June 11, 2010

We spent yesterday and most of today in Osage Beach, MO. This is why I wasn't able to post a picture yesterday. Anyway, Osage Beach / Bagnell Dam / Lake of the Ozarks is a place where Bruce vacationed with his family while growing up. They camped almost every summer there for about a week. In 1988, only a couple of months after Bruce and I began dating, I went along with him, his parents, and 2 of his nephews on this annual trip. I had never camped for that long before, but his mom and I, being the only females on the trip, got to sleep inside the camper on the 2 beds! The boys slept in the back part of his dad's pick-up truck. We went to a different music show almost every night and we had a good time swimming, playing arcade games and skee ball, and looking in all the souvenir stores. I remember that week fondly. Bruce likes to go back to the area every couple of years or so. He likes to drive down the "strip" and see how things have changed and how old favorites are still around. He likes to look at areas of land (like the place where the camp-site used to be) and remember what was there, even though now it's a big shopping complex with a Target store right on top of where he used to sleep!

Here is Bruce playing 10-cent skee ball. This is the only place at the Lake anymore where it's only 10 cents.


Our girls love it too!


And I love the vintage video games you can fine there!


This animal greeted us as we walked down the sidewalk yesterday afternoon. To me, it looked like a HUGE German Shepherd. It's hard to tell by this picture just how big thie animal was, especially around his belly. At first, I thought it was a pregnant female. We began talking to it, as it was very friendly, and then the owner came out of a restaurant where he was eating and talked to us. He said that "Max" was just a big baby. I asked him if Max was a German Shepherd and he replied to me with, "No, wolf." I almost said something like, "Wolf shepherd?" but instead I said, "Wolf hound?" He said, "No, just wolf, and he's the runt of the pack." Okkaaaayyyyy?!? Wolf? He assured me that yes, Max was 80% wolf and 20% shepherd. This was why Max was so big. Wow!

June 10, 2010

We cleaned the basement yesterday. Well, we cleaned the girls' area of the basement. We had 2 toy boxes down there. We are still keeping one of them for some of their larger items but we were able to get rid of enough stuff that we can also get rid of this toy box.

If any of you people who know me are interested in it, you can have it for $10 and you come pick it up. It's in really good condition and because of its rectangular shape, it fits nicely into a corner. The measurements are 30 inches long, 17 inches wide, and 18 inches high. It's clean too!

June 9, 2010

This is an old picture of Bruce umpiring with a Triad teacher. One of my students had this picture on a softball slide show and sent it to me on my phone over the weekend!

June 8, 2010

Haircut!

B1 decided, kind of on a whim, that she wanted about 6+ inches of her hair cut off. It had been a long time since she had a cut and I knew she was due for one, if for nothing else, to keep it healthy. And it's summer so why not have it a bit shorter? We went to the beauty school here in our town. We have sometimes had good luck there and sometimes not so good. But they have never done anything MAJOR wrong, and with it only being a cut of her mostly straight hair, I figured what the heck!?! The fact that cuts are only $7 didn't hurt either! Here are some before and after pics from the front side and the back. B2 also got a cut, but since her hair is short anyway, there isn't a whole lot of difference you can see with her.

Before, back shot, dry hair:
I never really realized how much her hair came to a "V" in the back. She wears it up in a pony tail or bun so often, and when it is down, I guess I am looking at it from the front, not the back.


After, back shot, wet hair:


Before, front shot, dry hair:



After, front shot, dry and straightened hair:

June 7, 2010

This is cinammon French toast. I have been holding onto this recipe for awhile now and finally made it for the girls on one of the first days off of school. We used cinammon swirl bread. I hadn't planned to take a picture of it but when B1 plated the toast, it looked kind of pretty, so I did!

June 6, 2010

This post is legitimately late. Yesterday, when I remembered to post something to my blog, it was already 12:30am this morning. I tried to post then, but something was wrong with Blogger and wouldn't let me do it.

I have had this troll since about 1992. It was a gift from one of my old bosses; I collected the smaller trolls at the time. Notice he has written "WOW!" under one of the troll's feet and his initials are on the other foot. This troll now sits in my classroom during the school year. This picture was taken on the last day of school, before I put Mr. Troll away for the summer. Some boys in my class made him pose in my chair with a calculator, red pen, and a snack. They also made his hair into a mohawk!

June 5, 2010

Today's pictures are of B2 playing ball.

Batting.....


On 1st base with Dad coaching.....


On 3rd base with B1 coaching.....


Pitching.....



Happy Saturday!

June 4, 2010

Let me just start out by saying that I am LOVING summer vacation! Duh, you might think, of course teachers love summer vacation. But so far this summer, it seems like we've got a lot of things accomplished at home. Also, I have been either walking, riding my bike, or working out on some exercise equipment every day first thing in the morning. B1 has been joining me for the most part.

Today, for example, we worked out on exercise equipment in Highland (a friend who owns several different machines has a workout spot in her husband's business building and several ladies go there on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to use her machines), then I came home, changed into my bathing suit under my workout clothes, biked 4 miles, and once I got back home, immediately got into the swimming pool! Ahhh.....relaxation for a little while! Before I got into the pool, I opened the windows in our sunroom and turned on the ceiling fan in there and while I was doing that, the thought ran through my head that we are really lucky to have a mini-vacation destination right in our own back yard! We really do. If I choose to, I can leisurely swim, take a break and watch TV in the sunroom, come in and make a little lunch, eat in the sunroom, throw the dog's ball for awhile, swim some more, etc. It's awesome! Yesterday, the 4 of us played cards for awhile in the afternoon in the sunroom. Perfect! I love being married to another teacher!


