Saturday, February 28, 2009

guess what we FINALLY bought...

Yes!!! Wednesday night we will be sleeping on our new mattress. While is isn't a "heavenly bed" if sure felt nice in the store. I would call it more "enchanting". We are both very excited as our current mattress is well past it's prime. The best part is that they are taking the old mattress away for free. And, we are going to keep our old box springs to raise our height in the sleigh bed. When we bought our sleigh bed at Haverty's we loved that in the store the bed appeared so tall in the sleigh bed. When we got it home and put our box springs and mattress in it- it didn't look the same. We went back to Haverty's and realized their model had 2 box springs in it. So, 6 years later-- we are going to be achieving the look we loved so much on the model bed. Another plus is that I should be a little higher when I am sleeping and maybe Brady won't wake me up a million times in the night by putting his nose on my nose to see if I am sleeping. Silly pup!
Speaking of the pup- I also got to purchase new socks and panties at Target today due to a recent adventure Brady had with the laundry hamper. Thanks Brady.

meet Henry

Here is a sweet picture of our newest nephew Henry. Isn't he so very precious? You can read all about his adventures on his Mommy's blog. He will be here in July!

WHAT A WEEK!!!

Sorry once again for being the slackest blogger in bloggerville. It has been a crazy week!! When I say crazy, I mean NUTZO CRAZIO mega crazy!!

First off- on Sunday I made the most amazing new recipe for dinner. It was so good in fact that I made it again for dinner on Wednesday. Why? The reason is that we simply couldn't stop thinking about it. It was SO good!! Here is the recipe... with my usual modifications.

Chicago Style Pan Pizza

1 loaf (1 pound) frozen bread dough (thaw and rise!)
1 pound roll of pork sausage (I used mild)
2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 pound of sliced fresh mushrooms
1 small onion, chopped
2 teaspoons of olive oil
1 (14.5 oz) can of petite cut diced tomatoes, drained
3/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fennel seed, crushed
1/4 tsp garlic powder
( for all of the above spices I used 2 teaspoons of an amazing Italian seasoning mix I have in the cabinet)
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Press the dough onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased 13 by 9 by 2 inch baking dish. In a large skillet, brown sausage over medium heat. Drain and sprinkle over dough. Top with Mozzarella cheese.

In a skillet, saute onions and mushrooms until tender. Stir in tomatoes and spices. Spoon over mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Simply amazing-- just typing it makes me want to make it again.
Leave me a comment if you try it.

So that was Sunday... Monday, I worked with my class on getting ready for the chili cook off that we had entered. I could copy and paste the previous sentence for every day this week. It was A LOT of work!! I worked my art class job that afternoon. When I got home, Meghan was here and had picked up chips and cheese dip for us. It was yumm-o!! I texted Mr. D. to pic us up dinner at Cozumel on the way home and when he got there they told him his wife's sister had already been in for the chips and dip. We all had to chuckle over that one. Monday night I worked on the last of my parent/teacher conference reports.

Tuesday, I worked with my class on getting ready for the chili cook off that we had entered. We were down one teacher in our class on Tuesday due to illness. Kate and I did the conferences after school. After the conferences, we went to a Shrove Tuesday dinner with Kate and Blake. The funniest part of the dinner was Kate and I were wearing the same color- and had been all day, but didn't realize it until EVERYONE at the dinner pointed it out.

We had so much fun eating chocolate chip pancakes and pecan waffles.
We came home Tuesday night and our internet was out. They had been working on the lines and somehow disconnected to lines for internet. We called the service provider and they said they could send someone Thursday.

Wednesday, I worked with my class on getting ready for the chili cook off that we had entered. After school I had to go to the grocery store and get the ingredients to make the pizza again. When Mr. D. came home, he saw the AT&T truck in the neighborhood- apparently we aren't the only ones who lost internet service in the neighborhood. I made dinner and the the world stopped as I watched LOST. Oh- and speaking of LOST, all of the oceanic 6 fish are still alive! Here is a video of me feeding them.


Thursday was a fun day. I worked with my class on getting ready for the chili cook off that we had entered. After school I had Daisy Scouts. We have some pretty strong personalities in our troop. The activity was to make the bracelets in the colors of the petals on the Daisy logo. Each color of petal stands for something, so really we were trying to teach that. Well the girls were having NONE of it and wanted to just design their own bracelets. It was so funny. Eventually I think everyone ended up with something resembling what it as supposed to be- and something they were happy with. I only have 5 or 6 more meetings before school is out!
Oh- and the internet was fixed today!!



