Frustrated...Post DID NOT POST!

Busy Busy Busy

I am really happier than this picture shows...I was just caught off guard by Mom's camera!

Mom kept Luke and I busy this morning. She got out her crafty hot glue gun and helped us make egg carton caterpillars! She also went out in the rain and collected worms for Luke's bug house. It was a fun morning! :)

Pure Happiness

I was able to fit in 2 hours of scrapbooking on Saturday! This time for ME gives me pure happiness. I feel so fulfilled as I put my imagination and creativity towards making something. I love that scrapping brings up memories and pictures that I perhaps had forgotten or at least not thought of in a while. I feel so satisfied when I am done!

Denied

I was denied a dream date with Jack tonight. He said he was too tired and just wanted a good night's rest..... :)

A Night Out

We were brave this evening and took the boys out for dinner-NO McD's for us tonight, we took them to the Olive Garden! They were ANGELS! I was so proud of them. All four us actually enjoyed a delicious meal together! They were, however, naughty when we went to the shoe store after (to get Luke some new shoes) and a bit hyper when we visited Aunt Lynda. Oh well, I am still pleased with our excursion this evening!

Dream Dates

As soon as my boys can communicate with me pretty well (around 22 months), I start asking them to go on dream dates with me while they sleep. This is a technique I use to help the boys feel less anxious about going to sleep and to give us one more connection. I also think it is a great tool to help foster imagination in our boys!

Jack has been going on dream dates for quite some time. Over the years we have been to the zoo, driven race cars (a lot), been to the farm, ridden on motorcycles, etc. Jack always has to tell me what color his vehicle is and asks what color I will be in. If Josh is with us, he too is invited to join us on the dream date and has to tell us what color car/bike he will be using. I am usually driving a pink car with purple polka dots. Jack tends to be in a blue or green truck with stripes of some sort!

Luke has been going on dream dates with me for just a few weeks now. He says the same thing every time I ask. It goes something like this: "Me--Lukie wanna go on a dream date tonight? L--Uh huh. Truck. Me--You wanna go in a truck? Okay. Where do you want to go? L--Papa's truck. Farm. See Cows." I love that we are able to spend quality time together at night, that he is starting to get the concept of imagination, and that he LOVES trucks!

I try to go on a dream date with each of my boys at least once a week. It is a great part of my week!

Lion King Part Duex

A few VERY important details I left out when I blogged about our visit to see The Lion King:

1. Josh surprised me with the tickets on Christmas--I had NO clue
2. Josh requested his parents to watch the kiddos and I picked the hotel
3. The entire weekend was about me....musical, shopping, eating :)

I love my husband! He is the best!

Noodles

I recently caught up on FB with an old college friend and it brought back some funny memories! Here is one I want to share :)

In college, we lived in "cottages". The kitchen of the cottage I lived in had a VERY narrow kitchen that had a bathroom all the way down on one end of it--forming a huge rectangle with a small bathroom off the very far end. (important for the story to know where the bathroom is). My roommate Melissa and I spent a lot of nights cooking dinners and inviting friends over to join us. One night we got the urge to make a huge pasta dinner with all the sides and fixins so we invited over Treasure! As usual, we got to talking and forgot what was going on in the kitchen. Because the pasta was boiling over and needed to be drained pronto, I was moving fast (and talking fast) and the pasta got away from me! Literally! It spilled ALL over the floor of the kitchen and spread all the way down to the door to the bathroom. We had a good chuckle, got the pasta picked up off the floor and becuase we were POOR college kids, rinsed the pasta and served it. (.....ewwwwww yes now I know that it is gross and very gross.....) After dinner, Treasure headed to the lavoratory to clean up and burst out laughing. We raced in and found Treasure pointing at a noodle that had slid all the way into the bathroom and was hanging out by the toilet! We DID NOT wash that noodle :) I have a picture somewhere around here of Treasure pointing to the noodle and laughing! I am not sure if Treasure would eat pasta with me again or not! :)

I love remembering those silly things from college!

The Lion King

What an ABSOLUTELY amazing weekend for two we had! Tickets to see the Lion King at the Wharton Center, and a night away was the second best Christmas gift I have ever gotten! Josh and I had a great time!

We took off Saturday, had lunch on our way out of town and cruised around Lansing before checking into our VERY nice hotel:) We had dinner at Ukai, a tasty Japanese steakhouse, and then headed to the show! The show itself was fantastic! The artists did an amazing job portraying the animals and characters. The only way I can even relate how cool it was is to tell you Josh's reaction. He was looking forward to going but only because I wanted to. After it was over, he was awed by the show and said it was worth the trip and money :):):) We definitely recommend you see it!

We rounded out the weekend with a perfect breakfast at the State Room and a tiny bit of outlet mall shopping!

We had a great time together, and the boys has a blast with Grandma and Papa Tractor!

OH BUMMER

I spoke too soon....Woke up to it SNOWING :(:(:( We do not have a ton of accumulation but still....it is definitely SNOW!

Happy First Day of Spring

Not exactly a heat wave but 40 is not too bad for MI :) I am glad we did not have snow....but they did in Rochester, MN....glad we are here;)

How to Link a Website to Your Blog

A friend asked me for help and I played around with my blog to figure it out. Here are directions to posting a link to a website on your blogspot.

1. Write a word in your blog
2. Highlight it with your mouse
3. Go up and click on the button that looks like a chain link on the blog tool bar (under the compose tab...not the "edit html" tab)
4. Enter URL you want others to see

Here are a few sites I love :)

Sparta Area Schools Link
Five Dollar Dinners
Frugal Girls

Happy linking!

New Neighbors

MORE new neighbors! Tonight we headed across our back yard to meet a family who moved in. The mom works at a hospital, and the dad is a state trooper (bonus). They have four kids--a 12 1/2 young man who was very nice, a little girl who is almost 5 (and super cute) and twins who will be 3 very soon (little boys)--our neighborhood is quickly FULL of children.... total running is now....
1--12 1/2 year old
3--8 year olds (or soon to be)
2--5 year olds (or soon to be)
2--3 1/2 year olds
2--3 year olds
1--almost 2 year old :)

Few...that is a lot of kids in four houses!

I also stopped by the house next door on the way home--where another new family moved in. This new family consists of a couple who will be married early September :) It is nice that all of the houses around us are full again after the two sat empty for so long!! :)

Satisfied Tina and Cori? :)

Tina and Cori--Did I fill your needs now that I blogged three times in the past two days? :) Love you both!!! TB

Fresh Pork

WOW--we went in with Mom and Dad Boyer for a lady nearby to raise us a pig. Yesterday we were able to pick up our 1/2. Not only was our purchase economical, the tid bits we made today were TASTY! For breakfast, we had both bacon and sausage (sounds like overkill but we really REALLY wanted to try both)--both are so TASTY!!!! I have never had fresh pork before and if all of the pork is this tasty, we may be eating the "other white meat" daily:) Our freezer is now a bit out of control between the pork, fresh beef (from Dad Boyer's farm) and the venison Josh got this year. I am not complaining! In fact, I feel fortunate that we have been able to obtain so much meat so economically! :)

If you are in the area, feel free to call me up and request fresh pork or beef for dinner and I will make it! If you are in the area, feel free to take the venison.... I don't cook it :) (but don't tell Josh--he loves it) :)

Hollandaise Sauce

For those of you who who don't know, I am obsessed with Hollandaise sauce! A few years ago, I found that super tasty and delicious dish known as EGGS BENEDICT--one bite and I was addicted...now mind you I do not actually like eggs very much; it was the sauce that got me hooked! I love the velvety feel of it in my mouth, the hints of butter and lemon peaking through to the tips of my taste buds!

Now you are probably thinking, okay TB, have you gone nuts, what has got you thinking so lovingly about Hollandaise sauce this morning... :) I have never made Hollandaise sauce but have eaten it hundreds of times at Perkins! I have had a packet to make Hollandaise for over 6 months (Knorr brand) and this morning I decided today was the day to make my own (from packet of course). So I quickly read up on how to poach an egg, got the sauce mixed up and toasted some bread (no English muffins in the house). The toast and sauce turned out fantastic but the poached egg, not so great! The "easy" 7 step method online did not turn out to be quite so easy..... perhaps that is also because I was giving bites of bagel to boys, serving chocolate milk, reading online for the next step...etc... ;) The end result was a fantastic breakfast of Hollandaise sauce on toast--perhaps it won't be on the menu of a fine restaurant but it was absolutely deliscious! :)

Happy Hollandaise saucing!

