Thank Goodness Its Friday!

I am so glad today is Friday. Tomorrow is Pilly's birthday party, and we are all looking forward to that. Lynn ended up going back to her parents' tonight so she wasn't here to help with cupcakes. That actually worked out alright because I realized that the wafer cookies probably would have gotten soggy if I had made them tonight. So I will have quite a bit to do tomorrow morning. It also worked out alright because I just finished work and it is 9:40. I was supposed to train on another account, but it was just too much on top of my regular work today. Since the party is this weekend and Sunday is our Sunday School Superbowl party, I knew I wouldn't have time. Thankfully, they were willing to let someone else do the work!

I need to admit something. I would have finished 15 minutes earlier if it were not for YouTube. I spent 15 minutes watching the Gummybar Song. Hilarious! My favorite language for it was Swedish. Cracks me up. I am listening to it again. If you need a laugh, you should check it out! I'll have to show it to the girls tomorrow! My favorite is the Swedish version. He has a website:)



This child has mastered taking her diaper off...while she is wearing pants. I do not know what she does! She started fussing and Joel picked her up and her pants were all wet and her diaper was down around her ankle. What a squirt. Look at those eyelashes.



I just like this picture and wanted to put it on here. I think she looks pretty:)

My mom came over to tackle the curtain issue, and she decided that the curves were not quite curvy enough so the binding will not lay flat. She took one panel with her and is making a new, curvier pattern. My mom is awesome! My poor dad. He is going to get a complex reading about how great she is. I guess if he had rushed right over to put the wire on top of the chimney, maybe he could get some blog-love too. He shouldn't have even delayed after reading of that!

Well, it is almost time for The Soup so I need to go get my snack!

The Curtains are Driving Me Crazy!

I have an announcement: I do not know how to use binding on a scallop. I can't make it go smoothly around the curves. So tomorrow when my mom comes over for what she thinks is going to be a half-hour visit, I am really going to kidnap her and chain her to my sewing machine. While I do my work, she can sew all of the curtains for me. I think they are going to be really cute, but they are driving me crazy! I'm really glad we put only three curves on them instead of seven!

I want to make the girls these love note pillows for Valentine's Day, but I need to get some fabric. I have quite a few projects in mind. I told my mom today that I like quick projects so that I can get results. That is why I like laundry and vacuuming and sewing stockings and baby doll quilts. I get my results quickly. I am not sure if I could do a quilt for the girls' beds. I have two different patterns in mind for them, but they could be 52 before they are ever finished!

I have decided that Pilly is going to have horse cupcakes for Saturday instead of dogs. They are a little bit easier (and cheaper), and since this is my first time trying this, I wanted to pick something not quite as hard! Poor Pilly, we don't really even have any decorations or anything. At least, she probably won't remember it! We will have to make sure we take pictures...

I am freezing so I think I will go sit on top of the register with a blanket now. Have a good night!

Snow day!

Tonight will just be a short update as this is Lost night!! What did we do without it?

Joel stayed home today since it snowed so much and then got all icy on top. It rained all day and everything is now just coated with ice. Yuckity yuck yuck. I keep reminding God that I think Hawaii would be nice... Anyways, the girls and I liked having him home for today. He made supper and funnel cakes at lunchtime!

I got the girls curtains ironed and the scallops cut out. I am going kind of slow because I do not want to mess these up! I do not have extra fabric!

Friday night, my friend Carolyn and I are going to decorate Lily's cupcakes. Carolyn doesn't know it yet. But she will because she is sweet. Plus, she is better at attention to detail and that kind of stuff so hers will probably look way nicer. Maybe I will assemble parts and she can ice them. I have a really neat cupcake book and we hopefully are going to try one of them. Probably a puppy dog but possibly a penguin. The penguins are very ambitious!

I need to get my snack set up and be all ready as I only have 12 minutes left. Hope everyone is having a wonderful night!

Awesome giveaway

There is an awesome giveaway going on here.

My Climber

My goodness, it is 9:25, and I just finished working. I need to stop goofing off in the afternoon...actually there was quite a bit to do today. I want my evenings back! This will not be an option tomorrow night as Lost comes on at 9:00. :)

I wanted to share with you all Pilly's new skill. It thrills me to my bones. Or shakes me to them.



