Juicing....

I recently got one of these for Christmas!

 That's a GE electric Juicer.  I've been wanting to try it for a little while.  A friend of mine posted about it awhile back and it got me on a kick reading about it, and I decided that I think I could seriously benefit from adding some fresh vegetable juice to my diet every day.  My lovely sister bought me this for Christmas.  She really is the best ;)

 My sis Joi with a couple of my munchkins :)

 I'm not on any holistic kick or anything, but I am interested in trying to take whatever healthy preventative measures I can to try and combat any of these nasty diseases that tend to pop up as you start to get older.  I did just turn thirty.....and it's also a good time for a resolution (you know...new years).  So I decided to start with today. 

My new approach to things lately has been less of restricting myself of certain things and more trying to add things that I know I need.  So instead of going on some huge diet, I have started going to the gym 4-5 days a week (well, ask me next week, since these last two have been shot with the kids out of school and christmas, etc.)  But I have been able to stick to that for a good four months so far :).  Also, the idea with the diet is to try and add more and more good things.  Seek out salads and veggies and fruits.  I'm not saying no to chocolate or cheese or whathaveyou...but the idea is, if you try to eat more of the other things, they will replace the bad stuff....I mean, who has time to eat constantly ALL day.  So if you add some things, other things end up being replaced, am I right?

Well, this is my new method as of late.  It's part of my ongoing battle to inject more moderation into my life.  I've always been from one extreme to the other....and I'm sick of it. 

So today, I'm adding fresh vegetable juice to my daily routine.  My goal is to drink at least one big glass of it every day. 

This is the recipe I made today: 

Alkaline Juicer Recipes Heaven

Apple, cucumber, celery, carrots and spinach
- 1 cup of spinach
- 1/2 cucumber
- 2 stalks of celery including leaves
- 3 carrots
- 1/2 apple

Wash all vegetables thoroughly, top the carrots, remove apple stem but don’t peel apple (the peel is full of flavonoid antioxidants), enjoy.

got this from: juicer recipes now

they've got a bunch that I want to try. 

Everybody have a great day! 
Anna

need some help!

Okay....I am trying to figure out what fabric to get to cover Isla's bed with.  I can not decide!  I'm going to show you some rough (really really rough) sketches I did to try and see some of these fabrics together.  Her bedroom is pink and white.  I have plans of throwing in some accents of very light silver gray.  So I thought pink white and gray would be pretty for her bed.  Please note, before you look at these pictures, that there are huge differences in color.  All of the whites look beige, but they are white.  Here goes: 

 

Okay, so this was my original idea.  But now I'm thinking it would look a little crazy.  I love the scrolly fabric in the soft gray with the white, and I love the pink houndstooth (which is also pink and WHITE, even though it looks not-white).  So, I guess the question is, do I go with the houndstooth? and a plain fabric for the middle, as in this next picture?  

 

 Or do I go with a plain pink on the outside and a pretty gray-ish fabric on the inside?  

 

I added a few more of the fabrics I've been looking at as well.  See they make the houndstooth in gray too...hmmm?  Also, the pink color in this one is not the color of pink I would go with....it's the color of pink they had in microsoft paint!  Yes, I'm that fancy....microsoft paint! 

Also, keep in mind that the middle portion will be diamond tufted (like in the white fabric above)...just not so many of them.  I'm going to do big chunky ones with much more space in between.  oh, and the pretty scrolly fabric doesn't look like that, for some reason they have added weird pink stuff in between.  It really looks like this:  click me ;)

Please help me decide on this.  I really am stumped.  I would appreciate any comments that are left.  

P.s.  showing dirt is a HUGE issue for me, so I am also taking that into consideration as well.  

Thanks!  

Anna

hmmm....

Can't think of anything to post about, but I promised myself I would try to do this every day, so here is a post about NOTHING :) 

some random facts about the day.....

Cole wrote a new song with his new spiderman guitar (a real acoustic guitar)  It was called Loaded Spider and he performed it in a full spiderman costume.  It was pretty awesome :) 

The boys have been playing (and fighting over) the new X-box Kinect all evening. I've decided that it's the only allowable video game system for our house....only because these kids are panting from how much exersize they are getting.  BONUS! I am, however, slightly weirded out by the video camera on it that randomly takes shots of our entire living room.  Just saw a very awkward one of myself that I didn't know was being taken.....that coupled with the fact that this thing is connected to the internet.  The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if it's possible for somebody to hack in and watch us?  .....spooky....

