The Big 4!

Tyson, his grandma and his birthday guests!

This picture is funny to me. You can see Tyson's head. He jumped down right as I took the picture.

The whole family came to celebrate!

This is the cake my mom and I made. Super Mario!

This was our meal on his actual birthday. Tyson loves spaghetti and meatballs.

Golf is Dumb - Yeah I'll Go!

I don't like golf. It's not fun. I'm no good. You only get to talk to the three people on your team. I lose my ball, a lot. The only part that I slightly enjoy teeing off. I like using a tee and apparently that's the only time you're allowed. I hate all the hits after that, especially putting. Stupid. Anyway, accountants love to golf! Maybe you have to be good at math for this sport. I don't know. So, the accountants sign up for a lot of scrambles and I seem to get roped into them. I think they secretly think I'm fun:) Last Friday was a company golf scramble. I quit somewhere around hole 10, came back strong for 15 and stayed in the cart for 18. Who invented 18 holes?! You never want too much of a good thing, especially when it's not even that good:)

Taking some time to smell the roses, or mums:)





Golf injury. I hit myself in the leg with my club. It was painful and swelled up.

Sunday Rain Day

Help! We're being held hostage in our home. By the ugly, nasty, never-ending, RAIN!! I've cooked, cleaned, finished knitting a scarf, scrapbooked, arts and crafts, movies, baking...I even through in a facial. I'm SO ready to go back to work:)

This afternoon consisted of painting pumpkins and making hay stacks. Attaching a couple pics below, and the recipe, in case you've never made these delicious treats. I also snapped a pic of my latest attempt to get crap off my counters. It's just a metal bar that Cody attached to the wall, then I bought magnetic clips and stuck all the bills, school papers, calendar, etc...

Haystacks

1 1/2 cups - light corn syrup

1 1/2 cups - white sugar

3 cups - peanut butter

7 - 8 cups - rice krispies

Combine syrup and sugar in large pan. Bring mixture to a boil. Once boiling, remove from heat, add peanut butter. Once smooth, add rice krispies. Fold peanut butter mixture into rice krispies. Scoop individual balls onto wax paper and let set. I use a cookie scoop

Run, Sleep, Clean, Cook

The title describes my weekend. The run on Saturday morning was great. I finished is 33 minutes and ran, almost, the entire time. Something about 1500 people running with you pushes your motivation. Too bad they can't join me on every run:)

I was up at 6 for the run and started to crash around 1. Trevor had a b-day party, so Ty and I took some much needed naps. The rest of the evening was pretty chill. In between screaming at the Huskers on tv and knitting:) The knitting calms me during the game. Ha ha!

Sunday was filled with cleaning and cooking. I'm posting the links to the goodies I made:)

Chicken and Dumplings (I now know that a dumpling is a cross between a noodle and a biscuit. The boys loved it!):
http://eatathomecooks.com/2009/07/homemade-chicken-and-dumplings-its-easy-really.html

Candied Apples (none of us had ever had one of these. Very good!):
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/candied-apples-i/detail.aspx

Chocolate Chip Cookies (these have cornstarch in them, which apparently makes them very soft and chewy. They were good, if you like soft and chewy chocolate chips):
http://kelseysappleaday.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-ever-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9....10 YEAR REUNION!!

I received a request to post about my 10 year high school reunion and I can't let my blog readers down:) I don't have a picture to post yet, waiting on a friend to email it to me, but I'll let you know how it went.

I don't know about any of you, but I was super excited for my reunion. High school was fun for me and I miss a lot of the people I went to school with. I don't see many of them and only get to hear about their lives through Facebook. Yes, I think Facebook partially ruined the high school reunion:) But anyway, I began planning our high school reunion during the early summer months. Others joined in and we decided on dinner at the notorious "Sand Bar", followed by a picnic in the park the next day.

Attendance was good. We were missing maybe 6 or so classmates. The evening was filled with memories, updates on our lives and some great karaoke:) Our time at the "Sand Bar" came to an end, so the party moved to someone's house for an "after party":) My night gets a little blurry from here. I made a rookie mistake of mixing beer with liquor (never sicker is right!)

