Happy NASCAR Day!

We are not big Nascar fans in this house. We do not watch the races or track the drivers' points. I had to double check that the Daytona 500 actually WAS this weekend, LOL. However, on Valentine's Day, I gave the boys cards with chocolate Nascar candy stuck to the front. Troyer saved the plastic forms, intending to use them as molds, possibly for clay. Last year he molded some cars, put the foil back on them, and used them on his birthday cake. This year he came up with the idea of using them for Jello. His idea just happened to coincide with the opening of the Nascar season, so I said, "Go for it!"

And so, we celebrated Nascar Day on Sunday, with lime Jello race cars. Personally, I thought the whipped cream exhaust was the best part! LOL





And by the way, trying to get Jello jigglers out of plastic molds is a bear! Much harder than getting it out of a metal pan.

Brag

I know it's late, but hey, I have been lazy, er busy LOL

Last weekend, Chris and I arranged to have a weekend to ourselves. We sent ALL the kids (yes, even the baby!) a county away, split between MIL and SIL. We had 48 hours all to ourselves. We had originally planned to attend a marriage retreat sponsored by our church, but we were too slow to register and it filled up before we got around to it. But actually, being home w/o kids is almost (or actually?) better. Yes, we did have to cook rather than eating at restaurants, but other than that, it was just like being in a huge suite. We got videos, we planned food that we ordinarily wouldn't try with kids around (darn picky eaters!), we slept in and stayed up late, and could leave food and drink sitting by the tv without worry of it getting spilled or eaten. We talked a lot without being interrupted, ate without being interrupted, took showers without being interrupted (appreciated more by myself than Chris, since he's usually in and out of the shower before any of them wake up).

Also, on Friday, the start of our weekend, Chris came home from work with a bag of valentine candy, and a bouquet of peach colored roses. This was special to me, because he hates the idea of cut flowers which will just die in a few days; he'd rather get me a potted plant that I have to, er can water every week and enjoy the withered brown, er blooms over and over. Personally, potted plants are a burden to me because I am forever not getting around to them in time and they wilt, then I have to coddle them back to life, then they wilt. I rarely get any more blooms on them once the original ones fall off. I like the ease of enjoying the bouquet and then getting to throw them out when they are done. Considerately, Chris acknowledged my preference, and the roses he got were beautiful.


The last remaining bloom
Points to anyone who can recognize the glass it's in!

The only snag was the snow. We had planned to go out to eat both Friday and Saturday night, since I never never never get to go out to a sit down and order from a menu and have my meal brought to me by someone else and have the plates taken away rather than have to carry the tray to the trash can restaurant. But alas, when we got to MIL's to drop off the kids, she had ordered pizza and guilted us into staying to eat, so Friday night was out. Then Saturday the snow came. It started about 4, and we had planned to go out about 6 or 7. Well, by then we didn't want to risk going out and then getting stuck trying to get home at 8 or 9. Chris came through, though, and cooked up some chicken quesadillas which turned out pretty yummy, and were very filling. Then on Sunday morning we didn't really get to sleep in as we would have liked, because we had to go out and shovel so we could leave in the afternoon to pick up the kids. So overall, it would have been better without the snow, but it still turned out pretty nice. We definitely need to do it again - maybe in September for our anniversary.

Roll Call

Rachel, I think it's kind of rare to find "our" name spelled with an 'a;' it is almost always misspelled, though, perhaps due to a famous actor's spelling? Anyway, congrats on your upcoming #3! Here are our boys' names, to give you inspiration:

Troyer Christian
Noah Jonathan
Samuel Jeremiah
Caleb Josiah
Micah Joel
Levi Benjamin

Troyer is my maiden name, and we had fought over names up until Chris offered it up as a joke to me; but the joke was on him, I liked the idea! LOL We used Christian instead of Christopher because he didn't want a namesake.

All the other names came out of the Bible, and we tried to use names that were not too common (Chris hated having 6 other kids in his class with the same name, some of whom were girls lol)

Some names I liked but got voted down: Tobias, Matthew, Andrew, Timothy, Peter
Some names I knew we could not use, with our last name: Hannah (how's that for almost hyperventilating, LOL); Heather actually isn't as bad but again, we nixed the alliteration.

By the way, when I have to give people my name (over the phone or to receptionists) they often mistake it for Rachel, and Rachel is the alternate name we have had in reserve since #1, for when we got a girl!

Good luck and best wishes on your coming new addition! Let me know what you ended up choosing!