Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
And I would've gotten away with it too...
...if it weren't for that scaredy cat!
The new neighbors across the street apparently have two cats. One grey and one black and they both like hanging out in our yard, but especially love lounging on our new patio furniture. The other day I heard a noise at the front door around dinner time, so I went to go check it out. Turns out it was the black cat scratching at the door....it was sitting there waiting for me to open the door!! This morning I went outside to get the newspaper and what do you know, there was the black cat laying on one of the patio chairs. OMG....I ran back in the house to get the camera (I've been trying to get a picture of them in the act for a few days now), but I couldn't find it. Meanwhile Tyler went outside, I was sure the cat was going to run away. Then I remembered that I had left the camera upstairs, so I ran up the stairs and back down (surely the cat was gone by now). I turned the camera on, went back outside and the cat was still sitting there! However, as soon I raised the camera to take a picture the cat lept off the chair and rocketed back across the street. Soooo, close! The cats don't really bother me that much, I just think it's a little strange that they spend so much time at our house. I was just trying to get a picture for blogging purposes, not really for any other reason.
I brought Tyler, my new human calculator to the Farmer's market this morning. Don't ask me how he suddenly came to be a mathematician...I think it has something to do with his computer games. Anyway, I told Tyler that I had $10 to spend at the market. First we bought a watermelon for $3 and he informed me that I had $7 left. Dang! How does he know that, I thought to myself. Next we picked up a bag of caramel kettle corn for another $3 and Tyler told me I still had $4 left to spend. Wow, right again! But only $4 left and we still wanted to buy apples, corn on the cob and green beans...could we do it? We bought 4 ears of corn for $1 and Tyler started to freak out...."Mommy, are apples for 3 dollars?" Sure enough we picked 4 small apples for $2 and still had $1 left for a half pound of green beans. We even made it out of there with .25 cents to spare. Tyler was ultra proud of himself for helping keep track of the money while we shopped. Me too, where does he learn this stuff?
The new neighbors across the street apparently have two cats. One grey and one black and they both like hanging out in our yard, but especially love lounging on our new patio furniture. The other day I heard a noise at the front door around dinner time, so I went to go check it out. Turns out it was the black cat scratching at the door....it was sitting there waiting for me to open the door!! This morning I went outside to get the newspaper and what do you know, there was the black cat laying on one of the patio chairs. OMG....I ran back in the house to get the camera (I've been trying to get a picture of them in the act for a few days now), but I couldn't find it. Meanwhile Tyler went outside, I was sure the cat was going to run away. Then I remembered that I had left the camera upstairs, so I ran up the stairs and back down (surely the cat was gone by now). I turned the camera on, went back outside and the cat was still sitting there! However, as soon I raised the camera to take a picture the cat lept off the chair and rocketed back across the street. Soooo, close! The cats don't really bother me that much, I just think it's a little strange that they spend so much time at our house. I was just trying to get a picture for blogging purposes, not really for any other reason.
I brought Tyler, my new human calculator to the Farmer's market this morning. Don't ask me how he suddenly came to be a mathematician...I think it has something to do with his computer games. Anyway, I told Tyler that I had $10 to spend at the market. First we bought a watermelon for $3 and he informed me that I had $7 left. Dang! How does he know that, I thought to myself. Next we picked up a bag of caramel kettle corn for another $3 and Tyler told me I still had $4 left to spend. Wow, right again! But only $4 left and we still wanted to buy apples, corn on the cob and green beans...could we do it? We bought 4 ears of corn for $1 and Tyler started to freak out...."Mommy, are apples for 3 dollars?" Sure enough we picked 4 small apples for $2 and still had $1 left for a half pound of green beans. We even made it out of there with .25 cents to spare. Tyler was ultra proud of himself for helping keep track of the money while we shopped. Me too, where does he learn this stuff?
Friday, August 29, 2008
The big 1-0
Today we celebrated Marceau's 10th birthday. Tyler and I made a giant sign using letters and balloons that I cut with the cricut. Then we used stickers and markers to decorate the rest of the paper. We don't usually celebrate Marceau and Max's birthday, but heck, Marceau is 10 years old....I wanted to do something special. I've had her for a long time, longer than any other pet. The average lifespan of a cockatiel is 15-20 years, so hopefully they'll both be around for a long time to come.
For Marceau's birthday dinner, I made some of her favorite....cornbread muffins and spaghetti noodles. The rest of us ate a southwestern style baked spaghetti that had ground beef, tomato, onion, chili powder, bell pepper, and cheddar cheese. I served it with a salad and cornbread muffins. What, no cake? I guess we'll be eating leftover cookies for dessert.
For Marceau's birthday dinner, I made some of her favorite....cornbread muffins and spaghetti noodles. The rest of us ate a southwestern style baked spaghetti that had ground beef, tomato, onion, chili powder, bell pepper, and cheddar cheese. I served it with a salad and cornbread muffins. What, no cake? I guess we'll be eating leftover cookies for dessert.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
More ducks or tomatoes?
While shopping at Costco, I bought another package of sandwich bread (which contains two loaves) thinking that we needed more at home. Well, come to find out we already had some bread in the freezer, so I really didn't need to buy any more. What to do with the extra bread, you ask? Feed the ducks, of course....that's is why Tyler and I found ourselves at the park with an armload of bread.
The amount of ducks at the pond always amazes me...I can't believe how many there are! I was asking Tyler what he thought there was more of....ducks in the pond or tomatoes growing in our garden. I can't tell, I think it's a toss up. There seems to be hundreds of both!
I love feeding the ducks, but there are always a few geese at the pond too. Sometimes, a whole flock will stay for a while. It's funny, the geese always walk straight through the crowd of ducks and will stand right in front and beg for bread. Look at the picture below (you can click on it to see it larger) those two geese at the bottom are standing right at my feet! The one on the bottom right is like, "Uhh...you got any more bread, or what?"
Yesterday, Tyler was browsing the pantry and came across my bag of mini m&m's for baking and proceeded to insist that we needed to use them up. After a little browsing on the Internet, I decided to make monster cookies. The recipe is from the Cookie Madness blog that I visit all the time. What I like best about her recipes is that they are usually for small batches (since she bakes cookies every day), which is great for a small family like ours.
The verdict....they are very tasty. The whole recipe is supposed to make 8 monster sized cookies, but I made 16 smaller cookies instead. They have almost no flour and are made mostly of peanut butter and oatmeal. Oh, and I even pulled out the magic bullet for this one (pssst....see Mom, I'm not even home a week and it's already in use). I didn't have enough quick cooking oats for the recipe, so I pulsed a handful for regular old fashioned oats to make up the difference.
The amount of ducks at the pond always amazes me...I can't believe how many there are! I was asking Tyler what he thought there was more of....ducks in the pond or tomatoes growing in our garden. I can't tell, I think it's a toss up. There seems to be hundreds of both!
I love feeding the ducks, but there are always a few geese at the pond too. Sometimes, a whole flock will stay for a while. It's funny, the geese always walk straight through the crowd of ducks and will stand right in front and beg for bread. Look at the picture below (you can click on it to see it larger) those two geese at the bottom are standing right at my feet! The one on the bottom right is like, "Uhh...you got any more bread, or what?"
Yesterday, Tyler was browsing the pantry and came across my bag of mini m&m's for baking and proceeded to insist that we needed to use them up. After a little browsing on the Internet, I decided to make monster cookies. The recipe is from the Cookie Madness blog that I visit all the time. What I like best about her recipes is that they are usually for small batches (since she bakes cookies every day), which is great for a small family like ours.
The verdict....they are very tasty. The whole recipe is supposed to make 8 monster sized cookies, but I made 16 smaller cookies instead. They have almost no flour and are made mostly of peanut butter and oatmeal. Oh, and I even pulled out the magic bullet for this one (pssst....see Mom, I'm not even home a week and it's already in use). I didn't have enough quick cooking oats for the recipe, so I pulsed a handful for regular old fashioned oats to make up the difference.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Well, Look at that!
