If ONE is good........

Then two MUST be better, RIGHT!!!????

GOTCHA!!!

Meet Lucy...... (who looks kinda black in this photo, but she is really chocolate brown)



We went to get the puppy with some friends of ours from Hartt. It's actually their cousin that had the puppies and they got one too. Her name is Emma.

Lucy is still a little shell-shocked... and Cooper is behaving himself so far, but not exactly helping her to settle down. Sampson is a non-issue... as you would probably assumer ;)

Let the housebreaking begin!!!!!!!!

What the FRIG is a POPCORN POLICY!!????

I felt like I was in an episode of 'The Office."

We are all in the kitchen at work the other day and the new I&R girl (lady... chick... WOman....) comes in with a box of microwave popcorn and says, "Do you guys have a microwave popcorn policy here?" I about spit out my diet pepsi laughing because I have never even HEARD of such a thing and the whole concept just struck me hilarious. If that wasn't enough... a few of the people who have been there for many, many years chime in... in ALL seriousness.... "Yeah, actually... we have had one since we were over in Brewer, but it hasn't been enforced in awhile and it's not really in writing, I don't think, so I wouldn't worry about it unless someone says something to you." Seriously. A "popcorn policy." It's a REAL THING.

A trip to the city forest n' stuff

Rick is away at a conference so the kids and I have been staying busy doing lots of stuff!! I don't know why, but I get so much more done when it's just me. I think I need to figure out why that is because I love the feeling of accomplishment that I have ended the day with the past couple days and I'd like to keep that going even when Rick is home!!

Tomorrow is another busy one! Our morning schedule is a bit messed up with B and Grampa in Boston and after school Jessi has her first home game. One of today's "accomplishments" (lol) was exchanging her field hockey stick cuz my little field hockey freak already broke the one we just got at the beginning of the year! Those girls may wear skirts, but they are NO SISSIES!! There were FIVE injuries at the last game!!

Stuff coolness and hotness to hold you over til I REALLY blog ;-)

My Aunt sent me these... and I feel I must share...

And MY personal favorite....

And some eye candy (i.e. hotness), as promised....

That expression just screams... "You KNOW you want a piece of this."

Can you handle a little more? I know you can. I REALLY wanted a shot of him barefoot on the beach from that mexico video... but I could only find tiny ones :,-(


Ah what the hell.... here is the video... you know you want to watch it....


-----deleted cuz it was effing annnoying------

Natalie Dee is FUnnnY!

A fun little survery.... cuz it's fun

Here are the instructions:

1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. To cross out stuff you put < --strike-- > the word < /strike > (without the spaces and dashes that I used between the brackets that I had to put in or it would have looked like this ...and that isn't a very good illustration now, is it?
4. Commentary is welcome!! ....and I have no idea what the VGT is about. I found this survey here

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare ---Well... not in the fancy schmancy way, but I used to eat bits of mom's meatloaf before she cooked it and one of my 6th grade friends favorite snack was raw hambuger with salt. My stomach now turns at BOTH of these things!!
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding ---Not sure what it is but it does NOT sound like a good thing.
7. Cheese fondue ---made with swiss... not a fan.
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho--- WTF is PHO??? Gonna need to google this one!
13. PB&J sandwich ---HATE them!
14. Aloo gobi--- Google time again
15. Hot dog from a street cart ---YUMMO!
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns- like bread made of pork????
20. Pistachio ice cream- yuck
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans ---Want to like them SO badly and try them all the time... but just don't like 'em
25. Brawn, or head cheese (Ew!)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava ---A TEENY piece only please... otherwise I'll yak
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas ---HOT WATER BURN BABY!
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut YUM!
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea -that sounds just wrong, I prefer my food clot-free thank you very much.
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut ---Sweet Jeebuz heaven on earth!!
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal ---I can't even be in the CAR when somoeone is eating a big mac without feeling the overwhelming need to hurl!
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis ---NO EFFING WAY!
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill ---move along folks... would rather not discuss this one......
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie ---hostess pudding pies, yes.... fruit, no.
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict ---No but I REALLY want to ever since Pioneer woman made them!!
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. huh?
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse ---no FLicka for this Filly
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Wow.... I have not tried very many things. I am not doing all those strike-thrus.... that would take all freakin day... there must be an easier way to do that. Just assume that if I haven't tried it... I probably ain't gonna! Except Kobe Beef... bring summa that on ANY DAY!

