Logan Wolfram

Enjoying Life for Dessert

Getting Crafty…Massive FAIL!

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Since Tid Bit is out of school for the summer, I decided that I needed to figure out some crafty things to do to pass the time with a bit more fun.  So, first thing this morning I set out to make this day full of crafty fun!  We headed out early, went to get bagels for breakfast and then hit Walmart to buy some colored yarn.  See, I had this awesome idea to make baskets with glue and yarn.  You know, where you blow up a balloon and mix a little water and glue and soak your yarn in it.  Then you drape the yarn all over the balloon and hopefully it looks like this in the end.

Yarn Basket Tutorial

Adorable right?  I didn’t find the tutorial that I linked until after I made a mess of things.  I read one thing that said to mix equal parts water and glue…I think that might have been just one of the places where I went wrong.  Don’t do that…just use glue.  Another thing I failed to realize was that apparently Tid Bit was opposed to getting “all gluey” today, so I ended up being the “gluey” handed one.  So much for blogging during craft time.  I also set the balloon on an empty soymilk container too, which wasn’t good since the yarn that fell down stuck all over the box, and the balloon would get too weighted down on one side or another and flop all over the place.  Fortunately, I did realize that I shouldn’t pop the balloon until the yarn is completely dry…which it’s not…even 5 hours later.  Will have to keep you posted on how that turns out later.  For now, here’s what we’re dealing with….

 Don’t you love how the yarn is just hanging off the sides.  This craft was not awesome today.  I’ll try it another day though when perhaps Tid Bit is feeling a bit more in the mood for gluey-ness.

I did salvage the crafting extravaganza though with a couple of twigs from outside and the yarn we made such an effort to acquire today.  Check this out…

God’s Eye camp craft

Pretty cute huh? 

Apparently it’s called a “God’s Eye.”  No idea why, but HERE is a tutorial for making them if you’re interested.  It was easy and I couldn’t find our popsicle sticks so I sent Tid Bit outside hunting for good twigs for a solid 20 minutes…they worked great.  Once he got the hang of it he made three of them. 

Now he’s insistent that we go outside and have a lemonade and cotton candy stand and sell these amazing wares.  He has also made some paper and ribbon bookmarks and drawn 4 pictures of our family and our house to sell.  His sweet little heart wants to do all of this to earn money to put in his Jesus jar and send to help the people in Haiti… “because even though it’s been a long time since the earthquake, those people and dogs and buildings in Haiti still need our help.”

Makes my heart glad to hear that even if our crafting wasn’t what we thought it was going to be…he’s turning it around to do something great!  Thatta boy!  Guess it wasn’t such a fail when I look at it from a child’s eyes afterall.

Blogging from the Bush…Support Our Sailors!!!

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If you’ve been reading here at all for any length of time, you know that I am proud to be an American.

My brother is in the navy, and here to the left is the warship, F.D. Roosevelt, that he was on a couple of years ago for an 8 month stint.  So when it comes to celebrating Memorial Day, you better believe that the massive appreciation of our service men and women isn’t hard for me to muster.

Landon, my brother, along with almost 6000 other sailors, is on another cruise that will last until Christmastime.  If you want to read about the launching of that ship, the George H.W. Bush, you can check out a previous post that I wrote HERE.

And I’ve been thinking lately, since I had a pretty enthusiastic response to that post in support of our military, that there has to be something more that we can do for them.  So I’ve decided that over the next several months while these people are out on cruise, here at Life for Dessert, we’re going to give them some of the kudos that they deserve.

I’m going to begin a series of posts called “Blogging from the Bush” that will feature a different sailor every couple of weeks.  Landon is going to write our first installment here soon (they’ve been docked in England this past weekend enjoying some much deserved liberty free time, so I’ve yet to receive his post.)  Every couple of weeks, a different sailor will write a guest post for us on what it’s like living on an aircraft carrier.  They’ll tell us a little about who they are and what they do, and give us a glimpse into life at sea on a giant metal labyrinth of a warship.

During the time period between that sailor’s post and the next one, I’ll feature a picture of that sailor and his/her mailing address at the bottom of every single post I write so that you, blogland and readers, can do something to support our military and know exactly who you’re supporting.  I’m asking that you make a point to send letters, packages, goodies, and encouragement to each sailor…or at least one of two of them over that period of time.  I’ve had loads of people say that they wished they knew what to do to help out, and here’s a way.  An added bonus is that you know exactly who you’re sending to.  I’m going to ask that you include somewhere in your letter or package that you found out about this sailor from Life for Dessert, so that they know exactly where you came from!

