Gohn Crazy

K-Girl is a Second Grader

2011-08-25T10:11:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was K-Girls first day of school. This year she's a big second grader. She has been so excited for school to start this year. She had her outfit picked and laid out 2 days before. I can't get over how grown up she looks.

I love that she wanted to take a picture with her brother. He's looking forward to starting preschool in just a couple weeks. He's going to really miss his sister.

The bus pulled up and she gave me a hug and a kiss and then turned to get on the bus. She never looked back.

I'm glad to report that she had a fantastic first day and couldn't wait for the second day. I hope this is going to be another great year for her.

What we've been up to this summer (Pt 3)

2011-07-27T12:00:00.001-04:00

Another highlight of our summer so far was a visit by my best friend and the kid's beloved Auntie R. While she was down she decided she had really wanted to ride a train. Since Auntie R wanted to go and the kids and I have never been down to Strasburg Railroad before and The Husband's love of trains, we thought it would make a fun day.

We arrived early so after getting our tickets we walked around to see what there was to see. After that we sat on the benches and waited until it was time to board our train. Finally it came back... (but E-Man was much too excited and turned to look at the train instead of the camera) ;)

And finally it was time to get all aboard!!

It was a neat experience. The train took us out through the country and into Paradise, PA where it stopped, moved the engine to the other end of the cars, and took us back to Strasburg. It was a 45 minute ride and one I'd recommend if you are ever in the area.

We also took Auntie R along to do two passport hikes in Codorus State Park. To date they have been the most difficult of hikes (with exception of the copperheads) just for issues unrelated to the actual hikes. The first one took forever to find the starting place and the second I managed to drop our pouch containing our crayon for rubbing. The latter ended up being one of the kid's favorite things. While I went back and retraced all my steps and then bothered picnic'ers for pencils, they were rolling up their pants and wading in the lake by the marina.

They absolutely loved it and still ask if they can go back there so they can wade in the water. Oh and I did in fact find a guy who searched his truck till he found a broken pencil. I took the pencil and rubbed it on concrete until I made a point and then was able to go back and get the rubbing. It was quite the ordeal. :) It was great that in that moment the kids were happy with their Auntie while I was doing all the extra footwork.

And other than all of that, we've been spending a lot of time in the pool. Whether it is with friends or without the pool has been fantastic this year. The Husband recently built a small deck that will be added onto as time permits so that we can enter and exit the pool by steps rather than the ladder of death. Yes it deserved the name....well at least the ladder of pain as I nearly broke my back putting it in and nearly broke my thumb getting it out. Not to mention the danger of the actual use. Buuuuut anyway it's gone and it's fantastic. The Husband can add onto it in the off season, now it's time to use the pool. :)

The kids both love the pool this year. K-Girl is swimming on her own and E-Man actually wants to be in the water. Last year he had a little pirate boat floaty that he refused to get out of. This year he has his arm floaties on and he's all over the place.

So now I think you're about up to date about the highlights of the summer so far. Add to that lots of playdates with friends and you pretty much have the picture. We're staying busy but it's definitely working for us. I'm excited to see what August brings in the way of finishing out the summer.

What we've been up to this summer (Pt 2)

2011-07-26T12:00:00.002-04:00

Our July 4th was insanely busy. We started the day off by doing 3 different "passport" hikes (explained in Pt 1) followed by a nice swim in our pool. During our dinner a little later we decided that we should really go see fireworks. Well actually we had talked about going to see them on the 3rd but nothing came of it. Then at dinner on the 4th K-Girl wanted to know if we were going to see fireworks. So we decided we should do that. The original thought was to drive to our church and see them off in the distance from there since we were told the view is perfect. However, on the ride over I was thinking about it and just decided that we really just needed to go to see them on location. So what started out as a little drive over and then easy out and home turned into a huge production where the kids did not get home and in bed until after 11:30. This is late on a normal night let alone on a night after they had done 3 hikes and swam. But it was a fantastic day and I'd do it again. :)

We also made a trip up to Hershey Gardens to see the butterflies. They have a fantastic children's garden with a butterfly house. The kids love it and so do I.

The only downside to our visit was that it was about 100 degrees and little shade. We didn't last but 2 hours. It was still worth the visit though.

I had to take a moment and get a new picture of the kids with the pig and the cow.

Now click this link to go back to my post on July 17, 2009. Oh my goodness how they have grown!!! That pig looked a lot bigger 2 years ago. Wow.

*To Be Continued...

What we've been up to this summer (Pt 1)

2011-07-25T21:28:00.000-04:00

Just one month left until school starts again. I'm ready for Fall and the consistency it brings, but at the same time I'm handling this summer much better than I had expected to. It's been a busy one and I think that's the key.

Next week The Husband is taking a week's vacation and instead of going anywhere we plan on staying close to home and having fun here. We have two trips planned to visit Hershey Park one day and Knobles another. We haven't been to Knobles since E-Man was riding in a sling and I'm not sure that he's ever been to Hershey. K-Girl is a roller coaster nut, well at least she's obsessed with the ones she has been on at the amusement park made just for kids, Dutch Wonderland. But I'm excited to take her on some of the bigger ones. I hope she loves them as much as she thinks she will.

I thought perhaps I would take a little time to do a few posts (because we have definitely been busy) to let you know how we've been spending our summer.

We've been spending many days at the bowling alley. If you haven't heard about the program check this out - KidsBowlFree.com. The program runs all over the country so there's a good chance you might find a local bowling alley that participates. Every weekday kids get to bowl 2 free games. In addition you can purchase shoe tickets so that rental is a lot cheaper - one time small fee vs a little each time ends up being a huge savings if you go often. They also have a special that you can add up to 4 adults to bowl 2 games daily for just under $25.00 one time fee. It's fantastic. On K-Girl's birthday The Husband took a vacation day and one of the things we did was go bowling. She was so excited to bowl a strike that day...a little birthday luck!

The York County Libraries put together this FANTASTIC summer program for us. There are two sides to it. First of course they have a reading program where you track your minutes of reading with a goal to get to 800 before the end of summer. They give prizes at 200, 400, 600, and 800. The kids are very excited about that, especially K-Girl since she is now an independent reader as well. Nothing like reading with a stop watch running. ;) The kids have just about made it to 800 already.

The second part to it is a Get Outdoors program to help give the kids (and whole families) something fun to get up and DO. This year the focus is on countries of the world. There are 30 selected. At different parks and trails throughout the county there is a check point. On the post there is a little plaque that you rub and shows that you made it. There are directions that you have to follow to get you to the checkpoint. It's a lot of fun and we're really enjoying it. We did it last year but the kids were a little small and there was a lot more whining. This year we are currently halfway with exactly 15 "passports" collected. We hope to do all 30, but the current heatwave has slowed us down. Hopefully we'll be able to pull it off. There is still whining this year, but I think it's one of those things - they love finding the "passport" but the trek there is not always the easiest and most fun.

Most have been pretty uneventful like when we visited "Poland"...

But then there was the day we tried to go to "Kenya" but encountered 5+ copperhead snakes. I said I was being responsible, but more than anything I was scared too much to go any further. I'd like to go back and try again on a less sunny warm day.

Others have had rewards like yummy red raspberries along the way like our trip to "South Africa"...

And others, breath-taking views that make all that walking worth it like when we went to "India"...

I just love that our libraries do this and look forward to taking part in it for many years to come!

*To Be Continued...

Happy 7th Birthday, K-Girl!

2011-07-06T21:24:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that K-Girl is 7 years old. Her birthday was actually last Thursday, but we've been busy so I haven't had a chance to post anything here. Seven and a second grader. Time is flying.

I promise there is more coming. I've uploaded a bunch of pictures to share how we've been keeping busy. I just need to put it all together. And the closet is basically done as well. I swear that's not why I haven't been back. ;)

Routine

2011-06-29T09:51:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is the last day of camp for both kids. K-Girl will have a camp continuing throughout most of the summer, but other than a week long soccer camp for E-Man in August (and that's only an hour each day) this is it for him. I've fallen into routine with our mornings. I still press the snooze a few too many times and leave us to rush to get to camp, but once I get home I slow down and enjoy the quiet.

The first thing I tend to do is brew a cup of coffee and grab my computer. When the coffee is done I sit at the kitchen table and write blogs/read blogs/facebook/etc. I'm not the only one that has fallen into this routine though.

Enter "C", Agent C if we're being proper. You may remember her as "our outside cat". Or those who know me personally may know that our outside cat was in fact a female... was in fact pregnant... did in fact have 4 kittens under our deck... yeah that cat.
Short catch-up for those not in the know, we took care of all her kittens and the momma, fed them all. Once they were too big to keep outside without worrying about them getting away we brought them inside until they were between 9 - 12 weeks old. We found homes for all 4 of C's kittens and we decided that we would keep C. We got her spayed so we can insure no more kittens and she's inside full time now. She's a great cat and Jack is finally not the third wheel to the other two cats. We have two sets that are very fond of each other.

Soooo anyway, back to what I was saying.

C has noticed my routine and has found a way to embrace it. Every day as soon as I sit down she jumps up in the chair right around the corner from me. She'll "talk" to me until I start petting her. I'll pet her for several minutes as I read and sip my coffee and then eventually she gets down when I need to use of both hands to type for a bit.

Unfortunately then after the coffee cup is empty it is time to get some work done, albeit in a quiet house. Today it is time to tackle the closet. I have said this since, I believe, the first day of camp. I'm going to try a different tactic today.

See horribly unorganized closet...

And next time I come back I need to avenge this horrible show of clutter with a neat and tidy organized closet.

Of course you also know that with me saying that, I'll be back in say oooooh maybe November sometime. ;)

It's Tuesday so perhaps a recipe...

2011-06-28T11:48:00.000-04:00

It seemed only fitting that I am sitting here with pictures of my super yummy dinner from the other night and it's Tuesday. So in honor of the long dead Tofu Tuesday, I thought I'd share it with you because it's just that good. Look I even dug up the graphic for it...

So this is what I'm sharing with you...

Looks good huh?! Definite comfort food and so easy. I took the recipe from my Betty Crocker easy everyday VEGETARIAN cookbook and I changed it up just a little bit. I really recommend checking out the cookbook though. It's loaded with tons of truly easy and yummy recipes.

OK so the recipe...

"Chicken" Alfredo Pot Pie
Prep is about 20 minutes with a total of about 45 minutes
Makes about 6 servings

1 can (11 oz) refrigerated soft breadsticks (I couldn't find these and just used the can of pizza dough and rolled it out and cut it instead)

4 frozen grilled chicken-style soy-protein patties (I can find a brand called Quorn that has these awesome chicken tenders - Look here - and they are already little cubes of chicken substitute. Great texture and perfect for this type of use.)

1/3 cup milk

1 jar (16 oz) Alfredo pasta sauce

1 bag (1 lb) frozen broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower, thawed, drained - (These are not veggies that go over well in my family, nor are they really what comes to my mind with pot pie. So instead I cut up a bit of a potato into small squares that would be sure to cook, added some corn, carrots, and due to lack of peas used lima beans instead. I didn't measure but just eye-balled to see what a good thick consistency looked right.)

2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp Italian seasoning

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375F. Unroll dough; separate at perforations into 12 breadsticks. Set aside. On small microwavable plate, microwave patties on High 30 - 45 seconds or until slightly thawed. Cut patties into cubes to make about 2 cups.

(If using something like the Quorn tenders, I completely skipped the whole microwave step and went right to step two measuring out 2 generous cups of tenders.)

2. In 3-qt saucepan, mix patty cubes, milk, pasta sauce and vegetables. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally. Spoon into ungreased 13x9" (3-qt) glass baking dish.

(I did not use a glass 9x13 baker and instead used my deep round silicone dish. I thought that the 9x13 would be too shallow and I wanted my pot pie deeper.)

3. Twist each breadstick; arrange crosswise over hot patties mixture, gently stretching strips if necessary to fit. Sprinkle with cheese and Italian seasoning.

(I did not twist, did not measure either cheese or seasoning.)

4. Bake uncovered 20 - 30 minutes or until bread sticks are deep golden brown.

And this is how mine looked when I broke it open...

For some reason this picture is upside down. I'll have to figure out how to get it to turn the correct way, but I have to run so I'll leave you for now with upside down pot pie. Enjoy!

Soooooo good!

It's one of those recipes that you can use for ideas and then tweak it differently to make it perfect for you. It was an instant favorite for our family. Even the kids mostly ate it...although each of them whined about separate issues - potatoes, beans - but I'm used to this.

And again, if you haven't already you should really check out this cookbook as it's perfect for quick meals and great if you are either new to vegetarian cooking or just interested in making more meatless meals for your family.

Happiness is...

2011-06-27T22:06:00.000-04:00

"Wanna go for a ride??"

Windows rolled down. The breeze in your hair.

So many sights to see.

Lots to smell and warm sunshine.

It's not often anymore that the dogs get to come along for a ride. Either we have my car which is too small for us all to go together or we need to go somewhere to do something requiring us leaving the car for a while. And then there is the guilt that if we are to take one then we need to take both. Gabby (the daschund) needs a lap to ride on otherwise she is not able to get up to see and pretty much always ends up getting sick. Molly (bigger dog) loves car rides but takes up a lot of space.

The other day we were going to pick up Chinese for dinner and decided to take everyone to pick it up. The dogs were thrilled to go along. Gabby fully enjoyed herself, tail wagging and nearly climbing out the window for a better look/smell. When we pulled into our driveway I opened the door, sat her down in the grass and she got sick. So I guess she still gets carsick, but at least she enjoyed herself prior and waited until we got out of the car (off my lap) which is much appreciated.

K-Girl's Crossover

2011-06-25T10:53:00.000-04:00

This year K-Girl decided (with the help of her BFF) that she wanted to do Girl Scouts. She's been a Daisy Scout which include kindergarten and first grade. This year she's completed all the requirements to crossover to Brownies next year for second grade. At the end of the year the troop leaders, Miss A and Miss K, threw a party for all the girls that included receiving the last of their patches for the year and crossover for the 3 of them that were moving onto Brownies in the Fall.

I cannot tell you how much K-Girl has loved Daisies. She just thinks it's the coolest. We both can't wait until Brownies where they will start doing even more fun things.

One big step for K-Girl

2011-06-22T08:33:00.000-04:00

A little background...

On our recent trip to Canada we had along K-Girl and E-Man's scooters because they were small and were easy to pack. When it came time to leave I totally forgot about them being that the last time the kids played with them they had parked them in the garage. I only realized that we had forgotten them once we were just an hour and a half from home...there was no going back for them. Not one of my finer moments, but these things happen.

This past Sunday K-Girl took her bike to Nan & Pap's house and being that she's nearly 7 we thought it's time to take off the training wheels and learn to ride without. Well we tried taking off the training wheels. She pretty much had a nervous breakdown so we put them back on. Since we don't have much area to ride bikes at our house we took the kids' bikes over to the school that isn't too far from here and let them ride there for a while after dinner. After K-Girl was off speeding around we told her it was time the training wheels came off and this time stayed off. She broke down crying and basically told us she was going to die without them. I took her around holding onto her and she'd chant "I can't do this I can't do this I can't do this" over and over. I told her to knock off the negativity because once you decide you can do it you will do it. Shortly there after I was barely holding onto her and then a little while after that I was jogging beside.

The following video was taken later that same evening...

Now that she gets it she is obsessed. The first thing out of her mouth in the morning is asking if we can go bike riding later. I'm glad we finally just gave her the push she needed. It's obvious she was ready. All that was lacking was a little confidence.

Strawberries!

2011-06-21T11:07:00.000-04:00

Earlier this month, E-Man and I went strawberry picking with our playgroup. E-Man had a good time. He was much better this year than last although he had a problem with eating a lot of what he picked. We picked 6 pints of berries in all though.

For all of those berries we paid $11.70. That Sunday I got to work in the kitchen. I washed a LOT of berries.

I got done making the first batch of jam only to realize that I had plenty left to make another batch. I ended up making 2 batches of strawberry jam resulting in 18 jars of jam in total and still had more berries.

As I was thinking of things to do with my extra berries I noticed some very ripe bananas that we had sitting on the counter. The thought of making banana bread popped into my head and then I thought how much better it would be to add strawberries. Well the bread turned into muffins after a short search for recipes.

The muffins were delicious. If you'd like the recipe I used here's the link - Strawberry-Banana Muffins. They even have a video and whatnot with it.

So in all my berries went to making - 18 jars of jam, 18 muffins, strawberry shortcake for 4 of us, and a few left over to eat as is.

I'm now making plans of going back for raspberries. Mmmmmm.

...and now it's June

2011-06-20T11:00:00.004-04:00

No promises as I am experiencing problems with staying with this whole blogging thing anymore, but here's at least one post.

School's out for the summer. E-Man will be in preschool again next year before heading to kindergarten. K-Girl received her report card letting her officially know she is now a second grader. E-Man hasn't done a huge change, but it seems K-Girl has done a lot of growing this year.

So far we are enjoying our summer. I was a bit nervous about it, but we seem like we'll be plenty busy to keep most of the craziness at bay. Since getting out a week and a half ago we already went on one trip - to Canada to visit my sister and family. It was a nice visit. The kids just loved spending time with their cousins. We only wish they all were a little closer.

This week and next both kids are at a camp for the morning hours, to which I am quite excited. I have 3 hours of quiet time Mon - Thurs this and next week. It's quite a treat after the trip to Canada without The Husband last week.

My tattoo is now finished and I'm already starting to roll around ideas for the next one. ;) So this is my 4th and final session:

I celebrated my birthday last month. I'm now 29. I can't believe I'll be 30 next year. Crazy crazy. I also have trouble at times believing I have been married for 8 years and have an (almost) 7 year old and a 4 year old. Kind of mind boggling.

E-Man also celebrated his birthday on May 30th. So as I said he's 4 now.

He had a small birthday party here at home with just family. He is completely and utterly obsessed with Star Wars so we did it all out. I made him a name blanket just like K-Girl has with this awesome repurposed fabric I found on Etsy. I photoshopped the name off the blanket if you notice the weirdness in the pattern. We had a Star Wars ice cream cake from Dairy Queen that he thought was the coolest.

I've got a couple more things to share so I'll try to get back with those in a timely manner.

It's March

2011-03-11T23:08:00.004-05:00

Well, Noel has left and so have I. Lots has happened since December, but at the same time not a lot has happened. Lots of the day to day stuff which is wonderful and fantastic, but nothing too life changing. Everyone is doing well.

Perhaps just a little overview...

We took the kids bowling for the first time (Jan 16th) -

It was a lot of fun. Each of the kids liked doing it their own way and didn't want help. We did bumper bowl which helped things along of course. Mom won. ;) But a good time was had by all.

I've done a lot of crocheting and made some items which I am quite proud of...

I also finally decided upon my next tattoo and am currently three sessions in (2 more to go)...

Session 1:

Session 2:

Session 3:

K-Girl has recently became obsessed about getting her ears pierced so we went and did that this past week. I took her to a piercer rather than the mall and I'm really glad I did. It was a little traumatic as it is for all kids, but she did really well and loves her earrings.

I've got more catching up obviously, but I've been taking more pictures on my phone than with my actual camera so I'll have to grab those to share a bit more.

Farewell to Noel

2010-12-24T23:05:00.003-05:00

Naughty Noel was up to his mischief again Wednesday night. He helped himself to a piece of candy from K-Girl's goody bag from school. She gave him a talking to and asked him to return it.

He did end up returning it some time throughout the day and she found it rewrapped in her goody bag when she got home from school. What did she do with the elf-nibbled candy? She gave it to her brother of course.

Today was the last morning Noel would be with us as Santa will be picking him up to take him home tonight when he comes. So being that it was his last night he brought a little something to share with the kids. He was swimming in a bowl of marshmallows, candy canes, and packets of cocoa this morning when the kids found him.

This meant cocoa with breakfast of course!

And rumor had it that it was yummy.

We'll be sad to see Noel go, but look forward to him coming back next year!

But with Noel's leaving brings Santa's visit!!

We put out our food for Santa's reindeer...

and put on our new jammies from Grandma & Pop Pop...

...had a little silliness...

and went off to bed to hope Santa will make their wishes come true.

Where's Noel

2010-12-22T15:47:00.003-05:00

It's getting down to crunch time and I've had a few last minute orders I've had to get out so I've completely forgotten to post Noel's whereabouts each day, but I've remembered to take the pictures. Ok well Noel nicely reenacted one of the days for me, but otherwise I've remembered. ;)

On Sunday morning we woke to find him hanging on to the TV. This created quite the stir since K-Girl was very vocal in the fact that NO ONE is allowed to touch the TV. haha Oh well, they say elves are sometimes naughty too.

Monday, Noel was found peeking out around a Christmas Tree decoration up on a shelf in the play room. Sneaky sneaky.

Tuesday morning he was discovered red-handed, well at least with a piece of red licorice that he had apparently been nibbling on. I don't blame him. Had I been hiding in the leftover Halloween candy on the refrigerator I would have helped myself to some candy as well.

And this morning he was found hugging the little rasta hula dancer in our living room. Personally I think he was trying to play his guitar, but we'll leave it up to interpretation. ;)

I wonder what he'll be up to next?

Quick find

2010-12-18T21:38:00.003-05:00

The kids found him right away this morning...

...perched up on the foyer light.

Headrush & Comfy Puppies

2010-12-17T22:39:00.003-05:00

In elf news, Noel was found hanging upside down from a window in our playroom this morning. I personally think he should have passed out long ago, but he's still hanging in there at 10:45 at night. He should be popping back to the North Pole at any minute to report back to Santa on today's happenings though.

I've been rather busy lately. You know, the type of busy where if in doubt you can nearly be sure I'll be found like this...

I've been in this chair for many hours today and pulled a new personal record crocheting up 2 pairs of fingerless mittens since about 3:00 this afternoon for last minute Christmas orders. However, before I got crazy busy with store orders, I had a little bit to work up sweaters for my puppies.

The first night I decided that Gabby needed a sweater because she can't go to the bus stop without shivering. After an incident of the bus being quite late and watching her shiver for a good 20 minutes I deemed this a priority. I was looking up patterns for dog sweaters and found one I liked - Urban Granny Dog Sweater - but Gabby's measurements didn't fit any of their sizes so I decided to wing it. What I came up with was a granny square on the back with a long neck that can either be left up to cover her ears or folded back, and a belly strap to keep it all in place and keep her belly warm. I was quite pleased with it.

But then I felt guilty because Molly isn't as round as she used to be and shivers outside too. So I pulled out some more yarn and decided to give a sweater for her a try. Again, I was pleased with the outcome. Although I must say that her new collar that I heard Santa is bringing for her will look much better with her new sweater - it's orange. ;)

So now I feel a little better taking them along to pick up K-Girl from her bus when it's so cold out.

They look much more comfy now, don't you think? :)

Peek-a-Boo

2010-12-16T08:28:00.001-05:00

They thought for a minute that Noel may have returned to the North Pole and not come back, but they finally found him peeking out of The Husband's stocking.

Candy Canes

2010-12-15T14:21:00.002-05:00

This morning the kids couldn't get downstairs quick enough to look and see what Noel the Christmas Elf had been up to last night. It didn't take very long to find him this morning though. As soon as K-Girl turned on the Christmas Tree she left out a gasp as it was decorated in candy canes. She was very excited that not only had Noel been snacking on his own candy cane, but he had also brought back his favorite candy to share with all of us.

He knows if you've been bad or good...

2010-12-14T10:57:00.005-05:00

Santa has decided that Mom and Dad need some extra help this Christmastime and has sent us some backup. This backup is in the form of a little elf named "Noel" or "Manuel" if you ask K-Girl. ;)

Last night Santa stopped by and left a letter, a present, and his special elf behind for them to find this morning.

While breakfast was cooking we read Santa's letter. Here is a copy of the wording...

Dear K-Girl & E-Man,

I have decided to send one of my special elves to your house to help keep a closer eye on you both. His name is Noel and I hope you will enjoy his being there. There are a few things that you need to know about having an elf in your house. The first thing that you need to know is that Noel is a very special elf and he is filled with Christmas Magic. You do not want to touch him as this will take away his magic. During the day Noel stays very still and does his job by watching how naughty or nice you both are being - so remember to be good for goodness sake. As soon as everyone goes to bed at night, Noel uses his Christmas Magic and travels back to the North Pole to let me know how you have been that day. After he is done telling me how you were he pops back home and waits for you to awake the next morning to continue his watch. You will probably find that Noel, like most elves, is a bit playful and will probably not be found in the same spot when you wake up the next day. He may even be a bit mischievous, himself, at times. Hopefully he will not be up to too much trouble while he is there. On Christmas Eve while I am making my rounds I will pick up Noel along with my other special elves and bring them home to the North Pole until next year. Once I have assigned a special elf to you they tend to like to visit each year there after. So don't be sad on Christmas morning when you awake to find he's gone away. He may just be back next year.
Santa Claus

After reading the letter I read the book that Santa brought for them while they ate their breakfast. The book was Christopher Pop-In-Kins. It tells about the first elf that came to watch over children to let Santa know how they have been. It's a cute book.

Noel climbed high up onto the dining room light to keep out of the way and do his listening for today. It took quite a while for the kids to find him this morning even though he had just climbed up above the kitchen table and was sitting on the top of the light.

The kids were excited about him, but especially K-Girl, had a lot of questions. K-Girl thinks he looks a lot like just a decoration, but with a little help she believes that he just can hold still as a statue until we all fall asleep and then he comes to life and runs around. I think as the charades unfold she'll believe a bit stronger.

365 - Week 3

2010-07-30T10:14:00.000-04:00

I'm a week behind but I don't have enough time currently to post two and this has already been drafted. So here's last week, week 3. :) I'll try to get week 4 up soon so that I can be caught up again.

DAY 15

Monday July 12, 2010

What to do with an amber teething necklace and anklet after the teething years are over? Join them together and wear them as an anklet. I haven't had varicose vein pain in my leg since I started wearing it. Wish I had thought of it sooner.

Day 16
Tuesday July 13, 2010

Eclipse, take 2. IMAX. Awwwwesome! ;)

Day 17
Wednesday July 14, 2010

She drew an owl...and did a pretty darn good job.

When Momma started drawing too, it didn't take long till the patio was covered in chalk.

Day 18
Thursday July 15, 2010

Week 2 - Day 1 of my C25K program. The Husband found this cool app - JogTracker - for his Droid. Neat app! It's very cool to be able to see where I ran and even what side of the street I used.

Day 19
Friday July 16, 2010

The only thing standing between me and swimming in the pool was putting together this ladder. It took me a LONG time to get it together and I had to walk away from it the first time. After 2ish hours I finally had the darn thing together.

...aaaaand the first swim lasted all of 5 minutes until K-Girl's internal barometer
said a storm was coming and she wanted out NOW! ~sigh~ But upon checking the weather channel to ease her mind it just confirmed there are storms off to the west. She was done.

Day 20
Saturday July 17, 2010

Enjoying the pool fishy style.

Day 21
Sunday July 18, 2010

Sonic. I love their lemon berry slushes and their grilled cheese, but I detest styrofoam. Every time I go there I have the same mental battle about their cups and wonder if you could bring your own cup. Yeah I have some issues.

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily and Caitlin

Break it Down...

2010-07-22T14:10:00.003-04:00

Darn stop sign just wasn't wide enough for that second "M". Oh well, spelling issues aside I still had to laugh and then circle the block so I could get a picture.

365 - Week 2

2010-07-16T08:48:00.002-04:00

DAY 8

Monday July 5, 2010

The pool has arrived. This isn't a brand new pool as it was set up at The Husband's office so it's got a few dings and scratches, but it's our pool and it is cheap! We are quite excited!! My poor husband took apart the pool and loaded it all into the truck himself and then drove it home and got it all from the street to the back yard basically by himself as well. Each panel is over 80 lbs. He worked hard. K-Girl and I helped some, but we weren't much help when it came to the heavy lifting.

Day 9
Tuesday July 6, 2010

I've started the Couch to 5K program. I thought it was only fitting that I take a picture of the sneakers. They are rather old and worn out, but till I make sure that I'm going to stick with this they will have to get me through a few miles before going into retirement. Tonight I jogged and walked a total of 2.8 miles. I was very proud of my feet tonight.

Day 10
Wednesday July 7, 2010

It's been hot, much too hot for me. I'm of the mind that you can always put more on to get warm. I'm happiest in jeans and a sweater. It was 102 at 6:00pm...at 9:00 it was still 97. Ick. There were also many power outages around which made travel across town quite an experience.

Day 11
Thursday July 8, 2010

What a night! And I'm not saying that in the good sense. K-Girl fought bedtime and I ended up grabbing Gabby from downstairs because she was barking. I put her in my bed with me, but then K-Girl called again. In the 2 minutes I was gone Gabby decided to pee in my bed. Through the comforter, sheets, and just on the mattress pad. At least it didn't make it to the mattress, but 10:00 at night is not when I care to be stripping my bed and doing laundry.

Day 12
Friday July 9, 2010

Meet "Agent C". I don't know if you're familiar with Phineas and Ferb or not. If you are then you'll get the reference as the secret agents are named by the first letter of what animal they are (Perry the Platypus = Agent P). This kitty has adopted us. We're not sure if it's a she or a he so it's got a name that doesn't matter. After three days of this kitty hanging around our house we've started feeding it. I know I know. But I guess we now have an outdoor cat. I just couldn't not feed/water it when the temperatures have been so high. Agent C will come out when we're around, but if we pay it too much attention or come close it will take off. I managed to get these pictures the day after I started feeding it. I feel bad about it's boo-boo under the eye but I'm not sure what I can do about it as it won't let me get closer than about 4 feet before it takes off.

Day 13
Saturday July 10, 2010

Grocery shopping (and a Target run)

Day 14
Sunday July 11, 2010

The goodies I made for my Thirty-one party this afternoon. They were delicious. Possibly the best brownies I've ever tried. I don't think I'll ever be able to use a box again.
The recipes...
Brownies, as They Should Be
Congo Bars

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily and Momma

Crafty

2010-07-08T13:34:00.005-04:00

I thought I'd take a moment and share with you some of the crafty things I've been working on other than the items for my shop. If you'd like to see items for my shop you can follow the link on my little widget over there to your right. <--- Or it's WhimsicalStitches.Etsy.com ;) But anyway...

I'll start this at most recent. I mentioned that I started the Couch to 5K program. I got a new iPod for my birthday this year as my old one didn't work properly. I'm excited to have it to run with, but I didn't have one of those arm bands for it. So what did I do? Made one of course. :) Don't mind the poor quality as these are cell phone pictures. I already have them and don't feel like getting other ones. It worked pretty well, but I think I might make one more to fix a few issues I have with it. But definitely not bad for a first run making it up as I go. :) It's just too bad I found that they have the C25K app for my husband's phone so I may be running with his phone (which does not fit) instead. Oh well excuse to make another for his until I'm up to running longer times and don't need the walk/run cues.

I bought this wool at our local yarn shop with the thoughts that I would make a market bag. I found a pattern like what I was thinking of to make life easier. But the bag was very small. I edited the pattern as I was going, but the end result was still smaller than what I was meaning for. It's cute and it's usable, but I'm glad I still have a lot of wool left over. I'll be making another larger bag out of the rest. To give you an idea of size. I have 14 clementines in that bag.

I also made a few owls. I don't know if I shared any of these here or not, but since I haven't been around much, I'm guessing no. Momma Owl on the right was my first of these three. She's for me. Then K-Girl said she wanted me to make the Baby Owl for her. So I made the baby on the right. Then I decided that I wanted to try to make myself a keychain owl so I got some of the thread yarn or whatever you call it. It's kind of like embroidery floss but it doesn't separate and it's not as soft. I used the pattern for the mommy owl because I like the proportions better for that one. It just about killed me making it though. Tiny needle, tiny thread, cramped hands! But I love the way it came out. I had this little knit sweater that was a holder for a gift certificate The Husband got me for Christmas which had this little beaded hanger on it. I just cut that and removed a few of the beads to give me room to tie it and it matches my owl perfectly. It's a bit bulky to carry as a keychain so my little momma has found a home hanging from my rearview mirror. I love it!

I made this bag for a friend and then ended up making myself one as well. I love these bags. They aren't that hard and I don't start hating them until I get to the strap. I'm not a fan of single crochet. I don't like anything that I have to tightly stitch as it ends up really bugging my hands/wrist.

This is my friend's bag:

This is mine:

I also made E-Man this little puppy...

I also made myself this headband and then decided to make them to sell too. I love headbands!!

I'm sure there's more but that's a few that I found pictures for. :) Thanks for looking.

Take 2 - 365 Week 1

2010-07-08T10:48:00.006-04:00

Oh, hi there! Yeah it's me again. I fell off the 365 wagon back in April. I missed a whole week and picked it back up only to fall off for good. So 2 weeks ago a few of my friends were talking about doing the 365 challenge on the mommy's message board I belong to. I thought this was the perfect time to pick back up. I'd really like to complete this challenge, because it was really great. I love looking over the pictures and getting that idea of what happened. When I'm not actively doing the challenge I'm not carrying my camera around and in turn I'm missing a LOT. I'm still at the stage where I'm trying to train myself again. It's hard again. But I'm going to keep going. So this time I started on Monday June 28th. Each week I'll post my Monday - Sunday. Maybe that will be good for me too as I won't be hurrying to get the post up. Maybe I can work on drafting it through the week so all I have to do is hit publish come Thursday/Friday. We'll see. Even if I fall off the blogging wagon, I do hope to continue this challenge though for me personally. So here's hoping! And congratulations to those of you still going strong from the original start of 365!!

DAY 1
Monday June 28, 2010

The Husband worked an auction tonight so after dinner was cleaned up the kids and I decided to have game night. We kicked it off with Candy Land (K-Girl won). Followed it up with Chutes and Ladders (E-Man won). And finished it out with Guess Who (K-Girl won).

Day 2
Tuesday June 29, 2010

Yes, I'm a Twilight geek...and I'm proud. ;) Luckily a few of my friends are just as bad as I am. We got together to enjoy our evening prior to going to the midnight showing of Eclipse. We played Twilight Scene It twice. "R" won the first time and I won the second round. And Eclipse at midnight - fantastic! :)

Day 3
Wednesday June 30, 2010

So it was K-Girl's birthday, and can you believe I didn't take any pictures other than this one?! When I realized I forgot she was already in bed! Bad mom!! This was part of our gift to K-Girl. She's completely Chihuahua obsessed. We finished out her birthday with popcorn and this movie. Very cute!

Day 4
Thursday July 1, 2010

The kids have been attending this 2 week long summer camp called Safety Town. This is the first year we've done it, but it has been a lot of fun for them. They are learning a lot of great stuff that is really beneficial and if gives them something to be away from the house and doing in the morning. They have learned about stranger safety, poison safety, fire safety, water safety, etc. Each day they have a different subject. Some days they take their helmets and they ride bikes or big wheels. And they theme the days for a different color each day. Today was red day at Safety Town. On Friday they "graduate" and we'll all be a bit sad. Not to mention that the kids have been having a great time, Momma's been enjoying that 2 1/2 hours of alone time each day too. ;)

Day 5
Friday July 2, 2010

Celebrating their finding of another "buoy" - part of the summer reading and get outside program by the county's libraries. The buoys are actually little sign posts with a plastic piece on top that you can do a crayon rubbing on to prove you've found it. You have to follow the directions from starting point to each of the steps to find them. There are 30 in all and you have till Labor Day to finish. We only have 5 so far as the heat has killed us. I'm so not a hot weather person! But they range from easy to hard based on either the length or difficulty of the hike. The hardest we have done was a medium and it was 1.6 miles and that was quite a distance for the little legs to go. E-Man ended up in the carrier for some of the way back to the car.

