Showing posts with label melanie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label melanie. Show all posts

Saturday, March 28, 2009

2nd anniversary of my 29th birthday

{I’m 31.}

My mama made me a strawberry cake with the most buhwicious {Jack-ism} whipped cream icing! Even my non-icing-eating husband loved the icing!

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I think the boys’ favorite part was the vanilla cone.

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Jack is pretty serious about his ice cream.

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Seriously. Too much cuteness for one picture.

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Memaw with Lukey-boy

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Me and My Girl

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Maddy looked through her own jewelry box and chose this locket {that we got Memaw several years ago, that Maddy borrowed and was keeping in her jewelry box} to give me for my birthday! Precious!

My boys got me the only thing I asked for…a stainless travel mug! I love my guys!

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Thanks, family, for my fun party and all of my wonderful gifts! I love you ALL!

Friday, May 23, 2008

No news here...

I've been meaning to post for a while now. Things are uneventful here so far, and I'm guessing that at least the next couple of weeks will be much the same. I have no expectation of going early, but that would be fine with me...I am SO ready!! I do have a couple of things to share, though...

We have a name. It is not a family name, as our others have been. But I take full credit or blame, whichever the case may be, since Jared decided OF HIS OWN FREE WILL, with no prompting from me, that the mommy who has carried his FIVE children should have full rights to this one final name. After months of "How about...?" "No" "Well, then how about...?" "No" back and forth, a decision was made. And since some sweet friends from church had a shower for me tonight...

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Angie and Liana hosted at Angie's home

...we've now officially committed to the name, because LOOK, we have embroidered burp cloths!

And monogrammed blankets and bath towels!

So here's the monogram...

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Any guesses??? I know, the suspense is killing you...

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Luke Wesley Smalling

Friday, May 16, 2008

"Gonna put you in a trance with a funky song"

It's possible I have sunk to a new low. But OH the memories!

NKOTB is "Hangin' Tough" again!


I've mentioned before that I once had dreams of being Mrs. Donnie Wahlberg and this morning, the Today Show reminded me why :-) Did anyone else catch this?


Who knew those moves (not to mention songs!) were (still are) so incredibly cheesy??!! Ok, we all probably knew, even back then, but, OH, the cuteness!

Here they are "back in the day":

Were inside out overalls with the top hanging down REALLY ever cool? I guess that (partially) explains my lack of popularity in middle school..and here they are all grown up today...

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Please let this baby be born soon so I have something worthwhile to blog about!!

Friday, May 2, 2008

ARGH

...or "aruga" as Erin would say...

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I'm just not in the mood for storms. But they appear to be heading this way. Me and Larie will be single-handedly attempting to convince God to skip over our respective communities.

Maybe tonight's not the night to start the OB-approved Unisom. I haven't slept more than 2 or 3 hours in a long...long...long time. But tonight looks like it will be spent glued to channel 4's 3-D Stormtracker.

Seriously, I'm not in the mood. If you hear a whining sound, it could be a tornado, so take cover. Or it could just be me throwing a baby-fit, pity party. Please forgive me in advance.

**Update: I did take the Wal-som (because we are generic) last night and, as I expected, it made my body very very tired and my mind very very awake. Which is just cruel. And my husband had the audacity to SLEEP instead of monitoring the storms for me, since I could not keep my eyes open but could not actually sleep, but instead lay very still while my mind raced. I still feel drugged this morning, so I will not be taking it again. There has been much whining and general grumpiness. I haven't been able to keep my eyes open long enough to see how everyone fared weather-wise, but I hope everyone is okay. I just needed to get this out of my system. I don't plan to have another whiny post, so enjoy this one while you can.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Tagged

Here's how this one works...

  1. The rules are posted at the beginning.
  2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
  3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and ask them to read your blog.

What I was doing 10 years ago:

  1. Majoring in Music Education at WKU
  2. being an HFC (Hilltoppers for Christ)
  3. living at home
  4. not dating Jared (we were "just friends")
  5. preparing to spend the summer in Honduras and transfer to Harding in the fall

Five things on my to do list for today:

  1. Take Jack to school (in 20 minutes!)
  2. Go to the grocery (unless I'm okay with running out of toilet paper today)
  3. Take a shower
  4. Go to Angie's for lunch
  5. Do laundry (so the kids will have school clothes for the rest of the week!)

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

  1. Buy Jared a farm and a couple of fast cars
  2. Get a bigger house (not ridiculous, but with more bedrooms and a big dining room)
  3. Buy my parents and in-laws their dream homes
  4. Finish funding college and retirement for all of our family (including future nieces and nephews)
  5. Give lots of money to Baxter to do the things Mom mentioned
  6. Give lots of money to Barquisimeto, Venezuela, church, Grandview church(Hispanic church in Nashville), and Woodbine church (inner city Nashville)
  7. Adopt a bunch more children, and hire people to clean house, cook, etc so I could just be the wife/mom (and blog)! (That sounds good even if we didn't add any more children!)
  8. Personal masseuse!! (Good idea, Mom! Probably at the top of my list too!)

Three of my bad habits: (I'm glad this was limited to 3!)

  1. Being late
  2. Yelling (in anger/frustration, when I'm excited, when I'm too lazy to walk to the next room to communicate)
  3. Biting my fingernails (and passing that on to my daughter! Argh!!)

Five places I have lived:

  1. Searcy, AR (Tina Circle, Stephens dorm)
  2. Springdale, AR, & Farmington, AR
  3. Bowling Green, KY (Leslie Ave, Greenhill Rd, MacLean and Rhodes-Harlin dorms)
  4. Hendersonville, TN (Wilmington Ct)
  5. Nashville, TN (Elam dorm, Oakley Dr)

Five jobs I have had:

  1. Chopsticks (Greenwood Mall)
  2. McCloud Claims Service (secretary)
  3. various marching bands (brass/marching/field commander instructor)
  4. Catalog Music (customer service)
  5. Foundation Christian Academy (Spanish teacher)

Five People I Want to Know More About:

  1. The Amy B's (Berry & Bowman)
  2. SGD (you don't have a blog but you can email/comment or START A BLOG)
  3. Hannah R
  4. Maggie Jean
  5. The Sarah K's (White and Owens)

Monday, April 21, 2008

Email tag

My friend, Amy in BG, sent this to me today, so I'm posting it here. I also got my first TAG--a double one--from Tiffany and Teresa (same tag), so I'll do that soon. But it requires more thought, so I'm throwing this one out there first. Not really a tag, but it looked fun!

Welcome to the 2008 edition of Getting to Know Your Friends! Change all the answers so they apply to you, and then send this to your friends including the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have
known!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:15-ish to help kids get ready for school
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds!
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Veggie Tales: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything
4. What is your favorite TV show? Lost, The Office, Scrubs, House
5. What did you have for breakfast? Cheerios with "gold" (aka honey)--and I used Jared's whole milk...oh yes I did.
6. What is your middle name? Dawn
7. What food do you dislike? Anything I have to cook :-)
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Watermark "A Grateful People"
9. What kind of car do you drive? Honda Odyssey
10. Favorite sandwich? Tuna from Panera or Subway (w/lettuce, tomato and LOTS of black pepper)
11. What characteristic do you despise? meanness (I have a hard time describing this exactly, Jared makes fun of me for calling lots of things "mean"...I know it when I see/hear/feel it)
12. Favorite item of clothing? currently, Bella Band; normally, Old Navy jeans
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? nowhere at the moment :-) but snorkeling in Belize is at the top of my to-do list SOMEDAY
14. Favorite brand of clothing? SALE! Banana Republic if I had the time or money (or, you know, a waist)!
15. Where would you retire to? That's too far away to even think about!
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? My last one--the big 3-0! Jared surprised me with a party, even in the middle of his busy season! And my mom passed down my grandmother's beautiful ring to me, so that made it extra special!
17. Favorite sport to watch? Titans football
18. What is the furthest place this email will go? Honduras to Mom (since Dad doesn't "do blogs")
19. Person you expect to send it back first? No idea
20. When is your birthday? March 28
22. Are you a morning person or a night person? Definitely a night person :-)
23. What is your shoe size? 8 normally, 8 1/2 when pregnant
24. Pets? 3, if you count the kids :-) We have lots of "pet" caterpillars, ants, and worms, but they stay outside and fend for themselves.
25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? Hopefully I will in about 5 more weeks! And hopefully he will have a name by then.
26. What did you want to be when you were little? teacher, mommy, musician, Mrs. Donny Wahlberg (New Kids on the Block)
27. How are you today? as my dad would say, "Old, fat and tired." 2 of those I actually am, one I just feel.
28. What is your favorite candy? Jr Mints, but I'd take a cookie (esp Snickerdoodle) over candy
29. What is your favorite flower? tulip
30. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? May 28/June 1--whatever day this baby is born!!! (And our anniversary on May 29, but it's going to be a pretty unromantic one)
32. What is your full name? Melanie Dawn Smalling
31. What are you listening to right now? Peace and quiet. Jack is watching Blue's Clues but if I pretend, I can hear quiet.
34. What was the last thing you ate? ice (from Sonic, from one of 2 bags of it in my freezer)
35. Do you wish on stars? no
36. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? burnt sienna
38. Last person you spoke to on the phone? my mama called me from Honduras!
39. Favorite soft drink? cherry Coke
40. Favorite restaurant? Rafferty's
41. Hair color? brownish
42. What was your favorite toy as a child? Lisa, a doll my mom made for me
43. Summer or winter? Summer
44. Hugs or kisses? Hugs
45. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate
46. Coffee or tea? both!!!
47. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes!
48. When was the last time you cried? Yesterday when I found that instead of getting ONE shirt to wear, Jack had pulled out ALL of the clothes out of ALL of his and Noah's dresser.
49. What is under your bed? 2 plastic containers of clothes I can't wear right now
50. What did you do last night? Went to Karyn Henley parenting seminar at our church
51. What are you afraid of? Storms, tornadoes, someone in front of me throwing a cigarette out their car window and it going under my car and making it blow up, ...
52. Salty or sweet? both, together
53. How many keys on your key ring? 2
54. How many years at your current job? 8 1/2 (mom)
55. Favorite day of the week? Tuesday (Jack goes to Mother's Day Out!)
56. How many towns have you lived in? 6 (but one of those 3 different times)
57. Do you make friends easily? More and more, as I realize that people I thought were more acquaintances are really friends.
58. How many people will you send this to? ??? Whoever reads this blog???
59. How many will respond? maybe 4

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Yum! A recipe!

These are the yummiest cookies ever. If not yummier.

They are called Tahini Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies and I have no idea where I got the recipe, but my confidential source got it from Eating Well magazine, March 2005. I felt like I should disclose that, although none of the 4 people who read this will probably turn me in for ripping off a recipe.

On to the recipe. In Pioneer Woman fashion, I took pictures. Really just because I thought that would be fun. Not because you really need to see how to make cookies. Because if you did need help, learning from me would NOT be a good idea. I do not bake. In fact, I recently managed to mess up The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever. which I had made twice with no problem. Pride cometh before a bad sheet cake.

So anyway, back to the cookies. My pictures didn't turn out so well. But here are a couple, although they don't really help you. If I had light other than "fluorescent" in my kitchen, it would help. But you do get to see my loverly countertops, which I can only assume were bottom-of-the-line back in 1955. And that should make someone thankful for their own counter-tops. I'm not jealous. Really.

The Ingredients:

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2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup ap flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup tahini
4 tbsp butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg white
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

If you look closely, you'll see that I left the granulated sugar out of the picture, which I didn't realize until I was downloading pictures. Fortunately, my very own sugar requested a picture with the 'green-dients, so technically, this one does include sugar :-)

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...and also shows off the "chrome" on the countertops. Making you a little more jealous than you were before.

Preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Mix together oats, flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

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Beat tahini and butter together until blended. Add sugars and beat until well combined. Add in egg, egg white and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Stir in oat mixture until nearly incorporated, then add in chocolate chips (and optional nuts). Do not over mix.
Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet.

I personally love this medium scoop from Pampered Chef. Or the large one if you want big ol' gourmet-looking cookies.

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Bake for 10-12 minutes (or 15 minutes for a crispy cookie), until golden brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 4 dozen.

