Oh Kaylin, you're so funny!

So Kaylin is scheduled to have surgery on Feb. 6th to correct her nostrils. Her nostrils are not symmetrical and her surgeon likes to fix this before 1st grade, because that is when teasing tends to start. At any rate, we were looking through photo albums of when she was a baby so she could see her before and after pictures from her other surgeries. We also have pictures of her laying in the bed in her recovery room. So as we're looking through the pictures she turns to me and says, "How old were you mommy? You look so young!" Thanks, kid, thanks! I was only 21, which is young, but man, I don't feel like I look that much older. I mean, I do look very young in these pics, but dang kid!

1 week until Jonathan is 2...

and he is growing by leaps and bounds!



Here is Jonathan's cutest new development - Every time we say, "I love you" he tells us, "I love you more!" So cute! Oh, except the one time we were out looking at Christmas lights and I tried to show Matt & Chera - his response that time was, "Oh brudder!" Of course, every time you try to show off a new "talent" my kids have a knack for making me look like a liar! We are at the age where he is just exploding with development. New words every time we turn around, he'll repeat any thing that is said, so we have to watch it!



We decided to just have a family birthday party this year. With all of us passing around a stomach bug, and then the flu and sinus infections I don't have the energy to host a birthday party. So, this year it'll just be family at the house. Plus, I'm fairly certain we are at our max capacity for toys. Plus, we'll get our birthday party fix the following weekend when we have 2 birthday parties for 3 different boys!

How was your Christmas?

We had a wonderful Christmas! Jonathan had the flu and felt horrible on Christmas morning, so he mostly laid on my lap while I opened his presents for him. Because of that, we don't have very many pictures, but that's ok.

We had everyone over for dinner at our house on Christmas Eve. My parents, Jeremy's dad & step-mom, Uncle Justin, his girlfriend Laura, Aunt Kayla, and her boyfriend David - who I think Kaylin has a crush on! There were 12 of us and it was lots of fun. We had lots of yummy food and swapped presents. Later that night Matt & Chera came over and we did our gifts with them as well. Then it was time to put the kids to bed and wrap gifts. We made sure to put out gingerbread cookies for Santa that Kaylin and Mimi made, carrots for the reindeer, as well as Reindeer food that we mixed up real quick from oats, colored sugar & cinnamon. Kaylin mixed up a batch at school, but she had left it at Mimi & Papa's house accidently. The kids were in bed and asleep before 9. While that is normal for Jonathan, his bedtime is 7:30, it showed us how tired Kaylin was. Jeremy and I quickly wrapped the gifts from us, then set out the gifts from Santa (those aren't wrapped!) and then Jeremy went over to Matt's house to play some rockband and I climbed in bed for sleep, as I felt horrible.

Before I climbed in bed on Christmas Eve I mixed up some dough for cinnamon rolls for breakfast Christmas morning. It was really easy! I just put all the ingredients in my bread machine, turned it on and it did all the kneading and rising work for me. When it finished I rolled it out and put the butter, cinnamon and sugar on it, sliced it into rolls and then stuck it in the fridge to wait until morning. I think we are going to make this our traditional breakfast. When I was growing up my mom always did a breakfast casserole but for some reason Jeremy is not a fan. Not just of the family recipe, but of breakfast casseroles in general, so I was on a mission to find something else. The cinnamon rolls seemed to work!

The kids slept until a little past 8 am! Can you believe it?! Kaylin must have been tired, as she slept almost 12 hours. I stuck the cinnamon rolls in the oven to bake while we opened presents. By the time we were done they were as well and we all enjoyed them while watching the Disney Christmas parade. Then we napped on and off all morning/afternoon - we were all feeling under the weather, except for Jeremy who brought it home in the first place, he was already healthy again.

Kaylin has asked me to take her ice skating over the school break, so we'll be doing that one day this week. I haven't been ice skating in many many years and Kaylin has never been. I hope I can keep us in an upright position! We were going to leave Jonathan with Mimi & Papa and have Jeremy come with us, but he says he's never been ice skating and I really don't think I can teach/hold up two people when I haven't been in so long, so we're just going to go with the two of us on a day Jeremy is at work.

Kaylin cracks me up!!!

She is playing with a calculator pretending it's her cell phone. She just got 3 text messages in a row - her friend Star asking when she was coming to her house, her friend Evy telling her she can come over to her house and her friend Rebecca asking if she was feeling ok - and then she was talking on the phone to her friend Rebecca and her friend Jenna beeped in. When she "hung up" she said, "oh man, two calls at the same time! That's crazy!"

I was going to get up and get the video camera but I knew she would stop if I got it out. Maybe she'll do it again soon and I can sneek some video.

Now, we're going to go make some fudge and some chocolate gooey butter cookies for the neighbors.

Things I have done.

Things I have done are in bold 

1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band.
4. Visited Hawaii.
5. Watched a meteor shower.
6. Given more than you can afford to charity.
7. Been to Disneyland/world.
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sang a solo.
11. Bungee jumped.
12. Visited Paris.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
15. Adopted a child.
16. Had food poisoning.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.
20. Slept on an overnight train.
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Hitch hiked.
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill.
24. Built a snow fort.
25. Held a lamb.
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Run a Marathon.
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice.
29. Seen a total eclipse.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Hit a home run.
32. Been on a cruise.
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
35. Seen an Amish community.
36. Taught yourself a new language.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.
39. Gone rock climbing.
40. Seen Michelangelo's David.
41. Sung karaoke.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant.
44. Visited Africa.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
46. Been transported in an ambulance.
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing.
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person.
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling.
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud.
54. Gone to a drive-in theater.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China.
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class.
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Got flowers for no reason.
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check.
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.
71. Eaten Caviar.
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square.
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited the White House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
88. Had chickenpox.
89. Saved someone's life.
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous.
92. Joined a book club.
93. Lost a loved one.
94. Had a baby.
95. Seen the Alamo in person.
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit.
98. Owned a cell phone.
99. Been stung by a bee.

Family pictures

We got our family pictures back, I picked out my favorites and our Christmas cards are done! I won't leave you in the dark any longer, here they are...I hope you all enjoy them as much as we do.

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Crazy Eights

This looked fun -

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:

1. One Tree Hill
   
2. Private Practice
3. Lipstick Jungle
   
4. Army Wives
   
5. CSI Vegas & NY
   
6. Desperate Housewives
   
7. Without A Trace
   
8. 90210/Grey's Anatomy (tie)
   

8 Favorite Restaraunts:

1. The Melting Pot
   
2. Panera
3. McAllister's
   
4. Jinbeh/East Ocean/Oishi (really, any sushi restaurant will do)
   
5. Cheesecake Factory
6. Pei Wei/PF Chang’s
7. JR's
8. In-N-Out (OMG it's been too long!)
   

8 Things that Happened Today:

1. Took Kaylin to school
   
2. Took Jonathan to school
   
3. Called around to several vets
   
4. Made Bella's spay appointment (Monday!)
   
5. Finished 2 candle orders
   
6. Made dinner
   
7. Put the kids to bed
   
8. Painted my toenails
   

8 Things I Look Forward To:

1. Seeing our family pictures that were taken last weekend!
   
2. Jeremy's company party (Saturday!)
3. The holidays
4. Watching the kids on Christmas morning
   
5. Disney on Ice (Saturday after Thanksgiving)
6. Dinner with HS girlfriends
7. Christmas parties
   
8. My Birthday!
   

8 Things on My Wishlist:

1. Dutch Oven
   
2. Gift cards
   
3. Lenses for my Rebel
   
4. Canon SD880 IS
   
5. New floors/Carpet cleaned
   
6. New kitchen countertops
   
7. A date night with my husband
   
8. Clean and organized house
   

Tag, you’re it!

Menu Plan Monday

Sunday: Salisbury steak from Dinner Station
Monday: Creamy Almond Chicken over rice (DS)
Tuesday: Chicken Fried Rice (DS)
Wednesday: Taco Soup
Thursday: Pancakes with Scrambled Eggs & Orange Juice
Friday: Homemade Pizza
Saturday: Jeremy's company party - so whatever the Hyatt Regency @ Reunion Tower decides to serve us.

Taco Soup
1 lb. Ground beef, browned
1 can rotel
1 can regular diced tomatoes
1 can black beans or pinto beans
1 can chili beans
1 pkg ranch dressing mix
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 bag frozen corn
1 bag frozen green beans
2 cans of water

1. Brown ground beef. Add taco seasoning to ground beef following directions on seasoning packet.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large soup pot or crockpot. Also add roughly 2 cans of water to the pot, until it's of the consistency you want your soup to be.
3. Cook in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or on stove until warm throughout.
You could also use canned veggies with this, I just prefer using frozen veggies.

Family picture time!

Today we had family pictures taken by my friend ReJana, and also a few shots with Edward both of Bludoor Studios. Santa Claus was there, which made Kaylin go all shy at first, but once she warmed up she was cuddling up to him, winking at him and being her normal self and just hamming it up! Jonathan on the other hand, took things very seriously. I think we only got 2 or 3 smiles out of him the entire time. I will be sure to post some as soon as possible. Until then, here is a sneak peek from a session they had last year, with cute little Macie, ReJana & Mike's daughter. Isn't that a great Santa?!

Pumpkin carving and Pumpkin Express field trip

We went over to our friend's house and had a pumpkin carving party the weekend before Halloween, this is what we ended up with.

From October 2008

I carved the SMILE pumpkin, Matt carved Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Chera carved Elvis, and Jeremy carved the one on the end, I don't remember what it was titled. We had fun and were shocked by how good they turned out.

Every year the Mother's Day Out program takes the kids on a field trip to a local pumpkin patch. You can see last year's pictures here. Well, since Kaylin is in Kindergarten now we tried to find time to make the trip as a family on our own and with Jeremy's work schedule and our regular lives, we were just too busy. So, Kaylin and Jeremy didn't get to enjoy the pumpkin patch this year. Jonathan and I did though. Though I think Jonathan could really have not cared less. He stayed by my side most of the time and then froze the other half of the time.
Jonathan with his class.

From October 2008

Jonathan and mommy on the train. You can see the start of my stye in my left eye in this picture. Fun!

From October 2008

Trying to get another class picture.

From October 2008

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween...

We had a very low key one over here. We started the night out with passing out candy - Kaylin, Jonathan and I - until Jeremy got home from work to take them out trick-or-treating. Or, that was the plan. Jonathan fell asleep before Jeremy got home. Not a big surprise seeing as he goes to bed at 7:30 and Jeremy normally gets home between 7 and 7:30, but we thought we could keep him up an extra half hour or so to hit 3-4 houses, neighbors we're friends with. Nope, he couldn't last. So, we put him to bed and Jeremy and "Uncle Matt" (Jeremy's best friend that lives one street over) took Kaylin trick-or-treating while I passed out candy. They were gone not much more than an hour, so she didn't end up with a whole lot of candy, thankfully. I didn't even get any pictures snapped of her in her Hannah Montana costume. I did, however, take a picture earlier on Friday at her school costume parade. She wanted to wear one of her dress up costumes for that, for whatever reason. They weren't allowed to actually wear the costume to school and come to find out, they all had to put the costume on over their clothes, so it looks a little goofy. Also, the Kindergarten classes and first graders are the only ones that participate.

From October 2008

From October 2008

Oh well, they enjoyed themselves, and that's what matters!

Newest addition to our family

On Monday night Jeremy brought home a surprise. I was sitting there watching TV and he came in and said something to me to make me turn around. And he was holding this precious little thing.

From October 2008

We named her Bella. Technically, Jeremy named her Bella, and the rest of us have just kinda gone with it. She is definitely a daddy's girl. Up until last night she has slept with Jeremy every night. I had to put a stop to that last night because Jonathan wasn't feeling well and kept waking up every few hours. I was entirely too tired to continue to deal with the up and down, so I just let him lay in our bed for about an hour. He's feeling much better this morning, thank goodness!

Anyway, the kids just love her to pieces. Kaylin has asked me to bring her to school when I pick her up every day. Jonathan wants to hold her on the ride there and back, plus carry her when we actually get Kaylin (I don't wait in the carpool line, I park and walk to pick her up. It's faster.) Jeremy is obviously smitten with her, since he normally isn't a big fan of dogs and is always loving on her and letting her sleep with him! And I love her, and will love her that much more when we get her potty trained

Win a Goodmama!

This post is for my friends Dianthe, Jess, Lily & Kristi - because, well, they are the only ones I know (besides Jenna) who cloth diaper.

Jenna won the weekly Goodmama photo contest and is giving away a Fire Crew print one-size diaper, in honor of October being National Fire Prevention month. Go to her blog to enter, entries will be accepted until October 30, 2008 at 12:00pm.

School pictures & updates

We are now in the second six weeks of Kindergarten. That means that we had a parent teacher conference with Kaylin's teacher this week. She said Kaylin is doing awesome. She excels in writing, letter/sound recognition, and sight word recognition/writing (I, a, me, the, etc. - words used a lot in first readers). Her teacher described her as very motherly and caring, which I obviously already knew. She told us several stories as examples - as a class they were asked to clean up and put away the things they were working on, a little boy at her table/on her team put everything but his scissors up and had them out and playing with them. Kaylin gently took the scissors from him and put them in the bin and told him, "Ms. G__ said we need to put our things away." Her teacher said the little boy let her do this and didn't resist at all or cause a scene, which she thought would have been the case if she'd have done the same thing. The other story was during an assembly they had with a puppeteer. Everyone was clapping but the little boy sitting kitty-corner to her. Again, she gently touched his arm and told him, "Clap, ___, clap...like this," and demonstrated and he started clapping. Yep, sounds just like my little mama. She's been saying for the last 2 years that she wants to be a music teacher when she grows up and her teacher said, before I said anything about Kaylin wanting to be a teacher, "she'd make a great teacher." So, I guess we'll see if that pans out in about 12 years.

We also got her school picture back. The picture was taken the day she was sent home with an ear infection. Her teacher told me she started crying as soon as pictures were done. That night, her ear drum ruptured, so it had to have been a pretty nasty ear infection considering she's had so many in her short little life and this one came on so fast and ended with the rupture. At any rate, her smile says she doesn't want to be smiling, but other than that, given the circumstances, I think it's a darn good picture.

From September 2008

Jonathan also had school pictures taken at Mother's Day Out.

From September 2008

His vocabulary is just exploding every day. We have full on phrases now. Things like, "I got it!" My favorite word he says is shoes, because the O is drawn out, so it sounds like shooooues, a lot like you. He must think putting your shoes on is a game, because every time he says shoes, Jeremy and I just repeat it over and over just to hear him say it again. And we all end up laughing. He also loves to bring everyone their shoes if he thinks it's time to go somewhere. He'll plop your shoes down in front of you and demand, "shoooues on!"

