Umm Umm Good..

Since this heat looks like it will NEVAH go away I thought I might share with you a really easy yummy recipe that is perfect for this hotter than hell weather. I came up with this late one afternoon at the lake. We had been swimming all day long and had forgotten that we would actually need to feed everyone. I was asked to throw something together with what I could find-I found linguine noodles, leftover smoked chicken, onions and tomatoes. So here is my Greek Chicken Pasta:



3 chicken breasts cooked and shredded

3 large tomatoes, chopped

1 large onion, diced

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive Oil

1 can black olives

Feta cheese

Linguini noodles


Cook noodles according to package directions. In a large skillet add 2 Tbs of olive oil and sauté onions for about 4 minutes then add tomatoes. Toss a in a pinch of Kosher salt and continue cooking until the onions are translucent. Toss in your shredded chicken and 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar; continue cooking on a medium heat until the tomatoes are totally soft and separating from their skin. You may need to add more olive oil to keep the mixture moist.
Toss chicken mixture and drained black olives with cooked, drained pasta. Cover and chill. Before serving you will need to re-toss and will probably need to add a little more olive oil and balsamic. Top each serving with feta cheese.


This keeps very well and is actually better the day after it is made. Plus you can change it up in any number of ways depending on what you have on hand..I have made it with artichoke hearts, and instead of just topping the servings with feta have added chilled cherry tomatoes and fresh sweet basil. Serve it with some nice crusty French bread and you can’t go wrong…..

Football

Magnuts weighing in at 50lbs (with his Gameboy in his pocket) will most likely be the starting safety for his team.......
This is him trying to slip on the field last year to play:

Magnuts- "come on Coach-please...."

Coach- "Quit sneaking out here-get your butt back on the bench!"

Coach sounds mean huh? Well check out the next picture:

Yeah, the guy in red with the lime circle around him is Magnuts....the other guy, or as he will be known from henceforth-GiantBoy, was lined up across from Magnuts. This is one of the last few plays of the game and both teams had put in their smaller players. Yeah, GiantBoy was one of their smaller players.......So we love Coach-he kept Magnuts in one piece last year.

In other news.....college football starts tonight-my prediction-LSU is going to beat Miss. St. like a red-headed step child. If it was legal and I had a bookie and lots of disposable income I would be all over that.

What did you say?!?

As a parent I have found myself saying all kinds of things I never thought would pass through these lips. It's not just stuff my parents said like: "because I said so" or "pull that fork out of your brother's eye and get me another Champale" (just kidding Mom!).

Generally my bizarre utterings are warnings of some kind....

"MonkeyBoy! Put the knife down or take off the skates for the love of God!" It was a butter knife and he was making a hot dog-but dang..

"Magnuts! Don't jump off the back of that sofa again until we get THIS cast off!"

"Miss-D! Put down the cherries and get off of the top of the refrigerator!"


"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I DIDN'T TELL YOU THAT YOU COULD NOT PAINT MY CAR!!!??"

"Miss-D! That is your Grandfather's brand new car not a place for your giant muddy rock collection!" *she responded by sweeping from one side of his hood to the other where they eventually hit the ground, but not before leaving several long deep gashes*


"Quit whining-I have to use cold water to get the raw egg out of your hair or it will cook-suck it up dingus you should not have had an egg fight in the house!!!"

And my new favorite "Magnuts-put those magnets back on the fridge NOW!"

Miss-D and the tooth fairy from hell...

Miss-D is the child who is a good saver. She is also always looking for a way to make a buck. When she discovered the tooth fairy she was in heaven. Those teeth were coming out at a record rate.

Miss-D -"Mom this tooth is loose help me get it out please"

Me-"It is not even wiggly, gross leave it alone"

Miss-D- "No it is ready to come out"

Me-"Well I'm not helping you that is nasty. Leave it alone.."

Several hours later, almost an hour after bedtime, Miss-D comes into our room proudly holding a bloody molar. I gagged and sent her to clean up...

