Another smorgasblog

Here's a bit of background info. We accidentally had some name brand cereal. Mark and the girls were having a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles on Sun am. They all prefer the generic brand and were discussing the differences.

Mark: "Wonder why they taste so different?"

Emily: "Probably it's the iron."

Mark almost died laughing, then came and told me. Meanwhile Emily is warning Hannah about the cereal.

Emily: "They taste weird because of the iron."

Hannah almost dies of laughter. That Em, who knew she could read the labels on the boxes or listened to boring commercial info. So funny. Hooray for generic cereal!!!



On another note, I ended my sedentary ways today. I went for a little jog. Of course this has been the warmest January on the record books in KC. Tomorrow is supposed to be 62. Yes, I WILL jog again. And of course, real winter weather is due to return this weekend. Too bad I didn't take advantage of the warm days, but I will NOT allow it to sidetrack me again.....Hannah is trying to drink more water, so I'm joining her. That's the news around here.

Back again

Here I am, back again after another whirlwind. We had a LOVELY weekend with our cousins from Branson, Joy and Wayne. They had to go to a wedding at Union Station in KC on Sat night, so they rolled into our neighborhood on Thurs night. We stayed up too late every night. We ate too much good stuff and visited and laughed and hated to see them leave. If anyone was wondering if we played any dominoes, thanks for asking! YES, I beat them them all by a very small margin, but I was the winner before they creamed me good at golf. At our last round of golf, I was winning when they all quit, scared probably. It was fun!!! We took them to Kat's bb game. OF course, Wayne ran into someone he knew. One of the girls has grandparents that served on the retirement board with Wayne. Such a small world. Joy and Wayne has always treat us so special and we gain so much encouragement from them. They are role models to us in so many ways. Always fun to have them around.

Today I'm hanging out, doing a bit of laundo and will take H to the chiro later. All for now. If you are a regular reader who has their own blog, feel free to update yourself.....that means you, Pattie and Joy K...... :) Amie, ask Joy about Dick Cheney's hearing. Such a Joy moment.....

A Mini Lesson and a mini Wow!

Sometimes it's good to be reminded of facts you already know to be true. Such as only calling the drs office AFTER one has gotten ready for the day. Hmmmm. I think it was 8:05 am when I called for some meds for Kat, thinking that they would call in a RX for us, since we had 2 cases of strep last week. WRONG!!! They wanted to see her in at 8:40, Em was still in bed. Amazingly we were rolling down our street at 8:31 after a quick shower, blowdry, makeup and clothes. We got there at 8:42 and waited in the waiting room for 1/2 an hour. Thankfully Kat was really sick, it's such a bummer to take a well kid to the dr. As we were waiting for the strep test to come back, Em said, "I hope you have strep, Kai (her nickname for Kat) so you can stay home and play with me." Em got her wish. Kat is good at vegging on the couch either with her Harry Potter book or the remote. She will prob stay home tomorrow and be ready to play ball on Sat.

The big event of the weekend is the baby shower for a young lady at church on Sat. Alissa is the daughter of my local, Indep friend, Donna who is also Mark's twin sister of another mother. (Mark and Donna were both born on Aug 15, 1958). Anyway the shower is at the Patek's house. Freddie Patek is a former shortstop for the Royals. I have been to their house once before and couldn't get enough of Freddie's amazing collection of baseball awards, pictures, trophies, etc. It's so COOL!!! Their house is beautiful too, so it will be a lovely place to honor Alissa and her baby Ava, due next month. (Side note: Mark performed the wedding for the oldest daughter last summer, and will perform the 3rd daughter's wedding this July---I am learning TONS about weddings from Donna---did you know that you can get brand-new wedding dresses on e-bay for less than $50? Amazing!!!

Mark is reading out of the grim Grimm's Fairy Tale book. Must go listen!!

Survived Parts 2, 3 & 4

Here I am, back at the computer again (the font is very small on this blogger-deal). When I last blogged, we were wondering if we were headed home for a couple days. We left after a minor adjustment to our fuel line. I guess a clogged line would have stranded us somewhere near St. Louis. We had a lovely, whirlvind visit with the Stinnetts. We got to meet our new baby nephew, Joshua, born on Labor Day. He is as cute as his parents think he is. There is always lots of fun and food. We got to visit with our Texas friends, Dale and Lesa. We always take a picture of our kids sitting together on the front pew at the building. Our big ole kids fill the whole pew now--all 9 of them. Lees and I always wonder how this could happen to two such nice girls.

