LONG overdue project for a forecasted rainy weekend....

Woo HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (Now we just need some grass ;) )

Got this in an e-mail from my aunt....

OH MY!! LOL!!

I need a long weekend to recover from my long weekend!

I didn't take many pics this weekend... too busy having FUN! But I did take some tonight... so don't worry... you'll have SOME pics!! (LOL... I know you were REALLY WORRIED and probably would not have slept tonight had I not posted some pics)

Friday was errand day... and Jessi had a sleepover, of course. After I ran errands I went home, was fooling around on 2peas and after reading a few threads about Wii Fit and how great it is... I packed up the kids and we went to Walmart to get it. Yes, I am a tad on the impulsive side :-D we played LOTS of that on Friday, Saturday AND Sunday. I played so much on Saturday that my abs (I have ABS!!!????) hurt so much that I had to call Jerry and Julie and ask them to bring some advil when they came over because I was all out and it even hurt to just SIT!

Saturday night Tim and Kristie and Jerry and Julie and Heather (friend of Julie's from high school that is visiting from Georgia. I knew her too, but we were more acquaintences) and her husband came over to hang out. The plan was to maybe play some Balderdash or Wii or something, but we never made it away from my kitchen island! Jerry and Julie had to pretty much drag Zack home because he was having so much fun playing Wii Fit, but it was 1130pm!!

Sunday I slept in a bit, worked around the house a little, played more Wii Fit ;) Then Nicole came to pick me up and we went to a BBQ at Dyan's house in Orono. It was a BLAST!! Good food, met lots of new people, and had GREAT fun playing Guitar Hero... Wii Bowling... and "Would you Rather....." I have GOT to get the 'would you rather' book... it won't be quite the same without Len (Dyan's mate...partner...SO...boyfriend... you get the idea ;) ) reading from it and posing the questions, but I think Jerry could CERTAINLY do it justice ;-) Anyway... the party was a blast and I my face hurt afterwards from laughing so much!


On to TODAY!

Today was a much quieter day. I slept in... tooled around on the computer looking at puppies that I want or that other people should get. (I am IN LOVE with this dog and I totally want to bring him home and let him have a happy reast of his life with us!) Rick and I watched some old eps of 'Top Chef.' Then I remembered that Ken wanted to buy one of Jessi's famous cheesecake pies, and we needed some other stuff, so we all went to Walmart. We saved $175 there! We had been planning on buying a new grill, but while looking at them, Rick noticed that they sold parts, and he got the part to fix his for $25! So yeah... a shiny new grill woulda been nice... but we did the RESPONSIBLE thing for once. Rick spent about an hour fixing the grill while Jessi made her pie and I made potato salad. Then he took out the steaks to start cooking them and we RAN OUT OF PROPANE... ROFL!!!!!! Since Rick is as impulsive as I am, he decided that he was going to cook the steaks over an open fire. Yeah... this blog is already too long... so I'll let him share THAT story over on his own! I am off to go eat some steak!!

Wii be fit... ok... Wii be workin' on it ;)

This video CRACKS ME UP! He is SO angry about the Wii calling him Fatti ;) The BMI thing is definitely not a good measure of things though for anyone but average people. It said that SEAN was obese! I am pretty sure you can't see the ribs of an obese child ;)

Sean wasn't the only 'obese' one in the house... but I can't blame wonky BMI now, can I?

Some new sassy hair :)

Jessi and Liv's Ode to the Pioneer Woman. Alternate title... "a YUMMY recipe!"

I'm sure you all know who the Pioneer Woman is... if you don't click on her link over in my sidebar and get over there! She makes some great recipes with photos of every step... and lots of witty banter to boot ;)

Jessi has been very into Food Network and cooking lately. Today she wanted to try making something rather than watching other people make stuff on TV.

I present to you... Pecan Caramel Cheesecake Pie. (OK... that's gonna need a new shorter name)

Culinary Cuties mixing up 1 block of cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/2 cup of sugar and some vanilla :)

Pour into a pie crust. We used graham cracker.

Chop up 1 1/2 cups

of pecans.... or however many are in the bag you buy :)

Sprinkle pecans all over the cheesey sugary stuff.

This stuff is INSANELY good. It's not caramel. It's not butterscotch. It's both of those delightful creations doing to tango together inside one bottle to create a taste that is just plain decadent.

