Let's get this party started

I haven't blogged in FOREVER, and I thought it was about time to restart. I've kinda revamped my blog in hopes to turn it into more of a decorating blog. I really wasn't into the whole blog world, but recently I started reading other's peoples, and a light bulb went off... I need to do this too. I mainly read ones that have to do with decorating, crafting, or home ideas. I decided to do that with mine. I always have all these ideas swimming in my head, and now I'm going to try them out. Hopefully in time I will have some followers. I don't really know how often I'll post cause I'm a pretty busy gal...4 girls, a hubby, 1 Pekingese, 1 cat, and going to school part time...YAY I'm just a little busy. Somewhere in between I'm going to fit this blog in too!!! So here's to blogging, new friends, and lots and lots of projects...CHEERS!!!!!!!

Yummy Horseshoes!

A few weeks ago my husband and I got a craving for a horseshoe sandwich. Since we don't live in Springfield, Il anymore we can't go to D'arcys pint and eat one, so we decided to make our own. Overall it turned out pretty good except for the cheese. We used a Mexican cheese sauce, but it was way too spicy for me. So, today I got the brilliant idea to search the internet for a recipe, and guess what? I found one. I am super excited and can't wait to try it. I'm hoping to make it this week, cause I am totally craving a horseshoe.

For those of you who have no clue what I am talking about...a horseshoe is a piece of bread with a hamburger patty or other type of meat on top, french fries are then piled on top, and then smothered in cheese sauce. AWWWW they are soooo good. Horseshoes can only be found in Springfield,Il and surrounding towns. So, if anyone ever goes to Springfield try a horseshoe or its smaller version a ponyshoe.

I'll let you all know how my cookin' goes!

Room to Roam

As a mom of four girls I never realized how wonderful having space would be until we got it. We are no longer all on top of each other. Everyone can spread out. Things are much calmer, and there is a place for everything. We moved almost two weeks ago into our dream house. It has everything the two of us has ever wanted. Everyone has their own room, there are 3, yes 3 full bathrooms, and an inground pool. We are in town, but at the same time we aren't. The house is on almost 3 acres, which the kids are loving. Unfortuntly our 12 yr old must have been tuning her dad out(this happens often at this age), and didn't hear him say "watch out for the poison oak". So, she has it on her arms, legs, and neck. So far so good no other cases of a poison oak outbreak have been reported. Julia the almost 8 yr old tells her sister. "I knew there was poisin oak, that's why I didn't wear shorts. I listened to dad". Then a couple of glares and smirks were exchanged between the two. Typical.

We went from about 1200 sq. ft to 3080sq. ft plus a bonus room over the garage. I pinch myself everytime I drive up the driveway. I can't wait to start painting and decorationg. It will take awhile. My goal is to do one room at a time. I'll have to put pictures up as I get rooms done. Right now the family room and dining room are totally empty, but it will stay that why for awhile. I want to get the girls room's done first. I still have to unpack our room. Over the weekend Steve and I used our bathtub. It is a 2 seater jacuzzi tub...OMG that was AWESOME!!! It was like we were in a hotel! Can't wait for this weekend.

We are on a hill, so our views are beautiful. Yesterday I looked out the window and I counted 26 wild turkeys in our yard, some of them had their feathers sticking up. The other night when we were driving up to the house there were three deer in our front yard. It is so cool to see the wildlife. I don't know if you can buy food for the deer or turkys, but I'm going to find out. I want to feed them!

Once I find my cord for my camera I will put some pictures up. This is the house that we will be in for at least the next 20-30 years!!! Which is totally exciting for me because I want my girls to be able to come home to the house they grew up in. I never had that, and I wish I did.

Heidi, if you and the fam ever want to come out and visit I have room for the 3 of you. I'd love to have you! Are you planning a summer trip to Spfld? The me and the girls will be there in July sometime after the 11th(our weddind anniv.)

More to come at a later date. Hope everyone is doing well.

Ringing in the New Year

Well, this is my first blog for the new year, so here it goes. There are reasons that if you are having a new years eve dinner party why you should make the meal first before you start drinking. We had two other couples over for a elegant NYE dinner party. Us girls got all dressed up while the guys didn't(party poopers). We all had drinks before I started working on dinner. I had a few too many drinks and was feeling REALLY good while trying to make dinner. The menu was filet mignon, crab legs, corn on the cob, and scalloped potatoes. Luckily my hubby stepped in and took over dinner otherwise I have a feeling dinner would have never been ready. After dinner I set out dessert. Turtle pie and apple pie both from Schwans. I thought all I had to do was let them thaw, WRONG. It turns out the apple pie needed to be baked, WHOOPS!!! Keep in mind the bahama mama bottle and I had become very very good friends. All of sudden I hear Steve saying "Ummm Rachel you were suppose to bake the pie". Of course we all burst into uncontrollable laughter.

Our other memorable moments of our party was the board games. I got Steve the Dirty Minds game for X-mas. We thought it would be a fun game to play. It is hilarious. The clues just crack me up. What made the game so damn fun, was listening to Steve trying to read the clues. He just started cracking up. None of us could stop laughing. Here is on of the clues Steve attempted to read: People pay to see me play with a big pussy. They scream as I shove my head between two pig pussy lips and then ride the furry one to the climax. The answer a LION TAMER, need I say more.

All in all NYE was a night of good food, good fun, and good friends

I would like to thank...

I would like to thank the Pillsbury dough boy for making premade cookie dough. My life revolves around it. Last night I made 144 sugar cookies for my girls to take to school. Grace was taking them for her birthday(Dec. 27), Julia was taking them because it was her last day of school for winter break, and Sophie was taking cookies for her Christmas party at preschool. She was going to be decorating the cookies with her class. My oldest is taking her cookies tomorrow for her last day of school. So, tonight I have a date with the Pillsbury dough boy. I also iced all the cookies except the ones for Sophie.

This brings me to the next person I'd like to thank...Betty Crocker. I'd like to thank her for two reasons. One, her icing was on sale, and two she had icing with colored sprinkles in it. YEAH!!!

So, thank you to the both of you. You saved me a great deal of time, energy, and my sanity. If I had to of made the dough by scratch I would have had more dirty dishes , and who knows what time I would have gotten some shut eye. KUDOS!!!

O Sweet Child of Mine...

While I am not a huge Guns n Roses fan, I do like some of their classic songs...Paradise City, Welcome to the Jungle, and O Sweet Child of Mine. Whenever my husband goes to Wal-mart alone, he tends to come home with an assortment of new CDs. His cd buying habits are equivalent to my purse buying. He is always buying cds that were popular when we were growing up, hence Guns N Roses. I decided to take the cd and listen to it on my way to take the kids to school.

I put the cd in. My oldest daughter looks at the cd case, examining it closely. She then releases an uuuugh! Keep in mind she is 12 and is into the Johas Brothers, High Musical soundtrack, Kelly Clarkson, so you get the idea. They way her "uuuugh" was uttered was so funny. It was full of disgust. It was equivalent to when my mom would play classical music in the car. I just found it to be a funny moment for me as a mom. Of course my kindergartner asked me to turn the music down because she couldn't hear her movie. I did. My brief moment of stepping back in time to being a junior high kid ended, but I would resume the moment shortly.

I dropped the kids off at school, and was alone in my car at last. I was free...free to go shopping and free to listen to my music as loud as I wanted to. Now picture this...Here I am driving in my Nissan Quest mini-van, wearing a striped long sleeve tee, corduroy blazer, jeans, and ballet flats, and rocking out to Guns N Roses!!! It was an awesome moment even if it only lasted a few minutes. I felt liberated belting out the lyrics to O Sweet Child of Mine in my best Axel Rose voice. What a moment. It was my theme song for the day. Everyone should have one, and everyone should have a moment. All day in my head I'd sing that song. I felt great!!!

Say goodbye gall bladder

It has been awhile since I posted anything, so I decided to write about something.

Two weeks ago Thursday I started having severe pains in my stomach and back. They really hurt, and I have a fairly high tolerance to pain, after all I have given birth to four babies. By Saturday I was not feeling any better. My husband told me he was taking me to the ER. Of, course I was in tears because it was all so scary to me. I've never had to go to the ER before. Basically all they did at the hospital was give me some strong pain medicine and a pepcid ac. That night I felt pretty good. I was pain free...hmmm probably cause I was dopped up. Sunday the pain was back. Sunday night we noticed the whites of my eyes were yellow. I knew that couldn't be good. So, back to the ER we went, only this time we went to a different hospital. The hospital was great. They did blood work, ran tests, and hooked me to an IV with fluids. I also got more pain medicine. After we had been there for a couple of hours I was admitted to the hospital. The tears came back. I thought I'm only 31, I'm too young to be here. It turned out I had pancreatitis(i probably spelled it wrong). My liver, pancreas, and gall bladder were all inflamed. My enzymes were 7700 and a normal person is 65. For the next two days I was only given fluid through my IV. All I could have was ice chips. It took two days to get my enzymes under 1000. They won't do surgery until they are under 1000. It turned out my gall bladder was the cause of all my problems. It was full of stones. So, they took out my gall bladder. After the surgery I spent another two days at the hospital because of some minor complications.

I am so glad to be home with my kids and husband. I've never watched so much t.v. in my life. I am able to move around a lot easier, and each day I feel better. Gall bladder surgery is really common and most of the time it is an outpatient surgery, but not for me because of the pancreatitis. At least it is out and my gall bladder will never bother me again.

Hope none of you ever have to go through this cause it really sucks!!!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving