Stromboli

When Joanna and Caroline were young we went to visit our friend Marj Kunz. She lived in Flushing. At the end of the visit Marj and and her sweet husband, Nells, invited us to lunch. We went to a little pizza place for stromboli. It was the first time I ever had stromboli. It was sort of like the pepperoni roll my Aunt Lena used to make, but single portions. It was delicious.

Over the years I have made this treat dozens of times.  It is a great leave in the frig or freezer and microwave to warm it up meal.

It is so easy. I use Betty Crocker pizza dough. Pat it out into small flat circles. Add pepperoni and whatever cheese I have. Gather the edges together, crimp, turn it over onto a foil lined, olive oiled cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes. We all love them. This recipe makes 20, so four per package. 

5 packages Betty Crocker dough mix

Warm water (as much as needed to a slightly wet dough consistency.)

pepperoni 

cheese

That's it.

Mid Michigan Children's Museum

Papa wasn't feeling good so Javier, Ayva and I went to the museum. We had such a good time. The new activity is a bunch of vacuum tubes to put balls or scarves in to be sucked through and popped out at the end. You can change the air flow mid stream. They really liked it.

Then they had fun dropping balls with the pulley. And the teeth and fish of course.

Fun Half Day

Javier and Ayva came over after their half day at school. We made cookies for Robbie for our cooking Tuesday.

I put on stewing beef for Fettuccine.

They are playing wii games until religion class.

It has been so much fun watching them. Ayva is best in some and Javier is best in the others. Javier  always helps Ayva put the wrist band on. So sweet.

Tuesday Night Cooking Class

Well..... this one was a fail.....

I had my doubts when I started it, but after reading the comments there were many that said how good their recipe turned out.  This is how it was supposed to turn out.

This is what it really looked like:

The meat was dry and chewy.  The recipe said it would pull apart with a fork - NOT.

Anyway - I'm going back to my foolproof method that sweet Cathy Hickey now Lipe taught me.

Slow cooker for 8-12 hours, Lipton onion soup - that's it.

Swimming

Yeah! Swimming classes are back in full swing at the YMCA.

Ayva and Javier are so happy to be swimming. Ayva's teacher is Dallas and Javier is back with Gwen again.

The Happiest Christmas Delivery

I received a text at 3:30 this morning. Robbie thanked us for his birthday and Christmas gift.

Joanna and Pat packed the box filling it with his TV and xbox. We sent a check and tons of snacks like jerky, gum and candy. They mailed it out in the beginning of November.

Joanna couldn't make a formal request for the package to be tracked by the military until yesterday. She could follow it online by the post office to California. Then it entered the military and could no longer be tracked online.

She chatted on the website that supports families of military personnel and learned that once you make a request the person usually gets the package.

It worked! So Christmas finally made it to Okinawa.

Favorite Christmas Gift

Pat and I made these pictures for Caroline and Joanna for Christmas. The first one is a picture from this past summer with Javier,  Robbie holding Romeo, Sheala holding Tino and Ayva behind her. We were at the Kochville park looking over the pond.

The picture of Robbie and Sheala was taken years ago at Chippewa Nature Center. Before Robbie left for the Air Force he wanted to recreate that shot. We spent a delightful afternoon looking for the same spot.

I got the idea of the frames on Pinterest and found five cupboard doors at an estate sale for $1 each. Then I resized the photos to 14 x 27. We took the .jpeg to Office Max and waited while they printed them. The pictures were from my Sony camera so good quality. Each picture was $25.

Pat took the hinges off. I cleaned them - they had been sitting in a barn for years and they were quite dirty. We measured and cut the pictures and a cardboard backing. Taped them to the back and added a wire to hang them from.

Caroline loved hers. Joanna cried.  It was a good Christmas.

Veggin out on the Sofa with my Sweetie Pies

Sheala came in last night at 1:30 in Detroit. Joanna and Pat went to get her. Joanna, Sheala and I have been sitting on the sofa all morning.

Joanna just went to pick up her Dad (he just dropped the Citation off to be fixed AGAIN.)