Suh-weet!

I was out and about with my friend Salli last week and we just happened to pop into a used bookstore that I've never been in before. Well, I think it was fate because look at what incredible treasure I stumbled upon...
And brace yourselves, it was only one dollar! I know!
In case you don't find this as exciting as I do, let me just tell you that it has tremendous sentimental value for me. Growing up, this movie was one of my absolute faves. I can't tell you how many hours I spent watching it with my sister Julie, while we used the arms of the sofa as our horses and performed the most dazzling displays of "horsemanship" right along with the main characters. Yeah, we were pretty good.
Also, and I know you'll all agree with me here, the boy who plays Toby Tyler, Kevin Corcoran, always made me think that's what my dad must have looked and thereby been like as a boy. I mean look at the book art alone, that mouth, the jawline, even that serious look, it's my dad, right?!
And lastly, while Jordan and I were dating we once stopped in an antique shop where I found a copy of this very same book. Being that it was an antique shop, the book was sadly not one dollar, but some price I didn't want to pay at the time. However, upon seeing it I mentioned to Jordan all about how it was one of my favorite shows, and that whole bit about Toby reminding me of my dad but I finished it up with "plus my Dad actually did runaway to the circus when he was an orphan boy..." to which Jordan responded "really?" It just has always cracked me up that for even just a few seconds he believed me about it. In retrospect I probably should have seen how long I could have kept that going, but I blew it and told the truth.
Ah, good times, good books and good finds.

Matilda Jane Giveaway!

Don't worry folks, I'm not giving away my own little Matilda Jane... not yet anyway.
The fabulous Mique of 30 Days fame is hosting a giveaway of some awfully cute Matilda Jane goods. Now normally, my selfish strategy concerning giveaways is to keep what I know to myself, I don't want to decrease my chances do I?! Well, it's proven completely unsuccessful for me up to this point, and since the goodies and my daughter share the same name I have to do everything in my power to up my odds, right? So I thought this time I'd give sharing what I know a try. Here's what I know:
Matilda Jane makes adorable clothes.
30 Days is giving some away.
Do what you will and good luck.

Six Years

Happy Anniversary Jordan!

I love you very much! I'm so happy to be your wife, I know you may find that surprising given how shrewish I am a good part of the time, but it's true. I'm so proud of who you are. Thank you for being so willing to work so hard and take such good care of your girls - none of us make it easy, but you're usually pretty nice about it.
Here's to the next six, I love you!
PS, I'm sorry that I used my bear voice earlier when I asked you to leave and you just wouldn't. Neither of us are perfect I guess, except that we're perfect for each other, smooch!

The Rundown

In regards to my goal to have finished twelve new-to-me sewing projects at the end of the year, (and in yet another post that will be of zero interest to anyone but myself) I thought I'd recap my projects to date. I'm actually further along on my list than most people would probably count but, my sewing up to this year has been so absolutely non-exsistent, that even the simplest projects are new-to-me.

First we have Crayon Rolls, I followed this tutorial from Skip To My Lou, and I think they're such a fun project. I would say to Jerilee, Julie and Michelle, that these are going to be my niece/nephew gifts this year, so if you're thinking you will make them for your own kids, well then they're gonna end up with two. For the older kids I'm making something inspired by this, but hopefully something they'll find a little cooler. I've already made my first one and after the birthday girls big day I'll show you what it is - I know you're all dying to know.

Second, I'm sure we all remember the Birdie Sling

Third we have a Little Red Riding Hood cape. A friend of the family had mentioned (within LaRues hearing) that it would be fun to see her dressed as little red and to do a little photo shoot. Well, LaRue was then obsessed with the idea which resulted in my making her cape. If we ever do get better pictures, you know I'll let you know.

Fourth: The FistiCuffs

Fifth: Frenchy Bag. My beautiful and generous sister Julie leant me her pattern for this purse and as a thank you I made one for her. It is rather flawed, so it will probably never see light of day, but it felt good to finish it. Seriously, every finished project is a surprise and a victory. And yes, even though it's pretty flawed I gave it to her anyway. That's just how I roll, classy.
Sixth, and lastly for now, we have the lined zipper pouch. I also found the tutorial for this on Skip to my Lou. Zippers people! I even used a zipper foot! The one pictured is actually the second one that I made. Funnily enough, the first one I made went a lot smoother, and turned out a lot better, go figure. Plus, fuzzy picture, sorry.
Anywho, that's my progress to date. I have another bag pattern waiting to be tried, and I would love to make the girls dresses, I have this adorable pattern:And just have to work up the nerve to try it out. After that and when I'm no longer pregnant I dream of being able to make the perfect skirt, and the perfect pair of loungey pajama pants. I'll keep you posted!

I Heart Biggest Loser

And so does LaRue!

Toward the beginning of this season, LaRue happened to be in the room when either Bob or Jillian was yelling at the contestants to work out harder and said something about every person in America wants to be here right now and they actually are! Well, LaRue turned to me and asked "Do you want to go there Mom?" And I said "Sure, that would be great!" because it would. Well ever since then she's been such a fan of the show. That night when Jordan woke up one of the first things she told him was "Me and mommy are going to the exercise place!" Every week she asks me when we'll go.I have to say taht I think it's pretty cute, it's kind of a long show and she'll usually watch pretty much the whole thing with me and most of the time she tries to exercise right along with them (that's what she's doing in the picture, though if you were guessing it was her bunny impression, I can't blame you), she doesn't let our lack of gym equipment get in her way either. Last night I was complimenting her on what a good exerciser she is and she told me it's because she's been to exercise school - how could I forget?
Less cute is me sitting on the couch eating ice cream - I kid you not - and LaRue turns to me in the middle of an exercise and says "You can practice this one mom, if you get up." To which I reply "Uhh, maybe later..." munch munch munch. I think this baby and I are past any point that's going to find me exercising, my hips hurt just thinking about it. Although my hips pretty much hurt 24/7 at this point anyway.
Well I can't help but root for the brown team, they've wormed their way into this scroogey heart of mine so I think they're my faves at this point, but surprisingly ever since Joelle has gone there's nobody that I really can't stand. Oy, remember the horrible days of Vicki and Heba?

Eeeeeeeeeeeeewww.

What a night! Matilda came out of her bedroom whimpering and holding out her hands in dismay. Turns out she had a very nasty poopy diaper and for who knows what reason had decided to go in after it with both hands. Ugh!

One hour later, LaRue comes out of my bedroom whimpering, what is it now? She had been playing at the computer and I had given her a little cup full of chocolate chips to snack on - don't judge me -and for who knows what reason, she had decided to put at least one up each of her nostrils. Much to her dismay it's easier getting them in then getting them out.

Come on girls, what the heck?!

Peter Pan-tics

We've been watching a lot of Peter Pan around here lately and with that has come a lot of watching Tinker Bell, and Return to Neverland, and a few days ago we even ended up watching Hook. Such a classic, I remember loving Hook so much when it came out, I think I saw it in the theater three times, which feels like a big deal when you're in elementary school. Well we were all watching Hook, LaRue was enthralled and very interested in the fate of grown up Peter. Near the end when the big battle has started on the ship there's a point when Peter is caught under a net with lots of pirates closing in on him, but then he yells "Bangorang!" and we get a shot of the lost boys ready to join in the frayWell when LaRue saw this shot of the lost boys she exclaimed "It's the Lamanites!" Jordan and I of course found this hilarious, and were kind of impressed that she would think of that. We've been trying to be more diligent in reading our scripture stories lately, and clearly it's paying off.

You might think that there couldn't be much more to be said having to do with Peter Pan, but bear with me here, I've just got a couple more things. More toward the beginning of Hook, when Peter sneaks onto Hooks ship in disguise to find his kids and Hook starts talking about someone who didn't believe in him and ends up putting a pirate into the boo box - watch the clip here in case you haven't seen it within the week. Well when we were watching it I kept staring at the pirate who gets the boo box thinking he looked vaguely familiar and was an interesting looking guy, but I just couldn't place where I might have seen him before, and when I found out who it was, it blew my mind. Are you ready for this people? It's Glenn Close! That's right, Mrs. Glenn Close! Now you have to watch to clip to see what I'm talking about. Sorry to go on and on, it was just really weird and interesting to me.And one last thing: the girls have been having a lot of fun playing sword fights lately thanks to all the swashbuckling viewing excitement. It's actually more like half having a lot of fun, and half crying because someone got hurt or crying because they want the sword that the other ones got. It's not my favorite, but I can't help but think it's the cutest thing ever to hear itty bitty Matilda telling LaRue to "take that, and that!" and calling her a codfish, she's also been calling everyone a goofy head lately, which cracks me up, I just can't help it.

Me Oh My, It's Valentines Pie!

Alright, alright, it's really only apple.

LaRue was watching Snow White the other day and all of the sudden all she wanted in the world was to make an apple pie, so I thought 'why not do it on Valentines Day?' Since it's a holiday I thought I'd go ahead and share the recipe, I usually don't just advertise this because you know if everyone gets their hands on this special recipe, everyone starts making it, and all of the sudden, it's not that special, amazing pie that Lisa makes, it's just another apple pie. But today I'll let that go.

Lisas Amazing Apple Pie
Take one pre-made Pillsbury Pie Crust
Add two cans pre-made apple pie filling
Follow instructions on the package.
It also really helps if you've got one of the cutest little helpers on the planet.

Anyway, Happy Valentines Day everybody! Around here we celebrated with a ridiculous number of heart shaped bean bags (once I got started, I had too many cute pink fabrics to choose from and couldn't help myself)and a little bit of candy. I'm actually the only one that didn't end up getting any candy, so heaven help me not to eat everybody elses... that's totally the type of thing that I would do. Recall if you will, that episode of Friends where Joey eats his dates entire dessert while she's in the restroom and when she comes back and sees it's gone he tells her "I'm not even sorry!" Yeah, that's me. But don't feel sorry for me and my lack of candy because ladies, it pays to blog, or maybe it just pays to have a really sweet husband. Remember when I mentioned what a big fan I am of this? Well Jordan went ahead and got it for me, I didn't even hint at it or anything! He also said that remembering the picture from the blog helped him to choose the right one, yay! So if nothing else, this blog brings Jordan and I closer together.

I hope you all have a very sweet Valentines Day!

Oh Mr. Rochester

It's simply impossible not to love him just a little bit.

A few days ago I finished reading Jane Eyre for the first time. Such an accomplishment for me seeing as it was neither written by J.K. Rowling nor Stephenie Meyers, and wasn't written specifically to entertain thirteen year olds. I looooved it. I thought it was so perfect. The first half did feel a little bit like work, but that all builds up to the second half which just flies by. There is a movie version that I've really liked for quite some time, and after finishing reading it I was so excited to watch it again. Then I was sad because after I watched it again I was terribly disappointed. The book was just so perfect and I know movies have to change things up, but in this version, so many times I was just like "why that?". I don't know.

Then I remembered watching this version about a year ago. When I watched it at the time I really liked it, but clinging to my high school preferences I still considered the first one to be my favorite. Well not anymore. I really must insist that you watch this version, please at least try to find a copy from your local library. It's as close to perfect as we're likely to get. It follows the story so closely, the actors are so good, I watched it last night and felt so giddy and content at the end. You'll thank me later.
Now I've moved on to Wuthering Heights, oh those Bronte sisters, I've actually tried to read Wuthering Heights at least three times before and never made it very far at all, but I've made it past my usual stopping point and am really inerested to see what ends up happening. I've also decided to keep a list in my side bar of all the books I've read so far this year, I don't expect anyone to find that of interest except me kind of like the rest of this post.

To sum up, Jane Eyre is awesome.

The End.

Can I Just Say...

That I am not a big fan of the prenatal checkups at this point?

I HATE peeing in a cup! And it's not getting any easier or anything.
I HATE being weighed! And it's not getting any prettier or anything.
I HATE that I have to go to the Doctors office, fight for a parking space, pee in a cup (the beauty of the cup peeing system where I go, is that you put your cup in a little brown bag and then you have to hold it while you wait. In the waiting room. With people! It just seems so humiliating) get weighed (painful) and then see the doctor for seriously five minutes, maybe.
Sigh, and I have to go back in two weeks. Then every week from that point. Sigh, again.
I am really, really thankful for our health insurance and that I'm able to get the regular check ups and that everything seems to be going well. It's just that as I get bigger (ENORMOUS!) and more uncomfortable (by the day!) I feel these little degradations very keenly.
Can you guess what I did this morning?
Oh well, only (only?) forty three days left.