Freckled Star

What's for dinner......

I get asked this at least 4 times a day, now 5 times. Baseball season is here once again and the ol' crockpot has once again emerged from it's dusty place in the back of my pantry. Ever since I got my Dutch Oven I just don't seem to use it as much during the winter. Until now that is.......

Homemade Sloppy Joe's. You know that the packaged mix is just not going to do it for me;) This is so easy and everyone can eat whenever they want!! And even the vegetarian thinks it smells wonderful! Oh and I was going to wipe down the sides of my crock but then I thought why??? Crock pots are supposed to be messy! That's the beauty:)

SO here is what you do:

Brown 3 pounds of ground beef (can be made with ground turkey if you'd like), 1 chopped onion and 3 chopped celery stalks.

Meanwhile in crock pot combine 1 cup barbeque sauce, a packet of dry Sloppy Joe seasoning, 1 can on tomotoe paste and about 1 1/2 cups of water.

Stir in the beef mixture and cook on high for about 4 hours. Time varies according to the type of crock pot you have. I have a super hot one and sometimes I have to watch it. Like when I am doing crock pot lasagna:) That was last practice.

So get some wheat burger buns and cheese. We like pepper jack and provolone around these parts. Salad for us adults and fries for the kids. The best fries are the Organic Alexa brand fries. They have sea salt, sweet potatoe, rosemary reds and even onion rings. Yum!! The best part they are at Target in the frozen food section for .92 cents a bag!! Can't go wrong with that. Just shake in the bag with a little olive oil and bake. I do love making homemade garlic oven fries but sometimes I just don't have an hour.

 

Simple right?? Come on you can do it!!:)

Remember when.........

my scrapbook/art/craft/lovliest room on earth looked like this????

 

Well now it looks like this!!!!!!!

 

Wait it gets better...

 

I so love the trash over flowing out of my $100 Longaberger waste basket...

 

And I do recall SPECIFICALLY telling him NOT to drink in here...

 

Not one but two!!! UGHHHH.... I am going to kick his BUTT when he gets home!!!

 

And Justice would like to know why the hell there are 2 tables on his rug. Because heaven forbid he have to put his prissy butt on the actual carpet!! Only a dog bed, human bed or fancy Anthro carpet will do:)

 

So now you know my BIG change, my ManChild is back. Came back Tuesday. Found out Monday. Oh Christopher you are in for such a rude awakening. You were under 21 when you lived with us last and it seems that not only do you still have your bad habits (look at pictures 5 and 6) but you have gained some new ones being on your own. The on your own should be in quotation marks. It is time to grow up my love. And as you know I am just the person for the job;)

So now I am going to go walk my dumb dog and try not to cry:) 6 months, 6 months, 6 months. My new mantra;)

Hitting the pavement....

This morning was so lovely....

 

I decided to throw on the ol' running shoes and well...........not run but walk fast:)

 

Justice is wondering what the heck I am doing. He has many bushes to mark and I am holding up progress!

 

Downhill sure went fast. So it's up hill we go.

 

Still going..............

 

The home stretch. Notice Justice isn't in front of me anymore:)

I know going up hill is better for me than going downhill. Gets your heart rate going faster, you can feel it in your calves. I can feel it in my chest as I wheeze and think to myself when was the last time I was out here! (Although I have been a pretty good girl about going to the gym the last couple of weeks:) But going downhill is soooo much easier. And easier sounds so good right now! Lots of changes going on in this family right now. Some exciting, some not so. But all happening none the less. More later I've got kids about to walk in:)

If I had $1000 to kiss goodbye.......

I would buy these 

Can be found here IPPOLITA $695.

And these  

Sundance $58 what a deal!!

These are cute. $89 India Rose. This is a very neat store!!!                        

I love candles! $20 for the small and $30 for the large.  

This is so me;) It's a candle too! $75 

  

The 2 candles above are here Bliss Living. I think these would all be lovely in a big tablescape. So calming and beautiful when lit. Dare to dream Andrea. Dare to dream!

   

I am LOVING the pinks! Also Bliss Living.

Okay so I went WAY over the $1000 mark:) It sure doesn't go very far!

Gotta go the mail is here. I hope there is a good catalog in there. See what happens when your kids get older.....you get BORED! No one wants to play with me anymore. Shoot none of them are even home! And it's a good thing;)

I am back.....

It's my brother Chris's Birthday today. 22 years old!!

