Saturday, December 17, 2011

Christmas yummies

We had a holiday treat theme pot luck at work the other day and I decided to use a few of the ideas I'd found on Pinterest and hope they turned out like they promised.  Of course I waited until 9:00 pm the night before to make them, but since they were both no-bake recipes it was okay after all.

I made "Lumps of Coal" using a recipe from Sweet Peas Kitchen and they were SO easy.  Crushed Oreos, marshmallows and butter.  That's it.  It made a 9x9 pan of them and I cut them into pieces that were about an inch square.  They were a huge hit.

photo courtesy of Sweet Peas Kitchen

I also made "Reindeer Feed" using a recipe from Betty Crocker.  Chex cereal, white almond bark and crushed candy canes.  Talk about a win-win.  

photo courtesy of Utah Deal Diva

I recommend both recipes.  They were easy and didn't take much time at all.  Start to finish probably an hour, but that was because of the 20 minute dry time.

-Kara



Sunday, December 4, 2011

Oreo turkeys

Ezra's class at daycare had a "Fall Feast" on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  I signed up to bring a dessert, because bringing something like buns is really boring.

I searched through my Pinterest to see what I had for good ideas for desserts.  I wanted to make sure there weren't any nuts in it (the neighboring room has a child with a peanut allergy) and I wanted something the kids would eat.

Here's what I made...


They're Double Stuf Oreos with candy corn feathers.  The heads are halves of Tootsie Roll Midgies.  I used orange chunks of candy corn for the beaks and a little string of Twizzlers Pull-n-Peel as the dangly red hangy-down-thing.  The white frosting was used to "glue" the heads on and make eyes and I used brown sprinkles for the eyes.  They aren't as cute as the picture I adapted them from, but that lady was a semi-professional baker, so I don't feel so bad.

The kids loved them!


They got progressively "less cute" the more I made... Probably because it was almost 10pm and I was losing steam.  But the kids didn't seem to notice or care.

I consider this a win.

-Kara

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Halloween

I had grand plans this year.  Lenon would be The Man with the Yellow Hat and Ezra would be Curious George.  It was brilliant and it would be fairly easy.  When I mentioned it to Lenon, I expected him to jump on board.  Boy, that was the opposite of what happened.  He just looked at me like I had asked him to dress as a princess.  So we scrapped that plan.

My next plan was for Ezra to dress up as Woody from Toy Story.  I figured it would be pretty easy... find a shirt and hat at Goodwill, wear his own jeans, make a vest.  Easy.  Well, I didn't find the right shirt from Goodwill, but I refused to order a pre-made costume online.  The hats I found were either really flimsy or like real Stetson cowboy hats.  So I did end up ordering that online.  Ezra was delighted and actually left the hat on!  It was a miracle.  The shirt wasn't perfect -- it was supposed to be yellow with red, but I found one that was yellow with blue.  The boots were borrowed from a friend of a friend.  A couple sizes too big, but I didn't want to spend $30 on boots if I wasn't sure Ez would wear them.  The vest I made using a template from Made but I changed it a little - shortened it and rounded the front.  I glued on the hand cut cow print and stitched around it using embroidery floss.  It turned out really cute.  I also made a holster, but you can't see it very well in the pictures.

"Howdy!"

And wouldn't you know, as soon as we got outside to take pictures, my camera died.  Luckily, Stacy brought Marlee over and she (of course) had her big fancy camera.  I didn't realize until the next day that I forgot to put on the red bandana around his neck.  Oh, well.  He still looks so cute.

Lenon's costume seemed like it would be really easy.  He wanted to be a Mummy.  So I got 6 yards of cheese cloth and had him wear a grey sweatshirt and sweatpants.  But the 6 yards of cheese cloth wasn't enough.  My friend Sara was over with her son Mason and told us about how one year she was a mummy, but she was wrapped in toilet paper.  Light bulb!  We first wrapped Lenon in toilet paper and then cheesecloth.  It turned out really good.


