slot for the thumb.
I was pretty proud of myself until I brought them to knitting club and someone said, "Oh, yeah, when my son was that age, I took an old pair of socks and cut off the toe!

(well, I did enjoy knitting them, anyway!)

Schwa eats a worm!

2008-01-13T13:41:00.000-06:00

Actually, she ate TWO...

I think I posted before about Schwa's refusal to eat earthworms and how we had to buy fish for her. Well, all that we read said that fish is not an adequate food source on its own and that alternating fish and worms is the best thing you can do for a garter snake (short of feeding it mice--which we're NOT doing!).

We'd been trying to put worms into Schwa's terrarium, but she ignored them. I decided that maybe she would respond to a hand-held worm, so we tried again.You can see that the experiment was a great success! :)

Subbing, here I come...

2008-01-09T11:14:00.000-06:00

It's official. I have my first two subbing jobs! Tomorrow I'll be at the Middle School (Lit/Lang) for a half day, and Friday I'll be at one of the elementary schools (fourth grade) for a full day. I'm hoping to get a High School position one of the two days next week that I can sub, so I'll have experienced all three levels and can decide if it's something I want to do!

Cross fingers for me? :)

M's Birthday Party

2008-01-07T19:27:00.000-06:00

M. wanted a dinosaur party for her fifth birthday. I was thrilled to see that most of her friends who'd already had birthdays had simpler, at-home parties, so we decided to do the same.

She invited seven friends who came for lunch after morning kindergarten. They had mac & cheese, dinosaur chicken nuggets, petrified leaves (sun chips) and baby dino eggs (grape tomatoes).
They made dinosaur hats with googly eyes:
And played dino-themed games like "Pin the tooth on the Tyrannosaurus" and "Stinky Dino Egg":
After dino cupcakes and ice cream and then presents, everyone was exhausted (G. actually took a nap!).

M. got some great gifts, including THREE more Webkinz! Overall, I think it was a success. :)

My "baby" is five years old!

2008-01-06T23:33:00.000-06:00

This is what a five year old looks like:

Present time!

She got some more Littlest Pet Shop things; an iDog amp'd; purple Crocs; bling for her iDog and mp3 player; Sims Pets; a bunch of My Weird School books, and some clothes.

She chose California Pizza Kitchen for her birthday meal, and then we came home for "Better than the Playground" cake (you know the one--with chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, hot fudge, whipped cream and Heath pieces):

and of course we had to measure her to see how much she'd grown...
She's 41 inches tall (the height T. was when he was 3 1/2) and 37 lbs.

So far I'm really enjoying having a five year old again!

C's New 'Do

2008-01-05T15:45:00.000-06:00

C. has the thickest, most wild hair I've ever seen. She has repeatedly tried to grow it out, but it just gets bushier and bushier! So we talked about it, and she decided to go with a short, funky new hairdo. Her hair got long enough to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, so she got it cut today. Here's the before pics:

And the after pictures:

She looks SO much older!

Here's the hair T. had cut off last year (top) and C's ponytail from this haircut:
Now all I have to do is get to the post office....

Lazy Vacation Days

2008-01-03T23:10:00.000-06:00

Most years, winter break seems to be over with very quickly--too quickly. But this year the kids had two FULL weeks off of school and G. had over a MONTH off of school. In addition, Grandma K. came and stayed with us for over two weeks.

It was so nice to not be rushed to get things done in a few days. We had lots of time to just relax and play with our new gifts.

Here's G. and M. I think he was holding her because he wasn't sure he'd be able to pick her up after she turned five..Here's T, probably watching "Myth Busters" on TV--giving his hands a rest from playing Guitar Hero III:

And here's Grandma K., begging me NOT to take a picture of her (I always was a lousy listener...):

Catching up...

2008-01-03T12:57:00.000-06:00

I'm way behind on posts, but hope to get some caught up this week/weekend. I'll post them with the original dates (that is, Dec. of 07 dates) so they'll be listed out of order--just FYI if anyone cares :)

The Remodel: Passing Final Inspection

2008-01-03T12:32:00.000-06:00

I don't remember how much of the electrical saga I've shared, but on our final inspection (back in June), the inspector found two "small" things that needed to be fixed with the electrical system. One was that an outlet was set in too far and the other was that a wire needed to be secured on the box downstairs. I didn't fully understand what needed to be done, so I asked the inspector to call the electrician. Snipping a lot of details, it took almost six months for the inspector to reach the electrician (including numerous reminder calls from me). The electrician came on December 27th, and the building inspector came today and we're DONE! We'll officially have our project "off the books".

One of the annoying things about having the final inspection *not* completed is that we wanted to add a light over the mirror. The only lights in the bathroom are one over the shower stall, and one in the middle of the bathroom, in the same fixture as the fan. Needless to say, things like putting on makeup were impossible! We had purchased (almost 6 months ago) a $42 light to mount over the medicine cabinet, but since we were going to put it in, and not the electrician, we had to wait for the inspection to be done. When the electrician was here last week, I mentioned something about how awful the light from the fan fixture was and he said, "and you can't put a light over your sink because of code". Here's a picture of the ceiling, with the slanty wall/ceiling, due to the roof:
Unfortunately, the 90 days had passed for returning the $42 light fixture to Home Depot with our receipt. We tried bringing it back without a receipt and it had been marked down to $34 (bummer, but not as bad as I'd feared). Then we went to look for a lamp that could sit on the floor but aim light at the mirror.

We'd almost given up when we were walking past the track lighting in Home Depot and saw a floor lamp that matched some track lighting. It was a $60 lamp, clearanced for $17! We grabbed it, and some insanely expensive light bulbs for it, and went to check out. The lamp rang up at $0.01!!! I was no longer so annoyed with not getting the full $42 back on the light fixture.

It's not perfect, but it looks okay in the bathroom, and it works GREAT!

Curried Winter Vegetable Soup

2007-12-31T11:03:00.000-06:00

Curried Winter Vegetable Soup
From Rachael Ray
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 medium eggplant, peel half of each one and chop into bite-size pieces (we don't care for eggplant, so subbed zucchini)
1 small head cauliflower, cored and cut into florets
2 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced into about one-inch chunks
1 large red bell pepper, chopped (we subbed green)
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 to 3 cups vegetable or chicken stock plus 1 cup, divided
2 rounded tablespoons mild curry paste, more if desired (we use Penzey's garam masala and hot curry powder)
1/2 cup mango chutney
1 15-ounce can chickpeas
1 28-ounce fire-roasted tomatoes
1 10-ounce bag spinach, thinly sliced
1 bag pita chips

Place a large pot over medium-high heat with 3 turns of the pan of vegetable oil, about 3 tablespoons. Add the eggplant and cook stirring for about 2 minutes.

Add the cauliflower and potatoes, turn the heat down to medium and cook for 5 minutes. Turn the heat back up to medium-high and add the red bell pepper, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, adding a little more oil if necessary the mixture seems dry. Continue to cook for 5 more minutes, stirring every now and then. Add stock and bring up to a simmer.

While the stoup is coming up to a simmer, combine 1 cup of the stock with the curry paste and the mango chutney in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Add the curry mixture to the pot along with the chickpeas and tomatoes. Season with some salt and pepper, bring the mixture up to a bubble and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the potatoes and veggies are nice and tender and the flavors have melded together. Fold spinach in at the end.

To serve, ladle up a good amount of the stoup into a serving bowls and top with some pita chips.

-----

Naan from Trader Joe's

G's Birthday

2007-12-27T11:01:00.000-06:00

My husband is now 39. That is all :)

Christmas Day

2007-12-25T14:59:00.000-06:00

The "it's too early in the morning" photo:
Actually, the kids were the LAST ones up this morning! I got out of bed around 7:00, and the kids got up between 7:30 and 8:00.

Here's M., building a tower with all of her unwrapped gifts:
G., modeling the hands-free flashlight he got:
And the BIG hit of the day: Guitar Hero III for wii:
C. also got Dancing with the Stars for wii, and M. got Big Brain Academy--all three are really fun!

I got some cool laptop accessories, Uncle S. got a remote starter for his truck, and Grandma K. got an iPod!

Best of all, we have nowhere to go on Christmas day. :)

Christmas with G's side of the family

2007-12-24T12:48:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we drove through blizzard-like conditions to celebrate Xmas with G's side of the family--his parents, his sister and her family, and his brother and his family.

We all had a great time! I didn't get a lot of pictures, but here are a few:

Four of the boys, watching the train go around the tree:

Ready to open presents (all but the youngest):Time for presents??? All five grandsons:

Very Little Knitting Going on...

