Good Riddence Yellow Room

Good Bye Weird Yellow Room

We are tired of you, a leftover from the odd color choices owner #1 made.

Good Bye weird floral wallpaper border.

You are putting up the good fight, resisting removal.

But I shall win. Hello Mess

I welcome you since you mean change.

Ready for 2008

We have our new file boxes ready for 2008! Our budget is created and being fine tuned. Our new calendars are up and turned to the first page. Our house might still be messy, but paperwise we are ready for the new year! Hooray!

Hell Ya I Bake Buns!

First you throw together the ingredients for your dough into your bread machine. Mine is old, like pushing 15 years, but I know it and it knows me and we get along really well.

Then you prep your baking sheet, Silpats are a must, I ruin two a year, horrible I know, but when you forget and cut a pizza on it, you just must accept that a new one will come in your stocking. Don't forget to let the egg sit out till close to room temperature, you need it for the glaze.

Oh Dough Bliss, once the machine does it's mixing, and kneading, and rising and punching down, you can turn out your beauty to a floured surface. Mine was a second baking sheet with flour tossed around because every other surface in my kitchen was busy holding dirty dishes.

Then you get to the fun part, shaping them into a rounds and logs.

Cover and place the dough in a warm place, then sit and pet the Betty and knit till they roughly double in size.

Oh yeasty Gods you worked your magic ...

Brush with the yolk wash and scatter with sesame seeds, which we passed on this time.

Fifteen minutes later, once they have exited the oven you have these yummies.

Perfect for dogs, or sausages, or burgers, or chicken patties. Yum!

Thristy Bella

To sum it up in Favorites

Waking up the Bugman because I couldn't not Poke the Bunny.

Casey's: External harddrives and new speaker system, the better to hear Zombies blowing up with.

Nicole's: iPod Speaker System and Hubba Bubba Santa Gum

Alex's: A big old spoiling the kiddo Game System.

The Cons of Real Trees

We had one majorly Dead Tree.

Grrrr...

Today I did my annual Mommy Dearest Rant. I wasn't expecting it, neither was Alex and neither was Casey. It all started when I asked Alex to clean up his playroom to make room for his new Christmas presents. And hour later it looked exactly the same.

**Beware Parental Freak Out Forthcoming**

I lost it. I immediately sent him downstairs for a dozen garbage bags and started in on the closest thing and systematically moved around the room. I even tackle the Hot Wheel bin and consolidated it since we are turning his train table into a Lego table for his birthday. Two hours and 3 garbage bags and 6 donation bags later, we have a clean room. Everything has a place, the bin storage rack is gone since it is just a junk catcher and I have spot cleaned his carpets.

I had a moment where I was so mad at myself for the sheer amount of stuff being donated and thrown away due to breakage. It was probably equivalent to one weeks worth of income for Casey. One week away from his family thrown away. I am so upset about that. It is just not right

In an effort to get things in order and par down the amount of stuff in our home, I am going to give each room one month. A month to purge, super clean, spot clean carpets, PAINT, and if needed reinvent layouts and add bits of furniture.

Alex's playroom gets January. His bedroom gets February. Time to look at paint samples!

Oh and he is allowed one gift per person for his birthday.

Merry to you and yours

Merry Christmas, hope you are sitting by the fire with your loved ones.

Missed this one

I am seriously behind on this one, but I had to post it simply because its Daft Punk. Can't beat Daft Punk.

Too the Zoo of course

I woke this morning after having a dream about a huge Komodo dragon in my back yard. I was telling Casey and Alex about it during our morning snuggle which made me suggest the Zoo today so I could see my dream dragon in the flesh.

Christmas Eve's Eve is the perfect time to go to our Zoo, it is not busy, it is chilly enough that the animals are out to sun themselves instead of hiding from the broiling sun, and we were just in time for breakfast.

Mr. Grisly was finishing up his breakfast and posing for morning shots.

My Dream dragon in the flesh and about two feet too short.

Monkey Butts and My Mister Boy

Baby and Momma

Getting so big! Can't really call him a Baby anymore...

Wart Hogs remind us of Twain

This lovely lady came over to tell us about her swallowing troubles.

I was able to get this guy to dance with him and then give a little hoot!

My Pride and Joys
And of course you must finish up a Zoo day at Hooter's with fried pickles, wings and fries.

Oh Fudge!

