Halloween costumes

Frightful

This is the trampoline that was covered with snow when we woke up this morning

These are the shoes that sat by the fire all day because they were left out all night by the trampoline that was covered with snow when we woke up this morning.

These are the shoes the kids wore to school instead of the shoes that sat by the fire all day because they were left out all night by the trampoline that was covered with snow when we woke up this morning.

public service announcement

In a conversation recently with my wonderful sister in law, she mentioned off hand that right now would be the worst time for my brother to die. He is finishing his residency in Radiation Oncology at the Mayo Clinic. AKA he’s loaded up with debt and there would be nothing to show for it if anything happened to him. {Although, luckily she said student loans are forgiven whenever someone dies. I hadn’t heard that before. And I did actually hear that fact corroborated by Dave Ramsey. He was advising against consolidating student loans with your spouse for that reason.}

Well, you know how things work, once someone says it out loud…

So within a couple of weeks I found out that a close friend and neighbor was suddenly facing a very similar situation. One that I probably wouldn’t believe if I didn’t know them in person. Just graduated, new baby, looking for a job, and **BAM** Stage IV Melanoma. {In case you don’t know there are only four.} Originally the doctors told him to expect 9 months.

I remember when I had Melanoma. It was only stage one, but that was plenty. We almost lost our insurance in the middle of it. Things were a mess. One day we got a check in the mail. Anonymous. For thirteen hundred dollars. I was flabbergasted.

I wish I had that much to give them. Maybe someday I’ll be in that position. Right now, I’m trying to help with an upcoming 5K fundraiser and garage/bake sale. There is also more info here if you are interested in giving a little. Even little donations add up.

And maybe we can’t pay all their bills, but at least just hold them over until their *free health care* from Obama kicks in, right? {OHHHH, the AUDACITY!}

Without further ado

a summer slideshow

Oops. I did it again.

Two and a half months with no post.

So sue me. For what it's worth, here are some summertime highlights in summary:

Watched all five seasons of hgtv design star. My favorite seasons actually go in order, with season one way at the top {I think I have now watched everything there is on hulu with david bromstad in it}, seasons two and three pretty close together, season four was ok and when season five came around I thought to myself, “this feels way too much like the apprentice.” And then I saw the flames in the end credits. Also watched a lot of Curb Appeal and discovered Sarah’s House and Rate My Space.

Kept up our bed and breakfast. I don’t think we went longer than two weeks without having someone staying at our house. And that’s not even counting people we got to see who didn’t actually stay at our house. Love living in a central location.

Lost eleven pounds and had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast everyday. With strawberries and whipped cream. But that was half of my daily calorie count. And you know, it actually helped to have a breakfast to look forward to. And then I went straight downstairs and watched hulu while on the elliptical. My other best friends were sugar free jello {10 calories} and fudgesicles {60 calories}.

Picked a lot of zucchini. I shredded most of it so I could make this and this. Mmmmm. But hand shredding got old fast. Luckily my sister in law loaned me her kitchenaid shredder attachment. How do *you* spell relief?? The tomatoes grew like crazy and so did the single pumpkin plant that Easy brought home from kindergarten in a cup. It took over an entire garden box. We also managed to get a few peas, watermelons and a handful of strawberries. But don’t worry, I ordered a stack of seed catalogs and I’ve got lots of plans brewing for the next go-round.

Lots of reading. We love the library. I’m assuming they have a limit on how many things you can have checked out at once, but it must be pretty high. We go through that place and come out barely able to carry everything. So my favorite part of the day quickly became quiet reading time in the afternoons. Now that the kids can actually read, they’ll get started and just keep going for quite a while. It was almost like having naptimes again. Sigh. And tennis lessons and swimming lessons are great times for me to do my reading.

And I might just have to do some back dated stuff.

But don't hold your breath.

Pumpkin Paradise

I made this pumpkin cobbler recently when my house was full of people and everyone seemed to like it. My sister, who doesn’t like pumpkin pie, asked for the recipe. And my little brother asked, “What did I just eat?! It was good!” Well, he did just get back from El Salvadore…

Anyway, here is the complicated and very tricky recipe.

Beat together 3 eggs, a 15 oz can of pumpkin, a 12 oz can of evaporated milk OR one cup of milk, one cup of sugar, 1/8 teaspoon of salt 1 and a half teaspoons of cinnamon, a teaspoon of ground ginger, and a Tablespoon of vanilla. {I have used a can of pumpkin with the spices already in it, in which case you just skip the rest of the spices listed here. Or you can substitute 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice}

Pour that into an ungreased 9x13 baking pan. Sprinkle the contents of one yellow cake mix over the top. Drizzle with one cup melted butter. {I actually don’t use quite that much…} Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Top with 1 cup chopped nuts and Bake an additional 15 minutes. The original recipe came from Gooseberry Patch.

Feel free to smother it with vanilla ice cream.