Friday Foto Finish Fiesta (8-29)

Another first for me, is Candid Carrie's Friday Foto Finish Fiesta (or Fx4 as I've seen others use). So, without further ado, here's my first Fx4:


Little Sis enjoying a Push Pop. I love taking pics of my girls when they're eating messy foods. I have one of Big Sis, that I'll share maybe on Wednesday. If you beg.

Just Finished: The Undomestic Goddess

I finally finished "The Undomestic Goddess" by Sophie Kinsella! It took me a while to get into it, and then it was slow at times, but I did enjoy it.

The only thing that irked me a bit was the ending!!! No "5 years later" or something.

Is there a sequel?

I enjoy Sophie's books, and I recommend this one! It proves that there's hope for all of us!








Next book I'm reading?

"The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. It seems like it'll be a quick read for me, and I need something right now that I can read with my increasingly short attention span! I've also considered just re-reading the Harry Potter series starting with "Order of the Phoenix." I'll probably wait until after I read "Twilight" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" though.

Big Sis' First Day of School

Yesterday was Big Sis' first day of school. She woke up excited, because I was quoting Nemo: "First day of school! First day of school!"

They were up before 6, and because I had hung up all their clothes in sets on Sunday, they were able to get dressed on their own (they've actually been doing that since Monday, when Little Sis started school). I love being organized!

My girls! So sweet!

My big 2nd grader!

So cute!

And of course, not to be forgotten, Little Sis, on her 4th day of school! I love this pic of her!

This morning, Big Sis fell after getting off the bus, and she has a very large owie just under her knee. When she got home, she was hot and red, so I had her get in the shower to cool off (it was 104° here today). She got out, got dressed, and then I re-dressed her wound. It was nasty looking. Lots of Neosporin will be needed. I also had to take some debris out of her hand. After a large glass of ice water and her Push-Up, she feels better. Honey adjusted their bikes today and filled up the tires, so we'll probably take the kids out for a ride after dinner.

We're having tacos for dinner. I boil chicken (tonight, it's thighs), and then shred it. I put it in a skillet with El Pato hot tomato sauce until heated through. I also have refried beans and shredded cheese for some variety. For the girls, I just add some pepper and some other seasonings, since the El Pato is very hot. Mmmm...then I have a Toll House ice cream sandwich in the freezer.

Awesome!

Ginny at Monkey Memories is AWESOME! She made me my new sig!!

She's very talented with her PhotoShop, and made me this to match my header.

Feel free to comment!

Little Sis' First Day & My New Job

Ok, so I had my interviews on Friday. I got a call at 7:30 this morning, asking if I could start work TODAY! YAY! I got the Special Ed Instructional Aid position. Pay level 2 (don't know how much that is, but it sounds better than the starting wage of $11-something). I go in tomorrow, taking Big Sis with me, to finish up paperwork and for a meeting (more on that later). I officially start on Wednesday (again, taking Big Sis with me), and school starts on Thursday. Which means that I have to find care for Little Sis in the morning from 7:30 to 9, and THEN find someone to take her to preschool! Starting on Wednesday! I think I may have a solution, since I have a couple of options. One of them is $245 a month, though!

In addition to the Aid position, I was offered Workability, which helps the Special Ed students in the high school prepare for jobs. Resume work, interview prep, driving them to interviews, making sure they get their time cards in on time, etc. It's not a piece of cake, but I'm getting paid for it, that's for sure! I am meeting with the coordinator tomorrow. So, because of this, I have to find care for Little Sis from 12:30 until 3:30. This will be included in the $245 a month, though.

Little Sis had a good day at school, today, too! She said she met some new friends and enjoyed her lunch. They listened to music, played outside (I bet that was comfortable -- 99° at 10am), and she chose the slide over the swings (I don't blame her -- the slide is under the awning, the
swings in the sun). I was a tiny bit late picking her up at the bus stop, but no one told me what time they'd be there. And then they told me the times will change! But if she ends up going to day care, it won't matter. I'll pick her up at 3:30 from there.

So that was my day. We had E tonight. I also made Peking Chicken. Instead of pork chops in the recipe, I sliced up some boneless, skinless chicken breast and again, I used teriyaki sauce. SO YUMMY! Big Sis put up a fuss, but Little Sis (our picky eater) ate two pieces and all her creamed corn. And 5 slices of pineapple! E also ate her mashed potatoes but only 2 slices of pineapple. Tomorrow, we'll be having peas, and no one's happy about that (except Mommy. Mommy loves her some peas!)

I'm excited to start work! Cha-ching!

Little Sis' First Day of Preschool!

Today was Little Sis' first day of Preschool at her new school. She was very nervous. She woke up excited, ate Cheerios for breakfast and watched Wonderpets and The Backyardigans. She got herself dressed, and I brushed her hair. She was rushing me at 8:30, so I didn't grab my camera (bad mommy should have been prepared with it already in my purse).

Anyway, we got to the school very quickly, since it's only a couple miles from home. When we got there, there was one other little girl with her whole family, but many other children arrived soon after that. I had gotten a call from the teacher on Friday, saying it was OK for us to get there early. I was hoping to take Little Sis in the classroom to get her used to everything. But they had us all wait outside. And it was already 90° outside!
We waited for a while, and she got more nervous. I kept reassuring her that everything would be fine, and she would have fun. She helped me make her lunch of a cheese sandwich, Cheese-Itz, and applesauce.
I did get her to smile to take a pic of me, though! This turned out better than I thought, since it was very dark on my screen.
She loves her new backpack! My grandma had actually bought this for Big Sis a couple years ago, but she didn't need it, and then wanted a different one. All that's in it is her clothes, her lunch, and a folder.
Here's Little Sis and Big Sis. Big Sis is getting excited for her first day, too!
While we were waiting, both girls decided to play with the hula hoop that was on the playground. These pics are decieving, though. She couldn't get it to stay up for more than 2 turns!
Look at her go!!
Here we are in line to go into the classroom. We were towards the end of the line, and they weren't letting parents in the classroom with the kids! Freak out time -- for kids and for this mommy! Little Sis started tearing up a bit, too. While we had been waiting, an adorable little girl, smaller than E, but who's 3, was very friendly, and went into the classroom without hesitation. So, I told Little Sis to go in and play with her. She would go in, play, listen to the teachers, have lunch, and then she'd get to ride the bus home!
So she went in all by herself! She hung up her backpack and walked in without turning back. As Big Sis and I walked away, I had to control myself because I was ready to cry! I can't wait until she gets home so I can find out all about her day!

My new haircut!

Ok. I've been getting request for a pic of my new haircut. You've seen Big Sis' dramatic change. You've seen Little Sis' trim.

Here's mine!

What do you think?
**EDIT**

Lots of people have said they didn't know what it looked like before, so I should say it was VERY VERY long. It was to the bottom of my back, or the top of my tooshy, whichever you prefer. I'll see if I can find a good before pic, but since I usually wore it up, it'll be hard.

Wordless Wednesday: Little Sis

Before:

After: 8-9-08

Just Finished: The Other Boleyn Girl

WHOO!!! I'm FINALLY finished with this book!

And WOW, was it good! Very good! I knew how Anne's fate ended...we all know if you paid attention in history class. But the rest of the ending was bittersweet.

And every part of me was excited reading this book: the history lover, the girl who used to live in England, and the woman who loves a good sappy love story.

If you haven't read this, I highly suggest it. I'm waiting now to see the movie. There's no movie rental place here, and we're saving right now, so no Netflix. I have a friend visiting this weekend from Arizona, so I'm going to see if she can stop and rent it for me.

I'm not sure what I'll be reading next. Any suggestions from my "to be read" list on my side bar? I'm thinking something light, probably "The Undomestic Goddess."

Locks of Love!

Big Sis got her hair cut today! It hadn't been cut since sometime in '05, if I recall correctly. It was VERY long and down to her tooshy. She and I had been talking of cutting it and donating it to Locks of Love for a while now, and today, we finally did it!

Here she is getting her hair braided by the lady. We were actually at a "barber" shop, but she said she's done women's hair before, she just switched to men's because it's less drama.

A little apprehensive perhaps?

The braid. And don't ask me why the date says that.

Getting ready to cut!!!
All finished!!
Posing for her "donor" pic I'll be sending to LOL.

I'm so proud of her! She was a little sad after the initial cut, but once I talked up how easy her short 'do will be with school starting, she started to enjoy it! She was even rewarded with new barretts of her choosing when we went to Walmart today. I was reading some of the information to her from the LOL website, and when I read that approximately 80% of the donations are from children who want to help other children, I started crying.

The only drawback: She looks SO MUCH OLDER than 6-going-on-7!!