My brother was super pumped about this idea and said he knows that tons of people there will be too.  What person doesn’t love getting a care package or encouragement… especially when they’re far from home and loved ones?!

SO will you all join me?  I’m not asking for you to do it for each one, although you’d be AMAZING if you did, but would you consider giving it a shot at least a couple of times?  Please don’t just read each sailor’s post and think to yourself, “someone else will do this,” and carry on.  These people are serving to insure YOUR freedom, and it comes at a cost to them and their families.  It’d be especially helpful as well if you can leave a comment on each sailor’s post letting me know that you have sent them something so that we can make sure each person is getting some love.

My family is going to do something for each sailor, and I hope that you will get your whole family involved too!  Take your kids to Walmart with you to pick out little treats, have them help you bake goodies to vacuum seal, go to the post office together (I recommend using the priority mail flat rate boxes for mailing) and send some love to our military!  A little bit of your time and effort will make a world of a difference to our soldiers serving overseas!

Image Source

So join in the S.O.S!  And Support Our Sailors through “Blogging from the Bush” here on Life for Dessert!

PS. This was purely my idea…there’s nothing behind it but the desire to inform us over here about what they are doing over there and to encourage them as they are far from home and loved ones.

 

What’s for Dinner?! Fall-off-the-Bone Baby Back Ribs…

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image source

I don’t know what it is about Memorial Day weekend that gets me in the mood to grill, but yesterday when I made my trip to Sam’s Club and saw Smithfield baby back ribs for $2.99/lb, I couldn’t resist.  It’s been a little while since I’ve given you a recipe anyhow, and I promise that this one won’t disappoint.  It’s from none other than one of my most favorite cookbooks, Fresh Everyday, by Sara Foster.  The woman just knows how to make good food!

I took a bunch of step by step pictures to demystify it all for you.  The whole process takes a few hours but it’s easy peasy!  I doubled it to take half to some friends who moved into a new house today, so just know that you won’t have the same size pile that I did if you follow this exactly.

The ribs can be baked (through step 3) up to a day in advance, but you’ll need to leave them on the grill a few minutes longer to make sure they heat all the way through.
 
Serves 4 to 6
2 slabs baby back ribs (about 3 1/2 pounds)
1 large onion, sliced
1 12-ounce bottle of beer
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 cups homemade barbecue sauce or your favorite bottled sauce

 1. Preheat the oven to 325ºF.

2. To remove the membrane from the back of the ribs take a small dull knife, like an oyster or table knife, and pry the tip of the knife between the membrane and bone at the edge of the ribs in the center of the slab. Lift to separate the membrane from the bone, then grab the membrane with your fingers and pull it off and discard.

3. Spread the onion slices evenly on a baking sheet with sides and place the ribs, bone-side down, on top.

Pour the beer over the ribs, season with salt and pepper, and cover tightly with foil. Bake undisturbed for 2 hours.

4. Prepare a fire in a charcoal grill and let the coals burn to a gray ash with a faint red glow, or until you can hold your hand 3 to 4 inches above the fire for no more than 6 seconds. (I have a gas grill and heated it to about 375-400 degrees to grill them.)

5. Brush both sides of the ribs with the barbecue sauce and place them, meat side down, over the coals. Grill the ribs for 10 to 15 minutes, or until charred, basting several times. Turn the ribs and baste the cooked side liberally. Close the lid of the grill and cook the ribs 10 to 15 minutes longer, basting often. Cut the slabs into individual ribs, pile them onto a large platter, and serve warm.  (I didn’t take pictures of this part…I figured it’s pretty easy to brush sauce on, put them on the grill, and then cut them apart.)  I did mine for about 13 minutes on each side, and here’s how they turned out!  They were SOO good.  Even Little Bit ate them til the bones were completely clean!

So Happy Memorial Day weekend!  Fire up your grills and get cooking!  If you’re not a ribs person, but more in the mood for burgers, then hop back over to the post I did awhile back for some mouthwatering Andouille Sausage Burgers that will knock your socks off!!!

