This morning's Lincoln Journal Star featured a article this morning titled "Detailing a gangs who who?"  

Found it to be a interesting read while drinking my morning coffee.  

Bumbo?

Another

"Remember When?"

Moment

Remember when all they had to play with was mud from a low spot in the pit and while you could not fault them for their frugality in time they did move on to bigger and better things.

 

Remember when the first little duck house was built we thought we were in heaven. 

Just as the kids moved on to bigger and better things so did we.  We now even have a friend to keep us company!  

Spent the last couple of days going through some more pictures.  I broke down and bought a 500GB portable hard drive in an effort to consolidate my photos and make room on my laptop.  My hope is that I can just take it into the shop and have a few things fixed and then I can avoid having to ugrade to a newer one in the future.

  I am already seeing the benefit of having all my pictures together and I am realizing that I have quite a collection.  I am slowly going through each folder and deleting some and finding others. 

Just Checking in...

Got the ol' laptop up and running today and in preparation for consolidating my photos I have been going through and let me tell you there are some good ones.

I think what has impressed me more than the amount of pictures I have is the  progression of our family, especially the kids.  It blows my mind that it has been a little over twelve years that I have been hanging around and I have watched all these kids growing up but one does not notice how much they have grown when you are around them constanlty.

So here is to the "kids" who are far too quickly becoming adults and to their parents that still think of the day they had them and  who will always think of them as their babies.

 

Just Relaxing...

Remember when?

 

Conan or Leno?

The fight at NBC continues with another night of jabs from Conan and Leno it makes for good entertainment and I am sure Letterman is happy the attention is finally off him.  

One rumor is that Conan will move to Fox where he will be able to have a bit more freedom but what ever he chooses I am I am sure it will make for good TV and NBC's rating might actually go up!

 Today in Nebraska It will be released that our children will pay for their days off recently due to the weather.  Over the next two weeks they will have to start school fifteen minutes early and will be dismissed 21 minutes late.  This has no bearing on us as our kids walk to and from school but the parents that have to drive might find it more of a burden.  After two weeks our kids will have made up the equivalent to one day of school which will put them right below the allowed missed days for weather.  

The weather seems to be warming up but our snow is still holding out.  I woke up this morning to a fog that was frosting everything in ice and I knew it was yet another day to stay inside. 

I am thinking that today would be a good day to work on some pictures.

Frito Pie

Version One

This is a recipe that my parents sort of passed down to me.  It was onr of my faves growing up.

There are several ways to make Frito Pie and since it is easy, cheap and delicious you really can't go wrong.

Start with pre heating oven your oven to 350 degrees and get a 13x9 pan ready (I used a 13x9 to make lots because I like it best the next day for lunch but you can use what ever you have just adjust the ingredients to fit!)

You will need:

2 Onions, chopped

2 Bags of Fritos

2 Cans of refried beans

3 Cans of chili

2 Bags of cheese

Sour cream

You can really do this however you from this point but I will list how I did it.

One bag of Frito chips layered on the bottom of pan (You can use Chili Cheese Fritos or plain)

One bag of cheese

Three cans of chili spread evenly

A little over half the onions chopped

Two cans of the refied beans spread evenly

Second bag of chips covering top thoroughly

Layer second bag of cheese over chips

Then cover with remaining onions

Put it in the oven and bake for approximately 45 mins.

We used one bag of chip which was definitely not enough and we also used the original chips.

I normally make it with the chili cheese chips but it was good regardless.

By the way I like the new way to do pictures it is much easier for me.

Colorful
Cast?

I am not sure WHY this picture has caught the many views that it has but it has by far accumulated the most views I have gotten on any of my photos...combined.
I posted this picture on Flickr on May 29, 2007 and since then it has jumped up to 1,194 views. Is it the word colorful or cast that is attracting the views?
Just to put it in perspective the second highest viewed picture had 302 views and the third had 201.
So Taylor, you have won my most viewed award!

Another Snow Day?

