friday high five - a birthday edition

Today is a big day here at the blogmother ranch (which is not a ranch, we just like to live with illusions of grandeur), today is Michael's birthday. Celebrated in typical low key Michael fashion... hanging out with some of our besties, playing BINGO. Yep, BINGO! Put together as a special birthday treat by our little buddy Ben.

In honour of my main guy's birthday he gets to be the star of this week's Friday High Five. So my list of 5 things I love about the big lug is part of a bigger list of a 100. You can click on that little linky thing over there if you want to read the whole deal.

#63 He pushes me to take care of me. Sure, I hardly ever listen to him when he tells me to go to bed early, but still he keeps telling me.
#63 He secretly likes iCarly, despite what he tells the girls.
#64 He's just so likable... I have often said, if you don't like Mike, then the problem is likely with you.
#65 He makes me an egg white omelet every morning for breakfast.
#66 He makes the girls' lunches most days... even though they prefer that I make them.

Happy birthday Michael xo

reasons i love my husband - #62

So you may have heard that I love my husband, for many reasons and I've kinda been working on a list of them. You can check it out, the link is over there in my sidebar. Anyway if I'm being honest this is more of a what I love about him kind of thing rather that why I love him, but I'm going to allow it anyway. Why? Because it's my blog, so my rules.

So my Michael... he can't stand football. At all. He loves hockey. And he enjoys a good baseball or basketball game. I've seen him watch lacrosse. And I'm sure we'll watch various Olympic events. But he doesn't do football. Even still he loves football movies. True story.

Varsity Blues - when it was on the dish he watched it whenever the opportunity presented itself. Yep that football movie starring Dawson Creek's Dawson. Loved it. I'm still not sure why.

We Are Marshall - He thinks this is an incredible movie. He loved Matthew McConaughey in it and he is not a big Matthew McConaughey fan.

The Blind Side - Mike really wanted to see this so we checked it out last weekend. Loved it! Definitely deserves all the buzz it's getting. You should see it, sooner than later. Trust me.

And there's Friday Night Lights, Waterboy, Remember the Titans, The Longest Yard, and Jerry Maguire (you should note that this is the only movie I actually enjoyed Renee Zellweger in).

Weird, huh?

What's your favourite football movie?

why i love my husband - reason #61

It's Father's Day and what a better time than today to give you one more reason I love that man of mine.

He's the father of my girls and that's a huge all on it's own, but it's so much bigger than that. He's a good Dad. He loves me and he loves them. He thinks I'm a good Mom. He likes to tell people I'm a good Mom. He likes to tell me. I really couldn't imagine a better partner to be sharing this whole crazy parenthood ride with.

Happy Father's Day Baby!!

why i love my husband - reason #60

Some of you who know us in real life, know that Mike operated a small business out of our home for the past few years. This was seasonal weekend work. So for parts of the year he would work 7 days a week. This year with the economy the way it is and based on last year's income from the business we've made the decision to close up shop.

There was a lot of hand wringing that went along with this decision. Wondering if we were doing the right thing, but really, taking a look at our bottom line from last year the decision had been made for us. It's sad to be shutting it all down. At the same time it's nice to have our family time back. I say that, but Mike is up to his eyes in Fair commitments and he's recently realized a life long dream of working on a farm. Yep, our dairy farming friends have taken Mike on as help on an as needed basis. This past weekend he spent most of his waking hours in a tractor helping get the planting done before the forecasted rain came.

I am glad and proud that Mike had the opportunity to run a successful small business for the better part of a decade. I am equally pleased and proud that the end of that chapter as led him into another fun adventure. How lucky are the girls and I to have him out there working so hard for our family?

they say it's your birthday

Today is Mike's birthday and that seems reason enough to list a few more of the reasons why I love him....

#53 He's a man who wears crocs.... outside and even sometimes off the property.
#54 He's always willing to help Abby navigate webkinz world online.
#55 He lets the kids have control of the TV when we get home from school/work.
#56 Gives a pretty great foot rub... (when he feels like it)
#57 He gave up the computer so I could write this and then head up to bed early early early.
#58 He helped me tidy the house and put both kids to bed even though it's his birthday and I totally would have let him slack off.
#59 That he's willing to play along with the girls and their wild imaginations.

Happy birthday Michael... love you!!

why i love my husband- reason 52

Sleep has been rough for me this week and Mike's sleep on the weekends is completely messed up. Even still he let me sleep in while he occupied both girls who were up at 4:30 this morning. Even better while I slept he cleaned the house. He is kick ass!

why i love my husband - reason 51

It has been a long long time since I listed off the some more of reasons I love my husband. I don't really have an excuse for not continuing with the list, other than pure laziness. So let's remedy that tonight and give you one more reason I love this big lug of mine.

Mike had plans tonight to hook up with the husband portion of our dairy farming friends. A quick check in call to Mrs. Dairy Farmer let Mike know that Mr. Dairy Farmer was out in the barn completing the milking chores on his own. None of the hired help had shown up for one reason or another.

Mike got off the phone and before I knew it he had changed into "working" clothes and was out the door. When he arrived at the farm Mr Dairy Farmer looked up and remarked that Mike was an hour early. To which Mike replied.....

I heard you could use a hand.

Really?

Yeah.

Really!?

So Mike spent some time feeding baby calves and helping administer meds until the real farm hands showed up. Then he managed to hook himself up with a sweet little gig delivering a piece of equipment first thing tomorrow morning. An hour each way in a tractor, he'll be in his glory.

I love that about him. He heard a friend needed a hand and he was out the door to help. Makes me smile every time I think about it. And you know what he got for his trouble? A pee soaker. He misstepped and ended up ankle deep in the pee moat. He's out in the garage right now febreezing the hell out of his work boots.

what's cooking wednesday - the birthday edition

Such a quandary. While I am committed to the continuing, if slow growing, success of What's Cooking Wednesday I need to post a recipe today, but it's also Michael's birthday. And that's one of my most favourite days. He's not so enthralled with it, but I think that has more to do with the number of candles that were on the cake. Ahem... 35.... cough. Then anything else.

So for today we shall revisit my neglected top 100 reasons I love my husband topic. Last we left off we were sitting at number 40. So enjoy numbers 41 - 50.

41. He encouraged me to offer up my services as Secretary to the Parent's Council at school because he thought I'd be good at it.
42. He is involved in numerous volunteer projects.
43. Sometimes he pays for the coffee of the person behind him in the drive thru line, just because.
44. He's a Scrabulous junkie, which I love even if he hogs up my internet with his incessant game playing. Although I have taught him to play smarter, so that makes it a bit easier to take.
45. He makes me laugh even when he's frustrating the hell out of me.
46. He doesn't mind, too much, that I let the cat sleep with us.
47. He's charming.
48. He is the de-cluttering king.
49. He's a man who wears crocs! Only around the house though, they never leave the property.
50. We have to change our address to reflect that we're on rural route delivery, something he wants to take care of because I "have enough on my plate" or so he tells me.

So really what's not to love there? Happy birthday baby. I love you!

Okay you know I can leave without leaving you with a recipe of some sort. So in honour of my main man's birthday I give you.....

Mike's Top 5 Recipes, as made by his ever loving wife.

#1 Lasagna
#2 Buffalo Chicken Soup
#3 Cincinnati Chili
#4 Cauliflower and Cheese Soup
#5 Drunken Chicken made with Grub Rub





What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret. Much to Kaffy's chagrin, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday.