...and come babysit my kids.
I don't know why, but I have enrolled in school again. Just part-time, but it is sure to be the death of me. I really want to be a pharmacist, but I am a mother already. My husband is never home and it's not his fault, but it really doesn't make this easy. I have about a week to decide if I want to withdraw and wait until both kids are enrolled in school in the fall. I'm leaning toward that decision, but I'm trying my best to make this work.
The class I REALLY need to take, Biology, is the one where nothing is working online and the professor is useless so far. Oh, for clarification, my Biology "lectures" are online and my labs are in person...in Norfolk...they begin at 7:00pm. There are no real lectures, just a couple of powerpoint pages of fill-in-the-blank sentences. Are we given the answer key? No. Does the professor answer emails? Not in my experience. Am I able to log in to the online access that goes with the textbook? No. Did the bookstore sell me the wrong book twice? Yes. Did the textbook company include the wrong online access code? Yes. Are they going to fix the problem? No.
I don't like to fail. Withdrawing one week into "school" seems like a failure to me. Not getting an "A" is a failure to me. However, I don't have childcare for my boys during the day and I'm struggling to line up sitters for them for all of my labs. Could I do this if Ryan were around? Certainly, but that's not going to be the case for a LONG time. Why can't I just look at the situation and realize that it is beyond my control and not a failure on my part? I don't know. I'll let you know what I decide...
Friday, January 15, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Our Holidays
Expect me to always be behind on my posts. Things are crazy around here and they are only going to get worse.
Here are some photos from this holiday season. Enjoy!
The seasonal pack of Cars...a special thanks to Grandma & Grandpa S. for these. As we speak, these cars are all lined up "watching" Ian play Super Mario Brothers on the Wii.
Nathan looking up at the fake snow as we wait in line to meet Santa. That is probably as close as he will come to being in the snow this winter.
Cookies. What is Christmas without a cookie swap? I made NINE DOZEN cookies for this swap. The lemon glazed cookies (in the middle) were so yummy and reminded me of my grandmother's lemon meringue pie. I'll have to post the recipe!
More cookies! Some jam thumbprints finished off my cookie selection. I was tired of rolling out the dough.
Yay! Daddy was home before Christmas. This is pretty much the only reason our tree made it up this year. I will have to schedule less for myself next December (when Ryan will likely be gone) so that I can make sure to provide the boys with a full Christmas experience.
Ryan is roasting marshmallows in the fireplace in this picture. All he wanted for Christmas was a finished fireplace that we could use so I purchased these glass doors and he bought some fancy grate (who knew such things existed). Don't ask me how I feel about the fireplace now...
Two happy boys on Christmas morning. Ian is still asking where his reindeer with wheels is..."Santa" was unable to deliver that particular present. They were both thrilled with all of their new toys, games & books!
Here are some photos from this holiday season. Enjoy!
The seasonal pack of Cars...a special thanks to Grandma & Grandpa S. for these. As we speak, these cars are all lined up "watching" Ian play Super Mario Brothers on the Wii.
Nathan looking up at the fake snow as we wait in line to meet Santa. That is probably as close as he will come to being in the snow this winter.
Cookies. What is Christmas without a cookie swap? I made NINE DOZEN cookies for this swap. The lemon glazed cookies (in the middle) were so yummy and reminded me of my grandmother's lemon meringue pie. I'll have to post the recipe!
More cookies! Some jam thumbprints finished off my cookie selection. I was tired of rolling out the dough.
Yay! Daddy was home before Christmas. This is pretty much the only reason our tree made it up this year. I will have to schedule less for myself next December (when Ryan will likely be gone) so that I can make sure to provide the boys with a full Christmas experience.
Ryan is roasting marshmallows in the fireplace in this picture. All he wanted for Christmas was a finished fireplace that we could use so I purchased these glass doors and he bought some fancy grate (who knew such things existed). Don't ask me how I feel about the fireplace now...
Two happy boys on Christmas morning. Ian is still asking where his reindeer with wheels is..."Santa" was unable to deliver that particular present. They were both thrilled with all of their new toys, games & books!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Gingerbread Crazy
Call me crazy, but I thought it would be fun to host a gingerbread house workshop with my playgroup. The response was overwhelming and I soon found myself adding a second workshop, then a third and yes, a fourth. We needed 15 houses for the first two workshops...
The first step is to trim the graham crackers to make the pieces for the front and back of each house. Use the short end of a graham cracker as your template when cutting the crackers. I used Honey Maid brand and found that I also needed to trim off the bottom "row" of each cracker so they weren't too tall when constructing the hosues.
Next, I trimmed large rectangular cake boards (cut each into 4 smaller rectangles) to act as the bases for each house, prepped my pastry bag and dug out my Wilton spreader. Make sure you have a Venti Mocha from Starbucks on hand as it takes up to 4-6 hours to construct 15 houses when you have a 3 and 4-year-old to tend to during the whole process.
Be sure to place a damp kitchen towel over your mixer as you begin to make the royal icing. The last thing that you want is powdered sugar ALL over your kitchen! I use Wilton's Royal Icing recipe.
We used tons of candy--M & M's, Skittles, Dots, gumdrops, sugar cones for trees, etc., to decorate the houses. The kids had a wonderful time and were all on a sugar high after they finished decorating their houses. Surprisingly, only a few kids were more interested in eating the treats than decorating.
Here is Ian's second gingerbread house:
And here he is proudly sitting in front of his house waiting for the fourth and final gingerbread house workshop/playdate to begin.
Nathan's second gingerbread house:
Nathan LOVED decorating the houses and couldn't wait to take this picture so that we could show it to Daddy when he returned home.
The first step is to trim the graham crackers to make the pieces for the front and back of each house. Use the short end of a graham cracker as your template when cutting the crackers. I used Honey Maid brand and found that I also needed to trim off the bottom "row" of each cracker so they weren't too tall when constructing the hosues.
Next, I trimmed large rectangular cake boards (cut each into 4 smaller rectangles) to act as the bases for each house, prepped my pastry bag and dug out my Wilton spreader. Make sure you have a Venti Mocha from Starbucks on hand as it takes up to 4-6 hours to construct 15 houses when you have a 3 and 4-year-old to tend to during the whole process.
Be sure to place a damp kitchen towel over your mixer as you begin to make the royal icing. The last thing that you want is powdered sugar ALL over your kitchen! I use Wilton's Royal Icing recipe.
We used tons of candy--M & M's, Skittles, Dots, gumdrops, sugar cones for trees, etc., to decorate the houses. The kids had a wonderful time and were all on a sugar high after they finished decorating their houses. Surprisingly, only a few kids were more interested in eating the treats than decorating.
Here is Ian's second gingerbread house:
And here he is proudly sitting in front of his house waiting for the fourth and final gingerbread house workshop/playdate to begin.
Nathan's second gingerbread house:
Nathan LOVED decorating the houses and couldn't wait to take this picture so that we could show it to Daddy when he returned home.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Photo with Santa
The boys were more than excited to go visit Santa this year. Can you believe it? Nathan was forced to toss his Lightening McQueen car in the garbage a week or two ago after breaking the wheels off. That was his motivating factor. He just could not wait to ask Santa for a new Lightening McQueen. In fact, he didn't even wait for Ian to make it up on Santa's lap before asking for his new toy. Ian asked for a reindeer with wheels...let's hope he doesn't remember that come Christmas morning. All day Ian talked about asking for a race car and then he changed his mind at the very last second.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Coupon Crazy
This is a picture of my most recent (and hopefully final) attempt at coupon organization. So far it is working really well for me AND even Ryan finds it easy to locate coupons for the things that he needs. I have over 20 categories right now and every time I clip and sort coupons I find that I need to add one or two new ones. Every little bit of savings help!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Playgroup Party
I am behind on everything these days so I apologize for just now uploading more of our Halloween photos. Oh, well, that's my life!
The kids were all so excited to see each other in their costumes. Ian was most excited when he saw the two tables covered in food. I was relieved that Ryan was able to attend the party because he kept an eye on Ian who was very determined to steal food before it was time to eat.
I saw this hummus graveyard in Family Fun magazine and just knew that it would be perfect for the party. We attempted a spooky food theme, but only a handful of us seemed up to the challenge. I just love that Wilton manufacturers the food safe pens which I used to write on crackers to create the headstones.
We requested that the kids allow us to take one group shot before eating. This worked well to convince my two boys to sit patiently for the picture. Ian never took his eyes off the food. Seriously. I promise that we do feed this boy 3 large meals plus snacks every day!
Before I even placed the lens cap on the camera, I swung around to see that Ian had taken a mummy dog for himself. Oh, my, goodness.
Nathan was a bit overwhelmed at the party and chose to sit safely at the table and nibble on food for 1 1/2 hours instead of joining in all the fun. He eventually played all the games and ran around, but he waited until half of the guests had left the party. Ian, on the other hand, was in good spirits (despite the too-small costume) and was more than happy to pose for a picture with dad.
The kids were all so excited to see each other in their costumes. Ian was most excited when he saw the two tables covered in food. I was relieved that Ryan was able to attend the party because he kept an eye on Ian who was very determined to steal food before it was time to eat.
I saw this hummus graveyard in Family Fun magazine and just knew that it would be perfect for the party. We attempted a spooky food theme, but only a handful of us seemed up to the challenge. I just love that Wilton manufacturers the food safe pens which I used to write on crackers to create the headstones.
We requested that the kids allow us to take one group shot before eating. This worked well to convince my two boys to sit patiently for the picture. Ian never took his eyes off the food. Seriously. I promise that we do feed this boy 3 large meals plus snacks every day!
Before I even placed the lens cap on the camera, I swung around to see that Ian had taken a mummy dog for himself. Oh, my, goodness.
Nathan was a bit overwhelmed at the party and chose to sit safely at the table and nibble on food for 1 1/2 hours instead of joining in all the fun. He eventually played all the games and ran around, but he waited until half of the guests had left the party. Ian, on the other hand, was in good spirits (despite the too-small costume) and was more than happy to pose for a picture with dad.
Monday, November 2, 2009
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