bittersweet symphony

10 on tuesday

1. December 1st?! How did that happen? I just put the halloween/fall decorations away, threw away the last bit of harvest mix that I couldn't finish and put up Christmas decorations this weekend!

2. How was your thanksgiving? Hope you had lots of your favorite foods and got to share time with loved ones.

3. Is it wrong to hid green beans in spaghetti sauce? Brady, who basically only eats carbs and meat (goldfish and chickens), needs his veggies. So I used my Pampered Chef food chopper to chop up a whole can of green beans and put it in my spaghetti sauce last night and Brady ate 2 bowls!! I figured everybody was getting their veggies that way. Now how can I hide some fruit?

4. I love reading blogs and commenting but I forget that I have a blog to post too! I figured I better update soon before I lose my 5 readers! I know www.lovethesimplethings.typepad.com will be happy to look at a new post!

5. Still busy editing a last minute halloween wedding and my last shoot of the season. Two things I need to do in 2010...get a new camera (mine is doing the slow death, it doesn't want to focus all the time). I am thinking Nikon...only because of Ashton Kutcher's commercials and Karen Russell shoots Nikon now. Maybe I could sell my lenses and flash on craigslist. And the laptop needs overhauled. It has never been right since Face book but I need it through the holidays.

6. Eddie spent the better part of the day yesterday loading more CD's onto our IPod touch. Now here's a question - what do you do with your CD's once they are loaded onto the ipod or mp3 player? Do you resell them? Pack them away in boxes?

7. After our thanksgiving cabin getaway, we put up our christmas tree on saturday. The boys couldn't wait! then on Sunday we got another tree! We put that one up too. why 2 trees? Well when we were hanging up ornaments, we kept coming to meemaw's ornaments that she made all the kids growing up, and we didn't want them to get lost on our big tree. So we decided to decorate a smaller tree with just things that meem made eddie growing up. Lots of ornaments,an elf candy cane holder, carolers, a plane, a train with cars and even the Santa towel holder she made after we were married.  It's eddie's favorite tree. I think Meem would have gotten a kick out of it. 

8. After seeing New Moon. I am team Abs Jacob. There was something oh so wrong about it all, but I couldn't stop watching. I was so excited to see Tara's Team Jacob shirt she was sporting on turkey day! the boys called us Twilight geeks- but we didn't care!  Anybody watching True Blood on HBO? tara brought some of the episodes - it's about vampires -but it's SO GRAPHIC, in your face. I would not recommend it, I am still recovering from seeing one episode.  I will stick with Twilight, thank you very much.

9. what's up with romantic comedies lately? The last 2 that I have seen: Couples Retreat & 4 Christmases (both with Vince Vaughn) They were okay. Couples Retreat - funny with a LOT of serious, almost awkward moments. 4 Christmases with Reese Witherspoon also. it was just okay. And Reese is my girl. But I just couldn't like it. One thing her hair kept changing from her hair to a really bad wig or hairpiece. So I started watching for that. But more serious than comedy. Have you seen any good movies lately?

10. I think I am going to do the Ali Edward's christmas book. But maybe put it together in January - just keep my journaling and bits in a little notebook. I still have time to take a picture today so I am not already behind.  Okay I have an hour and 1 minute left, better get this posted and go take my picture!

good night!

10 on tuesday

1. Typepad changed again! Since last time I logged in...maybe I should log in more!

2. Tuesdays are my most productive day it seems...so many things crossed off my to do list.

3. Catching up on DVR'ed shows...love fast forwarding through the commercials.

4. Did anyone watch the CMA's? Country music awards? I am country girl at heart...grew up listening to my Dad's country music: Johnny Cash, George Jones, Slim Whitman, Merle Haggard, Waylan Jennings...then in high school my country music: Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Reba, Martina.  I got away from it for a couple years...so back to it...watching the CMA's (I like to tape so you can fast forward thru all the speeches). I love Sugarland, Big & Rich, Lady Antebellum and who doesn't like Taylor Swift? Did anyone see Darius Rucker? Yes Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish is now country.  It's good to see Brooks & Dunn are on their last rodeo tour. Those guys need to retire. Love that there is so much crossover these days- Dave Matthews, Kid Rock and Daughtery played. I don't get what the big deal is about Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban and Brad Paisley.

5. I think I might throw up...I just saw my first "Every Kiss begins with Kay" commercial...it's now officially the holiday season.

6. Love happy mail days...look what came in the mail on 11-3-09

no I didn't win the thickers contest...but I do have 10 new shiny packs of them to hoard and some clearance halloween papers from 2 peas. And I pre-ordered the pioneer woman's cookbook from amazon...ummm...it's more than a cookbook, it's an art book. Filled with photos and stories in-between the yummy recipes.

7. Is every blog having a giveaway? Seems in all my surfing, every blog is asking for comments to be entered in the contest! win Studio Calico! Win a necklace! Win a class pass! Win everything from elle's studio! Win a dream book! Man I hope I get picked for something!

8. I made a challenge with myself...to try to use something from the pantry or the freezer for every meal the next couple weeks.  I love to "stock up" on essentials when there is a good sale and I have coupons...but do I really need 10 boxes of pasta, 4 bags of egg noodles, 6 boxes of instant potatoes, 18 cans of veggies, 7 jars of spag sauce, 9 boxes of brownies, 4 boxes of cake mix, 2 muffin mixes, 8 boxes of unopened cereal and more.  In the freezer: chicken, pork tenderloins, ground turkey,enedame, cheese (yes you can freeze cheese as long as you use it for cooking -it gets a little sticky when it defrosts).  I need to stop buying! and start using what's on hand.

9. Looking forward to Friday! 5-11 Crop at archivers...then 11:00PM showing of NEW MOON. When I read the 2nd book in the twilight series - I was Team Jacob... we'll see after the movie if I feel the same.

10. And thank you for all your sweet & happy comments on my last post. Please know each and everyone of you are a blessing to me! Thank you for being in my life, caring and sharing in this journey. I am grateful for you and your friendship.

And here are a couple of recent favs...even if I had to use the flash, indoors, gasp!

Brady. Cheese, almost painful grin, icing from riley's b-day cake
 

brady. sweet little dirty face, with big brother's t-ball cap on, hoodie on, wearing pj pants, scooping up a handful of leaves off to chase his brother.
 

riley. aka bumblebee. He loved this costume, even though mama wasn't ready for a character costume. I love that I can see his green-brown eyes, and I know he is grinning from ear to ear.

 

   

grateful

While running some errands at lunch today, I was waiting at a traffic light and I was about to start crying due to the crushing sadness weighing on my heart , then I looked up...

In the clear blue bright cloudless November sky, I saw a flock of birds. They were flying in formations, little birds twisting and turning in the sky. A couple smaller groups joined in the big group, a couple of little solo birds joined too until they were all swooping and turning in one big flight.  No doubt they were training for their upcoming southern migration...but it meant more to me in that moment...

It reminded me:

when I need Him, just look up. 

I am not alone. I have lots of "birdies" I can turn to. My sadness is not all my own. I am grieving for my parents what should have been, and for what's left in it's place. 

I am grateful for this reminder today. I am grateful for changes in schedules, grateful for a husband that is home at nights to help with dinner/laundry/dishes/bath time/bedtime, grateful for our health, grateful for my 2 happy healthy boys.  Grateful for my life.

what are you grateful for today?

{for the love} THICKERS!!

http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/userblogpost.asp?id=43109

have you seen this? a chance to win $600 in thickers! you have to purchase some before 10-31-09 to be entered in the contest. Erin, you in?

10 on tuesday - peek for {S} family

Thank you sweet (s) family! My first session with them, avery was in her mama's belly, now she is 3! 2 sweet girlies. I keep finding new ones as I go thru their shoot - just so much love for each other and their girlies.

