Happy Happy Birthday Mary Dear!

Since I can't sleep yet again and I've been staring at the computer screen for hours (thank goodness Cody is coming home tomorrow or my eyes might dry up and fall out) it's now past midnight which means it's Mary's Birthday today. I can't believe my cute little 9 lb ham is now a full fledged 3 yr. old. When we brought her home from the hospital it took her 6 days before we even heard a peep out of her, she was so laid back and calm. Now she's a lot more lively and fiercely independent and super hilarious. I can't wait until we get high speed internet so I can add a video of her singing "Champion" from chicken little, it melts my heart. She loves people and is the most outgoing girl. She has more acquaintances than I do that's for sure. Although two is my absolute favorite age I think with Mary she just gets cuter and cuter the older she gets if that's even possible. We'll see if I sing a different tune by the time she turns 13 :0). Happy Birthday Posa!

*Picture credits go to the Sew Mama Sew blog* I haven't made one (yet).

While I was surfing tonight looking for projects- I need more projects to do like I need a walking talking poke in the eye-but I found the cutest bagsket. I think I'm going to try to make a few basket style ones for the girls room, not so much the purse version. How cute would it be to have a few of these in coordinating fabrics in varying sizes sprinkled throughout their bedroom?? Very cute! I can just see the costume jewelry and littlest pet shops in their new homes already.

Here's the link to the tutorial, excellent instructions and great pictures I might add.

http://foofanagle.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/bagsket-tutorial/

Karaoke, a lullaby anyone?

I'm back from my short blog break and it's past 1 a.m. and I can't get to sleep. What is it about trying to go to bed when your second half is gone? I can sleep just fine by myself anywhere else but my own bed. I'm such a baby, really, and this house still kind of freaks me out with it's creaks and cold wood floors and recycled everything. I would sleep on the couch with the t.v. on for company but then I can hear Jack rabbit who is totally nocturnal playing all night and it sounds like someone breaking in. I need a big burly dog or better yet a big burly Cody.
Anyway my week has been just fine and not as stressful as I thought. I ditched a bunch of projects and the ones I decided to do I was able to finish really quickly. I really just decided that I put way too much on my plate this week and I'll do as much as I feel like I can handle and that's good enough. It's so freeing to just say "no" every once in awhile. I still can't say no really so I say maybe instead but if you ask Brittany that means it really won't happen, smart chica. I'm focusing on Mary's birthday and even though I can't make a graham cracker horse barn and cupcake fillies (yes I was really going to do that) she's going to love it. I'm also trying to wrap my brain around getting school supplies and clothes rounded up before school starts. I just need to do some shoe shopping and get a few layering t's for both kids now but I was really stressing about it yesterday and today (p.s. I have a great Children's place online code for 25% off if anyone is interested). I'm going to Boise on Saturday for my itty bitty brother's baptism so maybe I can squeeze some shopping in and finish. I can't believe school starts in 3 weeks. Let me re-phrase that: Hallelujah and hip hip hooray!

Pardon` a mi`

Please excuse me if I don't blog anything this coming week, I'll try and blog again by at least next Sunday. I have a commissioned baby project to finish by Tuesday. Mary's Birthday is Friday and I have several gifts I need to sew. Cody's side of the family reunion starts Friday (I think, could start Thursday) and I need to make a few items to be auctioned as well as baking for part of the meal/snack on Saturday as well as clean for all those who want a tour. Cody is going to be on a hike this week alone and won't be back until sometime mid-Friday. I'm sure there's more and I could go into detail but I don't want to lose my 1 4/5 fans :). I need to try to stay away from the computer but it's like an addiction for me. Hopefully I can get all the necessary things done before crunch time and I won't have to stress out, we'll see!

In the mean time I wanted to share some pictures of the kids playing in the creek yesterday. We were looking for "smoothie" rocks to make into rock animals and paint. The kids had so much fun and we found mussels, crawdads, water beetles, water skippers, and even a few nemos. Now we just need to paint all the great rocks we found. I also thought I would include one picture of the back of our house (looking at it standing in the creek anyway). Just a little eye candy for all the family members who keep promising to visit me to see my new house and haven't yet!

Two posts in one day...

