Stuff

First off, Blogger is out of BETA!!! and the crappy log in process has finally been fixed!

Secondly, I've finally got most of the design stuff done on Desert Gymnastics website hopefully I can get the rest of the content in there soon and put it up officially. It's not perfect, but hey I'm working for peanuts here. It still looks pretty good.

And Last, (you'll be getting a lot of this as we get closer and closer to reunion time) A picture of me in Drafting Club. I was in Drafting all 4 years of high school. I competed in drafting competions and had planned on being a building inspector "when I grew up". It was the only thing I did in highschool that was on my own and not a kennyerin thing. I prefered to draft with ink and vellum, though it is a lost art now. I spent a lot of time in a dark little cave in the back of the class room drafting with CAD. I sat next to Kevin Fox, though I bet he doesn't remember me.

What I Want for Christmas

Dear Santa,

I've been a pretty good mom this year. I may have trouble keeping up with the household chores, but I've more than made up for it with starting and leading a Camp Fire club at the house. We've made it to most of the girls gymnastics classes, though I must admit we have been tardy quite a bit. I don't read to the kids everyday, but I can usually read to them a few times a week, when there's no gymnastics or Camp Fire. You may not believe me, but I really did try and finish the backyard this year. Hey, I built a block wall with 60lb blocks! I did as best I could supporting my husband with his work and school. His grades are good and he got a good work review, so I must be doing okay there.

So I've been thinking about what I want for Christmas lateley, sorry it's not all that peace and goodwill (though that would be nice too) but I would like some materialistic crap this year...

Santa, I have two pairs of jeans one with a hole in the crotch and one with a hole in the knee. It's pretty sad when I wear the one with the hole in the crotch out in public because it's in better condition than the one with the hole in the knee. I would really like to have a pair of size 4/5 jeans that don't have a hole in them.

My feet have become really calloused this year... a foot care pre packaged gift thingy that you can get at almost any store would be lovely. One of those with a foot file and foot scrub and foot lotion. It'd be nice to have soft feet again, though it'll probably never happen.

I have found recently that I really like the Black Eye'd Peas. Another album would be nice to have - or maybe Fergi's new one.

I saw a black and decker scum buster at the store yesterday, my shower would love you for that.

I'd love tools, but I've noticed that since I can't squeeze materials into my budget that my wood working projects have come to a hault. That being said, I can always use screwdrivers and drill bits.

I do like to knit, any knitting needles would be cool to have... discount yarn... whatever.

I saw a few movies at the store that looked good, V for Vendetta, Talladega Nights, Click, heck you probably will know which ones I'll like. I prefer cartoons, comedy and sci-fi and really don't care for drama and horror.

Anyway, thats most of what I can think of thats not consumable and on my list every week.

Hope this Blog Posting finds you in good health.
Enjoy your Holiday!

Merry Christmas,
Erin

W00T!!! I Get Kenny Back for Two Weeks!

Yup that means winter break is here. Kenny has finished up yet another round of classes. I miss him during the school sessions. Even though he is doing his homework here at the house (most of the time) he locks himself up away in the room or burries himself in his books/laptop downstairs so thats it's obvious he's busy. So it'll be great to have him somewhat relaxed again for the next few weeks. I thought that since the last two classes were computer related that I would've gotten to spend more time with him but I guess there were some pretty large projects done in them that wern't difficult but definately time consuming.

With only 2 classes left and a senior project, we are very excited. He is planning on continuing education I think, just on a much slower pace than the full speed he's going at it now. Full time school + full time work is tough especially with a family. He's signed up to walk at graduation, so planning a trip to Colorado will be tons of fun. May will be a good month for us, I'm really happy.

Midnight Snack

After Ken and I went to bed last night at about midnight we heard some footstep noises in one of the kids rooms. I needed to take Ainsley to the bathroom anyway so I got up to check on the noise and to shuttle the girl to the toilet.

I step in the hall and look a bit in Nic's room. His light is on and I can see him standing by his bed. I start to scold him for being up and about. As I get closer to him I can see that he has a bag of peanut butter chips. I first think he is eating them straight out of the bag, then I see the block of cheese then the measuring cup filled with peanut butter chips and baking soda! Oh boy, he's cooking again! I call Kenny to see, just because it's pretty cute and it's hard to believe the amount of things he has brought to his bedroom to use to "cook". He gets scolded pretty good, has to help me clean up the mess and then he gets three swats on the bottom. He put out his pouty lip and ran to his bed :)

It's hard to be mad at the boy when he does such cute things.

Amazing Ainsley

As little of a deal as it is, Ainsley amazed me today.

We're wrapping Christmas presents. I was wrapping one in a solid red paper. Ainsley was helping me with the ribbon and she says, "Can we use the green ribbon mom?"
"Sure" I responded. I asked her why she wanted that ribbon.

She brightly responded with "Because if we use the red ribbon it would be hard to see"

:O

I was amazed. Contrasting colors is a pretty advanced concept. For her to realize at 4 that it would be easier to SEE the green ribbon on the red package is amazing.

I expected "because it's pretty", or "because those are christmas colors".

My little smarty pants.

Treasure Hunt

So during a cleaning expedition in the kids rooms I came across this ancient artifact. Written in some early form of L33T, it appears to be some type of jewelry worn to display status. :)

Man, was I really so nerdy. I didn't even rank high enough to be in actual drama club, I was in theater tech! (though we told ourselves that it was much cooler to be running the show) We did get paid while the drama kids didn't. Jel Kween! LOL, my pitifull job helping Chris with the lighting equipment. Usually, I was stuck washing/ironing the laundry for the shows that came into the auditorium. I thought that working in the auditorium was the greatest thing in the world. I probably spent more than 30 hours a week in that place.

That is where I asked Kenny to be my boyfriend though, so lots of good memories there. Not to mention all the hidden places to *cough* make-out. Come on you old techies reading my blog you know what I mean.

Here's some year book pictures of our little group. Pre facial hair Kenny, and damn Don were you born with good hair!

Butter + Sugar + My Glass Top Range = No Candy

So I blogged a bit about making candy but I never did go into detail on some events that happened while making almond rocha.

Never have I had so much trouble making rocha as I did this year. Usually it takes me a batch or two to get it perfect, but this year was a rocha maker's nightmare.

My grandmother-in-law had complained in the past of her glass top stove ruining her chances of making candy. So I was skeptical of our candy making venture last year at Lori Tenney's house (she owns a glass top as well) but it was successful. The candy turned out great.

This year at my own house with my glass top I set fourth to make the first batch of molten sugar. (on rocha I don't use a thermometer I use my eyes, and notice changes in color and texture) I knew almost instantly that the batch was a complete failure, the butter and sugar separated almost instantly It was not a pretty batch. In fact I believe the words, "this is the worst attempt at candy I have ever had" (I'm pretty good at making almond rocha, so it was pretty bad) Speculation about the rainy weather came from my fellow candy making companions. I didn't buy it, I've made candy in all types of weather. I turned up the heat and started making another batch. If you've made candy before you know that there is a great deal of patience and stirring involved. About midway through I knew that yet another batch was not going to happen. I got it to the right color at least and poured it out with a frown :( Maybe I lost my touch. My favorite candy to make was not going to happen for me this year.

After a break, we dumped out the sad excuses for candy and I started again on my third batch. I was figuring the heat definately had something to do with my candy failures so I cranked the heat up to high. The candy didn't do so terrible that time, it was a little gritty (so heat was still the culprit) but it was at least candy form. I knew that my stove was the devil and that the auto thermostat that keeps the temperature regulated was ruining the delicate environment that my sugar and butter had to be in to make perfect candy goo! When the stove thermostat senses that the element is getting too warm it shuts off and lets the stove top cool, the glass top cools quickly instead of gradually like a traditional element. This ruins the candy, it separates the two ingredients into a yucky gloppy mess. Blech!

