Thursday, March 31, 2011

Day 243 ~ Mouse Match!


The coolest kids game ever!  It's basically like memory, since you can't see the colors of the mice, and if you push the mouse through that matches one of the three cheese pieces in the middle, you get to take the cheese and go again!  I thought it was going to be dumb when the kids wanted to play it, but we ended up playing 4 games of it! ^-^

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Day 242 ~ Take that, expiration date!!!

We are horrible using our milk before it goes bad!  Half a gallon is too little, a whole gallon seems to be just a bit too much and we only shop every two weeks so buying half gallons on an off shopping week would be annoying (though I think we're going to start resulting to that!)  But anyways, if the milk is *almost* gone but not quite, and it goes past the expiration date even by a day or two, it usually goes bad!  So we do our best to use it!  And this time... we made it!  And a day after the expiration date too :)  I used the last of it this morning on cereal, I was proud!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Day 241 ~ Yeah, I'm so doing this!


I was sitting on the floor playing with kateri today and just decided, after weeks of pondering, that I was joining a gym.... the majority of the reasoning behind it being for my long term health!  I went tonight and I LOVE it!  I don't know how long that will last, but I've got a good feeling aboout it!  A while back, I had used my Kohls gift card to by some actual workout looking clothes... I got the capris which you can see in the pink pattern which is the awesome criss cross waist band (very convenient for my ipod since I don't have pockets) and the tank tops are the same pattern with one being freen like in the picture and the other being pink to match the pants!  This should be awesome!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Day 240 ~ All bundled up...

I had a doctors appointment to go to today and my mom usually helps out watching Kateri if I just need to slip out for an hour or so.  When I came back.... Kateri was napping all bundled up on my family's couch, how they got her to fall asleep like this I shall never know, but it was cute :)

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Day 239 ~ Building the Halls...

Of the Taj Mahal!  We took quite a break from building for a while, not sure why, we just never got around to it, but after much "we should get back to work" talk, we finally started back up again!

 Steve... helping!!!

These are two out of the four of these that we have to build!  And before you think it doesn't look complicated, it takes about two hours just to build one... but we work together, each building one simultaneously!  We each are responsible for certain colors of lego and get each other the pieces we need for each step, it works really well that way!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Day 238 ~ The other decorations...

These are the other things we were able to put up with the new arrangements!  I bought this pretty little mirror with yellow flowers on it at one of the flea markets our town has every year, it was only a dollar but never had a place!  Now I use it to dry my hair on days when Nate and I both have to compete for getting ready time in the morning!  And the other picture on the wall is a painting on a screen (like one that goes in a window) of our train station which is no longer in use but is the iconic picture of our town... Nate's parents also gave that to us!

Day 237 ~ Best "no meat on Fridays during lent" dinner ever!

And best excuse to use our odds and ends of the kitchen!  I doctored the baked beans with spicy mustard and zuccini relish and they were amazing, and we used up the last of our tomato and pierogies!  I thought the picture looked funny, but the dinner was too good not to document :)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Day 236 ~ Just another Thursday...

...with handfulls of kids :)
And the typical half hour of handing one crayon after another to toddlers!

Plus the all day of making sure Ivan cries as little as possible... which can prove to be difficult, but eventually the victory is always ours!

Day 235 (Wednesday, March 23rd) ~ cool temporary thingy for my windshield!



I decided to procrastinate big time on renewing my registration, I mean it's only the second time I've had to do it and the last time Maddy and I waited two hours at the MVA and then she smacked her head on the floor right before my number was called, fun memory.... ok, rant over!  Anyways... since I did it this time I get to print out one of these awesome things to stick in my car so I won't get pulled over... for some reason that entertains me!  What can I say, simple things! :)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Day 234 ~ Honey, I know where that new painting is going!


The view into our bedroom door! Nate's family bought this beautiful painting for us, knowing how much I love yellow and all! We didn't know where we were going to put it up, but then we re arranged the bedroom. I was standing in front of the table and I look into the bedroom and see nothing but white! And I nonchalantly stated the title of this post and told Nate to come stand where I was and just pointed into the bedroom. It took us until now to put it up though since we would always forget until it was late at night... with the way the furniture is now we were also able to hang up a few other things, that didn't have a place before, to complete the new look!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Day 233 ~ It's a mouse!!!

