A thought

Its been FOREVER since I've blogged and, honestly, there are several reasons. One is the general craziness around here, but thats really not one of the biggest ones. A medium-sized reason is that I'm pretty sure my life is so boring that no one really wants to read about it. The biggest reason, though, is that I love posts with pictures and I am NO GOOD at taking pictures! Really, I'm awful! I have a decent camera, but no clue how to use it. Its so sad for me to look at everyone else's blog and see these beautiful pictures and then look at mine and see how the moments that looked so awesome in real life look so blah on my screen! So, I procrasinate. And apparently, I'm not about to stop now, because I'm way too tired tonight to do anything more than these few scentences. And beg for any photo tips.

Yummy but Deadly...

I love brunch. I know, its silly and not something you have too often, but I think brunch get togethers are some of the best! We had a get together with some friends to watch General Conference and at a delicious brunch!! I made this...

Stuffed French Toast. And just because I'm feeling generous, I'm going to tell you how I did it! First I must tell you that it has only been recently that I have begun to like french toast. Growing up, I thought it was disgusting, soggy warm bread. Gross. However, I discovered a secret (which most of you probably already know, but was new to me!) and it made me actually like french toast! The trick is not to put in too much milk. Many people use equal parts milk and eggs. No good! Check out the ratio in my recipe here!

French Toast

• about 2 loaves Texas toast
• 8 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• cinnamon to your liking
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• pinch of nutmeg

Mix eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Dunk toast in egg mixture and cook on griddle or in frying pan.

While its cooking, make your toppings!

Sticky Maple Pecans

• 1 cup pecans (chopped or not)
• 1 cup maple syrup - this is not exact, its really more of an eyeball it thing!
• 1-2 Tbs butter

In a frying pan, melt butter. Add pecans and cook for 1-2 minutes. Watch pecans carefully to make sure they don't burn!! Cover with syrup. Bring to a boil and allow to boil down. If it gets too thick, add a tsp or so of water at a time and stir.

Carmelized Apples

• Peel and cut 5-6 medium/large size apples
• 1-2 Tbs butter
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup brown sugar

Melt butter in a frying pan. Add apples and toss quickly. Add brown sugar and cook down. If needed, add 1-2 tsp water to help make caramel sauce.

Cream Cheese Filling

• 1 brick cream cheese, softened
• 1 Tbs icing sugar
• 1 Tbs whipping/heavy cream

Mix together until smooth and creamy. Add more cream if too thick.

Cinnamon Kiss Whipped Cream

• 500 ml whipping cream
• 2 Tbs icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix together and whip until desired consistency is reached. For this recipe, I like it somewhere between soft peak and stiff peak. Not super runny, but not too thick!

Assembly

Take warm toast, spread cream cheese filling on and top with pecans, apples and whipped cream. Enjoy!

This is one you want to save up for. Eat really well for a few days so you don't feel guilty consuming this much yummy, sugary gooiness!

AHH

Ok, I haven't posted in FOREVER and mostly its been because James has had the computer, but I've been trying to put a pot up ALL day and blogger isn't co-operating. I can't move my pictures, or edit my drafts or anything. GRRRRR!

Happy Birthday...A little late!

Back in August ( I told you it was a little late!) James turned 30!

We started out the day going golfing. James loves to golf and I enjoy it, but am no good at all! It was super fun, though! To celebrate, we had a big ol' barbeque with lots of our friends and family. The weather co-operated and it was a BEAUTIFUL day!

We had barbeque steak and everyone brought a salad to share. It was quite a feast. And then, I put out a desert bar. The theme of the evening was James' favorites. Can you guess what is favorite color is? Hard to believe we're getting so old, but I wouldn't want to share it with anyone else!

Walk it 'Til you Drop it

I am not a runner. I don't understand it. I've never enjoyed it, even when my knees were good. I do love, however, a brisk walk. I could walk for hours. I could also go to the gym for hours, but my kiddos probably wouldn't appreciate it and it really makes no sense to drive into town to get to the gym.

The past several months I've been REALLY trying to lose weight. I have a medical thing that makes it so that my body holds on to fat like crazy. Really, I'm not making it up. The way it was explained to me was that if a normal person has to work out for 10 minutes to burn 50 calories, I'll have to work out for 20 minutes to burn 50 calories. Its awesome. Makes trying to lose weight super frustrating, but I've had enough of being ginormous, so I'm sticking with it.

Back to walking, I love walking outside, but have to work out early, before my kids get up. When James has to work early, leaving the house isn't an option! Luckily, I found an awesome program a while ago. I LOVE it!

There are several different dvds and I don't really know that I have a favorite. She's a little cheesy sometimes, but I haven't really found a workout dvd that isn't!

Once I actually make some signifcant progress, I'll post some numbers, but in the meantime, I'm feeling much more energetic and generally healthier, so that's a great step!

What's In A Name?

I'm lucky enough to be named after my Grandma. She was an amazing lady who loved the her family and the Gospel fiercely. She had a talent for crafts and loved scrapbooking. We spent hours scrapbooking or crafting together and if I ever had a sewing question, I'd call her. For the most part we got along fabulously. The biggest exception was about a yeat and a half ago when I told her I thought it was pretty rotten that she and my aunts all seemed to accept my Mom's lies and toss us aside so easily. Recently, though, she (and my aunts) began to see just how many lies were told. I had just started to get my Grandma back when she was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer. They sent her for five radiation treatments. Unfortunately, she lost her battle with the cancer on August 18, 2010. I already miss her, but I'm so glad she went quickly and with relatively little pain.

At her funeral, her sisters were reminiscing about her and it constantly amazed me how much we had in common. I always knew we had a lot of similarities, but I didn't realize quite the extent of it.

I also have the great priviledge of being named after my Grandma. I've always loved my name and my Grandma, but now I'm even more aware of the special meaning it has and the responsiblity I have to make her proud that I have her name. I love and miss you Grandma!!

What

What

The Steal That Almost Was

Camille over at Archives of our Lives does this thing called Saturday Steals every week and I'm joining in the fun this weekend!

Last weekend we took a little vacation which included a trip to my favorite outlet mall. As we were walking past the Coach store (one of my all time favorites!) I was handed my own personal golden ticket! A 20% off your ANYTHING in the store coupon. Even sale items! Oh sweet heaven! So, into Mecca I go, picking up and tenderly adoring lovely item after lovely item. Each one is more fantastic than the last until suddenly, there it is. In the 50% off section, among a bunch of colorful things that I'm not quite sure should be part of the delightful Coach product line, there it is. It is SO beautiful. There is no way it could really be in the 50% off section. It must be in the wrong place. I pick it up, I stroke it (sadly, I'm not kidding), its the right size to be used as a diaper bag or a purse, I open it up and it has a perfect amount of pockets, in short, its PERFECT! See, isn't it BEAUTIFUL!!

I look at the price tag (Sadly this is the not so perfect part). It startled me, even though I knew it was coming. A whopping $358 dollars! Way out of this Mommy's budget. But then, in the back of my mind, I remember, the 50% table! I seek out a saleslady (it wasn't hard, they were everywhere) and ask her to confirm if it really was 50% off! Lucky day! It was! After that and then with the additional 20% off, it was just over $100 ($112 to be exact!) Oh sweet heaven!!! I must have it! (Now here is where the story gets sad.) We went on our trip sponateously and with a VERY limited budget. The moral debate began. I could buy the bag and the next day we could just hang out at our hotel and then go home (something I seriously debated), or I could not buy the bag and we could take the kids to the zoo as planned. Eventually, the responsible part of me won out. And that, my friends, is the story of the steal that almost was.

Sweet Is the Peace the Gospel Brings

This song has been playing in mind all week. My Grandma is dying. She was diagnosed with brain cancer a few weeks ago, went for radiation treatment and seemed to be ok. Tired, but ok. The past week, though, is a whole other story. I saw her last Saturday and she seemed ok, but not as with it as she had been previously. On Tuesday, I was told that they'd moved Grandma to the Raymond hospital and they didn't think she would make it through the end of September. Wednesday night, I was doing an Uppercase Living show for my sister when we got a call saying that Grandma was worse and we needed to get home soon. She's still here, but just barely. I'm sad that she is dying. Just thinking about not seeing her or being able to scrapbook with her makes me miserable. But, I know that this is not the end. And I know that she will be in a better place. She'll be reunited with Grandpa and many others of her family who has gone before her. As sad as I am, I still feel peaceful. For that, I am so very grateful.

Top Ten...

Things I Could Do If I Had My Own House

1. Pick my own cabinet colors!

2. Walk around in my unders if I'm to hot.

3. Throw all junk food out.

4. Keep it clean.

5. Stop feeling guilty when my kids misbehave.

6. Stop paying for a storage unit.

7. Not whisper yell at James when we're disagreeing.

8. Not whisper yell when we're making up! ;)

9. Teach piano lessons in a room other than my dining room

10. Unplug the TV whenever I want!

Things I Couldn't Do If I Had My Own House

1. Put the kids to be and go for a walk.

2. Morning workouts without kids!

3. Sewing is already at a minimum, it would be even less!

4. Teach piano lessons without taking my kids somewhere first.

5. Have someone to help corral TJ while James is at work.

6. Have a nap while the boys are awake.

Um, I can't think of any more. So I guess the title shouldn't have been Top Ten. Oh well!

Poop Poop and More Poop

I know its been a long time since I've posted and even longer since I've posted anything interesting. And this post really won't be much better. Maybe. I don't know, you'll have to tell me I guess.

Here's the deal. My life is retarded. I don't think I'm interesting, so why would I expect you to. But, I keep telling myself (on weeks when I feel like, why bother writing this silly blog!) to keep writing so that I can remember the things that happen. So, on with the insanity that is my life.

The sad thing is that I would LOVE to be one of those people who others read her blog and say, "Wow, she has such great ideas" or "She must be pretty awesome to have such a nifty blog" (Ok, I know, no one says nifty anymore!)

I feel like the problem with making my blog something awesome is the same problem I'm having with most everything else. It has to wait. My whole life is on hold. I don't have the space I need to craft, the home I need to entertain, the time I need to blog, the skills I need to take decent pictures, the money I need to get those skills... well, you get the picture. Since this whole stupid mom thing happened, I feel like I have had to put my entire life on hold to clean up the mess that she made.

And then she wonders why I really don't want to be around her. I know I can't/shouldn't say the things I want to and I get so tired of biting my tongue. It really is emotionally draining. I'm pretty sure one day I'm going to snap and say something that I may end up regretting. Only time will tell!

In the meantime, if you see me and I seem preoccupied, its probably because I am. My grandma was diagnosed with terminal brain and lung cancer, so I'm helping take care of her often, my mom continues being stupid and we're still trying to renovate. Yes, I said renovate. I was planning a really awesome elaborated post about our renos on the kitchen and living room, but with everything going on, its going SO slow!! I hate it!! Someday, I will put up pics and you can see the awesome stuff we're doing. Until then, use your imagination. On second thought, don't use your imagination because your imagination is probably better than our skills. So, if you are going to imagine, just don't imagine very far! Or try to imagine within the tiny budget we have!

If you'll all please look down...

Scroll down, aaaalllllllllllllll the way down. Just do it. Time to get busy!

Irksome

I don't know if you've seen this fabulous machine floating around on the web anywhere,

but I have and can I just say I WANT ONE!! There are several sites that are holding giveaways for this glorious object, but sadly, living north of the 49th parallel has disqualified me (and, I assume, many of you!) Shipping, they say, is the cause. Can I just say that it drives me bananas how much extra it costs to ship across the border and that so many AMAZING stores and websites won't even try it!! Usually, I love being Canadian. I love not having to pay a gajillion dollars to have a baby, I love our colorful money and I love that people generally think I'm polite just because I'm Canadian. The list goes on, but there are days like today, when I am continually thwarted in my pursuit of awesome stuff purely by my location (a mere hour drive north of said parallel, I might add) that I seriously consider if its worth it. To any of you American producers of awesome products, if you ever decide to hold a Canadian giveaway, I will gladly volunteer myself as a tester and my blog as location for your amazing giveaway. Sadly, you will have to cover the cost of shipping.

FOMS

Does anyone else out there have FOMS? For those of you who don't know (which must mean you are one of those luck people who doesn't have it) FOMS is the Fear Of Missing Something. I'm pretty sure its a serious illness. At least in my life it is! I'm so busy worrying about whether or not one decision I make will cause me to miss out on something better that I just don't make a decision at all. That and, when I'm invited to do something that I really don't have the time/money/talent/desire to do, I still say yes because what if something super awesome happens during that one activity! Then I'll be the person who is left sitting there mute while everyone else is talking about "the big happening." Really, I'm beginning to think I need some serious professional help! The worst part is, I've passed this tragic disease on to my children. My 5 month old won't sleep for longer than 30 minutes during the day and a few hours at night and I'm fairly certain its because of FOMS. Speaking of, he's awake. Gotta run! (ps next post will have pictures, I promise!)

Less Dreaming...

I was looking through the favorites folders in my computer and I have about a kajillion projects I want to do and I find at least 2 or three more a day. I've decided the time has come for less dreaming and more doing. That is going to mean some major organization in my life and I'm sure it will take a bit of adjusting, but that just goes along with everything else in my life!

I'm not entirely sure what my first project is going to be, but I'll be sure to let you know!

