Friday, January 22, 2010

Happy Birthday Anthony

I can't believe you are 16!!!!!

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We love you.

Misc Pictures

Here are the long awaited pictures of our hotel room in Bend. Most of you don't care but Megan does. So here they are.
The room view. The beds are made up for the night.
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The kitchen view. Jason enjoying his game boy and my peter in the background.
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The Megan and fire place. Megan on her computer.
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The other half of the room. I will spare you the bathroom pictures.
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My favorite picture of the boys.
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Here are a couple pictures from the other night. No pictures of Anthony wrestling because we got there 10 minutes after he wrestled. He only wrestled once because there was only 3 total in his weight class. One of the others is from the same school (guy in orange). So here these three sit and cheer on a team mate.
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Then this happens. Wrestlers, what can I say.
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Anthony did win his match, in case you where wondering.
p.s. the kid who has wrestled my baby to the ground is also the same kid in my Halloween pictures wrestling Anthony so the other kid can steal his candy.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Wrestling

I have mentioned this before and I still feel the same way, Wrestling is not my favorite sport. My son loves it and I will be the supporting Mother. First off, he is trying to drop weight. Not a lot but about 5 pounds. I will support his effort as long as he does this the healthy way. So far he has, so I don't have any complaints.

A couple of days ago he show me a little (the size of a pencil eraser) batch of dry skin on his arm. "What do you think his is," he asks. "Nothing, clean it good and we'll keep an eye on it." What he doesn't show me is his leg.


We make the 5 hour drive to Bend for a tournament. I love this town so we decide to make a weekend out of it. Steve found a great deal on a nice hotel. Fireplace, free breakfast, free Internet, kitchen and river view, Megan took pictures that will be posted later. We get call. "Mom, coach says I need to get to a hospital I might have staff. No, I don't think I am going to wrestle."


Steve gets on the phone and starts making calls. Anthony's bus isn't even here in town yet. Steve finds a hospital gets in the car and off to find Anthony's hotel. Finding a urgent care or hospital was not easy. We almost had to make a 40 mile drive to the next tow. The whole time I am thinking, really, his arm didn't look like anything.

Doctor says "Ringworm" which is what I thought. They get a prescription, releases for wrestling referees and they are back to our hotel by 10pm. I go to help Anthony with his med's and check his arm, when he pulls up his pant leg.

There on his leg is a patch about the size of a half dollar of Ringworm. Now with all my medical experience I still think ringworm not staff. Of course I have never seen staff but that's not the point. My first very Motherly reaction is "WHAT THE H*** IS THAT?" Next followed by a talk on how things like this are worth a quick mention.


After all was said and done, Anthony didn't get to wrestle. So today, we toured around Bend and had a good time. We are waiting for Anthony to finish watching the tournament and then out to dinner and swimming.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Tuesday"s Are Not My Favorite

You always think that the worst day is Monday but for me it's Tuesday. I just always seem to have a long list of things that need to be done on Tuesday's.

Today I am helping make enchilada's at the church. A lady who used to own a Mexican food restaurant came and taught Charlene and I how to make them. I know how to make enchilada's for my family, but we need to make about 200 and as cheaply as possible. This lady had the patience of a saint. Well, she was patient for a little while anyway. It was like a mother teaching her children how to cook. I commented later that she yelled at me about my tortilla wrapping skills and Charlene said she got yelled at about her sauce. Two years later and we are still making them and the teenagers love them. That is what I am doing today.

I just finished up with cutting all the fabric for a new quilt, I am starting. This one is a gift to myself. I was taking the comforter off my bed and putting the winter quilt on that my had grandmother made. I really stopped and looked at the comforter. I just started noticing that it looks kind of worn out. How long have I had this thing? We bought it right after we got married. Holy Cow, I need something new. I have had in mind a quilt that I wanted to make but just never got around to it. Santa brought me a quilting magazine for Christmas and it has a version of that quilt. That is my plan, to start working on this quilt and hopefully have it done by time it starts warming up.

In case your wondering, Steve and I will have been married 20 years next September. Anthony will be 16 next week. I can not be this old.

Have a good Tuesday.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Sunday and Family Dinner Night

I can't believe that the weekend is almost over. I am making the kids mad by proclaiming tonight family night. It is rare that Steve is here for a Sunday night dinner. He is home and I am making sure everyone else is too. The easiest way to bring my family together is to cook a great meal. Well, maybe not great but hot anyway.

I have a roast in the crockpot, twice baked potatoes (Anthony's favorite) olive cheese bread, carrots and a salad. Not sure what I am doing about desert yet but still working on that one.

I am sure you are waiting to hear if I have but the cookbook to use and the answer is yes. But here's the thing and maybe my only complaint about the cookbook. A good deal of the recipes where on her website already. I was really hoping for some new ones. That's ok though, because now I have them all in one place and not on separate pages shoved here and there. My Mom will appreciate that.

