Good Things

This week hasn't been much fun with Dh and I both sick (him more so than me), so I thought I'd do a blog of some cool things I've found recently.

1. Doily Clocks - I love this! I couldn't tell that it was a doily at all. Gives me ideas for the hundreds my Grandma has made me over the years. But I really love this circular one too.
You can find them here. 2. My friend Beth just started selling Tastefully Simple and at her party last week, she had us try one of their new seasonings for summer, Green Tea Peppercorn. She had us try a little on some beer bread - and I wanted to eat the whole container! It's SO good!! I'm going to make these potatoes next week for my birthday. I CAN'T WAIT!! 3. The cutest rubons from Hambly. I want to own these in every color. For no reason at all. I think they'd make the cutest decorations for a baby or kids room. I guess I'd have to work on that for this to be relevant! 4. I must be hungry - but this looks awesome! Parmesan Crusted Chicken from Pioneer Woman. It looks good enough that I think Dh wouldn't even know there's mayo in it.
5. This one's kind of a DUH! for me - Google Reader. WHY haven't I been doing this for years? I just set up every website I go to the other day - it makes everything so much easier! I mean, one place where you can check if the sites you visit have been updated? Too cool. I'm finally with the times!

6. I haven't brought it up yet, but next week is my birthday! I'm always super excited for it! My family and Dh's family comes over and we hang out, eat, and eat some more. This year, I'll have lots of good stuff from Tastefully Simple to serve them, which means we'll all be stuffed and I'll have too many leftovers! Oh well, that's what it's all about, right?

Legally Happy

I'm so excited for this!!

Princess Party

So yesterday was the niece's 3rd birthday. We went to their house early to help them get ready for the party. My niece wanted curly hair, so her mom and I put it in rollers. She looked so cute with them in!
The curls didn't last much longer than taking them out of the rollers! Oh well! We tried. She also dressed up in her Tinkerbell outfit, which was so cute. I tried to take some pictures of her with the princess balloons, but she just wasn't having it!
Here's my niece blowing out her candles on her princess cake. I can't believe she's 3 already! We had a great time yesterday, and it was so nice to spend it with my family.

Mid March Update

I can't believe how quickly March is going! Not much going on here, just work really. We got a couple of inches of snow earlier in the week. I'm sure most of it will be gone by the end of the weekend.

I was able to do some scrapping the other weekend. I'm finally getting caught up to Christmas!

Heidi's going to kill me for this one, but I love how it turned out, so I had to share.
Dh and the nephew at Christmas. I had a hard time with the layout, so it's a little boring, but I'm okay with that.
The niece at Christmas with her kitchen. I love that I was able to capture her unwrapping the box in every stage. And then her happy dance - so cute!
The nephew playing the Wii. I had all of these shots that weren't that great, but really captured him playing. So after I cropped the hell out of them, I think it worked!
My crazy niece at Christmas with her dress-up clothes.
Tomorrow is my niece's 3rd birthday. She's going to have a Princess party. It should be so much fun. I'm really excited for it!

Creative stuff

I did a lot of shopping this weekend, trying to get some healthy food in the house. But Saturday night, I had to try the butterfly thing that Alli Edwards featured on her blog on Friday. Here's my take -
I used the Anthropology catalog that came on Saturday. It was really fun to make. Here's a close up:
Here's some layouts I've done in the past couple of weeks:

This is a picture that I glittered around because the background was too distracting. And because Marni is just that fabulous!
Dh's Grandparents anniversary:
And some old pictures of Dh and his Grandpa.

Can anyone else believe it's March already? Crazy!

Breakfast for Dinner

Have you ever had an egg in the hole? I made one tonight. All you do is take a piece of bread, cut a hole in it, put an egg in, fry it for about 3 minutes on one side, flip it over, fry it for a little longer on the other side, and then viola! You have an egg in the hole. Very easy and pretty cool.

Here are said eggs in said hole. Eggs in hole after being flipped. Baron trying to get me to take his bone. He really only ever wants his bone when someone else wants it. That's why he's downstairs as I type chewing his bone about an hour after I gave it to him. He had to wait until Orion was done. Now Orion wants his bone, so he's happy. Crazy dog!