Things have been busy, but we're still having lots of fun around here!

Yummy pizza!

Kaylin has been asking for pizza for dinner the last few nights. I've told her no, because I've had certain things defrosted in mind for dinner. You know me and my menu plans. Well today, I forgot to take something out (that reminds me, need to take out tomorrow's dinner!) and of course, she once again asked for pizza. A few weeks ago, I found a wonderful pizza dough recipe on Amy's blog. I checked the pantry and when I saw we had all the ingredients I decided to make it for dinner. It turned out really yummy, so I knew it was a keeper. Since we still have all the ingredients on hand, and I'm a dope that forgot to take out dinner, I decided I'd be the nice mommy tonight and make pizza for dinner. Once again, this recipe did not fail us. Kaylin got her pizza fix, I replaced 1/2 cup with whole wheat flour and the kids and Jeremy were none the wiser, and we had a yummy, semi-healthy (as far as pizza is concerned) dinner! And for a lot cheaper than if we had ordered out. This pizza actually was on our menu plan this week, but not until Friday, so I'll just move tonight's planned dinner to Friday night and everyone is happy.

Jonathan the rockstar!

Jonathan and Kaylin love putting on shows for us by dancing, singing, "playing guitar," etc. I'm not sharing the video that includes Kaylin because she's in just her panties, but you can hear her in the background.

My Quirks

I have been TAGGED!
Here are the rules:
1. Link back to the person who tagged you: Jess and Heather
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking to them
5. Leave a comment for each tagged blogger to let them know that they have been tagged

6 Quirks about me..

1. I have to arrange the dishwasher in a certain order. If Jeremy loads it and doesn't do it in that order, I will pull things out and replace them the way I want.

2. I don't like tomatoes, but I will eat ketchup, tomato sauce, salsa, etc.

3. If I'm having pancakes or waffles with my eggs, I'll put syrup on my eggs. (come to think of it, I have a LOT of food quirks)

4. I don't like plain water unless I am just dying of thirst. I need lemon, lime or something with it. I prefer my water in the form of iced tea if you want to get technical.

5. I cannot stand my toe nails having any length to them. I have to cut or file them down right away if they go beyond my "safe" point.

6. I am OCD about clean hands. To the point where if Jonathan gets something on his hands he immediately comes to me with his hands up for me to wipe them clean. He about lost his mind when we hand to paint his hands for handprints on a plate we made last week!

I am tagging:
Robyn
Jenna
Kristi
Heather M.
Kristin
Carrie

Kaylin's first day of Kindergarten

For a treat after her first day, I will pick her up with a diet blackberry sprite from Sonic (I got her hooked, too!) and the new Little Mermaid movie.

Menu Plan Monday

This Menu Plan Monday is special. This week, Kaylin starts kindergarten, so it is important that I get back on track with menu planning, to make school nights easier on me and, in turn, everyone else.

Monday : Lemon pepper chicken sandwiches & grilled corn on the cob

Tuesday : Cheeseburgers on the grill and baked beans

Wednesday : Farfalle with zucchini *will sub mushrooms for tomatoes and add summer squash that we need to use up

Thursday : Sandwiches or McDonald's *it's Jonathan's Mother's Day Out Meet the Teacher night

Friday : Simple Shrimp Stir-fry with rice

Saturday : Jalapeño tilapia & broccoli

Sunday : Chicken Marsala with pasta

Back to School shopping and Mommy and Kaylin time

This weekend was tax-free weekend in Texas. Some of the stores I normally shop at for the kids were running additional sales on top of that, so we took advantage and got some new clothes for Kaylin. I got some new clothes, too, as I will start substitute teaching this year.

We ended up with a lot from Old Navy, in addition to no tax they were having a sale of 40% off some of their kids stuff, plus 20% off if you used your Old Navy account. So, we both got several outfits from there.

At first, Kaylin didn't want to go shopping with me. Later on, she ended up really enjoying it and picked out the majority of what we bought for her. When the consignment sales start up here in the next few weeks, I will buy both kids all new jeans and several basics for winter and then they won't need anything until the stores start marking things down to bring the spring things in. She was very particular about wanting a yellow shirt and we never were able to find one in her size after checking 3 different stores.

Saturday evening we went to the Highland Village Balloon Festival with our friends Matt & Chera. Kaylin had a ball. Jonathan loved the glow necklaces and the bounce house. Kaylin rode down a big blow up slide, bounced high on a trampoline, and rode in a small ferris wheel type ride. There was also a booth in the arts & crafts tent where they were making fabric flip flops for $10 and she wanted to do that, but I told her we could do that at home. So, we'll need to go buy some fabric and make those soon.

Sunday was our special day. Since Jeremy works so much and doesn't get to spend a lot of time with the kids, Kaylin calls special Jeremy and Kaylin days "Daddy time," but Sunday was "Mommy time." The plan was to take her to see Kit Kittredge: An American Girl movie, but we found out that morning that the closest theater was in Frisco, which is almost an hour away from us. I figured we could still do it, since she was looking forward to it. Well, that ended up getting "taken away" because she had problems listening that morning. So, we had lunch at McDonald's (her choice) and walked around an outdoor mall, which was really nice as the weather here this weekend was gorgeous. Bought her some more clothes at The Children's Place, my absolute favorite place to shop for the kids!

This morning was my substitute orientation. I am now officially a sub in the same district we live in and Kaylin's school is in. Eventually, I will get my teacher certification - am just not sure when I will start that process.

Back to School

Well, only 12 days until Kaylin starts Kindergarten! Today she got a haircut to get her ready and tomorrow we'll go clothes shopping, as this weekend is tax free weekend in Texas.

Here are some pictures of her hair cut. She only had about 2 inches cut from it, but since she has curly hair, it always looks like more than that! They aren't the best quality photos either, as they were taken on a cell phone, but they show the cut well enough which was the whole point of the picture.


As one of my friends pointed out, all her swimming this summer has made her so tan and blonde! Just look at those natural highlights! Lucky girl. My friend Chris also said that Kaylin would probably have 5 boyfriends by the end of the first week. All I have to say about that is - not if they know what's good for them .

Home from Disney World

Well, we survived! We made it home from Disney World in one piece. We've already talked about a return visit and I'm gunning for a visit to Disneyland next time. I'd love to be able to share with the kids where I grew up.

The trip was everything Kaylin imagined and more. Her highlights were meeting Ariel, breakfast with Mickey, Pluto, Lilo & Stitch, the fireworks & parade at Magic Kingdom and of course, hanging out with her cousins. Though, I think she'd have been perfectly content if we'd simply flown to Florida just to meet Ariel. She absolutely loved that! And to top it off, Kaylin was wearing a purple shirt that day, naturally, as it's her favorite color, but then Ariel offered up that it is also HER favorite color. Whew, Kaylin was just over the moon! Her reaction when she saw that the princesses were REAL PEOPLE was absolutely priceless. She knew that the other characters weren't "real" and were in costume, but when she saw her first princess and that it was a real live girl, not in costume, her jaw hit the floor. It was just too cute and I only wish I'd have been able to capture the look on her face with the camera.

Clicking on the album below will take you to the photo album with our pictures, including a few short videos of the Spectromagic parade and fireworks show at Magic Kingdom. This link will take you to our photopass pictures, taken by cast members of Disney World.

WDW 2008

Well, I need to get to bed. We just got home from seeing Dark Knight, I just wanted to make sure I updated this, as we've been home for almost a week now!

Ready for potty training already?

I think Jonathan may be gearing up to start potty training. It started with him "holding himself" while or after he had just pee'd, I'm not sure which. I just know he would alert me that way. Now, he'll just go ahead and remove the diaper and start crying/whining for me to change it. I am so not ready for this, but I know I'll need to follow his cues.

Kaylin was so easily potty trained that I've worried from day one about potty training Jonathan. For starters, I know that boys are harder. I've taught in potty training classrooms before, I've seen the differences first hand. I also know that Kaylin was abnormally easy in that she never really even had any accidents. Once she started taking her diaper off we started at home and soon after she moved up into the next room at school, where it was then scheduled into her day. If I remember correctly, she was also around this age.

So, I'll just have to follow Jonathan's cues and hope for the best!

Our Summer Fun list

On several other blogs moms have been posting their summer list of things they want to do over the summer. Things to cure the, "I'm bored!" I don't know that we will accomplish everything on our list, but I took a few from some lists I saw that I liked and I added some local attractions to ours. If any of you local moms want to join us, please let me know! You are more than welcome and we'd love the company! I plan on coming back to this post and editing the list when we have things we can cross off. We may not do everything I listed, but it will be fun to try!

• Go to the $1 movies.
• Library storytime.
• Plant a small garden.
• Make a fun lunch. Everyone be in charge of a part of it (ie: dessert, drinks, etc.) and take it to the park and eat and play Frisbee.
• Take some white T-shirts and decorate them outside.
• Have a party with BBQ, games, and ice cream
• Family bike rides.
• Make lemonade from lemons.
• Make popsicles.
• Go to a carnival in the evening.
• Go to the library in the morning and then sit under a tree reading in the afternoon.
• Cook dinner on the grill.
• Go get an ice cream.
• Make your own ice cream (in a bag).
• Visit a museum on a hot or rainy day.
• Use a sewing machine to make a doll or a doll's dress.
• Learn how to make a custom hair bow.
• Paint on a canvas.
• Paint on the sidewalk or driveway with ice.
• Play with your food.
• Catch butterflies.
• Pick berries @ Duck Creek.
• Make a pie or jam with said berries.
• Swing on swings.
• Have a water balloon fight.
• Host a teddy bear or favorite stuffed toy themed picnic.
• Go bowling.
• Go for a round of miniature golf.
• Make snow cones.
• Eat peaches.
• Go to the Heard Muesum.
• Fill up the wagon with the hose.
• Put a baby pool at the bottom of the slide.
• Blow bubbles.
• Watch a fireworks display.
• Have a bonfire.
• Attend an Independence Day parade.
• Play in the yard with the water hose on. Make rainbows.
• Swim!
• Build a fire pit and toast s'mores.
• Build-a-Bear.
• Sleep late.
• "Here's a fun craft. Buy inexpensive flip-flops and dress them up with fabric pieces. You start at one end and work your way to the middle, then do the other side. You take a piece of fabric about 7 inches long and 1 inch wide, fold it in half, wrap it around the strap, double tie it, and there you are! You try to get them as close together as you can. My daughter loves doing this. It's easy, fun, time-consuming, and really makes a cute pair of flip-flops in any color you'd like. Great birthday party idea, too." -taken from an unpink life
• Feed the ducks at a pond.
• Have a tea party.
• Teach our children how to bake something of Mom's or Grandma's.
• Go to NRH20 or Hawaiian Falls.
• Drink an iced coffee.
• Have a drawing contest on the sidewalk with chalk.
• Make home-made play dough.
• Go to a farmer's market.
• Choose a new book at a local bookstore.
• Tint some shaving cream, spread it in a baking pan, and doodle or write words.
• Make strawberry freezer jam.
• Plan a camping trip to a state park.
• Go to Fossil Rim or Arbuckle Wilderness.
• Make homemade yogurt pops.
• Buy a disposable camera for the kids and let them record their favorite summertime fun.
• Have a bubble gum blowing contest.
• Pitch a tent in the backyard and have a "camp out".
• Visit a local farm and pick our own veggies.
• Have a treasure hunt.
• Go to the zoo.
• Learn to make jewelry.
• Visit a local public flower garden.
• Eat strawberries dipped in sugar.
• Bask in the sun. (wearing the proper SPF, of course)
• Picnic with a blanket on the kitchen floor on a rainy day.
• Go to the Aquarium.
• Make silly putty.
• Or slime.
• Star gaze.
• Have a "Spa Day" at home.
• Run through the sprinklers.
• Lay on a blanket, look up at the sky and try to figure out what the clouds look like (animals, etc.).
• Visit a local Children's Museum.
• Buy a cheap kiddie pool and sit in it while eating Popsicles.
• Play Marco Polo.
• Dance in the rain.
• Maintain our blog.
• Have a root beer float dessert night.
• Make homemade ice cream sandwiches.
• Take swimming and/or diving lessons.
• Make something pretty and refreshing to drink, with fun snacks in pretty bowls...enjoy.
• Pick out your favorite color of nail polish and sit out on the patio painting toes, giggling and just being.
• Build forts on a rainy day.
• Pack up a lunch and hit some local state parks.
• Wash the cars with daddy.
• Set up an Obsta-Cool Course.
• Have a pillow fight.
• Learn to french braid.
• Play dress-up.
• Make (and eat!) Crash Hot Potatoes.

Kaylin or Jonathan on the cover of Parents magazine?

So I submitted both kids pictures into this a while ago but I wasn't going to ask for "votes" or anything since they don't count towards the actual outcome of the winner. But then, Goodyblog went and posted this today, so I figured what the heck! Clicking below should take you to the two galleries (one for each kid) but if it doesn't, please let me know so I can fix the link!


Vote for my kid!

7 songs meme

Several of my friends have been doing this meme and tagged me. So, here are my answers.
Here is the full Meme:
You've been tagged. List the seven songs that you most closely tie to a specific memory. These songs do not have to represent your happiest memories, good memories, or even strongest memories… The connection between the memory and the song is what you should use to determine what fits the list. These songs, when you hear them, ABSOLUTELY force you to recall a specific person, time, or event. GO!

1. Good Riddance - Green Day (high school graduation)
2. I Will Remember You - Sarah McLachlan (I engraved a frame with some of the lyrics for someone before they left for college)
3. Shine - Collective Soul (my boyfriend in 7th grade dedicated this song to me on a local station)
4. Pop - *NSYNC (reminds me of the summer I worked their tour - really any song from the Pop Odyssey album does)
5. Heaven is a place on earth - Belinda Carlisle (Senior Prom)
6. Me and You - Kenny Chesney (Our first dance)
7. Bump - Kottonmouth Kings (Driving to Fort Worth with Karen)

I'm also supposed to tag 7 more people, but I'm pretty sure everyone has been tagged already. If you haven't and this looks like fun, go for it!

Swim Lessons

Here is the video of Kaylin's swim lessons, practicing her freestyle stroke. It was really windy that day so you hear a lot of wind in the camera.




And this video is of her floating and then swimming to the side.

Graduation video

Here's the video of Kaylin graduating preschool. At the end, you can see me give her a high five. I was down closer so I could get pictures. I think Jeremy is the one who took the video, and it took him awhile to figure out how to turn it on, so he missed her name.

