Whew!

4 weeks, 3 weekends of visitors, a company picnic and bleacher party, and one trip to Denver.  Crazy, sure.  Incredibly fun, absolutely.

JP left yesterday and we made a dent into our craft piles.  She made some adorable sock monkeys and I worked on some bows and crocheting.  We were each the only person we could think of that craft and watch football with a friend all weekend.  We also watched almost two complete seasons of Alias.  Now I want to watch all five again.  It has been awhile and we enjoyed them so much.

JP and I also took the Gates of the Mountain tour (B took Joe and Ashleigh when they were here) and we couldn't have asked for a better day and their new boat is pretty cool. Willa also realized how cool Jenny was and keeps telling me that things in the house that she are Jenny's.

So this weekend will be our first weekend by ourselves at home since the beginning of August.  Not ball games, no guests, no trips.  We probably won't know what to do with ourselves.  Except.....

Willa's birthday is Monday.  Two years has flown by so quickly.  I have been enjoying the feature on facebook where it tells you what your status update was on the days in the years prior.  2 years ago Emily and Q were fighting over my baby countdown announcements.  The client where I am working at this week keep talking about how I was there one day and gone the next.  It is hard to believe how quickly she is learning and growing and chatty she is.  One of the daycare teachers thought she was turning three!  Her ABC's are coming along nicely, she only misses K,L,M,N now.  The "Country Girl-Shake it for Me" dance is hilarious in the living room and in the car.  Our conundrum right now is which treat to take to daycare.  Pretzel, rolo, m&m bites or little cupcakes?

A Labor of Love

I am skipping a few weeks and will come back to them, but I figured I should start with what is fresh in my mind.  In the last week I have learned several things.  Namely, that my husband can never tell me that I am not spontaneous again.

Because I learned:

You should say yes to impromptu trips to Denver suggested by said husband the Tuesday before Labor Day.
You should prepare to sit on a runway for 45 minutes for 1.5 hour flight.
You should check out road construction in the area husband booked for you to stay.
You should pack a soft-side cooler to keep milk on ice in the hotel for the milk-a-holic named Willa.
Anti-nausea medication should be given regardless of how short the drive through Denver is.
You should also pack not only an extra outfit for the kiddo but for the parental units in the case of forgetting to give the anti-nausea medication, including undergarments. :(

I also learned:
My little chica is such a little person and not a little baby anymore.
She knows most of her animals and the sounds they make.
She loves snakes more than I realized.
She can almost say the whole alphabet.
She knows sharks from regular old fish.
She provides great assists at putt-putt golf.
B is afraid of my bumper boats prowess and refused to partake.
Skee-ball is not what is used to be.  The balls are wussy.
I learned that the items you needed on the to trip are not the same items you will need on the return trip.
We learned that the Ugandan North American Alliance can party all night long.
We found out how busy the walking mall is on a Saturday night in Denver and all the interesting people that entails.
We learned the Nissan Versa is not the car for the Moylan family.
We learned that B hasn't had to deal with toddler tantrums in public very often.

I think all-in-all we had a pretty good time and the weather was really nice.  We did all the things we planned and even watched some football and relaxed a little.  Luckily for B, he asked me just as I was planning all our Labor Day weekend projects or I might have been tempted to say no. 

Texas Roadhouse butter

Since we have company and we have actually been cooking good meals.  I found this recipe a while ago and finally tried it.  I am now on batch two we liked it so much.  Very easy.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon

Blend all together and voila!  Serve with yummy breads.

Like Mom, Like Daughter

Willa has been cracking me when I go in to check on her before I go to bed. I think I am pretty nutty in my sleep habits and she is following right along. I typically sleep with 3 pillows; one under my head, one over my eyes and one at my legs. I have been finding her all wrapped up in her “ele-ant” pillow or with it over her head lately. Which is here is my non-compensated plug for Angel Dear. We loved her little buddy blankets and we love the toddler pillows. They would make great gifts if you ever need one. I am happy to say that our little sleep regression phase is over and we are back to a calm bedtime routine that for is now is working wonderfully. Now if I could just fall asleep as fast as her and B maybe I wouldn’t be an insomniac.


The little chatterbox has been on a roll lately. Our daycare said she probably says at least five new words to them daily and she has started counting to 10, though she sometimes skips 2 and 8, but she does pretty well. My favorite phrase right now is “See you later.” She has also learned how to pop off the door knob covers to open doors and then says, “Uh oh, it broke.” ::knock on wood:: No houdini 3.0 yet.

So I talked last time about how busy our month is but that hasn’t stopped me from dreaming of a crafting world. A friend has set up shop at our local farmers market and I am green with envy. Then my cousin says let me know when you want to start selling stuff, I know a few ladies that would want some stuff. I have been doing pretty good not buying more crafting supplies, even getting rid of some to a teacher friend. I have made a list of things I want to finish and few things I would like to make for gifts and/or sell. I so wish I had the time to take a week to hole up and create non-stop. Pinterest is not helping me either. There are so many neat things on the internet, but at least now I have one place to store them all instead of my massively growing excel spreadsheet. So maybe I will just continue to dream or create and maybe next summer I can set up a little shop or something.

Anyway, the audit from Hell is almost in the bag, the audit I am working on is going about as expected, and the other two I need to do this month I haven’t started on. Good times.

P.S. JP, you haven’t updated me on your life yet. This is your callout!

Goodness Gracious

July is basically over!  Craziness.  I have spent the last two days cleaning, purging and organizing our office.  In the next two months we are expecting several visitors and it was starting to become a catch all.  Willa was pretty cooperative while I was working, which was probably because she discovered markers.  I have a vision for how I want to finish the room, just need to hang some pictures, take out the computer and desk and find the right dresser.  So a few more things to do in the next couple of weeks, but at least I know what craft items I have and what projects need finished.

We got to get a sneak peak at the Blue Angels on Friday.  Willa was pretty excited about the planes.  She wanted them to C'mere.  She was also pretty excited about the petting zoo at the fair on Saturday too.  Not sure if she was excited as her dad about the corn dogs though.

I can't remember if I blogged about our free sod, but for the last three weeks B has been watering the heck out of and over 95% of it took.  The backyard looks great!  With the tree and swing set gone (well, we still have a few pieces to haul off) we actually have a yard to play in.

Seems like August is going to be pretty busy.....state softball, baseball games, visitors, firm picnic and few more audits.  I have the audit from Hell to finish this week and then I should be able to breath just a smidgin easier.  B is also back on the day shift which should make my life a little easier and increase our family time quite a bit.

So what are your plans for August?

One Small Change

A couple of bloggers I follow do one small green change a month and then at the end of the year decide which ones to keep, toss (ha ha) or work on.  I am pretty sure I talked about carrying my reusuable bags only for non-grocery trips, but I am proud to say that I slowly bought some on each grocery trip and now have enough to buy groceries.  I love it!!  Less bags to carry in and it's so much easier.  Anytime I use a bag, I empty the contents and then hang it ont he back door to take back to the car in the morning.  B does not use the cool bags so he continues to supply us with small trash bags.  It's so nice to not have to wrangle plastic sacks and I feel less guilty on my small shopping trips.  Plus I get $.05 off for each bag I use at Target.

Another small change we have made is our shower cleaner.  I will admit we were pretty dreadful at cleaning the shower.  B gave it a good scrubbing a while back and now we spray it either before or after we shower and it is maintaining pretty well.  Cheap and evironmentally friendly.  Win, win.

Shower Cleaner:

1 part vinegar
3 parts warter
A few squirts of shampoo
TBSP baking soda

So I haven't really done a change a month, but I figure I am 2-2 for on changes so I am on the right track.

Weekend Recap

For the long weekend we tried to balance some relaxation and busyness.  Our friend Liz over at Our Busy Bee wrote a post that is something we are also going through.  We had two situations this weekend that I think relate very well to her points.  But our weekend:

We went to the Farmer's Market on Saturday and got some Flathead cherries and zucchini.  I also discovered that I have a hard time looking at the homemade items without thinking, though they are nicely done, I could make it so much cheaper.  But it was nice to get out of the house and the morning was gorgeous before it got hot.  B made us a nice dinner and we relaxed playing outside.  We also let Willa stay up later than usual to watch B shoot off some of his fireworks.  Which may not have been such a good idea.

On Sunday, we (ok I) decided to change our locks since I had broken my key in the deadbolt.  During B's installation process we were offered some sod for our backyard.  Of course, laying sod on the hottest day of the year was probably not the best move of the century.  But for now we have a backyard and I am going to enjoy for as long as it lasts.  After that we headed to a BBQ that started later than planned and after about an hour Willa was done.  Stick a fork in her done.  We immediately evacuated the premises to save everyone's (ok my) sanity.  This time she slept through the fireworks.

Monday capped off our event filled weekend with the parade and the Voyagers game.  She sat still for the parade and the first three innings of the game.  After that she wanted to explore and was not content to watch anything.  Unfortunately, the 4th of July game is also the most attended game of the season.  B was ready to pack it in, but in this case I knew she just had extra energy and if we want to keep attending games we needed to stick it out.  An employee of the team thought she was pretty cute and procured a ball for her from the bullpen.  She was very excited to get the ball and to have Orbit sign it.  An instance where beauty will get you something.  About the 8th inning she was ready to rejoin the party and then chattered until the fireworks started.  She varied between covering her eyes and saying "Wow!"  I can't say I blame her, some were pretty bright.  We finally made it out of the parking lot and all crashed when we got home.

We have been figuring out on the fly what works for us and what doesn't, but at least we aren't those parents profiled on CNN this week letting their kids run rampant.  Thanks LZ Granderson.

But it was a nice weekend and I hope you all had a nice one as well.