Burgers Anyone?

This is what I did tonight INSTEAD of cleaning my house for my mother in law who will be here tomorrow and INSTEAD of doing school work that is also due tomorrow.



Sorry the image is so blurry, it didn't look that way on my phone, and now those burgers are all gone so no more pictures.


Actually, those are what I will be making for AJ's birthday party this Saturday. Our theme is BBQ because that is what hubby will be doing. I ordered a hamburger birthday cake, but it won't be big enough to feed everyone, so I made those cute little cupcake/brownie/icing burgers with cookie french fries. I've already been told that I'm so amazingly awesome and creative.... but... I really am not, and they definitely don't look as good as Bakerella makes them :-) Still, one day my baby will appreciate how much his mama does for him!

Dentist

AJ's official first dentist appointment was today. But, of course, he's already been to the dentist twice to repair a chipped tooth and then to repair the cap over the chipped tooth after an accident with a pillow and the floor.

He had a cleaning and exam with the dentist. He didn't get any xrays taken because they said that it's very hard to get a child his age to do it right, but they'll try every time. They also said that if I insist on it they'll do it, but I'm not going to force them to torture him. Anyway, from examining his teeth during the cleaning and the dentist looking afterward, he does not have any cavities, which is awesome!

I was a little irritated with the dentist office today though. The first two times we have gone, we went to the office that was open that day, which just happened to be in palm harbor both days. Apparently they have three offices, but I've only heard about the two. Well, the one in palm harbor is absolutely beautiful. The walls are painted brightly, the toys are well taken care of, and they a video game center for the older kids. The back area where they take the kids to wait looks awesome from the pictures I've seen. Just a totally kid friendly office, and the other parents that I've met there have all been really friendly and nice. Both time there were parents to offer me support when I'd start crying... hey, it's hard to send your one year old to the back to see the dreaded dentist!

The office I went to today is normally an adult office, and on certain mornings they share it with AJ's dentist. There were a very few, very worn, very unclean (I mean with black smudges and everything) toys. The waiting area was filled and wasn't much bigger than a walk in closet. Honestly, I was reminded of going to the health department when I was younger. There was even this one little girl who had bright green snot running down her face and she wanted to play with AJ, but I wouldn't let him. The last thing I really need while trying to balance work, school, aches and pains from being pregnant, is to get sick myself or have a sick toddler. The people there were... I don't know a good word... but there was a video game system and instead of letting the kids play, there were some adults playing on them. That is so irritating to me. I know AJ isn't old enough to play, but those aren't there for the comfort and enjoyment of the parent... When I was scheduling his next appointment and cleaning, I told them that I wanted to be moved back to the other office and they did give me a hard time about it. They reluctantly scheduled me for palm harbor, and I'll take the drive there every 6 months if I have to. The atmosphere is just THAT much better!

Project Ideas 2

So, I was at Joanns the other day, and saw that wreath. I absolutely loved it, but I didn't want to spend $20 bucks on it. I thought to myself that I could make something like it I was sure. So, I left thinking about it. A day or two later I stumbled upon www.oneprettything.com. There are tons of crafts on there that I would love to do. So, while I was there, I found this white wreath made by domestifluff.




That's basically what I imagined mine looking like except for it would be heart shaped, and it would be red. Then a few days later, I found someone who basically stole my idea and did it before I had even really thought of it lol. I can't copy the picture so here is the link so you can see.

Now, you might remember the picture of Paul's Blanket and the chair it was on.

Well, my dining room chairs basically look like that, two of them have different fabric, but I don't like how they look. So, I stumbled across this beautiful chair redone by Centsation Girl.

Now, I won't be changing the color of the wood to white because my table isn't white, but I definitely want to redo the fabric and backing.

Of course there are a ton more things that I would love to do, but these projects are one that I'm actually going to be doing lol.

Project Ideas

I found this blanket pattern while walking through michaels last summer. Like I said in a previous post, I decided that it would be the perfect blanket for my friend Paul who just came back from Iraq. I'm currently working on it, and I'm almost half way done. The only thing I did was double the size because it was going to be too small for Paul. He was always a big boy, but even though I'm sure he's slimmed up from being in the military, I'm sure he didn't shrink. :-)



This is the next crochet project that I'm looking at. Awhile ago, I found a link on how to make plarn. It's a way to reuse plastic bags, and I won't have to buy yarn for this project. I really would love to make a basket like this, but I don't know how. So, I thought that a bag would be the next best thing. My one concern is that it might stretch out considering it is plastic. Oh well, I guess the only way to find out is by trying!


So, that's it for my crochet project ideas. I have other projects that I want to do but I think that will be another post.

Resolutions

I wasn't planning on making any resolutions this year. I seem to not be able to keep them if I make them lol. I did notice however that I had decided to make some changes and I have been following through with them so far, and it just happens to be the right time of year to say that they were unintentional new years resolutions.

First, I have been trying my darnedest to catch up with cleaning my house, and slowly it is getting there. My kitchen has stayed clean for the past week now because I have consciously been cleaning it twice a day. First, when I get home from work/school/errands because hubby and son make a mess in there during the day, and finally at night after dinner.

Which actually leads me to my second unintentional new years resolution. We have been a little low on cash so far this year so I decided that we wouldn't be eating out as much. This was a hard decision to make because a lot of the time it is just AJ and I and it's hard to make stuff that won't go to waste. But, in reality there still was a lot of fast food that was going to waste, it isn't healthy for us, and while it doesn't seem expensive up front it adds up quickly. So, I sat down at the beginning of the week and looked through the store flyers and found a store that had the best sales this week. I looked online for some good cheap recipes and found 15 dinners for under $1.50. The whole thing isn't really under $1.50 so it is a little misleading, but each serving of the dinner is suppose to be under $1.50. There are acouple of good dinners in there that I have tried so far, and some that haven't been a big hit. So, I think being in the kitchen every night to actually prepare dinner has helped me with keeping it clean.

So, it's been about a week, and I've kept up with both of these things. I honestly feel 100 times better after making dinner. I also spent less than $75 on a weeks worth of groceries that I may be able to drag out to last another 3 or 4 days, which makes me feel even better, lol!

Of course every semster I have a new semester resolutions of keeping on top of my school work. I already failed that the second day of school today when I didn't have all my chapters read, but to be honest the teacher didn't help by posting the class late either. I really didn't have enough time to read it all. I'll get caught back up before the next class on Tuesday.

Lets see, what else have I been thinking about that I can turn into an unintentional new years resolution? Well, I was really disappointed with myself last semester for getting so bogged down in school work that I couldn't do anything that I enjoyed. So, going hand in hand with my last resolution, I want to keep on top of my school work so that I can do something that I enjoy. I would love to do something everyday, but that might be too ambitious, but I definitely would like to make time for myself a few times a week to do a project, surf the internet, or even just watch tv without feeling guilty about my school work.

Which brings me to what my next post will be about.... I think it's going to be about some ideas that I came across the last few nights while I was surfing the internet.

Let the CRAZY begin!

I find that I don't blog because of my camera not having a cord. I wanted to post about some of the projects that I was working on, and I'm severly disappointed that I didn't have a camera to take pictures of AJ on his 2nd birthday. I will be borrowing a camera for his second birthday party which is in like a week and a half, yikes!!

So here is what I've been up to:

I finished a blanket for my friend Heather. I started it over the summer but had to put it to the side when school started. I never felt comfortable working on projects when I'm not caught up with school work. At the start of the project, I knew it was going to be for Heather, but it ended up being a house warming gift for her and her boyfriend. Although, it was about a month late. I think I was originally going to give it to her as a Christmas gift, but then a few months before Christmas I found out that they were going to move in together and I thought it might make a good house warming gift. Now, if I had a camera, I could have taken a picture of the lovely blanket!

I started another blanket. This one shouldn't take me so long. The pattern that I was working on for Heather was very detailed. I believe its called filet crocheting. Anyway, this new blanket is just the same row being crocheted over and over again. It goes quite quickly, which also means I go through yarn quite quickly too. This recipient for this blanket isn't a secret. At the end of summer I reconnected with a friend, Paul. I found out that he had joined the military and that he was at that time over in Iraq. It was pretty awesome to be able to talk to him over facebook while he was there. I had told him that I found the perfect yarn and pattern and was going to make him a blanket for when he comes home. BUT... I'm going to use the same excuse. I couldn't finish Heather's blanket because of school work, so I definitely couldn't start a new one. I ended up having to order more yarn for Heather's blanket because it wasn't being sold in any stores around here, so I decided to start Paul's blanket. My goal is to have it finished by the time he gets back to Florida. I just heard that he finally made it back to the states but he won't be back to Florida until February. So it gives me some time... and it should be plenty of time.

That is... if I don't get bogged down with school work again. Yep, another semester has started. I have high hopes though, but I'm still nervous.

I also made invitations for AJ's birthday party. And, I have some ideas in progress about my next few projects. I would love to try my hand in redoing some of my furniture... and I will definitely have a camera for those projects because they're going to be big for me. If they turn out well then I want to document it lol. If not, then I have something to laugh at and remind myself why I should never try redoing furniture again!

So, I'm off to get my school work done so that I don't have a rerun of last semester and my bogged down school work life. I'll leave you with my handsome boy eating a birthday cupcake on Monday! Doesn't he look like he is enjoying being two?

I haven't written in a while. I think about it everyday, and I even come on here almost every day to check the blogs that I read. I just haven't been motivated to write, and when I do feel motivated, I'm really busy.

December has been busy for me. I finished up my semester, which was by far the most demanding I've ever been in. I baked and baked and baked. Christmas was chaotic. Now, I'm trying to plan for the arrival of my mother-in-law and AJ's birthday day party.

I'm so excited for AJ's party. I don't want him to be two because it went by way too quickly but he's definately not a baby baby anymore. He's a full blown toddler and we've started to work on showing how old he is with his fingers. This does take quite a bit of coordination for the little ones! He really ends up hold up about four curved fingers, but he tries to say two.

I have some pictures of my past month that I'll try to get up soon. Beware, they are only taken with a camera phone because I still haven't gotten a cord for my camera. I will need to do that!