Year 2 - Day 150 - May 31

Look what I get to start working on this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The end is in sight!

Year 2 - Day 149 - May 30

My mother & I picked berries this morning. It was HOT! We got 2 bowls full, but she brought a bowl to her friend that she was visiting on the way back to the airport. Hopefully the farmers are right and we get another week out of the berries, because these won't last the whole winter. ;)

Year 2 - Day 148 - May 29

Between yesterday's friends party and today's family party, I have eaten enough sugar to last me a lifetime. Just a sampling of leftovers ... cookies from NJ, snickerdoodles from my friend's mom slash mom's friend, peanut butter chocolate cake from a farmers market, canoli cake from another farmers market, and chocolate butterscotch cookies from Mike's mom. (Not shown because it's gone: chocolate strawberry cake)

Year 2 - Day 147 - May 28

Mike got me these roses yesterday at Wegmans, and we put them in one of our nice vases for the party today. The yellow one opened until it was bigger than my hand! I love when flowers do that and don't fall apart completely.

Year 2 - Day 146 - May 27

We used his Groupon to My Three Sons tonight. What a great way to eat out - $5 for the groupon and then a few bucks tonight to add on some soda. Most affordable date night ever! We've been accumulating Groupons to use on vacation this summer as well. One for a fancy place on the water in California and then another for a local burger joint that claims wonderful milkshakes. I can't wait!

Year 2 - Day 145 - May 26

This is our new SmartBoard game. The 1st graders use a puppet to "chew the gumball." When the puppet touches the picture, the gumball disappears and a word shows up. I have to have them practice dictionary skills and ABC order - forward, backwards, beginning, middle, end, etc., and it turns out that letting them wear a puppet (and high five said puppet when they find the word) can actually make them want to do the (boring, boring) skill. It was hilarious how excited they were. This is the power of a Smartboard... ;) (P.S. the word shadows show on my laptop screen so that I can see them, but they don't show up through the projector on the board)

Second picture of the day (Which I totally didn't take, seeing as how I'm in it, and totally isn't from today, but rather 10 years ago today):

My friend Eileen posted this on facebook today in honor of the 10th anniversary since she & Steve were married. I am sad he's not here for today, but glad that she is happy and remembering the happiness of that day. There I am in the back right corner, in a light colored dress. I loved that dress (It was from American Eagle) right up until Dawson's mother wore it to graduation on Dawson's Creek. The MOTHER! (AE used to do all the clothes for that show.)

Year 2 - Day 144 - May 25

What a difference a week makes - all the way down to $3.75!! Who knew that'd ever be a price to jump up and down for?! :)

Year 2 - Day 143 - May 24

I made a bunch more cards tonight, but switched up the style. These are explosion cards that we learned to make last month at stamping. The fold is similar to one we used to make an arrow when we folded notes in middle school and uses lots of small bits of paper. It was ag reat way to use up my old purple and green DSP.

Year 2 - Day 142 - May 23

I made 10 cards in the last 28 hours or so.  I did them assembly line style, but they still took quite some time.  They're called a double slider card and use a piece of plastic grocery bag inside to make the wings slide in and out.  I did a terrible job on the one we made at stamping club last month, but I took that one apart to make sure I got all these working correctly. To use my random paper packs, I made 2 of each color combination.  I haven't done anything this ambitious in awhile - it was kind of fun!

Year 2 - Day 141 - May 22

We went to a new restaurant down the street tonight.  It's combination Asian buffet, sushi, and habachi.  I got my fill on habachi and pepper chicken (my favorite Chinese buffet staple) and Mike ate sushi and crab legs until he burst.  It's a little expensive for a regular outing, but I think we'll go back.  Maybe we'll go for lunch this summer on a Monday when we're both home and pay the lunch time price!

Year 2 - Day 140 - May 21

That speck above the trees is the Goodyear blimp.  It was in town for the Preakness today, and we sighted it while driving down 83 to a party. A few people tweeted that it was louder than you'd think it would be.  I am surprised - because I don't think of blimps as noise makers at all.

Year 2 - Day 139 - May 20

This is in no way the most exciting thing that happened today.  It was much more fun when they were full!  However, I snapped this picture while I was waiting to leave for the strawberry patch, and then I forgot to take a picture while they were full.  Oops. :) Now they're all over the place.  We filled both of these bowls for just $10 in pick-your-own strawberries.  Much better than the $4.50 a quart the same farm wanted for pre-picked ones!

Another good picture from tonight would have been the grill on fire, but alas, we were more worried about putting it out than snapping a picture.  (All is good now.)

And tomorrow we are going strawberry picking again with Sarah!! :)

Year 2 - Day 138 - May 19

I used to hate weeding.  It made my stomach hurt.  I could justify keeping almost everything. "Oh, we'll use this one as the non-example in a currency lesson." "Oh this series will come back around on the popularity scale!"

Not anymore.

I'm a weeding machine.  I had never done a deep thorough job on the picture books before, but wow. Today I cleaned house!

Year 2 - Day 137 - May 18

Gas is so cheap today! Just $3.87!!!!!!! This is the first time in a long time that it's been a good thing to wait a day before filling up. :)

Although I must say - when it was going up, it was jumping up by leaps and bounds every day.  I understand the concept that gas stations need the money to be able to afford the soon-to-come-super-expensive stuff.  But why doesn't it go down with the same leaps and bounds as oil prices are plummeting?! That doesn't seem fair...

Year 2 - Day 136 - May 17

We went to Max's in Fells Point tonight for American Craft Brew week.  The local brewery on tap tonight was Heavy Seas, which Mike enjoys.  We hung out for awhile and also hit up Pitango Gelato across the street, which is delicious.

Totally pretending it's summer - out with friends on a school night! :)

Year 2 - Day 135 - May 16

We're creeping closer to inventory time in the media center.  Today's "bet you didn't know being a media specialist was THIS awesome" task was scrubbing shelf fronts in preparation for their new shelf labels. 

My right arm is definitely feeling the workout!

Year 2 - Day 134 - May 15

I packed a whole lot of stuff into today.  Thank goodness it's summer and there is plenty of daylight! The best surprise of the day was that it didn't downpour. For days they were telling us of the horribly rainy weekend we'd be having, and then it didn't hapen. That was A-OK!

First, we packed our friends lives into two gigantic PODS. Great inventions, those PODS. Pop your stuff in and poof they appear at your next residence.

Then, I left them to their packing and headed off to a baby shower. It was lovely. I am very happy that the first baby shower I had to go to in this season of life was small, friendly, and low key. It made it much easier and I was able to enjoy myself. I was still sad at times, but I'm thinking that just doesn't go all the way away. It's good to have people to celebrate for!

Finally, I did the biggest grocery shopping excursion I've done in years. I actually spent $103, which is WAY more than I ever spend shopping.  But it was a ton of stock up things that drove up the price. AND, I saved $102. So really, it was an excellent trip. Plus I have $29 in store money to spend next week. Not too shabby!! :)

Year 2 - Day 133 - May 14

I'm pretty sure my husband didn't buy me an iPad *just* so I could play silly PopCap games, but I can't be sure. I mean, that's the only reason *he* uses it! Several weeks ago, PopCap put a few of their iPad games on sale for Japan Tsunami/Earthquake relief, and he convinced me that if we didn't buy Plants vs. Zombies, we were bad Americans. How could I argue?

I rolled my eyes at the time, but it is actually a really fun game. He's definitely better than I am, but I beat the basic game levels so I'm not terrible. If we have a Halloween party to attend next year, I'm going to force him to be a zombie to my plant!

Year 2 - Day 132 - May 13

We took a field trip to Havre de Grace tonight to try out a new-to-us restaurant and visit the other good homemade ice cream shop in Harford County. 

For dinner, we visited the Laurrapin Grill.  I had heard of it but had never been.  This week a bunch of people were talking about how good it is, so we figured we'd give it a try.  It was packed with people waiting for a table - always a good sign.  The menu is large, but uses a lot of the same ingredients in different dishes, so it wasn't scary.  When menus are as big as a phone book, I feel like it's impossible that everything will be good.  In true "us" fashion, I had bar food & Mike had seafood.  He ordered the crab cakes (that also had lobster mixed in) and said the only reason he wouldn't get them again is that there are 10 other things he wants to try.  I had sliders - a meatball & a french dip.  I was expecting to like the french dip better, but I actually loved the meatball.  They make gigantic meatballs, so the slider was a tiny roll with half a gigantic meatball.  It was really good.  They had a huge selection of beers but most of it was bottled & canned.  There were a couple Duclaw beers on tap but since he gets those all the time he tried some chocolate concoction. 

After dinner, we went to Bomboy's for ice cream.  I had Duck Duck Goose (play on words with the whole Decoy thing that HdG is famous for...it's caramel ice cream, caramel ribbon, and Bomboy's peanut butter cups mixed in) and Mike had Oreo Cheesecake.  It's not open in the winter, so I honestly think people forget about it.  Bloom's is better, and less than 5 minutes away, so we go there more often.  But Bomboy's is still excellent, the portions are huge for less money than Bloom's, and it was a ghost town.  There were 3 families sitting in the parlor part and one outside and that was it.  I guess it's further away from the giant mass of people in Bel Air, but still, people wait in line forever for Bloom's.  So if you are looking for something to do on a nice day, go to Havre de Grace, try the other local ice cream place around, and take a walk on the boardwalk on the bay.

