Like lemon juice in a paper cut!

Don't know if you have heard of TimberTech before, but they are a company that makes decking that is really expensive but the wood is coated with plastic so that the termites wont eat it and the weather wont damage it as well. We got that stuff for our new deck. It is really pretty. We thought this product was a great idea too. Oh and it is unless you hire really stupid drywallers who put cheap sticky tape on it to bake in the sun so that you cant get the tape marks off of your brand new $3000.00 deck!!!!

Yeah, I am not too happy with them.

They didn't listen when I said you can't scrub the deck and then tried to scrub it off anyway. Now I have scrub and sticky tape marks on my $3000.00 deck!!!!

Again, I am not to happy with them.

Especially since they don't see what they did wrong????

Oh Lord help me!!!!

We did finish putting up the rails though.

We chose black.

This is obviously not our deck. This is the one from the TimberTech site.
Ours will look like this eventually though.

I have tried mineral spirits, Goof Off, rubbing alcohol, TSP and good old soap and water. I really don't want to have to rebuild the deck because of some incompetent, unthoughtful, uncaring, idiotic, alcoholic (yeah, busted them drinking on the job too) just plain not very nice drywall installers. I am really bummed.

Thinking about calling Better Business and reporting them.

At least they tasted good

Okay, have pity on my buns. I tried.
I was reading Raising Olives blog,
(Kimberly amazes me. She has 9 children and still has time to blog about all the things they do together. I only have 4 and I have to blog at like 5 am if I would like a chance to sit at the computer alone, even then its a toss up if it will happen !! LOL!)
Anyway, there was a recipe for homemade hamburger buns there on her side bar.
They looked really good so I thought I would try them.
I just went all out healthy when I made them.
We are talking just whole wheat flour, organic eggs, honey instead of sugar you know going for the inner hippie in me. Would have added granola and wheat germ if I could have figured out how!! :)
But see look...they looked okay.


They just weren't fluffy like if I had used at least some bread flour.
I cut them in half then added turkey burgers, lettuce, tomato, homemade "secret sauce", you know... all the fix'ns.
They actually tasted really good.

But see, they just looked a little flat.
I am going to try her recipe straight through this time. No Aimie organic tweaking.

Here is the recipe from Raising Olives:

(These are her's down here and is what they were supposed to look like. Yup, see mine were a bit flat, but tasty!!)

Hamburger Buns in 30 minutes:

3 1/2 cups warm water
1 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar or 1/2 cup honey
6 T. active dry yeast
1 T. salt
3 eggs, beaten
10 1/2 cups white or wheat flour (For company we usually use 4 cups wheat to 6 bread flour then add bread flour as needed, but this is wonderful with all whole wheat.)

Mix first 4 ingredients and let rest for 15 minutes. It should get sponge and get bubbly. Add remaining ingredients. Mix, then knead for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 425. Roll out to 1/2″ thick. Shape immediately. I use the ring from a wide mouth canning jar for hamburger buns. You could also make child size buns. Let rise for 10 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes or until done.

If you have a few minutes to spare you should go see the other wonderful ideas she has and posts how-to's on. Really neat! She is having a giveaway right now for an apron. Really pretty to. You could win it and then wear it while making these hamburger buns!!! Love it!!

VOTE Rocket XL

friday fill ins

#150

And...here we go!



1. The last band I saw live was _Toby Keith, does that count??_He is a singer with a band___________.
2. What I look forward to most on Thanksgiving is __making the dinner and having leftovers for the next couple of days. Yummy!!_______. (if you don't celebrate thanksgiving, insert your favorite holiday)
3. My Christmas/holiday shopping is __hard on the budget________.
4. Thoughts of __cookies, cookies and more yummy cookies___________ fill my head.
5. I wish I could wear __a size 10 again and I am almost there!!____________.
6. Bagpipes _are loud, really loud_____.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _making pizza with the kiddos from scratch____, tomorrow my plans include soccer games and sanding down the ceiling of the patio_____ and Sunday, I want to _go to church, pick up a peppermint mocha on the way back and then watch G.I .Joe with my munchkins____!

Cool project

Michael Jr was so excited when he came home from school the other day.
He had learned how to make ice cream at school for science class.
He wanted to show me immediately what he had learned.

He put all the ingredients into one small sandwich sized zippered baggie.
Then filled a gallon sized zippered bag half way with ice and added salt.
Next he put the smaller baggie into the bigger one and zipped them closed.

After shaking them for a few minutes here is what he got in the smaller zipper bag.

Yeah, I know great picture mom.
It is ice cream though!

Here is the recipe:
1/2 cup of milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
all in a small zippered bag sealed

Then 6 tablespoons of salt into a
gallon size zippered bag half full of ice

place the sealed small bag into the filled gallon bag and seal it.

Now shake until the mixture is ice cream (about 5 minutes)
Take out the small bag from the bigger and wipe it off.
Open the smaller bag and enjoy!!

Easy and edible science lesson!
Priceless and perfect!

The (Halloween) Cake Decorating Contest

At the munchkins school, they have a cake decoration contest every year for Halloween.
I am just catching you up.
Becca and her best friend Rylee have entered every year since Kindergarten.
So here they are with some of their other friends whipping up a batch of over the top covered in sugar confections!

Becca and Rylee are going for a monster face!
There has always been the theme of Halloween stuff for the contest.
This year a new principal so the rules apparently changed, but we stuck with the original theme anyway.

Kinda a happy monster.
Check out those ooey, gooey eyeballs!

How nasty is that?
He has eyes in his mouth!
I can't imagine watching what I eat!
GROSS!!

The girls did not win a ribbon but their cake was bought ( they are donated to a raffle to make money for the school) right after the judging and we did not even get a chance at grabbing it! I think that means it looked like a pretty good Halloween cake to someone. So the girls did a great job to me!!

Pumpkin Fun!

Yes, I realize that the holiday has come and gone,
but since my computer has finally been kissed by the handsome prince and feels like filling my world with online entertainment again, I can be here in the blogging world to share my family adventures once more!!

Look at the pretty maidens ripping the innards out of these poor defenseless little gourds for evening entertainment.


Even the youngest of the maidens enjoyed the massacre.Sam, Aimee and Belle had fun carving the flesh of the pumpkins into joyous little faces that we lit with fire in the darkness of the night. Becca was not feeling up to participation that evening.
My poor baby.


Awwhh!

That was the night before all hallows eve.

During that passing night,
an evil spirit, in the form of a virus, attacked the precious Becca!
That maniacal creation of infection ravaged the defenseless maiden's immune system and left her with skin that burned to the touch! (Her fever was 105 and rising!) So in the predawn hours, an urgent trip to the emergency room was warranted. By then her skin was covered in huge welts from the attack of the evil spirit.
Becca was victorious though!!
They did leave her with itchy remembrances of her battle with them.


So dressing up for the holiday was not to be.

Until...a neighbor stopped by who's little bride was going to be out visiting for treats in the night with just her mommy. We wished them well on their travels.
Then Becca, feeling bad that we were all staying home to support the poor injured soul in our home who could not do anything( till she was not contagious), sent her siblings out to celebrate without her.

It took them all of 15 minutes to be ready to be out that door in search of candy.
(For school that would never happen!)

Belle was a beautiful flower fairy
and
Michael Jr (though hard to see) was a ghost biker.


Aimee was a 50's prom girl
and
Sam was a gypsy.

They sent out in search of the young bride who was trick-or-treating alone to join her in the quest for the most candy imaginable!! And find her they did!! Together they covered the streets of our neighborhood being sure that not one lit house was left unvisited!

Good night! They returned with so much in their bags we should have handfuls of candy everyday till next all hallows eve! Becca was even given tons of candy by the munchkins.

As cruddy as it started, it ended out okay.

Wow! My house sure is clean!!

So since my house looks emaculate, this will let you know that my computer is on the FRITZ! It has decided that it would just love to lock me out!
HOW RUDE!!
I am waiting for the arrival of our computer wizard to come and wave his magic memory card over our mother board and bring the evil dragon inhabiting my computer to its knees!!
It has been decreed that the arrival of the wizard cannot be until the Friday next.
Dagnabit!
So my blogging from now until then will be on begged, borrowed and bartered time on others computers. I don't see that happening to terribly much so lets just think of this as an unexpected vacation for the Martinez Munchkins! We will have tons to blog about when we catch up!

I will see you all in a week or so!
Have a blessed weekend and week!