from our house to yours

colour me christmas

This was a quick snap of the leftovers from today's Christmas card photo shoot. Christmas time has my heart filled with joy like these fun little balls of coloured Christmas de-lights. Every morning our over excited 4 year old wakes us up before the birds so she can find where Timmy is hiding since she knows that if she touches him he loses his magic to fly to the North Pole. *wink* I love her excitement, maybe not at 6:30 in the morning when I'm still trying to catch up on some precious sleep but I have to admit that once I'm up her Christmas spirit is very contagious.

It's been years since I've sent out actual Christmas cards like, since I've lived up in Canada, kind of years so I'm pretty sure my address book is a little out of date. Well more like really sure, but for now I need to figure out where the best place is to print up Christmas card photos...

hello december

 It's a new month and now that our house is sold I can finally settle down in our new home. Ahhh it feels great but there's still so much that needs to be done like unpacking, organizing, shedding the extra stuff we don't need anymore but right now I just want to take a break from all of the boring grown up stuff and take in a little holiday enjoyment. This is my absolute favourite holiday and one thing I totally love about this season is traditions and in our home it's always fun to start with a new tradition.

Today we received a little present from the North Pole, a messenger from the jolly man himself! This little guy couldn't wait to pop out of his box to explore his new home. He was found opening Maribel's door. She was so excited to read his little story and pick out his new family name, Timmy Carlberg. that when we read about all the fun little things we can do with him like whispering her Christmas wishes to him, she made Joe and I look away while she whispered in his ear. Too funny.

At bedtime she prayed for Timmy's safe travels to the North Pole and that he would find his way back to our new home. Something tells me that he'll know his way back. Besides he's got his work cut out for him if he has to report to Mr S all her going ons and such.

As for me? I'm gunna be a busy little momma bee getting things settled and ready for Christmas but never too busy to bring in this most glorious season. Another tradition I have started today is the documentation of December Daily. I'm really excited to start this project as I hope it will bring out my mojo that has seemed to have vamoosed during the move. I'm sure it's still packed in a box somewhere but it will return...oh yes...it will return...

24 more sleeps.... eeeeeek!

>^..^<

I left my ♥ in Blowing Rock NC

A couple of weeks ago we took a break from packing and escaped to Blowing Rock North Carolina for Joe's family fall picnic. I had anticipated the weather to be a little on the chilly side but it decided to give this Canadian's thinned blood a break and bust out the gorgeous sunshine and fall breeze.

I had a toy camera when I was a kid and loved that thing so much I took pictures of everything so just imagine my glee when I found that they are still available for my nostalgic picture taking pleasure. And since I was leaving for a weekend getaway that night I thought it would be fun to document the weekend through Holga Lomography. 

This photo holds a special place in my heart since I totally ♥ cheerwine! Like, I mean L-O-V-E! It's a good thing it isn't as easily available here in O-town because I would be in serious trouble and attending a cheerwine rehab or something...like, love!

I snuck this pic through the fence at Joe's Maw Maw's. I love how it has this sort of "Secret Garden" feel. It looks like it was super fun back in it's prime.

Other snaps from around Maw Maw's, her flowers are so pretty and welcoming. Even the bumble bees fancy them.

So there was this tree that was perfect for climbing and snapping photos in etc only......once I got up I couldn't get back down sooooooo......yeh....next year I'll be more prepared and not need Joe's help getting down.

And next year I hope that the weather will be as beautiful as it was this year. I even got a little sunburn from this fall getaway, go figure, but it was totally worth it to see the leaves change colour.

>^..^<

Happy Hallowe'en!

I will not partake....I will not partake...

This October has been the busiest month ever for us (synopsis post coming) but we're almost all moved in to our new home yay! Now I'm going to take a break from cardboard and packing tape and take my little mermaid for some free sugar.

Happy Hallowe'en!

>^..^<

boredom buster kit

This week M went up to the Carolinas with her grandparents for a little fall getaway and to keep the sanity levels semi-moderate for everyone I was inspired to make her a little boredom buster kit.

kit includes:

Pipe cleaners

A handmade book filled with coloured cardstock, colouring pages from various colouring books, and activity pages

Glue stick

Water colour paints

Various die cut extras I had laying around

Crayons

Pencil crayons

Fun character tape (for adding various things collected along the way)

Handmade sticker book with stickers

Digital camera (not pictured here because it was lost in the void that is this little girl’s room when I took this photo)

I first saw these types of kits on another blog and knew that I would need to make one for my little onion for this trip. I’m kind of excited to see what she has done with it when she returns.

That’s all for now. We are busy busy packing boxes and also our weekend bags for a little weekend getaway! Woot! Woot!

>^..^<

hello jello

Why hello there! Are you still there? Echo....echo......echo......echo....echo.....

Life in my world has been pretty busy these past few weeks and I'm sad to say that they are only going to get busier. Our house selling is in it's final stages (yeehaw!!!) so now all that's left is a closing date and packing. Packing-ugh! These two things have really squeezed the poop out of my creativity not to mention draining my body's life force but like all things, this too shall pass and while we close one door another is opened...yada yada yada...
so today I took a break and preheated the oven to bake some chocolate chip cookies (for Maribel and Joe of course 'cause I'm still staying faithful to the new healthy lifestyle-that's right!) and grabbed the oh so lonely camera to snap a few photos of my favourite little red head while she was all smiley.

Well I tried to...

She had other plans as soon as the lens cap came off.

Maybe this time?

guess not...

gotcha!

Never mind...but I love how the dried yogurt and red nail polish on her nose really bring out the stoic look on her face...

and then she turned the camera on me...oh my...

take that! HA! Two can play at this game!

Of course my plan backfired...she got right into it and started telling me what faces to make.

A little up close and personal...

I admit defeat by this point...and made one final attempt only snapping both of us together.

I'll take it!

If you ask me, this was the best way to kill time while waiting for the preheating oven. Packing can wait.

>^..^<

well that didn't take long

It turns out that this little heart breaker has a boyfriend. Well sort of, you see it seems to be all one sided.

I dropped Maribel off at her little school and as I turned to leave a fellow father-parent stopped me asking me if I was Maribel's mom. Reluctantly I replied yes only because usually that follows with a "Do you know what your daughter did?" question but this time was different. This dad informed me that his son and my daughter were caught wrestling in class, Oh great here it comes.... and that he was asked to speak to his son because he was caught kissing Maribel. On the lips. *skreeeeetch* Okay, um excuse me? By this time I was having a rather difficult time holding back my laughter but the father looked so serious.

He then told me his conversation he had with his son, whom we will call J for anonymity's sake.

J's Dad: "You know J you can't be kissing girls on the lips. Your teacher asked me to talk to you about this."
J: "But Daa-aad I can't help it if I want to kiss my girlfriend on the lips. She's my girlfriend."

I guess Maribel is all this boy talks about at home. So what does dad say to me? "So I just wanted you to know that your daughter is safe with my son."
Um.........Okay.

So later I return to pick up Maribel at the allotted time and while walking back to the car I proceed to ask Maribel about this boy.

Me: "So Maribel, who's J?"
Maribel kind of pauses then shrugs: "I don't know."
Me (trying to see if she'll tell me): "Are you sure?"
Maribel: "Oh wait. Yeah, he's a boy."
Me: "So he isn't your boyfriend then?"
Maribel. "No. Wait, who are you talking about?"
Me: "Never mind."

This poor boy doesn't know what hit him. 4 is such a young tender age to get your little heart broken and naturally Maribel has to be the first girl to do it. If this is "only the beginning" then I'm in for a looooong ride.

>^..^<

sweet memories

It seems like summer is becoming but a sweet memory as temps begin to cool down. All that remains now are photographs, memories and a small pile of sand shaken out of the beach bags, but after the sweltering summer we had any drop in temperature is welcome. So now were dealing with school life and all the fun and joy it brings.

Maribel loves school so much that all I have to tell her when it's time for bed is that she has school tomorrow and she hops right in with no fuss. Yessss! I'm milking this one for as looooooong as I can.

>^..^<

bento lessons learned, please take it from me...

Before I share Maribel's bentos for the last fortnight I first want to share a few things I learned about making cute lunches late at night.

Lesson #1: Do NOT attempt to make "cute" bentos at 2 in the morning. Just don't do it. You will see why in a moment. 
Lesson #2: Cut the shaped bread before adding the pb and strawberry jelly filling. Again, you will see why in a moment. 
Lesson #3: No matter how many warnings you get from your darling little angel that they "do not want cheese so please don't put it in my lunch, mommy" maybe they mean it when they say that they "promise" they "won't eat it." and then leave the lunch with the soggy cheese out in a warm car for several hours after school so that the left behind cheese can have time to be one and meld with the bento box. Um hmm.

Let's just move on shall we...

So to start the week with Monday's lunch which was the last week of August. It was late but I was feeling creative but had no theme in mind so I drained a mandarin orange fruit cup and formed a pretty little orange flower to go with rolled deli ham, multi grain gold fish crackers, vitamin gummies, mini marshmallows, vanilla crackers with some fruit leather butterflies to go with the left over edible Easter grass I had to make a nice grassy bed for the mozzarella flowers.
See...no theme unless you use the "sky" and the "sea" kind of theme but then how would pork fit into the sea thing? Is there a fish out there that is considered "The Pork of the Sea" 'cause I know tuna is considered the "Chicken of the Sea" but what about something tying to the pig? Brace yourself, this is gunna be a long blog post at this rate. Any ways she ate everything and loved the grass but left the cheese flowers. This should have been my first clue.

Tuesday's are school pizza days so I get a day off of making lunches, thank goodness!!!.

Tuesday night was the wake up call. Again I waited until waaaaay late to make her lunch and while my creative juices flow late a night I'm thinking I might just save those late night creativity juices solely for paper crafts because clearly they don't work well with food crafts. Clearly. Let's see, the top box was alright with a sliced apple with some blueberries, bear fruit leathers, vitamin gummies and a rice bear with some Italian dressing to go with the rice. Hey, she's four so what ever she wanted to put on her rice was fine with me.
And then came the awakening moment...the bottom box.

Here is where I learned that it might just be a good idea to wait to add the peanut butter and red jelly to an animal shaped lunch because after I had cut it out, the poor thing started oozing red jelly everywhere making it look like it was bleeding to death. It's not even Halloween so I couldn't just go with it. I had to do something. So I thought I would surround the dolphin with some chocolate babies. Yeh, now the dolphin looks like it was in labour for days because after adding the candied eyeball I'm sure it has the "what was I thinking" expression that us mothers have had cross our minds once or twice. So of course I couldn't stop while I was blundering along, oooh nooo. I decided I would try out the new food markers I had purchased just days prior and write a little message to my little boo. In BLOOD RED to match the bleeding dolphin mommy. So lessons #1 and #2 were learned at such a cost. *sigh* I digress.

Thursday's lunch I really felt like I had to make up for Wednesday's fiasco so I got the creative juices flowing  but I didn't wait until the wee hours of the night to make her lunch. Ha HA! Lesson #1 learned. Top box had some animal crackers, vitamin gummies, grapes and blueberries and a penguin filled with ranch dressing for the broccoli and carrot sticks in the bottom box. We had hotdogs for supper so I use the last leftover dog and made her some crabs and octodogs on a nice broccoli sea bottom with a nice cheese sun lifted up with carrots beaming down. So this is where Lesson #3 comes in to play. Since Maribel had been leaving her cheese behind and I know she likes cheese I made it a point to show her the fun cheese sun and inform her that it is made from cheese and that she likes cheese. (see Lesson #3 point in the quotations for her warnings that I chose to ignore) Ok. Point taken.

So with the following week being the holiday week and all, I only had to make two lunches. I have to say that this week was a success since I chose to listen to her warnings and made her lunches right after supper. Wednesday consisted of leftovers: corn on the cob cut off the cob, grilled chicken, tomatoes, teensie bit of salt for the corn, strawberries stuffed with chocolate chips, gummies, chocolate goldfish, and grapes. Not a crumb was left behind. yessss!

And finally Thursday's lunch. Another success. Since it's still technically summer for another couple of weeks I thought a couple of ice cream cone pb and J sandwiches would be fun with the rolled turkey meat, sliced peach, tomato balloons, gold fish crackers and gummies. Again, nothing was spared. Woo hoo.

So onward to another week of making lunches and discoveries while adhering to the first 3 lessons learned and hopefully the next few discoveries won't be as um, how should I say, frightening to the bento world...
Happy lunch making!

>^..^<

10 purses

Have you ever weighed your purse with the contents still inside? Yes? No? Well you might be surprised if you do. 

After I stepped on the scale this morning for my weekly weigh in the nurse quickly jotted my numbers down and then asked me to place my bag on the scale. At first I thought this to be a little odd but like a good little instruction follower I complied and was surprised that it weighed 3lbs. She then told me that I have lost the equivalent of 10 of my purses in weight.  Huh. 

I have to say I do feel healthier then I have in a real long time. I've cut out sodas or pop completely and drink only water with the occasional herbal tea and add 1/8 tsp of cinnamon to my yogurt everyday and I measure everything. I mean everything. Even my water so I know just how much I am or am not getting in each day. It really is the key for me to continue with this journey. 

So the next time I sling my purse over my shoulder I can't help but think of how far I've come in just 10 not so short weeks and look forward to the long road ahead of me. And to think that this morning I didn't have my usual contents like my camera, nook,and instax in my purse. I'm curious to see how much that would add to my purse... 

Shtats: 

Past Goal: Lose the first 25 lbs- done and passed it!!!

New Mini Weight Goal: Lose 10lbs (for a total of 40lbs)
Lbs left to mini goal: 10- totally doable!!!

Total Lbs Lost: -30

>^..^<

u can't touch this

I was just about home waiting at the second to last stop sign before turning into my driveway when I couldn't help but notice that this stop sign had a little extra instruction. I have to say that this sign totally made my day!

Of course now McHammer's Can't Touch This is stuck in my head and now it's stuck in your head too, isn't it?

My, my, my, my music hits me so hard
Makes me say oh my Lord
Thank you for blessing me
With a mind to rhyme and two hyped feet
Feels good when you know you're down
A super dope homeboy from the Oaktown
And I'm known as such
And this is a beat uh u can't touch
(oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)

You can thank me later.
>^..^<

imagination at work

I was washing dishes like a good domestic when Maribel calls from another room,

“Mommy come in the living room and meet my new pet…it’s a worm.” Lovely.

So I dried my hands thinking/dreading the grossest when I look under the makeshift cage to meet this new “pet” Maribel has adopted.

“His name is Wormie and he’s my new pet, but he’s not a real worm, just my jump rope I broke trying to swing from it.”

The next day she came home from school and ran to Wormie’s cage and says all endearing like, “Hey there little fella, Mommy’s home.”

I can only imagine the going ons that swim in this brain of her’s but I *heart* it!

Now my mission is to find where she was trying to “swing from” so I’ll be able to sleep tonight.

>^..^<

a secret wish

I don't keep it a secret that I dislike summers in Florida. What with the intense heat with the humididty making being outside utterly unbearable, but I have to say that I'm kind of wishing that summer wasn't reaching the endline. So to celebrate our final few summer weekends together while Joe is busy entertaining tourists we spent most of Saturday in downtown Winter Park.

We started at the farmer's market for some delicious fruits and vegetables but all Maribel wanted to do was pet every single dog at the market. She would get this look on her face every time she saw a pocket pooch like chihuahuas and poodles.

After getting some pooch lovin in it was snack time. There's plenty of benches to sit and enjoy a little nibble before some shopping...

...and some tree climbing too with some bubble time. But then she saw a giant tree to hide inside versus climbing on the outside. We spend a while there since it was cooler inside the tree then in the blistering heat.

But then we found an ice cream shop which looked too good to pass up. Well, I passed it up but I couldn't deny Maribel the littlest cup of chocolate shade. But it sure did look delicious in the cup and on her dress.

After making a wish or two at the park fountain we decided it was time to head back and escape the heat and head back.

The park is right by an active Amtrak train station and Maribel was so hopeful to see a train but alas, her wishes were not fulfilled, this time.

As far as mommy/daughter dates go, this day has reached the top of my list. The weather was a little warm but with my favourite redhead it was totally bearable.

The official beginning of Autumn is September 23rd and that puts it 92 days until Christmas. Hey it will be here before you know it. It always does that.
>^..^<