same ol same ol

My dad's co-workers surprised him with a special luncheon on Monday for his 25th anniversary with the company. He was totally shocked. My mom and Mark were able to attend. I wish I was closer because I hear his reaction was priceless!

Here's my latest rag quilt. It's made for one of my co-workers who's also a member. I wanted to make a small blanket that she could use at church.

I used my favorite flower stitch around the edge.


Now here's a question... EVERYTIME I make a baby blanket I always go back and forth with the size. I always think of a big one for the crib is nice, but a small one to take along is also nice. So my question is... what size baby blanket do YOU prefer?

Dinner :)

oh my goodness we just ate a delicious meal! enchiladas! but we didnt use traditional enchilada sauce.

1 package flour tortillas

1 4 oz can diced green chiles

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 cups sour cream

1 pound cheese

10 cooked chicken tenders

1 can olives- sliced

Mix chiles, sour cream, soup, olives, and half of grated cheese together. divide mixture in half. add chicken to one half of mixture. roll into 10-12 tortillas and place in 9x13 ungreased pan. cover tortillas with remaining mixture. top with cheese and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

oh my goodness, its a must try! mike (our dinner guest) LOVED it! and he's, well, picky! ;)

830am-10pm running errands!

we sure were busy yesterday! i was up at 630am getting all of the lists ready for a day of running a gazillion errands. we left the house at 830am, started off with a trip to walmart. jaren drinks soda like constantly. he said if we got a brita pitcher for our water, he wouldn't drink so much. so of course that was the first thing on the list. we'll see if he meant what he said ; )

then we went to best buy. jaren wanted to buy a gps unit for his work truck. well the one he really wanted was $700 there! i thought we had saw it online somewhere else for a lot less, so our quest to find a cheaper one continued.

then we headed to michaels (for me, of course.) i found this EXTREMELY LARGE hot chocolate mug. it was ginormous, probably 62 oz. i just had to get it for andrea who drinks that much coffee everyday!

earlier this week andrea came over and made fun of our day to day menu on our refrigerator. she said we need to spice up our routine and not be so organized, LOL. so she gave us an olive garden gift card to break out from our routine. so we just had to use it yesterday. and i ventured away from what i always get. normally its a sprite, manicotti w/ salad. but yesterday, i got a cherry cream italian soda, pasta fagioli, and their new dish, 5 cheese stuff rigatoni w/ shrimp. IT WAS SOOOOO DELISH!!! has anyone noticed that they raised there prices? jarens tour of italy use to be $14.75 and its now $16.75! WOW!

then we were off to party city for supplies for the upcoming baby shower im hosting. and lucky me again, there was a dollar tree in the same shopping center :) i couldn't turn it down!

then we went to circuit city to see another gps unit. i made jaren circle the parking lot 3 times so i could take a picture of this funny truck.




it belongs to coconut joe's which is a beach grill type restaurant. i think its just hysterical! well circuit city still didnt have the price we were looking for on his gps, so back in the car we went!
its already getting pretty warm here and jarens fragile "hair" is beginning to get burned in the sun. saying this as nicely as possible, he has a large head, LOL. i can NEVER find hats for him. we went to one of those t-shirt outlets because they normally carry flex-fit hats which fit him just fine. but they didn't carry them. *sighs*

so we thought we'd head to andrea's to give her the mug. along the way we found another t-shirt outlet, and same thing, they didn't carry them. she loved the mug though! and jaren enjoyed playing with fred's new nintendo ds. do they ever grow out of the video game stage? i guess the night before they had a little get together and andrea took out her quillow. i now have orders like crazy!

after andrea's we thought we'd head home to check on the dog. it had been 6 hrs since we left! i got online and found that circuitcity.com had the gps unit but it was $50 less than what the in store price was. so i called them and they said they'd give it to us for that price.

so BACK to circuit city we went. and he FINALLY was satisfied with the unit and the price and got it. $250 less than best buy, what a deal! we were playing around with it last night and found that you can change what you want the person to sound like. british male or female, australian male or female, portugese, cantonese, mandarin, spanish, many many more! it was sooo cool! it even has a english to whatever language dictionary. im kinda jealous now! ; ) the reason he wanted this particular unit is because you can set it up for automobile or semi-truck. and in semi-truck mode, it wont send you down any roads truck cant be on. and it adjust the time accordingly.

then we went to the mall because we were still on a mission for a hat for big head, hehe. no such luck! but we did spend $32 AT A CANDY STORE! IM STILL BAFFLED ABOUT THAT!!

then back to home we were going. but again, had to stop at the dollar tree for some items i couldnt find at the other one.

when jaren got home, he was playing around with his gps and was giving bugsy sun chips and watermelon licorice. our friend mike had called and invited us over for a bbq. so i started making a pasta salad to take. then bugsy decided his stomach was feeling to good and threw up all over the place! we cleaned it up and headed to mikes. but the watermelon licorice made such a stain.

so after a delicious bbq at mikes, we went BACK to walmart for carpet cleaner. then did our weekly grocery shopping at winco. we love winco! AND FINALLY ARRIVING BACK HOME AROUND 10PM! *GEESH!*

when we took bugsy out for the last time of the evening the little white dog (yes, he's STILL around) came to taunt bugsy. jaren tried to chase him off and stepped in a huge hole and down he went. he now has a sprained ankle that he cant put any weight on. it may not be a big deal to many, but when your job is driving a truck with lots of clutching, its panicky. so i'm making him spend the day on the couch with his foot above his heart and dousing with icy hot.

is anyone still reading this? THANKS! other than that, we're having mike over for dinner tonight. its kind of tradition now every sunday. for dessert we're making a chocolate cake w/ chocolate, coconut, pecan frosting. mmmmmm!!!!!

T.V. Heaven

Did anyone else enjoy David Beckham on Ellen as much as I did? I couldn't stop smiling the entire segment, OH MY GOSH! And the ending, walking down the hallway, TOO TOO CUTE!!

Also YAY for new episodes of Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy. I love t.v.

insomnia...

normally i sleep right through jarens alarm clock. but not this morning! and lucky me, it was set for 4am!! i tried to fall back asleep but then my mind started racing with an upcoming new craft project, LOL. i know, so sad! so at 430am i was doing what all normal people do when they can't sleep. i made a QUILLOW!! it gave me great satisfaction! this was my first attempt at making one. it was totally easy! for those who don't know what a quillow is, where on earth do live? hehe. a quillow is a quilt with a pocket for your feet, or you can fold it up into the pocket and it becomes a pillow. in all it cost me $14 (including batting) and took me 2 hrs. to make. not bad right!

i gave it to andrea this morning who loved it! i also found a poem online that i included with it....

Use me as a pillow
Unless you get cold
Then pull out my stuffing
And gently unfold
I'm a lap quilt now
With space for your feet
And when you're all done
Fold me back nice and neat

its now naptime before i go to work. :) YAY FOR ALMOST BEING THE WEEKEND!!

p.s. someday i'll do a rag quilt quillow and call it a raquillow!

Happy Earth Day!

I'm doing my part by doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING today!

Nothing exciting to report. We are having chicken crispers tonight for the 3rd time in 9 days. Jaren may have a friend over for dinner. My hours at work got cut. So now I only work Mon, Tues and Friday. This is a good thing! I still hate working there but won't be leaving anytime soon since I don't want a lapse in my health insurance. That's about it. Sorry, LOL.

Oh ya, I'm going to try my hand at candle making. Soy candles to be exact. Any tips?

Monday already? UGH!

My parents came out to visit this weekend with Andrew. It was LOTS of fun of course! He LOVED the silky I made him. We had fun just hanging out at Andrea's house and watching all the kids get to know each other. It was sad to see them leave yesterday but I believe they'll be back in a few weeks :) And check out the printer my dad bought me "just cause", he said. Again... I LOVE my dad, LOL.

Andrew's silky

final product...

thought i'd kick it up a notch by adding a a decorative stitch and monogram.

hopefully (but im sure it will) this one won't end up in the waterfall like the last one!! but i'm making a 2nd one for him just to cover myself.

HOW HARD IS IT?!?!?

i pulled through mcdonalds this morning for some breakfast. which i never do but i was up early doing some errands and got hungry. so i got home and expected to see a muffin, sausage, bacon, eggs, pancakes, and a hashbrown. did i see that? NOOO!!! first let me say, i dont eat ALL that food. i give the eggs, bacon and sausage to bugsy. so what did i see instead? a BISCUIT (which i HATE), eggs (which i HATE), and sausage. so it was bugsys lucky morning! i called them to let them know they messed up my order. she told me the lady inputted my order incorrectly. DUH! YOU THINK? so i said back, "so i just paid $7 for a sausage biscuit thats normally 99 cents, thanks!) and i hung up. obviously im still not feeling like myself lately!

on a happy note, im making andrew a new silkie blankie today. this is my first attempt, we'll see how i do!

sick of being sick!

last week i had a horrible cough that made me lose my voice for 3 days. then it went away and i felt just fine. then yesterday i start feeling icky again! plugged ears, watery itchy eyes, stuffed nose, then draining nose, coughing, achy body, JUST NOT FUN!! so after staying home from work for 2 days the only thing i've managed to do is a necktie onsie.

