Back To Square One

I finally started packing on Monday. I had the living room almost done, except for the furniture. I was getting all excited because finally we were moving into our own home! Renting was done! You do notice how I'm using the past tense in this, right? Then our realtor called. And my happy little bubble burst. The house that we're going to buy appraised $16,000 lower than what we offered the sellers. And that was only $4,000 below the listing price. That'll snap you right back into reality, won't it? As of yesterday, our realtor was filing the paperwork to terminate the contract. We haven't heard back yet. But unless they drastically reduce the price of the house, it ain't happening.

I was really upset on Monday. I was thinking "Why us?". I'm okay with it now, though. There's tons of other houses out there for sell. And you know what? They only have 1 house they need to sell, we have hundreds that we could actually buy. Their loss. I kind of hate it for the sellers though. If they sell it for the price that it appraised for, then they'll only be making about $7,000 in profit. At the price they had it listed, they were going to make around $27,000 profit, so I think they might have gotten the worst end of this.

My biggest worry is about the kids starting school. School starts here on August 25Th. We wanted to be in our house by then, so they could begin a new school year at their new schools. But now, we may have to pull them out a few weeks after school begins, to start at their new schools. My head hurts just typing this. Did it make any sense at all?

So anyway, we are back to square 1, and we are going house shopping again tomorrow. All you praying people, please pray for us. Especially me, this is starting to stress me out. Lots of love to all you , and hopefully some better news next time. :)

Oh, and by the way, thank you to all the bloggers who stopped by from Blog Hop'09. I was thrilled with all the comments left. It's great to meet other women and mommies out there who are just like me; trying to make it just one day at at time. I'll be visiting your blogs soon!

Blog Hopping!!

Oooh I'm so excited about Blog Hop! I know there's lots of hopping to be had, so here we go!!

My name is Christy, aka Bakerchick. I'm married to a firefighter and I'm a SAHM to 3 wonderful kiddos. I started my blog in May of '08, but due to many things, I stopped then began again in May of '09. I'm so glad to be back! On my blog you will find lot of recipes, and a few funny stories of everyday life with kids. I love to read, and Twilight & Harry Potter are two of my favorites. I love funny movies and fantasies, and most of all I love to bake and cook! Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and checking out my little corner of the blogosphere! I hope you find something that you truly enjoy!

Lots of love,

Christy

My kiddos.




Me and my little man.

My Firefighter. Isn't he handsome?

What I had for Supper

I'm always on the lookout for new supper recipes. I scour the Internet and usually find some pretty good ones. Plus, I have a huge collection of cookbooks. Actually, I've banned myself from buying cookbooks, because I hardly ever open them anymore. I just go online. And don't even ask about magazines, cause Lord, Have Mercy!! I have hundreds of them! You would think with all these recipes at my fingertips, that I would cook something new and interesting every night of the week. Not so. I used to be pretty good about it, but I've been kind of in a rut here lately with the whole cooking of the supper. I start looking for a new recipe and then I get overwhelmed and then I make hot dogs. Can I get a amen? Plus, it get expensive sometimes. And I'm the worst for driving 30 miles out of the way for one ingredient and then using it one time. Yeah, that would be me. :)

Some of my favorite cooking websites are Allrecipes, Recipezaar,& Food Network. These are the main sites I go to when I;m looking for a certain recipe. The Pioneer Woman recently launched a new cooking site called The Tasty Kitchen. There are several recipes I've tried on there already, because they've been on her website. Every recipe I've ever tried from her site has been outstanding. So I was browsing P-Dub recently and she'd made a recipe from the site called Hot and Sweet Drumsticks. They looked really good and she was raving about them. The ingredient list didn't look so great though. Apricot preserves, soy sauce, and Ketchup? Sounds like a bad Chinese recipe. So, anyway, and I rarely do this, unless something just look exceptional, I sent hubs to the store with the ingredient list and made this for supper last night. Oh. My. It was so good!! You just warm up the ingredients in a saucepan first to kind of "melt" the preserves, then pour it over drumsticks, and bake it in the oven. It's that easy! You do need to baste with the sauce occasionally, but there's really nothing to it! I was so pleased with this recipe and my kids devoured it. My only complaint was how messy it was. But that was overshadowed by the pure goodness of it! I highly recommend this for supper (or dinner if you live up north ;), just try it one time and I promise you'll be hooked! For the recipe click here.

We're Moving!

I'm having creativity block today. I was going to blog about muffins, but I just cant seem to find anything witty to say. Don't get me wrong, they were great muffins. Moist, sweet, buttery. I just don't have it in me to write about muffins today. So, if you'll bear with me, I shall ramble. If you don't want to bear with me, I understand.

We bought a house. Yes! In this economy, we bought a house. My husband is a firefighter so he has pretty good job security. Emergency services are usually last to go in budget cuts. My mother has already informed me that if we go into foreclosure that it will be okay, it's not the first time it's happened to someone. Gee, mom, thanks for the burst of confidence.

Would you like to see a picture of our house? Okay here tis....

