Never a True Aggie

Last year, for my birthday, we had the opportunity to go up north to Traverse City and Mackinac Island.  It was a fun trip and a good way to spend my birthday.  This year for my birthday (37!!!!!), I thought another trip would be fun.  We decided to head South East and go to Cleveland, Ohio.  It is just about a three hour drive from where we live, which is a perfect weekend trip in my opinion.  First, I have to give a shout out to the Ohio Turnpike.  Sure, we had to pay to use the 80/90 Interstate, but it was nice, well lighted and easy to drive on.  Ok ,down to business.

We visited some fun places…such as

THE CHRISTMAS STORY HOUSE

I didn’t even know it existed.  When I was looking for things to do while we were in Cleveland, this site came up.  It was only 2 miles from our hotel, so we checked it out.

Liam was not into taking pictures.  He was just having a moment.  It was also raining.  Last year, it was raining too.  It seems to always rain during my birthday.

A little closer picture.  Liam is hiding behind Maren.

The snoopy doll is part of a “flat Stanley” thing we are doing at work.

Inside the living room.  The house was rebuilt a few years ago and the rooms are not exactly  like what it was in the film, but they did try their best to restore everything.

Hey, it’s Flick!

Ok, we broke down and bought a leash for Adam.  I have mixed feelings about it.  Sometimes, it was more hassle then help.  Anyway, I also forgot the undershirt for my top, so forgive the cleavage.  Ha,  Cleavage in Cleveland…..

Randy’s hiding place.

The whole family.  This was taken near the end when everyone was pretty much done.

The house was lots of fun.  There was a whole upstairs with Ralphie and Randie’s bedroom.  There was a museum across the street with props from the movie.  That was fun too, although there was an actor there from the movie that we wanted to avoid.  It was the delivery guy, who delivers the leg.  Man, he was a TALKER!  Don and I looked at each other and with ESP decided to get out of there.

Next we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Standing outside.

Standing outside the entrance.  Liam would not cooperate.  How very rock and roll of him.  Unfortunately, they would not let you take pictures inside….I am not sure why, it’s not like it is works of art or anything.  I was a little bugged by that.

My assessment of the RR Hall of Fame.  Meh.  It was kind of like an overblown Hard Rock cafe.  It seemed like mostly a compilation of costumes.  I would have liked something more historical and educational.  There wasn’t even really a good flow from one genre to the next.  I also thought some things were a little much for kids. I know, it is rock and roll, but could you at least warn me?  We had to avoid the whole Pink Floyd exhibition because they had this huge blow up of the teacher from “The Wall” that was scary looking, but also when you look at it for a minute, it is a woman’s torso, complete with boob eyes (that glow at times) and a mouth that looks like, well, I just won’t go there.  I know, not very rock and roll of me, but it was kind of nasty.  All I have to say is that the illustrator had mother/woman issues.

We also stopped by this place.

If you want to know more about it, check it out here.

We then went to this place called Big Fun, up in Cleveland Heights.  It was a toy nostalgia shop.  They had Dazzle Dolls there.  I don’t know if you remember these, but I loved them.  They were like little Polly Pockets  of the time.  They also had a while collection of My Little Ponies and the old school Strawberry Shortcakes.  They also had action figures, like Star Wars, He-Man and GI Joe.  Anyway, there was lots of stuff there, and it was a fun way to end our trip.

I highly recommend Cleveland.  It was a nice city.  It was such a nice change from Detroit.  There were people in the buildings.  The lights were on at night.  People could actually walk around the down town.  The kids had a good time. We will most likely come back to explore some more.  Liam wants to take his next trip to Pennsylvania.  We will have to see about that.

In my church, I have the assignment of working with girls from 8-11 on learning some skills, having fun and hopefully strengthening any budding spirituality that they may have.  It is kind of like Girl Scouts without the badges.  For today’s activity, we were learning how to reduce stress and take care of our bodies and minds in a healthy way.  On the agenda was learning stress reducing techniques and then doing some yoga.   The first mistake was having the boys with me.  Don had to attend a school sponsored dinner and was not available to be home with the boys.  I thought that maybe Liam would join in on the activity since it was pretty physical.  Ha!  Adam spent the time playing with the girls who just wanted to hold and play with him.  Way to distracting.  Liam ran around non stop.  I had to put him in time out at least 5 times (obviously it wasn’t working).    I showed them some yoga breathing techniques, which were kind of fun.  So, then we get to the yoga tape.  The DVD was working, but I could not find the menu button which then I could not get to the chapter on stress relieving yoga.  So, we just launched into one of the first ones and got this guy.