I don't know if this is a "good" picture or not, but I just can't help but love it. And the reason I love it is because it's basically just their silhouettes. I think if I knew how to play a little better with photoshop I'd completely darkened them out, but I can't figure it out without killing the color everywhere else. Ah well.

Day 6
Saturday July 3, 2010

My little beach bunny. Haha! She was so proud of her outfit - everything coordinated right down to the collar on her little puppy. We were on our way over to our friends house for dinner and some water play for the kids.

Day 7
Sunday July 4, 2010

Waiting on the fireworks to start. E-Man thinks it's great to climb up and look out the sunroof.

The kids just loved the fireworks, although E-Man wanted his ears held shut the whole time. He's not a fan of really loud noises. After a while we decided it would be easier just to get into the car which muffled the noise enough that E-Man didn't need to cover the ears. The display was really good though. It started at 9:30 and wasn't over till nearly 10:15. It made for quite the late night for the kids though. ...and no they didn't sleep in, not that I really expected them to.

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily and Serious Krystyn

K-Girl's Super Mario Bros. Party

2010-07-08T10:19:00.000-04:00

K-Girl is BIG into Super Mario Bros. right now. She (and E-Man) love playing it on the Wii. So she wanted to have a Mario party this year. There were a few other ideas in the runnings but I told her since she was inviting so many boys that they would like this idea the best. We started working on the party a few months ago.

This was the outside of the invitation. The inside was just the typical who, what, where, when party info. I put this together in Photoshop after downloading the Super Mario Bros. font and grabbing pictures on Google Images.

For each party I like to have the kids in an outfit that fits with the theme as much as I can. I didn't really get to do it for Scooby Doo, but for K-Girl's Hello Kitty Party and E-Man's Umizoomi Party and his Monster Party I did have fun making sure their outfits matched the theme. About an hour before the party I threw together these shirts for the kids using iron on transfers.

I made all the decorations. Most of them are just printing images out on the printer onto cardstock. I made a Happy Birthday Banner with the help of my Cricut. I made the circles, glued the letters on, put holes in the circles and put them onto yarn. For the ends I drew pictures of 6 of the "bad guys" and colored them. I also made her a Happy Birthday poster to put on her bedroom door after the party. E-Man has one from his Umizoomi party so she wanted one too. I also had two white balloons that I put spots on with green sharpie to make Yoshi eggs.

OOOH and I have to share this, because it was the weirdest thing. About 30 minutes before the party started this dog showed up at our front door -

Last year a little while before K-Girl's Scooby party was about to start this SAME dog showed up at our house. A while ago K-Girl said how weird it would be if the dog came back this year. And then it did! So it's a really nice dog and I found out where it lived seeing it tied out front of the house. So I put it in my car and I took it home. I knocked on the door - which the big door was open and cars were parked there. I knew they were home but I knocked three different times and no one would come to the door. I went to their immediate neighbors and although I saw a lady she wouldn't come to the door. I went across the street to that house and no one would answer. So I went to the house directly behind them and their garage door was up so I HOPED they would answer. When she came to the door she said "Oh Ziggy!!" and I told her that the dog was at my house and I thought the dog belonged to her neighbor but that they wouldn't answer the door. She came out and went back to the house with me. She knocked and then yelled in the door. This old drunk guy finally came out and got the dog. They had no idea the dog got out. He did say thank you. When I got back the first kid was showing up. I had stuff still to do so that kind of put me in stress mode. *L* But I thought it was so weird that the same dog showed up both years now.

Ok so back to the party.

The favors for the kids were little Mario boxes that I ordered online. I put a sheet of stickers in them. They also had all the candy from the pinata (cow tails, starbursts, dum dums, and bubble gum) and some had prizes from the different games. And then the last favor I made them Mario "Bigs" - Mushrooms. I crocheted one for each kid - 15 in all. They took be about two sitting sessions, probably about 3 - 4 hours each. I've been working on them for the last 2 months - completing the first May 3rd. I didn't finish the last one until the day before the party - June 25th. I'm so relieved to be done with them. And I'm glad that the kids loved them. At the end of the party they were all up in the playroom throwing them around. :)

The first game we played was "Get the Goombas". The night before the party I used the air compressor to blow up 72 balloons and then I drew the faces on with black sharpie. Prior to blowing them up, we put little paper mario coins (found the image on the computer, shrank it down, put about 70 or more on a page and printed out a couple pages and cut them apart) in each balloon. Some had 1, some had more up to 5 coins. I gave the kids a little white paper bag with a question mark on the front with their names. They needed to pop the balloons and get the coins. The kid with the most coins won. The winner had 29 coins. K-Girl who didn't like popping them only had 3. The average was about 10 - 15.

The next game was "Pin the Mustache on Mario". I made a Mario using a projector The Husband brought home. Then I made mustaches with brown construction paper and wrote each kid's name on them. I used double-sided tape to stick them. I blindfolded each kid. I think it was too easy though because we had at least 4 or 5 kids that won. I only had 2 prizes so everyone got lollipops and we went on to the next game. Perhaps I should have had Mario standing on his head or something to up the difficulty a bit?

After that we played "Boo Races". I believe this is just modified red light/green light. I had King Boo around my neck and stood at one end of the yard and the kids at the other. When King Boo turned his back to them the kids ran. When King Boo turned to look at them they had to freeze. Anyone moving was sent back to the start. We played one practice run and then twice for prizes.

After the races we went in to play Mario Bingo. We played twice and the kids enjoyed that. Since I then already had them sitting we did cupcakes from there. The cupcakes I got just had red frosting and I took some white chocolate chips to sprinkle over them to make like the spots on the mushrooms. It didn't look great, but you get the idea. Afterwards everyone was stained red though. *LOL*

After the cupcakes we did the pinata. I made the pinata this year. I made the Mario Question Mark Box. I used a soda cube and cut out the faces of all the sides except for the top. So there was a frame of the cube. Then I wrapped it in a single layer of newspaper and then did two layers of paper mache over it. Once it was completely dry I painted it. It turned out so good. We were afraid of it breaking too easily, but it didn't. The kids did one round with blindfolds, and then another round without. By then there were some pretty good cracks, but nothing was budging. So I stuck my fingers in the cracks to make them loosen up and let K-Girl swing until it came open.

The last activity we did was The Husband's idea. He wanted the kids to beat Bowser with water balloons. The kids thought it was the greatest! I made The Husband a Bowser mask our of poster board and tied it on with yarn. And then the kids went to town. There were over 70 water balloons so they had a lot of ammo. ;)

And just so you know, The Husband wasn't the only one to be rockin' the Bowser mask. ;) My only regret with it was using washable marker. Once the kids started soaking Bowser, his face started running quite a bit.

OK so that's it I think. I had so much fun doing this party, but it's a huge relief that it's over.

I don't want to take credit for coming up with all the ideas. So to give credit where credit is due check out these links to the blogs and websites that had the ideas that help me put this party together.

I got the ideas for the Happy Birthday Banner and playing Pin the Mustache on Mario from this blog although I changed them up a little bit. I was also able to print out the playing sheets for Mario Bingo. A huge thank you to this blog owner!
http://www.executivehomemaker.com/2010/04/super-mario-bros-birthday-party/

A few others that I looked to for some inspiration...
http://www.coolpartyblog.com/mario_party/
http://www.chicaandjo.com/2010/05/20/super-mario-party-featuring-princess-peach/
http://aimeeaustin.wordpress.com/party-time-super-mario-bros/

I got the goodie boxes, plates, napkins, and stickers from:
http://www.birthdayexpress.com/Super-Mario-Bros-Party-Supplies/42092/PartyKitDetail.aspx

A K-Girl Update

2010-06-21T15:39:00.003-04:00

So since my last update was about E-Man's birthday I figure this one will be for K-Girl...

Kindergarten has been such a fun experience for her. She has LOVED school and loved her teacher even more. I couldn't have asked for a better teacher than she had this year. With all her anxiety problems that came up Mrs. G has helped K-Girl get through them so well. She's definitely grown a lot this year.

About a month from the end of school the kindergartners got together and put on a concert for the parents. They sang a bunch of different songs and had the hand motions and all that went with them. Very cute. I tried to upload some video, but it turns out the video camera is dead so I'll have to see if I can do that later. Meanwhile I have some pictures. I wanted to get a picture of K-Girl before we left as she rarely lets me do anything to her hair and she rarely wears dresses. It's fun to see my little tomboy all dressed up cute.

And after a few more pictures like that she did give me a pretty smile without all the silly...

And then I got a couple during the performance but most of them didn't turn out very well. Here's one of the better ones...

Another picture I thought I'd share is from after our Mommy/Daughter day. K-Girl and I went out in the morning and we did some shopping and errands and whatnot together. At the end of it we stopped in at Starbuck's to get some gift certificates and I wanted a frappuccino. Well since we were having a special day I told K-Girl she could get her own frappuccino too. She got a non-coffee one - double chocolate chip. :) When we got home I was talking with The Husband and later found her underneath the kitchen table sipping her frap and drawing. I just thought it was funny.

June 9th was K-Girl's last day of school for the year. She was actually quite upset and didn't want summer to come. Like I said, the child LOVED school. She's coping alright though. It wasn't till I looked back to the first day of school that it really hit me how much she's grown. Just look at that...

It's hard to believe that come Fall I'll have a first grader and a preschooler...

E-Man turns 3

2010-06-18T12:51:00.004-04:00

In thinking about what I've missed in blogging, the first thing of importance seemed to be that my little E-Man turned 3 on May 30th. He's getting so big. This year we decided that since all of his friends are in our playgroup that we would just have a party at the park for the kids. K-Girl was a bit sad because she would be in school, but we still celebrated on his birthday and have another joint birthday party coming up on Sunday for both kids since they are just a month apart.

E-Man decided that he wanted to have a Team Umizoomi birthday party. This was a bit more of a challenge because there is absolutely NOTHING out there party-wise for Umizoomi.

For the party I made a Happy Birthday sign which is now taped to E-Man's bedroom door...

And since the party was at the park that was all we did for decorations.

I like to have the kids wearing something that is within the theme of the party, but with no Umizoomi merchandise I wasn't sure what we were going to do. However, on the Nick Jr website they had iron-on transfers to print for each of the characters so I made E-Man a Geo shirt. (K-Girl got a Bot shirt that she thinks is pretty awesome.)

For the games we played pin the pigtails on Milli...

Each child got two ribbons with double-sided tape attached to stick closest to where her pigtails should be...

The two children closest got a tube of mini M&Ms for a prize.

We also did a number hunt. On 6"x6" pieces of cardstock, I glued the numbers 1 through 10. I used my cricut to cut out the numbers which made it go quicker. The Husband hid them while the kids were doing crafts. They had a good time searching for the numbers and then lining them up in order...

For a craft-type activity I found (also on Nick Jr's Umizoomi page) printable shape "blueprints". Each of the kids could cut out their shapes and then glue them to the blueprint to make their picture. There were different trucks, a plane, hot air balloon, etc.

Then it was time for the cake! We decided to go with cupcakes from Sam's as you can't beat the price and they are yummy! We got blue for Geo, pink for Milli, and green for Bot.

And before everyone left they all got a treat bag. I made printable stickers from Nick Jr and put a few in each bag along with M&M minis and lollipops. On the outside I put one of the stickers and the child's name...

The kids all seemed to have a blast and E-Man LOVED it so the party was definitely a success!

Hello Stranger

2010-06-18T11:21:00.003-04:00

So it's been brought to my attention that I have not posted anything to my blog since April 2nd. Yes, I was aware. For some reason my blogging motivation went *poof*. I was trying to limp along doing Tofu Tuesdays and posting my weekly photos for 365, but even then I missed a week of posting pictures, got overwhelmed, and said enough with it all. I took down the ads on the blog and I've been trying to decide for a while what to do from here.

I'm no longer doing the 365 challenge, which is bittersweet. It was a very neat challenge and I did enjoy it while it lasted. I just kind of got sidetracked and noticed I hadn't taken a picture in like 5 days and figured that was it. I do have a bunch that I haven't posted here and I may share them...or I may not. But now again I hardly touch my camera. The reason I did it was to stop missing moments which worked while I was doing the challenge. Now well, I'm back to basically forgetting I have a camera. I do need to work on that.

Tofu Tuesdays, well one needs to cook in order to have recipes to share. I'm getting back to actually cooking again, but that's basically the explanation as to what happened there. I'm not sure if I'll get back to doing it regularly or not. Again, undecided.

I've been focusing a bit more off the computer and crocheting like a mad woman. Instead of the time I would be spending blogging and all of that I am sitting with my yarn and hook. I started feeling overwhelmed because I wasn't being a "good" blogger - visiting other blogs, responding to comments and all of that like I felt I "should" or like I had been.

Basically I think what I'm doing where this blog is concerned, is turning it back to a blog for me. I'll try to post more often, but if I don't you can know that the call of the yarn is too strong. ;) I'll be posting more about just mundane family stuff, sharing my crafts, and all of that. If I throw in a Tofu Tuesday here and there that will be great. If I remember to post more than once every 2 months that's even better. I'll see what I can do.

365 - Week Thirteen

2010-04-02T13:57:00.003-04:00

DAY 85

The first color in our yard. They don't stand a chance though as E-Man is obsessed with picking flowers. But still pretty while they last.

DAY 86

Mmmm teaberry ice cream from one of the best ice cream shops around. They make all their ice cream there. It was a spur of the moment idea from The Husband and I went along with it. It was so worth it.

DAY 87

The day before, I went on a Mom's Time Out to Lancaster County to do a fabric crawl. We visited about 5 or so different fabric shops (and 1 yarn shop) and both saw and purchased some great fabric, but possibly my favorite score of the day was this gorgeous yarn from the Lancaster Yarn Shop. It's a silk/wool blend. Now what to make...

DAY 88

Guess what...
I missed a day. Take 2.

DAY 89

After being reminded that K-Girl needed hardboiled eggs for Wednesday and needing groceries very badly, I finally bit the bullet and went shopping.

DAY 90

Nan & Pap decided for the kids' birthdays this year that they were going to buy them bikes. After looking around a bit we decided to go to Toys R Us and ended up finding two that the kids loved. K-Girl picked an 18" doggie bike that is mostly blue. E-Man found this 14" Diego bike. The helmet had the Hulk and other super heros... and came with a horn. Sold! Remind me to take Tylenol along when we do bike rides. ;)

DAY 91

Gorgeous Spring day. I spent way too long in the car today. Between taking E-Man to Nan & Pap's for the day and picking him up and taking a dog and cat to the vets and then deciding to do dinner out. At least it was pretty and I got to have the windows down and most of the time the radio up.

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily and Life With Kaishon

365 - Week Eleven & Twelve

2010-03-25T22:15:00.003-04:00

DAY 71

Rain, rain, and more rain. Taken looking outside my windshield.

DAY 72

I thought I missed a day, but luckily I stayed up much too late the night before figuring out this pattern. I took these pictures sometime between midnight and 1am. They count. ;)

DAY 73

K-Girl has been told she needs to stop sucking her thumb. Her two front teeth are getting loose and we want her to stop before they fall out and new ones grow in. the dentist suggested batting gloves to stop the habit. We also upped the ante by buying Super Mario Brothers for her DS that she will get when she's given up the thumb. We'll see.

DAY 74

SLEEEEEEEP child sleeeeeeep! E-Man was having a night of not wanting to give in and go to sleep. I couldn't wait for nothing but white noise to be heard over the monitor.

DAY 75

These are E-Man's new "fast shoes".

DAY 76

Miss A and E-Man are best friends. There is no one that E-Man plays as well with as her. They are adorable. They weren't really cooperating with the camera, but I got this shot. We were playing at Miss A's house and the kids had a great time playing in the corn on this table.

DAY 77

K-Girl had a half day and E-Man refused his nap so we loaded up and headed to the park.

DAY 78

The only way to insure that I get a decent night's sleep. Sometime over night E-Man always calls for "MILK!!!!!" It may not be the best of habits but I like my sleep. It's typically around 5am when he calls. It's either milk or party time and that's just way too early for this momma.

DAY 79

First day of Spring. It was complete with a trip to Rita's for our free italian ice and bubble time outside.

DAY 80

It's blurry. It didn't look like that on the little screen on my camera. It's all I've got though so it'll do. New buds. Yay Spring!

DAY 81

We got Chinese this evening. This was my fortune... Yes there were lucky numbers on the back, but my fortune was missing. Hmm.

DAY 82

Heading up to bed I realized I hadn't taken a picture yet. Emo was laying on the back of the chair so I tortured her a bit with the camera flash. She's such a pretty kitty. She's an odd cat. She won't let you touch her unless it's on her terms which is typically only when she gets in bed at night.

DAY 83

Had a slump. Didn't take another picture other than the ones of my coffee cozy I made modifying the pattern from my gloves from day 72.

DAY 84

Saturday night K-Girl cut her own hair. The Husband was out of town and I was putting E-Man to bed. She had a few minutes alone and found a "gum candy" in her room. She somehow got it stuck in her hair and decided to take care of it herself. Luckily it wasn't too bad. Today we got to the salon to get her hair fixed. This was a before picture right before she went back to get it fixed.

Anyone else think Joe Dirt?

Haha! In her defense, she had it up in a little hair tie before I took the picture. ;)

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily and Momma

365 - Week Ten

2010-03-12T14:07:00.002-05:00

DAY 64

Pretty much sums it up. The Husband turned 37. We celebrated with a Dairy Queen Blizzard ice cream cake and presents. A very nice evening. :)

DAY 65

This was my delicious Bean Curd Szechuan Style that I got from our favorite Chinese restaurant. It was DELICIOUS! Definitely my favorite form of tofu so far. I blogged about this on my Tofu Tuesday, but I discovered the next day that this was the ONLY picture I took this day so it's making a second appearance. At least I didn't miss a day.

DAY 66

Taking pictures for my Etsy shop, Whimsical Stitches. This was a reject from the day of one of my granny square headbands, but I loved it too much to let it go completely.

