Monthly Roundup: Recipes/Kitchen

This month over at Organizing Junkie the roundup was recipes. I really needed to do this one. I have a cupboard in my kitchen that was filled with recipe books and a folder that I threw all my loose recipes and odds and ins into. It took me all month to get this project done. All the recipes that were written on little cards, envelopes, receipts and what not I had to rewrite on my cute recipe cards. Old school, I know. I had the recipe box and cards so I wanted to use it. The recipes that are full sheets of paper I put into a binder with page protectors so they don't get ruined when I am cooking. I got rid of a few cookbooks that I haven't or don't use. It feels good to be able to cross another project off my list.

Before: all my recipe books and recipes.

After: This is the cupboard that keeps all my recipes and books. The clear holder on the top shelf is a whole bunch of recipe cards that I have and love. I signed up awhile ago and got the recipe cards in the mail for about a year. Some would think they were a waste of money, but I have found some of my favorite recipes in them.

All the hand written recipes. I'm so anal the handwriting had to be the same on each card or I would start over.

This is the binder I made for the larger recipes that didn't need to be re-written. Simple but it works.

I made the tabs to separate the categories.

Along with the Recipe Roundup, I also did last year's February project: the kitchen. I took everything out of the cupboards, wiped them down, went through all the drawers and cupboards and scrubbed everything down. I got a few new accessories for the counters and took two boxes of misc. stuff to DI. I am getting a really big itch to remodel the kitchen, but that is not in the cards right now. I'm happy with it for now and wish it was always as clean as it was for the pictures.

One last thing we changed in the kitchen was how we charge our cell phones. There are four different cell phones with three different chargers. They sit on the desk in the kitchen and drive me crazy. So Marcus made this cool charging station for all the cell phones. It sits on the desk and looks like a cool trunk instead of cell phones charging. Isn't Marcus clever?

I love doing these projects. They are always things I want to get done and this gives me the motivation to get it done. Next month is photos; I think I may need a few months; mine are out of control. Check out Laura's site for more good ideas on organizing your recipes.

PSS: ACT All Over Again...

Amy asked: "This is a three part question Essay, philosophy, and art.

Ummm.....huh?!

Part one: First the essay - write a letter to your 12 year old self based on your life experiences and knowledge you have now. What advice would you give?

Dear Me:

Relax. Don't take things so seriously. Stay away from boys; they are icky. Stop trying to be so perfect. You are going to make mistakes and you will survive them. Don't be afraid of trying things and failing; life goes on. Don't cry over your first A-; good grades are totally overrated and when you are older no one is going to care that you graduated with a 3.964. Don't graduate high school early. When you are 19, don't let your boyfriend drive your new car on the freeway. The most important thing for you to know as you get older: when you are in your late twenties, you will be asked to join a blog group that asks questions each week. You will be asked to write an essay; DON'T JOIN PSS!!!

Love,
Me

Part two: Philosophy question in honor of Darwin- If a man evolved from apes and monkeys then why do we still have those animals around?

"If" a man evolved. What if he didn't?
We still have them around so Emma can call her stuffed monkey her "buckey" and have an animal to cuddle with at night.

Part three: Art question - What piece of music, art, architecture best represents your view of yourself?"

Music-That one song about that one girl by that one band.
Art-I like Garfunkel's elbow; it reminds me of mine.
Archecture-The dog house Marcus built for our dogs. It is a sight to be seen.


All right Amy, lay off the smart pills. That required way too much thought; I went way over my thinking limit today.

PSS: Valentine's Day...

"Have you had a best and/or worst Valentine's Day? Tell us about it/them..."

I think I have early Alzheimer's. I remember nothing. I know I have had some great Valentine's Days...I can't remember any that were completely horrible. I've grown out of the "I need flowers and teddy bears and candy to know that you love me" phase. Flowers die too quickly. Stuffed animals drive me nuts. Candy goes straight to my butt. I would rather do something together without kids and have conversations that don't involve "Do you have to go potty?" or "Get off your sister" or "Stop licking my foot Emma."

Marcus always seems to go above and beyond each holiday and special occasion to spoil me rotten. This year he made me chocolate covered strawberries all by himself. We also went out to a movie and dinner. I can't remember the last movie we went to that I got to sit all the way through without having to take Emma out in the hall because she is naughty or having to take Christian to the bathroom. Marcus and I don't have to do big, elaborate things to have fun or go to exotic places; we seem to always have fun together no matter what we do. We drove to Idaho once and bought lottery tickets and stopped at a park on the way and went swinging. We are corny that way and I wouldn't have it any other way.

PSS: Eat, Drink and Be Merry...

If you were told you have an incurable disease and have less than a year to live, would you take treatment that would make you sick, but be able to live more than a year? Or have only the quoted time and be healthy for most it it? And what would you do with the time?

I would not chose to have treatment. If I am going to die, I would rather enjoy the time I have left and not postpone the inevitable. I would live every day to the fullest. I wouldn't do anything too extravagant or out of the ordinary; just enjoy my family and friends. The movie My Life with Michael Keaton was so hard for me to watch, but I would like to do something like he did in the movie for my children. If Marcus is the only parent Christian and Emma have left, they are going to need all the extra help they can get. :)

At the final moments of my life, I would like my family there with me. I know Marcus would never put me into any kind of nursing home and would make my final days as comfortable as possible. I love that my family knows we will be together forever; I think it makes dealing with death easier. I have been to a few funerals for people who don't believe in eternal families. Their loved ones that are left behind don't think they will ever see that person again; death is the end. There is such a different feeling at those funerals than at ones where families know they will see their loved ones again. Marcus is stuck with me forever...poor guy.

In Loving Memory...

I lost a good friend today. It's been coming for awhile now, but I'm still heart broken. She had been on life support for about a month, but I decided today it was time to pull the plug. Today I said goodbye to my CHI flat iron. I loved her!! She was like the little sister I never had.

She had been with me through good hair days...

the bad hair days...

the long hair days...

the short hair days...

the brown hair days...

and even the blonde hair days.

She will be greatly missed by all those that knew her. Rest in my peace my dear friend!!

Poor Little Emmers...

Emma was admitted to McKay Dee Hospital with RSV. This little girl is such a trooper. She had RSV last year, but not bad enough to be admitted. This year, however, was a different story. She started to get sick on Sunday and just went down hill fast. I wasn't going to take her the doctor because I know nasty stuff is going around that they can't do anything for. On Tuesday, I felt a strong prompting to call the doctor's office. They had us come right over and we were there for two hours before they decided she needed to go to the hospital to have her breathing monitored overnight. The doctor said that Emma was trying so hard to breath and taking such fast deep breaths, that she could crash at any time and needed to be watched. They wanted us to take an ambulance to the hospital because it was just me and Emma, and the doctor didn't even want her alone in the back seat in her carseat. Since we live so close to the doctor's office though, I called Marcus and told him to get to the doctor's office so we could ride down together and I would sit in the back with Emma.

They had her on oxygen at the doctor's office. She looks so little and fragile.

The whole time Emma was so nice and cooperative. She let them poke and prod her and just sat there. We got to the hospital and all that quickly changed. I think she had had enough. Anyone would come near her and she would freak. It is the worst thing in the world to have to help them hold your baby down while they do terrible things to her, and the whole time she is looking at me like "why are you letting them do this to me?" They did lots of tests and took a chest x-ray. She ended up testing positive for RSV. So Marcus and I stayed the night at the hospital with her. I maybe slept an hour total. With the nurses coming in all the time, Emma's machines beeping and going off when her breathing rates would go too low and the oh so comfy bed I had; it was a long night.

We were lucky enough to only have to stay until Wednesday afternoon. Emma improved quickly and we promised to return if anything changed. She is 95% better. We are still battling the nasty nose and cough. Until those are cleared up, we are pretty much confined to the house. She can be contagious up to 21 days after she got sick. We haven't done much lately. Emma was nice enough to pass it on to me and Marcus. Isn't she great?!

The doctor said she has asthma (Christian was also just diagnosed with asthma last month too) and we are still giving her liquid steroids for her lungs. (which she HATES!) She finally has her energy back and is back to terrorizing the house and getting into trouble. I don't like it when any of my babies are sick. I am so glad she is feeling better.

She was feeling pretty miserable on Tuesday. She would just lay there and be mad that she couldn't get down and run around.

By Wednesday afternoon, she was feeling much better and just wanted out and down. She had an IV in and a pulse/ox monitor on her toe so she was pretty much confined to her bed. They look more like cages then cribs. She hated the sides being up.


Christian came to the hospital once with me and we made him wear this mask. We are watching him very closely since he still gets his seizures with fevers. He kept saying he was the doctor.

Emma got to ride in a wagon on the way to the car. She thought it was pretty cool.

Now that she has been dramatized by the hospital visit, she gets really clingy when unfamiliar people are around and runs when she sees the medicine syringe. Hopefully it doesn't last long. She is one tough cookie.

PSS: Liar. Liar.

A few questions ago (because I can't ever stay caught up) Shane asked: When is the last time you lied? What did you lie about and why?

It's not that I don't lie or don't try to lie, it's that I can't lie. I am the worst liar in the world...next to my mom anyway. I even struggle with the little white lies that are said to make people feel good. You know the ones: No, those pants don't make your butt look fat. Or the one I have been known to use with my mother in law: That was some great food. (She isn't a bad cook. She just cooks different things than I am used to and I am very picky.) So I figure if I can't even tell the little lies, why even try to do any bigger ones? When I was a teenager, I could lie better than I can now. But after I would lie, I would always tell the truth because the guilt would eat me alive...well almost always anyway.

I think the most recent lies are more along the lines of "This old thing? It's been in my closet forever. I just never took the tags off." Or my favorite one I like to use is "I didn't eat all the cookies/candy/Diet Mt. Dew/Donuts/and so on. There was a homeless man who looked really hungry. He really enjoyed them though." Or one that I use a lot is "No, I am not mad at you. I am fine." (When I am secretly cursing Marcus in my head.)

I don't see any reason to lie about serious things. It's been my experience that the truth eventually comes out in the end and things are usually worse after the fact.

Now, if I could only get the homeless man to stop eating all the cookies....

Not Fast Enough...

I don't have a lot of talents, but one of my few talents is that I can pee lightening fast. I have mastered this task considering I can never go by myself. I always have Christian and/or Emma with me. Even with as quick as I am doing my business, the demons are quicker.

Christian did Emma's hair with the grease stuff that we have to put into his hair. He was very proud of his work and kept fixing it as I was taking pictures. He also put a whole glob of it in his hair. This stuff is nasty, greasy, icky stuff. I threw them in the tub, scrubbed Emma's hair twice and it still feels nasty. Christian's didn't really come out either, but his hair will absorb it by morning and you won't even be able to tell. Emma, on the other hand, will probably require at least two more baths and a few more good hair scrubbings before her hair is back to normal. Emma is smiling in the picture. That's one of her newest tricks. You say smile and she delivers! Crazy kids!

I guess I have to cross fast peeer off my talent list because I'm obviously not fast enough!!

January Monthly Organizing Round Up: Filing

January was Filing month over at Organizing Junkie's site. I was suppose to have this post done last week, but life has been super duper, duper crazy.

Before shots:

We have our "office" in our basement. I got behind on our filing when we brought Christian home so quickly and lost our official office upstairs. (Yes, I am aware that it was three years ago. That's how behind I was.) In addition to being three years behind on our filing, we have since acquired two additional businesses. So now I am filing our personal info (invoices, insurance, bills, important papers) and everything for our three businesses. Once I got started on getting caught up, it went pretty smooth. I am happy to say it's been three weeks since I have finished and I am still caught up. Yah me!!

After shots:

It's amazing how much of a difference it is working on the desk and being able to know exactly where something is when I am looking for it.

This month's challenge is recipes. My recipe cupboard is bad; hope I can figure out a system that will make it easier to sort, organize and use..

PSS: Lost in Translation

Julian asked: If you had the opportunity to meet any ONE person (current or historical) and ask them any ONE question, who would it be and what would you ask?

I would ask Bill Murray what he asked/said to Scarlett Johansson at the end of the movie Lost in Translation. He whispered something into her ear at the very end of the movie and it never told you what was said. Talk about annoying. The movie was okay, and might even be good if I knew what he said. Dumb answer, I know but I have nothing insightful to offer at the moment.