Fair

We had such a fun day today. Grandma and Grandpa picked us up this morning after church and we headed to the Allegan County Fair. We toured the animal barns, had lunch, and people watched (enough said). Scott and Grandpa got suckered into paying $1 to see a 75 lb. rat. To their disappointment it didn't look like a rat at all. It appeared to be a giant rodent resembling a hamster. For some reason my favorite barn is the cows. I think their cute for some reason when they're all cleaned up and shiny. I like the light brown ones with a block head and wrinkled neck. As much as I love them, I felt zero guilt for eating a fat burger the night before. My least favorite are the chickens. I have a secret fear of the Asian bird flu. After strolling through the aisles of these cluckers, I do get disgusted by eating a chicken breast. Jake was very intrigued by it all. He fell asleep in the car before we even got out of the parking lot (o.k... the parking field).

A Weekend Home

It's good to be at home this weekend. Finally a Saturday that we could go to the Farmer's market and casually walk downtown without being in a hurry. Scott played golf this morning and Kate and I ventured out this mid-day. Apparently there were hundreds of other people who also had the same idea. We bought tomatoes, peppers, onions, apples, and peaches. The tomatoes were huge. My favorite thing to eat these days is a piece of toast w/mayo and salted tomato slices. If I had the motivation I'd make some bacon also.

It's good to slow down and love up this weather!

Cereal

I'm in love with Chocolate Chex cereal. I've tried many others that have attempted to add chocolate to the so called healthy cereal and they don't compare . I've even told Scott that I have this fear that they will stop making this cereal. When I didn't see it at Meijers the other day I thought my nightmare was coming true. Thankfully Target saved the day. I tend to crave sweet things late at night and this is the perfect alternative to ice cream (which is what I really want).

I've even had Kate make me the recipe that comes on the side of the box. She brought these special treats to the Tiger's game. They were oh so delicious.

Now, I've come across this recipe! Mmmmmmm. Mom, if you feel like making these for the cabin this weekend - you have my permission! I might suggest making a double.


Chocolate Chex® Caramel Corn Bars

Treat the kids to a crunchy new snack combining Chocolate Chex® cereal, pretzels and popcorn neatly packed in a bar. Yum! Prep Time:10 min Start to Finish:40 min Makes:32 bars

Ingredients:

4	cups popped Pop•Secret® Light butter flavor microwave popcorn (from 3-oz bag)
4	cups Chocolate Chex® cereal
1	cup pretzel sticks, coarsely broken
1/2	cup packed brown sugar
1/2	cup light corn syrup
1/3	cup butter or margarine
1/4	cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation Directions:

-1.	Microwave Directions: Butter bottom and sides 13x9-inch pan. Remove and discard unpopped kernels from popped popcorn. In large bowl, mix popcorn, cereal and pretzels; set aside. In 2-quart microwavable measuring cup, microwave brown sugar, corn syrup and butter uncovered on High about 2 minutes or until boiling, stirring after 1 minute. Pour over cereal mixture in bowl, stirring until evenly coated. Press firmly in pan. In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips uncovered 30 to 60 seconds or until chips can be stirred smooth. Drizzle over bars. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Cut into 8 rows by 4 rows.
1.	Butter bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan. Remove and discard unpopped kernels from popped popcorn. In large bowl, mix popcorn, cereal and pretzels; set aside.
2.	In 1-quart saucepan, heat brown sugar, corn syrup and butter to boiling over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Boil 1 minute; remove from heat.
3.	Pour over cereal mixture in bowl, stirring until evenly coated. Press firmly in pan.
4.	In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips uncovered 30 to 60 seconds or until chips can be stirred smooth. Drizzle over bars. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Cut into 8 rows by 4 rows.
Microwave Directions: Butter bottom and sides 13x9-inch pan. Remove and discard unpopped kernels from popped popcorn. In large bowl, mix popcorn, cereal and pretzels; set aside. In 2-quart microwavable measuring cup, microwave brown sugar, corn syrup and butter uncovered on High about 2 minutes or until boiling, stirring after 1 minute. Pour over cereal mixture in bowl, stirring until evenly coated. Press firmly in pan. In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips uncovered 30 to 60 seconds or until chips can be stirred smooth. Drizzle over bars. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Cut into 8 rows by 4 rows.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): No change.

