It's Getting Real

This morning, I got a call from HR at SCC. They couldn't figure out why I hadn't responded to their emails. Umm, maybe because I hadn't gotten them. So, I gave HR another email address to send it go and amazingly this time it came through both emails. I'm thinking that they had forgotten to send me anything! It gave me a few instructions with some paperwork I had to return for my background check and then she confirmed my address to send my drug test paperwork too. Wow, I guess this is really going to happen! We had some errands to run after I talked to the HR lady.

So when we returned home, this was all that was left of our snowman. Keree was sad to see it him melt. I was just happy that it was a little warmer outside today. Too bad it isn't going to last and soon it's going to be really cold again.

 

We also spent the day talking about buying an RV, RV living and  figuring out what lies ahead in the next few weeks and months. I've also been using my crockpot for cooking almost all our meals. It's just so much easier to be able to throw in all the ingredients, set the heat setting and walk away. I made Korean inspired ribs tonight and they were so good. They were so flavorful, tender and everyone ate seconds and thirds. I served them with a pickled style cole slaw.

Splash Pad, Summer Fun & Drive-in Movie

The new splash pad opened the day after school got out, but we haven't been since it's been way to crowded. So as a way for my Brother to spend sometime with Keree, we said "Let's go to the splash pad and play." He wasn't keen on the idea until we told him "The Girlfriend" could come along. I honestly didn't want to see her but decided if it was the only way for him to spend some quality time with Keree, I guess, I can put up with her. 

We thought that being a Sunday morning that the splash pad wouldn't be that crowded but I'm guessing because of the heat - it was 104 today with out the index, that more people came out early. I have to say that Keree's favorite part of the park was the giant mushroom. The water seemed a little warmer and it really felt like it was just a nice shower.

 I have to say that even with "The Girlfriend" there, we still  had fun. She was honestly trying to make an effort, which was more than she's done in the past five years. After about 1 1/2 hours, we took a short break and let Keree play in one of the tide pools they have on each side. I have to say, I'm not that thrilled with that option, lots of babies with no diapers, eeww. So, we didn't stay that long before returning to the splash park.

 We ended up being there for almost three hours. I have to say my favorite part was the buckets, it was great because you never knew how quickly they were going to fill up and pour down on you. I really wish someone would have gotten a picture of both Keree and I underneath one.

 Once we headed home, it was around 12:30p. So, I spent some time preparing lunch. I made slow-cooker Gyros and some Corn Salad. It took a little longer than expected, so we didn't eat until almost 3p. We called my Aunt P so she could come and visit my Brother for a short time. Of course, she didn't show up until right before 3p. While we waited for the food to cook, Keree, my Mom, my Brother and The Girlfriend spent time playing baseball and washers. The Girlfriend hated being out in the heat but the rest of us were use to it. We stayed hydrated and that's really the key to being out in the heat.

 After everyone ate lunch, The Girlfriend left to visit her family. Keree and my Mom went to lay down for a nap. My Bro, my Aunt P and I sat outside and talked about random stuff. I really thought after 5 hrs she would get the hint we had stuff to do and head out but that wasn't the case. Finally, my Mom had to be rude and told her to leave because we needed to leave. My Brother got my Mom a gift certificate for Mother's Day to go to the Drive-In movies. I hadn't been since I was little and this was Keree's first time. She had no idea what to expect but she was super excited to see Brave.

 We all piled into the back of my Brother's SUV, except for my Mom, who sat in a lawn chair. The minute the movie started, Keree was mesmerized. She said she had waited forever to see Merida and wanted to memorize the movie so she could play it out at home.

 I gotta say that I enjoyed Brave. I know, I've read lots of mixed reviews and the movie is a little on the darker side but that's how the true fairytale is told. It's not all bright, sunny and cute.

 My second favorite part was watching all the vintage ads for the refreshment center. Many of them I remembered when I was little.

 What is great about this Drive-In, is that for the price of admission, you get two movies. So we also got to stay and see Madagascar 3. We all kept thinking Keree would fall asleep during it but she stayed up until the end, which was after 12:30am. When the movie ended, she was lucky enough to be the first one to wish my Brother, Happy Birthday.

Ice Cream Dinner Party!

Today was my Great Ice Cream for Dinner plan and I'm pretty sure it worked. So after picking Keree up from school, we headed to the store to get all the ingredients we needed for our Ice Cream Dinner Party. Luckily, one of the grocery discount stores was having a sale on ice cream & ice cream makings because in planning all this, I knew I had only sixteen dollars to spend and put on this elaborate party for Keree. I guess, honestly, I should have planned it for once I got paid on the 4th but when your child is upset, you'll do anything and everything to make it better. On our drive to the Grocery store, Keree goes "are we really going to have ice cream for dinner??" and I respond back "yes, I swear, we are really going to have ice cream for dinner!" She was quiet for a short time, when suddenly she goes, "can we have a snack?" My response was, "no, are you crazy, your already getting ice cream for dinner!" And my daughter, in her amazing wisdom, goes "No, Mom, I think we should have bratwursts for our snack." I had to laugh, most other kids out there would jump at the chance to have ice cream for dinner but not my daughter, she knew she needed something more than just ice cream. So, at the store, we picked up all the fixings for our Ice Cream dinner party. We picked up ice cream, waffle bowls, cherries, bananas chocolate sauce, caramel sauce and of course bratwursts. Amazingly, for everything we got, we only spent $11.23. Once home, we ate our snack of bratwursts and corn. Then when it got dinner time, we made our ice cream creations. Keree just giggled as we assembled them, everytime we added an ingredient she would giggle harder and harder. As we sat there and ate our ice cream creations, Keree looked over at me and goes "Mom, this is one of the best days of my life." At first, all I could do was smile at her but then I go this is so much better than a golden ticket popsicle party isn't it. She grinned and shook her head yes.

Lazy, Crafty Day

After we got up in the morning, we got to hang out with my Brother a short time before he headed off to work. He was suppose to get the code for his apartment complex swimming pool but he had forgot. Our original plan was Keree and I was going to go swimming, while my Mom worked on crafty stuff. So since we couldn't go swimming, we ran to the grocery store and bought our weeks worth of groceries so I could cook every night. We ran to the $1 store there because for some reason they usually have a better assortment and then headed back to the apartment. I spent the rest of the day working on bottlecaps. Keree either played with Rapunzel or played wedding with a plastic wedding ring. As for my Mom, she worked on coloring rice for I-Spy bottles. For dinner, I cooked panko encrusted pork chops, baked potatoes, carrots and garlic bread. After dinner, Keree spent the rest of the evening reading books for the summer reading program. She finished 4 books and then wrote her very 1st book report. The book report portion is a weekly contest to win a bag full of books and goodies. She's very excited that she has the chance to win. We headed to bed when the news came on and are looking forward to tomorrow.

Memorial Day

I feel like I'm so behind on everything. I want Keree to have this awesome summer, full of fun activites but between the work, shows and general life and family drama....I have no time for the fun stuff. We got to see my Brother for a short time today before he headed home to OH. I hate that everytime he comes home he seems so stressed out that he can't enjoy himself. So, I fixed a huge lunch - bratwursts, spatzel casserole and turnip fries. I've eaten spatzel while I lived in Germany, so I was excited to fix it myself. Needless to say, it's so much better in Germany! Otherwise the turnip fries is a twist on traditional fries made with potatoes. They were ok, I will make them again and try adding some seasoning to them instead of just tossing them in light olive oil and parmesan cheese. Before my Brother left, Keree and him played outside. We found this awesome doorway toss on clearance for $1.49. It's perfect to put on our outside flag holder. They spent a good hour seeing how many point they good get, how far they could throw and tossing them from the front and back. For the rest of our day after my Brother left, I worked on business stuff. I know I've said it more than once but there isn't enough hours in the day. When I woke up this morning, I honestly thought about taking Keree and going up to the Memorial Day observance at the family plot (my Dad's side of the family) at the cemetary. It's a little weird to think that it was the first time in 60+ years that our family wasn't represented. I know my Grandpa is looking down on me, shaking his head that I didn't go but right now, I'm just not ready to go up there. Right now, I can't get pass the pain, heartache and disappointment from that entire family. But since it's Memorial Day (aka Decoration Day) , I remember the service members in my life, who I have lost - my Uncle Tootsie who served in the Korean War, my Uncle L'mont (US Army Infantry) who served and was killed in WWII, Uncle Sherman (US Army), Cousin Wayne (US Army) and my love, Dominic (US Navy).

