Outa Here!

Beth has already left and we leave tomorrow for Destin! Maybe I'll have time while we are down there to put up a few beach pictures!

Later gators!

Rain, Glorious Rain! (well, sort of!)

For those familiar with where we live, you know what drought conditions we have been in! I think we've had less than 1 inch of rain since May 17 or somthing crazy like that. We've had rain showers on and off since Friday night and its been great! However, most of it has been at NIGHT, so it didn't really interfere with "the kids playing outside" time! Well, yesterday it did. And yesterday couldn't have been a worse time to have them cooped up inside. Beth has been gone for the most part, since Wednesday, visiting her grandparents (both sets!), so Sarah has been the lone child and has had run of the house. Well - throw a very grumpy and over-tired 4 year old in with the newly found independence of a 1 year old and its NOT a great combo. They fought all afternoon. And Sarah can't vocalize her frustration with Beth yet, and all she does is "grab" and clinch her fist (pinching) at whatever is closest to her and several times yesterday that was BETH! It was not a fun day. BUT, for a brief 30 minutes or so, the rain stopped and the girls went out to play in the puddles. For a brief 30 minutes, they were happy and playing so nicely together and laughing and having so much fun! For a brief 30 minutes, I was happy and there was peace......

Beth catching tiny raindrops in her mouth!

Sarah had a great time - just stomping through all the puddles and giggling and smiling!

But, eventually she got tired of just wet feet and down went the hands!

And then both of them just got tired of standing and squatting all together and just took a seat in the biggest puddle they could find...oh well....they're only kids once, right?

And of course, once they sat down in the water, their shorts were quite wet and droopy! (which was the cutest of all!)

Sarah....just about ready to actually LOSE her shorts!

Thankfully, no shorts were lost in the making of these photos and everyone played nicely...while outside! There is just something about being outside to a kid...they love it and mom loves it. Yeah, I know, we needed the rain....but......eerrrr........

Shrimp Scampi

Okay - I know - two recipes in one week! Gasp! But Beth is at my mom and dad's house at "camp" so I'm left with only Sarah (and Bob, of course) and lots of time to dwell over recipes I've been wanting to make for a long time, yet just don't have the time or energy at the end of the day with TWO kids running around. So this week I've been trying some new things. I knew Beth would have no part of this new recipe, although now I'm thinking she MIGHT! It was super delicious! I made it and served it atop cous-cous because the 12-15 minutes it takes this dish to bake wasn't enough time for me to get water boiling and pasta made, but next time, I'll DEFINITELY make angel hair pasta to go with it! Seafood seems very initmidating to me, and shrimp even more so, but I'm not sure why. I guess I'm worried I won't cook it thoroughly, thus giving us all a bad case of "stomach problems", but this was no fail. Granted, its not great for the waistline, but I did use "light" butter, if that counts for anything! Double this recipe if feeding more than two adults and one child!! I've also been known to double the sauce ingredients just because I really love the sauce! (i.e. 1 1/2 tsp doubled is 1 Tablespoon!)

Shrimp Scampi Bake
Serves 3

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 Tbsp prepared Dijon-style mustard
1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh parsley
1 lb medium raw shrimp, shelled, deveined, with tails attached

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, and parsley.

When the butter melts completely, remove from heat. Arrange shrimp in a shallow baking dish.

Pour the butter mixture over the shrimp. Bake in preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until the shrimp are pink and opaque. Serve over Angel Hair pasta for the best results.

**Author's Note: To keep the sauce from separating, combine the sauce ingredients in a small glass bowl and microwave until the butter is just melted.

Yummo Banana Bread Recipe!

I made this recipe tonight for the first time and it came out very good!!!

Marbled-Chocolate Banana Bread
via Cooking Light

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup sugar
¼ cup butter, softened
1 ½ cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
½ cup egg substitute
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt together and stir with a wisk.
In a separate bowl, place the sugar and butter, beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute).
Add Banana, egg substitute and yogurt. Beat until blended
Add flour mixture, beat at low speed just until moist
Place chocolate chips in a medium microwave-safe bowl and heat on high for 1 minute or until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 cup batter to chocolate, stirring well until combined. Spoon plain batter alternatively with chocolate batter into an 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch loaf pan that is coated with cooking spray. Swirl batter together using a knife.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes (1 hour 5 minutes in gas oven) or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack, then remove from pan. Cool completely on wire wrack.

Yield – 1 loaf (16 slices –serving size is 1 slice)
Calories per serving: 183
Fat: 4.7g Fiber: 1.3g

Sleeping Beauty

Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby (Sarah)!!

Bucket Brigade!

It was a rather lazy and HOT weekend. I didn't get a chance to take many pictures, but I thought this one was cute. Sarah wants to do everything Beth does, so when Beth took off around the yard with her bucket, so did Sarah. When Beth went to the fence to pet the neighbor's dog, so did Sarah....I guess its truly only the beginning of this copycatting, though, right?

No news to report. Two weeks till we head out to Florida!! I'm so ready!!

Just in case you ever wondered....

Labrador Retrievers are WONDERFUL dogs...

but they shed like crazy! This was after a ROUTINE brushing!!

Weekend Adventures....

It was a rather low key weekend. We spent the better part of the day on Saturday outside. Bob and I finished mulching (ick!) and the girls played in the yard. Later, I got out the trusty plastic pool and they played in it for an hour or so! Sarah improves each time she's in it. You can sort of see her new "hairdo" in these pictures...or at least tell its shorter!

After we finished playing outside, we got all cleaned up and went to eat at a Japanese steakhouse with my parents...both girls' first trip to such type restaurant. We figured Sarah would flip out when the chef lit the big fire in front of us, but it was just the opposite! While Beth didn't necessarily "flip out", she did duck behind Bob rather fast! Sarah loved the show and clapped and clapped! Beth's eyes were HUGE the whole time and freaked every time the chef flipped a shrimp tail at her....or a lobster tail! Yep - a lobster tail! She REALLY didn't like that one!

Beth was VERY impressed with the little paper umbrella that came in her drink! She's played with it all day, today, too!

And I tried and tried to get a good sister photo before we left for dinner because the girls looked so darn cute in their matching dresses, but alas, it never works out well!

Today we did absolutely nothing - Bob took Beth fishing and Sarah and I just lollygagged around the house all day. Vacation Bible School started for Beth tonight and continues through Wednesday evening. That's about it, folks!

Snip snip!

Sarah's "first" haircut was today. She did great...she was a tad wiggly, but when ISN'T she a tad wiggly!?!

All Michelle did was trim up the back and make it all one length now, so it looks less like a mullet! Its sort of like a little "bob" now! I tried all night to get a complete "After" photo of her "style", but she was hungry and tired and it just wasn't happening.

Oh - Beth also got her haircut and Michelle always fixes it up cute for her! She wanted to pose for the camera, too, although she was being entirely too "cheesy" and I didn't get a great pic. Oh well - it shows the cute little curls, regardless!

Ba Ba Black Sheep....

So, today Beth, Sarah, my mom and I visited a farm that is owned by my mom's friend. They raise sheep and cows. I remember going as a child each year to see the new baby lambs and getting to feed them. It was neat!

ANYWAY, we took the girls to go see the two new lambs, on an ADVENTURE! Beth did very well...and Sarah actually did, too, once she warmed up to them.

Beth - giving the lamb its bottle....


Beth continues to offer the little lamb a bottle. My mom is holding Sarah, who is clinging for dear life to her (and just about ready to lose it!).


THIS is one of the lambs, although it really doesn't resemble what you think of when you think of a cute and cuddly little baby lamb, does it? Evidently, its mother and father were "related", so according to our friend who owns the farm...that doesn't make for a very cute lamb. She's thinking of naming this one Mousey...I can see why!

This is Sarah FINALLY warming up to the sheep and after a while, she started leaning out to touch the bigger lambs on their noses and they would nibble her hand and she'd just giggle! Too cute!

I'm sure that now that Beth knows that this farm exists, she'll want to go often, which is fine with me! I'd like her to be exposed to life on a farm. Its good for her!

I've been Blog Tagged!!

Here are the rules: The particulars - Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog. Here we go...

Let's see if I can come up with 7 things...

1) I currently work as a Paralegal/Billing Manger, although my college degree (and my true love) was in marketing. Darn I miss that Media Buying job in Indy.......

2) I love to purge, organize and throw things away! I get great satisfaction from cleaning my closet (or whatever) and throwing away/giving away 2-3 garbage bags full of stuff! My moto is "If I haven't layed a finger on it in one year, I'm probably never going to" and it gets tossed! But don't get me wrong, I do still have a FEW things I just can NOT part with....but not many!

3) I took a Mediterranean cruise with my grandmother in 1993 and visited Barcelona, Spain; Tunisa, Africa; Sicily; and a few other places. I remember Spain the most and how wonderfully relaxed everyone was and how beautiful it was. I wasn't that impressed with Italy, believe it or not, but I've been told its because I visited the "wrong part" of the country. Whatever.

4) I grew up with Bassett Hounds as pets (and several wonderfully, adorable litters of Bassett puppies), but now I have one fabulous yellow labrador retriever names Bailey. Although she does get stinky ear infections all the time and is allergic to everything, I still love her!

5) I was (and still am) a member of Sigma Kappa sorority at the University of Alabama, before it "folded" in 1995. I them transferred to Murray State where I was a Pi Kappa Alpha little sister, before ultimately settling in at Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity as a "Friend of the Heart" and meeting Bob there!

6) I never had a "wild" spring break - not in high school or college. Do I regret it? Not one bit - I'm just NOT a party girl. I always HATED going to bars with friends in college. HATED IT! I'm just not into the whole "hang out in a cigarette smoke filled bar and get hit on by drunk men and drink till I can't stand up" type of girl. I always preferred a small party, or even a calm night at home watching movies. I didn't drink/party much in college and I RARELY have a drink now. Part of me was "scared to drink" in college. I was USUALLY the sober one/DD. And if I DID drink, I was usually sober by the end of the night anyway. It just wasn't "fun" to me to drink myself silly. Now that I have two kids, I can appreciate the thought of a drink everynow and then, though!! :-)

7) My favorite sports teams are Kentucky basketball & football, Indpls Colts football and maybe the Chicago Cubs...some days.....

Okay - I do not know 7 other blogs to tag, that haven't already been tagged! But I will tag the ones I DO know of......

Filthy Sarah!

So, we're doing some new landscaping in our front yard, which has been a long time coming. We tilled up the entire front "flower beds" (if you could have called them that), after we spent the better part of the spring yanking out overgrown bushes and weeds! ANYWAY, we started laying edging bricks last Monday and finished up partially this morning.

Sarah loves the tilled up soft dirt. I dressed her in an outfit that was stained, so I wouldn't worry about the dirt she would pile on top of herself, which she IMMEDIATELY did once we got outside. Oh well...the dirtier she is, the more fun she is having, I guess!

"So dad....do you need any help?"

And once she got all cleaned up and ate lunch, she rocked for a while on the new "rocking dog" that she got for her birthday, but has been terrified of until just recently!