Why didn't anyone tell me I was an "OccuAptional Therapy" major in my profile?! Sheesh -- better do more proof-reading.

This and that, but mostly that

I suppose if I'm updating, I have to at least mention camp. It's going really, really well. My ten kiddos are fairly high functioning and have endless energy, but they're a lot of fun. They keep us volunteers laughing, that's for sure! I have an amazing group of volunteers and I am looking forward to next week! I am MUCH more at ease this weekend than last. I'll share more stories later. I will share one quote of the day, though:

On a hike behind St. Scholastica, which took us through the cemetery and by a statue of Jesus (we are a Catholic school!):

Camper, who had run ahead, SCREAMED for all to hear: "I SEE JESUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

What I was more interested in telling you all about is my new summer obsession: frozen bananas.

Last week I ended up with an abundance of perfectly-ripe bananas, so I skewered and froze four of them. Inspired by a Food Network excerpt on a cafe that sells all kinds of chocolate covered bananas, I rolled/spooned/spread melted dark chocolate on two of them and left two of them plain (Unfortunately, I didn't have a foot-deep bucket of melted chocolate to dip my bananas in).

They are delicious! I am proud to say that the Choc Bananas have been a satisfying replacement for ice cream the last couple of nights (the frozen banana tastes remarkably like ice cream, actually!). And this morning I enjoyed a plain frozen banana as a snack, which was perfect since I was short on fruit. I think I'm going to start doing this more - it's a great way to have fruit on hand and quite tastey! I want to try mashing a banana and freezing it and see if you could eat with a spoon.

One tip from the show is cutting off the stem of the banana and then skewering it before you peel it/freeze it, which prevents the banana from splitting.

Yum, yum!

Two Domestic Tales

1) The other day I got:

*An all natural, Kashi frozen entree (Lemongrass Coconut Chicken -- yum!)
*TWO pints of fresh blueberries
*TWO individual serving cups of ice cream - (with ice cream, portion control is a must for me)

...all for $5! Clip, clip, clip those coupons, I tell ya!

2) I love my new apartment, but the downside is that I have to pay for laundry again. I'd been saving up dirty clothes for two weeks, just to make sure I got my money's worth. The washing machine is $0.75, so I went down with $2.25 and two (large) loads. I go to put my first load in the dryer when I realize that -- duh! The dryer is $0.75, too. So I only have enough quarters to dry one load.

I consider that this might be a good time to introduce myself to my neighbors, which I've been meaning to do. So I muster up some courage and knock on two doors (rehearsing how I'm going to ask a complete stranger for a quarter), but no one answers.

I check the bottoms of all my purses and bags, but of course, today, no loose coins are to be found. Finally, I pick up a 10-pence coin from London that looks remarkably like a quarter in size and shape. Feeling only slightly fraudulent, I head down to the laundry room. Alas, those little coin-operated machines are smarter than we think and rejects my 10-pence (guess I'll keep it for my scrapbook, afterall!).

Finally, I decied that I will just leave my wet clothes in the dryer and wait to add my second (large) load of laundry and dry them together. That's the college student, spirit!

I go and get my clothes out of the dryer awhile later and find that all of my clothes are about 80% dry... which means 20% damp.

Sigh.

So I "floor-dried" (no clothes lines here!) my clothing. Classy!

P.S. London was AMAZING!

P.P.S. Camp starts on Monday. I'm prepared (material wise), but terrified. Wish me luck!