Trying to bake....

I was getting a little frustrated this week. I have been working on freezer meals. This has been working for the most part. A little annoying when I get home and look at the recipe and it says Oh yea cook for a half hour then remove the foil and cook for another 15 min....starts to tear my hair out. There have been some recipes that I find that the kids really do like. Such as the pasta tacos ie jumbo shells with taco meat and cheese on top that they loved. There have been some others that the kids really didn't like so much, chicken enchaladas. The main frustration has been when I put something in the oven and I set it to start at x time, I thought it was great when it finally dawned on me that the oven has a delayed start time. Cook x min and it would be hot and ready to almost ready when I get home about 6ish. No such luck. 2 times and nada. I even made sure it would come on by testing it. So I get to scramble to make some dinner and then cook the other dinner for the next day, I have to cook it or throw it out. I am going to try again when I get the manual and try some testing this weekend and see what is going on.

On a good note I decided to make some dinner rolls. I went to the store and realized a dozen was almost $3. Bread is cheaper than that. So I found a recipe and made some last night. I had Sam help and then using parchment paper to seperate them put the dough balls in the freezer to freeze. I though this would be great to defrost and then bake as something quick. Well pulled them out this morning put some in bags and baked a few to try out. The defrost on the microwave heated them up enough that they were already rising and popped them in the oven to cook. They were great. I have enough yeast leftover that I will probably make another batch to put in the freezer for later.

Honey do...when I am the Honey

Ok, it was a handyman weekend.
Saturday - Looked into the vibrating garbage disposal. Replaced the catch in the sink of the kitchen as well as it was starting to not look good. Both weren't bad but they weren't fun either. I was a happy camper either with the kids getting along as they usually do trying to put away a box of toys in Sam's room.

I borrowed a drill from Grandma and finally got the towel rack put up in the kids bathroom. Along with a replacement toilet paper holder and a hand towel rack. It now matches the rest of the forest green paint in the bathroom as these are oak and blend in well. The kids I am sure are much happier about having a towel within reach vs being up on top of the shower curtain rod.

Sunday - After buying a recipe book for freezer meals and making 2 of the 3 meals I found that sounded good. The third was being crockpotted so that I get to make it tonight for later this week. I was tired enought that I had to lay down for a nap. When the kids woke me from my slumber on the counch I found that I was still tired and they had been cooped up to much. So we were going to try for the bike ride again.

I had two flat tires last time so it was canceled last week. I looked at the front tube and discovered that the holes were bad enough that the slime would work. So I found my spare tube and put that on the front. Then I looked at the back tire. The valve was toast so it was back to see if I have another spare tube. I did but it wouldn't work on the rims that I had on the bike at the time. So I swapped the tube on the front to the one on the back. Then I drug out the other set of wheels that I have and put one of those on the front with a different type of tube. That worked. Whew.

So I wanted to explore the neighborhood and see what was around. I knew I had a greenbelt behind the house and that there were sidewalks behind some of the houses as well. WOW. Was I shocked.. There is a ton of area where the green belts are behind the houses. We ended up taking about a 45 min ride around and the kids had fun as well. It was nice enough outside as well to enjoy and the moon was full and looked great. We are going to have to do this again.

Lions, Tigers and Picachu Oh my.

We had pancakes, as usual for one day on the weekend, this morning and I did the molds right this time with spray so they came out this morning. So here's a pic of them.

The walking disaster...... but only to herself.

Ok, first things first... Timothy has gone to school all week with little to no issues. And no calls from the school asking me to come pick him up. Yea!!!! So things are going well on that front. He is also going to sleep at night within a couple of minutes vs at the apartment where I would hold Sam's hand for 5 minutes then go to Timmy because he wasn't calmed down yet. And even then he wouldn't go to sleep right away most of the time. Since we moved into the house he has been alsleep within minutes wether I hold his hand or not. I am cutting down on the hand holding especially with him to work on the seperation issues.

We are still working on scheduleing issues at home. I though I would catch a little bit of a break with Timmy going to kindergarden and having homework but no such luck with him going to the Montessori school. No homework for Timmy. So it's find something for him to do, while Sam does her homework, that doesn't bother Sam. Then it's Daddy making dinner and then helping with homework while doing this or right after dinner. I am trying to work on reading stuff with the kids but it is hard with us getting home about 6ish and not getting dinner on the table til 6:30-7pm and then the kids are tired and are really up for doing homework type stuff. We'll see how it goes. It does's help right now that I am pretty much crashing right after the kids.

So what's up with Samantha. Well lets see here she burned her hand a little on a hot cookie sheet the other night. Then she banged her head on her bed. This morning she banged one of her toes on the kitchen table and then got her finger caught in her chest of drawers. I told her I was going to put her in the middle of the living room and have her sit on the bean bag just to make sure she didn't hurt her self anymore. She also has been playing up the drama a little this morning with the fake crying ect as well. So she is becoming a walking disaster area but only to herself right now. Well see how the weekend goes for her. Hopefully I won't have a daughter that is black and blue come Monday.

On a quick side note it seems like for me this has a been a week of wierd errors at my regular job and my side job. I finally got the signature capture program up and running for the side job and it is out for testing after a permission error on the tablet pc that they are using was giving me fits. At the regular job there was a issue with the proxy server settings on a users machine and it not allowing a user to get to a internal web page to view some reports for a program being developed. Finnally got both issues resolved but it was one of those annoying issues that lasts a day or two. And on a project I am working on it doesn't want to create pdf's for me automaticcly via code so I am baby sitting a computer that goes pop every times it creates a pdf. There are only about 20K documents to do across a couple of days....pop...pop...pop...pop....Popcorn sounds good right now I think I will make some.

Tile is great....oh wait that's not part of the tile

I love having tile now... well for the most part. I hear it is going to be cold on the feet in the winter and it is a little hard on the feet but for the most part I like it. It also means that I don't have to replace the carpet every x number of years. Our feet are getting a bit dirtier but I am trying to keep up on keeping it swept/dust mopped so to speak. I can feel when I haven't been doing it as well and it doesn't take to long to do it.

This was all great until I was mopping about a week ago and realized that the dark spots ect. in the tile wasn't part of the tile. Then of course I realized how dirty the tiles were around here and how many of them are dirty. There is a attachment for the steam cleaner that helps it do floors. So I am tacking a section at a time today with that first then mopping up a little better behind it. It will take a while but it should look a lot better over the next day or two.

Also Samantha has been bugging me to get up her canopy around her bed from her Grandmother. I finally got it up today. It looks nice especially with the day bed. She seems to be happy with it so far.

Jenkins Power Company now a construction site

Wow posting 3 times this week. Really unusual. I guess enough stuff is happening in my dull and boring life that it is worth writing about at this time... or it least I feel like writing about it.

Well I knew it was going to be a busy day today, but I didn't realize how busy it was going to be. Kids started off the morning by getting up about 6:30ish this morning with a loud TV going on. I got up a little before 7 just because I didn't want to get up and get moving. What also suprised me was the fact that Samantha had gotten the step stool and gone into the panty and retrieved the box of Reces Puff's opened them and then both kids had a bowl of cereal with milk and eating when I got up. I was suprised and really counted my blessings this morning.

The kids got to watch some cartoons this morning while I cleaned up the back yard from the night before where I trimmed down the palo verde trees in the back yard.

On a quick side note, I had gotten a jucier a few months back with the intention of using it to help juice lemons and grapefruit, bad idea a $14-20 fruit juicer works much better. So after I got up I decided that now would be a great time to juice those carrots and celery. I am trying to find the right mix so that it tastes a bit better. So I finished off the carrots and celery and combined the juices together and had some with some OJ. It wasn't the best but it worked for this morning. I have been trying to do some fruit smoothies with some protein shake added. This has been working out well. It fills me up and is healthy since I am lucky if I eat breakfast half the time in the morning.

So we spent the morning cleaning up and putting stuff away.

About 11:30 is when the fun all started. I need to get the satellite dish fixed because it went out went the two storms blew through and I though it wasn't in a great spot and was blocked, and the old dish was usable but I couldn't connect to it because the previous installer cut the cable 3 feet short, grrrr. All I needed to do was swap the reciever outside and reconnect it. So the satellite guy came and I explained the issue and he agreed and proceded to fix the issue.

Noon, my new neighbors from a couple of houses down saw the tree down and gave me a good price to cut up, haul away the tree, and fix the sprinker system. They have a landscaping business and know what they are doing. I wasn't expecting them til later so I was suprised they were there that early.

12:30 ish The water softner guys show up. They were coming buy between 1 and 3 to do the install. So right now I have the Direct TV van in front. Tree branches in the front yard and drive way with their truck and trailer across the street and now a third van in the street. They were redoing some pipes as well because the previous installer that put the in the water softer for the house, read this as the previous owners took it so I didn't have one, didn't do so good a job of it. They were also working on the outside spigot as well. One of the guys commented that it felt like a construction site. I had to agree with him with all the work and vehicles around the house.

3ish Grandma Jonason shows up. I needed her to watch the kids real quick and hang out while the guys worked. I had to run around the corner to Walmart to get some inexpensive dress of drawers for the kids. She also brought her old charcoal BBQ for me that she didn't need anymore. Woot.
Just as I was leaving Walmart it started to rain. It did one the of Arizona brief but hard rains. The water softner guys have to come back tomarrow to check for leaks for the back yard spigot and the landscape guys need to come back to fix the sprinker system. The rain only lasted maybe a half hour but it soaked everything enough that they can't finish the work. Grandma had to go to get back to her dog that was freaking out when a storm comes in.

5pm-5:30ish or somewhere around there... get back from another trip to the store to grab a few quick things and started the BBQ and had steak and did some carmel apples. I got a idea from the fair or somthing. I decided to do carmel apples. The kids really haven't done then and I figured it would be a good treat. I need to only go about half to 3/4 at the very most with a apple corer/slicer where it cuts the apples in sections. It didn't quite work as well as I wanted but it was close enough and tasted pretty good.

8ish Blogging the long day and relaxing for a few before calling it a night..

It was stormy night

Well funny story now...not so funny when it happened.

Basically had another windy storm last night out here and it was blowing stuff around in the back yard. So I went out back to move some stuff inside for now. Now I though that I had the sliding patio door unlocked and went out the master bedroom door and forgot that it is locked. So I go out to the back patio in just shorts and close the door and then find out that the sliding patio door is locked and the other door inside is locked. I don't have my keys on me at the time either to get back in.

So here I am with the wind blowing really hard and it sprinkling a little as well and no way back inside the house. So I go to the side of the house where the kids rooms are and knock really hard on the windows. Nothing... so I make my way to the front of the house and try the door bell for a couple of minutes. Nothing. I am starting to wonder about my kids not waking up. I have another key to the house with the kids grandmother and can call if needed. So I went back and banged on the kids rooms windows for a little while long and finally got a rather freaked out and frightened Timmy. He went to the front door and let me in. Needless to say it took him a while to calm down and finally went to sleep on the couch.

Not to mention that while I was out front I discovered something. The big tree in the front yard had blown down as well. Thankfully it went away from the house. The funny thing is that I was just talking to a friend about deep watering and if you don't that the roots will grow sideways vs down. Bad time to realize that lesson from the previous house owner.

Update: After talking to the tree service company it looks like I won't be able to save the tree. So now I just need to figure out how I am going to get it removed.

House, school and more

Well it has been a week and a half since school started. Samantha has been doing well as usual. She likes her new teacher and is having fun. She has a set of triplet girls in her class...oh boy.

Timothy hasn't been adjusting as well and will be changing schools. He has been having behavior issues. We will see how he does in the new school next week.

Well also been in the new house for about a week and a half as well. Got the boxes in the kitchen put away and working on the rest. Working on cleaning up the trees ect. for the yard. The grass in the front yard is coming up amazingly quick. I didn't think that I would have to think about how to cut it quite yet.

On a side note...a home is a strange thing. A home has a set of noises and sounds. When you go somewhere else or to someone's house the sounds are different. I remember the noises from the apartment. I can still hear the water going from the neighbors showers. The kids upstairs running around. The radio in the morning from the nextdoor neighbor. The loud fan from the ac unit. But now there are new sounds. The sounds of the ac unit outside from the bedroom. The sounds of the fish tank. The sounds of the kids in their rooms as the move around. It's interesting how the sounds we get use to change. It's like music that we are use to listening to or comfort food. Slowly getting use to the new sounds around here slowly.

New House

Quick post... been a while... found a house and after some paperwork issues on the title companies side we finally closed yesterday. Moving in tomarrow, so going to be busy.

