A very sticky situation

Currently in our dwelling area, there is an inordinately disproportionate population of flies to humans. I really do believe they hang out around our doors and when the kids go anywhere near the doors, they jump into action and swoop into our house. The kindest way I can put it is that they are not welcome in my house. In my opinion, if they enter into my abode, they have a death wish, with which I am happy to help them out using my handy dandy Pampered Chef Super Swat fly swatter:

Well, the other day I got so stinkin' tired of all the flies buzzing around my head that I went to the store and got some fly tape

and a fly trap wand thingy.

I figured it couldn't hurt, right?

You would think so, but... I hung the wand up in a not-so-intelligently-thought-out place. It was above the back sliding glass door which has a curtain that gets closed across it at night. Yeah. For the first few days everything was fine. Not so Thursday morning. I opened the curtain and didn't see the wand fall down. Someone else found it, though. Anybody wanna guess who? Anyone?

Ailey. Yep. Ailey.

I found her with it or rather stuck in it. The sticky stuff was all over her hands, some on her mouth and a bit on her chest. I cannot express how grateful I am that it didn't make it to her hair! Whew!

In the process of getting her unstuck, I got a good bit on me. Hooray! At this point, my mind is racing trying to figure out what to do. I ran to the sink with both of us to douse our stickiness in dish soap. Didn't do a thang! Next!

Went and got the lava soap. It gets anything off skin, right! Nopers! Okay, moving on...

Went and got on the computer and googled something like - how to get fly tape sticky off of skin. I only got one result for that. Seriously? Seriously. This person had the same issue, only it got caught in her hair. So her solution was a baby wipe soaked in alcohol. I went and got the alcohol and proceeded to rub my hands like a crazy woman to see if it would work. No dice. Great, now what do I do?!

Right about then, I remembered that my mom got a piece of gum out of my hair with a lovely, wonderful substance found right in the kitchen when I was little. Anyone care to speculate what that was? Oh, alright:

That's right PEANUT BUTTER!!!

Off to the pantry I flew! Out came the peanut butter. In went my finger (can't be messing with spoons and such nonsense at this point!) I got a bit out and started rubbing it all over my hands. It was a bit like a face mask for my hands, if you will. Back to the sink for a soapy rinse and what was the result? Goo was GONE!!! George Washington Carver, I LOVE you!!!!

So, what have we learned from this caffafle (can't find out how to spell this word correctly!)?

1. Don't hang a fly trap wand anywhere near a curtain that will be opened and closed at all.

2. Even though we all know this, let's go over it again: Babies will always find the stickiest, nastiest, hardest to clean substance available to them at any given time and then want to put it in their mouth. Mmmm...

3. Peanut butter is a multi-purpose substance and should be present in your house at all times awaiting the immediate necessity of its creamy goodness.

Okay, that is the end of our lesson for today... Anybody want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? :)

I don't need no stinkin' store-bought nutrigrain bars! I can make my own...

And here's how:

So, I was balking at the amount of nutrigrain bars this family was consuming and the dollar amount was swimming before my very eyes and so I decided that surely I could make these things myself! So, off I frolicked to my favorite search engine, Google, to do a bit of sifting. I actually found a few that looked pretty good, so I printed them out and then promptly left them in my recipe area for a couple of months. Timing is, apparently, everything. ;p Then, after putting it on my to-do list repeatedly, I FINALLY got the recipes out and looked at them again. One looked particularly close to the real thing, which is what I wanted anyway. So without further ado, here is the recipe and a few photos from when I made my last batch the other day. I used one jar of raspberry and one jar of red plum. Tangy!

This was posted by BaylorMom @ titus2.com :

Here is our favorite! It is very similar to nutri-grain bars. They also freeze well. I just make them and what we don't eat we freeze for another time! I have always doubled the recipe. I buy a 32 oz. jar of preserves so this makes it easy. I use my Pampered Chef Bar pan to make the double batch in (don't know the size, but that should give you an idea of the size, I hope.) This pan works well, but it always goes over a little and some gets in the bottom of the oven!! So, if you don't like that you might want to use a bigger pan. I don't mind b/c it is not a lot.


Fruit and Grain Bars
1 Cup Butter or Margarine -- Softened
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 Cups Oats
16 Ounces Strawberry Preserves -- * See Note
1 Teaspoon Almond Extract

I like to add a good tablespoon or so of cinnamon, too:)

You, of course, need a sous chef! He actually posed for this picture by pretending to use that spatula. He is not allowed to do the spatula part while the mixer is in motion. He actually said, "I'm just going to hold it like this while you take my picture so it will look like I'm actually doing it for real." Okay....

Cream margarine and sugar.
Add dry ingredients. Mix well. Add almond extract. Press half of crumb mixture into greased 9 x 13 pan. Spread with preserves. (*Use Strawberry, raspberry, peach or other favorite).
Sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture. Bake at 350* for 20-25 min. Cool and cut into bars.

I think I got about 36 bars out of that batch. Take THAT store-bought bars!

I prefer to use the HEB brand more fruit spread. If you haven't tried it, you are totally missing out! Well, unless you make your own jelly or preserves cuz that's what it tastes like. Everyone who has tried this stuff really likes it. I also just doubled the recipe this last time. Oh, and I've found that as far as the wheat flour goes, there is a HUGE difference between brands! I was using the store brand until they didn't have it once and so I tried King Arthur All Natural White Whole Wheat Flour. Oh, wow, did it make a difference in the texture! I'm sold! Okay, I also have been storing mine in the freezer. I just thaw what we need or not. They can be eaten straight out of the freezer. These things are so yummy, the kids don't seem to mind.:)

6 yrs old!

Braden is 6 yrs old today!

What an exciting time! He is such an amazing big boy. He is growing and changing and learning every minute of every hour of every day. This year he learned how to read. He has become an even better big brother. He's gotten taller and he looks older in his face. He's had heart struggles resulting in bad attitudes as well as great attitudes. He's learned more about God and God has in turn given him more understanding. He has opened his heart more to God and also had times he's closed his heart off and not let God be his master. He has gotten his feelings hurt by other kids and learned more about manipulation. He's learned more about gratitude and thankfulness and his heart has times of complete openness and generosity. God is molding him and transforming him. He has learned more about forgiveness. He's starting to understand what a joke is. He (and we) is/are learning how to guide his strong will into a submitted leadership to God. He has gotten even more ticklish, if that is even possible. :) What an adventurous journey he is on! God has such plans for our Braden and we are anticipating it with captivating interest.

Braden, we are so proud of you. We love how you love God full speed ahead and how you have struggles and learn through them to trust God more. We are excited for you to continue on this special journey God has placed in front of you! May you always invite God to be your Lord and Master. May you always look to Him for all of your answers. May you always invite Him into every situation no matter how small and seemingly petty or how large and seemingly impossible! God made you and He knows you inside out. He knows where you've been, where you are and where you are going. He has an amazing plan for you and can use you for His purposes in astounding ways! Do every thing unto the Lord becuase people are fickle and so is their praise of you, but God sees all that you do and He will be blessed though no one else may see it! Give Him your heart and let him mold you and stretch you even if you know it will hurt because the person you become will be so much more than the person you are right now. Grow in Him and He will grow in you. Read his word, put it in your heart and you will always have armor from the poisonous weapons this world and the prince of darkness aim at you. Practice the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. You will look so different from the world that people will just flock to you wanting what you have. What an opportunity to store your treasures in heaven! Do you see that you can take nothing with you to heaven, but people?! You can, by God's Holy Spirit, help people to join our Father's family and won't that be a tremendous feast in Heaven?! Most importantly of all, just love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself . Seek His kingdom first and every thing else will be added to you. When you are doing what He has appointed you for, he'll take care of everything else.

We love you and are so grateful and thankful and just plain ecstatic that God has placed you in our family for such time as this!

Happy Birthday, Braden!!!

Update schmupdate!

I know I need to do another mon0lithic expose on the inner workings of the Dyess posse, BUT I'm only going to give a tiny tast of what is to come.....just don't say I didn't warn you when you click on this blog and you are immersed in an epic saga-like emotional roller coaster. I mean, you'll laugh, you'll cry...it'll move you, Bob! (Anyone who guesses what "movie" that is from gets two whole points.)

Now, for the shorty, but goodie news flash:

We are all doing well. Its super busy around here and we've all been up to lots of stuff, which is why it will need to be in another post. :) The main thing is Sam's back is getting better. He went in to the spine clinic and was told that surgery was the last and least likely option. He went back in on a later date and got a steroid shot, but Sam thinks it wasn't at the right nerve. The doctors said they might not have gotten the right one because there are several in the general area of the disc and it was basically a guessing game to get it right. Anyway, he then went in at an even later date to see a physical therapist. She gave him exercises to do and told him to stay away from a couple of no-nos and he's been doing those pretty consistently. Basically, the doctors said that he's doing very well and he's just pretty much having to recover from the chiropractic care he was having before finding out it was a ruptured disc. Now, just to clarify, we LOVE utilizing chiropractors! We have both received immense relief from them in the past. This just happened to be an issue that if not aware of, chiropractic adjustment of the sort he was receiving actually made the condition worse. He could start up again and with the info of the ruptured disc, have different adjustments and it would be fine. Okay, moving on....

So, that's basically all I have time for right now, but I will have lots of pictures and I will do a big post about the boys' robot party I'm into up to my arm pits. (great mental picture, right?;p) Oh, and I think I will start posting my Sunday school lessons on here from time to time because I get such great material and resources from other sites for FREE and I need not be stingy with my process! Okay, gotta get busy on my busy-ness again!