Yesterday, she demonstrated that she could now climb up on the kitchen chairs. Lovely.



Today, she added climbing onto the table from the chair to her repertoire. Wonderful.



Then her sister joined her and added to the naughtiness.

Pilly is funny because she is desperate to climb the chair. If I push it under the table, she will either push it out and climb it or try to (the much funnier option) climb it while it is under the table and get her head stuck between the back of the chair and the table and refuse to get down even though that would get her un-stuck. Sadly, she did fall off of the chair today. I was not quick enough. However, that fall taught her nothing as five minutes later she was back at it and I had to put the chair on top of the table. She then tried to climb into her high chair (which is a baby chair attached to a chair), but alas, she was too short. She keeps me hopping!

I did Tae-Bo today, and wow, it was tiring. It was pretty fun, but it really keeps you moving. I did it for 20 minutes. I can't imagine what would have happened if I had done the whole 45 minutes. I probably would have fallen asleep on my feet. But I like it so I think I will add it into the routine with my Pilates.

I want to get working on these curtains so I am off!

Correction

I was hoping to be able to work on the girls' curtains tonight, but again, that was put on hold. I had to work a little bit tonight. And then I got caught up in the Bloggy Giveaways. There are over 700 entries. I didn't make it very far. It was overwhelming. But I entered some that looked interesting.

Today was cleaning day again, but it went better this week because Pilly actually took her nap. I also learned today that she can climb up on the kitchen chairs. Not good. She turned one a little over a week ago. She also today for the first time was singing the alphabet song. She didn't really pronounce the letters very well, but she had the tune going. We have a Leapfrog Magnet Set that sings it and she just pushes the button over and over.

Speaking of pushing buttons, I am ready for Spring to come so Pnut can get outside and burn some energy and stop pushing mine! That child asks so many questions and does crazy things because she is just bored and wants to run around. If it would get a little warmer, I would take them out, but it is not fair for Pilly who isn't quite as stable on her feet and falls down on the cold ground.

My mom pointed out that I had put the wrong amount of soy sauce in my french dip subs recipe, so I changed it to 1/2 cup...not 1.2 cups!! Sorry if anyone made it the wrong way. It was probably really salty!

I hope you all had a great start to your week!

Bird Hole Still Open

Our friend Andy was supposed to come today and help Joel take care of the chimney. However, his wife called this morning to tell us he had been throwing up all night. So I called my mom tonight to find out if my dad could come tomorrow to help. He went back to where I grew up to go snowmobiling. Obviously, he does not care if I am eaten alive by birds. He should have just read that post Friday morning and called off of work to come over here and take care of it. Actually, my mom said that his ladder is too long to put on the back of his truck so we are going to have to wait for Andy to get better. I hope no more birds make an appearance in the meantime. Don't worry, when the trauma fades from my mind, I will stop posting about this:)

We had a nice, relaxing day today. This is the first time since two weekends before Christmas that we didn't have plans on the weekend. We enjoyed our day together and are looking forward to tomorrow. I hope to work on the girls' curtains tomorrow, but I'll be honest with you. The Pink Panther is on TV tomorrow night and I haven't seen the end of it yet. I thought it was hilarious when I was watching.

I hope that you all have a great rest of the weekend!

Oh, one more thing...I will be the featured person on Lolly's Sunday Recipe tomorrow. However, you all have the recipe already because I am doing the Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake.

Bat Update

So, Joel now thinks it was a bird in the bathroom because there is poop on the sink. Or was. Disgusting. I finally had to go to the bathroom but I am not brushing my teeth until I go get a new toothbrush! It knocked over the girls' toothbrushes so who knows if it touched mine that was in the holder. My spin brush is also on the sink and it is still standing so I don't think it touched it. But regardless, I am getting a new head for it. I HATE birds! I get nervous every time I am in there that it is going to hop out from under the towel rack or something!

Bat

Yuck! We had a bat in our bathroom closet tonight. I was giving the girls a bath, and I heard something in the wall behind the spout. I yelled for Joel and told him we had a mouse. He came up, listened, and said he thought it was a bird. So I got the girls out and took them to their room. Joel opened the window and then pulled open the closet door and shut the bathroom door. He let it in there for a while until eventually there was no noise. He went in, and it was gone. He did shut the closet door as he went in so he did not check in there. He said he will do it tomorrow. I guess it came down our chimney and got in the wall. There is a hole where you can access the pipes in the bathroom and he came into the closet that way. I need to throw the girls' toothbrushes away because he knocked them over. Our friend Andy is hopefully coming over with his ladder on Saturday so they can go up on the roof and put wire netting over the top of the chimney. If Andy can't come, I will be calling you Dad.

I have to go to the bathroom. But I am not.

Grosgrain: New Year's Eve Sweater and Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Grosgrain: New Year's Eve Sweater and Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

French Dip Subs

I have got an awesome recipe for you tonight!! After I had Pilly, some of the people from Sunday School made suppers for us and one of our friends brought us this. I almost died from the wonderful taste! The recipe says that you can eat them on subs, but we just eat the meat so that nothing dilutes that delicious flavor!

1 3lb beef chuck or rump roast
2 c water
1/2 c soy sauce
1 t dried rosemary
1 t garlic powder
1 bay leaf
1 t pepper

Trim fat from roast, place in crock pot and add rest. Cook 5-6 hours on high or 8 hours on low. Remove meat from broth and shred wtih forks. Strain broth and skim off fat. Add enough broth to meat to moisten. Serve on toasted rolls with melted provolone cheese wtih small cups of broth for dipping.




I like to make mashed potatoes with it and put the juice on them. It is wonderful. I actually saved the juice from tonight for this purpose because I didn't have time to make potatoes.

You definitely want to trim the fat from the meat well. I didn't one time, and the little pieces of fat were floating on the top and it was hard to get out.

You should definitely make this. It is quick and easy and a taste sensation!
I

Good intentions!

Today, I didn't have work again. I have no idea why. I know he saw patients. A lot of patients. I'm afraid that tomorrow he is going to dictate all the reports from today and tomorrow. I wish these guys could straighten themselves out.

I had many good intentions of getting a lot of sewing done tonight. But...first of all, I think our house is cold so I had to sit on the couch with a blanket for a while. And over the register with the air blowing under my blanket. Second, Joel put on this hilarious show called Scare Tactics. It is on the SciFi channel. Horrible. These people set their friends up to be scared. But very entertaining to watch! So, I didn't start working until 9:00. I finished sewing the two fabrics together to make all four panels for the girls' curtains. Now I am stuck. Mom, if you are reading this, you might want to eat your lunch on the way here. The directions say to cut the top in a scalloped pattern. The pattern has to be a certain number of inches wide so that it divides evenly into the width of the top of the curtain. I am having trouble reproducing a satisfactory scallop. Mom, you may want to bring a piece of graph paper. I was working on it, and then I remembered. I hate geometry and this sort of stuff. I also hate having to follow directions that are confusing. I have more questions than that:)

We went to Walmart to prepare for our Lost party tomorrow night. We love Lost! We didn't start watching it until last year. Joel's brother had all the seasons on DVD so we caught up on them and then started watching on TV. I prefer the DVDs. It is horrible to not be able to watch one episode right after the other! Anyways, while we were at Walmart, I had to stop at the fabric department. And it has begun to close. All the fabric and cut by the yard notions were 25% off. I bought a few things (read too much). But it was fun, and I plan on going back.

Pilly also spent her gift card that she had for Walmart. She bought this:



They love it! It is nice because it has two teacups so they can share. The teapot sings and makes pouring sounds. It is by Fisher Price. We have a few really nice Fisher Price toys. Pilly also has a singing purse that she got for Christmas. All of our Little People are Fisher Price. They make durable, fun toys!



Pilly doesn't mind that Pnut only lets her have one teacup and one cake. Pnut does need to learn to share a bit better! She is really good at pouring tea though!



This is the best picture I could get of her with it. Every time I tried to take one she would either stick the cup in my face and say Mmm or sit down on my lap. I just also want to mention that she had on a very cute outfit that she got for Christmas from her Auntie Randa all day. Then after supper, she pooped through it. While she was sitting on her dad's lap. It was funny.

There was something that I wanted to mention the other day and I forgot. It involves this picture:



Can you tell what she has in her hand? That is a travel toothbrush her daddy brought her. That girl is obsessed with brushing her teeth. She plays with that thing all the time. Pilly likes it too. I saw her getting it out of a cupboard today. She must have hidden it from her sister. My children are just a little bit weird...

Sleepy!

It will just be a short post tonight. Pilly had her one year check-up today and then we went to some friends afterward and didn't get home until 12:30. The girls fell asleep in the car and thought that they didn't need to nap this afternoon. As a consequence, I have been working all evening. Yuck. Hopefully tomorrow will be a normal day!

Pilly is doing great. She is in the 80th percentile for her height! She is only in the 9th for her weight, but she is better than Pnut was at her age...she wasn't even on the chart. We just have skinny kids!

Happy Birthday

Our second marvel came into the world one year ago today.



When I saw that sweet mouth and those chubby cheeks, I knew I was done for. This baby was cute and sweet and slept so nicely!



Pilly has been such a laid back baby!



Pnut has loved her since the first time she saw her in the hospital.



Who wouldn't love her? Look at those eyelashes!



She is so quick to smile and laugh!



She makes us laugh with her silliness.



Even when she is somewhere that she doesn't want to be, like at the beach covered in sand, she is pleasant.



She is starting to have so much fun with her sister.



And she has discovered the wonder of candy.



She is our sweet Pilly.



And we love her!

Flat Iron Giveaway

The ladies at momdot in cooperation with Misikko are giving away a flat iron. I would love to win this. I do already have straight hair, but sometimes it gets a little poofy! Here are the links to their sites:

http://www.misikko.com

http://www.momdot.com/ The giveaway is in the upper right corner on momdot.

Stocking #2 Finished!

I was able to finish Pnut's stocking today. My mom was over on her break and gave some tips on embroidering the name, so Pnut's looks a bit better than Pilly's. Oh well. Hopefully they won't care about things like that. Or maybe I am being delusional! My mom said that you can't tell how puffy they are from the pictures. So, in real life, they are puffy.



Pnut picked out the snowman fabric for herself. Pilly's special fabric was the gingerbread men. I like them quite a bit and might try to make some for a craft fair or something like that. I would do different white fabric, something of a bit better quality. I just didn't realize when I bought it that I would want something a little thicker and nicer. These are finished just in time! My book is due back at the library tomorrow. Joel is going to recheck out the curtain one. I think that is the next project...to do their curtains. It would be nice to have them up! Then maybe they will take three hour naps. Hahahaha. Again with being delusional. Maybe I need some sleep!

We got snow last night! A whole quarter inch. Maybe not even that much. But it is the only snow we have gotten all winter really. I guess maybe we got dusted before, but now it is really cold so it stayed. It is like 16 degrees outside. Oh Hawaii. I really think I would do well there.

Hopefully, I will dream of warmth tonight. At least Joel's body temperature is somewhere around 115 degrees so once he is in bed I am warm.

Stocking #1 Finished!

Today I again had no work. I found out that the doctor was off yesterday and today. I think he is supposed to be there for the next two days but then is off next week. Hopefully, they will be putting another doctor on to dictate. They are in a two-week trial period so I guess only one doctor was doing it. I also found out that if they do continue with us after the trial is over, there will be six doctors dictating. Oh boy. I may need some help! Anyways...I had some time this afternoon so I finished Pilly's stocking. I am no embroidery expert. I have never really done it before so the name is not quite as straight as I would like, but I think it turned out so nice!



I started on Pnut's tonight and am up to the point of embroidering her name on. It went so much quicker since I was familiar with what I was doing!

My boots came today. I got a right one and a left one this time. Pnut wanted to try them on after I did.



I know that you can't really see the boots. Just trust me that they are cute! I wore them this evening, and they kept my feet nice and warm. The only problem was that they kept pulling my socks down. So, if anyone has any suggestions, please clue me in!

Pilly's first birthday is Saturday. I officially changed her over to her 12-month clothes today. Sadness. Pnut was over one when she changed clothes, but Pilly is so tall! I am excited to see how tall she is at her doctor appointment on Monday, but that is all I am excited about for that. I hate going there!

More Progress

Tonight I worked on two gifts and got them done, and I also was able to redo the other side of Pilly's stocking. I got the two sides sewn together. I am so excited about this! It looks really nice! I guess this is the biggest project I have done so far so I am pleased that it is turning out nicely. I don't think I will post another picture of it until it is finished. I probably would have gotten more done, but I talked to my BIL Eric for an hour. I called for Randa, but she got called into work. So I talked to Eric instead. He is a nice guy. We get along well.

Ok. I need to go to bed. It is late!

The Lunch Date Blouse GIVEAWAY!!!!

The Lunch Date Blouse GIVEAWAY!!!!

Abraham Owl

Tonight, I finished an owl for my secret sister from Bible study. You can't see his little wings. I think he is a cutie:) I love the blue fabric. It was just a little fabric quarter. I should have bought more than one...



We cleaned today, but it was harder than usual because Pilly didn't take a morning nap. Somenoe thought it would be a good idea to wash her penguin during nap time. Bad idea. So someone had to clean while holding a baby. It was a little slower than usual!

So, the other day I commented on how much I like the deer bologna my dad gave me. I have since found out that Joel doesn't like it. Yay! The bad news is both of the girls do. At least they can't get it out of the refrigerator by themselves!

Catching Up

Last night, we had our Sunday School Christmas party. It was so much fun! I laughed a lot! That is good for your stomach muscles:) Joel's mom and brother came up and stayed with the girls for the evening. They went to bed nicely so that was a relief. I always get nervous when we leave them because we do it so rarely. We had a white elephant gift exchange, and I actually got a nice little bath set. It came with two miniatures bath poufs (sp?) that I was excited to give the girls. Pnut was really excited about it. She always wants to use mine so she is happy to have her own. Today, church was canceled because of icy roads so Joel let me sleep in. I have had a terrible cold and have been really tired so it was nice to catch up on my sleep a little. Now he is getting the cold so he will want to sleep in next Saturday:)

Tonight I did work on some projects. I made the handkerchief holders for the women in my Bible study group. You have seen them before so I didn't take a picture. I also worked on the other side of Pilly's stocking. It looks lovely. I got the pattern right and everything. However...I went to put the two sides together to sew them and realized that I had sewed the fabric to the same side of each one. So now I have two fronts and I don't think I have enough fabric to make a back. I will try. If not, Joel suggested just doing a red background, which will work. It just won't be as pretty! Pilly got a book for Christmas that we had when we were little called They Didn't Use Their Heads. Sometimes, I think I could be the star of that book.

I did my new account over the weekend, and I am really pleased with it. The doctor is a wonderful dictator! Hahahaha, that sounds a little funny. Dictator meaning he speaks his dictations clearly, not runs a country well:) Hopefully, I should be able to mostly get it done during nap. The only reason that I won't is if I doodle around looking at stuff on the internet (which is a possibility) or if he dictates later in the day. In any case, it seems like it should be a pleasant new account.

Okay, well since I got to sleep in today and am feeling almost caught up on sleep, I want to go to bed now and not fall behind again! Have a great night!

Cocoa Creme Thumbprint Cookies

We made a new cookie today. The recipe was on the back of the Hot Cocoa Creme Hershey Kisses bag. It looked yummy and we happened to have all of the ingredients.

1/2 cup butter, softened (I melted ours)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
2 T milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
Some more granulated sugar
Powdered sugar
Hot Cocoa Hershey Kisses
1/2 cup marshmallow creme

1. Beat butter and 2/3 cup granulated sugar until well blended. Beat in egg yolk, milk, and vanilla. Stir together flour, coca, and salt, gradually add to other mixture, beating until blended. Refrigerate for one hour until stiff enough to handle.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Shape dough into 1-inch balls, roll in granulated sugar. Place on cookie tray and press thumb gently in center of each cookie.
3. Bake 8-10 minutes or just until cookie is set. Cool slightly and remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Dust cookies with powdered sugar.
4. Remove wrappers from Kisses. Spray inside of Ziploc sandwich bag with cooking spray. Spoon marshmallow into bag, seal, and cut off corner about 1/4 inch from point. Pipe slightly more than 1/2 tsp into each thumbprint indentation. Gently press chocolate in center of each cookie.



The first job for Pnut was unwrap the Kisses. She only ate one, and that was with my permission because she held it too long and it melted.



She likes to "stirf" the flour mixture with the whisk. She is getting good at keeping it in the bowl.



Here is the mixture right before it went in the fridge. It looked basically the same when it came out, just hard.



You can't mess around with the balls. When they start to get warm from rolling in your hands, they turn into a sticky mess. Because of this, Pnut had to get down and not help with this part!



Here are ours finished. I tried several things. First, I just put the Kisses in the center without the marshmallow. I was thinking it would turn out more like a Peanut Butter Blossom. I was wrong. Since these are Hot Cocoa kisses, they have an already melty center. They melted a lot and didn't solidify again very well. Second, I tried it with the marshmallow. Unfortunately, our marshmallow expired last March. I imagine that if your marshmallow is ok and not hard as a rock, this would go better. I melted it in the microwave, but it still wasn't like coming straight out of a jar and being fluffy. Third, I didn't put anything in them. These are all good. It's chocolate on chocolate, which is always good. I think I put a little more salt than called for in it. Sometimes, I don't like to measure things. But I liked the contrast of salty and sweet. We probably won't make them again unless we have another bag of the Kisses with the recipe. It is not one that I will crave, but it is yummy for this one time!

After that experience, we went up to the girls room to play.



Who knows what this troublemaker was doing?! Once she saw the camera come out, she ran around the room like a maniac.



Pretending to be calm. Before this, she had stripped her blankets and animals and pillow off of her bed and was jumping on it and off onto the floor.



One last goofy picutre of this baby. How can you resist that face?

Pictures from our day

We had chocolate chip cookies today. Some of us get messier than others.



She wants to have her picture taken, but then she runs away from the camera! Also, that kid never wears socks. It is pointless to put them on her. She often wears a short-sleeved shirt too.



Her daddy bought her this shirt. Can you tell? She isn't allowed to wear it out. Everyone will think she is a boy. The man across the street thought she was a boy today!



I love you Pilly, let me put you in a headlock to prove it!



This girl loves her daddy. I hate to admit it, but she really is a daddy's girl! He got his hair cut off. Sad:( Someone needs to work on that facial hair!

Applesauce!

I made our applesauce today. I had about 22 pounds of apples that I got for $9, which works out to about 42 cents per pound. That is a pretty good deal! I chose sweet apples because I don't add sugar. I could have gotten the Granny Smith for 35 cents a pound but I would rather pay a little bit more to have the sweet apple:) It turned out so yummy! I am not sure what they do to the applesauce that they sell in the store because it is just not this good!



Here is my bag. Can you believe I carried this?! I actually pulled the car up to our house, took it inside, and then parked. Twenty-two pounds is a little bit much to carry with a baby in the other arm. Or it might be a little bit much period!



My mother-in-law had also gotten these apples from her school and wasn't going to eat them. She gave them to us because she knows we love our apples! However, they were a little mealy for me so I thought they would make a good addition to our sauce.



This was my kitchen counter set up. I could not have done this at our apartment. I don't think we have more counter space here, but what we do have is all stuck together instead of spread out in small pieces around the kitchen. This is better! I really love how you don't even have to core the apples! That poopy stuff just comes right out into the green bowl:)



This is what I got for all of my hard work. The two bags that are red have the red delicious mixed in with the other sauce. That tastes the best! The other stuff is good, but that stuff is great!



Here is Pilly, happy that mommy is finally done messing around with the stove and can instead respond to her every whim.



Here is the Pnut, happy but probably disappointed that I will be paying attention to her since she can't do naughty things like draw on my rotary cutting board with a pencil or pick brick pieces out of the wall. She needs a watchful eye folks!

