Wonderful Long Weekend

We had a great weekend. No major plans or events but it was fun. Saturday morning we went over to Home Depot and participated in their free kid's workshop.  Scotty made a football goal.  After it was put together he went to pick out his paint colors, I thought he'd pick purple & gold, (ECU Pirates), or black & gold, (Appalachian Mountaineers).  He picked black and red, UGA colors!  Who would've thought?!?  He said that they were cousin Jenny's school colors.  Traitor.

The kid's workshop is great, they give them an apron and a pin, (different pin each time to collect on the apron), and all of the supplies needed to build the craft.  It's totally free and they have it in every Home Dept store on the first Saturday of each month from 9am-12pm.  So fun!

Scotty's lunch today was puppy themed.  I called it the 'Dog Gone Good Lunch'.  I found this idea on Pinterest, of course!  You cut a hot dog into 5 sections, one end will be the head and the other end will be the body, (the body section should be just a tad longer than the others), and the 3 remaining sections will be ears and legs. Cut the ear, and 2 legs sections in half lengthwise and assemble the dog with toothpicks.  I had to trim my toothpicks because they were a little too long.  I used a straw to cut out eyes & a nose and replaced the nose with a small bit of cheese.  It was cute.

I need to buy a waffle maker.  Scotty eats 2 plain Eggo waffles most mornings for breakfast with an egg and some apple juice.  I want to make my own so I can try to get some better nutrition into him in the morning.  I've had waffle makers in the past and they were garbage.  Any recommendations on a brand?

Beginner Yoga...Is There A Pre-Beginner Available?!?

So I got ambitious and tried yoga for the first time this morning. Ummmmmm....is there a pre-beginner version, cause I was struggling?!? I felt like I looked eerily similar to the cat in this photo below.

I'm determined to keep at it though. Maybe someday I'll actually be able to get my heels flat in that downward dog pose, (it wasn't pretty, actually quite ugly). I've got 40lbs to lose, although I'd be happy with 30, and I hope that I'll be a lighter, healthier version of me by 2013.

ECU, we love you, just not today. Go App state!

App State is playing ECU today. Big dilemma here in the Ray house. My hubby and I met the very first day we moves into the dorms at Appalachian, over 17 years ago! The dilemma comes in trying to decide if we cheer for the school where we met or the school that gives my father-in-law a paycheck, thus funding our meeting. Any other day we'd be wearing our Pirates gear, but today it's black & yellow all the way! ECU, we love you, just not today.



Movie night was fun last night, the snack necklace was a hit, (thanks to Pinterest, again!). We used white chocolate dipped pretzels, plain pretzels, popcorn, fruit loops and Lifesavers gummies, (basically, we looked for foods with holes in it). Fun stuff!

Maybe I AM Old!

It's Friday! Looking forward to the long weekend with my little guy and hoping it stays dry for a few days. It stayed wet and yucky all day yesterday so the potato soup made for a great dinner! It was so easy and probably the best potato soup I've ever had. Here's the link again: http://pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com/2011/03/outback-aint-got-nothin-on-me.html?m=1

I packed a Pacman themed lunch for Scotty today. He knew who Pacman was but couldn't remember his name. Maybe I'm just old?!? I thought Pacman was still around.

Tonight is Friday Family Movie Night! We're watching The Pirates Band Of Misfits. We'll probably make pizza for dinner. I think I'm going to try a fun little project for movie snacks that I found on Pinterest. You put pretzels, popcorn, fruit loops, etc, onto a string necklace and they kiddo can snack on it throughout the flick. I'll post a picture tomorrow!

Good Day For Doing Nothing

I didn't sleep so well, not feeling so good, looks like another gloomy day, sounds like a good day for soup. I just put it all into the crock pot. I'm trying a new recipe, (thanks again, Pinterest). It's a copy cat version of Outback's loaded baked potato soup. Here's a link to the recipe: http://pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com/2011/03/outback-aint-got-nothin-on-me.html?m=1

Scotty's lunch today was all bunny themed. We called it the Thumper Thursday lunch.

Cats & Dogs, People!

Rain, rain, go away!  I thought this hurricane was affecting the Gulf Coast but it seems we've gotten a taste of it, as well.  It POURED all day yesterday.  Serious flooding, the market was filled with 4 ft of water, cars floating down East Bay St, just pure chaos.  Luckily my house is still here, and dry, (for the most part).  They're calling for more rain over the next 2 days.  Ughhhhhhh.  Here's a picture that was circulating around facebook yesterday of 2 guys kayaking down Market St, not photo shopped.  I also saw video of people wake boarding and tubing.  (Imagine what's in that water!  Anyone who's been down by the market knows how those drains smell.  Gross!)

We didn't have our taco Tuesday dinner last night.  The boys were asking for breakfast for dinner, so we had biscuits, bacon, eggs & home fries.  It was tasty.  Tonight I'm making crock pot pork chops.  They are so good!  Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
-boneless pork chops (I use 4, you could use up to 6, nay more than that and I think you'd need to add another can of soup)
-1 can of cream of mushroom soup (I like the one with roasted garlic, but you could do whatever you'd like)
-1 can of cream of chicken soup
-1/2 empty soup can of water
-1 Tbsp of oil
-dash of salt & pepper

Directions:
-heat the oil in a skillet, sprinkle chops with salt & pepper and lightly brown them in the pan (no more than 2 minutes on each side, you want to just brown them, not cook them)
-pour cream of chicken soup into the bottom of the crock pot and mix in water
-place chops in the soup mix
-spread can of cream of mushroom soup over the top of the chops
-cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4 hours
I like to serve it over hot egg noodles, but it would be delicious with mashed potatoes or rice.  The chops practically fall apart when you pull them out, they're so tender.

Today's lunch was Lil' Guppies themed, (in honor of all of the water around).  I remembered a story that Scotty told one of our neighbors at the pool a couple of years ago.  She commented on what a great swimmer he was and asked if he had been taking swimming lessons.  He responded, "Yes, I'm in the little guppies class for beginner swimmers".  Total lie, he's never taken swimming lessons, I have NO IDEA where that came from but it was hilarious. 

Hope you're weather is nice than ours!  Have a great day!

Homework For 2nd Graders

Times have certainly changed. My 2nd grader came home with almost an hour worth of homework; daily oral language, math, reading, spelling and an 'all about me' project. Geez. I'm a stay at home mom & I thought it was a pain, can't even imagine how moms who work out of the home get everything done. I worked as a retail manager for over 10 years, but luckily Scotty wasn't in school yet. I'm sure I'd manage, but I think I'd go crazy.

Scotty told me that in class today he had to pick 4 words that describe him. He chose smart, kind, brave and handsome. If I had to add a 5th word it would certainly not be humble! He's so funny, though. I'd love to hear what the other children chose.

Scotty helped me make today's lunch. It's my favorite one so far. He named it the Dino-mite lunch, complete with a cheeseosaurus rex sandwich, Dino doody nuggets, cretaxyrhina carrots, (apparently that's a prehistoric shark), stegosaurus super juice and a Cretaceous cookie. I love that he's so creative and smart. The cookie turned out super cute, I used one of my cookie cutter, sugar cookie dough and decorating icing. It wasn't difficult, but it looks so good!

Dinner will be super easy tonight. It's Taco Tuesday!