Lately

What we've been up to lately....
I mentioned we went up to Orcas for about a week and got to hang out with Grandma and Granddad...
Jake and Granddad ran the tractor:

Abby hung out on the couch:Jacob found his wings:but don't get me wrong the whole time he was 'flying' he kept saying "My an airplane Mommy!" and making appropriate airplane noises.

We spent some time in my Mom's amazing garden...Jake loved the shovel, the wheelbarrel and the rake but mostly he loved the peas, cherries and strawberries: I finished Abby's lace hat and just had to put it on her right away. Fortunately it was a cool enough day that I was not torturing my child for the sake of seeing if it fit.
My dad went fishing and came home with several fish that he smoked. Jake got to help him make the brine and was very very excited to do so.The fish was delicious too.

We have been home for a week now and I am finally getting my butt around to posting. I finished snakes for a friend's grandsons. They turned out great except I didn't end up embroidering eyes on them. I still think they look pretty sharp with their little tounges sticking out. I am really glad I got them done before my machine decided to break. The day after I finished the snakes I finally decided to get my stuff together and make a bear for Jacob since I hadn't yet done that. He came up and 'helped' me. After we got the pattern traced and cut out we sat down to sew only to find the machine only sewing in reverse. I couldn't figure it out. I thought it was probably the same problem Alexis had. So I thought it was a loose spring on the backwards button but I couldn't get the cover off. I was doomed to have to take it in to have the shop look at it...they look at it for free...if it needs to be fixed they charge 125 bucks. I took it in and she couldn't figure it out...sait it had to be sent in (damn it, I knew it)...aske if she could just show me how to take the cover off...she said she had no clue but her co-worker could often scare any machine into behaving. Said co-worker came and sat down at the machine. 5 seconds in she had my machine working...get this it was just on the wrong stitch setting. I guess that there is some limbo on the setting that if you put it in the right spot it sews backwards. This is probably intentional in the design of the machine but still was weird to me. It made sense that it was a minor problem as Jacob had confessed to messing with the machine when asked. But in the end it all worked out and I didn't have to pay and arm and a leg...so here is his bear in all of the Curious George and Firetrucks glory: Oh and on Wednesday I made a fabulous dinner. I knew I was totally in the mood for a roast so I grabbed one and coated it in coarse kosher salt and some dried minced garlic and some pepper. I baked that at 325 for about 2 hours. I also served mashed potatoes and best part was the Ratatouille Tart from the August 2009 issue of Cuisine at Home however I made a few changes. The recipe calls for zuccinni, yellow squash, red onion and red bell pepper. I used all of those but added eggplant. I also changed using goat cheese for using parmesean since none in my household, including myself, care for goat cheese. I am not familiar with the copyrights, etc. so please pick up a copy of the magazine for the recipe. I guess it would probably be ok to see me for my version of it too since I did make changes. Pretty huh?

Anyway it was one of those things that I thought would be just ok and Brian was sure he would hate (and really wanted to also since he thought he was getting one of his favorites - fried zuccinni as a veggie) but we it turned out to be really yummy. We will make it again for sure but do a couple of things differently. First I will use more basil than called for. Second I will layer the veggies a bit more densly and third I will use more olive oil. I enjoyed this very much and it reheated GREAT! I used the leftover slices of zuccinni, yellow squash, eggplant and red bell pepper at dinner the next night with our french dips (always follows a roast night...) by eggwashing them and coating them in breadcrumb and pan frying in a little olive oil. Sooo yummy!

Well, the babies need a bath. Until next time.

Who needs A/C

Sooo for a while now the A/C on the van has been acting up (not blowing cold - unless your moving so red lights were unbearable during that heatwave we had a few weeks back). Anyway I finally took it in to the dealership to have them look at it (mind you this entailed both children's carseats having to be moved to the courtesy shuttle - I am really glad we didn't wait around for them to do it cuz we would have been there until 3pm and we got there around 9am). Anyway the diagnostic cost $105 after taxes...the fix would have cost another $1000 on top of that. We can't afford that so we are going to go on our annual camping trip with no A/C. Fortunately it is supposed to be a reasonable temperature this year (not in the 90's or higher thank goodness).

