10.27.2010
Ideal Protein Diet
No, I have not done this diet but I have watched several people in the last year melt away by doing it. (And do it a LOT faster than I have, trying to exercise it all off) This video is of my sis-in-law's sister, and if you can get past the "reporter" at the beginning, this is interesting to watch. My SIL has also been doing this diet for a while and has lost more than 100 pounds as well. Go Carolyn - and Karen!
10.26.2010
Pumpkin Festival
Well, I guess if you can't go wear sweatshirts and cut your pumpkin off the vine in a real field, this is the next best thing! We went to the Desert Botanical Garden on Saturday for their Pumpkin Festival (Thanks J for the heads up!) The weather was perfect, and the kids had a good time wandering around all the game booths and collecting their prizes, then we went on a hayride (of sorts) to go to the hay maze and pumpkin patch where all the kids got to pick out, then decorate, their own pumpkins. They also had a little petting zoo. J was very concerned that some other kids were trying to pick up the chickens "Put the titten DOWN!" I also decided the best way to torture me - play some awful, heavily twangy music and then make me stand in line in front of a very loud speaker while my children are tired and whiny. Fun!
10.22.2010
Upcoming Craft Fair
The lovely Amber Tryon has invited us to be a part of her annual craft fair over in Mesa in just THREE WEEKS - so Lisa and I have been busy preparing to hopefully sell all kinds of vinyl-laden crafts. So excited! Do you want anything? How about one of these? Or one of these gorgeous frames(which we'll be offering in two sizes) We're still working on details, samples, and figuring out pricing for everything. Will you come visit us? It will be on Saturday, November 13th from 8am-1pm. 740 E 2nd Ave, Mesa just down the street from the temple. There will also be signs, wooden plaques, Christmas nativity project kits, unique frames, and more! Not to mention all the fun stuff that all the other vendors are doing! See you there!
Hoo-boy
do the girls need their own rooms. The fighting has gotten unbearable, and we're having sleeping issues. I'm perfectly willing to move A downstairs to the guest room, but it's packed FULL! Need to sell the secretary/bookshelf STAT, buy a lamp and find some other place to store an entire closetful of Costco/pantry items/food storage. ugh, we need a bigger house.
10.21.2010
Thursday thoughts.
• We got all the hail-ish dents in N's car fixed and picked it up today. We found a company to do it "paintless" for much less than the insurance estimated, so hooray for the insurance check covering the whole repair - and hopefully the A/C repair too, without us having to shell out the $500 deductible. And the car looks PERFECT - without having to get it repainted (part of me is bummed, though, I wanted to repaint it blue!)
• I went to DI this week (so random, I NEVER go to DI or thrift stores or anywhere!) and found some fun deals - including two fabulous pairs of boots! Need to find a cute brown skirt STAT so I can wear the knee-high ones! Thank you to whomever donated the size 8 brown suede boots to DI - they are great!
• Lisa and I have been working furiously on vinyl the last couple of weeks, between Super Saturday projects and several other random orders for friends. We are planning to do a craft fair and sell stuff in the middle of November, and are toying with the idea of putting on our own "Santa's Workshop" day in Nov. as well. Would you go to the craft fair and buy stuff like THIS , already finished? Would you rather come to a Santa's workshop and put projects together yourself, instead? Do you know anyone who WOULD come to such things? Do you want me to send you an invitation??
• J has been about 50/50 with potty training lately - he is perfect with #1, but seems to have issues with #2 a lot of days - sigh. Not sure how to motivate him to stay clean every day. Sunday = accident, Mon-Wed = perfect, last night = wet the bed, today = accident. Hmmm...
• We're still trying to figure out Halloween over here. M's going to be a Bee, (and Mommy and N and J might join her as bees too) and A wants to be a tree, but I haven't made any progress toward anyone's costumes yet.
• Recess, recess, recess has become a hot topic the last few weeks. Our school board arbitrarily cut afternoon recess without consulting any parents or getting a vote on the issue, and many many parents are ticked off about it, but I kind of see both sides of the issue now and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I know my kids severely miss the recess that was cut, and I as well want them to have a short break in the afternoons, but if it truly is going to cause the school year to have to be extended, and if the teachers really don't like it because it's disrupting teaching time, then..... well I just don't know. School board meeting is tonight - we'll see how it all goes down.
• I went to DI this week (so random, I NEVER go to DI or thrift stores or anywhere!) and found some fun deals - including two fabulous pairs of boots! Need to find a cute brown skirt STAT so I can wear the knee-high ones! Thank you to whomever donated the size 8 brown suede boots to DI - they are great!
