No Syrup Necessary

This morning we felt like doing something fun. Something a little different. So we made pancakes, but not your all around normal pancakes. We made Cinnamon Roll Pancakes!  Oh ya baby!! They were DE LeeSee Oso!! Yum-O!! Hayden took some into Jeff and asked him if he needed syrup. Jeffrey took one bite and said, "No, bud. No syrup necessary."

Fun!!

Only Two Quarts

This is me getting the grapes ready to juice. That smile was fake ;) hee hee

It always takes longer to steam them then we remember, but we got it done. We were very late, but we did it! The thing is, we only got two quarts of white grape juice. Only two quarts!! Pitiful!! Seriously that is pitiful!! Kami put up 77 quarts this year!! No joke!  Way to go Kami I am super impressed!!  For us this year - we got two.  LoL :)

The truth is we wasted so many grapes this year because we waited too long to do it. We also really really need to figure out how to keep them for ourselves and stop giving them away to the birds. Seriously!!

Who Thought I’d Still Be Dressing Up For Halloween?

I love it though. Halloween has become one of my favorite holidays. I love dressing up and always have. It’s been fun that the places I’ve worked have always liked us dressing up too. They in fact have encouraged it. It makes the day fun - I love the way it makes me forget reality and just be silly all day long.

You know that Kathleen works with me at the city right? I don’t see her as much as I’d like, but it’s fun to see her from time to time.

Just to note, this is my dad’s sailor shirt and hat - was fun to have his memory with me all day long. It’s cool to think this is his.

Clothing Picture Again

Hmmm not so sure about this outfit either. Maybe I need bigger boobs for this sweater. Or maybe I just need to get rid of that double chin I got goin’ on. Or maybe I just seriously need a fashion designer.

Hee-hee

Clothing Today

Looking at starting a 30 day photo challenge today.  The first one on the list is to take a picture of the outfit you wear. So I promptly took a picture of the outfit I wore today.

Okay, can I just tell you how surprised I was to see how much I didn’t like it. I thought, are you kidding me? that's how I look?  LOL  I thought my clothes looked better than that!  Goofy Girl your outfit stinks today!!

Now I’m thinking I might take a picture of myself every morning before I head out the door. So I can approve my outfit or change it to make it look better.

Eat Fo Free!

So today Michelle Willis called me at work to tell me the Salsa Leedos sign. She said that it said that if your name was Jeff or Cindy come in and eat for free.  I laughed right out loud and asked her if she was serious.  She said really it was true. I texted Jeff and told him we were going to lunch for free today at Salsa Leedo’s. He thought there had to be a catch, I told him that we were going to find out what that catch was.

We walked in and they asked if there were just the two of us. We said yes and you're not going to believe this but I'm Cindy and this is Jeff. He said, "Shut-up No way! Are you kidding me?" Not kidding, it's true.

On the way back to our table he says to another guy there, hey this is Cindy and Jeff. That guy was like, "Get outta here!! That's awesome!!"

So when our waiter came back he had to see our I.D.'s and then told us that they way they did it is anything $9 and under is free. So there's the BIG Catch!!  Jeff's lunch was just under $9 and mine was just under $8 so we got our meals "Fo Free!!"

You don't get to do that every day! There isn't much that you can get for free anymore. I think that is pretty  awesome!!  Thanks Michelle and thanks Salsa Leedos!!  You made our day :D

New Schedule, New Routine

Herriman City decided to give us a “more flexible work schedule” which allows us to have every other Friday off. Yay ~ I likee!! Thought it was definitely worth giving it a try. With that, however, comes extended work hours. Our hours at work now are 7:30a - 5:30p. So each of us will work 9 hours for 9 days. Nine 9's. AND we  have every other Friday OFF. Oh ya, we get a long weekend EVERY OTHER weekend!!

Today was my first trial run. This morning didn't run as smoothly as planned. Most days the boys are up around 6:00a they get dressed and have breakfast right off the bat and they are usually done around 6:40 ish. We generally leave the house around 7:05 - 7:10a. I take them to school and come back home to finish up with whatever else Hayden needs and finish getting ready myself.

I thought I'd just wake up about a half an hour earlier, get myself ready first, then get Hayden out of bed about 10 min. earlier than normal to get him dressed and eating before I left with the boys for school. Then I'd go straight to work. PERFECT!! Right?

Wrong!  The boys were up late, and by the time I was dressed, I came out to check on them and Josh was curled up on the couch with his blanket. Wha? Oh dear, now the rush was on. Zac was already dressed and eating breakfast, Whew!! When I went to get Hayden his alarm had already gone off. (which meant I was running behind with my brilliant plan). No worries I still had 10 minutes before I had to take the boys to school. I could do it. Hayden usually takes a while to wake up all the way. He often wakes up a but ornery. This morning was no exception. He said, "Mom, it was so loud this morning I woke up before my alarm. Then I fell back to sleep and my alarm was SO LOUD it woke me up!! I couldn't help but smile a little bit and give a little laugh. I told him that was good that's exactly what it's supposed to do. That did not make him smile or laugh, not even a tiny bit. It just seemed to make him more ornery. But I just helped him choose an outfit and helped him get dressed. Took him out in the dining room and helped him choose a cereal to eat. By then Josh and Zac were ready and off we went. This was about 7:15. Only 5 minutes late, hopefully I'd still pull it all off. Dropped the boys off without too much sweat and on to work. I got there at 7:27a. Wahoo - had just enough time to unlock the doors and turn on my computer by 7:30a.

I made it through the first day and I must say, I thought that 9 hours would feel so long. But, it wasn't as bad as I thought. There were times during the day that I'd look at the clock and think, Really? it's only 9AM? when it felt like it should be 11:30a or when I got back from lunch I thought oh dear, it feels like it should be 4p and it was only 2p. However, overall, the day still went by pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised.

Hopefully I still feel like that on Friday. :D

I Put Up Pears

Tonight about 8:00p I decided that I’d make a last ditch effort with our pears. So many of them have already gone to waste. I wanted to salvage as many as I could, so I did it. I got everything out and ready. Cleaned the bottles and got the steamer canner ready. Started peeling the pears and put them up. It took me clear 'til 10:30p. I didn’t realize it would take me quite that long, but I’m glad I got it done. I only made one batch too, but still felt pretty awesome and I think they turned out all right.

What do you think?

January 29 - Don't Feed the Alligators!!

Today, our wonderful hostess, Mandy suggested we go to the alligator park. She said something like, "Ya, some of the alligator's come out of the water and bask in the sunshine right on the bank of the river!" She said this with great enthusiasm as if it was WONDERFUL information.  I told her, "That actually sounds a little scary to me.  Are you kidding me - you just walk around in big open park - no gates, no fences?"  She explained that the alligators aren't aggressive and so off we went to Brazos Bend State Park Home of the American Alligator :)

It actually turned out really neat!!  It wasn't scary either.  Well . . . . . except for the time when we saw an alligator that was on the bank CLOSEST to us and Jeff tried to push me on top of it to see if it really was alive.

LOL :) Just Kidding :)

January 17 - New Sleeping Bag

Lookie what Jeffrey ordered me!!  It was fun to get this in the mail today.  Yep, it's a new sleeping bag!! It was on such a good sale. Plus it's a 0º bag - which means it will keep me warmer  Ü Yay for me!!

What a fun surprise for today. Now I am looking forward to a camping trip this summer.

Jan 16 - New Apple Computer

I realized today that I never introduced you to my new computer. So here she is - my new apple computer. I made the switch from PC to Apple and so far, I am not disappointed!!  It's taken some getting used to but there are a lot of things on this computer that a PC just doesn't have.  

For example the mac is always ready for you.  When you open it up, it's ready.  There is no loading up.  It's just always right there when you open it up. I love that!!  I love the features it has and how they work with the internet too.


It is also very well built.  It feels well made. It feels strong and slim.  I really like the color and I love the key board too.


I've always heard - once you switch to an Apple, you'll never go back.  Looks like that's true for me too.  Hope we can switch them all over this year.  It will take some time to pay it off though.  Haven't put something on credit like this for a while, but I've decided it's well worth it :D