2007-12-20T14:39:00.000-06:00

Remember last year when I knit something for almost everyone I gave gifts to? Well, that is not happening this year. :( The only knitting I've been doing (apart from working on a few bagstoppers as my go-to knit) has been on ornaments. Here's some of the stuff I made:

C. suggested that I put her cell phone in there to show the scale ;) I love the little sweaters on hangers made from paper clips. Tiny socks are a lot quicker to knit than big socks, and the mittens were just a little trial. I gave away several sweaters and socks that aren't pictured here, but other than that, there will be no knitted gifts this Christmas... :(

The feeding of the Schwa

2007-12-10T18:28:00.001-06:00

Last time I posted about C's pet snake, we were having trouble getting her to eat. C. called the local (wonderful) pet store, Hoffer's, and they suggested that we try fish. That day we bought 5 rosy red feeder fish, took them home, and Schwa snarfed them down in no time flat.

This time we took photographs (so skip the rest of the post if you don't wish to be "entertained" by watching a snake eat....)

Here she is BEFORE we put the fish in her dish:
Once she smelled them, she made her way over...
I love this picture of her tongue, as she's smelling where they are:
GOT ONE!
She carries it out of the water to eat:chomp, chomp...
And then back for more...

Working on "what I want to do when I grow up"

2007-12-08T13:24:00.000-06:00

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with my life :) once M is in school fulltime and the cost of having three older kids catches up to us, but I took a few steps toward something recently.

I applied for, and received this:It's a substitute license that allows me to substitute in any grade K-12 in any school in Wisconsin for up to 20 consecutive days. I can also take a long-term (over 20 days) position in any of the fields I was previously certified in (Biology, Chemistry, Broadfield Science).

I also have an interview with the personnel director for our current school district on Thursday. If all goes well, I'll fill out all the forms and will get a password to be able to check and self-assign subbing positions. Since G. will have his between-semester break in January, and his semester ends a month before the kids get out in May/June, PLUS his Spring Break never coincides with the kids', I can get a few days in of subbing, I hope. (at least enough to pay for my license application). Maybe I'll love it, and I can do that as my "permanent" job next year or the year after. Maybe I'll hate it, and know that I need to figure something out next year (schooling-wise, so I can start the following year). And maybe I'll decide that being a teacher fulltime wasn't so bad after all! :) Either way, it's a start, right?

Unfortunately, I will make LESS subbing one full day that I would make tutoring for two hours. Is it really worth it? At least I'd be home in the evenings...

Lots to think about.

Gifts That Money Can't Buy

2007-12-06T08:25:00.001-06:00

T's teacher (who was C's teacher for 4th grade, too) gives the kids a writing assignment this time of year. The assignment is to write about gifts that money can't buy. I remember C's... I might even have it saved somewhere electronically. T. wrote his last night. I love the rambling tangents, but especially the sentiment:

Gifts that Money Can’t Buy

By T

You don’t need money to be wealthy in heart. Money might buy you fun toys, but friends are free and keep you happy longer, not to mention a lot more fun. So, if friends don’t cost money and are more fun, why not make friends instead? Also, love and nature are free. The best things are free and don’t come in boxes, for that matter. Heck, other than food and water and shelter, you hardly need to buy anything, whether it gets you teased for being Amish or not. So what if you see a commercial for a remote control hovercraft, you still don’t need it. A common way people waste money is museum souvenirs. People buy lots of things because it’s a certain brand. The worst waste of money is electricity. People think that if they leave lights and electrical appliances on while they’re away that it will ward off burglars. Unfortunately, overnight it doesn’t go off. And thieves usually figure out they used that type of remedy once the T. V. runs for two days straight. It also costs a lot of money to do that, so it’s pretty pointless. Money only gets you temporary fun, and I mean things like toys and television. It’s lots of fun to have play dates, another reason to have friends.

Remember me?

2007-12-02T12:38:00.000-06:00

Yikes! I am SO out of the habit of blogging. I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. Apologies galore...

So here's the month in a post:

I got a new computer--a laptop! The kids' computer completely died (the motherboard on a crappy eMachines) and when I went to find a replacement, they had this Compaq Presario with a dual processor on clearance for $399--which was cheaper than any of the desktops they had.
I have always wanted a laptop ;) I haven't taken it out of the house (to cool coffee shops or wherever) yet, but just the fact that I OWN a laptop is cool. I didn't realize how much I used the number keypad on the right until I no longer had it! I also am not a huge fan of the touchpad, so have a mouse connected when the computer's at the desk. Still, going from a half dozen plugs (CPU, monitor, speakers, etc.) down to one makes the desk area a lot neater, too. And now C. wants one of her own for Christmas--she's thinking of saving her money to get one. With five people currently fighting over the internet connection on two computers, I am not discouraging her.

T. had his half birthday, so he's now closer to being ten than being nine. YIKES!

And here's a picture of C. and T. wearing the Halloween tees I bought them on clearance:

C. has been enjoying Schwa. Schwa is very cuddly and friendly and loves to be held. She isn't a big eater, though. We think she's maybe eaten two worms in the month + that we've had her...

And Grandma K. retired! She had enough vacation saved up that, although her birthday isn't until January, her last day of work was November 2nd. She's been down to visit already twice (and will be here for Xmas)--which is more than she often can make it in a year! The kids are loving it!

Besides that I've been tutoring like crazy (sometimes 7 times a week). I have a great bunch of students this year, and I am helping most of them with double subjects (both Science and Math). G. is on bedtime duty most nights and it's so nice to not worry about things like that. Even if he has an evening obligation, C. can watch the kids while I'm gone.

I also have sent in my application to substitute teach. I'm not sure if that's something I want to do for long-term, but if M. really does go to school fulltime next year, that opens me up (for either subbing or taking classes so that I can go back as a regular teacher). G. will have a few weeks off in January, and his semester finishes almost a month before the kids are out in June, so between that time (and actually Spring Break, too), I should be able to get into the schools enough to at least pay back my application fee and maybe I'll decide that I love subbing!

I've been helping out a lot at the elementary school (not many opportunities at the Middle School), and between M. and T's classrooms, plus the social events (coffees with other moms), I'm seldom home in the morning while M's in school. It's both good and bad!

We had teacher's conferences for all three kids, that overall went well. For the first time, C's conference was the harshest. All her teachers love her, but the disorganization and general sloppiness is catching up with her. I'm hoping that she'll figure things out before high school.

It was our turn to host Thanksgiving here for both families, but we lucked out in that my brother didn't come, so it was only my mom from my side, and G's brother and sister went to their in-laws, so we only had his parents! G's sister's family did come later, for dessert, but the actual meal was pretty simple.

And now I'm off to tutor, so I'd better post this, or it'll take another week to get anything on the blog! :) I'll try to do more keeping up.

Newest Member of Our Family

2007-10-31T11:50:00.000-06:00

Please meet the newest member of our family--Schwa:

Schwa is a common Garter Snake. We think she's female, and we think she's almost full-grown. C. had been promised a snake for her birthday, and after researching it, she chose a Garter Snake. But since Garters are native to Wisconsin, we couldn't buy one in a pet store. One of the employees there whispered to us that most people just catch them! So we tried a few times, but were lucky enough to have Grandpa catch one on Monday. G. drove out and got Schwa yesterday. So far she seems to be fitting in quite nicely, and she seems to like her home--spending equal time in her "house" (box), "pool" (water dish), and hanging out on her stick.

Another Field Trip for T--Stony Hill School and Village

2007-10-29T16:42:00.000-06:00

T's class took another field trip today--this one to visit a Pioneer Schoolhouse (in the morning) and Village (in the afternoon).

These are all pictures that his teacher took.

In the school room:

Reciting:

I found these amusing:And these absolutely hysterical!

Then they had lunch at the train station:

Then they learned about the trading post
Learning how long mail took for delivery in 1840:
Looking at a wringer washer:

A covered wagon:

More Halloween Pictures

2007-10-29T08:19:00.000-06:00

T. and M. had their school Halloween parties on Wednesday.

M. was a bunny:
And T. was Harry Potter (I didn't get pictures since, in 4th grade, they only change into costumes at school, so these are from his teacher's website):

On Saturday, our village "downtown" had Trick or Treating with the businesses. One of the businesses had a stand offering free airbrushed tattoos.

C. got a skull on her face:

M. got a sparkly butterfly on her hand:

And T. got a snake on his pipes:

(supposedly they last for up to 3 weeks!)

Saturday night was a costume party at the home of some dear friends of ours. T. was again a mad scientist:
M. was a bunny (minus the makeup nose and whiskers)
C.'s getting into the goth thing:

And G. and I were Mario and Princess Peach:

The party (as always) was a blast!

