Juice Extractor FAIL.

So, this summer, Hubby and I decided we were going to be healthier. And of course, the first thought that popped into our heads: JUICES. As in fresh fruit juices and smoothies.

It was, at the time, we thought, a brilliant idea. We scoured the internet looking for juicers and juice extractors and we settled on this baby:

It's the Cuisinart Juice Extractor. Wasn't cheap, either. We were going to do it right. 
So, we bought the Extractor, and I looked at the recipe book and found a few we really liked. Went to the local Harris Teeter and bought fresh mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, lemons, oranges, etc. etc..
I was a bit alarmed when my fruit purchase totaled $50, but we were going to have AWESOME FRESH juice packed full of antioxidants, so it didn't matter.
Got home, chopped up the fruit, and started the juice extractor. Fed most of the fruit into it and although the noise scared me (and the kids) a lot, we were all ooohhing and ahhhing over the teeny bits of juice that were pouring into the collection container.

Well, I used up all the fruit, and the collection container was only a quarter full. Hubby and I looked at each other, like huh? That's it? That's all we got from that buttload of fruit we put in?

I removed the little pitcher/dispenser and poured the juice into a cup. ONE small cup. We all tasted it. It was MAGNIFICENT. It was the best fifty-dollar cup of juice I've ever had.

Then, I lifted the lid on the Extractor, and UGH. PULP EVERYWHERE. And it was slimy and gooey and stuck to everything and it took me 45 minutes to pull apart the durn thing piece-by-piece and hand rinse each piece and dry them and put them all back.

So, my conclusion? $50 worth of fruit, 10 minutes worth of chopping, 5 minutes feeding said chopped fruit into a funnel that was so loud I think I've lost some of the hearing in my upper ear registers, and 45 minutes of cleanup. The result?

Eight. Ounces. Of. Juice.

Granted, it was SUPER YUMMY HEALTHY OH MY GOSH I MUST SIT DOWN THIS IS SO DELICIOUS Juice, but it was just juice all the same.

I am looking at the picture above, and how full the orange juice container is. I am concluding that either A) the advertising people simply bought a carton of orange juice and poured it in there for the picture or B) they spent an hour feeding 96847487 oranges into that thing. And C) They're all deaf now.

So, my super awesome juice extractor looks great on my counter, and I dust it dutifully once a week. And I go to the store and spend $2.99 on a HUGE bottle of fruit juice, and for some reason I feel like that's just fine.

Oh well.

I'm Ready for School to Start...

I think we've officially hit the point, where, the kids are freaking out because it's the end of summer, and I am ready for them to be back in school. Not because I don't love them, but because I am ready for some more...structure. And a cleaner house. Love my kids, but they are kind of super messy...

Here's Thing Three in his practice jersey today. He's so excited. I am nervous and looking for some really great protein shakes...but he's happy as a clam.

I am also realizing that I am currently not a soccer mom. None of my kids are playing soccer. So, does this mean I have un-earned the right to call myself a soccer mom per se? Or does the term "soccer mom" really encompass any mother whose kids play sports? Right now I'm a Football/TaeKwondo mom, and in the fall I'll be a Basketball mom. I think I'll keep the blog title for a while, yet...

This week has flown by! July was a blink, and August is starting to get that way. SLOW DOWN!!! Seriously! Before we know it we're going to be carving a Thanksgiving Turkey!

Oh, and Thing Two knows what he wants to be for Halloween:

Yep. "R" from Warm Bodies. He's tall like Nicholas Hoult, he has the eyebrows, and I've already bought the EXACT red hoodie and a wig and I'm looking at makeup tips. It will be AWESOME.

Thing Four, who is six, wants to be a pirate. Could it be any easier? ;-)

Back from Vacation!!

July was a busy month for us. We went to Disneyworld over the 4th (yes, call us insane idiots but with early-entrance "magic hours" and Fastpass we seriously rode all the rides we wanted to ride by noon, every day. :-) Hubby was the Intrepid Marching Schedulekeeper: we were scrambling to keep up with him so we could get everything in as quickly as possible. Then, if we wanted to, we repeated a few rides, and if we got tired after about 5 or 6 hours in the boiling sun, we went back to our rooms and hung out for a while, before heading back out. It was awesome. We bought way too much Disney stuff, but that's what we were there for, right? ;-)

We just got back from Utah, where we spent a week with family, before dropping our two oldest off at EFY Provo. (EFY stands for "Especially for Youth and it's a summer camp put on by our church.) Things One and Two won't be home until Sunday. Apparently they are having a blast.

We had a ton of fun in Utah, we went to Park City and hung out for a few days, did the Alpine Slides and roller coaster and took the ski lift up the mountain. It was gorgeous.

Now we are getting back into normalcy, somewhat. Thing Three has football tryouts today (cringe, gasp, STRESS) and the next two days. Hundreds of dollars for camps and gear and now he's missing his annual summer Boy Scout camp, all for Football. We will see how it goes!

I have started writing again. I haven't written a word in a month and a half. It was awful. So I have a lot of words in me. I am writing the sequel to a story I have been submitting. The book naturally didn't end with the first one, and the word count was already at 89K (which in my opinion, is "pushing it" for YA), so I started where I left off, and so far, I have 22K. (I wrote 5K yesterday). I hope to have Book Two finished up and edited by the end of September, and ready to go to beta readers. Exciting!!

Fingers crossed on a new development, as well. I hope to have some good news soon. :-)

I am not sure whether or not I'm ready for school to start. With the kiddos in school, I will have 8 hours to myself during the day, to get housework done, and WRITING. I have another novel I'm itching to write (it's about 1/2 finished) so I can work on that. Hopefully I'll have it ready for submission by the new year. 2013 seems to be flying along just as fast as 2012! What is the deal???