Our Birch Corner Abode

Pictures from the Weekend

2009-10-06T10:09:00.007-04:00

The inside of the train
I didn't realize that my favorite actor is in this movie... Colin Firth (I just love his accent!)

Bryce exploring around Dickin's London

Bryce morphed into Scrooge

The train

The blowup theater (we got to see clips of the movie) with the B&O Railroad Museum next to it

Inside the museum on a train

Bryce's soccer game on Saturday morning

Hayride @ FreightFest at Six Flags America!

What a great weekend!

2009-10-05T10:03:00.002-04:00

We had a fantastic weekend. On Friday we went to the B&O Railroad museum to see the Disney Christmas Carol Train that has been touring around the USA. It was adorable. Thank goodness there was no wait and we cruised right through it. It was a little old for Bryce but I think he enjoyed looking at everything. I loved it - the pictures were fantastic and the decorations were amazing. The first train had a beautiful blue ceiling that looked like the sky and every car was decorated with gorgeous upholstered wallpaper. It was pretty interesting.

Then it was off to see a sneak peak of the movie. Bryce had absolutely no desire to see it so David watched him outside while I took a sleeping Cole in to the movie. I am glad Bryce didn't come with me... it was a little scary and VERY loud! The 3D was neat but I remembered why I am not really a 3D kinda person. My eyes have trouble focusing and it gives me a headache. I can't imagine watching 2 hours of a movie in 3D. 2D is just fine for me.

After the fun it was off to Ale Mary's in Fells Point. We'd never been there before but boy, was it yummy! I had the Thankful Turkey Sandwich... roast turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce with some mash on the side. MMMmmmm good.

Saturday we had Dave's parents, Aunt & Uncle and cousin over to meet Cole. I cooked Autumn Pork Roast with butternut potatoes. Dave's Aunt brought some potatoes au gratin over, spinich dip and an apple pie. I also made some caprese salad and a pumpkin cheesecake.

On Sunday we attended FrieghtFest at Six Flags America. We went with 2 other families and the boys had a blast! Cole got to ride the Merry Go Round and he seemed to enjoy it. He was tracking things with his eyes and didn't get upset at all. He also seemed to like the Halloween Stunt Show. His eyes followed the actors around on stage and he didn't even flinch at any of the loud sounds. Bryce of course loved all of the fighting in the show.

I'll have to share some photos tomorrow since I haven't downloaded them from the camera yet and the lil' one is starting to rouse.

A Bucket of "Cole"

2009-10-02T10:10:00.003-04:00

In the "new" house (we moved in 2.5 yrs ago already) we have shower doors on our bathtub. I haven't taken them off yet so it's too difficult to use the baby tub we have in it. So I've been using the tub on the floor of our master bath. I take the shower head and use it to fill the tub up. The water usually splashes up out of the tub onto the floor making it a bit slippery.

Well, about 2 weeks ago I filled the tub... without realizing how much had splashed out of the tub - went to get Cole, walked into the bathroom and slipped. Bam - fell right down onto my bum... HARD. Mind you I couldn't brace myself with my hands because well... I was carrying the baby! Thank goodness I didn't drop him... he was absolutely fine. But ouch, ouch... my bum hurt! So I figured this is the end of that and we're off to find a better tub!

I had seen this type of bucket style tub online and they were running about 60 bucks. I figured... gosh, I'll just get a bucket... that will be easier! Well, I then ran into the Prince Lionheart "Wash Pod" which was only $18 bucks. It had "legs" to stabilize it from tipping over, a cushy seat at the bottom for Cole to sit on and it was tall enough to support his head. I was sold.

He LOVES it! So do I... it's SO much easier now! It uses less water and I'm not constantly worrying that he's getting cold since more of the water covers his body now. He also gets to splash around in it at an earlier age. Yay!

The Newest Addition

2009-10-01T09:53:00.003-04:00

On July 23, 2009 Cole Joesph joined our family. He was 5 lbs 8 oz and 19 inches long and absolutely beautiful! He was about 3 weeks early because I began showing signs of pre-eclampsia again. We had an appointment with the high risk dr. the day after we got back from Florida and my blood pressure was elevated. Since there were no signs of protein in my urine (sorry if that's TMI but its the classic sign of pre-eclampsia) the dr. didn't admit me to the hospital. For the next week though I was in and out of the hospital and saw a different dr. every day (my regular OB wanted me in every other day and the high risk dr. saw me on the days I didn't go to my regular OB - it became exhausting!). My OB admitted me to the hospital for frequent non-stress tests and blood pressure monitoring.

On July 22 my OB said that they found significant amounts of protein in my sample and admitted me to the hospital. I figured that this was it, I was going to deliver today, so before going to the hospital I went home and picked up my bag. I called my family - and to my surprise found out that my brother in law had also been admitted to the hospital (unfortunately, the hospital in the town next to us). He had been stung by a bee and had a reaction to it. Work took him to the ER and they gave him Epinephrin... but the wrong dosage. The nurse gave him 10 X the normal amount which sent him in to shock. He was then admitted for testing to make sure they didn't damage his heart. Yeah, so it was a busy day! Oh yeah, did I also mention that everyone else was out of town on vacation? My in laws were in Dewey with Bryce and my parents were still in Florida. What a mess!

Anyhow- the hospital didn't find any traces of protein at all (tested it twice) and after 3 hours I was discharged. The next day I went to the high risk dr. and they again did find traces of protein. He then decided that due to the things he was seeing on the sonogram (they can actually see the beginning symptons pre-eclampsia on a sonogram before you start showing outward physical signs of it) and the fact that he was convinced that I was spilling small amounts of protein (no matter what the hospital thought) that today was the day to deliver. I, of course, asked him if I could wait till after the weekend when people would be coming home - and was told, nope. He thought that if we waited 3 days that I would then be sick and could need an emergency c-section. He told David that after 3 days my symptoms could possibly include seizures and that if I was his wife he'd have me deliver right now. Well, that sealed the deal and we were off to the hospital.

Of course, I try to fit everything in before I deliver... so on the way to our hospital we stopped by my brother in laws hospital to make sure he was ok and to visit with them. By about noon I was admitted to the hospital and taken to the prep room to get ready for my c-section.

But wait! Throughout this whole pregnancy we had been discussing having a VBAC so I was very confused! One of the reasons I was also delivering early was so that I was healthy enough to have a VBAC instead of a C. Thankfully I mentioned to the nurse my concerns and she called my regular OB and fought for my decision. My OB had thought it would be easier/safer to do a C but the nurse told her that it was my desire to try to be induced and they should do what the patient wanted. So at 1:15 I started pitocin. Since Bryce was born way early by C-section I had never experienced any type of labor so I was very eager to know what I missed (yes, I know... odd). I have to admit - the beginning stages were pretty darn easy. I had always wondered if contractions were worse than my IBS stomach aches - and really, they weren't.... in the beginning.

At 5:00 pm - my water broke naturally and that's when the fun started. WOW. Pitocin induced contractions after your water breaks are INTENSE! That's when I begged for the epidural! My inlaws arrived back from Dewey Beach with Bryce (we had called them in the morning) and the epidural was in place and working by about 5:30. After that - it was smooth sailing! I didn't feel a thing and I was progressing nicely. The OB told us that by midnight we should know if the induction would work or if we'd have to do a C.

Well - I then started dilating fast and to the dr's surprise I was fully dilated and ready to push by 9:30 pm. At 9:43 pm - Cole Joesph entered the world!

It was pretty amazing. I am soooo glad I decided to do a VBAC. If we had had another c-section I would have always wondered what labor was like. All the gals get together and talk about their birth stories and I never had any of the experiences the other ladies had. I always wondered what it would be like - and now I know. Plus, to tell you the truth... it was fun!

P.S. Thank goodness my brother in law ended up being ok and his heart wasn't damaged. He ended up spending almost a week in 2 different hospitals! It was a huge mess.

After the wedding...

2009-09-29T10:35:00.008-04:00

Mid June Bryce and I traveled down to Fort Myers, Florida with my parents and GG (my grandmother). They own a townhouse down there and Bryce & I stayed with them for 3 1/2 weeks. We had a great time - although I was very out of breath, tired & noticed that my blood pressure was starting to go up. It didn't concern me too much though because I was past 28 (when my pre-eclampsia symptoms started with Bryce) and I wasn't swollen at all.

Oh yeah, but I should mention - I did spend 2 days in the hospital mid June because of some complications. One night at around 1:15 am I started bleeding... a lot. I called my in laws to come over and watch Bryce, went downstairs to tell Dave we were going to the ER (yup, we're night owls) and left once the in laws arrived. By 1:45 am I was admitted to Labor & Delivery and already receiving an IV. They did a sonogram and said that everything looked ok. They discharged me directly to my high risk dr after 2 days and had another extensive sonogram their. He said all seemed to be ok and they couldn't figure out where the blood had come from - but according to them it did not come from the placenta or the baby. Whew. I was sent home to rest and after the weekend I was told I could return to "normal" life. After a few weeks of no complications they released me to take my vacation! Thank goodness - granted, if I wasn't able to go... I wouldn't have... but I would have been pretty darn bummed about missing the beach for the whole summer!

Ok - so back to Fort Myers. We had a great time. We went to the beach everyday and Bryce had SO much fun playing in the sand and the water. The beach their is just glorious! After 2 1/2 weeks Daddy flew down to meet us. Bryce was thrilled to have Dad in Florida.

We spent most of our days looking for "sea creatures". There were tons of sea slugs, shrimp, baby clams and baby snails to collect in our buckets. We even got to see some sting rays in the water! Thank goodness we didn't step on any! I was very careful to shuffle in the water... we only saw 2 in the 3 weeks we were there... but I wasn't taking any chances!

Bryce had a GREAT time at the community pool. He finally got the courage to put his head under the water and really enjoyed the new freedom that it gave him. He was able to get his head wet which meant he could also splash around because the water didn't bother him so much if it got in his eyes. He watched the other kids jump in the pool and eventually tried it out himself. He was so proud to show off his cannonballs to the other kids!

We returned home mid July and while we had a great time down there - I was happy to be back in my house! The beach can be exhausting! Although... I am looking forward to returning over Spring Break in April!

The beach at dusk - red sky at night... sailor's delight!

Hide and Seek at Times Square, Fort Myers Beach

Bryce was a huge help with getting to the beach!

Sea Slug

Shrimp!

Bryce wore his goggles a lot because he didn't like the salt water in his eyes

Hawaiian Sundae at Love Boat Homemade Ice Cream (YUMMY!)

Mommy & Bryce

Daddy and Bryce playing Frisbee

Cannonball!

Underwater at the Pool

What I've been up to...

2009-09-28T09:57:00.002-04:00

So after a long break I've decided to return to my blog. Now that Bryce is back in school and the new little one takes great naps in the morning... I have some time to type while I'm gulping down my morning cup o' joe.

So you ask - what have I been up to? Well... Bryce and I had a very interesting summer. After school ended in May we got ready for my sister in law's wedding. Bryce was the ring bearer and my hubby n I were both attendants. We had a blast and it was a gorgeous affair. The weather was spectacular and she ended up with some fantastic outdoor shots! Everything went smoothly (unlike my own wedding) and we all had a glorious day. My bridesmaid dress actually looked stunning - I was afraid of looking like a tent considering I was 7 months pregnant. I was very happy with the outcome of it.

My favorite part of the reception?... the yummy appetizers! I actually took a break from dinner to run back to the bridal suite to get me some more of the appetizers that were still set up! MMM mmm good!

Bryce was the most adorable ring bearer! He did a great job and was so proud!

Here are some pics of the wedding for now... the new little one is hungry right now so I've got to go feed him... I'll update some more tomorrow!

I've been away...

2009-03-10T01:35:00.003-04:00

Well, I am on week 19 of my pregnancy. This morning we found out we're having another boy! I'm just hoping that this boy is a little calmer than the first! I love Bryce to pieces but I'm not sure I could handle 2 of them!

Also - in other news (sad news) - we put Emmi down on Friday. Emmi was our rescue dog. She was the sweet cuddly one that everyone loved. Well, towards the end her legs were getting so disfigured and crippled from her arthritis that she became pretty cranky (reasonably so!). While it was incredibly hard to do - we thought it would be best for everyone involved (us and her) to let her go.

I miss her tons... although I miss the old Emmi. The last year or so has been very hard with her and I think we were all a bit miserable. I miss the sweet cuddly Emmi that we had before the arthritis took over.

Blah

2009-01-09T00:31:00.002-05:00

I feel like blah. This week started off so incredibly well. Monday I felt fantastic and Bryce and I had such a great day.... which was such a relief because 2009 started off pretty crappy with a sinus infection. Well, Tuesday rolled in along with rain for 2 days. Today I thought that since the sun was back that we'd actually get out of bed and do some things but I was wrong. I just wanted to sleep. Then I had lunch and spent the rest of the day wishing I could have my stomach pumped.

I guess I should explain a bit. On our way back from Florida I found out I was pregnant. Yes, literally on the way back... in the airport bathroom. I had my suspicions at the beginning of the week but I was not going to test because darn it... this was my vacation and I didn't want to hold anything back! 20 months of not being able to become pregnant after my miscarriage... 20 months of thinking maybe every month and gosh darnit... this was our vacation!!! I know that sounds selfish but this was truely our first family vacation by ourselves (well, without my parents or inlaws attending). Well, at the end of the week I just couldn't wonder anymore and the rest is history.

Yup, I'm pregnant. I was supposed to start the IUI process when we returned from our vacation but well.... don't need that! It's hard to believe... 20 months of not being able to become pregnant. I went through all of the infertility tests (and let me tell you... that HCG was not comfortable!) and well... I didn't need to do that.

I've had 2 sonograms now. The first one at 6 weeks at my dr's request because she saw something a little odd on her sonogram (just ended up being that her songram machine is old and blurry) and the 2nd one at my request because I had been cramping a little over Christmas. I was 8 weeks at that point and that is when the last pregnancy ended (although I was 10 weeks when I found out). At both the heartbeat was strong but I'm still not convinced. I go back to the dr. next Tuesday at 10 weeks and if I hear something then I'll feel a little more confident.

Anyhow - that brings me back to feeling blah. I'm SO tired. I can't wake up and when I am awake all I want to do is lay down. Yesterday I was cramping but I felt better when I relaxed so I stayed in bed all day with Bryce. Today I was just exhausted and after I ate lunch I just regretted it so I spent most of the day again in bed trying not to get sick. I've seen GI Joe enough times now to recite it in my sleep.

