This is a true story. Promise.
A teacher I work with has three daughters. The youngest is 10 and in the 4th grade. Just recently she had a talk with her mom about the Tooth Fairy. Yesterday, we were told the conversation they had...
Daughter: "Mom, are you really the Tooth Fairy?"
Mom: "Yes, dear."
{short pause while the daughter is thinking}
Daughter: "So, does this mean you are the Easter Bunny too?"
Mom: "Yes, dear..."
{Another pause...wheels are spinning in her head...thinking longer}
Daughter: (sounding a little disappointed) "Are you Santa Clause too?"
Mom: "Yes, Honey."
Daughter walked away disappointed now knowing that everything she believed in wasn't "real".
A few minutes later, the daughter walks back in the room after thinking again for one final question.
Daughter: "Mom, are you God?"
My coworker told us they had another conversation about this subject.
When I was told this story I could not stop laughing. Not only is it so funny, but bless her heart, she really thought about it! It was just too cute!!
Story of the year.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
The Dirty Dozen (Eating Clean)
Josh and I are not 100% clean eaters but we try to do our best. We would love to eat clean but it can be very expensive and honestly we are on the go all the time and just don't have time to make those extra trips to different stores. I don't want to make excuses, but we have just decided that right now is not the best time to focus on this but that we will do the best we can.
Trying to eat clean is important to us for many reasons. The main reason is due to the pesticides used in produce. It's so difficult to avoid everything that is bad for you, but adding a little to the list at a time is a start. I was doing some research a while ago and found this great list on the dirty dozen.
The Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce will allow you to see which produce items contain the most pesticides thus allowing you to avoid the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables.
So when in doubt, try to by organic especially when purchasing genetically modified (G*M*O) foods. Also, if you live in California there was a bill on the ballot to make it mandatory that G*M*O food is labeled in grocery stores. Sadly (in my opinion), it didn't pass.
Trying to eat clean is important to us for many reasons. The main reason is due to the pesticides used in produce. It's so difficult to avoid everything that is bad for you, but adding a little to the list at a time is a start. I was doing some research a while ago and found this great list on the dirty dozen.
The Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce will allow you to see which produce items contain the most pesticides thus allowing you to avoid the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables.
So when in doubt, try to by organic especially when purchasing genetically modified (G*M*O) foods. Also, if you live in California there was a bill on the ballot to make it mandatory that G*M*O food is labeled in grocery stores. Sadly (in my opinion), it didn't pass.
It's also great to know about the Clean 15, which are the lowest foods in pesticides. We try to always buy the Dirty Dozen organically and the Clean 15 just in the regular areas. Gotta save some money!
Do you eat clean?
What do you think about pesticides in food?
I'm always wanting to learn more, so please let me know!!
Sunday, November 25, 2012
For the southern ladies
If you didn't already know, I am a 5th grade teacher. We departmentalize (aka switch classes) so I teach Social Studies to all four 5th grade classes. In Social Studies, we learn all about the different regions of the United States. We are slowing "touring" them and looking at important and/or interesting places in each region. Before we went on Thanksgiving break, we started the Southeast Region. We have visited Everglades National Park, Kennedy Space Center, and Disney World! We will finish up the region this week.
This is where I need your help...
I want to do a little presentation all about Southern dialect/sayings and traditions. I know some information--all of my dad's family {and J's family} are from the south but none of them are living there anymore--but I'd love to have more.
Here are a few things I want to know from you...
1) What are some daily words you use that are only heard of in the south? {"buggy", "picture made", "Don't be ugly", etc}
2) What traditions do you have in the south that are not found anywhere else? {Pickle in the tree?}
3) Best part about living in the south? {aside from the nice weather}
Thank you so much for your help! I will let you know how it goes!! :)
This is where I need your help...
I want to do a little presentation all about Southern dialect/sayings and traditions. I know some information--all of my dad's family {and J's family} are from the south but none of them are living there anymore--but I'd love to have more.
Here are a few things I want to know from you...
1) What are some daily words you use that are only heard of in the south? {"buggy", "picture made", "Don't be ugly", etc}
2) What traditions do you have in the south that are not found anywhere else? {Pickle in the tree?}
3) Best part about living in the south? {aside from the nice weather}
Thank you so much for your help! I will let you know how it goes!! :)
Sunday Social
Linking up with Neely for Sunday Social
Name 4 jobs you’ve had in your life.
Nanny for triplets-3 summers...that was interesting!
