Fun Weekend

We've had a fun weekend. I love this weather: sunny, warm, a little breeze - doesn't get much better than this.

B and I got our things together for the garage sale on Friday night. I woke up early on Saturday and pulled everything out for the sale. This year, we sold all the big suff, but not much of the little stuff. We live in the back of the neighborhood, so we don't see the same traffic as some of the front streets, but we made good money. It's exciting to have some cash, but really it's going towards a refrigerator for the new house or maybe a new tv for the living room/kitchen.

busy bee

It's going to be a busy couple of weeks, or maybe months. B and I packed a ton of stuff yesterday; we still have a ton more to pack. I found more things for our garage sale next Saturday. I probably could have gotten rid of more things. I have a lot of fun party and holiday dishes that we don't use very often. We can actually have people over to the new house - it's great for entertaining, so maybe we'll get more use out of those things.

We are also on the hunt for a new daycare or home daycare. It's a hard choice; it's a big decision. The place where Anna goes now won't be convenient at all for B or me. We visited one home daycare where the lady and her husband are super nice, but I worry that they are too old. I have a few more people to call. I also found some places online to check out in the coming weeks or during the summer. I feel stressed about this decision.

As far as the recipes from this post go:
1. I made mini breakfast pastries - they were delicious. PW likes them warm out of the oven, but I prefer them the next day. They taste like cinnamon sugar donuts.
2. I also made the banana nut muffins as minis. They were good. I would make them again.
3. The mini chocolate chip muffins weren't that great. I wouldn't make them again.
4. The punch was yummy. I had to make 1/2 at a time because there was so much liquid involved. I froze it in 4 gallon size Ziploc bags. I took it out to thaw when I left in the am (around 6:30), and by 10:30, I could use my hands to crush it inside the Ziploc bags before putting it in the punch bowl.

We only have 8 days of school with kids - I can hardly believe the year is almost over. It's been a good year, but I'm excited to spend the summer with Anna. We've had a fun 3-day weekend. She's so darn cute.

Recipes to Try Sometime

I was perusing some blogs for recipes, and I found a few I might like to try sometime...

Annie's Eats: Chicken and Spinach Lasagna, Chicken Tortilla Soup, Garlic-Lemon Chicken Kabobs, Grilled Lime Chicken with Black Bean Sauce, Black Bean, Chicken, and Red Pepper Stew.

PW: Cajun Meatloaf and Banana Bread

Ezra Pound Cake: Kentucky Butter Cake, Grilled Spicy Lime Chicken with Black Bean Salsa

I now need to grade the huge stack of papers in my bag that I've been avoiding. Only 13 days left - I'm in shutdown mode.

baking plans

I'm getting excited about my many baking opportunities coming up. I know, I should be packing, cleaning, or putting the laundry away, but that's not fun - planning a party is much better. I'm having a little program for my students and their parents next week. I have PLANS to bake the following things, but I might just end up with the regular boxed version, which is ok too.
These links will help me organize my to-do list as well as help me remember what I'm doing!

1. From PW: French Breakfast Puffs. I made these once before. They were yummy. I think I will make minis this time and dip in butter and cinnamon & sugar rather than coat.

2. From www.allrecipes.com: Banana Crumb Muffins. Allrecipes is a great site with endless recipes. I will probably add chopped pecans since plain banana bread is just not-quite-right.

3. From www.allrecipes.com: Chocolate Chip Muffins. The reviews suggest making it a full cup of milk, adding 1/2 t of vanilla, and 1/2 c sour cream, so I'll do that. Baking time: only 18 min.

4. From www.allrecipes.com: Party Punch IX. The reviews make it sound pretty good. I will definitely cut back to 2 c of sugar. I could probably make this a little ahead of time.

Maybe I'm crazy to think I can do this, but it's fun to think about.

grocery list: sour cream, 3 boxes fruit flavored jello, 2 (46 oz) cans pineapple juice, 1 (16 oz) bottle lemon juice concentrate, 2 bottles ginger ale, gallon Ziploc bags.

Mother's Day Review

These are a few of the pics from our day at the Arboretum. It was a great day - very beautiful.

I had a lovely Mother's Day with Anna and Bryan yesterday. Anna was a little crabby, but I love her anyway. I think her teeth are bothering her (her top 4 teeth are all coming in). I slept in while Bryan fed Anna breakfast, gave her a bath, put her down for a nap, and made me breakfast! He also did the washing of the laundry, but I'm here looking at the baskets that need to be folded :(.

We have been thinking about buying a nice, digital SLR camera. It's one of those things that has been something we've been wanting for a while. The prices continue to go down, so we are seriously considering it. We borrowed one from a co-worker of Bryan this weekend. It takes nice pictures, if it's on the right setting. It would probably take even better pictures if Anna was interested in having her picture taken! The best thing about the camera is its ability to take pictures in rapid succession so I can get Anna in the moment. With the regular digital camera, I usually miss the moment because it takes to long to take the shot. We got great pics at home and at the Arboretum.

can't picture it

So whenever I think of our soon-to-be house, I can't quite picture our things in it. The people that live there now have an appropriate amount of nice furniture. We are more than doubling our space, which means we do not have an appropriate amount of furniture, and only some of that is nice.
We've gone without things...like a bedroom set and a dining room set that we chose - mostly because we have hand-me-downs that are high-quality furniture pieces even though they don't go together. I don't like to spend money on things unless I really love them, which has also seriously limited my purchases. What am I going to do in this house????
I guess we're going to be slim on furniture for a while as I continue to be picky and we build our savings up. Maybe it will be one room at a time? Not the end of the world.

feeling better

Well, today is a better day....we got the house. I still don't think I'll want to move again for a long time. We got a great deal on a really nice house. It's at the top of our price range, but that seems to be how things work out. It's not in our 1st choice neighborhood, but it is in a nice neighborhood. We're now going to be 5 minutes from shopping and grocery instead of 20! I'm going to be a little farther from work. I also am going to have to change Anna's daycare to something close to work - which means I'll have to bring her. I'm already scheming how to not have to get up too much earlier next school year. Changing day cares to either home care or a certain place will also be a money saver. Bryan already made some changes to reduce some of our monthly expenses. When I was subbing, B and I really limited our spending. We're going to be going back to that for a while as we build our savings back up and get used to the bigger house payment. It's worth it to have a house we can grow into. I'll even be able to invite people over even though we won't have furniture to sit on!

this is the last time...

Buying and selling a house is completely stressful and frustrating. The decisions, wanting and not getting, the negotiating, the mind games - ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Is this too much? Is this a good area? Do we want to spend that much? I don't ever want to do this again! I hate this.