New space

Remember when I was talking recently about my "can't hang anything to save my life" condition? Here is one space I have TRANSFORMED!

Before: Boring stairway

After:

It's hard to tell, but these pictures were blown up to 16x20 and framed to 20x24. It's just hard to tell they are that large because the space is so large.

I have to thank my sister-in-law for having a nice camera and taking almost all of these great photos and sharing them on discs for the rest of us. You rock!

Just think, you too can have this if you are just willing to forgo one of your kids' college education funds to get the matting and framing done! It's that easy!

But I must stay on track. Despite the fact that I could have chosen owning my own private island for the same price as getting this done, I still love it and I am proud I was able to make a decision, and as my husband specializes in, get-er-done.

And then...

Next on the docket came Jack's 8th birthday....

Happy birthday to my sweet, smart, sensitive, emotional, bull in a china shop boy. You have a smile that lights up first your face, then the whole room. You have dynamic phone conversation skills. You are the light of your little brother's life and no one else can make him laugh like you. You only run on one speed and that is fast. I love you little boy.

Birthday party at the bowling alley with 6 of his buddies

I love these quarter machine mustaches

Then, we had Luke's preschool graduation:

Luke with one of his preschool teachers, who then.... (excellent segue ahead)....

Babysat for us overnight on Saturday, so we could go to Des Moines and celebrate Rob's birthday alone!

where we only took one picture, but trust me when I tell you we had a really nice time. I am thankful we share the love of exploration so we had fun checking out a new city. We could see this from our hotel window:

(from city-data.org),

and, we got to go to a REAL mall! With amazing stores that I haven't laid eyes on in much, much too long. Sephora. New York and Company. J. Jill. Black White Store. Pottery Barn.

Auntie Anne's and Cheesecake Factory in the same location.

I am dead.

Sigh.

So that's what's been goin' on here in these parts. And for all whom I have been sorely lacking in return calls or other communication, I do apologize but life has truly been a bit hectic lately. It's time to resume status quo.

And then normal life resumes....

Our vacation "aahhs" were short lived, as so often happens, by normal life, which doesn't fail to click along at the pace it is used to, so we had much to come back to. All exciting and fun, but just a lot! 2 days after we returned, Jack celebrated his first communion:

I love how he loved to get dressed up!

After he received communion and sat back down, he had this hazy smile on his face, and said "I feel different! I feel Jesus inside of me!" It was very cute.

The next day was another big day of celebration.

Lordy Lordy, look who's....

...celebrating a birthday! (Count the gummies if you aren't sure which one....)

Happy birthday my sweet husband.

Plus it was Mother's Day!

And we were lucky enough to have at least one of our mothers with us to celebrate this big day!

We spent the day doing what I love best on Mother's Day, a picnic and hike at a local park.

Whew it was a big weekend! But wait, there's more!! That's all for tonight though....

Hello again

Hello friends!

Well, judging by the lack of comments on my previous post where I asked you to call out your quirks, I have deduced that all of my readers lead highly normal and orderly lives, virtually quirkless. Or, you are all as busy as I've been the last few weeks and just haven't had a chance to share. I'll go with that one!

Oh where to begin. So much has happened that I'll just bite off one chunk at a time. We recently returned from a wonderful trip to Florida with my besties, and it was marvelous. We had always talked about vacationing somewhere together for our 10 year ish anniversaries, and amazingly this all fell together for us. We stayed at a lovely house that's in Andrea's family:

We ate well, had no plans, and relaxed to our heart's content. It was the perfect length of time, and I physically felt my body relax down to normal levels which was so nice.

I was quite obsessed with these adorable Airstream trailers selling food. One sold only grilled cheese varieties. Kill me now.

Thank you girls for a wonderful time as always and a huge thanks to the grandparents who made this possible!

Recipe of the week

Lest you feel misled, I actually have two recipes to share with you today. I have a huge manila folder full of recipes I've ripped out over the years, and am finding that if I don't try them shortly after ripping them out, they sit and languish in said manila folder for years on end until they no longer even sound good, but for some reason I have this compulsion to save it because I still might try it some day. Hmmm. Frankly, this is really only one of my strange habits. I have a small collection of them. Including the fact that I only like to listen to my radio if it's turned to specific volume levels, mainly even numbers. I don't listen at volume level 9 or 11, 10, 12 or skip to 15.

Which leads me to ask, what are some of your strange habits that you are willing to admit? Drop me a comment so I can feel more normal reading yours!

And also leads me to comment that I have strayed far, far, from the topic I led you to believe I was going to share. A new recipe.

We had a lovely Easter dinner here. I was proud to say I produced a meal I would have been happy to share with a group, though it was only the four of us here on Easter. We had a big ham with a homemade glaze, rosemary mashed potatoes, peas with a Ritz cracker/butter topping, and a fruit salad which was divine.

We also planted the beginning of our garden for the year, potatoes and onions. Folklore contends that these should go in around Good Friday around here. After making this fruit salad again, I am excited to plant some fresh mint that I could use to make this in the summer. It gives the fruit a wonderful light taste without being overwhelming.

Hint of Mint Fruit Salad
(Prep 20 minutes plus chilling)

1 c sugar
1 c water
1 c loosely packed mint sprigs
2 1/2 c chopped apples
2 1/2 c choppe ripe pears
2 c cubed fresh pineapple
2 c sliced fresh strawberries
1 c fresh blueberries
1 c mayonnaise (I would think you could leave this out and it would still taste great, but it's good with it as well)

In a large saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered, for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add mint, cover and steep for 20 minutes. Strain and discard mint. Transfer syrup to a small bowl, refrigerate until chilled.

Just before serving, combine the fruit in a large bowl. Stir mayonnaise into mint syrup until blended, pour over the fruit and toss to coat.
Yield: 12 servings

I will also share another recipe I made tonight which was quite easy and I thought was good.

Crab Crescent Loaf
1 tube (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent rolls
1 box cream cheese (I always use light)
1/3 c chopped onion
1 tsp dill weed
1 c chopped imitation crab meat
1 egg yolk beaten
(Optional: I would probably add diced celery or toasted slivered almonds to give it a little crunch)

1. On a greased baking sheet, unroll crescent dough into one long rectangle; seal seams and perforations. In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, onion and dill until blended. Spread mixture lengthwise over half of the dough to within 1/2 " of edges. Top with crab.
2. Fold dough over filling; pinch seam to seal. Brush the top with egg yolk. Bake at 375 for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into slices. Yield: 1 loaf (12 slices).

Introductions

Apparently, some introductions are in order. I'm sorry, I thought you'd already met.

Late April, meet spring:

Please feel free to mingle and get to know one another.

How do you like me now?

I'm ready for spring.

I'm not one to complain much about the weather. Really. I do complain about some things, but generally the weather isn't one of them. But we woke to this on Saturday morning:

I feared that the bunch I'd picked the night before might be the only fruits of this year's daffodil harvest, but apparently they are hardy souls who won't let a snowfall in April rain snow on their parade, so they seem to have bounced back.

I'd say it was no small coincidence that Luke wore a Santa hat all day that day too. I would show you proof of this, but he insisted on my taking this photo instead:

Somehow a light sabre weilding skeleton doesn't scream snow or Christmas like the photo of him in the Santa hat would, but I didn't feel like arguing. Plus, I only had one free photo left on my memory card, so I didn't have room to take any extras. You see, my memory card is full so I don't know what to do now. I could save them on my computer, but I don't know how much memory a computer has or how to find out how much space all my photos from my memory card would use up on my computer. 1/100th? 1/4? I really  have no idea. So, I don't know what to do. Try to save onto a flash drive? (HOW?) And how long would that take my geriatric satellite service to accomplish? Or should I just buy a new memory card? I know it's all silly, but you might need to refer to my previous post of being technologically impaired to better understand. So clearly, my current solution of just not taking any pictures anymore until I figure this out seems to be the best alternative.

So, I'm tired of it being cold. While I should be happy as I sit here clearing the perpetual pile of papers on my desk and finishing up my laundry, I have a case of the Monday blah's. Which is not helped by the male cardinal that has been hurling his body at my back windows for the last week in a slow death march. I'm not sure if he's more intent on mating, or possibly destroying the competitor he believes he sees in his reflection, but whatever his motivations he has been at it nonstop, all day, for a week now and it is really quite depressing. When I do manage to scare him off he just reroutes his deathcapade to a window by the garage. Sad.

But before I wallow needlessly into deeper despair, I must bring to mind what a badass I really am. Or, so it seems, this certificate would imply:

And, so, dear reader, if you were able to wade your way through the snowy daffodils, suicide cardinals and paper pushing which is my everyday life, you will reach the conclusion of this rambling post.

Howdya like me now?

I just feel sort of important and boasty having this certificate. Doesn't it make you feel safer when you are with me strictly through association? Even though you have no idea why I have this certificate? Rob thinks I should frame it next to my diploma.

But before I get ahead of myself, let me explain. I am volunteering to become a CERT member of my community, which is a Certified Emergency Response Team member. What this means is that I go through about 20-30 hours of training which makes me better prepared than the average citizen in case of an emergency, be it natural, such as tornado or floods, or otherwise. I have sprayed a fire extinguisher to put out a small fire, come upon a room of "bodies" and completed a triage of sorts to determine how many victims and the extent of their injuries, and crawled on hands and knees through a smoky room determining how many victims there are (including how many dead). We have talked about the 3 main "Killers" with injuries, how to determine if someone is in shock, what the government believes you should have on hand for an emergency kit, and how to decide if a scene is safe to approach. Once the training is completed, I will also receive identification as a CERT member as well as a loaded backpack to keep in my car so I'd be prepared whenever I was called upon. This is entirely voluntary, and at any point you can choose not to assist if you are unwilling, or if your own family was affected by disaster and needed you. It's been fascinating quite frankly, and I hope that as a result, I would be more prepared in case of a disaster or accident than I would have before. On the flipside, I have a fear that upon approaching a disaster which my CERT helmet, nametag, and backpack, looking all official, that a person would think you were akin to an EMT and expect you to definitely be able to save their life, even though you are really just a level further up the knowledge ladder than your next-door-neighbor.

So that's the story and I'm sticking to it. The Department of Homeland Security thinks I'd be a real asset in times of trouble so that is what I'm going to hang my hat on on this cold spring day.