i want

I saw this awhile ago and thought it was cool & fancy.

I thought that it would be cool to have, especially with a 5 year old around who loves popsicles.  But it wasn’t really necessary.  We used to have an ice cream maker and I think I used it once.  We also have a waffle stick maker, again used once.  Gadgets are always fun to have but I have a really bad follow through.

Then I saw these:

You make popsicles with FACES!!!!!!!!

Now I really want this.  Reallyreallyreallyreally.

That is all.

tell me if i’m crazy

Well, first of all, I guess paying $20 for sugar is crazy, but bear with me here.

We buy tea at Teavana, a tea store in the mall.  We’ve spent quite a bit of money there over the last few years and continue to shop there despite their pushy, slightly snobby salesclerks & slightly expensive tea.

I make a really delicious iced tea blending a Rooibos & a Herbal Tea and ran out of some the other day so we went out there today to get some more.  It’s about a 20 minute drive, not far, but certainly farther than Safeway.  While there we decided to restock the German Rock Sugar that we also get there.  It’s a three pound container that lasts about a year, give or take.  This time the sugar was packed in Teavana’s large tea tin containers instead of the glass jars that they’ve previously been sold in.  Each had been individually weighed and priced.  There was a price tag on the side that stated the sugar in that container was $23.52.

The salesclerk said that the glass jars had been discontinued by the company and they would probably have new jars  sometime in July.  We mentioned that we already had a jar and he said if we wanted he could pack the sugar in a bag or something or we could bring the jar in and they could refill it for us.  Since we weren’t planning on coming back to the mall for awhile so we just purchased the sugar & teas and went home.

When we got home Ray was putting everything away and looking over the receipt he noticed that they charged us $23.52 for the sugar and an additional $7.00 for the tin.  Not once did either clerk tell us that the tin was a separate charge.  There was no signage on the table with the sugar and no price tag on the tin except for the one that said the sugar was $23.52.

Am I crazy for being pissed about this?  It’s not that we can’t afford $7, but it’s the principle.  I feel like the clerks were getting away with something by not mentioning that the tin was not included with the sugar even though the sugar was IN THE TIN.  Even when he told us that we could bring in our jar and have it refilled he didn’t say anything like ‘then you wouldn’t have to pay for the tin.’

I sent an email to the company just to vent my frustration.  It’s not worth it to drive all the way back to the mall to return the tin, but I just feel like I want someone to say, ‘yes, you’re right, that was wrong.’

So … am I crazy?

let’s talk about blogs

Yes, let’s.

I read a lot of them.  When I discovered RSS feeds and that I could get them on Outlook like emails it was pretty much all over for me.  I spend entirely too much time reading them, but I love them so.  I’d like to tell you about my favorites.

Busy Bee Lauren – Lauren’s blog was the first blog I ever followed and read from just about the beginning when she was just a wee little lass.  She’s super talented, honest, hilarious & a sweetheart to boot.  I think I’ve posted my favorite post of hers before, but just in case I haven’t here it is and you should read it because you’ll laugh.

My Blog Is Boring – I admit, the title of this blog is what got me reading.  Well, that’s not true.  She wrote a guest post for another blogger who happens to be Mormon in which she repeatedly uses the word ‘whore’ and I laughed so hard and promised I would use ‘shut your whore mouth’ somewhere very soon.  I went over to her blog (which, for the record I DO love the title) and read from the first post to the last and knew I needed to be friends with the lovely Natalie.  I can honestly say that I call Natalie my friend, in fact she is my Notie and I would have it no other way.

Illusion – I found Ixy on For the Love of Blogs – a blog that feeds my blog reading addiction.  She also always has a kind word to say or a bit of encouragement when I need it.  She writes funny & honest posts about stuff I can relate to.  I find myself thinking, I wish I wrote that post!  She also shares my love of books.  How can she NOT be awesome.

Minute Man’s Wife – Completely candid about her marriage and the issues that have come up since saying ‘I do’.  Besides that she is hilarious and completely relatable.  She’s not afraid to write about the difficult things in life and she doesn’t sugarcoat them, but she doesn’t fall into some whiny, sad character.  She’s strong and someone I admire immensely.  Now she’s doing an advice column and it’s FABULOUS!

The Meanest Mom – This woman is AMAZING!  All you need to know about why I read her blog is because of this post right here.  I cannot wait until Emma is old enough so I can use Jana’s tactics on her.