Filed Under: Eat

Shopping with Kids…Adventures into Insanity.

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Oh my words friends, I’m about to pull out my hair today!  (And after a horrible bangs cutting job the other day, I’m not sure I can afford to do my head anymore disservice.)

We’re taking a family trip to Montana in a few weeks and I am super excited about it!  I love the Southeast that we call home, but there’s something about sharp looking snowcapped mountains jutting out of the ground that just gets me every time.  My aunt has a house about 20 minutes outside of the west entrance of Glacier National Park and I’m getting absolutely giddy about this trip.  Nevermind the lap child on the plane from here to there, nevermind all the gear we’ll be toting along with us…I’m just excited for the adventure! (And with 2 small kids, undoubtedly it’s adventure we’ll get!)

Here’s a picture taken about 15 minutes from my aunt’s house at Lake McDonald back in January.

Oh my words…seriously, unbelievable!

So today, I spent over an hour calling around town to try to find a decent pair of hiking shoes for Tid Bit and something more warm than sandals for Little Bit as well.  I don’t want tennis shoes that I have to lace up, but I have to take something in addition to the Keen Newport H2 sandals that you already know I love.  I called about 4 different outdoor stores around here and finally found one pair of shoes in Tid Bit’s size 13 toddler (and they were on sale…SCORE!)  And wouldn’t you know, they’re Keen brand too.  Don’t know why I’m surprised.

Keen Kids Targhee

They are awesome, and he about drove me nuts running around the outdoor store like a wild gypsy child to show me how amazing they were.  Keen should seriously be offering a giveaway for me on this site as many kudos as I give them…maybe I’ll look into it!  Seriously, now that I just thought of that, I’m gonna call Keen Footwear right this second to ask.  I’ll let you know…cross your fingers!  They are awesome!

So then I was off to another store that told me over the phone they could order Little Bit a pair of Keen trail shoes in a tiny toddler size 5.  Oh my words, I’m not the person that buys hiking boots for a little bitty person to wear just for the looks of it (and generally I think they look hideous,) but these are AMAZINGLY cute and perfectly rugged enough for toddling along the Montana trails.  I can’t wait to see how stinking cute these look on him.

Keen Kids Alamosa

But the part that made me want to pull out my hair was when I had to find a good pair of hiking shoes.  I have an old pair of Vasque boots that just aren’t as comfy as they were 10 years ago, and I have a sturdy pair of Montrail shoes we got a few years back, but they’ve hurt my feet since we got them.  I wasn’t about to go to Montana for 10 days and not have comfy footwear.  So I tried on about 8 different brands and a dozen or more shoes, and shock of all shocks, I ended up with the grown up version of Tid Bit’s shoes.  So comfy and they’ll keep my feet dry too!

Let me tell you though, I seriously broke a sweat trying on shoes and chasing 2 kids around an outdoor store.  I was pulling them out of clothing racks, and stuffing crackers and lollipops in their faces just so I could find what I needed.  It was a reminder of why I buy 6 colors of the same Old Navy tshirt and 3 pairs of the same Joe’s jeans.  Shopping with kids is a pain in the tootsie!!  Fortunately I did find what I needed, but at the checkout I told the salesman that while it wasn’t a painless process (for him or me,) I was pleased with the end result!  So thank you to Half Moon Outfitters and Appalachian Outfitters in Greenville, SC for tolerating the chaos I brought with me today…and still managing to sell me something awesome!

Happy Friday! 

Ps. I’m planning something really fun to celebrate Memorial Day and to honor our soldiers, so stay tuned for that coming up too!

Living on the Edge…

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Tonight I did something that made me think to myself…

“Logan, you are living really dangerously on this one.”

I took a shower during a thunderstorm.  

source: NY Times

I know, living on the edge right?  It had to be done though.  It’s been sticky and muggy here in the Southeast and I hadn’t washed my hair in 2 days (which is a long time now that it’s back to it’s normal brunette color…as a blonde I could go almost a week without washing.  Probably because my hair then was holding on for dear life to any oils that I’d stripped right out of it with the blonde-making process.  Anyhow, I digress.)

So I showered ridiculously fast tonight.  I stood under the water only to get wet and to rinse my hair, and with each thunder crack, I realized that I jumped to the end of the tub to get out of the way of the water…because after all, it’s through the water that the lightening is rumored to come, and then my poor eyeballs (and my whole self really) would be fried to a crisp if I didn’t move.

You don’t have to tell me…I know how ridiculous I am. I know.

But then I realized that I’m even more ridiculous than I’d thought.  About the third time I leapt from the stream into the safety of the cold, waterless air, I realized that if I wasn’t dead then, I’d probably made it through that particular lightening strike wherever it was.  After all, the thunder is the sound of lightening…and it comes AFTER the lightening strike, so my moving with each audible sound was utterly pointless.

And then I rinsed off and got out.  Still my total shower couldn’t have lasted longer than perhaps 4 minutes (which is super fast for this gal who enjoys the quiet alone time in there.)  And I got to chuckling to myself as I toweled off….

Living dangerously sure does look different now than it did over a decade or more in the past.  Once upon a time in the not so long ago, it was stupid things…things that now I shake my head at myself for having done.  Riding a motorcycle without a helmet, getting a stupid tattoo in a stupid location (just for your enjoyment at my expense, I should tell you that what looked like a ladybug at 16 now looks more like a cockroach…Oh, and piercing your belly button…that too doesn’t always turn out well years later…my hole never went away, so it looks like I now have a second smaller belly button above the regular one.  Let me tell you how awesome that is…UGH!  I digress again.)

“Life on the edge” was dumb stuff like walking on a railroad tressel over a ravine with no clue of the train schedule, or climbing a 200 ft water tower just to paint my name on the top.  Things that I did that sometimes I look back on and wonder what I was thinking, some things I stupidly did that caused baggage that I carried around for years, and some things that were just plain silly.  Some things I regret, and there are some things I don’t.  And some things make me a wiser person and a parent, but that doesn’t mean that I’d do all of them again.  (For the record…I would climb that water tower all over again though, even though I find now that I’m a little bit afraid of heights!)

But these days, it’s funny what feels dangerous to me!  Maybe I’ve gone all vanilla or something, I don’t know.  Or maybe, it’s that I realize that the things that are important to me just aren’t worth jeopardizing for something silly…or momentarily thrilling.  So now, I find myself living dangerously when I do things like shower during a thunderstorm, or ski outside of the wake, or cut my own bangs for the 5th time (which didn’t go well either for me last week!)  And I think that’s probably fine with me for now.  I’ll still ride a motorcycle (WITH a helmet, and a jacket, and heavy boots), and I’d still walk down railroad tracks (AFTER checking a schedule), and I’d get another tattoo (WITH thought put into the item and location.)

Source: Brusters.com

So who knows…I’m definitely not rocky road, but maybe I’m not totally vanilla either… probably more of a fudge ripple… mostly vanilla with a little streak of surprise swirling through when you don’t expect it.

Kudos to…Teachers.

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School is out!

 Today was Tid Bit’s last day of K4.  Next year…Kindergarten.  Wow, that feels weird on so many levels.
As I look towards this summer, I’m pretty pumped.  We have some fun things planned…trip with family to Montana, the beach, pool days with friends, sprinklers in the yard, popsicles in the afternoon…good times together.  Part of me is thinking to myself…”What on earth will we do everyday?” and part of me is so excited to have a cease on the rushing around the house in the mornings to get out the door.   
And then there’s the sad feeling that school this past year has been a 3 morning a week routine, and that next year it’s the real deal…the daily grind actually becoming daily.  And I look back at this past year at the friendships my son has made, and at the friendships that I have made, and I’m sad to see a lot of it come to an end.
Tid Bit goes to a really fantastic Christian school that’s literally close enough for us to walk every day.  For a million reasons we have loved it there the past 2 years.  But next year, when kindergarten starts, that means that a lot of the pre-school kids we’ve come to know and love over this time will be headed out to go to the schools closest to them.  Some will stay, but over half are going elsewhere next year.  And today as we said goodbyes, I had to do my best to choke back the tears that were forming from the lump in my throat.
I’ve made some great friends amongst the mommies of those K4 kiddos, and while I know that we’ll still see some of them, the reality is that with space and time, some relationships do get lost…and I’m kinda sad about that.  And I’m sad for my little guy too.  Some special friends who will always remain in our memories, will end up just there…in our memories.  But what sweet memories they are.
Photo by Carrie Garrett Photography

So to the mommies (and dads) of Mrs Peek’s K4 class, it has been a pleasure getting to know you and to serve our kids alongside of you.  I have been amazed by the dedication and commitment of such a large number of people to pour into a group of children.  Our children are all the better for each of you.
And to Mrs. Lipscomb, aide extraordinaire, your dedication to love and nurture our children has surely earned some lovely jewels in your heavenly crown!  Your support of Mrs. Peek has been evident, and the classroom has benefited most generously from your hard work and TLC!
The year has been full.  From apple pies to pirate patched eyes, it’s been a good one.  I’ll never forget the worst fieldtrip in the history of the world in 40 degree rainy weather to pick pumpkins (if only I was blogging then, that was a post just waiting to be written!), and I’ll always delight in memories of my little Joseph and his semi-amazing technicolor dreamcoat that I made.  And the Mother’s Day tea…I left with such a full heart…so so sweet, such a reminder of this gift of motherhood I’ve been given.
Photo by Carrie Garrett Photography

 I wonder who it was that said…

“Those who can’t do, teach?”

 
If ever I have heard a statement wrought with untruth and inaccuracy, that just might be it.  
Our society just doesn’t do our teachers justice, and statements like that one certainly do nothing to help.  Let me tell you what I have learned of teachers.  They give, and then give, and then when you think they’re bound to run dry, they give some more.  They sow seeds not just into young hearts and minds, but into the lives of parents who will let them as well.  They are life-farmers, friends, mentors, creative directors, students of children, parents themselves…clearly, just the one word is grossly insufficient.  Webster defines the word “teach” as “to impart knowledge of or skill in; give instruction in.”  By my estimation, even the definition falls short in describing all that teachers do.
And this lady below…well let me tell you something, even my descriptions above can’t begin to touch her.  She’s been teaching for 20 years…that’s a lot of life-farming.  That’s a lot of seed planting she’s done, and there’s nothing mechanized about any of it.  She holds each seed in her own two hands and prepares the soil before she gently places the seed in the ground.  I’m not even sure how to find words for people like her…and amazingly I had the same problem last year with Tid Bit’s teacher…verbal insufficiency.  When “thank you” just doesn’t seem enough.
So to you who teach, as insufficient as it seems, “Thank You.”  You are mind molders, life shapers, and spirit tenders, and to simply say “thank you” all for all that you do to come alongside of us as parents and teach, sow, and invest in our children…well, it just doesn’t seem enough.  You are the cream of the crop.  I think that the saying should be rewritten…
“Those who can DO, who do exceedingly beyond what is necessary or expected, they teach.“

The photos above were taken by a very talented mom from the K4 class, if you like what you see, you can check out Carrie Garrett Photography for more info.

Secrets of a Great Illusionist….The Perfect Pedicure!

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I’m in serious need of a pedicure.  I mean…BADLY!

Last night I went to town on my heels with a PedEgg because they looked something like this.

photo by Ariadne Van Zandbergen

No, I’m not kidding.  It was a bad bad scene.  It was so bad that my pride and vanity took over and would only take a picture of my foot post PedEgg and post about 14 gallons of Eucerin cream.  And still, they looked like this….

So today, I’ve come up with a solution for the gal with nasty feet in need of some TLC…or in my case, some serious elbow grease.  So my friends, I give you my own invention….

The Redneck Pedicure!
 First, like with any project, you will need to gather your supplies.
  • 1 set of horribly neglected feet, already subject to the redneck paint job of the past…layer upon layer of nailpolish. 
  • Some nailpolish remover, or for the true Redneck Pedicure experience, you might find Paint Thinner or furniture stripper to be just as capable of doing the job. 
  • A cotton ball.  One cotton ball should do it for this sort of job.  It doesn’t really matter terribly if there is a bit of polish left on your piggies, you’re just gonna cover it back up anyhow.
  • And the piece de resistance…your trusty orbital sander.  Yes friends, it had gotten that bad!  I’d recommend using a 120 grit fine sandpaper… since this is afterall your foot we’re about to go to town on here.

 
Head outside for this part of your pedicure.  It’s a nice time to relax, enjoy the nature around you, and also, you don’t want all of the sawdust from your last furniture project shooting out of the sander into your house, along with your nasty footskin.  Better to just head outside.

Position your sander (in this case I used a Bosch orbital sander) along the nastiest, most calloused part of your foot…and sand that bad boy down.  Your foot may start to look smoother at this point.  If the sander feels too hot to your skin, remove it immediately…it’s likely you’ve sanded off too much and probably didn’t need this drastic of a method afterall.

Lucky you.

Once you have sanded to your hearts content and to your foot skin’s maximum allowable removal point, pack up your gear and put it back into the garage.
The next part of your pedicure can be done within the comforts of your home.

Before polishing your nails, smooth some really thick cream onto your feet.  For a true redneck pedi experience, Crisco should work just fine.  Today I opted for something more traditional though and used Eucerin cream.

Since I follow a pretty strict redneck polishing regime and over time like to put multiple layers of polish on my nails to save time, I highly recommend using a clear basecoat.  Who knows how long it will be before your nails see the light of day again, and serious staining will occur if you don’t at least clearcoat them first.

Paint a base clear coat onto your nails and wait the 60 seconds that the bottle recommends….or if you’re me, just wait until you finish painting the other foot before applying your first layer of colored polish.

For this pedicure, I was feeling cheery to no longer have heels and toes that look like a desert in Nairobi, so I opted for a red polish to really draw attention to my happily smoothed toesies.

Put this polish on and then lean back and admire your handiwork!

Ahhh yes.  Much better.  The next time I decide to do a pedicure though, I think I should reconsider the 2 glasses of wine I had before I last shaved my legs.  As you can see on my left leg above my ankle, that decision wasn’t one of my better ones.
Happy pampering friends!

I Fix…I Dig…Ok, Maybe not so much…

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I’m back from DC!  Exhausted as all get out, but it was a great weekend.  Lots of learning, lots of fun, and the company was top notch! 
I’m still playing catch up from last week though.  It was a full week of life, and flubbers, and gearing up for going out of town…all while the Hubs was in Atlanta.  I think tomorrow I’m due for something awesome like a pedicure.  Yeah…that’ll probably happen in all my free time.
Don’t you love how you can almost guarantee that when your husband is gone, something in the house will inevitably break or go wrong?!
The Hubs and I got married a month before I turned 25, and so that basically meant that I had been out of college and living alone for 3 years before we got hitched. In that 3 years time, I got pretty good at fixing when things needed to be fixed for the most part. When you’re on your own, you become pretty accustomed to making things work and fending for yourself.
Then I said “I Do.”
I don’t know about all of you, but there are just things that my husband does better than me. So, I’ve pretty much completely abandoned some of those things that I once had a basic knowledge of… in favor of letting him just take care of it. That goes specifically in our household for things like electronics, mechanical moving parts, computer maintenance, anything involving the septic system or sprinklers. I don’t know really anything about any of those things anymore.  So around here, it seems that somewhere in “I Do”… actually, “I Don’t.”
My husband is adamant right now that I note that “anything involving a shovel” is also not my bag. I, however, beg to differ. Recently, I thought it would be a good idea to dig up the concrete mass that had once upon a decade ago held a basketball goal at the end of our driveway. The Hubs had been avoiding it, and about 3 days before our Easter Egg Hunt, I decided while he was out of town that the 1 inch metal remains sticking up (tetanus waiting to happen) needed to come out. I got a shovel and went to work. What I didn’t realize until after I’d started digging though was that the concrete mass went down deep enough to practically touch the earth’s core. I dug for well over and hour, almost broke one shovel (so naturally I just switched to the snow shovel,) and finally gave up when I couldn’t get to the bottom of it. I also realized that the concrete mass had to have weighed well over 300 lbs and there was no way that I was going to be able to get it out.
The Hubs came home to a muddy pit around a concrete safety hazard at the end of our driveway that he says “then HAD to be dealt with regardless of if he had the desire or time to deal with it.” We had to attach the mass to the car to pull it out…it was THAT big.  Sadly, I really thought I’d have surprised him with a job well done instead of a job horrifyingly botched. The point here however though is that I do not entirely avoid shovels.  
Perhaps I should.
This past week while he was gone, the garbage disposal broke.
Insinkerator Evolution Essential
So I, being the wiser for the shovel incident, called a plumber instead of trying to replace it myself. The plumber told me it was going to be $375…I told him to go home. Ok…so not really. I told him to come back the next day so that I could then basically give him the remains of our tax return and to get a new disposal. Really though, he was a super nice guy, but it was more than I thought it’d be. So after I decided that $375 seemed like too much, I called our friend Rick.
When the Hubs has been gone before, Rick has been known to save the day.
 
