I'm so behind

I haven't even downloaded photos from the real camera yet. At one point I had the house clean after the weekend of guests but that's just a memory now. I am ready for some real outdoor playing time so the kids will stop trashing the house. And then I will post Easter photos!

BUNNY COSTUME

Andrea was doing some house browsing for South Bend and she ran across this shot in one of the listings. For real. This is not staged.

It's fuzzy, but you get the point. Sean has started coming up behind me and just resting his hand on my shoulder, in a creepy bunny kind of way. He has warned me if I ever show up behind him in a bunny costume he will divorce me. He has lingering trauma from the Spiderman vs. Evil Bunny episode on The Electric Company. He tried to find a clip of it on youtube but someone must have destroyed it to stop the spread of nightmares. But seriously, this portrait, WHAT??? Andrea, you should put an offer in on the place but insist that the portrait comes with it.

Patrick found the bunny ears in the Easter box this morning, as I was digging out an egg for a school project, and I suspect those will be used for mischief this weekend. All the grandparents are coming for the long weekend. Nana and Pops are on their way to ski in Colorado and Grandma Marjie and Grandpa Paul are migrating from Texas to Michigan. After we counted up beds and realized I'd be sleeping through some middle of the night shifts in the office, we booked a hotel. Grandpa Paul also gets cable TV this way.

Sean's coworker told him that her guests know where the linen closet and grocery store are, so she does nothing to prepare, but well, it goes against my nature to not plan. FAIL TO PLAN: PLAN TO FAIL. Can someone cross stitch that for me on a pillow already, thanks. So we are ready: menu planned, groceries brought (two trips), house cleaned (okay, only the guest room), and My Little Pony queued up. So of course I am procrastinating by blogging and drinking hot tea because it really hasn't warmed up yet, liars. It will happen soon though because I got a whiff of K-State cattle barns last time I went to the garage. Oh boy, they can tell the Keenans are going to want to enjoy their back yard, time to do whatever they do that makes it smell like "cow poop", as the kids yell when we are driving down Marlatt and haven't gotten the windows up in time.

Anyway, back to it, groceries and cookbooks everywhere... but no bunny costume.

I guess I just "like" tea

My love of tea is fairly well known and on occasion people will worry about how much they drink and thus they will ask me how much I drink. At most, a couple little tea pots a day then a cup of herbal in the evening, during the winter, so the equivalent of about ten tea bags a day. Naturally I was concerned to see this headline linked to yahoo news this morning: Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease.
http://news.yahoo.com/too-much-tea-causes-unusual-bone-disease-222359924.html

As I was drinking my first pot! Ah, but the first line for those of you who don't want to click on it:

A 47-year-old Michigan woman developed a bone disease rarely seen in the U.S. after she drank a pitcher of tea made from at least 100 tea bags daily, for 17 years, researchers report.

Phew, at least I don't live in Michigan anymore, nothing to worry about!  Also, 100 tea bags daily?! I really hope those are 100 cheap tea bags because that would be an expensive habit if that was Harney and Sons tea. I would think the caffeine amount has meant she hasn't slept in 17 years and just how big was this pitcher? Must have been some very thick tea. Anyway, this is a good reminder of how the internet can make you feel better about your bad habits. There is always someone out there who is an extreme version of you! 

On the flip side, that means you will never be the best at anything either. Always someone better than you, and that's okay because people don't like the person who is the best. Women in particular have to be self-depricating about themselves or they will have no friends. Should I list examples from Manhattan? Ha ha, that's for my secret blog. Of course if you want an example in Hollywood it's Anne Hathaway vs the girl from the Hunger Games. Lots of articles about those two after the Oscars, no need for me to rehash. See, I can't even do the "best blog post" because everything has already been written.  Well, everything except for my own opinions and stories about my family.  

Also, has anyone else written this today: I LOVE SNOW! Nope, not hearing that today. Let's get to it though, the last day of cold temperatures and snow. I am wearing my favorite (and only?) sweater today to celebrate the last of this harsh season. So ready for my spring clothes or if we must, right to summer clothes. I got a few things in Miami back in January and a few more in DC last week, can't wait to at least try them on. Also looking forward to making my iced green tropical tea, with 10 tea bags....

Real camera

Finally downloaded a few shots from the real camera since I've had about 189 hours at home this week. Kind of caught up on most things, you should see our organized shoe closet! No, I will spare you that.

 This was from a sick afternoon of Emily. I don't mind the kind of sick where they sleep most the day...

 I read a blurb in the airline magazine about a huge art collection that was donated to some museum and it included this desk full of little trinkets and stuff that the lady had put together for when children visited her home, to keep them busy. They were saying it ended up being the hit of the art exhibit, everyone was fascinated with the little things. I thought that was so clever and then realized I had the same thing at home, a drawer that the kids can't get enough of: the junk drawer. Wow, look at this, so fascinating, they are constantly dragging a chair over to go through this. When I'm short tempered I get angry and just pull the drawer out and let them play on the floor with it. It's where I put all the random treasures that show up on my floors, and also the remotes and batteries.

 Here is Patrick napping when he was sick recently too. It seems this has been a long winter of snow and sickness, thankfully never that sick though.

Emily in Megan's bathrobe, striking her favorite pose. She is thrilled to go back to school tomorrow, as is Patrick. The big girls, not so much.

End of spring break (wheeee!)

 Okay, I need to stop being so lazy and use my big camera again because these photos are awful. It's just so easy to use my iphone one and have it automatically show up in my photo stream. Anyway, here are the butterscotch bread puddings that I made yesterday, very similar to what we had in Leesburg last weekend. It was a somewhat complicated recipe but I had all day with nothing to do (besides avoid cleaning the house) so it was my project. If you really want the recipe let me know or go check pinterest, I pinned it there (and also the brown sugar sauce that goes in it). Anyway, it was so worth it, although come swimsuit season I may wonder...

 Well, look at this... no swimsuits any time soon, how about seconds of that bread pudding...

 How many times this year have I posted this same shot?? This was in response to Timer's photo that he sent of his pork butt on his Big Green Egg this morning.

Megan has moved on from making furniture for her American Girl Dolls and is now focusing on Barbie stuff. She actually did a great job making this bed out of a cereal box, pencils and duct tape. I can't wait for her to get into making real home decor and fixing up her own room, I have lots of projects waiting to go.... I hope she loves painting walls!

Schwans Trophy

I may order excessively from Schwans but these are desperate times with all the kids on break this week and also they are not quite healthy. Taking them all to the grocery store with me would just be cruel to everyone at the store. Even the Schwans man said I probably couldn't go without leashes. Exactly. So I ordered everything except milk, only because they don't sell milk (but maybe next time I can get extra ice cream and just let it melt?), and then managed to fit $279 worth in my tiny freezer. Ice packs are thawing, I had to use up the ice cubes to make room (iced green tea anyone? goes great with this weather) and I'm debating making cranberry bread with this random bag of frozen cranberries. At least there will be dinner tonight! No more appetizers, I got veggies and lots of different fish (and salted caramel ice cream with praline cashews). Bring on the snow, we are ready (and clearly bored as this is my 3rd post today).

Random iPhone photos

I love finding the photos that Megan has been taking on her iPhone in my photo stream...

The horse is pole dancing in my loft?

Emily is kind of a ham.

 Poor Emily, no babysitter here to trace her hand so she finally learned to do it herself.

 The girls were playing wedding and Patrick wasn't about to be left out.

 Patrick designed the fastest police car ever.

 Poor Kira seems to always come over on nights when I'm cleaning out the freezer. Sean was working, the kids hate everything I cook for real, so it was leftovers and freezer night... preparing for Schwans man to arrive today (I should get dressed today I suppose).

 Yes, now a real mom blogger would post about this fabulous theme meal she made for her kids' super special sleepover party. Yes, look at all those different appetizers, I'm so creative. Eggrolls and meatball sandwiches. Maybe Megan was just sick from this food?

 To prove that Bold Rock pairs with anything, I had some on appetizer night. I didn't share onion rings with the kids and yes, that's a horseradish sauce of some sort. Sean was working of course and if he saw this photo earlier he would have slept in his office as he hates onions and probably the smell of them on me. PS I did give them veggies and dip too, I'm not the worst mom ever.

Here is Emily yesterday in her pile of cushions and pillows, sobbing to let me know that she wanted more episodes of My Little Pony, not this movie that Anna turned on. She and Patrick have been super tired and crabby, but no barfing at least. They only ate bread yesterday though. She has perked up today. Patrick just got up.... 9:49am. He is the winner!!