This is such a small sampling of the blogs I read, only 5 out of the 50+ I read.  If you read them you’ll notice they all have the same things in common – honesty and laugh out loud moments.  They’re 5 incredibly admirable women all in different places, but they're all women I’m grateful to have found.

emma the artist

Yesterday for whatever reason, Emma drew a picture of me on her whiteboard.  I’m sitting on the toilet.

It’s not the most flattering picture of myself.  She drew a very disturbing look on my face.

She’s pretty proud of it.  It’s been up for two full days now. 

Yay.

Freak Out

Awhile ago Emma started seeing commercials for Aqua Pets.  

She really wanted one.  For her birthday she got lots of Target money so we took her on Sunday and let her pick out some stuff.  She decided on a Play Wonder Kitchen.

And she looooooves it.  She also got an Aqua Pet named Fretta.

By the time bedtime came around excitement turned into dread.  She asked if she could not put Fretta in her room because she was afraid it would make noise while she was sleeping and wake her up.  I told her that it would only make noise if she pushed one of the buttons.  She hesitated for a minute and then said 'But it freaks me out.'

So Fretta spent the night on Ray's nightstand and then came out in the morning and Emma attempted to play with her again.  Bed time comes around and she asked if Fretta could stay in our room indefinitely.  Now she's decided that Fretta has to go away because she just 'really, really freaks me out.'

*sigh*

project 365, week 19

This week was not so good.   For the first time I forgot to take a picture for the day!  I substituted a lovely picture, but it still bums me out.

5.8.11 – My Mother’s Day present from Ray.  LEGO Diagon Alley!!

5.9.11 – Here’s my missing day.  Emma & her cousin Dominic.  They may fight like cats and dogs sometimes, but they do love each other!

5.10.11 – Emma the Weirdo.  Yes, that’s a bucket on her head.

5.11.11 – Emma was feeling a little under the weather so Ray brought her home some feel better flowers.

5.12.11 – Ollivander’s almost done!

5.13.11 – Sprinkles cupcakes make everyone happy.  Especially me!

5.14.11 – Owls for Sale!

a strawberry shortcake party

Emma decided on Strawberry Shortcake as the theme for her birthday party this year.  It’s funny how cartoons that were around 20+ years ago are making the rounds all over again.

Ray got up early so he could power wash the back yard.  Such a busy guy!

No, I didn’t hang this all by myself.

The birthday girl in her birthday dress.

My sister-in-law’s delicious cupcakes!

Bouncy house, balloons, slightly bored adults….

It looks so tame now, but just imagine about 10 more kids and that’s why I don’t have very many pictures after this point.

Ready to blow out her candles.

Happy little Chloe awake after her nap.

My sister trying to look gangster while playing on Emma’s scooter.

Dominic loving the kid swing!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Picasa Content

project 365, week 18

So behind, so behind!  I think I’m two weeks behind now.  I’ll post the week before today and then I’ll get to last week’s tomorrow.  Hopefully…..

5.2.11 – I call this one ‘Cheater Bokeh’.  I just took a picture of some bokeh on my computer screen.  *tee-hee*

5.3.11 – It looks like wine, comes in a wine bottle, but it’s not wine!  For us preggos.

5.4.11 – This is a picture of my lap desk pillow.  I love it!

5.5.11 – It was such a hot day and Emma and I were in the driveway while she was making her Mother’s Day presents.  Ray had hosed down the driveway and I stepped in the water and took a picture of the footprints before they dried.

5.6.11 – Took Emma for our pre-birthday pedicures.

5.7.11 – The Birthday Girl blowing out her candles.

And there’s the week!

score another for the girls

My sister-in-law’s friend works for an ultrasound clinic and when I was pregnant with Emma she brought us in to get a bunch of ultrasound pictures done and to confirm she was in fact, a girl.  We went in yesterday and had the expertise of two ultrasound techs and they claim to be 100% sure this little one is a girl!

Woo-hoo!

Of course, since I’m only 16 weeks they could be wrong, but we’ll get confirmation at the end of the month at our scheduled ultrasound.  What I cared most about was that the baby had a heartbeat and was moving around like a little Tasmanian devil.  They were surprised I couldn’t feel her moving around.  For the record, I still can’t feel her moving around, but I’m happy to know she seems to be doing good in there.

Afterwards we headed over to Ikea so we could get what will hopefully be the last piece of furniture for Emma’s room for quite some time.  Then we came home and I started putting together my latest LEGO masterpiece while watching numerous episodes of Castle.

Can you say, perfect ending to a good day?

And then today, despite having a dentist appointment on Friday the 13th, I was able to eat 2 full meals without feeling sick!! 