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This morning, Keree donned her St. Patrick's day shirt, which is the same one she's worn the last 3 years. I'm a little sad that this is the last year she will be able to wear it. We took a few pictures outside (which weren't very good) before we headed to school. When I came to pick Keree up from school, the summary said that they had green milk and green butter for their snack today and that they made pictures (Keree said she made a house being attacked by meteroites). I asked Keree if it was butter or soy butter but she swore it was butter. Hmm, not sure how I feel about them feeding my child butter with their crackers. We then headed to meet with our homeschool teacher. While us adults filled out paperwork and talked, Keree spent her time playing with blocks. Then finally it was time for us to get down to business. Actually for the first time, it was a true struggle to get Keree to do anything. All she kept saying was she wanted to go home. We pushed through and I may have even given a little Mommy threat to get her to do the activities. Our first activity after reading a story was for Keree to draw and write the words of things that fly. She first drew a bird, then an airplane and finally a house. Both the Teacher and I, go Keree a house doesn't fly. Keree goes yes it does in that movie with the girl, dog and her house flies in a tornado, I know it's pretend but it did fly. Well you can't argue that. Our next project was to make wings. Which Keree colored two paper plates, she then poked holes through them and then I threaded the yarn through it and whola! Wings. I have to say once they were finished, they were Keree favorite and she loved running around with them on. Next she made what the Teacher called wind dancers. They reminded me of a windsock without a string (which we may add on our own). Keree made them St. Patrick's day themed, she drew a Girl Leprechaun on one and then made a rainbow and clover on the other. Our final project was to make a plastic bag kite. So since Keree was over school at that point and just wanted to go, we decided to spend a little time outside trying to fly our kite. As soon as we got out the door, the wind caught the kite and it was flying really well. Keree was so excited but then there was a huge gust and the plastic bag kite flew straight up. Keree and I just looked at each other and was sort of bewildered on how to get the kite back. Luckily the wind died down enough to bring it back down so I could run after and grab it. We spent probably another 15 minutes flying the kite before heading home. Once home, Keree had to show my Mom all the things she had made. Since Keree was extremely tired and grumpy, we ate a very small lunch and I put her down for a nap. When Keree got up, it was time to start fixing our St. Patrick's day dinner. We opted to have red potato fixed campfire way, cornbeef hash and finally using inspiration from Ludicrous Mama and her pesto croissants. Because it's tradition, Keree and I made the traditional Serpant bread. After putting the pesto on the croissant dough and rolling it, we added a cut green olive for his eyes. Keree kept laughing because she said our snake was winking. I have to say Keree and I loved it, my Mom, well she wasn't too impressed but she can be picky at times. I will be fixing it again for Keree and I but will make a few plain croissants just for my Mom. I didn't get much in the Crafty area done today, other than a few things for an order. So hoping I'll get back to working full swing tomorrow.

