My Baby is 5!

SIGH... She is 5 today and I am amazed that the time went by so quickly! When did 5 years go by in a blink of an eye? ? Not only that but what have I been doing these past five years??? And man if she is five then (gulp) I am five years older

When did this all happen? Was I asleep, numbed by the experience of motherhood? Where did this time go? I remember when she was bitty baby the smallest of my bunch and she squawked like a little bird whenever she was hungry. In fact we called her lil' Becca bird.
Last night I told her I was gonna hold her tight so she would not become five and she informed me that when you eat cake and open present then you change into another year. So I told her I was not gonna give her any cake and she said "mommm, you can't do that , it just happens"

Happy Birthday Little Princess, and you are right it just happens before momma's eyes.

It has begun,

March Madness! I love college basketball. I love the crazy fans and the players who risk everything to win and be part of this crazy March Madness dance. I love filling in the brackets and seeing who beat who and the Cinderella teams that were lucky to get to this point and go on to win games no one thought they could. I love close games where the teams are so well matched that it is a nail bitter until the end.I love the celebrations that take place when a team wins and am heartbroken for the teams that lose I love watching it all take place on my little T.V.
My 28” – my husband is cheap so we still have a little one. Maybe someday when he is not looking this one will suddenly stop working and then ….Well I digress.
Where was I?
Oh yeah, March Madness – this year my favorite teams are participating. Texas A&M is among those in the games as well as Purdue. Texas A&M is a “by birth” favorite team. My dad went there, I was born there, and my both my sisters went there. They beat Penn State last night .
Purdue is a “by marriage” favorite team. My husband went there. Tonight Purdue is playing Arizona. We don’t get it on our stations, however we will be watching hoping they cut in every once in awhile so we can catch a glimpse.
And then there is Gonzaga. This is my favorite team just because I like the name. Go ahead and say it ---Gonzaga – you have to say it fast. Isn’t it fun to say??? Anyhow sadly they got beat last night, but the dance goes on.
I love March Madness!!!

St. Patty's Day

Last night I remembered that I was suppose to make cookies for D’s class. I remembered at 11 pm. So this morning I got up at 5 am and made 24 cookies for him to take to school by 7:30. That’s right, secretly I am Super MOM. We had stuff left over so I made our traditional St. Patty cookies. You know the famous sugar cookie with white frosting and green sprinkles. They are a big hit in my family. In fact I had to hide them from the little Leprechauns or there won’t be any left for tomorrow. Now if only I didn’t know where they were…..

Mojito, Rose and Bazil

At the store I just happened to be looking for mint because its hot here and feels like a Mojito night. So by the fresh herb stand I saw a mint plant. It looked nice and healthy and I thought - I am gonna be here for 4 years I could attempt to grow this little mint plant and it could provide me with nice leaves for my Mojito's and sweet tea. So in the cart it went. Then I looked again and there next to it was a nice rosemary plant. Rosemary is suppose to be hearty and a great spice to cook with. Next to that was a very plump basil plant and I do love Italian so I got those as well.
So Mojito, Rose and Bazil (said with a French accent) came home with me. Yes I named them-- You have to it's plant law!
You have to know that I have never successfully grown herbs. My sister who is the queen of plants always says- "Oh I just plucked a few of my leaves off of so and so plant and threw it in my recipe" -- (This must be said with a voice higher than your own)
Any ways I have always envied her ability to even grow so and so plant! Oh I can grow other things, for example I have a plant from when each child was born that are still alive and big --- the oldest one being almost 10-- and I have Al my aloe plant. These plants have traveled with me every time I move. (my husband knows he better make room in the car for these and my scrapbooking stuff!)
But I have always killed herbs. So I am gonna attempt to grow Mojito, Rose and Bazil and hope they make it -- I have already named them so they better!!


