Paychecks and Lizards

So today is Friday and so I have to deliver paychecks. Today I had to do payroll as well since I hadn't done it earlier this week.

After I had dropped off paychecks, the girls called me in hysterics. This is why:

I laughed pretty hard after I saw this. The lizard wasn't even as big as my iPod! I took it outside and set it free.

Tonight will be pretty mellow. We are just all hanging out and watching a movie on Disney Channel. The girls have Cadet Olympics for JROTC tomorrow and have to be at the school at 7am. Sammy is doing the flex arm hang and Jenna has to be there since she is the Deputy Brigade Commander (assistant commander for all of the schools in Northern Nevada). They are both helping with the snack bar.

Another Busy Thursday

Thursdays are busy!  I mean a little too busy, actually.  Next year I want to rearrange things because it's hard to breathe on Thursdays this year.  All my activities are great, but just too many in one day! 

I start out going to Bible Study.  We are doing an amazing study (all of our studies are pretty amazing, though) on Matthew.  I forgot to take a picture before so I took one as I was leaving...and, no, I was NOT taking pictures and driving, I stopped the car!

The church front doors

Then I saw this tree and had to get a better picture of it.  I love this time of year when the trees are in full bloom!  It goes too fast and the blooms get blown away.

Okay, I know I can get a better blooming tree picture....later

Then I went home, had a quick lunch and headed to the school to help in Tara's class.  I love her first grade teacher!!!!! She went to Spain over spring break (and took a quick trip to Ireland too) and brought me back this tea towel. 

Isn't this great?  I love the little shamrock and the label even says Ireland!

Right after school, we came home and got ready for swimming lessons.  Tara looked a little better today than Tuesday (after all, that is the goal, to get a little better each time).  Last time I didn't get any backstroke pictures and the only one I got this time is with the kickboard, but it's better than nothing!

I definitely need to get some without the kickboard next time

After swimming it was back up to the church for Worship Team rehearsal.  It wasn't too late, but I stayed and talked a little because Tim wasn't home waiting for me.  We started talking about the Christmas production and what we thought we wanted to do.  I'm not sure I can handle as big a production as last year, but I know the leadership would love us to do that again.  I'd definitely have to delegate more and we would at least know going into it what to expect (plus a lot of our tech stuff is already done).   We'll see what happens.

Wednesday....The View from my Window

Today was spent doing some work phone calls, picking up timecards from last week and school stuff. It was about 80 degrees outside today (my perfect temperature here in our dry climate).  I do have to say, though, when I am stuck inside doing work/school stuff that I can look out my office window and take a big relaxing breath. This is the view from side of my office.  I have a friend from an email loop who I have met in real life that used to live in Colorado and post the most amazing pictures of Pike's Peak from her window.  This isn't Pike's Peak, but it is pretty great!

Mt. Rose from my office window

The view from one of my other windows....downtown.  It does look much better at night, I think.  During the day you kind of just see haze.

My real view most of the time

This is what I am looking at most of the time, though.  I do a lot of work on the computer with all the bookwork and such (although a lot of the time I bring my laptop upstairs to do the work).

Not much else for today.  Tomorrow is Bible Study in the morning, I help in Tara's first grade class in the afternoon, swimming lessons and on to Worship Team rehearsal so it's busy!

Tuesday...errands and such

Tuesday is the day I run errands and since I hadn't shopped last week (being on vacation and all), the troops were complaining that we had "NO FOOD".  Of course, they always think we have no food if there isn't any junk food around and since I avoid buying junk food, that's pretty much all the time.  After I got Tara to school I headed off to my first stop, Blockbuster.

I could go into my long current rant about how I am mad at Blockbuster and their change in the mail-in rental policies (used to be on my plan you could have one from the store and one that had been mailed to you at a time, now it's just one at a time and you alternate between the two), but I won't step on that soapbox.  Just suffice it to say I have switched to Netflix and am enjoying them much more for the same price.   This was our last movie at Blockbuster as I am cancelling our Blockbuster membership.

