Five On Friday

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Good morning and happy Friday to you! I'm hoping to spend the weekend doing some major cleaning and organizing of the three messiest places in our house right now: the garage, basement, and master closet AKA the places we shoved all the stuff we didn't want to deal with right away :)

We will also be celebrating the birthday of a very special girl who is turning FIVE on Sunday. 

Seriously, how do I have a five year old already? Wasn't it just yesterday when I was trying to get my locker unstuck and worrying about being late for Chemistry or whether or not we'd be playing dodgeball in PE? (Seriously, am I the only one who dreaded that game?).

At any rate, we'll be celebrating with a special dinner, cake and presents. 

Today I'm starting a new series called "Five on Friday". Each week I'll be highlighting five of my favorite things. Sometimes it might have a theme, other times it will be random. This week, it's a random assortment of stuff I'm loving right now.

#1: Sabra Supremely Spicy Hummus

I've long been a fan of the Roasted Red Pepper variety, but a few weeks ago I saw this and knew I needed to give it a try.

Note: When it says supremely spicy it means supremely spicy, so I wouldn't touch it if your taste buds are super sensitive to things with some heat. Personally, I can't get enough of the stuff. The only negative is that they don't have this particular flavor in the Aldi brand (pssst...if anyone from Aldi happens to read this, if you start making this I would be eternally grateful :)

I did find some copycat recipes on Pinterest that I'm looking to try. I'll let you know if I find a winner!

#2:  Zinio

I first found out about this app while I was on our library's website renewing some books. Basically, it's an app where you can purchase magazine subscriptions and view them all in one place. But the COOLEST thing is this: you can actually check magazines out from your library (if they offer that capability) for FREE on your iPad or other mobile device! I've done this before with books but never knew it was possible with magazines!

I've got the latest issue of  DIY Magazine waiting to be viewed on our iPad right now and can't wait until I have a free moment to look through it!

#3:  Second Street Creamery Can't Tell Me No Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Yes, it's a mouthful of a name but you will want more than a mouthful of this stuff once you taste it (you see what I did there? ;) This stuff is ridiculous, in the best possible way. Just check out the description:

"Sweet Cookie Dough flavored Ice Cream, rich Cookie Dough swirl, and (Naughty, naughty!!) Chunks of Chocolate and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough"

It's like eating cookie dough with a little bit of ice cream mixed in. So in otherwords: perfection. Just try to only eat the 1/2 cup serving size listed on the carton. I dare you.

#4  Maurices Military Shirt/Jacket

My Pinterest browsing fashion research tells me that military jackets are a big trend this fall. I LOVE this military jacket. It's lightweight enough that you can still feel comfortable wearing it inside but roomy enough to layer underneath. And it is sooo versatile. You can wear ir in the spring or in the fall. Check out   these posts  of  Sheaffer's for tons of outfit ideas that feature a military jacket. And while you're there, check out her other posts! I love her style and her sense of humor!

Sidenote: why is she standing on her heels like that? I would sprain my ankle in 2 seconds flat if I tried to pose that way. That's what's always kept me from a career in modeling I guess ;)

#5: This.

I would love a picture like this with each of my girls. So sweet! (And no this is not a pregnancy announcement, Mom! :)

(I couldn't find credit for this photo, so if its yours let me know and I will gladly link to you!)

That's all for today! Hope your weekend is a good one!

I’m starting to notice a trend here…

 

 

 

 

…in the outfits I’ve pinned on Pinterest lately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…yellow…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and more yellow….

Source: polyvore.com via Amy on Pinterest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Problem is, yellow doesn’t really work well for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blonde hair + fair skin + yellow = total washout

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I’m thinking I need to find some small ways to incorporate it. Maybe a scarf or a bag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think? Are you digging yellow this spring?

 

The Difference Between Girls and Boys…

During a morning thunderstorm…

Lily: *gasp* Tun-duh! I’m afwaid! {hides head under blanket}

Morgan {my niece}: Sometimes, when it thunders, there are tornadoes. They’re scary!

Me: Do you know what to do when there’s a tornado?

Morgan: We run to the basement!

Lily: I hide my head!

Tyson {nephew}: You get your sword, and you go out and you fight it!

There’s an app for that…

I know, I know…

I’m totally late to the be jumping on the  smart phone bandwagon. As per usual with any kind of trend, I resisted at first but now I’ve fallen for them hook, line and sinker.

Just to give you some perspective, these were the phones we were using:

And this is what we have now:

I think saying we got an “upgrade” would be putting it mildly. My old phone didn’t even have a camera.

Dave got his first and I was like, “I don’t need that. Just give me something that makes and receives phone calls,” but after about 569 times of me saying, “Can I see your phone for just a second?” Dave told me to get my own I decided that maybe it would be nice to have one for myself.

Do I need a smart phone? No. But it sure is handy.

And just for fun, I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite apps so far.

1. Craigslist – I’m a big fan of Craigslist, but always struggled with the fact that I just didn’t have time to sit down at my computer and keep browsing for what I was looking for multiple times a day. Often by the time I saw a posting for something I wanted, somebody else had already taken it. This app lets me save searches on my phone and then notifies me whenever something new is posted.
   
   Right now I’m looking for a double stroller and I love that in just a couple of minutes I can go into my Craigslist app, check out all the new listings and email the person right from my phone if I’m interested!
   
   I think there are several Craigslist apps out there but this is the one I use.
   
   
2. Garage Sale Rover– I was seriously practically giddy when I realized I was going to have this on my phone, just in time for garage sale season. This app lets me:
   
   a. Search for garage sale listings in my area.
   b. Save listings in my phone and view them separately.
   c. Search for sales that have items I’m interested in {like baby girl clothes}
   d. Gives me the shortest possible route between all the sales {to maximize my time and gas!}
   e. Launches turn by turn GPS to tell me where I need to go when I’m driving to a sale.
   
   For an avid garage saler like me, this is soooo worth it!
   
   
3. Mars Hill Church – Dave and I used this app in the car on our trip to Chicago. Rather than surf the radio when we got bored, we pulled this up and listened to audio of several of Mark Driscoll’s sermons {The Peasant Princess – good stuff} It gave us fodder for lots of good discussion and helped us make the most of our car ride!
   
   

 

Of course there are about 80 bajillion other applications out there and I’m sure I’ll find more to love as time goes on. So tell me…have you jumped on the smart phone bandwagon and if so, what are your favorite apps? I’d love to know so I can download some of them myself!

Photo Booth Friday

I know there’s more to life than “stuff” and material things can never truly satisfy…but they sure can help brighten up an otherwise lousy day…

Yeah. I got “the boots”. Thanks to a certain kind friend who spotted them at her local Target. And another kind friend who acted as my courier and dropped them off at my house yesterday.

Seriously. You girls rock!

I think they are the perfect complement to this red peacoat that I got at Old Navy a couple of  weeks ago {which I scored for just $19 during their 40% of all clearance sale!}.

(I’m sorry. I have this annoying quirk where I have to tell people what a good deal I got. It’s a disease.)

The boots even got the Lily Seal of Approval {that’s just a notch under Good Housekeeping, in case you were wondering}

 

And a few minutes ago, Lily came up to me, gave me a kiss, and said, “Mommy you wook so boo-tiful.”

I think it’s shaping up to be a better day :)

Happy Friday!

Sense of Humor Required

If you’re on Facebook, there’s a good chance you’ve seen this already but it’s just too funny not to share.

The 11 Step Program for Those Considering Parenthood

Lesson 1
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their…

1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child’s breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel…

1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)

2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can’t get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out…

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this – all morning.

Lesson 6
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don’t think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don’t look like that.

1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week’s groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you’re thinking What’s ‘Noggin’?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying ‘mommy’ repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each ‘mommy’; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the ‘mommy’ tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

If you’re a parent, this probably made you laugh. If you’re not a parent, this might just have scared you into celibacy. Don’t worry. They really are worth all the trouble, I promise.

But, seriously. Do the goat thing.

I Feel Stupid…

I learned a few things the past couple of weeks. The kind of things that make you slap yourself on the forehead and say, “Duh!”

And I wanted to share them with you in case maybe I wasn’t the only one who missed the memo on these.

You are welcome.

1. The man that mama is kissing in “I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus” is DADDY…not Santa Claus. To quote a friend of mine, “All these years I thought Mama was just a floozy.”
   
   
2. Egg nog is made with raw eggs.
   
   I know.
   
   DUH.
   
   I just never really thought about that before. It sort of ruined egg nog for me. I mean, really – it can’t possibly be safer to drink raw eggs than it is to eat them in cookie dough, no matter how much nutmeg and cream you add to them.
   
   BLECH.
   
3. You can buy Girl Scout cookies at the grocery store all year long.
   
   I mean, not the actual Girl Scout cookies, but the same exact types of cookies that the Girl Scouts sell. Keebler sells a version of almost every single one of them.
   
   Like Thin Mints?
   
   Get Grasshoppers
   
   Like Tagalongs?
   
   Get Peanut Butter Filled
   
   Like Samoas?
   
   Get Coconut Dreams.

This is a revelation. One that’s probably not good for my waist line.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who didn’t know these things. Or at least pretend you didn’t to make me feel better :)

In Case You’ve Got Some Time to Waste…

I’m usually the last person to hear about these things, so this might be old news to all of you…but I saw this guy on the Today show this morning and thought it was pretty cool.

He does “remakes” of popular songs but it’s all completely Accapella. So everything you hear on this video is a sound he made with his mouth. Seriously, listen to at least the first few seconds of this video. It’s pretty amazing.

He’s got a bunch of other videos on You Tube so if you’ve got some time to waste (or even if you don’t :) go check them out. They’re pretty funny :)

Even funnier was watching the hosts of the Today show try to do their own version. I think Al Roker is my favorite :)

Happy Monday!

Is That An Insult?

You know those little advertisements you see on the side of your Facebook page or your Gmail account? The ones that they market specifically to you, based on the information they gather from your page?

This was the one that showed up on my email account the other day:

Gluttony Pants
  At last, adjustable-waist pants for heavy eaters. Think Thanksgiving.

I’d really rather not think about why they thought those would appeal to me…

Obsessions

Some things I’m loving right now:

Cantaloupe {or muskmelon…whatever you call it}

This bowl was filled to the brim a couple of days ago…and would you believe I’m the only one in our house who likes it? So I was forced to eat it all my by myself. What a shame ;)

And I may or may not have bought another one at the store this weekend…

Little Glass Jars

I’ve never really been one to collect anything but I just can’t get enough clear containers for our pantry – or wherever. I love them! These were only .99 cents at Goodwill. Aren’t they cute? I don’t even know what I’m going to put in them, right now I just like how they look sitting on my kitchen counter.

Ice Cream

This is what I’m currently enjoying…vanilla ice cream with a generous helping of that hard candy Reese’s syrup on top. Mmm…

And the funny thing is, I don’t really even usually like ice cream – but I’ve craved it with both pregnancies.

Trying New Recipes

On the menu this week:

*Sesame Pepper Flank Steak with Monterey Ranch Bread and Grilled Squash

*Bbq Pork Sandwiches and Baked Beans

*Chicken, Apple, and Smoked Gouda Salad

*Cheesecake Brownies

All recipes I’ve never tried before – I might even share them with you if they turn out well :)

And last week we tried these:

Zesty Chicken Burritos with Cilantro Sour Cream

along with that blueberry pie pictured above – both super yummy.

So…what are your latest obsessions?

Mischief and Mayhem

How is it that every toddler seems to posses some sort of inborn knowledge that tells them the exact WORST time to get into mischief?

For example, when is the best time to unroll an entire roll of toilet paper onto the guest bathroom floor?

Right before company comes, of course!

And when do you suppose would be the best time to grab Mommy’s sanitary napkins and parade around the living room with them?

Why, right as the guests are ringing the doorbell, of course! 

All I can say is…she’s lucky she’s so darn cute :)

She’s Business in the Front…

   

…and party in the back…

Dave calls her “Lily Ray Cyrus”.

And I hate to say it but, I can kind of see the resemblance…

…except she’s WAY cuter, mullet or not.

Wouldn’t you agree? ;)

Name Dropping

Did I ever tell you…

…I went to college with a girl whose cousin was this famous actor:

Hearing her ask for prayer for, “My cousin Ashton Kutcher,” certainly caused a few jaws to drop.

*****

…my little brother’s girlfriend’s brother’s best friend {something like that}…

…is this guy:

Not familiar with him?

He sings this song {and a bunch of other ones}: 

Listen to it. Its peppy. It’ll get stuck in your head. I’m really not sure what the song is about, but it’s such a happy little tune. It makes me smile :)

*****

…my sister-in-law sent me a text message the other day…

“Hey Amy, I just met the girl from des moines that was on the biggest loser”

You know, the one who won the “voted off contestant” contest at the finale in 2009?

She met her at a Mary Kay party. Small world.
{And in case you’re wondering, yes, she’s kept the weight off so far.}

You know that thing they say about six degrees of separation…it might just be true!

Do you know anybody famous {or semi-famous}?

I’m Dreaming…

…of a non-white vacation…

Just like the ones I used to know…

We haven’t traveled a ton since we got married, but we’ve tried to take at least one vacation a year.

We honeymooned in Myrtle Beach {that’s where the above picture was taken}. We spent lazy days at the beach laying in the sand and boogie boarding {lets please not discuss the lack of fat I had on my body at that point in time, I try not to think about it}

Hit some outlet malls one day, took in the sights at an aquarium another:

And then we’d hit the town in search of some fresh seafood at night Look at us, all tan and relaxed…I miss that.

We’ve taken some other trips, too – a long weekend in Kansas City for our anniversary:

And twice we’ve gone to Minnesota and stayed in a cabin for a week:

   

Dave’s got a boatload of vacation days to use this year, and we’re trying to decide where we should go. This will be our first family vacation since Lily was born.

Maybe back to Minnesota? We’ve got some great friends there that we’d love to visit

Or we’ve thought about going somewhere totally new – maybe California or Florida.

Wherever it is, I just have three requirements:

1. Fun
2. Sun
3. R-E-L-A-X-A-T-I-O-N

Where’s your favorite vacation spot?