Merry Christmas too me!!

My Christmas present came today and my lovely husband was nice enough to let me open it early. Well really here is the deal, I needed a new sewing machine. I am making some gifts for Christmas and I couldn't even finish them with my old machine. SOOO... Here it is. I love it!!!!



I also got to finish the placemats for my Stepmom that I was making. I think they turned out great on my new machine! YEAH!!! They are patchwork style on the front and snowmen on the back.

YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We just found out that the land we want to buy, we got it!!! We have to finalize financing and all the legal stuff, but we want it and they want to sell it to us! WOOO HOOO!!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it. It will be hard to sleep tonight! We will close on it the end of February. So we have a while to save up for our down payment and to get all the paperwork done.

On another note about life changes. Dominic is weaning from breastfeeding this week. Today is day 3 and it is going really well. He still asks to nurse but I just tell him its all gone and we can have chocolate milk in a cup. Who can resist chocolate milk? Ha ha!!

Success Finally!

I did it! I am so excited! I finished my first quilt. With no help from my ancient, crappy sewing machine.

I swear my seam ripper and my sewing machine are in it together. Sewing machine is playing wingman for the seam ripper. I imagine the water cooler conversation going like this:
Seam ripper: Man, i am depressed. I don't think Jaime likes me anymore.
Sewing machine: What? No dude why would you think that?
Seam ripper: She just never spends time with me. I think she doesn't love me.
Sewing machine: Must be nice. She has been wearing me out about every day. I need a break, I am not as young as I used to be. HEy.... I think I can hook you up?
Seam ripper: Really? Oh buddy i would owe you one. I mean that would be great. I haven't had any action in weeks. Its starting to get to me.
Sewing machine: Not a problem my friend. I can bind up and skip stitches and break needles like nobody's business. Watch the master work.

So on it goes and I curse and get pissed. My sewing products all the while mocking me. Still I prevailed and this is the result. I am pretty happy with it.

Tree Decor

Here are a couple sweet pictures of my little man decorating the Christmas Tree.

Thanksgiving 2007

How do you like my witty title? LOL! Just kidding. Ok. Since I am a total blog slacker this week i will recap.

Last sunday and Monday we went to my moms. It went much better than expected. Nothing of consequence happened and that is how we like it! :) Mom was feeling better and able to enjoy the beautiful 70 degree November weather we had. It was lovely. The kids played outside, we rode the 4-wheeler and cooked some meals. My brothers came and acted silly for us. Colt made my mom laugh so hard her incision hurt. That crazy dude. Imagine an over 6 foot tall college football player PRANCING around the dining room in his boxers and you will get a vivid picture of the wackyness that followed.

Tuesday we cleaned house and again enjoyed the nice weather outside.

Wednesday my Mother-in-law and Massimos brother Anthony arrived at our house. They stayed until Saturday. We had a great time visiting with them. Gioia slept with Grandma each night and I am not sure if she or grandma enjoyed that more. It was sweet.

Thursday we had Thanksgiving dinner here. The menu was Turkey (cooked on the smoker), green bean casserole, baked sweet potatoes, cheesy potatoes, salad, deviled eggs and Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake for dessert. All homemade thank you! My dad and stepmom joined us as well. We all ate too much but it was wonderful.

Friday, Black Friday! I decided to go try to get a few things that were on sale. I made my list and had it all planned out. I got up at 6am, grabbed an iced coffee and headed off. First i went to Walmart here in town. I try not to shop there on principle for numerous reasons. However, I made the exception because they had something i had been looking for quite a while. I only got 3 things, was out of there in no hassle and moved on. Target was next and I got a couple good deals. They had Christmas Story DVD for $5.00 but were sold out. Instead I paid a little more and got a 3 pack of Elf, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, and Christmas Story. So we enjoyed some great movie watching this weekend. Deck the Harrs with boughs of Horry! Ha ha! Then I made the mistake of going to Toys R Us. Oh boy. Parents are insane? Why do they spend this kind of money and time? The line circled the store twice. No joke. All I wanted was a 5 dollar item so I said Adios and left. Even worse was Joann's Fabric store. Dear lord. Who knew crafty people were also insane? When I got there I took a number for the fabric line. It was B 4. I wanted to look at and get a good deal on sewing machines. I figured by the time I was done with the sewing machine purchase I would get my number called. 30 minutes or more later, there were still all the A numbers 1-100 in front of me. NO thanks. No deal is worth hanging out in line for 2 hours. I can't say i wasn't warned. My friend told me she went one year and it was just like that. All in all, I got a few things I wanted. We went back to Target later in the day with my MIL and she got a couple things for the kids for Christmas.

