Fess up

pinterest- who's on it? I know it's the buzzword of 2011, the visual google for crafters, fashionistas, teachers and chefs....and why I try to resist jumping on pop culture bandwagons- there is a reason everyone is talking about this website- Pinterest basically just rocks.

But here is my question- who is actually testing out the ideas they find on the site? Come on now....you can tell me! I think there needs to be another website that showcases ideas taken from pinterest and actually used, complete with notes from the experience and pictures.

I have done a few things from the site. At bunco the other night, everything I made for dinner came from recipes I found of pinterest. The only bad thing was I felt completely unoriginal because all my bunco girls are on pinterest too and exclaimed how they had seen the recipes there too- oh. snap.

So far I have made:
Pizza balls- http://pinterest.com/pin/233764379/ (was not delicious)
Loaded baked potato soup- http://pinterest.com/pin/210742138/ (was a hit!)
Chocolate wasted cake- http://pinterest.com/pin/302720320/ (so bad but soooo good!)
Apple smiles- http://pinterest.com/pin/124652638/ (made for Adler's class but used caramel and it was a little too gooey)

Okay, so that's all the food I have made, but I have also bought several items of clothes and a few gifts from some ideas I saw here. And I used a appliqué tutorial and made several crafts with my kids or the kids in my class. So SEE? It's not a bit waste of time!

And now I promise to never talk of pinterest again. It's sort of embarrassing how often I bring it up in conversation.

Oh, and sorry for my lack of actual links- I used to be able to easily link on my iPad but something is wonky with it the past month or so and it won't link on blogger anymore. Any tips?

well, hello there!

Its me!  I have been just itching to post a good long blog for a week now, and now that there is an opportunity, well, I have gone blank!  I can't think of ONE of my million fascinating topics that I thought of over the week.

Life has been so busy the past few weeks.  My neglected house can tell you that!  But, its been filled to the brim with fun things- a wedding, t-ball, camping trips, Easter parties and egg hunts, Secret Church, a trip to New Orleans with my mom and sisters....and I am sure we squeezed in a few other things too.  I would love to write about all of these, but probably won't.  But I will get in some pictures this week.

I took off from running for 4 weeks to try to get over a nasty case of shin splints.  I have been easing myself back into it the past 2 weeks and feel pretty good.  I think maybe I am just going to have to deal with the shins though, because after 2 weeks of taking it suuuuppppperrrr slow, and I mean, I started out at 1 mile and have only increase 10% over the past week, I feel little twinges in them, sort of like the beginning of the whole ordeal.  But I think I am doing everything right, so I am just going to deal with it if it comes.  Boo to that though.  Meanwhile, I have been strength training and doing some rad hills on the stationary bike.  Okay, enough of that, I think this may all be interesting to pretty much only me! 

We are looking forward to summer.  Adler told me a few days ago he was READY for some camping, boating and swimming.  My summer child!  I am ready too.  We plan on spending most our days at the pool this summer, which means I have got to get my son in swim lessons- pass on any names of instructors if you have them. 

And lastly, I am so excited to make an announcement in a few weeks that is going to bring about some changes to the Mason family!  But I can't tell you guys yet, so you are just going to have to be agonized over the next few weeks- ha, I know you love the suspense! (and NOOOOO, I am not pregnant!)

in numbers

1. I told Adler last week that on Mother's Day, he had to work really hard to be good all day and that he had to treat me like a queen.  Then he told me, "you know what else we do on Mother's Day? We eat candy."  Sneaky little guy.

2. Is it morbid that I am really worried because I don't have any good pictures of myself that someone can give to authorities in case I get kidnapped? I am stressed that they are going to put a picture of me up on one of those posters where I am looking cross-eyed or in mid bite of some cake or something.

3.  I am positive I have gained back every measly ounce I have lost over the past few weeks this weekend alone.  (I count ounces as those pounds don't come off as quick as the ounces do!).  Eric made his famous manicotti for me yesterday and basically all it is is fat stuffed in torillini-yum!

4. Happy Mother's Day a little late to all my favorite mothers out there, especially you, Mom! 

I haven't forgotten

I know I have a blog.  I just haven't been feeling very creative or chatty lately so I haven't been blogging.  I always seem to get in a slump every few months and will eventually snap out of it. 

Not much to report here.  Life is being lived mostly outdoors the past few weeks, lots of trips to the park and lazy afternoons in the yard.  Its been nice.

Kids are great.  Hazel is ten months and has been taking a few steps (and then falling) for a few weeks now.  She also has started dancing when she hears music, just swaying and bouncing.  Its really cute.  We are not getting any better on the sleep issues and it is wearing on my, body, soul and mind.  Adler is crazy busy these days, nonstop energy.  His imagination is wild too- he comes up with the funniest things and is ALWAYS playing like he is someone else.

Eric is playing on his parent's church's softball team as well as a softball team that goes and plays with inmates across the south.  He is really enjoying both.  We went to the first church league game last night and I got a taste of what it is like being at the ballfields like all those moms of boys say they spend most of their time doing!  Other than the bugs, it was fun.

Okay, I promise I will get back on here soon with something a bit more entertaining.  For now, that's all I have!

Poor Adler

So, I have admitted this before- I have no boundaries when it comes to sweet food. I will eat skittles and gummy worms with the best of them. I can eat Oreos with abandon and love anything with sprinkles. If Adler wants to save something he has sweet for later (such as Easter candy, ahem....), he will specifically ask me not to eat it. He knows me. It is a weakness.


To combat this little problem, I just don't buy the stuff for my house. I just can't do it. But anyone with a child in the house, you know that it is just not acceptable to ban all sweet food from the house. So I have to buy the few things that even I won't touch: fruit snacks and animal crackers. That's it. Those are seriously the only two sweet things in the entire "sweet" food group (it IS a food group, right?) that I won't eat.

Unless I get desperate, which apparently has happened, because there is now a completely empty bag of animal crackers in the garbage, and I mean that HUMUNGOUS bag they sell. I am so ashamed of myself. I am not quite sure Adler even got one cracker from the bag.

What am I going to do with myself?

My weekend

Here's how I want my weekend to look:

*movie and popcorn after kids go to sleep
*play, play and more play outside- I am thinking the whole family at the military park on Saturday
*church, play, nap, play
And if there is time, maybe a little cleaning out the fridge

I will let you know how it goes!

I'm back

I failed to mention I was taking the kids to Memphis along with E's sister and her kids for a few days. We got back around 1am last night so it a long day but a great week. We visited the zoo, went shopping, and just played lots.

Off to try to muster up the gumption to unpack and run some errands- more later!

hello weekend!

12-happiness is a hot shower in the morning while husband watches the kids!!

13-happiness is cadberry mini eggs for breakfast.

caught up!

Hope everyone is having a good day. Its gotten chilly again. Yesterday, I packed every long sleeved thing away so I am about to go dig up some stuff so we can get out to walmart today. I do this every year- pack up and take out and pack up to take out once more the cool weather clothes. Oh, how I want the sun to come and stay.

Maybe I went a tad overboard on the mascara

Getting ready to go out to dinner with Eric tonight and Adler looked at me and said, "Momma, you have bad guy eyes on."

He also looked at my dressy shirt and wanted to know what kind of costume I was wearing- I guess anything other than sweats is unusual for him to see, sadly!

Anyway, thanks all for the birthday calls and texts and emails- I had a great day yesterday and continued the "partying" tonight with E at Duff Green, which just reopened in the old Borello's- it was really good and so nice to sit through an entire meal without wiping anyone's face or picking any toys up off the floor or actually being able to cut my own meat and eat it properly without one hand holding a baby and the other spanking a child. It was wonderful!

Now, a full night of sleep (if that birthday wish worked!).

Life in short sentences.

So, its a combination of just being exhausted the last week and just having to be a million things at once, but I just can't put together more than a sentence a thought. So, there will be no elequent, thought provoking posts in the near future. But, here's what I have been thinking lately though:

1. How is curling a sport in the winter Olympics? It looks like a game a bunch of 9 year old boys from Minnesota came up with on a boring long winter's day. Eric likes it because he thinks its hot to see a bunch of women sweeping at the same time.

