Creative Friday--Oh So Colorful Edition

I arrived at Michelle's house yesterday to find this very pleasing stack of colorful envelopes she had bought for me. (Last week I lamented the fact that I always have white envelopes since buying them in bulk at XPEDX makes the most sense for me because I go through so many of them.) But really I love using colored envelopes because they stand out so nicely in a mailbox.


She found these at Pebbles in My Pocket this week and and decided to surprise me with this lovely gift. Oh the delight!


Michelle served up Spaghetti Pie for lunch, which was so good. I suppose anything with cream cheese, sour cream and cheese is delightful to me, but this was great.


Eva, however, did NOT enjoy the smell of our spaghetti pie. She didn't say anything, she just plugged her nose. Ha.


Poor Michelle experienced some major frustration as she spent much of her time reformatting her recipes on her new computer. She'd previously had them formatted perfectly and had printed them up for great gifts for me, Jenn and Jane over the years. But when her computer died things changed.



She measured everything and they still printed out too wide to fit this box! Oh the humanity!


She eventually gave up on the recipes and decided to practice knitting. It was a strange sight for me to see, but we embrace all creativity on Creative Fridays.


I cut out 5 sets of good mail labels and ended up with this stack of scraps (why is it that the word crumbs came to mind?).


I also wrote 8 cards, 3 of which were full-on letters while the other 5 were notes. I am working my handwriting since it seems to be deteriorating into an illegible slur of letters. You'd think with all the writing I do my penmanship would be good, but it has become kind of a mess.


This was the happy result of my days efforts. They're delightfully colorful, so I hope the recipients get a little thrill when they see the envelope poking out of the junk mail in their mailbox.


Here's our self-portrait for the day, it officially looks like I'm wearing a dark headband, ugh.

Happy Birthday Becky!!!

**Do you like colorful envelopes?
Have you ever made Spaghetti Pie?
Do you love Michelle's recipes?
Do you write letters?**

Five for Friday--Almost Spring Edition

1. We have had some delightfully spring-like weather this week that has sent my soul soaring. I never realize how affected I am by the grey skies of winter until things start warming up and I can open the windows again. I love a good breeze and billowing curtains so much!


I also love seeing tulip leaves start poking through the ground. It happens every year, but always surprises me. This spring will be even more delightful than our previous springs because the "weed fairy" (aka Michelle) planted a bunch of tulip bulbs back in October when she cleared the entire bed as a surprise while I was in Michigan. It's the gift that keeps on giving.


2. Landon has been aging right before my eyes lately and is approaching teenager-hood a tad too quickly for my taste. He's only 10.5 so I should still have a few years of boyhood right? One of the things he's been doing lately is playing games on the computer while listening to music. We've made 5 "Wahoo" mix cds together over the past couple of years, so he has his own music he likes to listen to. It's just that he knows most of that music through playing Guitar Hero and Sing Star so he likes to rock out to The White Strips, Guns and Roses and the like. It's kind of surreal.


3. Speaking of aging, take a look at all this grey hair I'm sporting! What's that about? I'm only 37, that doesn't seem old. Shouldn't hair care be part of a good health insurance plan? Oh right, we don't have a health insurance plan.


4. Whitney has been inspired by Austin's new found cooking skills so I taught her how to make Macaroni & Cheese this week. Upon getting out the pan she immediately put it on her head (what the?) and then did the same thing with the colander. Silly me, I hadn't realized I'd need to specify that we don't wear pots as fashion as part of this lesson.


5. This Whitneyism left me feeling like quite a chump. Our old house has really crappy, condensation-covered windows that Whitney loves to draw on. So the other morning I saw her standing in the curtains and said, "Oh Whitney, why must you do this over and over again" but then saw that she had written "I love you dad!!" while Randy stood outside and watched her as he left for work. Oh the humanity! Why must I ruin everything?


6. I'm adding a 6th item to this Friday's Five because I want to follow-up on last week's pencil jar gone wrong. I cleaned out my container and found a dusty crayon (what the?) several red pencils that were too short to be seen, a couple dried up highlighters and some blue pens (which I hate). I took everything out and restocked it with 3 full highlighters, sharpened pencils with erasers, and a bunch of new black pens, ahhhh.

**Are you having spring-like weather?
Do you love an open window?
Have you documented your greys?
Ever put a colander on your head?
Is Landon looking older to you?
Did you replenish your pencil jar?**

Wonderful Wednesday--2nd Time Edition

Yesterday was the 2nd installment of Wonderful Wednesday and it proved to be better than the first.


I picked up Eva right at 9:30 and we posed for this self-portrait. She entertained me during the car ride by counting to 100 (she's got her own version of this though it's strangely accurate) and by singing the ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle with her eyes closed (ala Celine Dion perhaps?).


Robyn dropped Ashley off just minutes after we arrived at the house (I called in reinforcements since I'm so bad at 8 hours of imaginative play) and the two girls quickly got down to business. I love how Eva pronounces Ashley's name "Ash-eh-lee".


Whitney had been playing with the barn and a bunch of dinosaur and lion figures in the morning, but the girls thought she had set it up just for them...I let them believe this.


One of the games the girls played was the "hide behind the futon and scream" game. Why haven't I ever thought of that? It provided minutes of fun.


Though I did spend much of the day talking about the importance of sharing, I was able to work on the good mail prizes for last week's contest winners, while watching The Duchess of Duke Street on the computer. I'm choosing to see the constant interruptions as opportunities to exercise (up, down, 2, 3, 4, bend, lift, wipe, sigh, 2, 3, 4).


There was a reprise of last month's game of "Scare Jill" involving the girls running to the computer room to find me holding my camera, then screaming and running away. The girls need to work on their stealth tactics a bit, because standing outside the doorway shushing each other proved to be their demise.


They did add blankets this time to add a ghost-like quality to the game, but these hindered their retreat as they couldn't see or walk well. Ahhh to be 3 again.


Whitney's arrival home from school was a welcome boon for all of us and was met with delighted squeals of joy (oh to have such status with anyone). She played with them the rest of the time so I actually got to sit on my bed and read 10 whole pages uninterrupted!


Jared picked Ashley up at 5:00, then I cleaned up the messes and coaxed Eva into going home by telling her that she and Whitney could continue their game in the car.


Michelle ended up giving me this loaf of bread fresh from the oven (as in I watched her take it out of the oven) along with one of my all-time favorite cookies (Shortbread Sugar Cookie from Barnes and Noble). I felt a little bit guilty leaving her house with such goodness, but oh well. It's not every day my car smells like freshly baked bread.

Overall, I would say the day was a great success. I wasn't exhausted when it was over and both girls were still happy, so I consider that a victory.

**Was your Wednesday wonderful?
Have you ever had a Shortbread Sugar
cookie from Barnes & Noble?
Did you read Michelle's version of the day?**

Happy Birthday Amy!!!

Here is the list of 32 things I know and love about Amy (I wrote this last year), plus 1 more for this year.


She's very tall.
She's oh so skinny.
She looks like Geena Davis, especially in her bridal photos.
She is very good at reading instructions and figuring things out.


She's a creative genius.
She is always tired.
She only drinks water.
She loves Burnt Almond Fudge ice cream.
She makes good guacamole.


She has created an awesome studio.
She taught herself Photoshop.
She can sing pretty well and always wins at Sing Star!
She no longer fears death all the time.


She has recently taken up painting and is good at that too!
Her girls all have brown eyes like her.
She often makes big changes without telling anyone (much to my chagrin).
She is good about getting an idea and following through on it.


She always wears jeans and a t-shirt.
She is an excellent photographer.
Her legs are 6 inches longer than Adam's but they're the same height.
She loves chocolate and eats some every day.



She has a great marriage.
She has recently become a reader (hooray).
She's very computer savvy.
She is stronger than she thinks she is.
She is a great mom.
She loves music but also likes to have her house quiet.
She's excellent at Dance, Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero.
She loves her family.


She creates beautiful blog banners and posted the instructions so we could all learn how.
She often contradicts herself; it's hilarious to those who know her.
She's always trying to improve herself.
She got published in Simple Scrapbooks Magazine and fulfilled her dream!

Happy Birthday Amy!!!

That's Comedy

Last night while playing Pictureka for Family Fun Night Landon and I had this exchange.


Landon: Coughing a lot.
Me: "Why is it that every time you cough I feel a breeze?"
Landon: "Hey Eddie, close that window will ya?"
Me: Chuckling until it turned into a full-on laughing fit of giggles.
Landon: "I feel a bit of pride when I make you laugh like that."

Perhaps you had to be there, but it was so funny. We don't have an Eddie in the house, so Landon's quick response was just so funny. It turned our ho-hum game playing into a laugh fest. Good times.

**Do you think this is funny?
Do your kids try to make you laugh?
Does coughing drive you crazy?**

Happy Birthday Betsy!!!

It's Betsy's 38th Birthday today, and this is the first year she might read my blog on her birthday so I'm going to make a list of 38 things I know about her. Enjoy!


We've known each other since we were 13 years old.
She remembers lots of stuff that I don't (I love this about her).
She's the smartest blonde I know.


She always has the cutest clothes.
She walks so fast I practically have to jog to keep up with her.

She bites her nails.
She's hilarious.
She has been a 1st grade teacher for 15 years!
She works full-time.


She has two sweet boys ages 3 and 10 months.
She gets very little sleep.
She's a great friend.
She makes really cute cards, if she ever gets the time to work on them.


She's very generous.
People are drawn to her.
She loves the color pink.
She doesn't have the internet at home! (She doesn't want one more distraction in her life.)


She's fearless.
She always goes somewhere exotic for spring break.
She loves her family.
She doesn't watch TV so Pop Culture references are wasted on her.


She drinks a lot of diet drinks, rarely water.
She makes an effort to stay in touch with me.
She defends everyone and is very slow to criticize others.


She doesn't write letters often, but when she does they're great.
She sometimes crawls around her floors picking things up and calls this Amish vacuuming.


She loves salads, loves desserts, and can out eat anyone.
She's very thin!
Every guy wanted to date her in high school, too bad she didn't want to date any of them.


She has a close relationship with her mom.
She finds weeding therapeutic.
She loves to listen to books on cd.


She's always doing something.
She's a technophobe.
She likes to organize things.


She's my favorite person to talk to on the phone!
She likes to go walking.
She rarely has any time for herself.

Happy Birthday Bets!!!
I Love Your Guts!

Good Mail Winners

I printed out all the comments from my Friday post, cut them into strips, mixed them up and then reached in and chose two winners.













The winners are Sarah and Lene! I need you both to email me (stuart_jill@hotmail.com) your addresses so I can send you your prize.


And now for the winner of the good mail guessing game from Saturday's post.


Crystal guessed that I've sent 1100 pieces of good mail since I started keeping track in January 2006, and as of Saturday the total I've sent (that I remembered to keep track of) is 1096!