Tuesday, November 22, 2011

We have a farm-fresh, preservative-saline-additive-frozen-free turkey coming to us tomorrow compliments of Mike's boss who raises turkey (chicken and goats) on his hobby farm.  I'm wondering if it will taste different, as in better?
I love Thanksgiving and all the food, but I think the leftovers are my favorite.  When you are standing in a kitchen cooking for several hours, the excitement of eating that food kindle dwindles, so the leftovers seem to taste better.
Mike and I might brave the crowds Thanksgiving night to go to Target, I just can't do it by myself.  There are some crazies out there.

Looking forward to a nice, quiet weekend and spending time with my family.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!

PS-I am on day 21 of not biting my nails.  I've heard it takes 30 days to make or break habit so I'm almost there and my nails are looking good.  I'm rewarding myself with more shellac manicures. Yay!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Mike and I have held off for many years buying new furniture or the latest TV.  Actually in our whole marriage we have only bought one set of living room furniture and have never had any kind of home theatre anything.  We have kept it pretty low tech around here.  So about a month ago, we re-did the whole family room. We didn't mess around.  We love it and we have dispersed the existing furniture to my office and the master bedroom which now actually looks like a bedroom!!
Here are the results (master isn't ready for photos yet, the walls are still pretty bare):

Now when we all watch TV there is enough space for everyone.

I love having the love seat in my office.  The kids sit on it and chat with me, or I can sit down and be comfortable while working on client sketches.  Yay!




Hannah helping me with the apple strainer I borrowed from my sister.  A wonderful invention when you are making buckets of applesauce.
We have been enjoying fall activities around here, as well as loading up the pantry and eating/canning all things apple.  How I love fall apple season!  Since I have read the Little House book series approx. 5 times in my childhood, I think I would have faired well back in those days.  Except for not having running water and riding in a bumpy wagon, and having excess amounts of children, and dying of diseases we don't have now...besides all that I would have appreciated the season of harvesting.  I have 14 quarts of apple sauce, 14 half pints of apple butter and we have enjoyed apple pies and caramel apples.



We added a new and exciting tool to our pumpkin carving activity-the drummel.  That thing can really carve a pumpkin well.  When I was in art college, my roommate who was a very gifted artist, always entered the pumpkin carving contest at school.  Now you can imagine the works of art from all those art students,  and she won two years, compliments of that drummel tool.  She sculpted and carved the pumpkins until they no longer looked like one.  Being the clean one in the house, I was the one that spent months after cleaning tiny dried-up pieces of pumpkin off the walls, table, floor.  So it brought back memories as I cleaned up dried-up pumpkin off my counters, floors, cabinets and hair.


Hannah and I enjoyed an afternoon at the pumpkin farm while the boys stayed at home.  Taylor has grown up and matured since last fall, where now going to the pumpkin patch is not a cool or age appropriate activity anymore. Blah.

I am trying to put an end to a very bad habit I've had since I was a child...nail biting.  My nails aren't very nice even when I grow them out but I figured since I was 35 it might be time to stop that habit.  I had my nails (really short nails) manicured and she applied the shellac polish.  It's supposed to help your natural nail and the polish doesn't wear out for 14 days.  I am at day 11 and only one nail has chipped.  The polish is very shiny and durable and I have NOT bitten my nails!  The pay off is nice looking nails, so I am setting aside money in my budget to get regular manicures and shellac.  That is my reward for not biting the darn things. 

On another bad habit front, Hannah is still sucking her thumb regardless of the expander appliance she had installed about a month ago.  We have to turn this one every day with a little key that fits in it.  By the time she gets actual braces it will be a walk in the park with all these appliances she has.  The ortho said we could have them weld a bar across the top of it, but most kids stop sucking their thumb after the regular appliance since it's at the roof of her mouth.  Well, Hannah isn't most kids and she relies on that thumb to put herself asleep.  Oy.


 The pets in our house are beyond pampered.  Alley cat got a "window seat" to discourage using the new couch as his pillow.
Isa likes to burrow in my covers because she is cold all the time.  Good thing we keep her clean.


And lastly, this past weekend my Mom and sister and I finally went on a fun weekend we have been trying to plan for awhile.  We left hubbies, kids and pets, and went to IKEA in salt lake!  We love that place and both of us used to live near one so we went there and to the outlets in park city and other stores.  We had a grand time and got in some holiday shopping. We shopped, got to eat whatever we wanted (lots of asian and sushi twice!), we had nowhere to be except where we wanted to go.   I think we need to start a tradition and make it 2 nights instead of just one.  We had a couple hiccups.  It snowed and the fan on my car decided to stop working so it was a little chilly inside.  There was heat, just no fan.  Of all the times to do that.  My car never does that.  And then we took a different way home and the worst accident of that area including a 49 vehicle accident happened and the road was closed all day.  So we waited about 3 hours for it to open.  But you know, when you don't have a schedule it's all okay.  I got to hang with my favorite ladies and I hope we do it next year!