B is for Board Games and Blizzards

Another nice night in for our date night. We played board games and Todd picked up DQ Blizzards (yummy!). Nothing exciting but nice to have the time together.

On a side note we played Friends Trivia. I am a Friends addict and some of the questions are SO hard! And the rules are so complicated it might as well have been Bamboozled (a Friends reference, if you did not watch them don't worry about it)!

3 weeks of summer...

Funny how due dates make things get done isn't it? Even when its a silly thing.
The kids go back to school 3 weeks from today and suddenly my to-do list got longer!

- Shop for School Supplies
- Clean out closets with stuff they can't/don't wear anymore.
- Get rid of toys they don't play with anymore.
- Go to the park more.
- Swim more.
- Bake cookies.
- Get to the zoo!
- Plan for brownies.
- Sign up for soccer.
- Get PTA stuff together.
- Have more of kids friends over.
- Get summer pictures taken (we do Christmas pics and summer pics)
- Go bike riding.

We've had a very nice summer and VERY relaxing so I feel like now knowing its coming to an end WAY too fast we got cram in some of the fun stuff but still get the work part done ya know? So anyone else preparing for the next year? I can't believe they will both be in elementary school now - eeks!

Day on the River

We spent an awesome day yesterday boating on the Alafia (sp?) river in Riverview. The weather was gorgeous. The kids got to go tubing "by themselves" which they were super excited about. We saw a dolphin, some jumping Tarpon, and a crazy guy with a little one person submarine. Todd and I went tubing too and it was alot of fun but I have to admit I must be getting old. My brother managed to toss me from the tube and I skipped across the water like a skipping rock - on my neck. I am pretty sore today. It was lots of fun though. Now if I would have just remembered the camera!

Solid Rock Cafe

The musical Tori was in went well. She remembered all her lines, sang her songs and all was well. It was a low budget short time frame kind of thing so it was by all means not perfect but she did well and had a blast.

Nervous - Pray!

Tori is in a play tonight, a musical actually at our church. She has been at "musical theater camp" since Monday. She has a large part with LOTS of lines and a duet and two trios...I am so nervous for her. Tonight is the big performance, please be praying for her!
(The good news is she is not nervous but excited!)

A is for Arcade & Applebees

Last night was our first alphabet night and since we did not have the ability to go out this week we brough A in! We had Applebees Curbside To Go and brought the Arcade to us, kind of. It was better in theory then reality. Xbox makes a game called Arcade that has some arcade games but there were alot of one player games and some that were just LAME. So we played a couple of them and called it an early night. It was nice to get to bed at a decent hour and do something different but together.

Alphabet Dating

I dont know how long y'all have been with your spouse/significant other...for some of you its longer than Todd and I and for some of it less. Todd and I have been together for 9 years now...married 8 and a half...had kids for most of that time too. And while its wonderful and we are very happy in our life together and I have nothing (okay well some little things but nothing serious) to complain about, we sometimes get stuck in a rut. Caught up in work and chores and kids and family activities our dates are sometimes mundane despite being enjoyable time together.

Many of you know I am an avid reader. I just finished a book called Alphabet Weekends (if you are a reader I recommend it, not GREAT, but cute and quirky, a romance novel, blah, blah, blah). In this book two old friends are at crossroads in their lives and the guy invents this game in which they must spend each weekend doing something together but in alphabetical order...in the book its like A for abseiling, B for ballet, C for canoeing...etc.

So while we dont have whole weekends or often even whole nights to date Todd and I are alphabet dating (if you are guy and reading this, don't give him a hard time, my idea, my begging, my kick you will receive if you make him complain anymore than he already is). Each week one of us will have the assigned letter and have to plan something - whoever's week it is gets to decide the night (around the rest of the schedule), arrange the babysitter if needed, and plan the evening. It can be an outing or something we do together after the kids go to bed.

I know I sound like I have lost my mind and that I probably have you laughing right now but thats ok. I think it will encourage us to think outside the box and not just do dinner and a movie once every 3 months! And if it flops, well it flops but every once in awhile you have to be a little nuts right?

So stay tuned for alphabet updates.

This Weeks Homade Ice Cream Flavor:

Reese's Pieces in Peanut Butter Ice Cream!

Survey says:
Yummy (2)
Okay (1)
No! (1)

A Whole Lot of Crazy

Seldom in my job do we not have a place to send someone for mental health issues but tonight everyone is full in the Bay Area. These are rough estimates but think about this...

