Blackened Fish Salad

So tomorrow my baby turns 5 years old. Where on earth did the time go? I might cry tomorrow....... We're doing the usual birthday tradition, pictues, zoo, dinner, and we also have to run out to Aunt Missy's to celebrate Lily's Birthday (Monday is her actual birthday).

Working my way through my favorite cookbook, on page 59 of Taste of Home: Simple & Delicious is the recipe called Blackened Fish Salad. Ingredients: cajun blackened grilled fish fillets, deli pasta, baby spinach, and parmesan cheese. We used THIS pasta salad (my all time favorite!!!) and we actually forgot to put the parmesan cheese onto it (didn't realize until a couple of days later when we were having spaghetti and Scott went to use it and it hadn't been opened yet, oops!). I really enjoyed this recipe but unfortunately no one else in the house did. Scott isn't a big fan of the fish, and the kids devoured the pasta part of it they barley touched the rest of it. I hope I can convince them to make this again, but I might not be able too.

Father's Day

So I was super excited to find out that I received a 104% on my Accounting 1 test, until I went to class last night and realized a perfect on the test would have resulted in a 105%, doh! I lost 4-1/4 points on something dumb. Not that I didn't deserve to loose that point, but I shouldn't have put down the wrong page reference number. Oh well I guess, I have a perfect on everything else I've turned in so my overall grade is still over 100%. I am now 5/16 of the way done with this class!

So a little over a week ago was Father's Day. Scott received from us: 2 Angry Bird Shirts, and 1 Fruit Ninja Shirt (Scott loves novelty t-shirts and I have to start replacing all of his old ones because the Larges look like they fit Scott, but they don't. After you wash them once or twice they end up being way to short), we also cooked a nice dinner on Saturday night, and also there is a promise to get a new cell phone for him (and me) when we have time to go get it done.  That morning we woke up and went to breakfast at the VFW with Scott's family and then we headed to the zoo with them. We walked around for awhile and then had a nice picnic lunch right outside. Then the kids got to play on the playground for awhile then we headed home for a nap. For dinner we were going to go to Aunt Missy's but she text to cancel so instead we went over to the Moore's house and ordered Glass Nickel - yumm! I love their stuff and could eat there almost every day, but it's a little pricey to do that and I would get super fat, lol. I hope all the Daddy's out there had a wonderful day.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest

So yesterday John & Don came over to the house to do a majority of the trim work for our flooring. We wanted to finish that up before the appraiser comes to the house on Friday (we're re-financing). They did get most of it completed, just a few little pieces here and there that need to get completed. So glad we got that taken care of, we really appreciate all their hard work!

So recently I finished the third and final book in the series, "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest" by Stieg Larsson. Wow. What a series! I really enjoyed reading the entire series and liked how he finished everything. Like the other two books there is a lot of background information, which some of it I lost track of and couldn't keep straight, but overall the stories flowed very smoothly and kept my interest. I really can't wait until they come out with the other movies, it'll be interesting to see how closely they follow the storyline.

The Story For Little Ones

So after checking a bazillion times on Friday and Saturday my instructor finally posted my grade for the test at 12:33 a.m. this morning. And, guess what? 104%!! LOL! Didn't even realize you could get over a 100%. The only thing I can think of is he curved it slightly and added extra points onto everyone scores? Not sure, wont know until tomorrow night, but I'm happy!

So recently we finished reading "The Story For Little Ones". I'm so happy we stumbled upon this when visiting Crosspointe Community Church in Michigan. The chapters are perfect size to read to the kids, and actually we would read it twice, just to make sure Connor heard most of it, and then we'd ask him what happened in the chapter. We're not a very religious family, and only attend church once in a great while, but I do what my children to have some sort of basic knowledge in religion and when they're older they can choose for themselves.

Nacho Chicken Pitas

What better way to spend a Saturday night then cleaning the house? Right? Lol! That's exactly what we're doing. Cleaning for 10 minutes, breaking for 10 minutes. You'd be surprised at how much you can get done in 10 minutes. Neither Scott or I are very good at keeping the house clean, so in order for us to get anything done we have to take it in brief periods.

So we're slowly working through my favorite cookbook "Taste of Home: Simple & Delicious". This time we tried Nacho Chicken Pitas on page 48. Ingredients: Egg, Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips, Chicken Breasts, Mayo (not on mine), Pita Bread, Lettuce (right out of the garden!), Tomato, and Mozzarella Cheese. OMG, this tasted so good! I absolutely loved it. The pita bread however was hard to work with, it didn't seem like I could get very much inside of it. I think next time I'll take the same basic ingredients but make it more into a salad. I really do not like Nacho Tortilla Chips, but the way it was used for breading on the chicken was so yummy!

