Hallie- Porpoise Graduate

Hallie Greding - Porpoise Graduate

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Yay Hallie!! She has moved up another level in swimming! After she graduates from "Dolphin" she can join the swim team at a high school here. She is really excited, and wants to do it. She loves swimming. We may have found "her" sport.

Fall is in the Air

I know it's still 100 degrees here, but it's September, so to me, Fall is here! The mornings have a chill in the air, and it just smells different. It puts me in the mood for decorating!

I LOVE decorating for holidays/seasons. Some times I don't even like the holiday (Halloween), but I still decorate for it (for the kids). I basically keep everything fall/harvesty from September until Thanksgiving, then it's all out Christmas until New Years. In October, I add my few "spooky" things, and then put them away again after Halloween.

I think this enjoyment has rubbed off on my girls, too. Especially Hallie. She already loves to decorate and set the table in the nice dining room for holidays and birthdays (about the only time we use that room). She got excited when I announced that I needed to do some craft projects because it was time to get in holiday mode.

Emily decided she needed to join us too for "girl time". For their first project, they wanted to make ghost pumpkins. We went to Hobby Lobby, and got some fake pumpkins, and then came home and painted them. They turned out cute. They want to put them in their room.

Emily's is on the left, Hallie's on the right.

I just talked to my good friend, Kimberly, who is very talented at all this stuff, and I have all kinds of ideas in my head. I'm waiting for her to send me some pictures. She moved away a few years ago, and I miss having her around, especially when I want to decorate!

Just a sampling of Halloween, this one is not spectacular yet, but I took a Christmas tree (4 ft tall) that was in the garage, and spray painted it black, along with an urn, then mounted it in the urn with plaster. I found some little orange and purple balls on ebay and some skeletons from the dollar store (yes, Julie, I braved the 'fembot' smell- I was in and out in less than 5 minutes). I want to find some ghosts or spiders also. I'm excited to see how it looks all decorated. I want to put it in the family room by my fireplace.

The other project I worked on was this Halloween banner (horrid picture, it looks better in real life). The colors got a little crazy for me, so I decided to give it to someone who likes crazy colors (look out Julie, this one's coming your way!) I'm making myself a different one with just black, tan, and dark orange. It will match my house instead of stick out as an obvious decoration. As I finish, I'll post more pictures in case anyone wants to copycat....(that's what I do, I can't always think of everything myself!)

Piroshki

Since someone, who shall remain nameless, called me yesterday to request a new post, here it is...as a side note, nothing exciting has really happened, that's why I haven't been so diligent, and I've been busy.

Today I made piroshki! I have a really good recipe that almost tastes like Grandma Getty's. I remember calling her like 5 years ago to ask her for the recipe, and she said something like "I don't know, just cook some meat and onions, put it in some dough, then cook them in a pan with butter". Not exactly the recipe I was hoping for, so I went to the internet and found one that looked alright, and called her back. She gave me some alterations, and I made them. They turned out so good! That's the recipe I always use now.

Last school year, Spencer did a report on Russia, and I made some piroshki for him to bring to the class. All the kids actually tried them, and they all like them.

Borscht would be good to have also, but I tried making it a few years ago, and it tasted like DIRT. (Again, I called Grandma, she gave me random ingredients, but no recipe, so I went to the internet). Bad recipe, and I think something wasn't right with the beets. So, I won't attempt that again. Besides, everyone gagged and said it was gross, and they couldn't eat it, me included. Grandma's was always delicious. Maybe I'll try another day when I'm feeling saucy and want to risk wasting a bunch of ingredients. I'm happy with piroshki for now.

Don't you wish you all lived close so you could come over and eat some? I'm eating one right now...

Braces

This is kind of late, but a couple of weeks ago, Hallie got braces!! Just on her top teeth. The orthodontist said her bottom teeth looked good for now. She wasn't too excited to get them...

But, later that night, I found her in the bathroom, smiling and posing in the mirror. Then we heard her say to Spencer, "It's wierd, but I totally look older with braces on, and I look pretty cute, actually." I don't remember what Spencer said, probably something sarcastic, but she's right, she does look pretty cute with braces! (And maybe a little older, too.)

Before

After

For Posterity

Just so my kids can't say they've never had it....I'm making MEATLOAF for dinner tonight! That is quite an amazing declaration because usually I say "BLEH, NO THANKS!", but for some reason it sounds really delicious to me today. I have hard time with meat sometimes (especially ground meat, and especially right now) , so touching it, is even more amazing.

We've been married 14 years this year, and I have only made meatloaf one other time, at the begininng of our marriage. It was gross, I probably gagged, and vowed it would be the last time. Well, I'll blame it on wierd pregnancy cravings, but I'm making it again! I have a new recipe to try so maybe that will help. Add a salad, and some roasted sweet potatoes...we'll see what happens. (Maybe I'll just be having a salad and some sweet potatoes.)

Meatloaf Update:

It was ok. Not as delicious as it sounded in my head. Everyone else ate it, and enjoyed it though. Maybe in another couple of years...