Fun at The Farmstead

Bonnie called this morning and invited us all (JJ was here too) to walk with her at the farmstead. After about two hours -- who knew it would take so much longer with three kids instead of just two? -- of getting ready, fixing and eating lunch, and generally just trying to get everyone put together enough to go out, we finally piled into the van and off we went!

The farmstead is a free (run on donations), really fun, very beautifully designed place to take your kiddos. When I was young, it was very simple, with pens of farm animals around a long, meandering trail, and a big barn in the center with a ladder inside and a tall slide coming out of the "silo" on one end.

Well, the humble little farmstead has morphed over the years into this wonderfully designed paved trail with many interesting stops along the way. The first thing that greets you is a waterfall with a pool at the bottom that many people have thrown pennies into, no doubt making a wish as they threw it in. Beside the waterfall are miniature wooden benches with wrought iron backs and arms that have pictures of playing children wrought into the iron. Very whimsical and fun. All along the trail are bricks with writing on them. Anyone can buy a brick for a certain donation amount and have their name carved into the brick, but what many people have done is to donate a brick "In Loving Memory" of a child they lost who loved the farmstead, or a parent who took the "donator" to the farmstead when they were a child, who has since passed away. I'm sitting here getting all teary-eyed just thinking about it.

Anyway, there are so many things to do and see at the farmstead! Feeding the goats has to be one of my favorite things; they stretch their necks out under logs worn smooth by so many little hands touching them over the years. The bigger goats always get more food, but I always tried to find the goat who was hanging back and was getting pushed away from the fence by the big bullies. I saved my quarter's worth of food pellets for the downtrodden, overlooked goats.
Then there are the peacocks. Well, one peafowl and one peacock. I didn't realize that the females weren't called peacocks until last year when I actually read the information board in front of their huge 2-story birdcage. OH! Yeah. Now I get it.

I could go on and on about all of the animals there, but I'll just say that if it's found on a farm, there's probably one at the farmstead. With the possible exception of emus or ostriches. The attractions that have been added since I was a child are a huge playground with a massive play structure in the middle surrounded by those metal animals you can sit on and bounce back and forth on. There is a smooth, slanted concrete slab off ot the side with water running down where you can take off your shoes and let the trickling water cool off your bare feet. In the summer, parents will bring their children in swimming suits and let them frolic in the water to their hearts' content.

There are also a couple of small log cabins with holes for windows and doors that you will often see small girls "playing house" in. And a big sand pit with those metal digger things that all of the boys love. Yeah, the boys usually have sand in their crocs when we leave the play area.

There is a cow barn with bathrooms, water fountains at kid height (no straining your back trying to hold your child while they take a drink!), and a mooovie theatre that plays a short movie narrated by Rosie the Cow about the history of how cows and milk have become so important to the American way of life over the years. When you go all of the way into the barn, you are greeted by small pens with calves in them, brawling for their mothers, and there are a myriad of things to divert little children's attention in there.... A snack bar where ice cream and other dairy (and non-dairy too!) snacks are sold, and two life-sized fake "milking cows" where the kids can hook up the udder to the milking machine, or milk by hand. There is even a big pen at the far end of the barn where one of the "nursing mommy" cows gets to feed her baby on schedule, and there is a sign posted telling you when the next feeding is so that all of us "city kids" will actually get to see a calf eating a meal at least once in our lives.

There is an Indian Encampment, where there is a huge air-conditioned (SO realistic and true-to-life) teepee filled with furs, deer antlers, and many Indian artifacts. It's really neat, but the kids aren't too thrilled with it because they can't touch anything in there.

There is a "mining" place where you can pay $5 for a bag of rocks and dirt with some "jewels" mixed in and throw it all in a pan with some holes in it and sift through all of the junk so that you can uncover your treasure.

In the middle of the farmstead is a horse barn, and they have recently begun having hay-rack rides with big, gorgeous horses pulling a huge wagon piled with hay. It costs about $3 per rider, so we have only done it once, but it was worth it! Those horses are so beautiful!

There is a nature trail that we have walked through once, but it's not too small-unrestrained-child friendly, so we haven't done that again. They have big cages with bobcats, an eagle, some hawks, a couple of owls, and some other creatures. We always seem to see them right at feeding time, and let's just say that it has caused my stomach to turn over more than once. I kind of avoid that area now.

Let's see, there's a fishing pond where you can buy a rod and bait and go fish to your heart's content. Across from the pond is a "tractor racetrack" with lots of brightly colored heavy little tractors that you pedal like a bike. They are meant for small children, but they are so heavy and cumbersome that it is hard for the little ones to steer, much less pedal around the track. Nevertheless, the boys were heartbroken when we had to leave the tractors behind today.

There are marvelous gardens with trails all around them that are filled with all sorts of flowers, vegetables, bushes, plants, and herbs. They are tended by a group of volunteers, and they are just beautiful! There is even a "butterfly garden" that always has lots of butterflies fluttering around it.

Close to the gardens there is a big pen with groundhogs in it. They have lots of ground to dig their homes into, and some days they are all underground and you'll only occasionally see a couple of noses peek out of the holes. On hot summer days, though, they are often seen lying on their stomachs or lounging on their backs on top of the dirt. They must know they are safe there.

There is a deep pond with HUGE fish in it, mostly goldfish-looking types. They are quite aggressive, and follow you around because they think you'll give them food. If you do throw food for them, they thrash around and fight for it and almost jump out of the water to get it. It's quite amusing!

Well, I think I have pretty much covered everything at the farmstead. We had fun there today and last Thursday, and we'll probably be going back again next week. I don't know, though. Bonnie might just want to go by herself if she wants to get any REAL walking done. It's mostly startSTOP.........staSTOP...........start......stop when the kids go.

It is just so much fun creating memories for them at a place I enjoyed when I was small too. It may just become a tradition to go hang out at the farmstead! In the fall they have a pumpkin patch, too, which will be lots of fun.

Okay, I'm tired now. I should write these things in the morning, but the details wouldn't be so vivid in my head and I think overnight I might forget stuff. :)

Well, I had such a good evening tonight that I just had to come here and write it all down so that I will remember it. I started working on dinner shortly after JJ's mom picked him up. We had Romaine salad with a shredded four cheese blend and some "Fake-o's" (instead of Bacos) sprinkled on top. I baked some little bagel pizza bites, and spent time chopping fresh pineapple and strawberries into chunks. It was a yummy dinner! We had some whipped cream -- the kind in the whipping can -- with our fruit, and I only squirted it all over myself once during dinner.

Then I took a movie back to RedBox (we have one outside our Hy-Vee store, I love it! http://www.redbox.com/) and drove over to Lowe's, where Mike had taken the boys. I wanted to surprise them, and it was so fun! I snuck up behind them and growled, and they got all excited and started yelling to Mike "Mommy's here!! MOMMY's here!!!" like I was the coolest person ever.  I find it hard to believe that I got that reaction from them after spending all day with them at home. I definitely don't get the "Mommy's here!!!" reaction when I walk into the toy room to check on them when they have been playing with GeoTrax for an hour and the quiet makes me wonder what they are up to.

Anyway, while we were walking through Lowe's, Bonnie called and asked me to meet her at Starbucks, which I was glad to do after having a child's-activity-filled day. It was nice to

okay, I can't figure out why the heck the font just changed to italic. It's not the italic button at the top of the screen... so the rest of my post will be in italic. So that must mean that it is REALLY REALLY important. Yeah.

Anyway.

Okay, it changed back. Weird. I'll have to ask Mike about that later.

Um. What was I saying?

Oh yeah. It was nice to spend some time talking about someone else's life and adventures for a while and get some perspective on my own life. Sometimes you just want people to know where you are coming from so that you know you are not completely crazy for thinking and acting the way you do. You know? I know, that made SO much more sense in my head. See? I had to go and write it down for everyone to see, and now I really DO look crazy. SHEESH.

I came home from spending some lovely time with my dear friend (we got to go to Hy-Vee after coffee, and then she had to run because it was almost time for Diamond to be needing her Mommy!), and Mike was working away on my laundry room shelves!! Hip-hip HOORAY!!!!! And after much struggling, some (don't read the next word, Mom and Mama G.) swearing, and much heavy lifting, muscle straining, wet-sock-removing (yeah, the washer hose had come off), broom-diggin-behind-the-dryer FUN, we finally... Well, okay. MIKE finally got the shelves up and secured to the wall. Those shelves aren't going ANYwhere! We even put some stuff on them. It's too late for me to do anything but sit here and type right now, but tomorrow I will have fun de-cluttering some other areas of my house and, well, cluttering up the shelves.

Okay, so without further ado, here are some pictures. The first one is the man I love more than life itself. He is my husband, the father of our two gorgeous children, and he is willing to do anything to take care of his family. And check out those eyelashes! Okay, they are hard to see in this picture, but trust me, they are long! Sammy definitely got those from Daddy. He really didn't want me to take this picture, but his hard work shows, and he needs some praise for how hard he works for this family!

The next picture is the pile of clothes that came out from behind and beside our dryer. When you pull the clothes out of the laundry chute, they tend to fall... well... behind or beside the dryer.

The next picture is my new laundry room. Someday I'll paint it, but really functionality is so important to me that paint can wait. Plus, it will require unhooking and rehooking the washer/dryer... and who wants to do THAT?

Isn't it beautimus? And tomorrow, Mike will be getting another piece of white board from Lowe's to put under the door to the laundry chute so that we won't lose any more clothes in the Black Hole.

I did other fun stuff today, like we went over to my sister's house and cooked lunch (Orange Chicken, brownies, pierogies (little pastries with potatoes and cheese inside) and glass bottles of root beer. Yeah, so it wasn't the healthiest of meals, but we had fun watching the boys play. Sammy and Miguel are going to be such good friends as they grow up! It is fun watching their personalities develop.

Okay, I'm tired, and it's almost

darn, it's PAST midnight.

Going to bed now.

The Schedule

So here it is! My latest excuse for not blogging as much as I could and recording all of the crazy, zany, hilarious things that happen during the day around here. I have been making... brace yourselves... A SCHEDULE. I know, right? You never thought it would happen to me! But it has, people, and let me tell you what, we are totally hooked. I know that the schedule looks a little strange to you, so let me share a closer picture. This is what part of our morning looks like. I am pink (being the only girl around here), Griffin is orange, Sammy is lime green and JJ, the 4-year-old I take care of several days a week, is blue. The time slots are in half hour or one hour segments, and the boys are very willing to drop everything and move on to the next activity when it is time! I am amazed at how smoothly our days are running... but it IS only Tuesday, and we just started using it yesterday. :) We have not been following it to the letter, but when the kids start arguing or need a diversion, we go look at the schedule and see what it tells us to do next, and that diffuses the situation. Oh yeah. I promised you more pictures.

Isn't it pretty? It took me about a week to read through the book Managers Of Their Homes by Steve and Teri Maxwell (www.titus2.com), and then several more days to get the schedule worksheets done. I then stayed up late on Sunday night writing all of our daily activities into little colored squares and cutting out the squares and using the provided Sticky Tac to stick the squares to the schedule. It was so much fun, and it felt a lot like putting a puzzle together. The feeling of accomplishment when I had completed it was amazing! And even if we don't follow it to a "T", we will see many benefits from using it, I'm sure!

There is even a forum where you can go and ask questions and talk to other people who are doing the MOTH system to find out what works for other people so that you don't feel completely alone in doing the whole "schedule" thing. It is a foreign concept to me, let me tell you! Even though we were on somewhat of a schedule in school, and I was definitely on one in college, I had never thought of running my household on schedule. I mean, we haven't even started homechooling yet!

We now have made time in our day to get all of the daily chores done, play outside TWICE a day (this makes the boys SO HAPPY!!), brush the dog every day, have one-on-one Mommy time, and I even have two full hours in the evening to spend watching a movie, doing my nails, making cards, surfing the web, whatever! I'm sure there will be less of that type of stuff going on after we start school, so I'm going to soak it up while I can. :)

I'll keep updating my blog and writing about how well it's working and how this schedule impacts our family.

Oh yeah. One other thing. I have gone over the day's schedule with Griffin both mornings, and he has been very good about reminding me that we need to check the schedule to see if we are doing "the right thing at the right time" and are not falling behind. As Caleb said "typical first born!" But hey, he's keeping this "middle child" on track, so his reminders work out great for both of us! Tomorrow we have JJ from 8:45am-4pm, and I think the schedule will be awesome for a full day with three active little boys.

Take The Tongue Out Of Your Mouth And THEN Talk To Me!

Yeah. This goes right up there with "Things I never thought I would ever say in my lifetime." But apparently the impossible can and does happen (rather consistently, like on a DAILY basis) when you are dealing with children (as any parent, babysitter, nanny, teacher or child care worker can tell you). It just so happens that Griffin and Sammy get great pleasure out of sticking the Mr. Potato Head tongue into their mouths and acting like it is their tongue... they can then stick their tongue out at people and not get chastised for doing it!... it just doesn't work so well when you are attempting to carry on a conversation with them. I said it before it hit my brain what I was actually saying... and then had a good chuckle over it with Mike, Bonnie and Caleb, who were visiting for dinner. Well, Bonnie and Caleb were visiting. Mike has to eat here anyway. :)

Potty Humor

Sooooo... what do you do when you have a toilet seat sitting in your kitchen sink? What? You've never had a toilet seat sitting in your sink, you say? How gross, you say? WELL, I have a toilet seat sitting in my kitchen sink right now, and let me tell you what we do. We laugh about it. And make jokes about it. And it will keep being funny until... well, until the toilet seat isn't in the sink anymore.


So let me tell you a story. We'll call it

I'm Getting New Shelves In My Laundry Room

Mike and I have come to an agreement about laundry and dishes. He doesn't like to put the clean stuff away, and I don't like to wash the dirty stuff. So he has been doing all of the washing/drying and I have been doing all of the putting away (and I recently decided to add to my list the handwashing of the dishes that can't go in the dishwasher).

Anyway, things have been running along smoothly for several weeks, with both of us doing our jobs and even helping each other out once in a while. Basically, "helping each other out" means that Mike helped me empty the dishwasher once and I threw in a load of laundry for him once. But like I said, things have been going smoothly, so we usually don't enter into each other's territory.

Well, Mike got tired of having stuff sitting on the dryer, because when you pull the clothes out of the laundry chute they land on the top of the dryer and whatever happens to be on top of the dryer comes tumbling off and lands on your feet, or just gets mixed up in the jumble of clothes. It is very annoying, and it finally made him mad. And that is the story of how the toilet seat got broken. Oh yeah, and the story of why I am getting new shelves in my laundry room!

Huh, you say?

Well, I really have no idea how it happened, and I wasn't going to ask, but the next thing I knew, the toilet seat was in the sink. I know that strange things happen when I get angry sometimes, and Mike is very understanding and doesn't ask questions, so I figured I'd give him this one.

Anyway, that evening, just about an hour later, I was frying shells for tacos and Bonnie somehow sensed that from 15 miles away and called. Just kidding, Bonnie. It IS the second time that has happened, though. It was pretty funny. So they got a dinner invitation. And while we all sat here eating tacos and baby-watching -- Diamond was making faces in her sleep -- we kept making cracks (no pun intended) about the toilet seat sitting in our kitchen sink.

And that's pretty much the whole story. Mike has gone to Lowe's and brought back two toilet seats so far (one of the trips was when we learned that Bonnie and Caleb were coming over, and we knew that we would need a toilet seat ON the toilet in the guest bathroom if we were going to be proper hosts. Neither of the ones we have tried were the right shape, so right now the bottom half of the broken seat rests gingerly on the toilet until we can get a new one.

Apparently we have the only SQUARE toilet around here. Maybe that's something they only do in California and New York. And I'm sure that Caleb would tell us that we don't want to replace the toilet (after a long, arduous toilet-replacing episode he went through several weeks ago) unless it REALLY needs to be replaced, so we'll special order the toilet seat from CA or NY if we have to.

All right, it's almost time for me to go. I promised the boys that we could play with Play-Doh and go outside to play, not necessarily in that order, after I got done on the computer (and I said I would be done soon), and we don't break our Play-Doh promises around here.

One other thing, though. I am going to be implementing a schedule soon, and that could mean one of two things. Either it will work so well that I will have time scheduled to blog regularly (hallelujah!) or it will work so well that I will realize all of the responsibilities (there are FOUR i's in that word!?) that I have been shirking and will be so busy getting everything done that blogging will become a thing of the past, or a once-monthly venture, or some such thing. I'm hoping for the former scenario as I really enjoy blogging, but I felt I needed to give my readers fair warning.

Maybe I'll blog about the schedule! That should be interesting. And scary. I've never been good at keeping a schedule, as Mike can tell you. My "schedules" are more like "goals". If I happen to get something done that was on the schedule, I cross it off. And if I do something that wasn't on the schedule, I write it down, then cross it off. Come on, people, I know I'm not the only one who does that.

Okay, off to play outside with two little boys who are hopping around right now, trying to put their crocs on.

Library Times

Christy just came over for lunch with Brianna and Miguel. That's always fun! I made stroganoff, which was really yummy (although I think the adults liked it a lot more then the kids did).

Miguel's personality is developing so much, and he is able to keep up with the boys (well, almost!), and they all have fun running and playing together! He is also learning how to defend himself when he feels threatened by something his cousins (that would be my children) are doing, and Christy is trying to teach him not to hit.

She took Brianna to school and came back to our house, and then we all made a trek to the big central library. They have a huge selection of kids' books and movies, and I can almost always find what I am looking for there. We got 6 movies and 6 books.

Mental note: Never take children to the library when it is their nap time. It's not pretty.

Mike is working from home today, and he is taking a short break, so he is on his way to the gas station right now to get himself a Coke and me some chocolate cupcakes. I know, I know. Not the right way to handle stress. But maybe I'll eat one now and wait until later to eat the other one. NOT

Okay, I have stopped writing this about 5 times to go and put Sammy back into his bed. And now he is out again. ACK!!!! I am so frustrated with him! Time to go put him back again.

Did SuperNanny ever write a book?

OH, there he is again! Mommy is coming back upstairs, honey, and it's not going to be fun to see me.

Is it because I messed with the routine? Hmmmm....

Mental note: DON'T MESS WITH THE ROUTINE.

I'm so glad it's Friday!

Busy Busy Busy

I have been so busy with so many different things! I wanted to take time to blog today, though. It won't be a long one because the boys just woke up from their naps. :)

I have been working on my card business, Carody's Cards, and it is so much fun! I just love coming up with new card designs and then packaging the newly made cards into their little bags. I have had several orders already, and am having a fun time with this new venture. Now I just need to get crackin' on more birthday, Mother's Day, and eventually Christmas cards -- I'll need to start those soon, because I'll have to make SO many of them.

I'm working on birth announcements for Bonnie also. Diamond is so precious... here is another picture of her, just for grins.

Bonnie is such an amazing friend! She just had a baby, and yet she has brought me coffee twice since she got home from the hospital... actually once ON HER WAY HOME from the hospital. Wow. Just wow. Of course we had a fun photo shoot while she was at the house. I definitely don't have the skills of a professional when it comes to photography, but this little Diamond baby is so photogenic that it makes my pictures look GOOD.

I had a MOPS meeting last night, and it was a fun time of relaxation and chatting with other moms. We had pizza and root beer floats, and then all just sat around in a room filled with comfy couches and chatted it up for an hour. So relaxing and rejuvenating, especially when I realize that there are other people who are a lot more stressed out than I am, and have lots more to deal with in their lives. I go home after MOPS and Mike is putting the boys to bed, so I get to just chill out and read the evening away until bedtime.

Well, I need to figure out what to make these hungry men for dinner!

Diamond is Here!!

After a long labor (almost two days!!) Bonnie produced a beautiful baby girl. Her name is Diamond Giselle, and she is absolutely gorgeous!! She weighed 7 lbs., 1/2 oz. at birth, and was 20 inches long. She has a head full of dark hair, and she looks a LOT like her daddy. Bonnie and Caleb are tired, and are headed home today from the hospital, and they are so excited to be parents! It is fun to watch them be protective of Diamond and ask all sorts of questions.

I remember what it was like being a parent for the first time, and it is such a learning process! Every baby is so different that it seems there is no one "right" way to do things. And just when you think you have a baby figured out, they change things up and you have to change your routines and patterns. It definitely keeps us parents on our toes!

I have been to the hospital several times in the past couple of days, taking pictures and visiting with Bonnie and Caleb and having a "pie potluck" yesterday evening. When I left and went out to the truck, I found that the battery was completely dead. At least I think that's what is wrong. Mike came in the van (he was about to put the boys to bed, so he brought two very sleepy, very CRANKY boys with him) and hooked up the jumper cables, but we still couldn't get the truck to start.

