The Grunter insists The Snuggie™ that Granny sent him is broken.
How is the multi-million dollar blanket defective, I asked him?
“Air passes through it and it doesn’t keep me warm.”
I’ve never wanted to wear a blanket so I wasn’t that attracted to their biggest marketing feature. (Remarkably similar to a poncho…which I also never wanted to wear…even though it seems to have made a fashion comeback.)
Admittedly, the cheetah print is very fashion-forward.
But seriously…what’s the point of a blanket that doesn’t keep you warm?
Anyone else have a broken Snuggie or did The Grunter get the only defective one?
We’re in countdown mode here at the Humpfreeze house as the darling twins will be leaving next week for 5 months in Arizona. It’s time for their military job training for the Army National Guard.
I won’t bore you with the military’s second language consisting mostly of acronyms about AIT and what their MOS is and their last weekend of RSP.
What I will bore you with is how the darling twins along with their friend Jenna kicked some serious butt at their weekend drill in December. It was family day and I was home sick but PhilBillPaul and Scary Baby went. And luckily Jenna’s family brought their camera. Thank you Ed and Dar!
Nothing like a little friendly competition among soldiers. It’s important to know that the group consisted of about 100 males and less than 20 females.
A little tug-of-war.
Some physical training.
Combatives.
Plus a variety of other events and challenges. In the end, the girls shined!
A total of 5 trophies were given out and 3 were given to our girls…
3 point shoot out: First Place ~ Lizzie
Drill & Ceremony: First Place ~ Rachel
Pugil Stick: First Place ~ Jenna
PLUS Jenna also received a medal for basketball. At the end of the day, she was the only one to receive two awards!
I’m not sure their recruiter really understood that he landed 3 golden female recruits and since I’m the mom of two of them, my opinion appears to be a little biased!
When I asked him if he was beaming with pride at his 3 lovely recruits kicking some butt …
Him: “They surprised everyone including me.”
Me: “I beg your pardon? You didn’t expect them to shine?”
Him: “I didn’t expect them to dominate”
No surprise for us.
The Army National Guard is lucky to have these three amazing female soldiers. We already knew that.
I’m pretty sure the trophies were a little cheesy and mostly for the families’ benefit. While we appreciate the gesture, we don’t need trophies to remind us of how incredibly proud we are of our daughters!
Seems many folk think that when you say you are taking your family tubing in January in the South that they think you are referring to tubing in a river in ice cold water – which, by the way, is often ice cold water in the summer.
News flash, in addition to sledding on cardboard boxes, garbage can lids and air mattresses, we are actually within driving distance of…
SNOW Tubing
Woo-hoo!
We planned a family day to drive to North Carolina to play in the snow. We wanted to do something fun with the kids before the darling twins are off again on their next adventure – this time to Arizona for 5 months for their Army National Guard job training.
This was no small feat because we had to find a day that none of them had to work and before The Grunter’s new classes started. Oh, and we still have that precious Scary Baby in elementary school. And we didn’t want to fight the weekend crowds because I hate crowds.
No problem, PhilBillPaul and Scary Baby were gracious enough to take a “day off” from their regularly scheduled life and we headed to Tube World on a day where Atlanta was preparing for a blizzard (2 inches of snow predicted)!
First though, about 10 hours were spent trying to locate Mr. Humpfreeze’s Lands’ End squall jacket. Never found.
Please do not ask how you lose a winter coat. My mom already did. It’s a very sensitive subject right now.
Next, two hours at Walmart buying 4 pairs of gloves because any winter items here are lost like socks in the dryer. And boots because my Lands’ End squall boots went missing too.
Fun! Fun! Fun!
The tubes go way faster than you might think.
Tube World is first class all the way with their moving carpet lift so you don’t have to WALK back up the hill!
I skipped a few rides up the moving carpet so I could snap some pictures as they came down.
My glasses were iced over so I took some pictures of other people’s kids. I’m not sure any of those pin dots are my family.
