Instant Images

So I broke down and ordered a new camera charger. I still cannot find mine. They are nearly $50 new - YIKES! - but I found a nice, used one on Ebay for $15. I am anxious to get the Canon charged and ready to go because seven days from today we are headed to the Happiest Place on Earth!!!


Disneyland, 2011

I wasn't able to convince Danny that we could go to Walt Disney World early next year like I was scheming , err hoping for. In his words, "We can't go spending $3000 on a family vacation!"

*Ahem* Let's not break it to him that it would actually cost twice that for our family! Someday I still hope to go.

But I was able to finagle a weekend trip to Anaheim and a two-night stay at the Disneyland Hotel. He's never stayed a resort hotel and I just know he'll love the cleanliness, closeness, and of course, that lovely Disney magic. He saw a commercial for the new Cars Land and got very excited and said "We have to go!" so I definitely held him to that statement.

So, yeah, I'll need the camera.


Disney's California Adventure, 2011. In front of what would be the new Cars Land.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the fact that my new phone has a camera on it.

My last phone took pictures...it had the ability to store five images and the looked like they were taken underwater. Needless to say, I didn't take many pictures (five to be exact!).

With my new Galaxy, I dove headfirst into the world of INSTAGRAM. I didn't expect it to be free, that's a plus.







Fun, especially because you can immediately upload to Facebook, but not like my "nice" camera, you know?

Coming up...the Disneyland Countdown Begins!!

Maybe you never knew...I USED to have a crummy phone

I was prepared to write a Maybe you never knew about my antiquated cell phone and how frugal my husband and I are and how we didn't even have texting and that my phone was for one purpose and one purpose only and that was to make phone calls... but then something happened.

My husband lost his phone.

Poof! Just like that it was gone. He recalls his last conversation with the insurance adjuster (someone hit our truck in a parking lot) while he was at work last week and then he doesn't know where his phone went. He spent a good part of the weekend deep-cleaning the car and pulling the trunk apart, searching for his phone.

Danny's old phone

Nothing. Gone. Bye-bye lame phone!

In any case, he needed a phone, of course. We don't have a landline so our two cell phones are the only way we can be reached. We knew the day would come where we'd have to take the leap into the 21st century and get Smart Phones. We'd mumble to people, "Sorry, I don't have texting". I think Danny's tipping point came when a man from Ghana laughed out loud when Danny told him this, as if everyone in the world had texting, even those from remote areas of Ghana for the love of Pete!

Danny's phone wasn't quite as remedial as mine (his had a flip top, ooohhh!) but it was still the second cheapest phone you can buy at T-Mobile...one guess as to who had the cheapest phone?

I had to search "Old Samsung Cell Phones" to find this image of my old phone. The website I found this image on (from 2009, when I got my phone) actually said that Samsung unofficially called this phone "their first mobile phone especially designed for old people". That pretty much seals the deal, doesn't it! I needed something new.

So if hubby was getting a new phone, I was getting one too...hurray! My phone was three and a half years old and in the electronics world, that might as well be a hundred years, right?

This is what I got...
Samsung Galaxy S-4G

The funny thing about this whole process is that my husband and I are like 80-year olds when it comes to all things "Smart phone" related. Texting? Apps? Touch screen? Widget? Camera phone? It's fascinating and frightening at the same time. So much to learn, I feel like I'm years behind on all the cool trends.

I can navigate the internet like a pro on a desktop computer but my husband is less knowledgable in that area. But when it comes to the phones, we are both pretty much in square one together. I think my favorite part was when we texted each other for the first time to try it out (we were in the same room) and he laughed and said, "Look, our writing is in a cartoon bubble!" I, at least, knew that's what it looked like when you texted!

So who will have the old-person phone now? It's being handed down to my parents, (certified grandparents) to replace their pay-as-you-go Trac-phone with buttons large enough to press with the palm of your hand.

You're welcome, Mom. Or maybe I should say, I'm sorry? You'll be next in line for an upgrade, okay?

Love...Love...Love

I have spent the last three weeks looking all over for my camera charger. I remember the last time I used it. I remember the outlet I used to plug it in to. I am pretty sure that I just set it down on the bench when I was done and I didn't put it back in it's usual spot (a plastic organizer that holds all my camera supplies).

My bad.


The Boy and my nephew, walking past the stinky flamingos at Sea World

It's gone SOMEWHERE. Who in the world knows though. My husbands thinks he "moved it" somewhere but can't remember where. I'm starting to think it's fallen into a black hole. I am wincing at all the nice photos I've missed out on. Two weeks ago was my husband's birthday party, which went unphotographed. Then there were my three days of vacation, all undocumented in photos. And of course, the baby! He's growing like a weed and I want to take pictures of him!


Baby D's first picture.

I think I'm going to have to break down and buy a new charger. Boooo....I hate to buy things I know I already own!

So today I have no new photos to share and will have to recycle old pics. But I do have new news!


This is one of the first pictures I shared when I first started blogging, The Boy at age 4.

Apparantly I have readers other than my mom and a few close friends! I have a reader who took the time to award my teensy-little blog with a touching award and a lovely note about why she enjoys reading my posts.

Allison at My Raina Sunshine wrote this on her blog:

Painted Butterfly Studio

I first found Julie's blog by way of her etsy shop. Super cute appliqued tees, and some gorgeous little dresses. On her blog, she shares snippets of her life with kids - 3 pretty darn adorable ones - with her lucky readers. I've loved watching the nursery projects she's been working on this past year - this quilt especially! Craft projects and cute pictures of babies? I just can't get enough of either, so it's no surprise I love seeing a new post come up from Painted Butterfly!

I feel so warm and glowy inside!!

I even get this little tag for my Liebster Award. As Allison writes on her blog, Liebe is the German word for love. My maternal grandparents both spoke German as a second-language, so that's neat-o, right?



I've been blogging for a while, off and on. I enjoy writing. I enjoy taking pictures. And I love to share. I'm a bit shy in "real life" but here I can just talk and pretend that nobody is really listening... but I actually do hope they are, of course. And I guess there are a few of you out there, who might not be a follower but you do read. Please post a comment occasionally with a shout-out and let me know who you are, I'd love it!


The Boy and The Girl, back when they were still baby-faced preschoolers!

Now down to it...I get to award some other very deserving bloggers!

Here's the deal with the Liebster award:
1) Thank the person who gave you the award and link to their blog.
2) Choose 3 – 5 blogs with less than 200 followers and pass it on.
3) Display the Liebster Award on your blog somewhere.

Thank you again Allison of My Raina Sunshine. You made my day!

---KJ of Shooting from the Mommy Hip and I have known each other for 9+ years. Though we've never actually met, we definitely "click" online and share a love of old movies, Jimmy Stewart and writing. Her posts are so true to life, you will find yourself nodding in agreement through each one!



---Jenn of Adventures of Home Life is another mom I've known online for 9+ years. Her son and mine have birthdays close together (as well as them sharing the same first name)! She has a love of learning and teaching that she shares with her children, so her blog has a plethora of fun crafts & educational ideas. And she loves Walt Disney World and shares lots of travel tips...a Mouseketeer after my own heart!


A favorite memory...my family at Disneyland four years ago.

I have to be honest and say that I'm still looking for that third blogger who fits the award criteria of less than 200 followers. Do you have a suggestion for a small-time, yet deserving blogger that I should start following?

Thanks again to all who bless me with your time and good thoughts. I appreciate it! And send some good vibrations to me that I'll find that darned charger this week and be able to post some new pictures, sheesh.

8 months - On the Move!

Sorry for the delay...my camera battery charger is MIA and I was hoping to upload more pictures for my next blog post but, *sigh* still trying to find the charger so you get what you get...

Today I am 8 months and 9 days old.



I'm a pretty busy guy, you know, crawling, pulling up, playing Pat-a-Cake, eating table food...who has time for a nap?

