Salad in me Belly

I am so proud to present my lovely lettuce and my spectacular spinach. I really did not have high hopes for my spring garden, but I'm pleasantly pleased that I actually have something to show for my efforts. I planted quite a bit more than lettuce and spinach so not all was a success but seeing that this was my first spring garden and I did it from seeds, I'm happy with this much. The carrots I planted are actually growing, but are much smaller..hopefully they just need a little time.

I am going to harvest tomorrow and enjoy a yummy salad for dinner...perhaps I can even get the kids to partake.

Lovely Lettuce

Spectacular Spinach

Car Dilemma

Ok my faithful followers...I know you're out there...well one or two of you might be out there.
I need your help. Our lemon of a van is really on it's last legs and may not even last through this week. Hubby and I went car shopping last weekend and have it narrowed down to two cars and we're really both on the fence about which to choose. Brad is leaning more toward the 2006 Nissan Pathfinder (more for it's ability to pull my dad's boat) and I'm leaning more towards a 2006 Honda Pilot. The Pilot can still pull the boat but it's not ideal to do on a regular basis. We need a larger vehicle for the 2 kids and a dog along with all their junk and I refuse to do another minivan. Nothing against those driving minivans, they serve their purpose and if ours hadn't died, I'd continue driving that beast for years to come I'm sure.

We both loved the way the Pilot drove and liked the interior look and feel a LOT more than the Pathfinder. The Pathfinder seriously looked like someone threw a can of beige paint on the interior and covered every imaginable surface in blah brown. The Pathfinder did handle well and has a much higher towing capacity than the Honda. The Honda does a leetttle bit better on gas, but not much.

Take a look and tell me which one you'd choose! Thanks!

2006 Honda Pilot



2006 Nissan Pathfinder

Yummy Meatloaf and Saturday Night Tricks

In my never ending search for a good meatloaf recipe that will work for my fowl palette, I finally came upon a recipe on AllRecipes.com that I LOVE! Now you may wonder...what's up with the meatloaf infatuation. Meatloaf is just great. It reminds me of home, it's complete comfort food, it's hearty, it pairs well with almost anything. It's yummy meat pie.

I had a previous meatloaf recipe posted...please scrap that one if you're using it. The following recipe from the Rempel Family in British Columbia is really yummy. It even satisfied the large, carnivorous man in my life. I substituted 85/15 ground turkey for the beef. Here's the link: Rempel Family Meatloaf.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef 1/2 cup crushed buttery round crackers 3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix

2 eggs, beaten 1/4 cup ketchup 2 tablespoons steak sauce

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	Stir the ground beef, crushed crackers, Cheddar cheese, and onion soup mix in a large bowl until well combined. Whisk the eggs, ketchup, and steak sauce in a separate bowl until smooth. Mix the eggs into the meat until evenly combined, if the mixture seems too dry, add a little water. Press into a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
3.	Bake in preheated oven until the meatloaf reaches 160 degrees F (71 degrees C) and is no longer pink in the center, 45 to 60 minutes.

After a lovely meal....we need tricks!

Voila!!

Game On!

Short on time tonight...just wanted to post a fun pic of Jackson and his cousins Carson and Landon. Saturday's Little League game contained quite the dilemma. Jackson's team played against his cousin Carson's team, The Tigers. Good thing it's Little League and everyone pretty much claps for all the little kids regardless of team affiliation. I was clapping and cheering along with Grandma and Grandpa for the opposing team just as much as I was my son's team.

Good thing the game ended in a tie!

Afternoon Delights

What a gorgeous day today was. As long as you can ignore the piles of pollen on your clothing, hair, car, driveway, porch...well everywhere, then today's weather couldn't have been better.

Although a wee bit too cool for a little sprinkler action, it's amazing what fun a bucket of water and few plastic cups and bowls can be. Jackson and Jessie had a blast filling this bucket up and then tipping it over, then filling it up, then tipping it up, then....well you get the idea. At times I'm so grateful we're on well water.



Everything was going great until sleep deprivation caught up with Jessie and the show-stopping meltdown ensued. If only I could take Jack's advice and "Just MAKE her be quiet", what a lovely world this would be. Man that girl can scream!

The Croup is Crap

Sorry for my lewd language (Mama Jan), but this last round of sickness in the family has me completely worn out. It just seems like we have been hit with one thing after another this winter and spring. Thankfully Brad and I are both well and can actually take care of children unlike our last bout of stomach flu. Ugg...the memories.

Jack has been struggling the last 3 days with the croup and although he's had this before, I've never seen or heard it with such severity. He's woken up a few times the past 2 days with an ashy appearance and really struggling for breath. Scares us to death. For new mommies and those with little to no experience with the croup, I thought I'd use this post to share what we've learned. It really is a very contagious virus and any child under the age of 7-8 is susceptible to croup.

Most people will refer to croup as the "Seal barking" cough. It really does sound like a large strange animal in your house when you first hear this cough. The first line of defense is a cool-mist humidifier in the child's room and if an attack occurs the best home remedies are a steam shower or if the weather is chilly, to simply take the child out in the cold...the colder the better. Croup is an inflammation of the airway and anything cold, even popsicles (Jackson's favorite home remedy) can help. If the child is having trouble actually getting breaths a more aggressive measure might need to be taken like Prednisone or Albuterol treatments.

I found this really interesting site where you can listen to sound bites of children having a variety of coughing spells. Seems strange but it can really help you isolate the problem and hopefully treat it more effectively.

http://www.health24.com/child/Cough/833-3456,35921.asp

Hope this might help someone in the care of their future seals.

