Tuesday Ten...4 Days Late and Definitely a Dollar Short

I thought I would have more time for things like blogging and crafts once the kids went back to school. That hasn't been the case!  Not quite sure what I have been doing with my time but hopefully I will be able to get back to blogging regularly and make some time for my scrapbooking and crafts.

Here is a quick little Tuesday Ten on Saturday to keep you entertained until I stop by again!

1. I need gray flip-flops.  I have a million gray shirts and no flip-flops to match.

2. How do you spell gray/grey - I think I flip-flop between the two. And I don't care if I get grey or gray flip-flops either will do.

3. KFC's current ad campaign says that chicken shouldn't come in "nuggets" - I am not sure why they think "popcorn" chicken is better than a chicken "nugget" I am pretty sure neither are real chicken.

4. I am a little disturbed with how large my sons new baseball pants are.  Very hard to order things like that online.  I will try to snap a picture of them and show you exactly what I mean!  Not very aerodynamic, a little parachute like and he really doesn't need anything to slow him down.

5. Our current toothpaste tastes exactly like how our toilet bowl cleaner smells.  But we keep using it.  Even though we have about 20 other tubes in the cabinet.

6. I really am not a fan of TV.  I used to have a few shows that I enjoyed watching every week.  And there are still a few things I don't mind watching, however some of my family members think it has to be on 24 hours a day!  A lot more would get done around here if the TV wasn't on!

7.  I put myself on a literary break - no more reading books until I get some scrapbooking and page planning done. But then I bought 2 new books today at the Borders going out of business sale.  I couldn't say no to .80 paperbacks!  Now if I can just ignore them for awhile.  I have a tendancy to not do anything else until my book is done.  I guess it is a little like the TV situation above.

8. Today was a great day for the Thunderbirds soccer and Ironbird baseball.  10-0 victory for the Thunderbirds and 11-4 for the Ironbirds.  Way to go kids!

9. Sitting outside exhausts me, I did nothing today but watch soccer and baseball, yet I am drained.

10.  I haven't been crafting, couponing or even hitting the thrift stores.........I need to get back on track!

Tuesday Ten......on Wednesday

I don't know why I chose to have my main blog post of the week be on Tuesdays.  You see I only work a few days a week and one of them is Tuesday.  So I am a little busy already on Tuesdays.  I thought of changing it to the Friday Five, but then again Friday is the other day I work!  So instead I decided that it will just be a surprise when I post my Tuesday Ten. 

My dad is planning that this weeks Tuesday Ten will be the 10 reasons why you shouldn't go camping.  I hate to disappoint him, but it isn't.  There will be quite a few camping pictures though.  I decided that today will just be random blathering, which I know is no different than any other post!

1)  My kids school schedule seems to have much more influence on my life than I realize. Every Wednesday this summer I always think we are in a hurry to do something because it is a "short day".  The kids get out of school early on Wednesdays but that doesn't mean there are less hours in the day on Wednesday!  But yet this morning I thought I better get up early and get stuff done because it is a short day.  Nevermind that it is summer and better yet my kids aren't even home this week!

2) And since they aren't home this week that means:

No one will be sitting here all day doing nothing (I usually sit on the other end of the couch)

This will not be tuned to the Disney Channel all day.  In fact it probably won't even get turned on.

And I will not get any of these this week.

Yes, they are gray hairs, not the best picture because there are a lot of them, and you can't see it too well in this shot.

3) We did manage to do a few things on our list of things we still want to do this summer.  We went camping last week.

We have been going to Hendy Woods State Park near Boonville for the last 7 or 8 years.  The park is now on the list to close next summer.  This makes me sad.  It is a great campground and we will miss it if we can't go every summer.

We went hiking:

We made Jiffy Pop on the camp stove:

We went swimming in the Navarro River:

We roasted hot dogs over the fire (yummmm...that smoky flavor):

We made smores.  We also had GIANT marshmallows, they were way more marshmallow than we could handle:

We even attempted to cut off our finger!  Well Trevor did.  And no he didn't cut his thumb off, he just has it bent funny, but he did put a major gash in his finger.  He was attempting to modify a bubble wand of all things.  He thought I should take a picture of his bandaged finger and a bloody leaf.  There were a lot of bloody leaves.

