Crispy Rice Jack-o-lantern

Crispy Rice Jack-o-lantern

Notes:This is an easy way to make a Jack-o-lantern you can eat.

Ingredients:

1 Stick Butter

2 (10 oz). Packages Marshmallows

12 C. Rice Crispy Cereal

1 tsp. Yellow Food Color

1/4 tsp. Red Food Color

Green Decorating Icing in Tube

Black Decorating Icing in Tube

Decorating Tips12 C. Bowl (not plastic)

Preparation:

Melt butter on low heat and add marshmallows. Stir marshmallows frequently. When marshmallows have dissolved, add food colors and mix well. When the marshmallow mixture is uniform in orange color add cereal and stir and mix until rice crispies are completely coated.
Pour mixture into the bowl that has been well sprayed with a non-stick spray. Carefully press down cereal (spray the spoon or your hands when pressing the cereal, this helps so the cereal will not stick). Place into the refrigerator until completely chilled and firm. When the pumpkin is chilled remove from refrigerator and invert onto a plate. Remove bowl and decorate with leaves and stem. A great jack o lantern smile will be the finishing touch.

The Jack-o-lantern makes a great centerpiece and a delightful treat. Hope you all enjoy! :)

This Halloween snack treat is brought to you by Halloweentreats.com

For more recipes see Crazy Hip Blog Mamas

The letter "K"

Today's Alphabet Soup is brought to you by the Letter K.

Here are some things that begin with the letter "K" that bring me happiness, joy or that bring some much needed humor to my life!

Kids - My kiddos cause they are the light of my life!

Kindergarten - my youngest who I could not live without!

Kisses - from my munchkins are always a treat!

Keyboard - without it I could not write to my friends!

Keys - Love my keys cause they go to my car and it takes me places! lol

For more Alphabet Soup

WW-HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! :)

For more Wordless Wednesday!

Hey hey hey

I just realized I can use this whole moving of websites for my Tackle it Tuesday!! WOOHOO!!! So if you never saw my old site well that's ok, I am glad you are here at the new one! If you did see my old site or have ever moved sites than you know the PITA that it is to do! I am so glad to be done! So sorry no before shots, but this whole site is my after! lol

Find out more about Tackle It Tuesday here.

Ok so I just moved

everything over from the other site and I am starting fresh here!! I can already tell I like it a whole lot more here at blogger!!! I am so excited and I hope you all enjoy then new site! If you followed me from my other site THANKS so much you rock!! :) :)

Monday Madness!

Oh my goodness Mondays are freaking nuts in this house, well that is once the kids get home from school!!! Between Monday folders, homework, chores, getting school clothes ready for the next day, baths, dinner, dishes and all the other misc crud I think my head may explode!! You know what is funny is that all of those things happen on every weekday except the Monday Folders! So why tell me why does that one extra thing cause so much chaos!?! I am sitting here thinking to myself why has it taken almost 3hrs to accomplish everything when on any other day we would have been done an hour and a half ago!! lol Jeezzzzzzz

Well I should be in there making dinner so off I go into the great beyond! lol

Three word project

Here is the original idea from Becki

"I saw this piece on Good Morning America Weekend Edition on Saturday where they took some video from the show iCaught and it was really neat! What they asked people to do was described their week (or feelings of that week) in three words - yes, only three words! What turned out was something truly beautiful…"

Click here to join or see more about the Three Word Project!

"Wiki Tag"

I have never done this tag before and it looks interesting so I have decided to join! I found it while looking around on An Island Life and ended up at The home of the Photo'Hunt to check out her blog!

So here goes:

Go to Wikipedia. In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year. List 3 events, 2 birthdays, 1 death, and 1 holiday/observance (if any) that occurred on your birthday.

So my DOB Nov 4th

3 events:

• 2003 - The most powerful solar flare as observed by satellite instrumentation is recorded.
• 1984 - Dell was founded.
• 1899 - Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams was published.
  

