I'm Having a Party

I know, I've said it over and over... I hate parties and I know you all feel the same way, but I went to this book party thinking I could buy a cheap book and be done but there were only two other people there and I felt bad and... So, since I didn't have the money I would have liked to spend to help her have a great party I signed up to host a party instead (I would have had to spend $100+ to match what signing up for a party did). I know... stinking bleeding heart. Sometimes I really wish I had a spine! Basically, please don't feel obligated, but if you'd like to here is the link to my online show (you are also invited to the actual party if you'd like to come... Tues, Feb. 12th at 7:00 p.m. @ my house). If the link doesn't work go to: www. ubah.com/b2711 and click on the flashing "enter bookstore here" button and then look at the "Active eShows" list on the right side. My name is there... just click on it... you can browse and dream and shop to your hearts content. I don't know if you've heard of Usborne Books before, but they are nice books. Pricey, but nice. Something I learned at the party is that the books have a lifetime warranty... no matter what your kids do to them you can get them replaced for half-price. That's not t0o bad. Anyhow, you know me and my love for books. I wish books were free. I think they should be. I think the library should carry all of the cool books I saw (and wanted to get my guys) in the stinking catalog. Yep, that about sums it up! Enjoy the Journey!

And We Have a Winner

Congratulations, Jana! You are now the proud owner of eight Pier 1 plates. I'll bring them right over. Thanks for keeping it easy for me! Enjoy!

My First Give-Away

In an attempt to de-clutter my life I've decided that if there is something here that I don't "love" anymore I am getting rid of it. Regardless of how much I paid for it. So, with that said... I've got eight plates from Pier 1 Imports that I thought I loved once and have since decided that maybe someone else could love them more. Here is a photo:

I think the colors came through fairly accurate. They're cream (but no yellow tones), with a red'ish brown antiquing that could possibly be called brick. They are the 11" diameter dinner plates. Four of the plates have been used and have a few small chips. The other four, as you can see, are still wrapped from when I bought them 3+ years ago. So, if you have red kitchens/ dining rooms or would just like eight matching plates, let me know and they're yours... next time I see you!

Enjoy the Journey

Pesto...Yum!

I love pesto! I made pesto! The guys of the house did not like pesto. Bummer. I have a basil plant growing in my kitchen window and about two months ago it finally had enough leaves to make pesto. I cut it way back and mixed up the pesto but the smell wasn't so good so I had to store it until last night (I'm finally past the "that doesn't smell so good... I can't eat it" stage). We had ravioli with pesto sauce... actually, I had ravioli with pesto sauce. The little men had ravioli plain with a little pile of pesto at the side of their plate that they tasted but didn't like. *B* had just plain ravioli. I don't even know if he tasted the stuff. So, for the pesto lovers out there. Don't hassle with making it yourself. Go to Pier 49 and get it on the Embarcadero pizza (don't forget the artichoke hearts)! Or, go to Pasta Factory and get pesto on your build your own lunch special (don't get the creamy pesto... YUCK)! Or, go to the Pizza Factory and get the Gusto pizza (leave off the squashes and red onion and add the artichoke hearts... I think. It's been a while. I prefer the Embarcadero at Pier 49). Or, you can purchase small jars of pesto sauce at grocery stores, but if no one else is going to eat it... I don't know what the shelf life is once the seal is broken. It might not be worth it. I guess if you weren't crazy like me and thought you had to grow the basil in your kitchen window and just splurged on fresh basil it wouldn't be such a big hassle... hmm... still probably not worth it since I would have to throw most of it out unless I ate pesto every day for two weeks (that could do more damage than good). And now, the point of this rampage... I made my own pesto and ate it. Cross another one off the list. Enjoy the Journey! P.S. I just found that you can download the instructions to the "Greatest Love Story Ever Told" book. It has some prompts for telling your story. Click here to see it! Enjoy!

It's Official.

I mailed my hair today. I can say I've done one good thing in the world. So, I'm all alone tonight. *B* broke one of his fillings out so he went to the dentist in Cedar to get that fixed this afternoon. He figured that since he was going he might as well take us all and stay the night so he could go ice fishing with grandpa tomorrow. That would have been fine except I am singing in a women's choir for our stake women's conference and the practices are at the worst time possible... every Saturday from 11:00-12:00. Our dear neighbor Lil is the director and she has so much to do and so little time and they never go anywhere so that is really a great time for her. I won't complain though... it means I am home alone. I had Cafe Rio chicken enchiladas for dinner, and I've got a movie, Stardust, that Melissa told me was really good, and I bought some Rocky Road ice cream to make a mock milkshake. I love me some rocky road with milk in it! I have a few things to answer from past posts...

