Family Dinner Experiment...so far so good

So I decided to actually implement the family dinner plan that I've wanted to do for a long time. Each person takes a night and plans the meal and cooks it. We started on Saturday and Brydin (11) got to start. He made fajitas, a bean dip, and a cheesecake all with minimal supervision. I was there mostly to say...Um....check the recipe again. He did a great job and Landin (13) was the only one not to eat it (anyone surprised? We weren't.) :)

Yesterday it was my turn. I made potstickers and fried rice from scratch and got premade egg rolls. The rice turned out very good. The potstickers smelled amazing the entire time I was putting them together. I had to make a conscious effort not to taste the filling...it smelled so good I wanted to see how it tasted...but the major ingredient was raw ground chicken. Church wasn't until 11:30 so I thought I'd be prepared and made the potstickers before church. I put the assembled potstickers in a baggie and put them in the fridge. That was my undoing. When I tried to fry them I found they were one enormous mass of potsticker rather than the individual dumplings I had spent an hour assembling. I was so upset! So instead of frying them the whole lump went into the oven and we just cut pieces off. It still tasted really good...just wasn't the effect I had wanted.

Tonight was Kierstin's turn. She made macaroni & cheese with hot dogs. I really don't like the mac 'n' cheese from the box that my kids love so I was happy that she agreed to make it from scratch. I also convinced her to leave the hot dogs to the side so that those who don't want the hot dogs IN the macaroni (me) didn't have to have them. She also made these cute little strawberry/kiwi "shortbreads" out of a kids' cookbook. She's 7 so her part in this was slicing hot dogs with a butter knife, stirring and adding ingredients but she didn't care. I also let her assemble the dessert basically by herself so she was happy. It was really easy. The shortbread was really the buttermilk biscuits in a tube that were baked and then cut in half. Then put in a little scoop of whipped topping, some kiwi, and some strawberries and then put the top back on.

I think tomorrow night is Billy's night. I'm liking this. If I can keep up getting menus from everyone for 2 weeks out then we might be able to keep this going. We are even eating at the table as a family...without the TV on!! Yea! It's amazing what you can do when you have a normal Mon-Fri 8-5 job. I could get used to this. :)

Fun day

Since Landin is off at scout camp with kayaking and flight simulators I thought it would be nice if we did something fun with the 3 who didn't get to go. So we took the kids to see Karate Kid with Jackie Chan. It was a good movie. My favorite part was when the lead kid (Jaden Smith) kissed the cute girl he'd been mooning over the whole movie. They are 12 so it was a sweet little peck. My 3-year-old yelled "EW!" and then for 5 minutes after that kept saying "That's so gross!" thankfully at a lower volume. Brydin (11) and I were laughing so hard. The rest of the movie was pretty good too. I liked this rendition a lot better than the original series...mostly because I liked Jaden Smith better than the dude from the original movies...and who doesn't love Jackie Chan?

After the movie we went to Sam's Club. For some reason my kids absolutely love it there. Possibly because they can get an enormous Icee without breaking the family budget. So when they wanted the candy at the movie theater I bribed them with going to get an Icee at Sam's Club after the movie. Of course, we didn't leave with just the Icee's...but that's how it works at Sam's Club. :)

I think it turned out okay for an impromptu day out. :) Now I get to spend the rest of the day doing homework.

Updated kid pics. :)

I've had multiple requests for some pictures of the kids. I have finally managed to get my computer turned on at the same time as knowing where the camera cord & camera are...so here we go. These are mostly from Kierstin's birthday in April.

Kierstin with her special cake with purple frosting that she didn't have to share (yes there was a big one for everyone else).

Favorite family gifts included this princess makeup kit from Gram.

The craft kit from the family.

And the mermaid toys and flip-flops from Grandma and Grandpa.

Her party was the following Saturday and she had a blast. We had a pinata and cupcakes.

Favorite gifts from the party....Taylor Swift Barbie (she sings too!...over and over and over again. Good thing I like her songs!)

And always the princess...of course the tiara with lots of bling was a hit.


And since I didn't manage to get any good pics of Brydin at the party here's one of him. :)

New Job!

Yea! I just got a job offer that I'm kinda excited about. Assuming I pass the background checks and drug screening I'll be an Assistant Manager at Walgreens. I don't have a start date or those kind of details but it pays enough that I will be able to pay the bills and let Billy stay home and finish his degree. This is a good thing because that will mean no daycare costs. The benefits are excellent and there is a tremendous amount of potential if I work hard. I don't like to sit still so that shouldn't be a problem. :)

Sunlight and Dust

This morning I was in my room with Jaydin sorting clean laundry to be distributed to the appropriate owner. My room is on the east side of the house so the morning sun was coming in the window. Jaydin suddenly started saying "Shoo, shoo" over and over again. Thinking maybe there was a fly or other bug I turned to see what he was shoo-ing. He was trying to get the specks of dust out of the air. He must not have ever noticed the sun catching dust before. It was pretty funny.

Easter at our house

Easter at our house was eventful as ever...meaning we stayed at home and didn't do anything exciting. The Easter Bunny had fun going for cheap and easy. Each kid got one unique item that was $3 or less and then a bunch of candy. They were all in heaven. I love it that my kids get excited over stuff that's cheap. It balances out the requests for iPods and cell phones. :)

My kids love VeggieTales so when I saw the Larry the Cucumber suckers for $1 I had to get them. Isn't he cute? :)

Jaydin was very excited to see Larry. However, he must not have thought it tasted very good because after a taste he promptly fed it to the dog. The other 3 ate theirs without complaint so they must not have been too bad. :)

While Easter shopping I realized that Jaydin didn't have any shorts or short-sleeved T-shirts. Since we are already in the 80's I thought that he needed some. This set also came with a white tank top for only $9. I love Walmart!

Kierstin has been asking for a jump rope. She was very excited that the Easter Bunny remembered.

As you can see, she's a pro already.

All the kids got the Reeses carrot but I liked this picture of Brydin better than the one of him with his Pez. :)

Landin specially requested his gift. He received it against my better judgement. He's 12 and finds this kind of thing amusing...I don't. Whatever. It's a wind up bunny who has jelly beans for droppings. The kids got a kick out of it.

Here's Jaydin waiting patiently for his siblings to get outside so they could hunt for eggs. He was being cute and likes his picture taken so I complied.

He got his own area for eggs. Nice and easy. He had a blast.

Then he chased his sister around. Kierstin thought she was so cool finding all those eggs. I made her count how many she had out loud and wouldn't let the big boys start until she hit 7.


All those eggs he found and he was the most excited about the golf ball he found. Sigh.... Oh well...he was more excited about the eggs when he discovered they had candy in them. :)


As soon as I gave them the go-ahead the boys tore off the porch trying to beat each other to the eggs they had already seen. I was amased...when we did a final count they actually managed to almost get the same amount. Landin and Jaydin each found 10, Kierstin 11, and Brydin 9. I had Kierstin give Brydin 1 so everyone had the same amount of candy and everyone was happy. I was even more happy when Kierstin didn't argue about giving up 1 of her eggs. :) Of course, they were so hyped up on sugar that they weren't about to sit still for 4 hours of conference so I gave them a break for my sanity since they had done well on Saturday. In the evening we had them watch "To This End Was I Born" so we had some kind of religion for them to commemorate the religious holiday rather than just the fun pagan stuff. I thought it was a decent balance. :)

I have joined the ranks of Facebook...

Okay...I caved in today and signed up for Facebook. I'll make an attempt to update something at some kind of intervals but no promises. :) I sent a bunch of friend requests out but had some difficulty with the word verification box not allowing me to type in it. :) If you want to be my friend and I didn't send out a request don't be offended....it probably didn't work or I couldn't find you because you have a similar name as other people. :) Send me a request and we can hook up that way. :)

Facebook?

