Washed out

The rapture didn't come, but that didn't stop mother nature from keeping us on our toes.  Not only were there tornadoes in the Midwest (it just breaks my heart), but Montana was filled with water.  A bridge even got wiped out.  Fortunately for me, I made it to Billings with my co-worker only to have all but one route back home be closed to water.  Even the interstate was closed in several areas.  We had talked about going somewhere for the holiday weekend, but I am glad we didn't since it is wet everywhere.

I know I always talk about Willa's word explosions, but now it seems we are not just getting new sporadic words, but they are repeated over and over.  The mimicking borders on comical, but that just means the Daddy and I are having to watch our P's & Q's a little more.  We do not want a repeat of last summers daycare convo.

The little Chickster has also developed a wonderful sense in handbags.  I scored a $12 Vera Bradley bag (it's reversible too!) at A Time or Two and the only time she lets me use it is when her stuff is in it.  So now it is a semi-diaper bag.  She also loves her "crays" very much.  We have to watch her pretty closely, since she will color on pretty much anything.

We have gone to a birthday party the last 3 Saturdays and I am pretty sure it just means Willa is not having a party until she is 12.  On the plus side, I now have a list of do's and don'ts for little kid parties.

We are trying to Martha Stewart this week and hopefully one day I can get all of our pictures uploaded because I have been doing some fun things.

Happy Memorial Day.

Fresh Herb Mayo

I love a good sandwich but somewhere along the line I got tired of my little brown bag lunches when they contained a sandwich.  Which usually led to me going and grabbing something.  Then I stumbled on to this little recipe and I have ate 2 sandwiches since last night.  Belle ate a half as well.

So simple:
2 cups Mayo
2 Tbls. Dill
2 Tbls. Basil
2 Tbls. Oregano

I halved it to make sure we would like it first.  I also think that is too much Oregano and B tossed in some Cayenne, but overall we are loving it.  Even Willa at a whole half sandwich by herself.

Recap

Last week seemed pretty busy it seemed.  I was doing fieldwork for an audit, B started his "new job" and Willa went with the flow.  We learned this week that Willa and I will not be attending any out of town softball tournaments, she is way to busy for me to keep up with her and flying softballs.

Mandi and I created our coolest cake to date we think and I know I have said it before, but now with utmost confidence I can say I have conquered the cake pops!!!  It was pretty grand.

We have enjoyed some pretty nice days as of late and Saturday was a great day for a birthday party.  Willa was totally stoked about the bounce house since she knew how it worked this time.  She had a smile a mile wide as she bounced with the big kids.  Thankfully, she got over being shy and I didn't have to climb into the bounce house this time.

Her daycare moved to a new location today and even though it is different from what we are used to, I think it's going to be just fine.  It will definitely change my shopping habits since now I can make some stops before picking her up instead having to haul her out of the car all the time.

For a Monday, today was very productive for me.  I hope that is a sign of what is to come for our week.

And....a Congrats to our favorite Kay-ee on being valedictorian of her class.  Way to Go Kayleigh!

Nice

I had a nice little post about our week yesterday and then the laptop battery died and I lost it all.  I will try to recreate it this evening.

Inspiration

After 101 posts I am having a hard time typing what is in my head.  It feels like we have had a lot going on lately but I think I am just in decompression mode.  Willa is still spitting out new words everyday (it still amazes me) and expressing interest in potty training.  As much as I thought we were ready for that (& believe me, ditching diapers would be grand) I realized once again I have no idea what I am doing in this parenting business.

I have a to do list a mile long and while it would be nice to crank the whole thing out in the weekend, I have been trying to crack out at least 4 items a day.  Of course I keep adding to it, so its a moving target.  But I have been reading different blogs lately about minimalism and obviously from my previous posts going green.  So despite being on the hunt for a book shelf and two end table drawers, I did NOT go to any garage sales today despite there being some very close.  Instead I want to continue to focus on purging for a while but still keep my eyes peeled for the perfect items that I know I will eventually find.  Patience, I continue to work on it.

We learned several things this week.  1) You can not dye candy melts with icing coloring.  Bad things ensue.  2) Cheese Nips + Milk = Bad business.  Learned that one twice for us to figure out the combo.  3) I can make a car seat mat for my car in under one hour.  However, it makes me want to make more and gift/sell them and want a better sewing machine.

So, 2 things off my list today and it's not even one o'clock.  Maybe I should strive for 6 items today if I get my butt in gear and get all my work done at the office quickly.

Day of Firsts

A big day in the Moylan household.  Willa had her first dentist appointment, first happy meal, and her first haircut!

She totally rocked the dentist appointment and haircut.  She fussed a little bit getting laid back at the dentist but was very friendly to everyone.  Then she just sat on my lap for her haircut and watched the girls that were getting their hair done for prom.  Mimi took lots of pictures and I am pretty sure she had a good time this last week with Mimi and Aunt Rue.

I was out of town for the beginning of the week and game back to several new words.  We even web-cammed with Uncle Q and my cousin Marc this week.  She said both of their names and showed them how far she can throw a ball.  Last week she got to webcam with my cousin Megan too and she is really getting the hang of people being on the other side of the TV or laptop.

Easter was pretty fun.  She got lots of new things from the grands and her aunt & uncle.  She is way spoiled. 

Since I am getting flak for not updating as much I will keep this short and maybe do another one tomorrow.

Balance again

It has been a busy week around here.  We got the rest of our tree taken down and despite the whole dynamic of our backyard changing in June when we started, having the last "branch" gone has changed the whole neighborhood.  Our tree used to tower over everything and now it is wide open spaces.

Yesterday was super nice and we spent the morning playing outside.  I didn't go to work and funnily enough, I wasn't the only one.  We wrapped up tax season basically on Friday morning and had our party last night.  Dinner was fun, though over priced.

Chatty Cathy continues her word explosion and it is so fun to wonder what the next word will be.  My favorites at the moment are sssnack and stink!  AND she is asking please on a more consistent basis!  I couldn't be more excited about that.

Sadly our bright, shiny day brought snow today and the sad realization that I lost one of my diamond earrings.  Of course, it was on the day we vacuumed and played outside so it could be anywhere.  I feel so naked without them.  I hope it turns up, otherwise I will be investigating the cost of one earring to match.

Besides getting some balance back in the home/work ratio, I am still working on the green/frugal balance.  I have been having fun learning the register rewards at Walgreens and have started thinking out my standards of when I want to do a deal.  Obviously if it is something we use I want to get the best price that I can.  If I can get something under $2 and we could use it or at least donate it, I will probably get it.  We now have nice little stockpile of health & beauty products and toothpaste, so I really only want to keep buying if it's a great price.  But one of the rules of couponing is to buy the smallest size usually to get a good deal.  This goes against being green of buying the biggest size or least amount of packaging.

I really wish it was easier to recycle around here and that we had a little more space in our house to have a good recycling "center" for us.  I have been trying to make small changes around here and one of my favorite little switches has been to cloth napkins.  I am hooked and on the look out for more fun ones.  My biggest internal struggle right now is procuring more shopping bags.  I have a few and my favorites are my Neela bags.  The debate is....do I order more or just buy the ones in the stores around here?  I was going to use the Walgreens BOGO coupon today, but found out they had been recalled due to having lead in them!  I haven't started using them to get groceries but I have been making the concerted effort to use them for all my other shopping expeditions.  So far, it's been easy and I get a lot of compliments on my bags.  I just have to make sure I unload them and put them right back in my purse.

So I am sure I will be blogging more about it, and I would love to hear your thoughts and/or ideas of what you are doing. AND I am totally jealous of the family back in Kansas with their green thumb gardens.