Ahhhhh!

This was not the segment I was looking for.  I was trying to get this one segment on stress relieving yoga and this woman does it.  Way more appropriate for these girls.  I just had to launch into the segment that was going to go first and we got this shirtless wonder.  The worst part was the hairy chest.  Luckily, he had some biker shorts on.  I shudder to think if he has something smaller and tighter.  Obviously, the girls could not calm down enough to take him seriously.  It was all laughs and giggles at this point.  We went through the poses, but it was not the stress relieving moment I was looking for.  Oh, well.  Life goes on.

This year, Maren started 4th grade and Liam started 1st.  I can’t believe my daughter only has two more years of elementary school.  She is getting so big and grown up.  Why do I still feel about 20 (but my body is about 80)?  This year, we didn’t get too fancy with the outfits.  Mainly because we had each had the stomach flu from about 5 days before and we were just doing good getting up and out of bed.  Each one of us went down one by one.  First it was Liam, then it was Maren and Adam, then Don and finally me.  On this day, it was me.  Flash forward about 5 hours and it is not such a pretty site.  Luckily, the kids were able to ride the bus home, so everyone was ok.  We read about dyeing hair with KoolAid and thought it would be fun to do for the first day.  Liam chickened out.  We tried to do it with Maren, but all it did was stain her face.  I think we did something wrong.  We will have to try it again later.  The weather was pretty. Ok. I also need some advice.  Liam’s birthday is coming up and we can’t seem to figure out his party.  He wants Bounce U, which is a bounce house place, but it is about $400 if you go past 3:30 PM.  School isn’t even out until 4 PM.  So, I had an idea.  He LOVES the show Minute to Win-It.  So, I thought we would do a Minute to Win It party.  Sadly, I have only seen the show two times, maybe three.  What challenges would be good for 6 year olds?  The cookie face one seemed ok and maybe the eggs with the pizza boxes.  Suggestions?

I thought I would share some pictures of some of our summer activities:

We took a trip to the Air Zoo.  It is an air and space museum in Kalamazoo, MI.  It was tons of fun.  We really enjoyed ourselves.  The admission is free, but you have to pay for the rides, so it came to about $10 per person (4) to ride all the rides all day.  Liam and Maren suddenly got a case of the nerves and didn’t want to ride some of the more “scarier” rides.  Actually, Liam was kind of in a weird mood where he would want to do something and then suddenly change his mind and then cry about changing his mind.  What can I say, he is 5 going on 6.  Maren was also feeling a bit chagrined because she was the oldest kid, but unwilling to be more risky in her ride choices.

When you walk in there are airplanes all over the place.  They have War veterans volunteer for tours.  It was lots of fun.  There were some WWII vets there that day.  They were really old, but I thought it was cool that they were still there “kickin’ it.”

They had a whole exhibit on WASPs (not White Anglo-Saxon Protestants but Women Airforce Service Pilots).  It was pretty cool.

Outside, they were giving rides in old airplanes, but I am sure it was pretty pricey.  Here is Adam.  I think he has a little lunch left on his face.

There was a whole other exhibit on space.  They had space capsules and things from the space station.  Liam and Maren thought the space ship “bathroom” was very interesting since there is no “toilet” per se.  They had a diaper that they showed and this plastic sleeve thing that you poop in.  Leave it to my kids to focus on the toilet stuff.

There was a gun outside the museum with places for people to sit. Here are Maren and Liam getting ready to do a few rounds.

We had lots of fun and will probably go back.  Kalamazoo itself left much to be desired for, but all in all, it was a good trip.

Here are some pictures from playing in the back yard.  Liam seems to be the nudist in our family.  He does not like to wear clothes, although we insist on underwear.  He is usually shirtless or pantless.  On this particular day, it was sans shirt.  He, Maren and Liam were playing in the backyard and I thought I would get a few shots for fun.