Then Caleb came out of the hospital, and recognized our vehicles, and came over to help out. They hooked up a different set of jumper cables, but it still didn't work, so we went home in the van and left the truck at the hospital. Mike had to work today; he had some meetings to attend and he also had some extra work given to him ("dumped on him"). He took his lunch hour and came home to pick up tools, then headed back to the hospital to see what could be done. Maybe in the light of day it will be easier to figure out.

I hope it is just the battery! At least we can purchase a new one and be done with it. Thank goodness for savings. We've been (okay, okay, MIKE has been) putting aside money so that we have extra in case of things like this. If saving money were left up to me, we'd be up a creek without a paddle right now. I'm so glad I married a man who is good with money. He really makes our lives a lot less stressful. I think I'm making our lives less stressful by eating out instead of cooking at home sometimes, but I'm really just making more of a burden by not using the food that we have, and then spending extra money on food when we have food at home.

It's nice to take a break once in a while, though, I must admit. Cooking 21 meals a week will make anyone feel like a full-time chef. It seems that just as you finish doing the dishes from one meal, it is time to start thinking about the next meal. But that's part of being a mom, I suppose! I love to cook, which is good, because if I didn't we'd be eating out a lot more than we do already.

KU plays in the NCAA championship tonight against Memphis. Mike is expecting Memphis to win, but we're still cheering for KU! Well, he will be cheering. I'll be at a Stampin' Up! meeting. I just love girl time. It doesn't come too often in a house full of boys, so I really appreciate it!!

Lovely Day

We just spent a lovely afternoon outside. The boys dug in the yard and rearranged the rocks while I swept the porch and cleaned off the chairs.


We had stopped at a garage sale this morning, and the boys each found two balls and a truck toy. Griffin's truck is a "Transformer"-type thing, and it turns from a robot into a cute yellow dump truck. They don't quite have the hang of "transforming" it, yet, so they bring it to me when they want it to be changed. I'm quite good at it!


Sammy walked up to a table at the garage sale and immediately picked out the one Bob the Builder toy there. I think his name is Scoop. He is a red bulldozer, and he even talks! He says, "I looove getting dirty!"... it's no wonder Sammy likes him. He can relate so well.


Oh, I forgot. Mike gave me a "job" to do. He is going to be vacuuming and steam cleaning the carpets when he gets home (yay! what a man!) and he wanted me to have the boys pick up their toys so that he could get started on it right away.


Maybe I'll order pizza tonight. Hmmm. There is a really good pizza place close to here, and I can order online. How technologically advanced is that? Actually, Christy has had issues with their online ordering the only two times she's ordered from there, so maybe I'll call. But we love their breadsticks. Sooooo yummy. They spread cheese on a thin crust, then fold it in half and put more cheeses on top, and the spices are amazing!


The boys are scurrying around, with gentle reminders from me to "keep picking up and don't stop to play!" They want to make their daddy happy.


Oh, did I mention that Griffin had a big splinter in his hand, which is why we were only able to stay outside for an hour? (Might seem like a long time to some people, but an hour in little-boy-outside-playing-time is like two minutes.) We came inside and after much convincing he allowed me to dig it out with a needle instead of the tweezers. The "stick," as he called it, that was stuck in his hand (It's not a splinter, Mom, it's a STICK.) was down too deep for tweezers. Sorry if that makes any of you cringe and squirm in your seat. Griffin was amazingly (after a few minutes of crying and twitching when I brought out the needle) calm about the whole procedure. Of course, he DID have a popsicle. Because sugar has such a calming effect on kids, don'tcha know?


I think I'll go order the pizza now. The boys are almost done cleaning up toys, and I think they need some more "gentle prodding" to help them with their motivation. tee hee


It has been a good day!


Oh yeah, and I feel much better today. That helps.


I need to sweep and mop the wood floor

Roses

Mike took me to get flowers on Sunday. My birthday was on Monday, and he knows how much I love flowers! :-) I got to pick them out myself. They weren't what I would call beautiful when I first brought them home, but I just knew they had potential. And they are gorgeous now!

I also picked out a card magazine that is just full of new ideas for cards! I'm sure I'll be using some of those ideas soon.

That's all, I just wanted to post a beautiful flower picture.

I am feeling a little better today. Not too much, but a little. I'm tired and achy, but Bonnie is bringing dinner over (yes, the woman who is nine months pregnant and ready to pop any day now is bringing us dinner, what a woman!) and we just ate leftovers for lunch and got McDonald's for breakfast, so I haven't even had to cook.

We had J.J. over today. He is 4, and the boys all had fun playing together. J.J. loves superheroes, and since Griffin and Sammy really don't know anything about ANY superheroes, they listened with awe to J.J.'s tales of Spiderman, Superman, the Incredible Hulk, and Octimus Primus (I have no idea if I'm spelling that right, it's a Transformers thing).

They pulled out the Legos, and J.J. set to work building superhero robots. Griffin was then schooled on how to build a Lego watergun. That quickly turned into throwing the guns across the living room (who knew!?) which resulted in a Lego watergun hitting J.J. on the head. Oh my. It bled for a while (gotta love head wounds), and finally stopped when I put an ice cube directly on it. We then blow-dried his hair, which he loved, and he was as good as new. Griffin's bottom didn't fare so well, since he was the one who threw the "gun", and had apparently done it on purpose.

We broke out the Play-Doh, and watched as J.J. made replicas of superheroes and their cars. He's quite talented! Then we got out the crayons and construction paper, and J.J. colored a Spiderman on Griffin's paper, which Griffin promptly ruined by coloring it in the wrong way. Griffin loved it, though. He thought it was cool having an older boy here.

J.J. will be coming over again next week, and the boys are really looking forward to it. I am too; he's a fun kid! I'll post some pictures once I get his mom's okay.

The Moral of the Story Is...

Always drive with your radio on.


Or maybe this is just the moral of MY story. I don't know. But after having locked my keys in my vehicle tonight for the bazillionth time, I know this is what I need to do.


Okay, let me explain. Now, I normally restrict my "locking-in-of-keys" activity to the shopping area that is right up the street from our house. This shopping center is also not too terribly far from Mike's office, which has also come in handy on more than one occasion. Yes, the people at his office know who I am. I am The Wife Who Calls Her Husband To Bail Her Out.


I have locked my keys in at Chipotle, when I had the boys with me (they were just a teensy bit antsy, and anyone who knows my boys will know exactly what I mean). I called Mike at work, and he went home and got the extra set of keys and came and bailed me out. He's my hero, have I mentioned that before?

Then there was the time I was at Target.


Now, keep in mind that I am not one of those people who closes the car door and while it is closing I have this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach, and almost stop closing the door but don't quite make it in time. NO, I go into the store, do all of my shopping, and it is not until I am leaving and am digging in my purse for my keys that I realize that they are not there. THEN I get the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.


Anyway, I was at Target. I actually had to call my parents to come get me that time, because Mike had taken the boys out of the house and didn't have a cell phone. Yeah, that was embarrassing. I am almost 30, and my parents are still rescuing me.