So far this week I have made her meatballs and chicken spaghetti. My family loves both of these and will be making them again. Not crazy about having to brown all those meatballs. Tonight's potatoes and bread are hers as well. Later in the week I will be posting to my cooking blog more details about the cookbook and my experience with it.

Yesterday we spent the day in Idaho watching Anthony wrestle. It was a long drive but worth it. He has really matured in his wrestling and it shows. It was a tough tournament. All but 2 of the 30 schools there where 5A teams and ours is a 4A. These 5A schools are big and have a lot of money behind them. Watching the boys wrestle really shows just the quality of our program. Our coaches really put their heart into it and you can see it in the boys.

We not only hung out at the tournament we hit Costco. It's really sad that we have to drive 2 hours to get to a Costco. I have totally restocked the house with all kinds of goodies and Steve is still in shock over the cost. So with that, I must go. This dinner is not going to cook itself and I will have angry kids if I made them come home for McDonald's.

Have a great Sunday.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

My Poor Baby

My oldest is learning what life with women is like. I really do feel sorry for him. He walked out of his bedroom and sat with me at the table. His face was so sad.

He explained to me that his girl friend's school project was having serious issues (she worked on it all Christmas break) some other things had happened and that she doesn't think their relationship is going anywhere. This all happened on Sunday. The two of them wanted to get together but neither her mother or I wanted to make the drive. We where doing the back to school stuff that needed to be done.

So I asked, "did you guys break up?" He says, "I don't know."

My advice: Well sweetie one of two things are going on here. One - you suck, you don't have your license or for that matter your permit, so you can't drive there to see her, you where busy with wrestling, and you smell funny.
Or number two - PMS

Just then the phone rings and he looked scared to answer it. Number two was the right one and everything is good between them.

Steve came home about an hour after and gave his wonderful advice.
Using his hand like it is talking in his hear and going "MEMEMEMEMEMEMEME" in a high pitch voice then says, "until the day you die." No wonder Anthony never ask's for his advice.

On the subject of PMS, I am reminded of Dolly Parton in the movie Steel Magnolia's.
Using your best Dolly Parton voice "I had a radio once, then I threw it against the wall while I was trying to figure out where the batteries went. I didn't know it then but I was suffering from P...M...S." Love that movie.

Sunday, January 03, 2010

It's Here

The cookbook is here. The funny thing, is it's the original one from the postal service. The Fedex one will be here on Monday. I didn't sit right down and read it, but I did some flipping and looking at the pictures. Steve did check it out. A lot of the recipes I already had and have been making for some time. Yes Dad, I have even cooked a couple when you were here last summer. I am making one of her yummy roll recipes tonight for dinner. It's not in her cookbook but found it on her blog.

I am spending today taking down some of the Christmas decorations. Not something I feel like doing but it does need to get down. I have been toying with the idea of leaving the tree up until February but no one else in the family is with me.

Tomorrow school begins again. I am with the kids, we need another week off. Steve was bumped off the pools today. Which means, he will be making the hour drive down the mountain to work at the rail yard. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. He is lucky to keep working, there are so many at the rail road that have not been so lucky. I have heard on the news that the recession is over. I guess our town has not gotten the memo.

Anyway, I have been wasting enough time on the peter and not getting my decorations put away. Enjoy your Sunday.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Happy Saturday

I guess Fedex doesn't deliver on Saturdays so I am having to wait until Monday. I am just not going to think about it today.

I did something very unusual today. The kids and I bought Steve an espresso maker. I decided to make him a cup of his favorite coffee. The unusual part was that I read the directions before trying the machine. Well, ok, I read the directions after the first couple of tries. I figure that it cost about $20 to make his $3 cup of coffee. He says it was good. I wouldn't know I don't like coffee. What a good sport he was. His stomach was not happy after tyring all my attempts. It's amazing what you can accomplish by reading the directions. I wish I could say that I have learned my lesson.

New Years eve was a lot of fun. This town usually has a lock down party for the middle and high schoolers. This year they didn't do it. So, being the cool Mom that I am, I let Megan invite some of her friends over (boys and girls). The boys went home after midnight and the girls ended up spending the night. Lots of air hockey, wii, movies and food. I don't think the girls slept at all that night. Anthony hung out at his girl friends with her family. They made a big sled hill and did that durning the day. Her Grandfather made "bombing" taco's, his words. It was a fun way to celebrate the incoming new year.

I hope everyone enjoyed their New Years day. The next holiday is Valentines day and I am more the a little surprised at all the directions out in the stores.

Friday, January 01, 2010

I Wanted Snow

and snow I got. Cookbook I didn't get. I spent the afternoon watching the snow fall and the wind blow. Realizing that Fedex was not going to get here. One of the joys about living in this small town. To get here you need to go over a major pass. Today that pass was just not passable. It is the same pass that kept me from watching Anthony take 4th place at a wrestling tournament yesterday.

Oh well, it will get here, someday....

Anyway

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!