Quick Blog drive by.................I am sore, not sure I will be able to move in the morning

So much for my week of crafting...................
Our lease is up at the end of the month and our delightful rental company informed us on Monday that the owner wants to renew but would like to send someone to do an inspection of the property.  This is no biggy we have had them done before when our lease has been up, but always by someone from the rental company.  Apparently the owner wants to send someone who isn't baised, again no biggy, but it just so happens that the person that will be coming happens to be a realtor!

Anyone that knows me, knows that our house is pretty tidy most of the time, and it is pretty clean.  It is those little jobs/ big jobs that we just never got too, or is on the list, that are frantically getting done. (we get 24hr notice when the inspection will be done)

So in the last 48hrs I have stripped the pantry, cleaned pantry shelves, removed horrible sticky lining that was here when we moved in, repainted the shelves, washed all the base boards, wood frames, and doors downstairs, washed walls (not sure how ketchup got on the wall going up the stairs!) cleaned oven, stripped and cleaned the fridge, cleaned the lazy suzie, and then for 7 hours today worked in the back yard.............................touch up paint, and cleaning the carperts still to do.

I am not sure if I will be able to move in the morning......

The Horrors of Eating Mash Potato!

Hands up who has a child that when a certain food or foods are put in front of them, gagging noises, whining, and complaining begins!?  I can tell you that even I remember as a child I would do that when rice pudding was put in front of me, hated the stuff.  Well we have that issue with Mr Aaron and mash potatoes.  Doesn't matter whether it is homemade or from a box, the boy will complain, whine, and after every bite gag, like we asked him to eat some poisionous, slimy, concoction!
I only give him a little bit whenever we have mash potatoes, because the torture of having to listen to the gagging & complaining gets frustrating when he has been sitting there for nearly 45 minutes telling you how "he doesn't like mash potatoes" (like we have never ever heard him complain before!) 
So last night was beef pot pie, mash potatoes and green beans for dinner...........................and yes you guessed it, the moment that plate was put in front of Aaron the complaining began. 

Just one of the many faces the boy makes while eating mash potatoes!

I might add he ate every bit!

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2010

For those that have no clue what happens the first week of October in the Albuquerque area, the skies over Albuquerque are filled with some 500+ hot air balloons.  It is quite a sight, but to see this quite amazing sight early mornings are a must!  In years past the Walker household have always gone to the night glows, which we have not had too much success with, due to the weather in October being very unpredictable.  So this year we decided to attend the mass ascension opening weekend.  The boys were very excited, Mommy & Daddy needed lots of coffee! 

Watching the Balloons truly is an amazing experience, here is just some of our favorites

 We are awake!

 This balloon sets off as the national anthem was sung

Bargain of the Week

After Balloon Fiesta on Sunday morning (I will be posting some pictures from that) we came home and I put a pork roast in my trusty crock pot..............................8 hours later and the roast joint wasn't cooked, and my crock pot met an untimely end.  I love my crock pot, especially now that Fall is here.

So Monday whilst in Walmart, I spotted a 7 quart crock pot for $18, a little shocked that they were that cheap, I put one in the cart.  Very excited that I will have a crock pot back in the kitchen, for those that that maybe need a new one or have never had one, go check out Wally World, cause $18 is a pretty good price for a crock pot!

Balloons Aloft

It's Balloon Fiesta time again.
You always know when Fall is here, because the skies over Albuquerque are filled with hundreds of balloons for the International Balloon Fiesta that is held the first week in October.  Every year they have the un-official kick off at local elementary schools.  Last year was the first time we had actually gone, or should I say I had actually managed to not oversleep!  Normally this time of year here in New Mexico early mornings can be a bit chilly, last year we were bundled with hats and blankets, this year was nice, not too cold, and we had 2 balloons take off.

The boys waiting..........

Buttons will be pushed!

The last few weeks in the Walker household have been a learning curve to say the least.  Our eldest is at the pre-teen, "I want to be a teenager" so badly stage, that if he keeps going the way he is going, he might not make it!

Now bearing in mind he is not 10 till December, but the pre-teen, tweenie, whatever you want to call it is in full effect!  So last night I did some research online, just reading up on how to combat the constant arguing and attitude, and I came across this very fitting statement:

"If you expect a preteen to always listen and do exactly what you say, buttons are going to get pushed."

...................and believe you me, Brendan knows how to push my buttons!
But the article was informative and helpful, so anyone who needs a quick 101 on surviving male tweens!!

here is the link:
http://www.preteenagerstoday.com/articles/parenting-strategies/boy-basics-101-1093/

22 Bags of Popcorn!

Before I explain the meaning behind the title of this post, any parent that has volunteered at their child's school might hopefully be able to sympathize with what I am about to say!

Yesterday was the weekly popcorn sales at my sons Elementary school. Every Friday each class has to sign up, and ask for parent volunteer's to come to the school during the lunch time for every single grade and sell bags of popcorn & fruit roll ups. Seeing as I am available to volunteer my time, I offered to do the popcorn sales, with 2 other Mom's from my sons Kindergarten class.
Really how difficult can it be, popping popcorn and selling bags for 25c each and selling fruit roll ups for 50c each.

Let this blog post act as a piece of advice to parents.........................

1. Your child does not need to be buying 10 or 12 bags of popcorn after they have just eaten lunch! and buying 10 fruit roll ups, really, I want to be this kids friend! Either these kids have hit their parents up for money, have raided their piggy banks, or out right stolen the money. Because as a parent of said children at this school, when it is popcorn day, my boys get enough money for either ONE bag of popcorn, or ONE fruit roll up, sometimes the boys have asked for enough to buy for ONE friend!
2. Parents please understand your children have a limited amount of time for recess, they do not have time to do multiple trips to the popcorn stand because they can't carry 12 bags of popcorn at once, and if they were buying them for friends, then friends would help them carry the bags.
3. For Kindergarten parents, please explain to your children that 25c buys one bag of popcorn and 50c buys one fruit roll up, I can not pay for every single kindergarten who's heart is broken because I have to tell them they do not have enough money!

I really could go into great detail how yesterday left me feeling a bit shocked. Not to mention sad, to the 1st grader who cried, we didn't mean to upset you, you got your bag of popcorn just before the bell rang! To the darling child who complained his bag wasn't filled all the way, REALLY!
And as a parting thought, when it is your child's birthday, send your child to school with cupcakes, cookies or some other treat..............................sending your child to the popcorn stand to buy 22 bags of popcorn is a little too much!!

Can I do it this time?

Here we are again, bad blogger that I am, haven't been on my blog since earlier this year. Again life has taken over. What is different this time....................
I actually have the time to sit and update my blog, both boys are in school, and I have plenty of Mommy Time!
Plus the fact that hubby has just started his own blog, or as he calls it his "blog roll!" and it suddenly hit me that my own had been neglected for too long, so have dusted off the keyboard, given the blog a fresh new look, and are ready to keep this blog a going!

Guarding the back yard

Our newest edition to our family that we adopted just before Christmas last year, sits on guard in our back yard! He is such a goof ball, but he will sit like this in our yard quietly listening, every so often his head will move off to one side, and the nose raises up to check out the smells of the neighborhood!

Noda's

My new favorite place to eat is a little Japanese restaurant tucked away in a shopping plaza here in Rio Rancho. For me to even consider eating Japanese food is a bit of a shocker, I never really use to be adventurous when it came to trying new foods. Hubby is very good at convincing me to try new foods......like the octopus last year.

Last weekend we had date night and as usual in our house Jon and I spent a good half hour trying to decide what to do (we don't get out much!) Finally decided to go out to eat and we decided on Japanese, and headed out to Noda's. Neither of us had ever been to this restaurant before or eaten at a Japanese restaurant..........thinking back now we really should of goggled Japanese dining etiquette!
We had a 5 minute wait for our table when we got there, and were informed that their Sushi chef was away on vacation and that Mr Noda was in the kitchen tonight. Having never eaten there before we were none the wiser with who cooked the food. Our table was ready and our waitress took us to our table and immediatley I noticed that instead of having cutlery on the table we had chopsticks...............yes I know it is a Japanese Restaurant............but I seriously started to panic that this was going to be a long night, I had never eaten with chopsticks before and new this was going to be hilarious.

I spent the next 10 minutes trying to watch what and how other diners were using their chopsticks. We ordered and waited for the fun to begin. Each of our entrees came with salad and a japanese soup. Hubby and I coped pretty well with the salad but yes in complete ignorance I sat staring at the soup thinking to myself "how on earth was I going to eat this" realising then that I was being a bit of a plank as I watched hubby pick the bowl up and drink the soup! Our food was being served out of order but to be honest it was half the fun because Jon and I were having way to much of a good time trying to eat with these wooden sticks to be bothered about the order our food came from the kitchen.

Jon attempting to pick up one of the sushi rolls and the whole thing fell apart!

Now across from us were another couple and they seemed experts when it came to using the chopsticks, they even had there cups of sake. We had already been served our entrees and Jon and I were giggling so much because I was having a hard time eating the rice with my beef teriyaki, that when the couple across from us got their entrees I nearly fell out of my chair when the guy asks his waitress if he can have a knife and fork! Are you kidding me! So there is Jon and I doing our best to eat with these wooden sticks and we could of asked for cutlery!! Well we finished our meal that night using just our chopsticks, and our food was amazing and well worth the hilarious escapes we had that night! If you have never been Noda's it is fantastic restaurant and highly recommend it to everyone.

Jon's entree was served on a boat!

My promotion to Mother Nature!

Yes I got a promotion today! Despite the long list of jobs I currently hold, my 4yr old promoted me to Mother Nature this morning.
Today his pre-school had planned a field trip to Santa Fe to go to the Childrens Museum and to the Legislative Offices. Aaron was very excited because Mommy was coming with him on his first official field trip. I knew we were going to be in trouble because of the pending storms that were due in, and when the big fluffy snow flakes started falling last night I knew that this morning was going to be a joy when I would have to tell Aaron that his field trip would be cancelled.
Now I figured I would have some calm before the Aaron storm hit because he loves the snow, oh was I wrong. So our usual routine in the mornings is hubbie and I are up by 5:30, and Aaron wanders in to our room within 5 minutes of the alarm going off, this morning was no different.

Except the first words out of the Aaron's mouth this morning were "Mom today is my field trip"..................
I will confess for a split second I felt like telling a little white lie and saying "yes Aaron it is" (Atleast let me have some coffee before the Aaron Storm hit!)
But no I said "Well Aaron we will have to see because it has been snowing and school might have to cancel the trip"

Well that was the wrong thing to say because within those first minutes of conversation with my 4yr old his excitement was shattered and the storm of Aaron hit with full force. As far as he was concerned I had made it snow, so I explained to him that I am sure the school would have the field trip another day, and that he would have fun at school this morning. He would be able to get a new library book, have circle time and that we could maybe go on a field trip when he got home. No that was not what Aaron wanted!
I finally managed to convince the boy that it was okay about the field trip being cancelled and that he would have a fun day at school. It is very amusing to me how in the eyes of a 4yr old everything is Mom's doing! I wanted a picture of Mother Nature to post on this entry, but I couldn't find one that showed her blowing snow everywhere and shattering the excitement of 4yr olds!!

My Free Bag from Cost plus World Food Market

Yesterday I had to run to the Cost Plus World Food Market, we were running low on teabags. I love this store, if ever I miss home I can pop down there and pick up some home comforts from England. Which is a good thing but can also be a bad thing because I can do some serious damage, but I have been really good lately! So I get the boxes of typhoo yesterday, and I head to the checkout, now the customer in front of me at the check out gets her items placed in a rather cool bag.................thinking to myself I want one of them!

Not realizing that they were running a promotion that if you spent $10 or more that day you would get one of these bags. I was very happy when my boxes of typhoo tea were placed inside one of these bags!

Inspiration................a New Year

WOW....................when did I last post!
I feel like I have to sit here and confess that I actually at one point last year completely forgot about my blog. So sitting here after exhuasting cooking dishes, growing crops and tending to my virtual fish tank! It suddenly dawned on me that I should start my blog up again, I honestly couldn't tell you why I stopped, life got too crazy, but when I think about it I just never made myself sit here and take that 30 minutes to post an entry.
Life can run away from you sometimes and since my last post that is what the past 6 months has felt like to me. So here we are New Year, and a new start to this blog.

I have been a bad blogger!

I have been a bad blogger, my poor blogs have been so neglected, but these past 6 weeks have been CRAZY. So much to share and now that we are on the final countdown before school starts again (this Mom is doing the happy dance) I can get back into the swing of things.

So stay tuned..................

Blog Drive by

Just a quick post today because our household is crazy busy at the moment and I am catching myself coming back wards, summer hols are in full swing, but I wanted to share one of my favorite websites with you all. Slickdeals is a great site for keeping informed on coupons, deals online and in stores, my family use this site regularly so if you have never heard of slickdeals here is the link and go check it out!

Baseball Clinic for a good cause

This past Sunday Jon and I took the boys to the High School here in Rio Rancho for a Baseball Clinic with the Coaches and players from the State Champion winning baseball team. Not only was this a great opportunity for the boys to experience a new sport (we are a soccer & football household) but we were also going to donate to the Corbin Hayes Memorial Fund. 13 year old Corbin Hayes lost his life recently whilst playing in the Rio Grande River, and as a way for the community to come together the Baseball team hosted a free baseball clinic, we had 11 boys from our Cub Scout pack come and donate, play and learn about baseball.

Now I am first to admit I really don't know a lot about baseball, but the High School team coaches and players put on a fantastic clinic, very well organized and kept the kids interested in all aspects of the sport.

Aaron getting some tips!
Brendan getting some batting tips

Both Brendan and Aaron enjoyed the clinic and we were glad to be able to donate to the memorial fund.

The trauma of going through the car wash!

I have no idea why at the age of 3 and a half that going through a car wash is the most traumatic thing in the world! My eldest did exactly the same thing at 3 and a half, and now Mr Aaron is carrying on the family tradition and freaking out when we go through the car wash. Maybe it is the noise, the unknown, those big scary rollers that seem to be hitting the car and are going to attack in the eyes of a 3 yr old, I just have no clue.

Now I have tried to be the calming force when we go through the car wash, and explain that the car needs a bath and there is nothing to be scared about! Yesterdays trip through the car wash was just hilarious and at the expense of my 3 yr old, I knew what I was going to blog about this morning! After telling him it was okay that the car was just taking a bath like he does, and getting no response but screaming, I proceeded to snap away with the camera on my phone, yes the mean mommy that I am just snapped away, not only for my blog, but as a record so that when the boy is 8 and going through a car wash is so boring I can pull the pictures out and show him that in his eyes when he was 3 the car wash was going to eat him!

Backyard Camping

We brought a tent yesterday, our first official tent, we needed one for an upcoming cub scout camp out. But decided to get one early, first because they were on sale ($48 for a 13ft x 10ft tent) and second because we can now just pack up and head out for some weekend camping fun. The boys were really excited and wanted the tent to go up immediatley when we got home, and New Mexico weather was not co-operating, so thinking it could go up in the front room, we set to putting it up! Silly us, cause it wouldn't fit, thankfully the rain and thunder passed, and our partially pitched tent was taken outside and finally pitched in the back yard.

The boys were so excited about sleeping in their sleeping bags in the new tent, Daddy thought that it would be a good idea to permantley move all their toys and clothes outside! Of course Mommy and Daddy were expected to join in the back yard camping fun! This was a practice run to see how the boys especially Aaron would do with the whole camping outside, he has never been camping, plus it has been a few years since Jon and I pitched a tent. I have to say it is surprising how noisy night life is in our sub division! But we survived our back yard camping and are looking forward to planning some camping trips this summer.

9 years ago today

9 years ago today I walked down the aisle and said "I Do" to a wonderful man. Our wedding was simple, nothing over the top, we did a lot of the wedding things ourselves like the cake, and the favors.
This picture above was taken just after our first dance, and is one of my favorites. I am very lucky when I look back over my life with my hubby. Jon and I were actually together 2 years before we married back in 2000. Our life together has seen it's ups and downs, but through it all we have been at each other side and without sounding all corny and sappy, if there is such as thing as a soul mate, Jon is mine.

So I was goggling romantic, mushy poems to add to this blog for my entry on our anniversary, because it is late here and I really should of been more organized and prepared! nothing jumped out at me and screamed Jon and Gillian. Until I found this:

"An anniversary is a time to celebrate the joys of today, the memories of yesterday, and the hopes of tomorrow."

For my hubby, I love you for the joy you gave me today, the memories we made yesterday and our hopes for tomorrow. Here is to many more years of being your wife xxxxxx

Another School Year finished

2nd Grade over and done with, it is very scary how fast time is flying by. There are days and even weeks were it seems as if time has stopped and days drag, but before you know it summer is here and camp plans are being made. Schools here in Rio Rancho actually had school on Friday, well if you can call it school, they had class for whole 3 hours, which I thought was rather nice giving parents a final reprieve before summer!

Brendan and his 2nd Grade Teacher

But Brendan is looking forward to summer, he gets to go to Cub Scout Day Camp this year which he is really excited about. Aaron I think is even more excited because BIG BROTHER is home during the day now and doesn't have to go to school, please note I shall be reading this line to both of them over and over again when the fighting and bickering starts!

Before I know it though August will be here and we will be school supply shopping!