DAY 67

E-Man and I went to the kiddie gym with playgroup this morning. E-Man's favorite thing is the trampoline. Trying to get a picture of midjump while trying to insure he did not jump off the edge was a tricky task, but luckily I got it and he didn't fall on his head.

DAY 68

I could have titled this week food and Etsy.

I took over 200 pictures today for my shop. By the time I was done with that I really wasn't feeling like scouting out another picture. So I decided to use another picture that didn't make the cut for today. Love this picture of my coordinating small reusable bags.

DAY 69

K-Girl and E-Man had a dentist appointment this morning. It was the first time E-Man has had his teeth looked at by the dentist. I was nervous but he did a fantastic job. The dentist said that maybe one in every fifty 2 year olds sit as well as he did. I was amazed. And what's better is that both kids' teeth looked perfect. Yay for good dentist visits.

DAY 70

There's a head on my seat. I've been looking for a head to use rather than my own for modeling hats and headbands for my store. I was thrilled to find out that Pier 1 sells recycled glass heads that are actually adult sized for just $20.00. I'm quite excited over my new head. Now all I need is a sunny day so I have lighting to take a few pictures. Weee!!

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Tofu Tuesday #43

2010-03-09T09:04:00.003-05:00

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Tofu Tuesday is the place to share all of your vegetarian secrets. If you have a great recipe to share, a product to rave or rant about, or anything that has made being a vegetarian easier for you please share it. (And vegans of course are welcome too!!) Feel free to grab the little button over there to the right. After you post come back here and link up with your address in the comments. I'm looking forward to reading all your posts!

I didn't make this. I have no idea how to make this. But I decided to try something different when we got Chinese this past weekend. I'm typically very boring when we go there. Before I was vegetarian it was sweet and sour chicken, chicken lo mein, or pork fried rice. For the past year it's been regular lo mein. Ye haw. ;) So this past time I decided to pick an item and try it.

Bean Curd Szechuan Style...

Simply put, YUM! I have not had tofu before that I was wowed over. This wowed me. Even the leftovers were quite tasty. I've found a new favorite. It puts the lo mein to shame.

365 - Week Nine

2010-03-04T22:42:00.003-05:00

DAY 57

Looking inside my project bag. I really love this blanket. It was a square lovey blanket that I crocheted. Loved the bright pink against the white. Such a fun blanket!

DAY 58

YAY! The camera card has finally been cleared. Prints are done. A clean slate. I finally want to use the camera for fun again.

DAY 59

I finally got around to adding flowers on these two scarves I've had completed for a while. Suede yarn! Oh so soft and squishy!

DAY 60

I both love and hate the Wii. E-Man is addicted. It's the first and last words out of his mouth each and every day.

So I had a slight panic attack when I uploaded my photos and I didn't have a picture album for March 1st. I KNEW I didn't miss a day again. Here my camera time must be off, because I will admit that this picture was taken at 11:50-something but none-the-less March 1st. *phew*

DAY 61

There were two birdhouses hanging in the tree in our back yard. Now there's just one. The other has finally scared me to the point that I feared for any birdies that would want to call it home this Spring. I think we'll need to replace it. I can't wait until there are little birds flitting in and out of this little house. Come on Spring!!

DAY 62

I was sitting during nap time, crocheting and drinking my afternoon coffee. I grabbed my camera and wanted to take a picture of my mug and the yarn scraps. I didn't even notice that Molly was napping there on the chair. My focus accidentally caught her and it was a moment. Oooooh so I can do that too?! I love how during this challenge I'm growing and learning my camera a bit even when it's not intended.

DAY 63

Ever have one of those days where you just can't decide? I like both of these pictures for different reasons and I couldn't choose. Which do you like better? Bridge or tunnel?

Playgroup was coming over today so last night I sat in the playroom and decided to work up a track for the kids to play with. Can I just say that I had so much fun?! It was great to play trains by myself. I got to build this super cool track that had double tracks going under the bridge. I used all but two pieces of track that we had. You can ask The Husband, it took all I had not to take out the trains to try it out, but that would have been too noisy. And for what it's worth, no the track didn't make it through playgroup but they did have a good time with it.

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily and Kelli

Tofu Tuesday #42

2010-03-02T21:29:00.002-05:00

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Tofu Nuggets
(Taken from my Betty Crocker Easy Everyday Vegetarian Cook Book)

Start to Finish: 20 Minutes

3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
6 Tbsp cold water
2/3 cup unseasoned dry bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
Dash of ground red pepper (cayenne)
1 package (12 oz) extra-firm tofu packed in water, drained, cut into 1" cubes
Vegetable oil

1. In small bowl, beat flour and water with wire whisk or hand beater until smooth. In shallow dish or pie plate, toss bread crumbs, salt, and red pepper.

2. Dip tofu cubes into batter, then roll in bread crumb mixture to coat.

3. In 10" skillet, heat oil (1/2") over med-high heat. Cook 15 nuggets at a time in oil about 1 minute, turning once, until golden brown. Drain nuggets on paper towels. Serve hot with barbecue sauce (or other dipping sauce of your choice).

I would make these again with only keeping one thing in mind. I'd make the cubes all smaller. The Husband made these and some were larger and then some were smaller. The smaller ones had a much better taste and texture than the larger ones. The kids liked them though. K-Girl ate a bunch. I gave the kids the majority of the smaller ones.

365 - Week Eight

2010-02-25T21:31:00.002-05:00

DAY 50

Ok so for honesty's sake, this is a picture from Day 49. Yep, that's right. I missed a day. Lucky number 50. Ah well. Keep going.

This little potty has been seeing a lot of action lately. It's exciting stuff!

DAY 51

My daughter loves the Skippyjon Jones books (and so does her Daddy & Momma). She picked this one up with her Christmas money along with a little stuffed Skippyjon cat. He's a siamese cat that thinks he's a chihuahua. Very fun books. Tonight listened to the author read this book on CD. It was fun to hear the correct pronunciation of some of the Spanish words that I'm not so familiar with in the book.

DAY 52

A few ladies in my playgroup got together for a brunch at this great little restaurant in Lancaster city. It's called Wish You Were Here. They serve a lot of local foods, cage-free eggs, vegan and vegetarian options. Our table all decided to get the Swedish Oatmeal Pancakes which were pretty amazing. If you find yourself in the area you should definitely check it out.

DAY 53

I was crocheting and she was snoozing.

Anyone else think that the eye thing is rather creepy.

DAY 54

We were having dinner with our friends this night and "N" had an extremely wiggly tooth. I don't even think wiggly was the word for it as it was just hanging in all these weird positions. She was not interested in the little help that it would have taken to get it out. Finally by the end of the evening, after a little coaxing she got the tooth out. I couldn't miss the opportunity to get a picture of K-Girl and N showing their first missing tooth. It seems like not too long ago that they were just getting those teeth. Time flies.

DAY 55

It was only fair to get a picture of the other pup passed out as well.

DAY 56

The time I turned on the car to head back home after picking K-Girl up from the bus.

I had it all planned that I was taking the picture of the time the bus came, but then I looked out the window and there was a boy chasing...or rather watching his dog run out on the road. It's a pretty busy road and he was somewhat young so I jumped out of the car and helped him get his dog. I chased the darn thing off the road three times - one when the bus was sitting there - before the boy actually managed to grab it.

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily and Amy

Tofu Tuesday #41

2010-02-23T12:07:00.002-05:00

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Spaghetti and Spicy Rice Balls
(Taken from my Betty Crocker Easy Everyday Vegetarian Cook Book)

Prep time - 30 Minutes
Start to Finish - 30 Minutes
Servings - 6

1 Package (16 oz) uncooked spaghetti
2 cups cooked white rice
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1/4 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1 TBSP chopped fresh or 1 tsp dried basil leaves
2 TBSP chopped fresh or 1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/4 tsp ground red pepper (cayenne)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 TBSP vegetable oil
2 cups tomato pasta sauce
Finely shredded Parmesan cheese, if desired

1. Cook and drain spaghetti as directed on package.
2. Meanwhile, in medium bowl, mix rice, oats, onion, bread crumbs, milk, basil, oregano, red pepper, and egg. Shape mixture into 10 balls; roll in wheat germ to coat.
3. In 10-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add rice balls; cook about 10 minutes, turning occasionally, until light golden brown.
4. Heat pasta sauce until hot. Serve sauce and rice balls over spaghetti; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if desired.

These things are pretty awesome. There was a little spice to them which gave the entire dish a kick. And the best thing is that this was a meal that though the kids didn't want the rice balls, they could have plain jane spaghetti and be fine. Only thing is that with a lot of the recipes in this book it's white white white. I prefer using brown rice, whole wheat pasta, and will be changing that in recipes from this book from now on. But I still love this book. I'd definitely recommend it as everything is pretty quick and easy and everything I've tried I've really really liked. The link to the cookbook is up underneath the the name of the dish. Enjoy!

365 - Week Seven

2010-02-19T09:22:00.002-05:00

So I totally got burnt by shortcuts this week. I wondered why my link was for Week Six when I'm on Seven. When I went in to steal the coding from six I forgot to move to a different post. So I now am posting seven and going back to try to fix six.

DAY 43

Meet our neighbor. It's actually just one of the members of the neighbor family. The human neighbors in back of us own that pool. The deck on our side has that nice little gap there. It's the ideal place to live if you're a furry creature. Currently there is a family of raccoons calling it home. There are at least 2 large ones like the one pictured and we believe that a while back they had babies. There are definitely more than 2. They drive our dog, Molly, nuts. Typically they are just out at night, but after all this snow we got I caught this guy scaling the pool fence to get a look-see. He completely pays no attention to us, even to Molly even though she is barking the evil bark of death at them completely stretched as far as she can get on her lead.

Not the best picture, but there's only so much zoom in my little camera. And I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get the picture since I typically see them at night time and the camera is definitely not good enough for that. ;)

DAY 44

We were at a birthday party for my friend's daughter/E-Man's friend. While "A" was opening her gifts I looked over to see E-Man and K-Girl holding hands while sitting on the couch watching the birthday girl. This is such a rarity, especially this week when they both won't stop picking on the other for more five minutes.

DAY 45

Viewing #2. You need to watch this movie. Refer to this post if you haven't already read it. ;)

DAY 46

My Diet Mountain Dew ran out. I decided I wasn't replenishing my supply. I'm on day 3 with no soda. It's going alright - no major headaches so far. Luckily when I've felt one coming on (late morning) I brew a some coffee, have a cup, and life seems better.

I also started the 30 Day Shred Level 2. Let's see if I can do 30 days of Jillian and no soda.

DAY 47

Icicles are everywhere. The ones on the roof were too far away even though they deserve the credit for this post. I was dripped on every time I let the dogs in and out of the house. The bright side is that the snow is melting. In fact today nearly all of the icicles are gone it got so warm.

DAY 48

Nothing inspiring going on. Just standing in the backyard looking straight up.

DAY 49

Cookies. 60 of them (plus a few extras) actually. K-Girl's class is having their Valentine's Day, oops excuse me Friendship, Party tomorrow. I've never made royal icing before, but I decided to try it. I love my wonderful ideas. *note use of sarcasm* They always sound like a good idea, but I'm too much a procrastinator for such projects. It took about two hours to ice these bad boys, trying to make the icing actually look like hearts since my cookies don't so much after baking. I did an alright job, nothing that kindergarteners are going to complain about. Each of the kids will have one normal size heart (white with pink sprinkles) and two mini hearts that are just pink.

And in the interest of full disclosure, I totally licked the scraper at the end. ~sigh~ That's some good stuff. hehe

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Food

2010-02-15T22:24:00.003-05:00

I am posting this today instead of my regular Tofu Tuesday post. It somewhat relates, but I need to share this now. Check back next week for another yummy recipe!

Twice this week I watched Food Inc. Yes, I said twice. Although the second time I didn't watch the last 20 - 30 minutes or so. My playgroup had a Mom's Time In here at my house to watch the movie and my husband was here, but had to do bedtime duty once the girls got here. Of course this is the night that since there was fun going on downstairs the kids did not want to sleep. This resulted in him missing the first hour or so of the movie. He was alright with that. But I wasn't. I insisted that he watched and he was happy that I did.

I hope you have at least heard of this movie. If you haven't here's the trailer...

It's good stuff in an uncomfortable kind of way. I believe that EVERY SINGLE PERSON should see this movie. We should no longer allow ourselves to go around blind to what is actually going on in the whole food industry because once we know we aren't going to stand for it. The amazing part of this movie is that it leaves you wanting to DO something about it. And you CAN! As they say in the movie, you get a vote each time you put food in your mouth. If we demand better we will get better. How truly empowering is that?!

Before I had a chance to see the movie, a friend posted on Facebook that Michael Pollan, author of Food Rules and The Omnivore's Dilemma, amongst others, was to be on Oprah (follow the link to the pages about that episode). I TiVo'ed the show and watched it that evening. Great show. From the show the one part that struck me and has stayed with me was this part...

Although "real" food is often more expensive, Michael says you either pay for real food now—or pay the doctor later. In 1960, Michael says 18 percent of our national income was spent on food, and only 5 percent on healthcare. Today, he says 9 percent of our income is spent on food and a whopping 17 percent on healthcare. "The less we spend on food, the more we spend on healthcare," he says.

I don't know about you, but I think I'd prefer to spend more on my food than pay the whole healthcare system even more. And this also reminds me of an often complained about thing in our family. The cost of our meals. When we are out I hate fast food. I was not much a fan before I became vegetarian, and now that I am they are that much worse. I prefer to go to Panera and Chipotle. Chipotle is pretty easy on the wallet, but Panera is rather pricey. I costs us about $31 for our family of 4 to eat there. When we go to Sonic and it costs us easily under $20. Honestly, I do think that Sonic is one of the most veggie friendly fast food restaurants as they have the grilled cheese sandwiches. But if you look at the quality of food, well I'd rather have Panera. It's a Tomato & Mozzarella Panini or a pick two with some awesome Mac & Cheese, and an apple or chips versus a grilled cheese on thick (yummy) white bread and a medium tater tot. But which of my meals is healthier? The one that costs a bit more.

Then today I went to visit my friend Tara's Blog, Baby Momma Blog, and read her post. She wrote this on Facebook, and I just had to see what she was posting this time. "Are you setting your child up to live a shorter life? Yep, most of us are!" You know you'd click too! So what's this about?

Chef Jamie Oliver won this year's TED prize. What is a TED prize you ask? Well click over here to find out more, but basically it gives one person a bunch of money and resources to make their “One Wish to Change the World.” What was his wish?

Jamie Oliver’s Wish
“I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

You need to take 20 minutes and watch his speech. It was awesome. He speaks wonderfully and is very upbeat. Definitely a great way to spend those minutes. If you don't have time now, bookmark it and visit when you do. After you are done watching, take a moment and sign the petition for a food revolution!!

For a LOT of awesome recipes from Chef Jamie Oliver check out his recipe page. WOW!

I think one of the biggest things I got from watching his speech was that school lunches currently are no better than fast food. I had thought that K-Girl should be eating a "warm healthy meal" at school. Recently we started packing her to help with anxiety issues, but I think I'll continue to pack now for other reasons. At least packing I know exactly what she is eating. I have control and I know that it's up to me to know that I'm giving her a healthy lunch. I get it. I got it a bit after Food Inc, but this just drove it home.

Please though, take a few moments and watch the Jamie Oliver clip and get out and pick up a copy of Food Inc and watch it. If you're local and you'd like to borrow my copy just let me know. I bought it after the Oprah show had a special with Amazon that you could get it for just $9.99. I couldn't resist knowing that I can pass it around after I watched. Stop being blissfully ignorant and get informed!!

365 - Week Six

2010-02-12T23:53:00.003-05:00

DAY 36

Cranberry and Vodka. Too many of these this evening resulting in my sleeping on the floor beside the bed. Yeeeeah.

DAY 37

20+ inches of snow was fun at first and great to look at, but E-Man found it a challenge to move in. He took many spills before finally deciding that he was ready to move inside for some hot cocoa.

DAY 38

The Husband prepared to go on the road again....however Mother Nature had other plans and he came back after his first leg of the trip. I'm alright with that.

DAY 39

Coffee in my favorite cup. Perfect drink to enjoy when it's cold outside. I painted this mug at Color Me Mine with a couple mommas from my playgroup. It was such a fun time. I think of my friend K when I see that orange ring. I thought it needed a splash of color and she agreed and said it needed to be bold. I'm so glad I listened to her. I love it.

DAY 40

Snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, whatever you want to call it, we're getting a second dose of the white stuff. We had 20+ inches on the ground and now we've gotten another 18"ish on top of that. It's crazy! I cannot remember this much snow.

This was a goof but I actually really like the way it turned out.

DAY 41

We're making valentines this year. K-Girl and I spent time this evening getting them started. We've got more work to do on them tomorrow.

DAY 42

Too much snow. I'm sick of my boots. The one has a hole in the lining which my heel gets stuck in each time I take them off. I'm really, really over snow. Spring, please!

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily and Mamarazzi

Unintentional potty training

2010-02-11T07:43:00.003-05:00

On Monday I was doing some cleaning and I picked up a bag from Target that had been on our kitchen table. In the bag was a big bag of M&Ms that I had picked up as potty training incentives. I wasn't planning on starting quite yet, but it was coming soon. Well E-Man saw me get the bag of M&Ms out and immediately asked if he could have some. I told him that they were potty M&Ms and the only way he could get those were if he pee pee or poo-poos on the potty. Immediate he took off for the potty. I followed, took off his diaper, put him on the potty and he peed. We cleaned up and then got an M&M.

That morning we were in the bathroom more than we were out. He perfected the art of getting just a dribble out to get an M&M and then saying "I done!!" There wasn't much I could do without confusing the message though so we just went with it. Luckily the dribbles have decreased significantly and he's making great headway.

Now that he's wearing unders I don't want to put him back in diapers. Obviously he's in them for naps and night time. And I also put him in a diaper when we walked to the bus stop earlier this week as with snow pants and everything on and not being able to do anything about it if he needed to go I though better safe than sorry. But other than that he's been in unders and doing rather well. It's been a good time to do it since we're stuck here in the house under all this snow.

