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So, one of my favorite things is to read blogs of friends to find out what they are doing, what their kids are doing and to see how creative they are.  I LOVE this and I don't.  It seems I am not as deep as I think, I'm not as witty as I would hope and I certainly do not have the photographic ability my friends have (not even close).  Don't worry, though, I will continue to bore you with my lack of wit, deep thoughts and good photographs, but I'll keep trying to improve! 

The day of Brayton's field trip, I was feeling guilty for not having any desire to go with him.  It's rather strange. . . at Byron, I would feel extremely guilty for not going and here, I just didn't feel like it.  So, to make up for it, I whipped up some cookies for his "old-fashioned" lunch that morning before school.  I looked through cookbooks and was happy to have found this one because it did NOT take all morning to bake the cookies because it didn't make a ton of dough!  We like them so much, I'm sharing the recipe because I'm not anti-baking, I just don't like having to eat the cookies for weeks :D

Three-in-One Chocolate Chip Cookies

6 Tbsp. butter or marg., softened

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla ext.

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

12 oz. pkg chocolate chips

You know how to mix the dough ~ I baked them in small cookies (the other choices are one large cookie or roll into a dough roll, chilling and slice into cookies to bake) and it took about 12 minutes on my stone at 350 degrees.  The amount of chocolate chips is about equal to the amount of dough :D

 My favorite part is that all of the cookies fit into one smaller plastic storage containers!  We won't have to eat cookies for weeks (or, rather, throw them away after a few days)

While I was baking cookies I came to a decision ~ I don't want to get rid of my toaster oven yet.  We moved it and don't really need it, so I was going to take it to the Consignment shop, but I still really like it and we have room in the pantry, so that's where it sits (now, not for this picture)

 Last night Brayton had a make-up football game from 2 weeks ago.  I think they lost, but he got to play a lot so that was good!  Usually he only plays on the offensive line, but last night they tried him on defense too ~ he was thrilled. 

 This team had their cheerleaders there too (like the other team he played) they are sooo cute!!

 Here is our little man after the game.

 Such a cutie!!

 Tonight the boys wanted to do something with their dad.  I wanted to go for a walk ~ Chris suggested basketball.  We packed up 3 balls and headed out ~ it only takes a couple minutes to get to the courts and we were the only ones there.  I so do NOT have the talent my friends have, but I still like having the opportunity to document their play.

 This is the face of my son who brought tears to my eyes as I read his after-school text to me.  He must've gotten home and immediately text me to apologize about the discussion we had this morning about him wearing something other than gym shorts and t-shirts.  I hated starting his day off like that and felt terrible as I watched him leave the house, but figured he'd wear what he wanted to anyway and would think nothing of it.  Not so, he must've thought about it during the day. . . God has certainly blessed us with two wonderful children!

 I apologize for the crooked pictures ~ this blogger has a new photo upload thing and it's really handy!  I can upload the pictures all at one time AND I can put them all on the blog at one time!  The only down-side is I can't "flip" them after they are uploaded!

Rain and rain and football

We've had a lot of rain, though not as much as they got back in Minnesota (thank God!).  With what we did get, I am still happy with our house because there are many lots lower than our house, not yet developed, but are beside houses we considered buying with water sitting in them!  I always wonder what is happening in the adjacent houses to these empty lots because if there is that much water sitting in an empty lot, what's below ground?  With all this rain, football practice was cancelled on Thursday night and the games from Saturday were cancelled.  The boys were bummed (even about practice being cancelled), but we tried to play up our 1st big football party!  Well, it wasn't so big, but it really was our 1st!  The game that was a must see in this area was SDSU playing Nebraska.  For those who aren't big college football followers (say that 3 times fast!), SDSU just moved to D1 football and it was the first time since like '67 or something that SDSU played Nebraska!  They held their own and did an excellent job, to the dismay of the Cornhuskers' coach (Neb. won, but it was NOT the blowout they had expected).  We had great food and fun (I had to bring out the cow bell!) thanks to Tom and Jane joining us.  It would've been pretty dull if they hadn't have come! LOL  Now that we are 2 weeks behind on Bray's football games, they are making them up on the "practice" days so we'll try to keep that all straight!

On Friday night Chris and I had our first Siouxland Friends and Neighbors event.  We were nervous because, you know, we were the new ones and all.  Of course, it was bring something to pass and your own drinks.  We brought our drinks and then learned how it works. . .  Everyone brought a bottle of wine, to share, and if they wanted to drink something else, they brought that too  ~ UGH, we didn't know!  Chris went racing back to Tom to get a bottle of wine that we could contribute (we were right around the corner from their house) and he checked on Taite.  I don't know how we can forget the effect the cats have on him and his allergies.  With the "stuff" outside, he could hardly breathe when that was combined with the cat "stuff" inside their house.  Speaking of which, I need to pick up some Zyrtec.  That seems to be the only thing that works for him because the Claritin we have at the house, doesn't cut it.  He's doing fine now other than I was ready to strangle him this morning. . .