Off to google some of that stuff. I'll probably be back with some horrifying results.

GAME DAY!!

Someone ELSE was NOT in a great mood this morning.

Took a doofus to the Hampden Rec/Stream today

Antiquing!

Today Nicole and I went antiquing. This is a new "obsession" for us... there is SO much cool. weird, and funky crap in some of those places! And there is ALWAYS something to laugh about, or get inspired by!

Autumn always gets me all watered up to make stuff and decorate my house! We stopped at Silkweeds and they had the neatest sprays made of seed beads and sequins. Nicole insisted I could make them myself for much less. So when I dropped Jessi off at Liv's, I popped over to ACMoore to get the stuff to make some. Now that I have it all here, I think I would have rather bought the things at ACMoore ....LOL! I am not a huge fan of tedium.

After a long day of shopping I came home to a DELICOUS meal that Rick made... asparagus, steak and baked potatoes... ALL on the grill! I snipped some chives out of my window garden and mixed them up with sour cream for the taters... YUMMO!!!!!

Tomorrow Rick and I have to work on cleaning out the basement a bit and I promised Nicole I would help her hang stuff in her new place!

Some pics from a busy week!!

To Noah the Tattoo Guy "Ummm.... You are doing a REALLY great job.... but I have to say you are REALLY not my favorite person in the world right now!"

Here is where we went.

Noah say, "Nah... it doesn't really hurt... it's more of an annoyance really." Me thinks Noah lies. Another of my gems.... "HOLY CRAP... It feels like someone is coloring on my skin with a NEEDLE!!!!" LOL
DONE!!! Wayne the body piercing guy was pretty disappointed that I did not crap my pants as I had promised... Sorry Wayne.

I LOVE my tattoo. I also love Nicole's words that she had added to hers, so I think I am going to add some sort of design to mine that goes up and around my ankle a little... some more swirly wind or something. Maybe I'll get that done when Rick goes to have his armband done :)

ETA: Why the leaf?

Last year when we went to North Conway our motel was beside a tattoo shop. When we first saw it we joked, "Hey we should get matching tattoos to signify our trip every fall!" Over the weekend we kept talking about it and what we would get. Since there are maple leaves on 95% of the signs down there... we kept coming back to that idea. We went to the shop to do it that Sunday before we left, but they were closed. So no tattoo that year.... but we always planned to do it next time. The tattoo shop where we were going to get them done didn't survive the winter slow season and closed down, so we went to White Mtn down the road a bit.

So that's the why... also.... I just LOVE ME SOME AUTUMN! It's my FAVORITE time of the year! :)

North Conway '08!!!

We had a GREAT, action packed, time!!! I have to admit that when plans changed and Jessi was now coming along, I was a little worried that she'd cramp our fun a bit, but she didn't at ALL!! She was just "one of the girls" all weekend long!

Friday morning we headed out bright and early. it was a bit of a rough start since my tank was on 'E' and the Irving in Hampden had no gas... what is THAT about!!? So on a wing and a prayer we made it to the Irving in Bangor and filled 'er up.

We stopped in Freeport and did a little shopping, then in Portland for lunch. (LOVES ME SOME ORANGE CHICKEN!!!!!!) Can I just say that TomTom RAWKS MY WORLD!!? TRUST IN THE TOMTOM!!!! I TOTALLY need one!!!! We also stopped in lots of roadside antiquey places, one of them (Wild Plum) was SO COOL, a big old barn, decorated like CRAZY with neat stuff EVERYWHERE.

Once we arrived and checked in to our favorite little family run motel , we were all ready for dinner. We TRIED to go to the place across the street from the motel that we liked last year. We waited forever, finally got our seats, and coudln't even read our menus because it was SO loud and infested with spoiled children, exhausted from a day at Storyland and parents getting their drink on. It was CRAZY and not in a good way!! So we ditched the place before the waitress brought our drink orders to us. We instead went back to our motel and then walked downtownt to eat at Horsefeathers... which also was not so great... but it WAS quieter.... until we got there and starting laughing so hard that our stomachs hurt :)

Day 2 we shopped til we dropped at the Settlers Green to the lovely music entertainment of a few 80 year old dudes and a karaoke machine. It was hot. After shopping and Cold Stone.... it was TATTOO TIME!!! Oh YEAH!! I DID IT!! That story will have to follow later as all the pics are on Nicole's camera and this blog already got a long longer than I had originally planned!

A little Ramble......

OK… so I really don’t have much to blog about, but I had to blog SOMETHING to knock the Nicky blog down a bit.

Tomorrow morning we are off to North Conway. It’s usually just Nicole and I, but since we couldn’t go last weekend, and since I had taken tomorrow off to take Jessi shopping, we decided to all go to North Conway together. And lucky for us, our motel had a room available!! Jessi is very excited to come along!

Since we are going to be away, Rick decided that he would take off too and spend the long weekend at the camp on East Grand. Sean can’t wait to go up and do some fishing with “the guys.”

This weekend is JUST what everyone needs after a rough couple weeks. The kids are still having a bit of a tough time missing Nicky. Sean carries around Nicky’s collar everywhere, and his webkinz Collie and Jessi still cries a lot, though her Myspace says “Jessi is feeling a little better about the whole Nicky thing.” (Dontcha just love how we can see our kids real moods and feelings on their myspace pages? ;)). I ordered her a silver charm bracelet with a little Collie charm. I’m sure we will all be missing Nicky for awhile, but school and fall activities will be starting up next week so that will be a good distraction!

Nicky was a great dog and we will miss him :(

It's so weird around here. We have gone from an over-abundance of people and dogs and chaos... to WAY too quiet.

Stayin' Busy

Things have been very busy around here with me getting ready to go down to NH for Nana's funeral and for Mom's short visit afterward. I have also been helping Nicole pack and get ready to move. Getting rid of crap and packing at Nicole's got me really wanting to clean and purge my own stuff! I started yesterday with my bedroom and it's now so clean and organized that I want to spend all my time in here!

So here I am on my big comfy bed watching Big Love and surfin' the net!

Rick seems to have caught the bug as well, he is getting our basement all cleaned out. I LONG for the day that 1/2 our bedroom is not a workout room!! It would be nice to have a craft area someday again too!

My Nana died yesterday.

It was very sad news, but she seems to have passed away in her sleep and I think that is the nicest way to go.

Apparently I am not the best at doling out news like this since when I called my brothers they both said, "What!?..... Are you kidding!?" And then I unfortunately had to give my mom the news as well... and she thought I was kidding too! Like I am the kind of person who goes around telling people that their grannies are dead and then yelling, "PSYCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I also had another "weird thing" happen before I heard the news. (Not as weird as the dream when my Grampy died last year, but still weird) I was bringing Jessi and Mikayla to Mikayla's house and on the way there she told me that she was moving away to New Jersey next year. I dropped them off and tears just started streaming down my face and I could NOT stop crying. I was also kinda laughing at myself because I was thinking, "WOW... I am NOT this sad about Mikayla moving away! I mean I like the girl and all, but this is just plain craziness. Why the hell am I crying like this!!??? I think I'm losing my freakin' mind!"

They said that it looked like Nana got up and had a little breakfast, then went and laid back down, so the timing of my "episode" probably would have been right when she passed away.

Not sure what that all means, but when I talked to Rick about it, he said, "WOW... I think it just means that you all have some kind of psychotic connection." Good thing I didn't marry him for his strong vocab skills.

I will miss my Nana very much. She was somethin' else!! But I am glad that she was able to go so peacefully.

I really wanted that bigfoot to be real!!

You may not know this about me but I LOVE me some cryptozoology!!

