Poor Man's

My husband told me when we were married I had to learn how to make his mother's Poor Man's Casserolle. It was a regular meal in their home, and one of his favorites. It was either that or Tuna Fish Casserolle. Growing up with more than several cats in our house, just looking at Tuna makes me think CAT FOOD! The thought of actually eating the stuff is absolutely disgusting. Not only was I not going to learn how to make it, he is not allowed to make it in the house unless I am out of town. The smell lingers for days.

So I learned to make the Poor Man's, and it soon became a favorite in our house as well. Nobody complains about dinner when Poor Man's is on the table, and there is rarely any left in the pan when we are done.

At special request, I will share this recipie with you today. It is really simple, and even the greenest chef can produce a perfect dish. The ingredients are approximate, and can be adjusted depending on whether you like it more meaty or more soupy.

First, the ingredients:

1lb box of elbow noodles
4-5 10 oz cans of tomato soup
1-2 pounds of ground beef
approx. 16 slices of american cheese

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the noodles as directed on the box. while they are cooking, brown your ground beef. Remove as much grease from the cooked meat as you can. Then add the cans of tomato soup to the cooked meat. Reduce heat to low and allow the soup/meat mixture to simmer, stirring often so it does not burn. When noodles are cooked, strain the water. Then dump the noodles into a 10x14 pan. Pour the soup/meat mixture over the noodles. Stir in the soup until it is al evenly mixed. Level off the top of the casserolle. Then layer the slices of american cheese accross the top. Cover the pan with a larger pan or aluminum foil. (If using foil, be careful so it does not fall onto the cheese. The cheese will stick. using toothpicks can help with this) Let sit for at least 5 minutes or so. Serve with a spatula.

Do You Believe?

My 5 year old daughter Kate lost a tooth last weekend while visiting her cousins in Wisconsin. Knowing that the tooth was very loose and would most likely fall out while she was gone, I made sure her Aunt Cuckoo knew how to handle the situation. Kate was thrilled when she came home from her trip with not one, but TWO golden dollars from the tooth fairy!

A few days later, my oldest son Austin (11) was complaining that a loose tooth was annoying him. He kept wiggling it and insisting it needed to come out soon because it was bothering him. Well today, He woke up for school in the morning and PROUDLY announced to the ENTIRE house that he "knew there was no such thing as the tooth fairy and now I have the proof!" I knew immediately that this was not a good situation and needed to be diffused immediately. He declared that he had pulled out his tooth the evening before and without telling any one he put it under his pillow. When he got up this morning, the tooth was still there and there was NO money! I quickly and loudly explained to Austin that the reason he did not get a visit from the tooth fairy was because he stopped believing in her and this hurt her feelings. After all, how would he feel if no one believed in him?? I insisted he keep his mouth shut while he thought about this. A little later, I approached him in his bedroom and made sure he clearly understood that if their were any such announcements about the Easter Bunny, he could be certain that their would be no Easter Basket waiting for him Easter morning. I told him he had better stop and think about how he will feel Easter morning if everyone else has a basket and he doesn't. He admitted that he would be sad and his feelings would be hurt if he did not get a basket too. So I reminded him that he does NOT want to hurt the Easter Bunny's feelings by announcing that he does not exist either. We'll see how well this holds up over the next few weeks.

Too bad for Ausin. He still has several more baby teeth in his mouth and the way I figure it, he could have kept collecting until his two year old sister was at least his age.

Poetry Wednesday

Shannon has recently been given an assignment to do research and write a paragraph on a famous/important person. Coincidentally, the person she was assigned is one of my favorite poets, Shel Silverstein. As I thought about this, my thoughts trailed back to my childhood and how much I enjoyed reading children's poetry. I've decided to revisit this, and bring you along.

From now on every Wednesday will be Poetry Wednesday and will feature one of my favorite poems from when I was young. Many of them I still enjoy now.

