The Highs and the Lows of it

This past weekend Kendra, Kim and I were in Las Vegas.  We went for a family wedding, but also managed to take in a Cirque Du Soleil performance at Treasure Island.

The weather was hot!  The wedding was in a very nice chapel, followed by a reception at a park. Did I mention the weather was hot!?  Kendra developed a heat headache during the afternoon.

I have pictures, I just haven't had them developed yet so I can post them here.  I have finally asked for a digital camera for my birthday (next month), so that I can post pictures much faster.

So, that was the high.. a great weekend with my daughters.

The low is that we are going to be finding a new home for Miley.  Bless her heart, she wants to be a good dog, but she keeps missing the mark.  And even that wouldn't be enough for us to want to get rid of her, she really has wormed her way into our hearts. And I know that with proper training (for us and her) she'd be a great dog.

Nope, the problem lies in the fact that Mac (the boy that wanted the dog) has developed allergies to her.  He is congested and wheezy all day. I was taken aback to discover this because we've had the cat forever and he isn't like this with the cat.... neither am I for that matter, but I have also been suffering with Miley in the house.  All in all, I find this development frustrating because I really did want this to work out. UGH.

I've contacted our lady at the pet rescue (we signed a contract that requires us to contact her first) to see how she would like to proceed.

 

Tags: allergies, Las Vegas, pet rescue

Kid doing me proud

 

I'm not exactly sure if I'm talented enough to make this work... but if it does work.. this is a video Kendra made for an english class.  All the photos shot in Baltimore (Baltimore Harbor to be specific) were shot by Kendra.

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All that and a bag of frozen groceries

Miley is nothing if not expressive.  She loves to chew toes and socks. She loves the cat, but the cat is not loving the dog. The cat is downright fierce when Miley is in the back yard looking through the window. Smokey takes these moments to register her serious unhappiness with the dog.  Smokey shadow boxes with Miley.  It's actually kind of funny. When Miley is inside.. the cat is as cool as a cucumber.. making sure there is always plenty of space between her and Miley... . but as soon as the dog is out of doors, Smokey is at the window, batting and hissing. 

In other news, I finally have an upright freezer. I've been wanting one of these things since we first got married.  My parents had a freezer while we were growing up (I think the big thing in the 70's was to buy half a  cow). When Paul and I got married, I had a few shopping trips early on when I forgot that I had to think about the space in the freezer (not much). Anyway, I sold a bunch of stuff on e-bay (homeschooling books, etc) and managed to make enough to buy my freezer.

The freezer we chose is one of the smaller uprights, but even at that I had to rearrange my kitchen (twice) and we had to figure out the best route to get the freezer in from the truck to the kitchen. That route ended up being in the front door down through the living room and around through the doorway between the dining roon and the kitchen.  It was convoluted, but it was the widest way.

and of course, I had to go shopping for freezer items.  I bought tons! It is so cool to be able to buy any frozen thing I want and know, absolutely know that it's gonna fit in the freezer.

Oh yeah... and this whole insane week (new dog, new freezer, new speeding ticket for Kendra) happened with Paul out of the net. He'll be home for the weekend and then he's off again on Monday for another week. June is looking to be more of the same (Paul gone all the time).

The girls and I are heading to Las Vegas next weekend for my niece's wedding. We'll be seeing a lot of family and we are trying to fit in a show(Cirque de Soleil). 

Tags: dogs and cats living together, freezer

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Miley has come to live with us.

Remember the little cutie we went to visit a week ago? Last time at bat  She has come to live with us.  She arrived this afternoon and she is slowly settling in.  She is very happy and lively, without being spastic.  She still naps a lot too. 

Smokey is keeping an eye on Miley and she's being reasonably friendly.  We are keeping a close eye on them. Miley is used to cats, but Smokey is most definitely not used to sharing her humans. 

I will post new pictures as soon as I can.  Miley has grown quite a bit since the pictures we saw on the rescue site.

Tags: dogs, cats

Adventures in Troy Land

Yesterday I met up with Kendra on the University campus to accomplish a few things.  First, we needed to find the right people to fix her transcript from SMC so she can sign up for her classes for next semester. Second, we were going to swing by to take a look at her room for next year so she could plan out her decor.  Finally, I was going to treat her to lunch.

Well... we wandered over to Smith Hall to talk with the head of the English Department to fix the transcript. No light on in the classroom, no office to be found.  Normally I try to stay out of Kendra's education issues.  I see her college years as something her dad should be helping her navigate (and up to now, he has.) So I wasn't clued in to exactly how we ended up in this hallway trying to figure out how to find this person.  I asked Kendra to give me the litany of how she got this name.  After hearing the whole thing, I said.."Let's go back to the Admin office and see if this is something they can deal with."

So.. off to the Admin office. We started back at the  beginning.  The young lady there directed us to a Mrs. McGaugh. What the problem is, is that Kendra's Comp I at SMC did not transfer as a Comp I class, and so she's being blocked from signing up for Comp II.  Mrs. McGaugh gave us the "straight poop" of what and who Kendra needed to see to fix the snafu.  (Fill out a substitution form, provide a copy of the class description from the class she had in Md, take both forms to her advisor, English Dept, and finally to the Dean of Education.) So... game plan is now correct and measurable.  Problem heading towards solution.

Then we went off to see her room for next year.  They are still in the process of building (they were supposed to be done last month), but promise us we'll be able to see the room by the end of next week (doubtful, looking at how much is yet to be done...and the number of workman on the project.).  So.. strike out there.

So, off to lunch we go.  Kendra wanted to eat at a place called Sante Fe Steakhouse.  I parked facing out to the road.  As I was getting out of my van, I noticed that the butt of the van was hanging out the back of the parking space AND I was a bit too close to one of the lines.  So I popped back in the van to re-park it... I had one leg hanging out the van and I'm moving it in this ackward postion.  LMAO... (I can laugh now, scared the sh-t out of me yesterday)... I couldn't find the brake pedal and the van (at about 5 miles an hour) pops over the low curb and starts heading towards the street and Kendra (she had moved to the front of the van to direct me)  She just stands there and watches!! I'm trying to find the brake pedal, I can't stop the van, so I start waving my hands at her to GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!  And she still just stands there.  Finally, when the van is about to hit her, she jumps to the side. Then my foot found the brake and stopped the van before getting to the street.  Now I have to back the van back off this curb/planting area.  My tire gets caught in a deep groove in the dirt and I have to really gun it to get it back down into the parking space.

All ended well and (thankfully) there were no witnesses to my foolishness.  My hands shook for at least 10 minutes afterwards.  Kendra was laughing at me... "Now I can tell my friends my mother actually tried to run me over!" (Peals of laughter when she says this). 

Oh my word! Okay.. so what I learned is that I need to have both legs in the car when I'm going to adjust it. I think the crazy angle I was at is why I had such a hard time finding the brake.

A Recipe worth Sharing

Now I just know you all thought this was going to be an entry about some "recipe for life" crap.. LOL... but it's not.. I wanted to share this recipe that Kim found for the scones.  We made another batch this morning for breakfast and we were all smiling by the end of breakfast.... they are THAT good.

 

The Basic Scone Recipe

You can make numerous kinds of scones. Find your favorite basic scone recipe and you can add any extra flavor to it. For example: almonds, cinnamon bits, chocolate chips, any type of berry, There are so many possibilities.

* This recipe has currants or raisins... this is the ingredient that you would substitute with your pick of flavor you wish for your scone.

Remember: The trick to good soft scones is the less you handle the batter the better. (And this is why scones are not very pretty. And so my saying goes: "The uglier the scone the better!")

INGREDIENTS:

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

¼ cup white sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup dried currants or raisins

½ cup milk

¼ cup sour cream

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

 

Sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl.

 

Cut in butter using a pastry blender until it is in pea sized lumps.

 

Stir in the currants/raisins.

 

Mix together ½ cup milk and sour cream in a measuring cup. Pour all at once into the dry ingredients, and stir gently until well blended.  (It should resemble biscuit dough)

 

Either put scone dough in a circle and cut with pizza cutter into eight or more wedges, depending on the size you want, or you can flatten the dough and cut out with biscuit or round cookie cutter.

 

Place on cookie sheet making sure they don’t touch.

 

Scones do grow so you will want to place them at least an inch apart.

 

Whisk together the egg and 1 tablespoon milk. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash.  Let them rest for about 10 minutes.

 

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the tops are golden brown, not deep brown.  Break each scone apart or slice in half.  Serve with butter or clotted cream and a selection of jams- or even plain.

 

**I traded the currants for mini chocolate chips and also made a batch with blueberries this morning.  When we made these for Kim's class, I used margarine and the batter was much looser, so we dropped them by tablespoons on the cookie sheet (made more for the class that way).  With the smaller drop biscuits, I only needed 10 minutes of cooking time. Today's batch used butter and the dough came out like it should and I sliced it into the triangular shapes of the traditional scone.  These scones today needed the full 15 minutes of baking time.

 

Tags: scones

Family Genetics

(L to R: Tracy (27), Kim (16), Kendra (19), Tina (29)

 

This is a picture I took at Christmas time Of my two girls with my brother's two girls.  LOL... Now, I may be biased, but I have always been amazed at how much my two look like his two.  I have picture proof at last.  Especially Tracy and Kim. 

Probably more bizarre is the number of mannerisms these sets of two have in common, without having actually grown up in the same town together.   

Anyway, I just wanted to share this pic of my four darlings.

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