1 Serving: Calories 80 (Calories from Fat 25); Total Fat 3g (Saturated Fat 1 1/2g, Trans Fat 0g); Cholesterol 5mg; Sodium 70mg; Total Carbohydrate 13g (Dietary Fiber 0g, Sugars 7g); Protein 0g Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 2%; Vitamin C 0%; Calcium 0%; Iron 8% Exchanges: 1 Other Carbohydrate; 0 Vegetable; 1/2 Fat Carbohydrate Choices: 1
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Exhausted

These last few weeks have left us feeling wiped. Our awesome trip to Colorado brought us home feeling tired. A few days later and not yet recovered we found out that Scott's Grandpa wasn't doing well. He passed away this past Saturday. The past few days have been a time of sorrow and celebration. Yesterday's funeral was a sweet good-bye that left us coming home very emotionally drained. We picked Jake up at my parent's way passed his bedtime. At 2 a.m. he woke up crying. His breathing was shallow. I insisted on bringing him to the E.R. 3 hours later, we left the emergency room with an upper respiratory infection diagnosis. Another words...keep an eye on him, there's not much we can do but let him work it out. After getting to sleep at about 5 a.m., Jake promptly woke up on his schedule of 7 a.m. This mama and dada are not functioning well on only a few hours of sleep last night. Oh, did I mention how busy this week is? We have a chicken BBQ tomorrow? Scott is simultaneously frantically trying to squeeze in time in his classroom.

My eyes are heavy tonight and I'm looking forward to bed. I have a feeling that Jake is going to have a restless night of sleeping. I can hear him having a hard time breathing well through the baby monitors. I'm ready to catch up on sleep but as I look ahead to next week's busy week - I don't see it happening! I feel like I keep passing Jake off to other people and it's making me have a lot of mom guilt these days.

I wish that I could magically create one more week before school starts and put nothing on the calender but time with family. Would anyone else be up for that? Just one more week please! Summer...please don't go yet. I hardly got to see you.

Cluck Cluck

Community Chicken BBQ

Friday, August 22, 2008
5:00pm - 7:00pm

Dinner proceeds to benefit Youth for Christ

Call 616.392.1479 for BBQ Tickets

Come see Kate and I working hard at serving up some good eats downtown Zeeland! If you don't have time to pick up a ticket at our office, just come! We should have plenty to go around. We'd love to see tons of people. Mention my blog and I might even give you an extra squirt of whip cream on your strawberry shortcake.

We're Home!

The bus rolled back into Zeeland on Friday night at about 7:30 p.m. We had a great time. Someone asked me my favorite part. Without question it's watching the kids see the mountains for the first time. There were some kids who had never been out of Michigan. They were fighting for the front of the bus when we finally got out there. I always love when their taking pictures through the dirty window. I want to say the mountains aren't going anywhere - you have all week to capture them. But I don't, it's too fun to watch them in awe. I'm not sure how anyone can deny God during these times.

I'm going to try and post some video of the kids soon. The flip camera was great to have on this trip. Now I need to make sure and download it!

Picture 1 - The view outside our tents.
Picture 2 - Noah climbing Bob's Rock.
Picture 3 - Our group of Middle School students.
Picture 4 - Pretending we're on vacation.

Did I mention that on the trip out there the air conditioning broke? Oh yeah, there are no windows that open on the bus either. Kids were passing out sleeping from the heat. We were being pressure cooked in Nebraska. The heat outside was about 100 degrees. Can you imagine what it was inside that bus? This is the last I want to talk about this part of the trip. Thankfully it was fixed for the way home. It stunk at is it was. My Chaco sandals might have had something to do with the smell.

Tick Tock

I always do this. "By this time tomorrow we'll be..." in Nebraska! "By this time next week..." we'll be home and sleeping in our own bed. Does anyone else do this?

Well in less than 10 hours we'll be loading the bus for Colorado. I won't sleep much tonight. I'll have checklists running through my head. I always think of something that I still need to pack. Then I think will I remember this in the morning? As much as I'm not a morning person and depend on an alarm clock, I never need one the day we're leaving on a trip. I notoriously wake up like a minute before it's going to go off. Is that weird? Aren't our minds an amazing thing?

I need to go to bed. Maybe I'll finish watching the Tigers. They'll put me to sleep. Gary Sheffield has to go. Hey...how come nobody is wearing their chef hats now?