Saturday, March 31, 2012

I am adding

another blog to my sidebar...
The Zero Waste Home

Check it out!
I read an article about this family in People Magazine the other week at the Dr.'s office with
Elena (allergy shots), and I thought, MAN!
Every time I throw and throw and throw {away} stuff into the plastic trash bag, I think...
most of this could rot in two days in the woods...
What a shame!  Yes.  I feel ashamed a bit--and I squash it, b/c modern {convenience}--or stupidity--
takes over and {away} it all goes.
But that stab of guilt remains.
I do not feel guilty about things that can be recycled.
And, I must say, that our dump has it all arranged beautifully with
a giant bin for all recyclables--one for cardboard, one for electronics, one
for all the rest?? (this one is still a gamble in my mind).

A part of me always thinks--I could very easily put all of our food trash in the woods, and all
the paper plates and little bits of paper (gum wrappers)
right back in the back yard, in the woods, and let it all rot.

Then, I say to myself, we would throw away a lot less...
We basically would not have much trash.
We already re-use ziplock bags.
I have never been a bottled water person (that one was dumb to me from the get go).

So.... Would I be willing to challenge myself like that family did?
hmmm...
One issue is that in the Summer time the bugs hang out in the spot where you put
your dump food.
We did this one summer, and I just got fussed at b/c there were always bugs
little, teensy ones flying around the rot spot....

I am going to spark this up again, I think...Maybe have a contest with myself,
how long can I keep one trash bag in the kitchen?  They are big--how long....
b/c there is no {away}--it's really just one county over getting bigger and bigger...

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Gosh!!

Blog posts have been rolling around in my head for this past week, and I have just not had the time
to sit down and post them.
One is called "Published!"
It is all about how TWO of my friends have had works published in the past two weeks.
Both of them have blogs in the sidebar.
Bethany (Borderland)  writes beautiful poems about any number of emotions and childhood/mommyhood/life goings on.
Megan (Figuring out Home) has written a collection of poems about women who have been convicted of crimes!
Check out their blogs if you are into
A. Good reading
B. Good--no GREAT--poetry, and
C. supporting budding artists!

Speaking of buds...
My yard is abloom! Hello--give us one week of weather in the 70s and boo yah! The yard is bursting with
blooms all over.
It never fails to take my breath away, when I take a moment to let it sink in.
There is one bush, it is called something like, "bridal veil" --it shoots out sprays
of white blossoms in a firework array!  Just gorgeous.
Then there are these renegade rose bushes--that just shoot out wherever they want to...
Go roses!! I won't even try to tell you what they are...just some little, sweet {bound and
determined} rose vines!  They grow like weeds here --they twine around the fig bushes and
all the way up through the holly tree (that is a monster btw) to the top where they
poke out to get some sun and bee attention.

Elena's birthday was so much fun!  She was overcome with excitement about getting her I-Pod touch.
She reminds me so much of myself, it can be spooky sometimes.  But it is also good, b/c I can almost guess what she might do in some situations...like being sung to on her birthday (very emotional) and wanting to figure out her I-Pod on her own--quite grouchy.
Her Luna moth cake was a big hit! YUM!
We really had some luck on that one.  The cake got eaten in one day!
Cake was superb (thanks Duncan Hines), and our
icing...well...it was delish, too--and the cake was pretty. ;)

So on from Luna Moth cake to lizard from the yard...
We now have one IN A TERRARIUM in the house.  I get
{almost} as excited as my children do about putting together a terrarium,
with some grub worms, and some plants--it holds water!! oh yeah!
I mean you almost describe me as giddy, and I do not even try to hide it. ha!
Elena is the lizard whisperer, there is no doubt in my mind.
We have the cutest green Anoles all around the yard, and she
can find one and hold it, and it will just sit there...and sit there.
When I was little and we would catch those, they would just drop the tail and run away.
Elena can take that lizard out, hold it, and put it back in the terrarium!
Amazing!


The other post is a favorite things post, maybe I will put is right here:
Favorite show:  Big Bang Theory tied with The Amazing Race!
Man --I wish the pair that is the old white guy and the old black guy who are best friends could win
it! I just love to listen to them.  Their accents are so country that it is humorous at times, but they are also so kind and sweet to one another--way to break those stereotypes, I say!
Favorite song right now:  I set fire to the Rain
Favorite thing to put on a salad:  Rice Vinegar--If you have not tried this, go try it! :)
So there! And now, may you all have a great weekend, and maybe I will hook up my camera
and put some personal pictures up here.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Y seven years ago today...

Man! How the time flies!
Seven years ago today Andy was about to come home from work.
I had been in labor all day long, and walking around the town in Durham.
After a dose of Castor oil in the morning, and an entire Easter
Basket of home made sugar cookies (the best I have ever had), umm...
Well, I was ready to have a baby....
at 10:57 AM--The next morning!
ha!
Elena was {not} in a hurry, and she basically never is, never has been,
and truly dislikes being rushed. ;).
We sure did not rush her that day.
So, Andy came home from work.
He had beer and pizza.
I had pizza, and we watched basketball
and we waited, and waited, and waited...
until the moment when I got scared.
Then, we boogied out the door and up
the road to the hospital!
What a night!

This was the day--and half of tom., I guess...
that I spent in labor.

Today we have spent the afternoon making a
Luna Moth cake!
I so wish I could take a picture, but my
camera died today. :(
We will take some tomorrow, though.
We used the butterfly pan from her first birthday, and
we made home made white icing, then Elena had the idea to color some green and
some yellow, and make a Luna Moth! So we did.  With some pastel
iridescent sprinkles...
Ay que Pastel! :)--yum!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Just put a towel over it!

This is one of the first lessons I learned --early on in motherhood.
When Elena was first born and my milk came in the milk would leak out
everywhere!! All through the night, when she was not eating it just leaked and leaked.
I never thought it was gross...it smelled wonderful!, BUT it was wet.
So, there I would lay, in the bed with wet all around.
Yuck!
Of course that could not last, so I would change beds, and when the other one was wet too, I would change
the sheets.
All of this would go on in the middle of the night.
UNTIL, I had a good phone conversation with my Common sense friend--thank God for those!
She said, "Susan, are you kidding me?--Just put a towel over it until the morning."
So that was it, the beginning of a whole new philosophy!
It was also the beginning of me actually getting some sleep.
I kept a pile of towels beside the bed, and almost any leaking that
occurred from Mommy or baby was covered in terry cloth--until the morning.
When we would wake up, the whole room would smell like sweet cream, and cheese.
I am not kidding! :)--It was not gross though, b/c we would wash and change
the sheets, and get ready for another adventure in trying to sleep.
Last night I was reading to my oldest ones, and Eva was playing in water, and
she came into the room with the rinsing cup full of water
and spilled it on my bed. :)
What do you think I did?

This also works btw on floors!  If there is an unidentifiable spill, that you will
be able to get to in a moment, but not right now??, well, just put a towel over it! :)
We keep {clean up} towels for this second purpose.

Have a great Friday!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Just in case you were concerned...

about why you cannot find Mrs. Fearnow's delicious Brunswick stew in the yellow can..

Here is what has happened!

Ummm...This is what I say, "PLEASE, PLEASE, PULEEEEZE!! do not stop making this wonderful, wonder food..."
This is what my mama said, "Don't you worry, I am going to the Pig (Piggly Wiggly) tomorrow and buy every can--it'll keep five years, you know"
This is what my aunt said (or at least a close approximation), "Patsy, I believe they have stopped making Mrs. Fearnow's!  I cannot find it anywhere here, I have looked at the Pig, and at Food Lion"

I mean, come on!  If I can still find Pork brains 'n Gravy in a can at the Pig (I did not say I buy it!)--they just could not have stopped selling Brunswick stew in a can!! Surely the former is the more obscure/obsolete of the two, no?

Here is a picture of what I am talking about

They made it right in Va.!  In Mechanicsville...According to the link above, the production of this
is set to start back up soon...
I sure hope so!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

{Almost} too strange to be true...

Okay here is my strange story of the day:
This morning, I was out doing the {parking lot duty} --babysitting adults and waving and smiling
sometimes through a grimace...
A mother who I see and greet every morning came over to me and stopped.
She was on her way out, and she began talking to me.
She is a hispanic mother, and without really hearing and listening I thought she
was telling me to move, b/c she was about to leave in her car.
But that was not the case.
She was actually asking me why they make me stand in the parking lot! :)
I said..."Oh, nah mas, babysitting the grown ups--asegurando de que la gente siguen las reglas..."
So then she starts telling me how her right ear is not working!!
I asked her:
Do you have congestion? (We are in a cloud of pollen here)
Do you have fever?
Does it hurt?
No, No, y no...
So are you thinking what I was thinking?
Sudden Hearing Loss!
What is wierd to me is that this mother came over to me to tell me this...
She just picked me out..
So I told her about sudden hearing loss, and I offered to check her ears out,
AFTER THE LATE BELL--b/c that was when I would be
officially permitted to go into the building and do my {job}.
In the meantime she began asking me questions about where I am from.
This is always funny to me.
I confuse the hispanic parents A LOT!
I always tell them..."I am from this very town"
Then they tell me the country the {thought} I was from.
This lady thought I was surely from Venezuela.
"You don't seem like an American at all to me," she said
"You know," she said, "My brother married a woman from Slovakia...you sort of look like her."
ha!  This is hilarious...I am not sure what Slovakian people have as physical characteristics..but I bet Beyoncees are not on the list! :)

So I checked her ears.  I got her hearing threshold levels in the right ear and sent her on her way {hopefully} to the Dr.
I tried to stress the importance of getting to the M.D. immediately--b/c they have steroids, and maybe her hearing would come back.
She has no insurance.
She can still go, and I wonder if she did or not.

Either way, we see eachother every A.M.
So I will be able to ask her.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

My {must} have




 
Yesterday when moms came to drop off kids for V-man's party one of my friends had on the CUTEST DRESS.  The other mother and I gasped! with delight at how cute it was...no kidding!
She was off to a musical at the high school with her mother and daughter...so she was dolled up.
Well, she explained that this very stylish dress came from TJ Maxx.  I tried to copy her by shopping online...and turns out, you can't buy from that shop online.  This means I would have to drive 30 miles to get the dress... I never have time to do that.  So I went shopping online.  The one on the bottom is the one I bought it was on sale at Belk.   The lace dress is apparently {the thing} to have this summer/spring.  It seems like every store has a version of it, and every brand.  I really loved the one Kristen had on!  I hope mine is as cute. :)


Things that used to kill people

I have started getting these inspirational emails with quotes from famous people.
They work.
I like reading them.
Where are they coming from?  I have no idea!  But fine.
One thing I have noticed in the biographies is that people used to die from
tuberculosis --A LOT!
Several of these famous, inspirational people died from this
Thanks Wiki! (read more about it here)

Then there was Yellow fever...
Thanks again Wiki!

People do not die of these as much any more...
I mean they might die of this somewhere, but not here, and
the people who were inspiring me this week were
United Statesians, and they died of Tuberculosis and
Yellow Fever.

One of them was inspired to build railroads and in order
to ship supplies, he had to go ON A BOAT AROUND THE
TIP OF SOUTH AMERICA in order to get to California and
begin his project.
On the way there, yellow fever killed him!

It is interesting to me how there were these diseases that were so prevalent, and now, for the most part,
we are not afflicted with them any more.


Baby V-man



Man!  this seems like it was just yesterday--it was! (+five years) ha!
Look at da teeny wittle baby...That is what I say to Victor in a coochie, coochie, coo voice
when I want to annoy him just a teeny bit...He actually half gets annoyed and half of
him just melts. :)
That picture at the top is my masterpiece!--I mean don't I {look} like I just had a baby?
What really happened was this:  I had the baby at 3 AM--then at around 9 AM I got up and rushed to get beautiful, so when Andy came back to the hosp (he had to run home a minute) we could take this picture!  Isn't that a hoot?  The ones after Elena looked pitiful to me, and I was NOT gonna look pitiful this time around...No siree!

The bottom one is V-man with his bruised up face..he {obviously} did not have his plan straight!

Now, this picture has been posted before, and I think it will probably get posted again...masterpieces like this do not hide out in folders on desktops! 

Have a great day!  My five year old little boy is off to play baseball! :)

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Five years ago on this day

I had been to the Dr. in the A.M.--my appts. were always on Thursdays (my favorite day).
The ob told me to go ahead and drink some castor oil, and maybe the baby would come out. ;)
I did!! Then I ate half a box of Lucky Charms....
Andy was out in the yard putting together Elena's birthday present for her second birthday..
A Dora Beetle car--it is still out in the yard now!
I can picture it all very vividly...
I was hoping and hoping he would make an appearance, and at 3AM tom, boy did he ever!

The day a woman labors with a baby really sticks in the mind.
Each year when my children turn a year older, I usually spend the day before their birthdays
remembering being in labor.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

y the song I enjoyed...while driving

y the video in case that does not work...

listen if you love me!

I just love Rosana!
She is Spanish.

I will share more of her songs later. :)

Today is the best day to...

Have a daughter who is six, and almost seven...
To have a son who will be five in two days...
To have a sugar baby princess baby who is {almost} three...

To get to ride around in my mommy mobile and enjoy the wind
blowing in my windows in the 80 degree weather,
to work, and finish reports I had been putting off....!

To host a school birthday party for my son, and with
a good friend, who also has a five year old boy...

To drink some ECCO domini Chianti and eat
some steak that my husband just made for us...

It was the best day for all of that...
Oh, and visiting the cell phones at U.S. cellular, and
deciding that {actually} paying 140.00 a month for
something to summon me all the time...
nah...it can wait--even though I do love a gadget!

It was just the best day for all of that...

b/c Six year old little girls who are almost seven---
they are THE BEST!
and four year old little boys who are almost five, and
they come and hug you and tell you how good you smell...
They are the BEST!!
And the baby of the family..well, no need to expand there..
;).

Can y'all tell that I AM NOT having PMS? :)

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

One ends and another begins...

One kiddie sports season that is...

Here are fotos of our Upward cheerleading fun!! I snuck these the last day, and Elena was not into having her picture taken...at all!
It is strange to me how Elena is always willing to pose and ham it up for Grandma's camera...
Not for mine.
Even if I say, "Pretend like I am Grandma!, come on Puleeeeze!"



She still will not pose or smile pretty...
When the basketball players ran out, we would make a pom pom tunnel--it was very fun.
All of the girls had the best time!


Sunday, March 11, 2012

Where I have been this morning...

I went to the asparagus farm!

If you click that link, you can go there too.
I have been wanting to plant asparagus for years now, --since
the last time I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and well,
I finally investigated it, and next week or so, I should be able to plant mine. :)

Yippie!
If you are a reader, and you have never read that book....
You should not delay any longer, it is one of the best books
ever!
Barbara Kingsolver, well, she is my favorite author.
Now, I will have a little forever patch of asparagus...
yum!

When you plant asparagus it stays there forever.
The shoots come up each year, and you eat them in the spring.
That is the only time the shoots come up.
They shoot up, you pick and eat, then
they shoot up again, and you pick and eat...according to
my favorite author, this goes on for six weeks or so.
Once I plant my baby asparagus crowns we cannot eat
any for THREE YEARS.
But that will be fun too....to go over and check on them etc.

The spot for them is the same spot as my Zinnia spot.
I will have to have a new Zinnia spot now.
Our yard is so shady (that's a good thing) that we cannot have many
{full sun} plants.

Okay--I am off to another place now.
Doesn't that farm look like a fun place.
I love how their website is sort of home madey--love it!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Is it too late for this?








These are Valentine's pictures ...is it too late to post these?
Two of these were meant to prove the point that Valentines day has gone overboard.
It is my favorite holiday, however, some children in Preschool classes--TWO YEAR OLDS!!
package up shovels and rhymes and goodie bags..!!
We, stick with the other, the simple card and a sucker.

good night

Friday, March 9, 2012

In like a Lion!

Roar!!
It has been very windy here this week, and then today we had one of those days where you feel spring peaking around the corner...not one of the winter days that feels like spring, but you know it might snow any day now...
nope.
this was a day when we can really sense that this Winter is over...SEE YA!
Good riddance

Okay, so here is a pair of shoes that I wanted last Summer and never bought for myself, and I am thinking they will be my one splurge for this summer....

Last Summer I tried on a black pair, and they were so cute!!

Okay, off to the rain, to work

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

updates

sooo....let's see...things have been going on so fast around here that I have not been blogging!
Here are some highlights...
*I never told the girl any recommendations and she never asked again..oh well, I am not even sure when they are going to Spain, maybe they are there now..
**I ended up GETTING BLAMED for that girl hitting me...I decided to not even worry about that anymore.  Just know, dear blog readers, that you can be riding down the road and get hit in the side by a person, and then get blamed for it, just know this.
*Andy and I enjoyed our company VERY MUCH this past weekend.  If you cannot escape the beau.co. have the outside come to you I say!
**I have discovered that getting Newsweek magazine keeps me sane.  I am somewhat a feminist, I was educated at a very liberal school in a town full of people with their heads stuck in the Carolina blue sky, and well...the news just depresses the hell out of me...all I have heard my whole life is how women's birth control pills are not covered by health ins.--(I always thought to myself, well go to the health dept. and get them free like I do (did)!) --anyway...So, the president and others decide that actually, they should be...and I have to hear a bunch of old guy priest saying "hell no!" all week on the news???!!!--If you read Newsweek you will know that according to polls...most of the Catholics are not against health insurance paying for B. control pills--turns out they (catholics) take them too!! what in the world!!??
I mean sometimes, when I watch the news...I think we are going back in time...and ahh..ladies, we do not want to do that...we need to remember history--and remember we do not want it repeated! I think my great grandmas had 11 or 12 children a piece..  yep.
I think hard-on pills are covered--b/c you know having a stiffy is a vital part of men's health?? huh??
*Oh, and on to children and {how many}--I work at a school, and all I see all day is children who are neglected who mostly are paid for by the gov'ts dollar.  I have never had much pent up emotion about this, but I just keep seeing whole sets of children from the same mother --and a whole slew of different dads..and well, I think Uncle Sam ought to pay for one.  I am not saying people can only have one, they can have all they can pay for, but uncle sam, should pay for one of those--I mean all of it!  one free lunch.  one bus ride. one free breakfast. one set of food stamps.  one medicaid card for one child.  one free glasses.  one free cell phone--no scratch that one off...that is dumb as can be that people consider having a cell phone a necessity...dumb!-- one!  that is all.
If you could see and hear what I do all day long from parents who treat their children worse than most people would treat a dog...well, it would make you think the same way, if you do not already.
yep.  include myself...so if I wanted all three of my children to ride the bus, I would pay gas for two of them.
It is easy to keep having babies, apparently--to some people--when you do not pay for one thing for them.
And really, I would not mind them all being paid for, except that the proverbial "soup pot" is empty...the govt is BROKE!!--AND, these children, despite all the hand outs--are not even being raised up, and treated well, it disgusts me.

eeekkk...

That post ended up being very soap boxy! ;).  It was for you Morgan. ;).I know you love it when I get riled up!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Recommend to {you}?

I had a very interesting experience the other day...well, almost two weeks ago now--un rato, no?
bueno,
A person who I know at church told me, "My husband and I are going to Spain, and I know that you lived there for a bit, would you recommend things to do and see to us?  I would like to know what you loved there..what you did..."
I asked here where they were going and she told me Madrid and Seville.
Been there.  Lived in Seville..
whew...
If you know me...you know..I have my {band camp} stories, for sure.
I am sure she is not interested in sharing these.. :)  We are acquaintances, nothing more, if we were
more, she would have heard some of my stories already.
I sort of agonized over this.
What can I even say?
Well, for one, we have not been there in over 10 years.
So, anything that I recommend restaurant wise--might not even exist anymore.
ummm.what else?
Go hang out in parks?--That is what we did...
Go and read about history of the Spanish language, and study Spanish arts
and architecture?  ummm, I do not think that is what she is after..
Live with Maria, en Nervion, y que pasen al bar alli cerquita donde
hay bocaditos bien buenos y que tomen una cruzcampos...A ver si Antonio aun trabaja
alli...
Ride on the C11 bus and see the gypsy houses all on the outskirts of town..are they even there
anymore?
I am not sure what to even say to her.
So, I think that is what I will say.
oh, and have fun!  It is a beautiful place, discover things for yourselves, and have
an adventure!
Maybe that is what I will say..

Bullets...

Okay, this is  just an all over the place post b/c I have been thinking about these things, and I thought you all might want something to think about too. :)

*Blue eyes:
Has anyone else noticed, on TV, how the blue eyes are looking very blue lately.  It makes me wonder if the TV people have added some color--in the screen or something?? OR if all these people really have eyes this blue...
If you want an example--look at Scott Pelley on the CBS evening news, see?  Or, the eyecare commercial--it advertises vitamins for peoples' eyes--the eyes are freakishly blue!
Then, the one that cracks me up is the eyelash booster med--and the warning says it {might} {make your blue eyes brown}--ugghh..and the girl in the commercial has --well, I think hers are brown!--but she has pretty eyelashes.. ha!

**speaking of commercials, when I have been running in the AM usually PBS is my TV of choice, but lately I have been watching the news, and for entire five minute segments--there are commercials.  Yesterday I thought...I like that one--it's so cute--(It was a Lowe's commercial)--then there was the car commercial with all the dogs going camping--LOVED IT!--Then I thought--hold on a minute --this whole run has been filled with commercial watching--but actually it did not bother me, so "thank you!" commercial makers, for making them fun to watch.

*I have to tell our rolling out the cookies story--it is a hoot--let's just say it was the first time I have EVER been able to roll out cookies!! YAY! BUT--the dough turned out a little--well, not sweet??  {biscuity}--dry biscuity and let's just say that my Dad almost choked on one of them, and had to spit it out in the yard!! ha ha ha ha!! It was a funny cookie time.

**Finally, we have friends coming this weekend and we are all excited!! woo hoo!! They are coming from far far away....Burlington--to visit or little enclave of --well, {little}--I sure hope they like the piggly wiggly...just kidding, they have been here before--and my friend actually doen's really enjoy to shop, she would like it here...

*One more:  We have an interesting vowel pronounciation issue going on at our house --and it is--Elena cannot distinguish b/t the short /a/ and the long /i/..the way I say it.  She has to make the dipthong long /i/ in order to the difference, and her short /a/'s sound like my long /i/s--we have been noticing this--and laughing and laughing at reading time.  But it is all really interesting to me, and I am trying to give her accent lessons.  I think I am fighting a losing battle however, as I think the accent of a child is more determined by peer group than parentage--I do not share my mother's accent at all...We are working on it, though, TRUST ME! ;)


Spot on!

Spot is our family's chihuahua.  He is what we call, "an evil dictator/stuffed animal come to life".  Sometimes, after he has ...