UGH!

Did I say out loud, er, type that I was going to be better about posting this year?  As in a New Years Resolution?  Not starting out so well. . .

I have been reading other blogs.  I cannot lie to you!  My new favorite blog is http://www.u-createcrafts.com/ and they have done all the blog stalking for you!  (That's what it's called when you check out all these blogs and you don't really know the people)  Speaking of checking out other blogs, I received an email the other day from a guy at CSN stores online.  They have multiple sites online and you can even buy your "kitchen sink" there and the email was to see if I would be interested in offering a giveaway to my readers (just think of what your chances would be!  Um all 4 of you sign up and you have a 25% chance of winning!! hehe).  In all fairness to them, I figured they'd want to know about my number of hits a day and then they'd get red-faced and take back their offer. :D 

What have you been doing lately?  Going to Basketball games, practice and driving to and from those. . .

I realized tonight that I've done a horrible job of taking pictures of Brayton at his games!!  I don't have ANY!  Oops!  Guess that's what he gets for telling me Saturday he was glad Chris was taking him to his game and I wouldn't be there.  Little did he know I was taking Bray in the car to the middle school where Chris had open gym with 4 players, was trading vehicles & kids and then after delivering the 4 boys I now had, I was headed over to the Y to cheer on Bray (despite our blow-up that morning for him not being ready after playing PS3 too long. . . )  I apologize for these pictures.  I am going to look up how to set the settings on my camera tonight because it is taking worse and worse pictures, I SWEAR!  This makes me feel sad to look at this picture.  Don't the boys look so grown up in their "professional" outfits??  That's my #40 right there.

Here Taite is taking a shot, I believe although he could be getting the rebound.  He's gotten very good and aggressive in his ball playing.

 Pay it Forward!

Today I decided to bake bread.  Since it was blustery and snowy and just all around crappy, warm, fresh bread sounded really good.  I wasnt' just making any bread, I wanted the Hawaiian Sweet Bread which makes A LOT!  So, what to do with all that bread. . . Share it!  It reminds me of when my grandma used to call us and say "I made bread today and you can have some fresh out of the oven for your supper" ~ well, sometimes, that WAS our supper!  Oh, so yummy with the butter melting and running down your fingers as you happily chewed the doughiness. . .   Who did I call you ask?  My friend Lori, who is a single mom with 4 kids.  She was thrilled!  And my in-laws I knew would also like fresh bread and they happily picked up their share and we still  had plenty left over after our supper.  I love fresh bread, but I love sharing it even better.

 When I started typing this up, the wintry wonderland outside was pretty and peaceful.  The snow looks fake like it does in the movies and I could hear the jangle of metal on metal and lots 'o giggles!  The boys decided to blow up the little Minion from our Despicable Me movie package and were dressed up for a hunt.  This is a picture of the target:

 Aaaannd, here is a picture of a mean HUNTER.  DV hat, red robe, a pillow for protection, the medals from any sport he's played and they gave medals away at and one mean shooting yellow ball popping gun!  Oh and one guard dog.

Again, I apologize for the picture quality.  I am looking right now for a solution to the setting problem I'm having!



I need to finish last night's post!

I have to give credit where credit is due.

This skirt is called The Domesticated Skirt, created by Sew a Straight Line.
http://sewastraightline.blogspot.com/2010/03/domesticated-skirt.html
It's made so when you get the dirty hands wiped on you, you can untie it, spin it around and retie ~ a whole new skirt!  :D  I really wish I'd had this one when I was staying home with the boys when they were little!

This is a key fob, created by the Idea Room http://www.theidearoom.net/2009/08/fashionable-fabric-key-chains.html

I have both of these patterns bookmarked (this one I made for my sister).  I know it seems like something so simple and you don't think you'd use one, but I LOVE mine!!!  It's so nice to know that when I have my hands full my keys will NOT be the thing I drop!  (This one is for my sister ~ shhh!)

This is a pretend diaper bag, changing pad & wipes that I'm making for Josey for when the baby comes.  You know how it's nice to have gifts for the little ones who don't understand why the baby is getting all the gifts?  This idea came from Twelve Crafts Till Christmas:  http://twelvecraftstillchristmas.blogspot.com/2010/09/pretend-and-play-diaper-bag-tutorial.html

I still need to make the mini-tag blanket and find a small bottle to put in my diaper bag. 