Saturday Steals

Camille, over at Archives of our Lives, started this thing called "Saturday Steals" (I tried to copy her very nice image, but my computer is being stupid and won't let me!) over on her blog a while back and I've wanted to write about several amazing steals I've gotten, but have forgotten every weekend until Monday when I read all about the amazing deals others have gotten! Even today, I want desperately to write about my amazing steals, but sadly, my computer won't let me add pictures at all to my post! So I'm left with quite a dilemna! Do I post and let you use your imagintions? Or do I wait until I take this computer back the stupid tech guy who told me there was nothing wrong with it? The other problem is that most of my steals are related to something I haven't blogged about yet, and I don't want to let the secret out just yet. So, I guess I'll wait another week, but in the meantime, you should go check out the steals other people have gotten and maybe even link up your own!

It is late. I should be sleeping. But I took a nap this afternoon and now I can't sleep, despite the fact that I know that in 4 1/2 short hours, James' alarm will go off, and one mere hour later, Mr. TJ will be up and ready to go and I won't be getting anymore sleep. Boo. Oh well, my misfortune is your good luck, I guess, because it means I'm posting!

This past week was crazy. Ridiculously crazy. Insanely crazy. Too crazy. But, much of it was fun. This week, I had a birthday, my 29th one to be exact. On the day of the auspicious occasion, I didn't do too much! A friend took me for lunch and then I came home and relaxed. James and I watched put the boys to bed early and watched a movie. The next day, we went out with my family to celebrate all of the May birthdays (mine, Terry, bil Tem & niece Adi) and it was fun fun fun! On Saturday, James planned special surprise since we didn't do much on my day. He cooked a delicious dinner of chicken oscar, asparagus (my all time favorite veggie!) twice baked potato and salad. Then we had a divine strawberry shortcake (another fav) for desert! It was SO good and I at WAY too much. After dinner, he had invited several friends for a party. He had borrowed a friends projector and rigged up an outdoor theater, complete with popcorn buckets for each couple and everything! It was super fun (even though every single one of us fell asleep before the movie was over!!)

So, to celebrate 29 years of me (I don't sound at all conceited do I!) here are 29 things you may or may not know about me...

1. I am petrified of bugs. I can handle flies (kind of) and ants as long as their not on me, but other than that, no way!

2. I'm even more petrified of snakes/lizards/reptiles. I've told my friend whose house I'm at every day that if she gets her kid one, I won't be coming over anymore. She thinks I'm kidding. I'm not.

3. I'm allergic to chocolate.

4. I've been married twice.

5. Until recently, I would have moved to Utah in a heartbeat. Now, I'd have to take a day or two to seriously consider it. Amazing what making close friends does for a person.

6. I have gone to 2 post secondary schools for 5 years (although 2 of those were only one class a semester) and have nothing to show but student loan debt.

7. I love mangos.

8. I love going to the gym. I don't look like it, but I do!

9. I was told just before James and I got married that I would never be able to have children. Two miracles later, we're taking things as they come!

10. I am ridiculously self conscious. I know it, but can't stop it.

11. I love dressing up so much that I host fancy dinner parties just so I can get all dolled up.

12. I miss the theater more than I thought possible.

13. I have insanely ticklish ears.

14. I love to swim. If it didn't involve being in a swimsuit, I would live in a pool!

15. I am the semi-oldest of four kids. (My parents adopted a disabled boy when I was 7 and he is technically one year older than me, but has the mental capacity of a 2 year old.)

16. I plan on adopting one day, even though we were blessed with our boys.

17. I can't stand green beans. Gross.

18. I have NO grace at all when it comes to dancing. Its painful to watch. Really.

19. I am hyper OCD. It drives me absolutely bananas if things aren't the way I planned them to be.

20. I'm learning not to be so OCD, but its hard. REALLY hard.

21. My biggest fear in life is failing.

22. I had a bit of a mental breakdown after my first marriage. Just kind of shut down.

23. I love to learn. I would be a student forever if I didn't have to pay for it!

24. I have always wanted to take photography classes. I have no natural ability at all!

25. I don't like most of today's music. I would much rather listen to show tunes or jazz (vocal or instrumental) or classical.

26. I have only kissed two men in my life and I married both of them!

27. Once, when I was in junior high, I was so ashamed of not being kissed/dated/liked by a boy yet that I lied about my friends boyfriend kissing me. How dumb! Fortunately, she was a very understanding friend!

28. I hate watching sports on tv. Almost as much as I hate watching sports news on tv.

29. I have only ever had one calling in church. I've only ever played the piano/organ. I figure either I'm REALLY good at it (which I know is not the case!) or I'm just not good at anything else!

