zzzzzzzzz

I was up til 2:00 am last night.  Reading blogs on my htc hero in bed.  

For whatever reason I couldn't STOP.  I hate that!  

I wish the world was later.  What is the appeal of getting up so early, really?  I don't get it.  I wish I did.

So this is what I wanna do right now:

But I can't, too much work to do.  So I will probably do too much of this:

and do a lot of this to my little doggie, cuz I'm just in the mood:

Then at the end of the day I will feel like this:

So that's that.

What are you all doing today???

oink oink

Check out our new pig hook piece:

 I love her!  If you've known me for a while, this pig is a silouette of an aceo I did (in my ebay days!) which I called "Pig Rides - 10 cents".  Just a little trivia for ya.  ;o)

Post-edit:  Here's the aceo!

tee winner

Check out how cool my tee looks on Jane, the winner of my hand-screened tee! 

To see Jane's blog and to check out her very cool dogs, go here.

words

One of the very best things about seeing your kids grow up is watching them learn how to write.  Of course reading is wonderful, but there's just something about writing that makes me so happy.

I love finding little notes in Samantha's room (it's not snooping when I'm cleaning it).  Little worn out papers of random thoughts or little stories, or even finding out what she's worried about or scared of.

I found this note the other day:

And then I snapped this as she was reading her little dog book:

This has nothing to do with words, well unless you count the word "police" on the side of the car, but I caught Samantha snooping on the cop that was sitting across the street from our house!  Yes, she's looking through binoculars!  :D

hehe... a girl after my own heart!  NOSEY like her mom!  ;o)

And I gotta get some food in this post!  RIGHT??!!  So here ya go... our living room filled with Girl Scout cookies:

xoxo Liz

bring it on

So now I know it's all about the food.  I even changed my kickin' banner to reflect this.  I am this serious.

I got 7 comments outta you folks from my pretzel post (alright a couple were my own, but I'm still counting them... 7 is 7 after all).  And since no one judged me on the massive amount of pretzels we consume, I'm gonna share my other naughty problem:  chocolate.

Oh dear me...  

chocolate. 

How can you be so powerful, so all-consuming, so wonderful???  Why do I want you first thing in the morning and last thing before slumber?  Why do you do this to me, you sinful little vermin.  You should be ashamed of yourself.  Don't you know I am already eating way too many pretzels?

My last binge on chocolate happened about a week or two ago.  I'm pretty sure it was because I was feeling sorry for myself and my carpal tunnel problems. I like to think of scenarios where I can eat what I want with less guilt.  Pity works well, especially self pity.

My crapal tunnel (no that's not a typo, that's what I call it) has been so bad and it's put me into a bit of a depression.  When I get depressed I kinda let my mind go sometimes.

So, I got a little panicky when I thought of having to stop creating because my hands would not allow me to.

I had a vision of myself painting with my feet.   

This is how far I let my mind go.  I told myself that I would indeed learn how to create stuff with my feet if I had to.  I was off in my little world, painting while reclining with my feet up in the air, a nice big sable brush between my big toe and that second one that I don't know the name of, I like to call it "the toe next to the big toe"....

When one of my kids hollered MOM!!! and I snapped out of it and realized what an idiot I was. 

So after my vision was rudely interrupted by Molly proclaiming she had KILLED (not sure how and I didn't ask) yet ANOTHER pet fish and it was her favorite fish ever (although I kindly reminded her she only had "Olive" for 48 hours), I started reading cjane's blog and all those comments from her "feminist" post that caused such a stir.  This kept me busy for quite some time, and with the carpal tunnel issues, the dead fish saga, the feminist arguments, and a lack of nutrients on my part (did I mention I had the LONGEST period EVER on the face of the earth???  4 WEEKS!!!  huh???), I decided I needed chocolate.  ASAP.

So I had to try nie nie's favorite homemade oreos.

Ready to be baked... I used my handy melon-baller cuz I was having a perfectionist style night, since I had to do something perfectly as there was that freaky little possibility that I was soon to become a "toe painter".