• Lisa and I have been working furiously on vinyl the last couple of weeks, between Super Saturday projects and several other random orders for friends. We are planning to do a craft fair and sell stuff in the middle of November, and are toying with the idea of putting on our own "Santa's Workshop" day in Nov. as well. Would you go to the craft fair and buy stuff like THIS , already finished? Would you rather come to a Santa's workshop and put projects together yourself, instead? Do you know anyone who WOULD come to such things? Do you want me to send you an invitation??
• J has been about 50/50 with potty training lately - he is perfect with #1, but seems to have issues with #2 a lot of days - sigh. Not sure how to motivate him to stay clean every day. Sunday = accident, Mon-Wed = perfect, last night = wet the bed, today = accident. Hmmm...
• We're still trying to figure out Halloween over here. M's going to be a Bee, (and Mommy and N and J might join her as bees too) and A wants to be a tree, but I haven't made any progress toward anyone's costumes yet.
• Recess, recess, recess has become a hot topic the last few weeks. Our school board arbitrarily cut afternoon recess without consulting any parents or getting a vote on the issue, and many many parents are ticked off about it, but I kind of see both sides of the issue now and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I know my kids severely miss the recess that was cut, and I as well want them to have a short break in the afternoons, but if it truly is going to cause the school year to have to be extended, and if the teachers really don't like it because it's disrupting teaching time, then..... well I just don't know. School board meeting is tonight - we'll see how it all goes down.
10.18.2010
Monday with M
We're in the bad part of M's mood cycle, it seems. It been rough for the last few days; something is always setting her off and making her upset. Last night after throwing a massive fit at Grandma's house and screaming and kicking our seats all the way home, she tore off all the covers on her own bed and ended up sleeping on the guest bed, in her underwear, because she refused to do anything else - sigh. This morning she was a cranky zombie walking around, so I suggested she go run on the treadmill (Hey, it totally cheers me up!) and she perked up instantly. She ran/walked for almost 5 minutes, until A got involved and wanted to do it too, sigh... but it helped, I think, a little. After going upstairs to get ready (thank goodness her favorite skirt was clean!) she had on a hoodie over her shirt, as well as leggings under her skirt, when she asked me if I thought it was going to be hot today. When I said yes, probably, and suggested she take either the hoodie or the leggings off, that set her off again, she freaked and threw a fit. She finally, reluctantly got in the car to go to school, but was sobbing by the time I dropped her off. Sigh. I wish there was injection I could give her that was a liquid form of "sleep".
10.11.2010
If I had ten grand...
I would get every sqare inch of carpet and upholstery in my house professionally cleaned.
I would get N's car fixed and be free of all the hail-induced dents.
I'd buy myself some new running shoes that aren't falling apart, AND some new volleyball-only shoes.
I would schedule my root canal and go ahead and spring for four brand new veneers for my front teeth, and have them perfect and straight and not discolored, once and for all.
I would get shutters for all 3 west/south windows in my horribly hot loft, plus in the guest room downstairs.
I would build in a desk in the back corner of my living room that would match my kitchen, complete with the same granite countertop and overhead maple spice cabinets, with lighting underneath to facilitate homework-doing, and act as a landing spot for mail and cell phones and Ipods and Blackberrys and keys and coupons, other than my kitchen.
I would buy N a new, superfast laptop to go on said built-in desk, so bills could be paid downstairs, and all internet surfing and playing could be in a very open, common area instead of hidden up in my office upstairs. Then I could google to my heart's content WHILE watching my DVR'd shows.
I'd get rid of our sad, disgusting sectional and buy some very high-quality leather furniture for downstairs (Oh wait, I only said 10 grand? Make it 15.)
I'd pay to get all my clothes altered so they'd fit me JUST RIGHT. And I'd make Amberly take me shopping until we found some awesome boots for me to wear.
I'd buy myself a super cute new camera bag that would also act as a purse.
I'd hire an awesome babysitter like Rachel for a few days, and fly myself and hubby to Maryland for our 12th anniversary weekend, which is coming up, take my awesome new bag and boots and stay in a bed and breakfast somewhere in New Market, and eat as much crab soup at Dutch's Daughter as I possibly could.
SIGH... maybe we could cancel our cell phones, skip paying the mortgage, stop eating, stop driving anywhere, and turn off all the electricity in our house for two months. Then MAYBE. Just maybe...
I would get N's car fixed and be free of all the hail-induced dents.
I'd buy myself some new running shoes that aren't falling apart, AND some new volleyball-only shoes.
I would schedule my root canal and go ahead and spring for four brand new veneers for my front teeth, and have them perfect and straight and not discolored, once and for all.
I would get shutters for all 3 west/south windows in my horribly hot loft, plus in the guest room downstairs.
