Finally!

I have been wanting to take out these palms by our front door for a while now, but I knew I would need Jacob's help and we just haven't had the motivation to get out there and finally do it. However, we got the proper motivation when our pest control guy, Todd (who is worthy of a blog post dedicated to just him, he is so funny) told us that our ant problem in the kitchen was in part due to the fact that we had ants coming out of the palms in question and that the ants were crawling up the front of the house and over to the window to get in.

So last Saturday Jacob got out there and took them down! (Now I just need Todd to tell me that adding a rockin' swingset for the kids in the backyard would take care of any roaches...) I would have helped, but I had been up with Luke all the night before and was barely conscious enough to know my own name. I asked Jacob what kinds of things crawled out of there- because, come on, there had to be a small family of something living in that jungly mass! All he said was something about a very large, very strange bug. All the more reason to get rid of those things! Anyway, all I need now are some pavers and some potted shade plants- but not until this arctic 60 degree weather is over with :)

A perfect 10 on the creepiness scale

I am obssessed with coupons. I buy the Sunday paper every week and scour through all the ads and special deals at least twice. As I was doing the actual clipping of the coupons yesterday however, I happened upon the pages of the coupon inserts that deal with full page ads for widely assorted ridiculous "things" you can buy- "things" such as imported Hawaiian flower starts, Betty Boop checks, leisure suits, the commemorative Barack Obama silver coin, the Nascar clock and matching lamp, portable fireplaces made by miniature mountain carpenters-you know, all that crazy weird stuff that you can't believe someone actually decided to make and sell? Well, yesterday I learned that one of the "things" I could buy, was Little Umi and she is, and I quote, "A collectible orangutan baby doll you have to see to believe, and the first-ever So Truly Real® baby monkey doll!" Yes, it is a porcelain orangutan, wearing baby clothes and it comes with a pacifier. NOT making this up. Seriously, who is buying this item? What's worse, is that you can make PAYMENTS to own her! She is $140 total, but for $28/month, she can be yours. Don't get me wrong, I love monkeys. I used to collect stuffed ones when I was younger, but this is just creepy. And if you have one of these, please don't tell me.



Besides, I am saving my money for one of these things, I am still deciding which one:

There is the chihuahua taco stand holder thing....



The hair protecter for when I eat my ramen noodles and they get a little unruly...



The plug in phone handset for my cell phone. I don't know, I am really kinda liking this one...



Awh, heck, we all know I am gonna get the Snuggie!



Oh, wait, that's not right. Here, this is MUCH better...

Chalk one up for Organization!

I have really been trying to find a way to organize this giant cabinet thing in my kitchen. It has drawers at the top, gives me a huge counterspace(which is great) but the cupboards at the bottom are not very functional and consequently they usually look like this:


OH, THE HUMANITY!!!!!!

But, I did a little reading on the internet about organizing a kitchen and a few ways to add some order to a giant open space, and now I have this:



YAY! I can honestly say I enjoy cooking all that much more when I know I don't have to put on a hard hat and pull a permit just to grill some chicken. Luke and Cindy still love to play in there :( but at least when it gets cleaned up, everything has a home. Now, on to the junk drawer! a.k.a. the "depths of despair" (as Cindy would say). This is not gonna be pretty!

Lamanite Cake

Today was my little brother Brian's birthday. He turned the very significant 21. But, since he is in Spain serving his mission, we are not able to celebrate together. Give me a big "Awwhhhhh!" But not to fear! Here in Sweeneyville we had cake and ice cream anyway :) And we decided to go all the way on this one- not just making your garden variety Duncan Hines with frosting- Oh no, my little friend, we made a sour cream fudge ripple cake with a Snickers bar ganache. (Mostly just so we could say the word ganache over and over...) I did a little research online as to the secret recipe for the chocolate sauce they use on the dessert ravioli at Macaroni Grill (which is pretty much the most amazing dessert ever) and it turns out that it is nothing more than a chocolate sauce made with half a melted Snickers bar! Who knew!? So we took the See's chocolate chips and the Snickers bar we had in the freezer and about 33,000 calories later we had "Lamanite" cake- a moniker we will now use henceforth in our house to denote anything sinful and wicked. Like this cake! (or Sharpies, daytime television, or the music of Jewel- among other things...)

You know that little voice?

The one in your head that says, "Mmmm, it's awfully quiet in here. I should go and see what the kids are up to." Yeah, lesson one of motherhood is OBEY THE VOICE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS GOOD AND HOLY, OBEY THE VOICE! I just disobeyed the voice and found Luke with a Sharpie 'decorating' not only the hallway wall, but Cindy's dollhouse, doll furniture (including each individual step of the staircase), her desk, and the TV screen itself. What I am still not understanding is that Cindy was watching the television AT THE TIME! (The second thing I don't understand is how Luke manages to repeatedly find so many Sharpies in this house, yet it would take an act of Congress for me to get my hands on one.) So let me simply utter a giantic "AAUUUUGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" and then I will quietly move on with my life...



