The Sunday before last I helped my niece clean out her room. I wish I would have done before and after shots with the room. She did a fantastic job of sorting and getting rid of things she didn’t need or want. She donated a TON of stuff. I would give her bins of sorting assignments and fill them up when she was done. I would quickly ask “keep or toss?” before throwing the item towards its new fate. I found her Jesus bear, which I knew was similar to Jason’s Mine in that she loves it and slept with it for many years. Clearly her dog got to it. When i picked it up I saw her look at it to which I said “repair or toss?” Repair! she said with certainty. So above is the before and below is the after. I looked at two Joann Fabric’s (including their catalogs) and a Walmart to find the same fabric and I couldnt. So I picked my favorite fleece and gave it a Jesus shirt and pocket(the original had a back pocket in the same spot). I hope she likes it.

A Few Short Cuts turned me on to a great two in one meal idea. Today, before Jason finished his breakfast, I had these meatballs in the oven. Tonight we had meatball subs with whole wheat pretzel sticks (so good) and bunches of grapes. The remainder of the meatballs will be used for spaghetti later this week. The meatballs were SO simple and delicious! I have bought the bags of meatballs before but won’t again.

Here is what you need for the meatballs:

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• 1 clove garlic minced
• ¼ cup finely chopped onion (optional)

Here is what Amanda did with them. Thanks Amanda!

Jason now has maybe 12 or so blankets, but loves only five. They are: Mine, two, three, pink (his unconceived sister’s), little and new mine.  Hopefully he will share them with his siblings one day. For now he will watch “sonar” (dinosaur) train and eat grapes with them. Can you tell which is the original?

I picked up the blue nail polish, “Absolutely Alice” for my niece Kelly this week at ULTA. I would have loved this color in high school or even college. My nails seem to be red or unpainted these days. The OPI Alice in Wonderland Collection celebrates the release of Disney’s much anticipated remake of the classic children’s story. Very unique and perhaps slightly odd, these new colors transport you into Alice’s wonderland, where nothing is quite as it seems!

The colors are featured on OPI’s homepage with a feature that allows you to “try on” the colors so you can see how they will appear on your nails. There is also a giveaway to win one of 26 prizes being given away, which comes to an end on 3/5/10, the day the movie is released. If you like these, you will probably LOVE Urban Decay’s Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows which ULTA also carried. This too is out of my make up realm, but for those of you bold enough to go where Alice goes these are great! Click here to check out the trailer and other video clips from Disney.

I enjoy most comfort foods and Chicken Pot Pie is definitely one of them. I have never made one because I can think of tons of things I would rather be doing than making individual pot pies from scratch. Kraft had a great solution! I must say that I could have done without all that cheese. As you can see Jason has a mouthful and has no complaints, and Brian said he wouldn’t change a thing. I could scrap it from the recipe entirely, but if it weren’t for the cheese, Kraft wouldn’t have been able to introduce me to their almost homemade technique. I will probably reduce by half next time and see how much I can marginally take out of the dish without any frowns.

Here is what you need:

• 3 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 1 Package Frozen Veggies
• 8 oz Cheese
• 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
• 1 Package Crescent Rolls

Here is how you make it.

I am getting close to opening up my etsy store. I already have two crib quilts awaiting the arrival of the tags I bought here. I also have two of my swarowski crystal breastfeeding reminder bracelets to put up. The above fabric is going to give me two aprons, a crib quilt and four bibs. I so enjoy sitting at the machine and creating these one of a kind pieces and can’t wait to open up.

Okay you can, but I’m just going to take cover. We started out the day at University of Tampa’s Alumni Brunch. My cousin Mariah graduated from the University and now teaches there. We headed to the Gasparilla parade but with a sleeping boy in the stroller and rain drops starting to fall, Timpano’s seemed like a much better plan. We spent the afternoon enjoying eachother’s company and some great food. They had the most delicious muscles and some lovely pinot noir to go with it. Below is Jason lounging back, enjoying a chocolate covered cheesecake lollipop. We had a great day, and probably would have preferred this to a sunny crowd down by the festivities.

She has 250 Custom Stickers/Labels  from UPrinting to send your way!  Here are the details:

• 250 Stickers/Labels for One (1) lucky winner
• Sizes:  2” x 3.5”, 2” x 4”, or 3” x 3”
• Paper:  70lb Label Matte
• Specifications: Full color front, blank back; 4 Business Day printing
• Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping
• Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only

Here is how to enter

This giveaway will end February 4th at 11PM eastern!  Good Luck!

At one time school safety was a minor focus for schools. Unfortunately, weapons are an issue on high school and even middle school campuses. The National Education Association provides the following statistics:

Every school day:

• at least 100,000 students bring guns to school.
• 160,000 students skip classes because they fear physical harm.
• 40 students are hurt or killed by firearms.

Random searches can be thought to be an infringement on the student’s civil liberties. If implemented,  it would be essential to ensure that the searches are random and fair. I also realize that the searches may feel somewhat like a circus and be disruptive to the learning environment, but if it were for the safety of the students I would support an unobtrusive effort.

What are your thoughts?

What are your thoughts about being randomly searched at the airport without cause?

Earlier this week, Jason fell off of an exhibit at the Museum and landed on his chin. He was a trooper while we restrained him and stuck him more to fix it up. He did ask through his tears if he could go home, after he told me he was stuck. I had hoped that this would teach him that he wasn’t exactly invincible and to be just slightly less careless in his attempts to climb the walls. I’m afraid that’s not the case.

I received this image from a forward yesterday and couldn’t google my way towards it origins, but love it. I am certain that Jason would attempt this. He is not officially skateboarding, but has been practicing on his cousin Jake’s since May. I know that Jake will have him up and running in no time. So for now, thankful for the flat land in Florida and enjoying where our adventures take us…just not to the ER.