Did you guess correctly?

Happy Halloween.

More pics to come...

Sneak Peek

Caitie would have made the perfect Tinerkerbell for halloween, she resembles her and she loves to tinker, but it was not to be, Caitie decided a while back that she wanted to be a halloween cat... but that changed to something else, which then changed to something else, and so on... Can you guess what she finally decided to dress up as on halloween? The last pic is a clue...

Remember this bear? He's been put in a diaper, pull-ups, and undies, now she has him dressed in a Cinderella costume. You can't find a more loyal bear anywhere.

She loves her participatin' bear.



She's Tinkerbell, that's all there is to it; the resemblance is uncanny.



Here are a few things that will be used in her costume. Can you guess what she's going to be? Don't expect much, it's homemade... by me. Enough said.

Spooky Cookies

It was a frightening night. There were jack-o'-lanterns, bats, ghosts, and black cats that soon became tasty snacks. They were cut and baked then iced and spiced diced with hungry teeth... what a tasty treat. That's all the rhyming I can come up with, so I'll just get to the pics...

We made sugar cookies the other night. I didn't make them from scratch *gasp*, I used a Betty Crocker Halloween Cookie Kit. Caitie enjoyed cutting out the shapes, as did I. Here she's cutting out a pumpkin shape...



and here she's cutting out a ghost shape.

Here are all the shapes I mentioned above in my wonderful rhyme... the pumpkin(jack-o'-lantern once decorated), bat, ghost, and cat, ready to be put on the cookie sheet and thrown in the oven... mmm... mmm...

Look at the background in this pic... not only was baking going on, but there was salsa bein' made too. Quite a combo. The salsa was Michael's project, he's still trying to perfect it. Oh, and... I need to make a correction here about the salsa(regarding the salsa recipe in a previous post)... we used the wrong Herdez the first time we tried it, the one you should use consists of jalapenos, onions, and tomatoes; the difference is there's tomatoes in this one instead of carrots, which was in the other one.

Once the cookies were out of the oven and had cooled, it was time to ice them. Here Caitie is icing a pumpkin, which would soon turn into a jack-o'-lantern.

Michael ended up in the girls' area; I called on his help to draw the faces on the jack-o'-lanterns. I haven't an ounce of artistic ability; it's sad, really.



He's a natural.

Here are our spooky delights...

Cute and tasty bat... not much into the gothic look though.

I fell in love with the cute jack-o'-lanterns. I know he won't admit it, but I could tell Michael was enjoying this activity.

I still have the jack-o'-lantern and black cat cookies that are in this pic. Michael did the former, and Caitie placed the eyes and nose on the latter, and they both turned out so good I just couldn't let them be eaten; they're still sitting on this plate in this same spot. All the other cookies were devoured within minutes. They were wickedly delicious.

Goofy Gal

It's hump day, midweek, wacky Wednesday... whatever you want to call it... so thought this would be a good time to share a few 'goofy' pics and videos of Caitie. Did that make sense? I guess that's where the 'wacky' part of Wednesday comes in... Anyhoo... These pics were taken at different times.

I took this pic not long after Caitie ate a few juicy strawberries, of which she kept a few remnants on her face for later.



Caitie's mini-train.

"Peace, baby."

Toddler Gang signs? I think it meant: Gimme one chocolate milk, or else...

Gangsta' Gal.

Dancing in the wind.

Caitie just wanted to say hi to all you blog people out there, in her usual silly way. Click on 'play' button to view short video clip.

Pretty Princess with a crown and shoes, but not much else.

Caitie was looking for our cat Molly-Mae, which she calls J.J. because she saw pics of the latter and wishes we had him back, but we don't because he disappeared over ten years ago, and she now pretends Molly-Mae is J.J., but she's not because she's Molly-Mae. Got that? I still haven't figured it out. She searches while wearing a princess crown and shoes, but not much else. I couldn't resist recording her walking around in her first high heels(hello bunions). Why is she holding a horse and a seashell with two play-doh blueberries? I'm still trying to figure that out as well. Anyhoo... Click on 'play' button to view short video clip.

Lazy Day Recipes

It was a lazy day, so cooking was in order. I enjoy baking and cooking on lazy days, I find it to be therapeutic(not that it's needed. really, it's not. it's not, i say! now, where was i... where am i... who am i?!?)

Moving on now...

Caitie reading the morning paper perusing a toy magazine in her bathrobe; you can't get much lazier than that.



She yells from the couch... "What's for dinner, mama?" I'm so glad you asked, Caitie... we're having a new dish called: Mexican Chicken (a.k.a. King Ranch Chicken). I got it off a blog. Here are the ingredients. It's fast and easy, which I love; just call me 'fast and easy mama'... or maybe not.

Ingredients:

3 -4 chicken breasts boiled and cut into bite sized pieces - or do like I do(i'm fast and easy, remember?), just buy a precooked chicken and pull off bite sized pieces. The one I have here is a COLOSSAL chicken; it was a huge baby, but I ended up using only part of the meat, it didn't look cooked all the way to me, but then, just a little pink showing close to the bone sets off my salmonella alarm, so more than likely it was fine.

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

1 can Rotel (the recipe didn't specify which one; i used the tomato and green chilies one)

1-2 cups grated cheddar cheese (i put 2 cups; the more cheese, the better, i say)

Package of corn tortillas (again, the recipe didn't specify how many tortillas to use, but i don't think it would be the whole package. i don't remember how many i used, but it was just enough to cover the bottom of a 13 x 9 baking tin)

That's all of the ingredients. A very short list, which I love. Makes it soooooo easy.

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. While oven is heating up, layer the bottom of a 13 x 9 baking dish, or tin in my case, with the torn corn tortillas. I'm not only fast and easy, I'm very lazy, I can't stand to do dishes, so I opted to use a tin dish. You're probably thinking I could use 'real cookware' then put it in the dishwasher... ummm, no... unless I want to take the chance of consuming toxic poisoning from white granular thingies that the dishwasher always leaves behind on 'what's supposed to be clean dishes' but isn't due to the white granular thingies. Just bake, eat, and toss the ol' tin in the garbage, along with the paper plates, plasticware, and styrofoam cups used at dinnertime as well. You'd love it at my house; I decorate this way as well.

Cut up, or tear, bite sized pieces of chicken.

Combine cut up/torn chicken with the cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, and can of rotel in a bowl.

Pour over the torn tortillas

Put grated cheddar cheese on top of the chicken mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly on top.

Done!



I made corn on the cob and green beans to go with it. To make the corn, I shuck 'em, wash 'em, and scrub 'em with a paper towel to help get rid of any lingering 'strings', then put them in a pot, cover with room-temperature water, bring the water to a boil and continue boiling for eight minutes. Take 'em out, put some butter on 'em, a little salt, and you're all set.

I used canned french style green beans... which is, you got it... fast and easy. I just put 'em in a paper bowl(what else?) and put in the microwave for a minute. I don't add anything, just eat them plain. Talk about lazy... but not adding salt and butter is healthier. This is what I tell myself to help get rid of any guilt. Did you notice that they're organic? That's another way to lessen the guilt.

And there you have it... A fast, easy, lazy meal. It's the only way to go.

Here's Caitie at the kitchen table. This isn't how we've been eating dinner as of late... we're usually in the living room/movie room watching 'Everybody Loves Raymond' on the movie screen via the movie projector and Popcorn Hour contraption, but pics don't come out too good in that room due to it being on the dark side. So here she is, pretending to eat it at the kitchen table, that has good lighting, so I can get a quick pic before going to the other room to actually eat it. Aren't you glad I'm adding all these tidbits of information? They're fascinating, I'm sure.

What would a fast and easy meal be without a fast and easy dessert? So here ya go... I found this recipe on the same blog as I did the above recipe. This is Butterfinger Cake. Here are the ingredients.



Ingredients:

Yellow Cake Mix (make cake as directed on box)

1 can of Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 jar of Caramel Topping (no size specified, just use whatever you find)

3-4 regular sized Butterfinger candy bars or up to 12 miniature candy bars(this is what i used) crumbled

Make cake by directions on box.



Keep dishes clean as you go; here is my mini dishwasher.



