30 Day Photography Challenge

I've decided to do something fun for the month of June. Hopefully I'll stick with it! The fun starts tomorrow!

Memorial Day Thoughts

Somehow, a few months ago I got started reading several "milspouse" blogs - blogs written by military wives. Reading their stories of hope, sacrifice, uncertainty, loneliness during long absences of deployment, babies born while daddy is overseas, money woes, depression when husbands come back changed, sorrow when husbands don't come back at all, undying demonstrations of patriotism and strength in the face of what I can only imagine to be a very difficult way of life, has been eye opening.

As a blog lurker who has been fascinated by their stories, I feel like I owe it to these women to take time out to honor their husbands and their families this Memorial Day. I am so thankful to all the people (men and women) who have selflessly served our country and given their lives so that I can enjoy the many freedoms I usually take for granted.

To everyone involved in the military, whether enlisted, veteran, relative or friend - thank you for your service and support. Happy Memorial Day!

Family Pictures

We took some family pics last weekend. In keeping with my tradition of not paying for pictures, I made Sommer and Mike come and take some for us on campus. They may not be close enough to us to do these for us in the future, so my days of free family pics may be numbered. :(

I really like how they turned out and will be glad to finally get a nice family portrait on the wall.

Justin and Luke pointing at Luke's tummy.

Being silly.

Friday Randoms

Randoms:

-This is the first weekend in a month that won't be marred by some type of work event and I'm pretty excited about it! On the agenda:  new hair (it's been almost 5 months!) and a mani/pedi. It'll be like I'm a new woman!

-My friend Randi and I decided a few weeks ago to train for the San Francisco Half Marathon at the end of July. We're still trying to build our base level of fitness right now. This running business is WAY harder than I remember it being a few years ago. Last week we did stairs at the football stadium and I limped for 3 days. Last night we ran/walked 5 miles, which felt way less impressive than it sounds. Regardless, I'm proud of us and am excited to have a goal to work toward this summer.

-Pinterest.com is one of my new favorite things. It's a way to catalog all the wonderful craft ideas/home decor/photo inspirations I see during my persusals of the Internet. I'm still figuring it all out and have some issues with the site freezing on my work computer, but I love this new way to waste time usefully recharge my creative juices. Have you discovered pinterest yet?

-I started making spinach smoothies last week as a healthy and delightful morning treat. Let me explain that I am SO not the spinach smoothie/health food crazy type. The first couple of days were rough as I figured out the ratio of spinach to yogurt to frozen fruit. I finally have it down and they actually are really good. Justin keeps asking why I can't just make a "normal" one.

-Work related:  Our new Alumni House is almost done, which means I will be back to walking to work at the beginning of July! I can't wait! It looks beautiful and I'm pretty excited about the giant orange wall in my work station and the gorgeous view from my 2nd story window.

And now for some pictures and an update on Luke!

(apparently he wore these on his head for more than 30 minutes. Sigh)

Luke turned a developmental corner a couple of weeks ago. He is sitting still for longer periods of time and starting to cuddle a little more. He understands EVERYTHING we say to him and in turn he talks A LOT (we just don't really understand most of it.) He is starting to play pretend, and loves to sing songs and dance. He is becoming quite the tease and has admirers at restaurants all over town. (One waitress recognized him from his picture on Justin's desk at the bank. Don't even get me started on how many people I've known for years in professional capacities who never recognize me and then this kid goes and gets recognized by a random woman who sat at Justin's desk once!) His favorite things are still balls, balloons, books, bubbles, blankets, anything related to water, fish, more books, more balls, Sesame Street and cars.  He has a great arm (I learned rather quickly not to encourage that skill in the house), can kick a ball like no other and loves to climb up on the couch , put his head on a pillow and read a book... He has also developed a little bit of a whining thing that I could do without, but I'm hoping that goes away once he acquires more language skills.

My go to "parlor trick" used to be asking Luke to make animal sounds for people. My favorite is the Lion/Tiger/Grizzly Bear "ROAR!" It'd been a few months, so I thought we needed something new. I recently taught him how to hold up one finger when asked how old he is. So now I'm trying to get some mileage out of that one. If we interact with you socially, you can expect to see that one in the near future.

Here's to a great weekend!

Wish List

Wish List

White jeans or jean capris (Old Navy has a pair I'm eyeing)

Chair pads for my outdoor patio set. I like the fun floral print of the bottom ones but I'd prefer the primary color to be more of an aqua blue.

A bicycle seat and helmet for the little passenger in my life

A water table (also for the aforementioned little person)

This sign that Sommer and I are going to attempt to create on our own (with slightly different verbiage on mine)

Black peep toe pumps to replace old ones with worn off soles - I found some fun peep toe wedges at Target. Hooray!

Best Cookies Ever

This recipe has changed my life. I love anything pumpkin, (and anything "cookie" for that matter,) so when  a facebook friend mentioned these healthy and easy cookies the other day, I had to see what all the fuss was about.

Three reasons you should try them:
1. They're lowfat!
2. Pumpkin is a "superfood," which means it does all sorts of great stuff for your health
3. They take less than 5 minutes to put together and it's the easiest recipe to remember

So, next time you buy groceries, stop by the baking aisle for your can of pumpkin and a box of spice cake mix. You won't regret it!


Easy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 can of pumpkin puree (small can - approx 15 oz)
1 box of spice cake mix
chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix pumpkin puree and dry cake mix
Add chocolate chips to mixture
Spoon onto cookie sheet. The cookies do not expand much, so the size of the scoops you put on the sheet are pretty much what you're going to get.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on size of cookies.

Happy Fridays

What makes me happy:  Fruit and Vegetable Edition

A menagerie of smiling faces

Friends who help in the kitchen

Fun cards from favorite sisters

Asparagus Festival 5 for $10 jackpots!

Fun stickers

Fruit sponges from an Asian dollar store (courtesy of Sommer)

More fun magnets (also from Sommer)

fruit *love*

Muppets

Vegetables singing silly songs

Yo Gabba Gabba's dramatic carrots:

"There's a Party in My Tummy - so yummy! so yummy!" 

Singing muppet food

Posing in giant size vegetable cutouts

This guy...

who doesn't fancy real fruits and vegetables unless they're puree'd. I only hope he's not getting his green veggies and fruit in this format until his 10!

Camera Straps and Artwork

A few recent projects:

Remember when I said I wanted a fun strap for my camera? Well, even though I still don't have the camera of my dreams, I decided to forge ahead and make a strap on the cheap for my current camera. Times are tough, so I'm trying to just love my little Canon Powershot for what it is. I decided not to do anything crazy. I got some wide ribbon from Michael's and hot glued the edges around my strap. (That way, if I ever get tired of it I can just cut the ribbon away without harming the original strap.) It's fun, it's polka dots, and I kind of love the simplicity of it!

 

I have some wall space in the dining room that needs a little something. I thought it would be fun to do a name letter sign. I searched each letter on flickr and printed out my favorites on my photo printer. I didn't feel like spending money on a new frame, so I found an old wooden frame we weren't using anymore, busted out my acryllic paints and turned it into a basic black frame for my project. I specifically looked for red and yellows in the letters to play off of some of the colors in my dining room. It's a little bit funky for my current decor, but I kind of like it.

Lastly, a friend's little boy is turning one next week. They're checkered vans (the shoes) kind of people, so I told her I had the perfect idea for a fun 1st birthday shirt. I bought the checkered fabric at Michael's (it was a bandana, actually) when I made a shirt for Luke's birthday invitation photo shoot last year (I ended up going with b/w polka dots for Luke's instead.) I picked up a piece of yellow felt for 20 cents and used a plain black t-shirt already owned by the birthday boy and made this fun shirt. I handstitched the letter and the lightning bolt. I'm hoping to conquer the sewing machine this summer, so little things like this will be a bit less time consuming. I can think of a few things I'd do differently next time to make it a higher quality product, but overall I was really happy with how it turned out!

Visiting the Fishies

 My wonderful aunt got us season passes to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, so we decided to take advantage of them and take a day trip as part of Justin's birthday weekend. It was a beautiful day on the coast and we had a short, but fun time visiting the fish and other sea animals. I was particularly fascinated by the giant octopus. It was huge! Special thanks to Auntie Sommer for coming along and for all the fun photos.

Family pictures tend to involve a lot of pointing these days.

*I hate that we are those parents who put their kid on a leash. I totally feel judged when we use it, but it allows him to have some controlled freedom and he definitely loves his monkey friend. (An intensely-expressioned monkey friend.)  

Justin grew some beautiful tulips in our yard this year. They're on their last legs now, but they really brightened up our yard for a few weeks.

I just love spring!

This may change my life

I'm not really into handbags. I buy (maybe) one purse a year from Target or somewhere equally inexpensive. Designer bags just aren't my thing. My requirements:  Bag must be super cute and under $25. The giant pink monstrosity mentioned in the last post came from my mother-in-law when she worked for a boutique handbag manufacturer a couple of years ago. I used to have a corresponding black one, but it ripped ages ago. (Sad day!)

That being said, when I saw someone mention the Miche Big Bag yesterday on a style blog I read, I immediately went to the website. It was being heralded as a replacement for a diaper bag, which I quit carrying a couple of months ago when I realized that the giant pink purse was a suitable substitute. As much as I love "pinkie," there is a time and a place for a giant pink patent bag. Case in point, yesterday I was wearing a tangerine cardi with a soft floral print top and linen skirt. I shiver at the sheer tackiness of this lovely ensemble paired such garish floresence! I do have an old silver purse I can bust out, but who likes changing purses day after day? (I'll choose tacky over time consuming any day!)

Behold, the purse which could possibly turn me from my anti-handbag ways!

The Miche (Mee-chee) Big Bag!

First, you buy the "base bag" (above)

Then you buy the corresponding shells. They go over the base bag and connect by magnets. A new purse look everyday without the hassle of moving items from bag to bag!

The prices are a bit out of my comfort zone - $40-$45 each for the base bag and shells, but not horribly offensive when purchased one at a time or received as gifts. :) So, dear family readers, this may be a bit tacky, but if you need good birthday present ideas (June IS less than 2 months away) - look no further! I will gratefully accept any of the above shells to go with my new bag. :)

In the Bag

 

Just for fun, I thought I'd play the "What's in My Bag" game. I realized yesterday that I had a bunch of random crap in my giant pink purse. Let's look inside:

1 diaper (clean)
Small plastic wipes case
2 tiny plastic cars
1 dinosaur
1 plush rooster (with cockadoodledooing action)
Snoopy fridge magnet note pad
Polka dot coffee cozy
Shout wipes
Camera
Apple
Rubber duck
Animal crackers (for me actually)

Baby sunglasses

Baby socks

Sesame Street disposable placemats

Pack of orange earplugs (always prepared for loud environments) :)

Bib

Conference nametag and lanyard

2 lipglosses, Mary Kay lipstick and super fun earrings

Tiny board book

Restaurant crayons

Goldfish cracker crumbs

No pens

I'm sure I'm not the only one out there. What random things are in your bag?