Party Time

Friday night Steven had his birthday party. Kids came over around 6pm and played football out in the street. I was surprised when I went out and they were all there -I didn't see anyone's parent drop them off. I guess that comes with being 13? They had pizza and soda's for dinner (grape & root beer were the big hits) while ignoring the grapes and carrots I so lovingly placed out for them.
Then we watched the Giants game for a bit, they played with the basketball game, turned on the Guitar Hero and just hung out. We had cake and ice cream and Steven opened his presents. At 8:30 one guy had to go home .. the rest of us hopped in the cars and headed to Sky Zone.

Sky Zone is a great big warehouse of a place with trampolines. The big draw for the boys is the dodgeball court -trampolines all the way around the sides too -lots of bouncing going on in there (not to mention bruises from getting hit!). They have a new Friday night session just for older kids 11-15 and it includes pizza & drink at the end. The only downside? It is from 9:30-11:30 p.m. and someone has to pick them up!! In this case it was me -but I was happy to do it. The boys seemed to all have a good time. I picked them up red-faced, sweaty and tired... dropped them all off at home and headed to our house. I think they will try to plan to do it again soon -they had a great time just being boys.

I will say -it is so different having 7 13 year olds in the house --they take up so much more physical space than 8 year olds. 2 of them were on their cell phones several times -talking to their girlfriends. Such a different time for me -but I enjoyed the time with them -talking and seeing their personalities... you only catch so much when saying hi and bye to kids at baseball practices and games.

Overall I would say it was a good night and fun was had by all! And with that Steven's 13th birthday came to an official end....

Mack & Menu Plan Monday

Last week we had a visitor. He came on Monday and stayed until Thursday afternoon. He is a 6 month old puppy. He likes lots of attention. Jackson was his primary caregiver and he did a good job making sure he went out, ate and was played with. Sammy enjoyed playing with the little dog. River enjoyed the break as Sammy played with the little dog. I got a couple of good pictures and wanted to share them with you.

I love this one... Mack is watching me, Sammy is watching
Mack and Jackson is enjoying the moment!


I always thought my puppy (Sammy 18 months) was small -he
is compared to River... but now he seems huge.

Our menu for this week is pretty simple. I am trying to use up alot
of what we have stored and am hoping to only buy fresh produce and
milk/bread the rest of this month. I need to defrost the garage freezer -but
to do that I have to whittle down what is out there. Then in October I will be
cooking and freezing like crazy to save money and time.

Monday - Spaghetti with homemade meat sauce (left from last week) and garlic bread
Tuesday- chicken drumsticks, rice and veggie
Wednesday- chili dogs (leftover chili from last week), french fries and salad
Thursday- sausage and peppers
Friday- pork chops, mashed potatoes, veggie
Saturday- chicken pot pie
Sunday- bbq beef

I love cookbooks!

I have always loved browsing thru my cookbooks. In fact, I owned a ton (2 shelfs minimum) of cookbooks even when I didn't really cook much. It always makes me happy to sit down with a hot cup of tea, a notepad and pencil and a cookbook.

My browsing skills have increased over time. I now subscribe to and read about 15 blogs dedicated to cooking (with pictures even!) from baking to crockpot cooking. I love bookmarking recipes and have an actual system for filing them on the computer so I always know where to look. I read and clip recipes from magazines and file them the same way.

Over time we've tried recipes we don't like, we have also found some new family favorites. I feel like I am learning so much about cooking and what goes with what almost every day. I made chili last week and everyone agreed it was the best ever.. I had tweaked the recipe based on what I saw on Food Network and in blogs. I will agree -I thought it was super yummy.

That said, there is currently an opportunity to download up to 25 cookbooks from Taste of Home (great magazine!!) for FREE!!! So I wanted to share the link in case anyone is interested besides me....

I have to get the boys off to school... be back later!

Teaching the cousin...

Both boys were excited when their Grandma Pat, Uncle Scott and cousin Iain came over for dinner on Steven's birthday. They spent lots of time playing with their cousin and teaching him about their favorite sports. I think Iain had a good time playing with them too. His mom is away at boot camp -so it's been tough for him being apart from her and I think the boys took his mind off it for a couple of hours at least.




Jackson worked with him on his shooting...

Steven showed him how to bat (while Josh pitched)..

and directed him to run after he hit the ball...

and even the other team cheered him on and showed him the way around the bases... until
Josh tagged him out that is....

And when he was tired of playing... he leaned on the fence to watch. I took this picture to print (sent it over on Monday) and mailed it off to his mom --I am sure she will love it as much as I do.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

It was a big day. My first-born turned 13! How clearly I remember that day so many years ago. So I got up early and made bacon waffles (which are really just waffles with chopped up bacon cooked in the batter), bacon and OJ. We served this breakfast to him in bed. In deference to his teenage-hood, I will not post his bare chested eating in bed photos here at this time.

After breakfast, he got dressed so we could have "present time, present time, open a present and see what's inside!" (we still say it every year -left over from our Blue's Clue's days..LOL).

He got Wii Sports Resort & controllers from his dad & I, each of his favorite candy bars and a Waynes World (I&II) dvd from his brother. He was happy with the presents and had to put them aside to head to his baseball tournament.

He is on a new team this year. His coach is committed to conditioning the whole athlete and growing their games. He understands that this is the age where alot of kids lose their love of the game and their dedication to playing it better -he strives to not let that happen. It was a 4 game guarantee and we lost all 4. It was the first time these kids played together as a team and they moved them around a bit to see what worked and what didn't work. Steven opted to miss the early game so he didn't have to be out of the house at 7am on his birthday .. but we were on Sunday! Steven played well and was happy with the tournament. He see's the potential and looks forward to the team growing together and winning together! Here is a shot I got from a bad angle of him making a play on first! He loves playing first, but rarely gets to -so he was excited.

Oh my gosh!

It is 12:39 a.m. I am awake and don't think I will be sleeping anytime soon, so I am going to blog -maybe that will help me not go crazy. There is no one to call, nothing I can do but wait, so I'll write.

We all went to bed around 9 p.m. As everyone settled in I was still watching the Giants beat the Rockies. I paused the TV several times as I could hear what sounded like an PA system -but it was fuzzy and I couldn't make out the words. It stopped, the Giants won, I turned off the lights and fell asleep. Shortly after that River started barking (from Steven's room in the front of the house). He would bark, stop, then bark twice, stop, then bark twice. I got up to get Mack (our visiting dog) and move him into another room before River got him all wound up too.
I came downstairs to let the dogs out and got a glass of water. It was 10:10 p.m. The dogs kept barking by the front window, so I looked out. There was a beam of light streaming over the street -like a car parked towards us, on the wrong side of the street had its lights on. This continued for 20 minutes or so .. then I went outside to see what was going on.

As I walked down the front stairs, I could see a white truck parked in front of my neighbors house with a couple of people outside it. I figured they must be dropping someone off -as I headed back inside -2 police cars turned in front of my house and headed past the white truck and down the street. Weird. But I went back inside and locked all the doors. I decided maybe if I laid down I would be sleepy again --so I turned on General Hospital. When it ended, I got up to let Sammy out again -he was still edgy and barking every so often - so I figured he wanted to go outside.

While waiting for him, I decided to check facebook. There I saw a post from a friend that said:

"Hey Rosevillians, have you heard what's going on at Alnwick drive? Two people shot in their home by an intruder. Police are still there, they are not sure if the person is still in the home or not. Scary stuff."

Well -since I live 5 houses away from Alnwick and have friends living on that street- that caught my attention quick. I went back outside and could see police lights at the end of the street. I realized the PA I heard earlier is the SWAT team. I frantically checked for a story online and finally found a video from the 11 pm news. The 3 houses they showed on the news -- surrounded by police cars--all houses where we have friends. I tried to remain calm, but will admit that I am somewhat panicky right now. I am praying that our friends are all ok. The reports state that the homeowner called 911 and reported 2 family members had been shot inside the home. He is out of the house and has met up with the police.

