1. Despite popular belief, interviewing does not get easier with age. In some respects it may, but certainly not on my nerves. First teaching interview since I've been back in Minnesota and I'm just as much of a hot mess as I was when I graduated college. Less emphasis on 'hot' & more on 'mess'. But at least I've got experience in my back pocket, so that should make it a tad bit easier, right?!
2. Big puppy news! We've been accident-free in the house for a month now and last night we took a major step & a leap of faith.... Amelia made it out of the laundry room & slept upstairs with us. Like any baby she neglected to sleep through the night. But I give props to the little gal for waking up the girls instead of us when she was ready to play!
3. It finally feels like this house is our home. Why did I not think it would take so long?
4. I still miss our house in Ohio. And our neighborhood. And our friends. And my job. Is this feeling ever going to go away?!
5. I did not expect my oldest child to erupt in tears at the prospect of spending her last two weeks of summer vacation without me in the house. Love that she still needs me, but man does she pull on my heart strings!
6. I am anxiously awaiting the night when we finally make use of our fire ring. Finally it is getting cool enough to actually sit outside by a fire.
7. I have stopped myself three times now from putting my Fall decorations out by the front door. Is it September yet?!
8. I still have to get the girls' shelves up on their walls. I've come across just about every reason possible to delay this. Who knew it was such a commitment?!
9. I might be having just as much fun doing the behind-the-scenes design work for Geoff's new company as he is being the front man. If only I could put my inappropriate slogans to work. I guess I'll just have to keep on giggling to myself. Some things never change.
10. I could not be more grateful that the girls have met some really great friends in our neighborhood. There were moments I questioned this, but the kids they've been spending their time with as of recent are on the approval list. Yay for that hurdle!
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Little Snacker
If you've noticed my notable absence from blogging over the last year plus, it isn't out of pure laziness {okay, maybe a little!} but more a combination of a host of things, including a roller coaster ride of exciting ups & defeating downs. I don't want to be that person who parades their reach of personal happiness to the world as if I've championed my life. I also don't want to be the person who swims in the moat of defeat in her pinnacle of paradise. So I've laid low, lived my life, and honored my promise to unfold the stories that bring smiles & laughter on a plate of straight-up reality.
Enter our new puppy, Amelia. Amelia is a rescue pup and clocks in at seven and a half months old. But don't be fooled, this little gal has already refined a collection of habits & tastes. And that is where our story begins.
After a series of recent bathroom break-ins, it became clear that our new dog's favorite time of the month is that time of the month. If snacking on used feminine hygiene products was a crime, this pup would be on doggie death row. We wrapped up our investigation several days ago and implemented a fool proof plan to keep our canine criminal's fetish at bay. Little did we know she was holding onto evidence.... In her bowels!
If there is a director in Hollywood who could perfectly recreate the scene that played out in my living room this morning of a grown man shivering and shaking like a dog in need of relief, an Academy Award would be sure to follow. I'll spare you the details of my husband's hand grab between the 14th & 15th holes yesterday afternoon. But of course this could not happen in someone's yard, it has to happen right along the cart path just down the road. And in his words, "It's a good thing I grabbed a big bag!"
The bottom line: this dog is keeping us on our toes!
So to my friend Teri, who couldn't wait to hear about our adventures in Minnesota.... I told you I doubted they would be good, because after all Minnesotans weren't nearly as interesting as people in Ohio; I know because I am one of them. I amend that statement.... because after all, I guess I am one of them!
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Ten on Tuesday
1. Duluth! Outside magazine's 2013 Best Adventure Hub runner-up. Love that town!
2. Both lovelies are actively eating apples off Dad's trees. The apples are still green. I'm willing to wager their digestive track will also be actively eating at them before the night is through.
3. I love the word, espionage. Maybe it's the way it rolls off the tongue, or the sophistication it implies. But no worries, you didn't uncover my secret password to anything.... I'd never remember how to spell it!
4. Confession Alert! When the Sarah McLachlan commercials come on TV I either leave the room, hit mute, or turn the channel. But I'm a sucker for the Values.com ads.
5. On another note, I'm also a huge fan of the colonoscopy billboard campaign decorating Minnesota's highways. Cracks me up!
6. The girls have mastered the art of checkers. I pity the fool in school who takes them on.
7. This summer is all about ice cream for Abby. If she could eat it with every meal, she would. And still, not an inch of fat on your body. Lucky girl!
8. I realized today when we attempted to do school shopping how much I don't like school shopping. We left the Medford Outlet with one sweatshirt for each of the girls. Shoes & jeans go on sale next week. It was a great excuse to ditch the shopping in lieu of ice cream!
9. Something tells me when the dust settles there is another dog in our future. I suspect I will be the last hold out. I love the life & energy a dog brings into our home.... I hate the hair, the responsibility. Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes?!
10. This might finally be the time for me to try coconut oil! Hmmmm.... now what to do with it?!
2. Both lovelies are actively eating apples off Dad's trees. The apples are still green. I'm willing to wager their digestive track will also be actively eating at them before the night is through.
3. I love the word, espionage. Maybe it's the way it rolls off the tongue, or the sophistication it implies. But no worries, you didn't uncover my secret password to anything.... I'd never remember how to spell it!
4. Confession Alert! When the Sarah McLachlan commercials come on TV I either leave the room, hit mute, or turn the channel. But I'm a sucker for the Values.com ads.
5. On another note, I'm also a huge fan of the colonoscopy billboard campaign decorating Minnesota's highways. Cracks me up!
6. The girls have mastered the art of checkers. I pity the fool in school who takes them on.
7. This summer is all about ice cream for Abby. If she could eat it with every meal, she would. And still, not an inch of fat on your body. Lucky girl!
8. I realized today when we attempted to do school shopping how much I don't like school shopping. We left the Medford Outlet with one sweatshirt for each of the girls. Shoes & jeans go on sale next week. It was a great excuse to ditch the shopping in lieu of ice cream!
9. Something tells me when the dust settles there is another dog in our future. I suspect I will be the last hold out. I love the life & energy a dog brings into our home.... I hate the hair, the responsibility. Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes?!
10. This might finally be the time for me to try coconut oil! Hmmmm.... now what to do with it?!
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Image Splattered Shirts
I'm always looking for fun, relatively easy projects to do with the girls. This project proved not only to be a fun project, but it doubles as a fun & creative gift. Thank you, Reanna Manthe, for the idea!
Supplies:
Step 1: Buy your shirts.... I picked ours up at Wal-Mart for under $4/each. I'm a big fan of the girls fitted V-neck shirts and the bright colors are super fun!
Step 2: Pick your image.... I collected ours from the images on Microsoft Word and Google Images. Profile images turn out best on the finished product.
Step 3: Print your image on cardstock.... You're going to have to decide what size works best for your shirt. We made child sized shirts, and I found that printing two images per page made the images the appropriate size. When your picture is how you want it, but it out carefully. *You do not have to print out your images! You can draw the image freehand, or trace an existing image. However, to make the next step easier, I recommend having your image on card stock.
Step 4: Trace your image on freezer paper.... Once your image is traced, carefully cut it out.
Step 5: Carefully place double-sided tape on the shiny side of the freezer paper, paying special attention to narrow spots.... Freezer paper can be ironed directly onto the shirt {shiny side down}. However, through the experience of others I learned that this does not guarantee your spray solution will not seep under the image.
Step 6: Stick or iron your image to the shirt shiny side down.
