
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
That dreaded phone call

Saturday, February 06, 2010
Slo Mo Mojo
This is the layout from January's class. I love my little owl, but can't find the right pictures for the layout.
I used my super cute mini milk carton die and my Big Shot to make these. They are cute but pretty useless for anything other than filling full of candy, like Kisses or cinnamon hearts. I'm practical, and this die was a huge splurge. Now I have to make it work and use it for everything, I'm definately using them at Easter. I'm thinking of things to put in them ... maybe dog treats, Kleenex, allergy pills, Cadbury Mini Eggs, jelly beans, money...
I didn't feel like re-inventing the wheel so I got my Stampin' Success magazine out and pretty much copied a couple of cards. I'm using up a pack of the 6x6 Designer Series Paper, Welcome Neighbour from the Sale-A-Bration mini. I really like it. The little houses on the milk cartons are from the paper pack too.

I also used the paper and punches and dies to make this, right from the Stampin' Success too. It's hanging above our bed in the photo and I forgot to take it down. Kerry was pretty excited when he got home.
Friday, February 05, 2010
Silly Putty
Today, I taught the dogs about backdrops and props. Sally is sporting a very large flower clip from Fabricland. She doesn't seem to mind. She's sitting in front of a table covered with Amy Butler fabric.
Linus said he's sit, but he was not posing. He didn't even wash his face this morning.
I made this scalloped heart garland this morning, I was feeling all Valentinesy. Sally is posing on my bed on duvet. I found that scrolly white iron thingy at Home Sense a few years ago.Thursday, February 04, 2010
Pants On The Ground
Emily and Illi were doing their homework last night. They had to find a current event out of the news paper, cut it out, and ask a bunch of questions about the current event. Illi found the article about the 17 yr. old girl that let the contractor in his 50s into her house. She left the room only to come back to find him naked from the waist down. We can imagine what it was he planned on doing. After we discussed the situation, and how serious it was, Illi had a little fun with it, she started singing Pants on the Ground. These two girls are hilarious. The also discussed drugs and the number of kids in their school that do them. I asked specifically what kind of drugs are you talking about, Illi started listing them Pot, and that other green stuff, what's it call? Marijuana! To which my street smart kid says pot is marijuana! Ah...mystery solved!
They also discussed an article on the controversial pro-life ad with a hand holding an aborted fetus. It's very interesting to hear teen aged girls' views on these things. Emily might know the difference between pot and marijuana(there isn't any) but she can't say the word rape, instead she uses nicer words like "an accident".
Sometimes I complain that I'm home all day with dogs that don't really talk to me. I can pretend in silly voices that they do talk but really it's nothing compared to what happens when the kids come home. I'm very thankful to be able to hear their chattering, even it it has confirmed that I don't want 4 kids, I'll keep 2 and send the other 2 home. It means they feel comfortable enough with us to share what is going on in their lives during the time they are away from us.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Smokin'!
I also made Texas Style BBQ sauce from scratch.
It took a while to put the smoker together, but it was worth it!
It's a good thing the smoker had this very accurate thermometer.
After 4 hours of smoking the ribs were to-die-for! On the bbq shows we've been watching, namely BBQ Pitmasters, they say that good ribs won't pull away from the bone when you bite them. You should be able to leave a perfect bite mark in the meat. I think these were a bit over cooked, but pretty close to what they say you want in a perfect rib. The pork roast became pulled pork, I made sweet and sour coleslaw and served it along with the bbq sauce, on toasted garlic buns. I might just smoke all my meat from now on.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Oriental Supermarket Fun
These sounded good, how could dried yams not sound good? I must have been very hungry. They are just that, dried yams, not sweetened, not salted. Just dried. Not bad, but not good.
These are good. Some kind of weird potato snack, Italian Gratin flavoured. Everyone loved them.
These are definitely deep fried, but lightly sweetened, maybe even sweet/salty. But the texture will kill your mouth, kind of like crinkle cut fries but 400 times harder.
Emily picked this cup of ramen for her dinner. She boiled the water, followed the directions, for cooking the noodles. Then she drained the water and added the flavour packet and packet of 'oil', which looked like fat mixed with seeds. She said it was good and that she could eat it again, but she didn't actually finished it all, so I question how good it was.
One of the reasons I like taking her to the Oriental Supermarket is because she can read the packaging. She's taught herself to read Japanese, which is more than I can do. She can't read everything, but she can gets the gist of it and can translate for me. So when I saw these, next to something I recognized, I asked her to translate and sure enough it was exactly what I thought. And she knew what it was so we had to buy it. Naruto, swirl fish cakes. It's similar to imitation crab. You slice them thinly and use it to decorate your food.
Like this, our peanut sauce noodles.
Grandpa had a dr.'s appt., the dr. thinks there's a blockage of some sort because his pulse is weaker at his feet than anywhere else. He sent him for bloodwork and he'll be having more tests ASAP. Thank you for all the well wishes!Practicing

Work it, Baby Bear!
Linus wanted in on the action when he heard I was handing out treats for good girls and boys. Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Solar Powered.
2 posts in one day....This one has pictures. Lots of them.
Because we live in a valley, and we pay that nasty sunshine tax, we suffer in the winter. Maybe it's part of that sunshine tax, I don't really know what that tax includes, I've just heard people say we have one, but anyways, it's usually overcast and dismal in the winter. So as soon as I saw the sun shining, I grabbed my camera and that stinky tennis ball and took the dogs outside.
Here the majestic Golden Retriever soaks up the rays. He needs them because he is solar powered and has plans on ripping up the grass with his mighty paws as he catches his prey, the stinky tennis ball.
But first he must actually rip up some grass, namely my zebra grass, he then pulled two branches of my forsythia. You can see the stinky tennis ball sneaking up on him.
He sat around like a dope because I told him to stop demolishing the flora and fauna.
He caught the stinky tennis ball, made lots of steam, and had some fun. You can see his assortment of yard toys (and possibly a doggy deposit) in this one, the tree root, and the 2x6s he likes us to throw for him, only problem is I can hardly lift them, so they usually land on him or about 3 feet in front of me.
How can you not love this face? The dog breath, the grass in the teeth, the goobery jowls, the stinky tennis ball.
Then we went inside and ate candies.
Questions answered.












