Our Weekend

These photos are a bit backwards, wanted to show the Halloween costumes first and then all the goods....but oh well, not going to upload it again. For some reason trick-or-treating was tonight. Bella swayed slightly from her yearly princess costume for one called a "glamour witch" ---pretty much a princess, just not a pastel colored dress. Emma picked out a cheerleader outfit. She has no clue what a cheerleader is, but that is the outfit she wanted. Emma was SOOOOO excited to go trick-or-treating. When she first got dressed she just couldn't stop waving her pom-poms, saying "look at me, look at me, my have a costume, my a cheerleader" over and over again. And she was even more excited to get the candy. For awhile after every stop, she would say "look at me, my have lots of candy" followed by shaking of pom-poms and her cute little "obnoxious" laugh as she ran to the next house. Bella also was very excited of course, she was a little frustrated with Emma slowing her down. The weather was beautiful. It was about 60 degrees, very little wind. A perfect Halloween! And wow.....did we get a lot of candy or what?



We went to my lovely Mother's house this weekend. Had a wedding to go to. It was very nice. Very simple. It was really nice to go back to my church I grew up in. For the music in the wedding they just had the congregation sing traditional Mennonite hymns. For those that aren't familiar with that, these are sung acapella and in 4 part harmony. Very beautiful. We haven't been going to a Mennonite church here in DM and I've kind of missed it. Even though I like other types of singing as well, there is something very nice about the traditional stuff too. We sang my favorite too... #606. Anyway, after the wedding we visited my Grandparents. They always love seeing the girls. Took a bunch of pictures of them with the girls. Hoping sometime to make pages of their "big grandma and big grandpa" {as Bella so dubbed them at a young age....it stuck}.

Of course, when I go back to IC, need to visit the scrapbook store there. Reminisce is a great store {they make the paper by the same brand} better than anything we have in DM. I didn't even spend very much. I'm very proud of myself.

While at my mom's house, I went through a bunch of old memorabilia from childhood. I even found some scrapbooks I had made in elementary school and in high school. I didn't remember doing that. I found some great old pictures. Wow.....was my hair large. Gotta love those bangs that stick up about 5 inches in the air. Found some really funny ones of my dear friend Iago from all through high school.

Anyway better go...must get some sleep. Have a good day.

Cool chicks & can you help me with my house?

I found Emma roaming the house tonight looking all cool. {she has a sucker in her mouth} How cute is she? It really kind of reminded me of a photo I took of the supercool Bella back in 2001. I believe they are about the same age. What a bunch of goofs.
So for some reason, I was feeling the need to clean my house. Cleaned the lower level. Even mopped the floor. I impress myself! Anyway, took some pictures as it usually doesn't look as nice. My house is still so white and I really don't like it. We have really nice big trim, a nice fireplace, some crown molding here and there that is just disappearing into the vast whiteness. Anyone have any ideas? The three pictures below are actually one big room.....kitchen, dining area and family room. Any brilliant color ideas? Feel free to leave your opinion.




Again would like to thank all those who leave comments, I really do appreciate it. Thanks to Rita for the lovely complements...it made me smile (something I haven't done too much of today). To my dear friend Iago, even if you are unable to comment, it truly makes me happy you are reading my blog =). Have a lovely evening.

One of those days.

It is one of those days. I have no exciting pictures to post. Nothing worth telling. I am exhausted. Too many late nights. I think I will be going to bed early tonight. Unlucky for me I am on call. I'm sure someone will need to discuss something "emergent" at 3 AM. Usually that happens if you are already tired. I will try to do better tomorrow. Have a good day.

I've created a monster (a cute one though!)

I hope that this photo is not to obscene, but I thought it was very cute. I have created a potty training monster. I have been very lazy about potty training Emma, so today I thought I would try the pediatrician approved method of bribing your child into going on the toilet. It didn't work with Bella and I ended up doing the second pediatrician approved method (ha!-that's a whole other story) with her. But I thought Emma would really respond to my bribing her, or should I say a reward system, that sounds more politically correct. Anyway, I created a little goody bag which she immediately responded to after showing it to her. In fact this photo was taken on her 3rd potty trip in 5 minutes. She really likes that treat bag! She was getting a little upset here that she couldn't go. Anyway...we'll see if it works or not.

Yesterday was our last soccer game for which I am very thankful. I'm tired of it. Think Bella is too. Our last game was in Pella. It was freezing...that was the worst part. They lost (even though we don't keep score) about 27-1. Bella had the one goal. She has very brief periods of assertiveness and occasionally it pays off. For the trip to Pella, Emma took one of my paper trimmers with her and quietly cut a piece of paper into about a million strips. She loves to cut paper....whether by scissors or paper trimmer. On the way home, we stopped at a gas station and were waiting for Kent, when Emma started a little whining in the back seat..."mama, I need chocolate". It was kind of cute, a girl after my own heart.

I played with my new paper today, created one page. Not going to post it yet. I'm not sure what the rules are for stuff like that. Should find out soon. Now I only have about 300 more sheets to use =). {I think I cut into three}.

By the way, I've gotten a few more comments in the past few days from people other than my mother. Just wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate it and keep it up! And for you other people who are too shy (you know who you are)...I don't believe you and expect you to start commenting very soon. Anyway, thanks for reading. Oh, I guess I should respond to a few of the comments.....No, I don't have 6 extra hours in the day to do all I do, I just don't have a life outside of work and home. No, I don't watch too much T.V. I find it a waste of my good time and have been making a conscious effort to limit it since we moved back to Iowa. Except I do LOVE David Letterman and will watch that if I happen to be in bed at that time (and occasionally Access Hollywood after Dave---gotta keep up on celebrity gossip). Also note, that most of these posts are made after 11pm. I don't sleep as much as I should....but I'm a night owl...it's against all my beliefs to go to bed early, unless of course I'm sick. Well have a great day!

It came today!

It finally arrived, all 3/4 inches of it! This is all of my paper from Paper Heart Studio . Guess it's really true .

Everyday Things

This is going to be quick tonight due to the very very slow internet. Just wanted to post this picture of my sweet Emma. Took these all last night before bed time. Thought she looked pretty cute. I'm so happy tomorrow is Friday! Looking forward to the weekend!

Fall is here

Just some pictures of some of the colors from our yard. Definitely enjoying the trees here. Missed those a lot while we were gone.


Didn't do too much exciting today on my half day off. A man from Target called me today and they are going to try to remove the squiggly line on the pictures. That makes me happy. Should know by early next week if they will be successful. I guess I still love Target. Actually I tried to shop there today, but couldn't find any shirts for Emma....how wierd is that? I don't know what Bella wore at that age, but I can't seem to locate any of it, so I need to buy Emma some winter clothes. I ended up buying some tape, a magazine (shocker!!!!), and a CD by Green Day. Needed some new music to exercise to. I wrapped some Christmas presents for the girls. I'm almost done shopping for them. I hate Christmas crowds at the stores, so I'm trying to get it all over with. Gonna run......have a good evening!

Beetles

This picture was taken this spring. Talks about all the lovely asian beetles we had. Now for the past few days, they have come again. It is amazing how many manage to make it in the house. Shouldn't a new house be a little more bug tight? Maybe tomorrow when it gets cold again they will go away.

Went to Bella's conference tonight. Surprise.....she is very quiet. Looks like she inherited my antisocial personality. Oh well, guess it could be worse. However, her teacher did say she needs to learn when it is okay to talk, she has been talking to her friends a little too much. Had to be separated from one of them. Bella says it was the other girls fault, that she was trying to listen but she (the other girl) just kept talking to her =). She is a very good reader, which we already knew. She is currently reading at a grade 2 plus level. The reason the plus, is that she hasn't been tested any higher but more likely is quite a bit higher. She says she will continue to push her but currently she wants to work at the grade 2ish level to develop expression (bella tends to not put pauses in the correct places, etc) and comprehension. She is supposed to read at 40 words per minutes by the end of the year at a first grade level. Her last little passage that she brought home last week, she read 147 words per minute with second grade material. Think she's going to be okay there. And in math she said that she needs to slow down and be careful for accuracy (I believe I remember that being told to me many times).

I'm finding this part of parenting to be very hard (school, soccer, performance issues). I feel like she should be pushed more, that she should NEVER get in trouble, that she definitely shouldn't be missing any easy math problems, etc, etc, etc. My perfectionist side coming out. But, I just keep all these thoughts to myself (at least most of the times)...She is only in first grade, not trying to get into Harvard. I don't want to be one of those pushy parents. I just need to remember that I had a very non exciting, run of the mill education and I turned out just fine (I think?).

Well that is all for tonight.

Tomorrow.

Just a few recent pictures of the girls. Bella taking a brief pause from catching butterflies (like her missing tooth?) and Emma enjoying an ice cream cone (she hasn't figured out you need to eat them fast).

Tonight, I actually started a scrapbook page. Not quite done with it at the moment, but TOMORROW I will try to be done and actually post something. I think I have overcome my scaredness after winning a spot on the DT. I'm still waiting for my stuff to arrive....so it kind of feels like it never happened =).

Tomorrow evening, we also go to Bella's first 1st grade parent-teacher conference. Get to hear how smart she is {I'm assuming =) }. Also while we are there we can go to the book fair.....I love book fairs. Hopefully I won't spend too much money.

By the way, HP......what's happened to your poor pathetic cyclones? I'm deeply sorry for the trouble they are having {that's a lie...sorry....just trying my best to be sympathetic}

Soccer and other things.

Today we had another soccer game. There is only one more left! That excites me. I'm not a very good "soccer mom". After the game, we went downtown to a world food festival. Took a picture of the girls in front of the capital....we parked there and walked to the festival. Had some yummy food there. Kent and I had food from El Salvador. I had a very delicious chicken tostada and he had a chicken tamale and a puposa (sp?). The salsa was actually spicy.....liked that! The girls had some lo mein and fried rice as as well as their favorite...a cheese quesadilla. For desert we had Indian fry bread with cinnamon sugar. Bella was quite fond of that. The rest of the day we just hung out....don't have much to report.


I have been working on a small little album of Christmas stuff. Made the whole album by myself (cover and all). First time I have done that. It was kind of fun. Maybe, if anyone ever visits me, I will share it with you. Right now it is too much a pain in the butt to scan it.

Don't know much else. Have a good day!

Random thoughts

This picture was taken this summer with my lovely camera at my mom's house. I might have to blow it up, hang it on my wall. I kind of like it.

I can't think of anything overly exciting tonight to write about. But here are some random thoughts.

1. I HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE dial-up internet connection. You would think that since I live in the largest population center of Iowa, I might be able to get DSL or cable.....NOPE!!!!!!!!!!! My mom, who lives in a pseudo town of 100 can get high speed internet, me in a metro of 500,000 can't get it. What a complete waste of time. I tried to download a song the other day for my Dell DJ (Dell's version of the IPOD) and it took ONE HOUR. Very, very fast.

2. I thought I was having some major face issues, but just realized tonight the outbreak I see on my forehead and the side of my nose is poison ivy. How it got there is beyond me. But let me tell you, it's pretty. I'm enjoying it.

3. I got some new stamps today from fontwerks. They are so pretty. I was so inspired by them that I decided to catalog all my stamps. Now I have some sheets with examples of all my stamps on them. So when I want to use them, I can just look at the sheets instead of digging through my stash to decide what I want to use. Yes, I know, I am a nerd.

4. Because of my catalog work tonight, I now have black fingers from the ink. Can't seem to get it off. I'm sure all my patient's parents will enjoy the "dirty" black fingers and poison ivy tomorrow.

5. I am going to get my hair cut and colored tomorrow afternoon. I'm a little scared that someone might have told them about my hair stylist rampage the other night (earlier post) and that I will end up bald or something....but hopefully not. I am trying someone new, by my usual method of finding someone new.....opening the phone book and picking a random salon. Maybe that's why I have trouble finding someone I like that can do my hair. The last lady I tried was very nice and she got the right color on my hair, but her salon (independent room in a building) was filthy!!! I am by no means a neat freak and little dirt has never hurt anyone.....so you know how gross her salon was. Also, she just took her scissors out of a leather pouch, that looked like it had all sorts of hair in it. That kind of grossed me out.....aren't you supposed to dig them out of the blue liquid stuff? So anyway...going to try someone new.

6. I am in a scrapbooking slump right now. That is why I am not posting any new pictures. I have been paralyzed by the fact that I am now on a design team. Better get over that or I won't be on one very long. Actually, I am impatiently awaiting the arrival of my box of stuff from the company.....keep thinking I will start something spectacular when that arrives =).

That is all I can think of tonight, hope you all are having a good day.

Don't forget to exercise Mom..........

Visit to the pumpkin patch

Here are some photos of our trip to the pumpkin patch today. We had a good time. Picked out 132 pounds of pumpkins.....which is only about 8, most were normal size, but we got 2 I think that were a bit large. The girls will have fun decorating them.

Chili and pumpkin painting

So tonight we had some chili. I had made this once before last winter and liked it...so I made it again. I usually don't make a meat chili, but this one is pretty tasty. It is from Martha's Everyday food magazine.

TURKEY AND BEAN CHILI
4 strips bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 lbs ground dark-meat turkey (I used only 2 lbs and used ground turkey breast)
4 cups chopped onions (I used 3 c.)
1/4 cup minced garlic cloves
2 medium fresh jalapeno chiles (ribs and seeds removed for less heat, if desired), minced
3 T chili powder
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tsp ground cumin
2 cans (28 oz each) whole tomatoes in puree ( couldn't find this, substituted one can diced in juice and one can crushed)
2 T unsulfured molasses
coarse salt
3 cans (15.5 oz. each) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
assorted toppings for serving (cheddar cheese, sour cream, crumbled cornbread, pickled jalapeno chiles, cilantro leaves)

1. Heat a Dutch oven (or other heavy 5 qt pot) over medium heat. Add bacon; cook until crisp and brown, 6-8 minutes. Raise heat to high; add turkey. Cook, stirring and breaking up meat with a spoon, until no longer pink, 8-10 minutes.

2. Add onion, garlic, and jalapeno; cook until soft, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Stir in chili powder, cocoa powder, and cumin; cook, stirring, until fragrant, 1 minutes.

3. Break up tomatoes with a spoon or your hands, and stir them in along with the puree. Add molasses, 1 cup water, and 4 tsp salt; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer; cook, partially covered, 30 minutes.

4. Add beans; continue cooking, uncovered, until meat and beans are very tender, and chili is thick, about 30 minutes more. Serve with toppings.

8 servings. 480 calories, 13.7 g fat.


The other night we picked up a pumpkin and a gourd at hy-vee. This was to pacify Emma until we make it to the pumpkin farm. She is very determined to go to the pumpkin farm and asks about it daily. The girls wanted to paint them, they turned out pretty cute. Bella wanted to put them outside so they are on either side of the front door. She was all excited that we are already decorating for Halloween. I think we'll go the pumpkin patch tomorrow afternoon.

What the heck?

I am in one of those moods. You know those moods where you find things bothersome, are easily annoyed by silly little things. I have been there for a few days. So in order to get myself out of the funk, I will vent a little bit on some things that I noticed recently, I'm sure I will feel much better after that.

1. The weather: Okay, 2 days ago I had my air conditioner on and last night I had to turn the heat on in my house because it was below 60 degrees inside. Yuck, what's up with that?

2. Today when going back to work, I pulled into the parking lot to see one of the lab technicians helping a 108 year old (just guessing) woman into her car. She had wheeled her out in a wheelchair and was almost lifting her into the car (which by the way was parked all cock-eyed in the parking space). This was an ordinary car, no special hand controls or anything like that. Now tell me please, if you can't walk 50 feet to your own car and are unable to lift yourself into the car, how are you going to move your foot from the gas pedal to the brake in order to stop in a timely matter? Perhaps it is time to stop driving when you get to that stage or get yourself a special car with hand controls. Hopefully, I will know when it is time to stop when I am old {probably not I'm stubborn 8-). }

*Just thought I'd insert this: I really don't mean to offend anyone with these thoughts.....again, I'm in a mood*

3. Saw this article in the paper awhile back and it sort of amazed me and irritated me. Now don't get me wrong, should I ever find a hair stylist that can tame the mess on top of my head, I will forever love him or her and speak nothing but lovely things about them....but when you put an article in the largest newspaper in Iowa comparing hair dressing school to medical school....I just have to comment. Please excuse any sarcastic comments I might insert, most will be seen between the {}. First it discusses the training. One student said, "I've practiced on clients Monday through Saturday, including nights, {....any 36 hour shifts with 1 hour of sleep that was interrupted by the pager going off 7 times? and 30 days straight without a day off of 12 hour days plus being on call every 3rd night? } and I have a thousand different note cards with every possible question I can think of that I study." Preparation includes countless pedicures, manicures, haircuts an stylings. Then there are the tenets of salon products, consumer safety and customer service to memorize. {hmmm.....I guess that is a bit similar to anatomy, physiology, dissecting cadavers, biochemistry, histology, pathology, microbiology, embryology, to name a few, plus rotations in practically every specialty} The state licensing exam will include a battery of questions about ethics and business law, diseases of the nails, even the types of electrical outlets needed in the salon. Livelihood hinges on a passing grade. "You have to pay $150 to take the test, and they have to pass it to practice" {I guess that too is similar to the 4 tests I had to pass that tested me on every basic science related to the human body, diagnosis of diseases in every specialty, treatment of diseases in every specialty and the grand daddy of them all the peds boards, testing everything under the sun relating to pediatrics costing about $1200 -- the other three were a bargain at about $500-600 a pop} . There is more. At the Iowa school of beauty would be cosmetologists spend 1000s of dollars for tuition {not $100s of thousands?} [The students] have practiced colorings and permanents, facials, makeup application and the finer points of nail design -toe and finger {egads! not toe and finger....yes those italics were really there}. I think this is the part that got me going......"[The students] say they might not be doctors or lawyers, but they've worked just as hard and endured a comparable amount of stress, albeit over a much shorter period of time." {Ahhhh!!!! Did they really just say that? Let me give an example of stress. Stress is when a <1 pound, dead looking premature baby is handed to you and you are supposed to save it, stress is a kid in the PICU that just came back from open heart surgery and is swollen and is on 3 medications just to keep their blood pressure high enough to live and have a tons of tubes sticking out of their body, stress is taking care of a kid who shot himself in the head with a gun and isn't going to make it or the baby that was shaken by an angry parent and now won't stop having seizures, stress is performing CPR on a kid and not having them respond, stress is watching an anguished parent weep over their dead child. All right, I'll get off my soapbox, now, but again since I am in a mood, had to comment}.

4. And last but not least, I am mad at Target {gasp!} Please see the portion of the picture below of my lovely Emma, do you see the thing I circled? What the heck is that? It was not on the proofs that I saw. On the real pictures, it is so completely obvious and very obnoxious. So I ask the lady at the Target portrait studio if it can be fixed. She said "no". I asked why not. She really couldn't come up with a good reason so she called her "boss" to check. Nope, can't fix it. So I spent a gazillion dollars on pictures and christmas cards and I have to have this obnoxious black thing in the background? So why exactly have a digital studio if you can't fix a minor thing like that. She offered to let me pick some new pictures....I don't want new pictures....I want that one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So FRUSTRATING!!!! She gave me some coupons for 4 free portrait sheets for next time....but my pictures are ruined! So look at this next one....I sort of fixed it. Do you know how long it took me to do that? About 2.5 seconds and I don't even know what the heck I'm doing. Hmmm.....maybe I'll just have to break their warning on the back saying that it is illegal to scan or reproduce your portraits if they aren't going to fix them.
Well, thanks for letting me vent. Sorry if I offended any old people or hair stylists {both groups I really do have great admiration for}. I feel much better now and can sleep in peace.

It's freezing out!

These are pictures of the girls enjoying a warm spring day after a soccer game. Speaking of warm weather, ours left! It was 80-some degrees yesterday and today it was mid-50s! Yuck....hate that! The only good thing was that it rained most of the day....yeah for my grass!

We went back to the dentist today. Emma's tooth is still intact and seems to be doing okay. She said we should still try to keep her from biting on it basically forever.....seems to me that is a pretty hard task, probably not going to happen.

Bella was feeling a little sick this morning. Said she wanted to stay home. I gave her the rules of staying home....and 10 minutes later she was getting ready for school. Guess she didn't like my rules. Seems to be feeling fine now =).

I worked out at home today. Did "The firm" workout. Thier first workout. It is VERY old (the chick leading it has leg warmers on!) but it is a great workout. I have been working out now for 2 months and it still kicked my butt.

Back to work tomorrow =(. Hope you're having a good day!

There is Hope!

You are currently enjoying a photo of my new grass! I find it very exciting that someday I may no longer have to look and dirt and weeds! There is hope!

I have been enjoying my time off. Except for watering my beloved grass and trees, I have been trying not to work too hard. Nothing feels better than banning household chores. I enjoyed some time to myself today. I took Emma to daycare while I went to the gym and when I came back to pick her up she was sleeping....so I left her there to enjoy her nap and went home and played with my paper. I made the thing below. It is a coin holder which I put some recent pictures of my lovely girls in (click on the picture to see larger view). I think it turned out pretty well. I never would have done this on my own, but I got the coin holder in a kit and thought I should use it. It's sitting on the hutch of my computer deck right now.....nice to look at. The first photo is of it all opened up. The bottom larger photo is when it is folded up and shows the front cover.

Trees and other things.

So this first picture is of our new trees. They are huge!!! I wasn't quite expecting them to be quite so large...but they are wonderful, they will block off that side of our yard wonderfully. Someday maybe they will be surrounded by grass. In sort of related yard news....the yellow house next to us finally sold and they have children! A 6 year old boy and a 4 year old girl. Hopefully, that will generate less complaining from the very bored George children.


This is of Emma this past year hunting for easter eggs at Grandma Be's house. It looks a little ratty here, but I really like it in real life.

Emma continues to be having sleep issues which in turn seem to be rubbing off on Bella. Currently, Emma is in the spare bedroom closet sleeping. Bella is in the girl's bedroom on the floor. Not sure why I wasted money on beds? I'm not sure what Emma's strange fascination with sleeping in the closet is about (took her nap there too today)....but as long as she sleeps through the night I really don't care where she sleeps =).

I am taking the next 3 days off. It seems like I am taking a lot of time off recently, but I guess I really didn't even take any of my vacation time until August....then it hit me that I should maybe use some more while I can. So, my goal over the next three days is pretty much to do enjoyable things...not going to work too much, other than to water the trees and grass.

My scrapbook journey

Well approximately 4-5 years ago, Isabella's baby book met its demise in the basement of our old house. Rain seemed particularly attracted to our basement and like to visit frequently. Anyway, her book got wet, molded and was pretty much ruined. That's is when I started the whole scrapbook thing. I think my sister and maybe even my mom had started doing it a bit before me and tried to get me going on it. I liked to make fun of it, thought it was a crazy hobby and was pretty sure I was never going to do it. However, as I was searching for a new baby book, I could not find anything that I liked. So I begrudgingly decided to scrapbook. For the next three years I pretty much admitted it to no one....but was very slowly becoming more involved. Then last year in my loneliness in Idaho, I discovered the world of online scrapbooking sites and kits. I joined KNK (www.knkclub.com) and started building my supplies up (see earlier post for my admission of various addictions....including scrapbooking paper and supplies). Since then, I scrapbook often. I have always loved to be creative and loved art and this is a way to use that love. Even before I did this I took a crap load of photos....so this is a great way to combine those two things. It also is a great stress reliever. Anyway....to the point of this whole post. In this whole separate scrapbooking world, there are magazines that you can get your work published in, there are design teams that design layouts for stores, online stores, kit clubs and manufacturers of scrapbooking products. I recently decided that maybe my stuff was good enough to try to get myself published, etc. Anyway, last week I submitted some stuff to a new company called Paper Heart Studio and today I found out that I made the design team. I'm sure that doesn't mean a lot to most people, but in my little scrapbooking world this is HUGE!!!! It's really quite cool to have someone else appreciate your work and think you are good enough to represent them in various ways, websites, catalogs, trade shows. Anyway, it was really a mood lifter and I have been smiling all day =). Not sure how many people applied for this team, but often hundreds apply so to be chosen is a very nice honor. I saw some of the names of those who will be on the team with me and I am very definitely the "peon" of the group! Anyway, check out the website: www.paperheartstudio.com I may soon have some stuff posted there...pretty cool!