Everyone went back to whatever their normal weekday thing was. Ray went back to work, the girls headed back to school. Our morning went blissfully well even.

My day was REALLY quiet. I missed having people home during the day. (I would not have if they had been bickering and stuff all break.) I finished packing up my Christmas Villages which now sit in bins waiting for transport upstairs (and subsequently to the attic — its a walk in attic from the second floor hall). Later, I picked Phoebe up from school and a little later took her to ballet class (she’s had two weeks off!) and she did really well — focused even.

The only excitement happened about five minute before leaving for ballet when the power went off, the million UPSes in the house complained loudly, the corn stove started to snuff out (and began filling the downstairs with smoke) and the ballet hair wasn’t even done yet! Fortunately it was only off for a couple of minutes and the fire hadn’t gone completely out, so we still had heat (and lights and WATER — its a well). Not sure what the problem was, but it sucked nonetheless.

Dinner was a pork tenderloin I had in the crock pot all day with garlic smashed potatoes, peas and raw carrots.

Not terribly exciting or eventful, but a good day overall.

The weekend was busy, mostly.

Saturday was spent with chores. Ray tilled the garden (finally!), plus the new flowerbed along the patio. I finished the mowing, except for the little bit by the road. There was a bunch more things, some grocery shopping and such too.

Phoebe and I pitched the little tent on Saturday afternoon. We had built a bonfire earlier and all of us roasted hot dogs on sticks over the fire. Later on, yes, we did s’mores! Yum! Phoebe and I camped in the yard Saturday night. It was really fun. Alex had no interest and with Ray’s allergies and asthma on HIGH, he wasn’t about to sleep outside either. So it was just the two of us and it was awesome.

Last year when we went camping, Ray was miserable (allergies and asthma didn’t mix well with the great out doors and all of the campfires going on), Alex was bored to death (typical teen on a family vacation?), but Phoebe and I had a great time. We decided that we would go on a camping trip just the two of us this year and leave the “party poopers” home.

Anyhow…moving on…

On Sunday, some more chores were done and then we all went to see Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian at the IMAX theater. It was great, we all enjoyed it. The only bad part (in my opinion) was the two times I had to escort someone to the restroom!

Today was Memorial Day here. A time to reflect upon all of those who have sacrificed which allow us the freedoms we have today. There were many parades and memorial services in communities all over.

This afternoon, we spent with the cousins. It was a nice, relaxing day, until, of course, we had to depart because certain teenage girls had HOMEWORK to finish! Because, they did not have days to work on it or anything.

That’s about it for the weekend. We still have our giant swimming pool dilema. It’s making me sad, antsy, and kind of disgusted at the same time. :(

My preparations for tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day here in the United States, started with a long, grueling trip to the grocery store.

In ended with the baking of many pies to take to dinner tomorrow.

I’m honestly unsure of what all fell in between those two events other than dinner (lasagna) and the oven acting up (as in deciding to turn off…many times…).

I do know that I am very tired.

Did you know these are pretty much exactly the same thing?

The great debate in our house is on. Phoebe calls it Monkey Munch (because that’s what they called it on Jon & Kate Plus Eight). Alex calls it Puppy Chow (because that’s what she learned it as).

If you look up the recipe for either. They are the SAME thing!

Honestly, I don’t care what they want to call it (it could have a much, much worse name after all) as long as I know what they are talking about.

So, here is the recipe that I use to make
Puppy Chow & Monkey Munch:

9 cups Chex or Crispix or similar dry cereal
1 cup chocolate chips (I alternate between the dark 60% and milk chocolate)
1/2 cup peanut butter (I use the natural…no sugar added kind)
1/4 cup butter (I use real unsalted butter)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla (again, real here)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (um, what can you say about this one?)

Put the cereal in large bowl.

Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter. I just use the microwave to do this.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Pour over Chex cereal and toss to coat.

Put mixture into a large plastic bag with powdered sugar and shake well to coat. I don’t usually have large plastic baggies, so I tend to use my giant Pyrex mixing bowl with plastic wrap tightly over and shake it.

