10 Facts about Me and My Better Half

10 Facts about Me and My Better Half
hosted by Betty Beguiles!

1) We never really had a first date.  He asked me if I wanted to go out but then never showed up.  So I went out with my girlfriends instead.  He insisted later that he was just asking if I wanted to "hang out"...I heard "go out".  Typical...So I gave him a noogie.

2) On our sort of first date (I say sort of because his 2 best friends tagged along), we got lost in the woods, our car was robbed and we were shot at.  I wrote about it here.  But we did get this awesome picture:

3) I used to work at a wedding hall and, wedding after wedding after wedding, we served chicken, pototoes and green beans.  I was so tired of it.  And I married a Texan.  So, Famous Dave's catered our wedding. 

4) We traveled through Europe together only 4 months after we started dating.  In a moment of panic, I made him promise that if he broke up with me, he would pay for me to travel through Europe again so I could get all-new photos that didn't include him!

5) Jason and my brothers "crashed" my Texan themed bachelorette party.  And I couldn't have been happier about it!!  (I'm in the crazy pink bedazzled hat holding my groom-to-be's hand.)

6) Neither of our children look anything like me, and I'm okay with it :)

Jason and Leo Halloween 2008

Jason 1982 and Elena 2010

7) There was this one time Jason won an argument.  I thought the movie had Matt Dillon but it was actually Dermot Mulroney.  He was actually right.  He wins!

8) I am a Canadian.  I applied for my passport at the same time as the requirement for all travelers to have a passport when traveling between Canada and the US.  My passport didn't arrive in time, so instead of a honeymoon in Mexico, we hopped in the car and drove to Virginia Beach.  I wouldn't have changed a thing.


9) I told him it was important to me to stay at home with my babies.  So he busts his butt every day to give us everything we need and more.  We are spoiled!!

10) Jason took me hunting a few years ago.  I actually pulled the trigger and shot the deer.  Jason has never been so proud of me!  I did it for 2 reasons: One: I knew he would eventually take our kids and I didn't want to feel left out and Two: I ate smoked deer sausage and LOVED IT!  Then I found out that it isn't cooked...it's "cured"...can't touch the stuff anymore. 

10 Facts about Me and My Better Half is being hosted over at Betty Beguiles!

If you join in - please let me know the link so I can read yours as well!!  I love this stuff!

The happiest little BBQ schmutz in town

I was scrubbing the countertops yesterday when I came across a stubborn clump of dried BBQ sauce.  I scrubbed and scrubbed but it just wouldn't go away.  I got up real close to it so I could really throw my weight into scrubbing...and then I noticed...well...can you see it??


The happiest little BBQ schmutz around!!  No joke - I couldn't even come up with something as cute as this.


So, I did what any normal person would do.  I dressed the little guy up for a night on the town.


(Um yeah...I really need some time off.  I'm leaving this Friday for Mom's Day Away in Boston to gather myself along with my sanity!!)

She bear de boo derr Chickie derr be do Bork Bork Bork Bork!!

I took a whole chicken and turned it into real food. I am beyond excited!!


finally feel prepared enough to be stranded on an island - Survivor style, not Survivorman style.  A warm place close to the beach with animals running about and 20 other people to constantly remind me why my life rocks.  Actually I would prefer to be stranded on an island with just Jason and the kids.  Jason knows how to field-dress a deer so I'm sure he could do the same for other wild animals we would catch on our private island.  He is also a master gardener.  You know what?  We're leaving.  That's IT!  I'm traveling with my crew to this fantasy island and leaving TV and toilet paper behind!!!

Ahhhh...A girl can dream right? (Photo Credit)

A few months ago, I spotted this post by Heavenly Homemakers: How to Stretch a Chicken to Make Six Meals.  I was so excited.  Remember those $15 free-range chickens I bought from Windmill Meadows Farm?  Those bad boys have been sitting in my deep freeze for a couple weeks now.  Every time I open the deep freeze, I first have to pull out the $15.00 chickens to find what I need.  They are the ever-present reminder taunting me from their ice-cold prison, "You paid $15.00 for a chicken?!?!  You don't even spend that much on a shirt!!"

I needed to tackle my deep freezer like one should tackle debt: Pay off your debts in order of their emotional impact.  I needed to get rid of the chicken - and FAST! 

This was a fairly daunting process.  I was intent on getting the most from my chicken so I documented the whole thing in pictures.  I also followed Heavenly Homemakers guide to making Chicken Broth.  I have posted a lengthy tutorial on tackling a chicken for anyone else out there interested but too overwhelmed with the idea of it all.

Toss the chicken (thawed out as much as possible) into a pot with some water and salt. 

Add some vegetables.  I did onion, celery and carrots.

Cover your pot and bring it to a boil.  Turn the heat down to simmmer and leave it for a few hours.  I started mine at 9:30 am and had to grab the kids and run out to get the carrots and celery!

About 3 hours later around 11:30 am, I grabbed my slotted spoon and pulled out all the chicken to a bowl.  While it was cooling off, I pulled out the carrots, onion and celery and put it in a separate bowl (for Chicken Noodle Soup!).

When the chicken had cooled off enough to handle, I grabbed some forks and started the de-boning process.  I thought I was an expert you know.  I DID, after all, help to cut up the deer I shot in Texas.

 I heard my husband say over my shoulder, "Uh honey? Put the forks down. Just use your hams..." (We call them "hams" around here. Pronouncing things the way Leo does makes the act of saying even the most boring of words soooo much more fun!)  There were so many jokes he could have cracked at my expense.  He was nice enough to not say "Hey Yankee!  Step away from the carcass and let a real man take care of this."  My husband would never say that though.  He's too intelligent.

So now you have the chicken, the skin and other gross stuff, and some good-lookin bones.  Toss the bones back in the pot for a couple more hours.  If you are man-enough, you might toss in the skin as well (I just puked a little in my mouth).  I didn't.  The skin goes in the trash pile...period.

You know what else goes in the trash pile?
The spine. 

Maybe the spine should go back in the pot with the other bones.  But I couldn't handle it long enough without getting sick.  The spine is proof of God's existence.  This thing is equal parts cool and disgusting.  It moves in sync and twists and turns.  I played with it for a minute but then started feeling ill when it broke apart in little pieces in my hams.  I'm just too queasy (read: sissy) for that stuff though.

I put all the chicken on a pan to cool off completely.

Once it was cool, I packaged it into ziplocs and kept a little for the Chicken Noodle Soup. 

The bones should simmer in your broth for a couple more hours.  You can toss in a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to help suck out all the marrow from the bones.  I simmered them until 3:00 pm.

Next step is to remove the broth and strain it to get it nice and clear.  You could blend up the veggies to include them in the broth but I had other plans.

TADAAA!!!

I grabbed my ice cube baby food trays for broth.   

And here is the final tally for the chicken. 
1 batch of Chicken Noodle Soup
5 four oz bags in the freezer for later
2 ice cube trays of broth for cooking
4 containers of broth for soups 
1 creepy looking Leo head
 Not too shabby for my first try! 

Let me know if you have any questions.  But I'll probably just google the answer for you :)


H‘nSFCC

Please do not feed the animals.

I should have paid better attention to the sign...

"Well hey there cute little guy?  Aren't you adorable!  Are you hungry?  Would you like something to eat?"



She loves hand puppets.  She especially loves the reaction she gets when she scares us to death with them!

Test #2...

Can you guys see me now???

I saw a lot of people switch from blogger to wordpress.  It is sooo tempting right now.

Pictures???

Blogger won't upload my pictures.  I am completely helpless!  How am I to blog without photos???


Here is a test - if you can see the photo above, I may continue to post.  If you don't, my computer might be shattered on the floor in a million pieces and I may never blog again....

(I edited this post and added the photo - it's my new favorite of Jason and Elena!)

I love my Swagbucks!!!

I just ordered 3 shirts from the Target Deal of the Day.  You can get shirts for as low as $4.20 each with free shipping!!

My total cost was $13.20.  I paid for it using a $20.00 Target giftcard I earned from Swagbucks.

Which means I got 3 shirts for free!

I WIN!!!

I even won 11 swagbucks searching for "I love Swagbucks.  I win again!!!!!!

Unlocking the key to happiness:

CHILDREN!!!

Kids have always put a smile on my face.  They are goofy, adorable, silly and random.  They usually make me laugh so hard I cry.  But my own children?  The laughter is multiplied by 1,000.  Take last night's show for instance:  Leo has decided he isn't going to bed without a FIGHT!!  Okay then, here we go!

We put him in his bed and within seconds he is dipping and ducking around us and running out the door in front of our feet screaming at the top of his lungs.  So I try the SuperNanny approach.  Twice in a row, I pick him up, put him back in his bed without saying a word, and try to leave the room.  And twice in a row, he is up and out the door before me.  What does she know?!?! Does she even HAVE children of her own?!

Finally, I decide to stop indulging him and this gargantuan tantrum.  I leave his room, and I hold the door handle shut as tight as I can.  Meanwhile, Elena is sleeping soundly in the next room.  How??? I have no idea.  It sounds like an earthquake in his room.  He starts throwing himself at the door and trying everything to open it.  First he locks himself in the room.  Then he unlocks the door and tries it again.  You can hear the desperation in his voice at this point when he realizes we aren't coming back in the room.  In between screams we hear, "Aww MAN!  Door YOCKED!!"  A few seconds later, just before he might pass out from lack of oxygen to his brain , we hear banging on the door and "'Scuse me??!!  'SCUSE ME MOMMY?!?!!"  I almost died of laughter.  At least my kid is polite during this massive explosion.  He crawled into bed after 3-4 minutes of screaming.  He also lost all TV privileges for the day today so we'll see if he tries for an encore performance this evening.  I'm guessing he won't ;)  Even through this tantrum extravaganza Jason and I are just laughing and scratching our heads.  It doesn't phase us, but as first-timers, we are still setting the stage for how things happen in this house!

In the same day as this tantrum, we spent as much time outside as possible.  I decided to grab the camera and get the kids to sit in front of these yellow flowers out front.  When Leo was a baby, one of my favorite photos of him was in front of the huge bush outside our old house.  I was going for "BAM!  Spring his HERE!" look.

(May 2009)

We don't have a bush as beautiful as that one, but we do have a few yellow flowers.  Have you ever played that game where you look at two pictures of the same thing and pick out the 5 differences?  Try it with these two:



Okay so that didn't work so well.  Let's try just one child at a time...

Okay, well this sums up what Leo thinks of the stupid flowers.

You know what kids?  Just go ahead and play ;)  I'll leave you two alone now.



And this photo - quite possibly my favorite of 2011:
The one that I will go back to and view probably 2-3 times per day:
And one of the reasons I can't wait to have a billion more children:


Happy Spring Everyone!!

Also - After a lot of research and consideration, Jason and I recently decided to help support a family that is adopting a special needs child, Noah, from overseas (Reece's Rainbow is an awesome organization that helps these families meet their financial goals).  The Silva-Moose family will charge the adoption fees to a credit card if they don't raise enough, but every little bit counts!  If you are able to donate a few dollars, please visit their webpage here and "Chip In"!!  Read more here about other families who are fundraising to help cover the costs of their adoptions. 

Also, here is a really beautiful blogpost about World Down Syndrome Awareness Day from Kelle Hampton at Enjoying the Small Things!
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