It really is depressing. I know that I'm depressed because I haven't left my room much this week, let alone my house! I need to get out! But I don't want to go out because I'm so tired and I'm afraid of feeling crappy while I'm out. It just circles around and around.

And poor Bryce.. I really did have so much planned for this week. Tuesday was Three Kings Day, Wednesday was Old Rock Day (but I forgot to dry the rock off so we couldn't paint it anyways) and today was English Toffee Day. I have all of the ingredients to make the toffee so I'm hoping we can do it on Sunday. Tomorrow is National Apricot Day and I'm hoping we can stamp with dried apricots and make apricot pancakes for dinner but I guess we'll have to see how I'm feeling. I didn't make dinner tonight because the thought of food just tossed my stomach so Bryce and Dave had McDonalds. Saturday is Milk Day and I'm hoping to make homemade milk paint to use.

Anyhows - I really should try and get to bed. Plus, I need to stop rambling. My dad says I ramble too much in my blog and I'm sure I do but I don't even stop to think about what I'm typing sometimes. I just type. If I could ever find my old diary I'm sure its the same way.

Well - goodnight for now and I'll blog ya later!

New Years Resolution

2009-01-06T11:54:00.006-05:00

So this year my resolution is to spend more time with Bryce on a daily basis doing planned activities. Sure, we go out and do a lot and we play and such but I want to focus on a theme for the day and do activities/crafts that relate to that theme.

Yesterday was "National Bird Day." So after preschool we made cardboard bird binoculars, fed the birds, made chocolate nests with marshmallow eggs and listened to bird calls on the computer. We had a lot of fun!

Unfortunately, I left my camera at a family friends house this weekend (at the annual Epiphany Party) so I have no pictures of what we made. But - I found some examples online to give you an idea of what we did.

Bird Watching Binoculars

(picture from http://www.thriftyfun.com)

Chocolate Bird Nests (chow mein noodles & chocolate... we used mini marshmallows instead of jelly beans for the eggs)

(picture from http://teachers.net)

Bird Call Websites we visited
http://davenation.com/birds/
http://www.learnbirdsongs.com/

Today is "Three Kings Day" or Epiphany and I have some activities planned out for that today. I will share tomorrow. Happy Tuesday!

Disney World Vacation Pictures

2009-01-05T17:09:00.004-05:00

So I've been away from blogger for a long time now. It's been pretty crazy here and I crashed big time after we returned from Disney. Then came the holidays and the whole family has been on again, off again sick since then. I'm hoping to return on a more normal basis from now on. Before I update everyone on what we've been doing I thought I'd share some pictures from Disney World!

Bryce with the red PowerRanger at Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios (Outside Star Tours Ride)

Magic Kingdom Main Street decorated for Christmas

The Castle at night - dripping with lights

Bryce and Peter Pan

M I C, K E Y, M O U S E... Micky Mouse!

Epcot at Night
Bryce's Favorite "Ride" - the Waste Management Booth at InnovationsBryce was in the "What's Your Problem" show in Epcot (sponsored by Velcro)... everything was supposed to be stacked on top of the blue cube with nothing touching the floor but he didn't quite get that.

Epcot

Bryce's Caricature done at Animal Kingdom

This was Bryce pretty much every night - he was exhausted after a full day!

Last day in Orlando! We went mini-golfing at Pirate's Cove and they gave the boys goodie bags with a bunch of stuff in it.

Well - now that I've shared our vacation I think I'm going to go downstairs and focus on getting dinner on the table! I'm starving! Be back soon!

Back from Disney!

2008-12-07T16:53:00.002-05:00

So we just got back last night from Disney and I just checked my blog. Apparently the post I had left before we went on vacation did not get posted. Oops. Yup, so we've been away!

I'm busy doing laundry, getting the dogs and kid re-situated and trying to decorate for Christmas. Plus, uploading pictures... so I'll post more tomorrow on the vacation!

I'll leave you with this....

Pictures from the One Curtained Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T10:03:00.006-05:00

This year has been dubbed the One Curtained Thanksgiving because we put off hanging our curtains till the night before Thanksgiving. Of course, one of the curtain rods was missing the hardware to hang it (all of the important stuff). Instead of taking down the other curtain I decided to keep it up so that I could show my mom the curtains (which are actually tablecloths cut down the center and hemmed).

This year we had 13 people for dinner. Last year we had 19 and had to use 2 tables. I was excited this year because I thought we could once again have everyone at 1 table but alas, my table only will only seat 12. We once again had to set up another table.

Here's the gorgeous turkey. We've been frying our turkey for at least 5 years now. I love it... especially since it frees up the entire oven for me to use on other things!

Getting the turkey off the stand is a 2 person job! Here's my hubby and my soon to be brother-in-law working on getting the turkey ready.

Here's me and my awful chin! The food was yummy!

Dessert is ready!

Here is my menu for Thanksgiving this year:

Appetizers
Smoked Cheddar Cheese and Apple Butter Fondue
Munster Cheese and crackers
Wrapped Cocktail Franks

Dinner
Turkey
Sweet Potato Casserole
Corn Pudding
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Cranberry Sauce with Golden Raisins and Apples
Pumpkin Muffins
Cranberry Bread (made by my dad)
Macaroni and Cheese (made by my sis in laws soon to be mom in law)
Potato Casserole (made by same as above)

Dessert
Upside Down Pecan Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie

It was great to have the whole family over! I love having the house filled with people. But now I better get to cleaning it up! I won't be posting for a week. We're using this week to spend as a family and going sightseeing. We're going to limit our computer usage while we spend time together. I'll post pictures when I get back onto the computer.

Thankful for my Family

2008-11-23T22:47:00.002-05:00

Things right now are going a little crazy. I have a ton of things coming up in the next week and on top of that I was sprung with something very interesting yesterday. Sort of a friend emergency. Because of everything going on and the support I will also be giving to my friend I'm not sure exactly how much I am going to be able to post this week. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to show you the pictures of where we ended up putting the door. We did put it up today but there was a slight problem with one of the hooks so it's going to have to be rehung tomorrow.

I do want remind myself and everyone else out there... do not take your family for granted. Stay connected together and be grateful for every moment you can all spend together. Right now I am just oh so thankful for my fantastic husband. He's such a great guy and he really supports me in the things I want to do. He's also very open minded and caring - I'll be able to share more about this in the coming months.

Tomorrow I'll be shopping for food for Thanksgiving. I just LOVE this time of year. I can't wait to cook! Wish me luck at the supermarket! I hope it's not too crowded...

Round and Round... and round and round and round and round....

2008-11-21T20:39:00.003-05:00

These pictures pretty much describe how I am feeling right now. I feel like I am going around and around doing things but nothing is getting done! Plus everything is just way out of focus! For example, the shutters and trim are now finished but I have yet to decide on a door color so my door is still 3 different colors. I just can't decide! Since they are replacing the surround of the door (rotted wood) in a few weeks I asked them if they could just paint it them to buy me some more time in choosing a color.

Also - I'm working on the church directory right now and I'm getting close to being done but tonight I just realized that my card reader wasn't reading all the pictures that were on the church's camera. No wonder I was confused to where certain pictures were! Well, if I had realized that a few weeks ago I might have actually be a lot closer to being finished that I am right now. I just feel as though this project is never going to end!

Also - I can't find our stud finder and it is driving me crazy!!! I need it to hang our curtain rods and if it's not found tomorrow I might just go out and buy a new one. These curtains have been a project now for weeks. I've been getting stuff done on them but there's always something that holds the project up for a few days.

Whew. I am just in way over my head right now. But - you know what... I totally lost it this afternoon. Straight out I thought they might have to send me to the loony bin. Thankfully it wasn't for long though. I just cried a bit and out of my mouth came a prayer for help. In just a few minutes I was feeling a lot better. I definitely still have a lot weighing on me but it just doesn't seem so depressing right now. I'm ok with going around and around with things out of focus as long as I keep a smile on my face. I just want to stay happy during this time. With a little perseverance and prayer I'm hoping I can keep that up.

Until next time...

Thanksgiving Gravy

2008-11-19T21:42:00.005-05:00

My favorite gravy... I make this every year! We fry our turkey so we never have drippings left over from roasting so I make the gravy about a week to 2 weeks ahead of time. I made the gravy today (although I usually try to make it a lot earlier!) and it is now sitting in the fridge overnight waiting for the fat to rise so that I can scrape it off tomorrow. Then it will go in the freezer until Tuesday. I'll then transfer to the fridge to thaw and warm up on Thanksgiving! I try to do most of the "work" ahead of time although I usually end up running around crazy on Thanksgiving!

I LOVE Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday and I always host it at my house. Even though it usually is a huge task and sometimes a hassle, I am so content while cooking for Thanksgiving. No matter what goes wrong - I just love putting this big meal together. Of course, I usually crash the day after (hence why I have NEVER gone shopping on Black Friday). This year we well have 13 people (last year was 20 but my cousin is heading up to NY this year for the holiday). It's a full day of eating. We start off by having a family breakfast of Overnight Blueberry French Toast... then it's appetizers mid afternoon followed by a huge feast and then dessert. Yum!!

Without further ado, the recipe I use for Gravy:

MAKE AHEAD TURKEY GRAVY

Ingredients:

4 turkey wings (about 3 to 4 lb)
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
8 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup chopped carrots
1/2 tsp dried thyme
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp stick butter
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

PREPARATION

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Have ready a large roasting pan, 5- to 6-qt pot and 3-qt saucepan.

2. Put wings in a single layer in roasting pan; scatter onions on top. Roast 11/4 hours or until wings are browned.

3. Put wings and onions in pot. Add 1 cup water to roasting pan and stir to scrape up any brown bits on bottom. Add to pot. Add 6 cups broth (refrigerate remaining 2 cups), the carrots and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 11/2 hours.

4. Remove wings. When cool, pull off skin and meat. Discard skin; save meat for another use.

5. Strain broth into saucepan, pressing vegetables to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard vegetables; skim fat off broth. (If time permits, refrigerate over-night so fat that rises to the top solidifies and can be easily removed.)

6. Whisk flour into the remaining 2 cups broth until thoroughly blended and smooth.

7. Bring broth in the saucepan to a gentle boil. Whisk in flour mixture and boil 4 to 5 minutes to thicken gravy and remove floury taste. Stir in butter and pepper.

Planning Tip: Freeze in an airtight container up to 1 month. Refrigerate 2 days to thaw. Reheat in saucepan, whisking often (see Note).

(Recipe and Photo taken from womensday.com)

P.S. Many of you left comments on my facebook profile instead of on here (although there were a lot of people that looked at the blog and just didn't comment! That's ok though - it's nice to know there are people out there in Blog world that are nice enough just to see what I needed help with!!). I started what I am going to do with the door today and hopefully it will be secured tomorrow. As soon as it is I will post photos! Thanks for all of your help!

Desperate for some Decorating Help!

2008-11-18T15:21:00.006-05:00

Ok, so we have a new couch - it's what I've been waiting on to finish the living room (well, I need new chairs too but I can hang stuff w/o the chairs). I bought an old door to go over the couch but low and behold the greens clashed so that won't work. Then I thought I'd hang the door in my kitchen to discourage dirty handprints on the wall that leads into the dining room. Well, I looked at the back of the door today and it's white - so I put it above the couch. Yeah... it looks good. Just when I got used to the thought that it would be in the kitchen!! So... I need help!!! Here are the pics...

Door or....

(close up of the fabric... I wanted a burgandy couch but they don't make it in this fabric and I have spend 1.5 years now looking for a couch that I liked... this matched the carpet ok and the fabric is pet & kid proof so green it was...)

... or picture (it's a painting done by my great great Uncle... I think, well, its someone in the family!))
Door in the kitchen... or over couch?
instead of the door in the kitchen I could get one of these shutters...
Shutters are now green instead of reddish brown. I am going for "english cottage" look... yes, I know... I own a colonial. Anyhow... the bushes will flower orange red in the summer and I want reds, blues, yellows and purples in the garden beds next year. I can't pick out a door color though! I want it to be lighter than the shutters so that a wreath will stand out. We are replacing the surround around the door and the pediment on top of the door because of rot. The top thing will be a simple triangle instead of the acorn thing that is there now.

too yellow of a green on the door?a view of the door from the inside. Actually the original color goes better in the house because I've got some red accents but the color was so blah on the outside of the house. It was the same color as the roof and so much brown made the house disappear and also look way too traditional for me. I really hate having a brown roof!
Comments... Ideas... Suggestions... PLEASE!

Being with hubby...

2008-11-14T00:14:00.001-05:00

I love my hubby! He's an awesome guy - I'll have to tell you about him sometime soon! But for this weekend we are going to spend some good quality time together so I am going to forgo the computer this weekend. Ack! We're going to be content together :-).

Blog you Monday!

Our Foster Dogs

2008-11-10T23:44:00.013-05:00

Along the years we have had a few fosters that did not stay with us. The dog in the front is Troy. He was our 2nd foster (after Emmi). The dog behind Troy is Marty and my neighbor adopted her through Ratbone Rescues as well.

>Then came Oreo. She's the pup standing on the chair. She was a fantastic dog with TONS of energy. She was adopted out to a woman in Baltimore that eventually moved to North Carolina. Oreo left us right before Bryce was born and she spent most of my bedrest on the bed with me. She was a cuddler.

Last but not least came Sharky. When we had Bryce we decided that it was too much for us to foster dogs but when they asked me to foster Sharky I couldn't resist and David let me get him. He was an American Hairless Terrier and I WANT one! I know I'll never have one because David doesn't really like them so I wanted to foster one so that I could experience one! He was really cool. He got along with Bryce just fine and after a few months he joined a family in Jacksonville, Fl. I had to put him on a place and that was one of the hardest things I had to do because not only did he have to wait a few hours in the crate at the airport he was also going to have a layover and I felt so bad for him! But he made it down there just fine and I heard he was doing just fine with his brother dog down there. Here's a pic that his new family down in Florida sent me. He's here with his brother. I can hardly tell the difference between the 2! Sharky is the one sitting. Well, those are all of the dogs Dave and I have had in the past 8 years. Right now we're just fine with the 2 - I wish I could foster again but it's just so much work and with the amount of kids that go through the house I just can't chance getting a dog that might have a problem with them. I definitely have to say that I am totally content with my dogs - through thick and thin - they bring great satisfaction to my life. I've always been a dog person (since really young) and I think I will always be a dog person. They just love you unconditionally and that's so amazing!

