Subsitute Flower Girl

We went to my cousin Travis's wedding this weekend. We were not supposed to be in the wedding. Just attending it. Well 5 minutes or so before it was to start, the bridesmaids came out and got me, my sister and Gioia (who was asleep). They needed Gioia to be the flower girl. Apparently the "real" flower girl had the flu. She was sick the night before and they had her in the pictures earlier in the day. However, she was still sick and refusing to do it. She is 2, the poor thing. So Gioia put on the size 2T dress (BARELY! LOL! ) we fixed her hair really quick. Told her what to do and she did it!
Several people didn't know till after the wedding that she wasn't the real flower girl. She walked down in her barefeet too because the shoes didn't fit. I think she was beautiful and did a fabulous job! The second picture below is Gioia and her Grandma (my mom).

7 years!

Today is my husband and I's 7 year anniversary. For some reason it really seems like the number 7 is a really long time! I love it. I have had a great time married to this man. He is wonderful and an excellent father. I wouldn't change a thing about him! :) Here are a couple pictures of us as young pups.

I went tuesday and got my hair colored and styled again. I LOVE IT! That is one expense in life that is so worth it. When I feel like I look good, I have such better days. I am more happy. :)

We have been crazy busy this week. Yesterday was dance class. Today we have Ashton, take him to speech, then after lunch we got to our preschool coop. We have named it The Learning Garden. The kids really love it. Then my mom is stopping by tonight to hang out with us and spend the night.

This weekend we have a wedding to go to. Not much exciting things going on.

Tiziano Ferro

MMMM! He is delicious! Just found him yesterday and I have watched the video 3-4 times and I ordered his CD. Thanks to the wonderful world of internet, I found the lyrics to the songs and it is FUN!! It helps to learn to speak a language when you can sing songs and stuff. So here is a video of yummy Tiziano. This song is called "E Raffaella e' mia." It means Raffaella is mine. In the song he is obsessed with this Pop diva Raffaella, (who is a real person)and he wins this tv show for her to come to his house.
The words of the chorus go "E Rafaella canta a casa mia. E Rafaella balla a casa mia." etc.etc.. Means= R. sings at my house, R. dances at my house. etc. Words are very similar to spanish right? Some of you are probably thinking this. :) Anyway, watch and enjoy this great video even if you don't know all the words.

Haven't been in the blogging spirit.

Not sure why. Just feels like I blog boring stuff sometimes. :) This week we are pet-sitting for a friend. They took their family on a Make a Wish trip for their daughter. In return, they are going to pet-sit for us when we go to Italy. YEAh! Works for both families.

Thursday we had our first session of the Preschool Coop. We named it The Learning Garden. The kids had a great time. Gioia said, "I like this kind of school." We had several centers with things going on they could do. I was in charge of reading. I picked books about Farmers or farm themed stuff. The kids really enjoyed them. Then I also brought coloring pages with farm animals on it. A few kids colored but most were too busy to sit down and do that.

Tonight we were going to try to go camping but DH stayed home from work cause he had an upset stomach. So I don't know if we are going to try to go or not.

We have plans to go to Worlds of Fun on Sunday just hubby and I. It will be really fun. I can't wait.

Something different for dinner

Ok. I am turning into a true Italian cook. I hardly ever measure and I always think. I should write this recipe down, but rarely do. HA HA! So I will try to guess close as I can on measurements.

Pasta with Crab, Mushroom and White Sauce.

1 lb of your favorite pasta.
8 oz Portabella mushrooms, chopped
1 lb crab meat
4 cloves garlic, chopped
olive oil
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/2 to 1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup smoked gouda, shredded
1/2 cup goat cheese, shredded
salt and pepper

Start water to boil and cook pasta while making the sauce. Saute mushrooms, crabmeat and garlic in olive oil. Just enough oil to keep it from sticking in the pan. Salt and pepper this mix. Remove from heat when mushrooms are cooked and set aside. In same pan, add cream and sour cream. Bring to a boil. Add the cheese. You can add more cheese to your liking if you wish. Then add the milk a little at a time till you get a good sauce/gravy like thickness. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Serve pasta with sauce over it and a heaping scoop of the meat/mushroom mixture on top. ENJOY!!

You will have more mushroom mixture than white sauce most likely. Leftover pasta can be served with the mushroom mixture and grated Parmesan cheese and is wonderful.

Hold you!

I thought of something else I wanted to blog about. Part of the reason I started a blog was to record funny things the kids say and do. Well Dominic is talking up a storm and says the funniest things. One is that when he wants someone to hold him he says, "Hold you! I need hold you." He is such a snuggly guy. He likes to "snuggle nursie", which means stick his hand down my shirt. Its a transition from nursing all day. We just snuggle instead sometimes.

Gioia: The other day we were in the car and she says to me. "Give me that horse or you will be in big trouble!" Um... the horse was in the back seat and I was driving. I told her I would reach it for her but she needed to say it nicely to me. The next day she told me "If I didn't do X, she was going to bite me!" I said, NO. We don't bite people and you need to ask me nicely. I guess the lesson here is I need to ask HER nicely for things. That whole modeling good behavior right? I have NEVER said I would bite her. LOL!!

I am good.

I have worked on 3 projects this weekend. Two of them are gifts for people that read this blog, so I can't post pictures yet. The third was Gioia's witch skirt for Halloween. It was easy and looks real cute. I am getting pretty good at this sewing thing.

We went to a Bridal shower on Saturday. It was fun. Gioia had other girls to play with and the Bride got lots of nice gifts. Sunday was just a lazy day. DH mowed the yard and ran the weedeater. My parents stopped by and took us out for dinner. Then they headed off to Arkansas for a little vacation and antique shopping. They brought Dominic his birthday gift (clothes) and Gioia some books.

I have tongue ulcers. :( At least that is what I think it is. Hurts like hell. It is usually better every morning and worse at night after I have talked and eaten all day. I am trying not to talk much today and eat soft stuff that doesn't require much chewing. I am also gonna make a Devil's Smoothie today because my lymph nodes were swollen last night. AGH!

DH and I are going on a date afternoon next weekend to Worlds of Fun. I am soo excited. I haven't been to an amusement park in over 4 years. I have either be pregnant in the summer or had a nursing baby I couldn't leave. FOR 4 YEARS!!! So this year, we are going. :)

Line Dancing.

BRRR!!! We left the windows open last night and when we woke up it was 56 degrees in here. Yozza! We turned the gas fireplace on and we had warm pancakes for breakfast.

Today Gioia and I are going to a Bridal Shower. She is also the flowergirl in the upcoming wedding. We have two weekends in a row of weddings. One on Sept 29th and one on October 6th. Busy time. Both weddings are cousins of mine. DH and I will have our 7th anniversary on Sept. 30th. Not sure what we are going to do yet.

We went last night up to the town square for the Festival. Our town is having their 150th anniversary celebration. They had some square dancing going on. They were teaching the crowd dances as well. They were doing line dancing and Gioia wanted to do it. So she went up on stage with a bunch of other people and learned the line dance. She had fun and didn't want to come off the stage. :) I think she will do well at her dance recital this year. We didn't participate in recital last year. I didn't think she was ready for that. Being as this is her second year in dance I figure she will be more confident and like doing it. We told her when we left the festival that she will be going to two wedding soon. There will be lots of dancing. She was pretty happy about that.

Speaking of her dance class. Our next door neighbor (in her 30's) said Gioia's dance teacher Miss Leigh was her teacher also when she was a kid. Only the instruction was in Leigh's home and Neighbor thought she was mean and refused to go back. Well Leigh must have learned alot about teaching in all those years because she is excellent and the little girls ADORE her. But how "small world" is it that she was our neighbors teacher and now my daughters teacher? HA HA! That is like me, my step-dad and I had the same 1st grade teacher.

Italia!

We are going to Italy. I am soo excited. We are going the first part of March. It is going to be amazing. We are flying into Rome, stay about two days, then take the train up to the north part where Massimo's family lives. Then stay with them for several days. Go to Venice for a day or two and fly out of venice. I can't WAIT! SO now I have the motivation I need to keep getting better at my Italian speaking. Gioia is learning it really well but is a little shy to speak it. I need to get my MIL and SIL involved in speaking it more when we are around. We are going to get involved more with the Italian Study groups that are in our area as well. How awesome of a homeschool adventure is this? Learning a foreign language and actually going to the country to be immersed in it. By the time we have to start keeping homeschool hours (age 7) then we should be doing writing in Italian and learning to read it as well, I imagine.

My sewing machine is on the fritz. The fabric feeder under my pressure foot is not working. GRRR!. So the material is binding up and not working right. Makes it damn hard to sew.

What else is exciting? We are meeting with our friends tonight that we are trying to buy land with. We are going to work on a contract to buy it. Then we will make the offer and see if they laugh or except it. Everyone think positive thoughts for us. Don't know if I am more excited to actually be out on the land with animals and such, or excited that we will have next door neighbors we know and love and homeschool too. Probably both! YIPPEE!! Oh and did I say the Berry Patch is down the street? Yeah, never buying store blueberries again! HA HA!!

NICKLEBACK!!

I forgot to say that my sister and I went to Nickleback Concert last Sunday. It Kicked ASS! We also saw Daughtery and Puddle Of Mudd. Here is some Nickleback for your viewing/listening pleasure.




I LOVE this song,but even more now that I have seen the video, and heard it live.

I hate working on cars.....

My husband went to pick up his newest car project today. So any time in the next month or two I should hear...."I hate working on cars." What kind of car you might say? A Fiero. Yes, Yes, again. Stop rolling your eyes. This is an actual project that I am encouraging him to do. The best part is that it has a deadline, so we know it will get done. I will keep you all updated as to how it is going. It is actually something you will be interested in. The first step is removing the engine, radiator, battery, gas tank and various other things. Now you are like ? WTF, mate? :) just wait and see.

Ok. My space bar is Fu-BAR'd. So I can't really type right now. More later.

HOT DAMN!!! :) :)

WOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!! Can you hear that? My son just pooped on the potty. NO, not just that. He TOLD ME he had to potty and went and pooped on the potty! This is the second time so it is for real baby. I AM SO EXCITED! He just turned 2 on Thursday. My daughter was right around 3 when she potty trained. I am beyond excited. I have been changing diapers for 4 years now (both kids combined) and it is so sweet to be finished with that for a while.

Only you moms will understand the shear joy of another person doing their business on the toilet.

Busy busy busy...

Man, seems like we been super busy lately. We are looking at buying land. We found a great place, now its just jump through hoops to make it work. That is the stressful part. Here are a couple pictures of what we are looking at. It is only 20-25 minutes from DH's work so that is a major bonus. It is on the Missouri side, that is Eh...Ok, not a huge deal either way.


Saturday I got to go to Whole Foods, Overland Park Farmers Market and the Recycling Center all by myself. I was gone two hours and it was very relaxing. I L-O-V-E the Farmers Market. I feel so good buying food there and its fun to walk around and pick your food out. The recycling center is pretty neat too. Basically it is just a whole bunch of dumpsters and you separate your things into the correct bin. It is just cool, because it makes you feel good and its all in one central location. I feel lame that i am just now starting to do my recycling 3 years after i moved back to Kansas.