Thursday, December 16, 2010

Winter Break!!

Winter Break is here!!!!!!!!


I finished my last two finals today, which means it is time for winter break....four weeks of no classes, no homework and no tests! I've really enjoyed this semester but I am so happy to get a break.

Its going to be a very busy holiday! The hubby's family starts making their way here for Christmas soon. His brother and his brother's two kiddos should be here on Monday and there is so much to do! This house is a mess because i've been so focused on school over the past few weeks. I think its time to make a to do list and get cracking on that!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Oh yeah!

I just logged onto my twitter, first time in months, and found it was hacked! Ugh!

If you are following me and were getting stupid tweets about pharmacy stuff or anything along those lines then i'm really sorry! I deleted all the posts and everything should be good now.

Sorry!

What a semester!

I'm almost done with my first semester at the University of Colorado! I have finals next week and then its time for winter break!

It has been so different being back on campus after so many years away, but this semester has been a good experience. I've made some new friends, gained a wonderful mentor, and learned that there are amazing professors out there and some who will push their personal beliefs on you all semester until you want to lose your mind. I got knocked down and built back up and its been really good for me.

Snuggle Bug absolutely loves her daycare and talks about her friends all the time. She is really thriving, learning a ton and loves being around her peers. Four months later and I still hate dropping her off each morning. I'm glad she is happy but I feel like I am missing so much and it still breaks my heart. I just remind myself that i'm doing this for her so I can provide her with a better life.

Now it times to study for finals and get ready for a wonderful holiday season. The hubby's mom and two brothers are coming out along with his brother's two kiddos. I'm going to have a full house this Christmas!

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Ben's latest film!

Here is my brother's latest short...... Be sure to comment on it at youtube and let him know you liked it!!


Saturday, July 24, 2010

Well Hello!

Just wanted to drop in and let everyone know that I haven’t abandoned my blog!
There has been so much going on over the last couple of months it has been difficult to find the time to get on and update.

I was accepted to the University of Colorado so I’m excited to say that in a few weeks I’m going to be going back to school fulltime. I’m really excited but a little nervous. Snuggle Bug will be starting at a wonderful daycare center on campus so I’ll be nearby. They have a great curriculum and I think it will be a really wonderful experience for her.

We did our usual trip to San Diego over the 4th and had a wonderful time. Between the aquarium, zoo, setting up and shoot on the 4th and spending time with family and friends it was a very busy week and half!

The hubby has been busy with work as usual and I’ve been doing my homemaking, cooking and crafting.

There is so much more I want to update about but it will have to wait till later. But I promise I’m going to try soon to post regularly. Hopefully some new crafting ideas or new recipes soon!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Rainbow Falls

I am loving it here in Colorado! I can't even tell you how beautiful it is out here and how much fun we have been having since we got here. I can, however, show you some pictures from are recent trip to Rainbow Falls.







Some people seem to think the graffitti is an eyesore but I happen to think its beautiful. It adds such an interesting feel to the falls.

Besides, how can anything be an eyesore with that in view? Lovely!












Snuggle Bug found it all very interesting. The water was particularly fun for her to splash her hands in.




"No!" was what she was telling me each time I tried to help her. Ah, toddlers.


Even I decided to get in on the fun and hop in the water.



It was COLD!




We had such a great morning! Other families were there throwing frisbees around, enjoying picnics and just taking in the scene views. We will definately be going there again!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Worldess Wednesday




PS. Sorry for not posting recently. There has been a ton going on and I just haven't had a lot of time to attend to my blog. I'm hoping that once things calm down, the hubby comes home from his TDY and I get my educational stuff figured out i'll be able to sit down and really focus on my blog again. I miss it!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Sad News

On Friday I got a call from my mother telling me that her cat was at the vet. She said that Gypsy was lethargic, vomiting, groaning and she knew something was wrong. Unfortunately, something was wrong. Gypsy was suffering from liver failure. She made it until Monday morning and they made her as comfortable as possible before she finally passed away. Obviously my mother is very upset as anyone would be at the loss of a pet, especially one who has been a member of the family for so long. It is never easy to say goodbye to a pet.

So, after 11 years of faithful friendship we have to say goodbye to sweet little Gypsy.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Whole Wheat Banana Flaxseed Mini Muffins

I love spending time in the kitchen. Getting in there and experimenting with different flavors and textures relaxes me for some reason. So yesterday on a whim I hopped into the kitchen and decided to whip something up. This is what I came up with…..





Whole Wheat Banana Flaxseed Mini Muffins

1 ½ cups of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons milled flaxseed
3 bananas, mashed
¾ cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
Dash of fresh grated nutmeg
¾ teaspoon cinnamon

Combine wet and dry ingredients separately. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
Bake at 375 for 12 minutes. Makes 32 mini muffins.

I want to call these “healthy” but I have a hard time saying that with so much sugar in the recipe. Next time I make these I’m going to try substituting 1/3 cup agave nectar for the all the sugar in the recipe and maybe a scoop or two of wheat germ.

Either way, they are super yummy and Snuggle Bug gobbled these up as soon as she tasted one. Enjoy!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Another Monday Morning

All is quiet in the house. The hubby is off to work, Snuggle Bug is still resting quietly and I’ve been milling about the house since 6am. It’s a pretty calm morning, so far. I did, however, wake up with one teeny tiny question……



WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?
Snow at the end of April? Seriously?

My home town is going to have a high of 83 today. Do you know why? Because it’s Spring. Apparently Colorado missed the memo.



I know I’ve been talking a lot about the weather, springtime and such but you have to keep in mind I’m from the south and even though I’ve been living in colder climates for about 3.5 years now, that still apparently isn’t quite enough time for me to enjoy the fact that it stays colder much longer around here than I’d like. I’m just ready to pull out the spring clothes, plant some flowers and sit on my back porch with a glass of iced tea. Doesn’t that sound so much better than schlepping about in that lovely dirt and snow mixture while bundled up to look like the kid from a Christmas Story, “I can’t put my arms down!”? For me that will only work when the holidays are coming up and you’ve got enough warm Christmas cheer to combat the cold winter sludge.

Nonetheless, Snuggle Bug and I will make the most of it. I’ve got a few projects in mind and once she wakes up and has breakfast we’ll venture out to pick up some groceries and a few other items. Now a positive to all this cold, I can get to a few more stores before my cold items thaw out too much. See? You always have to look for a silver lining.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Look! It's a Lawn!!

LOOK!!



Can you see the difference? You see that green stuff? Its grass!

After about a month of living with a dirt backyard after the straw and netting blew away they finally came and put in the grass yesterday. It is so nice to finally have a lawn. The dogs, of course, ran out to break it in immediately. That was nice of them, eh? After I got that cleaned up I let Snuggle Bug go outside to check things out. I’m ashamed to say this is her first lawn. At our old house we never could seem to get the grass to grow and it was so gross out back that we never let her play out there. But not anymore!

So now comes the fun part when we turn it into our own backyard oasis. I’ve been scanning craigslist daily for patio furniture I can rehab and I’m hoping to find a little swing set for snuggle bug. Then again there is a park literally across the street so we may look for something else. I don’t know yet. I just want to be able to finally enjoy our outdoor space for once. I keep reading blogs where people have taken the crappiest looking stuff and turned it into something really amazing. I want to try that myself! Any tips from the rehabbers on what to look for in furniture or rehab projects? I’d love to make some fun one of a kind stuff outside of the small craft projects I already do.


Side note:
The Girl Creative
Friday Follow

If you're over from Friday Follow or New Friend Friday let me know!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Its Curtains for You!




Yay for playdates. Snuggle Bug just loves them and I love that she gets a chance to play with some kids her age. With her being an only child it’s so important to make sure she is getting proper socialization so she isn’t just playing with grownups all the time. But having other kids over shows me how much we need to teach her how to share a bit better. She has no issue at first but then when she really wants a toy that someone else has she screams bloody murder. Yes, I’ve got a screamer on my hands. I’m actually surprised that the neighbors having called the cops on us yet with all the screaming Snuggle Bug does. But now the kiddos have gone on their merry way and Snuggle Bug is enjoying some quiet snack time in the playroom. Ah, quiet. It’s nice while it lasts, which isn’t very long at all.







Is this not the cutest fabric? I got it on sale a few weeks ago to make into curtains for Snuggle Bug’s playroom. I absolutely puffy heart this fabric. But now I don’t know what kind of curtains to make with it. Valances? Balloon shades? Roman shades? I don’t know and there are so many different styles out there.


Here is the playroom. Excuse the mess, our little playdate friends just left so the place isn’t completely picked up. Thoughts?


I also bought these two fabrics for summer dresses for Snuggle Bug.










I don’t actually know what I want to use this fleece for. But I saw it on sale and loved it so here it is. Ideas?




So i've got a lot of ideas in the works if I could just get my sewing room up and running again. Maybe that will be my next project this weekend.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Spring? Where are you Spring??



Has anyone seen spring? Because I sure haven’t. I love spring. I love being able to get outside in the nice weather and plant things. Despite my black thumb I do enjoy basking in my attempts at not killing the most basic of plants.

