The opposum's not awesome!

Some days are just good days. Nothing really out of the ordinary happens and I wonder what on earth there will be to blog about. Jonathan had a dr. appt. today,but everything was fine. We had lunch with Michael today; it was nice. We got some schoolwork done today. Just a regular day. Well, that just ended. It's 8:30 pm and a bloggable moment just occurred. About 15 mintues ago, Jeffrey thought he heard something that sounded like a stampede outside. I was sure it was just the freezer motor outside. I just about had Josiah convinced that's what it was. Michael's not here (wouldn't you know!), but he's on his way home, so I have all the boys waiting up for him. Jonathan was outside and called everyone to come outside. He added when calling, "Come around the back of the van, not the front." We all headed (with curiosity piqued) out to the garage. I thought the goats were in the garage or something. I looked at the back of the van and saw Trixie at the back of the van. I started walking around the van (oops...around the FRONT!) and just about 2 feet away from me was...
Ok, that's not my photo 'cuz our camera is broken, but the R.O.U.S. (Rodent of Unusual-or in this case, Usual-Size for those unfamiliar with The Princess Bride) looked alot like that one. What you would have seen in MY picture (or on the hidden camera) was me jumping in record time on top of the hood of the van. I was balanced between the hood and a storage cabinet that's along the side of the garage. Jeremy later told me that my movement was "very fluid"! How about that!! I stayed there until the ugly, hissing, nasty rodent was gone. Yes, I know that it's not a rodent, but a marsupial, but it's close enough to rodent-ness for my taste.

Doesn't this photo make them look so sweet and kind. This one probably smells like roses, even. On it's way to a picnic with a friend. Like something out of a kiddy fairytale book.

Let me tell you, if the boys had their way, our possum would have looked more like Grade A roadkill than a fairy tale. I think Jeffrey's exact words were "Jeremy, get a knife!" Maybe all the weapons and sharp objects for Christmas weren't such a great idea. And in the process of all of this, I've already blown my New Year's Resolution not to yell at the boys. I HAD to!! Call off the knives!! Baseball bats, ok, and for scooting NOT clubbing! With dismay, the boys steered the critter out of the garage and I PROMPTLY closed the garage door. Note to self....CLOSE the garage door!!! The boys kept moaning, "Man, we sure could have killed that. It was walking so slow, I know we could have killed that!"

Mom's such a meany! We could have had meat for dinner tomorrow night. Well, even MY frugality has limits!

We hear something outside again....please hold....whew! It's DADDY! The energy level and volume just increased dramatically as the story is being retold!

Raising "the bar"

One of the things I asked for this Christmas was a totally rockin' workout DVD set called P90X. Ever seen it on an early morning infomercial? Well, I saw it a few years ago, but my sweet realistic husband thought it didn't seem like a good idea. And, he was right. But this year, I've really gotten myself in motion and I'm up for the challenge. So, in addition to the DVDs (from my sweet hubby), I also got for Christmas from my sis and kiddos all the "props" to go along with it...a chin up bar, a super thick yoga/exercise mat and the most important of all some totally cute (pink!) exercise clothes. After all, everyone needs some cute stuff to exercise in. Who wants to have to sweat and burn and hurt in ugly clothes??

Here's Michael and the boys putting together the chin up bar.
One potential obstacle (other than the obvious one...I've never been able to do chin ups!) is that our ceilings and doorways are so tall that I have to stand on a really tall chair just to grab the bar. I was really hoping that there would be a little "cheat" room, but no such luck! The P90X guide says it's helpful if you can do at least one chin up before starting the program, but if you can only do 1/2 or 3/4 that's ok. Whew! I wonder if being able to hang from the chin up bar and wiggle my legs is good enough? But, I had to give it a try. After all, I've really been able to crank out a lot of push ups lately. I know my upper body is stronger than in a long time before. Maybe now I have what I didn't in 4th grade, or 5th grade, or 8th grade or all those grades when we had to do physical fitness tests. Well, I don't! I didn't feel terribly bad until my little boys hopped up there and cracked out 10 chin ups!! 10!! and then the challenge was on. Michael said they weren't quite doing them correctly (not lowering their arms far enough), so then they hopped up there and cracked out 10 more!

Jeremy in mid-chin up. He was the first to do the awesome feat. The challenge is on!

Little man, Jeffrey, acts like it's no biggie and does 10 great ones from the get-go. I had no idea these boys were so strong! You can see how high our doorway relative to Michael. He's 6 feet tall.

Here's Michael (sorry about the dark shot!). He had told me before "I never could do chin ups" so I was interested to see what he could do. He did 3.

Like a ad for the chin up bar. Jonathan does another one! He ended up doing about 25 total in just a few minutes.


Ok, well, now I 'm thinking...I MUST have been doing something wrong before. If they can just do 10 or 15 like it's nothing, surely I can handle 3 or 4. So I give it another go.

That's 1. The boys say it wasn't quite one...I say they need to close their traps! It's ONE! It counts! And by the way, those are my pj's not my cute exercise clothes. Come to think of it, I'm sure I could have done more had I been wearing the right clothes! That'll be next time!

I've just got 10 days left until I finish Power 90 and then P90X...here I come!

AND I've decided if the boys get out of hand, I'm sending them to "THE BAR"!

The weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful...

One of the (many) things I love about my husband is how he is so organized and forward thinking. Yesterday was a great example of this. After taking Jonathan and Jeremy out on their date (He takes one boy each week and they sometimes invite a brother to tag along...another thing I love about my husband!) he got all the boys to put on pants and hiking boots. The next few hours were filled with the boys gathering wood in the woods (of course!) for firewood. Michael got the chainsaw and was trimming dead branches off of trees and cutting them down. I even got in on the action. The boys would fill a wagon and then come up to the house, drop the load and "go kart" the wagon down hill to where we were collecting wood. We worked for about three hours, ended up with lots of piles of wood, some for the fire pit, some for the goats (the ones with lots of green leaves on them) and some for the fireplace.

Here's where we started:
Here's where my delightfully organized husband and hardworking sons finished it up. Michael even used an old grill cover to cover up the "large" log pile. These piles are organized "small", "medium" and "large" so it'll be easy to pick what's needed when it's time to build a fire.
One thing to know is that yesterday it was 80 degrees here. Not a day to think about collecting firewood! At least for those of us (me!) who don't routinely watch the news or check the weather. But my sweet hubby knew that the temp would be dropping by 40 degrees today. So this morning, while it's 40 degrees, we have firewood. And thanks to the boys....

A delightful fire! I just LOVE having a wood burning fireplace again. Gas logs just aren't the same!!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

To the victor goes the spoils...to the loser....

Yeast rolls!
Last night J&J's basketball team was handed their first loss by a very tough San Antonio Chrisitan Academy team. That's the bad news. The good news was that other than the score of the game, it was a very enjoyable evening. SACS was just a few minutes from where Michael's great-aunt Ruth lives. So we picked her up and she went to the game with us then out to eat. It's a pleasure to be with Ruth. She's 89 years old, but you would hardly know it. The boys think it's very cool to have a great-great aunt they can visit with. When you think about it, having a living great-great relative of any sort is quite an unusual thing!
Ruth had never been to one of the boys newly favorite places, Texas Roadhouse. I know in Tennessee (and other places) it's called Logan's Roadhouse, but not here! Texans take the opportunity to put their name on anything they can! Anyway, Logan was probably a Texan!

The things Roadhouse is famous for are 1) you can eat all the roasted peanuts you want and (Jeffrey's favorite part) throw the shells on the floor. In fact, I think Jeffrey eats them JUST so he can throw the shells on the floor! and 2) all you can eat ROLLS. This is the reason we come to Roadhouse! In fact in the two minutes that I was away from the table while we were seated, the boys downed 8 rolls. I think this may have been a little startling to Ruth, but we assured her this was normal behavior, so she calmed down! :-)

These photos are slow-motion photography. The real time pics would be dizzy-ing. All you would see would be a blur of arms, rolls and cinnamon butter. I'll spare you the drama! Thankfully, the baskets come out with 4 rolls apiece. I shutter to think what would happen if there were some odd number of rolls in the basket! Or even a number like....6! (Then Michael and I MIGHT get some without having to use a knife to stake our claim. It doesn't even work to lick a roll first to claim it. They'll just put warm cinnamon butter on it and carry on!) I think our total roll count was 24, and that's only because our waitress didn't bring anymore. We have all decided that the name should be (and will be now to us) Texas Rollhouse. As always, Josiah ordered the cheeseburgers and ate about 2 bites and stopped eating. By the time to food gets to the table, all the yeast has expanded to fill his stomach I guess. No biggie to me, lunch is always taken care of for the next day. Left overs! The funny thing was as we were leaving Jeffrey said, "You know it's funny. The portions of food here seem to really fill me up. Even a smaller portion than I ususally eat." Um, sweetheart, it's the mound of dough in your gut that fills you up, not the food! So dinner tonight is Roadhouse, minus the rolls. They can actually taste the real food! The upside....we can eat for really cheap there. Just a couple of entrees (that don't get eaten mostly until the next day) and we're outa there!

Yummy! I'm off to warm up leftovers!

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree-ya gotta sing the song with the words to the post!

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
We finally got it done....
With lots of prods from Jeff..frey
We really had some fun.
Ornaments dropped, broke on the floor
Some broke in the box....
Now we have to sweep some more
And all put on our socks!

You will get a sentimental feeling when you see
Jeffrey, Michael, and Josiah
Dec-or-ating our green tree.
Rocking around the Christmas tree,
Have a happy holiday.
Our tree's lit up..all sparkle-y..
Now put..the...box.... awaaaaaay!!!

Rockin' in the Christmas tree skirt....it HAD to be done! :-)

Enough said!

Saturday night fun

It's 8:45 on Saturday night...do you know where your kiddos are?? Mine are typically in bed with visions of sugarplums (or probably sour skittles!) dancing in their heads. But tonight is not the typical night. It started with putting up the Christmas tree. We went earlier today to (where else?) HEB-because Here Everything's Better!- and got our tree. After dinner, Michael and Jeffrey successfully located the Christmas tree stand. It's not easy finding things after a move, I'm finding out. And it doesn't help to know right where it would have been at the house in Bartlett! So after prepping the stand, unwrapping the tree and toting it into the house...

Setting it up straight...

It was good to go. We weren't sure where to put it, so we put it right smack-dab in the entry way. No one ever uses the front door (except to check on the goats), so we put it in the entry way. The dining room table is too heavy to move and there really wasn't another place for it. So, the entry way it is! The boys say it leaves plenty of room for presents that way!

After we set it up, Michael asked the boys to sweep up the needles under the tree. Jeffrey ran to get the broom and set off to work. Josiah hung his shoulders and looked sad. I asked him what was wrong. Know what he said? "I was really hoping to get to sweep." Well, if I had a dime for every time I've heard that one! (I'd have probably 20 cents!) No problem, I told him to go get the whisk broom aka "the green thing". He smiled (like only Josiah can do) and set off to work. Hmmm, maybe I should sprinkle pineneedles around all the dust bunnies on my floor to add the thrill of Christmas "dander" to the plentious piles of dog hair and dirt that grace my floors.

And then to add to the excitement, Michael announced that he was going to take the boys on a night hike. Tonight, supposedly the moon is the closest to the earth that it has been in 15 years. It therefore looks bigger and brighter than it has in 15 years or will until 15 years from now. Now I personally don't even want to think about how big all of my boys will be in 15 years! So, in an effort to sieze the day...Carpe diem.. or would it be carpe nightem...the boys all headed off on a night hike.

The hikers! Jackson's got his eye on the cat food. Forget about the cats...he wants their food!

Mom's left alone to blog or watch a sappy Christmas movie on the Hallmark channel and drink in the quiet and the smell of a Christmas tree. Delightful!

Christmas in Texas...unflocked

Unfortunately, I'm not talking about a Christmas tree here! While we were gone to OK, Michael and Jackson took a quick two night trip over to my mom and dad's. When he got back on Monday he very sadly discovered that something had dug a hole under our chicken coop and killed the three remaining hens. We think it must have been a fox. The crazy thing is Michael said the hole was only about 4 inches deep and six inches wide. The thief took all 3 girls out the hole. Who knows how it got in a hole that small...and then how it fit all the chickens through a hole that small.

We are all very, very sad. No more eggs, no more crowing and bok-bok-boking around during the day, no one to throw our food scraps out for. Well, the goats can still get the scraps, but it's just not the same. We didn't realize how much the chickens added the the wonderful "quaint"ness of our lovely home.

We may rebuild our flock, but we need some real answers to this problem. We certainly don't want to continue to provide easy chicken dinners for the predator population. Anyone have any ideas?

Nee-nee 911!*

*David, my 2 y.o. nephew calls me "Nee Nee"-hence the "Nee Nee 911, instead of "Nannie 911".

How much do I LOVE my sister??!! So much that I drove to Tulsa from San Antonio to babysit for her church small group Christmas party that she and Mike were hosting at their house. Well, not just for that, I also came to clean out toy closets. And coat closets....and I'm sure there will be some shopping (gotta spend the Kohl's cash from Black Friday) and lots of fun!

We drove 11 hours. It was a little longer than we thought, but we're SOOOO glad to be here. We got here just about 5 mintues before people started coming for the party. I was just happy to plant myself upstairs with the kiddos and watch Frosty the Snowman. Everyone else agreed! Uncle Mike the Magnificent brought Taco Bueno for everyone to eat for dinner.

My pictures aren't loading for some reason. I might just have to head to Panera or Starbucks, for the free wifi of course, and get the pics loaded.

My hero of the week

When moving to a new place, there are several things you look for first. Where will we shop? Where will we go to church? Where will be go to the chiropractor? Well, ok, maybe that's not on your family list. But it's on ours. Where do we shop?? HEB...duh! Where do we go to church? Still working on that one. But now...at long last....we've found a chiropractor in our little town. This one doesn't believe aliens are coming back to take over the Earth and isn't 90 years old (Those two things HONESTLY disqualified the other two chiropractors here!) Our family loves chiropractors! Over the last 10 years we've seen many chiropractors of varying...well, let's just call it "alternativeness". We've had some we really liked and were very effective and others that were more disappointing. The one we used on a regular basis in Memphis, we really liked and were sorry to leave. Since then, we've hunted around hoping to find someone that we really feel good about going to see on a regular basis. YIPPEE!! NO more searching!

This past week my back has really been hurting. Some of you guys remember my terrible January/February last year. Now THAT was some serious backache...paralysis was more like it. Natural childbirth was nothing at all in comparison to that. In fact, I imagine only something like...Oh, I don't know... surgery without anesthesia...would be as painful as that episode! And to have to be showing a house, hosting out of state guests for J&Js 13th birthday bash, doing it all with Michael in SA while I'm in Memphis.....Oh man, just thinking about it makes me thankful for the grace God gave during that time! Anyway, this week's back pain wasn't that bad. But it was pretty debilitating. I couldn't do much but lay on an ice back. Sitting up was ok, but standing for more than a few minutes was really painful. Of course, I still had to shop on Black Friday. Somethings MUST press on! :-)

Enter Dr. K...after seeing him this week I'm feeling SOOOO much better! So much better in fact, that the boys and I are driving to Tulsa tomorrow to see Julie and the kiddos. We already had the trip planned, but honestly thought we'd have to cancel because of how badly my back was feeling. I can't tell you how happy I am!! And not only does he do a FAB-O adjustment (it's almost like an accupressure massage before the adjustment)...he has a really rockin' waiting room for the younger J&Js. Everybody enjoys going!

Jonathan took this picture "on an angle". Can't figure out how to rotate it to straight. (Actually, it's a test. If it hurts your neck to turn and view this picture, YOU need to see a chiropractor!)

Dr. K-the man of the week! I'm sure he thinks I'm wierd. I come into the office with 4 boys in tow and ask to keep coming back. He saw me on Monday and then was going to wait until Thursday to see me again. I kept calling to ask to come in. Well, after I whipped out the camera and asked for a photo for the blog, I'm SURE he's convinced of my wierdness. Whatever...it's a great adjustment! According to Jonathan and Jeremy, their best ever. Since they've been seeing a chiropractor since age 3, that's quite a statement. I'm inclined to agree with them.

Seriously, if your back hurts, go see a chiropractor! It REALLY helps!

The return of the Champion...and an old family tradition

Travel with me back in time about 20-25 years to Christmas in Abilene, TX. My family would almost every year go and spend Christmas in Abilene with my grandparents. While we were there, my sister and I would (among other things too numerous-or embarrassing-to mention on this blog) set up "shop" as J&J wrapping service and wrap gifts for my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles for 10 cents/pkg. We'd then walk down to the shopping center near my grandparents' house and buy little presents, usually for the pets in the house. It was so much fun. It continued for years and eventually became known as J,J, S&Ls wrapping service as some of our cousins (Stephanie and Laura) got older.

Well, yesterday it all came back to me. J&Js Wrapping Service in back in business!! Only I guess now it would be J&Js:The Next Generation. The boys had so much fun yesterday wrapping tons of gifts. Jeremy was in the other room wrapping gifts for those seen pictured below. They probably wrapped 20 things. It was fun to watch. Now all we need is a tree! Details...
And another family friend has returned to the forefront.

