One of THOSE days

We all have days like this, right? Days when you wake up late, find out your son left the window open to the car and it rained all night, get to the school and your son says he left his backpack at home, have to go to the store with your kids because you don't have a single slice of bread in the house, your knee starts to hurt during a butt kicking ARM workout, your 7 yr old has a bathroom accident at school, and your hubby spends a lot longer at the Cub Scout meeting than planned. We all have them, right? Right?

Calling all girlie girls!

Oh yum. Tonight we made chicken fajitas. We didn't have any tortillas, so I made some. And they were soooo yummy. Completely misshapen, but yummy. And Brad made some sopaipillas. Oh mercy, were they good! I stuffed myself silly! I put the recipes up on Spoonful of Sugar if you want to try it out too!

And so now we get to the point of my title. I need help. Lots of it. In the last 2 yrs, I've had 1 haircut and 1 pedicure and they were both for my brother's wedding. It just isn't in the budget. Go figure. But, my nails are growing out and so I'm feeling like they should be painted. They problem is, I'm terrible. I can't do a straight line to save my life. If you've read this blog any length of time you will know I'm not above humiliating myself. Look at these nails!

Help! Since this is my right hand, I could use the excuse that I'm not left-handed and that is why the paint job is so bad, but the truth is my left hand looks just as bad. My question to you girlie girls, who actually know a thing or two about beauty, is 'how do you get a clean line on your French manicures?' Anyone? Tips? Ideas? Advice? Help!

Winners!!!

I know, I know. This totally doesn't seem random, but I promise this is the exact order it produced. Funny, huh. So, my dear winners, Crystal, Jamie, and Stacy, I am sending Dana your emails so she can contact you. Congrats!

Growth spurt

I really think Jamo is having a growth spurt. On Wednesday, he ate 8, yes 8, tacos. On Thursday, he ate 2 pancakes. When I say pancakes, I mean that these pancakes were the size of the pan. Brad and I only ate 1. Not only did he eat 2 pancakes, he also ate a ton of bacon and 4 servings of scrambled eggs. Tonight, he went to town on the pizza and bread sticks I made. He has out-eaten me and Brad the last few days. And he is only 7! Good thing all the brand new pants we bought him are a little long still, or I'd be crying!

Only 4 more hours to enter for the handmade soap!!! I'll be posting the winners on Monday morning at 8 am Eastern. Good luck everyone!

Last chance!

Tomorrow at midnight is the last chance to enter for Dana's handmade soap!

Roses

Last night Brad brought me home roses. It was the second night in a row he hadn't been home, and so he wanted to something sweet for me. Aren't they beautiful?!?

I put pictures of the kids with them on Cookie because they all had to have their pictures taken. hee hee

Today was SugarPea's first day of school. I don't know that I've ever seen a 2 yr old so excited to go to school. She has been talking about it for weeks and non-stop about it today. She loved it, of course.

If you haven't done so already, be sure to go here to check out the handmade soap giveaway. Holidays are coming up soon! Handmade soap would be a great hostess gift if you are going somewhere for Thanksgiving. And Christmas is just around the corner!

Additions

If you haven't entered here yet, Dana has some new names up of soaps that are curing. And she wants to know what sold out ones you want brought back. So, head over to Abracadabra Soap Co. and check it out! And I forgot to mention that you have until Friday at midnight (Eastern time) to enter, so feel free to tell your friends. :o)

Giveaway!

I am soooo excited for this giveaway because I love the artist. For years now I've been getting amazing jewelry from Dana at Charmed Designs, but she recently began a new adventure in soap making. This has been months in the works for her, and now her soaps are ready to sell. I got a couple of insider samples from her and I was so impressed! I could hardly stop myself from smelling them constantly. They feel heavenly too! Dana is going to have a giveaway for me so you guys can have your very own bar of her amazing soap. She is giving away a bar to 3 lucky readers. All you have to do is go to her website Abracadabra Soap Co and have a looksy at all her soaps. Then, come back here and leave a comment letting her know which one you like best. You can also leave a second comment saying you are following Abracadabra Soap Co and you can have a second entry. Sound easy enough? She'll ship it to the 3 winners anywhere in the states for free. How can you lose? Completely free, heavenly smelling soap! So, go check her out and get entered! Also, if you join the Facebook group, the members will get special offers and deals too! Check it out!

