Casen's Idea of Vacation

Branson Lesson #1

Cousins make everything more fun!

Painted Rooms

We got our big summer project done for summer: painting the boys' rooms. With Mom watching the boys and Dad helping Josh or me (whoever was not working), it only took us 3 days.

Liam's room is a cucumber green in two shades. We painted one wall the darker shade and the other three walls were the lighter shade. We couldn't tell a difference between the colors until we added the stripe across the lighter walls. I really ended up liking it.

Casen's room is the bright one with all the colors. We probably will ultimately move the boys in together in this room. Casen loved the colors!

Chemists and Chemicals

I had a lunch meeting today with a group of chemists. I knew I would have a story to blog before I got to the restaurant.

Chemist 1: I got some menus for us....Whew, they smell strong!

Me: Yes, I could smell it as soon as I opened the menu.

Chemist 1: I wonder if that's the ink smell.

Chemist 2: I don't know..maybe a solvent?

Chemist 3: What? A smell?

Chemist 4: It's probably the solvent.

Chemist 2: We need to run a GC on it...anybody?

Thankfully, nobody proceeded to tear a piece of the menu off to sample later using the GC.

At least to my knowledge.

Catching Up

I get asked by other professors how I have time to blog during the school year. I always reply that blogging is something I do to de-compress. Thanks to regular naps and downtime in the summer, I don't have to de-compress very much during the summer. Therefore, I don't blog as often in the summer.

Here are some of the pictures from earlier this month. Baby Lilly got to visit (along with her sweet parents Annie and Jared). I took the boys down to Josh's fam's for a few days, too. Funtimes!

Bumbleberry Pie

Anybody who knows me well knows that I don't really care to cook. I don't mind baking, but it's not high on my priority list so I rarely do it. But lately, I've been a Bumbleberry Pie Makin' Queen (3 in the last few weeks which is sure to be a record).

My aunt makes it so after she bought the stuff while I was in Kansas, I made one up there. My first pie crust from scratch! My other aunt sent me home with the recipe and now I've made 2 pies. Here is the complete recipe, but I add more filling ingredients including rhubarb when I can find it.


Having a helper is always nice.

Here's a bowl of all the yummy berries and apples mixed up:


I was proud of these little homemade blobs.


Spreading the crust into the dish. I didn't use a dish this deep the first time I made the pie. I baked the extra filling in a separate dish and then people can just eat that (for those who don't care for pie crust) or pile some more filling on top of their pie slice.


Before I baked it:


Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product (and again when I made another one 3 days later!). So here's what it should look like once the pie is baked. Of course, mine wasn't as pretty, but it sure was yummy! Serve with icecream.

Cool Trick

Up to this point, Casen, like most little kids his age, hadn't realized that Dad only has 4 fingers on one of his hands. Last weekend, Dad asked Casen if he noticed anything different about his hand and his own hand. After counting fingers on both hands, Casen realized that Dad was missing his ring finger. Casen exclaimed, "I want to do that!"

He thought it was another cool trick that his Bunny was showing him. Not quite.

Casen Going to Work

Casen told me he was going to work. As he drove away on his tricycle, I asked him what he does at work.

"I have to check my email...watch a Dora on the computer...and do a lot of races."

Oh, I wonder if this is what he thinks I do at work or what he really really hopes he gets to do at work one day.

Liam's 1.5 Birthday Party!

Since Liam was born right after Christmas, we decided we would celebrate his birthday at the halfway marks instead - at least for a few years until he can decide what he wants to do.

The theme was "Whale of a party", hence, the whale cake. Came out cute didn't it? My mom made the whale cupcakes and the captain boat.

It turned out well. Since he was older, he actually had an idea what was going on at his own party. The kids had a blast (and so did the adults!).

Cousin Photo Op

At Liam's birthday party, we bribed the kids with cake to ensure some cousin group shots. Then we created little monsters - they posed for us all over place. Even Big Josh's bright idea of "Say no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil."