Hello 2009...

I hope you will be fine.  I'm a poet and I don't know it.  Ok, enough.

2009 came in uneventful, which is a good thing.  We took the kids to see Bedtime Stories on New Years Eve and then we came home and attempted to stay up to ring in the new year, but three of the four of us were asleep by 10.  Oh well, the year came in without us.

New Years Day we played games, watched a movie and burned a couple of candles that Debbie had given us.  They are bayberry candles and there was a note with them saying that it was a Colonial custom to burn these candles on New Years Day for good luck...so burn them we did. 

box of candles...they smelled really good.

Fired up...ready to go!  Sorry,  couldn't resist.  Sorry mom that the candle stick holders aren't polished.  I had to scrounge around to find them.  I also notice that I need to dust the bricks on the fireplace.  Another thing to add to my "to do" list.

A blury picture of candles and fireplace burning.  If I could find my tripod the picture would look better.  Another thing to add to my "to do" list.

This brings me to my "to do" list.  I have to much to do on my list.  I'm not sure where to start.  I know better than making resolutions because I never keep those.  I will put some goals out there and work very hard to make these goals.  

My first goal is (as usual) is to lose weight and get healthy.

Second goal is to make sure we get done with school on time and have fun doing it.

Third goal is to at least once a month find a new state park and hike it with the family.

Fourth goal is to organize the house.

Fifth goal (which should be third) is to start some serious savings.

Short term goals, and I mean I want them done by the end of this month is to clean up around the outside of the house.  Finish moving closets around.  Get the big bookcase down into the basement.  Read my book club book.  Lose 10 pounds.

Books.  I'm trying to read three books at once and it seems none of them are getting read.  I have to read Sense and Sensibility for our book club this month.  I'm trying to finish Half Assed and the Beck book.  I don't really have time during the day to read and when I try to read in bed at night, I end up falling asleep after two pages.  Not looking good for me.

Gardening.  I know, I know, that was what this blog was supposed to be about wasn't it?  I have two see catalogs waiting for me to look over.  I have started thinking about what I want to grow this year.  I know for sure there will be tomatoes and beets.  I have been loving my pickled beets that we stored, so I need to double how many I grow this year. I don't think I'll be doing radishes or carrots.  Potatoes I think are a go again and of course zucchini.  I would like to try some melons this year and maybe a pumpkin or two.  I need to figure out when I should be starting seeds downstairs.  Add that to my "to do" list too.

Lots to do.  This should be a good year.  I'm hopeful.  It is looking good for Tim for keeping his job after the takeover.  We are a month away from having our credit cards completely paid off.  We are looking to get a "new" used vehicle...one that is a little bit bigger for our growing boys and dog.  We will celebrate being married ten years this year.  I think that alone is pretty awesome.

Ok, Aidan is waiting for a hot game of Perfection and is getting impatient.  That, and I have to go make soup for dinner because Tim just called and said he was so hungry he was ready to eat his hand.  I am going to scoot out of here for now.

Happy New Year to all!

 

THANK YOU!

Perfect little snowflakes on the car window.

I've been trying to figure out how to express our gratitude to Dad B and his new lovely wife Laurie for extending their offer to come over and spend the holidays with them.   It boils down to this:  I can't really put into words how grateful we are.  We had such an amazing time with you guys.  

Laurie, thanks for letting us stay in your home.  You didn't care that we have two very active boys and a dog.  You opened your home up to us and let us stay there.  I hope we left it in good condition. I think we did, but one can never know.  

I would also like to thank Laurie's amazing mother.  You included our family in everything and made us feel like we were part of your family.  Tim is still raving about the stuffed grape leaves.  I'm going to have to look up  recipe to make some, but I know they will be no where near what yours were!  

I would also like to thank Aunt Mary and Uncle Terry for an amazing dinner before we left.  It is so nice to hang out with you guys.  Like I was saying when I was there , your home is like home base for all of us when we come into town.  

Melissa, thanks for watching the boys for us. I know they had some good quality Aunt Melissa time.   It was great to see you again!

Dad, thanks for being a great dad and a great grampa.  The boys had a lot of fun shooting darts around the house with you and Laurie.  I won't post the video of you and Tim dancing with the Wii....although it's really hard not to because it's a great video.  =)k 

The boys sporting their new night vision goggles.  These things are really cool and I think Tim is playing with them more.

Connor flying down a hill in his Star Wars inflatable jedi cruiser.  He was so scared to go down the hill in this and then after he went down once, he couldn't stop.  I don't even know how many times he trudged up that icy hill to ride it down again.

 

Tim and Aidan shared a saucer down and then Aidan wanted his independance.  

My boys climbing the hill for the umpteenth time.  Patchy was so happy to be let loose and allowed to run.  He's smiling in this picture.

 

Last, but not least, I had to show a picture of what was in Uncle Terry's front window.  I can't even explain how awesome this is.  It's funny because a couple of years ago we tossed around the idea of getting one of these for Tim's dad.  Tim wsn't too keen on the idea.  I'm glad someone got one.  I don't think Aunt Mary is as excited about it.  =)

New member of family

This will be a short post to introduce a new family member.  His/her name is Rhino.  

Rhino making him/herself at home on the wheel.

Tim and I decided that the kids were at a point where they could take care of a pet of their own. Tim had a hamster when he was growing up so he felt pretty good about the decision.  I have a couple of memories of hamsters that friends had.  One of those memories was that their bites hurt!  This hamster is named Rhino.  Yes, it's after the hamster in Bolt.  Connor and Aidan managed to pick a hamster that looked a lot like the one in the movie.  

The ride home from the store was hilarious.  Rhino came home in a little cardboard box that had little tiny holes around the top and a little handle on top.  After we got him I had to run into Barnes and Noble not thinking about the fact that hamsters like to chew cardboard. I  don't think I really knew that.  I was freakishly fast in Barnes and Noble and we were driving home and we were having fun watching Rhino's nose peek out of a hole.   Then we would catch glimpses of his sharp little teeth.  Half way home I hear the cardboard tear.  The little bugger was chewing his way out of the box.  Thankfully we had picked up a plastic hamster ball at the store.  While driving, I'm trying to get the hamster ball out of the box and get it to Tim who was now holding a piece of paper over the ever growing hole that Rhino was chewing.  We got the open end of the ball up near the hole he was chewing and we watched him (while driving) work his way out of the box into his ball.  It was so funny.  I think they picked out a hamster on steroids.

A blurry picture of Rhino's escape route.

So we have Rhino placed in his lovely little home out in the living room and we are sitting here listening to him run and run and run and run on his little wheel.  Life is good!

Playing

I'm laying here with Frank(my laptop) and watching Princess Bride and decided to play around with photoshop a little bit.  I'm a little irked because when I transferred everything to Frank I lost my favorite font that I used on my pictures.  I'm also not too happy that I have for some reason lost the function of cut and paste in blogger.  I don't know if this is a blogger issue or a Vista issue.  It's annoying though.  I'm going to try and figure it out.  Oh, and another thing.  When I was blogging earlier the first paragraph ended up all underlined and I had to go in and edit the html.  Thank God Tim was here because I don't know what the heck I'm doing.

This is a picture that I took out my airplane window coming into Philadelphia when I flew home from Florida.  I thought it was really neat how it was all grey and cloudy except for the main center city.

I still need to figure out what is up with my cut and paste problem.

Cookies part two

I have a few minutes to blog while I'm waiting for Connor to write his descriptive sentences.  I was able to finish my cookies yesterday.  Again, when it was all done I questioned whether or not I would do it again next year.  I remember last year when I was done saying that I was not going to do it again.

The first cookies I tackled were the lemon coolers.  A single batch makes only 2 1/2 dozen.  I doubled the batch so that there would be enough for all the tins.  Even with it doubled it only made 3 1/2 dozen.  The recipe says to use 2 tbsp of dough per cookie. I did that for the first dozen and  a half.  I could only fit 6 cookies per sheet and the first 6 that came out all melded together. I was not happy and grumbled a lot.  For the rest of the dough I just made them into 1 tbsp drops and was able to fit a dozen on the sheet.  If I do these again next year, I will make them smaller.  I have done these lemon coolers for a couple of years because they are one of Tim's favorite cookies.

Lemon Coolers

After the lemon coolers came the Almond Crisps.  Again, this recipe only made 2 1/2 dozen so I doubled the batch.  With the batch doubled it still only made 2 1/2 dozen.  I don't think I'll be makng these again.  Although Aidan had fun putting the almonds into the dough. Some of the cookies ended up looking like alien heads.

Almond Crisps

By this time it was time for a beer.

Yes, I bought this bear soley because of the snowman on the front.  And it was a tasty beer.

After the beer I was left with one type of cookie to make.  The chocolate Pixies.  These cookies are one of my favorite cookies ever but I guess because it was the last cookie in a long weekend of cookie making this batch bombed.  I think I made the balls too big when I put them on the sheet because every single one of them melded together and looked like crap.  I was slightly bummed but realized that I had enough cookies to fill the tins and didn't really  need them.

Ugly Pixies.  They taste great but aren't as pretty as I like them.  They are just sitting on the counter now while I figure out what I'm going to do with them.  They are either garbage bound or freezer bound.

While the pixies were baking Tim went to deocrating the cutout cookies.  The kids helped out a little bit but they were more interesting in eating the frosting than actually frosting the cookies.  Aidan loved the way Kirby turned out so at least he was happy about that. 

Pretty little trees.

Kirby and some candy canes.  These cookies are awesome too.  They are soft in the mouth but firm to the touch.  And they look so cool.  Thanks Tim for painting them.  I don't have the patience to do stuff like that but Tim really gets into it.

These are the soft molasses cookies from yesterday that I forgot to post the picture of.  They taste way better than they photograph.

The finished product.  All bundled up and ready to go.  I don't even know how many dozen cookies we baked.  I kept track of it when I was baking, but can't find my paper right now.  When I do, I'll let you know (really just to let myself know so that I know how much to bake for next year).  Yes, I'll probably bake them again next year.  There is just something nice about being inside where it's warm and looking out my kitchen window and seeing the brilliant white sparkly snow and smelling the cookies baking.  I hope we'll still be here and that I'll be baking for the same people for a third year in a row. 

Well, not only has Connor finished his descriptive sentence, he's read his story, written his draft of a descriptive journal entry and is now typing his final draft into word to be sent to his teacher.  We have a Science lesson to go and a Math lesson.  Back to the books.

What was I thinking?!

What was I thinking that I could make 8 different kinds of cookies in one day after a week of being laid out because of my back? 

Let's start with the beginning of the day.  I slept in until 8 and Tim  slept in until 9:30.  He earned it after a rough week.  We all went outside and played in the snow for a while.  It was crazy cold out (14 degrees) but we had a lot of fun...up until I had snow go down my neck.

Tim was launching some pretty big snowballs.  Luckilly, this one didn't hit me.

Patchy had a lot of fun catching snowballs.  

After frolicking out in the snow for a bit, we came in and the kids had hot cocoa (thanks Deb for the super yummy Raspberry cocoa) and Patchy had a bath.

Not a particularly happy dog.  He's a really good boy getting baths though.  We don't have to wrestle with him like we did with Corky.

I don't know if you can see it in this picture or not, but when Patchy's fur is wet and in the process of drying, it looks like he's crimped it.  It is so funny and cute.  He's the softest dog I think I've ever seen.  I really thought when he lost his puppy fur it would get more coarse, but it has stayed so soft and cuddly.  He smells much better now too.

