The best Christmas ever

I can not believe it! My sweet husband got me a vitamixer for Christmas. Thank you Sweetheart!! Just what I wanted. It's going to get a lot of use. He also got me a book about training for a triathalon. I love it.
Of course, I was thinking about Christmas last year and what a great present little Miss Sadie was. She still is my favorite gift from last year. I love that little girl. I have three gifts just like Jesus...only I call mine Jackson, Boomer and Sadie.
Merry Christmas

All I Want for Christmas

Here are a few of the things on my Christmas list this year:

Santa, I really haven't been very good....but I'll try really hard next year if you bring me these presents. :)

Llama,Llama Red Pajama

I've been wanting to make puppets for about three Christmases now. My friend Kellena really likes books. Because she likes them so much, I thought I could pair a book with a puppet as a Christmas gift for her family. However, because she is such a bookworm, she already has a large assortment of books. I had to spoil the surprise and ask her what book she wanted for Christmas. She told me her three year old has been reading Llama, Llama, Red Pajama (from the library). Unfortunately, I didn't have a puppet pattern so I had to make it up. I struggled a bit with how to make the neck look long enough. Also, there are no forward facing pictures in the book so I had to mirror image the face. I was a little nervous that I would work all day on my poor llama only to have it turn out looking like a scared giraffe. (It does look a little like a scared giraffe, but I think it turned out quite cute.) What do you think?
PS. I ended up getting her the book: "Llama, Llama Misses Mama". I liked the story a little more than "Llama, Llama Red Pajama". Jon didn't like the "pajama" book because he felt that it was teaching children bad bedtime behavior. There's also a "mad at mama" sequel where Llama and Mama go shopping. Llama doesn't want to be at the store so he throws everything out of the grocery cart. The "misses mama" sequel is about going off to school and how Mama will always come back for him. No unacceptable behavior. Just the kind of book Jon would approve.

A few of my favorite things

Last week we had a birthday party for my friend Pamela....As part of the favors Erica made this great gift bag containing a few of Pamela's favorite things. What I liked most about it is the simplicity of the items on the list. Pamela finds happiness in things like homeade jam and sipping tea from her favorite mug. If I were to make a list it would contain things like: traveling somewhere new, swimming in the ocean (something I never get to do in the freezy Oregon beaches)or going on a ten mile hike. (Haven't done that since I had kids...I get the feeling a 4, 3 and 1 year wouldn't enjoy it too much). It got me thinking that maybe I need to find more simple pleasures or it will be a long time before I can go to my happy places. (Moving to Hawaii isn't an option at this point). So I'm working on a list of my top ten favorite things (at least for today)

10. Snuggling with my kids and their Daddy
9 Hugs and Kisses from Boomer and Jackson
8 Sadie wanting her Mommy
7 Creating some fun new craft
6 Going for a five mile run
5 Sunshine
4 Christmas lights
3New Socks
2 Free time to work on blogs, and read others blogs
1.Good food

I also like pants that stay up and don't show my underwear, Sleeping in and when my boys are playing together.

Michelle

My Friend Lizzy posted the funniest website on her blog. It's called Cake Wrecks. I laughed so hard I cried. I think the comments are even funnier than the cakes. You may wonder what a cake wreck is....so I'll share with you:

"A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places."

AND My Favorite: Here's the funny commentary
"Not all Cake Wrecks are a result of poor construction, as you can see from this example. Some cake artists just seem to forget that, at the end of the day, their creation is meant to be eaten. Can you seriously imagine being told to slice up and serve this cake?...
I think the worst part is that the baby is staring at me. No, really - check out the right eye. [shudder] Dang, that would be spine-tingling even if it were a real baby, you know? (And can you imagine being the person who gets served that eye? Eeeek- I'm going to give myself nightmares.) Call me finicky, but I really can't eat anything that looks like its looking at me."

By the way...These cakes are much funnier at 3 AM. So much fun to be had in the middle of the night.

Michelle

Pumpkin Pie Foot

Today I got up early. It was important that I not sleep in. (Even though I really wanted to.) I was taking a pumpkin pie to preschool today for Mr Jackson's Thanksgiving party. I worked quickly getting the butter cut into small pieces as I started a breakfast of rice cereal cooking. Boomer informed me that he needed some medicine because he didn't feel well. He made a little cough that I thought he was giving for effect and then he began to throw up on the floor. He hadn't eaten yet so it was mostly water (thankfully). I escorted him quickly to the garbage can where he threw up a few more times.
After assuring he was o.k. I washed my hands and mixed up the pumkin pie filling. I continued stirring the rice cereal and began making the pie crust. I haven't made a crust for years so I was a little nervous. Luckily, the crust appeared to turn out well. I poured in the filling and put it into the oven to bake for 50 minutes. It looked beautiful. Something I would be proud to put my name on.
When we got to preschool, the teacher hadn't opened the door yet. Jackson got out of the car and proclaimed that he was too cold and he was getting back in. I dropped off a carseat that I was holding and came back to get the pumpkin pie. When I took the paper towel off that was covering it, I saw the orange perfection with a smashed out middle. It had been stepped on and I knew who the cuprit was. Jackson got a tongue thrashing: "Honey, you stepped on the pie, I worked so hard on that and I am so frustrated. I can't believe you did that. " Mind you, this was said in a very cranky way, not the loving way he deserved. He started to cry and then after a minute of me fuming, I realized I was the one to blame. He didn't know it was there. He certainly didn't do it on purpose. It really was my fault for putting it on the floor. That's where feet go, not pies!
I spent the next five minutes telling him how sorry I was and asking for forgiveness. I told him he could have some of the unstepped on pie when he got home. When we finally took a bite into it the crust was hard and thick. I think Jackson actually did me a favor by stepping on it.

Michelle

Becoming a Diligent Blogger

Over the past few months I have read some amazingly wonderful blogs. I have found crafting blogs and tragic and wonderful life story blogs. These are all done with the intent to share a bit of oneself with others.
I am amazed first, by the talent of these writers. Some of the blogs are so well written, I feel as though the experience is happening to me. Secondly, I am inspired by the selflessness in willing to share their lives and talents.
Therefore, I have been inspired to write and share a little more about me. A few of the blogs that have inspired me are agirlandacamera, pamelasusan, rebeccaphoebe, nieniedialogues, thecraftersfilebox, Anna Marie Horner. I am thankful that everyday they remind me to enjoy life with all its simple pleasures, enjoy my children, and enjoy being creative.

It is my intent to post more often, hopefully, not boring the reader (If there are any). Enjoy.

Michelle

All together now

Ok I found another commercial I really like

Money control and Weight control...

I've been thinking a lot about money and weight loss and how they are related.

1) If you want to loose weight you have to eat less or burn more calories (generally speaking)
If you want to have less debt or save money then you have to spend less or make more money

2) If you do both of the items above the process is accelerated

3) There are only so many hours in the day to work out just as there are only so many hours to work and earn money....so even though you could eat 10,000 calories and burn all those calories off it would be easier to eat less calories..Just as if you spent 10,000 on a credit card and then had to work extra hours to pay off the bill.

4)There comes a point where you can't eat any less or pare down your budget anymore and the best option then is to work out or work more hours

5) Just as you can loose weight temporarily and then gain it all back you can also pay off your debts and not change your habits permanently and therefore have as much or more debt in the end..would that be yo yo debt reduction?

6)Plastic Surgery is necessary if you have gaine too much weight (extra skin) and the same is true with credit cards get out the scissors and preform some "plastic surgery to your credit cards." There is no reason to have 10 credit cards on hand for easy spending

7) Sometimes we all need a little help. If we aren't able to do it on our own a good coach can help us figure out how to fine tune our program

more to come

Let your love shine

This blog wasn't meant to be a commentary on commercials but I love the new Toyota Prius Harmony commercial. It's all done with people as the objects (flowers, grass, water, sun clouds etc). Check it out!!!

BK stands for Bull Krap?

OK what is up with the new Burger King Video? "I like square butts" to promote the Sponge Bob Square pants BK kids meal? It's just not right. However this goes right along with the creepy pantyhose wearing mascot with his monstrous king sized head. I've posted the link below if you want to watch the ridiculous video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gMZ62PsvRM

Blankito Grande

Kind of funny but I named this blog after one of our blankets. Yes, all of our blankets have names. It started with Jackson's baby blanket which we affectionately called blankito (a Spanglish word for little blanket). The second blanket to get a name was the couch quilt which we called Blankito Grande (Big little blanket.) We got a laugh out of that one but the name stuck. Next is Boomer's little white afgan. It was the only blanket he could hold as a baby and it became his favorite blanket. Since it was white we called it blonkito (not to be confused with blankito). Lastly,we inherited a blanket from my mom that my grandmother made for them. As sweet as the gesture was for my grandma to make a quilt for our family, the fabric is autrocious. The name Snuggly uggly came easily due to the horribly patterned fabric backed with soft flannel.