Go Green Machine!

Our center forward is still asleep.
But, she will be ready to go to the soccer game.
We missed practice this week.
We took Love Man to the airport and had dinner with an old friend, Kent.
"Did you call the coach," she wanted to know.
"Yes."
"You're sure."
"I would remember talking to Coach Steve."
"He knows I am not coming to practice."
"Yes, he knows," I told her again for the dozenth time.
Okay, I just made up the word dozenth, but I like it.
"Coach Steve is glad you are playing the next season," I told her.
This club team does two month seasons.
We don't play after April.
I think it is too hot for her to play then.
We start in October and end in April.
By then I am totally done!
I don't know about her,
but I am finished.


I am sure the jerseys next season will be green and yellow.
I won't tell the nice folks here that they are John Deere colors.
I don't think the Phoenicians would know what I was talking about.
But, they are John Deere colors.


Once I had a friend who painted her bedroom green and yellow.
I am sad to say,
it made me laugh.
That was the last time she asked me my opinion on her decorating.
If you don't want an honest answer,
it is best not to ask me.

It May Be Spring

The girls think it is Spring already.


"No, not for another month," I told them.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes"


The birds are singing and those beautiful hummingbird almost made me fall.
They are very territorial and must have a nest near our grill.
I was trying to grill our hamburgers and they were buzzing around my head.
I mean an inch above my hair!


One is very beautiful.
I took a photo of him this morning.
Too much light.


I am sure it is a boy,
because the beautiful birds are always boys.
The girls need to protect the nest,
which is my job around here.

Blonde Girl and the Cookies

As many of you know I am the "cookie Mom" for Blonde Girl's troop.

Neighbor John schelped me to pick up the 101 cases of cookies,

which I housed in my garage until the other mothers came to collect them.

You have to order by the case and this creates what is called a surplus in cookie biz.

Our troop has a surplus of 57 cookies.

After all of the cookies were picked up and there were no errors,

I put out an email announced to the other moms what was left.

Blonde Girl was curious to try the Lemon Cremes,

I let her.

She had been nagging me about trying more.

I told her we had bought several extra in addtion to our order.

The matter was dropped.

The other day Love Man told me that he thought she had been into the cookies.

He had caught Sam with what appeared to be a "Sugar Free Chocolate Chip" in his mouth.

I confronted Miss Thing.

She replied "maybe" and then added that I knew about the Lemon Cremes.

I said, "how many boxes have you had and where are they".

She said, "under my bed".

And, so you have it.

The great cookie caper.

No wonder the dogs have been bee-lining it into her room at night.

She will be sad when she pays me the $12 for the cookies.

Here are the surplus cookies!!!!

OMG

I am getting family pressure to harvest my lemons.

Oh God!

I have to have a lot of time to do it.

It involves many hours of juicing and then freezing the juice in 2 cup increments.

I know, I know to have such troubles.

Love Man has returned to CdA.

We won't see him until around Spring Break.

He almost forgot to say good-bye to the girls,

he was very sad to leave us again.

My neighbors are TRYING to give me their lemons.

One asked me WHY I had a second tree.

Happy Birthday Blog

This "little blog that could" is one year old today.
No, the parade of people going by is not for the blog,
but a pilgrimage celebrating the conversion of Paul.
I took the photo a few weeks ago.
Naturally, I asked them what they were doing.
Tons of people.
They walked from St. Simon and Jude to St. Paul's.
Honestly, that is FAR.


Keep good thoughts for my blog's most loyal fan.
She is in the hospital with blood clots in her legs.
By the way, she is one of few to leave comments.
You can click anonymous and do it.
It is easy.
Sign your initials so I can figure out who you are.

TTFN

Love Man

Love Man is in town until Wednesday.

He has been having a lot of fun.

He also did the yard work,

or part of it.

He is trimming trees and taking out shrubs.

Blonde Girl wanted him to lay with her until she fell asleep.
Can you see her head?

CDA

I would like to thank the following people who helped me get my CDA.
Mrs. Ameis who lent me her book for inspiration.
Mrs. Cash, who tirelessly worked to help create and put my book together.
Christie, at PVCC, who critiqued my book and gave me more junk for my book.
PVCC for the classes and the healthy amount of homework.
My children who were shuttled here, there and everywhere.
Amy for helping watch my children.
Love Man, who wasn't the least bit worried I WOULD NOT BE ACCEPTED.
SRP for wanting me to do it in the first place.
God and the Girl Scouts.