The first poem I would like to share with you is the first poem I ever memorized and one of my all time favorites. I'm not sure what drew me to this poem. Perhaps it was just the free, careless feeling you get while reading it. I think I also loved the picture that accompanied it in the book I used to have. I don't know where the book is at the moment, but I can still imagine it. It was a picture of a young girl, all dressed up in a white frilly dress with a pick sash. She is sitting on an old fashioned rope swing tied to a tree in the countryside.

Anyway, here is your poem.

The Swing
How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantist thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside-

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown-
Up in th air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

-Robert Louis Stevenson

There's always a third option..

My husband was sleeping in this morning because he did not feel well. Perhaps he caught my cold?? Anyway, I needed to go to the store to do the grocery shopping for the week. Emily was in need of a nap, but rather than fight with a two year old I decided to give her an option.

"Do you want to go shopping with Mommy, or take a nap with Daddy?"

Knowing that she loves to go shopping and she hates napping with daddy I thought I knew what her answer would be.

I was wrong she replied quite simply, "I play Play-doh!"

I guess their is always a third option with a two year old.


p.s. Yes, I managed to skip the play-doh and convince her to go shopping. She took a nap later.

I Don't Do Sick

Those of you who know me know that I am usually very healthy. I don't get sick very often. I have a theory for this. It's pretty simple. I don't do sick. It's not something I am very good at. Not that anyone actually enjoys being sick, but some people deal with it better than others. Some people can crawl into bed with their tea and tissue boxes and stay there for days while they nurse themselves back to health. Some people are really good at getting others to wait on them while they are sick. If either of these sound like you, I mean no offense by it. There is nothing wrong with staying in bed for days and having others take care of you. It just doesn't work for me. I don't like to be tied down. I lay in bed and think of all the things I need to be doing. I don't like to depend on others to do things for me. Sure I could tell my husband to go to the grocery store and get something for dinner (and today I just might). I could ask the kids to get the clothes out of the dryer and put them away. I could ask someone to put the clothes from the washing machine into the dryer and start another load. As far as the dirty dishes in the sink, I know those will be waiting for me until I feel better. The rest of the family would rather use paper and plastic than have to do dishes! But the bottom line is, I don't like depending on others to do things for me.

So her I am. It hit me like a train last night while my husband was out at the little league baseball draft. I started sneezing. Then my head started to feel stuffy. Soon after that, my eyes started to get that dry, burning feeling. I can feel that awful nasal drip down the back of my throat. I am so glad I don't have to go to work the next couple nights. And I hope I am feeling better by the time I do have to go back to work. But I am also disappointed that I feel this way when I finally have a few nights off.

I took some cold medicine this morning, and I am starting to feel a little better. Did I mention I HATE the way that stuff makes you feel all druggy? Anyway, I think I will load the dishwasher, transfer the wash and start another load. Then I will crawl into bed and try to pretend I know how to be sick. Hopefully I will feel better by tomorrow, because I don't do sick!

For The Birds

One of the first things we did when we bought our house was to start taking apart the carport. It is unstable and just an eyesore. We removed the plywood on the underside, and that is about as far as we got. We need to put in new supports, and it only makes sense to redo the driveway at the same time.

There are now small openings which appear to be the perfect size for sparrows' nests. Over the past two years we have had several sparrows who have decided to make our carport their home. They seem harmless enough, (except for the occasional dropping on my car) and the kids enjoy listening and watching for the baby birds every spring.

I do have a new concern this winter. We have found at least 4 or 5 dead birds over the past few weeks. I can't help but wonder why they are suddenly dying. I know we have a hawk in the area, and our first thought was maybe he was killing them. But I would think he would take them and eat them if that was the case, not just leave them lying around. I wonder if they are eating something that could be making them sick? And if that is the case, should I be concerned about the dog? Maybe the problem is that they are not able to find enough food with all this snow, or perhaps it has been to cold for them this winter.

If anyone knows anything about birds, particularly sparrows, I would appreciate some answers to what could be happening to them. Eventually, the carport will be torn down, and the sparrows will lose their home. But for now, I am concerned about what could be causing them to die.

Chicago Auto Show

We took the boys to the Chicago Auto Show today. It was very crowded, but they had a lot of fun. One of their favorite displays is the ARMY display.




They are awed by the trucks, tanks and helicopters.

We also saw some motorcycles. I tried to get Jeff to sit on one, but I guess he is camera shy. Austin was more than happy to jump on!

We looked at all the different cars. At the Toyota booth, Austin got the chance to make his own commercial! Uncle Danny will be so proud. Check it out!

Welcome Finley!

Welcome Finley Ames, and congratulations to Patrick and Sarah on the arrival of their new daughter! For those of you who would like to keep up with what is going on in her new world, her parents have put together this site. I've seen the pictures, and she is absolutely beautiful. She may have her dad's musical talents, but I think she look a lot like her mom!

Look Out Hannah Montana!

Last week, Sue and I took the girls to see the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana 3D Movie. We parked 3 blocks away, and had to walk through the snow and slush to get to the theatre. It was cold, but everyone was too excited to care.

I have attended a few concerts in the past, and I have to say in some ways this was better than a live concert. With the 3D effect, you felt like you were right there and every seat was a front row seat! I liked that they showed some behind the scenes. I think it shows the girls that it's not all fun, some of it is actually work!










As you can see, the girls had a very good time!




After the show, the girls showed off some of their best star poses.



We even got to see some of thier best dance moves!

I can't belives that some people paid as much as they did for tickets to the live concert. Our seats were much better, and as you can see, the girls definitely enjoyed themselves. The giggling and singing continued all the way home! It was totally worth the touble of getting down there.

Beware the Sleepwalker!

So I have fallen a little behind in my blogging. What can I say, Life Happens!

To bring you up to date, some of you may already know we got rid of Emily's crib. She started trying to climb out of it at night when she would wake up and throw tantrums. You have to love a two year old. Anyway, I was afraid of her falling out so we decided to get rid of it. Kate had well outgrown the toddler bed she was still sleeping in. Because of a lack of space in their room we decided to skip the toddler bed with Emily and get bunk beds for the younger girls. Another factor in this decision was that one way or the other, we would have to put bunk beds in their bedroom. If I gave the bunks to the older girls, Shannon would most likely want the top bunk. Even though she is the oldest of the girls, I was not at all comfortable with that idea. You see, Shannon is the occasional sleepwalker. Since she was a toddler she would get up during the night dazed and confused. She doesn't seem to know where she is, and usually mumbles nonsense. We quickly learned that the urge to use the toilet seemed to be what would "wake" her. If we sent her back to bed, she would wake up wet in the morning. If we guided her to the toilet, she would go to the bathroom and back to sleep. In the morning she would be dry. Now when she gets up at night, we gently guide her to the bathroom and then send her back to bed.

So now that Emily has a big bed, she likes me to lay with her at bedtime before she goes to sleep. I worked Monday night and did not sleep all day Tuesday because the kids were off school. By Tuesday night, I was beyond exhausted. I laid down with Emily around 9:00pm and fell asleep with her. I woke up at about 1:00 when Shannon got out of bed and was walking towards the bunk bed. I thought she was coming to tell me something. She continued to walk past me and then proceeded to climb the ladder to the top bunk. I leaned over and asked her "Shannon! What are you doing??" To which she responded. " I have to go to the bathroom." I laughed and told her she is going the wrong way, she needs to get down and go the other way to the bathroom.

I have to wonder what would have happened if I was not there in Emily's bed. Would Shannon have laid down and gone to sleep with Kate? Or would she have gone to the bathroom in Kate's bed?!! I guess we'll never know. And I guess putting Kate and Emily in the bunk bed did not take care of my worries with Shannon's sleepwalking.

If you are wondering, I asked Shannon the next day and no she does not remember any of this happening.