Saturday Night .. with the Mullens ..

we went over to the Mullens on saturday night .. we ate lots of this .. and

drank lots of this ..

ellie and megan thought that it would be fun to play dress up .. with the little brothers .. lets just say that barrett didn't think that it was that fun .. but cash .. he kinda liked it .. and the big sisters .. they couldn't have had a better time ..

cash LOVES cooper .. and megan and barrett for that matter .. he would move into the mullen household if i would let him .. he has been asking me relentlessly for weeks .. when can we see copper again mom .. they were being silly at dinner .. notice that cash is wearing an osu hat .. we are going to have to talk about that ..

and then after dinner .. a little wrestle mania .. poor jeff .. they were all over him .. we had a fun fun night .. and can't wait to do it again .. good food .. good beer and great friends .. a saturday night gets no better than that .. if you ask me ..

After School ...

Granny went to Tulsa with Cash and I today .. this means that Jeff picked Ellie up from school .. he took her back to the shop .. Cash and I showed up a bit later ..

so while I processed a contract Jeff and kids enjoyed some warm and sunny weather outside ..

they ran and kicked that silly old beach ball for an hour .. but while they were playing ball in the parking lot Jeff had the doors open on his truck and Johnny Cash turned up very loud ..

they played and played .. and then it was time to go home .. of course it was me saying this so i was deemed the bad guy for the night .. oh mom .. we don't want to go home .. we want to stay here with dad and run around in the parking lot and listen to johnny cash .. ok i say .. sounds great to me .. i will go home by myself ..

and for a brief time .. before cash and i got to the shop .. jeff was busy .. so noah and ellie hung out for a bit .. he doesn't take the best picutres .. but he is a really funny guy .. he reminds of the snow boarder sean white .. silly and cute all at the same time .. so what did you do after school .. ?

Tonight ..

tonight there will be no running .. tonight ..

i am going to treat my eyes to some soothing and cool cucumber .. tonight ..

i am going to put my most favorite beverage into this glass .. tonight ..

i will eat one or two of these  ... just because all the buttered rosemary rolls are gone .. becuase i ate all of them the other night and i am out of oreos (cash ate the last one this morning) .. tonight i am going to draw a tub full of warm water and soak in sweet smelling bubbles .. i am not going to count miles .. or worry about laundry or homework or the grocery list that needs to be made .. tonight .. i am going to soak in the tub .. like before i had kids .. first though i will have to remove the tractors and trailers that are in my tub .. might also need to clean out the pretzel bits and the dirt clods .. after that i am going to soak in the tub .. like before i had kids .. and was over run with big machines and trucks and mud clods and pretzel debris ..

math ..

one plus

one plus

one equals

3 .. the number of extra miles that i am going to have to run .. those rolls are evil .. that is all that i can say ..

Fire .. Fire ..

cash got a lego firestation a few weeks ago .. we put it together again this morning .. it is pretty neat .. cash helped me .. i am so glad that it came with a nice instruction manual .. complete with very detailed pictures of which legos to use .. thank goodness .. otherwise i am pretty sure that i would have had to call either luke to james over to help .. because i don't do legos very well .. cake balls and cookies .. yes .. legos .. not so much ..

it even has a rescue helicopter .. cash told me that this is the pilot because he is wearing the head phones ..

well hello there mr. fireman ...

there is the rescue truck with the trailer for all the hoses and a ladder .. there is even a little blue light on top ...

and of course no firestation would be complete without a dalmation ..

Sunday Dinner ..

for dinner i made pioneer woman's spicy pulled pork .. and i got to use my new la creuset roasting pan .. neat how that worked out isn't it ..

it was an easy recipe ... you make a rub of sorts .. and then cook it for about 6 hours ..

it fell apart when my fork got close to it .. this was the most tender piece of meat i have ever cooked ..

per mike plunkett's advice i got a boston butt roast from sams .. it was so big that i cut it in half  .. cooked one half and froze the other .. there is brown sugar and chili powder in the rub .. it carmalizes while it cooks and makes this delicious .. sweet and spicy .. sauce .. i poured what was left in the pan over the pork after i pulled it all apart .. i will make this again .. soon .. i served it on toasted buns .. papa you missed out !!

Date Night ..

After my all day school board workshop marathon .. we had a date night .. mom and the kids were in tulsa for a baby shower for becky .. and i was in tulsa .. so jeff picked dad up after work and they came to tulsa .. mom and dad went over to the atchinson's for dinner .. jeff .. the kids and i went to ron's for a very greasy and very delicious hamburger and then to sam's .. we picked up a few things .. and i mean few .. really who can go to sam's and just buy a few things .. even if you do just buy a few things .. those things can still take up the entire back seat of your car .. not like you can walk out of there with a pack of TP .. a case yes .. a pack no .. we got some meat .. a couple of new movies .. a new swim suit for ellie and a pair of shorts for cash .. now keep in mind that cash had his eye on a new big playground and jeff and ellie had their eyes on a basketball goal .. thank goodness we got out with just our few things ..

Valentine's Day Breakfast ..

For valentines day i made ellie and jeff's most favorite breakfast .. sparkle pancakes and eggs ..

on heart plates .. it is valentines day ..

yummy ... and to make valentines day even better .. papa was here to celebrate with us !

The Track ..

Mike sent Ryan some pictures of the track .. Mike said that it is HUGE !!! 

After dinner "family time" ..

after we ate all of the roast beef .. carrots .. and potatoes .. and i ate all the rosemary butter rolls ... we had a little quality "family time" with papa .. ellie .. papa .. jeff and cash played guess who .. it was ellie and papa vs ..

jeff and cash .. see how jeff is hiding his little man that ellie and papa have to guess .. and yes cash is still in his pj's .. had been in and out of them all day .. he would stay in his pj's every day all day ... while they played i went and ran .. lets just say that all those rolls slowed me down a bit .. but they were so worth it .. evidently cash and jeff beat ellie and papa several times .. so many that ellie wanted to switch teams and be on jeff's team .. she did not like the losing part so well .. that she gets from her dad !

Mike is going racing ..

this is Mike .. he is our brilliant service go to guy .. not only is he a fantastic mechanic .. so i've heard .. but he can also work wonders with fiberglass .. and computers and just about anything else jeff throws his way .. mike races remote controlled (RC) cars .. like has invested lots of money and time and travels hours to go to races .. he is serious about his RC car racing ..

i will give you 1 guess as to where he is headed .. if you said arizona you are right .. he left on monday from miami, ok .. they were almost to the track about 5 pm on tuesday .. practice is on wednesday .. and the races start on thursday ...  he races in several different events .. i will have to get some more information from Ryan about what classes he is racing in .. you can read lots more about mike and his racing here .. http://www.kyoshoamerica.com/news.php .. it talks all about his racing in Joplin .. evidently he is pretty good .. i just thought it was a thing to do for fun in the winter time .. i was wrong .. he has a fancy sponsor and everything .. you can read a little more here to .. http://rcspecial.com/news/?s=mike+jackson .. so this week we will hopefully get some updates from mike and i will keep you posted on how he is doing .. cash says .. go fast and ellie says .. don't crash ..

Dinner with PaPa ...

these are the  most wonderfully evil rolls you will ever make in your whole life .. i say that as a total disclaimer .. you also need to make 2 pans .. 1 just for you and the other for everyone else .. having said that .. you can get the recipe at http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ .. they are the buttered rosemary rolls .. and holy cow .. i ate 4 of the 7 all by myself .. i totally didn't even care .. they kept finding their way to my mouth .. of course they take all day to make .. so plan on some serious plan ahead time .. oh .. what else did we have to eat ..

i also made .. pot roast .. carrots .. brown sugar glazed carrots and potatoes ..

as you can see .. both papa and cash had their fill ..

The box ..

so this is the "before" .. cash was as excited about this box as jeff was about what was in the box .. i am thinking great .. a big box that is going to stay in the house ..

this is the "after" .. they had "moved in" .. notice that cash is transporting his suitcase and wagon on the plasma car .. boy does he need a hair cut or what .. his hair is almost as long as ellie's .. little ellie she is just moving in 3 things .. her silky .. her paper dolls and her secret box full of goodies ..

look at all that stuff .. cash has colored all over the box and tapped it all over with blue painters tape .. he moves the box from the game room .. into the living room and then this morning into my bedroom .. i told him the box had to stay in the game room or it was going to be recycled .. he said ok mom .. that sounds awesome .. awesome .. that is his new word ..

Happy Valentines Day ..

i love .. i mean really love .. valentines day .. it is my most favorite holiday .. and of course .. i love valentine cards ..

nothing says love like pink paper and glitter ..

and of course you need a little treat to go with your pink paper and glitter ..

happy valentines day to everyone !! .. oh you want to know what i am doing on valentines day .. oh gosh .. what kind of sweet things do i have planned .. well let me tell you .. lots of laundry and the floors need to be  moped in the worst way .. the dust bunnies are sticking to the spilled orange juice in the kitchen .. but you can be guaranteed of one thing .. i will be wearing my valentine shirt ..

time to move out ..

the boat show is over .. now we have just 1 day to get everything out .. remember it took us 5 days to move in .. this is where the magic happens .. things move fast .. you either keep up or get run over ..

all the boats are off their trailers and on stands .. this means that daniel has to use his amazing fork lift skills and lift each boat up and put it back on it's trailer so that it can be driven back to the lake ..

because we have to eat .. let me just tell you that wendy's was a little nervous when i walked in with my big ole laundry basket .. she asked just how many hamburgers was i going to need .. i said several ..

when we left the lake at 8 on monday morning .. the weather was just fine .. when we got to tulsa this is what the weather was like .. this is not ideal weather for moving out of the boat show .. pretty .. but not good for hauling boats ..

well we did it .. minus about 4 boats that we had to go back and get on tuesday .. another boat show is over .. now we just have to unpack the big trailer .. clean all the road grime and mud off all the trailers, watercraft and boats and get ready for spring and summer ..