Thursday, December 31, 2009

On to a New Year

I'm not the kind of person who usually makes resolutions for the new year, but this year I might make an exception. I need a kick start in a variety of different ways. Exercise and eating healthy, of course. Spiritually - definitely. Managing Time - absolutely. So I'm going to try a few new things. For example, one of my goals is to make a vegetable at every meal. Why is it so hard to get vegetables in my diet? Well, besides the fact that I don't care for too many of them. :)

I think one way I can achieve some head way in those areas is to make specific goals. A friend on Facebook mentioned something about it in a status update, and it really got me thinking. I don't really make concrete goals for myself. So I think my first order of business in 2010 will be to make an actual list of goals I want to achieve and in how much time. And post it somewhere I will see it often. (Maybe above Noah's changing table - ha! :))

Now for something completely different...

I got my prize in the mail!! I love it all. It's the best kitchen equipment I've ever had. Stainless steel measuring cups and spoons. A really nice silicon spatula. A large whisk. Silicon pastry brush. Stainless steel rolling pin that can be filled with cold water to reduce sticking. A large batter bowl (that I can't wait to use to make pancakes tomorrow morning). A really nice pastry cutter. (Is that the right name??) Anyways - here is a picture. Thanks Apartment Therapy!!


So far I've used the measuring cups and spoons and the spatula. Like them alot. I used the spatula to brown hamburger - it is quite counter intuitive to use rubbery seeming tools in a hot pan... but it worked. :)

Hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Year's!

Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas!


The Reason our family celebrates:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Monday, December 21, 2009

Finally




I love this time of year.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Feeling Lucky

In all my years I've entered quite a few random draw contests. And usually I don't win a thing. I don't remember winning anything until about a year ago when I won some really cool Haba blocks on a blog, which I can't recall the name of at the moment.

So I sign up for most of the giveaways I come across online - especially since most of them don't require much effort except for commenting or filling out a form. But I'm usually not very optimist. And now I have one TWO things in the past week. I'm stoked!

The first thing I won was through Steph's Cup of Tea blog. I didn't win her main prize, but I got to pick some loose leaf tea from teaflection.com. I received the package in the mail on Saturday. Tried a cup that night. I don't have the most discerning taste buds, but I like it. I got the Japanese Sencha Green Tea.

Then I got an email today that I won something through the Apartment Therapy sites. They've got several giveaways every day since the beginning of December (I think). They have had a lot of really great things, so it was fun to find what I had won. I won a 7 Piece Baking. As soon as I get it I will let you know what I think about it. :) I can't wait!

I'm pretty sure that there are still giveaways going on on Apartment Therapy, so go over and toss your name in the hat! You might just win something. :-D

The Blue Bathroom

A long time ago - 3 and 1/2 years actually - I picked out paint colors for our new house. I spent hours staring at paint chips and trying to decide which colors I liked. I also had a husband to run these colors by, and he can be a little picky. Most of the house would be in a cream color. The future kids' rooms would be very muted colors (you can't even tell there is color there...) Our room was a nice light blue. The kitchen, oh the glorious kitchen, was to be a wonderful wine redish. And the bathrooms were the only other bold colored rooms. The color I chose for them was Aqua Smoke.

So the colors were chosen. Then something amazing happened. I gave birth to our oldest son. It was a wonderful, yet very tiring time. And did I mention we were building a house. The way our builders work, is that you have a certain amount of time to get things done before they need to move on. And they can't call the work done, until every thing is done. So if you want to save money and paint walls and stain trim yourself, you have to do it within a strict timeline.

The paint was bought. Then paint day came. We had about a weekend to get all the painting done. Then they would be bringing in all the trim and doors and wanting to put in the carpet. Paint Day was September 23rd - Ohlen was born September 6th. He was just over 2 weeks old. Ok, we were INSANE! Truth be told there was a group of wonderful, amazing people who came and painted the day away for us. I brought some food over at one point, and did paint a little, but I didn't do much. It all looked great.

Except something was wrong with the bathroom paint. I mentioned it to my husband. It was pretty much - If that's the color on the wall, that's what color it is going to be. (Did I mention the strict deadline + the 2 week old baby...) It turns out that the paint mixer mixed the correct color, they just had the settings set for a pint, when it should have been a gallon. So Aqua Smoke was incredibly washed out. So I was disappointed, but I had more important things to worry about.

Now finally, 3 years later, one of the two bathrooms is close to the color I wanted it. I got the paint at a different store, so I didn't get the exact color, but I think it is close. Here's the before and after: (And if you got through the crazy long story, I commend you. :)) Oh and I was here staining trim and doors too many hours at a time with a 4 week old... And moving in with a 7 week old. Those were crazy crazy times.


Ok seriously, here are the pictures. Oh and no this is not of the same bathroom, but my camera wasn't here to take a before picture, but the other bathroom was the same exact color.




And tomorrow (or the next day) look for a post about my crazy giveaway winnings - fun stuff!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Comparisons

Someone mentioned I needed more pictures on my blog, so here you go anonymous person. :)

Can you pick who is who??











1st picture- Ohlen Noah
2nd picture - Noah Ohlen
3rd picture - Ohlen Noah

I can definitely see differences in them, but they are definitely brothers. :)

Friday, November 13, 2009

Daily Plate and Slim in 6

So I've been working hard this week on weight management. I've been tracking calories every day and exercising every day. I haven't seen crazy results yet, but I'm feeling better, more energetic, and just all around better about myself. There have been two tools that have been very instrumental in helping me achieve my goals.

The first is The Daily Plate. It is a part of the Livestrong site. It is a great tool for keeping track of what you have eaten for the day. There is a search bar where you enter what you have eaten. Then you choose the current food item, fill in how many servings you ate, and you can designate what meal or time you ate it. There are lots of different foods. I've found something to match up with everything I've eaten. It is a bit more difficult if you make most of your meals from scratch, but you can find something very similar - at least that has been the case with me. If you eat prepackaged meals/snacks it is extremely easy to find. They also have a feature where you can group items into meals. This is great for my breakfast, since I eat the same thing every morning. That way I don't have to add everything separately every day.

The site also creates a pie graph to let you know where your calories came from, eg. Carbs, protein, fat. There is also a pie graph you can access that shows all the foods you have eaten that day in regards to their calories. So you can see what is making up most of your calories. It also keeps a running total of sodium, fat, carbs, etc and tallies it towards the bottom of the page.

This has been a wonderful tool for me. I keep the website in my tabs at all times, so it is easy to remember to log what I eat. It is also alot easier to skip the high calorie offenders when I know that I will be logging it.

There are also some other tools available. There is a place to enter your weight and some measurements so you can see your progress over time. There are more in depth tools, but they require a paid subscription. I find that there is plenty there without the subscription, which is great for those of us trying to save some cash where ever we can.

So, if you have ever wanted to keep a Food Journal, I would definitely recommend The Daily Plate.


Exercise - shouldn't it be a four letter word? Well at least for me it could be most days. Sure there are days when I can't wait to get moving, but most days, I'd rather sit and do something else. I've found that I do much better when I have a program spelled out for me, rather than just picking something each day. I was using P90X, which is a great program, but it wasn't right for my goals. It really isn't a weight loss program. However, I really like how Beachbody sets up their programs, so I looked in Slim in 6. The premise is that you work out for 6 weeks and slim down. I have heard stories of people radically transforming through this program, but I'm just hoping for a small transformation. I'm about half way through and I'm really loving it. The program starts out with a few days of a 25 minute routine to teach some of the basic moves. Then you move on to the 45 minute routine for about 1.5 weeks. This one definitely harder, but not too bad. Then you do an hour workout for the last 4 weeks. This one is a serious workout, sweating, sore muscles and all that jazz. It's great. Plus when I feel sore, I'm feeling sore in all the places I want to feel sore: thighs, abs, rear. Another feature that I enjoy is that there is always a timer running to let you know how much time is left. I've done other work out tapes where I was constantly looking a clock trying to figure out just how much torture time was left - here they provide it for you. The instructor is upbeat and encouraging, but not sickenly so. I also like that it is an hour of nonstop movement. P90X seemed to have a lot of downtime, even in the cardio workouts - this one just keeps you going.

There are also 3 shorter workouts also, Thin Thighs, Abs, and Flexibility. They are each about 12 minutes long. I do 2 or 3 of those if I'm feeling off and really really don't want to do a full hour.

The downsides: Taking an hour a day can at times be hard to do, but I keep reminding myself that it's worth it. There are some moves that my neck and back don't appreciate. I just take it a little easy on those. I thought I would see better results by now, but I know that I'm just one of those people that is going to have to be very vigilant to lose the weight, that's just how it is. The first couple weeks of the program I didn't watch what I was eating very closely, I'm hoping that by combining the two I will see better results soon.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Blog Hop - Question

Today's Hop asks us to pose a question to our readers.

What is your favorite low calorie snack?

I need some more ideas. Mine, right now, are a few almonds or some popcorn.


MckLinky Blog Hop

Monday, November 9, 2009

6 Months - Noah

So this post is a little late, but oh well. Noah turned 6 months old on the 5th. I can't believe half a year has gone by already, just crazy. He has a Dr. appointment on Wednesday, so I don't know official stats, but my guess is that he is a little over 16 lbs and maybe close to 27 inches. He is creeping, and allllmost crawling. He can sit up for quite a while, although he still has times where he just topples right on over. He's eating some solid foods, and is loving them (most of them). He is still a booger about drinking from his bottle. It's pretty frustrating, but he is still gaining weight, so I try not to worry.

On to the pictures - Wow, he has changed alot, I think.


5 Days Old


3 Months Old


6 Months Old

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Blog Hop - Photo

A little late, and I haven't been doing this every week... but I have a recent photo to share, so I thought I would join. Actually I have two photos, one of my boys, and the other of a couple of our pets. Enjoy!

I was making silly faces trying to get some smiles - I guess I over did it. :)


Here we have Ringo the cat and Sophie the dog. There is something going on there I think. The cat lives outside because of my husband's allergies, but he always seems to let him in to play with the dogs. I am realizing that I am definitely not an inside cat person... Oh and yeah, they are sitting in my little one's car seat, the dogs like it because it is nice and cozy right now because of the seat cover.

MckLinky Blog Hop

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Super Spicy Sunday Supper

One of my favorite meals to make is an Asian type dish. I don't know that there is really anything authentically Asian about it, but it reminds me of the Americanized versions. It's sort of a stir fry type dish. Anyways, here's what I do.

"Asian" Chicken

Rice or Noodles
1 chicken breast
Vegetable or Olive Oil
Various Vegetables - Sunday I used:
-1/4 onion chopped
- peas
- 1/2 green pepper sliced
- baby carrots - cut into 1/4ths
- 4 chili peppers
Various spices - What I used Sunday
- Garlic Powder
-Hot Madras Curry Powder
- Garam Masala
- Black Pepper
- Salt
- Cloves
Soy Sauce
Spiracha Hot Chili Sauce (optional - well really, everything in this recipe is optional)

Yeah, there aren't very many measurements - it's all about making it to your tastes. In this occasion I added way too much of the Chili Sauce - I couldn't finish mine, it was too hot for me. I usually go light on the Garlic and Salt and focus more on the other spices. Not sure if I like having the carrots in there - I would probably do broccoli, but the men in my house don't really care for it. Anyways on to the rest of the "recipe"

Prepare the rice or noodles.
But some oil in a skillet. Throw in the vegetables. Defrost chicken if you need to. Add Soy sauce and spices to vegetables. Cook until cooked through. Remove vegetables from pan. Place chicken on skillet. Cook until browned, flip and repeat. Either removing chicken, or doing it right in the pan - cut chicken into small chunks. Add some more spices if desired. Cook until chicken is cooked through. Add the vegetables back to the skillet. Let cook together for a few minutes. Add the Chili Sauce. Serve over rice or noodles.

Here is the result from Sunday night.

Like I said, it turned out entirely too spicy for my liking. And I didn't even try to put the Chili Sauce on for Ohlen - I took his portion out before I added it.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Management

Lately I have had two things weighing heavily on my mind (well more than 2, but these 2 are the ones I want to talk about). Time management and Weight management. Both have alluded me time and time again. They both take will power and discipline.

Weight management is something I have struggled with since I went off to a college that has basically the best food of most all colleges. (I'm not kidding.) There were tons of choices, and always a very well stocked Dessert corner. Plus, there was a well stocked vending machine in our dorm that housed my roommate's and my new favorite candy bar - Reeses Fast Break. And then add in the late night Taco Bell or Papa John's run and there in spells quite a lot of weight gain in two years. (The next two years I lived off campus since I was married.) There was less food consumption and more focus on exercise - so I actually did lose some weight then. I was on a fairly good path, although I was working at a factory with very well stocked vending machines, and a very large sweet tooth. Then I went and had a baby. Wonderful in most all ways, except for weight management. I didn't quite lose it all - ok not even close, when I had baby #2. Since then I've gotten more serious. I did a program for 90 days. I got down to pre baby #2 weight - which is good, but I need more work. The program I did is more of a muscle focused program - and most of the research I've done since suggests that women really should lose the extra weight before doing that program. Our bodies, because of lower testosterone levels, don't build muscle and burn fat at the same time very well. So I just started a new 6 week program that is focused on weight loss. Now I just have to make sure that I curb my eating habits to match up with the exercise. It's harder than I would have thought. It's so easy to grab a cookie or other not healthy food item when you are home all day. arg. But I'm trying very hard. I'll let you know how the 6 weeks go. Any suggestions or advice??

Then there's Time management. It is so easy to lose a day doing not much of anything. Ok well, other than making meals and bottles, which actually takes up more time than I would have thought. :) There are so many things that I would like to get done, but I don't. It's frustrating. I need some tips/ suggestions - how do you manage your time? Stay accountable with what you do during the day (or evening)? I have thought about keeping a tight schedule at least for a few days to see how it goes. It would have to have some flexibility of course, I do have 2 kids, and that in and of itself calls for being flexible. But just a nice guideline so I can be more productive. I am horribly behind on a project that should have been done over a month ago, I have Christmas projects I want to get done sooner rather than later. I did finish Ohlen's Halloween costume this morning, which was nice. I'm hoping to start fresh next week and try to get this time thing under control.

Oh and how do you like the new blog header? It isn't perfect, but I like it. :)

Saturday, October 17, 2009

10 Years?!

It was 10 years ago today that Jonathan and I officially became a couple. I can still remember that day pretty well. We hadn't known each other for too long, but we talked ALL the time online on AIM, (much to my parent's dismay - we still had dial-up at the time) He actually asked me over AIM. I remember I was nervous - the top of my head was all tingly and my hands were cold. We talked online and then I had to sign off because we were having a youth group gathering at my house. I think I was probably not quite all there that night. :) I don't think we actually saw each other for a few weeks after.

The past 10 years have gone by so fast. I can only imagine that the next ten will go just as fast.

One thing that I really appreciate and love about my husband is how handy he is. He made a really awesome work/storage bench in the garage today. I'll get a picture of it sometime. He's saved us tons of money working on our vehicles. He did so much work at the old house, and has done hours upon hours of work here.

Now for your viewing pleasure - a picture of us in our first year of being a couple. :)

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Brothers



Both taken around 4.5 months. Definitely starting to see Noah taking on his own look. :) (He's on the right.)

Friday, October 2, 2009

Updates

Sauerkraut - It appears to be, well, rather disgusting - so I'm assuming that means it's coming along just fine. One set of instructions I read said to remove scum each day, but I've been pretty lax about it, and there just doesn't seem to be any... But I also read another post somewhere from a farmer that makes it all the time and their method is to prepare it and forget about it for 6 weeks. So I'm thinking it probably will be just fine.

