Friday, September 30, 2011

What's Cooking

This is what the three girls cooked in September. Tyler isn't here so didn't cook, and the other two boys didn't get around to cooking : (






Jasmine made lasagna from the recipe on the box. It was the kind where you don't boil the noodles first. The noodles were a little tougher than when you do.













Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo
8 oz pkg. linguine or spaghetti
1c fresh or frozen broccoli flowerets
2 tbs. butter
1-2 lb. boneless chicken breasts cubed
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1c milk
1/2c grated Parmesan cheese

Cook linguine according to package directions. Add broccoli for the last four minutes of cooking time. Drain. Heat butter in large skillet. Add chicken and cook until browned, stirring often. Add soup, milk, cheese, pepper, and linguine mixture and heat through. Serve with additional Parmesan cheese.
Serves 6ish

We forgot to add the cup of milk but it was still okay!



Jessica made eggs, ham, bacon and the cinnamon rolls she learned to make on the mission trip this summer.






Yeast Bread
(roll and add cinnamon and sugar for cinnamon rolls)
2c warm water
1 pkg yeast
¼ c oil
½ c sugar
1 tsp salt
5-6c flour

Add yeast to 2c warm water and stir until dissolved. Add remaining water. Stir in enough flour to make a paste. Cover and let set ½ hour.

Add oil, sugar, salt and flour to make a stiff dough. Put on lightly floured board and knead until smooth. Shape into a smooth ball and place in greased bowl. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled in size (1-2 hours). Bake a 400F until light brown (35-40 minutes).



Frosting for cinnamon rolls this is a recipe we found online
8 oz cream cheese
½ c butter
1 tsp vanilla
3c confectioner's sugar
1 tbs milk

mix all ingredients until smooth


Thursday, September 29, 2011

Courageous: The Movie

Back in July I had the chance to meet some of the people from Courageous. Tyler, Adam and I also saw the movie at that time. These guys assured us that everyone we would see in the movie loved Jesus but that it might be hard to believe while watching the movie. That was very true. The bad guys were seriously bad, but these same men were out sharing Jesus with the crowd that had gathered to watch the filming.





There are a lot of issues in the movie--death, grieving, single parenthood, wayward teens, wayward dads, gangs and violence. I recommend that parents go see the movie, but not children. I know some kids watch violence on TV at home and their parents don't care. But for those of you who don't believe in exposing your children to things emotionally beyond their understanding and gun play, don't take your children under age 10. Or at least see it yourself first. Or wait and rent it so you can stop the movie during the gang stuff and talk about it.










You can watch a preview of it HERE. If this doesn't work for you, just go to youtube and type in Courageous preview.












Monday, September 26, 2011

Rest of the Weekend

After the cross country meet and Jasmine's soccer game (no pictures this time, it was very unorganized and no uniforms yet), we went to Moe's.

Jasmine didn't realize the rice was going to be spicy. She didn't order anything because she didn't like any of the choices. I added rice to my meal for her.


The twins never have problems finding something they like!


Jessica was a little out of it from the 5K and the morning in the sun.





Tyler came home Friday morning and left Sunday after church.




Jessica, Jasmine and I went to a pet store that had some of the animals from the rescue center. We did NOT get a pet. We would not be able to get another cat because Shy is VERY territorial. But they sure had some cute kitties. One mother son combo even, and some only a few months old.


They had five 12-week-old Siberian Husky/Coon mix puppies.



This guy was from the pet store not the rescue place.



Jessica made cookies for Tyler. We all helped him with them of course.




I have a video of Jasmine playing the drums but everytime I try to embed it, it closes down my internet! She has only played a couple of weeks. She has orchestra bells too.

Jessica has Tyler's room now, except for the weekends he's home. She hasn't changed anything in the room, but she's going to pull out the old nasty carpet and tile it. I gave everyone the chance to have their room recarpeted or tiled when we got the new carpet a year and a half ago, but neither Jessica nor Tyler could decide what they wanted so we left the old carpet in their rooms. It's only 7 years old but both rooms have had either little people or old dogs have "accidents" in them. I have quotes on accidents because the dog staying in Ty's room did not tinkle on the carpet on purpose, but the little person who joined the girl's room a little while back decided she'd rather tinkle on the carpet than walk the extra four feet to the toilet.


Stay tuned to see the tile progress. Jessica doesn't have time free until Friday so that's when we'll pull everything out of the room and start.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

First Half of the Weekend

Last night was the family BBQ and Rio at Jasmine's school. I stayed home with one child, but they brought me food. I'm really not big on BBQ though, so it's still in the fridge. Jessica brought another child home who ate a big chunk of frosting off of her cake after inhaling his own so I had company after all.

Rick, Tyler and Anthony were servers.



Before the frosting incident.


Anthony helping out.



Adam's cross country meet this morning. He got to run his race but had to leave immediately after due to a poor choice at school this week. Coach let him run but gave him a warning for next time. This was a tough course for many of the runners. Adam come in 22nd because he had a lot of trouble with it. Our neighbor dropped several minutes off his time so it bothered some and not others.


Adam in at 22:06








The JV had an open race. Anyone in the community could run. Admission was a pair of shoes for Haiti. Our neighbor, her son and daughter ran, and Jessica decided to run. She hasn't done any running (with the exception of one 5K last spring) or practicing at all for several years, but she still finished in front of some of the JV girls.




She's in the white shirt at the right.




Here she comes!


We did a lot more today, but I don't have the picture uploaded. My surge protector died and I'm just getting back online.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Scamming

So many people get away with scams that it's sickening. These people are some of the worst because they play on people's emotions and you can be out thousands of dollars without even realizing it until it's too late. Share this everywhere you can. These people have at least four ads in our local penny saver.










