Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Oreo Truffles

I came across this really yummy recipe. They had me at Oreos and cream cheese!













1 pkg. (1 lb. 2 oz.) OREO Cookies, finely crushed, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
2 pkg. (8 squares each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted

MIX 3 cups of the cookie crumbs and the cream cheese until well blended. Shape into 42 (1-inch) balls.

DIP balls in melted chocolate; place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover melted chocolate can be stored in tightly covered container at room temperature and saved for another use.) Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs.

REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm. Store any leftover truffles in tightly covered container in refrigerator.



Friday, November 21, 2008

8 Things

So I picked this idea up from Heather over at Wanting What You Have. She inspires me daily. It sounded like fun!

8 Things I Love
1. Honey Buns (My Granddaddy got me hooked on these at an early age!)
2. HOT Showers (I mean so hot you almost can't stand it) I missed these while I was pregnant.
3. Painting Furniture or anything that stays still long enough.
4. Target
5. Organizing anything. This also includes any form of organization/decorating TV.
6. Wrapping Presents
7. Singing in the shower (I sound good y'all!)
8. Taking pictures

8 Things that give me the Hebbie-Jebbies
1. Staying home alone at night.
2. Bees, Wasps, Yellow Jackets, you get the idea
3. When I wake up and one of our cats is right in my face, staring. (Is she plotting to kill me?)
4. Small children with snotty noses. The kind where you know it needed wiping a long time ago. Sniff Sniff. (I just want to help them blow it!)
5. Dogs I do not know (well I don't know many dogs, but dogs that belong to people I don't know)
6. The drill at the dentist (who likes that one?)
7. I cannot believe I am sharing this one. I have this weird OCD thing that someone is hiding behind the shower curtain when I am peeing. I always look before sitting down, it doesn't matter where I am. If I have been to your house and used the restroom, I have checked behind your shower curtain. You hope it was clean don't you!
8. Restaurant DHR scores. It starts to get hairy for me when they are below 90!

8 Places I have been
1. Washington, DC
2. Savannah, GA
3. Atlanta, GA
4. Calico Rock, AR
5. Chattanooga, TN
6. Ellisville, MS
7. Tybee Island, GA
8. Myrtle Beach, SC
I don't get out of Georgia that much!

8 Random Facts about me:
1. I used to be a clogger! Yehaw!
2. I love mayo...on anything.
3. I bite my fingernails....horrifically into the quick, gross I know.
4. I miss teaching sometimes.
5. I have always had a cat and I can name all of them for you.
6. I hate to wear socks or shoes.
7. I once had an imaginary friend named Jenny. Then I went to the beach with my parents and met a real life Jenny and didn't need her anymore.
8. I secretly played Barbies until I was in the 8th grade! I would do anything now for a little Barbie time.

8 TV Shows I love:
1. The Office. Many quotes I don't feel like sharing because Michael makes me so very uncomfortable. " "I'm an early bird and I'm a night owl, so I'm wise and have worms."
- Michael
2. Office Re-runs My fav. is the one where Dwight kills Angela's, puts the cat into her freezer to preserve its body, BUT it isn't dead and it claws into her bag of frozen french fries.
3. Grey's Anatomy...but it is about to get scratched off this list due to the recent raunch-factor. We find ourselves having to fast forward through too much.
4. Dawson's Creek. I loved this show, sad I know.
5. Ellen. This one I Tivo and flip through just for her web videos alone.
6. Design on a Dime, Decorating Cents, anything that shows people with an insane amount of clutter being helped.
7. Tabitha's Salon Takeover (She is a KILLER)
8. America's Funniest Home Videos (I love watching cute babies and people doing stupid things that almost get them hurt or killed.)


Thursday, November 20, 2008

Spoiled and Exhausted

Today is day three of the Wook's Sleep Strike.

Let me back up a little bit. My husband has what he calls "Early Weeks" at work. During these weeks he has to go into work at 7am in order to present at the morning meeting. Fortunately, his "turn" only comes around once every 6 weeks, thanks to the other folks in his department.

We have been extremely lucky since our Wookster began sleeping through the night at 6 weeks. And by through the night I mean 8pm-5am. I could handle one short breastfeeding at 5am, knowing I would be back in dreamland by 5:30am. Not long after, Wooks, being the considerate baby that he is, decided he could make it until 7:30am. What a sweetie! Yes folks, I have a breastfed baby who sleeps 11 hours through the night! And we have never had to experience the excruciating, heart wrenching, "cry-it-out" scenario.

Don't get me wrong. We have had the occasional "I feel like playing/nursing/babbling in the middle of the night" case. This generally happens during a play-date with our new teeth or a growth spurt. Ok, back to my point.

Since Monday, "early week" I need not remind you, Wook has woken up 5 hours into the night wailing to no avail. I assumed teeth. We did the usual Tylenol, Hurricane Gel (diamonds in a bottle) but nothing worked other than nursing him endlessly, until he wore himself to sleepiness. Then comes the "back in your crib tango". Fighting not to step just the wrong way, twitch, heaven forbid sneeze or bump the crib. Monday night my frustration took me so far that I whispered over my child's crib to Darling Husband "I could choke you" when he turned the monitor on while Wook was stirring, causing us to begin the whole thing again. Horrible I know, seeing that he (darling husband) was up WITH me! I love him.

Tuesday same scenario, but Darling Husband wore his clunky old man slippers across kitchen floor sending Wook back into a teething rage. I didn't mention anything about doing bodily harm this time.

Wednesday night, Wook went down easily as usual, but woke again with teething troubles. We spent an hour and a half just coaxing him back into dreamland after nurs-apaloosa. I then proceeded to have a meltdown about how I wasn't any good at being a mother and how I had now clue what I was doing. Boo-hoo-hoo. DH sleepily reassured me that Wook was lucky to have me and that I was a wonderful mother and that it was just a phase. Now who can threaten to choke a man who says things like that at 2 in the morning. We hugged and I selfishly thought about the sleep we got before Wook came along. Crazily, I would continue these sleepless nights forever to have my baby look at me the way he does.

I am exhausted. DH was dizzy yesterday. My neck hurts and I ache down my arms. I have a headache and miss my sleep. We are spoiled and have started to wonder if the Tooth Fairy has it out for us. Yawn-Yawn.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Giant Rubber Ducky

I am in love with this Munchkin product "The Duck Tub".
This is what it looks like out of the box:


It has taken the stress out of bath time for us. We knew that Wooks had outgrown the newborn tub, when the two of us bathing him were soaked every night and more water ended up on the floor than in the tub. But we were not quite ready to move Wooks into the big tub all by himself. The Duck Tub keeps him from banging his head on the sides of the big tub and if by chance he falls backwards, the ducks tail (for lack of a better word) catches the fall. It makes "quacking" sounds and has a temperature detector (which spells HOT when the water is slightly above tepid) Sans the temp. detector, this product gets the double thumbs up from all of us.
Here is our master bath. This is another part of our home that I love. The cabinetry is white and it just makes the entire room look clean and crisp. I love the his and hers sink nook! My DH went a little overboard with the WD40 so the doors in the bathroom will not stay open. I used a few large shells as door stops.




Tour of My Home

I have been wanting to share our space for a while now. We live in a small, what some might call "starter home". When we first moved in, 3 1/2 years ago, I thought of this house as just that. I really only looked at it as a place we would be for a couple of years. Once I found out I was pregnant with our first child, I started to look at this house as our home. A place where memories would be made. It was then that I really started working on making it as welcoming and functional as possible. I am really proud of how we have utilized the space we do have for storage and organization. This is God's provision for us and we are thankful for it, especially in times like these.

We usually enter our home from the garage which leads into our laundry "closet":

I know it doesn't look organized...but it is. It was one of my nesting projects when I was pregnant.

This is the view of the kitchen when you come through the laundry room:



Here are some other views of the kitchen. One of the things I absolutely love about it is the whte cabinets against the yellow walls. Our kitchen and living area is so open, and we have so many windows that we have tons of natural lighting! This is the only painted room in the house. I started with it and was so tired of painting!!!!!!!!







I just noticed the 3 hole punch on the table. I have been working on my HMG. Now we move from the kitchenette area into the living room:


Here is the couch (part of our $100 living room set). We desperately need new couches but haven't found any we like yet.

Here is the love seat that matches the couch :) These were $75 at a church yard sale. We bought them when we got married and had no furniture. I found the end tables at a yard sale for $5 and painted them. I know the couches are not so easy on the eyes but hey you work with what you have! I love how open the living area of the house is.



Here is Wookie's corner. Most of his toys are kept here. He loves hanging in the play yard while I get a shower or do the dishes.


Our entertainment center was $20 (that's what the guy charged to deliver it). It provides GREAT storage and it doesn't seem like it would be very easy to climb/pull over on yourself. Good news for Wooks.
From the living area you can enter right into the dining room. We only use it now for projects, entertaining company, and it is really our drop off area. I am constantly moving things off of this table! As you can see, the extra chair is used for diaper bag storage. :)

This is our front door entranceway. I really want to get a bench and hooks to create a mini-mud room, even though we don't enter and exist here, it could be better used and decorated.


From the entryway, you will find our master suite. This is the view from the entryway. The cat is always in that chair.

Our bed is another one of my favorites! It is a California King! You may find yourself asking "Is that a coffee table in their bedroom?" Why yes it is. These tables were originally in the living area but were very hard on the Wooks head so we moved them in here for now.

This piano was given to us when DH was taking lessons. It needs some exterior work but it plays beautifully.
Our modest bedroom entertainment center:
My dresser and antique mirror. This is the first time in a long time it hasn't been covered with clothes.
I plan on adding pictures of the Wook's room and our home office the next time I get a chance to work on this. I hope you enjoyed Part One of the tour of my home!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Things I am Thankful For...

So today I thought of 3 biggies I want to share:

1. My Mom! Happy Birthday!!!!!!! I love you for the mother and friend you have always been. I am so proud of all that you have overcome this year. If I can be 1/2 the mother you are, then Micah will have it made.

2. My Daddy! Happy Veteran's Day! Thank you for the time you spent serving our country and keeping us save. I pray that God will keep our soldiers safe and protect them as they are protecting us.

3. Time with my Grandparents. I had so much fun at the Hawkinsville Steakhouse. I will always cherish the memories I have of time spent with them over the years. Playing in Granny's kitchen, wearing Granddaddy's overalls and riding the tractor. Even pulling that itchy corn! Playing with my Grandmama's sewing machine and swinging with Buster. My Buddy.

Found a Peanut!

If you have a weak stomach, I urge you to move along to the next blog...
So you remember the childhood tune "Found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peanut last night.." Well I found a peanut this afternoon! Mom sat in the car with Wookie while I ran into Target. (I loved it, since I never get to shop alone anymore.) When I returned to the car to load the bags I opened the passenger side door. I happened to look down and saw what I thought was a peanut shell in the floor. I picked it up and thought "Hmm, that's strange. I have vacuumed out the van several times since we went to the mountains and ate our weight in boiled peanuts." Oh wait, as I look closer, its not a peanut at all....its a TERD!!!! So I rapidly find the hand sanitizer and ask my mom how his poo landed in the floor. She informs me that she changed him and he actually had two peanuts but one must have "gotten away from me". I didn't know "peanuts" were so elusive.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

I'm So Excited

The Wookster slept all the way through church this morning!!! This was the first time in months that I have actually been able to pay attention to the sermon!!! Woo Hoo

I'm So Excited

The Wookster slept all the way through church this morning!!! This was the first time in months that I have actually been able to pay attention to the sermon!!! Woo Hoo