Berg Newz

Happy #5 Budders!

2012-01-03T20:21:00.003-05:00

That's right what better way to end my blog drought than with some pictures of my favorite little man on his 5th birthday. I could gush all day about my buddy but I won't because anyone that knows me knows how much I love this boy. He had a great birthday and for some reason he wanted a "round, yellow sun cake with sunglasses on". For his birthday dinner he requested pizza so we made some awesome homemade pies. I tried a few times to talk him into staying four but he insisted on moving on up to the big five. Happy Birthday Ed!

Rumor

2011-10-16T21:32:00.004-04:00

I just thought that before word got out too far I should let everyone know at once that the rumor is true- I am taking Wilton Cake Decorating lessons at A.C. Moore. Lucky for Aida her friends were able to catch me leaving A.C. Moore with my second creation in the series and they could let her know that they saw her mother carrying around "a white cake with orange dots all over it" on a Friday night. Aida taking it like a real mini-Sara just accused her friend of being a stalker. I don't mind because I was super proud of myself and my cake. Mark never wanted me to take a class because he thought it would ruin my mad cake style, I think that when I returned home with this beauty his fears were put to rest. I like to think that I am the star of the class but I think Leo the teacher would say it is my friend Carolyn. I admit Carolyn is my biggest competition in the class and I am afraid because not only does she have crazy decorating skills but she also has Leo's heart and gets some special attention. That is okay - I like a challenge. So here is my first cake. One of these days I will have to get my cake gallery going because my cakes really are amazing. :)

Mallomar Love

2011-09-19T20:42:00.002-04:00

On a recent trip to Shoprite I discovered Mallomars. An oldie but goodie. I never would have thought to try one if I hadn't formed a mild addiction to Mallowpuffs when I was in NZ. Actually, in all honesty, I think I loved Mallowpuffs more when I couldn't have them. Mark started to bring them back to me from his annual NZ trips and their rarity made them taste that much better. They really started to grow on me. I found similar products here in America but they weren't as good until I found the Mallomar.

Last week I went to Shoprite only to discover Mallomars on sale for half off WITH an additional one dollar off coupon. I bought two boxes. I was tempted to buy more when I read the sign informing people they were a seasonal item and to not get upset if they weren't immediately available. Are you kidding me? A product people would get upset about being sold for basically 75% off? I already knew I would be back.

The history is intriguing (maybe not to all but junk food history fascinates me). Apparently practically every country has their version as seen here. The Mallomar was first sold in a store in West Hoboken NEW JERSEY. Even today 70 percent of the supply goes to the NY and NJ area. The Mallomar is made in Canada and is the cookie that "comes out in the cold". Back in the day the chocolate coating would melt so the factories only started to crank them out in September. Modern technology has remedied this situation but Nabisco continues with it being a seasonal item as it originally was. I like the idea. We are so used to having everything readily available to us. I like seasonal things to look forward to. I like the dilemma of deciding how much of an item constitutes a "hoard" -do I need to "stock up"? Inevitably my hoard disappears within hours of a season ending but that is why there is always a new seasonal treat to draw me into its sugar evils. So, thank you ~~boxed smore~~ Mallomars for providing me with a fall treat to accompany my candy corns. Yum.

Strawberry Pickin'

2011-06-12T18:12:00.014-04:00

I took the kids deep into South Jersey to pick their own strawberries. I have to admit that it is a lot faster to get strawberries than blueberries. We weren't there long but we managed to take away 20 pounds of strawberries. Ed overheated pretty quick and decided to hang out by the van.

The Difference Between Girls and Boys

2011-06-02T20:13:00.001-04:00

I know I have three girls and only one boy to base this one but these two videos TOTALLY sum up the differences between the two genders in my house. TOTALLY.

First the Boy

Now the Little Girl note the band-aid on the knee

My Dream House

2011-05-10T23:05:00.001-04:00

The green pastures, the chicks in a row, the duck pond, grazing sheep and a puppy watching over my Red Barn Empire. I want all of it. Sigh. Thanks Maya

Happy

2011-05-04T21:07:00.002-04:00

Is there anything than a four year old that loves his momma?

Hatch Video

2011-04-23T11:59:00.007-04:00

Here is video of one of the chicks hatching. If you make it close to the end you can see the white egg in the background has just pipped. My apologies for the music but I just grabbed what was readily available. :) I hope no one is too grossed out. It was kind of tricky to catch these guys because some would work for a long time so while you were watching them then one that wasn't even on the "hatch radar" would pop open. While the experience was not without trauma it was still fun to see it happen and see what kind of chicken would pop out next. Sorry I was only able to really catch this yolky one and left out the cute fuzzy shots. They do fluff up and then they are cute. It was a little like when we were trying to watch the caterpillars turn into chrysalises. They would just hang there for days and then you would turn you back and it was done. Nature runs on its own time. I am so glad that I have been able to take a few moments with the kids to slow down and watch nature happen. By moments I mean days and days with these chickens!

Egg Candling

2011-03-31T21:50:00.002-04:00

I was told you can candle around days ten and fourteen. I maybe took a bit more liberty with those recommendations. Candling is basically when you shine a light through the egg to see what is going on. You may see a blob (the yolk) floating around, the size of the airsac, the ring of death or veins. Lots and lots of veins connecting to a little embryo. Several of my eggs were very dark shelled so it was hard to tell if the egg was viable or not. It is important to get rid of any eggs that aren't going to make it to term because then you have to worry about the air pressurizing and a stinky rotten egg exploding disgusting bacteria all over your incubator and contaminating all of your eggs.
I loved candling. Once I started I couldn't stop. I had friends over to see this amazing web of veins I would see in the viable eggs. Some were impressed others were good actors and told me what I wanted to hear but the experience for me was grand any time I could do it. I tried to take pictures. I even tried a little video with 3 assistants so everyone could see how you can see the little chicken moving around maybe even see a little foot. Those didn't work out all that great so I am going to have to pull better examples off of the internet. I tell you though there is something so fascinating with being able to have life contained in a shell held in your hands. Before lockdown we had candled the eggs and of the 24 I ordered 18 looked good. I figured I had beat the 50% odds given to me for mail ordered eggs. Well for the rest you will have to wait for my hatch day post.

Baby Monkey

2011-03-30T20:32:00.001-04:00

I know it is wrong and it is not for everyone but here at the Bergz we get a good laugh at this. Who doesn't love pigs and monkeys? Anyway just something to tide you over until I catch up on my egg progress.

In the Incubator

2011-03-29T10:33:00.002-04:00

After I got the eggs in the mail my next job was to place them in an incubator, or as those of us in the biz like to call a "bator". After doing some reading I went with the Hova Bator brand- chicken people seem to have success with it. Basically it is a controlled temperature environment for the eggs. I put a little water in the bottom to add humidity to the air-this step is more important later as the eggs begin to hatch.

My responsibility for the first 18 days was to turn the eggs 3 times a day (you want to do an odd amount of turns). You can get automatic turners but I was too cheap to get one and after about day two I wished I had just bought one. Standard procedure is to mark one side with an "x" the other with an "o" so you remember which side is which. I went with "x's" and numbers (Lucy and I have a chart to fill in after all). Obviously we are passed day 18 so I thought I would write this step before jumping to where we are now.

Egg Arrival

2011-03-23T13:36:00.001-04:00

The Post Office called and delivered it right to my house.

A little worried about the packaging job.

Unpacking eggs for photo shoot.

I was looking forward to the creme colored eggs that were going to be the Golden Penciled Hamburgs. None of them took properly so I had to get rid of them. I kind of figured they wouldn't because they were the smallest. Maybe next time.

My Easter Eggers and more brown egg layers.

Lucy and I are real proud of our latest chart.

I am a little behind documenting my latest chickening but here is a start. I ordered 24 eggs via mail. They say that mail order eggs have a 50 percent hatch rate and beyond that I have to worry about how many roos I end up with. I admit it wasn't enough to get the chicks. I needed to see the process from beginning to end. There are sooooo many things that can go wrong with hatching my own eggs but I am excited to see it all happen. I am also excited to have a little more variety in my flock. At the rate it is going I am going to be surprised if any of the little chicks make it. The truth is this latest project is causing me so much anxiety. I thought that I would just have to turn them three times a day and it would be sweet. Not true. Here are some things I am worried about.
Bad eggs going rotten and exploding rotting bacteria all over my other eggs and having to cull the lot.

Embryos developing and then dying from contamination or something else.

Sticky chicks

Shrink Wrapped Chicks-when the chick cracks open the egg and their isn't enough outside humidity and the membrane shrinks and dries suffocating the chick.

Malformed chicks

Having full yolk sacs attached to tummies.

The list goes on and on. This will be the longest 21 days of my life. I already told Mark never again but I am glad for this opportunity in an educational sort of way. I am sure if it all works out I will change my tune but MAN this is stressful.

Babysitting Reports

2011-03-06T21:19:00.001-05:00

Mark and I went out last night and when we got home Lucy had filled out the following babysitting reports on Maya and Ed's behavior. I like how in spite of Maya's higher score her reward is "barely achieved". Her reward was being able to switch our her original ear piercings for the first time since she had them pierced many months ago. I have been waiting patiently for a moment when I could get something out of something that was going to happen anyway. Just another great Berg parenting tip. :) Aida also informed us that she thinks that she has had enough free practices and should be getting paid. Lucky for us a 50 cent creme egg will do when the time comes. We told her we would think about it after a few more practice runs. ;)

Maya's Report

Ed's Report-Reward unknown

Creepy Momma

2011-03-02T10:19:00.001-05:00

I couldn't help myself. He was too cute sleeping with "Big Dawg". On a side note Eddie has decided to rename our dog Tess to Chloe.

On My Mind

2011-02-23T12:55:00.001-05:00

The past few days my mind has been occupied with the devastation caused by the Earthquake in NZ. I didn't know what would be appropriate to post about it but I didn't feel like it was right to post anything else without addressing it. I guess I didn't know what to say because at the end of the day I feel like my feelings of sadness, loss, and worry are so trivial compared to the emotions, experiences and trauma of the people that are actually THERE are going through.

When Mark and I first landed in NZ it was hard for Mark and I for a couple of years to be so isolated from family some of the hardest times I had experienced at that time. Due largely in part to the people the kindness of the people and the friends that we made our time in NZ really was the happiest time of our lives. NZ became a part of us-we changed for the better. It is hard to be far from people that for so many years treated us as their family knowing we had none of our own nearby. It is hard to see the destruction of a beautiful, historic city where we spent so many happy times raising our children. It is hard to wait to hear about how friends are doing-about their safety, only to hear about all of their loss.

I feel fortunate to not have been there but guilty too. Guilty that I could feel grateful when good friends are suffering. Sad that we can't be there, that we can't do more, that we are so helpless. As I read the stories of survival and of how people help one another it makes me sad because the acts of bravery, selflessness, kindness are all so very Kiwi and what makes NZ such a fantastic genuine place. A country that the people are as beautiful as the landscape. Looking at all the pictures of toppled buildings we once knew so well, I thought I would post pictures of Christchurch the way I remember it. The way that I hope it will be able to be once again. To think of it any other way makes me too sad.

To all our Kiwi friends we are so grateful for your safety and you are continually in our thoughts and our prayers.

V-day #1

2011-02-13T21:46:00.001-05:00

We have been doing Valentine-like things this past week. Tomorrow is Valentine exchange at school and I have put it off until tonight. Last year I saw these Valentines that I thought were super cute. I have seen them a lot since then but I have to admit Denae's are the best. I tried to recreate her classiness but it didn't work :). I decided to give Ed's more of a comic book feel since that is the face he is making. He has 4 "awesome faces" as he calls them. This is awesome face #3 I keep meaning to do a post on the other ones but for now you only get this one. I really wanted to type, "Happy Valentines Day You Donk!" but I guess that would take away from the meaning of the day-it just sounded sooo eddie. Anyway in case any of you are looking for a last minute homemade valentine idear...

Happy Birthday To MARK

2011-01-22T11:11:00.001-05:00

Well it has almost been a week since Mark had his birthday but better late than never. Mark spent the day at meetings for church sunup to sundown-no really I think two of the kids never even saw him on his actual special day. Fortunately we plan ahead and anticipated this and celebrated his day on Saturday instead. Who really knows when anyone's real birthday is around here? I made Mark a party cake with party frosting because it is what he enjoys best and I have to admit there is something yummy about it. I could write a million ways that Mark is awesome but really it just comes down to that he can and does do everything. So here are some pictures of my January Boyz.
This year Mark
has learned car repair-something he has shunned in the past but has taken to like a fish in water.
is able to teach two different classes at the exact same time do a scheduling error-don't ask how but it involves a lot of work.
was made Second Counselor in the Bishopric.
turned a moldy bathroom into a work of art.
built a chicken coop and is now working on a second design.
somehow manages to still put 4 crazy girls and a jumpy little boy first before anything.

Happy Birthday to the MAN

party cake

running auto shop-the muffler replacement that started it all

getting pick pocketed

going on the rides that make mom want to hoarf

getting pounced everyday

4-A Delayed post from 3rd January

2011-01-06T12:29:00.001-05:00

Today's topic is Ed and his special day. We actually celebrated his birthday a couple of days ago in New Hampshire but I have to talk about him today anyway. In the beginnining of last year when asked his age he would say fourteen, eight, twelve, forty whatever then he settled on fourteen and then when people would correct him they would say, "You mean four? Very good! What a big boy!" etc. etc. Since he is a little taller than most he passed for four and he finally got to a place during the second half of the year when he would tell people he was four when asked.
I figured it took so long to teach him to get out of the double digits and he would be four soon anyway so why bother correcting him? I know good parenting. :) It took me and all of his sisters a good part of his fake birthday to persuade him that while he may think he was turning five because as he told us "five comes after four" he was indeed still just four but a real four now on his fake birthday. It was then that I realized that there was no way that I was going to wish him a Happy Birthday on the third because then it would probably confuse him more. I can't say this is unique since I think with all of our kids we changed their birthdays to suit our scheduling conflicts. I suppose if you want to get technical his birthday was yesterday because of the NZ time difference-maybe he is five? Whatevs.

ED FACTS

Ed prefers to be called Eddie.
Lately Ed loves to be Iron Man only he doesn't know who he is and has morphed Iron Man into a super villain.
Ed's favorite Top Gear episode was the one featuring drifting and he was so excited to get a remote control car for Christmas and make it drift on Grandma Ruth's hardwood-thanks Ruth.
He loves to break words into syllables. Don't look at me I couldn't even teach him to count (see above)
Ed loves gumballs and jumping.
Ed enjoys sharing and to be honest is a bit of a food pusher.
Orange is Ed's favorite color.
Ed loves to say "sure".
Ed talks about his classmates as "my preschoolers".
I really really love Ed!
Ed always has something on his face-whose fault is that?


Blowing out his candles with Grandma Ruth.

Pirate Cupcakes from Grandma Penney

Awesomely wrapped present from awesome mom.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-01T19:29:00.001-05:00

I thought I should put a few Christmas pictures up of the kiddos before we get too far into the new year. Aida worked hard making 3 D cards for everyone. They were framed like a book and when you opened them she has a different quote for everyone. It was fun to share them around and hear what everyone had on their card . Ed's read "smile". Mark's was "Be happy, happiness is valuable. Don't be sad, sadness is worthless." I can't remember the rest off the top of my head those are just the ones I have sitting on my desk right now.
As a child I never believed my parents when they told us they loved the homemade stuff the most. Now as a parent, I really do enjoy seeing what they come up with and seeing how they can appreciate and love the effort put into it all.

Christmas Eve reading while Eddie waits to open his eve present.

What Aida has always wanted.

He didn't really know what to do with this until we got home but he loves it.

Aida's homemade doll for Maya.

I love how these girls make things for each other.

Maya's American Girl Doll FINALLY.

The most patient one in our family. .

I hope Tess enjoys it while it lasts.

Lucy was most excited to give Tess goodies on Christmas Day.

The Walking (Ginger)bread

2010-12-22T22:02:00.000-05:00

Mark and I spent last week watching The Walking Dead. I didn't realize the impact this zombie laden show would have on my life. I could go on and on but I will just focus on a couple of things. The first is that I was glad that Mark and I watched it when I was able to hop onto the road to recovery because otherwise I think he would have been tempted to "put me down" when I had a fever that "burned hot like a furnace". I wouldn't have blamed him though because when you watch back-to-back zombies you do get a little paranoid and I would have done the same.

The other thing I would like to mention is how during one of my now routine zombie checks I thought I had found a live one in the middle of my living room floor. Maya had managed to rip her gingerbread house off of the foundation and was hovering over it scarfing it down. At the time it really reminded me of a zombie feeding frenzy-crazy eyes and all.

Okay fine my last zombie hot tip is to get a cross bow-SUPER handy weapon to have when the zombies take over.

Warm Fuzzy Sick

2010-12-16T09:50:00.000-05:00

I have been sick since Sunday. Monday night and Tuesday I had such a high fever I could barely move which is something since I have birthed at home, recovered from strep throat, run on a lightly sprained ankle for miles all without any medical attention. Serves me right because I am the first to call a sick person a baby.
I feel better now-in that I can function as a mom. I learned that when I am sick my kids can do many things on their own. Normally when I am sick I can call upon my inner mom to take care of what needs to be done for the kids. The inner mom this time was weak, very very weak.
Lucy brought me salt water for my sore throat that I managed to gargle after several doses of motrin, get the littlies ready for school and all the kids packed their own lunches. They got their shoes on after my first raspy request instead of having me shout it out 10 million times. They cleaned and they took care of each other and there was a temporary truce on all fights so that I wouldn't have to hear the fighting during my in and outs of consciousness. Aida covered me in blankets when she saw me shivering and took them away when she read not to over bundle a fever. Then there is my lovely Mark that I knew I could count on for everything even though he as so much to do already. I literally did not know what day it was until yesterday.
Lucky for me before I went down I gave my last energy into finishing our gingerbread houses which provided them with sustenance until mark could get home.
Ed would find me from time to time and with a furrowed brow he would tell me that he would make me a love heart so I would feel better. I woke up to find a stack next to me several times. The little guy would draw me one and if I wasn't better he thought more was better so he would keep drawing them faithfully everyday, every hour. I would tell him I felt better but eventually he would figure it out I wasn't and a new pile of lovehearts would appear. He was doing what he could and he didn't give up hope that it would work.
Here is to my wonderful family for not giving up on their wimpy mom. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-23T17:55:00.000-05:00

I leave you with a poem by Maya. I really like the ending. Happy Thanksgiving y'all. :)

Children's Court

2010-11-11T10:29:00.001-05:00

Run for the children by the children presided by Judge Aida. We never really know what we wake up from a Sunday nap. Sometimes it is fine, other times it is scary, or messy, this was one of those times that surprised and impressed. Aida seems to have taken on the style of a British Judge with the white haired wig (do they even still wear them?). I am sure Aida was fair in her sentencing to Edward because he seems to be taking it well. :)

Tell Me

2010-11-11T10:28:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of young Mark. Does anyone else see a resemblance to him and Maya(if Maya had Ed's hair)?

Halloween Crafting

2010-10-12T10:07:00.000-04:00

This past weekend Janae came for a visit and we made some Halloween garland, caramel apples, and decorated cupcakes. I switched out some pictures for some more spooky ones-just to creep the kids out. I am proud of my bug ones-I think they came out nice. I layered backgrounds and bug illustrations that I found online and layered them with vellum. Thanks to Janae for donating some Halloween paper for our garlands and Aida for making a wonderful Fall tree. Aida says the sign is removable and she plans on making the tree change with the seasons. I thought it was pretty clever. Things have cooled off a little bit here but then we will have a couple of warm days too so the leaves are still pretty green. It was hot when we took the Madsens to the Ocean City Block Party. We mostly found a place to park, looked for food to feed the kids and then went home. The kids made it a little hard to cover a lot of ground but it was a little too crowded for me anyway. I guess I always like to check these things out. Maya did enjoy getting her face painted though and Aida thought the chocolate covered bacon was pretty tasty. :)

Gillians Playland

2010-10-08T22:26:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago we took the girls to Gillians in Ocean City. In the spring they sell tickets to the locals at half price and we bought a few tickets. I hate crowds so we waited until all the shoobies (what we jersites call tourists-even though I often feel like one) left but before the city closed down for the off months. It was a fun family day for sure and I think Lucy is warming up to the fast rides. Tomorrow we are hoping to drag the Madsens to the block party. Thousands are supposed to be there but we will be brave because the greek, seafood, italian and bakery stands are calling us to them. We will just look...

Aren't the creepy bears perfect?

A couple of weeks ago we took the girls to Gillians in Ocean City. In the spring they sell tickets to the locals at half price and we bought a few tickets. I hate crowds so we waited until all the shoobies (what we jersites call tourists-even though I often feel like one) left but before the city closed down for the off months. It was a fun family day for sure and I think Lucy is warming up to the fast rides. I have more pictures from my "real camera" but I thought I would share the ones from my phone. :) Tomorrow we are hoping to drag the Madsens to the block party. Thousands are supposed to be there but we will be brave because the greek, seafood, italian and bakery stands are calling us to them. We will just look...

Happy 7th Birthday Bubbers

2010-09-26T23:33:00.000-04:00

I am late posting pictures of Maya and her 7th birthday. Maya surprised us all when she ended up being a surprise home birth and she has continued to have an element of surprise in all that she does. I love Maya because she is an absolute original and you never know what she will say or do. Since she "turned seven" she has really been trying her best to step it up a notch and be all she can be. I remember when she used to dance around saying, "la la la" over and over again with a huge smile on her face. She still dances around-a lot and she still smiles a lot but she has also been showing me lately just how smart she is. I love my little bubbers and I can't wait to see what she has in store for me in the years to come. We had a bit of a Barbie purge so all we could find was this Liv doll. Maya was thrilled and proclaimed this the best birthday ever. I also attempted in the same day to make some puppy cake pops. I admit I didn't have some necessary items on hand and the edible marker I had was not up to bakerella's standards. I think she must use a sharpie equivalent of a edible marker because the ones I tried did not work well. I think I need to find a better marker before I attempt it again. However, the kids loved the pops and honestly Mark and I had a really good laugh at ourselves trying to put it all together midnight the night before Maya was to bring them to school. Thanks to my buddy for sending me the book to work from ;).

