Dear Logan,

You are about to be 10 years old.

I know you think you aren't a kid anymore, but you are my kid.  I know you hate it when I tell people stories about you, but I want to share the awesomeness that is you with everyone I see.  I know you hate it when I embarass you, but it is one of the perks of having given birth to you.  (Just ask Mawmaw, you haven't even SEEN embarassment yet.)  I want everyone to see how wonderful you are in everything you do, so I will tell the funny stories and I will cheer you on at every baseball, basketball, football game (please no), or band concert or robotics club contest you ever enter. 

I also want to protect you from pain and sadness.  When something or someone hurts you it breaks my heart into a million pieces.  I just want to pull you into my arms and squeeze until the pain goes away.

I know I can't do that because you think you aren't a kid anymore. 

So just know that the extra hug tonight at bedtime was me saying that tomorrow will be better. 

My new toy

So my husband loves me.  He really loves me.  And he lets me get basically whatever I want (within reason).  And I told him I would sell my cricut and everything that goes with it if I could buy a Silhouette.  I waited for a coupon code (they are all over the place on a ton of blogs I read) and I bought it!  The angels sang the day I came home and found it on my doorstep.

Of course, I went online as soon as I got it all set up on my laptop and bought a ton of images that I loved.  But my first project was for my son's baseball team.  I decided to make labels for the buckets that are lined up on the back of the dugout that hold the kids gloves and helmets while they are playing games.  Their team is the Hurricanes so I found the logo online and went to work.

There was a little bit of a learning curve, good thing I have lots of ink and paper.

Of course, I couldn't make my first project just a cut project, no, I've got to make things a little difficult and make it a print AND cut.

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong (it had to do with the registration marks) and tada!!

And having to do the same thing 10 times definitely helped me remember the steps.

I'm really excited about making some cute onesies for my niece, I might need to go online and buy some fabric interfacing while it's on sale!

I'm linking up at Serenity Now for Amanda's

Thanks for checking me out!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Yesterday I finally finished that blue and brown blanket I've been working on for what seems like 2 years.  And I started another one with some yarn that was donated to our church group for hospice blankets. 

This is some old stuff ladies.  Kmart is no longer in business around these parts and the skein has a price tag on it that says $1.27!

I'm linking up over at Ambassador Crochet.

Menu Plan Monday #3

Well last week didn't go so well.  We had some crazy cold weather here in town and that made our schedule all jacked up because my Mom had to pick up the boys a few days last week.  Which means Mom cooked dinner and I didn't get to some of my planned recipes. 

So here's the plan this week:

Monday - Cheesy Chili Mac from Weight Watchers (I'm not sure if this link will show up if you aren't a member) 7pts

Tuesday - Chicken Enchilada Soup 8pts with cheese, 5pts w/o the cheese

Wednesday - Chicken Teriyaki with Broccoli from Weight Watchers.  This one came highly recommended by Becky. 7pts

Thursday - Asian Turkey Broccoli Slaw (I put this in my recipe builder with just chopped broccoli and cabbage, WW doesn't recognize broccoli slaw, and I got 2pts eating them as lettuce wraps, extra for tortillas)

Friday - Fish Tacos from last week we never made. 9pts/2 tacos

Logan has started writing tutoring on Tuesdays and Thursdays so those will be the tricky days because it's hard for us to get right home when we are leaving MawMaw's house.  :)

Superbowl Sunday

We have a big party to go to on Superbowl.  I usually drink too many margaritas and snack on too many delicious snacks. 

These are what I'm bringing to the party.

I have a feeling my diet is screwed this week.  But I'm just gonna have fun Sunday and enjoy being with my friends and watching a game that I have absolutely no interest in...and then start again Monday on plan.  I'm doing really well and I like how things are going.

I haven't been working out like I used to either.  I kind of gave up around the holidays and it is so hard to get started again once you quit.  The thing is that I have this strange urge to start running...and it's been WAY too cold for my TX blood to be running outside.  This week might be the week that I HAVE to do something though to even out the weekend glutony.

Good luck to me!

Chicken Stroganoff...and meal plans

So Monday nights dinner was de-lish!

Skinny Chicken Stroganoff from The Pampered Chef.


Please ignore my ugly dishes. =)

The boys approved, they practically licked the bowl.  Logan had 3 bowls!  Jack even ate the mushrooms, even though he didn't know they were in there.  Wahahahaha...I love tricking my kids into eating vegetables.

Tuesday was kind of crazy and we ended up eating dinner at Mom's house, spaghetti, spaghetti tacos for the boys.  Logan ate a taco and a full bowl of spaghetti there.  I think he might be hitting a growth spurt which kind of worries me since he is already only about a foot shorter than me.  I predict a 6th grader that is taller than me in a couple years.

Tonight is Beef Tamale Bake which should be good since there is abnormally cold weather hitting our area.  Snow in Houston=Ridiculous!

Menu Plan Monday #2

Last week went well for our first ever Menu Planned week.  Logan was so excited that he knew exactly what was for dinner every night because I let him help me pick the recipes.

And I lost 2.4lbs. Go Weight Watchers!

Here's the plan for this week.

Monday - Skinny Chicken Stroganoff (7pps)


Tuesday - Blackened Fish Tacos (8pps/2 tacos)

Wednesday - Beef Tamale Bake (7pps)

Thursday - Black Bean Burgers (7pps, 4pps w/o bun, which is how I will probably eat it, buns for the boys)

Friday - Pita Pizzas (about 3pp for 1/2 a pizza)

These are all from The Pampered Chef's "It's Good for You" cookbook. 


And all the points were figured out by me after putting the ingredients in the online recipe builder.  I adapted a few recipes to match some ingredients we had so if you are doing these yourself you might want to build your own recipes.

I love Pampered Chef. And I love Weight Watchers.

I'm linking up at I'm an Organizing Junkie with Menu Plan Mondays.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Yes, I know it's not Wednesday.  I'm a day late (and a dollar short, story of my life).

But here is what I'm working on now...

Corner to Corner throw




a little close up of the stitch pattern.

It is all double crochets, super easy.  This is my go to, easy peasy, no thinking/no counting favorite blanket pattern.

And this is what I finished yesterday (actually ON Wednesday).


It's the Berry Delight pattern from Ambassador Crochet.  I think I did something wrong because the pattern doesn't lay like it does in her picture, so I'm going to try it again.  But I just had to take a picture of my first wearable crochet pattern that actually fits a human head.  :)

I'm linking up to W.I.P. Wednesday over on Ambassador Crochet.

Pizza Roll Up Burritos

These are delicious.  Everyone agreed.

I found the recipe here and I made a few changes to mine to get it down to 6pts per serving! (Yeah baby!)

I used these tortillas (a whopping 1 pt each)


And the mozzarella cheese sticks from WW that are only 1pt. (sorry no pic, and I can't find the image online)

I only make 1/2 the recipe because I was short turkey and I didn't want to make a huge serving of a first time recipe.  I also put the cooked onions and green peppers into the food processor to guarantee a certain little picky eater didn't boycott the dish.

Here's the dish on our fancy pants dinner ware (zoo pal plates for those of you w/o littles)



This will definitely be a regular staple in our kitchen.

Menu Plan Monday #1

I'm trying something new this week.  I've planned out our weekly dinners a la Menu Plan Monday at The Organizing Junkie.  I've always wanted to do this to simplify my life, because as soon as the boys walk in the front door after school they are STARVING.  And they usually eat a ton of snack/junk food before I can get dinner cooked.  That combined with me starting Weight Watchers last Thursday has made me finally break down and try it.  Here's the plan:

Monday - Pizza Roll Up Burritos
( I found some new products that make this meal clock in at only 6 pps!)

Tuesday - Cheeseburger Casserole (from the Weight Watchers website)

Wednesday - BBQ Chicken Chili (from the Weight Watchers website) with cornbread

Thursday - leftovers/oven easies(chicken nuggets, meatballs, taquitos, etc., one, not all!)

Friday - Fiesta Stuffed Peppers

Friday is subject to change to Mexican food and Margaritas out at our favorite mexican restaurant...

Casa Mariachi

depending on how my week goes... :)

So hopefully this will work out and I can do it more often...and blog too.  But you never know about that last part.

Letters to Santa frames

I found this fabulous idea over here on Char's blog. (Love her!)

Started with a couple of these...1/2 price at Hobby Lobby of course

Why exactly does this need to be attached to the frame?  oh, sorry, easily distracted...

A little help from my trusty Cricut...(I hope she hasn't heard me talking about trading her in for a Silhouette!)

Wha-laa!

The boys are going to leave these on the table by Santa's cookies with a little note to him.  Something we do every year.  Santa leaves a note for us too, cause he's a sweetie like that.

What's happening...

Check out what I'm working on...Thank you cards for a sweet little girls 1st birthday party.

I'm also working on building up my albums on my Facebook page so if you aren't a fan on that page, what are you waiting for???

Facebook fan page

I've set up a page on Facebook to sell my cards and crafts.  I don't know what the hell I'm doing (on Facebook that is) because I can't figure any of it out.  And it's connected to my personal page with confuses me on a whole other level.  I'm trying to add a "Like" box to my blog here and of course Facebook picks the one night I'm actually trying to do something on there to suck, hard.  I thought the direct link to my page was www.facebook.com/naomisnest but for some reason that is saying page not found.  If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on what I'm doing wrong I'm all ears.  Please.  PLEASE! 

Ugh.

And if that's not frustrating enough, I can't pass Level 5-21 on Angry Birds to save my life.

Update:  I learned that you have to have 25 fans before you can pick your username.  Why couldn't FB have just told me that when I was trying to set it up?!? 

Etsy

So I set up an Etsy shop for my cards and crafts and such. 

http://www.naomisnest.etsy.com/

Don't laugh because there is only one thing listed.  I'm working on more and last night was full of Glee so I didn't get online.  And while I'm here, a special card I've been working on, by request.  Congratulations, baby girl, pink, brown, elephants were the keywords.

From girly to boyish?

I need some help.  My Mom is giving us this old furniture because Logan needs some furniture in his room.  It looks pretty feminine and obviously it's going to be used in a boy's room.  Any ideas for ways to man up this furniture?  I was thinking of maybe cutting the spools off the bed frame...but the dressers I'm at a total loss.  I'm not even sure we will use the vanity looking one, but we could use that tall dresser. 

Oh, and his bedding is blue, black and lime green stripes/solids. (think Ben 10)

Or should I just put it all on Craigslist and start looking for something more boyish?

Tonight

Tonight I am packing my craft bags and heading to my Mom's house for some much needed girl time and crafty goodness.  I have an large extra bedroom in my house that is my craft room.  I have a ton of stuff that I barely find time to mess with most of the time.  I have packed up the necessities (really, I had to condense it to 4 bags) and I'm hoping to get some stuff made to send with a friend when she does a craft show in November.
 
my bags

And I just finished these coasters, so next week I'm hoping to put up some more posts of some things I got finished at this party.  Be on the lookout!

Jackson, the beginning of baseball

This weekend my baby, my 3 year old, has his first baseball game. Mike is coaching his team. It’s interesting because we’ve been involved in the league since Logan started Tball 5 years ago. But we’ve never had our own team. And Tball-ers at that! They are definitely not known for their long attention spans.

At our first practice, 5 minutes into the warm up time we had a couple kids asking if it was time to go home yet. After a little while I think they got into it and had fun. Jack, of course, being the well mannered and obedient child he always is just ran around doing his own thing half the time. Oh well, sometimes you have to pick your battles huh?


Jack needs a little help on his throwing form...I think he's been watching too much Major League pitching because he thinks that's the only way to throw the ball.


We really need more practice this week but with Tropical Storm Hermine hitting us it looks like that might not happen.  Saturday should be interesting.  Pics to come soon!

My little reader

This weekend Logan wanted to go to the bookstore.  This is the kid I had to bribe last year to read enough to fill up his reading log for school.  So of course we went to the bookstore.  This is what he picked out.  And this is him reading...

He read most of the day...and is over halfway done with the book.  I really love that he found something he loves to read.  I love to read for fun and I hope this is the start of him loving it too.

The long weekend gets even longer...

Mike and I both had a 3 day weekend, which hardly ever happens, so we packed as much into it as we could.  It kind of started Thursday night, when my BFF got us free last minute tickets to the Texans game.  We were close.  This is a pic from our seats, with no zoom.

Then, on Saturday, we celebrated my nephew's first birthday with a party at his house.  The boys absolutely LOVE going over to Aunt LaLa's.  They are staying with her while we are on our cruise in November and every day Logan asks me if it's November yet.  Here's the birthday boy taking a whack at the pinata with the help of Uncle Mike.

And Jack getting in some extra batting practice...

Mike playing with the big kids...
 

Sunday afternoon we all went over to Mom's for some swimming and BBQing...we had fajitas and all the fixins.  The boys stayed with Mom and Dad Sunday night because we were going to a friend's going away party.  Kim, I am going to miss you sooo much!  The rodeo won't be the same without you...(she's the shorty, 2nd from the left)


When we got to the karaoke bar where her going away party was at, I was telling Mike in the car how much I wished Laura was gonna be there because I hadn't seen her in forever.  And guess who practically attacked me when I walked in the door!  Laura!  She is the blonde in the pic next to me.  It was so good to see her and catch up.  We stayed there for a while and then we went to Big Texas to get some dancing in.  And Ladies and Gentlemen, I met my first online blog friend in real life.  Hattie's blog is one of the first I added to my reader and a fellow Mom to boys (she's got me way beat though, she has 4!).  I recognized her when I first saw her fly past me to groove on the dance floor.  It was really neat to meet someone that I feel like I know just from what she writes on her blog.

When we picked up the boys the next day, we found out Jack had gotten sick at Mom's...in the middle of the night and all over her and her bed.  eww.  Sorry Mom.  And then last night Logan was up all night puking.  He stayed home from school today to recover and I got to spend some quality time with him watching Camp Rock 2...for the 20th time so far.  So along with the good comes the bad, but that's life right?

All in all, it was a pretty good run of days off. :)

About me

a little get to know me from my new Twitter friend @issascrazyworld...You can find her blog here.


1. Married? Kids? Names and ages? Animals? I mean if you are willing to tell me. I adore names.


I’m married to Mike, married for 9 years this October.
2 boys, Logan Chase and Jackson Earl

2. If you could have any super power, what would it be?

I think I’d like to be able to make stupid people shut up and just walk away…

3. You’re given 1 million dollars, what do you spend it on?

Probably the house of my dreams, even though we just moved into our house a year ago…I gave up a lot for location.

4. You are having twins. Congrats. What would you name them?

They better be girls! And then they can have the names I picked out for both my boys before I knew they were boys…Grace Elizabeth and Lillian Mari

5. What’s one thing you miss about being a kid?

Summers, they aren’t the same as an adult…and I just miss everyone being healthy and well and young

6. Where would you like to retire too, if money were no option?

The Texas hill country, San Marcos, New Braunfels

7. Favorite cereal?

Cheerios

8. Autobots or Deciptcons?

Autobots all the way

9. Who was your first celebrity crush? Who is it now?

Cory Haim, hmmm…now, I have a lot, but if I had to pick one I’d pick Gary Allan

10. Do you have a best friend? More than one? What’s your favorite quality in each of them?

Robyn…she’s always been there to take care of me and make me laugh and just be the sister I never had.

Jamie…I know no matter what is going on we always understand each other and we’ll always be there for each other.

11. What is one thing you adore about each of your kids? (or spouse. or pet.)

Logan’s sprinkle of freckles across his nose, and that he is so sweet and caring…such a good big brother

Jackson is so smart and funny and really loves to help anyone.

12. What is your most listened too song on iTunes?

No itunes, but I listen to country mostly…Randy Rogers Band

13. What’s a new blog that you love?

www.bloggingdangerously.com

14. Ever been to NYC? What’s one thing I should see/place I should eat?

Never been! Have a blast!

15. Are you going to BlogHer? Would you like to meet me?

No blogher for me, but I would definitely meet you if I was going.