Emmi

2008-11-10T23:33:00.018-05:00

Next came Emmi. We brought Emmi to our home as a foster dog through Ratbone Rescues. I was expecting a larger dog than Zena because she looked huge in the pictures. I was shocked when we picked her up in Virginia - she was 8 lbs! I instantly fell in love. She was so funny looking. Her back legs are longer than her front legs (I call her my little dragster), her ears are huge for her head, her tail has a kink in it and she sounds like she's talking when she growls. It turns out that she had grade 3/4 patellas in her back legs and she would need surgery on them. They wanted me to send her to the midwest because the surgeries were cheaper out there but I just couldn't let go. I was convinced that no one else would love her like I did. She had so many behavioral problems I really thought she'd be returned and how could I just let her go like that? So hubby and I discussed it and she became a member of the family.

We got her the patella surgery that we thought would fix a lot of behavioral issues - and it didn't. She still has a tendancy to go in the house (hence when we moved we got hardwoods because she will only go on carpet) and as she's gotten older she's gotten crankier. She is now 6 and has arthritis in all 4 legs. Her back hock joint is curved from arthritis so it almost sits on the floor and her front left joint is very swollen. She's on pain meds and prozac for anxiety. She's good with kids when she's awake - she LOVES people - excpet if you bother her while she's sleeping she turns into Cujo. She's really bad if she's sleeping and so I usually lock her in her crate if other kids are coming over. The vet says that while she is in pain, it can be managed with the meds and she's got YEARS left on her. Sigh. While I love this dog so much - she can be difficult. She now has to be carried up and down stairs and she has to be carried off the porch to go potty. Oh yeah, and I'm also convinced that she's not totally all there (brainwise I mean). Last week she barked to get off the bed so I put her on the floor. She followed me into the den and barked at me so I got up and followed her. She went back to the bed and barked to get back up. She found a new spot, laid down and was totally happy. Here's our little wacky Emmi (she's about 10 lbs now):

This is a picture of her shortly after we got her about 6 years ago (it'll be 6 years in December!). She has always sat like this and still does. She sits on the side of her bum, never on it like Zena does!

This is her after her surgery. She had double patella surgery. She was such a trooper! She walked around on her casts just fine (vet said that was ok after a few days) and this is how she sat while they were on.

Partners in crime. Bryce used to love to unroll the toilet paper and Emmi is obsessed with shredding any kind of paper. I caught the 2 of them doing this and made them pose for it as a reminder - you can see how happy Emmi is to do a sit stay!

And this is where the naughty kids go....

Just kidding! Bryce used to love going into the dog's crates when he was younger. He thought it was so much fun! Now he enjoys just taking them apart! We only crate Emmi now because of her issues. Zena has the run of the house now that we're not in a townhouse. I was afraid she would bark constantly in the townhouse because of all of the noise and I didn't want to disturb the neighbors. Now they can't hear her if she does (well, I hope not!) because we're in a detached house.

Zena

2008-11-10T22:30:00.005-05:00

Well, it's about time that I tell you what makes me extremely content with my life... besides my hubby and son! My doggies! I can't remember if I'd written about them before but I love them both so much they deserve another blog entry if I have! We have 2 rat terriers, Zena and Emmi.

Zena is a purebred rattie. I was bad with her... she is a puppy store dog. I know, I know.... bad... but I was young and she was so cute. I did do some research on the breed before I went back to get her and I did look around a bit to see if there were breeders in the area but I couldn't find any at the time and she was just so darn cute! We have been lucky with her so far though - no big health problems and she's pretty well socialized for a pet store pup. She's not extremely keen about kids but she will tolerate them to a point. She does not like to be poked at or have her ears pulled and she will warn you if you do so. She's pretty good at just warning and not snapping at the kids. I see it as the "mommy" dog disciplining her pups. She was our first "kid" and it's pretty obvious. The poor gal has this look she gives me when Bryce is acting up.... "when is he going back mom???". She's now a tad bit overweight (she probably needs to lose about 4 lbs) but I'm finding it very hard to find the time to get out there and walk her. Here's a picture of our darling Miss Piggy:

This is taken when she was about 1 and before Bryce.

I can't find any recent pictures of her - she tries to stay clear of Bryce and most of my pics are of him now! Here she is at a playdate from this spring eyeing the popsicles. She's not a huge fan of kids but if they've got food, she wants to be near them!

Next came Emmi.... and I think I'll keep you in suspense about her... till tomorrow!

Family and Old Pictures

2008-11-09T20:47:00.004-05:00

It has been an interesting weekend. I started writing a post on Friday but couldn't finish it because my jaw was acting up and my headache was making me extremely nauseous that I coudln't sit in front of the computer. I clench and grind my teeth pretty bad in my sleep. I've had TMJ for awhile now but a few years ago someone hit from from behind in the car. The accident caused my cartilage to slip out of place on my right jaw joint. I had very limited movement in my jaw and had to have surgery to put the cartilage back into place. Of course, insurance wouldn't pay for my surgery because they stated that we hadn't tried other options yet - although all of the other options involved taking anti-inflamatories and I am allergic to them. After a year of going back and forth with the insurance I had my surgery and I was finally able to eat like a normal person again! Anyhow - I will still have issues with it for the rest of my life and I see my oral surgeon on a normal basis (every 3 months) to get my night brace adjusted. Fun, eh?

Well, normally what happens is that if I get too stressed out my jaw joint gets swollen and hurts which causes really bad headaches and neck aches. I've learned to just live through it but Friday I just had to go to bed. So no blogging for me on Friday.

Yesterday I went to a Meet the Baby shower for the whole day. It was lots of fun - we had a traditional baby shower (except for the baby had already been born!) that started at 3 and then at 8 we drove back to my friends house and had the "after shower." 9 months of not being able to drink made my friend a little nuts so she wanted to have her friends over for some wine, beer and food! I didn't end up coming home until 2:30am! It was lots of fun but I was feeling it a bit today and basically have done nothing all day!

I did, however, get a chance to scan my mother's childhood pictures in. I'm hoping to be able to frame some old family pictures and put them up on a central wall in the house. My grandfather was in a lot of the pictures - I never met him. He died when my mom was 15 from stomach cancer. I really enjoy looking at her old pictures because I can imagine what he was like. Personally I don't think I look anything like him but my brother on the other hand bares a resemblance to him. Here are some of the pictures:

My grandmother, grandfather and mother

My grandmother and mother

My grandfather and mother

My grandfather My grandmother eventually remarried but he died 3 years ago. She lives very close to my mom though (and has for about 15 years). A few years after my parents moved from NY to MD my grandparents moved into the house that backs up to my parents house. It was pretty cool growing up to have my grandparents so incredibly close! Bryce and I go up once a week to spend the day with my grandmother (we live an hour away from them now) and then we all have dinner with my parents at night. It's really great to be so close with my family. They are so great and I am so blessed to have them!

Well, I was going to post a picture of my mom, grandmother and myself at my wedding but I can't find it! Item #2 that I can't find - my proofs from my wedding. My goodness - where are things going??! Oh well - I'll have to look for that tomorrow. It's getting late and I need to get things together so that I can get to sleep. Until then - thank goodness for family! Be content in the fact that we have family - people to stick by us no matter what.

I've lost my head...

2008-11-06T22:29:00.003-05:00

So all day I was thinking about the topic I was going to write about today and I had wanted to include some pictures to make it more interesting but well... I haven't been able to find them. I even cleared off the scanner to scan them in! Bummer - what I was looking for seems to be lost. So.... I'm going to put that post off until I can find what I want to find.

That brings me to the fact that I am totally scatterbrained tonight. Right now I am in charge of organizing the layout for our church pictorial directory. Not the actual photos of people... the collages and such that go at the front of the directory. I have always just assumed that the church sent in these pictures and the company organized it for the church. Noooo... I assumed wrong. It's a lot of work! Right now I have a bazillion pictures... ok, it's not that many... but a lot!... on my hard drive of the computer and others that need to be scanned in and then apparently others that are waiting for pickup at the church. Plus, I have organize the layout of the staff... type out everything that needs to be labeled and add cutsey pictures to make it look pretty.

To give you an idea of what I'm doing. Our last pictorial directory in 2005 had 45 collage pages preceeding the actual pictorial directory. I have 2 people that I can call to help me but it's just crazy. I also have the directions and random papers all over the den floor so that I can start laying out the "layout". It's a wreck.

So on top of that I realized I coudln't find what I wanted to find for my blog post tonight. So then I started running all over the place looking for that. No where to be found. While I was doing that my husband came home and went in to read a book to my son who, yes... was still awake in his bed (I put him to bed at 8:30, Dave came home at 9:30 and it's now 10:40 and I can still hear him awake in his bed... argh). I was then informed that Bryce's imaginary friends dog pee'd in his bed again (the dog pee'd in his bed 2 nights ago too). On top of that I had forgotten to put the waterproof mattress pad back on today after it had completely dried from being washed yesterday! Goodness.

This post has gotten away from me. Haha - just like everything else tonight! So it's been a hectic night. I went over to Mary's blog to read her Day 6 posting and ended up also re-reading her Day 5 post. There's where it hit me, she writes:

"I am also content that God is in Control!!!"

I need to remember that and be thrilled that it is all for a reason! God is in control! Goodness... just thinking that has slowed down my heartbeat and calmed me down. God is in control and it will all work out alright. This is just one crazy night that I can handle. Because God is not going to throw more at me than I can handle - I have to trust that he is right. And as I say that over and over in my head I hear my wonderful little 4 year old boy running to the potty and pee'ing! It's music to my ears! Because I only have 2 pairs of sheets for him and 1 are in the wash right now! HA - if he had gone in his bed well... I would have handled it. But thank you God for reminding him to use the POTTY!

So thank you Mary. Thank you for reminding me that God is in control. It's not me - it's him and he's not going to throw more at me than I can handle. I CAN do this all. I WILL get it done and goodness gracious... I will find that item I'm looking for!

Lastly.... I need advice from you moms out there with tons of wisdom. My son now has many, many imaginary friends and like I said, they apparently have pets. I am totally find with the friends and pets... no problem. I find his imagination amazing and love that about him! BUT... he's now blaming things on them and I don't know how to handle it. I don't want to squash his imagination but really... we all know it was him that pee'd in his bed and him that threw all of his books around the room. The pee in the bed thing... he was totally awake and I think he did it to spite me. I wouldn't come in and read him another book and the next thing I know... he peed his bed (but not his PJ's! so he must have pulled them down to do it!). Again tonight - our agreement was he could watch the end of his movie but no books (since it was getting late). He asked over and over from his room for me to read him a book and I said no... next thing you know... Daddy's finding pee in the bed and PJ's are dry! Any advice on how to handle it???

Being Content

2008-11-05T19:42:00.005-05:00

There's such a thing as too much happiness and sadness. What I'm after is contentment.

~Ray Charles

This quote is exactly what I am chasing after. My life tends to be a lot of ups and downs. I definitely would not say that it's that extreme for me to be diagnosed as bi-polar by any means but I do think that I tend to be riding a roller coaster a little more than most. Of those who know me personally... you know that I love to sleep. I have the hardest time waking up in the morning. I tend to stay up way too late at night because I know that I won't wake up in the morning and I have things that I want to do. The amount of sleep I get does not seem to make getting up in the morning any easier or harder... I can easily sleep 10 hours at night and still not want to wake up in the morning. I am just NOT a morning person!

But... if I have something exciting to look forward to sometimes it helps me to get a jumpstart in the morning. It does take a lot of excitement to get that going though. What I'd like overall though is to have such a contentment in my life that I enjoy waking up and getting on with my life every morning.

Now, don't get me wrong... I love being at home with my son and I do love my life. But daily life becomes so ordinary sometimes that it's just hard to get up and get moving. Seriously, the idea of doing laundry and vacuuming all day just doesn't do it for me. The idea of serving breakfast, then snack, then lunch, then another snack and then starting dinner... can get rather boring. Especially when I have absolutely awesome dreams. In my dreams I catch up with long lost friends and have a blast. In my dreams I don't have to worry how partying is going to affect me the next day or my liver in the long term. I can smoke easily in my dreams and it doesn't even affect my lungs! (I used to in real life but not anymore because of all of the health issues and such) Goodness, in my dreams I can smoke and not stink afterward!! My dreams are so incredibly real and vivid.

What I am hoping for through this "therapy" is to get a contentment out of life on an everyday basis that I am just plain content with everyday. I want life to be pleasurable... including making lunches everyday. I want to look forward to making honey sandwiches!

I have a feeling its going to take me longer than 30 days to get this way. I need to retrain my way of thinking a lot. I want my thinking to be positive most of the time and to keep complaints out of my head.

I want to in the end... want to wake up every morning. I don't want to wake up because I'm thrilled to do something special that day... nor do I not want to wake up because I'm too sad to go on with my day. I want to be content with what I have and to be satisfied with waking up and serving my family everyday.

What I think of now when I think of being content:
(this is the my favorite view from the beach while we stayed in St. Lucia... I used to just stare at it while we laid in the sun)

What I want my view of content to look like:

Election Day

2008-11-04T23:51:00.004-05:00

Today I am SO proud to be an American. Not only was Obama elected to be the 44th President of the United States of America but I exercised my right to vote. I am so happy to live in a country that we can actually choose who leads us. What a fantastic process we have. Granted, the process has flaws and does need a lot of help... but we do have a voice.

Thank you out there to everyone that went out and voted. Now - we've got an interesting 4 years ahead of us.

In closing... even if your candidate didn't win... be content in the fact that you had a voice in this election. Be happy that we live in a country that allows a public vote. Be happy and content that you have a choice.

Now I'm off to watch the news!

Being Happy about an awful photo....

2008-11-03T21:43:00.002-05:00

I hate having my picture taken. I have a total aversion to seeing my double chin! Most of you that know me already know this about me.... the ones that don't... yeah, I want chin-o-suction! I feel as though from the neck up I look so much heavier than I actually am! Granted - I can still lose a lot of weight and I desperately need to tone up but since I have been in high school I've always felt as though I have a double chin! The only time I didn't mind having my photos taken was around my wedding and at that point I was pretty darn underweight. I am 5'10'' and for my wedding, I weighed about 128 lbs. Once I hit a "normal healthy" weight though - my chin comes back. Anyhow... that's not what this post is about but as I searched for pictures of Kelly and I ... this is the only one I could find. Not only do we both look pretty harsh in this picture... it is a goodness awful picture of me! But we had been driving for about 8 or so hours with 2 toddlers in the backseat. Actually - this might have even been day 2 of our drive. We drove from MD to Wisconsin last summer with the 2 kids to drop her car off at her mom's house before she moved to Okinawa with her husband. Anyhow - I decided to share this picture because this is one of the last times I spent with Kelly and we had such a great time! So I need to become comfortable with showing pictures and actually being in them. Otherwise... I won't have any to look at in the future!

Last night was a little rough for me. It was the season finale of Army Wives. It's a show that Kelly introduced to me last year. It used to be one of her favorite shows. I started watching it last year with her and we watched the season finale together. This year, it was just me. I miss my best friend. She's actually more than that... she's kind of like the sister that I've never had. We're so much alike but really different at the same time. Her husband and my husband are the polar opposites (hers is pretty anal about things and mine is extremely laid back!). But she's the first real friend that I've never had a catty feeling about. Most of you know what that's like - gals can get a little funny when you get a group of them together!

Her and I have never been competitive about things and I've supported her decisions on doing certain things that I knew would be best for her... even though I wasn't happy about them! When she decided to go back to work full time it was terrible! She was my neighbor and our sons played together on a regular basis. She was like a built in playdate! It was great! So when she talked to me about going back full time - I supported her because I could tell that's what she wanted to do. She was having problems staying at home and keeping the house totally spotless (which is how her husband expected it to be when he came home!). It was too much pressure on her and the daycare situation she would use was spectacular! It was right at the workplace so she could drop in whenever she wanted. It was a great deal for her - sucked for me though! I missed my lunches with her! But she called me almost every day on the way home from work - really, now that I look back I think she called me more from work than my hubby did! Then again though, she talked back and hubby is not a big talker!

So Kelly has now been in Okinawa for a little over a year and she is actually in California right now on vacation with her husband (who is in a conference). I can't believe that I'm not flying out there!! Flights have dropped in price big time - a few weeks ago I checked it out and for me to fly out there it would have been about $700. The other day I checked and it's now about $269. Unfortunately, I don't have anywhere for Bryce to go and it's just not a reasonable time for me to travel. There's a lot I have to do here. But - she's in the states!!! It's not fair! Needless to say I am devastated.

On the flip side of this. How incredibly blessed am I that I have a friendship this great that I feel devastated that I can't hang out with her. She's thinking of coming back to the states next summer and staying around longer so Bryce and I would actually be able to hang out for awhile - so I just need the patience to wait that long! I am so incredibly lucky to have a friend like this. Heck, a few weeks ago I had such an awful stomach virus and at 10:30 pm I called her (11:30 am their time) just to complain about how awful I felt and to see if she had any advice (her hubby's a doctor). She was so sweet and while she didn't have any advice on what I was asking .... it was great to talk to her.

It's definitely a shame that I can't make it out to California right now but this contentment therapy has really helped me think of the flip side of situations. I feel so blessed by God right now that he has granted me to be in such a great friendship with her. And so I am going to proudly post one of the last pictures Kelly and I took together (actually I think I only found 2 of them and the other one I posted awhile ago!). Double chin and all..... :-)

The Washing Machine

2008-11-02T19:12:00.002-05:00

Have you ever had a stinky washing machine? A few years ago in our townhouse we bought a new Kenmore washer and dryer - I loved having new appliances! When we moved I figured that I would just have to deal with older appliances in the new house until we could afford to get new ones. So imagine my happy surprise when the house we bought had the exact same washer and dryer that we had in our townhouse! I was thrilled!

But that happiness soon went away. The washer and dryer we have now don't ever really make the clothes smell good. Actually, every once in awhile they come out smelling a little moldy I think. I thought maybe I was leaving them in the washer to long so I bought a timer so that I remembered to take them out right away. When the wash goes in the timer gets set at 34 minutes and when it beeps I transfer the wash to the dryer. Well, it really hasn't helped that much. I just think our washer and dryer are a little stinky. Now, don't get me wrong... it's not awful... it's just not totally fresh smelling. So I figured it was about time to look into how to clean the inside of the washer to see if that would help. Here is what I ended up doing:

Step 1 - With your machine empty, run it full of hot water to the largest load setting. When the tub is full and begins to agitate, add 3 to 4 cups of distilled white vinegar to the water. Then add ½ cup of baking soda. Allow the machine to agitate for a few moments, then turn off the machine. Let the water sit for thirty minutes to one hour.

Step 2 - After allowing the vinegar/baking soda mixture to penetrate the grime in the washing machine tub, restart the machine, allowing it to complete the wash cycle. At the end of the wash cycle, as the tub begins to drain, advance the washing machine to the spin cycle. On many washing machines, this will cause the washing machine to spin as it drains, which can help to further loosen any residue. If yours doesn't do this, simply allow it to drain. Turn off the machine.

Step 3 - Wipe the inside of the washing machine tub with a wet cloth. If desired, use a cloth soaked in a solution of half hot water and half white vinegar. Be sure to wipe all inside surfaces, including the bottom and blades of the agitator and the top of the tub just under the lid. (It is sometimes helpful to use a wire toilet brush around the top rim and in hard-to-reach places.) If the washing machine has a fabric softener and/or a bleach dispenser, remove these and clean thoroughly before replacing.

(taken from How to Clean Your Top-Loading Washing Machine)

I wouldn't say the inside of the cleaner smells any better (or worse really) and I haven't really thought the laundry has smelled bad recently (really, the mildewy smell was hit or miss and not terrible - my hubby didn't smell it as much as I did) but it was probably time for the washer to be washed anyhow! I think I'm going to add this cleaning to my list of things to do - I'll probably do this process every other month or so. A little vinegar and baking soda isn't going to hurt anything! Although I still would really like to have a new front loading washer and dryer. But - for now, I need to be happy with what I have!

Thankfully, I have a functioning washer and dryer in my house and while I complain about them more than I should and grumble that they are in the basement and have to climb 2 staircases to get the clothes to their closets.... I should be extremely grateful that I don't have to put it all in the car and traipse off to the laundromat! When I was little I spent the summers at our summer shack with my parents and grandparents in Long Island. We had no washer and dryer there and every week off the laundromat we went. It was such a pain! So really, I have to stop complaining about my washer and dryer and feel blessed that I have one convenient in my home and that I have the opportunity to give them a cleaning.

So - if you've got a washer and dryer in your home - think about treating them to a "spa day" and wash them out and wipe them down. Then thank your lucky stars that they are conveniently located in your home! Heck, we're lucky we're not still carrying our clothes down the the local river with a washboard!

Closets... ugh

2008-11-01T07:00:00.005-04:00

I love closets. I love that you can stuff things in them and close the doors. Then - the room actually does look tidied up!

What I hate about them though is that eventually they do have to be straightened up and cleaned out. Especially with a little one that is growing quite quickly. I've learned that I hate that he's growing up. For all of the obvious reasons and also - I don't know what to do with all of his clothes that he's grown out of! Plus, I have a habit of yard saleing and picking up clothes at cheapo prices that I know will fit him later. For example... my son has the tiny tiniest waist! He needs those pants with the adjustable waists. So if I find them at a yard sale... I buy them! Right now I've got a few pair in every size up to 6. He's currently growing out of 3T. I mean, you can't go wrong with those adjustable waists - especially if they're jeans! You can wear jeans all year long! So at some point he's gonna fit them! It's just finding a place for them until then.

So - this weekend I decided to clear out all of Bryce's summer stuff, move in the fall/winter stuff and re-organize his closet. So all the while... I tried to keep the "contentment therapy" challenge in mind and thought... "we're so blessed to have all of these clothes!" instead of my usual grouchy thoughts.

We really are blessed. I mean, there's tons and tons of people out there that just don't have enough clothes. It's starting to get chilly around here and there are lots of people around that don't have the option to change out summer clothes for fall/winter clothes.

Anyhow... here are some pics of what I did. I forgot to take some before pictures so they're all after pics:
Now, the closet is still not totally finished. I have to figure out his clothes - I'm not sure if a lot of the older ones still fit and I have to see if some of the newer ones have to be tailored (some of them do not have the adjustable waist!)

For the clothes that he has grown out of... well, that's another story. I would donate them but I'm not sure yet if we are going to have another. Some of you know that we've had some fertility issues and we will be starting some therapies in December so there is a possibility of having another. Therefore, I'm not quite ready to part with it yet! Those clothes are now all over the nursery (well, what was the nursery until my miscarriage). That organization is for another day though! But for now... instead of looking at organizing closets and switching out clothes as a meandering chore... thing of it as a blessing! You are blessed because you have the clothes to do so!

Contentment Therapy

2008-10-25T14:28:00.002-04:00

I found this blog via another blog I read written by Tootsie (the link to her blog is on the right hand column). This blogger writes about "Contentment Therapy." She's trying to get other people to join her on her journey to contentment and I decided I am going to give it a go.

She wants us to blog on it daily and I am definitely going to try and do this. I've been wanting to blog on a more regular basis anyhow and this might just be the way to help me do it. Also - I had also planned on straightening up my house and I want to use this challenge to help me do so. Clutter and chaos in my house just causes me to stress. I've never really been that great at putting things away or doing things on a routine and I want to get better at it. I can't stand having things all over the place! Although really, I am the one to blame for most of that! I want to be able to do my laundry on a daily basis so it doesn't turn into a huge task. Right now I have piles upon piles in my room and I am dreading doing it!

So for November I am going to share my journey on getting my house put together with you! I'm going to try and get the many, many projects that I've wanted done ... done and also work on others around the house (and being frugal while doing so!).

We're supposed to start on November 1st but I'm going to try and start today. It should be interesting. Wish me luck!

So please go vist.... "THE 30DAY CONTENTMENT THERAPY SESSION "

Upside-Down Apple Pecan Pie

2008-10-22T10:14:00.005-04:00

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com about 2 years ago. It has quickly become my most favorite apple pie! I love it because I am a HUGE nut fan and I love that the top of this pie is FULL of carmely nuts!

Bryce and I went apple picking a few weeks ago and came home to make our apple pie. I used Golden Delicious apples and 2 other kinds of apples. I can't remember the names of those 2 other types of apples for the life of me right now! Anyhow - here is how our pie turned out:

and here is the link to this FANTASTIC recipe! Upside-Down Apple Pecan Pie

I need to update!

2008-10-20T09:47:00.003-04:00

Wow - I haven't blogged in awhile. Sorry to my readers out there - if there are any at all! It gets quite busy here with an active 4 year old and 2 VERY needy dogs! Although really, I should be blogging more because when I'm on the computer Zena (our 1st dog) doesn't bother me. It's when we're downstairs that she's constantly asking for something. She's my little piggy. She wants food all the time (not that I give it to her all the time but she's ALWAYS asking for it!) and if it's not food - she wants a rawhide. She asks by scratching the floor, cabinets or appliances. Oh yeah, btw... remember, I have hardwood floors. So when she scratches the floor I pretty much go nuts! It drives me crazy!! Although, she's my first "baby" and I love having her around to keep me company.

Well, it just got busy again... the painter guy just called and he's in the neighborhood. We need to get quotes on getting our house trim repainted and some it needs to be replaced (so not a fun thing to spend money on!). He needs me to walk the house with him SO since I haven't posted any pictures recently I will leave you with some pictures from Bryce's first day of preschool this year.

Here he is trying to be a bug (waffles over the eyes make a very good fly costume!). He insisted on me taking this picture!
And here is the little cutie pie before we headed off for school. He is doing much better this year and I think actually even enjoying it!Well, the doorbell has rung.... blog you later!

Moms Night Out! and Potty Present!

2008-09-20T18:44:00.003-04:00

So I'm feeling better. Still a bit sore but better than yesterday! Of course now - I think I'm getting a cold. Fun, eh? I'm really hoping it's just allergies though! All 3 of us have stuffy heads, runny noses and sneezing.

Today we spent the day toy shopping. We left at about 2 and got home at 6:30. Today was the day to get the potty present!! I created a chart for Bryce a few weeks ago and every day he stayed dry he got a sticker and every time he went #2 he got a sticker. Each thing had 14 places to put a sticker. So after 28 stickers I told him he could get whatever toy he wanted! Today was toy store day! First we went to Target but he said he didn't see anything he liked. So then we went to Toys R Us. He ended up getting the True Heroes Military Island Playset. It's got a bunch of plastic "army guys", tanks, airplanes and barricades. He LOVES those little army guys. He takes them with him everywhere and loves to line them up everywhere. He's probably got a good 100+ of them. He's SOOOO happy right now.

Tonight I have another Moms Night Out at my girlfriend Tracy's house. Last night was Bunco - tonight MNO. It's a rough life but someone's got to live it! ;-) It actually just so happens that my 2 MNO's this month land on the same weekend so Dave is watching Bryce both nights. Although because I feel a little crappy I don't know how late I'm going to stay out. I have a feeling I won't be going wild and crazy tonight!

Well, Bryce is calling for me to help him carry all of his army guys upstairs so he can line them up in his room on his furniture. I better get down there and help him!

HSG

2008-09-19T09:49:00.004-04:00

Wow... a lot has gone on since my last posting. It's been a whirlwind of fertility! No... I'm not pregnant... but I have started seeing a specialist. I don't mind people knowing because I can use all of the support I can get! I was the same with my last pregnancy... I told a lot of people early because I figured if I did miscarry I would be telling them anyway... I needed the support and that's exactly what happened. It's been about 18 months since my miscarriage and no luck so I figured I'd go and see if anything was wrong.

My first appointment with the Dr. was last Wednesday and apparently all the testing they do starts on Day 1... and lucky me.... Day 1 was appointment day! So needless to say, in the last week I've had plenty of tests done. Yesterday was my HSG or hysterosalpingogram. During this test they shoot some dye into you and then do a series of x-rays to see if any tubes are blocked. I read up on the procedure the night before and the nurse informed me all about it. I knew there would be some pain but I read that it wasn't that bad. A few months ago I had cryosurgery and everyone seemed to advise that that procedure was much worse. HA.

I hurt. I don't know if it's because I was expecting pain with my cryosurgery and therefore it just didn't seem bad. With this one I wasn't expecting much at all so maybe it's worse because it does hurt! It's not intolerable. Although I would say it's a tiny bit worse than monthly cramping. It's just extremely uncomfortable and my whole body is very achy. Sigh.

Onto some good news - Bryce is totally potty trained. He goes by himself now and I dont' have to remind him. It's AWESOME!

Well, I have to go get ready now for another Dr. appointment (fun!) but I'll update again soon.

Dry and CLEAN!

2008-08-27T11:11:00.003-04:00

For the past week I have been working on potty training Bryce. It has been one of the hardest things I have ever done!! I thought getting him to stay in his big bed boy was hard but I only had trouble with that once a day. With potty training - it's been multiple times a day!!

Bryce thinks going potty is boring and he doesn't have the time for it. He has told me "It's not fun!" and "I'm too busy to go potty!". Well last Monday he put himself in big boy underwear... coincidentally it's also the day I ran out of diapers in the house! Well, for the past week he has been peeing and pooping in his pants and he could care less if he sits in it! Plus, whenever I tried to get him to go it was a HUGE fight! He argued that he didn't have to go and then would proceed to go in his pants.

Enter the trusty kitchen timer. For some reason he will listen to the timer! I set it for 40 minutes and when it beeped he would go directly into the potty and relieve himself. It was like one of Pavlov's experiments! So for 2 days I relied solely on the timer and chocolate. I told him that he could get a mini snickers or twix whenever the timer went off, he was still dry and he pee'd in the potty.

Well, that did the trick! He remained dry for those 40 minutes and he got his chocolate. He now gets a sticker on the potty chart for every day he's dry and one for every time he poop's in the potty. After 28 stickers he can get an "expensive" and "big" toy! He's getting very excited.

Yesterday he went potty all by himself... without the timer! He just had to go! Yay! He also did that all this morning. Plus... he poop'd in the potty yesterday!!! Finally!!! I'm so excited.

Yes, I understand there will probably be more accidents. That's fine.... it's only been 3 days dry and clean BUT.... HE'S GETTING IT! I am SO happy!!! There is a light at the end of the tunnel! No more temper tantrums for 45 minutes to try and get him to _try_ and go (at least I hope!).

YAY! :-)

Okinawa, Japan

2008-08-16T12:35:00.006-04:00

So - if you scroll down my page you have probably noticed that I have the time in Okinawa, Japan on the right hand side of my page. You might be wondering why in the world I need to know the time in Japan... well, both Bryce's and my best friends live over there. Kelly and Tristan have now been in Japan for almost a year (it will be a year in about 2 weeks). Kelly's husband is a pathologist in the military and so they were stationed there for 2 years. 1 year down... 1 to go.

Kelly lived 2 houses down from us when we lived in our townhouse. She and I had our sons 3 weeks apart and they instantly became best friends. She stayed at home for a year before she went back to work part time and during that time we practically lived together during the day! It was SO nice to have someone to share that new mom thing with. Even when she went back to work full time we still stayed super close. She would call me every day on her way home from work to talk and occasionally even called on her lunch hour!

Before she left for Japan she came to live with us for about 2 weeks because their house had sold and Arash (her husband) had already left to set things up in Japan before she got there. We then drove together in her car to Wisconsin so that she could leave her minivan at her mother's house. I stayed and visited with them in Wisconsin for 2 weeks. It was awesome! I loved Wisconsin and they have amazing cheese!

So basically, I use the time on my blog so that I can call her at a decent time. Lately though no time is good. She's been working more lately so not available during the day (my night) and I am so not a morning person so I haven't really been able to call her in the morning. She's called a few times recently but I've missed every call. I miss her desperately!

I can't believe they've been gone for a year. Bryce still talks about Tristan A LOT and is constantly wanting to send him stuff. He's also always talking about what he is going to tell Tristan on the phone but Tristan doesn't really like talking on the phone yet.

Anyhow - here are pictures of the 2 boys (best of friends):

Here is a picture of all the 4 of us right before Bryce and I left Wisconsin:
Kelly was also the one that I told everything. The night I had my D&C from my miscarriage she came over with desserts and wine - she was always over with wine whenever I had a problem. I really miss having her nearby!... but I am so glad that her and I became such close friends. Next September she returns to the states and I'm so hoping that it's somewhere close! But at least wherever they move to will be a much shorter flight to get to!

Fashion Trends - Fall 2008

2008-08-15T21:50:00.007-04:00

Ok, so Jessica over at JessicaKnows.com is having a contest for a flip camera and since my video camera KEEPS breaking I thought I might as well enter so that one of these days I might actually be able to get some good video of Bryce.

Basically, I have to pick my favorite fashion trend for fall 2008. After A LOT of researching I think I have found my favorite outfit. It's very mom appropriate and extremely practical but hey, as a stay at home mom my outfits have to fit the schedule of a busy 4 year old! Here is what I have picked out (it is designed by Michael Kors btw):

This outfit fits a lot of the trend for Fall 2008 yet is still totally practical and wearable! I would totally wear this to go shopping or to back to school night at preschool! The aviator sunglasses have been a hit for awhile now and don't look as though they are going anywhere soon. I don't have a pair of them yet but I'm thinking I need to keep up with the times! (I'm still sporting some catwear!) Although the skinny jeans are coming back the wide leg jeans are still in thank goodness. After you've had a kid.... skinny jeans just make your stomach look bigger and your ankes smaller (can we say upside down pear??!). I love the little jacket and it's got that man inspired tuxedo style that is in fashion for this fall. The buttons on both sides of the cardigon totally give the impression of a double brested jacket - plus the jacket hides my love handles but still allows me to wear a tight shirt underneath which makes almost anyone look as though they have a smaller waist. Plus - black and blue - totally in this season! Granted... she's got black patent leather flip flops on instead of flat heeled riding books but from what I've read - patent leather anything is going to be big this fall and you the fall September weather in Maryand still allows you to show off your awesome pedicures! Lastly, texturized shopper bags are huge this fall - and especially in black patent leather!!

I LOVE this outfit. It is SO Fall 2008 but still can be worn to chase down your young kids. Totally practical and fashionable for stay at home mom or something the working mom can wear on the weekends!

Anyhow - Jessica is going to post the fashions on her webpage at http://www.jessicaknows.com and will be asking for people to start voting next week. Check her out and vote for my Fall 2008 trend pick!

I'm Back!

2008-08-15T21:41:00.002-04:00

Ok, so I'm finally back and I think I'm ready to return to blogging. Goodness... it's been a long, fun, sporadic month! Bryce and I have been to the beaches in Long Island, Fort Myers FL and Dewey Delaware.... and after about 2 weeks I think I am still going through beach withdrawal! I am loosing my tan!

I'd post pictures and show everyone our amazing vacation but well, I left my camera at my grandmother's house in Baltimore and even though we've been up there to visit since then I keep forgetting to bring it home.

I did not plan on being away this summer. I figured my parents would sell the house in Long Island, close on the house in Florida and we would have a summer off of traveling. Well, at the last minute I couldn't stand it anymore. We traveled up to Long Island at the beginning of the month to attend my cousin's college graduation party (both cousins in the same family graduated in the same year... different ages though). While we were up there we hit the beach of course.

Well, we returned from NY and I felt the beach calling my name so 3 days after we got home from NY we flew down to FL last minute to join my parents in Fort Myers and visit their new home. They bought a vacation townhouse down there and it coudln't be any better! I LOVE it! The beach in Fort Myers is INCREDIBLE and the house is so nice (air conditioning!!!!).

2 days after we got home from FL we traveled to Dewey for 2 weeks with my inlaws. It's our annual vacation. Dave loves it there because of the waves (well, when there's a storm) but it's not as nice for Bryce. While he LOVES to play in the sand there and ride the rides in Rehoboth... he can't just wade in the water there like in Fort Myers or Rocky Point Long Island (when the water in LI is tolerable... it's been really cold lately). We had a GREAT time in Dewey though... as always.

Next year Bryce and I are going to stay in Fort Myers for about a month I think though and then travel to Dewey. I'm counting the days to return to the beach....

Pictures to come when I actually get my camera one of these days.

On Vacation

2008-07-21T09:28:00.002-04:00

BTW - just to let you know... I've been away since July 2nd. I'll be returning home on Aug. 2. Have a great summer!

Racecar Races Part 2

2008-06-26T21:21:00.003-04:00

Here are the pictures from the playdate yesterday. Here the boys are painting their racecars. Notice how my vinyl tablecloth matches the shelf in the background. All of my furniture and accessories are blue, purple or green.Bryce doesn't really like to color or paint. I don't know why. He'd rather run around and play. So here he is with his "finished" unfinished racecar. He insisted on wearing his racecar outfit from Halloween the WHOLE day... even though it was near 90.
Then we had lunch. I used cookie cutters to cut out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into racecars. I don't think any of the boys really even noticed but I had fun with it. :-)
Here the boys are racing their cars down the raceway. When I was getting the lumber in Home Depot a guy stopped me and asked what I was making. I told him about the race track and the beanbag game. He said.. wow, you're really that good? I replied... um, yeah! Although I don't really think my racetrack qualifies as "good". I need to get 2x4's and nail them to the sides of the track and then construct a pedastal. Then I'll be "that good". lol
Here's one of Bryce's friends racing his car down!
I think the boys had a lot of fun. I love having themed playdates at the house. I buy a bunch from Oriental Trading and then schedule them about every other week. I usually have about 12 kids attend (and their moms come to hang out too!). My moms group is pretty active and we have about 200 moms in the group so it's pretty easy to get people to come out although there are a lot of regulars in my area that come out all the time. I've become really good friends with a lot of the active gals in the group and we have so much fun! Speaking of playgroups - we have another one tomorrow at Bryce's friends house so I better get some chores done around the house since we'll be out for most of the day!

Racecar Beanbag Game

2008-06-25T16:41:00.004-04:00

So today we hosted a racecar playdate at our house. It was so much fun! The boys painted unfinished racecars this morning and then while we waited for them to dry we played a beanbag game that I made. After the game and some play we ate sandwiches in the shape of racecars and then after lunch we raced the cars down a racetrack! I'll post some pictures tomorrow but first I wanted to show you what I've been working on for the past 2 days...

Here it is cut out of the plywood:
Primed:

and painted!

The 68 is so that I don't forget when I made it. 6 for June and 8 for 2008. The boys didn't play with it too much but I'm sure I'll be able to pull it out a few times and get some playtime out of it!

So - when does it get easier??!

2008-06-16T14:46:00.002-04:00

These few weeks have been pretty trying. Goodness - I'm such a pessimistic sometimes. I feel like once I get through this - I can recharge for the next roller coaster ride but really - I should just look at this as the excitement of life! So here's what has been going on...

After the whole Croup incident - Bryce is doing great now, thanks! - I got 2 speeding tickets from the new speed camera in town. Granted - I was going over the speed limit by 12 miles but they allow 11 miles over. So basically - I was 1 over the "allowed". Both times! Pretty aggravating. Most of my friends have gotten a ticket also so I just think it's pretty obvious the speed posted is just too low! :-) Granted, it's before going into a school zone and it's posted at 30 mph BUT it's a major road. Plus, it's a 4 lane road and the camera is on the opposite side of the school - so basically the child would have to run through 2 lanes of traffic to get to the other side and most likely would not make it. Therefore... what's the point??! Shouldn't the camera be on the other side?? But its not. My opinion - 40 mph would be just fine. The county didn't call me about it though so oh well. Really - they just want money and wow, are they getting it. I HATE that camera. You'd think we'd all get used to where it is but it's right after a turn and a light so most moms are thinking about something else. Guys - they can think about it easily and then go back to their thoughts but women - the stream of consciousness just gets in the way.

Not only did I get the tickets but the then over the weekend I got in a car accident. Seriously, I feel like the worst driver in the world! I haven't had a ticket in YEARS and I've never ever caused an accident. Well, in about a week in a half I've done both. It's enough to make you never want to drive again! There was no avoiding the accident though - looking back.. there's nothing I could have done any different. Well - except keep 3 car lengths distance between me and the car ahead of me but on Georgia Rd you can't do that - they weave like crazy! The guy ahead of me was stopping at a light so I started to stop - then he decided to switch lanes so I eased up a bit on my brake. He ended up not switching lanes (don't know why) and slammed on his brakes. I slammed on mine but the car just didn't stop in time. If he had been 6 inches further up we would have been fine but well - he wasn't and boom. Unfortunately, the guy had no idea what to do in a car accident except request an ambulance. Granted - I hope he wasn't hurt... but it just was a little fishy. He was walking around before the police showed up. Needless to say, I had to sit and watch them take him out of the car on a stretcher and it was a little too much for my nerves. In the end - I ended up getting yet ANOTHER ticket for failure to control speed and causing a collision. Can you believe it??! 3 tickets?! Seriously - driving - not so fun anymore. Plus - with me, the guilt just eats at me. Really though, in the grand scheme of things... it was a really, really small accident. It just upsets me to spend money on something so stupid though.

What next - well, Tuesday Bryce had to go to the Dr. again because I found a tick on him about 40 minutes before my Dr. appt. for cryosurgery. I tried to pull it out but it came out in pieces so he had to go to the dr. to make sure the head was out. I then went to the dr. for my oh so fun procedure which didn't go too bad - it just wasn't pleasant.

And well today... we have no water. There was a main water break last night and we haven't had water since about 10 pm. Which isn't awful... I can definitely deal and we do have some drinking water but the whole toilet thing is a little annoying. I don't have enough water to flush with and the 3 grocery stores in town are all out. Hopefully water will be restored soon but seriously.... when will this bad streak stop??

Ok - I'm going to think positive now. It might actually rain today! Yay! Maybe I'll catch enough rain in my buckets to be able to flush! I don't think I've been this happy about possible rain in the summer for a long time! :-)

Teacher Gifts

2008-06-03T21:07:00.002-04:00

Here are the teacher gifts we made for Teacher Appreciation Week and for End of School. I thought I'd share them. I got the ideas for them from other blogs. They turned out really cute!

Here are the water bottles we gave for Teacher Appreciation Week. I made one each for Bryce's teachers, music teacher, chapel leader and the 2 director's of the preschool.
Here is what Bryce gave to his teachers as an End of School Year gifts. The 2 pink buckets went to his classroom teachers, Ms. Sally and Ms. Debbie. In them we put a shower gel, pedicure set, pumice rock and a gift certificate for a pedicure at a local salon. There's nothing like getting your feet pampered and ready for sandal weather! To the Director and Asst. Director we painted the flower pots and planted them with pink impatiens that we have been growing.
The teachers seemed to really love the gifts. I love giving homemade things things that are practical and pretty.

So Bryce is now out of school (boy am I going to miss those 6 hours of me time!) and what did we do for the first week of school? Go to the hospital! Bryce woke up last night at about 11:30 coughing and gasping for air. I went into his room and my goodness, the poor kid looked so scared! I thought he was having an asthma attack (as far as I knew he didn't have asthma) and I was really scared. I called the on call pediatrician nurse and Dave got him on his side which calmed his breathing a little. He was fine yesterday during the day (had a slight cough but to me it just sounded like allergies). After he calmed down the nurse listened to him on the phone and she thought it was probably croup. I didn't even think about it because he had it when he was a baby and I didn't realize they can still get it at 4ish. We got him in the bathroom with the shower running for the steam and he went into another croup attack. This time his lips lost some color so the nurse had me call 911. Well, 2 ambulances got here with 3 fire emts and 2 medics. My bathroom wasn't big enough for all of those people! By the time everyone got there he was breathing better - they listened to him and suggested we go to the emergency room because his chest didn't sound that great. At the hospital they officially diagnosed him with Croup and gave him some steroids to open his chest up a bit. We got home and to sleep at around 2ish. The poor kid was exhausted! Although he woke up today full of energy and acting just fine. He wanted to know who's house we could go to today (can you believe him?!). He again has a very slight cough today and it sounds totally different than last night's cough. If you saw him today you would never believe we had an ambulance at our house last night! Needless to say I felt a little dumb - but the dr. reassured me that what we did was the right thing. One never knows exactly how swollen the larynx could be during croup and it could actually swell shut. So how he acted before we brought him in and what we did was the right thing.

Right now he is resting and watching TV. I'm afraid to put him to bed too early because it could act up again tonight. Although I guess I should start putting him to bed now. It's already 9:30. Later!

Any Suggestions?

2008-05-27T20:08:00.002-04:00

Ok - so now that all of my shrubs are out I need to figure out what to replace them with. I didn't realize it was going to be so hard! I didn't want the traditional look - although I made the mistake of buying 2 sky pencils to put on either side of the front door. Seriously - you can't get much more traditional that 2 big shrubs flanking the door. Although I did pick out the sky pencil which isn't very common around here. Here is a link to an example (half way down the page next to reliable plants):

http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/design/articles/plants-with-personality.aspx

So now I'm trying to figure out what else I should put in. Any suggestions? I need evergreens that don't get higher than 3-4 ft. I had been thinking of Pieris japonica Compactas, Wiegla Minuets or Sweet Spire. Then in front of them I wanted to do a perennial garden. On the side corner of the house I was thinking of either doing a perennial garden like this or planting an Sweet Olive Tree with some perennials below it. I can't decide!

Oh and hubby just got the mail and I got a ticket. Fun. Gotta love those speed cameras that are right on the main road. It's so hard to go less than 40 on the main road through town. I'm sure the county is racking in the dough with this speed camera.

Well - it's hot as heck up here on the 2nd floor of our house (it was in the mid 80's today!). Oh no - and Bryce just woke up... gotta run!

Where I've been....

2008-05-26T21:24:00.002-04:00

So - I've been gone for awhile but it's because I've been very busy! A few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to totally re-do the landscaping in the front of the house. Well, since I am a stay at home mom our budget didn't really allow for someone to come and do it. One day I decided that I would surprise Dave and start taking out the bushes myself. This is what it looked like before (about 1 1/2 year ago when we bought the house - we had the large holly tree removed professionally last summer so I didn't do that!):
15 bushes later this is what the house looked like:
and here are all 15 bushes :
I pulled out 15 of them and Dave pulled out the 2 big ones that flanked the entrance way. He used the truck to do those because the roots were really in there. I was pretty darn proud of myself for taking them out by my lonesome! It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Heck, maybe I should start up a business - but I will only remove shrubs less than 3 ft in cool weather. Plus, you can't transplant them anywhere. The only way I can get them out is totally cut them down. I tried transplanting an azalea and I couldn't get any leverage to get under it when it still had all of its branches.

Today I started my edging of the mulch beds by hand. I wanted a nice professional look to them and I figured the only way to get that was to do it by hand. I'm about halfway through the front yard now.

Here is what else I was up to:I bought a bunch of seedlings from Ebay and they shipped them to me from North Dakota. Once they got to me I had to plant all of them into larger pots. I couldn't put them in the ground yet because it wasn't quite warm enough and I didn't have the mulch beds ready yet (they're still not ready!). I planted about 130 seedlings. Most of them took but they're still quite small. This picture is from a few weeks ago but they're still not that much larger. I thought I'd save money by doing it this way although I don't think I'll have real plants going until August now! Hopefully they'll take off now that that the weather has stabilized.

I also built a plant holder out of an old chair I found in the dumpster last year. It was missing the seat so I cut out some plywood to make a seat and then cut a whole in the middle. The back of the chair broke during the huge monsoons we had here so I cut it out, filled it with wood filler and hung a succulent from the back. It turned out pretty cute. Not bad for the 3 bucks of plywood it cost to do it.
Well... that's what I've been doing the past month. If I wasn't working outside, I was trying to clean up inside. While I worked outside the inside got neglected - so once it started raining i had a huge mess to clean up inside. Now that it's nice outside again the inside is once again becoming a mess. I just can't keep a healthy balance!

I will try and update more often now that I've got my picture uploaded and I'm starting to balance things a bit more. It's hard with little ones! Until later....

Spring Cleaning

2008-04-11T18:37:00.003-04:00

Spring is here!The past 2 days have been absolutely gorgeous. It was 80 degrees here today! A perfect time to start cleaning up the deck and getting ready for summer. I have to admit - really, the deck is my most favorite "room" of the house. I know I said the kitchen, but that's probably because the deck is only "open" for a few months of the year. The kitchen - well, is open all year. Last year we painted everything and it took a long time. This year was much easier. Basically, I just put a quick coat of paint on top of all of the furniture to clean it up.

My big project for this year is getting the bench and table I brought home from the family's summer house in Long Island. I recovered them from the old decrepit shed that none of us had ventured out to for _years_. Last year we cleaned it out and I brought home a lot of great goodies. I have a bench that my great grandfather built and a table that was built by - I don't know, someone in the family I'm sure. These are the 2 pieces that I did not do anything with last summer. They just sat out there all of August through the winter. Unfortunately, the bench rotted a little bit but thankfully it wasn't too bad and I think I got it under control using wood hardener from minwax. That stuff is great! It will help restore anything! Here are the pictures from the painting yesterday:I stained the top of the bench and painted the bottom. Now I just have to poly the top. The table - I just painted the bottom. I still have to fix the top up a bit and then figure out what I am going to do with it. I found some more rotted wood on it today so I put some hardener on it and have to fill the spot with wood filler.

Well - dinner just arrived. It's Taco Bell Friday! We have Taco Bell every single Friday. I love it! I've been having it every Friday since I was in elementary school (give or take a few fridays!). I always joke that I feel as though they should hire me to advertise for them! Till later...

Ricotta Gnocchi

2008-04-10T23:26:00.004-04:00

I decided to try something new for dinner the other day. I came across a recipe for Ricotta Gnocchi a few months ago on allrecipes.com and it looked pretty interesting so I put it in my recipe box. Well, on Tuesday I decided to give it a go. It took longer than I thought it would but wow... it was SO good! I rolled out the Gnocchi myself...
and cut into pieces.
Here are the Gnocchi waiting for the water to boil on the stove.
This was the end result - yummy! I added 1/4 cup of sugar to the sauce to sweeten it a bit but I'm not sure if it really needed it. I also added zucchini and roasted red peppers because I love veggies in sauce! The red peppers really added some sweetness as well.Bryce also wanted me to take a picture of his meal so here is what he had to eat:
He doesn't like sauce so he had some plain Gnocchi, some watermelon cut using cookie cutters and some red grapes.

Color!

2008-04-07T20:59:00.026-04:00

We moved to our new house about a year ago. I haven't been that great with decorating it just yet. I used to be a lot more colorful.... let me introduce you to our old townhouse...

This was the above my cabinets in the kitchen.

These are the french doors that went to the backyard from the other side of the kitchen. Below them is a closeup of the leaves around the door. We had 2 accent walls of the yellow in the kitchen with the rest of it being white. The curtains were curtains that I threw up there after we sold the house. I took my curtains and replaced them with the curtains from the house we bought :-).

This pictures is from Thanksgiving 2002 - it shows the other side of the kitchen. We have Thanksgiving at our house every year. It's my _favorite_ holiday! I LOVE cooking for it. We started out with about 13 people and now we have about 20.

Here is the inside of the door of the first floor powder room. I painted the door and the back wall of the bathroom was upholstered with fabric by my husband. It took a long time - but hey, no kids!

The next picture is the wall coming out of the powder room going towards the kitchen. We had stuff hanging there but I took these pictures all right before we closed on the house because I realized I didn't have any good pictures of what I had done.

This was Bryce's room - he had a racecar theme hence the racing stripe

This was the den. I painted the squares on the walls while I was on bedrest with Bryce. I started showing signs of preeclampsia at about 30 weeks and so they put me on light bedrest. I could sit up at times and I go downstairs for meals. So I just sat in my chair and sponged the squares on and wheeled myself around the room. That probably isn't what they meant by bedrest but after 2 weeks I was going crazy! I went from working 70 hour weeks to working 0!

Here our basement...

...and this is of us with Bryce when he was a baby in our living room. We had 1 wall with purple accent stripes and the rest were plain purple.

And lastly, here is our dining room. We never did get around to painting the dining room. I had always wanted to put up chair railing and paint below the railing because the dining room walls ran into other walls - but a good fix would have been chair railing in this situation. I loved the color of our foyer - it was a green. I had bought a green and it ended up being too green - I wanted it more sagey. So I mixed it with some cream from the den and made that color up. I have the color formula for it because when I worked at Home Depot (I was an HR Manager there) I went to the paint dept. and had them match it. That way you can get the formula if you ever want it mixed again.

Well - that pretty much completes the tour of my old townhouse. Our bedroom was continuously changing back then. I basically had a different quilt for every 6 months. The walls were white - I stenciled blue wording as a simple border (only above windows and doors) and I never had problems finding cheap quilts that had blue in them! That way I could change it out every few months and have a new look. After Bryce arrived though I got a little tired of doing that. It got to be too much so we bought what we have now - I only have pictures of it from the internet though... here is what we have:
Well - I'm off to watch Medium! Have a great night and hopefully I'll get those pictures from the weekend up tomorrow!

Busy, Busy!

2008-04-06T23:30:00.002-04:00

It's been a busy couple of days! I haven't really done anything much - our 3 year old has just been BUSY! My hubby gave me the weekend "off" (he watched Bryce most of the weekend) and I still feel like I didn't do anything and that I was still busy! Although - I guess I was - I slept in, I watched a movie, I went shopping at Home Depot, I did some planting...

I didn't get in any blogging nor did I take any pictures. I think it's because my off days were pretty well... dull. Which was nice! Tomorrow it's back to busy Bryce although we will be heading up to my grandmother's for the day and my parents for dinner. Then it's back home to celebrate my hubby's birthday! He has to teach class till 7:30 so we won't see him until after that.

I'm really, really hoping that the weather in the morning is nice though because I would love to get Bryce outside to the park for an "early" morning play date - 10:00 is early for us!

Speaking of kids - I don't know how some of you all out there do it! Granted, I understand that as the kids get older it's easier to get stuff done and to keep nice things out in the house right now. All of my decorating is aimed around being child safe. Plus, we host a lot of play dates at my house so I try to keep it safe not only for my 3 year old but smaller kids as well. Yet, I am having the hardest time decorating the house and keeping it all in order! I also can't seem to decide on anything anymore! Before we had Bryce (in the townhouse) everything had color. I think it's because I realized that if I got tired of it I could change it pretty easily. Not so easy with little ones! So in the new house, everything is neutral so that I can add color in. But like I said in my earlier post - not so fun! It's bland. I need to get out and get some curtains or fabric to spice the rooms up but I just don't have the time! There is NO way my 3 year old is going to wait around for me to find fabric at G-Street fabrics! Ha. It's also too hard to buy fabric online w/o seeing the actual color. Plus, when Dave gets home the last thing I want to do is fight traffic to get down to "town" to go to the stores. I'm tired after a day of Bryce! It's very hard.

So for all of you mommies out there that decorate _and_ have kids - wow, I'm truly impressed. Ok, I better get to sleep or else Bryce will have to get his own breakfast in the morning! I'll try and write more tomorrow about our week and the teeny tiny projects I got done over the weekend.

My New Copper Colander

2008-03-31T21:08:00.006-04:00

Here is my new find that I added to my house last week. It is an old copper colander. I found it at this out of the way consignment store that I just randomly stopped at while driving up to Westminster. I never go antiquing with Bryce - and for some reason I decided to stop at this place and take Bryce in. Yeah... I know, crazy... but he was really good (well, for him) and didn't totally ruin the store. I think it helped that the store owner had a cage with a parrot in it. He found the parrot and was enamored with it. My son is not much of a shopper. He is very much like his father when it comes to this "sport" :-). I on the other hand LOVE antiquing and finding good deals. I have no idea if this was a good deal or not but I loved the patina of it. I liked how the copper is wearing off in some spots. Of course, this could be tarnish, but I like the look of it! I put this in my dining room underneath my Ernest D. Roth etching - the distant artist relative (I think he was my grandmother's cousin?).

Wow!

2008-03-30T17:54:00.004-04:00

So I am really new to this whole blogging thing and am learning a lot - well, apparently people give out awards and I received my first one ever today! I got a "You Make My Day Award" from Rue over at Rue's Peanut Butter and Jelly Life.
I just happened to fall upon her blog one day and it seemed interesting. She blogs at least once a day and I love reading about what she has been doing. Her style seems pretty similar to mine and I think that's why I've been enjoying her blog so much. Plus... she lives in Ohio, my most favorite state. Well - I also like Nevada but I could never see myself actually living there - but I have lived in Ohio and I loved it. I always say that if it was closer to the ocean I'd move there in a heartbeat.

So apparently the rule is that I have to now hand out 10 of these awards. I'm definitely going to have to think about this one. I haven't gotten to active in the "blogging" world... I'm still a bit of a lurker. I'll think about it and post them at a later time.

Thank you Rue!

My Favorite Place

2008-03-28T19:46:00.005-04:00

My favorite place in the whole house is my kitchen. I love it. I think it's because I spend most of my day here. It's also the easiest place in the house to keep clean and straightened up because everything that lives in here has a home - well, most of the time. Our last house had lots of colors everywhere on the walls. Every room was different. Our kitchen was a yellow from Laura Ashley (Cowslip 3 I think). Well, with the new house (we moved here in January) I decided to go more neutral so that I could bring in all sorts of color with accessories and I thought I would handpaint things on the walls. Well - the handpainting hasn't worked out and I don't see it happening in the near future having a 3 yr old around - and well, after looking at everyone else's houses I'm kind of missing the color. Unfortunately though... most of our walls run into each other so if I paint the kitchen 1 color, the dining room has to be that too because they share a wall. The foyer wall goes up the stairs so the upstairs hallway has to be the same as the foyer.

