Food

Food. 

It's a big deal around here. 

The other day I was getting dinner ready.  Peter came out and said

"Whatja makin Mama?"

I hear this probably 20+ times each day.  (NOT an exaggeration)

So I said

"Steak"

and he said

"DARNET!"

But, I added home fries to the side and he was happy with it afterall!

I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Wednesday.

I made the dough the night before then rolled them out in the morning. 

They turned out really good. 

The three amigos are chomping at the bit.  Peter is not crying here.  He's screaming with excitement.

Here is a waffle line from a few days back.  We only have one waffle maker so it's a slow, painful wait for seconds.  You can see some of them are disgruntled.  Ha! 

Stray Dogs and Quesadillas

One day last week the kids alerted me to a snake on the front sidewalk.  EWW.  So I went outside to see if I could find it.  I saw it in one of the bushes by the front window.  While I was looking at it trying to scare it away, HA!, a dog came running up to me and Jon.  We quickly went inside and closed the front door. 

Then it started to thunder and rain. 

The poor dog was panting like crazy.  I stuck a bowl of water out the door.  She stayed under the entryway for a long time and put her paws up on the window to look at the kids who, of course, wanted to keep her and thought she was the best thing in the world.  No collar at all on her.  Then she left.  She was just gone. 

Oh well.  We weren't going to keep her anyway. 

We got back to our business and a few minutes later I heard, "MOM!  The dog is in the backyard!"

And she WAS!!

I checked the gate - it was shut - but a small place at the bottom where she must have squeezed through. 

So she sat there for awhile but kept trying to go behind the house where the poison ivy is.  So I snuck out onto the patio to put that chair in the gap so she wouldn't go back there. 

And that's when the trouble happened.  I couldn't get back into the house.  She was so determined to come inside with me.  It was POURING rain at this point.  She was pretty sweet and sat when I told her to and wouldn't leave my side.  I cracked the door open and told Alyssa to take Matthew.  She brought Matthew and Peter into her bedroom.  I tried to get in once more and she forced her way into the house.  Fortunately, Faith had left the storage room door open and she ran straight into there.  I tried to get her out the front of the house through the storage door but she wouldn't go.  She would only go out when I went out.  She hung by my side for several minutes and I had to distract her in order to get myself back in. 

Then she was gone for good.  Poor thing - I just cannot house a dog and search for owners.  Too bad she didn't have a collar on.

In other news . . .

James decided that he wanted to cook dinner for us one night last week.  He decided on steak quesadillas.  Umm, YES! 

Here he is cooking. 

The finished product.

It was really yummy! 

July 4th and James Comes Home

So, the Fourth of July was pretty low-key around here.  It usually is. 

We decided to hit up Sonic for some 1/2 price slushies in the afternoon.

So many choices . . .

We also had some BBQ brats and watermelon.  Later we took a walk around the neighborhood to look at/listen to fireworks.  This year no one was scared of the noise.  We've had some that were too scared to take the annual walk - but it was all good.  Peter was excited to see the 'fireworks on our walk at bedtime'.  I think he thought it was cool to talk a walk in the dark.  We came home and watched some fireworks displays on television.

Thursday was the day that James was coming home from camp.  He called me when he arrived back into town and we went to pick him up.

Matthew fell asleep in the van while we waited for him. 

The first sighting.

Get him! 

Matthew had a lot of fun jumping on James' luggage after we got home. 

The theme for this years' camp was One Mission One Message and was kind of a military thing. 

So they gave out uniforms to the counselors. 

He had a good time - he usually does :)  In about three weeks he will be off to Youth Camp. 



Chef Jon

Yesterday we were at Target picking up a few things - juice and stuff and, because it was Saturday, they had some samples out for all of the shoppers.  The parking lot seemed pretty full, but we didn't have a line at the checkout.  One of the great things about Target is that it never really seems crowded.  :)

Anyway, Jon and I sampled some pesto chicken pizza (pause for Grampa to gag).  It was very very good.  Jon ate his and then exclaimed,

"This is better than a raw egg sandwich!" 

This is funny for two reasons: 

1.  Just because it's so ridiculous.

2.  Jon has never had a raw egg sandwich so he's not really in a position to compare it. 

Haha!

Jon likes to put on the little kids apron we have (I think Gramma brought it back from Europe when James was little) and pretend to be the chef at a chic restaurant.  He asks us what we would like - and you can order anything you can think of.  I often order cheesecake.  Sometimes the food is free for his family members, but mostly it comes out to be around $30 - even if it's just a cheeseburger.   

For lunch the other day Jon wanted to make his own sandwich. 

True story.

In other news . . . The kids are mostly better from their colds.  Peter coughs occassionally still.  My poison ivy is on the way out I think.  I definitely won't miss it.  It's been pretty unfun.  Also, Brian went in to the doctor for his cough and he has pneumonia - so that's not good.  He's taking it easy this weekend and hopefully will be feeling better soon.

James is at camp all week.  It's a military theme this year.  He'll be playing keyboard in the worship team and also is a counselor meaning that he's got campers to watch out for.  Monday is the 'turn around' day when the junior campers come home and the senior campers arrive so he'll get a new set of kids.  Camp is over on Thursday so the kids and I will pick him up at church.  Brian has been known in the past to meet us there to welcome our campers too :).