Our Disney Adventure 12/9-12/14

Our great friends from Germany the Crandalls recently moved to Florida and seeing as how it had been over a year since we'd last seen them, I was looking for an opportunity to visit. Jess threw out that they were planning a visit to Disney in December and I jumped. The timing was right and it had been years since I'd last visited Disney World. To be honest, I wasn't actually that excited about Disney, but I knew we'd have a great time being with our friends. While we were originally planning on driving, when I found out that flying would only cost about $200 more, there was no way I was going to get in the car for a 14+ hour drive.

We started off the trip by catching an early flight out of DC to land in Orlando around 9:40. Then we picked up our rental car, drove to check out the Crandalls' new home and then drove to visit Justin's Aunt Gina. The kids spent time swimming in the hot tub and we ate dinner. From there it was to the hotel. And it was beautiful. I couldn't believe the size of the rooms.. we've paid more for tiny hostels in Europe. I won't be staying anywhere else to visit Disney!

Jess handled nearly all of the planning. She was aware of the sale at Shades of Green (the Disney military resort), so we were able to get our rooms  for 50% off. She had all of the rides mapped out and planned and the bus schedule down pat, which made our trip super easy. We sort of just woke up every morning and followed the Crandalls around. While we did split sometimes, it was always more fun together. Because it was December, there were nearly no lines. Some rides we were able to get on with no wait and for the others we took advantage of Fast Pass.

Some of the rides were just not looking like fun to me, so I stuck with Devin for the most part. Justin and Luke really bonded by going on all the scary rides together and by the end of the trip Lukas wanted no part of sitting with me on any rides :) . At 4, Luke made the requirements for all but a handful of rides.. While I thought things like the Tower of Terror would have him in tears, they actually had him laughing and excited to go again which makes me believe that Luke is the perfect age to take to Disney. Devin had fun, but he had a hard time when rides ended grasping that he could go again or that there were other things to do. He also flipped out a couple of times when Lukas went on rides with Justin that he didn't meet requirements for. 

Our schedule was something like this:
Monday - Magic Kingdom
Tuesday - Epcot
Wednesday - Hollywood Studios/Magic Kingdom
Thursday - Animal Kingdom

Each day we packed some food, but ended up eating 1-2 meals at Disney, which was affordable because I shared quite a bit with the boys. Something I learned from the trip is that I'll probably only ever go during this time of year or another part of the off season. Disney was beautiful at night decorated for Christmas and I appreciated the lack of crowds for most things. The weather was still warm and though it rained off and on, there were plenty of opportunities to escape indoors.

The kids' favorites were Pirates of the Caribbean, all roller coasters, parades. My favorite had to be the jungle cruise. It was funny to me and at the end when the guide asked everyone where they were from Lukas shouted - "Washington D.C.!" to which she replied "I'm sorry." Lukas thought she hadn't heard him and didn't get the joke.. which was funny and sad a little. While Devin loved hugging and kissing the people in costume, Lukas crawled around on the floor at them flashing mean looks and hissing. Luke and the kids provided a lot of comic relief. He and his friend Reese decided they were twins since they were both four and born in Germany. They also discussed going on missions to California in sleighs pulled by reindeer and using arrows to kill bad guys. They discussed these missions in detail: from the number of arrows needed to kill the bad guys to the reindeer that would pull the sleigh.

I had a really great time reconnecting with my friends and appreciate those friendships where you can pick up right where you left off no matter how far apart you've been. I loved seeing Luke and Reese connect like old buddies. In the words of the great cartoon character Kai Lan: My heart felt super happy.

Christmas.

Devin was with me most of the time

While Justin sat with Lukas.

 I also learned that I'm totally in love with my husband. While I thought this trip was going to be rough - it's Disney and I usually end up doing the bulk of the lifting with the kids - Justin and I worked like a pro team. I felt like we were anticipating what the other needed and there was balance and teamwork. We both had a really good time! Justin made me smile when I was getting tense from lines and kept things light-hearted. While I packed all the food and clothes and took care of what planning needed to be done, he got the boys dressed and kept them entertained when I wanted to concentrate or needed a break. I love the family we've built and am happy that the friendship Justin and I have continues to grow. I think being married and having kids is really tough and there have been tough times. But, I feel like time and trial molds you and if you have the right attitude those things will make you fit together better. Anyway, super sappy right? Bottom line: I am going back to Disney World. And my kids rock. And so does my husband.

