Flat Stanley Time

Yes, here he is. To my friends, please click on the picture, print it out, cut him out and take him along your travels for a week or so and email me the pictures. Alexandra brought him home on Thursday and asked if I would send him somewhere "good". I have been pondering my brain trying to figure a way to get this to as many places as possible and I thought this venue might be a good idea.

Please comment if you are willing to participate in my daughter's project. I will reply to you with my email address. If I can't reply to your comment in an email then please go to my About Me page and email me.

Thanks all. Oh, by the way, she gave Flat Stanley a Santa cap and really wanted me to send it to Santa Claus. I told her he was on vacation right now and wouldn't get the mail in time for her project. So, I really do need y'all's help with this, as she was expecting Flat Stanley to go to the North Pole.

More Proof...

that my youngest will be an animal expert of some sort. My youngest (5 years old) has always had a love affair with nature. That is nothing new. But recently she has been angering her older sister. Her sister plays with dolls and has clothes for dolls and diapers and such. My youngest has decided her stuffed animals need clothes too so she has been stealing her sister's doll clothes. The most prized loot are the clothes that actually has a tail hole in the back so her lion's tail can fit through. This angers the sister to no end because now she can't find any of her clothes for her dolls and the dolls are all naked.

Hmmm...perhaps her true calling will be as an animal clothing maker. Nope! That wouldn't be quite right for her but I do guarantee that her pets will all have clothes!

My future rock star

Okay, I know that the quality of the sound is bad but you can get the jist of this. My in-laws have a karioke machine and they bought the High School Musical karioke version CD. So my girls were playing with it and my youngest stood up and started singing. Now, she is speech impaired and so it is even harder for you to understand the words but it doesn't matter really. Just watch her expressions as she is singing. I think she is a natural! The best part is the beginning minute or so because she didn't know I was recording her but once she realized that I was videoing she stopped doing most of the animation.

Books in the Mail!

I spent a $25 gift certificate I had to Barnes and Noble and bought a book for me! Well three books! I had to spend $25 to get the free shipping and didn't want to spend the money in the certificate on shipping so I actually bought three books and went over the $25 limit by about 7 bucks.

I am so excited about them that I just had to share. I got one book called "Knitting Rules!" by the "yarn harlot", Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee. I have started reading her blog and man, I would love to be able to knit as fast as she does. I can't wait to start reading it. NO patterns just good reading about knitting.

The second book I am sort of excited about and it was my third choice that I HAD to buy to put me over the $25 mark. It is entitled, "Lion Brand Yarn: Just Gifts". I took a quick scan through the book and there are several things I would love to make. So, being my third choice and sort of a desperate decision, I made a good one.

The third book I am totally stoked about (excuse the 80's lingo). It is "The Shop on Blossom Street: Knit along with Debbie Macomber". As you all probably already know, she is one of my favorite authors right now. I love her stories about women and everyday things. This book is a companion book to her Shop on Blossom Street novel where she writes of a yarn shop and the women who take a class on knitting. This class is for a baby blanket and in this companion books she has the patterns for 10, count them 10 baby blankets. There is only one that I didn't absolutely love the pattern. I want to do them all!!! Too bad I am not having any more babies myself because I would knit one of each pattern. So watch out all you potentially pregnant friends!! There just might be a baby blanket from me in your future if you are planning on having any kids. Just drop the hint and I will begin knitting away....

Kick A spaghetti sauce and Storybook Maker

Oh my God! I made some awesome spaghetti sauce tonight. I usually make a meat sauce which is very good but tonight I decided to do meatballs but wanted a bit more than marinara sauce with a meatball so I made a meat sauce too. The meatsauce had sausage in it and it made a very nice flavor. Then I put in the meatballs after I cooked them in the cast iron pan. It was quite yummy.

So now for the next oh my God! I was scrapbooking last night at a crop over at my friend Gwen's house. She is a Creative Memories Consultant and as I was getting ready to leave I picked up a storybook that she had made. Now I had seen these before and wasn't really impressed with them. But her's made me do some inquiring. So I asked her how easy it was and she went into a ten minute speal showing me on her computer how easy it was. She told me to go home and download the free software and the free templates and play around. I did just that this morning and started playing around with our Christmas pictures from this year. I showed my husband and he was impressed too at how quickly I could make a book. He even told me to order it and see what it looked like. But then he asked if it would replace the traditional scrapbooks that I do and I said no way!! I love my scrapbooks and I love making them. So if you haven't played around with Storybook Maker, take a few minutes to go to the Creative Memories website and click on Storybook Maker Free download. Then once that is downloaded go back to the website and find the free templates and follow the directions to download them too, or at least the ones you like. Then spend an hour and play. It is a lot of fun!!

New Year's Resolutions

This year I have only a few and none of the old ones that I used to have. I have given up on dieting. I figure it will come when it comes and not before, so there is no reason to put it on my list as it has been for many years now.

1. Be more organized. This is one that has been on the list for some time and since I never seemed to make it past the dieting one, this one hasn't seen the light of day. Everything has a place and if it doesn't then it is going out of here. My husband has been on a roll in the past couple of days working toward this goal, so I am picking up his energy and moving forward.

2. Create more and give. I have made the commitment to use my handwork talents to help others and I will be donating more this year than in years past. More newborn hats, blankets and such. I have a few great people and organizations who I have been researching and will be sending off my donations there. I have one box ready to go already with 14 squares to be put together for a baby blanket.

3. Walk more. I have a treadmill which needs dusting and a neighbor who I am going to hopefully convince to walk with me a couple times a week. At Disney World I wore my pedometer and one day I reached 29,000 steps! I want to just get to 8,000 steps a day to start.

4. Plan at least one family outing or trip a month. This past year we didn't use the trailer but twice the whole year. I want to go somewhere at least once a month with the family. We don't have to use the trailer or go anywhere fancy but just go somewhere together. January is already planned!! We are going to Great Wolf Lodge!

5. Boost our savings. This is a necessity for us and while it is number 5 on my list it is no less important than the others. I want to double our savings this year from last year.

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

If you haven't already read this, you should! Read my entry below about our New Year's Eve Party.

Happy New Year Everyone

We spent our New Year's Eve celebrating with our friends and neighbors. We gather at our neighbor's house, about 60 of us, and celebrate with our kids at nine o'clock. Our neighbor is the stickler for time and as you walk in the front door she has posted on the wall, as well as two other places in the house, the itinerary for the evening. Last year she not only had the itinerary posted but she also had all of us 'signed' up for jobs to help out. While we didn't mind helping with the events, we did rib her a bit for being super organized and this year I noticed that she didn't have us assigned to a particular job but just recruited us as needed. So tonight the itinerary went something like this:

5:00 - people arrive buffet dinner and appetizers start

6:30 - Dance Studio back yard

7:00 - Piniatas at front drive

8:45 - Preparations for New Years (pass out champagne, sparkling cider, and noisemakers)

9:00 - New Year's Celebrations

9:30 - Fireworks at corner of street

The kids have a blast and she borrows our outdoor firepit and the adults stand around and drink while the kids play out in the yard. We all bring a food dish and everyone has a great time. What is even better about it is that we are all home by 10:30 and to bed early. What cracks us up is the itinerary. We joke about it but it keeps the party moving and because we are all friends we don't mind.

This year was like the others. The best place to be on New Year's Eve, with friends and family and kids.

Happy new year all! I hope you are surrounded by your family and friends this year.

How to remove wallpaper border

The best way I have found to remove wallpaper border from my walls is to use a hot steam iron. I get it started with warm water from a rag or sponge and then get the iron (yes the same one I use to iron our clothes), plug it in and heat it up to steam then I use a wet rag and place it on the iron and then begin to steam the wallpaper. When it gets nice and hot and wet you start to pull and for the most part it comes off in one big piece.

Okay, not my idea. It was my husband's. Great job hubby! I let him finish the job for me.

Why, you ask am I removing wallpaper border? And, sister, which room am I redoing? It is my bathroom. I was cleaning it and thinking how gross it was and then impulsively began to pull at the border which I was sick of anyway. I did that yesterday and today I painted it with left over sage green from my mom's leftover paint. I have one more coat to do and then the husband will hang a new light fixture that we had from the last time we redid the bath (five years ago).

Pictures will come when it is done!!

Just a few last minute things

I have never been so organized for a trip than this one. The trailer is almost all packed. Food is packed, clothes are packed for the kids and I am almost done packing me. Beds are made, kitchen floor is clean (thanks to my son tonight), and just have a few last minute things to tidy up and get in the trailer. Really we just need to get our toothbrushes that morning, pillows, and the coffee maker and we are set to sail.

I watched a special on Food Network last night about the giant gingerbread house, the lights down main street, and the holiday extras they put into making our experiences "magical". I tell you I took NOTES while watching it! I am WAY more excited than the kids are.

We got them all matching tshirts (well ones for us too) and I am going to give them to everyone the morning we leave so they can wear their Mickey shirts to school that day. I am wearing mine too!! Too fun...

So I have finished addressing our Christmas cards and they are stamped and will go in the mail tomorrow and I packed my address book and will be sending out post cards while we are there. I am hoping that Disney has wifi somewhere and we can use our laptop to up load a few pictures to you all via email. If you want to be on my email list, email me your address if you don't think I have it.

Wow, the adrenaline of excitement is running through my veins right now and I can FEEL it!

And for this trip we got our handy-dandy housesitter to stay here while we are gone. He loves it here because we have a big backyard for his two ginormous German Shepards. Unfortunately he doesn't always find all the land mines in the backyard and the kids find them later, tracking it in the house! Yuck! Oh well, we still love him.

So much to do so little time...

It always happens this time of year. I feel the pressure of making sure I haven't left anyone out and making sure that the house is decorated and somewhat clean. Well this year the pressure is on even harder and because of our impending trip we have had to be ever dilligent about getting things we want to get done done. We have crammed a months worth of work into a two week period.

But I have good news. We are just about done. But just when you think you are done someone drops a bomb on you. So last night my husband and I were out shopping and he mentions that what he REALLY wants for Christmas is a new laptop computer AND he would like the gift presented to him early and not under the tree on Christmas morning. So no buying it off the internet (most likely the cheapest place to get it). So I call up my best friend who works at Circuit City. She says no problem she will help me get a laptop with her discount. Yippee. Now that is efficiency working for me. So I am meeting her today to get the laptop. Word to the wise (or not so wise): unless you have a most fabulous wife who will forgo decorating the last of 6 (count them 6) Christmas trees in the house to run out to get you a last minute gift, don't wait till the last minute.

Our fun filled 8 days in Disney World is coming to a start quickly. The count down is on!! Our advent calendar has quickly become a count down to Disney calendar. The kids are more than excited and there are times it seems that they are floating on the ceiling. We are shopping for snacks and food for the trip today and getting laundry done. Tomorrow is the beginning of packing the trailer.

A month ago I made reservations for where we will be eating during our stay. We have the dining package so all our food for two full meals is included. We will have a 'walk up' meal each day and a "sit down" meal. For the walk up meal we each get an entree, drink, and dessert. For the sit down meal we get an appetizer, entree, drink and dessert. Salad comes with most entrees so it makes it a four course meal. Wow. So all we need to take is food for most breakfasts, one dinner, and snacks. (Oh we get one snack each day per person in the parks also). We are eating with the princesses one night, with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger another night, we are eating at the Grand Floridian (fancy), Wolfgang Puck's Restaurant, and at the 50's Prime Time Cafe, Toy Story Pizza Planet (Woody and Buzz hang out around there), and at the Trail's End Restaurant in our campground.

You know, I think I am more excited than the kids right now!

My Daughters

Today, Allie said that she wasn't having children of her own that she was going to the store where mommies drop off their babies they don't like and she was going to get one of those babies. (Her words not mine). I told her that she would be a great mom and that I thought it was great that she was going to adopt a baby. Caroline came in about then and Allie asked her if she was going to have a baby and Caroline said, "no, I am going to be a bug expert!"

Tenth Anniversary

I knew I loved my husband...and every day I love him just a little bit more. But on Wednesday evening my love grew just a little more than normal. Our anniversary was Thursday but Wednesday evening he gave me an anniversary gift.

An iPod!! Not just the normal one but the "touch" one with the touch screen. It is exactly like the iPhone but it doesn't have the phone capability. OMG!!! I totally love it!!

I am currently downloading my favorite music, internet bookmarks (yes I can surf the net wherever there is wi-fi!), photos and more!

It is the most modern piece of technology in our house and it cost more than our desktop computer did just two months ago.

Boy do I love him.

A Project Finished

Check out my finished project here.

Our Christmas Card

Can't decide which one to send...

Dinner

If this looks good then go to Whitney's Cooking!

Nothing new to post today.

Just more of the same today. Soccer practice in a little while. That will end soon. Fix dinner. Work on gifts for Christmas. Bath and Bed.

Speaking of Christmas it is coming up quickly this year. Part of me says ahh it is far away from now and the other part says oh my, here it is already...

We are decorating early this year and I hope it will get everyone in the family very excited. We have wonderful plans this holiday and the kids and adults alike are counting the days. We will be decorating next weekend if all goes as planned.

We have decided to remodel the living room, dining room and kitchen this year and had the contractor out for an estimate. The estimate came back so much lower than we expected that we can also enclose our porch and make it a sun room at the same time. I can't wait! We won't feel so segmented in our house anymore.

Don't forget to check out Whitney's Cooking! New recipes almost daily...

A cold rainy day and voting

Today is election day and the kids have the day off. It is cold and rainy outside so they can't go out and play. We finally turned the heat on in our house. It is now nice and cozy warm. I just posted some comfort food recipes on Whitney's Cooking. Meatloaf and Mac and Cheese! Yum. I think we are going to have stew tonight for dinner. I am thinking about making it in the slow cooker with yeast rolls.

I don't think many people will be voting today. That is a shame because at least once a year we get to perform one of our fundamental ways of participating in a democratic (representative) government. This is exactly what our forefathers wanted us to do; participate in our governmental process. And now people will allow the weather, rain particularly, to determine whether or not they will vote. They truly take for granted our fragile form of government. Remember all the purple-dyed fingers? They were happy to finally be able to vote. I teared up at their proud faces as they voted for the first time fully in their own decisions. For us, ah a little rain, maybe we won't go to the polls...

My husband voted this morning earlier and he said there were no lines and that many people were running unopposed and there was one seat that no one was running for. I asked him if he wrote his name in and he said no. But if the position looks interesting I may write my name in. We will see what happens. Most of the election is for local and state positions.

Dad's Recipes

I have begun sorting through my father's recipes. I started posting them on my Whitney's Cooking blog. Check it out. So far we have a Potato casserole trio and his world famous spaghetti sauce. PS. Click on the link on the sidebar!!!

Donate Rice

A friend emailed me this link. Click on it and play the vocabulary game and the more you get right the more rice they will donate.

Easy way to improve your vocabulary and help others!

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Nicholas

Nicholas told me last night that his pirate that I made him looked like Tigger dressed up in a costume. He said the arms and legs looked like Tigger. Too cute! Photo of the pirate is here.