Thoughts of a Grasshopper

The twins are turning 12 this week.  One of them loves One Direction.  She has many posters on her wall of them, group and single pictures.  She has a spot reserved for one that she wants but doesn't have.  Her sister, while she likes One Direction, is into Bruno Mars and Maroon 5 but she agreed to go with a One Direction theme for the party.  Yay! Still working out some details of activities and I haven't given a thought to the cake but I thought I'd share the invite.  I found several through Google images.  I took what I like from at least 2, perhaps all 3 of the ticket style invitations and created one for them.  I hear their friends thought they were cool and one of the friends hung hers on the wall.  Off to a good start for this event.  I'm making moussaka for dinner tonight and don't you know I'm out of potatoes.  I cooked the eggplant this morning to get as much water as possible out.  My wonderful husband is ...

This little guy has had a rough couple of months.  First he ate some carpet or bedspread with the people that took care of him while we were away getting a mass in his stomach.  That required several medicines and about 6 weeks of trips to the vet for weigh-ins to be sure he was gaining weight. Last week he had an abscess tooth.  They saved the tooth by filing it and removed the abscess.  Once again, he has an antibiotic.  He was dubbed a "honey bunny" at the vet when we went to pick him up from having the packing removed. We have to put honey into the opening once a day and let it drain.  Honey being a natural remedy for the bacteria to bring it out and not allow it to grow inside for infection.  I almost feel like he is a guinea pig for this procedure but this office has been so good and attentive with him I just have to trust they know what they are doing.  I'm surprised he can eat like he does.

Well, the year deployment is over and he is back home!  A picture of my kids holding the signs they made to greet him at the airport.

It has been a while since I shared a recipe and this is a good one!  I usually make these to include on my Christmas cookie tray that we give friends.  This year I never got around to making cookie trays and planned to do something for Valentine's day.  That didn't happen either.  However, my son helped to make some because he wanted to give a tin to his girlfriend that night. Chocolate Raspberry Linzer Cookies 2-1/3C flour 1t baking powder 1/2t salt 1/2t cinnamon 1C sugar 3/4C butter, softened 2 eggs 1/2t almond extract 1 pkg. (12 oz.) chocolate morsels 6T raspberry jam or preserves Confectioners' sugar In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; set aside.  In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter until creamy.  Beat in eggs and almond extract.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Divide dough in half.  Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm. Preheat oven to 350.  On a lightly floured board, ...

I came across this on another blog and liked it. What is a military wife? Each one may look different and each is wonderfully unique, but this they have in common: Lots of moving… Moving… Moving… Moving far from home… Moving two cars, three kids and one dog… all riding with HER of course. Moving sofas to basements because they won’t go in THIS house; Moving curtains that won’t fit; Moving jobs and certifications and professional development hours. Moving away from friends; Moving toward new friends; Moving her most important luggage: her trunk full of memories. Often waiting… Waiting… Waiting… Waiting for housing. Waiting for orders. Waiting for deployments. Waiting for phone calls. Waiting for reunions . Waiting for the new curtains to arrive. Waiting for him to come home, For dinner . . . .AGAIN! They call her ‘Military Dependent’, but she knows better: She is fiercely In-Dependent. She can balance a chec...

I wish I could have been home for the second round of today's joke. Before I took our son to school we put Jello on my husband's towel. It kind of made a powdery mess on the counter so we spritzed it with water and added more on both sides. A mistake. You shouldn't wet the towel because the Jello becomes vibrant and much more visible. Imagine my surprise when I came home from dropping him off to see DH standing at the sink shaving with the towel wrapped around his waist. I could see the Jello and wondered why he wasn't noticing it. I suppressed my giggles and got a pair of socks. After he was done and had a wet hand, he went to wipe it on the towel. He told me our son must have taken his towel through dirt for April Fool's day but he should be happy because at least he hung it up. I was cracking up. I fessed up that it was Jello. He was a little arrogant and stated that wasn't really gotten because he hadn't even showered yet and he noticed the grit...

I'm taking a break and came across this site, thanks to a friend. It cracks me up the things you can do. How fun is that? All you do is upload a photo and it merges it with another image that you choose. I cracked up with the super hero one. At one point when I was picking a different picture I had our son in a pink costume w/ bunny ears and a couple of dogs at his feet. I'm thinking a lollipop may have been there too. I didn't want to mortify him so I didn't copy the code.

This has been a huge cooking/baking week for the girls. No particular reason other than having people over, wanting to try new things, using up some things anticipating a move or the girls want to know how to be able to do more on their own. This cake has a 7-minute frosting on it. Between the layers it is mixed with strawberries. I overcooked the frosting. The first night it was fine but as leftovers, not as good. The frosting became more like a meringue as it sat. I have lots of cards to share, just need to snap some pictures. I still have more to go to finish off a present that needs to be in the mail by the end of this week or Monday at the latest.

My commitments seem to be eating up all my time lately. I would like to believe things will slow down but deadlines are hitting all the time and the end right now is May 11th. I need to make time at night to stamp again. Perhaps tomorrow night. Our church held the annual pinewood derby Friday night. After a lot of talk, the kids ended up making a carrot w/ a rabbit on top, a bunny (not bugs bunny), iCar and Wii remote. They turned out pretty well. This is the 7th year for our oldest. He has been able to do his own car for 4 years now. The girls still need a lot of help, of course, the twins require the most help. They basically do their own sanding and painting. Depending on what is being cut, they are allowed to use the saw. The carrot car was originally going to be a turtle and if we couldn't pull it off, it was going to be a s'more. In the end, she opted for something she knew she could do. Another example of my "checking out" because I've been tellin...

I've been married to my husband for almost 14 years. We have lived in 5 states and 8 houses. We are slated to move this summer. With the exception of one assignment, I've tried to get rooted in each area we've lived. Within the first 6 mos., I start to think I'm ready to move. It has been nice for the last two assignment to be longer with the kids getting older, their friends/activities/school rather than to uproot them every couple of years. I digress . . . With the upcoming move in mind, I note that I'm starting to think, "I can't commit to this because we're leaving soon." The countdown has begun for me. I don't want to make new friends because I'm leaving soon. I don't want to start a new activity because I'm leaving soon. I don't want to commit at school (other than what I do) because I'm leaving soon. I don't want to buy new furniture because I'm leaving soon. Soon is a relative term in a military fa...

I have seen a lot of these popping up all over. My kids thought they were cool and wanted to make them for their classmates. We formed something of an assembly line last night and spent a few hours making 70 of them. They all liked their "job" in making them and think we should sell them and we could make 50 a night. I think they would tire of it quickly. I found the foil to be kind of hard. I used the scallop die cut to make the circles. The cutting sealed the foil and made it a bit of a challenge to separate but I thought it was still faster than cutting each circle individual (scissors sealed it if you cut multiples too). Here is the Family Fun link with the directions.

A heartbeat falls silent. Tiny eyes close. A miniature body No longer grows. Mommy is shattered. Daddy is sad. Fate has erased The plans that they had. Through all of the grief that leaves their hearts torn, There's peace in knowing An angel was born.

I was looking through some pictures that my husband took recently and came across this one of the girls. I don't know what it is about the photo, but it tickles me. Maybe it is the hats and boots but I like it. Our son just turned 12 last week and was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood at church Sunday. My father-in-law came to share the weekend with us. He received his Faith in God award during Sacrament meeting and in the opening of Priesthood he recited the purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood and received a plaque for it. We had a little bit of a surprise when we found out that we are expecting. Still early on in the pregnancy but we are excited and the kids are looking forward to having a new brother or sister or possibly twins again.

My son's troop has been collecting and sorting brass for about a week now for a Wild West jubilee. Today is the first time the girls and I have participated. My husband has gone once to collect and they have gone twice to a leader's home to sort. Today everything was done at the site. It was fun to see how everyone was dressed for the event. Most people were dressed fully in old-time western style and there was even a bride. I did see one man with a western hat and it had mini blinds on the front. When I saw him they were pulled up but the boys tell me he was looking at them through the blinds earlier. I thought that was a hoot. At one point someone's daughter pointed out that a baby rattlesnake was under the Steve's chair next to me. I wanted to get my camera but it was in my purse between my chair and Steve's and there was no way I was reaching down to get it. I did snap a couple of pictures after Steve got a rake and started forcing it away from our are...

We went to Las Vegas for a family reunion. On the way we stopped at the Grand Canyon and decided to go back on the way home because of the hail and how cold it was. I wanted to go back later, hoping for the sun to be out, because the colors are amazing there. I took a couple of family pictures at the Desert Trail pullout. I set up the tripod on a trail down and learned it was a 3-mile hike down and I decided to snap a photo and head back up. That was toward the end of the day and the kids were ready to call it a day. The cool thing was it was our anniversary this weekend and when we got married we had gone to the Grand Canyon and several other national parks as our honeymoon. We ended up back where we began. Kind of fun.