No Keepers......Yet

Camping is going well, our internet is very.....slow......so I'm not able to blog much. I may try pictures once we leave here and get better signal. Dan has caught two fish (double what he caught last year!) but nobody in camp has got a keeper. See sturgeon have to be a certain length, not too big and not too small to keep them. The kids are having fun and thankfully have been entertaining themselves. The sun finally came out today, but it's windy and not warm. It's happy hour so I gotta go!

Camping and all A's

It's official, I got another 4.0 this quarter, all A's. When I returned to Whatcom this past Fall, my GPA from 13 years ago was 3.15. After getting a 4.0 every quarter this year, my GPA is up to 3.43. I have to say it's been the hardest year of my life, but I am so glad that I finished. It was always a goal of mine to finish, and it was going to haunt me until I did. Not only that, but I have life lessons to pass on to my kids (Don't do what your mother did by not finishing school). I can also tell them from experience that if you really work hard and put effort into school, you will not regret any of the results.

On another note, we are heading out to go camping today. We are going to the Columbia River to go sturgeon fishing. We will be taking Dan's laptop, so I'll try to post pictures and keep everyone updated on the trip.

Graduation Presents Part 2

Here is my real graduation present. A 2009 Ford Edge. A big thank you to the guys at Diehl Ford for finding my perfect car. They worked really hard to make me happy. I'm loving my new ride, and am already making threats to the kids about what will and will not be allowed in it. Of course, a BIG thank you to my hubby for such a great grad gift. I love you!

Tasty Tuesdays

Welcome back to Tasty Tuesdays! It's that wonderful time of year in Whatcom County when strawberries are in season. A note to all of you, strawberry season is SHORT!! Take advantage of local berries that can not be compared to anything else! Last week I passed a local strawberry stand and picked up half of a flat to make strawberry jam. The recipe for strawberry jam is on the box of pectin, so I won't post it, but I will give a few tips.

Jam is a great gift! Hostess gift, teacher appreciation, mail carrier Christmas gift, you name it, everyone loves homemade jam. I tend to get the local berries when in season and freeze them to make jam later. This works great for everything but strawberry jam. Once frozen, you loose the bright red color of the berries. So I do strawberry and strawberry rhubarb jam during strawberry season. I do freeze strawberries to add to my mixed berry jam and strawberry cranberry jam.

Some of the local stands will sell day old berries cheaper. If you can find these, buy them, do not pass go, and get straight home and make jam. Local berries have a short shelf life and will spoil quickly, like overnight.

Sometimes I find jam jars at garage sales, Goodwill, Value Village, or even from older ladies who don't can anymore. Pick these up when you find them.

I hate Walmart (wallyworld) but they do have the best prices if you have to buy jars. Also lids and pectin are cheapest there too.
Please take advantage of local produce. It really is the best when in season. If you have the time, go visit the farms, u-pick berries, and let the kids help!

Have a Berry Good Day!

Grad Presents part 1

While Dan was in California, he met up with his brother Steve, sister in law Julia, and niece Sofia for dinner in Hollywood. While there he picked up a couple graduation gifts for me, a Mickey Mouse grad cap and a trophy that says Best Graduate Hollywood. Yes it's silly, but it was sweet of him to think of me while shopping. (Really though, how can you not think of Holly while in Hollywood?) Thanks honey!

Happy Father's Day

Just want to give a shout out to all the fathers today....Happy Father's Day! A big thank you to my Dad who may be the biggest goof ball in the world, but taught us kids some great lessons. And to my step-dad, Poppa, thanks for always being there. To my hubby, thanks for being a great Dad, the kids are very blessed to have you as their father.

Lessons at Field Day

Last week the kids had Field Day at school. I helped out with the balloon relay game. It really was a lot of fun, and surprisingly only a few kids got wet. What shocked me during the game was that parents on the sidelines were telling the kids to cheat. Seriously. I understand it's just a silly little game, but I'm one that looks at the big picture. When you encourage your kids to cheat at the little things, they will have an easier time cheating at the big things. And I believe you loose credibility as a parent when you encourage them to cheat. While kids are young, we need to install values that stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Ok, I just had to get that off my chest. We will resume to regular programing now.

Finished, Done, Completed!

I am done!!!! Whoo Hoo, Happy Dance! I am so relieved to be done with school. I'll find out next Wednesday what my grades were. Speaking of grades, we got the kid's report cards today and they did fantastic. Nate had perfect scores on everything. Lily's was great and she improved in a few areas. We are really proud of the kids and how well they are doing in school. If you see my kids, please tell them good job. I want to make sure they know how important their effort is.

Grad Gathering

My Mom wants to have a gathering to celebrate my graduating from Whatcom. Here's a little invite she wanted me to post.

