Which One? Which One?

My birthday was a while ago and I got some money as a gift. Now, I can't decide what I want to purchase with my birthday money. As a kid this wasn't so hard, I actually had the money spent before I got it. Now, I have to mull over my decisions. But I have narrowed my choices to two:

 

 

Either a:  Rowenta Steam Station, which I had one of these for about 6 years before it finally died.  It was well loved and used hard.  I really miss it, but I have been getting by with a cheap iron.  It just isn't the same.  OR

 



A Cricut - This would just be for fun and I have really really wanted one for a while.

I'm not really in any hurry. I'll keep you posted when I make a decision.

Cleaning

So Bo and I have been working on cleaning our house.  Today Boo started to sweep the kitchen with his broom, but when I went and got my camera he stopped.  I love this Melissa and Doug's broom.  It is the perfect size for Boo, and he is so cute when he uses it.  Here is hoping my house cleans itself, but since it won't I got to get back to work.

Fleischmann's Bread

This is Simply Homemade Bread.  This is the first loaf that we made.  It is Italian Herb, and very very good.  It was so good that we had to make it again.  This time we made the Country White.  Actually, I didn't make it this time Bo did and he did a great job. He said if he can make homemade bread, any one can. If you have a chance to try this bread it is easy and taste like homemade.

Saturday Movie Time

Bo and Boo went to my in laws today and so I took the opportunity to watch a few movies. I probably should have cleaned my house, but watching movies is so much more fun.  Especially when the movies aren't animated and they don't have any talking animals in them.  

 

Joyful Noise - was a good movie, and had a great message.  It was slow at times, but I love Dolly Parton so I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did.   At times it had a made for TV feel.

Blue Like Jazz - I LOVED this book, and I have read several of Donal Miller's other books.  So I expected a lot from this movie and it keep on falling short to me.  I keep on thinking that wasn't how I remembered it.  I know that it is said all the time, but the book was way better than the movie.

The Lucky One - is based on a Nicholas Sparks book so it seems to have the same plot as most of his books and the movies that are based on them.  The movie was beautifully shot, and the locations they used were amazing. I thought the little boy who played Benjamin was great along with Blythe Danner.  Zac Efron is usually very attractive, but I didn't like the hair on his face and I usually like facial hair.  I know that sounds knit picky but it really just distracted me. I really liked seeing Zac Efron in this type of movie.  Overall, I enjoyed this movie and it was a great movie to watch while the guys were away.

Loud, Battery Opperated Toys

 

 

I have a friend of mine who doesn't like her child to have battery operated toys.  After we talked about it got me to thinking are non battery operated toys better for the children or better for the parents?  

The pictured toy also reminds that battery operated toys can be really LOUD.   My parents got Boo this toy last year for Christmas, and I'm so glad that my dad got to see him enjoy this toy so I would never take it away from him, but it is loud. It is a Fisher Price Little Zoomers racetrack.  I read the reviews before he got it.  Several of them said that it was a really loud toy, but I thought how loud could it really be?   I had no idea how loud they were talking about.  I wonder sometimes if this could hurt his hearing, but I let him play with it because he loves it.

 So this brings me back to my first though about battery operated toys.  Are they necessary and how many people try not to let their children play with them?  With Christmas and Birthdays coming up I'm going to keep in mind the volume of the toys Boo plays with, but I can't grantee that they won't come with batteries or require some assembly.

Nashville Zoo

I'm still re-learning how to work blogger so my pictures aren't in the right order. Just go with it for now.

 

This spring we went to Nashville for a wedding, and since I am now a stay at home mom we were looking for some cheap/free fun things to do.   We are members of our local zoo and the Nashville zoo is a reciprocating zoo so we decided to check it out.  Nashville zoo is great, and it has an AMAZING playground.

But the most fun we had was watching the Meerkats.  Bo and Boo would have watched them for hours. I loved that Boo was able to see them at his level even if he wanted his dad to hold him for a differnt look. 

Boo fell asleep right before we made it to the playground.  So we didn't get to enjoy it this time, but we plan to go back and check it out again sometime.

Meerkats having fun.

Winter ONEderland

After I stopped blogging Boo had his first birthday.  I knew the theme I wanted to do as soon as I started looking for stuff online. It was actually very easy to do.  Lots of blue silver and snowflakes.

 We pulled out some of our Christmas decorations to greet the guest.  I love that the bear is holding a present.

 We hung snowflakes everywhere.  To bad it was in the high 70's this day.

 A banner of Boo and different family members.  This now hangs above the windows in his room.  A great reminder of his first year of life.

 More snowflakes.

 Nothing fancy, but I made the cake.

 Lunch was simple Chili, salad, cornbread (my mother-in-law made), and baked apples.

 Smash cake was a cup cake that I made.  My sister-in-law had the pan and she let me borrow it.  We had a real simple at home birthday party with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

The birthday boy enjoyed his cake.

My Dad Died

This picture was taken a week before my dad died.

My dad was one of my most faithful followers, and I loved getting comments from him.  The last few months of his life it was hard to blog.  I spend more time visiting my parents which took away from my crafting and computer time.  I also didn't want to post anything about ALS or how it affected my life. At the end of my dad's life he couldn't get on the computer to read my blog. So I avoided my blog. 

I have been in therapy dealing with the grief I have experienced as his disease progressed.  Therapy has helped.  First it was dealing with the my dad's diagnosis (3-5 years life expectancy) and how it would change my life , to would he be able to walk me down the aisle at my wedding (which he did), would he see my child (which he did) all of these and more have been topics I have dealt with.

My dad fought a hard battle with ALS for 7 years, but in the end he grew weak and tired and just couldn't fight any more. 

We had a wonderful memorial service!  My dad donated his body to science with the hope that it may in some way help find a cure for this terrible disease.



Penn State

This picture was taken before the Penn State scandal broke.

 

So what does Penn State have to do with the stoppage in blogging.  Well, you see I grew up going to visit my grandmother just over the mountain from Penn State, and everyone and everything was navy and white and Love Ya Lions. 

 

 After the scandal broke I actually spent less and less time on the computer.  This Internet avoidance was not because of the coverage because what happened is horrible, but because of the nasty comments that people would leave. I didn't think these comments helped anyone- not the victims, not the football team, and not the people who lived in that area around the school. It really just showed me how this entire situation was horrible and I just wanted to avoid the Internet.   

I was actually in State College this Summer at the Arts Festival when the Freeh Report came out.

 

I'm sure I will get some nasty comments after I write this, but I wanted to let you know.  I'm still at Penn State football fan.

Travel

What can I say we have traveled a  lot this summer. 

Our big trips have included a trip to Disney World and Lake Michigan.

 Boo and Bo meeting Buzz Lightyear and Woody.  Disney World was wonderful and always a great place to go.

Bo had a conference in Bay Harbor Michigan and all I can say is it was an AMAZING location and we would love to go there again.

We took serveral day trips and Boo and I went to PA with my Brother, Sister-in-law, Nephew, Niece and my mom.
Getting prepared, cleaning up when returning home all take up more time than imaginable.

Stay at Home Mom

Since I have stopped working it has been hard for me to find a rythmn to my day,  but at after being home for 10 months I have found a rythmn.  I feel just as over extended as I did when I worked but with items that I have choosen to fill my life with.  I really miss my co-worker and thanks to facebook I can keep up with them, but I LOVE my new life as full time mom.  Bo and I made the best choice for us.

Part of being a stay at home mom I have worried about how much exposure my little one has on the internet.  I'm not sure if I have found a comfortable amount of time with that but I will try to figure it out as I go along.

As much as my life is filled with trips to the zoo, library and playdates, it isn't filled with much time to be on the computer. (We don't have smartphones so it isn't easy for me to blog.) But I hope to find enough time to keep you up to date.

Back to Blogging

I have been asked serval (okay a lot) of times:  Why did you stop blogging?

Normally, I don't really have an answer or I don't want to give an honest answer.  But I have been thinking a lot lately that I would love to blog again.  I thought I would let you know why.  It more than likely will take me several post to explain myself, but the following are some of my reasons:

1. Becoming a stay at home mom.

2. Travel.

3. Penn State.

4. My dad died.

The next could of days I hope to let you know a little about each of these topics.