08.18.08

Let’s talk food

Posted in ElisaLou at 10:23 am by Elisa

So in an effort to get organized in this last full week before school starts (!) I have decided that I need to start to find some good recipes for dinner.  Every now and then I do this, when I find that we are ordering out more and more.  I don’t like to cook, and we are somewhat limited in the choices with a few picky eaters and the fact that we don’t eat red meat.

Also I am sick of hearing, “mexican food again??” or the song that always starts “beans beans the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot.”

It’s kinda weird when I realized that my kids have never had a hamburger.  It’s not that I won’t let them, I just stopped eating it before they were born so it was never available in our house.  Recently Austin decided he wanted to try a meatball sub from Subway.  He heard they were good from his buddy.  He got halfway through it.  He says he liked it ok, but went back to turkey the next time we went.

This summer we planted some peppers and tomatoes in pots as we have very little sun in our heavily treed yard.  I also planted the usually basil (we use this a ton for pasta), and rosemerry (for red potatoes and garlic- yum!).  I love using stuff that I have grown myself and only wish that I could grow more

Today I picked up the latest Real Simple with the 20 minute meal ideas- already a few have caught my eye- ravioli with sauteed zucchini, pasta with peppers and mozzarella.

If anyone has any good kid friendly, non-red meat ideas please point me in that direction!

08.15.08

Happy Friday

Posted in ElisaLou at 2:09 pm by Elisa

Enjoy this cool video that my mother-in-law sent to me today. I couldn’t get it to embed but you can see it here.

Have a great weekend.

Tackle Football

Posted in ElisaLou at 9:48 am by Elisa

This post will be for the Grandparents- Your oldest boy Grandchild started tackle football last night.  It was not the first practice but it was the first one in full gear, the first night of “hitting”.

Here is Matthew and Austin in front of Matthews house before practice.  They could barely fit in the truck with those shoulder pads.

Here is one of their coaches on the right.  They have three, all former football players- one even played for the Buckeyes.  Of course the boys love that.  This is the first year that we have had coaches that don’t have kids on the team.  They are doing it because they love football.  Which is cool.  They also knew nothing about any of the players, so everyone is starting out the same. Which is also cool.
They have been doing nothing but learning drills, lots and lots of drills.  So far I am loving this coach, he is tough- but good.  Last night he requested that we not rush the field if we see our kid go down hard.  That “most likely” they would be fine.  :)
My biggest concern with Austin playing football is his size.  While he is one of the tallest on the team, I think there are only two kids that weigh less.  He is a stick.  Not exactly football material.  If it was Blake (who is solid- two years younger than Austin and 10 lbs heavier) I wouldn’t be so concerned.

But Austin loves football.  Loves it.  So here we go, and he knows not to complain to me if he is hurting after practice.  So far he is holding his own.

Lining up to hit.  There is only one 6th grader on the team- the rest are 5th graders, Austin was usually paired against him.  This is Austin on the right.

The oldest and youngest.  Cole thinks he wants to play football now- he likes all the tackling.  Of course.

And in other news- my brother and family are hitting the road tonight for their big move from Cincy to Houston.  We will miss you, but come visit (only if you put in a pool  :) )  Drive safely!

08.14.08

Scrap Bags

Posted in ElisaLou at 12:38 pm by Elisa

In an on-going effort to clean up and make more room for fall fabrics I am going to put scrap bags up for sale.

I am going to sell them in 2 yard amounts (by weight).

So all you sewers out there looking to add to your small (and some large) scrap stash you can find them here.  I will be adding new ones all the time.

Would it be mean

Posted in ElisaLou at 8:06 am by Elisa

to leave Cole’s training wheels on for the rest of the summer??  The kid is out of control on the bike, as out of control as you can be on a bike with training wheels.  He is a total daredevil and I am afraid that when those training wheels come off it is only going to get worse.  He has been hitting the hike and bike trail every day, multiple times a day yelling his famous “yee-haw cowboy” or “watch out below!” as he heads down the big hill, or my (not-so) favorite “so long suckers!” which is usually said to me as I am jogging behind him trying to make sure he doesn’t end up in the river.  Sigh.

Oh and thanks to the giftgumshoe for the write-up today!

08.13.08

Normal

Posted in ElisaLou at 2:32 pm by Elisa

Just got the path results on Blake’s mole. It came back normal, just looked weird because he had scratched and picked at it.

Thank you all for all your prayers and well wishes!

good news to brighten my long night and day I have had.

It never fails that when Andy is out of town, my kids have issues sleeping.  I started the night in my bed with the three boys and two dogs.  It was crowded.  So I got up and moved to Austin’s bed, Blake followed and I sent him back.  Austin decided he wanted to sleep in his own bed, Blake got up again because his nose was stopped up.  Went back to my bed with Blake and Cole and two dogs- Austin came in and said he couldn’t sleep and wanted a dog- Shiloh and I went to his bed- you get the idea, back and forth with the dogs waking up and getting crazy in between.  Oh and two big piles of puke from Barley when I got up.

Zero sleep last night.  Lots of coffee!

08.12.08

MIA

Posted in ElisaLou at 4:26 pm by Elisa

I have found myself taking a much needed computer break lately.  No desire to blog, upload to flickr, or peruse other blogs.

I guess it started with the whole keeping busy mode I went into while waiting for Blake’s test results- which we are STILL waiting for.

But then I remembered that I did this last August.  Kind of a “wow, what happened to summer?” feeling of trying to squeeze everything out of the last few weeks before the kids go back to school.

Last year I realized that I had been to the pool less than a handful of times so I hit the pool almost every day.  This year our weather has been pleasantly cool so we have been doing lots and lots of bike rides.

Cole has been a biking fool lately, so we head out multiple times a day.

We are also enjoying watching the Olympics.

That combined with Austin starting tackle football (yikes) with 3 day a week practices and Blake starting guitar lessons, our days of lounging have ended.

So I am here, and I will try to log in more.  But it may be slow going the next few weeks while I enjoy  the last couple of weeks with my guys.

08.08.08

Still Waiting

Posted in ElisaLou at 11:03 am by Elisa

Thank you for the emails checking in to see if I am ok, and if Blake is ok.

We are still waiting for the results.  I don’t know why it is taking so long.

I have been trying to keep busy to keep my mind off of the whole ordeal.

Will post when I know more.

08.03.08

Moles

Posted in ElisaLou at 8:26 am by Elisa

Not so patiently waiting on the results of a weird looking mole that Blake had removed on Friday. It looked suspiciously like melanoma because it was a dark bluish black color.  But it was also tiny and round.
Skin cancer in kids is rare,  especially dark skinned kids like Blake, who also always wear sunscreen and has no family history.  But it can happen so we wait to see.  And if it is, hopefully we caught it early.

Check your kiddos!

07.31.08

stuck in the middle of the road

Posted in ElisaLou at 2:51 pm by Elisa

I think I have mentioned before that starbucks is a good 20 minutes away from the farm, but it’s a nice drive and since I leave the kids behind with Grandma all is good.

Except today when I was driving back and found two big dogs in the middle of the road about to be hit by a car.

Oh and it was raining.

So I stopped my car in the middle of the road, put on my hazards, and tried to coax them into the car.  They were big, wet, muddy, and smelly.  Of course.

They wouldn’t get in, but they were friendly and had tags.  About this time a guy in a truck pulls up and offers to help.  He gives me a raincoat and we tie the dogs onto a rope, call the owner, and direct traffic while we wait for the owner to show up.

I gave the dogs a little lecture about playing in traffic on rainy days, meanwhile the Lab chewed through the rope, he was big crazy puppy.

The grateful owner arrived and all was well.

Good deed done.

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