Finally, I'm back in business! Our camera was delivered to our door last Thursday, after we had already left for Chico. We had a friend come over and pick it up and hold it for us until we came back. So I finally got my hands on it this morning and have been trying it out....taking pictures of anything and everything. Indoors, Outdoors, Tyler, the birds, my garden....you name it!
Yesterday, I picked some of the vegetables from the garden that had ripened while we were away. I ended up with a huge bowl of tomatoes (almost double what is in the picture below) and a couple of giant zucchini. There are quite a few bell peppers that are ready too, but I find that they last longer if I just leave them on the plant.
The day before we left town, I sent Rick to work with a large bowl of vegetables to share with the guys. I sent tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, sweet banana peppers, zucchini, and a bell pepper. I was trying to share our bounty with someone we actually knew, instead of just random neighbors. Now Rick went back to work yesterday and tells me that nobody took the vegetables...they were still sitting there. What?!!? Why would you not take free food? I had picked it fresh from the garden that day...you can't beat that! Oh well, I guess I'll just go back to offering vegetables to random neighbors or to anyone that knocks on our door.
My garden doesn't look so bad, now does it? This is the box that has peppers (bell, jalapeno, and banana) in the front and zucchini and squash in the very back.
Yesterday, I picked some of the vegetables from the garden that had ripened while we were away. I ended up with a huge bowl of tomatoes (almost double what is in the picture below) and a couple of giant zucchini. There are quite a few bell peppers that are ready too, but I find that they last longer if I just leave them on the plant.
The day before we left town, I sent Rick to work with a large bowl of vegetables to share with the guys. I sent tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, sweet banana peppers, zucchini, and a bell pepper. I was trying to share our bounty with someone we actually knew, instead of just random neighbors. Now Rick went back to work yesterday and tells me that nobody took the vegetables...they were still sitting there. What?!!? Why would you not take free food? I had picked it fresh from the garden that day...you can't beat that! Oh well, I guess I'll just go back to offering vegetables to random neighbors or to anyone that knocks on our door.
My garden doesn't look so bad, now does it? This is the box that has peppers (bell, jalapeno, and banana) in the front and zucchini and squash in the very back.
Here's a look at the tomatoes...it's a little deceiving from this angle. Most of the red ripe tomatoes are on the other side of the box....and believe me, there is no shortage of those!
Here are the sungolds...I love these tomatoes! They are so sweet and have such a pretty color in salads and salsa.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Guess How Many
Last night I went into the garden and picked all the ripe cherry tomatoes. We have two varieties. . . regular red cherry tomatoes and sungold tomatoes, which are a bright orange when ripe. I brought a cereal bowl with me and filled it up to the brim. Then I took it in the house and make everyone try to guess how many tomatoes were in the bowl. You want to make a guess? Oh, that's right....I can't take a picture! Rick guessed 30 tomatoes, but then Tyler wanted to guess that number so Rick had to guess 35 instead. Having picked the tomatoes, I knew the number was higher than that, so I guessed 55 tomatoes. Boy, was I wrong (and everyone else too)!! I counted 90 cherry tomatoes! Not bad, not bad at all for the little garden that could. Wait, I think that is Susan's garden. My garden is more like the garden that likes to grow a bazillion teeny tiny vegetables.
As for my pictureless blog, we ordered a new camera on Friday so hopefully things around here will be getting back to normal by the end of next week. It's a Panasonic Lumix TZ5, if anyone is a camera nerd or just wants to know. Our old camera had a bit of a hard time taking good pictures indoors, so maybe the new camera will be better in that department. I just miss being able to take pictures....being able to document the progress of my garden, taking pictures of the food I cook, of course pictures of Tyler and the family. The summer is the busiest time around here with the most events/activities going on and I hate not having a camera.
I don't want to bore you with the fat lot of nothing we did this weekend...I mean NOTHING! We basically just sat around the house for a few days. I don't know why, but I'll just use the excuse that it was too hot outside to do anything else. We are leaving for Chico on Thursday so I'd better snap out of this funk and do some fun things with Tyler for the next couple of days. We all know how he does on 10 hour plus trips...eek!
