Favorites 2005 Edition

A few favorites from this year, judged by a work-at-home Mom. I guess you might say I give them 5 Potors. ;)

Dawn Botanicals. I absolutely love the smells. I put a lot of stock into soap smells (or the smell of anything, really). My favorite is the "Refreshing: Honeysuckle & Rain." A very close second is the "Uplifting: Lemongrass & Orange Blossom." I didn't like the smell of the Uplifting when I smelled it in the bottle, but it smells very good when you're actually washing dishes. I come close to enjoying doing the dishes now. At least I don't get the sudden urge to break any.

The Tunic. I found this shirt on Target.com. I bought it in Bittersweet (brown), and it's become my favorite shirt. Dress it up with a peasant skirt and boots, or down with jeans and sandals. I usually wear it with a beige tank underneath. This shirt is highly recommended for hiding all upper body flaws.

Coffee KitKats. Wow. Someone was a genius. You open this now-gone limited edition candy bar and it's like opening a new tub of Folgers. It's insanely good. Even my husband loves them, and he doesn't like coffee. I do like coffee, but I normally don't like coffee-flavored candy. I'm trying to decide whether I want to petition Hershey's to bring it out as a regular item, or if I'm glad it's gone so I won't gain 300 pounds.

Disney's Cinderella. This movie brings back so many memories that I can't even begin to tell them all to you. The one I will tell you is that when I was a kid and I would stay home sick from school, I would do a movie line-up. This is back before DVD, so I'd pile all the VHS tapes up in order, lay on the couch with chicken soup and a box of Kleenex, and pop one in right after another. They were always feel-good movies, and they were usually Disney. This movie always made the cut. I'm going to tell you now, The Little Mermaid comes out in October, so I know for sure that it will make the list next year.

The Star Wars Trilogy. They released the trilogy on DVD this year. My husband got it for Christmas because I'm a cool wife. I have to admit, it was partially a selfish gift. I knew he wouldn't watch them without me...

Mary Kay's Microdermabrasion Set. What used to cost $150 per treatment is now $55 for 30 treatments. Forgive me for the shameless plug, but I'm really excited about this! MK released this miracle product in March. Step 1 super-exfoliates the face down to baby-butt smoothness, then Step 2 replaces vitamins, balances pH, and calms skin down with anitoxidants and anti-irritants. We're the only company to offer the Step 2 serum. It's been marked by Shape magazine to be the best take-home microdermabrasion set on the market, and pre-market testing results show that in the first week, 85% of women noticed an improvement in skin texture, 73% saw a reduction in fine lines and wrinkles, and 71% saw smaller-looking pores. Who wouldn't buy that???? If you want to know more, just visit my website.

Meg Ryan. But Meg always gets my vote. She's just so darn cute and I want to be just like her.

What are some of your favorites this year?

I am Wonder Woman

Today is just an awesome day.

This morning I was insanely productive. I did half my laundry before 9:00. I kept the house moderately straight. I scrubbed the toilet. I reorganized the clothes in my closet. I did the dishes. And all while listening to KSBJ on my brand new CD player (see previous post). I also posted to both of my blogs, updated my Christmas card list, balanced the checkbook, and completed the budget for next month. Oh, and I made a deposit at the bank. All this before 10:00.

Then, the kids and I went outside in the backyard for a while. I cleaned up a bit, picking up paper and plastic cups and trash (we live on a corner lot, people driving or walking by seem to think we're their trash can), emptied the large and very full trash container into bags, rearranged the backyard Little Tikes toys, and played with the kids for a while. It's Mommy's job to push the swings, you know.

We then came inside and I did preschool with my daughter while my son rode around on his new Lion King Push 'n' Ride. At three she can now, with about an 80% accuracy, recognize the first three letters of the alphabet.

On top of that, it's just a beautiful day today. The weather is perfect, there's a cool breeze, it's partly cloudy, and there's just something in the air. For me, I think it's the fact that between Christmas and New Year I am blissfully without plans. I don't have classes, I don't have to teach, I don't have to go shopping for Christmas presents, I don't have to pack or unpack for trips, I don't HAVE to do anything.

Go me. I am Wonder Woman.

Merry Christmas with Dick and Jane

And yes, I'm not afraid of being sued for saying it.

