Where are you Spring?

Spring is on its way... I can feel it in the air. Most days anyway... Today its pretty cold outside and there was some light snow earlier (yuck!) but I know its coming soon.

Yesterday while it was still a little bit warm outside Amir and I planted a few seeds. We have Rosemary, Basil, Spearmint and Parsley. We also bought more seeds like Pumpkins, Tomato's etc... We will be planting those this week inside as well. I'm hoping to be successful with a garden this year. Last year we didn't plant one and the year before I was very unsuccessful. What did I expect I guess.... Amir was only a few months old by the time it was time to plant everything and going outside with him was most of the time not an option... He didn't like his stroller and that was the only thing we had to put him in at the time.

Anyway, I'm thinking as long as Amir doesn't try to dig up our garden this year we will be fine. Don't worry, we are getting him a sandbox this year if its the last thing I do!!!

These are the bottles we are going to use to put over said plants... As you can see they are not empty yet... Drink up Rich! I'm not a big Shasta fan but who else makes three liter bottles? Anyone? Anyone?!

Cream of Wheat

My favorite snack just so happens to be Cream of Wheat.

So far nothing has been able to taint how I feel about it. I love it. Its my favorite food. Its the food that when I try to go on a low carb diet, it breaks me. Cream of Wheat was the only thing that I could stomach in the first few months of pregnancy... Everything else came back up... Violently. Yes, it did occasionally come back but I always went back for more.

My favorite is made with whole milk, cooked double the time that is directed on the box with strawberry preserves mixed in.. It cant just be strawberry jelly you buy from the store... It has to be REAL strawberry preserves. (the stuff my grandma makes works best!)

Anyway, I just had to share one of my many oddities.

I LOVE CREAM OF WHEAT!!

4 things

Ugh, I've been tagged!

4 Things I like to watch:

1. Grey's Anatomy

2. House

3. Bones

4. Castle

4 Things I am passionate about:

1. My baby

2. My husband

3. Reading

4. Life in general

4 Words or Phrases I say a lot

1. Eff

2. Oh man!

3. Awesome

4. Sweet dude (I mostly use that one with my baby and no one else, ha ha!)

4 Things I learned from the Past

1. People can change if they really want to

2. I can do anything I put my mind to

3. Procrastination is NOT the key (ha!)

4. Forgive

4 Places I like to go

1. The beach

2. Anywhere that is over 60 degrees!

3. Outside (when its warm!)

4. My bed

4 Things I did yesterday

1. Went to dinner with friends

2. Played with my child, Katherine, Gus & Rich

3. Watched Castle

4. Cleaned up the house

4 Things I am looking forward to:

1. The weekend

2. The future when I'm DONE with school

3. My 3 year wedding anniversary!

4. Amir leaving the terrible two's to the angelic three's? haha

4 Things I love about winter:

1. White

2. Cold weather clothes

3. Snowmen

4. The end of winter, right before spring when you can tell spring is right around the corner. :)

4 Things on my wish list:

1. A finished basement

2. A baby

3. A new car to fit Amir and said new baby.

4. A cruise or a trip somewhere fun with my hubby

4 People I tag:

1. Katherine

2. Lauren

3. Mandi

4. Stephanie

Kittens

Its final... We are getting rid of the kittens. As most of you know - we found them in the road. Their mother was killed and I'm guessing the rest of the litter too... They were the lucky two that escaped the same fate. I wish that I could keep them but our house is too small for two dogs and two cats... Plus my child and my husband. (lol) And my sanity is still partially intact and I want to keep it that way. They are about five months old. I want to find them a good home so if anyone wants them or know someone who wants cats, let me know!

They've been broken in by Amir (remember, he's two!) so they are good with kids. Although they will scratch if they are picked up wrong. They are NOT declawed or spayed/neutered. Getting them spayed/neutered at the Humane Society is approx. $30 each. Daphne (female) is the one of the left and Tiger (male) is the one on the right. They are up on their shots (no leukemia or aides shots though, those are not required but they are needed if they are outdoor cats, we will be getting those if they don't get adopted soon) They know how to use a doggie door and are really really great with our dogs. They cuddle and play with the dogs. :) I would rather give them to someone that I know so I know they are going to a good home!

Valentines Day!

This week Amir and I did some Valentines day crafts.

We used scissors and glue. That was a bit challenging but once he got the hang of the glue it was fine. For a while he thought that the glue was some sort of crayon. Ha!

The yellow one is my heart person and the red one is Amir's. I love that little guy!

Cupcake Challenge

Today Katherine and I went on a baking spree. We were baking cupcakes for Gus' blessing and we could not decide on a flavor to make. So we made SIX different kinds... Lemon Blueberry, Lemon Cream, Pink Lemonaide, Key Lime, Black Forest and Chocolate Peanut Butter. The plan was to use just three cake mixes and cut the recipes in half for each one. Well we knew that would end in disaster so we were very careful not to mess up... I started with the Key Lime... I was really cautious not to mess up... But I did anyway. I put too much sweetened condensed milk in. But they still turned out okay, luckily. Katherine mixed the pink lemonaide flawlessly (thats what she wants us to believe, haha) Next I did the lemon blueberry... Flawless... Except for I forgot to put the filling in the middle. Don't worry though, Katherine put the filling on the top so it would sink down as it cooked. They did sink but they also were overfilled because we neglected to take any batter out before we added the filling to the top... We are champs. Katherine mixed the lemon cream perfectly. (once again, thats what she wants us to believe!!!!) Then I did the two chocolate flavors.. I did well. No major problems.

Next we mixed up the frostings.... They were Chocolate Ganache, Lemon Cream, Pink Lemonaide, Peanut Butter and Whipped Cream. They were delicious! We did have some trouble with those but I wont go into that. I'll just say this again, WE ARE CHAMPS!

Needless to say I probably wont be baking again for a while. Although I do want to make more cupcakes out of the book we used to make these six delicious flavors!

Here are some pictures so you can see what I am talking about.... (you can click on the pictures to see them full size)

Walk Now for Autism Speaks, 2010

Did you know that every 20 minutes another child is diagnosed with autism? This has occurred in my family.

For those of you who don't know my grandma (yes GRANDMA) adopted a boy with autism. He is four years old. He was my cousin's son but my grandma ended up with him. She left her home in Utah and moved out to California to get him the kind of education that he needs. Since he has been there he has been doing much better.

I am walking in the fight against autism at Walk Now for Autism Speaks, joining tens of thousands of other people united by a single cause and dedicated to raising money to find a cure and build awareness for autism. The money raised at Walk Now for Autism supports Autism Speaks mission to finding the causes, effective treatments and a cure for autism through funding essential biomedical research. One in every 150 children is diagnosed with autism. Autism Speaks directs 75¢ out of every dollar raised to autism research, awareness and outreach.

If you would like to donate please visit my page or if you would like to walk with me comment on this message, email, text, call or whatever is easiest for you.

Help Haiti With Your Mobile Phone

I'm going to start this post off with a story....

I was in the store the other day and while standing in line I was listening to this couple talk about Haiti and donating/helping out etc. They were a young couple, probably in college. The boy was talking about how he wanted to go and help with everything that happened in Haiti (actually go there and volunteer) and the girl was upset with him because he had already donated money toward the cause and she thought that he had already done his part. They argued back and forth for a few minutes about the subject and finally the boy asked his girlfriend how much she had donated... She hadn't donated anything. He asked her why and she said that she wanted to but it was too hard to donate... She didn't have time to get online and use her debit/credit card or take 5 minutes to write a check and send it. The boy just looked at her disappointed and that was the end of it.

I felt really bad for the couple because they didn't see eye to eye on the subject and it was obvious that the girl just didn't care enough about other people to think about it. That got me thinking and researching the different ways you can donate. I came across this article and it seems that this is the "easiest" way to do it. Simply text "HAITI" to 90999 and your donation of $10 will be received by the Red Cross and billed to your mobile phone carrier. If you would like more details please visit the website listed.