PFD Podcast

Remember the 'Honey-Do' post a few weeks ago? It was actually part of a contest through Twitter Moms , sponsored by ServiceLive . Guess what? I was chosen as one of two winners of the grand prize! So now I have a nice credit over with the good folks at ServiceLive to hire a handyman. And, even though my husband is super handy and owns every tool imaginable, I REALLY do need that handyman. Here's why......

Remember this picture? This is the toilet paper holder in the boys/guest bathroom. It fell down last November. I remember when it fell down because it was right before I was going to host over 30 people for Thanksgiving dinner. When you are about to have that many people over, you notice things like toilet paper on the floor.

Well, after MONTHS of asking Norman to fix the holder, he came home with THIS! REALLY? So now I have 2 holes in the wall and THIS. Norman's explanation, and by explanation I mean LAME EXCUSE, is that there is no stud....boys pull too hard...anchors won't work....BLAH BLAH BLAH. And THIS thing? Well, I guess the idea isn't bad...but, when the boys pull on the paper, they pull too hard? or fast? and the whole roll goes flying across the bathroom. Who thinks they pick it up? You'd be WRONG!

So, I'm keeping this project on the 'Honey-Do' list because somehow, it just don't feel quite done. And just to send the point home....Norman, this is your dinner tonight....

Not quite done is it?

Remember on my "Honey-Do" list when I said that the stairs, walkway and patio area outside the kitchen door were "temporary"? Well, I have come to terms with the fact that they are "TEMPORARY" in the same sense that the Throgs Neck Bridge is "TEMPORARILY" under construction. A LIFETIME of "Temporary". And, I just can't live with the scene above for one more summer. It looks like the yard of ax wielding banjo players...Oh, wait.

So, today I made 3 trips to pick up free mulch from the town. Good thing I cleaned out my car last weekend. Nothin' says clean car like a load of mulch in the back. I also stole some of Norman's pre-split tree trunks for tables and moved this swing in.

An old boot, it belonged to my dad, that I found in the barn.

And some original rock art.

Much better.

Container gardening. That is all I have room for and time for...that is until I can take down the kids swings and quit my job and plant the big garden I really want. Anyway, I stick with what I can manage and that is containers on my deck. Today, I finally got to plant some tomatoes, peppers, dill, and thai basil.




I also re-planted my kids corn he started to grow at school. I don't think he realizes that mommy will probably not be able to grow actual corn, but I will give it a try. 

Bets are starting now on how long it will take for me to kill it!

And speaking of killing things I had to buy and replace the Zinia's my son Alex brought home from school as I replanted those and they basically wilted into the ground. So sad...do you think he will know the difference? The one he brought home barely had any leaves and certainly no flowers.

Last but not least I planted some new Hosta's around the garage garden area...it definitely needed some ground cover. Here's to eating what you grow!

We shrugged off all responsibility, jumped in the car and went North. We found ourselves at the

Bethel Woods Museum. It is a big tribute to hippies and Woodstock and drugs. A perfect place for families to spend some quality time!

Max getting his 'flower power' on. The museum is actually really interesting. Jack loved it and has been practicing his guitar since we got home...sweet!

We had lunch a Bubba's BBQ. The food was pretty good but the best part was sitting on the deck looking out at, White Lake, which is really a gorgeous place. I won't let the fact that there were SNAKES swimming the water deter me from thinking this place is nice!

I had a shrimp Po'Boy , which was A-Okay but the Collard Greens were the star of the show.

Norman has been on vacation all this week. Since he has been at his job for a long time he gets more vacation time than we can actually spend vacationing. So, he has been taking a week off every year just to get stuff done around the house. Although, we never really get anything done during that week...see Honey-Do post! We always have big plans, and we do get some things done...but, well...when Max is finally on the bus and Jack 'Chuck Taylor's' it out the door...Norman and I give each other the same look that two teenagers whose parents just pulled out of the driveway headed away for the weekend give each other. Except now the keg is already hidden in the basement, we have the keys to the car and we know the pin for the ATM.

Today we finally got bored in the house...ahem...and ventured out to do some shopping and lunching. Now that we are equipped with navigation, we were feeling brazen and ventured to the Garden State. Without navigation, New Jersey is just a maze of jug handles and intersecting routes and seeing your desination on the other side of the road WITH NO LEFT TURNS IN THE ENTIRE STATE.

First stop was Chef Central. Oh how I love that store! We were looking for a replacement for the above tragedy. Only I could break the unbreakable Le Creuset . AARRRRG. I should have gone with a wood floor in the kitchen...tile really does break everything...sorry Steve, I should have listened to you!

Then we had lunch at Jose Tejas. YUM! Great place, Great food. I'm pretty sure we should have our first PFDPodcast meet-up there! And now I hear Norman digging in the leftovers and I must go claim the guacamole!

And Chips....

Love, Heidi.

Norman woke me up bright and early this morning with coffee and an amazing lox, red onion and tomato everything bagel. It was splendid. We ate, laughed and ignored the crumbs that come with eating an everything bagel in bed. I stayed in bed and Norman went to wrangle the boys. This is where I have to keep in mind that they mean well. Quiet is not a color those boys wear well.

Later in the morning, Jack used the log splitter for the first time. He split a LOT of wood and still has 5 fingers on each hand. I have 6 more grey hairs.

Sandy girl stole kindling wood. Butthead.

And then we went here to buy my Mother's Day plants. Every year I get plants for Mother's Day. Always all my vegetables for the garden and some other coveted perennial beauty. And this year I found the mother of all nurseries. This is the BEST place to buy plants. It is owned by Otti and Ron Breland and is called Bumps and Co.

Here are some of their bee hives. I had never seen hives like this and I love them. It makes me want to keep bees. Maybe after I get Norman to build me a chicken coop I will work on getting him to build me one of these.

This is the entrance into the veggie patch. This was where all of the hardier plants are. The more delicate plants were kept in long, low to the ground covered rows that Ron built. He has copper pipes running under the beds to keep them warm all winter long. It is really an amazing system.

The variety they offer is amazing. And, since they grow them all...and more importantly...EAT them all, they are very familiar with what each plant produces. So, when I said I want some peppers good for spicy Thai dishes, they were able to hook me up with the perfect plant.

My boys all waited patiently, which was a good Mother's Day gift in itself! Thank you boys...love ya!

Norman told Max that it was farmerish to chew on a stick.

Max must not have that particular farmer gene.

And here is my final Mother's Day loot.

5 tomato plants

1 Rosemary

2 Thai Basil

1 pickling cucumber

1 reg. cucumber

1 striped squash

1 zucchini

green, red and purple peppers

2 hot peppers

2 different eggplants

and 1 yellow rose

And from seed...pole beans, bush beans, carrots and cilantro.

I just need to pick up some reg. basil plants and I will be set. Now if it would just warm up, I could plant!

I'm calling you out, Norman! Twitter Moms want to know what is on my Honey-Do list, and I'm gonna show them. First, these stairs. When we renovated the house these were the 'TEMPORARY' stairs from the kitchen door. That was three years ago. Don't ever let your husband do anything 'TEMPORARY' unless it is something you can live with for the next ten years.

Second, this Blue Stone path. It is supposed to go from the kitchen door to the cars. For the past three years we have just trudged through the mud. My husband says he can't do the path till he finishes the steps...OKAY THEN.

This is one of the legs on the kid's swing set . I am pretty sure it should be more together than this. I keep asking him to fix it. If your kid ever comes home bloody from our house because the swing set collapsed...keep in mind it was NORMAN's fault!

Ah, this. The toilet paper holder fell down last November. Apparently, to put it back up would require anchors. We already own these anchors. They are in the basement. Norman's man cave is in the basement. He is down there at least once a day....since November. That's 150 trips to the basement and back, at least. The anchors are still in the basement. Maybe they are really heavy? Maybe these are ship anchors? Toilet paper still on the floor...NICE.

My feet. I keep foot massage on the list. Its a Honey-Do that doesn't. But, if you ask him, he swears he rubs my feet all the time! He must be delirious from hauling those ship anchors down to the basement that one time.

He does wear a bow-tie and let me take pictures of him when I ask! He also laughs when I tell him I'm going to post it on the Internet ...right under that list of things he never does. Somehow, I don't think I'm any closer to a walkway, or stairs, or a foot rub.

“I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and ServiceLive blogging program to be eligible to receive $100 in ServiceLive Bucks. For more information on how you can participate, click here .”

