Finally lost his first tooth...

After many months of patiently waiting for a loose tooth to appear, about a week ago my 6 year old son mentioned his tooth was loose. He'd shown me several "loose" teeth before that really weren't loose at all. I think he was just trying to keep up with the Kingergarten Joneses, since all of his friends were losing teeth and he didn't have so much as a wiggle. So, I felt the tooth and sure enough, it was loose!

Today we went to a birthday party and halfway through the party he showed me the tooth again and I could tell it was about ready to come out. The mother of the birthday girl served the cake, my son took a bite and then walked back over to me. A push with his tongue and out came the tooth!

Finally!

He's very excited :)

Birthday cake

So, no progress has been made on my craft project. I haven't had any spare time between working my 2 part time jobs, getting the kids back in school and starting my next 2 college classes myself.

Meanwhile my husband turned 33 last week! He asked me for a 'golf themed cake'. This is what he got ...

I wish I'd had more time to spend on it, but it was a crazy busy day and I was running out of time to get it frosted and meet him for dinner in time. He was thrilled with it so that's what counts I suppose. If I'd had more time I would have added a layer of raspberry filling in the middle and spent more time on the frosting. There's always next year :)

College Graduate!

My husband graduated from college with an AA in General Studies. I am very proud of him as he did all of this in is "spare" time while playing Army full time including 2 deployments!

Pancakes!

After my kid's exclamation that these are the "bestest pancakes ever!" I thought I would share the deliciousness with the world. Or whoever is reading my blog ... whichever! The best thing is that you can add fresh fruit or change the flour to wheat flour and still get great results. My personal favorite are blueberry-banana.

So here they are ... Pancakes from scratch.

Yield: Nine 6 inch pancakes

Ingredients

· 2 2 cups flour

· 1 3/4 cups milk

· 2 2 tablespoons baking powder

· 2 2 eggs, beat them separately before adding to mixture

· 1 1/4 cup butter, melted (1/8 of a pound)

· 3 3 tablespoons sugar

· 1 1 teaspoon salt

Directions1. 1

Mix the dry items first.2. 2

Combine the eggs and melted butter to the milk and slowly stir in the flour.3. 3

Let sit at least 10 minutes while heating the pan.4. 4

These will be high, but light and fluffy -- .

Feedback

So, the recipe for the Sweet and Sour Kielbasa was not one I will be keeping or making again. I scrapped the whole bit in the trash, and my husband brought home take out. I don't know what I did wrong, but I do think that Kielbasa is probably not the best item to be in the crockpot since it's already cooked.

Anyway, I got a new Cricut cartridge in the mail! Simply Sweet. I haven't had time to try it out yet. My new project is a "Home is where the Army sends us" plaque with all of our duty stations on it. I got the base part done today (no pictures, yet) and I'm hoping to work on the rest of it sometime this week.

For now I've got to go ......... busy day tomorrow. After almost 7 months without our beloved dog Josie, we are finally picking her up from the airport tomorrow and she'll be joining us in Hawaii! We're very excited.

Crock Pot Sweet and Sour Kielbasa

Crock Pot Sweet and Sour Kielbasa

This crock pot recipe comes from my friend Laura. This is our first time trying it, so I'll let you know how it goes! Today is a busy day for me, so the crock pot will definitely make my life a bit easier.
6 tablespoons butter
2 diced onions
1 cup packed brown sugar
1-¼ cup ketchup
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1½ teaspoons spicy brown mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
1 pound kielbasa sausage, cut into 1 inch piecesMelt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onions until tender. Stir in brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper sauce. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Place sausage in a slow cooker with the sauce and onions. Cook on low for 4 to 5 hours. The longer it simmers the better!

What's for Dinner?

I spent most of my day in the kitchen. I really just love cooking! Tonight we had chicken chimichangas, refried beans made in the crock pot, and Salsa Verde. The meal was good, although if I were making the chimichangas again I would leave out the green onion, or maybe use a sweet white onion instead. I just didn't care for the flavor. Anyway - I thought I would share the recipe for Salsa Verde. This is one of our favorite kinds of salsa ... my husband always asks for it at mexican restuarants. The grocery store I shop at in Hawaii carrys tomatillos so I made my own today. Consider yourself forewarned, this is HOT!!! Too hot for me, my husband said it was the perfect heat for him.

Salsa Verde -

• 1 lb tomatillo
• 3-4 jalepeno
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon chicken bouillion granule
• Directions:

1. To make the salsa, boil the tomatillos (without the papery husk), and jalapenos, until the jalapenos change color (About 10 -15 minutes). Put all the tomatillos, and jalapenos in a blender, add some of the water that was used to boil them. Add the onion coarsely chopped, along with the cilantro, garlic, and bouillon.
2. To prevent minor burns, either use a clean washcloth instead of the top of the blender to cover, or if your blender top has the little attachment you can remove, remove it before you blend the hot ingredients. Blend everything.
3.