Spread mixture evenly on wax paper and allow to cool. Then store in airtight container (if you can store it, that is).

Easy and it disappears quickly.

My head still hurts. My sinuses are packed and dried up. Rolled up with a tension headache (maybe from chewing way too much gum too often). Oh joy.

Last night was miserable. I wasn’t feeling well to begin with. I sat down with my computer to dump all the photos off my CF card. I plugged in my external drive. Once it was mounted, I loaded my iPhoto Manager and it did not find my library! It turns out that someone had probably launched iPhoto without the library drive connected and it did funky things.

I was freaking out. My entire digital library was on that drive! I was tired and not feel well and dissolved into a blubbering mess until I found the files on the drive! But, I couldn’t figure out why the library couldn’t be found. It was right there for crying out loud (which I was doing)!

Ray figured out the problem and when I went to bed, he fixed it for me. I love you, honey! Thank you! And, now we need to figure out a way to expeditiously back up those files! Routinely! It is an external drive which is not connected to anything expect my laptop while I’m working with the libraries…

What a wonderful Valentine’s Day it turned out, eh?

What else happened yesterday?

• Alex had a volleyball game. Her team won the first and lost the next two (they play best of 3 with rally scoring). She played in all three matches of her game! (Or, is it games of her match?)
• When everyone arrived home we had a dinner of baked potatoes, baked beans, and barbeque ribs! My crock pot slaved all day on that last one, but it was so tasty!
• Ray brought home a bouquet of roses! It is our tradition (ever since Alex’s first Valentine’s Day) that one rose from the bouquet is given to each girl. It’s so sweet and the part that I love the best.
• When the girls (and myself) went to bed, we did so knowing that there was no school in the morning (mid-winter break) and could be blissful in the knowledge that we were not getting up before dawn!

Today was not quite so busy, I suppose. Here are the highlights:

• The girls and I went to Old Chicago Pizza with a group from Phoebe’s preschool and her soon-to-be elementary school. We had a good time!
• Afterwards, the girls and I went across the road to the mall for a bit. Alex spent some of her Christmas money at Hot Topic while Phoebe and I read books at the bookstore down the corridor.
• We returned home for a while, then Alex wanted to go to her friend’s house so that they could work on their school project together (due Tuesday).
• When Alex returned home, she and I went to return movies to Blockbuster and then stop into the grocery store.
• Our night wrapped up by watching last week’s episode of Torchwood.

There you have it! Completely exciting.

Yippee!!

Both girls did indeed have school today!

Apparently, one of the local media outlets accidentally announced their school as closed! I honestly do not know how that happened or how it turned out. I always double check. My alarm is set to play the local radio station. When it goes off, I lie there and listen for a while. I am sure it drives Ray crazy, but that is what I do. (He snoozes his heart-stopping alarm a zillion times, so we’re even!) Once I hear that our school is closed, I check the school’s website. Now that they post things like that! After confirmation, I wake Alex up and say to her, “I’m waking you up to tell you that you can go back to sleep because school is canceled.” Honestly. Those exact words. Every time. Cracks me up!

After I picked up Phoebe from school, we went home, had lunch, and then made peanut butter cookies. Later, we went and picked Alex up from school (she had an extracurricular thing going on) then stopped by the grocery store. Then, we went home, I made dinner, Ray came home and we finally watched Batman Begins. A movie which we had borrowed from our cousins ages ago. (Sorry! We’ll bring it by this weekend when we see you!) I will say that we really liked it and didn’t think it was nearly as “dark” as all the hype made it out to be. (Then again, we heckled a lot in the beginning making Qui-Gon comments whenever Liam Neeson came on screen.)

The weather forecast says we are supposed get a bit more snow. Great. Hopefully, it will not really happen, or it will indeed be light. Alex and I will be leaving early as she is taking the ACT for the first time tomorrow. Join me in wishing her luck: GOOD LUCK ALEX!!