Little Bird In My Ear

I have a visitor at my work today. He's not in my office, but he's peering in at me.

See this little bird? I believe it's a Starling.

Easter

This Easter was a little bittersweet. Hubby's dad passed away last Thursday. We had hubby's mom and brother over for Easter on Saturday. It just worked out better, Middle boy wanted to eat with his girlfriend and her G'ma and oldest boy had plans as well. So, we were able to all be together this way.

We had a nice big ham and I made my sweet potato casserole (always a winner). I crunch up corn flakes with brown sugar, butter and pecans to top it with. We also steamed some asparagus and I had some frozen Parker House Rolls in the freezer from last time I made them (Christmas maybe?). Very yummy!

Lights, Camera, Action!

Well, just lights.
When I got home on Friday, hubby did this...

Yay!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Okay, I consider myself a fairly decent cook/baker/whatever. I like to bake bread and cinnamon rolls from scratch. I've made donuts and I can bake a mean pie. Seriously. What I can't do is make chocolate chip cookies.

Truly, not at all. Once, I even devoted a whole period of time trying to find the best recipe out there. I tried tons of them. Honestly.

We have a porch!

Yay! Another thing on our long list of renovations can be marked off the list. We had someone come in and pour our porch yesterday. It's the only thing we've done so far that we paid someone else to do and oh Lord, was it nice to do. I hate to pay the extra money, but it was NO WORK. Awesome!

We had this 4x4 concrete pad in front of the door and it was sinking in the back corner. So, we knew it wasn't attached to the foundation of the house and we planned on renting a jackhammer and breaking it up. I was worried about this thinking it would be difficult to do.

Enter hubby. Stubborn, HeMan hubby. He says, "I want to try a sledgehammer first."

An hour later...

Stuffed Mushrooms

Last night we planned on having leftover BBQ chicken from last weekend and I wanted to add something to the meal to make it a little more special. The kids have finally all found a fondness for mushrooms and I thought it would be a good idea to make stuffed mushrooms. My fireman had them at the dentist's office for their cleaning and I was on my way home from work, so I swung by Krogers and got 3 containers of button mushrooms.

I rinsed them, I know, you can just wipe them off, but I rinse them. Then I lightly wiggled the stems until they come off. I had to use a spoon on a couple of the more stubborn ones. I diced about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of onions and green bell pepper. Then I diced up most of the mushroom stems. Because to me, onions are best when sauteed in butter (or margerine). So, if I add some stems in there, I get some extra yummy flavor. It's best if you can dice them very small for when you get to stuffing. I was making a larger batch than normal, cause I got a lot of kids! It ended up filling a 9x13 and a 9x9.

Weekend work

Alas, no new pictures... We had a busy weekend. We went to a benefit for Lifeline Pilots on Saturday, which was REALLY fun and REALLY good food. Prime rib and champagne, yum!
http://www.lifelinepilots.org/ Check them out! They're awesome!

The weather was great and I was able to get on my motorcycle and ride for about 30 minutes. I rode on some country roads, twisty and slow. It was a beautiful thing.

Lowe's trip

Last night after I got home from work, hubby and the girl and I went to Lowe's and got the light for our dining room! We decided on the wrought iron, stained glass one that I posted a week or so ago. I really liked the wide, single upside down bowl one, but it only had one bulb and it just wasn't enough light, besides, I REALLY LOVE the stained glass one. It totally works with our house. I was only worried about the ambient light that will filter through the glass, but after I saw it working in Lowe's, I was sold. Besides, It'll take 3 60 watt bulbs and right now we only have 1 bulb. So, much improvement. I hope we can get it up this weekend so I can post pictures! I am entirely excited about this. It's what I dreamed about for the room. It goes so well with all the masculine wood and wrought iron and brick. But it brings in a little femininity and whimsical quality.  Color me happy.

We grabbed Taco Bell, cause we took up so much time shopping. THen ran through Target for new work out clothes for hubby.

The girl had to study for a spelling test and grammer test for this morning and we only had time to watch our DVR'd Harry's Law. Still loving this show!

I promise I'll post photos of the last beam that the fireman's working on for a weird wall. And hopefully for the new light!