This post has been derailed

Will someone go after that witch with a fly swatter please? I'm off to bed. Today has been a LONG day.


I will bid you all good night and leave you with this which I dedicate to my friend Paul.

Learning in the first degree and more

IT CAME! Yes, I am almost as excited as I was on Graduation day! My Associates of Arts degree came in the mail. I finally got to put together everything in the frame that my Mom bought me.

The Graduate Ducky on top came from my boys. They found it in a store in Old Town Spring and insisted that it was especially for me. They are sweethearts!

Here they are goofing off at OTS.

We initially drove to Spring to go to WOOF Pet bakery in Old Town Spring after meeting them at the Reliant Dog Show. I purchased a peanut butter pumpkin brownie for Jewel and she loved it. We wanted to visit their shop and OTS so it was a no brainer.

This is Jewel. She is our happy baby. We adopted her from the Galveston County Animal Shelter in March 2009. She was 6 weeks old. What we didn't know was that she had parvo when they sold her to us. There had been an outbreak there and they were not telling anyone. If it hadn't been for the Animal Alliance we might have missed it. We nursed her through Parvo and Pneumonia and she is our baby. She was never socialized with other dogs because of her health but she is bonded to Mom, Tammy, the boys and I like glue.


Anyway, here is a picture of The Loose Caboose. I LOVE trains and especially cabooses! This was an eatery that was run out of an old caboose. Old Town Spring was very cool! We walked around and ate lunch there today. There was a Dutch store, a German store, and of course a Texas store. We got to OTS a little after 10 AM and left around 5 PM. We missed over half of OTS. We are definitely going back!

We are beat around here. I sent the boys to bed and I am probably not far behind. My eyes are killing me so I should go switch over to my glasses.

Sweet Dreams, Y'all!

Sunday Dinner

Dinner at a glance!

Yes, I cut messages in my crust. I'm a geek and if I had any artistic talent those messages would be really cool. Hmm, maybe I need some Star Wars cookie cutters. :-)

Anyway, here this the yummy food I ate.

We then had store bought Olympic cupcakes for dessert. The boys liked them, they were on special, and it was the last meal that the big boys will be sharing with us for a while. I have boys so I didn't get there in time for a picture of the cupcakes.

I am working on washing pillows right now and tomorrow I will be cleaning up from this weekend more unless I cannot sleep and start tonight. I am tired of laundry but the house has nice, fresh linens to sleep on and clean towel and wash rags for the bathroom. I deserve a nap while the last load of pillows dries.

Here is a nice page for links to cool Geeky Cookie cutters!

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/39084/best-geek-cookie-cutters-biscuits

OK, folks the washer is done so I had better go get the pillows in the dryer now.

2nd Grade Spelling Words

Here are the words that Connor had for spelling words last year in school. THe only one he ever got wrong was 'scatterbrain'.

offwhite Come temporary away helium after shaggy been sacrifice conclusion
hearty prediction heartwood hypothesis heckle procedure separate observation
necessary conserve mosquito scatterbrain librarian xylophone stationery cooperate
somersault responsibility whether fillet neither vegetable gout their drover said
druthers science drupe citizen drumlin community dumb rescue dulcet robust duffel
rootlet exterminator residue eyetooth resemblance expertise restaurant expansion
favorite expedition squeaky execution people enfold metamorphosis enigma dictionary
what production very introduction editorial contralto dappled contort cyclamen
coppersmith curbstone counselor cusp counterattack curvature counterintelligence
cannabis countermanded cumulus countersign canard flare grayling flanked graymatter
flintlock grenadier because greave timid greengrocer TNT greenhorn tomahawk gripe
torch grouper families baloney northward monument nourish peninsula numerous
valedictorian Nuremburg unacquainted obliterate stewardess oncoming stethescope
onrushing eclipse bloodthirsty neutral deliberate ultimatum cacti kerchief cauldron
giddiness campaign maimed canker narrate captive novice carcass crocodile.

He represented his 2nd grade class in the school Spelling Bee and came in 2nd place. He did amazing!! I am SO proud of him. I don't know if I have any Spelling Bee pictures on the laptop to post or not.

He lost to the previous champion who was a 4th grader but they took out everyone else from 2nd to 5th grade. He says he won't do it again but I hope he will reconsider. His Dad missed it this year but his grandparents and I were there.

A HUGE thanks to Mrs. Haynes who saw that the normal spelling words were too easy and let him pick from spelling word lists to 5th grade and the dictionary. She did an exceptional job working with Connor even though he is a difficult kid and was diagnosed ADHD this year too. Our school is lucky to have Mrs H. and we have been lucky to have fantastic teachers every year.

Saturday Fun and Prepping for Sunday Dinner!!

