Friday, March 27, 2009

I haven't been around lately. I have been working a lot of hours due to a fairly large and sudden increase in workload. That is such a pretty great thing any time but especially in a recession. I also have all the same stuff that needs to get done at home so the work is pretty much constant.

Tomorrow I will clean with the kids but hopefully we can get it done quickly. I have a few things to do this weekend. My hair is starting to look like a brillo pad so it is time to get a good cut. My eyesight is failing and I am running to the eye doctor to get checked out. My husband keeps making fun of me because I really can't see. Example - Today I misread my daughter's report card and was raving about how good she was doing. (I thought it said she was reading at third grade level. It said she was reading at 3rd QUARTER level. Big difference as she is in 1st grade and we are much closer to third quarter than we are to third grade). Also, the problems I was having with my eyes is not pink eye - it is the re-occurrence of an inflammatory "thing". Not sure what it is but basically I get blistering on my eyes. It looks bad and it feels bad. That said it sounds much more disgusting than it is. It is more of a nuisance than anything else.

Today I received my new PC. I am trying to work my way around VISTA. I love the look of my new PC (RED notebook). I hate setting up a new computer though so I am sure I will be working on that most of the weekend.

Back to my blog - I have 2 - 3 new reviews and 2 new FUN giveaways coming up. I also will be drawing winners this weekend for all of my current giveaways and those that are now a week past due. I will also be doing some dropping by this weekend for my Entrecard friends.

It is supposed to rain tomorrow so after we run around in the morning I am hoping we can settle in quietly for the rest of the weekend and enjoy.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Fruit Salad - Yummy Yummy

Miss E. and I made a yummy fruit salad today:

1/2 cantaloupe, chunked
1 pineapple, cut into small chunks
1 bag of frozen raspberries
2 bananas, sliced
1 cup of strawberry low fat yogurt

We mixed it all together and immediately enjoyed eating. The girls ate theirs plain - I scooped mine over cottage cheese. Tomorrow I may serve over waffles. Love making fruit salad in the Spring and Summer. Now that Spring is officially here we were ready to resume our annual tradition.



Friday, March 20, 2009

Lost Road Trip - want to come along?

I'm going on a road trip. Then a plane trip. Then a freaky, psychedelic trip.

First pit stop is the LA. Meet me at the Lamp Post. Apparently the Lamp Post is one of those places that calls for the "right place, right time" rule. I hope our Lostie friends in LA can help us determine what the 24 - 48 hour window right time IS or we may be waiting around for a long time.

Next stop is a plane to Guam. Or Hawaii. Or Fiji. OR Antartica. Or the Thousand Islands. At this point it is difficult to say for sure but in that 24 - 48 hour window this will be all be cleared up. One thing you can be certain of is that we will be flying over a large body of water.

Final step is go on the plane. Hmm, what to pack. Valium for one. This is going to be one rough plane ride. Regarding clothing, personal items, etc. what we pack really depends on what decade we are going to. Since that is also difficult to say, I say be prepared for both.

In the off chance that we land in the present time (Alas!), I will simply bring along my normal travel stuff including my itouch and cell phone. These can be ditched easily enough.

In hope that we are quite literally dropped into 1977 I will pack the following (please do your research before packing also!):
- Patchouli Oil
- Breck Shampoo
- Love Beads
- Jean Nate body splash
- Bell-Bottoms
- Bohemian shirts
- Macramé hanging for my quarters
- designer mess kit in harvest gold
- Earth shoes
- Required reading: "Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life", "Sisterhood Is Powerful" and Love Story.
- Two 2-dollar bills
- Brownie mix for Rosie
- Pony Tail holders for Horace
- Bicentennial memorabilia.
- Belt's to accessorize with the rather drab Dharma Khaki uniform. (Sorry, but I don't do jumpsuits)

Ohhh I really hope that the Island cherry picks us straight off the plane and sets us in 1977 Dharma land. Although La Fleur was not initially thought to be Dharma Material, I am sure that I will pass the test. I am all about world peace- a little alarming that so many Dharma members are packing heat because of those pesky Hostiles. I wonder if you can contentiously object to strapping a rifle to your person 24-7?