I'm not sure what microscopic size cookies you would have to make to get 4 dozen, but with the medium scoop, I get about 2 dozen. And I bake mine for 10 minutes because I like a gooey cookie.

Let's talk mixers for a moment. I got my hand mixer for a wedding gift and it has served me well. Except now I can only find one beater. So there was much chasing of the 'green-dients around the bowl today. Again, those of you with one of these, I am not jealous. At all.

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Tahini Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup ap flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup tahini
4 tbsp butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg white
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk together oats, flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
Beat tahini and butter together until blended. Add sugars and beat until well combined. Add in egg, egg white and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Stir in oat mixture until nearly incorporated, then add in chocolate chips. Do not over mix.
Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes (or 15 minutes for a crispy cookie), until golden brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 4 dozen.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Struggling

I started blogging as a way to express myself, to get my thoughts down, and of course to remind myself of the crazy things my kids do on a daily basis. Somehow, the kids have taken over. It's just easier to write about the fun and funny things they do and say and how I feel about that. This started as a catharsis in my journey through losing Ruby. I kept a journal from the time she died and eventually I quit journaling and began blogging. I sit down at the computer many times and plan to share something personal or what is really on my heart and then I convince myself that I don't have the emotional energy to do that, and that I'm just not in the mood for more seriousness.

I'm so tired. So is everyone else. I feel like God has been giving and giving and giving to me for so long through so many people and I should be so full of Him that it would be evident in my life. And then I look at my life and it's kind of the opposite. I still feel like I'm taking and taking and taking. I can look at this last year or so and see that He has brought me to a different place spiritually, in relationship to Him, than I have ever been before. I see what He has given me, how He has drawn me to Him, how faithful He has been to me even though I've done nothing to deserve it. And I've praised Him for that like never before. I adore Him. He is awesome. When I get to heaven, I'd like some portion of eternity to be spent rockin' my baby Ruby, since I haven't gotten to do that here, but then there's nothing I want more than to sit at His feet in worship. Forever. And ever. It's not that He hasn't brought me a long way. It's just that apparently, I had a really long way to go, because I still feel like I've only taken a baby step toward Him.

And somehow I can't get past the adoration of Him. That's safe. I know He accepts me, enjoys my fellowship (I don't know WHY, but I trust He DOES). It's all the other people in the world that He wants me to serve. I don't wanna. I just want to stay safe in my cocoon I've built, praise Him, get through life. That sounds really bad when I put it like that.

Boy, have I got it backwards! I KNOW in my head that He asks for my first fruits for a reason. Duh! Because that is how I am truly filled so I can pour out to others. I've been trying to give out of my own supplies, and they are just depleted. There's never quite enough. So I know this, but why don't I just do it? I can look back on a thousand times in my life when I put Him first (usually because I was so depleted that I had no other choice), and HELLO...HE IS ALWAYS FAITHFUL! Always. Completely. Faithful.

Always. Completely. Enough.

Enough to bless my husband with the respect and attention he deserves. Enough to mother my children and not just provide daycare. Enough to care for the material blessings which He has made me responsible for now. Enough to be hospitable to my extended family, neighbors, and others God puts in my path. Enough to not see the little bit of missions translating and volunteering at school as burdens, but to see them as the acts of service that they are. Enough to take me out of my little tiny circle of safety and show me ways to serve Him daily through looking beyond myself and my family.

Every few months, my friends and I beat ourselves up for how self-centered and child-centered we've become and how we manage to be "salt and light" to our kids (sometimes) but certainly are not to the world. We wander through our day, rushing to the next event, or spending the day at home with our children dictating everything we do. We justify this by saying that "it's just because our children are young" or "our home IS our mission field"...which are both true. If I served the whole world and ignored my family, I'm pretty sure God would hold me accountable for that oversight. But we beat ourselves up, and then never make any changes. Me included. I have no fresh insights on what to do on a daily basis to get out of my kid-rut. I just SO want for my children to at least see me trying to get out of my "comfort zone" and live like I really believe and trust and have faith in what Jesus tells us. He doesn't give me a "get out of jail free card" on being a mom. He asks me to be a servant. To give. And then to give some more. And to have faith that He will provide. He will fill me back up when I am depleted. But not so I can sit around and enjoy being full, but so that I can praise Him for His faithfulness and then give it all away again.