Sweet baby boy

I just put Jonathan down for his nap and he pulled his paci out of his mouth to tell me "night night" as soon as I laid him down. He's never told me night night at nap before, although it is normal for him to tell us night night before bed. Before we gather up his blankey and paci I'll take him to Jeremy & Kaylin to tell them night night, or if Jeremy puts him to bed, he'll bring him to where I am to tell me night night. But, this was the first time he did it like this, and it just made my heart smile to know he took his paci out of his mouth just to tell me that, because as soon as I said it back, back the paci went in his mouth.

Awww, he did it again at bedtime. Only this time, he said, "Night night mama."

It's Summer...

and at our house, that means lots of time with the grill!

I'm basically putting this here so I'll always be able to find it and because I've received so many comments/emails on my Menu Plan Monday posts that I know you guys enjoy when I share recipes with you.

60 Cheap, Healthy Marinades

Ear infections

Blech! I have my first ear infection in years. Now I remember why the kids are so darn miserable when they get one. Good thing I had a stash of drops in practically every medicine cabinet in the house. And I already had a chiropractor appointment tomorrow, so I'm going to see if he'll also adjust my ear so it will drain properly. I've had him adjust the kids each time they've had an ear infection and it seems to work. They are back to normal the next day or so. At any rate, Jeremy got sick of my random shrieks of pain so he made me go to the doctor this afternoon. Two prescriptions for drops and I'm back home, typing this with my head sideways to let the pain drops work their magic before I attempt sleep with the help of my trusty heating pad.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Lemon Garlic Shrimp Skewers

Tuesday: General Tso's Chicken

Wednesday: Pulled Pork sandwiches

Thursday: Spicy Macaroni & Corn

Friday: Bourbon Chicken

Saturday: Leftovers or Eat out

Sunday: Mongolian Beef with brown rice

Kid updates

Jonathan seems to say a new word a day now. Every time we turn around he's repeating us. Some new ones that I can remember.
* all gah (all gone)
* cah-kee (cookie)
* ni-ni (night night)
* bye bye mimi (when my mom leaves or we leave their house)
* bye bye papa (when my dad leaves or we leave their house)
* mine! (he says this A LOT to Kaylin)
* He'll grab his nose if you ask him where it is
* He'll lift his shirt if you ask where his belly or belly button is
* If you ask if he's poopy he grabs his diaper and says something that starts with a P
* He loves turning the lights on and off for us and will say "on" and "ah" (that F is a tough sound!)

Kaylin is taking swimming lessons with Mr. Bob again this summer. Her lessons started on Monday and they spent Monday and Tuesday doing the things she learned last year. In Wednesdays class she learned the freestyle stroke and in today's lesson she learned the back stroke. Tomorrow I'll take my video camera get some video to post here.

Today, Jeremy and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. Jeremy brought Pei Wei home for dinner, so I didn't have to cook. Saturday my mom is watching the kids and we will go out to a local steakhouse and hopefully catch a movie or something else that we don't get to do often.

My current favorite lotions

I was lucky enough to receive samples of two new lotions and I have enjoyed using them so much, I figured I could share the wealth with you! I'll write an update on the kids in a later post.

Dove Cream Oil Lotion for extra dry skin. I love the smell of this lotion! I don't know what it is about it, but I just love the scent. I also like the way it makes my skin feel. My skin is very dry, so this didn't feel greasy to me at all because my skin just sucked it right up! It leaves my arms feeling nice and moisturized and not with a damp, sticky feeling that you get after using some lotions.

Aveeno Daily Moisturizing lotion with SPF 15 I use Aveeno Daily Moisturizing lotion on a regular basis after I get out of the shower, and throughout the day, so when I got invited to do a Bzz campaign on the new one, with added SPF, I was really excited! We all know we should wear sunscreen daily, but how many of us actually do? I know I don't. So, to know that I would always put this lotion on anyway, and know the sunscreen was already in there is was just an added bonus. I hate sticky and/or greasy lotions and this lotion doesn't have either of those traits. It also has natural colloidal oatmeal in it, which helps when my skin gets so dry that it's itchy.

I have 4 samples and $1 off coupons for the Aveeno lotion for anyone that is interested. If I am going to see you anytime soon and you want to try it out yourself, let me know!

It's finally here!

I've been waiting for this movie to come out since rumors started swirling right after the series ended on HBO. And my moment finally came. I went out with some girlfriends to see the premiere at 12:01 last night. We didn't get home until almost 3:30 am and dare I say, it was worth it! Best movie ever, but functioning on the 3.5 hours of sleep I got is not any fun at all and I woke up with a headache. I already want to see it again and absolutely cannot wait for it to come out on DVD so I can own it, along with seasons 1-3 & 6. Yes, I'm missing seasons 4 & 5 still. Need to remedy that too, while I'm at it!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: BBQ chicken, baked beans, coleslaw, fruit
Tuesday: Dinner Station Cheesy Brunch Bake and fruit
Wednesday: Baked Teriyaki Chicken (but I will use breasts) with frozen veggies
Thursday: BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad
Friday: Grilled pizza and salad
Saturday: Southwestern Steak, Corn, and Black bean wraps
Sunday: German pancakes with scrambled eggs

I also plan on making Crustless Strawberry Pie sometime this week. Unless I get a recipe for a different pie from my friend Meg before I go grocery shopping.
4 servings, 1 point per serving

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups boiling water
1 small pkg. sugar-free gelatin
**1 small pkg. sugar-free cook 'n serve vanilla pudding
1/4 cup cold water
4 cups sliced strawberries, no sugar added

Instructions

In medium microwave-proof bowl, comine gelatin and boiling water. Stir to dissolve.
In separate bowl, combine cold water and vanilla pudding. Stir until smooth. Add the gelatin mixture and mix well.
Microwave mixture until boiling (will look like a glaze.)
Cool to room temperature.
Pour glaze over berries. Mix gently. Pour into sprayed 9" pie pan. Chill until very firm. Top each serving with 2 t. fat-free whipped topping.

Special Notes

**Be sure to use cook 'n serve pudding, not instant.

HUGE picture update

So, I've uploaded a TON of pictures to our albums. The rest of the pictures from April (oops!), the kids hamming it up around the house, pictures from our trip to TN, Uncle Adam's graduation, Kaylin's preschool graduation, and our trip to Scarborough Faire (without the kids). Click on the pictures to be taken to the albums.

April album

From April 2008

May album

From May 2008

I've been tagged

A - Attached or Single: Attached
B - Best Friend(s): Allison, Karen
C - Cake or Pie: Cake, unless it's peach pie

D - Day of Choice: Sunday

E - Essential Item: Mascara

F - Favorite Color(s): Pink and green

G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Gummy Bears

H - Hometown: Duarte, California

I - Indulgence(s): Spa days

J - January or July: January, the month of my baby boy's birthday

K- Kids: I have two

L - Life is incomplete without: Family

M - Marriage Date: June 5, 2005

N - Number of Siblings: 2 sisters & 1 brother

O - Oranges or Apples: Oranges, especially when they are nice & juicy!

P- Phobias or Fears: Something happening to my family or to me and I wouldn't be able to take care of my family

Q - Quote: "Where there is great love there are always miracles"

R- Ring size: 7

S- Season: Spring when all the flowers bloom & Fall when the colors change

T- Tag 3 Friends: Heck, I don't think anyone else reads this that hasn't already done this. If you haven't done this already, I tag you!

U - Unknown fact about me: I almost drowned when I was six

V - Very favorite stores: Target and Costco

W - Worst Habit: Biting my nails

X-ray or Ultrasound: Ultrasounds, but only when I get to see a baby!

Y - Your Favorite Food(s): Mexican, Japanese and fruit

Z - Zodiac: Sagittarius

Happy Mother's Day

I think this has been my favorite Mother's Day thus far. This is the first year Kaylin seems to have really understood Mother's Day and been excited about it. I know I didn't word that right, because she's understood it in the past - this year was just...different. Saturday she started telling me...
Kaylin: Mommy, I want to make you breakfast in bed for Mother's Day!
Me: We're going to Mimi's house.
Kaylin: Well then I'll help Mimi make you breakfast!
Sunday morning she woke me up by tapping me on the arm -
Kaylin: Mommy, daddy isn't here, I need him to take me to Mimi's house so I can make your breakfast.
Little did I know, Jeremy was out buying me roses. They are beautiful. White roses with pink tips, some of my favorite and also the same kind he proposed with! I won't get my actual present for awhile yet. It's a Wii Fit which won't even be released until May 21st, but I really wanted it! So, we pre-ordered one and it will ship once it's in stock. My parents bought me the Willow Tree Grandfather figurine. Mom said she thought it was a father and son. Which is fine, I still love it!

For brunch, we had - baked french toast casserole, fruit salad, ham, bacon, mushroom quiche and then MUCH later, for dessert, pineapple coconut bars and strawberry shortcake. I also took a nap in between brunch & dessert. Later on, I went grocery shopping for snacks for our trip to Tennessee next week. And I bought myself sushi for dinner. Nothing better than eating sushi in your pajamas! All in all - a WONDERFUL mother's day!

Kaylin is too funny!

Kaylin: Mommy, there was a pigeon in our flower bed!
Me: Really? A pigeon? Cool!
Kaylin: Yeah, you know, a CITY bird.

For some reason that made me laugh so hard. Like "a city bird" couldn't possibly fly all the way out here to us in the sticks! Then she continued on and on about the city and how she's never been there, and asking me, "when are you going to take me to the city?" I still haven't figured out what city it is she wants to go to!

Second Chance Bachelorette - mommy night out!

While I was planning our wedding I found a local message board with other girls that were also planning their wedding or were recently married. Over the years, we've had several gatherings for happy hour, dinners, etc. and a handful of us have become pretty close friends. Close enough that we talk with each other on, pretty much, a daily basis. Well, at one point bachelorette parties were brought up in conversation and several of the girls stated they wish they could do it over, because their first bachelorette party wasn't fun. Not me! Mine was lots of fun! Anyway... So a second chance one was planned for anyone who wanted to partake. It was Saturday night and we.had. a.blast!

About 18 of us split 3 hotel rooms at Embassy Suites in Dallas, only 14 of us spent the night. Embassy Suites holds a Manager's cocktail reception every evening with free snacks, beer, wine, and cocktails. So, we all checked in to our respective rooms and then headed downstairs. We all grabbed a drink (or two) and some snacks and sat around and chatted with each other while we enjoyed our drinks & snacks. We all headed back upstairs to get dressed & ready for dinner and our night out.

We split into two different groups to head to the restaurant, Victory Tavern. The first group was in the hotel shuttle, while the other group was in a cab, paid for by the hotel (score!). We had dinner, some more drinks and still more talking. Because that's just what you do when you get a group of women together! Well, maybe I should amend my previous statement. The other girls had drinks. I had a few sips. I had ordered a Lemon Drop martini. I've had these enough times before to know what to expect. I swear to all that's holy - what they gave me was rubbing alcohol in a sugar rimmed martini glass. It was horrid! It was passed around our entire table and only two of the girls disagreed and said it actually didn't taste bad. So, I let Jess B. have it since she thought it tasted fine.

Once dinner was over, we had to split into two groups again to head to The Rose Room, a drag queen show! Since this was a second chance bachelorette party, a couple of the girls were wearing veils. This is a popular place to head for bachelorette parties, so the MC called all the bachelorettes on stage. The girls wearing veils went up there, even though they are technically already married. They had to "compete" for sexiest bride to be by dancing and walking the catwalk. It was very funny and such a sight because I have some silly friends! Our friend Sars (her real name is Sarah), bumped one of the other girls out of the way because she was taking so long on the catwalk. She got a bunch of cheers out of the room for that one. Once that was over, a shot for all the bachelorettes, on the house! Dianthe made friends with the cute gay guys across the aisle from us, Dave & Greg. They bought us all a shot! Free drinks from gay boys are the best! Because you know they don't have an ulterior motive!

Once the drag show was over we all spread out over the club - downstairs on the dance floor, in the lounge/bar area sitting on couches talking, some girls headed back to the hotel. I headed into the lounge and talked some more with some of the girls in there, had another drink then we headed downstairs to find the others. When I got to the dance floor a Justin Timberlake song was on and Dianthe ran up to saying, "Where were you? Justin came on and I was looking for you all over!" Haha! What can I say, she knows me! So, I danced to Justin and I may have even oogled a little at the video playing on the screens and then Meg asked if I was as tired as she was and ready to head back to the hotel. I was, so we did. We caught a cab out front and headed back. Once back to the hotel we talked for a little longer and then I headed to my room for the night. I was the only one staying in my room that was already back, so I tried to get some sleep. Naturally, right when I was falling asleep Dianthe calls my cell and asks me if I was already up in the room and let me know they were headed up. They came in like gang busters - all loud, wound up from dancing & drunk and there went my sleep! Then we stayed up talking until 4am. We slept in until 10 am and headed downstairs to hopefully grab some breakfast before it stopped at 10:30 and we just made it. We stood in the line for pancakes & omelets and by the time we made it over to the bacon, because Dianthe had requested bacon, they had already put the bacon up. So, some of us had omelets and others had pancakes and that was it! Oh, and Jess grabbed a bagel for herself & ReJana.

I had a TON of fun - but I definitely can't do that often!

May...already?

I cannot believe it is already May! May, the month my baby girl is done with preschool....FOREVER! How bittersweet it is. On the one hand, I am sad that my baby girl is getting so big. So big, that we have Kindergarten Round-up (registration) next week! Tuesday night we'll go up to the elementary school and we'll register her for school, she'll tour the school, get to tour the bus (that she wants to ride and Mommy won't let her!), meet the Kindergarten teachers, etc. She's going to be a kindergartener! Holy crap! On the other hand, I'm really really looking forward to watching her grow into a young lady.
She's not that little baby anymore!

She has her preschool graduation on May 20th. The week before that, we'll drive up to Tennessee to visit Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Adam, Uncle Austin, Aunt Jacque, and Jacob and Nicholas. Where we'll watch Uncle Adam graduate from high school. Kaylin is excited to see Grandma & Grandpa, but I think she's extra excited to see her cousins. And I think she'll be even more excited once she realizes that Jacob will actually be old enough for her to play with now. Last time we were up there he had just turned 1, so not exactly old enough for a 4 year old to play with. But I think she'll have a little more fun with a 2 year old! I know Jonathan will just have a blast having a little boy around his age to play with.

Okay, Jonathan just woke up from an almost 3 hour nap - screaming, so I guess I am done here!

Thanks, Meg!

My friend Meg made our pretty new header! Isn't it fun?

Happy Earth Day!

