Dorothy

We have this little black tie event that we are attending next month and I am not 100% happy with the way that I look these days after having Violet (I know it was 10 months ago). It was very hard for me to try on dresses and find one that I liked enough to buy but I did and it will be fine. To make myself feel a little better I decided to try and find a really cute pair of shoes (to take the eye away from my ankles up). The shoes that I found are FIERCE - they are my 4 1/2" ruby red slippers! To anyone reading this who knows me personally you might ask "Can you walk in those Jessie? Your day to day shoes are Birkenstocks", well as a matter of fact I have been practicing and I don't think I look horrible walking :) Anyway, I was taking some pictures of things I will be listing on eBay and thought I would take a picture of the outfit I will be wearing.

Speaking of Dorothy, there is another Dorothy on my mind these days. The Apronista is having giveaways each week until Christmas and this week they are giving away an apron from Carolyn's Kitchen, talk about some cute (and HOT see the Marilyn) aprons! For myself I would choose the Dorthy Apron probably in pink/black but my mind could change on that. To enter you just have to leave a comment this week and let them know which apron you would pick if you won. Good luck!

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A Marketer's Dream

That is what my husband has called me since he met me and last night I laughed at my daughter sleeping and realized that it is true and sadly she is one too.

Notice the Blue's Clues pillow, she has only watched that show a few times but she LOVES Blue the dog. I found just the pillowcase at a thrift store for around $1. On the show they have this thing that they do with their hands that sort of reminds me of "jazz hands" when they say "Blue's Clues" and seriously my kid does it. The first time she saw a paw print while we were out she did the jazz hands and said "Blue's Clues" - What??? We do let her watch Dora though and last night when I ran to Target I found that little pillow for $1.98 and I knew that she would use it. She did not go to sleep with her head laying on both pillows she must have woke up and did it on her own which was why I took the picture in the first place. Did you happen to see Mickey? She adores Mickey Mouse and the way that she says it is TOO cute! Mickey was a purchase that I made because she was the best girl at Target one day when I had to shop in the toy department for someone else's birthday present. Mickey comes everywhere with us - I hear her in the living room right now talking to him. Oh, I thought that I would be able to be a parent that keeps their kids away from all the junk out there but it looks like I am getting sucked right in.

Finally, how about that picture??? It was taken with the night option on my camera - so cool! I call it my "night vision" option b/c it looks like it was a lighted room, at least I thought so. I find so many cool options on my camera all the time and I have had it over 2 years - what would happen if I actually read the manual or took a class, I'd be dangerous!!

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*sigh* another week in the books...

and what do I have to show for it? It seems like I am rushing around doing things all the time and then at the end of the week when I am looking at my dirty home I wonder what the heck I actually accomplished. There are times that I feel that I am a failure at this whole SAHM thing, maybe not so much the mom part but more of the homemaker part - to be blunt I think I suck at it most of the time. Everyday I either get the girls outside at our home or running around somewhere and then I try and do chores during their naps but lately all I have been feeling like doing while they sleep is sleep myself! I hope that this is just temporary and a stomach bug appears so that I know I haven't totally turned into the slug that I fear I am.

Today was so pretty outside, fall has been here in NC this week FINALLY! The temperature was probably still in the low 70's but it had a coolness to the air that wasn't here last week. I got out in the garage and looked through some of our Christmas decorations to see what we still might need. Lowe's has an inflatable Mickey Mouse that Piper sees all the time when we go there and stands in awe - he is on my day after Christmas sale list (keep your fingers crossed that he will still be there!). Last year Matt caved and got me Piper a blow up snowman for our front yard, seriously she stared at that thing all season and I hope that Violet will do the same this year when she sees it. Here are a few shots of the girls from us hanging out today. I TRY not to bring the camera out with me EVERY time but then they do something cute and I am off running for it. Anyway,

I have limited tricks right now but I *think* that my husband is going to buy me Photoshop (woohoo!!) and then I will be photo ho'ing more than I do now!!