So I watching the videos on Jessi's youtube channel....

Maybe that camera wasn't the best idea after all.... ROFL!! Way to go fairy godmother Nicole!!

Just forget you ever saw that blog a week or so ago about that whole "save not spend" thing ;-) ;-)

Today Madden 2009 AND the New Jonas Brothers CD came out, so being the dutiful mom and wife that I am... I ran out to Best Buy on my lunch break and snagged them both.

I already know all the lyrics to the new JB CD... I think Jessi likes it. A lot. A REALLY lot. And surprisingly... so do all the critics... even Rolling Stone!

It doesn't REALLY count as frivolity though... Jessi paid for her own CD, and Rick definitely paid for his game with buckets of overtime AND on-call pay.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Because maybe all the good stuff is blocked at your office too so you never got a chance to watch it....

Or maybe because you live under the rock with Rick who certainly hasn't seen this, but it's pretty funny, so share I must.

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Oh yeah... and just in case the rock you are under is REALLLLLLY big and deep (yes Rick and Jerry... I said "deep"). That vid is in response to this one....

Very nice weekend!

I skipped out on the Tupperware party and instead Jerry and Julie came over. I was a little grumpy (sorry... blame mother nature), but I think we still had fun!

Saturday I was pretty lazy most of the day, and then in the evening Rick drove Nicole and I out to Tom's for his PARTAAAAAY! Rick was going to come along too, but we had no sitter and the kids are still a little too young to be home alone at night. That would freak them... and us... right out! Plus Rick is on call and he was afraid he would get paged all evening long. So... my sweet, sweet husband carted Nicole and me to the party in Glenburn, and them came and picked us up later on that night! He should have been rewarded... but again... blame mother nature for the lack of reward ;)

Sunday we stayed super busy and got groceries, cleaned up the yard, reorganized the pantry, and took the kids to the playground. It was a gorgeous day and I am LOVING that you can feel in the air that fall is on the way. I LOVE ME SOME AUTUMN!!!!!

I need to take some freakin pictures! These photoless blogs are BORRRRRRRRRRRRING!

While waiting for me hair color to develop.....

I guess I'll blog since the internet is a little boring this morning.

I have to color my hair because

a. it needed it anyway
b. Splashtown and the week in the sun REALLLLLLLY lightened my hair... up til the roots that were already needing touching up and I was lookin' a bit silly. NOT complaining at all about the copious amounts of chlorine in the water at Splashtown. The more the BETTER!!!

This is kinda of a busy week!! Work has been CRAZY... it's almost like 1/2 the state never knew about us and someone just told them or something!! Monday and Tuesday I didn't even have time to get back to all the people that left me voicemails. It was a little quieter yesterday though, so I am all caught up now. I HATE feeling behind!!!!

I've been busy after work too! Last night I went out to a local bar for dinner and drinks with some friends from the book club I am in. Tonight I have to go to a tupperware party that I have been PROMISED is more about hanging out and eating and Margarita's and less about buying tupperware. ....but I'll believe it when I see it! Tomorrow night we are going to a party at my co-worker, Tom's house.... should be fun!!

No pics for this blog... and it's time to rinse!!!

Mom, Can I make pesto? (Rick thinks my typo was hysterical... but I just couldn't leave it!!)

We're at the grocery store picking up a few things and Jessi says...

"Can I make pesto?"

I say, "I don't even know what we would need to buy? Have you ever even HAD pesto, because I haven't." She says, "No.... but it looks really good and I know everything we need and how to make it because they make it on Food Network all the time. We just need basil, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, garlic, and EVOO. And I want to toast the pine nuts because that gives them better flavor."

OK then...lol!

Verdict: Pesto is WAY yummy. I sauteed some chicken with garlic and salt and pepper and added that to the pasta and pesto and it was just DELISH!

P.S. Note the stupid big white tupperware bowl in photo #2. That is were the big pretty, funky, cool pasta serving bowl would be.... if I HAD one...(hint hint) lol!!

Game night

It's not for the faint-hearted.
Or the shy.
Or the quiet type folks.

