Popcorn... the microwave kind...

Aaron had his friend Colton over yesterday. I was working in my office when he came in to ask if he and Colton could make some popcorn (the microwave kind).

Well, I was leaning toward NO because it was getting close to supper when Aaron says to me... Colton doesn't have any popcorn at his house... mom... (big blue sad eyes....)

So, I relented and gave the go ahead... he walks into the next room and says to his buddy...
"I used the part about you not having any popcorn at your house... Colton..."

OK... LOL! Hmmmm.

Happy Halloween from my little guy, Aaron.
another picture by Toni

Happy Halloween!

My two guys are all ready for Trick or Treating. I added a link on the side bar to see our Halloween pictures (so far!).

Have a fun weekend!

It's not gray!

Was sitting next to Rich this afternoon, when he started telling me about my "gray" hairs. I'm totally in denial. So he pulled a wirey "whitish" hair from my head...

It's not gray, it's white -blonde.... I'm turning into a toe head...

geez...

Red Sox...

OK, it took Rich and I to move out of Massachusetts for the Sox to finally win.

Just about every summer we would get tickets through Berklee College of Music where Rich worked.

We lived only about 30 minutes from the Red Sox stadium (if there was no traffic).

The kids would have a great time watching all the people, eating hotdogs, popcorn, and peanuts. Being there in all the hub bub and commotion was really exciting. I don't think that the boys ever really watched the game.

There would be beach balls bouncing around the crowed and vendors selling ice cream, drinks, popcorn, peanuts... and of course... ball park franks.

We'd stay until the kids got cold or tired... or cranky... then head home before the rush.

costumes,pumpkin pie, oatmeal cookies...

Busy day....
Got pumpkin pie in the oven, oatmeal cookies will go in next.

Tonight is the elementary school Halloween party. I'm in charge of the ticket booth. Money raised will support our reading program.

Now, got to finish sewing Matthew's costume. And Aaron decided that he'd like a black cape to go with his.... We'll see how far I get...

Look at the baby sheep...

Last Spring on the way to church I had my nephew, Joe (who has grown up here in Wyoming) with me. As we drove by our neighbor's sheep, I commented to Joe...

Look at all the baby sheep! He said, Aunt Toni... those aren't baby sheep, they've just been shaved. They look that way every Spring.

Oh. OK.

Just back from my Love and Logic class...

Our little guy is stubborn... no willful... well, he's like a bull...
He and I lock horns a lot!

A couple Sundays ago, the woman sitting behind us at church leans over and whispers to me...
"Toni, your little guy just loves to get your goat!"

Church is a big challenge for Aaron and I.

OK... Love and Logic. Rich and I need help!
Tonight we were watching some of the training videos and Jim Faye says something like...

Stong willed people love choices. It was like a light bulb going on. It was an ahhhh moment. Of course!

I am also one of those strong willed people. I detest (probably most people do!) being told what to do. Give me a choice and I'm OK.

Poor Aaron... up till now... I've been constantly TELLING HIM WHAT TO DO!

From module 3 of our training book:
"A child who feels he has some control over his life, will spend little time and energy trying to manipulate and control the parent."

Aaron needs to make some choices. Choices that I can live with... So, here's the rules on sharing control (letting our kids make choices that we can live with).

http://www.loveandlogic.com/Pages/0401sharingcontrol.html

Tomorrow morning Aaron's going to get lots of choices.

• Would you like to go to school with your coat on or take it with you.
• Would you rather go to school in the clothes on your body (usually just underware!) or put these on?
• Which would you prefer for breakfast, toast or cereal?

Came back from the post office to see our kitty Cuddles posing perfectly for this Halloween picture!
another picture by Toni

....monday...

I got my dose of city life on Saturday when I went shopping in Billings, Montana. I even had to sit in traffic!!!!

It was an escape day for me. I got to shop leisurely without little ones.

I had a wonderful time shopping for scrapbooking paper at Michaels and then headed to the book store.

I'm on a journey learning about website development and picked up a couple of those bright yellow... dummy books.

I'm making quiche and broccoli soup for lunch. I'll post the recipe for quiche later on my recipe blog. (done! enjoy!!)

It's Saturday.

From my flower garden.
Yesterday was a perfect Indian Summer kind of a day. Bright sun... and warm enough to without a jacket. Today is pretty damp... and cool.

Here's a pretty flower from my garden for you.

I'll be heading out to the big city of Billings, Montana today for a Costco run. Rich and the boys will be working down on the property. We're building a house... but we're not quite at the building stage yet... the basement has been dug. We struck water!

