Just Make Stuff

Today's little happy things...

1) That we have these on our Christmas trees and can turn them on just by touching them...we got snowflake ones at Target...best thing ever

2) This candle scent...it really fills a room with all kinds of Christmas

3) tying some of the ribbon I bought a few weeks ago on gifts

4) Hallmark wrapping paper with the grid on the back...so perfect for me since I couldn't cut straight if my life depended on it...some of my my favorite this year is their "Naughty" and "Nice" papers

5) That I got every last thing I could wrap today done, my desks are cleaned off, and I'm headed to bed.

Marathon...

No, I'm not running one, but I kinda feel like did today.  I got to South Coast Plaza at 9:30am to meet a friend for breakfast and left six and a half hours later...I made three trips out the car, but I'm 99% sure that I finished up my Christmas shopping. 

Oh and I got Mr. Mac stocked up on uniform pants and sweatshirts for school...I was the BAD mom that sent him to school today in shorts when it's 50 or something way too cold degrees for our pathetic Southern CA bodies...oh and there sort of were gale force winds...but he wore the only pair of uniform pants he had yesterday so he was out of luck...I sent him on his way with an ever-so-nurturing "You'll be fine!"...let me tell you, I am QUITE a mother.

I digress.

So now I have this pile to wrap...another marathon that I need to start tackling tomorrow.  It's one of the seemingly hundreds of tasks of my holiday to-do list...one of the others is crafting...little gifts for friends...our Christmas cards...

I told myself "This is crafting week...next week is cooking week (as we figure out what desserts we want to serve when we host the last house in our neighborhood progressive dinner)...and after that is sit on my ass and enjoy it week"...here's hoping. :)

Oh and I made my first I-Mix tonight so I could share some of my favorite songs to listen to as I accomplish all this Christmas craziness.

Um yeah, I think making my I-pod play-lists into I-Mix's will now be my new favorite thing to do...of course that means you'll be subjected to my ridiculously eclectic taste in music.

Off to bed...need to rest up for tomorrow!

Therapy...

I'm not gonna to lie, having a mom who happens to have been a marriage, family, and child counselor for the last 25 years REALLY helps from time to time...free therapy. :)

It's so funny to see my mom's different "modes"...she's also an RN so we have "Nurse Jane" mode when you're sick or hospitalized, and "Psychologist Jane" when you're decompensating, and then there's just Mom (and honestly sometimes that doesn't always go so well).

But tonight I got a surprise visit from "Psychologist Jane" one I wasn't exactly anticipating when I called to ask her what my brother's favorite tea was (to go along with the Christmas gift he really wanted).  It started when I asked her about Sean, who has really has been struggling with everything...having to write a note to his God-daughter (his brother's new baby) put him over the edge last night...he's so honored to have been asked, but it's a painful reminder of what we can't have. 

As usual, she had some sage, unassuming advice and it felt good to here...I didn't realize how much I needed it.  I can talk all big about my Plan B, and I whole-heartily believe in it...but at the same time I really cannot fathom my life without another child...and clearly Sean wants it more than anything. 

Mom and I talked about adoption again...maybe just throwing our hat in the ring somewhere and not expecting much of it...if it happens it's meant to be...and it can't happen if we don't try a little.  We'll see...maybe it can be called Plan A/B.  I still would LOVE to finish school...so maybe in a few years...or maybe next week...who knows. :)  Despite the ache, I'm just grateful that our life has so many possibilities.

Another thing she mentioned, as she has in the past, is her belief that the best, cheapest therapy out there is a journal...she says that it's enormously cathartic to get your thoughts out...and especially to be able to go back and tangibly see how far you've come.   From time to time around here on this whole blog thing people will mention my openness...and while, yes, I'm an open book kind of a girl...it's more because this IS my journal...I've poured my heart out here and it's felt so good to have someplace to keep my thoughts...it's actually been an essential part of me getting through all this stuff these last couple of years...so thanks for letting me share it. :)

Merry & Bright...

