A Little Bit of This And That Plus a Birthday!

I am still alive! Well, at least I think I am! The kids keep us pretty busy and something is always going on! As I look at the calendar, the next few months seem like they will be busier than ever! Blogging could be pretty sporadic!

The past 2 weekends have been JBQ and TBQ State competitions. I am proud to report that our kids did really well. Our JBQ A-League team (which includes Anna and Sammy) was in a 3 way tie for second place. So it ends up that they were 4th in the gold division. That was good enough for them to go on to Regionals! Anna came in 3rd place individually! She is pretty competitive and she has worked really hard! I should also mention her teammate Tyler came in fourth! They did so well, and we are so proud of them!

The B-League team also did really well. It is an all girl team and they came in first place in the silver division. Micah and Luke are in C-League and they did awesome too! They came in first place in the gold division. Luke worked harder at the end, so he answered more questions than he has before! I believe it has help to build his confidence! He got 8th place individually and was so excited to get a trophy!

Our TBQ teams did awesome too! Rebekah's team came in first and Rebekah got First place individually! This is her Senior year, so what a wonderful way to end her TBQ career! She will be going to Regionals next month with her team. Victoria's team came in second place! So Awesome! They too, will be going to Regionals!

Matthew is on the Middle School Team and they came in First in their division. His Team will be going to Regionals as well!

So, as you can see, there are some of the things that are on our upcoming agenda, not to mention the possibility of Anna and Sammy's team, Rebekah's team, and Victoria's team advancing to Nationals! I will also have to be running our kids to practices every week for our Church's Musical. There are actually 2 different musicals for 2 different age groups. I will have 3 kids in one and 4 in the other. Their practices are on different nights, so it will be a lot of transporting going on. The performances are in August with each group having two performances each. I would also like to fit in a trip to Virginia so that I can visit my Mom and the rest of my extended family.

To add to all of that, Rebekah and Josh will be starting College in the Fall. We will have to help them get ready for that and do all the necessary preparations! I personally find having older kids a bit more challenging than the little ones!

Recently Hubby celebrated his Birthday. I made his cake this year. He pretty much said that he would like any cake except chocolate. I scoured through recipes and decided on a Caramel Cake. Looking through so many recipes on the Internet, I came to the conclusion that most of the recipes were of a yellow cake with a Caramel Frosting. So, I decided to cheat just a little!

I used a yellow cake mix and mixed it up according to the directions and then stirred in some melted butterscotch chips. Originally I made a layered cake, but evidently left the cakes in the pans too long or something. When I tried to take them out, they were completely stuck! I had sprayed the pans with PAM, so that was not the problem. In the process of trying to get them out of the pans, one of the layers broke into pieces.

Yeah, so I mixed up 2 cake mixes and stirred in some melted butterscotch chips and poured it into a large pan. I am not sure of the dimensions, but it is a lot bigger than a 13x9 pan. I thought that since it was such a large cake that I probably should double the recipe for the Frosting. Well, in all actuality it probably wasn't needed. The Frosting was sort of like fudge and in the middle it was at least as thick as the cake! It was really yummy and the kids did not complain about too much Frosting! I wish I had taken pictures after it was cut so that you could see how thick the icing was!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Here is the Recipe for the Frosting!


Caramel Frosting From Scratch

2 sticks butter
2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup Pet's Evaporated Milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Melt butter and brown sugar and evaporated milk. Cook two minutes over medium heat (no longer than two minutes). Add vanilla. Remove immediately from heat. Add powdered sugar. Beat until smooth.. Will frost a three layer cake!

I found this recipe here along with a cake recipe.

Warning: It will give you a major sugar rush!



Have a Great Weekend Everyone!

 

~ Hello There! ~

I am a bit behind updating on here. Life seems to keep moving so fast and sometimes I feel like I am just holding on for dear life! With 3 kids in TBQ and 4 in JBQ, that in itself can make for a busy schedule. JBQ has their meets on the first Saturday of the month and TBQ on the second.

This year I have been working on being more involved with the kids in Bible Quiz. The JBQers have practice on Sunday Mornings and so far I have never made it to a practice. The TBQers have their practice on Sunday afternoons. I have been helping out with the TBQ practices and I am learning as I go along.

My Hubby is the coordinator for JBQ at our church as well as for our part of the State. He has had me jump right in and officiate at the 2 meets we have had so far this year. The last meet I was the Quiz Master for the very first time in my life and I hope to never do that again, at least for quite a long time. I need to learn more about the rules and how things run. I am sure that the people that had to endure will agree with me!

I have been working on some different projects around here. I have needed to get some of my school things in better order, so I have been working on that. I still have a bit to do in the department.

On Saturday, Hubby and I worked on cleaning out the garage. We accomplished quite a bit and got rid of quite a lot of stuff, but we still have a ways to go. This was for two purposes. One was because it needed it badly and the other was so we could get to our Christmas Decorations. We are wanting to get lights up outside while it is still warm. In years passed we have always waited just a week too long and it was soooo cold! This year our goal is to get it done when it is warm. And no, I do not care that it is too early! Anyway, we probably won't put up our tree until after Thanksgiving.

It is such a busy season around here, so I do not know how much I will be posting. Besides Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, we have four Birthdays to celebrate in November. Having a large family sure keeps us busy in the Birthday department.

I have a couple of more posts in the works. One is sharing pictures from Faith's Birthday and the other is on all the other Birthdays that we have celebrated recently. So watch for them!

That's all for now, I just wanted to stop by and say Hi! Hopefully I will be back soon!

 

May Happenings

Sorry I have MIA. It has been quite busy around here, so it has been hard for me to get here very often. Here is a little update on what has been happening in our World.

Our 5th born and 2nd daughter celebrated her 14th Birthday. Victoria is beautiful and very sweet and sensitive. She loves all things girly. She also does not like to have her picture taken. This was the best picture I could get!

Happy Birthday Victoria!

The Hubby and I celebrated our 26th Wedding Anniversary. We have been through a lot together, but I am so grateful that God gave me this wonderful man to be by my side through all the ups and downs.

Twenty-six Years Ago

Taken about a year ago!

Rebekah and Victoria both participate in TBQ (Teen Bible Quiz). I am so proud of all their hard work. Both of their teams went to the Regional Competition. At Regionals, Rebekah's team came in 4th. Victoria's team came in 7th. The top 5 teams are automatically qualified for Nationals. There is a certain number of teams that participate at Nationals. After all the Regional Competitions were over and some teams opted out of going to Nationals, more teams were invited. Victoria's team was one of them. So this year we have two quizzers going to Nationals.

This has been a bit of a challenge especially because the cost of going to Nationals has gone up quite a bit this year. We are hoping to do fundraisers to help offset the cost. If anyone knows of an effective way to raise money please let me know. I don't want to sell useless stuff to make a buck. I know I cannot afford to buy the stuff we all have bought to help someone out. Our group is working on doing a big yard sale and car wash.

I forgot to mention that I was able to travel with the girls to Regionals. This was my first trip with TBQ. I really enjoyed myself and hope that I get more opportunities to travel with them. It was fun being with my girls and also getting to know the others better as well. I believe it was a good break for me to be away from home for a few days. I felt a bit refreshed however exhausted (if that makes any sense) when I returned home.

My garden has been neglected so far this year. I planned on working on it this week. I still hope to get to it, but it is supposed to be hot all week long. High in the 80's. I am not a fan of the heat, but I really need to get things going. I should have made myself get out there when the weather was a bit cooler.

Last week we saw a beautiful rainbow. It was actually a double rainbow, but the second one was a little more faint.  It was raining and the sun was shining at the same time. It was quite interesting, I thought that it made for good conditions for a rainbow. A couple of minutes later Sammy looked out and saw it. Most of us went out to look at  it. It was only sprinkling at the time. Here is a picture. It doesn't do it justice one bit. You have to look closely to see the second one.