The baby is aaaalmost walking.  She actually took three steps today while just barely touching my finger.  She will be 14 months old in two days, so it's about time.  Am I a bad that I really don't want her to walk?  She could take another three months and I'd be happy. 

Brent hung with the kids today so I could go grocery shopping and look for a bed frame for isla's bed.  I found a metal bed frame (so I won't have to build slats in the bed I'm building, I'll just set the metal frame inside the shell of the bed....easier and I won't have to worry about my creation not being sturdy enough.).  The bed frame was only tend dollars!!!!  Awesome.  And then I went grocery shopping, filled up my shopping cart till it was so full that we had to get a second cart while checking out....and I came in under 200 (190 to be exact).  Double awesome!....no Triple awesome for that one.  It looked like I had at about 300 worth of stuff.  Man I'm good....ha!

well, that's it for now! 

have a great night!
xoxo,
Anna

Happy New Years!!!

Happy New Years Eve!!!! 

Hope everybody has a safe and happy New Year's Eve :)  We are having a low key one around here.  We will be hanging around the house and breaking out my boys' new Xbox 360 Kinnect.  Today is not only New Year's Eve....it is also my Chasey-boy's ninth birthday <3 <3 <3.  I can. not. believe it!  He is growing up so very very fast. 

 

Such a good lookin kid!  

Happy Birthday my sweetheart!  

Wanna deeper peek into our lives?  I just thought the following was funny.  Brent and I got into a little tiff this afternoon and ended up resolving it via text message.  Does anybody else argue like this?  I think we are total nerds.  He's going to kill me for posting this.  haha!  

Let me preface this with basically, he just hurt my feelings....no need for anymore detail than that ;) 

Here goes:  

Brent:  I just felt like you were taking something simple and turning it into all kind of drama.  You know I love you and I always do my best to take care of all of you.  When you start pouting and saying ....., I thought that was melodramatic and a little juvenile.  When I stated as such, you wanted to go tit for tat and make it worse.   You always want me to apologize and I do, but sometimes if you would just pause for a second instead of trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill, there wouldn't be as much drama as there is.  We have a great life.  We have healthy kids and we love each other.  Why do we need manufactured drama?  If I get a tone you don't like , maybe you could say "Hey calm down, it's no big deal" ....and if you said it in a non-rude tone, then I would correct myself.  But coming back at me with a silly, rude comment exacerbates the problem and doesn't help.  If I'm not responding like an adult then you need to. Same goes for me with you.  

Anna:  When you behave a certain way to me, when you are short tempered and act like you don't have time for my "foolishness" or what have you, it makes me feel pain. No matter what your intents are, or excuses are, it still hurts.  I never try to make something more out of a situation than it is.  I just react to the pain I am feeling.  

Brent:  If I get all rude and such, if you don't stay calm and act like the adult then I will have a harder time correcting myself. If you join in with my rude-ness, then the problem will only get worse in the moment.  I love you and didn't mean to make you upset but you upset me too.  

Anna:  You're right, it's just hard when you've hurt my feelings and I want you to realize that you've hurt me.  but instead I get more hurt feelings because you take my reaction as an attack on you.  

Brent:  I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, I'm talking about how you react to it.  How your feelings get hurt is a part of who you are and has nothing to do with me.  I need to be more cognizant of your feelings as always.  I just need sometimes when I get short with you, for you to let me know directly instead of immediately taking it personally and letting your claws out.  

Anna:  Yeah, I know, you are right....but it is really hard though.  It's hard to control a reaction to someone else upsetting you.  Just like you say that if I don't react meanly to you being mean to me, then you won't react back to my reaction.  The thing you are telling me to do is because you are trying to keep yourself from having to do that very same thing.  It's a two way street.  It would be much easier on both of us if you just wouldn't be nasty in the first place.  But yes, I agree that if either of us is unable to control ourselves, the other should make an effort to be the bigger person instead of perpetuating the argument.  But then what if we both aren't able to control ourselves?  lol

Brent:  That's what happened today, we didn't control ourselves.  I will do better.  I understand I get frustrated and get angry.  I love you and will work on being better.  

Anna:  I love you too and I feel a lot better now too :)  

Am I a lucky lady or what?  I mean he was a total butt-hole to me earlier, but I come off as the mean one in this conversation.  He really is a great guy.   Are we just dorks or what?  Not what you would expect out of a "fight"  In fact....we don't really fight, we debate.  We are like a couple of nerds debating...haha! 

I don't know why I thought to share this, but I thought it would at least be entertaining. 

Have a Happy Newyear!!!

excited!!!

I'm really excited to start working on Isla's bed!  We went to Lowes today to start piecing together everything I'm going to need and pricing things, etc.  I have my list of the tools I'm going to buy and I found the wood I need, and now I'm just looking for the right fabric.  I'm just in LOVE with the stuff over at tonic living.  The prices seem pretty decent too....especially if I were to just buy a bunch of small bits for pillows, etc.  I'm still at a loss, however, to find the right fabrics for Isla's bed.  I think I'm going to try to sneak over to Jo-ann's and see if I can find anything good over there.  I always have the hardest time finding the "thing" I have in my head.  I guess that's why I usually resort to making my own stuff....but to make my own patterned fabric might be a little beyond me.  (I have seen it done though, so you never know ...hehehe)  I have been searching for this for months now...but never really with the intention to buy in the moment.  We'll see....  I also have been looking for good ways to somehow treat said fabric so that my child (children...cause you know they will all be all over it) won't destroy it.  I'm almost tempted to just paint over it with polyurethane....Ha!  would that be crazy?  It might make her bed a bit crunchy, I suppose...but then again, it wouldn't be on the part of the bed she would be sleeping on.  Maybe I need to test that and see how it works?  I did find a website for some stuff that is supposed to be better than Scotch-guard.  It's called Ultra Guard Fabric Protection .  Any of you guys heard of that before?  It's just really expensive....not so expensive that I couldn't swing it if I had to....but to the point where it had better work like a charm if I'm paying that for it!   I just don't want this thing to be ruined in a matter of weeks.  Any ideas? 

Anyways, that's all we are up to today.  The kids have been playing outside in the backyard on their new playground that Santa brought them ;).  And I've been lost in my head thinking about making this bed.

I'm also excited about this weekend too!  Tomorrow is my sweetheart, Chase's ninth birthday.  I can not believe he will be NINE!  Where did the time go!  Love that boy :)  He has requested that I make turkey burgers and a cheesecake for his birthday.  Better get cracking on that cheesecake tonight....cause they aren't any good if they are still warm.  And then we are going to have a family new years day party for him over at my in-laws.  And then after that (a few weeks after that...), he will get to have a sleepover with a bunch of his friends (this year he has requested like nine boys...yikes! Let's hope some of them can't make it, because I don't have the heart to turn him down).  Last time they all decided they wanted to be shirt-less (I don't know why???) And they all were running like a stampeded back and forth from my son's room to the kitchen.  It was a shirt-less little boy stampede.  I felt like I was on a safari. At least they didn't try to take off their pants!  Maybe this year I can get them to keep their clothes on ;)  Lucky kid...his birthday always drags on for weeks. 

Well, I will back soon with more boring stuff to talk about.  Much love to those of you who might actually read this xoxoxoxo!!!! 

Anna

wanna see my next project:?

Hey!!!!  look look, I'm  posting again after just one day!  WHOOOO! 

okay, well...today is another slow day.  The kiddies are out of school and it just makes everything seem like I don't need to be in a rush to do it.  I even let my eight-year-old (gonna be nine in two days, yikes!) make lunch for everybody.  But I guess we could all use a few days of slowly moving around the house.  And the plus side is that we will all be sick of it soon and glad to get back to school, and the daily grind. 

I recently had an amazing surprise birthday party for turning the big 3-0.  It was so incredible.  I cried and nearly fell to my knees they surprised me so badly.  LOVE the people in my life :)  I am truly blessed.  Well anyways, I got a compound miter saw from my mom and my sister (AWESOME).  I also got a nail gun and a bunch of gift certificates to Lowes.  Also, with Christmas, I think I have like 250 bucks to spend there.  (it's what I asked for...and you'll see why in a moment).

I have been following the blog, ana-white.com , and I've been dying to try some of the plans she has.  In fact, I have a whole slew of stuff I want to do....but, in moderation's sake, I've decided to stick to one thing that I've been obsessing over and it's an actual need opposed to a want. 

Isla doesn't have a bed.  She has two mattresses stacked on top of each other on the floor.  I've held off on buying one for her because I wanted to build one.  Now I can!!!! yipeeee!!!  I actually didn't choose a plan from ana white , I made one up!  you want to see it?  I did a goofy little 3-d sketch on google sketch-up .  This is the general idea.....it will look a lot better in real life. 

okay....so the whole thing, I mean the back and the boards that go all the way around the front, will be upholstered, there won't be any exposed wood at all.  The pink part in the middle will be diamond tufted.  I'm not so sure the color scheme will be as it is in the picture.  I think I'm going to go for pink all over and then a different color or a pattern for the diamond tufted part.  The general theme is pink and white, though.  I'm so excited.  I have this thing completely worked out in my head, and the best part is that it is going to look crrrraaaazy expensive, and not cost me a thing ;)  thanks to my gift cards!  lol.  But even if I did have to pay for it, it isn't going to be that expensive.  I can't wait to get started.  If this one goes well, I'm going to go ahead and make a repeat one for my Sophie (even though she won't be sleeping in it for another year or so), but then they will have matching beds!  Anyways, I will let you all know how it goes!  Can you guys send me some positive thoughts that I don't get started and then completely drop the idea...haha!  Well, I'm going to try to prove myself wrong :) 

Let's hope I can remember to post again tomorrow.  Have a great one!

xoxo
~Anna

another thing I started but didn't see through.....

Oh, my blog.... well that was a big fat fail, huh!  This is what I would call a typical "Anna" situation.  I am waaay over-ambitious with just about everything I do, and then I start all kinds of projects and then go full force on them for a short period of time and then,....completely drop it!  Like this blog.  I haven't posted since October.  I'm not so reliable with this thing, huh.  Well, I think I'm going to try to turn this into an online journal of sorts....so I don't feel the pressure to post pictures all the time and actually have something "worthwhile" to blog about.  Maybe then it can morph into what I really wanted it to be.  Another lesson in moderation.  I'm constantly reminded of the council I once received to not "run faster than I am able."  Boy, that's me in a nutshell.  Just picture the little kid on easter with so much excitement that they eat their whole easter basket in ten minutes....and then throw up all night.  That is so me....  anyways....

Today has been a lazy lazy day ( that was fun to type since the z is missing on my keyboard and I had to stick my finger in a little hole three times).  I have desperately been trying to get some organization (ahhh..again with the z) in my household since christmas.   But, we were so scattered and busy during christmas, I really have been wanting to just sit....which is sort of what I have been doing.  I have done a lot of work, but with the kids home for break, they are constantly running around trashing the place.  It gets soooo frustrating.  It takes a lot of concentration and self-redirecting to keep myself from getting into an emotional funk.  Going to the gym helps a lot with that, but I haven't even been there in about a week, week and a half.  But!  I am determined to get this place in order....ALL the way!  not just the places where people see when they come over.  I mean EVERY room, finished and DONE.  You don't realize how much work that is.  One word to almost completely describe my kids as a collective would be.....DESTRUCTIVE.  There is so much putty-ing, and painting and fixing holes in the walls and little finishing (like quarter-round) things to do after we've mostly fixed something my kids have destroyed.  This place is a never-ending construction site.

This morning, I spent an hour scrubbing poo spots out of my daughter's rug in her room, because she had a "wedgie" with her diaper....and well,  everything went, when she "went"... on my floor.  And then she walked in it and tracked it all over and then painted some on the wall for good measure.  So....that was fun... And I think I've swept my floors in my house twice today, and they currently look like I haven't swept them in over a week (well, if it were someone else's house)  If I didn't sweep for a week here, I think we might be wading across the room instead of walking.  And we've already had to trash like three different Christmas presents...already!  Because they have been broken. 

Is it just me?  Do I just not know some disciplinary trick to get my kids to not destroy things.  To not just toss their trash in the middle of the floor?  I punish, I yell (I try not to, but let's be honest...) I make them pick up everything I see them throw.....they just don't care...or forget or .....who knows, they have a lot of excuses.  I seriously work my tail off and I feel like it's just for nothing....because I blink and then it's right back where it was before I started.  I'm sure part of it is that I'm just "off" because the kids are home and we've been so busy.  I'm just ready to get back to normal and then I can start chipping away at the clutter and refining my schedule around here to try and cut these little destruct-o's off at the pass.  I need to start doing yoga...

anyways, if you actually read all of that....love you so much, you really care :)  because that must have been horribly un-entertaining, ha!  Have a great day and I'm going to try and post again tomorrow....we'll see ;)