 

We are almost 14 years apart. I still remember the day my parents told us he was coming:) We were in a Mexican restaurant on Haven and Arrow across the street from the court house. It is long gone now. It had the most uncomfortable chairs! Anyway Mike and I thought we were getting a pool!! We knew they had something exciting to tell us and when they said "you two are getting a new brother or sister!!!" we were like...................WHAT!!!! Needless to say we did not get a pool. Not until I moved out that is!!!

Although Chris is my brother he is more like my first born. I took care of him alot when he was little. Not always happily;) Mike and I were always in charge of bath duty. Which we hated so we made sure we made a big mess hoping my mom would do it and not bug us. But she did not care how much of a mess we made. And really the only person it bothered was me because I would end up stepping in a puddle of water in the middle of the night!!!

It did prepare me though for when Zachary was born. They are only 3 and 1/2 years apart. So they are more like brothers than uncle and nephew. Even after I moved to New York I still went home about 10 times a year. Or my mom and him came to me. Thank god.

When she died he was only 12 and I had only been back for a year. If we hadn't have been close I hate to even think how lost he would have felt. How lost I would have felt. It's hard to believe it has been 10 years already. But as I look back on all the portraits I made them take every Christmas I am assured it has indeed been that long.

I think back to that night when we had all come back from her services and I cried as I asked Frank how am I going to do this??? How can I take care of Chris?? My dad?? He never answered. The fact is I just did it. If he needed something I got it. If he had to go to the dentist I took him. If he needed me I was there. Like when we went to every DMV in Southern California til he finally passed his driving test!:) All I can say is I have tried my best and put all my heart into trying to make him feel loved and safe. And even though he has quickly become a man I still think of him as that baby I held the day he came home from the hospital. Isn't that how all moms think of their kids? Still babes.

Anyway in honor of Chris's Birthday I made him his usual Chocolate Covered Strawberries. This is the 10th year of this tradition. WOW! He has never asked me for a cake.

Not hard to see why......

These are so cheap and easy to make. At Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory they are like $4 a piece. That's crazy!! I made 30 long stemmed ones for about $7. Henry's had the strawberries for $4. The chocolate was your regular old Nestle for $3.

 

The easy part:

Claen and dry all your berries. Dry them good that's the secret to get the chocolate to stick.

Melt your chocolate 

Yes I know my stove is a mess:) Really easy double broiler method. About an inch of water in the stock pot. Use a heat proof bowl and place over the "simmering" water. Stir with rubber spatula til all chips melt.

Dip 

Put on a parchment lined sheet pan 

Then throw them in the fridge for about 1 hour. After you can package any way you like. I am using the boxes from the cupcakes I bought a few weeks ago.

Add some cute stuff and you are done!! 

Do you love the strawberry box!!??  

That's for someone special also who's birthday is Monday!! She will just be getting it early. I love early presents;) Don't you??

As for Chris he gets berries and these

The kids and I designed these for him at NIKEiD.com Everything from the colors of the soles to the laces. Even the name Kezia was embroidered on just for him. Supposedly that's one of his screen names he uses to play video games with Tyler. I wonder if he knows it was one of Job's 3 daughters in the bible? Or if he just likes the band. Probably the last one;) I wonder if the band knows the meaning. LOL!! Probably not.

So Happy Birthday to my first baby love Christopher:)

Jumping for joy.......

On my way to the beach. It's going to be raining but who cares!!

 

Have a beautiful weekend:)

 

Lindsay on the deck September 2008.

Calm...

Okay I have calmed down now:) After all that I went outside with my faux fur blanket (that I got on clearance at Pottery Barn for $9 2 years ago!) and my copy of the NEW "Artful Blogging" magazine.

 

And I just laid there in the sun and the cold. I could hear my music coming from inside the house and I took a deep breathe. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. As an aside the man who wrote this, and there is more to it than just that phrase, was a communist. Reinhold Niebuhr is his name. I am just going to have to shake that off and go with the real meaning of the words. Damn internet giving me too much information again!!

 

So I lay there in his seat...

 

"Excuse me but your in my chair. Oh and could you leave the blanket it would match the decor in my dog house beautifully"

 

"You do know we sit on these all day long when you are either gone or not watching right?? And we would really like you to leave the blanket."

Then I came in and did what else??

 

BAKE! HELLO LOVER~~~~ Don't know how many of you are Sex In the City fans but Carrie says this as she is drooling over a pair of either Blahnik's or Christrian's strappy sandals in a department store window. It kind of reminded me of that;)

Then the ultimate comfort food for dinner...

