Outside of the Box

...literally!

I don't know if I've written it here, but I'm running a challenge at thedigichick. It's trying a variety of styles/techniques, and it's been a lot of fun so far. I love stretching my techniques and comfort level (only when I'm scrapping though. I get plenty stretched in real life, without even trying!) and others seem to be enjoying it too :)

This week's challenge is 'out of bounds,' taking a photo and letting some of it spill outside of the frame. I had tried it twice, but decided I wasn't doing anything particularly daring with those. So I went for a much more ambitious project, and here's the result:

Group Exercises

Thought you'd enjoy seeing this!

Monday, Monday

You know it's a Monday when...

You post the same exact thing you wrote a few weeks ago

You have big plans to declutter and end up spending the day scrapbooking

and

your top 10 list only has 2 items on it!

:)

Cute Jasmine things

Last night she was playing with Essla (her Cinderella who's almost as tall as she is) and had the following one-way conversation:

Do you want some tea?
How do you ask?
Okay!

And then later, she asked us for the ice pack for Essla. She put it on her doll's head and said, "feel better? good."

Now she's brushing her hair :) She won't let me brush hers (well, not without a fight) but she's fine doing it to someone else!

'That's Right.'

Jasmine's reply of choice is "that's right." Sometimes it's "okay" or "yup," but her favorite is "that's right."
she's watching Sesame Street, and for some reason decided the Anything People puppet singing (in Spanish, I might add) was Josh. She said "it's daddy." I said, "does daddy sing like that? in Spanish?" and she replied, "that's right."

I'm sure that's news to Josh! I don't think he imagined he's a purple puppet with frizzy black hair who sings in Spanish!

Just Call Me 'Sneezy'

It's Friday! It's a strange one, though.
Josh is off for the day, headed to the slopes to snowboard with Charity. I hope they have fun!
I was a little unsure when he first told me she wanted to go with him. I was jealous that he got a day off to have fun. I wasn't sure how it would go to have the girls by myself without a lunchtime Josh-visit. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized he needed this. Time without having to fix any computers or software problems. Time without me sending him Instant Messages about how the girls weren't asleep. Time to just be Josh. Charity's brother. a fun-loving guy. So I'm excited for him...maybe even more excited than he is!

Meanwhile, I seem to have picked up a head cold. Nothing big, but going through a lot of kleenex. So that's lovely. I'm taking it easy. I'll do what I have to, but since we're going to Chuck E Cheese this evening with his family to celebrate Bekah's birthday, I don't have to cook (which means fewer dishes!). So there's very little I have to do!

I saw this on my friend Jenna's blog and even though it's not Valentine's Day anymore, I wanted to do it because I love my Josh :)

1. What's his name? Josh. Occasionally Joshua. (though if I call him Joshua, he calls me Charlenua)

2. How long have you been married? 4 1/2 wonderful, fast years.

3. How long did you date? 15 days. When you add in the engagement, just under 3 months :)

4. How old is he? 28. I married a baby ;)

5. Who eats more? Him, usually, though right now while I'm nursing, I eat just about as much as he does.

6. Who said "I love you" first? He did. Sitting on the porch swing on my parents' deck. It was so sweet!

7. Who is taller? He is, by a couple inches. That was pretty important to me!

8. Who sings better? Me, I think.

9. Who is smarter? Definitely him. I did well in school, but he continues to floor me with just how much he knows and understands. And he's not afraid to say when he doesn't know something, which just adds to his intelligence :)

10. Whose temper is worse? Neither of us has a real temper, but I think his fuse is slightly shorter than mine. Funny, since I'm the redhead!

11. Who does the laundry? Me, except for right after the girls were born. He helps me fold it (the girls do, too!)

12. Who does the dishes? I do. He'll start the dishwasher when it's full, though.

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Looking at the headboard or the foot? I sleep on the right side if you're standing at the foot of the bed, looking at the pillows.

14. Who pays the bills? We do together. I used to, but the new online banking system has encouraged me to make a couple mistakes so now we do it together.

15. Who mows the lawn? Him. I've never used a lawn mower.

16. Who cooks dinner? I do.

17. Who drives when you are together? Him. Definitely him. The only time I drive is when he's falling asleep (on occasional trips home from seeing my parents) or if we want to read something, because it sometimes makes me carsick to read in the car.

18. Who is more stubborn? I'm not sure. Ask him!

19. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Probably him, though I try to admit when I'm wrong.

20. Whose parents do you visit most? His. They're only 20 minutes away, and have a warm pool in the summer. We see mine once a week at most (they're over an hour away)

21. Who proposed? Him :) It was beautiful!

22. Who has more friends? Me, though most are online and I haven't met them.

23. Who has more siblings? Ummm, let's see. He has...Charity. I have...Kenny, Daniel, Katie, Evan, Phillip, Amy, Vivian, Benjamin, Jacob and Justin. You tell me!

24. Who wears the pants in the family? Him. Hands down.


Have a fantastic weekend :)

Happy Heart Day!

We had a lovely Valentine's Day here. I let Jasmine decorate the cards we got for her, uh, after Valentine's Day when she was a baby (we were so excited they had Princess Jasmine!). She had so much fun!
Josh came home early from work, and we went over to TGIFriday's for dinner. The girls were perfect. We hadn't taken them to a restaurant since summer, because they didn't make it easy on us last several times, but they were perfect. Jasmine colored and enjoyed the food we gave her, and Bekah discovered the joy of straws and garlic breadsticks :)
We came home and I frosted the cake I made earlier. Yummmm! Then we watched Two Weeks' Notice and laughed. Hard. :)

I've done a couple new layouts. One I did over a week ago but couldn't post until last night because it's for this week's challenge. Since I realized the challenge started on Valentine's Day, I went with a romantic layout :)
And here's a layout that started out for another challenge but I ended up doing it just for fun. It still qualified for the Hodge Podge challenge this week, but I would have done it even without the "push." I just love this picture of Bekah!

More realizations about MSG

Josh has another MSG headache this morning. Thankfully he's getting much better, but it's making me aware of it all over again. So I thought I'd share some fun things I've found!

I found this site this morning with facts and myths about monosodium glutamate. Josh is going to go to the health food store and get some umeboshi, or Japanese pickled sour plum, which is supposed to help get over the reactions. He also mentioned 7-Up or Coke helping (though then you add more chemicals...but at that point, as long as you feel better, it's a risk worth taking!)

Unfortunately, it means the delicious meal we enjoyed at Red Robin was the culprit. So we won't be going back. I'm working on writing a letter to them, asking them to notify us when they take it out of their foods...it was absolutely delicious, but not worth the reaction two days later!

I have two things I'd love to see. I would love if MSG started getting listed on the sides of food like when things contain soy or peanuts, so we knew what things we could have, without any question.
The other thing that would be fantastic is if companies started losing money on their MSG-laden foods and stopped putting it in things. I guess lawsuits or laws could do it, but I'd much rather see it happen without any more laws!

Hopefully someday we'll be able to enjoy places like Wendy's, Little Caesar's, Red Robin and KFC again. But for now, those places (and many things at other places) are completely out for us.

What you see is what you get

I was thinking last night about how I really do "say what I mean and mean what I say." If I'm on the phone with someone and say "we should get together," I'm ready to set a date. I know not all people are that way, though, and often people mean that we really should get together, but want to leave it more up in the air than that.
So it sounded like a fun scrapbook page to make! It's definitely different from my normal style, which was exactly what I was going for :)


(click for credits and (hopefully) comments :) )

Recipe again

Potato Chip Cookies

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Total time: 35 minutes
makes 2 1/2 dozen

1 c unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 c granulated sugar, plus 1/2 c more for coating
1 t pure vanilla extract
2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 t cinnamon
3/4 c potato chips, crushed
1/2 c pecans, chopped

Heat oven to 375. Cream the butter and 1/2 c sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed. Lower to medium speed and add the vanilla. Add the flour and cinnamon to the butter mixture. Beat on low speed until incorporated. Fold in the potato chips and pecans. Form into approximately 1 1/2-inch balls. Dredge in the remaining sugar. Place on parchment- or foil-lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake until golden brown around the edges, about 13 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.
(Believe it or not, these are delicious. You can taste the hint of potato if you look for it, but people would never guess there were potato chips in there without knowing it!)

Bekah's party with my family

My sisters and mom and I went to the mall for a few hours today, and Josh stayed with the girls. My dad and the boys came mid-afternoon and played with the girls, so everyone had a great time (I hope, anyways).
We came home and had dinner, and then let Bekah open her presents. She was (and still is) tired, but was cheerful and adorable. So here are a whole bunch more pictures!

Bekah, at lunch, hamming it up:

Katie got this costume for her New Year's Eve party, so gave most of it to Jasmine for dress-up. Jasmine was thrilled!

She loves the star ("starfish") at the end of the wand

Bekah's present from Katie. Jasmine's a tad jealous.

Intently reading her card

She really got into this present thing!

Oh! Is this the card I was enjoying earlier??

Bwa-ha-ha. It's my cup and no one can share it!

Fibby the Frog (don't ask where the name came from). She likes to kiss him ("mmmmma!")

Two layouts

I am sooo much enjoying the Guest Designer we have at The DigiChick, Cinzia Loosemore. I'm really hoping they convince her to stay around (or that she asks me to join her CT...either works for me!) So I'm scrapping with as many of her fun, grungy kits as I can!

So here's a layout about Bekah's birthday:


And then one about my birth :)

Bekah is one...already?!

It's hard to believe it. One year ago today we were completely shocked to be holding our second daughter, 11 days early, weighing in at a tiny 7 pounds, and absolutely perfect.
I dressed her in Jasmine's Easter Dress. I actually bought her a pretty birthday dress, but I didn't get a chance to wash it first, so she'll wear that for her party with my family this weekend :)
She loved her presents. We had a tough time getting Jasmine to let her sister open things up, but once we let Jasmine open her own gift (we got her a toy broom that talks, since she loves helping me sweep) she was better about letting Bekah do it. Which was great, since Bekah really got into it!

New Lunch Recipe

Thankfully, we bought enough ravioli that I can make this again next week (before the parsley goes bad). Soooo yummy and quick!

Cheese Ravioli with toasted walnuts
(make this in 20 minutes!!)


1 14-16 oz package cheese ravioli (frozen or fresh)
1/3 c olive oil
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 c (2 oz) walnuts, roughly chopped
2 t lemon juice
Kosher salt and pepper
1/2 c fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1/4 c grated parmesan.

Cook the ravioli according to the package directions. Drain, reserving 3 tablespoons of the cooking water.
Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and walnuts. Cook, stirring until the nuts are lightly toasted and fragrant, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, the parsley, and the reserved water.
Add the ravioli and toss to coat.
Divide among individual plates and sprinkle with the Parmesan.

(You can use Pumpkin or Butternut-Squash ravioli, and you can use pecans or almonds in place of the walnuts. I used Butternut-Squash today and it was delicious!)

(photo taken from Real Simple's site, where the recipe came from too!)

Layout Time Again

I made two layouts today! I've been in a bit of a slump lately, feeling like every layout I make needs to be the most amazing layout I've ever created. That kinda stops the creative process to feel that kind of pressure! So I pushed through it, doing a quick "scraplift" yesterday, and today I was able to do two I enjoy! Neither is "Hall of Fame" worthy, but I had fun and like the way they turned out. (click on them to see the credits and/or comments left by scrappers)
This one was for a challenge to write a love letter to a "thing." It was pretty easy to decide what to do mine on :)

And I had a fun time getting pictures of Bekah the other day. She loves this mirror!