a day in the life...

moving out of the basement

2012-01-18T21:49:00.003-06:00

after a year and a half of living in my parent's basement, we're moving out! we just had our offer accepted on a house near the "downtown" part of our city.

the good parts: almost 4400 sq ft (including basement)

extremely affordable

newly renovated

in a good elementary district

within (supervised) walking distance of a huge park

the not as good parts:

no garage

no fence (we'll put one up as soon as we can)

electric stove (i'd rather have a gas oven)

a slightly sketchy block

this renovation was part of a neighborhood revitalization project, aimed at raising up the level of the area. there are some blocks of this street that are completely fixed up and have lots of curb appeal and others that are in need of some tlc. it's really random and there's not much rhyme or reason to which blocks are great and which ones aren't. but we'll make our yard as cute as possible!

so much cuteness.

2011-12-05T19:30:00.005-06:00

i have so many pictures of everly to catch up on! she is growing up so fast and is getting bigger every day.

she had a couple of different halloween costumes this year:
for the ward Trunk or Treat we dressed her up in a cute tutu and some fun babylegs and she was some kind of punky ballerina.

and evvie was a flower for the actual halloween night.

brother and sister

8 months, with some gorgeous blue eyes!

sad girl! i think she was propped up against the door, looking out, and fell. still so cute, even when she's crying!

i hope it's not just a guest appearance

2011-11-02T19:10:00.004-05:00

I really miss the show Veronica Mars. I actually didn't even watch it while it was still on the air, but i watched all three seasons through netflix and fell in love with the show. Kristen Bell's character was witty, smart, adorable, and super intuitive and i pretty much wanted (or still want) to be her. I also loved her on again/ off again boyfriend, Logan. He vacillated between the best guy in the world and the biggest d-bag in existence, but I couldn't help but hope they ended up together. The show ended abruptly after 3 seasons, even though a 4th was already filmed. Sadness. It actually made my heart hurt.

But a teeny happy thing has occurred! I record this show called Ringer, with Sarah Michelle Gellar (and i now realize what a terrible actress she is, which is disappointing because i started watching the show because of her), and the actor who played Logan just showed up on the show! Jason Dohring is his name. His presence makes the show worth watching.

get in mah belleh!

2011-09-23T20:31:00.003-05:00

since we're still living with my parents (the house-buying thing has been put on hold for awhile, since we aren't sure if we'll still be in this town after T finishes his master's) and both my parents work, i'm the one who does most of the cooking! it's extra nice to be cooking for everyone since my mom and dad are quite complimentary of my cooking, unlike my kids who usually say "i don't like this!" and my husband, who likes to smother everything in cheese until no other flavors can be detected.

one of our favorite things so far comes from the cooking blog just cook already,
it's called "sweet pork tacos and cilantro ranch dressing". i serve them with some cilantro rice and the tortillas from costco that you buy uncooked (in the refrigerated section). they're fantastic.

now i will share the magic with you all.

ingredients:

2-3 pounds pork

3 cans coke {not diet}

1/4 cup brown sugar

dash of garlic salt

1/4 cup water

1 can sliced green chilies

3/4 can enchilada sauce

1 cup brown sugar

directions:

put the pork in a heavy duty ziploc bag to marinade. add about a can and a half of coke and about 1/4 cup brown sugar. marinade for a few hours or overnight.

drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot on high for 3-4 hours {or until it shreds easily, but don't let it get too dry}. remove pork from crock pot and drain any liquid left in the pot. shred pork.

in a food processor or blender, blend 1/2 can coke, chilies, enchilada sauce and remaining brown sugar {about a cup, you can add a little more or less to taste}. if it looks too thick, add more coke little by little.

put the shredded pork and sauce in crock pot and cook on low for 2 hours.

these tacos are really good drizzled in a cilantro ranch dressing.
(i usually double it so there's lots for leftovers)

ingredients:

1 cup salsa verde

1 package buttermilk ranch

1/3 cup cilantro

1/3 cup mayo

1/3 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/8 cup sugar (the original calls for 1/4 but i think that's too sweet)

directions:

blend in blender till smooth

you'll thank me for this after you try it.

ooh, and then the next day everything can be used for sweet pork salad!

multiple days of deliciousness!

everly's half birthday.

2011-08-15T08:21:00.003-05:00

my little Evvie girl is 6 months old!

she is growing up so fast and is such a sweet girl. i wish she'd sleep a little better at night (she still wakes up every couple of hours) but during the day she's a happy baby.

she loves to be sung to and loves pattycake and peek a boo.

she's not so crazy about eating baby food and would rather have whatever we're eating. her favorite things are fresh cooked tortillas (which she'll suck on till they're all mushy), apple slices, and orange slices.

her dislikes include being left to entertain herself and spending too much time on her tummy.

evvie will have her 6 month appointment today so we'll see how much she's grown!

ashton and wyatt love their little sister so much. maybe a little too much!

they're always trying to make her laugh and smile using whatever means possible.

i've had to tell ashton to stop kissing her because her face ends up smelling like his (stinky) breath. it's gross. wyatt talks to her using his version of baby talk, which kind of means yelling in her face! so we've had to work on that too.

i like this one.

2011-08-06T18:32:00.004-05:00

we're house-hunting again! we're a bit pressed for time because we'd like to enroll ashton in school in the elementary district that the house we buy is in, but we're still looking for something great. one thing that will be different about this time around is that we'll only be using cash money to fix it up, rather than that evil fake money. :) so i can't look at a house that would need major changes immediately and think that we'd be able to do it right away. i am getting excited about things like staining and refinishing wood floors; painting walls, cabinets, and doors; and finally having a place to call home again.
there's a house we looked at today that we are really interested in. it's much bigger on the inside than we expected and has a fantastic yard, is on a quiet street and in a great school district. it definitely needs some updating but nothing major. well, nothing major other than that it doesn't have a dishwasher, but we've taken care of that before. we'll be talking with the bank on monday to see if this is something we can go for!

very mary kate

2011-08-01T21:23:00.004-05:00

there's a whole youtube channel devoted to mary kate olsen satire. i love this girl's facial expressions.
start here with her college presentations and enjoy!

like a duck tail.

2011-06-27T13:45:00.004-05:00

more cuteness!

sometimes her hair dries sticking up like this after her bath at night.

this girl lights up my life!

just because it's june

2011-06-14T15:56:00.009-05:00

i guess once a month is what i can get around to, so i might as well accept it!

updates:

ashton finally lost one of his front teeth! here is his gap-toothed smile.

wyatt loves cheesing for the camera.

these are his uncle temkai's fake glasses that T now uses for his motorcycle rides.

i guess they're big enough to block out all the wind.

he's also really into skateboarding. he says he wants to be like Tony Hawk.

and evvie is 4 months old today!

i can't believe how fast it's going. i wish i could just hit a pause button and keep her little for awhile. she loves bathtime, diaper changes, and being wrapped in her miracle blanket for bedtime. and she hates being in the car!

oh well.

2011-05-21T22:07:00.001-05:00

looks like the new (old) house isn't going to work out. something about T's student loans being in forebearance rather than deferment caused our debt:income ratio to be too high. it's like the 5th roadblock we've had in getting this house so we're taking it as a sign that it's just not meant to be.
we'll continue paying down debt and saving up cash and looking for something else.
our new home wishlist:
good area
basement
4 bedrooms
yard (preferably fenced)
more than one bathroom

of course, i'd love things like hardwood floors, updated appliances, etc, but in our price range i don't expect them in every house. we're definitely in the "fixer-upper" range.

in other news, evvie is 3 months old! and yep, it's been forever since i posted, so we missed one and two months.

here she is looking super cute in a spring/summer outfit that was passed on to her by a friend,

paired with her own black babylegs.

love the matching hat!

raiding the easter basket

2011-05-02T15:42:00.003-05:00

the good:
jelly belly jelly beans
(except top banana, buttered popcorn, bubble gum, strawberry cheesecake, and tutti frutti. yick.)
rolos
twix
butterfinger eggs

the bad:
fun dip
pop rocks
fruit flavored tootsie rolls

homeless-ish.

2011-04-21T15:42:00.005-05:00

our house is SOLD! after almost 10 months on the market, and after knocking abour $15k off the asking price. bleh. but at least we don't have to pay for a house we aren't living in anymore! i hope the new owners will love our house and our neighbors as much as we did.

we had planned to take a couple months to save some money before looking for a new house, but it hasn't worked out quite that way. we have an offer accepted on a house one street away from T's work (and happens to be right next door to some of our best buds). we're waiting to see if the financing will work out. if so, and if it passes inspection, etc., we'll be the happy owners of a house straight out of 1970! it'll be retro house update, volume 2. however, this time we won't be using money we don't have to fix it up. ca$h, what a concept, huh? we'll be sticking with the same color scheme that we had in the other house (grays, teal, lime green, and whatever else struck my fancy), but will have a little more time to do the fixing up work before we actually move in. it's always easier to paint before the furniture is there! and speaking of furniture, all of our worldly possessions are being stored in a moving truck. i hope it doesn't catch fire, cause we don't have homeowners insurance anymore (a downside to being homeless, you know.)

a wishlist of pretty things.

2011-04-07T20:01:00.005-05:00

i haven't gotten to browse etsy much over the last few weeks/ months, but these things have caught my eye. some are new finds, some have been on my favorites list for awhile. and since i'm reading (and planning to implement) "the total money makeover" by dave ramsey, they're probably not things i'll be getting anytime soon. i can wish though, right? i want one of these sweatshirts! so pretty. the seller is annajoyce

i want this print! it'd be so pretty with my living room decor. seller is freshline

a lovely necklace. seller is birdznbees

this print is something i've been wanting for awhile. i love the colors and the message. seller is persimmonpink

happy birthday to ashton

2011-04-07T09:14:00.004-05:00

here i am, the mother of an 8 year old! we celebrated ashton's birthday recently, but it seems a bit surreal. i remember being 8! i remember second grade! it's just weird to me when i have distinct memories from the same age.

ashton chose the decor for his cake on his own, so army cake it was.

it was also a big day for him because we held his baptism then too, as well as evvie's baby blessing at church. we knew our extended family would want to come to all of those things, so it'd be easiest on them to have them all on the same day.

he chose the menu for dinner too: hawaiian haystacks, his favorite.

i change up the recipe a bit, so it's chicken cooked with cream of chicken soup, dijon mustard, lemon juice, and garlic powder. served over rice with toppings like pineapple, chow mein noodles, cheese, etc.

everly is here!

2011-02-25T13:24:00.004-06:00

it all started the morning of valentine's day, when i was induced at 8:00 am. i'd been induced with my other two and was ready to get this baby out. my due date was the 13th, and since my dad's birthday is the 14th i thought it would be nice for them to share.

things were progressing well and i asked for an epidural when the pain got to the point where i didn't want to deal with it anymore. an hour later the doctor comes in to place the epidural, which didn't even work. thirty horrible, excruciating minutes later, my little girl was born! i was still trying to deal with the most intensely painful experience i'd ever had. it took an hour or so before we got any pictures!

day 1:

day 2:

welcome to the world, evvie!

my human valentine card

2011-02-11T09:22:00.001-06:00

guess our dog just isn't cutting it.

2011-02-06T20:05:00.003-06:00

i'm writing a blog during the superbowl. i lost interest after halftime.

a recent conversation between me and ashton:

ashton: when Jesus comes back, can i have a pet lion?

me: what are you talking about?

ashton: when Jesus comes back and all the animals are nice, can i get a lion?

me: um, sure. when Jesus comes back you can have a lion.

wyatt: can i have a fish?

it's called "marrakesh"

2011-01-24T20:06:00.003-06:00

i just ordered new bedding from target! since we're at my parents house and our house in hobart is still staged with our stuff, my mom is helping me make the room we're staying in more in line with our (or maybe just my) style.

i'm thinking either light grey or light blue-ish walls to coordinate. hopefully there will be enough time to get this done before baby girl is here!

it's been awhile...

2011-01-23T16:18:00.004-06:00

i've been absent from the blogging world for a good 4 months now and i think it might be time to break my radio silence. i'm actually sick today and T has the kids out at his parent's house for dinner, so i have a little time to myself.

quick update:

we're still waiting on our house to sell, so we are living at my mom and dad's house. they're tolerating us well and we're trying not to let our kids destroy their nicely decorated home. we all miss our house though. we miss the independence it gives, we miss our yard, we miss our beds, we miss the colors of the house (well, mostly that's me), and we miss our friends up there.

but i'm thankful for the time we get to spend here with our families now! my sister and her family came for christmas. i miss her! here's a pic of the girls:

and in other news, we're told that i'm having a baby girl! i'm due on february 13th. chrissi is coming on the 18th, so hopefully baby is here before that! i'm slowly accumulating girl clothes and will be attempting to use cloth diapers when convenient (like, at home).
T and i are disagreeing about names for this little lady! he says that he's known her name since he was 14 (claiming some sort of divine revelation) but i'm not a fan of it. i guess we'll see what kind of compromise we can work out?

anyway, i guess that's enough for the time being. buh bye.

brimming with confidence

2010-09-11T12:17:00.002-05:00

i forget how this conversation started, but recently ashton said to me

"i can fly a plane".

i said to him (a bit callously),

"no you can't".

he replied

"it's easy. it's just like driving a car".

sure thing, kid.

let me know when you've got that mastered.

my 2nd grader

2010-08-27T15:45:00.006-05:00

first day:

second day:

i typically forget to take a picture on the first day, so i've started a second day tradition. i did, however, remember before taking ashton to school on the first day this year!
do you notice the scrapes on his forehead? he did that by crawling and dragging his forehead around on the carpet a few days before. smart kid, huh?

picky picky

2010-07-28T19:35:00.004-05:00

i guess if you check facebook this doesn't come as a surprise but....i'm pregnant! i got to hear the heartbeat yesterday and the baby is due in the middle of February. i've been feeling queasy but feel best if my stomach stays full. however, my stomach has a few very specific things that it wants, along with some that it absolutely doesn't. i shall now list them for fun!
my must-haves:

beef and broccoli from yee kee, a restaurant in columbus
perdue popcorn chicken with bww spicy garlic sauce (see enthusiasm of last post)
culver's burgers
cherries
indiana sweet corn
claussen dill pickles
toasted english muffins (plain)
my version of hawaiian haystacks
taco bell crunchy tacos, fresco style
egg whites and canadian bacon

my must-not haves:

chimichangas
burger king
sausage and bratwurst
can't think of anything else

when i was pregnant with ashton i couldn't get enough edy's lime popsicles, the kind made from real fruit. and fruit snacks, the cheaper and more generic the better.
with wyatt i needed to eat burgers and fries all the time. they seemed to be the only things that could make me feel better. and oranges, four or five a day.

a magical combo

2010-07-17T21:16:00.006-05:00

popcorn chicken from costco

+

bww's spicy garlic sauce

=

pure joy

time to move on.

2010-06-15T21:26:00.004-05:00

our first house- clean, depersonalized, and ready to sell.
we put in lots of work! i hope someone will appreciate it and love it like we do.

our awesome backyard:

living room:

our bedroom:

kitchen:

upstairs bathroom:

kid's rooms:

basement bathroom:

basement bedroom:

pretty please.

2010-06-05T07:50:00.003-05:00

shabbyapple.com seems to have some of the cutest stuff right now!

i'm coveting these items.
now i just need money...

LovelyIndeed

2010-05-13T15:15:00.007-05:00

i FINALLY have my etsy shop up and running! and i'm so excited, since now i have a legitimate place to send all the people who compliment my headbands and ask where they can get one. come visit LovelyIndeed !

"where my mother fathers at?"

2010-05-06T14:12:00.002-05:00

i totally want one now.

lookin good, garage!

2010-05-01T16:40:00.001-05:00

before:

after:

much better, isn't it?

how i spent my thursday afternoon.

2010-05-01T10:04:00.005-05:00

oh my goodness, i have fallen in love with a shop in valparaiso (about 25 minutes away from me).
it's called Lifestyles and it is full of wonderful, interesting, eclectic things.
i spent an hour exploring (all by myself! glorious!).
they carry Dust Furniture, which i've been drooling over for about a year but probably won't ever be able to afford. the store also supports quite a few local artisans and has all kinds of etsy-type things for sale.

i picked up this little magnet for my fridge:

it makes me smile every time i see it!

so come visit me and we'll go together. :)

new haircolor + pretty flowers

2010-04-01T16:35:00.006-05:00

chrissi did a great little post about these flower headbands that i make. love you, seestah!

please pardon my lifeless lips, don't let my resemblance to a corpse distract you!

my cute boys

2010-03-19T12:59:00.003-05:00

boy brain

2010-02-17T12:58:00.004-06:00

i was just thinking of a conversation i had with ashton last year that completely exemplifies the difference between how boys and girls think.

in ashton's kindergarten class there was a really adorable girl named emma l. i asked him one day,
"ashton, what do you think about emma l?"

his response was,
"ummm, i don't."

hmm. logical answer.

dad on tv

2010-02-05T09:38:00.003-06:00

most of my blog friends are also my facebook friends, so i'm pretty sure you've been informed about my dad's heart attack last week. but as this blog is also a record of what goes on in my life, i'm trying to keep it current!
my mom, my sister, and i all flew to denver when we found out about my dad, since he was there on business when it happened. it was so great spending some relaxed time with each other while my dad recovered. while we were there the cbs 4 denver news ran a segment on what happened! here is the link: dad on tv

yummy for my tummy

2010-01-25T10:13:00.006-06:00

i tend to buy variety boxes of oatmeal, but never ended up eating the "regular" or "oats and flax" packets. they would sit in the pantry for months, possibly even years, until someone decided to throw them out. until now.

inspired by a morning stop at starbucks, where i ordered their "perfect oatmeal", which comes with mix-ins like brown sugar, nuts, and dried fruit, i realized i had completely been neglecting my oatmeal creativity!
i now LOVE to make plain oatmeal and add a few spoonfuls of brown sugar and some chopped pecans. makes my morning tasty and keeps mid-morning hunger away. i'm sure i'll branch out to other mix-in options eventually, but for now i am happy with this combo.

*and how sad is it that i'm writing about oatmeal? oh well.

"with my by myself"

2010-01-21T08:57:00.003-06:00

this is one of my favorite skits from SNL! i CRY laughing at this, and make my friends watch it with me. my sister called last night to see where she could find it so i decided to post it here for the enjoyment of all. :)

pot pie pride

2010-01-09T10:06:00.004-06:00

i made my first ever chicken pot pie last night! am so proud of myself.
it's a favorite of my friend janna, and she had posted the recipe on her blog a really long time ago. i finally got around to making sure i had all the ingredients and began the attempt.
everything was from scratch except the pie crust.

first, i realized i had no pie pan. so i had to use a cake pan and hope it sufficed.
after baking the bottom crust for a few minutes i saw that the sides had slid and melted down to the bottom of the pan. lovely.
i tried to stand them back up again. didn't really work.
decided to use a glass to make circles for the top crust and layer them on there, since i knew it would be impossible to join the bottom and top crusts.
put it in the oven and waited for disaster....

ta da!

i started to slice it and then decided to take a picture.
so it was a little prettier before i attacked it with the knife.

also, there was an extra crust circle and scraps left, as well as extra filling,
so i made a mini pie in a muffin pan! it got a little browner than the big one but was still tasty.

i felt so domestic!
and it was absolutely delicious!

brrr!

2010-01-07T20:34:00.003-06:00

the new boots i got for christmas came in completely handy today!
(thanks for the boots, mom! thanks for the liner socks, chrissi!)

the kids love all the snow, of course. what kids don't?

and we have some of the best neighbors anyone could ask for.
they cleared our driveway with their snowblower this afternoon!

a day in my life.

2009-12-07T09:00:00.005-06:00

sometimes days can go from terrible, to not-so-terrible, to great, all in the span of twelve or so hours. yesterday was one of those days.

i'll start at around 4:00 am, when i hear wyatt yelling for me. he's in a "big boy bed" but still doesn't get out by himself. he just calls for me when he wants out or needs something. i love that i don't have to fight that battle, but it's still not fun being woken up. anyway, he had peed through his diaper and had wet pajamas. i changed him and went back to sleep, only to be woken again around 5. wyatt wanted to sleep in "mommy's bed". i said no and went back to sleep. the request came again at 5:30. he was up for good just a little after 6. i wanted to shoot myself.

i thought i'd prepared really well for the church, since i'd showered, laid out our clothes, made some sandwiches and packed some snacks since i knew i had to stay after church for christmas play rehearsal, and had my lesson for RS all ready to go. all the night before! i knew T wouldn't be there to help because he had an 8:30 am meeting at church, and straight from there he had to go set up for that afternoon's football banquet. i hadn't counted on the kid's wrestling match that resulted in facial bleeding, wyatt's dirty diaper (he hates getting poopy diapers changed and has to be physically restrained at times in order for me to clean him up. not exactly a speedy change), and more fighting amongst the kids, followed by even more fighting. i ended up screaming at them, and just about losing my sanity. but amazingly we made it to church on time.

things started getting better at church. my lesson went well, with lots of group participation and no awkward pauses. we made it through sacrament meeting without too much disruption, and made it through until play practice, where they had cookies. always good.

wyatt fell asleep on the way home from church and napped till 4:30 pm, halleleujah! we had checked out an old Goosebumps dvd from the library the day before (remember the slightly scary kids show?) and was surprised to see a young Ryan Gosling (from the Notebook, etc.) starring in one episode. and T finally made it home from the banquet, bringing me cake! i love love love cake.

after dinner (chicken nuggets and sugar snap peas) we put together a puzzle as a family. this was a Toy Story puzzle, and wyatt started singing "you've got a friend in me", from that movie. it was the cutest thing i've ever heard. he loves singing and it makes my day when i hear it. anyway, he only knows that one line, the one that goes "you've got a friend in me, you've got a friend in me" and was singing it over and over and over. T got a little tired of that so he went and put his ipod on our stereo so we could hear other songs. "hey there delilah" came on first, which is another song that both kids know, so we ended up having a family sing along. totally warmed my heart! we finished the puzzle and went into the living room for dancing. ashton and wyatt have watched videos of the dance crew "jabberwockeez" and they like to imitate their style. i'll have to film them sometime, they'd love to see themselves dancing!

anyway, the day went from me wanting to tear out my hair and go to bed and cry, to having some great family time. hopefully we can have more days that involve cake and singing and puzzles and less days involving blood and 4 am wakeups.

on my christmas list

2009-12-02T13:27:00.000-06:00

violet Hunter boots!
i've been needing rain/ snow boots forever and have fallen in love with them.

Smashbox photo finish primer!
i tried a sample from Sephora and love how it preps my skin for foundation.

Brett Manning's "Singing Success".
this system claims to be able to add a whole octave to your vocal range. he has been the vocal coach for Hayley Williams of Paramore and Taylor Swift, among others.
i'd love to try it out, and it's on sale through dec 18th!

Bowie: A Biography by Marc Spitz
i have always had Bowie fascination.

fun with great-grandma's wig

2009-11-30T10:09:00.003-06:00

"that's why dad named you joe dirt insteada nunamaker!"

bottom of the plastic pumpkin

2009-11-15T13:26:00.006-06:00

it is a sad time.
a time when all the good halloween candy has been eaten
and all that's left is the stuff that isn't worth the calories.

worth it=
twix
reese's peanut butter cups
hershey's special dark
baby ruth
butterfingers
grape and cherry laffy taffy
junior mints
kit kats
dots
candy corn

not worth it=
tootsie roll pops
3 musketeers
milky way (except milky way dark, that's ok)
skittles
bit o honey
crunch
starburst
any laffy taffy other than above mentioned
smarties

bookworm

2009-11-08T15:54:00.003-06:00

one of the other reasons i haven't been blogging is because i made it to the library all by myself last week! and that means i had time to browse around and pick up whatever caught my fancy. i love reading, and whenever i have a book it's pretty much impossible to get me to do anything but the bare minimum necessary to get through the day.
lately i've been reading:

The Lost Symbol

Freakonomics
Girlbomb
The World is Fat
with a little Marie Claire magazine thrown in.

it seems my choices are kind of all over the place, but i really like mixing up fiction (lost symbol) with biographies (girlbomb) and nonfiction (freakonomics and world). my books are due back soon and i still have a couple more i haven't gotten to yet. so if you're wondering what's up, i probably have my nose in a book.

too lazy to post anything

2009-10-31T08:29:00.003-05:00

my blog has been a dead zone for a couple weeks now, and it bothers me. but most days it seems like there are so many other things on which i want to use my downtime that don't require quite as much effort. like sitting on the couch and reading a book. or watching a show from my dvr. there are so many steps involved with posting, like going to my blog and letting it load. and then logging in. ugh, i don't want to have to type in my password! and then figuring out what to write. too much pressure! posting pictures is the most work because i have to upload them to flickr or photobucket and then figure out the size ratio so i can keep the pictures dimensions the same but not let it be too big for the blog. sometimes the editing programs will do that for me but then you have to let that upload and it usually takes more patience than i'm willing to give. and usually after posting i'll find a grammatical error or a word i left out and have to go fix it.
so all in all, i'm just plain lazy.

les pommes

2009-10-19T20:41:00.007-05:00

we live about 3 miles from the county line orchard and love to visit often. they have fantastic donuts- iced pumpkin and apple cinnamon, which are two of the reasons i've gained back a couple of those pounds i'd lost this summer, but that's off the subject. you can ride a tractor that drives you through the orchard and you can disembark at whichever type of apple trees that you want to pick from. my favorite is gala, so that's where we went.

also, my new camera is awesome. :)

(and haha, i accidentally titled this post "potatoes" instead of apples. "pomme de terre" means apple of the earth...)

good to know.

2009-10-13T14:24:00.001-05:00

these vintage ads are so funny to me! i'll have to find some more, but it's so random what companies thought the public needed to hear.

oh so modern

2009-10-04T15:39:00.004-05:00

i'm shopping for a light fixture for my bedroom and am in love with this, which means my husband would despise it. it's waaaay out of my price range of "super cheap" but i can dream, right? i think ikea should do something like this, only at their ikea prices.

boxes & boats & ducks

2009-09-20T20:30:00.004-05:00

my parents were visiting this weekend, yay! my mom decided it was time to organize my basement storage, and it went from disastrous to fantastic. we just had a big pile of boxes that were full of random stuff. i really should've taken a before picture. but check it out, everything is sorted and labeled:

also, it was time to test out my new camera! we did so by going down to the lake, where there was a model boat race going on. those things can fly across the water at what seemed like 80 mph. i wish had taken pictures of that part, but i was too busy taking pictures like this:

i love this one.

onto feeding the ducks! this isn't their first time feeding ducks. it's a regular activity at our house whenever we have stale bread.

though this time wyatt seemed more interested in chasing them.

click.

2009-09-17T09:43:00.002-05:00

my new toy.
now i just have to learn how to use it!

a certain shade of green

2009-09-15T14:54:00.004-05:00

i used to listen to a lot of incubus, and "certain shade of green" is one of their earlier songs. but anyway, this post has nothing to do with them!

i think i finally found a good green for the front door. i have to send a shout out to my mom's best friend tracy for assisting in this hunt for a door color. she is an interior designer and keeps a sherwin williams paint sample book in her car.
this green is just a teensy bit more muted than i was planning on but we're going to keep it, since it looks great with our new charcoal shutters.

the vision i had for the house when we bought it is becoming a reality! on the outside, we've changed the front door, updated the house numbers, attached shutters, painted the formerly green rails black, painted all the peeling green window trim white, ripped out some house-dominating bushes and fenced the backyard.

before:

From a day in the life...

after:

please ignore the dying flowers, i'm replacing them with some mums this weekend.

i like pink...

2009-09-10T13:57:00.002-05:00

annoying.

2009-09-09T13:08:00.002-05:00

i hate credit cards. yesterday, i noticed that my credit limit on one card had been cut in half for no reason! i know it's been happening all over and there's nothing i can do about it. it annoys me because that hurts my debt to credit ratio, which is a determining factor in credit scores.
also, for no reason at all again, the interest rate on another card jumped up to 25%! we've never been late, never gone over limit, but the credit cards can now increase their interest rate without cause.
it's annoying.

2009-09-07T12:58:00.000-05:00

just listen.

2009-09-06T21:31:00.002-05:00

i love these voicemails!

they've been floating around the web for awhile

and i finally have to post the link to share in the fun.

this guy is such a crazy narcissist!

click here please!

a room in progress

2009-08-30T18:24:00.003-05:00

it's coming along! T said he can tolerate what i brought home, which makes me happy.
it seems the accent color ties it in to the bathroom, using orange and red-orange. that coverlet on the bed is bright orange on one side and red-orange on the other.

our curtains, from ikea of course.
there are tiiiiiiny little orange dots in them too.

and i see that the datestamp on the camera is a year too late!

a little more serious...

2009-08-27T13:45:00.004-05:00

most of my blog posts are pretty frivolous, about things like clothes and decorating and fun things i do. stuff that's easy and entertains me most of the time. but today i'm preparing for a talk to give a church on sunday, and i ran into a scripture from the book of mormon that is so important to remember that i needed to put it somewhere where i'll remember these thoughts i'm having.

2 Nephi 9:28–29:

“O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.

“But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.”

it actually doesn't have much to do with the subject that i'm speaking on, which is "joy in the journey", but it just struck me as something i need to remember, especially while watching the news or reading about things going on in society.

and now, back to work.

birthday dress!

2009-08-26T08:05:00.004-05:00

i ordered myself a gorgeous birthday present (i'll be 28 on friday, the 28th) and had to look all over to find the right size! shabby apple carries the dress but was out of the size i needed. i finally found it after some google-ing AND hunted down a discount coupon, bringing it almost down to the price it was on shabby apple. but it's worth it (i hope)! the brand is called Stop Staring and they apparently do magical things to a woman's figure. it's the same brand of dress that my friends and i tried on here. i hope it will be my perfect little black dress.

front door and second day of school

2009-08-25T13:44:00.003-05:00

i forgot to take pictures of ashton on the first day of school, so here he is on the second!
he likes eating in the cafeteria and says lunch is his favorite time of day.
wyatt wanted to be in the pic too.
he was trying on some new shorts that morning.

notice the door color in the above picture.
this is was first attempt and i felt it was a little too lime.
neon green, if you will. so i tried again.

now it's too yellow! i'm getting frustrated.
but i did order my gray shutters!

oooh crafty.

2009-08-25T13:25:00.003-05:00

i love that i made something into something else! and it was really cheap!
these were three separate panels, originally regular wood color. my mom got 4 of them for $40 on clearance and brought them to me- this was actually her idea! i spray painted them black and will be using them as my new headboard! they're resting on the ground behind the bed and we'll probably raise them up a little and secure them to the wall.

for some reason it looks like one is out of line with the others. it's not. our camera is broken and it can still take pictures but i can't see what i'm taking the picture of!

blue wyatt

2009-08-20T10:04:00.003-05:00

this is what wyatt has been doing while ashton is at his first day of school.

i was cleaning up the kitchen, thinking he was playing quietly.
then he ran in to show me.

it was actually a little worse in person than the picture shows.

my daily reminder

2009-08-15T16:39:00.004-05:00

i finally put up my "keep calm" print in the kitchen! i kept waiting to find the perfect frame but it never appeared, at least not in my price range. so i just picked up an acceptable one from walmart so i could go ahead a put it up. and we also got a new faucet! T picked it out and installed it when i was visiting my parents a few weeks ago. i was worried about what i'd come home to, but was pleasantly surprised by his choice.

little things like these make me smile. :)
next step: painting all the cabinets white.
i've been putting it off but i know it will make such a huge difference!

biker dude.

2009-08-15T14:37:00.003-05:00

my husband bought a motorcycle!
it used to be his dad's and his parents brought it up yesterday.
today T is like a little kid with his fun new toy.
he's already taken the permit test and gotten a plate for it.
i don't quite know how to feel about the situation.
i love motorcycles but am scared for his safety!
i'm planning to increase his life insurance soon, just in case.
he's off riding around so i can't get a picture, but i'll take one soon enough.
if he makes it back in one piece...

blank canvas

2009-08-11T14:25:00.002-05:00

i just painted our bedroom and can't wait to start in with the decor! problem is, i can't decide which color scheme to go with. we recently got the new mattress and comforter (T requested plain white) and this is where we are at the moment.

the rest of the room has crappy old furniture, which i will be tolerating until i find something affordably awesome. i love love love the light gray walls, and my style is modern/eclectic. there are too many choices!
i love these pillows on etsy and hope i get them for my birthday...

fishy kids

2009-08-05T16:09:00.004-05:00

i was browsing through my camera's memory card, since the screen is broken, and found these pictures from just a couple weeks ago! T took the kids fishing while we were at the clark family reunion. i think they were a little weirded out by the whole experience, or at least that's how they seem in the pictures.

almost 7 years ago!

2009-07-29T11:16:00.003-05:00

i was going through some old pictures and found this, probably one of my favorite pics from my wedding. it's before the ceremony, after hair and makeup, but not yet time for the dress.

i felt beautiful that day.

upcoming sister time!

2009-07-22T14:14:00.003-05:00

i'm so excited to see chrissi and her cute baby bump.
well, i'm sure it's more than a bump these days!
my sister lives in utah and will be coming to indiana tomorrow night.
we'll leave the kids with my dad and drive to st. louis for a shower
with all our aunts, cousins, and grandmas.
less than 24 hours later we'll be back in indiana for a hometown shower.
it'll probably be the last time i'll get to see her before she's a new mommy.
chrissi rocks and i'm so happy to be her sister!

i heart wicker park (& bucktown)

2009-07-20T18:43:00.003-05:00

of all the parts of chicago i've visited, this is my current favorite. it's considered a "hipster" area, though i don't really know what that means. i've seen some weird looking getups, so maybe it means the people who are so painfully trendy that it becomes comical. but anyway, i've visited this part of town twice in the last month or so and have fallen in love.
here are some reasons why:

blu coral- this restaurant was rated #1 for sushi in chicago. although i didn't eat any sushi i was totally wowed by their beef filet and the creamy ginger dressing on my salad. the service sucked but i'm willing to deal with lazy servers for another taste of the wonderfulness.
vintage shops- always fun to look at what is hot again. also, there's a store called lenny & me that will buy some of the old stuff (cabinet handles, etc.) from my house!
the bongo room- we got there just as it opened on saturday, 9 am. i guess they cater to the crowd who likes to sleep off their nights of heavy drinking. completely scrumptious breakfasts, like chocolate tower pancakes. :)
goddess and grocer- a heavenly little gourmet deli(?). the word deli doesn't do this place justice, but it's a cute little store that sells wines, chocolates, and ready-to-eat goodness like asian sesame green beans and filet mignon.
trendy stores- such as E3, a place where the owner/ guy who worked there picked out dresses and heels for us to try on. we looked freakin hot, too bad the dresses were a little too expensive.
still so many more restaurants to try and stores to browse in!

she rocks the gem sweaters

2009-07-07T17:19:00.002-05:00

this girl (leslie hall) has random spots on yo gabba gabba (yes, i'm a fan, ok?) and i think she's awesome.

a lakeside family reunion

2009-07-05T18:35:00.003-05:00

this weekend was the kickoff to the s******s family reunion in michigan city, indiana. this is my mom's father's family (hence the blurring of the name, for security purposes!)and they meet together every other year in a different location around the country. the last one i'd been to was in boston, about 12 years ago! i was so excited to find out that this one would be held just 30 minutes from my house.

here are some of the amazing beach rentals that are in the community:

these two are where some of our family is staying:

and some miscellaneous beach photos:

so far...

2009-06-26T14:37:00.003-05:00

this week has been pretty awesome.
i've been to to the Art Institute in chicago, have seen two movies with my husband (the proposal & transformers), planted some flowers, and sealed the grout in the bathroom.
i've sat around reading books, eaten lots of salads and fruit, hemmed a pair of jeans, walked around on the Magnificent Mile, and thoroughly scrubbed the downstairs bathroom.
i've picked up some new clothes (jeans a size smaller, woohoo!), taken a 5 mile bike ride, listened to MY music all day, gone to lunch with my friend Paige, checked out 3 books from the library, attempted to sand the front door, and created a pair of shorts for ashton out of holey jeans.
among other things.

how is this appealing?

2009-06-24T08:19:00.003-05:00

this morning i was folding laundry and watching a SNL that had been recorded on my DVR. then this commercial for "ambien cr" comes on and the words catch my attention. i rewound it thinking it had to be another SNL skit. nope, it's a real commercial.
the visuals are are really peaceful images, like butterflies, and a woman sleeping soundly. but through all this, there is a soothing voice stating these words:

"Ambien and Ambien CR are treatment options you and your doctor can consider along with lifestyle changes. When taking either of them, don’t drive or operate machinery. Plan to devote 7 to 8 hours to sleep before being active. Sleepwalking, and eating or driving while not fully awake, with memory loss for the event, as well as abnormal behaviors such as being more outgoing or aggressive than normal, confusion, agitation, and hallucinations may occur. Don’t take it with alcohol as it may increase these behaviors. In patients with depression, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide may occur. If you experience any of these behaviors contact your doctor immediately.

why oh why would anyone think "that sounds great! sign me up!"? or wait, maybe they should just hand them out at raves.

i'm sure i'll miss them, but...

2009-06-20T20:15:00.003-05:00

the kids are at their grandparent's house for the week!

i'm so excited to have some time all to myself.

i'm thinking a trip into chicago to visit a museum.

dinners and movies with my husband.

finishing up projects around the house.

trying to sleep in.

hello flat stomach!

2009-06-15T06:13:00.004-05:00

i think more explanation may be needed about the diet i'm on! i didn't do so well with the last post and it probably does seem like some crazy fad! anyway, HCG is a hormone found in the body of a woman when she is pregnant. is seems that in the presence of this hormone the body will USE its stored fat as energy if there aren't enough calories coming in. without the HCG a body would hold onto that fat and go into starvation mode, lowering its metabolism. that's why this doesn't work without taking the HCG, or at least a synthetic homeopathic version. it takes 21 days on the HCG to sort of "unset" my metabolism so it can be reset to keep me at my new weight while still taking in around 2000 calories.
i have one week of weight loss left (which is the 500 calories) and then i'll go on into maintenance mode. in any other situation i know i'd feel deprived while on maintenance, since you still can't have sugar or starch, but coming from such extreme restriction i think i'll feel like i'm feasting!
as of this morning i've lost 11.2 lbs and i feel great. yeah, i get hungry when it's time to eat but it isn't at all like one would imagine i'd feel only eating 500 calories a day. this is because i'm also using around 1500-2000 calories a day of my own fat as energy. oh, but i know that if you cheat or quit in the middle you will immediately gain weight (like 5 or 6 pounds) and it will make you gain MORE weight than you even had to lose. so basically you can't just "try out" this diet, you have to commit totally or not even start.
biggest temptations so far: my favorite homemade white bread at bookclub, cake decorating night at enrichment, and breakfast with friends. those have been the times when i've wondered if it'd be ok to put something in my mouth and chew it up but spit it out instead of swallowing. and that is probably a slippery slope toward cheating and screwing it all up, so i've resisted.
hope that is a better explanation than i gave last time!

...

2009-06-08T13:59:00.002-05:00

i have totally neglected my blog. no more excuses, it's time to post. though i'm neglecting the housework to do so! just something quick then!
life right now is good but also kinda sucks. i'll explain. i've been on the "hcg protocol" diet for a week now. and i've lost 7 1/2 lbs. yay! but really, i'm so looking forward to the time when i can eat whatever, whenever. for the last week all i can eat is around 500 calories a day. a strict list to choose from- certain meats, certain fruits, and certain veggies. nothing else. but in 13 days i'll be able to eat ALL meats, ALL fruits, and ALL veggies again, plus add in some fats and oils.
but the benefits are outweighing the difficulties. i'll have lost all my extra pudge and can fit back into my pre-wyatt clothes! just 13 more days of torture. :)

color scheme inspiration

2009-05-25T21:35:00.003-05:00

i've been such a bad blogger lately! been a busy bee in other aspects of life.

i've found the inspiration for the color scheme of my house exterior. while my siding is still white, i've figured out what color i want the shutters and front door.
i saw this pic on designmom and instantly fell in love. the grey of the house is what i want for the shutters and the green is perfect for my front door.

losing sleep over twittering

2009-05-15T06:54:00.004-05:00

it starts at 3:30 am. the birds in the trees around my house start twittering. no, not electronically, but vocally. and i HATE IT. it's like they think it's morning or something! if the windows are open i have to get up and close them but that only help a little bit. i'm going to have to get a fan to drown it out. wyatt has been having a hard time staying asleep at night too, and i'm betting it is the bird's fault.

it's like a facelift for the house.

2009-05-13T08:22:00.002-05:00

next project! getting rid of the old, peeling green paint on all the window trim and repainting it white. went to menards and got paint stripper, gloves, an angled scraper, and the stuff to prep the trim before we prime. i even dreamed about starting this project last night, i'm so excited. and today it's raining. :(

it's going to make such a huge difference!

i'm impressed!

2009-05-07T11:44:00.004-05:00

ashton worked really hard for this! his school had a no-tv challenge a couple weeks ago. he'd get a blizzard from DQ if he could go monday thru friday without watching tv or playing video games. every day, several times a day, he made the choice to keep working towards his goal instead of giving in to the temptation of tv. and he didn't really complain either! whenever he said he wished he could watch tv i'd ask him if he'd rather do that or if he'd rather get the prize. he always chose to go do something else, like play outside or with his legos. and he's only allowed to play video games (usually lego batman on xbox) on the weekends- he looks forward to friday night all week- but chose to follow through with the challenge instead. i'm so proud of him!

spring surprises

2009-05-04T10:51:00.004-05:00

something fun about our first spring in this house is finding out what plants are growing in our yard! all kinds of pretty flowers and things are appearing. i don't quite know how to care for them all...

pretty things in my yard

2009-05-04T10:47:00.001-05:00

i had some fun with effects, of course.

one, one, one

2009-04-21T18:00:00.002-05:00

wyatt likes to count but doesn't get very far...

the lens is a little foggy because i had to get the camera out of the car...it was cold in the garage!

produce market

2009-04-19T16:36:00.002-05:00

i was driving to the grocery store the other day and passed a little produce market with a sign that read "apples- 79 cents/lb". apples were on my list so i turned around, hoping to get a good deal. not only did i find my favorite apples (gala) for cheap, but they were selling an entire flat of green seedless grapes for $3. the box contained 18 lbs of grapes! the very enthusiastic man working there (possibly the owner) had me break the sticker seal on the plastic surrounding the grapes and check them all out before i bought them. anyway, now i have a whole bunch (get it? haha) of really fresh, really sweet grapes. i've been giving some away and making the kids eat them multiple times a day. maybe i'll find some recipes to use them in. i'm so excited to go there every week and get my fresh fruits and veggies!

ashton's night with the shiny toy guns!

2009-04-16T08:02:00.003-05:00

last night was fantastic- ashton and i went to the shiny toy gun's show at the aragon ballroom in chicago. they were opening for all-american rejects.
here's how it all went down: i emailed the band about a month ago to see if they thought it would be an ok show to bring my 6 year old to. he likes their music and i thought it would be a fun experience. they emailed back and invited us backstage to hang out with them! we were "on the list" and everything!
we arrived at the aragon last night and were taken past security and upstairs to their dressing room! it was tiny and very yellow. we felt special, we were the only fans who'd been invited to hang out with them that night.

i didn't want to seem too camera-happy, so i only asked for one group shot. they were happy to oblige. (from top left: sisely, chad, mikey. bottom: jeremy, ashton, me)

jeremy took us over to the balcony area, where we could watch the show from. it's this really old theater with those opera balcony seats so we were watching from above.

the view from our seats

we stayed for a little bit of the all american rejects show but spent most of the time talking to the guns. some conversational highlights: ashton and jeremy compared chest scars (they both have the same one), chad was trying to guess a kid's movie ashton hadn't seen (they seriously talked for about a half hour about movies), and sisely talked to him about how cars are designed to keep the passengers safe in a crash, amongst other things.
chad showed me the damage from going through a car windshield as a child (scars, missing eyelashes, and a crooked nose), jeremy told me about when he got ringworm (nice) and how he was adopted as a preemie, and sisely explained what her deer's head tattoo on her arm meant to her. mikey was pretty quiet but i got to talk with his girlfriend, leilah, for a while.
also, we met jeremy's girlfriend, melissa. she lives in chicago and is a model. she was also "delilah" in the plain white tee's music video for "hey there delilah". she is intimidatingly pretty but was really nice and helpful and made the experience that much better.

on the way home ashton said he wants to do this again! i had to explain that most people don't get to hang out with the band at a concert. i don't think he quite gets how unusual an experience it is!

does this freak out anyone else?

2009-04-15T14:06:00.002-05:00

i saw this on my friend leah's blog:

there's a scripture about a bushel of wheat being worth more than a bushel of gold... hmm...

sarah and T's DAY OF FUN!

2009-04-08T11:04:00.003-05:00

ok, that's a Friends reference, if anyone gets it.
but anyway, we are on our spring break and my parents offered to take the kids for a few days. we live 3 hours away so i met my dad in the middle to make the switch on monday. this is the first time wyatt has spent the night anywhere without me! i've been enjoying the extra sleep.
yesterday was really fun. we drove up to schaumburg and shopped for home stuff at ikea.
T picked out this print to frame and hang in the bathroom. i was so proud of him! it looks fantastic in there.

then we ventured over to the huge, amazing mall there in schaumburg. there's an H&M, urban outfitters, and anthropologie, so exciting. i spent a good 2 1/2 hours exploring those three stores! and i'm happy to say, all i got were a shirt and a scarf from urban outfitters. but i am so completely satisfied with those purchases that they met all shopping expectations i had for the whole day.
after the mall we drove over to wrigleyville, where we'd seen a restaurant featured on the travel channel's show "man vs. food". these sandwiches looked delish on tv and we figured we'd check it out. these are not my pictures, since we neglected to bring our camera.

they put fries ON the sandwich!

they offer a challenge in which you have to eat three sandwiches in under an hour to get onto the wall of fame. when looking at the sandwiches on the show i though it was no big deal. then i only made it through half my sandwich and took the other half home.

it's been so refreshing to be able to spend time alone with my husband and get a break from the daily parental responsibilities we have. we'll have to make this a more regular thing!

reenforcing his innocence...or his unhelpfulness?

2009-04-04T18:06:00.004-05:00

ashton, wyatt, and i were in ashton's room this morning. wyatt grabbed ashton's box of legos and dumped it onto the floor. ashton watched it happen, turned to me, and calmly said,
"i am not responsible for this".

the before photos

2009-03-23T13:23:00.002-05:00

the almost after is below...

we knocked out that closet to the left and had to tear down the plaster walls. the one thing they couldn't take out is that little air vent on the floor. it was held down by magic or something and we could not figure out how to remove it!

it only took 4 months...

2009-03-23T12:56:00.003-05:00

we're almost finished with the bathroom. n more middle-of-the-night bathroom trips downstairs! my goodness, it's taken a long time, but T's uncle has been fantastic with helping us get it all done. now all we have to do is refinish the bathtub and get a plumber to figure out why the bathtub isn't draining and the hot water isn't working in the shower. then we'll really be done. we still have a little trim to finish on the window too. it's not my dream bathroom or anything but we did what we could with a tiny little budget. the wall color is actually a red/orange called "wet coral" and the picture makes it looks really orange! and i let T pick the color out of the 5 or 6 color swatches i brought home.

i'm still disappointed that i couldn't use the awesome ikea faucet with this sink. apparently most sink tops are made with three holes and this faucet only used one. i would've taken back this cabinet and sink to get one that would fit the faucet but i don't have the receipt fo rthem. so yeah, i was really disappointed. it was my favorite thing about the bathroom. :(

wyatt vader

2009-03-17T14:15:00.002-05:00

he is obsessed with star wars! ashton has a couple easy-read star wars books and wyatt is constantly wanting me to "ree!" them to him. basically it's just him pointing at the pictures and me telling him what they are. but still, this happens multiple times a day.

and yep, that's our basement. we'll be painting those walls this week!

nothing much.

2009-03-17T13:38:00.002-05:00

it's been so long since i've posted a blog! i'm such a blog slacker. things are so busy here! i've started babysitting a little boy a couple times a week as well as the gymnastics coaching. also, whenever i am on the computer wyatt tries to climb on me and type too. he especially likes to push the button that has a moon on it, which puts the moniter to sleep. and pretty much the last thing i want to do after the kids are asleep is come down to the basement and spend time on the computer when i could be hanging out with my hot husband.
we have been working on the bathroom though. i'll get some pictures up of our progress soon. it's taken a horribly long time to get this thing done. and we've run into some plumbing problems on top of it, so that'll be fun to get taken care of.
right now we're also pricing different fencing options for the backyard. our first idea was to do a nice vinyl since all we have to do is the 80 feet across the back but we're noticing how much more we could do with the money we'd save from going with a wood fence. either way, i'm excited to start making progress on the outside of the house!

secret show photos

2009-03-03T13:09:00.003-06:00

you may all be sick of hearing about my favorite band, sorry, but i had to post some pics of the shiny toy guns show! it was sponsored by nbc and i had to win tickets by entering a contest. took me 3 tries but it all worked out in the end. julia came with me again and we had a great time. first off, FREE PARKING. that is basically unheard of in downtown chicago. i had planned on $20 to park. sweetness. they also had a free open bar. it wasn't a huge deal since i am a non-drinker but still, free water! and since the tickets were free that came out to a big $0 expenditure for such a fab night (you know, minus stuff like the gas it took to get there and the new clothes/accessories i picked up) i wish they'd have played some of my favorite songs that aren't singles but i guess i'll have to wait till the next time. in april, when they open for all-american rejects. :)

a slightly new look.

2009-02-25T13:35:00.003-06:00

i had my friend effie give me some bangs! you can't see them a whole lot since they're the sideswept kind but here is a picture. i needed something to mix up my hairstyle.

2009-02-20T21:13:00.002-06:00

just had to show some love for my ashton too!

wyatt hearts kitties

2009-02-20T20:53:00.004-06:00

one of his favorite things in the world right now are cats. he says "dee", for kitTY. he brought the kitty to show me at my friend julia's house. lucky for him she's a very docile animal and was able to withstand all the affection.

25 random things about me

2009-02-17T15:44:00.004-06:00

i've been tagged millions of times (yes, i have millions of friends...) and am finally going to take the time to do this! and i'm trying to pull stuff that truly is random, so bear with me.

1. i hate the phrase "with all due respect". it's overused in movies and tv shows and basically means "i'm going to say something rude but please don't fire me for it".
2. occasionally i'll go 3-4 days without a shower. today i'm on day #4.
3. i have a weakness for ben & jerry's phish food ice cream, double stuf oreos, and twizzlers. that's nothing many don't already know but it needs to be included anyway.
4. sometimes i'll burst out singing and dancing while i'm running to music. i try to control it when other people are around but there are times when i can't help it!
5. i love bollywood movies, mostly for the clothes and dancing. i wish there was more spontaneous group dancing in real life.
6. i wish i had a "medium" complexion, dark hair, and blue eyes. i only have the blue eyes though.
7. i love unclogging my husband's pores. he won't let me pick at his face anymore but he will let me use a pore cleansing strip on his nose. i am fascinated by the used strip, with all those little spiky things, and will analyze it for quite awhile.
8. i usually only finish things 90% (if i'm lucky). i cannot seem to finish a project or task 100% completed.
9. i think i have mild attention deficit disorder. i can pay attention if i'm really really interested in something but lose focus in every other circumstance. i was tested for it when i was in high school and was told i don't. i think this is because i was interested on doing well on the test (it was an IQ test) and therefore was able to stay focused.
10. i am super particular about how my laundry is sorted. i get mad if T does the laundry and washes things together that aren't supposed to be. hopefully my new triple divided laundry sorter will help?
11. my favorite shape is a star. i remember talking to a guy about tattoos and told him "if i were to ever get a tattoo (which i would not) it would probably have something with stars. and i like symmetry, so it'd have to be divided equally on my body." after that he turns around and lifts his shirt to show me his tattoos. a star on each shoulder blade. weird, isn't it?
12. i rarely wear nail polish on my fingernails.
13. my toenails are usually painted.
14. i wish i could go to makeup school and become a fantastic makeup artist.
15. i have a very difficult time buying shoes. it's like i think a new pair should fulfill every possible shoe need i may ever have.
16. speaking of shoes, i just ordered a pair of sandals online. they were marked down from $70 to $20. and yes, they may fill every summer shoe need i may have.
17. i love A1 steak sauce. i used to take drinks from the bottle when i was a kid. i still lick it off the plate at home.
18. the water in the shower must be almost scalding for me to feel like it's a comfortable shower.
19. i love love love roller coasters.
20. i broke the pinky knuckle on my right hand during cheerleading practice in 10th grade. it still separates from my other fingers when i bend them.
21. i wish was more creative and crafty.
22. i have no interest in ever owning a boat.
23. i think it would be fun to have another sister. chrissi and i talk about it sometimes. it'd be nice to have another built-in friend!
24. i am usually always late. it drives my husband insane.
25. i hate banana flavored candy.

that was fun but more difficult than i thought it'd be. now you know lots more about me. :)

the obsession continues.

2009-02-09T13:12:00.003-06:00

shiny toy guns are having a SECRET SHOW that you have to win SECRET TICKETS to with a SECRET PASSWORD. i actually emailed them to ask if they'd give me tickets but they told me it was so restricted they are only allowed one ticket each. and i guess they're using those for friends and family or whatever. lame. so now i'll be trying to hardest to win these babies. even though i've already seen them twice in the past 4 months.
also, i'm so excited about no doubt's tour this summer! as a longtime no doubt fan (i've even been backstage with them!) i'm stoked for them to start making music together again.
i still want to be a rock star. *sigh*

they like me!

2009-02-04T12:39:00.004-06:00

i did get the job! monday was my first day and i just observed and helped out with the level 3's. i'll be there monday, wednesday, and thursday evenings, around 10 hours a week. seems pretty perfect! being in the gym makes me miss the time when i could bend, stretch, and flip at will.

one scary thing- i was wearing stretchy yoga pants and saw myself in the wall of full-length mirrors and was very (disappointingly) surprised! we don't have a full-length mirror at home and the picture of myself in my head was very different from what reflected. soooo i'll have to start watching what i eat these days and making an effort of exercise even though it isn't convenient.

my wyaa

2009-02-03T14:44:00.006-06:00

i FINALLY caught it on video! wyatt says "i love you" by saying "ah-low", which may sound like "hello" to anyone else, but i know what he's saying.
also, he seems to be picking up a german accent somewhere. it's so funny to hear him say words ending in a K sound.
he also calls himself "wy" or "wyaa", you'll hear him wanting to see himself on the camera at the end. '

wordplay

2009-02-02T13:11:00.006-06:00

this thing from wordle.net makes a composite of random words from my blog.
i wonder if it gives a good representation of me? words taken out of context can paint a different picture.

back into the world of paychecks and schedules

2009-01-29T13:04:00.005-06:00

with bills piling up and renovations kicking our budget's butt, it's time for me to get a job! T and i talked about it last night and came to the conclusion that we'd rather have me go work evenings than have him get a second job. i've been thinking about the various jobs i've had and if i'd want to go back to doing them again: server at Outback Steakhouse(s); sales associate at the Coach store; gymnastics coach. i think that's pretty much the whole list of my work experience. not a whole array of skills to pull from but after considering the pros and cons of each different area (for example: restaurants are stressful and nights are late. retail is tedious and you have to be standing all the time) i've decided to go the gymnastics route. and i have an interview tonight for a gym in merrillville! hopefully the hours i have available match the times they'd need me for. wish me luck!

wyatt. purse. lipstick.

2009-01-21T14:43:00.005-06:00

when he was finished he put the cap back on and placed it back in my purse.
now that's considerate.