While Tim was bathing Patchy, Aidan and I were starting our cookie day.  The first dough we made was the sugar dough for the cut outs.  They had to chill for a while so we got those done so we could throw them in the fridge.  I didn't get any pics of the cutouts yet.  I will get them tomorrow after the boys (and yes, Tim is included) do all the painting.

 

Aidan is a great helper in the kitchen!

I got this lego timer for Aidan when I was in Florida and it has become a favorite fixture in our kitchen.  Aidan is my lego maniac!

Better Than Store Bought cookies

After the dough was in the fridge, we started working on the "Better Than Store Bought" cookies.  It made six dozen cookies and they are tasty.  After this batch was done, we made a batch of Peanut Blossoms.  It was supposed to make 4 dozen, but only made three.  I might have to make another batch of them tomorrow.

Peanut Blossoms.  These were Aidan's favorite cookies of the day.  Soft peanut butter cookies with a kiss on top.

The next batch of cookies we made were the mocha mudslides.  These were Tim's favorite cookie of the day.  I kept catching him sneaking them.

Mocha Mudslides

Once the mudslides were done, I made the dough for the Soft Molasses cookies.  That dough had to chill for an hour so we dragged out the sugar cookie dough and started rolling it out to cut.  We made candy canes and trees and the kids each made a couple of their own creations.  Aidan has a huge Kirby ready to paint tomorrow. 

Once the cutouts were done, I baked the molasses cookies (will have pics tomorrow) and then made dinner.  I will have to finish the last three cookies tomorrow and decide if I have to make any more.   Tim keeps telling his friends at work that I'm going to make them cookies so I'm probably going to have to make a couple more batches.  I should make Tim make them.

That about sums up my day.  A good day I think.  We are supposed to get up to three more inches of snow tonight so that will be fun.  My day tomorrow will be finishing the cookies and I think Tim is going to take the kids shopping.  They each want to get me a present.  They are so awesome!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

SNOW!!

Three inches.  That is what our ruler said at 11:30.  It started snowing here at 9.  Not too shabby.  It's 2 right now and I just checked again and it's at a little over 5 inches now.  The snow has turned into raining ice right now though.  Thankfully, our awesome neighbors shoveled our sidewalks and used the snow blower in our driveway.  My back thanks you!  I made him a batch of cookies as a thank you.  I hope he'll go inside and dry off and enjoy some warm cookies.

I love little baby pine cones when they are nestled in snow.  When I have time, I think this will be my winter banner.

Patchy loves the snow.  He was leaping through it and pushing his nose down in it.  He's funny though because when there is a layer of snow he loses where he does his business.  Usually he has one spot in the backyard where he piddles.  He's killed off all the grass there and that is his spot.  When there is snow on the ground, he forgets where he's going and he just piddles anywhere.  Watch out for the yellow snow.

The fort in the snow.  The kids love to climb up there and launch snowballs down.

Connor was ready for some serious snow missions.  And yes, he had a hat, he just didn't have it on when I took this.

Mid snow angel.  He wanted me to help him stand up and I started to pull him up and felt my back pull a little bit so he got dropped.  He didn't drop that far, but he got some cold snow up under his jacket and the cold made him jump up faster than I could have lifted him.

Aidan loves to taste snow.  He's also is wearing the very first scarf that I ever knit.  That was my learning project.  I didn't think it was still around but we found it today when we were digging out snow boots.  He loves it but still wants me to knit him a black scarf with a Kirby on it.  I'll have to finish Tim's scarf first.

Yes, I got hit with that pile of snow.  

All in all, today is a great day.  We are inside now watching the ice rain outside and looking at the beautiful white snow plastered over everything.  Tim had mentioned taking the kids out to the dike for sledding when he's done working.  I guess we'll see how thick the ice gets.  I don't think sledding on ice is too much fun. 

Aidan has a monopoly game all set up so I guess that is what I'm going to go do now.  I have to make a pizza dough in about an hour, so he'll get an hour of monopoly time.

I hope everyone else is having a great day!