Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The First Day of School

Yesterday was the first day of kindergarten for my daughter. She was very nervous, understandably. I couldn't go in with her to help her get settled. All the other kids were sticking pretty close to their parents. The bell rang and the teacher had the kids line up. She just looked at me and stood there. Her teacher opened the door and said, okay children, go hang up your backpacks and put on your nametags and the door closed. She went right in without a backward glance. I cried. I admit it. And, I wasn't alone!

I then walked my son to his first day of preschool, but he has the same teachers as last year, in the same classroom at the same school, so that was actually fun. It was nice to see everyone again.

When I picked up my daughter, she came running up to me with a big smile on her face and said, Mummy, you were right, I had so much fun. Kindergarten is GREAT. See this sticker? I got a red smile face sticker because I sat when I was supposed to and I listed and did was I was supposed to. Then, on the way home, she told me all about the things they did and how her day went. She can't wait to go back.

At preschool, my son saw me and came running up to me. I bent down to give him a hug, but he said, where is Sarah? and I pointed and he blew right by me and ran over to give her a hug and ask her how kindergarten was in the big kids school.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

How NOT to cook Au Gratin Potatoes

It's been a busy summer...but Labor Day was Monday, so we are now home again, trying to organize and sort all of the stuff we've had in the car, the truck, at the lake, etc for the summer. After Labor Day means real food, real cooking.......so....

Tonight, I thought grilled ham, au gratin potatoes (yes, from the box) and salad would be a lovely dinner. I preheated the oven, boiled the water, measured out the milk and butter, mixed the water, butter, milk and cheese sauce and stirred in the dried potatoe slices and waited for the oven to preheat.

All of a sudden, I smelled this awful smell......and went into the kitchen to see a glow in my oven door. I know the light bulb has burned out....it was a french fry, fully engulfed in flames. I turned off the oven, grabbed the baking soda, opened the door and tossed in a few handfuls. Fire went right out. Kitchen was a bit stinky.

What to do now? Oh, look, there are microwave directions on the box of potatoes. It says to not put the milk in (2/3 cup) til the water, cheese, butter and potatoes have cooked for 15 minutes. I dumped it all in a larger dish and popped it in the microwave. 2/3 cup milk can't make that much of a difference, right?

Well, after wiping the baking soda out of the oven and cleaning up milk/butter/cheese/water from the plate in the microwave, I think I would have been better off ordering pizza......