Year 2 - Day 131 - May 12

Our grocery store had a great deal the last couple weeks where if you spent $20 on Nestle products (including this pizza and other things) you got four $5 coupons to use over the next month.  It wasn’t difficult, and with coupons I only spent about $10 to get that free $20.  With a coupon, I picked up this pizza & wings set that Digiornio put out recently.  They are all frozen in the box.  It’s plain chicken fingers & a pepperoni pizza.  The chicken gets cooked for 7 more minutes, so eventually you add the pizza & finish cooking.  Then there’s wing sauce to toss the chicken in after you cook.  We will eat the ones we have left (We actually have pizza & cookies for our other box, not wings) but we were surprisingly disappointed.  Something is different with the pizza.  It tasted like frozen pizza, not like Digiornio.  It was significantly smaller than a regular Digiornio as well.  I wouldn’t say it was bad, but it definitely didn’t live up to a usual regular Digironio.

Year 2 - Day 130 - May 11

Another day, another vet visit.  Moose had a bad reaction to a vaccine he got on Easter Weekend.  We’re on our 2nd round of antibiotics and he’s had 2 shots to try to calm the reaction down, too.  He even lost a pound – he’s down to a skinny 14.8 pounds. ;)

Year 2 - Day 129 - May 10

Recently, we signed up to be “Super Recyclers.”  We weren’t really sure what it meant, but it achieved two things.  1 – We save money on our monthly trash bill and 2 – We got free trash and recycling bins, the nice rectangular ones with wheels and lids.  These had previously cost money, so combined with our monthly savings for switching to the program it was a real money maker.  PLUS, our trash can blew away in a wind storm this spring and when it made its way home a few days later, it was missing its lid.  Did you know you can’t buy just a lid for a trash can at Home Depot?  That seems silly. Anyway, I digress.

We signed up for this program which has only one rule – you can only use their cans.  Simple, right?  With the new single stream recycling program, we can recycle a TON of stuff.  We are down to one trash bag per pickup day anyway, so using only their cans isn’t a problem.  The trash can is (I believe) 35 gallons.  It’s taller and skinnier than the old can, but fits nicely in the garage.  The recycling bin is (If I remember correctly) 95 gallons.  IT IS HUGE!  I could swim in it.  It comes up to my chest and is much bigger around than a pizza box.  At the moment, it’s taking up a lot of space in the garage – so much that I have to fold in the rearview mirror to even get to the car door.  We need another plan, but this is it for now…

Year 2 - Day 128 - May 9

Do you know how many McDonalds there are in this world?  According to Wikipedia, it’s over 32,000.  My point, though, is that there are SO many of these restaurants that it’s not inconvenient at all for them to close for months at a time.  For the last several years, many of the restaurants in the area have closed, been knocked all the way down to the foundation, and rebuilt.  I find it amazing that the company has so many franchises and so much money that this is a profitable activity.

Year 2 - Day 127 - May 8

If I were a good photo taker I would have remembered to take a picture while we were actually celebrating mother’s day today.  Mike grilled a thousand pounds (give or take) of shrimp and meat.  It was quite the dipping day – his mom brought chips & salsa and his sister brought fruit salsa & cinnamon chips for dessert!  But I was busy all day and didn’t think to take a picture – so this is a shot of our completely clean table from just after they all left.  Boring, yes, but unique because our table NEVER looks like this!

Year 2 - Day 126 - May 7

Today was a big day!  My best friend played a cello concerto with a symphony that another of my friends conducts.  We drove over to see it and had a lovely afternoon of the arts – followed by some crazy TV footage of the Kentucky Derby complete with Jimmy Fallon rapping. 

Year 2 - Day 125 - May 6

We went out to dinner tonight with friends.  They called to say they were driving through a monsoon nearby, but it wasn’t doing a thing here.  Moments later, this thunderhead rolled through.  There was a lot of thunder tons of lightning bolts, and the darkest storm clouds I’ve possibly ever seen.  This picture really doesn’t do it justice, because they only look sort of dark.  But the bright light across the street shows how dark it really got.

For dinner, we went to Bull on the Beach.  I was disappointed because one of the reasons we headed over there was to use a coupon from the Entertainment book.  However, they’re not accepting them.  Boo!  It’s got the Churchville/Bel Air location’s address directly on the coupon, but for whatever reason they’re no longer accepting them.  I didn’t push the issue because there’s a big sign posted on the front door and we were with friends, but it still ticked me off.  Grr!