Last night I made another snake for Abby and also one for an almost 5yr old friend of mine.

Abby's is the smaller 18inch size and Eldon's is the larger 34inch size.

Now the task at hand is getting the house whipped into shape and getting everything packed and ready to go camping. We are leaving at the crack o dawn on Saturday so I have 4 days to do it. So I guess I'll go start a load of laundry.

What I've Been Up To.

I keep waiting to post until I have pics uploaded and I don't know why, I guess I just usually like blogs with pics (mostly - there are a couple of exceptions). Anyway so here is a quick catch me up.

First was the dryer acting up - well actually it was just taking things way too long to dry and the lint trap was not wanting to fit properly...so I get down and take a look...hard to see in there but there was obviously a lint build up stopping the trap from fitting and probably causing the drying problems too...so I get out a pair of hemostats? whatever they are called (have a friend that used to work sterilizing medical equipment and they had to throw out any with any flaws so he got to take some) anyway I got down in there but they were just pulling apart the clumps...not pulling them out.So I got out the screwdriver and pulled the guard off and then I was able to really reach down and pull that stuff out...my God there was a lot! I am not exaggerating when I figure it to be about a half a pound of lint and that doesn't count the stuff I got with the vacuum hose:No wonder the damn thing wouldn't dry...there was no where for the moisture to go...
Anyway once that problem was solved the dryer decided to behave itself a bit more (I think it just didn't like the thread of open-lint surgery again).

Ok so another little tale to go with how my next project got started...Every day I read my son a story from the Little Bear books. His favorite is "Birthday Soup." The basics of the story are this: Little Bear wakes up on his birthday with Mother Bear nowhere to be found. His friends are all coming over for his birthday but there is no cake and he needs something to serve his guests. He decides to make birthday soup with carrots, potatos, peas and tomatos. He makes the soup, everyone likes it and Mother Bear surprises him with his birthday cake. So anyway for about a week Jacob kept telling me he wanted to make birthday soup too (in his little voice it's soo cute and comes out "...with carrots, 'atatos, peas an' 'amatos.") So on Friday I finally got my fanny in gear and got everything together.I also decided to include half an onion and some diced up stew meat because we had it, it needed to be used up and I know that Brian and I probably wouldn't eat it without a few more flavors in it.
Jacob had a hard time waiting for me to dice and sautee the onions and beef so he tried to start the soup while I was doing that...I told him we needed to make sure our ingredients were good before we put them in the soup...so he checked (he's chewing a bite in that first pic):
Yes folks, that is my two year old enjoying the flavor of a raw onion...he even kept stealing bites of the diced bits too. He told me "It's good mommy."
So we got the base together and then added the diced carrots and potatoes and then just emptied a can of diced tomatoes and some frozen peas into it. Jake stirred and decided it was good and we should have lunch.
This is a little chef in the making...ensuring quality ingredients and tasting as he goes...good for him...
He really did not want to wait for it to cook. It looked done after all. Oh and then there was that whole 'its an hour past nap time' thing. So the second the potatos and carrots were soft enough to chew I let him have a bowl. He took a bite and said 'it's good mommy' then he took two more bites and informed me it was nap time. I think the poor kid was just holding out so he could try his soup (he is really good about telling me when it's nap time if he's tired).Here's the real kicker though. I had some with Jake at lunch time and it was ok. I didn't think Brian would go for it mostly because he just isn't really a soup kind of guy. He got home and Jacob and I told him we had made birthday soup for lunch. He tried to hide the 'I guess I have to taste it then' grimmace on his face and went to the kitchen to tell Jake how good it was. Instead of the expected 'wow Jake, this is really good - you did a good job helping mommy' I get the exclamation "Wow! this is really good soup - I think this is the best homemade soup you have ever made." I didn't think it was anything better than ok...so I tried it...he was right, after the flavors had a chance to mellow and blend it turned into really great soup! We even had it for dinner that night. Yay for birthday soup!
Ok so another intro story to a project...Jake and I were at WalMart and they have this little arcade in there with one of those claw machines you can get plush toys out of...so I decided to let Jake have a go at it (it's one of those play til you win ones)...the damn thing ate my money and Jake was having a fit because he wanted the damn stuffed snake...so I told him I would make him one when we got home...they seemed pretty simple I could probably come up with a pattern or something. Sooo after a couple of days of him not forgetting about it (this kid has one helluva memory, let me tell you...) and asking me repeatedly to make him a "'nake" I get my crap together and rough draw a pattern. He played with it for about an hour before walking up to me, handing me the snake and very matter-of-factly stating "My 'nake needs eyes Mommy." So I embroidered some eyes for him. This is what it turned out likeIt's about 18inches long (longer if it wasn't wavy). Not bad for a first go...he has been toting it about for several days now. Abigail likes to chew on the tail and I really need to make her one cuz Jake is rather possesive.
On Sunday I had my craft day with Alexis so she could finish up her name pillows and she brought her two cutie pie sons with her, Caden and Cole. Cole is 5 and Caden is almost 2. Cole needed something to do since the other kids were a bit to little for him to have any real fun with so I asked him if he wanted to make a snake. He said 'Yeah!' So we grabbed him some fabric from his Mom's bag and I drafted a snake right onto the fabric (made it a bit wider and longer as I had issues stuffing the first one...I had forgotten I needed to make it wider than I thought to account for the vertical height that stuffing it would take up). I thought it looked pretty darned good so I decided to trace it onto some freezer paper to preserve the pattern. I am glad I did...Here is how Cole's snake turned out...and mind you he did all of the ironing, helped with the pinning, sewing and stuffing - oh, and he picked out the green beads for eyes and named him Kevin.
Not too shabby. We finished him up and Cole thought Caden should have a snake too. Soooo we made one out of red fabric for him...I had just gotten the template ironed/pinned onto the fabric when Cole made the statement "snakes need tongues" - Right you are Cole, so I cut out a little tongue to add to Cadens...We were using flannel and I think that I need to use felt for the tongues so they don't fray...anyway...here is Caden's finished snake - Caden is little so he got embroidered eyes, just in case.Here is a close up of the tongue...
The big ones are are about 34 inches long. They seem to be a hit and I think I am going to make a bunch more...I am starting at least with another small one for Abigail to chew on. Girly colors. It should be fun.

