Mama's Mumblings

He friends!  I just realized that it's Thursday, and I've only posted once this week. Just when I didn't think life could get any busier, it did. In less than one week, I've gone from having about 4 orders left to complete, to about 35 orders. It's insanity, y'all!

 

 I'm extremely thankful for all the work, but I won't lie....I am extremely overwhelmed right now. When I'm busy with orders, the housework waits. Well, housework can only wait for so long before things get waaaay out of hand. Right now, it's getting to that point, and it's stressing me out. I had someone call yesterday, wanting to come over and look at some things. I immediately started freaking out and finally made an excuse for her not to come. I can't do that forever, though. After this rush of orders are finished, I'm going to have to take a break for a week or so. I've got to get this house back into shape!

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I just realized that I never followed-up about Chelsea's glasses!  We picked them up two weeks ago and they look really cute on her.

I think she did a great job picking them out.  Of course, I think she's worn them a total of about 2 hours since she's had them.  LOL

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Jameson has a huge project for Social Studies on Friday, that he's been working on for over a month. They are studying famous Alabamians and Jameson is going to be Hank Williams.

 

 

His report and facts are awesome, but the best part....I found a cream-colored, polyester, 3 piece suit, just for him to wear during his presentation. I actually found it at a consignment sale I went to a few weeks ago. It was literally the first thing I saw. Never in a million years could I have planned it any better! I am a little bummed that he wouldn't let me bedazzle it, though. I hope to have some great photos to share later!

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Speaking of Jameson's school, the book fair started again this week. Guess who decided to volunteer for not one, but TWO whole days this week?

Yup, that would be ME!

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I've become obsessed with these lately:

It's called a Green River Roll, and my niece, Shelby told me I had to try it.  Boy was she right!  I've had this THREE times in the past week and would have had it again tonight, if we had been near the restaurant. Technically, there isn't really anything "sushi" about it other than the rice. It has tempura shrimp, crab meat, rice, and is covered with a spicy mayo. But it is SO stinkin' good!

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We are supposed to have some really bad weather today, so everyone watch out and stay near a television or radio! If they say to go to a safe place, THEN GO TO A SAFE PLACE!  I want to see you ALL here again tomorrow! OK?

Out with the old, in with the new!

Hey friends!

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend! The weather here was BEAUTIFUL! Blue skies, warm sunshine and cool breezes. I'm generally not a Spring fan, but this weekend's weather was PERFECT! Unfortunately, it looks like we are jumping right into Summer this week, so the perfect weather was short-lived.

As I mentioned last week, Marty had a birthday. He generally HATES to celebrate his birthday, but we always try to do something a little special. We went out to eat to his favorite restaurant the Saturday before.

 And we went to his second favorite restaurant (and my favorite) the night of his actual birthday.

 

Nothing says "Happy Birthday" than some delicious food, right?  LOL

I wanted to get him something he wanted, but he never tells me anything. So, I drug him to our local home improvement store and refused to leave until he picked something out. We came home with this:

Yes, that's a grill....in our living room. We bought it unassembled, so Marty put it together in the comfort of the living room.  LOL  Even though it looked great, using a propane grill is prohibited indoors, so he finally took the plunge and dragged it outside.

Doesn't it look like a monster compared to the old grill?

He's chosen to leave it under the porch, with a cover, to protect it better.

I asked Marty if he wanted me to see if any of our friends wanted his old grill, but then he told me that he didn't think that would be a good idea. He then proceeds to tell me all the Maguyver-ing he's had to do to the grill to keep it functioning over the years. It's about 15 years old, so it's had a good, long life...full of many hot dogs, hamburgers, and fabulous rib-eyes. Whenever I've had a hankering for something grilled, I've told Marty and he's made it happen. I had NO idea what he had to do to make the old grill work!

First of all, the ignition switch stopped working long ago.  Even after multiple repairs, it's never really worked right. He always has to use a lighter to start it up. Then he has to scrape, scrape, scrape the grates where they are almost rusted through.  Next, the covers that are over the flames that helps to defuse them, have been gone a long time. So Marty manufactured new ones out of aluminum foil and wire coat hangers.  But the final straw was the bottom of the grill...or the actual LACK of a bottom.  He said the bottom has been completely rusted out for years, so he made a "new" one out of aluminum foil.

Who knew you could make edible (and quite delicious) food using a propane tank, rusted grates, coat hangers, and a ton of aluminum foil?

So I say good riddance to the old grill!  Out with the old, and in with the new!

The Peeps just thought they were safe!

It's no secret around here that Peeps don't fare very well in this house.  Those poor Peeps come through the door, thinking their purpose is to bring smiles to children and adults alike.

If they only knew how many smiles they will bring to the occupants of the house!

Here is my original Peep post that show some of my earlier spectacular Peep adventures.

