Going places I dare not go...

or so I thought.

That's my husband up there. Our house needs another coat of paint.

See. There he is.

Now see the other side of that top window?

He thought it would be easier if I could hand him things while he is on the roof.

Anyone who knows me, particularly my husband, knows that I can't even stand at the top of a stair case and look down. So why on earth would he ask me to go up there?

He tells me I can do it. Okay. In my mind I'm rationalizing that it is right next to the house.

What I did not realize is that the arm needs to go straight up in the air first and then shakes back and forth, a good 100 feet up (atleast, don't you think?) like a crazy carnival ride!

Fortunately paint supplies were on one side of the bucket so we had to be squished together on the other side. That allowed me to stand behind him with my face smashed into his back and cling on for dear life. I peeked once but it was a mistake.

Thank goodness he could not get close enough to the roof to get out with out having me manually controll the gears from the truck so I didn't have to let go of him or take my face out of his back the whole time. Thank the Lord!

Painted the doors red. Two sides to go. Not sure if we'll make it before the snow flies!

Pet Peeves

These are a few of my favorite most irritating things.... Thanks Julie.

I try to be a positive person, not a complainer or a pessimist. There are a few things, however, that I find greatly irritating. Not that you would really care about what I find irritating, but you know what they say, misery loves company.

So here is a list of Cheryl's Pet Peeves. Atleast its a short list.

• Grown women using words like "mani, pedi, bff" .... eewwwww!!!!!
• "lol" ( though I just used it recently) especially when spoken. Makes me want to gag like the first pet peeve.
• slurping of coffee or soups is like fingernails on chalkboard to me
• sappy stories (that are totally made up) passed along emails trying to rip a tear out of you and then threatening that you are surely unfaithful if you do not pass it along. I feel manipulated.
• when people you barely know, who just recently received your email address, feel the need to forward the above mentioned emails to you.
• male enhancement commercials. Need I say more?

Okay, that is my little list of most irritating things. Maybe I could use this as a letting go. When I hit post it will fly out to cyberworld and away from me and I won't let these things bother me any more. Just don't come and tell me your getting a pedi.

Normal or Neurotic

As I am getting some cereal for breakfast I realize that I am the sacrificial eater. Cereal, for example. I don't just pick the box of the type of cereal I want to eat. No, I check the boxes for the little leftovers in each. The stuff that just doesn't quite make a bowl full. This has two purposes: 1) It empties the box and cleans out the cupboards, and 2) It's not getting wasted.


As I realized this, I realized that I'm the one that will eat the bread butts and eat the left overs in the fridge. Not because its my favorite, but because it seems necessary. No one else will do this or think anything of it.

I've never been able to walk into a grocery store and just buy what I want or need. It has to be on sale or at a price I deem reasonable. I thought I taught this thriftiness to my children, especially drilling it in the times they brought home the $3.00 loaf of bread and I about had a heart attack. I've never been able to relate to those that have a recipe in mind or have something they want to get and buy it all no matter what.

 My fifteen-year-old son with the job has totally been shocking me in this area. He buys designer drinks, $6.00 meats and cheeses from the deli, and pizza pockets. Even when I am along to guide his choices he goes with what he wants. What family did he come from? The day he bought all the ingredients and made Shrimp Fettuccini Alfredo was a good day though. I can't get him to spend money on a haircut though.

Not buying everything I need really came to my light once when my mother-in-law was visiting. She made us tacos and bought everything she needed for the meal. I had never seen such a wonderful taco spread. It had all the olives, tomatoes, lettuce, sauces.... everything you could think of for tacos. I was in awe. My dinners are usually missing the extras.... kind of bare bones. I would like to improve on this and try to buy an extra thing or two at each shopping trip but it is a work in progress. You just can't easily teach an old dog new tricks. I don't really want to change though. I like being thrifty. It doesn't take much to please me. I was just thinking maybe it would be fun to go out and get just what ever I want. But it would probably stress me out. When I was a kid and my Dad took me out for dinner, I would always order something that was less than his meal. When my husband came along, low and behold he ordered what ever he wanted! What freedom!

Atleast I'm not completely neurotic. I'm not a saver of all kinds of kitchen junk like plastic bags, sacks and containers. Just enough to get by. I did start saving jelly jars since our cups keep disappearing and I have so many jars. One day I saved three vegetable cans to make quick breads in a can like my mom used to. My seven-year-old son came to me with these and asked if maybe I was going a little too far with saving stuff to drink out of.

Well, its time to go make bread pudding with all the left over bread.

How to be a sports mom....

Actually, it's "how to be a sports mom????"

So I can really care less about sports and I'm not the enthusiastic type so learning to be a great sports mom is a work in progress. I'm better behind the scenes doing the grunt work. I am managing to yell a few cheers at the boys but still feel self-concious doing so. Randy is the coach (they didn't have one last year so he stepped up to the plate this year). I was a little nervous about the whole thing seeing how he "cheers" for the Huskers..... especially the last few minutes of Saturday's game. But he was great.... no shortness of enthusiasm there! Wish I had a video camera to show him running up and down the side lines with the little boys following him. The game was great. It ended tied 14-14 but we lost in double overtime. It was a long HOT day.

My shots aren't too great as I have a no bells and whistles camera and had it on full zoom.

Alex is #3

Coach Dad

Notice Carter, #22 .... heads above the rest. He was the biggest kid for both teams.

My quarterback and defensive tackle... (actually I don't really know what they play but one for a big guy and one for a little guy.) Alex tackled a player that prevented a touch down.

Carter's tough guy face.

So here are some of my sports mom duties..... I could use a few tips here:

• Cut boys' hair. Carter moves once and guard falls off clippers twice which results in a tough guy buzz cut.
• Make sure everyone has clean uniforms and can find all pieces (need to work on this one)
• Make salad and get meats, utensils, ice and drinks for tailgate party (hubby did say at time of tailgate "now you can get the idea so that next time you can be better organized", say what?! This will come back to haunt him a little later, but I graciously did not say a word.
• Make extra treats to sell at concession stand to help team earn money for equipment.
• Have house cleaned before game because of wedding consultation in my home after game.
• Work concession stand for most of game.

Everyone is wiped after the game... including Lili.

One game down, five more to go.

what would you do.....

if you came upon this on your front porch......

A very very birthday

Today is my daughter's 14th birtday, and I managed to escape before it was completely over. I'm hot and tired! Still the mess to clean up, but we'll enjoy the photos first.

We had the party on our front porch. No railing on the porch yet but still fun to be able to have an entire party on a porch.

My decorating is a little understated for the large porch but I'm too cheap to spend all that money just for decorations. We had smoothies and snacks.

The birthday girl and her cake.

We better have a close up of that cake....

It was quite lovely and tasted good too!

Alex waiting to get her face painted. I painted a lot of faces.

This one is my favorite.

Girls got their own ideas and thought the water balloons were not enough. Notice the bucket.

A bunch of crazy girls.

They played Red Rover and now doing flipping contests on the trampoline. Still 20 minutes till its officially over. I guess I will go clean up. Hope you had a happy birthday, Grace!

Heavenly Bites

Today I had to make a small dessert buffet for a customer. This means a sugar high because they are just these little delicious bites and you have to make sure everything tastes just right! First there are these yummy, moist, chocolatey brownie bites topped with ganache. Rich, rich, rich!

Then we have lemon tartlets. The bottom is lemon mousse made with lemon curd with a little dollop of curd on top. 

And finally New York style cheesecake with fresh strawberries and Turtle Cheesecake.

I forgot my camera

So I'm really not the picture taking type. It's one of the things I feel guilty about in this scrapbooking, memory making, journaling, blogging, documenting era we live in.  I'm sure there are full years in the lives of my children that have gone undocumented because I didn't have a camera in hand.

Yesterday we went to the lake. It was the first time the whole family has gotten to go. Our only mini vacation for the busy Summer. I made a note in my head to bring the camera, but failed to put it on paper. So, needless to say, I didn't remember it until it was too late.

If I would have had a camera in hand yesterday, this is what I would have photographed:

• 4 boys sitting on a log together in front of the fire
• Joel fixing fishing poles
• Joel climbing 15 feet up a tree... fortunately it wasn't straight up, but over.
• Joel buried in a hole in the sand, straight down, with his head poking up.
• Cheryl in the water with all her clothes on..... actually you would have NOT seen that picture
• Randy floating in a small tire tube, squished in with his butt only down in the water
• Lili catching crickets and bugs for fishing
• Carter in the water with his swimming trunks in his hands
• And all the kids just having fun playing in the sand and water.

Little Princess

Ever since Lili said Roly Polies were her friends and opened up her tight fisted hands to show me the squished up worms and dirt I knew she was special. She loves butterflies and moths, and ants, "the black ones are nice". I missed getting a picture of the caterpillar crawling up her arm and down her back on Sunday. She's been catching all the dozen or so six legged creatures her sister needs for a science project. She tried to stuff a caterpillar into her pants before church on Sunday a few weeks ago because she didn't have any pockets. Everyday she needs a bath because she is dirt from head to toe. Smart and still a girly-girl who now fixes her hair and wants to look pretty.

Love you Lili!