July a month of birthdays.....

Monday July 28th, 2008

The last couple of weeks have been very hectic for me with J away on business for 10 days, J's birthday celebrations, playdates and summer. I've had to take a break from blogging sorry. But I'm now back again with lots of news....

Today is my 37th Birthday - yeah!! - Happy Birthday to me!!
Well for something different I'm going to celebrate it 2 times! (believe me my friends are surprised, its very unlike me to celebrate my birthday, I think this is from 1. living away from family and 2. After many, many yrs of planning exciting events for various global companies I felt burnt out!)

First event was on Sunday 27th, lovely dinner made by J for me. After Miss S went to bed we relaxed and enjoyed a lovely dinner of chicken stuffed with basil (growing almost wild on our deck!) with bacon wrapped around it, served on a bed of white truffle fettuccine with a side of asparagus! - Yummo. Dessert was chocolate molten cake served with a scoop of Ben and Jerry's latest flavor icecream. Plus I was able to enjoy a glass or two of wine, since I've finally now weaned Miss S - yes sad but true, after the last month of constant biting it was time to stop.

The next celebration will be held in mid August a BBQ for about 8 people. So should be busy couple of days. I figure I haven't properly celebrated by birthday in 10 years so time to dust of the party shoes! I'll post pics later.

J turned the big 40 early this month so finally downloaded some pics to share of his big day.

J enjoying his new birthday present with Miss S

Miss S doing her safety test for Dadda

Miss S playing with the box the hammock came in, entertainment for at least half an hour.

J blowing out his birthday cake

Miss S wondering what is going to happen next

Birthday Cake - coconut with key lime lemon filling!

The birthday boy - infront of his rosemary bush from my family

What do we do in the hot weather

Thursday July 17th, 2008

Well it's Summer in Michigan and it's hot - thank goodness we decided to get the air conditioning in the Spring! - yeah. It's not on all day, just afternoons and in the mornings I have the kitchen door open to let in the morning breeze.

Miss S is enjoying her first summer and loves to splash around on her splash mat. Well this is what S does to keep cool. I sit next to her and we have a canopy tent which we sit under after her splashy, splashy time where we eat snacks and have drinks. It's a lovely way to spend the avo together.

J resting on the job!!

Jam Diaster

Wednesday July 16th, 2008

It's jam season, with strawberries on sale 5 lbs for $5.00 I thought what a bargain let's make some strawberry jam. I spent a good part of one Saturday morning preparing the fruit by washing, coring and cutting them up - into chunks since I like good eating pieces in my jam.

J helped when S went to bed for her morning nap - we decided this year to follow the Ball blue book where you add sachet of pectin, in the past we made jam the ol' fashioned way where you cook the fruit for nearly an hour so that it forms a thick, squashy jam and if necessary add some lemon juice; this method has always worked for us.

I guess we wanted to do the quick method and have the jam form by cooking for only 1 minute after it boils then adding it into the jars. Unfortunately it didn't work at all and yes we did follow the recipe exactly and weighed out all ingredients. The jam is not setting instead we have strawberries floating in syrup.

After reading the how to fix it section - it mentioned to leave it for up to 2 weeks and it may form. I'm going to leave it but I doubt it forms. Looks like we will have to recook it till it sets in a weeks time. So lesson learned if it ain't broke don't fix it, the original recipe worked we should of followed that recipe instead of trying to take short cuts by following a new recipe. Oh well.

We now have 18 jars of strawberry syrup!

My moan...

Tuesday July 15th, 2008

I hate rudeness, the other day when I was out shopping with Miss S who was in her stroller not 1or 2 but 3 people refused to open the door for me - grrr. Makes me annoyed that people can be ignorant and refuse to hold open the door. Hay I'm all for women's rights but would it hurt people to hold the door open for a second.

Really I don't understand why people are so rude, when I was growing up I was taught to hold the door open, and say Thank-you and please, Lately I'm encountering alot of young 20 somethings who don't have any manners and understand politeness. Obviously it's not cool to be polite it's a real shame that their parents can't spend some quality time teaching them basic manners.

So next time you are out shopping don't forget to hold open the door for the lady with the stroller. This kind act will bring back it's own rewards to you later.

Monday - cute pic time

Monday July 14th, 2008

This is what happens when Miss S wakes up way to early on the w/end!!