Okay, now I can sleep well tonight :~)

It's a good thing. . .

~ we have a kitchen table we don't use much (it's under there ~ really!)

~ that I have a stash of fabrics and scraps so I could make these:

~ and that we have a PS3 so my boys are content the whole time I'm creating these master pieces and messes! (this one was actually taken the other day, but gives you the same effect of what Chris and Bray were doing tonight while I sewed and Taite was at a friends)

This is a little glimpse of an upcoming project.  I'm going to re-purpose this . . . thing.  It was at an auction and in a box that someone else didn't want.  I have in my head what it will be. . . can you guess??

Good night. . . zzzzzzzzz

Good Stuff!

We have had a busy weekend of basketball.  Taite's "extra" team was in it's first tournament this weekend!  They one 2 out of 3 games and lost the last game by a basket or two.  Bray and I were only able to watch the first and last game because he had a game at 11 in South Sioux City at the Y, which was also my coaching debut!  It turned out okay because at the 3rd grade level, there really isn't much I can tell them that will change the events of the game.  Haha  I'm sure one mom is mad though she only has her son out for BB for exercise and he really doesn't want to be out. . . Not a good combo and that combined with only having 6 players (you need 5 on the court to play the game ~ for those of you who don't play :~D) it made it easy to decide who to take out and who to keep in to play.  I will gladly leave the coaching to Chris.  Speaking of, one of the football coaches (and someone we are friends with) asked Chris if he would like to help coach football next fall.  Chris said he would coach Taite's age, but imagines that there are plenty for his grade and he would gladly coach 4th grade since that's the age he's coached before.  So we are kind of excited for that, even though August seems an eternity away! 

Seeing all the snow back home at Christmas time really made us appreciate the brown, crappy, scraggly snow we have here. . . that is until today!  We are getting snow now and the last snow storm was when Chris picked up 1/2 of his BB team for open gym and braved the weather to play.  It has been snowing since this morning, but Taite still had his game this afternoon.  The game was a disaster and when we left, we were on the on-ramp for the interstate when a dark green SUV comes sliding past us (on the left) and this is when I saw him and told Chris to look out or something (it was kind of crazy, so I'm not sure what I said) and everything happened in very slow motion after that.  Chris slammed on the brakes until the back of the van started sliding to the right and then he floored it.  The SUV (still in slow motion) continued to spin around so his front was narrowly missing our rear end.  We got out of that safely and a semi flew by the whole thing wayyy on the left.  I assume he saw the idiot in the green SUV driving and was trying to stay as far over in the left lane as possible.  I seriously think his left tire was outside the rumble grooves in the road.  The whole time I was waiting for the tell-tale crunch of car-on-car, but that never came, so we kept going.  The SUV was 1/2 in the ditch and according to Lori (the twins mom and my friend) said the guy made a U-turn (so he was facing the right direction again) and took off!  Talk about scary situation!  Chris would like full credit for saving, but really it could've been disastrous if that semi would've been behind the SUV when he managed his driving expedition!!!  We celebrated with ice cream and beer (well, the beer was just for Chris and I!).

Chris and I are continuing to work on the basement and Taite even helped this morning.  We had intended to use the unfinished basement as a learning opportunity for the boys because Chris is so handy and we really want the boys to be self-sufficient too!  Of course it turned into Taite being concerned that Bray was getting to play FB (football, not Facebook :D) on the PS3 too much and yadda-yadda. . .   Anyway, you would think the dog was in a war zone as scared as she gets when we are working.  I have to admit the air nailer does sound like a shot-gun, but it's not.  Here is how clingy she is while Chris was downstairs working:

Of course, Taite doesn't mind!

So, lastly, here is the "good stuff". . . . recipes!  This first recipe I need to post with a warning!  It is addicting and will add layers to your butt and thighs (at least that's how it worked for me, but OH SO YUMMY!!!)

Blue Cheese Dip II


Ingredients

• 1 cup mayonnaise

• 1 cup sour cream

• 4 green onions, finely chopped

• 2 tablespoons dried parsley

• 4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

• garlic salt to taste

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix mayonnaise, sour cream, green onions, dried parsley, blue cheese and garlic salt. Cover and chill in the refrigerator until serving.