Step 7: Place a piece of cardboard inside the shirt so the bleach solution does not seep through....{I used an empty Swiffer Duster refills box. Bonus: it had a plastic coating on the inside of the box, which made it easy to reuse for all my shirt!}
Step 8: Spray image with bleach solution.... In a spray bottle, make a solution 70% bleach, 30% water. The trick to getting a splatter affect {see the pink elephant shirt below} is use the mist setting, pressing the trigger gently and moving your hand quickly from side-to-side. *If the kids are doing the spraying, I highly recommend having them practice using colored water on a piece of paper. Only one of the six shirts we tried did not turn out, and I believe it is because I used the full-blast setting on the spray bottle and it over powered the image and leaked under the paper. Less is more when you're spraying the shirt. You want to get enough around the image so when you remove the freezer paper the image will show through, but not too much so that they spatters don't show. I highly recommend spraying in the shirts laying in the grass.
Step 9: Remove image.... After spraying I waited about a minute, then gently blotted the freezer paper with a paper towel {so it didn't drip when I removed it} and carefully pulled it off.
And that's it! Allow shirts to dry, wash and enjoy.
Supplies:
- Shirt
- Computer & Printer
- Card Stock
- Freezer Paper
- Pencil & Scissors
- Double-Sided Tape or Iron
- Squirt Bottle
- Bleach & Water
- Cardboard
Step 1: Buy your shirts.... I picked ours up at Wal-Mart for under $4/each. I'm a big fan of the girls fitted V-neck shirts and the bright colors are super fun!
Step 2: Pick your image.... I collected ours from the images on Microsoft Word and Google Images. Profile images turn out best on the finished product.
Step 3: Print your image on cardstock.... You're going to have to decide what size works best for your shirt. We made child sized shirts, and I found that printing two images per page made the images the appropriate size. When your picture is how you want it, but it out carefully. *You do not have to print out your images! You can draw the image freehand, or trace an existing image. However, to make the next step easier, I recommend having your image on card stock.
Step 4: Trace your image on freezer paper.... Once your image is traced, carefully cut it out.
Step 5: Carefully place double-sided tape on the shiny side of the freezer paper, paying special attention to narrow spots.... Freezer paper can be ironed directly onto the shirt {shiny side down}. However, through the experience of others I learned that this does not guarantee your spray solution will not seep under the image.
Step 6: Stick or iron your image to the shirt shiny side down.
Step 7: Place a piece of cardboard inside the shirt so the bleach solution does not seep through....{I used an empty Swiffer Duster refills box. Bonus: it had a plastic coating on the inside of the box, which made it easy to reuse for all my shirt!}
Step 8: Spray image with bleach solution.... In a spray bottle, make a solution 70% bleach, 30% water. The trick to getting a splatter affect {see the pink elephant shirt below} is use the mist setting, pressing the trigger gently and moving your hand quickly from side-to-side. *If the kids are doing the spraying, I highly recommend having them practice using colored water on a piece of paper. Only one of the six shirts we tried did not turn out, and I believe it is because I used the full-blast setting on the spray bottle and it over powered the image and leaked under the paper. Less is more when you're spraying the shirt. You want to get enough around the image so when you remove the freezer paper the image will show through, but not too much so that they spatters don't show. I highly recommend spraying in the shirts laying in the grass.
Step 9: Remove image.... After spraying I waited about a minute, then gently blotted the freezer paper with a paper towel {so it didn't drip when I removed it} and carefully pulled it off.
And that's it! Allow shirts to dry, wash and enjoy.
Before....
....After
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Ten on Tuesday
1. Vacation never felt so good. If only we knew with certainty what our next chapter holds. I love a good surprise, but this holding pattern is taking forevah! Thank heavens for the distraction of VACATION!
2. Why is it the longer I go without posting, the harder it is to find anything meaningful to write?
3. I love my Toms; far more than I thought I would. Or maybe more than I wanted to. Benefit of the Toms: less emphasis on having beautifully painted toe nails. Downfall: my new foot tan lines are cramping my flip flop style.
4. Perhaps the reason everyone in Minnesota thinks the mosquitoes aren't so bad this year is because my girls are acting as decoys. This summer I'm trying something new. That's right, I'm giving my little mosquito magnets garlic supplements. With any luck they'll be much less appetizing to those pesky insects. It's the hungry Italians we'll have to watch out for now!
5. If it is possible to overdose on watermelon then I think this summer will be that summer. Cannot get enough!
6. That said, I'm patiently waiting for sweet corn.
7. Moving around the country has not only offered me the chance to get to know so many different people, but best of all it's made me realize how genuinely fantastic & humble people are in Minnesota.
8. Finally, finally, I think I've adjusted to Windows 8. If only I could get all of the apps to work. Sigh.
9. Recipe I've always wanted to try: Serendipity's Frozen Hot Chocolate.
10. Confession Alert: I refuse to repin or repost anything with a grammatical or spelling error. Fingernails on a chalkboard....
2. Why is it the longer I go without posting, the harder it is to find anything meaningful to write?
3. I love my Toms; far more than I thought I would. Or maybe more than I wanted to. Benefit of the Toms: less emphasis on having beautifully painted toe nails. Downfall: my new foot tan lines are cramping my flip flop style.
4. Perhaps the reason everyone in Minnesota thinks the mosquitoes aren't so bad this year is because my girls are acting as decoys. This summer I'm trying something new. That's right, I'm giving my little mosquito magnets garlic supplements. With any luck they'll be much less appetizing to those pesky insects. It's the hungry Italians we'll have to watch out for now!
5. If it is possible to overdose on watermelon then I think this summer will be that summer. Cannot get enough!
6. That said, I'm patiently waiting for sweet corn.
7. Moving around the country has not only offered me the chance to get to know so many different people, but best of all it's made me realize how genuinely fantastic & humble people are in Minnesota.
8. Finally, finally, I think I've adjusted to Windows 8. If only I could get all of the apps to work. Sigh.
9. Recipe I've always wanted to try: Serendipity's Frozen Hot Chocolate.
10. Confession Alert: I refuse to repin or repost anything with a grammatical or spelling error. Fingernails on a chalkboard....
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Ten on Tuesday
1. I have a favorite screwdriver. I wonder if real handymen are partial to their tools. I suspect they are, which by virtue means I am one of them. I am, right?!
2. I cannot hear the phrase, "Jump to conclusions" without adding the word 'mat' in my head. Thank you, Office Space.
3. OMG! I love Worcestershire sauce! I can't spell it, but I can eat it on roast beef like a rock star.
4. Also, I heart ketchup & A-1.... both of which I can spell.
5. This morning's workout I really feeling the burn from Sunday's yard work. Old. I. Am. Old.
6. I have dropped just about everything I touched today. Except children. Thank goodness for that one.
7. Thanks to Bon Jovi I am constantly reminded that the roads are slippery when wet.
8. In spite of the horror that struck Boston yesterday, the best of America shined in Massachusetts. From brave men & women who rushed in to rescue victims, to the runners who went right to the medic tent to donate blood after finishing 26.2 miles, and the locals who offered their own homes for the night. God blessed America!
9. Abby & Lauren are really into their new worm friends. Maybe I should be worried, but the fact that Lauren's does tricks makes me giggle.
10. I'm not ashamed to admit that one of my favorite activities is going to bed early. Like 8pm early. Darn you Daylight Savings Time for still light outside and making me feel guilty for my sinful pleasure.
2. I cannot hear the phrase, "Jump to conclusions" without adding the word 'mat' in my head. Thank you, Office Space.
3. OMG! I love Worcestershire sauce! I can't spell it, but I can eat it on roast beef like a rock star.
4. Also, I heart ketchup & A-1.... both of which I can spell.
5. This morning's workout I really feeling the burn from Sunday's yard work. Old. I. Am. Old.
6. I have dropped just about everything I touched today. Except children. Thank goodness for that one.
7. Thanks to Bon Jovi I am constantly reminded that the roads are slippery when wet.
8. In spite of the horror that struck Boston yesterday, the best of America shined in Massachusetts. From brave men & women who rushed in to rescue victims, to the runners who went right to the medic tent to donate blood after finishing 26.2 miles, and the locals who offered their own homes for the night. God blessed America!
