I Can't Get Enough Of Her

Today, I changed Carmen's diaper out in the front room because it was poopy.  Before I could finish zipping her pants back up and putting her socks back on, she picked up the wrapped up dirty diaper and said, "Trash?" offering to put it in the trash can for me.  I let her walk off towards the kitchen, and came by a minute or so later to see if she had actually thrown the diaper away instead of sitting it on the floor or something.  "Trash!" she informed me as I went back into the kitchen.  Sure enough, she had thrown the diaper into the trash can and closed the lid!

I love this age!  This is so so SO awesome!

We dropped Sadie off at school and Carmen started falling asleep in the car as usual.  "Carmen, can you try to stay up so we can go home and take a nap?  I can get you a blanket and you can sleep in your comfy bed!"  Between bouts of nose picking (ew), she nodded at me and said, "Mmm, nap, blanket!"  When we got home and I started pulling her out of her car seat, she cuddled up to me and said, "Nap.  Blanket."  It made my insides squee.

For some reason, for the past few weeks she's started waking up around 1 am crying.  She's been sleeping through the night really well for almost a year now, and it makes me wonder, "What the heck is going on?"  I've been thinking it's teething, but no molars have popped out yet.  Bah.  I've tried to ignore it, but there are nights when I don't react well to crying and need to go in there to see what can get her to stop.  Mostly that means I take her back to our room and she sleeps with us.  I mean, how can you say no to, "Mommmmmy ... daddddyy .... peeeeeease?"

I just had a random thought - maybe her waking up has something to do with the fact that she's recently stopped nursing.  After she turned about a year old, I'd just nurse her at night before bed and in the morning when we woke up, then just at night, then just when she asks if it's close to go-to-bed or wake-up time.  She's nursed probably 3 times this year, the last time being about a week ago.  I figured I was willing to let her nurse 'til she's at least 2 (a recommendation from the World Health Organization) but if she loses interest I think it's a little weird and selfish to continue trying to make your kid nurse until 2+.  Like, what, you want your WHO I-nursed-my-kid-til-2 gold star or something?  Congratulations.  Here's your sticker.  And a lollipop.

Anyway.  It's fun having snuggle time.  When Carmen comes into our room, I lay down some ground rules (laying down some ground rules for a 21-month-old? heck yes!) ... "You have to be quiet.  You have to close your eyes and try to fall asleep.  You cannot wiggle around and crawl all over us.  You cannot play.  You cannot talk.  You cannot yell at or hit me." ... and it works!  She snuggles down right between the two of us and lays still and only moves around enough to get into a comfortable position to fall asleep.

When I wake up in the morning, she's usually smooshed up against the headboard between our pillows with her butt in the air.  IT'S ADORABLE.  She also talks in her sleep (like my sister Marissa does.)



Whatever works, y'know?

I'm getting more and more excited about the idea of having another kid in 2012.  Just a few months left!  Keep your fingers crossed that things will work out well!

Happy Anniversary!

5 years ago today, I met Mark at the Quark opening social.  I'm not big on celebrations or holidays or anniversaries or anything ... For example, what did we do today?  Well, I didn't have to watch Sadie, so I decided to go snowboarding at Snowbird (more about that another day) and Mark was thinking about working extra so he wouldn't have to use as much vacation time this weekend when we go to my friend's wedding in Phoenix.

ANYWAY.  I was sitting on the couch talking with my best friend, Dorie, when Mark came home from work.  I hardly even noticed him come in, and he had this goofy little grin on his face and said, "Happy anniversary!  I brought you flowers!"

Our conversation then went something like this.
Me: Awww, and they're even the colors I like best!  Did you even know that I decided these are my favorite colors for roses?  It's so random.
Mark: I'm not sure.  I don't know.  I just walked into the store and there were so many flowers.  I was having a hard time picking some out then I saw these and was like 'KAMIS'!!!
Dorie: It was so worth staying here just for that.
Me: Aww, flowers.  Squee!  Thanks.  Now I'm going to take a picture of them. *snap*

Mark: Hm, it looks like you haven't started making dinner plans yet.
Me: *stuttering* Um ... well, you see, we have all these leftovers and I was kind of planning on eating them ...
Mark: No, that's good!  I want to take you out to dinner!
Me: Didn't you hear me?  We have leftovers I wanted to eat!  Like that good rice stuff from last night, and half of the sub sandwich I was eating today ...
Mark: *stare*
Me: And ... we're going to Phoenix this weekend ... can't we celebrate then?  Or next month, after Valentine's Day, we can celebrate the day you asked me out ...
Mark: *stare*
Me: ... We just need to eat these leftovers ... and ...
Mark: *stare*
Me: And ... um ... *facepalm* YES OF COURSE I WOULD LOVE TO GO TO DINNER.  Can we go to China Isle?
Mark: That's more like it!
Dorie: *laughing her head off on the couch*


((What kind of wife would respond to, "Hey, wifey, would you like to celebrate our anniversary with a nice dinner date?" with "No, I'd rather stay home and eat leftovers!!"  Oy.  I fail.  Now it's time for Chinese!!!))

Candy Toes

I generally avoid painting my fingernails and toenails because I'll always ruin my nails less than 10 minutes after they're done being painted.  A week before Carmen was born, my friend Kara (who was in cosmetology school) gave me my first pedicure.  I thought it was really cool looking down at my purple toenails while in labor.

But still ... I'm usually too lazy to paint my nails, whether they be my fingers or my toes.

Last Sunday, I decided to change things up and paint my nails!  The next morning, Carmen was playing with my feet and started poking at my shiny pinkish-red toenails.  She gave me a curious look and said, "Candy."  She was right!  My toes DID look a little bit like Jolly Ranchers!!

Yesterday, we went over to our friend Jorgen's for dinner.  His fiancee, Nicki, is in love with Carmen and has been asking to paint her toenails.  I haven't done it yet because Carmen's a bit squirmy and I'm afraid I'll screw up or make a mess (seriously, how can you 'mess up' on a baby's teeny toenails?) ... so I happily gave her permission.  Carmen would love it.

Carmen picked out some purple nail polish and was SO EXCITED when Nicki was done painting them.  We taught her the nail polish was "purple" and she still seemed to think they looked like "candy".  I love her purple candy toes!!

Also, we had something I consider a "big girl" moment today.  I was getting ready to go to the gym, and I came down and Carmen had put her own shoes on!  Granted, they were on the wrong feet, but she had velcroed them on and everything!  It was awesome!!!  I love 20-month-olds!!

 

PS. I did actually take an inventory of everything in the freezer today.  Now I'm going to go through the pantry and count up how many cans of cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, pineapple, and refried beans we have.  That way I know when we're getting close to "need to stock up time" and can scan the weekly ads for good deals.  Nothing stinks more than running out of cream of mushroom soup or frozen broccoli the week after it goes on sale for 49 cents! (did you know frozen veggies are often times more fresh than the 'fresh' produce at the grocery store?)

I'm a little OCD ... and that's okay!

Earlier today, I called my sister to chat.  Our family loves to talk.  I seriously call them almost every day.

Anyway, we started talking about meal planning and started tossing around ideas about how to implement a meal planning system.  Once, I tried writing out dinners for a whole month on a Word calendar.  That worked out pretty well, except I didn't really like the idea of planning out a whole month worth of meals.  I decided it would probably be easier to do it in one- or two-week increments.

Then Marissa came up with this great idea.  She could take pictures of the meals she made and use the pictures on her calendar!

This gave me another idea one level up ... when we have kids that can participate in the meal planning, they can take the pictures and put them on the calendar!  It's a genius plan!

So of course I told Marissa she needs to go find herself a boy right now, get married, and make babies ... just so we can do the kids-putting-pictures-on-a-calendar thing in 6 years.

I hope she didn't take me too seriously. ;)


Anyway, then Mom got on the phone and asked what Marissa and I were getting so excited about.  She told me about some of her super-organized friends that had their own nifty meal planning systems (someone had a notebook with recipes in it and had a rotating several-week meal plan going on ...)

You know what the sad thing is?  This is all very, very exciting sounding to me.

You know what one of my secret fantasies is?  (No, don't worry - it's not one of those kinds of fantasies, you dirty-minded person, you!)

I secretly dream of taking everything out of my freezer and pantry and recording a complete current inventory of my food.  Then I could make meal plans based on what we have in our house and keep track of everything on the computer.  Of course, it would just be dinner-type food, not our spices and condiments and milk and stuff.  That would be going a little bit too far.  (Could you imagine coming home from the grocery store and re-recording every single thing you bought?  "And a jar of peanut butter, and a thing of onion flakes, and some peach yogurt, and two grapefruits ...")

Yeah.  It's a little bit sick.  I told Mom about this exciting plan, and she said, "Oh, boy ... our family really is a little bit OCD, aren't we?"

I tried to justify it by saying something like, "But it's not like I feel obsessively compelled to do it ... I just think it sounds like a really cool idea!!!!"  And we both laughed.


But no.  Now I'm seriously thinking about digging through my freeezer and counting up exactly how many bags of frozen vegetables I have so I know exactly how many meals I'd be able to make out of them without having to go to the store.  I love my little chest freezer from Costco. <3 <3 <3

It's not a surprise that my favorite classes in the business school had to do with systems management, supply chains, and finance, eh?  (Dang it, I should've done the supply chain emphasis, not the finance emphasis!  I don't even remember seeing the supply chain emphasis!!)

Where does the time go?

I don't feel like I've been especially busy this week, but suddenly I look at the calendar and realize it's Thursday already.  What?!

I guess I have been busy, what with putting the house back together after getting new carpet and reorganizing everything.

Do you want to know what a dork I am?

I organized the attic and the crawlspace.  While I was in the attic, I pulled down all of Carmen's clothes and sorted them into two groups - things I absolutely could not part with (since I plan on having more kids some day!), and things I either desperately wanted to give to DI or would be willing to part with if a friend needed baby girl clothes.  On Monday, our friends the Hurds came over (Katie is due on Valentines Day) and Katie went through my piles of clothes and picked out some things she thought she might like.  After she pulled out a few things, I went through the pile and took back the things I decided I wasn't actually ready to part with, and put the rest in a bag for her to pick up some day. :)

On Tuesday, I made some big trips to drop off recycling and donations for DI.  It feels so good to de-junk the house!!  I really hope that someone, somewhere can use our old stuff ... if not, DI can throw it out and I won't feel bad.  It was kind of cool walking in there the other day and seeing my old bookcase for sale.  Someone's going to enjoy putting all of their stuff on it!

I haven't had Sadie, the kindergartner I watch in the mornings, for a few days because she and her mom have been sick.  It was nice to go out and run errands for long periods of time without worrying about having to come back to drop Sadie off at school.

The house is almost completely back together.  I have a few cardboard boxes I need to recycle, some trash to throw out, and many pictures to hang.  I also need to clean the bathrooms, since I haven't done that since ... uh ... I have no idea. @_@  But my floors are clean and my rooms are organized and all of the furniture is in place!  It feels great!!

The New Computer Desk

Okay, so this is why I think I'm awesome:

Welcome to the fruits of this afternoon's labors:

At first glance, it doesn't look like much, but it's actually rather impressive.

Everything is organized and plugged in and run through the transformer (the black thing up top) if necessary.  The transformer's video outputs are then run across the room to our projector.  I extended our speaker wires so we could have some speakers on the floor under the projector screen instead of in the back of the room where it used to be.  (the projector screen is to the left of the computer; if we pulled the screen down, it would hit the chair.)

Originally, we were going to put the transformer next to the projector on the bookshelf.  Then I realized that would involve running A LOT of cables back and forth along the couch behind the wall ... and if we moved the transformer and the Xbox to the computer desk, we'd just have to run an HDMI cable and a component video cable across the room.  We already have those cables (30 feet long) because when we first moved in, we set up our projector across the room from the computer.  ANWAY.  LONG COMPLICATED UNNECESSARY STORY.

The following things are hooked up on the computer desk:
Computer
Monitor
Cable Modem
Wireless Router
Printer
Nintendo Wii
Xbox 360
Speakers (which are over 10 years old and could be replaced with superior, smaller speakers from DI for <$20 ... another day, another day ...)

I'm a kind of OCD organizer, so a few years ago I labeled all of the power cords with masking tape so we could look at the power strip and know what went where:

(the top-middle piece of tape says "cable modem" upside down)

It makes a big difference.  Trust me.

Since I moved the transformer from across the room back to the computer desk, I dealt with a lot of cables.  I love how comfortable I feel with them.

This is what the back of the transformer looks like (printer cables up front).  I had to do all of the inputs (computer video and audio, Wii video and audio, Xbox video and audio) and outputs (speakers, HDMI out and component out).  LOTS OF WIRES.

I touched every single one of them.

My proudest accomplishment, though, was making a bigger hole for the Xbox's power and output cords.  We drilled a few holes into the back of the desk so we could run cables through them.  We thought we'd be able to put the printer where the Xbox is but it's too big.  Oops.  Anyway ... the single small hole wasn't big enough, so I drilled a second hold beneath the original one and then found a way to smooth the sides without sandpaper (couldn't find it!)  Wouldn't you think a girl who can use a drill is hot?  (don't answer that.)  Okay, would you think she's capable?  (that's a much less awkward question from a married girl)

Whoever designed those things is evil.  Why so huge?  That thing on the bottom is for the audio/video output for the Xbox.  It fits perfectly through that oval hole I made.  Like, you have to take out that other cord for it to fit through the hole.  I think that's pretty spiffy!!

Now I'm almost considering finding something to put over the back open part of the computer desk to hide the cables.  I'm sure that if we put stuff on the shelves it will hide the cables, but ... I don't know.  Aesthetics.  There's a reason we try to run cables behind furniture when they have to go across the room. :)

Tomorrow, I'm going to work on organizing the bookshelves upstairs in the guest bedroom and decide what books are going to be allowed to stay downstairs.

On Saturday, we're going to IKEA again to buy a Billy bookcase and a media storage tower.  And I think I want to get a wall-mounted shelf to sit the projector on, since I don't like the bookcase solution we devised.

Instead of having that bookshelf there, we'll have our DVD/media storage tower there facing >>> way instead of towards the camera.  And see how the ceiling is about a foot lower in the dining area?  I'm going to install a shelf somewhere in the vicinity of that arrow, then find a way to hide the cables and have them run down the wall behind the media tower.

We're going to put a bookcase in the corner, on the right-hand side of that piano to store some of our books and Mark's DND stuff.  I'm going to buy some doors for the bookcase to hide the miscellaneous clutter.  I'm probably going to move the pictured bookcase upstairs to our room.  We have so many books. @__@

Here is a picture of not even HALF the stuff I piled into the upstairs closets when clearing off our bookshelves to prepare the house for getting new carpet:

So my next blog entry will probably be about our exciting adventures of having the carpet guys come install our carpet on Friday and Monday!  And the one after that will be about the grand IKEA adventures we will have on Saturday and how we'll finally have our furniture organized!  Then I can blog about de-junking the attic and taking stuff to DI (and getting tax deductions)!  (Wait, you're not finding these topics absolutely THRILLING?!  I am!  I love this!!)

I Think I'm Sexy

In my heart of hearts, I'm some kind of engineer.  I don't have the stomach for electrical engineering, and I had a hard time with physics and calculus, but I looooove building things and fixing things and messing with things.  I might even consider trying to install my own ceiling fan ... buuuuuut that's really complicated so I might just leave it up to the professionals!

If I were a guy, I would find a handy girl really attractive.  Last night, I installed some wire shelving in the closet upstairs and felt awesome:

Our blankets and sheets used to all be stacked up in the corner of the closet so it was impossible to get to anything.  A pile of sheets is useless.  Shelving helps a lot.

On Friday night, I built an IKEA desk.  The new desk is small and replaces the old monster desk we used to have.

OLD DESK:

Seriously, guys, that thing was a beast.  Look how it holds the whole universe!  Books, speakers, the printer, the transformer ... It was always a mess!  We got it for free from some of our good friends, the Shumates, who didn't have room in their trailer to take it to Canada with them.  They got it for free, too.

So when we got our new carpet, we decided to get rid of the desk.  We eulogized it, and handed our friends a large mallet and let them have at it.  Sterling managed to crack it for us.  Then we tossed it in the dumpster.

Aww, what a good friend.  Thank you, Sterling.  Goodbye, old monster desk.  We loved you.  You were very useful for 2 1/2 years and housed our favorite piece of equipment beautifully.

That same night, we went to IKEA and found a desk for $70 and decided to buy it on the spot.  I assembled the desk Monday night after the carpet was installed.  Carmen helped me out.

IKEA - directions so simple, even a baby can do it!!!

Carmen thought the desk's shelf was a chair.

Well, now I have to go to the gym to continue being so sexy.  When I get back, I will show you the fruits of today's labors.  Trust me, you'll be impressed ... and if not ... well, I was impressed, and that's what really matters!!!

Car washes in winter

Salt from the roads does a number on your car, so you still ought to wash your car every once in a while during the winter.  We drove to Sammamish (Seattle) and back over Christmas and our car had lots of salt and road grime all over it.  I kept thinking, "I'll wash the car one of these days when it's warm and sunny."

It hasn't been above freezing yet this year.

So last night, I finally decided enough's enough and it was time to put the car through the car wash.  Did you know you can get a $7 car wash for $5 at the Grease Monkey by Maceys in Pleasant Grove?  I don't know if other Grease Monkeys do the same.  ANYWAY.  It was funny going through the car wash and seeing all the ice built up on the machine's hoses and stuff.  The water is hot when it comes out, but once it hits anything it's so cold that it freezes up quickly.  Although they have big dryers that blow on your car on the way out, any of the water beads that are still on the car when you leave freeze.

It was really cool.

So my car was shiny and clean and covered in a clear sheet of ice.  I bet a lot of it melted away as I drove around and warmed the car up some more.

Real Budget Busters

So, I'm really good at pinching pennies.  When we lived in Provo as poor students, I'd scour the Maceys ads every week and plan my grocery shopping around what was on sale.  I'd stick to a list.  Oh, and I'd only buy things if they were HUGELY on sale.  Sometimes we didn't have milk - I was that stingy.

Some people drive far out of the way to save a few pennies on items at the grocery store.  You think, "I save ten cents here and there on a bunch of the grocery items I buy every week, and that adds up to hundreds saved a year!"  And it's true - if you generally go with generic or store brands over national brands, use coupons on things you normally buy, and track sales and stock up on good ones - you'll save money.

But you know what kills your budget?  It's not the fact that you bought gas at the gas station that's 5 cents more per gallon than the gas station at the next exit.

It's when you go to get more contacts and you find out your prescription expired 5 days ago so you have to pay $75 for another exam ... which you wouldn't've had to pay if you had remembered to go to Costco on Thursday instead of Monday.

It's when you have your baby at home or with a midwife to save on hospital bills ... then your baby ends up at the hospital in the NICU anyway.  Maybe you even get to take an ambulance!  Luckily, your baby is fine, but you still have to pay the obscenely outrageous hospital fees.

It's when you buy a house and either A) you end up having to move out sooner than you were planning or B) the market tanks and you lose lots of money in your home.  Generally, the breakeven point is about 5 years but of course it's not guaranteed.  (You get tax benefits for owning a house, but then there are closing costs and Realtor fees.)

It's when you don't shop around enough for a new car and the salesman takes advantage of the fact that you're naive.  Nobody's ever heard horror stories about car salesmen, right?  ;)

It's when you have trouble sleeping for years and finally decide to see a doctor.  You tell him your insurance won't cover a sleep apnea test (which you've called the hospital about and it costs roughly $1000) but you'll take it next year if you have to and put money into a pre-tax flexible spending account (oh my, don't we sound so smart?!) and you wonder if there's anything he can do for you that doesn't involve taking this test your insurance won't cover.

He says, "We'll work something out."

And orders you the test anyway.  And slaps you with a $1200 out of pocket bill because your insurance (surprise, surprise) didn't cover it.


What the flying F, Doctor?  Didn't I just tell you not to give me that test?  You made it sound like you were doing something different, or at least cheaper.  I have some choice words for you ... !!!!

Those, my friends, are the real budget busters.  Didn't I read somewhere that medical bankruptcy is the most common kind of bankruptcy?  Always have insurance.  Never get sick.  Never go to the hospital.  Never develop a terminal illness.  Never have complications when having a baby.  Never get sued or go to court for any reason (divorce, custody battles - anyone?)

Not all of the above are personal experiences, BTW.  One might be.  Ahem.  I'm going to get you, Dr. Leaman.

Keeping your money and finding love seem to have a lot in common ...


I guess it's half timing
And the other half's luck.
-Michael Buble

Crazy Things we do for Love ...

It's funny how much I love Carmen.  Okay, so "funny" may not be the right word, but sometimes I'm surprised by the weird things I decide to do because of her.

For example, I was eating a bowl of Special K cereal the other day, and I was picking out the freeze-dried strawberries.  I used to pick out the strawberries and eat them because I like them, much like I used to pick out the marshmallows from my Lucky Charms or all of the M&M's out of the trail mix (Mom loved that, let me tell ya!) ... but no, I wasn't picking out the strawberries so I could eat them because I love them so much; I picked them out so Carmen could eat them because it's so adorable how much she loves them!

Today, I got to enjoy the fruits of my labors (no pun intended?) ... Carmen was eating lunch and saw the box of cereal on the kitchen counter.  "Cereal?" ("see-yo") she asked.  I poured some of the cereal out onto her high chair tray and was pleased that it was mostly strawberries.  Of course, she ate all of the strawberries and asked for more.  "Strawberries?  More?" ("stawbizz?  moh?")  It was so stinkin cute.  Plus the "thank you" is like a cherry on top.

Carmen is so sweet.  I love seeing what she loves and how passionately she loves it.  Today she carried around this little black Beanie Baby cat and called it her baby kitty.  She fell asleep with it in the car when we dropped Sadie off at school.  My sister got really sick over Christmas and it was a really stressful time for our family.  It was great to be able to spend time with Carmen and experience the pure joy she emanates and brings with her everywhere she goes.

I'm sure there are other weird things I do because Carmen likes it (like the funky dances in the car) ... but the strawberries thing really stuck out today. :)

The Best Smoothies Ever

Back in middle school, I fell in love with Zuka Juice (which then became Jamba Juice).  I loved smoothies.  At my 15th birthday party, we tried to figure out how to make strawberry smoothies by mixing together ice cream, milk, and fresh strawberries.  It didn't work out so well - the smoothies were still pretty runny, and I was pretty sure just adding ice cubes wouldn't make the smoothies better.  When I was 16, I got my tonsils out, and my friend's mom gave me a recipe for fruit smoothies.

What?  You add FROZEN FRUIT?  That makes a lot more sense than fresh fruit and ice cubes!!

So that's the secret.  Frozen fruit.

Since then, unless I'm wanting some kind of exotic smoothie, I can't get myself to pay a premium to go to Jamba Juice and get a smoothie when I can make (a healthier!!) one at home for a fraction of the cost.  Okay, I can pay a premium to go to Jamba Juice, but nowhere else -- I'm afraid they'll add ice cream or something with lots of high fructose corn syrup to make the smoothies sweeter.  At home, I discovered I don't need to add any sugar to my smoothies to make them sweeter.  The fruit alone is good enough!

My favorite smoothie of all time was Jamba Juice's Peanut Butter Moo'd - which is just a chocolate peanut butter smoothie.  But I think it made its way onto the list of Worst Foods to Eat or Eat This, Not That! or something.  Yep, a quick Google search confirms that Men's Health hates Peanut Butter Moo'd.  Truly, what could be more high-cal in a smoothie than peanut butter and chocolate?  And why would you ever settle for peach when you're in the mood for peanut butter and chocolate?!  "Hmm, today I really want a Reese's Peanut Butter cup, but I think I'll just have a peach instead.  It's kind of the same thing, isn't it?"

So I decided I would go home and make up my own slightly healthier smoothie recipe.  Peanut butter, chocolate ... how would I get it frozen?  Bananas!  Frozen bananas are a great base for any smoothie recipe!  That got me thinking about Reese's peanut butter cups, bananas dipped in chocolate (and peanut butter), peanut butter and banana sandwiches, strawberry and peanut butter sandwiches (ever had a pb&j with fresh strawberries?  divine!), strawberries dipped in chocolate ... and somehow, strawberries, bananas, chocolate, and peanut butter sounded like the perfect combination for a smoothie.

And it was.

So here is my very precise, very exact, peanut-butter-chocolate-banana-and-strawberry-smoothie recipe.  I have yet to come up with a good name for it.

Ingredients:
~A frozen banana (I chop fresh bananas into halves or thirds and freeze them in sandwich bags)
~Frozen strawberries
~Peanut butter
~Chocolate syrup
~Milk

Directions:
~Put the frozen stuff into the blender, top it with the peanut butter and chocolate.  Fill the blender with milk until the frozen stuff is barely covered, then blend till smooth.

I don't provide any exact amounts because all that matters is that you decide how much smoothie you want and fill the blender with that much frozen fruit.  So if you're just making a little bit for yourself, only fill up the blender 1/4 of the way with frozen fruit.  If you're sharing with all of your friends, maybe you want to fill it up to the top.  If you don't add enough milk, the smoothie will be too thick and your blender will have a hard time mixing it and the smoothie will be really chunky.  When you have enough milk, it blends really easily.

When you're making a smoothie with all different kinds of fruit, it's really easy to put too much fruit in the blender.  "I'll just have a few strawberries and a few peaches and some pineapple and oh I should add some frozen orange juice concentrate, and .... wait!  The blender is completely full!"  Really, a single strawberry will be good enough.  You don't need half a cup of everything  It took me a long time to learn that.

When making smoothies, I hear you can add yogurt and stuff to make it thicker.  One thing I really like about making smoothies at home is that you know exactly what's in it and how much is in it.  My smoothies consist of real fruit and 1% lowfat milk (and the occasional chocolate syrup and peanut butter, which will soon be Adam's 100% natural peanut butter) - can you beat that ingredient list?  I think not!!

Carmen's Shoe Obsession

Last month, Mark and I went to Famous Footwear to find him a new pair of snow boots he could wear to work. We're very cheap frugal and don't often go out to buy new stuff unless the old stuff is completely worn out.

Carmen had a blast running up and down the aisles, chanting, "Shoes!  Shoes!" and trying on everything that wasn't in a box - whether it was her size or not.

So I guess it's not surprising that one night she decided she really wanted to put Mark's boots on:

She even tries to walk in them!  It's amazing that she can actually shuffle around a little bit in those monstrous boots!


On Sunday, I was reading a book on the couch while Carmen played with her toys on the floor.  She was sitting out in the middle of the room, and I watched her take her pants off and put on a pair of the long fuzzy comfy socks Mom gave me for Christmas (my mother rocks.  I love the fuzzy comfy socks she gets me for Christmas ... I wouldn't think to spoil myself in that way!  She makes up for those mental blocks I have!)  They went up to her thighs.  I got a good laugh out of watching my pantsless baby run around the house in my big long socks.  I didn't have the heart to tell her it's probably not very practical to take your pants off and expect your mom's socks to keep you warm.  But then again, what do I know?

Today is another day that's not too out of the ordinary.  Carmen decided to put socks on herself again today.  (Oh, good, does this mean she's going to dress herself from now on?)

I think she's nothing short of adorable.  (I took this picture right after I put her down for a nap ... not sure how I'll capture this otherwise, because when she's awake, she runs around like crazy!!)


Seriously, Universe, having a toddler is just about the most hilarious thing ever.  It's funny the things they pick up and fixate on!!

Brain freeze/writer's block

What should I write about?

Also, I got the lithium batteries for my camera ... now something interesting needs to happen so I can take pictures!!!