EEEEEKKKK!

Any King of the Hill fans out there? (Sorry, Mom. I know you aren't.)
Well, something was delivered to my house yesterday that made me react like Bobby in the first 15 seconds of this clip.

Can you guess what it was?

????????????

It was one of these!

I know what you're thinking. Amy, didn't you guys just get one of these? Yes, we did. Sort of. For Christmas, we got a Canon Rebel Xs. And it's wonderful. But through an interesting not so interesting set of circumstances we were able to get a Canon Rebel T1i for what my husband would call a SCREAMING DEAL! Thus the squealing. What do you think? Does it take good pictures?

A gaggle of girls

I took advantage of my day off today to get together with two of my besties and our little girls. I try to stay in touch as best as possible with four friends who live in four different cities (one several hundred miles away) but whenever we get together I realize that I need to do more. I miss out on too much! New goal: Monthly lunch dates with these two ladies and their beautiful daughters. Kate, wish you were here to join us! Love ya!

I love Cafe Rio!

And shopping!

Sleepy and ready to go home. "All done!"

T-shirt Purse

I found a tutorial the other day on My Bag in the Attic and was amazed. The only supplies I need are a t-shirt, duct tape, scissors and a stapler? I'm sold!

One thing I wish I had done differently, I wish I had paid more attention to the shirt as I was duct taping. I was so focused on making the duct tape, which is the inside of the bag, look pretty I neglected the shirt on the outside! As a result, the fabric bunches a little and isn't quite laying flat. Also, I wanted to keep the design of the shirt but that made it difficult to make the handles as long as I wanted to. So the bag still looks a little "t-shirty" to me. My sister wants to make some so maybe we'll try again.

Check out the tutorial here.

Sick Day

Yesterday was a sick day around our house. Not for me, but for my little girl. She's had a cold coming for about a week and when she woke up yesterday (at six, ick) it announced it's presence with a stuffy/runny nose (still not quite sure how it can do both at the same time), a little cough and a whiney one year old. So instead of work I did this:

colored pictures to send to great grandma

sat on the couch watching the office and qubo channel and eating fruit snacks

and cleaning up the side table after M dumped it.

Despite the cold, it was one of the most enjoyable days I've had in some time. I wish I could do it all the time. I got to be home with my little girl and I still felt like my day was very productive. Got cleaning and laundry done, journaling and letter writing too! And, of course, plenty of blog stalking. Think my husband will get the hint? If not...

HINT: MOM WANTS TO STAY HOME!

Outing

The weather was so nice yesterday we took a family outing to the park. You didn't care that the grass wasn't green and the trees didn't have leaves. You didn't care about the mud all around the pond. If you are outside, you are happy.

 Your enthusiasm for everything is inspiring. A simple walk around the pond drove you to the giggles. You were so excited to be there and see everything you started running. I guess no one told you that you aren't very good at that yet. You figured it out, though, and spent the rest of the time holding mom's hand, dragging me along as fast as my pregnant body would go. I never thought it would be so hard to keep up with those tiny legs.

Every sight and sound were novel to you. Ducks! You had never seen ducks before. How extraordinary! And how tyrannical of your mother not to allow you to walk in the mud and water to inspect them closer. So many things at the park. Dogs! Kids! Fish! Birds! You want to experience all of it. And I want you to. But I am a little worried about mud all over your cute body and clothes and all over our car on the way home. And I am concerned that you will drown if you wade into the water. Or catch hypothermia because, although it was warm for February, it's still February.

My favorite part was when I let go of your hand because I thought you might want to walk across the grass to the car. You must have been a little nervous about falling, even though it wouldn't hurt so much on the grass. Or maybe you just love me. But I loved your precious face as you stopped walking and turned back to me, your hand raised in the air so I could hold it. Can we freeze time right here?

I'm a contributor!

Hello friends!
I'm a contributor today over at A Little Bit of Everything. Check out my cute tutorial for a last minute Valentines day wreath.

Happy Valentines!

A greener grocery trip

Have you ever seen that video that shows grocery bags in Antarctica? I couldn't find it on you tube but it's pretty disturbing. There are millions of plastic grocery bags floating in the middle of the ocean and animals that have never even seen a human are suffocated in them. I saw this video a couple of years ago and was appalled and immediately bought a few canvas bags at Walmart to use when grocery shopping. Problem: I never remember to take them with me!
When I went to the ASHA conference I got about a billion free canvas bags. They sat in my desk at work, unused, until Paula suggested I use them for grocery bags. Duh! Now I have enough to leave in the trunk of my car so I can't use my old excuse! I have now successfully avoided plastic bags for two shopping trips! Hooray!

This is one of my favorite YouTube videos. Tim Minchin makes a funny yet poignant argument to help convince you.