Okay...so I was slow to the world of blogging and am still not the best blogger out there...but I participate and use it to let people who care know what's going on with me and my family. However, I don't get Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. What is their purpose? Are they blogs? Why do people keep inviting me? What would I do if I decided to join Facebook? Would I even have anyone follow me there? Maybe so since I keep getting invited. :) Can anyone fill me in? What's the difference between a blog and Facebook?

Snow Day!!!!

So...I woke up this morning at my normal "get the kids to school" time and looked out the window and forgot where I was living. I quickly remembered when I looked at the school district website and saw that school was canceled for the day. :) Of course by that time we already had 1 1/2 inches and by 10:00 we had 3-4 inches which around here is like 3-4 feet. The news is advising people not to be on the roads if they don't have to be. Granted around here they don't have any facilities to clear snow away.

On a happier note, this was Jaydin's first experience with real snow. He couldn't wait to get outside and play in it. Kierstin doesn't really remember snow but she was determined to show him how to build a snowman. When her kind older brothers reminded her that she didn't know how to build one herself she told them that it didn't matter she could figure it out and they could both figure out their first snowman together. No snowmen were actually attempted but some snowballs did get thrown and many new tracks were made in the backyard.

I'm freaking people out again

I'm not sure if it's a blessing or not, but I have this tendancy to smile at times when others would be either fighting mad or in hysterical tears. The first time I noticed it was when my dad died. Don't get me wrong...I cried when he died and can still tear up now if I let myself. However, at my dad's funeral I was smiling and even laughing a little. After it was over I came back into the chapel and was thanking my friends who had come to the funeral like I was thanking them for coming to a party I was having. I wasn't forcing anything or faking or in shock. I genuinely felt that way. I saw several head shakes and had one person comment on my smile. I was freaking them out.

Now again I'm freaking people out. Last Thursday I joined the ranks of victims of corporate downsizing. I'm still smiling. I hated the job and was trying to figure out how to get a new one without having to pay back last year's tuition. Now, not only do I not have to pay back the tuition, but my last semester will still be paid for. I'm basically on vacation until 3/5 while I'm still on payroll but don't have to show up for work. So I get a whole month to have my last leg of school finished without having to worry about finances. I got a decent severance package and will qualify for unemployment. Billy and I figure that between that and unemployment we should be okay financially for about 10 months. I'm optimistic that I can find a job...somewhere in the country...in 10 months. We've moved across the country for a job before...what's the big deal with doing it again if there isn't a job here?

So I smile...and it's real...and it freaks people out. What can I do? :)

Odd jobs anyone? :)

Landin is working on his Personal Management merit badge. This requires him to select an item for purchase that our family considers expensive. He then has to make a plan on how to earn the money and save accordingly. Our family income is enough to pay the bills but not enough to give 4 kids an allowance too. This means in order to manage his money he needs to earn some first. :) He has decided that he will hire himself out for odd jobs and babysitting. He is 12 and in 7th grade and is good with his younger siblings (though I don't think he's quite up to care for an infant alone yet...a child older than 2 would be fine though). He listed mowing lawns and misc. yard work or "whatever you just haven't gotten around to" as suggestions. I realize that it is January and the grass isn't exactly growing much but if your yard needs to be cleaned or something along those lines and you would like to hire a 12-year-old feel free to contact us. :)

Kierstin and the Frog

When the Girl Scout office had their training for the girls to learn about selling cookies they told them about a drawing for an enormous plush frog that they could enter if they went to the goal website, made a goal poster on the site, printed it out and took it to the GS office. Kierstin was happy to oblige and entered. I got an e-mail today saying that she had actually won the stupid thing! It is as big as she is! She has creatively named it "Froggy" and is sleeping with it tonight. :)

Girl Scout Cookie time again!!

I can't believe it has been a whole year! If anyone wants some Girl Scout cookies let me know. :) Kierstin and I will be going to a real GS camp this year and she is sooooooo excited she can hardly stand it. So mom wants to sell as many cookies as possible so that not much comes out of pocket. :) If anyone wants to come by our booth tomorrow we'll be at the Walgreens on Abe St from 12-2.