Friday was the day I had been working towards all week for 2 reasons. 1) We got to find out if we were getting a new niece or nephew and 2) the chili cook off. We will start with the second before we get to the first. I worked with my class on getting ready for the chili cook off that we had entered. Every day I had to drag a million things from my house to school and back. This was a well organized production. There were excel spread sheets, schedules, and plans. Tom (my father in law- not the myspace guy) would have been thrilled! I even had a Julie McCoy style clip board to keep everything organized. I turned all of the kids on to a love of the Pampered Chef products.. oh and speaking of, I am having a party on March 17th in hopes to get more free stuff. Everyone got very in to the cooking and it was actually so much fun. As you read previously, there were interesting ingredients to work with. We put a lot of things, ummm..well... on the side, as opposed to in the chili.

Of course in typical CMS fashion... IT POURED!! It is inevitable that if there is a CMS event- it will rain. While the actual chili cook off was indoors- it was challenging to get things from our building to the gym. Now, when I say it rained- I don't mean a drizzle at all. It was sheets of POURING rain in the wind. We were all drenched. On the flip side- great chili weather
(if you eat chili which I don't).

The worse thing about Friday is that my partner in crime got sick at school and had to miss the chili cook off!! I felt bad because Kate had put SO much work into the cook off. It would have been more fun with her and I hope she is feeling better by now.

Here is a picture of our booth.

We created a slide show to show of the children making the chili- from the voting of what type and voting for a name- to us turning in our entry- to cook cook cooking - to win win winning! These kids worked- and I mean a lot of work. We won the trophy for people's choice. Having tasted the chili- the people were very sweet.

The kids were pretty excited- and even a few cried when they realized that they didn't get to take the big trophy home with them. We will have it in our classroom for all to enjoy.

Now- for the best news of Friday. We found out Keith and Meredith are having a little boy. So, for the count- in May-July we are waiting on a girl, boy, girl, girl, and now a boy. Henry Micheal was the last one for us to find out what he was going to be. Two of my good friends are getting a niece and a nephew at the same time so I am going to help them make a quilt- as I have made a quilt for both Kaleigh and Donovan- and now I will make one for Henry. It is the Aunt thing that I do (and now I am forcing it on my friends to do as well). I will post more on the blankets as they come along. In addition to getting to see the PRECIOUS pictures of Henry- I got to see 4D pictures of one of the babies we are waiting on that I have been so worried about. Her doctors think everything is going to be fine now and I was so relieve to hear it. Speaking of babies-- my home study will be officially OVER as of Wednesday of this coming week!! Whoo- hoo for that!

This morning I made myself a chocolate chip waffle- and ordered Henry's mom a treat. Of course the ordering of the treat was on my to-do list for longer that I had hoped- sorry Meredith!

On a sad note- today is Meghan's moving day. She is moving out of our neighborhood and back home with her parents about 20 minutes away. We will miss her being so close!!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Sunday in 4 words

Do-si-do Girl Scout Cookies

Chicago deep dish pizza

parent teacher conference reports

filing our tax return

taking a long nap

watching the fish swim

spending time with hubby

Brady- off the bed

catching up on crap

not watching the Oscars

looking forward to FRIDAY! ! !

believe it or not

I have spent more time on this website than facebook this weekend.... and found some awesome new blogs to read.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

beautiful girls

It seems like just yesterday these beautiful girls were staying at our house. My how they have grown in just a few short months.

I hate pork tenderloin

I hate pork tenderloin- and I mean I really hate it. I have tried a million different recipes and it just always taste blah to me. I can never get excited about pork tenderloin. So when we went to Costco a while back and picked up a 6 lb pork tenderloin for $9- I was a little less than excited. I cut it into 3 different sections and sealed it up with my food saver and vowed to try 3 new recipes. Last night was the first attempt. I had no hope on a good dinner going into it. In fact, I ate a snack at 5 o'clock so that I wouldn't be starving and disappointed. Well- this recipe was fast, easy and did not disappoint at all. It was the first time I ACTUALLY liked pork tenderloin. Here is the recipe.

bacon wrapped pork with peppers and potatoes
(of course, we had to do without the peppers because Mr. D. is sensitive to them)

1 package of Ore-ida Potatoes O'Brien (potatoes with onions and peppers)
4 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 tablespoons of water
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
1 pork tenderloin
3 bacon slices cut in half
1/3 cup of light mayonnaise
2 teaspoon of red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of bottled chopped garlic

Arrange over racks on bottom 2 slots in the oven. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Coat a 15x10x1 jelly roll pan and a small roasting pan with cooking spray.