As for my pictureless blog, we ordered a new camera on Friday so hopefully things around here will be getting back to normal by the end of next week. It's a Panasonic Lumix TZ5, if anyone is a camera nerd or just wants to know. Our old camera had a bit of a hard time taking good pictures indoors, so maybe the new camera will be better in that department. I just miss being able to take pictures....being able to document the progress of my garden, taking pictures of the food I cook, of course pictures of Tyler and the family. The summer is the busiest time around here with the most events/activities going on and I hate not having a camera.
I don't want to bore you with the fat lot of nothing we did this weekend...I mean NOTHING! We basically just sat around the house for a few days. I don't know why, but I'll just use the excuse that it was too hot outside to do anything else. We are leaving for Chico on Thursday so I'd better snap out of this funk and do some fun things with Tyler for the next couple of days. We all know how he does on 10 hour plus trips...eek!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Stand Back Said the Elephant
It was really hot here today, right around 100 degrees. It's supposed to stay hot for the next couple of days too....yuck! That's why Tyler and I postponed our trip to the library today until the evening....to avoid the heat during the day. I'm so excited....I picked out an oldie but goodie for Tyler called, Stand Back Said the Elephant, I'm Going to Sneeze! Yet another book I remember from my childhood, but this one is perfect because Rick and Tyler are always joking that I sound like an elephant when I sneeze! Tyler is always telling me, "Bless you Elephant Mommy" whenever I sneeze. I also got another book about a girl who thinks that the moon is a big sugar cookie in the sky and it includes a recipe for Sugar Cookie Moons. I'm all about any children's story book that revolves around cooking or baking. Hopefully Tyler and I will get a chance to try out the recipe before the book is due back.
That reminds me that Tyler decided that he wants to be a chef this year for Halloween. We saw a pattern at Joann's that would be perfect....it includes pants, a button up chef coat (I don't think the buttons actually open, but are just for looks), and a chef's hat. Now all I have to do is find some cute fabric and start a-sewing. I'm so relived....for the longest time, Tyler has been talking about being a pumpkin for Halloween. I think pumpkin costumes are more cute on little babies, so I'm glad he changed his mind without me having to twist his arm too hard.
The house directly across the street from ours finally sold and we met our new neighbors the other night. They seem really nice and the best part is that they have a daughter right in the babysitting age range. Maybe she'll be interested in watching Tyler some time. That was the last empty house on our block, so now it really is starting to feel more like a neigborhood instead of a construction zone.
The summer activities are already starting to wind down. The last art in the park was tonight and the last two movies in the park are coming up this weekend. Yikes, it's going to be harder to keep Tyler entertained now. Maybe we'll catch the movie in the park tomorrow night or the circus is coming to town this weekend, maybe we'll go see that. But for now....I've got to get that boy to bed.....
That reminds me that Tyler decided that he wants to be a chef this year for Halloween. We saw a pattern at Joann's that would be perfect....it includes pants, a button up chef coat (I don't think the buttons actually open, but are just for looks), and a chef's hat. Now all I have to do is find some cute fabric and start a-sewing. I'm so relived....for the longest time, Tyler has been talking about being a pumpkin for Halloween. I think pumpkin costumes are more cute on little babies, so I'm glad he changed his mind without me having to twist his arm too hard.
The house directly across the street from ours finally sold and we met our new neighbors the other night. They seem really nice and the best part is that they have a daughter right in the babysitting age range. Maybe she'll be interested in watching Tyler some time. That was the last empty house on our block, so now it really is starting to feel more like a neigborhood instead of a construction zone.
The summer activities are already starting to wind down. The last art in the park was tonight and the last two movies in the park are coming up this weekend. Yikes, it's going to be harder to keep Tyler entertained now. Maybe we'll catch the movie in the park tomorrow night or the circus is coming to town this weekend, maybe we'll go see that. But for now....I've got to get that boy to bed.....
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