Anyway, we had a nice, quiet Christmas at my mother-in-laws. It was just what the doctor ordered. Just family hanging out, no hullabaloo to give me a headache. It was my family, my mother- and father-in-law, my grandfather-in-law, and my sister-in-law. We were joined in the evening by my brother- and sister-in-law and my nephew. That's a lot of in-laws.

My husband got me an under-the-cabinet CD player for the kitchen. It's exactly what I wanted, which makes me happy, and it's a Sony, which makes him happy. :) I had looked at another one, and he refused to buy it because it didn't even list a brand name. He's probably right. It would probably break the day after the 30-day return threshold. There are some benefits to being a brand snob, I guess. We really enjoyed reading the instructions, too. Mainly because the thing was badly translated (I'm not supposed to use the remote on iron board while iron board is on) and they actually gave instructions on how to place the magnetic remote on your refrigerator. I kid you not. I'm so glad my husband and I read those instructions. Otherwise, we never would've figured out how to use that darn magnetic remote.

My husband got an egg poacher. Before you laugh, you have to understand that eggs benedict is our thing. My husband got intrigued by them when attending a breakfast with his buddies, and we've been recreating and improving on it ever since. We now use an English muffin, a poached egg, seasoned potatoes o'brien with diced ham mixed in, capers, and hollandaise sauce. It's incredible. We've decided just to make everything from scratch, since the only thing that we'd been making premade was the potatoes, and they never came out right. Yum.

We went and saw a movie on Christmas night after the kids went to bed. A little excursion for the adults!!! Well, for my husband, sister-in-law, and me, anyway. We saw Fun With Dick and Jane. We thought about Chronicles of Narnia, but we really would like to take my daughter to see that, too. The movie was good, but the previews are misleading. They've done that a lot recently. I was under the impression that Dick and Jane were criminals to begin with, not that they were good people driven to it. In that way it was disappointing. If I hadn't had that before impression I would have been thoroughly pleased with it. They managed to keep the cussing to a minimum, and there was no out-and-out sex scenes. I've noticed that movies have gotten more family-friendly and I highly approve. They're taking steps in the right direction! As much as I encourage artistic license, I really don't need to see any more naked men's butts.

But you know what I love about going to the movies? Just the experience. The movie could suck and I'd still have a good time. I like sitting with my husband in the dark, holding hands like we're just dating again. I love the big screen. I love movie popcorn with so much extra butter that your fingers have no fighting chance of staying clean.

So, today I'm off to save the world once again. I plan to do this by doing laundry and making tons of business phone calls. Wish me luck!!!

I just liked this picture so I thought I'd share it...

Julian Beever is so cool.

OK, this guy is awesome. I know a lot of people have seen his work, but I have to post this just in case someone has never seen it. I received an e-mail with some pictures of his work, and looked up his website. This guy is so creative and has a real talent. I love all his drawings. Check out his website.

It looks good enough to drink!

I Bet You Didn't Know

Well, I decided to steal an idea from a friend's blog. I loved her birthday post. She posted things that she bet others didn't know about her. I think I can drum up a few things that people don't know about me.

• I sometimes still cut the crusts off my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
• I've never thrown my mashed potatoes up against a wall.
• I still get a kick out of watching 80's cartoons, like Jem, Rainbow Brite, and My Little Pony.
• I want five kids, and I want the next one to be born at home.
• I'm actually considering cloth diapers.
• When I'm chewing bubble gum and blow a bubble, I can pop it several times on the same bubble. My highest record so far this month has been 16 good pops.
• My husband and I met twice and were married three times (to each other, but never divorced). The moral of "our story" is that the saying that you don't get a second chance for a first impression simply isn't true.
• I have a really hard time lying. It always shows on my face.
• I'm okay with folding clothes, but I can't stand hanging them up.
• I'm a closet perfectionist.
• I can't read a book without looking for grammatical errors. I usually find some.
• I'm a girly drinker. Give me anything frozen, fruity, and with an umbrella and I'm happy.
• I've always wanted to go horseback riding on something other than a trail ride.
• I bite my nails, and have done so as long as I can remember. I like to use the excuse that long nails click on the piano and it annoys me, or that you can't play guitar with long nails. Now if I only played guitar...
• Speaking of guitar, it's the only instrument I can't play that I actually have the desire to.
• I can play piano, clarinet, sax, most any other reeded instrument, flute, and can teach (and play like a seventh grader) percussion.
• When I was nine my goal in life was to be a mermaid when I grew up. I even went so far as to have my mom sew me a mermaid costume to wear in the pool.
• For Halloween one year as a kid I went as She-Ra.
• One of the really big things I wanted to do when I found out my first baby was a girl was style her hair in all different ways. I think it's ironic that my daughter has no hair to style.
• My first paycheck job was demoing ice cream for Yarnell.
• In Girl Scouts I was bitten by a baboon.

If I think of more I'll post them. I'd like to hear an interesting thing about you...

Things to Do With a Chip Clip

Use a chip clip to:

1. Play fetch with your puppy.
2. Hold up the pants of those silly adolescents who think sagging is cool. Maybe if their underwear went down with their pants, they wouldn't think it was so cool.
3. Chase someone around, pretending you're an alligator that's going to bite their butt.
4. Hold your origami in place as you work.
5. Give the dog a new reason to chase his tail.
6. Hold up your hair while you're working around the house.
7. Fight early pregnancy nausea, or cut up an onion.

8. Hold your shirt up on the side, 80's style.
9. Scratch your initials in the bark of a tree. This may take a while, but it's safer than a knife. I've never heard of anyone losing a finger to a chip clip.
10. Replace your broken dresser handle with style.
11. Handle unwanted or toxic substances without touching them.
12. Keep pressure on a bleeding finger-wound.
13. Launch a projectile at your neighbor, like a catapult. This only works with small objects like spitballs.
14. Launch a projectile at your neighbor (the whole chip clip, thrown).
15. Hold together the edges of your comforter for the perfectly turned-down bed.
16. Make a fashion statement.

17. Create fun and unique craft projects, like ornaments that don't need hangers.
18. Pluck hairs, such as nosehairs or eyebrows.
19. Scale a cliffside (use the clip as a gripper).
20. Clip up a basset hound's ears so he won't trip on them anymore.

C'mon, gimme some more!

(A special thanks to Chris and Steph, my beautiful models!)

It Wasn't Me!

"It wasn't me, I swear, Mom! I had nothing to do with the Ovaltine heist!"

As I was printing up some documents for my upcoming Holiday Bazaar, the house became strangely quiet. Any mother knows this is a sign of a storm brewing. While I prayed that my kids were just watching the vintage 1983 My Little Pony episode on VHS (the one that just barely rewinds, it's been played so much), I decided that investigation was best, even if it meant interrupting my work.

Then I heard water running. I walked to the bathroom to see my daughter had turned on the faucet on the sink in order to wash her hands. She had telltale smears on her cheeks and hands, which had rubbed off onto the faucet and soap dispenser. "What is it you think you're doing, Izzy?" I asked her. "Washing my hands," she coyly replied. "Where's your brother?" I asked. "Upstairs" was all she said.

I walked slowly upstairs, and on the eigth of thirteen steps I could smell it - the sickly-sweet Whoppery smell of chocolate malt Ovaltine. Eli was covered in it, and was still holding the jar. What was once full was now... EMPTY. All over my son, all over my daughter, all over my light-beige carpet. And it couldn't just be sitting on the carpet, it had to be slobbered on and ground in, too. I actually have to steam-clean it up, not just vacuum. And before I could even get the bath running, Eli had smeared the gooey stuff all over my freshly-printed documents for work.

In order to reach the Ovaltine, Izzy had to have had guts. I found a chair pushed up to the counter. She had to have climbed up onto the counter and onto the microwave to reach the Ovaltine on the top shelf in the cabinet above the microwave. I can barely reach it on my tiptoes. That takes talent.

But hey, at least she shared.

Holiday Memories

I love the holiday season. From Thanksgiving to New Year's, I'm a pretty happy person. I love memories, and creating memories. Holidays are bursting at the seams with memory opportunities.

Most of the time, you don't even have to work to create them. Some are sweet, some are funny. Rarely does anyone (at least in my family) remember the crappy times. I can ask my sister, "What's your favorite Christmas memory?" and I can almost guarantee that it would be the same as mine. Hands down, feeding the cows with Grandpa and Daddy. We would beg and beg him to let us help him feed the cows. We city girls didn't get to do that often, so our yearly trip to the 100+ acre farm my dad grew up on was always a fun novelty. We wanted to experience everything every year, even if it smelled like cow poo.

Bright and early Grandpa would go down and call the cows. I mean, call. Like in the movies, or a hillbilly commercial. They'd come trotting down, and Grandpa would let us climb in the loft of the barn and throw down the hay bales. Then he'd let us cut them open and feed them to the cows (and he'd always let us pet them). He'd tell us each one of their names. As I write this I can smell the sweet smell of hay and alfalfa, and those smells remind me of my Grandpa and the small things he did that meant so much to me as a child. He'd always call us Pasquawlie, or Boy (since he had mostly granddaughters). He'd empty his pockets when he hugged, and apologize if he hadn't yet shaved that day. A good, long, hard hug was the way he expressed his love.

I treasure those memories, and even though he passed away in May, I know my grandfather will forever be in my heart and in my memories. He is connected to some of my fondest childhood memories.

I love how I will be able to create these memories for my children. I can't wait to say to my mother-in-law... "Do you remember the Thanksgiving when Izzy bingo-dotted Eli's head?"

Happy Thanksgiving!

In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd share with the world what I, Jen, Creative Artiste Extraordinaire, SuperMom, and Mary Kay Diva am thankful for this year.

• Cranberry Raspberry Walnut Jell-O Molds
• My son's smile he saves just for me
• Every time my daughter has told me "Know what, Mommy? I love you!"
• Ducks
• FRIENDS!!!
• Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Chunk Brownies
• Family get-togethers
• Naps, infrequent as they are
• Sparkly-Farkly Diamonds
• Girls' Night Out
• A hubby with a sense of humor
• A church I can really call home
• The greatest sister-in-law in the whole world
• And mother-in-law, too
• And mom, and dad, and sis, and all of my family members (they're all great!)
• King-size beds with Egyptian cotton sheets
• Mary Kay's Microdermabrasion Set... my skin has never felt so incredible
• The fact that my children will play together, even if it's only briefly
• God's visible hand in my life
• Blonde baby curls
• Alias on DVD... no commercials, no week's wait
• Havarti Cheese... brings a whole new meaning to soup and sandwich night
• PF Chang's cool manager who sold me take-out boxes

My sister-in-law, the best one in the world, would like to add a few things as well:

• Pretty earrings
• Cute German boys
• Upcoming graduation

I'm sure she'll think of more later, but she got distracted by apple-butter pumpkin pie...

Surprise!!!

I have to brag a little bit...

November 18th marked my hubby's 31st birthday. And the first time I think I've ever really surprised him! I can't take full credit. I know that if he didn't have so much on his mind he would've figured it out long before the party took place. But God favored this surprise for him!

I sent out hand-made invitations beforehand. I was doing an Asian theme, so the invitations were on black cardstock with a white strip of paper on a red mat that had the Chinese characters for tranquility, wisdom, and harmony on the front in a vertical line. The inside had a red Chinese lantern photograph faded into the background with the information about the surprise party printed over it. Oh, and all of the things like Date, Time, Place, etc were all in Chinese characters. There was a line of Chinese characters on the bottom that said "God bless you and your family."

Just so you know, I don't know Chinese. Thank God for dictionary.com.

I decorated the table with a black tablecloth, and red serving platters. I had chopsticks set out. I made from scratch the menu, which consisted of wonton soup, cashew chicken over rice, eggrolls, apricot beef, and ginger beans and snap peas. It was quite a spread, and everybody loved everything. I was trying to pick things that would probably be universally edible. For desert, we had the birthday cake (see picture below) that had "Happy Birthday" in Chinese on it. It was french vanilla cake with homemade vanilla icing. I also served strawberry and chocolate Pockys. Pockys are so cool.



We also had live music, thanks to our good friend Gib. As a birthday present, he played music for the party on his guitar. He even took requests. He is so cool.



And, of course, let's not forget the party favors... complements of PF Changs (THANK YOU). They sold me the boxes when I couldn't find them anywhere else but the internet. And I didn't have two weeks to wait for them. I stamped them, then filled them with a fortune cookie, a cinnamon stick, a bag of chai tea, and a pair of chopsticks. Chopsticks are so cool.



I am such a good wife. I've been patting myself on the back all week. I even bought my hubby a lasertag set for his birthday, instead of something practical. I am so cool.