A New Favorite Breakfast

I don't usually eat breakfast.  But, when we went to Florida last month the hotel had plain oatmeal that they served with brown sugar and golden raisins.  Yum!  Now, it's all I am eating for breakfast.

And the best part is that oatmeal is good for you too.

potd #9.  Plain oatmeal topped with brown sugar & golden raisins.  

I have also made it with blueberries & that is yummy too.

Here is the recipe for my favorite breakfast right now:

1/2  cup instant oatmeal

1 cup water

dash salt

mix together in bowl & microwave for 1 1/2-2 min.  In my microwave, 1 min 40 sec is the perfect amount of time

After cooking, stir and then top with 2 tsp brown sugar & a handful of golden raisins.  Enjoy.

Now, I can't wait til breakfast tomorrow!

Monday, Monday

Ah, Monday why do you come so quickly?  I was really enjoying my weekend when you so rudely interrupted.  Oh, well!

During the week between Christmas-New Year's, hubby tied 2 big branches to the two corners of our deck.  From them we hung a couple bird feeders and a couple suet feeders.

It's been quite fun to watch the birds come and visit us.  We get house finch, chickadees, titmouse, downy woodpeckers, and another type of woodpecker that is a bit larger(haven't figured out what kind it is yet).

I tried taking pictures yesterday of the birds visiting us, but I was not stealthy enough.  Today, I was a bit more stealthy and got a couple of shots this morning.

pretty house finch perched on one of the branches

downy woodpecker eating some suet. yum!  potd #8

Funny how watching these birds bring such joy to us.  Sometimes it's just the small things.

Rocket Man

E got a "make your own" rocket kit for Christmas from Santa.

It's a pretty cool rocket.  Hubby had lots of fun building it!  E was able to help a bit, but a lot of the work definitely needed to be done by an adult.

D even jumped in a bit to help build, but remember she is in her cart-wheel phase. So she spent much of the time cart-wheeling.

After building the rocket, we decided we might need more room than our backyard to make a launch.  We have lots of trees around us & hubby was worried about where the rocket would end up.  So, after a quick call to my mil, off we went to her house.

With a little white vinegar & some baking soda, we had lift off!

hubby adding the vinegar & baking soda.

ready for launch

lift-off!

E, happy rocket girl!  And here's a post haircut pic too!  potd #7

Spring In January

What a day!  The sun was shining and the weather was simply gorgeous.  The temperature hit 60 degrees.  Any day in January that gets to 60 should be celebrated!

It felt wonderful to open up the back door to let some beautiful fresh air in the house. E played outside & even rode her bike for awhile.  Hubby even rode his skateboard for a bit while E was out riding her bike.  He built her a mini ramp which she was happy to "jump" and ride down the hill in our side yard.  She's the brave one.

D was hanging with me in the house & cart wheeling!  That's her new favorite thing to do.....she reminds me of me when I was a kid.

Hubby & D went to play tennis while I took E to a bday party.  All in all a really good day.

We topped it off tonight by going to the local comedy club with friends & having a fantastic time.  Nothing like spending the evening laughing with really good friends!

The pic of the day comes from our 1st activity today.  The girls have basketball on Saturday mornings from now into March.  It's fun to watch.  The best is when they skip wildly across the basketball court.  Too funny!

potd #6.  love the abandoned basketballs on the side of the court.

Quick Pic of the Day

It's Friday & its been a tiring week back to school.  Didn't sleep great last night and I've been tired allllll day!

Spent most of today with friends getting ready to go scrapbooking next weekend.  I scrapbook 1x a year & of course I am in dire need of getting my pictures printed & all my stuff ready to go for next Friday.

Picked girls up from school.

E was excited to get home because she had received in the mail on Wednesday a remote control helicopter that she had purchased with some of her own Christmas money.  This is one serious helicopter.  It's going to take some good practice by E & dear hubby to learn how to fly it without it crashing and bouncing on the ground.

POTD #5.  Like I said, this is one serious helicopter!

After the attempt at flying, off to piano lessons we went.

Had a nice dinner out & then came home for a quiet evening.

Heading out to a comedy club tomorrow night with some friends.  Looking forward to it!

A Gift for Me!

My dear hubby finally took pity on me and replaced my old IPhone 3G last week.  It was in sorry shape.  Working very slow and the screen was cracked.  Let's just say I was in desperate need of a replacement.

Well, my new IPhone 4S came last week & it is wonderful.  It's fast, shiny, and oh so pretty.  And now it's even prettier.  I decided that I for sure needed a case for my shiny new phone.

So, I ordered a case over the weekend & much to my delight it was in my mailbox today!

Hopefully the new phone will now be protected from any accidental drops......

Isn't that the coolest case ever!  Here's the site where I found it.  And that's my POTD(pic of the day) #4.

Yay for new phones & fun cases.  It makes me smile everytime I look at it

Busy Day. Big Haircut.

Today was a very busy day.

My sissy has Mondays & Wednesdays off of work, which means we get to hang out together.  Mostly we run errands/shop, but sometimes we get crafty.  We really should craft more.  Another goal for me this year: craft more with sissy!

So, today we dropped the girls off at school & then ran errands/hit some after Christmas sales.  Let's just say we both got lots of great things at Target for not a lot of money.  We even bought things we are going to craft with.....project to be shown at a much later date.  Probably closer to next Christmas.

There were of course some necessary errands:  BJ's to get dog food for sissy's dog, Jack & somehow we got roped into stopping at a sporting goods store to pick up ski gloves for sissy's son, J.

Then, once sissy and I were done shopping, I was off & running.  My schedule from 3:30-5:30 included picking the girls up from school, driving 25 min in the direction of my sissy's for the girls to get their haircut, to driving back home and then leaving the house a mere 5 minutes after arriving home to only head back in sissy's direction to pick her up & head to knitting from 6-8:30.  Phew, I am tuckered out!

Good thing I've got a butt warmer in my car, cause baby it was cold out today!  It certainly made the time I spent in the car a lot more pleasant on this very, very cold day.

Now, onto the big haircut.

My daughter, E has been growing her hair for about 10 months to get the right length to donate through Pantene's Beautiful Lengths Program.  She needed to have 8 inches of hair before we could cut it and she didn't want it to end up too short.

So, today we finally went to cut it.  She really likes her long hair, so while she was glad she grew it to donate she was a little sad about losing the length.  I am happy because boy has it become harder & harder to keep snarl free.

And, the best thing is that hair grows back!

Here is E before the cut

Our hairdresser, T making the measurement

After the cut of the ponytails & now styling the new do

Just about done and T is making E feel better about her short hair!  Thanks T!

I am so proud of E for donating her hair.  And let's just say there's already talk about growing it again and making a second donation.  Way to go E!

I didn't get a good after shot.  Time was flying & I needed to get them home so I could head out to knitting.

Looks like a good after shot may just be my potd(picture of the day) tomorrow.  

Now I am off to be a couch potato and surf Pinterest.......