Winner Of The Blog Giveaway And Musings

Congratulations to Lyn for winning the Urban Outfitters e-gift card! Thank you to all who participated! I very much appreciate it.

This month is flying by! I cannot tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I would say, “only time will tell,” but that seems redundant and also wrong. February is a mystery that I am still trying to catch up with.

Here are some things I am craving to wear, do or just share:

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One of my goals this month is to make a dutch baby in the oven. I am going to try this recipe from Food Network. Wish me luck! The very scary part of this is that neither myself nor my husband like dutch babies. But they look so impressive that I am hoping one made at home will be better than any others we have tried. I make sense that way.

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Speaking of food, this is more of a warning than anything else. We use our microwave a lot. I always thought of it as a relatively safe appliance. So I never really gave much safety advice to my children in regards to it. The oven and the stovetop were the appliances that I taught caution towards. That ended up being a mistake. We have had many mishaps with the appliance. Yesterday was definitely the scariest one. My son microwaved himself some sort of meal and about five minutes later there was a giant explosion. He had left the glass pyrex pan that I keep in the microwave (I have too many cooking vessels) in there when he microwaved his food. Apparently it could not handle being empty with the heat. I am so grateful he was not standing near it at the time. Glass reached the middle of the living room. Now both my kids know to never ever microwave an empty glass container. About two years ago my daughter accidentally hit the power button instead of the timer on the microwave and microwaved the oven with nothing inside of it for fifteen minutes. I cannot believe it did not fry it. It did not work for one day as it cooled down but then it was fine again. I have heard that you cannot microwave water in glass and obviously no metal in the device. Two weeks ago, my daughter microwaved a rice krispie treat on a plastic plate and created a giant burn hole in the plate. We threw it away but it could have caused a fire. And also, don’t microwave rice krispie treats! There is so much more to teaching kids about the machine than I had originally thought. Just an FYI for those of you with kiddos.

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Of all of the things that I like in stores, this Free People Summer Winds Dress tops the list. I love it for summer. I would love to buy it in the coming months. It just seems easy and breezy and can be worn an infinite amount of ways. I also like that it does not appear to be too short. Who doesn’t love a white dress?

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I had written earlier that I wanted a new couch this year, but then I put on our old white slipcover for this couch after having a dark grey velvet on it for months and my heart was happy again. And I ended up liking the other one in the other room equally. The couch is fifteen years old. But I still love it. It has been vomited on, had food spills, drink spills, crayon mishaps and it keeps on ticking. So, for now, it stays. Of course, right after I put the slipcover on, Ollie went and wiped his jowls on it. The couch is a glutton for punishment.

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I asked my daughter if what she was wearing was clean and she replied, “Yes. I got it from the laundry chair.”

The laundry chair!

Oi! The stories my kids will tell their children…

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Finally, this was my OOTD yesterday. I decided it was a black outfit and orange lipstick kind of day.

When my daughter got home, I said, “Hey! Look! I went emo today.”

She scoffed. “That is not emo.”

“Yes. It is.”

“No. It’s girly goth.”

I liked that description better any way, but I dare not tell her that.

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This photo was taken during dinner last night. Ollie knows he can’t be near the dinner table so he plants his butt on the edge of the carpet so he is still considered in the living room and stares at us. He is not amused by me taking pictures of him and not feeding him. I think he will go wipe his face on the white couch some more.

How’s your February going? If you have dogs, do they try to push the rules like Ollie? Today I am off to get my first pedicure since last May. I guess it’s about time. I just never expected to be wearing sandals in February.

The Talent Show

My mind has been thinking about Whitney Houston and her daughter all month. It reminded me of a moment in time when one of Whitney Houston’s songs taught me an important life lesson. I decided to share it here. My thoughts continue to be with her family.

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When I was twelve, my friends and I got together and decided we were going to perform as a group in the school talent show. After much deliberation, it was decided that we would sing “Eternal Flame” by the Bangles. We practiced at every snack and lunch break.

Now, here is where I need to insert information about my singing voice. All of us girls were in the school choir. It was offered during lunch break on select days. This was before the time when schools actually had to give kids time to eat. The choir was run by this horrible old woman, whose name has long since escaped me. She would walk down the aisles while we were singing and pick on girls. “You,” she would screech, “you’re out!”

The girl would run away in tears never to be seen again.

She was Simon Cowell, before Simon Cowell was Simon Cowell.

One day we were practicing a song for a performance that never did take place. I truly believe she just pretended there would be a recital just to torment us. I noticed she was coming down my row. My stomach churned.

“Who is making that racket?”, she cackled.

Oh, I knew in my heart it was me. I could just tell. My heart started pounding and my hands became sweaty. So, naturally, I stopped singing and began lip syncing. I thought if I stopped, she would just keep going down the aisle. But she didn’t. She had all ready announced that someone was singing poorly. She had to save face. Or maybe she was just itching to ruin a young girl’s day.

She stopped short of me and said to the girl on my left, whose name was Lisa (name changed) and she happened to have a beautiful voice, “It was you! Get out!”.

Poor Lisa. She had thick gorgeous hair down to her waist. She was a nice girl and I have always felt guilty for not being the one kicked out of choir. Don’t feel too sorry for Lisa, though. She later went on to marry the most beautiful boy in high school.

All right, so us girls were breaking out on our own. We were going to sing a song the old woman hadn’t picked. So, we practiced for two weeks. And the day before the big talent show the principal informed us that he would not approve our song. Apparently, because the lyrics said “I watch you when you are sleeping,” it was too much of a sexual risk for the school. So, what were us girls going to do? Well, the teacher happened to have a Whitney Houston tape and thought it would be a fantastic idea for us to sing, “The Greatest Love of All.” Whitney Houston was really big at the time and being out of ideas, we all agreed.

No, wait, that is not what happened.

I agreed.

My friends, being the socially smart kids that they were, backed out. They decided it was way too risky (as in social suicide) to get in front of an auditorium of not only our peers, but EIGHTH GRADERS, and sing a song we had not practiced. Not me, though, I was in it to win it. I had committed to doing the talent show and I was going to do it. I stayed up an extra two hours that night memorizing the lyrics.

Being the talented girl that I am, I can still recite to you every word of that song to this day. Maybe, because I am smart, but probably because the terror ingrained itself into my head.

My mother took me shopping for a new outfit. It was so pretty. It was a kelly green striped shirt with a matching poofy kelly green skirt. I would probably wear the same outfit today, which probably does not bode well for my fashion sense.

I was ready. My hair was sprayed into a glorious fan shape on top of my head. My imitation Keds were gleaming white. All set!

I remember stepping in front of the whole school and the sound of Whitney Houston’s voice blasting out of the speakers. They had handed me a microphone, but all you could hear was Whitney. So there I was. The eighth graders were the kids closest to the front, because they got prime billing. And I could see their pores. And I could see them snickering. I just sang away and no one could hear me. Which would have gone swimmingly, had the teacher not decided it was too much Whitney Houston, and not enough Jenni. And she turned the sound down. My voice screeched across the auditorium, I could hear it ringing back to me, and it wasn’t good. And it was very loud. But I kept going. I finished the song and hurried off the stage.

I was mortified. I was angry at my friends for “making” me go up alone, but I was mostly disappointed with myself. But then something amazing happened. After the talent show, one by one, three lovely eighth grade girls came up to me. “You were so brave.”. “You did great!”. “I love your outfit.” Each kind word was music to my soul. My embarrassment became not quite as painful. I began to feel pride that I had done it. I hadn’t done it well, but I had tried.

Every now and again, I like to remind myself of that seventh grade moment. A moment when I conquered my fears and reached for something. Of course, to this day, if that song comes on the radio, I turn red and immediately change the station. But it wasn’t all bad. Most moments in life aren’t… Thank you Whitney.

A Valentine’s Day Monster Hunter Recap

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On Friday the 13th, my husband and I set off on a quest. It had started that morning when I woke up to find my husband eagerly peering down at me from the edge of the bed.

“Do you know what today is?” He excitedly asked.

I slowly blinked my eyes. The night before we had gone to bed discussing all of the things we needed to accomplish, most prominently important was finishing the cleaning of the carpets that I had started the day before so we could get our house back together. In a too much information shared, both dogs had had two weeks of diarrhea, thankfully not at the same time, but it had made the purchase of a carpet cleaner necessary. I had spot cleaned, but I wanted to know that they were cleaner than before the last two weeks. Now that it looked like we might finally be done with the sickness, I wanted to go over the carpets thoroughly. I had finished one room, but all of my fingers had gone numb from the force with which I had gotten down on my knees and scrubbed, as only the best of us OCDs can do.

“Um, the day we’re going to finish the carpets. You are going to help me right?”

“No and yes.”

“Is it the day before Valentine’s Day?”

“Yes, but that’s not it.”

I was unsure what he expected me to say. Then I remembered the episode of “The Middle ” we had watched a few days prior. “Oh! Is it World Radio Day?”

He looked at me in exasperation. “It’s Monster Hunter Day!”

I sat straight up in bed. “Why didn’t you wake me up sooner? What’s the plan?”

It turned out that his plan was vague. This would not do. I quickly surmised that we would both need a new DS to play the new Monster Hunter games (a little bit of my love shown here) to the utmost of their awesomeness. They were being released that day after years of us waiting for them. Yes, I’m thirty seven. Yes, I love video games. Let me tell you one day of the year my younger sister got a Sega System for Christmas and I got boardgames. #notoverit. To be fair, my sister still loves video games, too. I think it plays to our love of fantasy. If you think you don’t like video games, but you read fantasy books, you might want to try them again. They have some games geared for folks just like us.

So, for the next hour I procured two new DS systems, and four video games (our kids play with us) at three different stores in three different cities. It was surprisingly hard. I had no idea the systems would be a hot commodity. We were lucky to get two, because I checked ten minutes later and all of the systems were sold out in Southern California.

My husband was thrilled.

Not about my awesome online shopping skills. I knew they would come in handy one day.

He was thrilled to be going to all of the different places to pick up the bounty we scored.

“It’s a scavenger hunt!”

I once made his day by requesting we hit five different grocery stores looking for frozen manicotti. He is easy to please.

We left at noon. We drove to the first stop and picked up three of the video games. On the way, I asked if we could stop at two different Costcos in the other cities because I had wanted to check out the different items they might have from our own. In truth, I was looking for more frozen manicotti. I have a problem. My husband was even more excited. Two scavenger hunts in one day?! I never needed to buy him a present again.

Two hours later, we arrived at our second stop. We picked up the last video game and our first system. From there we hit up our first Costco. We did not find any frozen manicotti. We did, however, find my children’s most favorite thing. A whole variety box of snack sized flamin’ chips. We also got some cream brûlée in little jars even though it is best made at home.

Another hour later we picked up our last system. We were high with the rush of collecting our prizes.

The last Costco was a bust, but we picked up some pizzas to have for dinner. By the time we got home, it was 6:30. We stayed up with the kids playing Monster Hunter in our bed until 1:00 in the morning. We set up our bed like those creepy grandparents in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” I ended up staying up until 3:00 trying to finish some quests.

So, the next morning when my husband woke me up, I had a new plan.

“Honey, I don’t really want to go out for dinner tonight. Would you mind if we just ordered Chinese food and stayed home to play “Monster Hunter?”

His silence scared me. I felt like I had disappointed him. He had been talking about taking me out for Valentine’s Day all week. Then his face broke out into a wide grin. “You are the best wife ever!” He proclaimed.

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And that is why my house still looks like this.

And that is why I got no sleep.

And that is why yesterday was the best Valentine’s Day ever.

What did you do for Valentine’s Day? Did you dress up? Did you wear red or pink? I was going to wear the perfect pink and red outfit. It was a repeat of the outfit I wore on Christmas Eve. But instead I stayed in pajamas. And not the kind of pajamas one is supposed to wear on a romantic holiday. It didn’t matter. I killed a Great Jaggi and made a weapon with its hide. My husband declared it to be beautiful. Just kidding. He totally made it for me. He’s chivalrous that way. It was so romantic.

Monarch Magic Metamorphosis

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First, I know this pattern resembles a Tiger Butterfly more than a Monarch. I must have been a little loopy when I first typed this up, because here I am now editing it before it goes up in a few hours and I am wondering what I was thinking with the title. Who can really say?

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I have found in the last year that a swing style dress is my favorite.

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The Sarita Swing Dress is beautiful. I do wish it was one inch longer but otherwise it is perfect. It is made from silk which is a rare thing to find nowadays. My grandma used to keep silk worms in her house so we could watch how they worked. She also would occasionally raise a butterfly through the stages. Green and yellow were her favorite colors. She would have loved this dress.

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I paired the dress with my Simply Livly Turquoise Necklace and a wooden turquoise ring. I also wore my favorite Chie Mihara booties with it. They were one of my favorite sale scores last year. Her shoes are amazing.

I think that every girl dreams of a fantasy world. It is kind of what is thrown on us as children. Castles, princesses, animals, pink and flowers. Butterflies fall right into this.

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Now, I do not know for certain that this dress is based on a butterfly. It seems obvious to me that it is. But I also frequently mix up the words, “prescription and subscription” so I am absolutely no good mental evaluator.

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I looked up the name of the dress, “Sarita.” It means “flowing” in Sanskrit according to the website, behind the name. It is subtle. But, oh, the missed name opportunities this dress had.

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It has the most lovely crochet lace edged lining. The dress is short, but in all of my pictures (including spinning), I did not encounter one wardrobe snafu.

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It is perfect for a windy day. The sleeves flutter magnificently. I honestly felt like a butterfly in this dress. Groan. I can imagine someone quoting that and I realize how lame that sounds, but it is true.

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This dress might not have the right name, but it does not matter.

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It simply made me happy. When I wore it I smiled. It felt like a metamorphosis was taking place. And that is all that matters to me.