Isn't she lovely? -Lionel Richie

The lady is on fire!

Classic Maya not listening to a word I say when I tell her to smile-instead she stuffs cake in her mouth. Nice.

Lucy specializes in homemade wrapping paper. Here is Maya's head with dot art.

Aida made her a 3 D house and even made a cloth covered bed and princess wallpaper. If anyone comes by you must see it in person.

Aida's homemade card reads, "Maya sometimes I don't like you. but usually I love you My little Princess" Maya really loved it.

Puppies in a basket anyone? Mark said it looked like I was suffocating them-Mark is one sick puppy if you ask me!

I couldn't resist making a chicken. I had to us the blue marker because my black one was rubbish!

Maya couldn't stop looking at the beautiful cake-haha.

Attn: Jaffa

2010-09-21T10:04:00.000-04:00

I think you're going to like this one.

Happy Birthday Lucy!

2010-09-16T21:16:00.000-04:00

Today Lucy is nine. We love her and her crazy animals! Lucy is an original and has a very sweet heart she brings so much to our family. I will write more to her about her in her yearly birthday letter but I wanted to get something done. Every year I miss posting her birthday because it is at the beginning of the school year and things get crazy and I get overwhelmed. :) She requested a purple cake and submitted a drawing for what she wanted the top to look like. I think I really hit it out of the park.

I Have This Neigbor

2010-09-14T09:57:00.000-04:00

that is AWESOME! Out of everyone we have met since we have moved here I have to admit she is one of my favorites. We are lucky to have great neighbors all around but I actually like her. Her yard is a collection of plants shared from friends and various finds sculpted around her own visions of her yard. I like my neighbor, she is smart and funny, willing to not only collect eggs for me while I am gone on vacays but she actually likes my birds. I like that she is herself and confident about that. I got to go inside her house and WOW it was not at all what I expected. It was very unique and cool!
Why did i get to go over there? I was invited to be a judge for her and her friends' honey. My neigbor has 3 hives on her property (one is her brothers) and she has some friends with several hives each. My job? To pick out the best honey. The honey was collected from various times of the year from different hives. I think I tasted seven in all. She had even crafted a blue ribbon for the event-a present bow with a bee emblem glued into the middle of it. Apple juice and honey cake was served and a passage from Winnie the Pooh ( I swear she had like the first edition in her hand) talking about when the white cloth was placed on the table and a descriptive part about Tigger tasting the honey including lip smacking until he finally proclaims "Tiggers don't like honey!". We proceeded outside to the jars of honey set up on a white table clothed table. It was clever and fun and I got to take the winning jar of honey home. Since it was the first time I met these people (one of which has heaps of chickens) I didn't bring my camera and I took a secret photo with my phone. so here goes.

Laziness

2010-08-31T09:08:00.000-04:00

This summer I have come in and out of laziness. Now that most of the work is done I feel good that I don't have to feel too bad about my laziness. There is school paperwork to be done, clothes to sort, and kids to tend but I feel like I can let that slide for just a little bit longer-okay I guess I should feed the children. Mark found this clip for one of his classes and when he first showed it to me it was totally how I was feeling. I think it was sometime at the beginning of the summer perhaps when I was feeling burned out and lazy and it has come and gone as summer has. If you cared for this clip I also really enjoyed the clip about bacon, no okay the cake one I like the cake one. PS go bakerella for getting to go to the emmys!

Tah dah

2010-08-26T09:40:00.001-04:00

I guess Kim and Ruth have waited long enough. I admit I hesitated because I do feel like it looks much better in "real life" but I am too lazy to take pictures again to do it justice. I do love it though-easy to clean and not smelly I couldn't have asked for more. I would have liked to get a mirror trimmed in wood but this one is a medicine cabinet that can hold extra rolls of toilet paper, huge shampoo bottles and has a very clear image. We decided the extra storage in the cabinet would be better than having to add other shelves and cupboards in such a small space. We decided the hand held shower was important to wash all the sand down from the beach. It is so great to be able to come home from the beach and shower off everyone before they get all through the house and then we hung a double shower bar up so we can have extra drying space for beach towels and swimming suits.

BEFORE

AFTER

I really like my shower curtain it-it softens things up a bit.

My straight sided toilet-look no bolts to clean around-I LOVE it!

Pipes and Drains

2010-08-25T10:34:00.000-04:00

I was so close to posting the after pictures but I just could not deprive Mark of showing off his work. I tried to tell Mark how the more work he does the more we save. So the way I see it every outlet I have him move or put in is money we would have had to pay someone hence the more we would have saved. The behind the scenes before the cosmetics are never interesting and they do take awhile but Mark did complete a lot of stuff in a couple of days. These pictures show Mark's awesome plumbing work-don't them pipes look nice? Also he had to move the toilet drain to the other side of the room where the coat closet was and then plumb for the shower drain where the toilet was. More importantly is a picture of me doing all the tiling. Ok, not really Mark cut everything and put the gooey stuff on the walls and I stuck the tiles on-it still counts as helping.

Coop

2010-08-11T17:56:00.000-04:00

From the Kitchen Window

Okay so we have had our chicken coop for awhile now. Mark built it for me in one day which wasn't an easy job with his wimpy staple gun :). I have put off putting up pictures until it was painted and landscaped. Then the dog ate the landscaping and rain foiled my staining plans and I realized that maybe I should just take a picture. I guess no project of ours is ever 100% done because there is always that little bit left that we don't want to invest in just yet. Mark is disappointed because i never posted a picture of our office but I wanted curtains and a reupholstered love seat so everyone could see my whole vision and isn't the little things that make the room? So with that, I PROMISE to post bathroom pictures as soon as I finish with the wall decor because it is important to the room and this will be the only room/project that is 100% done. Whew!


Before


This Way to After-thanks for the sign Aida and Lucy

After

Dear Kim

2010-08-04T14:57:00.000-04:00

Dear Kim,
Thank you for babysitting so Mark and I could go and see a movie together it was great to see the predators on a big screen. Our love was rekindled and are cheesiness restored. Plus, now I can put our photo booth pix on the refrigerator to creep the girls out-they do so enjoy seeing us kiss.
Miss You-
xoxo Sara

Much Awesomeness

2010-08-01T21:47:00.000-04:00

My apologies for the lack of bathroom pictures. In addition to doing the bathroom my working hubby also had to work to earn the extra money to do the bathroom so a bit of a delay there-that's Mark for you Professor, Plumber, Electrician, Tiler, Chef, Hubby, Dad, Handyman, and Young Men's Prez. Often times he has to do multiple jobs in a day but he does it without complaint. Gotta love him!

Also, we had a great visit from Mark's sister. Sorry to say I didn't photograph too much but we were able to share great days at the beach, yummy fish dinners and complain about the sweaty east coast humidity together. The girls loved seeing Kim and can't wait for her to visit again.
After Kim left we took the girls on a surprise trip to Disney World. An awesomeness that really deserves its own post.

Lastly....EGGS EGGS EGGS! It happened while we were on vacation. Our neighbor refused to eat them because she said she felt guilty-a bit like the babysitter that gets to see baby's first steps. I thought that was a good description. It is okay though because Lucy and I are still having fun collecting them and watching them grow. When a chicken first starts to lay the eggs are small and as the hen matures they start to get larger. Lucy created an egg chart to keep track but so far it has been 2 eggs a day all week. Honestly, so far the chickens only get better and better.

Different shades of brown I love them all.

Lucy with the collection basket.

First Peewee egg to a large egg we found today.

Bathroom- Day 2 Markevision

2010-07-13T11:48:00.000-04:00

I don't get a whole lot done when Mark is working on our home improvement projects. It is like an infomercial-there is always more. Every time I try to walk past the bathroom there he is working, things are changing. One of the reasons it is fun to watch is to see how he does things. Day 2 Mark did tile removal and some plumbing. I took a picture of him removing tile because and this is where it is fun to watch- I thought you took a sledgehammer or something and bashed up the tile and shoveled it out. Mark made incisions and lifted the tile out in huge chunks like a puzzle. In this picture you can see the dark lines where he cut the grout. Maybe it is common sense to some but I think Mark is a genius. To think he wonders why I think anything is possible.

Bathroom Reno- Day 1

2010-07-13T11:19:00.000-04:00

The time has come to say goodbye to the beige bathroom. We have patiently been waiting because we knew this one was going to be the most expensive reno project yet. With Discover's 5% on home improvement, another 5% through shop discover and the rebates at homedepot on bathroom supplies we have been collecting bits and pieces of our bathroom the last couple of months. Many rooms in our house still need decorating and some paint but this...this little non-gem has been a disgusting embarrassment for some time.
Other than being beige from top to bottom it wreaked beyond wreakness. Mark was soon to learn it was because well..... whiz had permeated the walls and floor and well just about everything around the loo. The lesson here is to make sure that if you are not going to have tile around your loo, please please make sure to use the proper paint. I know maybe at first it seems great that your wall is absorbing everything (not really) but in the long run it really ends to be a very very bad idea.
Mark and I are excited because when this bathroom is done maybe we can start only sinking an average amount into the home instead of the 97% we are putting in now. Anyway, here is the first day where you can see the bathroom in its lovely state too bad there isn't such a thing as smellweb... The first day Mark did demolition, removing the linen closet, the vanity, and the toilet.
Here in NJ you can pretty much put whatever you want on the curb and they take it away. The hitch is that once you put it out on the curb it is fair game for anyone. Mark and I had bets on people taking the beige toilet. What we didn't count on was the guy that showed up with tools to remove the lid only to walk away holding it high like a world cup trophy thanking us because "do you know how hard it is to find this color? They don't make it anymore!" That is strange- I can't imagine why they wouldn't make it anymore.
All of a sudden I had a pang-did I just dump an antique toilet out on the curb? Could I have made some cash with a toilet chop shop? It wasn't long before masked by the night someone took the tank lid. True cash could have been made but now I was thinking how happy our toilet must be to help out these people that have been waiting probably many many years for someone to put out a beige toilet. Our toilet will live on in new homes. I am glad I could provided them with something that could make their bathrooms more appealing because I know what it is like to be the owner of an eyesore of a bathroom.

