grilled pizza!

thought i'd try a new twist on some pizza tonight - i'd gotten a magazine a few yrs ago, called cuisine at home. it was a trial issue, but the recipes in it are AMAZING! i've tried almost all but the grilled pizza. it's a cool mag, because it's designed to teach the home cook how to create semi-gourmet meals in the average kitchen. several top-chefs contribute the secrets behind their skills, and show you how to produce restaurant-quality meals in your own kitchen. sooo - off i went to 1. make my own sauce from all fresh ingredients 2. prepare the pizza dough and wait for the rising, and 3. assemble and grill!
the result was incredible - it was like eating wood-fired pizza from a restaurant! grilling the dough gave it a rich, smoky flavor, and the olive oil made it slightly crunchy. i topped the pizzas with olive oil on the crust, the fresh sauce, a few chunks of fresh mozzarella, kosher salt, and some rotisserie chicken. WOW!!!

park and pool

we've been having a lot of fun so far this summer! i've tried to make good use of places nearby for the kids to have fun - we have an awesome park and swimming pool in cranberry, so we've been taking our lunch out to the park lately. caloway is so much fun to watch in public - he makes friends instantly with other kids, and it's amazing to see what a natural "leader" he already is - kids just flock around him, and they follow him everywhere! even at church, our teens really enjoy his company. caloway loves pretending, and his latest venture is "restaurant". he sits behind the cafe counter in the front lobby at church, and within minutes, there are at least 5-7 teens clustered around his "restaurant" ordering food and playing w/ him! most of the time, if you order something he doesn't think of, he'll tell you "i'm sorry, but we're all out!" then he'll make a suggestion FOR you, and say "that will be forty dollars!" he hired Tae, a 15 yr. old kid, to be his assistant, but then decided Tae was eating too much of the food, and he fired him! hahaha - caloway is definitely imaginative! his latest new words are "that's lame!" i think phineas and ferb has something to do with that new gem.
claire is miss Ipod lately - she absolutely LOVES taylor swift, and rascal flatts! it's so cute seeing her sitting in the backseat, headphones on, singing at the top of her lungs, "he's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar ..." cameron's sitting next to her, huffing and puffing, yelling, "claire! you're singing too loud, it's annoying me!" only a few minutes later, when it's HIS turn to listen to the ipod, you see him bobbing back and forth, only a little bit out of tune, "sadie hawkins dance, in my khaki pants ... nothing better .. oh, oh oh!" you see, if it's relient K, it's OK to sing out loud! hahaha! and claire is poking him, "cam! listen to how loud you're singing! it's annoying me!" and so it goes ...
oh, and by the way? talking about phineas and ferb? all 3 of the kids have memorized every episode ever shown on disney ... all i hear now, is "MOM! phineas and ferb are making a title sequence!!" over and over ... and for those of you who don't know what that means, that's the opening to the show. :) bring on more SUMMER!

food coloring

this is never something you want to find lying open on the stairs ... it wasn't too hard to figure out who'd gotten this little box out of the baking cupboard.

sad

I think my heart is finally broken over our house in ohio. after 2 years being for sale, mostly by owner, 8 mo. with a realtor, we've received our first contract to purchase. an offer for $70,000. $22,000 less than what we owe on our beloved home! caught in between a rock and a hard place, we've accepted the offer, and we're praying the bank will accept it, as well. the house is in short sale, so most likely they will accept it, and it will finally be done with.
i just finished a conversation w/ a friend of ours, back in ohio - they live in marion, about 25 min. from galion, and they just put their house on the market a few weeks ago, and have already gotten a good offer to buy! and to pour more salt on the open wound, their house (which is very comparable to ours, except ours had more sq. footage) appraised a few mo. ago for $100,000! ours appraised at $84,000. HOW is that possible?! i am so upset that we're losing our beautiful home with nothing in return, except a tattered credit score! i'm desperately trying to remain positive in the midst of all of this, trying to be thankful that we have a roof over our heads, but in the back of my mind are all the worries and frustrations of being in a house we're PRAYING we can buy, that's just NOT like the one we left behind. don't get me wrong, we do love the house we're in - my biggest frustration w/ it, is we lost the HUGE family room we had in OH. but the cost of living is so much higher here, we can't afford anything bigger!
i know there are bigger problems out there, i just don't understand why we're the ones who get the short end of the stick. we have owned 2 homes and haven't made a DIME off of either of them. i'm just so sick and tired of it all!

joys of reading

we were at a graduation party this afternoon, and we had to make a quick bathroom stop ... ok, maybe 2, because it seems whenever we get out in public, the kids automatically have to go potty ... BADLY! like, they can't HOLD IT for REALS! anyway, on the 2nd run, cam and claire went w/ me, and as claire was washing her hands, she sweetly recites back to me what she read while on the potty ... the lovely words that were etched onto the stall door. shocked, i looked at her, and thankfully realized she had NO idea what they meant, so i quickly informed her to never read what's written inside a bathroom stall, it's ALWAYS BAD.
isn't it great when your kids learn how to read?! haha :) gotta learn to appreciate any teaching moments we get!

a day at the Y

caloway has been doing bitty baseball at the Y this past month, learning all the basics of the game - how to hit, throw, catch, and run the bases. he really loves it, and does very well! he'll probably be the only child in our family who wants to do sports, haha! when cal is done with baseball, cameron and claire work the rock wall. claire finally reached the top yesterday! it's a great workout for them, and tim will usually climb up with them, too, racing them to the top.

only a momma would ...

so we were swimming last night at the Y ... well, i'll rephrase that - tim and the kids were swimming at the Y last night! i don't enjoy swimming that much, so i sit on the sidelines, and hold towels and goggles. clairely finally worked up the courage to go down the big slide, and she swam beautifully to the ladder! it's so exciting to see their swimming lessons paying off! and it's even nicer to be ABLE to sit on the sidelines, instead of having to swim w/ them, holding onto them the entire time! tim still does, but it's nice that i don't have to. after fun w/ the slides and sprayers, they all went to the "warm pool", and swam there for another half hour. caloway likes to "swim" by himself, w/ his noodle and floatie, but after awhile, he wanted the floatie off, because the strap was bothering him. we made him keep it on, however - he's only just started swimming lessons, and in NO way is ready to swim w/o a flotation device.
as we were getting ready to leave, caloway was begging for the back float off, so i decided to take it off, since he still had his noodle. i reached over, and unstrapped the float, and immediately he started freaking out, and sinking! tim and the kids were far enough away, that they couldn't reach him quick enough, so i jumped in, capris, flip flops and all, to pull him to the edge. there is NOTHING SCARIER than seeing your kid sinking in water! the lifeguard ran over, and made sure everyone was ok - it just all happened so fast, i don't think she could've gotten there before me, either.
SO caloway is NOT allowed to be in water w/o his floatie - EVER! until he learns how to swim! i haven't been that scared in a long time, and my heart is pounding just thinking about it. thankfully everyone is ok, and i was able to dry my capris under the dryer in the family locker room, haha!
KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR KIDDOS IN THE POOL AT ALL TIMES!