Oops, I did it again . . .

No, I'm not doing a Britney Spears impersonation.

I've been a slacker again. And for that I know I must be punished.

Ok, enough dramatics. We've just been busy, as usual. And with Facebook, it sometimes seems redundant to post pics and stories there, and then post them again here. Know what I mean?

We've had a pretty good summer break . . . if you can really call it that.

Our summer has consisted of:

Camping
Swimming (LOTS of swimming)
Mowing the grass (more times than the boys wanted to do it)
Made snow cones
Made ice cream
The Gregson family 4th of July gathering
Fireworks
Another Gregson family gathering for my aunt and uncle from Utah (with more homemade ice cream)
Band Camp (for Todd)
More swimming
The last Harry Potter movie (for me and the hubby)
Sweating to death
Picking peas, okra, cucumbers, and corn
Eating watermelon
Getting ready for school to start


That last one tells me that our summer break is coming to an end. The kids start school on August 15th.

I'm happy and sad about that. Happy to have a little peace during the day, and sad at the cost of school supplies, uniforms, shoes, haircuts. YIKES!

Ketchup . . . Katsup . . . Catsup . . . Catch-Up!

Again. My name is Miranda, and I am a slacker.

Since I can't think of a good reason for neglecting my blog, I'll just get right to it.

The catching up part I mean.

So, after the big buns came the month of February. We celebrated my hubby's birthday, my mom's birthday, my hubby's parents' birthdays, and their anniversary. WHEW!

And if that wasn't enough, March rolled around, and we celebrated all three of my boys' birthdays, baptized one, and ordained another to the Aaronic priesthood.

 

Next thing we knew, Spring sprung, or is it sprang? I don't know. All I do know is, baseball season started . . . .

. . . which meant we spent four nights a week at the ball park. Yippee. Woohoo.

Actually, it wasn't too bad. Neither of my boys made All-Stars, and you know what? I'm over-joyed! Matt's season is done . . . finito . . . terminado . . .finished! Hallelujah! Zack has just two games left, so I'll hold off on doing the happy dance a little while longer.

Oh, yeah, I've also had a birthday. I'm now the big THREE-FIVE! Is it time for me to have a mid-life crisis? Does anyone know? I want to be ready just in case.

At the end of April my niece, sister-in-law, and I participated in a craft festival in a neighboring town. I worked my hind parts off making bows, and my niece made tutus, bow holders, and wreaths. We didn't do very well . . . . AT ALL. We didn't sell a single solitary thing. Aaaannnnnnndddd . . . . . it didn't help that we were next door to a 'professional' bow vendor. It clearly was NOT her first rodeo. We felt very insignificant.

Two weeks later we decided to give the vendor thing another try, so we set up a booth at our local Cotton Patch festival. JACKPOT! Ok, not really, but we did much, MUCH better. Our booth won 3rd place for best vendor!

Alrighty, May is here . . . . the end of May . . . . really? It's already May? Wow. I can't believe I haven't posted anything in 5 months. I also can't believe the year is almost half gone! Ok, moving on. We're done with school. DONE! FINISHED!

YEEHAW!

I'm just a teensy bit excited.

No more uniforms, no more homework, no more field trips, no more buying snacks/drinks only to have to buy them again because the girl got into them, no more dollar-ing me to death for jeans days, raffle tickets, movie days, face-paintings, t-shirt orders, book orders, etc. No more worrying if I'm gonna get a phone call from school because my child stood up to a bully, but is taking the brunt of the punishment.

Yep, I'm just a little excited. But we're not done with May just yet . . .

We'll go to graduation tomorrow night because the band is playing and my drummer boy has to be there. We'll also get to see Miss Amy graduate before she runs off to BYU.

We still have two baseball games and an end-of-season party to attend. And THEN we'll be done with May.

June---well, even though it's not here quite yet, it will be a busy month, too. Truthfully, the whole summer will be busy, and before we know it, it will be gone, and it will be time to gear back up for a new school year.

That means I'll have a 1st grader (*sniff*), a 3rd grader (*sniff, sniff*), and a 7th grader (*WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!*).  I don't want to think about it right now.

I'm going to enjoy the summer instead----camping, trips to the creek, 4th of July fun, maybe a trip to the zoo, more trips to the creek.

Oh, and I have a BIG date with my hubby coming up in July. I've been waiting for it for a whole year. We're going to Montgomery to see 'Menopause: The Musical'!

Yeah, buddy!

I'm just a teensy bit excited about that, too.

I like big butts and I cannot lie . . .

So . . . um . . . I made some Rhodes rolls.



They're the new fav at my house.



They're buttery, beautiful, and you can't eat just one.



I have to limit myself to how often I buy them, because . . . well . . . they're buttery, beautiful, and you can't eat just one.



