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Saturday, June 26, 2010

I've been in the kitchen!

I've been in the kitchen a few times in the past few weeks learning & whipping up yummy stuff!

Come on over and check out what I've been doing!

Pepper Jelly & Texas Caviar is SO delicious!


Thursday, June 24, 2010

my birthday cake

When we moved to Texas almost two years ago, there were a lot of changes had to make.
New location.
New friends.
New everything!

Fortunately, I found some amazing friends when we moved here.
One of these friends is a very talented lady (well, I have many friends who are all so talented!, but today we'll talk about one of them). She is an amazing baker. She is my bishop's wife... LEISA! Now, I have no clue if she reads my blog or if she even KNOWS my blog exists, but I'll brag on her a bit.

Months after we moved into town, I made friends. One of my friends had a birthday and let me try out her cake... a cake she said the bishop's wife made. I.WAS.IN.LOVE!! Oh man, it was four layers of absolute heaven! There was chocolate coming every which way! There was orange flavoring in the frosting! It was DIVINE!!

So, what did I do? I braved up, and walked up to her one Sunday and said "umm... I loved your cake. Can you teach me how to make it?" and she said "YOU BET!" So I went to her house one late morning and she taught me. She explained how she got into baking because her only daughter wanted to learn.... and learn they did!
She told me tricks and tips about baking and I took notes.

She also said "do you want to be on my cake calendar?"
I need to learn my manners b/c I said "YESSSSS!" and I got to take that cake she made home w/ me that afternoon! And I got a cake for my birthday last year too!
and this year... I got another cake!

You tell me.... wouldn't you fall in love?



Sunday, June 20, 2010

my newest favorite series!!

Months ago I received an email from my sister in law Tiffany. She wrote about a new series of books that she just LOVED! Anything that she reads, I know it's going to be a pretty good read, so I put it on my "TO READ" list!

When swim team season started up, I found I had LOADS of time to read! I finished books I had started... I reread a few books..... and I remembered I needed to read this series Tiffany recommended to me!

So, what is this series?

This series starts with a book called Enchanted, Inc. It's written by Shanna Swendson... and so far there are four books total in this series. It's funny. It's heart tugging. It's fantastical! It's basically a modern day fairy tale complete with Harry Potter type of magic, and it's SO good!

Saly, my library only carried book 1 & 4 (what library does that?!) but I remembered my used book store I frequent had book 2, so I skedaddled over that way to plop down $6.98 on a book. Then I was ready for book 3! Thankfully, my friend Kim had the same problem as I did, and had books 2-4! Thanks Kim for letting me read it! I'll return them as soon as I read them again!


I just have to say that the Owen Palmer & Katie Chandler love is just too funny.

One incredibly shy wizard who is literally drop dead gorgeous
+ a Texas gal who is immuned to all forms of magic
= disaster waiting to strike,
but yet tugs at the heart when you are literally pulling for them to recognize that they literally are NUTS for each other!

I also have to say the titles of the books are hilarious!
Book two is Once Upon Stilettos
Book 3 is Damsel under Stress
and book 4 .. love this one: Don't Hex with Texas!!

I read on Shanna's website that book 5 may or may not happen.... if there isn't much demand for books, then there's no deal for book 5... and well, you know how it all works for authors. :( So, do me a favor and go buy her books (or request them from the library) & SPREAD THE WORD! Maybe, just maybe, she'll do book 5!

Friday, June 18, 2010

how I accomplished a miracle

Literally.
A miracle happened in our family.
A few weeks ago.

My girls fight. They bicker. I mean, HELLO?!! That's why my blog is appropriately titled
"TELL YOUR SISTER YOU'RE SORRY!"
I get sick of the fighting.
At least they don't physically fight...
but tears do come out of one child that is going to be left nameless.

Years ago, when we lived in Missouri, we had a law about when children could sit in the front seat. I think it was 27 years old. Yep.... OK, it wasn't. I really thought it was 12 years old, but then I realized it was some of my friends' rule for their own family (and for their sanity, I found out later). So, I used the "you have to be 12 before you sit up front with me in the car" rule too.

Then I caved. Katie started sitting up front with me when she was 10, maybe 11? Maddie still sat in a booster seat (occasionally), and was fine with the backseat b/c she was underage. Then, SOMEONE who is male in our family and shall be left nameless said Maddie could sit in the front seat. Oh.My.GOODNESS!

The fighting over the front seat started.
Every.Single.Time.We.Get.In.The.Car..... they fought over whose turn it was.
Good thing I wear hearing aids!
{turns out, Texas law states a child has to be 8 to sit in the front}

I would say "OK, Katie gets it first, and we have to go to this place, and that place, etc... and when we get to this place, Maddie gets the front". That worked... until Maddie got a little too smart for me. She started counting how many trips & errands we were making. It wasn't EVEN! Augh. Talk about waterworks in the car for that time!

I was at my wits end.
Then, a lightbulb moment came to me.
I love lightbulb moments.
I don't have enough of them.
I said "one of you gets the even days, and the other gets the odd days"
and I went on "when we are in the car, if it's an even day, the person who has the even days gets to ride in the front ALL day long."
Oh, let the Hallelujah chorus start!
It WORKED!

Then we forgot who had the even days...
and who had the odd days.
Ugh.
If I was smarter... I would've told the kid who had the odd day birthday to take the odd days, and the kid who had the even day birthday to take the even days. But I wasn't smart. Now, I remember that it's the opposite.

And there's no more fighting in my car.
Thank you very much!

and that is how a miracle happened in our family....
Well, in my car, specifically, but who's being technical?

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

the pros & cons of my life

I've been pondering lately...
and realize I'm a pro & con kind of gal.
I make decisions sometimes based on how many pros vs cons there are of the situation

Here are my thoughts lately:

Driving with kids in the front seat:
Pro: having someone to help me reach my lip gloss in my purse
Con: Someone else controls the radio,
taking away my favorite Bread song and replacing it with the infamous Immabe song....
{or as I call it: Bumblebee song}
Con: Two girls who fight over whose turn it is to sit in the front
Con: worrying about "what if we get in a wreck" and would said child be OK b/c she's in the front...

Obviously there are more cons, so having kids in the front seat is a BAD idea!

Participating in the Swim Team:
Pro:
Plenty of reading time
Con:
It's a MAJOR "time sucker upper"... 4x a week is draining on this mom + a swim meet each weekend? UGH!
Pro: Good exercise for the girls
Con: It's open bar night for mosquitoes when I'm out at swim practice


Reading:
Pro:
found some great books to read! (more to come on that in a few days)
Con:
Library doesn't carry book 2 & 3 of series, but they do carry book 1 & 4...
Pro: Remembering that I love to read, and why did I get away from reading?
Oh yeah, I had kids.... that's why.

Con:
Can't seem to put my book down because I'm only 50 pages from the end, so I stay up TOO late reading, which makes me only get about 5 hours of sleep....


Finding a huge box of Key Lime Pie on a Stick at Costco:
Pro:
Memories flood my mind remembering my cruise with my mom & grandma
and eating one of these in Key West

Con:
Pretty high in calories....
::oh well.... you only live once, right?!


Many more pro's & cons to come...
I'm tired, and I can only outweigh the pro's than the con's when it comes to sleep!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

...coming soon to a blog near you!

Getting a little behind in my blog,
but here is a sneak peak of what you will see in a day or two!!


Thursday, June 3, 2010

...this girl


A few things happened this week that deserves a post ALL BY ITSELF! The one thing everything that happened has in common?
Katie.

Last Sunday Katie gave a talk in church about the Articles of Faith. She did a great job!


Katie had an awards ceremony at school.... and all we knew was "show up, she's getting a 'J' award". We go "a WHAT award?" So, I showed up. All kids who either got: Perfect Attendance, A/B Honor Roll, A Honor Roll, a nomination for the Principal's Award, among other things. Katie managed to get ALL A's for first semester, but this last semester, she got one B! Otherwise, she would've made the A Honor Roll! Still pretty darn proud of her though!


Anyways, she was also nominated for the Principal's Award!! Which only 7 girls total were nominated (plus 15 boys or something like that). She didn't win though, but still amazing that she was nominated by a teacher for this award!



Last night we had a really rocking thunderstorm that swept through the city. It was Scu-ARY! By the time Maddie & I got home from Achievement Girls, Katie & Mike had all our candles lit. I was starving (Maddie & I were supposed to go out for dinner together, but we had to cancel due to 60+ mph wind + rain + severe lightning). So, I made a sandwich for both of us, and poured a Sprite. Katie came over and pointed at my Sprite which was in a clear glass.
"Whoa! How did you get water?!"

I'm staring at her.....

"Katie, you can get water out of the faucet"


"huh? But... but.... the power is out!"


"Katie.... turn the water on."


the expression on her face was a classic. Hysterical. She thought it was the funniest thing ever. Apparently she thought when we lose power, we lose our water too. ::snort::

Another few irks of this girl that drives me crazy but I love her to death:


~ can't stand onions in her food ~but she loves onion rings
GO FIGURE!


~ can't stand salsa most of the time b/c it's TOO hot
~ but loves her jalapeno poppers
GO FIGURE!

~is the messiest kid in Texas... she can't pick up her clothes to save her life

and finally.... such an absolute sweetheart, who is the biggest helper a mother could ever ask for. She's doing such a great job jumping up and taking care of things before I even ask!

Love you Katie! So proud of all you've accomplished & have done!

{{smooch}}

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

More oldies but goodies

i'm four!!

Four years ago, my baby turned four. We had a PINK party because PINK was her favorite color. Everything was pink: the food, the decorations, the clothes she wore.... everything! A friend of mine took pictures, and made me a CD of all the pictures. I had misplaced it, and found it this weekend, and just saw the pictures for the first time! Man, it brought back so many memories and made me wish my girls were little little again! Not to mention I really miss that house we lived in!! That room had so much abundance of natural light it would've been wonderful for my photos now!

Sorry for the abundance of pictures, but some of them were just so stinking cute... I had to share.

that lil' button nose ...

everyone sings 'happy birthday'

wow... look at those curls on her hair!

typical katie yapping

true sisterly love


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