And before I go and see what my online pals have been up to this week I would like to give everyone a heads up on a VERY FUN contest that The Apronista is having to win a FABULOUS apron made by Sommer Designs. Carrie could seriously become a crush of mine - she is that cool (at least from her blog I think so anyway). You know when you look at something out at a store and say "I can do that"? She actually DOES IT and her projects turn out SO NEAT! Check out her blog and site for amazing works of art! Or, get on over to The Apronista and enter the contest to win one of her aprons!

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Friday babblings...

So Halloween is RIGHT around the corner, is everyone ready? We don't have trick or treaters at our house but we will probably bring the girls to a few of our neighbors homes. Their costumes aren't done yet, I have no treats, and the house is barely decorated - see what happens when the entire family gets sick? Actually I have turned into a HUGE procrastinator since having the kids. I think that I will be able to do things during their naps but instead I spend my time quickly cleaning up the house so that I can get online for a few minutes or just skippng the house altogether and surfing or blogging. Every few weeks I won't go online at all for a few days just to try and catch up - thank goodness I am not also addicted to the TV!

My poor husband had to go to the doctor on Wednesday and they think that he has bursitis, look at his elbow - it is crazy how swollen it was. By Thursday night though it had gone down a little bit so the meds are at least working and he doesn't have to get it drained - gross, gross, gross!

We had a rare treat and our dear friend Earl actually came over for supper the other night. The girls had a blast playing with him and it was nice for Matt and I to get to catch up with him again. He aces us all the time so I had to post that for once he made it *wink*!



Oh, and thank you Mother Nature - we are loving the rain the past 3 days here in the Southeast! I can just hear the trees and grass soaking it up! Nothing like a good drink after a long 3 months in the sun huh? Keep it coming!

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Cooking with the kiddos

Lately Piper has decided that she enjoys helping me do various things around the house. She has been known to grab the wipes in my bag and clean walls or tables, who the heck knows where she got that from. Anyway, I have been letting her help me cook and it has been so much fun. This past Sunday I was making a meal for a friend that just had a baby and I had Piper help me make the no bake cookies that I was bringing her for dessert. All the ingredients were either a 1/2 cup or a full cup so we used the 1/2 cup and practiced our counting. Piper has started counting a little in Spanish so we counted to 6 in Spanish while adding the oats. Everyone in the house loves chocolate and as you can see Piper had to taste test before it was done. Look at her corny "cheese" face - crazy girlie.

I have found a little music class that both girls can participate in together in our area, we were SUPPOSED to have gone today but all 3 of us are sick. Piper woke up the past 2 nights coughing and unable to sleep, I don't like medicating her but the girl has to sleep you know? A teaspoon of Benedryl later she was a little better - at least she fell back to sleep. Still not herself today but hopefully this won't last! Remember when I said that our Violet came home from the beach with an extra tooth? Well, the other 2 bottoms came over the past 4 days. My baby has 8 teeth! Whew, maybe we are done now for awhile huh?

Here is my words of advice for the day. DON'T SIGN UP FOR ANY FREE SAMPLES ON THE INTERNET!! I innocently tried to get a free sample of some cleaning product and after I filled out the form (no REAL personal info) it brought me to ANOTHER page where it wanted me to fill out more stuff. I closed out of it but now I am getting about 100 spam emails A DAY! Could I be any more disappointed in myself? I know better than this. You know what my husband said when I told him? "Why didn't you just spend the $3 to try it and if you didn't like it throw it away" Nice - but right!


Last picture of the day - the way that Piper says "Cookie Monster" is so.darn.cute! When I found this velvety purple Cookie Monster pullover at the consignment sale (for $1.00!!) I snatched it up, it is her FAVORITE shirt at the moment. This shot was from Saturday after we went to the Etsy sale and farmer's market. She was running from one end of the deck to the other, ahh the energy of the young - wish it could be bottled. I love how you can see her monster booty in the window - have a great Tuesday!

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Babywearing Daddy

Last night we took the girls to go and walk 2 22 acre tracts of land in the county next to ours. We still don't know if we want to stay on the lake or get some land so that the girls can have room to roam. There are pros and cons of each but until we finally decide we are always looking at different things. Well, after my last experience walking land and all of the ticks that I got on me from doing it there was no way I was going to let out oldest walk. She has only been worn a few times since the baby was born just about 9 months ago and that is because she wants to walk. I had to help Matt get her on his back but look how comfy she looks in Tobi, she kept putting her arms in and snuggling with Daddy.

