I Heart Sewing and A Minor Operation

Ok, it's my new obsession. I love it! I can't show you any pictures right now, because what I'm making is something for my sister-in-law and she might read this, but she might not since she's about to give birth our 3rd nephew any day now...yeah!!!

I've completed 2 projects from Bend The Rules Sewing, I think I've mentioned that book a time or two here before. :) And I'm about to start another project. Once I get them in the mail and she receives them, I'll let you see a picture. They definitely look home-made, but then is that a bad thing? Not sure.

Completely off the subject of sewing, or then again maybe not because I will have stitches...let's hope the surgeon does not bend the rules...hardy har har.... I'm having a minor operation on Tuesday around 11am (our time) if you wouldn't mind saying a prayer for me. It's outpatient, so I'm planning on being back home that afternoon. We have someone that is staying with the girls so Marc can go with me to the hospital. I wasn't nervous about it until a few days ago, so I would appreciate a prayer in my behalf. When I called the hospital this past week to ask some basic (so I thought) questions and they didn't know the answer was when I got a bit nervous.

Another random thought that just came to me was that one time about 6 or 7 years ago my college roomate, who we were visiting at the time, took my stitches out all by herself. I had had something done prior to going to visit her and I was suppose to have my stitches out during that time and the local PrimaCare or Doc-in-a-box would not take them out for me since they didn't not perform the procedure, so my friend just took care of it for me. Now that's trust people. :)

Have a great week, I'll be back in a few days.

4 Things

My college buddy Leslie tagged me for this, so here goes...

4 Jobs I Have Had
1. Beverage cart girl at a golf course (high school/college)
2. Daycare worker (high school)
3. Secretary for realtor at Ebby Halliday (high school)
4. Elementary School Teacher- my real career before moving here!

4 Movies I Watch Over and Over
Well, I'm weird about this, and don't watch that many over and over anymore....BUT...
1. The Cutting Edge (I can quote this for you if you would like)
2. The Grinch
3. Sleepless In Seattle
4. Annie

4 Places I Have Lived
1. Pflugerville, Texas
2. Carrollton, Texas
3. Arkadelphia, Arkansas
4. Pontypool, Wales

4 TV Shows I Love to Watch
1. American Idol
2. 24
3. The Office (just recently got into this one)
4. X Factor (British show)

4 Places I Have Been
1. Senegal
2. Togo
3. Spain
4. Italy
5. Germany
6. France
7. Switzerland
8. Ireland
9. Scotland
10. Holland
11. Belgium

Ok, I'll stop now. Please don't hate me. :) Just kidding.

4 People Who E-mail Me Regularly
1. Lisa
2. Julie
3. If Facebook counts, Facebook notices
4. If comments on the blog count, comments on the blog

If you feel sorry me, please email me :)

4 Things I Love to Eat
1. chocolate (this covers a lot of things!)
2. pizza
3. long stem broccoli
4. ice cream

4 Places I Would Rather Be
1. anywhere it's not raining
2. on the beach
3. Target
4. in a mexican food restaurant

4 Things I Look Forward to in 2008
1. Our 10th wedding anniversary!
2. New relationships with people here
3. Watching the girls grow and learn
4. Cerys starting Nursery School in the fall (though I'm a bit sad too!)

Living at IKEA?

Marc and I joke sometimes that it would be funny to live in IKEA, since we go there so often (often on rainy days!) and all the rooms are set up so lovely, what more could you need?

Anyway, I came across this today and haven't watched all of the videos, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Go here to see what I'm talking about.

Pancake Day!

Today is Pancake Day- or Shrove Tuesday. Having grown up in the States (duh!) this term is not widely used, so I had not heard of this until we moved here in 2002. Anyway, you can go here to read all about it. English pancakes are not as thick as American pancakes, but not as thin as a French crepe.

As for a recipe, I cheated and used this Bisquick recipe-

100 grams Bisquick
1 medium egg
150 ml milk
45 ml water
Vegetable oil for pan

Mix all ingredients together to a smooth batter. (It's will not be as thick as American pancake batter) Pour in suffcient batter to cover the base of the frying pan or omlette pan. Cook until set and golden, turn or toss to cook the other side.

You can eat these several ways- sprinkle sugar on them and lemon juice and roll it up! Or you can use chocolate syrup or maple syrup. Marc prefers the lemon juice and sugar, and while they are yummy, I prefer the chocolate syrup.

Happy Pancake Day!

Tantrums

Bailey was told to sit in her little chair, for a time-out.

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She did not like that option and instead, immediately got down on the floor, screaming.

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Then she sat up to make sure we were watching. We were, and taking pictures.

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After a little talk and some hugs, I told her that I did not like the behavior that I saw and would she please tell her sister she was sorry. To which she responded by putting her hand up in my face and grunting "NO" and then screamed face down into the couch.

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Which made me want to re-read The Strong Willed Child by James Dobson and pray for some serious wisdom in raising this sweet girl.

Excuse Me While I Fall Asleep....

Working with university students has so far been lots of fun. Sometimes I'm tempted to think of myself as still a university student. Well, I'm not. We had a great time, 7 students came and we had plenty of food.

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I was desperate to finish my knitting project, so I curled up in the corner and got to work. In between chatting and cups of tea and coffee I was able to get quite a bit done! Then about 2:30am I could not take it anymore! Please don't judge me, but I knew the girls would be up early and I would be extremely grumpy...and it would be Monday morning. Not a good combination. So, I cleaned up what I could and told them all goodnight. I felt bad for about 5 minutes, until my head hit my pillow. That's right folks, I did not even know who won the game till this morning. Apparently I missed the best part of the game.

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The girls slept through everything, thankfully, and were bright eyed and roaring to go this morning. Too bad we aren't. I now have to get us all dressed and go to our Music and Movement class so the girls can dance some energy off!

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Those cookies that look like Charlie Brown's head are actually football helmets, but they didn't turn out so well. But they were yummy!

I'll be back later to post some hilarious pictures of our almost -20 month old throwing a mean fit! Yes, I took pictures of her throwing herself on the floor because it was actually quite humorous and way over the top!

PS- Since the game was on the BBC they did not show ANY of the commercials, which is really the only reason I watch the Super Bowl. Oh well.

Super Bowl Menu

Thanks y'all for the great ideas! Thanks to those too who emailed me with recipes!

I have it all planned and have just finished making some of it...we are having...drumroll please...just kidding.

*Marc's homemade salsa w/tortilla chips (or if I'm being technical "crisps")

*Ranch dip with tortilla crisps :)

*My mom's Fruit Pizza recipe! yum yum

*Sugar cookies that are decorated- one in the shape of a football and one in the shape of a helmet and letters spelling out "Super Bowl XLII" (hahaha I had no idea I had these shapes till I starting pulling out my big box of cookie cutters!)

*Brownies

*Pioneer Woman's 1981 Bacon Wrapped Cracker Appetizers (that cracks me up!)

*And some popcorn and peanut M&M's

I think that is about it...and of course the usual cups of tea and coffee

Any Ideas?

Ok y'all, I need some ideas...we are having a Super Bowl Party at our house Sunday night, and yes we are crazy. It will be live on the BBC and it will start at 11:00pm and go till about 3:00am. We seriously are crazy. We invited the gap year students we work with and some of the university students that came to our first home group this week! So, it'll be a lively time I'm sure. I'll be sure and turn up the girls' sound machines so they hopefully will stay asleep through all the excitement.

So, I need your fun, party recipe ideas! I've checked out my favorite cooking site- and will use one of those recipes, but I just thought I'd see if you could recommend anything else. It can not have any Velveeta or Rotel ingredients since we can't get that here. Or anything like refrigerated cookie dough or biscuits. So basically, it needs to be from scratch.

Help a girl out!

Random Happiness

Well, this is probably the most random post you've read today. Here are a few random things that make me happy!

First of all, we have some Little People here that Cerys has affectionately named after Marc's parents...so I present to you.. Mimi and Gan-Gan-

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Looking rather stylish in their bright yellow VW Bug...

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Last week I started making cute paper topiaries, you can find them here. But then once I got started I found these boxwood balls and I decided that I would just use the paper topiaries for something else. I felt like Bailey's room needed a bit of green in it, so here are the topiaries I ended up making. Well, by making I mean...painted the terra cotta pots and dowel rods and then bought moss and ribbon.

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And, I saved the best for last!

LOOK WHAT I GOT TODAY!!!!

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I'm so excited and nervous! Once I read the manual cover to cover and watch my "instructional DVD" I'll attempt my first sewing project! I don't really count last year's project since my mother in law was here to help out! This time it's just me and my new machine! Can you tell I'm excited by all the exclamation points I just used in this paragraph!!! :)

I want to make everything in this book that I got last week!!!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Here's a few photos that make me smile!

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"I'm not so sure having snack out here is such a good idea Mom"

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Bailey, getting down!!!!

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Bailey is very much into brushing her teeth these days...IF she gets to stand on the stool like Big Sister! :)

(please ignore the medicine on the window sill, I don't usually leave it all out like that!)

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