So how can I do that? I know no one else can answer specifically for me. I'm asking Him this too, privately, because I know He will show me what He wants from me right now. But does anyone else struggle with this or have any ideas?

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Speaking of messes...

Melissa M. showed her mess of laundry recently, but mine is in so many small, unimpressive piles that I'm embarrassed to even start taking pictures. Then I'd have to actually track down all of the piles. And then I'd need a nap...

So instead, I'm posting another "hot spot" of mine...the piles and piles and piles of my kids' schoolwork!! I threw lots of it away, but I still have TONS. Here are piles of work from THIS school year:

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See the clear tub under the papers in that last picture? Yep, those are papers from PREVIOUS years. I don't know why this is so hard for me. I am usually good about wanting to get rid of things and periodically purging my piles. But not school papers. I do throw many of them away as soon as I get them, but obviously not nearly enough! I don't know what I think I'll save them for, but I just am not ready to part with them. I do have an abnormal affinity for worksheets ("busy work"), so maybe that's why I can't part with them.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Surprise!! (alternate title: They sure are good liars!)

The Saturday before Easter, we headed to BG since it was "the only weekend I could get out of working all day", according to my husband, the tax accountant. So, we planned to visit the Smallings for Easter, and my mom was going to have lunch with us at their house after church Sunday. Shirley called Thursday or Friday and said they were having "some kind of egg hunt for the kids at the church on Saturday afternoon at 2, so make sure Jared can be home in time to make it for that." I talked to Mom Saturday morning before we left and she said, "I'll probably just see you Sunday after church."

We showed up at the site of the "Easter Egg Hunt" but there were no cars there yet. The church van was there, so Jared said, "They probably parked at church and drove over since there's not much room to park here. I'll go see if there's anyone here yet before we unload the kids." So he did, and after a 1.2 second "conversation" with "someone from church" at the door, he returned and said that "everyone was on their way and we should go on in".

ALL LIES.

I sent the kids in and paused to put on some mascara and lip gloss so I would look halfway alive. I walked in the door and...

SURPRISE!!

Huh?! What?! Who?! There's Shirley, she should be here, but wait, why is MY mom here? And people who don't even go to church here. And there are balloons?? And they just yelled "Surprise!!" I am a little slow, but I finally figured out it was a surprise 30th birthday party...for ME. I have never had a surprise party before, and I typically do NOT like to be surprised, but it was fun!! The kids, of course, were NOT in on it, or it would not have been a surprise :-) But Jared, Mom and Shirley were quite the smooth-talkers! I had no idea. They all thought, for various reasons (I'd gotten my hair cut randomly the day before, I dressed the boys in shorts that day even though it was FREEZING and I "knew" the egg hunt was outside, etc), but I had NO clue. I'm so gullible.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures, but I hope Mom, Shirley, Crystal and Heather will have some. Thanks to my sweet friends who were there to celebrate with me and to the Moms (mine and Jared's) for taking care of everything. And thanks to my sweet husband for planning it and knowing that even though I said I didn't want a party, I really did! I learned later that he'd had big plans for a big shabang, but since it was Easter weekend AND his busy season, it just didn't happen as he'd planned. That's what I get for being born before April 15th.

I got several special presents, not the least of which was my grandmother's diamond ring, which my mom has worn all of my life and now passed on to me. She decided at some point before my 29th birthday that she wanted to give it to me now, while she's alive, to see me enjoy having it. So she decided my 30th birthday would be an appropriately important milestone. She had the band changed to white gold (it was yellow), so I hardly recognized it when I saw it in the box! Thank you, Mama, for sharing something so special with me. I think of you, and of Mama Jean, every time I look down. It still takes a second to register that it's my hand and not yours I'm seeing, since I saw it on your hand for so many years!