Then there was Half Price Books, which is actually in the same "strip" as Target. Mike came that time as well, but I think it was on a Saturday, and the boys weren't napping, so it was barely a blip on the radar screen. Not quite as memorable of an experience.


Um, let's see. There was the time I was at the flower shop that did my wedding flowers. Won't say the name here because I don't want any creeps to be able to find me. I was there with Heather, who was planning Bonnie's baby shower with me. Turns out it was the same lady who had done Heather's wedding flowers also (small world!) and we wanted to go in and see the "flower lady", but the store was closed, so I parked and got out to talk to Heather for a minute before heading home. We had already done our major "shower shopping" at Party America, with Bonnie calling every few minutes because she was SO upset that she wasn't being included in the plans and she was SO jealous that we got to do all of the planning. Tee Hee!! Just kidding. She just kept calling because it was funny. Okay, you had to be there...


Mike rescued me that time too. He actually had to wake the boys up from their nap to come and unlock the truck. Yeah. Not good.


And tonight. Well, tonight is when I learned that I always need to drive with the radio on. Well, at least when I am in the truck. (I am almost always driving the truck -- well, not DRIVING it, but you know what I mean -- when I lock my keys in. Except for the time at Chipotle.) Especially when I have someone else with me and am distracted. See, when you park the truck and turn it off to take the keys out, the radio turns off too. Only when you don't have the radio on to begin with, there is no indication that the truck is still on when you get out. It doesn't beep at you like the van does if you leave the keys in it and open the door. Well, okay, there were no indications except for the fact that the lights were still on. And there was exhaust coming out of the back, because the heat was on. Yeah, no other signs other than that.


And I had locked my cell phone in the truck too, did I mention that?


Yeah. The universe was conspiring against me tonight. I usually don't take my phone out of my purse, but I was expecting a call from someone and had left my cell in the armrest cupholder. She called, and when I got off the phone with her, I put the phone back in the armrest. *sigh* Okay, maybe that was my fault too.


Bonnie and I went to get in the truck when we had finished our shopping at Archiver's, and as soon as I stuck my hand in my purse I knew that I was out of luck. And the store had closed, so of course the doors locked behind us. But fortunately, they were holding a crop (a time when all of us crazy scrapbookers can get together with friends and design scrapbook pages and cards) and everyone was going to be at the store until 11pm. Yay!!


My hero was putting the boys to sleep, so he didn't answer the phone when I called, so Bonnie called Caleb, her hubby-hero, and he hadn't gotten home from his movie yet, so I called my sister Christy, and she was only too glad to get out of her house (right, Christy?) and come rescue us. She stopped at my house and picked up the extra set of truck keys on the way.


Well, Bonnie tried Caleb again, and he had just walked in the door, and he decided to come and rescue his almost-9-months-pregnant wife. I think he just didn't want me to drive her home. heehee!


Anyway, Caleb showed up and then about 30 seconds later, Christy showed up. Oh yeah, and Christy has the coolest new minivan. It has automatic doors, stow and go seats, and even has that new car smell. AHhhhhhh, so nice. I'll have to admire it in the daylight sometime.


Preferably when she's not rescuing me again.

This is a happy blog post. I am sitting here, drinking my coffee, and the boys are... well, okay, they WERE napping, I can hear that Sammy will be coming downstairs soon. I just wanted to share a few pictures of things that have made me happy.

Pink Gerbera Daisies. They make me so happy! Daisies really are such a friendly flower, just like Kathleen Kelly says in "You've Got Mail." I especially like Gerberas because they are so hardy and don't wilt easily and don't have leaves on the stems, which makes for nice pictures. They are a very "clean" looking flower.

I picked up the flowers at Whole Foods about a week ago. They still look great! I wanted to capture their beauty on film so that I could remember the combination of flowers in the bouquet. It just smelled SO amazing as I walked past it that I picked it up and put it in my cart without thinking twice about it. It has eucalyptus, some sort of evergreen with little pink flowers on it, the Calla Lilies, and flock, which I had never smelled before but quickly fell in love with. It is a very clean smell, but flowery too!

I am such an impulse shopper, and the stores really know how to find their way into a girl's heart (and purse!). As I looked at the bouquet, I was struck by how similar it looked to my wedding bouquet. Okay, so it has some major differences, but they both have Calla Lilies, my other favorite kind of flower. I'm not going to say they are my second favorite, because I love them both equally as much. That would be like saying I have a favorite son!

Here is the wedding bouquet, sorry about the blurry picture!

The "LaTte" mug was a birthday present from Bonnie, along with a gift card to one of my favorite places ever, Starbucks! She knows me too well. I think she has heard me commenting on the "word" mugs... you know, "Coffee," "Latte," "Joe,"... well, maybe not "Joe," but you get my drift... every time we have gone any place that sells mugs. And she bought me one to shut me up. Just kidding. I LOVE IT!! I have had coffee in it twice, and she gave it to me on Wednesday night. hehehe... I know they say that caffiene is bad for you, but I honestly don't think I am as nice of a person if I don't have any in my system. This was evidenced a few weeks ago when Griffin asked if we could go to McDonald's for breakfast, "and please can we go get you some coffee, Mommy?" Yeah. Gulp.
Okay, so Sammy fell asleep again, which is why I am still typing away. And with caffiene in my system, I feel like I could go on for hours!! Yippee!!!!! Just kidding. I do have other things I could be doing (don't we all!) but I just love blogging.
I dug the last 3 days' worth of mail out of our tiny mailbox, and in it was the new Sonlight curriculum magazine! I'm SO excited to sit down and pore over it. Even though I know we're going to be getting the P3/4 (preschool for 3-4 year olds) curriculum, it is still fun to look at. Griffin snuggled up next to me and we had fun looking at all of the books in the catalog. He's so excited about school, even though we have been doing some school-type things already. It is the "official" feeling of getting your books, planning your schedule, and writing out lesson plans that is so exciting at the beginning of the school year. I remember every year being so jealous of Mom. She got to do all of the "official" stuff, and I had to do all of the work. Well, I know I will be doing a LOT of work, especially in the beginning years before the boys can read fluently, but I get to do the "fun" work, too, and that is exciting.
I know I have mentioned this family before to many of you, but hop on over to Angela's blog at www.thepaintedhouse.blogspot.com to read more about their struggles and triumphs over 32-year-old Clayton's Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. They are a young couple with three precious children who are 4, 3 and less-than-a-year, and they recently moved to a new state so that CLayton could start his ophthalmology practice, and also recently decided to homeschool Ashton, their 4-year-old. Then the cancer struck, and they have put their lives on hold to fight it. They have even begun a strict vegan diet, and you can check out her dinner blog with tons of great vegan and non-vegan recipes at www.dinnersready.blogspot.com. They appreciate any prayers on behalf of Clayton's health and their family's sanity as they go through all of this. So check it out and say a prayer for someone you don't even know! God can do amazing things if we only ask Him.
That's all for today, I am going to go look at my homeschool magazine now! Have a fabulous day.

