I Got Sticks!

2007 Space Derby Champion

Caleb and his winning rocket.

Ready to Explode

This is the cake I did for Caleb's class party. The one I did for the Blue and Gold banquet was a little different- not made of styrofoam and fondant like this one.

Sisters

Menu Plan Monday

Saturday- Hotdogs, chips

Sunday- Bruschetta chicken bake, Italian roasted potatoes, salad, French bread, cherry

turnovers

Monday- Quick and Easy Tater Tot Casserole

Tuesday- Spaghetti, French bread

Wednesday- leftovers

Thursday- BBQ pork sandwiches, corn on the cob

Friday- Homemade pizza

Be sure to visit Laura for more yummy ideas!

35

Yesterday was my birthday and I officially entered the middle-aged category. When I was younger (like in college), for some reason, I always skipped over this milestone when thinking of my future. I went straight to "old" (read:40). As I was lying in bed yesterday morning, I realized that 40 didn't seem so old. It's only 5 years away, and 30 to 35 wasn't that big of a deal. 50 doesn't even seem that old. I guess it helps that my parents are in their 60's and very active still. In high school, I always thought of myself going back to work, or being PTA president or something like that, since my kids would be in school and I'd have my days free. If I had only 2 kids like I planned in high school, I could be doing either of those things, but I guess with 4 kids, I'm doing pretty good being halfway there. Of course, I could hope to take after my grandmothers, both of whom are in their 90's. That way, I have another 10 years to go before I hit middle-age. Positive thinking does wonders!

Menu Plan Monday

Saturday- Birthday party at Chuck E. Cheeses, so leftovers for dinner

Sunday- Roast pork loin, sauerkraut with brown sugar, Italian roast potatoes

Monday-Italian pork hoagies, chips

Tuesday- Potato pizza, salad

Wednesday- Happy birthday to me- no cooking tonight!

Thursday- Ranch chicken, corn, rolls

Friday- Homemade pizza

Check out more yummy things at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

63 Years Ago

From Boortz.com:

Sixty-three years ago on this day allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in what is still, to this day, the largest seaborne invasion in the history of the world. Just a little historical oddity, but the name for the overall operation to retake Western Europe from Hitler's Nazis was Operation Overlord. The name for the actual June 6th invasion of Normandy was Operation Neptune. Neptune began on June 6, 1944, and ended 24 days later on June 30th. The allied forces suffered about 10,000 causalities on D-Day. About 2500 of those casualties were deaths. The U.S. forces casualty figure was 6,603, inducing 1,465 dead, 3,184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured.

President Roosevelt's Prayer in his radio address:

Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
Almighty God: our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day without rest - until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters and brothers of brave men overseas -- whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a countenance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen. Pres. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, June 6, 1944

Menu Plan Monday

I haven't done a Menu Plan Monday for a few weeks, seeing as Mondays have been crazy lately, then I ran across a blog (hi Annie!) I read on weekends, and duh duh DUH they had their menu already posted. So, I'm going to write my menu, save it, then hunt down the picture on Monday, since it's not on my new computer.

Saturday- BBQ kielbasa, au gratin potatoes

Sunday- Gyro Burgers, tater tots

Monday- Roast chicken, green beans

Tuesday-Pigs in a blanket, chips

Wednesday- Chicken and rice, corn

Thursday- Lemon chicken with angel hair pasta, salad

Friday- Homemade Pizza

For more yummy ideas, go to I'm an Organizing Junkie

Laundry Woo Hoo Day

On Saturday, Perry was getting a load of laundry out of the dryer when he noticed that the entire load had some sort of brown stain on them. Digging further in the drum, he found an empty brown crayon wrapper. This was Mischa's load, and probably about a third of her clothes. I just about threw up right then and there. I hit the web and the Crayola website has a great stain chart. Several forums I went to had the same advice. On Monday, I ran to the store for the ingredients I needed. I had enough WD-40 at home to do half of the load. Of that load, just over half came out clean. After more WD-40 was bought, I did the rest of the load and redid the half that needed it. On the second load, a few from the first load still needed a little help, and only one dress needed some help. I was out of propellant for the WD-40, so I just put some color safe bleach on the stains, and used my bleach pen on the white ribbon of the dress. Everything came out, except for the ribbon stains, and they are a whole bunch lighter. I figure if I get to them every time I wash the dress, they should be gone in 2 or 3 washes. I cannot tell you how relieved I am. It took about 8 hours in all, but it saved me from shopping.

Nature's Twinkle Lights

We went to see Night at the Museum at a park by our house last night. It was a perfect day- not hot, not humid, no mosquitos. We had a picnic dinner, then set the kids out to play for the few hours before the movie started (this was the only downside to the outing- a movie that starts at dark, when dark isn't until 9:00). While we were waiting for the movie to start, the DJ of the sponsoring radio station mentioned the lightning bugs in the trees. This park runs next to the Chattahoochee River, so there are a ton of trees. It looked like a stadium where everyone was taking pictures at the action on the field. I have never seen so many lightning bugs going off at the same time, so often. It was a really neat thing to see.

Almost Over

Two more days. Just two. And then I'll be sleeping in (if you can count 7 a.m. as sleeping in).
One more event- the Cub Scout Space Derby. That is tomorrow, and is officially the last activity on the calendar. I've survived the hardest part, which was yesterday. Caleb's class party was yesterday and I think it went pretty well, even though we had to stay indoors because the smoke from the south Georgia fires was paying us a visit. The volcano cake smoked (I'll have to post pictures), no sand was spilled in our dolphin key chain craft, and most of the class finally got me their thank you notes to the teacher so I could gather them into the binder. I feel a little guilty, though, because I haven't gotten any teacher gifts from the kids. I was just so burned out in Caleb's class (and he did a letter), and I just donated to the baby shower we had for Mischa's teacher a few days ago (and she wrote a letter, too), but we didn't do anything for the TAG teachers. Maybe I'll have them write a letter to put in their boxes on Friday. I just don't feel like going into another store for a long time (Perry'll be glad for that, lol). I ended up babysitting last minute for 3 kids until 4:30, so I was almost too pooped to go to our Girl Scout Service Unit's dinner at one of our favourite Italian places. Almost. I might've rethought going, but registrations for next year were due yesterday and since I had two parents give me their registrations yesterday morning (they were due last Tuesday, but only half the group gave me theirs) I couldn't go drop them off at the registrar's house until it was almost time for the dinner. I had a little frustration with our treasurer, who is crazily involved in school activities, complaining to me about having to get her stuff to me last minute for the registration. Even though she had the paperwork filled out about two days after I gave it to her and all she had to do last minute was fill out three checks. I had talked to her Monday about dropping everything into my box Tuesday, but apparently she forgot she agreed to that, so I had to run past her house on the way to dinner to pick it all up. Ugh. But it's over. The dinner was good, it was fun meeting new people, and the waiter had us sing happy birthday to a guy who swore he couldn't be embarrassed. Now I have to turn my attention to the house, which has been woefully neglected in the past week. Ugh.

What a Deal!

I've had my eye on this since the Fall, when some friends of the family got it for their birthday. Back then, it was selling for almost $70 (which was cheaper than what it was when it was purchased for the birthday). About a month ago, I saw it for $35 at Wal-Mart, and almost bought it. They had tons, so I decided to keep a really close eye on it. Last week it was $25. I had already picked up two Spider Man 3 twin sheet sets and two Spider Man 3 throws for the boys' beds, so I figured I would buy two of them this coming Saturday for Christmas presents. I went to Wal-Mart last night with Caleb to get some things for a project and they were gone! I decided to peruse the toy department, thinking maybe they got moved to a different section. I saw a cart filled with toys that needed to be put back, and right next to it was one of the forts. Marked down to $13!!! I grabbed it, but was very sad to only have one (with 4 kids, I wanted at least two). I passed the clearance section in the front of the store and to my joy, they had about 10 more!!! I grabbed 3 more so each of the kids would have one. When I got home, I called my friend about the deal because she had talked about getting another one, and we started talking about how great these would be as presents. I ran over to Wal-Mart at lunch to see if they had any more left, since I wanted to get some for two of my nephews here in Georgia (or at least the second one will be by his birthday). There was one left. I was bummed. I decided to see if the magic of last night would be repeated, so off I went to the corner of the toy section. And in the same place, next to a cart filled with toys, was another fort. Woo Hoo!! Since Caleb already saw them, I'm not saving them for Christmas, but they won't be pulled out until after school ends. If the kids dare to complain about being bored now, I'm going to have to give up.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Yesterday started out normally enough....

After school....

After dinner.....

It's a little hard to tell in that picture, but Caleb lost his first top tooth. The other one is loose, too. It takes forever for his teeth to grow in (Mischa lost one after he lost the bottom two and hers has grown all the way in already), so he might be making friends with a blender in the near future.

Click here for a great giveaway! People who can do this are so amazing!

Menu Plan Monday

I have no idea what's gotten into me- almost everything this week is a new recipe.

Saturday- Chicken Caesar Salad- we went and saw Spiderman 3, so I grabbed a package of pre cooked and sliced chicken, a bagged Caesar salad kit and some fresh Parmesan.

Sunday-Ranch Chicken, rice, corn.

Monday- Kielbasa covered with BBQ sauce, sour cream and chive potatoes, rolls

Tuesday-Quick and Cheesy Sausage Rotini, Yummy green beans, bread sticks

Wednesday- Chicken enchilada casserole

Thursday- Saucy Pork Medallions, stuffing, peas

Friday- Girls' Night Out- the boys are going camping, so my daughters and I are looking forward to our traditional meal of Pizza Hut and ice cream.

For more yummy ideas, head on over to I'm an Organizing Junkie.

The New Baby

Here's the latest addition to the John family. The kids are excited, since that means they get a computer again (theirs died a few months ago). This will be a great help on our trip to the Southwest with our new GPS software and downloading digital pictures of the reunion. I've never done the laptop thing before, but I'm excited, especially since I saw that Hearts, Minesweeper, and Freecell are on it, lol.

Cakes

I've started doing a few cakes again. This first cake was one I did for the Blue and Gold banquet for Cub Scouts. I did two cakes, but Perry took the digital to England, so I don't have a picture of the first cake, which was a smoking volcano, yet (haven't developed them). Little Hawaiian dude wasn't eaten, so we brought him home for Perry's birthday.

This next cake was done for the son of one of the women I visit teach for his baptism.

I'm going to do the volcano cake again for Caleb's class party, so I'll have some pictures of that soon. I might modify it, though, and make the volcano out of styrofoam instead of cake. We had about 50 people at the Blue and Gold and still had a little bit of the cake leftover, so I can't see a class of 20 eating all of it.

The Sexist Stomach Bug

I am back in the land of the living. The girls and I were hit the other night by some sort of stomach bug. A few weeks ago, Caleb threw up twice in three days. Never complained about a stomach ache, being tired, anything. Just got sick in the middle of the night in his bed (not a great way to be woken up at 2 a.m., btw). Josh got sick a few days later. Just once. Complained of an earache a few hours later, but the next day he was running around and didn't really even remember the earache. So when I went to pick up the kids at my friend's house the other day and she told me Anneliese threw up, I thought, "there's her one". We get home and she throws up on the driveway (whew, not in the car), and I thought, "well, she's done". Hahahaha. I forgot the sense of humour God has with me. We used all but 2 of our towels that night. She didn't have much in her stomach, but not even a sip of juice would stay down. I went up a few hours later to watch American Idol and just felt weird. Not sick, just weird. By the time AI was over, I was nauseous. I went downstairs to tell Perry, only to find Mischa in the bathroom. She was so cute. She came out and told us that Heavenly Father told her, through the Holy Ghost, that she was going to be sick and she needed to get to the bathroom. Liese was done being sick by 10 p.m., and at 4 a.m. was wanting to eat and kept it down. She was quite the chatterbox then, too. Mischa didn't fare so well. We sent her to bed with a bowl, which she lined with a Wal-Mart bag so my "bowl wouldn't get dirty", but she was up all night. I was sick a few times, but so nauseous I couldn't sleep. I actually took two two hour naps yesterday (I have to be on death's door to sleep during the day). Perry called from work, saying he wasn't feeling sick sick, just like he had hunger pangs without being hungry. He was nauseous for just a few hours at home. I don't know why the girls were hit so hard, so fast, but in the end I'm glad that only half of us had to suffer and at least one parent was functional.

Wax On, Wax Off

We went to the school's walk-a-thon yesterday. We ended up showing up late (but at least Perry got to go with us!) because of some miscommunication the family I babysit for on Monday had with each other, resulting in the mother telling me her son would be home at 4:30, instead of the 5:30 she told me a few weeks ago. We only walked a mile out of the 2 miles and we could've probably done the second mile before the trail closed, but the kids were starting to complain and lag a bit. We had a Mexican dinner catered in (not too popular with the kids, but I thought it was tasty and I'm not too fond of Mexican food). At the end of the dinner, they had a prize giveaway for the person who raised the most, class that raised the most, and grade that raised the most. It was a very successful fundraiser, with all but $200 of their $15000 goal raised by last night. They also had a raffle. They raffled off an 8" TV, some CD players, gift certificates to a sporting goods store and an ice cream place, two lucky people won a pound of chocolate (the little girl I watch in the morning was one of those), and then they announced the last prize of the night. Six months of unlimited karate lessons. I just closed my eyes and chanted "Caleb, Caleb, Caleb" in my head. The assistant principal announced, "Caleb....J". I opened my eyes and looked at Perry. Did I hear right? He's been bugging us to do karate, and our dr. thinks it will be good to get him involved in non-classroom activities so he can experience success in multiple fields, so this is just perfect. Of course, check with me in a month when I sign him up and he shows his siblings his karate moves (he had had the gift certificate in hand for all about 30 seconds when we gave him this talk). And now Mischa is starting to bug us about karate lessons...