Well, there you go. 29 things you probably didn't know and maybe didn't care to know. And now, I'm off to read and maybe get some sleep!

Like Mike

Lately, our little 3 year old has decided he doesn't like anything that is not a berry, bread, cucumber, carrot, celery or fish. So, we've had more than a few mealtime meltdowns lately! My little 3 year old also LOVES to read stories and this is one of his "faytit" books.

In fact, we read it almost daily. One day, after a particularly horrific meltdown about eating something (I can't think of what it was) we were reading this great book. And my little man, who has to know everything about everything, asked me what this guys name is...

Now, I am an avid Dr Seuss fan, but I don't mind telling you have I no idea who the guy is! I asked said 3 year old what his name should be and he decided (after several suggestions) that it was Mike. Partway through the story, it dawned on me! "Mike" tried something he thought he wouldn't like and ended up liking it! A ha! So, at dinner that night, I told TJ he neede to be like "Mike" and try his veggies (which consisted of cauliflower, green bean, purple cabbage, green peppers and onions). For every veggie I reminded him and then he ate! The only one he didn't like after trying it was the cabbage. It was fantastic! So, every meal since then, TJ has said, "Mommy, I be like Mike!"

New

I've found a new love in my life. Actually, I've always loved it, I just have never been able to afford it until now! And, I decided I love it so much, I've started selling it. (I know, like I don't have enough going on in my life!) Its only been in Canada since March of this year, so the markets not overly saturated at all! (I'm talking I'm one of under 20 distributors in the 4 western provinces.) You can order directly from my website or host a party! Check it out and let me know if you love it as much as I do!

My Ah Ha Moment

Our laptop with all our pics is in the shop (after 4 months of me saying "James, you computer is messed up, PLEASE take it to get fixed", and him ignoring me because he never had the same problem, it finally shut down without warning on him, so it went to the shop the next day! ;) ) so I have no pictures. But I want to keep up with my goal to be better at blogging more regularly. I had an ah ha moment in Relief Society today and thought I'd share it. Lately (like the past year or so!) I've been really missing my life in Utah. I just felt happier and more fulfilled there. I've thought it was becuase I was more involved in things that I loved like theatre and school. But the truth is I love being a Mom more than either of those things, so I should be happier now, right? Honestly my days are no longer or busier than they were when I was in school, they're just filled with different things. Equally busy, just different. So its not that thats making me feel less fulfilled. During RS we were talking about studying the scriptures and how it makes us feel and I thought "Duh, when I was at school I was reading the scriptures ALL the time." I had to for class and that led me to want to in my own time. Since I got back to Alberta, I haven't been good about reading my scriptures at all. Funny how the answer can be so simple, but I'm so thickheaded it takes me oh... about 7 years to figure it out!

Three

My little man turned three this week and I've gotta say, I pretty much love him to pieces! There are days that I think he might not make it to the next day, let alone his next birthday, but when hes not being a holy terror, I adore him! I mean, really, how could you not! Just look at him.

Birthday's in our house tend to be a bit of an affair! On Monday, we had a family dinner at Manda's (our kitchen has been torn apart for a few weeks, but thats a whole other post!). Tuesday was his actual birthday, but we couldn't do the dinner on that day becasue I teach piano lessons. After I was done teaching on Tuesday, we decided to take him into a movie. We actually were going to take him bowling or mini golfing, but bowling was all booked forleague bowling and as soon as we got to the Movie Mill to go mini golfing, he changed his mind and was determined to see a movie! We had his party with a few friends on Saturday and it was a blast!

Lately, he has been huge into maps and pirates. So, we had a pirate party! The kids all got to decorate a foam pirate hat and then got swords and eyepatches. I know, you're saying "What! She gave a group of kids swords! What a stupid woman!" But the kids were actually really great with them! We didn't have a single problem with anyone hitting anyone else or anything like that.

It took about 14 shots to get this picture, but here we all are giving our best pirate "Arrr"!

After they were all decked out in their pirate gear, we went on a treasure hunt. We went across the "lake" in front of our house, around the park and the baseball diamond, back across the lake and found the treasure under the tree in our backyard. The treasure chest was full of stuff for lunch!

TJ carried our map and led the way!

After lunch, we opened presents and had cake! And, I have to say I have pretty awesome sisters. Due to our kitchen being torn apart, I asked my one sister if she could pick up a cake on the way out. When she showed up, they had both gotten together the night before and made an amaing cake which the kids LOVED!

After cake, we went on another treasure hunt where the kids found their treat boxes (that looked like mini treasure chests. I forgot to take a picutres of those!) Then we watched the Princess and the Frog until their parents came to get them! Overall, it was a huge success!

My three favorite things about TJ right now

1. How sensitive he is. He is always concerned about how everyone is feeling.

2. His crazy imagination. As I type this, he is sitting on Papa's lap singing "Row Row Row Your Boat" looking for animals, monsters, whatever he decides to find!

3. How much he loves Myles. He was so upest that I didn't get Myles any pirate gear for the party. So he shared his.

How lucky am I!

Mi Vida Loca

Things have been pretty crazy around here! However, its been good crazy for the most part. In an effort to keep this post from taking 132 hours to read, I'm just going to glaze over most everything that has been happening.

A while ago, I'd had enough of TJ's soothers. So, we concocted a plan. For a few weeks, we talked about the Soos Fairy. She comes and takes the soos's from kids who are ready to be big kids and she leaves them a present. Then she gives those soos's to little babies who need them. At first he was resistant, but after a week or so, he got pretty excited. One night, we left a note for the Fairy along with all his soothers. Then we went to a Hurricaines game with my sister and cousin. When we came back, the soothers were gone and his present was in their place.

We also decided a while ago that it was time to start potty training. TJ actually just started going on his own, but then became really disinterested. Combined with trying to get him to get rid of the soothers, we knew were asking a lot, so we bribed him. I'll be the first to admit that I'm all about bribery! Anywho, we decided that we'd give him a big boy party when he was going potty on the toilet and had no more soothers. He picked two of his friends and they got to make pizzas, watch a movie and have "football cakes'. TJ was determined we were having a football cake for his party, but I was not about to make a whole cake for 3 kids. Then I kind of forgot about it until the day before, so here is my last minute idea!

I've mentioned before that I'm really trying to get the business name out there, so we've decided that we're going to do quite a few trade show type things. We had our first one a few weeks ago. We changed up our display and added some new products too. Here are a couple of pictures.

For Easter, we had tons of fun around here. We decided for Easter dinner to have a steak BBQ. Check out these babies James picked out!

The town had an Easter egg hunt on the Saturday after Good Friday. It was COLD and super windy, but still really great. I love the fact that the town is starting to do more of these things. As you can see, TJ was FROZEN!

On Easter Monday, we held our second annual Gilbert Easter Egg Hunt. We invited a bunch of friends and got together to hunt eggs. James and I provided 3 eggs for each of the kids and then the families provided 5 eggs for each kid in their family. We barbequed hot dogs and had cookies for the kids to decorate. One of the three eggs that James and I provided were homemade chocolate covered marshmallow eggs. They were so easy and yummy!

Well, there has been much more craziness, but I've prattled on long enough! Hope you all had a great Easter and that life is going well!

Stay Tuned...

Ok, so I suck at blogging. Oh well, it is what it is! However, this weekend I fully intend on taking a break from the insanity of my life and blogging about said insanity. It will be fun. Super fun. You should make sure you come back and read about it!

Friend by Default

You know that person who you hang around with only because they are friends with your friend. I'm that person. Always have been, probably always will be. I call it being a friend by default. Somehow, I manage to become friends with one person (lets call them Friend A) who is involved in a lot of the planning of things, so I get invited by them and get to meet lots of other people who I consider my friends. However, if the someone other than Friend A plans something, chances are I'm not going to be invited. More than likely, Friend A will be invited, but not me. Somedays this makes me sad, but for the most part, I'm just grateful I have such an amazing group of Friend As. Or should that be Friends A. I don't know!

15 Minute Makeover

My cousins little girl turned 7 (or maybe 8? I'm so not good at this remebering thing anymore!) this past weekend and TJ got to go to her party. I asked James to pick up a gift bag on his way home from work in the morning, but I guess he didn't hear me when I said I was going to give her a few hair bows. He brought home a bag that was big. Like, minimum of 12" long and 9" high big. WAY too bigh for a few hair bows. Unfortunately, I didn't know this until about 20 minutes before the party started and I went to get the bag out! I scrambled trying to think of what else I could give her, but had nothing on hand. Then I remembered that I had emptied a can of formula that morning.

So after a little two sided tape... (you can actually see part of the cute gift bag in the background!)

Some cutting out of flowers, rolling to add dimension

Adding some inked paper flowers and brads..

And hot gluing on some ribbon then the flowers...And voila, one pretty bow holder, done in less than 15 minutes!

Wildly flailing in an attempt to stay standing... maybe..

Oh, where do I start. I know I haven't blogged about anything real in ages, but quite honestly, most of what has been happening over the past month or two is just too personal to put all the gory details on the internet. Lets just say it has been an extremely difficult few weeks and I've been feeling like I'm going to crack. However, things are (hopefully) going to be sorted out at least somewhat soon, I think. Hows that for ambiguous! Anywho, I've decided that its time to focus more on the things I have control of and forget/push aside and ignore the rest! So, here is my question. How do you other mommies out there do it? How do you find balance between improving yourself, being an involved mom, loving wife and working? See, I'm trying to balance all of the following...

1. a 2 year old thats potty training

2. a 6 week old who will only sleep when he's being held and is only happy for about 5 minutes when hes not being held. Seriously, this is not an exaggeration. I've timed it. Repeatedly.

3. teaching my 2 year old counting, abcs, manners, ect

4. a husband who is working full time, going to school part time and trying my patience much of the time. (Let me insert that I am super in love with James, he just doesn't handle the baby phase very well, so its getting a little tiresome!)

5. being a wife to said husband

6. baseball season. No, I don't play but I'm a baseball widow and its already starting. Ump training every other week, meetings, ect.

7. alterations season. I NEED the extra money, but I've got to figure out where I'm going to put all the dresses (somewhere safe) and how I'm going to get my baby to be happy for longer than five minutes, because if I can only sew when hes sleeping, I'm never going to sleep. I'm just going to sew instead of sleep. Which really won't be good.

8. trying to be more involved/play with my kiddo. This is something I'm not really good at for some reason. I've got TONS of ideas of fun things to do, but TJ doesn't like any of them. Or at least he didn't when I tried stuff before. SO I gave up and now hes seeming like he'll be interested, but I'm not sure how to "fit it in". Holy crap, don't I sound like a bad mom!

9. I've been lacking in spiritual drive lately and I'm positive its because I'm pretty wishy washy on studying my scriptures. So, I'm determined to be more dilligent. Again, the issue is time.

10. Losing weight. I've been doing really good at eating right (most days) but exercise is not happening. I LOVE going to the gym, but I don't have the money for a pass or the time to go. So, I'm trying to do stuff at home. I hate it and I'm not really dedicated because I'm not looking forward to it. Crappy. (As a side note, I would like to point out that I am already below my pre-pregnancy weight! Yep, you read that right! I'm not going to give you numbers right now because thats a whole other post, but whatever!)

11. Figuring out some sort of marketing plan for Yummy Mummy. This sounds simple, but the budget is very limited and I have no background in marketing. Sewing, no problem. Marketin, big problem!

12. All the other crap happening in my life!

This, of course, is an abbreviated list! I'm sure your lists are the same, so please, share your secrets with me! How do you do it? Any tricks?

And just because I've posted too many posts without pics, here are a few Rhonda took for us!

Family

*Sorry, this is a long, pictureless post! We had to get a new computer and I have none of my pictures put on this one! But, its a funny story, so hang in there and laugh at me!*

Happy Family Day all! Around here, James had to work, so the little boys and I hung out around the house and took it easy. With it being family day, I thought I'd let you in on the story of how our family started. In other words, how James and I met. (I'm totally stealing this idea from Rhonda, but her story was so great I thought why not!)

I had just started going to the student ward after going through my divorce and moving back home. Lets just say, I was in NO mood to deal with any serious relationships, but my bishop counselled me to go to the student ward instead of the family ward. My roommate and I ended up becoming friends with a few guys who were also roommates. When we first started hanging out and they found out that I was working at the Maple Leaf Pork slaughter house on the kill floor, they told me one of their other roommates lived there. I'd never seen him around their house or at church with them, so I had no idea what he looked like, but they told me his name was Gilbert. We all had hard hats with our names on them at work and no one that I saw had the name Gilbert on their hard hat. However, its a big plant, so I figurered we just were in different departments.

Meanwhile, there was a guy at work with the name James on his hard hat. I avoided him like the plague! Ever time I saw him, he was covered in pig blood, swinging his knives around and swearing worse than a sailor! (Let's just say James was less than active at this time in his life!)

A few months passed and I went to a house part with my roommate. I was pretty shocked to see James from work there! He was sitting on the floor, looking like he was either drunk or hung over and had a fresh tattoo on his let. I was even more shocked when he recognized me! I kept our conversation as short as politely possible (he was scary!) and then left!

A week or two later, it was General Conference. My roommate and I were going over to the boys house to watch the Sunday morning session. Over the past couple months, I'd started liking one of the boys in the house and we'd been doing some pretty serious flirting. I have to admit I had slightly less than pure motives to watch conference at his house! While we were in the middle of the session, in walks a very hungover scary James from work! The boy I was snuggling with says, "This is my roommate, Gilbert, who I was telling you works where you do!" Turns out Gilbert and scary James were the same guy!

After that, we started hanging out. Things kind of fizzled with James' roommate, but James still wasn't the kind of guy I wanted to date. Fun to hang around as a friend, but that was it! Slowly, we started doing everything together. At first, there was always a big group of us, but then it started to be just us. After about a year, I was pretty into James, but he didn't think it was a smart idea. He'd come back to the church, but didn't think he was worthy of dating. He was SUPER resistant! So, I didn't push. We still kept doing everything together and everyone thought we were dating. On July 1st, he came with me to my Grandma's birthday lunch, but I was very careful to introduce him as my FRIEND. A week or so later, he told me we needed to talk. He drove out to a field in the middle of nowhere with the music blaring. (James doesn't handle serious discussions well at all!) For the longest time he sat there babbling about nothing and I thought for sure he was going to kill me and leave my lifeless body in the middle of nowhere! (Not seriously, but the thought did cross my mind!) Finally, he just blurts out, "I guess you can tell people we're dating, if you want to." With that, he jammed the car into drive and sped away. He didn't say a word the whole way back to town or when he dropped me off! Talk about romance! ;)

A month or so later, we went to a Bulls baseball game. James is an ump, so ball games had become a big part of my life. When we got there, he said he'd be right back, which was the norm, so I went to get a seat in the bleachers. It wasn't a super busy game, so I was sitting in the middle of a huge open space. Throughout the whole game, he kept walking in front of the seats, but never looked at me. I was wearing a bright shirt and waving, but he totally ignored me! I was SO ticked! Baseball was not my favorite thing, but he had talked me into going to yet another game and then he ignores me the whole time! When we left the diamond, I was cranky and so was he, although I had no idea why! We went to East Side Marios to get some food and he went to talk to a friend of his who was working at the bar, leaving me yet again! I was getting less and less impressed. As we were finishing eating, these two guys from the bar came by and said "We're not leaving till you do it." I had no clue what they were talking about, but they kept saying, "Come on, we've been waiting all night and we've got to go." I just assumed they were seriously drunk, but they weren't leaving. Finally James said fine, got out of the booth, got down on one knee and pulled out a ring! I was shocked, but managed to squeak out a yes! Apparently he had a huge thing planned at the ball diamonds, but he couldn`t see me anywhere! Oh well, it all worked out in the end!

I love him beyond words and love the little boys we share! I've loved (mostly) the past five years and look forward to so many more!

And the winner is....

All right, I wrote everyone's name on little sheets of paper, (two papers for those who got multiple entries!), put all those little papers into a gift bag (it happened to be close) and drew out a winner. And the winner is....

Rhonda

Congrats! Email me and we can figure out getting the skirt to you! This was so fun, I think I might do it again soon! Now I just have to find some time to sew something!

Giving it Away

So, WAY back in April I was taking a course at the college. (Truth be told, I'm actually still taking it, I'm just on a baby hiatus. Sadly, I'm only able to fit in one course a semester, but you do what you have to!) I was taking a basic sewing class. Lets just say it was not super challenging. At all. But its a requirement that you can't test out of. The "big project" for the class is to sew a skirt. I know, tough right! Please don't think that I'm making fun of any non sewers, but for me, a skirt is REALLY basic!) It is a little more difficult that just buying a pattern and sewing it. We had to design the skirt, draft (draw) the pattern and sew the skirt. Most people in the class were doing relatively simple skirts. I mean, it was the first time most of them had touched a sewing machine, so that makes sense. I, however, decided I didn't want to do simple. Simple was too, well, simple! This was not my first rodeo! So, I came up with an idea to do some fabric oragami. The execution of the skirt (cutting and sewing) was easy enough. The problem was in pattern drafting! I stumped my profs a few times, but we got it figured out eventually and I love the finished product. What do you think?

Like I said, I LOVE how it turned out, but there is a downside (for me anyway!) Because I had to make this for a class, it had to be a standard size ten. While I am working at becoming a size 10, I've got a LONG way to go. With closet space being at a major premium at our house, I can't justify having this beauty hanging in my closet any longer! So, I'm giving it away! Even if you're like me and not a size 10, think of how much you would be loved if you gave this as a gift! Here's how to enter:

1. Leave a comment saying what you like best about the skirt or photos (By the way, a MAJOR thanks to Camille for modelling!)

2. Put a post with a link on your blog. Leave your blog address in your comment here so I can check it out!

You have until February 15, so why are you still reading! Get busy and comment!