After Alexis finished the sewing on Caden's pillow and they left Brian and I decided to have take-out Chinese for dinner since we really didn't want to cook...so I went and got some. We all sat at the table and ate, Abby in her bumbo as a centerpiece. She tried banana for the first time and liked it pretty well, she is still having a bit of a hard time getting over the tongue thrust reflex though. After dinner Brian headed for the living room and I got a rag to wipe Jake up...when I came back into the room this is what I saw:"Screw mashed banana, gimme BBQ Pork!" I can't believe she was able to stretch far enough to reach that! She was really pissed when I took it away too. Oh well. You need teeth first girl.
Last night after the Chinese food Jake informed me that it was bed time and that Mommy and Daddy and Abby ALL had to come up and put him to bed. Buuuut he wanted stories in 'Daddy's Room' (Also known as Brian's office with a computer and a futon). He got all set up with a pillow and a blanket and after the story wanted to sleep there. We decided that it was ok for one night and he did not try to get out of bed and goof-off so we let him. Might be hard to go to bed in his 'real' bed tonight, but so be it. After putting Jake down we came back downstairs and I fed Abby a bottle and needed to change her diaper again (I had literally JUST changed her when I got Jake into his jammies) before I could put her to bed. She was mostly asleep so I decided to do it on my lap to jossle her as little as possible...this is what I was rewarded with:Laughter, then the camera, then a towel. Joy. Not 10 minutes later she loaded it with the stinky stuff and had to be changed again. I should have made Brian do it.
Speaking of the stinky stuff I am off to empty the diaper pail and clean the cat box. Then I think I'll make another snake.