Reunited and it feels so good!

This past weekend, one of my best friends from high school, Stacey, came to visit from TX.  It was her daughter, Brooke's, first birthday!  Brooke was 2 months early, but you would never know it.  Check out Stacey's blog for her amazing birth story.  Brooke is certainly a miracle. The party was at her parents cow farm- so cool!  Her dad took us on a hay ride and Bailey got to lay out the sweet feed on the back of the trailer.  One cow followed us the whole way eating with her enormous tongue.  She wouldn't let any other cows eat- she's the boss cow.  It was lovely seeing Stacey & her daughter for the first time. Here's a pic of the girls.

Not for the squeamish

Update on Dave

He ended up with 7 stitches and didn't get home until 2 am.  Thank God for good friends- Thanks Ross! I'll post pics later.

Dave got in a fight with a chainsaw

...and the chainsaw won. Dave was helping his friend's dad clean up the mess from the recent tornado.  I'm still not quite sure what happened, but the chainsaw got a hold of his leg and cut him.  I get a call that he's on the way to the hospital.  The clinics he went to were closed and the second one called an ambulance for him!!  Yikes!  Five hours later and he's still waiting in a room to get stitches.  Uggh.  Unfortunately, I have to get up for work in less than 6 hours, so I'm going to bed.  Luckily, his good friend Ross is there to take care of him.

My field day

We came in 2nd place out of 10 classes!  And that's with no parents coming to help.  The best part was the teacher donut eating contest.  Yeah, you heard me right.  Check it out. I'm in the light pink....yes, my class t-shirt is light pink.

Tornado

Last night was our kindergarten performance.  Bailey came with me, and within 15 minutes of us arriving, they shuffled us into the hallway to hunker down because the sirens were going off.  About an hour and a half later, sweaty, stinky, and scared, my kids performed for the parents.  While we were safe in the school, Jake and Dave were in the basement.  We had 2 1/2 inch hail, there are hundreds of trees down and it looks like a war zone.  Here are a few pics.  These pics aren't even that bad- I just took them out my window while driving. 



 





 

Jake's field day

We didn't know if field day was going to happen, because of the tornado that devastated much of our area, but it was a go.  They did postpone it until the field was not so soggy.

I was able to go see 2 of his events.  First was a type of relay where they had to jump rope with a hula hoop.



Next, they caught a ball in a cup.



Then, they had to throw a hula hoop around a cone.  They had fun!

Here is Jake and 2 of his best school friends, Miller & Brent. They made their shirts! You can see the remnants of Jake's romp in the poison ivy patch two weeks ago!



The other event I went to was the water relay.  We came in first place! One team member pours water into a cup on top of another person's head.  That person then has to run across to a pitcher and dump the water in.  The trick is that you can't let the cup come off of your head, or your pitcher will be dumped!

Here is Jake pouring water into a friend's cup.  Don't you love their expressions?



Here's the runner... can you see how wet he is?



And the dunk!



After a water relay, you have to make sure to get very, very wet.  Emma is about to get soaked!



She got Jake back!



Spencer says, "Nooooo!"



But I insist (I taught Spencer years ago and he's one of my favorite kids on the planet) and Jake soaks him too. 



Tomorrow- my class field day- where I get to eat a doughnut hanging from a string!!!

Field Day

Yesterday was Bailey's field day.  Here are some cute pics of the day.

Here is Bay with one of her best friends at school, Jacob.  They are going to be together again next year!



Here she is doing the "big foot" event.



Here she is with some classmates waiting for the water event.  Check out that funny face!



Here she is during the event.  They had to carry water from a bucket to a pitcher in a frisbee!



Here she is with another of her best classmates.



Here's our awesome coach giving instructions for the relay- Bailey is a fast runner and qualified!



Here she is running- she looks like she's behind, but she actually made up a lot of time for slower runners that went before her.



 

Stay tuned for pics of Jake's field day tomorrow!

Vote for the Sisterchicks!

The Sisterchicks are officially entered in the CustomInk.com "Ink of the Week" contest.

Contest winners are determined on a weekly basis. Visit our page at the link below and rate it because the CustomInk judges are influenced by pictures that have high scores. 

If we win, we will get $100 off a future order. Cool!
 

http://inkspot.customink.com/iotw/photo/sisterchicks-race-for-a-cure.html

Sisterchicks Race for a Cure

Today was the Atlanta Susan G. Komen breast cancer walk.  For the second year, the Sisterchick team walked.

Here are the shirts I designed.  It was really great having all the names of the women we walk for on the back of the shirt.





Here are some highlights of the walk:

The Sisterchicks, minus Mandy. From the left; Kristen, Staci, Amanda, Mandi, and myself.







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Here's our survivor- Glenda-walking through the survivor arch!



Here's the whole gang!



After the walk, we headed over to The Flying Biscuit Cafe. Can you say, yum?





I don't know what they are looking at, but this is just a hilarious picture!

Meals on a dime

Well, not actually a dime, but I've decided to plan our meals in order to try and save money.  Is anyone else finding themselves not having as much spending cash with the cost of gas, which has also increased the price of...well, everything?  So, right now, I have the next three nights planned.  By our next pay cycle, I'm going to have 10 meals planned, saving the weekends for things like pizza or whatever. 

I took the recipes from Top Chef.  This week's episode was cooking meals with kids for under $10!  The top three finalists' recipes sounded awesome, so we're trying it out. 

Day 1

Pasta Putanesca (it's cooking as I type)



Ingredients: 1 carrot, 1 onion, olive oil, 1 garlic clove, basil, 1 large can crushed tomatoes, pasta of choice.

Directions: Sweat carrot and onion in drizzle of olive oil.  Add garlic clove, basil stems & crushed tomatoes.  Let cook for 45 minutes on low, stirring often.  (I added a few green olives to make it more authentic)  Mix with cooked pasta and serve.

(in the future, I'd shred the carrots instead of chopping-they were just too big.

Day 2

Roasted Chicken with Apple & Mixed Vegetable



Ingredients:

Chicken (they call for thighs and drums- we will use thighs and breasts), 1/4 c olive oil, 3 large carrots-sliced, 12 garlic cloves-peeled, 1 yellow onion- julienned, 1 large apple-chopped, 1 pint Brusels sprouts-halved.

Directions: In a large skillet, season the chicken with salt & pepper and olive oil.  Sear in hot pan to brown and place in the oven (in large pan).  Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.  Add the carrots and garlic cloves.  Cook for 15 minutes.  Add the onions, apples & brussels sprouts.  Veggies and chicken should be cooked in 45 minutes, but check the thighs to make sure. 

This recipe has a side dish of cucumber & tomato salad.  Mix cucumber & grape tomatoes in a salad bowl with olive oil and red wine vinegar.  Season with salt, pepper and chopped fresh herbs (parsley, basil and thyme).  Add chopped onion.

Day 3

Stir Fry Whole Wheat Noodles (this was the winner)



Ingredients:

Small package of whole wheat noodles, 1 lb chicken breasts, 1/2 bunch bok choy- chopped, 1 red bell pepper- chopped, 1/2 onion-chopped, 1 cup edamame, drizzle of teriyaki.

Directions: Cook & blanch noodles.  Saute chicken & vegetables.  Add some teriyaki to deglaze.  Stir fry noodles with teriyaki & vegetables & chicken. 

Other than the chicken breasts, parsley & thyme (which I had), all of the ingredients cost a little under $30. Not only was it cheap, the kids get to help!

Stay tuned to see how it all tastes!

Back to the Super H Mart!

This time with the kids and my parents.  Mom & Dad both ended up whining about how far it was (sorry guys), but once they experienced Super H Mart, they agreed that it was well worth the drive.

First thing we did was eat.  Jake ordered beef and mushroom teriyaki, but had to try some of the octopus out of Nanny & Papa's soup!





Mom and dad ordered cold spring rolls, hot spring rolls and an enormous bowl of soup!



I got the same thing as last time- King Dumplings and Vietnamese spring rolls. Bailey ordered sushi (salmon, avocado & cream cheese) with miso soup.



Here we are checking out the store.



Papa and Jake found the same huge seaweed that I posed with last time!