Year 2 - Day 124 - May 5

As you know, I'm very particular about my grocery shopping.  I make a list, I organize it in the order that the store is so that I don't miss anything, I match my coupons, make a plan, and attack!  Yes, it's anal, but considering I cut our grocery bill by 75% and we're not starving, it's worth it.

Today, I fell off the wagon big time.  It all started because I wanted to make a particular recipe for Cinco de Mayo.  I actually wound up NOT doing that and going a little more mainstream with a McCormick seasoning packet, but there was definitely a theme for my shopping.  Mojito Lime seasoning packet, can of frozen margarita mix (which lets face it, is basically overpriced frozen lime juice), Hint of Lime Tostidos (ever since they changed the recipe & took out the MSG, I'm hooked on these tiny salty pieces of crack), actual limes, and Key Lime Pie ice cream (it might actually be frozen yogurt).  I laughed when I put it on the conveyer belt because I hadn't realized my lime addiction until that moment. :) 

The seasoning packets and ice cream were on sale, but the rest was regular price - and NO COUPONS!

I'm going to go hide my face now.  And eat lime foods. :)

Year 2 - Day 123 - May 4

This week, (Ok, well, this afternoon for a few hours) I read Two Kisses for Maddy by Matt Logelin.  I'm familiar with Matt's blog and twitter feed and have looked forward to reading this book for some time.  Matt blogged about the writing process as he created the book which definitely upped the anticipation factor for me. 

The story is sad, but sweet.  On March 28, 2008, Matt's wife Liz gave birth to their first child, a tiny baby girl named Madeline.  Just one day later, Liz died from a blood clot in her lung, leaving Matt alone to raise his new daughter.  Considering how scared I am as the prospect of raising a child someday with a husband, I can't even imagine how sad and difficult of a situation Matt found himself in.  I enjoyed the book because he doesn't spend hundreds of pages talking about he feels sorry for himself.  He shares true feelings of anger and sadness, but he also tells great stories about the love he has for both his daughter and his wife, and how he has to suck it up and do things he doesn't want to do because he's determined that Maddy have experiences that she would have shared with her mother.  A particularly cute one was the fact that he took her on a ski lift ride even though he's terrified of heights.  To me, who is also scared to death of those things, THAT is love. :) 

Year 2 - Day 122 - May 3

Obviously I don't mention video games on here very often, but this is the new one at our house.  I don't know much about it other than the fact that it's a sequal (I suppose that is where the 2 in the title comes from) and it's actually rated E 10+.  (That's a rarity in games in this house.)  The other thing I know about it is that there is a creepy woman's voice talking ALL THE TIME in the background.  I can only hope he beats it soon. ;)

Year 2 - Day 121 - May 2

I have been searching far and wide for a few plain white onesies (bodysuits - sorry Gerber, I know you trademarked that "O" word!) but coming up short because they only come in packs.  I wanted one of a few different sizes but eventually came to realize it wasn't going to happen.  ANYWAY, in my travels, I came across the bargain table at Old Navy. Now I realize that babies start out at all different sizes.  And I know that babies can be a wide range of sizes even by the time they turn one.  But 0-3 months? Really? Would a micropreemie even be that small at a year?  Maybe they would.  But our local Old Navy apparently believes that there will be enough of them to sell a giant stack of size 0-3 month "My First Birthday" onesies bodysuits.  I can see making the same amount of each size for Christmas, Halloween, other random holidays.  But first birthday? I bet someone felt pretty dumb when they realized their ordering order. :)

Year 2 - Day 120 - May 1

Yesterday, I powerwashed the mailbox post to get the flecking paint off.  Most of it came off, and I figure if it isn't coming off with scrubbing and powerwashing, then it's safe to paint over.  I will get to the re-painting, but it spitted on and off before becoming a full fledged rain today so it'll have to wait.

You'd think that putting 3 pots of gerber daisies around a mailbox would be a quick job.  Oh my goodness were we fooled!  Yesterday, he dug out the grass & weeds to make it dirt.  Then I powerwashed and made mud.  Today, we bought the flowers & mulch, raked & leveled, put down the weed block, and then made our X's to dig the holes for the flowers.  At that point, we thought we were in the homestretch!

Then, clunk.  Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Thud. We realized that when they made the driveway & sidewalk, they must have put their old junky hunks of concrete down before the lawn.  We found pounds and pounds of 8 inch hunks of concrete and tons of pebbles.  So we rolled back the weed block & excavated.  It wound up being good that I powerwashed because we needed that moisture to dig out all the concrete. 

Hours later, poof! Pretty pink gerbers around the mailbox.  Hopefully after the rain clears out in the next few days, we'll have a nice white mailbox post to go with them.