Not in the Rain

Uh...

"we" = Dear Husband

okay... "we" have been getting our house ready to sell. Since, I am pregnant, I cannot help much with this process. I can box up our "clutter", but I can't move those boxes up and down the stairs nor can I stay up 'til 2 in the morning, every single day, working on this project. I'm 'sleeping for two' ya know? Basically, this means that I help with the project from 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. and then I'm off to bed, while Dear Husband works on getting the house ready. But, every morning I wake up and ask, "how much did 'we' get done last night?" or "how much more do 'we' need to do?" Hah!

Luckily, I picked a great hubby and he has been the best-ever about the fact that, after all, "we" = Dear Husband.

I ALWAYS wake up before Dear Husband. This morning, however, he came barreling up the stairs in the same clothes that he had on last night. I asked, {{evil grin}} "did we finish it last night?"

He responded, "Yep - it's all done."

I asked {{feeling very guilty}} "uh, did you get to sleep last night or did you pull an all-nighter?"

He responded, "I fell asleep on the couch shortly after 2:00 a.m."

Shewsh - yes, he got some sleep.

But POP THE PROVERBIAL CORK - THE HOUSE IS GOIN' ON THE MARKET TODAY!!!

... which brings me to my next dilemma...

... for the first time ever... I have an immaculately clean house. For the first time ever, I have invited 25-30 people over for a halloween party, which was supposed to be a bbq on the front driveway. And now it's gonna rain??????

Oh my gosh, I am going to have to fit all of these people in my house??? They won't even fit; my house is tiny. These kids are gonna go crazy! So, tonight I am going to research some fun games and stuff to keep them happy. Maybe order a cool movie and do popcorn... maybe. The good thing is... this also means that the basement is free of clutter and I can stick all of the kids down there, if need be! :-)

please don't rain!

please don't rain!

please don't rain!

please don't rain!

What is your backup rain plan for Halloween?

Sharing

I read several food blogs... 'cause you know I'm gonna be a baker when I retire (the best little baker a grand kid could ever want) but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I have a few baking recipes that I have come across, in my travels, that I want to share with you.

In honor of National Candy Corn Day (always October 30)... may I present to you...

Candy Corn Cupcakes, except that I am going to make mine in a bundt pan. Cupcakes are too much work.

And we also have...

Yummy caramel apple cider

World's Best Dinner Rolls - These look like they might taste exactly like the rolls that my grandpa would make when I was little. Yummy!!! There is one local restaurant who makes 'em like that. Otherwise, I go without. I hope they are the same. They look the same.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing - I love real ranch dressing. I mean, the stuff in the plastic bottle that comes from the grocery store, it's okay, but I really love the real stuff. Hopefully this is tasty.

Last, but NOT least... Easy Halloween Party Food - We are having a Halloween party, but I'm not making any of this food... but it is fun to look at, hmmmm....

Aren't these pumpkin pie bites adorable????

I think that my new motto is going to be... so many recipes... so little time!

What's your motto?

Does it really do that? A Product Review

Let me give you a little run down of my life... you tell me if YOU would be stressed?

Bought a new house.

Still trying to fix up (paint/spackle/tile - all of the stuff we have been ignoring for years) the current home... cause we need to sell/rent it.

Trying to move (i.e. drowning in boxes of "stuff"). Seriously, we are boxing up the clutter. The boxes are labeled as such: beside the bed clutter, on the dining room table clutter, and kitchen counter clutter, just to name a few.

Dear Husband wants to sort through the clutter before we box it up. I told him that time is NOT on our side and we do not have the luxury of sorting through all of this stuff ahead of time. We will have to pack up the clutter and take it with us. [Insert picture of the Beverly Hillbillies here.]

Note: While we fix up and box up... we have to achieve and maintain a "perfect home" atmosphere at all times... for anyone who will want to come look at the house... to buy or rent.

Ahem... next time you take on 10 million home improvement jobs AND boxing up stuff at the same time... imagine also trying to simultaneously maintain an immaculate home. Easy? No - I think NOT!!!!

To top it off, I also signed up to be the troop's cookie mom (WAY before I knew that we were going to be moving) and took over control of and distribution of 113 cases (1,356 boxes) of Girl Scout cookies.

I am also a pregnant... exhausted... mother of two.

There is a silver lining here...
1. I am in possession of a working crock pot (finally).
2. I have discovered the world's best cleaning agent. (Okay - a neighbor told me about it. Napmom is way to smart to fall for the claims of a so-called magic eraser - side grin)

The magic eraser has taken years of grime off of almost every surface in my house. It doesn't contain any dangerous chemicals - check snopes if you don't believe me - which is good because I shouldn't be near harsh chemicals. And, it requires little to NO elbow grease. :-)

It turns your grout white and look what else it will do... "remove adhesive residue after removing stickers." Fabulous!!!!!

Check here for a list of hundreds of uses for this one small, but truly magical eraser.

Do you have a great cleaning tip that we should all know about? Am I the last one on the planet to hear of these all-time-best-ever "magic erasers"? What am I going to do when I don't have these wonderful neighbors to tell me about these sorts of things??? Really?