Today, Saturday i got to go to lunch with my good friend Jackie from college. I was in her wedding and don't think I have seen her since. So it has been years! It was great and felt like old times again talking with her. They are going to be transferring (military) next summer and are really hoping to get sent back here to Kansas. That would be wonderful!

Oh and today we also got our Christmas tree put up. It looks good. Even better was that we sorted and got rid of toys. Now all the pieces are back together and we can find things again. All broken or not loved toys went away. More are coming in from Christmas I am sure.

Looking for a place to call home.

Today we went and looked at land again. I think we might have found a winner. I LOVE the land we looked at. I would totally pay full asking price for it, but we are of course hoping to get it for less. I guess one issue is that land around there has been selling for less, so it may help us to get it for less. On the other hand, we need it to appraise to the price we buy it at, so if we pay more it has to be worth it to the bank. Everyone say a good thought for us. We really loved it and want it to work out. I am optimistic about it and think we can work a deal. We met the sellers and talked to them and they are nice folks. The dude is a definite hippie, so we can relate. I think he would find it very interesting that we want to build earth sheltered homes on the property. In case some folks don't understand, we are buying with another family and splitting the land. So the "we" I refer to is our friends, not the turd in my pocket. LOL!!

Tomorrow the kids and I are going to my moms to visit her. She had surgery a week and half ago and is still recovering. Gioia has been worried and wants to go see Grandma. We will be staying all night and coming back home on Monday afternoon. I have to admit I am pretty nervous about it. Last time we were there my parents and I had a few words and disagreement. I think it will all be fine, but I have this nervous, need to walk on eggshells thing around my dad, (again for the 100th time). Sigh* it sucks. I am just going to be proactive and have planned things for the kids to do, to keep them busy to try to avoid any issues, namely them getting on my dads nerves. Also DH isn't going with along, so it will just be me. Wish me lots of luck!!

Sewing and baking

These are my favorite things to do these days, but my sewing machine is ancient and it pisses me off almost every day. I am asking Santa for a new one. :) I am working on 3 quilts. One I have the front finished, just need to quilt the backing on. I am going to ask my Grandma to help me. Then I have a second on that is from the Mile-a-minute pattern. It will take longer to do since I am using scrap material and making it for a full size bed. The third one will be for Dominic and it is coming along ok. I need to get some more material for it. I will post pictures when I get some finished products.

I am also making placemats for my step mom for christmas. Some other gifts for people that read this blog. *So I can't post the pictures now.*

Tomorrow is a homemade bread day at a friends house. Everyone is making bread, bringing the recipe and sharing it with lunch. I am going to make Foccacia Bread. I think I might also run to the store and get the stuff to make Spinach Artichoke Dip. I think that would go nicely together.

I hope to have some new pictures to post in the next few days.

Hello out there! I am sorry to have dropped off the planet for a week at a time these days. The nights are getting a little better, however the little man doesn't want to sleep in his bed. Neither does his sister. *Sigh*... most nights we all end up in the same bed. That part doesn't bother me as much as DH always seems to have to move to another bed for feet in his face or being crowded clear out.

We went to St. Louis Monday and Tuesday this week with DH's work. Yesterday we drove over and just hung out at the hotel in the afternoon, had dinner then went to the mall. Today we went to the Zoo. It was almost 70 and beautiful. We saw the elephants eating and drinking water right by us. Got to watch them feed the sea lions. We rode the train and many other fun things. The kids did well although I ended up carrying Dominic alot. I used to be able to have him in the sling, but he wants to get down and walk so much it makes it hard to take him in and out. I want a Sit-N-Stand stroller. Like this. It even says that you can snap in an infant carrier to the front for whenever we have another little one. So it would be great for now and years to come.

Mama said there'd be days like this....

Ok. Actually nights. GRRRR!!! Dominic is driving me crazy. We were doing well on the not nursing during the night. Then he was sick last week and I gave in. The boy wasn't eating any solids. Now he is well again, I am putting my foot down. I just want to sleep at night. Not be an all night buffet. He is 2 years old. SLEEP DUDE! Then almost worse is the fact that I let him start "snuggling" which really means stick his hand in my shirt and hold my breast. Well it never works that way anymore, he pinches and twiddles and rubs around. STOP!!! AHH!!! It is annoying. SOOOO.... I said, we can nurse to sleep, but no nursing or snuggling at night time. Oh course it makes him sad, but I think we will all sleep better once he realizes it is a done deal. I mean a couple weeks ago he slept 8-4am before crying in Gioias bed with her and then the next night 8-1am and then 1-4am type stretches. Since then however, it has been waking up and being pissed off when I don't nurse/snuggle him. It is hard. :( So everyone be thinking of us this week as we struggle to enforce the new bedtime rules.

My mom had surgery this week. It was a planned surgery for some issues she was having. She is home and doing pretty well. My sister and brothers will be home this weekend deer hunting and helping her out. Her girlfriends came with many meals and some gifts. She has to be off work for 6 weeks so I think we will try to go up next week or so maybe if it works out.

Dominics face is finally healed up again after his fall on the sidewalk. So I want to try to get a few pictures of the kids and possibly the whole family this weekend. It is supposed to be 65-70 this weekend, so it will be a good chance to do outdoor pics.

Zicam! Oh my....

My mom emailed me over the weekend about a friend of hers that used nasal spray Zicam and lost her sense of smell and taste. She said after googling Zicam it turns out this is pretty common, in fact they have brought lawsuits and payed 340 people this last year.

Here is a really well done news video about it. http://zicam.vanosteen.com/video.asp

It also aggravates me that they market this under Homeopathic medicine and are therefore hiding behind the shield of "you can't prove it, because we haven't had any trials done on it". The FDA doesn't regulate herbs and homeopathies. I am glad they don't, but there are groups and systems in place to follow for safe homeopathies. Obviously this company didn't care about that. They are just trying to make a buck. Real homeopathic remedies are specific to the individual and for specific symptoms and problems. On the whole these remedies are not blank remedies, like Zicam was claiming to be for the common cold.

Halloween

We survived trick or treating. Massimo ended up carrying both the kids on the last block home, but we had a good time. Dominic didn't want to give up his pumpkin full of candy and screamed when i took it from him at home. Gioia eventually fell asleep on Aunt Mel's lap around 8:45pm.

Gioia had a party at her dance class Wed. morning. We have pictures and video of that but I haven't got it developed yet. The video is priceless.

Tomorrow we will do our annual candy trade in. We let the kids pick out several pieces of candy to keep, then the rest we "trade in" for a toy at Target. Of course, I actually just leave the candy for the cashier and pay her money for the toy, but the kids don't know that and they like getting a toy to keep.

Italian Cooking Day.

Today I hosted Italian Cooking Day at my house. 3 other moms and their kids came. It was fun! I made Chickpea soup with Noodles, an Italian recipe and then we all made Ravioli and homemade breadsticks. The kids shaped the breadsticks and helped stuff the raviolis. I think everyone had a good time. We didn't have as much pasta dough as I wanted. I hoped everyone could make a couple batches. I didn't realize the dough called for 4 eggs in each batch. We made 2 and 1/2 batches and everyone had enough for one meal I believe. I made mine after everyone left on the last 1/2 batch of dough.

Tonight we are eating for dinner, the raviolis and a pizza with Sausage and Roasted red peppers on it. MMMM!

Speaking of all this food. Last night DH grilled pork baby back ribs. OH MAN! They were to die for. It was awesome. We also had salad and Ranch Potatoes in the oven (potatoes, dry ranch mix, and olive oil = shake and bake for about 30-40 minutes). Then after the cooking was done, the fire in the grill was campfire-esque, so we roasted a couple of 'mallows over the flame. Perfect!

