Where's Wendy?

Is she ever busy?! I thought moms got to cool things off when the kids went back to school? not this school year it seems! I've been trying to declutter since July when we had the huge yard sale. It was a huge success, but we need to have another one. That's been the plan. So much, we put all the tables together and put a tarp over everything and left it in the yard. That was July 4th weekend. Two times my sister and I have set a date for her to bring her stuff over and we do it together, massive fail. I've decided to take the playpen full of adult women's clothes to the Goodwill, and pack up the rest for a bit. Maybe in October? I have a lot of winter kid's clothes, and more adult clothes that are stashed in the garage.

Because everything is shifted around in the garage due to the yard sale, we haven't been parking in there. Since there's more "leeway", I've been able to get stuff out of the house into the garage, which frees up space in the house to rearrange things. And that's what I have been doing! I was starting with Hannah's room late last week when mom called and said some family from out of state that we have not seen in five years is coming down for a visit. She volunteered for my second cousin and her daughter to stay with us since we're about the same age and her daughter and Hannah are. I'm very excited about our upcoming visit, but wwooooowwww wow wow (as Wubzy would say...)- I still have a LOT of work to do in this house!

Seriously, I would be ashamed if anyone come in here right now. Stuff strewn everywhere. If someone offered to help me, I would not know where to start them. Well, that's a lie. I would tell them to put the bunk bed up in Hannah's room and make the beds. (Kristi?) So my goal today is to find the living room and dining room. But, I also have a bunch of cooking to do, too. I done a big grocery trip yesterday and need to process some things.

OK STOP THE PRESSES.
I'm sitting here typing this on my laptop on my bed. The (master) bathroom door is open, the lights in there are on plus the bedroom light. Out of the corner of my eye I see about SIX INCHES of naked white tail headed towards my jacuzzi bathtub!! As I feel my heart jump in my throat I hear a faint flutter sound and it's gone. The front paneling is off due to a leak a while back, so there's a hole in the floor. THERE WAS AN OPOSSUM IN MY BATHROOM JUST NOW!! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Oddly enough, this makes sense. Jay saw one go under the air conditioner unit a few weeks ago but could not tell where it went. Somehow it has gotten under the house and found the hole in the floor that actually leads to underneath the house in the bathroom. Jay just said he didn't realize the hole went all the way through that there was another layer of flooring under the tub. WELL NOW WE KNOW! We just got off the phone, I hope he realizes he is coming home early today! That's one way to get out of work "I got to go home, there's an opossum in my house and my wife is freaking out."

What was I talked about? Food. Yes, food. Whole foods had a great deal on chicken yesterday, $2.99/lb.. so I bought three pounds. I'm going to do Jessica Seinfeld's "Tortilla cigars" and try freezing them for the kid's lunches. It has cream cheese in the recipe, think it will work? I also bought a BIG bag of spinach (3 lbs for $5), and one of cauliflower so cook, puree, and freeze for future Seinfeld recipes. I also have celery and carrots to cut into sticks, and some Amberjack fish to divvy up into individual bags to freeze. That is the only fish Hannah will eat. It's very good if I say so myself. We are LOADED down in tilapia, flounder, and mahi mahi, but she won't touch it. (We were blessed with the contents of a friend's deep freezer when they moved.) It has the texture of a chicken thigh, which I think has a big deal to do with why she likes it. Praise the Lord for Whole Foods and their massive sampling, that's all I'm sayin'! It was on sale for $7.99/lb ($4 off) so I bought four two inch pieces to freeze and use when we have tilapia. (I don't mind fixing a different fish when we're having fish, it's the separate meal all together is what peeves me.)

Right now I'm making yogurt in the crockpot. Yes, it works :) This time I'm going to experiment with adding some vanilla extract to it. I found a recipe for a "clean" (aka healthy) shrimp scampi with orzo and corn, so I'm also going to fix that today and portion it out for Jackson's lunches. That boy LOVES shrimp scampi. So that's the plan. Pray for me today, I'll sure need it!