A Thing That Went Bump in The Afternoon

Or more correctly WHAM! Right into a cement wall, on her bicycle, going downhill at about 10 miles per hour [it is a steep hill].

This is our youngest. She went out yesterday to enjoy our warm weather and while riding her bike, wearing her helmet, she lost control and smacked dab into a cement wall.

She had a contusion on her forehead, a bloody nose and a split lip. Her bike is bent, but the helmet is still okay. [Apparently she was wearing it wrong and it was too far back on her head. On a side note: What is it about kids? You check them before they leave, the helmet is all good and then you find out later that she shifts it as soon as you are out of sight? Bah.]

Pooldad took one look in my eyes and realized that NO a little Motrin and an ice pack was NOT going to be okay. This was Emergency Room worthy, dammit. Off Pooldad and the youngest went. I waited at home for her sister who was out of town on a field trip.

And waited. The hospital was quick to take the youngest right in [headwound] and over the course of the next three hours did every test that would make a Mom feel much better about her lil' one's condition. [Please know this is only the second time in 5 kids and 20 years we have been to the Emergency Room - both for this kid. :)] Pooldad called with updates with each test result and although it was looking great it broke my heart because the youngest kept asking "Is Momma coming yet? Is Momma coming yet?" They made it home before I could make it there.

Long story, short - She has a concussion and a broken nose. And she is staying home with Pooldad and me today :D!

Kudos to the hospital staff who were very gentle with her and said she was a great patient and also to the doctor that reprimanded her for changing her helmet after we checked that she was wearing it correctly.

Now we are having fun making up names for her. Bump head, Wall girl, Nose ....feel free to chime in! [This is fun for the sake of relief - we were all actually pretty scared]

A special thanks to Yvo for holding my hand. You're the best!

I Like My Pencil

Again another ATC [2 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in - picture is actual size] for a swap. So that little pencil? It is 1 1/4 inch and I made the envelope and letter too. I just posted this because it makes me happy and I knew the title was fetch. This is going to a friend in England who likes to pen pal. Everyone have a great weekend. :)

The Blossoms are Coming! The Blossoms are Coming!

Note: This is 7:00 am and I am not wearing make up. I still have "fuzzy face". :)

[photos courtesy of our eldest, April 2008]

And we get the pleasure of freezing our heinies off to view them in all their splendor.

Dang it was cold last year!

A Different Way to do Recipes [AKA "This Was Fun"]

This is my recipe - done up at Smilebox. I did a trial period. I won't be renewing, but for now it was fun. The biscuits are actually good [even for humans LOL] and the pup loves them. Yes that is Spottie in the picture. Hit play and it will show the recipe clearly. Mute your computer if you don't want to hear a lil' jazz. :)

Make a Smilebox recipe

Wednesday Recipe

Well, there seemed to be a bit of confusion on yesterday's posts [please see two previous] as one of my tadpoles thought I posted the pic' of bean soup as some kind of joke to replicate our dog's misfortune. Not true, but in hindsight it is completely hysterical because, yep!, that pretty much represents what ended up on the couch, the Dad and the blanket.

Not much of a promise for today's recipe, but?

Without further detail, I will provide the easiest recipe to one of our family's most favorite soups. With Easter fast approaching this soup is a perfect use for the leftover bits of meat and the bone from the spiral sliced hams everyone is going to be consuming. Enjoy.

Ham and Bean Soup

1 Ham bone from a spiral or bone in ham shank [cleaned, but a little meat still attached is okay]

1 cup diced ham***

1 lb. dry navy beans

4 stalks of celery, diced

1/2 onion, diced

pepper to taste

water

[Please note I have a 6 qt. crockpot. I don't know if it needs to be adjusted for a smaller one.]

1. 
   
   Rinse and clean beans. Place in a large pot, covered with water. Bring to a boil and boil for two minutes.


2. 
   
   Turn off heat. Cover and let sit for two hours. [You may also use the overnight method.]


3. 
   
   Drain beans. Place ham bone in crockpot. Pour in vegetables. Pour in drained beans.


4. 
   
   Fill crockpot with water within two inches of the lip. The bone won't be covered but the veggies/beans will float!


5. 
   
   Sprinkle liberally with pepper. Go to town. Lots of pepper. I usually make 2 or 3 passes.


6. 
   