Little Sis and I got our hair cut, too, but nothing as dramatic or selfless as what Big Sis did. I'll post pics of us later!

Little Sis is sick

She woke up at 3:30am this morning, and was trying to get back to sleep when Honey woke up and closed her bedroom door so he wouldn't disturb her. She freaked out a bit and I told her to come and lay with me so she could go back to sleep. Big Sis joined us in bed at about 9am, and I slept until 10. Little Sis slept until 10:30, and while I was making breakfast burritos, she got sick.

She has no fever, and has only had water. E got sick over the weekend when she was drinking tap water, and Little Sis pulled what I think was a bottle of tap water from the fridge. I dumped them, washed them, and have been giving her Pedialyte and bottled water all day. She's taking her second nap now, the first after she took a cool bath to relax her.

I'm hoping this is short lived. I'll be making chili dogs for dinner, but I think Little Sis will be having chicken noodle soup and saltines.

Kids say the darndest thing...

Our printers are still out of ink in the house, so I had to run to the coffee shop to print out my resume, job history, and transcripts that I'm turining in today at the School District with the application I picked up on Friday.

While there, I ordered a mini pizza for the girls and me to share and a couple of drinks. Before we got it delivered to our table, Corie, a lady who was in there with me on Friday, who also needed the computer, showed up. My girls enjoy talking with her, and Little Sis was just a little chatterbox today.

I wish I had written down some of the things she had said.

Corie came in wearing 2 pink tank tops, and Little Sis asked her why she was wearing 2 shirts. Previously, she had said that she had to "wear shorts under her dress so my chonies don't show." So Corie said that she was wearing 2 shirts so her bra wouldn't show.

Both girls were asking many questions. What was Corie's son's name? What was her husband's name? What were her brother's and sister's name? On and on. I'm glad Cories was cool with it. I'd hate to make a bad impression on a local in this little town! Corie has a little boy, who's 1.5 years old. She's invited me to her playgroups on weekends. I forgot to give her a call last weekend, but I think I'll call her for this weekend, especially since E won't be here to keep the girls occupied.

And I'm going to start carrying a small notebook around to write down the things that Little Sis says. Because sometimes, it's hilarious!!

Meatloaf...

No, not this guy:



We had meatloaf for dinner. It was amazing! So very good for just a packet of seasoning and 2lbs of ground beef in a crock pot! Very moist, too! Honey and I ate 5 pieces each, and Big Sis and E both ate what I gave them. Little Sis, however, is going through "Middle Child Syndrome" so she put up a huge fuss about eating, then threw a tantrum when she didn't get any ice cream. But I digress.

Honey is taking the left overs for lunch tomorrow. Not that there's much left. Less than 1/4 of what I originally made. Next time, I'm adding my own touches:

Instead of 2/3 cup of water, I may do 1/3 cup water and 1/3 cup teriyaki sauce.
I'll definitely add fresh onions and garlic.
Add additional seasonings: ground pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, maybe some of Emeril's Essence.

It was very good...my first ever attempt at making meatloaf, in addition to eating meatloaf. My mom never made it when we were kids.

When I make it again, I'll post my recipe and let you know how the family liked it.

Playing with the Camera

I found a new feature on Honey's camera. Color accent! Take a look at some of the pics I took with it:

AUGUST!

WOW! I can't believe it's August already!

Today, I will be going to the school district to apply for a few jobs they have open. I'm totally excited about it. I can't wait!

Big Sis starts school in less than THREE weeks! Whoo-hoo! While I'm at the district office, I'll pick up her enrollment package so I can get it filled out before I have to enroll her on the 11th.

Tonight, I'm making Peking Prok Chops, thanks to Tena at Punky Monkey's. She actually sent it to me in an email, but I figured I'd share it here. So far, it smells YUMMY, and I'll update on how the kids like it (I can guarantee Honey will like them).

Peking Pork Chops:
6 pork chops, about 1" thick
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup soy sauce (I was out of soy sauce, so I used teriyaki sauce)
1/4 cup ketchup
1-2 cloves of garlic, mashed
salt and pepper to taste

Trim excess fat from pork chops and place in crock pot. Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl and pour over meat. Cover, turn to LOW and cook 4 to 6 hours, or until tender, Season w/ salt and pepper, if needed. Serve with steamed rice or even Chinese noodles. (We'll probably have them with Ramen noodles with the soup drained)