Nov. 23, 2009 - Mandie update...
Well, she's home.....took awhile to get in the the van, but we made it. Hopefully, at home she will be able to rest better than in the hospital. She is in a great deal of pain, but is thankful to have been spared.I'm anxious to see how her night went. We will be watching little Bobby J for them today. Dillan has already offered to "totally take care of him". He knows Dillan much better than me so thats good.... Lilah has a program today at her preschool that I would like to go to. I'll have to see how Dillan is doing with Bobby. Gearing up for T-giving here with lots of family, a couple elderly folks , and at least one friend- young girl with a baby who would otherwise be alone. There is much to be thankful for. It will be interesting to see how we will do this with the new kitchen layout. I have a few ideas up my sleeve:)
What do you do when there's "nothing to do?" ... why you make pine needle people, of course.... Devan, Cade, and Sam had fun doing this one day last week..... I wondered if you saw this, Jen..... you were doing a lesson at the time...
Nov. 21, 2009 - Awesome giveaway!
5 Minutes for Mom is giving away an INCREDIBLE HP TouchSmart 600 computer for Christmas! Check it out here!
Nov. 21, 2009 - DONE!!!!!
The room is done! There is even some furniture moved in already. It came out great, a little bit smaller than we had hoped for, but GREAT none the less... The whole experience was great! The contractor was super GREAT! The workers were great! The project came in $600 under the proposal so we had some additional work done. Our contractor went out of his way to get us deals. He went two counties away to get us bamboo floors that were sitting in a barn ~ the leftovers of a business that had gone under. We got them for $1 a linear foot ... they retailed for over $5 a linear foot. They are perfect!! He also looked our house over and found a few things that were in desperate need of repair and fixed them for almost no cost. Let's put it this way. Part of our home had to be jacked up because of a failing support beam. He did the job for $76 ~ the cost of the beam and a little extra to pay for his helper. The mess was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be .... So, you all want me to stop carrying on about how great it was and let you see the results for yourselves!?!?
Yay! Well, this is all you are getting right now. The big reveal will be just after Christmas. This year we are giving no toys (except stocking stuffers) so that we can decorate the children's bedrooms. I'll show you all the rooms once we have curtains up and such.
In the meantime we will be painting the rest of this room. We decided to paint the floor insted of refinishing the wood becuase it is so costly if you have a professional do it. My dh has refinished two floors in our home, but it was a really grueling project, and they have not held up as well as we would have expected. So for now we will paint this floor instead. We will need to do all of the trim work and no furniture can go on it for a week.
That is all for now!
Blessings,
Dawn
Nov. 20, 2009 - Bubble Pizza
I've tried out several "new to me" recipes this week. Most bombed, but today I tried out one that turned out pretty good. It's called "Bubble Pizza." I am trying to break our habit of commercial pizza every Friday night. However, when Friday rolls around it's all want! So I found this recipe (on the All Recipes.com site) that I thought might satisfy my desire for pizza on Friday. I liked it pretty well. We had 5 people come unexpectedly for lunch, and most had seconds. I guess that's a pretty good sign! I served this with a basic green salad. I haven't posted a recipe lately so I thought I would post this one. Below the recipe you will find what I did differently. Enjoy!
Bubble Pizza
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/ 4 pound pepperoni sausage
1 (14 oz) can pizza sauce
2 (12 oz) packages refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough
1/2 onion, sliced and separated into rings
1 (10 ounce) can sliced black olives
1 (4.5 ounce) can sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Place ground beef in a large, deep skillet. Cook over meium high heat until evenly brown. Stir in pepperoni, and cook until browned. Drain excess fat. Stir in pizza sauce. Remove from heat, and set aside.
2. Cut biscuits into quarters, and place in the bottom of baking dish. Spread meat mixture evenly over the biscuits. Sprinkle top with onion, olives and mushrooms.
3. Bake uncovered in preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes. Sprinkle top with mozzarella and Cheddar cheese. Bake an additional 5 - 10 minutes, until cheese is melted. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
What I did different:
1. Biscuits- I made these from scratch since we don't have canned or frozen biscuits here.
2. Pizza Sauce- I bought a can of pizza sauce imported from Italy since they don't carry one from the USA anymore. The can is a bit smaller than what was called for so I opened another can and used part of it. I didn't measure, just dumped part of it in. The sauce is very different from what they sell in the states so I added some Italian seasoning for a little extra flavoring.
3. Olives- I used green instead of black.
4. Cheese- I used only Mozzarella.
5. Mushrooms- I did not have any to put on.
6. Extra ingredientes- I added thin green pepper strips with the onion and olives. I also added some cooked bacon leftover from breakfast.
