Something Different

Ever get bored with the same old same old, and decide you're going to try something new and different? Every try to be super creative and fancy? Sometimes I try.... I pretty much rock at it! Just like this:

Michelle's World

Let me start this story with a quick explanation. A while ago Michelle asked Bryan and I why her Daddy had to go to work. So we told her that Daddy goes to work to make money so we can have all our toys and snacks. Since then she has really latched on to the idea that Daddy goes to work to make money.

It's also important to note that there's a huge pond at Bank of America with gigantor fish in it. So every time we have lunch with Bryan we go out and feed the fish. Ok, on to the story...

When I got Michelle up this morning her first question to me, after yelling at Jack to "not come in", was "Where's Daddy?"

Me: Daddy had to go to work.

Michelle: Oh!

Me: But we'll see him when he gets home.

-a short pause-

Michelle: We can go make money too?

Me: (laughing) Well, I think only Daddy makes the money.

Michelle: No, yoooouuuu need to make money with Daddy.

Me: No, YOU make money with Daddy!

Michelle: No, Mommy, I feed the fish and eat frefries! (frefries- aka French Fries)

Me: Oh, I see. So Daddy makes the money, I help him, and you feed the fish?

Michelle: Yes.

LOL!!!! I WISH I lived in her world!

Sometimes...

Today I was supposed to- do laundry, clean the kitchen, straighten the living room, work on Michelle's quiet book, and figure out what were going to eat for dinner. This should be an easy list to get done before Bryan comes home... Guess how much of that I have actually done today?

I give up!

Ok, well Bryan and I have both tried and gotten too frustrated to deal with getting pictures off of my phone. For a while I still fought him and insisted that my phone was the best camera that happened to be a phone out there! Then he introduced me to this little guy...

This is the HTC Inspire. It seems like a pretty cool little phone. I'm still nervous about switching phones because this one (the HTC) is a smart phone with the Android OS. So far I've only heard awesome things about Android so that doesn't worry me too much... however- I've never has a smart phone before. I'm a little overwhelmed with all the functions and capabilities this phone can handle. I know, I know, when it comes to cell phones I'm about as good as a 90 year old lady! And I probably do need to catch up with everyone else in this department. It's just a little intimidating.

Our big debate right now is to stay with AT&T, or to switch to Sprint. Sprint will end up saving us about $50/month, but from what I've read will also come with a significantly less stable network. To me, it would seem, that if Bryan and I are both upgrading, we would want the best network possible to run our new phones on; But Bryan seems to think Sprint will be just as good as AT&T. Any thoughts or opinions?

Ugh!

As usual I can't get the pictures off my phone! I have two fun "events" to blog about, but all the pics are stuck on my phone. I just tried to upload them again and ended up having to restart the computer without uploading anything! Bryan has promised me that he would "take a look" when he gets a minute. So I'll keep my fingers crossed that I'll have something to post by tomorrow.

Bryan's New Car

A few weeks ago (I use the term few loosely) Bryan was involved in a three car accident. Unfortunately he was the middle car! We were incredibly lucky and very blessed that Bryan wasn't hurt, but his car didn't get off so easy.

There was also quite a bit of damage to his rear bumper, but our garage was too squishy (and it was super late when I was taking these) so I couldn't get any decent pics.

The insurance company took everyone's stories down and concluded that Bryan was in no way at fault! So he took in his car to get it fixed (at no cost to us, Thank goodness!) and rented a sweet little rental to drive around until his car was drivable. Well, a week went by and this sweet little rental turned into the gas gussler from hell! Then another week went by and Bryan started to get a little testy with the repair shop and insurance company about how long things were taking and how this was costing us WAY too much money. In the end they totaled his car and gave him a check for the car's worth. Bryan. Was. Heartbroken! He loved his little silver civic. Anyway, they gave us one more day with our rental and then we became a one car family.

I tried my best to be patient while Bryan looked for a car on his own, but quickly realized that I don't do well stuck at home all day long while he drives MY car back and forth to work. (I love my car too, and get a little possessive of it.) So after a few days of no car I started looking for him. For the next two weeks we went out almost every other day after work and spent a good portion of our weekends looking at cars and test driving others. Last weekend we decided to take a break from car hunting because we were both pretty burnt out. Then I found this little guy on Craigs List and told Bryan to go check it out ASAP!

It was in our price range ($6,000), has fewer miles then his Civic did (97,000), gets better gas milage (26 city/30 Hwy), and looked pretty decent. Plus it's a Toyota Corolla so I was almost immediately sold! It turns out that it's in really good condition on the outside, but kinda beat up on the inside. I'm thinking Bryan and I will go buy some new floor mats this weekend and then work on a few small details when we get the money for it. All-in-all I think we got a pretty good deal, and I LOVE that I have my car and Bryan has his car! (lol, it that totally selfish or what?!)

Yes, Michelle climbed on the outside of the car, and had no fear jumping off the roof into Bryan's arms! Crazy girl!

Obsessions

Michelle has developed a few... for lack of a better word, lets call them obsessions.

First there's her pirate face! Any time you ask Michelle to smile- this is what you'll get.

lol! She cracks me up! (She's actually saying "Cheeeessseee" in this picture!)

She is also obsessed with playing Hide and Seek. She's pretty good about telling us when she wants to play, and is actually pretty strict about the rules. "No Peeking!" and "Now, you count to 10!" But she is always the one to hide!

She's got some pretty good hiding places for a two year old!

The next obsession on her list is washing her hands. Wiping them off with a towel or a baby wipe is no longer acceptable. She needs to stand on a chair, rub her hands under the water, get soap, and dry her hands all by herself! And if you try to help- she starts all over!

Her eczema has also flared back up, so scratching is another HUGE obsession, but that one is kinda sad so I don't have any pictures of that. She also insists on going potty in her "big girl potty" every night before her tub. She doesn't usually go, but she always tries! I think Bryan gets a little frustrated with this one. She sits there and sings and plays for, probably, literally, five minutes before she'll admit that she doesn't have any pee to put in her potty.

She's such a sweet girl. I love the little obsessions that she has, and will be so sad when they start to disappear.

Projects Finished

I've been meaning to post these pics for a while now. We got a lot of projects finished these past few weeks!

Thank you Thank you to Ben for helping (by helping I mean almost completely doing it all by himself) get our chair rail project done! I'm SO happy with the results!

We found out that we have a "Willy Wonka Wall", but I still think it looks great! (One of our walls is so far from being flat that it's not even funny! It looks like one of those fun house mirrors was used as a level! lol!)

I also have almost all of my Vinyl projects done.

And we finally got our gallery wall hung! We even have pictures in most of the frames! I'm still waiting on a few frames- I know what I want in them, but I don't have pictures that I like yet.

We also got the front yard under control... but it's not what I would call done. So no pics of that yet! And I have a few more projects that I had planned on doing, but, after talking with my accountant (aka the husband, Bryan) I have decided to wait till after the baby comes to tackle those.

First there's the issue of our public office/computer desk. I really want to hang a big clock on the wall above it and then treat the top of the desk like I would a fire place mantle. I have a vision involving topiary's, some fabric, and a candle or two... BUT- we're waiting!

I also REALLY want a new front door! We have one picked out, and I found a super cute entry table to go in there too. But, again.... waiting. lol!

So, for now, this is where we stand:

Kitchen Wall- Done!

Kitchen Appliances- Updated!

Ugly Black kitchen drapes- replaced!

Guest Room- Done, and then redone, and now-Work in progress.

Front Yard- Forever a Work in progress.

Bowling Ally Hallway- Fixed!

Gallery Wall- Hung!

Baby's Room- Done!

Michelle's Big Girl Bed- Done!

My Own Big Girl Bed- Done!

Front Door/Entry Way- TBD.

Desk Top Makeover- TBD.

I was talking with Bryan and realized that we have only been in our house for 5 months and already have most of our projects done. Not too shabby if you ask me!

Free Slurpee Day

I almost forgot what today was! For all of you who have cars and can get to a 7 eleven- today is FREE SLURPEE DAY!

Go to any 7 eleven today and get yourself one of these beauties for free!

You have no idea how bummed I am to not have a car right now.

The best movie EVER!

Are you read for it? Friday can't get here fast enough! I can't wait!



I thought this one was pretty clever too!



So excited!

The Hunger Games

Since getting done with a lot of my projects (another post about this coming soon), I've had some extra time to start reading again. Jessica has been bugging me for over a year now to read these books, The Hunger Games. To be honest I've been putting it off. I wasn't sure that we had the same taste in books. She read and LOVED Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. So I read it too. ... It was ok. Don't get me wrong, it was a good book, but I didn't LOVE it like Jess did. So when she kept telling me how good these Hunger Games books were I was little skeptical. I even made her tell me a little synopsis of the books before I would read them.

She told me that it was about a futuristic society, still in America, just a lot of years in the future. The civilians had a rebellion and the government totally took over. The land was divided up into districts and each year the government holds The Hunger Games to kinda keep it's citizens in-line. So the main character is a teenage girl who ends up being one of the two tributes (those are the people who have to play in the games) from her district. The government takes the tributes and throws them into an unknown terrain called the arena with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Then the whole point of the games is, basically, to survive. AKA kill all the other tributes and be the last living person in The Games.

So far I was not impressed. I didn't really get it. But Jess wouldn't let up and when she heard me talking about having free time and needing a good book to read she immediately got me the books! I flipped through the pages and it looked like an easy read. I decided that I would just hurry up and read them so that she would be happy and I could move on to something more interesting.

And "hurry though the books" I did! I was SOOO wrong! I couldn't put the first book down! Bryan started reading it first and flew through the first half of the book in a few hours. I really like reading books with Bryan because we can talk about how stupid a character is or what we think is going to happen. So I knew, by how fast he was reading, that I had to catch up! I started reading it around 9:00 one night after I put Michelle to bed. After that night Bryan and I were in the same place. We read a little more on the way to my parents house that next day, on the 4th, and I was done with the first book by the next afternoon. I'm sure I would have read the whole thing in one sitting if I didn't have Michelle to take care of, or a holiday to celebrate! lol!

I have to give it to Jess, she was totally right about these books. There's really no good way to explain what they're about. No matter how you describe them the actual book will still be better!

I do have to give a word of warning though. I almost put the book away after the second chapter. Not because it was boring or because it wasn't keeping my attention, but I wasn't sure that I could handle the content of the book. The districts all have to participate in these games, and the people who are eligible to participate range from 18 at the oldest, to as young as 12. And it's not a choice. If you're name is called as a tribute you have to go. I wasn't sure that I could handle a book that was going to describe putting a 12 year old into a scary place and having them either kill other kids, or be killed by other kids. So, my advice? Keep reading. It's a sad concept, but the author does a really amazing job at keeping it PG... maybe PG13 in some places. And it helps you get a feel for why people hate their government so much.

Now I'm a little bit (about 1/3 of the way) into the second book, Catching Fire, and it's just as good as the first! If you haven't read these books you really should! They are quick, easy, reads, and tell an awesome story!

OH- I almost forgot! They are making these books into movies! They already have a cast and have started filming. I looked it up on-line and I think they mixed up two characters (just based on looks), but other then that, as long as they stick to the books, it should be really good!

Coming March 2012...

*I'm not sure if this is a real trailer or not, there are a lot of "fan made" trailers out there, but it's the best one I could find. And it looks pretty close to how I would imagine the movie to be.

Apple Pie

I love Apple Pie!! I can't get enough of it! I'll buy it as a 12" pie from Sam's or even as a 4" pie from Wal-mart. And it's such a great pie for any season! So this year, instead of buying a pie, I decided to try my hand at making my own... 100% from scratch! I have to be honest, I was totally nervous to do this! Here's how it went:

First I made the dough for the crust.

I rolled it out and was amazed at how perfectly it fit into my dish! Yeah, I pretty much rock ;)

Ok... I did have to do a little trimming.

Then came the apples. Peeled by hand and sliced by my handy dandy Williams-Sonoma slicer!

Then I cut the second half of the pie dough into strips to make a "Lattice" crust.

I didn't get any pics of me making the juicy filling, but it was kind of a "be really quick and don't let it burn" process. So there wasn't a whole lot of time to take pics. After I made the filling I poured it over the top of the pie, let it drip through the holes of my "Lattice" crust, and put it in the oven to bake! (I keep saying "Lattice" because I didn't really do it right. I just layered it instead of weaving it like you're supposed to.)

The smell filled my whole house and I couldn't wait to cut into it! Michelle was pretty excited about it too!

I have to say, it turned out pretty good. For my first time making a pie I don't think I did too bad. Next time I'll definitely use a different crust recipe. This crust was pretty thin and not as "buttery and flaky" as I like, but the filling was awesome! I'd give the whole pie a B+.

Anyone out there have a wonderful crust recipe that they want to share?

A Little Privacy

Well, it's about that time. We're going private and keeping the weirdo's away! (One too many anonymous comments, if you know what I mean) If you're not one of those weirdo's and would like to keep reading/following our blog leave me your e-mail address as a comment either here, on Facebook, or through my own e-mail (randi.grant85@gmail.com). Goodbye public blog!