Friday, May 30, 2008

Normalacy

Well in an attempt to things back to normal, I am well...getting things back to normal. My dear friend Michelle loaned me a super cool skirt making book, and I am getting stared on a few today.
I made an amazing dinner of PHO, asian soup stuff. Got the recipe from my new fav. blog.
http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com/
Even Zachary ate some of the noodles! A small miracle no less.
Zach starts preschool again on Monday and let me tell you I am sooo ready for it.

An Amazing thing happened at Sears last night!
We went to return a tool that Gene had bought, it fell apart the second time he used it.(you get what you pay for?)Anyways, we stopped to look at the fridges.(new place doesnot have one) We found one, that was on clearance for 499.99! Wait it gets better. Here is its story:
This model is last years floor model, when they sold it last year to some family, they moved it to the back. The really smart people who work there gave this family a brand new boxed one. This one sat in the back of the store for 6 months, until they decieded to clean out the holding area. They discovered the mistake and put it on the floor for clearance again. Two days ago a family purchased and installed it, only to discover it stuck out too much and they were unable to open one of the doors because of this. They returned it. All returned items are automatically given an additional 20% markdown. We got the fridge for $299, its still new! Still gets a one year warranty and everything. It's a side by side..not exactly what I wanted, but darn if the price wasn't right. And you guys know how cheap my husband is!
Yay! We don't have to buy a used fridge. And since we finally got our taxes back we can now afford it.
Here is the link if you want to see it:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_04658132000P?vName=Appliances&cName=Refrigerators&sName=Side-by-Side+Refrigerators
Later dudes, Evie

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

House

I know it has been more than a few days since I posted anything. Over the holiday weekend someone broke into our new house and cut into the copper pipes and left water running for god only knows how many hours. We had only been home owners for less than 48 housrs! We do have our homeowners insurance in place and they will cover most of it(hopefully.) We have not been able to get an adjuster to come, because they won't come until the house is completely dry and they can investigate the damage done. We are hoping its major damage cause it seems like it is, and it would be very nice to get a new kitchen. Here's hoping right?
I wanted to post pictures of our new home, but the ones I have right now are of the damage.
We did manage to get the garden planted and fenced in. And Zach enjoyed a good romp in the water filled boat, and then some naked gardening. I wish I was 4 and carefree. Enjoy the pics! Evie
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Kitchen ceiling
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Kitchen floor standing water
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Broken window
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Kitchen cabinets soaked
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Soaked living room floor
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Gene in the garden
Can you see how far back the yard goes?
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Zach swimming and on his way to the garden, Cute booty pic huh?
Well thats all for now folks. Evie

Friday, May 23, 2008

It finally happened!

We bought our house! We closed on it this morning, and we can get in at 5pm! We are sooo excited, and can hardly wait. WOOOHOO! I will post tons of pics as soon as we go visit. Evie

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Tuesday Zoo Day

So we went to Kansas City Zoo on Tuesday with our friend Maria(who rules!) She invited us out. Boy was it fun, and lucky us it was not too hot, cause Zach and I are wicked weenies when it comes to heat. Smart moving back to Kansas huh?
We got thru only one part of the Zoo, who knew it was so big? We got thru Africa, which is apparently the largest part. We made plans to return, in the fall..haha to see the rest.
Zach and M's son
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M's daughter
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Maria!
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Zach looking at a tortise
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Okay this is the funniest thing of all. Zach was chewing on a car, he can't seem to keep things out of his mouth(oral motor issues) anyways, he fell asleep with this car in him mouth cause he was soo tired from our day at the ZOO.
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We also had a nice lunch at Winsteads,a KC landmark YUM onion rings were the bomb.
Info on Winsteads: http://www.winsteadskc.com/history.php
Overall a nice day indeed. :) toodles

Friday, May 16, 2008

Just in case you don't know what cute looks like!

Some pictures of the family member no one else ever sees!
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This is my other baby Nutmeg. Sh like to pretend that she does not play, but I caught her playing this morning. We had a nice time just the two of us, Zach slept in until 9 and she took full advantage of our alone time. She refused to let me do any stretching or Yoga.
I made my watermelon "bowl" Cause the basket thing just did not work out for me!
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It still looks nice. Just not baskety. :) later gators.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Yummy Pierogies

Okay so yesterday I made pierogies. While they are a bit thicker than the commercial made ones, they turned out really tasty. I made 3 kinds:
Potato and onion which contains: potato, grilled onions, and shredded cheddar cheese
Potato and bacon which contains: potato, grilled onions, cheddar and bacon
Veggie which contains: A blend of steamed broc, roasted red pepper, grilled onions, potato and cheddar. YUM!
I made a total of 6 1/2 dozen, Zach had three for dinner,since he was very anxious to try them. He had the bacon ones and really liked them. I had a bite of his, and they are very tasty.
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Here is a link to the pierogi dough that I made:
http://www.sokolowskis.com/recipes/pierogi.html

Also we have some lovely Columbine growing in our yard. I had no idea what it was until I asked our friend who is a horticulture guy. I took this pretty pic of it.
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I have school participation today, and since this is the last week of preschool for many kids, the other parent and I are hosting a make your own sundae bar. The kids are going to love it!
I also have to make snacks for graduation on Friday nite. I am going to attempt to make a watermelon basket minus the handle since the watermelon I have is not quite tall enough for a handle. I will be sure and take a pic of it. I watched this tutorial for some help:
http://video.about.com/homecooking/Watermelon-Basket.--3T.htm
Wish me luck!.
Sunday should be our cheese making party with our friends and I will def. let you kow what happened! TATA mama Evie

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Baked Potato Bar!

