Tuesday Tell All: Hometown Favorites

Tell us about your favorites close to home.

Favorite Places To:

grab lunch: Kneaders Bakery & Cafe (mmm, I love their turkey sandwiches- slow roasted hand pulled turkey, not deli slices) or Gandolfo's (Knickerbocker- Cold, no tomato)

go for Date night: Really, any restaurant without the kids is a whole different experience, but we do like Chili's, Red Robin, and Outback a lot. Oh, and after dinner, we like to see a movie or hang out at Barnes & Noble.

pick up some creative goodies: Target (yeah, as I said before, I don't do a whole lot of crafty projects).

keep the kids busy: McDonald's, Costco, Thanksgiving Point, Discovery Gateway, Nickelcade.

get wet: Legacy Center

buy a treat: Thanksgiving Point (their ice cream is tasty and pretty cheap and kids cones only cost 25 cents- or free for under 3!) , Smart Cookie, Sonic.

shop for fun: Park City Outlets, Target, Costco, Down East Basics

get some fresh air: The park by Grandma & Grandpa's house

splurge: See "Shop for fun"

drive for a weekend away: St. George, Midway, Vegas.

Vote In My Poll!!!

Tuesday Tell All: Laugh Out Loud

What makes you laugh?

The first thing that comes to mind is The Office. I just love that show. Although at the same time it makes me laugh, it also makes me cringe in pain. Just the thought of Michael's ignorance is painful.

Outside of television, my kids definitely make me laugh. Whether it's Jefferson doing a "Remember when....? That was awesome!" or Jackson just saying "yay" after completing the ABC's, they make me happy. When Jackson did this it made me fall back on the floor laughing so hard it brought tears.

Whenever I get together with my friends from home, the night is full of laughter. We talk about the craziest things and most people don't even understand us if they haven't been exposed to us enough. It's always great to go to back to Virginia.

Tuesday Tell All: Professional Help

Last catch-up topic! Hopefully I can now keep up with doing a weekly TTA post.

For what activity would you want professional lessons?

I'm going to go with two related activities.

Whenever I think about what I would do if I won a bunch of money, besides the usual stuff (pay of the house, invest some, take a trip, etc) I also think "ooh, it would be great to have a personal chef and personal trainer." Now, I don't necessarily need the chef to cook for me all the time, I just would like to learn how to cook healthier, while still being tasty, taking into consideration our dislikes, and not overly complicated. Is that too much to ask? As for the personal trainer, I don't have much of a problem working out, I just would like to know that I'm doing the best workout I can, and it always helps to have someone push you a little harder than you would go if you were by yourself.

Mix these three people together to get my perfect personal chef:
(take Bobby Flay's spicy cooking, Alton Brown's food science knowledge, and Ellie Krieger's healthy cooking)

Tuesday Tell All: Livin' on the Edge

Today's catch-up topic: Livin' on the Edge
If you could do something dangerous just once with no risk what would you do?

I was having trouble thinking of something really good for this one, so I asked Nate what he would do. He came up with "re-enact the lobby scene from The Matrix," which sounded great to me. I can be Trinity to his Neo:

Our New Sectional!!!

Yay! We finally have some decent, comfortable seating in our family room! A couple days ago our sectional that we ordered through Macy*s was delivered. After searching for our perfect sectional, we were surprised that Macy*s had it, and at a great price-even better than the one we were going to settle on if we didn't find one better! Here's the new sectional:

Tuesday Tell All: Made By Hand

Today's TTA catch-up topic: Made By Hand

I'm not really the most crafty person. It's not that I can't do crafts and sewing, etc, I've just never been that into it. Sometimes I wish I was more into it, sometimes I'm glad I'm not. Over the years, I have made a few things that I have been proud of and today I'll mention 3.

The school I went to for K-4th grades had an Arts & Crafts and Science Fair every year that encouraged children from all grades (it was a K-12 school) to participate in- actually, I guess we had to do a science project, but the craft project was optional. I did both projects most years, but the only craft project I really remember doing was in 3rd grade. I made a sleeping bag for my Cabbage Patch Kid doll (actually, the doll was a handmade version of a Cabbage Patch kid- made by my mom). It was a lot of work and I learned that I am actually a decent sewer- too bad I haven't used that talent well. I won 1st place in my grade. I still have the sleeping bag, boxed up with all of my favorite girl toys that I have saved over the years, just on the chance that I'll have a daughter, and my Cabbage Patch kid sits on my closet shelf.

We bought a nice cherry wood coffee table and 2 end tables from our neighbors when they moved. With 3 kids, I wanted a way to protect the coffee table from scratches and crayons, and whatever the kids may do to it, so I came up with an idea to make a cover for the coffee table. We picked out some fabric and some padding and I went to it. I only had the coffee table for a pattern, but I think it turned out pretty good. I still haven't finished it the way I wanted, but it's serving it's purpose (I wanted to add elastic or straps or something to keep it on better). Here's a picture:


My most recent project was making train-themed pajamas for my friend's daughter. I also picked up some other fabric to make the my nephew and my boys some pajamas while I was at it. It was a way easy project. Here is a picture of one of the pairs of pajama pants:


Nate has also done a few projects in the past year. Most notably, has been the train table he made for the kids. It wasn't all made by hand, as the table started out as an old coffee table, but he did have to do a lot of work converting it into the play table it is now- the only part of the table that was unchanged were the legs (with exception to them being painted). Here it is:


Nate has also put in a lot of time remodeling our downstairs bathroom. He has mudded over the orange peel wall texture and, with the help of his dad, added bead board and changed out the toilet and sink. He also has added some nice trim detail. I'm in charge of painting the room, so it's really my fault that the project is not yet complete, but I hope to get myself moving soon to complete it. I'll post a picture when it's finished.