Is anyone up for a get-together at Olive Garden to celebrate Holly's graduation? If you are interested, we would like to gather any family or friends on July 6, 6pm. Let Holly or myself know so we can get a headcount. It's a no-host gathering, and we would love to have anyone join us. My email lagardner72@hotmail.com or 656-6756.

Almost Done!

I am almost done with my school work. I'm putting the finishing touches on a 7 page paper, and finished a quiz that was given to me YESTERDAY! (That's just not nice on the last week of school!) Tomorrow I go to my last class, turn in my work, and I am officially done! I think grades are posted next week, so I won't know until then, but I should get another 4.0. So tomorrow afternoon if you are in Bellingham, and hear a loud cheer, it's me, doing a I'm done with school happy dance.

Tasty Tuesdays

I'm totally swamped with homework. My instructor handed us another quiz today, due by the end of the week. Like I didn't have enough to finish! So, here's a salad I love to make all summer, especially when the cherry tomatoes are in season. No, we are not having this for dinner, my hubby has been put on KP until I finish all my school work. (Lord help us all!)


Holly's Mediterranean Pasta Salad

1 12 oz package spiral pasta, cooked and cooled
1 cucumber, diced
2 cups cherry tomatoes
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 can black olives, sliced
1 1/2 cups Italian salad dressing
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
8 oz feta cheese, crumbled

Toss all ingredients together (except feta), chill in fridge for two hours or more. Add feta and toss before serving.

What do you mean you forgot?

Remember my post on Friday about the kids taking permanent pens to school? Today as we were walking into church, I saw that Nate had red permanent pen on his sandals. Seriously! I told him he was in trouble, and dropped it until we got in the van to go home. Here's our conversation.

Me: Nate, do you remember the talk we had about the pen before you went to school?

Nate : Yes, but the pen came off of my arm when I washed it.

Me: Do you remember me telling you that it was permanent and to only write on your shirt?

Nate: Yes.

Me: Then why would you write on your sandals?

Nate: I forgot.

Let's just say I didn't take this well, and I'm thinking he is going to have to use his own money to buy new sandals.
What surprises me is that he was not the toddler that drew on walls. He was always good about only coloring on paper. Why at 8 years old is he writing in my van, and on his shoes? I hate to blame it on boy brain, but I can't come up with any other explanation. Any ideas?

What the Gardner's Grow

My grandparents do a huge garden every year and share the bounty with everyone. I normally do a large garden myself. This year Grandpa wanted help with his garden, so we decided to do a family garden where we pitch in to help Grandpa. We were over helping Grandpa and Grandma plant seeds and Poppa Wayne said he wanted to grow a row of Coors Lite. Grandpa said we should try it out. So here is what Grandpa and Grandma will find when they get home from fishing tomorrow.

Summer Begins.....for the kids

Today was the kid's last day of school. It was a half day so they are home already. I'm happy that they are done, but wish I was done also. I have another week of classes and MAJOR homework to finish. For the last day of school the kids wore plain white tee shirts to school. They each had a permanent marker (after a long lecture on how permanent they were) and they had teachers and friends sign their shirts. Nate really is glad that school is out, really he is.

Meme

Eight Meme

Joell at Life with a Toddler tagged me with this meme, so here we go.


THE RULES: Mention who tagged you. Complete the list of 8’s. Tag 8 other people.


8 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO:
1. Being done with college!!!
2. Summer time with the kids
3. Dan coming home next week
4. Camping this month
5. Local berry season, yummmm
6. Peach season in Adrian, Oregon
7. Summer BBQ's
8. Pleasure reading


8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY:
1.Homework, shocker!
2. Field day at the kid's school
3. Played information hot line for family
4. laundry
5. dishes
6. watered flowers
7. walked to the school twice
8. threw a water balloon at Nate



8 THINGS I WISH I COULD DO:
1. Finish my 7 page paper today
2. Finish reading my book today
3. Win the Lotto
4. See more of my friend in Oregon (Miss you Amy)
5. Have girls night every month
6. loose the 5 pounds I gained this quarter
7. Hit the outlet mall every month
8. Hire a housekeeper

8 SHOWS I WATCH:
1. Top Chef
2. Jon and Kate plus 8
3. Brothers and Sisters
4. Grey's Anatomy
5. Extreme Makeover, Home Edition
6. How I Met your mother
7. Army Wives
8. The Bachelorette

8 FAVORITE FOODS:
1. spicy grilled cheese sandwich (he he he)
2. pad thai
3. Mediterranean salad
4. chocolate
5. orange chicken
6. shrimp
7. creamy tomato soup
8. Italian

8 PLACES I’D LIKE TO TRAVEL:
1. Italy
2. Hawaii
3. California (Legoland)
4. Caribbean cruise
5. Australia
6. Montana
7. Alaska
8. Florida


8 PEOPLE I’VE TAGGED:
Please feel free to do or not do this as you wish. I know not everyone likes to do memes. People get mad when you tag them!