Luckily I have a small plug in traditional cooking burner. We had it out already but we were using it for coating candy pieces in chocolate. I stole it and went on to make 4 perfect batches of almond rocha. We used it the rest of the weekend for all the hard candy batches. It was quite the experience.

yup it sucks And Made Candy this weekend

Just had to re log in (twice) to post this new post for the day!!! :P Stupid Blogger/Google integration.

And I spent the weekend making candy, candy and more candy. Definately the most candy I've ever made and the largest variety of candy I've ever made. The house smells of Sugar, Butter, Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Nuts and Pepermint! Candyrific. I've got Almond Rocha comming out my ears :) Lori came over and made a few things. My sister-in-law, Kathy, spent the most time candy making with me. I'm mostly done with the candy, just a few more pounds of Rocha to roll in chocolate and nuts tomorrow and a few mints and some fudge to make and I can send a big tray to work with Kenny this week. Candy making is exhausting. I'm usually tired after making one type of candy let alone 7 or 8 types. I don't think I could ever be a chocolateer. (Though my candy is yummy!)

Blogger/Google Pains

So a long time ago they merged... time passed and now bloggerbeta is integrated into My google :) but it's just a huge pain. Every fricken time I want to log into my bloger dashboard I have to log in one time to blogger then it tells me that I have to sign in again using my google account. I can't start out using the google log in though, I first have to use my blogger log in and then have it prompt me for the google log in. I don't know if I just haven't figured out how to bypass this or if it's just a side effect of the "beta" part of blogger beta. There are a few other annoyances like not being able to use the karat in Chloê's name in the title and stuff like that. But nothing to horrible I guess. Just minor stuff :P

mybigfamily.com

So I linked over to the family gallery site yesterday just to check it out and it wasn't there. I had let my domain name registration expire and godaddy had parked it somewhere else. I tried to log on to my godaddy account and renew it online but it wasn't available for me. I've had mybigfamily.com for a long time, I didn't want to let it go. So, I called the support line and talked with the rep about renewing my registration for mybigfamily.com . Turns out, it was old enough that I didn't have a "privacy"account, whatever that means, and also that my email address used was a very very old yahoo address, that I've not used in over 5 years, so I've missed tons of expiration notices.

So it expired on November 13th, it went in to being parked waiting for me to renew it. I could've left it there for a bit except it was on backorder, I guess someone else wanted mybigfamily.com too. Probably could make a lot money with it (I just like to waste it with my family album).

The rep kept commenting on the name, "wow" he said. "That's a really great name. I bet you could get a lot of traffic to it" He asked me what it had on it and who hosted it for me, blah, blah, blah... Then came the bill-- $80.00 to renew it! it would've been $90 if it had the privacy account thing on it. So did I fork over the $80.00? Yes, I did. Was it hard to swallow? Yes, it was. It was originally like 9.99 for a 5 year registration! It's hard to believe I just paid $80.00 to renew it. If I had gotten the emails sent to the yahoo account and renewed the name on time it would've been like $4.99 or something rediculously small! So as a reminder to all you guys with domain names registered through godaddy, DO NOT LET THEM EXPIRE!

Food, Booze, Friends and Dildos?

I had a great "Passion's Party" last night. Great turnout, about 11 guests came and we all had a blast. Thank you to those who brought a friend, you really made the party. The food was "romantic" themed with chocolate and strawberries and chocolate dipped cookies and cream cheese filled strawberries. The consultant did a fantastic job. I like how she can keep it pretty low key for my more conservative friends but still kept it fun for the rest of us :) She started off with the samples of lotions, massage lotions, bath stuff and edible powders and creams and at the end of the evening she gets into showing some of the toys and books. It was a very different type of party for me. No cooking demonstrations and no glowing monitors with my guild of übergeeks sitting infront of them. I know of two people having a party in the next month or so (if my dental surgery in january doesn't interfere) I definately want to go.

Joan made some yummy Margaritas and saved the drink for me. I had a horrible margarita at halloween that made a bad first impression, but the ones last night were fantastic!

Thankfull For...

Our Thanksgiving this year was very good with all of Kenny's Mom's family able to attend. There a nice full house of 19 people sharing the day together. It's great to get to see everyone and to lay around fat and happy all day. Dinner was fabulous and games were fun, though, I am a big looser when it come to Phase 10. As you can see here, Kenny is a mean, mean Phase 10 player.

Dominic's 3rd Birthday

Dominic is 3 now... we had a small family party here at the house. Per request it was a train themed party. Nic had lots of fun. Here are a few pictures...

Little Emeril in Action!

If you don't know by now, Dominic likes to cook! He likes to watch Emeril and pretend he's cooking along. Here is a great shot of Little Emeril in action. He was watching Emeril and prending to follow the instructions. BTW this costume was the most commented on cuteness for any halloween ever!

Oh and I've updated the Camp Fire website, so pop over and take a look at the fun we're having.
Camp Fire Blog

10 Year Reunion

This August 10-12 is our 10 year class reunion. I'm on the planning committe it seems (thats what happens when you don't move away from your home town) but I've yet to make any of the meetings. I never was really close with the other women that are in the committee, they never hung out in the school cafeteria plaing Magic the Gathering their entire lunch break or made sure to sign up for zero hour Jazz Ensemble! But I didn't hate them or anything like that, just don't know them very well.

Camp Fire meetings have been scheduled the same days that the committee meetings are. The thing is, I'm planning the Camp Fire meetings a month early (at least) and the committee sends me notices of meetings only two weeks in advance. I feel a bit bummed that I've not been able to help yet. But I'm sure they'll have some crappy job left over for me to do, when I finally make it to a meeting.

Chloe is the Type of Student Every Teacher Wants

Well, what parent can't resist the opportunity to brag. Chloe had a glowing report from the teacher at our parent teacher conference today. She is meeting or surpassing the district goals for kindergarteners. Chloe's teacher said Chloe is the type of student every teacher wants to have in their class, which is always a good thing to hear about your child.

She has all the social, emotional and behavioral development down! Math and science are all going well for her and she is moving right along in language and reading.

Teachers 1st Trimester written Comments:
Chloe has a very positive attitude about school. I enjoy having her in class. Chloe needs to work on recognizing numbers, recognizing all letters, letter sounds, and words associated with each letter, and hi-frequency words. We will continue working how letters and words work and I believe Chloe will be confident with reading and writing.

So, we'll keep doing what we're doing. It seems to be working great.

The Benifits of a Doula

For any of you that are interested here is a case study of Doulas. The Benefits of a Doula

Bronchitis Perhaps?

So my little, dry, non productive cough seems to have turned into something very much like a bronchitis that Ken and I fought with 7 years ago. I feel fine most of the day, little or no coughing. I don't even feel sick (other than being exhausted). It may have started out as a little irritation in the throat or lungs but now it's something real. Even though I don't cough most of the time, the times that I do cough lasts for about an hour. I was up for a more than few hours last night with these coughing spells. I took two baths (they really seem to help), but I had to get out after falling asleep in the tub a few times. The humidifier I set up next to my head works well, the moist air is much easier on my lungs. But now that the cough is probably more like bronchitis, once I start coughing there is not much that will help stop the spasms. The coughs are a bit more productive now, but the fluid is clear so I'm not worried about infection. Since it has lasted so long, I may have to go to the doctor. Though I hate doing so when I don't feel ill. But I remember the last bout of bronchitis we had lasting a month or more and I don't really want that to happen either. Anyway, I'll keep you posted...

Why Does Everyone Go In a Circle?

We went rollerskating today with the kids. It was their first time ever! The little skates they had for Nic were so cute... I wish I remembered my camera.

It's been at least 15 years since Ken and I went skating. We were suprised at how easily it came back to us. The kids did okay, Ainsley and Chloê are just trying to learn how to balance, Nic just stood there while I pushed him around and around.

On one lap Chloê asked me, "Why does everyone just go in a circle?" I had to explain to her that if everyone just went where they wanted to go we'd all crash into eachother.

Chloê appreciated the games, the dice game (similar to musical chairs, but instead of chairs there's colored lights on the ceiling), the chicken dance and the YMCA dance. It was fun.

Maylyn brought Evans kids too and bought everyone pizza and pop. We all had a good time, It was great! I'll try not to forget the camera next time.

Miserable Dry Cough

I've been afflicted with a miserable dry cough! It only affects me at night, it's farily non productive (though after 15 minutes a few bits of phlem will shoot out), and my lungs feel sore and perhaps raw is the best term to describe it.

There are little other symptoms. No fever, no runny nose, and no congestion... just exhaustion from not sleeping at all and a headache.

I have a humidifier but can't afford the replacement filter it needs, so showers and chicken soup will have to suffice for now.

I hope I get better soon, I'd like to sleep once in a while.

Our Camp Fire Website

Like I don't have a million things to keep track of as it is...

anyway decided we needed to share what we were doing in Camp Fire,
click on the link to get to the Camp Fire blog.

Camp Fire Blog

I Wasn't Supposed to Sleep Last Night

The past few nights I've had trouble sleeping, I've just been so busy durning the day with camp fire and studying for my birthworks certification that at bed time my mind is still spinning with thoughts and ideas. It kept me up quite late. Last night I went to bed before midnight, lie there as Kenny passed out and after an hour or so I got up and started cleaning the house and working on the internet. My mind was just wild with thoughts and I couldn't make it rest. I finally settled down at 2 (I think) and went to bed. It took a few more minutes, but finally I fell asleep. Then 3 hours later Ken and I awake to the beautiful sound of a Large Dog Dry Heaving - then finally up it came two small rocks that Malcolm though would make a good snack and a puddle of bile/hair mixture. Up I got and cleaned up the mess. Lay down and about 15 minutes later we can hear the sound of gooey, wet, shooting doggie diarrhea. The smell instantly fills the room and I'm up again finding a baggie, paper towels and something to clean the carpet. I couldn't alleviate the odor with just cleaning. And because of a previous Malcolm poo, my vanilla candle has been melted down. I had to go digging in my wedding decoration boxes to find some old lavender scented candles and lit 3 of those puppies! After soothing Malcom for a few minues, he did after all have a sore tummy, I made it back to bed. But amazingly enoughy at that time I wasn't tired, AGAIN! It took much less time to fall asleep then but I was still up for another 40 minutes or so. I just figure that sleep wasn't meant for me last night :)

Birth Works®

Well after much research and discussion with Fran we have decided that we like the philosophy behind the BirthWorks® program. It promotes the "I can do this!" attitude that I believe in without the over the top new age feel like some of the other programs. Fran likes it so much she is going to pay for half of the registration fee for me and her current assistant Rose. Finishing the requirements for certification to be a Birth Works Educator will take awile, but I'm excited to learn all there is to know and teach other women how to have wonderful birth experiences.

Some of the BirthWorks® Childbirth Educator Requirements
(watered down to fit on the blog)

• Write an autobiographical essay (2-3 pages)
• Write about a birth experience either your own or one you were present for. Attend a birth other than your own.
• Attend childbirth workshops, classes or meetings write about experiences at these events.
• Take a tour of two hospitals in your area, interview a medical representative there. Write a summary of the interview(1 pg). Complete a survey of Maternity Services for each birthing facility.
• Attend a BirthWorks® Childbirth Educator Workshop. Write about your experiences and reflections on what it meant to you. (1-2 pages)
• Complete a book report on each of the books on the required reading list below. Book summaries are not acceptable. How did you feel about the book when you were done reading it? What did you disagree with? use specifice examples and quotes from the books.

• Birth Reborn*(second edition) By Michael Odent MD
• Rediscovering Birth by Sheila Kitzinger
• Birthing Normally by Gayle Peterson
• Ended Beginnings* by Claudia Panuthos and Cathy Romeo
• Silent Knife by Nancy Cohen and Lois Estner
• Essential Excercises for the Childbearing Years* by Elizabeth Noble
• The Tentative Pregnancy OR Giving Birth by Barbara Katz Rothman
• Let Birth Be Born Again* by Jean Sutton
• The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth* by Henci Goer
• The Scientification of Love* by Michael Odent MD
• The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (6th edition) by La Leche League International

Those are the required books, there are about 15 more highly recommended books (which I'll probably try to fit some of those in)

• Critique the 3 major VBAC studies, choose from different time periods (This goes into more detail on what they want...) 1 page for each study, 2 pages summarizing what I learned from all 3
• I have to write 4 (5 page) topic papers there is a list of 25 or so topics I can choose from, or I can choose my own. I have to include a paper on "Nutrition for the Childbearing Woman"
• Then when all the requirements are successfully completed and the director of education has reviewd my submissions I'll get a comprehensive essay exam.

• Facilitate a 10 week/20 hour birth works course. Make a 60 minute audio or video tape including a 15 minute block of the feelings class, 15 minutes of the philosophy class, 15 minutes of a visualization and 15 minutes of another class of my choice. This is required to complete my certification.

See it's that easy :) LOL

It'll be worth it, I'm really excited about the amount of support I'm recieving from different birthing professionals in the area. I think this will go pretty well. I even contacted my cousin who is a midwife/doula in the Shrieve Port Louisiana area and she's giving me some great pointers about working in hospitals.

Window Murals I Painted this Halloween

Makin' Babies

So I've been thinking about getting back into the natural birth community again. The only way I can do that, short of getting pregnant, is by becomming a member of the support crew. I've been told before that I'd be a great Doula (family birth assistant, very supportive person that helps with child birth instruction, labor and post labor). I'm calm and relaxed about birth which is important to help the family stay relaxed during the process. Last week I contacted my Midwife, Fran Wilson CNM and asked for her support and some direction with becomming a Doula. She thinks it'd be a great idea if I went to get certified as a Doula. Hearing that from her means a lot to me. It's a nice feeling to have a professional think you'd be good at something.

Who knows, if I like it enough I could go to school to become a Midwife myself. That'd be pretty cool I think.

Colder than a Witches #$%$#@!

The ground was all covered in frost this morning. Good thing I got the trees in the ground yesterday. I was worried that I wouldn't get them in the ground before the ground froze up, but it seems I barely beat my deadline.

I worked so hard the past few days getting that strip of land ready for the little hedgelings. Tilling a 80x5 foot strip of packed soil, by hand, with a fricken hoe, is far from easy work. But it looks nice now and all the remnants of overgrowth that happened this last summer, like the tumbleweeds and chickweed, have been removed or tilled under. The soil is nice and soft now and the trees took to it quite nicely. I planted 15 leyland cypress. Yes, I know they have to be trimmed. But they grow fast and I'm interested in that feature. I put wood chips down around the base of each tree to help keep it a little more covered up this winter. I'll need to get more before March for weed suppression and I'll need to put pre emergent herbicide on it to keep the monster weeds at bay.

So ya yesterday was halloween too! I painted the cutest mural in our front window this year. I wish I had fricken batteries for my camera so I could show all of you. Not to mention it would've been nice to show you the adorable costumes my kids wore. This year was a much shorter run than previous years with the kids. It was fricken cold. We bundled them up pretty good and they went out door to door with their cousin Cierra and the neighbors, Kensie and Natalie. They only filled half of their buckets before returning to thaw their little frozen hands. Nic stripped during this break grabbed a pillow and blanket and crashed on the living room floor. I have a feeling he was done. The adults taking them around (Kenny and Aunt Kathy) decided to not go out again. I have a feeling that 7pm was the finish time for most of the kids in the neighborhood. We had lots of trick or treaters before that, but then at 7, no more kids. The kids had fun, they were cold and over tired, but they had a good time.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

Awesome Halloween Parties

Ken and I did some party hopping this last Saturday night, something we've not done in a long time. The first party of the evening, The Cowley Halloween Party, was fun. Lots of friends and a pile of cookies = smiles all around. Ken and I went as "random SG1 team member" and a Gouáld. Kenny looked great, I made him a gold doinkie to wear on his forehead, like Tealc has. Some memorable costumes we saw were PNNL lab zombies, travelocity gnomes, and the peanuts gang. Lots of booze and deserts at the first party, by 9:00 Ken and I had a sugar meltdown with some killer headaches.

