Archive for September 2010

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Stress Relief


Depending a little too much on this right now.

Kinda like putting all our eggs in one basket.

Have a great weekend!

.


Monday, September 27, 2010

What's wrong with your memory, Kid?

Vance's first trip to the beach, November 2007



Last night Vance was asking us about crabs.

(Stop it, not those types of crabs.)

Are there crabs in Florida? We've been there a lot. Why haven't we ever seen any before?

I went on and on telling him about the blue crabs we caught (using drumsticks?) and was surprised that he didn't remember catching them and putting them in the sand castle bucket.

It made sense after I thought about it.

Oh, we did that before you were born. No wonder you don't remember that.

Funny, when I was telling him the story and picturing everything in my head he was right there leaning over the bucket to look at them.

Does this mean that I can't imagine a life without him?

Possibly.

Or maybe was it just a case of Tired Mommy Brain.

..............

It's Monday and I don't know what I'm going to do with the kiddos today. Maybe the Butterfly Garden? Was up late and will have to see what happens when this coffee kicks in. Speaking of coffee, what's your favorite? I've been on a Caribou kick recently and sad that I'm out of Trader Joe's Vanilla creamer. It's not as sweet as the other French Vanilla creamers.

Have a good day!





Friday, September 24, 2010

Happy Birthday Jack!



Jack, I hope you have more fun today than when your lame aunt and uncle took you to a Mustard Festival in a town that's known for their gnome carvings.

Funny that a place like that even exists.

It was a good idea at the time to us. Apparently the boys felt differently. Maybe it was all the free hot dogs. (Where there's mustard, there's usually ketchup, and you can't have mustard and ketchup without the presence of hot-diggity-dogs.)

Happy Birthday, big guy! Love you!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Survivor: Why on Wednesdays?

QOTD: Question of the day

If a new carton of milk is left out on the counter for a few hours is it bad? What's the rule here?
...............

Aren't you happy that TV shows are coming back on? Our DVR was worked overtime last night and we couldn't even record everything that we wanted. This brings me to what I really want to talk about: Survivor.

Survivor airing on Wednesdays is throwing our week off.

Background Info: Years ago, even before Vance was born, my family would get together to watch Survivor and eat pizza on Thursday nights. It was a nice way to get ready for the weekend and catch up with everyone, even though the background noise from that many people warranted that no one could even hear the show.

It really wasn't about the show, if you know what I mean.

We moved away and still kept the Survivor Night tradition and still do. It's something simple that we all look forward to.


Why is it on Wednesdays? Will it ever go back to Thursdays? It seems unnatural to call Wednesday Survivor Night.

Sad, but eating pizza on a Wednesday throws the rest of the week off.

Let's start a petition. Bring Survivor Back to Thursdays.


Off to do some Momming. Have a great day!


Tuesday, September 21, 2010

This doesn't feel right.


It feels like fall, there's pumpkins and owls scattered around my house, and yet...

I'm in a tank top gearing up for 90 degree weather.

Oy.

Monday, September 20, 2010

The Awakening

I remember this sculpture from when I was younger and can't believe that I've driven past so many times without stopping. I find that we do that often - take for granted the things around us.

So we stopped on Saturday and let the kids explore.







What's the next thing on our list? Admitting this with guilt: The Arch. We've never taken the kids to the Arch. Horrible parents we are.

How about you? Anyone care admitting what you haven't done with the kids yet?

Friday, September 17, 2010

Boots, Salsa, and Momming.

Yesterday I made a spreadsheet for Christmas presents, proving that Justin's way of life is rubbing off on me.

Noticing what had just happened and needing a way to put order back in the world, I made an impromptu riding boot purchase.

Phew, that was close.

................................

Today marks the first day of Vance's first school break. He's off for the next 3 weeks, which means I'm back to full-time Momming.

Today is also Salsa Making Day.

I must find another way to use all these tomatoes.

If you have a favorite recipe, let me know.

I'll let you know how mine turns out.

How will you be spending your Friday?









Thursday, September 16, 2010

Finger Painting


I first finger painted with Vance when he was 18 months old. He was laid back and never tried eating any of the art materials I had presented to him. Vaughn, on the other hand, is wired a different way and I held off with the finger painting until yesterday. (She's 28 months old.)


She surprised me. She didn't want to really get into it. I thought she'd be balls out and up to her ears in paint and I had to coax her in. I know she's finger painted at school before so this wasn't totally new to her, but still she surprised me.



What's really mind boggling is the fact that up until last week this was one of Vance's under shirts. I knew they're were getting too small for him but I didn't think they would fit Vaughn that well.

Kids. Always a surprise.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Happy Blog Birthday to Me

Happy Birthday to me! Well, actually, to my blog! 4 years ago today I started this whole nonsense and to celebrate I'm adding birthday banners to my Etsy shop.

Here's a few of the past ones:







I forgot that I had made this one years ago. Glad I found it, it's almost time to hang it again!

Have a great day!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Apple Hair Clippie

On Friday I doodled this:


Then decided to turn it into this:







We went apple picking over the weekend and celebrated Gary's birthday, which is today. Happy Birthday Big Gar!






Friday, September 10, 2010

Very interesting.





Sauce

Around 2:00 yesterday afternoon I started making homemade spaghetti sauce. I blanched, peeled, seeded, juiced, chopped, cooked, blended, and cooked them some more. The day before I had put together my mirepoix. I was ready for some serious spaghetti sauce.


