Pumpkin Patch Bread

We bought pumpkins, picked pumpkins, and have been given even more pumpkins. So, what do you do with all those pumpkins? I figure you have 3 choices:

1. Throw them on the front porch with some mums and call it "fall decoration".

2. Carve and/or paint them for Halloween.

3. Clean it, cut it, scoop it, roast it, scoop it (again), mash it, and bake it into something edible.

Well, I'm sure you see where this is going. Since we have already done #1 and #2, we, um, I decided to do #3 and pretty much mess up my entire kitchen in the process. We made some pumpkin bread (which Ashley called "Pumpkin Patch Bread") for the Cake Walk at Nathan's Halloween carnival. It actually turned out really well, and I am exaggerating about the mess.

I have cooked a pumpkin the hard way before (peeling, cutting, boiling, mashing), and it was ridiculously hard and messy. I swore I would only use canned pumpkin in the future. This time, I just sliced a small pumpkin in 2 halves, scooped out the guts, and baked them for about an hour. The cooked pumpkin scooped out very easily, and there was hardly any waste. I actually froze some of it for making bread another time. Maybe Thanksgiving Eve?

School Picture Time

Nathan got his Kindergarten pictures back today. I know...he looks so grown up. It's ridiculous, really, that my baby boy is so big. Even though Nate's still a "momma's boy", he is becoming more independent every day. He has already made some really good friends at school. In the past, his friends have always been our friends' kids, but now he is the one initiating the friendships. So I hang out after school with the other moms while he and his new friends chase each other around the playground. It's a whole new phase of life we are entering.

I must also mention that he has 2 loose teeth and is very proud of them. We discovered them on Sunday, and though they are just barely loose, he can hardly wait for them to come out!

Love this...

Okay-
I usually hate those stupid forward email's, but this one is funny. My favorites are number 2 (of course) #7 and #10

Subject: Get to know you--very funny Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:05:42 +0000 THIS IS DIFFERENT - I'll be so disappointed if I don't hear back from everyone.

1. YOUR REAL NAME: Jessica Renee Johnson
2.. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus -izzle.) Ren-izzle (fa-shizzle)
3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color and favorite animal) Red Dog
4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (your middle name and street you live on/or neighborhood if it's a number) Renee Sherman
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name) Johje

6. YOUR SUPERHERO/CRIMINAL NAME: (Your 2nd favorite color, and favorite
drink) Blue coke one
7. YOUR IRAQI NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, 1st letter of your last name, 2nd letter of your moms maiden name, 3rd letter of your dads name, 1st letter of a siblings first name, and last letter of your moms first name). Ehjakre
8. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (parents' middle names) Mike Lynn

9. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets). BLACK fish

10. YOUR HOOD NAME:....first 3 letters of your first name plus-iqua:
ren-iqua
Now copy, paste, and send on to all your crazy friends.

Snow flurries in the forecast tonight

No, this is no typo either. They are calling for snow flurries tonight in PA. Can you believe it? Aaron is so excited I'm so mad I can even say. Yeah they have two hour delays for school here if it is below 30 degrees. There could be no snow on the ground-just cold air they will delay school for two hours.

$1.69 for gas in Washington,PA

No that's not a typo. Last week I bought gas at Get Go for $1.69 a gallon. Here is the catch (Rach you'll love this)....Our chain grocery store Giant Eagle had a special for $1.00 off per gallon of gas for every new Rx at their pharmacy. I had a new Rx for Micah. So with my points I earn for shopping there for groceries plus the special my price I paid was $1.69. We filled up the Trail Blazer for $38.00. We could not believe how good that felt. We had enough money left over from gas to go out for dinner!!

Virus Alert

If anyone got a weird e-mail from my old MSN account or saw a weird post on this blog, I apologize. I think I got some kind of Trojan virus or something that sent out a message titled "Good Website" to everyone in my address book including my mobile blog website.

Carnival Chaos

Tonight was the Fall Carnival at Nathan's school, and it was a major production! They had inflatables, pony rides, and every sort of carnival booth that you could imagine. Each class was responsible for a booth, and ours was the Duck Pond. I volunteered to man the booth for a 30 minute time slot which turned into an hour long commitment. The Duck Pond was one of the easiest games at the carnival, because every duck was a winner. It bothered me that it said "U Win" on the duck bottoms. After all, it was a school function. You would think they would use proper English.

I think the little girl in the black and white cheerleader costume played Duck Pond about a dozen times in a row. I'm thinking, "Girl, get back and give someone else a turn!"


Nathan and his friend Carter loved the big slide, but Ashley just wanted to sit and eat her candy! I love the look on her face in this picture. She really looks like she's getting away with something.

Pumpkin Patch - Finally!

Nathan's first Kindergarten field trip was scheduled for last Thursday. We woke up that morning to drizzling rain, so the trip was postponed until today. We nervously watched the weather reports last night, and they were grim: overnight storms and 60% chance of rain this morning. Nate was so disappointed last week, and I dreaded telling him that the trip might get postponed again.

Fortunately, the skies parted this morning, and we enjoyed a sunny (but muddy) trip to the Pumpkin Patch in Mayflower. It turned out to be a fantastic day (thank you, Lord!) with blue skies and perfect temperatures.

Nathan and Mom on the hay ride

Pumpkins galore!

Nathan with his teacher Mrs. Cooper

Nathan's first trip on the school bus - he wants to ride it every day now!

we are still alive down here

Hey, I just wanted reassure everyone (mom) that we have not fallen off into the ocean or any thing. I just am not so great at the whole "keeping in touch" thing but i promise to post some pictures soon.

Results Not Typical

Give me a freakin' break! I have seen a lot of false advertisement before on the web, but this is ridiculous...