I’m in love with Krylon

I’ve been meaning to add a little more art to our home so I went perusing through the thrift shops the other day to find some hidden gems. And hidden gems did I find. Look at this beauty!

It looks great above our bed!

Ok, just kidding. I bought it for the frame and turned it into this:

Which will be used to hold these:

7 bucks and a can of spray paint and there you have it! Now I just need to hang it! I looove how it turned out, and I’m in love with Krylon’s satin brushed nickel spray paint. I want to spray paint everything with it. Super easy. I had the black paint already and actually just painted right over the picture of the girl, which was just a print that someone had glued onto the particle board “mat”. I now have an oval piece of glass if anyone has a use for it….

Eggs-actly what I thought

Well, after reading all the comments, it looks like most everyone calls those eggs “sunny side up” or “over easy”. Bravo! Good job! That’s what I call them, too. Mostly sunny side up, because let’s face it, that’s cuter.

My husband, and apparently Whitney, call them something else, although Whitney's wins slightly more points for being cuter.

DIP EGGS.

How lame. I think that is the weirdest name for them. Dippy eggs…still weird but better than dip eggs. Maybe because he sounds like a 2 year old every time he asks for them. It’s like calling them dip eggs was the easiest way to describe them to a kid and then they never learned the real name.

Oh well. Call ‘em what you want I guess. I’ll just keep pretending I don’t know how to make them so I can continue to get breakfast made for me once or twice a year! :)

What do you call…

eggs cooked like this:

My husband calls them something I think is completely stupid and dumb. And I’ve never ever heard them called this in my entire life until I met his family.

So, what do you call them? I’m curious if other people call them what he calls them.

Discuss.

(Oh, and he did make these eggs himself. For me. I love having someone cook for ME for a change!)

Peanutty Goodness

Of course, I speak of my daughter, the peanut. Her doc wanted her in between her 6 and 9 month appointments for a weight check since she was so light. So today we went. And she’s still light.

Weight: 13 lb. 15.5 oz;  2% for weight

Length: 25;  5% for length

We won’t be winning any contests for size, that’s for sure. But doc wasn’t worried one bit. She’s following the same curve, and it’s not like she’s skin and bones. She’s got rolls for pete’s sake.

She eats a lot and sleeps through the night. Sounds like everything is going great to me too!

Resigned to re-sign

Nothing will make me madder faster than watching “House Hunters” on HGTV.

“Bob and Amy are looking for a new home in Texas. They would like 19 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, a 6 car attached garage, a finished basement as big as a football field, a giant fenced in yard with a swimming pool, lazy river, and tube slides. Their budget is $120,000. Let’s see if we can find Bob and Amy the home of their dreams!”

The part that pisses me off is that they usually do.

We threw in the towel and re-signed our lease here. But not after an extensive search for homes to buy and homes to rent and bigger apartments to rent. And we came up empty. Why don’t rentals come with fridges? What is up with that?

It just really sucks that we are stuck in the middle of home prices. We could afford something small in the city of Milwaukee but we’d outgrow it pretty quickly and have to move in a couple years. Who wants to do that? But we’re just shy of being able to afford something we could live in for years and years in Menomonee Falls. Arg.

I get really frustrated when I see all of our friends with homes and I wonder why can’t we? But you never really know someone else’s financial situation, do you? Maybe they received inheritances. Maybe their parents paid their down payments (Say whaaaat?). Maybe they are in crazy credit card debt.

We have received no inheritance, we get zero financial help from our parents, and I’m happy to say the only debt we have is my student loan. Then I start to feel a little better, knowing that when we finally do find a house and buy it, we can say we did it all on our own, and I’ll be really proud of that.

In the meantime, we’re still in our little apartment. I’ve been going through everything again getting rid of junk and finally letting go of clothes that will never ever fit me again in this lifetime. And trying to think of the positives about rental living:

• Snow removal
• Lawn care
• Pool
• Maintenance men
• The loud dog that barks next door. Oh wait….

So, we will continue to look, and continue to save and hopefully find something in the spring. And we won’t be house poor for at least another 6 months. Yay! That means we can still do fun things for a little bit longer. :)

Game on!

I have always loved to play games. Video games, board games, card games, word games, you name it. I love traveling to see family because heavy game playing is usually involved. Last weekend we got to play games with different people both Friday AND Saturday night. It was awesome. I sucked both nights, losing in all games played, but I didn’t care. It was fun. Especially since we learned a couple of new and really cool games. Always a bonus.

Playing games with people brings out different aspects of their personality, I think. If they are competitive, you’re sure to find out. And it’s more interesting and fun than sitting and watching a movie. Plus, there’s usually some kind of snackage involved, so that’s always good.

Last night I had a dream that I was playing Tetris with who looked like Coolio, but in my dream it was Cypress Hill. Um, am I Insane in the Membrane?? Of course, I totally creamed Mr. Hill. Perhaps this dream came from my recent gaming excitement and my desire to go to Mexican Fiesta tomorrow. Because did you know, Cypress Hill was the first Latino group to have an album go platinum? Yeah, me neither.

Sometimes I like to google image search the topic of blog posts and see what the first image that pops up is. Here’s the winner for “gamers”

Could that be any more awesome?

So, all you closet and open gamers….if you’re bored on a Friday or Saturday night, chances are we are too. Let’s get our games on!

Seriously, Mom? Again? Come ON!

You’re driving me CRAZY with all this picture taking business!

Splish Splash

We’ve had some warmer days lately so we’ve been heading out to the pool. Summer was a little apprehensive at first about getting in the water, but she eventually warmed up to it. Good thing, because what good would a girl named Summer be without loving all things Summertime?

 

 

PS-I’m loving this Windows Live Writer. You can uploads more pictures all at once (goodbye 5-picture limit that takes FOREVER!) You can do cool things to your pictures and it’s really easy!

Sa-wing!

My little computer nerd friend Dan is telling me how great Windows Live Writer is so I’m testing it out. Apparently you can write your blogs here and they’ll upload to Blogger and it’s soooo amazing. We shall see.

The other day we decided to go out and play on the swings. Summer loooved it! I worried the whole time she would fall through the leg holes, but she giggled away and just kept on swinging! So fun!

Bampoop

My lucky bamboo is not looking so lucky these days. I've had it for about 4 years. It's been in the same place, and all of a sudden took a turn for the worse. Maybe it's a sign....

I blame you, bamboo, for our house hunting luck! Or lack thereof...

Fairest of the Fair

Tuesday we went to the fair...finally! I have been impatiently waiting all year for it, having high hopes for it to be all I imagined it to be.

It did NOT fail to deliver!

I was really nervous that Summer wouldn't do well, especially without naps, but she was a superstar. We were there from about 1-8pm and she took maybe a 15 minute snooze in her stroller while walking around, and she was just happy as a clam looking around and checking things out. She loves the fair just like her mama!



THE FOOD! The day we went the fair was having a promotion where selected food vendors had items on sale. BONUS! We could eat even MORE for LESS!

We started off the day with flavored milk. Strawberry, banana and root beer. Root beer is the absolute BEST. It's like the end of a root beer float. So tasty.



Next up, BBQ turkey sandwich. Yum.



Moving quickly onto roasted corn. I told Derrick it would be pretty sweet to own one of those roasters. One day. Apparently you can rent them, though.



The big buzz this year was chocolate covered bacon on a stick. Of course we had to try it. And for only a buck? You better believe it. I thought it was pretty good. A nice mix of sweet and salty. And bacony.

We also tried a fried PB&J on a stick, which was my favorite. I'm pretty sure it was a batter-dipped Uncrustable. It was delicious. The peanut butter was all melty and the jam was warm and gooey. I wanted a 2nd one. And not share. Mmmm...


We had half of a Philly cheese steak sandwich, which had some mystery white "cheese" sauce on it. Pretty sure it was mostly butter. Can't go wrong with that.


Then we munched on a slice of Palermo's pizza and headed over to the crown jewel of the Wisconsin State Fair......



The Cream Puff.



Just as creamy and delicious as always. I ate the whole thing myself. Don't judge.

All Summer ate was her feet. (Which she has recently learned. I jinxed myself.)

We played Bingo, and just like every year, we won something! Derrick won in a drawing and scored a sweeeet travel sleep set, complete with silky blue blanket and matching eye mask in a convenient travel case.


And I found out what my photo placed! Drum roll please.......THIRD!


I took a picture of the 1st and 2nd place photos. You be the judge.

First

Second, behind the bread

I like the 1st place picture. More than mine? Meh.

But look what won 1st over my fruits/veggies picture:

Are you kidding me? That thing is hideous. I don't care if it's "clever". It's ugly. Boo.

Look who I met! Abe Lincoln! I have no idea what he was doing there. But I told him to "Keep it honest, Abe!"

Even these sheep know the 80's are back. Check out those legwarmers.


These giant bananas were all the rage this year in the midway. What are you going to do with a giant banana? That's what she said.

I really wanted to go on the slide, but alas, I'm only 28 and my parents live in Texas.

I really wanted to see the worlds smallest horse, or the spider woman, or the 200 pound snake, but Derrick wouldn't let me. Instead, I saw the monkey with a human face. And I didn't even have to go in the exhibit! Zing!



Overall, it was a fabulous day, and tons of fun. The weather was absolutely perfect, and we had such a great time with our little family. And Summer slept SO great that night! :)


Until next year!

Crack kills

Just say NO!

Variety much?

Well, offer #4 on a house #4 came and went for us last week. We have not opted at this point to renew our apartment lease, so we could very well be homeless come October 1 unless we find something rather quickly. It's quite frustrating to say the least. However, in the spirit of positive thinking, I've been slowly cleaning out random closets, drawers, and cabinets in preparation.

During my excavating, I unearthed these:

Four essentially identical pairs of sunglasses. One might think after I bought the 2nd pair that I would have remembered I had a pair similar already. Nope. I actually had no clue I had so many that were so alike.

Guess it's safe to say my tastes run pretty consistent, eh?

Maybe I should branch out a little more. Oh wait, I did.

6 years!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Feels like just yesterday that we were all dressed up and our faces hurt from smiling for all the pictures being taken. It was a beautiful day and we were able to spend it with so many of our friends and family. Marriage has been good to us, and for that I am so grateful. I love living my life with my best friend, who makes me laugh and makes me feel like the most important person in the world. We have a great time together no matter what we do, and we've especially had a fun time being parents together. Peas and carrots, that's what we are.

Check out my beautiful flowers!

We spent the day going to church, then eating a 3 course fondue dinner until we were sufficiently stuffed while watching a movie. Yum.

Photo taken by Jennifer Gilmore Photography

Here's to 6 more happy years....and then some!

Disappointment squared

I have been waiting for today for it seems like forever. Today was the day we were going to the fair! We had our whole day planned out: what to see first, what to eat when, etc.

We wake up early this morning and.....pouring rain. I check the doppler and not only is there a blanket of green over the whole city, it morphs into orange and red as the morning progresses.

I was heartbroken. It's like being a little kid who is waiting for Christmas morning, only to be told Christmas morning that he has to wait another week. Torture.

We decide to go another day. Tuesday. Derrick will take a half day and we'll go. Not our ideal plan, but oh well.

The only upside to this situation is we get to go back to bed.

Later, I go out to water my plants, (which are producing red cherry tomatoes now!) and I find that my basil plant in the HEAVY CERAMIC POT has been blown off our 2nd story balcony and onto the ground below. Not onto the wet soggy ground, but onto the only 1x1 cement slab on probably the whole property. I can see shards of my beautiful planter tragically lying about. The big bushy basil plant that I was days away from harvesting and making pesto plummeted to its death. Hello store-bought pesto.

How the super-light plastic pot with the eensy plant we got at church for Mother's Day survived is beyond me.

After a good nap and a Chipotle burrito all was right again in the world. Forecast looks good for Tuesday. Let's hope it stays that way.

God does hear our prayers!

If this isn't a faith-promoting experience, I don't know what is.

We were driving downtown this evening to go see The Phantom of the Opera. (We are celebrating our anniversary a few days early. It's become somewhat of a tradition that we see some type of show to celebrate. I dig this tradition.)

When traveling, we usually base our route based on traffic lights. Stuck at a red? Take a right! Well, tonite was no exception, except Derrick made the decision to turn right a little too late and we were stuck at another red light immediately. We can't take another right because then we'd be going the wrong way.

Well, we're sitting there and I'm looking out the other side or picking my nose or something and Derricks says, "It's the Wienermobile!"

I of course freak out and make him turn and stop and we take pictures. It's been a life goal of mine to see the Wienermobile up close and personal! I would have preferred to go inside, but a picture in front was just as great.

Before we left I had an inkling to take my camera, but brushed it aside. What would I need my camera for at the theater? You can't take them in. I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED!!! So sadly, what you see are the results of our lame-o camera phones. But glorious still.

I had to run up and give it a hug.

If we hadn't turned right at that first red light we would have never seen it.

It's hard to say what the highlight was tonite, seeing Phantom or the Wienermobile. They were both incredible.

My life is that much more complete now!

Arg.

So I have to get this form signed with a "Signature Guarantee". Not a notary, not a dinky stamp, but a Signature Guarantee. It has to be done pretty quickly or these so called "assets" I have will be turned over to the State. I went to five, FIVE banks today and not a single one could do it for one reason or another. That's FIVE TIMES unloading and loading Summer and her car seat into my car, which has NO automatic locks. One bank I went to was in Pick N Save, so I picked up a couple things while I was in there and saw the soda machine. 25 cents a can. A cream soda sounded AMAZING right about then so I go and pop my quarter in and guess what. SOLD OUT. Could this day be going any better?

By now Summer is fussing because she's hungry AND crazy constipated and I'm a big crabby patty.

I get home and check the mail and the Mail Gods must have known I needed a pick-me-up because waiting for me were the new catalogs for IKEA and Crate & Barrel. Ahh.

Now if I just had that soda, I'd be set.

Spelling Lesson

Do you remember when you were in elementary school and you had a spelling book? Did yours have "elephant words"? Words that were harder than the other words that week?

I am a pretty good speller. I'd say I'm above average. I won my fair share of spelling bees in my youth. Except for that one time I spelled "cylinder" with an "s". I don't even remember saying "s". What a dumb word to misspell.

Anyway, I should have been a copy editor or something because I love to proofread things and find spelling and grammar errors. Maybe it caters to my need to feel smart. Who knows.

ANYWAY. Attention, class. *clap, clap* Attention! Today we are going to learn how to spell a word. An elephant word that shouldn't be an elephant word. That word is:

DEFINITELY

It really does boggle my mind how anyone misspells this. Although a recent study says that it is the most commonly misspelled word. And I believe it. There's even a website dedicated to this word! I see it misspelled almost daily.

Like this: definately. And it drives me crazy to see it spelled like this.

This is not a hard word to spell, people. Say it slow, sound it out, just like in 3rd grade.

Def-i-nit-ely.

I'll give you that maybe the 2nd "e" is tricky. But the a? Where do you get the "a" from? Do you say def-i-NAT-ely? I don't know anyone who pronounces it like that, yet it's spelled like that all the time.

If it makes it easier for you, think of the word finite. Strong "i" sounds in that word. Add a "de" and an "ly" and you have definitely. There is definitely not an A in definitely.

Please, for me, spell it correctly. And don't even get me started on your/you're and their/there/they're.

If you're going to your house here, then they're going to their house over there.

Got it? Good.

7 months!

Where has my sweet baby gone? She's turned into a little girl! (Don't you love the braids!?)

She had a slow start with solids, but has picked up the pace recently. All it took was a few bites of Carson's banana to realize there's more to eating than just green mush. She's been a great eater ever since. She's had green beans, broccoli, peas, carrots, and bananas. And a few pieces of bread tossed in here and there.

She loves to play with her feet, and luckily hasn't figured out how to eat them yet.

I'm a mean mom and made her cry it out last week so now we're back to sleeping through the night. She goes down between 6:30 and 7 and wakes up between 5 and 6 am. Then I feed her and she'll sleep till around 8 or 9. Oh, sleep, glorious sleep. How I've missed you.

Her latest trick is sitting up all by herself. She doesn't always catch herself if she starts to fall, but I think a couple of head bumps on the floor has her catching on pretty quick that she should try a little harder.

The kid talks all. the. time. I love it. She's learned how to really squeal, which she usually does when it's supposed to be really quiet.

Last week we went on a walk and I blew some bubbles I picked up at the Dollar store. She stared at them and then started cracking up. She has never laughed so hard like that before and I practically started crying it was so adorable. Of course, when I tried to do it again and catch it on video she didn't do it. And FYI....these Dollar store bubbles are THE BEST bubbles I have ever used. They make beautiful bubbles, TONS of colors, and you get a truckload of bubbles in just one dip. Check em out. You can get Dora, Diego, or Spongebob bubbles. I'm seriously debating going and buying them out of the rest.

"Hey! Look at me!!"

Parents say all the time how they love to watch their kids learn new things, and I'll admit I always thought that sounded so lame. But now we just watch her as she plays with a new toy, or tries to figure out how to get something. It's true, we love to watch her learn new things.

She's the best, and we are SO lucky to have her! We love you Summer!