Introducing: Elvis and His Groupie!

It's harder than you think to get a good picture of both children at the same time. Especially when at least one of them knew that we were headed up to church for the Funavil. He couldn't wait to play games and gorge himself on candy and cotton candy. There was booth offering apples, but who wants those?

Rockin' Out


A kiss for a fan


Jail House Rock Elvis (Dayton) and Blue Suede Shoes Elvis (Eli)


Eli, Corbin (Micheal Phelps), and Dayton


Two little girls who were more interested in their candy than in having their pictures taken


"We really are the cutest ones here!"


Phoebe and Mommy. No, I did not dress up. I wasn't even wearing Halloween socks! They were packed and I could not find them. Oh well.


The two Elvises sang a rousing rendition of "Jail House Rock" and "Blue Suede Shoes." They brought down the house!


Their fans could barely contain themselves!


All in all, it was a great evening. We went home and bathed (yes, the black hair dye did come out...I don't know if my bathtub will ever be the same) and were in bed by at least 9:30!! It was very hard to get Mr. Eli up this morning for KU, but it helped that we got to wear the costume again for KU Trick-or-Treating. We'll wear it one more time for actual Trick-or-Tricking tomorrow night before The Move on Saturday. Yes, it's still happening.

Why (you might ask) am I not spending more time packing and less time blogging?

I am out of boxes. Brad went to get me some more from the hospital (those people get more supplies each day than I have ever heard of in my entire life!) and I can finish up tonight. I'm sure I could be putting "hang-up" clothes into garbage bags, but I decided to take a little break.

Okay, break's over. Sigh.

Old Mother Hubbard

Yes, my cupboard is bare.


I have been packing and packing and in my free time, I've packed some more. A sweet friend of mine said that I must be pretty organized to get as much done in the last few days as I have. Ha Ha. If she only knew! I have packed the kitchen (hence the empty cupboard), the front bathroom, the living room, the dining room, the craft armoire, Phoebe's bedroom, Eli's bedroom, and our bedroom. I should mention that in all this packing, I haven't touched our clothes or shoes. We are still wearing them and I think I'm just going to ant-track them across town. Still left to pack are my bathroom, the laundry room, the pantry, and the computer cabinet. The places that I am NOT going to pack (I have a reason...really) are the fridge, our clothes, and the playroom. I feel like it would be easier just to take out drawers to stack them up and drive them across town...empty all the contents of the fridge into a cooler to load back up in the new house...stack up the toy bins (all the toys are already in plastic, labeled bins) and dump them in the new playroom. I'm sure there are lots of crazy reasons not to do this, but I've made up my mind. If you feel need the convince me otherwise, just plan on coming on over and packing it up for me! :)

The reason for all this packing? Brad says we are going to move this weekend! I have two thoughts on that: YEAH! and ARE YOU CRAZY?! It's a little overwhelming, but today I think it just might happen. Yesterday I was still very dubious. Today, not so much.

The Funavil at church is tonight. Please wait with bated breath to see pictures of my children in their Halloween costumes. They are awesome!

Terrific Tie-Dye

The guys in our Huddle think that we should start saving now to pay Eli's shrink bills when he gets to high school.

I think they look precious!

My friend, Careese, and I made these a few weeks ago for all our children. We made eight shirts and had high hopes of getting all the children together for a picture. So far that hasn't happened...but I haven't given up!

They really are best buddies.

Do You Know The Pretzel People?

Since I felt like I had neglected my children most of the week, I decided we would do something "fun" yesterday afternoon. Not wanting to go to the grocery store, I was limited to what I had at the house. I decided that we should make pretzels. I had some frozen bread dough in my freezer so I thawed it out while Eli was a school and we made them after Phoebe woke up from her nap. Years ago I had read in a magazine to use frozen bread dough to make pretzels and I'd always wanted to try it.

Of course, I took pictures.



Rolling out the dough is so exciting!!



"I'm not sure that is how they roll out the dough."




Inspection time.



Painting on the eggwash.





Adding the toppings took too much supervision so I didn't get any pictures. I didn't want sesame seeds and kosher salt all over my dining room. I'm just nuts that way, I guess. We used red sprinkles, cinnamon sugar, salt, sesame seeds, and minced onion for my topping... but not all on the same one, though! :) They baked at 375 for about 15 minutes. I meant to take a picture of the finished product, but by then, I was making dinner and things got a little crazy. We all had a cinnamon sugar or sprinkle pretzel for dessert and while they are no Pretzelmaker Pretzel, they were pretty darn good!

Two More Reasons I Won't Be "Mom of the Year"

There are so many reasons I won't be voted "Mom of the Year"-- two of them occurring just this morning. Today is the day Eli's pre-k class is going to the Pumpkin Patch...and I am not. Due to my illness (which I'm over now, thankfully) I am waaaayyy behind on the stuff I need to get done with the house. My children can trash a home in nothing flat...especially when they are unsupervised like they were yesterday. For example, Phoebe managed to climb on the toilet in the front bathroom and pull out every single bandaid from their boxes and then proceeded to unwrap every single one tearing each wrapper into as many pieces as possible. It looked like somebody had paper confetti parade in my bathroom. I needed to use this morning just to pick up my house. While I was gathering up all these little pieces of paper, Phoebe pulled out all the bloomers to all her dresses and spread them around her room. Sigh. And there are still boxes to be packed for The Move. I felt like I could probably justify not going on the field trip if not for one teeny, tiny problem. Eli has no winter coat. I just haven't gotten myself together to find one for him and last year's coat (which was actually the coat from the year before) does not fit. The high today is supposed to 52 degrees...and it's a little windy. I layered him up as much as I could (long-john pajamas under a t-shirt and jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt over that, a sweatshirt, and a hoodie over that...along with a toboggan and gloves), but I'm just not sure it'll cut it. Oh well, kids don't feel the cold, right?

Because I feel like I've neglected what's really important when it comes to Eli (you know, quality time and basic needs) I've decided to post a boatload of pictures of Phoebe. Seriously, I think all we did last weekend was take pictures of Phoebe. She's just so darn cute and photogenic!


This is what Phoebe looks like at the end of the day...just a little crazy.


I think she may have Uncle Ben wrapped around her little finger. I don't know too many people he will share his ice cream with!


Who can resist giving this baby anything she wants when this is your thank you?!


If Uncle Ben runs out, then go find Grandaddy!


I think we are going to have to teach this gal to not just kiss anybody who gives her ice cream!


I think all we did on Sunday was dress her up and take pictures. These were before church.



And After.




"Enough pictures already!"


Nena makes it all better!


Well, my spellcheck isn't' working so I guess it's time to stop with the picture-posting. Please excuse all my mistakes.

Update: My spellcheck is working again (sort of) and I am sorry for all of you who read this post with misspelled words. It's very embarrassing. Especially when your mother is a librarian.

Carrie Barrie

We're moving a bit slow around the McCall house this morning. Yesterday I felt very overwhelmed. I was exhausted and achy and I had a headache. This is on top of feeling the pressing need to pack boxes and get ready for The Move in a few weeks. It was just one of those days (or nights really). Well, it turns out I was running a 100-degree fever. I was so relieved. I know, it sounds a little crazy, but I was so glad it was an actual ailment and not just overwhelmed that it made me feel a little better. At least emotionally. I still feel like crud this morning because I'm still running a fever. Not right this second because I took some Advil, but I still feel completely drained. That's why I'm at the computer. It doesn't take any energy to type...where it takes infinitely more than I have to pick up the three loads of laundry I folded yesterday afternoon or all the toys my children pulled out because they were completely unsupervised for most of the evening. (Brad had to go do "house stuff"...I will be so happy when it's finished! Oh wait, that will mean we have to actually Move so I take that back. Denial is much easier to live with.) This is all to say that I will not be posting a lovely post about my weekend. I went to Dallas for my sister's lingerie/bachelorette party. Eli and Brad stayed here (I flew and it was free to take Phoebe so the boys stayed home and had a boys weekend) while Phoebe and I went to Dallas. I think the girl enjoyed a little spoiling! :) But I'll post those pictures later.

Here are some pictures of my little sister, Carrie. She's always been incredibly photogenic and it's very irritating coming from someone who has a hard time taking any good pictures! Even when she's acting silly, her pictures look great. Grrrrr.




Well, it's off to comfort Phoebe who is crying at the backdoor because Eli just left. A friend is taking him to gymnastics and then home with her to play with her boys. He'll have a great day and I won't feel like he's been completely neglected. I think Phoebe feels a little neglected, though.

Eliball

Playing games with Eli is like Calvinball. Yesterday, for example, we were playing "slugbug" (where you point out VW bugs to earn points...we don't "slug" in the McCall version) in the car and here's how it went:

Mom: Slugbug! (We were three to three at this point. Seems there were a lot of VW bugs on the road yesterday)

Eli: You lost a point because you said "Slugbug." You have to just say "Slug."

Mom: No, that's not how we play. I have three and you have three. (A few seconds pass.)

Eli: Slugbug!

Mom: Eli, that's the same one I just called. You can't call it again.

Eli: No, if you call it, then I can call it again.

Mom: Eli, that's not how we play the game. We're still three to three. (A few more minutes go by) Slugbug!

Eli: Mom you can't call that one because it's black. We drive a black car so you can't call black slugbugs.

Mom: Yes, I can. Now we're four to three.

Eli: Well, once you get to four, the other person gets seven. So now we're seven to four. But it's okay, Mom, because later you'll have ten and I'll have seven.

I gave up after that and decided that a lesson on changing the rules so he could win was really cheating. I'm sure I will only have to go over that once, right? Eli is always so open for those learning moments and only has to hear them once.

I'll go wake up Eli for the day when I stop falling off my chair laughing.

Lights, And Tile, And Counters....Oh My!

Brad and I went out to the house yesterday. I haven't been much lately because the weather has been bad and they've been laying tile so there were areas where we couldn't walk. It just seemed easier to wait. The difference today is amazing...it actually looks like we might be moving in a couple of weeks. *Gulp*

I took a few pictures to show the progress.

My dining room light fixture. It matches the pendants and I think they look pretty good. Please ignore the disgusting fly tape hanging from the ceiling fan in the living room. We had massive fly problems and they were leaving fly specks on our new white trim. Brad found these at the local feed store and they did the trick...albeit grossly.



The kitchen with countertops.



The entry light.


Brad's office with the tile that looks like wood. We've used that in the entire first floor except our bedroom.



Brad modeling the laundry shoot in the children's bathroom.


Sometimes I think we've been working on this house forever and that we may never move in. Then other times I feel like moving day is barreling towards me like a train on a train track and I am tied to the rails like the heroine in those old silent films. To say I dread it would be understatement. However, countless families have moved and survived so maybe we will, too. I'm just not sure my sanity will. :)


Keep voting for Josh and Careese! The voting ends Monday, Oct. 20th.

Saving Supper Carnival

A gal is hosting a Saving Supper Carnival on her blog today. She poses the question "What do you do to keep your sanity during the "witching hours"? You know, that dreaded hour after nap and before dinner. The one where the children are cranky, the hubby comes home from work, the mommies are trying to make a delicious, kid-friendly, healthy meal that the whole family will enjoy all amidst the crying/yelling/whining of said house residents. Yeah, that one.

I'm not sure I've figured it out, yet. Then again, I'm not sure any mom I know has it "figured out" so I'm in good company. I have found a few things that occasionally work here in the McCall house.

* I really enjoy cooking...I think it's because I really enjoy eating. I enjoy eating good food, too, but what I love more than cooking and eating is finding easy good food recipes. My favorite website (currently) to find these meals is wwww.kraftfoods.com. It has features that allow you to make your own online recipe box, recipe searches by type of food or ingredient, and cooking demos (I don't usually watch those). My favorite recipes so far are: Chicken Lo Mein (I substitute whole wheat pasta and sometimes mix up the veggies...broccoli and carrots are delish), BLT Pasta, Beef N'Broccoli (I use brown rice), and Farmhouse Chicken. Most of these recipes cook in 20 minutes or so and all you need to do is throw together a salad or some other veggie and you're done!

* On those awful, everybody-is-cranky days, I let them watch Sesame Street. We don't watch TV while the children are awake so a video or "DVRed" Sesame Street is a real treat. I just love Sesame Street. It's so cool and artsy and educational. I'm pretty sure there is a reason it's still going strong after 30-odd years or so.

* I'm also a big "freezer." Our family is not full of big-eaters and nobody really likes leftovers. I've started making a whole recipe of something and freezing half in a ziplock bag or disposable pan. Soups, stews, pasta sauces, calzone or ring fillings all freeze really well. The soups, stews, and pasta sauces should be cooked, cooled, and then frozen. Fillings should be left uncooked and frozen to be cooked later. Casseroles can be assembled and then frozen before they are cooked. When I have some time, I also cook big batches of chicken. I'll boil four or five pounds of chicken, shred it, and store it in quart-sized bags by 2 1/2 cup measurements. When I need cooked chicken, I just pull it out of the freezer and defrost it. It saves so much time! Just be sure to label everything with the contents, date, and if need be, the instructions.

* Sometimes everybody is just plain hungry. I keep cut-up carrots, bell peppers, little tomatoes, and cucumbers in plastic bags in my fridge. I just pull them out and let them munch on those (hubby included) before dinner. If they fill up on veggies and are too full for dinner, oh well, they've filled up on veggies. I don't get out any "dip-its" before dinner...you know, ranch, vinaigrette, bbq sauce, whatever.

* I used to be really good at getting my son to "help" me with dinner. Before I had my daughter, it was a special time between the two of us...even if said "helping" was just sitting on the cabinet playing with the measuring cups. I got out of that habit and I'm kind of sad for it so I've been trying to get him to help me make dinner again. He can butter bread, chop veggies or fruit (with a sort-of dull knife), make a salad, and get everybody a drink. He likes to help and I'm trying to get up enough nerve to let him help with even more. I want both of my children to enjoy cooking and I know just letting them in the kitchen with me is what will inspire that.

* I picked up a supply of unprinted newspaper from our newspaper here in town. Sometimes you can get it for free! :) It's nice big sheets of paper that I lay down on the kitchen floor and supply the children with crayons or bingo markers or markers or any other fun, easy-to-clean-up art material. It can't be a supervised art project so it has to be easy!

Most nights I am too exhausted to eat at dinner. Most nights the witching hour gets the best of me and I too long for a quiet Barnes and Noble chair with a decaf Starbucks coffee in my hand. It's the end of the day for me, too, you know. But I try to keep in mind what I heard someone say about this season with my children, "It's the time of my life where the days are long and the years are short." Amen, sister.

Finally...The Pumpkin Patch Post

I feel certain that the only people who will actually look at all my pictures in the slide show will be directly related to us. I also feel certain that I spent waaaayyy too much time working on that slide show. It took FOREVER! So instead of giving you a play-by-play of our entire weekend (who wants to read that anyway?) I've come up with "The Top Ten Reasons I Had A Great Weekend At The Pumpkin Patch." Enjoy!

10. It was perfect weather for hot air balloon watching. Low 60's. No wind. Too bad it was 5:30 in the morning!

9. My children were mostly well-behaved despite the time change, erratic sleep schedule, and over-stimulation at the PP.

8. No one was hurt in the tornado that hit the PP on Saturday night. It certainly was exciting. We weren't there, but exciting nonetheless! (No major damage was done and we got to help with the clean-up on Sunday morning.)

7. The PP keeps getting better and better. Every year I think, "This is all they can do, " and then they add more to it the very next year!

6. I got some great pictures of my children who were acting fairly photo-genetic on Friday afternoon. Notice Phoebe's dress. My mom made it and it's reversible! You might remember seeing it here.

5. Good quality time with family. Enough said.

4. I was able to take more pictures than I will ever need with my new camera.

3. Watching Phoebe ride the cowtrain and go down the slide. I've imprinted them on my mind to watch over and over in the slideshow of my memory when I'm old.

2. The weather was perfectly "fallish." Cool, but not cold. A little rainy. So nice.

1. The chocolate pancakes at The Chocolate Factory. They are decadently divine. And yes, they are better than the s-word!

This weekend left me with just one burning question:

Where, oh where, is the Coffeemate Pumpkin Spice creamer?

The Dawn Of A New Age...When I Figure It Out

We got back home last night around midnight after our annual trip to Brad's parents' house and the McCall Pumpkin Patch. It's one of those weekend that Eli looks forward to all year long...kinda like Christmas! (Yeah, it's that fun.) If you want to plan a weekend trip in the fall, then I highly recommend Albuquerque in the month of October. If you hit the Balloon Fiesta, great, it's lots of fun, but if you don't, there are soooo many things to do there. We try to go on one of the weekend's that involve the Balloon Fiesta and when his brother's family from Lubbock can also go. Brad is the youngest of four boys and two of them live in the Albuquerque area so when we all get together, it's kind of wild and crazy with ten adults and ten children all running around. It was a great trip and made even better by the fact that on the way out of town on Thursday night, Brad bought me a new camera! It is absolutely fantastic and I love it. I took 447 pictures on Friday alone and another 991 on Saturday and Sunday. Did I mention that he also bought a massive memory card? I think I've gone a little crazy. We downloaded all the pictures from Friday onto Brad's laptop and the rest are still on my camera. Now all I have to figure out how to get them off the camera and onto the computer. That will have to wait until a little later. I've got unpacking (yuck) and grocery shopping (not so yuck) to do this morning and I'm still waiting for Eli to wake up. This trip wears him out! Usually we are all up around 7am, but not this morning. Phoebe just woke up and she's sitting in my lap drinking her apple juice (the milk went bad over the weekend...oops) and Eli is still snoozing away. It helps that it's dark and rainy and cold this morning and he's absolutely exhausted.

"Let him sleep. For when he wakes he will move the world." -- Napoleon

And because timing is everything, just as I finished typing the above sentence, Eli bursts into my bedroom (apparently, he's awake now), growling, and then asks, "Did I scare you?!" Oh, that boy.