2 Birthdays:

• Kathy Griffin, American comedian.
• Laura Bush, First lady of the United States
  

1 Death:

• Felix Mendelssohn, German Composer
  

1 Holiday/observance:

• Panamas Flag Day

If you have never posted this "Tag" and it looks fun post it! If you do let me know! :)

A craft right in time for Halloween!

Bats and Cats Napkin Rings

This craft was designed by Amanda Formaro and reprinted courtesy of Free Kids Crafts! I hope you all enjoy making them!

Don’t throw away that empty paper towel roll! Make these adorable Halloween napkin rings for your holiday dinner or party.

Supplies:
1 cardboard tube
Black acrylic craft paint
1 sheet black felt
Tiny purple pom poms (for bat noses)
Large black pom poms (for cat cheeks)
Purple felt scraps (cat noses)
Medium wiggle eyes
Small pom poms in festive colors (orange, black, purple, green)
Felt scraps in festive colors (orange, purple, white, green)
Black glitter
Felt glittery chenille stems (purple or silver)
Scissors
White craft glue
Pattern

Click here for printables

Instructions:
We have included patterns for all the pieces needed, however you can simply cut your own without the patterns if you like.

Begin by cutting the cardboard tube into 2” pieces. Paint each tube section black and set aside to dry. Paint the inside of the tubes and let dry.

Cut out wings for bats from black felt. Glue wings to the back of the cardboard tube(s).

Cut out long pointy ears for bats and triangular ears for cats. Glue ears to the inside of the cardboard tubes.

Glue on wiggle eyes. For bats, glue the eyes so that they are only halfway on the cardboard tube and halfway above it. For cats, glue on eyes below the edge, completely on the cardboard tube.

Cut small triangles from the purple felt and glue on as cat noses. For bats, glue a tiny purple pom pom in place for the nose, just below and in between the eyes.

Cut a glittery chenille stem into 2” long pieces, you will need 6 pieces for each cat. First, glue on two large black pom poms, just below the nose as the cat’s cheeks. Insert chenille pieces, three on each side, under the pom poms. Spread out to look like whiskers. You may need to apply a little pressure and hold for a few minutes to allow these to dry.

To make the bat’s bowtie, cut a piece of colorful felt into a bowtie shape. Cut a piece of black glitter felt into the same shape, just smaller. Glue the black bowtie on top of the color bowtie so that the color shows as a border. Glue a medium pom pom to the center of the bowtie. Set aside to dry. When the bowtie is dry, glue it to the bottom front of the bat, below the eyes.

When your napkin rings are completely dry, roll up a cloth napkin or a few sheets of paper towel and insert into your holder!

One cardboard paper towel tube makes 7-8 napkin rings.

The Pink Dyson Contest!

Well well check this out Domestic Diva is having a Dyson "Pink" Vacuum contest! I don't know about you, but I could for sure use a new vacuum cleaner!!

"In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness, Dyson has agreed to give away one of their Dyson Vacuum Cleaners in the Pink color. Dyson is notorious for being known as the vacuum that never loses suction. Out of each PINK DYSON VACUUM CLEANER that is sold, Dyson donates $40 to help Breast Cancer Research. Not only is this vacuum for a great cause but it also does a great job of keeping your home clean."

So I say get yourself to the Domestic Diva website as quick as possible to be entered into the contest to get your chance at winning a Pink Dyson Vacuum cleaner!!

Win a Dyson "Pink" Vaccuum in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

TGIF!!

WOOHOO it's Friday!!!!!

Todays Photo Friday is High school Flashback so I dug through my albums and these are my picks!

Me acting all cool on top of Kirk's house also early 90's

Mom and I at the beach early 90's

For more Photo Fridays

WE for Melody!

~*My challenge to you, whether you’re a regular WE participant or not, is to help me "send" a bouquet of flowers to Melody. Draw, paint, craft or photo a flower this week and post it to your blog. It can be as elaborate or simple as you like. Maybe say a few words about what Melody and Wrapped Emotions have meant to you.*~

Also a linky for Jenny from LIVE! AND IN COLOR because she was so nice to host this for Melody!

