6.30.2010

Totally into...

a new book called "The Hunger Games" - ack. I can hardly concentrate this morning on anything else, because I can't wait to get back to it. I find myself walking around this morning finding everything just so... civilized.  Who else has read it?????

6.23.2010

Happy Father's Day

I know, I'm many days late, but this post has been in my head for a couple of weeks now. Can I just say I LOVE the men in my life?

#1 - My dad is the most knowledgeable person I know, whom I call almost weekly with a new question about something wrong with my car, a request for a new wooden project I want him to build, or asking for help for one thing or another. He's the BEST. I'm sure most of my friends have seen his handiwork in one aspect or another of my house - whether it be a wooden bowl, shelves in my pantry, my FHE magnet board, M's cute nightstand, faucets that he helped me install, plants that he helped me plant, awesome game board frames hung in my loft, or my ENTIRE craft room.  Let me tell you, Dad, they are all jealous!  I feel like I can accomplish SO many more things when he's around - nothing is impossible! I really, really miss him coming up to visit every 2 weeks - darn that Gila Valley temple being built...! His hands are strong, his driving is slow, his snores are loud, his heart is big, his tear ducts are loose, and he's honestly the best Papa ever! Thanks for always being a great example to me. Love you dad!

#2 - My second dad, Poppy los Carlos. He's a pretty smart cookie himself, who is either teaching me something, making me laugh, (or at least making me roll my eyes). It warms my heart to see him interact with my kids. Every time my girls learn some new joke or trick they can't WAIT to try it out on Poppy. He is generous, thoughtful, and willing to bend over backwards most times to accommodate his kids and grandkids. He has a great relationship with each of his kids, he loves gadgets and toys, he loves a good meal, he is a good teacher, he tends to overcook things on his barbecue (but he makes the BEST PRIME RIB I've ever tasted), he yodles, he's funny, he goes on bike rides with his kids, he always comments on blogs and Facebook posts, he's got a great memory and a spectacular knowledge of the scriptures, and we love him. Thanks for being our poppy, Poppy!

#3 - My one and only, hubby dearest. He works himself into exhaustion every day between running around with his basketball buddies in the wee hours of the morning, working all day solving other people's problems and making his bosses look good, serving diligently in his calling, and finally coming home to get attacked by our kids and to do my bidding. He is smart, and tries to be everything and everywhere for everybody. He's an entrepreneur at heart who never has time to build his idea because of all of the previous. He loves the Drudge Report, he's always snacking on trail mix, he loves lounge clothes (who doesn't?), he eats Granny Smith apples all day long, he loves to negotiate and score a good deal, he's always looking for an excuse to buy our kids pizza because he wants some too, his hands are permanently attached to his Blackberry with him emailing somebody, about something, he's clever and funny (though A said yesterday that MY jokes were better, haha!), he loves food so hot it makes him sweat, he only complains sometimes when he has to fold clothes on his side of the bed at night, his haircut is always shorter than his wife would like, he's as cute now as the day we got married (except for the too-short-hair thing), he makes pancakes for our kids every Saturday while Mommy sleeps, and he's by far everyone's favorite person in the house.  This week his project is to buy himself a new car, that meets all the requirements that his fickle wife wants. Wish him luck.  Love you babe -

Yum.

/I'm so making these the next time I have a dessert. Not a huge fan of the too-big-and-too-thick piece of chocolate that never melts enough on a smore. This is GENIUS.

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/06/23/smores-on-a-stick-from-todays-creative-blog

6.22.2010

Soy un perdidor ...

You know, people always talk about how the "last" ten pounds are harder to lose than the "first" - - well, I'm not even close to that "last" ten pounds yet, but I'm way beyond the "first" and all I can say is YEAH, THEY ARE RIGHT. Sheesh.  Kind of like the difference between using a belt sander versus a q-tip to try to remove coats of paint....

6.16.2010

Cupcakes.


Putting it out to the universe - does anyone have one of these cupcake stands I can borrow next week? Or something similar? Looking for several - - !

Coming out of the fog, random thoughts

Well, it HAD been about six months, so I guess it was time for me to get an ugly sore throat again. This one didn't quite knock me out as much they usually do, but it sure has put a cramp in my style the last few days. A Z-pack is getting me back to normal today, thank goodness, because my house is a SIGHT and seriously needs some attention!  Anybody want to come fold and put away the four loads of laundry on my bed? Come on, I know you just can't wait to come clean all my bathrooms.....

Yes, I have continued to work out every day, (I have to! We're in the middle of fitness challenge! Hello!) but my intensity has sure gone down the last couple of days. Hopefully I will be back up to speed (literally) tomorrow. After doing a P90x workout on Monday, my arms are almost back to normal. MAN, they were hurting yesterday, and I could hardly lift my sewing machine, let alone J. Need to do those DVDs more often, methinks!

Started (and mostly finished) my bandana tablecloth last night - turns out I'm a REALLY slow sewer compared to Jackie. It's red, white, blue and cute! I love how casual it is, and how it fits my table so well, but the green chairs next to it look ghastly! Oh well. Now if I can ever get around to ironing it...

The girls have their first official swim meet tomorrow! I'm excited to watch how they do. A will be one of the oldest in her age group competing, so I have high hopes for her. And I'm hoping M can start swimming straight so she doesn't run into her opponents!

I'm in the middle of the first Percy Jackson book, and loving it - seeing the movie first was definitely a good idea, except now I have an image of Percy being much older than the 12-year-old he is in the book.

I love free activities for my kiddos. The girls are taking a free art class through the city every Monday, it's taught by an art student and they're having a good time playing around with charcoal and conté and learning about space, lines, etc. Since J & I sit in the sidelines during the class too, we're all learning a bit!  A is also taking a free "cub club" class at the pool for the next month; they practice different strokes and play games - yesterday they played "Sharks and Minnows".  Today we went to a puppet show at the library - I always love the summer activities they have going on!

Okay, time to stop procrastinating dinner, since it's after 6 now - peace out

6.12.2010

Mini Me

I think I've mentioned how much my 8-year-old acts like me - her reading habit is exactly like mine, and she'll ignore all else and stay up 'til all hours of the night when engrossed in a book. We picked up the forms for the library's Summer Reading Program I think Tuesday or Wednesday this week.  Even when I insisted that each book had to be at least 50 pages - - by Thursday afternoon each of my girls (M was spurred on by A, even though she's not nearly as fast of a reader) had read and recorded their THIRTY books in order to earn all their prizes. Darn the library for being closed on Friday, but we DID visit today and picked up quite the haul!  This year we'll have to be sure and actually USE those free D-backs tickets...

Another way A is like me is her love for organizing things. She keeps taking over other areas of the house, say J's closet, or the corner of my bedroom, or the top shelf of the linen closet..... to create her "clubs" where everything (art supplies, mainly) is lined up and sorted by color. She even draws "maps" of her spaces that detail where everything is supposed to go. I've wished a hundred times that she would apply this love of keeping things clean and orderly to her ROOM, but hey...maybe someday.

Again, today, I saw A being my little mimic. I mean, I knew she was the budding artist in the house and all, but get this - She took it upon herself to create a wall of "art" in her room this week, and now she wants to sell her pictures! There were dozens of colored pencil pictures she'd drawn and taped up on the wall, with this accompanying sign... 
She also taped a little clear envelope on the wall to hold all the money that she's planning on earning.  So cute - I think her mom's habit of hocking stuff on Ebay and to her friends has rubbed off on her!  She was bugging me all evening tonight to get the pictures Daddy took of all her masterpieces up on her blog so she can sell them!  So, without further ado, here's a sampling of what's available, if you want an original by A!  (These are the post-it notes otherwise known as "little ones")   Sorry, Daddy already bought the best ones...and I think she was in such a hurry to get several done that this isn't her best or neatest work -  but I'm sure if you have a request she would be more than happy to create a custom piece for you and actually take her time!  She came in a while ago talking about her newest piece, in progress, entitled "Make it Ripe" with images of strawberries on it.....







I will make her blog public, at least for the moment, so you can go visit.  I'm also half-tempted to set up a paypal address for her - I've got a feeling she's going to need it eventually!  I love my girl!    http://www.creativityally.blogspot.com/   You'll notice a couple of other posts she's written on there, along with all of her most favorite recent songs on her playlist. Enjoy!

6.08.2010

My kids

have been watching the Prisoner of Azkaban movie in the car for the last few days. Maybe that's the problem, that they only are getting a few minutes at a time, as we run from here to there, because they JUST can't seem to grasp it. I've explained how Scabbers is actually Peter Pettigrew but no one knows he's an animagus half a dozen times - why Peter betrayed Harry's parents, what "betrayed" actually means, that Sirius isn't actually a bad guy, he was friends with Harry's parents but he was sent to Azkaban because everyone thought he killed Peter, what a dementor is, why Professor Lupin is dangerous when he transforms into a werewolf... I really hope they don't start trying to figure out Hermione's time turner, and the fact that there's two Harrys and two Hermiones at the end of the movie... but not really... my patience is wearing thin...maybe we should stick to simpler movies and avoid Harry Potter for now!

6.06.2010

Sunday's Scrambled Egg Thoughts.

Challenge.
Tomorrow it begins! Fitness challenge #2, that is! I just treated myself to ice cream and a Sees dark chocolate bar as one last hurrah - I'm already thinking I shouldn't have, because I have to get up and run in the morning and I don't know how good that's going to feel...  ugh.  If you want to come visit and track our progress and details, my new "health and fitness" blog is now up.  crazyfitnesschallenge.blogspot.com

Weekend.
This weekend we were busy with playdates and birthday parties, again. I stayed home all day on Sat and did some pretty thorough cleaning - (and by thorough, I mean I actually tried to dust some - amazing!)  It feels so good to have so much done at one time - 6 loads of laundry yesterday and today, plus shutters dusted, floors vacuumed, and toilets cleaned...  If I continue like this my house might look more like Jackie's by the weekend. Actually, who am I kidding, I just started another book, so that's going to be the end of my cleaning spree....

Books.
By the way, just finished "Heat Wave" this morning - took me a while to get into it, but once I did I was hooked! Love the characters so much - makes me want to go rent the whole "Castle" series- has there only been one season so far? Does anyone know? Are there any more books written with Nikki Heat and Rook?  hmmm...
A has read EVERYTHING in our house, and is dying for more. I can't keep up with her reading habit. Any good suggestions for an 8-yr-old? Long chapter books please, she devours stuff like Magic Tree House and Judy Bloom in a couple of hours each.  She just finished Percy Jackson "Lightning Thief" and is chomping at the bit to get the next in the series, "Sea of Monsters" which we're on the hold list for, at the library.....  She's not been a huge fan of Harry Potter books as of yet, but I'm still holding onto hope that she will be eventually. She BETTER! I'm not raising any Muggle!

Swimming.
Swim team, and swim lessons, start tomorrow. This may very well screw up my twice-weekly volleyball habit, but hopefully will be good for all three kids. J recently has been wearing floaties in the pool when we swim, and loves his independence. I love it as well, because he doesn't pinch and kick me when I'm trying to hold him. Besides, the water is still too chilly for me!

Speaking of which, I have a philosophy - want to hear it?  I think school schedules should be based on WATER temperatures. It seems silly for school to get out in the middle of May, when pools are still way too flippin' cold, and then start the first Mon in August, when the pools are still in perfect temps to swim! Summer should start about June 15, and go til Sep. 1st - who's with me???

Schedules.
I have a lot on my plate this week, which I'm excited about, because I know I'll be able to accomplish a lot as well - the busier I am, the more productive! Wish me luck!

6.02.2010

Look what you missed out on...

These are the cards we created at our card swap a couple of weeks ago. I love the variety of styles, techniques and colors. Thanks gals! We will definitely be doing this again!

6.01.2010

Fitness Challenge EDIT

6 days and counting - you have til tomorrow to get your $25 to me (or at least postmarked by Wed) if you want to participate... there are about 15 competitors in so far - - gonna be a good pot - - here are the specs :

Each of the following will earn you ONE point per day, plus ONE bonus point per week if you don't miss a day:

No Desserts (6 points possible, plus 1 point bonus = 7 possible per week)
No Soda (6, plus 1 = 7 possible per week)
No Eating after 7:30pm (6, plus 1 = 7 possible per week)
Exercising (30 minutes, elevated heart rate) (6, plus 1 = 7 possible per week)
Scriptures (at least 1 chapter) (6, plus 1 = 7 possible per week)
Weekly Challenge (6, plus 1 = 7 possible per week)

Wait, you say, Scrap Happy! There are SEVEN days in a week! That's the beauty of it, my friends - you have Sundays off. Yippee! You can look forward to that one dessert or that one soda one day a week - easier to stay on track and get back into it on Monday!

Okay - there are THREE MORE possible points per week.

ONE point per week for Weight Loss - if you've lost at least one pound, or maintained your ideal weight, you get a point.

ONE point per week for Family Home Evening - that's right - doesn't matter which night you hold it on, just as long as you organize and carry it out! One point if you do!

ONE point per week will be a Mystery Point - I will take suggestions from all of you and then draw one per week.

THAT MAKES A TOTAL OF 45 POINTS POSSIBLE PER WEEK - WINNER AT THE END OF 12 WEEKS TAKES HOME 80% OF THE PRIZE MONEY, SECOND PLACE TAKES 20%!