Hi Ho Hi Ho, it's back to work I go

I am SO sad that tomorrow ends my "vacation" as Silas has called it. I've enjoyed being home on maternity leave so much that I don't EVER want to go back to work, but as they say, all good things must come to an end. I think our lives will drastically change tomorrow! I've done a pretty good job of staying on top of house work, I can't think of a night that Silas came home and there wasn't dinner waiting for him, and oh the joy of getting up in the middle of the night to give Lucy her next bottle. Now it's daddy's turn! We'll have to work together to keep the house clean, prepare meals and care for Lucy. I'm thinking that THIS is when the vacation begins!

I haven't forgotten to post pictures of the kitchen. It looks AMAZING if I can say so myself. The cabinets and doors have all received multiple coats of primer and paint, and I somehow managed to talk Silas in to getting a new white hood fan (which I helped install!!!) YAAAHOOO! I couldn't have done it without the help of my mom, my mother in law and my friend Kelli (and my father in law and husband for helping with the hood fan!) THANK YOU LADIES for helping me get out of the 1970's and in to 2008! I'll post pictures soon.....

ELF YOURSELF! This is so FUNNY!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

No Martha Here!

My friend Heather had this on her blog and I found it to be quite funny - it's a darn good thing Martha isn't coming to our house, she might be upset that we are having spaghetti for dinner! YEP. You read that right - SPAGHETTI! Hey, I'm making the sauce from scratch (I'll share the recipe later) and NO I am not using ground turkey! Enjoy your day!

Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. I'm telling you in advance, so don't act surprised. Since Ms. Stewart won't be coming, I've made a few small changes: Our sidewalk will not be lined with homemade, paper bag luminaries. After a trial run, it was decided that no matter how cleverly done, rows of flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect. The dining table will not be covered with expensive linens, fancy china or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and everyone will get a fork. Since this IS Thanksgiving, we will refrain from using the plastic Peter Rabbit plate and the Santa napkins from last Christmas. Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration that has been hand-crafted from the finest construction paper. The artist assures me it's a turkey. We will be dining fashionably late. The children will entertain you while you wait. I'm sure they will be happy to share every choice comment I have made regarding Thanksgiving, pilgrims and the turkey hotline. Please remember that most of these comments were made at 5:00 a.m. upon discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds. As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play a recording of tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I don't own a recording of tribal drumming or that the tribal drumming sounds suspiciously like a frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them. They are lying. We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional method. We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement. When the smoke alarm sounds, please gather around the table and sit where you like. In the spirit of harmony, we will ask the children to sit at a separate table. In a separate room. Next door. Now I know you have all seen pictures of one person carving a turkey in front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers. This will not be happening at our dinner. For safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private ceremony. I stress "private" meaning this: Do not, under any circumstances enter the kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children to check on my progress. I have an electric knife. The turkey is unarmed. It stands to reason that I will eventually win. When I do, we will eat. Oh before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice between 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the traditional pumpkin pie. Garnished with whipped cream and small fingerprints. You will have a choice. Take it or leave it. Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. Come to think of it, she probably won't make it next year either. I am thankful! Happy Thanksgiving!

From hard work to HALLMARK!

wouldn't you love to see your dream or vision came to life on the shelves of a HALLMARK STORE?!?! this woman has done just that! Please visit Jeanne Winters blog to get a sneak peak at the items she helped create that will be sold in Hallmark stores nation wide! HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!

http://jeannewinters.blogspot.com/2008/11/major-giveaway-gratuitous-plug.html

Busy, Busy, Busy

Happy Tuesday!
Today is going to be a VERY busy day. I am taking Lucy to the babysitter (WE LOVE YOU JO!) and my mom and Kelli will be coming over to help me sand our kitchen cabinets! We decided that we'd sand, prime, and paint them ourselves rather than have our paint crew do it for us. If you live in the Indianapolis metro area and need a good painter, let me know. Javier is great. he's fast, efficient and VERY cheap (at least in our opinion!) I'll be posting some before, during, AND after pictures SOON. I can't wait for the dark wood to be G-O-N-E, GONE!

I'm making crock pot pulled pork for dinner tonight - I'll post a picture and the recipe later! It's SO GOOD and if you like pulled pork, I'm sure you'll love this super simple recipe!

SOUPer Simple Pot Roast

Here's a recipe for this SOUPer simple pot roast. It's so good and tender, and it only takes a few minutes to prep!

1 pack of onion soup/dip mix

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

3-3.5 pound roast

fresh veggies - I use mushrooms, potatoes, and green beans

salt/pepper if desired

Mix the soup and soup mix in the bottom of your crock pot. Salt and pepper your meat if desired. Place meat in pot and coat on all sides with the soup mixture (the soup mixture makes a great sauce to put over the veggies!). Add veggies on all sides of meat, turn crock pot on low for 8 hours and THAT'S IT!

ENJOY!

It's begninng to look a lot like Christmas

I love Christmas. My mom always made it special for us as we were growing up. We'd always wake up early on Christmas morning and dig through our stockings, then we'd take turn passing out presents. I hate to say this, and mom, please don't be mad, but the stocking goodies are always the best part! It's so much fun pulling out goodie after goodie...and most of it is silly stuff, stuff that I'll probably never use, but I keep it becuase I know my mom, err, uh, Santa, worked hard at finding each and every one of those items! I am so excited to be a mommy finally and I hope to one day fill my childs closet full of goodies she may or may not ever use too!

I've posted a few holiday cards that I made to help get you in the Christmas spirit. I better get busy making cards, I've got only a little more than a month till the big day!

Fun FREE blog layouts!

Visit this website for some fun and free lay outs for your blog!

http://www.ecdbackgrounds.blogspot.com/

MORE CUTE HAIR BOWS!

As you all know, I have become obsessed with hair bows for Lucy. I found this site http://sweetbydesign.blogspot.com while on the tip Junkie website. Sweet by design is giving away hair bows FOR FREE if you place a post about them on your blog. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?! So, check em out and get something for nothing - that's almost unheard of these days!

Baby it's cold outside!

OK, I will be the FIRST to admit, I dislike the cold....A LOT! I won't say I hate it because my mom always told me hate is a terrible word, but boy am I close to using it! Since I've been home with Lucy, I've had lots of time on my hands to try new recipes. This chicken pot pie is one of our favorites! It's SUPER simple, hearty, and delicious (plus it's an excellent way to sneak veggies in for those kids who would otherwise not want to eat them)! We had our friend Bob over for dinner last night and we devoured almost the entire thing!

You will need the following ingredients:

2 ready made pie shells - available in your grocery dairy section

2 or 3 decent sized chicken breasts - diced and cooked

2 cans of cream of __________ soup - you could use cram of celery/chicken/mushroom whatever YOU like - I personally use 1 can of mushroom and 1 can of chicken

4 small-medium sized potatoes, peeled and par boiled

frozen veggie mix - corn/peas/carrots

pepper

To prepare:

*Take your pie shells from the refrigerator and let them come to room temperature.

*Peel and dice your potatoes and put them on to boil. I boil mine for about 5 - 7 minutes - they will continue to cook while in the oven!

*Cook your chicken - I dice mine prior to cooking, and cook it in a skillet in a small amount of extra virgin olive oil. I add some spices at this time (no one spice in particular, I just start grabbing and add just a sprinkle for extra flavor!).

*Mix frozen veggies/soups/cooked potatoes/chicken in a large bowl, add pepper to taste.

*Place 1st pie shell in bottom of pie pan, poke holes with a fork. Pour your filling in pan and then cover with the 2nd pie shell. Pinch the edges of the shells together and then poke holes with fork on top shell. I put my pie plate on a baking sheet in case it boils over.

Bake for 40 minutes at 375.

ENJOY!~~

YAAAAA-HOOOO!

OK, so I know that this may not seem like a big deal to some, but it is HUGE to me. Lucy has somehow managed to sleep through the night TWO nights in a row! HOW EXCITING IS THAT?!?! I am beyond thrilled! I just hope she keeps up the good work!!!

On another note, have you ever used craigslist? I've purchased a few items from there, nothing major, just little things. This past week I decided to take a new look at life and all of our crap that we have lying around. I decided to post something that I hadn't used in YEARS, an old game boy. It was probably almost 10 years old, but worked jsut fine. So, I posted it for $25 and within minutes, I mean MINUTES, I had five people ask to buy it. I sold that thing for $25! when I told Silas he toldme to go through the house and see what else we can part with. So far we've sold the game boy and a dvd player that we never use. We have people coming tonight to pick up an old tv, a microwave, and a figurine. So, the moral of my story here is PPURGE YOUR CRAP AND MAKE SOME MOO-LAH on Craigslist! With the holidays right around the corner, it's the PERFECT time to make a little extra cash!

Everyone likes free stuff!

Happy Thursday!

I found this website this morning that is holding a drawing for a free digital holiday card design AND 2 sheets of Picture It Postage (where you can have YOUR photo on a stamp!) Please visit http://www.skiptomylou.org/ or use the button on the side of my page to visit and enter this fun contest!

Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies

Fall is a time for raking leaves, bon fires, and PUMPKINS! My friend Heather makes these, and I finally asked for the recipe. They are TO DIE FOR! I've made three batches in the past two weeks....I'm sure they're not good for my thighs, but boy are they tasty and they make the house smell heavenly when baking!

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup pumpkin

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon ***

2 cups butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar together. Next, add pumpkin and vanilla. Beat. Next, add the dry ingredients and mix. Add butterscotch chips last. drop by teaspoonfull onto a GREASED sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Allow to cool for one minute on the baking sheet, remove and ENJOY!

*** I tried this recipe with only cinnamon, and they were great. I then changed my cinnamon to pumpkin pie spice and they were EVEN BETTER! I use my pampered chef scooper so that all the cookies are uniform in size and in our oven they take about 12-13 minutes to bake.

CUTE HAIR BOWS!

Ok, so many of you have heard me tell the story of the women (YES, that is PLURAL!) that have asked me how old my little boy is. I know, it's no secret that ALL babies look like they could be a boy or a girl when they are first born, HOWEVER, I had Lucy dressed in lavender one day and pink (from head to toe!) the other day. How many boys mothers dress them in lavender and pink? I really need to know. I can't recall a single day that my mom ever dressed my brother in either of those colors. EVER! So, with that gripe duly noted, I have made a pact with the hair bow. Lucy rarely leaves the house now without a hair bow in her hair! If people can't see the bow and tell she is a girl, then I may have to start recommending vision screening to strangers.

I found this website that has ADORABLE bows available. Check it out, and please, don't ask me how old my little boy is!

http://ajsbowtique.blogspot.com/

2008 Holiday Mom-preneur Shop-a-thon and the 12 Days of Junkie

Check it out! This website is doing a 12 days of Junkie Giveaway! Two winners each day, and i'm sure you will LOVE LOVE LOVE the prizes!

http://tipjunkie.com/shopathon

While you're there, make sure you do some holiday shopping! These are WOMEN owned small businesses that have fun, fresh, and funky one of a kind gifts! Don't wait, Christmas is less than 50 days away!

It's been FOREVER!

I know it's been forever since I have posted anything here. Seems that mother hood has taken a VERY PROMINENT role in my life, and the blogging (not that I ever did a lot of it anyway!) has taken the back burner. Lucy is eight weeks old already, man does time fly?!?! We've managed to get through our first holiday, Halloween. I couldn't resist dressing Lucy up as a chicken! Silas and I have been calling her chicken since she was first born. Seems that when she's hungry, she bobs her little head like a chicken, so the costume was VERY fitting! She sat outside with me while I passed out candy and I seriously think she was a bigger hit than the little goodie bags that i painstakingly put together at the last minute! I can't wait for Thanksgiving! She has the most adorable outfit to wear! Pictures will be forthcoming!