Yesterday when I stopped by Alex's class I was immediately ushered outside by his teacher with a very firm, I have to talk to you! speech. Apparently Alex's holiday shirt caused a bit of a problem.

You see we bought Alex a Christmas Story shirt, specifically one were Ralph is sitting there with a bar of soap in his mouth, right after the "fudge" incident. Well all the kids at Alex's table where wondering why he had soap in his mouth. Alex of course had to explain that he said the F word.

What word??

The F word.

This exchange ended when one little girl wrote the F word on her math test and whispered it to the rest of the group as an explanation. Well the F word spread like wildfire around the classroom before finally reaching his teachers ears.

I should also add that his teacher when she pushed me outside burst out laughing all most to the point of tears before she explain the trouble they had that day.

Luckily she took it all in stride, luckily she liked the shirt, and happily enough the little girl spelled the F word correctly!

Oooooooooo FFFUUUUDDDDGGGEEEE... the mother of all curse words...

Call me Crazy cause I was and am

So I had this wild crazy idea last week to have all the boys from our Cub Scout den over for a Christmas party/meeting. We would do activities that would knock out some achievements as well as keep them busy and make holiday gifts at the same time.

And then I thought, Well this could give parents prime time to go shopping without the kids and if they have siblings that need to come bring them too! (Uh-Oh)

And then I thought, hmmmm I better have some help with this,and luckily my friend Misty said sure. ( Thank God for Misty)

And tonight we wrangled 23 BOYS all the under the age of 9 for 2 hours. We make cookie gift jars, painted sugar cookies, had hot chocolate, had holiday balloon wars and watched Santa Claus 3. ( I love the TV as a babysitter sometimes)

And bless them to high heaven, two moms stayed after and cleaned my kitchen for me. Because seriously it was a mess. I had three big messes tonight, all of my doing.

1. I dropped the candy tray full of 6 bags of candies from the top the fridge.
2. I dropped the bowl full of two melted sticks of butter on the kitchen floor 5 minutes before people where due to arrive.
3. I didn't think, again, and put the lid on the HUGE pot of Hot Chocolate I made and it overflowed, looking just like a pot of barfing poop.

And after each mess, or while it was still messing, I would stand there and tell myself to slow down, I would take a deep breath, and then I would clean it up.

So in a nutshell here is my night:

• 23 little boys
• 1 fabulous helper
• 16 holiday balloons
• 23 cookie gift jars
• 6 dozen painted sugar cookies
• 3 mega messes
• 2 gifts under the tree as thanks
• 2 friends cleaning up with me
• ZERO stains on the carpets or couches
• one pair of tired feet.

Time for bed! And did mention the phone call I got from the school nurse, second one in less then a week. Alex got stung by a bee on his temple. *sigh* I am SO glad that we don't have any pictures that need taking any time soon. And I am SO glad that he is not allergic to bees.

A Bit of Cold Afternoon Delight

barely hanging on...
waiting for spring...
the lone rangerette...
I think I am going to eat that bird way up there...
and I think I am going to eat that leaf right here...
the boys who stayed when the girls cut and ran...

Best 40 cents ever

Few things in life are as satisfying as fresh home made bread. Especially when I can get two big loaves for 40 cents. And then we cut into them while they are no more then 2 minutes hot from the oven and spread butter and strawberry jam on like it is free.

And then eat.

Bliss.

Especially when one of those loaves plus one of the cinnamon loaves I am making will be traded with a neighbor for their yummy tamales.

Even stevens.

A daily conversation

Me: Alex your shirt is on backwards.
Alex: No it's not, how do you know?

*Notice the yellow bruise?*

Me: (Pulling the collar of the shirt down) See...

Alex: What the...?!

10 Great Nights

I am being spoiled this year with a delightful basket of Christmas gifties. Casey declared that we are playing Jewish and instead of eight we are having ten nights of gifties for me! I swear I turned on the waterworks before even opening tonight's gift just because he and Alex did this for me. I love my men.

Day 15 was a fabulous pair of pink girlie boxers. I can't wait for the fashion show later. *Wink wink* I just love the buttons, so cute!

We watched Catch & Release this evening and I found myself laughing and crying and sighing and in love with this movie. I was in giddy glee what with Timothy Oliphant and Jennifer Garner and a sprinkle of "Silent Bob" thrown in. And now I want to go to Colorado and learn how to fly fish in the mist or sit on the rocks and read while Casey fly fishes and Alex throws stones into the river.

I swear I am a walking Hallmark causality right now, I have said something along the lines of this to Casey everyday for the last week, " Oh my gosh, I can't imagine how heartbreaking/sad/sweet/touching/horrible that must have been. Can you imagine?" And he always replies, "No and I hope I never do." *sigh* I love that answer. He has all ready asked me if I have been reading O magazine, but I think it is just the emotional gush of the holidays. I actually had to stop watching The Nativity story because I couldn't imagine the feelings all the various characters were going through. Can you imagine?!

Drizzle, Movie, Drizzle, Laundry, Drizzle, Foodie

We kept Alex home today due to his purple and blue noggin. What better excuse to stay in while it drizzles nonstop then a bruised head and the hankering to see I Am Legend. Which we loved!

Great movie, made me come home and hug each one of our dogs really hard and immediately get into a cleaning frenzy. The movie made me want to nest, set routines, create a home a safe zone from the outside world. And it made me tell Casey that our next big dog will be a German Shepard.

While it rained more and more I piled every bit of laundry I could find and started in. I am happy to say that at this moment I have not a stitch of dirty clothing and all the bed linens are in rotation. We have a hot yummy pantry raiding dinner of chicken strips (leftovers), Alfredo noodles and mixed veggies. Slowly but surely the amount of processed goods are leaving the pantry. And bit by bit I am gaining room for all the dishes and what-not's on the floor. My spice cabinet catch my eye yesterday and made me want to dig in and make menus just to use what is in there. Love me some spices. Right now I am all about the muffin makings and bread prepping. I love nesting with my family.

Because seriously it is worth it...

I have been meaning to talk about a little road trip Casey and I took earlier this week. We traveled through parts of town we had only heard of, we saw sights that reminded us of seedy old school parts of Chula Vista, we navigated the notoriously confusing streets of the south east side and we finally found ourselves at the Mecca that was calling our names.

Steve and Barry's

If you have one near you, you MUST make the trip. Because seriously we bought at least 20 items and only paid $116. Jeans, tee's, work shirts, shoes, a wool coat, awesome print shirts and it was all on the cheap.

I mean come on, how can you not want a pair of awesome pink ballet flats by SJP's Bitten line for $5!!! And the jeans, best fit I have ever had. And at $9.98 a pair. *gush*

So get thee to the closest S&B you can find and shop on the cheap.

Mr. Head I'd like to introduce you to Ms. Tile...

The whit, it slays me!

Today I got an email from my Dad who is still in the UK. He mentioned that my mom took the train today to see the Village of Epsom while he was teaching. And I replied...



wait for it...



The Village of Salt?

HAHAHHA I crack myself up and did all day long, even if no one else gets it.

I did it!

Two broken nails, a twisted ankle, and a paper cut on my nose later I DID it! I got 5 packages, two bubble envelopes and forty Christmas cards out in the mail by my due date.

Now I am going to enjoy the drizzley weather, prop the swollen ankle up,and pick up a knit right after I eat a pound of summer sausage and enjoy a bottled Coke. Aaaahhhhh the sweet feeling of success.

Pressies are on their way people!

So this is what it feels like...

Here I sit at 11:20pm with my To-Do list ready to do, with packages wrapped tapped boxed and piled together in a basket. With Christmas Cards addresseed stamped and 2 cented ready to go. With paperwork gathered signed double checked and listed for errands. With returns bagged and recipt collected ready to go back to their orginal shelves. With emails sent and filed and my inbox is completely clear. With trashed finally gathered and collected from my craft room. And it is all ready. Seriously there is alot of work involved in getting it all ready. *sigh*

'Ello!

A day to knock it all out was what yesterday was. By 10am we had visited Santa, who looks so authentic, made two Christmas purchases and were on our way to Costco to finish up some more. By 11am we were at Walmart buying the last of what we needed and by 1pm I had all of it wrapped, boxed for shipping and was casting on for a last minute gift. By 9pm last night, Casey had wracked up a 5 hour nap, I have finished half of the last minute Knit and we were watching SNL. Hooray for a check it all off the list day, we are right on schedule for our holiday shipping deadline and I think this year will be the first one where we are not stressed about presents to loved ones far away.

Speaking of faraway, we got a call this morning from my parents who are in Surrey UK. Dad is teaching a class out there this week and they are staying over later to celebrate their anniversary. My dad is even braving the driving and roads out there. Go Dad!

I can't wait to see pictures and the wee goodies they are bringing back.