Apple Trees and Falling Leaves

A client of ours has a great apple tree and, because the home is currently vacant, we were asked to pick the apples and do with them whatever we please.  I picked a very large box full and brought them home.  Now what?  I've given bags of them to whoever would take them and am now looking for various recipes on what to do with the rest of 'em.  So far, I've made 2 Kutchens, a crisp, a batch of oatmeal apple cookies, roasted 'em with sweet potatoes, stirred 'em into muffins & have eatin' them with peanut butter. Yes, I still have a half a box full!!!!  I've gotten a few ideas from my FaceBook friends and look forward to trying some of them.  Oh, there's still more to be picked, too.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Apple Kutchen:
1/2 C. softened butter
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1/2 C. flaked coconut
2 1/2 C. sliced apples
1/4 C. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 C. sour cream
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350.  Cut the butter into the cake mix, then coconut.  Press mixture into an ungreased oblong pan; slight edges.  Bake for 10 minutes.
Arrange apples on crust; sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar.  Blend sour cream and egg together and drizzle over the apples.  Bake for 25 minutes or until edges are light brown.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

A Day in the Life...

It's been rather crazy since we got back from Disneyland.  Amelia is learning so much every day and has a truely amazing imagination.  I've been working more on the Real Estate part of my life.  There is so much to learn - I just don't know if there is any way to know it all.  The short sales and foreclosures are beating out the private sales here and dealing with banks in order to make a sale is quite frustrating. I'm also working diligently on getting the donations for themed baskets for the Summerville Parent Nursery School to raffle off at the beginning of December at our annual Christmas Shop event. That's right, the holidays are already upon us!!! Joel is keeping busy with Sierra Property Maintenance - he's been doing various remodels and is building a 20' Yurt for Gwynne (awesome!).
It is with a heavy heart and a sigh of relief that I report this next bit of news; Honey the Dog passed away this morning.  She lived a "great" long life and we miss her terribly.
In better news... it hasn't snowed yet.

Disneyland!!!

We arrived home yesterday from a crazy, action-packed, long weekend in Disneyland with my parents. Amelia had THE best time!!! We received a call at home on Tuesday evening and Amelia got to listen to a few characters invite her to the Happiest Place on Earth. We headed out Wednesday morning and were in the park that very afternoon. We took the Monorail into Tomorrowland where our first stop was the Astro Blasters and then, the Rockets. We headed over to Toon Town to meet Mickey but stoppped along the way to enjoy a parade.

The next morning began with breakfast in Goofy's Kitchen. Amelia wore her Cinderella dress and met quite a few characters including the Fairy Godmother and Princess Aurora. Back to the park for more fun!!! After a rest, we all got ready for Mickey's Trick or Treat Party. Amelia dressed as a lady bug and got to meet Handy Manny. We, the adults, got to ride the Tower of Terror in the dark - very cool! The little girl's fave part was the dance party in Candy Corn Acres where she got to get jiggy with Daisy Duck.

Friday greeted us with more fun and chaos. Amelia got her very first pair of ears and we met Princess Minnie and Snow White. After a float through a Small World, it was time for another nap. We watched Fantasmic that night and the girl was really happy that Mickey won!

Amelia wore her Snow White dress for our early entry morning. We walked over to Toon Town for Mickey's Morning Madness. When we got there, one of Mickey's handlers came over to us and talked to Amelia, asking her if she could twirl and what her name was. After that, we were escorted to a reserved table for the celebration. During Mayor Mickey's speech, we were proclaimed the Honorary Family of the Day. Insane!!! Joel, Amelia and I stood at the podium, wore sashes and waved to the audience. A little out of our comfort zones but Amelia ate it up! We had breakfast with Minnie and friends and spent the rest of our last day in Disney's California Adventure Park. It's a Bug's Land is great for the little ones!

I'm happy to be home and can't wait to do it again!!!

Completely Random Thoughts

Amelia is back and better than ever! Yesterday, she was "kid of the day" at school because she wore a smile, participated in every activity and shared a toy with Charlie in the sandbox. I was so proud! She kept it up for the rest of the day... being good. It was really nice to have such a helpful, dry daughter with such a sweet disposition.

A few Amelia-isms of late:

"Daddy sleeps like a growling dragon"

"this dog situation is keeping me awake"

to Roxy: "it's not Ewmo, it El-Mo, El-Mo... say it like that, Elmo, mo, mo." Roxy says, "Elmo." "Yeah, that's perfect!"

"Momma, we're going to have a concert today." I ask her who's playing at the concert. She says, "AC/DC!"

So, now I have the flu and, at the moment, I'm at the office and I would much rather be at home, cuddled up with a big blanket!

Joel has started on the new roof project at our house. Demolition complete! The carpentry ensues and we should have our new metal roof finished before we leave for Disneyland on the 13th!

Seeing Spots

It's been a pretty eventful week here. On Monday afternoon, I went to Gwynne's to pick up Amelia. She and Roxy were naked and playing in the kiddie pool. When I went to help Amelia with her clothes, I noticed that she had some red spots on her right thigh and thought they might be flea bites. After examining the family pets, we decided they were not flea bites. The next day, Amelia seemed a bit under the weather and by the afternoon, there were more spots. Wednesday came and Amelia's voice left. Again... even more spots. By Thursday, the little girl had no voice, no temperature and was starting to look like a leopard. Making a few phone calls, I tried to ease my mind on what could be going on. Without a fever, our pediatrician didn't want to see her. I spoke with my sister-in-law, Donna, that night and found that my neice, Melaynie, had been diagnosed with H1N1. That's right... Swine Flu. What??? After some Tamiflu, the little chica is doing much better. Now... on to Friday. Amelia is once again without voice and has the spots from her ankles on up. For the first time all week, she sleeps all night. Today we wake up to a new girl and... a doctor's appointment. Our Pediatrician says she's fine and that the spots show her sensetivity to being even slightly ill. I guess this will help us out later when she tries to fake being sick in order to get out of taking a Math test. What? No spots? You're fine. Go to school. Her voice is a bit clearer today and her energy level is back to normal. Emergency averted.