Saturday, April 30, 2011

Tastes like home, Pork Tenderloins

The other day, I had a craving for a tenderloin sandwich. For those of you that are NOT from Iowa, it's basically a piece of pork, pounded thin, breaded and fried, served with mayo and pickles. Let's just say, it's not on the heart healthy list, but it ranks high on the yummy food I miss from Iowa list. Right up there with Taco Pizza, Checkerboard onion rings, Dutch Letters, and Pella Bologna. What's a girl to do when she lives so far from home?
I decided to make them myself. I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and just improvised with what I had on hand. What do you think?
They actually tasted great! Next time I will get thicker pork so I can pound them out to "fit" the bread better. I like them when they are much larger than the bun.
To my Iowa friends, the green stuff on the plate is broccoli. It's a vegetable. My husband insisted that the pickles slices don't count as a vegetable. Apparently, he thinks that "we" (meaning Midwestern folks) don't eat enough veggies. I told him that we eat plenty of veggies come summertime, when the sweet corn is ready, but he thinks we have to eat them at every meal. Kinda crazy if you as me!

Friday, April 29, 2011

We survived

We survived TV turnoff week! It wasn't really that hard. We had a few whiny moments, but all in all, we did great! I forgot that Little Loo was on spring break this week, so that was a little harder than I expected. I am grateful that the weather was beautiful this week, as we spent most of our week outside.

Thankfully, TV Turnoff ended last night. So in the wee hours this morning, after I kissed my husband goodbye, I was cuddled in bed with a scone and some coffee watching the Royal Wedding. I am not big on following the Royal family, or any other celebrity for that matter, but I do like the Pomp and Circumstance of a Royal affair. I love the traditions, the old hymns, the prestige of it all.

I wish I could report that the rest of our day went by so smoothly, but alas, it has come crashing down once again. Here I sit, not knowing weather to laugh or cry.....

I ran outside for a few minutes this morning to throw something on our lawn to kill the weeds. It needed to be done before the dew evaporated, so I put on a TV show for the girls and went to work.

Miss Loo was yelling that Peanut had a marker. I knew that the only markers she could get to were color wonder markers or washable markers so I didn't panic. Until I saw this...



And then this...


So what do you think?   Laugh or Cry

Sunday, April 24, 2011

TV Turnoff Week

Hello All... I am about to turn off this computer and start a week of no screens. Little Miss's school has invited all families to participate in a week of no TV, no computers, no video games, no cell phone games, ect. We are about shut everything down. So if you need me... call me!

See you at the end of the week when I will update you on all the no screen fun we had!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Sciatic Nerve, a pain in the butt

Unfortunately I don't have a bathroom update to report. I did finish bleaching the grout on the floor but the vanity still stands as it was. I have to put my to do list on the back burner for a bit while a figure out what is going on with my body.

It started last Thursday. I couldn't feel my right foot. I have pain and tingling sensations running from my glute down the back of my leg, to my big toe. It's not crazy painful, but it is annoying enough to put me in a pretty cranky mood. It appears to be more trouble with my sciatic nerve. I had this problem last year, and this time it is taking longer to dissipate. I have been to the chiropractor everyday. They have me on different machines, doing different stretches, and essentially icing my butt every hour.

My plans were to take the girls up to my inlaw's place in the Poconos for Easter. I really need feeling in my right foot to come back, before I drive for three hours. Any prayers you could send my way are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Bathrooms

Lately I am interested in all things bathroom. I have been reading home improvement blogs, pretending to look around for ideas for our bathroom. It makes me a little jealous to see things like Kim's bathroom on Newlywoodwards. Check out the progress they've made here. And I really start to turn green when I see bathrooms like this one.

http://www.houseofturquoise.com/
I want this in my house. Exactly like it is.... with a few modifications, because I don't think my bathroom is quite that big.
Our main bath is one of the last rooms we haven't done much with. It's the one that the girls use, and our guests as well. It's a really big project. MJ says we will do it when all three girls are potty trained. That seems forever away right now. We also don't have the time or the money to jump in, so it's a little ghetto for now.

This is what it looked like they day we purchased our house back in 2005. It still looks pretty much the same.


Shortly after we bought the house, we noticed a leak in the toilet. MJ fixed the leak by replacing the wax ring but the floor was rotten under the toilet. Since we were in the middle of a few other major projects (ie. kitchen and master bath), with no extra time or money to gut the bathroom, he put down some plywood to help distribute the weight of the toilet so it doesn't end up on top of our washing machine. I tried to make it blend in by painting the plywood white, but it didn't really work. It still looks ghetto but at least it is usable.