I do really enjoy cloth diapering, but I think I've reached the point where I'm ready to be done with diapers all together. Although ask me when we are officially potty trained and I'm sure there will be a period of mourning that my baby is really not a baby anymore.

Yooohooo Jillian

2010-02-09T22:19:00.004-05:00

Today I completed my 30 Day Shred Challenge.

I started the challenge before and made it through day 13 or 14 before I took a day off and then never resumed. This time I made it. It was not easy and I did almost give up a few times. Something that made this time different was the awesome support from my friends in my playgroup and the positive comments on Facebook when I posted each day being done. I could not have done it if it weren't for that. There was one day where I finished my workout at 11:00pm, but thanks to a friend giving me a kick in the pants I did it. I am SOOO happy I finished this. There's a huge feeling of satisfaction having started AND completed this challenge. Thirty days is a long time to commit to doing an intense workout Every.Single.Day.

I did take before and after pictures. The before pictures were taken on the arm of the sofa with auto timer, but they are what they are. I wanted BEFORE pictures so I had to do them myself since I forgot the prior day. I got my husband to snap some after pictures this evening. There's not a HUGE change, but I see things and more importantly than seeing - I FEEEEEEEL change.

At the start of this challenge I barely got through the workout. Pushups were horrible. I could do maybe 5 in each set. Today I counted as I went and finished with 16 and 12. I did 28 pushups. Yes, they were with my knees still but I could do them. The last 5 or 6 were difficult but easier than that 5 or 6 that I labored through the first couple days.

I went from doing almost every exercise following the modified versions with 3 pound weights to all the of advanced version (with the exception of pushups) with 5 pound weights (with the exception of still using 3 lbs for the side lunges/anterior raises - I'm positive that I don't have the muscles she's trying to work). I think that's huge for 30 days.

And I'll share my stats...

Beginning:
Weight - 161.8 lbs
Hips - 41 1/2"
Waist - 38 1/2"
Bust - 37"
Thigh - 24 1/2"
Tricep - 12"

Week 2:
Weight - 159.8 lbs (-2)
Hips - 41" (-1/2)
Waist - 38" (-1/2)
Bust - 36 1/2" (-1/2)
Thigh - 23 1/4" (-1 1/4)
Tricep - 11 1/2" (-1/2)

Week 3:
Weight - 158.2 lbs (-1.6)
Hips - 40 3/4" (-1/4)
Waist - 37 1/4" (-3/4)
Bust - 36" (-1/2)
Thigh - 23 1/2" (+1/4)
Tricep - 11 1/2" (NC)

Week 4:
No Change in Weight and Minimal Changes to Measurements

Completion:
Weight - 155.8 lbs (-2.4)
Hips - 40 1/2" (-1/2)
Waist - 36 1/4" (-1)
Bust - 35 3/4" (-1/4)
Thigh - 24" (+1/2)
Tricep - 12" (+1/2)

Which means that my TOTAL LOSS over this 30 day challenge were...
Weight: -6 lbs
Hips: -1"
Waist: -2 1/4"
Bust: -1 1/4"
Thigh: -1/2"
Tricep: Same

So wrapping this up, I'm happy to have shed some pounds, but who isn't?! I'm now 10.8 lbs away from where I would like to be and maintain. I lost a lot in my waist which is my definite trouble area. I've gotten closer to my goal of my waist measuring less than my bust. ;) Although in my defense, a sports bra does nothing to help make you feel good about the bust measurement. haha My thighs went down and then went back up and the same with my triceps, although they are firm now rather than all flabby as they were at the start. I'm very pleased.

I'm not sure what my next step is, but I'm going to think on that. I need a new challenge. I'll be giving my body a day or two off to let the joints recuperate a bit and then I'll start new.

Tofu Tuesday #40

2010-02-08T22:21:00.002-05:00

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Cheesy Broccoli-Rice Bake
(Taken from my Betty Crocker Easy Everyday Vegetarian Cook Book)

Prep - 15 min
Start to Finish - 50 min
8 servings

1 cup uncooked regular long-grain white rice
2 cups water
1 Tablespoon butter or margarine
1 large onion - 1 cup
1 (16 oz) loaf prepared cheese product, cut into cubes (come on people it's Velveeta)
1 can (10 3/4oz) condensed cream of mushroom soup
2/3 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon pepper, if desired (added this)
2 cups fresh broccoli florets - 1/2 inch
1 cup fine soft bread crumbs (about 1 1/2 slices bread)
1 Tablespoon butter or margarine, melted

1. Heat oven to 350. Spray 13x9" (3-qt) glass baking dish with cooking spray. Cook rice in water as directed on package.

2. Meanwhile, in 10-inch skillet, melt 1 Tbsp butter over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp-tender. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in cheese, soup, milk, and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted.

3. Stir in broccoli and rice. Spoon into baking dish. In small bowl, mix bread crumbs and 1 Tbsp melted butter; sprinkle over rice mixture.

4. Bake uncovered 30 - 35 minutes or until light brown on top and bubbly around edges.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

So not the healthiest thing I've made, but sooooooo good. And yes it has broccoli in it which is not a food that I'm well acquainted with. My Slap Chop is my best friend. I didn't leave the broccoli as large as it says, but I did add the entire 2 cups. But to get over the texture issues I just make it a bit smaller. This was a lot of work as much as sides go, but it was so good. It didn't pass the taste test with either kid, but seriously they are crazy. This was GOOOOOD. I'll definitely make it again. And it would rock for a potluck. Easily could be made healthier by choosing low-fat soup and the 2% cheese and whatnot.

Only thing I changed was that I only used about half an onion and thought that was plenty. And I used dried bread crumbs as I wasn't exactly sure what they were talking about. I'd do the same thing next time.

And I'm seriously loving this cook book. It's got a LOT of great recipes that I can't wait to make. Best of all? It's a vegetarian cookbook so I'm not working with substitutes or a tiny section of actual meatless dishes. It's my first vegetarian cookbook and I'm loving it!

White Stuff

2010-02-07T21:43:00.003-05:00

We got hit with the biggest snow storm that we've had in a long while. It's the biggest snow storm since K-Girl's been around. It was talked up quite a bit and this time I decided to take it serious and made sure to get our groceries before the storm. I'm glad I did.

Friday during the afternoon the snow started. It didn't stop until sometime Saturday. When we went to bed on Friday night there were a few inches but nothing too terribly amazing. The heaviest snow was to fall overnight. When I woke up on Saturday and came down stairs I looked out the window to see what had happened...

Hmmm. Definitely got some snow, but still unsure exactly how much.

I removed the screen from the window and cranked it open to see this...

Pretty impressive.

It was quite a bit. In the back we had 19" and in the front there was more. We have quite a bunch of big trees which shields it a bit. There was so much that we had to shovel paths to take the dogs out. Molly, our beagle-lab, thought it was fun to race around in, but she didn't dare jump out of the path. Gabby, our mini-doxie, well she didn't stand a chance outside our little path.

After lunch, The Husband ventured out to start snow blowing. He was out there quite a while, but finally had the sidewalks and driveway done. A snow plow had not come through, but we weren't really expecting to see one that day anyway. After E-Man woke from his nap we all bundled up to get out and enjoy it.

I love the clean lines that the snow blower makes. I squatted down and got a picture looking down the sidewalk to our front door...

Here are the kids sitting on the main sidewalk...

Yes, E-Man has the unfortunate disadvantage of an older sister. He gets to wear her old pink mittens. Do you know how difficult it is to find waterproof gloves in February? Well even earlier. I've been looking since winter started and we finally found some for K-Girl. No luck for E-Man though. Ah well. Luckily he doesn't mind one bit.

A neighbor that lives further down our street decided to take his Suburban out earlier and we were thankful for his tracks. We walked down to the end of the street and got out onto our road. The main road that runs down beside our street had been plowed many times. I was standing on that road taking this picture looking down our street.

Then we spent a while playing on the road since it was slightly less than our yard. E-Man could actually walk out there. He and K-Girl made some snow angels in the path from under the Suburban.

As we started getting chilly and decided it was soon time to head back indoors, I decided that I needed a picture in the snow with the kids. So I got the camera back out, handed it to The Husband, got myself ready, and told the kids that they should climb in after me. Then I flopped. I miscalculated a bit and ended up flopping so far down that the snow started covering me. Ummm. It was cold. The kids did not join me, and before The Husband helped me up (because I was definitely stuck), he snapped a quick picture.

And what other way is there to warm up from a session of snow fun than hot cocoa?!

Mmmmmmm.

They are calling for more snow later this week. This weekend was fun, but I'm over it now. I'm ready for it to go. Bring on Spring. The school already has a 2 hour delay, but after we ventured out this evening I don't see how they should have it at all tomorrow. The roads were BAD. I'm thankful that The Husband decided to get a vehicle that could handle the snow (a Tahoe), but my little Jetta isn't going anywhere for a while. I don't think I could make it far right now.

365 - Week Five

2010-02-05T11:27:00.002-05:00

DAY 29

K-Girl lost her first tooth. It was quite the traumatic experience for her. You can check out the whole post here.

DAY 30

I've lost count of how many rounds of Guess Who we have played in the last week. K-Girl loves this game (and so do I). I remember playing it when I was her age-ish. "Does your person have a mustache?"

DAY 31

This is my current blanket of choice. I can't sleep well at night unless the bed covers are heavy. I like the weight. We had to take our other blanket off to get washed and I decided to throw this afghan on top instead. My grandma made this and I'm intrigued by it. I'm still trying to figure out how she did it. It's crazy colors, very random, obvious that she used last bits of whatever she had around to make it. I think I'm too OCD to make something so mismatched, but I still love this blanket.

DAY 32

Waiting at the bus stop for K-Girl to get home.

DAY 33

The Princess and The Frog finally came to the cheap theater so K-Girl and I just had to go. I will say that this is my favorite Disney movie that they have made in several years. Very cute.

DAY 34

I broke the rules to get this picture and got my friend scolded in result. That's Ani DiFranco down there. This is the first time she's played York and it was awesome to get to see her without having to drive 2+ hours away. This was the 6th time I've gotten to see her preform. She's amazing! I went with The Husband and my best friend and her boyfriend.

DAY 35

Eggs from market. These eggs make me happy. :) It's nice to know where they came from, that they are cage free - truly, fed organically, and are a whole a lot happier chickens than the ones that grocery store eggs come from.

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily

Tofu Tuesday #39

2010-02-02T08:13:00.003-05:00

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Vegetable Couscous
Recipe from our Betty Crocker's Healthy New Choices cookbook

Once again, I'm not a food photographer. There's a very pretty picture in the book of this meal, but I don't know about you but somehow mine never look quite like that. This is what I got...

Prep: 15 min
Cook: 5 min
Servings: 6

Ingredients
1 can (15 or 16 oz) garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
2 large tomatoes, chopped (2 cups)
1 small red bell pepper
4 medium green onions, chopped (1/4 cup)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh or 1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon olive or vegetable oil
5 cups hot cooked couscous (use plain for this recipe)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat all ingredients except couscous and cheese to boiling in 2-quart saucepan. Serve over couscous. Sprinkle with cheese.

This is a super easy meal. It didn't fly with the kids. The Husband ate it, but I think he'd be alright if I never made the meal again. I, on the other hand, thought it was delicious and had seconds. AND I'm looking forward to making up a little more couscous so that I can enjoy the leftovers again. Very yummy! And this coming from someone who has never tried something so funny as "couscous" and before a week or two ago never tried garbanzo beans either.

I do think my parents are probably quite taken by my recent Tofu Tuesdays posts. Their picky picky little girl's tastes are finally growing up a bit. ;)

Toothless Wonder

2010-01-31T15:37:00.003-05:00

Friday was a big day for K-Girl.

Not an hour after being at school on Friday, I got a call from the school nurse that K-Girl came down to her office complaining that her neck hurt. When she took her temperature it was 100.5 and I needed to go pick her up. I went and picked her up and brought her home. She laid on the couch and her temp went up to 102.5. I gave her some Tylenol and the fever never came back. It was the weirdest thing. But because she wasn't feeling so well I told her that she should go take a nap after lunch when E-Man was napping. She decided that she wasn't taking a nap, but would go for quiet time instead. After being upstairs a while, over the monitor comes shrieking "Momma!!! Momma!!!!!!" so I ran upstairs to find out what was wrong. When I got there her hand was over her mouth and she was in hysterics that her tooth was falling out. I looked at it to see a very bloody mouth. I asked how it happened. She explained that her craft bin wouldn't open so she decided to try to open it with her mouth.

Her tooth had been wiggly for over a month, but nothing was happening with it. It probably would have stayed in there for a while yet, but with the assistance it was coming out then. The back had completely come loose but it was still quite secure in the front. I brought her downstairs and asked her to try to pull it out. Between sobs that she couldn't and it hurt I gave it a try. That was worse. My fingers are too big to get a good hold on the tiny tooth and she quickly told me to stop. I suddenly had an idea - Anbesol! So I went and found some and let her apply a little to the gums around that tooth. Once it started numbing a bit she gave it another try and got the tooth out. By the end of the ordeal, K-Girl was about hyperventilating. It was quite the traumatic experience. After the tooth was out and her breathing returned to normal, she decided that maybe a nap was a good idea after all and asked me to come and nap with her. I wasn't going to pass that opportunity up.

Hopefully the rest of the teeth won't be quite this much of a production. The first should always be memorable though, right?!

After a bit, the excitement started to set in though and she got keyed up about the Tooth Fairy getting to visit her. She was very excited to get to use her tooth fairy friend that I had made for her. (You can get your own tooth fairy friend from my Etsy store, Whimsical Stitches.) She hung it on her door before bed so that the "Tooth Fairy wouldn't bother her". We asked her what she thought the Tooth Fairy might leave in exchange for the tooth. She said "a golden dollar".

When she woke in the morning she was excited to find a "buck" tucked in the pocket replacing her tooth that she had placed in it the night before. I'm glad she wasn't too set on the whole golden dollar thing. Paper was quite alright with her.

I still can't believe that my daughter is big enough to be losing teeth. When did she get so big?!

Looking for some artists

2010-01-30T09:40:00.004-05:00

I'm looking for anyone artistic up for a project. I have ideas for my next tattoo in mind, but I'm afraid I lack the skills anymore to put it to paper. I've got another 4 months till I can get it, but still. I'll be doing it for my birthday which is in May.

So if you look over these ideas and feel like sketching something up for me, I'd love to see it. I'm going to work on it a bit, but it's been years since I tried to draw and I've found that the talent somewhat fades when it's not in practice.

Ok so I'll describe the idea first and then I'll supply you with some images that caught my eye.

Placement is on my lower leg - probably centered on my calf, but possibly on the side. But I'm pretty set on the leg.

What I want is a weeping willow tree. I want the willow to have the root system showing. I'd like a girl to be hugging around the tree so that her face is showing, a little of her body, but mostly that you can see her arms hugging around the trunk. I think it'd be neat if the trees branches were sort of "hugging" her back, but not sure how that would actually look. I'd like the whole thing to look more illustrated than realistic. I love colors, but I'm thinking with this one I'd like to stay in earth tones and just maybe a little pop of color.

So that being said here are a few images that caught my eyes. I will try to link them to where I found them as to give credit. Some I've had for a long time saved to my computer and might not know anymore.

(Here's the link)

I love the root system on this image. I love that it goes into the shape of the Earth.

(Sorry no idea where this one ever came from.)

I just REALLY like this tree even though it's not the right style.

(Here's the link)

Again just really like this tree even though it's not the correct style.

(Here's a link to this print on Etsy. Love all the prints from this seller. Very cute!)

I love how the leaves are done in this print.

(Here's the link)

Like the tree and how the leaves are similar to the above print. I would want the tree trunk longer, but the roots are showing so it's a little closer to what I'm looking for.

(Here's the link)

I like how she is positioned in this image. You can see her face and her arms hugging.

(Here's the link)

I love the style of this girl. I love the heart is carved in the tree. I like how her eyes are closed and she appears happy. I might prefer this position of the girl, but not sure.

(Here's the link)

Another tree that I really like, but it may be due to the colors.

And this last image I have is just awesome. It doesn't really fit what I'm looking for but it's so great that I have to share it.

(Here's the link)

Thanks in advance to anyone that decides to sketch something up for me.

365 - Week Four

2010-01-28T20:59:00.003-05:00

DAY 22

Nearing the end of the night. No picture taken so far and then the rainbow of drying plates caught my eye.

DAY 23

I received an e-mail that I had $5.00 in Borders Bucks that I needed to use before the end of the month. It just so happened that we finished K-Girl's current Junie B book the night before so we decided to head into Borders to grab a new one. Well you probably know how this ends. K-Girl left with two Junie B books, E-Man with a Diego book and The Three Little Pigs, and The Husband and I found a vegetarian cookbook. Ended up costing more than we thought but the $26.00 cookbook turned out to being $13 after my coupon and if you figure the bucks on that item. And it's an ENTIRE cookbook that I can select items from, not just a small section of a cookbook. That's exciting!

DAY 24

BUBBLES! I had a full dishwasher and a few items that had to be hand-washed. I really dislike hand-washing. REALLY.

DAY 25

On Monday morning I was woken up by the power fading in and then coming back on about 3 or 4 times until it finally went out. This was about 6:30am. Shortly after it going out, E-Man starts SCREAMING! He notices it because he sleeps with a white noise machine. It wasn't until 2 something in the afternoon that we had power again.

Breakfast consisted of dry cereal as the milk was bad and I had planned on pancakes or waffles. It was a baseball hat kind of day since I had no hair dryer. It was a no TV kind of day which I enjoyed, but E-Man started suffering withdrawal. ;) We went to Arby's for lunch as I had no idea what to do about lunch - I should mention I went for groceries Monday evening so I had NOTHING prior to that. Naptime lasted a whole 40 minutes with wakings twice as he couldn't sleep without the white noise machine running.

When the power came back on there was much rejoicing.

The cause of the power outage was that there was extreme wind Sunday night. It caused quite a bit of damage and knocked a LOT of people out of power and phone service. The picture is of (I think) a phone line that was hanging down on our way to get lunch. You can see by the pole a line hanging down and then to the right is a tree snapped off and the rest of the tree is resting directly on the remaining lines. It's taken through my windshield at a stop sign in the rain which explains some of the quality issues.

DAY 26

They're my crack.

Alternate Description:
"It's like you're my own personal brand of heroin."

Seriously I have very little self control when it comes to these. I don't dare buy them more than one at a time because if I buy more I will eat them...all...one after another...and want more. Ok I've got to stop.

DAY 27

BATH NIGHT! K-Girl's pruney toes after she was done playing and it was time to get clean.

DAY 28

Today four of us from my playgroup went to Port Discovery Children's Museum in Baltimore. What a cool place! Other than it costing an arm and a leg for our day, it was awesome. There was everything from...

a grocery store area where you could make smart choices and check out your groceries
a VW Beetle that you could get in, fill with gas, and add air to the tires
a water room that you could play in tables, make a giant bubble around yourself, and spray musical instruments to make sounds
an art room that you could make crafts and play with moon sand
a huge chess board with pieces as big as E-Man

and just so much more. The museum is done in three levels and in the middle there is this huge climbing structure that you can go into and follow to any of the levels. E-Man REALLY wanted to climb although I was a little apprehensive to let him do it (lots of rope nets to climb). We did it together to get from level 1 to 2 and it was a lot of fun...other than the exit where E-Man barely had enough room to stand up. But we did make it. Definitely a place that I would like to go back and take K-Girl when she's out of school as she would get totally different things out of it than what E-Man could take from his experience. Very cool place.

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily

Finished "Chiwala"

2010-01-27T10:14:00.006-05:00

Surprisingly, finishing up the Chihuahua last night didn't take all that long. I was able to have him done around 11:00 so that I could give him to K-Girl this morning. I thought that as compared to the pattern picture (check it out in the previous post) that he looked kind of goofy. But the facebook consensus says he's cute, and most importantly K-Girl LOVES her "chiwala". Try as she might she cannot pronounce chihuahua. Instead it comes out chiwala. It cracks me up and I even caught myself call it a chiwala this morning.

Here's it is all finished -

He's even bumped the duck from K-Girl's backpack. She always takes along a tiny stuffy for their rest time and for the past month or so it's been this duck that rides around with just his head sticking out of the backpack pocket. This morning duck sat on the table and Chiwala was placed in the pocket.

A little of this and that

2010-01-26T20:20:00.005-05:00

It's been a while since I've just rambled and tonight feels like a good night for rambling.

I did something that has been bugging me for a few months. That always feels good. I am amazed by how many hits my post that I wrote about 9 months ago about making my own podaegi (baby carrier) gets. The thing I haven't felt right is that the picture I posted with that post has me wearing the podaegi in such a way that it squishes the girls a bit (look at the picture if you don't understand). I've been bothered by this because it's not the way I wore (wear?) him in it anymore really. I started like that because it's how I found out to do it, but you can wear it backpack style like a mei tai. So this morning I got out the pod and asked E-Man to humor me while I got some new pictures. Now that the pictures are posted and representing two ways to use it, I feel much better about all the hits that page is getting. You really have no idea. *L*

In fitness news, you may have seen that I started Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred again. I've completed 16 days of it, so I have 14 yet to go. I'm feeling good about it. I feel that I have to finish although my legs are in some amount of pain. It is so much easier than it was when I started. Easy isn't exactly the right word choice there, but you get it. It is still a HARD workout and I don't think by day 30 I will be saying otherwise. But I can do it. I'm seeing improvement. And I'm hanging in there. From Day 1 to Day 15 here are my changes -
weight: -3.6 lbs
hips: -3/4"
waist: -1 1/4"
bust: -1"
thigh: -1"
upper arm: -1/2"
Those are huge numbers to me for 15 days without doing much more than watching slightly what I'm putting in my mouth. I'm not doing great with that, but I'm trying to be aware. The Husband and I are talking about doing Weight Watchers Points again together as we have both been hugely successful with that. I don't have a lot of weight to drop and mostly want to just get healthier and drop a few, but doing points is rather easy and it really keeps you accountable to what you're eating and helping you make better healthier choices when you do reach for something. So here's to the second half of my shred!

I'm making my daughter an amigurumi style "chiwala" (chihuahua). She saw the pattern on New Year's Eve when I was looking through Etsy amigurumi. I've finally caught up again on stuff for other people so I'm quick going to squeeze it in for her. I'm a little worried of the outcome, but hopefully it will work out. This is what I'm striving for -

I'll have to share when I'm finished. Although I've already been told that I have to make his little puppy friend when I'm done. She's relentless! ;)

I've got another week until I start getting the feedback from the diapers I've made. I'm so anxious to start getting it! I've gotten the questions back from one person so far and she seemed quite pleased with the diaper so that makes me even more anxious for more feedback. I'm very excited for this possibility to bring something a little different, that I just love to the market. And I swear as soon as I get feedback and know where I'm going next I will share more than this vague stuff.

Ok I guess I'll wrap it up here. I don't want to get too lengthy. Tomorrow morning E-Man goes down to his Nan & Pap's which gives me 4 hours alone time. I have a To Do list that is half a mile long and by the end of the night will probably be approaching the mile marker. I don't need to complete it all, but I can't wait to start crossing things off my list. It feels so great to have a few hours to REALLY get things accomplished. AND I'll be able to get my workout done as soon as I get back home which means it will be out of the way for the day! That's possibly the best part! Ok I'm going, really.

Tofu Tuesday #38

2010-01-25T21:21:00.002-05:00

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Easy Falafel
recipe found HERE

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:
* 1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained
* 1 medium onion, finely chopped
* 1 tablespoon minced garlic
* 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
* 1 teaspoon coriander
* 3/4 teaspoon cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons flour
* oil for frying (canola or vegetable)

Preparation:

Combine chickpeas, garlic, onion, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper (to taste) in medium bowl. Add flour and combine well.

Mash chickpeas, ensuring to mix ingredients together. You can also combine ingredients in a food processor. You want the result to be a thick paste.

Form the mixture into small balls, about the size of a ping pong ball. Slightly flatten.

Fry in 2 inches of oil at 350 degrees until golden brown (2-5 minutes).

Serve falafel by itself, or with hot pita bread with veggies, hummus, or tahini sauce.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

So this was my first ever experience with falafel. It's mostly because it's not a "normal" American food and I have little experience when we go outside that realm of food. But I've been trying to become more adventurous with my eating and with baby steps I'm getting there.

My thought is this -

Falafel is GOOD!

Oh it was yummy! I was very pleasantly surprised by this one. Now I didn't actually make this as my friend and I got together for dinner with the kids while our husbands were away and she made it, but I ate it so it counts. ;) I do want to make this again.

She made a sauce to go on it. I'm not sure if it is one of the ones listed as being good with it. I just know it had Greek yogurt, cucumber, and garlic and whatnot in it. I liked it a lot actually and I am REALLY not a condiment person. Actually I'm a ketchup and that's basically all kind of person. Yeah. The only thing that turned me off of it were the chunks in it, but I was told to finely shred the cucumber and this should fix that texture thing. Most of the things I don't like are due completely to texture rather than taste. So it's nice to find little ways around them. And I was also told that I could pick up some Tzatziki sauce at the grocery store (which I located tonight) and use that.

365 - Week Three

2010-01-21T21:33:00.006-05:00

DAY 15

Some of you may know that K-Girl got a guitar for Christmas from Santa. She wanted one sooooo badly. She knows how much I like Ani (DiFranco) so she tells me that she's going to be like Ani. That'a girl. :) After a while performing, she was resting on the chair, half watching TV half playing the guitar (more like a string base the way she was playing it). I hope her love for music never stops.

DAY 16

What I look like most of the time I'm at the salon. Gorgeous. ;)

DAY 17

The rain came again. This time it melted what we had left of the snow. It thawed out the ground and left our back yard resembling more of a swamp than a yard.

DAY 18

E-Man is such a boy. He is obsessed with video games. He's 2 1/2! Every morning the first thing out of his mouth is "monkey ball? Mario Cart Wii?" I'm in trouble with this one. But the kid is quite good. He's won a few races against his sister and I think that's a huge accomplishment. Sometimes he gets going the wrong way and refuses help to turn him back around because he's "going fast, Momma!" I think a little bit is good for him though. It definitely works on the eye/hand coordination. Has anyone played this game? It's called Monkey Ball. We have it for the Game Cube. You're a little monkey inside this ball and you have to roll around to either race or get into the holes at the end of your course if you are single player. Very cute game.

DAY 19

E-Man and I went to Romp & Roll at the roller skating rink again this week. We hadn't been there for a while as it's only from 12 - 2 which is right smack dab on nap time. As E-Man cried the whole way there "bed! bed! I tired, Momma! I nap now!" I wondered if this was a crazy move. But in the end I think he would tell you the same thing, that this was SO MUCH fun.

DAY 20

A quiet evening after kids are in bed and chores are finished. The little dog and I relax on the couch together. She's a blanket hog though - HAS to be underneath. Typically if you see anything sticking out it's just her little feet. Aww puppy toes!

DAY 21

I tackled the laundry yesterday and today. The sorters were overflowing at the beginning of the week. Today I have just one more section to do which amounts to two more loads. But the mountain that was in the basement has recreated itself in nice organized mini mountains on my kitchen table. I'm running out of surface area. I'm still trying to figure out how to get it to put itself away.

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily

Show and Ask

2010-01-20T23:11:00.004-05:00

Show and tell is fun, right? So I'm going to play a new game called show and ask. ;) I wanted to share some things I've been working on, but I've got a question(s) for you if you wouldn't mind...

A couple months ago I decided to make the blanket that I had been thinking about for quite some time. (I've been in this groove with bringing ideas to life lately.) We all know bulky coats aren't safe for kids in car seats, but I never feel right freezing my kids by taking off their coats in cold weather. My first idea was a blanket that went underneath the straps so that their blanket wasn't constantly falling to the floor and requiring my adjusting. This is the blanket I made to fit that idea...

Which you can purchase custom made for you by visiting my Etsy, Whimsical Stitches, here.

And then a friend and I were talking and she said about making one for older kids that they could fold down in their laps if they wanted or up to cover their chests. So then I made this car seat blanket...

and E-Man's too...

I'm in love with these blankets. The first style I think is great for little ones that wouldn't really be able to put the blanket up and down successfully, but really I love these.

I made them with a nice thick and bulky yarn that is 20% wool and 80% acrylic so it still can be machine washed which, with kids, is a huge perk in and of itself. But this leads me to a question for all of you. I love having a little sounding board here for some feedback. ;)

I'd love to sell these in the same amazing yarn that I made these. Sure I could use lighter weight yarn which would make this "problem" a non-issue, but did I mention I love them? haha The yarn is what totally does it for me. It's just so warm, squishy, and soft!

Typical yarn to make a "baby" blanket is about $3 (give or take a dollar) a skein. This stuff is $7.00 a skein. With it being larger (since there's no tapering and it's longer) it ends up taking 6 skeins of this yarn as opposed to somewhere between 3 and 4. So at just cost these blankets cost $42.00. I'm wondering if I'd be able to sell them at all seeing as though I need to put some cost of labor in there.

So my dear dear blogging buddies, thoughts? Would you sell both types of car seat blankets? Would you make the type of yarn an option - like you could have the blanket that goes under the straps for X amount more if you want to use this other yarn, and likewise you could have the older child style available for X amount less if you would prefer the cheaper/lighter weight yarn? Would you even bother offering the bulky/rather expensive yarn?

Thanks so much for any and all feedback. I truly appreciate it.

Tofu Tuesday #37

2010-01-18T21:54:00.002-05:00

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Macaroni-Bean Skillet
Recipe from our Betty Crocker's Healthy New Choices cookbook

Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 18 minutes
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
1 cup salsa
2/3 cup uncooked elbow macaroni (2 oz)
3/4 cup water
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 can (15 or 16 oz) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (8 oz) reduced-sodium tomato sauce
1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese (2 oz)

Heat all ingredients except cheese to boiling in 10-inch nonstick skillet; reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until macaroni is just tender. Sprinkle with cheese.

This is a super yummy, very easy dinner. It's very kid-friendly too!

Enjoy!

365 - Week Two

2010-01-14T14:41:00.003-05:00

First of all, a big THANK YOU goes out to Chris for giving all of us a place to link up and share our adventures with 365. Second of all, I made it another week! Woohoo! I am really enjoying this challenge. I love that my camera is on me nearly all the time. I'm not missing every moment. I've even caught one that I otherwise would have missed. Ok, so off we go...

DAY EIGHT

K-Girl and I spent some time building a city for her Littlest Pet Shop animals. Although sometimes I find myself at a loss of how to play, I do love LPS and Barbies. :) These were my glam kitties, Diva Cat is on the right.

DAY NINE

Meet Spider, er I mean E-Man. This is his super cool trick. I'm waiting for the day he falls or one of the legs of the table snaps. Maybe then he'll believe me that it isn't such a good idea.

DAY TEN

Car seat blankets are done. I'll share later sometime in the next week.

DAY ELEVEN

I decided to suck up and beg Jillian for forgiveness. She agreed to take me back, but she's no easier this time around. I secretly hate her, but please don't let her know. If she finds out she might make me do an extra set of anterior raises w/ side lunges. Oh my goodness I loathe them! I've currently completed day 4 of 30, and it finally doesn't hurt to drive my car or open the sliding glass door anymore. So there's definitely some improvement in our relationship. And I promise, I'm not "phoning it in", Jillian.

DAY TWELVE

I love this road. It's a road I drive every time I take the kids to their Nan & Pap's house, and a few other places. It's just one of those scenes that make me happy. It's absolutely gorgeous in Autumn. I had to stick the camera out the window while driving to get this, because as you can see there are no shoulders on the road and so stopping would be rather dangerous. I plan to get a picture of this road once a season. We'll see if I remember.

DAY THIRTEEN

K-Girl's hands are constantly drawing, and I love it. I used to draw a lot and it's really something exciting to see her drawing and really enjoying it. She's been stuck making these propaganda posters lately. Everything she draws has "I am for the red cat." on it. Sure, K-Girl. I'm all for him too.

DAY FOURTEEN

Dust. For my birthday (it's in May so this should give you plenty of notice), I'd like someone to come in and deep clean my house. Yeah I know, who am I kidding. I'd have to clean before they got here to clean, but it's a nice thought. I'm trying desperately to get back on top of things here. Life finally returned to normal with The Husband going back to work this week. It's been a busy week though with only today at home to really get things done. Tomorrow K-Girl's school is off for an in-service day along with Monday for MLK Day. ~sigh~ 4 day weekend. My poor house.

Hosted by Chris

Hosted by Cecily

And the winner is...

2010-01-13T20:36:00.002-05:00

Thank you all for participating in the giveaway celebrating my 500th post here on Gohn Crazy! And thank you for all your wonderful comments about my shop. :)

I sat down and wrote all your names on pieces of paper and tossed them into a flower pot...

...gave them a few shakes to make sure it was good and mixed, and then pulled one lucky winner.

Congratulations, Kaci!! You've won your choice out of any headband, hat, scarf, burp cloth, or prefold that is currently for sale at Whimsical Stitches.

Thanks again to all of you that entered!!

I love this age

2010-01-13T09:15:00.004-05:00

***Quick Reminder*** If you haven't entered my giveaway yet, today is the last day to do it. Once I get the kids tucked in bed tonight I'll come down to close it and draw a winner. So before you leave take a moment and check out the giveaway I'm hosting for a chance to win something from my Etsy store, Whimsical Stitches.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Minus the temper tantrums, 2 years old is one of my favorite ages. I love it when they gain a little more independence, increase their vocabulary so that they can finally let you know what they are thinking, the kisses and cuddles, and the silliness. I really love it. I think it's fun hearing them say certain things that they can't quite get just so yet.

The other night I was excited to catch another one of his words that make me giggle. It took a while to put two and two together to know what he meant, but we finally got it. And thanks to the 365 challenge I had my camera on me to get a little video. There's nothing like trying to get them to say something on cue. ;) Enjoy.

Incase you don't speak 2-year-old here's the translation...

Me: "Hey Buddy, where are we eating dinner tonight?"
E-Man: "I don't know"
Me: "Where are we?"
E-Man: "Home"
Me: "What are we getting?"
E-Man: "I get 'potle" (Chipotle)

Tofu Tuesday #36

2010-01-11T22:30:00.000-05:00

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Pasta Pizza

Taken from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

My apologies for the photo this week, not that they are ever great, but it wasn't until I was finished serving this that it dawned on me "AHHHHH Tofu Tuesday" and ran to get the camera.

(Notes from the book - If you like, sprinkle pepperoni, thinly sliced green sweet pepper, black olives, sliced mushrooms, or other favorites over the top along with the cheese)

Low Fat

Prep: 30 minutes
Bake: 30 minutes
Oven: 350
Makes 6 servings

5 ounces dried rotini (2 cups)
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup milk
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
~~8 ounces ground beef~~ (I omitted that obviously)
1 1/2 cups chunky garden-style pasta sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (4 oz) - I used about 1 1/2 c.

1. Cook rotini according to package directions. Drain; rinse with cold water. Drain well.

2. For pasta crust, in a large bowl combine egg, milk, and Parmesan cheese. Stir in drained rotini. Spread rotini mixture evenly in a greased 12-inch pizza pan. Bake in a 350 oven for 20 minutes.

3. ~~Meanwhile, in a large skillet cook ground beef until brown. Drain.~~ (Omitted) Stir in pasta sauce. Spoon sauce mixture over baked rotini crust. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

4. Bake in the 350 oven for 10 - 12 minutes more or until heated through and cheese is melted. To serve, cut into wedges.

This was a really yummy dinner and something different than the typical spaghetti. Everyone really enjoyed it...well other than K-Girl (she found an onion in the sauce) but you can't please that girl. E-Man thought it was great and so did The Husband and I.