T-Mobile Mom to Mom Quiz

T-Mobile Mom to Mom Quiz: "

Take the fun, Mom to Mom quiz and discover your parenting style.

"

Tasty Tuesdays

It's Tasty Tuesday! At this moment I have no idea what I am fixing for dinner. Nothing sounds good, and I just don't have the energy to produce that much brain power. But Tasty Tuesday must live on! So here's a favorite of mine that I made last week for my grandparents. For Christmas I gave each set of grandparents a coupon book for the bread of the month club. The bread of the month for June is Buttery Dinner Rolls. Remember, the bread machine is your friend! Enjoy!

Buttery Dinner Rolls

1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast

Place all ingredients, in order listed, in the bread machine. Set to dough cycle. When done, divide dough into 24 balls and place in a greased 13x9 inch pan. Cover and let rise for 15 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 13-16 minutes.

As always, if you try this recipe please post your comments about it! Please people, leave comments! :)

Holly should be doing homework......

Yes, I should be doing homework instead of blogging. But something has been in the back of my head for the last few days, and I had to get it out. Last week my friends were posting one of those quizes on facebook. It had 50 questions that they answered and forwarded to friends. I found out that most of my friends are not taking vitamins every day. I feel strongly about this, but instead of giving a lecture, I'll give my reasons for taking a multi-vitamin every day.

• As a teenager I had horrible cramps during my periods. I would be in bed the first day and ingested a LOT of ibuprofen. After taking a daily multi-vitamin, I don't have cramps anymore. None, nada, zip, zero.
• I used to catch every cold and flu bug around. Now I get sick about once a year.
• Having kids means having germs. I need all the help I can get to not catch everything they come home with.
• Lets face it, it's hard to get your daily requirements of all the vitamins and minerals that you need. I feel better knowing that my multi-vitamin is covering where I am lacking.
• Although my nails are weak, I actually have nails now.
• I had healthy babies! Studies say that you need certain amounts of folic acid before and during pregnancy. I like to think that I had a head start for healthy babies by taking my vitamins for years before having children.
• As a teenager I occasionally passed out in the shower. My parents had me tested for everything from seizures to epilepsy, and the doctors found nothing. When I was pregnant, I was told that I was borderline anemic. I make sure that my daily vitamin has the required amount of iron.
• I want to live a long, healthy life, so that I can bore my grandchildren with my blogs about vitamins!

Smokey

Growing up on the farm, we always had animals around. We had like a million barn cats, but only a few made it into the house. Those were the orange one's. Mom had a thing for orange cats. (She eventually married a red head, is it a Freudian thing?). Anyhow, my sister Amy loved gray cats, and every single one of them she named Smokey. After awhile, we were calling them by the number they were, Smokey #2, #3, #4. Cats never lasted long at our farm. There were too many trucks and tractors around to run them over. Well, last night my brother in law David brought home a gray kitten he found at work. Amy was of course smitten by it, and wants to name it Smokey. Nate has already said that the cat can't come over here because it would poop in the sand box. If the cat came here it would be called dog food. So, welcome to the family Smokey #10. I hope you last longer than your namesakes!

Dear Snow Mommy Letter

I received this letter by e-mail this morning in response to my Tasty Tuesday post last week. Read the letter, and I'll tell you who it's from at the end.

Dear Snow Mommy:

I am writing this letter to you; as you have asked your blog followers to provide feedback if they try any recipes from your wonderfully titled Tasty Tuesdays. First off I would like to say I work on tugs towing barges up and down the coast of the US of A. With you being married to a Merchant Mariner you probably already know that life on board can sometimes be pretty dull and you try to spice things up a little; sorry I know bad pun. Anyways I would also like to say that I love your blog I never miss an entry (I subscribed to it as an RSS feed). You have some great ideas and a variety of subjects that you cover. Ok back to the subject at hand. On May 19^th your Tasty Tuesday was a Spicy Grilled Cheese Sandwich. I would like to tell you my experience with that particular recipe.

Now if you will notice it says 3-4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce with the next line saying 1 4oz can tomato paste. See the difference. If you do then you can guess; that this was a not the best reading of the ingredients. I used 3 cans of the chipotle in the recipe. I’m sure you can now see where this is going.

Ok, so I cooked up two of these bad boys offering one to the cadet on board; since I was taught to share. Bite number one wasn’t too bad; but by the time that I reached bite number 3, I should have known I was in trouble. Beads of sweat started to form on my brow and my sinuses did their normal thing that they do when you eat spicy food; but then the coughing started, my face and ears started to turn red. Picture the old cartoon characters whose faces turn red with steam coming out of their ears. Being one not to want to waste good food; I continued on with a large glass of milk.