Next stop...Winco

Next was the grocery store.  Now, I am sure I could run all over town and go to ten different stores to get the lowest prices around and what's on sale, but I have comparison shopped and generally Winco has the lowest prices so this is where I get most of my groceries.  It's not necessarily a fancy store, but they have most of what I need.

Trader Joe's...I love this store

Okay, I do admit to grocery shopping at two other places (besides some in-between shopping at Walmart) and one of them is Trader Joe's.  Our Trader Joe's has TERRIBLE parking and it is almost always crowded, but it is such a fun place and they always have different things that we love to try.

Costco is my last grocery stop

Costco is my last stop of the day.  I mostly go here because milk is $1 or more cheaper per gallon and there are a couple more staples I get there.  I have learned that the key (at least for me) to not overspending there is to go weekly.  That way I don't feel like I HAVE to buy something just because they have it and the lure of new products doesn't appeal to me as much.

After errands, Tara came home from school (Jenna picked her up) and we went to Daisy Scouts at the park.  They were earning a recycling badge so learned all about it and had a recycling relay race.  Of course, after taking all the pictures earlier in the day, I forgot to take pictures there. 

Right after Daisies was swimming lessons (thank goodness Daisies is only once a month) so we headed over to the gym.  Tara has just gotten moved up to the second level in lessons and really likes them.

 

Practicing kicking...keep those legs straight and toes pointed

Waiting her turn...there were only three kids in the class so not much waiting

I didn't get any backstroke pictures, but maybe Thursday when we go.  That's her favorite stroke.

Afterwards we came home and had nachos for dinner and then watched Open Season 2.  I have to take it back tomorrow before I cancel our Blockbuster membership.  Sammy and Jenna had an avocado with their dinner and Tara wanted to plant the seed in water.  Ooooohhhhh.....how I wish we could really grow an avocado tree.  They are my favorite!

Monday.....a lot of catching up to do!

Monday I was still catching up.  It seems like it takes almost as long to catch up from vacation as you were gone so I am hoping to beat the odds by being caught up before the end of the week.

Never ending laundry piles

Laundry, laundry everywhere!  Now, the older girls do their own laundry, but I seem to end up folding it a lot of the time because I find it in the dryer when I am trying to do another load.   

School planning and schoolwork

Sammy and I worked on figuring out what she has to finish to finish this school year.  She may be working some into the summer, I am thinking.

After we got all that done.....I got to go to a wine dinner with my mom and her husband.  He is a food and beverage manager at one of our local casinos and often gets to go to these events.  Usually there is one specific winemaker and they are present at the dinner, tell us about their winery, wines, etc.  For this dinner, they just pulled some of the best wines from their cellar and there were some really good choices.

The Menu

Of course, I got too busy eating the food to take pictures of it and I was a little sad about that afterwards.  It was AMAZING!!!  I especially liked the Lobster BLT.  It was really original.  The really fun thing about these dinners is that the food is almost always dishes I wouldn't make at home.  And don't worry, they don't give you a full glass of each of those wines, just a taste of each with small portion courses (actually, these courses were larger than usual, but the wine was still just a taste).  If they did, I don't think I would remember the end of the dinner!

Home!

We are finally home and as fun as it is to go on a vacation, it always feels nice to come home (although, it would be even better if Tim were already home from Canada, but that won't happen for another week).  We had to leave San Francisco very early in the morning in order to be bck to Reno in time to pick Duncan up from the vet's by noon.  We made it back by 11am with plenty of time to spare.  He was very happy to see me and looked a little thinner.  The vet's office said he hadn't eaten very well while he was there (whenever he is stressed, he doesn't really eat much anyway) until the very end so I came home with over half the food I sent with him.  As soon as we got home, I gave him a meal and he gobbled it right up and then wouldn't let me out of his sight all afternoon. 

You can tell Tara was glad to see Duncan too!

The afternoon was spent unpacking, doing laundry and catching up.  Since I hadn't slept really well the night before (always afraid I won't wake up on time when I have to get up early) I was exhausted and we went to bed early.  Duncan tried to sleep with me all night, but I had to put him back to bed....Tara was also sleeping with me and between the two of them, I wouldn't have had any room in the bed.

