RazNoggle

I’m sore! The kettlebell is to blame!

Yesterday was such a beautiful day! It warmed up so nicely in the afternoon that the lads were able to play outside sans coats! They were thrilled with that! I sat outside for some time watching Ella and her “sea legs” on the uneven terrain. She tends to be like water when she’s walking outside, her legs just automatically follow the flow of the land, ha ha!

I’m making yogurt again today. I can’t wait to have some tomorrow with Maple Syrup on it! YUUUUUUUM!

Stuart bought me a houseplant a couple weeks ago, and so far I haven’t killed it! I’d like to have several around the house, since that’s the best way to “filter” your inside air. (Did you know that?) I just have a hard time keeping them alive…. probably something to do with forgetting to water them or something. Maybe I’ll have better luck this time around.

My iPod Nano (1st generation) that Stuart got for me on our first married Christmas has been recalled. I was a little sad to let it go actually, even though I’ll be getting a new one, because he’d had it engraved on the back to say “Merry Christmas Darling! Love Your Stu” and the new one won’t have that. *sigh* Yes, I can be sentimental, I know. Anyway, right now I’m somewhat musicless because I don’t have any play lists on my other iPod. I think it might need to be a weekend project for me.

So the headache that was kind of lurking on the fringe of things for awhile has decided to move in and stay for awhile. I think I’m on day 4 or something with it. It hasn’t been a doozy the whole time, but it sure has been annoying. And since it’s been at least that long since I’ve had a really good night’s sleep, I imagine good ol’ headache thinks it’s his prerogative to stick around. Humbug!

Guess who SAT in a pile of goatheads while watching the kids play outside? Yep, it was me! I didn’t sit there for long, I’ll tell ya what! Usually I’m the lucky one who finds those nasty things with my feet in the carpet, but discovering them THIS way was an entirely new, and need I add unpleasant, experience. (BTW, if you’re still in the dark about what a goat-head is, it’s a very hard, very sharp 3 pointed (hence goat head) sticker that likes to grow in these here parts. I detest them greatly since they often hitch a ride inside on people’s shoes, turn loose in the carpet and then my poor lil unshod feet usually find them.)

Had a little mini-session with Ella today to model her Christmas tutu set that her Auntie Tiff made. I didn’t get any big grins, mostly because she was busy stuffing goldfish in her mouth, but I still got some cute photos!

It’s snowing outside, right now, and that wasn’t supposed to happen till Tuesday! The power out here is SO finicky in any kind of “weather” so it keeps blipping in and out. Twill be an interesting night with my noise-maker randomly shutting off. That wakes me up faster than anything.

Qade enlightened Myels this morning by telling him, “Nutella means chocolate.” I’m happy I’m brining them up right!

P.S. This post was written over the course of several days, as most of my this n that posts are, so the “yesterdays” and “todays” will be off slightly…. just to clear that all up for ya! Because yesterday we actually had snow, not lovely weather, gotta be honest, you know!

If anyone wonders why Myles has oatmeal on his BACK, it’s because he had his shirt on backwards for breakfast and later fixed it.

There is a perfect little greasy hand impression in the carpet from when Ella had her adventure in petroleum jelly.

I spent a large part of the morning, cutting up, seasoning, portioning and freezing a bunch of steak that I found on sale at Safeway this week. If you know my “issues” with raw meat, you realize that this was quite an undertaking. It’s done though, and I have quite a few meals ready to unthaw and fix up in the future. I have steak for Stroganoff (which is also simmering away in the crock-pot as I write, I can’t wait for dinner!!) thin cut steak, seasoned with spicy rub for fajitas, and a host of other packages, ready for stew or stir-fry or just tossing in the slow cooker to see what happens. It makes me feel good to have meat in the freezer. One of my goals for Feb is to only buy milk and perishable items for groceries. I’ll be “shopping” in our pantry and freezer for the rest! I got 9 different meat meal portions out of my $30 something purchase of meat, and several of those will likely do for more than one meal. Seems good to me!

The boys have a bunk bed in their room now. Thanks to my MIL and craigslist! It was a great find. They love it!! I had a bit of a hard time taking out their little toddler beds though. These little ones are growing too fast! I’m happy that they have bigger beds though, and their room looks better than ever!

I showed Ella her reflection on the back of a spoon, and it was hilarious to watch her making faces at herself on the little spoon! Ha ha ha!! That girl just cracks me up!

Ella has added the dining room table to her mountaineering skills. But she’s not content to sit on top, she has to stand and walk around. This is not good!

Can’t stand lies! I called a company recently about why it took so long to get a package that I had paid 2 day shipping on. Their response was that Fed-ex did try to deliver the package 2 times. HOWEVER, I happen to know that I was at home on both of those “supposed” delivery attempt days, and never heard or saw a fed-ex truck neither did I get a “failed delivery” notice. That irks me to no end!

Qade can whistle now. Have I mentioned that before? He’s very pleased with this new talent, and I’m pretty proud of him for figuring it all out at the age of 4! I’ve never been a good whistler, and I’m pretty sure I was older than 4 before I ever figured it out. However, this amazingness has it’s downside, as he likes to “practice” whistling all the time. Whistling in the house or in cars and such drives me crazy because it kills my ears! So we’ve come to an understanding that he can whistle outside as much as he likes, but shouldn’t in the house. I still have to remind him, but he’s usually good about it.

I’m trying not to think of the ick factor of the boys choosing the dog house as a place to relax while they eat their snacks outside. Ugh, ugh, ugh! It’s not working!!

This is what happens when I’m not on Facebook. I write all of my would be status messages in one long blog post. Oh well, I can’t say it isn’t better off this way. The only thing is that these posts tend to get pretty long, especially when I have to wait to publish them. We’ve been on internet rations for most of January since we blew through a lot of our bandwidth early on in the month. Silly electronics! So it’s been easier to keep off of FB like I’m supposed to, but I have missed posting to my blog. I have several post that I’ve been writing over my “exile” that I will schedule to publish over the next few days. Enjoy!

My boys request bed time songs each night. I’m just wondering how to make “Jingle Bells” sound like a lullaby!

I find it interesting that in this small town of 1500-ish people and about 7 churches, the only ones who have made their way out to ‘visit’ our house have been Jehovah’s Witnesses. They have braved the muddy road twice actually. Hmmmm…

Ella conquered the couch and the overstuffed chair yesterday! She’s been trying to scramble up them since the day she started cruising on them. Yesterday she was just as pleased as punch and you could totally tell that she was very proud of herself for getting up all on her own! The boys now have no safe space.

I accidentally misread the recipe and added a tablespoon of garlic instead of a teaspoon. I guess we’ll all be safe from vampires tonight! Hopefully it’s still swallowable!

Happiness is finding the very last piece of dark chocolate in the freezer, just when you need it the most!

I have always associated bananas and spiders in my mind. So I guess it’s not surprising that I jumped back in alarm when I was reaching for a banana and “thought” I saw a black thing scuttle away. There was actually nothing there, yay! See, what happened was that when I was in K5 at a little Christian school in Colorado, we were all sitting round the lunch table when one kid said something about spiders “hiding” in the end of bananas. I’m not sure what he was referring to or where he got his information, but from that day I could never eat the very tippy end of a banana. Ya know, the last part at the end of the peel, I always break the banana off right before that last bite. I know NOW that there are no spiders hiding in the ends of bananas, but the damage has been done, and I think it’s irreversible. I shall always be a last bite banana waster, and anything that even remotely looks like a spider, imaginary or not, around my bananas will be met with the same reaction.

While I was shopping for steak, that was on sale, at our “local” Safeway, someone approached me and asked if I wanted to buy his food stamps. I’m somewhat curious what he wanted to buy with the cash that he’d get for his food stamps, and sad at the same time that people put more stock in whatever else instead of food for their family.

I’m doing pretty good on my facebook fast. Especially since we’ve pretty much burned through our allotment of internet bandwidth for the month. It always helps when you simply “cant” do the thing you’re not supposed to be doing. Ha! I do miss it though, but I’m finding it surprisingly easier than I expected.