Thursday, July 31, 2008

Ew, the Animals. . .

After looking at the picture in the last post, I realize it looks like a bunch of hill-billies live here. So, I thought I'd show you some of our other creatures, procured by SuperDad.

Are you ready? If you're a vegetarian, you may want to look away. Speaking of which, I usually have to tell new friends about the animals on our walls before they come over, so we won't scare their small children. Sad, but our reality, and thankfully it doesn't happen as often as it use to.

Everything was killed by a bow, except for the black bear and 2 whitetail deer.

Here we go:

Here's is a fox killed locally in VA.


Gemsbok from Africa.


Gemsbok side view. This is pretty much a horse-size animal.


Wart hog. Yuck is all I can say.


The impala from Africa is my favorite. I absolutley love the color of this animal.


This is a pronghorn antelope from Wyoming.


Black bear from West Virginia.


Waterbuck from Africa. Looks like a hairy cow.


A couple of whitetail deer. I think we have 1-3 more since these pics were taken.


A Texas Dall sheep from Pennsylvania.


A Corsican sheep from Alabama.


A wild boar from North Carolina, a bobcat from West Virginia and a whitetail deer(who knows? they all look the same to me).


A buffalo from Virginia. We had to sell him because he was too darned big for the house. SuperGirl thinks it had eyes that followed her around the basement. Not a pleasant memory for a child, lol.


Dear me! It sounds like I've just described our family tree! LOL, joke, Mom!

Really. There are 10 of these beasts in our dinky living room. It's like we always have company.

Tagged By Herbalina. . .



Well, that's not her real name, but it fits, I think. Tell, me others that know her, it suits her, right?

Herbalina has tagged me and I need to:

1. Write a six-word memoir.
2. Post it to your blog, maybe with a pic.
3. Link to the person who tagged you
4. Tag a few folks
5. Leave a comment for them with an invite to play.

Hmmm. . . I'm so not good at this. Not stuff that can be put out in the open and possibly offend folks. I'm honestly right up there with Mother Teresa, but at times, I have a smidgeonly, microbial lapse in sanity.

O.k., I lie. It's usually the other way around. Anywho. Let's see.

All day, I dream about chocolate.

Love watching my kids, medication helps.

The picture above is 3 years old, but it's one of my better ones.

So who will I tag? Hmmm, again. Julie is moving and away from the internet. Quite the sacrilege, how does she survive? :) I will tag Susan, Rosa, and RACHEL!

Have fun with it guys!

P.S. Oh, Herbalina? Aren't you glad I didn't call you Wide Mouth? :)

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A Recipe and a Read. . .

Neither are mine, but I thought you may enjoy them regardless. The first is a book that caught my eye while perusing the current issue of Country Living magazine. It's The Prairie Girl's Guide to Life. Looks like fun!




And now a recipe! Have you seen Alton Brown on the Food Network? The man is awesome, in my book, and I always learn so much about food, too! On a recent episode (recorded in 2002) I stumbled across, he was chatting it up about tomatoes. Did you realize they're considered a berry? Me neither. Anywho, here's a yummocious looking recipe of his for TBL Panzanella. If you're able, please catch the episode. It's so much more fun to watch him that to look at a plain 'ol recipe, wouldn't you think? It will air again on August 11th at 11p and 2a. Here's a quick synopsis of it from the shows site: "Tomatoes: Learn everything you need to know about making the best use of the biggest berry to ever be called a vegetable. Take a serious look at serrated knives, a strange and delicious sandwich and a tomato sauce that almost isn't."

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Enjoying the Heat. . .

O.k., I think that's taking it a little far, but I'm sure it got your attention. :) SuperBoy and I went grocery shopping and then stopped by the dollar store to stock up on sponges. Why? you ask? To make sponge balls! We first found them at i have to say, which led us to the super easy tutorial at betz white's site!




Make some today and let your kiddos have at it! Great way to get aggression toward each other out. Did I say that? Oops. . .

RACHEL. . .

Look over in the right sidebar under Cool Blogs and see if you see yours there. I have placed it there twice and I'm not seeing it. Maybe I'm just blind at this point, I don't know. Here is Rachel blog, until I fix it to the side, folks.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Apron Makings. . .

These arrived in the mail today. Aren't they yummy?

These two pink ones will likely be a reversible half-apron for SuperGirl.


This looks like a good match for our local university, UVA.

Boy, We're an Odd Bunch. . .

Never in my life, did I think I'd say what I am about to say.

First, let's just clarify that I have cleaned up baby poop, throw-ups, etc., and SuperDad does the animal messes, dead "presents" included. Well, since we found/adopted Hobbes as a kitten last June, we've had a dramatic increase in dead things. Not pleasant, especially with 2 kiddos playing outdoors.



Anywho, I called SuperDad a short while ago to inform him, we now have 3 bodies to remove from the yard. Don't worry, Mom. Two of them were not your grandchildren. Like I would tell people if it came to that. . . O.k., back to the story. The bodies appear to be shrews, not sure though. Little late to worry about it since they're dead. SuperDad tells me we'll have to start paying SuperBoy (4) for removal service. I said you've got to be kidding me, but I handed the phone to SuperBoy to see what he thought. He was all over the idea and ran to get his child-size shovel! Well, SuperGirl (8) found out money was involved and she was practically begging SuperBoy to remove one of the three. I said no, that she'd have to discuss that with her daddy.



Anywho, I certainly thought I'd grown up more civilized and proper than to pay a four year old for varmint removal. But hey, as long as I don't have to do it, he can have it and all the perks.

Yuck!

~~ P.S. Please pay no attention whatsoever to the pjs. I couldn't get him out of them today, and it's just a battle I didn't feel was worth fighting. :)

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Blogger Question. . .