9. Abby & Lauren are really into their new worm friends. Maybe I should be worried, but the fact that Lauren's does tricks makes me giggle.
10. I'm not ashamed to admit that one of my favorite activities is going to bed early. Like 8pm early. Darn you Daylight Savings Time for still light outside and making me feel guilty for my sinful pleasure.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Ten on Tuesday
1. In light of recent speculation on upcoming changes at The View, I'm waiting for the announcement that Elizabeth Hasslebeck will be making the move to FOX News.
2. Am I the only person who finds it ironic that Daylight Savings Time actually lasts longer than standard time?
3. "Hey, Mom. I saved a fart for half an hour."~Abby.... Just one of many random quotes you'd hear if you were a little mouse in my house at bath time.
4. I often wonder what song Selena Gomez is referring to when she keeps hitting re-peat-peat-peat-peat-peat-peat.
5. Loved the way the wizard's back story was laid out in, "Oz The Great and Powerful". But I'm left wondering one thing.... Was Glinda the Good Witch of the North or the South?
6. More irony. It's funny that the same children I eagerly tuck in bed at night are the same children I can't wait to smother with kisses in the morning until their eyes open.
7. PC Gone Wild.... How long will it be before little boys named Hunter will be banned from schools because their names is not only violent, but also threatening?
8. I can eat pickles, but cucumbers make me sick. Odd, huh? And unfortunate.
9. News by the Numbers. 5: The number of loose teeth currently residing in Lauren's mouth. 8: The number of teeth Abby has lost thus far. 100: The number of cents the girls get for each surrendered tooth. 1: The number of coins the girls find in their Tooth Fairy Pouch. You do the math, with the average going rate of Tooth Fairy at $2.42, my girls are getting the glittery shaft. Shhhhh!
10. Melt My Heart Quote-of-the-Night: "Mom I love you untell The Sun stoPs."~Lauren
2. Am I the only person who finds it ironic that Daylight Savings Time actually lasts longer than standard time?
3. "Hey, Mom. I saved a fart for half an hour."~Abby.... Just one of many random quotes you'd hear if you were a little mouse in my house at bath time.
4. I often wonder what song Selena Gomez is referring to when she keeps hitting re-peat-peat-peat-peat-peat-peat.
5. Loved the way the wizard's back story was laid out in, "Oz The Great and Powerful". But I'm left wondering one thing.... Was Glinda the Good Witch of the North or the South?
6. More irony. It's funny that the same children I eagerly tuck in bed at night are the same children I can't wait to smother with kisses in the morning until their eyes open.
7. PC Gone Wild.... How long will it be before little boys named Hunter will be banned from schools because their names is not only violent, but also threatening?
8. I can eat pickles, but cucumbers make me sick. Odd, huh? And unfortunate.
9. News by the Numbers. 5: The number of loose teeth currently residing in Lauren's mouth. 8: The number of teeth Abby has lost thus far. 100: The number of cents the girls get for each surrendered tooth. 1: The number of coins the girls find in their Tooth Fairy Pouch. You do the math, with the average going rate of Tooth Fairy at $2.42, my girls are getting the glittery shaft. Shhhhh!
10. Melt My Heart Quote-of-the-Night: "Mom I love you untell The Sun stoPs."~Lauren
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{About Me}
- brookie
- Fairborn, Ohio, United States
- I'm a teacher by trade, writer at heart & mom in every sense of my being. I never considered writing as a profession, but after I got married and began moving around the country, I began sharing my adventures, misadventures & updates through a sort of e-mail newsletter. I found a true passion in unconventional story-telling that has followed me into motherhood.