Men's Skinny Jeans?

You've got to be kidding!

Thanks For Your Patience

I know that some of you may be wondering where are the after pictures from the landscaping project we had done a few weeks ago. I will take some just as soon as I fix what the landscaper did. The whole job and day was a mess. We were both angry, disappointed, & frustrated about the whole thing. I have put off blogging about it cause it just makes me all pissed off to bring it all back up again. I hope you all understand. I still have to fix most of it so the pictures may not be posted for awhile. Sorry!

Grandma Mary's Pistachio Salad Recipe

Secretly planning to have the whole fam damily over for a birthday celebration for my husband. His grandma used to make this pistachio salad that he just loved. Not my favorite but I usually have a little. I'm sure you've had it before it is light green and fluffy with miscellaneous chunks in it. I asked my step-mother-in-law to make it for that day. Here's the recipe in case somebody out there wants it.

1 can crushed pineapple with juice
1 package pistachio instant pudding
9 ounce Cool Whip
1/2 cup walnuts (chopped?)

Combine pineapple and pudding mix. Fold in Cool Whip and walnuts.

A Friend Stopped By While I Was Working In The Yard Today

How Ya Like Your Ice Cream?

OK, I was at my in-laws recently and was appalled when I saw that they were setting the ice cream out on the counter long before we were going to have dessert. I said nothing but thought to myself, 'What on earth are they doing, the ice cream will be ruined?' I then mentioned it to my step-mother-in-law (she and my father-in-law are my favorites in my husbands family). She said she likes to do that too. She'll even go so far as to stick hers in the microwave for a bit to get it all soupy/sloshy melty. Yuck! I could not believe it. I am a huge food texture person. I really hate when I get ice cream that's melty. I recently tried Culvers frozen custard and could not stand it cause it was melty and drippy within seconds of receiving it. I LOVE hard ice cream. Hard enough that I have to chew it even if it does not have chunks in it, but not too hard where the ice cream is out of deep freeze and you can hardly scoop it or taste the flavor. I am also a fan of totally real full fat ice cream. Don't give me that low fat crap. If I'm gonna have me some ice cream it's gotta be the real thing, otherwise I'll pass. We have a dairy in Chicagoland called Oberweis Dairy. They have little ice cream shops throughout the burbs (maybe 10?). They also have dairy items available for sale like fresh milk, butter, etc. They have maybe 20 flavors of ice cream. They are all very good, but when it comes to ice cream I am very much a "Plain Jane." I tend to like a more plain ice cream with a touch of something. My favorite is still chocolate chip after all these years but Oberweis chocolate chip is my favorite. If an ice cream is loaded with stuff I'll like it but can only eat a small amount before I get overload. If I ever get crazy and order some sundae with junk all over it, I always regret it after a few spoonfuls. It's just too much for me. I will get soft serve from inferior ice cream places on occasion but I don't enjoy it as much as real ice cream from Oberweis. Most grocery store ice cream is OK but often overly sweetened and lacking in density. Haagen Daz is good. I would rather have a scoop of vanilla with my birthday cake, definitely not ice cream with a bunch of stuff in it. I would tend to buy a quart of really good vanilla from the dairy and throw some fresh strawberries on it or possibly drizzle some chocolate syrup on it. Can't stand if I go to my MIL's she usually has LF ice cream loaded with fudge swirls and chunks of some sort to have along side some type of bundt cake that she's made. I think it's overkill, but that's me. The ice cream should not upstage a fabulous dessert, it should accentuate or compliment. Once in awhile I will order cinnamon ice cream or even pumpkin ice cream that is offered seasonally at the dairy. It is really good. I usually get this in their homemade waffle cone. They are so good. If you ever go inside to have your ice cream the whole place smells like intense vanilla cookies from the waffle cones being made. YUMM! My husband is not so hard to please. He will happily go to Dairy Queen and order a Blizzard with M&M's or Snickers that is made with chocolate soft serve rather than vanilla. He will also order a very delicious brownie sundae from Oberweis They are out of this world. Everything real! Real whipped cream on top, a warm brownie on the bottom, butter roasted pecans on top and drizzled with real hot fudge. Then he ruins it by getting butter pecan ice cream rather than their fabulous vanilla. I think there is so much going on in a brownie sundae that vanilla ice cream is the best flavor option.

So tell me what you like. What flavor(s)? What is your absolute favorite? Do you like soft serve or traditional ice cream? Do you like it cold and firm or melty and soupy? Tell me/us all about it. In a cone or in a cup? A sundae? What along side a piece of birthday cake? On top of pie? I'm curious. This is the season for the cold stuff. Ever make your own? Does the ice cream in your town stink?

Todays Blooms

I love the irises but they are on the side of the house that faces the nasty neighbors :( so I don't see them very much. I am shocked how my brunera has gone absolutely wild. I first found them around my deck about 3 years ago. They were pathetic. I thought they were weeds. They were scorched from the sun and light yellow. I had no idea they were anything special until I was walking through a cute nursery near my house and spotted them in the shade area. I quickly dug them all up and transplanted them to the shady side of the house. 3 summers later and look how well they are doing. Not all of them are this grand but the others are not far behind. I absolutely love their teeny tiny turquoise flowers. Wanted to get a closer picture but my camera doesn't do close-ups.

My Goofy Little Buddy

Little Buddy gets into everything these days. He found this hat in our hat/glove/scarf basket in our hall tree. It is too small for him now. He missed the season on this hand-me-down. I forced it onto his noggin and I laughed so hard he just kept it on and kept standing in front of me like this with this goofy little look on his face. Normally he rips hats right off his head now. Maybe he kept it on seeing as though it made mommy laugh and smile so much. He's so funny sometimes!

Before Pictures

Here are some pictures of the before pictures of the area that I am going to have the stone work done. The stone work will not be anything fancy. It will wrap around half of the deck then start again near the hose and lead away from the deck. When we moved in the deck was totally trashed. Someone painted it with cheap latex blue paint and had railings that were falling apart. After we lived here for a year I decided to rip off all the old boards and railings and just replace the boards with new ones (preserved). We saved ourself having to get a carpenter and a building permit because we were just "replacing" boards. We then just followed what was already there. A few years before we moved in there was beautiful landscaping around the deck with cobblestone border and plants and mulch. That was never kept up and the cobblestones got grown over with grass and the plant beds with grass and weeds. We placed mulch and tried to plant a woody, hardy, viney groundcover. Nothing worked. Rabbits ate everything and the plants got trampled by us or the dog or both. I got the idea to put stone in that area sunken in and surrounded by crushed limestone. We already have an area similar near the deck on the peaceful side of the house (or the side of the house that does not face the icky, nosey neighbors). Currently where we have all of our gathered stone piled. Much of the stone the landscaper will be using for our stoned area is from our neighbor, building sites, from our yard, etc. I am so excited to get this work done. He promised he will be here this Saturday rain or shine. I convinced my husband to have all the beds in the entire yard weeded, cultivated, and professionally edged with a deep landscapers edge. This way I can start with a clean slate, because everything is so overgrown it would take forever. I can hardly wait! The bush picture is one of my garbage picked burning bushes (I got 2 out of someones garbage, they are in perfect shape). The picture of the hose area is where the path will lead away from the deck to the side yard. The picture of the rocks and stone are most of the the stones that the landscaper will be using (I couldn't fit another rock pile in the shot). I will also be transplanting the lilac bush near the deck to a kidney shaped bed in the middle of the yard. I spent almost 2 hours on Monday evening digging up old groundcover near the deck that was overgrown with grass and weeds. I then sat and picked all the roots/plants out of the weeds/grass/dirt by hand and replanted to a side bed. Can't wait til Saturday. Wish I could have a landscaper cam so you garden/yard bloggers could watch with me.

Poor Bird!

"I told him if he didn't stop looking at me I would chew his eyes out."

Sorry!

I'd love to chat, but I am working on the yard again and loving it. I am finding myself again. We have a pm nap time for Little Buddy that allows me to actually work in the yard for an hour or two. Then it's dinnertime, then I get to do more yardwork, landscaping, etc. if I want. I love doing yard & garden stuff but wasn't able to the last 2 summers (risky pregnancy then last year was little baby/husband's never home summer). Got the second nap back! We pushed his bedtime an hour later and I stopped nursing him at night. Seemed to solve the problem. See ya, I am putting a small path on one side of my house with concrete chunks and found gravel and rocks. Nothing fancy but something that can be walked on besides the mud and mowed over without sinking. I'll take some pictures later. Bye!

Grandma's Piano Bench

On Mother's Day my husband had to work so I decided to go over to my moms house with Little Buddy. I had asked her a few days earlier if she wanted to go for lunch and where she wanted to go for Mother's Day. Little Buddy and I go there almost every weekend when my husband works side security jobs for the pd at various places in that town. We head to my moms in between Little Buddy's naps, then we go upstairs to her apartment til Little Buddy gets used to her (still in stranger anxiety phase so he screams bloody murder if we go there and she just hops in the front seat), then we all three head to Chipotle. My mom loves it, Little Buddy behaves there for some odd reason, plus he eats an entire side of guacamole for lunch? He has loved the guacamole there since he was like 7-8 months old. Odd, I know. It's very healthy so I roll with it. The vegetarian bowl is in my diet so I like to go there too. Strangely when I told her we could go wherever she wanted she picked Chipotle. I was relieved money-wise and weight-wise (down another 3 pounds). So we headed over between am & pm naps.

I let her open her gift (a pair of pajamas & a warehouse size container of chocolate covered raisins). After visiting in her apartment for a few minutes we headed over to Chipotle. The music is really loud in there and my mom loves to dance in her seat while she's eating for Little Buddy. He loves it. He chowed on guacamole, a huge bowl of fresh blueberries, Cheerios, & Goldfish crackers, and a spoonful or two of my and my moms lunch. Then we headed to the nearby nature center and walked around outside and looked at the animals in the huge cages and let Little Buddy "get his walk on."

The weather really sucked so we headed back to Grandmas to visit for a little bit before going back home for Little Buddy's pm nap. My mom is a piano teacher so she has a grand piano in her apartment. She lets LB play the keys as long as he doesn't bang on them. She is a very musical person and has lots of musical instruments. She opened up her piano bench and started to grab a green pouch out of it. She said, "Hmmm, forgot what's in here," and tried to figure out what was in the pouch by feel. She started to laugh with a devilish grin on her face. She asked me, "Did you guys give this to me?" I also tried to feel the pouch without opening to see what was in it. Oddly, it felt like the male anatomy?!? I thought it was some odd gag gift she's received but definitely not from me/us (my husband and I). Or, wait a minute. I opened up the pouch and saw a life-size penis flute complete with balls . . . . . . . painted black. I could not stop laughing. It was something handcrafted (sorry, but you know what I mean) made out of pottery or clay like what someone may bring back from Mexico or Dominican Republic. Yes, we did get it for her when my husband and I were on our honeymoon in the Dominican Republic 5 years ago this October. Funny, how you forget things like this. She has been solo for years and we thought she'd get a kick out of it, which she did . . . . . and still does . . . . . so do I.

Wait it gets better. After we stopped laughing from that, Little Buddy still playing the keys on the piano. She grabbed a tambourine I'd never seen before with some kind of writing on the side in marker. I asked her where she got it and she said she didn't remember. Then she started to read the writing on the side. "Love Barbara Manz-icki." "Who is that," I asked. She said, "I have no idea, here you look at it I don't have my glasses." I read it again, closely looking at each letter. It was definitely hand signed with marker by somebody, but who. "Love, Barbara Mandrell," I said. "Mom, this says 'Love, Barbara Mandrell,' where the heck did you get this?" "Think hard." But she couldn't remember. It was definitely a real signature and a professional musicians tambourine just an older one that was beginning to fall apart. I was shocked, and thought maybe it's worth something. How do we find out? How does one determine if the signature is truly Barbara Mandrell's? My mom doesn't have a lot of money, I'd love to sell this for her and make some money. Wonder how I go about doing this. If anyone knows, please let me know. Amazing what you can find in Grandma's Piano Bench.

Freecyclin'!

This Freecycling is fantastic. Yesterday a fabulous mom of 2 came over to dig up plants in my yard in an effort to landscape with little to no budget. Several of which were in the way of my soon to be stone path and would have been dumped. Several others were just bulbs & perennials that are getting way too plentiful. She brought over a really nice size 2t Columbia boys winter coat with removable hood. Both her boys wore it but it is still in perfect condition, yeah! This will fit Little Buddy this winter. Another woman came and picked up a Snow Baby ornament (I've had forever) yesterday which is cute but is not my taste and the theme of our Christmas decor is natural, nature, and outdoors. Today another mom is coming to get our 2 old baby gates we used for our dog. They are a little beat up looking but still function great and will keep her crawling baby safe. I wanted to get rid of those for awhile since we invested in 3 really nice mounted gates. I posted I was looking for stone for my path like limestone or possibly other stone, no replies . . . . . oh well. We should have enough as it is. There is no bartering with Freecycle but I wish there was. I still do graphic design on the side here and there and would love to trade that for getting my church pew refinished, etc. This Freecycling makes me feel happy and good in my soul.

I Love Freecycle!

Well, a friend told me about this cool thing called Freecycle. Whenever I have things for kids, etc. I don't need I send an e-mail out to all my mom friends asking if anyone needs it. One of my friends lives in Minnesota. She said I should look into Freecycle. I went to the webpage, their slogan is "Changing the world one gift at a time." How fabulous. I must admit the first time I went to the Freecycle site, I didn't get it. I couldn't figure out how to get to the list of free stuff. The other day I tried again and discovered that you have to create a little mini account with a Yahoo e-mail. This I think is the only drawback. Wish there was a way that you could use your own e-mail and create a screen name.

I am addicted. It is a first come first serve basis so you can't miss a beat if you want something. People have all kinds of offers & wants. I have seen (just to name a few) bags of baby/children's clothes, various furniture, women's clothes, lumber, toys, etc. I have things I can part with that aren't worth having a garage sale for, or I am not going to sell on e-bay, or isn't something I can take to Goodwill. This is beautiful. I am ecstatic. For years I thought there should be something like this. A way to have a swap type situation with people. You enter your zip code then Freecycle shows what is available in your area. Still can't figure out how you look in nearby towns. Maybe you can't.

Woops, I published earlier instead of saving draft on my way out the door. I am thrilled. I am giving a Snow Baby ornament to someone who loves them. Then Tomorrow or Sunday a girl that is trying to landscape her yard with no money will be coming to dig up some daffodils, coneflower, black-eyed susan, brunera, and thinning my daylilies and irises. I am so ecstatic that my overabundance of plants will go to a good home. Much of it would have been dug up and dumped when we have the stone path installed. Hence, I love Freecycle. Check it out!

Wordless Thursday?

Oh I gotta be different. Woops, those were/these are words. Hee! Hee!

I Don't Want To Be Rated!

Gosh, I just noticed this rating thing. Guess I would rather it be a mystery if someone dislikes my post. Then if they like it they can comment good or bad. It should be optional. If you don't like my blog, can't you read someone else's blog and keep your opinions to yourself? What do you guys think? If I was overflowing with time for oodles of creatively written posts then that would be different. As it is I can hardly use the computer, pay attention and play with my son and keep up with the house from day to day. Laundry, dishes, toenails, errands, doggy, walking, recycling, reading board books repeatedly to "Little Buddy," change the furnace filter, put the toys away . . . . . AGAIN, cook, clean out the fridge, get groceries, go to the bathroom, etc. Still have no idea how some people who have kids have time for what they have time for. It's mind-boggling.

Bloomin' Apple!

My breakfast view. The dark spot of mud around the deck is where we are having some miscellaneous stone installed on the 24th. It took 8 tries to find a landscaper that would install the odd stone we already have in piles next to the house (oh, also to find a landscaper cheap enough for our dinky budget). Some were from around the yard, some were dug up when we had the fence installed, some is from our neighbor Bernie, many are from when we drove back and forth filling up giant Rubbermaid bins full of "Free Fill," in an attempt to fill the low spots in our yard a few years ago. None of it matches, which I am thrilled about . . . . . . . more rustic, less golf coursey. YEAH! We used to do all kinds of work on the yard before the 2 of us became 3. Even this job though takes a professional, a bobcat, and lots of muscle. I am so excited! I will post some before and after shots . . . . . . hopefully I remember to take the before shots. I absolutely love before and after pictures.

Did You Know?

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the ABC song are the same melody. Can't believe it took me 34 years to figure that one out. Chalk it up to having "Mom Brain. " Sad thing is that I didn't figure it out til I had a child.