Spending quality time with DH

So whenever I come home from the drugstore with bags of stuff, my husband is always surprised (and gives me a hard time about) by how much money I can spend there on thing I absolutely, postively could not LIVE without and had to buy while I was at the drugstore to pick up ONE little thing.

So today, he dropped his car off for some transmission work and then he was waiting for me to pick him up at the drugstore nearby. When I arrive, he asks if I have time to go inside for a minute....

Whereupon he proceeds to walk through the store and show me all the things that he thinks we need to buy .... a wide variety of extension cords, a kids digital camera, a hot wheels race track, a heating pad, a surge protector, an advent calendar, .... etc. It was really hard for me not to laugh at him.

I *will* remember this and use it against him in the future!

Candy for Breakfast

Ok so last year I had to buy the Halloween candy twice as my husband ate the first batch prior to Halloween.

He thinks that a bag of candy constitutes a balanced meal.

So last year he tells me: "Next year, you need to hide the candy from me."

So this year, I bought some candy and hid it. He bought some more candy yesterday and I hid that too.

He just came upstairs now and here is our conversation:

Ed: "Where's the Halloween candy?"
Jenn: "I hid it. You told me to."
Ed: "I only meant for you to hide the candy that YOU bought."
Jenn: "Candy is not a balanced breakfast. Have some cereal. Or some oatmeal."
Ed: "Where's the candy? "
Jenn: (silence)
Ed: (sounding a little more irritated and looking around the kitchen) "Tell me where the candy is."
Jenn: "There's some apple cinnamon oatmeal up on the shelf there."
Ed: (as he opens the cupboard where I 'hid' the candy) "Next time you need to hide it better."

AARRGGHGHH!!!!

URADeadbeat

You know the 'coupon books' that you get in the mail full of ads for hair salons and carpet cleaners? Well, if I have time, then I look through them because you never know when there will be a coupon for the local pizzeria or something that is actually useful to me.

Today I saw something a little unusual in the coupon book ... an advertisement for a website where you can go to vent about a deadbeat in your life:

Check it out at www.uradeadbeat.com.

Here's how it works. You file a 'complaint' about a person or business on their site ... if you choose to include information with the person's (or business) email and/or mailing address they will send the person an email and postcard informing them that they have made the deadbeat list. They can then post a rebuttal.

It almost made me wish I had something I wanted to post there!

Minty Maggots

Did I mention that I LOVE Halloween?!?!!?

Well ... I do. One of my favorite places to shop for Halloween 'treats' to hand out on the big night is Oriental Trading. They have the funnest stuff! I just received my *second* big box of stuff that I couldn't resist. Here are a few highlights.

Plastic coffins full of candy 'bones' that interlock to build a skeleton:

Yellow gummy candy labeled 'Gummy Earwax':

And the cherry on top ... Minty Maggots .... mints that are actually shaped like maggots! I am totally cracking myself up here in my living room. I don't think I can wait two more weeks until the big day!

Halloween Joy

I love Halloween. I love dressing up. I love costumes. I love helping other people with costumes. I love candy. I love pumpkins. I love making Jack-O-Lanterns. I love trick-or-treating and receiving trick-or-treaters. I love decorating for Halloween. I love Pumpkin Patches. I love Corn Mazes. I love Fall leaves. Halloween brings me joy!

This year Matthew wants to be Harry Potter for Halloween. So of course in typical out-of-control style I had to order the whole shebang ... cloak, wand, glasses, sweater, house tie, lightning bolt temporary tattoo ... :) He looks adorable and is so excited about it.

His Dad decided it would be fun if he also dressed up as a character from Harry Potter .... he first wanted to go as Hagrid or Ron Weasley ... but finally decided on Dumbledore. His wig got here this week and I had to have him try it on right away! I am going to be Tonks (see my profile picture for my adorabe purple wig!). I can't wait for Halloween!

Barcode Tattoo?

Google was celebrating the 57th anniversary on the patent of the barcode today so I thought I'd join in. I saw a link to a barcode generator and made my own 'ScrapGoddess' barcode above.

My Dad has always said that one day we will all have barcodes tattooed on our hands and we won't need driver's licenses or credit cards or anything like that because all anyone will need to do to find out about us will be to scan our barcode. I don't think that is so far-fetched. I mean I don't think it will be a an actual tattoo .. probably a sub-cutaneous embedded computer chip. They embed computer chips in dogs and cats ... I'm sure the technology exists right now to do it to humans.

I mean really ... everyone has a ton of little pieces of plastic with what are functionally barcodes or other identification 'codes' on them ... drivers license, credit cards, shopping 'club' cards, membership cards .... how long will it be until someone appeals to our desire for simplification by offering an 'EZShop' type card that will function as a consolidation of all of those things ... every time you get a new card that participates in the program, you can 'add' its registration to the master card.

