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Audra Little's Family Traditions Kit at ScrapDish
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Posted by Meredith at 11:03 PM 2 comments
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Posted by Meredith at 10:55 AM 4 comments
I just realized that my 100 GB hard drive is completely full. So I started backing up and burning digital kits to DVDs. I have a program that lets you organize digital scrapbooking supplies. So, when I download a kit, I open it and tag (or organize) each piece of the kit. This is similar to putting all your buttons together or all your papers together if you are a paper scrapper. Anyway, to keep myself organized and to know what I have tagged and what isn't, I have separate folders for tagged and untagged supplies. So, I am burning kits from my tagged folder onto DVDs. I burned 3 DVDs tonight and am currently burning #4... and I still have 17 GB of tagged supplies... and another 17 GB that I haven't even tagged. That doesn't include my current CT assignments. If I were a paper scrapper and had accumulated all this stuff, my husband would KILL me! To put this in perspective, I have 461 folders to tag...each folder has from 10 to 50 pieces. Too much stuff! Time to purge. Oh! And did I mention that this is all in addition to the 35 other CDs and DVDs I burned before. Too bad it's illegal to share! :) I have some amazing stuff!
Posted by Meredith at 10:12 PM 2 comments
Although I am still super cranky. I hate being sick. Especially when I have so much to do. I did manage to get Hannah's room somewhat organized. I need to pretty much pack a suitcase for us to live out of for the next week. It's hard to pack everything that's here because it's the stuff we use everyday. So, I am trying to pack up all the Halloween clothes and the summer clothes. We'll see how it goes...
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I feel like I have been hit by a really big truck! My head hurts, my ears hurt, my teeth hurt, my cheeks hurt, my nose hurts and my sinuses ache. If Hannah could lower her voice by a couple hundred decibels I am sure it would help! She has the highest pitched voice and talks incessantly! Normally I love to hear her little munchkin voice, but right now I just want her to go to sleep for the night! I started some antibiotics earlier tonight. So, hopefully by tomorrow night I'll be feeling much better. The girls were both really good today considering how little interaction they got from me. And Thomas has more than made up for it since he got home from work. I think I am going to go get the girls ready for bed and try to get some sleep. Why do I ALWAYS get sick right before we move? Maybe it's the stress of moving. I don't know. All I know is that it stinks! I have a million things to do and zero energy. Thankfully I have amazing family who are willing to help me out! And as soon as I know I am not contagious, I'll take you all up on your offers of help! :) I started doing some organization and list making today. The truck is reserved. The phone and gas are scheduled to be turned on. I have to schedule the electric tomorrow. I started making a WalMart list of all the little things we have to buy before we move in... like a new garbage can, a dish rack (because we don't have a dishwasher), paper towels, dish soap, sponges, bar stools... eek! And I haven't even started my Christmas shopping yet. Thankfully the kids are still young and I can get all their goodies in one stop at WalMart. Thomas and I aren't exchanging gifts this year. We are going to get a dresser for ourselves this year. Our parents are getting us gift cards to IKEA and we are going to buy the rest of the dresser. The fun never ends! Actually it will be nice to have a nice new dresser! anyway... i'm going to go get my cranky kids ready for bed now.
Posted by Meredith at 10:07 PM 2 comments
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Posted by Meredith at 9:58 PM 2 comments
I just bought 75 lbs of sweet potatoes at Super Wal-Mart. And guess how much it cost me??? $3.76!!!! Yes, you read that correctly! Three dollars and seventy-six cents. I am guessing that most of you are wondering why the heck I would buy 75 lbs of sweet potatoes. Let me tell you, I LOVE sweet potatoes! And so does Ainsley. In fact, it is the only baby type food that she will eat. So far in my food storage research I have found that you can bake sweet potatoes and either peel them & freeze them for baby food and casseroles OR you can freeze them still in the skins. You can mix and freeze the actual casseroles, too. If you have a good sweet potato recipe, feel free to share it here! In the spirit of the season, I am going to share my favorite!
Posted by Meredith at 4:51 PM 2 comments
Posted by Meredith at 3:05 PM 3 comments
According to the University of Oregon, I have been properly using my apostrophes!!! And here are the grammar rules to prove it!
When creating possessive form nouns there are 8 simple rules:
1. If a singular noun does not end in s, add 's
2. If a singular common noun ends in s, add 's—unless the next word begins with s. If the next word begins with s, add an apostrophe only. (This includes words with s and sh sounds.)
3. If a singular proper noun ends in s, add an apostrophe.
4. If a noun is plural in form and ends in an s, add an apostrophe only, even if the intended meaning of the word is singular (such as mathematics and measles.)
5. If a plural noun does not end in s, add 's
6. If there is joint possession, use the correct possessive for only the possessive closest to the noun.
7. If there is a separate possession of the same noun, use the correct possessive form for each word.
8. In a compound construction, use the correct possessive form for the word closest to the noun. Avoid possessives with compound plurals.
Posted by Meredith at 2:46 PM 4 comments
Posted by Meredith at 9:30 AM 0 comments
and I stand corrected. I humbly apologize for my poor punctuation skills. I have been typing the possessive form of my husband's name as thomas' when it should have been thomas's. I have been out of school way too long and it has been even longer since I have taken an English course that actually included grammar and punctuation. If you see me do it again, please feel free to send me a digital smack on the hand! :)
Well, today has been pretty uneventful. Thomas slept funny last night and messed up his neck. So, I spent a lot of time massaging his neck and shoulders today. You know, I have a horrendous headache (going on 2 days now!) and my back and shoulders are killing me! Do I get a backrub? Nope. Well, to be fair, I did get a really amazing one yesterday, but I still hurt today! My dear sweet husband is worse than one of the kids when he doesn't feel well. Speaking of cranky kids... Ainsley has been crying non-stop for the last three days. If she isn't being held by me, she is crying! So, today I haven't done much. We cleaned and organized Hannah's room. Then, my visiting teachers came over. Between them there are three kids that came. So, the four kids trashed Hannah's room. They offered to clean it up, but I didn't want to make them wait. I think they had other appointments today. So, Hannah and I are going to clean it again. It's actually good for her. She really needs to learn to keep her toys organized. Then, I baked chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious!!! Then, my sister and her husband and daughter stopped by on their way out of town. My brother-in-law is Canadian, so they are headed up to Canada for Thanksgiving since he has a break from school. So, we gave them some cookies for their drive. We ran to the grocery store tonight to get our stuff for the big family Thanksgiving dinner. We are in charge of Sweet Potato Casserole and Mashed Potatoes. Since we don't have a kitchen we are going down to my sister-in-law's house a few hours early and are going to make them there. Thomas also decided that he wants a pecan pie. He's never had one, but he wants one. I happen to have an a-mazing recipe, so I am going to make that for him. It's almost like a cheesecake mixed with a pecan pie. Oh wow! Anyway... that's about it for today! I have started working on my Christmas projects and have collected some really cool Christmas ornament ideas. I'll share them as I test them and make sure that they work right!
Posted by Meredith at 9:44 PM 7 comments
Your Pilgrim Name Is |
Your Pilgrim Name Is |
Your Pilgrim Name Is |
Your Pilgrim Name Is |
Posted by Meredith at 9:41 PM 1 comments
to decorate for Christmas and I can't do it quite yet! So, I decided to go ahead and decorate my blog! How do you like it? Two more weeks and I can start decorating my house!!!!! YEA! I think I may even make Thomas hang lights outside. But it may look funny only on half the house since it is a duplex! :)
We were going to go to the cabin this weekend, but Thomas wasn't feeling well so we didn't go. I got really tired of sitting in the house last night and tried and tried and tried to get Thomas to go out somewhere, ANYWHERE! Nope. So, this morning I guess he got a burst of energy or something because he actually suggested that we go to IKEA! If you have never been to IKEA before, it is something of an experience! It is massive! We took both of our girls with us. And we actually had a good time. Thomas and I decided that if we ever win the lottery or get a huge bonus we are going to buy ourselves some furniture from IKEA... yes, we know that we're pathetic. What most people think of as "beginner" furniture is our dream! :) the furniture looks black in the pictures, but it is dark brownish-black. They also have the furniture in white and it's actually a bit cheaper, but they don't make one of the additional pieces that we LOVE in the white finish. It is a low chest with a beautiful mirror on top. It looks kind of like an antique piece that my mom has in her house. They don't have it at the online store, but we saw it today and even Thomas loves it! :) After we were done at IKEA, Thomas walked out of there saying how much he enjoyed it. We got a lot of ideas for storage for our new place. Hopefully we'll be able to incorporate a lot of what we saw, using things we already have.
