And the Winner is...Ruby?!!

Willie got out some of his Hot Wheels collection today. The races were on and Ruby was ready for action.

Boys will be Boys...Part Two

My two little pyros, posing patiently with their fireworks, thinking to themselves, "Hurry up Mom, I gotta get my hands on a punk!".

How I can be Safety Suzie all year long and then relax my standards on the 4th of July just doesn't make sense, but it's all in the name of fun and we really are pretty careful. I'm bummed that I didn't take more pictures of our 4th of July. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood to be burdened with the camera.


Before ignition...

After ignition...

Ouch!

Boys will be Boys

I apologize for the personal nature of this post. My children just brought me a gift in the form of a frozen undergarment. At least they didn't freeze my favorite pair:

Birds & the Bees

Excerpt from a conversation that occurred in my van today...

Adam (almost 6 years old): Mommy, do you have to get married before you have a baby?

Mommy: Thinking to myself, do I give the long answer or the short answer, remembering that my almost 9 year old son is also present, listening intently to my answer and will likely extend this conversation into dangerous territory if it gets too interesting.



Yes.



(Not entirely true, I know, but it's something to strive for, dontcha think?!!)

Adam: How do people NOT have babies before they get married?

Mommy: Who wants to get ice cream?!!

Jello Cake

This is a big summer favorite at my house. It's super easy and your kids will think you are a rock star if you make it for them. Just make a yellow or white cake from a box mix. Then, take a 3 oz. box of Jello and mix it with one cup of hot water. Poke holes in the top of the cake while it's cooling and slowly pour the jello mixture over the top of the cake, allowing the jello to fill up the holes you poked. With the cake in this picture, I actually used both blue & red jello so there would be two different color stripes. Let the cake cool in the fridge overnight or for several hours and then top it with Cool Whip. Another yummy variation is to use a lemon cake with lemon jello.

My Love Affair with the Crockpot

My crockpot was a wedding gift from one of my favorite people, Carol (crazy Carol to those who know and love her). Willie and I were married in Las Vegas, but living in Wichita, KS at the time. No joke, Carol lugged this thing to Las Vegas and we in turn, lugged it to Wichita on the airplane, along with my wedding dress, bouquet, and several other large gifts and wedding items. That was an experience, let me tell ya! If we tried to do that today, the airline would probably charge us a small fortune, but back then, they were very nice about it.

When we first received this crockpot, I thought it was so huge that I would never use it, but now I have a love affair going with this sexy green pot and it has been used many times to make some wonderful meals...enchilada meat, Italian chicken, barbecued country style ribs, etc. (some not so wonderful ones too, in all honesty).

A Year of CrockPotting is a blog written by a gal named Stephanie who proclaims to have an unnatural obsession with her crockpot and made a New Year's resolution to use it every day in 2008. Today when I made my daily visit to her blog, I found out that she is going to be featured on the Rachael Ray show on 7/23! I will definitely be tuning in.

These are two of my favorite cookbooks. If you want to use your crockpot more often, but aren't a fan of recipes with a million ingredients you've never heard of, you'll love the recipes in these books.

House Guest

We are dog-sitting Riley while his family vacations at the Grand Canyon and in Las Vegas. He makes a very cute temporary addition to our animal menagerie, don't you think? Yes, there is a puppy underneath all that fur. I'm going to dust mop the floor with him later. Don't call the ASPCA; I was just kidding!!!

Below are some pictures of our permanent residents; Rocky, the stray cat who adopted us and now runs the household, despite my sworn disdain for cats, Max & Ruby, named after the cartoon characters, and Peanut, the elderly tenant who has tested our patience from the very first day we brought him home, 14 years ago!

Max is kind of a camera hog, isn't he?