So, I started with Chili.  I had the stuff on hand and it seemed like a good one to try.  Really, how badly can you mess up chili?  Don’t answer that.

In our house, there are some of us who like beans and some of us who don’t.  I fall in the “like” category and Don falls in the “don’t like.”  So, I can compromise a bit.  There are some things we do agree on though, that being Fritos, Sour Cream and Cheddar Cheese.  Here is a picture of the results.

In the beginning….There was a recipe, and the recipe had ingredients.  I didn’t have cayenne pepper, and my garlic comes from a squeeze tube.  She also does not saute her onions, but add them at the end as a garnish.  I don’t particularly like raw onions, so I cooked them at the beginning.

I really like her pictures.  I hate recipes without pictures.  I like to know what the food will look like.  It also helps to see the process.  Sometimes I skim through a recipe, like this one, and the pictures keep me on task and remind me quickly what I need to do next.

I browned it all in my favorite pot.  It is an enameled one that I bought with some Christmas money.  I love it so much, I keep it on top of my stove.  It browns things so nicely and works great for “stew-ey” stuff like this.  You can put it straight from the cook top into the range.  I love double duty things.  I actually did not have enough tomato sauce.  Actually, no tomato sauce.  So, I used some left over spaghetti sauce.  The recipe called for oregano, so I figured I might as well just use this and leave out the herbs.  It seemed to work well, but I think tomato sauce might have made it a bit thicker.

Pretty much the end result after adding the canned tomatoes.  See, no beans.  I miss the beans.  I almost put some in, but out of respect for Don, decided against it.  He was very happy about that.  He says he has some “story” about beans, which I can only guess what it is about.  I’d rather not hear it.

This recipe calls for corn flour or masa.  I sent Don to the store to get some along with some other things (Fritos).  He went to Whole Foods.  I told him he would have a better chance of getting it there.  Unfortunately, they do not have Fritos at Whole Foods, surprise, surprise.  He bought the closest thing which was corn tortilla chips.  They were OK.  I like greasy fritos best.  But, the cheese and sour cream were top-notch.  Oh, and he forgot the masa, so it is not “exactly” like Ms. Pioneer Woman, but pretty close.

The Verdict:  We liked it.  I think we will like it more with some Fritos and some masa.  I will be adding it to my recipe box.  I was reading some reviews of her book and some people were upset because they had most of the recipes already in some variation or another.  They also said you could download most from her website.  While that is true, I also like having them in one place.  I find that I go to some of the same books over and over again and it is because they have recipes that are all in one place.   So I don’t mind the simplicity of her book.

Today, I made her Chocolate Sheet Cake aka Texas Sheet Cake.  Sorry, no pictures.  Busy day.  It is pretty much like any other sheet cake recipe.  But, I happen to have a very bad sheet cake recipe that I used to think was good, but made it one day and realized that it really wasn’t a good recipe after all.  So, I am happy to have this one and know that it turns out pretty well.  It is very chocolatey and rich.  I encourage a tall glass of milk when you are eating it.  I took some to work and the folks there said that they liked it.

Stats:

Chili 4 out of 5 stars

Sheet Cake 5 out of 5 stars

I decided I need to start doing some of the things that I like to do more and one of those things is cooking.  This summer we have spent far too much time eating out and not enough time at home.  It is just part of trying to work, play and keep the house somewhat picked up.  Meals have just gone by the wayside.  So, with school starting, I will have to do far less daytime entertaining and be able to focus on the house more.  We also need a good change up in our meal routine.  I am getting tired of the same old recipes.  I decided to try one cook book a month, either one that I own, check out from the library or buy from a bookstore.  I have been eyeing this book for a long time.

It is an awesome cook book full of great recipes and great pictures.  I heard about her blog on NPR and it is one of my favorites.  However, she posts like sixty-trillion posts in a day, so I can’t keep up with her.  But, she is on my google reader and I check in from time to time.  Her cooking tutorials are the best because she goes step by step.  She also uses ingredients that I could probably find at my local store.  She is also a home schooler, but I am not venturing into that territory.

I am going to start my little jaunt in Sept.  So I will keep you posted as to what recipes we try and how they go.

What can I say, I have been very busy.  The real story is, our computer crashed and it took us a while to get it working once again.  So we were down to one computer, which was Don’s work computer, which he had with him almost all the time.  So, whenever I could check my email, I would, but didn’t get to spend too much time just sitting and writing.  I am not even sure there is anybody really reading this anymore.  Perhaps I have lost my audience.  Hmmmm.   Maybe that is a good thing.

Well, I started the Summer with all kinds of projects and things I wanted to get done, but didn’t.  So this is what I didn’t do this summer:

*Make all my Summer Tops:  For some bizarro reason, I wanted to make all of my Summer tops.  I have the patterns.  I have the material.  I don’t have the time.  Shucks.

*Make the kids all sorts of cute stuff I saw on blogs.  Just-didn’t-happen.

*Clean out my basement, organize it, and throw away tons of junk.  Seriously, we have boxes that have been there since we moved here 4 summers ago.  It is just so much easier to just shut the door and not think about that dark, lonely, desolate place.

*Move the baby into Liam’s room.  I know, I know.  This REALLY needs to be done.  We currently have his crib in our room because when he was an infant, it was so much easier to get him at night and we had this nice little odd corner that the crib fits so nicely in.  THAT, and Liam’s room has a door that does not shut (weird warping/door jam thing….we are renting BTW).  So, I didn’t want to put him in there because he needs it dark to sleep.  Plus, I was worried Liam would keep him up.  Now he is almost 18 months and it is time.  Maybe this weekend.

What we DID do:

*Spent a really long, fun time with Grandma Nancy.  She visited for three whole weeks and it was great.  We miss her all the time.

*Went to CA and Disneyland!!!  It was awesome.  It was so good to see Aunt Patty and the girls as well as Grandma Dianne.  We really missed them.  Maren was blue for a week when we came home.  She spent almost every night having sleepovers.  How can I compete with that?  We also went to Legoland and had a good time.  Oh, and we saw some good friends from Concord.

*Went swimming at local lakes and waterparks.  Played outside.  Took walks to the local dairy mat for ice cream (probably too much of that).

*Went to the AirZoo, which is an air and space museum.  It was a lot of fun and a nice little weekend get away.

So, now we are preparing for school and the kids are excited (as well as I am) to start school again.  Liam will be in 1st grade and Maren in 4th!  So, it is just Adam and me all day.  It will be weird to only have one kid at home.  What will I do with all the luxury!

We have had this picture on our fridge for about two months now and I just love it. I always makes me chuckle a bit when I see it.  For Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, the kids had to share something that is “Their Dream…”  Liam drew a picture of two people sharing an apple, with the caption, “To share apples that which has not bit.”

I should also add that he now says “It’s my dream” whenever he really likes something.  Like, “Mom, chocolate is my dream.” and “Skateboards are my dream.”  I am not sure that is what MLK had in mind when he was coming up with “I have a dream.”

I can’t believe I have not posted since January!!!  Sorry.  It has been a busy winter.  Adam had his 1st birthday.  It was lots of fun, but so different from Maren’s first.  It is amazing how things change.  With Maren, we had a big party with all our adult friends.  It was nuts.  Liam was a lot less involved.  Adam basically got  a little party after dinner, a quick bath and then bedtime.  We do have pictures though, I just haven’t uploaded them yet.  Here is a video we shot though the other night at the ice cream place in town.  It is followed by a picture of the kids actually getting along and playing nicely.  We took a picture because we weren’t sure how long it was going to last.

This spring, we had a really fun visit from my friend Karrie.  We spent a nice long weekend with each other, until our two boys were having meltdowns every 15 minutes, so we decided to do an all girls weekend sometime this summer.  No BOYS Allowed!

We went to my brother’s in Indianapolis for Easter.  The kids had a great time visiting with their cousins and getting their fill of dogs.  They want a dog so badly, that it was nice for them to pretend for a few days.  We had a visit from the Easter Bunny, but this year the baskets had to be very hidden away due to the dog situation, so, he left us a little note to help us out.  Here it is.

Maren and Liam-