Sunday was trick-or-treating, so we had to carve pumpkins:
Unfortunately the pumpkin M. picked out on her field trip rotted in back (and it was REALLY tiny) so she decorated it with stickers and marker):

And then it was TOT time. T. finally got to wear the Darth Vader costume:

C. and M. were goth and bunny again:
And this is C. with two of her best friends. M1 is Frida Kahlo (check out this picture and this picture, if you don't know who she is--the costume is fantastic) E. is a fairy:
It was a great Halloween season (and it's not even October 31 yet...)!

Pumpkin Carving with T's class

2007-10-23T20:25:00.000-06:00

T's class carved pumpkins today for the village pumpkin display. I was able to go help. Here's some pictures from the afternoon:

Webkinz

2007-10-22T16:55:00.000-06:00

Grandma has been asking exactly what these Webkinz things are, so I told her I'd send a picture.

So, taken from the Webkinz website, here they are:

C's Cheeky Monkey:
T's Polar Bear:
M's Koala:
Both T. and C. earned a Leopard on WR Insiders:

And M. saved her allowance for a LilKinz Tree Frog:
As much as I balked at these initially, they're a pretty cute gimmick. For $10-$15, you get a cute stuffed animal and a code to go on the WebKinz website, where you can play with an animated version of your pet, take care of it, play games, earn points and "buy" things for the animated animal.

Even G. was playing the games!

Halloween Parties (and a dance)

2007-10-21T20:23:00.000-06:00

(Let me start this post by saying what a difference a new mouse makes! I tried to enter a few blog posts all weekend long and was swearing Blogger up one side and down the other. New mouse=happy bfmomma)

It was a busy weekend of dressing up here. It started w/ C's middle school dance. There was no *dancing* with boys, but lots of *talking* with boys. I think I like that alternative! Pictures from "before":
On Saturday, C. had a Halloween costume party to attend. She wanted to go Goth, so she wore the outfit I wore a few years back. Dare I say that she looks quite a bit cuter in it than I did?
And last night T. had a Halloween party to attend. He's going to be Darth Vader for ToTing and another party we will attend on Saturday, but he wasn't supposed to wear a mask, so he resurrected C's Mad Scientist costume from last year:

Pumpkin Farm Visit

2007-10-18T13:42:00.000-06:00

M got to go to the Pumpkin Farm with her class yesterday, but I wanted to get some pumpkins for the other kids.

C. had one of a million social activities going on, so she didn't come with. G. was sick and had papers to correct, so he stayed home, too.

We always go to Retzlaff's Pumpkins on Pioneer. Among other things, we love seeing the "Kids Are People, too!" performance (see here for last year's pictures).

Again, T got picked for bass guitar. Here he is, trying to tune it:

And M. got to play maracas (she really wanted the cow bell):

Then we took a hay ride out to the field to pick pumpkins, and then we headed home.

Kids' School Pics

2007-10-18T11:25:00.001-06:00

Not perfect images, as they're pictures of pictures :)

And we're probably having C's re-taken.

T's Friday Night Guy's Night

2007-10-18T11:18:00.000-06:00

When C. was in fourth grade, we made the switch from doing one-on-one "playdates" to having group gatherings once a month or so, on a Friday night.

I'd been telling T. that he could do the same and last week was his first one. As with C., the friends come over for 2 hours. They hang out, then have dessert, then hang out some more. T. chose chocolate fondue for his dessert. Here's pictures from Friday night:

T's Riveredge Field Trip

2007-10-18T11:11:00.001-06:00

I was lucky enough to be able to chaperone one of T's field trips--to the Riveredge Nature Center to learn about plant and animal adaptations.

Here's some pics from the trip:Making a plant that would have adaptations to prevent it from being eaten by cows and sheep

Reading the task--find a plant with fuzzy or furry leaves or stems

Looking for insects adapted to living under dead, decaying organic matter

A competition between the short bills (fingers) and long bills (tweezers) to see who catches more "bugs" (toothpicks)

I got my first blog award ;)

2007-10-18T07:15:00.000-06:00

AlexYearOne just gave me this:

My bloglines roll has expanded to 98 feeds (blogs I subscribe to), and I have no clue how I first found most of those. Her blog is an example. Many blogs I add and then quickly delete when I realize it's not worth my time to read all the fluff. But I have really been enjoying this blog! I was talking with some friends at Kindergarten drop-off yesterday about the decision to have a third baby. While I *thought* I was done after T. was born, I never fully committed ;) However, I knew immediately after M. was born that our family was complete. I am still very comfortable with that decision (good thing, since there's no going back for dear G.), and most of the time I am so happy (when I watch the other moms chasing wild toddlers, or hear them complaining about sore nipples or potty training or no sleep at night) that I'm done with that part of my life.

Anyway, I love reading Dawn's blog and her re-telling of Alex's birth and stories from his first year are so honest, and yet so sweet...

(And I'm still VERY convinced that three is the perfect amount of kids for us!)

A Froggin' We Will Go

2007-10-10T10:51:00.000-06:00

I have not had the best luck lately with my knitting. I have always found (with a few exceptions/projects) knitting to be a wonderfully relaxing activity, but my last few projects have not been easy!

Although I *love* the pattern (widdershins) and love the yarn (Lorna's Laces), these socks are NOT knitting up true to size. I already switched the needle size from 0 to 2, and the sole fit tightly. But I knit past that and was only a few inches from the end (see:

and it's too tight to even put on my foot. :(

So it's frogged back to the heel and I"m trying to add in an additional repeat of the pattern, so the calf will be looser...possibly a scrunch-type sock. If that doesn't work, I'll have to frog the entire thing and find a different pattern. UGH!

The other thing I've been working on is trying to make a knit version of this crochet felted skull. Here it is pre-felting:

But I don't think it's going to shrink correctly. This, BTW, is after FOUR attempts initially. I think I need to give up and start knitting something fun.

Brag about Customer Service

2007-10-10T08:45:00.000-06:00

Oftentimes we are quick to complain about customer service (watch for an upcoming post about Pick N Save!), but not so quick to brag about good customer service. This is a brag.

After crushing my wedding ring in the van door, I found out that the local jeweler (who designed my engagement ring 16 years ago and my wedding ring over 14 years ago) had closed. I asked on a local email list for recommendations and got three. I chose to go to the closest one and see what they'd charge to fix the ring.

I walked into Donnybrook Fair Jewelers in Whitefish Bay and showed them the ring. The woman working there looked at it and said, "I should be able to fix this right now". I should have asked how much they'd charge, but I wanted the ring fixed and I figured it couldn't be too much if she could fix it right then.

Less than ten minutes later (and while T. and M. roamed around the jewelry store, being rather loud), she came out and handed me the ring. Not only was it round again, she'd polished it up and cleaned it and it looked better than it had for a LONG time! I put it on, raved, and asked, "how much?" The woman said, "oh, no charge!"

You could not have surprised me more. And I cannot recommend them highly enough.

My ring is back. Yay!!!

Apple Picking!

2007-09-30T18:46:00.001-06:00

It was a beautiful day for apple picking.
The younger girls may have eaten more than they picked:
Aren't the best apples always at the top of the tree? (Actually, in this case, the ones at the top were horrible!)
We picked lots of Cortland apples (the best, IMO, for cooking with) and then went out for a late lunch.

When we were getting back into the vans, I leaned in to put M. in her carseat after opening my door. A gust of wind slammed the driver's door on my hand. I saw it happen and felt oddly removed from my body, but couldn't pull my hand free. I reached over and opened the door and that's when my hand started hurting. Look at what the door did to my wedding ring:

I could barely get the ring off my finger, it was so misshapen. After all that, it's amazing that this is all that happened to my hand:
(just a sore where the ring dug in)

I feel very lucky that no bones were broken (or, as my neighbor informed me, that my finger wasn't sliced off by the car door!)

12 1/2 years old

2007-09-29T18:43:00.000-06:00

Traditional half birthday cake....

We had our neighbors over to celebrate.

Clifford's Visit

2007-09-25T18:33:00.000-06:00

My apologies again for the large space between posts... I volunteered a lot at the kids' school initially, and then they added this clause that younger siblings couldn't come along, so I essentially did little to no volunteering for two years, and now I'm back in the school full-force!

But today M. got to bring home Clifford. Clifford spends a night with each kid in the class and they are to draw a picture of what they did with Clifford.

Here's the book:
First M. showed Clifford Club Penguin:Here's what M. drew/wrote on her page:Clifford had a snack, played all sorts of stuff, had an unfortunate accident involving his bone/collar (luckily mom can sew a little!), and right now M. is reading him a story before bed:

Junior Kindergarten is so much fun. :)

M pictures

2007-09-19T11:56:00.001-06:00

Today is picture day at school and all I wanted was a nice picture of M. before she left for school. Instead, I got these:

"I am" by T.

