What I’m Digging

After a really wild ride the past few months (moving, traveling, strep throating, skiing), I feel like we’re finally getting into a new normal. We ate at home last night! I went to the gym this morning! Our house isn’t full to the brim with boxes!!

agathaI need to do a big ol’ post about my amazing kids, but for now, I thought I’d share some of the things we’ve been digging on – like this excellent series of books about a pint-sized sleuth called Agatha Mistery. She and her cousin, Dash, jet all over the world, solving mysteries with the butler Chandler and cat Watson in tow. They meet up with various family members of the Mistery clan who are sprinkled all over the world. They’ve got a few pictures here and there which satisfies Ben and both kids beg for another chapter every night. There are 4 already out and 2 more to follow this year!

unicornAnd while we’re on the subject of kids’ books …. I find recommendation for kids’ books online various places and then I will get on our library’s website and order them up. I got a really good batch a month or so ago and of the 10+ books we got, three of them made the “buy them!” cut. Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great is the story of a goat who is just a bit jealous of a new student in his class, Unicorn, who has garnered the attention of all. You won’t be surprised to learn that Unicorn envies Goat a few of his traits and they work things out. Great dialog, fun pictures and great for reading aloud.

journeyJourney is just a beautiful book. There are no words. The story, about a little girl and her imaginative adventure, is told through beautiful illustrations. Ben loves this because he can “read” it all by himself.

crayons quitThe Day the Crayons Quit is probably my favorite of the bunch. The story is an airing of grievances from a little boy’s crayons told in the form of letters to the boy from said crayons. Great idea, really fun and colorful illustrations.

wall caddyThe rental house is actually proving to be pretty functional for all of us. We don’t really have any space for a dining table, so the kids are eating at their picnic table in their bedroom and Matt and I are eating standing up or in the living room on the couch or at the desk. Once we sell, we plan to bring our coffee table over so we can all eat together, but for now, it works! We also need plenty of organizing things to keep everything where it’s supposed to be. I bought this great organizer to get our keys and papers and that sort of stuff, all where it needs to go. It is great for now and will be super cute in our mudroom. Now I just need to get the minions to hang it.

parenthoodGot a half marathon in less than 2 months. Guess how much I’ve run in the past month. Practically nothing, nil, zero, zip, zilch. I’ve been too busy skiing and moving!!! So now I have to get my butt in gear. We were able to take our treadmill with us to the new house, but it is in a tiny, kid of weird, auxiliary room that you have to leave the main house and go around back to get to (although it’s technically attached to the house). So while we have a treadmill, no TV. But happily we live in the streaming TV age and so we are not even getting cable anymore and I’ve used a few of the dollars we’re saving on cable to get some TV to watch on my ipad while I run. Parenthood, Castle, Two Broke Girls, Elementary. It’s an amazing world we live in!

vmarsAnd last, but definitely not least, Veronica Mars, The Movie is in theatres March 14. You better believe I’m getting there ASAP and in the meantime, re-watching the series.

 

Friday Favorites May 10, 2013

I am taking a half day today in order to play assistant to my awesome hubby’s mad scientist. Should be a good time! Fridays are fun.treehousesFavorite Daydream: Loooove me some treehouses. This is a very cool collection with a few I’ve never seen before.

lightupconstellationFavorite Craftiness: Look at this great light up constellation! A fun piece for your wall and so adaptable to other ideas.

turkeyburgerFavorite Savory Delight: Grilling season is upon us and I cannot wait to try out these mushroom crusted turkey burgers with Havarti. Bring it on!

skortFavorite Purchase: I bought a new skirt at Athleta this week … this one in black. It’s super cute and great for everything from work to play!

paradisecoveFavorite Adventure: And speaking of play, I saw this amazing swimming hole not to far from us, Guffey’s Paradise Cove. Can’t wait to explore it. It never ceases to amaze me how many amazing places are right in our backyard.

friedicecreamFavorite Sweet Treat: SkinnyTaste’s Unfried Ice Cream. Tasty and lighter. Yum.

7minworkoutFavorite Workout: 7-minute, research-based workout that exercises your whole body. We do a lot of these in bootcamp.

pocketboothFavorite App: This is fun … Pocketbooth does photobooth style photos on your phone.

 

Friday Favorites May 3, 2013

sewingcardsFavorite Printable: Tabby has been really into wanting to learn to sew – think she might get into these cute sewing practice cards!

pulledporkFavorite Savory Delight: We are having quite a few people over on Tuesday and I think some pulled pork in the crockpot is the perfect dinner solution!

grumpymonetFavorite Funny: I do love Grumpy Cat and I saw this great painting on Etsy … I’m very tempted. It makes me laugh.

utahparksFavorite Daydream: This is actually a bit more in reality than the normal – we’re hoping to head to Utah next summer for a family road trip and this looks like a great book of hikes to do with the kids!

nutellapopciclesFavorite Sweet Treat: Look at these nutella popicles – just three ingredients. YUM.

vaderingFavorite Photo Fun: Owling? Planking? Move over – Vadering! Think I could get the kids to do this.

absFavorite Workout: Moves for below the bellybutton … surely I don’t need this? Nah.

blender

Favorite Purchase: I bought this guy a couple of months ago, but it wasn’t really smoothie season then. Now it is (sorta) and I’ve been using it every day to make awesome spinach smoothies. Very happy with it. cutthetimetravelFavorite App: The latest installment of Cut the Rope is great! It’s one of those apps that everyone in the family loves – cute graphics and fun problem solving.

Friday Faves April 26, 2013

Man, I barely thought about the blog this week. The new job is kicking my bum just a bit. Very very busy. But good. And I feel like I’m getting it and it will be easier soonish. I hope. Anyhow, I did see a few new cool things this week:

monkeybreadFavorite Sweet Thang: Look at these mini monkey bread cinnamon breads … easy and YUM!

sism3Favorite Purchase: I actually bought this a couple of weeks ago, and am finally going to play it tonight (hopefully, if I don’t pass out too soon) … the latest expansion pack in The Sims lineup: University. I hardly ever get to veg and play a good game, so I’m looking forward to it!

curryFavorite Savory Delight: Beef and Sweet Potato Curry with Kale looks delish … I love sweet potato in just about anything and add curry and kale and it sound awesome!

41diyFavorite Craftiness: this looks like a great board (similar to pinterest, but not) full of DIY furniture projects. I especially like the sawhorse tables and the coffee tables (we need a new one).

watercolorsFavorite Freebie: I’ve been using the blue watercolor desktop from Design Love Fest for a couple of weeks. It’s so simple and pretty.

endlessalphaFavorite App: Just downloaded this Endless Alphabet App for the kiddos. It’s a really pretty alphabet “game” with spelling lessons and vocab. It’s free too!

stayhumbleFavorite Wise Words: this pretty much says it all … maybe I need it for my new office.

formalbabyFavorite Funny: saw this on Pinterest with the note “my mom asked me for a ‘formal’ photo of my 1 month old baby so I sent her this” LOL!

And with that, I am off for a typical fun-filled, soccer-filled, birthday-party-filled weekend. Cheers!

Friday Favorites 4/19/13

What a Friday! I’ve got a company-wide staff breakfast, a jobsite visit, a few other meetings, two overnight guests arriving around 5 and our Nashville family arriving around 6. So we better get down to it with another edition of my Friday Favorites.

calendar

Favorite Craftiness: I very much like the look of this Perpetual Chalkboard Calendar. Except mine would have to be dry erase … maybe fronted with plexi glass? japanesegarden

Favorite Daydream: I wish I’d known about this gorgeous Japanese Garden in Portland when I was there a couple of years ago. Of course I had no car and it rained the whole time I was there, so …

popcorn

Favorite Sweet Thang: I’m pretty sure this Caramel Popcorn is a horribly-carborific bad idea, but I want to try to make it anyhow!!

nonsense

Favorite Wise Words: Dr. Suess was a smart man. I like his take on Nonsense.

blueberryfrenchFavorite Breakfast Noms: I think this Blueberry Cream Cheese French Toast will be a huge hit with the family.

runburpeerun

Favorite Workout: Run, Burpee, Run  … am I sick to think this looks like fun? I think I’ll try it tonight!

listsFavorite Funny: this amuses me far more than it should

griddleFavorite Purchase: I finally broke down and bought a griddle. I hate to add things to the kitchen, but it is awesome cooking pancakes on these and you can fit soooo many!!

feedly

Favorite App: So if you’re a Google Reader afficianado, you know it is dunzo here pretty soon. I’ve tried out a few options and Feedly is my favorite. It’s got great apps for ALL platforms and a pretty good extension for the browsers. It imports seamlessly from Google as well and switch-over is (supposedly) seamless when Google turns off the lights.

sweetpotatofriesFavorite Savory Delight: Another recipe from Iowa Girl(originator of the Friday Faves concept, I might add) I cannot wait to try: Smothered Sweet Potato Fries!!

Hope you all have a looovely weekend!

Friday Faves

callmidwife

Call the Midwife. Lovely British Drama based on the memoirs of a midwife who worked in London’s East End in the 1950s. Wonderful stories about interesting people. You can watch the first season on Amazon for $9.45 and S2 is on PBS in March.

yurbuds

YurBuds – these are amazing headphones. They actually stay put while you run. Total triumph.

where'swater

Where’s My Water. This is my current fave game of the moment. You have to make a path for Swampy’s water to get to his shower. Plenty of obstacles. For Android or iOS.

nuun

Nuun tablets. I can drink a few bottles of plain water, then I want something different. Nuun is just lightly sweet and flavored. Awesome.

candyandyCandy Andy. Because he is super tasty. And he owns a candy shop.

blpancakesGoing to try these oatmeal pancakes this weekend!

Working for the Weekend

It has been such a long week! And it’s only Wednesday! I think it’s partially because I brought my work home with me Monday and worked into the wee smalls. Our sitter is also off for the week, so we are juggling around three different sitters over four days and some craziness that goes along with that.

So I am looking forward to the weekend. It is not CRAZY busy. We just have two parties to go to, and some little visitors on Saturday morning. And maybe a third party, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet. Not too bad, right? So I’m looking forward to a little time to get some things done around the house. We need to make a run to Good Will. A few weeks ago we did some purging of toys from the kids’ rooms and held onto the spoils until we made sure they weren’t going to miss them. They are going away this weekend along with some clothes, books and magazines and other random stuff I’ve been gathering.

I’d also like to tackle one or two projects around the house. There are some that are already in the queue, like fixing Tabby’s shelf and making Ben’s decorative shelves, and cleaning out my office and some others I’ve only been dreaming of. I saw this awesome backyard sign featuring places you’ve been on Pinterest and I really want to make one. Matt and I also want to cover a corkboard with a map of CO so that we can add pins to all of the camping/vacation destinations we’ve been to around the state.

There are also a couple of stores I’d like to check out. Apparently there is another great fabric store in the area, Fabricate, that I would love to check out. I’m toying with the idea of covering our camper’s dinette cushions with oilcloth or similar since (ahem) kids eat there. Athleta, purveyor of my favorite clothes also just opened a retail store in Denver and I’d LOVE to check that out.

I am NOTHING if not talented at jam-packing a weekend.

Tabby’s Tummy

Those of you who I’m friendly with on FB already know that we had quite the eventful Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday morning Tabby complained of a mild tummy ache. It wasn’t bad enough apparently to induce her to stay home and Matt sent her off. She was, it seems, perfectly fine throughout the morning but after nap, her tummy started to really hurt her. By the time Matt arrived to pick her up she was on the verge of tears.

I got home about 30 minutes after them (I was at the doctor and long story short, I probably have asthma) and by that time, she was crying out in pain pretty regularly. Matt and Ben then departed for tumbling and I started making dinner. Before long, Tabby was full on crying continuously and I went over to check her out. I barely glanced her tummy with my hand and she screamed out as though I’d pulled  a tooth without Novocaine. I asked her to point to where it hurt on her tummy and she pointed without hesitation to the region just below her belly button. Continue reading “Tabby’s Tummy”

The New Fridge is Chilly

The new fridge is EXCELLENT. It’s bigger than the old one, so much so that we can fit most of what was in the garage fridge + the old indoor fridge (the new garage fridge) all inside. I also like it because it is pretty shallow, especially up top and very well lit and things don’t seem to get lost as easily. We’re all loving the in-door ice and water. Everyone at our house is very big on the water and it gets used constantly.

The bottom drawer is super great to use and somehow really good to find things in despite the fact that it’s deep. But by far, my favorite thing it does is store wide things. Any pizza, big or small … fits right in. An entire cookie sheet of freezing bananas fits right in.

I’ve Been Bugged!

A few weeks before Christmas, I bought myself a present. It’s not something I often do, but I’ve had my eye on this for a while now. See my favorite heart rate monitor watch broke and months later it’s still not fixed. I won’t bore you with the incompetence of Polar and the expensive screwdrivers I need to fix my watch, and my many calls to customer service but sufficed to say, it was going to cost me a lot of $$ to fix my heart rate monitor not to mention inconvenience and so I decided to get one of these. This is a Body Media Fit Armband. You may have seen something similar (the Bodybugg) on Biggest Loser. This works the same way: you wear it on your arm most of the time and it uses skin resistance and other data to monitor your calorie output. This one also monitors sleep.

Being that I love data and all of the wonderful things it can reveal to me, this thing is awesome for me. I have found out a lot of things I never knew and confirmed some that I suspected. For instance, even without a “workout” I almost always burn upwards of 2200 calories. I attribute it to my good muscle tone combined with my inability to sit still (even at the office I am always getting up and walking around so I don’t get twitchy and lose focus). So it makes sense that when I try to stick to a 1200 calorie diet like has been recommended to me by various programs, I’m STARVING. That’s a 1000 calorie deficit.

I also need to stop pretending that I’m getting 7.5 hours of sleep. It’s way closer to 6.5 or 6. Combining the time that it takes me to actually GET to sleep and the minutes I shave off in the morning hitting the snooze (it feels like sleep but it’s not REALLY sleep), I am really not getting nearly the amount of sleep I thought I was. A bit depressing and overall not really likely to change (I still need more hours in the day!) but still interesting.

I have had virtually no problems with the device – everything has been super smooth and easy to use. The piece of velcro did come off one side of the armband, but a little super glue fixed that right up. The only thing I wish I’d done differently would be to purchase the model that has bluetooth so I could get instant display on my phone. At some point in time I might give this one to Matt (he’s expressed interest in having one – and the BT isn’t something he’d probably be interested in) and buy myself the other, but for now there’s no need. It’s a great device.