Eeek!!

If any of you know me or even knew me in high school, you know I tend to be a little OCD about planning.

In high school I had a planner and since I essentially had 6 classes, out of 7, that always had assignments those little boxes tend to fill up quickly when you have to write the subject and then of course the assignment.

If you also knew me in high school, you would also know that I had a slight addiction to multicolored gel pens.  I'm talking the kind that you can get with like 50 in a pack that range from neon colors to metallic to sparkles, ect.  Yes.  I had those :)  They made my heart sing.

So of course I had an epiphany.  I'm sure this happened during Organic Chem or Honors English.  Why not make even better use of my addiction.

Thus, each class had it's very own color!  That way all I needed to do was write down the assignment.  I did the same in college when I had to write down my schedule.

ANYWAYS!

I said all of that because I found the greatest thing!  I love planners but the expensive ones that I like are well, just that, EXPENSIVE.  I want one that I can customize.  One that reflects ME.

I was doing my normal blog hopping this morning and stumbled upon this beauty.  Sofia over at Sofia's World just made my year!  I'm so excited to make one of my own but for now I leave you a teaser of her pictures of her planner.

Addiction

That word applies to me.  Yes.  I have an addiction.  No.  It isn't harmful to my health or illegal although I'm sure it could fall under the first one.

What is this addiction you might be wondering.

Recipes and Cookbooks


Yes.  I said Recipes and Cookbooks.

At any given time, you can look in my house and find stacks of cookbooks, old and new, stacks of the little recipes books you get at the store that are for like the crock pot or specifically for Halloween or Christmas.  I also have a spiral notebook with recipes in it.  Stuffed in that notebook is also printed out recipes waiting to be cut and fixed into said notebook.

I also have recipes saved in my bookmarks as well as different websites like Kraft and Betty Crocker.

Earlier this summer I stumbled upon a new website and it just sent my heart into overdrive.

Tastespotting

That website right there is 3000+ pages of user submitted websites with recipes.  I was in Heaven!  To this day I am still going through the pages.  It gets updated every day, countless times.  Right now, I sit at page 822.  One day I might get to the end.  Who knows.

Combine that website with another new love of mine and I could spend all day on there.  But alas I have to do that thing called parenting and make my house look somewhat presentable.  At least as presentable as you could with a 2 year old and a 3 year old.

That other new love is called Evernote.  I think that it was created just for me and this soul purpose.

It also works well when I come across a craft tut that I want to try out or a crochet pattern.

My friend Derek said on Facebook the other day when I admitted that I had a recipe/cookbook problem that admitting that I have a problem is the first step.  Do I want to continue on with the other steps.  Nah.  I kinda like this addiction :)

Besides, it was helpful when I moved back in and we ate a new dish every night that I cooked for a little over a month.

The infamous Mount Vernon and White House Ornaments

Each of these ornaments is hand craft and plated in 24k gold.  The Mount Vernon ornaments are sold each year by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association and help go towards the cost of upkeep for Mount Vernon.  You can read about the Mount Vernon Ladies Association and Mount Vernon itself, here.  The White House ornaments are sold each year by the White House Historical Association.  Each ornament has to do with a specific presidency and something relevant towards that time period.  You can view all of the ornaments that they have put out here.

So with out further adieu.... 

 White House 2010 Ornament

The 2005 White House Ornament

The 2009 White House ornament and by far my favorite one

 The 2008 White House Ornament

Mount Vernon 2008 Ornament

 The 2005 Mount Vernon Ornament

The 2010 White House Ornament

The 2007 White House Ornament

2009 Mount Vernon Ornament

 2000 White House Ornament

And the 2007 Mount Vernon ornament

Ball of emotions, party of 1

It's 8:24pm and I've written names on binders and a backpack of a certain little boy.  My sweet, hyper-active Brayden starts school tomorrow.  And I'm just a ball of emotions.  I know that this time would come eventually but that still doesn't make it any easier.

He's in bed now, resting for that big day.  I'm all nerves and I just know that I will cry tomorrow.  He looks so grown-up with his backpack on.

I'll be most certain to post pictures tomorrow of his first day in school.

Christmas numero dos

After Christmas with the Hub's family, we came home, wrapped the presents that had been previously unwrapped and finally made it to bed after midnight.  We woke up to our white Christmas around 8 and had to then wake our sleeping ones.  And then the carnage began.

Christmas numero uno

We have a lot of Christmas celebrations.  In fact we still have one tonight. 

Our first celebration begins with the Hubs parents and siblings on Christmas Eve night.

We being the kids over, all dressed in the pajamas, we eat wonderfully grilled steak and twice baked potatoes, and we open gifts and laugh and have fun.

That celebration involves 11 people.  That's his mom and dad, his brother, his sister and her boyfriend and two children and then myself and our two children and of course the hubs.

Chuckle

Okay, so I have a ton of Christmas pictures to post and here I am looking on the Irreference website reading all of the funny things that they have.

I mean seriously......You can find pertinent information about how to survive when your ship hits an iceberg.

Or how to throw a punch, because I really can't.

Okay, sorry I'll get back on track!