Hail amongst other things!

This morning CKB and I awoke to the sound of something hitting the roof of the house. We got up to look and sure enough it was hail! Most of the hail stones were about marble sized, but a few were a tad larger. Went back to bed, but alas, there wasn't time to get back to sleep as Mr. Baby took his cue from the thunder and hail and started to sing his morning song :) Before going in to get him, I took a quick peek out the front door to see if our van still had windshields - yes, thankfully, both vans are intact, just a couple of little paint specks missing on the hood, but it could've been like that before for all I know.

So, our day began amidst some Saturday morning cartoons (Tigger and Pooh, Mickey Mouse Club and Little Einsteins to name a few). After breakfast it was time to check on the sea monkeys...ah yes, the sea monkeys....well, if you recall from my earlier post, the first batch wasn't doing so well and CKB got a second tank w/new supplies inside - fast forward a day or so from then and all of a sudden tank #1 had not 1, but about 5 sea monkeys in it - Hmmm. So, tank #2 is off to a swimming start - ha ha - and now has quite a few little monkeys floating about. Then came Valentine's Day - CKB brought home flowers for each of the girls and gorgeous roses for me - what a great Daddy and husband :) Since boys don't usually get flowers....you guessed it, Mr. E is now the proud owner of his own sea monkey tank - keeping up? That makes 3. After tank #3 was prepared and all set w/the water purifier, CKB brought out a little surprise for Miss A - her own tank as well (no sense waiting 'til her birthday in April when sea monkey fever has already hit the rest of the household - a hot pink tank, no less - and we got it all set up (on the same schedule as Mr. E's) - whew - added the egg/food mixture last night and if you're still keeping up, we now have 4 sea monkey tanks and they ALL have sea monkeys in them...at the moment.

Here's the pink one in the package - and no, we will not be putting sea monkeys in the locket for Miss A to wear - how weird is that anyway?




Good thing these little sea monkey tanks aren't very pricey - now, hopefully these "pets" will be a lot less trouble than our first pet experience a few years ago when we decided to get 2 pet mice for the girls - after one of them bit CKB during a cage cleaning (and one of the 2 original mice died shortly after coming home) - we decided mice just weren't the best pets for us and gave them to some mice-friendly folks who already had a big cage w/a few other mice and were wanting more. So, if these sea monkeys survive and the children do a good job keeping up w/their feeding schedules, maybe, just maybe, we'll get a kitten in a few years - maybe :)

Aren't the little sea monkeys cute?
Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but sea monkeys do NOT look like the cute little cartoons - instead, look here for a nice closeup of what they really look like....eek!

On to other topics - the girls have discovered the fun of the Spirograph ...

and yesterday spent quite a while creating pictures with it and the stencil that came with it. I've had the box sitting on the shelf since before Christmas when I picked it up at Dollar General, but never got it out and showed them how to use it. I figured it was high time! They really like it and it reminds me of the one my sister (and I? can't remember whose it was, but anyway) had when we were kids. By the by, feel free to visit my sister at her new blog now, if you like. Tell her I sent you!



What else...can you tell it's naptime for the wee ones and quiet times for the older children?
Ah...I want to introduce you to one of my new friends, her name is Marie Callender. You don't know her yet? Well, let me tell you, this gal sure can cook! And freeze, and box it up...and well, you get the point. In the interest of my sanity and making sure I eat something decent at lunch when I'm tired of PB&J, I've taken to picking up frozen meals for lunch - through trial and error (first TRYing the cheapest ones, then finding out I didn't care much for the rubbery chicken in some and tiny portions in others), I've found 2 brands that have consistently been winners in my book -
1st - Marie Callender's - the chicken is wonderful and actually tastes like chicken, not a rubbery little cube of who knows what - the alfredo sauce is GOOD, creamy, and wonderful. The 2 varieties I've had so far are: Fettucine with Chicken and Broccoli (pictured below) and (today) Grilled Chicken Alfredo Bake - yummmy. Now, the only bad thing I have to say about Marie is that her meals are a tad high on the lunchtime calorie chart for my liking - what, watching calories? - doesn't hurt to know what you're putting into your body! The 2 I've had were about 600 or so calories. But, they were YUMMY :)


Now, the second brand surprised me - I picked up some of these and didn't realize at first what they really were - they said "Smart Ones" and I really didn't care what they said, but what was inside the red box :) I tend to look for things w/alfredo/chicken/broccoli/fettucine/any pasta really in the title. Turns out these are Weight Watchers - who knew - and are pretty tasty. Again, the chicken tastes like real chicken - imagine that - here are a few I've tried so far that were definitely meals I'd purchase again:
Chicken Enchiladas Suiza (pictured)
Creamy Rigatoni w/Chicken & Broccoli
Fettucini Alfredo
Lasagna Florentine (pretty good, but would probably do better in the oven, rather than microwaving)

These run you about 400 calories - much better and still pretty tasty. Try some, you might like them!



So, for now, this is what I've been doing for lunch and it is nice to not even have to think about lunch too much - just go grab something from the freezer, microwave it and eat with the children instead of taking forever preparing something. For now, this works.


Making things work....now, that's another post for another time!