Caption Contest!!

Yesterday afternoon I gutted and carved ten pumpkins that I grew this year in my garden. Now I have ten pumpkins' worth of seeds to roast this weekend! That is one of my guilty pleasures; home-roasted pumpkin seeds. I don't ever buy ones int eh store; too salty. I like mine with salt, garlic, sometimes Parmesean cheese. I'll post pumpkin photos next week.

So in honor of Halloween, today's contest is CAPTION. Have a great, safe weekend with the chitlins and I'll see you Monday!

Angel Food Ministries

A few months ago my mom told me about a food program through one of our local churches called Angel Food Ministries. This really threw me for a loop that my mother was actually participating in a church activity. For a minimum purchase of $30 you receive a box (or "unit") of food that would feed the average family of four for a week. The basic unit contains fresh and frozen vegetables, various meats, and starches. Nothing offered is "seconds" or out-dated food. It may or may not be recognizable name-brand food. But what it is is staples for a family.

Mom has brought over some items that she knew we would use like breaded chicken patties. Other things she might give to the food bank.

In addition to the basic unit you can purchase additional items like a meat box or a fruit and veggie box. There is no maximum amount you can purchase. It is conceivable for a family to purchase four basic units for $120 and that will feed them for a month. For a family that is strapped for money this would be a relief.

With food prices continually on the rise it's not uncommon for our family to spend $500-$600 month on food. I approached Steve about this last night, about wanting to supplement our food bill with Angel Food and see if it helps to cut down on our monthly grocery bill. We're willing to give it a shot. I think I'll purchase the basic unit, the Thanksgiving unit, and the 7# meat box.

Check out their website and you can view next month's menu. You'll see that there's a lot of food in those units.

AFM operates in 35 states. Type in your zip code to see if there is a particiapting church in your area.

That's Right....

Your eyes do not deceive you. I have my Christmas lights up. I put them up last weekend when it was in the 60s. My lights have been consistently up before Halloween for the last 8 years.

Yes, I know what you're thinking as I hear you rolling your eyes at me. The way I see it, it's much easier to hang lights when the wires are warm and pliable and you can feel your hands. No. One. has been able to dispute this or argue against it.

They're up, but they're not on. I have a little Christmas tree that I put in one of my large planters by the front door. Then all I have to do is plug everything in and VOILA!! I'm done!

I, too, complain that Christmas keeps showing up earlier and earlier in the stores every year. But it's all about my personal comfort, right?

Besides, we did see lights on over the weekend.......

Weekend Wrap-up

Weight Watchers Update: Yet another baffling week to report, but this is a good baffling. Last week I attended three various functions where lunch was brought in. Therefore counting points went COMPLETELY out the window. I started couting points Friday, the end of my WW week. So what did weigh-in have in stor for me? Down 1.6#. CLUELESS!!!! Dunno how that one happened but I'll take it!

I don't remember the exact numbers but this loss take me to down around 37#.
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Saturday was Mallory's 12 month appointment, even though she's 13 months old. Clean bill of health; 23# and 30.75" tall. She got four shots that day so she's covered for rabies and distemper. To give you another example of the Power of the Cheezy Poof; she had some blood drawn for a hemogram and lead test. She cried when she had her finger pricked but once I offered her the can of Cheezy Poofs all was right with her world. She even fed me some Poofs.

Saturday was also a gorgeous day for anything that had to be done outside; sunny and mid-60s. For the last weekend in October this is phenominal. We still haven't had a frost or freeze yet, but I hear that should be happening sometime this week. So I did more fall clean up of plants and annuals and getting that ready to go for when it does freeze. We had a photo shoot in the basement Saturday afternoon which required some interesting finagling of the furniture. But we made it work and I think we had some good shots. The highlight of the weekend was my mom coming over Saturday night to babysit both kids while Steve and I had an actual date night. Complete with fancy dinner at Jams, a very nice, locally-owned restaurant right close to our house which came in handy to drop off the to-go box and desserts before heading off downtown.

Our first stop was the newly unveiled pedestrian bridge (pictured above) that connects Omaha and Council Bluffs. Quite a few people were out walking on the bridge and enjoying the wonderful evening. We spent about 45" there before trying our luck with the Old Market. Anytime it's nice outside the Market is PACKED. Saturday night was no different. After driving around for over 15" we bagged that idea and tried to think of something to do.

It was barely 8:00 and we certainly couldn't go home THAT early. We drove around and talked. It's difficult to carry on a conversation with your spouse that doesn't include the kids. But we did decide that we need to make a more concerted effort to get out more sans chitlins.

Sunday was sunny and mid-50s. The winds, however, were over 50 mph throughout the entire day. It was back to reality as I slogged my way through four (count'em FOUR) loads of laundry. I can honestly say I did laundry the. entire. day.

Not much planned for this week. The in-laws are already talking about Christmas. I'm really not ready for that. I'm amazed that Thanksgiving is in only five weeks.

All Hail The Cheezy Poof!!

One of Mal's favorite snacky foods are Cheezy Poofs from Gerber. They're not really called that. We call them that thanks to "South Park."

These things have some serious bargaining power with Mallory. For instance, if she's antsy in her chair and we need a few minutes to something around the house we pour out some Poofs and she quiets right up and goes to town.

Yesterday after I came home from the store Steve and the girls walk in. Mallory is wandering around the kitchen looking in the bags of food when she spots the familiar can.

She then proceeds to try her hand at openeing the can. When she realizes she can't do it, she walks up to me and hold the can in front of her, wimpering, waiting for me to open the can for her. Fer cryin' out loud, kid, yer not going to waste away!

Never underestimate the power of The Cheezy Poof!

I've Voted

Will you?

WOOT!

The hot tub is heating and the wine is chilling.

Wanna come over Thursday?

Weekend Wrap-up!!

Caption Contest Winner! This week's nod goes to Nadine with her, "Dyslexic elephants! Duuuuude, are we supposed to be holding our tails?"
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Weight Watcher's Update: After last week's baffling 8# gain I did manage to lose 5# of that. So methinks it was water weight. At least, that's what I'm telling myself. Back down to 223, and 35# down.
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Decent weekend to report. Saturday we drove to Des Moines to see the in-laws and so Steve could doa photo shoot with the girls and his dad's 1924 Chevy. But it was too chilly and windy for anything of the sort. We stopped by Lisa's tree farm for a bit.

It's Pumpkin Days right now; food, inflatable rides, fire pits, tractor rides to the pumpkin patch. She's really done a great job in landscaping the place. So Steve took photos of the girls around the farm.

Came home Sunday morning and we were home by noon which was great because we still had pretty much the entire day to do stuff around the house. I mowed the yard; first time for the front since we re-seeded it. Boy, is it thick! Just like carpet! But it's green and it grows. Hopefully it will do well during the winter and next summer,then we might think about doing the back yard next fall.

This week the weather is s'posta get cooler and rainy. Yesterday was a gorgeous 72 so I fired up the ol' grill and smoked a beautiful 3# pork roast and some turkey cutlets. Not sure if I'll get the chance to grill before the season's up.

Steve and I are going to start making room on the patio for the hot tub!! I want the tub up and ready to go by this weekend!!

Caption Contest!

YAY it's Friday!! Hey, that rhymes! Can you tell it's been a long week?

This week's contest is CAPTION. Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday!!

Here she is!!

Found this female (which could very well be the same one from before) in my pansies. Found the camera and scooped her up.

She was a bit bigger after having the katydid and she went from green to brown. Perhaps to camouflage her when it's time to aly eggs?

These are just the coolest insects EVER!!

Weekend Wrap-up

Weight Watchers Update: Well, I don't know what happened this week. After losing 8+# in 2 weeks I somehow managed to gain it all back. So I'm back up to 228. Grrrr.....
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Not a bad weekend to report overall. Saturday I tore out my basil plants and made 30 2-serving containers of pesto to freeze for the winter. The tomato plants got yoinked, as well. Sunday I stripped my mint plant down and decided to dry the leaves so I can (hopefully) have herbal mint tea during the winter. It it doesn't work, well, I'm out 30 minutes of picking and washing.

