another week in paradise....

First, I just noticed, I forgot my quote last week. I am not going to forget now and want to caveat this quote but saying that having an APPLE product i.e. my ipad is the coolest thing ever. It is a whole new world that I feel like we have been missing out on and am unsure how we have survived this long. In addition, I am happy to hear that my aunt and uncle in NY finally are in the information highway known as the Internet. I am probably more excited about this than they are and I send my quote out to them:

I hope they will read this each week as I know they will enjoy.

I know my aunt will enjoy my Christmas cactus updates as well so here it is this week:

Still not opened up but we are close. Let me tell you, my grammie knows I need these flowers this week!

So as for the rest of the week, where do I start? Another quiet January week in the Lollis house. Wednesday Gavin did not do so well in his gym class so we abide by his wishes and went home. For me , I had a short work week but the 3 days I was there it was especially stressful for me . Such is life....by Friday it was all good and I was ready to be with my family and away from the rat race.

Friday was Papa Joes as usual. Here is a photo of him playing with a balloon outside after dinner:

and then Saturday started out with me going to a class at the local yoga studio. The class was called IB -Barre. Here is a description of the class:

An authentic, curriculum based Ballet workout taught by professionally trained ballet dancers. We will use the ballet barre to sculpt the legs (including calves), buttocks and abdominal. 50 minute class set to classical music to add to your current mind/body program


Let me tell you it was awesome. I will be doing that again. If you have the opportunity to take this class DO IT!



Chris had to work all day and night on Saturday and I took Gavin across the street to play with Ella. They had just put together a play room for her and it was awesome. Needless to say it was hard to get Gavin to leave but they had a great time. The room inspired me and Chris and I decided we were going to make our first ever trip to:



WOW....why did that take us so long? Cheaper than Walmart and what a cool place. I can not correctly describe it. All I have to say is that it is an experience that I would compare to my first experience at Cabellas...really super cool. We got some shelves for Gavin's play area. We came home, put them together and this is the end product:



Then we were off to put together our tv stand. Our other was collapsing by the day. Bad photo but this is what I was able to capture:


Speaking of technology...this is how we remembered where to put the cords:

We just took pictures. Isn't technology grand?

So the last thing that I wanted to say this week is that we have a lot to be thankful for this week. Chris has a cousin who was diagnosed with a very very rare from of leukemia this week. He is very ill . He can't see and he can't walk un-assisted. The weight loss in just unbelievable to. He is in great care in Portland and they were able to determine that this type is treatable. It may not be an easy road but this is a true blessing. It has been a rough rough week for him and Chris's entire family. Keep them in your prayers please!

In parting...I just got a cool email from my mom and I wanted to share it:

CLEVER IDEAS WORTH KNOWING



Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.
If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster..



Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil.
It will stay fresh much longer and not mold! (Same thing for celery!)




Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.


Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef.
It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich, add a couple of
spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.


For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler
and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste
of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them
up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking
dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!!
Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

There is much much more to this but thought I would share these.

Tomorrow Gavin starts basketball again, Chris has a really tough work week ahead (which is good news..that means work which is a great thing right now!)

Everyone have a great week!