Today the little boys and i hung with my Mom (Nana) and my sister (Aunt MiMi). We first headed out to Froberg's farms to get fresh fruits and veggies. We also picked up some of the best jalapeno and cheese sausage ever made from Greak's Smokehouse. If you are out in Alvin stop by and check them out. Here is their webpage. My links may not be working so just copy and paste.

http://www.frobergsfarm.com/

When we were done we stopped at the Snack Shack for some Watermelon. Their slices are $1 and they do not skimp on them at all.

I had one, Mom had one, and Connor had most of one since Nik didn't want any more. After we were floating and had washed out hands, we decided to play a bit. There were 2 AWESOME sculptures made of old trees. One was a raccoon and the other was an armadillo with a saddle. Here are the boys playing on the armadillo.

We went back to Nana's and swam for a while before having hot dogs and awesome sausage for dinner. We came home to wash the sheets and such from the beds and now Connor is folding his and Nik's clothes. He is being very helpful. What does he want? Hmmm. I kid because I can but my kids are really cool guys. They are all very smart in their own ways and I love them a lot. I always wanted a daughter but I enjoy having 4 boys 99% of the time.

Here is one of Connor folding clothes.

I know every girl has the want to be pretty but as a woman/Mother I know that I am beautiful because I have and give unconditional love.We have our ups and downs but I love my boys no matter what. That is really cool! I am off for tonight. I am waiting for S's pillow to dry. I am hoping to get it done before he and the big boys get home from DnD. I will still need to wash the big boys pillows but I just don't think I will have time tonight. I chose to wash their comforters instead since they use them at night. After S finishes his work laundry tomorrow I will do the pillows and the little's blankets. I have to pick up a pillow from my Mom and I am going to get everyone using better pillows ASAP.

And now you have been treated to a day in my oh-so-exciting life. So for being patient I will tell you what is for dinner tomorrow. I like to make homemade chicken pot pie a lot. I forgot to take out the chicken to that until late Saturday night so I am trying something new. I put the mostly frozen chicken tenderloins in the crock pot with some seasoning and mixed veggies. I did not have 2 packages of mixed veggies so I used 1, a package of cut green beans, and a bag of golden corn. I added 2 cans of cream of chicken soup with herbs and 2 cans of fat free cream of celery soup. Tomorrow I will cover a baking dish bottom with pie crust, add the chicken/veggie/soup filling, and top with the other crust and bake to instructions on the crust package. I will put that with a yummy salad and we will have a great dinner with the boys before they go back to T's house for a while.

Chicken Taco Stew

This was very good but it needed a few things in our opinion. I will post the original recipe and then add my .02 cents after.

Taco Stew – Crock Pot

3 FROZEN chicken breasts
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 pkg ranch dip dressing
1 can rotel (as hot as you want)
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can white beans
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans

In crockpot place the FROZEN chicken breasts on the bottom, sprinkle taco and ranch dip seasoning on top of chicken. Then place cans in the order they appear (rotel, corn, white beans, black beans, kidney beans)—DO NOT DRAIN!!

Cook on low for about 5 hrs. Take chicken out and shred, place back in crockpot and stir. Enjoy!!

This needed more tomatoes. I will add at least 1 additional can of diced tomatoes when I make it again.

Also, we decided to top it with nacho and taco blend cheese which was yummy! And we served it with tortilla chips.

One final note is that I didn't use canned corn in my recipe. I used frozen corn because I think it is better. I feel that the addition of one or more cans of diced tomatoes will enhance the recipe and give the liquid missing from using the frozen corn. If you wanted you could increase the cans of rotel but I would not suggest it if you have kids or other picky eaters.

Now, I had my contacts in for a very long time today and I think it is time for bed. More about my epic day tomorrow!

Child's Play

Well, we took the boys back to T's house tonight and that was interesting. I don't mean interesting as it bad or even snarky. I mean interesting as in the most relaxed things have been for a while. I don't know what happened or why but I am glad that things are better. When things are bad there is stress and it boils over to the kids even though we try to keep it from touching them. I'm so tired of the stress. I am tired of the fight. Life is very short... too short.

B has a blister or something on the end of his finger. He showed me yesterday before dinner but it got bigger and nastier overnight. I didn't want to drain it just in case the infection spread. I would rather let a doctor look at it first. I really hope that it isn't serious. He didn't even complain while helping with dinner yesterday. They were getting more stuff from their step dad's house though and who knows what got kicked up in the packing/moving process. I was worried about it being a spider bite though.

Speaking of dinner and helping, B did a really good job yesterday. I am usually BAD about having help in the kitchen but I was behind and had to delegate. I wish I had more patience with that because so far it is S teaching the kiddos to help cook.

These 3AM blog posts are getting to be a habit. I couldn't sleep so I studied for a while but my brain won't shut down.

I think I need to go try to sleep though before my thoughts and fingers get me into trouble. I thought being honest would help matters but nothing. More BS and lies. I don't like to give up on friends but I am about worn out. I just don't know what else to do. KPN, I thought we could always be honest with each other but I was wrong. I used to trust you implicitly. I hope it is worth it.