It's DEFINITELY not for those who were frivilous enough to live through the holocaust.
Or for Glizty people like Mahatma Gandhi.



Disclaimer: All above references are a direct result of the game 'Apples to Apples' that we got for Christmas and FINALLY opened last night. This game is FREAKIN' HILARIOUS, and even more hilarious because when we first started we were all like, "Oh this is dumb. How is this going to even be funny? I see no hilarity ensuing as a result of playing this game. I don't geeeet it!!!!!"

So very tired and cranky.

Between the boy in my bed last night, my in-laws (don't ask!), my co-informationandreferralspecialist taking a couple days off and the kick off of "Property Tax and Rent Refund" season.... I am one very tired and very cranky girl this evening. The only thing keeping me from swallowing some bleach to avoid work tomorrow is the fact that since I have been stuck staying a little late 3 days this week... I get to leave at 1pm tomorrow and that RAWKS!

I think it's a quiet weekend this weekend, unless I am forgetting something. Maybe we'll finally get some netflix watched. I think we've had the same ones for a month!

(If you're curious... Disc 1 of Season 2 of 'Big Love, ' 'The Departed,' and 'Definitely, Maybe')

Cleanin up!!

Lately things are feeling just a LITTLE too out of control ‘round these parts. So Mama is layin’ some smack down. If that means that I have to spend some time being a tad on the naggy side. Tough crap.

Over the past week I have been trying to get things just a little more in order and a little less loosey goosey. I have been planning meals and sticking to the plan. I have not just said “Yup… whatever” to the endless requests for snacks and popsicles. Instead they are hearing “No… you can wait til dinner” or “You are welcome to all the fruit veggies and water that your little heart desires.”

This weekend I cleaned the bajeezus out of the downstairs and I WILL KEEP IT THAT WAY!! People living in this house WILL clean up after themselves! I am as guilty of this as everyone else. But we are total slobs and it just makes everything harder when you can’t find anything! The only thing I CAN’T clean and am at a loss of what to do about is Sampson. That damn dog freakin’ smells SO doggy, no matter WHAT I do!! He has had TWELVE baths since we got him and he still makes the whole house smell like dog. Stupid smelly dog.

We are also tightening up things on the cash flow front. We are FAR too frivolous and spoiled and we are not teaching the kids anything when we have to have the newest Wii game the second it comes out… or buy games “just because.” I’m pretty sure that most families save those kinds of purchases for special occasions. At this point I think a thousand dollars in the bank is better than a thousand dollars in Wii games. Though with the way things are going, who knows?… maybe Barack will decide that Wii points will be the new currency, Wii Games the new gold, and we will be deemed the Lord and Lady Jordan, Rulers of the Hampden Highlands ;-)

Now there are REALLY no more babies in this house!!!

Conversation in the car

Sean: Mommy, When will you die?

Me: Huh? (caught me off guard there)

Sean: When are you going to die?

Me: You mean like when I am old and just die from being old?

Sean: Yes. Will I be a grown up when yo die?

Me: If I die from old age you will.

Sean: Well what if I'm not a grown up when you die, who will take care of me?

Me: Um......................................................... :::lightbulb/duh moment::: DADDY of course!

Sean: Why not Nana?

Me: Because if just Mommy died, then you would just stay in our house with Daddy and he would take care of you.

Sean: Well.... what if you BOTH die?

Me: Well.... I'm not really sure, but I know that there are a LOT of people that would want to take care of you. B and Grampa, Uncle Tim, Uncle Chris...

Sean interrupts: And Nana.

Me: Yes, and Nana. And lots of other people too. But I don't think you really need to worry about that because I will probably die when you are a grown up.

Sean: How old will I be?

Me: :::trying to do some fast math::: Well.... if I die when I am 80, then you will be..........um....... well..... 52.

Sean: THAT'S A OLD MAN!

Me: Well... not REALLY.

Sean: Yeah it is... that's old like Daddy!

Me: (hee hee) No... Daddy is only 39! That's not old!

Sean: Remember that time the plane flew over us and almost landed on our car? (Not really... We were on the interstate by the airport when a plane was landing once a couple years ago and it made QUITE an impression on his little brain!) That was scary but it was awesome!

Me: Yup. That was pretty awesome.

Crock Pot Curry Verdict....

Not-so-much.

It was just "ok." It was missing SOMETHING.... but not sure what. Maybe the ginger would have given it the kick it needed. I did try squeezing some lime juice in, and that helped a lot... but we were all done eating by then ;) We were so worried about the eggplant, but that just melted in and wasn't even really noticeable.

Sean says... "It's good, but it needs more flavor. Can I have a rice cake instead?" LOL.... He ate about 1/2 his bowl.

Jessi says.... "It's ok, I guess. But it feels like something is missing." She ate all the chicken out and then had Jasmine rice with butter. (An old FAVORITE of hers because she used to spend a lot of time at one of her friend's houses who is from Ghana. Every night for dinner they eat Jasmine Rice with different sauces on top. The nights when it was a spicy sauce and not the peanut butter sauce that she LOVED, she would have buttered rice.)

Rick would eat anything and say it was good... so he is no gauge for anything foodwise ;-)

I am glad we tried something different, and it wasn't terrible. The jasmine rice, however, was DELICIOUS and I will never buy plain old white rice again!!

Jessi is dying for me to find a recipe for the peanut butter chicken sauce that they used at her friend Fatimah's house, so I think that will be our next adventure.

Cooking WAY out of our box.

I read SO many cooking blogs and love The Food Network... yet I rarely try out any new recipes. Part of the reason for that is that is when you cook a something completely different from things that you are used to... you have to buy all kinds of new stuff that you don't normally have on hand. But I have been wanting to try something new for awhile... and we were just talking about Curry at camp... so today my crockpot is on duty and I am FINALLY making something from one of my favorite blogs "A Year of Crockpotting"

Here is the recipe...

Crockpot Indian Curry
- 1 13.5 oz can of coconut milk (don't use the light, it doesn't taste as good. or use the light and then stir in heavy cream at the end. Your tongue wants the thick stuff... trust me.)
- 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed - 4-6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken thighs
- 1 T tomato paste
- 2 T curry powder (not a typo, it's a lot, but it's good. Curry isn't spicy, just flavorful)
- 1 t ground coriander
- 1 t ground cumin
- 1 inch peeled and grated ginger (I didn't use that much, I don't particularly care for ginger)
- few dashes of hot sauce (I used Tobasco)
- 1 yellow onion. chopped
- 2 or 3 cloves of smashed and chopped garlic
- 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1/2 of an eggplant, chopped (I didn't peel)
- 1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped (I hate peeling sweet potato, so used a knife and lost a lot of the flesh accidentally)

The Directions. Assemble all of your spices, coconut milk, tobasco sauce, and tomato paste. Combine the sauce ingredients in the bottom of your crockpot. The sauce will be a lovely yellow. Add the chicken, flipping it over a few times to coat it nicely. Pour in the garbanzo beans. Wash and chop all of the vegetables, and then add to the Crock-Pot. Don't worry about stirring them in the sauce. Let them sit on top of the chicken and steam away. Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours, or on high for 4-6. I cooked our dinner on high for almost 6 hours. The chicken was fully cooked, but still had shape, and the vegetables were soft and quite nice. Stir carefully to mix flavors. If you stir too rough, the sweet potato will fall apart. Serve over rice; I used brown.

Of course... I made some adjustments. Surprisingly one of them is NOT the eggplant. None of us have ever had eggplant... and even at the last minute this morning I almost chickened out and didn't put it in, but Jessi and Sean said we should just give it a try. I did leave out the green pepper. We LOVE bell peppers raw... not-so-much cooked. I also used onion powder instead of onion because I forgot to buy an onion, and we skipped the coriander and ginger for the same reason (and I hate ginger anyway..but I would have used a little). I bought turmeric by mistake and not coriander, but I didn't put the turmeric in there because I don't know anything about turmeric. I added some extra curry powder to compensate. We also substituted white beans for the garbanzo beans because garbanzo beans are yucky. And we used boneless, skinless chicken tenders because Walmart doesn't sell thighs. Oh yeah.... we also didn't put in the sweet potato because I bought some, but they seem to have evaporated into thin air. I will probably find them in my sock drawer in a couple weeks.

We are going to have it with Jasmine Rice and I am pretty excited to try it out!! ....still not sure about that eggplant though!

Our trip to Old Orchard Beach.....

Well I am blogging a little early from our trip. We had a FANTASTIC time, but I re-affirmed for myself and everyone else that I am an INDOOR GIRL...lol!! I could NOT sleep at all in that tent last night. First it was the very under-inflated air mattress (and unable to find the air pump in the dark... and little assistance or cooperation from a sleeping husband), so I tried the ground between our mattress and the kid's mattress... that was ok for a couple hours, but then it got chilly and I had no blanket because I was on top of my sleeping bag as a cushion from the ground (not to mention the loud partying campers nearby and the VERY loud choo choo train.... and of course there were fireworks as icing on the noise cake)... THEN I decided that the car was my only option and that is where I spent the rest of a looooooooooong night.

We had a BLAST though!!! This morning we did funtown/splashtown and were lucky enough to have thunderstorms wait until we were pretty much ready to leave anyway! ...and the rainstorms only helped my "I think we should just drive home tonight" case ;-)

Turned out I had good instincts! We stopped at the pier because I had promised Jessi a frozen banana (a purchase I quickly regretted as those things are just REALLY wrong for preteen girls to be walking around enjoying. Seriously.) As we walked up the hill the pier we noticed that the horizon was completely black and it was coming closer!! We ran to the car and by the time we got to the car it was over us and people were running everywhere trying to find cover! It was a CRAZY storm and from what I heard on the radio, it did a lot of damage! SO glad we were not in a TENT for that!!!

A REALLY REALLY lot of pictures from camp :-)

Felt like snappin'

I haven't dug out the camera just for the sake of it much lately, but the weather was SO nice tonight, I couldn't resist! Nothin' amazin' ...just foolin' around. NEXT WEEK will be a PHOTO BONANZA!!!!!!!!

Even BETTER!!

So we were all pretty excited about going to East Grand Lake next week and having a nice quiet vacation.

But then Rick had an even BETTER idea!!

The NEW plan is spend a few days at East Grand, come home on Tuesday, hang out at home on Wednesday, and then bright and early Thursday morning... head down to Old Orchard Beach and Funtown/Splashtown... and Cabela's (of course)!!! Now we are UBER excited about our vacation. The kids and I have never been there before... not sure about Rick. I decided to go cheap and we are going to tent out at a campground for 2 nights. I found a GREAT place right by the beach and I think it's going to be hard to pry the kids away from there!!

Can't WAIT!!!

A great time was had by all... I think.....

For GAME CAM photos... you'll have to head on over to Rick's Blog... which I'm sure he'll get to once he's done makin' our breakfast!!!!

Mr. Melon is ready to party.

Fireworks

All I have to say is... bring on Children's Day and the REAL, GOOD, Fireworks!!!!!

Way too many photos of our 4th of July

What a great day!!! Rick and I got a TON done around the house, and then we went out to Hermon for a family softball game and BBQ. I learned that I can't hit... but I didn't give up (ok... I did give up my first time at bat... but I went back for more when I was up again! ...Fortunately I don't embarrass easily...lol!!) and I hit one and made it all the way home :)

Off to the fireworks! I am excited to try photographing them and doing that whole 'slow shutter speed thing!'

It's party time!!!! .....almost!

Saturday night is the big party and I have SO MUCH TO DO!! So... naturally I am sitting in a chair blogging and watching General Hospital.

I am pretty excited about having a kid-free evening and it's looking like it's gonna be a full house here!! Lots of new peeps... in addition to the super fun collection of whackos that we usually have ;) ;)

Fortunately I have all day Friday and Saturday to get stuff done around here and and do some shopping. I work much better under pressure anyway!!