At one point in my life (many years ago!), I had maybe 5 cookbooks. I joined a cookbook book club called “The Good Cook” and ended up with something more like I have now….
When I first starting “collecting” cookbooks, I fancied myself a much better cook than I really was. We lived on Hamburger Helper and about 4 other staples, but I had the cookbooks to prove my ability! Fortunately, for us, I am a much better cook these days. I’m much more adventurous and I actually DO use alot of the cookbooks you see. My best resource these days though is actually my very own recipe database courtesy of Andy! It’s Web-based and I just add recipes as we discover new ones. Our meal rotation is getting really large! Oh and if you want to check out the recipe database, the address is: http://www.kasselfamily.org/recipes. The username is “cook” and the password is “food”. I’m actually off to add three more recipes right now! Look around and help yourself! Should you get brave feel free to add a recipe or two! I love trying new things. 🙂
This was the scene before work/daycare this morning.
The kids were dancing to “The Ants Go Marching In.” Laura was waving her arms and John was doing some sort of weird break dancing thing. What a fun thing to watch!
Today, I had to get John some more shorts. I don’t want to spend a lot of money because he’s rough on clothes. Therefore, I refuse to go to Old Navy or even certain brands at Target. Anything over $5 is not getting bought except for special occasions. Well, I went to Children’s Orchard and Wal-Mart. For $23, I bought 1 T-shirt and 6 pairs of shorts! Good finds, I think. 🙂
On Monday and today, we took Laura to “Choice Time” at Ridgeway Elementary School. It’s a time at the end of the school day where the students are allowed to do what they want. It was quite fun to watch Laura first inspect the rooms and then slowly warm up to everyone and everything. I hope it also gave her a bit of an idea of what life will be like in Kindergarten starting in August. She played with a few of the kids and she also enjoyed seeing the tadpoles that were growing in one of the classrooms. When we left today, she said that she couldn’t wait for Kindergarten to start! But a few minutes later she said, “I can wait a bit longer for Kindergarten to start Mommy. I still have too much to do at daycare since I have to move up to the big girl swimming classes.” She then said, “I’ll be ready in August!”
This is the dress. The one I would love to wear to the closing ball at Sigma Chi Grand Chapter. Problem is that between pure laziness and my health issue last year, I simply have gained too much weight to wear it. I *am* losing weight now, but nowhere near enough to wear it to Grand Chapter. That makes me sad, but I’ll get over it. I am determined though that I’ll be wearing that dress in 2 years at the next Sigma Chi Grand Chapter. For this Grand Chapter, I’ll settle for just losing more weight. So, for the next 43 days before we leave for Dallas, I’m going to exercise EVERY day even if it is only 30 minutes. Will it be tough? Yes. Will I have motivation problems? Yes. Am I going to succeed though? Absolutely.
I had a very nice Mother’s Day! We woke up in Illinois since I was up for my 20th High School Reunion, meaning that I got to spend at least a little bit of time with my Mom on Mother’s Day! That was something I haven’t been able to do since we moved to Columbia, so it was quite a nice thing.
While we were waiting for my Dad to return because he had Lion’s Club, I checked Facebook and Andy’s Facebook status said the following: “Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there, but especially to my wife. Her becoming a mom was the best thing to ever happen to me.” It made me a little teary-eyed. It was really a very sweet thing to say.
When Dad got home, he made us Sunday breakfast – pancakes, eggs, and bacon. He did that all the time as we were growing up and, while I didn’t appreciate it then, I certainly do now. It was yummy! I think the kids liked it too since both of them ate FOUR pancakes each and also had bacon. After breakfast, it was time to head back to Missouri. The kids were really disappointed, because they just wanted to play with cousin Thomas some more. As you can see from below, they *might* have been a little tired so leaving when we did was a good thing!
The kids and I stopped in Hannibal, MO, for lunch at McDonald’s. It was a nice lunch during which Laura began to talk about my Mother’s Day surprise that she made at Sunday School last week. She also told me she had another Mother’s Day surprise from daycare, but they hadn’t made them yet because they all napped too long on Friday. After lunch, it was back on the road for home. We arrived there about 1:30 pm and I walked in the door to find flowers and Chocolate Covered Strawberries from the Candy Factory! They were Andy’s gift to me on Mother’s Day. I immediately ate two of the strawberries….hey, there is NO reason to wait because those things are way too good to waste!
After that, it was largely a typical Sunday. We worked on laundry, the kids played outside, and we relaxed. Andy did grill an awesome dinner for us all. Steak, Baked Potatoes, and Grilled Tomatoes were on the menu. After dinner, it was bath time and early bed for the kids. John hadn’t had a nap in two days and really he still needs them. He can go one day, but two days in a row can be a little much. It was just a great Mother’s day and very relaxing. Exactly what I needed. Thanks to my great husband and kids for making the day just right!