Pumpkin Latte - Finally made this after I went and bought a milk frother. It was excellent. I halved the recipe and still got more than enough for two cups. I still need a new carafe for my coffee maker, or just a new coffee maker since it does have a crack in the back of it and has several pieces of packing tape keeping it from leaking.... :)

Tortillas - I spent about 2 hours Tuesday making a full batch - so worth it. I made my self an egg burrito for lunch yesterday. It was great. I could just sit and eat them plain....

Swiss Festival - Ohlen had his first experience with fair rides, and he loved it. Nothing makes me more happy than seeing my kids having a great time. Going in I thought that it would be a pretty boring night for me, but it was great. Just watching his face light up, and his excitement. Plus after every ride he would run out the exit and into my leg and give me a huge hug. He was a happy boy. :)

Television - Fall is here, and with it new episodes of my favorite shows. I'm currently following The Office, Survivor, The Amazing Race, and House. I would like to watch Community and Flash Forward. Thank goodness for the internet where I can catch up on the shows that I forget to DVR. Has anyone watched Flash Forward? I saw previews and thought it looked interesting.
The Office has been mostly funny, Survivor has been fun, The Amazing Race looks to be an entertaining season. We've only watched the premiere episode of House, and it was amazing. That show always amazes me. There have been some points where I wasn't quite as into it, but I think it's really come back last season and the first episode of this season. I'm interested to see where they go from here.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

What to Do When You Want Some Tacos

but don't have any tortilla shells, and don't want to drive to Taco Bell (or any other restaurant.)


Make your own! I have always wanted to try to make my own tortillas, but I always thought it would be too involved and not really cost effective. But Monday night I really wanted to make some chicken tacos for supper, and didn't want to run to the store to buy any. So I looked online and found a simple recipe, and they turned out great!!

INGREDIENTS

* 4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 tablespoons lard (I used shortening)
* 1 1/2 cups water

DIRECTIONS


1. Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Mix in the lard with your fingers until the flour resembles cornmeal. Add the water and mix until the dough comes together; place on a lightly floured surface and knead a few minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.






2. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Use a well-floured rolling pin to roll a dough ball into a thin, round tortilla. Place into the hot skillet, and cook until bubbly and golden; flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side. Place the cooked tortilla in a tortilla warmer; continue rolling and cooking the remaining dough.

Recipe retrieved here, on Allrecipes.com.

You do have to be careful not to burn the flour and tortillas, because they really don't taste good if they are burnt. I really like this recipe and will use it again. I actually halved the recipe and just made 12, I've been using the extras for my lunch time turkey wraps. So far they are keeping really nice in the fridge. And really I think they only cost pennies to make, so really you don't save all that much money, but it was alot of fun to make them myself. :)

Sauerkraut update: I do tend to forget to go scrape the scum, but there doesn't seem to be that much yet. I hope it is all fermenting nicely, it appears to be.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Fall

Tomorrow it will officially be Fall, my favorite season. Well at least I think it is. It runs in a very close race with winter and spring. I think it wins because it kicks out summer, which is my least favorite season when looking at weather only. I guess to clarify, if summer around here was 65-75 and not humid the whole time - then it would be my favorite. I have a very deep hatred of humidity and very hot weather. I love sweatshirt weather. Curl up with a hot beverage and a good book (or good hand held video game like this one I am almost done with.) Which leads to a quick lament.
My poor coffee pot bit the dust. Some how the hose that takes the water from the tank to the pot wasn't connected properly, so the carafe got really hot with no liquid in it, so when I picked it up there was a loud CRACK, then a scream from me, and a large chunk of glass hit the floor. It was a very sad day for coffee at the Troyer house. (I still got my coffee after reconnecting the hose and some creative use of a spoon and a large measuring glass.) And while we are on the subject of coffee, I found this recipe on a different blog I read, The Kitchn. I can't wait to try this one out.

Pumpkin Spice Latte
makes 1-2 servings

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons canned pumpkin OR 1 teaspoon of Torani Pumpkin Spice Syrup (your choice)
2 tablespoons sugar or sugar substitute - you can halve this amount
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1-2 shots espresso (about 1/4 cup of espresso or 1/2 cup of strong brewed coffee if you don't have an espresso machine.)

Directions:
In a saucepan combine milk, pumpkin and sugar and cook on medium heat, stirring, until steaming. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and spice, transfer to a blender and process for 15 seconds until foamy. If you don't have a blender, don't worry about it - just whisk the mixture really well with a wire whisk.

Pour into a large mug or two mugs. Add the espresso on top.

Optional: Top with whipped cream and sprinkle pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, or cinnamon on top.

A little more about The Kitchn blog. They put out quite a few things each day, so I don't read everything in depth, but I enjoy checking out most of the content. It ranges from kitchen layouts, kitchen tools, recipes, canning tips, etc. Definitely worth a peek.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Things We Do For Love + Domestic Improvements

So there are a few things that my husband really enjoys eating. Two of them are Beef and Noodles like his grandma's and sauerkraut (but not together, at least I don't think). So I decided to tackle both of those things. The beef and noodles are made with canned beef - which I think is the secret behind them. So earlier this week I canned roast for the first time. I got a recipe from my husband's aunt. Basically you get some roast, cut it into chunks, put it in jars, put lids and seals on jars, and process them in a pressure cooker. I think it all came out good. I haven't checked the seals yet, but I'm hoping they all sealed. I personally think the meat looks kind of freaky in there, but I know that that is how it is supposed to look. :)

Now for the other thing, sauerkraut. I was in our local grocery store and they had huge locally grown cabbage, so I bought one. Found out once I got home the sucker weighs 8lbs. That's a whole lot of cabbage. I bought it with the mind set that I was going to be making sauerkraut, but I had never actually read up on how it is done... So after I get home I read and find out that it is going to take about 6 weeks to fermet - um, ew! I never have liked sauerkraut, and the thought of fermenting cabbage just does not appeal to me in the slightest, but hey it's all for love. :) I have yet to start this adventure. I will let you know in about a month and a half if it was successful. Meanwhile any handy sauerkraut tips would be great. Oh and I've already heard the - just buy a jar when you need it. I've already bought the cabbage and darn it I won't let it go to waste!!

Now on to the Domestic Improvements. Don't really know why I am posting this stuff except that I am extremely excited about them both, and once you hear what they are you are free to roll your eyes at my "oldness" and so totally uncoolness.

First off I won the bid on a chest freezer at an auction last Saturday. I love it!!! I have enough room in my regular freezer for 4 or more ice cube trays!! And when I open it random frozen foods don't fall on my toes; it's amazing. And it was a pretty good deal at $75, I think.



Secondly, I've been trying to figure out a way to have a semi permanent place to sew and do other things like that. I finally figured out a solution that was mostly acceptable to my husband and me. We'll see how long it lasts. :) I just hope it helps me get things done.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Blog Hop - Art

This week's Blog Hop is all about art. I don't really draw or paint, but I like to make things with fabric. This is the first (and only - so far) bed size quilt I've done. It was a gift for my brother and his wife for their wedding. I love piecing. The quilting part was fun too, but it took me quite awhile. Although, I had lots of wonderful help to get the quilting done. I love quilting with others, it's a very calming activity.













MckLinky Blog Hop

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Beatles

Yesterday was the release date for The Beatles Rock Band. Because Best Buy rocks at preorders, I received our copy in the mail yesterday afternoon. As I was singing through some of the songs I was taken back ten years...

Ten years ago I was just starting out my senior year of high school. The year was full of ups and downs, but on the whole it was the best year of high school. Our class was more united, I loved all my classes (except for maybe government.). Band was amazing. And towards the end of this month I was introduced to Jonathan, and he in turn introduced me to The Beatles. I fell in love. I can't listen to Dear Prudence, Norwegian Wood, Honey Pie, or most others without being taken back to those first days of us dating. More specifically the first time I rode with him to hang out on his "turf" for the day. Driving in his red truck, listening to The Beatles. I can't believe it has been 10 years already.

Here are a few of my favorites. :)

Two of Us


Dear Prudence


Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey

Sunday, September 6, 2009

3 years ago

3 years ago today my life changed forever.
3 years ago today I experienced the most physical pain I had ever felt.
3 years ago today I felt the most joy and amazement I had ever felt.
3 years ago today I was part of a miracle.
3 years ago today I became a mother.

Newborn


1 Year


2 Years


3 Years

Happy Birthday Ohlen!!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Amazon.com is such a Tease

So I love love Amazon.com. Especially the part where if I order more than $25 I can get free shipping, and most of the time I am getting stuff for cheaper than in a regular store. But recently I preordered a game for the DS. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (logic puzzles and brain teasers - My favorite) I have been trying to wait patiently for it to arrive. The game came out August 24th and for whatever reason they didn't ship it for a few days after that. So I've been anxiously watching the Track Your Packages page. And this is what I found this morning....

Track your package
Date Time Location Event Details
August 31, 2009 03:24:00 PM --- Arrival Scan
August 29, 2009 12:52:32 AM Campbellsville KY US Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit

Soooo it was in KY the 29th, and yesterday it arrived... SOMEWHERE. Was it in OH? My town? Just over the border? In a different state? I'm hoping this means that it will be here today, but I'm not holding my breath... It does make going to the mailbox all that more exciting.

There's a time to be silly, and a time to be serious

Saturday, August 29, 2009

I like Google

I remember back a few years when I balked at using Google's search engine. I always used Yahoo! and I thought it worked just fine. Then slowly, I started to be turned. Jonathan started using some of Google's services and really liked them. Then one fateful day my Yahoo mail account started dropping emails. And they switched interfaces, and I didn't really care for the change. So I made the switch to Google mail, and I haven't looked back. I really enjoy Google mail, and I have started using some of their other services.

Google Reader: Once again, I was a little wary of this at first, but I've really come to enjoy it. Basically you enter all the Blogs that you read and when they are updated you can read the updates all on Reader, instead of going to each of the blogs separately. The downside, of course, is that you don't get to see the layout of each blog - but if you click on the name of the blog, it will open in a new tab. In the picture below I have it showing all items, but usually I just have it show new items. I just didn't have any new ones when I took the screen shot.



Google Documents: Another great product. Here you can save documents, spreadsheets, or presentations. You can share these documents with anyone else with a google account, and give them set permissions within each file. Jonathan and I use a shared spreadsheets for various different things. I keep my Christmas Card list with addresses on there. We have a spreadsheet with a list of all the places we would like to visit. I have a spreadsheet of what articles of clothing I have for Ohlen for the next couple sizes so I know what I still need to get for him. The nice thing is that I can view those documents from any computer I sign on to.



Google Calendar: This is one that I really like, but don't use as much as I should. It's very easy to input activities onto the calendar. You can enter detailed information about where the event is taking place and how long it will last. There is also a gadget in Google mail that inserts a box on the right hand side that will show the next several upcoming events. This makes the calendar even better, as I don't always go to Google calendar everyday, but I do check my mail every day, so I always see what is coming up on our schedule. I have a feeling this will be really nice once we start having the kids involved in more activities.




You should be able to find all these products, and more at Google.com. There are many more products, but these are the ones I use the most.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Blog Hop - Funny Videos

These are old news, but two of my favorite You Tube gems. Both induce giggles. (In me anyways.) Enjoy.







MckLinky Blog Hop

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Look a Likes

One of the fun things for me as a parent is to compare my own baby pictures with my kids. And then to watch as they grow and change. Ohlen looked alot like me and my dad before he turned a year. Now that is is almost 3 he looks much more like his daddy than me. And Noah is starting out the same. He especially has my hair. After it is nice and clean and dry it will curl up on the sides, and on the top, much like mine used to. Here's some fun pics to compare. :)