someone pissed in my cheerios

A guy at work uses this phrase and I’m totally amused by it.  And then, I caught someone in a lie. As I sat feeling surprised, I had to laugh and say, “He pissed in my cheerios.”  I’ll let it roll right off my back of course and enjoy the entertainment value of it all.

Sooo… today I am cleaning.  I have a giant pile of laundry. Out of washcloths, towels, and socks. It’s time to take the jump!  I need to make “Apple Pie Kits” but my freezer is packed.   So I will have to clean that out first. I’ve got paper clutter to sort, lots of dusting, and run the vacuum.  The Beatles keep me company.

Congrats Tim on your great turkey kill. <shudder> =)

currently loving

the autumn chill

green tea lattes

the best friends a girl could have

and John Mayer’s version of Free Fallin

I like you like this

Life is going well. Really busy still after the move. I still have boxes to unpack. 3 boxes in my bedroom closet of stuff I just don’t know where to put. And my garage has art stuff because I don’t have the shelves up yet. But things have come along. And the cool thing is what my son has been saying to me about my new found happiness. “I like you like this.”

I like waking up on my own in the morning to the sun shining brightly through my windows. I like waking the kids up by music. I like the quiet drive to work. I like all the laughter in the office. I like the kids running up to me with hugs and kisses when I get home. I like my friends and family stopping by. I like that the bills are paid. I like my weekly starbucks treat on the way to work. I like sitting in our big backyard on the swing with a good book. I like watching the kids on the tractors with papa. I like the peace.

greetings from the other side!

Where to begin… where to begin???

It was two months ago that I last wrote. My life has completely changed. I went back to work after 12 years of being a stay at home mom. And my marriage of 13 years is over. On July 1st I moved into a house with the kids and we finally live close to our dear family and friends. We’re doing pretty well with all the changes we’ve gone through.

I’m happy to report that I no longer have bad days   I have decided that bad moments will happen but I refuse to have any more bad days. Life is too short!

More soon.

where’s Jen?

Cleaning out, packing up, moving on! See you on the other side.

once again…

Leprechauns visited our house. The kids woke up to a box of skittles next to them first thing this morning. Taste the rainbow and all. Not to mention they seem to be Aleah’s fave. The living room light bulb turned green! Kate was pretty delighted with that. The leprechauns took all the green crayons and made them a reminder to wear green today. They flipped the picture frames upside down in the living room. And the other favorite was the chalk spray on the mirror in the bathroom (says hi) and the doors.

This is what you see when you open the front door to leave:

Why does the door have so much condensation?! Anyway, I think I want to keep that up for a while. Not a bad way to leave. Ok, it’ll stay up until the kids run their fingers through it some more and I can’t take it!

Oh and before Kate and I went to pick up the kids from school, I very sneakily put out some little cupcakes from the bakery onto the kitchen table. So when the kids discovered them I played dumb. The boy says, “did you make them?” I didn’t even have to lie. No, I did not make them. He’s all, “Seriously? Come on, did ya?!?!” in my ear. No, I did not make them. Apparently when he went to get Aleah from school he asked my friend Gina if she did it! HA HA

And it’s not over! I still have a can of silly string. I’m pretty sure they’ll sleep through me spraying their beds real good. FUN

Check this watercolor painting Kate did earlier this month of a leprechaun…

He’s been proudly displayed on the fridge but was taken down today to be named. Aleah drew a leprechaun for school and named hers Tom. So now apparently all leprechauns are named Tom. Just a little bit of information for those of you who did not know. Really, how cute is this little painting?! She’s a genius!

And speaking of SUPER TALENTED, check out the 2nd grade, 1st place cake in the most creative category for the 2008 Daddy and Daughter Girl Scouts Cake Bake!  Oh yeah…

and a close up…

This cake was a lot of work and a lot of money in candy! OY Allow me to document just how much work this is so children will better appreciate what we went through when they are older. Eric is currently working 2 jobs. I am taking 2 extremely time consuming college courses with The Art Institute, Drafting and Textiles (yes, surprisingly a lot of work).  Eric, thinking ahead, baked the cakes two days in advance to save time. But the night before the event he took the cakes out of the pans and they crumbled. I had stopped making dinner and was on my way for more candy when he called me on my cell phone and I made a Uturn to the nearest grocery store for more cake mixes.  We rush and get two cakes into the oven and now dinner needs to wait because I was making fish and nobody wants fishy cake!  I had already roasted lots of garlic in the oven and had some concerns about that. good grief! Eric starts prepping the candy which took surprisingly long. I make another run for candy. I help get the frosting to the right consistency. And during all this I am doing my first draft of a house EVER.  Very little instructions and all new to me.  And the best part, Kate and I have the flu! Miserable, 3 week long FLU! ACK  I got to bed at 3 am. Kate woke up at 3:30 refusing to walk because her body ached so bad from that flu. Scary but she was fine later in the day after getting lots of attention. All said and done, we pulled off an awesome cake. Thank you Dad for buying it at the auction!!!

Ok, I’m out. Talk soon.

ta-da!

Could it be? Me posting twice in one week again?

My girls like to say “ta-da” to announce the wonderful things they do. You know, get dressed in the morning… ta-da! Yes, they are truly amazing. LOL

And also amazing, I wanted to finally share that I successfully made those homemade marshmallows last month. With a stand mixer they were very easy.  Turns out I can read a candy thermometer… ta-da!

One tip I have is to use a very good vanilla. I didn’t have any real good stuff and it definitely shows. But all in all, they are a thrill. They are still sitting here. I think Kate’s favorite part was licking the warm cream off the beaters. When you mix all this stuff together you pretty much have marshmallow fluff that you pour into a pan to harden. I made Kate a fluff’n’ nutter sandwich like grandma likes to eat. She gave that a big thumbs up.  Here’s photo proof that the cream was good:

first lick…

and in the end… she’s one happy girl.

I have more to share but it’s 2 am and I want to get to sleep. But I would like to quickly mention that I am …

A little something I’ve been working on to get back into digital designing.  You can download my first product as Mrs. B at Little Dreamer Designs. I made it into the first round of the Apprentice Program!

Download Here 

hey hey hey

Hey friends. I’m swamped with school. So much to say and so little time to do it. I had to double up my classes and happened to get two very intense courses. Drafting and Textiles. I seriously thought textiles would be easy as can be but there is a lot of important information that I never thought about. The reading on both of these subjects are seriously boring. And if you’ve ever sat in a meeting with me, you know I can’t sit still for long and focus on one thing.  School is a real challenge for a personality like me!  Now ya know, I do have some sort of attention span. Maybe I am selling myself short? If I really care and love something I’ll read for hours on end.  But drafting and textiles, this is worth repeating, are seriously boring!

SO BIG NEWS! Yesterday my middle child, Aleah, turned 8!  If you speak with Kate (4 year old) she will insist that I am wrong and Aleah has now turned 9.  Funny, I distinctly remember giving birth to a child 8 years ago yesterday!  Indulge me a little while I reflect upon this beautiful child. She really is beautiful. Not just physically but she’s a sensitive, caring, sweet girl. SWEET. Whenever I stop by the school and introduce myself as Aleah’s mom someone always says “such a sweet girl”.  I gave birth to Aleah as a planned home birth. One of the most amazing, painful, fascinating experiences of my life. Aleah used to speak very quietly and we called it her “fairy voice” which I picked up from my friend Heather. Very fitting name for how she spoke. Aleah loves to cuddle. If you sit next to her on the couch she will slowly move closer and closer until she is on your lap! When she was … ooh about 2 years old, Eric would honk the horn when he drove sometimes and Aleah would squeal with delight and yell “a horn”. It was hilarious. Aleah is an extremely literal person. She does not pick up on sarcasm and clever expressions. And she’s just plain sweet. Did I mention that? She’s my rainbows and butterflies!

Ok, more blogging tomorrow.

Mothers = a card catalog of information?!

This blog is turning into everything about Kate! But she cracks me up. I’ve mentioned how funny she is, right? right.

Yesterday driving in the car she asked me what she had told me about one of the girls in her class. I made a few guesses but darn it I was wrong. She was so disappointed in me. Told me,

“You should save this stuff in your brain.”

So I came back with, “Well, what is it you told me?”

She did not know. But I’m the mom, I should know everything. of course.

Wanna win this…

$30 gift card to Victoria Secret! I’m hosting a scrapbooking challenge with Miriam Lima for our Pink Week. She’s giving all sorts of awesome pink prizes away! This challenge is All About Me. Check out the details here.

Be sure to go to the main forum and see all the other goodies… including a Bamboo Tablet. Wowzas!