Don't forget to vote for, Josh and Careese. The voting is still happening and they still need a new kitchen!

My Brother Has Waaaayyyy Too Much Time On His Hands

This is what my brother sent me yesterday in an email. He said he was googling pirate Halloween costume ideas and this picture popped up. Right.


It's funny in a disturbing kind of way. He also worked on a picture of my parents at their wedding.

This is the original.


Ben thought this one was just a little truer to the original colors. Carrie disagrees because she thinks all of the 1970's was orange. Let me also mention that my mom still looks very much the same (if not even prettier)...too bad the same can't be said of my Dad. (I love you, Dad.)


Does anyone else think they look a little stunned?



Don't forget to vote for our friends, The Woods. Even if you live in Timbuktu and couldn't care less, they would certainly appreciate it! It only takes one teeny-tiny minute and you can vote everyday until Oct. 20th.

Soups On, Folks!

It seems a little silly to be sitting at my computer blogging about the wonderful soup we had yesterday evening when it's a balmy 74 degrees outside. I meant to blog last night after dinner, but when I got home from my Bible study, I was way to tired and this is the first opportunity I've had today to sit down and do it, but that's the weather in West Texas and we just all have to live with it.

As I finished all the chopping of my veggies for this soup, they looked so colorful and yummy and "soupish" that I had to take a picture.

I know it looks a little 1970ish in the photo above and I think it's because of the old, cruddy camera I am using right now. If only I had a really good one that could capture our children's childhood and all the other wonderful things I feel the need to take pictures of. (Hint, Hint, Brad.)

This soup really is delish. It has all kinds of wonderful things in it.

Like Italian sausage


And chicken broth


And fresh rosemary


And lots of yummy zucchini (we love zucchini)


See, this is Brad dumping in the zucchini...he's very helpful that way. I was up to my elbows in pesto sauce making pesto pinwheels so I couldn't dump the zucchini in, but I could take a picture! :)


There's also tortellini in the soup. Hence the name "Tortellini Soup," but there are no more pictures of my beautiful soup because my camera's batteries gave out. Sigh. And it really was beautiful. It makes me happy to make pretty food.

My children also love, love, LOVE this soup. I usually make a full batch and freeze half so we have to throw together on one of "those nights." We don't like leftovers too much so I tend to freeze a lot of stuff. You just have to bring it back to a boil and throw in the frozen tortellini and five minutes later there-you-go, soup for dinner! Eli likes this soup so much that he took to school in his lunch today.

And I wouldn't leave you without the recipe. I found it in a Paula Deen magazine (that woman sure can cook!), but I've made a few changes. I'll just give you my version and you can tweak it to suit your own family.

Tortellini Soup
1 lb. Italian sausage
3 medium carrots, thinly sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 (32 oz.) boxes chicken broth
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
3 medium zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced
5 or 6 sprigs fresh rosemary chopped very fine or 1 t. dried rosemary
salt and pepper
1 (20 oz) package refrigerated or frozen cheese-filled tortellini

In a large pot (and I mean BIG), combine sausage, carrots, onion, bell pepper, and garlic; cook over medium heat until sausage is browned and crumbles. Stir in chicken broth and tomato sauce; bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add zucchini and rosemary and simmer for 20 minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. I also add a little dash of crushed red pepper...we're just like that around here. (If freezing half: Ladle out half of the soup mixture into a bowl to cool. Make sure you have a pretty good ratio of veggies, meat, and "juice". Put half of the tortellini in a quart size Ziploc bag and, when cool, pour the soup into a gallon size Ziploc bag. Label with contents, date, and reheating instructions and place both bags, side by side, in freezer) Add tortellini and simmer for five minutes or until tender.

I think Eli summed it up best at dinner: Slllluuurrrppp. Long, dramatic pause. "That sure is good stuff!"


On another note: Our good friends, The Woods, need your help. A few years ago they bought a foreclosed house with the intention of fixing it up. It has great bones, but to say it needed some work was an understatement. They had to do major renovations before they could even move in (which they did one week before they had their third child). Life happened and they have been unable to finish the kitchen. Now they are expecting their fourth child while in the process of adopting two more. When I say they have big hearts and generous spirits, the words don't do them justice! By the end of April, they will have six children under the age of five. A local TV news here in Amarillo is having a kitchen remodel for the worst kitchen in Amarillo...Josh and Careese made the final top five! Please click here to vote for them. You'll have to register, and it takes a moment, but then you can vote once a day until Oct. 20th (starting today). Please, please, please vote for my friends' kitchen. They need it so very, very badly. She doesn't have countertops and her stove is sitting on an old door and she's pregnant...what better reason is there than that?!