Projects

Since I am blessed with an overabundance of free time (haha) I did a few quick projects recently. The first thing I took on was an entire flat of cherry tomatos. I don't really like cherry tomatos and RJ won't eat them, so I had to think of a way to use some of them so they didn't go to waste. I marinated some of them in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and basil. Then I ate them on toasted bread and it was really pretty good. I also tried to pickle some in vinegar with garlic cloves, hot peppers, and cumin. I have only tried one so far, and it was just ok. Most of the tomatos ended up going to waste anyway.
















I also whipped up some curtains for Stirling's bedroom. I didn't use a pattern so they turned out with some crooked seams and crazy hems. It looks a bit like a 7th grade Home-Ec project, but I had fun doing it and they look pretty cute in Stirling's room. (Much better than the bed sheet we had tacked up over his window to keep the sunlight out!)

I am hoping to make some curtains for our bedroom this summer as well. We'll see what other projcts I can do now that I will be out of school for a couple months!

Turning 30!

I can't believe I am in my thirties! Yikes. We celebrated with Chinese food, presents and a homemade cake that RJ decorated with sprinkles. Stirling loved my balloons. I loved my new sewing machine. I can't wait to get started on some curtains for Stirling's bedroom. I'll post pictures when they are done.

Stirling and Mommy

I love hanging out with my little boy. We have so much fun together!

Easter

Ok, so I'm a little behind in posting. We hadn't planned on doing anything at all to celebrate Easter. Since we aren't church-goers, we didn't really feel like we needed to celebrate the day in the sense that it is meant to be celebrated, and hiding eggs for no reason didn't seem right. But... we have the cutest almost-two year old and I just thought it would be fun to watch him hunt for Easter eggs, especially after he enjoyed his Easter party and egg hunt at school so much! So I dyed eggs with Stirling the night before Easter. He had fun dipping the eggs in the cups and staining my counter tops! I found an old package of Smarties in the cupboard and divided it up among the few plastic eggs we had, and then hid the eggs in our front yard on Easter morning. We gave Stirling his basket and showed him the first egg. He got so excited! The excitement and the candy was enough to have Stirling shouting, "happy EE-sa" over and over when we skyped with his Grandpa and Grandma!



Not only did we have a really good morning with Easter festivities, we also went to the county fair that afternoon. It was Stirling's first time at the fair, and we discovered some parts of the fair that we hadn't known about before. They had a special area just for little kids that included a fake cow you could "milk," a couple of sand boxes that had corn instead of sand, musical instruments, blocks, pedal tractors, etc. That was way cool! Stirling also had a pony ride which he really enjoyed and went into the petting zoo where he hugged a donkey and saw a kangaroo. The only thing he didn't like was riding on the carosuel, but that was probably more due to the fact that I had just gotten sunscreen in his eyes and he couldn't see.
And to make the day even more exciting, there was a 7.2 earthquake while we were there. We actually didn't feel it, but thought it was strange that all the pigs went crazy all of a sudden and a calf broke loose.
So I guess it was a memorable Easter 2010!

Beauty and Body

I finally went and got my hair cut last week. I was so tired of it just hanging there, all lank and boring all the time. I got it cut to just below my shoulders, with some chin-length layers. It feels lighter and more summery, and looks cute too. Whenever I am stressed out and feel like I have no control over my life, I cut my hair. Whether it turns out nicely or not, at least I can tell myself that it was a decision that I made and I was able to do something about it. Yea me!

I also went to the dentist for the first time in (pause for dramatic effect)... ten years! Yikes! I know, I know, how awful of me to put it off for that long. The dentist found all sorts of things wrong, and now I'll be going back next week to get one of my wisdom teeth pulled. I don't know if I can spare any wisdom. I'm feeling pretty low on smarts as it is!
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and one of my spring break days. I decided to take a day for myself, so I took Stirling to daycare and layed out by the pool. Alas, I now have my first sunburn of the summer, and hopefully the worst I'll have in a while. This one is a doozy! I burned part of my chest and shoulders and stomach where I must have missed with the sunblock, and really burned the back of my legs, and my back where I forgot to put sunblock the second time I applied. Needless to say, I am pretty uncomfortable right now! I have been slathering on the aloe. Stirling tells me "mama owie tummy" whenever he sees the sunburn! No joke!

Rainy Day

The weather so far in 2010 has been very unusual. Generally, whatever rain we get here in Yuma happens during "monsoon season" in the summer months. This past summer was a little drier than usual and the rains finally arrived in January this year. We had a few days at the end of January that were so torrentially rainy that schools were closed due to flash flood warnings and becuase busses couldn't get through to some areas. We had another really rainy, stormy day this past weekend. I took Stirling outside to play in the puddles in the morning when there was a break in the downpour. He had fun splashing around and ended up soaked up to his knees. That afternoon I couldn't believe that he and RJ both slept throught the huge thunderstorm that passed right over us. It was so loud it was making me jump!

Birthday!

Tuesday was RJ's birthday. He took Tuesday and Wednesday off so he could have some down time to himself, and celebrate with a drive in the desert and some movie watching. Unfortunately, Stirling got sick and RJ spent his long weekend taking Stirling to the doctor and hanging out at home. Stirling has had a fever on and off for a week now, with a few of those days being all day long fevers over 101 degrees. I had to take Friday off to stay home with him as well.
Anyway, despite all the changes in his plans, we were still able to have a quiet little celebration for RJ. I made a cake with RJ's favorite springtime sweet- Peeps! The cake is supposed to look like a sunflower, with the Peeps as petals, and concentric circles of chocolate chips for the seeds. It turned out pretty well. Stirling helped RJ open his presents, and we ordered pizza for dinner.