June Showers

I must admit I've begun to wonder if Washington was told that April has showers NOT June. No - this is not me complaining about the rain, I'm just observing the fact that we've had a lot of rain recently. I love the rain. OK not entirely, but I really am thankful to live in such a rainy place. I love to sit on the couch, bundled up and stare outside. I watch people go by and wonder what they are up to. I think about the other people staying inside and consider what they might be doing on their rainy day. Perhaps baking (what a wonderful aroma) or maybe playing games. Whatever it is I always hope they are enjoying it. I have to admit that one of the best things about rain is the sound. The pitter patter on the roof (and especially on our skylight) is such a soothing sound to me.
I suppose that I can understand all those people running about outside, getting soaked, cursing the rain for making their pants wet for half a day, but when you have a few brief moments to sit and enjoy the rain I don't know how truly hate it. The rain is what keeps this area so green and vibrant. I'll take that over a dried out lawn any day. It is also really fun to bundle up and play in the rain. Seriously - have you ever had a bad time playing in the rain?
I must confess I think my favorite rainy day activity (and this of course is not in a downpour, but a light sprinkling) is to be soaking in a hot tub! Someday, I am going to have one on my back patio. But until then, I will just curl up with a good book near the window and enjoy the rain.

Goodbye Tucanos... Hello Ipanema!

I suppose I should begin with an explanation of my love for red meat. I must say I enjoyed good quality beef during my youth but at a restaurant given the choice of steak or a burger I chose the burger. I'll admit, I still sometimes do. But a year and a half spent living in Argentina taught me a lot about how wonderfully delectable juicy meats can be. Just thinking about an Argentine asado makes my mouth start to water.

Since my mission in Argentina the closest thing I have had to an Argentine asado has been Tucanos. It's a wonderful Brazilian restaurant in Provo. I craved the meat, and especially, during my pregnancy, I craved the grilled Pineapple. (Not Argentine, but truly delicious.) I was so sad to leave that restaurant behind. But I discovered another Brazilian grill in Seattle. I only hoped it would compare.

Step back to Mother's Day where one my gifts was lunch at Ipanema. We've been wanting to go for a while but dinner is $30/person. Ouch. So instead, we went for lunch. I'll admit, I was rather hesitant, I really didn't want to be disappointed. And I wasn't!

The food was terrific. The buffet was excellent and the meat was better than it was at Tucanos. (Although the garlic steak needed more garlic!) We went with our friends, the Campbells and we all had a blast. Unfortunately, they did not have grilled pineapple. I so miss the pineapple. If anyone knows where I can get it in the Seattle area - please let me know.

Hello, 911.

My son has an addiction to the telephone. He nearly hurt himself climbing the back of the couch to reach it on the bar so many times that we tried two different things:

1. Move the couch.
2. Move the phone.

Neither one truly worked. The couch just needs to be on that wall for optimal room function. Now, with the phone gone he still climbs up there in hopes of discovering it accidentally placed there. (We have left it there on occasion instead of taking it to the cradle.) Before you get worried and think the little guy has been seriously injured, that is not the case. But we're going to need to teach him that 911 is only for moments like that and not just to call on any occasion.

The other day he got a hold of my cell phone and accidentally called 3 people. If you have been pranked recently - it may have been my son. I apologize. When we realized that my dear husband, not wanting another temper tantrum (as is usual when the phone is taken away) took the SIM card out of my phone instead and quickly gave it back. We knew that these phones can still call 911 - but seriously, what were the chances. Unfortunately we didn't know that this particular model of phone changes the the Internet button (topmost right button) into an SOS button. All he had to do was press that button twice. (Once for 911 to be prepared to dial, twice to put it on Speaker and dial away.) Who designs these stupid phones anyway?

Luckily for us it was on speaker! Here is what happened:

I heard:
OP: "911, please sate the nature of your emergency. Hello... 911. Hello?"
At which point I ran over and grabbed the phone:
ME: "Oh my gosh I am so sorry, my son has been playing with the phone. I'm so sorry." Of course the dear little one starts screaming at the top of his lungs because I have taken his most prized toy away.
OP: "Is everything okay Ma'am?"
ME: "Yes, I'm so sorry. I don't know how he got you, he's only 13 months. Oh my goodness. I'm sorry."
OP: "That's okay Ma'am. Is everything okay there?"
ME: "Yes of course, I can't believe this. Oh my, I'm sorry."
OP: "Ma'am is it just you and your son there?"
ME: "Yes, and my husband is here too."
OP: "Okay Ma'am, is everything okay between you?"
ME: "Yes, oh, seriously, it was just my son calling by accident, I'm so sorry."
OP: "Okay then. You might want to turn off the phone."
(Ha ha - tried that one, he can turn it back on already.)
ME: "Oh yeah, okay I'm sorry. Thanks."
OP: "Alright Ma'am have a good afternoon."
ME: "Thanks. Bye."
(AAAAHHHHH!)