7. Ants- I'm having an ant invasion in my kitchen these days so I'm pretty sure some were included in this recipe! (but not too many, and they are very very small. I don't think anyone noticed!)
Nov. 20, 2009 - Please pray...
Dillans girlfriend , Mandie, was in a very bad car accident last night. Thankfully, she was not killed, you'd never guess it by looking at the car. She was driving her Moms new (4days new) car- on her permit. So even above all the physical stuff, hip broken in acouple places, broken pelvis and femar, she feels terrible about the car and says she doesn't ever wnat to drive again so...... she could use your prayers. She is going into surgery right now and is fearful of getting put under....
November 18, 2009 - Our Early Thanksgiving
Our friend, Sean, is moving from Roseville to Indianapolis over Thanksgiving week. We wanted to treat him to a going-away Thanksgiving dinner, so I made a full turkey dinner a week early!
Shortly before dinner, 'A' lost his third tooth! We were glad that he did not have to watch how he ate!
Menu
Dilled Deviled Eggs
Spinach Salad with Blackberry Vinaigrette
Roast Turkey with Sage Garlic Butter
Turkey Gravy
Pancetta and Apple Stuffing
Marjoram Mashed Potatoes
Coconut Cardamom Sweet Potatoes
Green Beans with Lemon Bread Crumbs
Cranberry Sauce with Apples and Ginger
Dinner Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
After dinner, we all wrote out things we were grateful for on paper rings and created a paper chain that will help remind us to be thankful for all God's blessings.
The spread...
This is Sean, leaving with plenty of leftovers!
November 18, 2009 - San Francisco Day Trip
Saturday was spent purchasing a new car for my husband. WOO HOO!
We decided to break it in by going on a day trip to San Francisco on Sunday!
Driving over the Golden Gate Bridge...
We drove around Marin county for a while, then went back into the city. Decided to drive to Ocean Park to enjoy the beach. It was a beautiful day and it was fun to watch the surfers.
'R' found a neat piece of beach glass...
'A' wrote out, "I love mom and dad and 'r'"
Life is good!
We found about six jellyfish. If you touch them, they react and pulsate. I kind of felt sorry for them.
Cool mural on a house...
We took the roof off for a while to enjoy the late afternoon sun...
Java Beach Cafe, a very popular spot for lattes, sandwiches, soups, and salads. This is where we ate lunch.
Another cool mural...
Heading for Golden Gate Park...
Driving through Golden Gate Park, we learned that the park has an established American Bison breeding program that has been in existence for over a century!! It was kind of a fun, unexpected , discovery.
We left San Francisco at sunset and treated the boys to a spaghetti dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Sacramento.
November 18, 2009 - Field Trip: Sutter's Fort
Nestled right in the middle of Sacramento is Sutter's Fort. We stopped here on our day trip with Michelle.
M.I.C.K.E.Y....
Heading to the Fort's entrance...
Built in 1839 by John Sutter, the fort served as a rest stop for weary travelers and a place to purchase provisions.
There were multiple cannons surrounding the fort. They were never used in defense, and were just used to occasionally scare Native Americans.
This windowless, brick room served as the prison!
This room was called the immigrant room. It was a room where those who have traveled long distances could rest and recoup before continuing on to their final destination.
The boys standing guard...
Inside the covered wagon...
This room was for the spinners and weavers...
The bakery...
Sutter's office. His clerk kept track of all transactions and supplies within the fort...
This room was where the doctor tended patients. It was a little disconcerting that it was located just off of the dining room! Two beds and a desk filled the room...
Sutter's parlor.
The kitchen...
The distillery...
The mill...
Room for the "vacaros"/cowboys...
Blacksmith shop...
Candlemaker...
Sutter's bedroom...
General store...
Guard station...
Here is a link for a virtual tour of Sutter's Fort and activities for school...
November 18, 2009 - Sacramento Day Trip
Michelle and I took that boys to Sacramento for the day. We surprised them by parking before getting downtown, and took the light rail in!
As we were looking for the entrance to the light rail, we ran into a rafter of wild turkeys. There were about 30 of them!
All aboard...
We decided to walk along midtown and explore. The boys liked looking at the outdoor art around the convention center...
This one is tited, 'Walking the Dogs'
There are actually two of these fountains...
Unique hedge surrounding the Hyatt...
Lunch break at The Bread Store. Awesome sammies!!
After our Sutter Fort visit, we walked along a street that had some beautiful older homes...
November 18, 2009 - Science: Experimenting with Air
This science lesson revolved around air and how sounds are made with air and water....
We took turns blowing into the bottle with a varied amount of water. We learned that the less water in the water created a lower sound, and more water created a higher sound.
Our second experiment included creating pan flutes using straws and tape. We learned that the longer straws created a lower sound, and the shorter straws were higher.
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