Taite came out from his room, dressed for school in a wrinkly gray t-shirt and silky/sport shorts.  This is his outfit EVERY day!  I asked him where his shirt came from and he said his room floor.  Long story short, he said he had to wear a dirty shirt because he didn't have anything else to wear ~ translation: he doesn't have anything else in his closet he wants to wear.  He has plenty of other clothes!  He just wears the same t-shirts every day of every week.  I'm tempted to wash them and NOT put them back in his closet so he will wear some of the nicer clothes in his closet and will look nice.

Brayton was in a really good mood yesterday and that was a nice change :)  Not that he's crabby all the time, but he doesn't seem to get enough sleep or something so it made Chris and I both smile when his quick wit was back and he was funny.

This morning Chris asked Taite if he wanted oatmeal or eggs and toast for breakfast ~ um, yes, he would have all of those.  Chris apologized sheepishly as he backed out of the kitchen to get ready to leave with Tom for the day. . . WTH?!  With Taite sitting on the bar stool waiting, I got started on the eggs and then thought "why am I attempting to do all of this myself??", so I got Taite making the oatmeal (it only goes into the microwave anyway, so not a big deal!).  They both polished off the oatmeal, eggs and toast I had made.  Hopefully they had a great day with all that food in their stomachs!  Speaking of food ~ I better run because Bray has a field trip tomorrow to a nature preserve and they are supposed to have lunches in pails and they are walking to the preserve just like in the old days and I still haven't found a "pail" (they suggested creating one out of a Crisco can, but I buy it in sticks now) so I'm going to hit the dollar store and see if I can convert something from there. . . Wish me luck!!

What's Happenin' Hot Stuff??

Since we moved, one of my fav things to do is explore!  I grew up where I lived for most of my life, so everything was pretty well known to me.  Well. . . here it's not!!  Yesterday my boss let me have the afternoon off and I explored.  I found 3 consignment shops, Shopko and a quilt store!  Then I ran out of time and had to come home to fix supper with a longer list of "to-explores" than I had time.  I did find this fun pattern in the quilt store:  (I hope it really does take just an afternoon!)  What a fun thing!!!

Last weekend Chris decided to clean out the storage shed so we could quit paying for it (when we first moved, his goal was to get that done in 5 months).  He started Saturday and finished on Sunday.  It is now empty.  After organizing all the boxes and putting things in their place or at least grouping things together, it seems we are missing a box.  I'm thinking we took it to Goodwill by mistake.  What was in it?

Plates, bowls and dishes that matched our "summer" dish set

Pampered Chef 4 mini loaf pan

Pampered Chef regular loaf pan

beaters for my hand mixer

other things I'm sure we just haven't figured out yet

Today I continued my consignment shop search (found 1 new one and visited 2 past ones) in the off chance I'd find stoneware to match what I had lost.  The only thing I found was a loaf pan.  It's a stoneware one and it's pretty to boot.  My other one was well used (which makes it's loss that much harder, same with my mini loaf pan), but it will be nice to have one that looks pretty when I put it on the table!  The best part?  It was only $5!  I only paid $1 for my PC one at a garage sale, but I'm not holding my breath that I'll be that lucky again!  My mini loaf pan I had to pay full price for and I'm sure I'll have to again.

In my search for PC stoneware, I found out that they no longer make the deep dish baker in the stoneware.  I was shocked because I LOVE mine for making fall off the bone chicken and other roasts, etc!!!  Well, I just happened to find on at the consignment shop that we take stuff to for $8 so I picked it up as back-up in case something happens to mine :~)

Another thing I found today that I've been wanting is one of those cups that is re-usable, but looks disposable.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Here, I'll show you:

It was only $2.50

I found this stand and it wasn't special, but I thought it would work well with our modern looking furniture in the sitting room ~ bonus ~ it was 1/2 off so only $1.25

But. . . I kind of like it on my counter too with this cookbook displayed on it!

HOWEVER, my favorite and BEST purchase of the day was this cute little dresser I found at a consignment shop for only $65!  It's painted black and has wheels on the bottom (Taite has never seen that and said "cool"!) and looks OH SO perfect in our sitting room!  Even if we want to change it out, it will work in my sewing room when we get that done!  When I was looking at the dresser for the 2nd time (ran out of time the first stop) I noticed the globe on a stand that was also on the dresser and knew Brayton would LOVE it ~ he did!  I plan to paint the wooden piece in the middle a black so it matches the dresser and then maybe distressing the wood on both to look more worn.

Here is a picture of how the new furniture pieces look from Pier 1.

The room is still in progress so that's why you can't really see the lamp in the corner cause it's sitting on the floor.  I need to find the perfect table to put it on :~)

On Sunday after Taite's football game (it was rescheduled from Saturday cause of the weather ~ rainy and lightning) the boys were playing catch in the front yard and some boys from down the street came and asked them if they wanted to play football with them.  Of course they went and played and we were excited to have more in the neighborhood.  I snapped a few pictures of them playing.