How to make a Mojito :

1 1/2 oz. light rum
1 tsp. superfine sugar
lime wedges
club soda or soda water
mint sprigs

Muddle (crush) mint leaves, sugar and lime in a mixing glass. Add rum and ice in a cocktail shaker and shake, shake, shake. Strain the mixture into a tall glass and top with club soda. Garnish with fresh sprigs of mint. Enjoy

Home again, home again

ZIPPITy ZAp. (isn't that a kids song????)
Well we are home and managed to get enough to keep us feed for the weekend.
Fish tonight, lasagna tomorrow, BBQ Sunday.
We also got a few extras. I told you I couldn't resist those sick eyes. She got Popsicles -- she is sick and those are always good when you are sick besides its 80 degrees here! Cookies -- okay I should have said no to these since we have a couple (4) of Girl Scout cookies boxes in the pantry. But after Keebler stopped making the yummy, yummy Smore cookies I had to see if the Chocolate dunkers were worth it. (I must say they are pretty darn good) Hello Kitty Mini Balloon -- who doesn't want a balloon when you are sick?? Besides it was the first thing she asked for. Mini M&Ms -- we are gonna share them with "the brothers" and 3 plants - These are for me. - I had to get something!!!

To the store

Well today my baby is sick -- She was up all night last night just hot and looking bad-- She was quite chatty at 2:30 am but she still looked like she has a cold. So I kept her home today. I think there is something going around school because one of her little friends went home on Wed. morning and another one was out yesterday. So needless to say this ruined my plans to restock my pantry.
Yesterday I got a wild hair and cleaned my walk in pantry out (actually I was trying to find room for all my leftover pictures that are taking up precious space in my scrapbook cabinet) So the pantry was all cleaned out and you could totally tell I have not been to do a big grocery store run in along time. My middle child came home from school and the first thing he did (actually the first thing he does every afternoon!) is head for the pantry for a snack. He opened the door and stopped and with big eyes he yells -"Mommy, What happened to all our food????" It was very funny but this tells me several things 1. The pantry was a total mess. and 2. I need to get food.
So with Bec being sick it ruined my plans. Well, my sweet and stupid husband says -you could still go she looks fine to me . And I am about to explain to him that I am not gonna drag a 4 year old who has fleeing moments of feeling good (like the one he just witnessed) only to have her crash in the middle of a 2 hour excursion. Not only that but the whole "mommy can I have ...." with the whole sick eyes look that makes me feel guilty for even dragging her out.
I am just not going to do that. I realize just as I am about to say all these things to him that he would not get it, so I don't bother.
I will have to however go for a quickly trip to the store because well we have nothing for dinner. So wish me luck.

Tags

Here is a picture of the 3 tags I created for an online swap in one of the groups I belong to .

The one on the right I cut using my Cricut with the ZooBalloo cartridge. and then I just placed a big pearl brad in the middle of my giant flower. The middle one is a round chipboard tag and I used Memory makers paints (celery) and painted a magic mesh square on top of it then lifted it up so it left the imprint. The little chicks are my CM hexagon cutter. I cut out both the small and large shape Chalked around them in orange and put a pot dot between them so the small one popped up a bit. Added eyes and a hand cut beak and drew legs.

The one on the left I hand cut a striped tag and a yellow tag and then tore the striped tag in half. adhered it on the yellow tag and placed these pop up stickers of the dragonfly and flowers I found. The words were little word tiles I found oat my SS (scrapbook store) .

Oh I put a bit of ribbon on each of them too. -- That was from my stash.

Last Week

Last week was really busy for me -- I felt swamped especially since Greg was not in town.

I had a scout Blue and Gold banquet on Mon. in which the guy in charge forgot to get the Tiger awards for our boys so our whole group was disappointed. They did however get them yesterday and since Dad was there to see it I guess it was better that way.
Tuesday I volunteered in Bec's school and Wed. I left my kids with a sitter so I could go to a scrapbook class only to find out later that the sitter had 2 friend over (one of who hurt D and cussed out JP and raided my fridge) so needless to say although I have not confronted her -- because I am not sure what to say, she will not be sitting for me again -- Now I need to pool my resources and find another sitter. We have had the worse luck with sitters here!
I had a job interview for a Pre-school position on Friday. I am anxiously awaiting to see what happens with that. Basically it sounded like if they have enough kids they will open up a 4th class and then I would get the job. So I have been praying that lots of people want to go to pre-school there!!!
Saturday afternoon Greg came home -- in time to say good-bye to our friend who is going to Afghanistan for three months.
Sunday I had an all day Scrapbook class and left the kids with Greg. It was nice to just get away (without worrying) from the kids for a bit.
So that was my long and busy week. This week should not be too bad -- I hope.....