Playing catch up...and hey, another cake!

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of the first grade tea from school. Sarah's program, which they call a tea for some reason, was last Friday. Her teacher also took the time to let her class learn some little plays and they did those for us, too. Ben's is this Friday and then we will be done with the teas for this year.

The guy in the background is the principal. Does it surprise you that there is not a whole lot of trouble at this school? He's a good guy, a Christian, the kids know who's boss!

And looky who I got to watch on Friday! :)
Nina Judy (Eric's mom)
Nina Felicia (my mom)
This was the Johnny Appleseed play. Sarah was Johnny's Ma. Can you believe my ma still has a hat that looks like a Little House on the Prairie hat? Yep, she does and Sarah wore it for this play.

The little boy that was supposed to be the third little pig in The Big, Bad Wolf was not there, so Sarah played his part because apparently she had it memorized as well!

Here is Sarah's teacher. She is an awesome teacher that truly LOVES her class. She also loops which means that she will have this group of kids for second grade next year, too.
I had a little job to do today. I had to make a cake with strawberry filling. Here it is before I turned the other cake on top. This was a 9X13 double stacked cake, which is very hard to turn out without breaking it in two. Thankfully, I managed to get it done though!
I love the "blank page" stage of the process. This is my "canvas"
I usually make this cake with chocolate icing, but this particular customer wanted the icing to be white. I wasn't sure how that would look, but I was okay with the finished product. It's a lot of pressure to do a cake that someone is paying good money for.

Can I get an Amen, Melody?

This was a heavy cake, basically two 9X13 cakes stacked. It's hard to tell from the picture how tall it was. And now I am done!

The Good, The Bad and The Crazy Best Friend

I got an envelope today in the mail from Asics footwear. Eric opened it, wondering what on earth I would be getting from them. As it turns out, I was one of the first 500 people to choose the winner of the Live with Regis and Kelly staff fitness challenge! It was one of those things that you enter and then forget about.

Well, I won a pair of Asics Gel 1130 tennis shoes! What a great surprise. I'll show'em to ya'll when I get them.

That's the good.

As far as Sarah's little hand goes, we went to the family doctor today because the ortho thought that it wasn't going to be something that they needed to see. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Our family doctor told us that her pinkie was "angular" and that he couldn't do what it's going to take to straighten it. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound to me like something that is going to be a fun time. We go Thursday and Eric is going with us because I don't want to see or hear whatever they might have to do. Surely they will put her to sleep if they have to set it, right? The thought of it makes my stomach turn.

I'll keep you posted...

That's the bad.

On a lighter note, Tasha and I went to our last Bible study tonight. Actually, we went out with the girls from our study. On the way home she asked me to stop at the mini mart so she could get some ice. I told her I would as long as she didn't fall out of the vehicle again. She promised.
This girl has a serious "Sonic" ice fetish. She walked out with THREE ginormous cups of ice. Three. cups. of . ice.

She has actually looked up the price of an ice maker that makes the Sonic ice.
$2,500.00 ~ in case you were interested.

That's the crazy best friend!


Have a wonderful Tuesday!

I think we need another group picture

This weekend with the Children's Choir turned out to be lots of fun. These are such great kids. Mr. & Mrs. C (the director and his wife) demand respect from them and if you don't want to give it to them than they are more than happy to show you the way out. That is something that is missing in schools these days, R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Go ahead and sing, you know you want to!

I didn't get many pictures on the bus for fear that I would be dubbed "the crazy mom with the camera whose flash keeps blinding me", so here is the one and only bus shot:

Did you see how I learned to block out things that I don't want shown in my pictures? That is a fancy black splotch, is it not?

I also learn this weekend that if a pre-teen/teen girl is missing her cell phone, you should have her look in her bag of Chex mix.

Our first stop on the trip was in Oberlin, Ohio. It was a beautiful day there. The parents had some shopping time while the kids practiced. They had a Ben Franklin 5-10 store. That was a fun little place. There were lots of little artsy shops, too. The trees are finally blooming here.

The kids in the green shirts are ours and the blue shirts are the Oberlin kids. They sounded lovely. I have a little clip that I might post later tonight.
After the Saturday concert, we went to a local skating rink so the kids could skate and eat pizza. The last stop was at the hotel in Cleveland. Swimming was the highlight of the night there.

Sunday morning the choir sang at a huge church. Check out the marble in the background.

After church we headed here:

Here are my roommates for the weekend. Good guys. The little one in the middle is a real ladies man...just ask him and he'll confirm that! Too funny!

Yes, you read that sign right. They had a chocolate exhibit at the Science Center. It was fun to learn about how chocolate bars are made.

And because we didn't have enough group pictures...
"Hey, does someone have a camera? We would like to get a group picture."
I just found this scene to be humorous. These are all the parents that went on the trip. I think we'll have plenty of pictures for the scrapbook.

Like I said, we had a good time. I really enjoyed spending time with Ethan. Because he is the oldest, he sometimes get less attention so it was good for us. He is my favorite 10 year old in the whole world!

Let's Go Fly a Kite....Paging Dr. Ross, Dr. Ross to the ER...

It was a beautiful day in Indiana today. We had perfect kite flying weather and the kids had a half day of school, so we went out to our church's open field to fly the kites that the kids got in their Easter baskets.
We had such a good time. Ben was into it the most. He was so cute trying to get that kite to stay up in the air! When he finally had success, he would yell over to me, "Look mom, I did it all by myself."


We also took some basketballs and other toys and Sarah took her Heely's. The kids that go to the school at our church had gotten out and they were all playing four square. (I joined in, too!)
The ball got away from Sarah and she took off after it. I noticed that her shoe was untied, but when is a kid's shoe NOT untied? She picked up the ball and started to skate back over to the rest of us when the untied lace got hung in the wheel of her shoe and *BAM* she was down. She didn't really cry, so I thought nothing too much of it.
Then about 5 minutes later she came over to me and said her hand hurt. I took one look at her crooked pinkie and decided that we needed to make a trip to the ER.

After some x-ray's, the ER doctor (who, by the way, was NOT Dr. Ross) told us it was definitely fractured at the bottom of her pinkie and that they would splint it until we could see the ortho doctor.

In the meantime, our youth pastor and his kiddos stopped by with a root beer from the local hot dog stand and Sarah was good to go! Thanks Pastor Brian. I take back all the mean things that I have ever said to you! :p

Thankfully, the ortho doctor in town is a good family friend and I got to talk to him tonight. He is going to look at the films tomorrow and let me know what we need to do. I hope that it will be something that is not too bad and doesn't require a cast. That would kinda stink.

Sarah was tuckered out and fell asleep at 7. Bless her sweet little heart. I always knew she'd be the one with the broken bones. She isn't afraid of anything.

Here she is telling her friend, Mia, about her hand.

This might be my worst post yet.

I was going to post a Thursday Thirteen today, but I just couldn't come up with anything.

I have been so busy over the last few days. It's been a good busy though. I have been helping our church secretary get things ready for the Ladies Retreat this weekend. We've had fun putting gift baskets together and preparing 90 bags to give the ladies when they check in. We decorated each bag and filled them with gum, mints, kleenex, water, a program and pen and many other items. I am hoping to get the house cleaned today because I have Kylah on Friday and I want to spend that time with her.

I'm a little tired, so please excuse me if I doze off.

Ethan and I will be traveling to Ohio this weekend with the Children's Choir. The bus ride is over 6 hours one way, so I plan on getting a lot of reading done on the bus. They charter a couple of buses, so we have plenty of room. I am looking forward to the reading thing, but having three boys in my room is not exciting me too much. I'm sure there will be a bloggable moment or two.

Okay, this is a terribly boring post, so I'm going to go.

Did I mention that I'm awfully tired?

Good night.

I Was Tagged!

I was tagged by ET at Titus 2:3-5 to do a meme. Thank you so much for tagging me! I have already done this one, so I thought that I would just do something else. I have this little book called "Coke or Pepsi" and so I will answer some questions from that.



Okay, I just went to get my book and, well, it's not there.



Hmmmm.... where is it?(I'll be right back, you may want to use this little break to get a pop or snack or maybe use the bathroom...)



(5 minutes later)

Hey, has anyone seen my Coke or Pepsi book?



(5 more minutes later) Whew, okay I found it. It was with my scrapbooking stuff, because why wouldn't it be?



Anyway, here we go:



1. What's your nickname? Don't have one.

2. Coke or Pepsi? (ya'll saw that one coming, didn't ya?) Coke, the diet variety

3. Favorite song? You Are God Alone (Phillips, Craig and Dean) I have many, many songs that I LOVE!!

4. Earliest memory? I remember using that stinky white paste in Kindergarten. Oh, and I remember my babysitter making our bologna sandwiches with ketchup - GROSS! Her daughter got to have mayo, but I'm not bitter about that!

5. Chocolate - Milk or Dark? Milk

6. Who do you call when you're upset? Eric, or Tasha if I'm upset with Eric! ;)

7. Big Mac or Whopper? Whopper

8. Last book you read? I am reading Mistaken Identities

9. Beach or Mountains? Beach

10. What kind of shoes are you wearing? those new tennis shoes that look like flats (do you understand? Fine, here's a picture)




11. TV or Book? Book, no TV, no book.... Oh, I don't know! It depends on what kind of mood I'm in.

12. Favorite store? Target

13. Ever been stung by a jellyfish? No

14. Best cartoon ever? Smurfs

15. Last person you spoke to? Eric, my hubby

16. Favorite doughnut? glazed raspberry filled from Krispy Kreme

17. Been to NYC? No

18. Best sitcom ever? Who's the Boss?

19. Who do you wish you could meet? Beth Moore. I just want to hug that woman's neck!

20. Name your very first friend? Allison. Actually, she was the one that got to have the mayo on her sandwiches! She was still my friend though! :)



Now, I would like to hear some of your answers. I am going to tag anyone that read this. That includes you, Tasha!! Please let me know if you do it so that I can go read all about you! If you don't have a blog, just leave your answers in the comments. I don't mind long comments at all! Have fun!

Today started out a little shaky

I guess I'll start out by saying that we all made it through "The Great Earthquake of 08" with no problems. Actually, we didn't even feel it. We missed the whole thing. I mean, it definately happened because the whole town felt it, we just slept through it. And because there's nothing more to report, I'll move on to something else.

Buttons.

Not the ones you sew on clothing, the ones I used to pin on my jean jacket in 1980- something. Did anyone else out there have a pin collection? Did you wear them all over your jean jacket or jean purse? My BFF Tasha just reminded me of the acid-wash jean purse that she would put her pins on.
Far out man!

Anyway, back to the buttons. The kids' school is making buttons for a fundraiser. They decorated paper circles in art class and then ask their parents for a dollar to have it made into a pin.

Wellllll, someone has to do the pin-makin' and that someone is me. Can I tell you how bad my palms hurt right now? I have squeezed this little button maker thingy at least 150 times so far and I'm not done yet. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to do it. It's fun, but painful.

The Swedish Fish have pulled me through.

Look what my sweet, beautiful younger children gave me today. Aren't they pretty? I must be the luckiest mommy around!

The excitement, it's too much...

So... if you could peek into our home on any given evening, you would see something like this...

We are a wild and crazy bunch!

Thursday Thirteen

In case you haven't noticed, I am just pulling my Thursday Thirteen Thirty topics out of thin air. I hope that's how you're supposed to do it. Oh, and did you notice what I learned today? Yep, how to put a line through words!

Here is my topic for today:

Junk Drawers (I know you have one, so what's in there?)

1. leftover party favor bags
2. undo adhesive remover
3. a chuck e cheese picture of me & ben
4. smoke detector cover
5. ace bandage
6. a bag of keys to...something
7. a box of crayola classic color markers
8. velcro dots
9. sunglasses
10. Live with Regis and Kelly 3-D glasses
11. bag of magnetic frames (to put pictures on the fridge)
12. a mighty grip jar opener
13. a baggie of Bio-freeze (thanks Tasha)
14. a pill box with spot for each days meds.
15. 3 screwdrivers
16. a box of crayons
17. some red toy thingy
18. instruction manuels
19.a colorwonder paintbrush (yellow & pink & blue)
20. 2 chip clips
21. a golf ball
22. paints
23. keychain calculator
24. blue kazoo
25. 2 hand creams
26. 6 erasers
27. spool of thread
28. yellow highlighter
29. super glue
30. and like 30 pencils and pens

And because a picture is worth a thousand words...

Four Word Wednesday

Look what's growing! Yippeeee!

I lost my comfort zone

I'm taking a break from what I'm doing right now.

Our church is hosting a ladies retreat next weekend, which I'll miss because I have to go to Ohio with Ethan and the Children's Choir. That right there is a whole other story!
Anyhow, I can't go to the retreat, but I was asked to call around to different businesses and ask if they would like to donate something for a door prize.

I. DON'T. LIKE. IT.

I don't like to ask for things from people. I am way out of my comfort zone with this. I think I'm breaking out in hives. (kidding) I get all tongue-tied and sound so blah!

But I'll do it. I'll do my part with a happy heart.

Yes, I know that rhymes.

Well, back to the calling. I need to be done so that I can go get the kids from school. They tend to frown upon leaving them there all night!

The Rogers Weekend Review

I love coming across recipes that I have torn out of a magazine or written on a napkin. Usually, that's as far as it goes for me. But last week I came across one for soft and chewy chocolate bites and, well, chocolate...hello?

I had to try them.

They turned out to be kind of fun to make and my youngest was able to help me. He loves to cook. All of my kids do, although I don't really know why, when their meals consist of chicken nuggets and mac & cheese. No really, I try to get a good meal or two in there, but tonight was chicken nuggets and mac & cheese.


This is the part of the recipe that Ben liked the most. I cut about 20 big marshmallows in half and he dipped the sticky side in the colored sugar. They were so pretty.
While he did that, I melted 4oz. of semi-sweet baking squares and 1 1/2 sticks of butter in the microwave. (2 minutes)
Next we added 2 cups of sugar and 1 tsp. of vanilla... we stirred
Three eggs came next and he would.not.crack.them. He said, "No way, you do the eggs!"
After we mixed those in, we added 2 cups of flour. This is where it all went south.

The batter seemed too thin for cookies. You are supposed to refrigerate it for 15 minutes and then roll them into 1 inch ball, but there was no rolling this stuff. I added 1/3 cup more flour and PRESTO!... Aren't they pretty?
You bake them for 8-9 minutes on 350.( Don't grease the cookie sheet) The recipe makes about 40ish, unless this happens...
In which case you'll have around 12 less! :)

We also got the kids' pottery back that they made over Spring Break. This is what they started as,
And here's the finished products. We had so much fun doing this. It was something totally different, something we had never done before.

Here's a candid shot of the kids. Ben was being a total dork! He's a goofball.
And bringing up the rear is the picture that told me one thing... I'm starting to look my age. sigh.