Comfort Food

"What are comfort foods? They are foods that soothe by reminding us of comforting childhood memories. For most of us, these foods are far from gourmet and generally epitomize home cooking. They invoke feelings of nostalgia, safety, and security."

When I think of comfort food. I think of warm soup on a cold night or some type of casserole that cooks for an hour or so and warms the kitchen up.

Not Joe.

He thinks of hamburgers. On the grill. On a cold wintry night....

Turtle Brownies

Last night we had a chocolate craving and since Mia and Owen's favorite activity involves "cooking" we decided to make some turtle brownies. Mia and Daddy unwrapped, Owen threw the carmels in the pot (a job he took very seriously) and Mommy got everything else ready. We had to bake the crust 15 min and then put the caramels and chocolate chips on and bake another 25 min. Those 40 minutes took SOOO long for M&O :)

I remember when time moved slower too.....

Here are some photos of our Turtle Brownie night.

Dear Home,

Dear Home,

I really do love you now. It's taken me these 7 1/2 years to finally feel like home in you. It's really not your fault that those pesky creatures such as rats and mice find their way in. (Just when I say something like this I see a black streak across the floor and know I have visitors again. I've made a few Walmart trips without automatically picking up another trap. I think I should have just become a wholesale distributor of Decon.) I've had to come to terms with the fact I live on a farm. And well, farms have gross things at times.

Even though you have the smallest doorways on earth thus making us take out a window to get our new couch in, well I'm learning to live with it.

The drafty windows..... well, nothing a little plastic and duct tape can't fix..... and fresh air is good. Right?

I think I'll be redecorating and rearranging and redoing until I'm physically unable. Even though I love my living room now, a few months from now, moving the couch to a new wall will freshen up the space and provide a new perspective... literally. So, home, I have lots of ideas for you..... be prepared!

Ebay

Last night Joe watched Mia and Owen and I went to an e-commerce class on Ebay. I knew how to list an item and bid on an item, but Peter showed us a few new ways of doing things. Peter has received Top Seller with over 12,000 positive feedback comments on his ebay store. WOW. Now, all I need to do is find that one thing I could sell that will be my golden ticket. He seemed to think selling the hodgepodge of items I currently do does not make you an expert on them and people do not perceive you as an expert. His friend just starting selling one kind of vitamin and is now doing double the amount of sales than his competition.... It was very thought provoking.

Now in Owen's words, "Let's DO IT!!"

Any Takers?

I was searching through cookbooks last night for a simple lunch recipe for today. Which I found. We had:

Chicken pockets

Cheetos

Chocolate milk and

brownie babies.

My friend Jana and her 2 kids joined us as we watched the couch come through the window. (more on that later) Entertainment you don't see every day...

So.... as I was searching I found a recipe I want to try. Crab Rangoon Dip. Anyone want to come try it with me?

Recovered... well some of us

Mia and Owen seem to be fully recovered from the flu bug!!

Just when I thought Joe and I would escape, it hit. Bummer. But if I have to get the flu once a year, this is the one I want, it truly seems to be a 12-24 hour bug. Joe's on schedule to get it tonight.... Hopefully he escapes!

Our house looks like a giant man picked it up and shook it. Our living room and dining room are quite the disaster. Monday hopefully our new couch will arrive and then some order can be restored. If... order is ever in the dictionary around here....??

My Buddy

This has got to be one of my favorite pictures of my little buddy this year.

Anyone who says that there is no difference between boys and girls has never had one of each.

He's a tough little guy but has a soft sweet little heart.

He'd be lost without his big sister.

You never know what's going to come out of his mouth,

but you do know...

The wheels never stop turning.

Squeezer Hugs

This Christmas Mia decided she loved giving "squeezer" hugs.

A few of the lucky recipients were....

Grandma

Daddy - her favorite person right now...

Auntie Becka

Grampie

Great Grammie

Great Grampie

Great Granny

Gotta Love it

It's that time of the year.............

Flu season.........

Gotta love it!!

Needless to say, Owen and Mommy didn't make it to Baby Claire's first birthday OR the big surprise...... oh well, hopefully it was captured on video for me to see George and Jean's reaction "in person" there will be pictures to follow I'm sure. I'll wait until they actually get home and see the renovation with their own eyes before I post. Maybe I'll wait until I find my computer cord. Whichever comes first.....

Last Night

My cheeks still hurt from laughing so much. If laughter is the best medicine, I should be cured of all that ails me.

9 couples met up for our couples dinner. We went to a local restaurant for main course and to our house for dessert.

We played a white elephant game

and the What If game. Lots of thought provoking What if questions........

Can't wait until next year.

Todays the day

We've worked 2 weeks for today. George and Jean arrive home from their trip to Wichita. They arrive home to a "home makeover" We've:

Painted

Re-decorated

Cleaned

Re-stocked

Moved around

Got new

De-Christmased

Painted some more

Cleaned

Wow it looks great!

It will take Jean a week to find everything again, but I think it's worth it. Granny thinks she may faint....... we'll see :)

I'll put pictures up later, after I find my computer/camera cord...

Win/Win

Tuesday night was a fun evening for adults and kids it was especially nice because

A. I didn't have to do much but bring ourselves

B. We got to hang out with good friends

C. The kids played well together

D. The Hawks won!

E. What could be better?

Sam and Tiff and family stayed overnight here. I did it Pioneer Woman style and didn't fuss. Sam watched all 5 kids while Tiff and I took off. He's in the running for super dad of the year.... Joe is too.

Mia and Owen are at Grammie and Grampie's house. I tried to get a lot of computer work done today because the weather changed my work plans. Only 189 days till spring....... no not really

Today is a very important day. The Hawkeyes play their last game of the season. Daddy is very excited We're hoping they win, Go Hippas!

Mommy needs to get ready to have Aunt Ti Ti and Uncle Sam and Ellie, Darren and Baby Claire here for the night. (This is our photo at Christmas with them.) We better be lots of help today.... Does scattering legos around the house help? Legos are our favorite toy right now. Thanks Auntie Loie. This is enough for now, we'll let you know what happens during the game!