Macy's Day Parade!!

 Our trip to the Macy's Day Parade started at midnight on Wednesday. I had tried to go to bed around 8pm, but didn't fall asleep until sometime after 9:30. My friend's daughter suddenly became ill and they couldn't come, so I was going to make the trip alone with my kiddos.

I rolled out of bed at midnight, packed the kids up and we were on the road by 12:45am. Luke and Devin were super excited to be awake, though both very tired. Devin started saying weird, random stuff like "I like Nana!" out of the middle of nowhere.

Anyway, about 4:45 we arrived at the train station in NJ and encountered no traffic on the way. There was no attendant scheduled until 5:30 and the train was at 5:42. I was hoping to flash my i.d. and get a military discount, but the attendant never showed and I had to rush to get tickets from the automatic machine. We were the first people to arrive at the station, but by the time the train showed there must've been a 60 people on the platform. However, it was not crowded at all the entire way to the parade. At Penn station we transferred to a NY metro train and made it to our stop. After walking a few blocks we got in line for our "grandstand" seats. There were no strollers or backpacks allowed, so Luke walked while Devin rode in a sling meant for babies.. which he wasn't happy about. Lukas broke through the little metal barriers to play on the stands since he was tired of waiting in line - which wasn't allowed. I tried to coax him out, but no luck. An attendant finally showed and Luke glared, hissed at her and ran away while everyone laughed. The people behind me promise to hold our spot in line, so I very gently grabbed Lukas and marched him back to our spot.

 By the time we sat it was around 7:30. The parade didn't start until 9, so I let the kids watch the four shows they had picked out the night before in anticipation of our long wait. I was a little concerned about the amount of sitting in one spot the kids would have to do, but they did great other than a little kicking of the people in front of us and Lukas yelling every five minutes during the last half of the parade that he WANTED TO GO HOME!! That was all great and stuff, but there was literally no way to get out. I felt bad for the guy sitting right in front of Luke, but everyone seemed to be great sports.

We also lucked out in that our section was super cheery! Everyone was happy to be there, cheered and whistled a lot, and were happy to chat. The couple behind me was retired Army from Florida and the couple next to them had driven up from Georgia picking up their adult children along the way to attend the parade. One of the kids lived in Washington, D.C. and I felt their pain as they described traffic driving up to NY the night before Thanksgiving. I was so happy to be around people that were excited to be where we were. It made the experience that much more pleasant and I didn't really feel alone there.

The kids both enjoyed the parade - Devin more than Luke. Devin loved the clowns and sat on my lap almost the entire time looking at everything passing by. He even told me as this float passed by that the person was "just a little tired." This float was a bit weird.. We saw a few famous people - some of which we didn't realize who they were until they passed. I watch almost no cable t.v., so I don't know what the artists look like. The most famous ones - that I did recognize - were Carly Rae Jaepson and the U.S. Olympic Gold Medal Gymnastics team! Oh, and Jimmy Fallon, but he never looked our way.

The sleepy float

I decided it would be best to record Justin, since it's more fun to watch videos than look at pictures in my opinion. I taped the Honor Guard passing, but they were going at a almost a sprint and we were on the complete wrong side of the street to see Justin. It was a little sad that I was only really able to catch a glimpse of him. Lukas ended up deleting the video from my iPod on accident, which made it even more sad.. I'm looking forward to the Macy's Video that we're going to order and hopefully there'll be some closeups of him from the military photographers that went.

In any case, Justin didn't get to see this super awesome float:

Justin was jealous

So after about an hour of Lukas telling me he wanted to go home, we finally were able to leave. Luke was really wanted a hotdog, so we stopped and the kids ate Thanksgiving Lunch on an NYC doorstep.  The promise of that hotdog was one of the few things that kept Luke seated and quiet during the parade, so I couldn't renege. I was surprised that Luke was the one giving me difficulty and Devin was perfectly pleasant. 

Anyway, the kids finished their hotdogs and Devin popped up to announce he had to pee!! He hadn't gone since before the very first train left at 5:40am. I rushed to get him to the metro stop, but there were no bathrooms and it was almost too packed to move. We had to wait for 2 or 3 trains before we made it to one that had enough room on it for us. People started packing in and yelling at each other, but we lucked out, got a seat and squeezed together.



We finally got to Penn Station and I definitely lost my cool. There were so many people it was hard to breathe. We finally found a bathroom for the kids, but Luke began to fall apart and I lost my patience with him. The signage was terrible and the line for tickets took me about twenty minutes to get through. There was no way to leave this line and keep my place if the kids decided they wanted to run around, so I was very short with them.. Also there were no marked maps of the routes and Lukas lost the one I had printed, so I started asking strangers. We found someone who knew where we were going and we realized a train going that way was leaving in 4 minutes. The next one wasn't for twenty minutes. I practically dragged both kids to the train 400 meters away and poor Devin started crying. Although it's hard to realize in the moment, both kids did so fantastically well it was hard to be angry they were dragging their feet.

People were packed tightly into this one and it was about 20 minutes before the crowd thinned out enough that I could get seats for us. I finally felt like I could breathe again and Devin fell asleep on my lap.. he didn't wake up again four about four hours.

Seats finally! On the last train home.

Unfortunately this greeted me when I left the train station:

I almost felt like crying when I saw this, but I turned up the music and used the time to think. The real challenge was staying alert on so little sleep. We made it home safely around 5:30pm, which was just after Justin got home. I was starving (I had literally had one lara bar and 2 pieces of sausage since midnight) and exhausted and there was no food.. so we hopped in the car, picked up some friends and drove around looking for somewhere that was open. The only place we found was Cici's pizza and it was terrible - but, we ate our fill, went home and slept like rocks.

The next morning we put up the Christmas decorations and went over to a friend's house for a homemade Thanksgiving dinner :)

I spent the weekend shopping for deals online, which is what I'm doing today - along with rendering some suet into tallow in the crockpot! Happy Thanksgiving and cyber Monday :)

A terrible movie and ice cream

 I really wanted this movie to be good. I thought it was going to be amazing, but I should have known better since nobody was really talking about it. The action sequences were ridiculous, the acting was ok except for the main character (who was really bad), and the plot was just weird. If you're looking for a popcorn movie that is a cheap red box rental, then go for it, but don't expect anything amazing.






However, if you're looking for something truly amazing.....

This stuff is the devil. It's the best ice cream I have ever eaten, by far and it lives in the Safeway freezer. Justin has been late home many a time to surprise me at home with some of this amazing amazing stuff. I guess I wrote that like he does it solely because I love this ice cream, but really he is addicted too. Seriously, though, once you've eaten this ice cream everything other desert will taste inferior. I warned you.....

A new Prez + Another week

Carefully chopping veggies

 Tuesday saw the announcement of the reelection of Obama, which was a bit disappointing for me. But, he's our leader and won a clear victory both by popular vote and electoral college.

We had PT again for Devin this last week and I forgot to bring his day brace, which the therapist wasn't happy about. I have no more appointments for November since she books up so quickly, so I guess she'll have to wait until December to see it. I'm hoping she'll tell us no more day brace for Devin.

Luke has lately been a great help and now makes us a salad almost nightly. He's very proud of his creations and both boys are now eating salad with gusto even with the oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.

Justin left for the weekend to go to a CrossFit Olympic Lifting seminar. He came home super excited about increasing the amount of weight he is able lift in different ways.. I was just happy that he managed to miss out on an almost week-long trip to Miama, Florida with the drill team because of the seminar. He is currently trying to get the boys and I grandstand seats for the Macy's Day Parade.. more news on that as it gets closer :)

Anywho, no exciting news. We went to the library today for story time and the boys each made little Indian pouches. Luke told me that his pouch "really came together" and then spent some time outside of the library collecting small things to put inside of it.

Looking forward to a nice relaxing week ahead with NO TDY'S and no plans.

A Fierce Bad Rabbit

 About two months ago during a trip to NY, Luke received his birthday present from his Aunt & Uncle. It was a beautiful gold collection of Beatrix Potter stories. When I cracked it open, I wasn't sure that Luke would like it because of the old language and lengthy stories. HE LOVES IT. He has made me read it probably seven times over now and it is thick. My favorite story is the very last title "A Fierce Bad Rabbit." Basically a super mean bunny comes and steals a carrot from a gentle bunny and scratches it meanly in the process. While hiding, the gentle bunny gets to see the fierce bad rabbit running by after a hunter shoots off the its tail and whiskers.

Saturday morning was Devin's first dental appointment. I asked if he would cheese for me. At first he said no, but then he shot me this look:

He did GREAT! Not only did he let the dentist scrape all of his teeth, he sat through having all of his teeth polished. The dentist was really shocked and so was I. Maybe my wiggle worm is settling down :)
He lately has been taking joy in helping me do things like cook or clean the toy room and then proudly announcing that he helped. He's giving kisses freely and often pretends to be a kitten.

I took this picture for proof!!

Saturday I made two new good recipes. One from my brain that I created and call Bacon Chowder and the other from Primal Palate called Infamous Bacon Cookies. The bacon cookies were pretty good. Not mind-blowing and I think the batter was better than the actual cookies. I also think that candying the bacon with maple syrup was a bit too sweet. 

Bacon Chowder

1 head cauliflower

Half stick of butter

Tsp or so of salt to taste

Tsp or so of garlic powder

3 green onions chopped

3 or so pieces of bacon cooked and chopped

Put everything in a pot and cook until the cauliflower is mushy. You can either mush it with a fork or do what I did and use an immersion blender at the end.

Add one can of coconut milk. Taste and see if it needs more butter/salt. Do not cook down the liquid or it'll be more of a puree. For one batch I had to add another can of coconut milk, because I did that. Anyway, I think it's super good and I've made it twice now. I will probably double the recipe later because it only goes for one meal with two small kids and two big people.

Halloween & Welcome Home Justin

Lukas making cards.

 Tuesday evening Justin was slated to come home, but he called around 6pm to tell us that his flight had been cancelled. It was too bad because the call came right in the middle of the kids making welcome home cards for him. I expected a lot more crying when I informed them that dad wouldn't be home in the morning, but Lukas just shrugged it off and Devin didn't flinch. We were fortunate to survive the storm without any power outages and after I put the kids to bed, I was planning on spending a relaxing evening watching Revenge on Netflix, but the internet was sadly out :*(


The next day was Halloween and I honestly wasn't planning on doing anything. We went to Whole Foods to grab some sauerkraut - which Luke has been eating up. I explained to him that fermented foods like sauerkraut have good bugs in them that fight off bad bugs in our tummies that make us sick. Since I said that he's been scarfing the stuff. I plan on trying my own fermented carrots and maybe beets soon.

Anyway, I decided that just because Justin wasn't home for Halloween, we weren't going to skip it again this year (he was in drill team training last year and at work). The kids put on their firemen costumes and we ran to march in the parade that evening. We went to the youth center's Halloween immediately following the parade and that was P-A-C-K-E-D with children.

We came home to eat dinner (grab a glass of wine) and then ran out to trick-or-treat. The second house over from ours had this terrifying setup:

Not pictured was a terrifying nurse. The oldest son of the family was dressed up as a creepy nurse with messed up bloody makeup. He didn't say anything, just smiled creepily and waved the children into the tent for candy!! Devin wouldn't go in, telling me that I needed to get the nurse out first. Luke went in like a champ and grabbed that candy! We spent the rest of the night running from house to house with our friend Carrie and her daughter Kk. 

My fire-fighters.

It was so much fun watching the kids have fun :) They actually knew what to do this year and didn't need to be pushed or carried. Plus, I had some great company. The neighborhood was really well done up this year and it's one of the great things about living on base. Tons of people get into the spirit of the holidays and you feel like part of a big community.

There was one other house that Devin was terrified of and that was what he called "The Growling House." He walked almost up to the candy, but stood staring at this with his lip poked out and shook his head. Devin told me that this thing was going to swoop down and growl at him.

We got home and watched a Halloween video while I picked up, then had some surprise visitors. After a long night I finally put the kids to bed, but was a bit too tired to watch a scary movie like I'd planned. I'll have to have my Halloween celebration a little later :)

Best Halloween in a long time and the kids were totally great about setting the candy aside to eat in moderation. I managed to stay out of it until tonight! Justin arrived while we were sleeping and we spent today getting back into our routine.

Surveying the damage

Inspecting for damage.

After breakfast this morning, the boys and I wanted to survey the damage from the storm. I spent the night in the boys' room since it was too noisy in mine to fall asleep, so I was expecting something to be wrecked or overturned outside. We found nothing damaged other than a post missing from our fence. Lukas did delight in finding different nicks in the wall that he attributed to the hurricane (but were really the result of the kids playing in the house over the last 3 years).

Best and easiest way to get kids to eat veggies. Luke demolished his.

 After discovering that nothing was really wrong, the desire to get some rain boots hit me. I would take the boys out to play in the rain, but it's cold and unpleasant when my feet get soaked. So, I headed to Target. While I sadly didn't find any rain boots I did find Dr. Bronner's Baby Soap that I've been looking for for a long time!! The store has always been out, so I picked up a bottle while I had the chance.

Yippee! Expensive, but worth it.

 The other super cool awesome thing that happened was that I picked up an area rug to cover the front entryway since it's been getting awfully muddy and gross. The rug was tucked into a $12.99 shelf, but rang up at $24.99 at the register. I that I didn't want it at that price and that it must've been in the wrong section, buuut a supervisor walked by and gave me the rug for $12.99! She said I probably had the price right, and if not, that it was their fault for not having it in the right section. LOVE that attitude ;)

My new rug.. the picture doesn't do it justice :)

Anywho, Justin may be on a late flight home tonight, but it is space-a and military air, so I don't have a ton of confidence in him arriving home this evening.

The rest of the day should be spent eating shrimp and other random stuff I've been cooking up.

Frankenstorm

 Friday evening we went to the library for movie night to do something special. They have popcorn and give out capri suns, which are a very special treat for the boys. The movie was Coraline and it was kind of creepy and a little scary for a kid's movie. Both of the boys did great sitting through it and neither seemed scared.. I am getting a little weirded out by Luke's recall abilities though, so I'm going to be a lot more conscious about filtering what he hears. I had some talk radio on the other day and during a break there was a news segment during which suicide bombers were mentioned. So, he hands me a drawing that he did today (Monday) of him as a good guy shooting a bad guy who he called a bomber man..

 Saturday we visited Summer's Farm with our friend Carrie and her daughter KK. Carrie's husband is also on the drill team, so we're good company on these weekends without the guys. I enjoyed the kettle corn and doughnuts again this year and the kids had a great time.

Sunday I spent the day doing laundry since I had mountains of it and didn't want to be without clothes if the power went out. Also, I did a pretty fair amount of cooking of chicken and steak and stuff to have pre made in the fridge even though we've got a gas stove and can cook when we need to. I splurged on some k-cups for my keurig recently and have been enjoying my morning coffee that way, but my backup tea kettle and french press are good-to-go :)

Windy and cold, but not dangerous here yet.. Around 2pm.

Today we've been hanging around the house since it's a little too yucky to go out. Justin's flight was cancelled, but I'm happy. I wasn't looking forward to him flying into the awful weather here.. I need to stop writing blog posts and watching episodes of Revenge at the same time since I can't write well with divided attention ;)

Mousecapades

Two different sizes of poop = two different kinds of mice

 If you've been following my Facebook, you know that we've lately been dealing with mouse problems.

 Upon return from my trip to NY, I found poop in every room and closet in my house except for the master suite. The worst were under the boys' beds where they had left nuts/raisins and also in the linen closet. In complete disgust I went on about an 9 hour cleaning frenzy and cleaned the house from top to bottom including the garage.

 The lovely grey house mice have been coming into my house via the cut out around our gas line behind the stove in the kitchen. I have so far been greeted three times by these mice in our pantry/playroom. Each time they escaped me when I tried to trap them. Of course they surprised me and I am shaking from adrenaline while I'm trying to catch them. I first baited the traps with honey, but ran out and got peanut butter after discovering that the mice were just ignoring my traps.

Black locked poison trap. Where the foam board thing is is where the hole used to be.

Sticky pads. There's also another in the garage.

 TO MY UTTER HORROR: I heard scratching coming from my wall in the laundry room while taking the dogs out around sunset and looked to discover huge chunks of plaster knocked down around the dryer vent. I quickly stuffed steel wool in there after banging on the wall and the scratching noise ceased. Well, I was lying in bed unable to sleep and decided to just go listen one more time to make sure the mouse was gone. As I walked by the dryer I saw something scurrying out of my peripheral vision!!! I looked and the thing had just chewed around the steel wool at the bottom. I stuffed two pairs of pants in the doors to block escape routes and grabbed a box to trap the mouse. Eventually a gigantic BROWN deer mouse ran out from under the dryer and scurried all over the laundry room. The box I had grabbed had holes in it that I didn't realize were there, so I guess it's ok that I was too freaked to trap the thing.. It hid under the dryer again so I decided to just go to bed and stuff more things under the door to keep it out of the main house. In there morning there was no more poop, but there was steel wool pulled out indicating he had beat feet soon after I left.

The next morning I went to Loew's and bought some animal repellant which I sprayed liberally around the vent. AND it stunk like rotten fish and garlic, but so far no more scratching or steel wool pushed out.

Finally, on Thursday, a week after initially calling to report a problem, pest control showed up to lay down two poison traps, sticky pads, and stuff steel wool down the gas pipe. I think he almost laughed when he saw my setup around the dryer vent, because he said that wasn't going to cut it. I'm currently waiting for maintenance to come and seal this as it was too big for pest control to do. Also, I'm not suspicious that there have been mice coming and going for awhile since I've always seen a little plaster here and there knocked out and chalked it up to the dryer moving. Never huge chunks of plaster though, so I'm thinking that this is our first year being visited by a deer mouse.

Die mouse, die!

Lukas making mustard-glazed chicken thighs

I have been a little too distracted by this mouse thing, so I don't think we're going to do Halloween this year in the trick-or-treating sense. Plus, there's supposed to be a Frankenstorm or something so I guess it's good we're staying in.

Other than that, no news! Justin's off to Georgia for another TDY and he told me that drill team already has their dates picked out for the next "camp" which is the 30 days of bonding they all do at a base far away every year around March. He went last year and that was not a good time for me. I'm hoping all these little trips away have broken me in for this next one. Plus, he was gone almost all of September and I survived that..

Until next time!

Balanced Bites Seminar + A whirlwind trip home

The boys in the fall leaves outside mom & dad's house

 On Friday I drove up to NY as I had a seminar in Rochester to attend. This was my first nutrition seminar and I had an A-W-E-S-O-M-E time learning.. and I think the woman who ran the seminar bored the crap out of the people who signed up and thought it was going to be a simple this-is-how-you-lose-weight or fuel athletes type of seminar. It was run by a woman named Diane Sanfillipo, author of Practical Paleo and blog writer at Balanced Bites. She's a big traditional foods (organ meats, bone broth, cod liver oil, etc etc.) advocate. Robb Wolf (the big guy at the moment in paleo) is putting together a weekend-long nutrition certification in the works that I hope to someday attend too!

Outside of CrossFit Rochester.. seminar host.

Practical Paleo! Autographed!

I also had the pleasure of watching the Obama: 2016 movie - which is now available at quickflix kiosks. It was a bit slow-moving, but VERY eyeopening. You'll learn some things about your president that will shock you.

I also was able to go to bible study at Justin's parent's house, which was great. I get to learn, the kids get to see their cousins, and I get to chat with all the Lemmons/Martins/Shofkoms/Burns :) It's great to catch up face to face.. there's something lacking in digital communication.

Justin was off of work Monday, but I saw another mouse running from the pantry to under the couch in our toy room so I spent the morning cleaning instead of going out. Justin also was feeling sick that day, so that was a further reason to stay in. 

I watched the last presidential debate last night.. not sure why since I always end up biting my nails or unable to fall asleep thinking about the direction the country is going or going over what each of the candidates said. Glad that was the last one! I've already cast my vote, so I wasn't watching as an undecided.

Anyway, sorry for all the broken thoughts! Just trying to type this up quickly before I forget to.

The drive back from Rochester. I love the fall leaves ~

Happiness in a Cup

 For Luke's "homeschool" today, we have been reading The Rag Coat. It's a story about a girl in Appalachia who loses her coal-mining dad to black lung disease. We talked about coal and then read a book called My Grandfather's House, which is a book about a boy who loses his grandfather. I think this kind of backfired because Luke thought I was telling him that his grandpa was going to die and got a little upset. We moved on quickly to the tune of Devin chirping "I'm going to die!" I guess I'm not very good at explaining this kind of stuff to kids and won't bring it up for awhile.

Cleaning up under the stove.

 After a walk the boys "helped" me clean up under the stove and Lukas made this nifty sign for any mice that dare enter our house again. It says "NO" in the bottom right corner for NO MICE! Luke's idea.

Also, Justin got home and was craving something desserty so I made what he called: Happiness in a Cup. I get the impression that people think I eat pretty strictly. Here's some proof that's not the case.

It's a nuked chocolate brownie in a cup using this recipe: Chocolate Mug Brownie , a couple scoops of ice cream, syrup and cool whip. Pretty yummy. I did decrease the amount of sugar in the brownie mostly because I knew the ice cream would be sweet and I don't enjoy my teeth aching from sweetness.

Anyway, time for Arrow and Modern Family! Much more interesting than the debates last night. I already sent in my ballot, so I'm not really sure I care much more to watch any more election politics.