Unfortunately, we had to call the boys in for supper in the middle of their playing.  After supper, though, they were invited again to join them.  I went to check on things just because you never know and was surprised to see the one boy grab his brother's shoulder, bring it down and knee him in the shoulder.  I understand they are brothers, but it is so out of character from our boys I was shocked!  The younger, injured brother was rolling around on the ground as the older one acted like he didn't know what happened.  I was not impressed but wasn't quite sure how to handle the situation. . .  Then I proceeded to watch them play and they were supposed to throw the ball to one of the other players and that turned into whipping the ball at someone like 3 feet away.  Needless to say Taite wasn't happy when he came home and Bray seemed oblivious.  Yesterday the same boys rang our doorbell to see if our boys could play.  I told them we had to eat an early supper so the boys could get to practice and they left.  Taite asked me what I told them and I said "They were too mean so our boys couldn't play with them" and Taite said "oh" while nodding!  Even Chris said "You DIDN'T say that, did you?!"  Geez, you'd think he would know me by now. . .

Random pics from around our house and Chris is okay!!!

I'll start out with the good stuff. . . Chris left this morning visibly thinner and came home around 1:00 with a good report!  Nothing major was causing the bleeding and nothing cancerous, which is what he was expecting to hear!  YAHOO!  He is now resting peacefully. . . (you'll have to click on the pictures to see the whole scene ~ I didn't know they were "cropped" to fit on the blog)

After he left this morning at 7 (Tom picked him up and waited for him at his appointment) I had a lot of time to clean and wash our bedding and think. . . and think. . . and think. . .   I was very relieved when Tom sent me a text telling me what the Dr. said!  We were very appreciative of him driving Chris to his appointment because the boys are just getting up at 7 and Chris' appointment was for 7:30.  The only downside is that I didn't need to drive to the hospital and wait and that was a long time to be alone!  As I was cleaning, doing dishes and laundry, I thought I'd share with you just some of the "stuff" from our house ~ to yours! :~)

I've been decorating and added some stuff to above the cabinets.  My biggest challenge is not falling off the counter while doing this!  The crown molding on the cabinets is so tall and on the tallest cabinets, it's really difficult to see what I'm doing.  Oh, another challenge ~ finding stuff to set my stuff on so you will actually be able to see it over the crown molding  :D

Notice we still haven't pulled the trigger on bar stools yet.  With 7 to buy, we want to make darn sure we choose the right ones!

Our bed waiting for clean sheets so Chris could enjoy them when he came home!

This the rug that Jane and I got (we each got one since they were such a good deal!) at Pier 1.  They were marked down to $29 from $130!  Chris isn't really a fan because it's not soft at all and it reminds me more of an outdoor rug, but it's super great for having in the kitchen.  I just vacuum it regularly and I've been pretty good about staying ahead of the dust bunnies in the rest of the house too so it's not a big deal!

Bray's pads and helmet in the middle of the floor (oops, those are my shoes in the background, not put away ~ good thing I'm the mom and get to break those rules ~ hehe)

A drying rack of football stuff:  jerseys (Vikings, game & practice), pants and girdles (yes, that's what they call the "under" pants thing the boys wear).  This is in the sitting room and it's not quite "done" hence the hodge podge of stuff and furniture in there!

Here are the two chairs we got from Pier 1 ~ I am assured the love seat will be on this week's truck!  The only problem is we don't have any accent tables or ottoman to go with these yet. . .  That will have to wait until we know what we want for sure!  I like shopping online, but am not always sure about buying this type of stuff online.  I've found a lot of things I think I might like on Overstock, but what if I don't like it??

I've had this spider thing from House of the Crafty Mouse for a couple years now I think and I've never been able to suck it up and buy a fake pumpkin because they are so expensive!  Well, it seems to me anyway that they are!  I found this one at Hobby Lobby and think it works perfectly!  It's like woven reeds to create a pumpkin and the best part ~ it was over 1/2 of the price of the other kind of fake pumpkins and looks just as cute!

Last night Chris was tired and I was hoping he could get some sleep so I waited to go to bed.  As I was watching Leno and chatting on FB, I heard the dog growling.  Since she's in Taite's room now, I went and told her to be quiet.  I noticed there was a car parked outside our house in the street (kind of unusual at 10:45) and figured that's what she was unhappy about.  Well, next thing she's barking like someone is trying to break in (well, I knew they weren't, but she wasn't happy about something)!  I grabbed her out of her kennel and made her sit on the rug in the living room with me until she calmed down.  The car was gone at this point, but I watched the security SUV turn around in our driveway (also unusual unless we've called them on the neighbor).  Well, this morning it all made sense. . . (did I mention it's Homecoming this week) :D

This is our front door (from the inside of course).  I thought it looked good, so I took a picture.  Simple as that!  I seriously need to buy stock in 3m's removable hooks!  I'm hooked and use them everywhere! (no pun intended! hehe)