Summer Time

Well it has been pretty busy for us. Samantha especially.

Friday May 31st - school graduation.
Since Sam's school only has 1 class per grade level they did a graduation for the entire school of 144 students. It was supose to start at 10am but they started it early at 9:30 so when I got there I just missed Samantha getting her graduation certificate. Samantha also got a Outstanding Excelence certificate signed by the President of the United States and the Secretary of Education as well as her principal. Samantha missed getting perfect attendance for the year by 1 day. She atteneded school 179 out of 180 days. This lasted until noon where there were cupcakes and soda available.

On side note the butterflies that we ordered finally came in and they turned into chrystalys today. They should be turning into butterflies shortly after Samantha get's back from Detroit.

Monday June 2nd - Arizona State Quarter Day
I picked up the kids so that we could go to the
ceremony. If you were under 18 you got to get a free quarter. The kids did really well and they both got a quarter. Bess Jonason was there as well and she got a couple of limited edition numbered folios for her set. The also served mint(get the pun) drumstick ice cream as well. I also picked up a Arizona State Quarter T-shirt for the kids as well.


Monday Continued... We also had the start of swim lessons for the summer. Both of the kids are getting a refresher courses to start with. Timothy at lvl 1 and Samantha at lvl 3. I expect Samantha to be in lvl 4 by the end of June.

Wednesday - June 4th - Airplane Ride
Well today was the day that Samantha get to go to Detroit on a plan all by her self. At the airport while we were waiting Samantha keep looking at the airplanes and couldn't wait to get on board. She wanted to know which airplane was her's. She safely made it to Detroit. Jolene was there to meet her at the end of the trip. The captain of the plane actually brought her out... the charmer. Sam's comments were that she was half bored and half not bored. There were other kids on the plane as well so the had some company.

Getting near the end of the school year.

Well it's getting near the end of the kids school year. Timothy has been taking gymnastics for most of the year. It didn't start out that way but I heard the teachers telling me that he was disappointed that he couldn't go with most of the rest of the kids. So I got him signed up for it. I didn't really know what he was doing to much because Timmy really wouldn't say and I didn't see his gymnastics teacher till about a month or so ago.

Ok back on topic. It is near the end of the school year and Timothy had his gymnatics show to show us what the kids had been doing and how well they were doing. I was pretty suprised to see him proforming so well. He was doing somersault's and bends on the mat with the other kids. He seems to like it really well so I am going to sign him up again next year for it as well.

Samantha was really excited at being there and I was going to sign her up for gymnastics as well at her school but apparently that fell through. She wanted to do what Timothy was doing. I am looking forward to swim lessons this summer for the two kids but not the hectic schedule that I will be on even more.

Pictures are from the proformance it was with a Mexican Fiesta theme.

Long Day for the Jenkins at the power company.

I took the kids up to Prescott on Saturday, yesterday, for a very long day of events for us. Alex Clawson was graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautcial University after 4 years with a degree in engineering...woot.. congrats Alex. We left the apartment at about 8am. After we got to Prescott we meet Jolene up there in time for the graduation ceremony. The kids did very well though the two hours for it. Then we had a light lunch and went to the dog park and hung out while the two dogs that Jolene brought played for a while. Then we picked up Dave Clawson and we went out to lunch at the Outback Steakhouse. There was lots of laughs and sharing of food while we were there. Then after a brief break at the hotel room where Dave and Jolene were staying we were off back to Phoenix to pick up Grandma Bess from the airport. After a short mixup...apparently the info she gave me had changed and the two airlines that she gave me that she was supose to be coming in on was at two different terminals. So after figuring out that she was at the other terminal and a different flight number we picked her up and took her home and then went home ourselves. Kids finally got to bed about 10:30pm with a nap on the way back from Prescott.

Ok I am finally giving in...

Lets see how well I can keep this updated or it least every once in a while.

Lets start with the title of my blog.. it has been kind of a running joke for me for quite a long time.. ok since the teenage years. I have always said that if we can tap into the kids energy then we would have a renewable power source. Now if only I can find a way to plug stuff into them.

So you will hear me answer the phone if I see you on caller id with, "Jenkins Power Company, supplying power though kids and puppies, this is John."
We tried cats but they are a different matter all together.