Parent visit

We had so much fun with my parents in town. Philly has plenty of attractions to see. We even had our first Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. So, here is a tiny little photo session. There are tons over on Cookie.

So, I was supposed to get rid of all the chemo counter bracelets in a way that they would be out of our lives forever. But wouldn't you know, just as we were getting ready to cross the street, along comes Bill the horse and the chemo bracelet. Sigh. At least my mom was a good sport about it and took a picture with it.

It was my daddy's birthday that weekend. For his birthday, BYU beat OU. Okay, maybe those 2 things are completely unrelated, but none the less, it is a very good day when my favorite team beats the team I can't stand.

Me with Benjamin Franklin.

I went with my parents to the Washington DC temple.
Some sites of Philly:

I have a video of these lights changing colors on the Cookie blog.

Philly has some crazy parking, as I've mentioned before. There is a part of Philly where people park in the median. For reals. It is crazy.
And here are my chili plants. I accidentally left my chili plant outside one night in MI and killed it. I'm still sad about it. I took some seeds from one of the peppers and tried to grow them. This is what I have so far. I am SOOOOO hopeful I can bring my chili pepper plant back to life!!!
Do you love our neighbors weeds?
Our house. We are on the left side. As you can tell, it is not very wide.
Cookie has a ton of pictures of the kids and my parents.

Hiatus

I had not planned on being gone for quite so long. Sorry to leave you with the lovely image of the inside of someone's nose for weeks. To make up for it, I'm having a giveaway that I'm super excited for. We are still working out the details, but I'll announce it on Monday at the latest.

So, what has been happening in the Monster Maison? Well, quite a bit actually. Here is a brief run down:

• My parents came out to Philly for a visit. We had such a blast! I'll make a post for this ASAP.
• I started (and completed) an online certification for American Sign Language. My hope is to get a job teaching sign language in preschools. There were 40 lessons, so it has taken a bit of time to accomplish. Thankfully, my memory from my college classes kicked in and I was able to do it easily.
• The stray kitty has found a permanent home with our neighbors. She is making peace with the dog and thriving in her new loving home.
• I was officially diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Bad news, I have RA. Good news, it is totally treatable and my medicine is coming in today. It is an injection, but at least it is only twice a month, which seems totally doable, especially if it keeps the pain away. :o)
• The kids have started school. It is hard to tell if I'm more excited or they are. LOL! We get to walk to the school and that has been fun too. It has been a time adjustment though with getting everyone where they need to be when they need to be there. It is a work in progress. SugarPea starts a 'class' next week (it really isn't school) and she couldn't be more excited. Every day she begs to go to school. Oh, how quickly that changes!
• I'm back at the gym! Wahoo!!! It feels so good to be getting my heart rate going again. Not to mention it is fabulous to take a shower without the kids reeking havoc in my absence. I'm still feeling a little nervous about my knee, but I'm getting there. Plus, the yoga class is 90 minutes, so that is a lot of deep breathing. LOL! Not to mention the classes are free. That is always nice!
• I've been battling a cold for the last week or so. Such a bummer. I only went through 2 boxes of tissues and I'm feeling tons better now, though not quite 100%.

Well, there is your quick update. I'll start working on the parent post this afternoon when the boys are in school and Sugar is in quiet time. I have a plethora of pictures to get up too, so I'll let you know when they are on Cookie.

His real job

The other night, Brad and I decided to snuggle and watch movies. No, not the latest romantic comedy. We watched something like this: ***warning, might be a little too graphic if you can handle looking up a nose LOL! ***



He was watching it, and some others, in preparation for a procedure he would be performing, a balloon sinuplasty. Maybe it is because I don't see him performing operations and working in the hospital, but sometimes it is strange to think what his job is when I see him helping with dishes and taking out the trash. But, if you asked Brad, I'd bet he would say his real job is being the amazing father he is to our children and the wonderful and supportive spouse he is to me. He is just that awesome.

Sweet treat

I don't call her SugarPea for nothing. Yes, we named her after one of Brad's great-great-grandmas and her name translated from Cherokee is sugar or sweet. But my little SugarPea must also have some delicious blood. Poor baby girl!

Hip to be square

We went school shopping the other day to get new clothes and school supplies. We were in one of the more, uh, urban areas of Philly. The boys asked Brad to turn up the music. Just then, a car pulled up next to us blasting rap music. I started laughing out loud at how we must look: sitting in a minivan cranking up KidzBop music. We are just THAT cool. :o)