Quick and Humorous Memory

My grad class today brought up diversity in education--specifically classrooms and schools that have students of many different cultural backgrounds. One of the groups brought up were the Amish. This made me think of something TOTALLY NOT related to education but related to Amish :)

When Josh was younger, his family was driving a van (mini-van?) through Amish country. There was a young fella riding his bike along the road. As they were keeping an eye on this man, as not to hit him with the van, they noticed he was keeping a close eye on a teenage Amish girl out hanging her laundry. He was so engrossed in her, the Amish boy hit the van with his bike and flew inside their window! :)

Remembering this gave me a good chuckle!

My 3 Vases

A few months ago, I attended a Taste of Home party with my mother in law. One of her friends was hosting and if Linda brought a friend, she got bonus tickets....so I tagged along. I had never been to one and did not know what to expect. I was hoping it was food related..... but no such luck! It was very nice (and $$$$$$) home decorating items. I always feel obligated at home parties to make a purchase (now you are all writing my name down to invite me to your next party) and of course this party was no different. Linda did have free shipping and I had won a discount (or something--I can't quite remember) so I ended up purchasing three small square vases. I really did not know what I would do with them. The hostess and party planner recommended serving veggies in them. Hmmm she does not know that 1. I don't do a lot of veggies and 2. I serve things out of random bowls. Still, when they came in I was pleased because they were so pretty. I put them in front of my kitchen window, right over the sink. I have used them for many different things over the past 4 months.

1. Planted fresh herbs from my garden in them (then they died a while later)
2. Filled them with small gourds for Halloween and Autumn
3. Filled them with petite Christmas bulbs for the holidays
4. Floated fresh roses buds/heads in them over Valentine's day to savor my roses
5. Keep fresh fruit in them--randomly since I have had these vases. Apples and small pears look adorable in them
6. Planted Primroses in them

I love these little vases and wonder what I did with that space before I had them!

Spring Fun

Today fulfilled my springtime need--the weather was 57 degrees and slightly breezy--that is true MI spring weather! It was partly sunny but the bits that peaked through gave enough warmth to go without a hat or warm coat. We fired up the BBQ today and grilled up yummy marinated chicken breasts and sweet potato/potato foil packets. Not wanting the charcoal to go to waste, I invited the neighbors to grill up something as well! Our kids were already playing together between the two yards and I figured why not, we share most anything anyways! :) The boys (plus Chloe) had a blast marching around in the mud and splashing in the puddles. Needless to say, it was necessary for a bath tonight! We have the ceiling fan on in the living room and the door to the deck open; it is nice to have the fresh air and breeze but mostly they are open so the furnace stays on because the basement is cooler and the boys are in their rooms. (Josh says we need a dual something furnace something that would allow the basement to stay the same temp as the upstairs...seems like if it is hot up, then it is freezing down!) One last little thing that filled a part of my soul. I bought myself three primrose flowers today--2 yellow and 1 hot pink. Jack helped me transplant them from their plastic buckets to my three beautiful square "vases" and they now sit in front of my little window above the kitchn sink! Spring may only last through Sunday but I welcome the change!

Think Spring

Okay so it might be a bit too early to THINK SPRING as it is only 14 degrees out and very windy; however, I want to think spring. :) We are getting a new grill today. The old one bit the dust over the winter and we are upgrading to a duel fuel grill! I am so excited. One side is propane and will be great for nights I want to quickly get something grilled for dinner. The other side is charcoal and this is my preferred method of grilling for burgers and ribs. I also got out today and cut down my ornamental grasses! Better Homes and Gardens said now is the perfect timing to trim down the grasses in the Northern part of the US. This means that once the grass starts growing back for the spring, the shoots will have room to grow! I am ready to get out and play in the garden! :) As I wrote on our driveway today with sidewalk chalk---THINK SPRING! :)