I think this is part of my family…
I think I know these people…
The $1.50 face mask was the best money spent for Scary Baby. Though she didn’t take kindly to the Tube World teen staff calling her “little man”.
Might be because she also had her brother’s old winter coat on. She did take the face mask off during one ride so they could see that she was a GIRL!
We drove home in semi-treacherous weather. Any snow is a blizzard to my kids. The roads were slick and turning to ice. Scary Baby got a snow day on Friday which was a bonus.
Here’s how much snow was on the deck when we arrived home.
A solid inch – look closely. Wizzy ran right out to eat some fresh snow.
What did Atlanta folk do with all our snow here last week? To those of you who live in a cold winter state…do you take advantage of playing in the snow?
In addition to the pre-holiday baking frenzy, I dug deep and tapped into my inner Suzy Homemaker since we were all gathered together and cooked real meals. Scary but true. I took no pictures of food since you already know how great my photography skills are.
We had our traditional holiday food which include:
Fondue on Christmas Eve
Sausage & egg casserole
Cheesy potatoes twice
Cajun Chex Mix x 6 batches (3 batches were given away)
Recipes
But I also tried a couple of new recipes mixed with some old favorites. I’m listing some of the meals here for posterity and to remind the kids that in December 2009, I DID COOK.
Potato Soup and Cheesy Beer Bread
I loved both – the girls said the bread was not their favorite. Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs with Spaghetti
The girls all loved the meatballs – they were okay to me. The Grunter doesn’t eat ground beef or pasta. Hot Colby Ham Sandwiches*
PhilBillPaul is not a sandwich guy so it was an exciting moment when I made these for dinner and he liked them and everyone else did too. These were such a hit that I made them for again for New Year’s Eve. Homemade lasagna with extra cheese
Per the girls request – not a food for the boys. I had one small piece and the pan was gone the next day. No recipe, I just always make it up as I go. Cocktail Meatballs
Is there anyone left on earth who hasn’t made these – the easiest, weirdest ingredients you dump in the crockpot and they actually taste good?! Mini Turkey Cranberry Cheese Crescent Somethings
I made these up to use the frozen leftover turkey breast from Thanksgiving. The Grunter even ate one. You can’t go wrong with crescent roll dough. Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip
They were scrapping the pan for more and PhilBillPaul has requested it for Superbowl. I used ranch dressing and mozzarella because we don’t do bleu cheese! I used less than 1/3 C of the hot sauce and it was fine for us. We don’t like anything super hot. Warning: Website with recipe has automatic music – a personal pet peeve
*Here is the recipe for the sandwiches that are definitely being added to our family menu and the Superbowl party…I used Sara Lee Soft Dinner Rolls ~ 12 in a pack and they made perfect small sandwiches.
Hot Colby Ham Sandwiches
1/2 C butter, melted
2 T prepared mustard
1 T dried minced onions
1 T poppy seeds
2 to 3 t sugar
15 dinner rolls (about 3-inch diameter) sliced
15 slices colby cheese
15 thin slices deli ham (about 1 pound)
2 C (8 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
In a small bowl, combine the butter, mustard, onion, poppy seeds and sugar. Place roll bottoms, cut side up, in an ungreased 15 x 10 x 1 baking pan. Top each with colby cheese, ham and mozzarella cheese. Drizzle with half of the butter mixture.
Replace roll tops. Drizzle with remaining butter mixture. Bake, uncovered at 350º for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Yield: 15 servings.
Recipe from Quick Cooking, May/June 2004
I’m now going into hibernation for the rest of winter because I think I cooked more in one month than I did the whole year and I’m tired.
Are you fully recovered from the holidays? List of resolutions for 2010?
The Grunter was the proud recipient of Scary Baby’s re-gifting prank. She ran out of money bought candy and didn’t get him a gift. On Christmas Eve she ran to her room and quickly wrapped something to give him.
We all knew it was a re-gift. She loves to give. I was thinking maybe a stuffed animal or some art supplies.
Instead, she gave him…
A two piece bathing suit.