1. Belle asked how to create a link (Belle, I can't read your blog anymore! What's up?): just highlight the text you want to link up, i.e. if I wanted to give you all info on the movie Stardust I would highlight Stardust and then up in the tool bar there is a green earth with a chain link on it... click that and it will open up a box to type the address fo what you want to link to. I usually open up a tab and go to the sight I want to link so I can just copy and paste the address it's lots faster and there's less chance of typo's. It's facil!
2. *B* loves my hair and loves even more that I don't get mad at him anymore for laying on it/pulling it. I've chopped it off twice before now, so he knows it grows fast and knows just as well as I do that I probably will never make it to the salon to get it cut again anytime in the next three years so he's smart to just let me be happy with it... if that's what he's doing!

And that's it. I'm thinking about taking an online class, the greatest love story ever told, about you and your significant other... I could really use some prompts (if you check out the link just know that I am only interested in the class, not the kit... I'm still not going to be a scrapbooker any time soon). I'm cheap though, if any of you have great prompts that would help me tell our story (and even ones that *B* can use... I'd like us to do it together) let me know. I'd like to keep my money in my pocket, but I also want to make my life as simple as possible... do less you know! Maria inspired me to read back in my journal to find *B* sad to say there is little of him there, but I'm glad for what is. I need to document the rest before it's gone forever. I swear I am just like my mother (who says she can't remember anything from our childhood... man that really ticks me off)! So ladies, write down your stories!

Enjoy the Journey!

So... Basketball...

Yep, I played basketball last night. I am the coach/coordinator for our ward and therefore am obligated to play. I hate dread it. It has been a long time for me, and last year we had no subs and I thought I would keel over from a heart attack every time we played. This year I have exercised twice in the last four months (on Thursday of last week and Tuesday of this) and honestly, I'm in no shape to play basketball... even if it's just women's church ball. I truly think that is worse. I was trying to explain my dread to *B* and he just didn't get it. Seriously, is there anything more frustrating than just running back and forth from one end of the court to the other? I didn't think so! And now, the truth: it wasn't as bad as I expected. I had them combine us with another ward in the hopes that we would have subs and we ended up with eight players. Fun? I wouldn't go that far. Tolerable at best. Cross another one off my list (well, almost). As some of you already know, I've cut my hair off. Approx. 12" is sitting in my window sill waiting to be sent to locks of love. When the sending part is done I'll cross it off. I attempted to take a self-portrait today so you could all see it... of course, little man #2 had to be part of it... open mouth and all. Enjoy the Journey!

Cross One off The List

So, I finally printed off a copy of my list so I would be looking at it regularly (every day) and it's helping. Today I get to cross off the whole wheat pancake recipe... yes, I realize that it also says waffle, but I'm going to cross off the pancake part and feel good about it dang it! I tried the recipe in the waffle maker and it worked okay. I'll still play with that and eventually I'll get to cross off the waffle part to, but for now, wahoo for me! For those who would like to try the recipe, I got it from my friend Melissa and it is easy and yummy and best of all, it really is whole wheat. As in, scoop whole wheat kernels out of your food storage bucket, whole wheat (but don't be scared...you don't have to grind it, this is done in the blender). Finally, a use for all that wheat they tell us to get!

And that's it (please ignore my typos)! I just mixed up the dry "add" ingredients and had the eggs and oil ready then added them to the blender the last 30 sec. or so to mix them in. It worked out really well and the boys are loving them. They had them for breakfast and now are having them again for lunch. It's a large recipe... you shouldn't need to double it unless you're making a whole bunch and even then you'd probably have to do two batches because of the size of most blenders. I love it! Enjoy!

Enjoying the Journey

P.S... does anyone know how to convert a pancake recipe to a waffle recipe?

A Few Changes

This is a re-posting of my birthday list. I've got to make a few changes... I've got to be more realistic!

1. Do less.
2. Attend the temple monthly.
3. Study diligently
4. Pray earnestly.
5. Serve willingly.
6. Rejoice.
7. Ponder daily the question, "Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch our family today?”
8. Write it down .
9. Don’t leave for tomorrow what you can do today .
10. Embrace being a nurturer.
11. Get rid of my clutter.
12. Paint a picture.
13. Frame it.
14. Hang it in my house.
15. Take a photograph every day.
16. Display pictures of my family.
17. Re-paint the upstairs bathroom.
18. Run in the New Year midnight run exercise regularly.
19. Take the boys to Sea World.
20. Go to a Farmer’s Market.
21. Make a collage/scrapbook page per week yeah, so I don't scrapbook right now... instead I'm going to donate 12" to Locks of Love.
22. Weekly Yoga class.
23. Perfect a whole wheat waffle/pancake recipe.
24. Make my own Pesto.
25. Put up all of my Christmas trees before Dec. 1 enjoy the fact that I got a tree up at all.
26. Get our year supply caught up.
27. Make out at the lake.
28. Chalk paint on the sidewalk with the boys.
29. Write down the stories of my life.
30. Lose 31 lbs. keep baby weight under 31 lbs.
31. Enjoy the journey.

I guess that even though some of the things are slightly unrealistic (mostly by using the word "daily") they are still worthy things to do so I will leave them and just be happy with what I do and not stress if it doesn't happen daily. I've just gotten off to kind of a slow start... what with my sleeping half of the day, etc. Things are definately looking up though!

Enjoying the Journey!