We are home! We arrived yesterday and already missing the lake, the lack of humidity and the pines (among many other things!). *sigh*
When I finish unpacking and a few other pressing projects, I'll be sure to update with photos and stories of our fabulous time up north!
Talk to you soon.....
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Blogging Vacation
Hi all, Nicole here, I have been designated with the task of letting Liz's readers know that she is on vacation. Now mind you, I did not want to be the one to tell you all as I am quite jealous of the fact that she is on a 3 week vacation in Wisconsin. Being the nice sister I am however, I thought it would be better to do as I was told : ) Liz will be back to blogging the first week of August, unless of course she is kind enough to get out of the cool, clear lake to posts some pictures. Have fun gang!
Nicole
Nicole
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Yes, I am that nerdy.
And to prove it:
They all fit neatly back into their bag/box and are ready to go. It's so much easier than doling out handful after handful and waaaay cheaper than buying them in the "snack size". So there, I am a nerd, a kitchen scale using kind of nerd.
OK, I'll also admit that I did the math on the number of servings that come in each box so I know exactly how much each person gets, even down to the food I am bringing to the cabin. They may have this snack X number of times per week and that snack X number of times per week.
Hey, don't knock it until you have to travel with four hungry children and stay away from home for three weeks.
We need to make this food last people.
These are the snacks I bought for our upcoming road trip:
This is what they look like after I used my scale to put each portion in individual snack bags:
They all fit neatly back into their bag/box and are ready to go. It's so much easier than doling out handful after handful and waaaay cheaper than buying them in the "snack size". So there, I am a nerd, a kitchen scale using kind of nerd.
OK, I'll also admit that I did the math on the number of servings that come in each box so I know exactly how much each person gets, even down to the food I am bringing to the cabin. They may have this snack X number of times per week and that snack X number of times per week.
Hey, don't knock it until you have to travel with four hungry children and stay away from home for three weeks.
We need to make this food last people.
Did I ever tell you about that time?
A couple of months ago I participated in our neighborhood garage sale. It's always motivating to have a reason to clean out every nook and cranny of your house.
Cash. Cold, hard cash.
Most of you know my profits from the sale went to buy a new cell phone since someone decided mine was part of the "free" bin on one of the tables.
The tables. Oh, those tables.
Randy arranged for me to borrow them from our church and arranged to borrow Jeff's truck to pick them up and drop them off.
Just drop them off.
He sweetly loaded them up along with any leftover items from my garage sale so I could run them back to the church, but first I made a pit stop by the senior center to donate my remaining items. He did offer to take them for me, but was still at the dentist with Ryde getting their teeth cleaned.
Dentist or drop something off? Um, anything that does not have dentist in it, thank you.
After unloading the extra things, oh wait, did I mention it was a sweltering day and Jeff's air conditioning was broken? OK, sorry, back to the story. It was hot, very hot and as I pulled out of the senior center, I mapped the fastest route to the church and headed west. I came to an intersection and sat at a red light waiting to make a left turn. The light turned green and I slowly started my was through when I heard what sounded like a crash and what felt like the truck falling apart followed by cars honking. In the rear view mirror I caught sight of three folding tables in the middle of the street.
Blocking traffic.
At the soonest possible place I turned around and headed back to assess the situation. Yep, there they were, preventing any other vehicles from making the left turn I just made. Nice. I pulled into the driveway of a house that was on the same street and hopped out of the truck while calling Randy over and over again on my phone. Apparently he was still in the midst of dental work and never heard his phone. As I stepped out into the street, readying myself to pull these heavy tables out of the way, I wondered how in the world I was going to get them back up in the truck.
Eye contact.
That was all it took. One person, a man rather, who was coming up to the light made eye contact with me. With a helpless look on my face I ran up to his open car window (his ac must have been broken too) and asked him if he could help me lift the tables out of the road and into the bed of the truck. He hesitated for a second, looking around for the candid camera crew and quickly realized this girl needed assistance. Together we lifted the tables through stopped traffic while a city police car drove by without even slowing down (thanks a lot!). With sweat running down my flushed face I thanked him for being my angel and we both went on our way.
Well, kind of.
I made it two blocks to a big parking lot where I re-secured the ratchet straps over the tables to make sure I wouldn't cause another traffic jam on the way home. Driving as slowly as legally possible, I made it safely back to our driveway where I left the tables for Randy to return.
Next time, I'll stick with the dentist.
Cash. Cold, hard cash.
Most of you know my profits from the sale went to buy a new cell phone since someone decided mine was part of the "free" bin on one of the tables.
The tables. Oh, those tables.
Randy arranged for me to borrow them from our church and arranged to borrow Jeff's truck to pick them up and drop them off.
Just drop them off.
He sweetly loaded them up along with any leftover items from my garage sale so I could run them back to the church, but first I made a pit stop by the senior center to donate my remaining items. He did offer to take them for me, but was still at the dentist with Ryde getting their teeth cleaned.
Dentist or drop something off? Um, anything that does not have dentist in it, thank you.
After unloading the extra things, oh wait, did I mention it was a sweltering day and Jeff's air conditioning was broken? OK, sorry, back to the story. It was hot, very hot and as I pulled out of the senior center, I mapped the fastest route to the church and headed west. I came to an intersection and sat at a red light waiting to make a left turn. The light turned green and I slowly started my was through when I heard what sounded like a crash and what felt like the truck falling apart followed by cars honking. In the rear view mirror I caught sight of three folding tables in the middle of the street.
Blocking traffic.
At the soonest possible place I turned around and headed back to assess the situation. Yep, there they were, preventing any other vehicles from making the left turn I just made. Nice. I pulled into the driveway of a house that was on the same street and hopped out of the truck while calling Randy over and over again on my phone. Apparently he was still in the midst of dental work and never heard his phone. As I stepped out into the street, readying myself to pull these heavy tables out of the way, I wondered how in the world I was going to get them back up in the truck.
Eye contact.
That was all it took. One person, a man rather, who was coming up to the light made eye contact with me. With a helpless look on my face I ran up to his open car window (his ac must have been broken too) and asked him if he could help me lift the tables out of the road and into the bed of the truck. He hesitated for a second, looking around for the candid camera crew and quickly realized this girl needed assistance. Together we lifted the tables through stopped traffic while a city police car drove by without even slowing down (thanks a lot!). With sweat running down my flushed face I thanked him for being my angel and we both went on our way.
Well, kind of.
I made it two blocks to a big parking lot where I re-secured the ratchet straps over the tables to make sure I wouldn't cause another traffic jam on the way home. Driving as slowly as legally possible, I made it safely back to our driveway where I left the tables for Randy to return.
Next time, I'll stick with the dentist.
Monday, July 5, 2010
She turned 8.
Our sweet, baby girl keeps growing up.....8. Less than two years to double digits.
She was a princess for the entire day, crown and all! She requested french toast, sausage, potatoes and eggs for breakfast. Then it was shopping at Justice with Grandma where she picked up a sundress, a new doggie, and a few tops. Next on the list, Cheesecake Factory with Daddy for lunch. After her splendid piece of chocolate raspberry truffle cake, she headed home to play dress-up. Randy was king, I was queen and the boys were our loyal subjects. Ashlynn was, ofcourse, the princess.
The princess made a special request for her birthday dinner: tacos. And lots of them. We invited over the other loyal subjects of our kingdom (uncles, grandma & grandpa) and had a feast. Dessert was no exception to her longings. Homemade brownies with frosting and nuts, but the real challenge was the request for homemade lemon ice cream. The internet was scoured and recipe was found, let's just say it was DELICIOUS! Before the food had a chance to settle it was off to the pool with our princess. Daddy, uncles and brothers accompanied her highness to the royal pool where they splashed the evening away.
The final event of the evening was watching a movie with the girls, though the king indulged with us and quite enjoyed it too! He carried the sleepy princess to bed and tucked her in with a kiss and promptly told her to stop growing up so fast, to which she quickly agreed.
Where has the time gone?
She was a princess for the entire day, crown and all! She requested french toast, sausage, potatoes and eggs for breakfast. Then it was shopping at Justice with Grandma where she picked up a sundress, a new doggie, and a few tops. Next on the list, Cheesecake Factory with Daddy for lunch. After her splendid piece of chocolate raspberry truffle cake, she headed home to play dress-up. Randy was king, I was queen and the boys were our loyal subjects. Ashlynn was, ofcourse, the princess.
The princess made a special request for her birthday dinner: tacos. And lots of them. We invited over the other loyal subjects of our kingdom (uncles, grandma & grandpa) and had a feast. Dessert was no exception to her longings. Homemade brownies with frosting and nuts, but the real challenge was the request for homemade lemon ice cream. The internet was scoured and recipe was found, let's just say it was DELICIOUS! Before the food had a chance to settle it was off to the pool with our princess. Daddy, uncles and brothers accompanied her highness to the royal pool where they splashed the evening away.
The final event of the evening was watching a movie with the girls, though the king indulged with us and quite enjoyed it too! He carried the sleepy princess to bed and tucked her in with a kiss and promptly told her to stop growing up so fast, to which she quickly agreed.
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