We raced home to have company for New Years. Adam and Amanda Bledsoe came from Conway, AR. They used to live in KC until Aug and we adopted each other at church. They had things to do, shopping and friends to visit, plus lots of cards and fun here. We picked up Jess' friend, Kyle at the airport, and ran into our college friends, Matt and Pattie Blake, Rachel and Joanna, too. We took them home with us and enjoyed a great day, visiting and laughing etc. We let the teenagers loose in Indep. and went to Red Robin. Such a treat to get to see our old friends and still like them as friends and people.

We had a few couples over for New Years. We had a ton of good eats, played cards and dominoes. Hannah and Jess rang in 2006 by running up and down the street barefoot, yelling Happy New Year. So crazy.

We enjoyed meeting Jess' friend, Kyle. Mark and I totally don't understand the semantics of modern relationships. They looked like a couple, but I hear that they are "just friends" which is ok with us. Even though we are confused, we'll take it---the 19 year old young man, must also be confused, but I can't help......He was very nice, even folded up his bedding. He played endless games of Dora Uno with the girls and let them vall him crazy nicknames. Bless his heart.

So the girls went back to school last Wed. Abby was home on Friday with strep. I think she was sick earlier in the week and didn't have anyone to take her to the dr. Kat played ball on Sat. We got Jess's clothes washed and her sent to AR yesterday. Her friend, Erin, drives a Mitisubishi Spider (sports car) and it was packed FULL when she pulled up, not realizing that Jess had filled the back of our van herself. But they squished it here and there and off they went. I was glad they left yesterday as today had winter weather between here and Springfield.

So today was the first day that Em and I had to ourselves since Dec. 16. We goofed around some, went to Story Hour and did our volunteering at Blackburn. Nice. I still have all the Xmas decorations up in the living room and kitchen. Hope to get those done and those rooms put back in order soon. (The tree is down---that's the biggie).

I have a bunch of newly learned lessons from my life's experiences this last month. I'll share those later. Just thought I'd catch everyone up on the Stinnews. I'm headed to the kitchen now to put some cornbread in the oven for the Mr. to go with his pot of beans. Even sounds good to me! Need to referee in Polly Pocket world, too. Argh!

Survived Part 1

Hi! I've been sitting here with Keith Urban (don't tell Mark or Nicole) lol. Hannah got his new CD and we downloaded the new Xmas tunes on the "computer across from Mom's" (that's what the girls call it), the one we use for our music as it is connected to the stereo speakers. So I have been enjoying a moment of quiet with our kiwi pal, Keith. Jess and H went to see "Cheaper By the Dozen 2" with some friends from church. Mark was reading to the little girls. He found his REAL Grimm's Fairy Tale book and they have all been enjoying them. Some of them are very gruesome and gory, not Disney versions at all, and they LOVE it. :)

We had a lovely Xmas day, in spite of Em's hurling and Kat's other stomach ailment. Mark took the other 3 to services, we had brunch then opened presents. I tried so hard this year to make everything come out sort of even and was worried that I shortchanged Abby, but I did ok afterall. Mark got the new bikes out for Kat and Abby after church and Abby's face lit up, and she smiled all through the meal and afterwards. Em LOVED the Dora Dollhouse that she talked about all month. I thought it might be a one day toy, but they all were playing with it. Silly girl, opened all her presents first, like the furniture for the dollhouse, then the big one. She was so TICKLED and giggled like it was a big surprise after getting 5 packages of accessories. So funny. I went back and forth whether or not to give Kat the baby doll that I got for each of the younger 3---she is such a little athlete and acts like a jr teen agree sometimes, but she is 10 and I LOVE dolls at Xmas so I gave her hers. Wouldn't you know, she carried it around all day and slept with it, like a little bitty girl. Made my day to see her still be "little enough to love a babydoll". They are adorable dolls and the little 3 all loved them. So sometimes Mrs. Santa still knows how to score. :) We watched the new Willy Wonka movie---love that Johnny Depp as WW. Then later we stayed up late and watched Star Wars 3. Not nearly as happy as Willy Wonka, but Jess and H hadn't seen it, and they were glad to put it all together. Sort of.

We planned to head to SE MO to see the Stinnett clan today. We had feared that Mark's software problems would keep us here, or the girls' stomach virus, but we didn't see the wrinkle that our 200,000+ mile van might bring. Yesterday on the way to church, M said it really didn't want to shift at 50 mph. We are transmission experts since we have put about 5 or so in cars of our lives. Of course, nothing was open to check it today, nor were there any vans to rent or even all the rental places open, so here we are. Who knows what tomorrow holds, but today our laundry was done and we were ready, even if the van wasn't.

In spite of our change in plans, we had a nice day. It was sunny and about 55 degrees. Kat and Abby both got to ride and ride and ride their new bikes. Kat tried out her new skates, so Ab and Em skated too. Then they got out the old scooters. Nice!! They opened the new Polly Pocket girls and introduced them to all the other PollyWorld friends, all over Abby's formerly clean room. If we would have left today, it would still be clean for company. sigh......The girls got some bead craft deal that you design and then iron, so everyone got to play that today, even Dad. I think all I did was the ironing, how did that happen??

We about finished the leftovers tonight, so if we don't leave, I'll have to cook again. Life is exciting here in StinnWorld. Stay tuned.

The wildness continues

I find that I might be too old to blog, as yesterday, or was it? Yes, it was, I was going to update and I couldn't remember my password and didn't have the energy to "jump thru the hoops" to find it. So today was better luck.

The house is temporarily quiet. The big girls went shopping. I hope Jess doesn't have trouble in all the holiday traffic. The younger girls are all outside. It's a gorgeous day, almost 60 degrees. I was out early with Abby to finish her 2 items. Then went to the grocery store. I don't think I've ever seen it so crowded, except on the "flu shot" day, but then the old people don't all stand in the baking aisle. ARGH! It was nuts. And I forgot nuts and oil. But Jess is brave enough to tackle Wal-Mart, a college learning experience. So she will help me out. She made me go there this week, and broke my record of NOT going there between Thanksgiving and Xmas. Our store is very hard to get to and get in and out. So I send the young, inexperienced driver. Works for me!

Today I'm happy to report that we are vomit-free. Katherine woke up feeling better. She was the 4th to get Abby's Birthday Bug. Abby started throwing up on the night before her birthday, and shared with H and Em then Kat. Mark, Jess and I are planning on being immune. I got enough of my stuff done that I could give directions from the bathroom or bed, if necessary, just hope NOT!!!

We decided to have our Xmas dinner tomorrow for lunch. Jess workds 4-7 tomorrow night and Sunday will be BUSY with church and Santa, so no time to cook and clean up. So I'm off to finish the cookies for the neighbors, dip a few more pretzels and start the wrapping. I drive myself crazy when I leave ALL the wrapping to the end, but it's such a mess to get it all out a bunch of times. Will work on that tonight.

We'll head to SE MO next week. Mark's big problem at work will have to wait until the break is over. He was glad to hear his software rep say "take it easy, we can't help." M is growing a GREY goatee, we'll see who breaks down first, me with a real haircut, (I haven't had a real one since July) or Mark to shave. The contest will continue in 06, to be sure.

Time to move on and finish getting some clean sheets around. Lots of bedding to do this week. Jess had 2 guys drop in earlier this week. They were in the St Loius area and thought she was in the Cape area, so they drove 2 hours farther than they planned, They aren't Geography majors. :) They were very nice, and prob are sharing Abby's Birhtday Bug with their families. We like to share!!! All for now.

Muffin recipe

Here is the new greatest recipe that we are LOVING. (Amie, you might already know this one b/c I got it from Joy via Sherry).

Pumpkin Muffins

1 box Spice cake mix
1 can pumpkin (approx. 16oz)
1/4 can water (pumpkin can)

Mix together and bake in muffin tins or small loaf pans, appropriately greased. Bake @ 350 for about 18 min for big muffins and 15 for small. I made 5 dozen small muffins out of one batch.

You can also use a yellow cake mix, or chocolate. I haven't tried the choc. yet, but I heard that they don't taste pumpkiny, just moist. Will add choc chips when I make them. Mark wants raisins in the next batch of pumpkin.

This a Weight Watchers recipe and a big muffin is only 2 points, not much, and the pumpkin is so full of fiber that you think you've had a really big treat. They are so tasty and so EASY!!! Kudos to Joy and Sherry! Enjoy.

Woo Hoo!

Can't believe it! Danni won!!! We were so surprised and so excited!!! The first time someone that we liked a lot had won and to be from KC, even KCK, is GREAT!!! With all the important things going on in the world, how crazy to be excited about Survivor. Whaddya gonna do? So fun!! Of course Danni was prob bummed before the show that the Chiefs lost to Dallas by a field goal (that was MISSED). Maybe that $1,000,000 check made her feel better. :) Hooray!! If the local media digs up some dirt on her now, I DON'T want to know. :)

Lots to do, Out for now.

K

Survivor Weekend

Talk about Survivor Weekend. We don't just mean the show either. Altho we are BIG fans of the show and are TOTALLY rooting for our KC gal, Danni. We will watch tomorrow night with our fingers crossed, but with fairly low expectations, b/c our fav rarely wins.

On another note, we got 10+ inches of snow on Wed and Thurs. It promptly got COLD, below 0 so we missed 2 days of school. I am wondering how MN moms cope with wet clothes all the time. I think I did 400 loads of laundry in one day, well maybe only 10 but it seemed like more. There must be a trick to it that I don't know. It did make this mom pretty CRANKY. I did play nice mom and let them play in the Xmas stamps and they had fun stamping and stamping. BTW Oxiclean will get out red ink from a 5 yr old's nice shirt if promptly dealt with--argh!! We watched some Xmas tv and they played a ton of games.

I got almost all my Xmas greetings ready to mail with the good help of my main techie, Mark, and a good stamper, Kat. Kat was in from the sledding as Abby ran over her with the sled on Thurs. Abby was going down the hill with her eyes closed--to see how it felt. Kat has been on a heating pad, but did make it to ball practice last night and to her game today.

On the final Survivor note, Hannah, Abby and Emily and I went to the nursing home for the annual Xmas party. This makes 5 years of Xmas at the Alzheimer's Unit. Yikes! Mom was dressed in her Xmas duds and they did a really good job helping everyone get their hair fixed at the salon and a bit of makeup. Mom had lots of smiles for us, and watched Em and smiled. She even tried to sing a few Xmas carols and smiled at my singing. (totally normal reaction. lol) She recognized her fav, White Christmas. I only teared up a couple times, and was glad we went. It's too hard to think about her sitting alone with everyone else having some family there, not that she would know the difference, but I would. I missed Kat's Sat ball game, but will get to see them tomorrow and Mon night. Always another game. :)

Tonight H and Kat and I are going to see The Nutcracker at Ray S High School. Our friends, Haylee and Jillian are dancing. Jilly is Clarissa and we can't wait to see her. :)

The whole month of December is about Surviving. :) My shopping is at about 1/2 way done. Our Xmas travel plans are making us and not them, will have to break the news to M softly. :) Time to stir up some Hamburger Helper, another Survivor food, and wash some heads before we go. Go Danni!!! Hang in there everyone!! Later I will post my new fav recipe that I feel burdened to share!!! So GOOD!!!

SNOW!!

If we believe the weatherman, then tomorrow this time we will have about 7+ inches of snow on the ground. We thought that 8 degrees was too cold for snow, then we remembered our Aunt Pat in MN and they have snow at that temp all the time. Emily and I ran a few errands (Hannah forgot her lunch) and it was fun to be out in the falling snow without bad roads--yet. I really thought it was too cold and too slick for all the senior citizens to be out at the weekly Kohl's sale. I don't mind the oldtimers, it's just they take all the carts and Em has to walk and they don't even have any little ones. That's my whine for today. Where's the cheese to go with that whine? Anyway we got our stuff done. The school isn't letting out early yet, but I'm watching for it. Will begin looking for the boots and ski pants. Know they will want to be out in it asap. If tomorrow is a snow day, maybe we can catch up on some of the Xmas movies that we have been taping or maybe they can help me with the Xmas mailing. Good goals, we'll see how it works. The first big snow is always exciting!!

Tues-12/06/05

Just a quick note. Emily and I are braving the 12 degree cold to go to the grocery store and Costco. I finally got our Xmas picture figured out so I'll head to the Costco for their help. The website wouldn't let me download it last night. So I'll have to talk to a real person. We need milk and gasoline, so I had to go anyway.

Katherine is FULL SWING in her basketball season. Her coach is also the girls varsity bb coach at the local Catholic school and is an excellent trainer. They play in the 4th grade league in town and various tournaments around the metro. ($25 please, oh, yeah, $5 to get in) Last night we played in a Catholic 5th grade tourney in Blue Springs. We played a good close game. After losing by 20 over the weekend to 5th graders, then beating 4th graders by 30, you never know what to expect. We didn't expect to win by 2 in the last 10 seconds. Very FUN!!!Thankfully Kat was on the bench and I didn't have to worry about her play, just enjoy the fun. My Jayette training paid off, I cheered and clapped and cheered and clapped. :) Kat got a couple steals and a couple rebounds and a couple fouls. She took a couple shots but the coach told her to pass the ball off. Guess she can only shoot when we are up by 10 or more. :)

Got to talk to Jess yesterday. She is doing well with the studying, other drama. No wonder everyone pairs off so quickly at HU, it's impossible for girls to get along together. Boys are easier to wrangle than nutsy girls. She is learning and growing. It's all good. :)

Time to check out the laundry before Em and I head out. It's library day and our hour at the elementary school too. Busy, busy.