I don’t recall how much garlic salt I started out with, but it could’ve been more. Here are some suggestions from a guy who owned or owns a wing place:


Don't try to sneak in low fat mayo or sour cream. A small dash each of Worcestershire, Tabasco, fresh lemon juice, and a small crushed clove of garlic will really brighten up the flavor. I also add about 50% more cheese than called for and leave it in bigger chunks.

This one is so good and SO easy!!  LOVE those kind of recipes (an added plus ~ I always have these ingredients on hand.  A tip from my Grandma ~ only use Land O'Lakes margarine if you don't want butter.  Why?  Because it has less water in it than other brands)

Peach Cobbler

This one came from a newspaper clipping, from my grandma  It’s VERY good and VERY easy, so that’s why I’m sharing (can’t ever have too many of those recipes laying around!)

1 stick margarine or butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 cup milk

1-29 oz can sliced peaches, including syrup

Melt the butter or marg. in a 9” baking dish (I usually put it in the pan, in the oven, while it’s preheating and I am getting the other stuff ready). In a medium bowl, mix remaining ingredients except for peaches, together. Slowly pour mixture over the melted marg. Do NOT stir (this is the easy part ~ no stirring). Spoon fruit, including syrup, over the flour mixture. Do NOT stir (again, easy!). Bake at 350 degree oven for 50 – 60 minutes.

Enjoy!  I'd try to come up with something witty, but Taite just asked when I'm going to cut out their names in vinyl on my Silhouette for their new water bottles! 
GOTTA RUN!

I'm doing better!

I know this post won't be exciting, but at least I'm posting something.  Hehe

Okay, first off, the boys wrote their Christmas thank yous already!  I told them one day it had to be done, I dug out all the Christmas thank yous we had and when I came home from work there were two haphazard piles of thank yous from each of them.  Taite had used the Christmas ones, Brayton didn't notice them stacked up on the table that he sat at with his flowery, formal and quite honestly, boring thank you cards.  Oh well, they were done and I only had to say it once!

Today I am mailing them off.  I am reading them as I get them prepared to go and for one of their gifts, they received a nice reusable water bottle with a $50 attached (they each got one).  Their thank yous read like this:
Taite
Thank you so much for the water bottle!  It was awesome!
Love, Taite
P.S.  I forgot to thank you for the $50! It was unexpected!

Brayton
Thank you for the water bottle and 50 dollar bill.  I will use the water bottle a lot.
Love Brayton

Chris and I both laughed about those :~)

We are slowly making progress in the basement.  The plans for the bathroom threw off our progress on Sunday and Chris finally figured out (we were kind of frazzled, so we had cleaned up and were quitting earlier than bedtime) that the door in the plans was bigger than the door on the bath upstairs.  With the bigger door, there was not enough room between the vanity and trim around the door for it to all work.  We have since got started on the bath, closet and spare bedroom walls.  We've burnt out one drill and Chris has recalculated in his head what all the work is going to cost and that has slowed us down even more :~)  Good thing we don't need the space and aren't in any hurry!

Monday's are our garbage day and I had told Chris I wanted to save the scraps of wood without blue on them for projects such as this one:
It was created by a crafty gal over at Shanty to Chic (just learned it's pronounced "sheek" ~ guess I'm out of it!)  http://shanty2chic.blogspot.com/2010/12/photo-block-tutorial-great-gift.html   So, my devoted husband went through all the wood we had thrown in this blue tote and took out the blue tipped pieces and I am now left with this (my own tote of craft wood!)

Projects like the one above will help to use up some of the scrap wood AND I can use my Silhouette!  Speaking of my Silhouette, I finally cut something out!  I've wanted one of these for so long that when I finally had it, I froze!  I didn't want to wreck it or the vinyl I wanted to cut and the options of things to cut are endless, but I really wanted to try some vinyl.  It was even panicky to rip the cellophane off the roll of brown vinyl Chris ordered for me to go along with my machine.  I know, I'm a geek, but I am somewhat of a perfectionist.  I managed to set these expectations aside and cut this:

I was supposed to do a test cut to make sure the settings were correct (thickness of material, right blade, etc.) but I didn't want to ruin a perfectly good piece of vinyl for at test cut, so I ruined a perfectly good piece of vinyl for nothing!  I eventually did the test cut on the next attempt only to find out it's barely a 1/2" by 1/2" square it cuts and it's done on the very edge so you don't ruin a perfectly good piece of vinyl.  I did manage to salvage the one square of vinyl that wasn't twisted, cut and tortured on my first try.

2nd Attempt:
This went much better, but I still learned something ~ you need a small clear table devoted to this little gem of a machine.  It cut all of the word "Blessings" beautifully, but when it got to the last item, the swirly thing, I bumped the vinyl, it fed it in crooked and didn't quite cut it as perfectly as I would've liked.  Never fear!  I've already checked and the square that I salvaged from attempt #1 will allow me to re cut the swirly thing!!  I don't even have paint for my blocks, nor the stain for the edges or pictures printed, but I have my vinyl cut!  Hehe!  Here's to you and any small obstacles you've overcome!

I'm sorry, Sorry, SORRY!

I've been content lately to blog-stalk instead of updating my own blog.  It's so relaxing, exciting, and inspiring to see other's projects, re-dos, ideas and inspirations!  I'm pumped to redo some furniture that I have not acquired yet, but I know it's out there waiting for me. 

I've taken pictures of some things we've done the last month and I won't bore you with every little detail, so I'll just tell you about the pictures I've taken the time to upload (I've got the checking account balanced now ~ while waiting for the pictures to upload ~ just have to say I LOVE Quicken and downloading statements from our bank!!!)

Okay, I MUST disclose that I had these pictures flipped when I uploaded them, but this stupid program, put them back to how they were originally. . . I'm not in the mood to upload and re-adjust in the display of pics again, so you'll have to deal with it.  This is Taite playing basketball ~ they have very real (mature) looking uniforms

 I am sorry these aren't upright!  If you click on them you can see a bigger picture (still on the side) but you can see Taite better :D

 #40 is him, he is such a little man now!  I have to say that was the saddest part about our New Year's celebration.  My little boy is no longer and it makes me sad, but I love the hugs he continually gives me and they are now around my shoulders and no longer at my knees. . .

 I need to get some pics of Brayton at one of his games.  He plays in the Y league so the uniforms are red/white and his is terribly sewn, but I promise to get some pictures soon.  The last game he played was AWFUL!  The other team was obviously in the Y league (typically for those who are clueless about BB so they are all still learning) so they could beat the pants off of every team.  So sad for our little guys. 

On a happy note, I decided to surprise my friend, Lori, with a cute coffee cozy.  I found some perfect snowman fabric at a local shop that sells 5" wide strips for $.50 so they were fun to get coordinating colors and this is how it turned out (again, this pic was turned right side up before uploading ~ also, the fabric around the 'L' is frayed a little).

 You can kind of see the fraying a little better in this picture:

 Taite came home with the Dreidel game (I'm happy that each year there is some student in one of the boys' class that will share their family beliefs and traditions regarding Christmas time) ~ we had to look up the rules, but the boys played for none-other-than  . . ..  . . . clothespins!!  LOL

 Here is picture of Brayton before his Christmas program at school.  It was an excellent show and Taite had a BB game that night so Chris and Taite arrived shortly after the program started and actually had better seats than Tom, Jane and I!  :~)

 This is a picture of Brayton after his pajama/Polar Express day at school!  We picked the boys up from school early that day as we had a Christmas party for The Coffee Cup Fuel Stop that Chris and I were attending because Tom & Jane couldn't make it to represent the "Heinz" family :~)  The boys were thrilled because we rented Red Box movies (it was a 4-5 hour trip), they got to have room service all by themselves in our room, and then we rented a different movie for on the way home!  They also talked their dad into letting them pay for a basketball and football game on their phones (I don't remember who chose which game).

With the end of the holiday season, I am always ready for Spring!  I want no snow, warmer weather and flowers!  At our house, however, we have another season to go through before Spring can get here (at least that's when I hope this is done) ~ Construction!
 Here is our pile of lumber for the framing of the basement walls.

 This is a picture of the bedroom and behind the plywood & insulation (white/green packaging) will be the bathroom.

 Better shot of the "bathroom" and exercise room.  We have changed the plans downstairs a bunch of times, so now we don't even call the architect ~ we just dig out one of the previous plans LOL (the exercise room was going to be the sewing room, but my husband didn't want to finish EVERY SQUARE INCH OF THE BASEMENT, so, it's no longer the sewing room. . .)

 This is the outside door and soon to be my sewing room.  I cannot tell you how excited I am to have a sewing room with a window.  I can already picture it ~ I'll have room for all my tables to be set up, I'm going to have a closet to put things and a pretty thing on the wall to hold my ribbon and gift wrapping if I choose!  The color of the room I see is a pale yellow (it's my favorite color!)  Can you see it?  No?  Well, don't worry, I'll keep you posted and soon you'll be able to!

