Madeline's new treasure

We found the canopy in a thrift store last week for $2.00! Ignore her messy room, it had actually been clean a minute earlier.... Her room is  all pink and purple "treasures", just looking at the photos makes my eyes hurt, but she loves it. And normally it is even brighter! We have her very colorful rug pulled up to steam clean. 

Gradually she is starting to even play in her room by herself for short periods of time! She has been sleeping in here most nights, but some nights she has nightmares and wakes up to go to Ryan's room. I can tell my next project will be weeding though her stuffed animal collection, she collects them, and I have to sneak them out one by one when they started over running the house. 

the girls play dress up

Thanksgiving in August!

We cooked a 22 lb turkey today. About two weeks before Thanksgiving when many grocery stores have a sale on Butterballs, $0.99 a lb, I always buy two. One to cook for Thanksgiving, the other to save for later. And every year towards the end of summer, I realize it is still in my freezer, and I end up rushing to cook it! I cook a very large turkey because I freeze the meat and use it in soups and other dishes through out the year. 

I have spent the last 5 years trying to perfect my brother in law's famous turkey recipe. It always tastes amazing, but I really need to keep better notes year from year, I keep forgetting what I did last time! 

BIL's Apple Turkey

This is a loose recipe. Take a turkey, and loosen the skin from the top and all around the sides, you need to be able to get your hand in it. Take a bottle of honey, pour handfuls into one hand and rub into the turkey, coating the breast in honey. I don't end up using a whole bottle, maybe 3/4 of it for a very large turkey. He is a huge fan of Emeril, and that is probably where this recipe came from. Pour handfuls of Original Emeril Essence Spice and smear into the honey, throughly coating the breast, sometimes I end up using all of the bottle, other times I don't. The last step is circles of Granny Smith apples. You place them under the skin, on top of the honey and spice, cover all the meat that you can reach under the skin. You might have to toothpick the skin back into place after this step to keep the apples in place. I stuff the turkey with onions and more apples. Place the turkey into a roasting bag, and cook per the bag instructions! It is a great recipe. Sometimes the honey underneath causes some of the skin to char, just peel away after it's cooled, the meat underneath is still fine (this is one of the parts I'm working on perfecting).  Always remember when you pull a turkey out from the over, do not cut it! Let it sit in it's juices for at least 20 minutes before cutting, it helps keep the meat moist. 

 Now I just need to learn how to make great homemade gravy and stuffing, mine never turns out right! I can make a mean country gravy but not turkey gravy. I didn't attempt it today, I just went straight to the canned stuff, I always try every Thanksgiving. Maybe this year.....

Ryan has no right to complain

.... about the cost of Madeline's therapy. So guess who is going to pick up a new car tomorrow? Hint, it's not me! Ryan is not a thrifty person, never has been in any way. He has slowly been getting better over the years, sometimes.... He never keeps a car very long. We've had this last one two years, which is a record for him, seriously. It is a used Audi wagon, we bought it when it was pregnant  with Gabrielle for me. Only she was born and sick, we were not driving often, but I was trying to fit in between car seats driving the 35 miles each way to doc appointments. Needless to say, we ended up with a minivan, which I love and loathe at the same time, and Ryan got my fun car, sigh. 

Ryan always does things on the spur of the moment, there is no planning about anything. Twice, I have gone out of town and come back to a new car. Other times he has just driven one home, no warning at all. There was no warning on this one either, I went to his office to pick up my cell phone which he had, and he said he had something to tell me. I think the only reason he told me is because I tell him frequently that we are not getting new cars anytime soon. Anyway, he had come up with some plan to make it all work in his mind.. He "needs" another company so he doesn't have to pay $0.50 a mile to his employees. One of his employees has a decent 4 Runner and has been looking for a nice car to buy. So apparently the company is buying the 4 Runner and the employee is buying the Audi, which leaves Ryan free to get a new car. Insert major eye rolling on my part here. I'm not pleased with it, but over the years, I've learned that I'm not his mother and he is going to do it one way or another. Men..... sigh. 

today

Today is Ryan and I's 7th wedding anniversary. I bought him a new shirt for work, he has to wear collared, professional shirts and at times I get tired of seeing the same ones over and over again. And he got me a massage! We had hoped to maybe sneak away some time this week and do a dinner without children. There is the slight issue that we only leave Gabrielle with my mom, and she already has to watch her Tuesday night so Madeline, Ryan, and I can go to a therapy session. We are really fine not getting to go, the last time we went out by our selves was in June to hear Madeline's evaluation results, and before that it has been about 2.5 years! I'm a tad disappointment only because I've been craving this awesome Mediterranean restaurant in town that is not child friendly. 

Ryan and I have known each other since I was 16 and he was 22. I was waitressing during the day and attending college at night. I had about 3 hours in between my job and school, I often would watch one of my friend's children during that time. I would drop them off of at her work on my way to class, she worked in a computer store, and Ryan was a tech there. We would chit chat but that was about it. About a year later he drove by me while I was walking to class, he stopped, we started talking and the rest is history! We were married a year later, had Madeline 1.5 years later, and Gabrielle after 5 years. 

Maine pics

final living room pics

Ryan finished this a few days before I went to Maine but I just finally got the pics uploaded.