Crock Pot Mania

The latest craze over the weekend was everyone "friending" the Crock Pot Girls on Facebook. So I guess you can label me a follower...I did it too. Browsed for a while and came up with 3 recipes I thought I would try and headed off to the grocery store. Saturday evening's meal was spot-on. French dip sandwiches...yummy! Roast, beef broth, beer, onion soup mix, some buns and mozzarella - easy and delicious. I skipped the crock on Sunday and opted for beef and chicken fajitas with margaritas...again...yummy! So. I chose the Garlic Lime Chicken to cook for Monday night. Had a friend who I had passed my recipes off to as I was leaving the store and she too was going to try the same thing. Then I got a phone call in the afternoon, "don't you think the sauce needs thickening?", she said. I was at work and long away from my crock-pot, so I was wondering what I might find when I got home. Dan worked late, so Bailey and I were the first victims. I made some brown rice and a salad and dished up some of the chicken. It was okay...nothing great, but we came up with several ideas of what could make it better, maybe some water chestnuts, broccoli, etc. Then when Dan finally got home, HE LOVED IT...how does that happen? So tonight will be leftover hodge podge and Wednesday is pizza night. Thursday I will give the crock another try with some more chicken. This time some sort of BBQ number!

Middle What?

So this is the first week of school and Bailey started Middle School, sixth grade to be specific. How is that possible? Wasn't he just starting playschool? He was extremely nervous leading up to the first day. A few weeks ago he had a total meltdown (complete with tears) and confessed he was afraid of how hard it would be and that he thought he might fail. Oh my...what a conversation for Mom! When I got him talked off that ledge and convinced that Mom & Dad are here in this world to prevent our children from failing, mainly because that looks SO bad on the parenting report card, he was good. So a week before the official "First Day", the school hosted a Fish Camp for sixth graders. This was a chance for them to find their locker, practice the OMG LOCKER COMBINATION, drop off supplies, and get their set of books. Holy cow...now I understand the stress of middle school...it's the locker combinations. Obviously our school owns the oldest and crappiest set of lockers known to man and they revolt against sixth graders. So that went well and we spent the next week memorizing his schedule and picking up supplies for his elective class ART! I talked him out of band. And I truly have no regrets over this. He is overwhelmed enough just by being in 6th grade. We are involved in no sport this season, no band practice every night, nothing...except now he thinks his weekends will be wide open for hunting...yep, you might be a redneck!
Fast forward to first day and the conversation at home goes like this:
Me: So Bay, you think I can skip going in to school with you right?
Bay: Sure, I don't need you to go in.
Me: (mental note to get completely dressed - deodorant, teeth brushed, etc.)
Later while pulling up to the school (and seeing multiple Mom's walking in)
Bay: So yeah, you can just come on in with me for a minute.
Me: (smiling)No problem!
The first day was a success and he loves it! His favorite classes (if you can decide that in 47 1/2 minutes) are Art and Science.
Note to Bay: I wish you the very best this year Buddy. Daddy & I are so proud of you, and we know you are going to ROCK Middle School!

Third Day (and belated Happy New Year)

So, I'm not very consistent to say the least. It is now March 1st and I am just now writing something for the (slightly not so much) New Year!

It is such a busy time of the year. Getting into full swing for our favorite sport BASEBALL!! If I could just get Bailey's head on straight about school I could relax about ball. He is so much a boy... He can come home from school and tell us 40 things he did at PE or on the playground, or after school with the *girls*. But his grades are pretty stinky and we can't get him to understand that you can't go to middle school on popularity alone.

On a slightly unrelated note I got to take him to a concert two weekends ago. we got 8th row Third Day tckets for free from a friend! SO at the very last minute we went to Longview and saw them...it was wonderful and he loved it! Such a great expereince for his first concert. And I was able to get some oictures from another person there, so now I can properly scrap the event ;-)



The first scrapping retreat of the year is coming up in three weeks and I am so ready for it! Can't wait to spend a weekend with my sister, mom, aunt, and many friends. Definitely one of the highlights of my year!

Kind of all over the page with this one, but enough for now. Good day!

Rights of Passage

Halloween Weekend - 2010
It started innocently enough...Bay decided he didn't want to dress up for Halloween this year. He just wanted to hand out candy. Then...we realized it was Youth Weekend, a junior hunter's dream! Some friends invited the guys to come onto their lease this weekend and let Bay hunt with the other kids. So after getting hime late from the football game on Friday night, they were up at 5:15 and ready to get to their assigned blind. I took the day to go to First Monday and had been there only an hour when I got the call that Bay had gotten his first deer...a doe. Since the men start hunting this coming weekend, and since Dan & Bay aren't members on this particular lease, they asked that they only shoot at doe. Not easy to figure out who was more excited, Daddy on Bailey :-)
So we all met up for lunch in town and after a couple of hours rest they headed back to the lease to finish building a deer stand and go back for the evening hunt. I settled in for some Texas Rangers action and had just texted that we were ahead 3-0 when they texted back that I needed to bring another cooler out because he had shot his second deer! Needless to say, he wasn't even around for the feew trick-or-treaters that came by on Saturday.
We woke up on Sunday to beautiful weather, so all three of us headed to Canton again. We spent a few hours just walking aorund and taking it all in...a very relaxing day. We went home and watched some football and cooked what Bay calls "ballpark food" for the Ranger game (hot dogs and all the fixins'). Settled in for the ballgame and had a few more kiddos ring the doorbell, so we dumped as much candy as we would into their bags and we STILL have leftover Tootsie Rolls!
So it was kind of bittersweet that the little man has decided he is too old for costumes, but he made that step towards becoming a man as he proclaimed himself the Great Deer Slayer!

Countdown...

The countdown to Vacation - 2010 is on! I have a little more than 9 hours left to work today and then I am free for 10 days. We don't really have a lot planned...going to head to Fredericksburg for a few days, but just the time away from meetings and deadlines and projects is wonderful!
Since April, I have had both grandparents a.)in the hospital b.)in hospice care and finally c.)at their final resting place. Bay had a strep and staph infection that lasted almost 3 months. I had to complete a HUGE project at work documenting all assigned gear by date (for 330+ firefighters). And we are now preparing for the grand opening/ribbon cutting ceremony for the 3 building complex we moved into in January. Can you say STRESS!!!???
School is just around the corner, starting fifth grade in t-minus 18 days. How did that happen? I would swear he was just born twenty minutes ago, but indeed he turned 10 years old last month and he is acting so mature...seriously!
Not much for an update, but I am a bit limited on time for now.

Even the Playing Field

Yesterday, I had the wonderful privilege of being with my sister and brother-in-law for an ultrasound to find out the gender of the new baby on the way. This was a new road for us since I did not find out what Bailey was and they had not found out what Natalie was in their first pregnancy. So it was very exciting to be there and suffer through all the other stuff that the sonographer has to do before getting down to the business at hand. It was previously agreed that the grandparents (who couldn't be there)would dial in to a conference call and hear it all LIVE! But once we got in the room, the gal asked us all to turn off our electronic devices. So the moment of truth came and we found out that Natty will be getting a little brother, Todd a little hockey player, and Lauri a sweet little mama's boy. I say that only because I think boys and their mother's share an incredible bond...one that I absolutely cherish daily with my son. And as much as she loves her first born, her little girl, there is just something about a boy...
Now I can't wait to do some shoping!