Anyhow - I'm off topic. I'm just noticing though that my house doesn't photograph very well because there is no color! It's missing the cuteness of color! It is nice not to have to match things though and if in a few years I get tired of an accessory I can switch it out and not worry about what color the new one is. I always used to think that other people's neutral homes looked so much cleaner for some reason. I think it's the simplicity of the wall color. I don't know if it's really me though. But right now I'm liking it in person (just not in photographs!). So here is where I spend at least half of my day...
Actually - you know what it is? I think I need some curtains on my sliding glass doors and a new light fixture in the kitchen. The florescent light just isn't doing it. Although that will have to happen later. We've painted the walls and replaced all of the floors on the main floor - I think that's another reason the kitchen is my favorite place - I love my 5 inch planks! I'm thinking I'd like to either paint the cabinets either this summer or next too. I like the cranberry color of the hutch so either that color or maybe a shade of dark blue.

I also love the kitchen because I get to look outside while I wash the dishes. We have a gorgeous birch tree in the backyard and a wonderful dogwood right outside the window. We have bird feeders on the dogwood so you can see the finches all summer long. The trees are bare right now so it's not a spectacular view but you can get the idea...I hope you were able to enjoy your favorite place in your house today. Ta ta for now!...

Oh... and btw... I had a much, much better day today! :-)

Bad Day

2008-03-27T16:09:00.003-04:00

So I haven't posted since Monday - I have been having a few difficult days this week with today being one of the worst but I'll be back! Ever have one of those weeks? Well - I'm in the middle of one. Things just seem a little out of control right now and that really, really irks me. Yesterday Bryce and I had some friends over and the house is an absolute pigsty - which really is pretty typical of 6 3 yr olds. I'm not upset over it - really, I love being able to have the kids over and let them have fun (I think they all had a blast) it's just that now my house is also out of control as well - so not only are some things in my life a little hectic but my house is hectic too which has caused a little disturbance in my life. If everything was fine and dandy and the house was a mess - I'd be having no problem! I just can't really handle it all at once... make sense? Ok, so now I've really rambled on and on. I'll be back posting more interesting things again soon. I want to do the challenge of my favorite place in the house - but well, right now it's a bit messy and well, none of the house is my favorite now! Be back soon!

White House Easter Roll

2008-03-24T21:59:00.010-04:00

Ok, so I'm not sure what was more fun - the egg roll itself or standing in line overnight waiting for the tickets to the egg roll. Today's event definitely was an experience but I think I did have just as much fun (if not more) hanging out with my gal friends talking and joking around all night long! To begin the day off - we took the metro down to the event.
Bryce refused to walk from the metro stop to the White House (1/2 mile) so I had to carry him. He's about 32 lbs right now and after 1/2 mile he gets really heavy! We finally got to the ellipse and waited 1/2 hour to get into the White House grounds. Bryce was trying to tear the tent down - joy.
Finally, at 1 we were brought onto the South Lawn and boy was it crowded! Again, he wouldn't walk so I had to carry him around. He decided that he wanted to do the egg hunt first and the line was long. Actually, everything had a line and all of them were long. He enjoyed hunting for the eggs although he didn't find the coveted golden egg.Then we went to go get our picture taken in front of the White House but he wasn't really happy about that... he wanted to go see the animals and the ocean stuff. I told him we'd go up there to see that all after the picture but well, see for yourself...
We then saw the animal show (a monitor lizard, a vulture and an alligator) and walked around. He was excited to see the horseshoe crabs and ocean stuff (that was the theme for the year but by the way it was displayed you'd never know).
He did the egg roll...
we saw Super Why...
and then we went home! Now it's off to relax because I'm exhausted and my arms are killing me!

I'm getting too old to pull all-nighters!

2008-03-23T00:45:00.010-04:00

So this year I decided to go down to DC and camp out overnight with a few of my mom friends to get tickets to the White House Egg Roll. I went with 6 gals and we are all egg roll "virgins" except for 1 of us. Mimi went last year and camped out overnight in the snow. Yeah, I had already told her that if the weather was bad - count me out... but the weather was ok so we met up at Tracie's house and took my minivan down to DC (packed with stuff). We arrived at our place in line at 7 pm on Friday night.
Thankfully it was still light and by dark we had our tents all set up and we were psyched! Unfortunantly, we were not able to camp out on the elipse because we got there too late but we were pretty sure that we would be able to get tickets. We decided to order some Pizza Hut Pizza and they actually delivered it to our tent. The place was packed. Keep in mind, the White House gives out about 20,000 tickets to this event and it's really hard to get them even if you're on the "inside". We made friends with the people around us (well except for the people in front of us that started out as 2 adults and 2 kids and by the time tickets were given out there were 8 adults - not fair) and then sat down for a few hours of mom talk. At about 10:30 ish Mimi and I took our first walk around the area. Wow - DC had turned into tent city. I'm sure the tourists all thought, wow... we didn't realize that there were so many homeless in this city! We walked around the elipse and talked with a few of the other families. The 1st people in line arrived at their spot at 3am on Friday morning. A little down the lane was a pair of dads that had gotten there at 11am. Around the other side of the ellipse (the ellipse is the huge grassy area behind the Washington Monument and in front of the White House) were 2 families visiting from Arizona that had gotten there at 4pm. Then we met some nice moms that have been doing this since 2002 - except that back then you could still show up at 4 in the morning and actually get a ticket (no more) - they had arrived at 5pm. The line then snaked out of the ellipse onto the side area (where we were) and went on forever. Here is picture of what was behind us at 1am (and this really is just a tiny portion of it).At about 1:30 we decided to take another walk around the ellipse and that occupied us for another hour and a half. I can't believe that most people were asleep by this time. I guess we're all getting too old for all nighters! Here is a view of what we saw in the ellipse.This is what we came "home" to:
Everyone was asleep! Tracie, Mimi and I decided to keep trucking because we weren't sure what time they would come around and give out vouchers... and if you don't have a voucher you don't get tickets. At about 3:30 they gave the wakeup call for everyone to get out of their tents by 4 am to get their voucher. At 4:30 they got around to us and we got our vouchers! (this picture is obviously from later in the morning!) You can't see it too well in the picture but I got number 854 (the beginning was 1 and the end was in the 1600's).
Well, by this time in the morning the wind started picking up and it was getting COLD so we decided to hang out in the tent from 5 am to about 6:15am. At this time we started breaking down "camp". We brought everything back to the car (I got an awesome parking spot so not too far) and then the line started compressing so it moved fast.
At 7:30 they started handing out tickets and by 8:50 we were back in the car with our 1 pm entrance time!
We were told by the park rangers that a lot of people got turned away at 5am. Apparently if you were not in line by 11pm - you did not get a voucher at 5 am. So some people camped out from 11:30 pm and had to go home empty handed at 5. How much would that suck! I'm so glad we got there at 7! I'm thinking next year that if the weather is nice I'm going to go down at around 11 and let Bryce run around on the grass until Dave can pick him up after work! He'd love it.

Well - that's how you get tickets to the White House Egg Roll. I had SO much fun with my mommy friends and I had no idea this was so involved! I'd do it again in a heartbeat though. It was such an incredible experience - I mean really, how many people can say they have camped out on the White House's front lawn?! (well, apparently about 1600 people).

I'll post more on Monday after Bryce and I get back from the event. I am looking so forward to it - it's going to be fantastic!

Zena

2008-03-21T10:17:00.003-04:00

Meet Zena... our oldest dog. We have 2 rat terriers - Zena was bought at a pet store (I know bad... but it was before I knew anything!) and Emmi was rescued through Ratbone Rescues. They are both 6 yrs old (Zena is older by 4 months). I was visiting Swaddle Cottage the other day and as I was reading he blog I ran into a picture of.... Zena! Well, actually, it is her dog GiGi but it looks a lot like Zena. I got in touch with her and apparently they don't know GiGi's breed because she was rescued but I have a feeling they have a purebred Rattie. Rat Terriers are most popular in the south and midwest. They're typical farm dogs and were bred to rat out barns. Theodore Roosevelt owned 2 rat terriers (there are 2 types, A and B, Teddy owned the B type that has shorter legs hence why they are now called Teddy Rat Terriers). Zena is a purebred Type A Rattie and Emmi is - well, we're not really sure. I think she is probably a rat terrier / chihuahua cross. There is no doubt she was misbred but that's a whole 'nother post! To learn more about rat terriers, click here.

RIP Great Grandma's Mirror

2008-03-20T23:38:00.004-04:00

I love family heirlooms. I keep everything that is passed down to me and try to display it somehow. Well, when my great-grandmother died years and years ago I was given a hand held mirror of hers. I have no idea if it was worth anything - I think i just liked it. Well, I was cleaning the bathroom today and put the mirror out in the bedroom while I cleaned. While my back was turned I heard an awful sound of something shattering. I ran into the bedroom and this is what I found:Bryce had gotten off of the bed where he was watching TV, walked over to where I had put the bathroom stuff down, picked it up, brought it back over the the TV and somehow must have smacked it. I was so sad. I thought about just throwing it out but I think I'll still hang onto it and hang it up somewhere. The mirrored part doesn't have to show - I'll just hang it so the backside shows....

All better! Needless to say though - Bryce was in time out for awhile for this one. Ta ta for now - I have to go get ready to camp out in DC for tickets to the White House Easter Roll on Monday! We're going down to the city to get in line by 7pm and tickets are distributed Saturday morning. I'm going with a bunch of gals from my moms group so it should be fun... and cold!

5 Picture Challenge

2008-03-19T23:15:00.010-04:00

Rue over at Rue's Peanut Butter and Jelly Life took the 5 picture challenge and it looked interesting so I thought I'd give it a try. You can only take 5 pictures of things around your house that say something about who you are. I ended up taking a bunch and it was difficult to whittle them down but here is what I came up with:

This is my sign from Craft Country. Craft Country was a store in Olney that I loved but sadly went out of business a few years ago. Most of the decorations and some furniture in my house that aren't antiques are from Craft Country. I bought this sign when they were closing. It used to hang as a permanent fixture in the store on the soffit near the ceiling. This sign now hangs in my ceiling and I love being able to look at it every day.
This represents my love for bargain shopping. I bought this item today at a random store in Westminster that I came across while going to pick up a bike trailer. It was $7! The pots alone would have been 7 bucks at Home Depot. The wire holder is just darling and I fell in love with the Frosty Fern plants that I found in the nursery that was attached to the consignment store I was in. The plants were not included in the price.
This represents 2 things. The love I have for my son and also the creative side of me. My son made the astronaut in school and they pasted his school photo in the helmet. I thought it was so cute that I decoupaged it onto a piece of wood from Michaels I had stored away for a project I was going to do years ago. I love how it turned out and it hangs in the stairwell going down to the playroom.
This again represents 2 things, my love for God and my love of the beach. I know the 2 don't really go together (although God did create the beach!) but hey, I only had 5 pictures! My son found these 2 pieces of Driftwood at Dewey Beach last year on a walk we took together. When we got home I tied them together to make a cross. It's going to hang in our master bedroom after we paint it to remind me of the beach and of my faith.
Lastly, this picture represents my college years and my engagement. After I got engaged during my senior year of college, I spent a lot of time in Zanesville, Ohio... the pottery capital of the USA! I frequented the 2nds shop of Hartstone quite often. I bought my entire line of everyday dish ware there as well as a lot of serving pieces and bowls. I also got the place mats there. I spent a lot of time mix matching the pottery collections to get the look I wanted. I got such a deal on this pottery by going to the 2nds store. The stuff I got was in great condition and was incredibly cheap. I saved hundreds of $$. The plate shown in the picture goes for about $24 each and I think I paid $2 a plate during their May special.

If anyone else would like to take the challenge... post it on your blog and let me know!

Quilt Giveaway!

2008-03-19T10:08:00.000-04:00

I wanted to pass along information to you about a lovely give-away. Dana over at "The Old Red Barn" will be giving away a... homemade quilt! Go add your name!

What happened to Caribou Coffee?

2008-03-14T14:19:00.003-04:00

I loved the Caribou Coffeehouse in Olney. I actually like Starbucks gourmet coffee better but I like the layout of Caribou much better. I would go there and get a regular coffee and sit at one of the many tables they have. The store was much bigger than either of the Starbucks in Olney and they even had a large table which was fantastic! The table sat 6-8 people and was great. The Starbucks in Olney you have to jam yourself into to even get to the counter and then you may be able to find a table that accommodates 2 people. That is if they all aren't taken. I hate it. You cannot meet other people in either Starbucks and have a good time. It's basically an in out kinda place. Caribou on the other hand - you could actually socialize in.

Well - I noticed the other day on my way to the food store that the Olney Caribou is all boarded up. So is the one down in Aspen Hill. So of course I automatically thought that the company as a whole must be going out of business. I was wrong - I just checked the website and it looks like Caribou is still around. Just not the one in Olney. Total Bummer.

I can't have a MOMS Club board meeting at either of the Starbucks in Olney. No longer are the mommy coffee's in the morning, there is no place in Starbucks that our kids can play (Caribou had a toy chest and kids table!). No more are the spring morning walks to get coffee, there is no way a stroller is getting into either of the Starbucks in Olney.

Caribou had a prime spot in Olney - I sure hope something good goes in there next. Olney is SO odd. For some reason the people here don't like anything good or convenient. First they drove Pizza Hut out of business, then Einstein Bagels and now Caribou.

Yummy!

2008-03-13T00:04:00.006-04:00

We had the best day today. It started out with a playdate at my girlfriend Tracy's house. I haven't seen her in forever (well, only a week but I usually see her every other day!) and it was great to catch up. Her house is so incredibly comfy! I always just feels like home there.

We got home and my father in law came to pick up Bryce for the night. He's sleeping over there. David and I had tickets to see Doubt at the local theater and I figured that instead of eating out that I would cook something really scrumptious! So I made Gorgonzola Crusted Filet Mignon with Merlot Sauce. The recipe originally called for Blue Cheese and Port Wine but I substituted in Gorgonzola and Merlot because I like them better. I also made Mashed Red Potatoes with Gorgonzola Cheese and Roasted Asparagus with Thyme. It was SO good. The Merlot Sauce really made the meal. I didn't think I would like it because it seemed to have a lot of onions in it but wow - it was amazing.

I served dinner by candlelight in the Dining Room and used our china, good silver and crystal. It was really fun and _a lot_ cheaper than eating out!

