I’m entering this photo of Cisco in the contest at I Heart Faces this week. 
I happen to think he’s a pretty dog. Feel free to leave comments on the photo if you like.
Archive for December, 2009
4 comments
I Heart Faces “Pet’s Only” week
2009
12.14
12.14
Not Me Monday
2009
12.14
12.14
Here it is Monday again. I’m more in the mood for a Saturday, but I guess I get what I get and I won’t throw a fit. At least not a big one. 
This week I DID NOT let my one yr old walk around the house chewing on his toothbrush for several hours. NOT ME! I’m sure his little pearly whites were very sparkly by the time I pried it away from him. Well, I did try to pry it away and that was a disaster, so I DID NOT let the lad take the toothbrush to nap with him and then snag it back after he had finally “thrown it overboard” when he was done with it. I think he may need a new toothbrush.
After 3 and a half arduous months of potty training, I didn’t come to the conclusion that we all desperately needed a sabbatical from the ordeal. We certainly wouldn’t take a 2 month “break” for mental health’s sake and decide to try again later. Neither did I recruit the lad’s help to “put away” all his pull-ups and unders and break out the diapers. I didn’t tell him that when he wanted to be a big boy and go in the potty we could get them out again, but for now he was going to wear diapers like a baby. Oh, and I wasn’t disappointed when it really didn’t seem to affect him in the least. *sigh* One more “great idea” spoiled. Oh well, at least I don’t have to have the pressure of dragging him to the pot every hour and STILL washing 2 or 3 sets of clothes that he’s “spoiled” each day. 
Yay for not me!
I did not just shrug and let it go when my boys took every piece of plastic out of the cupboard and “made dinner” for me (wouldn’t that be nice if it was real???) and have not spent the 3 days since pulling plastic lids out of places like the Christmas tree, under the fridge, in the toy baskets and under the boys beds. Arg… After that I did NOT decide that that cupboard was now “off limits” and became the “nazi” of the kitchen to enforce the new rule. One day I’ll get the parenting thing down just in time to be a grandparent.
So what have YOU been not doing lately? You can check out more “confessions” at McMamma’s site. Happy Monday!
Tribute to a good kitty
2009
12.10
12.10
Ngung-ngung was named by our oldest lad when we first got her in the spring of ’08 from the humane society. Stuart had picked her because she was “feisty.” Since her main responsibility in our family was going to be “chief mouse hunter and dispatch” that seemed a good trait. She was about 7 or 8 months old when we got her, and spent that summer living with Oma because we were at camp and didn’t want to leave her home alone. Well, our house was INFESTED with mice when we got back after that summer. Sure enough the first morning we were home with our cat she caught her first mouse. Unfortunately THAT mouse got away seeing as how she was just playing with it. BUT many others didn’t and that was the beginning.
Sure she may look like a lazy cat, but wait till something moves.
Ngung-ngung (or “kitty”) for short has been SOOOO good with our boys! Qade had to learn to be gentle with her, but it was quite the learning process. She was so patient with him even when he would get rough, and actually she seemed to like the attention. For a cat she was very affectionate. Always looking for a chance to claim my lap, when it wasn’t otherwise occupied with 2 little lads! And she was a ready and willing purr-er which is a good trait in a nice kitty.
Here you see Qade using kitty as a racetrack. She loves it!
She also spent a lot of her time near Myles when he was “floor bound” and she’d often flip over on her back to “match” him which I found completely hilarious!!
I’m actually NOT a cat person. I was such an “animal person” as a kid that I would have loved to have one, but mom was allergic. Not a good combination. I’m more of a dog person, but since having kids I’m less of either. I like our dog, he’s good with the boys and he’s pretty, but he’s not my “friend” really. The kitty was functional to keep the mice at bay, but she was “my” kitty for sure. She tolerated Stuart alright, and she was great with the boys, but it was me she loved.
She also enjoyed watching Baby Einstein with Qade.
She’s been gone for a couple weeks now. I really miss her! I had intended her to be with us for quite a few years to come, but ya can’t count on things like that when you live out in the “wild.” She was an indoor/outdoor cat, but typically stayed very close to the house when out. She spent nights outside occasionally when she’d sneak out before bed. Always the next morning she’d practically have her nose in the crack of the door waiting to get in. It happened differently that last time though. It’s cold, so we’d been intentionally keeping her inside. Somehow though she slipped out without notice when we were bringing wood in for the fire. We never even knew she’d been out. The next morning when I didn’t notice her inside I figured something was up. Finally around lunchtime when I still hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her I told Stu about it. He actually spent quite a bit of time that day walking around the property calling the kitty. 
Nothing….
I’d like to think that she wandered over the hill and found a nice home with someone else…. it’s not likely, but I prefer to think it than that she was snatched by some critter. We DO have critters around here after all. But whatever happened, the fact is she’s gone. I’ve stopped looking for her to come back, although sometimes I think I see her running around in the house out of the corner of my eye. Strange.
So we’ve got to get a new cat. Sometime after the Holidays when things calm down. The mice are relentless out here, so it’s necessary to have a kitty, but deep down I know we’ll never have a kitty quite as good as our little black Ngung-ngung.
Trrrrrrrrruffles!
2009
12.09
12.09
I got the recipe for these homemade truffles from the Pioneer Woman. It has sweetened condensed milk in it which, of course, sold me. Here is my photo journey through truffle land. I just wanted to see if I could take awesome pictures like pioneer woman. Her’s are better, but I still had fun. Plus the truffles were nummy!
This is what I started with. Doesn’t the name Ghirardelli just make your mouth water?
I created my own “double boiler” by setting a pyrex bowl on top of a pot of water.
Oooo… nummy!
Here’s the good part. Sweetened condensed milk makes every sweet thing better!
Stir it up good!
Here’s the “guts” of the truffle… needs to be cooled
Now I scoop out small t-spoonfulls and “roll” into balls. I had to stop a few times to lick off, wash my chocolaty fingers.
This was the “dip”
These were the toppings. I wasn’t going to do the sea salt because the idea struck me as ick when I first read it, but it kinda grew on me and actually the salt was nice with the chocolate! Interesting.
So they got dipped, and I didn’t have enough hands for pictures AND dipping, and then they got sprinkled.
Truffles with pecan…
Truffles with sea salt. Unfortunately I had to do with the sea salt I had… no special “puget sound” stuff for me, but it still tasted salty, so I imagine it’s fine. Nummers! I might need to make some more of these because… well…. notice the chocolate coating is a little “dull?” Well I just learned a couple days ago that’s because it’s not “tempered” correctly. Who knew? So I’ll try it again sometime with better tempered chocolate coating, so it’s nice and shiny!
HP Giveaway from McMamma
2009
12.09
12.09
Hey all, I’m blogging about this to “enter” myself in the giveaway, but you should check it out HERE. All ya have to do is leave a comment and you can be entered too!
Little birdies need to bathe
2009
12.08
12.08
Remember my bird bath?
It’s been an interesting journey with this one. I’ve learned so much along the way. This bath came in a kit with the option to either hang it or put it on a stand. The first winter we had it, I hung it. The only bird who would even occasionally come near it were House Finches. Day after day I’d empty the hanging block of ice to refill it with warm steamy water hoping to lure some of the birdies to the bath. No such luck.
In the spring I took it down, tired of messing with dumping it from over my head, and put it on the not so sturdy stand that came in the kit. Voila! The birds “discovered” the bath, and I had to fill it every day to keep up with them. However the flimsy stand didn’t work well, and I had to keep experimenting with different ways of propping it up at the base to keep the thing level. Whew! After a series of different rocks and cinderblocks, I finally found the perfectly shaped rock to keep the bath at a more even keel. That is as long as Qade would leave it alone! I got that all worked out just in time for one of the 3 prongs on the stand to break!! Oh brother! Fortunately I was able to keep it up on the stand using the other two along with the ‘nub’ of the broken one.
The box that the bath came in talked about how the bath would eventually tarnish to a lovely “antique” look since it’s bronze. Imagine how happy I was to notice that it really was ‘antiquing’ as I used it outside.
See? Doesn’t it look so bird-bathy? Imagine my dismay this fall as I realized that it was “tarnishing” right through the bottom of the bowl!! I stood inside admiring the freshly filled birdbath from my living room. The Robins LOVE the bird bath, and I’m glad because since they aren’t seed eaters I’d never see them otherwise. But I noticed that there seemed to be a steady dripping coming from the bath. Sometimes I’m sloppy and slosh a little over the edge when filling it, but this seemed too steady for that. So I braved the chill to go back out and investigate. Sure enough, as I crouched down eye level with the bottom of the bath I could see sunshine through a teeny little hole.
Well, not one to be daunted by one teeny-weeny hole, I set about figuring out a way to “fix” the problem. I am after all, Mrs. Fix-it! My initial thought was to seal it with some Gorilla glue. A somewhat thorough search of the garage didn’t find any, but I did come across this really cool foam filler stuff that my hubby had bought for ‘something.’ I figured if it was good for filling gaps and things, it would be just the thing to fill the tiny hole in the bird bath. (dramatic pause)
After filling the hole…. and then reading the can and realizing it was a “one time use” type of stuff… I humbly apologized to my hub and asked him what else needed to be “filled.”
This amazing foam doubles in density as it dries, so I was sure that the hole would be fixed albeit kinda ugly as there was now a big blob of foam on the inside and the bottom of the bath. Well, birds don’t care, they just want water! Sure enough it worked!!
One day not long after, I again noticed a steady drip-drop from the bird bath. *sigh* This time the underneath inspection showed not one, but two little spots of sunshine showing through the bottom. Grrrrrr…. Not to be cowed by a little thing like rusting metal I once again set out to fix the issue. I found some Gorilla tape and put a nice sized hunk on each of the sunshine spots. Dunno if it was the liquid or the cold that kept that tape from adhering as well as I imagined it should, but either way it wasn’t working well.
Finally the last straw came when I dumped the ice out of the bowl one morning only to notice that the “foam” had fallen out with the ice. Arg!! Ha ha ha!! An epiphany hit me just then. Rather than fix the little holes one at a time, what if I lined it with something??? Plastic? Nah, not good for the birds… uh, aluminum foil? Yes! I smiled to myself at my own brilliance and took the bath inside for a cleaning and new lining. Part way through the project my bubble burst as I realized that the foil I had was not wide enough to cover the whole bottom in one go. This meant the “liner” would have to have a seam. We all know what happens with seams and water right?? Yeah…
So this is my bird bath now…
You can see the foam, or what’s left of it not working any more, and the Gorilla tape, and the aluminum foil.
Here is the ice that is forming due to the constant drip through the foil, through the bath, through the foam and tape.
It kind of makes a bit of a prop, so at least it’ll be level while there is water in it.
I miss my pretty birdbath from before… but like I said, this one has taught me a few things. Not the least of which is that if you buy something that says it’ll “tarnish to an antique look” that’s just marketing gibberish for “the bottom will rust out and you’ll curse the day you chose this product!” I’m not giving up though! Stores don’t carry birdbaths till spring, and Amazon charges a fortune in shipping for them. I have another GREAT idea that I’m certain will work this time! I’ll keep you posted.
Not Me Monday
2009
12.07
12.07
I did NOT let my boys wander around the house each with is very own (from his birth-day) bulb syringe hanging out of their mouth like a pipe. Nope, not me! I wouldn’t have had those little snot suckers ‘tucked’ away in a very accessible drawer in the bathroom just waiting to be discovered and played with. And then when they were discovered I would not have allowed such play to continue simply to get a few minutes “peace and quiet” while they actually played nicely together. Ha! No.
I would NEVER even consider giving my 2 1/2 yr old coffee in HIS OWN MUG just so that he would stop lurking over mine! Ah ha ha ha! No, not me! This totally cracks me up! I mean, he loves the stuff and it was only a tiny bit probably didn’t make up 2 tablespoonfuls all together. But what does that matter, I wouldn’t do that! And I wouldn’t get a kick out of how much this child loves coffee and how he talks about his chocolate milk being “Qade’s coffee.” Ha Ha, seriously it makes me laugh! Oh, I mean, NOT ME!!
I didn’t give my lads each their own beater to lick when I was making chocolate chip cookies! Yummers!! That’s one of the best parts about being a kid! But ya know, conscientious mommies don’t give their children such horrible stuff… I mean, it’s uncooked, and basically just butter and sugar mixed up. Gross. And even if I had given them the beaters to lick, I wouldn’t have snitched a lick myself before handing them over. NOT ME!
Wait a second…..
Guess I did. Happy Monday!
Super Critter Tree
2009
12.05
12.05
Ya ever have those days when you feel lucky just to get a chance to go to the bathroom, never mind by yourself? Yeah, it was one of those days here, and rather than regurgitate it all for you I’ve decided to talk about something else, funny.
We picked up our Christmas tree last Sunday after church. We get “real” trees, but we just buy them from Home Depot, so I’m not sure how fresh it is, but it does smell good. Qade was just waking up from a little car doze that he had when we stuffed the tree in the back of our vehicle. The tip of it’s branches came up between the boys seats, and they thought it was the coolest thing we’d ever had in there! They would reach up and gently (I was amazed at that!) touch the needles and the netting that the tree was in. As soon as we put it in Qade called it a “something” tree. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but he said it exactly the same several times. I finally told him it was our Christmas tree. He repeated “Cismas tree” but then again called it the other thing. Hmmmm…. dunno. My brother calls his language “Qade-ian” and we’re not all fluent in it. Most of the time people look to me for translation, but I draw a blank from time to time too.
Anyway, we put the tree up right away on a table in our living room to help keep little fingers from redecorating the tree. The boys admired it, but were less impressed than I expected them to be. Especially Myles. I was expecting him to be at it from the get go, but he barely gave the new occupant of the house a nod. Weird! Qade kept insisting that the tree was that same whatever-it-is and I finally asked him if he was saying “sweet potato” tree. Ha! No, he said it again, and just a wee bit clearer and it was “Super Critter Tree!” The lightbulb came on in my brain! (finally) He has a Merser Mayer “Little Critter” book about this bully who “Super Critter” puts in the top of the tallest tree till he says I’m sorry fifty million times…. or something like that. The “tree” that the bully was on is a pine. Get the connection? I finally did! Amazing how my little lad’s mind works. I’m convinced that he stores up information way more than I give him credit for. He has recently astonished me by knowing the letters O and A and the number 2. I haven’t been working with him on his letters or numbers, but he’s still picking up on them. He has a knack for drawing circles and today when Stu and I were admiring his artwork we noticed that several of the circles had eyes, a nose and mouth!!! Speaking of coloring, Qade has finally settled on being a righty. We were sure for a while that he was going to go left, and he still does prefer to use his left when he eats, but coloring is all right now. Go figure.
So there’s my funny story for your entertainment. It’s freeeeeeezzzzzziiiiiinnnnng cold here, and I have an ongoing drama with my birdbath that I’ll share with you later. Oh the funny things that life brings. Hope you all are ready for a fabulous weekend. I plan to get the rest of my gifts wrapped and prettied up, and I still have a little more “project” ing to do, so hopefully the lads will cooperate and I can do some of that tomorrow. Toodles my friends!
Baby it’s COLD outside!
2009
12.04
12.04
Wow! I’ve been waiting all day for it to “warm up” somewhat, but I think it’s actually getting colder!! Brrrrr… the warm water that I put in the birdbath in direct sunlight was frozen this afternoon! Poor birdies! I put some more out there, but I know it’s going to be a solid block of ice before they can drink it all up. Qade is still convinced that if the sun is shining that it must mean it’s warm. Some days I feel guilty for not wanting to take him outside. I just don’t like to be cold! But today I don’t feel bad about it at all!! Especially since Qade himself has some kinda little bug. He’s had a low grade temp since yesterday afternoon, and has the crabbies and fussies to go along with it.