Birthday Dinner

Trains, trains, and more trains. When you have two little boys, and you have visitors who are also little boys, trains come very high on the priority list. As in, who was playing with which train, who knocked over whose train (usually Sammy AKA King Kong), which track is the best, which TRAIN is the best (always the one someone else is playing with), who needs to move their train to make way for someone else's train, who stole someone else's train (King Kong) and on and on and on.

Well, Mike and I were offered a break from the "train-talk" for an evening, and it was wonderful! Bonnie and Caleb invited us out for dinner ***without*** the boys, and we had an awesome kid-free time at the Cheesecake Factory. Now, anyone who has ever been to the Cheesecake Factory knows that the food there is absolutely delicious. I have ordered their Orange Chicken a few times, and it has always been superb... just the right blend of sweet, tangy, crispy chicken bites mixed with carrots, squash and

Okay, I have been interrupted about 12 times since I have started writing this post, so if this is not flowing smoothly, you'll understand why. I hope.

so... carrots, squash and those chinese peas... what are they called? My coffee hasn't kicked in yet. And a big scoop of white rice that is so pretty next to all of the colors of the chicken and veggies. Everyone else's food looked wonderful, too. Mike got the Spicy Cashew Chicken, and it looked and smelled SO good. He asked for extra of the sauce they had made it with, and the waitress was happy to bring that out for him. Bonnie got a *small* Chicken Caesar Salad, which was the biggest *small* salad I have ever seen. Her plate was piled high with fresh, crisp greens covered in a tangy, creamy Caesar dressing, with pieces of grilled chicken surrounding the salad. And Caleb's meal... well, let's just say that I will be ordering this next time I go to Cheesecake Factory. He got the Chicken and Biscuits. It looked like something out of a magazine. Chunky vegetables in a creamy sauce with several biscuits surrounding them, and a mound of mashed potatoes with a biscuit next to it also covered in the sauce. Oh. My. Goodness. It looked like heaven on a plate.

So yeah, that's my next meal to "conquer" there. Or, as the guys were saying, the meals conquered us because no one was able to finish their food. We don't go there very much (you get what you pay for at this place) but I will definitely be looking forward to a future visit.

We got presents from Bonnie and Caleb, too, along with having our meal paid for and a kid-free night out! We'll definitely have to do that more often. hahahaha

Since Bonnie is due to have her baby in exactly three weeks from today (yay!!!), it was kind of a "final fling" for us and for them. Because you can get a babysitter so that you can go out to dinner after you have a child, but your time is not your own anymore, so you feel pressure to get home to take care of them. As if the babysitter wasn't doing a perfectly fine job. When we went to pick up the boys last night from their friend's house, we had to drag them practically kicking and screaming out the door. Because he has lots of trains.

It is lunchtime. Sammy has asked me nine times for cereal within the last 5 minutes, so I think I'll go feed my children. We won't be having cereal, but the little bean and cheese burritos in blue and red tortillas will make them happy.

Funky Hair

After the boys' bath tonight, they requested the luxury of sitting on the big bed and having Mama use the blow dryer on them until they were nice and toasty warm. Griffin especially likes this, and he has recently become aware of the fact that when he sits still for me, I can actually make his hair do some pretty fun stuff!! Tonight was no exception, so after he got warmed up from his bath, I worked extra hard creating this masterpiece.

He just came out of his room for the third time tonight, and the masterpiece is beginning to flatten. First time: bathroom. Second time: he forgot to take his imaginary worms (????) into bed with him; he had left them in my room, so he carefully collected them and deposited said worms into a purple tube, and set the tube beside his bed. Third time: he was sad because I didn't rub Sammy's back. I say, "Is Sammy asleep?" "Yes," he says. "Well," I say, "Don't worry, Daddy will rub his back tomorrow night. Okay?" "Okay," he says, and he goes back into his room.

Man, I would love to fall asleep to MY back being rubbed every night. I choose to sing to them instead of rubbing their backs. I know they don't like it as much, but I'll let Daddy keep his backrubs.

Mike is playing poker right now, and seeing as how it is 10pm and he isn't home yet (the game goes from 6:30-9:30), I am assuming he won 1st place and is playing in the second game. I usually get a phone call letting me know he is playing later, but oh well. At least he is having fun.

Okay, little G. is out of bed again. Time to interfere in this negative cycle! I wonder what it is this time...

A New Venture

I have been slacking on my blog lately, I know!! I have been working on something that is very exciting for me, and Mike has been such a big help and an encouragement to me through the whole process. He has even stayed up really late a few nights working on this new venture of mine. So what is it, you might say? Well, I'm so glad you asked. :-)

Mike and I have been working on building a website so that I can sell my cards. I love to make cards, but have never really had a good way to get "the word" out to people about what I have available. Now I have a place to post pictures of my cards, and give the prices, and even talk about what products I used to create the cards. I'm so excited to be doing this! I have sold a few cards here and there, but now I feel like I have a chance to really get "into" my hobby.

I have been working on Mother's Day cards lately. Here are pictures of some of them. I also have blank cards, baby/kids cards, and birthday cards. There is not a huge selection yet, but I'm working on that. I usually make a couple of new cards every night after the boys go to bed.

So here they are! And you can go to www.thekidwellfamily.net/ if you want to see some more.

New Furniture!!

The view from the entryway of our home.

And yes, I know that the top of my china cabinet is an eyesore.

My next project!

Our family room/TV room -- anyone have a media cabinet?

One of my favorite walls in the dining room.

This is right above the toy box, so I figured I could safely put up baby pictures -- this is Griffin in the hospital, and in his jumper-thing.

The view from the dining room.

Our living room, complete with new furniture!

People, really, you all need to come sit on it. You'll never want to leave!


--------------------------------

I'm so excited right now, I really can't sleep, and it is after midnight! We got two new (to us) pieces of furniture, a couch and matching loveseat, that have found a new home in our living room. The couch we had in there was my sister's old one, and it had many ailments (it was fine when she gave it to us -- we are hard on our furniture around here!), including no attached cushions/pillows on the back for support (we lost or ripped the ones that it came with, but they weren't attached, and were used for throwing on the floor a lot by the boys), arms that were too high to sit comfortably, a board that bit you in the behind every time you sat down too hard on it (yeah, I'm a plopper, I plop when I sit -- I'm still working on my ladylike sitting habits!), a spring that was popping out the back of the couch, a tear on the right arm (right where your hand would rest if you could get it up on the arm comfortably -- it was so high, almost nobody used the arms), and fabric that was detaching from all around the bottom of the couch. Wow, did you enjoy all of those parenthesis (parenthisi? parenthises?)?

Needless to say, it had lived its life, and was ready to succumb to the "Jaws of Mike", A.K.A. "Mike -- Armed With A Saw, A Box Knife And Lots Of Trash Bags."

I found the new beauties on Craigslist and went berserk. Mike could tell you how excited I was... I honestly didn't think I would find something this "high quality" (okay, for $340 it IS high quality) on Craigslist. I had only been onto the site once before, when I was looking for little boy clothes, and was disappointed. But the furniture section is amazing! You just have to be willing to drive a bit -- this was about 45 minutes away -- and ask a ton of questions before you commit to purchasing it. Mike was very helpful, because anyone who knows me well knows that if I find something I like, I am bound and determined to get that very thing, and it is hard to talk me out of it. But Mike gave me some very good questions to ask the sellers, and I learned a LOT from the experience. I feel like I can go into my next Craigslist purchase armed with a lot more knowledge. Mike, is that you groaning in the background? (This was a lot of work for him. I love you, Babe!!)

My next tax refund purchase will be a laptop for use upstairs while the boys are awake, and for homeschool purposes, and also for the boys to play games on. And a bench/mirror/storage thing to go in the entryway of our home. Don't know what it's called, but it's going to come in handy for throwing all of our outerwear in in the winter. And as Grandma suggested, my shoes, which tend to end up all over the floor, hallways, bedrooms... what can I say, I like my comfort, and I tend to take them off and then forget about them. Maybe this will reform me!

Make a Card Monday # 6

This card was inspired by Bonnie's baby shower, where we tried to stick to mostly lavenders and blues because we knew that she loves those colors and is incorporating them into Diamond's nursery. In case it is too hard to read, the stamp says "Sweet One... Dimples, giggles, cuddles divine, all come together, sweetness combined." It is from a new Stampin Up! set called So Many Scallops, which is part of Sale-A-Bration.

Every year in February and March Stampin Up! has SAB (Sale-A-Bration), which means that when you buy $50 in products, you get to pick a free stamp set out of their special SAB catalog. I ordered some punches at our last group meeting, and got to pick out a free set. Well, since one of the punches I had ordered was the Scallop Circle Punch, I got this SAB set (So Many Scallops) to go along with it! Yay!! I just love coordinated products.

The colors I used in the card are Bashful Blue for the card and lavender (from Archivers) for the strip on the front. I used white grosgrain ribbon, and the stamp is also in bashful blue. Pretty simple card, but I like to keep baby cards simple and clean. Just like babies. Well, most of the time.

Toasted Pecans

MMMMMMM, we love them. We went for a flashlight walk tonight with a big flashlight carried by Mike and I (well, ONE of us carried it, it's not THAT big), and a small one that was the prize possession of two small boys and was passed very reluctantly back and forth between them every few minutes. It was a little chilly outside, so we all wore our jackets (I promise I'm getting to the pecan part of this story) and took a short walk around the neighborhood. I was quite cold by the time we got home, but I don't think the boys felt a thing, they just LOVE to be outside. When we were almost home, I decided that ice cream sounded good. Crazy, I know, but it did.

And this is the pecan part. When I was over at Bonnie's house a while back, she made me the yummy dinner with toasted pecans on the salad, and again on the ice cream. Well, I recreated the ice cream she had made me, with a drizzle of maple syrup on top and covered with toasted pecans. Griffin had been whining and pouting because he didn't want me to toast his pecans, but he took one bite and... well, I have never seen his ice cream disappear that quickly, and that's saying something!!

He then proceeded to beg from everyone else. "Are you going to eat your "Buh-cahns?"" he asked everyone at the table. He got pecans from Daddy, but Mommy was feeling a little stingy and didn't want to give hers up. Hey, I like them too! He even got some of the remaining ones from the pan and added them to his "pudding"... you know, the ice cream that has melted in the bottom of your bowl. I think he has a new favorite dessert!

MACM (Wednesday) # 5

Okay, so I forgot to take pictures of the ever-so-fabulous gift I gave to Bonnie, but I may be able to have her take a picture of it and send it to me so that I can post it here. Instead, I am posting a picture of a card I made (a pack of ten cards, actually) for my Grandma for her 80th birthday. Her birthday was actually on February 4th, but she came here to visit so that she could be at a jazz concert my brother Wesley was playing in.

We had a fun visit, and I got to spend some time with her and Mom as we went to look for a piece of jewelry -- also for her birthday, from my mom -- and went to Einstein Brothers for lunch, and visited a super-fun little shop called "Something Else" that was just chock-full of those crafty kinds of things that we could so easily make ourselves but never (make?) time to actually do.

Then we got to spend time with Aunt Susan and Uncle John, my cousin Alison and also Christy's family, eating dinner and hanging out before we all went to the concert and were totally wowed by all of the amazing musicians displaying their talents. I was wiping away tears more than once. Especially when Wesley stood there all by himself and played an amazing solo on his trumpet, so clear and beautiful, even though he was using a mute of some kind... it actually reminded me of Mardi Gras music, but the song was called Meetin' Time, and was reminiscent of a black church service down south. A baby in the audience even cried once while they were playing the song, how appropriate!

Anyway, back to the card. I used some textured lavender cardstock from Archiver's as the base of the card, and layered it with Wild Wasabi, Eggplant Envy (retired) and Whisper White, which are all from Stampin Up!... the ribbon is some lavender I picked up from Wal-Mart. I used Watercolor Wonder Crayons to watercolor the design after stamping it in Stazon ink. The stamp is from the "Long-Time Friend" set.

I love the way the colors all came together, and the card reminds me of spring and summer and all of the warmth and beauty that comes when the sun shines and warms up the earth... boy, I think I need some coffee. Or hot tea. And some warm fuzzy socks. Something to warm up my cold fingers and toes.

I'm going upstairs to do that, and I'll curl up and read a good book while I'm at it (the boys and the girl I'm babysitting are all asleep! yay!).

Because I've been a slacker...

I haven't posted a Make A Card Monday this week, and I have a good excuse, really, I do. I have been working tirelessly (okay, I have been getting SOME rest) on the lovely baby shower we will have for Bonnie tomorrow. Can you tell I hang out with this gal a lot? Yeah, well, she's totally worth all of the trouble we (me and Heather, another good friend of Bonnie's) have gone to to get this shower put together. And I must admit, I have had a BLAST doing it, too. Maybe I should go into the party planning busine.....NAH. But it has been fun while it lasted. I can't wait for tomorrow afternoon. I want to make Bonnie cry. Only because I know I will be crying too; I'm such a big baby when it comes to this stuff. Baby. Hah.

I promise I will post MACM in two days, because I have something really cool that I have been working on for quite a while, but I can't post it yet, because it's a surprise for said shower tomorrow. Don't get your panties in a wad, I'll post it soon!

Meanwhile, here is a creation I worked on one morning. When Mike came up for lunch, he saw it and didn't say anything. Then Griffin said "Hey, Daddy!! Mommy made a PIE!!!

And Mike said "Mommy didn't make THAT!"

Which just goes to show how much confidence he has in my pie-making skilz. And yes, I do have skilz. I love me some pie, and when I make one, I put my heart and soul into it. Actually, he said that it was truly a compliment to say that my pie looked store-bought. So I accepted his statement and gave him a piece.