Combine 1/2 the jar of the heavenly decadence in the mixer with 3 eggs and mix it up reeeeeel goooooood.

Pour the decadance on top and pop it in the oven. It does not look delicious at this point. I will spare you all from the analogy I used with the girls or I promise you will never want to make this recipe.

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about. Something magic happens in the oven. The caramel all sinks to the bottom, but on it's way down it completly coats and candies up the pecans and makes a perfect crust.

Now normally... I would not have tried this. I hate cheesecake. BUT... as I cut out the piece to take a photo, I got it all over my finger and before even thinking about it, I licked it off. OH. MY. GOD. I cannot even describe the yummy deliciousness perfectness of this. I had NO idea it would be THIS GOOD! (And it doesn't taste like cheescake at all.)

Oh yeah.... and we CAN'T forget about Sean's contribution to the baking process.....

It feels like it's been a looooooong week. NOT sure why, it hasn't been a bad week at all, just felt long! Maybe cuz Rick was on vacation and I still had to go to work ;) It was VERY nice having him here when I go home everyday though!

No big plans this weekend. Rick was supposed to go upto the camp tonight for the night, but that got cancelled due to weather (which seems strange because it appears to be a very nice sunny day... but I haven't checked the weather report, and we ARE in New England, so who knows?)

The dudes are coming to grade and make our yard all nice sometime next week... YAHOO!!! The head dude promises that even though we aren't paying $5000 to do all the stuff he initially wanted to do... he's still going to blow my mind!!

More excitement!

Sean can tie! We have totally slacked on teaching him to tie. Jessi learned when she was 3 or 4 years old. Oops. It's just too easy these days because most kids shoes don't have laces. But Rick finally got down to business this morning and we finally have a whole family of tie-ers ;)

....now to tackle those training wheels.......

Scrappin,' Shootin,' and let there be LIGHT!!

Nicole's mother requested some scrappy art of Nicole's nephew Milo, so she came over for a little scrappin.' I thought that would get my scrap mojo going... not-so-much. I was more of a spectator ;-)

Rick has to show off his new gun to everyone who will look ;) Nicole said that she had never shot a gun before. Rick could not just let that go! She can't say that anymore!

Home Depot is moving to a new location and selling off all their stuff. I got myself a new storm door and I am SO excited!! I have always hated how dark our kitchen is because the door has no windows... even while we were building I was having issue with it.

Now my kitchen is full of light!! AND I can see who is knockin' on the door!! WOO HOO!!!

I also got a bookcase for the livingroom and a spice rack for over the stove, but Rick hasn't gotten to those yet ;)

LOVING my new office!

My new office is grrrrrrrrreat!! I can play my mp3 player (well... Jessi's til mine comes back to me next week, I can meet with clients easier, and I have lots more visitors since I am not stashed away in my cubicle in the far corner of the building. I have no windows to the outside... BUT I am lucky enough to have a window to the hallway so that people can peek in at me, bang on the window at me, make inappriate gestures at me, you get the idea ;) The only thing I CAN'T do in my office is fart. Well... I can... but as I quickly learned today... when there is only one door and little to no air circulation... the stank pretty much just hangs out with ya until you turn on your AC and borrow some air freshner spray from someone... LOL!!!

So I guess I need to officially deem my office a
FART
FREE
ZONE!!!!

PLAY BALL!!

Today was Sean's first day of baseball... and Rick's first day of coaching. Both of them did a great job! Jessi and I stuck around for almost an hour, but then could take no more 'fun.' And headed home to make salads for everyone's dinner.

I started my new schedule this week and everyone is SO much HAPPIER!! I can take Jessi to school in the mornings now, and I can pick Sean up every day, so he doesn't have to sit on the bus for an hour. Leaving everyday at 2:30 is like I have added a whole extra hour to my day! The only thing that sucks about it is that Nicole and I used to chat on the phone every morning while we were each on our way to work, now that I am going in earlier, that's not happenin.' So we are gonna to need to figure out a new routine!

Hey Mom... I SO nailed it!!!

I had the YUMMIEST wine drink at Olive Garden when Mom was here. I HAD to figure out how to replicate it at home, and tonight I DID! (Not that it was rocket science or anything...lol)

Love me some Red Winged Blackbirds. They sing the prettiest songs :)

No birds at the "ghetto feeding station." Can't imagine why.

Cooper is a happy happy dog that all his toys have come back from their winter vacation under the snow :)