Monday, February 28, 2011

LATE Monday Minute! (let's call it TUESDAY Minute)

Hi guys!  My sincerest apologies for not having the Monday Minute out on Sunday as per usual.  I have quite a few reasons though.  First, I've been sick!  I had a CRAPPY week health wise: on Wednesday, I stayed home from work with a cold. Yuck.  Then on Thursday night, I woke up with a BAD stomach bug.  I thought it got better but I continued to be pretty miserable ALL Saturday AND Sunday.  Even today, my stomach is quite weak.  I can't eat anything without quickly running to the commode. Gross I know.

So that's why I didn't post on Sunday, I was ill.  As for today, I was at work and then I was spending some quality time with my honey pie because today is his 26th birthday! Unfortunately, life as a doctor (well, doc in 3 months) kinda stinks and he works from 7 pm to 7 am on his big day.  Therefore, I spent two hours with him before he had to head to work.

Now that he has left, I can finally give you guys a Monday Minute.  Late, I know.  Sue me.  ; )

For newbies, link up below and play along!  Don't forget to grab the button.  ALSO, if you want to host one week or have any question recommendations, email me!






Questions

(1) Have you ever played Angry Birds?
(2) What kind of computer do you own?
(3) What kind of toothpaste do you use?
(4) Are you a heavy sleeper or a light sleeper?
(5) How often do you do laundry?

Answers

(1) Yep!  We both used to have it on our phones but my new phone doesn't get it.  We still play on Evan's occasionally.  It's a SUPER fun game.  I know some people are REALLY obsessed with it.  I wouldn't say we go that far, but when we're waiting around at an airport or can't get to sleep, we'll play together.

(2) I used to have a Gateway, but it's having a tough time working these days.  Therefore, for the most part we use our Compaq laptop.  Gotta love the $399 deals at Walmart!

(3) Aquafresh! I'm a big fan.  I don't like Colgate or Crest.  Aquafresh is the way to go.

(4) LIGHT sleeper.  I wake up with the slightest noise or movement.  It's quite a curse really.  It's why we stopped using a monitor with Liliana after the first 3 months.  I woke up even when she turned...and it wasn't because I'm a super worry freak Mommy.  I just wake up when ANYBODY does ANYTHING. 

(5) I'd say we do 3 loads a week.  We used to do 2, but since Liliana came along, we definitely run the wash at least every other day.  Baby clothes is SO tiny but another outfit each day starts piling up!

There ya have it!  Hope you guys link up, but I'd understand if I messed with everyone's schedule and you just can't fit it in to your day! : )

Friday, February 25, 2011

Baby Reviews: Part II

A LONG time ago, I started what I called a series of baby reviews.  I did the baby essentials

Today though, I'm home sick with HORRIBLE food poisoning that started last night at 1 am.  So in order to think of something fun, I'm reviewing BABY TOYS by age.

I went through and chose my 2 favorite products that she had through the first 9 months of life.  I put a picture AND a link to where you can buy these products.  I am not receiving ANY money for doing these reviews.  Last point: these are based on my experience with my ONE baby, so I'm not saying these things will be great for YOUR baby.  I just at least wanted to help a little bit!

BABY TOYS


Liliana LOVES this Baby Einstein book that Grammy gave her.  When she was just opening her eyes, it was perfect for her to see the little lights while we sang to her. Price: $20
This bouncer is the #1 item that I couldn't have lived without.  Liliana HATED her swing and LOVED this thing.  Honestly, when my sister-in-law let me borrow this, I didnt' know how much I would adore it.  Get one that has things for the baby to play with, lights, and vibrates!  The better quality ones really do make a difference.  They make some bouncers that fold and when we have our next baby, I'll probably invest in that. Price: $38 and worth every freaking penny.

(2) 3 - 6 months: Garanimals Soft Blocks and Links

These soft blocks were great because they have nice long tags for babies to play with! Liliana LOVED it when we would stack them and she could knock them over.  These are very easy for babies to grab and to try and eat.  For these few months, these were some of Liliana's favorites. Price: $10.99 for a set of four.


Links are AWESOME.  I put them under the 3-6 month category, but she still uses these ALL the time.  You can clip them on to any toy, any highchair, and grocery cart, etc.  For so long these were the only things she could easily hold in her hand.  Price: $3.99 for a set of 24.



Although they're HUGE, I recommend having BOTH an exersaucer AND a jumperoo.  Since they're so big, they're a pain to move around so having one in the living room and one in the bedroom is really handy.  If you're going to get two, then don't spend HUGE amounts of money on them.  I put Liliana in these at 4 months, but really and truly, she didn't start enjoying them until she was about 6 months and had enough control of her hands and legs to play along. For a long while, the jumperoo was better for Liliana so if you could only get one, I'd probably do the jumperoo.  HOWEVER, if space is a problem go with the exersacuer because you can't even get a jumperoo through the doorways without it being a huge pain. Price: they run from $50 to $100.


Liliana's Grammy bought her her walker.  I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but BORROW things from people!  Any of these toys that I've mentioned?  We (as in Evan and I) didn't buy ONE of them.  Not one! At first, they go backwards in their walkers, but eventually (probably around 7 months) she really got the hang of it and moves around.  She LOVES the giraffes on this walker and it was the cheapest one.  I would buy it again, I'm really happy with it. Price: $30


My next section WOULD be 9 - 12 months, but since Liliana's not that age yet, I don't want to give my opinions.  HOWEVER, I didn't want to end this without my favorite toy for her:

Best Toy Overall: Chico Sing N Learn Kangaroo Price: $17.99

This toy is AWESOME.  It sings songs in Spanish and in English and Liliana LOVES to hit the little shapes together.  She also LOVES to hear the songs and presses the buttons like crazy.  What's so great about this toy is that it spans from 6 months to at least 2 years old.  HIGHLY recommend it, plus it's pretty darn affordable!




 




Thursday, February 24, 2011

Crawler Cover Winner!

Just wanted to congratulate Mrs. Schutt for winning the crawler cover giveaway!  She just had a baby on July 6th, so these will be PERFECT for her!

Mrs. Schutt, there were 41 entries and one of my middle school kids picked #27, so you should thank them. ; )  I'll leave a comment on one of your blogs letting you know you've won, but I wanted to give you a shout out here too!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Holy crap, we bought a HOUSE!

Last week (at about 9 pm on Tuesday) I received an email from our Realtor telling me to be on the look out for a wonderful home.  It was in our price range (actually, smack dab in the middle of it), was completely remodeled, and it is HUGE.  The pictures online were gorgeous.  Compared to the other homes we had seen, this was BY FAR the best.  Evan and I started calling it "our home."  We knew we shouldn't do that, but we couldn't help it.  I was pretty obsessed, but Evan was actually WAY worse than I was.  He kept looking at the pictures OVER and OVER again.  He emailed our Realtor and asked her if she thought the house would be available in 3 weeks when we planned to go and actually LOOK at houses in person.  She wrote back and said ... nope, she doubted it.  We were bummed.

On Friday, Evan and I were still talking about it.  We decided the best idea would be for his family to go look at the home for us and send us LOTS and LOTS of pictures.  They called us after touring the home for nearly 45 minutes and loved it.

So, we put an offer on it. 

I know!  We're nuts!  I know!

That evening, our realtor called and said there was already another offer on it.  But, they liked ours best and would answer the next morning.

Saturday morning she called and there was a THIRD offer!  However, they wanted US and said YES to US! 

They knew it was OUR home! 

Since then, we've been on cloud nine and yet nervous all at the same time.  Evan's going to Little Rock to look at the house this Friday while it's getting inspected.  I know we sound nuts, but trust me, this place is awesome.

We have a HOUSE!