i've seen these on deseretbook.com. but who wants to pay close to $20?? so i got a onsie from the dollar tree, a fat quarter of striped fabric from joann's for 99 cents and the heat n bond was around $3, but i got a whole yard which is enough to make 30+ of these!! then i just did a simple zig zag stitch around the edges to "seal" on the iron-on and easy cheesy, all done! i've heard of people using old ties for this too. but jarens ties were either REALLY ugly or he REALLY liked it and i was not allowed to cut it up!

my dad was in town yesterday on a business trip. he ended up buying us dinner and stayed the night at our place :) i love my dad! and bugsy was THRILLED to see him! he tried to sleep in bed with him, but papa wasn't feeling that up to it!

my parents are suppose to visiting this weekend. they may possibly bring andrew (marks son) who is just a hoot to play with and watch him french kiss the dog! LOL.

HUGE NEWS!

My mom quit her job!! YESSS SHE DID!! she literally walked into her branch with a note that said I QUIT!! 15 yrs. down the tubes! She's going to enjoy being a stay at home grammy though! She seems totally fine with it too, very calm and relaxed and happy about it!

Also Rachel (SIL) "forgot" her appt. yesterday. So we still have no idea what's going on inside her. We just know she's due in a less than 8 wks.

Chili's chicken crispers w/ honey mustard

CHICKEN CRISPERS

Ingredients

1 egg
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup self rising flour
10 chicken tenderloins
1/2 cup flour
6-10 cups oil (for frying)

Directions

1) Heat oil in fryer to 350 degrees F.

2) Combine egg, milk, chicken broth, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Whisk for about 30 seconds to dissolve salt. Whisk in 1 cup self rising flour. Let the batter sit for 5 minutes.

3) Coat each piece of chicken with dry flour, and then dunk the chicken into the batter. Let a little batter drip off the chicken and lower it into the hot oil. Fry for 7 to 9 minutes.

4) Repeat with the remaining chicken, frying 3 to 4 tenderloins at a time. Drain fried chicken strips on paper towels and serve with honey mustard dressing.

HONEY MUSTARD

Ingredients

2/3 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 pinch paprika
1 pinch salt

Directions

1) Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk until combined.


I read some peoples reviews and they omitted the vinegar and paprika. I added a bit more honey for sweetness. I guess just play around with it until it taste like what you want.

diaper baby, ROFL

who knew 20 diapers rolled up could do this? LOL.

I LOVE SUNDAYS!

Our homemade chicken crispers turned out WONDERFULLY!!! They tasted exactly like Chilis! I also made their honey mustard dipping sauce. It was such a great dinner! And to top it off, I bought spumoni ice cream. MMMM!!!!

Look, I found more $2/yd. fabric. This one is very "jungle retro!" LOL.

Tonight for dessert we made smore brownies. Just a graham cracker crust w/ brownies mix and toasted marshmellows on top. We got a little hungry and had to test them out before hand of course! ;)

They burnt a little. LOL.
But that's because we were busy getting Bugsy's pawprint. We are OBSESSED with our dog! When it dries, I'll paint it a little darker.

He did NOT like us getting his print! He hid for a good hour!

2nd blog coming in a few hours. Jaren's calling me to the living room to watch Prince of Egypt with him. HMM... RANDOM! I'm also making a diaper baby. You'll laugh when you see it!

YAY for weekends!

Too funny! Today I checked my cousin's blog and my SIL's blog and both had pics up of there sonograms! Yay! Can't wait for my new little nephew and crossing my fingers my new little 2nd cousin is a girl (what they're hoping for.) Update on my other SIL's pregnancy, she's finally going in on Monday for her first ultrasound. Did I mention she's due early June? Also, friend Holly (ttc for 10 yrs!) is due 9-11.

I recently checked out my cousin Anissa's blog and she had yummy looking crepes she made. I decided that if I was going to drag Jaren out this weekend to run errands, I HAD to do something special for him for breakfast. So I stole her idea and here's how mine turned out. The chocolate ganache was delish! Thanks for sharing your breakfast Anissa!

Also I finally painted a coffee filter rose with watercolor. This is a pretty fun/easy/cheap craft.

NEW Fabric!

I got a haircut today. I feel so refreshed! I think my last haircut was in August. I know, SO BAD!

Then I decided I'd go fabric shopping. Check out the adorable coordinates I got....

AND, each was only $2/yd! I just LOVE the pink butterflies with the matching polka dots! And it's going to look SOOO cute with the flower stitch around the edge! They also had the coordinating hot pink w/ white polka dots and lime green w/ white polka dots. I could've gone crazy!

Next week Jaren and I have decided to try all new recipes for dinner. We're getting burned out on the "originals." I found a copycat recipe to Chili's chicken crispers! MMMM... we LOVE those!! We're also going to try to make carnitas, french dip sandwiches and a new chicken enchilada recipe with white sauce. I'll report back how it all goes!

PICS!

Emily's dress

cute flowered straps using the flower stitch on my sewing machine

jarens valentines blanket finally completed!

diaper cake, kinda. i always saw the round ones and thought i'd try to make a square one. im not as proud of it as i thought i would be. i'm going to stick to the round ones from now on. and i havent yet made the topper, so i improvised.

jungle quilt. just to have on hand.



this is a dog made from a pair of gloves. first attempt, be nice, LOL.

bugsy likes it though

Uneventful...

Woke up @630am! Had this new breakfast fav of ours called, "Bagelfuls." It's a stuffed bagel pretty much that you toast. They make it in chive flavor, strawberries and cream, original, and cinnamon. We're hooked on the chive!

Then we watched the movie, "The Gameplan" w/ The Rock as a football player who finds out he has a daughter etc. It's exactly how you think the movie would go and it is still a very cute movie!

My sister called wanting a babysitter for my niece while she took my nephews to go see, "Nims Island." We of course said yes, and they enjoyed there movie.

When my niece got here, we were really excited to get to play with her! But apparently it was nap time! :( We hardly saw her, LOL.

So I thought i'd finish some over due craft projects that have been lingering around in my head. Remember Jarens Valentine's blanket? FINALLY finished it! haha. Finished the diaper cake and made a quick dress for my sleeping niece. Made some more coffee filter roses and started working on a blanket for a lady at work requested. *sighs* I'll post pictures after the blankets are done washing. I'm needing to finish all these projects before I take on anything else! I'm getting in trouble with Jaren for trying to multi-task WAY to much! And taking over the 2nd bedroom with crafts galore ;) I still have 3 more "average" quilts to make for people, then one EXTRAORDINARY quilt for a family member. Probably not one that will read my blog, but just in case, I don't want to risk it! That quilt by far will be my greatest accomplishment! (craft wise)

Martha's Cupcake Week!

Hope everyone is enjoying Martha Stewart's Cupcake Week as much as I have!!! Check these cuties out! It's actually chocolate cake baked, then crumbled up. She mixed it with cream cheese frosting until it was like dough. Used a flower cookie cutter to form the bottom half. The top half just rounded like a cupcake. Then dipped the bottom half in chocolate, then stuck in the stick. Then dipped the top and did sprinkles and an m&m. So adorable! Downfall though, how many would it take to fill you up? Still cute though! Many thoughts are running through my mind of how cute you could display these!



How about on April Fools Day when she did these...


They used green runts and orange tootsie rolls for the peas and carrots. And many yellow and white colored jelly bellies and yellow laffy taffy for butter to make the corn. Oh Martha, what a kidder you are!

Also did anyone read the story on yahoo.com today about the 5th grader who noticed an error at the Smithsonian that's been there since 1981? I would've totally noticed it also, LOL! (hehe)

On a winter break trip with his family to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, the 11-year-old southwestern Michigan boy noticed that a notation, in bold lettering, mistakenly identified the Precambrian as an era.
Since it opened in 1981, millions of people have paraded past the museum's Tower of Time, a display involving prehistoric time. Kenton was the first to point out the error.
Kenton, who lives in Allegan but attends Alamo Elementary School near Kalamazoo, said his fifth-grade teacher, John Chapman, had nearly made the same mistake about the Precambrian in a classroom earth-science lesson before catching himself.
"I knew Mr. Chapman wouldn't tell all these students" bad information, the boy told the Kalamazoo Gazette for a story published Wednesday.
So Kevin Stufflebeam took his son to the museum's information desk to report Kenton's concern on a comment form.
Last week, the boy received a letter from the museum acknowledging that his observation was "spot on."
"The Precambrian is a dimensionless unit of time, which embraces all the time between the origin of Earth and the beginning of the Cambrian Period of geologic time," the letter says.
The solution to the problem would not involve advanced science but rather simply painting over the word "era," the note says.
While no previous visitors to the museum had brought up the error, it has long rankled the paleobiology department's staff, who noticed it even before the Tower of Time was erected 27 years ago, said Lorraine Ramsdell, educational technician for the museum.
"The question is, why was it put up with that on it in the first place?" Ramsdell said.
Excited as he was to receive the correspondence from museum officials, he couldn't help but point out that it was addressed to Kenton Slufflebeam. In Allegany.

All the Mommy-to-Be's

NEED TO SEND FERTILITY DUST MY WAY!!! c'mon now! :)

To all my girls who have announced there expecting! Good thing I just got my new sewing machine because I have a feeling I'll be spoiling each of them! LOL! Now if my sister Andrea gets pregnant before I do, I'm gonna flip!!