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And finally, I'll leave you with a fun and special gift from my kids, with a little help from Dani/Mom. While they were at her house over Spring Break, she asked them some questions and recorded their answers. Here they are:

1. How old is mommy going to be on her birthday?

Madeline: 30

Noah: 30

Jack: 2

2. What does mommy want for her birthday?

A new camera because her old one broke

Stuff like when she's getting married, like rings and necklaces

Pirates

3. What kind of party would mommy like to have?

A calm one because we're usually loud; a normal one or maybe a surprise party because she doesn't do that much stuff that's real fun

A "Thank You, Mom" party

A pirate party

4. If you could get mommy anything in the world, what would it be?

A card that says, "I love you and I'm sorry for the times I've yelled at you, and I still love you even when you kinda yell at me when you're mad."

A special ring that has a mommy, and a daddy, and 3 children on it...doesn't that sounds sweet?

A pirate

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Crazy Jack & Mommy

This is what happens when Jack gets to tell me what to do.
This is also a lot of why my house is a wreck. Oh well.

"Take a picture of bof of us." "Now be surprised"
"Now yell real woud"
"Now 'tend you're so sad"
"Now be happy!""Now do your tongue wike dis"
"Now do Old Macdonald kiss" [you say "ee-ii-ee-ii-o", hold the "o", and then kiss: the ending to our nightly rendition of "Old Macdonald"--usually followed by a "nananana-nananana-Batman" kiss, a growling dinosaur kiss, a duck kiss, etc, etc, etc]

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Woo-hoo! My "new" kitchen!

dFor my own sanity, this post will be (parentheses-free). I read some past posts recently and nearly drove myself crazy with all of the (parentheses) I use. So just this once, I will force myself to refrain. Sometimes I just really annoy myself!


So, we've been in this house 2 1/2 years and are just now doing ANYTHING to it, but we're on a roll! Which I'm sure will end, oh, I don't know, sometime around the end of May, when Babycare 501 begins. So with Maddy's pink room and the living area painted, what more could I ask for? Let me remind you...
Sadly, that was in JULY and here we are in FEBRUARY...

Yep, same ol' painted, nasty-looking floor. Okay, it probably IS actually nasty, and not just nasty-looking. Plus, I was really tempted to put that in parentheses. But still, the paint. SOOOOO...since we couldn't decide on exactly what to do "permanently", blah, blah, blah...insert long-winded account of our boring and drawn-out indecisive decision-making process...here is the current final result...



Jared, at my request, took the kids to his parents' house for a long-overdue visit Saturday night through Sunday evening. They were able to celebrate Uncle Dick's 91st birthday with him on Sunday. Jack especially liked the part where he blew out Uncle Dick's candles, even though Jared had warned him not to. I know this because when they walked in the door Sunday afternoon, Jack said, "It's not my birday, I cannot bwo out Uncle Dick's candles. My birday is 'tober thirty. It's not 'tober thirty yet. Then I can bwo out my candles." Let me just say, I was more impressed that he remembered his birthdate than I was upset over him blowing out the 91-year-old's candles. I'm betting Uncle Dick did NOT care. Although everyone else planning to actually EAT the cake might have a different opinion.

And how, you might wonder, does that relate to the kitchen floor? While they were gone, I "tiled" the kitchen floor! Yes, I'm 23 weeks pregnant. So sue me, I needed a project. I'm nesting a little early. The floor is 18" vinyl stick-on tiles from L.owe's (like Sarah K!). I had brought home 10+ different tiles to try out and the lighter ones, which seemed more practical in not making our small kitchen look any smaller, just didn't look right with the orange shellacked knotty pine cabinets. As if anything looks good with orange shellacked knotty pine cabinets. But I took a gamble...Jared did not share my vision...that these darker tiles, with the orangey-greeny tones, would work. For under $100 and probably 8 hours of my time...because I'm really slow...I...I mean we...have a new kitchen floor! I really like it, and Jared actually does, too. He still doesn't love the aloe-colored walls...and honestly, neither do I, but I think it all looks better at least. Although it would be hard NOT to improve on the "painted" linoleum!

These are the curtains...I just typed kirtins...seriously...although in my defense I was simultaneously--I can spell that--carrying on a conversation with Noah about Fat Tuesday and why we do NOT have to take the red velvet cake that Memaw gave me for Valentine's Day--THANK YOU, MEMAW!--to Maddy's Brownie meeting because they are going to have a king cake there, and that Maddy promises she will tell him after the meeting if she gets the piece with the baby...so, I guess I just went on autopilot.

