my first clothing project!

you know you're an old lady when you're blogging about projects on new year's eve and HOPING to go to bed very very soon. :) but that's another post. my mother-in-law was in town for part of a day and offered to help me get going on sewing Eva some clothes. So we whipped up this little dress and I am quite proud of it, despite the many little mistakes I made. I have to say...having someone tell you what to do next rather than having to read those dang directions makes sewing a heck of a lot easier! thanks beth!

Our Christmas

I'm finally getting around to posting about Christmas (thanks for the subtle encouragement Amy!). We had a nice little Christmas here with just the three of us. It was fun trying to incorporate traditions from both mine and Jared's family. One thing Jared's family always did was to give every kid a box of cereal on Christmas. It sounds weird, but I guess with 7 brothers having a box of cereal to yourself was a real treat. It turned out to be Eva's favorite part of the whole day. She completely ignored her presents and sat happily munching on the several varieties of cereal that were left under the stockings. We spent the rest of the day eating and planning meals so we could eat some more! Our dinner could have fed a group of 16. Good thing we like leftovers.This was Eva's first encounter with Santa. I don't think she was especially fond of him.

This one cracks me up...she just climbed into the cabinet and closed the door, and then would open in and let us have an earful before going back in.

I had to include a picture of her in the beautiful dress Grandma Beth made.


Ahhh...family pictures..someone always has to look goofy...and it's very typically me.

Daddy's Girl

Eva LOVES her Daddy. He is her favorite person to snuggle up with (in those rare moments that she wants to snuggle). When she hears the phone ring she says "Dah?" and stands guard by the window to watch for him coming home, and when she sees him she FLIPS out and starts yelling and banging on the window. Before I put her down for a nap she wants to give his picture a kiss (she went through a phase of toting that picture around with her). And if she feels like making noise...she hunts down Jared who's more than happy to yell right along with her. She's definitely a Daddy's girl and I think it's adorable.

Right after she was born she was crying and crying but the minute she got ahold of her Daddy's hand..she instantly stopped.

This last picture was taken a few days ago when she got really really sick. She was just walking around crying and Jared dropped everything to sit and rock her. Thanks for being such a good hubby and Daddy Jared!

am i wrong??

The other day I received a bill from Eva's cardiologist (yeah...remember THAT fiasco?) for $300 bucks. (yes...this is AFTER the insurance. they took care of $7 bless their generous little hearts) Honestly thinking they must have sent this by mistake I calmly call they next day and tell them they sent me a bill. Yeah..they know. They tell me that if the doctor was IN the room I have to pay it. Regardless of the fact that he nor the nurse could even get near her with a stethoscope, much less take a good look at her heart. (The doctor himself sent a letter to her pediatrician that says "the evaluation was impossible") Now I'll admit...it's because she was being a pill...but come on....so anyway, I asked what the protocol for appealing this would be and they said I could send a letter, but being that the doc was in the room at one point they're just going to discard it. So I guess I'm in need of some straight forward honesty and advice. Am I in the wrong? I mean..we DID use up this guys time, but I kinda figured that's why we forked over the $40 co-pay. Or am I right and I should fight this? Honestly now...I'd hate to get all worked up when I really owe these people money. YUCK. Now I feel all depressed. I'm going to go make some of Amy's Oreo balls to make myself feel better. (recipe follows) Afterall..there's nothing like 10 extra pounds to remind you of the Happy Holidays. :)

Oreo balls, a little bit of heaven, or oreo "truffles" depending on what you feel like calling them:

1 (18 oz) package Oreo's, finely crushed, divided
8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese, softened (1/3 less fat works great)
2 (8 oz) packages semisweet baking chocolate, melted
toothpicks

• Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.
• Mix 3 cups of the cookie crumbs and cream cheese until well blended. Shape into 42 1 inch balls. Insert a toothpick into each ball.
• Dip balls in melted chocolate; place on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs.
• Refrigerate for 1 hour, or until firm. Store any leftover truffles in a tightly covered container in the fridge.

Amy: I'm sure I botched this recipe! I think you used almond bark, but I couldn't find any. : /

Food Co-Op

Today I picked up my first "basket" of produce in a food co-op i'm trying out. IT WAS AWESOME! I came across the website (www.bountifulbaskets.org) and after researching a little I thought I'd give it a try. It basically is a bunch of people that pool their money ($15 per "basket" distributed every 2 weeks) to have some heftier buying power so they can buy from the same sources that grocery stores and restraunts buy from, for cheap. It's fun because you get different stuff every time, so you get to try new things. This particular website is only for Arizona but I know that there are similar things elsewhere. I was worried it was going to be crappy stuff, but I'm pleased to announce that all the fruits and veggies are perfect. Anyway, here's what I got:

9 bananas
6 grapefruit
6 oranges
11 lemons
8 apples (Janagold i think?)
3 lbs pears
6 large yellow onions
2 lbs carrots
1 bunch spinach
1 bunch radishes
1 eggplant
1 head green leaf lettuce

They advertise that you're supposed to get $50 worth of produce, which it looks like to me, but I'll have to go jot down some prices to verify that. The best and worst part is that it is purely volunteer run, so they LIKE for you to volunteer to come sort the produce before distribution. But hey...it keeps the cost lower and they let volunteers have extra!

Groceries

What with all the economic crisis mess going on I thought I'd share my grocery secrets. (I know..you're all quivering with delight!) But seriously, I've cut my grocery bill in half, from around $500 per month to $200 per month, PLUS I'm getting a good stockpile. I only have maybe 2-3 months of food sitting around here, but considering I'm in a 900 square foot apartment, I don't think that's too shabby. When/If we ever get the camera fixed I may take a pic of my overflowing food closets.

My Mom got me hooked on a website called "The Grocery Game" (www.thegrocerygame.com) Basically they do all the work of correlating the sales going on at your store with the coupons taken out of the Sunday paper. Everything is color coded by how great of a sale it is: black = only buy if you need it, blue = a good sale, buy what you can and green =free. Green is most definitely my fave. :) It does take about 3 months to have a good enough stockpile to really start cutting your grocery bill, AND it does take time. I have to spend about an hour cutting out coupons, planning the meals for the week and putting my list together, plus another hour to shop, but I figure I make pretty good money with my 2 hours per week. AND it does cost money, $10 a month for the first store and $5 for each additional store, plus the cost of the paper. Anyway, IF anyone is interested you can get a 4 week trial for $1!

My receipt for this week. I saved 68 % which is pretty normal. My all time high is 77%.

PLEASE tell me that didn't just happen.

Don't ask me why, but for some reason Eva thinks it's funny when you pretend to smell her feet and act like they're stinky. (I don't even remember why this got started. Maybe to get her to hold still while I changed her diaper?) Anyway at church yesterday she got annoyed with our lack of entertainment and started booking it down the aisle looking for an escape. So this guy sticks his leg out to stop her and what does she do? SHE GRABS HIS FOOT AND SMELLS IT! I thought I was going to die of embarrassment. I have no idea if the guy even noticed since I just grabbed her and left the room. Lets hope not or he's surely going to have a complex about his feet.