2007-09-19T11:42:00.000-06:00

I AM

I AM a soccer player

I WONDER about global warming

I HEAR bats flying in the summer

I SEE many people

I WANT to be really rich

I AM a soccer player

I PRETEND to have 15 Webkinz

I FEEL glad to have a home

I TOUCH my Nintendo 64

I WORRY about the homeless

I CRY when family passes away

I AM a soccer player

I UNDERSTAND that I have two Webkinz

I SAY it’s simple if you believe

I DREAM that our world will have peace

I TRY to beat Tubba Blubba

I HOPE people won’t have war

I AM a soccer player

MY NAME IS T.

The PIF socks

2007-09-13T12:38:00.001-06:00

Not a lot of knitting has been happening, but I've been working on MamaFitz's socks.

I really like the pattern and the heel flap idea as a toe-up. I also increased (by TWO sizes) the needle size for these socks. Still, I'm a bit afraid that they may be too small! I personally prefer somewhat more snug socks than baggy ones (especially since they loosen a bit as you wear them), but I hope that these will fit on her feet.

I guess there's no telling at this point. Maybe when I see her tomorrow, I'll make her try them on--since I'm over halfway done, I probably should have thought about this earlier ;)

Anyway, some pics:

T's pics from school

2007-09-11T11:19:00.000-06:00

T's teacher is BIG into photography, and she has started a group on Snapfish so she can post the pictures she takes (cool!).

Here's pics from the first day (I'm including all of them that T. is in):She did the same thing when C. had her--and put a slideshow of the kid pics to sappy music at the beginning of the year.

In Phy. Ed.

In Orchestra
In the classroom

Groceries, 9/11/07

2007-09-11T09:18:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted all my grocery shopping trips. I joined the brand new Costco and have done some stocking up/bulk buying there. It's not as easy (or fun) to post those sales, since I don't know exactly how much I've "saved" over other places' regular prices. But I will say that Costco is SO much better than Sam's Club (IMO) that I'm very happy I joined!

But I did have a good trip to Pick N Save today. I'm hoping to shop there less and less, since they've eliminated double coupon Wednesdays (grrrr!) and, of course, since I joined Costco. My *hope* is to do the majority of shopping for items that don't go on sale (and party stuff) at Costco, to buy produce at Sendik's or Farmer's Markets, and use Pick N Save to *only* buy their loss-leader items. Hope it'll work!

Total: $75.48
Savings: $58.71
Number of Items: 48
Pick N Save

best deals:
Colgate toothpaste reg. $2.59, on sale for $0.99, minus $0.75 coupon, final: $0.24
Filippo Berio olive oil, reg. $5.89, on sale for $4, minus $1 coupon, final: $3.00 (this is the brand that Costco carries in bulk, so I wanted to try a smaller bottle first)
Ziploc bags, reg. $2.75 each, on sale for $2, minus $1.50 coupon, final: $1.25 each
Barber stuffed chk. breasts, reg. $4.49, on sale B1G1F, minus $1 coupon, final: $1.75 for a 2-pk.

Reports on the first week of school

2007-09-10T14:46:00.000-06:00

Yikes! I guess it's been a busy week.

C. reports that she absolutely LOVES seventh grade. Not only is she in the same house as one of her best friends (and they haven't been together since second grade), but she's also in the same house as a "really cute boy"! Not only that, said cute boy asked her to be a partner in Science class! Oh, and he sat next to her TWICE at lunch. She hasn't had a lot of homework yet. Oh, and her Lit/Lang teacher was in a car accident Monday night, so she hasn't met him yet.

T. is also off to a great start! He's got the same (wonderful) teacher that C. had in fourth grade, and he goes to fifth grade for math (with the same wonderful teacher that C. had for fifth grade!).

Both T. and C. started soccer this weekend. Here they are in their new uniforms:
Both will have tough seasons. The majority of T's team moved up to Select/Traveling teams, so his new team is a compilation of several other teams (all of whom lost players to Select). C's playing on a bigger field, and with more players, so her team combined with the other local team, plus it's rounded out with some kids from neighboring suburbs. In addition, there are two younger sisters who are "playing up" to the U-13 level. Toughest of all, there are so few teams at this level that they are in a U-13/U-14 league. Most of their games will be against U-14 teams (not to mention teams who have been playing together for a year or more already).

M's not old enough to do soccer yet (NEXT year!), but she's off to a good start in K-4. Her school does a very gradual easing-in for the K-4 kids. Only half the class attends each day, and it builds from 1 hour with parents, to 1 hour w/o parents, to the full time (2 1/2 hours) w/o parents (but still half the class) and finally on this Wednesday the whole class will be attending for the whole time. Her first day went great. She was very excited for her second day, but came out afterwards in tears. On her third day (today) she came out very happy and told me that she had "so much fun".

I'm looking forward to a very uneventful (ha ha) year. I'm T's room parent, and will be working in the library for both of their classes, so that will be fun.

First Day of School, 2007

2007-09-04T09:57:00.000-06:00

Not much to report yet (although M's first day went great, it was only an hour and I was there the whole time!), but here's the obligatory first-day-of-school pics:
C, with our neighbor, V.

The Elementary kids.

Does un-knitting a sweater count for the SAM KAL?

2007-09-02T07:51:00.001-06:00

One of the coolest features on Ravelry has to be the Groups. One of the groups I joined is called Thrifty Knitters and it was there that I found out (in detail) about buying sweaters at thrift stores, and raveling them for the yarn. I had a coupon for our newly-opened local Goodwill store, so we went to check it out.

C. found this men's size large 100% lambswool Old Navy sweater for $5. After my coupon, it was under $4.50.

And after washing, drying, and raveling it, I got:

(an awful lot of wonderful yarn!) Here's a closeup:

C. wants a sweater of some sort knit out of it (so I WILL be eventually knitting another sweater). But I'm addicted to this! I did some more research and found that cotton is another good one to ravel. There were a lot of mens and womens cotton sweaters at Goodwill, so one of these days I'll have to go back.

Oh, the possibilities!
(and C. said it wasn't breaking my yarn diet if I was buying SWEATERS... Oh, how I love that girl!)

:)

p.s. if you're interested in doing this yourself, here's a link to a great tutorial. The big thing to watch for is to make sure you buy a sweater that is knit, then seamed. If you have one that's seamed and then cut, the yarn will be in lengths the width of the sweater! No good...

Back-to-School Time!

2007-08-30T08:10:00.001-06:00

School starts for my kids next Tuesday, but their cousins (who go to a Catholic school) started yesterday. G's sister (K) and I have started a tradition of taking our girls out for one last celebration before school starts. This is the first year that M. could go, too!

We go to a cute, quaint little restaurant in Cedarburg called Cream and Crepe. (go ahead--click over and look at the menu!)

Here's the girls:

After some yummy crepes (Creek Specialty for M & B; Tree of Life for C; Combination Star for K and Noon Day Lily for me), we took some time to wander through the cute, kitschy shops (or is that shoppes?) of Cedarburg.

K. and I decided we should open up a little shop that sells glass things, stinky candles, lawn ornaments, retro candies, and serves coffee, because there aren't nearly enough of them in Cedarburg.

We also walked past a church that I think even MY family could attend. Doesn't that look like a stained glass image of Darth Vader?
And then we headed back to Cream and Crepe for dessert. C and I had the mocha ambrosia; K and B had the mosaic, and M. had Strawberry.

And then we met the guys, who had been doing more manly pursuits (eating cheeseburgers and going bowling).

Sauteed shredded zucchini; roasted mushrooms

2007-08-30T07:59:00.001-06:00

This is actually a meal I made several weeks ago (but I'm so behind on blogging).

In addition to the recipes I'm sharing, there's steamed broccoli, plain noodles (for M.) and simple BBQ pork chops.

-----
Sauteed shredded zucchini

In the weeks before making this recipe, I read (in several places) about shredding and then sauteing zucchini, and serving it over pasta. A friend had given me a rather large zucchini, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Shred zucchini and squeeze out as much moisture as possible (I used a clean dishtowel for this). chop a small onion. Boil water for pasta of your choice. In the meantime, heat olive oil, butter and onion in a fry pan. When onion is tender, add drained zucchini and a clove of garlic, crushed. Saute only a matter of minutes, and then toss in cooked, drained pasta and lots of fresh ground pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl, layering with lots of freshly grated parmesan cheese.

