Maiden Voyage

The oven made it's maiden voyage this week.  It made such a satisfying "whoosh" sound as it turned on. It preheated in lightening speed all the while telling me how hot it was getting....awesome.  

 So I kinda thought that the first thing that I would cook in my new little gem would be a little more glamorous--but what do you do?  If it cooks in the microwave or oven we've eaten it in the last few weeks.  I have had more hotdogs that I even want to admit- although I will admit that I like hotdogs-with mustard and relish....yum, but I am getting tired of them.

 I have no idea how people can eat this kind of food all the time- it is SO expensive! and a little icky.  I think it will be awhile before I buy another "pre-made" food.

 Here is my pan!  yeah, would have worked a little better on an actual pan.  Some of the juice spilled off and I quickly grabbed a towel to wipe the pristine bottom of the oven.

 I have been so wrapped up in taking pictures of the things that we have been working on, I nearly forgot to take a picture of how we have been living.  Here is our dining room table.

 Our "counter"

Our pantry/cupboards. Nice and cozy.  So, we have been eating out a lot and yesterday was Taylor's birthday we usually have a "special" dinner at home, but obviously that is not an option at the moment!  He decided that the Golden Corral (buffet like chuck-a-rama) is where he wanted to go- which was fine since we had free coupons from the library.  Wow.  That is a whole institution in and of itself.  Dave saw a woman who ate an entire plate of rice krispie treats for her "appetizer".  The dude sitting by us had a mountain of brown foods- shrimp, eggrolls, fried chicken, hush puppies etc all fried foods all COVERED in cheese sauce!  Talk about experiencing America!  That was better people watching than all the state fairs I have been to combined!  

The kids also learned a valuable lesson- even though all the food-- especially desserts-- are there, doesn't mean you should eat them!  After not finishing her ice cream, Grace said..."I need to go for a run."  To which Taylor replied "I know, right?  Mom, can you drop us off at the end of our street so that we can run home?"  So you CAN have too much of a good thing and that too much can be found at the Golden Corral.....which seriously?? corral?  for a restaurant?  that is nearly as bad as naming your clothing store the "Dress BARN"  

A Magical day

We spent all day outside yesterday!  It was the best day ever!  We "picked" a pool off of a friend and set it up, and hung a tree swing.  For dinner we had microwave hamburgers---I know, you are thinking yeeeck.  Don't knock it till you try them, they were being sampled at Sam's the other day- they are no joke!  They are seriously better than a lot of chain restaurant burgers--which I realize isn't that hard--try them!! Anyway we had a watermelon too- and since we haven't unpacked out cutting board or knives we put the melon in a grocery bag and dropped it on the ground and broke it in half and dug in with spoons :)  awesome!

There were 3 of these barrels on the back porch.  I considered junking them but yesterday I decided to fill them with hostas.  A FREE "fix" since we have almost too many hostas in the back and side  of the house.

 soooo much better!

 Here comes the pool!  The backyard grass is pretty sparse, so wherever we put the pool was going to end up being a mud hole.  So we decided to put it on the back porch.

 About 5 minutes after I took this picture the kids were in it.  With a *promise* that they wouldn't splash all the water out.  After about 5 hours it still wasn't full--but big enough to do some torpedos from one side to the other.....it was SUPER cold though!  I didn't get in but Dave took the hit for the team and got in, he couldn't resist.

 The first berry!!  OK well this wasn't the first, I ate that little guy a few days ago and it was delicious :)  Look at this guy though!  does life get any better than this?

 A handful of happiness.  It is a little blurry- that is how humid it was on Saturday- every time we opened up the camera  the lens fogged up.

 After a few "discussions" on knots we finally looked up "tree swing knots" online. In case you wanted to know- the top knot on the tree is a bowline and the swing has 3 half hitches on each side.

You would have thought it was a roller coaster ride!  On Grace's first underdog we weren't sure she was still breathing!  Our neighbors might have thought we were abusing our kids because of all the screaming- but of course they all wanted more and  more and more.  The only one that was not "terrified" was Harrison- but he has always been our thrill junkie.

Mountain-o-trash

Can you believe this??  maybe after reading my last post about how we are slobs you can :)  The best part?  the trash guys PICKED IT ALL UP!!!  V&B Trash I LOVE YOU!  It was better than Christmas--better than the Tooth Fairy better than the Easter Bunny to wake up and find that all of our trash had been picked up.

YIKES!  I wonder what our neighbors thought??  amazingly we left a huge pile at our old house too.  

 Here it comes, here it comes!!!!!

 ahhhhhh So pretty.  New rule- no touching the walls OR the stove.  My new baby is a GE gas convection/conventional bake oven.  It is like a rose among thorns right now in my little kitchen.   It needs a name- maybe we should have a name the stove contest??  Winner gets....hmmmm winner gets ...their name written on one of our 2x4s a legend forever!  So hurry up you've got to beat Armando! (the drywaller) As you can see, the board behind the oven has been replaced and no longer looks like swiss cheese.  

 Could't resist this one- my naked camper and my lovely stove. 

 Here is my makeshift cutting board and knife!  I have never taken so long to chop a green onion.  I managed to finish the green onion with a plastic knife, but broke out Taylor's pocket knife for the celery. The bag is my "bowl". 

 Here it is- my kitchen!  We STILL haven't heard back from Armando....BUT our cabinet delivery date keeps changing so, I guess there are no hurries.  I have decided not to answer the phone if it is Home Depot anymore, it is always bad news.  The cabinets that are made right here in Indiana- an Indiana company are being shipped from Mexico.