It was so much easier than the way I usually do it. So much! I would like to can some next summer. Hopefully this will last us for a while, but the way these monsters eat it I am not sure!

I didn't have lunch because I was working on the applesauce. Don't worry, I fed the girls. Around two o'clock, I remembered that I had not had lunch so I got some applesauce and deer bologna. My dad gave me this with the deer jerky. He sent two over and one is in the freezer but probably won't be for long. I just opened it today and have eaten five pieces. Five. I think I am the only one who will eat that too. I will have to ask Joel. Or hide it and feign innocence. Oh, what to do?! So Dad, I might need some more soon:)

Stocking

I had no work again today so I thought I would try out my rotary cutter. Unfortunately, I was also talking on the phone at the time. It did not go well. So I postponed cutting until tonight. I have learned a few things in my short time of using that instrument! First, I may need a new see-through rule by next Christmas if I keep cutting on it instead of the mat. Second, you must be very careful to not lean to close or it might just cut your hair off. I have not done it yet, but I have come pretty close! Third, go slow!!! I made so many bad cuts because it looks like it should be easy so I just rolled along and the cutter did not stick to the ruler as well as I would have liked. Hopefully, I will have enough material for the stockings because I am pretty sure that there isn't a lot of Christmas fabric around still.

I have been so excited about these stockings. They are quilt-as-you-go stockings. This is the first side of one of Pilly's. Poor Pilly. She gets the not quite as good stuff. I should have practiced on Pnut's since she is the one who usually gets the new stuff. That is what happens when you are the first child. Anyways, it is turinng out nicely after a few glitches. I did the pattern wrong, I ran out of bobbin thread (again), and when I sewed around the whole edge, I sewed some of the extra fabric to the stocking and was able to employ the seam-ripper. Yippy skippy. Now that one side is done, I really like it. The fabric patterns might not blend as well as they should...but that is certainly not my forte!



In other news, I received my boots today that I ordered from Bass (no Dad, not Bass Fishing Store). I was so excited about them and already knew what I was going to wear them with on Sunday. Pnut and I each took one out and removed the cardboard. I tried on the one that I had, and then I reached for the one she was holding and realized that there was something not quite right. The zipper was on the same side. They sent me two left boots! Aaaah! So we went to the Bass Outlet tonight, but we did not know that they closed at 6:00. Joel is going to try to return it for me tomorrow, but I don't know if he will be able to since I paid for it. They had better not mess it up again, or they might get some bad press!

Tomorrow (don't you love my segues), we will be making applesauce. My mom let me borrow her mixer attachments (thanks Mom) so it will be much easier than the way that I usually do it. All I have to do now is quarter the apples, boil them, and throw them in the grinder and it separates the bad from the good. Usually, I peel them with a vegetable peeler, quarter them, seed them, and then boil them on the stove with a little bit of water for about an hour until they break down. This should be a piece of cake!

Yesterday, Pnut kindly let me borrow some of her blue hair glitter for my hair so that my hair would look beautiful like hers. It was stunning. And sticky. Pilly has started to run some. She always falls down after she runs a little ways, but it is cute. She will be one in 11 days. Sniffle! Sniffle!

Okay, this post has rambled on enough. Have a great night! Shawna:)

Again...

I have a confession...I didn't do anything tonight. There was no work this afternoon so I thought maybe there would be some for me tonight, but there wasn't. I got sucked into Antique Roadshow and then I read again. I do love to read and rarely have a good book anymore. Also, I am just tired! The girls were a little rambunctious and ornery today so it was just a trying day. But I need to get back to sewing! I want to try out my new rotary cutter and I have to make the Christmas stockings before I take the book back in two weeks. I have had it for like eight weeks or something. I need to get on the ball!

Relaxing

Tonight, I am just taking the night off to read and relax. Even though I didn't write last week, I spent every evening working at my real job because there was no time during the day. At least transcription is flexible with the hours! So tonight will be for relaxation and tomorrow everything should be pretty normal!:)

Ham and Bean Soup

I don't have any pictures of how delicious this soup is. Someone, who shall remain nameless and soon will be forgiven when he has paid his dues, deleted the picture from the camera. I have two pictures of children eating (or not eating in Pnut's case) the soup. I love this stuff! It is so full of flavor and healthy goodness. Plus, it kept me full until suppertime. That is very rare. Usually I am ready to eat something again by the time the girls lay down for their nap!