Community Hospital Psych = 46
Springbrook Hospital = ~60
Harbor Pasco = 50
Harbor Hernando = 50
FL Hospital Zephyrhills = 25
Morton Plant = 25
St.Anthonys = 35
St.Josephs = 40
Suncoast = 35
PEHMS = 60

All full. Thats approximately 420 psychiatric locked down beds available in the Bay Area and every last bed is full. Few of whom will stay more than 10 days max. Might make you look at the guy behind you at the store just a bit different huh?

Greetings from Jupiter

This is what an actual patient stated to me this evening...


She lived there for one week before returning here to Earth. She lives in a spaceship (her apartment) inside a larger spaceship (her apt complex) which converted a couple of weeks ago from the complex to spaceship. She knows this from the green smoke that rose out of the ground recently. While she was in Jupiter her heart was transplanted with a microchip and it was her job to visit various places here on Earth including a mall, a school, a park and a hospital. She has been to all 4 today. She also can only drink pink water.

Ready for the scary part?!? WE SENT HER HOME. She is not suicidal, homicidal, unable to care for herself, unoriented to person/place/time, or unable to seek medical attention if needed.

If I had not been at work for 9 hours already with 6 more to go I would tell you I love my job but since I have been and still do I have to say I love/hate my job.

Ebay Group Expands

My ebay group that I list with has expanded with some great new members. Search "PoppySt." at www.ebay.com to see current offerings.

Starbucks Vivanno

Check out this new drink from Starbucks, in two flavors - mango and chocolate. Loaded with whey protein and fiber as well as milk and juice this new drink is supposed to be pretty healthy. But here's the really good part:
It's Free! Well it is every Tuesday from July 29th-August 12 when you bring your gym membership card to Starbucks. This Starbucks junkie is excited to try one.

Nights

I started this job a year ago in September and while I really like my job I am so sick of nights! Especially when they are not regular so I have no resemblance of a schedule AND its summer so I have a grand total of 3.5-4.5 hours of sleep in the 36 hours surrounding the shift.

For example I woke up at 9 am yesterday morning...no nap, no sleep, no nothing...until 7:30 this morning. Then I got to sleep until 10 before the dog woke me, took half an hour to go back to sleep and had to wake up at 11:30 to pay the babysitter and get her out in time to be wherever she had to be at 12:30.

I got more sleep having a newborn!

Anyways my point is its killing me. I am exhausted on the day after I work which makes me terribly grouchy and quite thoroughly disgusted with my husband who thinks its all my problem. Funny but when he was working nights I am pretty sure he got at least 6 hours EVERY DAY!

Watch out Martha Stewart!

There's a new chick in town and her name is Heather Bailey. This woman amazes and inspires me. She is the designer behind the Fresh Cut line of fabric, some patterns that just hit the market, Trash Ties, and a line of scrapbooking products. Her photography is also amazing and she has been featured in many magazines. Her blog (in the list to the left) is a pleasure to read as she shares new ideas.

Every once in awhile I get really inspired. This post and my long held love for ice cream has inspired the kids into a new summer project - homemade ice cream. Today we made plain old but delicious creamy vanilla. Next on the docket: 7 layer bar ice cream, skittles flavored, and spice cake flavored - the three chefs favorites of course!

What flavor do you think needs creating!?

Cocoa Beach

We had such a nice weekend relaxing as a family. We ate some great food, saw some old friends, slept in the most comfortable beds of all time and spent many hours in the sun. Perfect with the exception of being too short.

The kids loved boogie boarding. Poor Tristan could only go out as far as his knees though or the waves took him down!

The pool was neat with a waterfall and the kids enjoyed playing behind it!

Todd and the kids outside our hotel by the giant surf board!

This was our hotel - it was located in this surf complex that had a parking garage for the beach, huge stores, Starbucks, restaurant, lessons, travel agent, etc.

By the Ron Jon's Woody...

On the boardwalk leading out to the beach we found a guy who was willing to take a picture of all 4 of us AND was not covered in sand.

Steve & Barrys Part 2

I went - I shopped. We had a lovely late afternoon at the beach but before we could check into our hotel we hit a local mall that had one. I dislike that each brand has different sizing - the SB brand, Bitten, Eleven, etc - but I got a pair of jeans for 8.98 and a couple of pair of work pants for that as well so I can't complain. Gotta love it!

All gone!

Is it the hair that's all gone or my little girl? Not sure at this point. She looks so old all the sudden - picking out her own clothes, deciding her own hair styles - makes a mom kind of proud and kind of sad all at the same time!

Back to School Kitty

Can you believe how fast summer is going? In preparation for fall I just listed the first of my fall line on ebay - more to come on the website very soon. In the meantime check out my newest auction...kitty goes back to school.

Steve & Barrys

Do you guys ever shop there? I went once last year and it was great for basics - tees, shorts, bathing suits, etc...now I am dying to go as they have Bitten by SJP and EleVen by Venus WIlliams. Cute cute stuff for under 20.00. Okay so has anyone got any of this stuff and does it last at all?

Car Shopping

We are in desperate need of a new vehicle. By new, I mean new to us. So we went shopping today because there are a lot of "freedom" weekend deals. SO FRUSTRATED!

Here's what I learned today:

- The last 2 yrs with no car payments has me SPOILED!
- Cars have 8 million options.
- Whatever you say your budget is salesmen show you cars 2-5000 over.
- I am picky.
- This is going to be a much longer process than I had originally hoped.

We saw 2 possibilities but that was about it. Not "oh my gosh we love it and its perfect for us" cars. 2 vehicles that had the space we needed, were in the ballpark of our price range, and that one of us did not hate for some reason or another. I also decided that like cheap furniture building and room rearranging should be added to premarital classes.

Celebrate!

I hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July!

While they are too old for me to make them stuff these days they are definitely not too old to wear red, white and blue!

And a 4th of July staple: SPARKLERS!

Summer stuff...

Summer for us is like a different life than the rest of the year. The rest of the year we go, go, go from tball to swim to brownies to school meetings to work to PTA events to church things, etc. In the summer we hang out by the pool, hit the library a couple times a week, maybe even the mall, make our daily trek to the YMCA and when the weather is nice a day at the beach. So my apologies for bad pics but the excitement has been low around here...we are in summer relaxation mode. Tomorrow we'll do something for the 4th and next weekend we are going on a mini-vacation so hopefully I'll get better pictures then.

My brownie troop had a pool party for the girls and their siblings.

My dad celebrated his 55th birthday so we all went to Maggianos - yummy!

The kids cousin Aedan turned 7, had a pool party in which there was a bit too much water and not enough rules for my camera to be allowed out there. This picture was taken before we left - its not good but its a picture of them.

Dance

Meet Matt. He can't dance but he does anyway. He has been around the world. He makes others want to dance with him.

My friend, Jenni, posted this on her blog and I had to share. What an amazing concept - to share a peice of his travels with people - a peice that makes you smile and want to join him. For more go to Matt's site.

Recipe Share

Okay I know some of you are amazing cooks but I am not. I just hate it. But I have to get better about it because eating out
a.)costs alot of money
b.)is not a good habit to teach my kids
c.) has made me fat.

That being said I found a couple of recipes I am sharing with y'all in the hopes that you will leave me a good healthy recipe in my comments in return!

Santa Fe Grilled Chicken Salad Wrap

4 cups romaine lettuce
6 oz. chicken breast cut into strips
1 tomato chopped
1 can whole kernel corn drained
1/2 cup Mexican shredded cheese
1/4 cup Ranch dressing
1/4 cup salsa
8 flour tortiallas

Toss romaine, chicken, tomatoes, corn, and cheese in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine dressing and salsa. Then pour salsa/ranch mix over the salad and toss. Spoon into tortillas evenly and wrap. Makes 4 servings - 2 wraps each.
Suggested sides: Refried beans and/or spanish rice.

Beef Noodle Bowl

8 oz linguine cooked
3 cups broccoli florets
3 carrots peeled and sliced
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 lb beef sirloin cut into strips
1/4 cup italian dressing
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1 tsp ground ginger

Cook pasta as directe don package, adding broccoli and carrots for the last 2 minutes of pastas cooking time, then drain all. In skillet, heat oil and add meat, cooking until brown on all sides. Add in dressing, teriyaki sauce, and ginger - cooking until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally. Mix noodle mixture with meat in large mixing bowl. Makes 4 servings, 2 cups each. Side suggestions: Rice or baked vegetable egg rolls.