So, Whattya Been Doin'?

,...just curious.

The tree is still not decorated...how lame is that!!! The kids are rotating who is sick and I've been busy painting downstairs, so maybe tonight???!!!


::::::::::::::::::::Perfect Attendance:::::::

is what Rachel had until a fever, headache and sore throat sidelined her, yesterday. She felt crumby today, but she went anyway. She is, usually, my healthy kid. Noah who is my croupy kid still has perfect attendance, surprisingly.

:::::::::::::::Swimming Update:::::::::


The kids' have their last swim lesson with Laura tonight. She has been an amazing instructor. Eve went from only floating on her back with some help from Michael to feeling like a little mermaid swimming under her own volition. YEAH! We need to get Noah into a SCUBA program because he wants to spend all his time underwater.

:::::::::::::::::::::Family Reading::::::::::

The kids are clamoring for me to not stop reading the newest Sisters Grimm book Magic And Other Misdemeanors. It was a near riot last night when I stopped reading at the end of chapter 8. The kids would stop me intermittently while I was reading to postulate who might be the Master of the Scarlet Hand and who was stealing the magic items.

:::::::::::::::::::::Hockey::::::::::::

My stepdad is taking Aaron and Rachel to see a Gladiator's hockey game tomorrow. They all like hockey, so they, hopefully, will have a blast.

:::::::::::::::::::::Lunch with A Friend:::

I was able to grab lunch with my friend Phyllis on Monday. She is so fun and we got to talk and eat, which are a couple of my personal favorite hobbies. We stopped in at a restaurant that other friends have raved about called Los Hermanos. We munched on chips, salsa, jalapeno cheese dip and chicken enchiladas. I threw in some tasty Mexican rice.

:::::::::::::::::::::A Sweet Invitation::::::::

Shabby Miss Jenn who I was a guest creative team member for November has asked me back as a guest for January. I thought that was super sweet of her!

:::::::::::::::::::::Gave Up The Ghost:::::::::

My dear smoothie maker has joined the appliance graveyard! It did, however, go out with a last hurrah by making me a delicious drink of strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, bananas, blueberry yogurt, frozen vanilla yogurt and milk. Luckily, there are always a large supply of smoothie makers around.

For now, I MUST GO PAINT!

Smiles!

Wednesday, the 24th...

::::::::::::Rachel Found Something Interesting On The Mailbox::::::

Rachel found a twig caterpillar, but first she thought it might be a "bird poop" caterpillar like the one she saw reading an article at school in National Geographic. She was so excited to show me what I had ignored while getting the mail. She really liked the camouflage this caterpillar used to disguise itself from the birds.

_{Darcy Baldwin: DJB LENA, DJB JENNA, DJB Doodl E Doo, DJB AMANDAG, Cheapskate Outline
Mindy Terasawa: Spring Feastival
Jenn Patrick: Backward Staples
Carol Abrams: Good Vs. Evil Frames (Lightened Blend Effect)
Jackie Eckles: Highlight Brushes
Christina Renee: brad from Bookplate Alpha}


::::::::::::::::Blackberry Craving:::::::

I have never had a craving for blackberries before, but in the frozen food aisle I got kind of dreamy about blackberries. Then, I thought, you don't want to get those they have seeds and you hate spitting out the seeds and getting them in your teeth! I continued my non-verbal dialogue...But, they would be so lovely with some blueberries, bananas and strawberries and a bit of yogurt! The final straw was realizing that I do indeed floss, so all would be fine if I threw the frozen bag of berries in the cart I would be just fine.


:::::::::::::::::Thanks, Eddie Rabbit!:::::

I walked out the door to go to the store and rain was falling down, which is in great need for our area. The first thing that came into my mind was..."I love a rainy night. What a beautiful site! I can feel the rain on my face and the rain on my lips. Oh, it makes me feel good!"

:::::::::::::::::Costume Design::::::::::::

Michael finished the yarn wig for Eve. He sewed the yarn to a strip of fabric that fits on her head like a hat ring. She can take it off indepently of the hat if she needs to. He also cut out a circle of cardboard for Rachel's lollipop head and painted a big candy swirl. We will have to put finishing touches on it tonight. He has the camera in the car, so I will have to take photographs later.

:::::::::::::::::This Article Had Everyone Playing Along::

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22535838-5012895,00.html?from=mostpop

and here...

is an article debunking the test http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php?p=27

This was fun.

Later, gators!

My Handsome Tiger Cub:

Noah was so jazzed to be at tonight's first pack meeting. There were lots of kids excited to see each other. Noah was thrilled to have Carson, a friend from pre-school, and Dylan, a boy from his Kindergarten class, in his Den. Noah is Den 11, which means there are a lot of children participating.

After finding the Bernina with a severed cord (not only was it severed, but a foot of it's length was missing, so even though Michael knew how to splice the cord it wouldn't be long enough). He got out our other sewing machine (thank you Granny Vone) and sewed on the patches and one broken needle later the shirt was ready.
Noah was one handsome little dude!






:::::::::::::::::::::

Peter and The Shadow Thieves


We finished reading this book two days ago and it was a thick book. My opinion...this book is a home library keeper! The kids were excited to discuss the what ifs throughout the book and the would sneak for finding out what was going to happen (hey...their reading)! There is not a weak point in the book and all loose ends are tied up nicely and a wonderful humorous thread weaves throughout. My favorite interaction of the book is with Tinkerbell and Peter. My kids are asking if there will be more adventures...I hope so!

:::::::::::::::::

Our current family reading time book is Chocolate Fever


The premise of the book is hilarious to them. It is about a boy who eats chocolate at ever meal and at snack. One morning he breaks out in a chocolate rash.
I remember reading this book as a kid and really enjoying it.

::::::::::::::::

My husband tells me I made a delectable smoothie for him yesterday:

1/3 of cup of frozen chunked pineapple
1/3 of cup frozen chunked mango
2 scoops of vanilla frozen yogurt
1 cup milk

He wanted me to buy coconut milk, so I have a couple of cans to experiment with soon.

E is for Explorer:

I really like ATCs...Can you tell?!?

_{Background Paper: IOD's Adelaide's Letter
Frame: Rhonna Farrer
Fairy: Hope Wallace
Carpet bag, Flying hat, and hot air balloon from the internet
Stamp: IOD's Felina
Postmark: JennV
Font: Marginal PX
Alpha: Century font with a IOD's San Salvatore paper then color burned.}

::::::::::::::

My explorers are canoing today with the scout troop. Michael took the troop to Stone Mountain for a practice run with the canoes and two boys baptized themselves because they stood up in the canoe. It should be interesting to see how the campout goes.

::::::::::::::



<sub>This is a photo of my two sons, Noah and Aaron. They rarely get along, but when we went to Six Flags Over Georgia they rode most of the rides together because they wanted to.


"Homecoming Kit", "Florist Kit", "Persimmons in Summer" designs by Sandra Boddington


Font: Pea Alesa


Overlay by Nancy Rowe Janitz</sub>

:::::::::::::::::::::

My stepfather, Jim, sent me some photos of my brother doing his sweeping thing, so I will scrap them in a couple of days with his story. Another fun layout I'm trying to figure out is Eve's retelling of the story of Jesus' resurrection. Eve has replaced the angels with fairies that roll away the stone, so I will scrap it like I think she thinks about what happened.

::::::::::::::::::::

I need to go make a smoothie and mow the lawn now that it isn't raining and the sun isn't to high over head. By the way on the smoothie...i've been adding frozen peaches and they are so mild they don't seem to change the taste much, but for some reason it lends a "clean" taste to the flavor. Don't know really how to explain.

Have a lovely weekend all!

True Grit

_{I used Mo Jackson's Aunt Laura, Twas The Night, Board Book Alpha, Dorothy's Kitchen 3 and Font: Pea Aleis}

Grits are often an interesting topic of conversation because so many people have an opinion of how they should be cooked. My mother, especially, hates for anyone to put sugar on their grits. My children love to eat grits the way my mother makes them. Only Rachel will willingly eat my grits. I use only salt, water, and butter. Often times when you eat them at a restaurant they have let them cook entirely too long and have created an almost inedible form of wallpaper paste. I usually avoid ordering grits, when we are traveling, outside of Alabama or Tennessee. My favorite companion food with grits is a nice buttermilk biscuit. This is a kind of cozy food combo.
Aaron, who since a very small child, has abhorred the texture and flavor of grits decided that he actually quite likes instant grits with bacon. He had this epiphany at Scout camp this week. I'm not sure what to think because I hate the texture and flavor of those instant grits packs. I wonder if he might not have accidentally burned off several taste buds on a molten s'more, or something?! Sometimes our tastes can be expanded, by necessity, on camping trips.
One of my favorite movie moments is in the movie "My Cousin Vinny" when the main character is served grits and he wonders what is a "Grit". Here is Grits defined by wikipedia. The funny thing about the list on things you can put on grits is sugar and ketchup, which my mother can NOT countenance. I wonder if she will try to go into wikipedia and erase those choices?
If you get a chance to make grits, but are wondering how try Alton Brown's method on makingCheese Grits. This is a Food Network site.

------------
On an aside, I made a kickin' smoothie yesterday! I used frozen strawberries (4), frozen blueberries (about a 1/4 cup), frozed red rasperries (about a handful), 1/2 of a fresh banana sliced, 1 cup 2% milk, and 2 scoops of lowfat frozen vanilla yogurt. Super Perfect for me!