I managed to eat three quarters of my sandwich; along with two large glasses of milk before I gave in; with much disappointment; and threw the last of it away. Oh and in the meantime the cadet is smiling and trying not to laugh at me. I found that different people have different tolerances; which added to my discomfort that I was all alone in this. He did mention that the sandwich was indeed good; but a little spicy. So while I am cleaning up the lunch dishes. Tears are streaming down my face; coughing up a storm, and trying to figure out what I did wrong. The cadet is in stitches by now laughing at my indisposed condition. I re-read the ingredients and think I knew where my problem was. I was dreading the next day. Well, it didn’t take but a few hours. Let’s just say that in the last twelve hours have been the most excruciatingly painful I have ever had in my life. How to describe the pain; do you ask; well I can only use a reference from the Stephen King book DREAMCATCHER that I had just finished reading. It’s like I had been infected with Byrus and had a byrum growing inside of me. If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, I suggest you either try one or the other. Anyways Byrus is an alien fungus that once breathed in, allows a nasty little creature with lots of needle sharp teeth to grow inside of you and use you as food. Yes, painful I can only assume. Not to get into details; but this little life lesson also puts a new perspective on the terms “Feel the Burn” and “Fire in the Hole”.

Sincerely yours,

Buns a Burning

P.S. I think I have found a new homeopathic cure for allergies, as mine are clearer than they have ever been in the past month. Thank You.

I'm still giggling! This was written by my husband Dan. The funniest part to me is that I personally showed him how to make these sandwiches. So if he was paying attention, he would have known to only put 3 or 4 peppers in the sauce. Love you honey, hope you feel better! He he he he he.

Big Sale

I had coupons today and did some shopping. My best deal was at Bath and Body Works. I love that store. They are having a big sale, and I had a $10 off coupon. I bought 8 body washes and 4 anti-bacterial hand soaps and my total was $36. 48. The guy in line behind me asked if that would last me a whole year, and I said no. I do give a lot of them away, so it's not like I use them ALL! I also had a coupon for JC Penny's, and a $1 off my mocha this morning! What a great day!

You crack me up part 2

Seriously!

The things that people will google crack me up. Here's a recent list of things people googled that brought them to my blog.

• sperm snow
• captain underpants, stories
• embarrassing shower stories
• online college homework sucks (I agree)
• vitamin D kids experiment
  
• pics of chocolate that look like poop
• record my safe (???)
• Nobody but my Lord
• mommy sucks (that's just not nice)

The Ladies of the Love Lights

My brother Rob heads up a band called the Love Lights. The are pretty awesome, you can check out their music on their myspace page, or on Itunes. A while back they were making weekly videos, and Rob made one with my kids. He feed them lines, and the kids acted like they were the two gals from the Love Lights. The video cracks me up every time I watch it. Click HERE to see the video, and don't forget to check out music from the Love Lights!

Tasty Tuesdays

Today's Tasty Tuesday is a lesson more than anything. Say it with me, I love my crock pot, I love my crock pot, I love my crock pot. Tonight's dinner is actually yesterday's crock pot meal. Yesterday morning I took a roast and put it in the crock pot with some garlic and onion. I put about 1/2 cup of water on it and turned it on high. By dinner last night I had a very tender roast. Of course there is a lot left over, so I took two forks to the roast and shredded it all to pieces. Then I added 1/2 bottle of BBQ sauce. So tonight's dinner is BBQ beef sandwiches. I'll put the beef on hamburger buns and top with shredded cheese. Yummy!
The crock pot is such a great thing to use on hot days. You can assemble everything in the morning when it's cool, and you don't have to heat up the kitchen at dinner time (the hottest part of the day!). The crock pot also saves money because you can buy inexpensive cuts of meat, and the crock pot will make them tender.
I hope you are inspired to use your crock pot, it's supposed to be 80 here again today! And as always, please post a comment if you try this recipe out. Enjoy!

Parent Involvement

I warned you that I would take you along on my college journey. Today I am writing a paper for one of my classes, and I came across something that I believe very deeply. I thought I would share a little bit of my research with you.

When parents are actively involved in their children's education, these students have higher grade point averages and higher test scores. These students also enroll in more advanced classes, take on more credits, have better attendance, improved behavior at school, and better social skills.

After talking with teachers myself, I also found that students who are read to (on a consistant basis) before they start school are more successful, and feel more confident about school.

So, get involved with your children's education. Take time to know what they are doing in class, and help them with their homework. And read to your children! Give them the love of learning and the love of books.