While checking out the 2nd 22 acres we came across this...


poor cow. One tract was all pasture and the other all wooded but they sat next to each other with a pretty big stream running between them. Of course with the drought that us in the Southeast are experiencing there wasn't much water in that stream but it has the potential. Good news for us today though, WE GOT RAIN!! It isn't going to cure our drought but it rained nice and steady last night and it is supposed to continue off and on today. With good sometimes comes bad and I hate what Humberto did to those in Texas, my thoughts and prayers are with those families. If we get some chores done around the house today we may head to the Auto Fair at the speedway this afternoon. Fun day for the Zoo girls huh?? Got to give Daddy a little bit of fun once in awhile since he does so much for the family and he seldom gets a day off.
Have a great Friday everyone!

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Cool Monday

Yes, that is right - our home is cool! Matt went this morning and got the part on his way to work and the best part was it only cost $11. I can't even begin to imagine what the bill would have been if we would have called someone yesterday. It was rather noisy last night with box fans in windows circulating the somewhat cool air that was outside, makes me appreciate how good we have it.

I dug out our cd player today to try and download them to our computer - not an easy task as my husband hoards cd's and we have a 400 disc player, small by some standards but excessive to most. While moving the cd player I must have accidently tipped it because one of the discs was not in its place and the table wouldn't turn. I took all the discs out by hand and then realized something, without them in the correct numbered spots I can't use my handy index that I created when we got the player and now I have a ton of cd's that I have no clue what they are - UGH!! Could be worse though and I could have broke the thing. So anyway, job will be a little harder but it will make me even more proud when it is done.

Can you believe this is our baby?


Last but definitely not least I won, I won, I won! My husband read my blog the other day and asked me why I was pitching products (aka contests), he said that he liked my blog more like a diary so that someday the girls could read it and know what we did when they were tiny. Well, I *heart* contests and love telling people about products that they might not have ever known about had it not been for word of mouth. Who doesn't love to win a prize or two you know? Well, not only did I win but it is a prize for MY HUSBAND - yeah! We won the diaper vest from Dad Gear! Now my husband will be styling when taking our daughter out and it is all because I blogged about it - thanks MomViews for having such a fun contest and for picking us! Check out the cool new button on my sidebar - woohoo!

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Feeling hot hot hot

Why did I quote a Buster Poindexter song? Well if you read my blog yesterday I said that our air conditioning was out and hubby was trying to fix it at 10 pm last night and sadly we need a part that he couldn't just run out and get. This morning he ran to our local home improvement store and they didn't carry it either. When he got home he asked if I wanted him to call someone to come and fix it (how sweet to ask) and I said no b/c it is SUNDAY and the bill would be ENORMOUS! So we have been roughing it today and boy oh boy is it warm. Outside is pretty toasty too and humid so that is actually what is making it seem worse in the house. Most of the Zoo members moved outside today as it was probably 10 degrees cooler out there and once in awhile we felt a faint breeze. Here is everyone, Zoo dogs included, enjoying a Sunday afternoon.

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So tonight I was sweating my butt off while putting the girls to sleep when all of a sudden a memory came to me that I hadn't thought of in so many years. Growing up with my Great-Grandparents in Wisconsin we didn't have much, like air conditioning. During the days in the summer my Grandma would close the house up tight. She would actually clothes pin her heavy blinds shut and we would play in a darkened living room so the sun wouldn't make it any hotter. At night she would open the windows in the bedroom and we would sleep with our heads at the footboard so that we might get a stray breeze coming through on our faces rather than our feet. Her ancient oscillating fan would hum in the background and we would listen to all of the activity happening on our street. It definitely brings me back to a really great time growing up, my Great-Grandparents were the best and I am sad that at the time I was so embarrassed of them because now I feel so fortunate and lucky that they chose to give up so much to raise me.

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Have you ever grabbed the dented can?

My husband told me once that if there is a dented can I will find it. He also says this about boxes and my luck. Somedays my luck just isn't there. I haven't been a bubbly person in a long time and I am really trying to find good but some times life makes it difficult for me. The girls and I picked up my friend Amber and headed to Southpark Mall, the mall where the other half shops. We got there and looked around for awhile, Amber is going away next weekend and wanted a special little dress to wear on her trip so we actually had somewhat of a mission while there. I was so psyched to see that SP added an Illuminations store which was a favorite of mine when I lived in CA. The house needed some more hand soap and it just so happened that when I went to Bath & Body Works they had them on sale. I found the perfect card for my husband, it was one of those that plays music - I needed to try and make him smile because I have been a pain in the ass lately to him. The Cheesecake Factory was too packed so we took the girls to Maggianos where I had a FABULOUS salad and Piper had wonderful chicken fingers with garlic mashed potatoes - YUMMY! Nothing could go wrong right? Well, this is me that we are talking about. Amber found the perfect dress, but they didn't have her size. The nice associate found 2 at other stores so we headed to one of them. After driving all that way we find out that they did not have the dress and on top of it all the sales lady was rude to my friend. I got home and found out that my air is broken, so I go and dig out our fan and plug that in broken too! Thinking that maybe there might be something wrong with the outlet I decided to try unplugging our nightlight and try the fan in that one - nope no go but then when I plugged the nightlight back in it was broken now too! I got out the card that I bought that played music to show to Megan and it was broken and didn't play - I tested it at the store! The last straw for me was when I realized that the chocolates that I got for my husband had melted into each other! What a day! The girls wouldn't go to sleep because our bedroom is a balmy 90 degrees so I let them get up and wore them out playing until 9:30 when I finally got them to go down. That was the beginning of all the good things that happened though. My neigbors are having a block party at their house with a band and even though that is part of the reason the girls wouldn't sleep I went outside in the cool (ish) air and listened to the band play with a glass of wine to relax a little. My husband came home safe and sound from a trip and I got him to dance with me for a song on the deck - no tequilla shot though. After showing him the broken fan he did something with it (plugged it in) and it miraculously came back to life. The chocolate is now hard again after spending some quality time in the refridgerator so I will be enjoying a piece of that in a minute while again listening to my own personal concert on my deck. He is working on the air and *pray pray pray* hopefully it will be working again before I go to sleep myself. Good night all...

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Why is brushing such a fight???

"Be true to your teeth and they won't be false to you"

My homepage is set to Dogpile which I love. I guess it is no better or worse than any other but when I go to search I like seeing Arfie. This month Dogpile told me that it is Dental Awareness Month and supplied the cute little quote that I listed above except that I put down the way it was originally said. When I went to investigate what someone would do to during dental awareness month I found that it is in AUSTRALIA! Ahh well...

It is pretty easy to brush a baby's teeth but when they start getting older it gets really tricky - or maybe it is only in my house (gosh I hope I am not the only one). We started out with a little kiddie brush when Piper had a few bottom teeth to try and get her used to it. I don't really know what happened but ever since about January she fights me brushing her teeth like crazy! When I brush mine I normally let her come in and use her brush to do it herself but I still need to go over them - she has actually started biting down on the brush and not opening her mouth back up! I have resorted to getting one of those finger brushes and although I try to make it seem like a "fun" thing end up with her crying and me begging for her to keep her mouth open. Such a pain 2 times a day, makes me dread it! Now, she will let me floss her teeth - how crazy is that? The next one in line has had a few teeth now and we are starting all over again. I am not sure what to do to make her enjoy this experience more. I am really careful about my teeth; I floss daily and brush morning and night. I had hoped that watching me do it would just naturally make my kids want to (those crazy pre-children thoughts again). Anyway, if anyone has an suggestions please pass them to me because they would be appreciated. Now, everyone in Australia go floss!!

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Throwback Thursday

Here is a picture of Piper last year at this time with her Grandma and then again a few days ago playing with bubbles, what a big girl she is getting to be. But SASSY!! Oh that darnl "NO" comes out more and more. Just a phase, just a phase, just a phase...back to subject.

I made my maiden voyage husbandless on our boat today. I have to say, I am pretty proud of myself b/c we got there and home safe and sound. Another mama and her 2 boys came with my girls and I - such a nice day to be on the water. I think that I will try and do this at least 1 time a week b/c for the first time this week P and V were BOTH sleeping before 8pm. We have been pretty laid back these past few weeks about bed times (especially for P) and I can tell a difference in their behaviors. Anyway, here are the kiddos playing at the island today. The boys were trying to catch fish with the buckets, they were throwing bread and cheese to the panfish but the fish were pretty smart and escaped every time.



Here is a little contest for you to try and win - good luck to everyone (especially me!!)

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It's Here!!

So I came home from running errands and what was sitting at my doorstep? My new food processor that is what! Even 1 year ago I probably wouldn't be this excited about a small kitchen appliance but I have spent so much time researching these that it made my week! So now, because I am a total dork, here are the before and after pictures of my kitchen counter.

Before beautiful food processor

After...


How about that? If I only would have enough time to use it tonight but we are going out on the boat and having a cold dinner on the water. I might just have to test it out on something once the kiddos go to bed because I can't stand the excitement!

Now, pictures of our jumping zoo members for Andrea, enjoy...

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Simple Day

I love days like today, lazy Sundays. We don't have to be anywhere or do anything we don't want to. Piper didn't go to bed until around 9:30 last night, she wasn't up with me just laying in bed NOT SLEEPING. Oh well, she didn't wake up Violet and eventually went down. The beautiful thing was that she slept until almost 8 this morning - mama got to sleep in! We got Matt up around 9 and were out on the water by 10. It is very overcast and somewhat cool here today, perfect for not frying little girl's skin. The island that we brought the boat to only had 2 other families there so it was nice and quiet. Once Piper gets in the water she is happy and there isn't much you can do to get her out. Violet was napping when we first arrived so I didn't get in for about an hour. We just got the Swimways Baby Spring Float Sun Canopy for Violet to float around in and had a Sun Smart one (a.k.a. boat) that is still working great for Piper. In fact, she has learned how to kick her feet to make her "boat" go where she wants it to and there is no stopping her now. Sadie chased a ball until she broke it in half and it sunk - crazy dog! The girls were pretty worn out when we left and now everyone is napping except me, I should go and lay down when I have the chance but here I am...blogging!

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Our Family Bed

You want to get raised eyebrows or a disapproving "Ahh" tell people that you have a family bed. Heck, mention that we don't only have a family bed but we also have dogs in there with the 4 of us and you will be sure to almost get a head shake. Before our 2nd baby was born we ordered an Arms Reach Universal Co-Sleeper because there was already 3 of us in our king-sized bed and we were worried about adding a newborn. It is now 5 months later and our little one rolls all over the co-sleeper waking her up. To get some sleep I bring her into our bed and sleep contorted until morning. Last week we went to Sweet Dreams Mattress and purchased a twin bed to put next to our king-sized bed to make a sort of bed island in our room. My husband is convinced that I am slowly working him out of our bed but that will be a whole other post. As far as sleeping goes, I was raised by my Great-Grandmother who co-slept with us before there was that fancy little name. It is what I know and now I know why she did it, I love having my girls close and if they wake up I can soothe them back to sleep and in the morning I love that my oldest rolls over and gives me a big kiss first thing. Although it is not ideal for every family we will continue co-sleeping until our girls (and dogs) decide that they want their own space.

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A day away from home

Matt had the day off on Friday so we decided to go to Asheville to check on the progress of the spec home we are building there and to hang around town for a little while to people watch. Some friends of ours, Pierre and Mia, were going up to see their home too so we all met at Well-Bred Bakery in Weaverville. Everything in there was dangerous to a fluffy post baby mama so I decided to split a cookie with my oldest. After we all finished filling our bellies we headed off to see the progress of our house, it is coming along very nicely and should be stunning when finished. Now comes the many decisions of finishing up the inside of it and that is where my work starts.

After seeing the houses we headed to town and I stopped off at a little yarn shop the mama from Crankypants told me about called Purls. It was such a neat little store but unfortunately my oldest was really needing a nap and since I had the youngest already sleeping in a sling I bought 3 skeins and had to leave. Next time I will bring some help with me into the store so that I can browse for a little longer. Now if my knitting were just going better I would be going to town on it but I don't want to waste the yarn so I will probably send it to another mama to knit a pair of shorties for my youngest.

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