About 1am Magnuts came to our room and got in our bed-bad dream he said. Well the next morning I got the whole story. Miss-D frustrated over her inability to get the tooth out herself attempted to enlist her little brothers. They didn't want to help, until.....Miss-D told them that it wasn't really a tooth but an alien tracking device. She told them that time was running out...the giant scary aliens could be upon them at any moment....and they loved to eat children.

Miss-D looked quite refreshed that morning-eating oatmeal and counting her money....those poor boys had trouble sleeping for a week.

???

Yes they are knitted and this is the before picture, can you guess what these will be with a little rubbing and lovin' from my washing machine????

Taadaa!

This is one of my most favorite patterns to knit. It is done with 2 strands at a time and knits up very quickly. It is so cool that something soft and floppy can, with a little warm water and friction, become a rugged durable shoe (realized midway through that sentence that I would have to watch myself).

Taking the sting out...

"OMG!" you say "What do you have the air set on 58degrees????" No my friends try 78. What could possibly take the sting out of this you wonder.....Well how about this:This award, and, several others are being brought to us by, The Painted Veil aka Shinade, and by Book Project aka Zubli... Accordingly they have designated themselves as a jury to spread this and other awards through the blogosphere, namely The Gold, The Silver, and, The Opal Awards of excellence. It was given to me by one of my favorites-Crazy Working Mom Let me tell you how amazing she is-I, who have been even more out of my mind that ususal (read- this and/or this to know why) think I about drove her nuts yesterday. The fact that her response to my last neurotic e-mail was not a picture of her hand flipping me the one finger salute is a testament to what a LADY she is. So-Crazy Working Mom-sorry for being a nut and thanks so much for this honor. If you have not read her go to her site RIGHT NOW! She is outstanding.

I will pass this along but at the moment I am all foggy-again with the writing in the morning-not so good. So thanks again Crazy Working Mom, you made my week!

Dumpster Diving Divas

Ok, I am actually writing this today, Thursday. I usually do them the day before cause I ain't so good in the morning. I also just wrote a detailed rant about something that happened yesterday and decided that early morning, haven't had enough coffee blogging could be as dangerous as drunk blogging. So...it has been deleted.

Nutshell: Miss-D became extremely ill yesterday-I noticed this when I picked them up and she was crying saying that she didn't feel good. She did not feel well because her 7th period teacher had her and half of the class standing in a straight line, directly in the sun for at least 45 minutes. They were standing there watching as the other half of the class dug through 50 gallon trash bins looking for aluminum cans. It was in the 100 degree range yesterday and this happened at 2pm. When Miss-D started feeling ill she tried to ease over and lean under a tree-she was yelled at and told to get back in line.

At first the nurse thought we might need to just go straight to the hospital, but 45 minutes later it was safe for me to bring her home. She had to take Dramamine to keep from being sick and ran a temp. of over 100 until well in the night.

The kids that did look for cans got a 100 for that day's grade, those who didn't got nada

• digging for cans is not in any curriculum I have ever heard of
• this is dangerous, nasty and stupid-
• my suggestion of taking any one of the 15 trash cans and putting a "cans only" sign on it have been ignored.

Hum....ok one cup of coffee does not seem to help with the ranting....

Flip flops and bug guts

The giant frickin itsy bitsy spider.

Wolf spiders have been coming down out of the bathroom fan in the kid's bathroom. The BugGuy showed up today and I asked him what we could do about it. He said that he had some poison he could pump into the attic that would kill ANYTHING up there. The whole thing only took 3 minutes and he was on his way. He did pause by the back door---"Oh, ahh, Mrs. Reevesfarm--you might notice a bunch more spiders in the next few hours they will try to pour out of any hole they can find to get away from the poison. Buh-By-see yah next month."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? Have you seen Arachnophobia? And BugGuy said Wolf spiders bite but that "it won't really hurtcha." Well aside from the heart attack from just seeing it.

My flip flops are not gonna do the job. The spiders are inside so shooting them might be overkill-time to break out the shopvac with the extra long hose. Wish me luck....

Magnuts "Axes" a Question

Last night right before bedtime Magnuts was snuggled up in our bed. He watched his Dad get up and walk to our bathroom. Magnuts poked his little head up and asked him what he was doing.

Dad - "Putting on deoderant."

Magnuts - "Dad is that the Axe?"

Dad - "Yes"

Magnuts - "Dad are you trying to make Mom be naughty?!?"

Bow chicka wow wow......

Perspective and Priorties

My Grandmother was killed 14 years ago-I mention this only because of how it relates to the subject matter of this post. An event of that magnitude can not help but change entire families. Changes that were expected and unexpected....good and bad. My Mom and I have talked about how one of the biggest positive changes for us was a crash course on "Don't sweat the small stuff." I burned down my Mom's hay baler and flash fried an entire field. Did she kill me? No. It was an accident and after all just a thing. I was safe and that was what mattered-priorities.....

Seriously, at one time I might have freaked out when money got tight, now I KNOW that there can be a day that you would love to have money as your biggest worry-perspective....

I just deleted 2 follow-up rants about the events of last week. There is no need to keep letting it eat me up-it is over-MonkeyBoy is fine-life goes on.

This post is sponsored by the nightmare from hell that I am still gasping from. I dreamed last night that Magnuts was very ill and that there was no hope-he was going to die a slow and agonizing death. I woke with a start-SO FRICKIN HAPPY THAT IT WAS JUST A DREAM! There are people out there who will not wake up from their nightmare....although they would dearly love to.

I am so grateful that it was a dream.....perspective and priorites....

Yesterday Sucked....Updated

On my way home from taking the FlyingMonkeys to school I saw something out of the corner of my eye. There was a giant wasp/bee thingy on my left shoulder-blown right in through the window. I managed to not scald myself with my giant mug-o-coffee, pulled over and beat the crap out of it with my flip flop (yes I know, flip flops and no bra-I am just classy like that). I finally made it home only to find the BIGGEST FRICKEN RATTLESNAKE I have ever seen in my driveway. Shame I didn't have my gun-the scaly minion of Satan had killed one of the bunnies that live in the bushes.

I finally made it in the door. Sat down to start paying bills and the phone rang. I was being summoned.......to the school. I can't say more now because it is still developing...be back to update around noon....stay tuned.

**Update**

Lets start with a little question, how many of you have ever heard of Mentos? Now lets see a show of hands for all of those who have seen the experiment where a Mento is dropped into a bottle of Diet Coke.

Last week during homeroom MonkeyBoy's pal was telling him that he would like to shake up some cokes so that they could spray each other at his upcoming b'day party (pal's party). MonkeyBoy asked him if he had ever tried it with a Mento. The boy had not so MonkeyBoy proceeded to draw up a schematic of a Coke/Mento prank that he had watched on YouTube with his father.
Here is a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-17r61jjIII&mode=related&search=

MonkeyBoy was waiting in the office for me when I got to the school-he was then suspended until a Board Of Education hearing. I was speechless. He had labeled the drawing "Coke Bomb." You will notice on the video that it is labeled bomb. It had a drawing of a 2 liter labeled "coke" and small piece of candy labeled "Mentos," string and the other things needed to complete the prank. I tried to explain to the Principal that it was just a candy experiment and how MonkeyBoy had come to see it. MonkeyBoy had no idea why he was in trouble until I got there and we were told together.

We went to the hearing and the boys were able to return to school. I am still so shaken up by the hearing that I can not post the details....The Superintendent and Principal were fine-more later when I have time to calm down and not do something rash.

Scanners and Scumbags...

I am looking for someone who knows how to use the "search" function on a BC 210XLT scanner. I found one in a closet and have punched in the police code that I found for our Sheriff on-line and I got nada. When I push "search" it says "error." I would really like to get this thing working because twice in the last week the police have been searching for a bad guy in/or around the woods behind my house.

One of the goobers was actually spotted running through the woods right towards my house. Did the Sheriff call me to alert me? No, a neighbor did. Even though they asked the neighbor who lived over in the direction that he was running and she told them and gave them my number, and told them to please call me. I spent 3 hours with the doors locked, alarm on, loaded gun at hand waiting to see what would happen. When they eventually did arrest this guy it was my neighbor, not the Sheriff who called and gave me the all clear.

So, for my own peace of mind I would like to know what is going on around here. If they are chasing some armed and dangerous nut job near my house I would like the oppertunity to call the FlyingMonkeys inside. Yes-I know every Mom on earth would just love to see their child used as a human shield but it would really interfere with our afternoon routine.

For those of you that know our history I am sure that you would agree that THE VERY LEAST the Sheriff's department could do for us is warn me when they are up to something right next to my house.

On a lighter note:

I was tagged by the Crazy Working Mom for the 7 P's.

1. Passion: Whah? I have been married 13 years what the heck is that?
2. Purpose: To get kids to school so that I can have some peace and quiet
3. Pursuit: Teaching them to drive so that they can get themselves to school.
4. Position: Sloutched in computer chair blinking eyes trying to wake up.
5. Pummeling: All the idiot meth heads that are trying to ruin our area. Seriously, if you are stupid enough to be driving around making meth in your car don't expect anyone to feel sorry for you when your car bursts into flames.
6. Progress: I have quit wishing death to all meth heads every time I have to stand in line to get Sudafed.
7. Personality: Snarky but sweet....kinda after lots of coffee

Hooter Holster Russian Roulette....

My van is a 1996 with about 150,000 miles on it. Yet, even with this information I continue to drive the FlyingMonkeys to school sans bra and often in what I slept in. Every day that I do this I am pushing my luck and the chamber spins......click. Will tomorrow be the day I blow a tire, or have some other car "issue"? Seriously, I am not one of those girls who can go with out a bra and it not be obvious. Picture crazy bra-less chick from cops....but with a real t-shirt on, not a food stained "wife beater". These last couple of days have been so hectic I have not even brushed my hair, scared the crap out of myself when I looked in the rearview mirror.


It is gonna happen, and there is NO cell service out here, click click click boom......

It's Africa Hot...

I have a pump bottle of hand sanitizer in my car.

I left at 2:45 to go pick up the FlyingMonkeys from school.

It was so frickin hot that I was unable to grip the steering wheel until I was almost to their school.

In a genius move I double pumped a blob of hand sanitizer into my palm.

I screamed in pain and proceded to try to smear the molten lava blue goop onto both hands while stearing with my knees.

Spreading it out does not make it cooler.

"Put your hands in front of the air vents stupid" said my inner child

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, sweet relief

Reach to rub tears from eyes forgetting the high alcohol content of blue goop

Begin screaming again

Pick up FlyingMonkeys with tear stained face and hands that will no longer leave a fingerprint.

Good Eats....

Just now waking from my reunion induced food coma. I was talking to my Mom and it occurred to me that there were several things on the Buffet Of Love that some people might never have heard of. So I am going to provide a brief overview with explanations (when necessary).



Pay attention this will be followed by a quiz....

• 4 different kids of fried chicken


• Boston butt with homemade bbq sauce


• 4 different kinds of corn casseroles


• 2 different kinds of squash casseroles


• Homemade chicken and dumplings with lattice work crust


• 4 different kinds of tiny little field peas *The reason everybody loves MeMaws*


• 2 bowls of butter beans *again, NOT Lima beans-these are tiny and cooked in lots of butter or bacon grease*


• English peas


• Broccoli casserole


• English pea and asparagus casserole


• Homemade potato salad


• At least 2 sweet potato casseroles *oh yeah babe, with the pecans and brown sugar..*


• Homemade mac-n-cheese


• Homemade pimento cheese


• 2 different kinds of deviled eggs *you can not have a reunion or holiday of any kind without these*


• Sliced Vidalia Onion, bell peppers and cucumbers in a cooked vinegar/sugar sauce *this is wonderful over a mound of field peas*


• 2 kinds of green salad *this is really going to throw you-there is not a single leaf of lettuce in this-it is cream cheese, lime jello, pecans, and sometimes marshmallows and/or pineapple....*


• Fresh sliced tomatoes *ummm dab of mayo and a dash of salt and pepper.....*


• A bowl of seeded watermelon *love it with a little dash of salt*

I am sure I probably forgot something-but y'all this was just the lunch stuff I have not gotten to the dessert table yet!

• 3 different kinds pound cake-coconut, chocolate and sour cream *I could live on just the crust alone*


• A gallon of fresh sliced peaches *I mean fresh-picked on Friday and peeled on Saturday*


• Yellow cake with cooked chocolate icing *I have never made cooked icing but it sure is good!*


• Chocolate pie


• 4 lemon pies


• Chess pie


• Brownies


• Peach cobbler


• Caramel Cake


• Blueberry crumble

I am betting I forgot a few of these too, I was still pre-coma but going fast by the time I got to the dessert table.

All of this was washed down with GALLONS of sweet tea.

So which of these foods have you never heard of? Which ones do you have at your family gatherings? Do y'all have some strange ones of your own?

Buffet of Love....

Tomorrow is our family reunion, a good southern reunion is a wonderful thing...

Last year I met some new people, people from Texas that had discovered their connection to our family while tracing their family tree. How cool is that!

The food, ohhhhhh the food......Some EXTREMELY generous MeMaw better will have spent days shelling those teeny tiny field peas...and she will be sharing! Someone else will be bringing a vat of those little bitty butterbeans. For those of you who do not know what butterbeans are-they are NOT just like Lima beans-they only share the same shape. Good butterbeans will be as small as possible and cooked in a ton of real butter. If I open my Mom's fridge and find a pot with a hard layer of white stuff on the top I know I have struck gold-butterbean gold. You just crack that white layer of buttery love and the beans will be there....

There will also be casseroles of every kind, fried chicken, rolls and iced tea. Then the dessert table- that's right people we have an entire table, sometimes two, of desserts! Seven layer caramel cake, chocolate cake, cookies, brownies and pies-oh my!

I have to get some laundry done today, I am guessing that I will be in a food coma most of the weekend.

And The Winner Is...

Yesterday was their first day back!!!!!!

What did I do all day? Laundry-No, Clean up remnant summer funk-No, Remove the 800 bottles and cans + plus other assorted crap from my van-No

I drank my weight in iced tea while playing EVERY one of the games they loaded onto my computer this summer and winning top score.....When they get to play again they will not see this:



1. Mag

2. MonkBoy

3. Miss-D

4. MonkBoy



They will see this:



1. MOM

2. MOM

3. MOM

4. MOM



BWHAAAHAAAAHAAAA HAAA!

So, what did you do yesterday?

Vomit Saber

Ok, I saw this in the news yesterday:


"The handheld device using light-emitting diodes to emit super-bright pulses of light at rapidly changing wavelengths, causing disorientation, nausea and even vomiting in whomever it's pointed at."

Alrighty then....I can hear the news stories now-"Family of 5 staggers in circles in store parking lot vomiting -Police are mystified, all blew 0.00 on the breathalyzer-Wal-Mart has no comment." No one saw the 10 year old giggling maniacally while pointing the barf beam through the rear window of his Mom's Taurus.

Don't feel like going to school-turn on Daddy's funny flashlight. Seriously some kid is gonna make a mint helping his buddies get out of tests they forgot to study for. 6th period math test-$10 + a 5 minute detour to the bathroom and you are golden.

I do realize that the fact that I am seeing all the funny inappropriate uses for this thing says something about me- My friend M will read this and say "She ain't right."

It's still funny.......

I Can't Take Them Anywhere...

Picture this:

Me, my parents and the FlyingMonkeys at the lake swimming. I am watching as they do backflips and practice diving off the end of the pier.

Magnuts: MOM! Miss-D just said something inappropriate and gross to me! She told me to stop "humping" the ladder!

Me:WHA?

Miss-D: I DID NOT! I said quit HOGGING the ladder!

My Parents: SNORT SNICKER SNICKER



Later on the car ride home my 3 children turned into four with the simple mentioning of a certain name....Mike Rotch.

MonkeyBoy: If we get a new dog we should name it Mike Rotch

Me: Don't start this again!

Husband: *snicker* please I have a really good one...

Me: NO! it will get completly out of hand, stop!

