The DDA Trouble Free Zone Part 24

[tmfranlk]

I am going to be honest with you all.......I will be reading along but I don't promise I will post...real life stinks right now...this stuff with my grandparents is bugging me and there's other things......and I am just an emotional mess and I'm not even sure why (and no Jennifer it isn't what you think...not even a possibility )

So you all are in my thoughts and prayers ...hopefully this will be better in a couple of weeks.

We all understand. Just know that you have our prayers and daily.

 

[tmfranlk]

Happy Easter everyone. I hope your days are going well. Terra was sooo funny this morning finding her unicorn Webkinz in her basket. Then, halfway through looking in her basket, she started noticing the eggs around the room and went crazy again. The hunting was hilarious.

We finished up dinner a while ago and I was just yelled up to that they were breaking out dessert so I guess I'd better hurry. No more hiding from the noise upstairs anymore.

 

[yellowfish78]

I hope you all are enjoying your Easter!

I am finally sitting down for just a minute... each of the families should start getting here any time now! Kyle surprised me and was home when I got home from the early church service! Of course, it wasn't much of an "Easter together". He cut his finger and had to get it stitched up (he considered just doing it himself, the dork!). Now our drain and garbage disposal are acting up. Ten minutes ago, we had (sorry for the image ahead)... what looked like vomited, finely chopped potato skins and brown water filling our kitchen sink. Totally not appetizing, sitting right across from the island full of food. UGH! He went to the store and is now trying to fix it.... I'm trying not to freak out (hence being here)

We have cheesy potatoes made and ready to bake... the ham is thawed in the fridge, ready to be cooked and glazed ... deviled eggs, angel food cupcakes and a fruit plate (as well as tons of candy) are out - and, of course, already being consumed.

When everyone gets here, mom and I will try and figure out how to correlate the cooking times (she's bringing corn souffle, green beans, etc). Then we'll have our egg hunt while the (early) dinner is cooking. Yes, all adults and still an egg hunt This is the first year I've hidden the eggs (80 of them ), so I'm a bit nervous about the outcome!

I can't wait to see pictures of your day... especially all those cute kids in their easter outfits, if it was warm enough (or you were prepared enough) to wear them. My adorable, spring/Easter dress is hanging in my closet with the price tags on since it's been snowing for 5 days now.

Have a great afternoon!

Oh No!! I'm assuming you now know that potato skins are one of the worst things for a garbage disposal?? I'm sure it will be fixed quickly and before the family arrives!!!

 

[my3princes]

I am going to be honest with you all.......I will be reading along but I don't promise I will post...real life stinks right now...this stuff with my grandparents is bugging me and there's other things......and I am just an emotional mess and I'm not even sure why (and no Jennifer it isn't what you think...not even a possibility )

So you all are in my thoughts and prayers ...hopefully this will be better in a couple of weeks.

Hang in there. You are a strong woman and you will get through this. I assure you that the relationships that are suffering now will heal once the situation lends the time and space to do so. I am here to talk if you need a friend

Well, Chuck & I won't be getting a Toyota Tundra at least for two years. Chuck said that our suburban just wasn't going to cut it this summer. I was really hoping to not have a car payment for at least a year since we have just paid off all our car loans.

However, I want to go downstate for a week between the reunions and he says he isn't comfortable doing that with the suburban. He has been looking for a used vehicle to replace the suburban and we bought a used GMC Denali. It is pretty luxurious for what I'm used to. It has heated leather seats! I don't even know all the other bells & whistles it has. The main thing is that Chuck says we can use it for at least two years to pull the camper so we'll be good for our camping trip in June 2008.

The good news is that we might take the camper on a trip west or east this summer.

Chris sends his condolences I hope you enjoy your new car.

I'll miss you! Guess I will just have to call you and bug you!

My thoughts exactly

The Cheese Torte is done and so are the devilled eggs. I decided to make a strawberry yogurt pie last night as well since Chuck's SIL doesn't like cheese torte at all. That way everyone will have a choice or can have a little of both. We have to leave at 11am to get there. The meal is at 1am. This is all CST. Chucks sister & family have to drive back to Milwaukee this afternoon and we want to get back home to spend time with Becky after she gets off work.

If your meal is at 1 AM I think you're already late



We had lunch here for 14 people. It was nice and no one was in any hurry to leave. We had enough leftovers for supper tonight and then some. We, as a family, are changing our eating habits for 2 weeks to see what an impact we can make. So anything left after tonight will be thrown out to make way for our little experiment. Nick is concerned that swim season is coming and would like to be buff. He has really made some noticable changes in his hygene lately. He is taking immaculate care of his skin which is making a huge difference in his acne. So now on too our diets. Chris and I do well when we both committ so doing this for all of us shouldn't be too hard.

Back to the Easter Ham. I had bought a spiral ham, but realized that the glaze mix was missing as I started cooking the ham this morning. Not a big deal, I can make a glaze right? You bet ya and Chris said it was the best ham he has EVER had and that is saying something as he isn't fond of ham. He ate it twice today. So I feel compelled to share the recipe.

I cooked a 10 lb spiral ham in one of those plastic turkey roaster bags. It worked wonderfully for catching all of the drippings. 250 degrees. I cooked it for 2 1/2 hours then coated it with the glaze and coated it again 10 minutes later for another 10 minutes.

Glaze
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Let cool and use 1/2 the sauce to glaze the ham about 20 minutes before it is done. Use rest of sauce to reglaze with 10 minutes left.

Remove ham from oven and save all the drippings in a large saucepan. The ham has a wonderful flavor as is, but you can also make a heavenly ham gravy with the drippings.

Bring the drippings to a boil and add a water/flour mixture to thinken the drippings. Enjoy.

 

[Kitchensinkguy]

Happy Easter DDA

 

[my3princes]

Here is a not great picture of the new do.

Deb

 

[my3princes]

Happy Easter DDA

 

[Blueeyes101817]

Here is a not great picture of the new do.

Deb

deb--i like the "new do"!

 

[KristineN]

not sure if this is old news or not...I seem to be a day late & a dollar short these days

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Free Dining is Back for Disney Visa Cardholders![/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]According to the folks at Disney Visa, a special Magic Your Way package with Free Dining for Disney Visa cardholders is available starting April 9th. It will be available to book between 4/9/07 – 6/24/07, for travel dates 8/26/07 – 9/22/07 and will require a min 3 night stay and 1 day theme park ticket purchase. [/FONT]

 

[Glynis]

I tried a new recipe tonight that I got from a thread on the CB. It was so good, thought I would share it with you all!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

4 - 6 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 bottle catalina or red french dressing (the regular size bottle) I use fat free
1 jar apricot preserve (regular size) I use All Fruit
1 package dry onion soup mix

preheat oven to 350.

Place chicken in a baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Drain off juice.

Mix dressing, preserve and soup mix and pour over chicken. Bake another 30 minutes.


The sauce from this is yummy! I made some rice & put the sauce over it.

This is one of my favorite recipes!!!!! It was the first meal I made for my in-law's after Alan and I got married. It went over really well! Hope you guys liked it!

 

[tink2020]

Oh No!! I'm assuming you now know that potato skins are one of the worst things for a garbage disposal?? I'm sure it will be fixed quickly and before the family arrives!!!

Yeah, Kyle is the culprit on that one.... he thought "just a few" wouldn't hurt. Never again

 

[Brendita]

Evening all.
Happy Easter.
Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Went to Fort Wilderness campfire & movie last night.
3 adults & 6 kids.
We had the most fun.
Didn't get home till 1 A.M.
We almost froze our butts off.
Funny no-one wanted to go home early.
Ramiro & I have Narnia on DVD.
No-one else had seen it.
Slept in today 10:00 A.M.
Put gas in the car & got a paper today.
Talked to my DD.
That's all I did all day.
Well I'm sitting outside talking to you all.
All in all has been a great weekend.

 

[Glynis]

I hope you all are enjoying your Easter!

I am finally sitting down for just a minute... each of the families should start getting here any time now! Kyle surprised me and was home when I got home from the early church service! Of course, it wasn't much of an "Easter together". He cut his finger and had to get it stitched up (he considered just doing it himself, the dork!). Now our drain and garbage disposal are acting up. Ten minutes ago, we had (sorry for the image ahead)... what looked like vomited, finely chopped potato skins and brown water filling our kitchen sink. Totally not appetizing, sitting right across from the island full of food. UGH! He went to the store and is now trying to fix it.... I'm trying not to freak out (hence being here)

We have cheesy potatoes made and ready to bake... the ham is thawed in the fridge, ready to be cooked and glazed ... deviled eggs, angel food cupcakes and a fruit plate (as well as tons of candy) are out - and, of course, already being consumed.

When everyone gets here, mom and I will try and figure out how to correlate the cooking times (she's bringing corn souffle, green beans, etc). Then we'll have our egg hunt while the (early) dinner is cooking. Yes, all adults and still an egg hunt This is the first year I've hidden the eggs (80 of them ), so I'm a bit nervous about the outcome!

I can't wait to see pictures of your day... especially all those cute kids in their easter outfits, if it was warm enough (or you were prepared enough) to wear them. My adorable, spring/Easter dress is hanging in my closet with the price tags on since it's been snowing for 5 days now.

Have a great afternoon!

Oh, Jennifer! I'm so sorry about your disposal! My brother, who is a plumber, said that potato peelings, onion skin and cabbage are absolute no-no's in a disposal. They will totally jam everything up!!! I hope that everything got taken care of.

Your Easter dinner sounds way yummy! Hope everyone had a great time!

 

[Glynis]

Here is a not great picture of the new do.

Deb

I like it, Deb! I think it's really flattering for you!

 

[Brendita]

Cheaters will be burned at the stake?

The thing is, it is different to offer to help people with their shirts by asking them to pay for the transfer paper, shirts and shipping. This is for profit, plain and simple. Whatever the intention, swiping designs and selling them on eBay is a no-no.