We are on our third winter storm of the year and we sit holed up in our house awaiting the 4-6 inches they are calling for. Granted this snowfall is nothing compared to the snowfall in other areas but it is a lot compared to what we normally get so even the schools are shut down. I think we have had four or five days where they have shut the school down due to the weather. The strangest was the day where the temps dropped too low and they canceled school because it would cost the school too much too heat the school on those days.
The last snowfall we got was over Christmas and it was enough to shut our entire town down which was quite a site Christmas morning to wake up to freshly fallen deep snow and no traffic. Even if you had traveling plans you were not going due to the road conditions.
So now we are prepared for being stuck at home for the next couple of days as Heath's truck is two wheel drive and worthless in the snow and while the store is close it is not a fun walk in the bad weather. We have cable and movies, a couple of board games and my new espresso machine.
Since it is chilly outside it may be a good time to make a couple of really good mochas and play some games with the kids!

Where has the Christmas spirit gone?
Woke the kids up for their second day back at school and I am faced with kids who are still suffering the ill effects of poor sleeping habits from Christmas break. I grumble to myself as I poor my second cup of coffee, "Where has the Christmas spirit gone?"
Is it out in the snow covered yard with the dead needle-less trees waiting to be burned? We have two.
Did it accidentally get thrown away with all the Christmas trash on Christmas morning? I know a story of earrings that got eaten by Christmas trash, they were Dana's from Grandma Mary I do believe, so who is to say it could not have been thrown away?
I do not remember seeing the Christmas spirit as I packed away the rest of my decorations but I did have help so it could have been wrapped in newspaper and tucked away in a box.

The kids are fighting again and we have no threat to hold over their heads like "you better be good or else..." implying that we would actually with hold presents from them. They know this not to be true but they do not take any risks so close to the big day.
Their toys and gifts have been consumed by the mass that is their bedrooms and now you would not be able to tell which is new and which is old.
They are back at school which seems to finalize the end of the holiday season.
We are on the second day of getting up for school and the grumpy growls tell me they might need to go to bed a bit earlier or maybe I need to invest in some shock collars.

Instead of researching too much into shock collars I decided to look through some of my recent photos and then I found it, Christmas spirit.
The Christmas spirit was in this photo of our Christmas tree.
From this picture you don't know this is tree number two. You can't tell that it is dead. You can't guess that the cat was taking the tinsel off and that half the ornaments had fallen off days earlier. It reminds me of the calm before the kids got up. Just heath and I up putting together the last minute things for the morning.
When I start to loose my Christmas spirit I will have to look back at this picture and remind myself of the excitement of knowing your kids are going to love those presents you got them and how much fun it was to torture them till Christmas morning!

Also now that I know shock collars are illegal to put on kids I will have to put them to bed earlier to fight the grumpies.
(Just a side note I would NEVER put a shock collar on any of my kids but I did buy one for our pitbull and Heath has been daring the kids to get shocked, now we know that may not be such a funny thing!)

What a difference eight years can make.
Since Shane has been sleeping in his crib all through the night Santa decided to give im a cool mobile for his crib.
When my other two were little they had mobiles in their cribs as well but definitely not as fancy as this one. They were the hand wind up kind that would play tinkly music and spin till they wound down then mom or dad would have to go in an rewind the mobile.
This is the Fisher Price Precious Planet Projection Mobile.
As far as music goes you have your choice of a soft classical piece, soothing nature sounds or a comforting heartbeat. Shane prefers the classical music. The heartbeat would have been something I would have liked to try when he was younger but know it holds no interest so far.
The mobile spins just like every other mobile and even has the little animals hanging from it but it has one twist. It projects a cute colorful image on the underside of the mobile or as baby gets older it also can project the moving images on the ceiling. I thought this was a really neat addition to the mobile and my son loves it! A couple more feature of this mobile that sets it apart and shows some real thought went into its making. It comes with a remote so you do not have to enter baby's room to turn on mobile and this after about 20 minutes of run time. As it winds to the end the light slowly dims and the music plays till it slowly fades to a stop.
Now this thing is definitely a bit more than any one baby needs but it is fun and it doubles as a way to put him bed and he likes to play with it during the day as well.
I am so amazed at the difference a few years have made in the baby world but I enjoy finding all the new toys and things to play with!

I was early today, even to early to blog and so I was forced to watch TV. Why is it we have so many channels but at 2:30 in the morning there was nothing on but infomercials. Now I am glad I tuned in because I got to watch these great products! Check them out!
The Jawhorse

I thought this was really cool and I know we could use a few in the HITW but if we are going to get this we might as well get a Dual Saw or two.
I know we were not supposed to "work this summer but both of these would be great for the finishing work on the cabins!

GO
BIG
RED!

GO
BIG
SUH!