Oh and they wall damage was done MONTHS ago when mark went on a trip and I decided to surprise him by taking down the handrail that was there along with removing the telephone jack. I don't think he was all that impressed with my surprise. Lucky for me he found more amusing than upsetting. :)

Waiting

2010-06-16T22:12:00.000-04:00

Ed packed himself a lunch to go to work with me-I had the pleasure of taking him to work with me while Mark was in NZ. Words can not describe how much fun it is to entertain and tend for an 84 year old woman and a three year old boy simultaneously. I love them both and they both love their sugary treats. I think they have a good time but I am usually not a "happy camper" at the end of my shift. He was a little disappointed to hear that he was not going to work with me so I told him of the great opportunity he had to stay at home and rid the house of any ants "for mommy". "Help" is Ed's trigger word and it will launch him immediately into the task. Mark had some online courses to work on today while I was at work so Ed settled in behind him to wait to get the bait. "Is he just going to sit there the whole time?" asked Mark as I was about to leave. I don't know how he lasted but he lasted long enough for me to get a picture of him. Doesn't he look tough even without the mustache?

Man of Mystery

2010-06-07T21:38:00.000-04:00

I know right? I think he is making just the right mustache man faces. It was hard going because he kept moving to attack the camera. Maybe mustaches make you mischievous?

Beach Boy

2010-06-06T21:23:00.000-04:00

It is always nice to open up the door and find a surprise. Ed was excited to go to the beach but the bridge got stuck in the raised position and we had to fight traffic to get home. Poor kid kept his "pool glasses" on the entire time. Don't pretend like your car seats are any cleaner! Okay, maybe they probably are... Oh and any Say What fans-I have added a few more say whats from the weekend.

Oh Drat

2010-06-02T20:49:00.000-04:00

Burger diet linked to asthma

" Children who eat three or more burgers a week may be at a higher risk of asthma and wheezing, but a healthy diet rich in fruit and fish seems to stave off the risk, according to a large international study. "

I guess I should stop feeding my kids THREE OR MORE burgers A WEEK. I guess I will have to switch to hot dogs and pizza.

Rinn's Wedding

2010-05-19T22:03:00.000-04:00

I know it was ages ago but I thought I would share a few pictures of the big day anyway. I have to admit I didn't take very many pictures and I tried to limit the ones for my blog to ones of Corinne and Dan or me. I just thought she was so gorgeous I had to show her off a little keep in mind that I am a Backyard Poultry photographer and not a wedding photographer.

The nieces and nephews were very supportive.

Here I am with my Grandparents. I haven't seen them in over 6 years they are both around ninety years old-can you believe it?

Here they are exiting the Temple. I like how happy Corinne is even though I attempted to ruin her wedding. Right at the end of the ceremony I developed a bit of a cough. The more I tried to hold it in the worse it became-you know how that is? Unfortunately I was sitting as far as possible from the exit so I had to cross the couple. Right before the official end to the ceremony my devoted hubby stopped the wedding and left to go find me. I made it in time and I like to think I did a pretty good job about making it all about me.

I stole the show on the inside and their exit was taken over by Cale when he ran right in front of them, turned to face the camera and smiled. He was too cute.

Here I am being Corinne's dress slave. You can see how I clearly failed to be skinnier than the bride on her special day. Even with all that was going on she actually noticed how I stole her headband and earrings.

The wedding was full of red heads.

Corinne's trademark stance.

One of the most stunning bouquets I have ever seen.

Smoochy smoochy

Izzy's shoes stole the show at the reception. I have to say by the end of the evening I was wondering if I could pay her 5 bucks and squeeze my footsies into her shoues.

This is Corinne getting to eat at her reception. I sat down next to her for a minute only to get up to leave and realize that somehow fishing line had looped itself about a million times around one of my heels. I tried to walk away and tugged and pulled in the middle of the dance floor. People were staring until my awesome brother Mike came and saved me from the invisible line. Did Corinne set me up?

Get a good look because RARE is it that you catch the two of us in a photo together. I think we are rather stunning.

The Girls

2010-05-17T19:52:00.000-04:00

I figured everyone was dying to get a chicken update and these days I am always willing to talk about them because I have learned quite a bit. Just in case anyone was worried, they were only in the garden beds for the photo shoot and the younger ones are separate from the older ones. Tess has been outside at the same time as them unsupervised but within an invisible fence. The chickens are just now getting comfortable roaming further from the coop so I suppose I will need to be more careful about that...
So far I am enjoying being a chicken owner. What I realized too late with the dog is that dogs have feelings and needs just like a young child-but worse in many other ways so it really only amped my stress levels. I like to say the dog is for the kids and the chickens are for me. The chickens are brainless yet entertaining and I feel no guilt for neglect like I do with Tess the Dog. So anyway here are my girls and yes, many of them look similar-Lucy is really the only one that can tell the difference. :) If you want to see the bigger versions you will need to click on the picture.

Ed also named this one Eddie at the same time Danielle named hers Danielle but his sisters talked him into changing the name since he already had a chicken named Eddie. He chose "Buddy" because that is one of his nicknames and his favorite dinosaur on Dinosaur Train.

Danielle has since claimed this as her chicken because she decided she liked the white one instead but I am not giving this one up. I named her popcorn because she looks like popped corn. Since I got her her feathers have gone all crazy so I am thinking she may be a frizzle? She gets along with everyone but she is a stress case.

Caramel was added last and I am glad every morning when I check the brooder and she hasn't been pecked to death for being a small intruder.

Danielle is a bit of a bully but she was humbled by the big chickens when they went for her toes because they thought they were worms. Don't worry the toe pecking has stopped.

Lucy's chicken and the most held of the bunch as you can see.

Poor Tess. She is contained while the chickens roam free. So far she doesn't bark at the chickens which is good because if they are stressed they won't lay as often. I think mostly Tess hates the neglect she has gotten since the arrival of the chickens. It really is only a matter of time until and "incident".

2010-05-14T21:32:00.000-04:00

I am not a proponent of standardized testing...

yet it was nice for Aida to hand me this certificate just before going to bed (not a big deal to her I guess) along with a coupon worth $10 of books at the book fair. In my head I replaced "highest score in Language Arts" to mean that yes, it is true your daughter is the brightest of the lot. Congratulations to Aida!

Happy Mothers Day to Me

2010-05-09T22:10:00.000-04:00

Mother's Day is quickly moving up the list to being my favorite holiday. Today I was in a conversation with some ladies about Mother's Day. One of them was a little upset because she has one child and is 36 weeks pregnant with baby number 2. This morning she woke up to her child sleeping on her head and her and her mother exchanged presents while their husbands slumbered away. He didn't make it any better by giving her some flowers and when she asked if there was a card from her daughter he said it was the one that came with the flowers. I guess she was hoping for some homemade thing evoking sentiment and warm fuzzies. Several of the ladies came to his defense saying how really it takes years (this was only her third) and you have to train the family to know what to do for you. I was shocked that she at least hadn't taught him to TRY to let her sleep in. Sometimes there isn't any sleep but it is just nice to not have to be the one to jump out of bed first or in my case just not feel guilty about hubby having to jump out of bed first.
What she failed to understand in my eyes is that Mother's Day isn't like Valentine's Day or your Birthday it really isn't a holiday it is a state of mind. The idea is that on Mother's Day it is truly "Queen for a Day" where whatever I say goes and no one can complain about it. Every whim and demand within reason and even some that aren't are to be granted. I started prepping my family for Mother's Day a week ago. Maya gave me a new card everyday and I liked it. They knew breakfast was a given and last night I lovingly reminded them that not only could they not knock on my door in the early hours of the morn but I didn't want to hear any noise at all from any part of the house this morning.

Lucy's class called all of the Dads in to help with Mother's Day surprises and he was great to go and help her for 1.5 hours on a weekday. I liked that. Yesterday (Saturday) Mark gave me the gift of a quiet house while he took the kids on errands and worked on a surprise gift in the garage all day long. The quiet house made me feel zen-like and full of love. I told Mark that I decided that Mother's Day would be spent hanging out all day with my children. Okay, so that didn't really happen but I enjoyed my long nap, my nice dinner the AWESOME homemade gift goodness. I remember always being disappointed that I couldn't get my mom something nice for Mother's Day but now I can see why she said she like the homemade ones the best. I thought she was saying it to be nice but as a mother, I really do enjoy those ones the best. They are creative, thoughtful and one of a kind. Ed caught on to the gift giving and kept finding favorites of his to give me all day long so thanks for the pictures of "rivers" and for your deflated red balloon from the fair yesterday. So here is a picture of me with my lovelies-thanks Mark for getting a rare picture of me. For those of you wanting a closer look at me I have included the portrait Maya drew of me for Mother's Day. I will have to post other Mother's Day bounty tomorrow. I hope everyone had a good Mother's Day-I have to say this has been the best one so far. They only seem to get better and better.

Crazy Susan’s Cookies

2010-05-08T11:40:00.001-04:00

Today I hit a yard sale and returned with a few things I think I don’t want but at the time I couldn’t help but get it because at yard sales sometimes you get that “but I where would I ever possible find this again?” feeling. Completely forgetting that maybe there are some things that should never have been found in the first place much less found for a second go. Feeling a little ripped off that I didn’t find something cool for Mark and I’s garden oasis we are making, I decided to drive past an antique store that was down the road from the yard sale and next door to Crazy Susan’s Cookies. The antique store was closed but Susan’s was open (she is only open weekends until tourist season opens up).
Here’s the thing-I like my cookies. I like MY cookies a lot. I remember making cookies for a friend of mine and all she said was how good HER mom’s recipe was and that her mom is so good at cookie making she can make them more round that mine and faster using nothing but a spoon as opposed to my scooper which I feel like she was implying was a cheats tool. After feeling a bit offended at her unsubtle insinuations that my cookies weren’t up to snuff I had to forgive her because aren’t we all a bit protective of what our momma’s cookies? I think many people feel that way about their own cookies even though for the most part isn’t everyone’s “secret family recipe” really the toll-house recipe with maybe a bit more vanilla in it? Remember when wards were filled with ward cookbooks proclaiming to have the REAL Mrs. Fields Cookie recipe? The first time I went to Susan’s I was not impressed with the overall “appearance” of the cookie and I did find the chocolate chip to be a little too sweet and brown sugary but the other cookies-like the turtle cookie-delicious. Aida and I decided to treat ourselves after the unproductive yard sale. We had a plan we would each get a different flavour, go halfsies and get rid of the evidence before going home. Aida chose a warm peanut butter cookie with peanut butter chips in it. Okay, I am not a peanut butter cookie fan but this cookie was super super good. It wasn’t hard and crunchy like peanut butter can be but it had the crisp edges and the warm gooey middle that i like. Again, not a real looker of a cookie but the best peanut butter cookie I have ever had it just melted in your mouth. I actually turned the car around and bought Mark one because I felt THAT guilty about enjoying the deliciousness without him. The ladies that work there-including Susan are friends with a lot of their patrons and it is fun to visit with them. I guess this will be their first year with a a kiosk on the boardwalk which I am pretty sure will do nothing to aid me getting rid of the sarong this year. Anyway here is video of Susan and some shots of Ocean City to entice anyone to come out and visit New Joize.

Sandy Box 2

2010-04-29T09:03:00.000-04:00

This gets to be Sandy Box 2 because I already posted it on Danielle's Blog. Ed and Danielle have added playing in the sandbox to their Things To Do on a Daily Basis list. This time they were really excited to wear matching hoodies-mostly because it was chilly but I also think that they like to wear them to provide cover for their sand throwing ways. Ed was really excited to have successfully buried his feet in the sand himself and here is Danielle really excited to have the opportunity to throw sand in my face while taking her picture for HER blog. It is okay though because I have a new camera all picked out for Janae to buy me. :)

Notice all of Ed's bandaids. He also has a few stuck on the back of his head. He has actually run out of places to put them.

The More the Merrier

2010-04-26T21:50:00.001-04:00

Danielle is visiting us for a week so I may have more or less time to catch up on some blogging. My kids really LOVE having Danielle around. For me, I still get a kick out of what her and Ed come up with .

Doesn’t Ed look HUGE in this picture?

Let me just say one more time how much I LOVE my trike. Ed is learning to ride so I don’t know how much longer I get to have passengers but it is so much easier than driving.

Chicky Love

2010-04-14T22:33:00.000-04:00

The chicks are growing up fast. It is getting harder to see the perks of owning a dog when the chicks are soooo much cheaper and provide hours of entertainment without having to monitor and yell "Ep". So far the chicks are alive and very tolerant. I didn't think they would last this long but they seem to be thriving. On Sunday we were enjoying dinner outside when we heard sirens, a screeching halt and then someone yelling at us over our fence if we "saw anything". Looking a bit closer, we noticed he was caring a large rifle as were the other four officers sneaking around the back of our neighbors house with rifles at the ready. Mark got the kids in while I jumped the deck railing to save Ed and the chicks. Tough. Luckily no shots were fired and eventually the guns were put away after we watched 15 teenagers emerge from a very tiny house. They just kept coming out like clowns out of a VW bug. It didn't look like any arrests were made but Mark still needs to go and get the what what from the neighbor. Just another day of living in the hood of NJ. Now that I think of it I should have taken a picture from my window for those of you that may think that I am lying. Anyway here are some chick pictures some of them taken MOMENTS before the cops descended upon the crims out back.

Happy Easter 2010

2010-04-06T22:20:00.000-04:00

I apologize for the lack of any colorful Easter pictures. This is an accumulation of all of our Easter related activities. They did not happen all in one day but they happened and now here they are.

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt Complete with Creepy Bunny

Ed was slow but steady. It was really hard to hold myself back and not grab all that he was missing.

The Take

My Martha cupcakes that don't look as good as hers. To my credit these are the ones that were left over that I took home so they are a little beat up.

Maya's class had a little competition and guess who won with the EXACT answer. Why can't she do this when a bike is at stake?

The Trophy

I wonder if they will live until next Easter...

Once I caught him running around the house clutching a chick in one hand. I had to look away.

Little chicken legs all over the place.

Aida's Kapla Egg

764

2010-04-01T15:53:00.000-04:00

According to Lucy this is how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop. "If you want both halves gone you have to double that number."-Lucy She took copious notes as photographed for evidence. Thanks Lucy for answering the owl's question!

The Tootsie Facts

I Heart Weddings

2010-03-17T10:18:00.000-04:00

Right now I am in New Hampshire getting ready for the second leg of our trip to fly to California to see ...

I know aren't they cute? I don't normally post pictures of people without consent but I figured since I am Corinne's favorite older sister I pretty much own her and Dan, well that's what he gets for marrying in. These two cool cats are getting married Saturday and I couldn't be more excited. These things are always fun when you know that your relly has hooked up with a really genuine person such as Dan here. I am still trying to decide what to call him so I don't get mixed up with my brother Dan. I am also trying to decide what sort of Sara element I should throw into their reception unbeknown to them-it is just what I do.

Cars Get Cold Too

2010-03-09T20:55:00.001-05:00

Okay, they don’t really but I thought it was cute when I turned the corner to find that Ed had tenderly tucked in his toys to watch TV with him.

Why?!

2010-03-07T20:34:00.001-05:00

Desires of the Heart

2010-03-06T22:23:00.000-05:00

I am always so jazzed when I am able to get a good seat on Southwest, munch on my free snack and sip on my plastic cup filled with watered ice while reading Skymall. It is always especially fantastic to peruse my Skymall Maggy with Mark sitting next to me. Here's why. The truth is I have super great ideas ALL THE TIME. More often than he would like, I share these ideas of true awesomeness with my one true love. I think he tires of thinking of nice ways to tell me that my ideas just wouldn't sell. Skymall gives me the opportunity to show him-SEE SEE I thought of that first and now here it is in print reaching scads of Southwest patrons.

Skymall also gives me a chance to see all of the ideas that are truly fantastic and make myself wonder why I didn't think of it. I admit there are things that I truly want from Skymall and then there are those that I am curious about in a weird sort of a way-so much so that if I were a trillionaire I would purchase it just to satisfy this curiosity. I decided to reward my faithful readers with the items that I would never admit that I kinda want from Skymall.

Okay, here is one that I really do want the two foot tall Garden Yeti. I admit I wish that he were taller but all the reviews say he is fabulous all the same. Mark and I would move him around the yard and dress him for the seasons and the holidays.
The Adjustable Purse Organizer would this help me to eliminate the strange crumbs and mess in my purse? I also feel like I need to support his because it reminds me of the Best Bag Eva.

Wouldn't the shopkeepers be in absolute awe of my hi-tech do-hickie gizmo gadget?

Shelves, bins, labels, need I say more?
Don't have a cat but WOW! Go ahead and youtube the Litter Kwitter to see real live cats in action. Litter is gross but then a little cat bum on my toilet? I just don't know-there is just something wrong about this on so many levels yet....curious....
Maybe I could go to theme parks if I had one of these. I am so afraid of not being able to find my car. I admit sometimes after an especially long trip to Shoprite I emerge disoriented and have had a slight panic attack sensation. The panic button would come in handy so someone else could come and help navigate me to my car.

It just feels so good to squeeze my head when I have a headache so why wouldn't this work? It come with hot and cold packs.

This one is a step up from the headache relieving wrap because it has pressure AND massage. Being able to look like a Cylon apparently is a just an added bonus.
I just think Mark's two dollars would be safer in his front pocket than in his back pocket and now with this wallet it should be an option.

Mark and I have long wanted one of these bad boys to use while we watch tv and eat cookies that way we can burn as we go and still get our shows in.

The Ultrasonic Barking Dog Deterrent-disguised as a birdhouse. This patented device is supposed to stop the barking of any dog that is near it-neighbors included. What I loved about this is how cleverly it is disguised because my dog will definitely NOT know where the deterrent is coming from now.
Can you tell I get headaches a lot?

I think this would be super comfy and I like all of the pockets for storage.

Who doesn't want an R2-D2? Always been curious about this one I guess it can play hide and seek with the kids. I am a little concerned how it is able to mimic the real thing, "right down to his occasional 'bad mood'." What does this mean exactly? What does he do when he is in a bad mood is he as bad as me? Oh but then it reads, "A simple command of, 'R2, behave yourself!' snaps him out of it". Now I am won over again because the control I would feel being able to actually have one of the underlings of the house listen and respond to me with one voice command would be phenomenal!
Me thinks this is an awesome welcome mat idea if only they could make it look a little more durable.

You know just for those morning walks in Jersey. Shame I don't have a flip phone. Have a hard time reaching me? Get me one of these and then I will NEVER EVER lose my phone again. "easily flipped open to answer with a flick fo the wrist. This innovative accessory uses sturdy velcro...extensively tested by active joggers, cyclists, skate boarders, fishermen, hunters and business people."

I think my neighbor would have nothing but congrats to give to me if I covered up our mutually unsightly utility thingy majiggy with one of these huge boulders.

Monkey on the Back

2010-03-05T21:02:00.000-05:00

Mark said it was a little hard to work with electricity this way. Better Mark than me-right?

I just loved Ed's squishy double chin in this one.

Cheers

2010-03-05T20:12:00.001-05:00

Here’s to the end of snow days this year-I hope.

Sorry for the blur but I hate to post pictures of other kids when I don’t have parental permission. I could call but I hate calling people too so you will just have to put up with the blur. :)

Gingerbread (Cake)

2010-03-04T09:56:00.001-05:00

Maya and I had some yogurt to use up so we decided to bake a Gingerbread Cake because well I like gingerbread. I wish that I had had some lemon curd to fold into fresh whipped cream to use as a topping but it was just as well since I didn't have any cream either. I decided to take some pictures to add to my recipe section but we accidentally ate the cake before I remembered to take a picture of the completed thing. So for now all you get is a recipe and some action shots.

Gingerbread from Tate's Bake Shop by Kathleen King

1 cup butter
1 cup dark unsulfured molasses
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves (can be omitted if you find it too strong)
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
23/ cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon grated orange zest from one orange (optional)
3/4 cup boiling water

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13-inch pan.

Put hot water into a measuring cup to warm it; pour it out before measuring the molasses. It keeps the molasses from sticking. Melt the butter and molasses together.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the sugar and egg together until they are thick. Add the butter mixture and beat till it's combined. Add the flour mixture and beat till it's combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the yogurt and orange zest and mix them in. Add the boiling water and beat it in for 2 minutes.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove the gingerbread from the oven and cool completely in the pan.

This cake freezes well and keeps for a few days at room temperature. It keeps even longer in the refrigerator if it is wrapped tight in clear plastic film or aluminum foil.

Cookie Milk

2010-02-28T18:35:00.000-05:00

Dear Ed,
I am sorry you had to yell for "cookie milk" for so long today- I did not know what you were talking about. I feel even worse that I could not give in to your demands when I finally realized what you WERE talking about. You need to know that 1) better 'n eggs is not milk 2)the image on the carton is actually of muffins not cookies. I understand the disappointment because cookie milk would be delicious-much more so than non-fat egg product.
xoxo mom

Treadmill Cars

2010-02-25T20:03:00.000-05:00

The new parenting advice is to not over-schedule your kids. Apparently they are supposed to have some time where they are "bored" it provokes them to be creative. I am glad to hear this because I used to feel guilty about all the opportunities I felt my kids were missing out on due to lack of time, money or energy. Here is a little something Aida came up with when she disappeared for hours at Grandma's house one day. Don't worry Grandma I don't think she was bored I think she just had an idea. I really like how she thought to position the tape and the cars so it looks like they are changing lanes.

In Case You Missed It

2010-02-24T09:14:00.000-05:00

I admit I don't watch a lot of Youtube so I am sorry to be late on this one but I had to post it because I just think it is funny and after four kids rarely am I taken with kids' shenanigans anymore.

No Offense Eddie

2010-02-22T20:47:00.001-05:00

Hello Charlie sorry… hi its Aida here I edited a picture of Eddie my mom took and I would say I did a pretty good job so here it is Charlie.

Catharsis

2010-02-21T21:28:00.000-05:00

Tess was sorry... but we weren't

She just did what we secretly wanted to do to Starsong anyway. Our enjoyment was short lived when we realized it's one of Maya's favorites, now we have to find a replacement.

