People,

When Life Gives you Lemons...

Do something with them!!

Don't let them go to waste and make all of your neighbors angry because they don't have a lemon tree and if they did, they definitely wouldn't leave all of the scrumptious lemons just hanging there to rot!! Every Day when Jarom and I walk to check the mail we see this tree...And every day I wonder why the heck anyone would let all those lemons go to waste. Oh the things I could do with those lemons!! What would you do with them?

Arizonans

We can breathe just fine...why do you ask?

Who's Damian?

For about a year now, Jarom has talked about his friend Damian. Sometimes he'll tell us he wants to go play with Damian. Other times, he'll be playing basketball alone and he tells me he's playing with Damian. When he picks up the phone, he's calling Damian. Whenever something gets broken, Damian did it. At first we thought he was talking about my friend Jana's son because his name is Damian and when this all started we had just seen their family and he was just getting to that social stage. Every time we would say we were going to Jana's he would get so excited to go see Damian. It's actually quite funny though because whenever they would see each other they never even played together which always made me wonder why he was so excited to go see him. Well, it's been quite a while since we've seen them and he still only speaks of Damian. He can't possibly remember him. It's been like 4 months!! So what do you think? Does he remember Damian and just pretending to play with him or is Damian an imaginary friend? If so that's kind of freaky...none of my kids have ever had imaginary friends!! Should I be calling a shrink?

Oxy Clean - I love this stuff!! You'd think by now they would have an "H E" edition.
Windex - Love, Love, Love Windex...it truly is the only streak free stuff I've found.
Bar Keepers Friend - Julie Wright's friend too!! works wonders on flat top stoves.
Comet w/ Bleach - Love it!! This is how I keep my tubs white. Sprinkle it in the tub when wet, let it sit for 10+ minutes and scrub with a brush...looks good and smells even better!!
Lysol All Purpose (Lemon Scent) - great for mopping...this too, smells sooo good...fresh and clean!

Can anyone guess what I did this weekend??

Gettin' Fresh

Isn't that beautiful? I love the look of fresh produce!! So colorful, so vibrant, and oooohhhh, so tasty!! Hubby had a great idea this morning...omelettes!! But of course, his idea consisted of me making them. Which is fine...I like to be in the kitchen. Anyways, our ideas of getting fresh differ when it come to omelettes. He likes his with cheese in the middle and all of the fresh produce on top. I like to sautee all of my veggies and put them in the middle which doesn't make for a very "pretty omelette" but it sho is tasteee!! Anyways, this was the highlight of our unemployed, moneyless, day. And we loved it!!

Gotta love Hungry Jack

Since meeting my hubby oh so long ago, he has introduced me to some things that I really didn't find a necessity in the kitchen. However, after 15 1/2 long years together and his demanding some things a certain way, I now find these things quite important as well. You see, he REALLY likes his syrup warmed up. I never did this until I met him. I would just pull it out of the cabinet and pour it on my pancakes, french toast, and waffles at the room temp that it was. I now have to have warm syrup too. So when Hungry Jack came out with the bottle that tells you when it's warm we both got really excited. I've since tried heating up Aunt Jamima and she heats up just fine too. Of course, she doesn't tell you when the syrup is hot but she holds up none the less. Since we are now on a tight budget I decided to buy the store brand syrup...you know, since it's like $2 cheaper. Anyways, I went to heat it up as I always do, and well, I guess the bottles really aren't the same. This is what happens to the store brand bottles when put in the microwave!!
They tend to warp and lean a little to the front. We thought it was pretty funny.

Valentines weekend

Our Valentine weekend started Thursday night with the traditional sugar cookies for all of the kids classes. Oh my goodness they were so good!! Justin just got some recipe off of the internet and it ended up being really good. The problem is that we threw it away in the cleanup process. Hope we can find it again. Friday we had some of those cookies leftover and we munched on those all day. Saturday the kids got to open their cards from granny and were pleasantly surprised with a few bucks in there for them so they can all go out and buy their own candy. I thought it was very sweet. Steph and I topped the night off by making chocolate covered treats for all of the men in in our lives....Dad, Justin, Jared, and Jarom. We tried to save some for Josh, the other man in our lives, but it just didn't happen. Our treats were so scrumptious they just couldn't resist. I use this Belgian chocolate from Fresh and Easy for chocolate covered anything...it is quite yummy. We topped off our weekend with Heart Shaped waffles right before church and more chocolate covered treats after church...a great way to end a "lovely" weekend. By the way, when did Valentines become a "weekend" event?

our winner...you can't get one past her

Congratulations to Jolene...she is the proud new owner of a dozen Cascarones!! You can't get one past her, I tell you...she knows it all!! Anyways, Cascarones are simply confetti eggs. Starting in January, whenever we make eggs, we carefully break them so that there is a hole at the top, then we rinse them out and let them dry. Then at Easter when we are dying our eggs we dye the hallowed out egg shells Then we fill them with Confetti. Only about halfway. Glue a piece of tissue paper over the hole at the top and wha-la!! Cascarones!! So fun!! And since Jolene lives 3 doors down from me I guess there will be confetti all over this hood!! Can't wait!!

Game/Contest/Giveaway

I was born in San Antonio, TX. My parents moved to California when I was 3 and I grew up there. I did move back to TX for 4 years as a teenager but we ended up back in California for my senior year of high school...talk about hard. Anyways. Both of my parents' first language was Spanish. Neither of them even learned English until they went to school so I find it wierd that they never taught me.
Though I do not speaka da Spanish nor do I speak with any type of a Mexican accent I was raised in a traditional Mexican home. Dad was always served...never had to serve himself dinner which most always consisted of beans, rice and homemade tortillas. During the holidays, the women would get together and make tamales and on weekends we always had a BBQ with friends and family and the TexMex (Spanish) music blaring in the background. On special occasions (Easter and Mothers Day) the men would hire mariachis to come and play at our BBQ's. And as with most Mexican parties, there were like 20 adults and 2 million kids!! Yet, we'd have 6 ice chests full of beer and only 1 full of soda (and they wonder why us kids got into their beer as teens...we were freakin' thirsty!!). Just kidding, Daddy.
Anyways, us kids never cared much about the drinks because we were too busy playing. And at Easter, we were having the time of our lives!! You see, Mexicans have this tradition. And I'm not going to tell you what it is because that would be too easy. Instead, I'm going to briefly describe this fun thing we used to do and whoever can guess what it is gets 12 of them...and trust me, your kids will love 'em!! My kids and I have been getting them ready since January. This Easter, we will be introducing them to hubby's side of the family...los gringos!! When we moved to San Antonio after we were married, he was introduced to them...and even he loves 'em.
Okay, so here's your description...They are used for many different occasions but, especially Easter and are said to bring good luck. They originated in China when women used to fill them with perfume powder and give them as gifts. The wife of Emperor Maximilian brought them from China to Mexico during his rule there in 1864. The Mexicans replaced the powdered perfume with "something else" (can't tell you) and thus started this great mexican tradition. This fad did fade though and for decades was a "dead" tradition until South Texans brought them back in the 1960's. In San Antonio you can get them from from grocers to street peddlers especially during "Fiesta"(another subject for another post). They range from $1.50 a dozen to $10 for just one...depending on how intricately painted it is. I've lived in Mesa for 6 years now, and have never seen anyone with these here...I do however, only spend Easter with my family though so what do I know? Anyways, I will leave you with one last hint...they start out edible...What are they?
First one with the right answer wins!!

12

Steph turned 12 today. I can't believe it!! She's outgrowing her childhood much too fast. I don't know why but I made this ridiculous agreement with her many years ago that she could wear makeup when she turned 12. I probably made it with her thinking that she would forget...but she hasn't. Might I suggest NEVER making a promise like this with your own little girls..because one day they will grow up and hold you to your promise. Oh, I know why I made this silly agreement with her...because in our old ward all of the girls were allowed to start wearing make up at 12 but I haven't seen that trend here in our new ward. Regrets, regrets!! So I made a rule...NO EYELINER!! (below the eye) This omits the dark eye look...I hope. Any other tips? I could really use some.

As usual, family came over for cake and ice cream and she got to open her gifts from the fam. She got lots of $$, some jewelry, some clothes, and granny in Tx made her the cutest apron. It is pink and brown polka dots and soooo cute...and when she tried it on and put her hands in the pocket, she got more $$. Wish I had that kind of luck!!