Homemade Bread...

Thanks to my friend Jessica, I decided to break out the bread machine, which until she said something, I completely forgot I had!!! My mom had given it to me SEVERAL years ago, back when I was still in college. So, I went out into the garage and found it sitting there, dusty and forgotten, on the shelf. As I brought it into the kitchen, I was reminded of the days when my mom used it to make us our very own homemade bread, and how that home-baked stuff was very comforting.

Luckily, I found the manual, too, hidden in between some recipes in my recipe folder. Inside of the book were several bread recipes, and after careful consideration (with input from my hubby, of course) I decided to make Peanut Butter Bread!

Making bread in an automatic bread machine is E-A-S-Y! All you do is put the liquids first, all of the other "dry" stuff second, and the yeast in last! Then you insert the pan into the bread machine.After that, you close the lid, and hit start! The entire process takes about 4 hours...And VOILA! Fresh baked peanut butter bread at the touch of a button!
Now here are the ingredients so you can go make your own!!!

Peek-a-boo...

25, originally uploaded by fsucutie03.

I SEE YOU!!!! PJ was supposed to be napping at the beach house in Charleston, but when my sister and I peeked in at him, this is what he was doing!

Charleston

SO, our vacation last weekend was the Charleston, SC for my step brothers graduation from the Citadel.

We stayed at Folly Beach in an ABSOLUTELY amazing, breath-taking, surreal 4 story house right on the beach. There were 20 of us who stayed there including 5 kids, so needless to say it was a full house, but we had a BLAST nonetheless.
James, PJ, and I got there on Thursday night around 10:30PM so we got to hang out for a bit before retiring to our room!

The next day we went to the chapel at the Citadel for Rob's Commissioning into the Marine Corps. It was a nice ceremony, and double nice to see my brother Caleb in his dress blues!

On Saturday, Rob had his graduation, which I didn't get to see much of because PJ didn't want to sit for that long... So instead, Steph and I had the little ones in the hallway running around and playing until it was Rob's turn to walk and get his diploma. Everyone went back to the house, and we spent the rest of the day out on the beach having some fun in the sun!

Sunday was Mother's Day, and there was a mistake made regarding our reservations at the beach house, so we had to pack up and move 4 houses down for the last night. Everyone pitched in and we got situated quickly. Unfortunately it rained and the power went out so we sat on the porch... But it was also nice to be able to just sit and chat with everyone. My Dad and brothers cooked shrimp, oysters, and clams on the grill (in the rain).

We ended the night by celebrating Layci's 2nd birthday and Maddie's (Rob's sister) birthday since they are a day apart!

Everyone had a GREAT time, and some awesome memories were made!

CONGRATULATIONS 2nd Lieutenant Viehmeyer, USMC!!! We are all SO PROUD OF YOU!

*** These photos are courtesy of my Sissy. All collages were made using Flickr toys***

MRSA Takedown...

So, James has been dealing with some MRSA issues for several months now. He has gotten cut open on several occasions, and endured painful treatments. Last week he went to see an infectious disease doctor, and they put BOTH OF US on a crazy regiment to see if James can't get rid of it. So for 7 days we have a "takedown" plan in place...

1. Twice daily we must use Q-tips to swab the inside of our noses with Mupirocin.
2. Use a VERY strong mouthwash once per day
3. While taking a shower, we first use Hibiclens to wash our entire body. Then, we must stand there for 15 minutes with it on.
4. While waiting the 15 minutes, we have to mix some Hibiclens with our shampoo, and again, stand around for 15 minutes...
5. After the 15 minute period is over, we have to rewash everything with moisturizing soap because the Hibiclens completely dries your skin out

What does one do in the shower for 15 minutes while waiting for the Hibiclens to do it's magic you ask?
Well, since we have a glass shower door, I often draw pictures on the foggy glass... Tonite's masterpiece included footprints going from the bottom of the glass door to the top, using my hands. I can remember in Elementary school using the side of my hand to make footprints on the chalkboard. Lame, I know.

Needless to say, it has not been fun! However, if this will help my hubby get better, than I am all for it.

CURRENTLY WORKING ON...

BACKDATED POSTS AND LOTS OF UPDATES!!!

Until then, here is a picture from our recent vacation... Can you guess where we were?

Better yet, can you guess what is written in the sand???

Some other fun characters from the parade...

Parade of Children's Book characters

IMGP3992, originally uploaded by fsucutie03.

At school, we had our annual book character parade, and I was ECSTATIC when I saw some of the Reading folks who work with kids at our school dressed up as the characters from one of my favorite movies. When we have movie days at school, I always try to be sure that at some point during the year I show it to my kids, because otherwise, it would be a movie that they wouldn't normally see!!!

10 cool points to the 1st person who can tell me the name of the movie! =)

Our 4th graders are AMAZING!

IMGP3945, originally uploaded by fsucutie03.