Just Another Liz

Oh the Things I Love!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:39:00 +0000

Some things I love right now...

Sun tea. I've been on a kick for the last week or two and have a "jar" every day. It might have something to do with the mint I planted in a pot outside. Mojito mint to be exact. Mmmm it smells so good!

These roses on the counter by my kitchen sink. I picked them from the rose bushes out front.

This little framed bird that Punkin drew. Actually as much as I love this, I loved the look on her face when I showed it to her, even more. This sits on the top of my stove.

I love my jade plant, the broken pot it is in and the little turtle that hangs out on our porch. I had a massive jade that I had grown for over six years and instead of trying to move it over 700 miles, I gave it to my sister. She's taken fantastic care of it, but I saved myself a start from it so I could grow another. I think this is my favorite plant.

These stepping stones were made for me a couple of years ago on my birthday. They are of Punkin and Sunshine's handprints. Although they've lost several of the stones that were initially on them and it is a little difficult to see the handprints, I still love 'em.

Kale chips! I know, sounds crazy! But I found them from Kath Eats Real Food and they are really, really good. Even the kids like them!

Geraniums. They remind me of my mom as she always has them planted at her home.

What are some of your favorite things?

Workout

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:08:00 +0000

Went to the gym today for the THIRD day in a row. I really enjoyed myself today! I walked two miles and jogged almost a full mile. Starting off to a good start.

While on the treadmill I was overlooking the gym below and there were several instructors giving lessons on self-defense. It got me thinking that I should try and take a class like that. I know I would feel more confident in my ability to protect myself and family.

I think I will sign up for a class. Yup. Decision made. Now I just need to find a good place to do it. The ones I saw were not exactly what I am looking for. They were mostly just doing the motions. I want someone to teach me how to break someone's arm if he/she is trying to abduct me. KWIM? I want to rip a handful of hair out for DNA evidence. Really. Why not leave a mark?

When I was in college I had someone chase me across campus to my dorm where I locked myself inside. That was some scary stuff! He was a fellow student in my class and a partner for a project we were doing. He had some sort of mental breakdown and decided that I was the one he wanted to target. If you know me in real life I am not really the sort of person to make someone mad, so I was confused as to "why me???". Luckily for me I had just graduated high school and was still in shape from years of running cross country. I was able to sprint pretty well.

Not so much now. But I am working on it since I am planning on walking/running the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day in Chicago this August. It is going to be thrilling to accomplish such an event. I can't wait!

Want to join me? I am going to start a team for friends and family who may want to do it with me. My sister and friend Andrea are already signed up. I think my Mom is going to as well. Let me know if you are interested!!

Liz

25 Random Things

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:19:00 +0000

Cynthiaa over at Confessions of a Yummy Mummy tagged everyone to do this. So here I go with my randomness:

1: I used to want six children, you know, back before I actually became a mom. I am so glad I stopped at three. They are wonderful and I love them. But three is plenty!!

2: My favorite color is green. Not forest green. Not lime green. Not pastel green. But the beautiful olive green.

3: I have tunnel vision. When I start doing something and am excited about it, I can't focus on anything else. Really. Everything else gets put on the back burner and left to blacken and turn to char. It is baaaaad.

4: I love nursing my babies, but I am so excited to finally be done in about two months. I want my body back!

5: Jon and Kate Plus 8 is one of my favorite shows...I know, I know.

6: Hot cocoa has been my nightly drink of choice for about a month now. I am down to my last 12 packets or so. Guess I need to put that on my list for when I finish my Pantry Challenge.

7: I think I am going to paint my china hutch.

8: It was -4 degrees here this morning. Frigid!

9: I have a red peacoat that I absolutely LOVE.

10: Brad and I met when he started working for my dad's company when I was 16. I had the HOTS for him. I used to prance in after getting out of school (private Catholic school) wearing my plaid skirt and knee socks. Of course he was like 23 at the time and there was no chance (in either of our minds) but I sure did have the hots for him. Stud muffin that he was/is!!

11: I prefer bathing over showering, and it has to be super hot. No lukewarm bathwater for me.

12: I used to teach preschool.

13: I have an English Literature Degree.

14: My eyes are green, although Brad tends to disagree and says they are hazel. Dude, I know the color of my eyes! ;)

15: My favorite place to visit in the entire world is my grandparents' house in Wisconsin. I used to spend Summers up there visiting them in their little town. My sister and I would walk down to the town pub at lunchtime with cousins and eat fried cheese curds. Mmmmm!!! Oh how I miss spending those weeks there.

16: I need to redeem my Gymbucks this weekend.

17: I want another dog. A Great Dane to be specific. Brad and I got Daisy the Summer we got married and she passed away last January. I can't believe it has already been a year. So sad. I had no clue how painful it is to lose a pet. I will never again underestimate someone's grief on that matter ever again.

18: I ate pan fried steaks tonight at my mom's house. We also had baked potatoes and green beans with a coffee cake for dessert. Yummy!

19: I confirmed with my sister, my mom and a friend today that we are going to participate in the 60-miles Susan G. Koman for the Cure Walk this August. I better start walking! I can't wait to do it though. My paternal grandmother, Helen passed away from breast cancer when I was 12 and my maternal grandmother lost her mom as a teen to breast cancer. It scares me to death.

20: Just found out I can access Pandora Internet Radio through our PlayStation3. How fun!

21: Is there anything more precious than a daddy carrying his sleeping children to bed? Didn't think so.

22: My favorite ice cream is chocolate with peanut butter chunks. Not a chocolate peanut butter swirl, but with real hunks of pb. Mmmmmmm.

23: I need new jeans. But I will wait until after I see what my butt looks like from walking first. Maybe they will be my reward.

24: I wonder how many people are going to read this...and get to the end?

25: Who are you? Leave me a comment! :)

~Liz

Cosmetic Bag Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:41:00 +0000

The Palm Gifts is doing a giveaway for a monogrammed cosmetic bag. Here's what you need to do to enter:

1. Email info@thepalmgifts.com
2. Type GIVEAWAY in the subject line of email.
3. Visit The Palm Gifts Website and tell them which bag you would design if you won! Include this information in your email.
4. Mention our blog in your email and we both win!

*If you have a blog, please use the photo above and have your blog readers follow instructions PLUS mention your blog in the entry. If the person that wins mentioned your blog, you win too!! The contest will run until 1/17 so HURRY!

I found this from: Princess Pastimes

Elizabeth Pantley Books!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:37:00 +0000

I need to get the book “The No-Cry Nap Solution: Guaranteed Gentle Ways to Solve All Your Naptime Problems” by Elizabeth Pantley. I have heard great things about it! My New Year's Resolution is to get all of my kids to sleep through the night and that probably starts with naptimes and being able to get them down quietly and for a longer period of time.

Ben was up for two hours last night. I didn't get to bed until 2:30. Lily was up off an on having asthma coughing fits. Luckily Hannah is a good sleeper though. She can sleep through the other two causing all sorts of comotions...wasn't always that way. She wasn't a good sleeper until about a year ago. I guess I can just assume that by the time Ben is three I will be able to get more than one good night's sleep a month............Ahhh I need help!

Elizabeth Pantley Books!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:37:00 +0000

Yuck

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:56:00 +0000

These dang kids have gotten me sick. I now have pink eye, nasal nastiness and chest congestion. I feel lovely.

Just had to share.

Liz

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman - ThePioneerWoman.com

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:06:00 +0000

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman - ThePioneerWoman.com

Grosgrain: Commissioned Watercolor Portrait GIVEAWAY!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:35:00 +0000

How I would LOVE this!
Grosgrain: Commissioned Watercolor Portrait GIVEAWAY!!!!

Grosgrain: Downtown Holiday Jacket and Pant GIVEAWAY!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:24:00 +0000

Grosgrain: Downtown Holiday Jacket and Pant GIVEAWAY!!!!

Ack!!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:18:00 +0000

This was me a year ago......................

The Giveaway: Kolobags Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:24:00 +0000

VERY cute notebook case being given away here:
The Giveaway: Kolobags Giveaway

Ambition

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

I've always been a massive fan of Mark Twain. Brad and I read Huckleberry Finn out loud to each other a few years back. I don't recall if we actually got through the entire book, but it sure was amusing listening to each other attempt to read in an idiom we weren't accustomed to.

But, now it holds a different meaning. Something more special I suppose. It is time to "grab the bull by the horns" and get to work. I want it all. I won't settle for mediocrity. I don't want to regret my past in 30 years. I want to be proud of every accomplishment (and failure) in my life.

Cheers to Twain!

Scrappin Made Easy

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:49:00 +0000

Friend's site: ScrappinMadeEasy who is just starting to sell pre-made scrapbooking pages. She is really good at it. Check her stuff out!

How Cute!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:44:00 +0000

Oh how I love these children! Hannah and Ben are sitting on the floor next to me in the basement. She has handed Ben a plastic toy cup and plate. Hannah is sitting with the pink guitar (bit-ar is how she pronounces it) in front of her. She is asking Ben if he wants to play Rock Band with her. "No Ben, hit it here!" Ben just smiles at her and continues to slap himself in the face with the plate.

Lily is sitting on the floor next to her Daddy who is watching football. She is reading The Three Little Pigs to herself...and now wants me to read to her.

Gotta go. I have more important things to do than to be on here... :)

Oh my God, are you serious?

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:53:00 +0000

The best is around 4:26...

My Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:14:00 +0000

Nothing like a little Rock Band to turn ~~any~~ my man into a Rockstar! :)

Beef In My Shoes

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:03:00 +0000

Random, right?

Well I cooked a beef tenderloin with potatoes in the Crockpot today. It smelled so good. I took it out of the cooker right before we left for swim lessons. I transferred all the meat and potatoes to a dish and stuck it in the fridge so that I could just heat it up when we got home. Then I decided to pour the juice into a shaker container (like what I make Ranch dressing in). Put the lid on....

Or so I thought.

Now I have a pair of Nikes that I don't know what to do with. They are covered in this beef juice. Ack.

AND they were my fave! Wahhhh.

Any ideas to get it out of them? I hate washing shoes in the washing machine because they always seem to smell sour after that...although I don't know what would be worse: rotten beef or sour shoes?

Aching Lungs

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:04:00 +0000

Today we learned that Lily has asthma. As a mother I feel horrible. How long has she had this? Why didn't I know sooner? Isn't that what we moms do? We fix things. We make our little ones feel better. :(

The doc gave her an inhaler with instructions to take it every night so that she can sleep. She only has these coughing fits at night. Hopefully this inhaler will treat her and she will be comfortable. We have been dealing with sleepless nights for months now. This past week has been extremely bad. Last night we woke (Lil and I) about every 15-30 minutes. How tiring for both of us.

I know that she needs at least 12 full hours of sleep each night and she has only been getting maybe 8 and those are very fitful. We should know by this weekend if this medication helps. If not we will have to do breathing treatments, etc. She already dislikes me making her inhale the meds. I am wondering how long it will take her to understand the correlation between sucking it down and feeling better. She is one smart kid, so probably not very long. Especially since she is our best medicine taker in the family. She will take a tsp of Tylenol or Robitussin without so much as a whimper while the older sister will cry and pout and refuse to even come close to the medicine dropper. What opposites they are.

Now I More Tired

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:33:00 +0000

Why does that happen? I go and take a short nap and wake up worse than before. Just call me crabby....and enter to win this sign. Maybe I should just keep it for myself. Wahhhh.

Next post will be cheery...I promise. :)

Tired

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:25:00 +0000

I am so tired today. I need to put the little ones down for a rest and maybe try and get myself some sleep too.

CIO

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:49:00 +0000

Last night I let Ben cry it out. I couldn't stay up any longer. I was exhausted from 3 nights in a row of no sleep. Between he and Lily, I was just done. DONE I tell you.

So I put him to bed at 7:30. He woke at 11. I nursed him and put him back down. He woke at 12:30 and I didn't go in. He whimpered and cried off and on for a while. Finally I fell asleep. I have no clue how much longer he cried....I do feel bad about that. BUT he survived and his Momma will be in a better mood because of it!

Lily must have slept all night too as I don't recall her waking. I think I got at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. That felt great!

A Giveaway A Day

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:59:00 +0000

A Giveaway A Day

Bedtime

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:38:00 +0000

Why does bedtime have to be such a long drawn out process every night? What can I do to make things go more smoothly. Anyone have any ideas?

Our routine is almost always the same:

Bath
PJ's
Brush hair and teeth
Tuck each into bed

But one of them almost always needs a little more attention. I am not tough when it comes to just letting them cry it out. I don't want them going to bed that way. I want them comfortable and knowing that I am there to take care of them until they are asleep.

It's not like I lie down with them or anything. I just seem to go back in a million times each night for one reason or another: water, bathroom, "rub my back Momma", "I miss Daisy" << (our late Great Dane), etc.

Maybe I just need to toughen up a bit and lay down the law.

Or not...

Mmmm

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:23:00 +0000

I am craving some homemade applesauce. Mmmmm I need to go find some good apples to make some. Mmmmm