For Tiffany...

Thanks for the tag, Tiffany! You know I blog-stalk you religiously. :)

Here you go...

1. Whats your favorite thing about your spouse or significant other?
To just name one? He's wicked smaahhhhht and I love talking with him. When we're old and wrinkled, we'll still have a fun time yakking.

2. What is one of your proudest moments?
Last year's Christmas program in church. I accompany the choir and was playing The Hardest Piece in America. It took literally hundreds of hours of practice, but I nailed it. Booyah.

3. Out of the jobs you've held, which one was your favorite? why?
Working as Assistant Controller at Moshe Safdie and Associates. I LOVED it there. I worked with the most interesting, creative, international, bright, etc people ever... and I loved what I did.

4. What's one of your "not so obvious" talents? How did you discover it?
Working with children who tend to be difficult. I can't claim this talent with my own children because I run out of patience too quickly. But for the two hours of Primary on Sundays, give me the crazy hard ones! They don't faze me!

5. What is your earliest childhood memory?
My dad giving me a popsicle.

6. All time favorite book? why?
Probably Cry the Beloved Country. But it's SO HARD to narrow it down. Check me out on goodreads...

7. So far in life, what is the biggest lesson you've learned?
That all relationships take active work and effort.

8. How did your spouse propose to you?
Over dinner in Cambridge after weeks of dropping to one knee to tie a shoe, retrieve a book, look at something on the ground, etc. It was driving me CRAZY.



Thanks for the tag! Gave me something to think about at 6am when Zack woke up this morning!

Here are my questions:
1 - Pancakes or waffles and why? (OR what is your favorite breakfast food?)
2 - Favorite date? Where, when, and why?
3 - Which are more prevalent in your home? Cars or princesses?
4 - What singular thing determines your happiness more than any other? (for me - the cleanlines of my kitchen)
5 - If you could change one thing about your wedding, what would it be and why?
6 - Facebook or blogging and why?
7 - Favorite blog you follow (or stalk)? Why?
8 - If you could buy one item RIGHT NOW for under $200, what would it be? Why?


My tag-ees... (you're supposed to tag 5, but I couldn't help myself...)
1. Corinne
2. Dr. Kate
3. Mary
4. Adrienne
5. Lesley Jean
6. Belowicious
7. The Great Mindini (if your family is healthy again...)
8. Jen Jen Phen Phen
9. Reggster
(#10 Honorary Mention: Lisa. She gets off the hook this time for just having a darling baby girl...)

Learned Today

that regular detergent has no business being in a high-efficiency washing machine.

Would have taken pics, but once I opened the door of our front-loading machine, the wall of bubbles that greeted me started blopping onto my floor. Yes, blopping.

Needless to say, I misread the label on this detergent! HE detergent only from here on out! (Sam and Zack LOVED playing in the bubbles though...)

Toy Room Activities

When I finished that prior post, it was rather quiet in the toy room. (Always a suspicious sign.) This is what I found...

What adorable brothers!

Zack saw me taking pics, and immediately retorted, "MOM! Don't look at me! I'm busy READING right now!!!"

(Speaking of Zack- do you see that double chin and luscious CHEEKS in the above picture??? Yum.)

Grocery Shopping $100 goal

I have decided to live within a $100 per week grocery and household shopping budget. For some of you, that's a lot. For some of you, that seems impossible. For me, it's a challenge, but doable.

I'm getting really into couponing and scouring the weekly ads for deals. This entails going to multiple stores each week... but I can handle that right now.

To help keep me commited to my goal (and accountable to someone!), I'm going to post my weekly expenditures on here.

So, here's this week. Amounts are what I actually paid. Some in pictures, and some not pictured.

Walgreens: $0.82 for 2 small pkg oreos
Rite Aid: $1.71 for 2 bottles kids vitamins
Reams: $10.17 - last minute change of dinner plans purchase (which is partly to blame for being over budget...)
Smith's: $56.70 (case lot sale! 40lbs flour, case of chicken broth, brownie mixes, cake mixes, canned veggies and some random groceries)
Target: $0.78 for three Fage yogurts (LOVE THIS STUFF)
Fresh Market: $26.94 for all this!!! Best deals were Gma Sycamore bread 4/$5, Yoplait yogurt ended up being $0.20 each, red and yellow potatoes were 0.69/lb, peaches and grapes were both $0.88 / lb, and the Post cereal after coupons were $0.62 per box! (Not included in this picture are the Tillamook cheese and bag of baby carrots that I had misplaced when taking this pic... So imagine a 1lb bag of baby carrots and a 2lb block of cheese too!)

Harmons: $10.48. That's right... $1 per box of cereal / granola bars. Can we say $0.10 per person for preschool snacks???

Dan's: $6.65. Look at all these apples. $0.77 / lb! Apple crisp, apple pie, apple everything here we come...

I think I have gone to every possible store around me. It feels that way anyway! Now, I'm off for a snack of fresh peaches in fage yogurt drizzled with honey. YUM.

Total this week: $114.25.

Don't judge me. It's my first week... :)

Remember May? Moab

We went to Moab for Memorial Day weekend this year with all of Matt's family. Ben and Sarah came from NYC and Tricia was on break from PA school. It was SO FABULOUS to all be together!

It was such a fun weekend and full of adventure. My favorite activity by FAR was off-roading. It was crazy fun. We went up Gemini Bridges and then got out and hiked around for a while.

Liz, Rach, and our boys.Tricia and Zack (who wouldn't look at the camera!) Thanks for being Zack's hiking buddy so many times on that trip, Trish! (and this post is dedicated to you! Sorry it's taken me so long to upload pics!)

My fabulous in-laws who planned the entire weekend

Gemini BridgeBen the Adventurer and Sarah looking over the edgeSam Tricia, Rach, and Zack. "Ooooo-ahhhh!" (what Zack said every time he had a big step)The View from one of our off-roading adventures.
Matt and Sam checking out the drop-offOur fam

Sam and Matt on the bridge

The crew hiking

Let's discuss OFF-ROADING!!!

Is there anything better? It's like being on a roller coaster for 6 hours! My kind of fun. :) We started with Gemini Bridges - fairly tame, although I didn't know that at the time!

Then we moved on to Fins and Things - which was THE BOMB DOT COM. (like that Leese?) Really. It was so unbelievable that vehicles are CAPABLE of going on that kind of trail!

Check out these videos. First, is one of our jeep going down the steepest, craziest, part of Fins and Things. I got so scared on the way down that I pulled the camera in without realizing it. Woops. Our boys and Ben LOVED it though.



Here's Ben's descent! I thought Tricia was driving during the video though... so ignore that.



Did you hear the brakes screeching as the jeep SLID DOWN THE HILL??? Yah. THAT is fun defined. :)

Thanks for a fabulous trip! Let's do it again sometime!

Guess Who Has a Big Boy Bed?

Yep, this little boy. (This is his "bad guy face". He fights invisible bad guys in our house all day long...)

Here are the boys on their first night together. Zack was SOOOO excited. He has been wanting to sleep in Sam's room with his "best buddy Sam" for a while now.

In fact, he was sooo excited that on the first night, he stayed awake until 10:30 when he asked to sleep in his crib. Where he did sleep that night.

Since then, he has successfully slept in his big boy bed every night for about two weeks now... although he doesn't fall asleep until about 9pm or so. I'm hoping the excitement will wear off soon. :)

The bonus? He now wakes up around 7am instead of 6am. It's LOVELY!!

Writing on the Floor

Sam and Zack will even spell out things on the floor...

Nonsense

Sometimes, I am surrounded by nonsensical statements.

Examples:

me: Sam! Your gash on your cheek looks much better today!
Sam: Yah! Now I can do cartwheels!

me: Sam, you're super speedy on our walk.
Sam: I know! I wonder where I get my power from... Oh yeah. I know.
me: Where?
Sam: The sun. Like Superman.

me: Zack, what's your favorite color?
Zack: Mom, you're a googak! (giggles)

Sam: Mom, HOLD ME! I can't walk!!!
me: Why?
Sam: Because my nose is running!


Every now and then something breaks through...

Matt: I know that planet - it's Saturn because it has rings.
Sam (exasperated): Daaa-aaad, ALL the outer planets have rings!

My New Love

Meaghan Smith. I can't get enough.

This is my current favorite song. I love her clear as a bell voice, the bluesy / 40s / big band sound of so many of her songs. And this one - I love how happy and light it sounds when it's about being heartbroken!

Check it out...





Other favorite Meaghan Smith songs? Here Comes Your Man, I Know, If You Asked Me, and more.

Thanks to this post on this blog for clueing me in. :)

Sam's Notes

Sam loves to write notes. Every day he writes at least a dozen notes to various people. He now knows where I keep my blank cards and will write a card to whomever strikes his fancy - Daddy, Bel, Jake, etc.

He also loves to draw pictures and is currently obsessed with the planets in our solar system.

Here's his depiction...

I LOVE the spellings on this picture!

There's Neptoon and Urans

Ploodo, and my personal favorite...

Mrcyoure!

Of course... don't forget the Love Planet. :)

Isn't that fabulous?

Some of his recent notes:

Translation: Hi Dad I hope you love stake conference! Love, Sam

Translation: To Mom I hope you have a great day Love, Sam (my favorites on this page are the veritcally spelled "you" and the smiley fave "o"s)

And, best of all... a note I received last week.

Hi Mom. I love your guts. Love, Sam