 

Pasta and Chicken. Who could not feel instantly better after this? It's a good thing I am not normally this moody or I would weigh 300 pounds!

So that was it. All better now. Well sort of;)

Feeling VERY uninspired...........

Heavy Sigh:( California looks like it is about to finally pass a budget. And guess what we get??? A .12 cent gas tax added to every gallon and double car registration fees. JOY!!!! Talk about driving the last nail in the car dealerships coffin. Plus furloughs, of which my father-in-law is a part of. On top of that they get to hang on to our State Income Tax return. WHAT!!!! This is getting really old, really fast!

I am sorry I do not need government assistance. I am sorry my husband works to provide health care, a roof over our head and food in our pantry. I am sorry we pay ALL our bills on time. I am sorry my family has had success in the past selling American cars. I am sorry my kids are in a good school district that has stayed within budget but still has to make real cuts to my children's education because other school districts haven't. I am sorry I don't speak Spanish very well. I am sorry I pay my property taxes to pay for the beautiful neighborhood I live in and someone else doesn't get to enjoy it. I am sorry my kids can play outside without the fear of being gunned down. I am sorry for the people who live that way. I am sorry the government seems to think I should either live that way or give them most of my family's money so they can live like us. I am sorry that most American's will not be able to put their kids through college in the next few years but will be paying higher taxes so immigrants can get a degree and take more of our jobs. I am sorry my husband makes more than the kid at McDonalds. I am sorry for wanting our dealerships to make a profit when we sell cars. I am sorry that we sell cars. I am sorry that I get to drive a cute little car with a sunroof and other people don't. I am sorry not everyone has what I have. I am sorry we live in a society where it is okay for some nutty lady to be inseminated 7 times and produce 14 children all the while collecting disability. I am sorry I don't want to pay her hospital bill. I am sorry that terroists have more rights than soldiers in this country. I am sorry I live in a country that is now just handing out peace, liberty and justice for all with a check and a lawyer. I am sorry but the checks are about to run out. I am sorry if I have offended anyone.

I wish I had more inspiring thoughts today. A more positive outlook. I so much want to share something hopeful. Usually I can see the rainbow despite the clouds, my own rose colored glasses, today not so much. Part of having this blog is to share the fun parts of my life. More of the ups than downs. Kind of like a journal of fun stuff. But I just can't do it today. I know a lot of you are having your own struggles right now. In fact I know no one who isn't unscathed by this debacle. So maybe this can at least leave you with the feeling that you are not alone. Don't give up.

With love,

Andrea

Cheap and Sweet;)

Okay so I did my kids Valentines today and of course I bought too much stuff. Which could be good for you:) Here's what I have left over.... 

Five bags of the good stuff. And when I say good stuff I mean adults would want to eat it too. What good is a holiday if you can't nibble too right?? So $3 bucks a bag and I will even customize a little name tag to put on it. Viola!!

Now I also put in gift cards or money for my brood....

 

I don't buy little toys anymore. What did we ever do without gift cards?? I've got a girl who needs hairspray and foundation. That stuffs adds up!! And cash is always good. Just wait til they start nickel and diming you for gas money and Donuts;) So anyway quick and easy. I've only got 5 of these little beauties so act fast:) Cheap and Sweet just the way I like it!

An official 12 year old.........

The boy is 12 today and after pacing back and forth with the dogs on his heels for about an hour we finally said just bring your presents in here and open them ALREADY!!!

 

Sunday's are Frank and I's lazy day. Usually the doors are shut and we don't come out til around 10a.m. (when you wake up at 4:45 all week trust me he needs it). Then I make a lazy breakfast. When I say lazy I mean I take my time. So Breakfast is really brunch. Today I made the Ebilskivers:) They were fabulous!! Williams Sonoma is where you can find it all. So worth it!! They made the boy so happy:)

Anyway I've got another one now a year older. It is so much fun watching them grow into adolescence. Not always easy but amazing none the less. Tyler will always be my little chunk of butter boy. Love those cheeks!!! I could just eat them up:)

 

Even though now he looks like this....

 

Good ol school pictures:) There is not an ounce of butter in those cheeks anymore!

 And instead of this....

 

He is now doing this...

 

He is growing up so fast and everyday I think to myself how proud I am to say he is my son.

Happy Birthday to my little chunk of butter;)