Blasphemy I know but I found a project I had favorited and deleted and found again that I thought I would share so if I delete it again I have it saved on my blog at least. It's a super cute and really easy mini book that uses 1 sheet of 8 1/2 x 11" and the instructions are really clear and full of pictures. I have way to much letter size paper left and need to use as much of it as I can so I can have an excuse to buy more 12x12".
http://www.lovebugscrapbooking.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8542&sid=1da0525963e1dc8cc4a0002bfd62b0fe
I had to edit and add another album I just found that I'm going to make. It's really cute and looks easy. The instructions are great and they give you a free template for the library pockets. I'm such an enabler but it's going to be fun!

http://www.scrapfriends.us/articles/library_card_pocket_album.html

Happy Scrapping!

Question?

I was browsing two peas today and found a fun question for bloggers to blog about and since I don't really have any super intelligent wisdom to impart otherwise I thought I'd play along.

Answer this question: If I had to choose only 3 food items to eat for the rest of my life, what would they be???

1. Meatloaf- My favorite kind has hamburger, sausage, potatoes, carrots and the kitchen sink so I think I could get most of my vitamins if that was one of the three. It's also my favorite food so it has to be on the list.

2. Ice Cream- Is it cheating if I don't name a flavor? Secretly I would change flavors all the time because there are just too many great flavors to choose one but if I had to it would be pistachio pistachio. All who know me well know that I think ice cream is a great snack, breakfast, brunch, snack, lunch, snack etc...

3. Seafood Fettuccine- Light on the garlic please. Can I have a side salad and a bread stick with that please? I guess technically that's six items but it's my blog :p.

Na-cho average Nacho

I'm de-junkifying my hallway and stairs today, doing dishes, laundry, you know the usual. I am going to take the kids to the library for a mad science demonstration at 1 and I'm sure Jeremy is going to have a blast and Mary will freak out but it should fun. Mary has been freaking out at everything lately. Her big thing right now is "NO finning!". She hates when anyone spins in a circle, she says it makes her dizzy and freaks her out. She just stands there and screams. Kaci has caught on that this causes a hilarious show for her so she's learned to twirl in circles and does it right in front of Mary. I think it's pretty ingenious for a 14 month old but it's getting way to loud in here. I'm going to work on un-freaking Mary today as well.

Last night I tried a new recipe I thought I would share. It's Nachos made with waffle fries and bacon, the candy bar of meats, yummm! I gave it a 3.5 out of 5 mostly because the cheese wasn't as melty as I like but Cody really loved it. We didn't add the salsa mostly because I don't like it as well so I saved it for the side but here it is in all it's cheesy bacony glory-


Waffle Fry Nachos
1 package (22 oz.) frozen waffle fries
10 strips bacon
3 green onions, sliced
1 can (6 oz.) sliced olives, drained
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2/3 c. salsa
1 1/2 c. shredded Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
sour cream
Bake fries according to package directions. While fries are baking cook bacon and crumble. Transfer cooked fries to a 10-in. ovenproof skillet. Top with the bacon, onions, olives, tomatoes, salsa (optional) and cheeses. Return to oven until cheese is melted. Serve with sour cream. Yields 6-8 appetizer servings or about 3 main dish servings.
Enjoy!

So close!

All my hobbies are sitting here just giving me the look. I pass by my craft table at least 5 times a day and just have to stare at it for a second and then flit off to do something important. I'm sure that's why my supplies have given me the cold shoulder, they are so mad they're not speaking to me :p. Ashlyn's p.j. shirts are still waiting for bottoms. I haven't had time all summer to do anything fun (well not finish anything fun anyway).
I'm going to fix that very soon though. I'm whisking my supplies off to a fun filled vacation at beautiful Wallowa Lake in 3 weeks. Grandma moved there a few months ago and has wanted all of us (girls) to do something fun together this summer. Now that summer is fading so fast and time is flying by mom and I decided on a sewing/sculpting/what-ever weekend at Grandma G.'s house without the kids. I'll probably be the only one not doing anything sculpting related but I do have a bunch of awesome fabric to make Ashlyn some back to school clothes. I miss my scrapbook getaways so I really wanted something like that only sewing so no kids-yeahhhh! (Don't worry my paper wielding buddies, I still want to have a scrapbook getaway before the bambina makes her grand appearance.)
I really want to try my hand at knitting as well. I know it sounds old and I feel like I should wad my hair in a bun, buy some bifocals, and sport some orthopedic shoes but I keep finding awesome free patterns for knitting that I really want. Anyone know how to knit and is willing to teach me by the 14th of August???

