Animals gone wild

"Left paw blue..."



Oh hurry up already!!! I'm tired of spinning!

Bad spinner, bad spinner.

Dumb cats. I think I'm just going to sit here in mom's pile of freshly washed, warm, new polar fleece. She won't mind a little more fuzz on her fabric...

I kid you not. This was the scene I walked in on a couple of days ago. It started to scare me! It was like I walked in on the toys and they forgot to play dead like they do in Toy Story. Who knew cats liked to play Twister? And Sophie hates the cats so what was she doing watching??? They are all a bunch of posers! What would my blog be if I don't show some animal picture at least once a week? I think they consume way too much of my life. It's a sickness.

Christmas festivities

Hey! I actually remembered to snap a couple of pictures at my Christmas party. Of course, it's of the kids. They don't have issues with pictures being taken of them like adults do...well like I do. My mom helped the kids make Christmas blocks. I didn't realize that I don't have a picture of them all aglow and now they are packed up for next year! Oops! The kids loved having them in their rooms. They are glass blocks that are use in bathrooms and as dividers that my dad drilled a hole in. Then you shove a strand of lights through the hole and decorate the outside of the block. Viola! A cute little Christmas decoration!

We had a cookie decorating area in the garage for the kids. They went nuts putting toppings on and ate up a sugary storm! Then the dog went around and cleaned up every sprinkle and candy piece within her reach.

Sadly, there is no evidence of any adults here, but there were quite a few of them here...they were in the house eating sushi with Chris. He busted out the sushi gear and made up some appetizers for everyone to try. I stayed in cookie land. Yum! Mike(my BIL) made a pot of spicy chili to cut the sweet overload. We also did a little cookie/candy exchange and although I'd like to say I passed out the little boxes of cookies that I made up...we ate it. All of it. THATS why my pants are tight and I'm slowly coming down off of my Christmas sugar high. I feel yucky!

holiday hello

I've been a little distant from blog land as of late. We've been enjoying our first holiday season in our new house. It's been filled with baking, eating, gifting, talking, sleeping, and learning when I do and don't fit in to my present surroundings or company. It all rounded up nicely with a 2 day headache and waking up this morning to find out that we were out of propane. It's a bit nippy in the house. We'll just forget that I asked Chris to check the propane levels a couple of weeks ago, twice. We're new to propane as we had city gas before. I'm sure it always happens on the weekend too when the propane company is closed. I won't grumble about our electric water heater anymore, since we can still take hot showers. The propane company is supposed to come by once a month to check the tank, and I've seen him drive by twice in the last 3 months but never once did he stop. I think they forgot about us! I'll soon be looking like the kid in Christmas Story, unable to put my arms down. It's already down to 62 in the house so I'm sure it will be in the 50's in here by morning. Yikes! The kids think it's going to be fun to sleep by the fire place. I just wish it had a blower or wasn't just for show. Most of the heat goes up the chimney. I'll spend the next couple of posts showing our December pictures and trying to catch up on our winter break happenings.


We've had a couple of cold snaps this month and a couple of snow flurries. Too bad nothing stuck. My hummingbird feeder was frozen though!

The kids were so desparate for snow that they put on their snow gear and were making frost angels.

Goobers. Hope everyone had a nice Christmas!

BABIES!!!

We finally had baby chicks this morning!!! The kids came in screaming and couldn't wait for me to get some out for them to hold. I had to distract the mom while putting her in a new enclosure in the chicken yard and swipe them up quick before she started pecking at me. She was kind of ticked! The other girls are quite curious and circle the cage to see what the peeping is.

So far there are 4 out and 2 eggs left to go. She had 3 taken away from her by momma #1 and I cracked one open to see if there were any babies still alive as it had been quite a while since she started sitting on them. I was concerned that they were dead. That's another story and needless to say it wasn't dead. The kids got a good lesson in farm life and I felt bad. Good times, good times.

Now the kids are in heaven! Hopefully I'll get some pictures soon. I decided to let momma#2 get settled again. She was busy rearranging the bedding and trying to get everyone warm again. Hopefully they'll make another appearance this afternoon.

VACATION HERE I COME!!!

One nice thing about working at the kid's school is having the same schedule that they do. That means I get ALL of the vacations that they do too! After this past week I need it too! Talk about a bunch of wound up kids. We could have harnessed the energy and powered a small town! I don't have any pictures to post, just thoughts to ponder. One was what to do when I'm driving home from the gym at 6:30am when it's still dark and 29 degrees outside and a small light comes on in the dash. It's one I've never seen before...let me show you...(!). That was what it was...(!). What the...well, what does that mean? Is it really necessary for a car to have 25 different symbols on the dash to tell you when it's got it's panties in a wad? I like my truck. Low oil, change oil, check engine, etc. It just tells me in WORDS on the readout on the dash. There was no way I was pulling over to check what (!) means. Isn't an exclamation to come at the END OF A SENTENCE? Where is the rest of the warning? I know what the oil symbol is and the temp is. Those are universal. So, when I got home I checked out the owner's manual. Oh, poor baby. It means the tire pressure is low. Ok, if it's going to be that picky it needs to just talk to me, you know, in William Shatner's voice. Ma'am, your tire pressure is...low. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, you know? When it's warm outside the (!) goes away. Aww, it doesn't like being cold with low tire pressure...only warm. Maybe I should laminate a card with all of it's symbols on it for quick reference. Naa, that would be way too anal. Well, that was my moment to myself. Now it's off to do a project with the kids. The frustrating part of vacation...it's really not a "vacation" since I become a source of entertainment for the next 2 weeks. At least I get to sit around and not shower if I want to...

more chicken drama

I had another momma(we'll call her momma #2) chicken given to me that is currently sitting on her nest of eggs. Don't worry, my squirrel chasing cat is "guarding" her for me. I thought the momma was kicking out dead eggs since we would find a couple sitting on the ground out of her nest all cold. Then I found momma #1 get in her nest and peck at her until she moved over to let her steal some eggs to peck at. She was trying to kill the babies! What a snot! So, I had to move Momma #2 to a make shift cage outside of the coop so the chickens would leave her alone. On to part 2: She's been sitting on the eggs for about a month and typically the chicks hatch at 21 days so now I'm thinking she was off of her eggs for too long and they died. When I shook the cold ones there is definitely something solid in there so I know they were fertilized but somehow they didn't survive. Too bad. The kids were so excited too. I'm just afraid that if I don't take them away from her soon she'll slowly wither away to nothing as they stay on the eggs all day and get weaker and weaker the longer it takes. So, tomorrow I have to shine a flashlight on the eggs to try to see if they are alive and take her from them and put her back in the coop with her murderous peers. Who knew there would be so much drama in the chicken world?

bad blogger

I've been a bad blogger lately. Not only have I been bad about keeping up with my posts, I've been bad about responding to people's comments. I've also not been visiting my normal list of blogs lately. Bad, bad, bad. Too much going on. The main reason I'm online now is because I'm having a Christmas party at my house tomorrow and I am tired and not wanting to clean my house. Hopefully I'll be able to get it all done tomorrow and if not, I'll just have to get over worrying about what people think about my messes!!! My house is very LIVED in at the moment. I did get most of my baking done and my food stuff planned. I have the tables for the kids to decorate their cookies set up and ready to go. I think I'm hucking the huge pile of clean clothes in my closet! Priorities, right? Cookies, yes. Clothes away, no. Here is a picture of my 2 new Frenchy Bags that I finished. I love these bags. Now to use some different fabrics. The green one didn't turn out to be as enjoyable to my eyes as I thought it would be. The small one is great for a trip to the mall but not big enough for me to use as my everyday purse. Minor details. They are fully lined and have dividers inside. Next I plan to finish Evan's quilt. It's nice to have a place, although out front where it can be seen, where I can leave my machine set up and get my projects done little by little. I used to have to put it away all the time in our old house. I'm able to get much more done now.

Happy Birthday!

Look who's pooped! She's hiding under my sewing machine.



Look who's passed out on the couch. Why, you ask, are they so tired?

They were up ALL night playing with the 7 girls that spent the night last weekend for Amanda's 9th birthday. Sophie was in heaven with all of the attention. The cat chased the laser light all evening. The girls all did really well and finally stopped moving when I read them their last book at midnight. Then the giggling started about 6am. I think I drank an entire pot of coffee and a couple of diet cokes on Sunday. Ugh.

I can't believe my little girl is 9 years old. It seems like yesterday that I was going to the hospital at 12:30am in labor. This was her first "friend" party with no boys or relatives, just the girls! There was lots of giggling, eating junk, and playing with the new toys.

I made them play the newspaper wrapped jumbo Hershey bar game. They had to put on the scarf, gloves, and hat and then try to unwrap the Hershey bar that was wrapped in many taped layers of paper. During this time the girls took turns rolling the dice until someone got doubles. Then the next girl had to get dressed and try to get the chocolate bar opened before the next double was rolled. There was lots of yelling and squealing. I love this game. I took them on a hike for an hour the next day after breakfast for a little revenge. Ha, Ha, Ha!

TGIF

I haven't been that great about posting lately. I even forgot my camera on Thanksgiving...both of them. So, I'm going to do a run down of our happenings. Let's see, the 4 cheap fish I bought got ICK all over them and medication didn't work. That was fun. The most annoying/exciting part was that about 3 days after their deaths, which spanned a 3 day time period, I noticed floating grains of rice with BIG eyes. Nice. One of the sick fish had babies, 5 of them, that are now swimming around in there. The thing is, now I can't get anymore fish until they get big enough to not turn into lunch for anything I added. They aren't growing that fast. Now it looks like I have a tank with no fish, again. Our cat tried to take on a squirrel and chased it into a tree. Is that normal? I didn't think cats tried to take on squirrels. I'm not sure if she was going to eat it or kick it's butt. Either way she's a tough girl! On to the pictures...

I'm not sure if this is a Dolley or a Tvedt thing, but I had to have this damn pig. My Mom has a croaking frog at her house, whether or not she wants to admit it. Come to think of it we've always had some sort of moving stuffed Christmas toy, even as a kid. This one oinks out jingle bells while walking along and squeals when you pull it's tail. At least I waited until it was about half price. Not sure I should have admitted I bought it, but there it is.

Evan and Dad had a sushi night when Amanda was at a friend's house .

They like playing with all of the gross fish parts. This was a crab claw that Evan was moving.

Chris talked the kids into raking the Mulberry tree leaves for $5. They lasted about 10 minutes. Chris ended up raking about 300 pounds of leaves. The next day there was about the same amount of leaves on the ground again. He won't buy a leaf blower and likes to rake them. Whatever. I wonder how many years I'll have to ask him if he's ready for a blower.

The kids tried out their new aprons we made. Amanda is measuring flour for bread.

Is this the cutest darned coat ever or what? Of course she can't wear it to school so I'm not sure of it's practicality or how many times she'll wear it before she outgrows it. I couldn't resist. It was going to be part of her Thanksgiving outfit but since it was probably about 68 degrees that afternoon it was a little warm for it. We've finally been having some cooler weather this week so maybe she'll get to use it soon!

I guess that's about it for now. This weekend is the slumber party weekend for Amanda's 9th birthday. Ahhhh! Wish me luck! I'm probably going to have a caffeine drip hooked up and ready to go for Sunday morning. Have a great weekend!

Oh ouch!