Just what he always wanted. She thought this was the hysterical high point of Christmas morning.
It might have been but you shouldn’t try to punk your brother like that. He’s likely to get you back.
He quietly went into the bathroom and came out donning the two piece swimsuit.
Yes, it was odd that it fit.
But he is a skinny white boy just like his father.
You will have to use your imagination as to what this sight for sore eyes looked like.
Because I only emailed the pictures to immediate family.
I wish I had an audiotape of the uproar at my sister’s house when they gathered round my niece’s computer to see pictures of our pumpkin.
I bet Scary Baby will remember to get him a new present next year!
In other Grunter holiday news…
He bought the family a new game. And insisted we all play it on Christmas Eve. Everyone has played it several times and it is no small miracle to have a game that the adults, semi-adults and the 10 year old can play together.
Plus we added another game to our cabinet because my sister and mother said it was a “fun for all ages” game they all played on Christmas afternoon.
We had plenty of extra people in and out visiting and most all who came had to play. Really, you probably shouldn’t come to our house if you don’t like to play games with super loud, competitive people.
Then to end 2009 with a bang, we had another family and about 10 of the kids friends over for an impromptu New Year’s Eve party. Scary Baby and I braved the crowds at Walmart and Target to gather food and blowers while PhilBillPaul cleaned up the house.
A little Euchre, more Quelf and Apples to Apples plus the kids set up Rock Band and some other video games in the basement.
Other Miscellaneous Highlights…
Read two books, watched a ton of football and saw two movies. The movies were swamped with the new releases so we didn’t break our record from last year. We both enjoyed “Up in the Air” and “It’s Complicated”. I give them both Bs.
The girls also went ice skating and roller skating (twice).
Roger Leroy squeezed in a 7 hour defensive driving class on December 30th compliments of her speeding ticket up at college.
All of this and the kids all worked 25+ hours each at their jobs.
Impressive time management skills. Actually, youthful energy is probably more accurate.
How did you spend the holidays? Glad they’re over or wished they lasted longer? Are you back in a normal routine?
On Thursday, the darling twins went to a dance at their college and emailed me their winning costume. See if you can guess what they were from the dark, blurry pictures they emailed me…
Their creative friend Jordan came up with the idea for five of them to go as…
On Friday, Scary Baby went to party #2. She opted for a hobo look complete with self-drawn magic marker beard (washable marker she informed me quickly when I saw her face).
She needed to take a dish to pass – not dessert {gasp}. She picked mummy dogs and cheesy fingers. These were big hits at the party – file this for next year if you need ideas for easy and amusing Halloween party food.
Crescent roll dough makes everything better. Wrapping hot dogs in the dough and cutting string cheese in half was grueling work but someone had to do it.
On Saturday, Scary Baby went for the full blown scary vampire-like costume.
Newsflash: She did have a cape but we didn’t get a picture of the whole outfit. Why? Because when you tell ask your very literal husband to take a picture of his darling daughter on the porch…he takes a picture of her on the porch. As in ONE picture. Nice.
The poor 4th child has so few photos compared to the first three–I hear it’s a natural consequence of birth order.
Sunday, we had a delicious crockpot of chili compliments of Chef PhilBillPaul and I whipped up a very labor intensive dessert.
Okay, so maybe slicing an apple into 8 pieces, wrapping in crescent roll dough, pouring melted butter, sugar and vanilla followed by pouring a can of Mountain Dew® (hello Ann – are you reading this?) all over it and sprinkling with cinnamon took all of 5 minutes but oh baby, were these ever good.
The picture is unbaked but they look pretty much the same baked. Scary Baby said they look like chicken. We all agreed they did not taste like chicken! Find this crazy delicious Apple Dumplings recipe at Pioneer Woman.
And here’s the candy she didn’t want…
So relieved to see that someone was thoughtful enough to give out those 1/2 ounce bags of healthy pretzels to offset all the candy. Whew.
She can’t be related to us but we did say thank you.
Really makes my weekend activities pale in comparison. I’m glad to say no one was arrested at my house. Knock wood.
We got Scary Baby off to a pre-Halloween birthday sleepover on Friday night dressed, most appropriately, to match her code name.
Her frightful costume created plenty of screaming and yelling. Though I don’t think it was suppose to come from me as she had a meltdown about which vampire teeth she was going to wear, her black boots were at the neighbor’s and a spider earring disappeared as she walked out the door.
I love Halloween fun to start two weeks before Halloween so by the time we get to the real Halloween, mommy has turned into a very scary witch.
Side note: I know several family members who shall remain nameless can relate to this. The rest of you continue with your sweet Halloween fun.
I think I popped the xanax right after she left because I was aware that I was exhibiting very witch-like behavior sans the costume.
The darling twins came home Friday {again} with only one extra Soldier as it was their drill weekend. An added bonus was that The Grunter did not have to work so it was our first Friday in several years we had the three lovely young adults big kids without Scary Baby.
We took them all to dinner and then went bowling. I’ll save the bowling throwdown story for another day. Suffice to say that we had some bowling etiquette issues with the eight teenagers next to us ending with one of the teenagers being kicked out and the management giving us 12 free games.
Another shining memory for our family.
It should be noted that those teenagers should be very, very glad I was medicated.
We awoke Saturday to Wizzy saying she couldn’t breathe and didn’t think she could go to drill. Roger Leroy headed out with her Soldier friends while PhilBillPaul took Wizzy to the walk-in clinic.
They came home announcing we needed to take her to the emergency room because the physician’s assistant was very concerned about meningitis because Wizzy said she had a bad headache.
As they left for the ER, they stopped back by the walk-in clinic to double check everything because the darling twins were vaccinated in high school for meningitis.
The good news…
No Swine Flu
and no meningitis either.
Two days of complete rest at home with more sleep than she’s had in a year and she still isn’t better.
Sunday, Roger Leroy and Casey got back from drill and spent several hours looking for her lost wallet and ipod.
I cooked a Sunday dinner compliments of Granny’s homemade noodles overnighted from Texas.
The wallet and ipod were located by Casey and Wizzy. In her bookbag. Roger Leroy is like the scarecrow on Wizard of Oz and that’s being polite.
After they ate, they headed back to college. They couldn’t wait for the desserts to cool down so she took a sad little container with 3 kisses back with her.
This is what happens when you set your camera on “cuisine” setting and turn off the flash.
Finally, three hours at urgent care on Monday with chest x-ray and blood work has confirmed Wizzy still has bronchitis and will be staying home for a few more days.
Such a boring weekend here. Please tell me you all had a much better weekend?!
That’s how my brain is working these days. Some fun, good things are happening that I wanted to share!
This is in spite of some really sad, not-so-good things that have also been happening in the last few months that I’m sure I’ll blog about some day.
But today, I’m sharing only positive things because muffins are always positive – be sure to read all the way to the end.
1. Fun Giveaway about socks. Or not.
My super-human friend Leigh Anne and I launched a new venture this week and we already have clients. We’ve been Idea Coaching with each other for a long time. So many times great ideas are right in front of us. We just need someone else to point them out and give us the confidence, as well as the tools and resources to make them a reality!
Using our years of entrepreneurial business experience helping women start their own business we want to help you Find Your Sock Yarn.(Bet you didn’t even know your sock yarn was lost, did you? Yeah, me neither.)
Very old friends may remember that was the name of my very old, first desktop publishing business before any of us had an email address, laptop or internet service and we traveled in covered wagons.
I love to date myself like that.
Anyway, through the years, I’ve always done freelance projects with a variety of clients. This site is long overdue so I can offer my services to the universe.
Okay, maybe not the universe but if you were thinking you’d like to have a blog of your own or you need a small business website, I can help you.
PhilBillPaul wants me to tell you that my prices are ridiculously affordable and I should charge more. I told him to be quiet and get his own blog if he wants to get all chatty.
I just want you to tell anyone you know who might need my services so I don’t have to wear a red shirt and work at Target.
