Archives for November 2009

A collage made from the post-its I created for Danielle’s GRATITUDE VIDEO. If I had been thinking, I’d have only used TEN post-its, instead there are thirteen, so… Whoops. I also should have touched up my nail polish. (OPI – Yo Gotta Get This Blue – of course).

Also, below is a video made by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (of Beckoning of Lovely fabulousness) – the 22 Things her Children taught her. I kind of like this a lot.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope your day is filled with fabulousness and good food.

1. I’m learning a new song in guitar! I’m learning a new song in guitar! And it’s EAAAAAAAASY. Finally. Because lemme tell you: bar chords are OBNOXIOUS. It’s a nice change of pace to pick up something new that from get-go I can play because the chords are all ones I’m familiar with and the strumming pattern is the same throughout the song. What song is it? Listen and see. But don’t watch. It’s just a still shot of the most unflattering angle of Howie Day and his two chins.

2. In the mean time, I’m still supposed to work on “Rain King” because if I give up on bar chords than the terrorists win.

3. I made a few loaves of gingerbread last week. I just polished off the last piece and I’m already trying to figure out when I can make another few loaves because… YUM. I love gingerbread.

4. I partially broke my blender this morning. On the lid to our blender (and maybe yours too, perhaps?) there’s a plastic removable piece that you can remove while blending to drop other things in the blender. At least, I’m assuming that’s the purpose of this piece. Annnnnyway. This morning, that little plastic piece FELL IN THE BLENDER while I was blending. That resulted in plastic getting kicked around by the blender blades, which resulted in the stuff I was blending spewing all over my kitchen. Fun times, fun times. Thanks, Oster.

5. In my family, we do the TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS. That means in the twelve days leading up to Christmas, we all give each other random gifts (three packs of gum, two pairs of socks, etc). Part of my 101 list is to do the Twelve Days of Christmas for someone else. Want it to be you? Go over THERE and leave a comment. I’ll randomly pick someone. You’ll get 12 presents. Fun, right? In the interest of full disclosure: there’s nothing about this giveaway to disclose. No one is sponsoring this or giving me stuff to give you. I’ll go to the store and pick things out for you specifically and send them to you. It’s fun. Play along.

6. And I’m gearing up to plan the 3rd annual Cookie Decorating Party. The kids love it. I love eating cookies — I mean, I love having all the kids over to decorate cookies and have a fun time and… I must be nuts. It takes days to get all the sprinkles out of the dining room carpet (Why do we still have a carpeted dining room? Who knows. It’s silly) after the kids are done. But it’s definitely one of the most fun things we do each year.

7. New music this week – tons. I just added some Brendan Benson and Florence + The Machine (both recommended and given by friends – and I haven’t listened to either yet).

8. Project Runway finale tonight! I don’t like the Top 3, so I’m going to say I’m hoping Carol Hannah wins because she’s the least annoying. And I kind of like her designs.

9. Outside the sky is grey, gloomy and the rain has been intermittent. It’s been spitting rain for a bit – but never a downpour. I did a quick change in my dinner menu – and now we’ll be having an Italian Meatball Soup. I think I need to hit the store for a loaf of french bread — I roasted some garlic last night, and some thick slabs of garlic bread with soup sounds just amazing. (Don’t worry, I’m not going to go off and be one of those people who COOKS. But a girl’s gotta eat).

10. I started Level 3 of Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred yesterday. I have to say, Level 3 is less obnoxious than Level 2 and I’m not sure how that can be? Level 3 felt easier on my knees though it still put a hurting to me (Jumping lunges? Guh). There’s plenty here to give you a workout, but when I finished yesterday I didn’t feel so much like crying while collapsing. Just… collapsing.

* Yes, this is a lyric from Howie Day’s “Collide”

1. As I write this, I’m sitting on one of those big balance ball things. I figured sitting on the floor hunched over my laptop to work wasn’t doing my posture OR my core any favors. So… here I sit. I feel stronger already. (No, I don’t. But I’m trying to be glass-half-full about it).

2. We have instituted a new family tradition for Friday mornings. Fed up with how long it would take the girls to settle in for bed in the evenings and get up and around in the morning, we now have Donut Day Friday. Friday mornings, we get up and hustle to get out to get donuts for breakfast. In exchange, the girls have to minimize the getting-ready-for-school drama the other four days of the week. It seems to be working alright – it definitely gives them something to look forward to. As for me, Fridays means a cappuccino (because donuts? BLEEECH!).

3. It’s hunting season in Michigan which means that my favorite trail is closed temporarily lest some confused hunter mistake someone out getting their exercise for a deer (crazier things have happened, I suppose). I find it’s not as easy to get the same mileage in when running on the road, though, and I’m averaging shorter (but faster) runs. I dunno which is better – I kind of prefer my slower mosey over greater distance. And I prefer the privacy of the trail so passing motorists don’t have to see me all winded and ready to pass out.

