Random Thoughts by Pam

Deanna got a neat cookbook from her MeMaw over the summer and she wanted to make a snack from it. It’s called The Magic Kitchen Cookbook (Disney) and all the recipes are Disney related. She made Impossibly Easy A.M. Sundaes.

You take vanilla yogurt and chop up some fruits, we used grapes and bananas and put them in the yogurt. Pretty simple! You can also sprinkle bran flakes over it, but we skipped that part. You can use strawberries, kiwis or blueberries, any fruit that you might use with yogurt.

Here’s a few snapshots of Deanna making this for everyone. It has lots of easy and neat recipes based on Disney characters, but I told Deanna we have to plan ahead since some of them are things we don’t always have around!

Deanna really enjoyed making the snack for everyone and it was healthy too. Everyone ate it up and wanted more! I guess she made a good choice!

I took Deanna to get a haircut today. She wanted it chopped off and that’s what she got! I get too nervous to cut it that short, I’ll trim it up, but won’t cut like three inches off! I think she looks cute! She’s definitely ready for school!

I took Deanna and Megan shopping for some new clothes for school. They found some really cute things and each got one new pair of shoes. Most of their clothes are hand-me-downs from someone so I like to get them something new each year even if it’s not too much. They had a good time and it was good bonding time for the three of us.

So I made it to TNK this past week and my mom was in town so she joined me! I snapped a photo of my socks at the beginning of the night and then at the end. It doesn’t look like I got much done, but I did about half an inch of work! I’m super slow, yes, I admit it! So I’m politely bowing out of the competition of Ravelympics 2008. I wanted to finish to get my little award for finishing and crossing the finish line, but I guess life got in the way.

I will get the socks finished, probably will take me another month to finish them. I am stopping work on them to make a baby blanket for a friend of mine from church who had to deliver her baby girl at 23 weeks. Please be praying for her daughter, Lauren, that she will make it to grow to be a beautiful young girl.

I’m also trying to get my bag finished and felted. I just have to bind off and do the straps. I’m binding off in the green, but I think I’m going to some how do striped handles. I have one more ball of purple, but only what’s left of the ball of green that I have so I won’t be able to do them all in green. I do have fabric to line the bag once it’s done and I plan on making coordinating goodies for the inside of the bag too!

So I guess that’s all for today. Sorry for all the days of no blogging. I hope to get back on a normal routine when school starts again! TTFN!

So here’s an update on my progress on the socks. First, here’s a photo of me while we were camping last week and I was knitting. Richard snapped the photo, he wanted something candid! I think he got it!

I’m about 3 inches along with the socks. I have six more inches to go before I mess with the heel and the foot and the toes, so I’m not sure if I’ll finish by the closing ceremonies! But if I don’t, at least I can say I gave it a good try. I’m going to TNK tomorrow night, so that’s 2 hours of straight knitting, maybe I can get a bunch done then! I’ll have to snap a photo after tomorrow night to post for you guys.

I have more things I want to post, but it’s time to get off the computer for the night so I’ll bid everyone a good night and see you soon!

It’s such an exciting time! The Olympics are on! We love watching these as a family. It definitely let’s us change our tv habits and see what others are doing in the world. It’s also a good learning experience as far as Chinese culture and learning that there are lots of countries out there!

What makes this Olympics different than others is I’m particpating in Ravelympics, an Olympic challenge for knitters and crocheters over at Ravelry.com. Everyone that joined the group picked their individual event and also could join a team event. The goal is to start your project during the opening ceremonies and finish by the closing ceremonies. It’s a neat challenge!

I joined the Sock Put event where my goal is to finish one pair of socks. I am making The Classic Sock from my book, 2-at-a-Time Socks. Here’s a picture of what I got finished while watching the opening ceremonies. I can’t tell you how hard it was to knit while watching the awesome job that the Chinese did on their opening ceremonies! I’ve completed three more rounds since Friday, I hope to get some more done today. Every time we put the Olympics on, I’ve been trying to pick up the socks and do some more!

Here’s one more neat picture I took of the Olympics Friday night from the tv. I wish we could have gone, but that’s just not in the cards this year! LOL! I wish I could have recorded the opening ceremonies just to watch over and over again. Megan ended up sleeping through the entire thing so she missed it all!

Tonight was Family Night at Applebee’s which means, it’ll be a cheap dinner out! Kids meals are only 99 cents and we had a gift card so we pretty much didn’t pay for anything! Yea!! That’s my kind of meal with this bunch!

But with Family Night, they have a nice gentleman walking around making balloon objects for a couple of hours. Deanna got a green dinosaur, Megan got a pink cat and Kathryn got a pink bear hugging a heart. It was a different evening for sure!

The pictures were taken with my iPhone so they aren’t great, but that’s all I had to capture the moment with. No flash on the phone!

I did manage to capture a cute picture of Jonathan and what kind of night would it be if I didn’t snap a photo of Richard! I guess I should have turned the camera around to take a photo of me, but I wouldn’t want the phone to break! It’s all I got! LOL!

I have posted more pictures of when we’ve visited the state park’s pool. We are going to the pool again Saturday with good friends of ours that are moving in September (boo hoo!) so it’ll be a nice time. We also have at least one more time planned in August before the pool closes and school starts again. Eek!

I had to take another photo of our last batch of tomatoes from the garden. I picked about 10 today, a few were red already, ready to eat and the others are in the window to ripen. We’ve already picked about 15 off the vines and today I made my first batch of tomato sauce. I was just testing it all out, not even sure if I was doing anything right.

I took the tomatoes (about 7 medium tomatoes) and put them into boiling water for like thirty seconds. I took them out and put them in a bowl of cold water. Then after they cooled off some, I peeled them and cut off any tops I had, then put them into a pot and cooked them at low-medium heat for probably at least 45 to an hour until they become like a sauce. I didn’t bother taking the seeds out. I wanted to see how it tasted when I used it. After my sauce cooled a bit, I put it into a container to freeze.

I realized that I need about 14 to 16 medium size tomatoes to make a batchof sauce large enough for the six of us. I also realized that I need to be patient! it seemed like so long for the sauce to make! But you can see what I made and see my tomatoes in the kitchen window. It was a fun afternoon!