Blast from the past

DH was looking through the new listings in our neighborhood earlier this week. He does this. Frequently. He called me into the office and asked me to look at a photo. He wanted to know if I recognized it.


It is the bedroom of our first house that we purchased in Jan. 1999. I did not recognize it for the first few seconds but then I saw the curtains. Those are the curtains that I sewed for the room. They were still hanging 13 years and two owners later.

The house has since been purchased at huge discount, less than what we paid for it, because of foundation issues. It looks like they fixed issues, updated the baths & kitchen a bit and put it back on the market (at a huge price jump, they'll never get that much money for it!) My curtains didn't make the cut for the flip, but at least they did get a good 13 years of good use. It made my efforts feel worthwhile.

Thanksgiving 2012

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year. We spent a couple days just cleaning (see the fish foam post) the house. Wednesday night I started preparing to cook. Luckily we do it potluck style so I'm not responsible for cooking the whole meal. This year DH was smoking a turkey in the BGE and frying a turkey. I was responsible for roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy. I decided to also make a dip for appetizer and a pie.

After all the cleaning, I didn't make it to the store for last minute items until 6pm on Wednesday night, not a good time to go to the grocery store at all. By the time I got there, they were sold out of Pillsbury pie crust. While I will use a Pillsbury pie crust, I will not reduce myself to using the store brand. I've tried it before and I don't think it tastes as good. I decided I would rather make my own bland pie crust than use the store brand.






Thanksgiving morning A and I made pumpkin white chocolate chip muffins with the mix we bought at TJs. They were as good as the sample in the store.


When the muffins were done, we went to our neighborhood Turkey Trot. We used to go downtown every year, but it is huge and crowded and hard to go much faster than a stroll. Seven families met at a neighbor's house and we ran/walked a 5k.


Once the exercise was done, it was onto cooking. I started with gravy. Since we weren't roasting a turkey, I wasn't going to have drippings to make the gravy. Google found me some ideas on what to do, besides use the packet mix that S#2 said works just fine. I ended up frying the turkey necks with a blob of fat and some butter. It turned out fine and made the last minute rush to get food on the table that much easier because I wasn't standing, frantically stirring, trying to get the gravy done.

I made this dip that a friend found on pinterest. It was devoured in no time at all. The kids all loved it even though it was full of spinach and black beans.


We had the obligatory play put on by A&E. I was cooking and got out of watching but Pop-Pop did his grandfatherly duty. Lucky for him it wasn't an overly long production.


It was a banner year for turkey. The fried one turned out great, but the smoked one was perfect. A nice light flavor and juicy! The Big Green Egg did a great job. I'm just sad that Mom wasn't here to enjoy it. She loves smoked turkey.






The pecan cheese cake pie (recipe found here) was delicious. I like 2-3 bites of pecan pie. I love the bite of the pecans, but beyond a few bites, it is too sweet. The tart of the cheesecake balanced the sweet and it was a great combination of flavors. I would definitely make it again.


That's all that was left.

It was a lovely thanksgiving, full of bad football, good food and lots of family. Looking forward to next year.

Fish Foam

We have a lot of windows in our house. When you walk in, there is a wall of windows directly in front of you. The dining room next to the living area also has a wall of windows. Most of the time, they are dirty. I've been thinking I needed to hire the window washer guy who calls all the time, but I hadn't thought of his company name and he hadn't called in awhile.

Last week I remembered a blog post about Fish Foam and decided to order it.  DH wasn't enthusiastic about it but I told him it would be worthwhile.

Here are the windows, after I had cleaned half of the windows on the outside only.  You can see the haze on the middle left window, still dirty on both sides.




After cleaning the outside and inside of the windows, I had to go back to clean up any streaks that were left behind and get the corners and edges better. DH ended up helping with the upper windows, using a microfiber cloth. I used green cotton cloths Mom gives us from surgery.  (She gets leftover unused cloths, great for all cleaning purposes.) The microfiber (not one made for glass) left lots of streaks so we ended up going over those windows again.

The results were worthwhile. I think DH was impressed.

Trader Joe's

BIL#1 has worked at Trader Joe's for years. We've enjoyed the store from afar. Whenever we travel to places with TJ's, we try to make a stop. If we can't get there, S#1 sends care packages. The store finally opened in the Dallas area back in August, but it was in Ft. Worth, still too far for a regular errand. A month or so ago, TJ's opened up in Plano. Still not close for a regular errand but plenty close enough for a special trip.

DH & I headed up to check it out last week. We went mostly for the brined turkey. DH is going to cook it in the BGE and most of the stuff he's read about, the turkey is brined. He wanted to skip that process so to TJ's we went.


It's finally here!


The turkey man and the turkey head lady


Brussel Sprouts on the stalk. I bought the ones in the bag instead


My very favorite TJ's product ever!


DH getting annoyed with me trying to get the perfect turkey shot

I only bought one box of caramels since I know I won't have to wait 6mos to a year before I get another box. I did make a random purchase of Pumpkin Bread Box Mix and white chocolate chips because they were handing out samples that were so good.

Par 3

J joined a golf league with his cousin M this fall. They attended clinic for an hour and then played with the league on a 9 hole par 3 course. It has been a busy fall and most of the bad weather we've had conveniently arrived on Saturday so he's only made it to about half of the Saturdays. At least it is pay as you attend league so it hasn't been a total loss.

I had my first chance to watch him play today. He said it was his worst hole all season. His ball landed "less than in inch out of bounds" and the course cat Tom "was right there and he hates orange balls and he must have hit the ball out of bounds." He took his two shot penalty. By the time he got to the green, he wasn't happy and 3 putted for an 8.






I'm his mom and I don't know much about golf, so I thought he looked great out there! The mom who was walking the course with them said he did great and was consistant, of course until that last hole.

Busy week in Cub Scouts

B had a busy week in Cub Scouts. Wednesday, his den went to visit the Dallas Office of the FBI. One of the dads in the den is an FBI Swat Guy. Or as J & B like to say, he's a sniper, then they raise their arms like they are holding a big old rifle (or whatever big gun a sniper would hold) and pretend to shoot. Boys do like guns.

The boys got to go visit the FBI warehouse where all the "toys" are.










Friday night was the Pack Meeting. The Tiger Cubs got to do color guard duty. B carried in the Texas flag. They also received the Bobcat badge. It is hanging upside down right now, waiting for B to do a "good turn" so we can turn it rightside up and sew it on.

I Like Big Bundts 2012!

The past two years, I've baked Bundt cakes for National Bundt Cake day. Even though Mary the Food Librarian wasn't able to do her 30 Bundts in 30 days for National Bundt Cake day, I still wanted to bake a cake in honor of the day.

I thought about making Red Velvet with Chocolate Chips, ala Nothing Bundt Cakes, but decided against it. I found this recipe for Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake and it called to me. Something about the chocolate and the sour cream, I couldn't not make it.


Until next year, Happy National Bundt Cake Day!

P.S. The cake was gone in 24 hours. This may be my new go-to bundt cake recipe. Not too sweet, not too heavy, soo good.

Airing out the closet

I've been making lists of things to do. One of the big ones was clean out the boys' closet. It had two feet of cr*p on the floor. You couldn't walk in the walk-in closet.

I forgot to take a before picture. Here is the pile of stuff that previously covered the floor.


Here is 'I can see the carpet' shot of the closet. Don't look up on the shelves. That will be another project, another day.


And the piles of stuff that was left. There are a few piles to go back in, and a few piles to donate and to trash.


I know as a mother I should have made the boys do this work themselves. They probably would have learned a good life lesson or something like that. However, the one hour of work on my part, done well and organized, would have been a 12 hour whine fest on their part. Stress free cleaning is much better than life lessons. At least this time.

weekend

This should have been a post full of B's adventures. He had a trip to Old City Park (or what ever the name of Old City Park is now) with Cub Scouts for WWII/Veterens day. They were going to have all kinds of stuff to do and re-enactments of battles. I don't know if B was even interested but I thought it was going to be so cool. He also had his flag football tournament on Saturday. They were undefeated this season and were looking forward to going all the way.

Instead I got a phone call from the school nurse at 11:30 on Friday, B wasn't feeling well. He cried on the way home begging me not to take him to the doctor because then he wouldn't be able to play football. I insisted that he get medicine so he might be better in time to play. I cancelled the Cub Scout event. I was sad.

He was pretty puny all Friday night. He woke up with a fever early Saturday morning. It finally broke mid-morning. I didn't want him to play at all. We compromised or I gave in, not sure which. We were definitely skipping the first game. If there fever didn't come back up and he was feeling better, then he could play in the second and possible third game.

After this decision was made, he turned to me and asked what would happen if they lost the first game. I said he wouldn't play at all. He said it wouldn't happen. He was wrong. They lost and he didn't play. I was happy because I didn't want him playing in the first place. He was devastated.

Later DH, A and J went to the cousins house to watch ND football game. I called before hand to see how S#2 felt about B coming over. She wasn't keen on it. I understood, but then I had to tell B that not only did he miss the playoffs, he couldn't go to the cousins. More tears ensued mixed with multiple declarations of 'Being sick stinks.'

We made it up by going out for dinner, playing some board games, getting Fix It Felix Jr. game on the ipad and camping out on the sofa to watch the ND game by ourselves. He fell asleep early. He needed it. This morning he woke up fever free and is back to his rambunctious self.

Meanwhile, Saturday afternoon A had a dance performance at Market Hall. The two grandmothers, Cousin E and I went down to watch her dance. I forgot the big camera and the phone camera still stinks.

Here's my best.

24 Hours in Austin

A friend of ours got married in April. He and his new wife flew into Austin for the weekend. We got together with a good group of friends to help them celebrate.

The view of half the capital building from our hotel room


Salt Lick BBQ


Sitting in the room watching the end of the ND game while everyone else drank in the bar


Stayed out way too late


Breakfast tacos. Too bad Ken's is closed on Sundays, but Taco Shack was a good substitute

It was a quick trip full of food and drinks and fun. Can't wait for the next time.

All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day

It was a busy week. Halloween on Wednesday and since the kids go to Catholic School, we also had All Saints Day on Thursday. I had three halloween costumes, two saint costumes, and the first grade Halloween party to help plan (or execute because I did very little planning.)

Halloween party went well. I made marshmallow eyeballs for the mummy milk. The craft went over well.





We've been super busy. We barely had time to carve pumpkins. Wednesday after school, the kids came home to pumpkins with the tops already cut out and seeds and goop mostly cleaned out. Thanks Dad! That was easy. I only cut about half the faces this year. A did her whole pumpkin. I helped J with his eyes. B did his eyes and some of his mouth and then got bored.






Pretty good looking pumpkins.




Costumes weren't too bad. A and I went shopping with friends at the Joann's 70% clearance sale. She got fairy wings and cobbled together a "Rainbow Fairy" costume.


J tried to be a Muggle. I told him kids who don't wear costumes get the yucky candy, even if he has an explanation for the non-costume. He quickly came up with a "Hobo" costume.


We found a Captain America mask and shield on sale at Target. I painted a $3.00 t-shirt also from Target. B had issues with this costume. He wanted matching blue pants. He wanted the painted stripes to go all the way around the torso. He wanted stripes on the sleeves and red gloves. I told him it was a costume and it wasn't a perfect match and it would be fine. Luckily, he is getting older and slightly more reasonable and he accepted the costume without and fight.


Don't they look cute?


DH & kids played with his new i-phone panoramic photo options.


Once Halloween costumes were done, I had to handle saint costumes. I tried to talk them into being the same saint and letting me make one costume, J wouldn't budge. He picked St. Peter Claver, a Jesuit priest. Not bad for pinning, guessing and sewing.


B was St. Peter the Apostle.  I went super easy, an old pillowcase with head and arm holes and a brown felt cloak. I had to talk B out of the green cloak that was on the Holy Card he had. I had brown felt, I didn't have green felt. He made do. I did fashion a key out of cardboard and duct tape.

Pictures didn't go so well. I took the shot too early in the parade. I got stuck in conversation after mass and missed the picture taking opportunity in the classroom. I tried to get him to stand still for a second to let me take the picture, it didn't happen.




It was a good holiday, now I have to start planning for Thanksgiving.