Got the drain all done. Hope to get footers going soon. I may create a separate blog for all this house stuff...

Hope your day is warm and sunny!

How to post a comment.

I really do welcome your comments! Here's how to make a comment on one of my posts:
Click on comment at the bottom of my post.

Then just follow the directions.

It was nice to hear from you Margarete and Shay!

Oh no... I think that I burned the brownies! Shoot, I was having too much fun looking up salsa recipes!

Magnetic Dirt...

This is my little bubble boy (Aaron) with his bubble beard. He's taking a bubble bath in the Featured Product. Boy that stuff works great on getting this Wyoming clay dirt off the kids!

You know... this is such a great place to raise kids! Lots of space to run around, no traffic, lots of people around to keep the kids on the "straight and narrow..." But... I think that the dirt has magnetic properties. It sure didn't act like this back home in Massachusetts.

Ok... here's what happens... the kids go out to play... and WHAMMO. That dirt just JUMPS right onto them.

Aaron the bubble boy!

It's OK to post a comment and say HI!

I'm having so much fun with this blog!

The Candied Apples were a BIG success!

Toni\\

bahhh'lo!

Toni\\

The Potato Experiment....

Today we're digging up the potatoes.

Round about June, I had this bag of potatoes that we're sprouting in my pantry. So... I decided... what the heck.... never grown potatoes before.... but...

I cut up the potatoes with the eyes and planted them in my garden. The boys and I are going to dig them up today and see what we've got!

Next year I want to plant Yukon Golds. They have a nice almost creamy texture. They're really delicious!

I made home-made french fries last night to go with our hamburgers. My son Matthew was rather hesitant about the whole thing.... "Mom, I hope that they come out better than last time..."

They did!!! There weren't enough!

Thru the Eyes of a City Girl

I walked all around town this morning. I passed barking dogs (it's a prerequisite to have at least 2 dogs here in Wyoming), grazing horses, beautiful fall flowers, golden trees, black angus cows in a pasture. I heard the rooster crow. I saw at least 2 sugar beet trucks pass down Main Street.

It's so pretty here. I had to remind myself that YES... I live here now in this pretty place.

Aaron lost his first tooth. Actually, the dentist had to pull it. His big tooth was coming up behind it. You should have seen how long the root was!

With some congoling from Daddy, Aaron did allow the tooth fairy to come... although... he is still convinced that Mom is the tooth fairy.

canned 13 quarts of tomato sauce...

Late night last night. I was working with my Roma tomatoes. The whole family pitched in to process bunches of tomatoes. The result->13 yummy quarts of tomato sauce.

more later. Got to go help Rich do some measuring down on our property(did I tell you that we're building a house?)

Where did the mountains go?

Good morning. I'm just back from my walk. It's a little foggy here today... and the mountains are GONE!

The opening of a good book... the day started out as usual until one by one the townspeople began to notice. The spectatular views of the snow encrusted mountains were no where to be seen! This is on clear, bright day....

Ok... back to reality!

Matthew is feeling better. He went to school today. Last night he had a good supper and seemed to have his strength back.

Today I'm posting a link called, Healthy Living Connection, under Entrepreneurial Me. It is one of my entrepreneurial passions...

Here's some problems that Healthy Living Connection has helped me to solve...

• Run out of energy 1/2 way thru the day and wondering how I'll make it without a nap
• Wanted to clean the bathroom... but hated the idea of braving the fumes
• Kiddos who love to eat everything but what's good for them

Candied Apples

My church women's group (we call it Enrichment) is having a meeting Tuesday evening (we're going to do scrapbooking). We've been asked to bring along a favorite apple treat with the recipe.

Well, my favorite apple treat is apple crisp. But I wanted something different to bring. After cruising the net... here's a recipe I found for Candied Apples.

They may not make it past my kids!

He wants Peanut Butter Cookies...

Poor Matthew has been under the weather the past two days. He's still running a slight temp.

When he was speaking with my Mom on the phone, he told her that he was happy that he's been sick this weekend... that way he won't miss any school. He wants to have the Perfect Attendance award.

Well, my sickie has requested Peanut Butter cookies (also my husband's favorite!). I'll post the recipe on my recipe blog. It is from my mother, her grandmother's recipe... actually!

Just look at this! I'll tell you, sunsets here are incredible!

Toni\\

Look at this sky! It is incredible tonight.

Toni\\

Where are all the darn stockings?