It's a good thing he wasn't near a mirror... because about 15 minutes into walking it started to fall apart. His rear end from waist to mid thigh was drooping and was totally uncovered.  He was a really good sport though and allowed me to put grey eyeshadow around his eyes to look dead.

Here's the whole gang:

Mason as an "army guy" - Lenon as a mummy - Ezra as Woody - Marlee as a kitty

Ezra was delighted when he got candy... so much that he wouldn't let me carry his bag, even after one of the handles broke because it was so heavy.  :)

-Kara

Monday, October 24, 2011

Meeting Plex

One recent Sunday we decided to head to Toys 'R Us for their grand reopening.  We usually don't frequent that store because it's so much more expensive than going to Target.  But we decided to make an exception because a character from Ezra's favorite TV show was going to be there... PLEX from Yo Gabba Gabba!

Ez was very excited to go and wanted me to take his picture outside.  Seriously.  As soon as he sees a camera now he's like "CHEESE!" and makes a funny smile face.  It's adorable.

"Cheese!"

He looks so big wearing a hat.  It's actually an adult sized hat - but we had to make it as small as we could so it would fit him.

Anyway... so we head to Toys 'R Us and wander the aisles.  And there he is.  Plex.  In all his glory.  And of course, Ezra was terrified.  Granted, the Plex he sees on the TV is like 8 inches tall.  This Plex stands over 6 feet tall.

This was the best picture we could get:


Frank tried to get closer, but when he did, Ez would try to climb up him and scramble away.  So this is the shot we got.  It's better than nothing and it proves that we were there.  Maybe it's a good thing that we didn't go to Yo Gabba Gabba Live this year.  He probably would have freaked out.

-Kara


Thursday, October 6, 2011

The Apple Orchard

The local apple orchard is about 10 miles south of town.  We've gone there nearly every year for the last 6 years.  It's become a September tradition.  Usually we go and pick apples... mostly Cortlands because they're beautiful red on the outside and crispy pure white in the middle.  They're our favorite apple.


This year, we went on their Apple Festival weekend.  They had pony rides ($3 for like 3 minutes) and inflatables and a few vendors selling country crafty wares.  They have an older gentleman driving a riding lawn mower and pulling a "train" of wagons behind him that are made from old metal barrels... it's a regular country ho-down.  It's so busy that they have people directing traffic and instructing where to park.  It's a pretty big deal.  They also have a Pumpkin Festival sometime in October.  We may have to hit that one too.



Instead of picking apples, we decided to just buy a bag of apples they had picked, but I was so sad when I realized they were OUT of Cortlands.  I didn't know what to do.  I stood in front of the Cortland cooler and just stared at emptiness.  Then I snapped out of it and grabbed a bag of Honey Crisps instead.  $18.95 later, they were ours.  Yes, they're expensive apples.


Frank and I enjoyed one on the way home and we kept going on and on about how good it was.  It wasn't like a trip my sister and I took once where our grandmother said... "This is the best apple I've had in a while!" and then 10 minutes later, "This apple's crisp but it doesn't have much flavor."





They have a dozen hay bales set up next to an old wagon so people can take pictures so I thought we should be one of "those people" who takes pictures at the apple orchard.

The boys had fun and Lenon got a $4 root beer float.  It was a good day.

-Kara






Thursday, September 22, 2011

Ezra's first haircut

When Ez was born he had a sparse but soft head of light brown hair.  A few months later it had almost all fallen out... and in grew blonde hair.  And since then it's grown and grown.  Then the back started to curl and I couldn't bring myself to cut it.  


For months I've been talking about getting it cut.  Seriously.  Since June.  I had convinced myself that I was going to do it... enough so that I had my photographer friend Stacy take pictures of the "before haircut" Ezra.






I know.  He's seriously so cute.

