Fun kids...

This fall was my intro as a parent into the world of scheduling. Before this fall, Ruby's preschool was a co-op that my friends and I organized and we all lived really close to each other. Other than that, Ruby was in ballet, and if we were really on top of it, we had her in swimming lessons.

Anyway, I feel like I am frantic all the time and that I never get calm time with my kids! We have so much going on for Ruby and none of it can go because she loves it all. She's in ballet, swim, gymnastics, piano and preschool. (Okay, I'm eliminating gymnastics. Done. I teach her class, and it is too much. She enjoys it, but the only reason she really goes is because I teach it.)

This week, I crammed in two things with the kids at the end of the day on Weds and Thurs. The funny thing is that at 4:00 PM, stuff just isn't as fun! We did Karaoke one day, and Valentines the other. Karaoke wasn't a hit with Alice, and therefore wasn't that fun for me, but I loved Ruby's rocking out to the one High School Musical song she knows.

I realize that this post takes some of my time. Just know that I prepare most of my posts at night during "me" time, while Chris is getting the girls down to bed. I often post them in the morning when I get the pictures off of my camera.

My first booties!

My friend Debbie gave me this pattern. She made them for a mutual friend of ours when she had a baby, and I was sooooo in love with them! Then, she made Alice a pair (after hearing me rave over them repeatedly, what other choice did she have!?) and we used the heck out of them.

While the boys watched the game on Sunday night, the girls sat in the otehr room and knitted! I got one bootie done that night, and finished the second one last night. They are fun and easy and quick. I REALLY want to keep them, but I won't. They already have a home with a friend who had a baby a couple of days ago. I'm so excited to give them to her! If anyone wants the pattern, let me know and I'll post it. It has no copywritten origin to my knowledge.

"NO KITTY!"

We have three pets. A beta fish (thankfully scaled down from the 100 gallon tank Chris had when we got married), a golden retriever (also a pre-marital commodity) and now, a cat. If we put them together, we'd have a dog...the cat would kill the fish and the dog would kill the cat. If only I could get an animal that would take on the dog...

I'm not a cat person. If you've known me a long time, you know that. I loathed cats when I was younger because I had a baby pet bunny, and a cat ran off with it. (My dad chased it with a shovel, to no avail.) I wanted to be a cat person when we got this cat, but so far, it's not really a warm and fuzzy, people cat--more of a fish cat.

Anyway, our cat sits perched at the fish tank (if you look close, there is water on the counter) putting her nose in the water and pawing at the water's surface. The funny thing is that Stone, our dog is sitting at the window outside, waiting for a glimpse of the cat so he can freak out and bark like crazy.

Yummy and Simple...

I went to a baby shower this weekend and my friend Jen made the cutest little favors. There were homemade truffles inside, and they were so yummy! I was super impressed! She told us how to make them and though I haven't done so yet, I have to share. These things would make a great hostess gift, treat for neighbors at Christmas (sprinkle crunched up candy cane on top) and many other things, among a treat to be enjoyed by YOU!

So you just take a package of Oreos and churn them up in your food processor. Then you add a block of cream cheese. That's the filling. Make 1" balls out of the mixture and dip them in melted chocolate. Refrigerate one hour.

I would think that most any sandwich cookie would work. You could use grasshopper cookies and get a minty flavor or peanut butter sandwich cookies, you get the picture. Jen fancied hers up with finishing touches sprinkled on top, like in the pictures above.

My first knitting project

"Cheese."
"Alice, put the hat on, so I can take a picture!"
"No hat, mama."
"I'll give you a treat!"
"No mama."
"I'll give you a sucker!"
"Okay, MAMA!"

The hat is very flawed. Very. But I am glad I finished it. I didn't have double pointed needles for the end, and I couldn't figure out how to get the magic loop to work for me toward the end, so I just started rotating in new needles of the same size until I had like four or so going. It worked out, but like I said...it is very flawed. I'm going to make another one tonight and see if it goes any better. I like knitting, but I never have time with all the sewing projects I have going all the time. This was supposed to be a gift for my cousin's baby (who is like a year old), but I don't know if it is gift worthy.

Porter and Ruby

I thought I posted these already, but I just noticed that I DIDN'T! These are from Ruby's trip to Colorado, again...taken by Sage (THANKS!).

Ruby was excited to show off her piano playing skills, and Porter was happy to play along. I love this picture because it caught Ruby's face that she makes when she is saying something to the effect of "oh, Porter is so cute." I know it, because that is the face she used to make before she started wishing Alice wasn't around. I love that face.
Speaking of sibling rivlary, Chris and I went out on a date last night with a mission to arm ourselves with what we need to start our anti-sibling rivalry campaign. We went to the dollar store and got the girls little diaries and some stickers. They will earn a sticker for doing something patient and loving for one another. Then we bought 20 or so items that they will earn when they accumulate 20 or so stickers. I have a feeling Ruby will be very motivated by this, and she might just earn all the prizes. I'm also worried that Alice is too young to understand, so she might just go bezerk everytime Ruby gets a sticker and she doesn't. I have to try something though! I think this was an idea someone posted on my blog...was it Amanda S.? I'll have to look. Anyway, even if Alice doesn't get it, it really does take two to tango, and if Ruby is above it, I might just get some peace around here.

We've been talking to Ruby about being pretty on the inside (and she is), as a motivator for enjoying Alice more (it's hard), and it works, but she sort of twists it so that whenever she slips, she goes into drama queen, "I'm not pretty on the inside" business. That kind of drama makes me crazy. GIRLS!

I had a couple more pictures to post, but they aren't working. Neither is my spell checker...Sage and Season.

SCANDAL!!!

Two weird things happened to me lately that make me wonder if someone out there is testing my values or something...

#1--I do my grocery shopping at Safeway.com. Sometimes I get random things that they throw in for me to try. You know, normal stuff like brocslaw or gum. So last week when I was unpacking all the groceries, there was an entire bag full of MENTHOL CIGARETTES! No joke, there were like 20 packs! I was so surprised that they would pop that into my order like it was a normal thing to suggest I try. Honestly! They went into the garbage, and I made it clear to the personal shopper people that that wouldn't be considered an appropriate product to market in that way. What if I was leaving my 14 year old (if I had one) at home to receive the grocieries?! What if I had just quit? Anyone not see it my way? I feel like it's a pretty black and white issue.

#2--I loathe Victoria's Secret. I can't believe I just wrote their business name on my blog. I can't stand their marketing strategies that use oversexed, anorexic women to strut around on prime time television like they are asking for a piece of whoever is watching. I hate their catalog campaign that has been known to be found stashed under the pillows of adolecent young men as free, readily available soft porn. It took my mom a long time and several phone calls to get the catalog to stop being sent to our house when I came home for the summer in college. So...I just got one in the mail WITH MY NAME ON IT! In a matter of two weeks, I've received THREE trashy catalogs. I have no idea what I did to get on their mailing list, but I am determined to be removed. I wouldn't patronize their store plastered with life sized images of women growling half naked if they were paying people to use their product. I'm NOT opposed to lingerie in general, not at all. I am a lingerie snob of sorts and I only shop for that at Nordstrom (probably because I worked there once upon a time), where the quality is great and the advertising is specific, classy and appropriate. I know most women wear their stuff, but FYI: you are paying too much for a product that is inferior and you are probably wearing the wrong size (if we are talking bras).

There, how's that for a soapbox? I could literally fill a blog with just "Rebecca's Soapboxes" but I try really hard not to go there. Anyone with me?

Rubyism

Yesterday, when I was on tantrum episode three by my Alice, I decided I needed to remove her from where Ruby and I were because we had been paralyzed for about a total of three hours that day by Alice's screaming. I took her up to the toy room where the door is hard to open, and closed her in there. I told her when she could calm down, she could come out. On my way down the stairs, Ruby said, "Mom, it's like you are the wicked stepmother and Alice is Cinderella."

I said, "Not really, Cinderella wasn't naugthy."

I'm pretty sure she agreed.

Photo Share...

My friend is starting a business, Freedom Inspired Tees and hired me to take some marketing pictures for her. We started with just she and her kids as models, and it was a cold, rainy day, but we got some things that work. The tees are great quality and have such a simple message of gratitude for our freedom. The website should be up soon.

This one is obviously not great for marketing, but it's a fun mommy and son picture.

The following week, I took pictures for my friend J's son, L. He's precious and was so peaceful the whole time. I love the hat he is wearing in one of the pictures! Our friend Monica made it and I LOVE it!

Service Project

I was called to represent my ward (congregation) on a committee with five other wards to help plan and pull off a stake Relief Society service project. We met several times and decided to tackle several different projects instead of just one. The project went down last weekend, January 26th.

Since I am personally drawn to the needs of foster kids, I talked to my supervisor at Pierce County Alliance regarding any needs we might be able to fulfill with womanpower and little to no funds. She is responsible for the program I volunteer with, Foster Care to College, which aids foster youth ages 14-21 in the process of achieving education after high school (less than 2% go on to post high school education and only about 50% graduate high school...but this is a group of kids that could go anywhere they want for FREE because of all the aid they are eligible for since they don't have parental income to claim on their FAFSA). She said that she could come up with the funding if we wanted to come up with a meaningful, motivational-type gift that this year's high school graduates could be given at a nice ceremony that would be held in the Spring.

I did a quick design, and my friend Mindy generously cut all the vinyl stickers for her cost. Then Chris and I cut all the boards to the right size, and we were ready for the other helping hands.

The service project as a whole was a big success. In just over 4 hours - 61 inspirational plaques were completed for the Foster Care to College program, over 80 fleece blankets were made for the children of women in the Jumpstart program of Tacoma, 3 dozen beautiful cards with flower seeds and messages of hope were created and signed for our sisters in Chehalis (December flood victims), numerous pairs of mittens and 300 fleece toy balls and baby booties were cut and sewn for local and worldwide distribution, 70 people came to donate blood which will save 162 lives, and an amazing 1,639 names were indexed in the Family History Center!
I was too busy with my project to take pictures, but I got a few at the very end. It was a really fun day and as always, service is such a fulfilling experience.