Okay…here’s what we’ve been up to.  I made some puddin’:

I asked the kid this one question:  “Hey, kid.  Were you taking pictures with my camera?”  Kid says, “Uh no.”  Right.

…and after the kid lied, she did a cannon-ball into the packing paper and nearly broke a foot and elbow.

Things are starting to slow down and the house looks like someone actually lives here.  My fave part about where we live is the chickens.  Roosters, actually.  I’m still on the quest to get a picture of them.  When we came here seven years ago to start looking for a house, we saw a pack of roosters go running past the car and we were like, “Whaaaaat?! was that?”  It was then and there that we decided we had to live here.  We simply HAD to live in a town where wild Roosters ran amok. 

The story behind the Roosters is nuts.  Once upon a time ago, some little old man had a fight with the town of Albany.  He got so fed up that he packed up his family and got up out of here.  His final act of retaliation was to sneak back into town under the cover of darkness and let loose an unnatural amount of Roosters.  The Roosters are still here.  Every morning at 5:00 am, they start to crowing.  We don’t even own an alarm clock. 

After we moved out of that first house, we lost sight of the Roosters.  When the realtor showed us this house and we saw the Roosters walking down the street and heard that familiar sound of crowing, we were overcome with a wave of nostalgia.  (Okay, that was a bit much, but we knew we’d found our new home.)  

So anywayhoo, I’m looking forward to this summer…hanging out with the fam, hitting the beach, having all of Cali’s 5 million friends over to the house (no child should be as social as this kid.), spending an inordinate amount of time at the Children’s Museum….before we know it, Cali will be back in school and I’ll feel another year older.  Did I mention that I’m blissful?  No?  Well, I am.  Blissful.  Full ‘o bliss. 

NOTE: To all of my anal-retentive English Major-Spell-Checkin’-Quick-to-point-out-mistakes friends…I am well aware that I capitalized the ‘R’ in ‘Rooster’.  The Roosters are cool.  And coolness deserves capitalness.

Cali has been home this whole week with strep throat. Her first illness! (Other than the common cold). Anyway…a couple of days ago we made this bear bread. They actually went from bears to looking more like elephants after baking. Strep be poo-poo’d…Cali ate all three of them. All of them. I got nothing.

Way too super easy. Recipe following the pics.

THREE BEARS BREAD

The Night Before:
*Put a pound of frozen bread dough in the fridge to thaw.

Before You Begin:
* Wash your hands.
* Spray 2 baking sheets with veg. oil spray.
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1) Use half the dough to make three bears’ bodies.
2) Use half of the remaining dough to make the bears’ heads.
3) Use the remaining dough to make the bear’s legs, arms, ears and noses. Add raisin eyes.
4) Cover bears with a clean, lightweight towel. Put them in a warm place until they’ve doubled in size (60-90 minutes).
5) Bake bears for 16-18 minutes or until golden brown.
6) Grab a bear and run for the sun before your kid scarfs ‘em all down and you get nothin’.