In a bowl whisk 1 tablespoon of mustard, oil, 1 tablespoon water, salt and pepper. Add potatoes and toss. Spread in jelly roll pan.

Spread 1 tablespoon of mustard over the pork. Arrange bacon over the top in strips spacing slightly apart. Place in roasting pan.

Place pans in oven with potatoes on bottom rack and pork above. Roast in the 450 degree oven. Check the pork after 20 minutes. If the internal temperature if 150 degrees, take it out. If not, leave it in for another 5-10 minutes.

While the potatoes and pork are roasting, prepare the sauce. In a small bowl mix remaining 2 tablespoons of mustard, 2 tablespoons of water, mayo, vinegar, and garlic.

Toss the potatoes, thinly slice the pork and serve with sauce. Enjoy!!

chili cook off

My class has entered my school's Chili Cook Off. The kids created the recipe. Here are some things they thought we would need for the cook off. Should be interesting.
whipped cream
cream cheese
spices- "just a little"
grapes
chili sandwiches
carrots
milk
cheese
beans
onions
a lion (we are substituting chicken)
turkey
salsa
chocolate
corn
rice
chicken
spinach
marshmallows
pumpkin
macaroni and cheese
apple sauce
cornbread
apples
ice cream with chocolate syrup
peppers
eggs

Actually this has been a great learning experience for the kids. We have voted on all aspects, chili type, name of chili, etc. Next week we will be cooking like crazy in anticipation for Friday's cook off. The teachers have a few tricks up their sleeves as well!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Oceanic Six

Tonight, We went to get our new fish for the aquarium. We picked out 6 African Cichlids. I named them after the Oceanic 6 from Lost. Here are some pictures I took of them.
JackHurley

Sayid

Aaron


Left is Sun, right is Kate Austen


Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Brady and V-Day Iguana


I was uploading my camera tonight and realized I forgot to post the pic of Brady and his Valentine's present. It lasted less time than it took me to run a tub of bath water. I was amazed at how much stuffing was in that little thing!!

the tank makeover

This is the rock creation created by Mr. D. himself. What you can't see are the behind the scenes tunnels and caves he created out of PVS pipes. It is simply amazing! And you all thought I was the crafty one!

Monday, February 16, 2009

glorious day!!

I could have gone yesterday, but I was afraid it would be too soon. So we went today. I felt the butterflies in my stomach when we entered the store. What if it wasn't time yet.... oh, but it was time!! Oh glorious day-- YOU are finally here!!! It's ROBIN EGG season!!!

ironic

It is more than a little ironic that I have lost misplaced my keys after Mr. D. was nice enough to purchase me that key finder for Christmas. I never put it on my keys and now my keys have been MIA for 4 days now. Where are you guys?

10 words or less.. or actually more

Sunday, February 15, 2009

pie crust-- 1st attempt

Tonight I have created a recipe and I am a little nervous about it. I wanted to make a pie crust because I have never made a pie crust. More than anything, I really want to be good at it. I have a Pampered Chef rolling pin and pastry mat. I thought I had everything I needed but then again I had no idea what went into a pie crust. I looked up a recipe online and it called for shortening- which I didn't have. So, I found a recipe that didn't call for it. It called for flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter and cold water. It said 3 tablespoons of water. Then the recipe said to add more if needed. Since I have never made a pie crust before so how in the world was I supposed to know if I needed to add more water. I put it in the plastic wrap and chilled it in the refrigerator for a few hours. When it was time I put the little mound of dough on the pastry mat. It crumbled to pieces. I guess it needed more water. I couldn't really roll it out so I just pressed it into the pie plate.
I cooked chicken in the crock pot all day and I shredded it. I heated up cream cheese and spread into the bottom of the crust. One top of that I added shredded chicken with sauteed onions and buffalo wing sauce all mixed together. I added cheddar cheese next. Then shredded chicken mixed with ranch dressing. I topped all of this off with a pieced together top pie crust. It is baking in the oven right now. While it isn't the prettiest thing, I am sure it is going to be delicious. I am making it my 2009 goal is to perfect my pastry making skills. Any and all advise is welcomed... AP??

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Valentine's ROCKS!!


This is a picture of the rocks we got each other for Valentine's Day. Mr. D. worked today and I had my gardening class. Then we met at the fish store and picked out these rocks together. It was fun digging in the bins and finding the rocks. Stay tuned- complete fish tank makeover to follow!

where it all started

Every month my gardening class is in a different location where we can see an already established community garden. Today was quite the coincidence.

34 years and 179 days ago, I was born on the very floor of the place where I had my meeting today.

I didn't know what the building was and when the lady was telling us about the place she said it was the old hospital where I was born. I double checked with my mom and she said that I was born there on the second floor.

So today I was where it all started for me. It was really neat to think about.

my apologies

Dear people in (insert name of my city here),

I apologize for the rain today. It is the day of my gardening class, and of course that means it is going to rain. The rain will probably stop around 1pm. Please be prepared for the rain once a month on a Saturday until May.

Stay dry!
Sandy

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Thursday 13: thirteen conversation hearts

My class made Valentine cards today to send to the residents at a nursing home that we send things to. In the Valentine box I found these foam conversation hearts. The box had blank hearts so I used some to create the ultimate Valentine's Day Thursday 13. Enjoy.



To Keith:



To Eden and Alice:
To Jill:
To Meredith:
To Donovan and Kaleigh:
To: Brady
To: Karen
To: The person who is secret pal-ing me.
To: Tiffani
To Kate:
To: Mr. D.
To Meghan: (she is out of minutes and can't call!)To all of my readers:

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

viva la Wednesday

This is me! I have a new little sweet as pie girl in my class. She is just almost 3 and we are having the best time with her. She wore the cutest little bell bottom outfit the other day and I told Kate I had a pic of me in something similar. So this morning, I took this picture to school. Everyone thought it was precious, so I decided to share it with you!!
Viva la Wednesday- LOST is about to come on - so this will be short and sweet. It is also report time and I am working hard on trying to fit all of the wonderful things I have to share about the kids into one little page. My class is just AMAZING!! I am sure I will blog more about report time later.
I know LOTS of people with the dreadful stomach virus. ARRG!! Caleb and Parker both have it. I had to drive the puking Parker to his grandmother's yesterday. He was so pitiful. I kept saying- USE THE BUCKET!! Hopefully I will not catch this!! Caleb was a gnat's eyelash away from going to Children's for dehydration. He is on the up swing. I have had several kids out this week. Again- I hope to stay healthy on the tummy front since I have had the sinus/cough since December.
Kate might not get home in time for LOST. This is stressing me out!! She is on the phone with me right now! OK gotta go!!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Brady's extreme home makeover

I have come to realize that Brady will never have the $200 Lands End bed with his name embroidered on it. The reason is because he loves to chew on his bed. I don't know what it is about anything stuffed- but he makes it his mission to unstuff it. His bed was so flat and I was worried about his comfort. Mr. D. recommended that I get some fabric and recover it. I went to the discount table and found some upholstery fabric for $2 a yard. I bought 3 yards and 2 bags of poly fill. In an hour and a half, Brady had a wonderful new bed. It is slightly larger than the old one and now he can really stretch out. Not to bed for a $12 investment!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

never ever tell a Montessori child.....

