Saturday, April 11, 2009

It's Easter Egg time...

The girls and I colored eggs today for Easter and believe it or not, we didn't make too much of a mess! Kaylee took one egg and plunked it into the coloring making a little bit of pink go everywhere! Jennah was real careful with the coloring. Anyway, now we're just waiting for the Easter Bunny to make his secret appearance and leave baskets for the girls! So fun! Happy Easter Everyone!


Artists at work...
Perfectly colored eggs! Minus one that daddy ate!

Friday, April 10, 2009

YAWWNNNN...

For the past two weeks, I've been having dizzy spells. They got to the point where I couldn't sleep because the room would spin (or so my mind thought). I thought it was my blood pressure as I'm on some new medication for it. So, I went to the Dr. yesterday and my BP was fine. He diagnosed me with Vertigo. Great...I'm sea sick, I just need a boat to go with it! What a coincidence, I've got a cruise coming up in 9 days! Needless to say, I'd like to not be dizzy for it. Anyway, the Dr. put me on a medication that makes me sleepy. Not just "oh, I'm a bit tired" kind of sleepy. No, it's rather the "I can sleep more hours than a hibernating bear" kind of sleep. Seriously, I took one tablet (supposed to take one 4 x per day) and struggled to stay awake with the girls today. In fact, when Kaylee took her nap, so did I! When both girls were awake, I either sat with them and did puzzles for a very short time or I was on the couch in horizontal position semi-watching t.v. with my eyes half open or half closed depending on what kind of person you are! On that note.. (yawn)... I'm hitting the sack! Night night!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Who knew?

I have the Easy Accent Decorator from Pampered Chef. I've had it for a while and I love it for making deviled eggs and decorating other desserts. It makes them pretty! Well, the last time I used it, the ring on the bottom that holds the tip broke. Great, now what? Well, here's the bad news and the good news... the bad news is they don't make the replacement part for my decorator anymore because I have "the old style". I refuse to pay $20 for a new decorator when all I need is the ring so I hopped on line and Googled for help! Now the good news... Did you know that you can use the ring from a Playtex Bottle for the ring on the decorator. Yepper, it fits perfectly! (see pic). So, I spent $2.50 for the bottle - which for that price I'll toss as I don't have any use for a bottle - and now I have my decorator back in time to make deviled eggs for Easter! Yea!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

My new shower curtain...

I know what you're thinking... Is The Scoop so lacking news that Karen has to post about her shower curtain? Well, NO. I'm blogging about my shower curtain as there is a story about why I have a new one. It's a long story but I'll try to give you the short version. Debbie (Mike's cousin's wife) has a "vacation" home which was built a long time ago. In this house, she has what Jennah calls "The Barney Bathroom". We all know who Barney is right? He's that purple and green annoying dinosaur that kids love. It's not so much that it's a Barney theme bathroom - in fact, not at all. She just has this seriously purple toilet! She obviously has had quite a time finding things that match her bathroom. Well, it turns out, she fell in love with my shower curtain because it has some of the purple that matches her toilet in it! I on the other hand fell in love with her bath mat! It's thick with no rubber on the bottom and can be washed in the washing machine. She kept telling me she'd give me her bath mat if I'd give her my shower curtain. I really liked my shower curtain and found it hard to part with it but, after a long search, I found one I can live with instead. Honestly, I liked my old one so much that I told her if it didn't work out, I'd like it back! How silly is that! It all sounds complicated huh? Not really, we're basically trading my shower curtain for her bath mat! Anyhow, I told her I'd take a pic of my new shower curtain so she could see it... so here it is! And yes, it still has a hint of purple so I didn't have to change out my towels or washcloths.

Easy to peel boiled eggs...

This is going to sound silly but I have a simple way to make "easy to peel" boiled eggs. I used to hate to make boiled eggs because they were a pain to peel but here is something I found a while back and I have done my eggs this way ever since...

Take eggs out of the refrigerator about an hour or so before boiling. You don't want them to be real cold. Room temp is best.

Bring a pot of water to a hard boil. Remember to leave room for the eggs!

Here's the tricky part....

Carefully, put an egg on a spoon. One with a big enough handle so you won't get burned! SLOWLY and GENTLY, lower the egg into the boiling water without just dropping it in. I lower all mine right to the bottom so they don't "bounce" off the bottom of the pot. Do this for the remaining eggs. Every now and then, one will crack but it's ok, you can still use it. I know, it's time consuming but well worth it.

Boil the eggs for 15 minutes (for hard boiled eggs).

When the time is up, drain the boiling water and quickly douse the eggs while still in the pot with ice cold water to cool them quickly. I sometimes will add ice to the pot as well. You can keep changing the water to keep it cold. When the eggs are cool, drain the ice water, put a lid on the pot with the eggs still in it and shake it up. The peels should come right off.

Try it, I've done it this way for a long time and have never had to fight to get an egg shell off a boiled egg since!

A chilly day...

Yesterday, it was pretty chilly out. I think the high temp for the day was only 58. I took Kaylee to therapy and then came home but once again, it was too windy to go play outside. I went out with some friends from high school last night. We had dinner at a Greek restaurant and then just sat around chit chatting about our kids, work, and such. I love my high school friends. We all have the same sense of humor so our conversations are always pretty fun. We can always make each other laugh to the point of tears coming out of our eyes. All in all, a great evening that we all need more of!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Spring break...

It's officially day one of Spring break and I'm already going nuts! It was really windy today so we didn't get to go outside much. I did take the girls out to have ice cream with a friend of mine who was visiting from Arkansas. We also decided to try out a new Pizza restaurant in town for dinner tonight. Mike and I shared a Stromboli and Jennah had spaghetti with a huge meatball! Of course, all Kaylee ate was bread. We tried to give her a piece of Stromboli but as usual, she wanted nothing to do with it. The food was delicious and we had enough to take home for lunch tomorrow. Anyway, we're picking up the toys now and getting ready to put the girls to bed. I've been keeping them up a bit later so that they'll sleep in for the morning. It hasn't worked yet with Kaylee - she's still up at 7:00ish. Jennah however has fallen into my trap and slept late this morning. She even took a nap this afternoon while "camping" in her sleeping bag on the living room floor! She's so cute... she's sleeping with her mask (as usual) and she has her "dream catcher" around her wrist!