I would build in a desk in the back corner of my living room that would match my kitchen, complete with the same granite countertop and overhead maple spice cabinets, with lighting underneath to facilitate homework-doing, and act as a landing spot for mail and cell phones and Ipods and Blackberrys and keys and coupons, other than my kitchen.
I would buy N a new, superfast laptop to go on said built-in desk, so bills could be paid downstairs, and all internet surfing and playing could be in a very open, common area instead of hidden up in my office upstairs. Then I could google to my heart's content WHILE watching my DVR'd shows.
I'd get rid of our sad, disgusting sectional and buy some very high-quality leather furniture for downstairs (Oh wait, I only said 10 grand? Make it 15.)
I'd pay to get all my clothes altered so they'd fit me JUST RIGHT. And I'd make Amberly take me shopping until we found some awesome boots for me to wear.
I'd buy myself a super cute new camera bag that would also act as a purse.
I'd hire an awesome babysitter like Rachel for a few days, and fly myself and hubby to Maryland for our 12th anniversary weekend, which is coming up, take my awesome new bag and boots and stay in a bed and breakfast somewhere in New Market, and eat as much crab soup at Dutch's Daughter as I possibly could.
SIGH... maybe we could cancel our cell phones, skip paying the mortgage, stop eating, stop driving anywhere, and turn off all the electricity in our house for two months. Then MAYBE. Just maybe...
10.07.2010
Thursday thoughts.
• Birthdays came and went last week for the girls. No big hurrah this year at seven and nine years old, just a few small gifts and special meals with parents and grandparents. We'll make up for it big time next year and do a party up right for the big 2-digit "10" and biggie "8" birthdays.
• Conference started well with comfy nests made up on the floor, plenty of conference activities and notebooks - but ended the way it always does with and the cheap toys broken already, and some good naps.
• Nonnie and Papa visited over the weekend; we attempted to watch conference and got a few things repaired, but mostly played a whole lot of games of Bump-O. Papa made the game for the girls for their birthdays, and MAN do they love it. It's a fixture on the kitchen table, at least for a while. We've already lost all the green marbles, though, oops.
• Made two Halloween wreaths over the weekend - pictures forthcoming.
• Cleaned out most of the fridge this week. Found not one, not two, but three tupperware full of adobo peppers (apparently I make Café Rio pork a lot, but never know what to do with the peppers afterward)
• We're on fall break this week, and as much as I thought we should spend a quiet week at home, I'm now trying everything I can do to avoid that, since "quietness" and "home from school" don't really go together after all. It's more along the lines of "screaming" and "chaos".
Monday: After I worked my triceps into a tizzy, ouch, we hung out with friends at an only slightly ghetto-ish indoor amusement park called Jeeperz or Jambo or something in Mesa - kids had a great time, and Mom could actually afford it with a $1 entrance special. We didn't get ripped off until we decided to buy tokens and let the kids play games, and then trade their tickets in for "prizes". Oh brother, how I hate those things. I had to carry J out of the place screaming because he'd changed his mind and wanted something different, and I had to listen to M whine for half the day Tues because she'd already lost her mini finger-skateboard. Sheesh. We spent dinner and an evening of decorating with some friends.
Tuesday: once I finally got going and finished my treadmill stint, we were off to the Children's Museum - and thank goodness we didn't get there a moment sooner; it was packed. It did clear out after lunchtime, though, and we were able to hang out practically by ourselves in the afternoon. We then braved the torrential downpour (of rain, and of M's complaining) and headed over to gymnastics. I dropped the crew off and decided to make a quick trip to Joann's - wow, was I ever dumb. I got stuck in major rain and traffic and flooding and UGH, it took me forever. At least J got a nap in the process.
• I've been thinking about our little gymnastics habit lately - and how it's more of a convenient habit for me, to take turns carpooling and have an excuse to shop Tempe/Ahwatukee every couple of weeks, versus the girls actually learning and progressing and getting exercise. M still can't do a decent cartwheel - after two years. I'm not criticizing the place nor the teachers there. It's just a matter of barely being able to afford just one hour class per week. This habit may be ending when 2010 does, I think.
• Storm score: Hail, 3, Carters, 0. N's pretty new car has about 2 dozen dents now, and our stucco on our house has golf-ball sized chunks out of it in several places. Window screens on the east side of the house are torn up as well. At least we don't have any broken windows.
Wednesday: I found that it's actually do-able to take all three kids shopping with me. Well, at least to Walmart and Target, anyway. I had a dentist appt. in the afternoon where they took more x-rays - I have an abcessed front tooth that will need a root canal shortly, and I'm hoping to get four veneers in the process as well. We'll see how much of it the insurance will pay for... I don't have high hopes.
• A has an ortho appt in a few minutes, so I guess it's time to shower & dress for the day (yes, it's after noon)
• Conference started well with comfy nests made up on the floor, plenty of conference activities and notebooks - but ended the way it always does with and the cheap toys broken already, and some good naps.
• Nonnie and Papa visited over the weekend; we attempted to watch conference and got a few things repaired, but mostly played a whole lot of games of Bump-O. Papa made the game for the girls for their birthdays, and MAN do they love it. It's a fixture on the kitchen table, at least for a while. We've already lost all the green marbles, though, oops.
• Made two Halloween wreaths over the weekend - pictures forthcoming.
• Cleaned out most of the fridge this week. Found not one, not two, but three tupperware full of adobo peppers (apparently I make Café Rio pork a lot, but never know what to do with the peppers afterward)
• We're on fall break this week, and as much as I thought we should spend a quiet week at home, I'm now trying everything I can do to avoid that, since "quietness" and "home from school" don't really go together after all. It's more along the lines of "screaming" and "chaos".
Monday: After I worked my triceps into a tizzy, ouch, we hung out with friends at an only slightly ghetto-ish indoor amusement park called Jeeperz or Jambo or something in Mesa - kids had a great time, and Mom could actually afford it with a $1 entrance special. We didn't get ripped off until we decided to buy tokens and let the kids play games, and then trade their tickets in for "prizes". Oh brother, how I hate those things. I had to carry J out of the place screaming because he'd changed his mind and wanted something different, and I had to listen to M whine for half the day Tues because she'd already lost her mini finger-skateboard. Sheesh. We spent dinner and an evening of decorating with some friends.
Tuesday: once I finally got going and finished my treadmill stint, we were off to the Children's Museum - and thank goodness we didn't get there a moment sooner; it was packed. It did clear out after lunchtime, though, and we were able to hang out practically by ourselves in the afternoon. We then braved the torrential downpour (of rain, and of M's complaining) and headed over to gymnastics. I dropped the crew off and decided to make a quick trip to Joann's - wow, was I ever dumb. I got stuck in major rain and traffic and flooding and UGH, it took me forever. At least J got a nap in the process.
• I've been thinking about our little gymnastics habit lately - and how it's more of a convenient habit for me, to take turns carpooling and have an excuse to shop Tempe/Ahwatukee every couple of weeks, versus the girls actually learning and progressing and getting exercise. M still can't do a decent cartwheel - after two years. I'm not criticizing the place nor the teachers there. It's just a matter of barely being able to afford just one hour class per week. This habit may be ending when 2010 does, I think.
• Storm score: Hail, 3, Carters, 0. N's pretty new car has about 2 dozen dents now, and our stucco on our house has golf-ball sized chunks out of it in several places. Window screens on the east side of the house are torn up as well. At least we don't have any broken windows.
Wednesday: I found that it's actually do-able to take all three kids shopping with me. Well, at least to Walmart and Target, anyway. I had a dentist appt. in the afternoon where they took more x-rays - I have an abcessed front tooth that will need a root canal shortly, and I'm hoping to get four veneers in the process as well. We'll see how much of it the insurance will pay for... I don't have high hopes.
• A has an ortho appt in a few minutes, so I guess it's time to shower & dress for the day (yes, it's after noon)
10.01.2010
Here you go Tara.
To-Do List
Seems I can always get more done when I can SEE a LIST written down - and since I tend to sit at my computer several times a day, and can't keep track of a piece of paper to save my life, here it goes - warning: boring post...
Set up P/T conference with A's teacher
Send registration info back
Follow up on RPM folders
Finish Halloween decorating
Paint more snakes and finish Medusa wreath
Pay tithing on Sunday
Buy new toothpaste for the girls
Get more water softener salt
New bathroom rugs from Target
Get Kerri's vinyl cut and sent off
Finish sewing J's quilt together
List PB dots on Ebay
Schedule carpet cleaning
Get remaining pics printed for scrapbook pages
Print out journaling blocks and put on
Get root canal scheduled (pleasant, right?)
Set up P/T conference with A's teacher
Send registration info back
Follow up on RPM folders
Finish Halloween decorating
Paint more snakes and finish Medusa wreath
Pay tithing on Sunday
Buy new toothpaste for the girls
Get more water softener salt
New bathroom rugs from Target
Get Kerri's vinyl cut and sent off
Finish sewing J's quilt together
List PB dots on Ebay
Schedule carpet cleaning
Get remaining pics printed for scrapbook pages
Print out journaling blocks and put on
Get root canal scheduled (pleasant, right?)
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