My only complaint is how long it takes, but it's super simple so even though I wouldn't call it a quick meal, it is most definitely an easy one.

Enjoy!!

***Before you leave take a moment and check out the giveaway I'm hosting for a chance to win something from my Etsy store, Whimsical Stitches. It will be open until Wednesday (that's tomorrow!) evening.***

The Unveiling

2010-01-10T21:14:00.005-05:00

Roughly 9 months ago I teased you with this post and told you that in the next week or two my craft room would hopefully be finished. Truthfully it's still not "finished", but gosh darnit it's close enough. This is the ~~cleanest~~ most organized the room has ever been...ever. Over the past couple weeks, The Husband and I have really been focusing on getting the room organized. We've pulled out a lot of stuff to say good-bye to which feels really really good. So with the room in its current state I just have to share.

So without further adieu this is my craft room...

I can't tell you how much I love this room. I wanted something bold, bright and ME. This room is soooooo those things.

This is my work area...

This is my storage area. This past week I got a few more bins and took the time to organize all the yarn and fabric by kind so I can actually find things when I'm looking. It's LOVELY. The OCD in me was doing some big time celebrating when that was finished. ;)

Over here is fabric and my finished project for Whimsical Stitches. I had them above the other boxes in the above picture, but I decided I liked having the peg board functional rather than covered.

I spend a lot of time in front of that door ironing as well. ;) The shelf up there has my scrapbooks on it. The shelf is a catch-all and a spot to put my iron when I'm ironing. I'd like to work on finding something that matches, but for now this will work.

The kids like to come up and do crafts in my room so the card table is set up with chairs and baskets of supplies that they are allowed to use. There's also the easel to create with. I need to find somewhere to stash my patterns that are laying there though.

Working around the room there's the filing cabinet with supplies and my paper slicer, a paper organizer. The white cabinet is a bit of a treasure chest. I store all my recyclables in there for projects for another day (toilet paper rolls, glass jars, yogurt containers, etc). The tub under the table is for things I'd like to keep from K-Girl's school years.

Above my work table I have these two shelves containing my Cricut and cartridges and other items that I use often when working.

More shelves for storage - iron, sewing box, paint way up high far from where little hands can get into it without momma knowing, buttons, pins, etc etc.

On the peg board above my storage area I have pegs to hold my thread, dye, and some other items that need some homes.

And a peek at what those fabric panels are hiding. These are covering the stairs to the attic which prior to this last few weeks were COMPLETELY stacked with stuff. It would attack you if you moved one thing. MUCH better now. Before putting up the curtains I had a peg board "door" attached here.

And the other wall had sliding closet doors that squeaked sooooo loud that we could not open them when kids were asleep. We took them off and now have the fabric. SO much easier and much prettier! They are matching closets. One we use for seasonal decorations and the other is/will be the office area. This also shows you what the walls of the entire room looked like when we moved in. Add to it original to the house shag carpeting and this room was a gem. ;)

So there are a few things that need to be finished -

1. painting above the curtain panels
2. painting the inside of the seasonal closet either teal like the room or pink like the other closet (you can somewhat see that in the above picture (to the right of the blue divider).
2. cover for the air conditioner
3. That closet that you didn't get to see, that's the office area. There's a desk in there...somewhere. Hopefully one day soon there will be some organization in there and it will be a functional area in this room as well.

Being in this room makes me very happy. I can sneak away and be productive, creative, and get a nice recharge that as a mom is typically much needed. I'm so happy that we have this extra space in this house to be able to have this area.

***Before you leave take a moment and check out the giveaway I'm hosting for a chance to win something from my Etsy store, Whimsical Stitches. It will be open until Wednesday this week.***

365 - Week One

2010-01-07T21:32:00.001-05:00

So here goes nothing.

All - ok, well the part of all that I wasn't on a blogging hiatus - last year I enjoyed watching Chris's (and others as well) post their pictures of their 365 photo challenge. The idea is that each day for a year you take a picture of something. Throughout the year I thought how neat this idea was, but a year is a long time to commit to a project. It's 365 days and I couldn't make it through a 30 day challenge of shredding every day. True, this requires the use of a camera and the other required me to put my body through somewhat of a 20 minute period of hell each day, so it may be a slightly easier task. However, did I mention the whole 365 day thing? What finally pushed me over the edge though was reading Chris's year in review. He could look back and remember things about the year that would have otherwise been forgotten. That's really neat. I've been quite the slacker with my camera and have gotten frustrated on many occasions at the things I've missed capturing with E-Man. I've got soooo many more pictures of K-Girl than with E-Man. They say it's normal with the second, but it still makes me a bit sad when I think of all the little things that I've lost. So I may not be anywhere near the photographer that others are, but pictures are memories saved, and for that reason I've decided to try to take on this challenge. Hopefully I'll make it.

DAY ONE

I made reference to this previously, but I've got a cloth diaper in the works. So after working hard to meet my personal deadline of the first week of January, here they are all sewn and pretty, ready to head off to their homes.

DAY TWO

Out delivering the locals of Day 1's diapers - I decided since my husband's trusty GPS showed me all around without once getting me lost that it needed a moment in the spotlight. I left the house at 8:45am and didn't get back till 12:30pm. I drove all over the county and found that when you're driving all back roads here there and everywhere, most you've never been on before, that it becomes quite disorienting.

DAY THREE

Crochet, crochet, crochet. Pretty much my idea of a perfectly spent chilly evening. Add some coffee and some good music in there and I'm happy. I'm getting old aren't I? I just finished up my son's car seat blanket last night and now need to finish of K-Girl's. I'm about halfway there now. I'll share them when I finish the one I'm doing for her.

DAY FOUR

Back with meal planning and kicking it off with a new recipe - Vegetarian Sheperd's Pie. It was delicious! I'm so glad to be getting back into the swing of things. Over the holidays we had very few actual groceries and were eating out all the time. Every now and then it's great for something different and a nice break, but after a while it just becomes blah no matter where you're eating out. It's good to be cooking, eating a bit healthier, and trying some new things. So far two for two this week with new recipes.

DAY FIVE

Working on one last diaper that I missed when I got the testers together. Oops. It's good that sewing is easily my second favorite hobby (right behind crocheting).

DAY SIX

This picture is so E-Man. Chilling on the couch watching Nick Jr with his man Wubsy, pop in the mouth. I'm pretty sure this is his equivalent of my time spent crocheting with coffee.

DAY SEVEN

It's A-MAZING! Today marked the first day of E-Man venturing into the big kid room at Playhouse Cafe. They have an over 2 room that is staffed and an under 2 room that is parent supervised. Even though he's 2 1/2 he refuses to go to the big kid room and usually hangs out with the little ones up front, not that it's a big deal especially since his best friend isn't quite 2 yet. The past few times he has wanted to go in the big kid room but changes his mind once we get to the door. Today was huge. He went in...and came out about 4 times, but he went in, played, and had a great time! I'm thinking this is the beginning of something beautiful.

(Taken through the window of the door at the other end of the playroom when I just so happened to see E-Man smiling and waving at me. It made me so happy to see him happy and having a great time in there that this just has to be my picture for the day regardless of the not so great quality.)

Hosted by Cecily and Carrie

***Before you leave take a moment and check out the giveaway I'm hosting for a chance to win something from my Etsy store, Whimsical Stitches. It will be open until Wednesday of next week.***

Happy 500!

2010-01-06T09:44:00.008-05:00

***COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR GIVEAWAY ENTRIES! Winner will be posted shortly!***

Wow! 500 posts! Really? Have I been here that long? Am I really that chatty? Alright well you wouldn't know it from recently, but I guess I have really been that chatty. I've been trying to get back with the swing of things though and I'm remembering how much I really like this whole blogging thing. The friendships that I've made with other bloggers out there has been wonderful. It's so neat to follow another blog for such a long time and watch their kids growing and changes in their lives. It's definitely something I missed during my hiatus.

In celebration of this blogging milestone I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway. I love giveaways!! I sadly missed the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day in December, so I thought this would be a fun way to fit one in despite having missed that.

All you need to do is visit my Etsy store, Whimsical Stitches, look around, and then come back and let me know what your favorite item is and leave that in the comments.

If you spread the word about this giveaway you can earn extra entries. Feel free to Facebook it, Tweet it, blog it, etc. If you choose to share the news, please come back and post an additional comment for each entry making sure to please provide a link where you have shared this giveaway.

I will be picking a winner a week from today - Wednesday January 13th sometime after the kids are in bed. Please make sure that if you don't have your e-mail linked up with your comments that I know how to contact you if you win.

One lucky winner will receive any headband, hat, scarf, burp cloth, or prefold that is currently for sale at Whimsical Stitches.

Good luck to everyone! Can't wait to share something I've made with you!

Tofu Tuesday #35

2010-01-04T22:48:00.003-05:00

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Tofu Tuesday is the place to share all of your vegetarian secrets. If you have a great recipe to share, a product to rave or rant about, or anything that has made being a vegetarian easier for you please share it. (And vegans of course are welcome too!!) Feel free to grab the little button over there to the right. After you post come back here and link up with your address in the comments. I'm looking forward to reading all your posts!

I'm baaaack!

The holidays are over and my meal plan is back. We're cooking again and exploring our poor neglected cookbooks. We've found a bunch of meals that we're looking forward to trying. I'm excited that the first one was a success. I'd say smashing success, but the kids both turned their noses at it. Eh. I'm over the whole pleasing the kids with meals thing. Some day they will try more and some day they will actually take a bite of something before making up their minds about whether or not they like it. So frustrating. But anyway...

Tonight's dinner was out of our Betty Crocker's Healthy New Choices cookbook.

Vegetarian Sheperd's Pie

Prep: 10 min; Cook: 23 min
6 servings

2 cans (15 or 16 oz each) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 jar (16 oz) thick-and-chunky salsa (2 c.)
1 cup frozen whole kernel corn
1 medium carrot, chopped (1/2 c.)
1 1/2 cups warm mashed potatoes
(if you don't want to make them from scratch, instant mashed potatoes will work just fine or leftovers if you have them)
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Chopped fresh chives or parsley, if desired

Heat beans, salsa, corn, and carrot to boiling in 10-inch nonstick skillet; reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes or until carrot is tender.

Spoon mashed potatoes onto bean mixture around edge of skillet. Cover and simmer 5 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and chives.

So like I said, the recipe was great! It's not that pretty, but it was really really good and very filling. And we even have two smaller (great for lunch) portions left over. I'll definitely be making this one again. Maybe the kids would try it next time... yeah not holding my breath for that one. ;)

By the way, this is post 499 for me. Make sure to check back later this week as I will be having a give-away to celebrate my 500th post. Might be tomorrow, might not, but it will definitely be this week!

Happy New Years

2010-01-01T23:12:00.004-05:00

I'm having an accomplished day. It's a good feeling for the start of a new year.

I finally put the design I had for a cloth diaper into works. It's an idea I had rolling around for over a year, but never really had that extra drive to do anything with it. Finally I decided to do it. I made the diaper. I tweaked the diaper. I am pleased with the diaper. So I found a dozen people with babies to test this diaper for me. I gave myself (and told them) that I would have the diapers out to them the first week of January. Here it is January 1 and I have all the packages ready to go and I'm heading out tomorrow to deliver all of the local ones. I'm excited and anxious to find out what others think of it. The hard part is going to be waiting a month for all the feedback to come back. But they are done and I feel like even if they don't like the diaper as much as I do that I have achieved something in putting it this far.

Tonight I finally took down my organization board and updated it for the first time since Halloween week. Yeah I'm ashamed. It's been a long time without a meal plan and without a real plan to the week. I do still have my planner which I would be completely lost without, but without the board I'm a bit fuzzy on things - especially where home is concerned. The Husband and I sat down and picked 3 new dishes to try for dinners this week which also translates to new Tofu Tuesdays in the coming weeks. Everything is falling into place.

I've not really made any resolutions for this coming year as I find I never really keep to them. There are a few things that I hope to focus on this year though.

Declutter/Simplify
Organize that which we do not part with
Start taking better care of myself and be healthier
Work out a formal budget for the family

We'll see how it goes.

I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year!

And just a heads up. I'm quickly approaching my 500th post and to celebrate I'll be having a little giveaway. Make sure you keep a look out. It should be happening next week!

Some handmade holidays...

2009-12-30T20:34:00.003-05:00

I didn't do a perfect job with handmade holidays this year, but I did try to make the large majority of the gifts handmade. I've found with the kids that I have a very hard time especially since they make it known what they want and I'm not sure how they would take to more handmade. The rocket that I made E-Man last year got very little attention except here and there as a house-friendly football. The ones that appreciate the handmade got mostly that this year and again seemed to like their gifts a lot.

The one thing that I got my parents, The Husband's parents, and my brother were gift buckets of Method cleaning supplies and crocheted-by-me dishrags. Everyone seemed to really like this idea, especially the fact that it was a functional gift. I had my father-in-law at the bucket. He couldn't stop commenting how nice of a bucket it was. Gotta love an easy to please one. haha I wanted to do this last year, but for some reason we changed our mind. I rave about Method products a lot, but I know that not all my family would opt for Method (or another environmentally friendly cleaner) for their first choice at the store. I thought this way they could give them a try and see how fantastic they are and hopefully continue to use products that are better for the environment. Each bucket was slightly different with its contents based on who was receiving the gift - dishwasher tabs vs. liquid dish soap etc. Here's one of the buckets...

I included the dishrags in a little bundle of 3. Each person had a different set. This is one of each of the four...

Love how this rainbow yarn worked up!

A set of navy blue ones.

A nice deep red.

And I just loved all the blues in this one!

In addition to the cleaning goodies I made each of the moms a scarf. Somehow I missed getting a picture of the one I made for my mother-in-law, but I made her a short scarf (54") as that is the size that she already used. That one was a cream/off white color. I made my mom a long scarf (84") which is the length that I would use myself. Her scarf was a pretty green color that will match her winter jacket. And I also made my step-mother a really pretty plum color since she remarked how much she liked purple. I only got an action picture of my mom but I snapped a close up to show the purple color.

They were all worked up using Lion Suede Yarn which is such a wonderful yarn for anything warm and snuggly. It's bulky and works up very soft and squishy. Love this stuff and I think it's safe to say they all did too.

Then I saw this camouflage yarn while I was browsing at AC Moore and I just knew that I had to make my dad and brother something out of it. I ended up deciding that beanies would suit them both the best.

and my brother in his...

I unfortunately forgot my camera at home (along with my crochet hook and stuffing that I needed for my current project and the over the seat DVD players for the kids) for the trip north so I wasn't able to get any pictures of our visit there. :(

So there's a look at our handmade holidays for this year. I hope to start earlier (ha ha, procrastinator here) next year and be able to accomplish a little more, but I'd say that I'm happy. The thing about a handmade holiday that appeals to me - how much more you enjoy giving the gifts and how much each gift means to the person that gets it. It's just so much more personal. I just hope that sometime the kids get more into the whole handmade thing and want to participate more.

My Little Barber

2009-12-29T22:51:00.002-05:00

Just beware, he's not gentle.

Our Christmas

2009-12-28T08:05:00.003-05:00

Christmas is over and although I'm glad to be past the craziness, we had a really great time this year. It was much better than last year, probably because it was slower paced. Here are a few of the highlights.

First we had Christmas with my mom and stepdad on the 23rd. Big toy of the night was K-Girl getting a Zhu Zhu Pet. My mom had heard of these before I saw any commercials. K-Girl thinks that this little hamster is so great! She even did a little impersonation...

Next we went down to The Husband's family Christmas Eve. It was a bit slow paced (to the point of dragging) and the kids got grumpy with being told "soon" way too many times. I never did actually do more than get my camera out.

Christmas morning K-Girl woke us up and we had to wake E-Man up - the boy who is always up by 6:30. Figure Christmas is the day he chooses to sleep in. K-Girl was good though and waited nicely without trying to rush us.

Santa had filled our stockings...

And left special presents under the tree for the kids...

(A DSi plus game and a guitar for K-Girl and a drum pad and Diego playset for E-Man)

The kids were thrilled!!

And then once they were done checking out their gifts from Santa we gave them their presents from mommy and daddy.

A Leapster Diego Game -

A tin of Littlest Pet Shop animals -

They each got a box of books that I had picked up at the school's book fair. K-Girl was thrilled to see the Junie B Journal that she asks for every book order.

E-Man was perhaps most excited by his new Spiderman backpack. Now he doesn't have to use K-Girl's old Angelina Ballerina or Chococat backpack. This is big news! ;)

The biggest disappointment was the Bounce Back Racer. We opened it up and put batteries in it and nothing. We went to Toys R Us the next day and they didn't have any, neither did Target. I looked on Amazon to order one and saw that all the reviews were talking about what junk it is so we've decided not to replace it with the same thing. Now we're trying to find something he'll be just as excited about as he keeps asking for his race car.

K-Girl had been begging for the Biggest Littlest Pet Shop since she first saw it at a trip to Sam's Club a few months ago. She was going to ask Santa for it, but she decided that she needed to ask for the DS more so we decided to surprise her. If we thought she loved the tin she was even more excited by this.

There was a moment of quiet when we unpacked the DS and E-Man wanted to watch -

And we experienced some major Christmas magic when I decided we needed to get a family picture and only had to take 2.

I got a sleeve for my laptop, Ani DiFranco's Canon, A gift certificate for our local yarn store, $20 to buy another Ani CD because the only one he could find was Canon, and this awesome crochet hook organizer from http://www.hi-howareyou.com/ (sarahkincheloe on Etsy).

My mom and stepdad got me a self-healing cutting mat that is 24x36 which I just love along with a clear mat to lay over the fabric while you are cutting. She also got me a crochet hook organizer from the same Etsy shop. Seems that both my mom and husband were paying attention to my blog post and ended up with the same idea. And since I don't need two and I really wanted a matching zipper pouch I returned the one from my mom and exchanged it for 2 zipper pouches (a small and a larger one) that will match the green lotus organizer that The Husband got. I was definitely spoiled a bit this Christmas and I just love all my gifts!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T08:14:00.002-05:00

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy New Year! I hope you all are safe in your travels, indulge in goodies, and enjoy your time with family and friends!