Game of Life

2010-02-20T15:53:00.000-05:00

During Feb in my quest to eat as many cinnamon jelly hearts as possible from Rite-Aid I started to play the Game of Life. I have a theory that they must spread stamps to different states to make sure no one wins. So, out of curiosity and because it ends in one week does anyone have any of the following 01, 06, 42, 46,12,14,15,26,18,20,29,22,23,35,39,40,47, or 52? Because I have eaten a lot of jellies and I now just get repeats-I promise to split the win!
Love,
sara

Family Support

2010-02-17T09:16:00.001-05:00

I just really love how my kids try to motivate me to stay on the right track. I have been trying to lose that few that I have always wanted to for Little Sister’s wedding. To my credit I was really really good for almost 4 days before I fell off the wagon. Lucy found my binge and piled them up in my room with this note. I wonder how far I would have to run to catch up to the wagon. Maybe today won’t be too freezing so I can go for a run to try to catch it. :)

I Wonder

2010-02-16T20:15:00.001-05:00

I wonder when the cold will end and the snow will melt. I did go for my first run in WEEKS yesterday and I was grateful for the snow patches to give myself an excuse to walk a bit. At least the kids are back in school.

Pseudoparanormal

2010-02-15T21:44:00.000-05:00

Mark was given the opportunity to teach a class on any topic of his choosing. Enter Pseudo-paranormal 101 (okay Pseudoscience and the Paranormal GSS2148 if you want to be all official about it). I just KNEW all of those hours of watching X-Files in our early marriage days was contributing to our education and furthering our chances for great success in life. I would say that was time well invested. Anyway Mark has gotten his brilliant young minds to contribute to a blog Pseudoparanormal as part of their assignment and well because he can. The power is just too much. So for your enjoyment check it out- if they publish rubbish Mark gets to fail them. Personally, I think he should just go for random failing-the fun never stops.

Deer Valentine

2010-02-14T21:35:00.000-05:00

These vintage valentine cookies appeal to me on so many levels. Those of you that know my "work" could only surmise how totally excellent mine would look insert villaneous laughter here. I showed Mark these pretties and he said, "Sorry but you ain't puttin' any food in our printer." He knew straight away how alluring these were to me why he had to throw in the southern accent is beyond me (that only left me wondering if he was serious). Drat, why did Mark have to choose to put his foot down about THIS?!

Oh Bakerella how I love thee!

P.S. Twin-do you remember my awesome Bambi poster?

Snowmageddon

2010-02-07T13:47:00.001-05:00

“The biggest winter storm in nearly 90 years walloped the Mid-Atlantic states on Saturday, dumping up to 33 inches of snow that shut down the nation's capital, left thousands of people without power and caused flight cancellations nationwide.

President Barack Obama, a snow veteran from Chicago, joked that he encountered "snowmageddon" as he ventured out for a meeting.” The storm was severe, with white-out conditions for much of the day. I did not get a picture because I was too busy staying in my warm house watching the girls play in the blizzard and Mark shovel snow several times throughout the day. It really looked too cold for me so I just left them all to it. Today it was much clearer but still cold so I had Mark snap these pix for me. Most of the snow already melted from the trees taking away from some of the “whiteness” but this is THE Shore people! Plus, I was disappointed because the postal service ceased service so I was unable to get my Red Plum Savings and Atlanticare Medical flyers. I guess I will just have to wait and feed my fixx on Monday…maybe Tuesday.

Science Idol Debut

2010-02-04T09:51:00.000-05:00

Aida's Science class had the option of doing a project or participating in Science Idol. I am proud of her for writing her own lyrics, taking the pictures and most of all for having the courage to sing a solo.. Thanks to Mark for taking the time to help her edit the movie. It is okay to laugh at the slo-mo Tess shots around 2:50 and the drama of the frog in the net.

Go-Getter

2010-01-25T11:55:00.001-05:00

One thing I really like about the boy after having 3 girls is that he just does things himself. This isn’t to say the girls never do- but Ed is a little more… consistent. After his nap he decided to put his Sunday clothes back on. He is wearing argyle so maybe Corinne would like to use Ed’s mad Kriss Kross style for the wedding attire

Board

2010-01-19T20:59:00.001-05:00

Mewant

2010-01-15T20:27:00.000-05:00

I don't normally post things that I want but in this case I will. If you think it is less tacky think of this as a design post. Remember that bare wall in my kitchen needing a mirror to sit opposite my window to bring in more light? This is the one I want from Anthropologie-you can guess why I do not have it yet. People that have it love it, just as I know I would. However, they do mention how it is supposed to be hung on the diagonal which actually would suit my needs even better-must be meant to be.

Ferrero

2010-01-10T20:57:00.000-05:00

Just thought those of you that are like me and hadn't seen a Ferrero Rocher (sp?) would like a picture to go with Ed's Say What.

8 December 2009
Ed in the car with a three pack of Ferraro Rocher from Home Depot and unwraps one.

Ed: Oh! Here Mum it's a meatball!

Unwraps one for himself.

Ed: Hey mum? I got a meatball too!

Word for the Year

2010-01-05T21:25:00.000-05:00

I don't actually believe in New Year's resolutions because I figure if you are going to do something do it. For example a popular one is losing weight if you want to lose weight start tomorrow why wait until a new year? I for one have several times during the year that I need to get back on the weight loss wagon and if I gave up waiting for a new year WHOA NELLY! Anyway I thought since everyone else is doing it, I would throw a word out there for the year even though I have been trying to live by it since we moved back to America.

Drum roll please.....Simplify.

I don't feel the need to explain myself just know that that is what I have chosen as my word. Please feel free to use it and give it back when you are done.

Happy Birthday Eddie

2010-01-04T19:37:00.001-05:00

It is hard to believe but my little Ed has turned 3. When we ask him how old he is he either puts on a cheeky face and says Ed or adamantly states, “4”. I guess four is closer to three than when he said he was eleven, or thirty. So far Ed remains pretty low key but I would be lying if I didn’t say he didn’t act spoiled at times. It is hard to say whether the spoiling is because he is the first boy or because he is the youngest child of my brood. Either way I am just enjoying him at the moment and he is good company during the day. One of my favorite love/hates about Eddie is that he thinks his head is a teatowel. Whenever he gets anything on his hands-stickers, sauce, chocolate, water he has to wipe it off on his hair. I will have to post pictures of those times later. For now here is a picture of him each year until he turned the big 3. We got him a new glide bike, a chocolate bar, a hot wheel, a broken candy cane and some after dinner mints from a restaurant. Not surprisingly he was most excited about the broken candy cane, mints, and chocolate bar. He graciously shared his chocolate until it was gone. We just got home from our vacay on Sunday morning so I wasn’t sure if I would get to the cake or not. I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he said, “green….big…..a really really big green cake….with skittles”. I had a good laugh when I was talking to my dad on the phone only to have Ed walk by with a chunk of his yet to be frosted cake. I patched it back together as best as I could. I still feel like my cake was a success because I met his criteria for the perfect birthday cake. I even let him help me decorate because I am a nice mom. :)

Christmas 2 Double 0 9

2009-12-28T22:04:00.000-05:00

Well another Christmas has gone by and I believe that it was a success. For the second year in a row we have been able to spend it in NH with family. A little less snow than last year but enough to satisfy the kids needs to sled and frolic. The unfortunate part of the holiday was that Mark, Ed and I were hit by a flu of sorts. I honestly haven't been this sick in a long long time and it has been miserable. Luckily Lucy and Maya only just got it so they could enjoy their Christmas. The kids were happy this year. I think everyone got what they wanted but as the story goes we were just happy to be amongst family. One of the things that we learned to appreciate during our time abroad was having family. We were fortunate to have kind friends that really took us in and let us become a part of their families during the holidays. During this season I miss our friends, NZ, mince tarts, fish and chips the same old BUT I am also glad to be surrounded by family, to be a homeowner and to celebrate Christmas in the cold. One thing that I realized is that families can drive us crazy, unintentionally make cruel comments, make passive aggressive criticisms, perhaps we are even the instigators but they are our family. Family also can make us laugh, pick us up when we are down, forgive, and they care for one another. While my friends were kind to invite us over I couldn't help but feel a little homesick watching them tease, argue or rant about scarce food. I guess what I mean to say is sometimes those moments that we are with our family that drive us the most crazy are in their own way the most tender and intimate ones. They show us that we are surrounded by people that we are comfortable around enough to cause a stir. There have been a lot of changes in the Berg family this year-enough to reflect on the past year and think about how relative time really is. I am grateful to be where I am at this moment in time because circumstances can really change so quickly and it is important to look to the future but it is equally important to appreciate the moment. With that here is Sara signing off--

Ponies

Homemade Garland

Moonshoes

Mark-made Puzzle Box for Ed

Surprises

Giant Gumball Machines (Ed super duper wanted one)

and of course a Dancing Grandma

Snow Dayz

2009-12-24T20:41:00.000-05:00

Poor sick Ed and his snotsills. We are jut glad he got out there in the snow for a bit this year. I think he is getting over his snow/sand phobias.

Building Snow Castles

This is when without uttering a word, Danielle and Ed just decided to randomly take off and head down the road.

Danielle was very attentive to "snow babies" as she called them right up to the point when she decided they needed to be hurled at me while I was trying to take a picture of her. A mother's rage I guess.

Aida coming out of one of her tunnels.

I know it is Christmas Eve and I should post something Christmassy but I guess I will save that for tomorrow BECAUSE I have these snow pictures to share from our big storm. The biggest snowstorm to hit New Jersey in 100 years. Well, you know how people like to make a good story so I don't know how much is exaggerated but it was quite a bit of snow. Lucky for us the snowplow plowed everything in front of our house so our kids could construct snow tunnels and caves. One strange thing about sending our kids out was that they would multiply. I think one time we had like 12 kids in front of our house and we were going through hot chocolate like nobody's business. After a few days we were fortunate to have the Madsens once again grace us with their presence. Janae wowed me once again with her mad sewing skills by making me some more of her choice kitchen towels as well a big queen sized quilt for Aida's new room. Who does that? I have finished one quilt in my lifetime and it took me YEARS. Janae whips things out like I sweep floors. So thank you thank you thank you Janae. They were also nice enough to take Tess the wonderdog with them for the holidays. Lucy was very very sad but she knows it is for the best so Tess wouldn't freeze in NH.

Gingerbread Fun

2009-12-18T15:39:00.000-05:00

Don't worry Mark just ripped out that littlish tooth the other night and it now looks sooo much better. :)

* Hot Tip * To get the apron to look outlined in white you frost the entire person and then lick off all the icing. The icing should remain in the channels. Yet another reason why I don't like to eat things from other people's houses. What if they are doing the same?