Every morning seems to be a soc crisis at our house. Today as I was folding the white clothes in the dryer... I had an idea...

Buy 4 small baskets and put them in front of the dryer.

Ah... now I can easily sort the stockings and get them put away.

Another crisis solved!

It's a rainy day here...

Ah, what a refreshing morning. I love the rainy days here, it reminds of me of back home in Massachusetts.

I was out for my walk around town with rain sprinkles on my face. It felt good! Lots more snow on the mountains!

Matthew had his friend over for the night. I'll be making pancakes for breakfast.

Yesterday, I cooked up some garden fresh(from Grandpa's garden) red potatoes. They were really good.

But first I had to give them a good cleaning to get all that clay soil washed off. This Wyoming clay soil just sticks to everything and is pretty hard to get off.

I put them in a big bowl of water and this organic cleaning stuff, let them soak for a little bit. Then scrubbed them a little bit... dumped the dirty water on my flower bed. I love that cleaning stuff! I use it on everything from bubble baths for the boys... to cleaning my floors... to taking out those darn cooking spots on my shirts!

Well, I'm off to make pancakes!

Blogs are just too much fun

Went for my walk... a good long one... probably 3 miles today. Had the company of my friend. She couldn't come yesterday and I really missed her!

Ok... blogs... Now I've added the weather here in town. So you can get a better feel for what it's like here in northern Wyoming.

This is really bringing out the latent programmer in me!

Hey, I'm loving it!

I have 2 new blogs that link to this page.
One shares my favorite recipes. Visit it today to make my chicken soup. My kids love it!
The other is about my Entrepreneurial journey... my passion for business.

Ok... time for lunch.

pictures...

I just figured out how to add pictures to my blog. Do you like them? Sure makes it a lot more interesting to look at!

This is Sugar Beet. She lives in the pasture behind my house. She's very friendly. She greets me when I hang out my laundry or when I'm working outside in my garden... Sometimes when I call for my boys she adds her 2 cents too!

The horse outside my window.

I love to take pictures of flowers...

I took this picture at the Cleveland Zoo this summer. I love to take pictures of flowers... and landscapes... Digital cameras are so much fun! Want to see a picture of the polar bear?

Toni\\

a nice calm day

What a change from yesterday! It's so calm and beautiful today. On my morning walk, I noticed that the Pryor Mountains have a blanket of snow. First snow of the season!

The tooth fairy came again last night. Matthew lost one of his molers. Aaron who hasn't lost any teeth as of yet (but soon will... he's 6 with lots of loose teeth!) still insists that there is NO tooth fairy. LOL!

It's Sugar Beet Harvest time...

Here in Wyoming, you gotta have a pickup. But... that's not all! You have to have an old pickup with at least one dog in the pickup bed. I've got to take a picture for you! Gosh, you'd think that they'd fall out!!!

Be careful not to get behind those old sugar beet trucks! I think that they only come out once a year... they're big and old... more later... gotta run for lunch.

Gas Prices

Burrr.... the wind is blowing around here today even got a bit of rain.

On my way to do errands, I past by the gas station. $1.97 for regular here. How much is it in your town?

Here's a cool link to find cheap gas where you live.

One evening this summer the beautiful colors of the sky grabbed my attention as I passed by the window. I grabbed my camera and headed down the street to our property. This is what I saw...

Toni's sunset picture

Went for a walk...

Went for a nice walk today with my friend toward the Pryor Mountains. It's very pretty out there. There's some snow on the Big Horns. The country side looks so pretty with the yellow leaves of the trees against the green of the fields.

Have you ever dreamed of seeing our beautiful earth from space?

Our family is going to watch this Discovery Channel show today:Black Sky: The Race for Space
Black Sky: The Race for Space
http://dsc.discovery.com/schedule/episode.jsp?episode=0&cpi=24963&gid=0&channel=DSC

Today: Discovery Channel 4pm EST

"What we finally have here, after 40 years of waiting, is the beginning of the personal spaceflight revolution"
Peter Diamandis, X-Prize Foundation
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3712998.stm

65 mph to the grocery store...

My little town doesn't have a grocery store... or stop lights... We do have a Post Office filled with postal boxes (there aren't enough people in town to warrant mail delivery!).

Now, you don't just go to the post office to get your mail. It's a visiting place. A place to catch up with everybody.

Our grocery store is in the next town over about 9 miles away. One late afternoon on a milk run... I realized hey... I can go 65 mph at least 5 miles to the grocery store. As I was thinking about this... a tumble weed blew across my path and nearly scared me half to death!

Back in Boston, there were lots of grocery stores near home and if you did 65mph... you'd be in the hospital. Legal speed limit even on the highways is just 55mph.

Did you know that in Montana on route 90, the speed limit is 75mph?

a busy Saturday

It's Saturday... The boys are cleaning and organizing their room... with Dad's help.
I'll be making a batch of Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies... the cheating kind from Betty Crocker. http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/prod_cookies.asp They are pretty good.

And then... there's laundry...

Later today my neice is getting baptised. The whole family is getting together for it.

Our move from Boston to rural Wyoming...

I grew up in the city, on the Northshore in a suburb of Boston. Up until last year, I had never lived outside of Massachusetts!

I met my sweet husband, Richard, at Fisher College (in Boston's Back Bay) where we both worked. I remember the first time we met... there was this cute guy in his gray business suit with COWBOY BOOTS! (Now, this was a ways back when cowboy boots were NOT in fashion in Boston.)

Every couple years we would go home to visit his family. A little country town in the wide open spaces of northern Wyoming... not far from the Yellowstone National Park. It was such a charming little town!

On one of my first visits there, his parents had us out for a site seeing tour. I was looking at all the horses. I remarked to Rich's Mom that the horses looked happy because they were all wagging their tales. LOL! She said, Toni, those horses are moving their tails to keep the flies off... not because they're happy. Oh! (My experience with animals was limited to cats and dogs... hey, it made sense in my mind!)

Here's a link with some information about Wyoming.
http://www.codywyomingnet.com/

For when success eludes us....

Do you ever ask questions like...
Why aren't I reaching my goals?
Why isn't this coming together?
What do I need to do... to change...

Here's a quote from my friend Peg's blog. It's something that I like to read each day.

Mallard Marketing Group: For when success eludes us....

Mom, are YOU the tooth fairy?

Yesterday, my son Matthew (age 10) lost another tooth. He was very excited to put his tooth under his pillow and await the bounty of the tooth fairy.

As I was putting the boys to bed last night, Aaron (age 7) leans down over his bunk... looks at me with those bright blue, penetrating eyes and asks... "Mom, are YOU the tooth fairy?"

He hasn't even lost any of his baby teeth yet!

A beautiful Wednesday

Hi there. My friend and I were out for a 3 mile walk. We picked a route that heads down into the country toward the Pryor Mountains. The views are spectacular!

We have a family service project lined up today. One of our elderly neighbors asked us to take care of the apples in her yard.

It is a beautiful day here, it will be good to do some work outside.

But for now, it's time for business calls....

Stepped out the door when...

We have these two really cute black kitties. How we ended up having them is a story that I'll share later. They are about 4 months old and spend the day outside.

I stepped out the door to check my steaks which are cooking on the grill... and found... yes... a little tiny present from my kitties.

Yikes! At least they're doing their job!

Have a good night.

Dinner Revolt!

Well, the corn got shucked... the steaks were cooking on the grill....
The children were playing over at Grandma's (next house over). So... I decided to head over for a quick visit.

I was greeted by my son Matthew who informed me that He was eating at Grandma's. He informed me that she was making fried chicken. Now, I have to tell you that Grandma makes THE BEST fried Chicken!

So, I guess that Rich and I will join the dinner revolt... but bring with us the steak and corn to share... because I love her fried chicken too!

Zucchini Bread's cooking

Oh, the wonderful aroma of home baked zucchini bread! I made a loaf for my father-in-law (who is NOT very partial to my Bostonian cooking!) and he said that this was the BEST Zucchini Bread he has ever had!

Well, now... that's quite a compliment!

Do you have lots of fresh zucchini from your garden? Here's the recipe that I used:
http://dinnercoop.cs.cmu.edu/dinnercoop/Recipes/bruce/ZucchiniBread.html

For other yummy recipes, click here: http://dinnercoop.cs.cmu.edu/dinnercoop/

Enjoy!

Aaron wears his big brothers shoes...

Oh man, I look out and there's Aaron. In the water, ankle deep.... here's the kicker... He's wearing his brother's good school shoes! Aarggggghhh.

It's Cold Here Today!

Just got back from a walk with my neighborhood friend. I'm chilled to the bone! It's not usually so damp here!!!

Knowing that the cold weather was coming.... we picked most of our plum tomatoes yesterday. We filled a wheelbarrow! I wish that I took a picture of it.

As soon as they ripen up... I'll be making tomato sauce for canning.