Paris part Deux

Notre Dame is where I left off..

On the walk there, right across the street from Notre Dame was a building that I cant think of the name of.. ugh! I know it.. its in my head.. but it wont come out. Well anyways, there was a sort of walking area there.. obviously no cars allowed.. and they had this sign.. well I told the kids it meant no holding hands in that area. :)




we got to Notre Dame and took lots of pics outside and around the building. The kids wanted to see the gargoyles on top.. and were happy to see those. (We watched Hunchback of Notre Dame on the way to Paris- along with National Treasure 2)
There was a person dressed up in an Egyptian type outfit thing with a mask and all so you couldnt see the person, and he/she just stood there looking like a gold statue. Then someone would put money in his/her cup and he/she would bow to them and stand back up again. This got my kids attention and DH gave the 2 little ones some change to put in the cup. So we took a pic, they put the money in and then got bowed to.


We didnt go inside. The line was long and I just didnt think the kids would be interested.

So next was finding our hotel and checking in. We couldnt check in until 2 pm. We went around in circles and asked a lady and went in another huge circle and finally found it. It was on an itty bitty side road in a sort of apartment type area. Nice hotel though. So we went in and dropped off some of our bags and junk.. and checked our map again and headed back out.

We walked across a bridge over THE river.. and we had to stop at a chocolate place for some French chocolates of course. I saw the place and just went in and shopped.. of course I had to have found the rudest chocolate shop in town. grrr but I wanted to make sure I got some chocolates before the places closed! I had no idea what the different flavors were and the unhelpful lady didnt tell me, so I just picked a bunch and went with it. We also got croissants and an eclair :) Yummy! the eclair had chocolate filling! what a surprise.
One of the chocolates I got had an eiffel tower on it. oh and I did end up with a couple coffee tasting chocolates.. but no liquour ones! whew!





so Im stopping there for now..

I did forget to mention something about the train when we first got there. We got on the train at Disney and just after starting to move, a guy gets into our section and sets up his accordian and starts playing. He was playing music and had his cup there for money.. and I kid you not I couldnt help but laugh. It was like.. Welcome to Paris music! All I could think was.. you know Youre in Paris when you hear the accordian music on the train into the city. we got a pic of him too.. but I wont post it now..

my next post should be the end of Paris stuff... figure Im probably boring everyone at this point LOL

Paris and other stuff

so its been awhile. I almost gave up tonight too.. blogger didnt want to let me in again. But, on my last try, it worked.

lets see.. whats new here..

so I had my morning 6 pack group last week and we made 3 things.. 2 cards and a bookmark. You can see them on Susans blog. I didnt take pics of them yet, but she did. Ill have to add a link to her blog on here somewhere. One more thing for me to try and figure out.

I got a haircut and took Tanner in with me. I dont know if I have a pic of him with his hair the way it was before.. but it was long.. super long and shaggy. You couldnt see his eyes.. so he was overdue for a cut. He likes his hair longish and straight down.. so getting his cut is always an issue. He definitely does not want any kind of military type cut.
so he surprised me when he brought this pic to me to take to the hair person..



yes.. that would be Rob Lowe.. in a pic from the Outsiders!!

so I took him in, we took the pic and this is how he looks now.



Looks good doesnt he?! You can see his eyes now!!

so I got mine cut too, but I havent been able to style it the way she did.. as usual.. so no pics.

On Thursday, I heard about a family in the ward that had 2 hotel rooms reserved and paid for in Paris. Well, long story short, they couldnt use them and were offering them to anyone that could use them. so, I decided to try something totally nuts and took them up on the offer! With 8 people, its hard to just go places without major planning and money saving ahead of time.. these hotel rooms took a load off of the budget. We are so thankful to the Beans for offering them! So, I started trying to find out any info I could on what we should do for one day in Paris. So many things to see there! Robert got home Friday afternoon, we went to dinner group Friday night, then got up at 5am on Saturday to head to Paris!
We left later than we planned.. but thats normal for us.. and we got to Disneyland at around 10am. It took right about 4 hours. We parked in the Disney parking lot and took the train into Paris and then the metro to the Louvre station.
Came up out of the metro and our first real sight of Paris was a square with HUGE buildings around us/it. So beautiful! The Louvre takes up a lot of space. The original plan wasnt to go in, but to just see the outside and take some pics and then go on to something else... but once there, we decided to go in and check out Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. I mean, come on.. how many chances will we have to do this?
so in we went and saw them both.. plus some other things along the way!