Oh, and did I mention we have a hot tub in the backyard? ; )


I'll put up more pictures after Evan takes the trillion that I've ordered him to take this Friday!

P.S. Giveaway for crawler covers ends tomorrow afternoon! 

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Monday Minute 02/21/2011

Hi again! Can you believe it's Monday already?  This last week FLEW by for me.  LOTS happened in our lives, but I'll update you with that in later blog posts this week.

Before I forget: make sure to enter my giveaway for crawler covers!  They have them for BOTH boys and girls and range in sizes newborn to eight.  EVERYONE knows a person younger than eight, so even if they're not your own children, I'm sure someone would LOVE to receive these as a gift.  Go HERE to enter.

NOW on to our Monday Minute! If you're a newbie, rules are that you answer the questions below, grab the button for your post, and link up at the bottom of this post.  Some more information: if you ever want to host a Monday Minute one week, PLEASE email me and let me know.  I gotta admit, I wouldn't mind a break pretty soon.  Also, if you have any question suggestions (I had someone send me quite a few this week so THANK YOU), email me with those too!








Questions
FOUR of these come from readers so THANKS GUYS! 

(1) Do you think Lady Gaga is Gaga or just plain KaKa?
(2) If you had to write these questions every week, what questions would YOU write the participants?
(3) What animal/ insect has always scared the heck out of you?
(4) Do you wash your hands after you use the restroom every time?  Be honest!
(5) Do you buy brand named purses or replicas?

Answers

(1) Honestly, I think she's pretty damn fabulous.  I know she's kinda crazy, but some of her songs freaking rock.  I have her CD and I'm so thankful for the fact that she didn't just put ONE decent song and a bunch of crap songs.  There are at LEAST 5 songs that I think are 5 star quality.

(2) This isn't the best question for me to answer because I DO ask you guys anything that ever comes to mind!  However, I do want people to know that whatever you guys answer to this question will be used eventually!  Hmm....I wonder if this is the question I wrote this week?  ; )

(3) SCORPIONS. They freak the crap out of me.  I got stung by a scorpion when I was in 6th grade.  It hurt like hell.  I screamed so loud that my parents couldn't find out WHERE I WAS in the house.  I still, to this day, have a purple mark on the bottom of my foot.

Holy crap, this picture is terrifying.  While I type this, I am purposefully not looking up. 
I get all clammy just thinking about this picture.  Ugh.

(4) I am SO ashamed to admit this because I realize it's disgusting, but while I'm at home, I dont' always wash after I pee.  After a #2, it's an EVERY TIME thing.  Whenever I'm somewhere public though, I always wash my hands, no matter why I'm in the restroom. 
(5) I don't have very many brand name purses, but the ones that I do have? I didn't buy them.  They were all gifts from others.  I  have never bought a name brand purse nor do I really have replicas.  I will buy myself some nice purses some day, but right now, I don't make enough money to warrant that and we have a bunch of student loans.  I think it's STUPID when people buy expensive things that they truly can't afford.  It just look shallow, but that's my opinion. 

There ya go!  LINK UP NOW! 



Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Crawler Cover Giveaway!

A few weeks ago I ordered some crawler covers for Liliana.  They are seriously the cutest darn things I've ever seen on her!  They make her onesie outfits 10 times more adorable, they make her little legs warm, and they somehow bring out the chubby in her thighs even more.

Just look at how cute crawler covers look:

Cute grey/pink stripes!

Lots of bright stripes for Liliana!

These are the ones Daddy chose when we ordered them!
 Hope you liked our model! ; )

Are you in love with these adorable crawler covers?  Well you're in luck because when I asked Fategoddess if she would be interested in doing a giveaway, she said YES! We are giving away THREE pairs of ANY crawler covers you want!

Also, just so you know, the sizes range from newborn to to eight years old!  Also, she has some designs for both girls AND boys!