Fun with Hats

2009-12-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

Installment #2 on E-Man's silliness. The boy loves dressing up. Whether it's putting on his own clothes (a new and fantastic development, although he almost never takes the current clothes off in order to do this), imagination play items, or ransacking the box of cold weather gear, he loves it all.

He's laid claim to my old hat and has moved on to K-Girl's items...

Don't mind the chaos behind him. The boy is also a tornado. Where ever he goes destruction occurs. ;)

It's going to be a White Christmas

2009-12-22T13:41:00.003-05:00

No Tofu Tuesday today, come back next week. :)

I'm excited that for the first year in many we will be having a White Christmas, well I'm pretty sure about that.

Late Friday night the snow started and it didn't let up till about midnight on Saturday. We ended up with roughly 18" of snow. It was very exciting. The snow was the light fluffy stuff that you hope for (easier clean up).

We, umm ok The Husband (I helped dress them but I prefer staying warm), took the kids out to play Saturday early before there was too much accumulation. Regardless, E-Man was not impressed. He thought it was cool but he was cold and couldn't walk right and after a few times of falling he had enough and wanted to go in. K-Girl hung in a little longer, but also not too long.

Yes, E-Man is the unfortunate product of having an older sister. We didn't have good heavy mittens for him as I couldn't find anything that matched at the store so he ended up with K-Girl's old mittens and a pink scarf to boot. Not that he minds.

Here's a picture of the front while the kids were playing Saturday morning...

And this is what it currently looks like having been 3 days and some melting. I wish I would have remembered to take a picture just after it stopped. The pile was a few inches higher at that point.

We only ended up being snowed in until Sunday night. We live on one of the last streets in the township so we don't get plowed till very last. The first plow only came through after 4:00 Sunday evening. And I've also learned the valuable lesson that my car is not a snow car. The Husband moved my car (although I told him not to) down the driveway to move it over to make room for his and ended up needing to push it back up into it's spot. Ah well, there's not that many snow days anyway. :)

Santa Deserves Extra Cookies

2009-12-18T08:53:00.008-05:00

Hosted by Cecily and Honey Mommy
Last night we went to visit Santa. Both kids were so excited rattling off what they were asking Santa for - K-Girl wants a guitar and a DS & E-Man wants "Diego and Diego Movie". We got to the mall and had to wait 20 minutes because Santa was "feeding his reindeer". Luckily it didn't take too long and the kids were still excited. However when they saw Santa, E-Man was still all about it but K-Girl decided she wasn't too sure about the whole thing any more.

When we made it up to our turn K-Girl walked over and got up, but E-Man was instantly not feeling it. You would have thought that Santa had electrocuted the kid when contact was made. I place E-Man on his lap and instant hysteria. So I picked him up and told him that K-Girl would make sure to tell Santa what he wanted (which she did). So last year we have a picture of Santa with K-Girl and E-Man crying. This year was just Santa and K-Girl. We'll try again next year.

Here's our Santa picture this time around...

E-Man was all upset afterwards worrying that, because he didn't tell Santa what he wanted he wouldn't get a present. I assured him that K-Girl took care of it and Santa knows what he wanted. That seemed to make it better again.

Oh and I don't dare forget to write about this. Wednesday night K-Girl wanted to write Santa a letter. She needed some help with the word "bad", but otherwise did it by herself. When she was finished she shared it with The Husband...

She was going to hand deliver it to Santa last night but I had to talk to her about if she really thought that was a nice thing to do to her brother. She finally decided that she would leave it at home. The girl was trying to black list her own brother.

No Tears Shed

2009-12-16T23:19:00.004-05:00

It's amazing. No, seriously, A-MAZING!

Even though we are in the single digit countdown to Christmas, I've decided that we are still doing Christmas cards. Monday night The Husband was working late so I decided to tackle this one on my own. I was feeling brave. Typically these photo sessions with a purpose end in tears out of one, two, or more of us (yes including parents). It's typically a time of stress and fighting and just all around very un-Christmaslike conduct.

This year I told the kids we were taking our Christmas card photo and if they did a good job they could have a candy cane off of the tree. I didn't think it was that good of a bribe but it worked. Now granted it still took 30+ pictures to get the right picture, but no temper tantrums or anything and typically I'm running in the 100+ photos to get one that works. This is cause for celebration!!

Of course there were the not so good ones...

(I realized after the first several pictures that my camera was on the completely wrong setting so I'm glad the good one didn't happen until after I figured that out.)

I need to preface this one by saying right before I snapped this picture I asked K-Girl to give E-Man a kiss...

HAHAHA! Look at those expressions!

Oops I lost a kid in this one...

And of course there's the "Hey Mom take a silly one!" picture...

And the ham that likes to try to steal the show...

But like I said, there was a perfect picture in there somewhere. ;) Promise.

Now you don't think I'd go and ruin the Christmas card for all of you that might be receiving a card from us, did you?!
Nahh, I only do stuff like that on Facebook. ;) haha

Tofu Tuesday #34

2009-12-15T09:26:00.003-05:00

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Image from Google Images at grubgrade.com

I had a slight obsession with these little things. Incase you haven't had the pleasure to meet one yet, this is a "Wake Up Wrap" from Dunkin Donuts. And as the little image says they are $0.99 each. Yum. They make you feel better about yourself than when you're scarfing down 2 boston cream donuts. ;) So after a bunch of trips to DD for them I decided that I needed to start making them myself. It's not like they are that hard to make. All they are is a tortilla with egg and cheese. They are now something I enjoy at home for breakfast, lunch, or a quick snack. Of course the DD ones still taste slightly better (why is that with everything you get out rather than make at home?), but they are close enough for me.

I typically make two at a time (unless I'm making a quick snack) and this is how I do it...

Scramble two eggs in a bowl and add a little milk to make them fluffy and just a little salt and pepper.
Spray a pan with cooking spray (or use butter) and fry up your eggs. Don't scramble the eggs in the pan. Instead cook them like you would an omelet.
Once your egg is cooked then I cut it down the middle to make two halves and sprinkle with some shredded cheddar cheese (although you could just lay a slice of american on it as well).
I let that melt a little bit and then slide each half out onto a tortilla. I fold the tortilla over on the egg and put them back in the pan just to fully melt the cheese and warm the tortilla.
After that they are all finished and you can take them out of the pan and enjoy!

They are so quick and easy. And most of all they are yummy too!

Enjoy!

My Silly Boy

2009-12-14T08:53:00.002-05:00

He's in love with my silly hat. I think he wears it much better than I do. He loves jumping around like a crazy boy to make the pompoms shake. I love watching him act like a nut. It's good cheap entertainment.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2009-12-10T23:07:00.003-05:00

Hosted by Cecily and Rachael

This week has been a busy one. But I'm feeling accomplished. Things are not perfect, but it's getting there. And the proof is the feeling that I'm getting from my home. It's shaking the chaotic feeling and starting to feel comfy. Christmas is right around the corner. I'm not sure how it snuck up again this year. Two weeks to pull everything together. But at least the tree is up and fully decorated...

Complete with Jackers underneath...

There's something so cozy about kitties napping beneath the tree. At least no one has decided to roost higher in the tree so far.

...but there is plenty of time for that still. ;)

I Can't Not

2009-12-09T14:27:00.003-05:00

I wasn't going to post this here, but decided that I just absolutely can't not. So because I don't want to post anyone who hasn't given permission on the blog (especially with incriminating photos like this) I just tweaked it a bit and now I just have to post.

So yesterday afternoon I get this picture in my e-mail...

That's my hubby and yes he's got his head very nearly resting on her boob. Lovely. ;) It's always nice to know that, while out of town, he's working so hard. You know, while I'm home tending to kids and the house and all. But after our conversation last night I have found that the real reason they just had to have the picture is because they were identical twins, um the girls I'm referring to. ;) And all along he's been saying that the only appeal of Hooter's is really their wings. Busted! haha

But you know what? It's ok. I'm totally fine with it. Because little does he know who I've been hanging with while he's away...

So yeah, he can have his twins. I'll be just fine.

Tofu Tuesday #33

2009-12-08T07:55:00.004-05:00

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Image Credit - Found HERE

This was my first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian. No turkey for me. No gravy for me. No stuffed inside the turkey stuffing. And you know what, it was a wonderful meal and wonderful holiday.

From EatingAnimals.com:

If our holiday meals are supposed to serve as a reflection of our gratefulness, can a turkey that spends its life crammed by the tens of thousands into giant warehouses, on antibiotics, that has been bred to suffer-as is true for more than 99% of turkeys sold in America-be the choice we feel best about?

This holiday season, consider the turkey. Take this conversation in any direction you'd like. The most important thing is that our choices be deliberate.

I've never really taken the time to think about this before, or maybe it was just another one of those things I pushed to the back of my mind as not to think about it. But I totally agree with the above statement. What does turkey have to do with the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving? And honestly, the best part of the meal for me has always been all the yummy sides. I've never had a problem filling up on all the yummies that sit around the turkey on the table. This year I had a wonderful reason for filling up on those yummies and foregoing the turkey.

I would not have made a turkey this year. The Husband was alright with that, but I don't know he would have been completely happy. But my mother invited us to Thanksgiving at her house this year so there was a turkey. The rest of the family had turkey but I had none and I'm alright with that. But I think next year I may try my hand at making the meal and also inviting family to our house, where there will be no turkey. I don't know that it would go over well, but we'll see.

How was your Thanksgiving? Did you try a turkey alternative? Did you have a turkey for the rest of your family? I'd love to hear about your vegetarian/vegan Thanksgivings.

K-Girl Plays Dress-Up

2009-12-07T14:41:00.002-05:00

This weekend, K-Girl's new fascination was getting her brother dressed. They decided that they wanted to play upstairs so I sat in the living room where I could easily see and hear up the steps to know that they were actually playing and not fighting like it more typically turns into. After a little while playing, K-Girl decided that it was time to get dressed so she dressed herself. Once she was done she held E-Man by the hand and led him to his room telling him "Let's get dressed". I chuckled to myself wondering what this would result in and left them go. After hearing her struggle with something (I'm guessing pants) she went and picked out a new outfit. E-Man came out of the room and over to the steps where he loudly proclaimed "TAADAA!!" This is the outfit that resulted...

Not too bad other than obviously he wasn't leaving the house in shorts. But I asked him if he liked his outfit and he replied "Yes! Comfy!" So he spent most of the day in his shorts.

And much the same on Sunday K-Girl decided that she was getting E-Man dressed again, although he was not as excited about it that day. After she picked him up and dragged him to his room and wrestled to get one arm free of his sleeper resulting in tears from E-Man she gave up and also was crying. Have I mentioned that crying is K-Girl's new super talent?! The girl cries when she's yelled at, cries when she's just told to do something differently, cries when she's overwhelmed, when her feelings are hurt, cries when she's angry. Of course anger usually brings the flaring of her amazing temper along with tears. I truly am scared of what the teenage years will bring with her. She's quite the drama princess at just 5 years old. Lord, help us!

But at least it was cute the first day. ;)

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

2009-12-05T08:17:00.002-05:00

I've seen this meme traveling around a lot so I figured that I would check it out. Holy gifts, Batman!! So because answering questions is fun and the prizes are amazing, I'm totally playing along.

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?

A personalized necklace similar to this or this from Etsy with the kids' names. I love the silver/pearl combination.
This owl bag is adorable!
A crochet hook organizer something like this and maybe a little zipper pouch like this to put my stitch markers, needles, tape measure in.
True Blood Season 2 on DVD
Love all the fun little things here or here. ;) Especially fond of the sparkly Edward. I can already see it on my laptop. Those bookends are awesome! And the other store just has a bunch of great items!

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
My best friend and I made each other these collages from magazines inspired by each other. It was one of the neatest things I've ever received. I think I have a picture of it somewhere that I may have to dig out and share. I'm only sad that in all my moving it ended up not with me at some point.

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
Hmm honestly the list is never ending. I always think "wow I'd love to make that for ____" and then I either forget, run out of time, or just lack the talent needed for that item. Up until recently I've really wished I could knit, especially socks or clothing, but I think I'm getting over that and am a very contented crocheter. ;)

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
Is it bad that I don't really have something standing out to me right now? I know I was pretty nuts about Rainbow Bright and went pretty bananas about getting a Rainbow Bright doll and Sprite one year, but I don't know that it was the best gift. In my defence I have a TERRIBLE memory.

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
K-Girl wants The Littlest Pet Shop Biggest Littlest Pet Shop (wow that's a mouthful!), a Nintendo DS, and a Guitar.
E-Man wants the Bounce Back Racer Remote Control Car, Diego Leapster Game, and anything else Deigo for that matter.
There's more on those lists but I think those are some of the big ones.

6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Oh that's too hard. Christmas cookies? Pumpkin Roll? Pumpkin Pie? Macaroni & Cheese (the kind that takes more work so only gets made at special occassions), Sweet Potatoes, all those yummy sides!

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
I've got a list to see if I can get to. I've been crafting for a lot of other people's Christmas presents but haven't started my own yet. I have a blanket on my list, some crocheted items, and a few other things that I really can't speak of due to readers of my blog.

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
You'll shoot your eye out, kid! A Christmas Story for sure. :)

9. Favorite holiday song?
Hands down it's Silent Night

10. Favorite holiday pastime?
Eating? Baking (although there's usually quite a bit of stress involved with that)? Crafting?

Under Construction

2009-12-04T19:35:00.002-05:00

Don't mind the mess. I'm changing my layout. It'll be worked out shortly.
Thanks!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ok. I think it's all fixed. If anyone finds anything that doesn't work or something along those lines please let me know! :)

PSF - Apple Picking Now and Then

2009-12-04T08:37:00.002-05:00

Hosted by Cecily

On October 1st, E-Man and I went on a wagon ride to pick apples, gourds, and pumpkins with our playgroup. We did the same thing last year and it has been so much fun both times. There's nothing that makes it really feel like fall than a cool, crisp hayride. Don't you just love Fall?!

This year he was fascinated with picking the apples and always wanted the higher ones. At least he was a little less focused on the apples laying on the ground this year. ;)

...and he was incredibly pleased with himself when he got one off all by himself.

Bruising...er I mean showing off his apple booty...

Hello from the pumpkin patch!

There's nothing like enjoying the fruits of your labor on the wagon ride back...

It's so much fun to look at pictures from an event that we have done two years in a row. It helps remind me at how fast kids grow up. This year E-Man was all about picking apples and was right there with me in the pumpkin patch picking out which ones he wanted. And while noticing all the differences I love looking at the similarities like in this picture I grabbed from last year's post...

Next year it'll be fun to look at the past three years' comparisons.

I GOT THE PICTURE!!!

2009-12-03T08:46:00.002-05:00

So I'm driving to a friend's house about a month ago and guess what?!

I SAW IT!!

And best of all?! I had my camera accessible for once!

Now that you are thinking what did this crazy see, let me show you...

The background?

Some of you may remember my post outing myself as being judgemental. If you don't then feel free to click the link and see why.

This Hummer is constantly running along the same paths as I am. We cross each other way too often, but never when I am ready for it. We are usually sitting at opposite sides of the intersection and there's just no way. This morning I was following it. I quick caught up so I could get the photo just before they turned off the road. And now I'm just so excited that I can share this with you.

So there you have it. The infamous H2 with a roof rack. Ridiculous.

Kid Writing

2009-12-02T08:40:00.002-05:00

Kindergarten is such an amazing time of growth and learning. Every time K-Girl brings home a paper I'm just blown away by how much better her letters have gotten, how much her drawing has advanced, and all the changes that are happening this year. It's really exciting.

At her school they do this program called "Kid Writing". I took the training for it so I can go in and help the class and it really is an awesome program. It's all about the kids figuring out what comes next. They are taught a little at a time and helped to incorporate those things into their writing (writing left to right top to bottom, spaces between words, periods (etc) at the end, capital letters, etc). They work one on one with an adult to come up with a story that meshes with the picture they have made. You go word by word stretching them out so that the kids can pick out the sounds they hear. They write the sounds they hear and skip what they don't know. They are also encouraged to use their resources such as focus words they may have been studying, age appropriate dictionaries that they now have on each table, or if they know a word is somewhere in the room to go find it and use it.

They work in these books until they are full and then the teacher sends them home. We got her first book back last month and it was so fun looking at the pictures and writing from the beginning to the end. She's having so much improvement. I can't wait to be able to compare the beginning of the year to the end of the year. So I took a few pictures of her book to share. They are in order from earlier work to more recent.

Here's a close up of her writing on this page...

The adults don't fuss with their writing at all. They just help guide as they are working with them, but when they are finished the adult does "Adult Writing" underneath so they see how we would write their "story".

(I am picking apples with my mom.)

(The hippo is saving the bat, the snail, and the bird.)

(The purple apple is trying to make the 'are' disappear.)

(The apple family is coming home from the grocery store.)

I think the thing I love most about these is how random they are. Now and then they are prompted on their subject (they have been nonfiction writers about apples and pumpkins, or asked to write on something else they have been focusing on in class), but typically they are left to create whatever is floating around in their minds. I really love seeing their imaginations coming alive in their writing.

K-Girl just loves school and loves Kid Writing. She wants to play school almost every evening and is constantly writing and asking for help on how to spell this or that. As bittersweet as it can be watching them grow up it is truly amazing to watch the process.

We had her first parent/teacher conference last week. She's doing very well in school which is always a relief to hear. I don't know how much (if any) I have touched on her anxiety with getting lost here on the blog, but her teacher says it has improved greatly. She no longer needs to always hold her hand when she's walking somewhere. She's worked up to being alright going to the bus with her two friends rather than the teacher at the end of the day. It's improved at home as well. She has been generally more pleasant all around and especially at bedtime than when her anxiety had been so overwhelming for her.

Her school pictures also came back last month...

When did I blink and how did she get so big?!