I had half a bag left, and I thought they would go nicely with chicken and dumplings.



The tricky thing is you have to let them rise for several hours before cooking.



OR, you can do the quick rise method, which takes only 1 hour or so.



You have to be very careful with the 'or so' part.



I found that out tonight.



I usually cook these in my 9x12 glass baking dish, but it was still in the fridge with some OH SO DELICIOUS apple struesel bars in it.



I decided to use a different method suggested on the back of the bag.



A muffin pan. Easy enough. I have one of those.



The directions say to put two rolls in each muffin cup.



I did that. No problem.



I followed the directions for the quick rise method.



The directions also say 'Let dough rise about 1 hour, until double in size. Watch closely so dough does not rise too high'.



Hmmm . . . . it was kinda hard to tell in the muffin cups.



After the rising process was finished, I started baking these lovely, scrumptious, slap-yo-mama-good rolls.



And this is what I ended up with.

When I pulled them out of the oven, Matt said, "Those look like butts."



I thought the very same thing.



I must have taught my children something good somewhere along the way, because later, he came up with a much nicer, G-rated, less crude name.



Chef Hat Buns.

The Girl's Princess Hair

If anyone knows my girl very well, they know she doesn't let me do much with her hair.


And on the off chance that she lets me give her a ponytail, braids, or a bow . . . .


it doesn't last very long.


Some days she won't even let me brush her hair.



Just yesterday I tried to brush her hair before going to maw maw's house.



She told me, "No. Maw Maw will brush my hair for me."



The stinker.



She'll let Maw Maw fix her hair, but not her own mother.



Go figure.



So today, I convinced her to let me give her a 'princess' do.



It took some convincing . . . .


and putting the chair where she could watch Dora while I fixed her hair . . . .



but I finally got it done.



And she has left it alone . . . . . . . so far.



Here's my pretty princess with her pretty princess hair.

This is called the Triple French Braids & Piggies. I have about 6 shots to post, but Blogger is STILL being a pain in my ASTABEULA!!!

You can go here to see much better photos of this style. This gal does some pretty amazing stuff with her daughter's hair.

I'm so jealous!

Our Mouse Has a New Pad

No, not a real mouse.


Todd had a hamster once, but that's as close as we'll get to having rodents for pets.


I'm talking about THIS mouse.


Doesn't he look cozy on his new pad?

We've needed a new mouse pad for quite a while now. I have a before shot of our Shrek mouse pad, but Blogger is being a total pain and won't let me post it. You'll just have to trust me when I say that Shrek and Donkey have seen better days.

I'd never thought about recovering a mouse pad. Heck, I didn't even know you could do that. But when I saw the tutorial I thought, "I CAN DO THAT!!!"

This is my kinda craft. 

Is it perfect? NO.



Does it serve its purpose? YES.



Did the kids think it was super cool and now one of them wants me to make him a quilt with the 'frogger's adventures' fabric? YES.

New Year Resolutions

Lets face it . . . . . I'm TERRIBLE at keeping resolutions.


Oh, I'm good at making them.


I can make a list a mile long.


But crossing off that list . . . .  well . . . . it just doesn't happen.


I'm very easily distracted.


It has something to do with having four children, a husband, a crazy-arse dog, school, and a house in desperate need of repair.


Ok. Fine. It's me. It's all me. I've never been good at following through.


BUT! (Is my but too big? Bahahaha! I crack myself up! No pun intended.) 


See? Easily distracted.


Ahem.


Anywho, I just couldn't let the year start without making some kind of goal for the new year.


I decided to go with a family goal so that I'll have to be accountable to someone other than myself.


*Drum roll please . . . . . . 


We're going to read the Book of Mormon as a family.


I know this isn't anything new, and it's something we should have done long before now, but this is another one of those things that we start and never finish.


So, this year WE'RE GONNA FINISH!


I came across a cute and fun way to keep us motivated. You can find it  here.
http://www.sugardoodle.info/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7152

We've done pretty well so far.


At first, the kids weren't too excited about the idea. They usually give us a hard time about reading, but they all want to read more than our '2 verses per person', and by the time we reach the end of the chapter, they're checking to see how long the next one is. More than once one of the kids has said, "Lets keep going. We can knock out another chapter."  I enjoy a little inside chuckle at that point.


Hmmm . . . for little people who make such a big deal about NOT wanting to read, they have a hard time wanting to stop.


I love it.

Congrats to the Pride!

Congratulations to all the band members for their hard work this year! They were invited to march in the inauguration parade for our new governor. What an accomplishment and a great honor for them! The last time our band was invited to the inauguration parade was back in 1963.

The parade will be in Montgomery on Monday, January 17th, which is also a holiday. The kids will be out of school and Ian will be off work.

ROAD TRIP!!!