It was such a lovely day yesterday. The sun was shining, I had the windows open; it was the kind of day that makes you wake up feeling positive. This morning is one of those mornings that you wake up; hear the rain the groan loudly while you pull the covers over your head begging for just 15 more minutes. We had originally planned a fun filled trip to the zoo but that obviously isn’t going to happen today because the equation of wet + cold + toddler does not equal a calm mommy. But the season has just started and that season pass will come in handy soon enough with many zoo pictures to follow. So what do you do on days like this? Cold, wet days when you and your kiddos are stuck inside. I always love new ideas.



Ooooh and I almost forgot to post a wonderful new recipe I tried out.




Unfortunately, I have no picture of the actual meal, because I was so excited to try it that I ate it all up before I realized I hadn’t taken a picture. Oops!

Cioppino

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon herbs de provence
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup clam juice
1 tomato, diced
1 cup chicken or fish stock
1 cup water
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
½ pound mussels, cleaned and debearded
½ pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
½ pound scallops
½ pound skinless halibut

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in large soup pot. Add onion and celery and cook, stirring, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, herbs de provence, bay leaf and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in tomato paste. Add clam juice, bring to a boil and cook over medium-high heat for 3 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, chicken or fish stock and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in vinegar, salt and pepper.
Bring back soup base back to a boil. Add shrimp, scallops, mussels and halibut. Reduce heat and simmer, until everything is cooked, about 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with crusty Italian bread.

Enjoy!!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Post It Note Tuesday




It's a Beautiful Crafty Day!

Good morning blog world! It is such a lovely day today. The sun is shining; it’s cool outside and beautiful. Snuggle Bug just finished a yummy bowl of oatmeal and I’m enjoying a cup of coffee. It’s a good start to a good day. Peaches is doing well since her surgery last week and seems to be recovering well. She was very drugged up when the hubby brought her home on Wednesday but after about 6 days of rest and relaxation – which is hard for a very energetic dog like her- she is doing well. She doesn’t love the cone she has to wear to keep her from messing with the stitches but she seems to be getting used to it.

Nice days like these bring out my creative side. I haven’t had any craft projects to post in at least a month and I’m itching to get something going soon. My sewing room isn’t even close to being unpacked unfortunately. I’ve been waiting on the hubby to put my desk together but I’m about to give up and just do it myself because I really want it done. I also need to go buy another shelf since the one I had in my old sewing room broke during the move. I’m just ready to make something special.
Actually I do have a mini craft that Snuggle Bug and I did earlier this week.

Letter Decorating!


Snuggle Bug just LOVES the alphabet. So what could be more fun to a 2 year old then to decorate the alphabet? She was so proud when I put them on the wall for all to see. When the hubby got home from work that evening she was thrilled to show him the special project she had done. We also made stick puppets but she has hidden those away so I can’t take a picture. I love doing little crafts with her. I think this week it’ll be something with macaroni noodles or paper cups. Oh the possibilities!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Grocery Savings and Doggy Surgery

Recently I joined a site called the Grocery Game. If you’re an avid coupon clipping deal hunter like I am then you’ve probably heard of it in the past. How it works is there are lists to grocery stores in your area. On each list are sale items that are coupled with coupons from the Sunday paper so that you can get the rock bottom lowest price and the more that you shop the list the more you save. You pay $5 per list every 8 weeks which for us equals out to $7.50 a month for the three lists that we receive which are Safeway, King Soopers and Walgreens. I’ve been at this for about 3 weeks now and I will say I’ve seen a significant savings already even though I’m still working on my stockpile. Stockpiling is another principal in the grocery game. Sales run every couple of weeks and you stockpile those sale items that you need so you won’t have to buy more until they come on sale again. That way you’re always buying your items for the lowest possible price. They even have items marked in green on the list that are things you can get for free when you combine a sale and a coupon. Today I managed to get Nivea body wash and Lunchables for free thanks to a sale and coupon. Over the past couple of weeks I see an average savings of 25% which may not sound like much but it is great to see “You saved $71 today” or “You saved $35 today” on my receipts. I will say you could probably do what the Grocery Game on your own without paying for the list but I’m honestly paying for the convenience of it all. I originally went into it thinking I’d just do the free trial and opt out but I’m hooked.

In other news, my little fur-baby is going in for surgery on Wednesday. When we made it here to Colorado we noticed that she had began limping and decided to get her checked out. Low and behold the poor thing has a torn ACL and a bone deformity that we didn’t know about. So after a trip to the canine orthopedic clinic it was determined that she’d need surgery. Even though it’s horrible expensive we’re going to go ahead with it because we don’t want her to be in pain anymore and for it to get worse and worse. Please send out lots of prayers and good thoughts to my little Peaches on Wednesday!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Checking In

It’s that wonderful time again. Yes, its babysitter interviewing time. It feels like I just did this not too long ago actually. I put ads out, interviewed each candidate, thought long and hard and finally found a sitter. The sitter I chose the first time was very sweet and Snuggle Bug just loved her. She has great availability, was educated and experienced. Then a few months later whenever I’d call she’d have classes during the day and be working weekends and evenings so she was never available. It was quite a letdown to go through all that only to have a sitter flake a few months later. Especially during a deployment when I needed the extra help. I’m hoping this time around is a bit better.

I was speaking to a friend of mine last night who told me she couldn’t imagine having to find a sitter. She only leaves her children with family. I really envy people who have family nearby to help with occasional sitting.

In other news, we’re pretty well settled here in Colorado, as I mentioned in my last post. The area is beautiful, the people have been nice and I feel very comfortable here after the last couple of weeks. We’ve got pretty much all the boxes unpacked now, except for the office which I’m not touching until the hubby gets in there and sorts some things out. It’s mostly his stuff anyway. So reasonably that room will stay that way until he decides there is something he needs and has to go through everything to find it.

Snuggle Bug did quite well with the transition. There were some rough nights at first with her trying to get used to her new room but we’ve finally gotten into a good routine and she is much happier now. I say that as she throws a huge toddler fit in front of me for no apparent reason. I guess she wants me to wrap this up. I just thought I’d check in and let everyone know we’re doing well, getting settled and should hopefully be posting more soon!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Getting Settled

What a busy few weeks this has been with SO many changes! It all started on my birthday when the movers came to pack us up. The next day our stuff was put on a truck and they drove into the sunset. We cleaned and painted and got everything in the house ready to rent and by Monday is was time for us to pack up the car and head to Colorado. The drive wasn't bad, about 8 hours, which is long enoug when you've got two dogs and a toddler in the car with you. Snuggle Bug did very well for being couped up so long actually. Thank goodness for portable DVD players and Elmo. We got to Colorado that evening, checked into our hotel and the next day was the day us to sign for our new house, it was right down the road from our hotel on post so it was pretty convenient. Then we waited....and waited.....and waited... for our stuff to finally arrive. It finally made it to us on Friday. We had days of beautiful sunny warm weather out here and on Friday, of course, we had to get a random snow storm. I felt so bad for the movers having to move in all our stuff in that nasty weather. Those guys really earned their money. The past few days have involved tons of unpacking. Who knew we had so much stuff? Snuggle Bug's room was first on my list because I wanted her to get settled first. The living room is about done, got the curtains hung today, the dining room is unpacked but still a mess and Snuggle Bug's play area is a mess but that is only because she likes to pull out every toy she sees me put away.

So here we are in Colorado. I really like the area so far and I love our house. There's so much to see and do around here and having such a wonderful view of the mountains doesn't hurt either. So thats whats been going on during my blog hiatus. I'm sure there is more I could tell you about but I should probably get back to getting the house together and then start dinner.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Birthdays and Movers

Today is my birthday. The sad part is I’ve had to be reminded of that a few times earlier today because I completely forgot. It has been such a long day. Today is the official beginning of our big move to Colorado and I’m so excited and just so ready to get there and get settled. The movers came to pack us up and got to the house a little before 8am and spent the entire day there; finally finishing at around 5pm. I didn’t realize we had so much stuff! Tomorrow the movers will come back and pack all our stuff onto a truck and on its way to Colorado it goes. So we’re living in a hotel for the next week or so which could be better and could be worse. Snuggle Bug is handling everything really well so far which is a big relief for me. I was quite worried she would freak out and I’d damage my child forever. Can you imagine in her little world leaving the only house you’ve ever known? That is a huge change in her little world.

The hubby took us out to dinner after we got checked into the hotel. We were both so tired and Snuggle Bug was just grouchy and ready to eat and go to bed. But the food was good and its always nice not having to cook. I’m sure after a week or so of take out I’m going to be dying for a home cooked meal – even if I’m the one cooking it. I will admit since it’s my birthday I was hoping for a little cake. Something about birthdays just makes me crave cake. Yum. Now I’m drooling about cake. Maybe I’ll run by Wal-Mart and get a small one just to celebrate our move and my birthday all in one. I think that is a good enough excuse for cake.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

2-20-10 Photo Shoot

I meant to post some of these earlier, but here are some pictures from the 2-20-10 photo shoot. There were so many wonderful photographers involved and we had a lot of fun even though it was freezing out!











and a few of the hubby and I.



HUGE thanks to Kim Kravitz Photography, James Smotherman of Smo Shots, Kenneth Rodriguez Photography and Danta Simonsen!! They all do amazing work!