After the bird

Looks like I'm a weekly blogger now. I thought about updating during the week, but I don't think the MOM gets as much computer time as everyone else. Mark and the girls wore out the Oregon Trail (a computer game where you travel out west, making choice about supplies, conditions etc) all weekend. They traveled the trails many times in many conditions. Mark of course tries to score as many points as possible in the quickest time. Hannah just tries to get to Oregon alive. Abby ususally dies of starvation or drowns. She likes to hunt and uses a lot of bullets while her people starve. Kat does pretty well, but she doesn't trade or hunt, but moves on the trail. So funny. Jess of course spends a lot of computer time on Facebook, a social database with links to her friends from HU, Truman High School, Jeff City High School, etc. They can look at each other picture albums and leave messages. She can spends hours dinking around on it. It was really fun to see her new friends.

Jess was totally ready to get back to her college life yesterday. I was not ready for her to go. Just as it should be. I wouldn't want her to be sad about going back. She wouldn't want me to be HAPPY that she was leaving either. She worked 5 shifts, serving supper at the retirement center--good job. That will help her checkbook ALOT. Hopefully she can pick up some at Xmas time too. She is anticipating a visit from a new friend over the holiday. Mark is NOT taking this well at all. LOL. We always laughed that "the boys will come soon enough", but he's not laughing now. :)

We put up the tree this weekend. My husband is the most persistent, patient man I know. He sat for about 5 hours on Sat trying out bulbs, trying to get the lights working. We must have a "Lights Leprechaun" this year as 1/2 of each string was out. ARGH!!! Jess put on her ornaments before she left. The girls did theirs last night. I finished after they went to bed. It helps a Mom's energy level to do the lights one day and the rest of the tree the next. It also helps to send the kids to bed so I don't have to walk around 4 pair of legs and keep them from "helping" too much. Now to put each of the main rooms together. They all look like bombs went off after having everyone home for 5 days. Everytime I cleared off a space, someone would come along with a card game (Dora Uno--anyone), or a board game (Guess Who?) or a million Polly Pocket people, their outfits and friends. Hooray for back to school so I can reclaim the living room!! :)

Time to move on to laundry and stuff. Cold and gray here today. Tornadoes around KC last night. I heard they were in AR too last night. I'm assuming that my college girl got back in one piece, b/c the Highway Patrol didn't call. Argh! She'll call again, I'm sure of it. :) TTFN!

Early bird me?

What a concept!! Who knew that getting up so early would allow one to get a bunch of stuff done before 8 am??? Now that I'm' 1/2 way to 90, I'm amazed at my new learning curve. This am at 5:45 I had to take Jess to meet Debbie from Hickman Mills Church to do her job shadowing assignment. We had it worked out to do it yesterday between church services but I messed up and didn't get it okayed by the supervisor---like it was MY assignment????? Anyway, Jess hasn't ever driven all the way across the Metro alone, much less in the dark and the rush hour traffic, so I took her and Em and I will go back and get her later. Gas is cheaper now, it's all good.

We have enjoyed having Jess around this weekend. She has lots of stories to tell, so much more fun to hear her tell them in person rather than on the phone. Mark needs a visual directory to keep up with all the names. He has almost mastered the 5 main girls--the suitemates, roommate and best pals. But he is NOT interested in figuring out which guy names are important---lol. There is one name that comes up more than others, but they (Jess and Kyle) are "just talking". It takes a glossary just to keep up with all the "relationship terms." LOL. We are super pleased with Jess' level thinking and attitudes about the "guy thing". She has had many opportunities to "hook up" with one guy and she has been learning and thinking about who she is, where she's going and how a guy could mess up her plans, or complement them. I know it's only Thanksgiving of her freshmen year, she has plenty of time to regress and drive us nuts, but we're pleased so far.

I took Jess and Hannah with me on Sat to Jeff City so show Ami's Glass Pendants. Our dear friend, Judy, had a lovely spread of sandwiches and snacks. There were many of my old faithful Dix Rd ladies. So we collected a ton of hugs and sold a good number of pendants. We got to see baby Cole, who was lucky enough to be born to our sweet neighbor kids. So fun to see him, his brothers and wonderful parents, Matt and Gina. Of course we wanted to go down the hill and be "home" again in our old homestead. I was plenty tired driving home in the dark, had to resort to peanut M & M's and diet Coke.

Note to self: Make sure the family laundry is caught up BEFORE the college kid arrives!! ARGH!! Good thing my master's degree in laundry (ML) provides me the ability to get the situation under control. This will be discussed in my parenting book under the chapter, "Parenting and the College Student". It's different than the chapter on "Preschoolers" and "Grade schoolers", "Middle Schoolers" etc....When I go on the circuit with my book, let me know if you want tickets to Oprah. Surely they let the guest bring as many with her as necessary. Wish it was today, as it's Oprah's Favorite Things.....all the good stuff that no one else can afford given to the screaming audience. TV at it's best!!

