Eating From the Pantry - 2

Well, it was bound to happen!!  We ran out of cereal!  Tuesday we had oatmeal.  Wednesday we had ham and cheese omelets.  Today we had breakfast burritos (without any potatoes - just egg and stuff in tortillas).  I have really noticed that the kids seem more full aka satisfied, off of these breakfasts than they do with the cereal.  But I sure do like the convenience of cereal. 

 

Tuesdays dinner was fish sticks, green bean casserole with pears.

 

Last night we had a ham and corn potato soup.  I knew we were out of frozen corn but I figured we had canned corn.  I was wrong.  We did have a can of creamed corn so we improvised with that.  We also used leftover Easter ham instead of the prepackaged stuff from the store.  We also had some bisquick biscuits to go with. 

 

I am really enjoying the end results of these meals, but the figuring them out is a bit more difficult.  I usually have a list and that keeps meals super simple! 

Eating From the Pantry

This past weekend was Easter!!!  

Christ has risen!

We had family from both sides over and some friends.  It was super fun and nice to see everyone and to celebrate the rising of our King.  Unfortunately we spent much more of our monthly food budget then we should have.  I told Brian that this week we would be eating from our pantry because I was not going to the store for a while.  

Last night I started digging through the freezer to see what we had.  I found a tupperware with diced frozen onions and celery and one with tomato paste.  There was a portion of Polska kielbasa and some frozen peas and corn.  I sautéed up the onions and celery a bit of garlic and other spices.  I then diced the kielbasa and sautéed it too.  Next I added the tomato paste, some chicken broth and some wine.  Lastly I added in the vegitables.  I let all of that simmer while I boiled up some shell pasta.  Then we ;mixed it all together and called it dinner.  I was amazed how well it turned out.  Brian actually complemented me on my creativity since I usually have a dinner plan and cook off of recipes.    

Today I mentioned to my brother, who lives with us, the plan of not going to the grocery store.  It was his night to cook dinner and he did great.  Although, that was not surprise to me!!  He is amazing with the "from scratch" cooking.  He will often look in the pantry and come up with a meal.  I usually have to look through the cookbooks/recipes and then shop for things to come up with my meal.  He make up some homemade hash browns in individualized portions.  Then he added scrambled eggs and sausage links.  What a yummy dinner.

We have about a week more (ideally) before I go to the store again.  We will see what we can continue to make happen.

1st Day of School

So here we are the start of the 2013 school year!!!

 

Angela is starting middle school (know as Jr. High when I was her age) and is in the 7th grade and 12 years old.

Connor is in 1st grade and is 6 years old.

Emeric is just waiting for his time to start school and he is 3.

Angela's B-Day

12 Years Old!!

That feels really weird to type.  I am not ready for her to be 12 because that means she is almost a teenager.  She is pretty excited though. 

 

She started out celebrating on her actual birthday by waking up extra early!!  We went out to breakfast at the Luna Park Café.  It is not too far from Brian's work so he was able to come with us.  Then it was back home for some gifts and lazing around.  Lucky for he she does not have school on her birthday.  That evening we went out for dinner at Blue C Sushi which is at the South Center Mall.  The sushi moves along on a conveyor belt and the kids (especially Angela) thought it was great to watch them come around and to pick which ones you wanted. 

 

She is hugely into Percy Jackson stories/movies right now so she needed to have a trident on her cake.

Blowing out the candles and making a wish seemed super easy.....

that is until the relit themselves (darn mom and some sneaky trick candles.

She was quite particular in what she wanted for her cake.  I was German chocolate cake with a peanut butter cream filling and a milk chocolate frosting.  Then there was coconut flakes sprinkled on top and the trident decoration. 

 

She then got to celebrate her birthday again on Labor Day weekend while we were camping.  She got very spoiled by all of the family.  She was pretty sure that turning 12 was AWESOME!



Up-Late

On June 1st...or would that be the 2nd...well which ever, it was midnight between the two. 

We had ourselves an up-late date.  We got the kids our of their snug beds and got in the car and headed down to Madison. 