 On the left side of this picture is the door that goes to the upstairs and where those totes are sitting on the floor, that is going to be our storage area.  This house has so much space and we don't want to waste any of it, we have room to build a 5' storage room for any items and it will not compromise the space in the basement at all!

 On the left in this picture is the "under the steps storage" that every house has and where the wall goes out to the right will be our movie room!  I can't wait for that either and the place we visited in town that does the wiring for movie rooms said the projectors are fabulous now and you can't go wrong with the picture, so it will really feel like a theater!  Oh, and I SOOO have my husband talked into getting a popcorn machine!  He even makes sure there's room in the corner for when we are framing (yes, these pictures are from a few weeks ago) ~ just wait for it!

 This is standing in the movie room looking through the exercise room to the bathroom.  I know, if you'd have seen our basement in person, this would make more sense, but you'll see after we have the walls up, how it's taking shape.

 This is the movie room and there will be a wall about where those white pails are and that's where the popcorn machine's home will be. . . (still to come!)

 December 19th came and with it we had a light snow, but that did NOT stop Bray, Taite & I from venturing out to see the huge train display in the house in Mapleton, IA.  Taite was amazed and in awe, but disappointed. 

 Disappointed, you ask?  Yes, Brayton and I could only take being there for 2 hours, so we didn't come close to lasting the whole 4 hours that Taite was hoping to be there, but a person can only watch so many people coming and going, longing to be one of them until you call "Uncle!".

 The set-up really was huge, but what surprised me is that he had a Holiday Train just like the real one that the CP (I think) has and that came through Rochester a couple years ago.  This train enthusiast had never seen it in person and he got all excited when I mentioned it and that we had got to see it!  How funny!!

 It was so neat to see all the little scenes around the town and tracks.  The police and ambulance lights actually flashed and the rail crossings went up and down ~ very cool!!

 This is the guy who punched the tickets.  He was very real and even had the lantern ~ again, very cool!

 He even humored me when I had them restage this photo-op (Taite got his card punched when I wasn't watching) and then posed again when I wasn't ready for the 2nd time!  Super nice guy!

 This is our first wall built downstairs by us 4 as a family!  The boys are proud to be able to say they helped and we all worked together.  Only the one wall in the basement was finished and we were getting a lot of frost on the block downstairs so we had to build all the outside walls and most of the inside walls.

 Brayton ready to watch his team, the Falcons, play on Monday Night Football!  Too bad they lost!!

 We took a Christmas picture this year and we were not prepared, but I was desperate as it was very late in December!  So, with our broken tri-pod and the help of our couch, we took some pictures.  Here is one that did NOT make the cut ~ can you guess why???
(hint: Chris didn't have his shirt tucked in and looked like he was holding in a big breath, I looked pregnant ~ so nice of my husband to notice!  so we had a wardrobe adjustment and you'll probably see the one that made the cut)

 We made it back to my mom and dad's house for Christmas and we made it just in time ~ we left Wednesday after school and it snowed and blew on Thursday, so it worked out perfectly!

Santa did find us at G&G's, to Brayton's relief!

 Taite got lots of train set items. . .  (he rarely has a shirt on at home)

 Brayton's gifts had the Falcon's theme. . .

 Roddy White jersey

 Everything being displayed:  hat, l/s tee, jersey, gloves, football!

 The boys with their cousin, Josey, and Grandma's dog, Maisie.

 Same picture with a dog swap and Baby in the picture ~ LOL

 Here is how our basement looks after yesterday and today's work:
This is the storage area (the 5' one) looking out from the movie room (we didn't get everything done today)

 This is standing in the living room looking at the door to upstairs on the left, the storage room straight and to the left and on the right is my sewing room with an angled door way!  CAN'T WAIT ~ have I mentioned that yet??

 Looking into the sewing room (note: the big window!!) and the doorway to the upstairs on the right. 

 This is how our lumber pile has shrunk.

 I hope to keep you more up to date on our "stuff" and I'll try to take my camera to more BB games.  It seems that's all we do these days, well, it's definitely all Chris does these days ~ I LOVE that man!  He puts up with all of us and keeps smilin'!! Happy New Year!