Now that I know how to crawl, I keep busy by getting into places that I don't know how to get out of by myself. At home, I like to hang out by the staircase because it makes Mommy very nervous (I even got to the second step when Daddy was in the other room!). I like to get into the bathroom too and sometimes I try to open the sliding pocket door when people are inside. They love that one, I always get a big reaction!

I pull myself up on anything I can reach, you know, the coffee table, the edge of the staircase, laundry baskets, Mom's legs...



I like to put everything in my mouth, especially the edge of this ottoman. It's perfect for gnawing on since I'm trying to work out my upper teeth. It's a bummer just having the bottom two because I'm drooling like a crazy man and these bibs they put on me every hour sometimes clash with my outfits, sheesh.



When I'm at Grandma & Grandpa's house, they put me in the walker outside and I get to push myself around on the grass. I'm just too busy having fun to take a nap and sometimes I only sleep ten minutes before I'm ready to get up and start it all again!



I am getting better at picking up my puff snacks off the highchair tray, though sometimes I still get one in my fist and don't know how to get it into my mouth. I started eating Cheerios last week, they are so yummy! And yogurt melts, seriously...don't get me started!

I like to yell at Mom & Dad when they aren't fast enough with the next spoonful of chicken pasta and peas. And don't even try to give me that smooth puree stuff, I will just cry because I want texture!



Yeah, Itsy-Bitsy-Spider is my favorite song and I'll do the hand movements sometimes when I want you to sing it with me. I learned to clap last week, which makes Pat-a-Cake so much easier! But pretty much any song you sing to me will put a smile on my face. I even like to sing along with a "la-la-la".

I don't really do too much other talking though, right now shouting is my vocal of choice. Once in a while I'll say "mama" when I'm crabby and I need her attention and I said, "ba" when Mommy was giving me a bath. Other than that, I'm a great mimic and will imitate you if you blow rasperries, cough or sneeze. Sneezing is the best, I love that one!

Bath time is my favorite part of the day. Mommy puts me in the tub and I splash all the water out onto the floor... and all over Mommy! I don't even mind when she pours the water over my head, in fact I like it.



Yeah, I'm a pretty smart cookie.

Hey, speaking of cookies...do you have one to share?

Up Late

Long time no post...



There are about a million reasons for that, but I'll just share a few of them...

This little peanut, who is crawling all over the house now and learned how to pull himself up on anything he can.



He's also had a cold which makes him a bit crabby and wanting to be held all night. *yawn* I got a whopping four hours of sleep a few nights ago snuggling Mr Runny Nose, poor kid.

See that right arm curled under the baby?



Well, it's aching like mad. I have DEQUERVAINS TENOSYNOVITIS which means the tendon that helps move my thumb away from my fingers has become swollen. And it hurts...all the time...It pops and cracks some times. It cramps up. I have dull, unnerving pain all the time and occasional sharp shooting pain. I'm doing what my doctor suggested: I'm wearing a brace. I'm taking the brace off and trying without it. I'm icing it. I'm doing my doctor mandated exercises and still, it hurts...all the time...

Next thing to try will be a corticosteroid shot. I'll have to do more research before I tell you how I feel about that!



My Etsy shop is keeping me hopping. I have 5 orders lined up. Looking forward to knocking them all out because...

...Danny has finally agreed that we can go to Disneyland! I was lobbying for Walt Disney World but agree that the timing is not right. He said we can stay at a resort hotel for two days. So that means the planning can begin (really, when did it ever end?!) and I'd like to make some special clothes for the kids. I heard the quote this weekend that "The Cobbler's children have holes in their shoes" and it made me laugh because it's true that my cousin's kids all have custom boutique shirts but I've never made an outfit for Baby D and it's been years since I made anything for The Boy.



Speaking about Danny, he turned the big 3-0 last week and unfortunately it went by pretty much unnoticed because he worked all day and then had night school. But his mom and I are throwing him a pool party this weekend.