..... sure, if it will fit in your wheelbarrow- I will buy it for you.
Yesterday, I brought Parker home for the afternoon. Everyone knows how much I love hanging out with the little sweetie. Well, our afternoon started off with an HOUR of sitting in traffic to drive the 15 miles home. I needed to stop at the grocery store to get some chocolate chips, sausage and eggs for my dinner. While we were on the way home I mentioned to Parker that it would be a great day to work in the yard. He said he wanted to help me and we talked about how when we got to the store we would buy him a little bucket and shovel so he could help me work. The shovel turned into a shovel and a little rake like shovel. Then we went to get the bucket and Parker became smitten kitten over this wheelbarrow. It was very inexpensive so I said sure. He pushed it all over the store with all of the little items in it. I also let him get a little dirt mover truck toy and I had picked up a packet of elephant ear bulbs. When we got to the chocolate chips, he insisted that I put it in his wheelbarrow. Then my sausage too. I had to convince him to let me carry my own eggs though! His load was getting pretty big and then he wanted a box of John Deere Tractor gummies. I said "if it will fit in your wheelbarrow- I will buy it for you." Then on the way to the check out- he saw a must have box of Kraft macaroni and cheese. He put it in. Right before the checkout there was a display of Ritz crackers. Now the cracker box was almost as big as the wheelbarrow. I told Parker I didn't think it would fit in his wheelbarrow and then the kid (making his Montessori teacher very proud) sat in the floor- took everything out of the wheelbarrow and rearranged it to make everything fit. Thank goodness we were at the checkout before he spied anything else he needed!! Haha. I love it. I had a great afternoon with the little guy!! When we got home he could hardly wait to work in the yard. He was such hard little worker and we had to keep working until it was nearly too dark to work anymore. He left his wheelbarrow and shovels over here- so he could help me again. He is welcome anytime!!
The only down side to the story is ... Someone forgot to take her allergy medicine before spending so much time in the yard- and that cough/sinus stuff is back!

Meredith's contest

My Sister-in-law- the infamous MEREDITH is having a blog contest. Please go over to her post here- to see the details and enter for yourself. Here is my entry--

This is the best recipe I have tried in 2009. Everyone at the superbowl party loved it and they disappeared so fast!!

My Mom made them with BBQ sauce as she is not a buffalo sauce fan- and she loved them too!!

Enjoy!!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aaron-mccargo,-jr./buffalo-chicken-cheese-balls-recipe/index.html

Thursday, February 5, 2009

can you draw this?

I know that you have all seen that little ad in a magazine that has a turtle or a pirate. You know the one that if you can draw it you can get into an art school. Well anyway we had a little something like that happen at school today. We were on our lunch/nap time and I proposed we have a little fun. Kate is an artist- a real artist with an art degree. She drew a poster for our class today so that the kids could vote one what type of chili we would be making for the chili cook off at our school. Anyway-- long story short... I challenged that Erika, Leah and I all try to draw a little pig to see if we would be accepted into Kate's fictitional art school. Here is what we were drawing.






Here are a few pics of us at work on our masterpieces. This is Erika. This is Leah. Here I am. Now before you see our work- I must explain that I was on the opposite side of the table from Leah and Erika, therefore I was looking at the piggie upside down as I was drawing. We laughed and laughed when we realized that my piggie was backwards.

Here are the results.

From left to right, Erika's then Kate's then Leah's. Mine is the backwards piggie on the bottom.

There were no winners- because after all- how can you win an entry into a school that doesn't exist! Still we had FUN!!!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

just for fun

Just for fun- I told Tiffani I would write down every Pampered Chef product I used in prepartation for the Super Bowl Party. (I just got your attention didn't I Jenn!!) I am very brand loyal to the Pampered Chef. I got my first Pampered Chef product about 11 years ago and I have been hooked ever since. I have a party once a year to get more free or discounted items. This year my party will be in March when they launch their new Spring catalog. I could go on for days about my love got Pampered Chef products.



Below is a list of products I used in preparation for the Super Bowl party 2009. I will put and astrix next to products I used more than once. Enjoy!!

1) executive cookware 10 inch skillet*

2) the mix and chop

3) pink mini bar board*

4) utility knife*

5) can opener

6) slotted spoon

7) large bar board*

8) regular spoon*

9) kitchen shears

10) easy read measuring cups* (all 4 sizes)

11) strawberry huller (not sure of specific name)

12) Quikut paring knife*

13) cake tester (YES Tiffani!! I knew where it was!)

14) food chopper

15) mini muffin pan

16) measure all cup

17) measuring spoons*

18) pastry mat

19) baker's roller

20) small stainless steel scoop

21) pizza cutter

22) slice and serve (Tiffani- this was the name of it! Nice drawing!)

23) mini serving spatula

24) grill basket (1000 uses- has never seen the grill!)

25) large bar pan

26) Cut-n-seal

27) all of my scrapers*** so many times!