Tuesday's Top Ten

1. Dole Pine-Orange Banana Juice


2. Recipe of the week: Banana Crumb Muffins Really really yummy. I was so mad when Ryan took the last two to work when I was banking on eating them for breakfast.


3. Lime-Away It really works.


4. DVR Isn't it the best thing ever? I seriously think I have saved years by having DVR. I just can't tolerate live tv anymore.


5. Scented oils My FAV is Spiced Cider from Bath and Body Works. Great in the fall. My other favorite is Pink Grapefruit but they aren't making it anymore.


6. Josh Groban- You can tell if I am having a hard day if I am listening to Josh. His music just calms me down. One of my favorite song is Oceano. It is in Italian I think and it is quite fun to try and sing along.
   
7. Sonic Happy Hour- half price slushies and soda. NICE.


8. This talk by Sheri Dew pumped me up. She says "Sinning is STUPID". I love it. I think I am going to make a board that says that. You can either read the hard copy or download it as an MP3 to your ipod. It is worth the time. You Were Born to Lead


9. My friend, Alexis (Hi, Alexis!) introduced me to Nestle swirled caramel/chocolate chips. They are so yum in place of regular chocolate chips. Seriously I don't know if I ever can go back to just chocolate now. DELISH!


10. Food Storage item: 12 boxes of Mac n cheese. I actually bought the microwave packs because they only require water and I figure in times of hardship I'm not going to have much butter nor milk.

And the wheels are off

Aidan asked us on Monday if we could take the training wheels off his bike. All the boys in the neighborhood have been riding without them and he also found out that a GIRL in our branch started without them too. So he knew he had to get going on it. It was probably more us holding him back than anything. Ryan took them off and away he went. He has done great. It is just the stopping that is hard. His dismounts off the bike are, uh, a little, shall we say, creative. He now HAS to wear his helmet and elbow guards. It is amazing to his determination to keep trying and mastering the skill. We have had some close calls but no crying yet.

Tuesday Top Ten

I'm starting a Tuesday Top Ten of things I have been doin', likin' and lovin'!

1. Cassidy- I'm just totally lovin' on her.2. Red Box. I have become addicted to the video rental Red Box that you find at Mc Donalds. Two movies I rented lately: Definitely, Maybe (Loved it. It is a without your hubby chickflick) and also Cloverfield (HATED IT!!!!!! don't rent it. Lamest movie of the year. Just so you know, Ryan hated it too!)

3. Grilled Hamburgers. Ryan is a great grillin' man. He puts on Sticky Fingers BBQ sauce and it is so yum. I feel like that girl (not Paris Hilton) on the Carl's Jr. commercial that is eating that big sloppy hamburger except that I'm not a beautiful model. 4. The Library. Totally been using it for entertainment purposes lately. Books, videos, recipe books. Great stuff.

5. The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. Just finished it. Good easy read. 6. Orbits Sweet Mint gum. 7. Trying new recipes. I'm on a kick to find some new recipes. This is one of my all time favorites http://www.mccormick.com/recipedetail.cfm?id=453

8. Daiquiris. I have been making daiquiris from the Bacardi's frozen mixes. I just don't add the alcohol. They are so yum. We have done strawberry, pina colada, and peach. If you add a little whip cream to the strawberry one...it is divine. I also found these great new daiquiri glasses at Walmart for 50 cents each. That is half the fun, the cool glasses.

9. Design Star on HGTV. I like Trish the best (Project Runway starts this week. Can't wait!)

10. Food storage. I think since the priceof gas has gone up so crazy high, it has really freaked me out. Plus our branch has done some great things to teach about food storage. So I am makin' my game plan. I have allocated an amount of money each month to buy items for food storage. I have a list for spending $5 a week on food storage. I think I will follow that and add maybe some of my own items. This week: 20 lbs of sugar.

Foo Foo Camping

Ryan had 3 days off so we figured before the summer got away from us that we needed to go camping. We have all the stuff and rarely use it. So yesterday was the day. We went about 25 miles from home. We went to a state park so it had bathrooms, toys for the kids to play on and was very well groomed. So, in other words, or more so Ryan's words, we went foo foo camping. But we are a family with 3 little kids and I think foo foo is all we can do right now.

We set up camp last night, played a little catch, and of course made smores. Once it got dark we tried to settle into our tent. The kids just didn't want to go to sleep and it was close to 10:30. We told some stories and finally they konked. Little Miss Cassidy is my favorite person in the world now because she slept all through the night with just one little peep that was quickly resolved with the binkie. I was so SO happy. I woke up at 6:30 and peeked in on her to see if she was okay and she was awake just looking around. Her hands were freezing so after some cuddling she went back to sleep.

This morning we had chocolate milk and donuts. Again, foo foo camping. We played around at the playland and played catch some more. Then we went fishing for a bit because Aidan was "hungry for fish." No luck though.

Lacey and Aidan loved camping. Lacey told me as we were walking to the bathroom, "Thank you for taking us camping. It is beautiful here. You helped dad put up the tent. That's important." She was so adorable.

Quick pages

Oh, How I relate....