Ugly Flower Wallpaper is Gone!

When we bought our house - 4 years ago! - we intended on removing all the wallpaper. The wallpaper in the dinning room/toy room was just horrible, we thought. I had since come to accept it, and did not cringe every time I walked into view. However, I really did want to update it to our style. So ....

We purchased a steamer and began working Sat. evening. I worked for less than 2 hours and removed about 1/3 of the paper. Sunday afternoon I started again, and in less than 3 hours had removed it all! I cannot believe how easy and quickly this paper removal went!

In the planning stages...

So my friend inspired me to do one of two things very soon here. (I need to get to the beer store to do this, and well, that is not the everyday trip, especially with gas costing over 4.25/gallon now and me driving a huge gas guzzler!)

So, i am going to plan a beer bento lunch. Not for the kids, obviously : ) but for us adults! I have been toying with the idea of having it as a little party for some close friends. But here is the gist of the idea: Pair together a beer with a food that really seems to compliment the beer. So, have three or four beers and a food for each one. Nut Brown and a good brat or sausage, Corona (or some other good "light, summer " beer) and lime with guacamole and chips ... you get the idea. So the beer and the food would make a whole package for the party/bento :)

For those of you that live too far away (like China!) I'll have to make sure you get the "recipe" and can re-create it for yourself!

Red Tail Ale

Bill bought a 6-pack of my favorite beer, Red Tail Ale, the other day. Ahhhh. This is one of the things from CA that I do often miss. Although, Killians Red is not too bad a substitute. But the bigger problem is that CA seemed to have such the pluthera of small and micro-breweries to choose from in the everyday grocery store, and here, well not so much the selection.

In order to purchase a "good" beer you basically have to make a seperate trip to a high-end party store. Luckily we have found two in the semi-near area that have managed to serve our needs. Now I have to remember to seperate the good beers from the average beers when I take back the returnables, and then I have to remember which store to return what bottles. Ah, such the hassles of a good beer.

And then there is that Beer Tasting Party we keep talking about. Yea, it has been four years or more since we talked about that one! sigh. We suck at party throwing. Or, planned ones at least. Iam such a spontanous person that I have difficulties planning well.

Oh well, I have a cold Red Tail in front of me and I am happy!!

Exaustion!

I have been rather quite lately. But only online. My life has been turned upside down it seems. With the end of school and all that means with field trips, parties, and performances and the like, plus Annika's birthday, then add in the Community Garden we are helping with, and now that school is out I am watching little Ikey more and the girls also have swimming lessons Mon-Thurs, I am getting ready for our sub's annual meeting and family picnic plus planning the Simmons-Kreeger/MI-CA clan summer camping trip, and dear Lauren has declared that she wants to be home schooled this summer ..... did I forget something? Oh yea, ME! and even more so, BILL!

I finally threw in the towel today and scheduled a babysitter for tomorrow night. Don't care what we do, but me and the man are going out!

Zoo Lunch

This is what Annika and I took to the zoo with us on our field trip Thursday. Roast beef and spinach rolled up in a tortilla with a bit of cream cheese spread on it. Carrot, broccoli, and cucumber slices with a side of ranch dip (for Annika only, I chose to have naked veggies) a cheese stick cut into thirds for easy packing in my container, and some apple slices to top it all off. This was more than we could eat for both lunch and a mid-morning snack, which surprised me quite a bit as it did not seem to be that much food. And, surprisingly enough, Annika ate the sandwich, then the broccoli, then the carrots, then the cucumber (which is usually her favorite veggie) and finally the apples and cheese stick for a 2-o'clock snack on the drive home. Odd.

Wed's lunch

I might start a semi-regular series of photos here of the lunches I pack for the kids. I know this site is all about me, but I have had some inquires about what I pack for lunch and what my kids eat, so this is my way of addressing this. Plus, I am kinda obsessed with this topic ... part of my nutritional stuff, ya know.

So, tomorrows lunch (per Lauren's request) consists of roaches in sandy logs (we were out of raisins, so I used dried cherries - they're bigger so thus they are roaches.) two sticks of colby cheese in one container. Mango, pineapple (and later some kiwi was added too) ranch flavored wheat thin crackers, and grape tomatoes. In the little blue container (my only official bento gear, btw) are some extra roaches ... err dried cherries. I also will pack a home made chocolate chip cookie.

Laundry Line

I did it! A few weeks ago I located some PVC piping, a drill, and some rope and I created a laundry line that will dry a load of laundry and still be rather inconspicuous. Bill really does not like to see laundry hanging up on the line (the snob that he is. har!) so I thought about it for awhile, and found the perfect compromise.

He still does not like it much, but come on, is it really that noticeable hanging off the trellis of our walk out basement? I think not! So, green laundry drying and lower energy bills here we come! And with the price of gas lately, we need to save our pennies everywhere we can!