Boo Bash

Whew!! First meet down, lots more to go. Hannah had her first USA meet of the season this weekend and did sooo well :) She took time off in all 4 of her events; she swam the 200 free, 50 free, 100 back and ended the day with a fantastic swim in the 50 fly. She was so nervous for this meet because it's been 2 1/2 months since the last one. Between dual meets and USA meets, she will be swimming practically every weekend starting in December. No more sleeping in on weekends for us, but oh well. It's fun to watch her swim and see all her hard work pay off.

Beautiful

What a gorgeous weekend we had! The weather was chilly but sunny and clear. It felt so good to get outside and enjoy :) We took full advantage of the great days and took some fun pictures of the kids. Here are some of my absolute favorites.

Eight Things...

I was tagged by Molly, so here goes!

8 TV shows I love to watch:

1. FOOTBALL
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. John & Kate plus 8
4.The Hills
5. Kath & Kim
6. Project Runway
7. Greek
8. The New 90210 (I was totally sucked in)


8 things that happened today:
(it's early so I'll list for yesterday too)

1. school meeting
2. dr. appointment
3. swimming meeting
4. dropped Nathan off at a friends house for the night
5. dinner alone with my hubby :) (tried a gyro for the first time...not as bad as I thought it would be and totally LOOOOVED this place's greek salad...mmmmm)
6. had a chill evening with mike listening to sarah mclachlan. we {heart} her.
7. was rudely awakened by the marching band practicing this morning
8. taking fun autumn photos later :)

8 favorite places to eat:

1. Los Hermanos
2. Chik-fil-a
3. Carrabbas
4. Sizzler (hee hee)
5. El Jimador
6. Wendy's
7. Texas Roadhouse
8. Apollo Burger


8 things I'm looking forward to:

1.Picking Nathy up
2. Taking the aforementioned pictures
3. Watching the game
4. Mike's birthday
5. Hannah's birthday
6. Halloween
7. Swim season to start (It seems like they've been practicing forever already...time to race!)
8. Winter break

8 things on my wish list:

1. STEELERS TICKETS!!!!
2. I wish the economy would turn around
3. 68* and sunny
4. To see family
5. Happiness for my kiddos, always
6. More time in the day
7. Longer weekends
8. A VACATION

8 people I tag to do this:

Anyone who thinks it'll be fun x8

Something Fun

I found this cute website (wordle.net) that makes these fun little things. I decided to make one for each of the kids :)

Scone Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar + 1 tsp. sugar reserved
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen
1/2 cup chocolate chips (or raisins or dried currants)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large egg


DIRECTIONS:

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Grate butter into flour mixture on the large holes of a box grater; use your fingers to work in butter (mixture should resemble coarse meal), then stir in raisins.
3. In a small bowl, whisk sour cream and egg until smooth.
4. Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form. Use your hands to press the dough against the bowl into a ball. (The dough will be sticky in places, and there may not seem to be enough liquid at first, but as you press, the dough will come together.)
5. Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7- to 8-inch circle about 3/4-inch thick. Sprinkle with 1 tsp. of sugar. Use a sharp knife to cut into 8 triangles; place on a cookie sheet (preferably lined with parchment paper), about 1 inch apart. Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.

VARIATIONS:

Cranberry-Orange Scones
Follow the recipe for Simple Scones, adding a generous teaspoon of finely grated orange rind (zest) to the dry ingredients and substituting dried cranberries for the raisins.

Lemon-Blueberry Scones
Follow the recipe for Simple Scones, adding a generous teaspoon of finely grated lemon rind (zest) to the dry ingredients and substituting dried blueberries for the raisins.

Cherry-Almond Scones
Follow the recipe for Simple Scones, adding 1/2 tsp. almond extract to the sour cream mixture and substituting dried cherries for the raisins.

Sunday Morning Scones, mmmmm

I found this scone recipe online a few weeks back and decided to give it a try. We all loved them sooo much it has become our Sunday morning treat. This week we made a batch of chocolate chip and a batch of cherry almond. Our tummies are happy!
Next up to try: lemon blueberry and cranberry orange :)

Hooray!

Hannah came home from camp today and we were all so excited to see her. Nathan really missed her while she was gone. The first night, he wanted to call her so badly to say goodnight and was bummed when we told him she couldn't take her cell phone. This morning he was brushing his teeth and all of a sudden realized today was the day she was coming home. He started to chant, "Hannah, Hannah, Hannah..."
Hannah's bus pulled in before Nathy got out of school and she came with me to pick him up. The look on his face was priceless :) She hugged him so tight and told him she missed him and he said, "I missed you more!" He is such a tender-hearted kid.
It's good to have her back home. It definately feels weird when the kids are away. I start to get antsy if we haven't all been home together for a while.