Jack-Black-itus or diagnosis: too much Jack Black

Things are continuing to go really well back here in Wisconsin. We're getting very well settled and things are starting to fall into place. It's feeling better everyday. We had a bomb of a yard sale today, which you can read about on Mike's blog :) We're going to try again next weekend. There should be more traffic with the holiday weekend.

The other excitement we've had within the past couple of days was visiting the small town ER. Maria was having a pain in her left side, especially when breathing... we were concerned that it could have been her appendix or pneumonia, so we just took her right in. Of course it took over an hour to be seen... They ran a bunch of tests that took forever... her lungs sounded fine, her urine test came back with no infections, she was getting plenty of oxygen and her x-rays came back clear. The verdict was that she had pulled a muscle in her side.

She said she couldn't think of anything she did to have pulled a muscle. The only thing we could think of was that we'd all watched the Jack Black movie "Be Kind Rewind" the night before and were all laughing our butts off!! Maria actually watched it twice. So we figure she pulled a muscle laughing. We told her she was having a little case of Jack-Black-itus.

Bisquick and the Birthday Bash!

Bisquick is the bomb! We bought a box of Bisquick when we did our cheap staple food shopping, and it's just amazing how many things you can make with it! Its not just for pancakes! ;)

A few days ago Mike found this awesome cornbread recipe online:

• 3/4 stick butter
• 2 cups bisquick
• 1 egg
• 1 can creamed corn

-melt butter in 8x8 baking pan. Mix Bisquick, egg, and corn. Pour into melted butter. Bake @ 350 for 25mins or until golden brown.

It turned out great. It's not too sweet though, we will probably consider adding a little bit of sugar next time we make it. The buttery edges were the best! ;) mmmmm.

On Beatrice's birthday we were looking online for cake recipes and found one using Bisquick. It sounded so simple we just had to try it. Here is the original recipe:

• 2 cups Bisquick
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp vanilla

-Combine Bisquick and sugar. Add milk, beaten eggs, melted butter, ans vanilla. Beat to smooth up the batter. Pour into greased and floured 8x8 pan. Bake @ 350 (original recipe called for 400, but we decided that was too hot) for 45mins (cupcakes for 30mins).


-We added half a bag of butterscotch chips to the batter. The cool thing was that the batter was pretty thin, so they all sank to the bottom and we ended up with a nice cookie type bottom layer of the cake! It was delicious! For the second cake today we added half a bag of chocolate chips - and it was just as delicious!

Beatrice helped out a little ;)

As we wanted a full sized cake we decided to double the recipe. Turned out that it was a little too much for a 9x13 pan! It really rose up quite a bit, and blew out the side a little (lucky too because I think otherwise it may have gone over the edge!).

We decided that the perfect amount of batter would be 1 and 2/3rds of the ingredients. 1 1/2 was too little and double was too much. So today when I made the cake I did some really funky math ;) (me and math just don't mix)... Me and my funky math just added 2/3rds to everything (ie: 2 2/3 c bisquick, 1 2/3 c sugar) which wasn't really 1 2/3rds of the amounts called for... one and a half would have been 3 c bisquick... Anyway, it turned out to be the perfect amount of batter and it tasted quite good, so I didn't mess up too bad ;)

Here's a nice close up picture of the cookie crust ;) this one was with the chocolate chips. Yummy!

Beatrice loved the cake

Especially the frosting! :)

And to continue with the birthday bash

She loved all of her presents! She got into the opening part pretty good, but she really wanted to play with everything right away!

Happy 1st Birthday Beatrice!!!!

Mysterious Muskie Cloud

On our move, and just before arriving home we saw this mysterious Muskie cloud

Is this a sign from the Muskie Gods? You be the judge (we do live about 15 miles from the capture sight of the world's largest Muskie) Beatrice decided to do a little laundry the other day ;) And she loved the watermelon Aunt Renee brought over! You would have thought she'd been eating watermelon forever :)

The kids have been having a great time in the yard! Duncan has been riding around on his Big Wheel and keeping the slide shined well :)

Beatrice has been really digging the swing. And Maria's been having tons of fun swinging and sliding

And we're back...

Back in the Northwoods! We made it :) thanks to so much help we received from both families!! I think this move was the smoothest yet. And we're definately staying put for a while!

The house was just as we left it. And even surrounded by boxes it felt like home. We've gotten quite a bit unpacked and situated and it almost feels as if we never left.

The kids and dogs are loving the fenced-in yard! Duncan has been running around like crazy going up and down the slide. Beatrice loves the baby swing - so much that she gets really mad when we take her out. They seem to have adjusted to the move really well.

It's just so nice to be back! We've been so busy getting everything situated that I haven't taken too many pictures, and those I have - haven't made it to the computer yet ;) but they will soon :)

Movin' on up

Back to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. So I don't have to rename my blog after all! :)

We are really excited about heading back and can't wait! We were packing like crazy this past weekend... here's the evidence! One and a half rooms packed and ready to go! And all the other rooms didn't get much more than halfway unpacked anyway! ;) It's going to go much quicker this time... Maria is more than thrilled with moving back. I don't think she unpacked more than one box... and she's almost all packed up and ready to go!

Packed our DVD collection too - less distractions from packing (of course we left out a few of Duncan's faves to keep him more occupied...) Too hot for clothes!
Baby Beatrice is thinking about walking! She's been cruising around all over the place, and will stand on her own for a few seconds... Her top two teeth are now almost all the way in, and her menu is expanding daily.
Duncan's about ready for another haircut!
Anyway... we will be picking up and loading the Uhaul on the 29th and then we're off on the 30th!!! Can't wait to get back to our fenced-in yard! The kids and dogs are going to be digging it!

Some days are just pretty good

Today was pretty good. We finally got our economic stimulus payment today! (it was supposed to come on saturday)... then at the grocery store we won the weekly drawing for $50 in groceries! AND I have both kiddos sleeping at the same time! So what do I do with all that free time?? Blog. And think about folding laundry...

Maria's last softball game was last week :( It was over too fast... but she had lots of fun! And she makes a really awesome 3rd baseman!

Beatrice will miss picking grass at Maria's games... If you take grass out of her hands enough times before she makes it to her mouth... she will just lean over for a bite! Duncan will miss running around like a crazy monkey during Maria's games...
We caught him in a still contemplative pose here... and thought for sure he was attending to some serious business ;)

See the similarities?

Here everyone is waiting anxiously for the summer ritual of after dinner ice cream!

Here is baby Beatrice modeling the shorts I crocheted for her! :) Happy belated 4th of July!!

To see more of pics of the shorts, hop on over to my crochet blog here