Oooooooooo...this is gonna be GOOD!!! The Chicken whisperer is about to work his magic....

I'm already laughing about it too. We have decided to donate one of our roosters to a local struggling feed store here. Which means that Rodeo Man has to load the rooster up for me. (There's no way in haiti's that I'm gonna do it!)

I've got my video camera and my camera on my cell all ready for it.

I'll post it as soon as the hillarity unfolds! Just wait....it'll be SO worth it.

Indroducing my "Cast of Characters" :)

Since some of you who'll be reading my blog don't know my family members, or you are someone I haven't talked to in a long time, let me introduce my cast you'll be reading about here.

Rodeo Man: He's my HOT HOT HOT Husband. I love him most days. ;)

Sassy: My oldest daughter.
Stinkbug: My youngest daughter.
And a recent family picture of us at one of Sassy's softball games.

I choose to leave their names out for obvious reasons. My girls are just too cute and revealing too much about them on the internet where anyone can read just kinda scares me. I've seen too many "Nightline" shows and just feel it's safer this way :)

I'm sure I'll be talking about others in our family too. I'll introduce them as I go along. And I just thought this would clear up any confusion on who I'm talking about and put a face with a nickname.

Funniest thing I've seen in a long time...

So some of you know, last week, I was attacked by one of our roosters. For those of you that don't, here's what happened...

I went into the coop to gather the eggs and this was the time Cooper (Rooster #1) decided he was going to be territorial. I heard him start flappin his wings from behind me and I thought, "Oh crap. This is going to hurt".

And it did.

He kicked me over and over again before I could get the heck out of there. I had welts all the way up my left leg from him. (Which have now turned into some really attractive bruises). Nice right?

So I tell Rodeo Man what had happened. His response..."He's never done that to me before. He must not like you.'

Duh. Ya think??

The very next statement that came out of his mouth was, "They wouldn't do that to me. They love me."

Oh really???

Rodeo Man still hasn't grasped onto the concept of "what goes around, comes around". Oh but just wait. He gets to "eat chicken crow" here in a minute. Keep on readin'...

Needless to say, I refuse to go in the coop now. I tried today. I really did. They needed to be fed, but Cooper wouldn't let me in the door. He just paced back and forth and puffed up his chest and crowed and sqwaked at me. So I thought, "FINE! They can wait till the Big, Bad Ol' Rodeo Man comes home and shows them who's boss. Since they loooooooove him so much"

When Rodeo Man got home, I told him of my attempt to feed the chickens. And I got "the look". You know the one. The "are you serious" look. So he headed out the door to take care of his love birds. And I decided that I wanted to witness what was about to unfold on him. I had a feeling to grab the video camera. It was RIGHT by the door too. Oh, how I wish I had.

I do have another witness though. Sassy HAD to go with me to watch. She and I stood far enough away that if Cooper escaped, we'd be able to run and get away from him. But close enough that we could partake in the Chicken Wisperers skills. And I have to say that after his reaction when I told RM what Cooper did to me, it gave me the giggles as I was watching him open the coop door.

It was fine for the first 15 seconds. And then it happened. They (yes they, as in both of our roosters.) attacked him. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life! I can't remember the last time I laughed as hard as I did watching RM try to fight both birds off.

Rodeo Man won.

I did have my doubts for a second though. They almost took him out.

Oh....the look on his face when he stepped out....Oh my word! Priceless. (I think his feelings were a little hurt too HAHAHA!)

Guess they don't love him so much anymore huh?

Rodeo Man said, "Did you see that??"

"Yes honey I did. Next time I'm selling tickets!"

Here's some pictures of the little punks for you...

Cockadoodle do ;)

I dare you to come in here...

This one didn't have a name. Now we shall call him "Dinner" Muahahaha.

And Cooper. We are looking for a new home for him. Any takers??

I'll be posting soon about our new chicks that we're brooding. As in 15 more of them.

And Yes. I know I've lost my mind.

Stay tuned....

Our Little Softball Beauty Girl

So Sassy has started girls softball this year. Her team is adorable. We have so much fun at her games. It's nice because they don't keep score and the games are just to teach the kids the basic rules of the game and to help them sharpen their playing skills.
Here are some pictures of our little beauty girl at her 2nd game...

Kinda hard to keep your eye on the ball with a helmet like that huh? And would'ya just look at that stance?!?

I love the way this kid runs. It cracks me up.

She's girly even when she's playing sports HA!
Such a sweet little face :)

"Butterflies come from "Racoons" Mommy"

***Edited to add a cute little bug over Stinkbugs cute little bum. So sad that some people get offended at seeing a picture like this and feel the need to leave a nasty comment anonymously. I wouldn't want to *GASP* offend anyone by posting a perfectly innocent picture (Yes, I'm directing this at you, Ms. Anonymous Commenter.)
It's a good thing she wasn't wearing her thong the day I took these pictures. (Before I get another "drive by" anonymous comment, that last sentence was DRIPPING with sarcasm)

ANYway...movin on to something that matters....

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The conversation went a little somethin' like this...

Me: "Stinkbug, whatcha doin'?" (By the way, I think this is the best way to read a magazine. Don't you? HA!)

Stinkbug: "I'm lookin' at a magazine Mommy. Look at it!"

Stinkbug: "Mommy, did you know that butterflies come out of "racoons"?

Me: "Oh do they? Let me see"

Stinkbug: "Look, right there"

Me: "Sweetheart, That's called a cocoon. Or you can also call it a chrysalis"
Stinkbug: "I KNOW THAT MOMMY! THAT'S WHAT I SAID! A RACOOOON!"

Well, you learn something new every day huh? hahaha. Silly kid.

Please excuse my mess...

I'm working on a new layout. Please excuse my mess here while I'm working on it.

Thanks!
The Management ;)

This will change your life FOREVER!

Starting with your figure ;)

This is the most phenominal homemade Macaroni & Cheese to walk the face of this earth. I'm telling you, you will not be sorry for making this. (Well, as long as you have pants with elastic waists for ever after). It took me quite a few tries to get this recipe just right. And I'm pretty proud of it. So without further adieux...

FIRST, start a large pan of water for your noodles!! Make sure you do this first because it takes about the same time to get the water boiling as it does to make the sauce. *wink* As soon as the water is boiling add 1 box of penne pasta noodles. (I use the blue Barilla kind) and boil for the time indicated on the box.

SECOND: In a medium Sauce Pan combine:

~4 c. Milk
~4 TBSP Corn Starch
***Wire whisk until smooth.
~Add 8 TBSP Butter or Margarine (I use butter...obviously ;)
~1 tsp salt
~1 tsp pepper
~A few shakes of nutmeg (This is TOP SECRET!!)
~Hot sauce to taste (I give it about 3 good shakes)
~Lawry’s Garlic Salt and Seasoning salt to taste (I like mine pretty salty because the penne noodles are bigger and it makes up for all their starchy-blandness)
(I really just add all the seasonings how we like them. You can add different things or more or less of others if you don't like something on the list)

Stirring constantly, bring sauce to boiling over medium heat. Boil for one minute or desired thickness is reached. This sauce will thicken up the longer it's boiled.

NEXT, shred about 1/2 pound of smoky sharp cheddar cheese and about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds regular cheddar. (Make sure you cut off the brown waxy stuff on the outside of the smoky cheese first though, I learned this the hard way LOL)

**Hint: If you cannot find or don't have access to smoky cheese, you can use regular cheddar and a couple, and when I say a couple, I mean literally ONLY TWO drops of liquid smoke! Do NOT overdo it or your mac & cheese will taste like hot dogs *BARF*

~Add Smokey cheese to the sauce and melt.

OK, next, take your cooked noodles and put about a ¼ of them in the bottom of a 13X9 dish. Ladle your sauce over the top (generously) and stir around. Sprinkle your grated cheese all over the top of that. (Take your ladle and kinda mush the cheese down into the noodles.) And repeat those steps until you have used all your noodles and however much of your cheese you’d like. I usually have about ½ pound of cheese left over and I just put that in a baggie for quesedeas later or something.

ALMOST DONE! Now…Cover with aluminum foil (or glass lid if your dish has one) and put in the oven at 425. Bake until it’s niiiiiiice and boiling/bubbling HOT. (About ½ hour to 45 minutes) Take the foil/lid off and brown the top (as much or as little as you’d like) Make sure to let this sit out of the oven for a good 10 to 15 minutes before eating. That way it won’t burn the stinkin crap out of your mouth…yet another lesson I learned the hard way. ;)

Oh and if you have any sauce left over, it’s AWESOME on steamed veggies. I usually make extra sauce and store what’s left over for a smaller mac and cheese of veggies sometime later. YUMM!

Ingredient list:

1 box Penne Pasta Noodles
4c Milk
4 TBSP Corn Starch
8 TBSP Butter or Margarine
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper
3 or 4 shakes of Nutmeg
Few squirts of Hot Sauce
Garlic Salt- to taste
Seasoning Salt- to taste
½lb Smoky Sharp Cheddar Cheese
2 lbs Sharp Cheddar

Buy this book!!

Seriously. Do it.
You know you want to.
Buy it!!!
Go Green!!! It's easier than you think. ;)

Mmmmmm Cookies!

I learned a valuable lesson about getting ahead of myself this past week. I decided that I'd make cookies with my girls. Something I have done countless times before, but this time, I wanted to try a new recipe. You know the one. The recipe that has gone around in emails about the woman who wanted the recipe from Neiman Marcus and was charged $250 for it on her credit card. Yeah. That one. (The story is totally bogus by the way, check it out here) ANYWAY, I heard it's still a good recipe, true story or not. So I started making it and thought, "Wow, 2 cups of butter. No wonder they're good cookies." "Hmmmm, 2 cups of sugar and 4 eggs. That's a lot".....by the time I got to the flour and the blended oatmeal, I knew my poor little kitchenaid was in trouble. I should have taken the time to READ the directions first instead of just diving in. It CLEARLY states that the recipe can be divided in half. Had I caught that, I would have saved my mixer, and my arm, a LOT of work.

(This is just part of the cookie dough.)

See what I mean?

And while most children have fond memories of baking cookies with Mommy mine on the other hand will most likely now need a therapist.

**Here's the modified recipe. (No need to halve this one *wink*)

1 cup butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

2 1/2 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in blender to a fine powder)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

12 oz. chocolate chips

1/2 8 oz. Hershey bar (grated)

1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet..Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 56 cookies.. Have Fun!!!

First post

OK, so I'm starting a new family blog. We need something for everything family related to keep everyone up to date on our household. :)
This year has been a crazy one already. SO much going on. I have a lot of pictures to put on here and LOTS to catch up on so please be patient with me for a while. I'm hoping to be able to post something once a day. We shall see how that goes.