Excuse This House

I sometimes watch a quirkly little local TV program called The Home Team (on KJZZ 14 for those who live in Utah). The other day, one of the hosts read this poem and I really liked it. I am guilty of wanting a perfect house and often have to remind myself that I should be on the floor playing with and reading to Adam instead of worrying about cleaning. I thought I'd share it with all my mommy friends.

EXCUSE THIS HOUSE

Some houses try to hide the fact
That children shelter there-
Ours boasts of it quite openly,
The signs are everywhere-

For smears are on the windows,
Little smudges on the doors;
I should apologize, I guess,
For toys strewn on the floor.

But I sat down with the children
And we played and laughed and read;
And if the doorbell doesn't shine,
Their eyes will shine instead.

For when at times I'm forced to choose
The one job or the other;
I want to be a housewife-
But first I'll be a mother

Author Unknown

Kid-to-Kid Germ Sharing at Its Finest

I have officially entered the world of kid-contracted illnesses! Adam threw up his "Thanksgiving" dinner (yes, Thanksgiving....Nat's cousin Jason is home from Iraq for a few weeks and his family wanted to make him Thanksgiving dinner since he missed last year and will miss this year too) in his crib in the middle of the night last night. Then, as I was putting the sheet, blanket, and bumper in the wash, Nat heroically made it into the bathroom to have Adam throw up in the sink. About an hour after getting Adam back down to sleep, he threw up again in his crib. So far this morning he has not thrown up but now I'm getting the pleasure of dealing with diarrhea! I love being a mom.

We had lunch last week with my friends and Katie's baby was sick a few days later so I'm going to bet that's where he got it from. So thank you Lexie for spreading your germs to Adam! I guess their mothers shouldn't have been trying to make them kiss. Serves us right.

Murrini Glass Class in San Antonio

Last week I went with my Mom to San Antonio for a glass class where we learned how to make Murrini canes to include in our fused glass pieces. Murrini is difficult to explain so a basic version is this: You take glass and heat it in a torch until it is molten, then you wrap, spread, and layer more glass onto it, then and twist, roll, flatten, shape and then finally pull to get a long piece of glass. Once this piece cools, you saw it into pieces and inside is a miniature version of what you created prior to pulling. It is very hard and very hot!! Unfortunately I never thought about taking a picture while I was working so I don't have any of me, but here are a few pictures of our instructor, Milissa Montini working on a piece.

Heating the glass

Using another strip of glass to "paint" or stripe it onto another piece of glass. This picture is purple because I took it through my special glasses to avoid the yellow fire showing.She stuck another rod onto the other end of the glass and is now rolling and shaping itPulling the glass piece into a rod

The finished rodThis is an example of what the canes turn out like. These patterns were made on a larger scale and then pulled into thinner rods to create small patterns. Each slice of these canes will have the image on it. Pretty cool huh? These are WAY beyond my skill level however.
My Mom and I had a great time together and although I missed my baby, it was so great to be an adult and nothing else! Most of our time was spent in class, but we did squeeze a little time in for sightseeing.

The Alamo
The River Walk in downtown San AntonioThese umbrellas are part of a mexian restaurant we ate at that night

My Little Houdini

When I went to get Adam up this morning, this is what I found.....

I have no idea how he managed to get his arm completely out of his sleeve!

And this is him saying "Why are you standing there with a camera and not getting me up??"

Eskimo Kisses

I just added a new picture to our header and thought it needed a little explanation. My Mom took this picture of me giving Adam "Eskimo Kisses" on his nose. This was taken about a month ago and everytime I would rub his nose and recite the poem he would open his mouth, scrunch up his nose and eyes and smile so big! Sadly, he no longer reacts that way and I miss it!

I think this is one of those pictures that perfectly captures a moment of my baby's life and will be something I treasure! Thanks Mom!!

Domestic Diva

I've been in a baking/homemade/domestic/frugal kind of mood lately so I decided to try my hand at baking wheat bread and pizza crust from scratch (and without a bread machine or stand mixer might I add!). Here are pictures of my first creations! The pizza was delicious (and yes, it is supposed to be lopsided....can you guess which side is mine and which side is meat-eater Nat's?) and the bread was so much easier than I thought it would be!

I got these recipes off of Allrecipes.com (love that site) and although they turned out great, I have a few tweaks to do. For starters, the bread recipe said to put it in 3 pans but I think next time I'll make 2 loaves so that they are bigger and taller. Plus I've discovered that honey isn't the cheapest ingredient so I'm on the look-out for a different bread recipe that uses less honey....any suggestions?

Who knew that having a baby would make you want to do all these old-timey things? It's lots of fun though!

The Smell of Autumn is in the Air!

We have had stormy weather and cooler temperatures the past few days and I LOVE IT!!!

I can't wait for Autumn to actually be here so this post is designed to urge Mother Nature to hurry up and get done with Summer so that Autumn can be here with all it's crispness, vivid colors, sweaters, hot bowls of chili and soup, warm bread, and the many pumpkin spice candles I'm dying to burn, (I should probably mention football and basketball season for Nat's sake too)!

Did I mention that I LOVE AUTUMN???