Cookin

Another day of playing hookie from work. OK...I did take it as a vacation day but still feel guilty about not working when others are working. Have to get over that. Hubby and I were just talking about taking a "real" vacation. Have not been away (totally away...no computer or Blackberry) since Little One came along. Need to get away and recharge the batteries. Hopefully, in January or February.

Today was cooking day. Momma Bear brought all her recipes and has been madly cooking all day. The house smells great. She is not used to the primitive conditions - no "kitchen scissors" (whatever those are...to cut the pie crust), no pestle (to crush the cloves for the pumpkin pie), only a weak little hand held mixer, etc - but she seems to be managing. I told her I was going to tell everyone that I contributed to the feast tomorrow as well. My contribution? I opened all the cans. Momma Bear cannot figure out how to use the handheld can opener (it is the only modern thing we have...from Pampered Chef...very cool device but not like her "key" manual can opener).

Tonight, my sister and her boys will be arriving. Hubby has many outdoor projects to be done. But, as it is supposed to rain, they will likely all be indoors watching football and playing cribbage. (just missing my other sister).

Thanksgiving is always a great time. Hubby and I were married on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. (So that is when I always celebrate....even though he insists on celebrating on the 25th, the actual date of the occasion.) Also, Thanksgiving two years ago changed our lives. The Wednesday before T'day, we got the call that we were being matched with a baby. Ten days later, Little One was born and our lives were changed forever.

Thanksgiving...a house full of family...now that is something to be thankful for!

Things I've Done

Momma and Pappa Bear came in last night. So played hookie from work today to have some good girl time with Momma Bear, me and Little Bit. We played at the park, went shopping and just hung out. Tomorrow is cooking day (Momma Bear is cooking for t'day.) My sister and her boys are arriving tomorrow. Will be a fun weekend.

After a fun afternooon with Momma Bear, hubby took me out for an anniversary outing. Yep...13 years and still having fun. He took me to an Arthur Murray studio for a ballroom dance lesson. Such fun! (The story behind this started when we met. I love to ballroom dance. To me, there is nothing more romantic than a waltz with your beau. Hubby is not a dancer and has no beat...except to his own drummer. Three years ago, to suprise me, he took me to a dance studio for my birthday to "check it out." I was shocked at how good he was. Still no beat but knew all the steps. Then he revealed that he had been taking private lessons for a couple of months as a surprise. I was amazed that he would go so far out of his comfort zone to do something like that for me. That was the most thoughtful gift I have ever received. Anyway, we actually signed up for more lessons. Then Little Bit came along and she took over our life. So, now Little One is a bit older and he wants to have some us time.) The great thing about this new studio that we are going to is that the owner is adopted. He was telling us his story and we told him of our little one's arrival. It was fun to hear it from the child's side of things.

Well I stole this off Scrapbook Chic (on the recommendatino of a friend). Great fun.

If it's fun you just have to steal it. The things I've done will be in bold.

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band - bassoon, trombone and flute through high school

4. Visited Hawaii - for work...but hubby traveled with me so that counts.

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland.

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo - in first grade...I forgot half the song.

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris - for work again. Have not done anything fun but drink good red wine.

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch - guitar...play it badly but little one likes to sing and strum along.

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty - been by it but never to it.

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb - have held baby goats, horses, dogs and cats...no lambs

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon - helped a buddy train for a marathon...ran the final 20 mile tune up race...that was far enough

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice - I was 4 according to momma bear.

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise - a dinner cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person - from both sides

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language - hubby and I are going to do this and teach the little one

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo's David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class - I was horrible. You have to be balanced and coordinated...which is not me.

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies - bought my share.

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason - and married the guy who did so.

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter - around Hawaii...so nice!

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar - ich!

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades - just the swamps around New Orleans

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper-front page of the Omaha World Herlad with my horse.

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - I was around when my uncle killed a chicken, we took off the feathers, cooked and ate it.

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someones life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous—Kareem Abdul Jabar and Magic Johnson in the Phoenix airport really late at night many years ago.

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Read an entire book in one day

Seen and not heard....NOPE!

As I have commented, little one is quite the talker. She has always been verbal, which, most of the time, her attempts at sentences are quite cute. For example, whenver she wants help putting on her shoe. She says "mommy, help you", backs her little butt into me and then plops in my lap and sticks up her foot. I assume she says this is because I always ask if "do you want mommy to help you?"

In church yesterday, we learned the down side of her verbalizing. Lately, she has learned her colors. Everything now is a color. The car's that go past are Blue car or black truck. In church, she caught a glimpse of my bra and said (with perfect annuciation) "Mommy Blue Bra." Not once but a couple of times. Meanwhile, hubby and I are trying to crawl under our chairs.

Don't know if I won the bet or not yet. Stay tuned.

Will it ever by over

The roofers have finally finished. We are still finding nails and shingles around the yard.

The kitchen wall is now finished. That was fairly pain free.

Now, just have to finish the floor. This is the worst so far. All of the kitchen and dining room furntiure, plus the dish washer and the refrigerator are in the living room for the duration. They started the demolition on Friday and worked through Saturday. However, it seems to be taking a long time. At this point, they have putting padding down everywhere but have only put the flooring in the dining room There is dust everywhere from the saw cutting the wood boards. My eyes have been painfully dry and my allergies have been out of control since this started.

Hubby and I have a bet. He says that they will finish tomorrow. I believe they have too much left to do and will not finish until at least Tuseday. Ugh! We have eaten out every lunch and dinner this weekend and have avoided the house whenever we could. This evening, we spent with little one in the spare bedroom singing songs and playing with blocks.

Even though it is about 9 now, little one is still awake. She has been singing for the last hour. Her most recent song was Frer Jacques (one of the songs we sang tonight). Too cute!

I can't wait until the house is done and we can get things bock to "normal." All this chaos and dust and disorder just stresses me out.

Have a great week!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

So, the roofers finished half the roof last Saturday. They took Sunday off. Now it is Wednesday and the roof is still only half complete. It has rained and is supposed to rain until Friday. Meanwhile, we have the huge scrap wagon blocking our driveway and nails, scraps of shingles everywhere.

To add to this, the wall people came in and started fixing the wall. They finished most of the plastering but, as it is so humid and things are drying, they had to stop as well. Geez!

So had 14 people in from work for dinner and a poker game last night. The sales guys for my company were in the office for a sales meeting. They are a great bunch who I enjoy working with. Whenever they are in town, it is always fun to have one or more over. Having all of them is a bit much...but still fun. The house is a mess but they did not care. The Crown and Jack were flowing freely. They kept pouring for hubby (thanking him for the great dinner he grilled). The sales guys were quite chipper this morning for the sales meeting. Hubby, on the other hand, I am not sure what time he surfaced as he was still wrapped like a tortilla in the dark with his head covered when I left this morning. ;) They came, they ate, they wore out the kid and the dog, they overwatered my hubby, they won all hubbies money at the poker game and then left....it was a successful evening.

Still playing with Halloween pictures. We visited two pumpkin patches this year. Little one loved the little pumpkins and the plastic pumkins with handles.

Little one has learned to put on and take off her shoes, at least some shoes. She can put on momm shoes, which is funny watching her clomp around the house in oversized shoes. She can also put on her sandles and her swim shoes, and often wears one of each. If she needs help putting on one of the shoes and if I am sitting on the ground, she will back herself into my lap, sit down, hand me the shoe, lift up her foot and say "mommy help you." (I guess she gets this from me always asking if she wants me to help her...do you want mommy to help you?) Too funny.

Finally a Start

Today, the roofers finally began replacing the roof. The roof materials were delivered a few days ago but, as luck would have it, it rained. So, today, they got off to a good start. I have to say, these guys work hard. I believe the team is 5 or 6 guys. They worked essentially straight from 10am to 6 pm. The shingles were flying (off the house as they scraped the old ones off and back onto the house as they tossed the new ones up into place) and the nail gun was shooting. It was amazing at how fast things went. Glad I did not have a headache today as the pounding would have been enough to drive you mad. (Did not seem to disturb little ones nap much.) The roofers will be back to finish Monday...then comes the wall people and finally the floor people. Going to be a few weeks of mayhem around the house.

Little one is more vocal by the day. She loves to sing. Her latest is "ring around the rosie"...I think she really just likes the "..all fall down" at the end....especially when mommy and daddy are falling down with her. Her latest favorite sayings are "Oh my goodness" and "Go lay down" to Nola. Just makes you laugh.

Diapering has become quite an involved process. Before she wants her diaper changed, we have to buckle in tiger, ernie, kitty cat or bear and change their diaper. (It is not a trivial process to change the diaper of a stuffed animal with a tail.) I have to take a photo of all her diapered friends.

Finally finished a couple of scrapping pages. Theser are of Halloween. Had to showcase little one in her Goldfish outfit.

credits - MCA stiches, google goon and paper with overlays.

Happy November

We enjoyed a fun Halloween evening. We had more ghouls and goblins come to our door than in previous years. Puppy was decked out in her pirate outfit (much to her chagrin...though, we reminded her that last year, as biker dog, we moussed and spray painted her top notch pink...so this year's costume was a piece of cake) and greeted all the visitors with a yap or two. Munchkin thought it was a hoot to see all these weird people at our door. Every time the doorbell rang, she ran to the door to see who and what was at the door.

We did eventually pursuade her to don her goldfish outfit. We visited a couple neighbors to say hi and she did eat her first candy bar (a KitKat). So, we have added a menu item to her limited reportoire - chocolate.

Today was a great day. We started the day with some family time at Tumbles. Little one and I then cleaned out her closet. We packed up for giving away her summer outfits (that will not fit next year) and brought out her winter duds. While doing this, we discovered a cute princess dress that someone at work had given us. Munchkin may not like being a goldfish, but, we discovered, she LOVES being a princess. She wore that outfit most of the afternoon. Too cute.

We finished the day with a family outing (hubby, little one, dog and me) to the tennis court. Little one and dog chased the balls around as hubby and I had a bit of a hit. Good times had by all. By the end, all of us were laying on the court with our tongues hanging out (literally and figuratively).

Now I have no excuse not to get busy scrapping. I have not scrapped anything since I came back from the scrapping convention. Now have some fun photos to get busy with. ...now just have to get busy!