The smoke shop

My dad taught me how to tell time in a bar.  Lord knows what he taught KP during his smoke shop visit.

Family Recipes

Back in May, when Adam’s grandmother (Grandma G.G.) passed away, we all came together to celebrate her life, grieve her death and say good bye.

After the funeral (or I should really clarify and say after the party) we went back to her house.  All her kids and grandkids got to pick a keepsake from her house that reminded them of her.  And then the work of finding homes for the rest of the everyday items began. 

I stood in the kitchen cleaning up after coffee and looked around.  There were her tools that she used everyday; her old teaspoons, a juicer, an old plastic yellow mixing bowl and all her recipes.  I asked if I could take all the recipes with me and make a cookbook in her memory.

Going through her recipes has been special.   Just to see her hand writing again, the spills of sauce on the cards, the old friends that signed their names on their favorites, the duplicates and triplicates of her favorites so she would have a spare to hand out at a moments notice. 

I miss her.  I wish she were here so we could talk about her pies and her love of Velveeta. 

As I go through the hundreds of recipes, I will post some from time to time.  I will start with this odd little one, it has no name (so I named it) and I have no idea if it should be in the casserole or dessert section of the book.  Enjoy.

G.G.’s Egg-Noodle-Extravaganza

1 lb. wide egg noodles cooked and drained

½ lb. butter

1 lb. cream cheese

8 eggs beaten

2 cups warm milk

1 cup sugar

½ tsp. salt

Prepare 8 x 13 buttered baking dish.  Cream butter and cream cheese, add eggs.  Mix all other ingredients together and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour. 

Serves 12.  

Can be served warm or cold.

New Category

I never thought of people reading blogs by “categories” until my friend Becca told me she did.

A few days after my conversation with Becca, I was going out to a play and had nothing to wear.  I found an old maternity sweater which was left out because it was suppose to go to my friend Anne Marie.  Somehow it didn’t.

And somehow, it made it onto my body in a last ditch effort to find something to wear.  It seemed to fit, work with the black pants I had on, it did not make me look pregnant.  No one was the wiser that I was wearing a maternity sweater out to dinner and a play.

And at that very moment a new category was born…The Ultimate Cheap Ass.

Cracks me up

If you need a laugh and have not checked out Mrs. Bickerson’s site in a while, she is on a roll.   

Check her out.

Make a wish

Do you have one?

A bin full of it

Today Jen spent almost the whole day at my house helping me clean out my front hall closet.  It was a mess.  We had two hours before any kids would have to be picked up from school, we had to hurry. 

It was not enough time.  So we picked them all up, fed them, then caved and allowed them to watch a mid afternoon movie so we could get the job done.  Everything was out, open, in large piles ALL OVER THE LIVING ROOM.  It had to get done.

I couldn’t believe the amount of garbage.  Jen is really good at throwing things away, I’m not.  That’s why I enlist her expertise.  She and my mother in law would rival each other as to who could/would and wants to clean out their closets most often.  They have been born with a way to cut through the crap with laser like precision; again I don’t have that skill.

By the end of the day the closet was clean and ready to become my new “War Room”.  This will be the place where all the kid’s school and outerwear items have a home.  There will be a white board to post all school activities, wall pockets for all their homework, mail slots for us, places to hang backpacks and coats and bins for hats and mittens.  Ohhhh the joy!

As we were trudging through the knee high piles of shit I said to Jen, “It’s not like I’m a disorganized person, I don’t get how this happens.”  Her response, “You know how you think my messy handwriting doesn’t fit how anal (that’s my descriptor) I am, I feel the same about you and your closets.”

What doesn’t seem to mesh with the way you live?

It’s gone

She would not let the doctor touch it.

She would not let me touch it.

She would not let Adam touch it.

So after four months…she chewed it off.

Chit chat

PJ and I were on a bike ride yesterday.  She was telling me a little about school, who she plays with, what they play, that she really does know what the teacher is saying to her.

Then she asked, “Why did you send me there?”

My response was, “We felt it was the best gift we could ever give you, the gift of a second language.”

She said nothing for a long time.  As a matter of fact, I think she’s still thinking about it.

School lunch

KP and I swung by school to have lunch with PJ today. 

I thought it would be a good idea.  I thought it would be fun.  I thought she would enjoy having us there sharing a meal with her new classmates.

I was wrong.  She was not ready for home to collide with school.

There were A LOT of tears and carrying-on when we tried to leave. 

Really…there is nothing more heart wrenching than turning away from your child when all they really want is you.

Ready for action captain

Here he is…the littlest one to fly the coupe. 

So ready and so excited for his first day of preschool.

Not a problem in the world today.  He took school by storm and then sang me a song and showed me all the things he did.

We both had a wonderful morning.