Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to SorrySuaSore

This is Jasmine's newest thing. She picks up anything that looks like a microphone and says: "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to SorrySuaSore." We have no idea what it is she's welcoming us to. Sometimes she says "50 dollars" after all that, sometimes other things. But we feel very welcome there!

My poor sweetie is sick today. Hopefully she's feeling better now...praying it's just something she ate and not a tummy bug.

Bekah started signing "happy" this morning. I love it! She's learning new words every day, just with her hands instead of her mouth. She did say "more" yesterday, so she's adding that as well.

I've been sadly amiss at posting layouts lately, and I have big news that I completely missed writing here!
I was asked to join another Creative Team. Her name is Krista and her stuff is just beautiful. She puts out kits so fast...thankfully she doesn't ask that we use them all because I could never keep up! I love what I've done so far though. Here are the layouts I've made with her things (one of them I think I posted once, but I'll post it again so all her kits are all together :) )

New Word, and New Bed

Bekah started imitating my signs today. She signed "more" and "please." Here's her interpretation of "more":

For those who don't know sign language, this is pretty close to the real thing :)

And their bed came today. It's their big birthday present from Josh's parents, and is presently set up as a toddler bed size, but when they get bigger it can become a twin. We're nervous about this whole moving-them-out-of-our-bed, mostly because all transitions take some time to adjust to. Hopefully this will go well and we'll soon be sleeping, safe and sound, in our own beds. I think it will help Bekah sleep more soundly, not having her favorite 24-hour milk bar available, which means I'll be sleeping much more restfully too!

Here's the bed and what the room looks like now.



This dresser was given to us over the weekend by a friend of Josh's grandma's. We'd been talking about needing one for her since she's outgrowing the chifferobe, so this was a huge blessing!


The dresser in the corner is Jasmine's now. It was mine, given to me when I was 7. And the spring horse is identical to the one we had when I was little, which is fun!

Memories

In a couple hours, my high school band director and his wife are coming over.

And I am soooo excited.

See, he's the reason I went to school for music. It was his passion, the influence he had on us, that made me realize that's what I wanted to do, too. (I'm not blaming him for the fact that I only taught two years; I'm sure I would have taught longer if I'd had a band in an established program etc etc etc) Every time I had to write a paper (or scrapbook page) about someone who impacted my life, I'd pull out yet more stories about "MC."

It's been fun reminiscing more this week, remembering fun stories about high school band. He worked us hard, and really turned the music program around. We started marching (I got my varsity letter in marching band!) We performed difficult music, and performed it well. And we learned a lot about discipline in life. 95% of my high school memories are band. And the other 5% are things I'd rather forget (why is it we only remember tests we didn't study for, classes that put us to sleep and missing the bus??)

I'm working right now on a layout about marching band, which I'll post here when it's done :) In the meantime, hope everyone's having a fantastic weekend!

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!

Something I regret saying

I think everyone who's a parent said something pre-children they later wish they hadn't.
Mine is this: when Cinderella came out on video the first time, I was in my early teens. After we watched it for the first time, I sighed happily and said, "I don't think I could ever get tired of this movie."



Riiiiiiiight. :)

Rain: A Beatles Experience

Last night, Josh took me out to Fuddrucker's for dinner, and then to a Rain concert. They were absolutely incredible.
The auditorium was packed. (which made me think. If there were that many people there who like The Beatles' music that much, don't you think we could have a real "oldies" station?? The former oldies station is now supposedly "variety," though their favorite genre is 70s love songs (i.e. the stuff I had to hear when I worked at JoAnn's and hated!) It seems like there's enough interest to keep it going, but maybe I'm wrong.
They started with the first American performance: it was as though we were at the Ed Sullivan show (just older and not all women!), down to the "applause" signs that lit u
There were big screens on the sides of the stage that went along with whatever era they did. So during the "Sgt. Pepper" era, they had psychedelic colors flying around. It really added to the whole experience.
And they played and sang amazingly well. Looking at their faces you knew it wasn't the real guys, but you really wouldn't have known otherwise. (well, and "Paul" wasn't left-handed!) They played everything perfectly!
As someone who was born after everything happened, this was an incredible experience for me. Between each "era" they showed TV clips (and a couple commercials! I didn't realize people actually ironed their hair to get it straight!!!) and the music made more sense to me. Learning the music independent of the rest of what went on when they sang it, I missed out on a whole layer of the music.
For any Beatles fans, I'd strongly recommend Rain. And I'd love to go again if they come to the area!!