First on our agenda would be to discretely find SFL ("Sawyer-Ford-La Fleur") and convince him that we are here, much like the Huey Louis and The News song, to bring them "Back in Time". Although this would not mean anything to pre-Huey Dharma, it would demonstrate my strong knowledge of useless 80's pop culture to Sawyer and the gang, thus proving that we too are time jumpers....

Next on the agenda is to blend blend blend in, jump over to the processing station and get enrolled in the next new recruit Dharma initiation. Nameste! Oh, and no crappy "workman" duties for me. I am assigning myself a nice job such as "Art Director", "Beautification Engineer", or "Holistic Healer".

* I vehemently hope that our arrival would coincide with the sub transport of new recruits because there is no way in Hell I would survive in the jungle 1 day, much less 6 months. A simple warning - I would not be the best travel companion. If Christian Shephard or one of the various security systems greeted us in the dark I would die right there on the spot from immense fear and heart failure, leaving you to fend for yourself.


Ok - now onto the important stuff - we we have work to do. While you may opt to venture on to the Island tour, (visiting the temple, the foot statue, the various stations including orchid, the swan, the pre-explosion hatch, etc). I would be jumping right in to somebody else's business and busting up the love quadrangle otherwise known as Skate, Jate, Jacket and/or Suliet (Jack - Kate - Sawyer - Juliette). Not sure what this would entail but the end result would be that Kate stays with Jack, SFL stays with Juliette and everyone is happy. (Everyone except for Kate who will never be satisfied with where she is in life). Hey if this doesn't work I may try and convince SFL that I am the woman that he's always dreamed of , although being 3rd in line, my chances aren't looking so hot.

Now obviously I can't MYOB. Although I would have familiarized myself quite nicely with Halliwax's and Faraday's rules and I am generally NOT a rule breaker, I would be oh-so-tempted to warn Horace about the Purge. I am sure I could convince Hurley to join me. My plan would be simple - lie to him and tell him I see dead people too (and Miles too!). Then he would trust me and I could appeal to his every present Jiminy Cricket conscience to do the right thing - break the news to Dharma that cute lil Ben is a psychotic sociopath who along with the others will kill them all off. All except for Ethan apparently.

Double your pleasure, double your fun. One thing that does put quite a damper in that plan is that there are both a pre-teen AND a 40-something Benry running around the Island. Exposing Ben as the initiator of the purge would put me right on Ben's Bad List and that is not a good thing. I am not sure if being on the good list is a good thing either. Truth be known I really don't want to be on either list. The only list I want to be on is the Dharma Initiative new recruit roster. Just the thought of the exposure and the repercussions of exposing Benry / Ben Jr. for being are enough to make me take stock in the situation and resolve for once to keep my mouth shut. I have a feeling Sayid may be taking care of the Ben problem though, (or half of that problem at the very least - and my guess is that this would be the smaller half).

This alone should be enough to keep us busy for a while. Guess we will have to wait until next week's showing to see if our presence is needed. I will post an updated travel itinerary next week..... Until then Kumbaya!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

I don't think it is going away on it's own.

I think I have pink eye. Or at least I have an eye that is pink, dry, itchy and it hurts. So even if I DON'T have pink eye, I have something going on. Not sure where I got this. Stayed in the house all weekend. The kids don't have it. Now I have to figure out how I am going to squeeze in a trip to the Dr. tomorrow.

I am tired, cranky and contagious. Off to bed soon but have to wipe the keyboard off first... Want to make sure that we don't have another epidemic like the last time conjunctivitis visited our home.


Monday, March 16, 2009

when your kid thinks you have a ghost in the house.

Are your kiddos afraid of the dark?

When we moved into our new home, our two little ones moved into separate bedrooms. At first they LOVED it. Miss N. and Miss E. were SO proud to have their own rooms. After the newness wore off (about a week or so), Miss E. started venturing into our room every night. Apparently the size of the new home (double the size of our old one), the unfamiliar territory and the fact that she no longer had a roommate was a little scary. Also, one of our doors is not installed properly and closes on it's own. She INSISTED that we had a ghost residing on the 2nd floor. It took me more than one explanation to convince her that we did not have a ghost living in our new house.

After a few weeks of co-sleeping we encouraged her to sleep in her own room. It started with leaving the laundry room light on but then WE could not sleep. Or she would head downstairs saying "I'm not tired." then fall asleep on the couch. I had back surgery a few years ago so carrying her up the stairs every night was NOT an option.

