Sunday, August 29, 2010

Subway Nine Grain?

I always order Nine grain when we eat at Subway. There's goes that delusion.
This website is actually really interesting. A lot of info on a lot of different topics. Here are a few on high fructose corn syrup that were interesting.

http://www.takepart.com/news/2010/06/23/subway-sandwiches-not-as-good-as-you-think

http://www.takepart.com/news/2010/08/04/cancer-cells-gorge-on-fructose-to-grow-and-spread

http://www.takepart.com/news/2009/01/27/mercury-found-in-high-fructose-corn-syrup-hungry-for-change/

Piggie tails

My little follicly challenged babe FINALLY can rock some piggies.
Awww, schucks Mama.


I'm outta here!

One of my favorite things is listening to her play.
Where's Waldo?

Mellow week around here, followed by an even mellower weekend. We've been lazy and it's felt good. I still managed to get a few pictures in. :) Hope everyone has a great week!





Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Cranberry Christmas

Last Christmas we were relaxing around the house and had ABC Family on. They have great Christmas movies through the holidays. I kept watching the movie, which was a cartoon, and couldn't put my finger on where I had heard the story before. Suddenly I had a flash in my head of a book we had when I was younger. Cranberry Christmas. Oh how I loved the illustrations on that book. I'm a reader. Always have been. When we were little I had the chicken pox and was quarantined from school for a week. I spent that time card cataloging our extensive "home library". I had a Dewey decimal system and numbered all the books. I even made my sister and brother library cards, where they had to check out their own books. Of course, I was the librarian. I would read under the covers in bed at night with a flashlight until my mom would come in and make me turn it off telling me, "that's bad for your eyes"!
So I go on Amazon to find it. Instantly when I see the cover I recognize it. There's another oldie but goodie by The Devlins also. Old Witch and the Polka Dot Ribbon. I can't tell you how many times both of those were read. I remember loving them. Of course since it was around Christmas time it was high season for Christmas themed books and the cheapest one I could find was like $15. for a used fair copy. It is out of print. I figured I would wait and have since been asking in Used Book stores I have seen. Recently a clerk recommended I try
I just found the bookmark she gave me with their name on it that has been at the bottom of my purse for months. GREAT WEBSITE for buying books. Gotta love amazon of course but I found Cranberry Christmas and Good Witch for a DOLLAR each and both in "Good" shape!!! 7 bucks for both including shipping! Whaaawho! They are on their way! I'm so excited! But hey...it's the little things. Sometimes that is part of the fun of having a kid, getting to relive the magic. :)
In searching for the other 2 it said that the people that bought these 2 also bought Little Suzy! Oh joy, another fave from yonder years!!! I figured if we owned these books that someone else may have to and would love to be reminded of them!
I really hope that Stella has the same love for books that I do. She has quite the extensive library already. Books for all ages. I would say I average 1 new book a week. Yesterday it was Fancy Nancy, which has great illustrations by the way. You can never have enough books. We go to the library and pick out a huge stack of books every week. By the end of the week she has her 2 favorites that I am so sick of by then. She seems to love it but only time will tell. There's nothing like the smell of a bookstore or new/old book.









Monday, August 23, 2010

Hangover



I would love to take a good book, some sun lotion, a big glass of water, the sound of the waves and spend the day right here. Alone. With no toddler. Peace. and quiet.
We (Stella and I) both have a birthday hangover. Not from the adult libation kind. The husband was home spoiling us and helping out all weekend, having lots of fun kind. Kinda like coming home from vacation. Mario went back to work today. The house needed lots of attention since I had ignored it since last Thursday and Stella was PISSED her Dada wasn't home to play and snuggle with her.
Believe me I'm not complaining. I love being home with Stella. After such a fun extended weekend it's hard to get back in the swing of things. Usually I kinda look forward to Mondays, a quiet day just the Roo and I. But not this week. Mondays...Bleck.
Just a little update on my mom...
She has one more chemo treatment this Thursday and then she's done. This one should be fairly smooth. She's been getting 3 drugs every time and this is only 1 drug. Not as much of a punch. We are so glad she is almost done. It's been a looong few months emotionally.
For her especially, obviously.
3-4 weeks from now she'll start radiation and that will be for about a month.
She's looking forward to going to the beach above (Alligator Point) when she's past her treatment and gets her energy back.
I hope the chairs are still there....


Sunday, August 22, 2010

Beachin Birthday!!!

Run Stella Run! ;)
How awesome are these???
This has been such a wonderful birthday weekend. Thanks Mario for being such a great husband all weekend! Thanks for all the little and big things you've done for me! Thanks to all the friends and family that thought of me also!!! I'm so lucky! :)




Baby Girl

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Happy Birthday to meeeeee!

Hitting the park before lunch!
Flaming Volcano roll....YES PLEASE!!!

Stella wanted to blow it out. She's gonna do great with her cake this year! ;)



Mario's step mom Susi, Stella, Moi, Mario, and Aubrey
Everyone plus Larry, Mario's dad.
So my official Birthday isn't even until tomorrow and it's already been a great birthday!!!
I had wanted a "real" camera for a while now...we have just one of those square digitals. It's totally fine but I really wanted a good camera. On the old one if you even zoomed the picture got fuzzy. Sooo, he went and looked Friday and showed me online this morning the one he was thinking of. Before we met everyone for lunch we went and got it for my Bday! I am SO excited. 14 mega pixels!!! Wooowho!!! Did I mention I'm excited???
After that, we went and met Mario's fam for sushi!!! It's been a while. Love me some sushi! Here's the first pics from the new camera at lunch. Thanks to Larry, Susi & Aubrey for meeting us and thanks for the nice gifts!
Good day so far right? So now I have some spaghetti simmering on the stove. We have sundaes and chocolate covered macadamia nuts (courtesy of my dad & Erin's trip to Hawaii) for desert. Then a movie with the hubby. Oh happy day! :)
Boy it's great being 25. Again. ;)
Ok, kidding.
Stay tuned, tomorrow we are headed for a beach day.
You can bet I'll be taking my new camera on a test drive!!!


Sunday, August 1, 2010

View at your own risk... ;)

Video to follow...


Ok so here's the Cabbage Patch Kid being "born". I had looked it up before we went and saw online about this strange show they did. Yes, it was a little odd but Stella sure was mesmerized by it. I know there are some that may have nightmares after viewing (Hill, Heidi) but hey it also is almost good for a laugh. I'm apologizing in advance. I just couldn't resist posting it.

There's so much to do in Helen, Georgia!!!


Hiking
We brought sandwiches and had a picnic!

Indoor pool time!

Took a carraige ride around town...SO FUN!!!


View from patio




Anna Ruby Falls


Our hike back from the waterfall at Anna Ruby Falls!


Note the sign Mario is pointing to that says "tired husbands bench"!


Stella wasn't to sure about them. The people that owned the store would pull on some chain behind the register and their arm would wave.


Gris mill where they grind corn.



Stella wanted to go too!


Mario and Aubrey tubing down the river. The whole "ride" takes about 21/2 hours.






Walking around downtown Helen.

We had so much fun going to an old gold mine! This is where the gold rush first started and there are a bunch of mines you can tour or mine in the area. You can buy either a bucket of precious gems or gold and mine/pan for gems/gold! We chose precious gems this day and all got into the action. It was SO fun and we got some really cool rocks and crystals!



We walked around the little town named Dalonega by where we went mining at. We also had lunch at a place called The Smith House. Mario had been there as a kid and wanted to go back. They seat you at big tables with other people and serve everyone traditional southern food family style. We were SO full afterwards!


Every morning Stella would feed the ducks on our patio. Right across the river is where people got out after tubing. She loved to watch everyone and first thing when she got up in the morning she would run towards the sliding glass door yelling "people"!



We spent some pool/sun time also!

The Falls

The 2nd waterfall we hiked to. This one was a moderate hike and 1.2 miles each way with a pretty steep incline. We don't have a backpack to carry Stella in so we traded off between Mario and I carrying her and her walking the easy parts. It was beautiful but afterwards Aubrey and I went tubing were you have to paddle a lot and by the evening my arms were SORE! Mario and I hit up the jacuzzi that night!!!


I took my turn tubing. Although the river was VERY low, or so we heard, so you would get stuck on rock clusters and have to get up and unlodge to tube. I was stuck on an incline once and stood up, held the tube behind me and proceeded to try to jump backwards onto the tube. The tube went flying and so did I! When I came up out of the water from my flip there was a man laughing hysterically and Aubrey was too! It was hilarious!

My sister, brother and I had some of the first Cabbage Patch Kids when we were little. For some reason we loved those things and each had like 3. My mom still has all of them and their clothes. Next time I go home I may have to bring them back with me for Stella. So when I heard Babyland General was very close to where we were we had to go take a peek. I am still recovering and the nightmares have not subsided yet. Just kidding...kinda. There are "babies" everywhere and you can pluck any of them out of a cabbage to adopt. They go for anywhere from $12. to $400. Crazy. They had them staged in all different sorts of areas, the nursery, a school etc. The main attraction was the "Tree". Not sure what they call it but a nurse comes out and actually does a live cabbage patch birth. I am debating uploading the video Mario took. Although it may disturb some. Stella couldn't look away. When I played the video earlier today, she wanted to watch it "again" and "again" so there must be some draw for the littles. All in all it was worth seeing and we were really only there for about an hour no harm done and Stella had a blast!


Babyland General Hospital




There were Cabbage Patch Kids everywhere!


I think she may be getting a baby buggy for her birthday...she ran this one all around!
Stella got her very own baby named Lilllian Janessa from Babyland General!


Stella loooves her baby Lily!

Mario's mom and step dad were nice enough to let us use their time share in Helen, Georgia which is in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We had the BEST time! A million thank you's to them!!! Usually when we plan vacations they are chock full of go go go and you come home feeling more tired when you left. We wanted to come home feeling rested and relaxed and we succeeded!!! The funny thing is though is that we did SO many things within the week we were there and still came home feeling rested and relaxed!!!

We had a 2 bedroom condo which worked out great. The girls shared a bedroom and we had a kitchen so we had planned out meals and ate in mostly, which I preferred. It was also a nice change to go up to the mountains and have such different scenery. There are such a variety of things to do up there. Helen is kind of like Leavenworth for those of you from the West coast. Times 10. Instead of just a main drag the whole town is Bavarian style.



We relaxed on the back patio, we did 2 hikes, we spent some sun/pool time, we went on a carriage ride, we walked around town and shopped, we ate ice cream, we went gold/gem mining, we drove to two neighboring towns and walked around, we toured Babyland General where Cabbage Patch kids are born, we tubed down the river, we went to some parks, we ate out,
we visited a few local attractions and much more. I'm sure I'm leaving some things out. All in all it was such a good time and such GREAT memories!!! :)