I totally agree with you.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Deb - Cute hair! Is the color you bought drastically darker? I think it looks good the way it is.
I wish DS would get on that bandwagon of taking care of his skin. He has lots of little bumps on his cheeks - not blackheads, I guess they are just clogged pores. He has Clearasil wipes to use on them, but apparently in the shower he doesn't wash his face half the time so the wipes don't really help.
Glad your ham was good! Ours was pretty good, too!

Chris - Happy Easter to you!

Jennifer - The last time my bosses' garbage disposal broke the repair guy said you should have the water running first, then put your stuff in the disposal and turn it on. Of course I never remember to do it that way, but that's what he said!

Speaking of my bosses, their flight should be getting here in about 2.5 hours. Back to work tomorrow! These 5 days just vaporized - I have no clue where they went! The kids don't go back to school until Thursday, so that should be enough time to get them sorted out from the trip.

I have done 3 more loads of laundry, and I have more in the washer and dryer now. If I stay up late I might be able to get most of it done. Obviously I have NOT spent any of my time off doing laundry.

 

[Brendita]

Well can you believe it.
It's raining.

Got'a go. Catch ya later.

 

[Glynis]

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all have had a great holiday! This is the first chance I've had to sit down and relax since Friday night! I think I'm glad this day is almost over!

I can't remember if I told you guys about my SIL who wanted our annual family egg hunt to be sugar free. Well, we had more drama from her about that. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I woke up early Saturday morning and finished making my ranch potato salad, and some low carb "faux-tato" salad. We had to be at "The Gathering Place" for the egg hunt by 10:30, so the kids and I spent some time cleaning the house and getting things ready for the Easter Bunny.

At 10:30 we went to my SIL's house for the gathering. We got there just as my whacko SIL called. Since no one was supportive of her no sugar idea, she was just not going to come at all. No one from her family would come unless we would all agree to a no sugar edict. Well, that just wasn't happening, so she said they wouldn't come. We could hear her kids crying in the background. I felt so badly for them. Sugar, notwithstanding, they were missing out on a fun day with their cousins. Grrr.

At 10:45, everyone was there, and we sent the little kids to the playroom while we adults spread the eggs, candy and other goodies in the front and back yards. Picture us all walking around, just throwing handfulls of goodies into the grass. No real hiding taking place here. At 11:00, we let the preschool kids out first. This was my twins and 6 other little ones. They were all so cute, running around, squealing with delight as they found candy, eggs, cookies, etc. There was even some play dough to be found!!!

By 11:30, everyone's baskets were full to overflowing, and the kids were all happy! We fired up the grill and started the cooking. We ate, and ate, and ate, and visited, and giggled and just had a ball. My nephew and his wife brought their new baby, Noah, over and I got to hold him for a very long time. His parents were dog tired, and actually surprised that an almost 2 month old wasn't sleeping through the night. It was so fun to hold Noah, and play with him, and then give him back when he got fussy!

At about 2:00 we all cleaned up and headed home! Alan and I got dressed for a wedding we had to attend, and got the kids over to their cousins house for a movie night. Alan and I had a great time at the wedding, then we did a little "pre-anniversary" shopping. Our anniversary isn't until May, but we really wanted to get a yard swing for our back yard, and were afraid that the style we wanted would be gone. This swing is wonderful! You can put the back down, and turn it into a bed. The kids are dying to try it out!!!

We got the kids in bed, and to sleep, and then I got to play bunny. It took me about 2 hours to get the baskets filled and hidden, and then I still had to dye eggs for the Easter Bunny to deliver to our house. We grow our own grass in a container for a centerpiece, and each year, the Bunny leaves us eggs and chocolates scattered in the grass. Finally, at about midnight, I was able to fall into bed.

Jacob was the first one up this morning, and was thrilled to be the one to find the eggs, and baskets. He got everyone else up and going and it's been nonstop since then! We went to Church, and came home for dinner. We had a ham, pineapple casserole, green beans with garlic butter, rolls with homemade jam, and sweet potatoes. Alan is still "picking" at dinner!

Now, we're trying to decide what movie to watch for our movie night tonight. I think it will end up being either Cinderella 3 or The Search for Christopher Robin. We'll see which twin can convince us better!

I'll post some pictures later, I promise!!!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Glynis, it sounds lovely! Sorry your SIL is a whacko!

We were sort of watching Alice in Wonderland on the Disney channel, but then DH and DS decided to go drag out DH's old baseball cards. Then they made me look some of them up on eBay. One card that DH has was going for over $200, but then there were other auctions of the exact same card that were nowhere near that high. Last summer there were AAA parking passes selling for $25, so my friend listed his. It sold for like $5 and the seller never paid him, then the pass expired before he could relist it. It's an inexact science at best. I told them not to make a mess because DS gave me so much grief about cleaning his room. He did a decent job but it was an all out BATTLE.

 

[Blueeyes101817]

Hey guys--favor to ask of you ..
if any of you happen to be at the disneystore or disney and see this graduatino antenna topper, could you please pick one up for me?
http://cgi.ebay.com/Disney-GRADUATI...oryZ1380QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

ill mail you a check!