Good Night, Good Knight

The handyman never did take my bed apart for me.
So, I have been sleeping with the girls or on the sofa,
which is what I did last night.
Love Man arrives tonight until Wednesday.
He is going to take bed apart and set it up box springs and mattress,
think poor college student,
on the floor.
Otherwise he will have to find another place to sleep.

Conferences

Our pre-school class held conferences today.

ALL DAY.

Blonde Girl is at her Webkinz Class.

Miss Brunette is at the Renaissance Festival with her class.

We had to invent a Renaissance costume for her last night,

as it was worth 15 extra credit points.

Yesterday

After an exhausting day,

I decided to sit on my bed for a few minutes before I started dinner

I did.

My bed or at least half of came crashing down.

I yelled.

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest.

The bed is half up and half down.

I called my handyman,

who, by the way, is NOT MY MOTHER'S HANDYMAN.

He came over last night and told me he'd be back Wednesday afternoon.

He must have forgotten.

He is busy,

a stay-at-home dad of sorts.

He did say he had never seen a bed do that before.

The bed is maple and the wood is three inches thick.

It figures.

I actually bought this bed NEW and IN A STORE.

How ironic.

He is going to rebuild it,

which is probably easier than buying a new bed frame.

Besides, I do like it.

So,

until he shows up - I am bunking with the girls or the sofa.

Last night I slept with Blonde Girl,

her princess night light changes colors and nearly drove me crazy.

Tonight I am going to try sleeping with Miss Brunette.

She usually has one or both of the dogs.

I am too tall for a double bed.

I told Love Man he might have to take this bed apart after his plane arrives on Friday night.

Then, we can sleep on the box spring and mattress.

Yippee!

Miss Brunette's Science Project

Miss Brunette had to make us dinner and do it all herself.
We had shrimp with pasta, cabbage, pumpkin bread and strawberries.
It was great.




First she made the pumpkin bread.

Here she is tossing the shrimp into the pasta.

Cutting the strawberries.

Final touches on the dessert.

We dined outside on the patio.

There is always tons of dishes to do.

I did help a little with the clean-up.

Surprise!

Love Man was cleaning out the pool.
While getting a screwdriver, he was complaining about rocks that get into the pool.

Voila!

My earring was in the Hayward vacuum creepy crawly thing.

I was so shocked,

I went and made sure the other earring was still there.

It was.

Dream Dinner

Okay, this is sappy.

I have served heart-shaped meat loaf to Love Man for Valentine's Day for 21 years.

It is silly, I know.

But, it is our tradition.

We went to see "The Reader" last yesterday afternoon.

The girls turned on the oven with meat loaf already in it and burner on the stove for the potatoes.

When we got home, we had dinner.

I also picked up 101 cases of cookies.

The girls have eaten almost all of our stash.

I have to admit, I have had a few myself,

even Love Man,

who barely eats anything bad anymore.

We still have 57 boxes of surplus (you order 12 in a case) to unload.

I still have 5 Moms to come and collect their cookies.

Once they are picked up,

I will email the rest of the troop with the extras available for sale.

Sugar Cookies

These are fantastic,

very simple and great. And, speaking of cookies -

I am off to collect

101 cases of Girl Scout cookies as I am the cookie mom.

My neighbor is taking me.

Love Man surprised the girls and is taking Miss Thing to her soccer game.

They were thrilled.

Miss Brunette started to cry.

Never Fail Sugar Cookies

1 pound butter
2 c. sugar
4 eggs

Beat very well until creamy.

Mix Together
6 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda

Add gradually to egg mixture.

Chill overnight (I sometimes chill a little bit).
Roll out on lightly floured board. Cut in shapes.

Bake 350 - 375 degrees for 8 minutes

Do not over bake, they should be not be brown. Cool on rack

NOTE: I sometimes only chill for an hour or less.

I only work with a small section of dough and keep the rest in refrigerator.

A hint of almond
extract is awesome,

but be careful of people with nut allergies.

This is mother-in-law's recipe.

She doesn't own a computer,

so she doesn't read the blog.

Shhhhh!

The girls will be getting a big surprise this Valentine's Day.

No, it is not a dog.

I would tell you, but they read this blog.

Not regularly, but they read it.

A Sweet Valentine

We have been baking and decorating cakes for our preschool families.
The children frosted and decorated them today.

I was surprised that she sorted her candies by color and type for her cake.

Most of the cakes looked like this.

This one has a face. He has six other siblings, so this cake may be a bit small.

We baked 20 cakes in all.

I brought one home for the girls to decorate.

They will be excited.

The love it when I drag stuff home from preschool.

I hid it in the refrigerator to save until tomorrow night.

Still Life

All is well. It was cold last night. There was frost on the outdoor cushions. This weekend, Miss Brunette and I are going to discuss her birthday party.

Tonight, Tonight

Tonight is Mom's Night at the preschool.

The little preschoolers are whipped into a frenzy.

We painted pots to plant flowers in.

One boy dropped his and chipped another girl's.

Her mother tells me she is traumatized about it.

I told her she could have the new one she painted today and the chipped one,

which I naturally saved in a bag for her.

Please, I have done this for a few years.

You can not throw away anything that they make.

The Mom will have to sneak the extra one out of the school as 18 other eyes will surely notice.

She may have to make something mosaic out of that pot.

Back From the Weekend

We have been pretty busy lately.
Running here, there and everywhere.
Blonde Girl scored her first GOAL in soccer.
She feels completely different after the goal.
She told me so on the way to school today.
It has apparently changed her entire life.
Miss Brunette has a Valentine's Day dance tonight.
Parents get to come.
I will try not to embarrass her.

Last Orange

I am down to the final and last orange of the season.

The tree will be blooming, along with the lime and two lemon trees, shortly.

The smell is unbelievably fragrant.

I usually have to take my allergy pills.

Enjoy!

Party Like it is 1974

Blonde Girl is already up watching cartoons.

Remember when kids used to LIVE for Saturday morning cartoons?

Now, they have a network that has them on all the time.

I was telling the children in our class that we only used to have 1 -2 birthday parties while we were growing up.

The rest were family parties with ice cream and cake.

No clowns, pet zoos, spa treatment parties or horse rides.

Miss Brunette birthday is coming up and she is making her plans.

We usually do something special, go out to dinner and the guests sleep over.

I only let them have two friends!!!!

Adventures of Blonde Girl

When Blonde Girl learned that Neighbor John had a piece of our cactus,

she bee-lined it over to his house.

I had an extra pot.

He had desert soil,

cactuses really don't like potting soil.

And, Blonde Girl has a part of our cactus.

Walking a Mile in My Shoes

While Blonde Girl is at soccer practice,
Miss Brunette and I walk this great track that circles around Miss Thing's soccer field.
I started wearing a pedometer to track my miles logged at soccer practice.
We usually walk two - three.
However, since 4:45 pm,
I have walked 5.27 miles.
I may wear it all day tomorrow.

Dressing Up

It is spirit week at the girl's school.

Monday was pajama day,

Blonde Girl wore boxers.

Today is identical day.

Luckily both of them had a twin.

I HATE twin day.

I complain about it every year.

I think it leaves people out.

Tomorrow is sports day.

Thursday is formal dress,

I am thinking not black tie.

Friday is clash day.

Blonde Girl really goes all out for this one.

As for my dress up.

I wear aprons to school.

One of my kids, told me she sure missed the turkey apron!

Mom made it.

It has a big turkey on it and feathers.

Truly, it is the bomb!

I normally wear one with denim jean pockets.

It is a good, everyday apron.

I have them for all of holidays.

I like some better than others.

The kids at school LOVE them.

Lost in Space

I lost one of my very favorite earrings.

Yes, I have said the prayer to St. Anthony.

Now, Miss Brunette's class t-shirt has gone missing.

We think her friend may have hers and ours.

She is going to check.

The Big Day

When I was a kid,

Super Bowl Sunday was not a national holiday.

The grocery store last night was a MAD HOUSE.

It was the worst I have ever seen it.

I am accustomed to long lines around holidays.

We are having this:

white chili with hominy and red peppers : Food Network.

It was served at bunco and is fabulous.

Watch the cilantro or it will be spicy.

Enjoy your day.

Go Cardinals!