Time to move on catching those worms, being an early bird. We'll be home all week, so I may update in a timely fashion. That may please the Blog Police, who shall go unnamed, Amie and Tawn. LOLOL. My other faithful reader, dkd, is having hand surgery this am, so my prayers and best wishes go out to him and his nursing staff on a speedy recovery!

November rants and raves

Here I am--back again in Blogworld. Don't know if I have any faithful readers left out there, but here's the news for the inquiring minds. Today it finally looks like November!! It's gray and rainy and I'm lovin it! Last week we had both the heater and the ac on, on the same day!! Crazy!!

My sister, Pat, was here all last week. We accomplished a lot or retail therapy. We went the the nursing home first. They were wanting to move Mom to a more skilled care unit, so we got to clean out her closet and drawers. There is always weird stuff around, left by the wandering Alzheimer's patients. Usually she had tons of silverware left by Alice, who leaves it in drawers of those she likes. Then we got rid of all of Mom's old clothes that she has outgrown. Then we had to buy all new ones--hooray for Kohl's. It would have been so depressing to do all that alone, so thanks, Pat, for helping out!!

We shopped the other days for Pat. Emily was a trooper, but she is not interested in shopping again with anyone for anything! It was fun to have someone around to talk to and make laugh. BTW the new Choxie truffles at Target are YUMMY X a million!!!

So I'm back to a quiet house with Miss Em. We are all ready for Jess to get home on Friday!! Jess and I plan to go to Jeff City on Sat to show the pendants. That should be a FUN time!! Then it will be time to get together some turkey and stuff. It's fun to get to cook this year!

I am loving my new bifocal contacts. I can see without my little 1/2 glasses--amazing! There was practically 0 adjustment time!! This modern technology is good stuff for us "old timers."

Time to read to Em and the laundry beckons. All for now. KK

Halloween news

Here I am again. I blogged a super fascinating account of our festive Halloween activities, but I lost it all trying to put a picture on here. So I'll try to be clever and interesting again, but it's a 1/2 hour later and I've been a bit busy today, yesterday and Sat. So here goes.

We had a lovely evening out tonight. The weather was crisp, but not cold. The rain ended at noon as predicted, couldn't have been nicer. Kat, Abby and Em were enthusiastic trick or treaters. Kat got a big kick out of the grown-ups who enjoyed her costume. She was dressed as "Miss Diagnosed", a beauty queen who shouldn't have been given the crown. She had 1/2 her hair in a fancy updo and 1/2 in curlers, lots of makeup, pink crown, velvet dress, converse tennies and yellowed pirate teeth with her arm in a sling. The kids we saw didn't "get" Kat's costume, but all the adults we saw did and Kat enjoyed that so much, cracked me up.

Em was a princess--again. Hope the girls don't tell her that you can be something different. She looked totally adorable and heard every word who told her how pretty she was. :) Abby was a cheerleader and didn't know any cheers and got tired of her pompons quickly. Luckily I know lots of cheers and helped her out.

We did get properly scared as one should on Halloween. There a guy on our back street that wears stilts and has a monster outfit on. Em didn't want to go by him, but I walked her by safely, but he followed us a little way, until I scared him away. Then I teased him with my flashlight from across the street, that freaked Em out when he started to chase us. Then we went into a homemade garage haunted house with jumping monster guys. She wanted to go in, then I couldn't get her out b/c she was frozen and screaming. Then I had to go in with all the "chicken kids" and screamed with them. Don't know how those teenage boys managed to scare everyone after I left with all my added "fear factor" screaming. LOL Luckily for Em we were almost home. We just had to get our Capri Sun from our neighbor and we were home. Em wouldn't even go in the van to the girls' first grade teacher whom she loves. They were all tired and asleep by the time I got up to kiss them after being in bed 5 min.

It was a busy holiday weekend. H marched in the Halloween parade around the square. We did trick or treating before the parade. So cool to be a drummer, you get to play the whole parade. She LOVED it!! The costume for H had it's own drama---argh!! We went to the Enchanted Forest on Sat night with our neighbors and some extra kids. It was a lovely night to walk the nature trails and see some skits by costumed nursery characters. The girls really enjoyed it. We got to go on a hayride around the lake, so nice. It was worth the hour wait, which was a long time for us. On Sunday we had a Halloween parade thru our subdivision with snack and a costume contest at the end. Ab and Em both won their categories, but didn't get the prizes. Who judges these things? How could anyone be cuter than Abby or prettier than Princess Em? Oh, well, they all got candy so that works. :)

We had parties at school today. I helped in Abby's class. The 2nd graders don't know that parties are wild times so they were very calm and nice. I checked on Kat's party. She was playing a game and the mom in charge was on her cell phone with a class full of 4th graders just sitting there. Yay!! If you complain about these things, they put you in charge. So I quietly walked away, Kat said it was all ok and I believed her. lol

Had a nice visit with Jess this evening. She got to hook up with the JC kids at Homecoming. I was glad to hear about that. She continues to do well, is wise beyond her years and learning so much about herself, others, her faith etc..... what a cool kid!!

So there you have it. I won't try to post a picture here, but may try tomorrow. Fire me an email if you didn't get one there and I'll send you one, if this doesn't work. Joy K got pix on, maybe I can too. All for now. This tired holiday mom is headed to bed.

Apple Dumplings

Apple Dumplings

2 Granny Smith apples
2 cans cresent rolls
2 sticks butter
3/4 c white sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
12 oz. Mountain Dew (or Sprite)

Peel and slice apples into eighths. Wrap each roll around apple slice. Place in greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle sugar mixture over rolls, then pour butter over the top. Pour Mt. Dew over the top. Sprinkle tops with cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min or until golden brown.

Serve warm with ice cream. (Better yet, go to Cold Stone and get some cinnamon ice cream.) Serve with caution, these are so good you will want to eat too many!!

Kristin Stinnett

More ado about nothing

Hope the Seinfeld people don't try to sue me for claiming that this site is about "nothing" like they used to say their show was about. If any of my fellow bloggers know how to make this print bigger when posting, please comment, b/c I can hardly see my typing errors.

Not much time for interesting antedotes today. I'm on my way to take Abby to an endodontist in Lees' Summit. Her bottom 2 PERMANENT teeth got broken off in softball practice last spring. Our dentist wants her checked out to see if she needs not one, but 2 ROOT CANALS!! Bless her heart and ours. I am now wishing that I had filed an accident report with the league just in case this turned out to be the treatment. One of the moms told me they have insurance just for these things and since it was the coach who accidentally hit her, hmmm seems like a good idea now. Too late, but a good idea. So that is the big event of today.

We weathered the weekend of Em's b-day. She is a "whole hand" now, she says with her right hand. Her left hand is for "making the ten". We loved our visit from our college pals! So fun to enjoy your friends from 25 years ago and still think they are wonderful only better!! We got rained out of the Enchanted Forest, but may go this Fri. We hosted our fellowship group here on Sun pm for chili. A lovely time! I made the Apple Turnover's that Mark's mom makes. They are too good and too dangerous to have around. That is why I polished the rest of them off, one at a time. I'll post the recipe if anyone is brave enough to make them. So good.

All for now. No comments on baseball this week. I went to sleep on the game and was happy that I missed it. Sorry, Pattie B. Hang in there, Stros.

10/22/2000

Five years ago right now I was on my way to Boone Hospital to have Emily. I won't relive every gruesome moment, but a short summary. We got there on Sat nite about 10 pm and she waited unti 11 am to meet us. Then she waited until 1:30 pm to go to the NICU. We didn't bring her home until she was a week old. Mark was working here in Indep and I was in JC waiting on the house to sell, then add a newborn in the NICU! Crazy! Seems like it was forever ago and a minute all at once.

Anyway we have started a grand weekend of celebrating. The school girls were home today so we went to Build-A-Bear. Em has never gotten to be the lucky one that brings home the box of Bear paraphaliea. She has always been "the watcher". So she was thrilled to get to have the whole B-A-B experience. She and Abby (and Kat, too) played all the rest of today with their bears, trading clothes and taking turns in the stroller. :) So sweet.

Tomorow she wants to go to Big Biscuit, a mom and pop restaurant that she has been to w/Jess and me. The biscuits are as big as the plates. Not sure if that will happen, since she always orders the pancakes and her mom makes the world's greatest buttermilk pancakes, just like her gramma used to make. Special times make me miss mom and dad---we took them to the nursing home 4 years ago tomorrow, on Em's 1st b-day. Bless all our hearts.

Another highlight of tomorrow will also be the visit from my old college friends, Steve and Sandee (Wood) Holloway. They live in St Louis and are on their way home from vacationing in Colorado with their 4 kids. They have stopped by the last 2 years. So fun to share old HU stories. :) We will have a Cardinals Pity Party, to be sure.

I'm hoping that it will be a nice night so we can go the Enchanted Forest to see Halloween critters, hear spooky stories, have a hay ride etc. We'll see. I try to live each day to the fullest.

We are hosting our fellowhip group here on Sun nite. May as well, while the house is clean. Lol. Just chili and stuff. Will be a nice time.

