Communication

Or lack thereof. For a long time we have been a cellular free family. (Long time meaning shortly after Olivia entered our family). It wasn't to make a statement, or to get back to an older and calmer way of life, or to free ourselves from the hussel and bussel associated with "I can get a hold of you whenever I want" type of living associated with the 21st century. We like crazy, we LOVE hectic. I consider the Internet to be a close personal friend of mine. Money got tight, so cell phones were the first to go. And oh how I mourned their loss.

Meet my 'lil beaut!

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The whole year+ that we went without them I mourned them. I never once thought "Oh, this is so great to live a simpler life." With Marcus leaving soon (2.5 weeks) it was high time to get one again. On the off chance that Marcus will get phone privileges, it would suck big time to miss that one call because the girls and I were playing at the park or something.

Apparently this is called a qwerty phone because it has ALL the letters of the alphabet on the keypad. Word on the street is this makes for much easier texting abilities. Texting has been so much fun! I didn't really text much before when we did have cell phones, but I am making up for lost time. It also has a camera to take pictures!!

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Does this make me sound like I am ONE HUNDRED years old and living in civil war reenactments? Yes! Do I care in this least of how dated I am? NO!

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It's my new phone. I absolutely love it. Right down to its snazzy blue protection case. Excuse me whilst I sigh in euphoric contentment.

MMMmmmmm, like lick your fingers good!

Don't worry, I am not crazy. I understand that this is indeed a book and is not safe for human consumption. But it IS delicious... equally so for my brain and my tummy. Confused much? Allow me to explain.

This my friends is a CULINARY mystery. Kaitlyn loaned it to me and I will be forever grateful.

Here is an intro about the book.

A recipe for murder!

-5 families living on Peregrine Circle

-1 flowered curtain tie back

-1 missing child

-1 one body in the field

Mix with a long list of suspects and top with two very different detectives. Increase heat until only the truth remains!

Such a good read, so fun and so many twists and turns. I kept picturing Sadie to be this Angela Lansbury type gal. Plus a lot of the food mentioned in the book during the story are detailed in recipes at the end of the chapters.

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I have tried out a few of them and OH. MY. HECK. They are amazing!! Best brownies ever and the cookies were to DIE for (he he he, get it ... to die for... it's a murder mystery... alright I know I am lame!). I have further found out that the author used her family's favorite recipe's in the book. My tummy will be forever grateful. There are three in the series so far. I can't wait to read the next one. It is titled..... wait for it.... wait for it...

ENGLISH TRIFLE

Trifle might be the most amazing invention mankind has ever made. I will be reading this book at the very least for no other reason then to get my hands on the recipes. It is an added bonus that the author is a pretty amazing writer! Please read these, you will be so glad that you did!

Operation Milk Parlor Status Update

Who knew? Who knew how much of a difference getting a full nights sleep could make?

Baby is happier. Momma is happier. It's just so magical.
For two nights there was crying off and on from 5:30-7, and then on day three she slept straight through and has for every night since. I left her in her crib until 7 the first days because if I was going to train her to sleep straight I figured might as well shoot for the moon and pick a wake up time that worked good for the whole family.

I forgot how good it felt to sleep straight through like that. Both of my girls have been waking up between 7 and 7:30 and it has been perfect. I know I am jinxing myself and now for two weeks they will wake up at 5 am ready to party, but I just couldn't resist. All this extra sleep makes me want to sing hallelujah from the roof tops.

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I'm also kinda kicking myself I didn't crack down sooner, we had Olivia sleeping through the night for a while at this stage. Oh well, at least she is on track now :)

Mekup

We have been having a situation in our house the last couple of weeks. A Mekup situation. Two weeks ago Olivia got the stomach flu, and there was quite a lot of throwing up. The nauseated feeling was a little confusing to her, so she ended up coming up with her own word that she would yell right before she would loose her breakfast.... MEKUP!! MEKUP!!
Just when I think that she is over it, and there is a day or two of no upchucking, she will throw up again. Not on purpose or anything, she just gets super nauseated and then looses it. We had to show her how to use a bowl to cut down on the laundry I was doing. Now my house is scattered with mixing bowels and Tupperware containers. If her stomach got queasy she would raid the Tupperware cupboard and then leave it when she would feel better, then run and grab another one 5 minutes later.

The most interest she has shown to food is her pretend kitchen stuff, which is really weird for me because this girl LOVES to eat... just like her Momma! It is hard to tell exactly when and for how long she feels nauseated for. I know for certain that there are some times that she is faking it (like to get out of a time out or brushing her teeth). She thinks yelling "Mekup" is a get out of jail free card, which I never let her get away with but she keeps trying it none the same.