2 cans Navy Beans, rinsed and drained
6.5cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 ham bone-Joel called it a butt bone
1 cup chopped carrots (or more)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 bay leaves
1 tsp-ish rosemary-I used dried
2 cups chopped ham
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1. Put the water, bone, beans, salt, carrots, garlic, bay leaves, and rosemary on high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 60 minutes.
2. Remove ham bone, add meat and pepper to taste. Simmer for 30 more minutes.
3. It's finished! Try to let it cool down enough so that it doesn't burn the taste buds off your tongue. I have a hard time with that part!

I really like the taste that the bay leaves and rosemary add in. I am not sure if I only had one teaspoon of rosemary or if I had more because I just picked it out and sprinkled it in. My ham was some of the leftover that I had frozen from Christmas day. It was a spiral, already sliced, smoky ham. It gave the broth such a nice smoky flavor. Yum! I can't even begin to describe it!



This kid loved the soup! She was especially a fan of the carrots and beans. She was not so sure about the ham. Hey, I would rather her eat the vegetables!



This crazy child, however, did not like it. Or she says that she didn't. Honestly, she didn't even taste it. She is anti-soup. So she just didn't have lunch and ate her supper very nicely.

In other news, this is an apron that I made for a friend for Christmas. I want to make one for myself, but I think I want a full apron instead of a half apron. I love this retro fabric look though!



Hopefully, I will be posting regularly again now that the holiday busyness is over. I love this time of year when we get to spend so much time with family, but it really shakes up our routine, and if you know me, you know I like routine. So do my children. So we will be thankful to get back into our everyday life even though we have thoroughly enjoyed having Daddy home and seeing all our friends and family! Also, I got a rotary cutter and board and ruler so I am going to have to do some projects so that I can try them out! How exciting:)

Our Last Christmas for 2008!

We finally had Christmas with my family today. It was only a week after our Christmas with Joel's family, but it felt like it took a long time to get here. We had such a fun day. The girls had so much fun playing with their cousin. Pnut and Anthony could play all day, I think. She didn't want to find her shoes to go home tonight. I think she would have spent the night, which is not like her~she likes to be at home!

When Pnut saw the gifts that we were taking over this morning, she said, "I love Christmas!" She was thrilled to have more gifts to open. It is good that her birthday in July to sort of balance out her year!



We love Edwina-and Mo Willems! If you have small children and haven't read his books, you should! My favorite is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Pilly got it for Christmas from my parents:)



Here is Pilly with her favorite gift. Who needs clothes or books or toys when you have M&M's? Speaking of which, I think we forgot them there.



This is Baby. She was terrorized by Pillster all day. Seriously, every time she was spotted, she was cornered. Pilly had her trapped in a corner at one point, and she was meowing like crazy. And Pilly isn't even mean to her. She is pretty gentle. She just loves animals and that cat got no break!



Here are Pnut and Laine all dressed up in Laine's play clothes that she got for Christmas. They looked so cute all dressed up!



Here is Laine in her tutu. I think she liked it. She kept it on for a looong time. Pnut won't keep hers on for more than 5 minutes!



Anthony loved his gun that he got from his Auntie Kacy. Auntie Kacy is a good aunt because she didn't get one for Pnut!



Pnut got a camera. She loves it. She already wore one set of batteries out. Oh Boy. Maybe we should buy stock in Duracell and then get some more batteries! I am not sure what that goofy face is about!



And I just have to put this up. Hopefully, I won't be shunned. That gun-wielding, tutu-wearing nephew is just too funny. He was just playing "dress-ups." Sadly, there were no boy dress-up clothes. Don't worry, he shot plenty of deer and turkeys and bears.

P.S. Randa, you can't be mad about me putting up the picture. You know he is cute. And you should just be thankful that I am posting again!

P.P.S. Don't forget my deer jerky please:)