SHE'S HERE!

That's right folks she has finally arrived...

only two days into the summer break and she is rearing her ugly head....

AGAIN!

Wow I am a crappy mom!

Yelling at my kids after they let me sleep in until almost

9am.

Yes that is right I am the

Wicked Witch of the West!

da da da da ta da da!

Menu Monday

People keep telling me that they want this recipe. It is what I make for Christmas to hand out to neighbors so it is definitely more of a winter recipe but here goes.

Cinnamon Caramels

1 can condensed milk

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup Karo syrup

1 tsp cinnamon oil

1 tsp red food paste

Mix first 5 ingredients in a heavy sauce pan. Cook until it reaches 232 degrees. Stir often or it will scorch! Add Flavor and color and pour into a buttered jelly roll pan. Cool and cut into strips and roll in wax paper or parchment.

I got this recipe from a neighbor of mine. Thanks Julie! She always makes hers licorice flavored, which you can also do by adding the same amount of anise flavoring instead of cinnamon. Oh and black food coloring paste. I decided to experiment one year and try cinnamon. Everyone loves them.

6:22 AM

Yes that's right folks.

The first day after school gets out.

The first chance to actually sleep in.

My child wakes me up at 6:22 am to ask if she can watch TV.

I am so excited to have them out of school for three whole months!!!!

Randomness for friday, oh and some music too!

I happened to run across this the other day and thought it was very applicable. I am having exactly the same problem. I am trying to deal with a vastly different medical problem but with the same results.

HOT FLASHES,

MOOD SWINGS,

and my favorite

CRAVINGS!

Let me just say that if this is what it is like to go through menopause then just kill me now. I cannot believe the extreme heat that just pops up out of nowhere. I am sitting there all comfortable and all of the sudden I am drenched in sweat, and I do mean drenched. Sorry for those of you who find this to be too much information,

but it is what I am dealing with right now.

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So who is going to the air show? Yep for those of you who are out of the state of Utah or too far away to drive to it, you will be missing the Hill Air Force Base Air Show. We have a great situation here, we are situated right under the base. We will be sitting on our roof at about 4pm tomorrow to watch the Thunder birds! We caught a little pre-show this afternoon and it was pretty cool. So if you are in the neighborhood just pop by and join the fun!

We'll save you a popsicle.

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My kids are officially out of school. So here goes the most dreaded three months of the year for me. I love summer but having them home does put a damper on things. I do love them I just get very used to having the house to myself. It is all nice and quiet for 9 months and then, my nice quiet life gets interrupted by phrases like...

"I'm bored!"

"Can I have a snack?"

"Can I go outside?"

"Can I watch TV?"

"Can't we go to the pool?"

"I don't have anyone to play with!"

"When are we going to do something?"

"Are you on your blog AGAIN!!!"

OK so that last one will be a new one seeing as though I didn't have a blog or a facebook account last summer, but I am sure that I will hear it at lest weekly, for the next three months.

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I have discovered something. Years ago we purchased these funny objects. The have two giant wheels, a set of handles, some funny little pedals and even a set to sit on. Well a couple of weeks ago I pulled mine off of the wall of the garage where they have resided quite happily gathering dust. I discovered that if you put the wheels on the road and sit on the seat and push the pedals with your feet it makes you move forward! WOW what a discovery. I have been doing this particular activity for several times a week for a little while and to my amazement I really like it! I am up to about 9 miles a day now!

I have to say I feel much better doing it too!

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Here's the tunes

1. Underneath- Alanis Morissette

2. Nothing Compares 2 U- Sinead O'Connor

3. One Thing- Finger Eleven

4. Into the Groove- Madonna

5. Spiralling- Keane

6. Don't Know Why- Nora Jones

7. Love is a Battlefield- Brooke White

8. Keep Me Close- Chris Daughtry

9. Head Over Heels- Tears For Fears

10. Feel Good Inc.- Gorillaz

Summer Lovin

I love summer.

I love it when it is hot enough outside to walk around at 9pm in shorts and a tee shirt.

I love it when you can leave your windows open at 3 am and it is too hot to sleep.

I love it when you go outside for a half an hour and you get a sunburn (well I do anyway).

I love not having to carry a huge coat around with me just in case I happen to step outside for 30 seconds.

I love it when I have to crank my air conditioner in order to be comfortable.