Waitress at a local diner-This was my favorite job. I'd still work there on weekends and holidays if it was still open :(
B&BW sales person-I did this for one Christmas break in college and did not like it.
Dairy Queen-I worked there for 3 years in high school and had the best time with great friends!
Name 4 movies you would watch over and over.
Sweet Home Alabama
You've Got Mail
27 Dresses
Just Friends
When Harry Met Sally
Sleepless in Seattle
Enchanted
Okay, more than 4...but I love them!
Name 4 places you have lived.
My parents first (suburb of Columbus)
My parent's second and third home where I grew up (another suburb of Columbus)
College
My home (suburb of Columbus)
Name 4 of your favorite foods.
Tacos X5
A good salad
Veggie Potstickers
Name 4 things you always carry with you.
Cell phone
Purse
Sweatshirt/jacket (I'm always cold)
Book (90% of the time)
Name 4 places you have been on vacation.
Disney
OBX
Chicago
Virginia Beach
Friday, November 23, 2012
Furbaby Fotos
Waiting to decorate for Christmas will leave you to take a lot of pictures of your furbabies...
Always into something
Seriously mom?
Love his tail!
Glamour Shots
I've had enough
Evil eye
We're done
A few hours later...
I guess you found me upstairs...
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Winner Winner Turkey Dinner!!
{via random.org}
Don't forget that you can get 15% off your order by using the code FALL2012
Big thank you to Diane from BlueBird Couture for asking me to host this giveaway!!
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
My mom did not prepare me to cook a Thanksgiving feast
Don't forget to enter my BlueBird Couture giveaway! Ends TODAY!
Last week I talked about my Thanksgiving decor problem. If you missed it, you can find it here. J's family is coming for Thanksgiving dinner and I have no idea what I'm going to do with the table...still. But that is the least of my worries.
Let me tell you a little story about my mom and Thanksgiving dinner cooking.
My mom is not a cook. She will tell you she has gotten better, which I guess she has, but she's still no Paula Dean Rachael Ray. Therefore I know very little about cooking. I can bake. I don't know where that came from but I'd like to say I bake well. Unless it's a pie. Or cookies. Okay, I can bake cakes and cupcakes well. Trust me on that.
So when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner I'm in trouble. Thank goodness J's parents are amazing cooks and they are bringing most of the food. Southern food, might I add, which just makes it better! And what does that leave me with? Well, I get to make a small ham, salad, green beans, and mac and cheese. They know me well. These are the things I can cook! Kind of...
Here is how the a conversation went with my mom about dinner.
Me: "I have to make a small ham."
Mom: "Oh, that will be good!"
Me: "But there's a problem."
Mom: "What's that?"
Me: "I have no idea how to make a ham"
Mom: "HAHA" (This went on for several minutes)
silence
Me: "You do realize this is your fault, right? You never taught me! You just had to order Thanksgiving!"
Mom: "I know. That makes it even better."
Yep, you read it right. Any time we had Thanksgiving at our house my mother had dinner catered. She would rather spend the extra money than try to cook it on her own (because it's been know to not work out). I always thought this was normal. People get their dinner catered. No biggie. Until I went to college and realized that most people don't do this. It's not like we have people come in serving us. In fact, we go and pick up the dinner the day before all ready to go. We warm it in the oven on Thanksgiving morning, throw out the trash, and put it on pretty platters. It's no secret, we just pretend we cooked it. :) Totally normal!
Flash forward to today and I've realized I've gotten nothing out of this but a belly full of delicious food. I have not the slightest idea how to cook a Thanksgiving dinner. I don't know how to keep everything warm to eat at once. I couldn't tell you how to prepare a turkey or even pick a good one out! Can you put a turkey in a crock-pot? Because then we would be all set!
So for this year's Thanksgiving feast, I will prepare my few easy food items and continue living in my Thanksgiving food bubble where the food just magically appears on the table.
Note: I'm pretty sure I never really got into the whole cooking aspect of Thanksgiving dinner because I never really have cared for it. I'm not a big fan of a lot of the food at Thanksgiving dinners. I'll just stick with that excuse.
So when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner I'm in trouble. Thank goodness J's parents are amazing cooks and they are bringing most of the food. Southern food, might I add, which just makes it better! And what does that leave me with? Well, I get to make a small ham, salad, green beans, and mac and cheese. They know me well. These are the things I can cook! Kind of...
Here is how the a conversation went with my mom about dinner.
Me: "I have to make a small ham."
Mom: "Oh, that will be good!"
Me: "But there's a problem."
Mom: "What's that?"
Me: "I have no idea how to make a ham"
Mom: "HAHA" (This went on for several minutes)
silence
Me: "You do realize this is your fault, right? You never taught me! You just had to order Thanksgiving!"
Mom: "I know. That makes it even better."
Yep, you read it right. Any time we had Thanksgiving at our house my mother had dinner catered. She would rather spend the extra money than try to cook it on her own (because it's been know to not work out). I always thought this was normal. People get their dinner catered. No biggie. Until I went to college and realized that most people don't do this. It's not like we have people come in serving us. In fact, we go and pick up the dinner the day before all ready to go. We warm it in the oven on Thanksgiving morning, throw out the trash, and put it on pretty platters. It's no secret, we just pretend we cooked it. :) Totally normal!
Flash forward to today and I've realized I've gotten nothing out of this but a belly full of delicious food. I have not the slightest idea how to cook a Thanksgiving dinner. I don't know how to keep everything warm to eat at once. I couldn't tell you how to prepare a turkey or even pick a good one out! Can you put a turkey in a crock-pot? Because then we would be all set!
So for this year's Thanksgiving feast, I will prepare my few easy food items and continue living in my Thanksgiving food bubble where the food just magically appears on the table.
Note: I'm pretty sure I never really got into the whole cooking aspect of Thanksgiving dinner because I never really have cared for it. I'm not a big fan of a lot of the food at Thanksgiving dinners. I'll just stick with that excuse.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Bubble Necklace Gift Card Giveaway!
I'm very excited to announce that I'm hosting a giveaway to BlueBird Couture Jewelry and Bridal Accessories! BlueBird is an etsy shop owned by a sweet lady named Diane. She makes beautiful pieces that are very reasonably priced. There are so many pieces that I just love! And guess what? She has allowed me to give a $20 gift card to one lucky reader!
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Great for Buckeye games!
And when you order a bib necklace (red above) you get a FREE pendant!!
Offer ends November 14th, so order today!
Love the color!
Simple and pretty
Very elegant
So many choices!!
Diane is even offering some great deals for the holidays!
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GIVEAWAY STARTS HERE
Not a winner? Want to order today?
NO WORRIES!!
Diane is offering all of her readers 15% off at checkout with the code FALL2012.
Giveaway will end next Tuesday, November 20th at midnight.
Good luck!!
Monday, November 12, 2012
Thanksgiving Part 1: Decor
I've always wanted to host Thanksgiving at my house, however we don't have a formal dining room and the eating are we have is quite small. Unfortunately in this home I will never be able to host Thanksgiving for both my family and J's family. But that's okay...one day!
This year we are actually having Thanksgiving at our home for J's family, since not everyone can make it. This means there will be a total of five people, maybe six, including ourselves. I think we can handle that.
Here's the problem. As excited as I am I'm completely freaking out about everything. In a good way of course. I could have blogged about all of this in one post but that would have been a lot. So I decided to break it down into food and decor. You'll understand why soon, especially after you read the food post. Which leads me to today's post...decor.
Normally I am all over the decor. I know exactly what I want and I know I want everything looking fabulous! For Thanksgiving, not so much.
It's all about this dishes. They are the start of your tablescape. Once the dishes are set, everything else just seems to fall into place. I have FiestaWare. LOVE IT!! I can't say enough good things about it...except for sometimes it's too bright and summery. There is a brown Fiesta plate (which I don't own) and dark green (which I don't care for), and dark blue but that's about has "warm" the colors get. My entire house is based off of browns, golds, deep reds, etc. Fiesta is great for daily dining but not so much for formal dining.
I'd love to have a whole set of dishes like these just for Thanksgiving
This year we are actually having Thanksgiving at our home for J's family, since not everyone can make it. This means there will be a total of five people, maybe six, including ourselves. I think we can handle that.
Here's the problem. As excited as I am I'm completely freaking out about everything. In a good way of course. I could have blogged about all of this in one post but that would have been a lot. So I decided to break it down into food and decor. You'll understand why soon, especially after you read the food post. Which leads me to today's post...decor.
Normally I am all over the decor. I know exactly what I want and I know I want everything looking fabulous! For Thanksgiving, not so much.
It's all about this dishes. They are the start of your tablescape. Once the dishes are set, everything else just seems to fall into place. I have FiestaWare. LOVE IT!! I can't say enough good things about it...except for sometimes it's too bright and summery. There is a brown Fiesta plate (which I don't own) and dark green (which I don't care for), and dark blue but that's about has "warm" the colors get. My entire house is based off of browns, golds, deep reds, etc. Fiesta is great for daily dining but not so much for formal dining.
I'd love to have a whole set of dishes like these just for Thanksgiving
I'll take these in a heartbeat
Paired with these
But in reality 1) I don't have the storage for them and 2) how many times will we have Thanksgiving here with 5-6 people to really use them.
So I guess I'll have to go with my good ol' Fiesta unless I can come up with something else.
When I was in middle school and high school I used to always tell my mom I was going to use paper products because it would be so much easier. She told me I was crazy. But to me, the true meaning of Thanksgiving is to spend time with family and friends and be thankful for what you have. The majority of the time is spent in the kitchen and let's just get rid of one more thing to clean up and use paper! I don't think that would go over very well...
If you host Thanksgiving at your home, what dishes do you use? Your every day dishes? Do you have china? Do you have special Thanksgiving dishes?
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Formal dresses wanted
Live in the Columbus area?
I am currently collecting formal dresses, shoes, and accessories for the Cinderella's Closet event hosted by the Fairy Goodmothers. If you have any new or gently used items that can be donated, please let me know.
Thank you!
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Guest Post from Our Love Nest: DIY Holiday Crafts
I'm so excited to have Pam from Our Love Nest guest posting today! She has an amazing blog and is just adorable! Thank you so much, Pam!!
Britt was nice enough to ask me to guest post here at her little slice of the internet this week, and I am so grateful for the opportunity! I love getting to know another group of readers. In case you don't know me, I'm Pam from Our Love Nest. I blog about all things newlywed, decorating, cooking, taking care of a furbaby, and much more!
Britt was nice enough to ask me to guest post here at her little slice of the internet this week, and I am so grateful for the opportunity! I love getting to know another group of readers. In case you don't know me, I'm Pam from Our Love Nest. I blog about all things newlywed, decorating, cooking, taking care of a furbaby, and much more!
In the spirit of being over-excited for Christmas
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I am sure that many of you have already seen a ton of DIY holiday ideas that you've wanted to try yourself, and I am no different! If you've already seen a "How-To" post about these projects, I apologize for the redundency, but these were just too cute not to share!
My sistah-in-love and I had a throwback craft day a few weekends ago, and chose three projects to tackle:
I didn't snap many pictures of the framed wreath, so I'll just give you the details on the berry letter and ornament wreath.
Berry Letter
What You'll Need
1 10-12" wooden (or metal) letter
About 5-6 large sprigs of red berries
Glue gun and glue sticks
Burlap or gold ribbon of your choice
Begin by cutting all of the berries off of the sprigs. We cut ours into small bunches or thin lines of continuous berries. Once you have the berries prepared, begin gluing small sections of them down onto the letter. I started at the top and worked down one side at a time. Continuing gluing section until the entire letter is covered evenly. You may even want to trim a section of berries down to just 1-2 berries to fill a small hole.
Because our last name begins with "M," it was a bit more challenging to attach the ribbon. I just cut two equal length pieces and attached one to each top section of the "M." Then, I created a simple bow to place that the top and hung it on a nail to dress up my dining room!
Once we completed the letters, we decided that we still had enough craftiness left to knock out the ornament wreaths! I must say, the ornament wreath was more enjoyable for me. It took much less time and allowed me to get a bit more creative.
Ornament Wreath
What You'll Need
One 10-12' styrofoam ring
Glue gun and glue sticks (lots!)
About 50-70 various sized ornaments
Red ribbon of your choice
Begin by gluing an even layer of your large sized ornaments along the outside of the foam ring in a pattern that you like. From there, I just kept gluing large and medium sized ornaments until I had only room enough left for the smallest ornaments we had. I went with a red and gold theme, and am thrilled with the way it turned out!
We ended up wrapping two separate strands of ribbon through the back of the wreath, and gluing them together at the top in order to use the ribbon as the hanger for the wreath. And, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that I haven't completed mine with a bow yet. My Mom is all crafty like that, so I'm thinking about asking her to make one for me?!
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| Excuse the excess glue you can see this close up, I never said I was a perfectionist with my crafts :o) |
So, there you have it, a few adorable and pretty simple DIY holiday crafts that even I could do on my own! Happy decorating!