I went and picked Sophie up today after her slumber party at the vet. She tore her ACL (a ligament)last year and we had the surgery done to repair it yesterday. Poor thing can't put any weight on it and hobbles around on 3 legs. I knew she was glad to be home when she went straight to the wet cat food dish to lick out any leftovers. She was starving after not eating for 2 days. Corgi's live for food so that's a major thing for her to miss that many feedings!


This is her, "Ahhh, these are some good drugs" face. Hopefully she'll sleep a lot so I won't have to follow her around helping her. It's horrible to see her trying to move.

Now we start her 2 month rehab. She should be back to fetching and running some time in February. It's been torture to ignore her when she brings me her toys and wants to run. She also had her teeth cleaned, a broken one pulled, and her toe nails trimmed. It stinks getting old! At least they did her overhaul when she was out like a light!

Cat TV

Well, the cats were excited that we subscribed to "CAT TV" again. Molly fondly remembered the good ole days of watching her favorite programs. Missy, however, is new to the experience. She spent all day on the cat post staring at the tank. The albino shark liked to tease her.

Now I've got him!

Maybe now!

What is going on here?

As I sit here typing, I hear a noise behind me. Here's Missy, pulling my skeins of yarn out of the bin and rabbit punching them. Then I noticed a 3 inch piece of yarn sticking out of her mouth and she's trying to eat it. As I pull, it just keeps coming out! Yuck! I think it was all the way into her stomach! The thing is about 12 inches long! Dumb cat. Go back to the fish~

Help!!!

Do you ever find yourself in the kitchen, struggling with the need...to...keep...adding...things...to the pot???? A little of this, a little of that, some more of this...maybe just a little more of this...help! I'm sick in the head! Then my poor husband is forced to be the guinea pig. The last 2 days I've been chasing him around with a spoon(then he made some comment about how it's too bad I had a spoon in my hand while chasing him...but I'm ignoring that)asking him to taste it this time. "I just tasted it! And how come it looks like baby poop?" "I know, but that was before I added more of ____!" This is my pumpkin apple butter. Viola!!! Mind you, I've had a stuffy nose for 2 weeks so I'm not completely sure of it's quality, but I think it turned out pretty good!!! I've not had pumpkin butter in a long time. I added lots of apples and didn't put in as much sugar and it sweetened up nicely. Those of you that will be at Thanksgiving beware. I'll probably try to get some of you to taste it. You know, until my nose gets back to normal. I need testers! Hey, I can at least use it in my pumpkin muffin recipe if I get tired of it. I have 6 jars to use up!

feelin' fishy again

Finally! It's been 3 months since my aquarium has had water in it. I've been dying to set it up. Unfortunately when the IDIOT from Dish network was here to install our satelite service after we moved in he not only got mud on my BRAND new carpet, he also drilled the hole for the cable about 6 inches away from the wall right through the carpet. I freaked out and he said it was because there was a pipe under the subfloor right there and that's the way they do it. I said, "Ah, Bullkaka." You see, you drilled the hole before you even went under the house to look. Then I proceeded to tell him that I'm not dumb, I'm not 20 or 80, and I've live in enough different places to know you NEVER fricking drill the hole that far away from the wall. He started shaking, went outside, and then called his manager. When the manager got here I met him at the car and told him to get his coveralls on cause we were going under the house. The other guy wouldn't go under with me. I think he thought I was going to kill him with a shovel once he got under there. So, I dawned my husband's sweats and flannel shirt and belly crawled all the way under the house with the "manager". Guess what??? There was not a pipe to be seen for MILES AND MILES. It was an interior wall. All of the furnace pipes are on the exteriors. BUSTED!!! So, long story short, I had to wait to set up my aquarium until they finally got the funds to the carpet place to order and install the new carpet. The contractor that Dish sends out said this type of stuff happens ALL the time. He replaces broken windows, gutters, flooring, you name it. It cost $1000 just to have the carpet done. No wonder why our satelite costs are inflated so much!!! Buyers beware! NEVER leave those guys alone so you can go make your kid's lunches before school! I learned my lesson!!! I hope he did too. I often wonder if he would have tried that if my husband would have been here??? I think he was afraid to go under the house. Pansy.



