Validation

I came across this clip from Studio 5 when I was looking for something about growing herbs that I saw back when Gregory was first born.  I know, you totally needed to know how I found this.  Maybe you didn't, but I needed you to hear, okay?

Isn't that gorgeous?  I'm going to start embracing everything I don't do now.  I think I will actually be able to do MORE when I follow these steps and stop obsessing over all the things I leave undone. 

Who's with me?

Sweet Dealz

So, I've been on a quest lately.  A quest to save money.  It's fun and ADDICTING.  Like the time I went to Staples and got $68 worth of stuff for...$5.79!!!  It was AWESOME.  My favorite is going to stores and filling my cart up with stuff that will be FREE after my coupons.  I got 15 tubes of toothpaste for frrrrrREEEEEEEEE at Smiths when they were doing their cool coupon event.  And deodorant, and hand soap, all sorts of stuff that won't go bad so I can stock up!  That must be a lot of work to save all that money, huh?

NOPE!!!

Amy the Savvy Shopper does almost all of the work for me!!!  Wahooooooo! http://savvyshopperdeals.com is awesome.  Here's what I do.  I get 6 copies of the Daily Herald Sunday paper--because that's where all the coupons are.  I'm sure my neighbors are like, "what on earth?" when they walk by on their way to church.  Sunday night after the kids are snuggled into their beds (it sounds so pleasant, doesn't it?  We're talking after they've finished with ONE more glass of water, going potty ONE more time, and crying because they don't WANNA go to sleep...) Mike and I get to work.  Let's be honest, Mike is just about as excited about this as I am (if not MORE so).  We take apart the coupon booklets and lay them out page by page.  Then all the first pages go in a pile, and all the second pages go in a pile, etc.  That way we can cut out the coupons SIX at a time instead of one at a time (which would take forever...).  Mike cuts out the coupons and puts them on papers that are labeled by category.  These papers (just ordinary 8.5 x 11 printer paper) make it really easy for us to 1) move the coupons if we need to, say, eat dinner (which is why we try to wait till bedtime) and 2)organize the coupons into my coupon binder.

My coupon binder is a zippered binder like a Trapper-Keeper (oh, the memories!!!) filled with baseball card protectors (they have nine pockets on each page).  They've got tabs on them for each of my categories, and then each page has a sub category.  The categories I use are basically the same as Amy's: http://savvyshopperdeals.com/utah/blogs/article_fdb0f5f2-3c23-11df-af9b-001cc4c03286.html After that I just watch the Savvy Shopper site.  Amy sends e-mails on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays directing me to awesome deals.  For instance, yesterday I got the e-mail for Smiths, Maceys, and Reams deals (all the stores whose ads run from Wednesday thru Tuesday).  If I click on the link in my e-mail, it takes me to the Shopping Wizard!!!

The shopping wizard is amazing! You can limit your search by category, store, percent savings, savvy rank (which is Amy telling you if it's actually a good deal or not) and keyword.  This makes it really easy to search for
1) the best deals at Maceys, or
2) the best deals on chocolate chips, or
3) the best deals at ALL the stores in my area.

While I look at these deals, I can add things to my shopping list as I go by clicking on a plus sign.  When I'm done, I say "print list." The list prints out, organized by store and category.  And THEN at the bottom there is a list of coupons I need to make sure and bring with me!  K.  The shopping wizard is GEEK OUT worthy.  SRS BZNSS (as we former serious gamers like to say).

Oh wait!  This is sounding like an infomercial--"and you can have all this for just 19.99 a month.  Call now!!"  NOT TRUE.  it's Free.  FREE FREE FREE.  That's a very important thing to Savvy Shoppers.  :P  Well, the newspaper costs money.  But the site (which is funded, I believe, BY the newspaper in an effort to get us to buy MORE of their newspapers) is FREEEEEEE.

To get the best deals on the newspaper, you need to go to Amy's class.  There are rates on the savvy shopper site that are a few dollars more expensive than rock bottom (i.e. 21.82 for 5 Sunday copies).  I know, because I saw them and said, "hey, that's a good deal and I will save way more than that every month."  I called and ordered.  THEN later, I went to one of Amy's classes and she showed us the prices we could get if we signed up that night.  I haven't been charged yet, so I can't remember the cents, but it's a little more than 18 bucks a month.  I was feeling a little sad until she said she'd change it for me (YAY!).  And right now they have a deal going where you can get another copy on Sunday for $20 bucks a year.  A YEAR!!  Even if you are already getting five, which was the limit.  You do need to be an existing customer I believe. Whoooboy, I jumped on that one.  That way, when I steal Mom's coupons (she doesn't use most of them anyways)  I'll have SEVEN of every coupon!!! 

It's going to take some time while I stock up on essentials and work on recipes that use the things I can get often with my coupons.  Amy spends $155 a MONTH on groceries for a family of five and HALF of the stuff she buys is for storage!  She's having a class on September 23rd and you can sign up here: http://savvyshopper923.eventbrite.com/ if any of you want to go.  I loved the class--Amy is hilarious, and if you answer questions you get goodies  PLUS you can get that awesome subscription deal!  And if you need a buddy, I'll come again!

*****

There are another couple of deal sites I like to check--
Daily Deals from the Daily Herald has some great deals for Utah county.  Sometimes even half off gift certificates to grocery stores!

http://www.redplum.com/dash has one awesome coupon every day--the other day I got a $5 off coupon for Rite Aid.  There's a bunch of stuff that's free after rebate and coupons and register rewards and I want to grab some this week.  That $5 coupon will make it so I GET money back for shopping!!!

Daily Deal from the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune these are mostly for stuff in Salt Lake county, but I don't mind driving up to Salt Lake if it's something incredible--like something I bought from a different site--wait till you see.  Incidentally,  I get $10 for a friend referral if you click on this link instead: http://deals.mediaoneutah.com/r/4c929fda8  which would be cool if you are interested, but no pressure if you aren't.

| Groupon Salt Lake City has mostly SLC deals, but there have been a couple of Provo chestnuts thrown in.  For instance, Mike and I are going to Agatha Christie's Mousetrap at the Covey Center for HALF OFF!!!  Yay for cheaper dates!  It's funny, cuz I was like, "huh, we were just talking about that."  And Mike saw it and said, "HEY!  That would be a great way to round off our Agatha Christie marathon."  We've been listening to all the Agatha Christie audiobooks at Pioneer Overdrive (it's FREEEE too!)--so it was HIS idea.  The other week the daily deal was buy one get one free tickets to Ririe Woodbury!!!!!  Okay, so many of you may not know who they are, but they are an incredible and pioneering modern dance company right here in Utah!!!  This is the SLC deal that I totally jumped on because I have always always wanted to see Ririe Woodbury!  So we are going in January.  And I cannot geek out enough about it.  This one has a $10 bonus to me if I refer you as well--click here: http://www.groupon.com/r/uu7277478

The Best Daily Deals in Salt Lake City --I just got an e-mail that these guys got a SLC deal.  I've only looked at today's (which seems like it's the first one) so really I don't know enough to recommend or not.  It looks like SLC deals mostly.

http://www.citydeals.com/ --I LOVE this site!  All sorts of gift certificates to local businesses.  You can request deals to places you love as well.  I'm crossing my fingers for an Olive Garden one.  We got a REALLY good deal to Cherry Hill this year when we went for a family reunion.  Also, Mike and I were talking about our date to Mouse Trap and I wanted to go to Arctic Circle afterward.  I'm basically ADDICTED to their hot fudge oreo shake.  YUM.  So I though, huh, I wonder if there's anything good on CityDeals.  FRONT PAGE.  Except it's two $10 certificates for the price of one.  Which is AWESOME except you have to use the whole certificate at once (watch out for that).  Since we only ever get two shakes there, I don't know that we would ever hit $10 on an order--especially if we have a coupon.  Sigh.  ANYWAYS, there's a referral bonus here too--click here: http://www.citydeals.com/?ref=CDUMTAyMzkx  

WHOAH that was forever long!  But I thought you all should know that you TOO could be saving MILLIONS of dollars EVERY DAY!  Call now and you too can be happy and addicted to saving money!  Limited time offer!  If you call now you can get your very own Perry the Platypus plush doll absolutely FREE!!!

Pirate Play

Isaac's birthday present was a big hit!

I love to watch my boys play.

Sometimes I find the most fabulous pictures on my camera.

Peekaboo!

Arachnaparanoia

So.  My sister Lauren has had some pretty good creepy-crawly posts lately, which reminds me of one of the posts I've been meaning to write.  For about FOREVER.  Or a couple weeks.  Which have felt like forever.

Anyways, Isaac is growing like crazy (finally!).  So there's been much clothing shuffling.  Which requires delving into the basement craft-room-acting-like-a-storage-room.  Which, if you've lived in a basement, you know can be a little bit creepy.  Creepy crawly.

BUT, I got the boxes I was after without getting attacked by enormous Shelob-style monsters.  Sorted them a bit, because some outfits were much more autumnal than is currently appropriate.  I looked down at the box I had just finished packing, and saw a bit of planty fluff.  You know, like a mini tumble weed.  I was about to brush it off of the box, stand up, and put the box away (be proud, usually I don't get to that last step).

Yeah, see that? Yeah, that's about what I saw too.  Out of the corner of my eye.  Luckily, something stopped me before I TOUCHED it.  Because as I moved to REmove it, I realized it was a remarkably symmetrical, eight legged piece of fluff.  Want a close up?

Well hello there Mr. Spider! (Because, of course, all creepy spiders waiting to KILL me are male).  I wasn't ABOUT to put something next to it for scale, but trust me that those legs have a 1.5 to 2 inch diameter.  And I could NOT see a body!!!  after I took this picture with the flash and zoooooomed in, I could tell.  Yeah, there's an eensy body.  It's not like a daddy long-legs spider here--it's a super creepy spider-masquerading-as-plant-fluff spider!!!  

Don't worry, cuz I squashed him DEAD.

But it makes me feel all creepy-crawly all over me.  Like the other night when I accidentally upset an anthill in my yard and there were ants crawling all over me angrily.  Only spiders are DEADLY man.  (Although, apparently ants are pretty deadly--just ask Indiana Jones.)  It's been getting worse around here too--the other day I killed FOUR of the little meanies!  And there's all sorts of little tiny ones hanging in mid-air that you think are a spec of dust, but are MOVING.  I'ma call a sprayer man--if I can ever remember during business hours.

Two Favorites

Well, my dear friend and cousin-in-law was asking for these recipes, and I thought, why not put them here on my blog for all to see? 

The first is a Nila special.  My Mom and Dad were somewhere for dinner, and they had a yummy pasta.  Dad raved about it, so Mom replicated it to the best of her ability--and of course, made it even yummier.  I know, I wish I'd gotten some of that talent!  Anyways, my Mom called it "Chicken Gregorio," being translated, "chicken the way Greg likes it."  I also have a Gregorio, but since he pretends to dislike chicken in any form, we have tried to pretend that there ISN'T chickien.

Chicken Gregorio
2 (12 oz.) bags rainbow rotelle or rotini
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. flour
4 c. milk
1/4 c. white cooking wine
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 T. dried parsley (opt.--and I don't usually use it)
8 oz. cream cheese, cut in small pieces
1 c. parmesan cheese
1 large can cooked chicken

Cook noodles in a large kettle; drain.  Make white sauce of butter, flour, milk, wine, and seasonings in small kettle.  When thick, add cheeses and stir until cream cheese melts.  Stir in chicken.  If sauce is too thick, add more milk.  Serve over noodles.


Super super yummy, kids like it (until they figure out there's chicken in there ;).  Pretty sure it isn't super healthy, but what can you do?


The green beans were a Martha Stewart recipe (have I told anyone besides Annie how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE that website?  Careful--you'll be addicted too...)

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/lemon-green-beans

My Mom--who worked at a cannery canning green beans won't ever be able to eat canned green beans happily again.  Since we never had them growing up, I wasn't sure she was a fan of ANY green beans.  But I brought these to Sunday dinner once, and she's asked for them several times since.  Yay!  Success!

More Gregory-isms

Tee hee hee.  You just have to laugh!  Or maybe it's just me cuz I'm his Mom and I was there.  :P

So, this child has figured out one of the principles of persuasion (not the book, just the general concept): ETHOS.  Yes, he appeals to the great character of someone other than himself in order to get something he wants.  For instance, "Mommy, Kelsi says she wants me to drink that apple juice," or "Josh thinks that I need that cookie, Daddy."  Mind you, we were together with Kelsi or Josh for the same amount of time Gregory was, and I never HEARD them make those suggestions.  Perhaps he's not only good at persuasion--he can READ MINDS!!!

Using his new persuasive powers took a new turn when we were by ourselves getting dressed for the day however.  There was no person around to quote, so naturally, he chose the next best thing.  "Mommy," (gesturing towards the article of clothing I was currently helping him with) "they want me to go eat breakfast now."  "Oh, your pants want you to go eat breakfast?"  "Yeah."

Family Dinner tonight.  My job was to bring cookies.  My plan was to find some sort of choclatey-coconuty-oatmealy-goodness recipe.  Mmmm.  But, since it's a million degrees (seriously) round about these parts, I wasn't fancying the oven usage.  "Wait a second," I think, "MUD COOKIES!  I don't have to bake them AND they have coconut, chocolate, and oats PLUS peanut butter!!!"  I begin making these, and consider calling Lauren for her secrets--she's the MASTER MUD COOKIE MAKER.  It's true.  But I got distracted while melting the butter because I was nearly out of peanut butter!!  No WAY I was going to have a full cup (it's okay Lo, I was doing a double batch).  So I do what I always do when I run out of something and need it quick.  Head to Mom's.  I grabbed the Gregory and left a sleeping Daddy and Isaac to their slumbers.  We headed out the door into the hot sun.  Got the peanut butter.  Caused a bit of mystery and wonder--who WAS the mysterious person that came in while everyone was asleep and got a new jar of peanut butter out of the storage room but didn't but it away because she didn't know where it went?

*Geez, why am I TELLING you all this?  The Gregory-ism is still to come.  I guess I just wanted to set the scene.  Or I'm getting pretty tired and I need to go to bed before I ramble right off the page...*

Walking home, I noticed that poor Gregory's lack of hips was causing pants slippage.  He finally resorted to holding them up with one hand as he walked. "Oh, honey, do your pants keep falling down?"  "Yeah, but I saved it," he reassured me.  "You saved the day?"  He's been saying this every once in a while and it's so funny: "Gregory saves the day!!!"  But no, that's NOT what he saved today: "No, I just saved my pants."

We brought up patty cake again the other day--Isaac thinks it's a scream, but Gregory loves it even more.  His version goes like this: "roll it, and pat it, and mark it with a 'G.'  Then throw it in MOMMY!!!  I GOT CAKE ON YOU!!!  HaHaHaHaHa."  At which point I am supposed to be outwardly dismayed that I have cake all over me, and inwardly excited--as noted by the fact that I start EATING said cake.  I only just figured out that this whole "I got cake on you" game actually stemmed from us doing patty cake--he started out by just doing the "throwing" action from patty cake and it didn't connect.  Finally I saw him doing it all together.  :P 

The things kids think of.  Like how I thought the song "Swing Lo, Sweet Chariot" was "Swing Low, Sweet Cheerio" (don't you think it rhymes better?) and imagined  a giant, rideable (how else was it going to carry me home?) Cheerio swinging down from the sky...

Weyull, I KNOW I owe you a majillion pictures--I finally got my camera back!  But you know, I can't do too much in one day!  Spread the blogging joy...or procrastinate.  You know me!!!

Our latest craze!

I know, I'm behind!  I have so many things to catch up posting on.  :S  In my defense, I left my camera at the in-laws when I helped throw my sister-in-law a bridal shower, and I therefore cannot share the precious images there contained.  But after Sunday, expect pictures galore.

I can, however, tell you a funny story about the life of my family.  We have currently become obsessed with the Disney show Phineas and Ferb (thanks Mom).  It is delightful, zany, and clean.  My kids LOVE to watch it--Gregory will actually stay put on the couch for an entire episode!  Mike and I love to watch it too because it is HILARIOUS!  Mike had been working on burning a bunch of episodes to DVD so we could watch them.  We don't have a very high-tech DVD player, however--it struggles with normal DVD's, when it's "tired," and burned DVD's?  HA.  So, I decided to buy anything I could get my hands on for Father's Day.  I found these two compilations.

The Fast and the Phineas

 

The Daze of Summer

I wish they had the WHOLE season on DVD, but I suppose we'll have to keep burning and buy a new DVD player.  While searching for these gifts, I also found this little beauty.

Perry the Platypus T-Shirt 

I should have prefaced this by telling you that Perry the Platypus (here immortalized on a T-shirt) is Mike's favorite character.  He does the noise Perry makes very well--and has had to learn that romantic situations are NOT the best time to imitate Perry.



So I simply HAD to buy this shirt for Mike--I figured it would be much more useful than the plush doll (though the kids would have loved that!  What was I thinking?)

Yesterday, Mike was wearing this shirt and we all enjoyed it immensely.  We kept quoting Phineas and Ferb, and singing Perry's theme song.  When the day was done and Gregory was being tucked in, I said goodnight, gave him a "hug and a kiss and an I love you."  Then it was Daddy's turn.  "Goodnight Gregory."  "Goodnight, Perry the platypus..." said Gregory sleepily, with no hint of humor or irony, as only a little child can.

I love my boys.

Happy Birthday Isaac!

In all of the hustle and bustle to get us all the way to Denver for Uncle and Aunt (!!!  Can you believe it you two?!?) Jordan and Carly's wedding, Isaac's actual birthday was slightly less than spectacular.  But, since he's never had a birthday before, besides his actual BIRTH day (which he probably doesn't remember all that well anyway), I figured a proxy birthday, with more of his family around (the Richardson half was all driving to Denver already) would be even better.  So we had a quiet little celebration at home.  Daddy was craving Krispy Kremes so we had an unorthodox wish making extravaganza:

On Saturday the 12th, we gathered in our house that shrank to tiny proportions with all of those people!  We were hoping for a beautiful outside fete with the waterfall going--I even got some of my weeding done in preparation!  But alas, it was stormy.  So we brought our fishing indoors--after we consumed several boxes of pizza, of course.

Here we see Uncle Benjamin trying to teach Gregory how to fish.

Having never hosted a fishing tournament, I made a few mistakes.  But I learned and thought I would pass these on:

1.  There are kids involved.  Mere thumbtacks in the walls to hold up yarn draped with a heavy sheet will not do.  The whole thing will fall, revealing a large Daddy fish hiding behind the pond.

2. Kids don't mind if the pond is not blue in color.

3.  If the specimens being fished are too heavy for either the pole or the child fisherman, they will have to become flying fish and leap from their watery confinement.  Next time I will hand the kids their empty party bag and let them fish their prizes one at a time so Mike doesn't have to throw the whole thing over :P

4.  Uncle Andrew is a very nice helper.

Then we had us some real cake with a real "number one" candle!  No chocolate this year--as it's one of the only things that will still get Isaac really pukey.  Aaaand, you may be feeling the lack of our family photographer (did I mention I miss you Lauren?) like I am.  Ah well.

Isaac liked his cake a lot!

But he may have liked his plate even better.

Peek-a-boo!

Gregory could hardly eat his pizza.  He kept stage whispering to me "Those are my cousins!"  and looking over at Kara and Jayden.  I wonder if this picture was taken before or after Mr. Bearly lost his sight.  Tee hee hee.

And of course, there were the presents.  Oh, the presents!  Gregory has already taken them over, I'm afraid!  He loves the cement truck and bubbles from Grandma Morrow, and the rideable rocketship from Grandma Richardson is very fought over.  Grandma Blackham chipped in on our present, which was unfortunately ordered too late to be present at this party (I'm a slacker I know).  But it's AWESOME.  And we got it all set up today and the kids love it too so there.  I will make another post about that as soon as I get the camera outside with it instead of the toolset.  Oh yes.  Be excited.  Very excited.  So, Isaac plays with his toys as often as Gregory has his back turned or is being forced to share by his mean Mommy.

I can't believe that my baby is ONE!!  He stood up again today when he didn't realize I had moved his support (his birthday toy from us, as a matter of fact).  He continued to clutch the toy he was holding and just look at me like nothing was even that exciting.  I was trying not to freak out, but it must have showed because he finally looked around, realized he was standing by himself, which is clearly an impossibility, and sat himself carefully down.  He says "dog" and has recently surprised us with "Julia."  He loves to say "Hi," especially to himself in the mirror!  He's also finally growing into himself.  He's tipped the scales at 21 and some odd pounds--right in the 25th percentile (it's a huge accomplishment--up from the 5th!).  He's finally stopped spitting up so much!  Yaaaay!  His legs have the slight beginnings of baby rolls too!  Though I hold no hope that he will ever catch up to his cousin Emily :P  He is such a sweet, easy going little thing, and he is a delight to have around.  Happy Birthday my darling Isaac bug!

Tragedy

We had a fun party for Isaac's 1st birthday last Saturday.

Never fear, that is not the tragedy.  In fact, I have pictures, and I'm going to do a post about it.  Tomorrow.  This is far too serious to be shared in the same post as revelry, however, and I feel it must come first.  When the party guests were gone, and the last of the cake put away, we came downstairs to find this:

Those of you acquainted with Mr. Bearly must be aware that my dear childhood friend began his life with two eyes.  He was the proud owner of those two eyes for twenty three years.  Right up until last Saturday, in fact, when person or persons unknown removed them.  I suspect my hooligan niece and nephew, though my son may have had a hand in it.

The eyes have not been found.

My dear husband, upon seeing my deep and unabated grief (I very nearly cried at seeing my poor bear's blindness), went about at once to remedy the problem.  Since we cannot figure out where the eyes are, Mike found a new solution:

Please note the seeing eye dog.

So...

I've been MEANING to write about a MILLION blogs.  Seriously.  I've been writing them in my head.  Which is remarkably inferior to writing them here...I can't remember any of them now.  Well, I have the gist of some of them.

Two awesome things to do with your lips:
Talking, and teething (okay, so teething isn't really with your lips.  But the title was intriguing, wasn't it?)
Shortly after my last post (which was not shortly ago, I know), Isaac cut his first two teeth--one popped out the day after the other.  He also began speaking.  "Uh oh" was his first word (words?) closely followed by "ball" ("bah").  Of course he started saying "Dah dah" and took a lot longer for "Mah Mah."  But he surprised us.  His fourth word (waaay before Mommy.  Did I mention that?) was Gregory!  Obviously you couldn't hear it clearly, but you should've seen Isaac's face when he would call out his brother's name and Gregory would respond!  In retrospect, the title should be three or four things to do with your lips.  We are currently enjoying Isaac's whistling.  Ever met a ten month old who could whistle?  It's a sight to behold.  The "whistling" began when Isaac wanted something.  He would get so excited and his lips would form an "o".  When he would start breathing heavily to show how much he wanted it, you could discern a faint whistle, which ended up getting louder and louder.  He will now occasionally whistle along to a song, though he prefers to dance.  Thing number 4: KISSING!  of course.  Isaac loves to give kisses.  He usually thinks it's silly if you try to get him to do one on your cheek, but he will make kissing noises (and lately waving goes with kissing) as long as you will make them back.  You knew this would've had to be a kissing post with that title, didn't you?

Um.

There are more, cross my heart. I'm going to develop an AWESOME blogging habit and catch you all up on how we *quit Wow (with a nostalgic insider's guide to Wow that I've been meaning to do for a lot longer than I've not blogged!), *bought a bunch of cool furniture with our tax rebate, *began a MONSTER of a project refinishing/repainting the bed we bought with said tax rebate, * painted and decorated Gregory's room, *discovered that it's not just Mommy that has blood sugar problems--hypoglycemia, how we love thee, *had company stay in our guest bedroom for the first time ever, *went to the zoo, *built cool towers, *have pretty flowers growing in our yard, *and some other stuff too.

It's going to be GREAT!  Now that the ice is broken, the rest will be easy :D  PLUS I have the motivation of my sister moving across the country.  I used to talk to her 'bout every day.  Now it's hardly and I'm sad.  Besides, if Kirby can blog, I can totally do it too :P  I will "see" you all very soon.

Disappointment.

So...we've been slowly but surely turning this house into our home. Some stuff we've bought is necessary--needed a dresser. Needed some room paint. You wouldn't think that new faucets for our bathrooms would be NEEDS, but turns out they are.

When we moved in, we discovered that for some reason both of the drains in our 2 bathrooms are broken. Instead of a nice handle so you can pull the drain up and down, there are gaping holes. I can put the drain back in when I put my contacts in, etc. and we have a nifty purple magnet on it so I can pull it out again easily. We thought we had solved the problem nicely.

Then we remembered how we have a two-year-old. And what is a two-year-old's favorite pass-time of all TIME?!? Dropping things down holes, that's what. Ask my mom. She can still remember. Anyways, my loving husband got far too tired of opening up our sink (they call it the P-trap. I'm learning fast) to remove toothbrushes, buttons, hair bands, more toothbrushes, etc. fixing the drain quickly moved to the NEED side of our renovations list.

You can fix the drains just fine by themselves and it would have been nice n' cheap but kind of a pain. Soooo we figured (with a little help from the decorator in our family) that while we were opening things up and going through the annoyance, we might as well replace the whole darn faucet. Because the ones we have are...very not my style. Two-toned chrome and brass little suckers with two handles a piece. I'm personally a fan of one handle-ers in a more subtle finish--oil rubbed bronze or brushed nickel for instance. Something like this in fact:
HA Ha! isn't this one of the most delightful faucets you have ever seen In Your LIFE?!? I enjoy the subtle funki-vintage-antique-ness. So we went to Lowe's bought ourselves two of these and headed home to try and install our newest treasures.

Dark day in my household. Turns out
1) sink faucets are kind of hard to remove sometimes.
2) wives aren't the best people to ask which ways to turn things to unscrew them (righty tighty, leftie loosie, right?)
3) what you didn't notice (and we didn't either) is that the puller-handle for the drain goes in to the sink at a slant. Which equals you need a little extra room in the back and quite a bit of room where the sink dips down in the back. As in, you don't want t sink with a completely vertical back--like the one we have.
4) this gorgeous faucet won't work in my bathrooms.

So nooow we have a few holes in our sink that aren't very helpful when I always forget I can't wash my hands in there and only remember after I've gone potty... sigh.

Luckily I talked Mike into doing the laundry room faucet first, just in case it tok longer than we thought it would* or something went wrong.*

Back to Lowe's we go!!!

*It did.

Opposites Attracting

I ADORE my husband.

As you all know.

There are many many MANY ways that we are so similar it's scary. There are also some core parts of our personalities that are very VERY different.

If you've ever learned about the "Real Colors" personality system, you know that there are 4 personality colors: green, gold, blue, and orange. Most people are naturally dominant in one color, with a second area close behind. I found these tables at this university link that sum things up rather well.

And yes, I worked really REALLY hard (I guess I do have some gold in me after all) to get these in here

If you've actually looked over these and you know me AT ALL, you know that the LAST color in the world I would even come close to (when I took the test various times, I believe I scored ZERO, in fact) is Gold. We've been over this, right? I am indeed, very blue with a good deal of orange mixed in.

My husband, on the other hand, leans strongly towards the other end of the spectrum (the left brained colors, in fact): he's very strongly green and gold. So what happens when a person who loves traditions, routines, order, organization, etc. is married to someone who craves change, new things, and can't seem to keep things orderly worth a darn? Well, the orangey-blue person (that's me, remember?) sometimes goes a little crazy (aka, I get CABIN FEVER) and begs the greeny-gold (remember how the golds are good at planning stuff?) to come up with something to break up the routine every once in a while. I know, it's supposed to be the orange's job, but the orange spends all of her energy and creativity and every drop of her (*VERY* limited) goldiness in day to day house-y and children-y things. SO the need is there and the ability is spent.

So what does my DARLING gold husband do? He creates a calendar appointment on his work computer to REMIND him to be more SPONTANEOUS. Tee hee hee. Really it's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard and I adore him for it times a majillion. I'm still geeking out about it.

A couple of weeks ago he called and said, "hey, want to go to a play at BYU? There's this one by a French guy--Moh-lee-yur? (Moliere. Did I mention I LOVE this man?) It sounds funny. It WAS funny. Very well done and I spent every moment in drama-loving, orangey delight. I would encourage you to see it, only it's done :( and I would NOT encourage you to see it any where else because of a couple of scenes that could go very AWRY if they weren't handled with taste. BUT even though I could probably write a whole critique of that show, I won't at the moment, because that's not the point.

The POINT is that my husband is the best ever and I LOVE him for stepping outside of his comfort zone to make me happy, and I resolve to try even harder to stretch my goldiness to make him happy too.

Live n' Learn

Adriane: [eating some fried eggs]
Gregory: Ooooh, that's hot.
Adriane: Yeah, can you see the steam coming off of my eggs?
Gregory: Wwwwooow!!
Adriane: That's pretty cool, huh?
Gregory: No, it's hot actually.

Keys n' Things

I am officially losing my mind.

Well, you've all known it for a while--I'm just in denial.

I was going to the doctor yesterday: the kids are sick and we've all been miserable. So I decided to pull a Ruby Lunt: "You find something wrong with this kid and FIX it, or YOU get to take him home..." (lol).

Getting out the door somewhat early (so proud--I've been working on punctuality). Can't find my KEYS (not proud--been working on organization too)!!! Looked everywhere I might have left them. Talked myself through where I had them last and what I might have done with them. Asked myself, "if you were keys, where would you be?" Found them.

Still in the keyhole. Been there all night long.

FREEEEEEEEEEK OUT!!!

Christmas Advent Boxes

This is the project that consumed my life (or at least, my kitchen) this Christmas. It took so much out of me that I haven't finished it yet! There are 'sposed to be super cute ribbons all upons those bottom squares... ah well. PLUS, remember how you are supposed to have candy inside? Never happened. Bought the candy, but it never went inside. :P I'm also planning on a Christmas experience and scripture every day, but that's going to have to come next year!

Thanks to Lauren for taking these cute pictures! I got this idea from Jessica Sprague (who has awesome Photoshop tutorials plus is just super cool) who got her idea from Ali Edwards, who credits Martha Stewart (have I ever told you I'm semi-obsessed with all things Martha?). I give you these links so you can see everyone's ideas and create your own. AND for those of you around here, check out Walmart's selection of Papier Mache boxes. They were, I believe, $.69, which is a STEAL when you compare them to Jo-Ann's $1.oo and Roberts' $1.69! Roberts, however, had the best selection of the three. I didn't check Michaels, though that would be worth doing.

Ali said this project took her one night...it took me much longer--I must be missing out on a primer step or something, cuz I had to do many many coats of paint. But in the end it is worth it--I'm hoping these'll last for years. Currently, I have these on my wall with sticky tack. I didn't want to put 24 little holes in my wall before I figure out where I want everything to go. Most of them are pretty secure, but every once in a while I hear a bang and I know I need to put one back up. I think when I take them down (which should probably be soon...) I will thumb tack them to a board and frame the whole thing cute-like.

And now you know. The inner workings of a fevered and crafty mind.

Difficult Child?

I have an adorable two-year-old. Many of you have met him. He can be strong willed and challenging along with the adorable. Some of you have seen this. He's also very good at learning, and he goes through phases. One day, he was coloring at his table and talking out loud about what he was drawing:
"Six....six....six...six..."

Mike raises his eyebrows. "Uh oh! 666, huh?"

We laugh. I turn to put the milk back in the fridge. And this is what I saw*:

*This is what I saw and then I got him to come pose. What an obliging li'l bug!

My Bedroom <3 <3 <3

So we decided to use some of our tax credit for 1st time home buyers (thanks, by the way, for your contribution to that ;) to get a new comforter (Mike didn't like our older pink flowered one that we got as a hand-me-down. For some reason.) and matching valances. Then we decided to paint our room to match (Mike didn't like the Pepto Bismal pink color that came on the walls. For some reason). Now we have a super pretty, super relaxing room. That I love. And when I'm stressed, I come in here to feel better.

My Dresser. <3 <3 <3

This is my baby. Our shopping experience went like this:
A-yeah, these $300-ish dressers here at the RC Willey Outlet in Provo are pretty nice! Love the price, and they are nice...*turns* *sees this dresser across the store* *heart stops beating with pure joy* . Miiiiiike...that is the prettiest thing I have ever seen!

Saleslady-Oh boy, I can totally get this girl to buy this dresser and get a huger commission.

A- *tries to hide price tag from Mike* It is so gorgeous! *not succeeding at hiding price tag* *tries Jedi maneuvers* That price tag doesn't say $1400. Don't look at the price tag. Just say yes to your wife.

M-um, honey, that's a lot more than those perfectly good dressers over there.

Saleslady-let me go check my availability *hops, skips, and jumps to her computer*

A-but my HEART stopped when I saw it! I NEEED this dresser!!!! I'll do chores for 20 years to get this dresser!

Saleslady-well, this is our last one, which means we need to put it on CLEARANCE for you! Did I mention that clearance is an extra 20% off this weekend? You can have this dresser for eight hundred dollars! The original original price is $1900, so think how much you are saving!

M-It doesn't matter how much you save, it matters how much you spend.

A-WE'LL TAKE IT!!! *hops, skips, and jumps. all over the store. into her husbands arms. does a jig with the saleslady.*

Then the macho men who were bringing it to be loaded into our car must have dropped it...because the leg became broken between that point and when I saw it next. I very nearly cried. But they said they'd try and fix it. And they did. And it was good. And sturdy. And they knocked ANOTHER hundred dollars off. The four macho men who ended up carrying it to our car for reals said it was the heaviest dresser they'd ever moved. Go figure.

Happy New Year Y'all! And have a marvelous 2010!!!

We moved.

So, this one time...

Two months ago...

We moved.

Into a HOUSE!!!!!1!one!!

Our very own. And we are so excited!

We have a big Christmas tree now, and lights on our house, and EVERYTHING!!! (which, by everything, I do not mean we own all the furniture we need. We are a little shy on living room furniture, for example...negative on couches in there).

We bought this house (as you know) on July 1st, with plans to move end of August/early September. At last, on Halloween, we got to move in! So we've been pretty busy since then. Today, we finally unpacked the last box that was in our living space (and are trying to ignore the ones sitting in my CRAFT ROOM. I have a CRAFT ROOM!!!)

I've been having fun with furniture (more on that to follow. My dresser gets its own post. I love it THAT MUCH) and with paint (okay, so I've only painted one room, but I lay awake at night and think about colors for the rest) and with organizing (I actually really LIKE organizing. I just struggle with maintenance. Stop laughing.) and with decorating (okay, so, most of my decor is stuck in those boxes in the CRAFT ROOM. Oh my gosh, I have a CRAFT ROOM!!!!!!!one!111!!!) and cooking (in my own kitchen) and cleaning (no, I really do this...sometimes) and living IN OUR VERY OWN HOUSE!!!!

So, come and play, because I like you, and because I have my own house now so you can.