My Little Diva

So last week I flew out to Minnesota to visit my new little niece, Kaila Grace. While on the plane the pilot does the normal bit we are now starting our decent on Minneapolis, Minnesota where the current weather is partly cloudy with chance of snow and the current temperature is -15 degrees Fahrenheit. Errrrrr..... What was that, -15 degrees, don't you die in weather like that?!?! It took alot to get me off that plane when my first reflex was that if I stayed there they might bring me back home to New Jersey where the weather was a balmy 34 degrees. But I realized if I didn't get off I would have spent all that money for the ticket for nothing and the penny pincher in me wouldn't let that happen. I'm glad I did get off the plane because I got to spend a nice week with my sister, her hubs, my nephew and my brand new little niece; despite the - temperature and catching some crazy illness from my nephew.
You guys know that I'm big on picture taking, and my family has affectionately dubbed me "the paparazzi" when it comes to my nieces and nephews. Well, Kaila Grace put me in my place right away, here is the "Diva" spelling out to me the photography rules. "You will not photograph my bad side, I must be fully awake and ready for any flash photography, all negatives must be approved by me before they are ready for posting, etc"

Here is my nephew Ryan, playing the part of doting big brother very well

Sweet little Kaila and a shy smile (no its not gas I swear, I just told her a joke.)

Auntie Dirkey and Ryan (he is secretly trying to figure out how to get my Nintendo DS out of my bag and into his hands)

Auntie Dirkey and Kaila (she is showing off her Dirkey cheeks, she just woke up and has red spots just like Auntie!)

It was so nice to see them but I don't think a trip out to the frozen tundra will be in the works for Dirkey for a very long time. Especially in January, what in the WORLD was I thinking!! So Anna if you're reading this try to plan another summer baby.
Love,
Dirkey

Bragging on my McHottie

So I mentioned that I went to Minnesota to help my sister Anna with her new little one (picture and post to come) for a week. What I didn't point out that this was the 6th week in our 11 month marriage that Schmoop and I have been apart. I'm definitely not complaining because I know there are many families that have separations that are much worse than that! Having time apart I think has been at least partly a blessing, you know the old addage "absence makes the heart grow fonder". Its true I think when I'm away from my Schmoop I realize how much I truly to miss him and how blessed I am to have him as my partner in life. Also if I never left I would never get to come home to this face.


He came to pick me up from the airport with this beauty.


Its 24 other friends were waiting for me at home.


What I love about this is that they are Gorgeous flowers, it definitely shows that he thought of me and also he got them from a friend that works for a flower wholesaler to I know he didn't pay an arm and a leg for them. To me that is so much better than just going online and getting something from a florist it takes that extra step to do frugal gift giving and I'm thankful I have a man that will go that extra step for me and for our future.

Stockpiling to save money

Since we recently purchased a home alot of my reading has to do with frugality and homemaking on the cheap. By nature I'm a cheap ass frugal woman so the change has been pretty seamless; there have however been some speedbumps. A topic on some of my favorite frugal blogs; Down to earth, Frugal Hacks and Like Merchant Ships lately has been stockpiling. I'm no stranger to this since my mother is the queen of having a freezer full of freezer-burnt, unedible food stockpiling. I am, however, new to thinking this is a good idea (you would be too if you had the mystery desserts from my mom's where she doesn't know what year the dessert was from). I hoard stockpile naturally; but I have a problem with rotating my stockpile and also stockpiling ridiculous things. For instance right now my pantry has 3 lbs of Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Powder. Do I really have a need for 3lbs of Cocoa Powder, not really. How long will it take me to go through this? Probably about 4 months. So was it such a great idea to buy so much of it? Probably not. Also in my freezer I have about 5 bags of frozen green beens and in the fridge I have 3 bags of celery.
My problem in stockpiling is similar to my problem in blogging and a side affect of one of my personality traits, Spontaneity. I'm too freaking spontaneous for my own good. Sure its a great trait to have some times; if you want to take a road trip to see the Worlds Largest Ball of Twine or need some help moving our of your apartment in NYC at three in the morning; I'm your girl. Its not such a good trait to have with every day tasks, like grocery shopping. I'll go shopping without a list and just pick things I think I'll need or see a sale on something and go crazy with it.
So here's my goal for the week, and if you're up to it I encourage you to join me in it. My goal is not to throw away any of my fresh produce and to plan to use my stockpile in my general meal plans.


Today I used some veggie stock I had in the freezer, added some rice, fresh and frozen veggies and made a hearty stew. I used stuff I had in my stockpile to make some ridiculously good biscuits (the first ones I've ever home made!). I even have extra to give to a good friend going through a difficult time, some for me and Schmoop for lunch and also some to freeze for another night.
Any thoughts on stockpiling? Are there others like me or are you all masters of keeping your pantry in perfect proportions?

Purpose

So this weekend I was thinking of why I do this blog. There are a few reasons, to keep some far away family updated on whats going on in dirty jerzey, to have a type of creative outlet to write and post pictures and basically have a place that I can just vent and find like-minded people. Anyway this weekend I realize that I'm kind of neglecting my blog; I really don't take any time thinking of what I'm going to write or try to say anything that anyone is really interested in. I'm kind of kicking around in my head what I want to do about it and I'm not sure. I don't want to stop blogging but I really don't want to keep doing it just because its what I've done for the past two years. I do like having this type of diary that tells me what my life is like and shows me some changes that I've made. When I started this blog I was a single girl living in a scary log cabin in the middle of the woods working for a Huge mortage corporation that I hated. Now I'm married(to a man I met at that huge mortgage company), living in suburbanville in a house that we bought (funded by my old company) working for the company of my dreams (definitely not anything to do with mortgages).
So I think I'm going to take this week and see if I want to take this another direction or just keep going with little snip bits of my life.
Stay tuned...

Price of Fame

So in the past week I've heard that two famous actors have died of drug overdoses. Brad Renfrow (who I remember from Tom and Huck) and just today Heath Ledger (sexy Australian actor). It just makes me wonder why someone would choose that life. I mean I'm sure some people like it but it does seem that most "stars" in serious pain. Just look at all the stars in rehab, jail, with multiple DWI's, etc; the lifestyle is obviously not as enthralling as we are led to believe. Its just sad, I look at these young teens that are thrust into the public arena and grow up in front of our eyes. Some people envy, I just feel bad.

I have a new niece!!!

Kaila Grace was born tonight at around 8pm, weighing in at just over 9lbs. Woah mama thats a big kid! Should be weird holding her compared to my nieces twins!!
I'm flying out to see her tomorrow morning so I might not be around too much this coming week.
Babies are the only way you would get me out to Minnesota in January. I looked up the weather and tomorrow is supposed to be -10. Man that sucks!

Profile

So for some reason I clicked over and was reading my profile and it said I lived in Afghanistan and was an accountant.
Prophetic? I think not :)
Its all fixed now!

My Meggie

Oh dear this little girl is just too much for words.
She needed stitches in the back of her head last night after falling down. The only time she really freaked out was when the doctor took her shoes off. Girlfriend LUVS her shoes she calmed down again when the doc put them back on. She needs to hang with my MIL. :)

Every Soccer Mom's Dream

So it looks like I'm trading cars with my FIL. I'm finally getting my mini-van baby! The best part is that both my car and his car are paid off so I get my mini-van without a new car payment! I have to forgo my desire for the fold and go seats but I think I can deal with that :).
As far as the new years resolutions go, I'm still doing well on weight watchers. The house looks better than ever, its amazing what a clean house does for your attitude!
Things are going well.
My craftiness is at an all-time high; just finished a scarf for my niece Hannah. Need to work on a few sock monkeys and a tutu for Hannah's birthday. Its fun and also provides some great gifts for the ones I love :)

Amazed

Yeah I'm still following the story going on over at here and it has me amazed.
I don't know how anyone could look at this picture and not be.

The Twinkies and their Booties

Ha ha can you guess who got them the little fake baby "Uggs" :)
They are so cute its ridiculous!

Update on Trish

So I posted a few days ago about Trish. They are putting her on a ventilator today and will be delivering the baby either today or tomorrow, I would appreciate all your prayers. Once again here is her husbands blog as he has the full story there.
Thanks,
Kristi

Rock Band

So I learned last night after two hours of playing rock band that I'm the fiercest chick drummer in the world, and you have to admit that chick drummers are ridiculously cool.. Next try my mad skills on an actual drum set :).

New Obsession

I LOVE this game!!
Schmoop just told me he got it, I CAN'T WAIT TO PLAY TONIGHT!!!!
Now just for a disclaimer, I really only like interactive games. I can't sit and do the controls all the time cause it drives me nuts!!

Best Google search to find my blog

"nerd party games for youth groups"
ha ha thats awesome!!
wish I had something more for you! :)

Everything's Falling into Place

So this week has gone good.
I've been sticking to my WW. Saturday I made an appointment for a massage (my boss gave me a gift certificate for one) while I was out I got my nails done and my hair cut. I was desperate for the last two. As far as the manicure, I made up a bunch of goals for WW and for every 4 weeks I get a manicure, every 8 a mani-pedi, etc. I was soo excited to be on point for four weeks and get my treat! As far as my hair, the last hair cut I got was in July where I got annoyed at my hair and had my friend from work hack off 12 inches. Needless to say the hair was in sorry shape. The hair lady was like 60 and I showed her what I wanted and she goes "I got you baby", then proceeds to do something completely different with my hair, grrr I hate when they do that!! I guess thats what you get for an $11 haircut, maybe I should find a salon.
When I got home from my treat day I found that my husband had vacuumed the whole downstairs, he is AWESOME!! We went out to see Juno on Sat and that was so good, Schmoop was going to go out after to play hockey but one of his friends invited us over to play Rock Band and it was sooo fun. They had drums, vocals, guitar and bass and you had to play along with the song; we freaked over it so much so we wanted to buy a system we could play it on and buy the game (would cost us like $500!!!!). Yes, we're nerds. I think we finally decided to buy the Wii instead.
I've been deep cleaning the house, slowly but surely. Saturday the bathroom got done, I went nuts with it. Doing it with the instructions from Down to Earth. Started working on our kitchen last night.
As far as my Doula stuff, I attended my first birth on Saturday night. It was so amazing!! I was really happy to be there for the woman, it was actually the first time I met her but she didn't have anyone with her so my friend Meggie and I went. I was soo happy Meggie went with me, she has been to a few more than I have and has a sweet demeanor. The woman ended up having a little baby girl after about 10 hours of labor. I thought it was amazing, its crazy how God made our bodies to do that just such a miracle! I also watched the epidural shot go in and holy heck that thing is huge!!! They jab that sucker in far too, the guy doing it looked at me and was like if you are the slightest bit squeamish you need to walk away. I thought it was interesting and something that people should see before they decide they want one just so you know what it is. I'm really excited to have my first out of the way and to start building up a kit and more tools to help women through this time.
Anyway its been a good week :).

Friend of a Friend

Hey All,
Just got an email from one of my friends about her friend Tricia. She has CF and is pregnant. She and her husband were looking towards a double lung transplant prior to realizing they were pregnant. She is getting to the point where the baby has a chance outside of the womb but the size of the baby is making it difficult for her to breathe and she is currently in the hospital.
If you could keep them in your prayers
Here is her website
and her is her husbands website (his has most of the updates)

Birds of a Feather

So to all my readers its no big surprise that Mama K and I are best friends. We both have alot of similar interests and kind of urge each other on in craftiness and in general life. Both of us have been really into organic living and reducing our use of chemicals both for our own good and the good of the environment.
So Mama K keyed me in yesterday to Square Foot Gardening, which I looked into on their website and looks awesome. I talked to schmoop about it today and he is completely on board. So we have some things to do before we can attain this.
We have to
remove our dog run (no we don't have dogs thus the removal).
start composting-going out to buy a bucket today for the kitchen (with a Christmas return)
build boxes-that will come later.
Decide what we want to grow.

The other thing is green cleaning, now you know I'm all about my vinegar and baking soda cleaning :). Well Down-To-Earth has been sharing her tips on green cleaning and I'm going to take her challenge and start in on my house as well. She is really an inspiration with her simple living techniques, I am very interested in starting to become more simple in our consumption and our use.
Its a little hard to do this while working full time but its worth the investment.

Party People in the House!

So yeah, me and the hubs were C-R-A-Z-Y on New Years! We decided to stay in and each had about one drink and some Split Pea Soup, then went to bed by eleven. Woooo!!!
Oh yeah, I know you're jealous!
In my defense my one drink was awesomeness in a glass
Lemoncini
2 oz-Lemoncello
2 oz-Triple Sec
2 oz-Sweet and Sour Mix
yummie, tastes like a glass of lemon drop.

The hubs just had a beer. Then we watched a movie and went to bed.



So yeah, I think we turned geriatric this year. We definitely need to step it up next year and actually do something. :)