It's pretty quiet with one

I've noticed since Cassie's been gone it's pretty quiet...lol. Don't get me wrong, I love her to pieces but it's been a nice break to not have to listen to constant arguing. I'm really looking forward to her coming back tomorrow. The break was nice but I'm starting to miss her. I talked to her a little bit ago and she said she's not ready to come back yet. I think she's just been having so much fun that she wishes she was gonna be there a little longer.

We took Joshua to see Transformers today and it was FANTASTIC! We all LOVED it! This is definately one that we'll be buying when it comes out on DVD. It was a lot better than I thought it was gonna be. Joshua was on the edge of his seat the entire time. I don't think I've ever seen him that interested in a movie. Afterwards we took him shopping for a transformer. He didn't have any so we thought it would be fun to take him shopping for his first one. I think Mike's the one who really wants them. He's mentioned that he really wanted one when he was a kid but never had any. I remeber when ET was re-released I bought myself an ET doll. I really wanted one of those when I was a kid but never got one. Isn't that funny how you remember those things? One other thing I wanted that I never had was an ALF doll. I really loved ALF. I remember thinking he was real for the longest time...LOL! I think my favorite thing I had when I was a kid was my Peaches N Cream Barbie. YAY! THis is the last night at my parents house and my puppy sitting duties are over. You have no idea how happy I am about that. I'm half way tempted to buy a bottle of something to celebrate and I don't even drink... LOL!!

Chips Ahoy Cheesecake Sandwiches

I made some Chips Ahoy Cheesecake Sandwiches Wednesday night and they were SO good! While they were fantastic I discovered that if you follow their directions they don't come out as pretty as they are in the pic on their site. If you dip the sandwiches in to the chocolate immediately after assembling them, the filling oozes out from you holding the 2 cookies together to dip them. The next time I make these I'll lay one cookie down, add the filling, add the top cookie, and then freeze them overnight. After freezing them I'll get a knife and run it along the edges to make them nice and smooth. After that I'll dip them in the chocolate and then put them back in to the freezer. By doing this you'll keep the filling from oozing out when you dip them because it'll be nice and solid. The chocolatey sides stuck to the bottom so if using a glass dish be sure to line it first. Everyone here loved these and they only lasted a day. Here's a pic of my first batch -the 3 that were eaten..LOL! They're a really nice summertime treat. I'm thinking I might make some more of them this weekend :)

Sleepovers at my parents house are not fun

It's 6:50 in the morning here and I've been up for nearly 2 hours. I have a huge problem with this! When I dropped Cassie off Wednesday night my parents handed me a nice amount of money and told me it was for taking care of their furbabies. I tried to give it back to them as it wasn't necessary and they've watched mine on several occassions but they insisted. Now I know why they gave it to me. Because they knew what I was in store for. All their fault nonetheless. Mind you, this is the first time I've slept over at this house with these animals because my mother doesn't usually ever want to go anywhere. She doesn't want to leave her dogs. As a matter of fact, if I'm not mistaken it's been about 7 years I think since she and my dad did go somewhere together. So, she has 2 Pomeranians. A really chubby and fluffy grouchy one named Rocky and a 7 month old dainty little sweetheart named Sparky. If I so much as look at Rocky cross eyed he growls at me. He's too fat to jump on anything but every time I try to help him he growls at me. Sod ya, ya ungrateful little beast..sleep on the floor then. No, I can't leave him on the floor because he sits on the floor right by the bed howling at me until I pick him up. I pick him up and he growls at me. Right after I put him on the bed and go to lay back down he has already taken over my pillow. I try to move him and he growls at me more. I finally talk fatty in to going to the foot of the bed with a beggin strip. So I lay back down and..oh..I think I forgot to mention Joshua was in the bed too. This is a king size bed, mind you. Let me tell you why I don't like sleeping with him. I don't know what it is but when I sleep with him he feels like he has to be sandwiched up against me. I DON'T like to be touched when I'm sleeping by anybody/anything. It drives me nuts. If there's ever a time when I need personal space it's when I'm trying to sleep. That's not too much to ask for, right? Oh, and to make it a little more fun I don't believe I mentioned that this bed we're in is a waterbed. Ain't that great? So every time the kid moves or a dog feels like walking around...whoooooosh. *sigh*. So at about 5 till 5 this morning I wake up to something chewing on my fingers. My dad gets up for work in the mornings at about 4:30 and apparently Sparky does too. I rolled over which apparently ticked him off because he jumped on my head and started rolling in my hair. By that time Joshua was up (for the day!). I tried to talk him in to going back to sleep but he was bright eyed and bushy tailed. Not that it would have mattered. Did I mention my mother likes clocks? You know, the kind that make noise every hour? When you have 3 or 4 of those going off at the same time, it gets pretty loud! It was like having a constant alarm clock last night. Before she left I asked her if those clocks did that all night. She told me they were light sensitive and when it gets dark they don't do that. She was wrong! I've got to spend 2 more nights here. She might be clockless when she gets back. I talked to Cassie last night and she seems to be having a really great time (much better than me!!). They have a lot of really fun things planned for today. I can't wait to hear about their Titanic adventure.

I did end up making some really yummy goodies the other night. I'll post a pic of what I made along with the recipe when I get home. I forgot to bring my camera with me and the pic is on there.

Packing up the kiddo

I'm packing Cassie's things up for her trip with my parents to Branson. They're leaving pretty early in the morning so I'm taking her over there tonight. She's so excited! They're staying at the Hotel Grand Victorian. I took her to the website and let her do the online tour so now she's counting down the hours :). It'll be really good for her to spend some time alone with them. I know she could also use a break from Joshua and I could use some time alone with him. I try to do things alone with her but rarely do things alone with him. I know we're going to see Transformers on Saturday. I think he wants to go bowling as well and we may pop in to Chuck E Cheese. I'm sure the time will fly by. I know he's gonna miss her when she's gone. They're taking our DVD player for the car and I bought her some new books to read so hopefully the drive will go fast. I think it's only about 6 or 7 hours. Joshua and I will be staying the night at my parent's house Thurs, Fri, and Sat. She's got a couple of furbabies that need tending to.

I was looking at sandwich recipes the other day on the Food Network's website. I found a yummy looking recipe for a grilled peanut butter, jelly, and banana sandwich. I made some yesterday and they were SO good! I didn't have a panini press or a brick (LOL!) so I just used a spatula and pressed down firmly on the sandwich. I thought they turned out really great! They're pretty messy though so if you make them you better have a napkin handy! The next sandwich I want to make is a Monte Cristo. That one lookes really good and simple so I think I'll shoot for that one. Instead of blackberry jam, I'll get some raspberry jam and I'll also sprinkle some powdered sugar on top of the sandwiches. I've really been in a cooking mood lately and I think sandwiches are fun to make :). I think this recipe for a California BLT looks really good. I love that it has avocados in it. I'm probably gonna have to give that one a try. After I drop Cassie off at my parent's house I'm gonna stop at the market and get some goodies to make some things. I'm not sure if I'll make anything tonight but if I do I'll be sure to post pics. I'm really craving avocados so may have to make one of those BLT's. I'd love to go to cooking school :).

So what if I don't have a license to groom...lol

My pomeranian has been miserable because she's been so hot. I guess I could've taken her in for a haircut but didn't for a couple of reasons. First, she's a big chicken. She won't set foot outside of our yard. I've tried taking her on walks several times but she just plops her big brown butt on the sidewalk and refuses to move. No matter how much you try to pull her she resists. When I have to take her to the vet she throws a fit like you wouldn't believe. I figure if she's gonna throw such a big fit and make herself sick over the whole thing I'd might as well not spend the money to do it. Instead, I got some scissors out and trimmed her up myself. It may not be all that pretty but she feels much better and it'll grow back in no time. I left all the fur on her head and neck so she sort of looks like a lion...lol. I cut the hair on her head and neck one time and she looked so bad. I swore I'd never do that to her again LOL!

Poor thing....I hope she's not too traumatized over her new "do"! She really dislikes having her picture taken and took off about 2 seconds after I took this one LOL :).

I've spent a lot of today cleaning and doing laundry. I've also been getting Cassie's things together for her trip with her grandparents. We're gonna run out and do some shopping tomorrow for some things she wants to take. I told her I'd pack some snack for her in her backpack just in case she was starving and there was nothing around. Sometimes grandparents forget how needy kids can be so I thought it would be best if she had some things her backpack just in case she gets really hungry when they're at the hotel. That way they won't have to leave to go find her a snack. I really wish I was going with them. They're going to that Titanic museum attraction while they're there and I REALLY want to go! I was telling Mike that I REALLY want to go to that New Year's Eve party they're having. We never go out on New Year's Eve and how much fun would that be to get all dressed up and ring in the new year on the Titanic?! I know they're all gonna have a great time. I know my mom and Cassie have been counting down the days.