So I'll try to learn how to post some pictures on Monday. I took some at the Mall, so sweet. Happy Birthday to our Sweet Em!!

Woe, Woe, Woe

We enjoyed the ride while it lasted. Kudos to the Astros!! Hope you guys enjoy your trip to the Windy City and home again. About a year ago we were excited about going to Boston. The ghosts of Shoeless Joe and his boys can't be any scarier than the curse of the Bambino. At least the White Sox have a new field, so the ghosts will have transferred to new homes. Maybe some Cubs fans will camp out and root for the Astros. That will doom them for sure, catching fair balls, talk about GOATS!!!

Enough rambling, we watched what was on after church. Sad ending to a GREAT season. But hey, like I previously blogged, we're used to high hopes and dashed dreams. There's more where that came from, Mizzou could still win the Big 12 N division. Chiefs may or may not make the play-offs. Then there's a winter full of Mizzou basketball and all the pondering over Quin and his bad boys vs KU and their drama---one might wonder why we even care or continue to tune in. Don't have a good answer for that, but it sure is fun when the team pulls (or PUJOLS) it together. I crack myself up!!! So have fun, Pattie and all the good Stros fans. The banter was fun! Enjoy the good times. One team will be really sad 7 or so games from now. :)

Oh, the 3 B's---Biggio, Bagwell, and Bell. I heard it tonight.

If anyone has seen my college kid, check her pulse. I think she's AWOL and I miss her.

RED BIRDS ROCK!!!!!!!!!!

As you might guess, I feel the urge to blog some sporting excitement!! What other blog can take you from Alice to baseball and more? First I must preface my comments with a short background on the mindset of many MO sports fans. We have been conditioned to get our hopes up (prob by listening to the media hype--which is usually WRONG) about whatever ball team that is in the current season. So we get all hopeful for a great season, then we hope for a good season, then hope that things will turn around and our team will do better, then we hope that we won't be too embarrassed to drive with MO plates, then we hope for a better season NEXT YEAR.

So in short we keep HOPING!!! We still tune in and watch. We stay up late, hoping that our team could possibly pull out something miraculous. We have seen great plays before, and we continue to hope for another. Last night was a great example of this. Mark and I watched the first of the Card/Astros game. Cards led 2-1 for a long time. It was safe to turn back and forth from CSI:Miami (where was Horatio? He's the best part of the show.) Then there was the Astros 7th inning homer. Our Cards looked doomed, but we still had hope or resignation. Then the 9th inning was too much!! To be down to the last strike on Eckstein and he gets a hit--WOW!!! Then to walk Edmonds--ok with us! Then our own Independence Pujols (technically I think he's from way South of Independence--lol) becomes the hero with a 3 run homer!!!! The astros pitcher Lidge is such an amazing closer---makes it even better. We were beside ourselves!!!

Of course we KNOW that there are 2 more games and the Astros still have only 1 to win, and we have 2, but still---back in Busch Stadium!! The last 2 games in Busch leading to World Series play---sounds like a movie script. Where is Robert Redford? Guess that one has been done. :)

So as faithful MO sports fans, we know in the back of our minds that one of the teams that was happy last night (both teams were celebrating--only one was in the 8th inning and one was in the 9th) will be sad again. And one of the 2 teams that are happy to be in the Series will be crying in the end. There are faithful fans all over the country who ALWAYS expect their team to win (like Yankee fans---blech). The local Cards fans here don't EXPECT World Series Champion t-shirts yet, but we are loving the dream today.

Here is the other side of the dream. The Cards make it to the Series. They play the White Sox who haven't won since 1917. I saw a stat last night at the odds of two teams winning back to back series in 1917 and 1918 (White Sox and Red Sox) and not winning again until 2004 (like Boston did) and 2005--1 in 18 million. Since the Cards got swept last year by the underdogs, then wouldn't it be typical MO sports for the Cards to be the goat again? Argh! Hopefully that is just the idea on an unknown pessimist armchair sports critic who will quit thinking and go back her real job--laundry!! lol

In closing, GO CARDS!!!!!!! We just got new Chiefs t-shirts this fall. Thanks to Uncle Davy the girls have appropriate Red Friday attire. If our Cards make some more magic in SL we will be having some other RED tshirt to wear in this ROYAL blue town. If Pujols isn't the big news, the local paper doesn't mention the Cards during the reg season. ARGH!!


Yes, it is a sign of a boring life to be this excited about one homerun. But we'll take it today. Tune in to the rest of the week. If the KC Star hasn't signed me for their new SportsMom columnist. I think I'll keep my day job. Oh, yeah I just heard the washer calling. LATER!! GO BIRDS!!! K