A Bisquick Kind of Day

It all started with forgetting to take my cookbook to Connecticut. I didn't have my regular scratch pancake recipe and every recipe I pulled from online were not so great. So I gave in and bought Bisquick. This morning we had Bisquick pancakes for breakfast. We were in a hurry to look at a house to rent, so they were made small, eat with your fingers size.

The house we went to see was gorgeous and right on the water. I think this is the winner and we are meeting with the agent and owner to set up lease terms on Monday. They are an older couple who are waiting out the housing slump to sell the house and only want to rent it to cover taxes and beach association fees (the rent is the same as other homes we have looked at, only this house is on a private neighborhood beach) They are willing to do a lease to own but since they already turned down a 1.2 million offer, I don't think we will be buying it :(

We got home in time to clean up the house together and get ready for lunch. Since we had run out of lunch meat, hotdogs, ramen soup and all other essential ingredients for everyone-eating-at-home lunches, I made an alternate: Strawberry shortcake. I had recently found out the recipe for this is right on the Bisquick box and I had bought strawberries for the week that hadn't been eaten yet. Yummy, if not the most healthy lunch.

Then we found a new park. It was a bit of a drive but had several walking trails, playgrounds, a lake and fountain. Quite beautiful.

By the time we got home, everyone was hungry for dinner. I had joked that if I could find a recipe, we could have Bisquick for dinner too and Peter informed me his mom used to make pizza dough from it. Low and behold, homemade pizza was on my list for dinners this week and I hadn't had time to make the bread dough so it hadn't been made. I jumped online, found a recipe and made Bisquick for dinner, too. There are tons of recipes for all kinds of things to make with Bisquick at Betty Crocker's site. Click the picture at the top to check it out!

So that was our Bisquick day!

Learning New Things

All my kids have really started to grow up. In the last couple of weeks they have all started learning something new. Here is a synopsis of what each has begun doing (I realize that it may seem as though I am ignoring my other kids in the videos, but really I'm not. That much.):

Matthew has started praying. He has always come running for prayer, folding his arms and kneeling, but within the last week he started saying amen with everyone and two nights ago he started praying. (In the video I tried to get him to pray, but he had other ideas. I did get him to fold his arms for a while!)

Joseph has started navigating the web (and my iphone). He has never shown interest in computers, but now I get a constant, "Can I go on PBS kids?" And then he moves around the site to find what he wants.

Kirsti is finally reading! When we read scriptures I only have to help on a couple of big words or unusual names, and she does a pretty good job of sounding those out, too!

Ethan has become good at Nintendo. He was behind the curve for a while because he always wanted to win, so he would let Ryan play "for him". At our newest game (Mario Cart) he plays about as well as me and is getting almost competitive with his older brother (which Ryan appreciates because they can really play together now). Another new learned skill for Ethan? He sings in Primary. Used to just sit there, but last week I looked behind me in Primary and he was singing every word to every song! Beautiful!

Ryan is becoming an expert gamer. He has beat more boards on Mario Cart than Peter or Gordon! Also, when we play strategic games (like Qwirkle or Settlers), he takes FOREVER to move because he is looking at potential moves from every angle. "I'm just making sure I can't do more."

Elise has become very conscious of herself. I don't know how else to say it. She always wants to bathe and actually brushes her own hair without prodding. In fact yesterday, she came down after a bath and said, "Don't tell me to brush my hair, I just spent a half hour getting it to scrunch like this." I then explained to her that mousse or gel would help hold a look and she ran upstairs immediately to try. Also, during FHE's she always has spiritual experiences to share. I keep thinking she will just repeat one she has already told, but they are always new ones to me. "I prayed about the Book of Mormon and knew it was true", "The spirit told me to get out of the water and I did right away and then a wave hit and knocked over everyone by me", etc. That is pretty exciting!

Just another Sunday

PS I forgot to mention this until after I posted, but when I went to get the little boys dressed Sunday morning, I found out the older two boys had painted their nails pink. No polish remover in the house so when we walked into church, my two baby boys had pink nails!