We then went to the theater and when we came back we had Nutty Apple Crisp for dessert. David's favorite dessert is Apple Pie so I figured he would like this - it was a nice change from pie. Wow was this yummy! While we ate dinner we watched the movie Sydney White - it was really cute.

What a perfect night! An amazing dinner, the theater, yummy dessert and a fun movie! What else could one ask for in the night?! Plus - the tickets were given to us by my in laws, dinner was relatively inexpensive (compared to eating out) and the movie was through netflix! Not only did we have a great time but it was cheap!

Well, it's now 12:15 am and I should get to bed. I'll leave you with a picture of dinner (it looked so good I had to photograph it!)...

Where is the Vegetable Supreme??!

2008-03-11T20:21:00.003-04:00

We have used McCormick's Vegetable Supreme for a few years now instead of butter on our vegetables. We love it! It makes the veggies taste so much better and we eat a lot of them. The market in town I go to, Shoppers Food Warehouse, has apparently decided to stop carrying this (with a bunch of other stuff we use). It is really annoying! I looked online and it doesn't seem as though the item has been discontinued. The thing about Shoppers though is you can never talk to the manager of the specific dept. you want to. Last time they did this they got rid of my Breyers Light Probiotic Yogurt - they only carry the non-light version now - and I talked to 3 different people about trying to get it back and never got a response from anyone. Well, tonight I went to Giant to see if they carried it still and apparently they don't either. If anyone knows of a food chain that carries McCormick's Vegetable Supreme... please let me know! I'll even pay to have it shipped to us!

The Foyer is Finished!

2008-03-09T21:14:00.012-04:00

We finally painted the Foyer and I hung everything up. I was looking for a rug that would fit the foyer for the longest time. I couldn't be more than 5 ft wide but I didn't want the standard 3x5 because that wouldn't have been big enough. I ended up finding a 4x6 at Target for a great price! I put one of the yard sale chairs by the door for people to sit down on and take their shoes off and a coat hanger in the hallway. I hung my grandfather's police stick from the coat rack. Above the chair is a box top from a box we found in the shed at Rocky Point (my grandmother's summer house) and above that are little cubby's I got through Ebay to put hats/gloves/keys in.

On the other side is my 1/2 table with the box Kelly sent me from Okinawa (it goes perfectly because it is burgandy!) and the glass washboard on the wall. We also put up the new entry chandelier. I love it! Here are the finished pictures:

Dining Room

2008-03-08T21:54:00.005-05:00

I finally got the etching done by Ernest D. Roth, a distant family member, framed and hung up in my dining room. My grandmother gave my parents the etching and they in turn gave it to me. The new frame and mats make it look much nicer than it was! Most objects in my house are either from an antique store, a yard sale, Craft Country (used to be in Olney till it went out of business), or are family heirlooms. The family heirlooms are my most favorite because they all have stories behind them.

I flanked the etching on the wall with 2 antique folding wood chairs that I bought years ago. I had always planned on hanging them in my townhouse but never got to it. I finally have been able to get them up in the new house. I bought 4 wrought iron hooks from a blacksmith on ebay. I love them. They're extremely heavy and sturdy and have a neat pattern on them. Although, when the chairs are hanging you can't see them. I didn't think of this beforehand.

I love having the chairs on the wall because they serve 2 purposes.... 1) artwork and 2) as chairs! When I have a large group of people over we can use these in either my dining room or anywhere else. Having them on the wall makes them very accessible!

Here's a picture of the new wall in my dining room and a closeup of the newly framed etching:

clouds in the sky... I mean ceiling

2008-03-07T23:17:00.010-05:00

Today I spent pretty much the whole entire day painting clouds on the ceiling of our master bathroom. I woke up at 8:30, ate breakfast with Bryce and then Nana and Grandaddy came to pick up him to take him to DC at 9:30. From 9:30 to 10:30 I read some cottage decorating blogs (mainly on tips on how to make signs and refinish furniture) and then at about 11:00 I started the clouds.

I took some breaks through the day to rest my arm and neck and also to eat lunch and dinner but I finally finished up at about 8ish. They look ok. Dave said that he likes them and yeah, they're not bad for my first try but they all remind me of different things. To me one looks like a boy standing on a ledge, another looks like a manatee and yet another resembles a squirrel. There is also a car and a boy up there. Plus, I can see all of the layers of colors I put up there but it's probably because I know how I did it. If I didn't do it they might look differently.

Oh well - like I said, I'm satisfied with how it turns out and for now they will stay. Next comes the 2 palm trees and I also want to make a sign with a beachy quote on it to hang from the wall. That will complete my whimsical bathroom beach retreat!

Here are some pictures so that you can see how they turned out. I used 3 paint glazes (white, off-white and slightly grey) and applied the paint with both a cheesecloth and a paint brush.

I'm Back

2008-03-06T23:33:00.000-05:00

Wow - 2 days in a row of blogging. This is a record! We all had an extremely busy day today. Bub and Buckets did "Donuts for Dads" this morning at preschool (although what was weird is that the handout that was given at it this morning said doughnuts - totally not the right spelling!) and they had lots of fun. Grandaddy showed up as well. Bub gave daddy some homemade gifts at the event and they are so cute!

I picked him up from preschool and we went to McDonalds. I don't know what was up with McD's today but it was packed and I was the youngest customer (besides Bub) by about 50 years! After lunch we went to the library, read some books and attended preschool storytime. We then went to Home Depot and after that we spent about 2.5 hours at the local park with our MOMS Club. We had so much fun! It was then onto home for dinner, bath and bedtime. He was SO tired that he actually just fell out of bed (only the 4th time since we took the rails off last year) and kept sleeping. I went into his room and put him back into bed and he never woke up!

Speaking of Home Depot - it was absolutely gorgeous today! I go to the one in Aspen Hill, MD which is one of the largest profiting stores on the east coast. It gets SO much traffic going through it because there is no other HD or Lowes anywhere nearby. I used to be the HR Manager at Aspen Hill a few years before Bub was born for a short while and did all of the hiring for their 2003 spring season (which starts in February for HD btw). I still see a lot of people I used to work with up there. Today I went into Hardware and there were about 10-15 managers (you can tell they were managers because any associate wearing dress shoes and an apron is in management! - you'd have to be nuts to wear dress shoes as an associate working on concrete floors all day!) doing a walk. A walk is basically what it sounds like - you walk through the store and critique everything. So I ran into Steve, my old Assistant Manager, and asked him what was up because wow - there were a lot of shirts! Well, the VP of Marketing for North America was doing the walk along with the Director of Marketing for the East Coast. Wow! Those are biggies. No wonder the store looks fantastic! Everything was organized and cleaned up. The floors were polished last week I was told and there was an over abundance of aprons in the aisles. Today was a great day to shop Aspen Hill Home Depot!

Well, the reason I explained all of this is that Steve mentioned asked me if I missed all of this and to tell you the absolute truth.... I do! I loved the rush of doing walks with the biggies. It was so exciting. In Frederick we had the President of the East Coast come do a walk with us and it was so much fun. I miss the rush of working 70+ hours a week! I know, I do that now... but it was different. There I was always working on something productive. Now, I'm watching episodes of Little Bill.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE staying home with Bub. While I totally miss working and organizing (because that is what I love to do and that is what most of the HR job at HD is) I can't imagine handing Bub over to someone else all day at this age for 1 minute. I would love to have both but with a company like Home Depot - that is just not a possibility. You are expected to work a *minimum* of 55 hours a week if you are in management. And while I also have a fantasy of working part time in paint (it's fun!) that's also not a possibility because to be PT you have to work at least 8 hours on the weekend - and I'm not up for that right now!

So that's how our busy day went. After all of this we then had our small group from church over for our Thursday meeting. Bub went to sleep and we talked about the grace and forgiveness of God. This was actually an amazing small group tonight. It just reminded me of how incredibly excited I am that I have an intimate relationship with God. I know that I am forgiven and that others can be as well. I take that thought for granted so much and it boggles my mind that others just can't accept that sometimes. But I think that should just go into another blog.

It's now about midnight and I really should get to bed. I have a whole day to myself tomorrow! My inlaws are picking Bub up at 9:30 and taking him into DC and Buckets will be at work. I don't know what I am going to do with myself!

Night night and God Bless!

I lost

2008-03-06T02:18:00.000-05:00

It's 2:18 am and I lost the auction. Can you believe it?! There were 2 minutes left in the auction I was winning and I went to go read a blog about organizing. I came back and bam - auction done, item lost. Total bummer!

Waiting....

2008-03-06T01:39:00.001-05:00

So, here I am... blogging again. I am waiting for an auction on ebay to end and I don't want to get outbid. Unfortunately, the listing is from California so it doesn't end until 2:15 am EST. Normally I would just go to sleep but I do need a new flat iron and I'd rather not spend $100. The one I'm watching is the same one that my hairdresser was using and it is going for about $46 bucks right now rather than the $100 I could spend on it at Amazon. I figure that since David is taking Bryce to school tomorrow (Donuts for Dads program) I can stay up and wait a bit. I do have to admit though - I am getting pretty darn tired.

Today Bryce and I went to a PJ party playdate. It was lots of fun. Bryce was so excited to tell Daddy about how he went to a PJ party! I had changed into some nicer PJs for the playdate but Bryce wore exactly what he had slept in last night. It was great! No arguing getting changed. Although he didn't want his diaper changed in the morning. It was really nice too because after the playdate we just stayed in our PJs all day because we didn't have to go out afterwards!

Ok, so I don't think I am going to make it until the auction ends! It's 1:50 right now and there's about a little over 20 minutes left in the auction. So far I'm winning but I guess I'll just put my max bid in now and hope that someone doesn't upbid me too much! This is what I'm bidding on. Wish me luck. I have to sleep now.

I'm trying it again....

2008-03-05T20:58:00.001-05:00

I really would like to be able to blog on a regular basis. I find it so incredibly hard to find the time although I do seem to find the time to look at the most random websites ever. The other night I was so bored but didn't want to go to sleep because I was getting some alone time and that's not so common. So I just randomly started looking up people I've known in the past. I thought about High School and well, Jack came to mind. That's because at my 10 year reunion Buckets and I drove him home because he had drank too much. Obviously, I went to high school with Jack. I was in Marching Band with him (well, I did Drill Team) and I went to Europe with him during the summer of 1994. He was always so much fun to be around. He had a way of always making everyone laugh.

Anyhow, back to my story. So he was one of the people I randomly looked up on Google the other day (I know, pathetic) and it turns out he is in a band that has a myspace page and they're pretty good! I signed up to be a friend and Jack actually wrote back to me himself. It's nice to know that I'm somewhat remembered!

Speaking of being somewhat remembered - the most embarrassing thing happened at my 10 year reunion. I went to middle school and high school with this guy named David. I was in many classes with him and we did occasionally hang out although I wouldn't say we were good friends, but we definitely knew each other! Yeah, well, I ran into him at the reunion and he had absolutely NO idea who I was. I don't think I've ever forgotten anyone - granted, my memory might not always be exactly clear - but I can't imagine totally not remembering someone! That's never happened to me. Well, yup, it is a little embarrassing to be totally forgotten. But oh well, his loss!

Here is the link to my friends band. Give them a listen and let me know what you think! 3fifths

I sat next to Jack on the bus while touring around Europe for awhile. I don't exactly remember how that happened but I just remember laughing so much! Thinking of my trip to Europe made me pull out my pictures. Here's one of Jack taking a little snooze - although I don't remember what country this was in! We toured around and put on musical concerts in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and France.

Here I am with Alyssa (R) and Mandy(C). This was taken before we left for Europe at our going away concert. Mandy played flute and was in the band while Alyssa and I went as band front. We danced to certain pieces and helped out the chorus. I was so lucky to go because they didn't have any violins in the band (the instrument I played) but I was still able to participate! I will never ever forget this experience. It was 3 weeks of SOOOO much fun. My parents remember me coming home and I was crying - they asked if I was crying because I was so happy to be home and I told them, No... I don't want to leave Europe! What an awful thing for parents to hear when their child comes back from a 3 week vacation away from them! But it really was one of the most fun times of my life.

Old Pics of Me

2008-02-22T12:38:00.001-05:00

This first picture is of me when I was 5. I'm the older one. My brother is the younger one. He's 4 years younger than me.

The second picture was taken before my sophomore ring dance. I was 15. My date was Bill Beschorner. I sat next to him in Orchestra and we would just joke around the whole time. Our teacher used to think it was hilarious that we could start a conversation, play through an entire piece with movements and then pick up our conversation exactly where we left it. Wow, those were the days. I thought I had things to worry about back then... ha! Nothing compared to what it's like when you're an adult. I had dinner cooked for me, my laundry done, 1 little room I had to keep clean and after I finished my homework I could talk on the phone or watch TV for the rest of the night. What a life!

The Beginning...

2007-10-26T22:39:00.001-04:00

Ok, so this is my 1st blog ever. Yay me! Wow, I don't even know what I'd write about everyday because life just sometimes seems so mundane and unexciting. I think I'm going to have to work on that one. Although - I'm sure if I looked at my life from the outside - I'd probably think a bit different!

For example - today I'd say was a pretty normal day. Definitely not the best day I've had - but not the worst either. It was a pretty typical frustrating day with a 3 year old. BUT - really, if I delve into it - ok, so I had about 12 mommies over this morning for breakfast with about 15 children. Definitely not boring! Life is typical that way for me though - which is pretty darn cool. I love being surrounded by these awesome mommies! I love having all sorts of support. I love the fact that I am able to be social with a whole diverse group of women!

And tomorrow - I'm going to do the same thing again! We have a birthday party - our 2nd one this week. Granted, thankfully Bryce doesn't go to TOO many parties but wow, we actually went to a birthday celebration on a Wednesday afternoon. How cool is that?! And tomorrow we're going to another one... and these are good friends of Bryce. We see these kids several times a week. Amazing!

Ok, so see, I have proven to myself, my life is definitely not boring! I think it's just hard to see that because I met someone famous this week. My life compared to his, just seems mundane. I mean really - this guy sells these huge gorgeous gigantic houses close to NYC and acts for a living. He also can just turn "on" like that - what an amazing and dynamic personality. It's also hard because he was acting - but it was just so much fun!

I don't know. So - we've definitely started this blogging relationship on an interesting page. I'm hoping that I'll be able to journal what is going on in our busy and chaotic life so that I can make sense of what I am feeling. I want to be able to look back at the end of the day and say, WOW - life is awesome!.... even if I am having the worlds worst day.

We shall see.....