CRANE GAME ADDICTS!!

I have so much to do for Eloise's Birthday Party on Sunday... it isn't even funny! But most of it has to be done tomorrow because I have a few things left to get at the store... and, of course, I don't want to decorate until the last minute or else it'll just get messed up between the 3 of us and the animals. So... since I have a few minutes and I finally uploaded some pictures, I wanted to share these pictures from last weekend.

Because of crappy weather and also some previous commitments, I wasn't able to make it to see my family the past few weeks. My sister was just DYING to see Eloise... but better safe than sorry when it comes to the weather. So we Skyped a few times, which was fun!

Last weekend, though, Cory, Eloise and I were able to meet my parents halfway and use a gift card from Christmas to eat dinner. It was nice to see them, even if it was only for a short while. And Eloise was such a card! She was saying "Hi" to people and giggling... and she has started going "Ahhhh!" with her mouth wide open after she takes a drink. That girl is something!

Anyway... after dinner... as we were walking out... we could not resist the crane game machine!! I have always been an addict. It's the thrill of the catch! Once Cory started dating me, I soon turned him into an addict too. We would sometimes just drive around with a ton of quarters and hit up every machine we could think of. I know, I know... what a waste of money... but if you think about some other things people spend money on for fun (booze, drugs, etc.)... it really was worth it! And we had fun together - which was the most important thing! One time I even won a GIANT scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz! Cory got upset at that one... because he wasn't the one to win it for me. Haha! We still have stuffed animals that we've won over the years - Eloise plays with some of them, as does Boo. We even drove to Brooklyn to pick up a crane game machine that my parents won on Ebay for my dad's garage... remember this post from earlier this year? That was the machine.

Anywho!! Cory and I are a bit sentimental about things... so we promised each other that Eloise would have her very first crane game experience with BOTH of us. What a better time than last weekend when we were both there (and my parents)... AND I had my camera!?

Getting ready to push the button!
(Notice her finger!)


She got one!!!
(see Eloise in the reflection, watching it?)


Woo Hoo!
(Cory named him "Lucky")



Guess who is going to be just like Mommy and Daddy??
Guarantee it!
Hee hee!

...

I can't think of a title for this post... because, well... I just can't.
So - sue me!

I just wanted to share a few pictures of the cookies I made for a baby shower this past weekend. They didn't turn out quite how I wanted. But when I have a 10 month old who is my main priority... and an icing thing-a-ma-jig that BROKE while I was using it. I did the best I could!

The theme was sea turtles. What a hard theme to come up with decorations for! Luckily, the mother-in-law took care of the little things... I made the cookies and some tissue paper poms to put on top of a mini diaper cakes.

(I had nothing to do with the rest of the decorations... hence the turtle erasers. lol!)

This picture doesn't do the cookies justice!


I am no photographer - unfortunately... so this looks more like a mess than anything. But it really did look nice sitting on the cake table! And the cookies were delicious, if I do say so myself!

Eloise had a good time... and was, thankfully, very well behaved!
Although she normally is anyway!


I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The Reveal...

Well, if you read my last post... you'd know that I was nervous to get my hair cut yesterday. I have always had long hair. Even when I got it cut a couple of years ago, it was still past my shoulders. I just have always had it that way. In my late teens/early 20's (yes, I'm over 25--eek!), I never wanted to cut it because I wanted it to be long for my *someday* wedding. But now that that's over with and I'm a mom chasing around a very active 9 month old... I figured it was time for a change. So... without further ado... I give you the:

BEFORE

Long... kind of scraggly - unless I did something with it.
Which, in that picture I had done nothing after showering
but comb it with a big-tooth comb (no hair product).

AFTER


Taa-daa!!

Much shorter! And a little wet still... but no
hair product here either! I love it!

Sometimes I find myself missing my long hair...
just because I could do a lot with it (if I wanted to put
time into it)... but I am glad I took the plunge...
and who knows, maybe one day I'll go even a little
shorter!

Cory even likes it! :)

Happy Saturday!! (It's snowing here!)

Nerrrrrrvous!

I'm getting my hair cut today.
I have never had my hair anything but long....
and well, I am going to go above the shoulders!
Wish me luck!

I'll post pictures later (after I've cried my last tear! haha).

I am the Clay...

Ya know when you are sitting in church... listening... and something is said that you know you've heard before (or something close to)... but you really needed to hear it at just that moment?

That's what happened to me yesterday. I couldn't tell you what the rest of the message was about... because I zoned in on a statement my pastor made.:

"At times God will use difficult circumstances in our lives to get us where He needs us to be..."

So often I know I find myself wondering why things happen the way they do.

I found my mind wandering during the rest of the service about things that are happening in my own life and the life of my loved ones.

I kept finding myself asking, "Why?"

...but then I am reminded that God can use even the crappiest of situations to bring good into our lives or the lives of those around us. We may not see it until after the fact or we may not see it at all... but it gives me hope to know that when we are going through a trial... God will see us through. There ultimately is a purpose. We just have to have faith that He knows what He is doing.

I pray that God will use the good and bad of my life as an example to others...


My giveaway ends tonight! Check it out!

Cool Weather = Hot Soup! .. or not...

The other day... this happened...

Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup! (Can you tell that I was anticipating sharing a great recipe?)

Looks good, right!?

WRONG!

Ok... so maybe it WAS good if you like super-tomatoey-notcreamy&smooth types of soups.

I'm not one of those people. I grew up on Campbells!

But in an effort to make my own healthy tomato soup... I tried a recipe I found out of a magazine.

It looks really pretty, right?

It just tasted like semi-bland tomato sauce though. I like tomatoes - but mostly when they are mixed in with other things. This soup was just toooooo much for me. I cringe just thinking of swallowing it! Even Cory, who eats just about anything, was tomatoed out by the time he finished eating.

So disappointing!

However, my neighbor LOVED it! His wife was away for a few days, so I took him over a small bowl (this was before I realized it was just so... tomatoey!). He came over the next day and just RAVED over it. So I gave him the leftovers. His wife told me later that he ate it for dinner that night and then took some in his lunch the next day!

At least someone liked it... and it didn't get wasted!

I think maybe next time I try to make tomato soup.... I'll try to find another recipe!

Have a great weekend!

Jellybeans!

Here's my cute little jellybean!

I don't have a whole lot to write about these days....
I am engulfed with spending time with Eloise (and Cory when he isn't at work).

I started my part time job as church secretary at the beginning of the month and that takes up a couple of hours from my week. I seriously can plow through the work in no time. I won't be making much more than $50 a month! But I am enjoying it and it gets me and the baby out of the house for a little bit.

Other than normal household things... cooking and cleaning... my life is consumed by play time, diapers and nursing! I'm OK with that--although it is nice to have a change now and then.

Speaking of....

Yesterday morning we went to my parents church and spent the afternoon at their house. It was nice to visit and I helped my mom get a few things ready for a picnic.


Early evening, we went to a small picnic and celebrated my nephew's 8th birthday. It was a lot of food, laughter and fun!


We had gotten my nephew a few items... but my special gift to him was a scrapbook that I made of his first "road trip" back in 2009. I had the pictures tucked away and came across them earlier this summer. I had always planned on making one... so I rallied myself during Eloise's nap times to get it done. Let me tell you, it isn't easy to do when you've got a kid who only sleeps for 30 mins at a time! But I got 'er done and I really think Xavier liked it. I hope he will keep it safe and treasure it for years to come!

I also have to mention that my mom found this crazy jelly bean game and brought it for my brother-in-law, his brother and their cousin to play. The whole gist of it... is there are different flavors of jelly beans... You spin the wheel... whatever color you land on... you have to pick out that color of jellybean and eat it... but you don't know if you'll eat the good flavor or the bad!!
(for example: the BLACK jellybean could be Licorice... or SKUNK SPRAY!)

So... here is Dan... do you think he'll get PEACH or BARF flavor??



If you want to have a great time laughing... check out BEAN BOOZLED!
It seriously is a HOOT!

Nature's Treasures

In A Pickle...

This past weekend, a friend brought us a bunch of veggies from his garden! WOO HOO! I really wish we had a garden... but I just do not have the attention span at this point to sit and read about how to garden correctly--then actually do it. So we are definitely excited when people so generously share their vegetables with us! (I must say though... we DO have a pumpkin plant just randomly growing up by our chicken coop!!! haha!)

Pickling cucumbers was in one of the bags of veggies we received, so I found a recipe out of my Nourishing Traditions cookbook to make pickles!

I had to make a trip to the store anyway - so I decided to pick up some fresh dill for the recipe. I kid you not. Practically the WHOLE store was restocked yesterday morning... except for the fresh dill. Of course. In my little town... we have Super Walmart at the far end of town or a small local store. So... I decided to stop at our little rinky dink store on the way home to try to find dill there. Eloise had fallen asleep in the 5 minutes it took me to get there. But I didn't want to lug her inside in the car seat because I swear it weighs like 45 lbs!! AND... this little store doesn't have convenient cart corrals. If you use a cart to take your groceries to your car... you walk the cart BACK to the store. Like I said... rinky dink. So, I get the baby out of the car, she wakes up, we walk inside... aaaaand... no dill. Nice.

I ended up just going home. I was a little frustrated... but decided to call the only other store I know of (in the next town over) to see if they had any dill (before I made a trip out there!!). They said they did. So, after lunch, I loaded the baby back in the car and drove to the store.. Eloise fell asleep in the car - since I had interrupted her earlier nap time. I didn't bother with a cart (again, this store had no cart corral either!)... so I just lugged a sleeping Eloise in her seat through the store! I almost didn't find the dill, I was definitely getting frustrated! But alas, there it was and we were on our way out the door as quickly as I could go with an 18 lb baby in a car seat smacking against my leg as I lugged it!

This pickle recipe I have calls for WHEY. I don't believe this is normal for most recipes... so I had already put out some yogurt to start straining the whey out of it. I made one jar of pickles with the whey I had from before (once I got home with the dill)... and then Eloise and I went to go visit the neighbors. Their baby granddaughter was over for a visit and we like to get the girls together.

(I love Eloise in this pic! She was so excited!)

Later on in the evening, after the yogurt had been strained... I was going to try to gently squeeze more whey out of it... and so I go into the kitchen to do just that... and seriously... there was a giant SPIDER in it! In the whey. Swimming around. I couldn't believe it wasn't dead but maybe it was some kind of freak spider. Definitely a freak spider. I was SO irritated! After going to 3 stores for fresh dill... then to find a spider in my whey!? I tossed the whole batch because... well who knows where spiders come and go and what disgusting things they carry. *sigh* So, Cory helped me to find another recipe online. It said not to use a metal pan to heat the vinegar, etc. (?REALLY?!) UGH. I have ONLY metal pans. So we found another recipe that said we could... so we adapted the two recipes to make our own. Cory helped me redo the math so that we would have enough liquid for the 3 quart jars of cucumbers I had. However, we goofed up on the math and ended up with not enough liquid! Not sure how THAT happened!

It seemed like it was one nightmare after another to make these stinkin' pickles!! The dill, the whey, the math! But finally, we got a few jars made... and they better stinkin' taste good! That's all I have to say about that!!

(Left: Whey Pickles... Right: Regular Pickles)

HUMPH!!!

Wondering....

I hope it wasn't rude of me to take a picture...

We stopped at the mall real quick on Saturday...
and this was tied out in the back parking lot!

I wonder what store they were going to! :)

A Special Day

Two years ago today...

I married my best friend.

One year ago today...
We found out we were expecting!

Four months ago today...
We welcomed our beautiful daughter into the world.

To put it simply...
God Is Good.

Happy Anniversary Cory!
Happy 4 months Eloise!
I love you both with all of my heart!

Beauty

We encountered this little beauty on our walk yesterday.

Little Duckies!

My in-laws are awesome. They come over and mow our lawn all of the time.

Of course, they have time on their hands, and the exercise is good for my father-in-law. (Who has had little to no side effects with his chemo so far!! Praise God!)

Anyway... the other day, my MIL said that she saw a duck up in the ditch across from our driveway. Eloise and I went up to inspect... and sure enough... there he was!!


I went back to the house to get Cory (he loves duckies!)... and that's when I realized that there were two! God sure did a good job camouflaging the females! (I didn't realize she was in the first picture when I took it!)


Ok.. and yes... I had to take a little video. It's just short... the ducks were upset that I was getting so close... but then a car comes and I have to run away! HAHA



I am hoping that Cory will let us put in a little pond this summer... and maybe those duckies will come visit more often! (Instead of in the dirty ditch!)

Freaker USA

Ok.. so in no way am I trying to get anyone to donate money or spread the word... (however, if you choose to--that's your call!).... But lately, these videos have been going around Facebook via people from my hometown... and I just had to share.

I grew up with this kid. Actually... he's a couple of years younger than me... but I attended bible study, concerts and many a music festival with him (and many others). (He would not want me to share any of those stories!!!). I have to be honest... he was quite the annoying squirt growing up. And it wasn't until he got out of high school that I could actually tolerate him! HAHA! But I just wanted to share his budding empire (or so he hopes). I think he's put together some clever little videos! I wish him all the best--and I must say... if I drank out of bottles... I'd buy a Freaker.

Why Did the Spider Cross the Road?

... Oh, that's right... it DIDN'T!
I stepped on it before it could get even halfway across.

Nasty Giant Grossness, it was!

YUCK!!

Oh a brighter note... we finally had a wonderfully nice day! It's supposed to storm later... so while the sun was still out, El and I went for a walk! The wind was pretty strong... but I was definitely sweating by the time we made it back, so the wind was appreciated! It was so nice to get out and do some walking. When I was pregnant, I was SO tired all of the time that I didn't want to do ANYTHING! Hopefully we'll have more nice days to come (and encounter less gigantic spiders on our walks! YUCK!).

Doesn't Eloise look so cute in her hat from Aunt Katy?? :) Heehee!

New Header

Ok--So this Blog Header isn't from The Paper Mama... I kind of switched my giveaway prize option to have her fix a photo for me... So... I figured I would let you know that! I am hoping to get my photo fixed soon... but unfortunately, I am having a problem getting it from my wedding photographer in a bigger file. (It's a pic from my wedding, if you couldn't tell). Not sure what the malfunction is on getting it emailed to me(?). Oh well.

My sister made my new header (Thanks!!)... but I'm hoping to have time to try to design my own at some point!

Have a great weekend!

A Special Request

We just found out this afternoon that my
father in law has Esophageal Cancer.
He is otherwise a healthy 62 year old...
so the doctor is optimistic about
treatment as long as the cancer hasn't spread.
He'll be getting more tests to determine that
within the next week or so.

It's been quite an emotional journey so far
for our family as we have waited to get
blood work and test results.

You never can quite understand until it
affects someone in your own life...
your own family.

It's scary.

I know that my father in law is a fighter though...
and he wants to watch Eloise grow up.
So he will do what he can to get past this.
And we'll be there right along with him.

PLEASE... keep us all in your prayers!
Pray for the comfort and strength for
him and our family as we deal with the unknowns.
And pray that it hasn't spread so
that surgery can take place
to kick this cancer in the butt!!

I HATE CANCER!

WOO HOO!!

I am so excited!
I won a giveaway over at Mamma Town's Blog!
My prize... a new blog header!
I have been wanting a new one..
so this is just PERFECT!
Be on the look out for the fabulous change!!

Spare Time

Days run together... which turn into weeks... and I am left wondering where the time went. Especially the spare time that I once used to enjoy so much! There is really no such thing as "spare time" these days... but every time I see the smiling face of my little girl, I don't even care. Moments with her are more precious than any other thing I could be doing. Which is why the dishes are still sitting in the sink to be washed... and the towels are in the laundry basket to be folded. The only reason I am on the computer, to be honest, is that I was snuggling this sweet little thing...


...and just HAD to tear myself away to use the bathroom! HAHA!

I have been having much more success than previously mentioned when it comes to breastfeeding (hallelujah!!!)... and I am now enjoying the time nursing Eloise while I take in a good book.


And when Cory comes home from work... and we aren't on the floor with the dog and/or baby... I get a few moments of free time (this does not qualify as "spare time"--haha) to work on some of my own little projects...


I love stationery and snail mail... so making my own envelopes has made for some fun letter writing/sending!! It's taken me awhile to get this many done--since I do it in bits and pieces... but I get satisfaction out of my work and I am thankful that Cory knows that I still need a little bit of a creative outlet!!

Eloise is starting to wake up... so once again, I am off!!

Happy Wednesday!!

A Lovely Surprise!

I love mail.

I absolutely love opening the mailbox to find a card or letter... or even better... a package!!

Yesterday was one of those special days where my mailbox was graced with a surprise package... and boy, was I excited!!

The lovely Lara from over at Sam Harvey was assigned to me for a blog swap last year. We were to send each other stationery type items in that particular swap. Little did I know that I was in for a much greater swap than I ever imagined!! Go HERE to see what I got!

Well, yesterday... out of the blue... I got another package from Lara. Not only is she beautiful and talented... she is very generous! Look what she sent me!!! (For no other reason than she is AWESOME!)


I am totally thrilled! She has her own handbag company (Sam Harvey)... and they are total quality and style! I just could not believe that she graced me with another wonderful bag! Amazing!

(Yes, I am not really "styling" with my plaid shirt... but oh well!
The bag looks good, at least!! And... I apologize that the
picture was taken in the bathroom... I gotta go where the mirror is!)

THANK YOU (once again!) LARA!!!
You are so kind!

**Please check out Lara's bags... they are total amazingness!**
SAM HARVEY BAGS