33yrs old...and a new exciting scrapbooking idea...

I have been excited about starting a desktop calendar/planner for months. I have a scrapbooking planner or that is what I called it at one time. But it really isn't that. It has been like an inventory of my stamps,dies and it one time it held my wishlist. But now I have decided that it needs to be used to hold only my inventory. And I need a new planner that does the rest of it all...somewhere I can jot down some sketches, deadlines on products that I am putting on ebay and a calendar of the current year....and since I was blessed to get a bind it all...I can actually make a book of this whole thing. Well this process isn't going to happen overnight and since I put so much into things I make to sell, I want to put just as much effort into something that I want for myself.

I haven't come up with all the ideas yet, but I have created the calendar pages,made a little section for weekly noted (dated) and printed mini calendar for all of 2009 to go on the month before (i.e January will have a mini calendar of Feb. 2009 on it so that I can circle things or look at things without going to that calendar month.

Now I have to design some pages for monthly goals, and so on...I am truly excited about it and I think that in the future I might make some of these to sell. I just gotta do this one for me first!

This last weekend I completed some simple school pages from 2007-2008. I can't upload ds#1's page because it has too many faces on it but here is the one that I did for ds#2.

I actually have a total of 17 pages done for this year so far, mostly because I have a way to print my own pictures now and am more excited about our albums. And also because I have to make sure that I get 2008 finished before our new little family member comes. Plus it was my 33rd birthday just a few days back and I just chilled at home with the family and we all had tons of fun!

Now that the gifts have been opened!!

I can stop wondering what I got for Christmas! And let's just say that my hubby did a great job. I told him that I didn't want anything scrapbook related. Which was kinda hard for him because I have always wanted scrapbooking items so he really had to think outside the box.

And what he came up with is 2 awesome gifts that I have been wanting forever. I have wanted an Epson printer since forever for printing photos at home. I hated that our old printer could do everything under the sun but print a great photo. So now I can do that...and the second gift was Adobe photoshop elements 7....I have wanted Adobe forever. But I was so intimidated by all the things that you have to learn just for the downloads that I always talked myself out of getting it, but that won't be the case anymore. It is mine!! All mine... now only if I can get an new computer and wireless internet. I don't think I would ever leave my scrapbooking space...ok maybe I would. I haven't been down there in weeks.

But I did get down there before Christmas just so that I could make some cards...and here it is...

What's for dinner?

This is always a question at our house (and also on twopeas nsbr threads). I usually have planned what I am going to cook for a week or should I say what type of meat I am planning on using for the day. And today was that whole chicken that has been sitting in the refrigerator for a week. One of the best things about having such an awesome new refrigerator is that meat can't really go bad. I was just a little worried because it had been in there for a week and then I pulled it out...it was still partially frozen. So it had to sit in cold water for a little while.

I originally wanted to make chicken caesar wraps but remembered that I should not eat caesar dressing because it has raw egg in it! Darn pregnancy!! I luuuvvv caesar dressing. I think it will be ok to eat when I am closer to my due date (or that is what I am telling myself) l0l!

But the winning recipe was chicken chili. I have never made it before and it seems like something that would taste great. The only problem was that I had been grocery shopping already and I hadn't gotten white beans, mostly because I hate them, but also because I couldn't find canned ones anywhere. And it would take way to long to cook some. So I decided to use kidney beans and black beans instead. And here is the end result. I taste tested it and it is amazing. But what has happened during this pregnancy is that I can taste food while cooking but can't eat it when it's time for dinner. I just hope that my stomach will let me eat some of it when it's actually dinner time.

So what's for dinner at your house?? What new recipes are you trying out.

Also I have been searching for Christmas music that I can play for the kids while driving them to school. We usually listen to KTIS during the Christmas season but not that we are MP3 player users the kids want me to get music. So I have been looking high and low for some fun, energetic not so slow Christmas music.

Just a little updating...Some quick photos I forgot to add!