The solution was simple - a night light. Brilliant right? (that was a sarcastic jab at myself) We would have come to this solution sooner but our night light was packed in one of the hundreds of boxes. We finally went out and bought a few new ones for ALL the kids rooms.

We still have the occasional visit from Miss E. but for the most part she is comfortable in her new room. Also, I think she has finally accepted that we do not have a ghost. Good thing, because if we did I am pretty confident that I would be the most frightened out of anyone else in my family.

Thanks to Parent Bloggers and Sylvania for inspiring this post.



Sunday, March 15, 2009

Lazy Sunday

Ryan, the girls and I cleaned the entire house yesterday (mostly Ryan and myself). Actually I did all of the cleaning, dishes, laundry, etc and Ryan cleaned the carpets. I generally take about an hour to clean the carpets. He took 4 hours (between intervals of watching the ACC tournament). Now I know why the carpeting always looks better when he does the job.


Today Ryan has the girls at the mall. I started dinner - I used a modified version of the recipe HERE. I also made myself a tuna sandwich. I won't let Ryan make me his version of Tuna - it is more like soup. I don't know how he can eat that. I prepare mine with 2 tsps of mayo, dill and onion seasoning, celery. It tastes great and is not drowning in mayo.

I have a couple of more giveaways to post, a million emails to go through, etc. I should get a headstart on work but I will get a very early start tomorrow to catch up instead.

Love lazy Sundays.


Saturday, March 14, 2009

Anniversary Celebration

Last night we went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. My MIL and FIL sent us a gift card to Bahama Breeze so off we went with 4 kiddos - 3 of ours plus Miss E.'s best friend.

We had a great time but boy was it packed. Apparently that is "slow" for them. I cannot imagine what it is like on a busy night. I ate WAY too much. We had appetizers, salad, dinner AND dessert. I never do that so I felt like I was going to die when I rolled out of there.

The girls really enjoyed it also - especially the onion rings and desert. I have to say if you ever go to Bahama Breeze, order the coconut Onion Rings - they are the best ones I have ever tasted.

Today I hope to burn off some of last night's caloric intake by doing some heavy duty cleaning around the house. If I can ever get off the computer that is.....

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

lazy night

The house is clean - dinner has been served. Now I am just watching IDOL on DVR with my family and catching up on Blog Giveaways, posting, etc.

While you are here stop by and enter the giveaways we have going on - we currently have 3
- Magic Senses - These are WONDERFULLY scented and UNIQUELY shaped glycerin soaps
- Paper Jewels - Trendy yet affordable high quality pendants
- Douglas Toys - Great plush toys in a variety of animals (some realistic and others just for fun!)

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Why is cooking like doing your hair?

I made a roast tonight and it just did not come out as good as I would have hoped. This is the same recipe I have used countless times. Sometimes it comes out great and other times it comes out OK at best. I am often left scratching my head and wondering how did this happen?

I much prefer baking over cooking. Baking is easy - you mix everything together, throw in in a pan, bake it for a set number of minutes and ta dah! You have something delicious and fattening that everyone is fighting over to eat. This dish will be the same each time you make it. No surprises. Baking is easy and dependable. Cooking is a different story; You have to actually know what you are doing.

When my oldest was a baby my husband and I used to eat out A LOT. When the second and then the third kids came along we tried to still go out to eat all the time. We quickly realized that this was 1) NOT FUN and 2) TOO EXPENSIVE. Yes, with 3 kids eating out everyday is just not an option. In fact, now it is a special treat. Because of this, I pretty much had to teach myself to how to cook....How to cook things besides hotdogs and mac and cheese with peas in it. Through this learning process we had one kitchen fire, several dishes that went straight from the stove/oven to the trash bin, and many things my kids just would not eat, period.

I tend to gravitate towards Crockpot recipes and casseroles because these follow the same principles as baking; you dump it all together and heat it up. If I had to do dinners with multiple dishes and sides every night I would just about have a nervous breakdown - I just cannot get the timing thing down right.

Cooking to me is like doing my hair. I can do the EXACT same thing as I did last time but I will get a totally different result. It simply never does the same thing twice. With baking if I make a mistake, it happens once, I fix it and I get consistent results from there on out. Doing the same thing with cooking each time does not guarantee that I will get the same dish. In fact a dish that I cooked last week which my kids raved over may be the same one I cook this week resulting in questions such as "What is this? What is that red stuff? Do I have to eat it? ".

