Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Meet Roman!

The Gonzalez family has grown! We welcomed Roman into our family today. The boys faces lit up when I asked them what they thought about having a dog! I guess having a dog is part of being a boy.

I've asked a friend to take some pictures of the boys with him sometime soon!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Berry Picking....YUM YUM!

My boys and I have taken a few adventurous trips these past weeks. Our first trip was with some friends to a field across the road from their house with wild blackberries growing rampant! We trudged out about 6 PM on a Tuesday evening and ended up with about 6 or 7 cups of blackberries! We had blackberry cobbler, blackberry pancakes, blackberries in our cereal and just plain old blackberries and milk! Our only mistake was not wearing long pants into the thorny bushes, but even through our battle scars, we had a good time. Owen doesn't want to go again because he got cut up a bit more than he wanted to.

Blueberry Bowl by MeetaK.

Our next excursion was to a nearby Blueberry Plantation! Whatever we picked was only $2.50 per pound! The bushes we picked from were all the way in the back, and since these particular ones hadn't been cut back last year, they were tall enough to give plenty of shade. Tonight I made Blueberry Crisp. I'm going to try to freeze some of these berries instead of being a piggy and eating them all at one time! :o)

Friday, May 8, 2009

He's growing up!

Tyson learned to ride his bike without training wheels this week. He's been practicing for about a month, but yesterday he finally got it down! We are so proud of him. When I figure out how to get the videos off of my camera and onto my computer, I'll post one.....

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Anyad Si Eman Ym

Gniod saw I tahw tuo erugif ot ouy ekat it did gnol woh? Repap no etirw to si ti naht yaw siht epyt ot redrah neve sti. Edoc ni sgniht etirw ot yaw nuf a s'ti tub, od ot drah si ti. Sdrawkcab delleps erew yeht fi seman ruo yas dluow ew woh ees ot nuf saw ti dna, sdrawkcab seman ruo gnitirw erew ew. Loohcs gniod erew I dna syob eht elihw yadot tsop siht etirw ot aedi eht tog I.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!

The story's so familiar.
We've heard it all before.
Sometimes it seams like nothing's sacred anymore.
Despite our best intentions,
Somewhere along the road
We've come to take for granted
This truth that we've known.

May we never forget
The cross and the blood,
The price that was paid so that we might live.
May we never forget
The cost of His love.
He'll never forsake us
He'll always forgive.
May we never forget.

So let us decide right here, right now
To refresh our memory
Of how it felt to be lost,
And how it feels to be free!

May we never forget
The grace of our God,
The wealth of His mercy outpoured.
Forgive us Lord!
Forgive us if we ever forget!


I will glory in the cross
Lest His suffering all be in vain!

If we ever forget
Your cross and Your blood
The life that You gave us that we might live,
If we ever forget
The cost of Your love,
You'll never forsake us!
You'll always forgive!
May we never forget!

Friday, April 10, 2009

A new kind of vegetable?

Tyson asked if he could eat leaves today. Apparently his Uncle Dustin and Uncle Michael pretended to eat them at the park last month at the March birthday party. So all this time, Tyson's been thinking about whether or not he should eat leaves, too.

Later Tyson heard me telling Dustin that this would be a good thing to blog about. He made it known then that he doesn't like it when I put things like that about him on my blog. :o( He's too young to already care!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Because you DO care! :o)

"Well anyway"....apparently I unintentionally made a few of you feel guilty with my last post. The only one I really wanted to feel guilty was my sister because I just expect her to comment on every single post I write. (I really should cut her some slack though since she's pregnant, right?) That's really hypocritical of me since I don't comment on everything she writes, but from now on, I resolve to comment on every blog I read. Thank you to Whitney and Dustin for your faithful comments. Keep them coming! :o)

If you're wondering what time it is, it's 3:55 AM on the computer clock as I write this.....yes, Tyson woke me up again. Second time this week.....last time was Sunday at 1:30 AM ....it's LAEP week for crying out loud!! I don't have time to be awake!

Well anyway, this post is about vinegar and all the things I have found that I can use it for. I've never actually researched what all it can be used for, but these are ways that I've discovered for myself. Yes, at first it is stinky, but after a few minutes, the smell goes away. I've heard that vinegar is a natural deodorant/disinfectant, but I've never really researched it.

1. Cleaning fresh fruits and veggies.
My MIL, Carol, called me one day and said she'd read a study showing that if you use vinegar diluted with water to clean fresh fruits and veggies, you will kill more bacteria than just using water or soap and water. We eat a lot of those around here...I'm a little psychotic about my kids eating healthy. Carol knew this and thought I might find it helpful. Little did she know that it was just the beginning of my relationship with this miracle product. I got a spray bottle and filled it with a 50/50 water and vinegar solution and put it under the kitchen sink with my other kitchen cleaning aids.

2. Cleaning the onion smell off of my cutting board.
I tried it one day when I was trying to make my cutting board not smell like the strong onions and garlic I had just cut up. I had always used bleach before, and it kind of worked, but vinegar worked even better.

3. Cleaning the stinky boy's bathroom.
I have 2 boys...3 if you count my husband....and the little ones make boy messes on their bathroom floor. I wanted them to learn to clean it themselves but was paranoid about them using chemicals, so one day I handed them the bottle of vinegar from underneath the kitchen sink and they got to work cleaning their own bathroom. They've gotten really good at it now, and I let them keep the vinegar in a place where they can access it any time they make a mess. (I stopped using that bottle in the kitchen...germs! Gross!) I still clean once a week with real chemicals, but the smell the rest of the week in their bathroom is much better!

4. Cleaning Tyson's bed if he has an accident.
My mom told when I was first potty training the boys that if I put vinegar over a spot on the mattress where they had an accident, it would take the smell away. So ever since that's what I've done. Tyson sleeps on a plastic sheet underneath his regular sheet so that if he does have an accident, he can pull of his sheets, spray the plastic one with his vinegar bottle, and wipe it down. Then we use Lysol and let it air dry.

5. Carpet stains
A friend once told me that if I had a stain on the carpet, vinegar would help bring it to the surface to clean it easier. I'm not sure if I believe that or not.

6. Cooking
They say vinegar has many health benefits, so eat it in your salad dressings.

Do you have anything in your house that you've found works in unusual ways? Nikki, I'm guessing you do because I saw a book in Sherry's house that was titled, "How to Clean Just About Anything." If she hasn't shared that with you, shame on her! :o)

I talk way too much for 3:55 AM!