4. In guitar lesson today we continued work on “Fast Car” and “Rain King”. The Tracy Chapman song is there, except speed, but I admit “Rain King”? It’s pretty slow going for me. I have a mental block with the B minor and C#m, and my fingers just won’t get there fast enough. So, my mission for the week is to quit thinking so much and just play. Hopefully that helps.

5. Anyone reading anything good at the moment? I just started reading Jen Lancaster’s “Pretty In Plaid”. I always love her books, and I definitely needed something that would make me laugh.

6. Project Runway is down to the Final Four. And… meh. Y’know, this whole season I have really had a tough time caring about this group of designers. I hope that they have something up their sleeve for next season because otherwise? Yawn. Way to take my favorite show and bore me with it, Lifetime.

7. Also, I really think Heidi Klum should dress better. Why doesn’t she?

8. It was below 30 degrees when we got up this morning. UNDER THIRTY DEGREES. Brrrrr. That’s not good. That’s really horrid. Fortunately, I had stumbled over a sale on fleece scarves at Old Navy this past weekend and picked up new scarves for the kids for a buck apiece. Pumpkin refused to wear hers, preferring to wear The Princess’s old scarf – whatever. As long as the kids were bundled up, my goal was achieved. I’m glad the temp picked up a bit though. I’m not ready for cold all day every day.

9. Sitting on this stability ball is really not fun. I’ve been here awhile now. I keep getting sidetracked while writing this and I’ve been here for about 30 minutes. Except when I got up to go pee because I drank about 80 ounces of water today so far. No, I’m not sure why I’ve had so much water.

10. With both kids at school today, I ran some errands before guitar lesson. Got another bit of Christmas shopping done. I think my favorite part of Christmas shopping is buying stocking stuffers. In addition to putting stockings together for my kids, I still do one for my mom (I think I’ve mentioned, she does one for me and my siblings, so it’s pretty fair). Today, I found a Christmas ornament that looked like a sparkly margarita with a red ornament on top. It’s pretty fitting for my mother, so I’m pretty pleased with my find. Have y’all started shopping yet? If not, when do you start? If you HAVE started shopping, when are you aiming to be done?

1. Y’know, around this time of day I get hungry. Around this time of year, I have a big jar full of candy in my kitchen. I like candy. A LOT. I really like sweets a lot – and when I post about cookies and I blab on Twitter about candy, YES I ABSOLUTELY CONSUME THIS MUCH SUGAR. (Yeah, I know. It’s bad). So, today, I figured I would grab a healthier snack – and I’m drinking a Mango Mix 1. They aren’t paying me to say this (Though if they ever decide they’d like to pay me to say it, that’s cool too). These are really good. Also, 200 calories and three servings of fruits/veggies. Awesome.

2. Guitar lesson was awesome today –  making progress, and next week, we’re going to quit focusing on the Tracy Chapman song and focus on “Rain King”. It’s hard to find time to practice, but I need to.

3. So, how many of you have kids who have gone through the Toys R Us big book and circled what they want for the holidays? PLEASE don’t let it just be mine. Anyway, yeah, my girls went through it and did some wicked circling, and I’m actually pretty pleased – they both picked things that I look forward to buying. The Princess picked a lot of creative stuff {she wants a guitar, y’all!!}, and Pumpkin picked mostly dinosaur things. And that’s okay with me. There’s a massive amount of stuff out there – but it’s kind of fun to see them zero on things that are really of interest to them.

4. Loads of new music this week – Train’s new release is pretty full of  hooks and is radio friendly and pretty good listening. I just downloaded a free live album from Matt Wertz that my friend tells me she’s had on repeat, but I have yet to listen to it – but I adore him anyway. If you like the acoustic-y guitar boys, check him out on his site while it’s a freebie.

5. So, now that the World Series nonsense is over we can have GLEE back, right? It’s been a few weeks and I’m a little overdue for high school students randomly bursting into song.

6. By the way, no, I don’t follow baseball. At all. I had no opinion on either of the teams who were playing (who was it again? Juuuuuust kidding!). I get a little bit more worked up over the Stanley Cup – but only if the Red Wings are playing.

7. Tomorrow, I get to call to see if the flu vaccine shipment came in and if my kids can get the flu shot (or Flu Mist – since neither of them have asthma, either the shot or the mist will be fine, though they’ll gripe a lot less about the mist). We’ll just do the standard vaccine if we can – we probably will not get the H1N1. Is it so difficult to get the flu shot everywhere?

8.  Level 2 of the Shred. OW. OW. OW. Chair sit v-raises. Ow. Ow. Ow.

9. Today I am wearing my favorite orange sweatshirt. It’s funny, I used to hate orange and now it’s one of my favorite colors. It’s pretty bright – I’m almost flourescent.

10. I need a haircut. I have no idea where to look for ideas, but dang. I really need to do something. This mop needs to be at least 1 – 2″ shorter. It’s getting too long. Where do you find inspiration for getting your hair cut?