I've had a to-do list of supplies I needed which I've picked up this week and I'm in the process of cooking everything right now. It's a luau theme and my mother-in-law will be purchasing some food from a Hawaiian barbeque and we'll be preparing the rest. I'm currently preparing a Hawaiian pulled pork in the Crock-Pot (in two batches because my crock isn't big enough for ten pounds of meat!), a sauce for the cole slaw, a macaroni salad and spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I have a feeling I'll be up late tonight and up early on Saturday morning getting it all done!

Hopefully the baby sleeps all night.

Fourth of July

Happy Independence Day!


This was me last year standing next to Danny while pregnant with Baby D.


This is me this year (same shirt!) holding Baby D at 7 months old!

We started off the day going to the movies...never did that on a holiday before! I had won a ticket to see Brave on an online contest. We scooped up my mom first and headed to the theatre. Turned out nice, the theatre wasn't too busy at 10:30am. Matinee tickets were $6 each and the lovely girl working the booth gave me the entire amount that the winning ticket was worth ($14) and applied it to our total, so we only had to pay $10 for four of us to see the movie! Not too shabby...*wink* And we all LOVED the movie, so exciting and the animation is out of this world beautiful.

Afterwards we wandered over to Gymboree and shopped the sale. $3.95 for sweat pants, yes! A $4 sun hat that is sorely needed? Absolutely! Racked up a good total and walked out with $25 more in Gymbucks, oh yeah!


Hanging out in the walker and cruising the yard at Grandma's house

Headed home to pick up Danny, who'd been out running errands with Baby D, and we all drove over to my parent's house to celebrate the Fourth.


The Girl in her Walmart stars & stripes dress...only $5! Sometimes you can find some cute things. I just had to adjust the straps & sew them down in back, they were a bit long.

The weather wasn't hot and the kids never asked, so we didn't take them swimming that day. They were content to run around the yard together, taking breaks to drink Minute Maid Watermelon juice (yummy!).


Check them out, all looking at the camera at the same time! No easy feat, I tell you!

My mother-in-law is renovating her house so things are still in a disarray. She joined us for a dinner of melt-in-your-mouth tender rib eye, grilled burgers, potato salad and for dessert...homemade apple pie and cheesecake Jell-O pudding pie.

Did you ever know of such a thing? Cheesecake flavored Jell-O pudding??? I was buying a Keebler pie crust and there was a recipe on top. Found the tiny boxes of cheesecake pudding all the way on the bottom shelf. Simple to put together, it truly only took five minutes, just mix the two boxes with 1 1/4 cup milk, lemon zest, and half a tub of Cool Whip. I tweaked the recipe here. The recipe suggests a can of cranberry sauce, but I thought of something we'd like better...I added this entire mix on top of the crust and then smoothed on spoonfuls of Knott's Boysenberry jam (MUST be Knott's, it's the best!). Sprinkled with crushed walnuts, topped with the rest of the tub of Cool Whip and more walnuts. In the fridge for four hours and it's ready to eat. SO delicious!

And why don't I have a picture of it? Because we ate it all so fast, sorry!

Please be content with this image of the pie that I made last year, from Martha Stewart!



You'll also have to be content with last year's image of my decorated buffet. I have the same decor up however this year it's been delegated to one third of the buffet (sharing space with the giant water jug and the fruit stand).




Baby Patriot! I bought this outfit for him way before he was born with the intention that he would wear it on the Fourth of July. Thank goodness I found it in that box I'd put away in the closet!

We ended the day by watching fireworks from my mother-in-law's driveway. The city moved the location a bit, which worked out okay because they were perfectly lined up with our street so there were no trees in the way and they were less than a mile from the house. Baby D loved it and was repeating our ooohhs and ahhhhs, he wasn't even scared by the loud bangs.

Happy Fourth everyone!

Small Saturdays, Big Sunday - Part 2

Fast forward another week to the following weekend. This time it was just The Boy and Danny took him out to the lake for the afternoon so Baby D and I had the house to ourselves. Finished a custom order and got that mailed out. Much laundry completed too and finished pulling out all the summer clothes I'd put away last year when I was too roundly-pregnant to wear them! It was like shopping in my own closet.

Been going through Baby D's outgrown clothes and listing things slowly on Ebay. Seems like he outgrow everything overnight! Our living room is a clutter of outgrown clothes and equipment that is either ready to be returned to their original owners or put on Craigslist. It will be nice to get our living spaces back after having such large pieces in them like the swing, bassinette, bouncy seat and Bumbo seat!



Here is a link to the Ebay listings, if you have any need for baby boy clothes! I've got more listings to come...

After a quiet Saturday, we were geared up for our Big Sunday. We had tickets to the San Diego County Fair and were ready to play! Danny's grandma works there seasonally so she gifted us with free entry tickets and enough tickets for the kids to go on three rides.


With Roswell the Alien, Fair mascot in the Fair's "Out of this World" theme


Ready for fun!


Some crazy spinny thing...


Himalaya ride, their favorite!

We walked through the garden area, woodcarving, gem show, kiddieland, watched a lamb competition, Monster truck rally (louder than loud...I'm still deaf and I was about 50 feet outside the complex!) amd a yearly favorite, the Swifty Swine Pig Races.

My husband prides himself on being a self-professed cheap-skate and we were able to get out of the Fair without spending a dime. Fortunately we have kids who know that if they want a snack, it comes toted in the backpack and not purchased for $10 at the stand and they were satisfied with the rides and shows we were able to see. They carefully chose their three rides and were happy and content with just going on three. I actually blogged about this from our day at the Fair last year when I was impressed with the kids and how content they are and don't fuss about what they don't have. We had great attitudes from everyone the entire day, including Baby D, who happily sat in his stroller.



I love this picture of Baby D. He was watching the kids on the Himalaya and it looked like he was really crabby with his poochy lips pouted out, like he was upset that he wasn't able to go on it too!



Maybe next year little brother, we'll let you go on something fun too! Other than a spin in the stroller, of course!

Small Saturdays, Big Sunday-Part 1

*sigh* Seems like I can't get ahead lately! I've had the blog on the backburner, trying to get my post done, so now you get a double-dose.

The kids are out of school and the driving around is better in the morning so we are sleeping in an extra 30 minutes... that's always nice.
The kids had summer camp two weeks ago together with lots of fun activities, crafts, a field trip to the County Fair and this day, can you guess what this day was?



Two weekends ago, Danny went out fishing with a friend and I had the kids to myself for the day. We started off with cleaning top to bottom! Nothing like a good scrub-fest on a Saturday morning (that's sarcasm). At least the kids are getting older and I can trust them on small tasks like vacuuming, dusting, emptying trash cans and wiping toilets and sinks, though it often requires me to tell them to "do it again". I tackled the kitchen (cleaning stovetops & counters, washing dishes, mopping floors) and washed/dried/folded/hung four loads of laundry in between moving Baby D away from things he shouldn't be touching, feeding him breakfast and laying him down for a nap.

After lunch, we opened up the Little Bunny Gardens that they'd received in their Easter baskets and they planted all their seeds. Nothing like starting a garden really really late in the season, right? Hopefully they will sprout because visions of watermelons and green beans are already dancing in the kids' heads. Now I just have to remember to water them...











We headed out to Old Navy and I ran across a big time sale and was able to walk out with a giant bag of goodies for $30...love a good bargain! And now I have a few new pairs of 60 cent flip-flops to break in.


The Girl

We all got small slushies from Sonic and got there just in time for 1/2 Price Happy Hour so all of our beverages were a grand total of $1.80. YES!


The Boy

Got home and Danny was back, sun-tired and starving. I'd picked up what I needed to make macaroni salad from the Pioneer Woman's site and we paired it with turkey burgers for dinner, one of our stand-by staples.

I finished up a dress I'd made to list on Etsy and The Girl did a quick modeling session for me. Wish that our complex had a nicer area to take photos. This dry patch overlooking the freeway is for the birds. When we have a house, I'm definitely putting in a pretty arbor of flowers somewhere in our yard specifically for the purpose of having a nice portrait backdrop!



End of part 1, will be back later with this past weekend's activities!