Maybe this week I'll actually get a fish in there! The cats are already eyeing it. I'll get some cheapies to throw in there until the biological filter is back in action. Now to decide which direction I'm going to take it this time...African Cichlids? Oscars? A large school of Tetras? I love starting fresh.

Weekend crafting

Here is our finished Girl Scout jean bags from Saturday. All of the girls did great! For most it was their first time sewing and they were very excited. I embroidered each girl's name on their bags. I think we'll have more of these events here. After they left we kept right on doing crafts and made some melty bead ornaments for our Christmas tree. Then we made our favorite granola bars. After that it was on to the thankful tree.

Here is our Thankful Tree. There aren't too many "leaves" on it yet but it's starting to look more treeish. Every time we think of something to be thankful for we write it on a leaf and hang it on the tree. Even visitors can write one. Then on Thanksgiving we'll read them. Amanda and I thought it was a GREAT idea. Evan didn't. Darn that boy! He did add one leaf though. He said he was thankful for fires. It's a good thing we had a fire going or I'd be a little concerned.

Today we made 2 soups(split pea and sausage and bean) and froze what we didn't eat. We also finished the aprons. I'll have to get the kids to model them tomorrow. Evan had a sleepover last night at a friend's house and he was manic by 6:00 tonight. We had a QUIET evening until he passed out in bed. This week is vacation week! Wish me luck keeping the rug rats from killing themselves!!! Sophie goes in for surgery tomorrow so say a little prayer!

Hard at work!

Ooh, bad picture, but you can see why we needed curtains so we could actually see and not just hear the TV. The glare was HORRIBLE! I got these done Sunday with my MAJOR sale fabric from Jo ann's. STAY AWAY KITTEN!

I also finished felting my coffee band. One more time in the hot water and it will probably be perfect. No hot fingers and no cardboard bands! Win-win. I finished my girlie camo hat as well, but with my short hair I looked like I was finishing up my chemo treatment. For some reason I just don't look normal in those hats. So, Amanda was ready to take ownership from me. I guess I'll just have to stick to baseball hats. I decided to make a scarf to go along with it and give it to her for Christmas.

The kids were working on their aprons for Christmas. I made them do the worst part yesterday, cutting them out. I always disliked that part as a kid. You had to cut the pattern and THEN cut the fabric before you could even get started. Yuck!

Amanda learned why cats were so annoying when you were trying to sew. The cat ended up winning and got to be held and scratched. Then she came over and climbed up my pants to sit on me. Sheesh she's persistant!

It was a really productive weekend and my house shows the signs. It's pretty cluttered around here! It's a good clutter though. I guess...

Our day of rest

This is what I want every Sunday to be:

Wake up and make coffee

Go to church

Come home and make a picnic lunch to eat in the back yard all the while watching the chickens, hummingbirds and cats enjoying the 73 degree weather

Watch Evan and Daddy work on the garden area and play with motorized equipment

Then watch Amanda go out there and become a speed demon on it too

Sew all 4 panels of my new curtains AND get prepared for the Girl Scout sewing day we're going to have here next Saturday

BBQ a beer butt chicken for burritos

Watch a movie before bed

It was a great day!

happy pictures

Here are some more happy pictures. These were from last weekend. Our cat Missy is quite demanding with the need for attention and affection. She always climbs all over me when I am on the computer. Chris showed her my hood and she decided she'd stay there for a while. It's better than when she sits on my shoulder and attacks my head. Ignore the undone hair. It was Saturday morning.

Here is my mini cheese omelet that I made with my first egg.

Happy things, happy things. That's what I'm focusing on this weekend. Not sure if that's a coping tactic or denial. Probably one in the same and I guess it doesn't matter either way!

cheating

I've been cheating! Shhhh! Don't tell! Well, ok. Let me explain. With gas prices down soooo much...um, ah, I've been kind of...driving my truck! There! I said it. Don't tell the Prius. I didn't intend to leave her parked in the garage, honest! It's just that, when I see my truck sitting there, teasing me, showing my true inner being, I can't STAND it! I know it's silly, but when I get in my truck, that I drove for 7 years, it feels like um...me. I can't explain it. It's a country girl truck thing. I feel big, safe, powerful and in my comfort zone. In the Prius I feel small, efficient, compromising, goofy, and just...existing and not living. Isn't that silly? The trunk in the Prius is nice to have grocery shopping...see? Those are the thoughts with the Prius. How practical, right? If I gave you my truck for a week I'm sure you'd see the light...I'm tellin' ya. When you start it up and have the dual exhaust roars to life and nail it off the line it's like letting go of the crap and getting with the program. I've always been in love with cars. It's in my blood. My first car was a '66 mustang 269 V8 3 speed on the floor. Yeah, it was cool. No power steering and working gas gauge was kind of a drag, but the horsepower and nailing it when getting on the freeway and not shifting into second gear until you were at about 55 or 60 miles an hour ROCKED! I'm not strictly an American car girl though. I LOVE Volkswagen and have had 3 different models of those. My favorite was my GLX Passat. I always figured it was my wanna be BMW. I'd love a 740i. Ahhh. I love those foreign sedans that secretly have that biggo' engine in 'em. Sadly, the demands for oil and petroleum products dictates my ability to have my car power needs filled. Can I just impress upon people to start using paper bags or bring your own? Do you know how much oil is used per family just making those plastic bags in a year??? It's a TON! I don't remember the exact number but it was big enough to get me to start using my own cloth bags at the grocery store. That big. Anyway, I digress. Part of my need for my truck this week is the same reason I've been negligent on posting more this week. I've felt overwhelmed with my roles this week. It was time for me to try to focus on trying to get my stress and anxiety under control. (I probably won't even go there post wise. I don't want to redo this week in my mind if possible.) My truck represented that need to refocus in a big way this week. Maybe I can con Chris into driving the Prius next week...for more therapy, you know. Trucks! They're good for the soul!

The best gift

Look what I got for my birthday!!! I've decided my girls gave this to me for my birthday even though it's late. It's been 2 months of pacing back and forth, waiting and waiting. I think I'm going to make the smallest omelet ever for breakfast tomorrow. I'm sure it will taste better than any omelet I've ever eaten too!

Shhh! Don't tell the kids. I want them to find their own eggs and be surprised just like I was. I'm so proud of my girls!

girlie camo!

I've made everyone else a hat and not me. Probably because I don't like the hat head you get with a knit hat. And they can be itchy...then I saw this yarn. How could you pass up pink camo yarn? Amanda is jealous. I would have bought more but this was the last skein. I'm not the only one. Then I got a skein of wool to felt me a coffee band for my Starbucks cups, when I get them. I decided I needed these little projects right now as I've not been too successful in getting much done lately. I need a positive experience!

Guess what? Yesterday when my Mom and I swung by Starbucks after going to Beverly's for some Christmas projects for the kids the cute coffee guy said, Here Hon" when he handed me my drink. If you don't know what I'm talking about read previous post. I write that bday post and viola! I get called hon when he hands me my drink. No ma'am on the no ma'ams! I'd have kissed him if that was ok to do to a total stranger...well, maybe not. I'm sure his tip cup is more bountiful due to his use of alternative "ma'am" words.

It Happens EVERY year!

It happened. I turned 34 yesterday. No turning back the clocks on that! Can't say I feel much different. I did feel old when my kids said, "Wooowww!" when I told them how old I was now. Nice. I never feel that much different from year to year. I do notice subtle changes here and there:

I now like having the stove light on when I cook. I don't need it, I just like it on.



I'm on daily quests to find grey hairs on my head.



I used to have to think about how old I was when people asked me. I never cared. Now I ALWAYS remember how old I am.



I am already starting the countdown to 40. Maybe that's because Chris is turning 40 this year???



I now think of how old things are in terms of whether or not said item is older than my kids, which means it's old...like my wardrobe, for instance???



I fondly remember getting to my goal weight for my 30th birthday and think, "Holy Sh#*!" That was 4 years and 20 regained pounds ago!" Then I sadly get up and go to the gym on my quest to even get close to that again. How quickly it catches up with me!



I have crowns in my mouth older than my kids...see? I did it again!



I am now called Ma'am when someone is trying to get my attention. My reply to all of them is from now on going to be, "Please don't call me Ma'am. You may call me Miss, Babe, Sweetie, Hot Momma, or Chickie. I'd pretty much prefer any sexist comment over Ma'am, thank you very much."



My car is now so uncool I don't even pay attention to whether or not that guy in that truck over there is looking at me...I've given up on that so I MUST be getting older.

Why is it that once you pass about 25 there is always someone in the crowd that actually counts the candles to see if you put on the correct amount? My response is to say I place what is esthetically pleasing to the cake size. Right? :)



Ok, now I'm depressed.



Some good things about my birthday:



My kids are old enough to wrap presents and make cakes for me! Yay! Those of you that know my husband know his track record for remembering things and how many birthdays and anniversaries he's forgotten...



My birthday is always around or on election day, making being older that much more important...that's what I keep telling myself anyway.



This year daylight savings was on my birthday and I got an extra hour of sleep. Weew hew! This morning I woke up before my alarm clock went off at 4:40 am since it was really later to my internal clock.



I now don't care if my butt "looks big in these jeans". It is big and I'm married with 2 kids, and my jeans are probably older than at least one of my kids so there!



I can let go of things and put them into prospective easier since I'm wiser than someone who's ONLY in their 20's...I hope. So there!

Hey, I'm one step closer to menopause!

The favorite one is that I know what it's like to build a family with one man and 2 kids and love all of them more than I could have ever imagined possible when I was younger and unattached. That takes YEARS of hard work and practice! I think I'm still learning too.

And with that I'll take my sugar induced coma from my lunch time party with the gals at work and take a little nap. Chocolate crust with peanut butter/cream cheese filling with a chocolate topping...oh my!

Birthday weekend

It's been a relaxing rainy Saturday. I spent the morning making a casserole and soup for my best friend's mom. She had surgery on Wednesday and had some complications so I wanted to take over some food for them to munch on while she's recovering. Then it was delivery time! She is doing pretty well considering, and I was glad they were home and settled in. Meals on wheels is rewarding and I enjoyed putzing around my kitchen all day.

Look at my birthday gifts from the kids and Chris! Handmade cards are always the best. Amanda wrote me a poem in hers and Evan drew pictures of the 2 of us inside his. Awww. I also got 2 chicken books and 2 bars of yummy soap. The electric fly swatter was Chris's idea since I rant about all of the flys coming in from the garage that buzz around my kitchen. Can't stand that!

Here is one batch of apple butter. The second and third batch are bubbling away as I type. I'll probably process it tomorrow morning. My house smells yummy!!!

Here is my cake that we get to eat tomorrow. The kids were proud of their cake. I ALMOST let them do it all by themselves.

Here they are!!! My not so Amish Friendship bread. It tastes good, is REALLY sweet, and can never be duplicated. I added different stuff to mine and put a bunch of apple butter in the mix. I couldn't keep this stuff around that much. I'd eat it constantly!

This is my gift from Chris. Thanks honey! Whew! I'm pooped! I had a productive day in my kitchen and tomorrow I hope to sew something. We'll see. I might do nothing after church. I feel a Harry Potter marathon coming on!!! Too bad turning back the clocks tomorrow didn't include turning back time. I guess I'll embrace 34 the best I can!