But then you get a little anxious about that one card having all this information about you. And what happens if you lose it? (Never mind that the same thing would happen now if you lost your wallet or purse with all the individual cards). But you are anxious about it .... so then its just a short leap to saying how much more convenient it would be to never have to worry about losing that master card so "wouldn't you like this special bracelet that you can lock around your wrist"?

Then it would only take one liberal state to pass a law that they require their citizens to be embedded with a computer chip identifying them ... and wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am we would be living in a science fiction movie.

Not tomorrow and probably not 5 years from now ... but 15 or 20? Definitely this is a possibility.

Recycling Crocs

My sister Melissa sent me this link:
Real Simple - How to Recycle Anything

It literally has information for anything that could possibly be recycled.
Including Crocs which are recycled into shoes and sent to needy people.
And old sneaker soles which are recycled into athletic courts in underprivileged areas.
And old cell phones which are refurbished and given to domestic violence victims.

And the insides of deodorent containers.... not sure what they do with those.

We deliver laughter.

This van totally cracked me up. I posted it on my FB the other day, but I just had to post here too in case anyone missed it.

I was driving down Route 9 the first time I saw it and I just about peed my pants I was laughing so hard. I called my sister to tell her about it but I couldn't stop laughing long enough to get the words out to describe what I've seen.

I just can't imagine there is that large of a market share who really want a bright yellow van delivering 'adult' products to their home.

But there the proof is in bright yellow packaging.

I laugh every time I drive by.

White Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Dip

My sister found a yummy (and pretty healthy) dip recipe. I had it over a yummy salad kind of like dressing ... also on bread as a spread to make a lettuce and tomato sandwich. Melissa ate it as a dip with carrots and broccoli to dip in it ... it was tasty any way you serve it.

The following blog was the original source ... It also has a picture and a link to instructions on how to roast your own red pepper:
http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/white-bean-and-roasted-red-pepper-dip.html

Roasting the red pepper was super easy and it tasted so good!


White Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Dip
(makes 2 snack sized servings)

Ingredients:
1/2 19 ounce can white beans
1 roasted red pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 lemon (zest and juice)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Puree everything in a food processor until smooth adding water (or more olive oil) to bring it to the consistency that you desire.

Eating Mold

Loved this article my sister sent me about food safety.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/11/food.safety/index.html

To summarize:

1. Don't eat mold.
2. Don't eat stuff that smells bad.

Enjoy!

Creepy crawly things that can also jump.

Instant message this morning that I sent to my husband downstairs ....

10:09:22 AM OH MY GOD THERE IS A HUGE SPIDER HERE
10:09:23 AM HELP
10:09:34 AM AM ON PHONE AND CANT SCREAM
10:09:49 AM And it CAN JUMP!!!!!
10:09:50 AM HELP
10:09:52 AM ME
10:09:53 AM PLEASE

He came up right away and disposed of it for me as I cowered in the other room. I love my honey lamb.

Just a little bit obessive

My Dad gave us some transplants last summer from his garden and flower beds -- some lilies of the valley, a couple of lilac bushes, and a bunch of raspberry shoots.

Ed very carefully planted them all (or not so carefully in some cases) and we have been watching anxiously this spring to see signs that they made it through the winter. Everything looks great (yay Ed!) and seems to be flourishing.

The raspberries, as is their wont, had sent out little runners into the yard and their long vines from last season are stretching their tendrils in the path of the lawn mower. Ed did not want to mow them off accidentally so he transplanted all the runners back to the fence and then very carefully wrapped each vine in a spiral of twine and tied them individually to the fence. Between both sides of the fence there are like 50 vines. He is so cute.

Gophers in the snow.

I finally convinced Matty and his Dad to go outside and play in the snow. They first walked out onto our deck and Dad told Matty to make a snow angel on the deck. I'm sitting here thinking to myself "Why did we buy a house with a yard if you were just going to play on the deck?"

So then they eventually get out into the yard to play and Matthew gleefully announces:
"I'm going to dig a big tunnel in the snow. I'm going to dig like a gopher!"



He digs for like 10 seconds and then runs over to supervise his Dad making a snow fort.

Dad: "Matthew, help me roll this giant snowball."
Matthew: "Naah. You can do it."
Dad: "Its heavy, I need your help."
Matthew: "No, you can roll it, I'll just brush the leaves off."

They played in the snow for like 7 minutes and then decided they were cold/done and came inside.

Pretty wimpy gophers if you ask me.

Bizkit the Sleep walking dog.

Read about this on one of my favorite blogs, dooce, and just about peed my pants watching it.

Baaahhd Girls.

The picture in my title is from a recent scrapbook weekend spent at Sheep Hill Bed and Breakfast (in Lancaster area of PA). We met this group of ladies a couple years ago at a crop and were fast friends. We enjoy getting together for small crops about once a year, and have been exchanging sheep jokes via email in anticipation of this crop for about the last 6 months. Melissa (my sister) found these cute sheep bonnets on etsy.com (a site for people to sell their hand made items) and they were adorable! The lady who made them did such an amazing job ... the yarn she selected was just perfect to look like fluffy sheep heads! Much laughter was had by all to see all of us in our cute bonnets!

