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?".

Just me, Br, and Fay

So for 4 years I've been saying that we never really got a honeymoon. I think Br hates it because we did sort of have one and then he's taken me on trips since but it wasn't until our trip last week that I finally feel fulfilled. E has been at JoJo's house for a week and a half now and so we decided to take a quick trip to Orlando (sorry to family in Florida that we still haven't visited... we really didn't think that we were going to make it there until our plaen took off.) Tropical storm Fay also decided to visit Florida just before we set off and liked it so much that when she got to the Atlantic ocean, she turned back around and decided to head across FL again while we were there. Fortunately she left one day before we did so we had a sunny ride to the airport.

I'm not complaining though since we've been to Orlando a couple times all at different seasons and it's poured down rain on us every time. So to me Florida=rain, not quite in harmony with their nickname of the sunshine state. Tip to anyone who plans on doing a theme park in the rain-- Ponchos while wearing shorts is the way to go. They are lighter and worked way better than the rain jackets we have previously tried. Also make sure your shoes are waterproof or just wear crocs so the water can flow back out of your shoes. And if the wind picks up while it's raining take cover. There's nothing that can help you then.

Here are my top ten favorite things about the trip:

10. Truffle cream sauce- We ate a the steak house in the Canadian pavilion at Epcot. They had the best pretzel bread sticks ever. YUMMY. My entree came with mushroom risotto with a truffle cream sauce. I forgot there was a truffle sauce on it. I watch a lot of iron chef America and I've always wondered if I would like truffles. Turns out I think I do. YUMMY YUMMY. Since this was sort of our anniversary dinner the waitress brought us a celebratory chocolate mouse. mmmmm.

9. Animal Kingdom - My two favorites at animal kingdom happen to be right next to each other-- Finding Nemo the musical and Expedition Everest. Everest is like the Matterhorn at Disneyland on steroids. You go up. You go down. You go backwards into the dark and then have no idea what you are doing only to find yourself up against a huge Yeti. I love conquering the Yeti. Nemo is a really really fun show. The only down side is that the benches that you have to sit on are SO uncomfortable. I feel silly because I cried a bit at the end when Nemo realized how much he loves his dad and then bubble fell from the ceiling. It made me miss E a lot. I know he would have LOVED the bubbles.

8. Toy story mania- This is a new ride at Hollywood studios. Most of you know how much I love Toy Story (Evident by E's first birthday party where I decorated my house like Andy's room, Wood's roundup, pizza planet, and Al's Toy barn. It's good this ride was not open before I threw the party or I think I might have killed myself trying to duplicate it. We had to wait in like for an hour and 45 minutes but luckily the line wrapped around in Andy's room. Everything was sized as if we were toys. My favorite was the Mr. Potato head there that talked to the crowd and told jokes. It was awesome. He is my favorite character and inspiration for E's party last year. Oh, and the ride itself was really fun too.

7. Our room-Br traveling all the time has finally paid back just a little. His hotel point status got us upgraded from a normal room to a huge jr. suite that overlooked Downtown Disney. We could also see Hollywood studios and Epcot. Luckily on the last night we were there it stopped raining long enough to see the fireworks from Epcot. The other awesome thing was that the closest Downtown Disney building from us was Earl of Sandwich (one of my favorite places to eat and it is making me sad that there isn't one by me anymore.) All American sandwich. MMMMMMMMM.

6. World Showcase- So every time we've been to Epcot we've sort of zoomed through the World showcase. This time we actually went into every country. Wow, it was amazing. That is one thing that I can applaud Disney on-- the details. Everything is perfect and in character.

5. The segway tour- Br has been wanting to do this but you have to be at least 16 to do it so E has limited our opportunity in the past. We went for it this time though. The normal tour consists of indoor training and then a tour through the world's showcase before it is open. Unfortunately it was raining so we didn't get to do the actual tour part. It was fun anyway.

4. Being a movie star- We got asked to play rolls in an action sequence that is part of the "backlot tour" attraction. Br wasn't too trilled but went along with it since he knew I was really really really excited about it. I played the captain and he was the deck hand that provided the comic relief. The only bummer is that we didn't get a picture of us doing the show but did get a picture on the tour train after the show.

3. Dole whip-I discovered this last trip. There is a little shack in Magic Kingdom right across from the Swiss Family tree house. It's a little pricey but oh so tasty. I get the Dole whip float which is Pineapple soft serve in pineapple juice. MMMMMMMM.

2. Rock'n roller coaster- This ride is by far my favorite of all time. It is soooo fun and I could ride it over and over and over again. I only rode it three time this trip though. It was fun because for the first time I got to ride with Br since we typically have to take turns watching E. This roller coaster launches you from 0 to 60 in 2.4 seconds then goes super fast in the dark through neon landmarks of LA. There are loops, turns, drops, corkscrews all while you are jammin to Aerosmith. I LOVE IT!

1. Spending time with Br- I love my E but it was great to spend some time away from him, away from work, in a fantasy land for a few day with the man I love. I'm so glad we decided to go!