I have a hankering for a pickle snow cone...luckily there's a snow cone place right down the street :).

Had a busy busy weekend

WOW! We had such a busy but fun weekend. Friday night I took Cassie to the local theatre. The Summer youth Musical this year was Disney's High School Musical. We had SO much fun! It was really really good! They did a really great job putting on that show. When we got their my best friend and her husband were already there. They were sitting in the front row and our seats were on the third row on the aisle. She mentioned when we got there that she thought someone was sitting in our seats. Sure enough they were sitting in one of them. I got our tickets out and headed that way. Before I had a chance to say something the snooty woman sitting in there looked at me and said, "I guess we can move down if the two of you want to sit together." PFFFFFTTTT! You're darn right you will! I paid for this seat so scoot! LOL! Some people...lol. Cassie is a huge High School Musical fan. She did a lot of singing and clapping. She was really thrilled after the show because she got to meet the guy who played Troy. His mother is a good friend of my best friend so she made sure Cassie had a chance to meet him. We got home pretty late and she was so tired she konked out as soon as we got home. I was pretty tired too but still wanted to stitch on my fairy for my Friday Fairy SAL with Rachel. I didn't get a lot stitched on her but I did make some progress. I'm thinking Rachel's probably gonna finish hers before I finish mine. She seems to get a lot more done on our Friday's than I do. I got to bed pretty late that night and was really surprised when the kids woke us up Saturday morning and told us it was 10:20! That NEVER happens! I must have been really tired because I just don't sleep that late. After I finally rolled out of bed and got dressed we went out to lunch. I LOVE Mexican food so we went to El Chico's. After that we ran to Target to do some browsing. I found some really cute outfits for Cassie for 75% off. I've noticed most places are clearancing out all of the summer stuff and putting out fall and winter. That's really insane because it seems like summer just started here. It stays pretty warm until at least October. I noticed they're already putting out the school supplies which is pretty depressing. I'm not one of those moms who looks forward to sending her kids off. I actually do want to be with mine. I don't like it during the school year. I feel like I don't get to see them very much. That being the reason I hang around at the school so much I guess. After school starts back I'll probably start working back up at the flower shop more. I want to save up for a couple of trips next year. Anyway, after we left Target we took the kids to get ice cream and then came back home. We were only there for a few minuted though because Mike's mom was coming over to watch the kids while we went to see the new Harry Potter movie. I thought it was great! I liked this one better than the last one. Mike doesn't agree though...he said he liked the last one better. I'm gald we didn't take the kids with us. This one was a lot more scary than the previous ones. The union Mike's in for the post office had a picnic today. It was SO hot! Before we left forthe park I asked Mike to get our bag that we usually take to the park out and put the sunscreen, bug spray, and whatever else we might need in it. This is what he decided to put in it..lol. How cute is she?! I tell ya, this dog will let you do whatever the heck you want to with her. She's not the brightest crayon in the box but she is so much fun and loves the heck out of me :). I thought the picnic was pretty boring. I think most of the people in that union just come to eat and win prizes. They just sit at the tables like stumps on a log waiting for their food and the drawings for prizes and then they just take off. I got sick of sitting their twiddling my fingers so headed over to the park to watch the kids play. After we left the picnic we drove to Holliday and met Nealy (My BF) & her family at Dairy Queen. We don't have a Dairy Queen here in town and we love blizzards. After we left Dairy Queen we went over to their house for a bit. They took a trip to Colorado recently so we got to flip through their pictures. She called me about an hour after we got home and said she was coming by. She knows how much Cassie likes High School Musical so she went and bought her the soundtrack. I thought that was incredibly sweet and Cassie was completly thrilled. Especially since in addition to the soundtrack, it also came with a karaoke CD. Cassie has one of those machines and uses it all the time. I could hear her in her room singing even after I tucked her in :).

And Rachel makes 5!

WOW! I'm really surprised that it took less than 24 hours for me to get all of my PIF people! My PIF sign up is officially closed but there's still room to participate with my other PIF gals if you'd like. So my final 5 are: Rachel, Missy, Patti, Gaby, and Juli. What fun! I can't wait to start on your gifts :).