Twisted Bargello

Is the name of the quilting class I'm signed up for with my friend Melissa at Pennington Quilt Works. It is a beautiful small quilt that can be used as a wall hanging or lap quilt. I have a basket of blankets in my living room, and I decided that it would be fun to change them out so that the entire basket consists of blankets that I have made. This will be the first one! Here is a picture of the finished quilt design:



And here are the fabrics that I (with about an hour of assistance from the lady who is teaching the class!) have chosen for my quilt:


I can't wait to get started! I had to send my sewing machine out to be serviced (it cost about half what the machine cost to start with....gasp, cough) and then the class is on April 5. I will definitely post more about my progress later!

Stand By Me video ... Playing for Change

I really loved this video ... thanks to one of the ladies on my Gratitude project (charlenenglish) who posted a link to it. Its basically street musicians from all over the world who have been recorded on the street and digitally combined ... I thought it was v. cool so if you have a minute you should check it out ... I hope it gives you a little inspiration for your day!

Can you see my big fat tummy?

Ok so Matthew comes out wearing a simply stunning outfit he has designed and asks if I like it. Itell him I am amazed and that this is definitely picture worthy so hold still for a photo.

Matthew: "Can you see my big fat tummy in the picture?"

Me: "Well no. I don't actually think you have a big fat tummy."

Matthew: "Well I'll turn to the side and you can take another one. Now can you see it?"

I agree that I can see a little tummy, and he runs back to his bedroom. He returns in a few short moments with more 'accessories' added to his outfit, I take another picture and he runs back to his bedroom.

He's back in a few minutes in an outfit which his father proclaims is 'over the top'.

Matthew: "See the orange thing here (points to stuffed pumpkin tucked into his scarf)? This is my other head. Do I look like I'm prepared for anything?"

Me: Sure, what do you think you are prepared for?

Matthew: "Well, flying and other stuff. See I have a thing on my back like Boba Fett and Jenga Fett had (points to wrapping paper tube stuck in his Speedo floatie)."

Dad: A jet pack?

Matthew: "Yeah a jet pack. So I can fly."

Dad: That looks like its stuck in your pants. Is it an exhaust tube? (explains what an exhaust tube is used for and what fumes might be exhausting from his pants ... this results in loud cackling from all parties)

Good times.

Jenn ... Lord of the Flame

Of course you know there has to be a story behind that.

So to preface the story, I have to tell another story about when I was scrapbooking at Miriam's house a few years ago and she had some lit candles (!!!) on the table where we were scrapbooking. As I got ready to leave, I set my paper bag full of scrapbook paper on top of the table, it leaned over and was just close enough to the candle flame to catch on fire. Miriam noticed the flames, gave out a little shriek, grabbed the bag, rushed it over to the sink and put out the fire. After telling this story to her family the next day, Knox (age 5 -- who had been watching a lot of the movie "Ice Age") christened me 'Jenn, Lord of the Flame'.

Ok fast forward to this week ... I had a candle burning on the bedroom dresser. I went in to check on my husband who was sleeping and noticed the candle burning low but decided to let it burn. I came back in later that night to go to bed and noticed that the candle had gone out on its own from lack of wax ... there was a little smell of smoke in the air, but just the kind of smoke like when you blow out a candle so I didn't really think any more about it. The next day I went to throw the candle out and realized that the candle jar had shattered from the heat and there was a big black burn mark underneath where the candle was sitting on the dresser.

So, I am extremely grateful that 1) My husband didn't die from smoke inhalation or fire and 2) My house did not burn down.

I'm participating in the year-long Gratitude Project and below is my page for my gratitude book that I made about this incident:

Mint Truffle Kisses

Last night my 7 year old step-son finally tired one of these mint truffle kisses ... he promptly declared with a surprised tone in his voice "Wow, these are really good! You guys should try some of these!"

The surprise was what cracked me up ... I have offered him some of them multiple times in the past week and he always looks at me like I am trying to poison him. In fact his Dad and I have already eaten at least a bag and a half so we know they are good!

Gratitude Project

A friend (thanks Jeanne Ann!) notified me of a great project that she is going to participate in and I thought you all might enjoy participating as well. The goal is to become more grateful for all the blessings that we are given. Your assignment is to weekly identify something you are grateful for and document it in some way .... either through a picture, or online blog, journal, or scrapbook ... whatever works for you.

You can read more about the intent of the Gratitude Project here on Brenda's (the founder) blog. She has some great ideas for implementation as well.

And if you want to join us, check out the wiki at: http://gratitude.wetpaint.com

It doesn't cost anything but a little of your time. And I know I am happier when I focus on my blessings instead of my trials.

Bubble wrap

Did you know that you can send a package through fed-ex just wrapped up in bubble wrap and plastic? I order my scrapbook adhesive from a place that does this and it cracks me up every time the package gets here. Here's the latest package: