Oops

So apparently while I was on sabbatical from my blog I was tagged. I guess I'm supposed to post the fourth picture in my picture folder. Here it is.
Random I know. For a while I was collecting cool pictures of letters for a project that I have never gotten around to, and probably never will. I'd like to tag Diana and Amy because I really like their pictures.

Finally... another post

Yes, I know it has been forever since I've posted anything. No, I'm not dead, nor sick, nor anything really except busy. I was really busy before I went out of town and then have been even more busy than that after being out of town. I've got a lot to catch up on work and so I spend way too long on the computer any day and can't bring myself to do anything more (blog, email) after that. Anyway, since I shouldn't be working today I'll try to get a few posts out.

It has been almost 2 weeks since my trip to CA and I haven't written anything about it. It's not that I didn't have a really good time, it's just that I didn't take pictures so I'm waiting for my sister to post some so I can steal them. So stand by.

I guess I'd be a delinquent mother if I didn't write something about E's Halloween. Earlier in the week he had a "Fall" party in his preschool class and so I had my first shot at sending treats to his class. I'm a little embarrassed though since this is the type of thing I live for but didn't have time to actually do it this week. When I signed up to bring cookies I had vision of grandeur. When it was the night before and I still had to go to the grocery store for ingredients I realized it just wasn't happening. So instead of showing some elaborate project like I wish I could have done, instead I'll just share a trick for making cookies that look way fancier than they actually are.

1. Already made cookie dough, already made icing, a baggie with chocolate melts in it.

2. Bake the cookies.

3. Let cool

4. Ice with frosting

5. Make concentric circles on the cookie with the melted chocolate

6. Alternate dragging a tooth pick from the inside out and the outside in.

7. Put on plastic spiders and Viola

Spider cookies (works on cupcakes and other iced yummy things too) that look like you made an effort but really just didn't have time.

Fast forward to the end of the week.

Friday morning E got invited to a little Halloween party at the park. Since his actual costume was still missing a few key seams he went as last years costume (thank goodness he was chubby last year and skinny this year--and yes, I will acknowledge that the hat doesn't exactly fit). He was Tuck from the Wonder Pets (the only male wonder pet by the way). I felt bad because they had all kinds of really fun activities planned but E spent most of the time running toward the forest (there was probably an animal in trouble he was trying to save), toward the other side of the park, toward the playground, toward anywhere he wasn't supposed to be. I guess I should thank him for the workout since I wasn't able to hit that gym.

Friday evening he went to the church Trunk or Treat as Linguine from Ratatouille (It's actually a preview for his birthday party in three short months...Ahhh I better get cracking). He went to most of the cars with a sucker hanging from him mouth with a back up ready to go in hand. I let him use one of my soup pots as his bucket (to go with the theme of his costume). The bad thing is I don't know that I can ever use it again without him assuming that there is candy inside. Oh well.

BR's first post! (and maybe last)

BE recently took a trip with her sisters (and mother) to Disneyland, so I took the opportunity to take a trip to Paris (yes, the one in France).  It was great, and now that I have mastered the language and culture, I am ready to go back with BE (E will have to wait a few years--11 hours is a long time on a plane with a kid!).

BR

Pumpkins

E and I got up bright and early this morning and headed out to a free pumpkin patch. We had a really really good time.

He played in his first bounce house.

Rode the merry-go-round

We took a hay ride.

"Drove" a tractor

Met up with some of his favorite tv and movie friends

And of course saw a lot of pumpkins.

If you haven't gotten enough pumpkin pictures check out our new fall slide show.

The plants are always greener on the other side (or at least they are alive)

I think... no I know I took for granted how easily thing grew in Houston. I mean I think we watered our lawn maybe five times the whole two years we lived in our house and the grass always looked green. Whenever the greenery started looking a little sad it would rain. Unfortunately (for my yard) landscape maintenance is not so easy at our new house. In contrast to the overgrown vacant lot next door our yard looks okay, but it doesn't help that our other next door neighbor has a really nice yard. In fact they even have a cute little landscape feature that is sort of theirs even though it is in our side yard. They also made a few improvements in our yard after we bought the house but before we moved in. It was kind of nice because they did exactly what I was planning on doing.

A couple of weeks ago when our yard wasn't looking particularly fabulous we walked outside for a family walk. Our mailbox has two little planter boxes on each side of it and there is a little (nearly dead because the sprinklers don't spray them) flower bush thing in each one... well there was. As we walked down the driveway I noticed one was gone. My first thought was "I can't believe the neighbor stole our dead plant. I get it, we need to take care of our yard, but now it looks silly with one missing plant. And why didn't they pull the weeds when they pulled the plant?" Br and I went back an forth about why someone would take our sad plant. Suddenly Duchess (our dog) started walking weird. She thought there was an animal in the street up ahead that she thought she needed to get. I pulled her back and said "that's not an animal Duchess it's just a weed". We got a little closer. It wasn't just any weed it was our sad plant. Turns out it wasn't stolen (of course it wasn't, why would someone steal a plant) it just up and blew away. How sad, my landscaping became a honest to goodness tumbleweed. Time for some serious yardwork.

E showing his creative side

Most artists have a preferred medium. Earlier this week E experimented with a new one... white out. He painted his face, two rugs, the leather ottoman, the laminate floor and the brand new tile floor. Luckily he was taking a moment to select his next canvas so I was able to get to him before he decided to turn the new carpet into a masterpiece. Lessons learned from it: Even when you think your house is "baby proof" your very busy little son will find something to keep him even more busy. When your child eats white out poison control says "Just give him some water" and the key to cleaning up white out is let it dry, scrape up what you can, use magic eraser for the residue.

My Little Protégé

E and I have had a fabulous day today. The highlight was when I got fed up with the old bananas on my counter and decided to make banana bread for Br's seminary class tomorrow. Typically when I bake I try to distract E and work as fast as I can. Without fail, within minutes he'll start crying, grabbing my legs and wanting me to pick him up (although if I was doing anything else he'd be so mad at me for picking him up). Today I decided to experiment and let him help me. We washed our hands and he managed to keep them out of his mouth (and nose) the whole time we were baking. I measured everything for him and he dumped it in. He cracked the eggs for me and I put them in. He watched the mixer go and we managed to get through the whole thing without him sticking his hands in the batter. Success! Over the past few weeks he really seems to be showing me that he is growing up. Baking by 2. Full course meals by 3. I'll never have to cook dinner again!

Sippy Cup Saga

I don't know what it is at our house but sippy cups just don't last that long. Our dog doesn't chew anything up but for some reason she has taken out two sippy cups, the most recent met it's demise while E and I were at the park today. We've also lost a few cups (mostly the disposable ones) due to the lack of desire of washing after being found hiding for days or even weeks under the couch, in the car, in a closet, you name it with milk still in it. Gross. The number one culprit for taking a sippy cup out of action is loosing the little clear plugs (like the Playtex cups have) that go in the top. Despite having a little mesh basket thing in the dishwasher without fail the darn little plugs disappear just like you favorite sock in the dryer. Recently we've switched to the cup that just have the one big white plug hole (like Gerber) but they have let me down because as E shakes his cup the plug falls out and then we get milk sprayed everywhere and any where. I'd like to just do away with the whole sippy cup things but E just likes playing with liquid way too much and has this think with turning things over when he is done with them. Yes, I do realize that most of my sippy cup drama could be resolved with a little extra parental supervision, but I'm just not on top of my game enough right now to be able to commit to that kid of responsibility:) So until I get my act together does anyone out there have a good sippy cup recommendation?

My first time

I’ve been tagged. I’m supposed to list 5 of my quirks. It took me a while to come up with them because everything I do is normal to me, so how am I supposed to know if it is quirky. Here I go.

1. I’m obsessed with keeping my eyebrows plucked. My nervous habit is to rub between by eyes so if it is not smooth is drives me crazy. Problem is I am constantly loosing tweezers. Seriously, I own like 5 pairs because I can never find the ones I already have.

2. Br says one of my quirks is the need to sleep with a fan on no matter how hot of how cold. It’s a little more specific than that. The thing is it has to be a quiet ceiling fan. I don’t do terribly well with the ones that blow directly on you. I think that I like to snuggle with the blankets but most of the time it is too hot to really have a blanket on so the fan helps.

3. In contrast to #2, despite liking to snuggle with blankets I can’t cuddle with Br when we sleep. I love him a lot and think he is hot, but I just can’t do it. It took me forever to be able to handle sleeping in the same bed with someone every night. I can’t touch someone while I sleep. For that matter I hate when people touch me to wake me up. If you ever have to wake me up… and I don’t know why you would… don’t touch me. It won’t be good.

4. Since I’m already on the lines of sleeping, let’s talk about my dreams. I frequently dream about being a lifeguard again or moving back into the resident halls (with E and Br) I lived in when doing my undergraduate work so that I could be an RA again. I think I have these dreams because they are the two jobs I had the longest or consumed the most time in my life for YEARS. I think they were both “happy places” for me during different periods of time. Funny thing is I’m now recently having dreams that I’m on reality tv (maybe that says something about how much tv I’ve been watching). More than once I’ve dreamt I was on Project Runway even though I don’t have any clue about fashion or designing clothes. Heidi Klum is so nice to me anyway.

5. I don’t like calling people. It mostly applies to people I don’t know at all or am skeptical about then actually wanting me to call. I don’t know why. I loved when email, texting, the internet and automated answering services became the norm because they gave me means to circumvent the call. It’s not that I don’t like talking to people on the phone, it’s just that I don’t like making the call for some reason. As I’ve become a mom and I have to make calls for E I’m becoming more comfortable with it… but don’t tell Br because I usually have him make calls for me.

That make all 5. So I guess I am supposed to tag people.... I choose Allie, Jessica, and Nate (only because I know he is the real author behind his family blog... Patty can do it if she wants though)

If want to do it just follow these rules:
1. Tell about 5 quirks you have.
2. Tag 3 fellow bloggers and leave a comment to let them know

I'm obsessed

So when I decide to do something I get into it... really really into it. This couponing thing has become an obsession despite the fact that I really just decided to do it for fun. Now I've let my life become consumed. It is changing me as a person. I used to be the type of person who did not like to rock the boat at all at the store. This goes way way back to when I used to be utterly horrified when my mom used to ask for a discount on things just because there was something a little wrong with it. I can't tell you how many random items I have laying around here that I've never even opened and probably never will use just because I used to hate to return things. There have been numerous items that I've way overpaid for just because I didn't want to say anything when it rang up wrong.

I felt uneasy the first time I handed over a coupon because I felt like it would be annoying. I apologized to the cashier for using coupons and then Br assured me it was more annoying for me to try to explain away the reason for my coupons.

Fast forward to over a month of this couponing thing. I did something this week that I would have never dreamed of doing ever. Not only did I use a ginormous stack of coupons at the checkout, I broke my purchase up into multiple transactions in order to save even more money. On top of that I did it at like midnight when there was only one line open and there were people behind me in line. AHHHH so out of character for me. Funny thing is it didn't phase me at all until I got in the car and realized just how different I have become. It's not necessarily different in a bad way, it's just way different for me. I'm pretty sure the next time I get something and it has something wrong with it, I probably will try to haggle the price down (sorry mom for ever being so ashamed).

I've actually gone back and forth about whether to keep this up because it has taken over my life. I've tried to convince myself that I could just reign it in a little but I know myself too well. If I ever decide to give it up I'm going to have to go cold turkey. I'm going to hold off for now though because I couldn't possibly quit when I've learned how to get so much stuff for free. Just this week alone I got:
4 glade flameless candles (actually I worked the system and made money on this purchase)
Nivea Man body wash for Br (it's kind of nice stepping into the shower and having it smell manly)
Addidas Deodorant
Land o Lakes Butter
Charmin Toilet paper
Some snooty pedigree formula Dog food
Crest Toothpaste
Pillsbury cinnamon rolls
and a coupon for a free Iron man DVD when it come out next week (even though I accidentally purchased non qualifying products).

It's going to be hard giving all this up.

What's been stewing in the Melton Pot

It's time for a little summary of what's been going on since my last post.

1. Russel Owen Goodson- I will start with the best thing. He's my cute new nephew that was born on the 9th. Welcome to the family Rowen! (that is what I think he should go by)
2. Catan take 3- Last Friday (12th) we had our third installment of monthly Catan. Good times. One of these days I hope I win. If there are people out there that want to be included on the invite list, let me know. It's an open invite to people I know.
3. The best Twilight party ever thrown- So since I knew my house was already going to be clean because of Catan, I offered my house to my fabulous friend Amy to host her Twilight party last Saturday. To be honest, I don't really read so I was going out of my comfort zone to pick up anything with that many pages, let a lone four of those things with that many pages. I enjoyed the books (although I wouldn't consider myself a REAL fan since I mostly just read them so that I could go to the party.) I'm glad I did read them though because it was good times. Amy can host a party at my house anytime. She made my house look so classy. Actually I still have a few of the decorations left up to keep up the festive feel--or maybe because I'm lazy. I also have to give Amy and Lori a shout out for their games. AWESOME. Amy put together a game where you had to match different candy bar names up to clues from the books and Lori put together the most fabulous trivia game ever. I was truly impressed. My only contribution to the party was just a little bit of food (there were so many good things to eat they didn't really need my contributions--by the way the spread shown above was not my handy work, I'm only responsible for the sad little white tray on the bottom right of the picture). I was silly and decided to make something new for the party (I know I swore not to do that after the baby shower experiments gone stressful). The colors for the party were black, white, and red so I thought a fitting treat would be red candied apples, and dark chocolate and white chocolate dipped caramel apples. Thing was I'd never made either before. Here are somethings I learned from that experience: Foil (even sprayed with pam) does not work as a non stick surface when it comes to caramel, Braeburn apples are a perfect apple for both candied and caramel apples --sad store red delicious apples are not, getting the wax off the apples was not as easy as I thought it would be, and make sure your apples are really really really dry before dipping them. All in all it was a fun filled night

4. Visitors- About the time that our Catan night was getting started our little evacuee family showed up at our door trying to escape Ike. My friend Courtney and her kids stayed with us for a little while until Houston started to get gas, power, water, and food available. It was fun having them visit. E LOVED it. We had fun going to a baseball game, hanging out at the park, watching movies, and playing Wii fit. Thanks for coming guys. You are welcome any time (As is anyone else that wants to come).
5. Another sugar shock- I spent most of yesterday making some example cookie bouquets. Now that I've put them together and taken pictures, who wants to eat them for me?

Trying something new

I've always thought fruit bouquet were pretty cool and always wanted to make one. I finally came up with a reason to make one this weekend. Turns out they are super easy. I think it looked okay, but I know I definitely need to work on my arranging skills.

Something out of the ordinary

Friday morning E and I headed to Southlake to go to the butterfly festival. Mostly it was just a tent with flowers and butterflies flying around. On the way out of the car I told him we were going to see butterflies and she said "butterfly" clear as day. But like any word he has ever said, he said it only the once and I doubt I'll ever hear it again. Once in the tent there were little pieces of watermelon that you could get to lure a butterfly over to you so you could "hold" it. E just wanted to eat the watermelon and just picked the butterflies right up without it. The best part was when one landed on his shoulder and he kept trying to turn around to look at it which ended up in him looking like a dog chasing his tail. After E was such a good shopping buddy as I dragged him to all my favorite stores. I've been looking for most of them since I moved here and it just happened that they were all there right by the butterflies. On our way out we stopped in and shared a soup, salad, sandwich combo at cafe express. MMMMMMM.

First Days for my boys

Earlier this week was the first day of class for both of the guys in my life. Br is teaching early morning seminary this year and so his day started bright and early. In a world where I was more loving and supportive I would have gotten up and made him breakfast before he left but since I wasn't doing that when he was leaving the house hours closer to the time I actually get out of bed, the best I could do was bake a pan of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls the night before and leave them on the counter for him to eat on his way out the door.

On the same day E had his very first day of day school. Signing him up was very last minute and pretty spontaneous. I thought he'd freak out since I'd just gone and picked him up from his visit with JoJo for two weeks. It didn't even phase him though. He walked right in, found the toys and didn't even notice when I left. When I came to pick him up that afternoon he was just hanging out at the door waving and talking to everyone happy as could be. I think he figured he was finally going to be selected by his new parents. He was sitting there like the cutest puppy in the pet store window waiting to be taken home. Luckily he wasn't upset when he finally saw me.

All in the name of cheap toaster pastries

Today I took three trips to Target within an hour and a half. Why you might ask? In a quest to get 4 boxes of 12 count pop tarts for $1. The first time I pulled into the parking lot I realized that I had grabbed the wrong sheet of coupons. Problem easily solved with a relatively quick run home. It wasn't until trip 2 that I actually walked through the doors. I went straight to the pop tart section to make my selection. They were 4 for $9 and when you buy 4 of any of their selected products you get a $5 gift card. Throw in 4 $.50 off target web coupons and $1 manufacturer coupon and my net was $.25 a box. I picked up a few more things and went to checkout. Halfway through the checkout I realized I didn't have my wallet. I tried to get the guy to stop scanning but he was way too into his job. He said he'd just hold the stuff for me while I went and got my wallet. I would have been tempted to just leave the stuff there at the checkout indefinitely, but it was all bagged up in the bags I brought to the store (I'm trying to fight against the mountain of plastic sacks accumulating in my laundry room). Plus the thrill of such a good deal was pulling me back to my discounted treasures. I loaded E in, drove home and back again. E was not happy when I walked back in those big red doors again. In the end I completed my mission of obtaining near free toaster pastries, but I am left asking myself... "was it worth it?".