Did I tell you I was having a Birthday party for Gene? Well we had one last nite.
Since we are poor I thought a baked potato bar would be a cheap way to feed everyone. And it was! I made baked potatoes in the crock pot, did you know you can do that? I had to use my giant and medium sized crock to do it. 14 giant potaotes in all.
We had lots of great cheap toppings like: roasted red peppers, sauteed onions, steamed broc, sour cream, cheddar cheese, butter, homemade venison chili, crackers and salsa. Lots of options! It was a big hit, and friends brought lots of great stuff too: olives, Wheatfields kalamata olive bread and sweet basil bread(YUM), salt and pepper chips, homegrown onion and spinach, and home raised chicken eggs.
For gifts Gene got some trailer park hooch, homemade soap and a super fun postcard. A good time was had by all and we even had a visitor all the way from MAINE. :)
Here are the directions for crockpot potatoes:
potatoes
foil
crockpot
Clean potatoes, let them dry, pierce them, wrap in foil, place in crockpot, cook on high one hour, cook on low 6-8 hours. DO NOT ADD WATER!
They turn out perfect and cooked and yummy
Today I am going to try my hand at homemade pierogies. Wish me luck, and love to all of you, thanks for reading!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Happy Birthday Gene!

Well really it was yesterday, but we are having friends over tonite. I have about 14
baked potatoes in 2 crockpots. I am hosting a Baked Potato bar..yum. Chili is cooking on the stove and Gene's favorite cake is in the oven. (My self created Famous Peanut Butter Cup Cake) The cake is sooo good, two layers of peanut butter cake with a layer of peanut butter cream, milk chocolate frosting and decorated with mini reeses peanut butter cups. How could you go wrong?!
I have to get myself to the store soon and Zach off to school, so I can get the kitchen cleaned up!
We did Gene's cards and gifts yesterday, but I told him he had to wait for birthday wishes. :)
Closing on the house in 10 count em 10 days!! AHHHHH

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Happy Mother's Day

Well it has been a pretty low key Mother's Day. Gene made us a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and homefries. We went to the grocery store, and had to buy our groceries with a credit card. Times are super lean. We are not spending any cash so we can make our payment for closing on the house.
Poor Zachary wanted to be carried from the car to his bed after shopping, this sucks cause he is still asleep and now has a temp. He is one sick fella. This is his last week at school.
Boy do we have a busy week coming up. I have to make/buy stuff for the preschool graduation snacks. I also have school participation this week, and am teaching a pickling class on Sat. nite, hopefully I can generate a little cash this way.
We are only 12 days away from owning our home! It hard to believe its really going to happen. I have been waiting for this for a long time. Gene has a hard time with promises, but I have held him to this one for such a long time. HOORAY for me.
Well I hope everyone reading this has a stellar Mother's Day. Love to all Evie

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Wednesday already!

Wow this week is zooming by! I finished my other zipper pouch and one more in such a hurry I did not have time to photograph them before they had to go into the mail, one on its way to Canada and one to California. I am anticipating my Mother's Day swap gifts to come any day now. We shall see how my Mother's Day goes.
I have tons of seedlings coming up. There is practically a whole garden on my windowsill now.
Zach's poor behavior has really got me down. I had to take all of his upstairs toys away. And no TV viewing period. AS of lately his bedtimes have been getting later and later, he was staying up to 10 or 11. I think this is part of the problem too. So on Monday I had to lay down the law. 8:30 is once again bedtime, with may tears and fits we are getting there. This is hard since I have a hard time sticking to things, cause I am on the lazy side. Today is the first day I have seen some improvement. He has had 2 nights of good sleep, and a rude awakening. So hopefully he can get it together. I am appalled at how he continues to hit me and Gene and do whatever he pleases. We have upped his time out time to 5 minutes and since there are no toys in his room, timeout has become very unpleasant for him. Thank god for preschool and his teachers who have great concern and patience.
I busted out 30 4inch round 1inch tall biscuits to freeze for us to have. And I am planning on making some bread for freezing next week.
The next 4 weeks or so are going to be lean times for us. We will be closing on the house and will need money for closing, our first morgage, and rent all in the same week, and Gene is shitting bricks. I can provide the grocery means and I know this will make a great difference. There is some kind of weird delay in our taxes and we don't know why they have not come in yet. These would really help us out right now!
I am off to make bread and cheack my stock of canned goods. I guess I am now starting to panic..GAH!

Monday, May 5, 2008

Weekend

We had a pretty low key weekend. The exception was that my husband dear Gene invited friends over. His friends, from way back when. While they are nice people they are not my first choice for dinner companions. I was asked to cook a nice meal. So I did: BBQ crockpot chicken, coleslaw, corn on the cob, baked beans, mac and cheese.
Gene's friends called and left a message for us to call them. We called at 4pm to make sure thay were coming over at 5pm. I spoke in lenght to an unattended child about what he was doing and watching on TV for 10 minutes before a parent awoke and talked to me. The guy said my lady is sleeping and we will come over when she wakes. At 6:30 they finally called us. The arrived at 6:45, and ate. They we nice, but every other word was an F-bomb. Even though they are parents!!! They excused us to go outside to smoke, baby in tow. They said about an hour and left...chew and screw I guess. They kinda suck.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Zipper Pouch completed

I completed my zipper pouch for a swap I am hosting on the swap-bot.com site. I have one more to complete but here is my first. Its not perfect but hey its about the love right?
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its suppose to be a cup o' tea.

Jam day hooray!

I made this new flavor: Strawberry Almond Conserve. Conserve means there are actual almonds in the jam. It turned out really good, and I highly recommend it for anyone who likes nuts.YUM-O
I also have a huge amount of banana jam. I was given all of the leftover bananas from the 5K run at Zach's preschool. I have turned them into 24 jars of golden goodness. Zipper pouch pics tomorrow. :)
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