Monday, November 24, 2008

Out of the office...

So we're going on vacation this week, so most of my weekly stuff won't be happening. No MPM or tackle it tuesday probably. We'll only be here a few nights for dinner so I'm not doing a big grocery shopping before we leave. And I have a bunch of krap I have to get done before I leave, so really I need to be doing stuff besides blogging. :-) Not sure if I'll blog while I"m gone or not, so everyone have a great holiday weekend. See you next week! :-)

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

So internet, I have an important question to ask you. How early is too early to send out Christmas cards? I like to start hanging them up at Thanksgiving when I decorate the house. But I'm not sure when the proper time to mail cards is. Mine are all ready to go (except for a few that I don't have addresses on yet) so they are going in the mail today. Yay me! :-)What about the rest of you? When do you send your cards?

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Tackle It Tuesday/Monthly Round Up Part 2

My Tackle this week is still my laundry area. (You can see the beginning of this project here) I'll be back to post pictures of my progress. I left the camera in the kids room last night, and Anthony is still asleep.

So while you wait for pictures of that I'm going to post my to do list for today. Having a list really really helps me focus and I get things done much more quickly.

Dishes
Run/Empty Dishwasher
Laundry
Laundry
Laundry
Laundry
Laundry
Sweep and Mop Kitchen
Wash Down High chair
Clean kids bathroom
Change sheets
Mail Christmas cards
Sweep and Mop Hardwood Floors
Organize Book Shelf
Take out garbage
Pick up kids room
Pick up my room
Vacuum
Take stuff to Goodwill
List dresser on Freecycle
Clean up yard

For more info on the Monthly round up, go visit http://orgjunkie.com/. For more info on Tackle it Tuesday, or to see other Tackles, check out http://www.5minutesformom.com/. If you are participating in either project, leave me a comment!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Menu Plan Monday


Trying out a new recipe for pot roast this week, chuck roast is on sale so that's why I'm trying it out. We'll see how it goes.


Monday
Taco Salad (Recipe is below)

TuesdayPot Roast veggies

Wednesday Hot dogs Beans Veggies fruit

Thursday Jeff's coooking

Friday stew whole wheat rolls

Saturday Grilled cheese

Sunday chicken, brown rice, broccoli

Taco salad Recipe
6 servings @ 8 pts each

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef
½ c diced onion
1 pkg dry taco seasoning
4 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 bag salad greens
8 oz shredded 2 % Mexican blend cheese
6 oz salsa
6 oz FF sour cream
18 Tostitos chips

Prep:
Brown ground beef with diced onion and drain off grease. Add taco seasoning and stir together. Toss salad greens, tomatoes, cheese, & black olives together and divide into 6 servings. Top with 1/3 c beef mixture. Mix salsa and sour cream together and top each salad with ¼ c. Crush 3 Tostitos chip and sprinkle over top of each salad.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Fires...

I'm beginning to dislike this time of year. I took these outside my house around noon today. It's really hot and dry and windy. The air quality is pretty krappy.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books



Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Have you ever tried to take a decent picture of two children? It's impossible!. First you get a cute shot of the youngest all lined up, then big sister jumps in as you hit the button. You get a blurry mess like this


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Then the sister gets mad because you're taking a picture of her brother so she stands next to him making weird faces and trying to block him from getting his picture taken.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

After you get Amelia to calm down, then Anthony goes crazy and decides he needs to eat the camera, which results in this picture.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


I'm not even sure what prompted this picture.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


or this one


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Finally I ended up with this, and figured that's good enough for today!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

To do

It seems like I always have a huge to do list. What's up with that? I guess it's just part of being a Mom. The house always needs to be cleaned, the laundry is never finished, and I still haven't figured out a way to neglect it all so I can get caught up on my scrapbooking. So anyway, here's my to do list for today, what's yours look like?


ETA Okay so I had to carry this over to today, but I'm most of the way through it.

Finish and mail thank you cards
Mop the kitchen floor
Laundry
Laundry
Laundry
Laundry
Laundry ( I want to get 5 loads done today)
Pick up kids room
Vacuum kids room
Scrub the kitchen cabinet
Clean kids bathroom
List junk on freecycle.
Order ribbon for bows
Buy stamps
Finish addressing Christmas cards.
Scrub down Anthony's high chair
Use wood cleaner on dining room chairs. (How do they get soooo dirty so fast? Darn kids! LOL)
Clean out the van

not so Wordless Wednesday




I wanted to do this last week, but I didn't get that far. These are the pictures I took of my kids when they announced the winner of the presidential election. There are always those times when people look back and remember what they were doing when something huge happened. Like when the space shuttle Challenger exploded ( I was in kindergarten and Mr. Bell came in and told our teacher, then she told us), or when the planes hit the towers on 9/11.

Did you play? Leave me a comment and I'll visit your WW.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Tackle it Tuesday/ Monthly Round Up


Today's post is going to serve two purposes. It's going to kick off my participation in the Monthly Round up at Orgjunkie.com, and it's going to show my Tackle it Tuesday. I'm posting my before pictures today, and let me tell you, it's bad. The plan this month is to organize our laundry rooms. I don't have a laundry room really, it's just an area in my garage. It also happens to be the entry way into the house if you're entering through the garage, which we do. I'll be working on this project all month.

I have a huge pile of clothes that don't fit anyone that I need to deal with (send them to goodwill, or another Mom from playgroup, or put them out for the kids, some are still too big.) The cabinets over the Washer and Dryer need to be organized and everything needs a good cleaning. I'm sure you can see the huge mound of junk on top of the Washer and Dryer too. Because the soccer ball should really be stored in the same place as the clean bumper for Anthony's crib right? Right! LOL

I'll post an update each Tuesday this month.


Okay so this is a little embarassing, here's my before pictures...


Menu Plan Monday


Last weeks menus went well. I have figured out that Thursday nights don't work well for me cooking dinner, we don't get home from gymnastics until 530 or so. The kids and I will probably hit Chick Fil A on the way home or eat out of the freezer, so Jeff's on his own. I tried to convince him to plan something to cook for all of us for dinner but I don't think he likes that plan. LOL

The pesto Chicken from last week was so yummy, we're having it again tonight! ANd yes I know my menu says veggies every night, but I dont usually plan out what veggies to go with each meal, I just throw out whatever I've got in the fridge or freezer.

Monday: Pesto Chicken, Veggies, Fruit

Tuesday: Steak, Baked potatoes, veggies

Wednesday: Ham and Broccoli quiche

Thursday: Fend for yourself night

Friday: Breakfast for dinner

Saturday: Pork Chops, Broccoli, Veggies

Sunday: Grilled Cheese and soup

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Cheers to all us thieves!

Sunday Stealing: The Nudder Meme

1. Who did you spend at least two hours with today? My kids and Hubby

2. What do you look forward to most in the next six weeks? Christmas.

3. Who was the last person you called? My Mom

4. What were you doing at 12am last night? Sleeping! And probably trying to push my hubby out of bed.

5. Are your parents married/divorced? My mom is single, my Dad has passed away.

6. When did you last see your mom? The beginning of October.

7. What are you wearing right now? Jeans tshirt and tennies

8. Where is your favorite place to be? The beach during a storm.

9. Where is your least favorite place to be? In my house when it's messy.

10. Where would you go if you could go anywhere? I'd go back home where I grew up.

11. Where do you think you'll be in 10 years? Married with a teenager and a preteen. Scary!

12. What was the last thing that really made you laugh? Picture my sister sent me on my phone last night. My niece was wearing these huge Elton john glasses.

13. What cities/towns/villages have you lived in? Ocean Park WA, Oysterville WA, Seaview WA, Astoria OR, Knappa OR, Portland OR, Los Gatos CA, San Jose CA, Huntington Beach CA, Aliso Viejo CA, Orange CA

14. Are you a social person? Sometimes. Sometimes I really crave time alone.

15. Do you sleep alone? Nope.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Saturday Nine

Saturday 9: So Far Away

1. Where is the furthest place that you have traveled and how far away from home is it? I went to Missouri, at the time I lived in Washington.

2. What is a blog that you would recommend for us to read and why? http://sothefishsaid.com It's just a great funny Mom blog.

3. What is the biggest surprise you ever have had and was it a good one? When my mom showed up for my birthday 2 years ago. I had no idea she and my Grandma were flying down. It was a great surprise! (Thanks Jeff. :-) )

4. What is your favorite quote? (We know we've asked this recently. But there is always another great quote! :) hmmm Not sure.

5. Have you ever been hospitalized for a major health situation? I've been in the hospital only to have children. Although both times there were problems, Pre Eclampsia with Amelia, I was there 6 days, I had Single Umbilical Artery and low fluids with anthony. I was only there 2 days with him though.

6. Do you prefer long hair or short hair for yourself?i like it long, but I never can seem to leave it that way. I always end up chopping it off.

7. What was your favorite amusement park ride growing up? There were no amusement parks near where I grew up.
I am an idiot, I forgot about the rides in Long Beach. ALthough really, i didn't like them much. They were too rickety to me. I was a very nervous child. LOL

8. How long do you talk on your phone on a typical day? Maybe an hour total? I hate talking on the phone.

9. Other than Saturday 9, what is your favorite meme to do each week? i don't do any consistently.

Did you play? Leave me a comment. :-)

Friday, November 07, 2008

Well Krap

I had a post that was scheduled to go up yesterday (the 6th) and it didn't work. And apparently m post from the 5th never showed up either. What the heck? So I guess I already screwed up the 30 posts in 30 days thing. Unless of course, you count the fact that on a few days, there was more than one post. That has to count for something right? I guess I need to stop trying to schedule posts the night before.

I'm off to figure out why my blog posts are not showing up properly. Hopefully this one goes up.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

We won!

NBC is calling Senator Barack Obama the 44th president of the United States. Woohoo!
Today is one of those days where I truly struggle to be a good Mom to my kids. Amelia is a very high energy child. She generally needs to be constantly engaged in something or she finds trouble, and she finds it quickly.

I have 37 things I need/want to get done today, some laundry, scrubbing my kitchen floors, etc, but seriously I cannot get anything done. Every time I turn my back she is into something else. Or she's trying to beat up her brother, or she's running off with my cell phone trying to call Daddy, or she's hitting me or she's throwing things at the TV, or she is smearing hand soap all over the TV, or she's taking the gate down to let Ant into the kitchen. (This all happened in a one hour span today.) So I'm sitting at my computer taking a break. I told Amelia I was putting myself in time out. :-)

Now she's trying to figure out how to get the screen door unlocked so she can let her brother outside. So, I'm going to turn on a movie, put Anthony down for a nap and go sit on the couch and snuggle my kid. Hopefully Jeff will understand why the house isn't much cleaner now than it was when he left this morning, and there are only 2 loads of laundry done. If not, he can stay home with them tomorrow and I'll go work in the IT department. I bet it's easy compared to being home all day with my children!! LOL

Vote!!

If you are an American citizen, get your butt out there and vote today! I'm not going to tell you who to vote for *cough cough* Obama *cough cough* but seriously. GO VOTE! If you don't you can't complain about who wins or loses!

Jeff and I will be going with the kids when he gets home from work. That should be fun!

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Menu Plan Monday

Here we go again. :-)

Monday: Baked Pesto Chicken, Brown Rice, Salad

Tuesday: Slow Cooker Meatloaf, Baked Potatoes Veggies

Wednesday: Hamburgers, Sweet Potato Fries, Veggies

Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner

Friday: Home made Pizza, salad, veggies

Saturday: Chili, corn bread and veggies

Sunday

Day 2 of 30 days of posts!

I'm off to the gym this morning, I'm hoping it's not as busy as it was yesterday. I went at 10 and it was packed! I figured it would be slower on the weekend, guess not. So since I'm not writing much today, I'm going to leave you with a plea to do something good for someone else. My friend Steph has a post up on her blog that can tell you the whole story, but it's about a little girl who could really use your help. So go visit her blog here and see what you can do, either financially or in some other way. I donated, and I was thinking I'd send her some bows or something.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

NaBloPoMo

It's National Blog Posting Month! which of course gets shortened to NaBloPoMo(try saying that ten times fast!) The goal of NaBloPoMo, is to post every day for 30 days. Last year I set out to do it, but I don't think I made it. The fact that I had a new baby didn't help I'm sure. So anyway, I'll be posting every day for the month of November. Now I just have to come up with 29 more things to talk about...