Ok, seriously back to the kitchen. These are the curtains that I "made". I intended to actually sew them on Monday, but realized AFTER retrieving my sewing machine from the attic, that I had NO thread. I guess I took my sewing box to my parents' house and left it there. Oops! It didn't help that Jack was napping and I only had 5 hours until 11 friends came to my house for Bunko night! Oh yeah, and I needed to finish cooking, finish cleaning, un-grocery-sack the windows, etc. So, I decided to do the next-best, quickest thing...staple! You can tell in-person, but not too shabby in the picture. Except that I didn't bother to measure. I had already cut the fabric, but I just eye-balled the hems, "seam"-allowances, etc. I hope to go back soon and actually sew them, but I'm not making any promises. If you look at the "before" picture of the kitchen, you'll see the curtain was 3 cloth napkins from Ta.rget that I stapled to the inside of the existing wood cornice-thingy. I don't have a great track-record with these things. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I say.

The rest of these pictures, and really most of this post, are mostly for mom, who is probably the only one interested at this point. This is a little plaque...isn't that the stuff on your teeth? is it spelled the same?...I found at R.oss for $10 that convinced me that I COULD pull off the aloe and red color scheme with black iron accents. I already had the aloe walls, and black hinges/cabinet pulls, so I was pretty much stuck with that. Anyway, I like it and I really like it in this empty space under the cabinet. It used to be over the refrigerator. It looks mighty-nice with the curtains, I think. And my red-velvet valentine cake coordinates, too! And I feel like I should confess that, since I had 11 people over for Bunko/dinner last night, I have NOT finished all the dishes, so I had to move piles of dirty dishes from one end of the counter to the other to achieve full-coverage of the kitchen :) Just so you didn't think I have it all together. I know, don't laugh, no one really thought that anyway!!Now, if we can just do something about those countertops! I think I need a V-8 smack with a verse about being content. Thunk! And I made it with no parentheses! The next baby-step will be weaning myself from ... and --. Don't hold your breath.

And if you made it to the end of yet another long-winded post, please know that I appreciate any and all comments, even from the more mature ladies ;-) That's you, M.E.!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Ahh...DSL

So we finally have entered the world of somewhat-high-speed internet. We have had dial-up until early this morning when Jared finished setting up our DSL Lite. WOW. Now you understand why I've been posting all day :) Here's one (probably) last one for today.

I occasionally (okay, once before today, when Jared left his laptop at home and I "borrowed" some neighbor's wi-fi...it's not like it's secured and I hacked in, but still...) visit the blogs of people I totally do not know who are linked through people I actually do know whose blogs I read. So I was doing that today (because I can!) and Amy B's brother, who works for Christian Chronicle, has a very funny blog. They recently had their first child and some of his past posts include the tracking of the unborn child's growth as documented by babycenter.com, which I also use. This is where "Blueberry" came from. Anyway, he has a list of the baby growth comparisons, which really just saved me a ton of time going back and listing them (and the idea of using wikipedia to show examples)...I am easily amused, but I think some of them are pretty funny. The kids ask me almost daily what we're on. I guess it's useful having something they grasp the size of instead of just inches or ounces.


Week 4: poppy seed
Week 5: sesame seed
Week 6: lentil bean
Week 7: blueberry (Now, it's all making sense!) Week 8: kidney bean Week 9: grape
Week 10: kumquat (Ok, so this one didn't help us much...)
Week 11: fig
Week 12: lime
Week 13: medium shrimp (Was this really the best option? It's kinda gross either way, but the "food" pic looked better than the "creature" pic)
Week 14: lemon
Week 15: apple
Week 16: avocado
Week 17: turnip
Week 18: bell pepper
Week 19: large heirloom tomato (Could you be more specific? I'm going to guess the "large" one)
Week 20: banana (This is comparable to the length, not so much the overall shape)
Week 21: carrot (I'm guessing a really big carrot? Or maybe last week was a small banana. Because I view those as pretty much the same in size...but maybe it's just me. After checking Wikipedia, apparently there's quite a variety.)

So, I know you'll now be waiting in anticipation for the weekly update. I'm not sure why it makes me happy to think of my unborn child as a fruit/vegetable, but it does. So there.