Dinner and some Pictures

Tonight's dinner (not started yet). For those who think MSG-free means a lack of options...this is soooo yummy!

Chicken Bosciaolla

1 chicken breast per adult sliced as if for stir fry
1/2 slab bacon cut into small pieces
1 bunch green onions diced
1 T chopped fresh garlic
1 medium carton heavy cream
2 cups grated fresh parmesan (Do not use Kraft-type cheese) **I grate my own and use high-end stuff for the good flavor***

Fry the bacon until nearly done and add the chicken pieces. Cook until very done and add the onions and garlic. The onions should start to wilt, then turn heat to low and add the cream. Slowly add the cheese until it's all together. Do not overheat or the sauce will break. Meanwhile, boil a pot of water and add linguini noodles. Cook and drain. Pour noodles into sauce and serve immediately.

Here's a new Bekah layout. Really, could she be any cuter??
And here's me! One of the assignments for this week was a self-portrait. So with the help of the tripod and self-timer, I got a couple I liked. Here's one of them!

And Jasmine!

(click on them to see in the gallery with credits and (hopefully) comments!)

Cappuccino Muffins

Ready for an amazing recipe? I made these yesterday, and they are worth the trip to the store for the instant coffee! (unfortunately I only have one muffin tin and this makes 14, so I put the last two in cupcake papers in an 8-inch cake pan...so we had 12 muffins and two blobs. Yummy blobs though!)

Cappuccino Muffins

Espresso Spread:
4 oz cream cheese, cubed

1 T sugar
1/2 t instant coffee granules
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/4 c mini choc chips

In a food processor/blender, combine. Cover and process until well-blended. Cover and refrigerate until serving.

Muffins
2 c flour
3/4 c sugar
2 1/2 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 c milk
2 T instant coffee granules
1/2 c butter, melted
1 egg
1 t vanilla
3/4 c mini chocolate chips

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, powder, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir milk and coffee until coffee is dissolved. Add butter, egg and vanilla; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in chips. Fill greased or paper-lined cups 2/3 full. Bake at 375* for 17-20 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool for 5 min. before removing from pans to wire racks.
Yields: 14 muffins

Recipes?

Tomorrow, I'll try to write out a recipe I made today. Yummm!

Make sure you check out my photo blog; lots of cute pictures there (while you're at it, you could join my two other readers and get it sent to your inbox!) (how's that for a shameless plug?)

So I'm making it a challenge to see if we can skip out of going to Wegmans this week (that's the supermarket, for any non-Western NY-ers who read this). We may need to pick up some milk, but I'd love to make it a whole week on what we have. Here's a rough list of the foods in our fridge and pantry. I've already gotten a couple fun ideas from friends, but I'd love to see what else we could do with what we've got!

Fridge/fresh:
lots of minced garlic
some parmesan
cream cheese
butter
other cheeses: sharp cheddar, some mozzarella/provolone, and shredded cojack
6 eggs
2 cups of beans, soaking at the moment
hot dogs
milk
bread
yeast
basil
1 onion
apples
oranges (which really need to be eaten!)
muffins (this is the recipe I'll try to write out tomorrow)
honey-mustard, plus the normal condiments


Pantry:
orzo
lasagna noodles
oats
normal baking supplies (cornmeal, flour, sugar...)
mac-n-cheese
canned soup (lentil and minestrone, no cream of ______ because Josh can't have those)

Freezer:
whole-wheat tortillas
frozen veggies (spinach, broccoli, a little bit of mixed veggies)

So...what can we make? Can we go the week without a trip out?

The throes of the Terrible Twos

Jasmine is now 2 1/2. That must mean we've dealt with the "terrible twos" for at least the last 6 (7) months, right?

I love her even more today than I did when she was taking her first steps, saying her first words or taking her first breath. She is a constant joy. She tells me everything on her mind now. She has a terrific sense of humor. She loves to help me (yesterday I was vacuuming the radiator with the attachment, and she was helping as I did it). Yesterday she decided Bekah's baby doll was tired, so she "nursed" her to sleep.

She is still high-needs (or at least higher-needs than Bekah). She still needs to nurse to sleep for her naps. She has definite ideas about what should be done, when it should be done, and heaven help anyone who doesn't understand her (though most of the time a complete stranger could understand her, as long as they remembered that "Esla" is Cinderella and "uppadupt" is pullup. Everything else is pretty accurate, with 90% of her R's and L's in the appropriate place)

We have moments. Every so often, more often when she's short on sleep or hasn't had enough snuggle time, we have a meltdown. She does test us, kicking gently when I tell her not to kick, just to see how much she can get away with.

But those moments are very infrequent.

I know when I'm having a bad day, it's easy to focus on all the "bad stuff" in my life. And when I worked at Wegmans, it was the one cranky customer I remembered instead of the 19 pleasant, normal people. So I know how easy it would be to focus on the meltdowns, and to say, "Oh yeah, she's in the terrible twos."

But that would be short-changing her. I love how sweet she is. I love her games. I love her voice (and almost inaudible whisper). I love that she prays for us when we're hurt. I love that she says "snuggle daddy" if we're outside and it's windy. And that she likes to choose the shopping cart to ride in.

On that note, here is the top ten list of life with Jasmine.

10. did you know you can get a milk mustache drinking from a sippy cup?
9. better learn what "baydayday" means (bandaid)
8. some of the more obscure lines of movies may become her favorites ("Mary Poppins. Is that your name? it's lovely.")
7. batteries make everything work.
6. remote controls ("clickers") make all DVDs play, even when she wants one that's not in the player already.
5. all parallel lines (pinstripes) mean Yankees.
4. All card games should sound like Pit. ("two-two-two-two-two")
3. "spider" is not an 8-legged critter. (It's apple cider)
2. Just because Jenny is a doll doesn't mean she shouldn't look at herself in the mirror when she has a hat on.
1. one word: "jumpoline"

I've been neglectin this blog...

I was worried that would happen!

Here's today's picture for my "photo a day" challenge.
Isn't she gorgeous?! I know I'm partial, but she really is beautiful.
Jasmine decided to wear her Yankees shirt today so I put Bekah in hers as well, and then decided I'd wear my jersey! So, on top of the gorgeous weather, we're pretending it's not still January, but could be baseball season! (it's 65 out right now. Crazy!)

I'm working on layouts for the Creating Keepsakes' Hall of Fame contest. No, I don't really think I'm at the level to consider myself a real competitor, but it's a fantastic push for me. I've made 3 layouts and am working on another three (ten are required for it). So my "best" layouts (I hope) and pictures are all under wraps for who-knows-how-long. It's hard to keep those to myself, but it's worth it. I'm having fun and am excited to find that I'm getting more creative outside-the-box ideas than I ever thought I could have! (I think this is one of those talents like in the Parable of the Talents, where it's not there at first but is around now!)

Oh. This is a tangent, but it's something I've pondered for awhile now. I know God blessed me with my music, and the ability to learn languages. So I studied music for 13 years. I studied and spoke Turkish for 2+ years. But now that I'm not around Turkish people, and not in a position to play, those talents are kind of by the wayside. Instead I'm focusing on learning to be a better mommy, hopefully a more organized, less cluttered one, and stretching my creativity (and flexibility). So is it okay to let those first ones kind of relax? Is it okay that I've forgotten most of the Turkish I knew and my clarinetting is, uh, very rusty? Or does God hope we keep those original talents fresh?

A year in pictures

I'm joining Andrea at TDC in taking a photo a day (actually, well more than one a day. Just aiming for one "decent" photo a day). I won't put them here though, because I'm sure not everyone wants to see pictures of the magnetic alphabet on our dishwasher!

