Cream Cheese 'n Whey, or well, Curds 'n Whey for now

Well, a few months ago I made butter with my friend Shannon and have been intending to make more for us. Shannon brought over 2 jars of fresh buttermilk for me to get started with. Well, I fell through and let it sit. And sit. And sit. Yesterday I went to pull it out and finally get started. To my surprise, kinda', it wasn't exactly buttermilk anymore. It had separated. It looked like whey on top but I could not for the life of me figure out that was below it in large clumps. I asked everywhere and looked all over the internet for an answer to what happens to raw buttermilk that ages... nothing. Well, I gave up and decided to taste it. It was like cream cheese but runny. Then I found it. The old fashioned recipe that makes cream cheese and whey out of buttermilk. It wasn't aged, but the process is the same, just quicker than when sitting in the back of the fridge for months.
So, tomorrow I'm getting some cheese cloth to drain (what are apparently) the curds from all of the whey and adding some salt.
I can't wait. How exciting. Home made cream cheese!

2007 Puckett Palooza aka My Family Reunion

We were out of town last week for my family reunion. We had a blast at Dave Hollow Lake, in Kentucky. The little girls all fell in thick as thieves. One morning as Dory and I were walking back from the 'Grand Cabin' we saw the other girls walking up to Kristine's cabin. Dory looked at me and said, "Bye, Mom! See you later!" and took off over the grass and across a tiny stream to the other dirt road where they were walking. It melted my heart, she was free to be a kid without concern. I didn't have to worry about her. The water was wonderful and our ritual pontoons had slides. I never did go down then, mainly because I was holding Jack, but everyone really seemed to enjoy them! For the first part of the boa ride, Jack fel asleep and we made a makeshift cradle of the hamper Tricia had brought towels in. It worked perfectly and we had plenty of notice when he woke up grabbing him before he wandered off. We had a surprise wedding reception for Greg and Judy since they got hitched without us in their overalls... That was fun! Tricia did the greatest little skit. Greg and Jen regaled us with 'Sha Boom' again... we really should just learn the words! And, it turns out that Judy is a Celiac like Jack is. So, there was communal food for me too. :) Of course, I did gluten the poor kid going up. I didn't think about the Laura's Junk Food Cookies having flour, but of course they did. I ate half the tub before I thought about it. I felt so bad. He certainly reacted to them. He's still recovering and it has ben a week and a half almost now. :( Poor Tricia and a few other family members too, they got some tummy bug, maybe food poisoning... no one actually knows. But Tricia had it worst.
All of these pictures are from Greg and Gail. ;) More pics and videos coming from me super soon!

The last word is 'well'.

This is all I know until at least 8am. I headed out to Books A Million tonight with a friend so she could get her book and just to celebrate and see the costumes (some were VERY good, btw) since PRB will not be opening until 8am. Jack cranked out at about 12:15 so we left Laurel in line with her ticket still waiting to redeem her book.
As we walked out of the mall a teen was yelling, "And the last word is "Well"!!!!" over and over. So, other than I had a good time, that's all I know until after I get some sleep.

Jack had a good time too.... I have a picture I will post when everything settles down.

Happy looking peepee dance

Is the bane of my existence right now. In the past 48 hours Dory has made the decision to pee trough her clothes and onto the floor of the bathroom, I am guessing for attention- more than 3x's. Not every time, but enough to make me VERY VERY angry. She just hops from foot to foot in what would seem to be a cute dance while wasting every moment she has to drop trou and hop up to the proper place. I just. don't. get it. Why, WHY!?!?!?!?!?! WHY? ARGGHHH!!!!! I am so sick of cleaning puddles off of the floor of the bathroom right smack dab in front of the potty.

Happy Tunes

Jack now WHISTLES. Seriously. with his two top vampire teeth and an 'o' shaped mouth... he whistles as he breathes in and out in between the giggle and chirps. And I have a video to prove it... I'll post it when I get a minute!

8 months, Jack

Intro'ing Baby Foods

Jack has had banana a few times over the past few days. He is just munching off a few bites of mine, other thanone night at supper when I gave him about an inch's worth out in chunks for him to play with. He seemed to really like eating with us at the table.
This morning he had his second bites of Sonagold applesauce as I was making Dory's oatmeal. He had his first taste of that a few days ago and didn't seem to like it too much. This morning he seemed thoughtful but pleased over his 3 baby spoonfuls.
I guess we are on our way to a full fledge eating kid. I will however, continue to take it really slow. I know he wants them, but if his gut is damaged from the gluten, I don't want to hurt him any more. We have yellow days and green days, but it is now more yellow than green and that is a very good thing. I never thought I would have a kid with dietary restrictions. *sigh* But, while we still don't have tests and results... it is pretty obvious this is the case. So, we proceed with caution.

Going out

I went out last night on one of my first scheduled weekly mom's night off. I had errands to run and great aspirations. Why then, did I end up surfing the web, hungry, in the car in the garage? Yep. I went to Target, found out I left my debit cards at home, made a return and got roughly 16 dollars back in cash. I wandered around the store, looked at the new Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle Lego set, priced at a hefty 90$ and just drooled. I perused iPod speaker sets... I can't figure out what ones I want, eve after looking at the reviews online. In the end I bought a new Anchor Hocking jar for kombucha brewing with the change they gave me. I then left feeling blah.
I wondered why. When I stepped out of the car I was marveling at how it felt to get out of the car and not be toting a toddler who wanted to melt down, nor a baby who had to be held the entire trip through the store, even if in a carrier. It was amazing, really... the absolute convenience of it is mind boggling. Why then, did I not want to go to the 20 zillion places I have wanted to go in the past few months that were just too hard? I had wanted to go look at Birks, go to the coffee shop, so on and so forth... instead as I pulled out I went to World Market and wandered a bit more. Then I headed off to the coffee shop to work on the Muggle Buck. Along the way I decided to finally stop off at Plato's Closet to see what they had. Now I know why I haven't stopped in before. There is no way I could take the kids and be any sort of productive, even when they are so much better organized than Good Will. E Gads. I left close to closing, 9pm, after finding several things I loved in the wrong sizes.. off to the coffee shop, I had been out just under 2 hours so far.
When I got to the coffee shop, well... they were closed. They closed at 9. I tried to decide what else to do, but all the other shops I would have been interested closed at the latest at 9pm also. So, big bust there. I could have headed over to another local coffee shop, but last time I was there I just could not get their wireless to connect. It drove me nuts and the coffee is mediocre. I guess after home ground dark roast free trade organic SWP decaf... well... blech. Especially when I am a black coffee drinker/purist AND the Styrofoam cup they give you.
So, I headed home.
And when I pulled into the garage I just sat there. And realized I had a computer connection out there. So, I sat and worked, uninterrupted by kids, no one pulling at my shirt for attention or milk, no one calling my name, no one pulling at the computer cords or attempting to steal the mouse.... [excuse me while I retrieve my cell phone from the slobber monster] yelling that, oh... any number of things.
So, I sat in the car, working uninterrupted for 40 minutes before John called me to tell me that Jack had just signed to him that he wanted milk and that I should be on the way home. Jack apparently told John 2 times very clearly by signing milk. My brilliant 8 month old. We just started the baby signs last month. The only one I had been doing was milk. I've seen him do it, but as a request, I think this was a first.
Anyway, I came to the conclusion... for a productive and relaxing night off, I need to get out WITH someone else, or a VERY distinct plan.
Going out last night was a bit of a depressing bust...
[Off to retrieve my earbuds]

The last Muggle Buck

Well, for the last few Harry Potter books I have designed 'Muggle Buck' coupons for the bookstore. The last one was completed this morning. I am in a bit of shock that the last book is almost here. The end is near.
The last few I have made in Photoshop and MS Word. This year, I don't have either. All I have is Apple's Pages. An unregistered trial version at that. I am not supposed to be able to save it at all that way, so I was thinking I would just buy it at the end... but I found out that if you select all and go to Preview you can make new from clipboard and save as a pdf. Perfect. It worked like a charm. I would love to post a picture of it... but I don't want to break laws or put the bookstore in a bind. So I won't.

But, I'm proud of it.
So, go get your copy at the bookstore, support the local independent, and see it there.

Vampire Baby!

Another tooth. The matching one is primed for the next day or two.

More Jack Stats

21lbs
ate some banana today

Heavens help me....

Now that Daddy has the magic 'out' button.... I CAN' GET JACK TO SLEEP!!!!! He normally takes 3 naps a day the middle one quite long. Today, Daddy was not home and Bud would NOT go to sleep. And that was when he should have been waking up from his second nap.


Oh, what. a. day.

Late June Pics

Picking beans with Daddy
Sneaky escape... caught in time.
No!!! Take pictures of MEEEE!!!!!

It's gone... the Mommy magic is gone.

Daddy is now better at putting Jack to sleep. I was up quite a while last night... and when I finally took him to John, he was out in a heartbeat. Today he has taken his naps for John, not me.
It's been moving towards this for 2 days. Gads. Never dreamed this would happen.


But I admit, the break is not too bad! LOL