Friday, April 17, 2009

Brain Booster: Lowe's?

Well, I finished my second essay! Yay me! I need to finish the third one by at least 2 AM tomorrow so I can turn it in, get some sleep then work on the last one all day tomorrow!

We had some thunderous rainstorm today for several hours. It even knocked out the power (of course while I was typing meaning nothing saved yet) for 3 whole seconds!

I felt restless by the afternoon and decided that maybe some gardening will do! Well, the vision bubble was quickly burst when there are no rectangular terra cotta clay planters in either Lowe's or Walmart for my window sill! But... I did find these!



Some deep purple petunias, more potting soil ($2 less than the tag) and an awesome but dying deep pink Asiatic Lily plant! The sweet part is that the plant is very healthy, just had too many dead leaves and blossoms so Lowe's cut the price in half! I don't mind that one bit... We got back pretty late, but since the storm has passed, another beautiful day will be upon us tomorrow and I get to garden with my children and have a new plant to experiment with! I can't wait!

Oh yeah, I also found a couple of Easter goodies at Walmart I've been watching since mid February for 75% off! YES! I can't wait for next Easter!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Easy Essays?

It would seem that when you focus on something, that's when LIFE says, "Yeah, right!"

Wednesday night, I got started with my first final essay out of the 4 mini ones I had to do for my last two Public Admin classes. I actually finished one, but getting started on the others seem to be more complicated. I got maybe halfway with the second one... Did I mention I needed to do 4? By Saturday night? For points of 25, 25, 50 and 100? Yeah, I can feel my boots sh- shake a b-b-bit, j-just a bit... ;-)

In the morning, my brain stopped and asked for chocolate, lots of it! But then, my brain decided to take a rest and watch Food Network. Then Disney! After school, I had to watch a little girl. She's fun and got along great with my kids. Then nature seemed to call me. No, not the water closet kind of call! Nature! You know, trees, birds, flowers?

We walked around, picked up the mail, looked for beavers at their dam at one end of the creek. I found this bird that flew, walked and hopped! I think it was a Northern Mockingbird because it looked like this!


From Pbase.com

We even found some white bearded iris just growing wildly at the side of the wooded area near our apartment complex. Maybe some frustrated gardener thought that her rhizomes were bad and threw it out. You know, as they mentioned in Jurassic Park, "Life will find a way..." Those rhizomes found just the right combination of moisture and nutrients in that spot and boom! Up they grew! The blooms are simply beautiful... I took a picture with my phone, but it didn't turn out quite as clear as I wanted it to so here's a comparable photo I borrowed online.

From Sunset.com

We also realized that we've never been to and that it's time we used some of our hard earned dollars to help out Papa Murphy's so we had their Chicago Style Pizza and Cinnamon Wheel. It was so good that I got an extra big hug from Charlie. Love that! Maybe take out again tonight? ;-) Lovely combo... (Ok, getting hungry again) If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. If not, maybe it's time...

Ok, back to the scent of highlighters as it glides onto the paper illuminating the information I need for my essays...

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Final Exam, Tablescaping & Gratitude...

From

We didn't do much today except be in school and for me gathering ideas for my final essay for one of my Public Administration classes. Charlie got a peaceful rest while I helped my sister tweak and clean up her resume over the phone and email. She's been sick for a few days. My poor baby sister. She rocks because she's raising her two small children by herself!

I just found too that our family friend, Michelle Branch got in a car accident yesterday but didn't feel most of the pains until today. I hope she feels better and gets to see a doctor soon. Also, my bff since highschool, Sheila, just remembered that today is her dad's death anniversary so we kind of were sad for each other... Three days from now, it'll be her birthday. My dad died on my birthday.

But on the upside, I am having tons of fun with my tablescaping blog (click the button on sidebar) and my friend Heather remembered that I love dark chocolate Dove, so she got me the Easter egg shaped ones! Yummy! Love ya, Heather!

The kids came home, did homework and the girls went to their Wednesday church activities. My friend Amy gave Jasmine a ride and even took her with them to dinner at Cici's pizza. Thanks, Amy! Lisa was picked up by one of her YW friends and the daughter of our bishop. Kira, my love and thanks to you and your family!

I feel so blessed today... even though I was overwhelmed with sadness and concern, I felt unbelievably loved by my Heavenly Father and for that I am truly grateful...

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

A Tummy Ache... And Back to Work...


L-Infinity woke up with a tummy ache, but no real other symptoms. Two doses of Pepto seemed to have done the trick. She learned that her school friend who ate the same cafeteria cookie yesterday also stayed home from a funny tummy. J-Pony and I-Dude enjoyed school while Mr. Man spent time looking for some much needed car brake pads that are screaming for replacement. As for me, I spent time trying to look for some coupons that mysteriously disappeared from my purse! Also, now that we know we are staying put for a while, we've decided to put up drapes. And guess what, because we've moved so many times, I didn't realize that my drapes do not match or that the hardware of our drapery rods are missing! So this time, we invested in matching rods and drapes. Will show those later after my gorgeous Mr. Man puts them up of course!

All in all, just another day. Mr. Man's off to work again and L-Infinity's going back to school. Remind you of your own schedule? Scary huh?

(Photo from Scraps In Bloom.com)

Monday, April 13, 2009

FHE: Our Home is Our Sanctuary


We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Sunday. I can honestly say that we did. I'll have to catch you up on it on another post.

I am quite humbled that we remembered to do Family Home Evening again. We focused on being a family, being in our home and how we can keep it safe and more spiritually and physically clean.

I'm the first one to admit that we have a lot to work on when it comes to figuring out what we're going to do with the extra stuff still sitting in boxes that we love and use, just can't store anywhere, we are at a loss. We can't afford pretty containers, bigger storage or get a house, so for now, we get creative.

But our home, since Mr. Man and I were still dating, was to be a home of happy memories, kindness and love. But more than anything, we wanted a home that our children would love to be in. And so far, it is. I stumbled upon the late President Gordon B. Hinckley's conference talk on October 2002 General Conference featured in the Liahona in November 2002. He said:

"If we fail in our homes, we fail in our lives. No man is truly successful who has failed in his home. I ask you men, particularly, to pause and take stock of yourselves as husbands and fathers and heads of households. Pray for guidance, for help, for direction, and then follow the whisperings of the Spirit to guide you in the most serious of all responsibilities, for the consequences of your leadership in your home will be eternal and everlasting." (LDS.org)

We applied that statement to each of us, not just for Mr. Man. We all have a part in making our home successful and more of a sanctuary. We talked of the good things about our family and how our standards are set for our own spiritual safety.


The Family: A Proclamation to the World stands as our compass to keep improving our family life. We have it in our dining room as it is our gathering place.

Mr. Man and I made the sacrifice that I would stay home so that our children will feel safe and welcome in our home. We encourage people to come over but we do not allow bad language or inappropriate subjects in our home. We taught them tonight that protecting our home is a group effort and we need everyone to maintain the loving standards we enjoy.

When you come in our home, the first thing you see is the picture of our Savior Jesus Christ, similar to the picture at the top of this post. We never needed to explain why to those who come in our home why we chose Him to be who greets them at the front door. He is whom we chose to serve and emulate each day and though we are not perfect at it, we want others to know of WHO reigns in our home...

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Birthday, Mama!

From Roadfood dot com


I don't know why this didn't post, but it didn't help that it took me a while to realize it either. ;-)

It's my MAMA's 71st birthday today! Yay!

She's a cute Filipino lady with Chinese eyes! I love to see here smile and laugh, her eyes literally disappear! LOL

Here's a great big slice of a luscious coconut cream pie for her!


HAPPY 71ST BIRTHDAY, MAMA!!!

WE LOVE YOU AND WISH YOU MORE!!!

Happy Easter!

We all hope you had a wonderful Easter that is full of reflection and gratitude for our dear Savior's ultimate sacrifice and triumph over death!
We got dressed up just for the opportunity to take another family picture.
It's a rare event you know.

You like how our cat Cece dodged the camera by hiding in the blinds?

How about some smiles and a wandering cat?
I think they found all the eggs, so time for a picture!
We wanted an enchanting evening to reflect on. Pick a seat.
Make sure to help yourself at the dessert table.

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Getting Ready...

Easter is tomorrow and there are a lot to do for dinner and our own egg hunt, so today, we woke up, ate breakfast, and stopped at Kroger. Why, because it is our ward's Easter Egg Hunt for the Primary children. We had so much fun! Of course we did, considering since the last time we had celebrated Easter (you know with eggs and good dinner) was back in 2006. Why? Because we moved in 2007, so I started packing in early March. Last Easter, I was in school and doing midterms, so the celebration happened quick.
We cleaned our windows, vacuumed and we swept out our front step and changed out our rugs. We said NO to any TV all day tomorrow and have finished out our menu.

At the store, we picked up candies and plastic hinged eggs. We got the kids some new baskets because our Easter stuff from the past years are still buried in the storage! Now the question is, can you guess who owns which basket?



Before you guess, how about some Tea Cakes?

I got the recipe for these fat soft cookies from a fellow blogger,

Shelia of Note Songs
(you should visit her, her blog is so fun)

My kids loved these cookies, so I made enough for tomorrow's dinner, too!

Ok, here are the pictures to see who has which basket.

Are you ready?

Are you sure?

Are you done guessing?


J-Pony has the orange, and I-Dude has the green!

Did you guess right?

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Walk, walk and walk some more...

Yes, that's what we did today. We walked from our place to Tuesday Morning for some inexpensive crystal. Actually, the same specific Gorham crystal that I saw last late February. I told myself (and my budget) that if these are still around by Easter time they will be mine! They must be because all six were still there! I'll show it on Sunday's Easter tablescape at my other blog.

Then off across the street to Kohl's for Easter dresses for the girls. Thank goodness we found some they both liked and the colors are complimentary to I-Dude and Mr. Man's shirt. Thank goodness! L-Infinity and J-Pony have two different styles, so finding any holiday dresses that don't clash is a big relief!

On the way home, as before, we played our "Alphabet game". I-Dude chooses a topic and the first person to start the game. Today was "sea creatures" and I was first. We started with abalone and ended with zebra fish. We didn't mind having people driving by seeing us laugh our heads off from not coming up with a sea creature for a particular letter. For example, L-Infinity got stuck on U, so everytime it's her turn, she would substitute with "U" like uctopus, ulectric eel and ugli fish.

Tonight, we did a dry run with our Easter dinner and dessert tables. J-Pony is helping me and she even chose a dessert for Sunday. Then we enjoyed a simple "breakfast for dinner" fare. And of course since it 's Friday, we also have dessert. We tried making "molten lava cakes", but I think our oven is too hot, since I have yet to see the real lava. I've got as far as ooey-gooey, but no lava... not yet! One day... one more practice. I'm sure I can handle more chocolate, right?

Movie night is "School of Rock" with Jack Black.

Hope you all had a great Friday!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Easter Break, Some benches & Fun Memories


So today is the last day of school for Easter holiday. They won't have school tomorrow which is good. That means I can get a lot done in the living room while the kids clean the blinds, windows, mirrors and their bathroom and beds. I'll also take my children for another walk to Tuesday Morning and Kroger for last minute Easter stuff we've been watching out for, while Mr. Man settles into his sleep. My fingers are tightly crossed that my target items (I've watched for about a month now) will be on sale.

Today was just another opportunity to get things done so I chose to do some visiting teaching. I visited two out of my three ladies. It helps that both of them are also becoming my close friends. After much blog hopping today, I also got to finalize in my head what our Easter table would look like. As it is also my mom's birthday, I wanted it to be a more fun and yet Easter appropriate table while recognizing I have three young children. So we'll see what we can come up with...

In the afternoon, my neighbor and friend Annette shared she saw a great bench that can go under one of the trees in front of my apartment to sit on during the upcoming warmer days to enjoy the breeze and it jogged my memory of how I wanted a pair of wrought iron/wood garden benches on each side of the front door path, facing each other. As we are definitely staying for until L-Infinity graduates next year, I think we may do just that... But then again, I need to make sure that we reduce a lot of what we don't need in the house so that we can truly focus on what would make more inviting inside before we focus on the outside.

Below is my front door, I don't know if you can see what I'm talking about, but I am telling the absolute truth when I tell you we have the best unit in this whole complex. Each day, we are able to witness the sunrise and the glow of the sun setting. We look out onto a 50 plus yards of just grass area ending into a narrow creek filled with turtles, a beaver, fish and an occasional snake. The creek separates us from a small wooded area that is home to some coyotes (further out) that sing to us every night, bunnies that come out at night, all kinds of birds, and our complex is full of dog owners and we have a good group of young children that play together well with our children now. Once again, our apartment area is the play hub of the neighborhood. I love opening the windows and hearing children laugh and play! Especially my two younger ones, Jas and Ian...

Look at that natural canopy/shade action going on at our front door. It is so refreshing during the day when we open the door and windows and let the breeze in. We have about a 5 foot path to the main walkway and dirt on each side. Can you imagine how inviting it would be to have facing benches and my two urns full of seasonal plants at each end of it? Mmmmm... my imagination's going wild!


And tonight, we headed to Walmart for a new front door rug as the other one has seen better days from the wet season we've had lately, plus it's about 4 years old, so I think it was ready for the garbage bin.

Trek down memory lane: It was 2002.

We watched some home videos when I-Dude was only 5 months old and J-Pony was three. We were all in our Gilbert, AZ apartment master bedroom and I-Dude was by the pillows in the middle of the bed playing with his toys. I was folding his clothes next to our director, Mr. Man. J-Pony was helping me fold the clothes by unfolding each bib and towel and refolding them by rolling each one up, bending it in half, twist it tight and pile them on top of each other. L-Infinity was making fun of my socks being in the laundry pile because I rarely wore any. Then you hear J-Pony, without being in the picture, "I, are you a Gerber baby? Are you a Gerber baby, I,?" I-Dude responds by eating his toy Sassy frog.

I then snatch up all the bibs and towels from J-Pony while she was distracted to refold them. She realizes they were gone and asks, "where are the clo-tes? L, where are the clo-tes? Mommy, what happened to all of I's clo-tes?" While watching this video of her calmly looking for her brother's "clo-tes", we are busting up laughing with her. She says, "Mommy, I was three then!" While L-Infiinity kept on saying, "I-Dude was so fat!"

Aaahhh... sweet memories. Nothing like it! Mr. Man will soon transfer all of these tapes into DVDs. That should make it easier to view next time...