Posted by Meredith at 11:18 PM 4 comments
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Hannah officially ate her very first vanilla frosty today! That may not seem like a big deal to most people, but Hannah was lactose intolerant for a LONG time and it has taken her a LONG time to be willing to eat ice cream. She doesn't like cold food. There's something about chipped teeth and cold food that just don't go together! :)
And, Ainsley was sitting next to me on the couch while I was eating some Saltines. Yes, I like the taste of Saltines and eat them for fun. Anyway, Ainsley was watching me eat my crackers so I gave her a little bite. She about bit my finger off with the second bite. She grabbed a cracker out of my hands and started eating it. So much for needing my help! She started making a mess with the cracker so I took it away. She started SCREAMING. You would have thought I was hurting the poor kid! I think we are going to have to start more solid foods and skip the baby food. She doesn't like it.
We hung out with Ashley today. We went to IKEA and the tiny little outlet mall nearby. I didn't buy a darn thing! I hate shopping with no money! Thomas is going back with me tomorrow night. We're looking at barstools. The fun never ends!
Posted by Meredith at 9:54 PM 2 comments
Ainsley is a Porter! Earlier today I was biting the soft parts off pieces of popcorn to feed her so she'd stay quiet while I was on the phone. She was loving it! Then tonight, she saw Hannah's popcorn bowl from this afternoon and went after it! So I picked her up and started feeding her little soft pieces (minus the hulls). She started crying when I took too long to get a piece in her mouth. I told Thomas that we are going to have to get her some veggie puffs to snack on. But the kid loves popcorn! She is such a foodie! It's true, Tom, there is another generation of foodies in the family! Earlier today, we were talking to my mom on the phone and Hannah asked Grandma what we were going to eat for Christmas if we go to Chicago. lol! That's my girl! Okay, she may have had a bit of prompting from me, but she got really excited when Grandma told her that she could have pizza and cookies and fudge without ANY nuts! lol! love my kiddos!
Hannah is doing much better at poo training! We haven't had any poopy diapers from Hannah in the last four days! yea!!! BUT we are still having lots of wet diapers. She isn't the least bit interested in peeing on the potty. We've tried princess p*anti*es (sorry. don't want THAT word searchable on my blog!), flower pa*nt*ies, treasure boxes, stickers, money and Halloween candy treats. Any other inexpensive ideas? I've got six weeks to get this kid potty trained. She cannot go to Sunbeams in January if she is still wearing a diaper. Okay, that is my rule, not the church's.
Hannah is so excited that we are going to see Ashley on Wednesday. We are meeting her at IKEA. I am looking for a few things for the new house and pricing bar stools. We don't have room in the house for a kitchen table. But Hannah wants to see HER Ashley! She is so cute about seeing family members. She gets so excited! I love that.
So, for those of my blog readers who are aware of the near disaster hair crisis I had earlier this afternoon, just to let you know, crisis averted! L'Oreal Natural Match to the rescue! And for those of you who color your hair, don't use L'Oreal Feria OVER another kind of hair color, especially if you are mostly gray, like I guess I am. My roots were badly in need of a color. I color my hair the same as my natural color, dark brown. And it usually looks pretty good. Well, Feria was on sale last week so I bought one of those this time, trying to save a couple bucks. BACKFIRED! So, I spent a while doing my hair this morning so that it could be done when Thomas got home and he wouldn't have to deal with the kids on his own. I got out of the shower, looked in the mirror and was HORRIFIED when I noticed that my hair looked like a tiger! Not kidding! My roots were a lovely shade of pumpkin! And the rest of my hair was its nice shade of dark brown. So, after talking to my mom, my aunt and my sister, and doing some research, I finally decided to go get another kind of haircolor (thank you Natural Match) and see what happened. I went a shade lighter than I normally do and just colored the roots for most of the time and then the ends for about 10 minutes. It is a bit more red than I would like, but I'm not a tiger anymore! I felt like that guy in the Comcast commercials who has the tiger tattoo all over his body and the tattoo artist says, "Sorry, Roger. You a tiger now." So, next time I color my hair, I'll go back to my natural shade. And I will never use another hair color again! L'Oreal Natural Match 3W forever!
Posted by Meredith at 9:08 PM 4 comments
Posted by Meredith at 7:50 PM 2 comments
I just a contest that my friend, Jill, posted on her blog about all of her quirky friends. I didn't find out about the contest until earlier today, so I didn't win, but I think I could have had I known about it sooner! Here is a small sampling of my quirks.... and ever since I started this list, I keep thinking of more and more things to add! :)
1. Ainsley has the raunchiest smelling feet in the world. She's six months old and i have no idea why they smell so bad. but i still love to kiss them!
2. I hate showers. They hurt. Everytime I get out of the shower, I itch for at least half an hour. I think I am actually allergic to the minerals in the water. And soft water doesn't help because salty water makes me itch, too.