Also perfect is that I look out the window and see my son is in the sandpile, FULL OF WATER! AAHHH! Nasty muddy sandy mess. Guess I better log off and clean him up.... in a bit. :)

First I have one more thing to say. I - HATE - FLIES!! Maybe my total hatred of flies comes from my early years on the farm. We had pigs and I remember battling the flies ever time I came near the hog house. Or the time my sister got her long hair caught in those sticky fly strips that hand from the ceiling ( of course it was covered in dead flies) BARF!!! Anyway fast forward to NOW and the flies are invading my house. The kids have destroyed the screen on the patio door again. So now anytime someone goes out the door, 50 flies rush in. I am not exaggerating when I say that last night I went on a fly killing spree and the floor was covered with them. I had to sweep just to avoid stepping on the carcasses. Then I had to do that same thing again this morning, and AGAIN just now.

Homeschool party

So it always cracks me up at peoples misconception of homeschoolers as sitting at home all day. NEVER happens. When we get to be home its like "Oh how relaxing!" Ha ha. Whether it is dance lessons, or our homeschool group getting together, or a field trip somewhere homeschool kids are always learning through their environment. Its how its supposed to be. I learned more working at my grandmas store when I was a teenager than several years of high school combined. I mean, that work actually translated into life experience that meant something. I really hope my teenagers (when we get there) will have lots of opportunity for internships and life skill events.

Anyway this week we had our homeschool halloween party. It was grand. We played games, painted pumpkins, face painted and ate some cookies, snacks.




In my not so humble opinion, here are the next two most pretty girls after Gioia! HA HA! We went to Iowa this weekend to visit our family. It was good. I took a few really good pictures of my nieces. I thought I would share for my family that hasn't seen these girls in a while. They are 6 (almost 7) and 11! I can't believe it. I feel old.

It doesn't get much more white trash than this....

Celebrities never fail to amaze me as to how they got that way in the first place. Case in point. One of everyones favorite rockers proves that no amount of money can make you any less skanky.

Kid Rock arrested outside waffle house

10/22/2007 7:00 AM, AP


Kid Rock was arrested early Sunday after a brawl at a restaurant and spent about 12 hours in jail before being released, police said.

The musician stopped at the Waffle House restaurant shortly after 5 a.m. after his performance at The Tabernacle in Atlanta, authorities said.

"He and five members of his entourage were involved in a fight with a male customer inside the Waffle House," said Mekka Parish, a spokeswoman for the DeKalb County Police Department.

Brawlin' at Waffle House. Gotta love it.

Mama brags.

We were at the Chinese restaurant after church Sunday and we got fortune cookies. Gioia wanted to read hers by herself, but she can't read yet. So I told her that she could read the lucky numbers. I helped her figure out 39, and 13 then the next number was 26. I said, what number is 2, 6,? She said "8". After I picked my jaw up off the floor I said, Yes, 2 + 6 makes 8. But when they write it like this>>> It is Twenty six. She said Oh ok. Twenty six. WOW! We have been working on simple addition, but I wasn't sure it was clicking yet or if she was just counting.

We got Handwriting without Tears workbook. I explained that it was a "real" schoolbook and when we did the pages I would like her to work hard and be serious. She took that to heart and LOVES IT! She did 10 pages or so the first day. She is up to 27 pages total this week. It has about 90 pages total in the book. She does it when she wants and for how long she wants.

Dominic is into animals and knows the names of tons of them. He can also pronounce the Italian words really well. I am working on teaching him his colors. We need to work on our numbers to 10 as well.

Hayride.

Last night we went on a fun hayride and campfire with our friends. There ended up being 40 people. 10 were kids under 3, the rest was 4 and up. It was really fun. We roasted marshmallows, had apple cider and the kids ran around and played. It was nice. It rained all day yesterday, but cleared off and was a nice evening.

Here are a couple pictures. Oh and for all of you wondering what is up with Dominics nose?...well he fell at Deanna Rose last Monday. He fell on a rubber track where they drive pedal cars. So it gave him this awful rug-burned scrap. On the way home last night he pulled that huge scab off. It looked so painful. This morning however, it looks loads better.

New things I have made.

I am really starting to get the hang of this sewing stuff. It is really fun and since I moved my sewing machine to the living room, I can get a lot more things done. Of course it makes my living room look more cluttery, but whatever. I live here and I want to be able to do things in the living room. So I couldn't post before what I made because those people read this blog. But since they have received their gifts. I will post now!

First is turkey placemats I made for my mom for her birthday. Second is the quilted style placemats I made for my cousin and his wife for a wedding gift.

So far so good.

Well yesterday I was A LOT better about what we ate. Breakfast : Oatmeal Lunch: Bean burritos with cheese on whole wheal tortillas. Snack: Veggie chips (baked), apples and carrots Dinner: Cooked Chicken on Salad ( raw carrots, raw broccoli, raw cauliflower, peas, ham, lettuce). Homemade Clam Chowder. We ate mostly the salad, and everyone had one bowl of the soup. It actually is only about half dairy and half water, so not that bad. I resisted my urge to go get ice cream after dinner. :)

Tonight we are having some friends over for dinner. We are making Smoked Chicken Legs, salad, Spicy Beans, and strawberry shortcake. Should be fun. I have to go run the vacuum and maybe get the yard mowed today.

Re-doubling my efforts

So I have been thinking about food and health lately. It was interesting that a friend posted this very same stuff on her blog this week. My issue is stemming from the fact that I seem to have these little sores..canker sores maybe on my tongue that keep coming back and they really hurt. DH also just had an ulcer that he went to the Naturopath and got help with healing it up. We have really been slacking lately with our conscious food choices. Easy things to fix, like not eating a proper variety of veggies, or not eating enough salad and raw things. We decided that for our Anniversary (Sept. 30th) we were going to buy a juicer. After DH gets paid this friday we are going to do just that. Hopefully we can make those combo veggie/fruit juice drinks and stop buying store juice.

So far so good today. Oatmeal for breakfast and water to drink. Need to sort out lunch and dinner. Salad is on the menu somewhere in there. I also need to buy some new Probiotics to help our guts get back to where they need to be.

I once told my husband wouldn't it be great if we were so healthy that eating fast food made us sick! He was like, well yeah, that is kind of warped thinking but I see your point.

In other news, the electric car project is coming along quite nicely. He has ordered the engine, controller and all that stuff. It will be here in a couple weeks. We are so excited. The man he ordered the engine from also makes these cars for people to buy. They cost 11,000 but TOTALLY worth the expense. You use zero gas for one thing. The engine is supposed to last 50 years. The batteries like 5 years. Anyway, here is the website, if you want to check it out. This man said Discovery channel has contacted him about doing a show on his electric cars. So if you were thinking about a Prius, just do this instead!! http://www.ev-blue.com/
I was re-reading the above and just to make clear, we are just ordering parts and my DH is building the car himself, so it will only cost us about 8000. Then we get tax credits for about 1/2 that and we will sell his current work car. So all said and done I think we will only be out about 3000. That is cheaper than what we have into his work car currently. GOOD DEAL!!

Word of the day.

So Garth Brooks-mania has hit Kansas City. He was supposed to do one show to honor Walmart/Sams Club for selling his new album coming out. Well people freaked out and went nuts, so he added a total of 9 shows. He is not going back on tour, just these nine shows, which I heard sold out in 2 hours. Garth is cool. I used to listen to his music in college, but I am not freaking or even caring to go to a show. It really cracks me up when non-country people, or people that don't typically listen to this kind of thing, join in on the madness.

SO here is your word of the day: Latigo Can you tell me what it is.....WITHOUT looking it up on the internet? if so post in the comment section. Here is the word in Garth Action:

"It's boots and chaps
It's cowboy hats
It's spurs and latigo
It's the ropes and the reins
And the joy and the pain
And they call the thing rodeo"

My DH is also calling into question some of our friends "hippie-ness". You know who you are....reading this right now, going to a WALMART sponsored concert. That is right, hang your head in shame. You can turn in your crunchy card on the way to your Garth Brooks concert.