Baby Girl Thomas!!!!!

My great friend, Martha, is having a baby girl!! She and Ryan already have twin boys- two years old in December, and she's due with her first little lady in November. Yesterday I bought some onesies and got my stitch on! Here's what we've got so far! The black heart is the only one that I've stitched over...but I kind of like them just plain. I might embroider some stems to the flowers...cutesie them up a little. I'll keep you posted!!


Marth, you're getting all of them!!!!

Tuesday?

Is it Tuesday? No..maybe it's Wednesday. Good grief. I seriously don't know.

Summer is quickly coming to an end....I go back to school in 2 weeks! I'm actually very excited to be back in a routine with my teacher friends and all the little people I love so much (students). I do NOT look forward to leaving poor Charlie at home for hours while we're at work. Nate does get lunch breaks and always comes home to eat, so he'll be able to let the pup out. But then back to the kennel until I come home. I've heard that dogs actually like their kennels because they feel safe and secure. He's a dog, he'll be fine, right? That's just until we can trust him enough to leave him out in the house while we're gone.

Anyway, my classroom is taking shape. I spent several hours there yesterday getting things ready, hanging posters and the alphabet, etc. I should go back in the next couple of days to keep hammering away...

Yesterday I made some pickles. Mom bought the cutest little cucumbers at the farmers' market on Saturday and forgot them in Lincoln. So I made them instead. I hope they turn out OK....

And I've been trying to finish the movie Mama Mia for 3 days now. I'm not an appreciator of musicals unless they're live on Broadway or the VHS of Annie, which I watched over and over and over as a small child. Dirty Dancing? Forget it. Footloose? Never gave it a chance. That movie Melissa H. loves....about the family and they sing and dance through the whole thing....what is it? SOUND OF MUSIC! I don't think I've ever gotten through the whole thing. I just don't like them. Mama Mia...I have to find out who her real dad is, so I'm making myself finish. :)

The last couple of weeks

A lot has happened since I posted last! Here's a quick rundown!

We had a Murder Mystery Dinner with a 50's theme on Friday night. Here we are in our costumes- thanks Molly for the awesome glasses! Uhhh....CANDY cigarettes, for your information. They just completed the gettup!

Nate was in Oklahoma for work last week so his mom and I drove down to visit her sister and niece in Tulsa. We spent a couple of days there shopping and doing girl stuff. :) We ate at a really cute restaurant called "Nibbles". Here we are: Judy, Linda, Molly, and me

When I dropped Charlie off at my parents' house, I found this beautiful flower in their yard. It's got some crazy name that I can't remember. Mom knows what it is. Starts with an M I think.....


Here I am with both dogs- Maddie from Norfolk and Charlie. It was HARD trying to get them both to look at the camera and sit. This was a failed attempt. :)


Speaking of failed attempts, for those of you who think everything I cook turns out, here's some proof that it doesn't always end up pretty. I tried a "Parmesan baked zucchini" recipe. They were supposed to be like zucchini chips.....but they got a little too toasty. I cut them too thin. Our house had a cloud of smoke for hours- and I even set the alarms off. AND I burned my beautiful baking sheets. Nice. :) Nate was a trooper though and still tried them. We both decided that they weren't my best dish. Oh well. Live and learn and continue to be a culinary adventurer!!

For those of you who have seen our basement half bath, the angel wallpaper is coming down TODAY! We've got paint and laminate wood floor we're going to try to figure out. I'll have before and after pictures for sure! TTYL!

Oh, and check out Charlie's blog. He did some posting today. :)

Fail blog

Poor birds...


see more Fail Blog

Fresh from the farm

Yesterday I made raspberry lemonade with some raspberries we picked from the farm. Did I tell you about that? We picked all kinds of stuff- zucchini, apricots, beans, peas, raspberries, and I already have more strawberries than I know what to do with in my freezer. It was AWESOME! Thanks mama and papa Eigsti!

I wasn't sure what to do with the raspberries and there weren't really enough to freeze for a batch of something later. I saw a crazy idea in the newspaper for raspberry lemonade and gave it a whirl. It turned out pretty good- and you can see in the picture how delighted (or scary) I look to be drinking it!

I've got a skype date with my girl, Martha, in Michigan in a couple of minutes. Woo hoo!!!

I found out this morning that I get to move classrooms. I was crammed into a tiny little room for next year that is actually supposed to be used for reading recovery or some other small specialized classes. But since our numbers are so big, they're putting a 1st grade class in there. Well, one of the other teachers moved up to 4th grade, so now I get to have her full-sized classroom in the 1st grade pod. It's kind of confusing, but it's a good thing. I went in this morning and moved all my stuff to a corner in the new room. The old teacher isn't completely out yet, so I'm going to wait until she's ready for me to set up shop.

Next week Nate's mom and I are driving to Tulsa for a couple of days. He's going to be traveling for work and we have relatives there. I've never been to Tulsa, so it'll be a fun little getaway. We're only going for 3 days, so it'll be nice and short. Charlie is going to go visit Grandma and Grandpa Mullen up north. He LOVES them and I have a feeling he's going to have so much fun he won't even know we're not there!

Must go- Martha will be calling soon. Oh, and you can thank my awesome man for jazzing up my blog page. He's the best!

Coooookin' up a storm!

One of the many things I love about Nate is his adventurous spirit in the kitchen. He LOVES to try new foods, and I LOVE to cook them! We had some leftover steak from the 4th of July celebration at Mike's house- so we cut up some fresh onion and peppers and made some yummy fajitas. I had to take a picture because of all the fantastic colors. It was beautiful!

We also brought in a load of parsley to freeze ( I don't know what to do with it yet).

 

And some beautiful basil from the garden that turned into peso for dinner a couple of days ago. It was pretty good- pretty basil-y though. :) All it had was olive oil, garlic, basil and lemon juice. I've had some before that were more of a creamed basil...and that might be better. Although, not better for your midsection, or your arteries, for that matter. :)

 

Tonight I'm making a lemon butter chicken over bow tie pasta- recipe courtesy of my good friend, Amber, who lives in NYC. I'll let you know how it turns out!