2. Hazel is a tooth growing over-achiever. She got the first 2 at 4 months, 2 more at 6 months, 1 1/2 at 7 months, and now, at almost 8 months, she is getting the other 1/2 (its a slow grower I guess) and two more just trying their best to peep through the gums. Its driving me BANANAS though because she won't nap and will only sleep for 1 1/2 intervals. Its been a LONG couple of months. Other than that, she's happy.

3. E and I are full force with the workout videos, P90X. They are TOUGH. But doable. I think people criticize because they can't do it like that super buff instructor does it. But what you do is what you CAN do and work your way up to it. Its kicking my butt all over the place though, but in a good way.

4. I have decided that this year, I will OWN the summer. I didn't get out much last year because Hazel was a newborn. But this year- It.Is.On. We are getting a pool membership and are going to take full advantage of it. I need the sun.

5. All I want for my birthday is to get my hair done. I have just realized that it has been exactly 8 months since I last had it cut or highlighted, a week before I had Hazel. My hair is pretty insane right now, and not in a good way.

Okay, that's all I got right now. It feels so good to get that all off my chest. I mean, I have Adler and Hazel to tell my thoughts to during the day, but for some reason, I think they get lost in translation.

what's going on

So sleeping is getting better. Three nights ago I said I was going to start sleep training, and I sort of did. I let her cry for 5 minutes the first time before going in and getting her back to sleep. The second time, only a minute or so. Adler woke up both times crying that Hazel woke him up. After that, I didn't let her cry it out anymore that night. So I am guessing I can't really count that night at all! Then two nights ago, it was so stormy that Adler stayed in my bed until around 3:30, so I didn't do it that night either. BUT, H decided she like the stormy weather and only woke up at 3:30 and 5:30, so it was great! And then last night, I was prepared to get to it, but she only woke up once at 4:00. SO- I think that 5 minutes did it! Kidding, but maybe, fingers crossed, that whole 10 days of no sleep was a phase after-all. I guess only time will tell! I am holding off on anymore crying it out until spring unless it starts up again.



We went to get pictures taken at Portrait Innovations, mainly of Hazel since she hasn't had any done since she was 3 weeks old. Have you guys heard of this place? I think there are several locations, but we went to the one at the Renaissance. Anyway, super cheap, like in between walmart and Sears prices. But the picture quality is fantastic- its that thick photo paper and the color turned out really good. The photographer really worked with us and didn't just do a bunch of straight forward shots. She spent about 40 minutes with us and took some really good pictures. Of course, I ordered WAY too many pictures- its the part I dread, the ordering. How can you not order one of everything? And then of course, you can't just order one print of a certain pose because it cost way too much to do it that way; you have to order a package, which means you will get like 4000 pictures. The only downside is I ordered a bunch of this one cute post of Hazel, even the really big wall portrait, and she has something offensive in her nose. But they are going to let me take it back and exchange it for another pose, just have to get to Jxn to do it. If you want just some quick shots of your kids, I highly recommend this place!



One thing I learned though, is that it is a bad bad idea to take both kids to get pictures taken without an extra pair of hands to help. It was a total nightmare trying to get Hazel's solo pics taken and then order pictures with Adler running around like a madman. He pulled out like every one of the blankets and toys used for props and spread them all out on the floor (we were the only ones in there and the photographer did start it by giving him the idea to do it). The photographer was super sweet about it, but I was so one of those moms I usually look at and wonder why she is letting her child run loose like that. It was pretty embarrassing. I learned my lesson though.



Okay, that's enough of the mindless chatter! Got to get my house in order before H wakes up from nap!

Blogger help- what do you see?

When you load my page, is it a black screen? How long does it take to load before you can see it?

I don't know if its my computer or if this background has some issues.

I really really want one.

Things I will regret telling you

1. When I was 7 or 8, I made my older sister the cutest little coin purse. It didn't occur to me until years later that a coin purse made out of an old pair of underwear is just gross.

2. A few years ago, I was on one of those magazine websites and answered an embarrassing question online (which I will not even begin to rehash here). A few months later, as I was thumbing through this major, NATIONAL magazine, I found they had printed not only my answer, but my full name and city and state of residence. What is worse, my youngest sister called me and told me she had read it too because a friend of HER's called her and told her about it. If you are one of the said two people that I am sure known about this, don't be talking about it here.

3. My sister used to pretend that she had an electronic knee and would regularly play with it. And she was like 10. Okay, so I know that's not about me, but I had to take the heat off.

EDITED TO ADD: On #2, I need to add that I would never ever have done this if I would have had ANY sense at all. It really didn't occur to me that this may be printed. with my name. I am still dying over this.

Pathetic

What is pathetic is that after two hours of working the ring toss booth, my legs and back are sore! All that bending down to pick up the rings did me in. I SERIOUSLY need to get back in the gym.

What is NOT pathetic is how great our fall festival went last night. We had more kids than I have ever seen there before. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I know Adler was buzzing from all the sugar and excitement.

Another exciting development in the Mason house is Hazel finally rolled over on her own a few days ago! She just wasn't interested in it, but now she has figured out that its sort of fun to throw your equilibrium off a bit. I think I hold her too much and don't give her enough floor time. But when you have a heavy footed 2 year old running around the house all day long, floor time becomes a dangerous game! But its done, so I guess next will be sitting up and crawling...(stop Hazel stop).

whoops- I am working on it!

Something's not right in the world

when you are literally dying from heat exhaustion at the school pumpkin patch party. We had a great morning, a hay-ride, pumpkin picking, scare-crow stuffing, and lots of playing; but man, was it hot and muggy!

And while I am at it...

First, let me say, I love Etsy. What I am about to tell you is not an anti-etsy rant. I buy from etsy all the time. As a matter of fact, I just bought a few Christmas gifts last night off of etsy. BUT- a few months ago, I bought some 5 or 6 cute outfits that were on sale for the kids to wear next summer. I paid through paypal and waited for my order to come in. And waited and waited until finally the seller told me that there was a tragedy in her family but that she would be getting them out very soon. So I completely understood and wanted to giver her as much time as she needed. But she never sent them to me, and what is worse, her etsy account and shop has been deleted! I filed a complaint with etsy, but she won't return any emails from me or etsy. Basically, that is all etsy does to help. I can't file a refund request with paypal because its been over 45 days. This apparently has happened to at least 6 other people because I have been in touch with them to see if there was anything we could do.

I am so bummed about it. I mean, its not totally about the money, although that is a factor. Its just the fact that I feel betrayed by a CRAFTER! I mean, I thought that all people who made things with their hands were inheritantly good people. I feel like someone just told me that the Easter bunny doesn't exist.

Okay, I am over the soapbox- just wanted to share. Any suggestions on how I can get my money back or the outfits, which is really want I want anyway!

One day you're in...

Today, I was thinking about this one particular fashion trend these days and said this (in my head, that is) about it:

"It looks good on camera, but does it translate in real life?"

Oh my wow. That sentence just came to me. Did I really just speak Project Runway? I think I DID! I am so in.

ho hum

Sorry guys, I just don't have much to say this week- I think I have the post beach blues! I promise I will blog something noteworthy soon (okay, noteworthy is a strong word, but something none the less).

second post about tv this week

A little shameful, but...

I am really loving Bravo's "Flipping Out", about this guy Jeff who flips houses for a living- he a total control freak and has no boundaries at all with the things he says- just completely socially unnacceptable sometimes. Its really funny stuff though. I watched a little last year and just didn't get it. I just thought he was a total jerk, but this season I am realizing that most of what he says is just his sense of humor coming out.

The other show I am into these days is another Bravo series,"Top Chef", which features chefs from all over the country competing in various cooking competitions, vying for the position of Top Chef. It makes me wish I had the time and money (and know how) to experiment in the kitchen and come up with some more interesting dishes to put on my table at night. It is a very creative little show.

E makes fun of me because for someone who has little talent or patience for cooking or decorating, I sure love all the cooking and home design shows- wishful thinking I guess!