I love Target. But red is soooooo not my color.
3. Earthy Crunchy {sort of} Maple-Drizzled Apple Muffins
Saw the name of these muffins and had to make them. Love the combo – YUM!
Awesome photo of my prep area don’t you think? Okay so I’m obviously NOT turning this into a food blog.
I’m sure a creative cook could make them healthier. Perhaps add some homemade applesauce or at least some no sugar added applesauce? Maybe some organic yogurt or wheat germ?
Me, I just followed the recipe with the most earthy crunchy thing I did…substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose *bad* white flour. I’m pretty sure that move countered the *bad* white sugar.
In the ongoing transition to get Scary Baby to eat healthier, I left the pecans off of three of them just for her. She said through curled lip, “Uh, they were kinda lumpy.”
Those are called tiny apple pieces dear sweet child.
MUFFINS:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ cup milk
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
¼ cup maple syrup
1 large egg, slightly beaten
2 cups chopped, peeled apples (I use Granny Smith)
12 pecan halves
GLAZE:
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbs maple syrup
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (through cinnamon).
3. In a small bowl, mix milk, butter, syrup and egg; stir into dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. Fold in apples.
4. Fill prepared muffin cups ¾-full (this is easiest to do when you use an ice cream scoop). Top each with a pecan half. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
5. For glaze, mix sugar and syrup; drizzle over cooled muffins.
Yield: 1 dozen
Side note: I got almost two dozen but maybe I didn’t fill the cups as full?
They were delicious! Just perfect in this crisp Fall weather!
After 4 years of drought we try not to complain about rain. But who could predict the Atlanta area would flood?
Thanks to those who emailed and called to check on us. We were fortunate with only a little water in our basement.
Lots of sad stories and loss.
For some people, really bad days.
Maybe you caught the story of this poor guy last week.
Luckily he wasn’t injured when he drove his car into the sinkhole because someone moved the orange barrels that are back now surrounding the hole.
And to add insult to injury, the story got worse when thieves stole his radio while his car was in the sinkhole.
Poor guy.
Meanwhile we headed to North Georgia on Saturday to visit the girls for Parent Weekend.
Because we hadn’t seen them in FIVE WHOLE DAYS.
And they really miss us.
As you will now see from these touching family photos of our time together in the pouring rain with all outdoor activities canceled.
We acquired an extra teen which we don’t mind at all. They are usually nicer to us than our own.
We decided to drive to the apple orchard since we were so close. Even though Rachel Pretty had already announced she didn’t want to go to the orchard. She doesn’t like orchards.
We took her feelings into consideration and then we drove to the orchard in her car because we needed six seat belts.
Scary Baby insisted on going out in the pouring rain to stick her head in the stockade with her new wax lips.
Then Rachel Pretty screamed at us because we were dawdling. We were on a tight time schedule and our 30 minutes of being inside and dry was up.
She threatened to leave us but PhilBillPaul dangled the car keys from the orchard porch.
Nice to know her car will start without the keys.
We all got back in the car for more family bonding while PhilBillPaul drove us back to the campus as it continued to pour down rain and I squealed whenever we drove through standing water on the road.
Pretty found some gum in the back seat. It turned out to be really old.
So she did what we would all do. She rolled down the window in the pouring rain to spit the gum out.
Only to have the gum ricochet back in from the window frame and land on her.
Which turned out to be the highlight of our day.
Well, that and the healthy serving of apples at the orchard.
Don’t judge an apple fritter by this photo. They really are delicious. But if you have never had one and I didn’t carefully label this photo, you might think it was something else…
I am refraining from putting you through the cell phone video of the girls singing Taylor Swift and Beyoncé songs at the top of their lungs when the iPod died.
We stopped by Wal-Mart, gave them a coupon for dinner at a local restaurant and drove them back to their dorm.
Life lessons surround us. The trick is to figure out the lesson. The gift is to share the lesson with someone else. The bonus is in finding the funny in the hard lessons. Let’s laugh and learn together.
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