One Smart Cookie

So, I'm a crafty person (I always have been), but I'm also a lazy person. The latter oftentimes prevents me from the former. But with my oldest starting preschool (insert choked sob) on Monday, I wanted to do something special with ehr before she went. Besides that, she's been very back-and-forth between being excited to go and scared to death to go, and I figured if she had something she was excited to bring for her teacher it would help keep her more on the excited side. SO! I looked up on pinterest all sorts of teacher appreciation gifts and I found this one. I thought "boy that's really cute, but I don't have (nor know where to find) any mason jars, and I would do the tag differently". So I went to the dollar store to see what I could find as inspiration. I also wondered if her teacher would accept homemade gifts (as my husband is a teacher, and doesn't eat things his kids bring unless it's sealed and store-bought....then again he is in a Title 1 school), so I asked her and she said "certainly" and that she had no food allergies. SCORE! Another step to the process that Chloe could help with. So I went back to pinterest and found a very tasty recipe for cookies, and I happened to have all the ingredients on-hand! DOUBLE SCORE! So here's what we did:

First we made the cookies

I had her help with measuring and pouring and mixing....we had a slight mishap when she tried to crack the eggs and literally just crushed it in her hand :) 

She also helped with the scooping and tasting. 

 

This finished cookies (it made almost 7 dozen!!)

 

So then we took a break for lunch and a nap, and while the girls were sleeping I designed my own version of the label I saw on the other lady's website:

Pretty cute, no?? I printed it on regular paper, cut it out with fancy scissors, then gluead it to some brown cardstock I had left-over from another project.

Then after she woke up and played outside for a bit, she counted out 12 cookies and wrapped them up in plastic wrap

Then we wrapped that up in some tissue paper

She was very proud of our finished reult

As you can see, I ended up finding this really cute plastic chinese-take-out type box at the dollar store.

And there you have it folks! Let's just say I think it worked....when we were done she asked about 50 times if she could go to preschool today :)     (score!)

Driveway Drama

ARRRGHGHHHH!!!!!#$%@#^^$^@

*Sigh* now that that's off my chest, let me just say that I will never again buy a house with a shared driveway. It will be a deal breaker.

You see our driveway starts out shared from the street, and then veers off to the right and becomes our own. 

But time and time again our incredibly inconsiderate neighbor will either block us completely out himself, or let his many visitors block us in:

Seriously. How does he expect us to get out??! I had to leave at 9:00 this morning for my transfusion, and Tony texted him at 8:00 telling him we had to leave in an hour and to have it moved by then. At 5 'til he still hadn't responded. Tony called...left a voicemail. Banged on his front and back doors. Still no response. So we moved the kids into the suburban, because look how much room he left at the back of his driveway!!!

So we drove our suburban out around his civic and drove through his yard!! *hmph* 

Around Eleven o'clock he finally texted Tony telling him he took "sleeping meds" last night and slept through his calls, and he can't move the civic because "it's shot". Really??? It's shot?! How'd you get it in as far as you did??? Why couldn't you move it all the way up on it's "last journey"? UGH. 

Venting completed :)

Why do I bother?

So, Tony's family had their annual reunion last Saturday, and I made this wicked awesome fruit tray: 

I know, I know, it's pretty spectacular. But, what I didn't count on was the mordor-type temperatures out there, and even though I had the whole thing sitting on a bag of ice....well let's just say the fruit couldn't take the heat. It got nasty. So what do I do with all this fruit now? I know! SMOOTHIES! I've been seeing all these healthy smoothy recipes on pinterest, so I thought I'd be a good mom, and make some for the girls. (My littlest one loves fruit....all fruit & any fruit) So I bust out the blender, brush off the dust, and give it a whirl. "This is great!" I think, "they love fruit, and they'll love these!" I give it to them:

 Success!! They are drinking their fruit! >insert proud mama grin< My oldest even has a smoothie 'stache

Aww......so cute. And then about 3 sips later: "All done!"

Me: "All done?! You only took a few sips!"

them: "There's too many seeds. They choke us."

*forehead slap* Oh well, I guess I'll try to be less wasteful and more healthy some other time.

Facebook: keep it or delete it?

OK, so this is my first attempt ever at a blog. I'm sure there will many changes along the way, as I hope to learn more about it. But for now, let me attempt to vent my frustrations with....well, myself!

I really want to minimize my time spent online. I am constantly checking and re-checking facebook, as if something vitally important has changed within the last 10 minutes. Obsessed is the best word to describe me. It's become unhealthy and a very big stumbling block with my time management. I can't seem to control myself. 


On the other hand, it has some benefits. I am not a very good phone conversationalist (even with my own mother!)and me updating my "project 365" album is a way for those who are interested to keep up-to-date with my life that I may not otherwise share. It has also become a sounding board for my extended family on my mom's side to discuss upcoming parties and events, which I would miss out on contributing my opinion to should I deactivate my account.


So, the question is posed: "Is it worth my time to keep my account active? Or would it be wiser of me to cut it off?"

I hope you'll be patient with me on this journey of blogging and venting and generally thinking out loud. 

Thanks for joining me!