Trace apparently thought he could be art too. :)
and Abby got bored.




So we left there and went across the street and got some souveniers and then into a McDonalds for lunch.. Tyler got a pic of the menu sign before they all told him he couldnt take pics there. They dont have apple pies at the McDonalds in Paris. What is up with that? Guess I should mention that here in Europe, they still sell FRIED apple pies at McDonalds.. and theyre YUMMY! and I really dont like the baked ones in the states.. but Paris didnt have them at all.

so we took our food and ate in the park next to the Louvre and watched the birds.. ok we fed them a french fry here and there too. :)
Then we walked to Notre Dame.
This is long so maybe I should end there and start another one later.. if I can get in again..

oh but before I go.. check out this site she is having a giveaway!Not much time left to get in on it though.. but looks like a good one! http://themaisyreport.blogspot.com/ I tried to link it, but it wasnt showing up for me... so youll have to copy and paste .

RECIPES FOUND!!!

oh my gosh.

so first Susan emailed me a link to a quiche recipe..

andI googled and googled every stupid pancake taco combo I could find.. but no luck.

so I had the oldest go to the basement in search of a huge box of papers.. he came back with just a small stack of papers.. grrr but in that stack was my 23 yr old paper from my sophomore year when I was in home ec. for crustless quiche lorraine!

no taco recipe though :(

so I sent the 3rd son to the basement... he comes back and asks me how big of a box is he supposed to be finding.. I have no idea.
so he says he found a HUGE box and cant possibly bring it up here.. and he hands me a binder that I had a few recipes mounted into a loong time ago.. hey! its like a little bit of scrapbooking ROFLOL

so anyways...
I KNEW it wasnt in the binder.. I would KNOW if it was.. I mean, I made the stupid thing a gazillion years ago.

yeah.. so I open it anyways and start looking at the papers in it while telling the boy that he needs to try to bring up the box.. haha he wasnt into doing that at all.

well.. first page of my binder.. a recipe for...

ORIGINAL BEEF FOLDOVERS

yep! THE recipe is right in front of me...

and get this..

THERES NO BISQUICK IN THE RECIPE!! no pancake mix at all! (except that you make pancakes to put the mixture into) and I know it was on a bisquick box.

good grief.

so Im using the leftover taco meat from the other night and we are having this for dinner tonight.

oh, do you want the recipes???

well, just in case.. here they are.

Crustless Quiche Lorraine

8 slices bacon
4 eggs
1 can (13 ounces) evaporated milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 can (3.5 ounces) fench fried onion rings
1 cup grated swiss cheese

cook bacon until crisp, then crumble. Combine eggs, milk, salt and pepper and beat together. Sprinkle bacon in a 8 inch round dish or pie pan. op with 1/2 can french fried onion rings and grated swiss cheese. Pour egg mixture on top. Cook in microwave on medium (50% power) 15 to 16 minutes. Stir two times at 5 minutes. Let stand stand for 10 minutes covered, then serve.


now, I remember thinking grossss because i dont like swiss cheese. but the teacher made us make it anyways and i liked it! gasp! and i liked that it didnt have a pie crust type thing. :) we served it with biscuits and grape juice.


ORIGINAL BEEF FOLDOVERS

brown 1/2 pound ground beef and 1/4 cup chopped onions in skillet.
Add one 16 ounce can tomatoes (i use diced), one 7 ounce can well drained whole kernel corn, 1/8 tsp pepper and 1/2 tsp salt.
Bring to a boil.
Blend 2 tsps cornstarch into 1/4 cup water. Gradually stir into boiling mix. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened.

Prepare pancakes for 1 cup mix. (im sure i make more than this)

Fold pancake in half and fill with meat mixture.

supposed to feed 6


if you dont like it, i dont care! BWHAHAHA im kidding.. i care, but its not my fault.. these recipes are OLD and our tastebuds might just be too sophisticated for this stuff now. hahahhaha yeah right.

let me know if you try either of them...


and by the way.. i DO know that a BISQUICK recipe called impossible coconut pie is really yummy too! and again, no pie crust sort of crust.. it makes its own crust thats soft and yummy. (now remember I havent had it in 25 years but that shouldnt matter) you CAN google that one and find it!

;-)


SMALL UPDATE:

I just got done making the filling and Im not adding the cornstarch mixture because its thick without it. I have the oldest making the pancakes and then we will eat :) MmMmMm

In Search of a Recipe

ok, I have no idea how many readers I have now.. though Im sure its not millions LOL.. but if one of you sees this and has heard of this recipe, or even mentions it to someone else and they know the recipe, PLEASE send it my way!

so, 20 years or more ago, my mom got a recipe off of the Bisquick box. It sounds kind of icky but its really pretty good.. and I want to make it this week!

its basically a pancake that you use like a taco shell kind of thing..

the filling is hamburger meat and corn and canned tomatoes.. and I dont know what else!

Im sure I can make something up.. or I could go digging through the huge box in the basement of papers and recipes to try to find the clipped from the box recipe.. but that will take soooo long LOL

Ive googled bisquick, Ive read lots of recipes.. none of them have been it.

Im not looking for a taco bake recipe.. or a biscuit recipe..

this was a filling and you put it on a pancake and folded it like a taco. (but used a fork to eat it)


Anyone????

oh and when I was in H.S., we made another Bisquick recipe called 'Crustless Quiche Lorraine' has anyone seen that one? (I havent searched for it yet)

a quick pic

Just wanted to share Trents valentine box..

he loves penguins. always has. has a huge collection of them. (i love penguins too but he doesnt seem to realize that i loved them before he was ever even born. sigh)

so he is known in his class at school as the penguin expert. most activities he has to do, we somehow involve a penguin.. like when they had to make a veggie animal.. well of course we used an eggplant and made a penguin!

so here is his Valentine box.. a penguin made all out of hearts!

fun stuff. :)

ARGHHHHHHHH

I had a HUGE LONG post written out and my dumb computer froze up again and I lost it all.

yep.. that about sums up my day/week


UPDATE... the missing blog is below.. Susan is my hero LOL

Nothing too exciting here

Its been one of those days I guess.



gray and rainy. (though I do prefer rain over snow)!



got up, took the kids to their bowling leagues.. bought Trent some bowling shoes for his birthday last week. Got myself some bowling shoes on clearance even though I dont really bowl LOL maybe once every 3 or 4 months we will go as a family and bowl.. sometimes more often, sometimes not. I didnt really need new bowling shoes, but they were on sale! :)



went to the commissary. tried not to totally lose it right in the middle of the commissary. I had 5 of the kids with me. Tyler was bagging for the Junior class to make money for prom.. so all 5 kids and I are strolling through the commissary and I have 2 trying to ride on the sides or the front of the cart.. 1 trying to help push the cart by walking right in front of me.. and 1 older one doing everything he can to annoy the little ones. I have no idea what the other big one was doing. so after rolling over several kids feet more times than I can count, I was DONE. Im not even sure what all I bought.. I tried sticking to my list but Im sure I got stuff I didnt need and things I did need probably got forgotten. I know for sure that I didnt look at all the prices to compare. UGH

and lets not mention the numerous times the little ones would jump off the cart and be doing circles backwards in the aisles and bumping into anyone walking by. grrrrrr



as Im almost to the end, Robert calls to tell me he made it home. ok, Im glad he made it but really.. talking to him at that minute wasnt working so well for me.



came home.



then awhile later we all went to the BX to find Tyler some things for the laptop he ordered. Where I then had to deal with one kid telling me that he was going to go look and he would meet us later.. umm no I dont think so.. Mr. newly 11 yr old.. you dont TELL me what youre going to do. so he wasnt happy. The girl was bawling by the time we left because we didnt go down the "pink aisle" and because its not fair that she never gets to get anything... like that $40 video game she wanted?... and hates for me to remind her that she used her Christmas gift card all up on the first day we went shopping after Christmas. Not my fault the 7 yr old actually listened to me and didnt use it all and still has money to buy toy cars on his card.

she didnt like hearing how its not MOMS fault. she just wanted something.. anything..



Did find a good deal on some jeans for me. clearance! woohoo! got 2 pairs of Liz Clairborne jeans for $17. Cant buy 1 pair of any brand jeans here for that usually.. never mind finding some that fit. And oh my freaking gosh.. a size 6 fit me. I got an 8 in one style and a 6 in the other because the 6 waist was a little uncomfortable. but ummm.. a 6??? ME???????? yeah.. I dont see it but it was still semi exciting. guess it is worth it to drink those 2 protein shakes a day even though I dont always want to after all.



Then we went to the other bases BX and looked for some stuff there too.. I was convinced I needed a Vera Bradley something or other since I didnt win one at Bingo last night.. ummm yeah, apparently I really dont need anything VB (hey, those are my initials too!) oh so apparently I didnt really need any of her stuff ... $25 for a little id card holder zip up wallet kind of thingy????? ummm cant do that . Kind of sad about that.. decided I actually do like some of her stuff after all. :o who wouldve thought?! anyone know of some online place that has it super cheap? bwahahaha



ended up eating dinner in the food court since the whole family was STARVING and just couldnt hang in there for the 12 minute ride home. whatever. Had a taco.. eyeballed a cinnamon bun but so didnt get one.. this time. LOL



got gas, dropped off the 17 yr old at the gym to play with his friends, picked up Roberts car from work and came home.



watched Paycheck with the family and am now sitting here listening to a rerun of Without a Trace.



Thought about going to Koln/Cologne tomorrow to check out the Lindt chocolate factory... yummy.. but not positive about going now. the weather is crappy..



I do want to do something though.. just dont know what yet. SIGH. Anyone want to come over and hang out with this boring family? we could play cards or farkle or veg with a movie or something... no? ok maybe another time. ;)



I have a dr. appt on monday.. need to mention this dizziness stuff to her. Its not even really a dizzy thing anymore.. its kind of like I move my eyes or my head to look at something and I feel kind of dizzy like and slightly naseous.. or kind of like things are moving funny.. I wish I could explain it. Wondering if this mean Ill be switching meds for the 4th time. so tired of switching over and over. Might need to anyways.. Im soo grouchy lately. Im feeling like Im on the edge of frustration but not sure what Im frustrated about. That makes no sense either does it?



yeah so enough about my medical issues LOL



UPDATE:
SO i wrote this last night and then thought I lost it.. but Susan came to my rescue and told me how to find it again.. i feel so stupid

I dont have time to finish whatever I was thinking about last night so Im done with this post for now.

Have to help kids do Valentines projects today.. fun fun. Actually I should take a pic of Trents box.. its WAY cute! :)

Cropping.. and thinking..

so I went to a crop today (yesterday I guess). This was a crop to work on someone else's scrapbooks. This woman passed away in December and left behind her husband and 4 kids. She had thousands of pictures on her computer and printed out that needed to be put into albums. She was a scrapbooker and had a bunch of supplies, just hadnt gotten them done yet.
I can relate to that.
So, they have organized these crops so that people can come in and work on her pages so the family will have completed albums to remember her by.

I didnt know the woman. She was LDS, but in a different ward than me. It didnt really matter to me though if she was LDS or not.. I was there to help as a mom and a scrapbooker.

It made me think..
Ihave thousands of pics too.. on my computer, in boxes.. all in no particular order. I wondered to myself if people would do that for me... I really dont know.. And yet, I also kept thinking.. I really need to get my act together and do it myself so no one would need to do it for me. I cant even begin to tell you how many pics I have.. or how many albums they would fill. The whole task scares me.

When we moved here, we had 79 (yes that is seventy nine!) rolls of undeveloped film (pre digital). We took them all in to the printing place at the BX and dropped them off all at once.. much to the store workers shock! We used part of our tax return to get them all developed. I did put them into order, but havent done anything with them yet. That was 3 years ago. How sad is that? and then on top of that I had added thousands of digital pics to my computer that now need to be printed.

so anyways..
I had all sorts of thoughts today while doing this..
I felt so sad for those poor children. I felt a weird sort of connection of sorts to the mom. I was reminded of when I helped Tina in New Mexico 3 years ago scrap pics of little 2 yr old Talin when he died, so that we could have albums of his short life on display for the funeral. I was reminded of my own daughters early birth/death and how I have made an album about that. There wasnt really any rhyme or reason to my thoughts.. they just sort of came.

In the process, though I also realized once again how glad I am to have my beliefs. Because of them, I know that I will be with Autumn again, and that Tina will be with Talin again and these children and father/husband will be with their mom/wife again. and they will get to be together as a family for eternity! How cool is that??

We dont believe in 'till death do us part'.. we arent parted once we die.. we get to rejoin our families in the end!

I think that helps me to be able to deal with death and situations like this. It doesnt make it any less sad or painful, but it helps.

I also gave Susan a Book of Mormon today. She had one before. Im sure she has read it before- parts if not all of it- but she had told me she was ready to possibly look at one again now. so, I forgot to take one to the crop with me, and guess what??? today the missionaries from the area had their big meeting at the chapel! The crop was at the chapel! I saw 2 of them walking down the hall and I ran out to meet them and ask if they had a book with them that I could give away.
They did, and I took it!
coincidence again? I dont know. theres a lot of them lately when it comes to things like this with me and Susan....

so, since Susan reads this.. I wanted to tell her something.. that I might not ever say in person, because I am NOT pushing her to do anything. and I wont push...not too hard anyways ;-)

but Susan,
I am certain that there is a reason for us to have met when and how we did. And that reason, along with all of the other things going on with facebook and things, might not be to get you back to the church.. though it could be... but whatever the reason is, Im so very glad to have met you and gotten to know you better.. and I just want you to know that no matter what, I am so very happy to have you as my friend! I am sure we must have known each other before we came to earth.. and Im so glad that we have found each other again :)

corny? maybe.. but True nonetheless.

blogger's cooperating tonight

so I can log in tonight.. couldnt earlier in the day. of course. cant possibly work for me when I have stuff fresh in my mind to write about.

Got a call today on the machine to call my Dr. back. so I called and she told me my B12 is low and I need to start coming in once a month for shots. I hate shots, but if this will help me then Im all for it. Googled a little about it and sounds like it might help with my lack of energy.. thats a plus that I could handle! I really could sleep the entire day if given the chance. I really struggle to get out of bed each day..and then I get back into bed after the kids leave and its another struggle to get up again. If I happen to not crawl back into bed, its a struggle to stay awake wherever I am.
so, we'll see if this makes any difference in that. Google also said some people use it for weight loss.. though I think they meant the energy will make it so you will be able to exercise to lose the weight.. can I just say that for the first time in forever, I dont need it to lose weight.
I cannot believe I just wrote that. but see, I need to stay at the weight Im at right now.. need to maintain for now so I can get surgery to remove this extra skin I have.. . and looking at the numbers, I know Im at a good point.. even if my brain doesnt wrap around that fact when I see myself. If I was reading this at my fat weight, I would totally be jealous and also think whoever was writing this was bragging.. IM SO NOT trying to brag. I havent gotten to a point where I *would* brag about my size. dont know that I would want to get to a place like that.
There are days I do wish I could just be mentally fine with where I am, wherever that may be.


am I making any sense???


ok so I just want the B12 to help with my energy LOL

what else..

Christine from a board Im on posted about this website.. www.theletteredcottage.blogspot.com and now Im hooked on it! I read the entire blog.. every post. I didnt watch her videos though. I really want to be able to decorate like that... I want to see some thing at a flea market and be able to see it transformed into something cool.
although anytime I look at perfect homes, I have to wonder.. where do they have all their 'stuff'?? am I the only one with stuff?? like papers.. kid papers.. bills.. mail.. heck, where is their bread ?? you see the kitchen and nothing on the counters.. where do people keep bread??? theres no bread box on the counter.
and what about dirty clothes? I see no dirty clothes in the laundry rooms, and no hampers anywhere.. and no dirty clothes on floors.. so where is it all??
kleenex? am I the only one that has boxes of kleenex in every room? I dont see kleenex in perfect houses.
books? nope, just the books used to decorate with.
bathrooms with no medicine cabinets.. so where is the medicine??
where are the telephones and tv remotes?? and the wii???

am I really the only one out there with stuff????
will I ever have a 'pretty' house with all my stuff??

and yet, I love looking at those houses.


Im craving some belgian chocolate. I should have gone to the chocolate store in Kaiserslautern today.. but I didnt. Its better that I didnt.. but I still want some.

Trace's class is doing a craft project next week for Valentines day.. and the teacher asked me and another mom to come up with something. So, the other mom suggested 'painting on soap' for the parents gift. hmm teacher liked the idea and is picking up the Ivory soap. I will be helping them make woven heart basket thingys to hold the soap. Couldnt come up with much else.. theyre made out of construction paper so hopefully itll hold the soap ok.. Ive never done it even though I suggested it.. so I need to practice soon. haha.
but heres my thing.. and I dont mean this in a rude way.. Im just so very curious..
if you paint on soap, wouldnt the paint come off and onto your hands or body when you use the soap? will the paint end up staining your skin?? and really.. I hate to say it but this bar of soap is probably going to sit in my bathroom awhile and eventually get tossed.. seems like a lot of kid projects for gifts end up that way. I feel bad, but what am I supposed to do with some of these things? so my question for you moms.. would you want a bar of painted soap from your kid for Valentines day? guess Ill see next week what this is really all about.

I need to do my taxes. We should get money back .. which is always nice.. and its usually a good enough amount for our summer trips.. but this year? I keep putting it off.. I hate trying to get all my SU stuff together for it. I really need to keep better track of my paperwork for SU. .. this is part of my 'stuff' I mentioned earlier LOL

I need a haircut. I hate getting my hair cut. I dont know what I want done to it. I can never find a cut that works for me. I must have a funny shaped face or something? I dunno. I also want to be able to wash it, blow dry it and go. Im not into all the curling and straightening on a daily basis. once in awhile is fine.. but everyday? nope. Back in High School, I curled every morning.. and I also did makeup every morning.. now? not so much. Im just too lazy I think.
but anyways, I need a decent haircut idea to take to the hair lady. any suggestions?

and does anyone but me wonder who exactly Im talking to when I ask these things? Im not sure how many people read this.. although I found out today that Marla does.. so now I know about 2 people! :)

My mean scary chihuahua - Pepper- hates to have her nails cut.. but she desperately needs them done. I hate doing it. she fights me. its awful. So I read about this as seen on tv thing called Pedi Paw? i think? pedi something.. I am thinking about ordering it. basically you are using a battery operated file to get the nails down. I have to wonder if Pepper would do better with it though.. it cant be any worse than right now- it takes 2 of us and we have to cover her head with a towel and hold her down all while trying to clip the nails. what a pain.

Im almost afraid to stop typing.. I might not be able to log in again for a week.. and what if I close out of blogger and then I remember something I wanted to say??? yikes.

ok Im done for now.. although I am planning on posting something else after this.. but it needs its own post. :)