My Life People ~Meet Paula!~

It's My Life People! 

Segment 13 starring...

Paula, aka Aunt Paula!!

1. How do you know me?
The first time I met you was scrapbooking. You were a friend of my sister, Sandra. Over many crops and meals, we got to know each other=)

2. What is the one TV show that you just HAVE to watch every week?
Lost--oh yeah, it's over=( Project Runway, for the few months it's on. Regular season--House

3. Name 3 things always in your fridge.
Water, cheese and ketchup (and no, I don't eat them all together;))

4. What are your top 5 favorite books?

I knew I shouldn't have asked you this, cause it's come back to bite me=) Working at the library, I have too many, but I'll try. In no particular order:

1. My Most Excellent Year: a Story of Love, Mary Poppins and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger

2. Shattering Glass by Gail Giles

3. ANYTHING by Sarah Dessen--she's my favorite author and I can't pick just one of her books

4. The Harry Potter series with the exception of number 5

5. The following series, which are similar in there own way: The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, The Lorien Legacies by Pitticus Lore (I Am Number Four is the first book so far, the movie will be released in Feb), and Matched trilogy by Ally Condie (Matched is the first book and was just released in November)

5. Bottomless gift cards to which 3 stores?

Hobby Lobby, Fashion Bug, and while not a store--overstock.com

Check out Paula's Etsy store!   www.etsy.com/shop/psyouneedthis

My notes on Paula:
Paula is pretty much awesome.  I am so glad she is Sandra's sister, and I got to meet her :) (So she is my friend now too!) Paula is one of the most kind, giving, selfless people that I know.  She goes above and beyond as a friend, aunt, sister, employee, artist, crafter... you name it.  She is there!  She opened her home to our little scrapbook group so that we have a girls only place to scrap once a month.  Paula shares her recipes with me, which of course, I love. And she is always there to tell us how to spell our words ;)  Unlike me... Paula has style.  Her house is bright blue.  Definitely cool.  And she always has fun and funky hair.  And I mean funky in a very good way.  Aunt Paula is the best :)

the kid room

a loooong while ago i showed you this table.

and a sneak peak of it being painted.

well.... here it is!!

(it's been done awhile, i just forgot to show and tell.)

loving the mix-matched chairs.  makes me smile.

and since then... dave put up one of my Christmas presents :)

 it is SO fun to display the kids' work in an artsy way!  i love it :)

and wait. there is more ;)

to be continued...

PW's cinnamon rolls!

oh my.

if you never make anything homemade in your life again...

do yourself a favor and make these.  really.  please

The Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls.

you will be the most loved person in your house ;)

goodbye store bought cinnamon rolls. nice knowing ya!

friendship bracelets

look what lilly whipped up this morning before school.

a friendship bracelet.
i used to make these all the time as a kid.

it's even coordinated to her outfit.

she has all the style.

good thing i saved all that string from when i used to make friendship bracelets.

see. sometimes it's good to be a packrat ;)
sometimes.

other people's babies

we got to meet 2 babies recently :)

first up.  isaac.

isaac is my friend heather's little man.

little big man ;) adorable.

we had them over for dinner a few weeks ago.

next up. jillian.

jillian's parents are our old neighbors.

and now lesley is one of my great friends :)

we visited the new little lady in the hospital.

and took a meal to them a few weeks later.

(i LOVE doing that for families with new babies!!)

id been wanting to try out this buggy cookie cutter.

what better reason than to take some to a new baby.

jillian loved them, i'm sure ;)

don't worry. isaac got some dessert too.

ice cream cake.

(pics and tutorial coming sooner. or later.)

so sweet.

the babies that is.

p.s. the polar bear and squirrel on the bibs are 2 new designs over at the shop.

and you are invited to follow LBE on FB :)

(im thinking about a cookie FB page too...tbd)

oh. and btw. i know about 9 pregnant people right now.
wow.

more fb wannabes

-Facebook just made me enter security words. ‘he’ and ‘moneybag’.

-I want cookie dough.

-Who took my rice pilaf?

-Why are all my thoughts about food? That’s an issue. I see it.

-You know you’ve eaten too much cookie dough when you don’t want anymore. And then you don’t eat lunch.

-Is it sad that I am sitting here cracking up at my own blog post?

-I had to buy garlic at the store. Boo. Note to self (ie:hubby): plant way more garlic. Please.

-I have 4 minutes to wipe a bottom, change a poopie diaper, get 3 pairs of shoes, 3 coats, hats and gloves on, grab the keys and cell phone, and get the kids in the carseats. Can I do it. Yes.

-I have a love/hate relationship with my hormones. Right now I am not liking them too much.

-Snow day :)  Woot!

crack me up.

what started as an attempt at a self portrait turned into this.

these kids. crack. me. up.

'staff man' is a character name made up by lilly's music teacher.

the rest is self explanitory. or not ;)

packing lunch

we've been recycling for about 3 years now.

like really recycling.

we have about 2 bags of recycling to every 1 bag of trash.

when lilly started 1st grade, that meant packing lunch for school.

i cringed at how many plastic zip bags i was using and tossing.

so a quick search to the internet found some great ideas!

how to make sandwich wraps and dry snack bags.

my feeble attempt to save the world.

a no waste packed lunch.

here's how to wrap the sandwich.
(i typically send half a sandwich, as its made with thick homemade bread, but a whole sandwich and a sandwich on a bun fit also.  tortilla wraps too...)

tada!

(and... the wrap can be used as a placemat on the school lunch table :)

ETA: i am not sure why i didn't post these originally (duh!) but here are the links to the tutorials i used for the snack bag and the sandwich wrap.   that should answer a few questions.  i just used cotton frabric.  my wrap was 10"x10" and i used a cut ziplock bag as the liner.  that was the safest material for food, in my opinion.  dont limit yourself to just these tutorials though.  there are tons all over the web. find what you like :) hth!

homemade holiday

i dubbed this Christmas season...

"the season not to get stressed out over making homemade gifts" season.

i did well not stressing out over needing to make all the gifts.

but of course i couldnt go without making some :)

the littles made cookies in a jar.

(the making part was much more fun then they actually tasted...)

i made up some 'cookies of the month' coupon rings for a few great people :)

the little man now has his very own apron.

(made and embroidered by mommy ;)

so he doesnt have to wear his sister's cupcake one anymore :)

(hunting down some cute hockey fabric was an adventure of it's own.)

and lilly got another sandwich wrap :)

(this gets a post of its own sooner or later...)

we (as in i told dave what to do...) did make one more thing.

some glass hurricane vases for dave's mom.

they were pretty.  why did i not take a picture?

boo.

i may just have to make another set.

jen-liners.

Most of the time I don’t know what I am talking about.
But... sometimes some pretty classic things come out of my mouth.

Enter my new series: Jen-liners
Things I say that make me laugh.
(At myself.)
Especially when repeated in my head.

Like my coulda been on fb series...
I will be writing my lines down as they come to me.
And storing them up for future posts.

enjoy. or not :)

-You are not wearing handcuffs to church.

-You don’t get to whine about everything.

-I do not want to hear the word poopie again… unless you have to go poopie.

-Let’s not do anything that we have to change our pants about.

-You think you’re hilarious all the time. But you’re really not.
(That’s actually a 2 liner by Dave.)

(and just for kicks...)
the spell check did not like the word 'poopie.'
it did however offer these words as replacements...

*potpie
*pope
*poppy
*poppies
*people

My Life People ~Meet Arminda!~

Hello 12th segment of My Life People...
meet Arminda!!

1. How do you know me?

We met through blogging. Which is weird considering we went to the same church at the time. :)

2. Tell us 5 positive addictions you have.

1. Blogging

2. Photography

3. Baking (it's positive because others benefit from it! ;)

4. Coffee (otherwise mommy doesn't act quite right)

5. Music

3. What is something you find interesting? Beautiful? Intriguing? Perfect?

The sky! I'm a sucker for astronomy and meteorology. Anything and everything up there, it doesn't matter. Clouds, the weather, stars, planets, meteor showers, the moon, all of it. There isn't much else that proves (to me at least) the awesomeness of our God!

4. 5 things recently crossed off your to-do list

1. Make a rag quilt.

2. Plan a lunch date with my mother-in-law.

3. Mail Christmas cards.

4. Finish Christmas shopping.

5. Be chosen for your My Life People. Like for real.

5. If you had to guess right now what do you think your children are going to grow up and become for their professions? and why?

Well my oldest son, R, who is days away from turning six is the most outgoing, friendly person I have every met. People tease that he's going to grow up to be a politician because he just HAS to meet everyone he sees! However I have seen him already witnessing to some of the neighborhood kids this summer so I wouldn't be surprised if he grew up to be a pastor. :)

My youngest, M, who is three is so gentle and quiet. This is a hard one to answer for him because he follows big brother around so much. :) But if I had to pick one thing I would say maybe a veterinarian? Or something with the zoo. He loves animals and is so gentle with our cat. He carries his little stuffed animals around and he "fixes" them when they are sick or have boo boos. So that's my guess. :)

Check out Arminda's blog.   http://www.allthatriffraff.blogspot.com/

(you will be glad you did.)

My notes on Arminda:
Oh Arminda :) I love this girl.  She is one of the few special "Me too.Same here.I hear ya." girls in my life. She has a way of brightening my spirits at the exact moment that I am needing a little sunshine.  She is in my life for a bigger reason than I can imagine and I am so glad that we found each other.  And I am so grateful for that one time I stalked her down at the grocery store to give her a hug in real life ;)  When I think of Arminda... I think of many things.  Her beautiful photography talent.  Her craftsy abilities.  Her heart.  Her true spoken words.  The obstacles that she has overcome and let grow her.  The 3 handsome men in her life.  But mostly I think this of Arminda.  "Beautiful woman of God."  And I am reminded again what a blessing I have in her.