Not bad, huh? It's not huge or grand. But it's mine. At least it will be in 33 years. I'm really excited about this house, because we've rented for almost 3 years. The house we owned before that was a whopping 788 square feet. It had a pretty good sized kitchen and living room, but the bedrooms and the bathroom were tiny. This house has 3 big bedrooms, a master bath in my bedroom(yay!) and another guest bathroom. I also have a dish washer. Those of you who have dish washers, please don't make fun of me. It's been 2 years since I've had a dishwasher, and I'm probably more excited about this than anything else in the entire house. Besides the garden tub. And the huge backyard. And my own walk in closet. But I digress. As someone who cooks and bakes a lot, a dishwasher is almost a must have. I say almost, because I've been doing it for the last 2 years without one, and I have lived. Not entirely unscathed mind you, because my hands look like they belong to a *ahem* much older woman than me. ( I was going to say an age, but I don't want to offend.)

We will close on the house on August 14Th. Since we haven't owned anything in 3 years we are considered first time home buyers, so we qualify for the 8,000 dollar tax credit. I have conflicting feelings about this. On one hand, we can pay off all our debt. Except for the house, obviously. On the other hand, where's all this money coming from? I see company after company being bailed out by the government. I know that some money has to be spent, I understand that. But this is starting to take on scary proportions. But again, I digress.

So, I guess today's post is about moving. And I'm very excited that we have a new house. I feel like I've been waiting forever for this moment to come.Thanks for reading my ramblings. It makes me feel so much better. Ta-Ta for now! (Name that character.)

Paula Deen's Hoecakes

I don't like pancakes. There, I said it. As a matter of fact, I loathe them. Well, let me clarify that. I don't like pancakes and syrup. I like pancakes. I like syrup. I don't like them together. It just grosses me out. My hubs and the kids could eat them 3 times a day, every day, and they'd never get tired of them. Me? I like them okay with some strawberries and whipped cream, but normally I just don't like them. And give me maple syrup with sausage any day!

Until now. I was making pancakes for supper,(yeah, I know) the other evening, when I remembered that Paula Deen has a recipe for hoecakes in her very first cookbook, The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook. I've had it marked in the book for a while(i.e. the last 5 years), and just decided to take the plunge.

Now, if you aren't from the south, you probably don't have a clue what a hoecake is. They are basically just pancakes with about half the flour replaced with corn meal. You fry them on a griddle just like a pancake. And they are good. Really good. Paula suggested maple syrup with hers, but I used butter and honey on mine. Oh man. I put a whole stack of those things away without even trying! Hubs didn't like them, but he has an aversion to anything that remotely resembles cornbread. And these don't. He just automatically thinks cornmeal=cornbread. So if you've got a hankerin' for something a little different, try these. Then fall on your knees and thank Paula Deen, the Queen of the South!

Hoecakes adapted from The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook

1 cup self rising flour

1 cup self rising cornmeal

2 eggs

1 tbs sugar

3/4 buttermilk(I used 2% milk soured with a little vinegar)]

1/3 cup water plus 1 tbs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

oil for frying

Mix all ingredients well except oil for frying. Heat oil in a skillet or griddle over medium heat. Drop mixture by tablespoonfuls onto hot skillet. Use approximately 2 tablespoons per batter per cake. Brown until crisp, then flip onto the other side. Drain on towels. Leftover batter will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Yields app. 17 hoecakes

What a Weekend......

We decided at the last minute on Friday to spend July 4Th in the mountains. A friend had called at the beginning of the week and wanted us to stay with her. I had decided not to, but then she called again and begged us to come, so I relented. Had a pretty good Fourth, except for the raging sunburn I got on Saturday. It was looking like rain so I skipped the sunblock. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have very fair skin, so by the end of the day, I had a really bad burn. Lesson learned. Hope I'm not going to pay for it in a few years.

The real adventure began when we started home. Traveling down the highway about 2 hours from home,and my van just stops. It doesn't sputter, it doesn't jerk, It doesn't give any warning at all. It just quits at 55 mph. I'm 2 hours from home with 3 kids. Thankfully I have roadside assistance through my Insurance company. The sent a tow truck out to tow it in for me. The guy actually offered to tow it all the way to my house, but it was going to be almost 400 bucks. Yeah. Not happening. So instead they towed it to the local dealer. They wanted 90 bucks just to tell us what was wrong with it. Whatevah! So how did we get home? My youngest sister came and got us and took us to my mom and dad's house. We stayed with them and then my other sister and my mom took us home. A friend of my hub's towed the van back to our house for us, and he didn't charge us anything, which was awfully sweet of him.

This morning, my hub's called around to a few places and told them what had happened. General consensus is that it's the timing belt. And it's going to cost anywhere from 600-700 bucks to fix it. Did I mention we just put an offer in on a house? Yeah.....We had to give the real estate agent 1,000 dollars earnest money. Even as I write this, I'm just so......annoyed.

But you know what? I didn't have a wreck. No one was hurt. We got home safely. We have food in our cabinets, clothes in our closets and everyone is healthy. We're moving into a fabulous house.
I am Blessed! Thank you, Lord!

Free Family Film Festival (Say that three times fast!)

This summer, Regal Cinemas is having the Free Family Film Festival all summer long. Tuesdays through Thursdays, June through August, they show kid friendly films for free! We went to see The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything and we had such a great time. And best of all it was completely free. Concessions are available, but we opted to go to McDonald's afterwards. It's much cheaper. It was Little Man's first time in a movie theater, and he did very well. I figured since it was free, we wouldn't be out anything if we had to leave. But for the most part, he watched the movie after moving around a little bit. So if your up for a little family entertainment that doesn't cost very much, check this out! Thanks to Homemaker Barbi for first posting this on her website! If you haven't been over there, be sure to stop by and check it out. She has lots of great tips for saving money, lists of freebies and loads of other stuff. Hope you enjoy!