Wordless Wednesday- 6 a.m. Moon

A Circle Change Up....

Luke is attending a baseball pitching clinic on Monday nights. He is in a group with kids ranging from age 7-12. Last night, the coach taught them to throw a pitch that I have never even heard of.....it's called a "circle-change up". Holy Cow....Luke showed me how he has to hold the ball to achieve this......here it is....

March Weekend....

While the remodel is not quite finished, we still spent the weekend moving stuff back up from the basement and into the front of the house. We made a valiant effort to get things moved back into drawers and cabinets even though the counter tops are not being installed until late this week. I have to tell you that it was great to start "living" upstairs again....looking out the patio doors, watching people and traffic go by the house.....

Some of Luke's fan club (hee hee) stopped by the house today to see Luke....
Anna and I baked our first batch of cookies in the new oven. We made chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips....somehow they were just the best tasting cookies ever!! Anna felt that she needed to lick the beater too...
Now, let's get a close up of that face........the little piggy.......
Yes, her eyes DO look half closed...she's been battling a cold this week....I think the cookies were just what the Dr. ordered......(smile)

Kitchen updates

The workers have really been making progress this week on the kitchen......the new, large, cabinets by the breakfast nook arrived.....and Anna took a special interest in these.....they're a good hiding place!!
Here are the "pair of them"....
The new double ovens were installed.....Anna said the top oven is for Mom, and the bottom one is for her....
The peninsula was added....you can see my warming drawer...I can't wait to use it!!!
We'll start moving a few things back into the kitchen this weekend....ahhhhhh!

Readers

This is what happens when Mom and Dad unplug the electronics for the week.....

Wordless Wednesday...(Retro) Brotherly love...

Anatomy and Physiology

For his A&P class at school, Andrew had to make a replica of the arm either out of metal or wood. Andrew choose wood. He used yarn to symbolize the muscles and wood to symbolize the bones. Needless to say, when he asked me to help him find the saw and the drill...I was scared.....but he did just great. I guess John missed out on a chance to use power tools!!!!

Winter Weekend

This weekend was very interesting....John was on a "business trip" to Orlando, Florida and I stayed home with the kiddoes... While John saw this as he read his book on the patio....
I saw this.....as I looked out into our backyard on Saturday morning...
Luke had a friend stay overnight and we had Dairy Queen....
this, of course, led to Bella getting a treat too...

The puzzle

The worker guys have been very busy putting cabinets together and placing them in their designated spots.....Ben got a chance to take a look at them in the evening when he got home from Driver's Ed. He was very pleased....

You can see how my new pantry "hutch" is comin' along...... it's there on the left.....can you see the new fridge too??? Oh boy, it's closer to being done!! Can't wait to see what they'll get done today........Have a good weekend!

Cabinets!!

It's a big day at our house.......we had a semi in our driveway bringing some of our cabinets. We'll have another shipment coming next week (hopefully). This delivery signals the beginning of the end of our remodel.....does that make sense??? VERY EXCITING!!!

Wordless Wednesday.... Uh-oh......

Bucks Game....

Luke and Anna had a blast at the Bucks game....they sat right down in front and watched the game and festivities...
They watched the tip off....
They watched the mascots play basketball at half time....
We even dared this guy to try and get his picture up on the jumbo-tron while he played his air guitar.......he looked good, but didn't end up on the jumbo-tron.
and if the guys got tired of watching the Bucks game, they could retreat into the "box" and watch the 2 tv's in there. Please don't worry about us starving to death while we were at the game. John ordered hotdogs, chicken quesadillas, macaroni and cheese, sandwiches and cookies to keep us full and satisfied......it was a great day with great friends!!!

Weekend!!

It was a very busy weekend with Andrew celebrating his birthday at TGIFridays at the stadium and then visiting the Milwaukee Art Museum....some were very inspired...
On Sunday went to church and then headed to the Bucks game with some friends.....

more on that subject tomorrow!!

I'm hungry.....

This is my favorite meatloaf recipe.....I am happy to share it with you because I think you will like it too!! Go ahead, try it!!!

Cottage Meatloaf

• 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup tomato juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 2 teaspoons prepared mustard
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
• 4 teaspoons brown sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine ground beef, 1/2 cup ketchup, tomato juice, salt, pepper, red pepper, eggs, bread crumbs, onion and 2 teaspoons mustard until well mixed. Line a 9x5 inch loaf pan with foil. Press meat mixture into pan.
3. In a separate bowl, combine 1/2 cup ketchup, 1 teaspoon mustard and brown sugar until smooth. Spread brown sugar mixture over meatloaf.
4. Bake in preheated oven 35 to 45 minutes, until no longer pink. Drain off fat. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Tennis anyone??

What in the world is going on here??? What a mess!! Why is all of this stuff in the hallway, just blocking the way...
Oh, I get it....look closely and you can see who Andrew is trying to keep out of the "gym". Someone that is OBSESSED with tennis balls......

Andrew just wanted to practice hitting the tennis ball around a little bit.....without any help from Bella....

Wordless Wednesday- New Lockers

Less is More....

Sunday night John and I decided that our closet was over stuffed, so we helped each other find a bunch of clothing to donate.... it's true that the less you have, the easier it is to organize!!! I'm very proud to show you my closet!!