I am new to the whole blogging community and I just started reading Wrapped Emotions, but this project just sounded so wonderful I had to join! I wanted to say that I have really enjoyed your blogs Melody and the many projects that I have seen there. You are an inspiration to me to keep creativity in my life! I hope the issues in your life that are causing you heartache subside quickly!

Changes on the site!

Sooooo if you have been reading here often you will notice my banner keeps changing and a few other things are being changed around! I really am not trying to drive you crazy I just cannot decide how I want things to look so I hope that this does not bother you as my audience! Think of it as an adventure every time you visit my site you may get a totally new thing to gaze upon! LOL

When I Was Pregnant

Gosh I don't know where to start so I guess randomly listing off the facts would be an ok place to start! I have had four pregnancies and three full term babies in my 31yrs. I miscarried twins early on in the pregnancy when I was 22yrs. None of my babies were planned they were all just kind of an ooooops, but of course a good oooops! I was a week late for the Depo shot when we conceived the boy, was on the Depo shot when I got prego with Princess and well Spunkmeister we should have figured she was coming when all we used that night was a sponge! LOL

I cannot think of a single similarity between my pregnancies or my circumstances during the pregnancies. The only constant I can figure across the board is all three were full term babies, but even the deliveries were all different!! The girls were obviously both girls, they share the same dad and they were almost the same birth weight so they share more in common as far as that kind of stuff goes!

The boy!

So let's see my first born I was 19.5yrs old when I found out I was pregnant, 20yrs when I had him.

So here are the statistics during:

• I lost 10lbs the first trimester, gained 10lbs during the rest of the pregnancy
• I had morning sickness ALL THE TIME for the first 5months
• I was a freaked out first time pregnant mom and OMG I was obnoxious
• We got married when I was 3months pregnant and he went off to boot camp a month later
• I had bleeding/high blood pressure and was hospitalized for a few days
• Our dog got hit by a car and killed when I was 6months along
• I had gestational diabetes and preeclampsia(sp?)
• I had one of those home monitoring systems I had to use everyday the last month to check my stats and had to call in every evening
• I was a week overdue when I went into labor
• He is my only baby that I went into labor naturally with and he is my largest and longest baby

So on to the birth I woke up that morning at around 7AM feeling really sick to my stomach so I went to the bathroom. I ended up going to the bathroom quite a few times and then I ended up throwing up(sorry if TMI)! At that point my stomach began to hurt and I thought OMG I might be in labor so I ran to the phone and called my mom who did not answer!! I was frantic while "Fred" got all my stuff into the car and I made him let me drive I had to feel in control of something! Instead of driving to the hospital we drove the opposite direction further out of town to go to my mom's so that I could let her know to come to the hospital right away! By the time we got to her house I was really feeling the contractions(so I thought) lol so I told her what was going on very fast and headed straight to the hospital which was several miles away now!

It was a pretty normal birth for the most part these are the good parts! lol

• I went into labor around 7AM and had him at 3:10PM.
• Labor was not too terribly long a little over 8hrs
• No drugs I HATE needles(side note had a c-sec w/my last baby gosh I wish I had known how much easier) lol
• I pushed for 5 out of the 8hrs which was a BITCH excuse me
• There were like gosh 12 people in the delivery room my parents, my grandma, his mom, my brother and sister, his sister and her daughter, my bff Deb, Missy, Terry, the nurse and doctor lol it was a sideshow
• He was born 8lbs 9oz; 21 and a half inches long,
• He was perfect and I was thrilled!!

Well gosh that was a novel! lol If you read this far thanks so much that makes me smile! :) Well I have two other kids and seem to be long winded tonight soooo I will post their stories another time and of course link it back to this one! So check back in a few days!!

For more Collaborations

An inspiration to use all!

