One day at a time!

Well the weekend has come and gone and now even Monday is almost over. Friday night, Jason took me out for our last date before he headed off to Texas. It was SO nice! I can't even remember the last time Jason and I got out on a date by ourselves. Of course we had to take Jason shopping for new clothes for the new job. That was fun! Then we went out for dinner at a place in Savannah called Jazz'd Tapas Bar. Tapas is a way of eating.....you order more like 1 or 2 things off the menu and they are brought to you in "sample size" portions. It is great because you can try more than one thing at a time and not have to come back 50 times to try everything that looks good on the menu. It was something different and of course the company was GREAT!
Jason also had the chance to carve pumpkins with the kids on Friday afternoon, which is a family tradition so I'm glad he didn't miss out on that!
Saturday morning I tried to roast the pumpkin seeds but smoke started billowing out of my oven. Stephanie explained that something has spilled in the oven the night before so I quick pulled the seeds out and thought.....time to self clean the oven. For those of you who have never done the self clean on your oven....be warned. This self clean cycle takes a freaking 4.5 hours! 4.5 hours of HOT HOT oven and STINKY STINKY burning smell! It was a nice 65 degrees outside but still the front half of our house got HOT! It felt like it took all day long! Once done though, the oven is clean! Next time I feel the need to "self clean" the oven, I will think a lot harder and then leave the city for 4.5 hours! :-)
Jason started his job today and so far, so good, I guess. What can you say after one day of work....of course I haven't really talked to him much today since TX is an hour behind us and it seems he is already being sucked into long days. Oh well, he'll get it figured out. I am adjusting to being mom/dad and keeping the motto "one day at a time". Nights are when I get lonely though and miss him. During the day I am used to him being at work anyway, but around 5pm I start wishing he was going to come down the driveway and say he is home for day. No such luck! I will admit that we have started a countdown and it should only be about 22 days until he is home for a visit. Not too bad really, 22 days isn't that far away.
Here are some pictures of the kids with their pumpkins. We'll post more after Halloween with all the kids in costumes. It should be an adventure this year......Bekah, Zoe (our huge chocolate lab) and four kids going trick or treating! Woohoo! They better get some good candy for me to raid after all the effort. HaHa!

Big news

So I have been avoiding the big news and waiting to tell everyone what is going on. Are you ready?! Jason just got a new job and well, it's not exactly in GA....more like it's in TX. Yeah, we are going to be moving AGAIN! I know, I know, we are crazy but hey, life is an adventure and how fun is it to live the same place your whole life?
Jason is leaving this weekend to travel to TX and starts his new job Monday. The kids and I will be staying here at least until the end of the school year since Stephanie is in the middle of the semester. To be honest, we're not sure what all we're going to do after that, but I will let you know when I know more!
Pray for Jason as he travels on Saturday and pray for me as I take on the roll of mommy/daddy for a while!
On another note, Nicholas had his birthday party this weekend and I thought I would post some pictures.

We took the kids to a place called Skukazoo where the kids could play in tunnels, go down slides and just have an all around good time! We ate cupcakes out in the truck and opened presents out there too. (We couldn't take food into the place). So, here are some pictures, enjoy!

How about a recipe?

Do you ever get that e-mail that says something like, "we all like recipes so take this e-mail, copy a new recipe, put this name in the number one spot, add your name....soon you'll have 36 new recipes!" I ALWAYS think, this would be a GREAT idea and send out a recipe...the problem is I NEVER get any recipes in return. I don't know if I send it to the wrong people or what, but I never seem to get those 36 recipes, I was promised in the original letter. All that said, I happened to get 2 of these e-mails this week, asking for a recipe and passing the "chain letter" along. I went ahead and sent everyone a recipe instead and decided not to pass it on this time.
So, I thought, why not post this recipe on my blog. I've already written it out 2 times this week, why not make it a third. The recipe I'm going to post today is for Sloppy Joe's. This recipe has been handed down from my great-grandmother, from generation to generation. It was a Sunday night staple for my family growing up(easy after church type supper) and now it is one of my kids favorite meals as well. Super easy, quick and real kid pleaser. So Enjoy!

