Second Honeymoon Dreaming

So every once in a while I think about the second honeymoon trip my husband and I are hoping to go on next year.

I say "hoping to" because, well, you never know what life will toss you. (I try not to make statements about things we are going to definitely do anymore, because I sometimes end up eating my words, because life is just crazy that way)

It is such a gargantuan task!

Our general idea for our trip is tropical beach bum vacation.  Sounds great right?  Our actual honeymoon was at a city close to home for only a couple nights.  We got married in the middle of college and were pretty broke.  We came home the Tuesday after we were married and started working pretty much right away at our crazy factory summer jobs.  Next year will be our 10 year (10??  where has time gone??) anniversary and so we want to go on a nice vacation all by ourselves.

Found on flickr
Maldives - definitely out of the price range - but so incredibly beautiful

But it is not easy.  Do you know how many tropical beach bum vacation options there are?  And how many options within each option.  Makes my head spin.  Do we want to go to an all inclusive place, and not leave the place the entire time we are there.  Do we want to rent a car to do some touring? Do we just want to go on a cruise instead?  Do we want to just get a regular hotel? A resort?  A private rental property?  Do we want to go to Mexico, somewhere in the Caribbean, Hawaii? How much do we want to spend?

Found on Flickr
Kauai Hawaiian Island - probably the island I would want most to visit there.  Although, I would love to geek out at all the Lost filming locations on Oahu.

Really, we wanted to go to England.  That would have been amazing.  The more we thought about it, the more we realized that we would want to go for at least 2 weeks.  And that is completely out of the budget for the trip next year.  And we wouldn't want to leave the kids for that long.  So that trip is a dream for another year.  Maybe for the 20 year anniversary. :)

Found on Flickr
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico  Some friends where here last year and loved it.

My thoughts right now are all inclusive with no rental car.  I would love to go to Hawaii, but I think that is someplace I would definitely want to explore - and will probably be out of our budget, unless we got a pretty great deal.

Found on Flickr
St. Lucia

Cruises intrigue me.  I have heard really great things about them.  However, I'm not sure how I would do confined with a large crowd.  I think I do really well traveling in general - but I'm not great with huge crowds (think amusement park situations)  Stresses me out for whatever reason.  But cruises seem to be pretty economical, which will be a big part of the final decision.

Found on Flickr
Punta Cana

In any event, I'm not even sure what time of year we are going to go.  Probably spring or fall of next year.  Who knows, maybe we will just say heck with it and head to Anna Maria Island again.  Although, I really do want to go some place different.  So maybe Sarasota. :)  (It's not too far from Anna Maria.)

Found on Flickr
Anna Maria Island

Any suggestions?  Would love to hear about any and all experiences with cruises and all inclusives. Pros - cons.

Click on through to any of the links below the pictures to find some more wonderfully inviting beach pictures.

Blink

Somewhere in time I blinked and my first baby grew up on me.

Ohlen is now 5.

Crazy.

Butterfly

We brought a couple caterpillars inside this year.  The first one to make its cocoon made it on the bottom of the jar.  I wasn't sure it would make it.  I used some super glue, cardboard, and a small clothespin that is technically for scrapbooking to hang the cocoon.  One side of the cocoon was flattened.  Happily, early last week the cocoon turned black.  Ohlen was sure that meant it had died, but I assured him that it just meant that the butterfly would emerge soon.  Luckily I was near the jar when the butterfly came out and was able to call the boys in.  We waited a while before we attempted to "hold" it.  We put it outside, and the next day it was still hanging around.  Ohlen found it a few times and walked around with it on his finger.  Such a great learning experience for them too.  We have another cocoon that will hopefully be ready soon.  I'm hoping to get some pictures as it is coming out. 

Sappiness

So confession.  Every time I hear Chris Brown's Forever, I cry.  Yep. Big tears.  Every time.  (Granted I don't really hear it all that often, but anyways.)

I blame The Office.  They used the song for Jim and Pam's wedding.  And, for whatever reason, turns me into a huge sap.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/101187/the-office-forever

And if you haven't seen the source for The Office version - I'll post that too.

Seriously though, so much emotion for a fake couple (Jim and Pam)...  Although I have cried over books too, that were fiction. :)  Anyone else have any sappy confessions?? :)

Another Conversation with Noah

Me, after noticing a small mark on Noah's stomach:  What happened to your belly?
Noah: Bite me.
Me: What bit you?
Noah: 'Nake
Me: A snake?
Noah: Yah
Me: Where?
Noah: Outside
Me: Outside?
Noah: Uh-huh
Me: Where outside?
Noah: Flyin'
Me: Flying??
Noah: Yep
Me:...  A flying snake bit you outside....
Noah: YAH!

1. 2 year olds are awesome
2. Noah's vocabulary and imagination are blossoming crazy fast
3. I hope I never see a flying snake.

4. To not leave Ohlen out, yesterday morning he came in our room.  I forget what Jonathan asked him, but he answered: As a matter of fact...    (I really wish I could remember the rest of the conversation, but hey, I had just woken up.)  I couldn't stop giggling.  I can't help it, the kid just really cracks me up sometimes.

5.. Completely unrelated, but my last post was my 200th post.  For those that have been around for most of them... bless you for sticking around. :)

Cherry Delight

Just a quick post to share one of my favorite desserts - Cherry Delight.  It combines three of my favorite sweets.  Graham cracker crust - cream cheese + whipped cream middle - and wonderful cherry pie filling top.

It is extremely simple to make - and to customize.  Use any fruit filling of your choice - or kick some of the sugar for a fresh fruit topping.  (Yikes there is a whole lot of sugar in this one... but so good.)  I also leave out most of the powdered sugar.  I'm pretty sure it's purpose is to make the middle "stand" up better, so yeah, if I especially don't care how it ends up looking, I leave it out all together.

I'm never sure about the whole graham cracker amount.  Is one cracker a sheet of 4 or just one of the fourths..  I think it means the whole sheet.  This last time I made it I kind of just winged it with the crust and I think I made it a bit too thick.

Anyways, on to the recipe and pictures.  The recipe shown is for an 8x8 pan.  I usually double and put in a 9x13. I know it isn't quite right, but it works.

I've had several different posts rolling around in my head.  Hopefully I will actually get them from head to screen soon.

On a completely different note - if you've never been to the drive in - I completely recommend going.  The picture quality isn't the greatest, but it is so much fun.  My best friend and I went last week.  It was so much fun to be able to talk during the movie and just hang out.  She lives about 6 hours away, so we don't get a whole lot of time together.  And we do enjoy watching movies together. :)  Oh, and for the record we saw Cowboys and Aliens and Harry Potter.  I enjoyed both.  (We had both seen HP already, so we really got to discuss during that one.)  The only problem with both of the movies was that they are pretty dark (as in lighting), so it was a little hard to see the action at times.  Still so very worth it.  It was $5 a person - for two just released movies.  We got popcorn and drinks, and those weren't too expensive either.  So, yeah, if you are close to a drive in, definitely check it out.

Wow - that was supposed to be a small 1 -2 sentence aside.  Oh well.

Blog changes

Well it's that time of year again - apparently.  I've decided to change up my blog again.  It was almost exactly a year and a month ago that I changed the blog title.  And here we go again.  It's not like I have a huge following of people I don't know - so I figure it's not going to matter too much if I change it. 

The first change - I'm changing the actual address of the site.  I'll be changing it in a few days - hopefully giving everyone enough time to check and come along.  I'll probably open a new blog under the old address to direct people here, if I can.  Mostly changing because I want it to match all the rest of my stuff - and would like it to not include my last name.  So the new address will be coleslaw1017.blogspot.com.  So head on over there, actually probably today as I've just changed my mind as I was typing here.  I think I'll move it - and open a new one and leave a link there.  Not sure how that will work with followers and if any of you are using Google reader.  I thought about just opening a new blog, but I wanted everything to come along.

So I also changed the name of the blog to coleslaw1017.  Why?  I've been realizing that my posts don't all fall under the category of quilting, kids, cultivation, and cooking. And I don't want to limit myself to that.  This blog is mostly for my own benefit.  I like having a place to share about my family, my random thoughts, and other things.  I know I don't have a whole lot of followers, but I really don't care.  It's just a fun thing for me.  And I hope that sometimes it is entertaining, maybe even helpful.  In any event, coleslaw1017 has been my internet identity since sometime around 2000.  A few people in my life have called me Cole - and it just lent itself to coleslaw.  Even though I don't care very much for the food.  The 1017 is actually a date - 10/17  - 1999 to be precise.  It is the day Jonathan and I started dating.  The beginning of my life being what it is today.  So yeah, so very important to me.  

As far as content here - I really don't expect to change that.  I think the changes I'm making are going to match with my posting habits better than my former name did.  Just a random mix of whatever comes to mind.    I really have enjoyed this blogging thing, and really hope to continue.  And I hope you are enjoying it too - although I suppose you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't.  

Thanks for reading - and bearing with the changes. :)

Some Band Nostalgia

I got a letter about some Alumni Band happenings and it made me think back to my high school band days.

Here are a few of the songs we played.

Empire Strikes Back - we never actually played this at concert, but we practiced it two different years.  SO much fun.

Oye Como Va - tweet tweet

A Broad Update

Hey all!  Just wanted to give an update of what is going on over here.

The Kids:

Katherine just turned 6 weeks yesterday - and has a Dr. appointment today.  I'm curious to see where she is stat wise.  She has been doing pretty good.  A bit fussy here and there, but really nothing horrible.  She has been sleeping from about 930 - 2 and 245 - 6/630.  Which has been nice.  Still not sleeping through the night really, but better than only getting 2 hours of sleep at a time.  (3 hours between feedings = start of feeding to the next start - so only get as much sleep as is left after the eating is done - which can take 45 min there abouts)  She is really starting to fill out, and still looks very much like her brothers did at this stage.

Noah is definitely a 2 year old.  He is either super happy or throwing fits.  Oh, and that is Desitin he has spread all over his legs.  His response when I walked in on this "Uh-oh"  As if he didn't just do it on purpose and the Desitin just jumped out of the container onto his skin. :)  His big brother knows just what buttons to push to get him to screech.  Considering all the changes he's just been through, I would say he is doing really really well.  We also took away his pacifier a few weeks ago.  He was still taking it during nap time and at night.  We took it away cold turkey.  The first night he cried for quite a while before falling asleep, and woke up once or twice, but really it wasn't that terrible.  It is harder to get him to slow down for nap time, but really, it went really well.  He is also starting to show some interest in the potty.  I'm not fully committed to starting it all right now.  I was going to this fall, but really since he is showing some interest I might just go with it.

Ohlen.  Oh Ohlen.  He is growing up so fast.  Our biggest issue with this guy these days is that he is starting to talk back and argue more.  It can be really frustrating.  On the positive side he really loves his siblings and is, usually, a great big brother.  The times when he and Noah are playing nicely are just so great.  He has really enjoyed being over here and visiting his Great Grandma.  We are also working with him to ween him off of TV and video games.  I got pretty lax in those first weeks we were here.  Because of where his birthday lies he will have to wait until next year for Kindergarten, so I plan to do some "school" time with him starting soon.  Nothing too intense, but just to get him more used to sitting and completing a task.  This guy will be 5 in a month and a half - not sure where my first born baby has gone.

Us.  Jonathan and I are loving it here.  We love the house. We love our neighbors.  We love our location.  Nothing too exciting going on.  We are still trying to pinpoint where we want to go for our 10th anniversary next year.  Our top choices at the moment are London or someplace tropical. (think all inclusive beach bum vacation)  Any suggestions/opinions/advice?

Yes, that is Katherine tucked away in the sling.  (Have I mentioned I love the sling - don't use it as much as I could - but I love it)  I am feeling pretty much back to normal.  I have a whole other post planned for weight stuff, because that is taking up lots of my thought process these days.  In a week and a half I will start babysitting again.  I'm looking to get super organized for that - also probably another post.

In new stuff - I've been visiting Pinterest a whole lot.  That will link you to my boards.  Kind of a more fantastical bookmarking system.  Probably could do a whole post on it - maybe I will later.  If you want to join, but need an invite, let me know.

Also have been checking out Twitter a bit more, but really, I am really behind as to what all the abbreviations mean. And how exactly to reply to someone and all that jazz.  Makes me feel kind of old... :)

Hope you all are doing well.  And hope to start posting more soon. As you'll notice, I didn't follow through with the Sunday music post.  Maybe this Sunday.

Music Spotlight Sunday

Jonathan recently bought an album by The High Kings.  I am hooked.  This is my favorite song by far.

Back in high school I was in the band.  There were some songs during concert season (as opposed to marching season.) that had amazing harmony.  And I would get goosebumps.  I'm sure I'm not the only one this happens to.  And this song is the same way - goosebumps.  The lyrics too.  I forget sometimes, that the internet and cell phones, well telephones for that matter, haven't always been around.  If you moved away - there was no instant communication with the people you left.  You would have to wait weeks, months to hear from them via letter.  You may never see them again.  What a tough decision it must have been.  

Anyways - back from the tangent - just wanted to share some music I've been enjoying.

I added the title after I wrote this - maybe I'll try to make this a weekly thing.  I make no promises (or maybe threats...ha!).