At least last time it was only his own body...

True Love

This basketball hoop set went on sale this week at Toys R Us, so I caved and got it for Luke. He is absolutely in love with it. In fact, I knew he probably wouldn't eat breakfast this morning if he saw it when he woke up, so I hid it before I got him out of bed. Too bad he saw the ball in the hallway and then proceeded to freak out until he found the hoop. So we skipped breakfast for a while :) This toy once again proves that Luke is 100% BOY. (Despite the photo album I am about to put on Facebook of Luke wearing 6 different pairs of Cindy's shoes. That doesn't really count...)

Experience #2- Volunteer at My Child's School

I have never had this experience yet simply because I needed to acutally have a kid in school to do it and now I finally do! So on Friday I got the opportunity to help all morning in Cindy's preschool class. It was their Valentine's party and I was there to help with all the different activities they had going on.

I first helped each child dress up in a mailman costume and deliver their Valentine's to each of their friends' "mailbox". They were all so cute and it was fun to help them recognize the letters in the names and match them up. Plus, they all had such cute Valentines! From the store bought to the homemade- no one brought the same thing, I was totally amazed. I then helped with snacktime, then got to play the "monster" under the slide at recess, then we helped with different centers where they made crafts, played Valentine Bingo, Candyland, Memory or got to read books- Cindy has no idea what an amazing preschool she goes to. It is absolutely the BEST. (And I am a little afraid she is going to be sorely disappointed with public school Kindergarten :(



And to top it all off at the end of the morning, they did a short Valentine's program of cute little songs they learned. I don't quite know what came over Cindy, but instead of her usual shy, preoccupied singing, she sang so loud and was so animated that towards the end it became comical to all the parents, myself included. It was a riot! Most of the time she is so shy, but that day she came alive. Who would have guessed? Certainly not me. So here is Cindy singing her worship song with all her gusto! Notice how she needs to hide behind her friends to take a bow at the end (?) Anyway, enjoy!

Our Funny Valentines

Exhibit A of (once again) why I LOVE the Internet! I guess I should have made one of these for my computer... Anyway, just Google "homemade Valentines" and Voila! We sent these to uncles and school teachers and Cindy did a great job! She drew all the faces on these herself :)

Masters of Disguise

Is it just me or do you also find it totally ridiculous that in certain movies or television shows there are characters that are able to completely hide thier "secret identities" with only a single pair of glasses or a just a wig? I say this in light of the fact that I recently learned the plot of Hannah Montana (were you like me in thinking that there was none?) Well, turns out that she is a regular school girl by day, super rockstar by night and none of her friends are the wiser. AND she accomplishes all of this super secretness by putting on some makeup and a blonde wig. Really? I'm sorry, but deep down I have had a problem with plot lines such as this since Superman.






Don't get me wrong, I love Superman. In fact, the latest movie, Superman Returns, is honestly one of my favorite films. But I just can't really accept that he is able to completely disguise even his resemblence to Superman with just a goofy persona, Buddy Holly glasses and parting his hair on the other side of his head. I mean, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen ARE REPORTERS for crying out loud!! They, of all people, should be able to put two and two together. At least Batman and Spiderman have masks...


The TV showBosom Buddies is yet another offender in this catergory. You're telling me that these two guys are passing as women and no one knows? I know that now a days this scenario has a way better chance of being pulled off successfully (thanks to huge advances in the field of man-scaping), but considering this was the 80's and looking at just how horrible their outfits really were, there is not a chance this was any where near reality.








Now, having said all this, I do understand that television shows and movies are about susupending belief for the sake of entertainment. (And Bosom Buddies and Superman Returns are both highly entertaining!) It's just that sometimes we have to work a little harder at said susupension.

I hear there is a new superhero in town, anyway. I am not sure who she is, but they did get this one picture of her. She looks vaguely familiar, but I just can't put my finger on it right now. It will come to me eventually...

An Experiment

I am sure you have all seen stories on talk shows or on the news about people who are so ultra-frugal that they spend $5/month on groceries and have an electric bill of about 12 cents. While I do my best to be thrifty and stay within my budget, I have never achieved results such as these. However, for the next month I am going to really try on that electric bill. I just figured out that our billing cycle either did just flip over or will flip over any day now so I have alerted Jacob that for the next 30 days we are in energy-saving mode. I am totally curious to see just how much our bill would go down if we would just be more aware. So the only things I am really doing different are making sure that lights are turned off when we are not in the room, trying to be a little better about not pre-heating the oven so long (when not necessary) or forgetting to turn it off, for that matter. I am going to try and lower our hot water heater temp a few degrees, make sure Cindy's light doesn't stay on all day, as it usually does. The same goes for the outside house lights. I did unplug a few things in the kitchen that don't get used all the time and I did turn off the powerstrip to the second computer in the TV room. Anyway, give me a month and I will tell you if any of it was worth it. And yes, I am writing this in the dark. :)