Making Ebelskivers

I know, it has been a long time since I have posted, but I have been a very poor photographer and have been spending a lot of time working, doing school, etc.


The girls' friend, Katie, came over not long ago and they made Ebelskivers. They are kind of a filled spherical pancake. They found some strawberries we had in the refrigerator and used those to fill. They turned out really good!

Jenna looking for the recipe

Making the filling

Cooking the Ebelskivers

 More strawberries!

The finished product!

Modeling

A friend of ours asked the girls to model some dresses she is selling on ebay.  She thought they would look better with real people than on a hanger.  The modeling pictures were cute, but I like the ones she got afterwards better.

She told them to laugh! 

With her little baby, Luke!  He played baby Jesus in our Christmas program and is sooo cute.

Hanging out with friends

Katie came and hung out last night at the house and the older girls went to see "Confessions of a Shopaholic". 

Katie and Tara

Sammy and Katie

Brushing their teeth!

Jenna, I would have added pics of you, but the only ones we had were with NO makeup and I didn't think you would want everyone to see them.

Nachos and Sourdough Bread

In my catching up, I found pics on here of sourdough bread (I made) and nachos (I'm not sure who made them, but someone took pictures) so I thought I'd post what we're making at our house.

I use the sourdough starter for pizza dough mostly, but since I hadn't made it for a little while, I needed to do something else with it.

These had to be for Tara.  She's the only one who is a nacho "purist"...just chips and cheese for her.

Our Night Away

Tim and I were gifted an overnight stay at one of our local hotel/casinos.  They have been remodeling it in a Tuscan theme and the rooms are really gorgeous!  We had a great Italian dinner at one of the restaurants there too.

The bedroom area

Bathroom

Sitting area

Sitting area from the other side

Bathtub

They really have done a beautiful job with this hotel and Tim and I really needed the time away.   Since our house is old world Italian style, we also got some decorating ideas!

Jenna, Tara and Little Joe Go to Chuck E. Cheese

Tim's construction company is doing some work for a friend of ours (totally remodeling her house) and she had to clean out some areas so Jenna took her son, Little Joe, and Tara to Chuck E. Cheese.  Tara was ecstatic since she had only been there once before in her life...I tend to avoid the place.  They all had a great time!

Junior Achievement Dance

Sammy got invited to go to the Junior Achievement dance this year.  She bought a new dress and everything!

Jenna and Tara helped her get ready.

Sammy makes such lovely faces when she takes pictures!

Sleeping over....again

Tara and her friend, Megan, tend to have more sleepovers than any other 7 year olds I know.  Of course, it helps that Megan lives next door so they don't have to plan it too far in advance.  They watched High School Musical 3 and danced along.

And here they are, ready for bed....finally!

Playing Catch Up...AWANA Grand Prix

Tara built her car with Tim and they made it red and gold and had to add some bling to it.

Don't you love the rhinestones?  Of course, somehow we tend to sway towards 49er colors...not sure how that always happens (can you hear the sarcastic tone in my voice?).

Tara posing before AWANA.  Sammy probably got her to pose like this is my guess.

Dressing Up with Tara

Tara's friend, Megan, came over again and they played dress-up in some of Sammy's and Tara's dresses.  Sammy (or Jenna, I'm not sure who) took pictures with my camera so I decided to post them.

This is Sammy's dress on Tara, not sure how it fits!

Tara and Megan

I'm not sure why they took the pictures in front of the bright window, but since I was out of the room, I can't be too picky

Baking Banana Bread

Jenna made banana bread today and decided to chronicle the process....(I think she has been reading too much of Pioneer Woman's blog)

The ingredients or cast of characters

Mashing the bananas

The dry ingredients

The wet ingredients

Mixing everything together

Ta da.....The finished product! 

Of course, I am not sure where Jenna got the recipe so I can't post it and she had the NERVE to take it to work tonight so I don't even know I will get any.  I hope it's good, Jenna! 

If you have never read Pioneer Woman's blog, it is really fun.  Sometimes she is  bit crass, but really funny!  Click on the link above and it should take you there.  She has several blogs:  cooking, photography, homeschooling, etc., but the link above will take you to her main page where you can get to all of them.