I found this on another great mommy blog http://www.prayingforparker.com/ and I felt compelled to pass it along to anyone reading my blog! This is a wonderful story and as Tammy said "NEVER underestimate the power of an extra chromosome"

Have a tissue handy!

http://www.stservicemovie.com/

Wordless Wednesday!

For more Wordless Wednesday's click here!

Blogging Madness!

Tag, who is it? Me me it's my turn!

I was tagged by a friend a few weeks ago and I finally able to sit down and give this some thought soooo here we go!

1) 5 snacks I enjoy:
Wasabi Peas, Bagels, Cheese & peanut butter crackers, Celery & peanut butter and String cheese.

2) 5 Things I would do if I suddenly had $100 million:
Buy a house, pay off my Mom and dad's houses, buy a new car for my mom and I, make an investment fund for each of the kids and take everyone on a kick ass vacation!!!!

3) 5 favorites websites:
http://www.myspace.com/
http://notsoperfectmoms.mywowbb.com/
http://www.perezhilton.com/
http://seekingdesperately.blogspot.com/ (NOT kid friendly)
http://www.sparkpeople.com/

4) 5 locations I would like to run away to:
Venice, Italy; Canada; Rome; anyone's Summer house lol and last but not least Hawaii!

5) 5 bad habits I have:
Soda, the internet, movies, vodka and chocolate!

6) 5 things I like doing:
Hiking with my kids, blogging, listening to music, swimming and cross-stitch!

7) 5 TV shows I like:
Big Love, Weeds, Nip Tuck, Numbers and CSI

8) 5 things I hate doing:
Laundry, cleaning the kitchen, cleaning out my car, mowing the lawn and job interviews!

9) 5 favorite holidays:
Halloween, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Christmas and New Years Eve

10) What I was doing ten years ago:
Gosh 10yrs ago I was in Ruidoso, NM and it was almost my 21st birthday! It was getting close to Halloween and it was soooooo cold outside!!! I remember we had lots of snow that year and it was funny to walk around in the snow to go trick or treating. The boy was a red M&M for this his first Halloween he was 5months old.

11) Five years ago:
Hummm five yrs ago we were in Austin and I had just given birth to Spunkmeister a few months earlier. We actually got some frost that year the boy and Mark played around outside sliding on the ice in the parking lot! Princess was learning how to climb out of her crib so we had to get her one of those crib tents! lol Wow that is a funny memory!

12) Two years ago:
Still living here in my hometown at the time I was working for Apple computer doing customer service. Things were not going too badly the kids were doing well in school, I had a new car, making decent money. Halloween was around the corner we were getting ready for all the festivities!

13) Yesterday:
Wow yesterday I took the kids to school, went to class, came home and messed around online and I took a nap!! WOOHOO!! lol Picked the kids up from school, helped with homework, made BBQ sandwiches for dinner, gave baths and put the kids to bed. Then I watched The Family Stone on HBO demand, messed around some more on the internet and went to bed by midnight it was a pretty generic Monday for me! lol

If you have never posted this "Tag" and it looks fun post it! If you do let me know! :)

Cream Cheese

This is a recipe that my mother used to make when we would have company or if we needed to bring a side dish/appetizer/dip to a function! It is one of my favorites although I usually leave out the jalapeno or make two batches cause I cannot handle hot stuff! lol Hope you enjoy!!

Cream Cheese Salsa Dip

1 (12 oz.) container soft cream cheese
1 (12 oz.) container salsa
1 (2 oz.) container black olives, chopped (optional)
1 (2 oz.) container jalapeno, chopped (optional)

In medium bowl, stir cream cheese, add salsa and stir until smooth. Add jalapeno and black olives. Keep refrigerated until served. That's it very quick and easy! Serve with tortilla chips and you are set to please!

For more recipes see Crazy Hip Blog Mamas

Kids Coloring Stuff

Here is my tackle for this Tuesday! This is the area in our kitchen where the kids keep all their colors, markers, coloring books, scratch paper etc etc.... This area is in constant chaos and upheaval. They cannot keep this area clean to save their little lives and well I am tired of looking at it sooooooo here I go again cleaning it for them. I really have to find a better organization system for this stuff!!!! lol

If you have any ideas PLEASE let me know! How do you organize your kids coloring stuff?

Alright so I am now done! WOOHOO! lol In the process of organizing though I had to move stuff off the wall to get behind the cabinet(far right looking at pic) and guess what I found from last night's dinner! I thought they were good bbq sandwiches, but it appears someone did not like them!! Now I counted the bread and it comes from not one, but two sandwiches! You do know what this means right? I have two little trolls that like to shove their food behind things!!! UGH!!! Ok so this is not the first time nor the fifth time I have found food shoved in places when I was not looking!

So too anyone reading this that has had this problem how did you fix it? I mean what did you do to get them to stop hiding food places?

Ok so back on point the After photo!!

"Each week on Tuesday, we are posting before and after pictures of a project or trouble area that we tackled this week. The project can be little or big – whatever you want. Basically, Tackle It Tuesday is about giving ourselves incentive, deadlines and satisfaction in getting our household tasks done. (It doesn’t even have to be housework… just whatever is on your To Do list.)"

Find out more about Tackle It Tuesday here.

P's Halloween costume part2

Well "P" has decided that she wants to be a skeleton for Halloween instead of a ghost. She went through all the costumes we have in the dress up box and the skeleton finally fits her so she had to wear it!! She is so excited and says that she is glad that she does not have to wait any longer for her costume! lol Here is a pic of the girls yesterday at the Fall Fest for school the boy was already at the school he was part of the Haunted House!

Find out more about Tackle It Tuesday here.

Sitting Still

Sitting still! Once the kids are in bed and the house calms down for the night I can safely sit down and relax! It is amazing to me the quiet that surrounds the house once they are all asleep. I sit here and think of all the things that will happen the next day. How will school go for the kids and for me? Will I actually go work out or will I be lazy again? Do I have time to go and see that someone special that I keep hidden from the rest of the world?

It is in these moments I realize how lucky I am! While sitting here in the still of the night!

Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesday's click here!

P's Halloween costume!

This week I am going to be tackling P's Halloween costume she wants to be a ghost! I am not able to start till tomorrow cause I have to go get a few supplies! Soooooooo I will be posting pics hopefully by Friday!

"Each week on Tuesday, we are posting before and after pictures of a project or trouble area that we tackled this week. The project can be little or big – whatever you want. Basically, Tackle It Tuesday is about giving ourselves incentive, deadlines and satisfaction in getting our household tasks done. (It doesn’t even have to be housework… just whatever is on your To Do list.)"

Find out more about Tackle It Tuesday here.

Squash

This was one of my Grammy's favorite recipes and I always make it as part of our Thanksgiving dinner. It does not really have a name so I will list it like she always did in her recipe box as Squash Casserole!

Squash Casserole

INGREDIENTS:
3 lb. yellow squash, sliced
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup butter
2 1/2 cups crushed Ritz crackers
1/4 cup butter
2 Tbs. cornstarch
1 cup half and half
1/2 pound Velveeta cheese, cubed

PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 350º.

Boil squash and onion in small amount of salted water until tender. Drain. While squash is cooking, prepare topping.

Melt 1/2 cup butter in skillet. Sauté crushed crackers in butter until crisp and brown. Set aside.

Make a white sauce using 1/4 cup butter, cornstarch and half and half. Add cheese. Stir until melted and sauce is smooth.

Arrange squash in a 9x13-inch glass baking dish. Pour sauce over squash. Top with cracker topping. Bake 25 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

For more recipes see Crazy Hip Blog Mamas

Frusteration

Frustration is the only word I can come up with to explain my life right now! I am so frustrated with everything I have no patience and I swear if I could yell all the time I probably would! I need a vacation!!!!!!!!!!!

Neighbors SUCK!!!

Just had to vent about my neighbors dog who has now been barking for HOURS!!!!! I just do not understand if you are going to own a dog why not take care of it. If the gosh darn thing is barking for hours bring it INSIDE!!!! I mean for fucks sake I am so tired of your dog barking at all hours. This is not the first time or the second your damn dog barks all the time, first thing in the morning and all hours of the night. I sooo wanna buy a freaking BB gun so I can shut the damn dog up and trust me I have never felt that way about an animal before I love animals! UGH I HATE YOUR DOG and I don't much like you either for not training it!!

Messed up thing is that this is the same neighbor that was caught chasing my cat out of his yard all mean cause for some reason he thinks she should know not to be in his yard! Oh yea smart cookie this guy is, but he does not seem to think that his dog barking all the time would bother anyone!!!!!

Sorry just had to vent so I will not go over and get all crazy up in his ass! LOL

Storms

Happy Birthday

I just wanted to send out a

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

to Mr "T" Brooks today on his 3rd birthday! I hope you have a great one sweet boy! We all love and miss you!

Braids, braids everywhere!

Check out the braids! The girls and I were messing around with our hair this weekend and we came up with this! I think it is pretty cute and the girls were really excited about it! lol

The things we do

Well Princess is still home with a fever it is kinda starting to freak me out a bit. I called the doc we may be going back in later today. So since she is home from school we are decorating the house for Halloween. We just got done tying our glow in the dark witch to the tree in the front yard! lol The tree was kinda big so we had to improvise, but it worked out. I tried not to completely tear down the spider web that is right next to the tree and managed to mess up only a small part of it! YAY!

It seems there is so much to do and no matter how much I catch up on, something takes the place of what I just did! I had to reschedule a job interview I had today so that I could stay home with Princess and while I am not upset about it I was really looking forward to going. I hope that they are ok with me having to reschedule I still have not heard back from them!

I have another interview tomorrow and a parent teacher conference those are always fun! So hopefully P's fever goes down so she can go back to school. On another note we are still looking for the boy a spooky mask that he likes one that is not too terribly scary and he can wear his glasses underneath. He is determined to get just the right one! lol

Update

P's labs came back normal! WOOHOO!! I spent all weekend worrying about her and thank god they came back normal! With the family history of Diabetes and other issues I was almost positive that it had to be one of those things! I am so glad that it is not I cannot even imagine! She is still running a hell of a fever and has been for days, but she is taking her meds and tylenol so all should be good. It is looking like she will miss her third day of school though tomorrow! She is not real happy about that let me tell you she so wants out of this house! lol

I wanted to thank all my friends who sent prayers or good vibes our way this weekend! We really needed and appreciate them bunches!

Opportunities

My princess

My Princess is sick and I am worried! She came home today from school with a 101 fever, a headache and her tummy hurt. For the last few months she has been going to the bathroom A LOT and drinking tons of water she is always thirsty. I had a parent/teacher conference a few days ago and even her teacher said to me gosh she uses the bathroom a lot and if I cannot find her I know where to look. A few weeks ago we went out and she went to bathroom like 6 times in 2hrs.

So back to today take her in and she has a UTI that is where the doc thinks the fever is coming from cause she is otherwise not sick. This is her first one so I think no problem then he says, but I would like you to take her to the children's hospital tomorrow for a few tests. He goes on further to say that her protein is really pretty high,and her white blood cell count is off enough that he is worried. We have a history of diabetes in the family so he says it could be diabetes or something might be happening with her kidneys or it could be off from the UTI. When I left though he said something that made me nervous he told me to make sure to watch her in case she got unresponsive or acting weird that I should take her immediately to the ER.

So now I sit here trying not to worry and telling myself it is only her UTI, but I cannot seem to shake this really weird feeling that something is not right. I just wanted to ask you all to send her prayers and good vibes to get better soon!