We hopped to Ken Niebauers house for his party... The music was loud, there were lots of different people there and Ahhh sweet food, we had meat chuncks, taco fixins, 7 layer bean dip, jalapeño cream cheese thingies and chips. Oh ya they had booze too! I had a margarita, wasn't too impressed with that. MMM but had 8 shots of tequilla to make up for the dissappointment. I do like the taste of tequilla shots. When I began to feel like stripping I signaled to kenny that it was time to go home. That was about 11:30.

Two awesome parties... Thanks guys for inviting us!

No hangover the next morning, a little lazy... but since the kids were gone we got some work done.

Washington Mutual Customer Service Sucks

Well this week we've been going rounds with Washington Mutual. In case you don't know the whole annoying story here it is...

At the beginning of the month I shipped all my payments to bills off, like I usually do. I went online with Washington Mutual and requested that a check be sent to the bank we have our car loan through for 403.00. Then, I was done with the bills, I had about 500.00 left for the month and I was happy. Everything was as it was supposed to be, or so I thought.

A few days later I went to Washington Mutual to check to see if my transaction for the online bill pay went through. I noticed that they had upgraded their system and that while my online register was still available and working fine their bill pay was not showing any data from the payment I had made on the car. I assumed that because of the new system my request didn't go through and I immediately mailed a check out. I went on my first grocery trip that week and spent about 100.00 leaving 400 for the rest of the month. Between the 1st and the 13th several small checks were written, there was more than enough money to cover them all, I was fine.

On the 17th I went online to check my account, (-41.79)! What the crap!?!? What happened?!!? I went back through the online register to see if I could quickly spot the trouble maker. And there is was, the payment for 403.00 for the car loan from the online banking service. That was enough to tip us over.

I immediately called Washington Mutual Customer Service and explained the situation. They shuffled my problem to an investigator. I felt slightly reassured, it was a technical glitch on their end that caused me to not have the information I needed.

Meanwhile all those small checks and a few bills that we originally had covered started to clear. With a 29.00 overdraft fee for each one the amount quickly turned into about 300.00 worth of fees. I called them back at the beginning of this week and the CSR explained to me that the investigation would be done probably on Tuesday and that if they decided in my favor they would automatically deposit the "refund" for the overdraft charges. So I checked frequently on Tuesday with no change in the account status. I checked first thing on Wednesday morning. A new overdraft charge of 29.00 and a NSF fee of 29.00. So now, not only is every check clearing collecting Washington Mutual money, but also every day that my account holds a negative balance they are charging me 30 bucks! For a small glitch that happened on their system at the beginning of the month!

I immediately called customer service again, distraught at this revelation that Washington Mutual was raping me and my family. This Service Rep seemed to know a bit more, and she was more confident with the phone call than the other phone monkeys. After I explained that I need them to STOP charging me! She explained to me that there was nothing I could do to get them to waive the fees. I again stated that this all happened because of their transition to the new system. She agreed that probably was the case. Then goes to BLAME me, THE CUSTOMER, for not calling when I saw that the transaction didn't go through and verifying that it was accurate. (admittedly I didn't even think of that) It had always shown up immediately before, how was I supposed to know that it was malfunctioning in a way that would send the check but not register it in the system instantly.

Anyway we had to STOP Washington Mutual from robbing us blind, and we have fantastic friends that stood by us and helped us out of a sticky situation. A LARGE loan was made to get us out from underneath Washington Mutual's thumb. As soon as we can, we will be transferring our business to another bank. Preferably a smaller one (it seems that WaMu didn't suck SO much before it became big enough to envelope Providian). I recommend you do so too!

We are blessed to have such wonderfully friends as the Felix's, The Tenney's (even the Tenney's extended family), The Crocketts, and My Sister In Law Kathy. They all stepped up when we really needed help. We really appreciate the love and support they showed us these last few weeks.

Celebrate, Ancient Irish History and Business Ethics are Done!

We need a party. That last weekend was a hellish experience. Luckily we were able to send the kids away and have the house completely quiet for him to finish. I feel so good about the B he ended up getting in his Business Ethics Class. I only hope that his Irish History Class goes as well. Four, thousand word, essays he had to punch out and not much time left over for a lot of proof reading. Hopefully he gets at least a C... we can't really afford to pay for the class. We're down to 5 classes, w00t! He's in computer courses for the next 8 weeks. I am going to love every moment of them probably as much as he does. It'll be nice to not have him completley submerged in his class work.

My seedlings should be in today... I need to clean up the bottom terrace, like I was planning on doing last week. I also have Camp Fire this Wednesday. I have my lesson plan all figured out so i'm not stressed.

Dingle Wingle's and HooHa's

I was invited to my first ever Passions Party last night. I was told to bring a friend, so I brought my Mother-In-Law and Sister-In-Law. I went online to check out what kind of product they sold, I had an idea but wasn't sure. Yup, lotions, bath stuff, lingere, and Adult Toys ie dildo's and feather whips. At first glance, the party looked right up my alley, but way to exotic for some of my more conservative friends. Though it was being held at my mormon friends mom's house and the consultant was LDS. I was still pretty sure it was going to be insanely taboo. But I was wrong! it was way fun, and not nearly as over the top as I thought it was going to be.

Some of the products are listed as vaginally safe :) and the sales lady repeatedly told us of her trouble saying vagina. She kept triping up on the word hehe, I brought up the fact that when she goes to explain sex to her kids she'll be the mom that says so you put the dingle wingle in the hooha!

I'm going to have a party next month so don't be suprised if you lady friends of mine out there get an invite. You so have to come, it was a hour of fun!

Guild Wars NightFall Trailer

http://uk.media.pc.ign.com/media/822/822537/vids_1.html I recommend the NightFall Trailer 2 It has great footage of the hero's and flag system.

Time for the Big Black Garbage Bags and The Rubber Gloves

No, this isn't a fetish posting. Quite far from it! I hate posting about housework but my house is absolutely filthy. It's going to occupy my thoughts today. It was pretty clean exactly one week ago for the Camp Fire night. But today I sit amongst the filth thinking to myself, it's amazing how dirty the house can get when I don't pry my ass up from this computer chair and do something once in awhile. Well the stench is getting to me. I have some bathroom trash that has been moving for a few months. Been neglecting it because 1. no one sees it, and 2. it stinks to high heaven and I'm dreading opening the cabinet door. And my kitchen trash is overflowing, instead of taking it out there has been a "new trash can" made out of another container that found it's way under our kitchen sink.

So on go the work gloves this morning and out goes the stinky trash!

The utillity sink overflowed yesterday when I was washing something in it. Now the laundry that was on the floor, yes all over the floor, is wet and needs to be washed immediately before it starts to stink. Yet another thing that is going to suck today. I would much rather play Guild Wars and be happy in my own little world as my kids trash the place in their search to entertain themselves. Alas I need to clean today, so I can actually utilize the kitchen counter to make dinner and so I have some clean clothes to wear out tomorrow.

PS. It's been absolutely georgeous the past few days, perfect weather for weeding and moving dirt! Yet have I moved anything, ummm NO! But I'm up to collecting 60 elite skills (admittedly this makes me quite happy :) Get out Erin, do some yard work. Get off your lazy ass and move woman!

http://www.getaclue.org/house/

Our Friends Ryan and Cindy (The Hawaiians) have gone and done it. They got jobs at Google in The Dalles. We're really going to miss them, but we're happy they've got elite status now as Google employees. Super cool guys!

Anyway they're selling their house and property in West Richland. If any of MY friends are in the 350,000.00 price range for a house hehe here is the link. http://www.getaclue.org/house/ take a look. Or just link to the site and dream a little.

Last Week of The Term

Yeah! It's Kennys last week of his current term in school. Sure more classes start on Monday next week, but this batch with Ancient Irish History and Business Ethics will be over on Sunday. His new classes are both computer science courses so we probably will get to see a bit more of Dad around here. Can't forget that this week will be long still. With a 4 page report due on Wednesday in Business Ethics and a 4,000 word paper in Ancient Irish Studies. WOO HOO!!! Loads of fun. Looks like no wing night this week (and I really need one).

Even better news than the last week of the term is we're down to just 4 more classes and a Senior Capstone. Two computer science classes, a philosophy class and a global studies class. Just so you know he took Irish Studies to fullfill his first global studies requirement. I doubt he's going to want to continue on with that :) We were checking out taking Spanish instead at Columbia Basin College. He took 4 years of Spanish in High School so hopefully that'll be much better on him while he's working on his philosophy coursework instead of the shitload of Irish Archeology, Liturature and stuff he's learning about right now.

I may try to take Spanish with him if we can find a babysitter on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-8. In this area Spanish is a necessity to get any job that works with public and I won't be a stay at home mom forever.

Slowly Gaining My Energy Back

I've moved 30 wheelbarrow loads of dirt the past 2 days. I would've done some more today but it is RAINING. Contrary to what you may think, I wish it wasn't raining... I really would like to get a lot more done on the yard before November. Especially cleaning up the lower terrace, gotta do that before the trees get here. Hopefully the wet conditions won't hurt the seedlings.

I've washed AND FOLDED laundry every day the past few days too. I usually don't have a problem washing the clothes. But getting them folded and put away is a huge challenge. Usually we just have a clean mountain and a dirty mountain of clothes that we have to be able to distinguish one from the other. Each of my kids have matched rolled socks for this next week. It's amazing!

Am I boring you with my monotony yet. Anyway so what I'm saying is that I may still feel sleepy, but it's definately less sleepy than last Thursday.

Man I was grouchy and miserable to be around Friday and Saturday. The poor kids :( Ainsley cut her bangs (an attempt to get tape out of her hair I've since learnerd) I flipped! She'll be traumatized forever about the scary, mad mommy that screamed at her when she cut her bangs.

I've just been feeling a little overloaded. I guess Kenny isn't the only one who has a lot on his plate. I've been trying to take all the household chores and yard responsibilities and the kids and keeping them from distracting him. And what do you know, I can't do it all :) It's just too much. So I had my little breakdown yesterday. Just a little teary eyed, silent thing... very similar to Nic's tantrums. But it was enough for me to know that I need a simpler, yet consistent daily routine. We'll see how long that lasts :P POOP! whoever said it takes 14 days to make a new habbit lied!

The Motivation is Gone

I started this week highly motivated and I got quite a lot accomplished. Now my energy has vanished and I'm dragging. I'm not interested in anything. I just want to sleep.

I ordered 20 leyland cypress trees to plant a hedge in the bottom terrace. It was like fourty bucks for all the trees and we only need a little more than half of them. They're tiny little seedlings but supposedly they grow fast, we'll see.

Anyway the bottom terrace is the last weedy infested area on our property. I have yet to touch it or even move one load of dirt this week. I thought that since I ordered them I'd be going crazy trying to prep the planting area, but I'm not. I'm not even interested in getting out of this chair. I just want to sleep :)

Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up refreshed and energized and ready to get a ton of work done. Since there's no school tomorrow, I doubt it. Maybe I'll wake up and feel like scrubbing the showers that have been neglected for a few months, ya don't take a shower at the Schmidt house (nasty!) Maybe I'll help the kids clean their rooms and organize the toys, ya like that will happen.

Maybe I'll sleep in till noon!

Pretty Good

(Kathrynn and Ezri with arms locked trying to standup)
(Picture of Chloe and Kensie dancing up and down with thumbs touching)
Things went pretty well for the first meeting. All the activities anyway. I could stand a bit of practice with transitioning between activities. Also I forgot to do the closing ceremony so it felt kind of weird finishing up. I could never of done it with out the help from the parents that stayed. The bigger kids were also a tremendous help.

(Nic and Hailey dancing)

This activity was pretty successfull. A friendship building activity partnering up the kids to do an imaginary activity together. Like dancing with thumbs touching. Or pretending to walk on a log without falling off.

(Kathrynn and her snack, Ants on a Log)

This one didn't go over as well as I hoped. One of my Camp Fire memories from my youth was making this snack. I tried to share it but at least half the kids were picky and didn't want, gasp, peanut butter on celery.

We also did a trail on feelings and the kids made little hamburger shaped books about feelings. And played feelings charades.

The next meeting will cover two trails... My Family and Me and A Family Trip. Guess I better get started planning now. Things I'll probably do different: Separate LittleStars and StarFlights more, have a defined finish, snack is separate from the craft area.

Camp Fire, My House, Tonight

Tonights the big night. The first Camp Fire meeting. Granted to say I'm a little nervous to how it's going to kick off. But being that my audience is a bunch of kids 8 and younger I'm not too worried. I have some fun songs and games planned and a few activities to get the Camp Fire trails going. They do little units called trails to earn patches to sew on their vests.

So after I'm done making at least the downstairs look like we don't live here I get to take Chloê to gymnastics at 5 and be home in time to start the meeting by 6:30. I've printed out my coloring stuff and set out the supplies so I don't have to worry about any of that...we're doing peanut butter celery snacks (Ants on a Log) so I have to clean and cut the celery. But other than that it's just organized play.

It'll be fun!

And the House Smells of Pumpkin Pie

Kenny had a speech to do tonight for his class. A "how to" speech. He was of course thinking "how to build a computer" or something along that line. But was worried about loosing his audience.

He makes home made pumpkin pie every year. By home made, I mean from a pumpkin not from a can. I think thats a pretty nifty "how to" to share with the class. So I suggested it and voila the whole house now smells of nutmeg and ginger and cinnamon. MMM, wonderfull pumpkin pie!

He was going through the check out line at the store with a pumpkin and some evaporated milk and brown sugar and the checker said in jest, "Are you making a pumpkin pie?" She was shocked when Kenny said yes. Both her and the bagger agreed that he was more skilled than they were in the kitchen. Their idea of making pumpkin pie involved a can of Libby's. :)

The Theme of the Weekend: Being Late

Saturday morning started off great with the sudden realization that we were supposed to be at the Bethlehem Lutheran Fall Frolic Marathon/Mid Columbia Duck Race for a Gymnastics Exhibition.

"Do we have enough time to get there?"
"Where is your exhibition leotard?"
"Do I have rubberbands for her hair?"

My goodness what a commotion. We woke up at 10:10 we were supposed to be in Columbia Park at 10 and the show started at 10:30. I even told a teary eyed Chloê that we weren't going to make it. But after we got everything together Chloê and I jumped in the car to give it a try. We made it. Got there with a few minutes to spare even... then the thing was running late and the kids were freezing in their leotards waiting for the show to start.

The kids and I spent the rest of the day in the sun with Evan and Kids, launching rockets. It was great fun! Little did I realize that the sun and no breakfast/no lunch and no beverages on top of my cold was absoutly killing me. I was not well that evening it took a lot of water and rest to get back to being able to function.

The next morning, today, I woke up fine. Mowed the lawn. Raked the big truck ruts up even. Scooped poo. Then I was resting with the kids, they still weren't dressed, when I got a call from Analiese. "Are you comming to the party?" Oh crap! We forgot about Max's birthday party. So we quickly threw the kids in some clothes and I dropped them off at the party (almost an hour late) and went to go get a birthday present. I hate being late :(

Well It's Not All Bad

Kenny's SG1 patches for his halloween costume came in today. I'm excited about that :) Can't wait for the BDU's to come in so I can put it together. I did recover the fundrasing packet and my favorite waiter at Jacksons ordered something from it. I had a nice lunch there with Edna and Ainsley & Nic. So it's not all grumps and grumbles from me all day. I even think I may move a little dirt down the hill this afternoon.

I'm a Stupid Head

yup just called Jacksons. After explaining to them that the fundrasing packet wasn't something I was working with the store owner on, that it was a mistake and to look in their fricken lost and found. They found it finally. I guess they do a lot of fundraising things in the community, I confused them.

I'm sending Chloê to school and then dropping the packet off when I pick her up.

Stupid shampooing company giving free shampoos today... I hate them. Their comming by at 5pm. At least I have to clean the kitchen and living room for that. A little motivation anyway. I doubt they'll be able to clean my trouble spots. Baby shampoo when applied directly to the carpet will never come out.

Crappy Crappy Week

We've all been sick this week (except Ainsley, she'll probably get it next week) Basically the common cold, upper respitory illness like stuffyness, cough, sneezes, watery eyes - tender throat, and laryngitis. Nothing that has caused serious discomfort, mostly just annoying, though it's knocked Chloê and Nic down for a day or so and made Ken and I a little groggier.

Today I've been blessed with the worst laryngitis. I sound like a pre teen Barry White. Chloê sounds pretty bad today too.

I've also been blessed with the sudden realization that I've not seen Chloê's fundraising packet since we took it to Jack-sons Sports Bar. Which means me and my truck load of sick kids gets to go and look for it at the bar sometime today and hopefully return the packet to chloê's school before it closes.

Yippie Yippie Me!

And my viral infested house needs a serious degermifying cleansing. One that I'm not at all prepared to do. The lawn is 6" long and needs to be mowed while the weather is still warmish and the dirt mountain is mocking my poor condition.

Sand in Places I Never Knew Existed

So Saturday and Sunday I took off. Saturday, I assumed we'd need to be working in the yard so I canceled my trip to Spokane and the kids went to grandmas house for the day. My cousin did stop by but it was just for a few minutes to view the damage.

But other than that short visit Kenny and I took the day off. No homework, no yard stress, no kids. Just sitting together watching "Dead Like Me" all day long. Which is a show I highly recommend. We went to get the kids at about dinner time and when we got home Kenny did have to go back into school mode. But that day was wonderfully quiet and uneventfull.

Sunday was a normal, Kenny does homework all day while I play GuildWars, day.

Monday the dirt came.
The boards helped a little... but only where the sand was really soft, up close to the sidewalk. My yard slopes to the street, I think that the year of irrigation running to the bottom of that slope made the soil there especially squishy. We have some ruts, but nothing too terrible. A little sand over time should fill them up pretty good.

And then Tuesday we had the first of many Dinner and Digging nights. We invited Adam and Rachel over to help move some dirt. Thanks Guys!

We'll be moving dirt from now till next summer. If that soon! The kids have been playing in the huge dirt pile since it got here. Ainsley even went out in a dress with no panties on and got sand in every little crack as you can imagine. I tell them they can't go outside, a few minutes later they're out playing king of the hill.

Here's a video of the guys hard at work.

Those Schmidt's are Trouble.... Part 2

So again we get the neighbors out worrying :) and for good reason! My truck of dirt came, very late. The worker that was in charge of it overloaded it too because the second, the very second it touched the grass. It sunk DEEP into our yard and the irrigation control box for our property. I immediately had my Mother In Law call my Father In Law to bring the tow truck. As soon as we saw the pool of water under the wheel where the irrigation box used to be... we called again and told him to hury.


Good to have a landscaper in the family... Even better to have a wrecker operator! Grandpa to the rescue screamed the kids!

These pictures arn't quite as good as they could've been... I'm actually standing in a hole here caused by the hitch on the back of the huge dirt filled truck. It tore up quite a bit of lawn. You might be able to see in this picture the broken sidewalk as well. Our neighbors lawn was flooded and some sand washed out from under the turf causing their perfect lawn to sink half a foot.

So Brent will be out tomorrow along with some city guys to fix everything. Looks like I'm not going to make it to the Camp Fire leadership classes :( Exciting week to say the least.

Those Schmidt's are Trouble!

So yesterday we had a visit from our neighborhood firemen. Apparantly when we burned off our tumbleweeds (which is the only yard waste you can burn) the smoke was so bad that the whole development was concerned about what was happening in our backyard. My next door neighbor said that people were lined up and down the street, barefoot even, trying to get close enough to see if it was a controlled fire. I'm sorry we caused such a commotion but with the dirt coming tomorrow we needed to get rid of the car sized nusances in the back yard.

The fireman suggested that we do our burns before dusk so that we attract less attenion next time and that we keep the fire small. And if we do a large burn like last night we should call them so when they get called at the station they can tell the worried callers that we are burning off tumbleweeds. Hopefully we never have to do a fire like that again, but you never know.

I took pictures before we started, but when the blaze got a goin' I was entranced by the dancing flames :) It took me a bit to start helping Kenny toss on more tumbleweeds.

Here's a few before pictures. All of these weeds are gone now.

Nic's Going Goth!

So Nic came downstairs this morning with black sharpie all over his nails. Needless to say I had a hard time getting mad at my newly converted goth son. So I took this incriminating picture of him instead.

(The sharpie has been confiscated)

Momma Gets Her Wheels Back

You know I don't really leave the house. I don't go anywhere... usually it just is too expensive to go someplace. Going out to eat is like 25-40 bucks and grocery or any other type of shopping almost always is over 50 usually more like 100. Not even going to mention the gas!

So most of the time I try to stay home.

Well this past week I've been without a vehicle. The car was damaged in a wreck a few months ago. We just finally took it in to be repaired. So Kenny got the truck, you know so he could go to work/school that sort of thing :) I've wanted to go out a few times, specifically to get the rest of the retaining wall blocks I need. (See there's over a hundred bucks right there) And we're in desperate need of food. (Another 150.00) It's so bad that kenny made a gravyless shepard pie last night. I guess it could've been worse if that box of instant potatoes wasn't still in the pantry.

Anyway I get my truck back today! WOOT! So I don't have to go anywhere. But if I want to, I can!

About the Yard
I've been warned that the truck will leave deep trenches in the lawn... I knew this already, but the way some of my friends were complaining about it I might be a little more scared. I had planned on just filling in the trenches with sand so that next spring the baby grass can grow up through it and fill in the damaged areas. I don't see why that wouldn't work. It really doesn't matter anyway. I have to get the dirt back there. We need 50 yards of dirt! I'm not going to drive the pickup 50 times into the back yard to get it there. Besides that driving the truck over the lawn 50 times is probably as bad as the big trucks doing it 5 times. Someone suggested I put down MDF board, but our property is quite long. It'll take quite a bit of money to purchase as much wood as we'd need. I think I'll stick with my original plan. Turn off the sprinklers today(so the ground won't be wet/soft), figure there's going to be trenches and plan on filling them with sand/soil and probably overseeding.

GuildWars Nightfall

I was pretty busy this weekend... weeding the back yard in preparation for the dirt delivery at the end of the week, birthday parties, dinner parties, Kenny's tremendous amount of homework and the Preview Weekend for GuildWars Nightfall.