And don't they look delish???  For some very strange reason that I hate to even mention, neither one of my girls liked them (what the???).  One said they were too sweet (hello???) and the other wanted her's without the frosting. She said the frosting was making her "cough". Rick doesn't like this sort of thing, so it didn't surprise me when he didn't want any (this is probably why the poor sap weighs the same as he did in high school and can still fit in his high school levi's, size 33 waist... good grief, what a friggin nutcase!).

So the fact that no one else was going to eat these made me so upset, as I then had to eat most of the batch by myself!!  WAHHHHHH!!  It was an absolute nightmare!  It took me several days, at least.  I put them in the freezer and within 3 or 4 days they were gone.  I was soooooooooooo glad when it was over!  The things we have to do nowadays, us women of the world!!  Such troopers we all are!

P.S.  I liked 'em best right out of the freezer.  Don't judge me.

Liz

we love these

Well my last POWERHOUSE post that summoned up THREE comments (YES!  THREE!  This blog is in the big leagues now people!) was about ........

food.

So you must all love food like I do.  And did any of you make that killer roast I was braggin about??

Anyway, you want food huh??? Well, HERE'S some food!

We are now at the very pathetic level of buying our soft pretzels in BULK!  I'm out of the closet here folks! 

We buy a box of these suckers about every 4 weeks.  Which means we eat 60 pretzels in 4 weeks, which, for those of you who aren't math whizzes, FIFTEEN pretzels a week!  OH MY... that is really pathetic!  And they are not whole grain or organic or any of those fancy words.  They are just good ole' white flour gooey yummy pretzels!  Processed to the hilt, no doubt.  Whatever!

Okay, I seriously am going to go make one right now.  With melted butter :::gasp::: and kosher salt.  YUMMMMY.

Another shameless attempt at enticing you

photo courtesy of the fabulous venus

Really folks, I had no intention of making this blog into a GET-THIS-FREE-AND-THAT-FREE-THANG, but it's just sorta happening, ya know?  Goin' with the flow here.... movin along.... I love to give! ... and well, you gotta put up with it! 

Of course the exposure helps, and I won't deny that's what started it, but now I'm addicted to it!  It is a TOTAL BLAST packing up a goody that we made and sending it off to someone who WON it... I know the feeling of WINNING something (although it's only happened to me a couple times, I'm not a winner, LOL).  It's a thrilling feeling!  Even winning something little, like one time years ago I won a Cousin's sub ... that sub tasted better than any other sub I had ever eaten there!!!  I don't know what that is.  But it's cool.

So Krissy of "etsy interviews" interviewed me and wow!!! ... they do a bang-up job over there!  So, if you missed out on the last give-away (and even if you didn't), go and leave a comment and put your name in the hat!

etsy interviews

Off to cut out another "live", LOL!

Liz 

The Dingo Ate Your Baby!

Remember this episode of Seinfeld?!?!  One of my favorites! 

dingo

Well, guess what???  My BABY ate the DINGO!!!  Yes, Teddy scarfed a dingo bone too quickly...

and it got STUCK in her esophagus!!!  So, after two emergency vet clinics, 100 miles driving, and $630 later, at 1:30 am, here she is, resting from being put to sleep, in my car on the way home:

That pink bandage is covering her little leg that had the anesthesia needle in it.  And through it all, choking and gasping for air, the vet people told me she still wagged her tail and was so sweet when they worked on her.  I'm tellin ya folks, this dog is truly special.  I've had dogs all my life, but she is on a whole new level.  She is amazing.  Are you sick of hearing about her??? 

But how can you be?  

LOOK at her!!!

and her back legs KILL me!

i'm dying here!

Are you getting tired of reading about my dog? Please, please tell me NO... please...and if you are, please for the love of all things fluffy, just ignore me right now... I think I'm going through a funny girl phase...

xoxo Liz

purple

Seems purple is popular right now, or is it just me?  I especially like it with green.