I had to throw this one in...yoda and batman today at story hour.

reason # 328 I love pampered chef

Dear Pampered Chef,

(I think I have finally gotten over the fact you no longer make or sell my coffee, the reason I started drinking coffee in the first place).  Anyways, I just wanted to say thank you for making kid friendly products! You are a lifesaver! Especially last night, in my attempt to keep the boys busy so they would stop fighting, we decided to make some apple spice cake. At the mere mention of baking, the boys both will drag chairs from the table of to the counter.  Your pink nylon knife (from your whip cancer campaign) helped my 5 year old chop up apples on the mini bar cutting board on my right.  Perfect size for his hands. While your easy clean brush helped my 2 year old on my left "clean and scrub" our bowls as we made a mess. The long handle let  him reach the dishes and kept him dry for a couple extra minutes. But the best part? The hugs and kisses I got from my oldest: I love helping you mama! Mama, I love you! this is so much fun! I can chop these apples and I don't have to go to the hospital! I am being safe mama!  And my youngest kept looking over and smiling and patty my arm, not believing I was letting him play in the water for so long.  

thanks again for all that you do,

Rachel

In case you are in need of any PC products to help you make wonderful memories...they do have an outlet store.... check it out!

www.pamperedchef.biz/courtneystein

whatever wednesday

1.trying to keep up with the POTD..missed a couple days..but I can't get my pics to upload in the right order. Just figured out my camera's time stamp is off by a day. So must get my manual out and figure out what is going on.

2. made 5 layouts last night. They were pretty simple and quick, not worthy of a magazine.  Just pictures I love and wanted to get the stories down before I forget them.

3. I cleaned out my paper stash (inspired by Erin) and re-organized my paper so it is standing up in a basket, sorted and divided with chipboard by categories. I think this will work out good for me. I can flip thru it and see what I have...I will have to post a picture. Found lots of duplicates & triples of the same piece of paper too! 

4. I love looking at craig list. I keep looking at the same post:  a 15 drawer card catalog in Tallmadge for $100.00. Would it be wrong to barter with the seller and buy it even if I don't have the room for it yet...

5. I want to post some stuff on craigslist, but I am afraid people will contact me! Aack Strangers!

6. 3 confirmed cases of H1n1 at riley's pre-school.

7. Grey's last week? it is starting to annoy me. I do not like Alex and Izzy together. Good now maybe Izzy will go find her long lost daughter she gave up for adoption. And Alex trying to cry and show emotion? Awkward. But Dr. Bailey on Private Practice? love it

8. 2 more football games left in the regular season. There might be a chance for playoffs, so the marching season marches on.

9. Did you get flu shots this season?

10. hoping for good weather on Saturday between 12:30 and 3 PM...

T10

1. Target Clearance. $ 1.24 t-shirts for Riley (add a long sleeve layer- he can wear them for fall and I won't care when he comes home with orange paint all over the sleeves from preschool). Did you know if the orange sticker price ends in a "4", this is the last mark down on that item?

2. Old school music on the radio making me happy today: December (Counting Crows) Whoop there it is (Tag Team) Jump, Jump (kriss kross - did you ever wear your clothes backwards or shave some stripes in your eyebrows?) and classic Billy Joel.

3. waiting for www.scrapbookpictures.com to have another sale, I have a ton of pictures waiting to be printed.

4. cheese pizza, yum.

5. Trying to arrange a day for the boys to spend the whole day and maybe the night at my sister's. My reason? Date night with the hubby? Well if you can call "let's see how many house projects we can knock off the list today" a date, well yes then.

6. Disappointed in old navy sweater coats, they just didn't fit the curves well. And starbucks pumpkin spice lattes? After my second one,  I must agree with elizabeth, I sure like the idea of pumpkin spice lattes...not the taste so much.

7. Need to find my scrap table so I can pack for a crop this weekend. And excited for the chance to see shelly, erin, missy, marie, stephanie and meet Laina this weekend.

8. Recent rented movies: Observe & Report: with anna farris & seth rogen - a mall security cop, looking for love. Even for me the humor was crude, rude and just gross.  That's $3.99 and 90 minutes of my life I won't get back. State of Play: Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Russell Crowe, Robin Penn Wright, Jason Bateman.  Oh my, filled with suspense, twists and turn of the plot. Wow. Good movie. 2 things that bothered me: Russell Crowe's hair and Rachel McAdams is too cute to be in this movie.

9. I walked into my SIL dance studio tonight, to borrow a lens, and nostalgia almost knocked me over. For some reason, the sights & sounds took me right back to McCardles dance studio and the waiting room. It was my second home for 7 years growing up. I took ballet, tap & jazz. I remember taking an extra quarter in my dance bag to get a bottle of coca-cola after class. It was one of those old red vending machine that dispensed glass bottles. Mr. McCardle forever changed my life because he called me Raquel. He made this shy little girl stand tall and dance. Oh how I miss dancing.  Thank you Miss for bringing back that memory. I think a scrapbook picture is needed.

