Super Yummy, Super Easy Potatoes

4 medium potatoes cut into large chucks (I use red potatoes and 1/8th them)
1 packet Onion Soup mix (I use Lipton's Recipe Secrets)
1/3 cup olive oil (or in my case just a good dosing)
-put everything in a gallon sized ziplock, seal and do the shake, shake dance-
spray a baking pan with pam, pour in seasoned potatoes
bake at 425 for 40 minutes
makes a batch of oohey goohey centered baked potatoes with a crispy oniony crust* amazing!

Happy Birthday MiMi

Grant and I spent a wonderful weekend in Georgetown visiting my Grandmother for her %*th birthday (nobody is suppose to know!) Mom and I had planned a party for 30 of Grandma's closest friends, my uncle and cousin came down from Dallas and another uncle and aunt surprised her by coming up from Mexico!
We had so much fun visiting with her friends, Grant didn't know what hit him with all of the attention he recieved and Grandma had a birthday weekend she'll never forget! Success all around!

Fort Hood Prayers

...we've heard from almost all of our friends and they are safe, just under the lock down. Continue to pray for the victims and their families... life on Army bases is about to get interesting!

Only in OK... hopefully

Pulling out of our Apartments yesterday I saw a cow eatting a grocery bag... seriously munching away. In the words of Pinky-Dinky-Doo "now theres something you don't see everyday"!

Presenting Handy Manny!

Tonight is Fall Fest at Grant's school and we're debuting his halloween costume... Handy Manny!

A Day of MAiZE

isn't MAiZE a cute name for a corn field maze at a pumpkin patch?!? anyway, we had a fabulous morning up in Chichasha (can you tell we're in Oklahoma) at a farm. The maize field is their main attraction and now we know why, this thing was impressive.
can you see the intricate designs of the fields?!? there's a huge submarine, 2 uncle Sam type guys, a funky native American and a man with a fish belly (click the picture to enlarge it) We trekked through the bottom left area, mostly the man with the fish belly and this is what we looked like when we were at the corner of the fish's mouth:

then there was a private hayride (where Grant laughed hysterically every time he got whacked in the face by a stay stalk or leaf), a cow wagon barrel ride that my knees have yet to recover from, a few barnyard animals and a gorgeous fall day!

http://picasaweb.google.com/laurabchilds/Chickasha#

I Scream, You Scream

"ohhh, what is this stuff" "I want that one and that one and that one"

"umm, just what are they trying to pull on me" "it's cccccooolllddddd" "oh man, I've been missing out, this stuff rocks!"

Crafty Happenings

Welcome to my new obsession... TASSELING!
if any of you are bloggers, I got inspired by the Nester herself (click on the link and she'll explain why she loves tassels) I love them because of all the texture and they are instant gratification, no waiting to get them back from the kiln, no waititng for paint to dry, just create create create and then {bam} cute warm fuzzies! so next time you see me and I have hot glue blisters all over my fingers, now you'll know why!

Relatives and Racecars

Its been a busy week here in middle of nowhere Oklahoma. Last weekend we had a great visit from Doug and Patty- Geoff's parents! We grilled out, watched football, shopped for replacement duds after the $50 oops, and that was just the first day! Sunday we watched more football and then headed up to Oklahoma City for the afternoon/evening. We visited the memorial and museum for the '95 Murrah Federal Building Bombing, Geoff and I had walked around the memorial last trip but the museum added so much, it is a really well done exhibit of the bombing itself, the McVay investigation and the whole nature of terrorism. After that little downer (I mean you don't exactly leave in a happy go lucky mood) we decided to cheer ourselves up with Melting Pot! Geoff hadn't had it since he'd gotten back and it had been since my birthday for me so we all when and fondued until we had to be rolled out of the resturant (Grant included)

The rest of last week is a Mucinex induced haze on my part, it was a cruddy crummy congested time, and since it was fall break at "school" Grant didn't get a chance to get away from it. The weather was nasty so we spend the week trying not to go crazy, which for us meant getting creative with what was already around. so I present to you, Grant's Racecar!

Hope everyone reading this has stayed away from the cruddy crummies, they are no fun at all!

Home Sweet

the boxes have been unpacked, pictures hung on the wall and the apartment is set up (as much as its going to be) so without further ado... here is 708 in its full glory!
http://picasaweb.google.com/laurabchilds/LawtonApt#

Grant meet Thomas; Thomas, Grant

We had a special treat yesterday, Thomas the Train Engine was in Oklahoma!

so we found ourselves at the Oklahoma Railway Museum along with everyother 2-7year old boy in the state (can't you tell that Geoff was THRILLED with that part) and went and met Thomas. There was lots of choo-choo-ing, one exploded diaper, much frustrationg over not being able to get the toy train engines to go on the track, two "this wasn't worth it" parents and one happy train-loving boy!

Our New PAY-GOWN!

I'm the first to admit that our new town of Lawton Oklahoma doesn't have a ton to offer~ I mean its one of those "everything you could need but nothing that you want" kind of towns. While theres no playground (i.e. Target) for mommy, we did discover one heck of a "paygown" for Grant! He LOVES it, and since the apartment complex doesn't have any kind of playground, we've found ourselves at Kid'sZone fairly regularly. Now that Grant has gotten over his fear of the swinging brindge, thats his favorite place to play. He hasn't been a big fan of the slides which is funny to me because that was his favorite part of the Fort Hood parks. To be honest he doesn't "do" much of anything there because he is still WAY over stimulated when we go so he spends the whole time running around saying "oh wow" to everything and moving on to see what else there is to discover instead of actually doing the activity! Oh well, doing laps tuckers him out just as fast...