Why can't I center and/or change the size of my text like I use to? I haven't changed a single thing, but I miss being able to personalize my page more.

Thank you for any help you may have.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Finished Product. . .



_____________________ Cobbler
(insert berry of your choice)

Mix:

1 Cup flour
1 Cup milk
1 Cup sugar
1 Tsp. baking powder

Cook 1 quart of berries on stove until hot and bubbly, adding a
little water if necessary. Sugar if you like.

Mix 1 Tbsp. cornstarch into a little water and stir into
berries when finished cooking to thicken them up.

Melt 1 stick of butter in pan before adding berries.

Pour flour mixture over berries and put in the oven.

Bake at 400° for 30 minutes or so.

ENJOY!

Blackberry Cobbler. . .

I purchased some blackberries from a gal at the farmer's market this morning and I just have to make a cobbler. I went to pick more wineberries, but I think they've just passed their peak, and I picked 12, or so. I also picked 6 or 7 blackberries at the same roadside patch and threw them in. Crazy, I know. Now, hold your seat folks. . . While just preparing this cobbler and tossing it into the oven oh-so-gingerly, I also threw in a handful of blueberries. GASP! Yep. I've lost it. Here are some of the pics of the ingredients and the berries being prepared. What's your favorite cobbler or summer treat? If I could, this would have been a wineberry cobbler, but you make do with what you have, right?





If you know where this road is, you too, can find the berries.

SOLD. . .

Thursday, July 24, 2008

We're Back From Camping. . .










Well, it started out well enough. We arrived at our campsite and helped set up a bug free tent, and our tent, etc. The kids played and we ate a potluck dinner that was so yummy.



SuperBoy and SuperDad looking for worms, bugs, and lizards, oh my. . .




Around 8 p.m., we headed to the Lodge, where a slideshow on Bug Babies was being held. Here is a picture from the lodge I found on someone else's site since I didn't take my camera. When we arrived, it was mainly full of adults, but we still brought in our collective brood of 11 children. We returned to the campsite with a few sprinkles and thunder rumbling in the distance, so we stored everything as best we could before the storm hit. One of the dads that stayed said a ranger had come by and said the storm that had gone around us just an hour or so earlier had 60 mile an hour winds and penny-size hail. Not what we needed to hear. He also said more storms were likely in the next couple of hours. The weather forecast earlier that day said severe storms possible. They were so right. Everytime the thunder rumbled, SuperGirl covered her ears with her hands and blanket wrapped around her. I think SuperBoy was mainly scared because she was.

Long story short, SuperDad and I didn't sleep. I was trying to make sure the tent stayed on the ground due to the high winds and trying to keep dry. It was pouring so hard, the rain went through our rain flap (is there a better name for this?) and I had a cold, wet thigh from the drip down the center of the tent. I ended up getting one of the two towels we brought and putting it on under our blanket. The other towel was just above our heads catching the water that dribbled in through the center of the tent where it was staked down. SuperDad was awake and holding SuperGirl, who would wake every time he took his arm off of her to roll over and try to sleep. SuperGirl also had another problem. The material on the bottom of the tent was somewhat slick and we were on a slight incline. It so happens the incline was steep enough that every time SuperGirl moved, she'd slide down to the bottom of the tent. When that happened, she fussed and asked SuperDad to slide her back up into her snuggle spot. Next time, she'll be braced with a bathmat under her or suction cups applied directly to her butt. Anywho, I layed awake and listen to 3 of the other parents chat in between wind gusts and eventually nodded off a little. Apparently long enough to miss the part where they bet on me to see if I'd be there in the morning. You see, I'm not one who cares for camping, being unprotected in thunderstorms (under large lightening rods (trees)) on top of a mountain, in the dark. So to say I was a wus is truly understating it. But, as most parents do, I sucked it up so we could make memories as a family and have lovely times to look back on. ROTFLMBO! Boy will we. SuperDad left at 5 to go home to get ready for work, lucky dog. Around 6:30, we awoke to a charming drizzle of rain, a welcome sight after the hurricane that swept through the night before. After eating breakfast, we hiked around a little and chatted it up at camp, staying warm by the fire. Hardly any of us were prepared for long-sleeve and pants weather. We sure weren't, but the kids hardly noticed. They're resillient little suckers. I asked SuperGirl in a cheery voice when she wanted to go camping again and she said 2010. I asked SuperBoy. 2009. SuperGirl replies with, "But that's next year!" Looks like we'll be breaking her in in the back yard for a little while.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip with good friends, even though they had bets on me. :)




Staring through me with it's laser beam eyes. . .




Our blurry pack of children.

Look at this little Smurf mushroom we found under the gigantic twisted tree.

The view on the way out. Same location as the very first picture from the day before.

I'd say we accomplished our mission.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

We're Going Camping!

We're going to the place in the header and I hope it will go well. It's a Girl Scout thingy we planned early in the year, and we're so excited. Only thing is, they're (whoever "they" are) expecting severe thunderstorms, and after the hail we received last month, I'm not looking forward to two psycho children. We may just spend the night in the car. :) And this is me being optimistic, lol. You should see it when I'm not. Hopefully, I'll have some great pics of the kids. I think 5 families ended up being able to go.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

4 year old weather forecaster. . .

I was watching the news this morning and SuperBoy walks in from his recent deep slumber. I go into the kitchen for a moment and hear the situation for tropical storm Christobal (however you spell it) and how it was moving up the coast.

I return to the living room moments later to hear SuperBoy tell me, "There's a snowball moving up the road."

I'm so happy I heard what was realllly said. :) Tell me your story!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Market Buddies. . .





And our apron "booth" at the market.