Magnuts: yeah, we could say "Mom ran over Mike Rotch"

Me: NO stop it!

Husband: *snort* Please I have a really good one?!?

MonkeyBoy: Mike Rotch drinks out of the toilet!

Me: Stop it, I am not kidding, someone is going to get in trouble!!!

Husband: PLEASE!!!!! just one!!!

Magnuts: MonkeyBoy petted Mike Crotch!

******crickets chirping******

Husband: Enough, didn't you hear your Mother tell you to stop?!?!

Rant

Have any of you ever heard of "People To People"? In January MonkeyBoy was nominated by a teacher to be part of it and they have bombarded us ever since. The first few letters they sent informed us that he was to go to DC for 7 days-alone. Basically they expected us to do this-
1. Put our 10yo on an airplane bound for DC by himself
2. Have faith that some unknown adult would meet him at the DC airport and get him safely to the hotel
3. Believe that other unknown adults would make sure that he was safe in the hotel, make sure he ate and ferry him to all of the activities.
4. O' yeah, and they wanted several thousand dollars.

They do not encourage parental attendance but they would allow a parent to accompany him, but only as far as the hotel, we would not be allowed to attend the events - and one of us going doubled the cost.

Yesterday we got a new letter. Now they want him become a member of the official state of Alabama delegation traveling to Oahu and the Big Island of Hawaii. It will be a 14 day trip with a group of 40 5th and 6th graders who will be "accompanied by four specially selected and trained local teachers." Have they lost their ever loving minds? One "specially" trained chaperon for every 10 kids?!?!

People To People-hear this: I would not let him be in the care of complete strangers for 7 days in DC-What in the world makes you think that I would send him to Hawaii for 2 weeks with more strangers?!?!?

I am sure that this is probably a wonderful opportunity-I just can't get past the whole sending my child off with complete strangers. With all the sicko kiddy touchers and child abusers in the news I just can't do it. Plus the letter talks about them "mastering their snorkeling skills" and sailing a catamaran-With one chaperon per 10 kids there is just no way they will provide adequate supervision for those activities.

Ok, rant over.

Toilet Humor

Where to begin......I get the first 4 but when did toilet fishing become such a problem that we need a sign?


#6 is the doozy, what is he a dog-boy, does he walk on all fours? It needs a good caption, perhaps it could even be turned into blog bling - maybe as a "Don't Pee In My Cheerios" sign?!?!

So what would be a great caption for #6---discuss.....

My Head Thumpith...

The kids are driving each other and by extension me..nuts. The cycle breaks tomorrow....we are going fishing. I promised Magnuts that we would go for a while by ourselves and we are both excited. I will take them all indivdually-the idea of the 4 of us and 4 flying hooks makes me nervous...too many chances to loose an eye. So one last chance before school starts for me to spend a little time, alone, with each one of them. A quiet minute to talk about how they feel about the new school year and anything else on their minds.



School starts the 8th, Praise the Lord, God Bless America, pass the Motrin......

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.........

Yeah, I am singing Christmas carols! Including, but not limited to this: And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again....

The end of May saw my first post, the one where I talked about 2 of my favorite things coming to an end-free cold air and school. Well, I do live in south Alabama so the free cold air is still months away-but school-just around the corner!

Making a list checking it twice-a school supply list that is. I have noticed that the supply list seems to be inversely proportionate to age of the child. K-5th grade are the worst, there was a time when I had all 3 in that age group and I needed a bank loan and a U-Haul to get all of the stuff to school. Seriously-on top of all of the glue sticks, pencils, scissors, graph paper, construction paper, notebooks, steno pads, and crayons-each child needed 2 packs of copy paper, paper towels, hand sanitizer, and tissues.

This year the FlyingMonkeys have missed their friends and are ready to go back. So...all school supplies have been acquired and labeled accordingly. I even managed to find the red shorts and thick white t-shirts Miss-D will need for PE, they have been washed, folded and added to her stack of school supplies.....

Its the most wonderful time of the year...
With the school bells a-ringing
And mommies a singing "school time is here!"
It's the most wonderful time of the year!