Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Something we love
The kids and I eat them every morning on our cereal, we eat them for snacks, we've mashed them and had them on pancakes, and last night we made the long awaited homemade strawberry milkshakes. I introduced John to the homemade strawberry milkshakes after we were married and they are now something we look forward to having at least once every spring. The first year I had to make John eat one, (yes, I had to make him eat it because he wanted a different kind...but I kindly explained that we would all be having strawberry) but now I would have to say that they might be one of his favorite treats. Right John?? I also made the beloved shakes at John's parent's house once and if I remember correctly John's mom opted out because it didn't sound very good and then ended up crying when she had a bite of one and realized the awesomeness of them but didn't have a huge shake for herself. So, if you haven't made yourself a homemade strawberry milkshake yet this spring....now's the time.
FYI: the key when making the shake is to blend the strawberries with some sugar before adding it to the ice cream. I now find myself wondering how many more pounds of strawberries we will go through in the upcoming months. Maybe I should have planted strawberries in my garden....that would have been smart!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Look what we did!
and then John helped me get the garden all ready and a new tree planted on Saturday. We planted a Maple tree, hopefully it will give us some shade back there sooner than later. My "garden trainer" and her family helped us out a ton too. They let us use their truck to get the humus and sand (don't ask me....I just did what I was told and now I apparently have the most amazing soil on the planet) and then they even let us use their tiller to get our ground ready. I wish I would have gotten video of John trying to use the tiller in our little 20' by 4' garden, all the while trying not to hit the sprinkler line that runs along one side. It was a challenge for him, but the soil is AWESOME now and ready for me to plant. Now I just need to get rid of my huge sod pile and I'm done!
I'm excited to do the garden this year with the kids. Ains is really excited right now. I'm just hoping she's still excited when she realizes it will be quite a while before we have any produce. But, the kids sure had fun on Saturday while we worked out side. Owen loved the dirt and figured how to get on and off the trampoline by himself, and Ains got pretty good at "derocking" the garden. I would have taken pictures if it hadn't been such and exhausting day.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
The Talk
Sunday, April 20, 2008
The great repaint of '08
I have also repainted candles to make them match my decor. While I made them look quite ugly when I first painted them, I experimented with the polyurethane that I put on my table and, FYI: you can repaint candles with craft paint and a layer of polyurethane and they will look awesome...on a plant shelf. I have repainted Ainsley's hand me down dresser and shelf twice, and Owen's dresser once. I have also spray painted my fair share of frames (pictured above) and my living room lamps (also pictured above) more than once. What can I say, I'm crazy, cheap, and obsessive...I'm a real treasure! So this past week I spent some quality time in the garage repainting everything that I've wanted to get painted for a while. But, the whole point of this post, is that for the first time in my life I repainted something and made it AWESOME!!! I was given this old mirror (our house is the third in our ward that has been graced with it's presence). So here is the before picture (the left side and the bottom had already been sanded before I thought to take a picture). Not that the mirror was that bad before, just dinged up and in colors that wouldn't match my house at all.
And here is the after!
Isn't it the most beautiful $10 mirror you've ever seen? Well worth the sore, scratched, painted hands that I am now sporting!
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Too Hot?
And this is just a random video of Owen. I was trying to get him to say his swear word. He used to say that (dat) and some how it morphed and became the swearing version of 'darn it'. It's amazing because although he has a very limited and difficult to understand vocabulary, he says this word with precision. Unfortunately, trying to catch kids saying the right words on video is less likely than being struck by lightening. So I just got babbling, which might be cute, but not nearly as cute as a baby swearing.
Problem Solved
Monday, April 14, 2008
Outnumbered
I'm totally evil...and over protective
Yesterday I was talking to a friend on the phone and decided to get a group of people to go to the park today to enjoy the nice weather before it turns cold again. I called a few friends and told them to invite whoever wanted to come. I intentionally didn't call a friend of mine (I'll refrain from using names for obvious reasons) who's daughter Ains spends a lot of time with and doesn't always get along with well. (Here's the overprotective blurb...this is a girl that Ains has had problems with at school, controls who Ains plays with, takes away friends, likes Ains to play with her and no one else, likes Ains to be alone when in a group, controls most play situations, etc. I'm probably being harsh...but, that was my overprotective blurb...I'm the mom....I get to be that way!)
I debated calling her all night and morning. I really like the mom. We have a lot of fun together...but our daughters are like oil and water. I knew it would be weird not to invite her since I would see her twice while picking up and dropping off her daughter for preschool. My decision was made for me while I was getting Ains ready for preschool this morning. She mentioned going to the park and I told her that the plan was to go today. She then asked if we could call a friend, and I told her that I had already called some friends. Then she asked if this particular friend was coming. To which I replied, "Do you want her to come?" Ains then explained that she didn't because she was always grumpy with her.
Upon my deciding that we wouldn't invite this friend to this particular activity I also had to teach Ains to be sneaky. What kind of awful mother am I?!? I told her that it wasn't polite to tell people you are going to do something if you aren't going to invite them to come with you. Ains caught on to the sneaky thing really quick. She told me that she could keep a secret and she wouldn't tell her friend we were going to the park. By this point of the morning I was feeling really guilty for what I was teaching Ains, but I really wanted Ains to have fun at the park. I could have used this moment as some sort of a teaching moment...but I didn't, well I guess I taught her something, just not something good.
To make an already long story a little shorter...I totally got caught being sneaky. Someone invited this friend too. I was stupid to think no one would, and now I just looked bad after teaching my daughter that it's okay not to be friends with every one. I felt so stupid when my friend showed up at the park and told me that I had a missed call from her because she had called to make sure I was going to be there. *GUILT* My devilishly sneaky mind thought at this point that I was fine and she had no idea who had planned the whole get together, until someone thanked me personally for getting everyone together before they left the park. I'm such a mean person!
In the end, I ended up being mean to a friend, teaching Ains to be impolite, and aforementioned friend acted as was anticipated and dragged the other little girls around by the hand and wouldn't let Ains play. Luckily for Ains, the boys agreed to let her play with them part of the time, her cousin Bria ended up being there part of the time by sheer coincidence, and she made 2 new friends to play with for a while too, so she only felt bad for a very short time and wasn't alone for very long.
I accomplished quite a bit for one day! What's a mom to do?
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Digging
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Lost
This wouldn't have presented a problem for me except that when I got home and started looking for my old receipt I couldn't find it. Not only could I not find that particular receipt, I couldn't find the envelope that I stash all my receipts in until I'm sure I want to keep what I bought (I do a lot of returning...it's sad, but it works for me). So now I've searched everywhere and the envelope is no where to be found. I'm starting to give up on the precious cargo lying uselessly in my lost envelope, forcing me to consider receiving store credit. I'm mad because I hate store credit, half of the time I feel obligated to buy something right then that I don't need, and yet if I hold on to the gift card I usually forget to use it when I do end up buying something at that store in the future. I've gotten myself into a real predicament. I HATE losing things!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
I said what?
Thursday, April 3, 2008
WHAT???
1. Her ear infection from a few months ago has left something in her ears that is making it hard for her to hear.
2. She has learned that constantly saying "What?" or else ignoring her mother drives her mother crazy and she gets some sort of satisfaction from driving her mother crazy.
3. She has been yelled at too much by her mother and is going deaf because of it.
4. Her father is such a naturally loud person she has become accustomed to high levels of noise and now expects it. (John isn't loud all the time, just some of the time...sorry John, but it's kind of true.)
I'm thinking number one is most likely, but you never know. I have been a slacker thus far and have not contacted the pediatrician to find out about hearing evaluations. Maybe that's what I should be doing with all my "free" time. Any suggestions?
I'm Bored!
My outing for today was a quick trip to the flooring store. Okay, so that's not so boring, but it's the most exciting thing I have done or will do all day. Not that I can afford flooring just yet, but my brother in law works for a builder and gave us the name of his flooring store to see if we could find some scraps that might work for our bathrooms and laundry room. Unfortunately for me, they didn't have any scraps big enough today. But luckily for me, since they know my brother in law I just have to go through a bunch of samples and tell them what I like and they'll call me if anything comes in. Hopefully by doing it this way we'll be able to cover our disgusting linoleum without breaking the bank!