If you'd like to see them, I have a blog set up here. I'll set up Feedblitz there too. I'm going to try hard to keep it up-to-date, but everyone knows that life sometimes gets in the way!

I also got something yesterday...one of my Christmas presents is now on my computer! I can type in my handwriting! So now all of my journaling on my layouts can be my handwriting, instead of other people's!


A couple Jasmine-isms to leave you with:

On her toy phone a few days ago:
"Hello? This is Chareen. I don't fink so. So, so, so, so. It's time for lunch. I can't find it. Okay. Bye!"
And lying in bed:
"Oh, a pwesent? Fank you so much."
And just now:
She asked for Goji. I got her a sippy cup of juice from the fridge, figuring it had to be Goji. I handed it to her, and a second later she was vigorously shaking her head. "it's not Goji." I smelled it: it was cider! So I got her the other sippy cup, and said "this is Goji." After testing it, she said "this is Goji! That's silly."

Home Edition: Virkler Style

Okay, so it's not an "extreme" makeover, but ours was much cheaper, and we loved our house. It just needed a little help!

Once we replaced our monstrous TV with a more "normal" sized one, we needed to use our coffee table to hold it up. And then with storage bins surrounding everything to keep them unaccessible to the girls, this is what we ended up with.

And here's the rest of the immense living room:




So yesterday we went to Target and found a beautiful armoire, intended for use as an entertainment system. That meant we needed to rearrange the whole room (like I really needed an excuse!) and here is the final result (until I rearrange it again, anyways):





And here are the girls today, wearing their new clothes from my grandparents:

How could I forget?? I also made the dining room look its best yesterday afternoon, using the new tablecloth and placemats (A Christmas present from Charity)!


Happy New Year!!

I'm Not Here To Sell You Anything.

This afternoon, someone rang our doorbell, told Josh he wasn't selling anything (he "just wanted to clean a carpet in a heavy-traffic area so we could see how powerful it was") and spent at least two hours in our home.

I told Josh it was okay with the understanding that we did not need one and would not buy one. We did manage to get them from their starting price $1729, I think) down to $250 (for a "training model" without the shampooer) and still turned them down, but it was quite the experience. (oh, and we didn't try to negotiate, just repeatedly told him, "no," so we weren't purposely leading him on)

Did I mention he lied? Yeah. He sure did.

Anyways, a couple funny things came from that. Jasmine warmed up to him after a bit, and pulled out her little vacuum (not her new dustbuster that actually works, but her "Dyson" toy vacuum) and worked right next to him. Very cute.

And our dining room carpet does look really good (though it took far, far longer than the "one hour" to dry that he promised).

To me, the funniest moment was afterwards. The guy's boss came in to "discuss paperwork." He said, "as you know, cleanliness is next to godliness" in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. After he left, Josh told me he wanted to ask, "yeah, so, that makes you a reverend then, huh?"

So are we the only ones to even let them in? We looked online after they left, and our experience is pretty normal. But have any of you, my family and friends, had them come in and do your carpet? As I watched him put an attachment on, I had the feeling I had done that at one point; I think maybe we had an old used one for awhile. Or else Emily (My roommate for 6 months before I met Josh) had one. I remembered using one though.

I'm Promise.

Jasmine had us completely bewildered. She kept saying "I'm promise." Yesterday it was followed by her teddy bear kissing our elbows. We had no idea what it came from.

For awhile I thought it was from "I'll be home for Christmas" when they sing "I promise you," but she never said "you." It was always "I'm promise."

Then last night, she was saying "I'm promise. I'm sheeeeee! I'm promise. I'm sheeee!" And then adding "I'm trying. I'm learning."

I thought through all the Veggie Tales songs she knows. Nothing about promises that I could think of.

Suddenly it hit me.

I am a promise
I am a possibility
I am a promise
With a capital "P"
And I am learning to hear God's voice
And I am trying to make the right choice
I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be.

What an awesome thing for her to be singing!! And how fun, since I made this layout about a year ago: