SEINFELD ON DVD!!

finally, seinfeld is out on dvd and guess what?? it is currently making its way to my house. not just season 1. or even season 2...but all three seasons with some seinfeld playing cards, a "signed" script from larry david, and a ketchup/mustard salt n pepper shakers from "monks".

i am beside myself with joy and plan on watching *a lot* of seinfeld this weekend. that is after i do my xmas shopping ;)

BELLA POOPS.....AGAIN!

okay, so i am sure it is not the "mommy of the year" thing to keep posting about, but my lil girl is obsessed with taking off her diaper after she poops.

so the other day, i go to get her from her nap and my sweet lil girl was under her lil comforter looking all cozy and sweet. i walk in and say "good morning baby". she pops her lil head up with a cute lil smile on her face. i thank God at that moment that i have her and in the middle of me thanking God, bella pops up and says "look!". i look at her finger which she has pointed in the direction of the corner of her bed and there it was........

.......a diaper with poop in it!!!!!

oh how proud bella was. you could hear it in her voice when she said "poop". after pulling back her woobie, i noticed poop was all over her. there was a look of disappointment after i told her that she cannot do that.

why on God's green earth does she keep doing this? mike thought maybe she was ready to be potty trained. at 19 mos? is that too early? could this be the best thing that has happened to me? i mean mikey was pushing 3 1/2 when we got him trained, but a child trained before 2?!?!? could it be?!?!? but i can't even imagine her tiny lil self sitting on a potty seat and flushing a toilet. but this would mean that i could buy those cute lil disney princess undies.....guess we'll just have to see. any advise would be GREATLY appreciated.

A CHRISTMAS PIC!

after we got the tree up, i decided that it was the perfect opportunity to get a snapshot of the kiddos for our xmas cards.

well, i guess bella wasn't really in the mood to wear reindeer ears and have her picture taken (i mean not with all the wonderful things on the tree to play with).

this is just one of the snapshots i got. and to tell ya the truth, this pic was in the top three...lol.

ya gotta love mikey's face and the fact that bella looks like she is a lil more than put out and practically rolling her eyes at me.

oh well, guess i better get used to that ;)

SECRET SNOWFLAKE!

well, here are just a couple of things that i worked on this weekend for my secret snowflake over on glitter

i love how the lil bracelet turned out (so much in fact that i am going to make one for myself ;)

i just hope that she likes her pkg :)

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE!

well, the rule in my house (and quite frankly i feel it should be *everyone's* rule) is that the christmas tree goes up the weekend of thanksgiving and not a day before. so this past sunday, despite the fact that it was warm outside, we took down the fall decorations and put up the christmas ones.

it was fun having bella help this year despite the fact that she didn't understand what she was supposed to do with her ornaments. mikey loved putting up his. and why is it that mikey has soooo much more "first christmas" ornies than bella?? kinda made me sad.

if i do say so myself, i think our tree is beeeeeeautiful!

NOTE: i just noticed that this picture is only with half the decorations on it..oh well ;)

A COUPLE OF NEW BLOGS!

so today while i should be cleaning, crafting, or just *something* i have been on and off the computer most of the day. after all, i've been sick for the past few days so i have some catching up to do ;)

so i stumbled on a couple of new blogs (which have been added to my link page).

the first was gnome g's who i believe is also the owner of the walrus and the carpenter. great stuff on both of her sites.

the next is maggie cat. lemme go on and say this site r.o.c.k.s she has all of these great links on different dloads, craft projects, and all sorts of other wonderful goodness.

just wanted to take a sec to share two more blogs that i will need to check on a daily basis. okay, back to meggie's ;)

LIL HULA GIRL!

the other day, bella took her lil straw hula skirt that was in her room and with mikey's help put it around her shoulder area.

whatta cute lil hula girl!

THANKSGIVING 2004!

well, this year i had thanksgiving at our house. it would have been a lot better if i wasn't feeling so icky. but i still managed to fix everything (cept the turkey, mike handled that). i wasn't even in my normal picture taking mood, so this is the only picture that i got of the kids before my mom and brother arrived.

we had a lot of fun and the food was good!

FLOWER PINS (AGAIN!)!

i participated in a swap with eva666 over on glitter. she sent me some beautiful mugs that she threw on the wheel and i sent her the above flower pins that i made. i am relieved to know that she likes them.

i really like the pink one with the vintage pink and gold button!

MIKEY BAKES!

mikey loves being in the kitchen. me and him baked a lil chocolate cake and once it cooled, i let him frost it and put sprinkles on it all by himself. he was quite proud and i must say that he did a great job!

maybe he will grow up and get to go the culinary school that i didn't get to go to and maybe one day we will open up our own lil place...hmmmm....;)

NOTECARD SWAP!

over on glitter i participated in a notecard swap. i must say that i am quite happy with how these cards turned out. i just used black cardstock for the card itself, different colored papers, silver charms, and black ribbon. pretty easy and pretty fun. i absolutely *love* making cards :)

i am thinking that someone might get a set of these for christmas. hmmm...maybe my secret snowflake. which completely reminds me that i have one week left to get my pkg. ready and out in the mail.

WHERE'VE YA BEEN ELIZABETH?!?!

i've been sick! ugh, it never fails, everytime around this year, i get sick one way or another. last year i was so sick that for thanksgiving all i ate was a piece of dry toast. that was more a cold/flu.

this year, i had a stomach bug. i have felt icky since monday. hardly have eaten anything and have felt completely quesy. luckily on thanksgiving i was able to stomach a lil food (no turkey though).

after mom left on thursday, we remembered that mikey had the same thing about a week ago. now you are prolly thinking, how can you forget that your son had the same kind of symptoms only a week ago. well quite frankly, i didn't really put two and two together.

so now on to some better posts....;)

THE BEST COMPLIMENT EVER!

i have recently came in contact again with someone who has had a special place in my heart. they will never be able to realize how much they have done for me when things weren't that great.

they recently sent me the following compliment:

"the thing i remember most about you was your smile...it was contagious!"

that is the best thing that anyone has said to me in a long time.

if you happen to stop by again, you know who you are, thank you!

IS IT THE KIDS' BEDTIME YET?!?!?!?

one day, i was listening to bob and sheri and the topic for chatroom was "things you have pulled on your children or things they have pulled on you".

i will not forget the caller who said that when him and his wife were having a rough day with the kids, they would close the shades at like 6 o'clock and tell them it was 8 o'clock and it was time for bed. is this not the best idea?!?!?!?

and now that time has changed, this would work even better. i mean it gets dark at about 6 o'clock, so i wouldn't even have to worry about the shades.

i was really thinking about this when i was cooking dinner/doing dishes and the kids were running around like lil animals b/c they did not take afternoon naps.

ah, another wonderful parenting tip from listening to bob and sheri ;)

ITS DINNER TIME. OLE!!

tonight for dinner we had chicken quesadillas and mexican mashed potatoes. they were delish and easy to make (despite the fact that i broke a casserole dish and i was dipping the coconut macaroons at the same time).

for the chicken quesadillas, i just cooked some cooked, cube chicken with some enchilada sauce. then topped the chicken mixture on a tortilla, topped with cheese, topped with another tortilla and cooked both sides of the tortilla until brown.

ole'

mexican mashed potatoes

boil about 6-8 potatoes in some salted water. once they are soft, drain water. add some butter, milk, garlic salt, and pepper to potatoes. mash. then add a can of rotel tomatoes. add a lil enchilada sauce from chicken mixure. stir it all up. place in a casserole dish, top with cheese and bake in a 375 degree oven until cheese is golden brown.

these potatoes turned out so good. i surprised myself. of course you can omit or add whatever you want to these.
delish!

CHOCOLATE DIPPED COCONUT MACAROONS!

today i made some of the best macaroons i have ever made! (well the only macaroons i have ever made 'cept for the ones that i made when i worked at the cookie store, but those pretty much came already done).

anywho! i posted about these cookies a while back but this time i am going to put the recipe in my post because you have just got to try these.

this time though, i dipped them half-way in a chocolate ganache' (recipe below) and they are absolutely divine!

hope susie and her hubby like them. i am bringing them to work (and this is just so me and mike don't eat the whole batch ;)

coconut macaroons (by paula dean...food network)

3 cups shredded coconut
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine coconut, almond extract, and salt. Mix in condensed milk to form a thick paste. Fold in egg whites with cream of tarter. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.


chocolate ganache' (semi-homemade w/ sanda lee)

1 cup of heavy whipping cream
1 (12 oz) bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

heat cream in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat until bubbles appear around the edges. remove from heat, add chocolate morsels to pan, and whisk until smooth. dip cookies half-way in the chocolate.


delish!!

BELLA POOPS IN HER BED!

...and takes it out to play with. we could not believe our eyes when mike went to get bella out of bed and saw that she had taken off her pants, then her diaper, then her poop, and played with it.


EWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

well, i guess i will file these pictures with the pictures of mikey when he did the same thing!

I CAN KNIT! I CAN KNIT! I CAN KNIT! I CAN KNIT!

well, thursday me and stose headed to the knitting nook in pass christian and learned how to knit (well mostly i did, stose had a major hangover....ahhhh, the single life ;)

i had so much fun. the store we went to is great (just wisher they were closer to me). they had a huge table set up in the middle of the store where you could just sit and knit. there were a few ladies already there, but there was plenty of room for us.

i ended up buying 3 skeins of yarn and some size 15 bamboo needles. i went home and finished the scarf that night. the yarn i used was show art.sw in "shade".

and i love it so much, that i have practically worn it all weekend.

now on to all those christmas presents ;)

note: i just clicked on my link and it took me to a yarn site that is in spanish (i believe)

A GARAGE SALE FOR A COUPLE OF PACKRATS!

upon looking up the word "packrat" on dictionary.com, i found the following definition:

packrat

n 1: a collector of miscellaneous useless objects 2: any of several bushy-tailed rodents of the genus Neotoma of western North America; hoards food and other objects [syn: pack rat, trade rat, bushytail woodrat, Neotoma cinerea]

this does seem to some it up. oh, wait! this is something missing. oh yeah....a picture of me and my mom! i am not lying when i say that we are the world's biggest packrats!!

we decided to have our third garage sale of 2004 on november 13th. below is what we had. is it not ridiculous?!?!? at each one of the garage sales we have had this year, people (and by this i mean almost every customer) asked if we used to have a store and where we kept all of this stuff (aka crap). if that wasn't embarassing enough, we would have to say that this stuff (aka crap) wasn't nothing. that we still had a ton of stuff (aka crap) that we haven't got thru yet.

i do apologize for the amount of pictures, but i just had to show ya'll how much stuff (aka crap) we put out.

*note: the sale was a success and we made a combined total of about $700. not bad for a half a day sale :)

KNITTED TEA SET!

okay, so tomorrow me and stose are going to a knitting store and i better learn how to knit well enough to where i can make this for bella. it is so darn cute.
the website is interweave. hopefully one day i will be checking out more of their site and learn how to use the patterns.

thanks to melmelon over on glitter for posting the site.

ME & MY LIL GIRL!

i had mike take a picture of me before we left on saturday. i thought i was looking snazzy and wanted mike to get a picture of it ;)

as i stood in front of the door, bella decided she wanted her picture taken too. she ran in front of me and said "cheeeeeese"!

i absolutely love this picture of me and my lil girl.

BELLA'S LIL SLIPPERS!

while going through some hand-me-downs for bella, i came across these cute lil slippers and took them out of the tote i had them stored in.

bella loves them. she had mike put them on her and she was running around the house in them.

the only bad part was when she was hitting the hardwood floors in the kitchen and she was slipping.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!

saturday was lil lauren's third bday party. she was so cute dressed in her princess dressed and wearing her tiara. i was finally able to get all of her presents finished and when she opened them, she loved them. michele called me today to tell me that lauren has been carrying the purse all around with her. i am so glad that she liked it.

happy birthday lauren!

I'M HOOKED!

okay, i am friggin' hooked on life as we know it. i have been hooked since day (well, night) one. i get excited for thursday nights. i remind the boss that it is on so we can chat about it on friday. the kids must be in bed before the show starts. mike can only talk to me during commercials. i'm addicted to ben and ms. young's relationship. it makes me want to go back to high school.

its nuts!

i don't think i have felt this way about a teenage angst show since the infamous 90210.

the only bad thing about it, it only comes on once a week :(

MOMMA, YOU SHOULD TAKE A PICTURE!

it is so funny that mikey is so used to having cameras in his face, that he knows when it is a good time to take a picture.

here he is feeding lil ms. bella some dinner. he is such a proud big brother and a good one too! well that is when he thinks that he is bella's mommy/daddy!

oh boy!

I VOTED!

well today i voted for the very first time ever! i was so excited and thought about it all day. i mean it is about time that my voice is heard right?


so i got off work early so i could pick up the kids and drop them off at home so i could head to the polls (thats me up there driving myself to the poll). i had heard about the lines all day and wanted to make sure that i wasn't standing in a long line (i brought a scarf i am working on just in case).

i got there, walked in, signed my name, got my ballet, read it over very carefully, marked my voted, fed it in the lil machine, got my sticker, and walked out with the utmost pride that it brought tears to my eyes!

BEAUTIFUL SUNSET!

lately, i have taken my camera almost *everywhere* with me. i just hate missing that opportunity for a good picture.

on my way home today, i got this picture as i was driving on the I-10 over the backbay. the picture turned out pretty good considering i was driving, half looking at the camera/half on the road, in traffic...lol.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

yesterday for halloween, we got all dolled up and headed to nonna's house to go trick or treating. once we got there, we had pizza and krispy kreme donuts. oooooh, the donuts were so good. they had halloween sprinkles. what could be better.




after we ate, we put the kids' spooky faces on and headed out for trick or treating. there were a lot of kids out and about and everything was spooky.


i took the kids up to the doors and we all said trick or treat and our thank yous. at one point we let bella get out and walk. bella wanted to carry her *own* lil basket and didn't want any help. even though it took forever to walk down just one side of a the street, i was still proud of the fact that she wanted to do it. everytime i asked her if she wanted me to carry her basket, she shook her head and said "NO!".

i am so glad that kids had fun and the kids looked so cute! it was a good halloween! and its even better b/c i have two big baskets filled with yummy candy in them :)