This is your kid on caffeine.

This morning DH was in the bathroom and I was watching the kids. Gioia went to the upstairs bathroom and needed some help. I went up to help and while I was gone Dominic drank the rest of Massimos cup of coffee. The rest of the day was insane. He was hyper until about 2pm. Talking none stop, running. We went to the Mall play area and he was running, sweating. DH and I both felt bad. He was like a crackhead. Poor baby. It finally wore off and he is good as new. New rule in our house: Coffee cups stay up on the kitchen counter where the kids can't get them. We have other rules in our house that I never thought i would need. Like: You have to wear underwear. or Daddy wants to be alone when he poops, please don't bang on the door.

Here is a funny video clip that illustrates our morning with Dominic the coffee guy.

Mint chocolate Chip ice cream

For Mothers day I got a new ice cream freezer. I finally got to try it out today. Gioia requested Mint Choc. Chip flavor. It is one of my favorite as well so that is fine. It turned out wonderful. My ice cream freezer is good, but i had a couple problems at the end. It doesn't seem to be quite as heavy duty as the other one I had for 8 years. The ice cream tasted great though. I don't feel guilty letting my kids eat this kind either since it isn't full of preservatives and high fructose corn syrup.
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice cream:

1 Large container Half and Half
1 cup whipping cream
Milk
5 eggs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 5 oz packages of mint (approximately 2-3 cups of loose leaves)
1 package dark choc chips

In a saucepan, heat 2 cups Half and Half with all the mint leaves. Heat until barely boiling and remove from heat. Let it sit 30 mins. The heat again, and let it sit 15 mins. In another bowl crack 5 eggs and beat with fork. Take about half the mint leaves out. Then whisk the 5 eggs into the hot mint/cream. Put the 1 cup whipping cream cold in the blender. Then add the mint/egg mixture. Blend well.

Pour everything back in the saucepan and mix in the sweetened condensed milk. Mix well. Then put everything in the ice cream freezer. Add the rest of the half and half container, then fill to fill line with milk.

Freeze the ice cream. When the ice cream freezer is done the ice cream will be firm but still soft. It is best to add the choc chips at the end. Stir them in or add to bowls.


Here are a couple pictures of the kids to add to the sweetness of this post.

Lawrence, KS

This weekend was really good. Yesterday we went to a 1st birthday party. The kids got to pet the goats, play on the playground and go on a horse/wagon ride. It was good.

Today my dad came to help Massimo wired the garage for the electric car. The kids and I cleaned up the kitchen and living room. We grilled steaks and burgers for lunch. After dad left Massimo had the idea to go to Lawrence to pick up his tool chest from Sears. So we hopped in the car and headed over there. It takes about 35 minutes from our house. The kids napped, we talked. It was relaxing. Then we went to downtown and walked around. We had pizza at Papa Kenos. We thought the pizza was kind of expensive until we realized that one slice was a gigantic thing! It was like a personal pizza. We got 5 pieces and brought home 3 pieces. HA HA!! I thought I couldn't eat another bite until we found the Ben and Jerry's place. MMMMM! So we managed to stuff down a Phish Food cone and a Cherry Garcia cone. The kids were a little wild on the way home. (might have been the phish food. LOL) All in all it was a great day. I love walking around Lawrence and if I was there with a couple hundred dollars burning a hole in my pocket I would probably spend it all.

Belly is getting big. Hope to post a picture in the next few days. I am about 24 weeks. My back has been giving me trouble. It is like tight muscles and back ache. I think it might be partly due to my bra being way too tight. I got some bra extenders at Target and will try it tomorrow. Today I wore a tank with built in bra shelf and it better.

No credit cards.

So I just closed my credit card. I paid the balance on Friday and closed it today. FEELS great! DH still has a couple (one for the electric car and one with a small balance on it). I hope to be able to close one of his cards by the end of June. After the credit cards we are stuffing money into savings to save up for the down payment on building our new house next year. We hope to start building in April to May range and have it done about 6 months after that.

So for the first time since college I don't have a credit card at all! Wow I love it. When we get DH's cards paid off we will close the American Express, but the Mastercard we will probably leave open with only a 1000 dollar credit limit. It will be for emergencies only. But with a 1000 limit it won't get us in trouble.

Crazy Friday.

Today was supposed to be a lazy Friday. We had breakfast, then I made two veggie lasagnas. We were done by 10am. I was going to relax have lunch and run a few errands. Well then it got crazy. My sister came downstairs and told me that she hit the crub on the way home and ruined her tire. So then a blonde and a pregnant lady (us) tried to change the tire. A neighbor stopped and did it for us. We knew how, but couldn't get the jack in the right place. He had it done in less than 5 minutes. Then Mel had to drive to Lawrence to get a new wheel. Come back and get a new tire at Costco. Meanwhile, the kids and I: Went for Chinese for lunch. Delivered the lasagna to our friend. Took our recycling to the center. Sat in construction traffic. Went to Costco to meet Mel and get a few groceries. Sat in construction traffic some more. Finally come home. Have dinner which was already made (thank goodness). Make a sling for a friend. Finally relax.

This weekend we have planned a birthday party to go to tomorrow. Then sunday my dad is coming to help Massimo wire the garage for the electric car. It will be nice to have him not unplugging my dryer every day.

Springtime planting.

Yesterday we went to our land and planted some baby trees. I couldn't find any plastic tree guards for them (the store was out), so we sprayed Repel on it to try to keep the animals from eating them. I hope they grow. If not we will plant some more. They came from the Arbor Day and they are flowering trees.

On the way home we stopped at the Flower Farm and got our veggie plants. We got 2 roma tomato plants, 2 Brandywine Red tomatoes, 1 zucchini and 1 yellow squash plant. We already have beans and spinach in. We also planted Cantaloupe seeds. These were the BEST cantaloupe ever. Organic seeds my mom got from her work. They were so sweet last year, like candy. I hope they do as well this year. So its just a little garden on the side of our house. Next year we plan to be at the land (or near by in a rental house). So next year I plan to have a GIANT garden. If need be I will have friends coop it with me, come and help me work in exchange for some produce.

Weekend at the Farm.

We went to visit my parents again this weekend. It was really fun. My dad found about 5 gallons of Morel Mushrooms. Mom and I fried mushrooms until we were sick of it this weekend. We were feeding my brothers too, so that took a lot of mushrooms. Saturday evening we all went fishing. Everyone caught something. Gioia just caught a couple little ones that we threw back. Dominic caught a nice size catfish on his little pole. It broke the line at the shore. We managed to hang on to it though. My mom will be sending pictures of the fishing. I have a couple of the kids kicking around at the farm though. They also went and rode on my dads new Ranger. It is the farm utility vehicles that look like golf carts, but nicer. It has a bed in the back for hay or buckets. It also has a dump feature so you can dump the bed out. It goes up to 45 mph I guess. He drove it the 10 miles or so to my brothers house. I told him he was the "old man on the mower" driving all over town that way. HA HA!!