10.  Tuesdays seem to be my most productive day of the week. What is yours?

and because a post without pictures is boring...here is an outtake from a recent session. can you just hear the giggles as miss A gets tickled by her mama? love the nose scrunches...

manic monday

I barely made it out of the house this morning, it was just one of those mornings. Riley was upset about EVERYTHING, Brady was crying for cinnamon toast crunch, but everytime he saw the box, he would cry harder "I no like dat", we finally settled on a waffle.  Riley had a field trip today, I really couldn't miss work and neither could eddie. I asked Papa if he would like to go to the apple orchard. He was excited to take Riley. (I can not say how thankful and grateful I am for Grammie & Papa these last 2 years - even more so- with everything with my parents falling part, they have always been there to save the day and they love our boys oh so much) Back to this morning, we made it out the door and by the time we got to grammie & papa's - all tears were dried, including mine.  whew.  But my mama's  heart is still heavy. Wishing we could have stayed in bed this morning, snuggled, ate breakfast in our pj's and stayed home & made apple crisp.

On a much lighter note, I never got on the 365 POTD bandwagon, even though it's fun to look thru other 365 galleries, maybe next year, BUT I did start an OCT POTD. figured - why not since fall is my favorite season. Hopefully I can keep it up for 31 days in a row.

Halloween costumes have been picked out & purchased. While Daddy watched the Browns almost win, and Brady took a nap, Riley and I went to Target.  He really wanted to be Optimus Prime (but they didn't have his size) next best thing: Bumble Bee (he's the yellow caramo autobot in Transformer movie). Riley helped pick out Brady's outfit (no transformers, buzz lightyear, or woody in his size) so it was between candy corn and Batman. Riley picked batman. Brady does love "datman" and "spiderman" so I thought why not.

after we got home, eddie decided it was time to move the living room around. Okay I love to change things up a bit...but it makes me kinda grumpy in the process...because you see all the "stuff" that gets accumulated.  Plus I took down my extra scrap table - now everything is piled high in my corner. So I think once I get that back in order it will be okay and I will be less grumpy. Anybody need a barely played guitar hero, wicker & wrought iron sofa table,  or a sony rack stereo system with those huge *ss speakers? And I kinda freaked out when we unplugged the DVR - my unwatched shows! my timers! will it tape Army Wives & Drop Dead Diva. Umm it was all still there when plugged back in. (sheepishly grins) I must say this set up does provide more wall space for the picture gallery I have in my mind. Now just to execute it...

10 on tuesday

1. something excited to announce! a joint venture with my SIL missy

2. feels more like winter outside tonight instead of fall. Is it wrong that I am happy that soccer practice got canceled tonight? It meant we actually got to sit down and relax during our dinner. And Daddy got to help riley with his homework while I got dinner ready. 

3. i love coupons. And clearance. I saved $18 at CVS with coupons today & $21.50 at Target. Bonus: paid $1.74 for 50 sheets of 12 x 12 (kraft, white & black) wausua cardstock on the clearance. Love target orange stickers! Tomorrow's errand: Giant Eagle. Hello double coupons and fuelperks.

4. I need a new book to read during my lunch hour.  Any recommendations? I want to re-read Twilight before the movie comes out in November.

5.  This one cracks me up. This is so Brady right now - first picture at Daddy's football game. Don't look to close you might spy some leftover cookies in his teeth.  He is just a silly baby. And can you tell his eyes are still 2 different blues?

6. This one makes my heart hurt.  Riley loves his Daddy like nothing else. And Daddy loves his boys (little men) like nothing else.

7. Sushi from Acme? Not too bad. But makes me want to go to Hibachi Japan. Like.right.now.

8. This month we got to celebrate a very special first birthday. Happy Birthday Jordan! Jordan will be

a big sister in March 2010. We love you bug!  

 okay typepad won't let me move these photos. sorry for the awkward placement.

9.  Claudia Joy! (inside joke)

10. I am ready to go shopping for some new fall sweaters and boots. Sweater coats at Old Navy?

super cute.