Meatballs

I'm trying the meatballs again... in Fairy Grandmother's crockpot this time... of course.

Em walked downstairs this morning... took one look in the crockpot and stated (very sarcastically), "Oh, you're trying the meatballs again, huh."

And, we made these so cute single serving pie in a jar treats for tonight. Yummy!!!!!

Speaking of slow cookers, Grand Matriarch recommended a Hamilton Beach 3-in-1 pot. She says that it is great. How does she know this? She doesn't cook. Hah! Busted!

Weekend...

How was your weekend?

We have been so busy at home. I use the term “we” lightly. I mean to say, Dear Husband has been so busy… when he is not working, helping with daily house matters, or sleeping (not much sleeping going on), he is… getting ready for us to move. We should be closing on the purchase of our new house on Thursday. Yippee! There will be lots to say about the new house, most of all, it is a smaller house (for our GROWING family) but in a better school district. So, well, you gotta do what you gotta do! For future reference, we prefer to call it “cozy” not “small.” On the upside, it does have a backyard so now my kids don’t have to grow up playing on a slab of concrete for a yard. On the downside, I am deeply saddened to be leaving such wonderful neighbors. I know that we can “still be friends” but it won’t be the same.

I did NOT make the Halloween costume that I promised to make. Lulu wants to be a Starbucks disposable cup. I had intended on using a round, white trashcan for my base. But, I can’t find a round, white trashcan… you know… big enough to fit around Lulu. And, we have no idea what Bro is going to be for Halloween.

I love my new crockpot the crockpot that Fairy Grandmother let me borrow. I made Maui Chicken for dinner tonight and we’ll be having meatballs later this week. (Will post recipes if we deem them tasty enough for posting). Yummy!

So, the real reason for my post is because I found this most amazingly yummy recipe online (baked rigatoni cake) and want to share it with you. It’s basically a variation on baked ziti… but look at the presentation! Wow!

What's new for dinner at your house?????

Family

We loved, loved, loved the visit from Grand Matriarch and Pops.

As you can see, we are Ravens fans and Redskins fans, but most of all... family.

Call it a clan,

call it a network,

call it a tribe,

call it a family.

Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.

~Jane Howard

Pumpkin Patch

Last week we were at the corn maze with Fairy Grandmother.

This week... fun, fun, fun... we took Grand Matriarch to the pumpkin patch (ahem... where she claimed - see comment in the corn maze post - that she would never go).

Have you ever seen so many sunflowers?

... and so many pumpkins???

There were plenty of activities for everyone including a scavenger hunt for Lulu -

- and big pumpkins for Bro to try to lift.

Will we ever find our way out of this maze?

The pumpkin house... what can I say... it's a tradition. I should try to find some old pics of Lulu in this house when she was just a wee pumpkin herself. Oh my gosh!

And... now... for my favorite picture of the day.... ta-da! Yep - I'll be using this one for an upcoming photo contest. :-) Isn't she so cute?

Yippee!

This week's theme at i ♥ faces is excitement.

Recently, Bro was over-the-top excited about...

... his very first cup of lemonade...

... and his very first chance to hold his own cup and drink all by himself.

Everyone is excited over at i ♥ faces this week…pop on over to catch a glimpse of the fun!

Corn Maze

Fairy Grandmother took us all to the corn maze over the weekend.

Lulu and Bro practiced with the baby maze...

... before grabbing a "help - I'm lost stick" and entering the real maze.

We brought the stroller for Bro, but he didn't want to use it - wonder why.

We finally made it to the center of the maze and stopped to take in the view and get some cute pics of the group.

Check out the new braces... the "space" is gone. Can you believe it?

Did you know that corn grows up on its roots like it's standing on little tippy toes? Check this out. I had no idea.

Ahhh... what a fun way to spend a gorgeous fall morning. Are you going to visit a corn maze or pumpkin patch in your town this fall?

Happy Fall

So many things to blog about...

First of all, I have been a bit MIA. Why? Well, I have been sleeping for weeks (ala Rip Van Winkle style) and spend all of my spare time horizontel in my bed. Why? Well, because Lu and Bro are gonna have a baby. Yep. That's right. Sometime this April we will be welcoming a new person into our hearts. Lu is as excited as excited could be... Bro... well, Bro will get used to the idea, I'm sure!

So, now that I am out of the first trimester.. I have a bit more energy.

I added taco pics to my last post. So, peek back to my post on Slow Cooker Success and view the yummy goodness. And a bit more about my slow cooker... it has come to my attention that my slow cooker is defective. My neighbor has the same one and it burns her stuff too. I thought that I was the only moron on the planet who couldn't use a slow cooker.

I uploaded some pictures from our back-to-school bbq that we had with our neighbors and look what I found.

The girls were drinking lemonade and when they went inside to play, they left their lemonade on the table. There are a few things going on here: (1) this is the first time that Bro had lemonade and (2) this is the only time that he has been permitted to hold and drink from his own big-boy cup. Yes, he got it ALL over himself, but he was so happy... as you will see.

He has this same pirate face in this post too. This is his very excited look.

Are you craving lemonade now? I am.