Around 7:00 last night I came to a conclusion: I had just wasted half of my day. I don't like this sauce. I'm guessing it's my tomatoes being the wrong variety for sauce or the fact that I simply prefer Ragu.

I followed the direction of another food blogger who had consulted The Silver Spoon, which is referred to as the Italian culinary bible, Mario Batali, Anne Burell, and Lidia Bastianich. She did her homework, I followed pretty much exactly everything she did, and I don't like the product.

I took the batch and divided up into portions for pizza sauce and stuck it into the freezer. I'm done with sauce. Unfortunately, my tomato plants are still cranking them out, so we're going to have a whole lotta pizza sauce around here!

It's Friday and tonight I may insist we take a family trip to the mall. (For those who don't know, Vaughn doesn't do well at the mall. It's pretty much torture for everyone involved. That's why I do so much shopping online.) The kids don't have clothes for these cooler temps and guessing sizes for them is impossible. I'm not looking forward to it, but it has to be done.

Have a good one!

Thursday, September 09, 2010

A Conversation

Setting: Kitchen. Vance and Vaughn coloring at table, I'm measuring my stomach trying to determine what size of pants to order.


Vance: Mommy, your stomach looks big.

Me: That's not nice to say. What do you mean it looks big?

Vance: I'm sorry Mommy. (Comes and gives me a hug, then sits back down at table.) It just looks like you've been eating a lot of food.

Me: Okay, but that's really not nice to say to someone. Do you understand? We never tell people that they look big.

Vance: Okay. Sorry.

End Scene.

fin


Tuesday, September 07, 2010

This Nut

While the kids were in school yesterday I ran my usual errands.

Target.

Trader Joe's.

Quick lunch with Justin.

Sat for 15 minutes in traffic in the middle of the day on my way to get Vaughn from school.

(Stay with me, I'm getting to it.)

We made it back home and I put Vaughn down for a nap that she ended up not taking. While she was supposed to be napping I made at least 4 or 5 trips up and down the stairs doing one thing or another. On my 6th (or something like that) trip down the stairs I see this:


Just sitting there. Smack dab in the middle of one of the steps.

What is it? I couldn't tell until I got close. It looked like a little blob of dried mud.

Where did it come from? I'm sure I would have seen it on all my previous trips up and down the stairs.

We don't have a squirrel. And if we did I would demand that he wouldn't leave his nuts lying about the house.

Does this stuff happen at your house? Because it always happens around here.

.............

It's Wednesday, but feels like Tuesday because of Monday feeling like Sunday due to the holiday. I'm out of whack. Hopefully today I can get back on track. Have a good one.

Labor Day Weekend

Vaughn and her baby without a name wear matching jammies for the first time.

We rounded out the end of the Labor Day weekend at home, opting out of all pool related activities. It was a great weekend and as a result the kids were a bit of a mess.

The kids kept themselves busy playing, snacking, and coloring outside while Justin and I did some outside work. Sprinklers, pulling weeds, pulling dead plants out of planters, putting out the fall wreath...exciting stuff.

I finished a painting for Vaughn's room that I had been working on since the beginning of summer. It's a nice feeling to get that cleared off the dining room table.

Vance and I put our fall decorations out, which consists of 3 pumpkins and 3 owl figurines, so that took about 5 minutes.

We ended the day with a trip to the car wash, tacos for dinner, and early bedtimes for the tired kids. Hard to believe summer is over. Exciting to think about what all will happen before next summer hits.

Friday, September 03, 2010

The salon where I get my hair done is in close proximity to a Hooter's restaurant and an adult bookstore.

(I've been going there for almost a year and never really noticed it before. I laughed out loud to myself when I realized it the other night. This town, I tell you, is really a gem.)

I guess for some this may be totally convenient and awesome. For others it may be the exact opposite.

Guess it's all how you look at it.

It's beautiful out today. Cheers to jacket weather and a holiday weekend!


Thursday, September 02, 2010

My Free Shutterfly Book

On Tuesday night I stayed up until midnight making a silly Shutterfly book. I'm kinda okay with the taking of the pictures portion of the game, but then they just sit on my computer. (Yes, I back up to an external hard drive!) I remember ordering pictures of Vance in February of 2006....and that's the last time I've had any printed out. Let's not even talk about poor little Vaughn's shell of a baby book.


I'm always thinking about this and feel a little guilty, so I decided to hop on one of the many email offers that I get to make a free photo book.

My theme was Summer 2010. I've heard when you're behind in the photo game like I am, it's best to start with current stuff then start to work backwards. It took longer than I thought to do. I wanted to quit, but I didn't. I finished it, but definitely treated it like a free book that I was up waaay too late doing. (Guess I should admit that the offer expired that night, so I couldn't work on it the following day.) Meaning, it's not my best work.

I'm not going to start photo-booking everything, but at least it's a start!

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Happy Birthday Dad!

Last year Vance gave my dad the cold shoulder* on his birthday.


He's doing the same this year.


Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!

It's also my parents anniversary today. (Advice for bride-to-be's out there: Don't get married on your future husband's birthday. Doing so will result in the overshadowing of your anniversary every year.) 39 years for them today! I am lacking of pictures of my parents. Here's an old one, but one of my fave's.



Hope everyone enjoys their day!

*Cold shoulder is a silly game that they play.

 

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