The new game is going to be very cool. Great monsters, costumes, weapons and skills await us at the end of October. The bestest thing about the new expansion is the addition of a controllable henchman called a "hero". With each of the Hero's you control you get a small status menu with their skillbar and other information on it. You can pick the hero's next skill used and with the help of a flag system you can move your hero to specific areas of the map to either wait for a pull or to send a hero out to pull or to split perhaps a party of 5 that you control entirely to fight separate groups or to pin monsters in somewhere. It's a great feature, it makes solo gaming more feasable for those that just want to pop on occasionally and play a few quests. I love the new character Paragon, it feels somewhat like a warrior/monk type character with ranged attacks. The skills are all very well designed and fit into the game perfectly. I didn't get the opportunity to play a Dervish but Kenny seemed to like it a lot. I think I'll be very happy with both characters and I need to get a move on getting a prebuy game right quick!

Even though I didn't get too much game time in this weekend I did get enough in to make a small montage of clips taken during gameplay during the preview. I hope you enjoy it even if you're not gw's gamers :)

Dirt Cheap!

In preparation for landscaping our back yard this next spring, I wanted to call around and get estimates on how much fill dirt was going to cost us. I called a few excavation services and some landscape designers and came to the conclusion that the dirt was going to cost us over $1000.00. Blech! That was just not going to happen. I decided to call my cousin Brent Martell. He co-owns Premier Landscaping and Design. I asked him if he sold fill dirt and how much he charged for it. It just so happens he was working on an excavation project for Bank Reata on rd 100 and had fill dirt available and in my area. They're charging me 80.00 a truckload for 5 truck loads, I mean the big dirt hauler trucks. It'll be roughly 50 cubic yards of soil for $400.00.
He said, he doesn't always have dirt available and if we're too far from the supply, it can get expensive. (that must of been why other places quoted so high) So a next spring thing turned into a next Friday thing.

We're not completely ready for it. The weeds are still thriving back there, and we have left over scraps from building the timber wall. I also need to finish the brick wall to keep the dirt from spilling out into our neighbors yard.

I have a feeling that it may not be pushed around to where it's final resting spot will be until next year. But just having it will be a HUGE step in the right direction.

Chloê's 6th Birthday

Thats right! Can you believe it, our little Chloê is all grown up now and going to school. sniff, sniff... the kids are all growing up so fast. But I love the stage Chloê and Ainsley are in right now. They're able to do fun stuff like play games with us, learn clapping games, learn how to jump rope, skate boarding and riding a bike! It's so cool to watch them start to learn how to play like big kids.

I went to Chloê's school and we handed out happy face pencils to her classmates (they don't allow birthday treats to be served these days) and I read a great book, There's an Alligator Under My Bed, By Mercer Mayer. The kids in her class loved the book, and requested I read it again or leave the book with Mrs. Hart. I had to tell them that I had to leave... but Chloê would bring the book again later in the year, I promised. I guess after I left, Chloê got a birthday crown and the kids sung happy birthday to her and she got a birthday award certificate. Pretty special day at school.

I made a Chocolate Cake with Buttercream frosting from scratch.

Hershey's Chocolate Cake

2 cups granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

"Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting (recipe follows)

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes.
3. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.
5. Frost with "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

---I doubled the recipe used the pampered chef lg bar pans and made a double layer sheet cake.

Basic French Buttercream Frosting

1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons corn syrup
1/2 cup water
3 eggs
1 pinch salt
1 pound butter

Directions:

Put sugar, corn syrup and water in a saucepan over high heat.

Meanwhile, beat eggs and salt until fluffy, use a heat resistant bowl.

When all of the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is boiling, pour over beating eggs (this basically cooks the egg mixture, be sure to have a hot pad under your bowl). Cut butter into cubes. When the eggs-sugar bowl is lukewarm to the touch, slowly add butter while continuing to beat until fluffy and smooth. Flavor as desired.

This recipe for Basic French Buttercream serves/makes 1 batch.

---I forgot to flavor this the first time through and I thought it didn't turn out right so I added 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted and a Tablespoon of vanilla flavoring. It probably didn't need the powdered sugar but it was fantastic so I left it and repeated it for the second batch.

I got lots of compliments on the frosting, not too sweet but flavorfull and creamy. The cake was wonderfull tasting and light and fluffy, though it was too moist and rich to eat very much.




The party was nice. Grandma Wells and Grandma/Grandpa Schmidt came and Grandpa Ken and Grandma Lori came and Aunt Kathy and Cierra came. We all enjoyed talking and cake and ice cream and presents!

Grandma Lori had a special suprise of a new bike for Chloê.

Little Flippers Exhibition at the Sausage Fest

Chloê was in a little flipper exhibition at this years Richland Sausage Fest. They performed the same show they learned for the Benton Franklin County Fair. It was cute of course! While the music was playing on the stage Ainsley and Nic were dancing like crazy people off to the side of the stage. Nic doesn't dance normally of course he does some weird form of break dancing or interpretive dance. It was great!

The Sausage Fest was fantastic. I had never been before. The food was good and most of all at about 2.50 a meal it was affordable. No paid parking and activites and games for the kids at about 35 cents a pop. Enough stuff to keep a family occupied and having fun for a few hours and not having to deplete the bank account for it. They had a small flea market/craft show going on and we bought someone's junk. A book and wexford crystal pitcher for me and some cookie cutters for the kiddies. We bought a raffle ticket for a chance to win a 50 inch plasma TV... we haven't heard back yet so we probably didn't win :( OOOH wait the ticket stub says 7:30pm October 14th, there's still a chance!

7 Years and it Keeps Getting Better!

There we are, 7 years ago. Weren't we cute! hehehe and Kenny's little cookie duster. Man, the equipment I scanned this photo with 7 years ago must of sucked! I need to get a new one in there someday, maybe for our 10 year :)

That was a busy time for us. We both were working, I had a job at Fred Meyers and he was doing contract work for Deliver Plus installing POS systems in Pizza Huts around the state. He was late to the rehearsal dinner because he was driving back from a distant install. Don Swart was the Best Man and the most expensive item at the wedding. We flew him in on the morning of the wedding, we even held up the wedding 15 minutes for his arrival! Rachel Turner (now Baldwin) was my Maid of Honor. They were good choices for us, they're both still really close friends.

We got married 5 years after we started dating in highschool. We have been together for 12 years this October! I loved him so much. We were never apart, I think we were commonly referred to as KennynErin. I went out of my way to schedule half of my classes with him and those we didn't share I would meet him outside of the classroom to walk him to his next class even if it meant I would be late to my next class. And as nerdy as we were, we were nominated for class couple.

Some people reminisce about the past, wishing they could feel the way they did when they first met. Don't get me wrong, those were exiting times. But I'd never give up what I have now for what it started as. Our friendship has always been strong, but it is continually growing each day.
We still share many interests and enjoy just talking together. Our kids are fantastic and I can't imagine not having them in our lives. They give us much joy and never allow things to get boring.

Thank you honey for 7 wonderful years of marriage.

Wow, that was mushy! But I guess sometimes mushy stuff needs to be said.

Poop!

Hey, I'm a mom and a dog owner. The topic was bound to come up sooner or later.

Malcolm suffers from a tad bit of Separation Anxiety, which causes stomach problems which causes diarrhea. Pudding poo - sometimes thick and creamy, sometimes the consistancy of snot. Poor guy has been doing his best the past week to hold it till we get outside. But there were a few occasional, "oops, sorry mom. I just couln't prevent the butt leakage" moments. They wern't too horrible to clean up. My little spot cleaner machine did a good job. But I wasn't going to be able to keep my sanity if this got out of hand.

I knew that the cause was him getting so worked up when we left that it would get him salivating and his stomach churning. I can't really stop that immediately, it's something that will take a long time for him to get used to.

So, to the all knowing internet I went. Everything from new diets to human diarrhea treaments to just letting it happen "it's a cleansing process." I'm a fairly lazy person so I first look for the easiest thing I can do. Mmmm, canned pumkin (not pre made pumpkin pie filling, but the plain puree'd pumpkin you start with for the pie). Two tablespoons with feedings. Luckily I had a can left over from last holiday season whipped that thing out and plopped two dollops of pumpkin puree onto Malcolms dinner. I mixed it in really good. You'd of thought he was starving the way he scarfed it down. He really likes pumpkin!