46 simple ways to help the environment

THE DISHWASHER: Use it. Contrary to popular eco-belief, it's greener than hand-washing - if you run it with full loads and scrape rather than rinse. The average dishwasher in American homes today uses 8.7 gallons of water a load. Washing by hand for 10 minutes with water running can use 20 gallons. If you fill the sink, you still use about 5 gallons for washing, 5 for rinsing.
LAUNDRY: Wash only full loads of laundry and save (the average American home) as much as 3,400 gallons of water a year.
DRYING LAUNDRY: Do not over-dry laundry. An electric dryer operating an extra 15 minutes a load can cost you up to $34 a year in wasted energy; a gas dryer, $21 a year. If your dryer has a moisture sensor that turns the machine off automatically when clothes are dry, use it.
WATER-SAVING PLANTING: Plan for wise watering. Group thirsty plants in one bed close to the house. Fill farther beds with drought-tolerant perennials that need little or no watering. For lawns, choose buffalo grass, which tolerates dry spells better than St. Augustine. Mulch around trees and plants to keep water from evaporating.
THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL: Use it. It's greener to feed the disposal than it is to encapsulate food waste in a plastic garbage bag and send it to the landfill. Sent down the disposal and into the sewer line, organic waste gets treated by the sanitary district.
HOME ELECTRONICS: Power them off. A home office with a computer, printer, fax machine, computer speakers, scanner and cordless phone could consume as much power as two 75-watt light bulbs left on 24/7. And that could cost you $100 a year in electricity. Plug equipment into a surge protector-power strip. Power off all equipment and then turn off the power strip at the end of the day.
THERMOSTATS: Get a programmable thermostat and save as much as $150 a year. Set it way up (in the summer) or way down (in winter) when everyone's at work or at school and when they're asleep. And program it to turn up the heat (in winter) or air conditioning (in summer) shortly before folks get home or shortly before they wake up.
LEAKY TOILET: Fix it now. A leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons of water a day. Check for leaks by adding food coloring to the tank. If you have a leak, color will appear in the bowl within 15 minutes. Flush as soon as you're done with this test to avoid staining the bowl. It is estimated that 2 out of every 10 toilets in the United States leak. Those two leakers can waste as much as 146,000 gallons of water a year. That's enough water for a family of four to wash clothes in their washing machine for eight years.
NEWSPAPERS: A year's worth of papers from a big-city daily weighs nearly a half-ton. Every ton of paper that gets recycled saves the equivalent of 17 trees, saves enough energy to power an average home for six months, saves 7,000 gallons of water and keeps 60 pounds of pollutants out of the air.
LIGHT BULBS: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. If you replace five of your most-used incandescent bulbs with CFLs, you can save $25 to $65 a year in energy costs. CFLs use two-thirds less energy than incandescent bulbs, generate 70 percent less heat and last up to 10 times longer. They do contain a small amount of mercury - but the benefits of using CFLs outweigh the mercury issue.
HAND SOAP: Rediscover good ol' bar soap. And eliminate the plastic bottle waste that comes with using liquid soaps.
THE MICROWAVE: Yes, use it instead of the oven and stove to reheat food or cook small portions. You will reduce cooking energy by as much as 80 percent.
COOKING ON THE STOVE: Match pots to the appropriate-size burner. A 6-inch pot on an 8-inch burner wastes more than 40 percent of the burner's heat. Using the right-size pot can save you as much as $36 a year with an electric range, as much as $18 with a gas range.
WATER FOR LAUNDRY: Forgo the hot water when doing laundry. Heating water to "hot" accounts for 90 percent of the machine's washing energy; only 10 percent goes to power the motor. Switching to "cold" can save the average household more than $400 annually with an electric water heater and $300 annually with a gas heater.
MORE ON WATER FOR LAUNDRY: And get over the idea that you need hot water to kill nasties. Cold-water laundering is perfectly healthful in most situations at home, with a couple of caveats. One: If you suffer from allergies, you might need a shot of heat, which you can get from tossing the laundry into a hot dryer for 10 minutes. Here's how it goes: If your problem is pollen or mold spores, cold water (and detergent) can rinse those out of your laundry as well as hot water. You need no heat on the situation. If your problem is animal dander or dust mites, you need some heat. Putting your laundry in a hot dryer (120 to 130 degrees) will kill those allergens. You don't need to precede that with a hot water wash. It's overkill.
The other big caveat: infectious diseases. If your family is dealing with something like E. Coli or norovirus (the cruise ship virus) or food poisoning or excessive diarrhea, all of which result in high levels of bacteria or virus in the environment, you need bleach. The hot water setting on most home washing machines is not hot enough to kill these. Add bleach with a cool or warm water setting and then follow with a hot dryer.
MORE ON DRYING LAUNDRY: Clean the lint trap before every load. It's the safe thing to do and the efficient thing to do. A clean trap can save as much as $35 a year in energy costs.
GET ORGANIZED: Do your own (linen, storage) closet systems with a bunch of inexpensive clear plastic boxes/bins. Stash all sorts of household essentials in their own box - for instance, tape, ribbon, razors, soap, shampoo, etc. That way you can see what you already have at home and won't be tempted to overbuy.
MULTIPLE-USE PRODUCTS: Pay attention to all the single-use items in your daily life - the throwaway plastic water bottles, paper napkins, paper towels, disposable wipes. And try to figure out alternatives: reusable water bottles; cloth napkins; microfiber dusting cloths that can be washed and reused.
CLEANING TILES: Keep shower tiles sparkling clean without using chemicals. After a shower, use a microfiber cloth or chamois to wipe down tiles and fixtures or for glass, use a squeegee.
BRUSHING TEETH: Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth and save as much as 10 gallons a day, a person. For a family of four, that's 14,600 gallons of water a year.
RECYCLING ETIQUETTE: -Rinse out cans and bottles before throwing them into a recycling bin to discourage vermin and keep food waste off paper.
-Remove caps from bottles, since they are made of different materials. But don't bother trying to remove the plastic or metal rings that are often left from caps on glass bottles.
-It's best to keep paper recyclables dry until collection day. But a night in the rain isn't fatal.
-Don't risk cutting yourself by trying to remove the metal tops from cardboard tubes (in products such as scouring powder and ready-to-bake cinnamon rolls). Separation is ideal, but most recycling programs will process the item anyway, either as metal or mixed paper.
SODA CANS: They're small, but not insignificant. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television or operate a computer for three hours.
PLASTIC NEWSPAPER SLEEVES: Reuse the sleeves that your newspaper comes wrapped in. Wrap paintbrushes in them if you're midway through a project but have to stop for the day. The plastic sleeve will keep the brush soft for up to a day and saves water normally used for rinsing brushes. You can also use them to slide shoes into when packing.
PRINTER CARTRIDGES - RECYCLE: Office Depot, OfficeMax and Staples take back ink and toner cartridges - and hand you a $3 store coupon for your effort.
PRINTER CARTRIDGES - REFILL: Walgreens and OfficeMax offer in-store refilling stations in some of their stores. Bring in your empty printer cartridge and a store clerk will refill it on the spot (or in a matter of 10 minutes or so) and at a price that beats buying a new one. Walgreens charges $10 for black cartridge refills, $15 for color. Check the Web site (walgreens.com) for the list of refillable cartridges and for the list of participating stores. OfficeMax charges $12.49 to $26.99; call stores to inquire about participation; visit officemax.com for store locations or call 800-283-7674.
PESTICIDES: Avoid using them in your garden and yard. Build up healthy soil instead to help prevent disease. Use barriers such as netting or cutworm collars. Wash aphids away with spray from the hose. Encourage beneficial insects that eat harmful ones. And learn to tolerate a few weeds, spots or insects if it's only an aesthetic problem.
FERTILIZERS: Don't over-fertilize. Plants only can absorb so much; the rest washes away to pollute waterways. Follow directions or err on the side of less. Look for organic fertilizers that release nutrients slowly.
NATIVE PLANTS: Use them in your garden. They know how to fend for themselves; they're adapted to the local climate, soils and pests. That means less watering and fewer chemicals.
WATERING THE GARDEN: Don't sprinkle more than necessary or in the heat of the day when much water evaporates. Put drip irrigation and soaker hoses on timers to water at night or in the early morning. Water lawns long and deep once a week, not lightly and frequently.
SAVE THE RAIN: Put a rain barrel under a downspout to collect free water for the garden. And/or make yourself a rain garden by making a bed designed to collect rainwater so it can be absorbed by deep-rooted natives and perennials.
COMPOST: It is the basic ingredient of good soil. Start with a simple heap of plant material or buy a bin to keep out animals.
GARDEN PLASTICS: Keep them at bay. Take cardboard boxes to the nursery and leave plastic nursery flats behind. Look for plants grown in biodegradable containers. And start seeds in yogurt cups or other recyclable containers (poke a hole for drainage and wash in a 10 percent bleach solution).
THE ORGANIC SEAL OF APPROVAL: The term "organic" should mean produced without chemical fertilizers, fungicides or herbicides - but it's best to ask. If you see the OMRI (Organic Materials Research Institute) seal, it means the product has met a strict standard.
GARDEN POWER: Consider electric yard equipment - and your own muscles. Electric mowers, string trimmers, leaf blowers and hedge trimmers create less pollution and are more energy-efficient than gas ones. Even better: manual equipment.
TREES: Plant them. They're like giant air filters. One mature tree takes care of the pollution caused by 13 cars.
SCREEN-SAVERS: Get rid of them. It takes more energy to run those floating toasters or even a static image than it does to have your computer and monitor go into a low-power mode. Unlike 10 years ago, the screen-saver does not extend the life of your monitor. Killing it could save $50 to $100 a year on your electric bill over a year's time.
OLD CLOTHING: Reinvent clothes. Turn children's jeans with worn-out knees into shorts. Reinvent clothes that you still like and still fit, but have minor "style" problems - for example, hemlines that need to be shortened significantly. Many dry cleaners employ seamstresses for those who can't (or can't find the time) to do it themselves.
OLD CLOTHING - PART 2: Be conscious of how you dispose of well-worn clothes. They're not likely to end up on the shelves of your local thrift store. (In 2005, an estimated 11.1 million tons of textiles were generated as municipal solid waste, only 15.3 percent of which was recovered for export or reprocessing.) The Salvation Army, AMVETS and Unique Thrift Stores are three organizations that work hard to divert all types of unsold fabric from landfills. (Many charities sell unsold clothes to textile recycling companies, which in turn sell wearable items to wholesalers overseas, where demand is high. The really worn stuff could be turned into cleaning cloths or filler inside your mattress or car's interior roof.)
DRIVING: Three simple ways to improve your mileage:
1. Don't drive aggressively. Speeding, rapid acceleration and hard braking can lower your highway gas mileage by as much as 33 percent and city mileage by as much as 5 percent.
2. Don't go super-fast. Driving 75 mph instead of 65 mph can cut fuel economy by as much as 15 percent.
3. Keep up with your car's maintenance. Clean air filters can improve gas mileage by as much as 10 percent. Properly inflated and aligned tires improve mileage by about 3 percent.
REUSE: Check out freecycle.org. It's a kind of eBay experience - but without the financial gain. The city-specific site allows people to post items they want to get rid of and others who live close by, in turn, to "shop" for something they need. No money is exchanged between parties.
KITTY LITTER: Consider alternative litter. There are more earthy-friendly, organic options than the standard clay litters, which pile up in landfills. Among them: Feline Pine (made of pine), Sweat Scoop (wheat) and World's Best Cat Litter (corn). When it's time to change the litter, you can let organic litters biodegrade naturally by dumping them in your yard - far, far away from where kids may roam and from the veggie garden and compost. If you would rather not engage your yard, you still can go green with a biodegradable liner for the cat pan. (Biobags makes one; order at dirtworks.net).

Our Annual Bluebonnet pictures

Jonathan wanted nothing to do with taking pictures. He was much more interested in exploring for himself and this definitely did not involve sitting down and getting a picture with his sister!



The one shot I managed to get of them together.


Fine, I'll take pictures of the pretty flowers instead.


It was windy and overcast and Kaylin was getting cold. So, we headed home. Maybe we'll try again before bluebonnet season ends.

Curly Kaylin

So, I heard about this book called Curly Girl by Lorraine Massey and it teaches you how to take care of curly hair. Since I'm tired of Kaylin's hair always looking a mess, I figured I needed to get a copy and read to see if there is anything I could do to make her hair look better.

I couldn't believe the difference it made in only two days. And the book says it can take 2-3 weeks to reach the peak of healthiness. Hopefully this will work for us!





Oh, and my little diva is wearing lipstick in this photo. While I was doing her hair that night, she was going through my lipsticks and asked me if she could have a few that I don't wear.

Jonathan pictures

This is Jonathan holding a light saber. Daddy is so proud of his little padawan.

Kaylin is so big!

So, I had heard a lot about these BOB books that help teach children to read. Everyone told me I could find them at Costco but I would either forget to look for them, or the Costco I was at wouldn't have them. Well, I remembered on my trip today. So, I picked up the first two sets. Kaylin and I worked on the first book for about 10 minutes. She knows which letters make which sounds so I figured it would go by quickly. She learned how to sound out the words, but had some problems with putting the sounds together to form a word. She got the hang of it eventually.

Here's a video of Kaylin reading the first book in the series.

Officially Spring!

It is officially spring at the Leuwerke house! It's the second time Jeremy has mowed the yard, but we are planting verbena, azalea and liriope a.k.a monkey grass. We kick off our spring gardening every year the weekend of the April races at Texas Motor Speedway. That way, we don't have to leave and deal with the traffic. I will post some pictures when it's complete and looks the way I want it to. We didn't get the soil conditioner yet for the azalea, so they won't be planted until tomorrow when we can pick some of that up.

Next weekend, Jeremy has a dodgeball tournament after work on Saturday and the kids and I will attend the Redbud Festival in Denton, with my parents. Then, on Sunday, Jonathan will go over to my parent's house and hang out with them while Kaylin, Jeremy and I head to Six Flags for Jeremy's company picnic. Kaylin is so excited to ride the rides. We'll see how many she actually gets on. She keeps calling Jeremy a chicken because he doesn't ride roller coasters. I plan on taking our new video camera with us and will hopefully get some video of her on a few rides. Maybe she can actually talk Jeremy into something more than the mine train!

Photo meme

If you read it you gotta do it!

1. Go to photobucket.com
2. Type in your answer for each question into the Photobucket search bar.
3. Only use the first two pages. Choose your favorite photo to represent your answer.
4. Copy the html and paste it here.
5. You can only answer in picture form.


what's your name?


when is your birthday?


What kind of car do you drive


Where did you go to school


What's your favorite season


What’s your favorite type of shoe


What's your status


What's your favorite movie- this is always changing

What's your favorite song - this is always constantly changing

What's your favorite Disney character


What's your favorite vacation destination


What's your favorite dessert


What's your favorite drink


What are you most afraid of


What's your favorite tv show