Last Thursday, we took up the task of cleaning B2's room. This is a MAJOR endeavor in our house. The last time we cleaned it like this was 2 years ago. Last year, we sort of cleaned her room, but not to my highest expectations. Anyway, we threw away 2.5 bags of trash and got 1 big box ready to donate to Goodwill. Here are 2 "before" and "after" shots; the first one includes our little slob child. This is just one corner of the place. You can get an idea from this!

June 3, 2010

Last year I posted a picture of the money I collected selling pencils at school. This is a picture of this year's money from the entire year. Last year, I had $186.57. This year it was a little less at $170.23. Since I sell regular pencils for $.10 and mechanical pencils for $.25, I have no idea where the extra $.03 came from! Anyway, this adds a nice little pad to my "rainy day" money!

June 2, 2010

Today, Bruce and my dad (and me just a little) are power-washing our deck and patio. Wow! What a difference! We are also washing the 2 deck boxes we use for pool toys and pool chemicals. This was long overdue! Here are some pictures of the patio:


Right outside the sunroom door where the rubber mat lays.....


2 sections of the patio.....one "before", one "after".....


Amazing, isn't it?


I was standing in the sunroom before the process began.....


And after it was done.....


Ahhh......it feels really good to get that done!

June 1, 2010

For the past 2 years, I have attempted to upload at least 1 photo per day during the month of June. I am going to try to take on that same task again this year, especially since my posts here lately have been sporadic at best. For the last couple days of June, however, I do not promise anything as we will be getting ready to depart on our family vacation.

Today for the first time, we went to the Gypsy Caravan, held on the campus of UMSL. I would describe this event as a combination garage sale/flea market/craft & vendor fair. You could find almost anything here! Even though I just had a Miche party and got 7 new purses, I found another one today that I had to have! Maybe I'll take a picture of it for another day's post. We also bought some small rocks with our names in them. Bruce bought a hat and the girls bought sunglasses(as you can see in the picture below) and make-up. After we left there, we headed to Forest Park and the Boathouse. We had promised the girls about a month or so ago that shortly after school got out, we would take them there and we would rent a paddle boat. We did just that as you can see in today's picture. B2 had to wear a life jacket since she is younger than 12 years of age. We ate dinner at the Boathouse restaurant too and while there, the skies opened up! We had opted to eat outside but under cover and even so, we had to move to a different seating area because the wind was so strong, it was almost blowing the rain sideways right on us!

They were having a good time!

And Even More Recent Pictures

The girls and me on Mother's Day



The girls and Grandma Edna on Mother's Day



The odometer in my Honda Pilot (one year after purchasing it!) I am pretty happy about this!



Back in April, when B2 turned 10, she and B1 decided they would make some fancy cupcakes for the occasion. They purchased a cupcake cookbook together back in December with Christmas money. They chose to make penguin cupcakes. Here are the steps they took:

They needed both regular-sized and mini-sized cupcakes for the project



Icing makes things stick together nicely.....



Doughnut holes were necessary for the head!



A little time spent in the freezer made everything "dry" faster



Assembling.....



The final product! Cute, huh!



Let's see.....their bellies were a sliced off marshmallow, their beaks were half of a yellow starburst, chocolate chip eyes, and thin mint "wings"



Here is a dinner I cooked about a month or so ago.....madeira chicken with mushrooms and asparagus, mashed potatoes, and mozzarella cheese. It took forever for the sauce to thicken and I almost gave up and served is soupy, but all of a sudden it turned to a gravy-like consistency. Whew! It had a very good flavor.



Here are my basil plants. Basil and cilantro are my favorite 2 spices. I've tried to grow cilantro in the past and it just doesn't work out well for me. Plus, it's cheap enough to buy at the grocery store and you get a nice amount of it. I LOVE just touching the basil plants in the morning when I walk out of the house and having that wonderfu smell on my fingers for a few minutes while I drive down the road. Ahhh!!

This came from 4 starter plants.



This year, I also bought some basil seed and planted it. As you can see, it is coming up. This picture was taken a few weeks ago too and by now, some of the leaves are an inch long. It is doing great!



I cannot use all of the basil that these plants are producing as quickly as they are producing it so I have been making pesto and freezing it. By plucking my plant regularly, it seems to already be healthier than ever in the past, and it's reproducing leaves quicker too. I use an ice-cube tray to freeze the pesto and it works great! Now we will have basil/pesto available to use all winter!

More Recent Pictures

Here are some more pictures from recently:

The first ones are from B2's 10th birthday party, at a local bowling alley.



The girls with one of B2's best friends




B2 bowling




B1 bowling




B1 and one of her best friends




The girls with Grandma




It was a "we love each other today" kind of day!




The whole gang




Sign made by B2 herself!




Eating cake




More cake




Goofing around!



Hmmmm.....ya think B2 might need braces one day???? I've already started saving!




B1's softball team after placing 3rd in a tournament last weekend. She is in the back row on the left end.




The team with their coaches. Bruce is next to B1.




B1 and the trophy.


More pictures coming soon!