Needless to say, I was unable to attend the picnic (that I had planned) the following afternoon. Not only that, I didn't move or eat for about 12 hours. Now I know why they only have these every 10 years! I also realized, I'M OLD!

I had a great time and hope to see my classmates more often. Pleasanton was a great place to grow up. I'm lucky to not live too far away, but just far enough:)

Ham! Ham! Ham is everywhere!

So, based on the title of this blog, I bet you can already tell I'm going to be writing about HAM! We're a bacon and sausage lovin' family. Big fans of Saturday and Sunday morning breakfasts that force you to skip lunch and eat dinner at 4 pm:) So, we butcher a pig a couple times of year. The bacon and sausage last a couple months. Then our freezers are full of HAM!! I don't know what to do with all this boned ham, sliced ham, cured ham, smoked ham, HAM, HAM, HAM!! I like ham, don't get me wrong, I just don't know how to many anything with ham, except scalloped potatoes and ham. Actually, that's a lie, I don't make that, Cody does. It's awesome too. He uses a different recipe every time he makes it.

So, I'm on a mission to gather some recipes that involve ham:) Below is my first attempt at ridding my freezer of the pounds and pounds of ham that has been collected.

I will also spend a couple days, when it gets cold, making and freezing dishes. Preferably dishes that involve ham. On my list: ham, potato and corn chowder and ham and bean soup. I also plan to just cook a bunch of ham, chop it up and freeze it so it's there when I want to whip up a delicious meal of...HAM!!

Jalapeno Macaroni and Ham Casserole (my kids are gonna love it, not!)

What You Need

2 pkg. (7-1/4 oz. each) KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese Dinner

1 Tbsp. oil

15 slices OSCAR MAYER Deli Fresh Honey Ham, chopped

1 small red onion, finely chopped

2 jalapeño peppers, seeded, chopped

2 clove garlic, minced

4 eggs, beaten

4 KRAFT Big Slice Pepper Jack Cheese Slice, coarsely chopped

18 RITZ Crackers, crushed (about 3/4 cup)

1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Make It

HEAT oven to 350ºF.

PREPARE Dinners in large saucepan as directed on package. Meanwhile, heat oil in medium skillet on medium heat. Add ham, onions, peppers and garlic; cook 5 min., stirring frequently.

ADD ham mixture to Dinners with eggs and chopped cheese; mix lightly. Mix cracker crumbs and parsley; stir half into Dinner mixture. Spoon into 2-qt. casserole sprayed with cooking spray; top with remaining crumb mixture.

BAKE 35 min. or until center is set and casserole is heated through.

I'll let you know how it turns out. FYI, I won't force my children to make this. Maybe just pull out a little of the mac and cheese and nuke a corn dog:)

Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

It's such a bittersweet feeling being away from home for a few days. Actually there isn't much sweet about it, but being away does make the heart grow fonder. It makes me appreciate my boys and Cody so much. A little distance can give you a great perspective on your life. Sometimes during the day to day routine I forget to show and tell the people I love most how much they mean to me.

I think marriages or relationships in general can benefit from time apart. Cody used to travel for work and the time apart made the time together very special. Now, I would never want him to have that job because when you're raising kids you don't want to miss anything.

I'm very lucky to work for a flexible company that wouldn't force me to leave town if I were going to miss something in my kids' lives.

I'm leaving for home in a few hours and I'm excited for the coming weekend. Tomorrow morning the boys, and maybe Cody depending on if he has to pick corn, are going to a pancake feed and parade for UNK Homecoming. I love parades! The sounds, smells, people, cool weather, stocking hats, candy, hot cocoa! I love it all:)

My cousin, Kish, is getting married that afternoon and we'll also be attending a 40th birthday party for one of Cody's closest friends. Can't wait to watch the Husker vs. Wyoming game!! I think my boys would cheer for Wyoming if they knew their mascot was a cowboy!

Have a wonderful weekend and hug and kiss the ones you love!!

Monday Night Dinner Talk

Trevor, "mom do you know who got stung by a hornet at recess today?"
Me, "no."
Trevor, "Taia."

Tyson, "mom, do you know who was lining up in pre-school today and hit there head real hard against the wall and cried?"
Me, "no."
Tyson, "me."

Quote of the Day

Tyson stole a grape off Trevor's plate and ate it, we all laughed and Tyson said, "You want it back? Too bad! It's in my brain!!"

Phone Memories

I remembered yesterday that I always take pictures on my phone, but I never download them. So, yesterday I did just that! Here are a few and some of the funny stories to go along with them.This is a friend of a friend's dog , Baron, who was introducing himself. I was sitting in a chair and his face was level with mine. Huge!!

Trevor tried to pick up a lantern by grabbing the top of it - bad idea. This is the result. Fully recovered now:)

Trevor and I goofed around in the doctor's office before we found out he had to have surgery on his foot (April 2010).

First person to go potty in the new house. Found out after this that the water wasn't turned on and the toilet wouldn't flush. Oops...

Run, Jenni, Run!!

I started my goal for the month of September. On October 1st I'm going to run, yes run, not walk, in the Susan G. Komen 5K.

One of my co-workers was diagnosed with breast cancer about a month ago. She had a double mastectomy and is undergoing chemo now. Our company has really rallied around her and I think this 5K is another great way to show support for her and so many others.

My adventure started last night. I bought a sportband that keeps track of time, distance, pace, calories, etc... I've been "attempting" to run for a couple months now, but it's time to get serious! My goal is to run the entire 5K. Maybe not at a very fast pace, but I don't want to walk. So, last night I started with 3 mins walking and 3 mins running and I found myself not needing the 3 mins of walking to recover. But, an actual 3 mins of running is a lot longer than the 3 mins I used to keep track of in my head.

I have a good friend keeping me motivated, which helps a lot! Today is a break from running, so I'll do yoga. I'll keep you updated on my progress!

Minnesota Recap - In Pictures

As this picture is being taken, you can see that Trevor is hugging Mason and Tyson just stole his hat and is laughing. This is a great description of their relationship.

Yep, mom joined in on the fun. This ride really was fun. It felt like going over hill after hill and getting butterflies in your stomach.

They loved this ride.

This ride looked like a lot of fun. When they reached the edge the car would whip around the turn pretty fast.

Yep, it was a long day! Think Tyson has outgrown the stroller? This is Mason's stroller and apparently he never wants to ride in it, but he did that day because Tyson wouldn't get out!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THE MINNESOTA STATE FAIR!!
I THINK WE'LL GO BACK IN ANOTHER THREE YEARS:)

Twins Game

The best aunt and uncle a spoiled rotten kid could ask for:)

Target Stadium is awesome, even though I have nothing to compare it to!

Too bad Ty missed out:(

Minnesota - August 2011

Four years ago we visited my brother and his wife, Rachelle, in Minnesota and were lucky enough to take a trip to the Minnesota State Fair. The experience was amazing and we've talked about that fair ever since. This week we got a chance to go back. Trevor was no longer a toddler, but we had two that took his place, Tyson and Mason! The rides were really fun and the weather was beautiful.

There were few things we set out to experience again, those included, turkey sandwiches, cheese curds, buckets of chocolate chip cookies and all you can drink milk (white or chocolate). Not everything was as great as we remembered, but we made our own memories this year. Mason loved riding the car rides, Trevor was a dare devil on the roller coasters and Tyson wanted to go on the obstacle course over and over again. Cody and mom tried some Bayou Alligator and we all had Minnesota Corn on the Cob. This treat is the biggest, butteriest and sweetest I've ever had. Sorry Nebraska farmers:) They grill it in the shuck and dip it in melted butter.

After a VERY long day we all made our way home and took some much needed naps. That evening Trevor, Cody and I got to experience a first. We all went to our first professional baseball game. The Minnesota Twins played the Detroit Tigers. As we were walking to the stadium we were approached about buying some tickets from someone on the street. We took him up on his offer and made our way to the gate. Unfortunately, we didn't make it very far. Apparently this scalper had sold the tickets on stubhub.com and then sold them to us. We bought new tickets at the window, then the boys (my brother and Cody) decided to head back and see if the scalper was still there. I still can't believe it, but he was. The guys asked for their money back and he gave it to them. He told them he had bought the tickets from someone else who must have sold them on stub hub (who knows). So, we really lucked out and were able to enjoy the game without thinking about the $70 he scammed us out of. The stadium was amazing. Trevor and I loved dancing to the music in between batters. The Twins lost by 5, but the game was still a lot of fun and we had a great story to tell when we got home. Trevor is a big fan of baseball and had a lot of questions about the rules. I made him move closer to Uncle Dan so he could answer them for him. I still don't understand the scoreboard and the rules!

Today we hung around outside. Again, the weather is amazing here. Not much humidity or wind. It gets a little hot in the afternoon though. Cody and I took the boys to the Mall of America. We even drove there ourselves. A little scary:) Cody had requested to go, which is amazing because it's a "shopping" center, but I think he wanted to see it just once so he said he did. We spent most of the time just walking around and looking at the stores. Of course the boys wanted to go on the rides in the amusement park, but we'd had enough the day before at the fair. We safely made our way home and now is nap time:) We might do a little more shopping tonight and then we'll head home tomorrow morning. I'll be posting pics as soon as I have time when we're home. Hope your weekend was a fun-filled as ours!

Quote of the Day

We had a birthday party for Cody's mom a couple weeks ago. Tyson was sitting at the bar talking to Cody's dad, Dave, because Dave is really the only person who will listen to Tyson ramble. Hilary overheard their conversation and through some giggling attempted to tell me. It apparently went as so,
Dave, "so, what have you been up to?"
Tyson, "well, we have a basement in our downstairs."

It may not sound that funny, but earlier in the day we were all cleaning and I told the boys to take something to the basement. They looked at each other puzzled and I heard Tyson say, "Tweva, where is our basement?" Trevor asked me, "Do we have a basement?" It occurred to me that we apparently don't call the "basement" a basement, we refer to it as "downstairs". Usually we refer to it by saying, "GO DOWNSTAIRS!!" Which is then followed by a few minutes of peace and quiet:)

A couple days later Trevor went to his Grandma Connie's and asked her, "Grandma, do you have a basement or attic?" Grandma said, "no." Trevor responded, "Then where do you keep all your old junk?" You now know what's in our basement (downstairs).

Another Great Trip to the Fair

The beginning of August is always a time our family looks forward to. Being the farm enthusiasts they are, the boys like going to see the animals as much as going on the rides. Trevor has been talking about being in 4-H since he could talk. His favorite exhibit used to be the dairy cows, but he's moved on to the bulls. He also likes the pigs. Cody and his family used to show pigs, so I think they hold a special place for all of them. Me, I'm a fan of the sheep. Sweet, soft little sheep. People tell me sheep are a lot of work though. This is bothersome because I have a feeling the parents end up taking care of these parents more than the kids. I guess we'll find out in two years when Trevor is old enough to participate. Here are a few pics from our trip!

What Goes Bump in the Night

I'm a little boggled about what happened last night - actually it was this morning.

Around 4:00 am our fire alarms went off. The alarms are electric and apparently when one is triggered they are all triggered. Side note - in an event of a fire Trevor, Tyson and I will wake up, flee the home and survive a terrible death. Cody will sleep through the entire thing. Wow.

Anyway, I get up and run into the living room and see nothing. No smoke, not fire, nothing. Except, Trevor was hitting his alarm saying, "how do I turn this off, it won't go off!" He just got the alarm the day before from his grandma. He had requested it.

After explaining to Trevor that it wasn't his alarm it was the fire alarms I began to hear a distance siren. I go to the window and I can hear the sirens going off in Amherst and I can see the faint resemblence of smoke in the air. But, I also have a nose like a bloodhound and I smell nothing. The alarms finally stop and I go back to bed. Not even five minutes later they're going off again. This time the "log" wakes up in a panic. He's tall enough to turn the alarms off, thank goodness. I fill him in on the last ten minutes and after doing a sweep of the house we go back to bed. Weird...just boggles my mind.

Incident number two: last night a perfectly delicious lemon cookie was left on the counter for me to enjoy at my choosing and this morning it had disappeared. After asking both children and gauging their responses I decided to dig a little deeper with Tyson because he had on his "guilty face". He finally cracked and admitted to eating the cookie during one of his late night benders. The confession was followed with a series of, "I'm sorry mommy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry mommy!" Tyson is a late night roamer and a late night snacker! I can only imagine the pounds of sugar that were caked on his teeth all night from that cookie. It wasn't a regular cookie, but a double lemon, frosted cookie from Eileen's. Sugar attack!

Breathe it All In

This morning was a "just breathe" moment. Most mornings I'm in a rush - getting myself out of bed and ready (spending about 30 minutes hitting snooze), nuking something that resembles a homeade breakfast and herding the boys (a lot like herding cats) to the car.

So, this morning I wanted to step back and just breathe. I wanted to take in the moments and enjoy the morning with Trevor before he left for his first day of 2nd grade. Trevor had laid out his clothes the night before and went to bed an hour early, but I was still weary about how much of a struggle it would be to awaken him. Luckily, after a few seconds of pretending like he was asleep he jumped right out of bed and asked for a waffle. Ty was a little harder to get around, but he's a night roamer, so know knows what time he crashed!!

The boys and I spent time talking about the morning, having seconds of juice and even chatted with grandpa before he took Trev to school. This morning was a great milestone and with both of my boys becoming more independent and mature I'm realizing I'm able to step back, breathe and enjoy the moments!

Summer 2011 - In Pictures

This summer has gone fast, they always do, but it's been so much fun! Here are some pictures to recap the summer.

Cody and I went to the Gary Allan concert and stumbled into some great friends/family.

Hilary and I saw Eric Church open for Miranda Lambert last year and he was amazing. We decided to make the trip to Hastings to see him again. It was a fun night! OH CAROLINA!

A lot of the summer was spent swimming. The boys love swimming in Cody's parent's pool. Tyson was terrified at the beginning of the summer, but he soon graduated to swimming with this nemo floaty and he'll now swim with just his life jacket.

This is Bob. We found him under our picnic table. He lives at Grandma Ginny's house.

The boys went to the high school rodeo finals with their grandparents. They make the most handsome cowboys, but I'm a little bias.

Another great summer in the bag! School starts tomorrow. I'll be sure to make a new post.

Why Are We Never Happy?

Summer is coming to an end and I can feel fall in the air. There's a crispness that is so refreshing. I love having our windows open and feeling the chill in the air at night. Fall is my favorite season and here in Nebraska it doesn't last long. The changing of the seasons reminded me of these videos. I'm sure we wanted summer to come so badly during this time of year, we're never happy! These videos are pretty cute.

Satisfying a Need

In the month of February I began to feel very restless. The sun had not appeared in months, I was done decorating and organizing the house and there was a part of me itching for an outlet to channel my boredom. I spent a month looking for a new hobby. Keep in mind, my only hobbies are once a month GNO, reality tv (yes, tv is a hobby, just like when people respond that their hobbies are camping or reading books) and reading an occasional page turner.

So, my quest for a hobby began. I spent an afternoon walking around Hobby Lobby (only appropriate, thus the name) and stumbled into the very intimidating scrapbooking isle(s). It's a completely different world in those isles. I think you need a membership card, a cricket and a lifetime supply of cardstock to even enter the area. I'm fortunate enough to have a mom who has entered the world of scrapbooking and had been putting together books for my boys for a few years. I kept telling myself, "no need to scrapbook. My mom will have them all done by the time the boys go to college." So, I think I bought one thing, glue or something (which you don't even use to scrapbook) and took a trip to P-town. After 10 or 15 minutes of my mom unloading her scrapbooking equipment, we got started. I made two pages and enjoyed the process very much. My mom asked if I needed a few things to take home and I said no, that I would just come to her house when I wanted to scrapbook.

Well, a few months later I started to get the itch to organize my photos and the creative twitch started flickering again. I took another trip to Hobby Lobby, but this time I swiped my membership card and went right in (I had made two scrapbook pages at this point, pro). I picked up the basics and have been creating a few pages here and there. Trevor loves to help cut and Tyson loves to pick up the stacks of photos and spread them out all over the floor. He's also fond of bending them, stepping on them or ripping them. What a sweetheart:)

I've found that the process is really filling a void in me. Marketing is a creative job, but marketing at an accounting firm isn't as creative as you may think:) I love reminiscing through the memories and mentally taking myself to that moment. Visitors have enjoyed going through the books and finding themselves also.

So, for now, the unsettling, restless boredom has subsided. I'm always open to new hobby ideas though! February will roll around before we know it!

Wow, 2nd Grade!

Today Trevor and I are going shopping for school supplies. He doesn't seem thrilled. I remember school shopping so vividly. I think girls are different than boys though. I still, to this day, love new "school" or office supplies. I'm almost giddy when a package arrives with new pens, tape and white out.

The start of school means that our lives can return to some sort of structure. We will once again have a bedtime, which should help the kids and adults get up easier in the morning! I'm longing for fall. These crisp morning really make me excited for open windows, the change of the leaves and pumpkin picking. Cody and I are also fed up with mowing and pulling weeds!

Funny Videos

I have a few videos that are just sitting in a folder on my computer. I don't upload them to Facebook, so I thought I'd upload them here so atleast they're somewhere! I'm guilty of not shooting enough videos and I know I'll regret it later.

For the Present and the Future

A friend of mine started updating her blog recently and it reminded me of mine. Poor, neglected blog:( Last night the boys and I sat down and looked through the old blogs posts. It reminded me why I started writing this blog. I wanted a memory book to be able to share with them. It's also nice to write down things, because even though I think I'll never forget the funny things they do and say, life gets busy, years past, and memories start to fade. Even as I was reading through the most recent blog posts I found myself saying, "wow, I forgot he used to do that."

So, the blog continues! Trevor is a roaring seven years old. Blonde, tan and cute as an angel. He's quite angelic in his attitude and behavior too. Cody and I know how lucky we are to have a little boy like him. He's very helpful, after a little moaning and groaning and he tries so hard to guide Tyson, but of course, Tyson's stubborn and independent personality gets in the way. Ah Tyson, he's Trevor's "reality check". Before we had Tyson, Trevor was spoiled rotten and was sure the earth revolved around him. BOOM! In comes Tyson and rocks Trevor's world. Tyson demands attention, but not in a self-seeking way. He makes me laugh a lot and I can tell Trevor is envious of that. Tyson is a cross between my dad and Cody's dad (short, stocky and solid). His favorite thing to say right now is, "mom, guess what", "what Tyson", "Chicken Butt!!" I know that some day we'll miss this, but that time isn't now!! Tyson is a rhymer. He likes to rhyme, sing and make up words, which is complete nonsense to Cody, but I find myself humming along to his imaginary songs. The boys are beginning to play better together. There's usually a game of Mario Kart on the Wii and they even share the same interests in cartoons. Playing outside is still a struggle for Trevor, because he doesn't have much imagination. He never has.

Both boys are over the moon excited about going to Minnesota in a couple weeks. Their cousin Mason is 1 1/2 and is starting to talk. I think he'll be a lot of fun this trip:) My mom and brother built Mason a sand box when we were there over Easter and I think they'll all have fun playing in it. We're also planning on going to the Minnesota State Fair. We took Trevor one of the first times we visited my brother and it was so much fun! I can't wait to go back and this time Tyson and Cody get to come.

Signing off for now. I'll leave you with a recent photo:)