Let's just say the phone is no longer a toy. We did buy a toy Spiderman cell phone for him to play with though.

What to do with the Fun Money...

Well, as you all know the dates have come and gone. We all have that Economic Stimulus money. Well, I hope we've all received it. The day after we got it we went and made our first purchase with it. A BBQ! Yea! In Provo we had a small charcoal (table size) BBQ that took forever to get warm and even longer to cook. That same night we cooked up some seasoned chicken and grilled some Yellow Squash. Yum. Talk about delicious. Hope you're all enjoying your cash.

How does your garden grow?

Gardening is actually something I enjoy doing. I think I had forgotten that after the years of living in rentals. But this year I have my very own (alright, I share with my husband - ha ha ha) flower gardens! I must admit I didn't really know where to begin. I mean - perrenials, annuals, sun, shade, vines and ground covers were just the beginning choices. It's true, I felt overwhelmed. So I did a little internet research and learned a whole lot. But now it's experiment time!
I bought a ton of plants at a local High School Plant Sale. Did I mention that when I realized how much a flower garden can cost I nearly choked? Luckily the sale saved me a TON of money. Next year I'll be buying there again. So now I just have to plant them all! Unfortunately, it's been raining so much I'm not sure I'll ever see enough sunshine to motivate me to go outside.

Singing His Praises

You could say I was spoiled this Mother's Day, and that would be an understatement. It must be that my awesome husband hasn't forgotten how difficult pregnancy can be, or perhaps, he just can't get labor out of his head. I'm sure that the endless hours I have spent caring for our son have given me some Mommy points as well.
I really wasn't sure how this Mother's Day could be better than the last. I mean, last year we were in Canada with my family, our tiny new baby, and we had him blessed. I got a beatiful necklace then. But somehow my husband managed to wow me again.
He had several gifts wrapped: a snow-cone maker and some of the snow-cone syrups (yum), a lavender bath set, and several other gifts (some were just things he picked up at the store and decided to wrap to throw me off and for laughs). Then, he wrapped little notes onto 3 roses with gifts for me to use later:
1. Lunch at Ipanema
2. Spa time
3. Dinner and a Movie without the kid
I'd say he went over the top, but then he might take something back before I get to use it. He truly spoiled me.
I only have one problem with all this - There's no way to beat that on Father's Day!

Simply Doing Something - Aka Girls Night Out

As a stay at home Mom I've come to terms with the lack of mentally stimulating conversation, the routine tasks, and those days you just seem to barely make it through. (If you're a Mom - you know what I mean.) Not that staying at home is not enjoyable. I love it. I wouldn't have it any other way. But if you're a stay at homer you know how important a night out can be.
So, as a solution, in March I invited a large group of friends over to my house. (10 to be exact.) Not that I really have the room. I planned a simple craft and some treats. They were all so excited - I mean - REALLY excited. It wasn't hard to plan. I enjoyed every minute of it. My friends all arrived and we had a blast. It wasn't meant to take too much time (an hour or so) but three hours later when people were leaving and I looked at the clock I laughed. Had we really spent that much time talking and making marble magnets? I checked another clock just to make sure. We had
So - this has officially become a monthly event. It's so much fun to plan and organize and I'm grateful that my friends are so enthusiastic about it. We had a recipe exchange in April and planned our next 3 activities. I can't wait. Which reminds me - I need to get the invites together.
The best part is that my husband is more than willing to watch our son. He's the greatest Husband and Dad! Not that it's really hard on him, he gets together with the other husbands and all the kids play while they play the Wii!

Blog Rage

You know, a lot of my friends have blogs. I've mentioned that before. Between checking out their blogs every so often and searching for craft/home improvement ideas I have seen a lot of blogs. I enjoy them. The updates, the pictures, the ideas, and most of all the humour. But I do have a new pet peeve. Playlists.
Do you have one? Do you realize how annoying it is? First off, I'm unexpectedly blasted away by music. Sometimes it's good music, but even then, I may not be in the mood for it. Most of the time I want to turn it off. (Especially if I don't want my son waking up or getting too interested in my notebook.) So right away I look for the source of the music. I hate scrolling down the side to search for it only to find the person has chosen to put it on the bottom. Argh. Why isn't there a standard location? It's reminds me of those times when I'm driving peacefully along the road and get cut off by an idiot driver. I get a little anger when I can't find that playlist. (So do I get Blog Rage?)
Worse yet is when I leave the page and then when I come back, I have to go through the process all over again. (I cringe as I press that back button.) Is it too much to ask for a mute button at the top of the blog? I mean, really.
So to all of you out there thinking about adding a playlist to your Blog - Please think twice. Oh and choose your music carefully. It says a lot about you.
Update: Some people have suggested I just mute the sound on my computer instead of scrolling down. That works until I forget to turn the volume back up and I'm trying to watch a video they've posted and have to turn it back on. Ha! I guess you just can't win.

Am I really paying Moore?

We are painting the house. It's not a new decision - it's actually one several months in the making. My husband has been so wonderfully patient with me as I decided paint colors for each room, changed my mind on almost each of the decisions several times, and decided many other renovations would be necessary in the process. Back to the main topic though. The hardest decision by far was what brand of paint to go with. I'm the typical craigslister. I bargain shop as much as possible. So you might be shocked and appalled when I say we are using Benjamin Moore paint. Oh and not just their regular priced paint. We went with Aura! Gasp.
Every time I go in to buy a new color I still cough and take in a deep breath when the clerk tells me the price. But after all my research and all my experience, I have to say I know I'm making a good choice.
Here's my list of the benefits of Aura paint:

1. ONE COAT. Here's the story of my Master Bathroom. I made the mistake of choosing a beautiful but way too dark color (AF-720, Sparrow). It was so pretty and so dark in such a small area. But over the original cream color it was perfect in one coat. Despite how quickly the room was painted (3 hours) I had to change the color. It was way too dark! This scared me as now I would be putting a lighter color over a dark one. This time I went with Cape May Cobblestone (1474). As I began painting over the dark color I was trying to go quickly. After about half an hour I stood back for a break and surveyed the wall to my right. It was drying already and I was shocked - none of the dark color was showing through. 2.5 hours later I was done. There are two spots I have to go back and touch up (fist size) where there is a little dark showing through, but that is all. Once again it only took one coat.
   Now I must say as a side note that painting white over the dark color did not completely cover in one coat. (Touch ups on the ceiling as I haven't learned to paint like a pro.) I'll let you know soon if two does it.
2. LOW VOC. There were some fumes while I painted. It is a bathroom with no window. I kept the fan running. But compared to other paints I have used it was nothing. After the paint dried (3-4 hours tops) I could barely smell the paint anymore. The next day you'd never know we had painted. (Benjamin Moore does have a NO VOC paint.)
3. FAST DRYING TIME. This is such a fast drying paint. Perhaps it's because it only needs one coat, but compared to other paint jobs this was speedy.
4. EASE OF USE. I wasn't sure how to describe this but I think that's the best way. The paint is thick and as such drips and spills less than other paints. Honestly - I did the walls and ceiling and got one paint smudge on my arm but nothing on my clothes, hair, or anywhere else! That's saying a lot for me - last time I painted I had paint all over me for weeks.
5. LOOK AND FEEL. I know this might seem weird but it's true. The Aura paint has a way different look and feel then the rest of the paint around the house. It's smoother, richer looking and feels softer. OK so paint feeling softer is crazy but it's true.
6. OVERALL TIME. Aura takes one coat and it dries faster so what does that mean? Less time with a room out of service! Need I say more?
7. THE REAL COST. So to start out I must explain that I did a true comparison test. I went to Benjamin Moore and bought a small sample of the Aura paint. Then I headed over to Home Depot and bought a sample of Behr (also has good ratings and I've used it on other occasions) in the closest color match and eggshell too. I came home and rolled a patch (1 coat) of the Aura on. Then I did the same thing with Behr (again 1 coat). I cleaned up and walked away. Several hours later I returned to the room and checked out the results. The Aura sample was perfect and needed no touch-up but the Behr sample did. But I couldn't quit there. If Behr would take two coats it still might make more sense to use Behr. So I painted over it again, cleaned up and came back. Boy was I ever disappointed to realize that the cheaper paint was going to need a full third coat to get even close to the same coverage as Aura's one coat. (I even have pictures to prove it.)

Calculations:
Aura costs just over twice as much as Behr.
Behr takes 2 coats more than Aura.
(That means painting 2 extra times and waiting for the paint to dry 2 extra times.)
Results:
Choosing the Aura brand over Behr is not really more expensive. While you pay more per gallon you will be using less paint (depending on the color, less then half the amount) and spending less time painting.
So - with cost justification and all the other benefits of Aura it wasn't a tough decision.

I know! It's completely enthralling. Alright, some of you may be wondering why I would spend so much time blogging about paint. You do not know me well. If it has to do with Interior Design I'll be at it for hours.
I hope that my experience will be beneficial to those of you trying to decide what paint brand to use. I'll try to post before and after pictures soon. Now, if only I could solve the color dilemma. HA HA HA. Benjamin Moore sells their color fans for $20! You might want to do what I did and pick one up. Enjoy!

Fun Money

So I've heard about it, but honestly wasn't sure if I believed it. I mean, really, who believes the government would just give you money? But - apparently it's for real! It's called the Economic Stimulus Payment and if you have filed your taxes this year then sometime in May the government will be giving you money. You can find out more about it (and even figure out how much you'll be getting) at the IRS website.

http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=177937,00.html

As an important note: beware of anyone calling claiming to be from the IRS or emailing you. You can learn more about the scams and what to do about them here:

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=178061,00.html

Having just learned about this myself, I have no idea what we're going to do with the fun money. But I have decided that it will be used for fun!

The Tax Nightmare

I'm not sure what caused taxes to become so complicated for us this year. Buying a house, a company buyout, a new job, and a new baby are only a few things we have to add into our files. Once again we decided to go to H&R Block to make it easier. I'm not sure at which point we decided not to file through them. Was it when the lady said: "I'm not sure what goes in this box - I'll just put 0" or "Let's just try it this way." or was it when my husband repeatedly told her what to enter? After our time well wasted there we returned home pleased with the amount of money they'd calculated for our refund (very unexpected) but not at all confident that it was correct. Not to mention they wanted to charge us nearly $300 for their efforts. So we bought Turbo-Tax for $50. After several hours of what seemed like misery in front of the computer my husband had completed the Turbo-Tax forms. Could it be true that H&R Block had significantly under-calculated? And I mean SIGNIFICANTLY! We'll find out on Tuesday when we go to an accountant for them to review it all. We just want to be sure.
So for all of you wondering how to do your taxes this year - I can't say I know myself what to do. But I can say this: if you don't feel confident with the person preparing your taxes it might be worth your while to go buy a tax program and run through it on your own to verify.

Sew Much Fun!

Yesterday I attended the Sew Expo in Puyallup - reported to be one of the largest sewing fairs in the nation. 4 hours of sewing delight. (That was how long it took us to walk through the vendors.) Fabrics, patterns, notions, tools, machines and everything else you can imagine. By the time I came home my mind was reeling with all the projects I wish I had time to do. Why do I never have enough time?

Dissapointments:

• Where were the people my age? I mean, I may not be that young anymore, but most of the women there had at least a decade on me, most of them more like 2-3 decades. I mean, at the scrapbooking fair I went to a few months ago (where all these hip young woman with cool scrapbooking tees ran around in a craft-induced frenzy) I felt I belonged. Alright, maybe not the hip and cool part, but really - sewing is not just for old ladies.
• Another thing was the lack of awesome fabrics. For all the 200+ vendors - I really have to admit I only found two booths with fabric I wanted. (Actually 3 - but I was not going to pay $18.95/yd for Amy Butler's fabric.)

Highlights:

• I managed to purchase some new fabrics and I am excited to try sewing with them. Just one problem - I like the fabric so much and have so many ideas of what I could do with it that I'm worried if that whatever I end up making will be a huge dissapointment. I suppose I'm just going to have to take a deep breath, close my eyes and cut.
• Laminated cotton. Yup, I'm not kidding. (Michael Miller Laminated Cotton) It's machine washable, it's cute patterns, and best of all, it's going to make me an awesome diaper bag! Anyhow, I'm not sure how it works, what it's all about or anything, but I love it. I'll have to post a picture once I actually do something with it.
• Aside from all the ideas generated, and purchases made, the best part of my day was leaving the toddler at home with Dad and having my sister-in-law and one of my friends from church come with me. It's always so much more fun when the people going with you are as interested as you are! Thanks for coming with me! And thanks Handsome for watching our son. You rock!