3. I don't like swimming or wading or really anything to do with water. Not only do I itch, but I get seasick.
4. I am allergic to everything. Animals, food, plants....everything!
5. I hate dirty people. One time a church, a less active lady came in with her dirty little 2 year old. She kept looking at Ainsley and trying to touch her. I got up and walked out of Relief Society.
6. Little people TERRIFY me. I seriously get scared and my heart gets jumpy if I even see one... even on tv. terrible of me, i know.
7. i HATE clowns and everything to do with them. My mom buys clown stuff and puts it in packages that she sends me just to scare me. See the reaction to midgets above.
8. I hate cartoon clothes, too. The only reason Hannah has Dora clothes is because my mom bought her some Dora pajamas. I hate them. She loves them.
9. I love carbs! potatoes, cookies, pastas, breads, etc! LOVE them! I will eat an entire cake if someone will let me. But I don't really care for the frosting. Don't get in the way of my cake!
10. I check my email and my blog CONSTANTLY! And even worse, I now check my site stats 10 times a day to see who is checking my blog.
11. I hate being touched by people I don't know. Don't touch me when you hand me my change at the grocery store or gas station. Don't try to shake my hand. I hate being tapped or poked, too. I absolutely hate it when my husband or daughter tries to sit on the couch next to me and they bump my elbow or something.
12. I hate using pencils. Period. I hate that they smear and get on my hand. Likewise, I hate pens that smear on my hand, too. If I could, I would only use sharpies forever! the fine point ones that never dull down.
13. I like the smell of sharpies.
14. I hate fly-away hairs. They make me CRAZY. I can't stand watching Friends and when they show close-ups of Jennifer Anniston's hair, you can see her fly-aways. I have tons of them myself, but I have to ignore them when I do my own hair.
15. i hate personification of animals, too. i hate those stupid movies about animals that talk. even charlotte's web, the animated version, about crosses the line.
16. I hate hair in my face. You will always see me with a clip in my hair, or a bobby pin, or a ponytail. If I have all of my hair down, it is a rare day and you can bet I will be in a bad mood.
17. I am a pimple popper and proud of it!
18. I am a CLEAN freak, but I am also a packrat. I can't stand dirty bathrooms or kitchens. I can't go to sleep with dirty dishes in my sink. But i can't seem to throw anything away at all. I'm trying to do better, though.
19. I hate animals of all kinds, but I really want an Old English Sheepdog.
20. I hate being outside, but I love to garden.
21. I hate earwax and boogers. i will do ANYTHING to get rid of them. Both in me and my kids! But I don't actually enjoy the process of getting rid of them like some of you sick-o people! :) just kidding!
22. I am obsessed with shoes. I could sit for hours in a shoe store and just try on shoes. I don't even have to buy any. I just like trying them on. AND I like to look at my feet and legs in the shoes. A cute little skirt is the best thing to wear when trying on shoes! High heels are my favorites!
23. I can't stand for Hannah's hair not to be done. It drives me crazy when she takes her hair down for her nap.
24. I match all my kids clothes. I didn't realize I did this until recently. Even if the clothes aren't the same, they usually end up either being similar in style or color or theme. And if I pick out Thomas' shirt in the morning, we're all the same.
25. I absolutely DETEST reality tv, but I cannot wait for American Idol to start! Two more months! :)
26. I hate pennies. They make my palms itch.
27. I can't stand things that are misspelled. It absolutely drives me crazy.
28. And I got this one from my dad... I can't stand for light switches to be in the wrong position. If the light is on, the switch has to be up. If the light is off, the switch has to be down. If there is more than one switch for a light, the one closest to the main door has to have the right positioning. If the wiring is done "wrong" heaven help me! It's going to drive me crazy!
29. Another Doug quirk... I can't stand for screws in lightswitch covers and plug covers not to be the same in all plugs. If one is horizontal, they better all be.
30. Bleach and PineSol are my two favorite smells.
31. My closet is color coordinated and organized by type of clothing. Short sleeve white shirts together, short sleeve blue shirts together, then long sleeves (sorted by color), then short skirts (sorted by color), then long skirts (sorted by color), pants and finally dresses. You get the picture.
32. I'm really weird about textures.
33. I hate the taste of bananas, but I love the smell, but only the green ones.
I'm sure I'll think of more... Now you all know me way too well!
And I think that makes me the winner! But don't send me ding dongs, I don't eat pre-packaged desserts... :)
Posted by Meredith at 9:15 PM 11 comments
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