What happened? I added all the ingredients. I followed the directions. I did the EXACT same thing I did last time. If someone has the secret to cooking CONSISTANCY please share.

Looking for a good laugh?

Head over to "The Junk Drawer" and check out THIS post about the Ped Egg. Oh my goodness, I was laughing so hard when I read this (and trying to picture her husband).

I have seen the Ped-egg commercials. It is the only commercial I have ever seen that both grosses me out yet also makes me so engrossed that I am interested in buying the product. Maybe on my next trip to CVS I will break down and buy this. I saw these lined up on the ends of the shelves last time I was there....



Friday, March 06, 2009

more to come

Hello again - Just a quick note to let everyone know that I will have 1 - 2 new giveaway(s) posted this weekend! Keep an eye out.

I have been very busy with work this week but hope to catch up with shopping, cleaning and blogging over the weekend.

Oh, and my 13 year old has a "date". More on that later.

Monday, March 02, 2009

snow days

Well it has snowed again here and the girlies had off from school today. Working from home was pretty stressful. The snow was too mushy for them to go out and play in, so they burnt their energy off indoors while I tried to work. Amazingly I was able to get quite a bit done. Now it is 10:30 pm and the girls are still not asleep. They are upstairs in the loft on the pull out bed, giggling away. At least they are not arguing.

I have a feeling there will be a make-up day this weekend or next. Miss E. was so excited the first time I used the term "make-up day". She said "A make-up day? really", to which I responded "Yes. A make-up day". She then proceeded to ask "Where we put on make-up all day at school?". I hated to disappoint her but had to inform her that a makeup day where when they made up the day at school they missed due to the "snow-day".

So now tomorrow we are on a 2 hour delay. I am wondering how long it will take before we get back to our regular schedule.


Sunday, March 01, 2009

PaperJewels - giveaway




Paperjewels.com is a site featuring lovely, colorful, pendants and earrings. There are several categories to choose from including the following:

- Japanese Kanji Collection
- Chinese Pinyin Collection
- Your Name in Chinese
- Your Name in Japanese
- Florals
- Animals
- Glass Tile Pendants
- Necklaces

Each piece of jewelry is made and finished by hand - there will be tiny variations in each piece. Most are made to order - You can find out more about the creation process HERE!

If you are looking for affordable and trendy accessories to add to your collection I highly recommend that you check out paperjewels.com. The prices are VERY reasonable, plus you have the opportunity to own a piece of jewelry that is truly unique and elegant.

PaperJewels.com has offered a free personalized pendant to one lucky winner! All entrants are also eligible for a discount on any purchases - Please use Coupon Code SB15 for 15'% off any item at http://www.paperjewels.com

THE RULES:

* Visit http://www.paperjewels.com/glass.html and select your favorite. No other comments will be considered unless this is followed. The winner will be able to select the color, initial, etc. Shipping is on the prize for the winner is free.

* Please make sure that your email address is in your profile or please post it with your entry.

* US entries only

* Giveaway starts 03/01/2009 and ends 03/15/2009 at 11:59pm EST

Please submit an additional comment for each extra entry
* For extra entries you can do any of the following:

- add my site to your blogroll
- blog about this giveaway linking to both blogmania AND paperjewels.com
- *NEW* Add my button to your blog!
- Add me as a friend in Twitter (misaacmom)
- Tweet about this giveaway
- Follow me in blogger
- sign up for my feed - this is in the top right hand corner of my page
- sign up for my feed at MB's Bloggy Sweeps @ http://bloggysweeps.blogspot.com
- Stumble Upon this post (see "Share This" below) and post your username
- Add my blog to your Techorati favorites (see "Share This" below) and post your username

- Winners will be contacted via email. WINNER MUST HAVE A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS IN THEIR BLOGGER PROFILE, IF NOT, PLEASE INCLUDE IN YOUR POST OR ANOTHER WINNER WILL BE DRAWN. If a winner does not respond within 3 days another winner will be selected.

Paperjewels.com is responsible for for prize fulfillment. Winner selected via randomizer on or about 3/16/2009 and posted within 24 hours.


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