An Egg-citing Day...

Just a few minutes ago there was a knock on our front door. And I wasn't expecting any company but I answered it. It was a neighbor who had gotten our mail by accident. And she also had a bag that she handed me. And at the bottom of that bag lay 7 eggs.

Now that isn't so exciting but then I remembered her asking that we sign some paper stating that it would be ok for her to have chickens in her yard and that is when I got egg-cited. Now we have another fun thing to look forward to in the spring...chickens hatching and eggs. I can't believe sometimes that I live in this big city and that we have some of the most unique things in our little neighborhood.

I have always wanted to live on a farm and we go to the Minnesota zoo every year and all I want to do is go and see the farm there. I love the state fair for a lot of reasons but they have a farm animal birthing barn and we are always there hoping and wishing to see a calf, sheep or whatever they have being born. And I know that these events are months and months and months away... but it was just so fun to think about them.

Especially when the weather is so gloomy and it rained all day today but the idea of spring coming totally brightened my day...now what can I make with eggs tonight? It has to be a side dish because LeiLani is allergic to eggs. Maybe they will be better for breakfast.

It's been 10 days since my last post...

Well it has been just that (10days) and now I have the planner that I was making almost completely done. I am excited because it came together really nicely but there is something missing. Well besides the tabs for each month there is something in the design that just isn't fitting.

Originally I just had to use the new Crate paper line (Mia collection) as seen on www.cratepaper.com. But it just didn't do it for me. I love the line but I wanted some of the seasons to be bright and fresh feeling and I also wanted my Christmas calendar to be the traditional yet fun colors of the season. So I pulled out some of my favorite lines that for one reason or another I haven't used.

And I also quickly learned that although the bind it all says to punch from the 5th hole and 7th hole, that if I want a continous punch I want to punch from the 4th and the 6th holes instead. But that wasn't a big issue at all.

So today before my shots, I brought of the planner (what I have done so far) and my hubby was truly impressed. He usually helps me think about other things that I can add or take away but he likes it as is...of course, when I brought it upstairs I knew exactly what was wrong...I don't like the cover pp. So it's out as soon as I feel better. And then my camera batteries are charging so I will have to wait to upload a few sneak peeks.

It truly isn't a scrapbook but I have been jotting down future ideas to maybe include some of my favorite photos from the previous yr each month. I love when a project evolves into something a lot more than it was supposed to be.

Oh one of my neighbors stopped by to check on me, and she saw it and now she wants me to make her one for Mother's day. I said I would because of the whole high risk pregnancy issue she may want them for Christmas instead.

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.