Oh what fun!

Kira, David, and Leia came for a visit on Wednesday and the girls just had a blast! They were able to see one of Jeremy's soccer games and he did an amazing job as goalie. While Jeremy was playing his game the girls got to play on the playground and they were just having the best time. Mary and Leia usually don't get along very well but now that they are more "mature" they were having so much fun playing together and throwing rocks down the slide. Kaci was having fun petting all the puppies that were there and Ashlyn was playing by herself for the most part. It's nice to see them, especially Leia since it's been months and she just keeps growing so fast.

Last night I rented 2 movies from the Movies Now kiosk at Safeway and I love it (the kiosk that is). It was so much cheaper than Blockbuster and super easy. We watched The last Mimsy and Because I said So. The last mimsy wasn't what I expected but Jeremy liked it. I like Because I said So but I have to say I didn't like Mandy Moore's acting and some "lovey" scenes were more than I wanted to see for a PG 13. I want to go back and rent more when I actually have time to watch them. I think I'm a kiosk addict :D.

Today was just the usual day, laundry and changing sheets, freezing my bulk hamburger, 2 loads of dishes, blah de blah but then Cody came home and everything is just great. He brought the mail home and I got a package I wasn't expecting until next week- some wool scraps. I paid probably way to much but I got 3 bag fulls of felted wool from Etsy and now I can't wait until I have some time next week to make something with it all. I LOVE IT! What's not to love about fuzzy sweaters torn apart and made into something really cute again. I think I'm going to applique something cute and fuzzy. And Cody had to go back to town and is bringing me some Chinese food for dinner, gotta love that. I'm lovin' me some fried rice!

My latest

I've come to realize that my projects are going to have to wait until next week to finish but I have to share them now. I'm making Ashlyn two pairs of p.j.s and these are the shirts I appliqued. I'm going to make cute frilly pants to go with them. I made Mary a weenie dog shirt to but she wanted it to chase a ball instead of frolicking through the flowers like Ashlyn's so it will be a little different. I also made a scrapbook page that I thought I would share. This one is not a copy- whoohoo! I'm really liking the red and green lately.

Can I have some cheese...

With my whine? If anything else could go wrong today please tell me, the days almost over and I'm tired of all these surprises. Yesterday our tire went flat, no big deal other than it was extremely dark in the woods and I swear there were rabid coyotes out there and I had to stand out there and help Cody while he changed it. Today Cody didn't have time to go get new tires and he has meetings all day tomorrow so I'll be without a car for a few days until he can go. I had to walk a few miles to get Jeremy to his soccer game, no big deal I need the exercise. I have and had to go to the last few soccer games alone with the kids, again- no big deal other than today Mary threw a fit and cried the entire game and Kaci was screaming and if you've ever heard her you know why that's a problem. I've been desperately trying to finish a few projects and I'm almost finished but I can't seem to find a few spare minutes to finish them no matter how hard I try.

I have company coming -Kira you know I love you- and I wasn't planning on deep cleaning the house so I could finish said projects but the perfectionist in me says I have to clean, not just pick-up but really clean well. I took a shower today specifically to shave my legs for my capri pants only to realize about 2 hours later that I forgot to shave and didn't have clean jeans so I had to try and shave post shower. Now for the kicker. I have a new hair style that requires nothing more than mouse, hairspray, and a hair dryer. My hair dryer seized up on me right before I had to leave for the soccer game so I had a head full of mouse and no way to style it. So I'm off to the store to get myself a cute little hair dryer and a ton of ice cream and hopefully tomorrow will be better. If not I'll at least have good hair and a really full belly (or really full thighs). Jeremy wanted to take my picture so I put on a happy face, he's not half bad, I think it turned out really good for a 7 yr old and a bad everything day.