This BFF of mine (The Champion juicer) has been largely responsible for my recent 25 pound weight loss and after the Thanksgiving "super-backslide", she's now taken her rightful place on my kitchen cabinet again. Welcome back, Ms. Juicer. You're STILL the champion! I honestly can't believe how much better I feel when I juice. And the boys love shoving all the fruits and veggies in it! Still working on them drinking the juice that comes out! :-) Actually, Jonathan's new favorite is grapefruit/carrot. All the boys love one called Carribean C which is orange, pineapple, lemon. I love one for dinner that's beet, celery, carrot and spinach. Can't get anyone else to swallow that one yet! Their day will come.....(insert diabolical laugh)

Thanksgiving family fun, part 2

Here's some shots from the rest of our wonderful Thanksgiving together. I really can't believe how splendidly everything went: We didn't have too much food, we didn't have too little, the house never seemed too crowded or too loud (if you can believe that!), the weather was nice enough for lots of little bodies-and some bigger ones- to get outside and play and play and play. The "8 Cousins Productions" of the Thanksgiving story was great, ALL the kids were great all of the time, the shopping was fun (of course!), everyone seemed to have a fabulous time. I wish we could do it more often!
Isn't this totally cute! Michael's aunt made the turkey head...just add a pineapple. This was the centerpiece on the "middle age kids" table (those over the age of 13).

Dad's telling stories. You've never heard as many stories as you do when you get the Moore men together. Lots of stories... LOTS of laughing! What could be better for Thanksgiving!!

This is my nephew Daniel (age 4 mos) showing off his winning smile for the camera. He's such a happy baby!Dad telling more stories. My cousin Mollie is sitting next to him and my aunt Thanne is standing up.

The "kids" table. Jonathan must be back in line for food!

The beginning of the serving line at Thanksgiving lunch.

After lunch was the "8 Cousins' Production" of the Thanksgiving story. This is the gallery waiting for the show.

The bow following the show. Two of the 8 cousins (David and Daniel) were taking a nap and 1 (Katie) was having a little stagefright. She was hiding in the tent offstage.

My uncle Mike, aunt Gene and cousins Stephanie and Laura.

Julie and me getting down to business planning our shopping strategy. We decided to get up and leave as soon as Daniel was finished nursing in the middle of the night. We thought it would be around 4 or 4:30, but he decided to sleep until 6!! We got a later start than planned, but it was all fine. Actually a little bit cleared out. Shopping tip for this year: Buy jewelry at Kohls and you don't have to wait in the crazy long line!

I love this picture. This is our family that gathered for Thanksgiving. Isn't this wonderful! Mom's friend Anita (who is taking the picture) and her son Michael (which brought the "Michael" count up to 4!) also came to lunch as did my cousin Bonnie's boyfriend, Gale. Bringing the grand total to 30!

Madison, Katie, Lauren and Josiah watching a movie on Thanksgiving evening. All my kids and Julie's kids totally fell in love with all of my cousins: Madison, Maegan, Mollie, Stephanie and Laura. There was some serious "big cousin idol worship" going on. It was so cute to see!

Another one of my favorite pics of the weekend. The 8 Cousins! David, Katie, Lauren, Josiah, Jonathan, Jeremy, Daniel and Jeffrey.

Jeffrey sharing a sweet moment with Daniel.

Thanksgiving family fun, part 1

Yesterday afternoon we arrived at mom and dad's house...yeah the holiday has officially begun! Actually for Josiah and I it started in the morning as we leisurely hung out at Panera Bread (one of my very favorite restaurants) and ate bagels, drank coffee (for me and hot chocolate for Josiah) and played on the internet while J&J, Michael and Jeffrey were at basketball practice. Straight after we hit the road (even Jackson made the travelling squad) and headed for B/CS. Julie and her family were already here and not long after we arrived, my grandfather and his wife (my grandmother-his wife of over 50 years passed away almost 10 years ago), Bernice, arrived in town. They'd driven over 10 hours to be here. My grandfather celebrated his 89th birthday last week, so the fact that he drove them down is truly remarkable, and such a blessing. It's been over a year since we've seen them, so they were truly a sight for sore eyes. He kept commenting on how big J&J have gotten! It's true!!! We've since watched both football videos that the boys brought and Papa (that's what we call my grandfather) bragged on the boys over and over...and he oughta know! He's a retired high school and college football coach. They even named the college football stadium after him last year. So to see his great-grandsons playing football was a real treat for him.

Because sleeping space is at a premium with 13 people already at mom and dads-and because it's fun!-Michael and the three big boys (and even Jackson) set up and slept in a tent last night. Too bad, there wasn't room for mom and Josiah. SOMEBODY had to sleep in a BED where the them wasn't in the 40s. Everyone made it all night and had fun. My dad got hotel rooms for the next two nights, so sleeping with be a little more comfy for everyone tonight!

Today, my mom, sister and cousin, Stephanie (who's living with my parents right now) all started Thanksgiving dinner preparations. Mom, Julie and Steph made dressing, broccoli and rice, Sunshine salad (a jello salad), green bean casserole and a frozen cranberry salad we call "Nonnie's pink salad", because my grandmother, Nonnie, used to make it every Thanksgiving, and it's pink. I made 2 pumpkin pies, a chocolate pie, a coconut pie, a pecan pie and for the first time ever, a cherry pie. Later tonight, my Uncle Steve, his wife and 3 children and Uncle Mike and his wife and other daughter (Stephanie is one of his kiddos) are all coming in. The grand total for lunch tomorrow is slated to be 28. What fun!!!! There's nothing like having a houseful of people at a holiday!

Me and Julie busy at work, but it's really not work...it's totally a pleasure!!!

Jackson and Jeffrey in the tent last night.

Michael and Jeremy (making the hideous face that I didn't see until later) and Jonathan bundled up getting ready for bed.

Jonathan playing play-do with his cousin David AKA "Please take David out of the middle of the kitchen so we don't accidentally step on him"

My dad, Bernice, my brother in law Mike, Papa and Stephanie visiting while mom finishes getting supper ready.

A natural (and cheap) solution to a big mess

Yesterday while we were having fun at Sea World, dinner was a-cookin' in the Crock Pot. I was cooking up one of the free pork tenderloins that we got at Totally Tejas for BBQ sandwiches. In the middle of the morning, I'd put some water and BBQ sauce in the crock pot with the pork, set it on high and forgot about it. After all, isn't that what you're SUPPOSED to do with a crockpot "Fix it and Forget It" . On our way to Sea World, Michael asked (while we were on our way-after it was too late to do anything about it!) if I turned the crock pot down to low since we would probably be gone for 5-6 hours. Nope, I left it on high. He casually asked me if I thought there was enough water in the crock pot so the pork wouldn't burn. I confidently responded, "I don't know; I guess". Well, guess what (you can see this one coming can't you!), there wasn't enough water. When we got home, we smelled a very strong smell of roasted meat. Thankfully, the meat was salvagable, and the boys were hungry! However, after dinner I was left with this....
In fact, this picture was taken AFTER the crock pot had been cleaned as much as I could with an SOS pad and with my Pampered Chef plastic scraper and then soaked overnight with soap. I was one step away from checking sales ads for a new crockpot, but these kind of challenges spur me on. Kinda like untangling a slinky or six different necklace chains that are all twisted. I was ready to face this challenge undaunted.

I went to get my oven cleaner (figuring it would be the only way this baked on catastrophe would be solved) and then remembered we didn't have any. We couldn't take it with us when we moved. So, I googled natural oven cleaners and here's what I came up with. The recipe was enough to cover an entire oven, but I didn't half it. I figured the more the merrier.

Mix 1/4 cup borax, 1/2 cup salt and 1 box (16 oz) of baking soda. Ok, I had all of those. So far so good. You preheat the oven to 250. I put the crock pot in and preheated the oven. While that was happening, I mixed the ingredients and added enough water to make a paste. The website said 1 cup, but I think that was a little too much. Any way, after the crockpot was preheated, I rubbed the paste all over.

The I put it back in the oven (turned off) for 30 minutes. Then I added about 1/2 of vinegar. The website said to add essential oils of thyme and lemon. THAT would have been great; my hands wouldn't be smelling like vinegar now. However, I don't think it made a difference at all in the cleaning ability. A few minutes of scrubbing and voila....

I honestly can't believe it worked this well. Good as new. And next time, I'm greasing the crock pot and adding more water! Now, I'm feeling empowered and I'm off to untangle some necklaces!