Finals Week

This week is going to be nutty. I have about a thousand things to do, projects to finish, papers to write...you know all that fun school stuff. So I have no idea how much I'll be around.

In the mean time:

• Send good thoughts to my friend Lisa who is dealing with a terrible family situation.
• And send good thoughts to my friend Emily who is adding to her family this week...today even...with the arrival of baby Annie.

Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum. But I know I'm sending my love to both families. And so is she...

Wordless Wednesday {Pie's First Ink}

Pie's first tattoo (a gift from her cousin for Valentine's)

Mama got one to match.

11 Things About Me

My darling friend Lisa from The O'Gs tagged me to answer a few questions about myself. I know you're on the edge of your seats so here goes...

1. If you had to leave the U.S. and move to another country, where would you move to and why?

Maybe England. One of my brothers-in-law is British, so at least I'd have a source of info. Otherwise I'd say Switzerland...hands down the most amazingly beautiful place I've ever been.

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2. Are you an adventurous eater? I.e. do you like trying new foods?
Nope. Not in the least. I pretty much eat the same thing every day. And being a vegetarian certainly doesn't help matters.


3. What’s your favorite animal?
I'm going to have to go with baby hippos on this one. Thanks to Pinterest I'm sort of obsessed with them.

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4. What was your first job?
Babysitting. I started at about 9 (watching kids while the parents were having a party in the house) But the first official, had taxes taken out, job was at the healthclub Sportslife in the daycare.

5. Would you renew your vows complete with another wedding?
Again, thanks to Pinterest I have tons of ideas if we ever did. But I'm thinking no. The stress of a wedding was more than enough once.

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6. What one talent do you wish you had?
Anything involving grace. I have none. I can off a rug (as my dad says). So anything in the arena of dance, skating, gymnastics would be awesome. Most days I struggle to walk from point a to point b without hurting myself or others.

7. Do you let your kids jump on the bed?
Without question. The furniture too.

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8. What’s your favorite salad dressing?
Balsamic vinaigrette. There's one from Whole Foods that rocks my world.


9. Do you recycle?
Oh yes. We have the big, rolling, garbage can recycling bin and can have that bad boy filled within a day or two of it being picked up.

10. What do you like on your ice cream?
Magic Shell. Or chocolate syrup. Or caramel. Or butterscotch. Or...I think you get the picture...I like my ice cream. But I really don't like nuts on or in my ice cream. NOt sure why, but that bugs me.

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11. Are you left or right handed?
Right. For awhile in middle school I was ambidextrous because I broke my right wrist and had to use my left hand. And we're thinking Pie will be a lefty. She definitely favors it.


Okay!! Here are the rules:
You must post these rules.
Each person must post 11 things about herself on their blog.
Answer the questions the “tagger” listed for you in her post, and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
Choose 11 people to tag and link to them in the post.
Let each blogger know that you have tagged them

So I'm completely lame and am going to pass this one on to everyone. If you want to answer the 11 questions just go for it! But I want to see the answers, so make sure you come back and let me know!
 
 

Me clean? I think no.

I'm hooking up with Northwest Mommy for Monday Listicles. This week's theme is

"10 things I would rather do than clean the house." So again I'm going to tweak a little and do the 10 thing I HAVE to do instead of clean the house.

1. Work
2. Play with Pie
3. Go to school
4. Do homework
5. Snuggle with Pie
6. Sleep
7. Craft with Pie
8. Spend time with Husband
9. More homework
10. Give Pie kisses

So mostly Pie related. I'm not about to give up what precious little time I have with her right now because of work and school to clean the house. Dishes can wait, laundry can be worn straight from the dryer, but this face? This face cannot wait.

 

Never Ever Ever

The prompt, "Create a reverse bucket list that names the top ten things you never want to do."

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1. Bungee jump. There is nothing about having my spine pulled out through my feet that seems appealing.
2. Fly an airplane. I don't like riding in them, I certainly don't want the responsibility of flying one.
3. Be in a shoot-out. I'm not sure how this would happen. But I'd rather it didn't.
4. Go to prison. I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.
5. Date. Well anyone other than Husband that is, the thought is terrifying for so many reasons.
6. Stop watching tv/movies. That would just suck.
7. Be a reality show judge. I'd be so torn between crushing someones dream and not telling them the truth to protect their feelings if they sucked.
8. Be on a reality show. I'm pretty much too old for all of them except Cheaters, and I'd rather not confront Husband in a Burger King parking lot yelling "who's that b*itch?!"
9. Eat meat. Another one that I can't quite imagine the circumstances of, but after 20+ years without meat I don't imagine it would end well.
10. Go on a cruise. Yes, I realize tons of people love this kind of vacation. But I have a whole thing about motion sickness, not being able to see land, and giant sea creatures. You won't catch me tempting a kraken.

Wordless-ish Wednesday {Land Shark}

[Scene: A New York apartment. Someone knocks on the door.]


Woman: [not opening the door] Yes?
Voice: (mumbling) Mrs. Arlsburgerhhh?
Woman: Who?
Voice: (mumbling) Mrs. Johannesburrrr?
Woman: Who is it?
Voice: [pause] Flowers.
Woman: Flowers for whom?
Voice: [long pause] Plumber, ma'am.
Woman: I don't need a plumber. You're that clever shark, aren't you?
Voice: [pause] Candygram.
Woman: Candygram, my foot. You get out of here before I call the police. You're the shark, and you know it.
Voice: Wait. I-I'm only a dolphin, ma'am.
Woman: A dolphin? Well...okay. [opens door]


[Huge latex and foam-rubber shark head lunges through open door, chomps down on woman's head, and drags her out of the apartment, all while the Jaws attack music is playing.]

**excuse the cell quality pix**

All you need is love

This weekend Pie and I decided to make valentines (damn you pinterest).

First we had to smoosh the paint to make sure the quality was up to par.

The we had to test how sturdy our heart form was. It had to withstand some rather forcefully stamping.

Next we decided to actually make a few valentines.

And back to the paint smooshing. You really have to stay on top of the quality control.

And of course we had to finish up with a snack. MMMMMM...red paint....my favorite. So much tasty than the blue.

Happy Valentine's Day!! XOXOX

 

Funny Pie Story #98,453

We have this picture at the top of our stairs of the beach. It's a black and white of the sand, water, and part of a beach fence. Pie has recently become rather intrigued by the picture and we find ourselves discussing it several times a day.

This weekend she went to the bottom of the stairs and said, "beach" point up at the picture. This is the resulting conversation:

Pie: Beach!
Us: That's right, what do you see in the picture?
Pie: Water.
Us: Good, what else?
Pie: Sky.
Us: Yup, anything else?
Pie: Sand.
Us: Good job. What about beach fence? Is there beach fence in the picture?
Pie: {turning around and pointing at us} YEAH THERE IS!

You potentially had to be there to catch the infomercial tone of voice she used, but we were hysterical. That kid never fails to entertain me...

Valentine's Love {Free Printable}

So I was thinking that this joint could use some Valentine's decoration and I thought you might like some too. This post the other day got me thinking about great lines in music and I couldn't think of a better place to start.

Over the next couple of days I'll be putting up several of these. Here's a little preview framed, and I'll thank you very much to ignore the cobweb in the corner. Hope you enjoy...the print...not the cobweb.

And here's the print. Just right click, save, and print. Easy as that!

Ten Years Ago Today...

The prompt, "Ten years ago on this day, I was…"

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...4 months into my marriage

...Answering yes to telemarketers who called asking for Mrs. Husband because I was so entertained that they meant me

...Still giving my maiden name to restaurants, etc. out of habit (Shhh...don't tell...but I still do sometimes. 24 years with one name is sort of a hard habit to break)

...Dreaming about a baby and a little disappointed the whole honeymoon baby didn't happen

...Sitting at the same desk I'm typing this at, dreaming of the day I could move on. Oh how horrified I would have been if I knew 10 years later I'd still be here.

...Thinking that I really should go back to school and finish my degree (which I eventually did and am now working on my masters)

...Crossing my fingers that I would have the family I always dreamt of

All in all not bad. I'm still happily married, I have the world's most amazing baby girl, I'm moving forward with my education and a plan to leave this job (finally). Things are good. Life is good. This reminder of that is good.

Wordless-ish Wednesday {Hair-Do}

Sometimes a girl just needs to make her hair pretty.

I just want to point out all the fashion forward accessories Pie is rockin here:

1. headband worn in a wreath-like manner
2. rubberband with blue beads laid just so
3. you can't see it, but somewhere in this area is a clear rubberband hidden for use later

And a blurry second shot to see the rubberband placement a little better.

I can see these cutting-edge styles catching on in no time. 

Kids really are smart

I had another post planned for today, but then randomly came across this and had to share. Kids crack me up. They really are smarter than we give them credit for sometimes! :)

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Final FIve

I'm picking the prompt, "Are you on Pinterest? Share the last five items you pinned, choose one and let it inspire a blog post." You can follow me here if you're so inclined...

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This is a pretty good representation of what I pin...stuff for Pie, stuff for Pie, recipe, craft, art. Throw in the occasional funny or girly related item (nail polish, hair stuff) and you've covered about 85% of my boards.

But out of this 5, I think I'm going to go with the last pin (directly above). I have no idea how I came across the site Second sister, but I am in love. The first thing I saw was the farfar project. April (author/creator of Second sister) says...

"I stumbled across a cash of old portraits taken of Swedish men in the early 1900's. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, I have become fascinated by these men and the lives they lived. I love the character etched into their faces. I love the lines and creases and angles of their cheeks.


All these men were laborers of varying sorts. They must have worked hard during their life. I stole them from their dark back drop and have given them joyful surroundings. I think it changes how you see them. I think it allows their countenance to transcend their position."

These collages are amazing, quirky, beautiful and totally off-beat. Everything I love in art. I was drawn to the print above (Anders Wedin: Postman) because both of my paternal great-grandfathers...if I'm remembering correctly..were postmen. So I think I need this print as a family tribute of sorts.

Then to make things even better, as I scrolled through April's site I discovered that she is an adoptive mom as well. She and her husband are proud parents to three decidedly gorgeous babies. Each one more squishable that the next.

And beside amazing art and fantastic crafts, there's nothing that hooks me faster than reading about other people's adoption stories (from any side of the triad). So check her out. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Wordless Wednesday {Recent Cuteness}