My notes: I wasn't wowed by this recipe. Essentially, the zucchini added very little. Then again, it didn't take away from what was essentially garlicy, cheesy pasta, so that's something, too. :)

-----
Roasted mushrooms

This is a phenomenal, simple recipe that an IRL friend passed along. It sounded too simple to be good, but OMG, is it yummy!

Clean mushrooms (I used plain white button mushrooms) and remove the stems. Distribute mushrooms (cap down) in a baking dish. Drizzle olive oil over the top and sprinkle with kosher salt. Roast in an oven with whatever else you're baking (I did about 25 minutes at 350, but my friend says it's very flexible WRT temps and just watch the time until they look done).

The Pay-It-Forward Meme update

2007-08-28T11:45:00.000-06:00

If you read my post on the Pay-It-Forward meme, you know that I've been working on some knitting.

Nikki chose this reusable grocery bag:
Delana wanted some felted bowls, which I completed:
And MamaFitz's socks are about 15% done:
This has been really fun!

I did want to let anyone know (who wanted to do this, but missed being one of the first three) that both Delana (who is a wonderfully gifted knitter) and Nikki (who has Passions stuff up for grabs, as well as coffee and tea!) have space (currently) in their memes if you want to get in! In addition, another friend is participating and SHE has space, too. Check out RawMilkStar's pay-it-forward meme here.

p.s. I did receive my PIF gift from Mo, but it's a surprise for someone else, so I won't post pics yet!

Gifts for a new baby

2007-08-28T11:38:00.000-06:00

For the first time in a LONG time, a friend of mine had a first baby! Check out the little cutie:

:)

I'm sending them (they used to be local, but moved away four years ago) the following care package:
It includes:

A pumpkin hat, knit roughly from any of the fruit hat patterns you can find online
A taggie, modeled after these
Decorated burp cloths (just cloth diapers with ribbon stitched down the middle)
A picture frame
Hand-made cards from my kids
A home-sewn sling, from directions from my friend Wendy. I started making slings like the Maya wrap, from these directions, but Wendy's pattern has a padded pillow and rails, so I like it a lot!

I was going to link to the directions for sewing a sling from Wendy, but the directions are not online. If you'd like them (in a WORD document), just email me (bfmomma at yahoo dot com) and I'll forward them to you.

Wendy does beautiful photos, so if you're in the metro Milwaukee/Waukesha area, be sure to give her a try. I asked if I could link here, and she said, "I could offer a special sale for anyone coming from your site. How about a mother/child photo in their sling (baby, toddler, whatever size) and/or nursing photos. I'll do a $10 sitting fee if they tell me it's a referral from you or your blog (normally $25). Prints are at my standard prices found on my website. Conditions: I travel to parks and homes for portraits. If they would like a "studio look", it must be done in my home. Expires Dec 1, 2007."

(So look at her website and tell her you came from bfmomma's spot!)

The Craft Meme

2007-08-22T11:34:00.000-06:00

Snagged from Grumperina, originally from BellaKnitting, I guess.

Four choices--list crafts that you are familiar with, in the categories you'd choose:

1. Love it! This is my thing.

knitting, cooking

2. I do or have dabbled in it.

embroidery, cross-stitch, macramé, quilting, sewing, dyeing, felting, gardening, origami, rug hooking, scrap-booking, baking, cake decorating, balloon animal making, pottery painting, calligraphy, collage, photography, stenciling, acting, music (flute)

3. I'll give it a try.

card making, spinning (some day!), crochet, wood carving, pattern-writing, graphic design, music (guitar)

4. I've got absolutely no interest.

weaving, flower arranging, doll house making/decorating, etching, glass blowing, glass bead making, lace-making, mosaics, pottery throwing, soap making, basket weaving, book binding, candle-making, stamping, needlepoint, jewelry making, papier-mâché, paper-making, painting, drawing, cartooning, doll/toy making, film-making

I tag MamaFitz, RawMilkStar, PancakeGoddess, Suzee, and any others who want to play!

Vacation, Day Five (August 13)

2007-08-22T09:50:00.000-06:00

We left my mom's early on Monday to head back home. Since it had been raining on the way up, we didn't get to take a picture with the World's Biggest Loon (in Mercer) on Thursday, so we stopped on Monday.

I guess she's actually named Claire de Loon!

Then we did our annual stop at Bay Beach in Green Bay. Pics of the kids (and G.) on rides:

And then we came home, unpacked, and crashed!

Groceries, 8-22-07

2007-08-22T09:05:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted grocery totals for a long time. For the last few weeks, our grocery-buying has either been unusually small (going on vacation) or unusually large (going on vacation; having people over).

Anyway, I think I did well today!

Total: $76.33
Savings: $53.33
Number of Items: 61
Pick N Save

best deals:

*Keebler cookies--on sale for half price, then minus $1 coupon, doubled. Animal crackers and caramel fudge shoppe were each $0.49
*Nature's Bounty iron supplements, reg. $5.29, on sale for $2.64, minus $2 coupon ($0.64)
*GM Oatmeal Crisp cereal, reg. $3.79, on sale for $2.50, minus $1 coupon($1.50 ea.)
*Hebrew National kosher hot dogs, reg. $4.29, on sale for $3, minus $1 coupon, doubled ($1)
And they had several 50% off deals, or B1G1, and I got the $0.25 rebate for bringing my own bags

In case you were missing all those posts about the remodeling hell...

2007-08-21T21:14:00.000-06:00

We've had essentially four days of non-stop rain here. Sometimes it's just drizzling, but oftentimes it's POURING. Our sump pump has been running non-stop, our yard is under water, and the siding on the outside of the house (which had dried so nicely all summer in preparation for paint) is now soaking wet.

Today my friend Nicole came over to see the addition. As I was showing her the upstairs, I looked at the hallway along the stairwell and saw:

If you can't tell, those are watermarks because water is getting into the new roof and running down an inside wall. Because it hadn't rained here since the big mold disaster, we didn't know that such a leak existed.

G. climbed up on the roof and said that the flashing around the chimney had not been properly sealed. He sealed it and promises that it's fixed now.

I wish I could stop myself from wondering "what next?"

Vacation, Day Four (August 12)

2007-08-21T19:39:00.000-06:00

We started the day with a real "country" breakfast:

That's bacon from a local butcher; the tomato we got from the neighbor's (with basil from Mom's plant), and zucchini pancakes, made from the neighbor's zucchini. YUM!

Our luck held out and the rain held off for our trip to Lake Superior. We live right near Lake Michigan, but Lake Michigan is SO much more dirty/polluted that I worry about letting the kids swim in it. So every summer when we're at Grandma's, we have a day at the "beach". Lake Superior is VERY cold (it's very deep and never really warms up), but that doesn't stop the kids! Here's some pics:
Everyone, packed in for the trip

There were HUGE waves and they kept tipping the kids off their raft and innertube.

One of the most fun things to do at Lake Superior is pick rocks. Somehow, the prettiest rocks in the world (IMO) wash up on the shore of Lake Superior!

After a trip back to my mom's for showers (those waves really carry sand into...uh...certain parts of your body), we headed back into town for supper at Mom's friend's restaurant, Pizza King Joe's.

Vacation, Day Three (August 11)

2007-08-19T11:50:00.000-06:00

The third day of our vacation was a rainy one. It was kind of nice to relax and just hang out at my mom's house. The kids played with legos (they are SO much more fun at Grandma's house), and I read, finishing The Other Boleyn Girl (which was EXCELLENT!), and then knit some.

G. and I got a mini "date"--we went into town for coffee at the Hurley Coffee Company, and then headed to Dunham's, where G. found a Christmas present!

In the afternoon, the rain stopped briefly, so the big girls and I walked to the neighbor's place. They have a big, beautiful house, lots of land, five (I think) private ponds, and a fantastic garden! They sent us home with a tomato the size of Mira's head, some zucchini, and pickled green beans. It was fun to visit because my first babysitting job was for the girls who lived there, and the older of the two has her own baby now--who we got to meet.

And the final (and necessary) part of the day--supper--was picked up from two local favorite places--pizza from The Bell Chalet, and pasties from Joe's Pasty Shop.

First Day of School Outfits

2007-08-18T08:44:00.000-06:00

I don't think I've posted pics of the kids' first day of school outfits.

Since money has been a little (um...) "tight" since the addition, my mom bought the kids their first day outfits.

Here's C's:
And T's (he walked into Old Navy, picked out the shirt and shorts, and was done!):
Finally, M's--hers was a bit tougher as she's right at the in-between toddler and girl size range:

Everlasting Bagstopper explosion

2007-08-17T22:39:00.000-06:00

I really need to stop making these bags...

While camping, I worked on one more:

And between the car ride to my mom's, free time there, and the car ride back, I finished two more:

I really need to stop... I can stop. Really, I can.

Vacation, Day Two (August 10)

2007-08-17T21:48:00.000-06:00

I had promised the girls (C and M1) that I'd take them shopping, as M1 needed a knitting needle to finish her project and besides, is there anything more fun for 12 YO girls than shopping? :)

We headed into town and visited my mom's coworkers (it's so fun to show off the kids and how much they've grown since the last visit). Then we went out to lunch (see how visits up North are all about the food?) at one of G's favorite places: Don and GG's.

C, M1 and I took all of about 2 hours to hit EVERY store in Ironwood, MI and Hurley, WI! The girls found postcards and C. found a cute pair of gauchos.

Mom made a yummy supper of burgers on the grill (from a local butcher--O'Dovero's) (Boca for the vegetarians in the group) and grilled veggies from the recipe I'd posted here.

Due to the rain, Uncle S. (a firefighter) had the weekend off, so he brought his ATV over to give the kids rides. I even got to drive it! Here's some pictures from that:

Addicted? Who, Me? I'm not addicted

2007-08-17T19:28:00.001-06:00

Wow. I survived internet deprivation!

:)

For those of you who don't know, after a wonderful vacation at my mom's (very slow dialup, and therefore virtually no internet access), we came home to a very spotty internet connection here. I was worried that I'd left the modem and router on while gone and some sort of virus had gotten through, so I spent most of Tuesday (in between trying to catch up on blogging, and email, and Bloglines) cleaning the computer in every way I knew possible. By Tuesday night, however, there was no avoiding it--this was not just a virus.

I left for Knitting Club, thinking G. could spend some time trying other ways to fix the computer. When I got home, we faced the inevitable, and I called AT&T's customer service. They eventually (after running a bunch of "diagnostic tests") determined that our 5+ year old modem had died. The very-nice Tech Support guy told me that I could buy a new modem through AT&T for $50 and a 3-5 business day wait, or I could go to Best Buy and pick one up for $70-$90. Though I love my internet :) I was dragging my feet on paying $20 extra for a few days. But when the tech guy told me that sometimes the sales department will cut you a deal on modems, I decided to give it a try.

I called the Sales department at 7:00 Wednesday morning (right when they open) and was able to secure a modem for $50 and two month's credit (of $24.99) on our DSL bill (so essentially free).

After three days of running the the library to check email, I was SO happy to see the UPS guy this afternoon.

I'll snip all sorts of stories about phone calls to AT&T's tech support, and then phone calls to D-Link's tech support (the new modem wasn't working with our old router), but between G. and I, I think we were on the phone for about four hours.

And now... as of 8:30 pm on Friday night, we're back to normal! Actually, we're better than normal, as this modem seems quicker than our old one. Is that possible, or am I just hallucinating?

Now to the dozens of emails I need to reply to (I mostly only read at the library), the 285 Bloglines to read, and the Ravelry and 43Things posts to catch up on!

I hope I never have to suffer this way again ;)

Vacation, Day One (August 9)

2007-08-14T14:39:00.001-06:00

Once again, our big vacation for the year was a return to my hometown area. This year we took along a friend of C's--M1.

We left at 9:00 am, and after a brief detour home (forgot the gift for Grandma and headphones for the iPod), we were on the road.

It was a pretty wet ride--alternating between drizzle and downpour, with brief spots of clear skies.

We found a place outside of Wausau that sold fireworks (and was open), so we stopped and picked some up.

On the way through Woodruff, we decided to actually stop (for the first time) and visit the World's Largest Penny.

The family, with M1 instead of me:

Me, subbed in for M1:
And the plaque, describing why they put a giant penny in Woodruff, WI:

It rained the rest of the way North (my mom was very happy for this, as it hadn't rained there for MONTHS--seriously, the trees had started turning from the drought!), but wasn't too bad when we arrived in Iron Belt.

Mom cooked a fantastic supper of tenderloin and salads. After supper, the kids found some blackberries, and when it got dark, we lit half of the fireworks.

In just three month's time...

2007-08-06T11:50:00.000-06:00

Here's a picture of the T-man three months ago:

And here he is today:
Following in his sister's footsteps, he needed glasses this summer before starting fourth grade. As G. said, I wonder what he'll look like when his hair grows out again and he's got the glasses!

Camping!

2007-08-05T13:17:00.000-06:00

G's department organized a camping outing to Jellystone in Wisconsin Dells. We had not been camping since C. was about a year and a half old, and we were excited to see how the other two enjoyed it.

We arrived Friday night and had a nice, leisurely supper with colleagues. Here's M, trying out the Dora sleeping bag with a friend: The kids enjoyed making s'mores over the campfire, even though T's first one caught on fire, causing him to run like a madman all around that wide-open field you see behind the van: I taught him the slow, gentle way to toast marshmallows and he got it right. :)

Though it took a long time for the kids to settle down, everyone eventually fell asleep in the tent. I wouldn't recommend this campground--it was right off the freeway and right near two county roads where noisy trucks seemed to drag race all night! No one slept very well.

We got up early on Saturday and headed to Devil's Lake State park for a hike. We took a two-hour hike that was almost all up or down the cliffs! yowch! Beautiful views, though!

If we didn't look so grungy, this one would be a good Xmas card photo:

Check out the walking stick on T's hat:
And here's the whole crew--except the organizer, who had gone on ahead with her son:

As soon as we finished the hike, it started raining, and did not let up. We had promised the kids a visit to the "water park" on the grounds, so we went swimming (and did the water slides) in the rain. We then tried to wait it out by visiting the outlet mall near the campground, but eventually gave up and drove home.

It really felt nice to shower and sleep in our own beds last night! I think we might try camping again, but in a more secluded place, and with friends of all the kids (T. was a bit bored at the campground).

Which Sister Wife Are You?

2007-08-03T09:33:00.000-06:00

I just took a quiz at hbo.com to find out which sister wife (from Big Love) I'm most like.

Not surprisingly, I'm a Barb.

"Sensible and loving to a fault, you sometimes don't realize that your high expectations can feel like judgment to some people. But you're willing to handle any situation, you're sensitive to other people's feelings and your decisions are respected."

Project Spectrum for August and September

2007-08-02T07:46:00.000-06:00

The last grouping for Project Spectrum will include:
Brown
Orange
Purple

Luckily, one of the only colors I have left in cotton is purple, so that's what I started making another Everlasting Bagstopper yesterday.

And I think I really need to give it up, frog this yarn, and start over in this two month span:
Yep. That's why I haven't touched these for 5 months--I was just waiting for the right project spectrum month! ;)

Pay It Forward Meme

2007-08-01T17:15:00.000-06:00

This is a really cool one, I think!

I got this from Mo.

Pay It Forward meme

I will send a handmade gift* to the first three people who leave a comment requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet, but you will receive it within 365 days. The only thing you have to do in return is "pay it forward" by making a similar agreement on your journal.

(my "handmade" specialties are knitting, cooking [for locals], and limited sewing--mostly taggie blankets, actually! I do have some tie-dyed kid stuff, too. )

*The "gift" you send doesn't have to be handmade--choose your specs when you post it on your blog.

Groceries 8-1-07

2007-08-01T09:26:00.000-06:00

I just realized that I haven't posted groceries for a month! Partly that's my mini blog hiatus and partly it's because we were travelling and/or having company so much that my grocery bills weren't much to brag about, as they weren't indicative of a typical trip.

But I think I'm back on target!

Total: $69.97
Savings: $39.82
Number of Items: 51
Pick N Save (Mequon)

best deals:
*Huggies flushable wipes double refills; reg. $7.98, sale for $7 minus $3 coupon, so $4 for two double packs
*Raw, frozen shrimp, size large, 2 lb. reg. $16.99 on sale for $9.99
*Pierogies reg. $2.39, on sale for $2.34 minus $1 off coupon doubled (so $0.34 final price)
*Quaker Granola bars, reg. $2.95 a box, on sale for $2 a box, minus $1 off coupon, doubled, so $1 a box final price
*Energizer 8 ct. AA batteries, reg. $6.49 on sale for $4.79, minus $1 off coupon, doubled
*RayOVac 2 ct. D cell batteries, reg. $2.49, minus $1 off coupon, doubled, final price $0.49 (and we need them for the inflatable mattress for camping this weekend)
* Tic-Tacs, reg. $0.79 each, on sale 2/$1 minus $0.55 coupon, doubled--so I was paid $0.10 to buy two packs :)

Mexican Gumbo

2007-07-31T12:02:00.000-06:00

Our family's favorite meal is a take-off of Qdoba's burritos (and naked burritos). I've posted the general recipe here in the past. (I just realized that I never put my recipes for the three salsas I make with it! I'll have to add those, too)

But C. has found a new favorite meal at Qdoba and I tried to mimic that one as well. I think I did a pretty good job!

I put out, for people to pick and choose from:

cooked rice
grilled chicken
pinto beans
cheese
grilled veggies

Then you top that with:
tortilla soup

and sprinkle:
sour cream
salsas (corn, pico de gallo, verde)
crushed tortilla chips

over the top. YUM!

-----

Tortilla soup
(made by reading a ton of recipes on the web and combining them into this)
1/4 bunch cilantro
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 small onion, roughly chopped
1 can tomatoes with green chilies (I use Red Gold brand)
6 c. chicken stock (I use 3 Knorr chicken boullion cubes and 6 c. water)
1 T. chili powder
1 T. cumin
1 pkg. (10) corn tortillas, chopped finely

Heat stock. While stock is heating, puree cilantro, garlic, onion, and tomatoes in food processor. Add pureed mixture, seasonings, and tortillas into stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer about an hour.

-----

Corn Salsa
1 can corn (NOT creamed) or a few handfuls of frozen or fresh, cooked
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 jalapenos, chopped
1/2 purple onion, chopped
cilantro, minced
1 avocado, diced

season with salt, cumin, chili powder, and fresh lime juice to taste

-----
Salsa verde
4 medium to large tomatillos, papery coating removed
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno, stem removed, but seeds and membrane intact
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2-1 lime, juiced
salt to taste

Boil tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapeno in water for about 7 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then process in food processor. Add cilantro, and lime juice and salt to taste.

-----

Pico de gallo

amounts depend on size and flavorfulness of produce

fresh tomatoes, finely chopped
purple onion, finely chopped
jalapeno, finely chopped
cilantro, finely chopped
lemon or lime juice to taste
salt to taste

8 Things About Me

2007-07-30T20:49:00.000-06:00

Well, newmama tagged me, so I'll give it a whirl.

I did do a "Five Things About Me" meme back in February, so it might be a stretch to come up with 8 more, but I'll try!

1. I birthed all three of my children to the CD "Fumbling Toward Ecstasy" by Sarah McLachlan. So many of the songs on that album are so fitting. When I was in labor with my third, and nearing pushing, I asked for the CD and my husband asked whether to start at the beginning or just skip to track 9 ("Hold On", which begins with the lyrics, "Hold on. Hold on to yourself. For this is gonna hurt like hell.")

2. I met my husband in college. We shared the same major, although neither of us actually were accepted into the program (he made the grade cut-off, but didn't pass the interview; I missed the grade cutoff by 0.01 grade point!).

3. I was unbelievably innocent, naive, and a goody-goody in high school. I didn't realize just how much, though, until I went to my 20 year class reunion and all my classmates were reminiscing about all their wild times in high school and I wasn't part of ANY of them. No drinking, no drugs, no sex... completely dull! ;)

4. I am not a big TV watcher, but I am TOTALLY in love with "Big Love" on HBO. Yes, it is important to note that it's on HBO, because I am such a cheapskate that the fact that I'm paying extra for HBO for one show is alarming. But it is sooooo soooo soooo good! :)

5. I love to shop. I don't even need to spend money--I just love LOOKING at, touching, dreaming about new things. This is in direct conflict with my desire to decrease my impact on the planet. (well, maybe not since I never have money to buy much of anything, but...)

6. I hate to travel. I stress and obsess for weeks before a trip, and even when I have fun (as I inevitably do), I cannot wait to get home.

(I'm stealing ideas for these last ones direct from newmama!)
7. If I'd have been a boy, I'd have been named Matthew.

8. I was never a Girl Scout, but was a Girl Scout Leader for 2 years!

I tag anyone who is reading and is interested in revealing more about themselves...

Addicting bags...

2007-07-30T20:24:00.000-06:00

OK, this is getting a little crazy ;)

I finished Everlasting Bagstopper #2:

And though I'm running out of cotton in my stash, I patched together some colors to start #3:

An IRL friend is going to swap a skein of cream for lavender and then I'll have two matching and I think 4 bags will work for me ;)

Reusable Grocery Bag

2007-07-28T09:33:00.000-06:00

From time to time, I'd see a knit (or sewn) pattern for a reusable grocery bag. In theory, I thought this was nice, but I have to say that the convenience of disposable bags kept me from doing anything about it.

But then the last time I was cleaning, I noticed that I have more cheap plastic bags than I will ever use in this lifetime, and I have more scraps of cotton yarn than I will turn into dishcloths, so I thought I might try to find a pattern to knit a grocery bag.

I wasn't thrilled will many of the patterns I found, and then the Knitty Summer Surprise came to my inbox.

And I fell in love with the Everlasting Bagstopper!

I immediately cast on.

And with two skeins of cotton yarn and some ribbon lying around the craft room, I created:

If you look closely, you can see the "oops" where I goofed in the pattern at knit club. Unfortunately, I make a LOT of goofs at knit club when I talk more than knit! But it's a GROCERY BAG, so I didn't rip back!

And I used it for the first time yesterday and LOVED it (and got great compliments from the bagger at Whole Foods). so I cast on for a second one--this one made from scraps of leftover cotton:

I'm addicted!

Harry Potter!

2007-07-28T09:22:00.000-06:00

At least part of the reason I've been absent from blog-land in the last week has been all the Harry Potter stuff!

We went to the Movie (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) on opening day, as we have for the last four movies. After being so disappointed in #4, and thinking about the fact that this book is the longest of the seven, we weren't expecting much. However, we were pleasantly surprised! I think they did a nice job of cutting out the right stuff and focusing on the *most* important stuff. And the characters have matured so nicely into their roles, I think. (although I still dislike this second Dumbledore...) Luna was fabulous! And I even liked Bellatrix LeStrange, casting-wise.

And then, of course, was the final book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). We all had costumes of some sort and went to the midnight release party on Friday. C. went as Trelawney (I didn't get any pictures!), T. and M. wore Gryffindor robes, G. made a t-shirt advertising the Weird Sisters World Tour, and I stole a fabulous idea from Alison and made this t-shirt:

Fear of reading/hearing spoilers from some source drove us to read at lightening speed! As with the last book, we read it out loud, with G. and I trading off by chapter. We had a class reunion (G's), a birthday party (my nephew's 3rd), a Mother-Daughter Book Club, G's work, and C's class "interfering" with reading time, but still managed to complete the book Monday night.

Wow.

No spoilers or anything will be included, though I'm happy to discuss things via private email with anyone! I'll just say that I wasn't disappointed (though I am sad that it's over) and that I want to go back and re-read the other six books AGAIN to pick up all the beginnings to the things that JK Rowling so neatly wrapped-up in this book.

Disappointing News

2007-07-19T10:54:00.001-06:00

I thought I'd written about this, but couldn't find any posts to that effect.

ANYWAY,
I've been thinking about what to do with the rest of my life since my baby will be starting school in the fall. When I quit teaching in 1997, I swore I wouldn't return, but the fact of the matter is that teaching is a decent job for a mom (not PERFECT, but better than a lot!), and with all my tutoring, I'm actually finding the idea kind of nice! It doesn't hurt that every time I talk to a counselor at the High School, they ask me to come back!

Since I've been out of things so long, my license has expired. I can simply pay to get a substitute license (which I probably will do when M. starts school fulltime, as subbing is more flexible, and easier in many ways, and it'll allow me to decide if I really want to teach fulltime or not!), or I can take 6 credits and then renew my current license. My license allows me to teach any Science class in grades 7-12. I personally wouldn't feel comfortable teaching Physics, and (at this point) no really high level/AP classes in Bio or Chem either. But there's a lot of basic Physical Science, Biology and Chemistry classes offered.

However, since I've been tutoring, I've found that I really enjoy tutoring Math a lot more than the Science classes. Besides that, Math classes don't require the setting-up and tearing-down of labs! So I started thinking about maybe returning as a Math teacher (since I have to take 6 credits before my license is renewed anyway). In addition, what better time to take some classes than when M. will be in school parttime? I wouldn't be able to get a job for that short of a period of time, and there are a few Universities that are 15 minutes away...

So I sent for a transcript evaluation at UW-Milwaukee (closest, and cheapest for an undergrad degree--which this would be. No one would hire me right off the bat with a graduate degree and no experience teaching Math!)

My transcript evaluation came today and I'm quite disappointed.

I *did* get credit for my computer and Physics classes, as well as many of my Education courses. But things I'd still need to do/take are:
12 credits of Calculus (3 semesters)
Math 341--Intro to Lang. & Practice (3 cr.)
Math 431 or 531--Modern Algebra (3 cr.)
Math 451 or 453--Axiomatic or Transf. Geo. (3 cr.)
3 credits of Statistics
6 credits of C&I Teaching Strategies
2 credits of student teaching

Yikes... 32 credits. Let's see, at current rates (and it would go up since I wouldn't be able to start till next summer at the EARLIEST), that's over $10,000.

