My newest Pinterest project!!!

Andy spent Mother's Day and tonight finishing up my new pallet table.  I found this idea on Pinterest, and Andy modified it a bit to meet our needs.  He added boards between the slats, so that glasses wouldn't tip over.  He also drilled a hole for our umbrella, and put it on casters so that we could move it around the pool deck.  Needless to say, I absolutely love it!  All it took was two pallets (we have plenty of those laying around the farm), a 4x4 post, 4 casters, 8 L-brackets, some screws, Thompson's water sealer, and elbow grease! 

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my awesome husband!  I love it!!!

Bubbles make EVERYTHING better!

Are bubbles magical? Can they really make your troubles disappear?

 I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. Let's just say that April is a month I'd like to forget. It was a busy, sad month. We had a student pass away, which was just a horrible tragedy. The students are starting to get back to their old selves, but it will be a very long process. She was such a sweet girl. One positive has been seeing how the students have come together to support her family...they definitely have hearts of gold and are doing all that they can to lift them up.

On top of this, I had to be gone several days this month for field trips and conferences. This made it very hard to be there for the students as they worked through the grieving process. I think I was gone 9 days during the past 3 weeks...absolutely crazy!  

It was so bad, that even Ben noticed. I had him come in to my Advanced Child Development class a couple of weeks ago because we were learning about toddler development. Here is how the dialogue went:

Me: "Ben, who's that?"
Ben: "That's Daddy"
Me: "Who am I?"
Ben: "You're Mommy"
Me: "Where does Daddy work?"
Ben: "At Purdue"
Me: "Where does Mommy work?"
Ben: "At meetings"

Ugh...not exactly what I'd like for my toddler to remember! It's definitely time for a slower schedule, and I'm hoping that May will bring exactly that!

Tonight, we were working hard to put my garden in, spray Round-Up, and plant my flowers. When we were all finished, Ben asked if we could blow some bubbles. Sure! What started out as a quick bubble session before the bathtub, ended up as a full blown bubble-fest.  Ben started out blowing the bubbles, but quickly gave that up to be the "bubble popper"!  He was running, jumping, squealing and laughing the whole time. 

Hmmmm, maybe bubbles ready do make everything better.  They're sure helping May start off better than April ended!  Here's to a great last month of school, and many more nights of bubbles!!!

Kitchen Connection ~ Tex-Mex Chicken and Zucchini

I tried another Weight Watcher recipe tonight, and it was delicious!  This recipe serves four, and is only 6 PointsPlus/serving.

Tex-Mex Chicken and Zucchini

Ingredients:
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp. cumin
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 tsp. olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into chunks
1 medium onion, diced
1 large zucchini, halved length-wise and cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 c. corn
1 Tbs. minced garlic
1 can diced tomatoes with sauce

Mix first four spices together.  Add 1 1/2 tsp. of spice mixture to chicken chunks; reserves remaining spices for later.  Heat 1 tsp. oil in large skillet.  Add chicken and cook until brown (about 5 minutes).  Remove to plate.  Add remaining oil to pan.  Add onions, and cook until tender (about 5 minutes).  Add zucchini and corn and cook another 5 minutes, until zucchini is tender.  Add minced garlic and remaining spice mix to zucchini, onions and corn.  Cook about 30 seconds, and then add diced tomatoes (with sauce).  Stir in chicken and cook about 5-8 minutes more.  Serve over brown rice or couscous.

I finally did it!

I've been wanting to try my hand at making my own laundry soap for awhile, and tonight, I finally did it.  Yes, you guessed it, I found a recipe for it on Pinterest (where else would I have found it)? :)

The idea came from www.beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com.  Her directions were so easy to follow!

I had to document it with pictures (of course), so here is how it's done.

First, get the right ingredients (all of this cost less than $20.00 at Walmart):

• 3 lbs. of Oxi-Clean
• 4 lb. 12 oz box of Borax
• 4 lb. box of baking soda
• 55 oz. box of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
• 3 bars of Fels-Naptha

Second, grate the Fels-Naptha bars.

Third, throw it all in a big bucket and mix it up...that's it!  How easy is this.  From start to finish, it took me less that 30 minutes to make the whole batch (and that included the mini photo session).

Here is the finished product, which should be enough to last me 9-12 months (all for less than $20.00)!!! 



According to the original blogger, she said to use 1-2 Tbs. per load.  It's safe for HE machines too!  Just make sure you put it directly in the drum if you have an HE machine.  Can't wait to try it out!

Easter Weekend

We had a great time this weekend at my parent's house celebrating Easter with my family and Andy's family.  It was especially nice because Andy's grandparents were able to come too.  Popsie (Andy's grandpa) had never been my house, so I was glad he was able to make the trip. 

We celebrated all day long, enjoying each other's company and delicious food!

WARNING...lots and lots of pictures! :)

 Helping Grandma Debbie decorate the tree.

 "swimming" in the hot tub...so much fun!

So, so, so much fun!!!

Pictures of some pretty cute couples that were at Easter...unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of every couple (I'll need to remember that for next year)!

 Uncle Dave and Aunt Linda

Jason and Stacey

Eric and Tai

Ok...now back to cute pictures of the kiddos!

 Sisters

 The whole gang

 Silly faces :)

 The boys!

 Ready, set, GO!!!

Resting after the sugar high :)

 

Spring Break 2012

We have had such a great time this spring break.  This was the first family vacation that we've taken with Ben, by ourselves.  We've vacationed with Ben several times, but we've had grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins with us, so this was an extra special trip. 

We decided to head to Fairfield Glade, Tennessee...it was very quiet and relaxing, but close enough to Gatlinburg and other cities, that we were able to find all kinds of things to do!

Here is a short recap of our week (ok, maybe not that short.  I took a lot of pictures)!  Lots and lots of memories!

Our little family :)

 A few pictures of our "home away from home"

 Andy and Ben were great fire-starters...we enjoyed a fire every night!

 Ben, getting ready to go swimming in our bathtub (he insisted on trying out his new swimmies)...the tub was the size of a hot tub, so he had plenty of room to swim!

 More swimming...the resort had a very nice pool, which we visited a few times (I don't think I'm going to have to worry about Ben wanting to get in the pool this summer...he's a water baby for sure)!

We visited Fall Creak Falls...so beautiful!  It was a pretty rugged trail to the bottom (probably not a good one for a toddler, so we enjoyed the view from the top).

 We also enjoyed sticking our feet in the water, at the top!

We visited Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg.  Ben loved the fish!

 Making his best shark impression :)

 After the aquarium, we went to the Dixie Stampede for dinner and show. 

 We didn't tell Ben what we were doing, so he was SUPER excited when the horses came out.  He wouldn't eat a bite, because he was mesmerized by the show!  I would say it was a successful surprise!

 It seemed like every local we talked to said to check out the "tree house", so we went out there one day.  It's a 6-7 story tree house that a gentleman started building in the 90's.  It was quite an experience...Ben and I didn't go clear to the top (my fear of heights kicked in pretty quickly), but Andy went to the top.

 It's hard to see, but that's Andy at the top.

 We were only about an hour from Dale Hollow Lake (another vacation spot that we love), so we made the drive out to the dam.  It was a little overcast, and cool, but we still had fun checking out the lake.

We had such a great time as a family, and have lots of memories from our trip!  Looking forward to making many, many more throughout the years!

Randomness on a Wednesday Morning

I had some extra time this morning, so I thought it would be a great time to post some random photos of our little guy!

 So sleepy...he didn't even have the energy to take the truck out of his mouth!

 Hiding under the stairs :)

 Playing a game with Daddy before lunch

No, I won't look at the camera...I won't! :)