OH! And here is a picture of the bouquet Mike gave me on Valentine's Day. I had a rather unpleasant "yearly checkup" at the ob/gyn that day, and he knew how much I had been dreading it. He came home while I was at the doctor's office and left this on the table for me to find when I got home. Isn't that just too sweet? He knew it would make me smile... and I did. :-)



Here is the recipe for the pie.

Valentine's Day Pie

1 Graham Cracker pie crust

2 boxes banana cream instant pudding mix

1 small container strawberry cream cheese

chocolate chips (1/2 bag? 1/4 bag?)

*make pudding according to "pie filling" directions

*pour pudding into graham cracker crust

*fill decorating bag (I used the star tip) with cream cheese

*make two circles of stars around the outside of the pie

*make one circle of chocolate chips

*two more circles of stars

*one more circle of chocolate chips

*one more circle of stars, with a big star in the center

and you have yourself one very yummy pie

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

We had Bonnie and Caleb over the other night for "tacos"... I make flat shells, so what would that be? Tostadas? They all just get crunched up into taco salad anyway. It was a yummy meal, followed by a multitude of various kinds of ice cream and Italian Gelato.

Then we all migrated into the TV room and snuggled up on the couch to watch The Little Mermaid. Can anybody say "Under the Sea"? da-da-da-daaa-daaaa-da-daa-daa-daa-daa

Yeah. Good times.

The movie was almost over when I glanced at Sammy and saw this.

and this...

Oh. My. Goodness. It was just too cute.

MACM # 4 -- Happy Valentine's Day!!

I'm really going to have to change it to "Make a Card Tuesday" if I keep this up. Mondays have just not been working out for me. But here are a few cards, anyway. The one on top is the card we made at the Stampin' Up! club meeting last night -- we have meetings once a month, and I wouldn't miss it! SO much fun, and a real stress reliever for me. Our demonstrator, Kim DePugh, helped us make these cards using the "emboss resist" technique, where we embossed the white hearts onto white cardstock and then rubbed pink ink all over the cardstock. Where the embossed hearts are, no ink shows up. Cool, huh? I love the effect.

And here are the ones I have made myself over the past few weeks. Yes, technically I did not make them on Monday, but I can still show them off. :-)

Spider, Schmeider

We were eating lunch today, and I saw a spider on the ceiling. It was one of those "flat" ones that is about quarter-sized and can make itself almost completely flat. Strangely enough, I have never seen one anywhere but on the ceiling.


Well, being the brave soul that I am, I wanted to find out if it was alive. So I blew as hard as I could, hoping that the air flow would stir the spider and make it move.


Why, exactly, I would want to make a creepy-crawly spider MOVE, and thus creep myself out even MORE, I have no earthly idea, but I guess maybe it is just my dark side coming out. So there I was, blowing for all I was worth, and the darn thing wouldn't move!


So of course I went to the kitchen and grabbed a towel.


I proceeded to flap the towel in the general direction of the spider, preparing myself to run in the other direction (I didn't know WHICH "other" direction, just anywhere but DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH said spider) if the spider so much as lifted a toenail...er...a leg-hair?


The spider didn't move.


Griffin had been saying something -- apparently TO ME -- the whole time I had been placing myself in harm's way (because everybody knows that all spiders are aggressive and deserve to be squished) to protect him and his little brother. But the business at hand was such that it required my full attention and caused me to tune out all other noise...


"MOMMY!"


"Yes, sweetie? OH... did he just move??? Did you see him move?"


"Mommy, I think the spider is dead."


"Really? Hmmm, I don't know. He hasn't moved, and I have hit him about 30 times... you could be right."


Reluctantly, I abandoned my post beneath the might-have-crawled-his-last creepy-crawly spider, and sat back down at the table with the boys. I kept casting glances in the spider's direction, sure that he was just biding his time before he attacked us all.


"MOMMY."


"Yes, sweetie?" (I'm beginning to sense that it is hard to get my attention sometimes.)


"Mommy, I don't think that is the kind of spider that will bite us."


"Oh, honey (rather condescendingly)... ALL spiders can bite."


"Not dead ones."




WELL, I guess he told me.

Make A Card Monday # 3

I knew as soon as I saw the uber-cute line of baby boy clothing at Janie and Jack that I would just HAVE to make a card with those colors. So here it is. And if you want to see the clothes, go to www.janieandjack.com and click on "boy"... but check out the girl clothes there too, because man, oh man, are they adorable!!!

Make a Card Monday # 2

I know, I know, it isn't Monday anymore... hasn't been Monday all day. But I'm posting it now, so at least I didn't forget completely. And I'm not going to take pictures of the entire process anymore like I did last time; that took WAY too long to upload all of the pictures here, so you're getting one picture, with an explanation of how I did it.

Okay, so I used the same stamp set as I did last week, but what can I say? I just love Doodle This from SU! The cardstock colors are Blue Bayou, Purely Pomegranate, Soft Sky and Whisper White. I used Purely Pomegranate ink and also Staz-On ink in Jet Black (you should always use Staz-On when watercoloring, or your ink will bleed). To watercolor the image, I used Watercolor Wonder Crayons (from SU!) in Rose Red, Always Artichoke, Not Quite Navy and Cameo Coral. I used the water brush to watercolor it, not sure what the technical term is for it. It holds the water in the handle. I cut out the white circle with a circle punch, and then layered the Purely Pomegranate under it with a layering tool. It was a pretty easy card to make. The hardest part was cutting out the stamped images, and even that was fairly simple.

Vegetable Delight

Here is a recipe I made up from veggies I had in the fridge. It was so good! I think I may use rice next time instead of Ramen, so the veggies would be the main focus and have most of the flavor, and so that there would be less salt. Tomorrow I will use the leftover vegetables to make quesadillas with some freshly shredded mozzarella cheese. Oh, I can't wait!

Vegetable Delight

*1 package Little Smokies, smoked sausage, or a vegetarian substitute

*2 green onions, just the green parts, finely chopped

*1/2 red pepper, cored and diced

*2 cloves minced garlic

*5 carrots, scrubbed and diced

*1 whole bunch of celery, diced (use the leafy parts, they add so much flavor!)

*1 leek, sliced into thin slices and soaked for a few minutes in cold water to remove any gritty residue

*3 heads of broccoli, and stems if you like them, dice the stems and separate broccoli into florets

*1 stick sweet cream butter, cut into chunks

about 10 oz. chicken stock

*1 TBSP Basil

*1 TBSP Oregano

*2 TBSP Seasoned Salt

*2 packages Chicken flavor Ramen Noodles (or rice)

Directions:

Yspend about 30 minutes chopping all the veggies up

Yput the little smokies into a big stock pot that has been sprayed with non-stick spray and cook them over medium-high heat, stirring every minute or so so they don't burn, until they are starting to brown

Yturn the heat to medium, add all of the chopped veggies and stir to mix

Ystir in the butter

Ywhen veggies start to soften, add the chicken stock and seasonings

stirring frequently, cook the veggies to the softness you like... Sammy likes his veggies pretty soft or he has a hard time chewing them

Ymeanwhile, cook the Ramen noodles or rice according to the package directions

Yserve Ramen/rice in bowls topped with the cooked vegetables