monday morning

Good Morning.

After a quick weekend we're back to our normal week. The kids are in school and I took my sister's dog Royal for a walk around Greenlake.

I found myself with some time to sew, so I copied Rebecca's instructions and made a few coffee cup sleeves.







I really don't need all three of these but I was on a bit of a roll...so...the first person who comments on this post will get to choose which sleeve they'd like me to send them. The second person will get to choose from the remaining two and well, I'll keep the remaining one.













I made one of these last week and was very excited to use it but I'm in the habit of using the paper sleeve from the coffee shop and...I threw it away with my cup. I didn't even realize it until later that night when I wanted to show Trey what I'd made.

Well, comment away.
Have a great day.

Thank You Ladies

i have many ladies to thank for tonight's dinner.
Ann and Tania gave me the America's Test Kitchen cookbook as a gift. i've made the stove top beef stew from it and am now trying the slow cooker version in my new slow cooker...which brings me to the next lady to thank. Linda, Trey's mom gave me a slow cooker for Christmas. this will be my very first attempt at slow cooking. the kitchen smells wonderful.
moving on, i need to thank Rebecca- my other mother-in-law- for the yummy new brownie recipe. she uses a box mix but puts half the dough down and places two of those giant chocolate bars on the first layer, then covering them with the rest of the dough. oh. so. good.
my first attempt was not so good, i'm trying again. i will not be detoured from this delicious treat.
you'll notice the oven mitt...thank you Erika. last month i hosted a hot pad/tea towel gift exchange. it was loads of fun. everyone brought a gift and a dish for dinner. i'm hosting the second one this weekend. this time we're exchanging socks. who doesn't enjoy a nice pair of socks?
back to the thank you's...
thanks gals. i have good friends and a good family.

my artist boy

August was so proud of himself yesterday. we went downtown for the Reflections Art awards ceremony where he was presented with a certificate for his entry.

can't really see his artwork on the screen, but it's there...
this is his super proud smile...the one where you can see that little dimple in his cheek...
his work is above him with the blue wave...he drew a picture of a large wave with him on the top of it. he used pencil and blue construction paper and blue tissue paper.
we're so proud of him.

address please

yesterday i went on a field trip with my son's class to see a production of Little Orphan Annie. i'm a sucker for that play. i truly believed that i would one day i would play the part of Annie on stage...no such luck. instead, i go see the play whenever i can and sing the songs from it rather loudly while cleaning the house. the kids love it. no, really, they do.

after the play i had a few minutes to have some coffee and be alone before picking my daughter up from her pre-school. she goes back and forth daily about whether she wants to come home from school or not. one day she'll run to me full force when i open the door, other days she slumps her shoulders and whine about having to leave before she's done with her project.
yesterday she walked across the room, hugged me and went to get ready to go. a bit odd. no dramatics either way, just acceptance.
i pick her up 20 minutes before august is done with school so we have some time to sit and chat in the car while waiting for him.
the following conversation occurred:
ME: "hey, so has your friend Tina moved away yet?"
H: "yup. she's in Chinese now."
ME: "oh, i'm sorry. how do you feel about her not being at school anymore?"
H: "well, it's ok. we can visit her in Chinese."
ME: "did you get her address?"
H: "no mama."
ME: "well we'll have to get her address, maybe we can write her."
H: "i said no mama! she doesn't like them."
ME: "huh?"
H: "tina only likes pants and shirts and shoes and socks. she never ever wears skirts OR dresses!"

when august was done with school i didn't want to go right home and it was raining so we drove up north a bit to walk around the mall and get another coffee.
every minute of our little outing was filled with hazel whining and complaining about being tired or hot or tired or tired. i was getting so frustrated with her. i ended up cutting the mall visit short so that she could sleep in the car.
the girl wasn't lying. august and i were shocked at how quickly she was snoring in the car.
when we got home i carried her into the house and realized that she was burning up. shortly after getting her comfortable in the house she started throwing up.
this girl was never very neat when she got sick.
we've made it through the night with only one mess. she's now sitting on the couch eating toast and drinking water. she loves the fact that the TV is on and no one is threatening to turn it off.

snow thank you very much

sunday morning we woke up to trees covered in these very cool crystals. the streets were icy but drivable so we ventured out to church.
monday we had no school in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. so we went out to eat at one of our favorite breakfast joints. trey went off to work as the music industry never sleeps and the kids and i went out to visit our friends the nyssen family. yummy tea and snacks for the girls while the boys sat around yelling their accomplishments on their DS game systems.

today we woke to find several inches on snow all around us...AGAIN with the no school!
it was supposed to stop snowing at 10am, but here it is, 10:59 and the snow is still coming down. the kids aren't even that excited to go out in it... the novelty has worn off. i did convince them to go out and take this picture of a footprint though. i'll probably bundle us up and see if Cloud City has opened its doors. we just have to get out of this house!

Gross!

ummmm, NO!
check out todays diy:
http://whipup.net/2007/01/12/tutorial-diy-eco-friendly-menstrual-pads/

Soup is on!

it's a perfect day for a yummy bowl of soup.
here's how i made it:

i cut up the following and simmered them in 2 tbs of olive oil for 20 minute in the pot:
1 big onion
3 carrots
3 stalks of celery
a hand full of green beans
a bunch of broccoli
2 garlic cloves
(all organic)
after they've all been cooking for 20 minutes i added 5 cups of organic vegetable stock and a big can of crushed tomatoes along with 2 big potatoes. then it's all up to time...i let it sit on the stove for a while simmering.
it's for dinner tonight but i couldn't help tasting it for lunch. oh...it's good!
let me know if you try it at home...it's super easy.

let it snow

it's kind of a mixed blessing- all this snow. i do love having a surprise day to relax with the kids...nothing to do but hang around the house. but this has been the 3rd (?!) snow day of the school year! we're going to be in school until July at this rate.
this morning when i woke up and checked my email i noticed that i already had an email from a teacher at my son's school who was looking for a sub for the last few days of school. seems she's already got travel plans because she was supposed to be done with work by then. i told her that i would put her at the top of my sub list but that i didn't know what our summer plans were and well, we might be out of town by then as well. summer is too short as it is.

i've already made the kids get all bundled up for some winter snow pictures. hazel wanted to go inside as soon as i snapped the last picture. she requested something warm for lunch- mac-n-cheese it is! august is still playing out back. i think he's made a series of snow angels and is now randomly throwing snowballs at the house...lovely.
i took the pictures with my real camera so you'll see them posted in a few days. i have to go to filmstop (my favorite place to get real pictures developed) next week.

happy snow day to all of you out here.

friendship

it used to be so easy to make and keep friends. in jr high and highschool you're surrounded by people. college comes and still you're around your peers 24/7, friendship comes easy.
as an adult i have found it much harder to find people who i feel i can build a relationship with,
i have to think of my whole family. the kids have to get along, husbands too. it's just easier that way.
these gals in the picture were my closest friends at one time. tara and becky. both were sporty, i was not. both knew everyone in the school, i did not. yet we were friends. i miss the ease of those friendships.

The Notebook

I never saw the movie...I've moved past the need to see super sad movies just to make myself cry.
But.
While we were visiting in Michigan Trey's mom gave me some books to read during all that down time. One of the books was The Notebook. I reluctantly picked it up. It's a super quick read and once I started I had a hard time stopping. The first half was good. Not too emotional which is great considering I was reading at the in-laws.
I just finished it. For the last hour I've been sobbing in the living room. The kids kept asking if I was alright, Trey kept asking if it was too sad to read. I couldn't stop reading it and I couldn't stop crying over it.
I'll never rent the movie. There's NO way it could be as good as the book.
Have any of you read the book or seen the movie?
It makes me want to start writing letters to Trey and the kids.

it has not been a good start to this year.
i received heart breaking news from a friend today.
i didn't handle it well- the kids were busy doing some art as i frantically put things away from our trip. when trey called i was overwhelmed with emotion and i let him hear it. my 8 year old son watched with wide eyes. i knew he was watching so i went downstairs to continue the conversation. when i hung up the phone my 5 year old asked me a question and before i could answer her my son quickly announced that "mommy isn't in a good mood right now, she's sad."
i sat down with the kids and told them why i was sad. they both understood.
about an hour later the three of us sat down for dinner. my son asked if we could pray before we started eating so i asked him to go ahead.
here was his prayer:

Dear God,
Thank You for bringing us home safely. Thank You for my family. Thank You for everything You gave us. Bless the food and help it to make us healthy.
Please help (the family with the sad news) to be happy when they go away.
Amen

i stared at my 8 year old boy and started crying again. this boy said just the right thing. i was ranting around thinking about what i was loosing and my son was praying that they would just be happy. i could learn a lot from that boy.