There is this dessert place that I had heard of called Fried and Fabulous.  It is only open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from Midnight to 3:00 AM.  Perfect college kid bar hours but not so good for a family.  Well since we knew we were moving I wanted to try it out once.  They serve foods (desserts & other) deep fried in funnel cake batter.  It sounded very gluttonous.   

 

We got there and picked out some fried treats: Oreos, cookie dough, cheesecake and an ice cream bar.

It was super rich but fortunately with Brian's smart thinking we brought some milk to help wash it down.    All three kids were a little confused at why we were doing this but after a bit were okay with their weird parents.  Angela and Connor liked it.  Emeric wouldn't try any.  That was weird since he normally eats from sun up to sun down.  That must have been the problem, the sun was down.  The next morning he was ready to try it, good thing there were some leftover Oreos.  I am glad we got up to try something as silly as that.

Moving

As I mentioned in the previous post, Brian and I had a week together to find our rental.  We drove and search and visited possible options the entire week.  We thought we were either going to be an hour to an hour and a half from Brian's work or in something way too small for all of us.  We were getting discouraged.  Then at what seemed like the last minute I found a house.  It was two stories, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a little over 1800 square feet and it had plenty of room to park all of our extra vehicles.  The relator could not get us in so Brian and I drove over and peeked in the windows.  The best part about this house was the fact that it is 15 minutes from Brian's work.  We called and left a message for the relator that we would get them the deposit tomorrow but we wanted the house.  The next day we got inside to see it.  Brian was able to get a break from work to see it too.  We grabbed the application and that night we had it and our deposit turned in.  The next day I headed to Colville for two weeks.  We kept waiting and waiting to hear if we got it.  That was an anxious time because we knew our credit and history were good enough to get it but we still had to wait.  Finally, almost a week later, we were given the green light.  Yahoo!  Unfortunately Brian had to work the two weekends that I was gone so he was unable to help do any moving.  We were fortunately able to borrow a trailer so we didn't have to rent a moving van again.  Due to the amazing kindness of many people we got the trailer loaded in two days.  Then we drove over the hill (aka: across the state and over the pass) on Friday August 16th.  Then unloaded everything on Saturday August 17th.

 

After moving in, I realized that there was a lot to be done.  It was things that I must have looked over when we did the walk through.  Basic deep cleaning things and some minimal repair things.  Nothing that is impossible.  I will try and get some pictures posted soon, although they won't be before pictures, just after ones.

Summer

This summer has been crazy busy.  Not the busy of vacationing and sports and camps etc. that a lot of families have done but other things.  We were moving, learning our new area(s), driving across the state, camping, moving, driving across the state, unpacking and just living the daily monotony.  Sometimes when I think of it, it sounds awful but I have really had a great summer. 

 

We moved into the campground and spent two weeks there.  Then for the 4th of July, we spent a week camping on the beach.  It was beautiful sunny weather.  The temperature was in the high 90s to low 100s the entire week.  We ate, swam, boated, ate some more, played, drank and just had a wonderful time.  It was the kids and I (because Brian had to work - although he did join us for the end of the week), my parents, my brother, then two of my aunts and uncles.  On the 4th my two cousins, their spouses and three nieces and nephews showed up.  Plus a handful of other family and friends.  It was one busy beach.  The following week we stayed at my parents house and the kids participated in VBS. 

 

Next up, two more weeks in the camper.  Then Brian and I got our weekend away.  My parents took the kids for a week.  That was great for Brian and I to have that time together.  We went out and enjoyed each other.  We also worked super hard to find our rental house.  I then went to my parents house for two weeks.  The kids had swimming lessons then.  At the end of the two weeks we loaded all of our things up to move to the coast (more on that in a later post). 

 

There you go, in three paragraphs you have got an entire Jamison summer!  Crazy! 

 

 Angela colored the boys with chalk so one is blue and the other is red.

 

 Walking the plank!

 

 Another one off the plank.

 

 Driving Grandpa's pontoon boat.

 

 Jumping off the high dive on the last day of swimming lessons.

 

Playing "Killer Whale" at swimming lessons.  Emeric is dead center in the goggles and Connor is just to the right of him with his back to us.