4k Graduate

So I took my first Accounting 1 test on Thursday, and he said he would probably have the grades up on Saturday night.......... I still checked several times yesterday, and have checked several times already today. I really hope he gets those grades up soon, I really think I got an A and would like conformation that I did!

I know its been a couple of weeks, but I wanted to post Connor's super cute 4k Graduation Picture. They had a little ceremony, sang 2 songs, handed out their diplomas and then we got to eat some snacks and play outside for awhile. Not very long (a co-workers was 2 hours long........can't imagine what they would do for 2 hours, lol) but at least it was something (a friend of mines didn't have a ceremony for 4k). It was a lot of fun and I'll miss all of his little friends that I knew all by name. Most of the kids he will never see again, he will see a couple at his birthday party and maybe he'll stay in touch with one or two though out the year - I really hope him and his bff Matthew will stay in touch, but it will be hard since they wont be going to the same school next year. Can't believe my baby will start kindergarten in September!!

18 Month Check Up

So the kids and Scott are outside playing, and I'm taking a little "quiet time", which consists of folding laundry and making this quick post. Sound like fun? Yes, and no - I'd rather be outside playing, but I know I need some quiet time, so it's relaxing. I'm also going to try to dye my hair tonight, but I'm not sure I will have time - we'll see!

Earlier this month Savannah had her 18 month check up and she's perfect, like always. She is still slightly delayed in her speech but she's very advanced in her small & large motor skills and problem solving, and since kids develop at such different rates, she's just fine. Her biggest problem is she wont sit still long enough to learn new words and when she does finally say a new word she will only say it once, if you keep asking her to say it she wont (she said Ella the other day, clear as day, but only once, lol  - stubborn!). She is 32.25 inches tall (62.3% on the WHO chart) and 20lbs11oz (24.7% on the WHO chart). So although she is tall & skinny, she is definitely staying on the same growth line. However, if you look at the dumb CDC chart she's only 5.65% for weight. I'm not sure why they still have that chart out there, it's invalid and makes parents worry. It took me a long time to figure out that the WHO chart more accurately reflects Savannah's growth and the CDC chart is outdated and I can ignore it.

Blinds

Hey, do any of you play the Monopoly game at Copps? We do, even though the majority of our groceries are purchased at Woodman's once and awhile we pick up a few things at Copps since it's a lot closer (which wont happen in the fall when the new Woodman's opens, yay!!) Anyways, Scott stopped last night for a few things and I was just getting around to looking at the game pieces, and we won a $100 Grocery Gift Card, yay! That's definitely useful right now with all the food we'll have to purchase for Connor's B-Day party!

So while we were re-doing our floors I decided to finally pull down all of our blinds in our kitchen. They were old and disgusting, and Savannah got a kick out of pulling out parts of the blinds, so finally I had enough and tore them down. Then after looking around, I realized our sliding glass door needed something new too. It was old, and had those metal pieces in the bottom to weigh it down - which the kids played with and most of them were now missing. So approximately $250 later we had new cloth, cordless blinds for our 5 windows in the kitchen and a new cordless brown covering for our sliding door! We got them all at Menard's and as always we were very happy with our experience. It looks TONS better!! I'm so happy we finally did it. Now we just have the bedroom windows to re-do!

Matt's B-Day

OMG, watching the SYFY channel, and it's a show and I think it's called Insane or Inspired. Not sure, but holy crap it's funny, lol. Sitting here crying because I'm laughing so hard. If you're reading this now and have that channel, go check it out!

So almost 2 weeks ago we went over to the Moore house to celebrate Matt's 32nd Birthday. We had a cookout and the kids got to play with a mini pool and a water table. For his birthday we got Matt the movie Suckerpunch, some spices from Milford spices and also a Detroit Tiger cooler. We also got to enjoy some yummy DQ ice cream cake! I hope his birthday was nice and relaxing and he had a good day!

AJ Turns 2

Okay, last post of the night. It's after 10:30, and I'm getting pretty tired. I went to bed late last night and today at work was just "one of those days". Did I ever mention that Connor signed up for Tennis Camp this summer? I gave him the option between Basketball, Wrestling & Tennis, and he chose Tennis. And guess what? I received an e-mail today stating the class is cancelled because there was no instructor available. WTF, I'm a little ticked off..... now I have to try and convince Connor to do Basketball Or Wrestling camp because I really want him to try something new this summer.

Almost 2 weeks ago we headed out to Marshall to Celebrate AJ's 2nd Birthday! I really can't believe that this little guy is 2, which means before we know it Savannah will be 2! Craziness!! The Browne family parties are always fun with good food and yummy cake. For his birthday we gave AJ a pair of shorts and a matchbox truck. A really cool birthday surprise he received was getting to take a lap around the block in a real racecar, and all the kids got to climb in and sit in it too! I hope his birthday was amazing, even though he wont remember it when he is older, but I hope he'll be able to tell from all the pictures how much he is loved!