Seriously. I'm working and had to leave a building due to a small
fire. While that may seem like no big deal. Boston has no water! A
water main break occurred over the weekend. Plus its no longer raining.
More importantly no water means no Starbucks coffee being brewed
anywhere in town!
Follow me on Twitter.com/pfdpodcast to keep up on the latest
developments. So many PFDs in progress I can't keep track.
-Julie

This week Heidi throws poop all over the neighborhood, calls her husband out at RadioShack and is going to start taking Banjo lessons. Julie's son is a future broadcaster and is trying to get her husband to move his man cave and has come to terms with the kegarator coming to her house!

Links:

Cozi

Doggie Diapers

Banjo Music

Emmet Otters Jug Band

Download MP3 (Right click or option-click)

Ok, so if you have been listening to the pfdpodcast (I know you all are) then you know that I (Julie) have been talking about replacing my refrigerator and getting a king size bed. Since both of these require some research and time to actually go and see/test the items, I need some help. Which should I buy first? Keep in mind that I am not in an urgent urgent need to replace either items and I am not sure I will be able to replace other items in the room (we are redoing the bathroom not the kitchen now and we are redoing the location of our bedroom closet thereby reducing furniture in the room), but here's some facts to help you make your decision (for me!):

Current Bed 

Queen Size

Headboard - well there is one I just tried to make a different one (not working out so well)

7 years old

Simmons Beautyrest - Still very comfortable

Refrigerator

Kitchen Aid

White

9 years old

Broken ice maker

Leaky water dispenser

Cracked door

Which one should I buy first? Market Research

This is Norman. He is my most favorite husband. I call him Gas Man...since that's what he is. He makes sure houses don't blow up. Sometimes, like when I ask him to hang molding around the blackboard I painted in my office and he just laughs, I call him Butthead. I am NOT calling Norman lazy, he is not. He just has a certain way of prioritizing projects around the house. Things that are flooding, sparking, crumbling or crying get first priority. Followed by anything that involves using a chainsaw, axe or his log splitter. Next comes anything that requires buying a new tool or a trip to Harbor Freight. Then there are projects that are fun, make him look cool in front of the kids, can be done while drinking beer, or require other men to come over and stand in the yard and drink beer while discussing a project, the list goes on. And somewhere on that list, so far down that if you stood at the top of the list and looked down you would get that queasy feeling in your stomach like when you stand on the edge of a cliff, down that far would be where 'Heidi's projects' are.

So I decided that I would make a frame around my blackboard wall myself. I measured, purchased, cut WITH A MITER SAW, hammered, set the nails deep into the wood, patched the holes and painted.

Sandy was there telling me 'You know you shouldn't touch that' with her eyes. I was going to call Norman during this project just to ask him stupid questions and make him nervous that I was touching all of his toys. But, I didn't want him coming home to check on me.

BTW...The slide show at the top is Norman getting into his GAS MAN jumpsuit. It's a little snug...and fireproof...and ORANGE! I have posted it purely as punishment for putting me at the bottom of the list!

Join Julie and Heidi as they share Tee Ball stories and their issue with coupons, as it seems you can only save money if you really like eating salad dressing and Dinty Moore Beef Stew. City girl Julie can't handle all of this suburban wildlife and Heidi is sporting a new 'finger in the light socket' hair do. Julie can't find ice nor finish her headboard project. All this and more happens on Episode 7.

Download MP3 (Right click or option-click)

SLOW COOKER FOR A BUSY WEEK
The weather is looking cold and Grey over the next few days. My house seems to have gotten away from me and every room needs some major cleaning. We have all of our regular after school activities and golf lessons start this week. Plus, we all seem to be suffering from allergies. I would like to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible! So, I am declaring this the week of the slow cooker.

Links to the recipes here.

Our house was renovated a couple of years ago. As the contractors were putting up new Sheetrock in the Master Bedroom, I noticed a space that was about to be sealed over forever. It was not a big space...it was eve, much lower on one side and not very wide...maybe 4'. Anyway, I called everything to a stop, declared this space mine and ordered a door.

The room started off as a craft room...but, I don't really 'craft'. So, it became a storage room. It was a mess and I never really used it. However, out of envy of Julie's office where we record the show, I have decided to makeover my space and put it to use as an office. I'm actually posting this from that room right now! Here is the 'before' picture and I will reveal the 'after' once Norman puts some molding around the blackboard wall I created. Keep in mind that THE TOILET PAPER HOLDER IS STILL NOT UP...so Norman may not get this project done anytime soon.