Anyway.  Haircut.  So I put it off.  I'm really good at putting things off.  It kept turning into "this weekend" or "next weekend" and it never got done.  It almost became a joke.  So 2 weekends ago Stacy and I went to the Sidewalk Arts Festival downtown and she handed me her phone to call the place where I was going to get Ezra's haircut and said "It's ringing."

Yikes.  So I had to make the appointment, and sure enough it wasn't torture.

Here's some photographic evidence.



"Cheese"

The haircut was successful.  He got about an inch cut off from the front and sides and more than that from the back... his hair was becoming a mullet.  Thankfully he still has curls in the back, but the bangs are no longer poking him in the eyes.  

He looks super cute... as always.



- Kara

Monday, September 19, 2011

Super yummy three cheese pasta bake

In my Pinterest addiction, I have created a board of food.  There are currently 111 different recipes and I have tried 2.  This is one of them, and I liked it so much I'm totally hijacking the recipe and distributing it as I see fit... to the 4 people who read my blog.  (Hi!)


Anyway, I love pasta.  Any shape, any size, any color.  It's all delicious.  And I love alfredo.  So this recipe is a win-win.


My not so impressive looking pasta bake

Don't let this terrible picture fool you.  This was delicious.  And the recipe is courtesy of Southern Living, so you know it's good.



Ingredients

  • (16-ounce) package ziti
  • (10-ounce) containers refrigerated Alfredo sauce
  • (8-ounce) container sour cream
  • (15-ounce) container ricotta cheese
  • large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese

Preparation

  • Prepare ziti according to package directions; drain and return to pot.
  • Stir together Alfredo sauce and sour cream; toss with ziti until evenly coated. Spoon half of mixture into a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish.
  • Stir together ricotta cheese and next 3 ingredients; spread evenly over pasta mixture in baking dish. Spoon remaining pasta mixture evenly over ricotta cheese layer; sprinkle evenly with mozzarella cheese.
  • Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until bubbly.


We used rigatoni instead of ziti, just for sport and it was so tasty.  But I must say, all 4 of us ate this and we ended up eating only about half of a 9x13 pan... so next time we are going to cut the recipe in half and just make an 8x8.  We had LOTS of leftovers, which - sadly - wasn't even close to as good the next day.


Try it and let me know if you like it.


- Kara

Thursday, August 18, 2011

A transition

Tomorrow is Ezra's last day in the Starfish room at daycare.  He's been there a year and we've come to know and love the 3 teachers in his room.  It's going to be a sad day.  All this week he's been spending time in his new room, the Peacocks.  Each day it's been a couple hours more than the previous, and each day we get a little report on how the day went.  So far, he has gone right in and started playing with the other kids... no tears, no sadness, no tantrums.  He had lunch in there the last 2 days and napped there today.  I'm glad the transition has been so smooth, but I'm still sad.  Maybe it's because I know my baby is growing up, or maybe it's because I know how much those girls love him and will miss him.

So I decided they needed a gift.  I found this idea and thought it was so adorable...

(via)

I found an adorable yellow Gerbera daisy plant that just so happened to have 3 lovely blooms... one for each teacher.  I can't wait to give it to them tomorrow to brighten an otherwise sad day.


It's not quite as fancy as a typed and printed label, but I think they'll like it. :)



-Kara



Thursday, August 11, 2011

Ezra-isms

Ezra has been talking up a storm.  It's like someone flipped a switch and our mostly babbling baby has turned into a sentence speaking genius. (Okay, I might be a little biased.)


  • "More (fill in the blank).  Yes?"
    • This is how he asks for things.  And when he says "yes" he nods.
  • "Mow-en it"
    • Not sure how he came up with this one but this means "open it"
  • "Bloun choc-o-let muck"
    • Brown chocolate milk.  He is very deliberate in his pronunciation of chocolate.
  • "Mommy-chino!  Mmmm!"
    • This is what he said the other day when I got a frappuccino from Starbucks.
  • "Help you"
    • This means he wants help.  Instead of "help me" he says "help you"
  • "Hold you"
    • Again, instead of saying "hold me" it's "hold you"
  • "Hah-veet"
    • When he wants to give us something...  "Mommy hah-veet" means he wants me to have something.
  • "Oh, no! Do?"
    • This is short for "Oh, no!  What did you do?"  I think I said this once ever; when he took all the diapers out of the drawer we keep them in and tossed them around the living room.
  • "Jeffy"
    • This is the name of Jessie from Toy Story
Recently he has discovered a love for powder.  I read in a magazine that the best way to get sand off wet, sticky feet was to keep a little container of powder in your beach bag.  Boy, they weren't kidding.  That stuff is like magic.  So anyway, I've been using it on his feet when he comes home from daycare, since he loves the sandbox.  He has started to ask for me to put it on his hands and then he rubs them together and nods and says "Mmmm" because it must feel good.


He also loves freezee pops.  Usually we cut them in half and he chomps them down.  He has even started requesting specific colors.  His favorite part is the juice that collects in the bottom of the plastic.  He will sometimes pull the popsicle out of the plastic just to drink the juice and then wants us to put it back.

A ritual when we leave the daycare each day is naming colors on vinyl play mats.  They have a few foam mats that are covered in colored vinyl, like the ones gymnasts use.  They are 4 different colors and he will go stand on by it and we will recite colors and he'll go stand on the right color.  We always cheer for him and lately he has been getting them all right.  See what I mean about him being a genius?

-Kara


Monday, July 18, 2011

Ezra's birthday

It has been obscenely hot here lately.  No, I'm serious.  Like, make-you-want-to-cry hot.  Today it was 98 degrees with a heat index of 111.  No joke.  It's so hot that Frank and I pulled out the one window air conditioner in our house and hooked it up in the dining room/play room and we've hung up blankets in the doorways and basically quarantined ourselves into 2 rooms in our house.  We've set up the air mattress and Ezra's play yard for him to sleep in and Lenon has been sleeping on the floor.

On Sunday we decided to go looking for another window air conditioner and there were none to be found all over town.  The one place where we did find one, it was $399.  And that's insane.  So we bought another standing oscillating fan instead.  As I type this it's 10:30 pm and still 87 degrees.  We have the air conditioner on high and all 6 of our fans going full-blast.

Rumor has it that the heat will be less bad on Thursday... which means we'll still have to endure another few days of this sickening heat.  It's sad that I've been looking forward to going to work, simply for the air conditioning.

Needless to say, I haven't done any sort of DIY anything in the last couple weeks.  I haven't even gotten my sewing machine out from under the pile of stuff on top of it... Maybe this weekend she'll come out to play.

Today is Ezra's birthday.  I can't believe he's 2.  We went out to eat at the cute little diner downtown.  He got a PB&J and fresh fruit, but ended up eating about half of my fries when he saw that there was "dip" aka Ranch.  He loves dip so much it's gross.  Last week he even insisted on dipping a waffle in it.  Frank thought he'd prove a point by letting him have some, but sure enough, we heard yummy sounds coming from his mouth after he dipped his waffle and ate it.

Here are a couple pictures from our trip to California.  I forgot my camera at home (brilliant, I know).  So I only got a few pictures this trip.  It was a whirlwind trip this time.  Not sure why it seemed so short... I guess because we were so busy everyday.  Next time I'm staying longer than a week.

My dad took us to the Zoo and Ezra loved it.  We got REALLY close to one of the "grillas"

He found this blow up guitar at Holly's house and thought it was pretty awesome. 
(Poor Riley didn't know what to think.)

So cute.

Hopefully in the next couple weeks the weather will be less terrible so my friend Stacy can take his 2 year old pictures.  And hopefully by then I'll be able to muster up the courage to take him for a hair cut.  It's getting so shaggy and he keeps pushing it out of his eyes.  I'm sure I'll cry when those curls come off.

-Kara

Sunday, June 19, 2011

I Spy bottles

I've seen I-Spy bottles everywhere lately.  I'm still not sure if Ezra is old enough to really get it, but I made him a couple anyway.  I surely wasn't going to spend $17.95 on one and this one is like the size of a 1 liter bottle.  Who has space for that when they're traveling?

Here's what I made:



I started looking for a small clear bottle that wasn't glass to make my own.  I didn't want wavy plastic sides like a Gatorade bottle and it had to be clear enough to see the little toys and stuff through.  Of all places, I found that the little 6 or 8 ounce milk containers from Burger King were perfect.  So the other day at the mall, I got a chocolate and a white milk - mostly for the bottles and partly because Ezra has learned the deliciousness that is chocolate milk.  We still keep it less than 1/3 chocolate milk to 2/3 white milk, but he thinks it's pretty special.  He has started learning his colors and was calling it "bloun" for about 2 days before we figured out that he meant "brown."  I know, we're smart.

Anyway, I digress.  I had found a ziploc bag of "bead soup" at Hobby Lobby in their clearance section that was filled with different shapes and sizes of beads.  And I also found Poly-Fill poly pellets at Walmart for about $5 for a huge bag.

My favorite part was digging through the bead soup for treasures to put in the bottles.  Here's what I came up with for each bottle:
"E" for Ezra, yellow boat, penny, paperclip, turtle, dolphin, buttons and assorted others

Another "E" for Ezra, a guitar pick from Daddy, a giraffe, a rhino, a lady bug and various others

I took pictures of each one so I can print them in wallet size and tape them to the sides of the bottles.  Then he'll know what to look for.  Not sure if I'll have time to do that before leaving on Wednesday for California, but that's the plan.

I put the treasures in the bottles and poured the poly pellets in - making sure not to fill it all the way up.  You have to leave some space for them to move around.  Then I put a thick line of permanent E6000 glue around the top and put the lid on tight.

Here are some close ups of the finished bottles.



Hopefully they'll be fun and entertaining and quiet for our plane ride.

-Kara

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Crib sheets

I found this wonderful tutorial for making crib sheets on Made a few months ago when I first started my blog obsession.  It seemed so easy.  So I went searching for the right fabric to give it a try... and I found these at a thrift store:


That's right - a set of sheets.  Adorable sheets.  But also, sheets for a twin bed - only a fitted and a flat.  No pillow case, which sort of bummed me out, but whatever.

Cute little fish and an octopus

 
Target organic cotton sheets (Ooo! Fancy!)

So I bought them.  For $2.99.  It was a super bargain.  I brought them home and sliced the whole fitted edge off the fitted sheet with my slick little rotary cutter and started cutting to the specifics of the patters.  Then I sewed up the corners and the edges all around, fed the elastic through and sewed it closed.

And lickety split, I was done.

Ta-da!


And there it is.  Isn't it fabulous?  And that was only the sheet I made from the fitted sheet.  I still have the whole flat sheet left.  And hopefully with a little better organization with my cuts I'll be able to make a pillow case for one of those flat little travel pillows.  And the wonderful thing about this is that a toddler bed uses a crib mattress so Ez will be able to enjoy his "feesh" sheets even longer.

-Kara

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Quiet Book

I've been trying to come up with ways to keep Ezra entertained and preferably quiet during certain tense situations... like waiting at the doctor's office, or waiting to get our food at a restaurant, or on an airplane.  And since he and I are going to visit our California family in about a month, I thought I'd better get on it.

I saw a pin on Pinterest of a quiet book, and I was inspired.  However, all the blogs I've read talk about all the work and time involved, so this task is a bit daunting.  So in the past 3 days I've been working on compiling a list of all the ideas I have for pages and then starting to draw them out and possibly eliminate some that I could always add later (since I'm going the 3 ring, add pages as your child grows to route vs. the completely sewn together way) or eliminate ones that are duplicates.

Here are a few pictures of some of the WONDERFUL pages I've found that I'm going to base my pages from.


and



and


and 


These pages are so fantastic.  I seriously can't wait to get started!  Joann's is having a 50% off sale on all their notions starting Friday so I'm going to work on deciding on which pages I'm going to make and then make a list of all the supplies I need so I can go on Saturday and get stocked up.  Hopefully if I have a plan for each page and have the template drawn out it won't take as long.

Wish me luck!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Greg



Ezra's best friend in the whole world is a Ty stuffed penguin that we named Greg.  We were strolling through Barnes and Noble one day when he was about 8 months old and he spotted Greg (and some of his penguin friends) on a shelf in the kid's section.  It was love at first bite, er, sight.  See, the minute Greg jumped off the shelf and into Ezra's outstretched hands (with a little help from Mama) Ezra promptly chomped down on Greg's beak and they became instant friends.  Greg's beak has been Ezra's replacement for a pacifier.  Around the time Greg found his way into our lives, paci's were on their way out.  


Greg gets baths regularly (because the beak chomping continues) and we decided to buy a Greg clone just in case one gets lost.  They take turns keeping Ez company at night so they have similar wear, and Ez doesn't know the difference.  Or maybe he does and he doesn't care.  Either way, we now have 2 Gregs that share Ezra's love and affection.  It's probably the best $16 I've ever spent.
Ez with Greg... all ready for bed.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Thirty Before Thirty - Part 3

It's the final countdown... er, the final 9 items on my Thirty Before Thirty list.

GIVE
22.  Donate to Goodwill monthly
We have boxes upon boxes in our basement that need to be sorted.  I have a closet FULL of clothes and I only wear about a third of them.  Both of those things mean that I need to donate some of my stuff to Goodwill.  We've taken 2 trips in the past month and it feels really good to get rid of stuff.
23.  Trade babysitting with a friend for a monthly date night with the hubs
I should really approach a few friends about this idea.  My kids aren't hard.  In fact, Lenon visits his mother every other weekend so if we went to dinner or whatnot on a weekend that he was gone it would just be Ezra.  And Ez goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 each night.  I'm sure one of my friends would be game.

BUSINESS
24.  Have professional business photos taken
This shouldn't be hard.  My friend Stacy is a photographer.  My thing about it is actually getting in front of the camera.
25.  Learn about getting a business license for my Etsy shop
If I really want to make a go of selling products I make, I should really look into being licensed.  I have no idea what that entails, so I should probably do some research.
26.  Create 5 different items to sell on Etsy
I have TONS of ideas, but I need to work on execution.  And then I need to calculate wholesale vs. retail prices so I'm not making something that's putting me in the hole.
27.  Sell my first item
Sounds easy enough... not really something I have much control over.  But I do have control over stocking the Etsy shop.  So as soon as I complete #26 I can work on this one.

FINANCES
28.  Plan a budget and stick to it
I'm good a planning a budget.  Even down to creating formulas in Excel and having it calculate for me when I type in our income vs. bills.  It's just sticking to it that's the problem.  We really need to work on a savings account.  Right now our jobs are pretty secure, but we've seen hundreds of people get laid off from the company Frank and I both work for and that's scary.
29.  Pay off credit cards
We only have a couple and they have low limits which we did on purpose.  Being that we both work for a credit card company, we know the in's and out's of credit cards and don't want to dig ourselves a hole we can't get out of.  So it shouldn't be hard to pay them off, but it's definitely something I want to do within the coming months.
30.  Pay off car
This one might be tricky.  We have almost 2 years left on our loan, but I was calculating and if we added 25% to our monthly payments and then used a portion of our tax return next year, we could do it.


Well, those are my goals for the year.  I have big plans for them.  Hopefully they cooperate.  


And once I'm done, we'll be looking at this...


(via)

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Thirty Before Thirty - Part 2

More of my list of thirty things I want to do before I turn thirty...



ME
8.  Get a new tattoo
I've been wanting a new tattoo for a couple years.  Still haven't decided what or where, but I have ideas...
9.  Lose 75 pounds
This is reasonable.  I could do it.  I just have to get my act together and start.
10.  Accessorize my outfit everyday
When I look nice I feel way better about myself.  And I have TONS of jewelry and hardly ever wear it.  So I've started wearing some sort of accessory type item daily, and sure enough, I've started to feel more put together.  And I'm gaining compliments.  Win-win.
11.  Take a vitamin daily
I should have been doing this forever.  I took them diligently while pregnant but stopped after Ez was born.  My friend Karen from work let me try these adult gummy vitamins and they're actually good.  And she's brilliant and keeps them at work so she doesn't forget to take them.  Of course I'll keep a bottle at home too for the weekends.  Now I just have to make it to Sam's Club this weekend to pick some up.
12.  Throw away all old socks and buy new ones
I know this one seems silly, but you should see the mess that is my sock collection.  Half of them have holes or are faded or so stretched out that I have to match a stretched out one with another stretched out one, simply for continuity.  It's sad.
13.  Learn how to use my camera and use it
Instead of waiting and saving for a DSLR camera I got a glorified point and shoot.  And I've regretted it ever since.  But I spent $250 on it and I need to use it.  But first I need to learn how to use the features.
14.  Blog at least twice per week
This blog thing is fun and new... and I don't want to have it be like another project where it ends up falling by the wayside.  
15.  Read 50 books
I'm a reader.  I love to read.  And reading 50 books in a year shouldn't be hard... but I want to make sure I stay on top of it, so I'm going to keep track and see how I do.
16.  Find and buy a dining table with 6 chairs
We have a K-Mart dining table and 4 chairs.  It's sturdy and in good shape and was the perfect size for our apartment.  But now with having friends over for dinner and stuff, our little table is just too little.  So I'm on the lookout for a decent table with 6 chairs.  I check Craigslist daily...
17.  Take an overnight getaway with the hubs
This one is fun and a little scary at the same time.  I've never spent an overnight away from Ezra.  In fact, Frank and I have only really gone out and had someone babysit him twice.  I'm a little bit of an overprotective freak.  But my excuse is that my family all lives far away and Frank's lives far enough away (3 hours) that they couldn't watch him either.  I have a couple friends who I'd trust enough to watch him, but it's just getting myself psyched up enough to allow it.  I'm getting there...
HEALTH
18.  Work out at the gym at work twice a week
I'm a member of the fitness center at work.  I pay $15 a month which is automatically deducted from my paycheck.  They have 5 treadmills, a couple recumbent bikes, a couple ellipticals and weight equipment.  When I first joined about a year ago, I went pretty religiously a couple times a week.  Then in January I got a sinus infection and pink eye, so I could barely breathe to walk let alone work out.  Then in February I got bronchitis, so once again, I couldn't breathe.  And since then I haven't been to the gym.  I need to go back and plan to on Thursday.
19.  Work out at home at least once a week
I have a couple of workout DVD's that I've gotten in the last couple years.  One is yoga that is specific for plus sized ladies like myself.  Sad thing is that sucker hasn't even come out of the wrapper.  Oops.  And it's starting to get nice here, so it's getting to be time to start taking walks after dinner.  I can hardly wait for this rain and mud to be gone.
20.  Go to the dentist
We have great insurance.  Really great.  Yet I haven't been to a dentist in years.  The last time was to dig my wisdom teeth out of my face.  I was traumatized.  But I really need to go.  I have a couple places where I know I have cavities and I need to take care of them before I need to have the whole dang tooth pulled like a friend of mine did because she couldn't afford a root canal.
21.  Go to the gyno 
I know.  Yearly.  That's why the exam is called your "yearly" exam.  Once again, I'm really good at putting things off.  But I'll call and make an appointment... maybe next month.


Tomorrow I'll post the final nine items on my list.  Stay tuned.


-Kara