Suzanne and I were doodling at work today because we were bored waiting the older kids towake up.... she's drawing random lines and circles and all of a sudden yells "It's a mouse!!!" The things we find amusing astound us sometimes!  Oh and today Paul wouldn't tell us his middle name, he's six, so in consequence for not revealing it to us, we made up one for him.... Paul Sheep Penelope Princess Llama Spoon, there were many many more that we kept coming up with all day, but those were the best so we put them all together!  He laughed hysterically every time we would think of one!  He told us at the end of the day what the real one was, but we all agreed ours is much better!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Day 232 ~ Signs of Spring...

Today was the first day of spring!  I can't believe winter is over yet again!  This is the tree outside our balcony... before today, the buds were just green and not open at all yet, but I thought it was beautifully fitting that they should change on the first day of spring!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Day 231 ~ We like the moon!

'Cause it is close to us!

As close as it's going to be for the next 20 years! It's the brightest of the year and hasn't been this close or bright in 18 years.  It's also known as a Supermoon!  Nate and I went to the park with Charlie, Ricky and Will to look through the telescope at it and we got this picture through the telescope!

"The moon is very useful, everyone..."
And in this case it was very useful because it had me staying up late, which meant I was still awake when Lyndsay texted me from CALIFORNIA!!! She graduated Navy boot camp yesterday and is in Monteray now for linguist school!  If it weren't for the moon I probably would have been asleep and never would have seen the text! Yay for Lyndsay and yay for the moon!

On a side note, I started my official photo blog scrapbook today... paper has beenon sale at AC Moore so I've been buying a bunch and started randomly with my first page made from all the way back on day 130... I forgot how much I missed scrap booking and have even been going back through my old ones, such great memories!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Day 230 ~ New Vac-u-um...

"Mommy, I know you think it makes house pretty, but did you really have to bring another one here? Us kitties thought we were gettin along pretty good without it!"

I finally got to break in my new vacuum today... we've had it since Tuesday, but I havent had a chance til I got home  from work today to use it... finally I can stop borrowing other people's! ^_^

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Day 229 ~ The day of green....

And Nate's mom's birthday as well but I didn't get any good pictures of her opening things or anything like that!  The best picture I got all day was of Ivan and the outfit I dressed him in for St. Patrick's day looks a heck of a lot greener in person... my camera seemed to be anti green because everything I took a picture of that was green, didn't actually look it in the picture, but let it be known that Ivan and I were totally wearing green so no pinching for us :)  He was such a good boy today!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Day 228 ~ Harrold is a shell hog...

So I bought some new shells in Ocean City after the festival was over and before we all went to dinner... I bought maybe 4 and I was really hoping my blue crab would change into one of them because he's my tightest looking crab even though her changed right after we got them!  This was my middle of the night experience last night! I usually get up at some point during the middle of the night, and when I do I always flip on our dining room light just to check on the crabs, to see if anyone changed shells and make sure the havent beaten each other up.  Well I come out and I see a shell moving and I notice it's a new one!  I look around and notice both the green and blue crabs are still in their shells and it dawned on me... I was like "oh Harrold those shells are NOT for you!"  He hasn't even been in the one he was in for very long! He had already changed in to the one by 2 A.M when I came out and when I tried to pick him up I hadn't realized that he was practically attached to another one, the one in this picture and he wouldn't let go.  So I was like "Harrold if you are not in your current shell in the morning I am going to have words with you!" Sure enough, at 7 this morning I wake up to another empty shell! So one of the ones I just bought went to waste since he was only in it for a few hours! Ugh! Guess I better keep bringing in the shells!


Harrold's one night shell!

I put the used shells, knowing the crabs won't use a shell that's already been lived in, up here.... notice how the left three are all Harrold's and they get progressively bigger... but the one he moved into last is actually smaller than the biggest one there!  Silly Harrold!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Day 227 ~ Let me see...

Sofia got hold of my camer today and she kept handing it to me and saying "take picture of me like this" and she would pose...


And then grab thecamera back and say "let me see"  3 years old and already posing for the camera!  I love all these beautiful little girls I've had the privilage to have in my life! 

And on the way home from work I noticed that some of the clouds were going in the swifting upwards pattern unlike the rest and in them was a rainbow!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Day 226 ~ Pumpy turns 20..... something!!!

Today was my grandfather's birthday (he's has many heart surgeries over the years and so when we were younger we started calling him Pumpy after the episode of Arthur the Aardvark when he was talking to all his body parts and his heart tells the kidneys not to call him Pumpy.... coincidentaly now that I think about it, my grandfather's name is Arthur lol how fitting after all these years).... I came home last night from the festival so that we could all celebrate today!  He usually picks a year in the 20's that he decides he's turning, but this year he just said he's 20something :)  We had an excellent early dinner and cake and as always there were more good stories to tell and jokes to hear!  I love our family get togethers!  I'm so very thankful for him, he's been having a tough year with heart surgeries and we're all happy to celebrate this year with him, I wouldn't have missed it!

Day 225 (Saturday March 12th) ~ When bells ring....

My heart sings.... literally, I was on some sort of whacky cloud nine the whole time!  This was the empty ballroom after our first morning rehearsal... we were in that second row there!

Our excellent director, he was very funny and I really learned a lot from him!

me and Anna... we went walking on the beach with Cathy and Tom for a while after lunch.

Our choir :)
Front Row - Jamie, Jenn, me, Anna. Middle Row - Cheryl, Jane, Sue (my stand partner), Jeannette. Back Row - Greg, Ben, Cathy, Tom.

This was right before the big performance where people could come and listen to the songs we've been preparing on our own at home for months now and that we worked really hard to bring together in rehearsals all weekend!  Nate came to listen and take me home.  I know I did a lot better in rehearsal than in the performance, but I was still really proud of all of us... a few of those songs were hard enough without 500 other ringers playing with you!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Day 224 ~ My first handbell festival....

                                                                      In ten years that is! 


I left Kateri with my mom and sister this afternoon and headed down to Ocean City with Anna and Jamie and their family for day 1 of the handbell festival!  The whole thing was so exciting.... we stayed in Cathy and Tom's time share condo (it's Cathy's brother's really) and it was so much better than when I used to go when I was younger.  There were about 500 people registered, probably at least 30 other choirs!


Our twizzler stash.... rehearsals were long and many and though I absolutely loved every one of them and could have kept going for a couple more days, we had help getting by from our stashes of candy on our stands!


Thursday, March 10, 2011

Day 223 ~ Sleeping Beauty...

Kateri is so pretty when she sleeps (and all the time of course!)  She was so tired from such a busy morning at Mandy and John's that she just climbed up on the couch and fell asleep like this!  I love it when she does that, it's so sweet!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Day 222 ~ Fairwell Discovery.... the Final minutes of flight!

Nate texted me today just in time for me to get onto NASA TV to watch the return of the Discovery!  If he had texted me any later, I would have missed it because my phone battery died literally right after I viewed the message!  Good thing is that it's fairwell from Kennedy, but it's coming to us here at the Smithsonian in DC!  We're definitely going to see it when it gets here!  I can't wait!  I'm still so excited I've gotten to partake in this last journey of such a historic part of our nation and I love having something like this to be excited about!

I'll work on the pictures and the video tomorrow!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Day 221 ~ just as bad as Steve!

This picture is actually from Saturday... I didn't get one to take today, I've been pretty tired at night so I pretty much came home and laid down and then fell asleep so there wasn't much to take a picture of anyways.  But I didn't want to let this one go by un noticed!

Nate said it was more fun seeing Kateri react to it then it was to play with Steve! 

Day 220 (Monday March 7th) ~ Ivan :)

Today I started back with Mandy and John's kids two days a week.  I can't believe how much has changed with the little ones.... Sofia is saying full sentences now when she was only at a few words before.  But the biggest change, obviously, is the new baby, Ivan!  I love him.... he is SO wonderful, even his crying is cute!  He doesn't like to take a nap for me, but I have powers lol so I always won out in the end!  I've never taken care of a boy baby before, so I'm excited for the chance to practice even though I'm determined to only have sweet little girls one day ;) (I might as well say it since I'm already sure as cursed to have ten boys lol)  This is Ivan :)  He is three months old now!

he liked to chew on his fingers A LOT

Suzanne will also be coming every Monday, but not Thursdays because she still has school, to help us all out!  She's a life saver!  She has powers too and put Ivan to sleep just by walking around with him!





Sunday, March 6, 2011

Day 219 ~ Bedroom Makeover...

I've been dying to re arrange the furniture in our bedroom!  We're going to be here most likely for another year, so something had to change!  This is what we ended up with, not that you have anything to go on as to what it looked like before but.... it feels more open and gives me more motivation to keep it clean!


The bed was on the opposite wall before and so was my tall dresser

The book shelf used to be where the dresser is now and the dresser used to be where the bed is now.

Roman is checking things out, they were so confused while were doing this... the chair used to be in the opposite corner and used to be where Nate kept his work clothes etc.  I made him put it all elsewhere so we can actually make sitting use of the chair.

Since these pictures were taken, I'm having a hard time getting used to where the bed is newly positioned.  I feel kind of cramped and since I was used to sleeping in the opposite direction, my body thinks its weird, that and Ramona sleeps by my head now for some reason.  But Steve likes to sleep in the chair, which is good because he and Ramona don't fight for the bed anymore!  I really like how clean it stays and in the morning I make the bed now and I sit in the chair and drink my coffee every morning after opening the shades for morning light!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Day 218 ~ There's a Platypus controlling me, he's underneath the table!

Today, March 5th, was Platypus Day :)  In honnor of Perry the Platypus of course, but we recognized the other platypus in our family as well :)  Here are our celebration pictures... and before I let myself convince me I have no life, I consider this to be epicly more of a life than what society considers "having a life" oh but wait, that's right, society's a platypus (a metaphor for whatever's bringing you down) and there's no platypus controlling me!!! ;)


This purple platypus is the opne I got Andrew for Christmas, we almost forgot about him, but just because he isn't Perry, doesn't mean he shouldn't be recognized, he is a platypus after all!

He was smiling on the inside :)

Day 217 (Friday March 4th) ~ Florida Collection

Apparently this is where our random Florida kitchen collectibles go! 


The little cow from an antique store by where my aunt and uncle live and the marmelade from Orange World are from November and have been sitting there since (I can't open the jar and Nate's never around when I want to and I always forget when he is around) The NASA mug is from this trip in February and then there's the Disney Napkins.  I looked up from making coffee today and was like "hmmm, all this stuff is from the same place!"

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Day 216 ~ Kateri is smart!

She learns so much every day!  I usually take a refilled 10 ounce thing of juice every day so that all I have to do is buy the 64oz. ones and wash the little ones after I use them.  So sometime in the morning I always have it sitting around somewhere with my phone and Kateri usualy points them both out.  This time I was in the kitchen and I hear her say "juice" and then "phone"!  I tell her yep that's my juice and phone.... and come back to see this!


I'm not even kidding, she did this all by herself!  I love that little girl!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Day 215 ~ Our first "land line" call...


Nate knew I had been missing having a land line around since I moved out of my parents.  I'm grateful for the cell phones, but I miss wondering who's calling or taking a message for someone if they aren't there.  So he's been working for the last several months to create a land line for me.... don't ask me how he's doing it, it's through some program so I don't really know the specifics.  He's finally got it working so that people can call in and we can call out.  He gave the number for it to the Toyota dealership and apparently and they called asking for feedback :)  I dont know how much it will really get used, but I like having it!   

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Day 214 ~ new shopping night...

We've moved our shopping night from Sundays to Tuesdays since we have discovered that is massively less crowded on weekdays :)  I usually only buy the kinds of ceareals that are considered "good for me" but I couldn't help it this time.... we have a revised grocery budget so I knew I had a little more to spend.  Crunch berries are historically my favorite kind of cereal... and I also now love these new ceerios :)  I sometimes forget we have them though because I keep them in a cabinet thats down instead of up, so they slip my mind which is kind of like finding money in your pocket you didn't know you had, fun!