To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me if you have done any of the following:

(1) Go HERE and look through the crawler covers they offer and tell me ONE of the ones you'd get if you won! (1 entry)

(2) Follow (or tell me you already do follow) my blog. (2 entries)

(3) Blog about this giveaway! (4 entries)

This giveaway will last until February 24th at 5 pm.

I'm so pysched to be doing this giveaway. Parents.com named these cover crawlers as one of their 25 top things sold for babies on etsy, and YOU have a chance of winning THREE!  How cool is that?

GOOD LUCK!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

You Don't Find This Everyday

I'm not writing this post to brag or to have other women get angry at their husbands.  I am writing this post because this is MY blog and I have the the complete right to write what I want ... I just had the most amazing last couple of days with my husband.  You know how sometimes you  have a picture perfect moment with someone?  That pretty much sums up my last two days.

All week, Evan had been giving me "clues" as to the theme of Valentine's.  Earlier this week, I got a candy heart.  Two days later, I got chocolates.  And on Sunday I got a Hershey's kiss.  I could have sworn the theme was candy. 

On Sunday we got all dressed up and had a babysitter come over.  When I got to the car, a single red rose was waiting on my seat. Evan had set up his phone to play our song (The Book of Love by Peter Gabriel) and we drove away with a rose in my hand and our song playing in the background.  I told you guys ... picture perfect.

Evan refused to tell me where we were going all week.  He took me to my favorite restaurant in town and we had an AMAZING dinner.  I had a Strawberry Kiss Tini (guys, by the way, that was delicious).  We spent 2 hours there talking about life, about the big year ahead of us, about how things have changed since last Valentines, and just basically had a great time.  We kissed constantly (probably annoyed people next to us).  On our way home, Evan informed me our evening wasn't over.

He drove to a secluded place in one of our favorite neighborhoods and we opened the sun roof.  We kissed like little high schoolers and found about 4 constellations.  We poked our heads through the sun roof and just enjoyed the weather (since it's finally warming up). 

When we got home, Evan finally told me our Valentine's theme: sweet.  Duh Cristina ... candy... really?  what was I thinking?  He gave me one of my Valentine's gifts: a CUTE pajama set.  I had been telling him lately that I needed more Mommy appropriate PJ's because soon Liliana will realize that just wearing a t-shirt around is a little weird.  He got me the CUTEST shirt and pant set from Old Navy.  It was a PERFECT date night.

My husband's pretty damn great though, and he wasn't done with Valentine's.  On Valentine's morning, I came out of the room ready to go to work and found a dozen roses waiting for me and a bouquet of flowers waiting for Liliana!  Last year, when Liliana was just in my belly, Evan wrote her a Valentine's card proclaiming his love already, but this year since she's already a big girl, he knew he needed to step it up!  She accepted to be his Valentine because the flowers impressed her enough I suppose
, haha.

Once we got home from work, Evan had bought all the ingredients for us to cook Spaghetti Carbonara together. He bought wine and had the album from Shall we Dance (our movie) playing in the background.  After dinner, we had Liliana play time (you're still a parent on Valentine's right?).  After Lili went to sleep though, Evan kicked me out of the bedroom for a while and he lit a thousand candles and made a bubble bath.  After the bubble bath, I got ANOTHER themed sweet gift: this cute little PJ dress.  Isn't it SO cute? (Old Navy again in case you guys want it)




Then I got a nice LOOOONG massage and he had fondue ready with strawberries and bananas while we watched an hour of Shall We Dance before bedtime.  All in all, a PERFECT couple days.

Seriously, this post just OOZED romance didn't it?  Sorry if it disgusts you guys, but I frankly, don't care!! Hope everyone had a GREAT Valentine's Day! : )

(I obviously left out some even BETTER moments, but you guys don't need to hear all about that! haha)

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Monday Minute 02/14/11

 First and foremost, I want to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day!  I adore Valentine's Day.  This year Evan and I made it a two day event ... we have a babysitter coming over Sunday night and then we'll celebrate at home on Monday night.  I would tell you guys what all we'd be doing but Evan leaves everything as a surprise!  He's mean like that!

Anyway, on to our questions.  I wrote three of them and thanks to awesome Tiffany, I got another two!  If you guys want to be as kind as Tiffany, please send me any suggestions you have!

For newbies: PLEASE link up and play along!  It's so fun.  Just take the Monday Minute button and link up below.  And guys, I'm kinda running out of inspiration ... I've only got about 3 weeks left of questions, so if you wanna give me some questions, I'd thank you much.  Just email me (lilianateachesus@gmail.com).









Questions
(1) What's your favorite kind of cake? (post a recipe if you have time)

(2) Do you like getting massages?

(3) Would you consider yourself Neat Nelly or Messy Bessy?

(4) Are you shy about going to the restroom in public places?

(5)
Did you have your dream wedding or would you redo it if  you had the chance?

Answers

(1) I do LOVE baking cakes!  I would say my Banana Sour cream cake is one  of my favorites.  It's moist, not too difficult to make, and always gets attention from people when you bring it over.


  1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
1 cup  mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
1 cup Sour Cream
3   eggs
1/4 cup oil
1 pkg.  (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 pkg.  (16 oz.) powdered sugar
1 cup finely chopped Walnuts 
(1) Heat oven to 350°F.
(2) Beat first 5 ingredients with mixer on low speed just until moistened, stopping frequently to scrape bottom and side of bowl. Beat on medium speed 2 min. Pour into greased and floured 13x9-inch pan.
(3) Bake 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.
(4) Beat cream cheese and butter with mixer until well blended. Gradually beat in sugar.
(5) Remove cake from pan. Carefully cut cake crosswise in half using serrated knife. Place 1 cake half, top-side down, on plate; spread with some of the cream cheese frosting. Top with remaining cake half, top-side up. Spread top and sides with remaining frosting. Press nuts into sides. Keep refrigerated. 

 (2) I ADORE massages.  I could get one every week and  be a happy woman.  Fortunately, my husband LOVES giving massages to me so I get them ALL the time!  He spoils me.  Unfortunately though, Evan doesn't like receiving massages so the one time that we got a couples massage together also marked the last time we'll do a couples massage.  Bummer.  It was so romantic!

(3) I think I'm a Neat Nelly.  I like things in their place.  I rarely leave things on the floor.  I love to vacuum.  However, I am no Adrian Monk!

(4) YES!  I'm ok going #1, but really only if nobody else is in stalls next to me.  As for #2?  Only in the privacy of my own home! Evan thinks I'm nuts, but I'm shy what can I say?

(5) I loved our wedding.  It was beautiful, fun, and all about the fact that we were so happy to be together.  I wouldn't change many things now that it's all over.  I still think it was gorgeous.

 Daddy giving his little girl a kiss before her big kiss with her husband!

 I LOVED the back of my dress!

 The reception.  Loved those high ceilings!

 My wedding cake.  Done by a family friend.  We've got some really talented family friends!

That in the background is the San Antonio Riverwalk.  We got married at the top of these stairs.  It was pretty perfect.

Happy Valentine's Day!  Now link up ya hear!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Books #2 and #3: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo AND The Confession

I am well on my way towards successfully completing one of my New Years resolutions!  In case you don't recall, I wanted to read a minimum of 10 books this year.  I reviewed The Lincoln Lawyer  a few weeks ago and wanted to review the last two I've read.  The reviews will be a little shorter because, quite frankly I have a CRAP TON of stuff to do.  However, I mainly do these book reviews so that I hold MYSELF accountable to making sure this resolution is a success.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
By: Stieg Larsson  
Grade: A -



How Long Did it Take to Read: Approximately 3 weeks and I have to admit I read it at a pretty vigorous pace.  This is one of those books that you "can't put down."  I read a lot and often.  I would say if you're a slower reader (because I do read rather quickly) and if you don't have much time to read, it could easily take a month to finish.

Why I Read It: I've had MULTIPLE people recommend the book to me.  It has been on the top sellers for over a year now.  So when a friend let me borrow hers, I had to say yes.

First Thoughts: This book isn't a super easy read.  All the names of the characters are LONG and not familiar.  Therefore, I spent a lot of time going "who the heck is this guy again?"

Plot: This book is about a journalist who just lost a big lawsuit for libel.  In order to get away, and make some huge amounts of money, he takes on a dangerous assignment to find out who murdered a rich man's granddaughter.  This turns in to a really great mystery.

At the end: The main twist of the book takes place about 50 pages before the end.  The twist isn't something I didn't foresee, but there are still quite a few twists THROUGHOUT the book that make you want to keep turning.  It's kind of like the show 24 ... but in writing!

Why an A-: I originally didn't like this book too much after I finished.  But now that I read a couple other books after this one, I had to bump up the grade.  The writing is actually really great and I don't think this author INTENDED for his book to become a movie (a pet peeve of mine).  The plot is complicated and rich.  I didn't give it an A for ONE reason.  The main two characters end up sleeping together.  I SO wish they wouldn't have done this.  The two main characters are polar opposites that range 30 years in age.  I wish they would have had the relationship remain platonic and almost like a father daughter relationship.  I find it endearing and admirable when an author can catch my attention without sex being involved.

Conclusion: This really is a darn good book.  The characters, for the most part, are well developed.  The story line is VERY detailed and although the story is a little dark in nature, you feel accomplished after finishing the book.  I would HIGHLY recommend that people read it.  This is a 3 part series and I've heard (from my Mommy) that the second one is her favorite. I might just have to read it some time this year.


The Confession
By: John Grisham
Grade: C



How Long did it Take to Read: About 2 1/2 weeks.  It's a VERY quick read.  I read it when I had 15 minutes to spare here and there.  I didn't ever really take a prolonged period of time to get through it.  It's a good one to skim through too.

Why I Read It: I've read practically every single John Grisham book out there.  He has impressed me before and has let me down as well, but when my Mom put this in my stocking for Christmas, I had to give it a try.

First Thoughts: The beginning was actually pretty fabulous.  It started off really making you think: "oooh, I wonder what's going to happen! I wonder if the guy in jail is actually guilty?  What's going to be the twist?!?!"

Plot:  This book is about a man, Donte Drumm who is on death row.  He has claimed his innocence throughout his 9 years in prison and his attorney, Robbie Flak believes his innocence probably more than anybody else in the world.  The day before the execution, Travis Boyette appears in a church and confesses to a minister that he was in fact the real killer.  The question is, will this come out in time to save Donte's life?

At the end: I was thoroughly disappointed.  The first 300 pages of the book were B+ quality.  Then, the BIG question (whether Donte's life will be saved) is revealed and the book DRAGS on for another 120 pages.  Nothing was accomplished.  I kept waiting, hoping, and praying for a big twist to make me say "AH this was the big moment" but it never came.  There was no big "woah, didn't see that coming!" moment.  The only moment that was semi like that didn't affect the story in the slightest.  It was very anticlimatic.

Why A C: Look above. The first 300 pages at least made it pass, but the last 120 were such a bummer.

Conclusion: If you haven't read a John Grisham book before, don't read this one.  Read the Pelican Brief, The Jury, or A Time To Kill.  Those books are fabulous.  I'm not sure that John Grisham really had a PURPOSE for writing this book.  He perhaps had a political agenda (against the death penalty) but it didn't make for a STORY. If he wanted to make a documentary or write an article, I would have respected that.  But just telling me what might happen without keeping me entertained for 120 pages?  Please. My time is too valuable Mr. Grisham.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

A Video of my Chica Mica.

I have a habit of always rhyming things in the dorkiest way imaginable.  For instance, if Evan ever says "see you later"  I HAVE to add "in a while crocodile."

Wait, it gets worse.

If he says cool, I automatically add an "io" which means I say "coolio."  Yeah, I know.

Then, the rhyming nerd in me takes over and I say "coolio boolio."

Now I have my poor husband saying it.  If I say, "I'm leaving work early!" he'll respond "coolio boolio!"  It's now a family thing.

So naturally, I had to start this trend with Liliana.  I always call her chica.  And this has of course developed into "chica mica."  Everyday when I first see her in the morning I say "HEY CHICA MICA!"


Liliana has already made more advances in the last two weeks than she had in the previous month!  On her 8 month birthday she started waving in response to a wave and now if you just say "hi" to her (even without the aid of my waving), she'll wave back (as evidenced in the video).

Also, as I blogged about earlier, she started crawling in the last couple weeks!  For the last week or so she could only do a couple steps and would fall before regaining momentum, but if you put food in front of my child, she will FIND A WAY to get there.  This motivation has made her crawl like a mad woman now.  She can crawl across the entire living room for 3 pieces of cereal.  Poor child, she got her Daddy's appetite.

Therefore, for you viewing pleasure, enjoy seeing my chica mica wave and crawl!




Sunday, February 6, 2011

Monday Minute 02/07/11

Here we are once again, with a dose of some Monday Minute for you guys.  As I forewarned you guys last week...I'm kinda running out of questions.  I wasn't on my normal computer when I thought these up either, so these were completely spontaneous ones.  Hope you like the craziness! ; )

For newbies: PLEASE link up and play along!  It's so fun.  Just take the Monday Minute button and link up below.  And guys, I'm kinda running out of inspiration ... I've only got about 3 weeks left of questions, so if you wanna give me some questions, I'd thank you much.  Just email me (lilianateachesus@gmail.com).







Questions

(1) Do you use shaving cream when you shave? (thanks to Sierra for this one!)
(2) Name 2 things you consider yourself to be very bad at.
(3) What's your favorite song?
(4) If somebody asked you to sum yourself up in three words, what would they be?
(5) Out of the following three, which do you hate most: pineapples, cantaloupe, or strawberries?

Answers

(1) I don't!  Sure I've bought it before, but never end up using it.  Instead, I use conditioner!  It makes my legs burn less after shaving.  I only use really thick conditioners on my legs though.  I know it sounds weird, but give it a try with your best quality conditioner and you might not use shaving cream either.

(2) I've got one funny one (so true though) and one that haunts me all the time.  (1) I'm a horrible ballerina.  It's true.  When I was a kid, I tried ballet but I was just not graceful in the slightest.  My family would sit in the back so I wouldn't notice them all laughing at me.  Isn't that just horrbile guys?  Mean family. (2) I'm horrible at not holding a grudge.  If somebody does me wrong, I always hold a grudge.  If I'm ever mad at Evan, I'm horrbile at just letting it go.  I know this is something I need to work on, but I think it's ingrained in me or something.  I have noticed, however, that as I get older I hold a grudge less.  I guess having more things on my plate affords me less time to be needlessly pissed.

(3) Alison Krauss: "When you Say Nothing at All."  The first time I ever heard this song, my brother sent me to go buy him a tape (yeah, we weren't even using CDs in this time period).  I kept forgetting the title of it and he said "Cristina, it's what you SHOULD do more often, not say anything at all."  Again, mean family right? Anyway, ended up loving the song.  I don't think he listens to it all that often, but I always love hearing it.


Play below to hear something really nice.

(4) Well, I think if I asked others ... they would probably say: opinionated, hard working, and funny.  I am a pretty opinionated person.  I think most lawyers are.  I work hard.  I really do.  Also, I'm a pretty funny girl.  I have a pretty dark and crazy sense of humor, but my brother does too and I was with him alot growing up so I probably got it from him.  It's probably one of my favorite features about myself.

(5) UUUGH...I hate that I wrote this question because I ADORE all these fruits.  If I had to say one of them that I like LEAST, I GUESS I'd say strawberries.  Pineapples are just amazing.  And a good cantaloupe is my favorite fruit of all time.  I ADORE strawberries, but the other two reign supreme in my books.  Sorry strawberries.

Now link up! (note: I'm using a new linky website.  The last one was wanting to charge users $25 for a year and sorry to say guys, but I'm too darn poor/ cheap to do that.  Hope you guys don't mind this one!)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Giveaway Winner Chicken Dinner! And, my day sucked, bad.

today I had a really freakin horrbile day. I'll talk about that in a second, bu in the mean time, I am so excited to announce that the winner of a soon to be custom portrait from SweetPea is ...



Well crud .. I can't get it to SHOW the number it generated, but it WAS #7 and that lucky winner WAS ...

GINA LUV who said: " i love shannon's work! I love love love everything she does. I would love to get a photo done for my mom or even one for me! or a gift for somebody! There are just so many people I would love to give a cartoon like this too! :)gina"

 I'm so excited for you Gina and I hope winning this made you smile!

As for my day ... let me start by saying that it is quite cold here.  I know it's cold everywhere, but NEGATIVE 15 is getting old.  I woke up in a rather cheerful mood though and decided that since we were delayed 2 hours, I would do a couple loads of laundry before leaving work.  I was enjoying a bowl of cereal and playing with Liliana when all of the sudden I heard HUGE amounts of water landing on my floor.  Our washing machine just RANDOMLY went crazy and our laundry room had water ALL OVER it.  Evan wasn't home because he was having an ultrasound done due to very high blood pressure.  So not only was I incredibly worried about Evan, but then this happened too?

I tried to mop it up, best I could, by getting the Shop Vac.  At the EXACT same time that this happened, I realized Liliana had taken a major poop and had to change that while water continued to fall on the floor.

Turns out one of the pipes was pretty clogged with hair and lint.  Evan came home for a little while and we attempted to work on it.  After a million mishaps, it was already 1 o'clock and going to work would have been fruitless since I had a hair appointment in very little time after that.

At least I'd have a haircut to fix things right?

Wrong.

She cut it SHORT.  I said to my SHOULDERS.  It's to my CHIN.  I was trying to cut it shorter because I've heard I look older with it shorter and my kiddos keep telling me how young I look.  That's a good thing, but not when I'm trying to be an authoritative figure.

I hate it. 

I don't usually complain about my haircuts, but this one looks so yucky and so ... well ... it's a MOM haircut!  I'm not ready for those yet guys!

So, I'm going to bed now and hopefully, by tomorrow morning, my hair will have grown a couple inches, our washing machine will NEVER do that EVER AGAIN, and most importantly, Evan's health issues will go away!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Sign up HERE for the AWESOMEST giveaway EVER! (ends tomorrow)

Guys I have to admit that I had another Baby Review post planned for today, but turns out it was beyond freezing here (as is apparently the case in 33 states) and instead of relaxing on our day off, we have been ... you guessed it ... working on the house.  It's all I do anymore!  Seriously, I haven't read a page of my book, I haven't sat down and watched a TV show with Evan, I haven't had any fun! BOO! haha. 

Long story short, no blog post about my recommendations with baby clothing.

I DID however, want to remind you guys to enter the giveaway that I'm hosting ending TOMORROW at 5 pm!  You still have a chance to win!

It's for a $25 credit to Growingsweetpea's Etsy shop.  Considering that her items cost $15 to $35 each, you could get a drawing for absolutely FREE!

Here are a couple of her drawings, just to remind you.  Remember that she makes them CUSTOM based on your photographs.




To enter:

(1) Leave a comment saying what you would want her to draw for you (1 entry)
(2) Follow my blog or let me know if you already do (2 entries)
(3) Blog about this giveaway! (4 entries)

Stay warm and go do something relaxing like reading a book by the fire.  I would love to live vicariously through all of you...now back to sorting through the kitchen.