While the cake is baking, mix the sweetened condensed milk with the caramel sauce in a bowl, when done with this, put candy bars in a ziploc bag and pound out your frustrations of the day, crumbling the candy bars in the process. When the cake is done baking, poke holes all over it(i used the tip of a plastic fork handle), then pour the sweetened condensed milk and caramel sauce mixture over the top of the cake, making sure it goes in all the holes. Add the Butterfinger crumbs to the top of the cake.



Let it sit on a cookie/cake rack until it cools, then put in fridge and let cool completely.



Then eat a piece of the sugary goodness. Yum! You can add a dollop of cool whip to the top if you like.

Another 'fake pose'. Well, not totally, she actually did take a bite before I got a pic, we then moved into the living room/movie room to finish watching an episode of 'Everybody Loves Raymond'.

I decided to try and get a pic in the living room/movie room, but had to use flash since it's so dark(i detest using flash). Caitie was giving me the Italian sign for "mmm, mmm, delicioso"(not sure what the Mexican version is, which would have been more appropriate)... or maybe she was just imitating eating corn on the cob(she loves it), I don't remember now; I like to think it was the former.

Welcome to more potty talk

Remember how I said in this post that I wasn't sure why Caitie decided to start using the potty chair/big-scary-toilet, that I was just happy she had decided to do so? Well, I now remember why... it wasn't just the potty charts and stickers, they helped, but most of the credit goes to these purty undies. Well, they are pretty, but the main reason she gave in was because I put a pair on her one day, told her if she had 'to go', she would have to go in her potty chair or 'it' would get on her brand new undies, run down her legs, and end up on the floor. She wasn't too thrilled with that, and after having only two 'accidents', she started using her potty chair/big-scary-toilet consistently. If you're trying to get a stubborn, terrified-of-the-toilet-because-her-mom-had-a-mental-breakdown-with-one-of-the-toilets-and-she-witnessed-it-at-the-tender-age-of-two daughter, you might want to try this approach. Hey, I'm just sayin'. I'm not one that gives a hoot about reaching a milestone at a certain age, and I wasn't going to put undue stress on Caitie to succeed just because a book, blog, or other mothers said it should be done by 'this or that age', but I must admit that I'm glad it happened before she turned 18; yep, I sure am glad about that.

Ain't these purty undies? Remember this guy? This bear was with Caitie throughout the potty training process. He's had to put up with a lot: wearing a diaper, then pull-ups, and yes, even undies... he's a trooper.



Showing off her colorful undies.



That's it for this edition of 'Potty Talk'. (i heard that sigh of relief)

What's so funny?

Tim Hawkins is; he's another clean-cut comedian like Brian Regan. You can see him in action below. You can find more comedy skits from both Tim Hawkins and Brian Regan on You Tube, and on their web sites as well. You may want to turn down the volume a bit if you're listening to the videos at work, he's a bit on the 'loud' side. You don't want the ol' boss comin' over to see what all the commotion and giggles are about, or maybe you do... either way, enjoy...

Just click on the 'play' button below to view the short video clips. The first two videos are his comedy skits. The third video is a spoof on the free credit report dot com commercial you see on TV; it has a good message, be sure and view this one. The last video is a spoof on the Candy Man song regarding the Government... ummm, yeah, the good ol' Government... ha, ha, ha... need I say cackle more?

A Pleasant Day

We spent Sunday afternoon at Lake Pleasant. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon. The weather was beautiful; it was a day to be spent outside, to be sure. Here are a few pics...

A nice expanse of beautiful blue water with a light blue sky above, with beige, brown, and green thrown in for contrast... ahhh... So nice.



Michael was having a bad day up to this point... once he got an RC Cola at the Lake Pleasant Visitor Center, his day brightened, which brought about a big smile, and the kind of demeanor that makes a person glad to be sharing such a beautiful, relaxing day with him. Soda... sometimes it's a wonderful thing.

This is a mussel; there were LOTS of 'em, of which Caitie and I enjoyed collecting. We only kept the vacant shells, we threw the live ones back.

Caitie enjoys throwing, and trying to skip, rocks in the water.



A beautiful ending to a wonderful day.