Last night at 2 something or the “wee sma’s” as I like to call it, I heard a little voice on the monitor. It had actual “word sounding” noise to it, so I knew it was Qade. It really can be difficult to tell their noises apart sometimes. So I went down to their room as quick as possible without killing myself on the steps because of being bleary eyed. I found Qade in his bed asking for his cup which had somehow managed to roll off his little bed, and Myles up on his knees having been awakened by Qade. *sigh* So Qade went back to sleep clutching his precious cup while I took Myles upstairs to his pack-n-play in our room. Now that he was awake he decided it was indeed time to play, not to the amusement of his sleepy parents. This was the second night in a row that I had to deal with midnight wakers so I was very sleepy this morning. Fortunately Stuart didn’t have to go to work till noon today so he gave me a chance to take a morning nap. Ahhhhhh…. so nice!
So here we are snuggy at home with the wood fire burning. I can’t tell you how thankful I am that fire makes heat! It’s the primary way we keep our home warm, and actually the only way most of the time. This afternoon the boys are “helping” Stuart put plastic over the windows. Stu has also put some weather stripping around the ‘cold’ doors. I’m sure it’ll make a big difference!
On the little lad front, Myles is now a big walker man!! He has been diligently practicing his walk for several weeks now, but just this past week after Thanksgiving he decided to really go for it. Now he’s actually walking more than he crawls. Makes me so proud of him and kinda sad at the same time… ha ha ha. Parenting is full of conflicting emotions. Myles and Qade get the biggest kicks now out of just walking around carrying things. Ha! Myles is the instigator, of course, because he thinks this walking thing is “da-bomb” and Qade just HAS to get in on any kind of “fun” that’s going on so hence the ‘walking game.’ Lads are such fun! Hope they get out from under the weather quickly so we can have more laughing and less fussing.
Have a happy day!
Our Christmas Card Kaffafle
2009
12.03
12.03
I am SO on top of the Christmas thing this year! Seriously, I don’t think that I’ve ever felt this ready by the first week of December. (Thanks Amazon!!!) Of course that could all change very rapidly. Stu and I went over our schedule for the month and it’s looking very busy!! I do have several “ends” that do need to be tied up. Even so I’m going to bask in this “ready already” feeling, even if I’m technically not.
Kicking off my “readiness” was how I chose, put together and ordered our Christmas cards for this year. We decided to go the “easy” rout this time around and just do the simple Wal-mart photo greeting card. Last year Stu and I spent a combined 500 million hours creating our amazing Christmas letter, and quite frankly I’m still worn out from it. That’s why the “simple” idea seemed so perfect for us. However I used some of the pictures I myself personally took of the boys that I’m pretty proud of. I know I have a LOT to learn about photography and such, but I also know that I am improving, so that makes me feel good as well. Okay, so back to the story. I ordered our pics well in advance because I didn’t want to get backed up with Thanksgiving and all. They were to arrive at our local (45 miles away) Wal-Mart on or BEFORE Nov. 19. Well, that day came and went, and then I DID get caught up in Thanksgiving. My WHOLE family was together for the first time since I went off to college, yikes… I don’t like to think about how long ago that was because then I feel old, and mostly I don’t feel old, so I don’t want to feel old. I avoid that old feeling as much as possible. But we all had a good time and Stu’s parents and grandparents were with us too, we just missed having his sis and her fam here! Well, after the turkey had settled we made it into town on Sunday for church and I figured it was as good a time as I’d get to check on the unaccounted for cards. Fast forward to an hour spent in the store being shuffled from department to wrong department, to waiting for “management” and you get me with a rather “arg” attitude and NO cards. Thankfully, I kept my cool, did explain the frustrating situation to the people involved in a nice way knowing that it was (probably) not specifically their fault. Then I took the number I was given to my oh-so-amazing-at-getting-great-deals, hubby. He called and talked to a couple people at the Walmart.com place and they were surprisingly helpful! They reordered our cards, gave us free to our home shipping, and cut us a 50% discount on our order. Ahhhh… now that’s the old Wally-World I remember and love!
Today our cards arrived. They look great and at 50% off who’s gonna complain if the printing on my BEAUTIFUL photos seems a little dark. Just glad I lightened them in Aperture BEFORE I uploaded them to the site. There you have it! Be on the lookout for your very own installment of the ‘super easy’ (har har har) Christmas greeting card from we’uns.
Ta ta!