We played games. Or rather they played games.  I don't do games.

4) The kids are at my parents house this week which was one of the things they wanted to do this summer.  I took them up and got to visit my Grandma Dodo for a little bit which is something I wanted to do this summer.  She is 90 and she doesn't like pictures and she sure as hell isn't going to smile for one!



  5) This past Saturday was Trevor's birthday.  One more year to the BIG 4-0!

 And that about wraps this up.  Plus I am going to be late for my pedicure......

Tuesday Ten....kind of

I don't think there will be 10 here and I don't really think they are funny one bit but it is all I've got for you today!

There are 22 days until school starts.  I have mixed emotions about the kids going back to school. 

1) I am not ready for the morning wake-up fights and the getting homework done fights

2) I will be glad for the being together just about 24/7 fights to end.

3) There are still a lot of things that we wanted to do this summer that we haven't done yet.  Hell, we haven't even made our "What We Want To Do This Summer" list!
            1) Spend a few days at my aunts and swim and hang out - not happening
            2) Go to the Jelly Belly Factory - may still happen
            3) The kids are supposed to spend a week at my parents - still hoping for that one!
            4) I also wanted to spend a few days at my parents and my grandma's house, she's 90 you know and I should probably spend some time with her - I may get a day or two in there when I drop-off/pick-up the kids, if they go
            5) Go the beach - maybe with my mom
            6) Hiking at Armstrong Woods - may still happen
            7) Camping - might actually happen this week!
            8) I planned to do the eliptical machine at least 5 days a week - I think I got on it twice. 
            9) I was going to have my 2010 Project 365 completely journaled - haven't written a thing.
            10) Not let the kids watch TV.......ummmm yeah, right.
So we may still do some of these things in the next 22 days but that will make it a very busy 22 days AND soccer practice will start somewhere in there too.

4) Looking forward to a little time to myself when the kids go to school, but then of course I will start volunteering in the class, planning parties and finding a million things to do for other people.

5) I really don't want to spend money that I don't have on school clothes that they don't really need.  I asked Jaren if we was going to spend the money he made at the yard sale on school clothes.  He told me that he doesn't really need any if he has to pay for it!  But of course if I am paying for it he will find plenty that he "needs"!

I think I have about tapped out this subject and like I said there is no humor in it!  But for now August 18th with have a big red circle on our calendar and I will let you know if it is a good or bad thing!

The Tuesday Ten

So I am a day late, and a week and a day late since I never posted a Tuesday Ten last week either!  I haven't really had any funny little observations and sure as heck haven't had 10 of them!!  So here is what I've got for you:

1) Summer drains me.  Kids whining, kids fighting, kids being bored.  Kids drain me.

2) In an effort to keep the whining, fighting and boredom to a minimum we have been going on hikes, going to the cheap movies (Kung Fu Panda is on the agenda for today) and doing art projects.  Did you know that you can whine, fight and even be bored while hiking, at the movies and doing art projects.  Yep, you can.

3) I am hoping to go camping soon.

4) Gotta get through the big yard sale this weekend then I can plan the camping trip.

5) I haven't had my toes done all summer.  I am hoping to make big bucks at the yard sale so I can treat myself to a pedicure.

6) I picked up my new glasses last week.  Gotta go get them adjusted, they hurt behind my ears.  And once I get my eyebrows tamed I will post a picture of the new specs, but I am waiting on the same windfall of money to be able to get my brows under control.

7) The shirt I am wearing today has some kind of stain on the front of it.  I am pretending like I didn't notice and that it must have just happened.

8) Our cat doesn't like the food I borrowed from the neighbor.  I guess I will have to actually go to the store and buy him some.

9) I think we are going to try Five Guys Burgers today.  Jaren has been wanting to go so we might check it out.  Gotta reward the fighting and whining you know.

