Let's Hear it for Jo!

Today is the birthday of one of the best friends a girl could ask for, Angie Jo!

Yea Angie, turning the big 3-0! Yikes!

To show my true love for some Angie Jo, I attempted my very first ever angel food cake last night. Angel food cake happens to be Angie's fave so I spent a little (lot) time a whippin' some egg whites. We'll have to see what the good word is when I make delivery today!

Angie is the proud mama of Miss Mallory

Not Candy and Flowers

I saw this article on msn.com and felt it was worth sharing. It's certainly not your typical candy and flowers...!

Zoos Cashing in on Valentine's With Sex Tours

Ice Box Showdown

Last night I stood looking at my fridge, wondering if anyone else's is as messy as mine? I've got the requisite photos, array of magnets, kiddie art, kiddie games and dentist appointment reminders. Holy smokes, it's full!

What could be better than seeing the front of my messy fridge? Seeing the inside, like on MTV's Cribs! Here it is in full glory. You'd never believe that I have enough groceries to get us to this weekend, would you?!

Now that I have shown you my fridge, I want to see yours! No rearraging, no cleaning. Go grab your camera and shoot. I won't do an official tag but I'm not above it! If you are not a blogger, email your pic to me. Maybe we can have a little game of Guess Who's Fridge?

Lovely Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope that you all receive a heartfelt 'I love you' today and maybe even a smooch or two!

We haven't hit our goal with the Blogger Challenge but I'm still holding out hope for a seventh inning homer! With two proposals fulfilled we have brought joy and education to two classrooms. Woo hoo! If you are interested in making a last minute donation, please click here.

I wanted to snap a picture of Ella blowing everyone a Valentine's kiss. And this is what I got!

I laughed and laughed and then laughed some more when I saw this!

Goofy Girl

Potato Soup

I have always like potato soup, just as long as it was prepared by someone else. Mine never seemed to turn out quite right. That is until I tried this recipe from Allrecipes.com. This is by far the best potato soup that I have had, much less made!

This recipe is very flexible in that you can add veggies or leave out the ham and it will still be great. I highly recommend topping it with some shredded cheese, chopped green onion and possibly some crumbled bacon. Yum! It also feezes beautifully.

Give this a try next time you feeling like some warm, creamy soup (especially on a cold winter night!).

Delicious Ham and Potato Soup

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 25 Minutes
Ready In: 45 Minutes
Yields: 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:
3 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
1/3 cup diced celery
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
3/4 cup diced cooked ham
3 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon ground white or black pepper, or to taste
5 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk

DIRECTIONS:
1. Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken bouillon, salt and pepper.

2. In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes.

3. Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through. Serve immediately.

Arcade Mania

Friday night I did something that I haven't done in YEARS (close to 20)!

We went out with Angie and Scott and to kill time before supper we hit the arcade in the mall. You would think that a group of four 'grown ups' would feel awkward in a place full of 10 year olds. You would think. We got our hot hands on some tokens and beelined it straight for the Skee Ball machine. Hot damn, Skee Ball! I haven't played it since Showbiz Pizza in Athens. The little lane that you roll the balls on seemed much shorter than I remember... hmmm...

By the time our table at the restaurant was ready, we had won 175 tickets. Just enough to trade for some cheap-o toys and plastic bracelet!

Feel the Love

Have you seen the thermometer at the right? We have one proposal that is fully funded (how exciting!) and are really feeling the love. But we need a wee bit more love!

The deadline for the challenge is coming up fast and we really want to succeed! If you have not, please consider making a tax deductible donation to some very deserving school kids. Every little bit helps! You can make a donation in honor of someone if you like, which is what I did because I happen to have the strongest grandaddy on the face of the planet!

(Because I'm shameless, I'm going to plug the TIME magazine proposal because it's the one I chose!)

Just ease your mouse right over here. It's good stuff.

E is getting sassy, looking for a few more donors!

Book Fair

Today in my little mailbox at preschool I was given a flyer for Scholastic books. I don't know if they are having a book fair but it was the exact thing that we used to get in elementary school when we had a book fair.

I went home at lunch and perused it for good deals or just great books in general. I had the best time looking through it with much the same excitement that I did in elementary school. I loved book fair day! (Except for the time that a book called 'Megan the Klutz' was popular and everyone called me that, but I digress...)

Way back when, Mom would give us a dollar limit of how much we could spend and I struggled with deciding which book to get. But here's the thing: I'm a big girl now and I can buy whatever I damn well please! Yea for the book fair and new books! Just as long as none of them are called 'Ella the Klutz'.

I'm It

I have been tagged.

It's a sneaky game in the blogger world where your *friends* or fellow bloggers call you out to post about a certain subject. Now I'm it, thanks to Andria, and I've got to spill 5 things about myself that y'all might not know or just quirks in general. Yippee!

1) I have to set the alarm clock to go off at a time that ends with a three or seven. Definitely no zeros or fives. Two, four, six, eight and nine are iffy because I think they are too close to zeros or fives.

2) I don't let the microwave get down to zero and go off if I'm in the room. I think it has something to do with hearing the beep because if I'm not in the room, it's OK.

3) I am quite possibly the world's worst 'history' person. I don't know what happened to who, when and where. I can't seem to keep it all straight. It could have something to do with cheating my way through Mr. Page's US History class... hmmm. I always end up asking David about historical events because he's like a history textbook, which leads me to #4.

4) I have a serious need to prove my intelligence to David. Not that he thinks I am unintelligent but because he is soooo smart. Poor Angie and Scott had to witness this as we played Fact or Crap one night. It was NOT pretty!

5) I absolutely can not leave drawers or cabinets open. Can not. If I notice that someone else has left them open, I'll go close them. It just seems so messy and wrong to me!

(Here I go, going past 5. Who knew I had more than 5 quirks?!)

6) When I take a shower I do everything in the exact same order. Shampoo, wash, rinse shampoo, conditioner, shave, rinse conditioner. I've thought about changing the order, just to say that I don't always do it the same, but I won't. Any other way is inefficient to me.

7) In most situations where numbers are involved I find myself doing unnecessary calculations. For example, if we were to go out to a restaurant where there was a 45 minute wait with six people ahead of us, I would calculate how many minutes should be between each person getting seated. Many times the numbers aren't quite that easy to crunch but I try to do it anyway.

8) I'll eat food that's cold. Not just luke warm, but straight out of the fridge. And not just pizza either. Mashed potatoes, casseroles, mac and cheese. Yum!

I swear that I am not as crazy as I sound! Right?! In an effort to make myself feel better, I am going to spread the goodness and officially tag Marisa, Laura and Karen. Here it is, girls. Hop to it.

Ella displays her own little OCD quirk and puts all of her horses in a line.

Lookie Lookie Lookie!

YEA!! Ella wrote her name for the first time! I am SO excited!

(Don't forget to Share the Love on Valentine's Day and donate! Don't know what I'm talking about but wish you did? Click here.)

Mermaid

Ella got some bath water color tablets for her birthday and the flavor for last night was blue. I thought it made a nice contrast with the white tub.

Share the Love on Valentine's Day!

What are you giving/getting for Valentine's Day? "Ugh", you say, "I don't even want to think about it". Yes, I know. Women really only want a heart felt "I love you" and to be relieved of supper duty (assuming that there is no hope for jewelry - we always want jewelry!). Men really only want one thing and it doesn't cost anything... ahem.

Don't let the traditional Valentine's Day fare trap you. Flowers, while beautiful, have a definite, very brief life span. Chocolate, yum... chocolate, only adds minutes to your workout. You might be best to give/get an aloe plant and a box of oatmeal. Handy, yes. Romantic, no.

That's why four of the most intelligent, good looking bloggers I know and I have partnered to promote a super duper special Valentine's Day project. Instead of buying gifts that are a mere motion, how about involving some emotion?

We (Niki, Andria, Ashley, Jeff and I) have chosen four proposals from DonorsChoose.org and we are asking you to help fund them. DonorsChoose is a website specifically set up for teachers across the country to request help for classroom projects, books, supplies, etc. What a wonderful way to put your money to good use!

We have a blogger challenge set up to see if we can get these proposals funded before Valentine's Day. Take a look.

Writing with 'Bare' Books

Capture Learning with a Digital Camera

TIME Magazine for Kids

Dramatic Reading Needs Props

If you are interested in contributing to one of these (and I hope that you are!) please do so via the challege website. That way we will know what funding we are bringing in rather than someone else.

Blog Challenge

As a little incentive: If you decide to contribute to these very worthy causes, let me know. There just might be a construction paper Valentine's Day card colored by a 3 year old in it for you! And maybe even a homemade delish cookie!

If you are a fab blogger and are not included in the challege but want to be, feel free to link to me or post your own plea!

Surely you can't deny this plea?!

Second verse, same as the first

And the snow came down. Again. And will probably be back on Friday. The great thing is that the steam lines run under some of the sidewalks on campus and keep the snow melted!

Outside the Animal Science building

Report

It seems that preschool is a real hit. I haven't been able to get Ella to tell me a whole lot of stuff, but she's really excited whenever she does! The teachers tell me that she is doing well making friends, listening, following directions and not being shy. One of them mentioned that she was very talkative... you think?!

This morning when I dropped her off, Ella showed me some of the art work she did yesterday with the letters of her name and some glitter. That's what I like to see! The teacher mentioned that today they are making Valentines for the troops and I thought that was fantastic. I think we're going to like it there!

In honor of Ella doing all kinds of art, I'm posting this picture of Ella in her kids apron from one home impovement store. She has an apron from the other one but just so happened to put this one on. I don't want to get in an orange/blue war, so I'm remaining neutral! (FYI: Jim is a store manager for HD and Marisa is a long time, die hard Lowe's HR manager.)

First Day of School

Today was the first day of preschool for Ella!! She was so charged up about being a big school girl! I made sure that we got there early enough for her to adjust before I had to leave... I shouldn't have worried. She lit a blue streak when we got into the classroom and I had to ask her to come give me a hug!

All bundled up and ready for school!

Weekend

This weekend has been fairly uneventful, which is A-OK with me! Hopefully I can get inspired to use the rest of the day to do some cleaning (ah, the never ending task of cleaning!). We'll see.

One thing that we did do was go to a bullriding last night. Ella just loves to watch rodeos and cowboys so she was pretty excited to go. Once she was dressed, I caught her stiking a pose telling me "This is how cowboys stand". Right she was. (The boots she's wearing are a pair that she got for her birthday and Christmas from Andria and the fam at Andria's Random Thoughts. So cute!)

Notice the buckin' bull in her hand? He's a favorite toy of hers.

OH! One other thing that happened this weekend (that I almost forgot!) went like this:

7:45 am Saturday I think I hear Ella's footsteps.

7:46 am No more footsteps. Go back to sleep.

8:00 am I think I hear footsteps.

8:00:30 am Ella's standing by my side of the bed.

Her: "Feel my cold hands, Mommy!"

Me: "Wow. Your hands are cold. Why?"

Her: "Because I just washed them... and my face."

Me (suspiciously): "Why did you need to wash your hands and face?"

Her: "Because there was chocolate all over them."

Me: "Were you eating chocolate (the Tobelerone pieces in a bowl on the counter)?"

Her: "Yes, Mommy. Two pieces. I left you one."

Weeeell, how about that?!

I learned two things. 1) If you think you hear footsteps, you probably do and 2) Get up.

I also found four good things to be said about this little episode. 1) Ella had sense enough to wash up 2) She was honest enough to tell me 3) She was kind enough to leave me a piece and 4) Her breakfast was already taken care of!

Dressed Up Girls

Litte Miss in her Cinderella dress and slippers. Look at those toes!

And then Maggie got in on the show, whether she knew it or not!

R & R

Yea! Grandaddy went home today! There's nothing quite like being home when you need to get some rest and recuperation. I'm sure he will be back to jump roping in no time!

Blue Eyed Girl