:(

Cold Brewed Coffee

2007-07-18T18:45:00.000-06:00

I'm not really a coffee snob, but I'm not a coffee purist, either. In college, I started my addiction to General Foods Internationals French Vanilla Cafe, and I still drink a cup of it a day... But earlier this year, a friend of mine became a Direct Sales Associate with a company called Inspired Aroma (her number is 0356 if you order ;)). I went to a home party (ala Tupperware) and was fascinated by all that I learned about coffee and tea. I booked a party of my own, and earned (or earned credit toward) a coffee grinder, a milk frother, an espresso pot, and some other items. My goal was to save money (who wants to pay $4 at Starbucks when it should cost mere pennies at home?), and to be able to enjoy yummy coffee drinks more often.

Well, I have to say that I haven't used my stuff as much as I'd hoped. I do use the grinder, and I've used the espresso pot, but the milk frother was used only once. And my drinks didn't taste like Starbucks'!

When the weather warmed up, I wanted to try to make iced coffee drinks. I watched, after ordering one at a coffee shop, and found that they were simply made with a shot of espresso, some flavored syrup, and a lot of milk, then poured over ice. Easy enough!

But my espresso didn't taste all that great. It was okay, but not something I wanted to spend the time to make.

At the Inspired Aroma party, Nikki had talked about a product called a toddy maker. Toddy makers "brew" coffee without boiling the water. It results in a less acidic, bitter tasting coffee, and even people who can no longer stomach coffee are usually able to drink coffee made in a toddy maker. But that was another $40 and I'd already invested too much money "saving" money on coffee shops! Still, I was reading more and more online about how good cold-brewed coffee was.

I found a link that showed how to make your own toddy maker out of two fast food supersize plastic cups. I considered trying it, but then I'd have to go to a fast food place and order two supersize beverages! But last week I stumbled upon an article raving again about cold-brewed coffee and I found (somewhere!) the "magical" formula of 1/3 cup coffee grounds to 1 cup water, and so I ground up some coffee, put it in a glass jar with filtered water, and let it sit overnight.

The next morning I rubber-banded a coffee filter over another jar, and poured the mixture (slowly) through it. I then stored this concentrate in the fridge (covered).

Today I finally decided to give it a try.

I used a shot of french vanilla syrup (I've found that Torani really seems to be the best brand!) and some of my concentrate, then put in ice cubes and filled the glass with milk.

oh...my...gawd... I tasted the best iced coffee ever!

It just might be worth investing in a toddy maker for convenience, but I really strongly suggest that you try the cold brewing at least once. Supposedly you can mix the concentrate with boiling water for a warm cup (I'll try that some other time), but this was a wonderful iced drink!

Intricate Stag Bag--done!

2007-07-16T21:08:00.000-06:00

Another thing I accomplished on our trip--finishing the stag bag!

Here's the front:

And the back:

I still want to make a lining and attach that at some point.

Back from vacation!

2007-07-16T21:05:00.000-06:00

Wow! We accomplished a LOT in 3 1/2 days!

We left Thursday morning, after T's tennis class.

When we got to my mom's, she had made (as always) a wonderful feast for us. This one included BBQ ribs, fried potatoes, sauteed veggies, salad, and bread. After supper, my mom and G. took the kids over to my mom's friend's farm.

T. made a friend there:
They all got to ride--C. for a really long time:

(I love how that picture makes it look like she's going REALLY fast, while in actuality she was being led around in a walk)

On our trip up, we'd stopped and bought some (legal) fireworks, since I personally believe it's not summer unless you get to burn something! :)

The older two were introduced to snakes:

And then daddy lit the "big" fireworks:

Then T. got a tattoo:

Friday C. and I did some shopping (as much as you can do in Ironwood, MI!) and found a first-day-of-school outfit for her, and some bedside lamps for the master bedroom (pics when I get bulbs in them).

Friday night was the first of my reunion festivities. It was an informal gathering at a bar owned by a former classmate's brother. I knew G. would be bored, but I didn't want to go alone, so I dragged my little brother along. It was a REALLY fun time! Unlike my tenth reunion (which I found, at best, kind of awkward), it seemed as though we'd all moved on enough and were happy with where we are in life. I talked to a lot of people who I had not seen for twenty years!

Saturday was a family day at another former classmate's farm. Again, more fun and socializing with my classmates (and spouses) and the kids had a FANTASTIC time! There were pony rides:
And tours of the dairy farm:

(this is a giant pile of sawdust and straw mix--used for the cow's bedding--that all the kids were jumping down and rolling in...)

There was a hayride, baby bunnies, golf carts for the kids to drive, and general fun!

It was a truly exhausting day, though, as is evidenced by M--pictured about 5 minutes after getting in the car:

Saturday night was the actual reunion (posing for the class picture; dinner; reading the class prophecy, etc.), and then we drove back yesterday.

I'm still trying to recover (and do laundry and all that), but it was a very good visit. We'll be back in less than a month!

Miscellaneous catch-up

2007-07-12T07:08:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile since I've posted. There's not been a lot of major things going on--just some minor stuff.

*All the parts of the intricate stag bag are done--I just need to sew them together (and probably make a liner):*T. is taking tennis lessons, and enjoying them again.

*I've returned to secret shopping to bring in some extra money. I shopped Whole Foods this week and it was kinda fun!

*We saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix yesterday and I think it was one of the best movies they've made!

*We're going to my hometown for my 20th class reunion this weekend. With the outrageous gas prices (is it over $3.50 a gallon everywhere?) this trip should cost over $100 in gas alone. omg...

Balsamic Grilled Vegetables

2007-07-07T13:39:00.001-06:00

OMG, these were SO amazing--and SO easy!

I got the recipe from Food Network (of course) at this link:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/

and made a few adjustments in the veggies I used.

Recipe, from the link:

1 medium yellow squash, sliced on bias
1 medium zucchini, sliced on bias
1 medium eggplant, sliced into 1/2-inch thick circles
1 red onion, sliced in 1/2-inch thick circles
2 Roma tomatoes, sliced in 1/2 lengthwise
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and quartered
1 yellow bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and quartered
2 portobello mushroom caps, gilled and peeled
3 green onions
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
Preheat grill to high.

Prepare all vegetables. Place vegetables in a roasting pan with the mushroom caps and green onions. Season vegetables generously with salt and pepper, and toss with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Place vegetables, cut side down, on the hot grill and cook for a couple minutes on each side, or until tender and nicely marked by the grill.

Remove from grill and toss with an additional 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

(me again)

I don't care for eggplant, so skipped that
We don't have NICE, garden-fresh tomatoes yet, so I skipped that, too. I used:
asparagus
fennel bulb
zucchini
purple onion in thick slices
green onions, whole
portobello mushroom caps
red bell pepper
cubanelle pepper

For the peppers, I roasted them whole over the grill, then wrapped them in a bowl covered with saran wrap until the skin slid off. Next time I'll do that early and then cut them and return them to the grill, but this time I didn't. They had less grilled flavor that the other things, but were still yummy.

Ravelry--I'm in!!!!

2007-07-07T11:11:00.000-06:00

Oh, cool...

If you don't already know about ravelry, go there RIGHT AWAY and check it out! I had to sign up to wait (they're going kinda slow at the start and adding people a few at a time), but it is the neatest thing! You can track your projects (photos, yarn, progress, dates knit, etc.) and link to people who have knit the same stuff, and their suggestions for yarns and substitutions and everything. It's got a huge database of yarns, so you don't have to type in everything, and it keeps track of the needles you use (wish it gave the option for straight, dpn, circular, etc., but not yet) and how much yarn it actually took...

Anyway, please go check it out! I think it'll revolutionize online knitting sharing! (oh, it's for crochet, too)

Stag bag moving along

2007-07-05T10:54:00.000-06:00

This is the perfect project for summer knitting. The intricate part (the stag intarsia) is at the beginning of the pattern, so when you have time to pay attention :) and count, you do that. Then you pick up on the edges and do the chevron (which is also quite easy--just K2P2), and finally you do stockinette for the back. Nothing like mindless knitting to take to the 4th of July fireworks, or other places where you can talk and knit at the same time.

Unfortunately, I don't have enough of the turquoise and cream yarn to do the whole thing, so I have to do the back with a variegated yarn that has the same turquoise in it:

I'm hoping it won't look funny, and will actually be a bit like two completely different bags, depending on how I carry it. :)