I swear one of these years we will reach Griswold status, but for now it's still ever-so-slightly understated...you can't see our house from space...yet. :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, but the real fun started Thursday night as Sean pulled the dozen or so boxes out of the attic and garage...we've been decorating on and off since then...you know, we had to take a few breaks to eat leftovers.

I have to confess it's not 100% done, but it's close...and it's altogether merry and bright around here now...I had a grand old time with my tri-pod a little while ago trying, keyword being "trying", to capture some of the glow around the inside and outside of the house.

Oh do I love Christmas...

Thanksgiving Eve...

if there is such a thing...Mac's got the day off from school and were both a little giddy...set the table together...he made place-cards for everyone...been hanging out in our pajamas...a GOOD day.

When Sean gets home in a couple of hours the cooking will really start...although I made cranberry sauce, cornbread for a dressing recipe I'm going to try, and a few other little things yesterday.  We're making a turkey tonight and again tomorrow...we got a fancy Diestle turkey to try our hands at tomorrow, but couldn't pass up the regular old turkey deal at the grocery store either...that way we'll have plenty of leftovers for the weekend...oh and the turkeys will be cooking in my indulgent kitchen toy pictured above an All-Clad roasting pan...I got it last week along with a bunch of guest room bedding stuff...did you know that Bed Bath and Beyond will take multiple, expired, and competitors coupons?  I seriously used 9 for our purchases, one for each item we were buying...even Sean got excited by that kind of shopping!

Besides coupons :), I have so much to be thankful for this year.  2006 will definitely go on record as one of the most eventful years in my life (I think 1996 with Mac's birth holds the prize though) but it has been hands-down the year that has truly taught me how deeply blessed I am...I am surrounded by a ridiculous amount of goodness that I try to be thankful for everyday...but especially tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My inner-florist...

Stopped by the farmer's market this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't crowded as I expected it might be.  Got a armful of flowers to play with...a couple of tiny centerpieces for the Thanksgiving table are hanging out in the fridge, a few little bottles on the kitchen windowsill, and I even filled our treasured Waterford vase we got in Ireland last April.  When I was younger I totally wanted to be a florist so I love to attempt to arrange fresh flowers.

Later today I need to get in touch with my inner-Martha and get the cloth napkins ironed and see what kind of napkin rings I can make with scrapping supplies...then tonight I start cooking a few things...so excited...need to get a major to-do list together though...it wouldn't be unlike me to totally forget making an essential side-dish or something. :)

At least it's done...

although it was finished at about 1am (so much for marking my word)...right now it's nothing special since we're surprising Mac with new bedding for Christmas...the white walls are all fresh and bright though...and clearly in need of some more decoration, but any further creativity in here is on hold till after Christmas...then we'll see what we can come up with.

So, at some point this weekend I lost my mind and started seriously talking to Sean about moving my studio back to Mac's now old room that we were planning to make a guest room.  (which is an idea I've been contemplating for about a month now) It's, sort of, completely ludicrous because #1 it's half the size of the room I'm in, and #2 a LOT of work during the busiest time of the year. 

There are benefits though...#1 it's much more central in the house it has a indoor window overlooking the living room that allows you to hear everything, #2 stays cooler and has better light, #3 is the room that best lends itself to being an office type room and, #4 would make me simplify which I've been wanting to do. 

Then there are further reasons the big room I'm in now makes a much better guest room...but I won't bore you with them.

So my mind is overwhelmed by trying to decide...I swear I'm certifiable with these endless ideas...thankfully my husband doesn't think so...for the most part. :)

Mark my words...

 

Come Sunday night this room will be DONE...and hopefully not Sunday night at 11:48pm. 

As you can see right now it's a mountain in the middle of leftover nursery furniture (that will be going in the guest room) and my stash of Christmas gifts. 