Tuesday Tell All: The Working Girl

Okay, second catch-up topic: The Working Girl

This week tell us about your favorite or least favorite job that you've had OUTSIDE of the home (we know the hardest job is being a Mom). Or just take a minute to document the jobs you've had.

The first real job (not counting temp jobs, babysitting, etc) I had was my senior year of high school. My friend, Joanne, and I both got a job at Cinnabon, where two other friends also worked. It was a great job (despite the crappy hourly wage and a few bad run-ins with customers) and I had tons of fun. I also got to eat all the cinnabons I wanted (seriously, when you took a break the manager was always like "eat a cinnabon!") and got to take home "expired" boxes of cinnabons for my family. And strangely, I didn't really gain any extra weight while I worked there. To this day I can almost always smell if there is a Cinnabon in a mall when I walk in.



Jobs I've had since:

Paint Dept Lead at Sears
A Vampire at "The Haunted Forest"
Salesperson at a Halloween Costume Store
Accounting clerk at a bank

There were a few I skipped- they weren't memorable.

Tuesday Tell All: Collections

I was introduced to this blog called Tuesday Tell All over a month ago but have been slow getting around to participating. Hopefully, over the next few days, I'll be able to catch up on the last several topics. The first topic I'm going to talk about is "Collections."

What collections did you have as a child? What do you collect now. This week share with us some of your treasures from the past or present.

I wasn't really good at sticking to one collection. I had (have) a tendency to collect a few of one thing and then a few of another. One of my best collections from childhood (and I still have) is my sticker album. Here are pictures of the cover and one of my favorite pages:

Nate even still has his sticker album. We have several duplicate stickers between us. Stickers albums were definitely all the rage in the 80's. After seeing our albums, Jefferson has decided that he wants one. I haven't looked for one yet, but I assume they still sell them- stickers are still popular among kids.

The next largest collection I had were figurines. My sister collected unicorns and I collected Pegasuses. My parents would get us a couple a year for birthdays or Christmas, or sometimes when they just found a really cool one. They were displayed in the china cabinet. I still have them, but they have been packed up in a box for the last several years. I just don't have a good place to put them- especially with 3kids (and rambunctious boys, at that) running around the house. I briefly collected "Precious Moments" figurines and still have those in a box, as well.

I've always had a fascination with money- not necessarily spending it, just counting it and looking at the different types and old coins, and such. My dad has several different coin books, so I never felt a huge need to start my own, but I do have the state quarters and several 2 dollar bills.

My current collection would have to be dragonflies. I don't have a lot, because I'm super picky about which ones I like, but I do have a Tiffany-style dragonfly lamp, a ceiling-mount dragonfly light, a vase, dragonfly dishes (that are treated like china), dragonfly fabric covered lampshades, pillows, and more. If it's more in the style of the Arts & Crafts movement, I'll probably like it. Our house has kind-of become the "find the dragonfly in this room" place.

Virginia- Home Sweet Home

After finding a smashing deal on Yahoo! Travel, I had the opportunity to fly out to Virginia last week for a weekend visit. My high school has been celebrating it's 40th anniversary all year long, and this past weekend was their big events for the celebration. Although I had originally planned on going to their evening gala event, the cost of tickets persuaded me to skip it and just go to the daytime school showcase. One of my best friends, Joanne, and I spent Saturday morning/afternoon roaming the halls of our high school and checking out performances by the theatre and music departments. We chatted with a couple of our old teachers and saw a few familiar faces. We also got to eat lunch in the cafeteria (although not the questionable school lunch food from our high school days). All it cost was $6 for the lunch (which, considering the amount of food they gave us, was a great deal). It was fun roaming the halls again, and seeing how little has changed (umm, they painted the lockers a different color, but that's about it). My sister managed to make it to the school showcase right before Joanne and I left.

Here's some shots of the school:
(Main Lobby, Cafeteria, Path up to the athletic fields, Football field)


And my graduating class' contribution:


I also got to go out to dinner twice with some old friends- Rob, Matt, Paige, Duff, and Joanne. It's always fun when we all get together. It's just a shame that two of the gang (Becky and Melanie) ended up not making it out to DC.

Since my sister was so late to the showcase, and lacking her family, we made plans to meet at my favorite ice cream restaurant for lunch the following day. Here are some pics of her kids, Gabe and Isabeau:


And here are Joanne's kids (Tyler and Jaiden):

(All a little dirty from their ice cream)

It was a great weekend. Definitely strange to be away from the kids for so long and to get on a plane all by myself and have a peaceful flight. But, that said, I was still happy to get home and see Nate and the kids. I even ended up keeping Jefferson home from school yesterday just to spend some extra time with him (he may have been a hair sick).

A BIG THANKS to Joanne for letting me crash at her place while I was in town and driving me around (even though I know she won't actually read this- she just looks at the pictures).

My Two Easter Basket Cakes

Here are the two different Easter Basket Cakes I made around Easter time. The first one was my test run for the second one, which was for the Cub Scout pack meeting. The first one is a two-layer cake which had a circle cut out of the top layer to create a well for the basket. The second cake is a bundt cake that is upside down from how you would normally serve it. While both cakes turned out nice, I liked the bundt cake better for it's simplicity.