The children are working hard at their schoolwork in hopes of being done for the Summer. I too look forward to our Summer break! I think I look forward to it more than they do, but don't tell them that!

I really need to work on decluttering the house and reorganizing all of our school stuff. Sounds like I have a fun Summer planned ahead. It looks like our Summer will be very busy. Our church is doing 2 separate Musicals this year, so I will have 4 children in one for the 7-12 grades and 4 children in the other for K-6 grades. Their rehearsals are on different nights of the week. Yep, I think we are going to be a bit busy.

Well, that's all for now. Have a Happy Tuesday!

 

My Trip Back Home

I have been home for over 2 weeks now, but I wanted to share a little about my trip.

I had a nephew who got married on July 10th. My 2 oldest sons were groomsmen, my 7 year old daughter was the flower girl, and my 17 year old son was in charge of the music.

Congratulations Jon and Rachel

The Beautiful Flower Girl

This is what my youngest thought of the Wedding!

Hubby was not able to go due to work, and my 16 year old daughter was going to the TBQ National Competition in St Louis Missouri.The rest of us loaded up into 3 separate vehicles and made our way to Virginia. My son Jeremy brought his girlfriend and my son Tim brought his Fiance. So we still had 12 people to lodge at my Mom's house.

We arrived there on a Wednesday and the Wedding was on Friday.The older boys and their "girls" and my 17 year old son stayed until Sunday and then made their way home. That left me with my 6 youngest children. I ended up staying for two and a half weeks. We usually only get to visit there once, sometimes twice a year, so I wanted to be able to stay for a while.

My Family lives in Virginia, just out of Washington DC. I really wanted to take the children into DC to see some sights, but I came up with too many excuses. For one, it was very hot while we were there and it can be plain miserable walking for hours in the extreme heat and humidity. During the week I didn't have another adult to help me out, so I was a little overwhelmed taking 6 kids sightseeing by myself. Of course during the weekend it would be way too crowded to enjoy anything!

I will definitely have to make it a priority to take them next time we go and I have Mike with me. We have taken some of the kids before, but it had been quite a long time. I am not sure who has been, and who has not at this point.

We did go to a few places of interest in the area. One was Great Falls on the Virginia side. I used to go there as a kid quite a bit. It is a really pretty place, but it even more so when it rains a lot more and the water is higher. They haven't had a lot of rain this year.



We went to National Harbor which is actually in Maryland. The kids enjoyed walking around and seeing the sights. They have a little park there that has this statue thing that is a huge man that is "under" the sand. It is called the awakening. It is like he is buried in the sand and trying to get out. The kids had fun climbing on it.

Most of our gang

One of the legs

A foot

A hand

My beautiful daughter inside the mouth

My mom and my sister with her 2 kids joined us on these trips. My mom and my sister both have to use wheelchairs, so we have to have helpers with getting the wheelchairs in and out of the cars and someone to push both of them. I have a niece who lives with my Mom and she is the sight seeing expert. She is the one who gets us to where we need to go. Too bad she works a full time job! Her younger sister also came along on many of our trips to be a "helper."

I got to meet my new great niece while I was there. She was born in April. She is beautiful and sweet. I enjoyed holding her. I was afraid it would be hard, but it was quite the opposite. It really felt good. I believe that there was some healing that came along with holding her. Her mom (my niece) was born just a couple of weeks before I got married. Wow, time flies!

We also had a shower for my other niece who is expecting in September. She is having a girl also. It was fun to see all the cute stuff that she got for the baby.It was nice to visit with relatives that I rarely get to see.

My children played with my cousin's kids almost every night. They played cops and robbers until about 11pm each night. That was probably the highlight of the trip for my kids. That had a blast and got to stay up really late.

I really didn't want to do much. I was content just sitting and talking with my Mom. Family means a lot to me, and I wish I could live closer and spend more time with them. They will have the opportunity to come visit us in January for my son's Wedding.

Blessings,