The bath tub had a sliding shower door, which had a large frosted swan on it. (I can't make this up.) Unfortunately it was so moldy that it had to go. Darn. We replaced it with a shower curtain which has worked fine. The toilet got a new plain white seat. The wallpaper had upside down seashells on it. I got sick of it, and painted it on a whim, a few months ago. (I know that you aren't supposed to paint wallpaper but I don't care)

Everything I do has to be cheap, as in almost no investment at all, because eventually I want to redo everything. Here are the last two things I want to do on the cheap, just to pretty it up, while we wait for complete renovation.

I want to paint the outside of the vanity white and get rid of the gold trim. I started on this last fall and then I forgot about it. (yeah, I know... another half finished project) I also painted the pulls turquoise. I love it. So that stays.


I really want to paint the inside of the cabinet too. I was thinking white, but after I saw the inside of Kim's vanity, it has me thinking maybe turquoise too!

Last but not least... I am bleaching the grout. I can't remember blog I saw this on (more blog reading creating more work for me), but the person used a bleach pen to clean the grout on their kitchen countertops. The flooring in the bathroom is clean, I have scrubbed them and scrubbed them, but the grout still looks nasty. I picked up some bleach pens at Walmart, because they had $1 off coupons attached (can you tell I'm dutch?). I came home and tried it out. I bet you can tell which half I did. It is very time consuming, but soo worth it! So that needs to be finished as well.  

Friday, April 8, 2011

the little things

Sometimes things in this house, things start to drive me crazy....
take for example.... these....


They used to be in the door that led to the garage. They were so bad that most of the time you couldn't get the door to open. MJ figured out that if you first turned it all the way one way, and then all the way back the other way, it would open. This little "trick" worked for me about 25% of the time. Most of the time the door had me cursing under my breath and sometimes out loud. It was so annoying!

My MJ was working on it. He bought the replacements and they have been sitting on the steps for a few weeks now. It is on his ten page honey do list. We had planned on working on a few things around the house this weekend but when he told me last night that he has to work again this weekend, I took matters into my own hands.

This can only have one of two outcomes.... I will do it right and get it done or I will crash and burn. If this doesn't work, and I cause more headaches for my overworked husband, I will be in big trouble! (I should warn you that this is usually what happens.)

Sooo......


This time.... I NAILED IT!
Meet my new door handle.


Sometimes it's the little things!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Eagles!!!

No you Philly fans, not those Eagles, these eagles...

Over the past two weeks I noticed many of my "Iowa" Facebook friends, posting links on the Eagles in Dacorah. I love Bald Eagles so I had to check it out. It is a 24/7 live link to a camera in an eagles nest. The nest is located in Decorah, a small town in North East Iowa. The Mom and Dad eagle have three little eaglets (or do you call them hatchlings). We love getting a glimpse of those little baby birds.
I showed Little Miss the eagle and she loved it. She also found a ton of other animal cams to follow.


I wish we had something like Red Rock nearby, so she could go to Eagle Days. In Pella (my hometown), the school kids are bussed out to Lake Red Rock, the large lake/nature preserve, just outside of town. They showed us live eagles and taught us everything we ever wanted to know about bald eagles.
On any given day in Iowa, you can take a drive out to the lake and see these beautiful creatures in the wild. Here, we have to take a trip to the zoo. That makes me so sad.
So if you love eagles like me, go check out this website http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles
I promise you, your kids will love it! Even the little ones...

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Happy Birthday Peanut!

MY BABY IS 2 TODAY!!!




 As each year passes, I am amazed at how quickly they grow. I have a feeling that this will continue until they are adults. To me, it seems so long ago that we were making the daily, sometimes hourly, drive to the NICU. Then I look at her baby pictures, and it seems like yesterday.



 
She has grown so much this past year. She finally started talking. And as with all of our girls, now i think she talks too much! All that worrying about early intervention and speech therapy for nothing. She always has something to say! I may be a bit bias, but I also think she is one of the cutest 2 year-old's I have ever seen! 
Love you baby girl!

Almost Summer?

Could it be??? Is it really summer out today? The girls think so anyway, but this momma knows better. It is going to rain later and get cooler tomorrow. So we took advantage of the summer like weather today and will enjoy every bit of sunshine we can find. Hope you are enjoy the sun too!