Two BM's later he was laying nice log type poo again. Yippie!!! The miracle pumpkin cure worked. It supposedly works for constipation as well.

Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky

Down by the banks of the hanky panky,

Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky,

With an eeps, opps, sodapops,

Hey Mr. Lillypad and went Kerplopps!

A New Do

Ainsley agreed to get her hair cut! The long, straight, in her eyes all the time no matter what we did with it, look wasn't working for her anymore. Besides that she likes the new one because it won't hurt so much to brush.

I think it's so cute, but then again I prefer short cuts.

Growing Pains

Chloê has bouts of mood swings. Nothing unbearable, just periods of time when she's grumpy or sensitive. I've especially noticed it since school started and she doesn't get the opportunity for afternoon quiet time anymore.

This morning she rudely demanded that I make her oatmeal. It had the potential to be a polite request, but it wasn't. It was more her expressing to me that her expectation of oatmeal had not been satisfied. "Make me oatmeal, now! I'm hungry. DON'T put apples in it!" Well I just simply looked at her and said, "no" then pointed the kids to the toaster. Ainsley and Nic were thrilled with the prospect of toast for breakfast and proceeded to make themselves some. Chloê made it clear to Ainsley that she did not want toast for breakfast and then started to cry on the couch (all of this fairly quietly I might add, if there were such a thing as a silent tantrum this would be it.) A few minutes later I sat down next to her on the couch, to relax a bit and watch some TV and she was balled up at the other end quietly sobbing. She sat up and proceeded to tell me how hungry she was and tried to explain to me that oatmeal would be the only thing to satisfy this hunger. She was whining, which I have little tolerance for. She's been in her room ever since. I'll let her out at lunch time at 10:45. She'll probalby be expecting a ham and cheese sandwich, I'm feeling evil today so I'll be sure to make her peanut butter and jelly.

Malcolm's New Pad

So the old crate was a bit smaller than Malcolm... instead of a crate it was more like a cocoon.

I went out today and got a new crate more appropriate for crate training my Standard Poodle Mix Pup! No more pretending that he's a Dachshund. He's a big boy and needed a big boy crate.

He's doing really well in it. Seems to be comfortable, though if I go out of site he still gets anxious. At least he goes in it when I'm here, we'll keep practing being in the crate when I go to pick up chloe from school and take her to gymnastics. He'll get the idea after a few weeks. (I hope)

:( Goodbye Greg

Well we had a little pary for our friend Greg. He's got a cool new job in Seattle and has to move away. We're going to miss him.

There were 4 dogs at this party and some arguments happened. I think the problem can be resolved with a bit of a quieter introduction.

Chloê showed off her rad moves on her new skateboard and she even got a short lesson from Greg on steering.

People came to the party, but everyone seemed a little sleepy because they were up all night. Needless to say other than the dogs and the skakeboarding the party was a bit of a snoozer.

Ryan did bring a spiked watermellon which cheered some up a bit but alas we needed more to get the party going.

I'll Never Make it as a Hippy!

No matter how many kids I pop out on the floor of my strawbale house. I'll never reach hippydom! I love my soap and hairbrush too damn much!

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/110412366.html

The Naked Chef

Chiawana High School

So last fall the people of Pasco finally approved a bond for a new high school to be be built. It is long overdue, it was overdue when I was in high school. Luckily the High School will be minutes away walk from our house. We have a clear line of site view of the property it is going to be on. Granted this will increase noise and traffic but if we're still here in 10 years Chloê will have a short jaunt to get to class.

Immediately after they passed the bond, I told someone, I think it was my mom or Kenny's mom, that I thought they should name it Chiawana High after the Large Park on the Columbia River that is about 1 mile away from the Future High School. Yesterday I was was feeling curious and went to see what they did decide to name it. Low and behold it was Chiawana High. Someone must of read my mind.

Chiawana is a Native American word meaning "father of water" or "big river."

I was interested in what other names were up for debate.

Two board members voted for Cesar Chavez, a civil rights leader -- President Ricardo Espinoza and Vice President Saul Martinez. Three board members voted for Chiawana -- Bill Leggett, John Hergert and Pete Felsted.

There must be some tiny old evil white racist guy within me because I am very glad it wasn't named after the mexican leaders proposed. Then again,I don't think that I'm necessarily glad that it wasn't named after them, just more happy that the new name refelcts the city's heritage better.

100th Post

Well this is my 100th post... pretty nifty eh :)

MMM what specialness should I write for my 100th post.

Steve Irwin was killed yesterday by a Sting Ray. The sensitive person that I am, the first thing out of my mouth was, "I wonder if he poked it with a stick?" I immediately checked www.irregularwebcomic.net to see what the "cartoonist" (short for a better title) had to say. He does lots of Steve Irwin satire. Though today the comic of the day is different, yesterday it was a random Steve Irwinish one... of him waking up on the hospital bed no less.

I'm working on finishing a poncho for Chloê's birthday. Not even halfway done, I have to set aside more time for it.

Chloê has two gymnastics exhibitions comming up, one at Sausage Fest and one at the Firey Foods Festival.

Malcolm and I are moving right into loose leash training and targeting. It's going super.

Kenny has begun his hardest term yet with Ancient Irish History, Business Ethics and Speech. Hard as it is, he seems to be plugging away at it. (Only 7 weeks left till the next term honey.)

Nic misses Chloê terribly during school time, he sits at the window singing her name.

Ainsley is giddy as ever and it seems that school time away makes the time after school with Chloê more special. They play together till bed time.

All in all (except for poor Steve Irwin) things seem to be going fantastical!

Click, Treat, Good Boy Malcolm!

Last week I called around to the local pet training centers to get a "price check" on training programs in the area. At about $100.00 every 8 weeks, for 1 hour a week training, and who know's how many different classes we'd need to take, it was too much for me right now. Even with my 20% off training coupon from the humane society. Since Malcolm is destined to be a huge dog with lots of muscle we need to get him trained now while he's still a puppy! First we'll try home schooling and see how that goes.

I went to the library on Friday and checked out a great book by Pat Miller titled, The Power of Positive Dog Training. It was a quick read with great instructions and pertinent stories and information. I was finished with most of the book at least through instructions for the 3rd week of the program. I went to pet smart and picked up a $1.50 training clicker and some "high" reward treats. For most of the time I simply use kibble. We do about 4 to 5, 15 minute workouts a day and it's going fairly smoothly. I do use a smoked sausage cut in quarters and then in small pieces for the first session. It really helps to get his attention on learning the new material I introduce then. We're all done with all the activities the book has us do the first week. I think we'll just keep practicing until next Friday. As you can see in the video, he's got: Sit, Down, and Stand.. He responds to his name (most of the time). Spin and Twirl are new activities we're working on (It's only the 3rd day) I need to figure out how to get him doing it with the command and a small hand gesture instead of the luring.

I ordered a 2 1/2 inch jingle bell from eBay for $1.99. Next week he learns to target and we can learn how to ring the bell to go out to the bathroom.

I Know it's Late, Sorry Grandma's

 
Nic and his new bus stop buddy, Carson.
 
Chloê's bus
 
Getting off the bus
 
Chloê looking for us.

The first full day went well. Though, like the future computer nerd she is, she complained, "they made us go outside." She said they did art and music... she got to play a real xylophone and she sat at a table with another girl and two boys. I hear there are 15 boys, 9 girls in her class. And I was suprised to hear that she was the only Chloê. After we thought we named her something fairly unique we met a lot of Chloê's. But luckily she's the only one in her class. She says, "we played 'Who's Name' with a fuzzy ball and we played with blocks".

She was really happy with her school and her teacher and is becomming good friends with our neighbor Kensie.