Easy Lemon Cream Pie

Well Now that I’ve missed posting in May entirely I thought I’d try to catch up a little. I have wanted to blog. I’ve thought about blogging so many times about many different topics, but honestly I been busy and kind of in a funk. Some of you may remember that we moved to the Eastern USA last year. In fact, it has almost been a year – can you believe it? And what that means is that things are changing around here. CJ graduated from kindergarten two weeks ago and we closed on our new house about a week ago. Now I’m furiously trying to pick out paint colors, pack, and get used to the idea that CJ will start big kid school in less than two months! Of course these are all good changes, but even good changes can be hard sometimes. I feel like we had just gotten settled and now we’re changing schools and neighborhoods all in one month. So I’ve been in a bit of a funk, but I’m feeling better now and looking forward to decorating my dream house and getting to know my new neighbors.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest,  I want to share the perfect Summer desert with you! This is the easiest and yummiest pie ever – so cool and creamy. We took some over to my friend Kim’s house recently and were a little bummed that we had to leave the leftovers (I kid, I kid). I felt better when Kim told me that she and her husband ate the leftovers for breakfast! I like to see my pies properly appreciated.

Easy Lemon Cream Pie

1/2 cup lemon juice (bottled works fine, but fresh tastes slightly better)

1  can sweetened condensed milk

1 8 oz container of Cool Whip, defrosted

1 oversized, 10″ graham cracker pie crust

1 can mandarin oranges (drain the can and then place the mandarin slices on a paper towel on top of a plate to dry some more)

Stir the lemon juice and sweetened condensed milk with a wooden spoon (I swear it tastes better) until well mixed. Add the container of Cool Whip and stir well. Pour the mixture into the graham cracker crust. Lick the bowl and spoon. Refrigerate for 2-4 hours until firm. When the pie is firm, top with the mandarin oranges.

Call me when you’re done – pie always tastes better when someone else makes it!

What Are These Bakugan?

 

What are these Bakugan

I seem to keep stepping on?

 

Little balls that pop right open,

waiting for my feet to trip on.

 

Do they really need an arena

When they won’t stay where you can see them?

 

I tell my boy to put them away,

But he says “Please Mommy, just one more day!”

 

I guess I’ll learn to play myself,

I don’t think they’re going on the shelf.

Things I Need?

 

I thought I’d share with you what I really need, or at least the things Google thinks I need. Want to know what you need? All you have to do is go to Google, type in your name plus the word “needs.”  Here is what Google says I need:

1. Sherry needs THIS!!! – That’s right, I want it all baby!

2. Sherry needs prayers – I could always use prayers, but do they know something I don’t?

3. Sherry needs more support - Would that be the brassiere kind?

4. Sherry needs My Space- No, I don’t need My Space, I’m a Facebook kinda gal.

5. Sherry needs instruction in phonics- I can reed jest fyn thank yu and Im a gud speler to

6. Sherry needs some soap in her mouth – What did I say? Have you seen me drive?

7. Sherry needs a drink after watching the dancing madness – That’s true – especially after watching Steve Wozniak!

8. Sherry needs to be rejuvenated- Is Google saying I look old?!

9. Sherry needs a very warm, dry climate – I don’t think so! I just moved from a warm, dry climate – why do you think I need to be rejuvenated?

10. Sherry needs to be aged before it can be drunk – It’s a little late to tell me now. 

11. Sherry needs a new home- Wow, this stuff really works – Google is a soothsayer! (see this post)

Make A Monkey Smoothie

Here is my current breakfast favorite – a Monkey Smoothie. Just writing this post makes me want one, even though I had one this morning. I don’t know what makes it so good, I think it’s just the combination of ingredients. The regular recipe is listed below, but you can also substitute sunflower seed butter for the peanut butter; I think it tastes virtually the same. You can also leave out the protein powder, or use chocolate soy milk instead of vanilla. We change it up a bit depending on the ingredients we have, but the original recipe is my favorite. Having a Monkey Smoothie is a great way to get fruit, calcium and protein all in one serving. Enjoy!

1 cup soy milk (we use Vanilla)

2 Tbsp. protein powder (optional, we use Vanilla Soy Protein Powder from Trader Joe’s)

2 Tbsp. peanut butter (or sunflower seed butter)

2 Tbsp. honey

2 ripe medium bananas, sliced

1.5 cups ice cubes

Place ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Makes about two 12oz servings.

 

A Goof, Some Bad Luck, and Good News

Hello, I’m still here! Some of you may have noticed that it has been a long time since I’ve blogged. I don’t have any great excuses, except that I’ve been particularly busy lately – probably just like the rest of you.

My sweet boy CJ turned 6 recently and my Dad and stepmom drove up for his birthday and stayed a few days. We had a small cake and enjoyed an intimate family celebration. It’s so nice to live close enough now that we’re within driving distance of several members of our family. We wanted to have CJ’s party while my Dad and stepmom were here, but my hubby DA was convinced that he needed to run a marathon that day. You guys already know what I think about marathon runners! So the party got pushed back to the next weekend.

As part of the preparations for CJ’s Dalmatian-themed party I hand-stamped some favor bags with a dog paw stamp. 

Helpful hint: If you stamp dog paws on glossy bags, the ink will never dry. Never. Nope, not at all. 

There’s the “goof” part of my post. I had to toss all 17 bags that I stamped and start over again with fresh bags. And no, I didn’t try re-stamping my second set of bags. The second set got a cute little tag with a Dalmatian (coming soon).

We had planned a fun, outdoor party for CJ’s birthday complete with a Dalmatian bounce house and a doggy obstacle course – “You know, for kids” (am I the only one who has seen “The Hudsucker Proxy“?). The “bad luck” is that it rained for days in a row and was scheduled to be rainy and cold on the day of CJ’s party. We had to scrap the whole thing and were fortunate to get the last party spot at one of the indoor bounce places.

But we had some more ”bad luck”. While we were waiting in the lobby for CJ’s party to start, he slipped on the wet floor (from the rain!) and busted his head open on the counter! The party ended very quickly at that point, but after a quick trip to urgent care, and a whole tube of Dermabond, CJ was just fine. Thankfully, his head doesn’t even hurt anymore.

 We have also been looking for a house. When we moved to the Eastern US last summer we decided to lease a house because we didn’t know how long it would take for our old house to sell. We still have a few months left on our lease, but we decided to go ahead and start house-hunting to give ourselves plenty of time to find the perfect neighborhood.

The day after we went out with our agent for the first time, I found a house in the MLS listings that seemed like a beautiful house, in a great neighborhood, for a pretty good price. I called my agent and told him I wanted to go see it as soon as possible. He and I went to see it the next day while DA was at work. I was very surprised. It didn’t match the picture I had in my mind of what my perfect house was, but the house just felt “right” to me.  DA saw it the next day and fell in love with it too, but it seemed like madness to buy this house when we had just started looking!

Over the next week we looked at as many houses as we could. Things became complicated when we received a call that an offer had been made on the house. We thought about if for an hour or so, and then decided to put in a competing offer. Fortunately, the sellers accepted our offer and that is the “good news” part of this post. We don’t close until May, but we can’t wait to be settled in our new home.

Thank you for reading this incredibly long post

My Valentine Boy

CJ had his school Valentine’s Day party yesterday.  It was actually called “Love Day” at his school and was filled with all things about love – a chapel lesson about Jesus’ love for us, stories about love, and valentines to exchange with his classmates. CJ wore his red Valentine’s Day shirt from two years ago with the little dog on the front. Yes, you heard that correctly. When he was 4 years old I bought him a size 5T and he wore it at age 4, 5 and now (almost) 6. Even I’m surprised it still fits.

After he put the shirt on he said to me “You know Mommy, when I wear this shirt I’m Valentine Boy.” I said to him “Oh, so you’re my valentine today?” CJ said “No Mommy, I’m your valentine every day.”

Awww, how sweet is that?

Have You Seen Cozi?

As part of our new “get organized” plan my hubby and I have been looking for an online family calendar that both of us can view and edit. The first one we tried was Google Calendar. We liked it because we both already have Gmail, but my husband had to download all of the events from Google Calendar into Outlook for his work calendar.  This worked just fine, but duplicated each event that we both planned to attend. After using Google Calendar for a month, it became apparent that we also needed an online “list page”, or a place where we could write lists of items we needed to buy or things to do.

Recently I came across Cozi and it seems to fit our needs perfectly. The cool thing about Cozi (other than it’s free!) is that it has a color-coded family calendar, an area to hold multiple kinds of lists (i.e. grocery, Target, Costco, Trader Joe’s), a message area for family members, and an online family journal for jotting down memories and fun stuff. You can even set up a photo collage screen saver. Since Cozi is free there are a few ads, but they’re pretty unobtrusive. Cozi also syncs with my husband’s work calendar in Outlook and has a mobile phone beta.

Has anyone else tried Cozi? Any other online calendar recommendations?

Hands Off My Salad!

 

I went out for a girls’ lunch with my friend Julie recently. We split a salad and each got our own burger. We were having a good time chatting away when the waiter came by and asked me if he could take my salad plate. I looked at my plate and noticed there was a little bit left – some lettuce, Parmesan and bacon. Now I’ll be honest with you, there wasn’t a lot left but I did want to eat what was there so I told the waiter “No thanks, I’m still eating.” That snarky waiter smirked at me as if to say “Are you kidding me?”  And before I could bite my tongue I said “Yeah, I might want to lick the plate too.”

At least I didn’t poke him with my fork.

Fun & Games

I’m not saying we’re too lazy to take CJ to the park – but this seems to do the trick. It’s too cold at the park anyway.

My hubby DA says it looks like he’s “kicking him to the curb” LOL!

Who knew DA could kick that high?

Snow Day

I have been wishing for more cozy Winter days and my wish was granted on Tuesday. The weather man said snow was coming, but I didn’t really believe it until it happened. We awakened to a winter wonderland – and it was beautiful. It snowed heavily all morning and we waited and watched. In the end we got about 6 inches!  When the falling snow slowed down a bit we walked our neighborhood to see what magic the snow had created in our familiar surroundings. I loved the rustling quietness of  the trees bent over by their burden of snow.

 My boy CJ amused himself over and over again by falling down on the snow, vigorously making snow angels. We couldn’t help laughing at his slapstick routine. This was only his third time playing in the snow, and his joy was infectious. After our walk we drove around until we found a hill suitable for sledding. CJ loved trying different parts of the hill; the smooth, slick parts already smoothed down by earlier sledders, and the the rougher, snowy paths that produced a more erratic ride.

We were treated to more slapstick as he trudged back up the hill with the inner tube – he pretended to fall over and over again. My hubby DA rode down several times, and I braved the hill too. I thought I was going to end up on my face, but I enjoyed the cold ride! Afterwards we came home and drank hot chocolate and played Wii.

We had more “snow fun” yesterday playing and visiting with our neighbors, but the snow is already melting and is on its way out.