The walls and closet have their first coat of primer...with a little help from Mac who was totally excited to get to help, but after a few minutes he was over it and taking a "break"...that lasted the rest of the night.

He'll be at Bryce's this weekend so Monday he'll be coming back to a new room...because it WILL be done by Sunday night...mark my words. :)

I love this...

I have to admit...I love teaching a scrapbook class...it makes sense being that two of my life passions are teaching and scrapbooking...so it should be a natural combination...but I never figured I might be able to actually DO it.  Thank you to Karen & Wendy that believed in my silly ideas enough to let me teach in the first place, and especially to everyone who signed up and would take your time to create a little with me...either in the class last night or as you receive your kit in the coming days...seriously, thank you so much.

So, Mint Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake, huh?  Well, first of all you need to get the cookbook I got the recipe from.  Have you heard of the Cake Doctor?  Well, this one is from the Chocolate Cake Doctor cookbook...the premise of her book is you take regular cake mix and just "doctor" it up...always easy and pretty much always kind of impressive.

I will take the time to type up the recipe and post it a little later today...but speaking of cake, I need to exercise. :)

E.T.A. finally at 10:58pm

Um, first of all Grey's Anatomy?  Sean pointed out I needed to wipe up my supposed drool during the bathtub scene in the beginning...and I don't even really like baths...ha ha...

Anyways I digress...

Mint Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Serves: 16

Prep time: 8 minutes

Baking time: 58-62 minutes

Ingredients:

            Vegetable oil spray for misting the pan

            Flour for dusting the pan

            1 package (18.25 ounces) plain butter recipe fudge   

            cake mix

            1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room

            temperature

            ½ cup water

            ½ cup vegetable oil

            ¼ cup sugar

            4 large eggs

            1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

            1 ¼ cups (about 28) Andes chocolate mint candies,

            broken in half

            1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar, for garnish

            ½ cup fresh mint sprigs, for garnish

1. Place a rack in the center of oven and preheat the over to 325 degrees F.  Lightly mist a 10-inch tube pan with vegetable oil spray, then dust with flour.  Shake out excess flour.  Set pan aside.

2. Place the cake mix, cream cheese, water, oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.  Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.  Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.  Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed.  The batter should look well combined.  Fold in the candy pieces until they are well incorporated.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula.  Place the pan in the oven.

3. Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and is just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan, 58 to 62 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes.  Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a rack, then invert it onto another rack so the cake is large side up.  Allow to cool for 20 minutes more. 

4. Slide the cake onto a serving platter, dust it with the confectioners’ sugar, and garnish with the mint sprigs.  Slice and serve.

Store this cake, wrapped in aluminum foil or plastic wrap, or in a cake saver at room temperature for up to 1 week.  Or freeze it, wrapped in foil, for up to 6 months.  Thaw the cake overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

Let's talk turkey (and other randomness)...

How is it Wednesday?  Or half way through November for that matter?  Thanksgiving is in just about a week and, since it's my favorite holiday, I'm pretty darn excited...have loved catching the Thanksgiving shows on the Food Network that seem to be on a loop and thinking of plans for next week...for instance plotting my trip to the farmer's market Tuesday morning...I'm kind of suspecting that I'll have to be there waiting before it starts at 9am to get the good stuff.

Been super busy the last couple of days getting ready for class tonight...sort of procrastinated completely on getting kits ready the last couple of weeks, but thankfully they're all done now...just need to run to the grocery store for the Chocolate Mint Cream Cheese Pound Cake Sean's baking this afternoon...I have to admit I'm totally looking forward to having a tiny little slice...don't want to have too much and screw up the fact that I've managed to get down to 160.2 lbs in the last few days...haven't been exercising anywhere near as much as I need to, but I've made a conscious effort to eat better and it seems to be working for now.

So...I could keep rambling...plenty to talk about with my intercession and spring classes at the community college all figured out...or my latest rage of OCD that had me using the label maker AGAIN in Mac's room this morning :)...but I won't bore you...instead I'm off to exercise...

Well that should do it...

So this pile of ribbon was the grand finale to a weekend I was looking forward to for awhile now.  I've really been wanting to stock up on Christmas wrapping ribbons for a couple of years now so I hit the Fabric Barn this afternoon and, as the photo shows, I hit it hard. :) 738 yards of ribbon later I'm probably stocked to wrap Christmas gifts for the rest of my life...but how freaking cute are packages going to look wrapped in kraft paper with polka dot bows and ric-rac trims or grosgrain or organdy or plaids? :)

So our weekend...we had things to do everyday that have been planned for about a month...the start of our three days involved a trip to Hollywood to surprise Mac with tickets to see the Santa Clause 3 at the El Capitan...the look on his face when the little live show started before the movie was totally worth it...the jingle bell bracelets and buckets of popcorn that came with our tickets put him over the moon though.

Before we went to the movie we went in search of something totally random to use as headboards for our new little guest room project

We went to the cool place Tara Whitney blogged about a few months ago, Silver Lake Yards...this past summer we found all the windows for our living room project there and this time we decided on two old pieces of fence that I think we're going to paint red...I cannot wait to see this room come together.  We also came home with a little 4-pane red window I have no place to put right now but couldn't live without and the circa 1980 metal Dukes of Hazard lunch-box Sean found tucked on a shelf and had to get.

Even Mac loved searching through everything there...apparently he wants to make a desk out of a claw foot bathtub...sounds like he's the next generation of crazy-idea makers. :)

Saturday I drove out to Redlands to take a class at a scrapbook store with my friend Megan...she and I had been trying to get into their annual "Let's Wrap Up Christmas" seminar for 4 years...seriously...we'd try every year and every year it'd be sold out...but this was our year...it was an hour and a half of different decorating & gift-making ideas where we only got a couple of really good ones, but at least it's no longer the coveted mystery it's been. :)

We rushed home Saturday afternoon to finish cooking several dishes including a pumpkin soup with roasted garlic and apples that I concocted the night before so we could join a group of our friends for our new tradition of getting together for a Thanksgiving dinner before the actual holiday...so much good food and so much fun.

Then today I stopped by the Rubber Stamp Convention and found a few new supplies especially at the Invoke Arts and Stamper's Anonymous booths and then made the fore-mentioned ribbon shopping stop.

Now it's Sunday night and both Sean and I are under the gun trying to accomplish things before the week starts...our to-do list is in large part tasks to get ready for class Wednesday night which I still have way too much left to do, but am totally excited that it's in just a few days.

My guys...

The nursery's all packed up and we gave most of it away...in large part to my sister and her husband who will need it in a few months...it was a hurdle we needed to get over...and now that it's done it feels almost good...soon it won't be haunting us as much. 

When we got to this sign I didn't know what to do...until Sean suggested we hang it outside over the front door...when we wished on that shooting star 9 years ago (as of next week), this is what we got...an amazing little family and the home of our dreams. 

Speaking of, the other member of our little family, Mac took all this much harder than we expected...he sobbed as we packed everything into boxes...that's when it occurred to me that he was just as excited about every little baby thing we bought too...helping us pick out clothes and toys. 

Yesterday morning on the way to school he was talking about it some more and I told him, "I'm so sorry...I didn't realize you wanted a little brother or sister that badly." he replied, "Yeah, for the first couple of days...then I'd probably get jealous." 

Detox...

Goodbye Kettle Chips, Pepsi, and chocolate...and more chocolate.  It's been fun, but it's also been the 14 pounds I've managed to find since June.  So hello water, walking, and healthy food choices...which I wrote an entire list of yesterday to remind myself of. 

If I'm going to do this like I have before it's time to own up and set goals...as of today I weigh 163 pounds...my goal, lofty as it may be, is to weigh 130 by May 2nd, 2007...otherwise known as my 31st birthday...where I'd also like to be wearing those forementioned trendy jeans. :)

Here goes nothing...

A big week...

Couldn't resist buying a pregnancy test at Target yesterday...this morning it read "Not Pregnant"...that's what I've been figuring too...not really disappointed and pretty reassured that this was meant to be...but that means probably a big week around here because, in addition to continued Christmas wrapping of a bunch of gifts we got this weekend and getting class kits ready for next week, we're going to take down the nursery (which, as the photo shows, is currently kit making and wrapped gift central anyways).

It's going to be HARD.  I can embrace my Plan B...I can actually be pretty excited about it, but the thought of packing up all the baby stuff...that we were SO happy to buy or be lucky enough to receive just kills me...the little colorful Gap pajamas that say "I love Dad"...the baskets full of toys...the bibs I've been collecting for years...the room filled with hope. 

Depressed yet? :)

Well, now the room will be filled with Mac...and shhhh don't tell him, but here's the new bedding he's being surprised with at Christmas...we're going to paint the room white for now and get him moved in ASAP then after he gets the bedding we're going to do this cool painted border of matching colored stripes...of course when I say "we" I mean dear Sean...who is thankfully as enthusiastic about it as I am...seriously husbands just don't get better than him. 

Then we'll have a guest room...trying to decide between a queen size bed or two twins that we could push together if needed...don't two twins make a California King size bed or am I crazy?  The very best part of this guest room is that Sean's parents are officially coming for Christmas and we'll have a great place for them to stay...now that makes me happy.

ETA at 1:50pm

As I said a few minutes ago in an e-mail to Sean, "It's officially plan B...a hot, educated wife" :)

No need for a blood pregnancy test...but a serious need for Advil...at least we didn''t have to wait till Wednesday to know for sure...

One week from today...

It'll be the first day of Plan A or Plan B...and it seems an eternity away...I'm trying to wrap my mind around the fact that it's actually going to happen...because at this point it feels like it's never going to get here.

I try not to think about Plan A too much...it's pretty simple...a pregnancy...a child (or I guess children)...our dream come true...a complete family.  As I wait everyone I talk to wants to check on how I'm feeling...and I have to admit it's crazy making...I could go there...you know the, "Oh, oh I was nauseous for a couple hours Tuesday afternoon" "Oh, oh wait a second, I think my breasts are kind of tender"...but I cannot emotionally afford to get wrapped up in it.

So instead it's thinking about Plan B...which are other dreams...finishing school and going on to get a master's degree...losing the rest of the weight (that I keep finding) and really getting back to lots of exercise...enjoying my time with Mac and Sean...having a cute guest room always ready for friends and family...we could plan trips...we can sleep through the night...have plenty of time to do what we enjoy...we could even buy a sports car. :) 

Plan B is pretty appealing...the thought that I could have a diploma in my hands in just a few years blows my mind...the thought that I could have the type of body worthy of buying just one pair of those expensive jeans...the thought that I already have a perfect family...I have two amazing guys to love...if that ends up being my complete family I'm beyond blessed.

I just hope November 9th gets here soon...I'll spend November 8th reveling in whatever news the pregnancy test brings that day...but November 9th it's the start of something completely new...and that really appeals to me no matter what it is.

Holidays...

Halloween was great...we hosted our annual pre-trick-or-treating pizza party with our neighbors...it was so much fun to have the house full of kids eager to get out the door and parents that just wanted to hang out together.  Sean got lots of photos of their pumpkin carving for this year...Bryce came over (in full costume) and took Mac around the neighborhood...I sat on the porch crocheting and drinking a gallon of hot apple cider...well not that bad...but close. :)

Now today is another holiday...as I titled my e-mail order to the company's owner...

Happy National Catslife Press New Stamps Day!!!

Oh it's a good day when there are new stamps in the world! :)