Today is also a good day.

glee + emma

It seems that watching Glee with me has given Emma some interesting expectations of what high school will be like.

First she asked me when she could be prom queen.

I told her when she gets to high school.

She replied, ‘Oh the musical school.  I can’t wait to be grown up and go there.  We will sing all the time.’

*sigh*

blahs

It’s been a few days since I’ve posted.  At first I told myself it was because I was so busy over the weekend.  Emma’s birthday party was a huge success, although quite exhausting.  Then it was Mother’s Day and we juggled spending time with my mom, aunts & grandmother and Ray’s mom & sisters.

But then the days passed and I just don’t feel like doing much.  I don’t really feel like finishing the last of the six books I’m 100 pages from finishing.  I don’t feel like playing the new LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean game Ray got for me, nor am I super gung-ho about putting together the LEGO set of Diagon Alley I got for Mother’s Day.  And I’m sad to say that I have put little effort into taking pictures for my 365 project.

Normally, I would chalk it up to depression, but I’ve been there and know what that feels like and this isn’t it.  I’m just so tired and so tired of feeling yucky.  Since conception I don’t think there has been one full day of this pregnancy where I have felt good and not fighting the urge to throw up.  What makes me the most unhappy is that I love to eat good food and so far I have been unable to eat all the things that I love.  Nothing tastes good. 

It feels blasphemous to complain about not loving every minute of this pregnancy since we worked so hard to get here and went through so much.  I feel ungrateful and as if I’m tempting fate.  I worry because I’m not gaining weight, in fact have lost some weight.  I’m back to wearing non maternity pants.  I worry because I haven’t felt the baby move yet, though I’m only 15 weeks and some say you can’t feel the baby until around 16-17 weeks.

I always thought that the second pregnancy would be worse than the first.  With the first you literally have no idea what to expect.  But with the second, you know and may have experienced all the scary & bad things that can happen and you worry the whole time about those bad & scary things.  And I am a worrier by nature.  So as you can imagine despite the tiny logical part of my brain I’m quite stressed out about ridiculous things.

And I haven’t felt like blogging.

So bear with me and my intermittent postings.  I’ll try my best to get back in the writing groove.

pre-mother’s day

We had a lot going on these last couple of days.  Emma made some Mother’s Day presents for her Ba-Chan & Grandma.  It was a new experience for me, although she’s worked with stepping stones before.

Making stepping stone mosaics.  

Can’t wait to see what they look like when we take them out of the molds!

But the highlight of Mother’s Day so far (and it’s only Friday)?  I was parent helper in Emma’s class today and they were also doing a Mother’s Day tea beginning the last half hour of class.  It was also Emma’s share day so she’s been super excited about today all week!  They’ve been working on a Mother’s Day surprise all week and she’s been dying to tell us what it is.

And so spending the day with her at school and watching this really made my Mother’s Day!

Hope everyone’s having a wonderful Mother’s Day!

five years gone by

To my little sunshine puppy.

Today you are 5 years old!  Can you believe it?  I can’t.  When I think about how I thought you were growing up so fast I was thinking more along the lines of you getting so tall.  Still in the 90+ percentile for your height I know that you’ll be taller than me by the time you are in 5th grade or so.  But what is really surprising to me is how fast you’re maturing.  Listening you muse about certain topics or explain something you’ve learned to me is both an amazement and a practice in holding laughter.

You’re just so grown up.  You state everything quite matter-of-factly.  You have your own little theories about what makes the world go ‘round.  Sometimes when I try to give you some kind of vague answer to one of your ‘how does this work’ questions you come back with a ‘well that wouldn’t work because of the electrons’ or something else like that that I don’t understand.

It goes without saying that you are one of the best things that has and will ever happen to me.  I’m thankful everyday for you and Daddy and baby on the way.  I love that you still love to cuddle with me and give me kisses.  I love that when I’m the helper mom at school you show me all the new things you’ve done and are so proud to have me there.

I love how smart you are and how you think you tell the funniest jokes.  It’s always fun to hear you sing whether it’s a Glee song or a song you’ve learned at school.

I hope that you don’t grow up too fast now.  Since you’re five now and starting school I think it’s okay if you slow down on the growing up.  Okay?

Just remember, no matter how old you get you’ll always be my Sunshine Puppy.  And … I love you the most!!

the dark and hollow places

Finally.  I finished.

I finished reading up to issue #80 of The Walking Dead over the weekend and though I watched the first season of AMC’s TV show based on it I decided I wouldn’t be watching the rest.  After going though all those issues I put the last one down feeling so hopeless.  There is a never-ending world of pain and death and there is literally no light at the end of the tunnel.  Even though I loved The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves, after getting a third of the way though The Dark and Hollow Places I began to feel that depression of hopelessness.

But Carrie Ryan doesn’t ever really let you fall into that pit.  There’s always hope.  The books are a testament to humanity’s survival instinct and their never-ending ability to hope even in the most dire of circumstances.

If you haven’t read the first two books you should stop reading this review now.  There will be spoilers.

It all began with Mary.  Daring to question the authorities of her Village and then when all hell breaks loose the only one seemingly determined to survive.  While she wasn’t the most likeable character in literature she was strong and she was a survivor.

Years later we find that she has built a life for herself in a seaside village and has a daughter who despite not being blood related seems to have inherited Mary’s bravery.  Gabry introduces us to Catcher and Elias who holds all the secrets to Gabry’s past.

Now finally, in The Dark and Hollow Places we meet Annah.  Gabry’s twin sister and the one who has survived in the Dark City by herself for the last 3 years after Elias left her to join the Recruiters.  Deciding that she is not going to wait another day for Elias she heads out of the city only to stumble across her sister, the sister she hasn’t seen since she was 5 years old, but whom she has thought about every day of her life.

The world is literally coming to an end.  The options they once thought might be open to them are gone and with so few left not infected humanity has left this world.  But Annah refuses to give up.  She knows that she made a decision to leave her sister behind once and regretted it every day since then … she will not make that same choice.

The characters are all so strong in their own way.  Once reunited the sisters forge a relationship as if they were never separated.  Despite the grim and apocalyptic subject the book is full of hope and love.  It is at times nail biting, gasp inducing and stomach turning, but it is mostly a love story, albeit quite an unusual one.

Butterfly Effect

On May the 4th be a part of the Butterfly Effect.  Draw butterflies on your wrists to show your support for people with depression & self harming addictions.

can you really kill 2 birds with 1 stone?

I’m not a hunter.  I don’t understand sport hunting at all.  The closest I get would be fishing I guess, though I don’t do that very often at all.  And I usually don’t keep anything I catch except for one time when I couldn’t get the hook out of the fish and freaked out.  We had that fish for dinner.

Anyway.  There is a bird outside that has made our tree in the backyard his home.  It’s just the one bird and he is LOUD.  He begins screaming at around 4 am and doesn’t stop until sometime around midnight.

I can hear him right now.  Doors and windows closed.

I would like to kill this bird.

Now.

the great aphid attack of 2011

I started noticing an alarming number of aphids collecting on our rosebushes next to our driveway.  I kept thinking I would need to do something about it, but I just kept forgetting.  Then I noticed that the rosebushes at the front of the house were infected.  Ugh.  So began the war on the aphids.

We went to Johnson’s Garden Center and bought three containers with 1500 lady bugs each.  

We waited until nighttime when it’s cooler.  Lady bugs don’t fly at night so if you scatter them on the bushes at night they’ll crawl around and discover the aphids instead of flying away immediately.  This is what the roses looked like before we let the lady bugs go.  So many aphids!!

Here’s one little guy the next day wandering around.

This is the same rose bush I took a picture of the night before.  HUGE difference!  We still have a long way to go.  Hopefully the lady bugs will start laying their eggs and make the rose bushes their home.  Then we’ll be able to keep the aphids under control.

The other bad deal about aphids is that they attract ants.  The ants eat the honeydew that the aphids excrete.  Did you know that ants will actually farm aphids!?  They’ll take aphid eggs back to their nest to protect in case they have to move to another home.  If they do move the queen will take one egg with her (aphids don’t need mates to reproduce) and start a new aphid farm wherever she goes.  It’s quite a symbiotic relationship, but I don’t want any part of it!

Happy eating little ladies!

project 365, week 17

Short week this week since I went over last week.  This week I edited my pictures.  Mostly using Picnik adding boost or the lomo effect.  Nothing too fancy, I’m just not that good at editing!

4.26.11 – Ray went out and bought a bunch of these little containers of ice cream.  They are awesome.

4.27.11 – Just a picture of a snowflake Christmas decoration we had laying around.

4.28.11 – Mushroom Portobello Mushroom burger from Carl’s Jr.  SO GOOD!

4.29.11 – German Rock Cane Sugar.  Best thing for my tea!

4.30.11 – Emma’s sunflower is almost ready to go into the yard!

5.1.11 – Had to buy three of these bad boys to try to get rid of the aphids that are destroying our rose bushes!