Busy Weekend

I like looking at check designs in the mailers. It is always fun to have cute backgrounds to display the amount of money leaving my bank account. Here is a design I came up with to celebrate or semi-cultish following of Doctor Who:



Speaking of Doctor Who fans the dear Kate Hadfield fulfilled a doodle request for me. She created some awesome dandelions for me. I am currently working on a few layouts and hope to have them finished by this evening.

:::::::::::::This weekend::::::::

I baked lemon squares for a couple of sister's at Church and Michael agreed to be my taste tester. I passed with flying colors, so I packaged some up and took them to Church on Sunday.

We took the kids to the Buford Highway Farmer's Market. The store always has little taste testing kiosks. The first one we came across was one making our kids favorite meal. There was a triumphant and spontaneous chorus of "TOFU!!!" from the children. They were so excited! We grabbed 4 boxes of tofu and 4 boxes of Mabu Tofu sauce. We did the obligatory stop at the crabs and eels cases.

:::::::::::::Roller Skating:::::::

Rachel was invited to a roller skating party for a girl in her scout troop. The little girl's mother was kind enough to include the rest of our kids. Aaron chose to use in-line skates instead of the traditional style. He is much more confident with the in-line. I dropped my socks on the way out of the house, so I had to watch on the side-lines for a little bit while Michael skated with the kids. Eve was able to do really well after we traded her skates in for a bigger size and then noticed that the wheels barely turned. She thought she was really skating well when she was actually walking on 4 stuck wheels. Noah had a hard time and decided to give up after 30 minutes and the boots caused soars on the front of his ankles. Rachel was really funny because she stuck her hind end out as a counter balance and remarked that her lower back was getting sore. I was able to skate when Michael offered me is boots. Michael ended up loaning me his socks, too. They were rather sweaty, but I didn't have any so I wasn't about to complain. After skating for a couple of hours might feet weren't sore at all and they didn't feel sweaty. My ever techinical gear oriented spouse explained it was the merino wool of the R.E.I. socks I was wearing.

::::::::::::::::Swimming Lessons:::::

Round One: Noah and Eve
Round Two: Aaron and Rachel

A young lady from our Church is the swim instructor for all of the kids. She was great with all of them. Her hardest obstacle was getting Noah to listen. He is a little story teller. She also would correct them firmly, but nicely when they did something wrong. She was trying to make sure their mechanices were sound before moving on to anything else. Michael and I were super impressed with Eve for her positive attitude. She would do what she was asked and put her face in the water for as long as she could and then come up sputtering. She would flash us a thumbs up sign to let us know she was fine. They were all happy to get into the water and learn.

The kicker was the fees to get into the pool for each lesson would be $27.00 and if we wanted to get in and swim with the other kids times the basic 8 weeks of lessons was a tall order. We bit the proverbial bullet and bought a year pass. Someone in the M.L.E.U. called our house and talked to the dryer. What is the M.L.E.U. you may ask...even if you don't I'll tell you anyway...it is the Murphy's Law Enforcement Unit. The dryer blew the thermal fuse, AGAIN! I hate doing laundry, but I hate more piled up dirty laundry. Michael is scattered, covered and smothered with things to do this week. His brother and family are invited to dinner tomorrow, so hopefully he will be able to get home in time to inspect the dryer's element to see if that might be the culprit and then go downstairs to cook a great dinner.

:::::::::::::::::Dinner for Tomorrow::::::::::

Hmong eggrolls

1 (10 1/2 ounce) bag bean thread noodles
24 rice paper sheets
1 (10-12 ounce) package coleslaw mix (or 1 sm cabbage & 2 carrots shredded)
1 medium yellow onion
1 bunch green onions
1 bunch cilantro
1 1/2 lbs ground pork
1 egg (xtra 1 for sealing egg rolls)
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Red pepper dipping sauce
5 Thai red chili peppers, chopped (birds eye)
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tablespoon green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice (bottles fine)
1 dash msg
1/4 cup fish sauce
2 tablespoons water

::::::::::::::::::::Public Service Announcement:::

A friend of mine sent this video containing a warning about how easy it is for thieves to steal your identity while you are at a gas station:



Smiles!