Netflix + Wii = Movie Love

If you are a Netflix member and you have a Wii, you HAVE to get the disc from Netflix to play in your Wii so you can watch movies instantly.  Best. Thing. Ever.  That is, until we get bored with it.

Ok maybe not as blonde as I made it out to be.

I told you I used to be blonde.  The picture of me now makes my hair look darker.  But it's more blonde than that.  Or maybe I just think it is.  No, the flash turned it all weird.  I don't know.  Whatever.

Blonde again

I started life out as a blonde (once I finally grew hair).  I've always wanted to be a blonde again.  And today is that day.  My husband has always taken an interest in my hair.  Usually sending me to a salon to get my hair done for my birthday or Mothers Day or something.  Sometimes he wins an appointment with a hair stylist in a golf tournament, or sets things up with a coworker's wife who does hair.  That's what happened today. 
Debra from Statton Island came to my house armed with two duffle bags full of hair products and styling equipment.  Her husband works with mine and she's been in Arizona one year.  Her accent was as thick as her hair and I liked her immediately.  I told her what I sort of wanted and we chatted away as she did her thing.  Four hours later I emerged a new woman.  I almost didn't recognize me in the mirror.  I laughed for a few minutes, not believing that was really my hair. It's usually such a subtle change when I get my hair done, but THIS is a change.  Something different.  I think I like it.  Maybe blondes really DO have more fun.

And yes, he likes it too.

Allergy Girls

I have HIGHLY  allergic daughters.  Amanda and Emily. They are BOTH allergic to every kind of grass, tree and shrub ever created (almost).  They are allergic to dog and cat dander. Sorry, but I'm NOT getting rid of my dog.  I'll give him a bath more often, but he stays.   Emily is asthmatic every time she gets a cold. Doctors, prescriptions, emergency rooms, inhalers, breathing treatments.  We've been there.

And now the most recent allergic discovery:
Amanda is allergic to egg whites, strawberries, wheat and cows milk.  She also has a resistance to insulin.  That means pretty much no more carbs for her.  She gets 20 grams per meal.  She will have to take a prescription nasal spray and probably recieve injections.  Fruits, vegetable and meats from now on.  She's like one of those girls at girls camp that has to have special food made for her.  I don't completely understand how the insulin and allergies are related, but they are.  She's nineteen and buys and cooks her own food.  She joined the gym and works out 6 days a week.  I believe the pounds will literally be melting away.
  I feel for her, but in the long run she'll be way healthier than me!

a little update

Alrighty.  I've gotten over the fact that I can't put pictures on my posts.  Moving on.

Phillip took off for Flagstaff with his sister this afternoon.  Their Mom was hospitalized this morning for chest pains.  They will most likely be bringing her to our home tomorrow since she would probably try and do something silly like shovel snow from her driveway if left alone.  Unsure if she had a heart attack at this time. 

We're trying to figure out what is wrong with Amanda.  She's had weird symptoms lately.  Skin rashes and welts, skin numbness, headaches, loss of appetite off and on.  Took her to a very good and thorough Doctor who thinks she has a food allergy.  She had nine vials of blood drawn yesterday.  Now we wait.

We have been house hunting and it is quite frustrating.  This market right now is crazy.  There are so many short sales and foreclosures.  Pretty much everything we've looked at is either bank owned or in the short sale process.  It's frustrating because the banks and even the realtors don't seem to want to move these properties very quickly.  But we probably couldn't afford anything with land if they were being sold in a normal market.  So we wait to see if any of our offers get accepted.

Everything else is going well.  Knock on wood.

That's all.

Not a baby anymore.

This morning Phillip and I went out to run some errands.  We left Isabelle watching her favorite show while Emily and Logan were still asleep and Amanda at work.  While out, Logan called us and said his new boss wanted him to go to their house to talk with him.  He said Emily had left to go hiking.  So I immediately thought "Well he can't go because then Isabelle would be all alone".  So I had him put her on the phone and told her she could walk with Logan because she would be home all alone otherwise.  Her response blew me away:
"Mom! I can stay home by myself during the morning.  It's just the night time that scares me."
So she was home by herself for about thirty minutes until we got back.  She called after about twenty minutes just to make sure when we'd be home, she said.  Not a hint of nervousness in her voice.  She was watching out the window with Zero when we drove up.  She was very proud of herself and felt very grown up.

  But she's still only nine, so I can baby her a little while longer, right?

A caged bird

Confinement is damaging to the soul.

Cabin Fever makes you stir crazy.

A caged bird doesn't sing.

Freedom is life.

I really have nothing to blog about.

Amanda will be working Cutomer Service at Fry's when not cashiering.
Emily is learning how to live without a cell phone while being grounded from it.
Logan hopefully has a job. (fingers crossed)
Isabelle had a birthday party for her littlest pet shop monkey yesterday.
I've lost the will to blog, clean, cook, and create.

Does that ever happen to any of you?

Talent Show time again

Yes, it's that time of year again.  It sneaks up on me and then yells "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE ISABELLE DO THIS YEAR???"

Since we weren't really prepared,  I just thought we'd take a year off and it would be fine.  Nope.  Her teacher is expecting something.  Her classmates are expecting something.  Her music teacher is expecting something.  So we got out our two karaoke cd's and went to work.  I was strongly suggesting "
Somewhere over the Rainbow", I had visions of red sparkly shoes and her hair in braids.  Darling.  But every time she tried to sing it she was either nearly in tears or throwing herself on the floor. 

Ok, what else?  We have to follow up with something as good as her Mulan and Cinderella songs with complete outfits from the last two years. She thought a song from Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast would be good.  They would be good, except our versions sound like they're on warp speed and she can't keep up.  That's it.  We tried, but try outs are today and we just don't have anything.   But then last night at 8:30 she put on "He's a Tramp" from Lady and the Tramp, and it just worked.  She went to bed with the song playing over and over in her headphones until she memorized it, she thinks it was about thirty times.  I have visions of her and our dog Zero up on stage.  Cuteness!!

I think I'm one of those pageant Moms in a much more scaled down kind of way.

If only Gone with the Wind were a Musical!!

:(

My camera won't let me download pictures to my computer anymore.

What am I to do?

Sigh.

:(

Sa-tur-day is a special day...

So after I had cleaned the kitchen, washed some dishes, cleaned the french doors, and folded some laundry (all of which Isabelle didn't see me do) I was going to start ironing Phillip's shirts.
  I asked Isabelle to please sweep all the wood.

She said  "But that will take all night!"

I said "well then it's a really good thing we don't live in a Mansion".

While ironing, and during her sweeping she asked me "what are YOU going to do to help out around the house".

I said "I'm ironing!"

She said "that's not helping around the house, that's doing something for someone else".

When she was all done I asked her if she could please sweep my bathroom also. I told her I'd love her forever.  She informed me that she tried that on me a couple of weeks ago and it didn't work.

While sweeping the bathroom she said in a loud voice "I guess this is just a VACATION for YOU!"


It's a good thing I love her so much.

I'm a dirty person

Have you ever had those people come to your door with a dirty rag and spray bottle in hand and a schpeele on their tongue who don't take no for answer?  They are ready to clean your window, carpet, door threshold or driveway grease stain to prove their product to you. Well Ashley rang my doorbell today.  She was quite entertaining for sure.  She talked fast and sang some songs and high fived me alot.  I wasn't really annoyed like I am with some salespeople.  But in the end she didn't win me over.

 She did however win Phillip over who was listening from the other room.  After telling him what Ashley had promised her miracle product would do, he said why not give it a try, it was worth the entertainment at least.  So Isabelle ran after Ashley.  One driveway grease demonstration and a fat check later, I was the newest owner of Citrus Advantage: The Wonder Cleaner!

I immediately did the proper diluting and got to work.  Starting on my stove and microwave which I somewhow have overlooked all the grease and gunk and grime built up.  Stainless Steele? Check! I was pleasantly surprised how well it was working for just 1/4 ounce in 30 ounces of water.  I quickly moved to the bathroom where I cleaned every surface top to bottom.  Delightful.  One bottle. Mirrors. Counters. Sinks. Toilet. Floor. Even the doors.

 That's just the beginning people.  Disgusting! My house is one giant filthy germ and I'm on a mission to clean it!  Have any of you bought this Wonder Cleaner before?  Am I the only one who has been lugging twelve different cleaning bottles to every room?  Silly me.

Happy New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas Holiday and New Year.  Hope the rest of you did also.  Good food, family, movies, games and spending time together.  That's what it's all about.  The decorations have come down (but are waiting to be put away into their bins), school starts again tomorrow, life gets back to normal once again.  I'm not one for making New Years resolutions because I can never keep them.  But I just keep plugging along and doing my best.  There are alot of things I would like to accomplish this year and hope in many ways 2010 will be better than 2009.  It was a bit of a rough year.  I'm thankful for all that I have in my life that makes it so rewarding.  I'm thankful for a wonderful family and great friends, good health and a comfortable home, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.   I hope this year brings happiness to us all.  Happy New Year!!

Welcome to Isabelle's house

What's the best thing about your parents getting a new major appliance?  THE BOX!!!!!

Isabelle spent a couple hours last night constructing her house while we were doing dishwasher set up.  Everyone's happy.

Way to go Hunter Hubby

I'm not sure any of you want to see this.  But tonight Hubby asked me if I had blogged about his Elk?  The most exciting thing that has happened to him in a long time. I didn't even know he cared that I blog, let alone that I blog about HIM.  So here it is. He'll never see it because he doesn't read my blog, but I can tell him I blogged about it and make him bust a couple of more buttons.  I'm proud of him. Even though I have a hard time with the killing of an animal, I'd much rather have my freezer full of meat accquired this way than from a slaughter house. This is the way Heavenly Father intended.  And I got a new Freezer out of the deal.  Our first steak was mighty good, too! So here's to My Husband, the Hunter!!

Bye Bye Kitty!

Remember my post a couple of months ago announcing our new Kitten?  Well this is the post announcing that the Kitten has left the Cook home.  And I couldn't be happier!  Kitty took a real liking to my leather couches.  Something about them gave him the urge to relieve himself whenever I wasn't looking.  So we had Kitty neutered as soon as he was old enough.  Amanda and her faithful friends and I took the couch apart and literally washed it a piece at a time in the bathtub.  PAIN IN THE NECK!!!  I don't know why they look so happy.

Thinking that if we got the scent out of the couches and he was neutered, he wouldn't do it again.  WRONG.  So, alas, Kitty had to go.  Amanda is kind of sad, but I told her when she moves out she can get another cat to ruin all HER furniture. He was a defective Kitty, I just hope his new owners don't have leather couches.

don't know what to call this post

I don't know why I'm on the computer, I have about fifty things to do today.  It's a sickness.  I can't get on with my day until I've gone over everyone's blog.  I.  Need.  Help.  But as long as I'm on here I thought I'd throw a few pictures out.  I need to send some love to Miranda and Bev for passing on clothes to Isabelle.  I love putting her outfits together.  This is what she wore today, so cute! And it didn't cost me a THING!  I had JoAn and her clothes growing up, and Isabelle has Miranda.  I still remember those greenish yellow Nike tennis shoes.  I thought I was Hot Stuff because my cousin from Mesa passed on her Nike's to me!!

Here's some of my Christmas decorations.  My Santa collection and my tree redone this year.  Also these giant snowflakes from the dollar tree.  I didn't know where I was going to put them and Emily suggested we hang them from the skylight in the kitchen.  Now it looks like it's snowing in our kitchen all the time.  Good thinking Emily!  Ok, gotta get busy now.

a little redo love

I took full advantage of the hubby gone hunting over the weekend and put up ALL the Christmas decor.  Inside and out, with the fantastic help of Emily.  But what I'm just giddy about is this awesome redo.  While visiting at my sister's last weekend we went to her goodwill (and were oh so excited about it!) She spotted this jewel as soon as we walked in and began oohing and aahing over it.  I looked at it and thought it was nice, but I quickly moved on to other things.  She, however, could not get it out of her head. She eventually decided it must be mine and knew exactly where it should go.  So after sleeping on it, she sent her husband and our Dad down to snatch it the next morning and surprise! it was marked down 25%.  A whopping $37.50.  My parents graciously delivered it to me and wham, bam!  The before and after:

love, Love, LOVE IT!!!!!!

Look out china hutch, you're next.

The Amanda Post

So Amanda claims she doesn't get much blog attention.  Here is AMANDA and her Scott and Indago.  You'll notice Scott is wearing giant footy pajamas that he later paraded around Walmart in.

Here is AMANDA at her new cashier position at Fry's.  I thought I would go down there the night before Thanksgiving to see her in action and snap a few pics.  She later informed me that I wasn't supposed to do that.  She's not allowed to check out family members. Do they think we're dishonest or something?  But all of you can go through her line and it will be just fine. So there you go AMANDA.  This is for you.

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Actress

Emily was in a very funny Play called Scapan  recently at her High School.  She did really well, she's a natural.  She had a kissing scene that frankly knocked the socks off of everyone watching.  Our mouths were left hanging open.  She tried to warn me, but nothing could have prepared me.  She has endured an endless parade of teasing from cousins, adults, family (mostly her Dad), and has taken it well.  It's odd to see my child up there on stage pretending to be someone else.  I don't know how parents of big movie stars ever get used to it.  Maybe someday I'll find out.

There's the weasel that kissed my daughter!

I've Been Bitten

I have been bitten by the creative bug! Ever since I made myself my very own creating space, it's been non-stop. Things like laundry and showering are really getting in the way.  I have also been blog stalking other lovely creative blogs to which I am completely addicted.  I had no idea how non creative I was.  Kind of like when you don't know you're singing off tune or you have really bad breath.  Why didn't someone tell me?  The gist I've gotten is that there is no right or wrong, do what makes you feel good.  And redo, repurpose, use what you have. I can do that!

  This collage above my bed is made with frames I already had and wasn't using. Some pretty paper that I love and there you have it.

I have been frequenting Goodwill alot latelty because that's where the Thrifty Decor Chic and The Nester go to find reusable treasures.  And it's so true.  This lovely touch lamp was $5.99.  I love it in my bathroom because I can touch it to three different softness levels.  No more turning on the overhead stage lights to accentuate every wrinkle and gray hair.  I DO love lamps!  I WILL get more!

These were other Goodwill finds.  The candle and the fillers are my own that I already had.  Very Fall.

I repainted these pears metallic Fall colors to go in this basket.  They're much better that they used to be!

I've been working on other things, to show later.  It's soooo much fun.  Those of you who have been doing this all along are saying "Duh" right now.  My mother is the most creative person I know and it just seems to have skipped right over me.  But I'm working on it.  Slowly , but surely.