Taking a cue from Oprah

Did you see yesterday's Oprah? It had to do with famous women who are "style makers" and what they cannot live without. Well since I am a famous "style maker", I decided to do my own list.
Here are a few of my favorite things in random order. Keep in mind these are superficial things.

1. My Rao's coffee mug (thanks Karen). I love this mug. I love the way it feels in the morning and if you try to use it, the fight is on. Just ask Richard.
2. Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops. These are a recent find and they taste awesome. They come in cool flavors like pomegranate and mango and use only natural ingredients. Have you ever read the ingredients in a DumDum?
3. Hand sanitizer. Need I say more.
4. My body pillow. Richard hates it and says it takes up the whole bed.
5. Coffee. There are some days when I pretend to be my Mawmaw and brew a cup at two o'clock in the afternoon.
6. Blue Bell ice cream
7. Any Paula Deen cookbook. It's like cooking with your grandmother's recipes.
8. Mary Kay Visibly Fit body lotion. It is a great moisturizer and kept the stretch marks away.
9. Gap curvy jeans. The only jeans I can find that don't gap, no pun intended, at the waist.
10. i-shuffle. This is a great music gizmo and does just what I need without all the bells and whistles. I also love the built in clip.
For the more serious
11. My Bible. Any question I have, the answer can be found inside. (That sounds very Angela from the Office)
12. My camera, photographs, albums, and scrapbooks. I am a picture freak. If I could, every wall in our house would be covered with pictures.

"When the dog bites,
When the bee stings,
When I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad" - The Sound of Music

I hope this gets stuck in your head like it is in mine.

Update

In case anyone was wondering, I did not fall off the planet. I have just been puking my brains out from under cooked salmon and dealing with Matt's pinkeye at the same time. We are on the road to recovery.

This is another case of needing a little fiction.

My boys

Here is a video of Matt playing with Uncle Earnie and Daddy. As you can see, Matt had a great time.

If you are an Office fan, you will notice Richard running in the background like Mose, Dwight's cousin. I can always count on Richard for a good laugh; that's one of the many reasons why I love him.

We love Uncle Earnie

Today, we met my bother in Austin for the afternoon. We had not seen him since March (he lives in Minnesota) so, it was a "special treat" as Matt would say.

Thanks for the great day Uncle Earnie!

Adventures in food

Last night I made a beef stew that would make you slap yo mama. Richard liked it so much that he said, dare I say, it was better than his mother's. I did not do anything fancy or use any exotic ingredients. The one thing I did differently was to cook and season in layers.

Typically I brown the meat, pour in the liquid, dump in all of the veggies, and season. This time I browned my meat with the onions and garlic, salt and peppered, poured in the liquid and brought to a boil, added more spice, and finally added the veggies with more spices. I do have to give Rachael Ray props because I stole the "season in layers" from a show the other day. What a difference that made! Richard did not even add salt; he never does that.

Another great thing about last night was leftover cornbread. Do you know what the greatest thing in the world to do with leftover cornbread is? Have cornbread covered in milk! Before you gag at the thought, you must try it. If you consider yourself to be a true southerner, then this is a requirement.

Flashback Friday

Pumpkins 1 year ago.

Sigh

I just have to say that I love my hubby. He surprised me earlier this week by suggesting that we go on a date. I did not have to ask, hint, beg, or subliminally implant messages. So last night, we went out to dinner all by our little selves.

We went to a grown up Italian restaurant that did not serve french fries or have a play land. We had grown up conversation, only cut the food on our plates, and went to the restroom by our self. It was glorious.

Thanks Richie for such a nice evening.

Repeat

Last night, to bribe Matt to go to bed, I reminded him that a firetruck and "Sparky" were coming to his school in the morning. All at once, 30 thousand words came spilling out of his mouth as fast as he could manage, his eyes almost popped out of his head, and his lips curved into this crazy smile. Can you say excited?? Just as cute, Richard asked "Really? When? Can I go too?" I had to remind Richard that it is not a good idea to show up at a 2 1/2 year old's school and leave without him.

So we get Matt in bed and he was still talking up a storm about firetrucks, firehouses, Sparky, and firefighters. Do we know what he was saying? Not completely, but we got the gist. We said our goodnights and then went on to bed ourselves. Typically, after we put him to bed, he is quiet. Tonight was a whole different story. We could hear him through the monitor having a conversation about firetrucks for about 5 minutes.

He woke up this morning and the first words out of his mouth had to do with school and firetruck. When I dropped him off in car line he was still talking about firetrucks. When I picked him up this afternoon, I asked him if he saw a firetruck today. He said "Yeaaah! I get in and push b'tons. I kie (cry)." I asked him if he cried and he said (very big eyed) "Oooh yeaah. I kied."

I was a little worried about this part, the crying. If you haven't figured out by now, he LOVES firetrucks. I was wondering how bad he would cry when it was time to say bye to the firetruck. So, curiosity got the best of me and I called his teacher. I told her what Matt had said and she agreed. It sounded like he was pretty devastated. She finally got him to quit when she told him that they had to go back to the fire station to prepare for a fire.

Hmmm.
After recalling all of this, three thoughts come to mind: obsessive, persistent, and pit bull.
I can't wait for adolescence.

Pumpkin Time

On Friday, we went to a local produce stand and bought some pumpkins. Matt was very excited about the trip because we have been reading books about pumpkins and Halloween. After we brought our pumpkins home, he began yelling "don't hurt my pumpkin!!" That is what a character said in his Little Critter Halloween book when her dad started carving the pumpkin. Now Matt yells it every time we walk past them on the porch. It is pretty amusing. Here is a photo essay of our adventure. I love the last picture!!

Dinner Last Night

Who says dinner has to be a serious affair?

Flashback Friday

Halloween at 7 months.

Please wash your hands

I was at the gym this afternoon changing my shoes in the bathroom. There was a lady in one of the stalls and between the smell and all of the flushing it was pretty obvious what was going on. I felt sorry for her until she came out of the stall, smiled at me, and walked out. SHE DID NOT WASH HER HANDS!!! Can you say gross?!? No wonder a stomach virus is running rampant through our town. Let me say I was not thrilled about walking out there and touching the equipment

Lesson for today: PLEASE WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER YOU USE THE BATHROOM
(or at least use antibacterial gel)

Sweet

I bought these sunflowers on sale at HEB yesterday for $4.50. I think it was money well spent. I love this picture!

Weekend

Matt has finally recovered from his virus; he ran fever Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Now he is left with this horrible scratchy sounding cough.

Our original plans for the weekend was to go camping, but we had to scrap that. Ironically, the couple we were to camp with also had a sick child this weekend. He got a stomach virus Friday and is still recovering. What a pair our kids would have been.

Today Matt enjoyed getting to make a table fort. He thought that was pretty cool or in his words " Oooh WOOWW mommy!!! Thas funee"

Flashback Friday

Fishing off the dock at Grandma and Gruncle's this summer. In case you are wondering, he did catch a fish.

Round Two

Guess what? Matt is sick again. The poor little guy had to be picked up early from school because of fever. I called the clinic and they said it is a virus and he could run fever for 2 or 3 days! All he did yesterday was watch videos and sleep. In the evening he watched The Office with us and laid around on his pallet. He seems about the same this morning. As I type he is watching his buddy Elmo and eating a banana. Please pray that he recovers from this quickly.

I took this yesterday (yes, a new picture!) while he watched Elmo and the Goo Goo Dolls on You Tube. He never puts his head down at the table, so you know he feels bad.

On a brighter note, I forgot to mention that when my camera came back to life, all of the pictures I had taken were still on there. The coffee did not ruin the disk. Thank you Lord!

Uncontainable Joy

I just had the most amazing thing happen!! As you all know, my digital camera has been broke since July. We were at my moms and I accidentally spilled coffee on it. We took the camera apart and let it dry out, we changed batteries about 4 different times, and left it alone for awhile and it has never come back on. I had finally resigned myself to the fact that I would be without a camera for awhile. When you have a child, that is very hard to deal with.

Today, I returned home from my mom's bible study and was thinking about things that we had talked about today and also our past study, Believing God by Beth Moore (I highly recommend this bible study or book. It will revolutionize your faith). I thought you know, I haven't asked God to help me with this problem. It has always seemed so unimportant and trivial to bother Him with. However, that is one of the things I have learned, he wants to be involved in everything I do and He wants me to ask Him for help with all things, not just the "big stuff". So I took my camera back out, got out another set of new batteries, put them in, and prayed for God to fix my camera. Yes, that is correct, I prayed for a camera. I also asked him to forgive me for not taking care of it and appreciating what he had provided. I believe that right there was key because I have to confess, when the camera broke I thought "oh good, I'll buy a better camera." Well after I prayed and confessed my sins, guess what happened when I turned it on? My little camera sang a song. And guess what I did? Got all teary eyed (are you shocked??) and sang my own song to the Lord.

I am so thankful that my God is a loving and merciful God. I am ashamed of my thoughts but am grateful that he forgives me. I have also learned that no request is too small for the Lord.

I love you guys and cannot wait to share some new picture of Matt.

For Grandma

Matt and I were running our errands this morning and playing the "what's that game?" At one point we came to a Sonic Drive-In and I said "what's that?" Matt responded with a very quick and boisterous"SONIC!!" and I was very impressed. Then he went on to add "Grandma's most special special place!" All I could do was bust out laughing and keep from having a wreck.

For those of you who do not know my mom, she has had a love affair with Sonic for the past 10 years and can usually be found drinking a refreshing beverage from a Sonic cup. She just spent the last week with us and harassed me daily for a trip to Sonic or to bring her back a Coke. Unfortunately for grandma, I only took her once, but what an impact it made on Matt.