Our day at the Park

Well, We went to the park the other day. We had to take Granny to the doctor and insted of waiting for her there, I took the kids to the park. It was a hot day, but we got there early enought for Kenny to play for a while. Simone protested saying that she was too old to be playing on the playground, but when I wasn't "looking" I found her climbing around on the "rock wall". She then played with Kenny for a while. I don't think you can ever really be too old to play. Overall, I felt like the kids a little fun at least...cause I know how boring it is to have to take someone to the doctor when you are a kid. By the way, Kenny took the pic of Simone and Simone took the one of Kenny...can you say...they were playing nice, lol!!!!!!!!

Shopping at Kroger yesterday!!!

I give it 2 thumbs up...that is, the savings I did at Kroger yesterday. I went to do a little bit of shopping yesterday in a neighboring town, since my husband had to take his granny to the dr.
I took my coupons and did a bit of "shopping" and "saving" at Kroger grocery store.
Here is what I got.
2 Pillsbury brownie mix
2 Cascade Dishwashing powder
2 softsoap handsoap
2 crest toothpaste
1 adidas deod.
1 box 6ct. kroger icecream bars
4 pack of 12 ct bic pens
1 candle in jar
2 lipton sides
1 delmonte peaches
minus kroger plus savings of $13.27
minus maf coupon sav of $13.48
for a grand total of

$9.49

I was pretty excited about it!!!! I feel like I saved and got some good deals.

Toad water????????

You all know from all of the posting (and ranting) that it has been hot, hot, hot here for a while now, but here is a picture that will show you just how hot it really has been. This is a big fat toad in my ducks water...Everything else is dried up so this is about the only relief around for the ducks and well now the toad too!!!!!!!!!!! Now that is hot!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Peppers

Well, it actually wasn't peter who picked the peppers, it was me and here they are...I mean there are a ton of them...peppers really do well in the heat....

They sure are beautiful.

More bad new!!!! more hot weather

Here is what the weather forcast is like:
HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE REGION HAS CREATED A VERY STAGNANT WEATHERPATTERN FOR EXTREME SE KS & THE MO OZARKS.TEMPS ON AN AFTERNOON BASIS ARE EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM 99TO 104 DEGREES THROUGH WEDNESDAY. HEAT INDICES WILL RANGE FROM 101TO 107 DEGREES.AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING MEANS THAT A PROLONGED PERIOD OF HOTAND HUMID CONDITIONS WILL OCCUR. THE COMBINATION OF HOTTEMPS & HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A DANGEROUSSITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE LIKELY. DRINK PLENTY OFFLUIDS.STAY IN AN AIR-CONDITIONED ROOM.STAY OUT OF THE SUN.AND CHECK UP ON RELATIVES & NEIGHBORS.

It has been horribly hot...everything is burning up. It was especially bad for us today. The heat just wont stop. The ac ran nonstop today and in the afternoon, the house was still 76 inside. It has been so hot that simone has been taking water to the rabbits 3 times a day...just so the water is fresh and cool. When she went today, several of our rabbits looked way overheated and she came to get us. When we went down to the rabbit pin, it was bad. Our totally fav mom rabbit was laying out and just quivering all over. She was in serious destress. All of her babies that are still in her cage with her were only a bit better. One of the babies didn't make it and neither did the mom. We watered the pins down and tried to keep it cool...they are in the shade and had plenty of water but sometimes it just doesn't help. We tried and tried, but nothing worked.

The worst part is that this weather is just going to keep on...it is suppost to be like this all week again. No rain, no clouds, no relief.

ALL that WAS green IS NOW brown!!!

Can I say more?? But Sunny and Hot is all there is.
We have been inside mostly having a movie madness for a few days because it is too hot to go outside. The lawn is brown, our new trees are brown, the old trees are turning brown, and the garden is almost brown.

I guess brown is the new green!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kenny and the race car

Kenny loved the race car that was in town today. He could hardly stand still for the pictures. He wanted to see all of the "buttons" and "controls" and such. It was a kick for him to see it. NO ONE was allowed to touch it at all, you could only look but it was still pretty cool.

Oreo cakesters

Well, have you tried them yet??? We are a divided house on these right now. The boys just barely liked them, but the girls here liked them. I got both, the regular and the chocolate ones, just to be fair. The box comes with 6 little packs in it with 2 of the cakesters in each pack. They are about the size of an actual oreo but they are made with a chocolate cake like product with the cream in the middle. I don't know that I will buy them again, but I can say that I have officially tried them.

What about you???? anyone try them yet???????

I'm melting, melting...

Can you say, It's hot as hell and we are burning up. It really has been a pleasant summer so far...up to this point that is. Our overnight temps have been good and we have only had a few days in the 90's. Well then along came this week...we have been in a heat advisory for the full week with temps in the 100's and heat indexs up to 115 degrees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All of the ground we made up on rain is now going to be flushed down the drain. The garden has gone from a lush land to a deprived looking area really quickly. Everything is drooping and wilted.

I am hoping and praying that our new fruit trees make it through this hot period. We lost trees last year to the lack of rain I hate to see it again. It is like burning money up.

Hows the weather in your neck of the woods??????

Zucchini...need I say more!

Zucchini, zucchini, zucchini...they seem to be EVERYWHERE this time of year...or at least everywhere that there is summer, gardens, farmers markets, and everywhere in between. We have a huge amount of the green gobblins around here too. We only grew about 2 of the "traditional" green zucchini, but we started several of the of the Tromboncino zucchini. The have also just taken over with tons of them...here is the description of them from the package...
Tromboncino C. moschata 80 days. This Italian summer squash is a wonderful diversion from the usual. The light green-to-tan fruit can grow up to 3 feet long and may be harvested anytime, from just a few inches through its full size. Enjoy Tromboncino's rich flavor steamed, grilled, or sliced raw in your favorite salad. A vining variety that is best trellised for straighter fruit. We actually have them just about everywhere. I have frozen it, baked with it, eaten it, given it away and more...but we stiff have it. So far, I have made Zucchini bread, Chocolate zucchini bread, zucchini cake and put zucchini in almost everything we eat. Here is my recipe for the bread...that my very picky eating son said "if you could make all the zucchini into bread, it would be ok "... What can I say, the bread is good, but he doesn't like those green veggies laying out on his plate where he can see them. Well, here is my recipe...

Zucchini Bread Recipe!!!!!!! This one is a winner!!!
INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
2/3 cup canola oil
2 cups white sugar
3 cups grated zucchini (let it sit for a while and drain off any liquids before adding)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
You can also all coconut in any amount to this ...(I like to add a hand full of unsweetened)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, and salt; stir into the egg mixture. fold in nuts and/or coconut. Divide batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.

I also like to sprinkle a bit of sugar onto the top of the batter, just before backing...gives it a nice finished look.

Does anyone Need any zucchini????

Summer Days

Or maybe I would be saying summer Daze!!!! since it is running by and I am mostly in a daze at the rate it is passing. Seriously thought, the summer is running short and we have been keeping busy with the "normal" summer activities.

We had an awesome night on Monday. We spent it with friends, at their house out in the country, around a campfire. We ate, talked and just shared time with our friends. Kenny had a blast too, with their son. I can honestly say that we, and probally most people, do not take enough time to spend with friends and family, and just enjoy them. We really has a super evening and we really needed it. I just love good people, food and a campfire too!!!

The kids have been taking advantage of the pool...yea, it is nothing special, but they have really liked having it. Kenny is taking to it like a little fish. He has swim lesson a few years ago but I wasn't really sure if "he retained any of it". Simone likes it too but is only in it when it is really, really hot out.

I have been keeping busy with the garden, kids, yard, dogs, husband, cooking, laundry, rearranging the house and so much more.

The weather has been pretty good so far this year. It is starting to get really hot now and it is getting dry. We really have been blessed with some great weather and all and the garden is doing well. I can honestly say that we have a TON of tomatoes!!!!! We have some other great things too, but this must be the year of the tomato!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our summer has been a good one so far and I hope everyone is having some fun during their summer too.

2007 Garden

The garden has been growing like crazy. We had a ton of rain here this past week and it has helped the garden so much. We have been picking tomatoes, potatoes, onions, peppers, cukes and just a few yellow squash. I have not been in the mood to can up the goods, so I have been freezing them. So far, I have frozen 7 gallon bags of tomatoes, 3 gallon bags of onions, 2 gallon bags of peppers and we have already eaten a ton of fresh salsa.

From what I understand, not to many people have even reaped the rewards of their tomatoes yet...My mom has not gotten any off her plants and neither has her landlord. My mom also when up to the farmers market on Tuesday and no one had any available either, they all said it was to early. It might be to early for them, but we have been picking them like crazy. I am not sure what we have done to get these 'maters so early, but it has been great!!! We planted about 30 tomato plants and they are great...everything from cherry to beefstake and everything in between.

We have not received any zuchini yet and I am hoping we get some soon. We had to replant this, since it did not "work" the first time.

So far we have been pleased with out garden and cant wait to see what else we get...

Six Flags

Well, we have been to Six Flag once again. It was a great day. Cullen, Belinda, Simone, kenny, Laura (cullens mom) and our nephew Michael all went. We started out on Friday, June 29...and the weather was not great. It was grey and cloudy and somewhat cool for the end of June. Since we had to travel over 100 miles, we decided that the weather might just be better there and we would be optimistic...

When we arrived at Six flags, it started raining, but we decided that to try it and see if we could handle it. It wasn't raining to hard so we went in.
The boys started out with the batman right away. Michael went with his Uncle cullen and they had a great time. We hung out (or should I say in...inside some of the shops while they rode) We really didn't very wet from the rain but it seem to be getting colder and so we decided to stay and ride some more of the rides and shop around insted of going to the water park.

My around 1p.m. we went out to the car and has some lunch and the weather seem to be improving and the fun began...everyone decided to go on some of the wet rides, like the log flume, thunder river, and the tide wave...now, it didn't matter if it rained, because everyone was soaked anyhow... It was getting warmer so it was getting better...

We spend the afternoon riding almost everything out there, Simone, Kenny, Michael, Cullen and Laura all rode the batman...it was great. I sat and watched, lol!!! Simone was a bit green when she got off, but everyone had a good time.

We decided to have a snack at Jonnie Rockets and ate a ton of hot and wonderful french frys with soda... It really hit the spot and they were really good too...

We left the park at about 5 p.m. and headed home. We had a good ride with no problems except for waiting on Hwy 44 for about 45 minutes at a stand still due to an accident. When we passed it, it looked pretty serious. There was a lot of traffic but it started to move on after that and we were off to get back home.

Overall, it was a super great day and the kids had an awesome day.

Life has been busy.

What can I say, but life has been busy. I cant believe that it has been almost 6 months since I have logged into blog, wow...
Our life has been so busy but good. We have had a wonderful winter and great spring.

Our spring was filled with getting ready to camp. We filled our new camper with all that we needed for our 30 day volunteer campground hosting position at Montauk State Park in Missouri. It isn't far from our home, but we absolutely love the park and we try to do this every year to "give back". We hosted in the month of May and it was a super great time to be in the park. This was our third year hosting but our first year hosting in May. We usually host in March. You can read all about our 2007 hosting adventures on our webpage at: www.stuboneacre.com that is, if you are interested.

We did plant our garden before we left and everything was growing well when we got back....including the weeds. We have been working on it since we returned and it is looking a lot better. We have started picking green beans, onions, radishes, peas, and new potatoes. We just started getting cherry tomatoes this week and we are so looking forward to getting real juicy, vine ripe, yummy tomatoes soon.

We will be trying to keep up with our blog more in the future but we have been building a webpage too so you can always find us at www.stuboneacre.com