There are also times that I know FOR sure that she isn't feeling good. I mean besides when she actually throws up, I can tell she is just off or really tired etc. It's just weird for it to last this long. Her surprise mekup attacks have really thrown me off, and have also resulted in some pretty big clean up jobs (like our car in her car seat and Kaitlyn's car in Isla's car seat).

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The first week of her being sick, Konks also had the runs from teething and was pooping out of every diaper. So between my two girls I was running 2-3 loads of laundry just from their messes. Thankfully Konks digestive track is now on a more even keel and I have yet to have Olivia mekup for 2 days. I am hoping we are done with mekups for real now! So if you are around Olivia and you hear her yell Mekup, make sure to run for your life ;)

We so pweety!

"Mom?" .... "Mom!"... "MOM!!!" ..... "Yook Mom, we so PWETTY!".

The girls got into my makeup, more specifically my mascara (you can see the tube under Konks seat). They (meaning Olivia) then decided to beautify themselves. There is no more black substance in that tube. (Substance?? Seriously I don't know how to categorize mascara. Is it a paste? Schmear? Liquid? Very tricksy mascara is... very tricksy).

I think Bianca was tickled pink to be apart of the action. Olivia also used the wand as a paintbrush. You can see some of her artwork on the table behind Konks.

Olivia got ONE eye pretty heavily with some added body paint for fun. I took these pictures before I saw Olivia's bedroom. I was pretty amused with everything up until this point, although we had some pretty big talks about how makeup is only for Mommy's ("No makeup for Daddy??" Olivia asked this of me, which only made me laugh more).

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Then I saw her room 5 minutes later. All the rest of the mascara substance/liquid/schmear is all over her walls. Then I didn't find it that funny, at least at the time I did not feel inspired to take pictures of it.

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Crazy highjinxs girls!

Jane Fonda, eat your heart out.

So firstly, Konks (and I) have commenced "operation milk parlor shut down". First to go is that dastardly 5am feeding. Lots of crying on both ends. She's crying, well because she wants me to feed her and I'm crying cause I am so dang exhausted (she wants to eat out of habit, not because she really needs it. Plus she is 10 months and it is high time for her to sleep through the night). This morning started with lots of poop from the bigger one and the little one, resulting in lots of soapy water for clean up. I thought I would make something magical for breakfast for my big little girl, so I whipped up some steel cut oats. Only to have her decide she didn't really feel like eating.
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Then everyone proceeds to have major meltdowns (if you can't beat em, join em... right?).
I decided right then and there to have a very productive day today. Nothing can turn around a rough start day like a glistening clean house. To also brighten my mood I decided to put on the most colorful clothing that I have. The result:

Hot pink yoga pants and teal blue shirt. I feel like all I need are leg warmers and then I could be an extra in a Jane Fonda work out video. So today I am going to clean, organize, take a deep breath and tell myself "I am trying as hard as I can."

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I did make a glorious batch of brownies yesterday. They are sitting on the counter, just begging to be eaten. Eating one wouldn't be so bad... would it? Especially if I burn the calories off with a good bathroom scrub down! MMMmmmm, brownies for breakfast....

A girl can dream.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

I have been getting increasingly more domestic, especially in the past year or so. Experimenting with new recipes, venturing into the precise and exact land that is baking. It is has been so fun, therapeutic, frustrating, exhilarating, tear jerkingly rewarding and delicious. Every time I start whipping up something magical I am painfully aware of two key things missing from my arsenal.

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Exhibit A: Cuisinart Food Processor. So many recipes and techniques either rely on this machine or would be made significantly easier with it. Just think of all the shredding, pureeing, emulsifying, slicing and combining I could accomplish with this beast!

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Exhibit B: Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. My hand held mixer will work for most baking recipes, but since I have been delving more and more into the land of carb heaven, I have realized that this machine is almost a must for making any kind of bread, unless I want to get carpel tunnel in my wrists from kneading. I especially dream of exhibit B on an almost daily basis. There is the one fact that it costs about a kerbillion dollars (or might as well because of our limited budget!).

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If only I had invested in these babies when we were newly wed, you know, back when we were BB (before babies). Back when there was always oodles of cash just lounging around our apartment (thank you waitressing job). If only we would have eaten out only one day a week instead of three. But no, instead I had to galavant across the countryside getting pedicures left and right and having luxurious, lazy afternoon lunch dates with girlfriends. I had to spend a ridiculous amount of money on scrap booking supplies that I would never use (seriously anybody interesting on acquiring some scrap booking gear?). If only....

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Oh well, I can dream of the day when I will one day own these bad boys. A day when, with my arsenal complete, I can mix and bake and whip myself into a coma.