Time To Learn To Cook?

I am not a cook. I fear and loathe cooking. I've admitted it to ya'll before in passing (I think). But if you never caught on, I'll now admit it outright. I am not a big fan of cooking. On a fun scale of 1-10, cooking pretty much is a 1, maybe a 2....but that's pushing it. It's just not my idea of a good time, so I tend not to do it at all. It's messy and it seems hard and makes me think in measurements and degrees and stuff. That's some scary math stuff! I fear math! Ugh. I need one of those measurement conversion magnet things to go on my fridge. (And no, my lack of cooking skills is not the fault of my Mother. She tried her best when I was younger to show me the ways of the cooking world.....I just couldn't retain all the information. Sorry Mom.)

When I say "cooking" I'm not talking like boxed mac and cheese, hot dogs and brown beans, PB and J's, and frozen pizza with a side salad type of cooking. Of course I can do that and I do it all the time so my children don't starve to death during the day. I'm talking REAL cooking. Grab things out of the cupboard and slap them together to make something delicious type of dinner cooking. Find a sweet, new recipe in the cookbook and whip it up type of cooking. Sammy can do all this. He likes it.  

I understand this whole situation might seem a little...odd.  The hard working man goes off to work to provide for his family only to return home to cook dinner for his wife and kids? Gosh, I can feel the hate glares upon me now. How horrible am I? Can't even cook dinner for my own family. Why did Sam even agree to marry me!?

Now just to give some credit where credit is due, I do have a few recipes up my sleeves. I can at least follow a recipe if, for some weird reason, I DID feel like cooking.....like my husband needed the day off or for special occasion. But I have to follow it EXACTLY and even then I ultimately wind up needing Sammy to assist me for one reason or another or decipher what the heck the recipe is talking about. Here is a short list of meals I have prepared with my own hands.

*Homemade mac and cheese.....a family recipe

*Homemade tuna noodle casserole (I can actually do this one all on my own, without a recipe!)

*Homemade calico beans

*Homemade heavenly hamburger.....a family recipe

*Homemade stroganoff.....a family recipe

And most recently

*Homemade.....from scratch....blueberry muffins with a cinnamon sugar crumbly top.

With love,

Mama Hauck

The Handy Man

Sammy and Anthony went on a dirt bike ride yesterday and on their way home stumbled upon a pile of old barn wood. A dozen cool projects came to my mind when I went to go look at the wood. But ultimately we decided on making little benches! My husband is oh so handy. I just love him.

The wood

The hard working man

Anthony helping

Molly helping

The finished product. Don't you want to buy one? ;)

With love,

Mama Hauck

The Hauck Camping Adventure!

By the time Sammy got home from work, the kids and I were anxiously waiting on the porch to start our camping adventure. While Anthony, Molly, and I stuffed our faces full of marshmallows, (Yes, BEFORE dinner! lol) Sammy made up the burgers. We were really wanting to whip out our little camp stove and do the burgers old school style, but, you know, we're at home so we cheated and used the big grill. :) In any case, the burgers were delicious and the maple brownsugar brown beans were an extra treat. And just in case you were closing your eyes and mentally picturing us enjoying our juicy burgers, here's a photo to disrupt that thought!! Check out the sucker we found on the ceiling of our front porch. Ugh.

Once it was approaching nightfall, we bundled the kids up in P.J's with layers and headed out towards the tent! I was so excited I was practically running and I could hear Anthony behind me yelling, "Mama! I'm scared! It's dark!" LOL It didn't help the poor boy's nerves any that the coyotes started howling just then!  After a few snap shots we headed on into the tent because Anthony didn't want to go for an adventure walk. :( Boo! Fun killer! hehe

Trying to get all comfy cozy in the tent was rather difficult seeing as Papa and Anthony were stealing the blankets from Mama and Molly! Humph! After much blanket wrestling, we all finally settle in as well as we could and were treated to a little story time courtesy of Papa! Yay! Molly fell asleep easily enough. Good. One down, one to go. While Sammy and I were laying there staring up at the stars through the mesh ceiling of the tent I go, "Anthony? Are you awake?" You know what the silly boy answered back? "No, I'm sleeping." HAHA

Now friends, I must admit, I didn't make it the whole night in the tent. :( I tossed and turned. I moved from my back to my belly. I counted sheep. I did my best to think relaxing thoughts. I tried to steal blankets from Sammy. Nothing was working for me. I couldn't fall asleep and I couldn't get comfy. Whenever we use to go camping in the past we used a blow up mattress.  However, it's out of commission right now so we had to try to make due with TONS of blankets. Lets just say I simply could NOT make do. My scoliosis back was just KILLING me.I wound up snatching Mols up and we headed inside round about 12:30. *sigh* Blow up mattress next time!! Sammy and Anthony slept the whole night in the tent and I'm told when Anthony woke up he was asking if the squirrels were awake and if the coyotes were asleep!  :)

Here are some other random photos of story telling and silly antics on behalf of the Hauck Family.

With love,

Mama Hauck

Tonight, We Camp!

Tonight the Hauck family is pitching a tent and camping in the yard!! Actually, we pitched the tent last night to get it all set up for tonight.

Why, you might ask, are we camping out in our yard? 

Because we can!!! 

And we're cool like that. 

Sammy and I are camping junkies. See? 

It's been quiet some time since we've gone camping. Sad story. Last week I was thinking to myself, "Why haven't we gone camping? Money? Time? The kids?" Really, there's no excuse. So I ran the idea past Sam and the general consensus is that I'm brilliant and camping in the yard is the next best thing to packing up and heading off somewhere. 

So tonight: a tent, our yard, the kids. Flashlights? Stories? Snacks? Sounds like a good time to me! 

With love,

Mama Hauck

Sprinkler Fun

My cutie pies love sprinklers.  Tuesday it was like 95 so I whipped out a little sprinkler Anthony had gotten for his birthday last year and set it up on our front pathway. Then I proceeded to capture all the fun. Is it possible to fall in love with your children all over again every day? 

With love,

Mama Hauck

We Hit A Baby Nothing

Saturday we had a fantastic day at the fair that was being held in our little town of Goldendale. The kids were good, the food was good, the animals were fun to look at and touch and we all enjoyed the rodeo. That night we went out to dinner with my gal friend and her new lover. We went to a local Mexican joint and I had the most delicious enchiladas accompanied with a Cosmopolitan. 

But that's not the story. This is.....

So we're driving home and turn onto a back road with about 5 miles left till home. Kids in the back seat chattering away, hubby and I discussing whether we should set up the tent and camp out in the yard that night (we didn't, but think we will sometime this week  just for funsies), and all seemed right in our little Hauck world. Then BAM!

We hit a baby deer.

I mean, we hit a "nothing." 

This deer just magically appears in front of our car on my side like it was just teleported there. Sammy slammed on the breaks, but we must have skid a good 15 feet or so with the baby nothing sliding in front of the car the whole time. Finally we come to a stop and the baby nothing just ups and hops away. Like we were nothing but a miner inconvenience in it's day. I can't believe we didn't see little baby nothing parts scattered about the road.

Meanwhile, Sammy and I look at each other like "what in the hell?" as Anthony chirps up from the back....

"Mama? What was that?" 

"Oh, that? Yeah, haha. That was a baby.....ummmm....uhhhh.....nothing! We hit a nothing, kiddo! Ohh! Look at the sun!"

Clever of me to change the topic, huh?

I'm already a mouse murderer. I don't need my babies knowing between my husband and I, we've hit a handful of deer. One of which being a baby. He sooo loves watching the deer that wander into our yard every day and even talks to them.

Squirrels on the other hand we go out of our way to hit, shoot, and sick our dogs on. ;) 

So while the baby nothing gets away with no visible damage, I get left with a headache and jaw ache from clenching my teeth so hard. Why is that my bodies reaction to stress? Ugh.

With love, 

Mama Hauck

Mouse Adventures

August 16, 2010. 7:30 Am.

I decided I needed to stop playing pillow monster with my babies in bed and get up and start the day. After plopping my kiddos at the kitchen table for some breakfast I headed for the toast and what did I see?

Mouse poo on the counter. Again. Dark brown, perfectly formed little mouse poo. I cursed under my breath so the little ones didn't hear. But alas! What do my eyes see!? A pretty little dead mouse in the snap trap in my towel drawer. That brings the total to 4.

August 17, 2010. 6:00 Am.

The husband leaves for work. I tossed and turned in bed trying to fall back asleep. From the kitchen I heard the unmistakable clapping sound of a mouse trying to escape from a sticky trap. SUCCESS AGAIN!! I leapt out of bed giddy with excitement and whipped open the drawer. Friends, I did my happy dance right then and there. The total is now 5.

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Every morning for the past week I have awoken to find mouse poo either on my kitchen counters, under my sink, or in my towel drawer.

Precautionary measures?

*I've removed all my dish towels to an undisclosed location so no more fall victim to mice chewing.

*After finding mouse poo in my silverware drawer, I disinfected every last piece in the dishwasher AND hand washed them. I covered the back entrance of the drawer and then for extra measure placed layers of paper towel on top of all the silverware and then tucked underneath the silverware holder fully protecting them from future mice exposure.

*All food left on the counters (for lack of room elsewhere) is now stored in plastic containers instead of simply being wrapped. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, death for you.

* I have studied and noted where these invaders like to go. What they like to eat. What they take from me to make for their bedding. I have strategically placed their little death traps in prime traffic areas with towel threads on them and tasty peanut butter or half a blueberry.

Every morning and then periodically throughout the day I make a routine scan of the traps I have placed around the kitchen. For a couple days, to my dismay, I was noticing my peanut butter licked off and my blueberries missing WITHOUT setting the snap traps off. Oh was I pissed!!! I thought how could this be? A fly could set these traps off!! How in the hell.....

I still can't say how these crafty suckers were doing it. But they fueled my anger and so I broke out the big guns. A whole slew of sticky traps were unwrapped and primed with their favorite treats and towel threads and set up along with the others I already had. The snap traps were baited again and then pressed ever so lightly by the hubby to "prime" them for less weight.

This tactic obviously worked wonders.

But how much longer must this go on? I've had to go out and buy more kitchen cleaner and sponges. I'd rather wake up and find NO mouse poo and NO dead mice in the traps and have them be gone for good than to smirk over their dead bodies.
Bad Ass Mama: 5
Furry Invader: Some peanut butter and a few blueberries.

With love,
Mama Hauck

Don't Blink

Molly looks older today for some reason. She looks older today than she did just yesterday.

I went in to get her from her nap and there she sat in the middle of her crib, big beautiful blue eyes looking up at me, grin on her face, hair swooped to the side. She looked older than her 14 months. I can't say how or why, but she did. She just looked older. Just seemed older. I couldn't stop staring at her. I couldn't stop wondering if I had just gotten a glimpse of the little girl to be.....a glimpse into the future.

How incredibly bittersweet.

You know she can wave now. She'll give a little wave and mutter what I believe to be her rendition of bye-bye and then toddle off. She might even stop and look back at you and wave again.

You know what else she does now? She blows kisses. Must have picked it up by watching Anthony and I blow kisses to each other. She puts here sweet little hand up to her sweet little lips and blows. She doesn't follow the kiss through the air with her hand yet, but I don't mind. I know she's directing the kiss my way and that's all that matters.

God I could cry.

And you know how you go, "Shhhh" and put your finger up to your lips? Yeah, she does that too. Though her finger goes in her nose instead of on her lips. Good try though.

And yesterday I asked her to go to the drawer and, "Get Mama a wipe!" and off she goes, heading to the end table that has a drawer with wipes in it. Anthony jumped in front of her and did it himself, so I didn't actually get to see what she would do, but I have no doubts she knew exactly what I wanted and would have done it.

Recently, if you tell her, "No Baby, that's a no-no" she'll put her head down and act as if she's aware she shouldn't have done whatever she was doing. Either that or she is pouting. Sometimes she storms off crying to her room only to return and lay her precious little head on your lap and give you the sweetest grin. As if she could do no wrong and her smile fixes everything.

And when you lay down on the floor, she goes and gets one of her blankies and lays down with you.

She answers to Baby. That's what I call her. When I talk about her, I call her Molly. When I talk to her, I call her Baby. "Come here, Baby." "What are you doing, Baby?" "Anthony, go get Baby." "I love you, Baby."

June 28, 2010 Molly's B-day, Photo by my Mama

July 22, 2010 Photo by my Mama

August 14, 2010 Photo by me

Will she be my baby tomorrow?
Or will she be this new Molly I've seen today?

With love,
Mama Hauck

July: A Little Sweet, A Little Sour

July 2nd, as you all know my Father flew in from NY. The last time he saw the kids Molly was only a newborn and Anthony was trying to figure out who this new baby was, lol. The first week of his visit here went rather well. We had a great 4th of July watching the Demolition Derby at our fairgrounds then went to the park for a picnic with my one bestie and her daughter that lives in town. Grandpa taught Anthony how to ride his bike! I was so glad my dad got to have that special moment with him. Anthony was so proud of himself! I'll never forget it. I know it meant the world to my dad as well. And Molly went right for Grandpa. I had concerns that she'd shy away from him because she's weary of new people, but she took right too him and they were best friends. It was enough to make me cry.

I have made a very difficult and important family decision. I am following my head, not my heart. And while this decision isn't what I had wanted, I take comfort in the fact that we have agreed to reevaluate where we are this time next year and go from there.

July 7th, Molly developed a string of high fevers that scared the crap out of me. She was lethargic and listless and just not herself. It's absolutely horrible to see your child in such a state. She was later diagnosed as having Roseola, a viral infection characterized by a run of fevers followed by a distinct looking rash that can spread to cover the whole body. Because she was so grumpy and because we had to keep her inside and cool most of the time, a lot of plans I had made for my father and mother in law's visit here fell to the wayside. And that sucked. We did a lot of sitting around waiting for Molly to feel better and get back to her old self.

You might have to click on the photos to really be able to see the rash.

July 9th, my mother in law flew in from MN. This was her very first time seeing Molly and the last time she saw Anthony was Christmas of '08. And even though Molly being ill and out of sorts for a good chunk of her visit put a damper on a lot of our plans, I know Cathy still had a great time. All that mattered was being here with us and seeing the children. Anthony loved that Grandma slept on the blowup mattress on his floor and would tell him bedtime stories. :)

July 13th, my sister flew in from CA for a short visit. She came up so she could spend my b-day with me and then fly back with my dad when he left on the 18th. It was good to have her here. The kiddos like to play with her.

July 14th I turned 24 years old. We went to this little museum and took a looksie around then headed out to dinner and played a few games at the restaurant's arcade. Later there was chocolate cake that was difficult to eat because my mouth was hurting (which will be explained further down). Sammy got me a Keurig coffee maker and the new Jack Johnson CD. My dad took me shopping at JC Pennys and got me a few things as well as a gift card. My mother in law gave me $100.00 to put towards my next tattoo I've been trying to save up to get. My gal pal who I'm always raving about on here, Lori, was so kind to make me a beautiful necklace and earring set. My BF Jill sent me a card which is proudly displayed on my fridge. And my mother helped me purchase a slide and teeter totter for the kiddos which should be arriving here next week.

July 18th, my dad and mother in law left. The day after that Sammy left for 3 days for a work conference. I went from having a house full of people to just me home alone way out in the boonies with the kids. I felt lonely and depressed.

My wisdom teeth were bothering me again this month and causing me more pain than usual. The I WANT TO DIE kind of pain. It wasn't bad enough Molly was ill for half of the Grandparent's visit, but I had to have horrible mouth pain too. :( I'm all smiles in most of the pics we took this month, but inside I'm screaming in pain! lol So I went into the dentist when my dad was still here and the doc tells me I have all 4 wisdom teeth and I need to see an oral surgeon. I called crying to my mother because I'm just so stressed out and the oral surgeon can't get me in for a consult for another 2 weeks and by then my dad was gone and Sammy can't take much more time off from work. So my mom lovingly drives up from CA to take care of me and the kids. Here's a pic of my Mama with the kiddos.

I went in for my consult on the Friday the 23rd and it's not good news. I've waited far too long and all the wisdom teeth are fully grown. The bottom right one has it's roots curved around a nerve so that one has to stay and be reevaluated at a later date to determine if the risks of taking it out are better than the risks of leaving it in. The others can be removed but it's going to be difficult. Because my mouth is so incredibly small, the teeth have grown more up into my jaw then out into my mouth, damaging my jaw bone. I am at a high risk of breaking my jaw bone if, lets say, I have Molly on my lap and she bumps me. Great.

I was feeling really down and out and needed a pick-me-up so I dyed my hair. 

I finally got in to have the 3 wisdom teeth removed this past Friday. Sammy was able to take off work to go with me while my mom stayed home with the kids. Doc said all went well, though it was extremely difficult and thankfully no nerves were nicked in the process. So now here I sit, face swollen like a chipmunk. Still bleeding. Outer left lip and chin still numb. In tons of pain because the pain meds work worth crap. Extremely tired, grumpy and just overall blah. I want to scream!!! You don't want to see a picture of me right now. Trust me.

At least I can be thankful to have my mom here watching the kids for me so I can lay in bed and recover. In fact, that's the only way I'm able to actually get on and write up this blog post. She's off with the kids to the park and I'm on the comp bitching, I mean writing, to ya'll instead of sleeping. :) Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon. I've been pretty down this past month. I really miss my dad and I'm sad he lives all the way in NY and can't see the kids. I'm tired of being in pain. I just want to feel like my happy self again. I could use ya'll in my corner routing for me. 

July was a rough month...a little sweet, a little sour.

With love,
Mama Hauck