Well, we have had another really nice weekend. Yesterday we went to see Prince Caspian and really liked it. It is long for little ones (2 1/2 hours). We went to a 9:45 AM showing and we were the only ones in the theater. We could spread out and pretend it was a huge family room. That was particularly nice because Matthew was a little rambuncious and Joseph kept making comments on the movie. The kids spent a lot of the rest of the day playing outside and Peter spent it sleeping so he could do the night shift.

Today started exhausting enough. Once again I was a little late and Peter was home sleeping after a night shift (the last one this month!!), herding my children into the meeting while everyone watched. Then, I had to drag out Matthew and Joseph in the middle of the sacrament because they were being too loud. As if that wasn't bad enough, after we came back in, I gave Matthew my iphone (he likes to hold it up to his ear like he is talking) and he somehow turned on music- even though it was locked and turned to silent. The worse part was, I couldn't figure out how to turn it off fast enough and was forced to practically run down the isle with Matthew in tow while my phone played After Midnight by Eric Clapton. Fun, huh? After that, Matthew more or less played quietly and Joseph looked at scrapbook pictures I have downloaded onto my phone (you should see my 3 year old navigate my touchscreen!), so the rest of Sacrament meeting went well.

After church we rested a while then I woke up Peter and we played a game of Qwirkle (I won!), went on a family walk down the boardwalk by our house (in the drizzling rain, but the kids had a blast), ate some chicken soup (those of you that are in hot areas, we can still have hot chocolate, jackets and soup!), and played a marathon Settlers of Catan Cities and Knights extension game (4 hours). Elise had her 1st victory. And now, the kids are going to bed and I am checking blogs and Peter is watching the golf he DVR'ed. Like I said, just another Later Sunday.

Spirited Discussions?

So, the other day Peter was insisting he had bought an air mattress to go camping with and I was insisting we had not. A couple of days later, Joseph brought me an air mattress, "Look what I found in my closet. What is this?" So that got me thinking, at dinner that night we compiled our top silliest arguments. Here they are in more-or-less chronological order:

1- Is it faster to get to Peter's apartment (we were still dating) by crossing the field or walking around it?

2- Do clouds move across the sky because of winds or the earth moving underneath?

3- Is it cheating to look at someone's cards if you can not in any way affect their game? (ie, A is playing behind of B, and A's discard can not affect B's play at all. A was just curious how close B was to finishing) We now have very set rules when we play Phase 10.

4- Who 1st proposed Elise's name? I still claim I had always liked the name, having someone in my neighborhood with the name. Peter claims he choose it because of its Scandinavian background.

5- Should we still have an electoral college (it would be wise if you don't ask either of us unless you like to talk politics)?

6- Who was right about the clouds moving argument? Conveniently we both think we were the one fighting that it was the wind moving the clouds. I ask, who studied physics and took a weather class?? Hmm?

7- Do fireworks explode uni-directional or 3 dimensional? I know that some of those reading were present at this argument and none of us will ever watch fireworks again without commenting how lucky we are to sit on the correct side of the fireworks so we can see them explode!

8- Which is faster, the slower speed limit with no lights (me) or the faster speed limit with lights (Peter)? This is actually an argument that continues wherever we move and is only settled by racing. I think we have an even number of wins and whoever looses usually follows the winners route once it proves faster.

9- Looking at it at night, where on the mountain is Copperton, UT? Oh wait, that argument isn't ours. That was my mom and dad's silliest (and longest running) argument!

This week I am asking everyone to vote on which argument is the silliest.

By the way, thanks to everyone for taking the pot/kettle poll. It is nice to know that not everything I say is completely archaic! The final results for 'What do you think of the idiom "that's the pot calling the kettle black"?':

Never Heard of it: 0
Heard of it, but don't know what it means: 1
Heard of it, know what is means, but think it is uncommon: 1
Heard it and might have used it/would use it if the situation was right: 2
I know I have used that phrase before: 9

Mothers Day Weekend

Finally, I have gotten around to posting about last weekend. I woke up Saturday and decided to give myself a present: a clean house. I started around 10:30 and by 3 I was as done as I wanted to be (I did do 3 more hours later in the evening). Anyway, it seems the present of choice this year was time alone, and I was no exception. Peter took ALL the kids to the mall and left me home with one directive: no housecleaning while he was gone (that is why I stopped at 3). So after an afternoon of scrapbooking, the kids came home with their spoils. The 4 oldest had used their allowances to buy Webkinz (again). As always, Joseph had also bought a little stuffed animal (less expensive and 3 year olds don't need online toys!) They had bought me some nice clothes with accessories, a dozen roses, and some Bath & Body stuff. Peter worked the night shift (see my last post), so I knew that I was on my own for Mother's Day on Sunday. After Peter left and the kids went to bed I finished cleaning up and went to bed myself.

Sunday was very pleasant. I somehow ended up running a little late for church and they were getting ready to sing the opening hymn when I got in. Of course, the only open row was at the FRONT, so everyone got to see me walk in late. While singing the opening hymn, I saw someone walking up the isle to our row. "Some charitable soul has had pity on me and is coming to help me struggle through Sacrament Meeting with 6 kids on Mother's Day," I thought. To my surprise, when I looked over it was Peter. It is hard for him to come to church when he gets home from working at 8AM. Although he tries to avoid it, sometimes he has to work that Saturday night shift or Sunday day shift. It was a particular blow that he worked that shift so he could take the boys to the cancelled camping trip.

I have to say that Peter taking all the kids to the store and then coming to Church the next day were the two best Mother's Day presents I have ever gotten. It is funny how such a simple thing can mean so much to an overworked, over stressed mom! The other presents weren't too bad either :). And I loved all the kids homemade (technically school and church made) cards.

Friday Night at the Laters

Last Friday the stake had their Father-Son Camp out. Peter had worked really hard to get Friday night and Saturday off to take the boys. He had even remembered to throw in the tent last time we were in NC so he could take them. Well, Friday morning it was raining. I emailed Peter at work and asked him if the plan was still on. "Of course, just go buy some ponchos." (It had not been easy getting the time off and he had even volunteered to work the early (6AM-4PM) Friday shift and all-night (8PM-6AM) Saturday shift so he could go) He gave me a list of things he would need for the rain. So I bought Joseph a new cold weather sleeping bag, a tarp for under the tent, and 4 ponchos. It was still raining. Those boys were so excited they could hardly contain themselves. They had their sleeping bags over their shoulders, backpacks packed and ponchos on from the time school got out till Peter got home from work. Still raining. Ethan even packed all the baseball gloves and balls to play ball. Joseph knew he was going with the big boys and kept showing everyone his new bag and reminding them that his was the yellow poncho. Well, to make a short story long :), Peter got home, they loaded the car and headed out (still raining), only to arrive an hour later (still raining) and find out the camp out was cancelled. Apparently, Peter was the only one who thought everyone would just bring tarps and ponchos and go camping through the rain. Well, to make a short story long :), they went to see Iron Man and went to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.

Meanwhile, I had decided to have a girls night out with my daughters (and poor Matthew who looks a little girlish till I cut his curls). Matthew noticed, BTW, that he was the only boy left. He stood at the window for a while calling bye to his dad and brothers. Anyway, we went to a big fancy dinner at McDonalds. Then we came home and made some crafts I had bought. The 1st pictures are Kirsti and Elise making yarn octopuses and the last is us girls with yarn spirographs. Then we watched live TV (not too common when we have a DVR) and ate a bag of Oreos.

It was a lot of fun and I think Peter and I will split up the kids more often for nights on the town.

A Week in Laters

For some reason I could never get quite caught up with things last week. Here is a short synopsis of our week:

Monday
As always, my shopping day. I was $30 under budget!! There is a park 1.5 miles from the house and the kids school is halfway, so Peter and I walked to the school, picked up the kids and walked to the park. It ended up being 3 miles round trip for us, but only 2 for the kids. Also, we had FHE and finally finished all the power point lessons the kids have made. Just in time to start going over conference talks!