It is now 1 a.m. and there have not been any updates posted online. I am going to make a cup of tea - I have a feeling this night is going to last forever.

Unfortunately the update isn't good.. names still haven't been released -but there are 3 dead.
ROSEVILLE, Calif. -- Roseville police said they are investigating a triple homicide after bodies were discovered inside a home.The bodies were discovered at about 12:40 a.m. Wednesday when the SWAT team and police entered a home on the 1600 block of Alnwick Drive.Police said a caller reported an armed intruder entered the home and shot two people inside just before 9 p.m. Tuesday.KCRA 3 has learned that man and woman, who were related, were found dead. A third person, who was not related to the pair, was also found dead. Identities of the deceased were not released.KCRA 3 has also learned that the caller was related to the man and woman who were killed and is being questioned by police.Police said they are investigating.

Menu Plan Monday

I am working on a month long menu -but for now this week is ready to go.

Monday - Spaghetti with homemade meat sauce and green beans
Tuesday- tacos
Wednesday- chicken with mashed potatoes and carrots
Thursday- Chili in the crockpot with baked potatoes
Friday- chicken pot pie (leftover chicken & veggies from the week)
Saturday- Chili dogs, fries
Sunday- Pot Roast w/carrots & potatoes

A group of friends and I are planning a cooking day to get our freezers stocked up. I am trying out some of our favorite recipes for that and also a crockpot recipe swap that is coming up. Lot's of fun in the kitchen --in fact I am even signed up to take a few specialty cooking classes.... I am looking forward to it.

A whirlwind of a weekend....

This weekend Steven played in a baseball tournament with his new team -the Bandits. He had a good time and enjoyed it. They lost all 4 games -which the coach explained isn't unexpected with a new group of kids together.. so time will tell. I will say it was much better for me, to be with a new group -free of the drama there has been in the past. I was able to enjoy watching them play. They did really well defensively, but their bats just weren't in it on Saturday and on Sunday the reverse was true.... ahhhh 13 year old boys! Steven only played in the 2nd game on Saturday as the first was at 9am and the fields are an hour away -he didn't want to get up too early on his birthday.

Saturday was Steven's birthday. I prepared in advance (knowing the tournament was this weekend) and spent Friday night baking brownies, wrapping gifts and frying bacon. We started our morning off with bacon waffles with bacon on the side and orange juice --delivered to Steven in bed by Jackson with a surprise basketball card hidden in the napkin. Then for lunch after the game we went to Red Lobster for endless shrimp. Steven ate the full plate they brought (2 orders of fried shrimp and french fries and broccoli) and another helping of shrimp before he gave up. He had 2 cheddar biscuits and several glasses of lemonade -so he was full! Then we headed home to watch the Giants game. His friend Josh joined us for the game. He was happy to see his Grandma Pat, Uncle Scott and cousin Iain come over for dinner too. He spent way more time playing than he did watching the game -but he had fun. We had bacon cheeseburgers and fries for dinner. For dessert we had brownies, orange sherbet/vanilla ice cream and neopolitan ice cream. No one ate much -everyone was full from lunch... but I cooked anyway for those that wanted to eat.

I have some pictures on my camera -but am too tired to download them now -so maybe tomorrow I can share those. I wanted to get this post done so I could head to bed (at 8pm -I know, I know) as I am very tired and just plain worn out from the weekend. All that beautiful sunshine just took all my energy it seems.

Today was a beautiful day for baseball. Yesterday it rained on us a bit and it was cloudy. Today was windy (I can feel it in the chafe on my face) and cold in the morning first thing.. but by 10:30 the sun was shining and it wasn't hot, just sunny and warm -perfect baseball weather. I see the temperatures are supposed to be in the low 80s tomorrow -so I am looking forward to that. I am off to open all the windows and air out the house.