Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday, Nicholas and Samantha spent the entire day with us. Their dad dropped them off at Brian's football game around 9:00 in the morning, where they got to play with some of the other little ones. Then we had lunch at Mickey D's, headed home so Brian could clean up, then headed to Lombardi Ranch to pick pumpkins. Then we came home, took a nap, made dinner, and headed to the park to run it all off. It was a long day and I think I was more tired at the end of it than they were.


I guess I could have at least put the vacuum away.


We read signs well, don't we?

A Pinch of Love

Okay, so we have the boys take turns making sandwiches for their lunches. Last night, Brian made them and told me that he put a pinch of love in mine and sealed it in a zip lock baggie so none of the love would escape.

How sweet is that? He's my affectionate one, clearly.

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

Okay, for years, Brian has struggled with math. The excuses for not doing his math homework ranged from I don't understand or the teacher didn't show us how to do that, to my dog ate my reminder binder (just kidding). So last week, Drew and I went to back-to-school night and his teacher (one of our favorites who also taught Brandon and was super excited to have Brian in her class) told us he was really, really good at math. I didn't believe her.

But last night, Brian and I sat together while he did his math homework. He blew me away. Really. He can figure square roots in his head faster than I can with a calculator (and that was using a calculator with a square root button!). He had several problems that required him to use the order of operation. Again, all done in his head. Heck, I could barely remember the words of the order of operation and I don't even know what an exponent is!

In case you're wondering, it goes in this order: parenthesis, exponents, multiply, divide, add, subtract (hense the title of this post).

We all learned something

Took the boys back-to-school shopping on Sunday. I learned that my boys do understand the value of a dollar and can, when asked, spend their money wisely.

Last year, my mother took Brandon back-to-school shopping and she literally spent over $700 on him alone (Brian got his share although he wasn't able to join us for some reason).

This year my mother again promised Brandon that she would take him shopping, but she could not afford to spend as much as she did last year. She had $300 for each boy. We put the cash in envelopes with their names on them and let them make their own decisions. Surprisingly, they did a great job checking prices, watching sales and not buying "just because."

Brandon came home with 9 shirts, 3 jeans, shoes, a backpack and school supplies. Brian came home with 8 shirts, 3 jeans, shoes, a backpack, school supplies and a hat. They both had around $10 left over. Given that most of the clothes were skate board name brands, they did a good job because the jeans alone can run $50 and more if you're not careful.

I'm proud of them for understanding that everyone's in an economic pinch and making the most of what was given to them.

Crocking Part 2

Crocking Part 1 is under the "I can't complain" post. But this was good. We had baked potatoes - made in the crock pot. Just wash em, poke em, wrap em in foil and cook in the crock pot. I did 6 small ones on high for about 2 1/2 hours. No liquids needed. Easy! Add a salad with some cubed cheese and a little ham and you have a complete dinner with very little clean up and very little time. And the best part is that your house doesn't get heated up from using the oven.

Love those Brits!

Okay, we have a new cable company and so while I'm trying to learn the new channels for my favorite shows, I've discovered some new shows. Well, they're new to me. Apparently, as I've been told, they're running on regular TV, like Dating in the Dark on Channel 11. I guess that trash is just more appealing to me on cable! But anyhow, I've discovered the BBC channel. They have a show called "How Clean is your House? And I'm hooked. The homes they show are complete pig stys - one kid had some kind of casings from a carpet beatle all over his dirty clothes on the floor. Yuck!

Well, the point of this post is that they had some mix of apple cider vinegard and something else to make your bathroom shine. I couldn't find the recipe on the show's site, but did find the following helpful hint on www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/cleaning-with-vinegar.html. I might try this. I do like to move away from the chemicals as much as possible (I won't even use chemicals to fight an ant invasion - knock on wood we have only had one in the 8 years we've lived here!).

Kitchen Cutting Boards and Countertops – Cleaning with Vinegar

The best way to sanitize kitchen food preparation surfaces such as countertops and wood cutting boards is to use the following vinegar and hydrogen peroxide germ-killing combo:

Using a spray bottle, apply undiluted apple cider vinegar or white vinegar to the kitchen surface to be cleaned.

Then immediately spray the same area with 3 percent hydrogen peroxide (available in all drugstores) from another spray bottle.

Wipe the area clean or rinse with water.

According to Susan Sumner, a food scientist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, it does not matter whether you spray the vinegar before or after the hydrogen peroxide, the effect is the same, it kills virtually all Salmonella, Shigella, or E. Coli bacteria on heavily contaminated food preparation surfaces.

She also found that using both sprays was 10 times more effective than using either spray by itself and more effective than chlorine bleach and all other commercially available kitchen cleaners.

The vinegar / hydrogen peroxide sprays also work well to clean meats, fruits and vegetables of disease-causing germs.

Reference:
Science News Online – Food for Thought – 9/28/96

I'm not allowed to complain

Alrighty. Football season has started. And again, Drew is helping to coach, is the water boy, and is taking pictures. I'm adding the photos to the photo album (a link to the right) and trying to maintain the team's website. I say trying because it's a bit confusing to manuever through the creator's program (a man must have written the program!), but I think I've finally got it. Last year, the time we had to put into the football program, with all the practices and games, was overwhelming. I guess I brought my exhaustion to work, so my colleague Vicki says that since we don't say no to anything, I'm not allowed to complain about being taxed. So I'm not.