   Cover. Turn to high and cook for 4-5 hours or until the water is completely absorbed.


7. 
   
   Remove ham bone. Let cool. Take any meat off the bone and add along with your diced ham back into the crockpot. [Honestly I can never get all the ham off the bone so I usually just use what is on it for the soup and don't worry about an extra cup. If you like it hammier - then use the cup of diced ham***]


8. 
   
   While the lid is still off use a wood spoon to gently stir the ham in and mash some of the beans against the side of the crockpot to give it a thicker consistency.


9. 
   
   Let it heat through [about 1/2 hour]

Serve with crescent rolls [my next post!] and enjoy. Great reheated.

Soup's on Honey!

This should more then make up for your morning, right?

Love you and see you soon!

I Hate to Say It....

"No. I am not. No. Not looking at you. Nope."

She is guilty. You will see why in a moment.

Pooldad works two different shifts. Either he has to be to work at 7:30 am or he arrives around 11:30 am. Today was the late shift.

--

On late shift days he usually sleeps in, but today he had to make a run to the grocery store at 7 am to pick up milk for breakfast.

--

With the kids off to school by 8 am I told him he should go back to bed for a few hours and we could have coffee later, before he left. No. He didn't want to do that.

--

I asked him if he wanted some coffee now. No. He just wanted to read the paper. He waved me off sweetly, saying he was fine. Then I noticed he was falling asleep on the sofa.

--

Go to bed now I repeated. No, no...he wanted to stay up and keep me company.

--

sigh. fine. whatever.

--

There he was, on the sofa, intermittently snoozing and reading the paper when suddenly the dog, who was curled up next to him on the sofa decided that it was a good time to throw up. Yep! Lovely Spot barfed. Twice. All over the sofa, our favorite afghan and Pooldad.

--

Picture it. [You know you can] The frantic jumping up, cursing, moaning, cleaning and finally the mumbling under his breath about how "we can never have anything nice in this house between the damn dogs and the kids....".

--

I know I shouldn't have, but I couldn't resist. You know I did it, don't you?

--

I just looked at him lovingly and said "I told you to go back to bed y'know."

--

Yah, 14 years of togetherness surprises me too sometimes.
--

And how was your morning so far?

I Am Ready

[creative envelope art for a swap by skippymom]

• For a vacation
• For warm weather
• For the sand
• For the sound of the ocean
• For the smell of the surf
• For tourist traps
• For cheesy souvenirs
• For local flavor
• For a road trip
• For fresh caught seafood
• For a view that doesn't include an elementary school or townhomes
• For roadside stands selling fresh corn and tomatoes
• To take a break from the here and now - if only for a weekend

What are you ready for?

Any Ideas....

...about how to get Sharpie marker off of my dog?

Because, I, um...well....I decorated the dog for St. Patricks Day. It is what sahms do. Trust me.

Needless to say she has a very well represented shamrock on her tummy and an Irish flag on her chest [the white hair was quite handy :).]

So, suggestions? Because as hard as my family is going to laugh about this - the salient fact is tomorrow isn't St. Patricks Day and she is going to look stupid.

What?

Look What Came in the Mail

We had another swap at Swap-bot for Naked Mail. This is when you mail something without packaging of any sort. Remember my plastic banana? Saturday the mail arrived and the youngest went to retreive it. Upon entering the house she was giggling and handed me a plastic potato. It had my name and address on it with $2.38 worth of postage. Too funny!

We opened it up and put it together. Not only is it a Mrs. Potato head, but it is the Easter Bunny Mrs. Potato Head. How neat is this?

My choice to send this time [and my partner has already received it] was a large, orange, plastic handled lint brush that was scented with Bounce fabric softner. I thought that was pretty good, until I received Mrs. Potato Head.

Also for fun we mailed my MIL a set of 3 black, plastic funnels. She has no idea about Naked Mail or swap-bot so she pretty much figured we had lost our minds, but was laughing when she called and said "How did you know I needed funnels?" Bonus!

Yes, I know. It doesn't take much to entertain me, does it? :)

Our Morning Funny

We are dog sitting Doohicky-The Whirling Dervish-AKA Peanut yet again. [Yes, her owner goes out of town a lot. I sometimes wonder why they have the dog, but...eh, not my place. Anyway, she is a really nice lady, so no worries.] We like Doohicky. She is basically everything our Spot is not [hee]. She is long legged, quick, agile and a bundle of energy. Yep! Check on all of those....not Spot.

Another thing she is not is Spot's buddy some of the time. We have taken to keeping Doohicky at our home instead of leaving her over at her's because she is a lot of puppy fun, she is absolutely house trained [she will BRING her leash if she needs to go out - how cool is THAT?] and for part of the time she and Spot get along. Until one of the two wants to be in a Mama's lap. Then they fight.

And they fight rough. The scary , "I don't like hearing my dog make those type of noises" type of fight. It always diminishes in a flash, but the intial noise scares the beehoohoo out of all of us.

When it occurred for the third time this morning [since 7 am] Dad laid down the law.

He turned to the youngest and said: "If that happens again Eva Braun is going home, understood?"

The youngest looked puzzled so I stepped in, "Do you know who Eva Braun is?" I asked. The youngest shook her head.

"Hitler's girlfriend." I replied.

Hysterical giggling all around.

Nothing like an impromptu history lesson on a Saturday morning, eh? I am ALL about education y'know.

Pantry Diving

My grocery bill for the past 8 days was $23.53. This includes lunches and dinners for 4. Let me clarify - that is what I spent at the grocery store to add to what we had in our home to feed us for 8 days this past week [all our breakfast needs were met by having a full pantry for that stuff]. I bought 2 lbs of hamburger, 1 1/2 gallons of milk, 1 lb of bologna, 1 bag of chips, 1 bag of pretzels, 10 apple juice boxes, 1 bag of 10 apples and 2 loaves of bread.

Lunches this week for the kidlets were: Bologna sandwiches, pretzels, apple, apple juice and 3 girl scout cookies [yeah, have a lot of those :) -they are so cute I can't resist]. Dad has had leftovers all week. Mom had bologna sandwiches or soup.

Here is why - Well, after paying all the utilities two weeks ago I discovered that we kind of had our behinds kicked a little bit -[A $358 gas bill? Meh, but this month it is only $175 -yay Spring]. I refuse to tap savings if we can manage otherwise.

Anyway this meant - no monies in the monthly budget to do our weekly grocery shopping trip.

Ta-Da! Pantry diving. Which is basically going through the freezer and the pantry and seeing what you have stocked up on [sales/coupons] and make meals from that. I discovered I hoard food. LOL. Seriously, if I see rice on sale I buy two. Vegetables? Canned/Frozen - an extra goes in the cart if I have the coupon or they are on sale. Canned soup [which I abhor, but is a quick fix for a fast grilled cheese/soup dinner or lunch for Mom] always goes into the cart when on sale. I even used coupons a few months ago for stuff I would never otherwise buy, but looked good and surprise! They made great dinners. Oh, and I always have spaghetti sauce and pasta [lordy we would never starve for the pasta I keep in the house]. We even had all the ingredients to make doggie biscuits from scratch last Saturday.

Here was our menu from the past week [like y'all care!]:

Thursday: Baked Potatoes stuffed with Steamed Fresh Veggies and homemade cheddar sauce
Friday: Grilled Cheese and canned soup for me and Dad since the girls were out at "Teen Night"
Saturday: Breakfast for Dinner - Pancakes, Sausage, Fried Eggs and Spiced Apples
Sunday: Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans
Monday: Salmon Cakes, Chicken Rice A Roni and Steamed Fresh Broccoli
Tuesday: Chicken Mozzarella over rotini with marinara sauce and side of canned corn ***
Wednesday: Fried Shrimp and French Fries
Thursday: Fish Fillets w/Tartar sauce, Rice and canned peas
Friday: Grilled Cheese and canned soup again for me and Dad because of "Teen Night"

I think I could've thrown Tuna Casserole into the mix if I wanted to.

Now before you judge any of this - I know, I know...that is a lot of canned/frozen food and the healthy content is a bit lacking, but none of these meals took longer to prepare then 30 minutes - all were filling and there is some nutrition in there. I think :).

Alas, now my pantry and freezer are a bit depleted. I will spend the day studying the ads for sales and clipping the coupons. I just hate the idea of not having food in the house.

But, as I said, there is always pasta :). ***and y'all want this recipe, trust me.

Well That was a Heck of a Husbandly Slip....

Recently I bought a bottle of this to use in my crafts. It is a new addition to our household and something that my lovely husband has never been aquainted with before.

Bless his innocent lil' heart.

I had finished up some eggs I was decopauging with the "MOD PODGE" [the name is important]. A bit later into the evening Pooldad turned to me and commented on how pretty the eggs had turned out.

Why, thank you honey! :)

He then turned to me and inquired, "So are you going to use anymore of that menage' a trois stuff again tonight?"

My inhaler received quite the workout for the next 5 minutes I can assure you. And it reminded me again why having asthma sucks extra bad when I have a spouse that makes me laugh as hard as mine can in an unexpected, moment's notice.

Did You Notice I Never Buy the Gossip Mags?

...that should tell you something Nice Clerk at my local drugstore.
~
This happened a few weeks ago and I forgot to post about it, but we still see both the main players in this story and well, it is just weird.
~
Pooldad stops in this particular drugstore about once or twice a week. He purchases various sundries, my prescriptions, an emergency can of dogfood if we run out. You get the idea. Since we have lived here for over 3 years the clerks have come to know him and our family. The clerks change, it seems, with the seasons, but they are always 1. Young 2. Extremely polite 3. Efficient. We have no problem with their service but the their familiarity has ...shall we say, gotten out of hand?
~
Nice Clerk 1 [NC1] is in her early twenties, lives with her Mom and this is her only job as she is single, no kids and doesn't attend college. Nice Clerk 2 [NC2] is in her late teens, lives at home and is also in Community College. Just background, nothing really relevant except their ages and the fact we KNOW all this stuff...they chat, to us, A LOT.
~
A few weeks ago Pooldad goes to the drugstore to purchase a holiday item they had on sale. While he is at the counter being rung up he had the following conversation with NC1:

Pooldad: Hi NC1. How are you doing today?
NC1: Oh, okay I guess....[sigh]
Pooldad: What's wrong? You don't seem your cheery self.
NC1: Well, it is NC 2 - you know her right?
[Pooldad nods his head]
NC1: Well, during her shift yesterday, she like...well, went to the bathroom and um, like GAVE BIRTH IN OUR TOILET. [she didn't shout this - I just wanted to show the emphasis of what she said.]
[Pooldad frozen in place - shocked - not about the pregnancy, but WHAT?]
NC1: Yeah, so like the baby is fine and all and NC2 is coming back to work tomorrow, but can you believe it? She didn't even know she was pregnant and just, like, y'know felt like she had to go to the bathroom and next thing we know the ambulance is coming. Weird, huh?
Pooldad: Uh, yes, weird. [He told me later he didn't know what to say. Would you?] Please tell NC 2 that we hope she is okay. Glad the baby is fine."
~
He grabbed his stuff, receipt and walked pretty damn fast out of there.
~
He came home mumbling something along the lines of "I just wanted a decoration, not the girl's life story, jeesh." I asked him what happened and he repeated the story. My chin just kind of hit the table until I said "Give the receipt." He handed it over and I called the store phone number on it so I could talk to the manager.
~
The poor manager. He had just been promoted a few days before and been given this store as his own. We had a very nice conversation, but I just felt it was necessary to point out that perhaps, MAYBE the clerks shouldn't be gossiping to customers they hardly know? He was, to say the least, in complete agreement and promised he would stop her from discussing it any further. I didn't call to get NC1 in trouble, but I thought it was COMPLETELY inappropriate behavior to share such private details of someone's life that we don't even know that well.
~
We still shop there and both clerks still work there [and YES! she did come back the next day telling Pooldad she needed the money.] They are still as nice and efficient as always, but I hope that we aren't privilege to anymore intimate details of their lives. 'Kay?

Cricut Fun

It is no secret [along with my hatred of the Commonweatlth of VA] that the number one thing on my "Bucket List" is to go to Alaska. It is my biggest wish. I know it won't happen while I am alive, but I love to imagine it.
~
This is an ATC [Artist Trading Card 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch] that I made for a swap called "Something to Reflect upon Me".
~
The background was a travel brochure I had received in the mail that day. The outline of the state and the name was made on the Cricut...and hey look! A moose sticker. [What can I say, I am a huge fan of moose!] And the snowflake is a lil' metal thingamabob I glued on. Technical, ain't I?
~
Speaking of crafts? Stayed tuned for the discussion involving MOD PODGE and menage a' trois. How I am still breathing after THAT asthma attack is a mystery.

Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Mo......