I love it when I can send my kids outside to entertain themselves on the trampoline or with the sprinkler.

I love short sleeves, shorts, and flip flops.

I love not having to wear shoes or socks to go get the mail.

I love not shoveling snow.

I love green grass.

I even love weeds, because if they are growing it means it is warm.

I love eating Popsicles, and ice cream outside.

I love the smell of sunscreen and tanning oil.

I love tan lines, and yes believe it or not, freckles!

I love hanging around with friends in the back yard so late that you forget you have to get up and turn on the lights.

I love the smell of back yard barbeque's.

I love crayons melted on hot cement.

I love laying on the hot cement to dry off after running through the sprinklers.

I love sidewalk chalk.

I love drive in movies with the windows down.

I love camping.

I love green leaves and growing things.

I love watermelon, and strawberries, and mangos, and tomatoes from the garden.

I especially love the smell of summer storms!!!

So tell me what do you love about summer?

I must be crazy!

So I am not a gardener...

(not that that comes as a surprise to anyone out there)

until now that is.

When I was growing up gardening was the worse form of corporal punishment imaginable. I do believe that is the way my parents liked it too. You did something wrong, you had to go weed the garden. I am not sure that it didn't backfire on them though. The whining that went along with that particular chore would have been enough for me to just give in. They persisted though and every year we would have fresh produce to show for it.

I never had any interest in gardening until a couple of years ago. We had our little garden patch in the back yard of our former house, it was small and not well tended, mostly from lack of care, oh and lack of water. We tried grow boxes of a sort too but they never yielded very good results. For some reason they insisted on being watered ever day...

and ...

well....

yeah, that didn't happen.

So last year my father-in-law got it into his mind that he wanted to plow up part of the "old family farm" and we could each have our own family plot.

Last year we divided up our plot and shared with our neighbor.

So we had a 20 x 50 space.

We did a few things, mostly tomatoes, and zucchini and radishes. They grew really well, even though we let the weeds get out of control. We were very bad at it, but the soil was so good that we didn't have to be very good at it to make things grow. This year our neighbor decided that there wasn't enough time for the giant garden, so the entire plot is ours.

Yes that's right...

we have a 40 x 50 foot plot for our garden.

My absolutely wonderful husband has decided that he wants to take a larger roll in this project this year too so he did a lot of the planting!

Color me surprised!

Let me just say last year things were a little different.

So this year we have...

radishes

carrots

potatoes

tomatoes

pumpkins

zucchini

squash

green beans

sunflowers

So far things are going alright, we haven't killed anything yet but,

it is early for that,

Give us time!

I will be leaving periodic garden updates on here for those of you who want to see me fail miserably, I know how you love to have something to tease me about!

Tomatoes, we panted about 16 plants and about 5 different varieties.

Not sure what these are but they are popping up all over the garden, hopefully they are edible.

Do they look familiar to any of you?

Radishes, I hate them but S loves them so I do them for him.

Look at my cute little beans sprouting!!!

Yes this entire spot is all ours to do with as we please!

Menu Monday

I am sorry to all of you who actually read this blog on a regular basis,

things got really busy last week and...

I sort of forgot that I had a blog.

Here is the recipe for the week

White Pasta

1/2 lb bacon

2 stalks celery chopped

1 carrot shredded

1 onion minced

3 garlic cloves minced

1/4 tsp thyme (or 1 tsp fresh minced)

1/2 tsp rosemary (or 2 tsp fresh chopped)

2 bay leaves

1 can white beans (drained)

1/4 cup chicken stock

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

2 cups milk

1 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

8 oz bow tie pasta cooked

Cut bacon into small pieces and cook (drain off about half of the fat), add celery, onion garlic, cook for a few minutes. Add carrot, herbs and beans. Let cook until veggies are soft. Add chicken stock and cook until liquid is cooked out.

In another pan melt butter, whisk flour into butter and cook for about 30 seconds. Add milk and lower heat, cook until bubbly and thick, add Parmesan.

Add sauce to veggies and add cooked pasta.

So S doesn't like the beans in this so I leave them out because he is a

big baby.

This would also be really easy to make vegetarian style, just leave out the bacon and cook your veggies in olive oil.

Then add veggie stock instead of chicken.

I love how good this makes my kitchen smell.

Who doesn't love the smell of bacon cooking, then you add onions and garlic and it's heaven!