more dots...

* made porkchops for dinner (had a meeting so Jason made velveeta mac and cheese to go with it). I got rave reviews :-)
* had a great support group meeting at work tonight
*Jason is starting his second job in the morning...it looks like they will be pretty flexible and let him pick up work as he is available.
*Adreyn has been doing a great job helping me with the laundry...(still have a mountain to fold but that is what I've planned for tomorrow)
*I need to find recipes for easy lunch ideas...
*I wish the kids weren't so picky
*I need to go to sleep :-)

dots...mostly about food...hmmmmm

*I'm working 5 shifts this week (yes, I'm trying to kill myself)
*We are trying to save money so have extremely limited going out to eat (so much that the kids have really noticed)
*Jason is getting very tired of cooking (He's doing more than me this week due to the 5 shifts)
*work is getting busy again...Yay! (that's why I've got the 5 shifts)
*I have a mountain (no I'm not kidding) of laundry to fold...really I should be doing that instead of posting
*Jason is taking the little kids to work with him again today (2 days in a row)...he's not very happy about that!
*we still haven't been able to have the dishwasher fixed so dishes are still being done by hand (mostly Jason's hands)
*The kids are ready for school to start (so are their parents!!!)
*Jason made bread last night (frozen dough loaves)...it is sooooo yummy!!!!
*I've gotta decide what to make for dinner tonight so I can get the meat out to start thawing
*I would rather go out to dinner :-(

so, yeah...

There hasn't been too much going on here. I'm back to work (and it's finally starting to pick up again...it's been slow enough that someone was being cancelled every shift) and while I enjoy working and love the people I work with, I miss the time with my family. And it's getting harder to shift back into nightshift mode, lately. The kids are handling time off school okay...of course I routinely get the "I'm bored" speech and look but other than that they are doing okay. Jason and I got to go to a movie last night. Thanks mom for watching the kids! Jason is looking at picking up another job to do the first couple of weeks each month and his current job keeps losing business. Ugg...hopefully this can get better. Anyway, that is about it...

5 question Friday

I'm linking up to Mama M...Click on the link above to go see the other 5QF posts :-)

Rules for 5QF: Copy and paste the following questions to your blog post. Answer them, then c'mon back to link up! If you don't have a blog, but would like to participate, feel free to leave your answers in the comments of this post, or any post along the way!

1. What is one thing you miss the most about childhood?

Definitely the way we could just play without worrying about strangers and getting hurt, etc. The fact that these Texas summers seem sooo much hotter as an adult than they did when we were kids. Being able to play four-square for hours on end as long as your friends were there. Just living and enjoying and letting our parents do the worrying for us.

2. Are you still friends with your friends from high school?

Well, thanks to Facebook I have reconnected with several people from high school. Let's just say that I am friends with the few people I want to be friends with from high school. Others I am more "acquaintances" with and there are definitely others that I want nothing to do with. My high school was a private high school and would definitely be considered "different" so let's just leave it at that. I'm very happy to have found those friends that I consider friends, again, though!!!!!

3. Is there a catch phrase, cliche, or word that just drives you bonkers every time you hear it?

The one bugging me the most lately is "good deal". Here it is in context: My text to a friend, "okay, let's meet monday at 9:30 am at the movie theatre" The text I get in return is "good deal"....hmmmm, what the heck does that mean???? It is also being used in normal conversation (not just texting) and it is still just as confusing. Another one that it really on it's way to bothering me is "that's what she said". I mean, I know it's from a TV show and at times it is pretty funny....but when it is constantly said it gets a bit, oh, I don't know...DULL????

4. What is one thing that you think symbolizes America...besides "Old Glory"?

Would have to say the Statue of Liberty...We went to New York on a school trip and got to take the ferry to the island and walk around the island but didn't get to go up in the Statue of Liberty...That is one thing I regret...It wasn't my decision but I really wish we could have made that trek...

5. What are your 4th of July weekend plans?

Oh, the life of a healthcare worker...did you know that hospitals don't close on holidays? And that people keep on having babies even though it's a holiday??? My mom is a nurse and yet she never made sure I realized how my becoming a nurse would mean that I don't get to be home with my family on the holidays (Just kidding Mom!!!) Actually, I love my job and enjoy spending the holidays with my NICU families and babies (but I really miss spending them with my own family). We usually make some type of card for our families (utilizing their baby's hand or foot prints) for each holiday so that is my plan this weekend. I'm thinking a firecracker with their open hand prints as the "sparklie/boom" part of it....whatcha think????

It's done!!!!

Well, the NICU Reunion was Saturday. It was great fun and wonderful to see all the NICU graduates! We had 400 or so again. We spend about 60 hours decorating (in total) and it turned out great...but I forgot to take pictures of it so I am waiting for my friends to send their pictures to me. Then I'll post them :-) What was kinda sad is that all the decorating that took so long to do...well, it came down in about an hour. Anyway, we had a great time and I got to see some of "my" babies that I hadn't seen in a while...they are getting soooo big!!!!

NICU Reunion cakes...preview

Here are the pink "towers" for the "castle" cake...I have purple ones too

The top 2 cake layers for castle cake

The bottom layer of castle cake

The pirate ship cake right after I finished it

The pirate cake about 14 hours after I finished it

and tonight another piece fell off...so the pirate ship cake is now going to be cake ball cannon balls...oh well, I tried :-) It was cute while it stayed together!

oh, now it's just cake balls...no cannons...can't get the candy coating black :-)

getting stuff done!!!!

I have 9 cake layers done...I've just got to stack them into their final form (heehee) and then decorate them...but I'm gonna do that tomorrow. Be thinking of me as I "sculpt" a pirate ship out of 5 stacked layers of cake...hopefully that goes well

I got all the laundry washed, dried, folded and almost completely put away ***thanks to Adreyn for all her help!!!

For dinner tonight I made homemade noodles and chicken...it was soooo good!

Tonight I've been researching different methods of sculpting that pirate ship cake...I think it should go pretty smoothly...I hope!

The other layers are gonna be a "castle" cake...nothing really dramatic...lots of pink and purple with edible glitter...I'm gonna use iced sugar cones with edible glitter for the towers. I think it will be pretty cute!

Let's see.....

hmmmm,

I enjoyed the last week of my "staycation" from work...I had a birthday (I'm 36...old!!!!)...I spent some time at work for the Reunion....had a birthday party for Tristan...made Tristan's birthday cake....made monkey cupcakes...made a baby shower cake. I enjoyed my time off!

This week I started it off by working, Sunday morning for father's day I made chocolate chip pancakes for the kids and biscuits and sausage gravy for Jason and I, then Monday I spent recouping from work :-) Jason made me a great dinner monday (nothing really exciting but I really appreciated that he cooked for me).










Tuesday I ran some errands to get supplies to make the cakes for the NICU Reunion. I bought 20 cake mixes, 2 large cans of Crisco, a large bottle of oil, 8 pkg of powdered sugar. I then came home (I had taken the kids out with me) and made 2 cakes...and in the process used the last eggs I had in the house...SO frustrating!!! So...all I got made today was the 2 cakes. at 5 pm I went up to work and several of us spent about 6 hours working on more Reunion stuff...we got lots of the big stuff put together. Hopefully, this will make Thursday and Friday go easily...

Today...(Wednesday) I will be spending the day making cakes (after I sleep soon) I did get to the store and bought eggs on the way home this evening :-)

today---randomness

Mostly a good day...other than the kids being "bored"...I mean, really, yesterday was the last day of school and you are already bored??? We have many more boring days to go then :-).

Tristan told me this today: "I am 7 years old and all grown up, so I get to do whatever I want". Well I called Adreyn over and asked her if she gets to do whatever she wants...she said "NO" and I gently *laughing* explained to Tristan that life doesn't work that way. Oh the way kids think :-)

Tristan spent quite a bit of time today playing with his new DS...he really did well...there is ALOT of reading involved along with some fine motor skills so I think it will help keep some of his skills up.

Instead of having the kids take naps today I decided that they all had to read quietly. (Adreyn's already been doing this...except for sundays) Tristan and Rehanyn actually did really well and seemed to enjoy themselves...and I enjoyed the quiet time. Hopefully this will continue to work over the summer.

We had beef and noodles tonight...or as Tristan and Adreyn say "b'noodles" or as Ree says "white b'noodles" I'm not sure why exactly she makes the color distinction :-)

I'm thinking we may be having chicken and dumplings tomorrow...sounds sooooo yummy!!!!

Ok, that's it...they're all in bed, Jason is inputting his work from today and I'm gonna go read a book. Ta-Ta for now!!!!!

Tristan's Birthday

We took the kids to RainForest Cafe for Tristan's birthday. They loved it! They were surprised when the gorillas and elephants started moving but then couldn't wait until they moved again. They also loved the rainfall wall and the HUGE fishtanks. Our table was right next to a fishtank and that kept Tristan enthralled throughout the meal :-)

We also got the kids balloon animals while we were there.
Tristan got a tree frog...

Adreyn got a giraffe

Rehanyn got a ladybug

Here's some pics of him opening presents

This was his big gift: a Nintendo DS and a Pokemon game

A Pokemon book and a Bakugan book

Today was also the last day of school so all the kids are a bit overtired.

I wasn't a good mommy today and didn't make a cake for Tristan...I did make the cookies though. He will get a cake for his birthday party next Thursday... :-)