Long and Productive Day

It all started when my sister, Bobbi, and her husband and daughter arrived at my house last night sometime after midnight last night. We stayed up until after 2 am talking and visiting, finally went to bed and stayed awake until after 3 am. I rolled out of bed sometime after 9am when Kensley woke up and lounged around until everyone else woke up and then made a 10-grain pancake breakfast from my food storage. :o) We finally got ourselves cleaned up for the day and headed out for a major coupon frenzy at Fry's with Bobbi and Jonnae in tow. I was very excited to have them help me so that I didn't have to make 12 trips by myself since they were having a 4 for $4 sale and only allowed one transaction. This isn't sissy stuff and would you just like to take a peak at our spoils??!!.....
You are looking at 10 boxes of Captain Crunch, 2 boxes of Cinnamon Life, 9 boxes of Quaker Oatmeal Squares Cereal, 1 box of granola bars, 14 boxes of Oatmeal to go Bars, and 8 boxes of oatmeal....I don't know the exact total because there are many receipts and too tired to scrounge them up and count it all up, but it was all for about $20 total. That is also including a gallon of milk not pictured. I can tell you that the first 12 items cost us a grand total of $3 and was a 94% savings! Yeah us! After the shopping spree, we headed back to my house for lunch and some regrouping. After lunch, which included my sister Lois and her family, Lois took all the kids to her house and me, Bobbi, and Aaron stayed behind to can my 150 lbs of dry milk and 25 lbs of carrots. I was so grateful to have their help because last time I canned I did it all by myself and seriously almost died.
As you can see, we weren't so good at getting the milk in the cans! I am so glad to have all of that done. My house is now covered in a film of dry milk and I have been sneezing all day, but it is done! When we finally finsihed, we headed to Lois's house for dinner and American Idol. I am finally home and Kensley is finally in bed and I am ready for bed!

Sunday Fun

For some reason I have it ingrained in my head the Sunday is treat day and I can't stop myself from making some sort of dessert. Today it was double chocolate cookie bars and here is Kensley enjoying her portion. In case you are wondering, she is half naked because she requested tomato soup for dinner and she always makes a big mess. So, I decided not to dress her. And, also, her face is slathered in lip gloss in case you were also wondering about that.
All Kensley's chairs were missing from her table and I turned around and saw that she had created a train. I thought it was kind of funny.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My first attempt at corned beef and cabbage and it turned out pretty yummy. A new tradition for our family has begun! Now me and Kensley have to get eating this massive heap of food!

Funny Girl

Kensley has been doing and saying some funny things lately that I wanted to document so I never forget them, especially when she becomes a rotten teenager.

One day I was cleaning the kitchen and she had gone upstairs for something. When she was on her way downstairs and saw the kitchen she exclaimed "Look how clean it is!" I am not sure if this means she is used to seeing it dirty, but I thought it was funny and very supportive.

Kensley has a Disney matching card game that she likes to play with. Her favorite cards are the ones with the Beast on it from Beauty and the Beast. She was searching for the Beast and was getting stressed because she couldn't find it and said "Where are my two monsters, mommy?" I found them for her and said "Here they are" to which she replied, "Oh thank you, mommy! That's awesome!"

She was playing with my resistance bands one day and couldn't figure out how to use them so finally exasperated and defeated she says, "Mommy, I give up!"

For some reason, Kensley has started calling all her stuffed animals and dolls "her boys". I have no idea why. She likes to put them to bed in her bed, tuck them in and turn the lights off and shut the door and then walk around the house saying "Shhhh....my boys are sleeping" over and over. One day after she had put them to bed, I went in the room to get dressed and turned the light on and she yelled at me "Why did you do that!" She was so upset that I woke up her boys from their nap!

My favorite thing she has started doing....she comes up to me and says "Theresa, we are best friends". (yes she says Theresa) and then she will say it in sign language and then give me a big hug. She usually repeats this 4 or 5 times in a row.

Seriously....Enough is Enough!

Since Kensley has been an infant, I don't even know when it really started, she has had a total fetish with my hair and always has to have her hands in it day or night. Every night she crawls into bed with me and immediately cuddles up and sticks her hands in my hair and starts "kneading" it for lack of a better word. It seriously DRIVES ME CRAZY! It would be super nice to sleep not having a child attached to me. If only that is where it stopped...she gets so mad at me whenever I put my hair up in anyway that would deter her from sticking her hands in my hair. She will be on the other side of the room, happily playing and she will see me put my hair up from the corner of her eye and then will immediately run over and start pulling it out. She can't stand it and either can I! Sometimes it would be nice just to get my hair out of my face and tonight I seriously was done with this nonsense. I tied my hair up in a knot and she completely freaked out and kept demanding me to take my hair out. I calmly explained to her that it was my hair and I am keeping it up and she needs to deal with it. Yeah right! This is the result:

I listened to the crying for a good 30 minutes and she would keep trying to get me to take my hair out and then would bust out in a fresh set of tears. She even almost threw up once! Seriously! Get over it already! I know, I know...mean mom.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookies

I have made this recipe several times in the past and they always turn out so yummy. I have decided that it is a perfect candidate for food storage because it doesn't call for eggs. So, I went and bought several bags of rolos and sealed them in jars so that I will have this great addition to my food storage menu. Her is the recipe, if you are interested:
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups Original Bisquick mix (I have used Krusteaz brand and they turned out just as good)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup sugar
About 36 milk chocolate-covered caramel candies (rolos)

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. In large bowl, stir milk and peanut butter until smooth. Stir in Bisquick mix, 1/4 cup sugar and the vanilla. (I threw everything in my beautiful orange kitchenaid and it worked great).
2. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Roll tops in 1/3 cup sugar. On ungreased cookie sheet, place balls, sugar sides up, 2 inches apart.
3. Bake 8-10 minutes or until bottoms of cookies just begin to brown. Immediately press chocolate candy.

And this is what you get!


I especially love these cookies when they are completely cooled, usually I like cookies warm out of the oven. But these are wonderfully chewy and delicious and no raw eggs so feel free to taste test as much batter as you think you need!

Have a Sucker....Or FIVE!

Just Because...

She is so darn cute!!