Paint

By this morning when we woke up, the snow had melted and instead we had gotten so much rain that the front yard was flooded. Luckily, it had stopped raining, so after getting dressed it was off to school. I had dressed Keree warmly because I was pretty sure they would go outside. When I went to pick Keree up, she was covered in paint. It was all over her hands, on her sleeves, on her face and then there were her pants. I have no idea, with the gigantic plastic full body aprons how paint got on her but it did. Once we headed home, I fixed a quick lunch before we headed upstairs. I spent the day primarily sewing, it still blows my mind how many projects that I'm needing to get done before our next show. But actually, my big plan is to get a ton of stock done, so that way, I'm not having to work as hard during the summer and in-between shows. So if this works, I'll be able to spend more time doing fun and educational stuff! As for Keree, she spent her day playing. Actually she pretended most of the day that she was the Statue of Liberty. She used her wood cutting board as the tablet and some megablocks from her Ariel set to create the torch. It was so funny to watch her stand on her stool, perfectly still for half-hours at a time. The rest of the time she spent her time being a chef. She cooked pretend creme brulee, filet mignon with a goat cheese puree and some roasted asparagus. Do you think I've been letting her watch the food channel too much? We headed downstairs late (after 7p), so that meant a late dinner, a story and then off to bed.

Happy Fat Tuesday

Today is Fat Tuesday, which means the day before Lent starts. As I was getting Keree dressed this morning, we were talking about what Mardi Gras is and means. Keree's response was it's about beads and masks. I had to laugh because I could see why she thought that. Keree of course had to have a special outfit for the last day of Mardi Gras. I had created this skirt almost 2 years ago and we just got around to finishing it. My Mom then whipped up the sweatshirt because it's hard to find a Mardi Gras-ish shirt. Now, when I came to pick Keree up from school, she was super excited to show me the picture she had drawn. What was funny is the story she told with it. The first two people are Keree and I, we are catching beads and then further back is my Mom holding a mask. She told my Mom that she's behind us because she's slow. Now Keree didn't wear her pettiskirt underneath her skirt at school but as soon as we got home, she had to put it on. She wanted her skirt to poof. We spent a little time outside taking pictures but we didn't stay outside for long because it was super cold. Once we headed inside, we ate a quick lunch before heading upstairs. Since I had a very ripe avocado, I decided to try my hand at making guacamole for the first time. Honestly, I couldn't believe how easy it was. I chopped up some tomatoes, onions and of course smashed up my avocado. Added a splash of lime juice and whola, it was so good. Keree even ate a little bit of it, which was progress since she's not a avocado fan yet. Our plan for the rest of the day was to spend a little time working and then get ready to head to the big city for the Mardi Gras parade. We were really hoping the storm would hold out to late but instead it showed up almost 3 hrs early. So with the rain being so heavy, plus it was super cold, there was no way we were heading out in it. Keree was disappointed but she was understanding. We had originally planned on having some authentic creole food but since we didn't head to the big city and I didn't have everything on hand for gumbo. We ended up having a boring dinner before heading to bed.

Happy Friend Day

Oh, I mean Happy Valentine's day. Keree's school is a little crazy and they don't believe in Valentine's day, so they call it Friend day. Yet, they exchange a single Valentine with another child in the school. I have to say I'm a little sad that there is no making valentine day cards, making treats or even a school party. I have to say I'm looking forward to her trying at least Kindergarten in a public school just for the parties. Anyway, it was the first day back for the Main Teacher from maternity leave. When we walked in, Keree looked at me and whispered "there's the main teacher" and she grabbed onto my leg. I told her that it was ok, how fun that the main teacher was back but she was still apprehensive about me leaving. I know she would be ok because Asst Teacher was there and of course I knew they had their Valentine, I mean Friend day cards to find. Each child gets to hide their Friend card they make (Keree hid hers in the puzzle rack). Then they go into a different classroom and search for a Friend card. Which ever one you find, that is your card. Keree's card was from a little girl in the red room. Since I got my errands done early, I decided to pick Keree up early from school just because I could. When we got home, we took a few pictures outside (can't believe it's in the 50's, it's so warm). My Mom and I then gave Keree her Valentine's day presents from us and she gave us the heart shaped cards she made at school. We headed inside for a short time and I got to work on Keree's Valentine's Muffin tin. In the first cup, I tried to make some cherry tomato hearts, needless to say they didn't work out. Then next cup is cherry yogurt, again I tried to make a heart shape with the sprinkles but when it didn't work, I just added more sprinkles. By the way, I love these sprinkles. When I was in the Netherlands, anytime breakfast was served, so were the sprinkles. You place them on buttered toast. They are so flavorful and I was so thankful to have found them at Jungle Jims, the last time I was visiting my Brother. In the next cup is some Star fruit. This is the first time we had tried it and it was so good. We will be buying it again. In the start of the second row, the first cup holds some venison beef sticks. My plan was to make them into hearts but when that didn't happen, I just tossed them in there. The second cup is a hunk of muenster cheese, that I shaped into a heart. I thought for sure I had a heart shaped cutter but no such luck, so free hand it was. The final cup is some cherries. Keree loves cherries and they are red, so they were perfect for Valentine's day. After Keree devoured her entire tin, she laid down for a nap. While she was napping, I worked on stuff for her Birthday. Which is a whole 'nother post of why I feel I need to over-achieve when it comes to Keree's Birthday parties but I am do some awesome things. After she got up, we made a few calls and wished family Happy Valentine's day. Then it was off to cheerleading practice. I have to say I've had some really mixed feelings with this league. Because of that, I'm seriously considering letting her start in Competition Cheerleading next year. The only reason I've held off before now is because of the financial aspects of it. But I also know how incredible happy it would make her....Decisions, Decisions.

Super Bowl Sunday

I woke up this morning, super excited. Of course in my house, I'm the only one who was thrilled that today was the Super Bowl. Yes, I wish my hometown team would have been one of the teams playing but instead I was just as excited to watch the Packers and Steelers. I have to say I was torn, I have loved the Packers for as long as I can remember (I even own a cheese wedge hat and yes I do sometime wear it) but the Steelers had also over the years grabbed a piece of my heart. And as long as they weren't playing my Team, I rooted for them. So I decided I would be happy with whoever won. Now my Mom, there was no way she was going to watch the game and so she went upstairs to work. But Keree, she was old enough to watch the game this year with me and she did. Now I did occasionally flip up to animal planet and let her watch a few seconds of the Puppy bowl and because of her love of kittys, we did watch the Kitty Half-time show. But all in all, she watched the game, she asked questions and I'm thinking next year, she'll be just as excited as me for the Super Bowl. Now every year, we usually have a host of dips and chips to eat for lunch and dinner but this year I decided I wanted pizza. So Keree and I made a pizza and then decided to make a dessert pizza to enjoy during the game. I gotta say our s'mores pizza was awesome. We made a basic pizza crust, I then mixed a half-stick of butter, graham crackers and a little brown sugar together and spread it on the crust. I then added chocolate chips, which since I didn't have enough added a few cherry chips too. Then topped it all off with mini-marshmallows. Baked at 425 and presto! It was so good, a little sweeter than I really wanted but it was nice and ooeey and gooey. After we watched the Packers win the Super bowl and the presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy. We finished our evening by watching Cars before heading to bed.

Icepocalypse & Butter Steak

For the past 3 days all they have talked about was the incoming Blizzard. The news had people convinced that they were going to lose power, wouldn't be able to get out of their houses for days and of course starve to death. There was bare store shelf's because people seemed to be preparing for the end of the world. Now, I did head out in the craziness but we truly needed groceries. When the storm finally arrived today, 80% of the area saw little to nothing. Then there was people like us that got almost 5" of sleet, along with almost 2" of ice. I am thankful for once that Keree's school did close, so she had her 2nd snowday of the year. We are lucky to have never lost power, so far. We did lose our tv for about 9 hrs and internet for about 4 hrs. Because I wasn't sure if we were going to lose our power and I'm still not so sure, I decided not to waste our wood and start a fire, since we could stay warm with space heaters. We ended up spending the majority of our day in the bedroom. I dragged Keree's Rapunzel table in here, along with her Rapunzel mini tower and all the Rapunzel guys she got at Christmas. So, she spent almost her entire day playing with her toys. When she finally did get bored, which was after her nap and dinner, she drew pictures and wrote stories. Since, I didn't really feel like cooking, I had decided while shopping yesterday that I was going to fix a couple crock-pot recipes over the next couple of days. You see, the night I found out my Grandma had passed away, I couldn't sleep. So, I spent my entire night and into the next morning, reading and researching recipes. I saved the ones that sounded tasty and I was extremely excited to try Butter Steak. So, since I've also been in a funk, I decided to try the Tried-it Tuesday. So here is the recipe for Butter Steak. You take 3 lbs of stew meat, I used a lean trimmed stew meat, 4 sticks of butter and 2 envelopes of dry onion soup mix. I combined that all in my crock pot and set it to high. I decided to cook at high (4hrs) instead of low for 8 hrs because of the thought we may lose power and this way it would be done by lunchtime. So, when lunch rolled around and we still had power, I dropped the crock pot setting to low and just let it keep slowly cooking until 4p. Before serving, I cooked up a package of medium egg noodles. Drained them and then added them to the crock pot. Stirred it all up and served. It was amazing. Now, I did add some weber chicago steak seasoning because I thought it need a little kick. Keree ate a huge bowl of it, with no extras and so did my Mom. It was such a hit that this is now going to be a regular meal in our house. Plus there was plenty of leftovers for lunch and dinner tomorrow. As for me, I spent my day working on korker bows. I had made up a ton of korked ribbon almost a year ago and I lost the box it was in. A few weeks ago, I re-found the box, so I'm trying to get a whole bunch made up for upcoming shows. And as soon as I post this, I'm headed to bed. I'm so exhausted. I was trying to stay up to see if Keree's school was called off tomorrow. They are advising us to stay off the roads because we will have bad weather till 1p or later tomorrow. All the other schools are closed already in the two counties but not Keree's. I bet 10 to 1, that they will go against common sense and still have school instead of thinking about safety.

Belated Birthday

Since we didn't get to celebrate my Birthday on Saturday, we decided to have a belated Birthday celebration. After dropping Keree off at school, we braved the droves of people, who were also out trying to stock up for the incoming "Blizzard". We actually try to do our grocery shopping on Monday morning because there is no crowd and usually there are some great manager specials. Needless to say, my Mom and I tried to grab what we needed quickly, so we could get out of the craziness. Now, I was disappointed (ok, I really was crushed) because when I went to pick my Birthday cake out of the freezer, they didn't have my traditional Carvel Snicker Football cake. We decided after standing in the check-out line for almost an hour, that we would try one more store (actually it's where I have bought it every year since it became a tradition). I was so excited, they had 2 left in their freezer section. So, I grabbed it and again had to stand in a super long check-out line. Right as I was heading out, it started raining, freezing rain. Luckily, it was almost time to pick Keree up from school, so at least I wasn't having to pull her out early to beat the weather home. The summary at school said that they talked about families, how we are the same and different, read a book on snow and told us to check the tv for school closures. When we got home, we decided to move the computer into the bedroom, that way we could hunker down into two rooms, if the storm gets really bad. Keree spent her afternoon and evening writing, drawing and doing workbooks. For dinner tonight, I fixed broccoli cheddar soup. I wanted the ease of cooking, so it was from a powdered mix and honestly, I wasn't a fan of it. I guess, I'm starting to become a from-scratch snob. After dinner, it was onto dessert. I was so excited for my Snicker football ice cream cake. It started as a tradition 4 yrs ago, when I spotted it in a grocery store ad. We were really tight on money that year and I decided that all I wanted was that cake. I didn't think I was going to get it but at the last moment, my Mom surprised me with it. Since then, I look forward to my Birthday and Super Bowl. Because of course my cake is made in honor of the Super Bowl. Until you eat it, you just can't describe how amazing it is. It's funny because it's not only me who looks forward to it, so does my Mom and Keree. So, I savored every bite I took tonight of my Football Birthday cake.