Easter 2009

This past weekend we celebrated Easter. We started out the day by having our traditional "find the basket" hunt. Jackson is still very much into this Easter Bunny character and asked lots of details about his height, how he gets into our house, why he hides the baskets. I explained that this very tall, very crafty, very sneaky bunny is also very shy and prefers to hide everything. That answer sufficed...I wonder about next year though. I typically make the kids baskets but Costco had a really great one that I probably couldn't have topped, full of street chalk, bubbles and great candy.

Jackson enjoyed his success.

Jessie enjoying her peep and duckie.

After our morning festivities we readied ourselves for Mama Jan, Papa Jerry and Uncle John to join us for a visit to a new church in the downtown area, Blacknall Presbyterian. It was in a nice section of town and in a great older building that had a beautiful sanctuary. I enjoyed the message and am really glad our family, or at least our Fayetteville family, could be together on Easter. They called the children up to the front before children's church and it was so sweet to see the Jackson and his new friends up at the front reciting "He is Risen...He is Risen Indeed!"

I wish I could have gotten a better pic of the kids in their Easter clothes, but they were um...a bit WILD from all that candy.

After church we all ventured to Elmo's Diner for lunch and then on to our house for a good ol' fashioned egg hunt.

All in all, a fantastic and draining day, however, Monday came WAY to early this week. HAPPY EASTER!

Just in time for Easter Sunday

It seems EVERY time we have an event coming up, one of my children ends up getting a nice knot on their head, a large cut, a terrible bruise or at least a sickness of some kind.

Last Easter, Jackson and Jessie were both ill and we missed Easter Sunday all together. Well this Easter doesn't disappoint. Jessie has so far this week, fallen on the blacktop and given herself a nice knot and bruise on her forehead and then today while I was at work, she fell and busted her lip. These lovely injuries will look fantastic with her adorable tangerine, gingham Easter dress and her skinned knees (last weeks injury) will show quite nice atop her new white sandals.

Uggh. At least Jackson is in tip top shape and should look quite handsome in his get-up....knock on wood.

Jessie's New Game

Jessie has discovered the joy of "scaring" her mama and daddy. A game she definitely learned from her older brother who often jumps out of the bathroom and legitimately scares me. We captured this video the other day in our closet. I just wish the light on my lousy camera worked a bit better!

BOO!

Easter Traditions

The family enjoyed dying Easter eggs on Sunday. Jackson was so experimental and kept wanting to dip the eggs in ALL the colors, despite my warning that it would only make the eggs black or in the least dark gray. . . not very Eastery.

It's always fun watching a large, burly, tattooed man dipping eggs or picking flowers or snuggling with a 4 year old. He's a sweet daddy and I love that he spends time with his babies.

Easter is only 5 days away and Jackson is already expecting a large bunny to hop through our house and leave him a goody basket. I wonder if he thinks the large bunny will come down the chimney like Santie. I'm looking forward to reminding him why we celebrate Easter at Mema's church...hopefully next Sunday will be as gorgeous as this past one.

Busy Day

We had an extremely busy day today. We started out bright and early, leaving the house around 8:30 to get to the Opening Day Ceremonies for the North Durham Little League (NDLL). Jackson was so proud to be decked out in his Orioles uniform. Brad looked quite dapper in his coaches uniform as well. We arrived to a packed field where each division was introduced. Jackson and the rest of the Rookie division looked adorable out there on the field with their coaches and their banner. I was really impressed that the NDLL started a new Challenger Division this year for those who are mentally or physically disabled. The Challenger Division was so happy to be part of the ceremony and the applause was loud and long for this group of special folks. The Northern High ROTC was at the ceremony and presented the flags while a suprisingly good singer belted out the anthem. The ceremony was concluded by the parents repeating an oath to basically treat the umpires with respect and to remember "this is just a game!" I wonder if they've had problem parents in the past??



Directly after the ceremonies, we had to head over to the Museum of Life and Science for yet another birthday party. The party was cool, including a live presentation of a chinchilla, some sort of dragon lizard and a sweet bunny. Halfway through, I unfortunately had to step out with a very unhappy Jessie. I'm glad Brad was there to help out. Jessie really had a MAJOR meltdown and I'm beginning to think this nasty cold is working itself into a nice little ear infection.


Jackson and daddy had about an hour to rest after the birthday party and then headed straight back out to the fields for Jackson's first game.... a 2 hour game. SHEW! Unfortunately thanks to a very mad and tired 1 year old, I had to stay home and miss the game, but I heard he did great! Looking forward to many more games and a healthy gal!

My Amazing Husband

Ok...gonna brag a little...so bare with me. My husband is truly amazing, a man of many skills. When you think of the jack of all trades, think of Brad Bishop. He is a fantastic carpenter, can do just about any type of home repair you can think, is a very accomplished artist and an amazing illustrator. He is trained in graphic design and has worked for clients such as Goodrich, Haines, Remy Martin, Nortel, Glaxo, the list goes on and on...but of all his skills I truly admire and enjoy his mural paintings. He recently did a hallway painting for a church we used to visit and it took him many moons to complete this, but it is gorgeous...

Check it out....he really would like to do more of this type work so give us a jingle if your interested, and he'll set you up!

Gym Re-Cap

I finally found some pics of the birthday party at the Bull City Gym from last weekend...man that foam pit looks like fun!

The Cheerio Parasite

The well-known cheerio parasite has been spotted on our youngest.

It's amazing how versatile this cheerio parasite is...he invades couches, chairs, beds, shoes, vans, closets and, as can see from my pictures, my sweeties britches.