SLOPPY JOE'S
1lb Ground Beef (cooked and drained of fat)
1C Ketchup
1/2 Onion, chopped fine
1tsp Mustard
1/3C Water
1/4C Apple Cider Vinegar (can use white vinegar too)
1-2Tbl Sugar

Cook the ground beef and drain the fat. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 10 minutes without a lid. Remove from heat and let stand for about 5 minutes (sauce will thicken slightly). Put on top of hamburger buns and enjoy!

Just Wondering

Is anybody actually reading this thing? Hmmmmmm! Can you set up a counter on these things? I am blogging illiterate!

I knew I would have a good story!

Yesterday was a pretty un-eventful day. The kids got through with home schooling a lot better than I thought they would and the day was pretty mundane. Jason came home from work, we ate dinner, watched a little TV and then headed off to bed.
I went in to check on the girls before going to bed and didn't see Stephanie's cell phone by her bed.(She uses her cell phone as an alarm clock every morning). Monday morning I had her cell phone in my room and we all slept in 15minutes later than we should have. So, I was determined to make sure she had her cell phone for the alarm Tuesday morning. I looked all over the house to no avail so I decided to give the phone a call and find it that way. Listening intently for the sound of a ringing cell phone, I dialed the number. As soon as I dialed I heard the phone ringing in Stephanie's room. I quick hung up and ran into her room but it was too late. The ringing cell phone had woken her up. I ran in, gave her a big hug, and told her I was so sorry I had woken her up. I quickly explained that I was just looking for her cell phone because I wanted to make sure she had an alarm. She was so out of it, but said, "that's ok mom, I was already awake." I gave her another hug and headed off to bed.
Jason then told me, "oh yeah, Stephanie puts the cell phone on vibrate and sticks it in her pillow." So we hear Stephanie get up and go to the bathroom (mine as well make use of this late night interruption). Next thing she does is turn on the hall light and go back into her bedroom(I'm starting to get curious now). The next sound I hear is Stephanie opening her dresser drawer....ok now I start laughing. It dawns on me, Stephanie didn't realize it was 10:45 at night, she thinks it time to go to school. Jason walks out of the bathroom himself, and sees me laughing histarically on the bed and asks what is so funny. I said, go see what Stephanie is doing, I think she thinks it's time for school. Jason walks down the hallway and stops Stephanie midway down the hallway, holding a t-shirt fresh from the laundry room and says, "Stephanie, it's only 10:45 at night, it's not time for school." To which I hear a loud, "WHAT!" I'm sorry but I was still laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes!
Jason took her back to bed and tucked her in and then came to bed. After a few minutes of giggles, I calmed down. Jason told me I was a mean mom and poor Stephie thinking it was time for school. I told him I wasn't trying to be mean and I really was sorry but that I knew exactly what was going into my blog tomorrow morning! :-)

I've got to start somewhere....

So many people seem to have blogs these days and I have to admit there are a few I enjoy reading daily. I'm not sure how into this whole blog thing I will get but I figured I would try my hand at keeping people updated. I mean, with 4 kids and 2 dogs, there is usually one interesting story to tell every day, right? I know you can post pictures on these too and once I figure out how to do that, I will post pictures too. It's hard having all our family in Chicago while the kids keep growing changing almost daily down here in Georgia, so I know the family will like pictures.
Today should be a fun day! The kids were on fall break last week, no school Wednesday through Friday. They had a lot of fun playing with friends and just not having to worry about school. This past Saturday was the Gulfstream family picnic. We always enjoy ourselves on that day. It is a HUGE picnic with a circus, magic show, rides, and games to play. It's like a personal carnival for Gulfstream employees, where everything is free! Free lunch, free funnel cakes, free cotton candy, free popcorn, and free snow cones. The kids play the games and win prizes, it is GREAT! This year was really nice, we ran into some friends while eating lunch and the adults got to sit and talk while the kids played games and won prizes. It is so nice having kids that are older and self sufficient. So now it is Monday and time to get back to home school....should be a fun day! I'm sure you can tell by this blog....mommy is jumping into the home school thing right away this morning! HAHA!