Aren't they pretty?

 Unfortunately, after that post, and after breaking a plate AND blowing up my microwave (and maybe blowing a fuse in the process), my husband decided that I could no longer blow up Peeps wearing bling in our new microwave.  

And after the DRAMA that it took to install that stupid microwave, I completely agree with his decision. Our current microwave has to survive at least 20 years...at least!

So, for the past couple of years, we've kept our Peep torture to a minimum.

This year, the week before Easter and Easter weekend was extremely crazy and busy.  This didn't leave us time for any Peep adventures.  Jameson realized this Easter night and proceeded to remind me multiple times a day that I was a parent failure because I hadn't taken the time to torture any Peeps.  Yesterday we managed to finish homework pretty quickly, so Peep talk began again.

Since it was early in the evening, I decided to go for it.  Here are photos of the following torture: 

**disclaimer: MANY Peeps WERE injured in this process**

We found the Hello Kitty Peeps during a recent shopping trip and the kids grabbed them up for the sole purpose of blowing them up. The purple and blue Peeps were leftovers from last Easter....so they were nice and stale!

Jameson arranged them so neatly.

 Into the microwave you go!

Awwwwwe, so sorry!

Round 2

Awwwwe, the Peeps are holding up Hello Kitty! (There is also another Hello Kitty underneath)

YUK! What a mess!

Look at that Hello Kitty eye just staring at me....

Round 3

Look how fat they are getting!

Oooooh, that's gross!

Poor Hello Kitty.

Round 4

We saved the remaining blue Peeps for last. They just didn't swell and melt like the others, so we wanted to see what they would do alone.

After two minutes, this is all the blue Peeps would do.

Which led to two boys (Jameson and Spencer) chanting "BLUE PEEPS STINK" over and over again as they marched through the house.

Even though we didn't have any sparks, flames, or broken microwaves, we still had a pretty good time.  The wheels are already spinning with ideas for next year.....

Even though you are in denial...

it IS your birthday today!

Happy Birthday to the main man in my life!

 Everything I said last year, still applies....and even more so today!

I hope you have a wonderful day!  We all love you very much!

Easter 2013

Hey friends! I hope your week and Easter weekend was wonderful!

Last week was spent either being in pain, or rushing to finish pending orders and getting ready for Easter during the moments I actually felt decent. I don't know what's causing the pain I'm having in my face/mouth (Doctor says sinuses), but I do know it needs to stop NOW because it has interfered with my life long enough! I've missed work, church, time with family/friends, and sleep for the past 6 weeks. Fortunately, I think I've finally figured out how to control the pain, so I'm hoping things will level out soon. I'm beyond ready to have my life back!

ANYWAY, so sorry for the complaining! I know that MILLIONS of others out there, including many in my own back door, endure WAAAAY more horrible things in this life than mouth/face pain!

Now on to Easter fun!

We were excited that we were all relatively healthy this Easter, especially after last year's mono outbreak. Jameson was on Spring Break the week prior to Easter, so we had a lot of time to relax and not have to rush around like crazy. I will have to say, it was really nice!

Saturday night, we decided to try a recipe I found on Pinterest that used iced circus cookies to make cake pops. After listening/reading several stories about how hard it could be, I was sure my attempt would be a complete and total failure. I have ZERO patience for anything cooking/baking related. Surprisingly, it was really easy and the pops came out great!

Except for that one lone cake pop on the lower right that decided to fall over...causing the big puddle of chocolate underneath. LOL

 Yes, I know they are upside down....but I didn't have anything to use to do them the "correct" way. HAHA!

I also overestimated the amount of chocolate I needed, so I ended up dipping a few other things:

Peanut butter crackers

Donuts

I still ended up pouring out about 1/2 cup of the chocolate. Next time I'll start with just 1/2 package instead of a whole!

I also made a few buckets for my great nieces and nephews.

That night,the kids were really hyped up, and it was almost impossible to get them to go to sleep! The poor, overworked Easter Bunny wasn't able to make his delivery until after midnight! We finally had to tell Jameson that if he didn't go to sleep, the Easter Bunny would completely skip our house. That seemed to do the trick. It's too bad we didn't thin of that several hours earlier. LOL

Finally, the Easter Bunny came. We chatted for a few minutes, and he went on his hoppity way.

Sweets even got her own basket!

Chelsea's new obsession is The Great and Powerful Oz.

Minecraft pick axe, anyone?

50 years of General Hospital

Jameson finding out he got Alan Jackson tickets!

Sweets checking out her loot!

We all had a great day and were definitely sad to see the day come to an end.  Well, Jameson and I were sad. He goes back to school after having the week off and I head back to work. Marty and Chelsea get to enjoy Monday off, too!

But right now, I'm just happy that I'm able to return to work!

I hope you all have a fabulous rest of the week!