Here is one of many e-mails they send out.


Hello ,


Thanks for the mail and your interest towards our Babies , We have 2 of them by names Kate and Rex. They are still available to any family prepare to provide them with enough care and love, where they will be well spoiled with all their need.Kate is female and Rex is the males, All of them are 12weeks old, weight 1.2LBS and will be 4-7LBS at full-grown. They are champion bloodline, registered AKC, vet check, updated in all shots. Well-tamed and potty trained, good associate of kids and other house hold pets also very Energetic and eager to learn.They are intelligent, independent and courageous. Quick to determine where they fits in a household's "pack." Good companionship and friendly towards new people. To begin we shall like to know more about you. 1-Are you a breeder?2 -Are you familiar with Maltese Puppy?3 -Do you have kids?4 -Do you have a Vet Doctor?5 -How Old are You? 6-What is your occupation?7 -Give us a Brief Description about your Environment?8 -Were exactly are you located?9 -Can I have your Phone Number to call you?10-How soon do you one the puppiesSorry for all this Questions (we mean not to offend you) but just that we really need a loving and caring home for this puppies. We are out of state and What makes us willing to give out the puppies up for adoption is that we are presently on a Volunteer mission for the World Health Organization (WHO) on the Eradication of the Malaria Parasite on pregnant Women in western region of Cameroon, the pregnant women here are suffering with this disease, we decided to go on Volunteer and the WHO was our catch since we loved helping Sick people, Our duty here is tight up that we even regret bringing the Puppies over with us. So we will very much happy given them out for adoption as soon as possible to reduce our work load. We are looking for reasonable, knowledgeable and cautious person who can offer them tenderness, nursery with lots of love kisses and hugs to pay just a Re-homing and transportation fee of $150 for one and for both will be $300 . We are not out to make money from them since they where just like our own children and has been our perfect companion, our main concern is to give them the best they ever want. all we will like to here from you is to Promise us that you would shower them with lots of TLC .And we would never like that our babies should end up in a shelter or rescue., feel free to mail us. If you are willing to get them, please e-mail ASAP so that we shall stop all other contacts .If you have any more questions to ask we will answer you truthfully and faithfully. Thanks May God Bless You .



They really know how to play people.





Pass this on!!!




And no, we didn't send them money but if we hadn't checked into it more closely, we might have. Too many things didn't add up, but it would be easy to be taken.




Thursday, September 22, 2011

It's Been Quiet on the Blog

...because it's been on of those weeks with nothing exciting to share.

Last week Kayla did great, so she got extra privileges over the weekend. Then on Monday it all fell apart, and she was awful at school. So much, in fact, that the school counselor had to physically remove her from her classroom. She has been acting out in different ways all week, so this weekend there will be no privileges.

On Monday I had an IEP meeting at Jasmine's school and we arranged the special help with math that she needs.

On Tuesday I had a root canal.

On Wednesday I timed the PE runs for K-5, 1st and 2nd grades.

Today I found out one of my children who was about to send money for something was being scammed. I am attempting to get the child the same thing here locally where we can do business face to face. Found out these people have been scamming people all over the U.S. for anywhere from $100 to $1,000!! Very stinky!

So, it's been that kind of week.

Tomorrow there is a big even at Jasmine's school--BBQ and Rio-- but I will be staying home with Kayla. Rick will bring my BBQ carry out. I need to get going on my new book project anyway.

Jessica is leaving very early to go get Tyler and bring him home for the weekend.

Adam has his second cross country meet early Saturday and Jasmine has her first soccer game (I think).


We did make some cool tie-dye shirts for the fall challenge. You can see them HERE. Go back a post. And it's not too late to join.

Hope the rest of you are having a more exciting week!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Cross Country

Adam ran his first cross country meet on Saturday. He is varsity. His time for the 5K (3.1 miles) was 19:24. Here are a few pictures.





















Ice cream at Marble Slab afterwards.











Saturday, September 17, 2011

Fruit

We went shopping and Jessica picked out all this fruit. Now what to do with it?



Jessica bravely tackled it. Of course, first we had to figure out what it was.



Hmm


Of course everyone had to try some of each. Jessica forgot to peel this, and it was supposed to be I guess. I didn't care for it because it tastes like melon, which I don't care for.



Next up.


Jasmine likes this one.


This was the favorite for most of us.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The Books are Here




They arrived yesterday--about five minutes after I found out I'll be writing another One-Year devotional. Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.


All the girls doing the fall challenge will be getting one of the books shown in the picture. It's not too late to start. We are doing the first ten pages of chapter two this week so we're not that far yet. Check it out HERE.


Also, only one person took a guess at Shy's age in the last post so please go back and leave your guess. You can always donate a book to your church library.


Sunday, September 11, 2011

This Week

This past week was one of getting used to the fall schedule. The twin's bus schedule is constantly changing, and they are being picked up earlier and dropped off later each week. So our early morning schedule no longer runs as smoothly. Next week we add soccer and beginner band into the mix.

We'd hoped to go to the beach on yesterday, but Jessica worked 12-6, so we hung around home. We sat up the new slip and slide (we got two new ones), played on the trampoline and slide, and watched Rio three times!
















I don't think this guy planned to join the tumbling on the trampoline.







Jasmine is working on her book for the fall challenge. Not to late to join HERE.







I still have these books to give away. Today is Shy's birthday (we did this in July for Max). Guess how old he is and win a book. I have all these to give away so it's okay if two people guess the same number. (U.S. postage only)