Actually, since I now know what to expect, I'm actually enjoying going to practices and looking forward to the games. Practice is 5 miles from the house and I've been riding my bike there everyday. It takes me about half an hour, but it gets me out and saves me from sitting on the couch eating chips. I haven't lost any weight yet, but at least I'm not gaining any either. I pass a lot of men on the bike trail (and a lady or two) and they're all wearing their colorful biking shirts and shorts. My goal is to get my behind small enough to look okay in some of those padded shorts and not spill over the edges of the seat. Oh, that's a terrible visual. Don't try to picture that!

Another thing that's helped is that I'm planning ahead with the dinners and making friends with my crock pot. Here is what I cooked last night. Not great, more of a Hamburger Helper type meal, with way too much pre-prep work. But the boys really liked it. So if you have kids, and want a cheap meal that you can make and walk away from, this works:

Pizza in a Pot

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 14 oz. jar of pizza sauce
2 Tbs. tomato paste
3 C. spiral pasta, cooked and drained
2 3.5 oz. packages sliced pepperoni (why didn't they just say 7 ounces?)
2 C. (8 oz) mozzarella cheese

Cook the beef, green pepper and onion until meat is no longer pink. Stir in tomato sauce, pizza sauce and tomato paste.

In the slow cooker, layer the pasta, beef mixture, pepperoni and cheese. Cook on low 3-4 hours or until heated through.

This is what I mean by having a lot of prep work. You have to cook the meat and the pasta, so why bother with a slow cooker. You could just put it in the oven. But if you choose to try this, here are my comments. One, don't cook overcook the pasta, because they get too soft in the crock pot if you do. Also, I pulled everything together the night before and put it in the fridge, so it was cold when it went into the crock. So I'm not sure low would have gotten it hot enough in 3-4 hours. Maybe. But I turned it up to high after two hours and it was plenty hot at four hours. But other than, it was okay for something warm to feed the kids after a busy day. Oh, I didn't have any green pepper, so we went without and it was still fine. I think you could throw in anything you put on a pizza - olives, anchovies, whatever.

Chris and Victoria

On Saturday, July 18, we went to a reception to celebrate the marriage of my nephew Chris to Victoria. It was a very nice day and we enjoyed meeting the new members of our ever-growing family.

I'm happy for both Chris and Victoria, but at the same time, I feel really, really old. How is it that my nephews are already young men - and one has gotten married?! Chris, I can still picture you in a high chair. Or singing "Chuck, Chuck, fo . . Christopher, stop that!" Oh, yeah, you were a handful. Sad how quickly those days pass. Victoria, we think you are a very sweet young lady and are delighted that Chris has brought you into our lives.

It really drives me crazy that I choose the pictures in the order I want them to post, and they come out completely opposite! Of course this post is about Chris and Victoria and their photo was supposed to be first. Ugh! To see all the pictures, choose Chris and Victoria's Reception on my sidebar.

This little girl melts my heart!


Chris' Nana, Mary Alice Lytle, Chris, Victoria, Victoria's father Jim and grandmother.


Mi familia

The happy couple

Tourists!

We know! It's silly. But the boys haven't been to Hollywood in awhile, so we decided it would be a cheap thing to do on a Saturday afternoon and would be fun to act like tourists. We kinda look like tourists, don't we?

This is what Drew looked like in the 80's. I met him playing tetherball. Just kididng! But really, this guy was awesome! Never broke character.




I didn't know where MJ's star was, but knew we were next to it right away when we saw the crowd. Some woman gave an MJ impersonator a kiss on the cheek and was nearly in tears. Really people!




Terminator!

This was the best MJ impersonator out there - and there were quite a few. An added bonus was that he was hanging with Prince. Or is he still the artist with no name?


There was a huge Amish-looking group singing to save all the lost souls, but really, how do you compete with Jesus?

And my favorite - Jimmy Durante's nose.

Octogenerian!

My dad turned 80 on Friday, July 10th. To celebrate, we went to Red Lobster (his choice - and don't tell him I said this, but it was horrible). I tried to get him to go to the OC Fair or even a movie, but he just wasn't interested :-(

This looks like a mug shot!



He wanted to crawl under the table - told my mom no singing, but didn't tell me!!

Man, my arms are going to be sore tomorrow!

Ha, I don't post for months and then I bombard you!

But we rounded off the weekend with a day of kayaking. It was great. Due to budget cuts, there was no swimming allowed at the lake, so it was deserted. We literally had the entire lower lake to ourselves. We rowed all over the lake, took a lunch break and went back out for more.

I don't know why my pictures are posting backward, but here is a series of the boys going under the ramp. Drew made me go first and I thought we were both going to bang our heads, but we made it.












Shark!!

This duck swam right up to me and ate out of my hand - or wanted to but he was a littel aggressive and scared me.