10) Tomorrow will be the final purging, sorting and pricing day for the yard sale - if it doesn't happen tomorrow it isn't going to happen!

Running Late....

Yes, it is Wednesday and there still hasn't been a Tuesday Ten post.  It might not happen until Thursday, or maybe not at all!  I will leave you all in suspense!

But there is this quick thought, the more I go to Salvation Army the more I think my parents have been donating my childhood......first it was a stuffed Wuzzle named Eleroo that my sister had as a kid and then yesterday it was my Jim Henson and The Muppets Christmas record.  I think I better make a trip up the coast and check my closet!  Dad.....??

The Tuesday Ten

1. I made this last night:

Rotisserie Chicken In The Crockpot

--1 whole chicken, skinned (4-5 pounds) *Mine was over 6 lbs and I don't recommend skinning the bird in front of your children while they are eating breakfast, at least they don't recommend it!--2 tsp kosher salt (if you'd like it as salty as the ones in the store, add another 1 tsp.)
--1 tsp paprika
--1 tsp onion powder
--1/2 tsp dried thyme
--1 tsp Italian seasoning
--1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
--1/2 tsp black pepper
--pinch of chili pepper (probably not necessary)

--4 whole garlic cloves (optional)
--1 yellow onion, quartered (optional)

The Directions.

In a bowl, combine all of dried spices. Rub the spice mixture all over the bird, inside and out. Plop the bird breast-side down into the crockpot. *I like how the recipe says to plop the bird in, I like the word plop.
If desired, shove 4 whole garlic cloves and a quartered onion inside the bird.

Do not add water.

Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or on low for 8. The meat is done when it is fully cooked and has reached desired tenderness. The longer you cook it, the more tender the meat.

I cooked mine for 8 hours on low, it pretty much fell apart in the crockpot, probably shouldn't have cooked it so long; my crockpot seems to run a little "hot" and cooks things way faster than recipes say - the chicken was a little dry. I found the recipe here.

2. I read this last week:


It was good. Nothing earth shattering or very thought provoking but it was a nice story. I say read it.

3. I want my blog to be like this. I have been reading her blog for a year or two and I just like her.

4. We did this yesterday:



We finally busted out the Easy Bake oven that Nalani got for Christmas. We tried to do it a few months ago but we ran into a problem - it does not come with the 100 Watt bulb that is required. It isn't easy to find regular 100 Watt lightbulbs these days! Yesterday it took us 39 minutes to bake 8 bites of cake. 8 bites of nasty cake with nasty frosting. 15 minutes to warm up the bulb and 12 minutes per cake to bake, we made a yellow cake and a devils food cake. We are going to try the pretzels next, I am sure they will be delicious.

5. There was still swim lessons today, even though it was raining. It smelled like poop at the pool.

6. This is what I had for lunch today:



Yep, that's a large Coke and large fries from McDonald's. Shouldn't have had it but I did, and I liked it.

7. I got my haircut today. Walked right in and sat right down at Great Clips. I always go there, but always get a different person. Today I had a new girl. I have had my hair short for some time, I came in with it short and left with it shorter but she still found it necessary to tell me that I would have little hairs all over me when she was done. Ummm....I know this, it happens everytime!? I think I like it. I will do a big reveal when my new glasses come in!

8. The kids and I rented this today:



I don't know if we will watch it tonight or tomorrow morning. Just some time before 9pm tomorrow when the movie box will charge me another $1. Big spender.

9. I am trying to get ready for a yard sale that will occur in 18 days. I currently have all of the contents of my craft room piled on the floor as I purge and sort. Last night I spent a few hours sitting in the middle of it wondering where to start. Then I went to bed.

10. I am working on my second year of doing a picture a day with Becky's Project Life. We are pretty much at the halfway point of 2011 and I haven't been doing the best at taking my picture a day. I am now recommitting to following through with it. I will even try to post my picture every day or maybe Seven on Sunday or something. You have my word, all 7 of you.

The Tuesday Ten

I must be busy, or boring - no posts since last week's Tuesday Ten!
This weeks Tuesday Ten is a special weekend baseball tournament edition and quite a bit more than ten!  It was quite an experience!

1. We had been on the road for about 30+ minutes when we meet a teammate going the opposite direction.  They were headed back home to get his bag with all of his baseball gear.

2. A little back story - I am usually VERY good with directions, I can always get us anywhere, however back when I was a senior in high school I applied to and was accepted to two colleges - Sacramento State and Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.  One of the main reasons why I chose to attend Cal Poly is because it has one freeway, Hwy 101 - the same freeway we have here.  Sacramento has WAY too many freeways going way too many directions.

3. We got lost.

4.  We had to get on I-5.  I believe I didn't start looking for a way to get on to I-5 until we were past it.  Mapquest led me astray. It left out the important bit of info about getting on I-80 Business Loop to access 5.  We went for a really long time on I-50, waiting to get on I-5.  A REALLY long time.  Like 9 miles outside of Placerville long.

5.  My husband is an assistant coach.  We were almost to Placerville.  The other assistant coach AND all of the team gear were dropped off at the wrong field.  And left there by his wife that had another kid to get to another field.

6.  The head coach was at the correct field.  With 8 players, 2 without cleats, no assistant coaches or gear.

7.  The wife came back to get the other coach.  They got lost trying to get across town.

8. We all arrived 5 minutes before game time - gear, coaches and players.

9.  Lost the first game 11-7, should have won but we fell apart one inning.  Went to a sandwich shop that took forever and cost a fortune.

10. Tied the 2nd game 5-5, the umps just walked off and said it was a tie.  Ummmm, OK I guess. We really wanted to win.

11.  Checked in to hotel.  Find out Head coach and his family lost their car key, their only car key, they had their little clicker button thing but the key had fallen off their key ring. Can't find it anywhere.  The people at lost and found tell them to pray to St. Sebastian, check the ignition and to check back tomorrow.  All very helpful suggestions.

12.  $250 later they have a two new car keys and get to the hotel 3 hours after everyone else.

13. Uneventful evening of swimming in the pool, dinner, sleep.

14. Very crappy hotel breakfast.

15.  Lost first game of the day 10-8 but it was against a team that had beat everyone else by 10+ so the boys did well.  The teams are all 11 years old.  There were boys on that team that made our coaches look small.  Guess there is nothing to do in Galt except eat, and play baseball.

16. The family that had to go back home to get their ball bag back in #1, well they now locked their keys in their car.  Call to locksmith 2nd time this weekend for our team.

17.  Second game of the day we won 26-1.  The first half of the 1st inning took 40 minutes.  We batted through our line-up 2 1/2 times.  We have been on the other end of that before so we felt bad for the other team.  One of our boys hit a grand slam.  Very hard to celebrate when you are whipping the other team so badly.  But at least it was a happy ending to one heck of a weekend!

Wish you could see the scoreboard a little better in the picture!

Tuesday Ten......on Wednesday

1) I don’t know why but it made me chuckle that The Lytton Springs Salvation Army Store has a “Preferred Customers Club”

2) Do people even think about what they are donating to charities? Do you really think someone wants your half-used tube of boob cream for breast feeding moms? Or how about taking the family photo out of the frame before putting it in the donation box.

3) Another helpful hint on donating - no one wants your home video on VHS of “Hawaiian Vacation 1997” it took all I had not to pick that sucker up. And then of course there was “Kelly’s Mickey Mouse Club Tape” I soooo wanted to buy that, just for the sole fact that Kelly told me “Do NOT Touch” right on the label.

4) Yesterday when I was at the Salvation Army store I saw a lady pull up to the donation truck and unload a bunch of boxes. She then pulled in to the parking lot, grabbed a cart and started shopping. If she just got rid of that many boxes I am thinking she really shouldn’t collect stuff up again!

5) I do not like things that boast that they are “20 minute Workouts” - they lie. You have to do them for 20 minutes every.single.day, not just 20 minutes once and you are done. Not a fan.

6) I am the coolest mom on the All-Star team because I gave all the boys free nachos after practice. We have to use up the snack shack cheese sauce and chips!

7) I am not good at accessorizing. My scrapbook pages don’t have much embellishing, my house isn’t very decorated and I don’t wear jewelry, scarves etc. I wish I was.

8) It looks hot out today but I haven’t been out, I just turned on the AC and stayed inside.

9) Why is every person on Extreme Couponing going on their “biggest shopping trip ever”?

10) I have $9.98 to spend at Rite Aid and nothing I want to buy. I have to spend it this week or it will expire. It is kind of a bummer that there is nothing I want that will give me more Rite Aid dollars back. L

The Tuesday Ten

Here are my random thoughts and observations for the week:

1.  Whatever happened to the light brown M&M?  My kids don't even know it existed!

2.  The Duggars of 19 Kids and Counting fame were on the Today show this morning.  They asked them how they make ends meet with 19 kids, how can they afford to feed, clothe, etc all of those kids? Hhhmmmm.....maybe their own TV show and appearing on shows like the Today show have something to do with it!??!  Like they are just living on a waitresses salary or something!

3.  As we all know I have a lot of toothbrushes, you can pretty much choose any kind or color from my stash in the cupboard so WHY did Husband pull out a pink one to use!?!  Now everytime I brush my teeth I have to think about what toothbrush is mine.

4. I think I am going to change the color scheme of the blog.

5.  I am taking down and boxing up all of my Pooh Bear kitchen stuff.  I just don't want to look at the silly old bear any longer.

6.  I am getting tired of the "chevron" design fad.  It is everywhere on Pinterest and it doesn't float my boat.

7. Why when I don't need one of these dispenser container things they are everywhere for like $2 and now that I want to make the bubble refill station I can't find one!?  Except fancy $10 ones!

8.  Really big dance show this week.  Rehearsal tonight and then the really big show Thursday and Saturday nights! Baseball on the same nights too.  Fun!

9.  Jaren's team won tonight - they even had a triple play.  Which I missed because I was waiting at dance rehearsal......a dance rehearsal that was running an hour behind when we got there!

10.  I think 10 things is way too much to come up with and two is too few.....but nothing else works with Tuesday......maybe I should change the day.

The Tuesday Ten

I used to call my mom with funny little "Tuesday Observations" I haven't done it for quite some time. Since she closed her gift shop she isn't that easy to get ahold of, so I have no one to share my random observations, stupid things I hear etc. with.  So I have decided I will share them with you here on Tuesdays.  Today these are just very random things I am thinking about, they may not be observations or even that funny but I am sharing them anyway.

1. I NEED a Walmart SuperCenter.  I was in one this weekend and now I need one.  Strawberries were .75 a pound, 24pk of Diet Pepsi was $1 cheaper than our Walmart here.  Full on grocery store in a Walmart, prices so much better than Safeway.

2.  Speaking of Safeway, I was just there.  I bagged all of my own groceries because there wasn't anyone there to do it and I didn't want to wait for the cashier to do it after he rang up my groceries.  But the cashier then asks me 4 times if I would like help out to my car.  If there is someone available to help me out to my car why didn't they come and bag my groceries??!

3. I was just at Safeway but we are still going to get Panda Express for dinner.

4. I am not ready for summer to start.  Well summer is fine, it is the kids being home every day that I am not ready for!

5. I could spend all day browsing things on Pinterest.  Damn you Jenny, damn you!

6. I need to come up with some activities that both a 7 year old girl and 11 year old boy would enjoy that doesn't require mom participation.

7. I can't think of 10 things to share today, and since the first 6 are pretty boring I am sure you aren't too disappointed about that!

A few additions:
8. Jaren finally viewed "THE" growth and development video at school.  He said it wasn't the best.

9. Jaren received the official word that he had made the All-Star team for baseball, he was very stressed out about that.

10. Next week is the really big dance show!  Nalani will be hip-hopping her way into everyone's heart!