Check out the pretty purple treasury (that's our shelf in there) that the lovely glass etc
came up with.

food

I was delighted to find The Pioneer Woman's blog and had to make her pot roast. My big-chunk-of-meat cooking skills are so-so (normally I blame it on the meat if it's not tender enough). But, The Pioneer Woman assured me that I needed to give it another shot. And I did. And my family couldn't stop OOOOing and AAAAHing. And I couldn't stop smiling. I couldn't stop being so proud of the aromatic rosemary sprigs, the tender carrots, the buttery mashed potatoes.  After this very profound experience (and I'm not kidding), I realized how fulfilling it is to make a good meal for your family.  I'm sort of a gotta-cook-so-we-can-eat cook.  But that day I put my heart into it and I got so much more than food out of it! 

You gotta try this roast!

Wish I had a plate right now.

Go here for the recipe. And if you make it, I wanna hear what you think!

wooden letter giveaway!

wooden letter giveaway!

Okay peeps... here's the deal:

We need more ideas for our wooden words.  We already have eat, run, be, nap, live, cook and bake.  Of course there's hope, joy, peace, change, love, etc... and those are all fine and lovely, but come on, we need UNIQUE words!  

I was telling my mom how I thought run would be cool for a runner's house, and she said "hmm... how about SLEEP?"  bruhahahahahaha..........


Anyway, I want some ideas from you!!!  Whoever comes up with the best word (according to Rick, Molly and me) will win a wooden letter of their choice!  And you even get to pick the COLOR!!!

Words must be four letters or less.  Let's say two words per entry.  So think hard before you leave your words in the comments section of this post. Please.

So come on, get our your DICTIONARIES!  Ask your friends!  Ask your kids (and tell them we're not doing fart or booger).

And look, I can spell!!! 

AND WE HAVE ANOTHER WINNER!!!

The winner of the super spectacular (and I mean it!) headbands from the lovely Cheryl of Old School Trading is....

number 4!!!  which is Annette Q!!!

I asked Molly to pick a number between 1 and 11 and she said 4, because no one ever picks 4.  She's sweet like that.

Annette, please contact me with your address and I will tell Cheryl to send your goodies to you!

THANK YOU Cheryl for your generosity!  You are amazing.  And your headbands are the same...

On a lighter note, I went grocery shopping the other day and noticed Samantha had added a couple items on the list. 

xoxo Liz

And the winner of the TEE is.........

NUMBER 10! maxandmollydesigns!

I could not get that funky little random generator thingy to show up, so you're just gonna have to take my word for it.  ;o)


So ironic that the winner is the gal who actually *taught* me how to screenprint in this way!  Sweet.

Stay tuned for the headband drawing soon...

On another note... check out our new "eat" sign.

We're trying to come up with some clever words.  Ya know, UNIQUE ones.  Nothing against "love" and such, but we want to come up with something different.  So far we've done "eat", "live" and "be".  Our next one is going to be "nap"... wouldn't that be sweet for a baby's room?

Any ideas anyone?  We're trying to keep them at four letters or less.  So supercalafragelisticexpialadoscious is out.

Liz

unexpected love

I've been a very bad mama.

It started innocently enough at 2:30 on Sunday afternoon at our local Best Buy. Since that seemingly normal day as I was kickin' it with Molly, I've been doing a lot of "armchair parenting". You see, I have a new love. This new love is my hero. And I mean that quite literally.

So..........


Here he is..........


my hero.........

HTC Hero from Sprint

He looks innocent enough, doesn't he?  Oh but don't let his slick demeaner fool you. He is causing me both joy and pain.  But, I love him.  I neeeeeeeed him.  I even bought him a little cozy black jacket.  And I'm downloading all kinds of fun games we can play together.  And I'm touching him a lot. And he responds in just the right way. Sigh.... Ah... but this blog is rated G so I won't go any further.

As you can see, I am spending way too much time with him.  So much that I'm having to wear these a lot:

Which sucks.

So tonight I am going to try to put him in his little bed and hook him up to his feeding tube and make some of these.  Cuz you can't go wrong with anything Nie likes.

P.S. Before the week's over, I'm going to do the drawing for the t-shirt and with Cheryl's approval, for the rockin' headbands as well. STAY TUNED and please send your friends over to enter!

xoxo Liz