Every year I look forward to making gingerbread houses. I was really upset when I found out Nick Jr. decided to delete my all time most favorite gingerbread house recipe. I guess it is my fault for covering the recipe with molasses every year thinking I would just print out another the following year. Lesson to all- take care of your recipes!!! I think I saw Mark give a little smirk when I realized this beause he has been after me for YEARS to stop mucking up all of my recipes and cookbooks. Unphased I decided to forge ahead and make gingerbread houses with untrialed recipes. As an extra challenge I had yet another one of my A+ brainstorms when I decided to teach my kids about 3 dimensional construction and have them measure and draw out their own gingerbread houses. My eyes were gleaming with the prospect of having a gingerbread village-all different buildings lined up together. Aida made a lovely tall skinny one with plenty of holes to stuff the candy inside of, Lucy made a massive one that I rolled so thin that it crushed under the weight of a gumdrop, Ed and Maya I printed out a template because I actually can't be bothered to figure out measurements. My fav was how Ed just randomly took candy and stuck it the roof. I also enjoyed the decorated snowmen the girls did. If my blurry photos aren't enough check out this vid Mark got. If you will notice no one ever answers Mark's questions the first time around. Not even myself. Somehow we all managed to not hear what he was saying. Sorry Mark!

Tree Envy

2009-12-17T20:39:00.001-05:00

Mark and I take turns calling each other “Ebenezer” because we have not been very good Christmassers this year. The kitchen wore us out and now we leave for NH so we figured what is the point?

Our “huge” fake 6 footer that we got last year is even more fake looking than it is dwarfed in our living room. Did it shrink in the attic? (After all, I have noticed that my clothes seem to shrink in my closet). Too lazy to get any of our meager, mostly broken ornaments out of the attic I resorted to my NZ style Christmas tree-the one where we craft a bunch of stuff and stick it on the tree.

The inspiration this year was to make some good old fashioned, customized with every name in a different font garland. I gave up halfway through and told Mark to just drape it on the tree like a Miss America Sash.

The wadded up piece of fabric at the base of the tree does nothing to camouflage its spindly fake “trunk” that is indeed smaller than one of the branches.

Lucy and I had some tear-drop ornaments in the works until Ed came along and wadded them up and threw them around the room and to be honest no, it did not look like snow.

Today I went up into the attic of the woman I care for to get her fiber optic tree “from several years ago now”. I set that up with its fancy fiber optics, silver vase-like base, and glittering plastic stars and I had envy. Could it really be that my tree is so bad this year that I had tree envy for this fiber optic wonder?

Surprise! Your Gift is Mine!

2009-12-16T14:22:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I really want to buy things for my kids that would really only benefit me. That way I get what would make things better for me, they won’t get anything that would make things worse for me and I can work it into the Christmas budget.

I think a Keepsake Keeper would be great for storing all those papers until I get to it at the end of the year. The idea of filing my kids’ things into little boxes with their heads on it is very appealing to me. How disappointed could they possibly be when they see the joy on my face?

Kitchen Reno

2009-12-10T16:19:00.001-05:00

Personally, I am glad we got rid of the stein because well, I love my new kitchen much much more. I really can’t think of anything I want for Christmas because this is it!

Because we had a small amount to work with AND because this is more of a facelift than a remodel to tide us over until we do a BIG remodel (I am actually fine with it now) we had to consider a few things.

We couldn’t get a piece of laminate countertop long enough to go across the back so we went with an apron sink which eliminated an extra seam and well it is an apron sink.
We kept the original cabinetry but painted them in a light yellow so the kitchen wouldn’t look too sterile and put new hardware on. We also repainted the insides of the cabinets which has made it way easier to see the contents.
We put wood on the island because that is what we could get in a width to fit the island. We also added a few inches making it a functioning island that people can eat at, do homework, and I can fit my cookie sheets on it in any direction. Not sure about the blue, but well it is just paint.
The dishwasher is OLD but it works great. It was rusted on the outside so we painted it green. It came out real nice and glossy but the kitchen looked too Lego-like so we did a sparkly dark grey to match the bench tops. We were limited to what you can buy in a gloss spray can so no matching yellow.
Tore out the cabinets to the left of the window giving me WAY more shelf space. Our cabinets are original to the house and are not frameless so before I couldn’t put my dishes in because there was well a huge frame in the way. Now I can unload the dishwasher standing in one place-FABULOUS!
Since we eliminated the cabinets we had to change out the fluorescent light so carefully hidden :) to a little bit of bling.
We went with the classic white subway tile because well it is classic and we don’t know how long we are going to have to keep the kitchen this way so we needed something cheap and classy. We did grout with a more coarse grout to add some texture and to prevent it looking like a faux linoleum tile facade.

Mark removed all the outlets on the back wall and put them up under the cabinets so we don’t have to look at them and yet we can plug away.
Now we can wait for our appliances to slowly die and replace them with stainless steel. Although I don’t think they will and I don’t know how much I want them to because they work great.
Still need window treatments and a large mirror under the baking racks to reflect the light from the window and add more natural light to my dark space.

Perfect

2009-12-09T08:23:00.001-05:00

I love this idea for Christmas sugar cookies. It combines all my favs-chocolate cookie, cupcakes, and uh hello cuteness. I am about 99.99999% certain that my piping would not be as purdy. Thanks for the inspiration Bakerella!

The Answer to Chris’ Query

2009-12-08T21:42:00.001-05:00

Kitchen Teasers

2009-12-05T21:57:00.001-05:00

I hope this doesn’t disappoint but I just hate to show it until it is all done. I will give you a few glimpses of one of the final stages-tiling the backsplash. After the backsplash is done we just have to put matching outlets and covers in, paint the back wall, and figure out the window treatments. Window treatments probably won’t happen for awhile so I will show you up to that point. Oh and we still have to paint the dishwasher….

One Star Pet Peeve

2009-11-30T09:23:00.001-05:00

I have many pet peeves but today I was reminded of one when researching a cookbook online.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Poorly Bound, Falls Apart, June 4, 2009

By	Gail Abrams (Little Silver, NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

I spilled some white wine while following a recipe, and all the surrounding pages fell out. For a cookbook to use glue that dissolves when wet for its binding is disgraceful!

Disgraceful. Hmmmmm....

1. I really really hate it when people on amazon give a product one star when they had a dissatisfied experience with the supplier. They then say the product is "absolutely the best!" Don't they realize that it brings the overall rating for the ACTUAL product down? I only click on 4 stars and up so if the rating is down due to something having NOTHING to do with the actual product I will be missing out. For example if you spill WINE all over the cookbook can you really give the CONTENT 1 star?

2. Allrecipes. Again based on the rating system. IF you are making let's say "The World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookie" (a common title for a recipe found in Allrecipes-one that is aka the "Nestle Toll House Recipe" but shhhh we will let Betty think that it really is her great-grandmother's secret recipe from France) it is not fair to give the said recipe one star if you do a copious amount of substitutions. For example for the cookie recipe they will tell you how they hadn't any eggs so they just used egg beaters, no butter so they used spray on olive oil, and no chocolate chips so they used red hots and THEN they will tell you how they can't believe all the rave reviews and they will have to give it one star because their cookies were dry, crumbly and in dire need of some chocolate. If you don't follow the recipe exactly don't give it a bad star!

3. Restaurant Review Liars. These are the owners that log on to all the food review sites and give their biased reviews under some sort of made up name or get their friends to do so. This angers me because then the rating is unfairly driven up. Mark and I don't get to travel on our own too often so when we do get sitters and decide to shell out some money and travel time it is REALLY REALLY disappointing when you get to a place that you have carefully researched to find that it is horrible. Often we have one shot for dinner so when owners lie and they get their friends who have never eaten there to lie it really is beyond annoying. I know I lie about a lot of things but this is where I draw the line it is just plain deceitful. Sure you want your business to do well but do it by actually BEING a good restaurant and get honest feedback so you can improve. I understand the motivation to lie I don't go on ratemyprofessors and give Mark full marks and a chili pepper when I have not taken any of his classes. I know eventually student reviews will speak for themselves because I know he is a good professor. Besides he already has a "hot" vote. :)

Hurricane Ida

2009-11-17T21:06:00.000-05:00

The Hurricane came and went leaving destruction in its wake. Luckily for us our house stayed nice and dry because we are the highest house on the block by 2 inches. We decided to pass the time indoors by repainting our kitchen.
I knew it was going to be a lot of work but what I don't like is the waiting. Sorry no pix yet because we still need to do the lower cabinets. Why do the usual chores have to be done while you are renovating?
The kids still like to toss their socks up into the air to achieve the "sock bomb" look of socks on every surface. The dishwasher still needs to be loaded and unloaded a couple of times a day-only it is even more tedious because now I have to find clean, path-free places on the floor to put it all.
So far I think it will be worth it and it is excited to wake up every morning and see what we have done. I will say that the new look is less dismal and has a bit of bling because as you all know I am all about class. I am so happy with the results so far that I have resorted to dragging the neigborhood kids in for a tour. They are obviously not interested but are polite and able to drudge up the enthusiasm I am trying to get from them and tell me it looks great. Hey kids don't lie!

Longwood Gardens-As Promised

2009-11-09T21:23:00.001-05:00

A pretty little place that unfortunately does not have mozzarella cheese or chocolate but still makes me happy!

-Aida

These were huge. Apparently the trays all grow around the main plant that sprouts lilies of some sort-I think. Really quite beautiful. The kids really wanted to put stuff on them-mainly Eddie.

Most of the pictures I took were from the Children’s Indoor Garden (a worker lady claimed that it was about 18 million dollars to build) where the kids were allowed to smell, pick, touch as much as they want. The gardens inside and outside were truly amazing. Unfortunately it was raining pretty steadily off and on and I was busy watching the kids and chatting with the Pettys to take too many outdoor shots. Also, none of the bajillion fountains were going because they had diverted all the water to the ice-skating rink where they do shows in the winter. We really want to go back at every season. It was quite beautiful in the Fall though.

Scranton, PA with the Madsens

2009-11-09T10:29:00.001-05:00

Once again the Bergs hit the road and drove to Scranton, PA this past weekend to see the blessing of Mark David Madsen. The kids had a good time with their second cousin Danielle and holding baby Mark. Baby Mark is super mellow and is game for anyone to hold him-the girls liked that. Janae is doing a good job of feeding him because as the girls said, " he is nice and round like a bouncing ball". He really is very plump and yummy in every way.
Janae makes me jealous because her nursery is set up super cute and she always has Mark in cute outfits-which we all know is hard to do with boys. Janae let me take some pictures of them. It was hard to get Mark awake since he mellows himself into sleep often but I gave it my best. Janae looks great and it is amazing to see all of the work she has gotten done on her new house while having a newborn and a two-year old around.
I did forget to get a picture of Ed on their dog Austin. Austin is one of those huge shetland pony sized dogs and ed tried various ways of getting on Austins back while Austin just stood there. I want Tess to be like Austin and just do what she is told and put up with any abuse the kids throw at her. I am told in 2 years she will be there. Maybe I can talk the Madsens into trading dogs for a year or two?
Anyway thanks Madsens for the recycled art for the girls rooms, the pounds of eaten Halloween candy and for feeding and housing us for the blessing.

Mark is always able to make the babies drool themselves to sleep with his specialty hairy arm hold.