<—This is Rick.  He might shoot me for introducing you all to the top of his head, and for making you think that it took 2 beers worth of time to do this job.  It didn’t.  It took 20 minutes, and one of those little bottles was mine….for moral support.
Rick is an an old friend of ours who lived with us for about a year (he will tell you it was 6 months…we agree…but it was 2 separate stints of 6 months each.) He is engineer who works for BMW, and I just assume that since he knows about cars, he may know about anything else mechanical. Surely if you can engineer a car, you can install a disposal, right?
He and the Hubs talked on the phone about what kind of disposal to get, I went and bought it, and then he installed it, for the hefty price of a McAlister’s Deli club sandwich.
I had to clean out underneath the sink so that Rick could get to the disposal. Who knows how long the broken disposal had been leaking…long enough to create mildew, but thankfully not long enough to warp the wood or to attrach roaches. It was nasty though. 
Just look what all I found under my sink!!!
Needless to say, I did some serious “cleaning out” of the cleaning supply.
I have a feeling that I probably need to motivate that cleaning out to other hidden cabinets as well. Maybe next time the Hubs has to be gone, I’ll tackle that….with a shovel!

I Will You To Do This…

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This weekend, we left our kids with my parents and going on a trip.
I had you at “leaving our kids with my parents” didn’t I?!
It’s the first time that we’ve left Little Bit overnight since he was born. He is 16 months old now. I get called out of church nursery almost weekly because he pitches a fit. Remember not long ago I got called out of church because he had pitched a fit…and then later, I pitched a fit too?  Yeah, I’ve had some concerns about leaving him overnight.
My parents are great and my kids love them. Mom is super creative and fun, and my dad loves taking them to the Science Center to explore. They’ll have a wonderful time I know. But it’s still hard.
The Hubs and I have actually really been looking forward to a 7 hour car drive. Seven hours in a car without kids is way more like what “road trips” used to be…fun, an adventure, good quality time together. But then there’s the business of the “what if you die” thing.
Yeah, that’s completely unawesome to have to think about or talk about in every way. But we’ve never actually done a living will. Have you?
It’s one of those things that everyone talks about, but how many of us have actually taken the time to sit down and do it? Maybe you’re more thorough than I am…you probably are.
So on the way to Washington, DC I clinked out a really rough email on my phone that basically said what to do with our kids, money, and debts if we died. I’m sure that it’s not good enough. Thankfully, the Hubs’ dad is a lawyer and he quickly turned that 5 sentence email into an official document that should serve the purpose, if heaven help us, it needed to.
But I thought that if you out there haven’t ever done this before (and don’t have the Hubs’ dad to fix your poorly constructed will for you,) you might like a link to an easy way to fill out a living will that a friend sent me awhile back. (I know, I know…I’ve had it but STILL haven’t done it.) You can do this at home without the help of a lawyer, even though I’ve been told it’s best to eventually really iron things out with legal advice. Still, it’s better to have something in place that would stand up in a court than nothing at all.
So here you go…for your filling out pleasure….in case you kick the bucket. Your Last Will and Testament 
– Logan

Circus Monkey

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I am a big fat slacker this week. Sorry for the complete lack of posting. I’ve been trying to write the next installment of the Glory Babies post but I tell you what, it’s not coming easy. It’s a long story to write and the reality is that I need to sit down and write a lot of it at one time…this broken up stuff is for the birds.
The Hubs was gone all week at a training in Atlanta, so I was doing the single parenting thing. If you remember, the last time that he was gone I wrote a post giving MAJOR props to single parents. Yeah, gonna go ahead and give you another “whoop whoop” shout out here people…it’s tough! All to say, between laundry, keeping my house in order, sneaking in some time with friends, and falling into bed at night…blogging has gotten pushed down on the list of things my brain could actually handle this week.
It’s been a good week though…just busy. In some really hilarious news, Little Bit now smiles on command. When he does it, I seriously want to suck his cheeks. And I’ve yet to actually capture the exact hilarious cheese-face smile on camera…this is as close as I could get. (it’s not nearly as tooth bearing or squinty eyed enough to look like the actual smile he does on command though.) I love my little circus monkey!