I am so excited because I just found another feature to add to the blog. And I can't wait to load it up with websites/blogs that I checkout frequently. I am falling in love with so many blogs, and yes it is an addiction! Truly it is. My little recipe box is filling to the brim with tons of recipes that I just gotta try out. Today while checking out flickr.com I found a scrapbooker that I thought had some awesome pics of food...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/taraanderson/

And I will be on the look out for other awesome food recipes. I am still putting together my seafood menu for Christmas. And I hope my van will be fixed (please Lord) before I miss the local sales on Lobster tails!

I volunteered at kidos school and because of that I got to get free pics of them. I was excited because I was able to get the photos on cd for 2 or the 3 kiddos. But I just had to show off LeiLani's pics...she was so cute on that day!! Although right at this moment she is yelling Mommie at the top of her lungs!

And just one other quick photo of LeiLani outside walking in for the first time in fall/winter. It snowed a few hours later so I was glad to get out when we did, especially because she cried because she had to walk in the snow. She didn't want it on her boots and she surely didn't like when I picked it up and tried to put it in her gloves. She wasn't happy at all. And one quick one from this last weekend. The kids were on their way outside to play in the snow with Dad. As I look at the photo I can really see how much LeiLani's hair has grown just in the last month.

So now family can see the most current pics of the kiddos. The school one will be coming in the mail within the week with Christmas cards.

Challenges...Free Gifts and Completed pages...

I am excited to be finishing an entire year of challenges on twopeasinabucket.com. I don't know if I will continue the challenges but they surely have been tons of fun. So if you want an end of the year push to get pages done here is the link to the challenge http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&thread_id=2700421

I have been looking up all kinds of recipes this week. We have decided after the great soul food Thanksgiving feast we had, that we aren't going to do a traditional Christmas dinner this year. Instead it will most likely be seafood/fish and pasta. I know it doesn't sound normal at all, but I can't wait! I have been looking for tons of recipes for lobster, and shrimp and debating on what I want to do. One of our favorite recipes is lobster pizza http://www.recipezaar.com/Lobster-Pizza-130845 but it won't make the cut for Christmas. I was thinking of making it an appetizer but hubby suggested just making it on Fridays as we normally do. But if you make the lobster pizza recipe, I suggest that you use plain butter and add fresh garlic to it...it tastes so good! I have never used the Land of Lakes roasted garlic spread!

But I have been looking forever for a lemon meringue pie that I would love. I think I am going to maybe stop the search for that and look for a square instead. I hope to find one that everyone in our family will love to eat. It is hard to have sweets when you have a couple of kiddos that have allergies to everything that goes into them. And although this is the case for lemon meringue pie/squares...Shoot I am prego and have been craving it!

Let's see what else is going on? Not a lot, my van didn't work this morning. I was so frustrated because I need to be able to get around and of course it had to die the one day that I had planned to go shopping for diapers and washing powder. I thought that was funny, so no laundry for me today!! LOL!!

We still don't have our tree up! We are so bad, company came over on Thanksgiving and so we didn't eat and then put up the tree as we usually do. So hopefully we will get it up real soon. Kentrel's birthday is this week and I don't want to have to do it this weekend before his party but that might be the only time we truly can get it done. I can't believe that we will have a 12yr old.

Oh my personal goal for this month is to complete all the pages of pics that I have developed for 2008...that is about 20 plus layouts....this normally wouldn't be that difficult of a goal, but considering the fact that I still have all day sickness, I am going to be amazed if I get into the basement to scrap. But I am going to try.

A good chef, a great cook or someone willing to learn more!

I often wonder what makes some people such great cooks. Is it because they have all the tools in their kitchens and the latest gadgets and gizmos. But what about people ( like me) who don't have all those things but people love their cooking. Would I truly be considered a chef if I had a cook off with one of those famous Food network chefs or would I be embarrassed and sent home? I don't think that I would win a competition but I know that I wouldn't be sent home, at least not on the first day...lol lol



I often think about new recipes and how I can make things better. Now my family loves almost everything that I put on their plates and even the little ones eat their veggies when I cook them . But I have been trying out tons of recipes from several sites that I love to read and look at...and I can say that these recipes have rocked our world. I thought that my little recipe box was full of awesome works that I had created. But nothing prepared me for what I found on these sites. Some were fancy and required things that I didn't have but I used things that I had (a trick I learned from my Grandma). I swear I never remember her using a rolling pin ever (but I can't make a pizza crust without one) ...but that didn't make her pie crusts any less delicious.



So I have decided that since I don't have a food processor, or a awesome mixer that can make cakes, and crusts and more I should still try making those recipes with what I have. Maybe stop buying premade doughs and use the knowledge of what I had growing up to make those things again. There is nothing wrong with using store bought items and I am not bashing them at all...in fact they have helped me make some awesome dishes...but my hubby told me the other day, after I mentioned I wanted to make a cake from scratch, that he missed all the from scratch stuff I used to make. He missed the cookies, the thin crust pizzas and all that so I decided that I am going to every once in awhile pull out the flour and butter and my hand held mixer and use them again.

I have used them recently but mostly for store bought cake,brownie and pizza crust mixes...so now I am going to try to get some new from scratch things and have the kiddos help me make them. I do miss cooking with them, and when school starts it always seems like the day is so short that we don't get to do all the fun things that we do in the summer. I haven't made cupcakes since September. And that is just not right! Especially since I have been craving cupcakes, and hate store bought ones. I just don't like store bought icing maybe that is why I don't like store bought cakes and such...well not all stores, Lunds/Byerlys has always been able to draw me in every once in awhile.



And I think I will start posting pics of my recipes and things I have tried although I hate my kitchen, and one day hope to win a million dollars just to have a "real" kitchen that I can use and be proud of. But the reason why I think I should do it is because I love my food creations. And I am happy to make things for my family and I look at some many awesome kitchens and think wow I bet they make awesome food in there...but no one seems to post the not so cute pics of their not so perfect kitchens. I wish I would have been wiser when selecting my house at 24 and knew that my kitchen would not be as satisfying although it was 3 times larger than our apartment's kitchen...oh if I would have known how quickly I would be unsatisfied with not having more counter space when it came to cooking and how my kitchen table would have to serve as a counter on most days...But oh well I won't complain too much. I just know now that once we sell this house and move on, the kitchen will be the first thing I consider in the new house, and bathrooms/bedroom ratio will come next! But that's off topic....

I think that what makes a person a great cook, is the ability to keep learning, keep trying new things and of course to experiment with everything that you can. No one taught me how to cook but I learned from doing! So now that I going to have 4 children sooner than later, I am going to start finding ways to stretch our dollars more and learn new recipes in the process.

So my challenge for bloggers is to try out a new recipe and post it and give a review of it. I am going to try to do this once a week. I love this idea! Let's get cooking!!

I need to get it together....

I have tons of things on my mind and tons of things that I want to do. All before....
my next baby's due date...Yes, I am pregnant! I am excited, scared, scared and a little more scared! I have been wondering why I have been so sick and my hubby said, you need to take a test. I laughed because how could that even be possible. Well it was...



So I want to get my house organized before I get put on bedrest and start shots and all that... And so I will be also organizing my scrap space too because I won't be able to be up and down the stairs to the basement in a few short months. But hopefully I can get tons of ideas for a new baby book.



Also I have some dies on sale now on ebay. I know that people were looking for them so I grabbed a couple extra ones while at the store and listed them. Here is a pic of the dies





...and I grabbed some of the stamps too but I am not listing those. I plan on giving them out during one of my monthly challenges on twopeasinabucket.com. Only because I really won't be participating in the challenges but instead hosting them. Well have a great weekend!!