Sometimes Mark does get a little worried but he doesn’t complain. :)

LOOK it is Maya holding still!

The Pettys

2009-11-05T21:17:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we were able to catch up with some of our friends from NZ-the Pettys. It was a lot of fun for us to see them again because it was a little taste of home. I can’t believe we have only been gone for a little over a year. When Mark and I first arrived in NZ we went to church secretly hoping someone would invite us over to dinner. We were lost in a new land completely on our own and overwhelmed. It was one of the first times I recall Mark and I actually really feeling that we needed help. As church came to a close and there still was not an invite and we were sure we were going to freeze and starve, Nicola came up and invited us to dinner. She assured us that she did not have much food on site but she had some tuna and could make a nice casserole and she had a fire. We were so warm in her home, the casserole was delicious, and they were more than willing to inform us of all things kiwi. After that dinner, Nicola continued to come and sit next to me in church when she saw I was alone and sent mark and I off on a much needed date and watched our kids. Once again, proof for the first time in my life of what it meant to serve as a visiting teacher. I marveled at the way Nic always DID. The Pettys really provided me with my first of many learning lessons in NZ. SO it was great for Mark and I to have come full circle with the Pettys and to have had them come to visit us somewhat near yet another relatively new town to us one year past our leaving NZ. The Pettys were kind enough to drive a couple of hours from their Sesame Street Debut to meet us at the wet and rainy but beautiful Longwood Gardens. So Pettys if you have found our blog-thanks for seeing us! I will have to post separate garden pictures later because this is all about the Pettys. If any of you want to know more about the Pettys you can always find several of their interviews and projects on youtube. You can find their son Jonathon Petty on NZ got talent on youtube as well as Nicola’s infamous P-Value video.

Leaf Round Up

2009-11-04T13:17:00.001-05:00

Halloween 2009

2009-11-02T09:19:00.000-05:00

Maya and Lucy's Pumpkins

Aida went early to a friends house so I missed her "Mad Scientist" costume. Maya's red superhero boots went missing in action after the school parade. Ed had to have his ladybug.

Ed (carved by Corinne) and Aida's pumpkins

My embellishment on the side of Ed's pumpkin while he was still asleep in the morning.

We were fortunate to have fantastic trick or treating weather. It was warm enough to not have to wear jackets-I layered my kids and they cooked because it never cooled off as I threatened them it would. Oops. Don't worry though, there was also a nice warm breeze so the fallish Halloween feel was still in the air.
We didn't get as much as we did last year. I would like to blame it on Thomas the Tank Engine but to be fair, he really did try to go as fast as he could. It was cute to see Ed on his first Trick or Treat adventure. Lucky for us he doesn't remember us emptying his bag into ours. We left him a few treats but by morning his pile had a suspicious amount of m & ms. Turns out the girls had been trading with Ed all morning. I had already taken the really good stuff and Ed likes m&ms so I guess it turned out okay to take advantage of his two-yearoldism.
Aida went with her friend and she fared much better than when I went with my friend in fifth grade-my last year of trick or treating and returned with nothing but pomegranates and pennies. Yes, I will continue to bring it up every Hallween because while the pomegrantes were exceptionally tasty and home grown, you cannot buy 4 pounds of candy with 14 pennies and it simply was not fair.
Our kind neighbors had prepared special goodies for us. Looks like I will finally have a crowd to appreciate my Crafty Christmas Wares. Very nice and considerate of them. Anyway here a couple of pictures I took-we were in a hurry to get loot so sorry they aren't that great. Hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween.

The Taste of Victory

2009-11-01T21:51:00.001-05:00

Guess who this years blue-ribbon baker for the city is? Of course you know-MOI! I decided to delight the judges with an adaptation of Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Frosting. I would share the changes with you but then it would be giving out my secret blue ribbon recipe. My only hope was that it was not infused with Swiney germs for the judges.

I would like to thank all of those that have supported me in my big win-Mark (even though he is jealous of my scarecrow tike and blue-ribbon), Corinne (my highly capable assistant that actually did most of the work), my dog Tess (for eating the leftovers in my fridge), and of course my dear children (that did not touch them until they found out they were good enough to win an award).

The truth is the only other competitor I had was a pumpkin pie with a small pumpkin in the middle of it waving. Clever yet creepy-I couldn't help but admire the style and the guts of the competition. I was scared the judges would fall for the pun pie. Well looks like taste prevailed and I won out. I admit I was hoping for the 50 bucks they gave to the winner last year but now Ed has a new playmate that doesn't make a mess or demand my best snacks. Short Halloween pix to follow.

Just in case you wanted to see what a blue-ribbon winner looks like.

Surpise-Mom Turned Up!!

2009-10-30T20:28:00.000-04:00

After child three we gave up trying to be stellar parents. We entered "survival mode" where all we try to do is keep the children alive and meet the minimum requirements of us as parents-they will be fed, they will have a roof over their heads-stuff like that. So, when extra school things arise such as a Halloween Parade that is the equivalent of "overtime". I prepped my kids this morning by telling them that I was so sorry that I could not make it to their Halloween Parade at school. Guilt got the best of me and I asked to leave work early. They were okay with it because they have low expectations of me as a parent now-so when I did show up to Lucy's parade she gave me an extra big smile. I guess I will just have to take the pay cut out of Lucy's allowance next month. :)
I am sure all the other parents that were there were taken for granted but me, I gave mine a small dose of disappointment in the morning and a big cup of surprise in the afternoon. I know I know I really should get started on that "Good Parenting by a Winning Parent" book. It's in the works-I promise (note: do not take any heed to any prior posts confessing being a liar).
PS
I have decided to not edit photos for awhile. I find procrastination keeps me from following through so you get to relish in the delight of real-life National Enquirer quality photos.

Lucy was real proud of herself for coming up with a costume from things that she found from around the house (thanks Jill) and was even more thrilled that she could still look pretty too.

Little Disappointed

2009-10-29T10:15:00.000-04:00

These are originally from not martha but hers came out much cuter. but I guess that is why not martha is so funny. The lady can cook and she takes cute pictures of the stuff-so jealous.

I am a little disappointed that I am not bakerella but I am still glad I found the site. There are some cool things to be found. Bite-sized splendor. Some of the things are from books but I just like seeing them in different ways. Plus, get a look at these little completely unnecessary cupcake stands. I think I kind of want them even though I would only use them once in a blue moon but what a cute blue moon time it would be. :)

Feeling Yucky Inside

2009-10-28T12:14:00.000-04:00

The past few days I have not been feeling 100%. I haven't been bed-ridden but I also haven't been my usual happy-go-lucky self. I just received a telephone call surveying whether we should cancel the ward Halloween party or not because we have one blood tested confirmed case of the swine flu.
We had our Primary Program Sunday and yes there was as the Primary Prez stated best, "whole lotta coughin' goin' on". Being in the Presidency I was there front and center as well as doling out the sugar cookies. To be fair to the contaminated child-I wasn't feeling all that great Sunday morning.
I thought I was just tired and slightly achy from my one of my half-effort workouts during the week. Since Sunday I have progressively felt worse so after that phone call I decided to look up symptoms of the swine flu. I know I am notorious for being a hypochondriac but I am now certain I have the swine flu.
Since I have self-diagnosed myself I feel a weird sort of niggly piggly even swinely feeling inside my chest. Kind of like when you hear someone talking about head lice and your scalp starts to itch. Yes, so while I was sick before I now feel icky knowing what it is. It really was only a matter of time and now I can freely partake of any swine-infected candy my children will collect come Halloween.

Ed the Who

2009-10-07T10:57:00.000-04:00

I love it when a two year old such as Ed here injures themselves and insists that a band-aid is the only thing that will remedy their pain. Places where a band-aid is demanded by child but deemed "just not possible" by parents are as follows: the top of the head (unless the child is open to having their head shaved), tongue, inside of ear, eye, lip, inside nose (I am open to the top of the nose just because it makes me laugh) and as seen here that tiny part above your lip (once named by my girls-the bogey river path).
After falling down the garage stairs putting the recycling I had left in the middle of the floor into the bin, Ed injured his nose and upper lip. Ed being my last, and slightly spoiled child coupled with the fact I am too tired to be a consistent parent anymore, was awarded his desire to have a band-aid not only on the acceptable "outer nose" but on the bogey river channel as well.
I thought I would go through with it and he would see it for all of its silliness and utter impracticality but turns out he was just fine with it-did I really expect anything but? Aida decided he looked like a who and I had to agree.

Ore-some

2009-09-23T13:45:00.000-04:00

I like to keep apprised of the happenings in good ol' NZ. Here is a little gem of a tale from stuff.co.nz. I like the way the author is loose with his quotations and oh so subtly captures the humor of the situation. I tried to colorize the funny bits but I really find amusement at the whole thing-too many candy corns I guess.

Water rat attacks woman in bed

By BLAIR ENSOR - The Marlborough Express

A vicious rodent attack at a Marlborough holiday park yesterday morning forced a woman to seek hospital treatment.

Despite the presence of her dog and three-legged cat, Lynne Henderson was attacked by a large water rat while lying in bed in her motor home at Spring Creek Holiday Park.

"I'm going to starve them now," she said of her animals' inability to catch the rodent.

Mrs Henderson, who lives permanently at the park in a motor home about 10 metres from the river, remembers feeling an animal, which she assumed was her cat, jump onto her bed.

When it was near her neck, she extended a hand to give it a pat. The startled rodent then latched onto her upper lip.

After hearing his wife screaming, Neil Henderson turned on the light to see a rat, which relinquished its grip and took off into the couple's bathroom.

"It was about nine inches long, very round and cuddly ... well, violent, actually," said Mr Henderson.

A large piece of plywood was used to board up the bathroom while he went to retrieve an air rifle from a friend at the park.

He could not get close to it because it was "bouncing off the walls and ripped the toilet holder clean off".

Too terrified to approach the rat on his return, he prodded it to move it from behind a toilet to get a clear shot.

He fired one shot into the "tummy" of the rat, which "made a hell of a squeal" and ran out the door and up a nearby tree. It has not been seen since.

Mrs Henderson said the rat bite had pierced her upper lip, which bled quite badly at the time.

Because rats are "infectious rodents", she made a trip to the hospital, where bemused hospital staff gave her a tetanus injection and a course of antibiotics.

The couple suspected the rat had found its way inside through a cat door.

"It's funny now, but wasn't at the time," she said.

"It scared the living s..t out of me."

I don't know if I would EVER find it "funny" when I looked back on a 9-inch long viscious water rat clamped down on my mouth. Never ever ever! Must not have been a "top ten" holiday park. Oh me oh my!

The Answer

2009-09-11T13:48:00.000-04:00

I heard a few of you were a bit squeamish about naming a price online because you couldn't tell if I was joking about the value or not. What if I were to tell you that it went for 1250.00 USD? It is true-a lady in Germany purchased it. Someone did offer me early on 500 but LUCKILY I had nothing to lose and curiousity got the best of me and I left it up for auction. I am left pondering whether or not I could have gotten more-but is there a point where it would just be greedy? Nah.