Happy Birthday Nora

Four years ago today, I became a grandmother.

I was even content to take movie films or pictures of her just sleeping in her swing.

Nora is such a sweetheart!

This was the morning Nora became a big sister.

I got to watch Nora as she went bowling this day.

I love you Nora! Happy Birthday Number 1 grandchild of mine!

Some Things I've Learned

Yesterday in making all the meals that Karen and I put together, I learned a few things.

• Don't think you can make 20 recipes just because there's two of you working at it.
• Get a third person involved in the project so two people can be cooking while the third one keeps the place cleaned up. Oh, and get a fourth one who can play with the toddler all day while the other 3 of you are busy in the kitchen.
  
• Just because you have 3 sets of measuring cups doesn't mean you'll have the right size available when you want it.
• When you make cupcakes at the end of the day, make sure there aren't two pans stuck together. It makes the cupcakes bake much more slowly.
  
• Empty your dadgum freezer and fridge before you get started so you have somewhere to put the bloomin' food when it's done.
  
• Don't try to cook when you aren't feeling well.
• When you go to the basement cold-storage room for supplies, try to get everything you'll need all in one trip so you aren't climbing stairs all day instead of just cooking in the kitchen.
  

I hope this helps in case you ever try the "make a million meals in a day" project.

Cooking with Karen

Today is the day. Karen and I shopped yesterday for all the groceries and today we're cooking almost 40 meals (mostly she's cooking, I'm mostly sitting around watching because I'm a little under the weather). I'll report tomorrow how it went.

Days Long Gone

Last night on our way home from running errands, Karen and I saw some people warming up to play a softball game. I told Karen that my mind still knew how to play but that my body no longer cooperated. She said maybe they'd let me play if I could speed walk to first base. Chances are good that they wouldn't.
Here is a picture from when I was 10, and played ball.


This picture is our team photo. See if you can recognize a few people in this one...

Most of you might find Cheryl and my mom. A few of you will find Mindy and Marcia. One of you might find the siblings and father to a former boyfriend who was a boyfriend for about 20 minutes (I'm not talking about myself here). I'm pretty sure these were the "good old days."

Gardener Village

Yesterday, Karen, Caleb and I went to a bakery in Gardener Village for lunch. They had a saying posted there that holds the answer we've all been searching for. It said, "A balanced diet is a cookie in both hands." Glad I finally got that figured out!
Then Caleb found a kitty friend so we followed it into the store. Once inside, he wasn't so sure he wanted to be friends after all.

I Don't Get A New Camera After All

I've been having issues with my Nikon D50. I was almost to the point of thinking I'd just go buy me a new D80 (any excuse I can come up with for buying it was justifiable to me). I took the D50 to the repairman twice for focusing issues. After the second time, they said the camera was fine but I still had issues. It turns out that the problem is in the lens, not the camera. Now I have to either buy a new lens or try to repair it. These next few photos were taken to try to figure out what was going on with my camera.

Dinnertime

Mowing the lawn

Playing with the watering can

Big smiles

Cutting a tooth...fingers help

Last night Caleb was playing with Grandpa Bud with this flashlight. Because I'm having to use my telephoto lens (as I only own two lenses, the broken one and this one) I couldn't get far enough away to make this picture completely in focus. But, at least I don't have to go buy a new camera after all. Just maybe that new lens...one like I gave to Laura last Christmas!

Little Swimmers

Laura let me know they arrived safely home. However, I have a few posts left which will feature Agnes and Caleb because I've been missing a few days here and there lately. I hope you don't mind...
The kids were swimming two days ago. The water at the pool is very warm and the babies really love it.

Caleb and Karen

Agnes is disappearing in her floatie-ring because it had a little too much air in it.

Hello Handsome!

Laura just got splashed!

And here's what Eliot usually does while the others are splashing around in the pool. Just hanging out, wondering what the excitement is all about.

The house is strangely quiet without three specific people here...good thing I don't have to go cold turkey- I still have Karen and Caleb for another week, thank goodness!

Gone, But Not Forgotten

Agnes and Eliot and Laura are on a plane headed back home. It won't be the same here without them. I loved having them here. I will miss them so very much! I'm so grateful they spent their summer with me. Eliot is just starting to get to the fun stages too. I'll miss that sweet little guy a lot! This is a video that Agnes took (by herself) of Eliot. It's terrific! Make sure your sound is turned up.


Bye bye babies...I love you. I'll miss you!

Fluffy Clouds of Pink Sweetness

I guess the name in the title is too long and that's why

most people just call it

cotton candy.

Oh, you know you want to taste that too!

Agnes has a butterfly balloon

Caleb did NOT want to taste it! He just wanted his watermelon and he got a little adamant about it when it was offered a second time.

Just leave me alone! I only want my watermelon!

Sticky!

See?

Sugary sweetness!

Even Nana likes it!

The Daily Bite

On the sidebar of my blog (if you scroll down) you'll see labeled, "my new fave cooking blog" which if you click on that it will take you to Our Best Bites (it used to be called the Daily Bite but they had to change their name for some reason). Here's a picture of Sara and Kate cooking away at Macey's in Pleasant Grove last week.

Karen loved it so much we served it for dinner on Sunday to company (can you call your mom and sister and b-i-l company?). They loved it too.

You can get the recipe here!

Summertime

I only wish Danny could have joined us too...here's a glimpse of my summer.




















"Summertime and the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high
Oh your daddy’s rich and your ma is good lookin’
So hush little baby, don’t you cry
One of these mornings
You’re goin’ to rise up singing
Then you’ll spread your wings
And you’ll take the sky
But till that morning
There’s a nothin’ can harm you
With daddy and mammy standin’ by."

Thanks for a wonderful summer. I love my kids and grandkiddos.

Is There A Doctor In The House?

We're having a family dinner tonight because it's Laura's last week here. I was chopping some nuts with a handy-dandy chopper thing which has a cup you attach to the bottom next to the blades. I chopped away and went to wash the chopper, and yep, sliced my fingertip right open. Ouch! Luckily Bud was home and available to stitch me back up. I'm such a wimp though. I got a bigger pain in my tummy than I ever had on my finger. Isn't it "hand-y" to have someone that can stitch up your owies?

Forgetful, so instead...

I brought my camera to work today (actually, I brought BOTH of my cameras) to upload the pictures from yesterday's totally fun-fun-fun day. However, I forgot to put the battery back in the camera, so I am unable to upload the pictures as I had planned.

So instead of telling you about my fun day yesterday without pictures to go with, I'll tell you about a book I bought yesterday instead.

It's called 30 Meals in One Day and teaches you how to fill up your freezer with only spending one day in the kitchen to get it done. I also bought the computer program that goes with the book. I gave the book to Karen and I kept the disk. I'm so excited to try this out. I did this a long time ago, and it was SO EXHAUSTING that I never did it again. This time around, it's set up a little differently and you are encouraged to only make 15 recipes, but you double them so you eat the same thing twice in a month. If you were really ambitious (which I believe I have the ability to be, maybe, sort of) you could do this every 15 days, and then you wouldn't have to eat the same thing twice in a month, you could save it for the next month.

What I love about the computer program is you can add your own recipes, edit recipes to your family's taste (I wonder if they have a category labeled "bland"), automatically adjust recipe amounts to fit your family's size, search for recipes by ingredient, category or title, print recipes and print labels to go on the food before you toss it in the freezer. I hate looking at the mysterious things that are in my freezer and not have a clue as to what they might be.

What else is fun is that you can hook up with a friend and give them half of your stuff, and then the next time, they give you half of their stuff. Not only do you have more fun slaving away in the kitchen because you're slaving with a friend, but you don't have to worry about eating the same thing twice in a month (although we eat the same things all the time at my house!).

Doesn't this sound really exciting? Yep, I thought so too.