Went to Nobbies to get Jenna's Halloween costume. She really wanted rainbow butterfly wings so she could be a fairy.....like she was last year. So after much strolling and avoiding dumb-ass people taking up the ENTIRE AISLE we settled on a Hula Girl complete with lei, multi-colored grass skirt, coconut bra, a palm tree centerpiece that will be taped onto her candy bucket, orchid hair ties, and a parrot for her shoulder. All in all it set me back $20. I can't quite justify spending $50 for a costume that will be worn maybe once. I s'pose we could have checked out thrift stroes but that thought didn't occur to me at the time.

Mallory will be a pepermint this year. It was Jenna's first costume that I made using a glue gun. It's a piece of 1/2" foam cut into a 12-14" circle and white felt is glued onto that. Then I cut seven red triangles and glued those onto the white felt in a spiral pattern. Then I wrapped it in tulle and tied the ends off with shoe strings. I've been subtly trying to get Jenna to be another piece of candy like a Kiss or a Tootsie Roll so she and her sister could be a pair, of sorts. No dice.

I think that pretty much wraps it up. Remember my pictures of the mantis and the katydid? Stick around...... ;-)

So true....

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/10/03/palinflow.jpg

Weekend Wrap-up!

Caption Contest Winner!! This week's nod goes back to Nadine with her, "Huh! I coulda swore that's where I left my bone!!"
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Weight Watcher's Update: As I was so AWOL last week with trying to get the house ready for Mal's party I (obviously) didn't post anything. Two weeks ago I posted a 6.6# loss!! Dunno how I did that. Last week I wasn't too hopefully as I really didn't get back on track until Thursday. But I did (somehow) manage to drop another 1.8#! I am at a complete loss with this one!

Start: 258#
Current: 220.2#
Total: 37.8#
Goal: Been moved to 215 as I'm at 220 right now. 215 is round about where I was when I got married. Granted, my hips don't proclaim that fact after two kids. But numbers don't lie, right??
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Crazy-busy-disorganized-never-enough-hours-to-get-things-done kinda weekend. Ever had one of those?

To recap, last week Mal woke up with a slight fever on Saturday; 101.6. Shot ot Tylenol and all's better. I figured (hoping) it was a teething fever. Sunday she was warmer and Tylenol just didn't have the same effect. Her temp that night was up ato 103.7. Greaaaat.....called in sick Monday and called Peds first thing. Halued her in and it's another bilateral ear infection. Steve stayed home with her Tuesday and Wednesday she was at my mom's. She went back to daycare Thursday.

They call me up. She has a rash. Greaaatt........haul her back in for a quick check. Penicillin reaction. GREAAAT!!! Switched antibiotics and she's much better! She was pretty tired so we went home and she slept 2.5 hours. Friday I took a half-day so I cold bring her home to sleep. She's back for full days this week (I hope!!).

I have no idea what we did Saturday. Oh yes, now I remember. It was such a traumatizing experience I had deleted it from my memory.

Jenna had a birthday party to attend. A Pre-K girl party. Proudly, Jenna was the most behaved in the group. The birthday girl? The whiniest little girl I had encountered. Ever. Had complete control over her parents. Apparent cousins (I'm guessing) were running amok and being horrendously loud. And nothing was done about it. We came home and I looked at Steve and said, "You owe me."

Sunday after we came home from church I announced to Jenna that she needed to change into some jeans because we were going on an adventure!! We had lunch at Arby's then we drove into Iowa to a place called Shady Lane Ranch. Self-guided one-hour trail rides. This was Jenna's first time on a horse. I fibbed and said she was 5. She will be in two months. I think she's taller than the average 5 year old, anyway. She had to sit behind me and as this was her first time we did have a guide and we stuck to the roads used by hayrack rides. I think she had a good time. She told me she had a good time. Then we went shoe shopping at Kohl's. I had a 30% off coupon so we took advantage of it.

Mal's feeling better. Still get tired quickly but her endurance is coming back. Now that her appetite has returned she's mending faster. I almost look forward to returning to work so I can slow down!!

Caption Contest!!

Boy, this was the week of photos from me, huh? Hopefully I'll be much more diligent with my post on Monday than I was last week!! This week's contest is HEADLINE. Have a great weekend and I'll catch up on Monday!!

Mutual Of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom"