A Covered Dish Life

On the Road: Ohio boy pays it forward with found fortune

2014-03-03T21:02:00.003-05:00

It's been a really long time since I posted anything on this blog. But, when I originally envisioned what this blog would be about, it's recognizing folks like Miles who, without hesitation, give to others and make the world a better place as a result. I can only hope that one day my boys will do something half as wonderful as Miles did for LTC Daly.

Friday funny - Listen to Your Kids

2012-10-19T07:20:00.000-04:00

This week when I was dropping G off to his class at school he kept messing with my skirt saying "mommy, mommy" as I was talking to another mom from his class (his BFF Lucy's mom) . I thought he was just trying to get me to pick him up as he does most mornings (stalling) and kept saying "one second please", "G, please don't interrupt", "G, please put my skirt down" and brushing his hands away to prevent him from showing my trade secrets to his entire class. Well next thing I know he has wiped his nose on my skirt!!! And when I asked "G, why did you do that?" His response was "well mom, I asked you for a tissue!" So, who taught who a lesson that morning!?!

Fall happiness!

2012-10-05T09:21:00.001-04:00

There are many things that I love about Fall...the cool crisp air, being able to sleep with the windows open, the fall colors, cheap school supplies, pumpkins, mums, turkey for Thansgiiiiving...I could go on. But, one of my very favorite things is the beginning of "specialty coffee" season. All the coffee shops and creamer makers bust out the Pumpkin Spice Coffee and that usually makes me happy. HOWEVER, this year I am serious about being 40 and Fabulous! so the 60+g of sugars in the Starbucks version just doesn't compute. Well, butter my biscuit and call me Sally, look what showed up in the breakroom at work today:

and look at the nutritional info on it. 0.3g...woohoo!!! Happy :-)

In case you didn't click the link above, Adam Sandler's Thanksgiving song is definitely worth a watch/listen. Cracks me up!

Kindergarten Preview

2012-09-26T19:55:00.000-04:00

This morning G couldn't decide between his Car and his Caterpillar to take to Show and Share (letter C) so I let him take both in his backpack. When he put it on I almost cried thinking of the day I'll have to ship him off to Kindergarten. He just looks so GROWN UP!!

Bubble Craftiness

2012-09-23T20:11:00.000-04:00

Today we're headed to Cate's birthday party. What 3 year old doesn't love bubbles, right? (One of these days I'll figure out a good place to take pics of my crafts!)

Kids Together Walk for Inclusiveness

2012-09-22T21:42:00.000-04:00

We're very lucky to have a wonderful park just around the corner from our house. Inside the park is the Kids Together Playground that is accessible for children with physical disabilities. Saturday was their fundraising walk along the Hinshaw Greenway that connects Marla Dorrel Park to MacDonald Woods Park and the Comptons came to join us. It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time. Maybe one of these days I'll remember to bring a real camera and not just my phone.

Poor Porter, stuck in the wagon with all the gear!

Wedding Shower Craftiness

2012-09-15T16:16:00.000-04:00

Many of you know I love a diaper cake and have made one for most of the baby showers I've been too in the last 10 years. Well, since THAT type of shower will never happen for my friends Charles and Christine (100% by choice) I knew I had to make this Towel Cake for them when I saw it on one of my blogs (I can't find the original post or I'd totally give credit, but I did follow this tutorial). Their wedding has a nautical theme so I used their colors and copied the knot that was on their lovely wedding invitations. I think it came out pretty cute!

The REAL Amazing SpiderGman!

2012-09-08T22:35:00.000-04:00

G is all about some Spiderman lately. He got a lot of neat gifts for his birthday, but I do believe his favorite was a Spiderman glove the makes spider web shooting sounds. He mimics this often, with or without the glove, but it took us a while to figure out that's what he was doing. The last time we were at the lake Grammie asked where he learned his new "karate" moves. Jimbo and I just shrugged and said "must have been from school". But then when he combined his "karate" moves with "I'm Spiderman!" we obviously figured it out. Fast forward to Saturday when we discovered that our friend Gina has a new hobby! She says she got tired of paying to get Ella's face painted at every even tthey went to, so she bought a kit and taught herself. She did every kid at Peter's birthday party with a different design! (except for Porter because I couldn't deal with the idea of the mess he'd make) AMAZING! Thanks Gina!

Beer Friday

2012-09-07T17:20:00.000-04:00

I love my new job for a lot of reasons and today I found another reason. BEER FRIDAY!!!

We also had a football themed dessert contest and guess who won?? ME!

Special thanks to JMKG and Pinterest for the assist with the recipe:

Peanut Butter Football Dip

Ingredients
¼ cup butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup peanut butter (your choice; crunchy or smooth)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups powdered sugar (up to 2 cups if needed)
½ cup mini chocolate chips
Chocolate sprinkles or chocolate chips for the outside of the football
White chocolate or frosting for the football laces

Instructions
1. Cream butter, cream cheese, and peanut butter until mixed (using a hand-held mixer). Mix in vanilla.
2. Add powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time, and mix until combined. (If you want a stiffer mixture, add the
extra ½ cup of powdered sugar.) Mix in chocolate chips.
3. Turn out mixture on a large sheet of waxed paper. Use your hands to form into a football shape.
(This would also be cute as “lips” for Valentine’s Day!)
4. Place the waxed paper onto your serving plate. (It helps if the plate has sides…less mess!) Cover
in sprinkles or chocolate chips, pressing them into the surface a little so they stick. Pipe on the
laces using melted white chocolate or some leftover frosting and chill until ready to serve.
5. Serving suggestion: pretzels, animal crackers, cookies, a spoon.

Notes
If your mixture is too soft to form into a football shape, chill it for about 15-30 minutes. (The length of
chilling time depends on how soft it starts.) The freezer will speed up this step

Here is the picture of mine after folks had dug into it a bit:

Happy Birthday Michelle!

2012-08-28T22:40:00.000-04:00

We celebrated our good friend Michelle's birthday tonight at Kanki. Graham and Kennedy had a blast!

If only I had the before picture!

2012-08-25T22:57:00.000-04:00

I'm a sucker for a sale or a clearance rack so as a result I have a nice stockpile of toys for the boys and their friends. I also love to reuse gift bags. Please tell me you do too! This closet was a total disaster and in fact, spilled out a couple of feet into the office. With the help of some leftover bags from G's bday party and a little rearranging I ended up with a much improved gift closet.

One for fun!

2012-08-25T16:28:00.000-04:00

Downtown Raleigh

VROOM!

2012-08-18T20:05:00.000-04:00

If Jimbo has his way this is a preview of things to come. However, given recent trips to the ER I can't say that i'm in agreement. They are pretty darn cute on them though!

Cousins

2012-08-13T20:22:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the saddest of occasions can make for some of the best times of your lives. Ryan's cousins are a ton of fun and we had a great time while in North Dakota for Grammie Jean's funeral. I think that's just the way she would have wanted it - a celebration of her life!

Leaving...on a jet plane!

2012-08-11T17:31:00.000-04:00

We headed up to North Dakota for Grammie Jean's funeral. Not the reason we wanted to visit the Dakotas again, but a very nice trip despite the circumstances. It was G and PJ's first trip on an airplane and they were troopers. It was stressful, but given the circumstances they did really really well. G even got to meet the Captain on our flight from Cleveland to Raleigh. He was so excited! We had a very nice visit with the cousins as well as GG and Papa. More on that later.

If only he had been this still the whole time!

Ditto!

G wanted to ride on the cart so bad he went up to the driver and asked him
all by himself to take us.

Pirate Pool Party!

2012-07-29T14:25:00.000-04:00

I can't think of a much better way to celebrate a late summer birthday than being IN the water. This year we were able to take advantage of our wonderful neighborhood pool and hosted a pirate themed pool party for big G. Here are some of the highlights.

Pirate buddies!

The details:

Shark Bait!

I tried to keep it easy and healthy!

Cupcake ships...that melted shortly after arriving!

Treasure ready to be plundered.

Add caption

Arrrgh! G be 3 today matey!

2012-07-27T23:59:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that G is already 3. This year's theme is PIRATES. His party isn't until Sunday but here's a quick look at he best pirate scowl (at Target because of course I'm not ready for the party yet and had to pick up a couple of last things). Happy Birthday Buddy!

Thanks to Team Guenther for sponsoring G's birthday celebration (aka Anna's 6th birthday party) at Jump Zone . Until the very end he thought it was HIS party. Luckily no presents were opened on premises or there might have been a brawl.

G and Anna were only 1hr and 5 minutes (and 3 years)

away from sharing the same birthday!

(G wouldn't sit still long enough for him NOT to be a blur.)

The master of the fake smile!

Custom pirate shirt. I do love my Silhoutte!

Optimism

2012-07-23T11:23:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite new co-workers posted this picture outside her cube and it makes me smile everytime I walk by. It helps remind me that perception is everything. We each have control over how we react to the things that happen to us in life. If, for example, our car breaks down on a busy week when we have a million errands to run, we can look at it negatively and simply ~~cuss~~ complain about it. OR we can use it as an opportunity for personal growth. Here are just a a few of the opportunities I've identified for this week:

Practice delegating by

asking Jimbo to run a few of the errands while he has the car during the day.

Investigate the bus system that we have here in town. I've seen them several times as I've been driving home and have meant to investigate, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Save some money by bringing my lunch to work each day

Get to know my co-workers better by asking them to take me to lunch with them.

Write a blog article about the whole situation so that JMKG knows that I'm still alive.

Have an actual conversation with Jimbo that is not instantly interrupted by a tiny voice needing something as he drives me to work.

Tell me how you turned a challenging situation into a positive experience?

Happy Birthday Uncle Vann!

2012-07-22T16:47:00.000-04:00

We're so lucky to have so much family close by, but there is one man that trumps all others in the eyes of the boys. UNCLE VANN. Both boys get excited beyond belief when he shows up. Vann's birthday is July 22 and G's is 7/27 so this year we celebrated together. G got a few more presents than Vann, but he didn't pout....too much!

G made the front page of the paper!

2012-07-11T00:21:00.000-04:00

In the Anderson family the 4th of July is a MAJOR holiday! I recently asked Grammie if she had to choose between celebrating Mother's Day and 4th of July, which would she choose and without hesitation she responded with Independence Day. This year was the 28th annual floating of the Lake Gaston Boat Parade, led by none other than Grammie and PopPop. In the picture below you can see Big G peaking out the back of the boat. When we showed him the picture, he was much completely unimpressed with his own picture but excitedly yelled "look mommy, the candy boat!" (The boat to the left of ours in the picture threw out bags of candy during the parade.) I'm so proud of my little guy for not letting his fame get to his head.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Lake Gaston 4th of July 2012

2012-07-08T15:58:00.000-04:00

Well someone responsible had to drive the boat!

Graham hard at work

and he found what we were looking for!

Special thanks to AJA for posting these pics. We, of course, forgot our camera!

Good Nite Mommie and Daddy!

2012-06-23T22:47:00.000-04:00

Jimbo and I headed out on the town tonight to an amazing dinner and party at The Pavilions at Angus Barn courtesy of my new employer SciQuest. Not too shabby for my first week on the job. Vann and Kim babysat the boys for us and Taylor dropped by for a visit. This is the pic they sent us 1/2 way through the evening. Does PJ look tired or what?

Top 10 things I learned on the first day of my new job

2012-06-18T23:12:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day at my new job at SciQuest. It's a HUGE change for me in almost every aspect. After 17 years in the United Way system - first at a member agency, then United Way, United eWay and finally TRUiST where I managed clients running United Way campaigns online - I am embarking on a whole new path. Here are the things I learned today:

10. Allow at least an extra 10 minutes on Mondays when I have to get the boys ready for "water play" and drag in the bags of fresh sheets/blankets and diapers/wipes.
9. Taking I-40 to Harrison Ave to Weston Parkway in the morning will require more willpower than I believe that I can muster...McDonalds? Chick Fil A? Burger King? If there was a Bojangles, I'd be in DEEP!
8. The SciQuest HR team is super nice.
7. Keith Gilliam is a hoot! (and probably thinks I'm stupid since it took me 4 times to reset my network password)
6. Big companies have cool swag.

5. Do NOT forget your key fob!
4. Definitely do not forget your key fob AND your phone!!

3. HR paperwork gives me a headache.
2. I have so much to learn.
1. I am so excited to be starting this new adventure!

My New World!

2012-06-18T22:54:00.000-04:00

aka How do we draw a picture of overwhelming?

I HATE having my picture taken...

2012-06-17T15:28:00.000-04:00

I am quite possibly the LEAST photogenic person alive. Jimbo has said more than once that G and PJ are not going to be able to remember me after I'm gone because there are so few pictures of us together. So here is one that I actually like. The matching shirts were a total coincidence!

and a funny one of Jimbo...