Tuesday
Peter worked the 11-11 shift so I was on my own. Took the kids to the park again (this time I drove!) It is finally nice enough to play outside and the kids pulled out the bikes when we got home. They like to ride up and down the little one way street by our house. I let them do it while I cleaned the kitchen (and listened to Matthew whine about not going out with the other kids) until Ryan got hit by another biker- we get a lot of bikers and runners because we are right along the ocean. Guess I can only let them go around the house unless I am watching them the whole time. Took the boys to Cub Scouts. Watched all my kids and some of Ethan's leader's kids. Elise somehow ended up helping the YW do gardening stuff and we ended up taking some plants home to water.


Wednesday
Went to the park with a friend in the morning. It was a little chilly and windy so we didn't stay long. There was a cool slide there that had rollers going down. Matthew loved it and went up and down it the whole time. After school we pulled out everyone's bikes and the bike trailer (for Joseph and Matthew) and went on our first whole family bike ride. Elise had popped her tire the day before and Kirsti isn't too steady on her bike yet, so they took the scooters. We drove around the huge beach parking lot by our house (it is about the size of a WalMart parking lot) and then went on about a mile route. Poor Kirsti was exhausted! We stretched the limits of the trailer by letting her ride for the home trip. Elise switched scooter to bike with Ryan about 1/2 way through.

Thursday
I can't remember what I did Thursday. I think the plan was to do housework, but I know that didn't quite happen. It was rainy, so no park or playing outside. Hmmm. Must have been a pretty boring day. Should have taken some time to post that day.

Oh yeah, I went and looked at a place to rent that day. It was a great size (a little expensive), but the walls are all faux painted or wall papered or muralled and they aren't leaving till July 1st, still it may be where we end up until we sell our house. By the way, there is a family that is trying to get financing for the house right now. Cross your fingers that it goes through so we can live in our own house again. Here is the website showing the house I looked at. It is in a neighborhood I would like to live in eventually.

*I forgot to mention that we got Mario Cart last Saturday and so we have been playing intermittently with Gordon and Jessica all week. Usually while I make dinner and before the kids go to bed.*

Well, this post is long enough. I will have to post later to tell you about Mother's Day Weekend (that's right, we celebrated all weekend long!)

Poll Answer

Who was the first Later to fall in the Ocean? Peter and I were betting on Ryan (who is the usual 1st due to his love of jumping the waves), but this time it was Joseph. Ryan did come in a close 2nd, though.
Due to a little controversy in my family over a phrase I used to comment on my mom's post, my next poll asks about the idiom "the pot calling the kettle black." Please tell me I'm not the only one who uses that phrase!

You thought you had a lot of laundry . . .

To fit all the summer clothes we brought back from North Carolina into our Suburban, we were forced to be a little creative. Clothes were rolled under seats, inside the stroller, and anywhere else they could be stuffed. Needless to say, I had to refold it all when I got home. Being such a great housecleaner and coming back to a place where warm clothes aren't yet a priority, it sat a couple of days (and a couple in this case may be more than 2). By that time, I had regular laundry to wash, too. When finished, I was faced sorting this pile. For perspective, the bed is the extra full size bed in our bedroom (and Brenda thought the kitchen was funny looking). And, in the interest of full disclosure, this picture is short one load of laundry (still in the dryer) and two loads of towels I folded downstairs.

Goodbye House

Well, I took some pictures of our house before we left. It has been hard to be 6 months without our furniture (Can't say I'm overlly fond of the rental's furniture) so I thought I would take some pictures to get me through till the house sells (or the off season beach rental goes in season and we have to move to a new UNFURNISHED rental). Thought you might like to see the old place or, if you've seen it before, the new bathrooms, kitchen, and floors we added. I forgot the basement, but it now has a new sumppump that both doesn't leak and not turn on (a double wammie). Enjoy!