The Magic of Christmas

Early in December, my parents donated money to the Fraternal Order of Police to help them with their "Shop with a Cop" program and with their donation, they were given several tickets to a magic show called "The Magic of Christmas."  It was on Thursday and since we had the kids, we decided to take them. 

My parents got their early enough to sit right on the front row, so the kids, along with John and Kate, and Cole got to sit right up close and personal with the magician.  It was a fun way to spend an evening...with many laughs.

Because we were right in the front, we got to participate.  The magician needed a shoe, so Eric's size 13 Doc Martens got to play the part.  

 The magician's wife (ie. the assistant) wore lots of really short dresses and even got to float.

One guy got to participate in the chop your head off illusion.  

The magician put his wife in a box and pushed a bunch of swords through it.

The funniest part of that trick was the outfit his wife was wearing.  Her boobs were falling out of the bottom which cause much laughter in our section, probably everyone else too.  My dad said that maybe she needs a bigger size.  I tried to get a picture, but it didn't turn out to great.  I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

It was a little corny for a magic show, but we had fun.  I should mention that the poor magician had his trailer with all of his magic tricks stolen last week, so he did great improvising.  There were also some technical difficulties with the music that were super frustrating for him.  But, we did have fun and I guess the FOP did so great with their fundraiser they were able to help 20 more kids than they were planning on. 

Why Does My Garbage Disposal Hate Me?

This morning I tried to play plumber and flooded my kitchen.  I'll get to the flooding part soon, but there is a preface to this story...

When I lived in my super tiny apartment in IL, I didn't have a garbage disposal.  It worked great...I just threw away my egg shells, vegetable peels, leftovers, whatever.  I did take the garbage out often, but it was seriously no big deal.  When Tim and I got married, all of the sudden I had a big fridge and an full size oven, a dishwasher and a garbage disposal.  These things have all been awesome, except for the garbage disposal...because IT HATES ME!

I don't think we had been married a month before I clogged the sink with potato peels.  It was a Sunday morning and I'm pretty sure I made Tim's day when I told him that the sink was clogged.  I watched him unclog it and I've never put potato peels in the disposal since then. 

Clogging the sink has happened a few or alot more times since then and I've watched Tim enough and even unclogged it myself to know what I need to do.  I should also mention that I rarely use the garbage disposal because it truly doesn't work for me.  Everyone else in the house can use it just fine, but not me.

This morning I made eggs for breakfast.  Because I've clogged the sink with eggshells before, I usually don't put them down the drain.  However, this morning, I used only two whole eggs and then four whites, so there were yolks and eggshells mixed together.  I turned on the water, I started the disposal and then I proceeded to shove one egg at a time down the disposal.  Tim says that I don't use the disposal correctly which is why it clogs, but I'm pretty sure that I used the proper procedure this morning.

We had our breakfast and then Tim went to study for his exam tomorrow, while I started to clean up breakfast...except the sink was clogged. SUPER!  I finished loading the dishes in the dishwasher, put a pot under the pipes under the sink, and started testing out my plumbing skills...and failed MISERABLY! 

All of the sudden there were eggshells...lots and lots of tiny pieces of eggshells...and LOTS of water SPEWING from the pipes...ALL OVER THE KITCHEN FLOOR! 

Very calmly, I called out to Tim, "I need your help."  Then, I hurried into the bathroom to grab ALL of our towels. 

He came into the kitchen and said, "What did you do?!"  Then, he started laughing.  We started cleaning up. 

He said, "I'm glad I came in here so fast. Perhaps next time you should have some urgency in your voice." 

I said, "I didn't want to freak you out." 

He said, "I'm the plumber in this house and this is something to freak out about."  Then, he laughed some more and gave me a big hug.
He said, "Do you see how much work you've created for yourself?"  I guess he was talking about the 2 loads of towels and rugs I'm currently washing, as well as mopping the kitchen floor.

I said, "Well, I was planning on cleaning today anyways, so I guess I've got a good start."

The kitchen is all cleaned, as well as the rest of the house.  The laundry is going.  I'm pretty sure I'm done with the garbage disposal.  I just wish it didn't hate me so much!

You Know Dinner is Going to Suck When the Steaks are on FIRE!

A few weeks ago, Tim's dad gave us some ribeye steaks. I'm not a fan of ribeyes, but Tim likes them so I decided to cook them tonight. Apparently, that was a very bad idea.



This morning I marinated the steaks in Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper. I let them sit out while the grill warmed up, and cooked the mashed potatoes. I put the steaks on the grill and looked at my watch so I could turn the steaks over after 4 minutes. I prefer a rare to medium rare steak, so after 4 minutes, I went to check on the steaks and they were on fire...literally, on fire...like I had to blow out the flames when I flipped them. Of course, Kona had to poop in the middle of all this. Welcome to my life...

I turned the steaks over, turned the grill down to low heat, took the dog out for his evening dump, and hurried back inside to get the steaks off the grill. They were still on fire.

So, I pulled them off and yes, I did have to blow out the flames on the steaks, let them rest and finished the mashed potatoes and broccoli. I told Tim I cremated the steaks. He didn't believe me until he walked into the kitchen and saw them. Because he's such a great guy, he laughed, and said, "I'm sure they'll taste great with salsa on them."

We both ate our ribeye jerky and I decided that I will leave the ribeye grilling up to Tim. Oh and I should mention that I actually do an awesome job cooking steaks.