Valentine's Day

Yesterday, Dh had to work in the morning, so we went to get him a new cell phone in the afternoon. He's really hard on cell phones - dropping them on the ice while going 40 mph on his snowmobile, getting them wet on the boat, etc - so he went with the Rugby Phone. It's military grade and should withstand most of what he puts his cell phone through. We then came home and made a Surf and Turf dinner - steak and lobster tail. It was on sale at the local grocery store. I'd never cooked lobster before, but it turned out great. We even made a little garlic butter to dip it in. After dinner, we watched Definitely, Maybe. Dh even liked it! It was really cute and great story. It's kinda been an Isla Fisher weekend for me, she's in Definitely, Maybe and also in Confessions of a Shopaholic, which I saw on Friday night. I had read the book before, so I knew the storyline. Of course the book is better, but the movie is cute. I don't know if it's worth going to the movie theater for, but it's definitely worth renting. Dh had to work at 4am today, so we called it a night early. I'm just glad he was up to doing anything, after working 6 days in a row!

What I Found When I got Home Today

Yep. I left the dogs out in the house all day today, and Orion managed to take off his cone. BY HIMSELF. Luckily, the stitches and staples come out on Wednesday so we can get rid of this thing.

Pain and Agony

It's been an interesting week here at our house. Monday, Orion went to the Vet to have a huge lump taken off his front leg. You should be glad I didnt' take any photos of it - it was pretty gross. He's been fighting us to lick his new stitches, which resulted in one falling out and him going in for staples today. This is his new look, which he loves. It's kinda funny to watch him come up stairs. He just doesn't get that he needs to lift his head a little for the cone not to hit the stairs.

The other fun thing is that my back went out on Wednesday. It had been hurting me for about a week, but I thought it was just normal back pain. Wednesday I got ready for work, and it really hurt. I wasn't even able to wash my feet in the shower! Just when I was going to leave, the pain got so bad, I yelled for Dh and called into work. A couple of hours later, I took a left over muscle relaxer that Dh had (I know it's not good for you, but I was desperate!), and tried to make it to the bathroom. That ended up with me in the middle of the living room floor screaming and moaning for a couple of hours. The dogs weren't too happy about that! After another muscle relaxer, I was able to get up, go to the bathroom, and go to bed. I finally went to the Dr on Thursday, got my own muscle relaxers, and some super Ibuprophen, so things are finally on the mend. I'm still in some pain and haven't been able to do too much, but it's slowly getting better. The worst of it all, after the pain, is that I wasted 3 days of vacation for this!! I only get 13 to begin with! (including sick time). I guess I'll be at work for all of 2009!

Scrapbook Hangover

It is impossible to have a bad weekend when things like this happen.I miss everyone already! Can't we just get together and scrap instead of working?

Wow! That's Cold!

This was the temperature at 7:30am today. The top temp is inside our house, the bottom one is outside. Notice there is no "." between the 2 and the 5.
Yes, that's -25. Good luck this weekend, Alli and Linda! Welcome home! :)


This past Sunday, we celebrated Dh's birthday with my family. After a little while, we showed our nephew the Wii. He LOVED it. Here he is bowling. He didn't want to stop for dinner and didn't want to leave. I guess I know what he's doing every time he comes over from now on!
The other part of this picture that I love is our niece with her backpack on. It's a Disney Princess backpack that has a handle so you can wheel it around, and straps so you can wear it on your back. She had that thing loaded with her "Odies" (that's the name of every baby doll she has) and everything else she brought. It's amazing that little body can hold all of that up.

While the nephew was playing the Wii, my brother and niece sat on the stairs for a little bit. I thought this was cute. This weekend is going to be great - it's the annual scrapbooking retreat! Last year, it was the coldest weekend, I think we might hit that again this year. I haven't scrapped in a long time, so I'm hoping to get a lot done. I'll post pics when I get back.

Peeps

Yes, these are Halloween Peeps. I purchased them this fall to use for s'mores (like a creme brulee s'more!) Since then, they have been sitting on top of my fridge waiting for the perfect time to eat them. The reason? I love dried out marshmellows, especially peeps! They get crunchy and oh so good! Anyone else love their peeps this way?

Christmas 2008

Christmas was strange this year. We got stuck in Ohio until Christmas Eve because of really bad weather. I've never missed Christmas in 31 years. It was a little hard, but I guess I'd rather miss it than be stuck somewhere in the snow. Christmas Day we went to my brother's house. It was nice to see everyone, and we did get to see the niece and nephew open a lot of their gifts.

My niece got a kitchen set from my parents. Needless to say, she was pretty excited. I couldn't catch her dance of joy with the camera! Here's the fuzzy version. The kitchen took about 2 hours, a couple of beers, and a lot of swearing to assemble. We are still cursing my Mom for getting that thing! Oh well, at least the niece was happy.

My nephew got a really cool Rambo type Nerf gun. He and Dh had a great time with it. They disappeared into the basement for hours playing with it. I'm surprised Dh hasn't asked for one for his birthday! Dh and my nephew then watched The Incredibles together. I love that they get along so well. Does that mean I'm married to a 5 year old? :) Oh well. I'd rather have someone who acted young than acted old.

Back to Blogging

Dh and I are back from Ohio now. We got back on Christmas Eve, which meant I missed Christmas with my extended family. It made me sad, but I was glad we didn't get caught in any bad weather. I'll post more about our time there later. Here's what I was going to post last week before we had to leave.

On December 13, my Mom, SIL and I went to my aunt's house again to make Norwegian goodies. (See what we did last year here) This year we made Fattigmand, Krum Kake, Rosettes, and Sandbakkels.

Here we are making the Krum Kake.
This is the lard (yes you read that correctly!) that we defried the fattigmand and rosettes in. I had actually found a set of rosette irons in my Grandma E's garage when we were cleaning out her house. It was fun to use them. Here my aunt is giving a lesson on how to roll out the fattigmand. The dough had to be tissue paper thin. Here we are taking the sandbakkels out of the mold after baking them. I'm so glad that I'm able to learn how to make something from my heritage. Plus, everything is SO yummy! :)

Sadness *Updated*

We got notice today that Dh's grandpa isn't doing good. We're expecting to leave for Ohio tomorrow. I'm hoping for the best, but knowing that the worst is soon to come. Both of my grandpa's have been gone for many years. He actually called me his granddaughter. I know this is cryptic, but that's sort of how I feel. I'd appreciate any prayers or good thoughts.

*Dh's grandpa passed away earlier this morning. We'll be leaving for Ohio after I get done with work. *

The Map is DONE!

It was an exciting day here at our house earlier this week. Dh's grandparents gave us a US quarter map back in 1999, and I have been diligently filling it up ever since. I've had a hard time finding Hawaii, but Dh came home with 4 of them in his change this week! Now, the collection is complete. Some of the coins are a little tarnished now, so I'll have to clean them up. Eventually, this will get framed and displayed, but for now it lives on the floor under a dresser in our guest bedroom. We certainly know how to treat our important stuff! :)

Our tree is up and all of the lights are on. I can't remember how many lights we have on there, but about 3/4 of the way done, Dh said there was 1800. It's 10.5 feet tall. Hopefully we'll get to actually putting ornaments on it tonight. This is the first time we've had this up in 2 or 3 years, so either way it's nice to look at.
It's been raining here for most of the morning and now the temperature has dropped to 14 degrees last I checked. That makes for some great times outside. I was going to watch my nephew's Christmas program at church and then go to brunch with some friends, but had to cancel because I didn't want to get stuck in this. Hopefully it will be better by tomorrow. I don't want to try to go to work on ice!

The Soup: Clip Of The Week 11/28/08

I LOVE this clip! Evil, genius weimaraners! If we left the dogs out all day, I'm sure this would happen at our house. The look the dog has when she's trying to take away the peanut butter is exactly how Orion looks when we try to take away something he shouldn't have. It's like "what? I don't have anything in my mouth!"

Ever wonder what special hell is waiting for you?

Just in case you weren't sure what level of hell I was going to be on, now you know. Let me know if you're going to join me! I'm shocked about the violent part...

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Third Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Moderate
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Thanksgiving Wrap-up

We got back from Ohio on Sunday after a quick trip there for Thanksgiving. We spent a lot of time playing the Wii, which was a blast. I think just about everyone there tried playing something! Mario Kart was the big hit! Here I am giving Mario Kart lessons.
There was 18 of us for Thanksgiving. Everything was really good, but we still had too much food left over!
Friday night we all went out for Dh's grandparent's 40th wedding anniversary. It was really nice to be there to help them celebrate!
I wish we lived closer so we could see each other more often, but at least we had a great time while we were there!

Turkey Day - Here we come!

Dh, the dogs and I are leaving for the great state of Ohio early Wednesday morning. It's a 12 hour drive and we have to get through Chicago without going through rush hour, so we'll probably leave before 5am. Fun times! I'm a HORRIBLE car traveler. Or, maybe I should phrase that I'm horrible for the person driving. I get in a car and I'm asleep. I will probably sleep for a good 10 hours of the trip, which makes for good company. And then when we get there, I'm still tired. Go figure.

The reason we're going to Ohio is to celebrate Thanksgiving with the inlaws. Dh grew up there, and most of his extended family is there. It'll be nice to see everyone again. I'm excited to play everyone on the Wii - it should be funny!!

I hope everyone has a good turkey day!