Prom flashback

I may be blogging a bit less frequently than I used to, but I still can't seem to pull myself away from this fun Friday meme hosted by adorable Alicia at More Than Words - the Friday Photo Flashback.  Each week it gives me a little bit more incentive to get my pictures in order. 

Seeing as tonight is my youngest daughter's senior prom, I thought she just might want to see how totally cool her parents' prom pictures were.  The first one is my husband's prom, which I'm guessing was 1979, the year he graduated.  I don't know the girl, but she looks cute and I think I remember him saying they were just friends, not girlfriend-boyfriend.  Don't you just love his glasses??  Crack me up!  You can tell they're the kind that turned into sunglasses when you went outside.  I'm waiting for Starsky and Hutch to pull up.  Something tells me he's wearing a gold chain around his neck and she's wearing a mood ring.

My prom was in 1983, and the funny thing is I still see my old boyfriend pretty frequently because our kids go to high school together.  He's still cute and I got fat - ahhh, welcome to life.  My mouth looks weird in that picture but oh well.

This next picture is the only one I have from being on prom court.  This was my escort, Mark Amrhein, and we've been friends since first grade.  Your escort had to be a boy that was on the court as well and we just paired off.  I can't believe I don't have any other pictures than that.  I don't even remember who else was on it except for my best friend, Sheila, and the winner, Caryn Baatz.  We were very excited for her because her older two sisters had been prom queens as well.

Yep, I'd say my daughter has a lot to live up to if she wants to look THIS cool 25+ years from now.  Good luck with that, Sara! HA HA

Little Big Man

I remember when my children were little, especially the toddler years, some of the days seemed so long and yet, now that they're older, I realize how true those words are:  "They grow up SO fast!".  I blinked my eyes this morning and my oldest, my son, was 22 years old!  What!??  I'm pretty sure just yesterday he was carrying around his teddy and collecting Goosebumps books and pogs.  Time really does fly and I just want to wish my son, Adam, a very HAPPY 22nd BIRTHDAY!!

When I talk to customers at work about my kids and I tell them they're 18, 20, and 22, I expect them to say, "What!?  YOU have a child that old??", but they never do.  Could it possibly be that I'm not as young-looking and hip and cool as I think I am??  Nahhhh.  The eyesight in this world is going bad.  Hellooo, it's only the kids that get older ~ I'm still the same age I've been for the past five years.

 Have a great day, Adam ~ ♥

Play that funky music

I don't know what the people in your neighborhood do on weekday afternoons, but I can give you a little peek of what they do around here.  Well, on one afternoon anyway.

Last Thursday, I picked up my nephew from school, took him home, turned in my subdivision, and looked to the right - it was a band...on a front porch...with lawn chairs in the yard!  A man had his chair in his hand walking back across the street and I rolled my window down and was like, "Oh, do tell!"  He said, "Aw, they've been playing for a couple hours now and they're gooooood!  They're playing religious music and stuff".  And stuff?  Well, OK.  I asked if I could take a picture and they were more than happy to strike a pose.  I didn't stick around too long after that because well, some of us had supper to make and laundry to do, but I just might pull up a lawn chair next time and listen to some "stuff". 


Honestly, I need to get out more.  I wonder what the rest of the neighborhood is up to!

Rockin' the bikini

That's right, it's all in the attitude!  

I'm the cool on one the left and this was probably around 1968 or so.  That poor girl on the right looks like she's about had enough.

Join Alicia at More Than Words for her wonderful Friday Photo Flashback!  It's loads of pre-digital fun and lots of great memories.

Not ready to be a grandma!

 MEET MY FAKE GRANDDAUGHTER,  CHLOE!

When I was in school and we took Home Ec., it was called Home Ec. and we did things like cook simple foods, sew things, and learned basic homemaking skills.  Every so often there would be a boy in class, but we pretty much looked at him like he had two heads - unless of course he was cute and then it was all fine.  Well, it's not your mama's Home Ec. class anymore - it's now called (at my daughter's school anyway), "Family and Consumer Science".  Boys in class?  Yep.  The girls definitely outnumber the boys, but nobody thinks anything of it if there are boys in the seat next to them.  Cuteness is still a plus - some things never change. 

Honestly, this class should be required for everybody.  You won't always need Geometry (Lord willing!) but you will need to eat, or sew a button on, or probably take care of an infant at some point.  They did finally make "Personal Finance" a required class because there are actually people in the world that don't know how to balance a checkbook, or pay a phone bill.  I don't worry about that as much because trust me, if they said, "Pay the bill or your cell phone gets turned off", they'd hot-foot it and learn that before the next commercial!

CHLOE MEETING UNCLE FROSTY

Well, Sara (my 18-year-old) takes this class and a large part of her grade is based on a two-day take-home project called "Baby Think It Over" and let me tell ya, you've never seen anything like this.  The "doll" comes with a computer chip that only the teacher can get to and each student (when they bring her or him home) has to wear a hospital-type bracelet with a scanner-type thing in it.  The only way to get the bracelet off is to cut it off, so you can't leave the baby with someone else to take care of.   She (or he) is yours for two days straight. 


Basically, here's how she works ~ when she starts crying (which like any baby, can be day or night), you first scan your bracelet near her (or him) that will register that you are there.  Then you have to figure out what's wrong with her - just like a real baby.  You can change the diaper (that has a sensor in it) and if that's not what she needs, then you have to feed her or burp her or rock her.  The bottle has a sensor as well.  It's funny because the baby makes drinking sounds while you're feeding it.  If you quit before she's finished, she starts crying all over again.  If she needs to eat at 2 a.m., guess what - you get up and feed her.  After that, she's quiet for awhile and then usually needs to be burped.  Sometimes it takes a minute or two, and sometimes a lot longer.  If you mishandle the baby like if it gets jerked, or turned upside-down, that all registers on its computer chip.  

EARLY MORNING FEEDINGS AREN'T FUN!

They have sign-ups at the beginning of the semester so if the students have a job, they can ask off.  Just like a baby, it goes where you go.  Because of the bracelet, it has to stay with you.  When we went prom dress shopping, guess who came along - Chloe (and her bottle and extra diaper).  They gave Sara a car seat and stroller to use.  We, as human parents, had to sign a release saying if the doll came back smelling like smoke or was damaged in any way, we were responsible.  Apparently they're pretty expensive.  Guess what, so are real kids!

BUSY MOM MULTI-TASKING.  UNCLE FROSTY STANDING GUARD.

After it's all over, the baby gets turned in and the teacher removes the computer chip and does I don't know what with it.  I guess she inserts it into something and gets a reading showing if it was mistreated, or if she let it cry for too long, or whatever.  Here's the text I received the other day (um, yes, she was texting from school - bad mommy!):

I think it was semi-fun while it lasted (minus the no-sleep part) but I think Sara's happy to have her life back.  Sometimes I tried turning Sara back in but she came with a "No Return" policy. HA HA  Of course I'm just joking!!!  (mostly)  Good job, Mama Sara!

A little bitter, but a lot of sweet ~

Well the countdown has officially begun around here until my youngest daughter graduates from high school.  She brought home her graduation announcements the other day and now it feels real.  Some kids never want to leave high school and some can't wait to move on - she can't wait to get outta there!  So many ups and downs and drama and laughter and tears - just like everything else in life.  Prom is in a few weeks, and then a few weeks after that...GRADUATION!

They had a talent show a few weeks back and Sara, along with a couple friends and one of their teachers, did a fun dance to the Hoedown Throwdown song from some Miley Cyrus movie.  We videotaped it but just can't figure out how to upload it to the computer so oh well.  Seriously, these are the SWEETEST girls you could meet and I hope they all keep in touch because I know they're all going separate ways (Sara's the one on the left).

To start things off the night of the talent show, three of the teachers got up to sing.  These are Sara's English teacher, her religion teacher, and I don't remember who the lady is - another teacher of something.  It was too funny because the bald one (who happens to sing at our church) got up and said they dedicated their song to all the students who don't study, and then they started singing that Sam Cooke song that goes, "Don't know much about history...".  They sounded really good, too!

I have to be honest, I'm not sad about this school year ending.  She's been ready to be out for awhile now and it's time to change hats and move on.  I will miss little things like this view (which I see about a dozen times a day - and that's an under-estimation)...homework & texting, or relaxing & texting, or chewing & texting, or.... (of course I had to sneak the picture).  Seriously, these kids can type faster with their thumbs than I can with two hands - why don't they give scholarships for THAT!?

Just a little sidenote:  Sara has had 8 surgeries in the past year and a half on her feet and now she needs one more on the 28th of May, so any prayers you could send her way would be just peachy.  Thanks!

Happy Easter to my Peeps!

OK, I know we've all seen this 1000 times, but I still can't help but laugh every single year!!

Hi blogging friends ~ I just wanted to wish everyone a very happy and blessed Easter!  I love Easter because it's what our journey is all about - what HE gave us on that day.  What a great day to be thankful!!  I'm also very thankful for my blogging friends.  When I took a break from the blogging world, I don't think there was one person who couldn't relate and hasn't maybe wanted to step back a bit here and there. 

I wanted to share a recipe I tried for our Easter brunch dessert.  I got it from the Taste of Home website and it's called Peeps Sunflower Cake.  Hellooooo, talk about EASY!  I think if you were born with arms growing out of your head and and the sense of a monkey, you could make this cake.

The ingredients (4 total):
~ 1 pkg. of yellow cake mix
~ Chocolate frosting - I made my own (which is beyond easy) - or it says use 2 cans of storebought
~ 19 Peeps (I think with the 8" pan, we used a few less than that)
~ 1-1/2 cups of chocolate chips (I don't know how many we used - not a lot it seemed)

First things first...bake the cake according to pkg. directions in 2 round cake pans.  It says to use 9" pans, but I only had two 8" pans and that worked fine.

Next, frost the cake (didn't see that comin' did ya!??).  Let me let you in on a little secret of stupidity...don't put a big piece of parchment paper under the cake thinking you're going to slide it out.  You won't.  You need to put a few pieces so that after you make a mess icing the cake, you can slide each piece out its own side.  Or don't and just wipe up your mess off the cake plate!  No rules here. 

Then, it says not to separate the Peeps and curve them to fit.  We did that but I just might try and separate them next time - your call.  You can't put them too near the outside edge of the cake or they'll fall off.  Make sure and overlap your Peeps a bit.

Finally, starting at the center, put circles of chocolate chips to fill in the center.  If you're working with someone who might be named Scott and he might be your husband, and you're both control freaks, you may want to do this alone.  You will spend a lot of time slapping each other's hands out of the way.  I'm just sayin'.  Slide the parchment paper out from underneath the cake you're ready to go!

Have a Happy Easter, everyone